Entering CorEE into the No-reload challenge (Trilogy attempt)
Well I have rolled up my new cannon fodder - he intends to duo with Jaheira to the end of ToB - if Jaheira gets chunked, not sure what I will do, but will keep pressing though if that happens. Here they are:
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear
I have never finished an EE run - hence the odd spelling of my character's name - seemed appropriate.
By now, the party is about level 5 fighter/level 5 druid or thief. Here is the things they have done, not necessarily in order:
* Very briefly, CorEE had Imoen, Xzar and Montaron in the party - used them to help CorEE get past Tarnesh. (Montaron backstab finished off Tarnesh). Once Jaheira was in the party, booted Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Kept Khalid to clear out the hobgoblins near the FAI - then after Khalid got the reward from Joia, I removed him from the party. Jaheira and I were outside - she was OK with this, since Khalid had a nice room to stay in while she and I did my adventure.
* Decided that we really could use an experience boost, so hunted down Shoal like Gate70 and Grond0 always do. Jaheira and I both got a level, so was a good deal.
* Karlat was defeated early, mainly due to Jaheira using Shilleaugh (that magical club from spell).
* Melicamp did not survive his transformation attempt.
* Getting Ankheg armor for Jaheira ASAP was a high priority for us - her AC was only 1 before that - most fights CorEE is using his composite long bow. This has been working well overall. Power of ranged weapons in BG 1 and all.
* Next priority was getting DEX gauntlets for Jaheira - we ran into an ogre mage ambush on the way - we were in no shape to challenge them, so escaped that ambush pronto.
* After getting the DEX gauntlets, we went ahead and got the CHA tome in the area. Gave to Jaheira, since it is of no help to CorEE with his CHA of 9.
* Decided to copy another play of Grond0/Gate70 and that is do the basilisk's early - I tried to copy their route much as I could, but not exact. It was, however, exact enough to not blunder into Kirian's party, so a minor victory in that respect. We didn't engage Kirian's party after the basilik's were cleared (tried to get better prepared). CorEE stealth is not that good, but was enough to guide Korax to Mutamutin and get him held. We had a bear eat Korax after the basilisks were dead.
* Before engaging Kirian and her buddies, we got stealth boots and belt of piercing for CorEE. We also got Greenstone amulet for Jaheira, then came back to engage. Jaheira used the greenstone amulet and cast insects on Kirian. Kirian still got quite a few spells off, including a lightning bolt. Jaheira was badly hurt. The duo did a fighting retreat, with CorEE shooting his bow if safe enough. The opponents put Jaheira in an entangle - she tried do to the same to them, but got interrupted. Her morale broke and she ran in fear. This actually worked well, as CorEE was firing off his bow at the enemies who were targeting Jaheira. Luckily Kirian was too far away and was not pursuing Jaheira. One by one the enemies fell - was afraid for Jaheira with her low health, as the enemy archer was targeting her - so to force him to change targets, CorEE engaged that guy in melee. Finally all of Kirian's gang (except Kirian herself) falls!
We try to get Jaheira healed up best we can - then we look for Kirian - Jaheira got the last laugh as a single wand of heavens blast did 37 dmg to Kirian and finished her. A hard fought victory...
* Sirenes in the north were cleared with greenstone amulet - the south ones near the pirate cave were cleared with a clarity potion
* I knew there were traps in the CON cave, but no idea where. We managed to pull the left golem without triggering one. Then Jaheira tripped the hold trap - luckily no enemies around. While waiting, CorEE managed to find and disarm a trap - maybe the charm trap? We looted the stuff and got out of there. The CON tome goes to CorEE since he is only an elf.
* For most fights, CorEE is using his Composite Bow +1 and Jaheira the +1 club from Krumm (or Caldo, not sure which one had it). Armor wise, using Ankheg for Jaheira (allows her to loot more), and full plate for CorEE. We got super low on potions, so bought all the blue potions at the Beregost Temple.
The duo has been doing well so far, only close call being the fight with Kirian's group. Will keep at it...
We're stood outside Baldur's Gate, the only clue to what we were doing as we've never been there before. The session lasts for almost exactly 2 hours.
The usual activity is done to relieve Lothander of his boots, pick up tomes of dexterity and intelligence, enjoy some ennui with Vay-ya and Desreta, kill a basilisk, sort out the Seven Suns, pick up the Cloak and Helm of Balduran, recharge a few wands / necklaces / cloak and find a better shield for Lorn. With that done, the Iron Throne HQ is searched for a Ring of Freedom. There it is...
Duke Eltan agrees to send Sosad back to Candlekeep. A quick scoot around the catacombs is fitted in with Prat and his thugs shown the error of their ways. On their return to Baldur's Gate it becomes clear that subterfuge is underway. Lorn thinks he's got the better of Slythe and Krystin by silencing one of them, but is treated to the fright of his life instead. That'll teach him to try new tricks.
After healing up, we head to the Coronation. There's a Runaway Doppelganger hiding at the bottom of the screenshot, but that is soon dealt with.
Rahvin and his gang fall for Silence, and Sosad is a bit put out to discover they're happy to let each other be picked on one at a time.
Another rest, and then we head inside the temple. Sosad plants a bullet onto Sarevok's bonce, and retreats. Sarevok races forward into a group of skeletons, but is joined by Semaj. As Sarevok slices away, the skeletons, bullets, a wand charge (heavens) and special ability (Sun Soulray) are enough to remove Semaj.
Sarevok is carving through the skeletons with frightening speed as we hit him with +2 bullets. He dismantles the final one, only for a bullet to drop him before he can move.
We know the drill, Belt sends us straight to SoD...
Sosad, Sun Soul Monk 8. 155 kills. (confession: I have a mental block, unable to remember Sun Soul abilities without checking each time!)
