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
@CrevsDaak Sophie's a wild mage - which means she can cast any spell she knows via level 1 .
As promised I am bowing out of the "no reload" business and carrying on with my storied playthrough. So I have to bid you all a fond farewell and wish you luck and say keep up the good work.
I have succombed to the darkside, it's all about the story now, (though TBH I have every intention of keeping the faith but SOA is such a looong game, I don't think I'm brave enough to face the heartbreak of being strictly no reload).
Anyway, I've collected all the chapters here of "The Partridge Family" and am reposting them in the Challenges and Playthrough Section of the Forum, with a fair bit of additional writing and some tidying up.
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
@CrevsDaak Sophie's a wild mage - which means she can cast any spell she knows via level 1 .
@UnderstandMouseMagic Thanks for the update. I think in general, no reload appeals to us veterans (for myself, I've probably beaten BG 1 50+ times - Grond0 maybe 200 times) - there's much more excitement, in that forgetting about an enemy that casts hold person could end your run, or being a thief or mage and getting the all archer ambushes at level 1 makes it much more interesting. It doesn't lend itself to a continual story though, which I understand is where your angle is. It takes a bit of fortitude to start from the beginning, especially if your died near the end like in ToB, and that doesn't appeal to everyone. Grond0 did his wild mage 100+ no reload before he got a trilogy success.
@UnderstandMouseMagic Thanks for the update. I think in general, no reload appeals to us veterans (for myself, I've probably beaten BG 1 50+ times - Grond0 maybe 200 times) - there's much more excitement, in that forgetting about an enemy that casts hold person could end your run, or being a thief or mage and getting the all archer ambushes at level 1 makes it much more interesting. It doesn't lend itself to a continual story though, which I understand is where your angle is. It takes a bit of fortitude to start from the beginning, especially if your died near the end like in ToB, and that doesn't appeal to everyone. Grond0 did his wild mage 100+ no reload before he got a trilogy success.
Best of luck with your future endeavors.
You're right, it's the story aspect taking over that has caused the most problems. I can keep myself alive, and did, but if you are running a story, having a character chunked is a bit of a disaster. And there is the temptation to have your Charname hiding up the back, round a corner, along the road, anywhere but in the fight.
@UnderstandMouseMagic said: ... And there is the temptation to have your Charname hiding up the back, round a corner, along the road, anywhere but in the fight.
I'm not sure I'd call that a temptation - that's a real and sometimes necessary strategy. With my pure mage runs, they would always cast invisibility on any ambush with 1 or more archers - and then do NOTHING while the rest of the party mopped up the ambush. I used to fight, but that often led to the hand in the air, which caused to me to prioritize defense for my mages to give them at least a fighting chance.
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
@CrevsDaak Sophie's a wild mage - which means she can cast any spell she knows via level 1 .
Setup: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core Rules at all times Restrictions: only CorEE and Jaheira for Trilogy, unless Jaheira gets chunked - CorEE will consider what to do if that should happen then.
The party had bought the green scrolls of protection from magic and poison from Thalantyr and proceeded to press into the Cloakwood. We noticed Aldeth had more backup and decided to not to press our luck and moved on. CorEE's pick lock isn't enough to get the chest, so just moved onto Cloakwood Area 2.
Cloakwood Area 2: This area is highly dangerous for the unprepared no-reloader. First, CorEE used the protection from poison. Then he used an invisibility potion and tripped the web traps on the way to Area 3. Then he came back and CorEE and Jaheira battled their way through the ettercaps and spiders to get access to Area 3. This went smoothly.
Areas 3 and 4 were basically skipped, except we did talk to a druid to get a invulnerability potion before moving on.
Drassus Battle: CorEE decided to use leather and the invulnerability potion. We had nymph backup and Jaheira and CorEE both used a charge from the Greenstone amulet. CorEE scouted forward to see Drassus and Jaheira and CorEE launched fireballs simultaneously (necklace of missiles, potion of explosion) - this somehow managed to kill both mages. A nymph eventually holds Drassus, he gets hit with a call lightning and both he and Genthore were finished off with backstabs from CorEE - success!