@semiticgod sorry to hear that. You can always continue to play the run. I know in the BioWare forums sometimes we wanted to keep posting on a run, and would make a "campfire" thread so as not to de-rail the no-reload thread. If you do that just put a link in this thread to where we can follow your exploits.
Maybe... it's just that it was a "solo" run and it was going very well. I'm not sure I can go on. The rest of the run would feel tainted because I couldn't call it a true no-reload run... I've gotten too accustomed to no-reload play and now reloading just doesn't feel right anymore.
@semiticgod I hear you on that. Some of us making a "Starting" save (just after character creation), so that we can restart a character if we really like it. Restarting your character and having the same fun again sounds perhaps a propos to your situation.
I survived the first drow ambush by the skin of my teeth... well I ran away from their Nishru because I couldn't hurt it but this fight cost my summon ring and my rod of resurrection.
we agreed to help the smurf village then did some fish hunting and said hello to lady Silver... the gate out is locked so we are entering the drow city.
Prologue Sosad and Lorn are prologue veterans now. There were a couple of minor hiccups due to internet connection drops. The tried and tested fireball approach worked fine, with both combatants using Necklace charges.
Baldur's Gate We sold some expensive junk and moved on without bothering to do much else.
Coast Ways Crossing Earlier sales saw us able to buy a Bag of Holding. Lorn grabbed a few items from the tavern remains and we buffed up to look at the bridge. We were both keen not to die here, but another internet drop meant Lorn was so keen that he declined to be in the fight and was the wrong side of the force barrier.
As combat had started, Grond0 had no choice but to wait before rejoining. A heavy dose of fog complicated matters but Lorn sent in some skeletons to help Sosad. It wasn't long before Caelar intervened... but Sosad accidentally restarted the fight meaning Grond0 was left a while longer.
On to the Forest of Wyrms next, sneaking past all comers until a cave at the end of the path could be seen. We slipped inside and Sosad proudly looked in his inventory, only to find the items he had been holding onto for most of BGEE were absent. So we sneaked past the sleeping dragon and into the temple where several of our previous ventures have ended.
Sosad has the measure of the early part of this area now, guiding Lorn until Ziatar's room beckoned. Lorn took matters into his own hands and cast Silence so we could beat her up.
With a group of skeletons at our disposal we thought the Neothelid would be easy pickings. and so it proved.
Next up, we grabbed the Fractal Blade guarded by a Shadow Aspect, then on to the group led by an illithid. This time we'd be certain to fireball them. Only they still came out fighting and our internet connection dropped again meaning Grond0 was in the dark about whether we win or lose.
Lorn spent the next few rounds charmed, while Sosad used several more fireballs but failed to kill any of the enemies off. With a bit more effort they started to fall and once Lorn came back to his senses, the matter was settled once and for all.
It took a few minutes for my internet connection to reconnect so we then called the session to a close.
@semiticgod I hear you on that. Some of us making a "Starting" save (just after character creation), so that we can restart a character if we really like it. Restarting your character and having the same fun again sounds perhaps a propos to your situation.
You could just export the character at the start and run the character again. I sometimes do that, often changing the name at the same time.
The session started with Corey helpfully reminding me not to rest before the remaining basilisks were killed. With that done Babar prepared to rage and attack Mutamin, but Meffal couldn't resist trying to stun him first. He did very well generally with stunning attacks this session, but this time he failed and started running away scared - unfortunately in the direction of Kirian and a conversation there ended with her party disappearing and taking the Golden Girdle with them.
Not many areas had been done yet, but Coreranger was keen to get on with the real stuff and the others agreed to head for the Nashkel Mine. That proved no problem to get down to Mulahey and this time Meffal hit with a stunning blow. Mulahey just survived the follow-up hits, but his morale was gone and he died before he could pull himself together.
Outside the Mine, Babar fancied his chances against the amazons. Rage protected him from most of their spells, though he did take a fair amount of glyph damage.
Rage was less important against Nimbul - who didn't last long enough to cast any offensive spells.
Before going on to the Bandit Camp the trio looked to pick up a bit more XP and treasure. Bassilus looked like a good source for both, but that attack nearly mis-fired when Babar mis-clicked on the conversation options and was forced to retreat by the weight of missile fire from the skeleton hordes - the others filled the gap nicely though.
The sirines were unable to cope with Coreranger protected by a potion of clarity, while Babar glugged down an absorption potion to tank the golems.
Now the time came to assault the Bandit Camp. That seemed to be going well with Taurgosz and most of the other bandits dead, but a couple of hits left Meffal short of HPs and he turned to retreat - just as an unknown bandit appeared from behind a tent (hate to think what he was doing there) and loosed a fatal shot. After a temple trip the remaining bandits were dealt with before Meffal and Coreranger sneaked into Tazok's tent. Babar entered in a rage and tried to draw the attention of Venkt, but the others were caught anyway by a horror spell and started running round - both of them poisoned by Hakt for good measure. Babar managed to kill the enemies with distance attacks, but he hadn't rested after doing a bit of healing outside the tent and had no Bhaal CLW available - which meant things looked bleak for Meffal as his HPs drained away. Fortunately the poison stopped ticking while he still had a whole HP left, so the temple was denied a further fee.
After bringing Brage back to civilisation and undertaking a quick flick through the Cloud Peak Mountains the trio sought revenge on Silke for the end of the previous Trio run - and got it in satisfying style.
The last notable incident was going to the xvart village in search of a magic flail for Coreranger. Babar took exception there to Borda trying to pass off shoddy goods and attacked. He took lots of magic missiles before Meffal sneaked in to land another successful stunning blow (Borda's magic resistance not helping there as the monk stun is non-magical).
Babar, barbarian L6, 79 HPs, 133 kills Coreranger, ranger L6, 75 HPs, 120 kills, 0 deaths Meffal, monk L6, 46 HPs, 56 kills, 1 death I commented on how good HP rolls had been last time. The reverse was true this time, with all of them falling back towards the expected average.
Took Cromarty's crew through the Cooakwood Mines to Baldur's Gate this time. Initially things were a breeze. We scorched through the mines with no difficulty, rescuing a small boy along the way. At Baldur's Gate however things took a slightly, erm, excessive turn.
First we slaughtered the ne'er do wells of the Thieves Guild, as Cromarty would not agree to steal. Then we assisted a fallen paladin, visited the Silvershields, and freed a nymph. However as we had been poisoned by Marek and Lothander we decided to visit Umberlee's Temple and to pick up the corpse of a poor lad while visiting into the bargain. Unfortunately I chose to speak to Tenya first, and an overly humble response sent the temple hostile even as she handed over the boy's body! No geas scroll = trouble! There was nothing for it but to send in Minsc to holler for the high preistess in the ear of a not yet angered priestess. No sooner had she appeared than everyone was hostile and the slaughter began in earnest.
All this 'conversion' is hard work... but quite appropriate for a bunch of unsubtle do-gooders. This run's RP dictates that we won't be housebreaking so I imagine that we'll move on to Candlekeep or even further afield soon. Overconfidence has been creeping in again though...
The first quest in the drow city breaks if you don't clear the mind sucker area of fish first... they spawn as your main character crosses the bridge but you MUST do this before getting the quest to save Phaere because Solaufein will not spawn otherwise and therefore you can't speak to him and (unless you can kill lady Silver) thats the end of your game.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 131 (session 123 4) Siege of Dragonspear We're in the Temple of Cyric, trying to talk to the priestess. She'll talk but not about the wardstone. Sosad eventually realises he doesn't know about the wardstone yet so needs to go talk to some Crusaders first. On the way out he asks Lorn to buff him up and uses some looted gear to deal with the sleeping dragon.
Now, after talking to the palisade guards, Sosad knows about the presence of a wardstone. It's not too long before he has it in his grasp and returns to the palisade. Instead of handing it over to the Crusaders, he loots a note from under the eye of Vichand and heads into the Fort. Khalid directs him to speak to the local mage and armourer, which is duly done. The letter is used to nullify a huge glowing object, Sosad breaking a piece off and directing Jegg to make some bullets in case Lorn requires them later.
Khalid is told to attack from the north when battle starts, then the duo head back to the coalition camp and tell them to attack. Sosad makes sure Lorn follows his rules of engagement - spot a named enemy and deal with them. Kharm is killed in this way then The Barghest appears and we both treat him to Wand of the Heavens strikes. A few of those are enough to burn him to the ground.
We make our way over the bridge and throw the final mage's staff down a well to annoy a well spirit. Then on to a heavily constructed coalition camp - we've finally got a palisade of our own.
One noteable ambush occurred around this time. We knew it was a dead magic zone but Lorn insisted on trying a few spells. We could retreat to avoid a shadowy figure but instead we use Necklaces of Missiles and brave the subsequent backstab. It looks like we have the better of this shadowy figure but they know when they have to retreat and we are left to mop up the remainder without any chance of looting someone with superior gear.
There were a number of other ambushes at various points. * We skipped the orc troll combat * We rescued the baby green dragon * We Necklaced a horde of goblins and looted the myconid cave
On reaching the Underground River entrance Sosad was careful to clear the area before sending Lorn in to parley with a cyclops, at which point Grond0's game froze. We reloaded and opened parley with weapons instead. All was going smoothly until one Necklace of Missile attack upset Rigah (I should have realised when Grond0 said where he was targeting but didn't think about it). Sosad had moved away to heal and Lorn (as is his way) had no healing potions available and had taken a beating from Rigah. He moved away to play at range but belatedly realised Rigah was happy to do the same. Cue the first party death of the session with Sosad sneaking back to pick up Lorn's gear before finding a cleric.
Tiguan has ended her run without dying. a bug made it impossible to go on so I allowed her to reload the level save and clear the fish first then all her party was killed in the next battle which again makes it, well not impossible but very unlikely to keep going so I feel like fate is at play here.
Tag- Start,
A new run,
I’m re-entering the challenge with another group;
· PukTanglefoot a Human NE Dragon Disciple · SarahTrueheart a Drow LG Wizard Slayer Puk is an evil self-centered mongrel who honestly believes he is better than everyone else and destined for greatness... fortunately Sarah has pledged her sword to him!
Mods: this run has no mods (of any kind!) my third and last basic Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on LoB level with extra damage turned off.
I'm ready to start a no reload (ish, not that strict but keeping to the basic principle because of the discipline it entails) run through BG2 and would like to carry on from my run, "The Partridge Family" which is posted on this thread.
But as it breaks the rules for this thread, skipped SOD, I need to put it elsewhere.
Where do people suggest I post it?
And is there anyway I can collect all the posts from that run, in this thread, together?
@UnderstandMouseMagic you could just provide links to your previous posts in your next one. Alternatively if a moderator were feeling generous they could extract the posts into a new thread ...
@UnderstandMouseMagic you could just provide links to your previous posts in your next one. Alternatively if a moderator were feeling generous they could extract the posts into a new thread ...
Please don't laugh, (well OK, knock your socks off, this is pathetic),
@UnderstandMouseMagic you could just provide links to your previous posts in your next one. Alternatively if a moderator were feeling generous they could extract the posts into a new thread ...
Please don't laugh, (well OK, knock your socks off, this is pathetic),
First, to find the link to a specific comment, look for the date and time of the post, here (I've put a red box around the right part): Right click that and open it in a new tab. Copy the URL... Then you can just paste the URL into a comment.