Jaheira will use the haste boots most of the time, as CorEE's stealth is still pretty unreliable and he needs to keep using his stealth boots.
We press into the mine and tried to get past level 2 undetected, but could not - we got spotted and then the party sees Heirashan! We do NOT have any lightning protection available. So Pronto Jaheira gets an insects on her and CorEE fires off his arrows of biting. Fortunately, both the poision from the arrows and the insects land, and Heirashan was unable to launch her lightning bolt (though she tried). Her guards were then easy to mop up.
CorEE put his full plate back on and the party meleed their way to Daveorn's level, using the most direct route although we did stop to get some free potions at a temple. The guard asked us a question about a prayer - I had no idea but randomly got the right answer. The potions were thus ours.
For Daveorn's level I put leather armor back on CorEE. CorEE also borrowed Jaheira's haste boots. CorEE disarmed most of the traps (though he must have missed one as he set one off while going after Daveorn). He was protected by magic and initially engaged Daveorn in melee but was planning to backstab as soon as Davaeorn ran out of mirrors - as it turned out that was enough as CorEE found Daveorn's true self even while the mirror images were up.
We flood the mine, go to FAI to sell, rest at Wyrm's Crossing and will venture into the great city of Baldur's Gate next session.
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
@CrevsDaak Sophie's a wild mage - which means she can cast any spell she knows via level 1 .
Whilst you may not be able to remember the spell, you should be able to cast it. In ToSC you can get cloudkill spells and if you are a multi-class mage you won't be able to memorise it unless you have the level cap raised/disabled. However you can cast it. I would imagine that the same applies for this scroll.
Wild mages can cast any memorised spell (even of a level they are normally unable to cast) using Nahal's Reckless Dweomer. Doing that means an automatic surge though, so it's not necessarily a good idea for a low level mage in a no-reload ...
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core rules at all times Restrictions: unless Jaheira gets chunked she is the only groupmate of CorEE
The party has made some progress in the big city:
* DEX tome went to CorEE - as a thief the DEX is quite helpful - Jaheira is using DEX gauntlets anyways
* Top floor of sorcerous sundries - some mages went hostile, however the duo were protected greenstone amulet charges to protect against horror - CorEE then went wild and did a few backstabs while poor Jaheira had to take all the punishment - it worked out in the end, lots of blue potions used by Jaheira though.
* Some thieves in a home battled - the crossbow thief did huge damage to CorEE, but the duo won the battle without casualty nevertheless
* Vaya and Deserta were also battled. In vanilla, Deserta moves forward and talks (which separates her from her mage ally). So in EE, instead she stays by her mage ally but never approaches to talks which meant Jaheira just used wand of heavens a few times to wipe out Deserta without Deserta so much as getting a swing in - I think vanilla approach is better here. Jaheira was protected from confusion via greenstone amulet - once drawn out, CorEE finished off Vaya with a huge backstab.
* Basilisk in warehouse killed - gauntlets returned to the lady in the warehouse next door also.
* Dopplegangers defeated at Seven Suns (easy). Scar asked us to do another task, investigate citizens disappearing - an ogre mage and his pets were found and killed.
We had bought the invis ring at Ulgoth's Beard for CorEE which cost a cool 15,000 gold - but already the party at end of session is back to 30,000 gold.
Last act of the session was to report to the dwarf who wanted the basilisk killed.
The party did so well, however, the one fight I was very uncertain about, because so many other no-reloaders had trouble this area, gave me trouble as well. I failed to save the dukes and thus got the scripted death.
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core Rules at all times
Taking another stab at EE. This is a MP party, the idea being as hardy as I can to survive Dragonspear. While initially plan to be no-reload, even if I fail, will continue (just not in thread) until I beat Dragonspear. In essence this party will "scout" for me so that I can no-reload Dragonspear and EE in the future. So without further ado, here's CorEE II:
Here are his group mates:
The party is mostly around level 4. The main quests being complete are Nashkel Mines and the Bandit Camp. We actually took on the bandit at level 3 - we normally don't attempt it so low (and gulped a huge amount of blue potions), but Kivan was complaining so we took the camp out.