Or, if you want to put a link inside of a line of text, you can type out the test and then highlight it... Then you click here... Paste the URL into the box that opens up... Click OK, and it will attach a link to the text you highlighted. It'll look like this. When you preview the comment or post it, the text will be in red. Then people can just open up the link by clicking on the red text.
@UnderstandMouseMagic. When you right-click on the date you can also just select "copy link location" ("copy link address" on my browser) which copies the address so you can just paste it into the link box directly without needing to open a new tab.
I do use those sorts of links as they look nice in posts, but an alternative would just be to copy and paste all the addresses to previous posts and put them inside a spoiler. Once on the forum the address automatically becomes a link, so if you've got multiple posts to link doing it like this would be rather quicker for you. You'll get something like: List of previous posts for this run
The usual moment of carelessness ended this run. I was just leaving the area under the Graveyard when a group of spiders reappeared on one of the encounter points. I quickly retreated, went invisible and produced a couple of skeleton warriors and then hasted them. They could have won the combat on their own, but I looked at what spells I had remaining and decided to use a death fog to speed things up slightly. That killed a few things and the sword spider, giant spider and phase spider that attacked wouldn't last more than a round or so. Unfortunately, as the combat was so easy I didn't pay full attention and when MMMs ran out I auto-attacked in melee - only briefly, but just long enough to get poisoned by the giant spider.
Normally that would have been no trouble - the poison wouldn't have done enough damage to kill me from full HPs and resting would have cured it anyway. It would also have ticked slowly enough to give a chance (though not a certainty) of curing it with Bhaal slow poison. However: - haste meant the amount of poison damage was doubled - haste also meant the poison ticked faster, so the Bhaal ability had no chance of success - the continuing death fog meant resting was not possible - as usual I hadn't got around to buying a green scroll yet (and don't allow the use of antidotes). That all added up to an alphabet death sentence .
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 131 (session 1234 5) Siege of Dragonspear (no pics today as my internet is flaking out)
Sosad raced on an unguided tour of Underground River, the Warrens, and the basement of Dragonspear Castle. Lorn tried to keep up with the limited information he was told but like most such trips he'll probably not remember much of it. Sosad had focused on poisoning the food+water, and placing an explosive barrel exactly where it needed to be.
On their return to the coalition encampment the duo found a parley was starting in Dead Man's Pass, so we headed there. Then back to the encampment to protect it against three waves of enemy attacks. Lorn was worried as each area transition was taking a few minutes and multiplayer lag had already reared it's ugly head. Sosad was also worried as, well he knew what to expect.
The first wave were trolls and ogres. Lorn took a bashing but lasted long enough for the friendly archers to finish off the trolls. Then we both kited the ogres for a while and finally defeated them although Sosad had to briefly convince Lorn to kite northward rather than falling back towards the camp fire. We were lucky to keep the enemy interest as we couldn't have stopped them if they'd made for the fire.
A second wave was mages, so we got the Wizard Slayers to help. This worked OK apart from Sosad being confused. Someone somewhere cast Dispel Magic and things looked up, then Lorn got dominated. With all the enemies dead he killed a Wizard Slayer and chased Sosad around, again without heading south.
The third wave saw Lorn do his stuff against fighters, with a bunch of backstabbers on our side. This one went OK.
Then we helped our mages with the remnant of the attackers. Sosad took a couple of hits as did Lorn but we worked our way around the casters and ranged attackers, and the main enemy was killed by our support a second or two before we finished the last mage.
On to Dragonspear. Sosad suggested to hang back and only head Northeast. There was so much going on he's not quite sure how Lorn was Held, but fortunately he was in a sea of blue and the red attackers failed to reach him before he recovered. As we saw the gate, Lorn was affected by panic and ran north. Ashatiel and her support teleported in and Sosad bravely said he'd rather continue full-scale battle than fight one on one. Lorn came to his senses and moved back.
At this point Grond0's game crashed and mid battle meant he was locked out. Worse, Lorn acted as if panic stricken (but no icon shown).
The battle raged another minute or two then Sosad had a FoD targeted, even with various defenders between him and the caster. He moved away and returned with his sling - down went the attacker. Lorn finally snapped back into control so I focused on Ashatiel with slings and a buffer of defenders. She started to take damage but a spell headed in Sosad's direction. Pausing the game and playing needle / haystack in the mass of combat messages revealed Emotion had been cast.
Sosad tried to run back but lag, bumping and all sorts of whiny excuses prevented it. Down he went, and within 3 seconds was dead from missiles. Should have gone for 1 on 1 combat in hindsight but didn't feel like risking that in multiplayer.
Since Shyffunee got killed, here's the next character I should play according to this post.
Meet Sophie, a shy, strong and completely unaware of her greatness failed Wild Mage, that recently took the way of the sword to make up for her terrible spellcasting skills.
Didn't do anything too interesting yet. I farmed XP on Beregost/other low level areas until we got level 3, and then dual-classed to Fighter, then went directly to the Basilisks, used potion-swapping to cast Prot. from Petrification from a Mage scroll and our always reliable and friendly Pseudo-Dragon familiar (I need a good name for the lil' guy. Any suggestions?) to take care of the lizards, but we didn't even dare approach the wizard, and left a lot of these mythical creatures of stonegazing (new musical genre?) alive because we had already completed our task of getting level 4.
Our proficiencies are THS+++, THWS++ and Sling+. I might take proficiencies on bows later on, but I am not sure yet of which bow I should go for (I might go for Long Bows just for the Mana Bow and the Dead Shot, but maybe I'm overrating the Mana Bow, which will end up being used mostly as a defensive item rather than as an offensive one). The Mantle scroll got created by a Wild Surge: What's this in my pocket? I had no idea that could happen. I am yet unsure of what to do with this scroll, since I will never be able to cast level 7 spells, and, it's duration is worthless for me to use the scroll, besides I don't need the money at all, and I'll end up hitting the XP cap anyway since Sophie is basically a single-class.
@ussnorway Always remember if you fail the dragon egg quest, then you can immediately leave the Underdark via the exit. You don't have to kill Adalon - this is vanilla behavior.
CorEE and Jaheira Update:
The party has made good progress since the last update. Jaheira is level 6 fighter/6 druid, and CorEE is level 6 fighter/level 7 thief. There isn't much in terms of upgrades to get anymore, so they are working on the main quest.
* CorEE was caught out by the different behavior of EE - usually when you talk to Mulahey, he moves up then minions help him - in EE he doesn't bother with that and starts casting spells immediately. As a result, before Mulahey was killed he managed to put rigid thinking on CorEE. However, Jaheira did a good job of taking out the minions, and luckily CorEE had his melee weapon equipped and even confused, he was a force the kobolds could not handle.
* For the amazon assassins, greenstone amulet, insects, call lightning, and arrows of biting insured the party's victory - in the same area we used a protection from undead to clear the tombs. As for Narcillicus, he immediately got poisoned by arrows of biting - Jaheira's insects didn't help him either. The jellies were no problem.
* Ankhegs were cleared. CorEE used a shield here and the both party members tanked them well - we took very little damage and the ankhegs usually died pretty quick.
* We joined the bandit camp. Only fighting was Tazok's tent - greenstone amulet and potion of magic blocking made sure the party was not going to be running in fear. As it turned out, Venkt got hit with arrows of biting early, as well as Jaheira's insects - he could only get mirror image off, then shortly died. CorEE risked a ranged weapon equipped as he used some +1 arrows to finish off Brikt - once he fell, the result was not in doubt. We didn't loot the entire camp, just until we were full. We also did not engage Khosann - the full plate is just too heavy for Jaheira (that is, she can't loot anything if she wears that). So Jaheira uses Ankheg armor.
The party will venture into the Cloakwood next session - just working on the main quest might get us to the level caps.
Comments
Well I have rolled up my new cannon fodder - he intends to duo with Jaheira to the end of ToB - if Jaheira gets chunked, not sure what I will do, but will keep pressing though if that happens. Here they are:
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear
I have never finished an EE run - hence the odd spelling of my character's name - seemed appropriate.
By now, the party is about level 5 fighter/level 5 druid or thief. Here is the things they have done, not necessarily in order:
* Very briefly, CorEE had Imoen, Xzar and Montaron in the party - used them to help CorEE get past Tarnesh. (Montaron backstab finished off Tarnesh). Once Jaheira was in the party, booted Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Kept Khalid to clear out the hobgoblins near the FAI - then after Khalid got the reward from Joia, I removed him from the party. Jaheira and I were outside - she was OK with this, since Khalid had a nice room to stay in while she and I did my adventure.
* Decided that we really could use an experience boost, so hunted down Shoal like Gate70 and Grond0 always do. Jaheira and I both got a level, so was a good deal.
* Karlat was defeated early, mainly due to Jaheira using Shilleaugh (that magical club from spell).
* Melicamp did not survive his transformation attempt.
* Getting Ankheg armor for Jaheira ASAP was a high priority for us - her AC was only 1 before that - most fights CorEE is using his composite long bow. This has been working well overall. Power of ranged weapons in BG 1 and all.
* Next priority was getting DEX gauntlets for Jaheira - we ran into an ogre mage ambush on the way - we were in no shape to challenge them, so escaped that ambush pronto.
* After getting the DEX gauntlets, we went ahead and got the CHA tome in the area. Gave to Jaheira, since it is of no help to CorEE with his CHA of 9.
* Decided to copy another play of Grond0/Gate70 and that is do the basilisk's early - I tried to copy their route much as I could, but not exact. It was, however, exact enough to not blunder into Kirian's party, so a minor victory in that respect. We didn't engage Kirian's party after the basilik's were cleared (tried to get better prepared). CorEE stealth is not that good, but was enough to guide Korax to Mutamutin and get him held. We had a bear eat Korax after the basilisks were dead.
* Before engaging Kirian and her buddies, we got stealth boots and belt of piercing for CorEE. We also got Greenstone amulet for Jaheira, then came back to engage. Jaheira used the greenstone amulet and cast insects on Kirian. Kirian still got quite a few spells off, including a lightning bolt. Jaheira was badly hurt. The duo did a fighting retreat, with CorEE shooting his bow if safe enough. The opponents put Jaheira in an entangle - she tried do to the same to them, but got interrupted. Her morale broke and she ran in fear. This actually worked well, as CorEE was firing off his bow at the enemies who were targeting Jaheira. Luckily Kirian was too far away and was not pursuing Jaheira. One by one the enemies fell - was afraid for Jaheira with her low health, as the enemy archer was targeting her - so to force him to change targets, CorEE engaged that guy in melee. Finally all of Kirian's gang (except Kirian herself) falls!
We try to get Jaheira healed up best we can - then we look for Kirian - Jaheira got the last laugh as a single wand of heavens blast did 37 dmg to Kirian and finished her. A hard fought victory...
* Sirenes in the north were cleared with greenstone amulet - the south ones near the pirate cave were cleared with a clarity potion
* I knew there were traps in the CON cave, but no idea where. We managed to pull the left golem without triggering one. Then Jaheira tripped the hold trap - luckily no enemies around. While waiting, CorEE managed to find and disarm a trap - maybe the charm trap? We looted the stuff and got out of there. The CON tome goes to CorEE since he is only an elf.