We have yet to go to the high experience areas such as Ankhegs, Sirines or Basilisks yet. Mostly getting upgrades for the crew.
A few incidents of note:
* Neira was rapidly defeated. Trying to cast hold person on our enraged berserkers didn't help her much.
* We had a scary moment when fighting Mulahey and his minions. Before dying, Mulahey managed to hold Lilly. She was under attack by two kobolds and a skeleton. Cierra and Draman were working on Mulahey still, so the rest of the party moved to assist. CorEE II engaged the attackers in melee and managed to hold both kobolds. Rest of the party helped best they could and CorEE also cast heal a few times on Lilly - she survives! A close one...
* We buffed heavily for Tazok's Tent, and the enemies were will rapidly defeated. Venkt did manage to get off horror, but since CorEE II did resist fear earlier, that didn't help. Poor Hakt had to face a powerful dwarven party all by himself at the end.
We did try Rhassad earlier, but we weren't impressed with him. He eventually got himself killed and then we didn't bother raising but instead put Kivan in his place. Kivan is much more helpful and useful.
Cromarty when I last left him had been wandering about Baldur's Gate striking heroic poses... well the heroism left him a bit over the last few sessions. First he and his snugglebuddies cleared the Seven Suns and the Merchant's League, initially retaining his scrupulous no looting policy. The Ogre Mage was similarly easily dealt with. However the doppelgangers abrupt appearances had rather traumatised Cromarty and when clearing the Iron Throne with extreme prejudice he got into an unfortunate argument with a barman and er, shot him in the head. Cromarty had been expecting him to change... but he didn't... and suddenly Minsc, Dyanheir, and Ajantis were voicing their displeasure at the collateral damage....
They nevertheless cleared the building, making copious use of their wand stash, but things couldn't go on this way. Cromarty visited the temple of Helm where they'd met a Paladin who had mistakenly killed a child earlier. He sighed, and prayed, and cried a little... but Ajantis still stood there with a gaze like unsheathed steel. And when Cromarty asked him what could make things better he coughed and pointed at the Radiant Heart donation box. Cromarty took the hint, and stuffed it full of gold pieces and Ajantis lightened up a bit. But with Minsc now on double cockblocking duty as well a change had to come.
Cromarty left the city and decided to turn to those who already were in his debt, the rescued threesome of Xan, Yeslick, and Verr'sza. The Rakshasha was a dangerous customer, and sometimes wandered off to perform unspeakable deeds by himself, but Cromarty now more than ever felt that he had to tame his dark side or be consumed by it. Perhaps it did not hurt that he had visions of Verr cutting down magic wielding females...
Another part of this death wish- as Xan named it- was the clearing of the upper levels of Durlag's. The only real hitch came when Safana's potion ran out and the party risked further trouble by ambushing a basilisk. Then it was on to Candlekeep where they showed no mercy to the Iron Throne - having some trouble with darts of stunning in the process however- and then cleared the catacombs. The only trouble here was some of the more 'helpful' npcs constantly running about and pulling dangerous adversaries, but things went smoothly enough. Now the party enjoys a well earned rest, and I contemplate how far Cromarty would like to push into the death trap of Durlag's again before getting on with dealing with Sarevok. I am slightly pessimistic that my rig will deal well enough with SoD's mass combats for no-reload play if I get that far so may skip it.
I’m giving my other sister a go this time... is it just me or are all his female children thieves?
Fights: Sarevok put up a solid defence this time and it cost half my party to tackle the bugger but Skie already cleared the important traps and I brung an extra monster summoning wand so the end result was never ending in any other outcome.
I’m giving my other sister a go this time... is it just me or are all his female children thieves?
Congrats on beating the big guy. All the best in Dragonspear. Also you @Corey_Russell. I am also currently in Dragonspear with my Drow Blackguard. Will post about how she got there when I have a spare hour or two.
Thanks @Wise_Grimwald - I'm sure I'll die some horrible death in Dragonspear, but that's why I intend to keep going until I get it - or give up I guess, if I take 10+ reloads in a single encounter.