* For most fights, CorEE is using his Composite Bow +1 and Jaheira the +1 club from Krumm (or Caldo, not sure which one had it). Armor wise, using Ankheg for Jaheira (allows her to loot more), and full plate for CorEE. We got super low on potions, so bought all the blue potions at the Beregost Temple.
The duo has been doing well so far, only close call being the fight with Kirian's group. Will keep at it...
We're stood outside Baldur's Gate, the only clue to what we were doing as we've never been there before. The session lasts for almost exactly 2 hours.
The usual activity is done to relieve Lothander of his boots, pick up tomes of dexterity and intelligence, enjoy some ennui with Vay-ya and Desreta, kill a basilisk, sort out the Seven Suns, pick up the Cloak and Helm of Balduran, recharge a few wands / necklaces / cloak and find a better shield for Lorn. With that done, the Iron Throne HQ is searched for a Ring of Freedom. There it is...
Sosad, Sun Soul Monk 8. 155 kills.
(confession: I have a mental block, unable to remember Sun Soul abilities without checking each time!)
I was having a lot of fun in that run. It's immensely disappointing.
Tig-12,
Lasciate ogne speranza,I survived the first drow ambush by the skin of my teeth... well I ran away from their Nishru because I couldn't hurt it but this fight cost my summon ring and my rod of resurrection.
we agreed to help the smurf village then did some fish hunting and said hello to lady Silver... the gate out is locked so we are entering the drow city.
tip, use their own ammo against the fish.
Siege of Dragonspear
Prologue
Sosad and Lorn are prologue veterans now. There were a couple of minor hiccups due to internet connection drops. The tried and tested fireball approach worked fine, with both combatants using Necklace charges.
Baldur's Gate
We sold some expensive junk and moved on without bothering to do much else.
Coast Ways Crossing
Earlier sales saw us able to buy a Bag of Holding. Lorn grabbed a few items from the tavern remains and we buffed up to look at the bridge. We were both keen not to die here, but another internet drop meant Lorn was so keen that he declined to be in the fight and was the wrong side of the force barrier.
Sosad has the measure of the early part of this area now, guiding Lorn until Ziatar's room beckoned. Lorn took matters into his own hands and cast Silence so we could beat her up.
Lorn spent the next few rounds charmed, while Sosad used several more fireballs but failed to kill any of the enemies off. With a bit more effort they started to fall and once Lorn came back to his senses, the matter was settled once and for all.
Previous updates:
The session started with Corey helpfully reminding me not to rest before the remaining basilisks were killed. With that done Babar prepared to rage and attack Mutamin, but Meffal couldn't resist trying to stun him first. He did very well generally with stunning attacks this session, but this time he failed and started running away scared - unfortunately in the direction of Kirian and a conversation there ended with her party disappearing and taking the Golden Girdle with them.
Not many areas had been done yet, but Coreranger was keen to get on with the real stuff and the others agreed to head for the Nashkel Mine. That proved no problem to get down to Mulahey and this time Meffal hit with a stunning blow. Mulahey just survived the follow-up hits, but his morale was gone and he died before he could pull himself together.
Outside the Mine, Babar fancied his chances against the amazons. Rage protected him from most of their spells, though he did take a fair amount of glyph damage.
Before going on to the Bandit Camp the trio looked to pick up a bit more XP and treasure. Bassilus looked like a good source for both, but that attack nearly mis-fired when Babar mis-clicked on the conversation options and was forced to retreat by the weight of missile fire from the skeleton hordes - the others filled the gap nicely though.
The sirines were unable to cope with Coreranger protected by a potion of clarity, while Babar glugged down an absorption potion to tank the golems.
Now the time came to assault the Bandit Camp. That seemed to be going well with Taurgosz and most of the other bandits dead, but a couple of hits left Meffal short of HPs and he turned to retreat - just as an unknown bandit appeared from behind a tent (hate to think what he was doing there) and loosed a fatal shot. After a temple trip the remaining bandits were dealt with before Meffal and Coreranger sneaked into Tazok's tent. Babar entered in a rage and tried to draw the attention of Venkt, but the others were caught anyway by a horror spell and started running round - both of them poisoned by Hakt for good measure. Babar managed to kill the enemies with distance attacks, but he hadn't rested after doing a bit of healing outside the tent and had no Bhaal CLW available - which meant things looked bleak for Meffal as his HPs drained away. Fortunately the poison stopped ticking while he still had a whole HP left, so the temple was denied a further fee.
After bringing Brage back to civilisation and undertaking a quick flick through the Cloud Peak Mountains the trio sought revenge on Silke for the end of the previous Trio run - and got it in satisfying style.
Babar, barbarian L6, 79 HPs, 133 kills
Coreranger, ranger L6, 75 HPs, 120 kills, 0 deaths
Meffal, monk L6, 46 HPs, 56 kills, 1 death
I commented on how good HP rolls had been last time. The reverse was true this time, with all of them falling back towards the expected average.
First we slaughtered the ne'er do wells of the Thieves Guild, as Cromarty would not agree to steal. Then we assisted a fallen paladin, visited the Silvershields, and freed a nymph. However as we had been poisoned by Marek and Lothander we decided to visit Umberlee's Temple and to pick up the corpse of a poor lad while visiting into the bargain. Unfortunately I chose to speak to Tenya first, and an overly humble response sent the temple hostile even as she handed over the boy's body! No geas scroll = trouble! There was nothing for it but to send in Minsc to holler for the high preistess in the ear of a not yet angered priestess. No sooner had she appeared than everyone was hostile and the slaughter began in earnest.
All this 'conversion' is hard work... but quite appropriate for a bunch of unsubtle do-gooders. This run's RP dictates that we won't be housebreaking so I imagine that we'll move on to Candlekeep or even further afield soon. Overconfidence has been creeping in again though...