@Corey_Russell Just remember that there is more than one way to kill a cat. You can send an eagle after it, choke it with cream. Poison it. That is, use your imagination and remember that most bad decisions are not fatal if you survive the individual battles. I have found tactics that you will already have learned are very appropriate in this game. Scout ahead with a thief or ranger etc. Web followed by cloudkill and fireballs works well, but mage needs Mirror Image. Barkskin or stoneskin is also helpful. You will understand why in time. Also remember that using high speed to escape a stronger enemy than you are can be a winning tactic and often is. Having dispell invisibility is also very helpful as the Dragonspear enemies use stealth VERY effectively.
Something you may not know is that reactions change depending upon who is in your party.
@everyone - no updates for a while. Will be out of state and no computer - will check in and see how things are doing in 4 days. Good luck to the no-reloads in progress.
It seems like a long time since we generated these characters at the end of our last run, but they finally got underway yesterday.
After killing Shoal and passing through Beregost and Nashkel, Gate70 suggested going to find some basilisks. However, Prof would normally expect to melee there, but had taken scimitar as his main proficiency and didn't yet have an appropriate weapon, so: - he suggested going to Durlag's Tower to get the +2 scimitar on the roof, but the battle horrors in the way were a significant obstacle, so: - Myn led the way to the FAI, to pick up the Ring of Wizardry and a magic missile scroll from Tarnesh, but Myn failed to learn the latter, so: - a trip to the Cloud Peaks, saw another scroll successfully obtained at the Gnoll Stronghold while Prof picked up a magic halberd on the way. As he was non-proficient in that though he wanted to improve his THAC0, so: - set off to find Meilum, failing to get a benefit from saving Arabelle on the way (game getting confused as a result of the client killing some of the xvarts). Meilum was duly blinded and finished off and ... - finally arriving at Durlag's Myn blinded the battle horrors and wore them down a bit before Prof finished them off with his halberd (attacking from out of sight range, so that his poor THAC0 was not an issue).
The basilisks on the roof had no answer to PfP and Prof was soon equipped with a decent weapon. That helped make short work of more basilisks - one of whom had a web scroll, which was bad news for Mutamin and then Kirian and her friends.
While doing some reputation tasks a bunch of sirines made little impression on Prof after he used a potion of clarity (though rage would have lasted long enough to kill them anyway). The golems got a couple of decent whacks in on him though and he had to be careful while shooting the last of them down.
With reputation up to 20 the duo headed to Ulgoth's Beard for some shopping, stopping off to put some ankhegs to sleep on the way. With equipment upgraded it was time to get cracking with the main quest and Mulahey soon became another web victim.
Outside the mine's back entrance the amazons were no match for blindness and web and Myn took the time to recover the wand of monster summoning from the ghast tomb.
The final bit of action saw Nimbul and Tranzig fail to pose a challenge and the Bandit Camp will be next for the chop.
When I last left Cromarty he had just wiped the blood of the Iron Throne from his blade, and been poking about Durlag's. We went on in that spirit and went down to level 3 of Durlag's before getting a bit nervous about the place. Then a quick detour to rescue Shandalar's cloak- with one or two hairy moments due to the spells flying about- was all the messing around we did before saving the city of Baldur's Gate. At the Ducal Palace only Belt survived but the Undercity was somewhat less of a worry. We'd been showered with wands by the randomiser and could easily summon forth a horde... initially to crush the bugged henchman spawning from the Gavin mod...
After that Sarevok and his cronies fell, though the battle took near on 90 minutes due to computer slowdown and tactical caution! I have begun to poke around SoD but am likely to skip on to BG2 if the battles are going to slow down this much. I shall just assume that Irenicus and the Shadow Thieves lost their patience!
After picking up the pantaloons the duo waltzed through the Bandit Camp with the help of the odd sleep and a first malison + emotion combo for Taurgosz.
Inside Tazok's tent Myn's first emotion failed to affect anyone: he had a second, but only Britik was left anyway by the time that was cast.
In the Cloakwood invisibility ensured traps were no danger. Prof wasn't interested in Spider's Bane so they moved on quickly to the mine. Drasus there eventually escaped from a web and raced towards Prof with weapon raised - but was cut down by magic missiles before he could get there.
The Cloakwood Mine didn't take long. The duo moved straight down to Davaeorn, with the only slight problem when Myn was getting pushed around by a roomful of guards and had to do a bit of dancing around before finding space to put them to sleep.
Downstairs Prof pulled the battle horrors back for disposal one at a time. He then raged and added a potion of magic blocking against the traps before going to cut down the mage.
Myn learnt knock and tried to rest invisibly, but multiple failures at that resulted in going to rest upstairs before finishing looting.
In the City, Myn updated his spell selection before being fitted for some new boots.
Marek was not only blinded before being talked to, but faced with an improved invisible adversary - Gate70 commenting that there's nothing like being entirely fair.
At that point Prof decided he wanted to upgrade his scimitar and led the way to find Drizzt. Prof fired some 70 magic arrows of various sorts at him and Myn tried his luck with a number of spells and numerous MMMs - the net result of that lot being a single hit on Drizzt before giving up the assault.
Back in Baldur's Gate Prof sought out the Cloak of Balduran and Ramazith's ring. The XP from that, including all Degrodel's guards, was enough to get Prof his final level. A few more little tasks were then enough to allow Myn to cast level 5 spells.
Aster seeking out Drizzt again - this time with a supply of helpful potions - the duo started off with some missile attacks. Taking a potion or 2 encouraged Drizzt to try a dispel magic, but a successful shot made the spell fail and Prof finished his drinking before topping that off with improved invisibility and rage. A melee assault then demonstrated that Drizzt can be beaten in (fairish) combat.
After making some donations at the temple, a few quick tasks pushed reputation back to 20 before tackling the Iron Throne. 3 of the 4 casters were blinded there and web, stinking cloud and cloudkill made a mess of the others.
At Candlekeep the Gate Guard took a valuable book from Prof, but refused to then open the gate. Not to be deterred the gnome and dwarf used ctrl+j to quickly find a hole in the wall to crawl through. The tombs were looted before a mis-click on the conversation with the dopplegangers meant a number of them had to be tackled at once. Myn then sneaked past Prat and blinded Sakul before putting down a web. Prof used his new ring of free action to take full advantage of that and Prat's situation was already hopeless before Myn tried casting a belated Emotion.
The final few moments of the session saw Prof equipped with a couple of fully-charged Necklaces for potential use in SoD.
The session started by going in search of Slythe - he was hit by a dispelling arrow as he rushed up to try and talk to Prof.
Without his conversation Krystin didn't want to show herself and we just left her.
At the palace Prof slowed down the dopplegangers attacking the dukes using dispelling arrows. Myn's summons, MMMs and MMs then finished them off pretty quickly. The final one was shown as only slightly injured and Prof attacked it in melee, intending to switch to ranged after one attack in order to drag Belt away to safety before his conversation. However, a 52 damage critical meant Sarevok was activated immediately - fortunately though he only attacked Prof so Belt remained safe.
The maze posed no problems and the Undercity party lasted only moments after being webbed, cloudkilled and hit by detonating arrows.
In the temple Sarevok avoided a dispelling arrow fired from distance and rushed out to support the teleporting Semaj. The mage lasted longer than expected in a web/stinking cloud/cloudkill/malison confection, but a couple of dispelling arrows and continuing poison damage eventually proved too much for him.
Sarevok followed shortly after when Prof followed up attacks from summons.
In the SoD starting dungeon Porios was convinced to surrender. Fireballs whittled down most of the undead to allow easy progress through to Korlasz. She talked a good fight, but actually surrendered within a second - a dispelling arrow followed by a fireball hurting her badly.
In the City, Prof sold items from his bags to raise funds before leaving - that cash allowed the purchase of a bag of holding in the first camp. Prof led the way to find Tsolak the vampire to try and get some useful headgear for Myn. He had no luck hitting the vampire hunters though and it was only Myn's magic missiles that just managed to save Tsolak.