Tig-game breaking bug;
The first quest in the drow city breaks if you don't clear the mind sucker area of fish first... they spawn as your main character crosses the bridge but you MUST do this before getting the quest to save Phaere because Solaufein will not spawn otherwise and therefore you can't speak to him and (unless you can kill lady Silver) thats the end of your game.Siege of Dragonspear
We're in the Temple of Cyric, trying to talk to the priestess. She'll talk but not about the wardstone. Sosad eventually realises he doesn't know about the wardstone yet so needs to go talk to some Crusaders first. On the way out he asks Lorn to buff him up and uses some looted gear to deal with the sleeping dragon.
Now, after talking to the palisade guards, Sosad knows about the presence of a wardstone. It's not too long before he has it in his grasp and returns to the palisade. Instead of handing it over to the Crusaders, he loots a note from under the eye of Vichand and heads into the Fort. Khalid directs him to speak to the local mage and armourer, which is duly done. The letter is used to nullify a huge glowing object, Sosad breaking a piece off and directing Jegg to make some bullets in case Lorn requires them later.
Khalid is told to attack from the north when battle starts, then the duo head back to the coalition camp and tell them to attack. Sosad makes sure Lorn follows his rules of engagement - spot a named enemy and deal with them. Kharm is killed in this way then The Barghest appears and we both treat him to Wand of the Heavens strikes. A few of those are enough to burn him to the ground.
One noteable ambush occurred around this time. We knew it was a dead magic zone but Lorn insisted on trying a few spells. We could retreat to avoid a shadowy figure but instead we use Necklaces of Missiles and brave the subsequent backstab. It looks like we have the better of this shadowy figure but they know when they have to retreat and we are left to mop up the remainder without any chance of looting someone with superior gear.
* We skipped the orc troll combat
* We rescued the baby green dragon
* We Necklaced a horde of goblins and looted the myconid cave
On reaching the Underground River entrance Sosad was careful to clear the area before sending Lorn in to parley with a cyclops, at which point Grond0's game froze. We reloaded and opened parley with weapons instead. All was going smoothly until one Necklace of Missile attack upset Rigah (I should have realised when Grond0 said where he was targeting but didn't think about it). Sosad had moved away to heal and Lorn (as is his way) had no healing potions available and had taken a beating from Rigah. He moved away to play at range but belatedly realised Rigah was happy to do the same. Cue the first party death of the session with Sosad sneaking back to pick up Lorn's gear before finding a cleric.
Tag- Start,
A new run,I’m re-entering the challenge with another group;
· Puk Tanglefoot a Human NE Dragon Disciple
· Sarah Trueheart a Drow LG Wizard Slayer
Puk is an evil self-centered mongrel who honestly believes he is better than everyone else and destined for greatness... fortunately Sarah has pledged her sword to him!
Mods: this run has no mods (of any kind!) my third and last basic Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on LoB level with extra damage turned off.
But as it breaks the rules for this thread, skipped SOD, I need to put it elsewhere.
Where do people suggest I post it?
And is there anyway I can collect all the posts from that run, in this thread, together?
Thanks for your help.
A is for an avatar, starting on his quest
B is for the Blindness spell, arguably his best
C is for the tricks he plays with the Cloak of Cheese
D is for Davaeorn, whom skull trap makes a breeze.
But how would I do that?
@UnderstandMouseMagic thereby wins the internet and is rewarded with a Holy Avenger sword that can be dual wielded by sorcerers.
Please see Ribald Barterman to claim your price.
First, to find the link to a specific comment, look for the date and time of the post, here (I've put a red box around the right part):
Right click that and open it in a new tab.
Copy the URL...
Then you can just paste the URL into a comment.
Or, if you want to put a link inside of a line of text, you can type out the test and then highlight it...
Then you click here...
Paste the URL into the box that opens up...
Click OK, and it will attach a link to the text you highlighted. It'll look like this.
When you preview the comment or post it, the text will be in red. Then people can just open up the link by clicking on the red text.
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou..................
(never play a sorcerer, do you think he would get offended if I swapped it for vouchers?)
Got it.
Thankyou
I do use those sorts of links as they look nice in posts, but an alternative would just be to copy and paste all the addresses to previous posts and put them inside a spoiler. Once on the forum the address automatically becomes a link, so if you've got multiple posts to link doing it like this would be rather quicker for you. You'll get something like:
List of previous posts for this run
E is for equipment, left by all the dead
F is for the force he's got, once the last tome's read
G is for the gold he's saved by his use of friends
H is for the hope he's got as the first game ends.
The usual moment of carelessness ended this run. I was just leaving the area under the Graveyard when a group of spiders reappeared on one of the encounter points. I quickly retreated, went invisible and produced a couple of skeleton warriors and then hasted them. They could have won the combat on their own, but I looked at what spells I had remaining and decided to use a death fog to speed things up slightly. That killed a few things and the sword spider, giant spider and phase spider that attacked wouldn't last more than a round or so. Unfortunately, as the combat was so easy I didn't pay full attention and when MMMs ran out I auto-attacked in melee - only briefly, but just long enough to get poisoned by the giant spider.
Normally that would have been no trouble - the poison wouldn't have done enough damage to kill me from full HPs and resting would have cured it anyway. It would also have ticked slowly enough to give a chance (though not a certainty) of curing it with Bhaal slow poison. However:
- haste meant the amount of poison damage was doubled
- haste also meant the poison ticked faster, so the Bhaal ability had no chance of success
- the continuing death fog meant resting was not possible
- as usual I hadn't got around to buying a green scroll yet (and don't allow the use of antidotes).