Moving on to the bridge, the duo tried to finish off the casters before Caelar intervened. Two of those went down and the last was at near death, but Myn stayed still a moment too long in trying to finish that one off and suffered his first death.
After the cut-scene with Caelar, Prof raged and took revenge for Myn before going to find a friendly cleric. He also suggested that Myn might want to invest in a stoneskin scroll ...
Prof, berserker 8, 93 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 341 kills Myn, illusionist 9, 44 HPs, 155 kills, 1 death
Today's session saw the duo making good progress in SoD. The action started (or not) with bypassing all encounters in Troll Claw Woods. A few myconids encountered on the way to the next area were still enough though to get Prof up to level 9 and Myn also got another level shortly afterwards.
Moving on to the Temple we decided to tackle the dragon head on. Prof used DUHM and rage, while Myn added in haste and improved invisibility. With the help of a dispelling arrow to eliminate stoneskins that resulted in a comfortable victory.
In the next area Myn was grateful for her stoneskins when hit by a critical backstab by a bugbear stalker. With various sets of guards eliminated the next main target was Ziatar. She was under severe pressure, but managed to cast sanctuary to give herself a breathing space - or not ...
Prof raged to ensure the Neothelid wouldn't get any free hits on him and some summons helped conclude the battle very quickly.
The Shadow Aspect did no better, but the battle with Darskhelin proved slightly more troublesome when Myn was dominated right at the start. Prof quickly slammed the door on his colleague and ran round the room while killing several of the enemies until his rage was due to expire. He then ran outside and closed the door behind him - and somewhat surprisingly Darskhelin and one surviving fighter couldn't work out how to follow. Myn did have a quick go at him with MMMs before coming to her senses and once Prof was able to rage again the illithid was soon history.
Initially Akanna was told she was free to go. However, as Boareskyr Bridge had not yet been visited, she didn't realise we wanted her wardstone - so that had to be forcibly removed before moving on.
At Boareskyr, Jegg made a shield from the dragon scales and we also got him to produce a quiver of void arrows before surrendering to the Barghest to avoid a battle. It was still necessary to kill the mage before he destroyed the bridge, but a dispelling arrow helped do that easily enough.
Dead Man's Pass was passed without incident, but we did have a fight with a Shadowy Figure on the way to the next area. Spells don't function there, but Prof could still rage and was able to take down the Figure's allies while only getting one backstab in return. Rather than stick around and risk punishment itself though the Figure ran away (next time we might try fire protection and a series of fireballs to see if we can kill it).
After a few tasks at Bloodbark Grove, including a visit to a vampire's lair where Myn got her final SoD level,
we briefly visited the exterior of Dragonspear Castle to rescue Skie. Then it was on to the Underground River. The troops guarding the entrance there were webbed and unable to do much to help the mages targeted by dispelling arrows. Julann tried the old sanctuary trick again, but was another to discover that spell's not much use against fireballs.
The final action saw Myn trying to persuade a group of ogres to pledge support for a future fight. Unfortunately Prof (as a result of me not having done that encounter before) attacked when he shouldn't have done and that potential source of support will not be available .
Prof, berserker 9, 105 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 531 kills Myn, illusionist 11, 51 HPs, 301 kills, 1 death
After a couple of weeks break the Trio were back tearing their way through the Sword Coast today.
The session started with Coreranger keen to seek out some easy XP - that led to the sirines in Shoal's area who couldn't do much against Babar's rage. Then Coreranger wanted to upgrade his magic flail to a morningstar - so sought out Molkar's party in Gullykin and threw in a couple of fiery potions to warm them up. He fell victim to a rigid thinking, but it was still an easy victory.
With the prologue completed it was back to the main story in the Cloakwood. The run nearly ended there when Babar got tired of playing it safe and hiding behind Coreranger while killing ettercaps. For the last of the group surrounded by web traps he attacked directly - and was poisoned. The poison ticks quite rapidly so his chances of curing himself with his Bhaal ability were not great - but he tried anyway. After failing that there probably wasn't time to take an antidote (even if he'd been prepared to do so), but a last-ditch rest proved successful .