That all added up to an alphabet death sentence
Siege of Dragonspear
(no pics today as my internet is flaking out)
Sosad raced on an unguided tour of Underground River, the Warrens, and the basement of Dragonspear Castle. Lorn tried to keep up with the limited information he was told but like most such trips he'll probably not remember much of it. Sosad had focused on poisoning the food+water, and placing an explosive barrel exactly where it needed to be.
On their return to the coalition encampment the duo found a parley was starting in Dead Man's Pass, so we headed there. Then back to the encampment to protect it against three waves of enemy attacks. Lorn was worried as each area transition was taking a few minutes and multiplayer lag had already reared it's ugly head. Sosad was also worried as, well he knew what to expect.
The first wave were trolls and ogres. Lorn took a bashing but lasted long enough for the friendly archers to finish off the trolls. Then we both kited the ogres for a while and finally defeated them although Sosad had to briefly convince Lorn to kite northward rather than falling back towards the camp fire. We were lucky to keep the enemy interest as we couldn't have stopped them if they'd made for the fire.
A second wave was mages, so we got the Wizard Slayers to help. This worked OK apart from Sosad being confused. Someone somewhere cast Dispel Magic and things looked up, then Lorn got dominated. With all the enemies dead he killed a Wizard Slayer and chased Sosad around, again without heading south.
The third wave saw Lorn do his stuff against fighters, with a bunch of backstabbers on our side. This one went OK.
Then we helped our mages with the remnant of the attackers. Sosad took a couple of hits as did Lorn but we worked our way around the casters and ranged attackers, and the main enemy was killed by our support a second or two before we finished the last mage.
On to Dragonspear. Sosad suggested to hang back and only head Northeast. There was so much going on he's not quite sure how Lorn was Held, but fortunately he was in a sea of blue and the red attackers failed to reach him before he recovered. As we saw the gate, Lorn was affected by panic and ran north. Ashatiel and her support teleported in and Sosad bravely said he'd rather continue full-scale battle than fight one on one. Lorn came to his senses and moved back.
At this point Grond0's game crashed and mid battle meant he was locked out. Worse, Lorn acted as if panic stricken (but no icon shown).
The battle raged another minute or two then Sosad had a FoD targeted, even with various defenders between him and the caster. He moved away and returned with his sling - down went the attacker. Lorn finally snapped back into control so I focused on Ashatiel with slings and a buffer of defenders. She started to take damage but a spell headed in Sosad's direction. Pausing the game and playing needle / haystack in the mass of combat messages revealed Emotion had been cast.
Sosad tried to run back but lag, bumping and all sorts of whiny excuses prevented it. Down he went, and within 3 seconds was dead from missiles. Should have gone for 1 on 1 combat in hindsight but didn't feel like risking that in multiplayer.
New characters rolled, and we closed the session.
Meet Sophie, a shy, strong and completely unaware of her greatness failed Wild Mage, that recently took the way of the sword to make up for her terrible spellcasting skills.
Didn't do anything too interesting yet. I farmed XP on Beregost/other low level areas until we got level 3, and then dual-classed to Fighter, then went directly to the Basilisks, used potion-swapping to cast Prot. from Petrification from a Mage scroll and our always reliable and friendly Pseudo-Dragon familiar (I need a good name for the lil' guy. Any suggestions?) to take care of the lizards, but we didn't even dare approach the wizard, and left a lot of these mythical creatures of stonegazing (new musical genre?) alive because we had already completed our task of getting level 4.
Our proficiencies are THS+++, THWS++ and Sling+. I might take proficiencies on bows later on, but I am not sure yet of which bow I should go for (I might go for Long Bows just for the Mana Bow and the Dead Shot, but maybe I'm overrating the Mana Bow, which will end up being used mostly as a defensive item rather than as an offensive one).
The Mantle scroll got created by a Wild Surge: What's this in my pocket? I had no idea that could happen. I am yet unsure of what to do with this scroll, since I will never be able to cast level 7 spells, and, it's duration is worthless for me to use the scroll, besides I don't need the money at all, and I'll end up hitting the XP cap anyway since Sophie is basically a single-class.
CorEE and Jaheira Update:
The party has made good progress since the last update. Jaheira is level 6 fighter/6 druid, and CorEE is level 6 fighter/level 7 thief. There isn't much in terms of upgrades to get anymore, so they are working on the main quest.
* CorEE was caught out by the different behavior of EE - usually when you talk to Mulahey, he moves up then minions help him - in EE he doesn't bother with that and starts casting spells immediately. As a result, before Mulahey was killed he managed to put rigid thinking on CorEE. However, Jaheira did a good job of taking out the minions, and luckily CorEE had his melee weapon equipped and even confused, he was a force the kobolds could not handle.
* For the amazon assassins, greenstone amulet, insects, call lightning, and arrows of biting insured the party's victory - in the same area we used a protection from undead to clear the tombs. As for Narcillicus, he immediately got poisoned by arrows of biting - Jaheira's insects didn't help him either. The jellies were no problem.
* Ankhegs were cleared. CorEE used a shield here and the both party members tanked them well - we took very little damage and the ankhegs usually died pretty quick.
* We joined the bandit camp. Only fighting was Tazok's tent - greenstone amulet and potion of magic blocking made sure the party was not going to be running in fear. As it turned out, Venkt got hit with arrows of biting early, as well as Jaheira's insects - he could only get mirror image off, then shortly died. CorEE risked a ranged weapon equipped as he used some +1 arrows to finish off Brikt - once he fell, the result was not in doubt. We didn't loot the entire camp, just until we were full. We also did not engage Khosann - the full plate is just too heavy for Jaheira (that is, she can't loot anything if she wears that). So Jaheira uses Ankheg armor.
The party will venture into the Cloakwood next session - just working on the main quest might get us to the level caps.