Moving on to the Mine, Coreranger took a magic blocking potion and assaulted the mages accompanying Drasus. Babar raged in support while Meffal provided ranged back-up. That proved sufficient to deal with the mages pretty quickly and the fighters didn't do too much damage thereafter - helped by Meffal stunning Drasus.
There wasn't much combat on the way down to Davaeorn, where Coreranger successfully dragged the battle horrors back individually. He then used another magic blocking potion to attack Davaeorn. The mage's lightning bolt bounced here there and (almost) everywhere, but Babar somehow managed to dodge it before going to help with the last rites.
After looting the place and flooding the mine the Trio went to sell surplus equipment. Meffal had realised while fighting the mustard jelly guarding Davaeorn's treasure that he was using a sub-standard longsword and suggested revisiting the Nashkel Mine. Greywolf was indeed there and was surprised, nay stunned, to see the Trio finally turning up.
A glance at the map then showed that the area north of the FAI had not yet been visited. Plenty of ankhegs later the Trio moved on with the intention of returning a bowl to Tenya. Gate70 knows that my nefarious plan tends to be to give Tenya the bowl before killing her while she's trying to teleport away. As a result Meffal watched as Babar had a conversation with Tenya and then attacked, stunned and killed the cleric when Babar spoke to her again. Unfortunately Babar had chosen the wrong conversation option the first time around, so we missed out on a reward there .
Moving into the City the first quest undertaken was a poisonous one. To my surprise, Lothander was unable to find a way out through the Trio and was hacked down to give a movement upgrade to Babar.
Not to my surprise, Marek proved no more effective as an opponent. Jardak, however, did put up a decent fight before Coreranger eventually overpowered him to allow Babar to increase his charisma to the frankly indecent level of 18 for a dwarf.
Balduran's Helm was an obvious target and was grabbed with no hassle. Balduran's Cloak was also desirable and came with the side benefit of getting plenty of XP for luring Degrodel's guards outside the house one or two at a time. The mage himself was also hacked down before Babar rather meanly used stone to flesh scrolls on all the statues before shooting them down. Babar's main proficiency is axes, so he was prepared for a hard fight to get Gretek's +2 axe. However, the fight was much easier than expected when only Gretek initially went hostile.
The others only turned hostile when attacked themselves so could be easily picked off individually.
Babar, barbarian L7, 85 HPs, 193 kills Coreranger, ranger L7, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 175 kills, 0 deaths Meffal, monk L7, 51 HPs, 78 kills, 1 death After a superb run of high HPs for early levels the dice have turned firmly against all of us with Babar now just below average HPs and the others only just above.
Pushing on in SoD the duo placed some Bwoosh and poisoned food and water in the castle before making a run for it.
Back in the Coalition Camp arrows of detonation were helpful to beat back some crusader waves. Grimgor was the latest enemy to try using sanctuary to stave off death, but as he showed no sign of moving this time fireballs were not used and we just waited until he could be attacked normally.
Prof had got his final SoD level during that encounter. I've never had a character in the EE which has got a full set of hit dice and ended up with fewer than the notional average HPs - but Prof came close with only 1 more than average.
Rather than fight a major battle with the potential of losing track of threats, Prof challenged Ashatiel to individual combat. Rage allowed a successful melee combat there, though with the addition of a dispelling arrow to get rid of stoneskins. However, there was a sterner fight after that when Chloe's ability to hide in plain sight allowed her to get a couple of backstabs on Prof - resulting in quite a bit of retreating to get coalition forces to help out.
Inside the castle, Belegarm provided some fresh potion supplies before moving on to face some demons. There was an immediate problem there when Prof relied on improved invisibility to buff his saves, but that was immediately dispelled and Prof dominated. Myn did a good job there to lead him away and kill the following demons before using a potion to disappear.
A bit further on Prof went for a quick kill on Thrix, but didn't really manage it. By the time he did get the kill
he was surrounded by various demons and had to work hard to escape and run them round with low HPs while making the occasional attack - not helped in that by Myn being dominated. However, eventually the gnome recovered his senses and helped finish the last demons off.
The duo buffed up while taking a ride on an elevator, but that cunning plan was disrupted when Gate70 dropped from the game and found all Myn's buffs had disappeared on reconnecting. Pushing on regardless though, the final fight with Belhifet was triggered. Initially Hephernaan was targeted, but by the time he went down Caelar was also dead.
Prof tried to use his void arrows +3 on Belhifet while running round, but although he had some success with that Myn was held and the demons quickly made sure he would take no further part in the contest.
Prof carried on with his shoot and run policy and seemed comfortable enough before discovering a bit of corrupted ground near one of the pillars was preventing him from moving. His decent AC meant he still had some HPs in hand though when he managed to kill a blocking demon and move freely again.
However, I'm a slow learner and couldn't resist going back to the same spot - and getting stuck once more.
By this stage Belhifet was pretty low on HPs and Prof would have tried to finish him off - except that the demon was outside the range of his scimitar . Prof tried to cut a gap through the demons to escape again, but was unable to do so and more hits took his HPs critically low despite using several potions of power.
That meant he had to resort to trying out an invisibility potion - and fortunately the confused demons then starting moving about a bit rather than just staying still and Prof was able to escape.
A potion of regeneration boosted health while running round before Prof renewed his buffs and went back into melee with Belhifet - and this time the big fella went down.
I expected the game to end quickly after that (in the same manner as with Sarevok), but there was still a significant amount of content. That caused a major problem when we had a MP crash on one of the transitions - and I hadn't saved the game after beating Belhifet . Undeterred though we fought that battle again, but this time with Prof targeting Belhifet much earlier in melee - successfully killing him before having to retreat. Gate70 dropped out to avoid further crashes while I negotiated the cutscenes to get through to BG2. The session closed after clearing the first level of Jon's dungeon, with the only concern there that I had not taken the pantaloons out of the bag of holding before ending the previous game - resulting in the loss of those.
Prof, berserker 10, 108 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 28 kills (+624 in BG1) Myn, illusionist 11, 51 HPs, 30 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)
Congrats on getting through SoD . Cromarty and his gang have progressed as far as the Dwarves of Dumathoin quest, although periodic slowdowns make me wonder if we'll be able to get through any big battles. Current party is: Safana (sniper), Sirene, Minsc (Barbarian Ranger), Verr'Sza, and Dyanheir (M/C). I have a real love-hate relationship with SoD, the quest hub style of focused content doesn't chime with me but some of the encounters are quite memorable. Will keep plugging at it for now.
Comments
I have succombed to the darkside, it's all about the story now, (though TBH I have every intention of keeping the faith but SOA is such a looong game, I don't think I'm brave enough to face the heartbreak of being strictly no reload).
Anyway, I've collected all the chapters here of "The Partridge Family" and am reposting them in the Challenges and Playthrough Section of the Forum, with a fair bit of additional writing and some tidying up.
Here is the link
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/65021/the-partridge-family/p1?new=1
And when I've got The Partridge Family of BG all up there, will carry on into SOA with a new title.
The Reluctant Bhaalspawn.
Best of luck with your future endeavors.
I've never been so cowardly as this BG run, lol.
... And there is the temptation to have your Charname hiding up the back, round a corner, along the road, anywhere but in the fight.
I'm not sure I'd call that a temptation - that's a real and sometimes necessary strategy. With my pure mage runs, they would always cast invisibility on any ambush with 1 or more archers - and then do NOTHING while the rest of the party mopped up the ambush. I used to fight, but that often led to the hand in the air, which caused to me to prioritize defense for my mages to give them at least a fighting chance.
A Gate in Candlekeep at lvl 1!
Sorry, missed that. That was certainly headline-worthy.
Setup: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core Rules at all times
Restrictions: only CorEE and Jaheira for Trilogy, unless Jaheira gets chunked - CorEE will consider what to do if that should happen then.
The party had bought the green scrolls of protection from magic and poison from Thalantyr and proceeded to press into the Cloakwood. We noticed Aldeth had more backup and decided to not to press our luck and moved on. CorEE's pick lock isn't enough to get the chest, so just moved onto Cloakwood Area 2.
Cloakwood Area 2: This area is highly dangerous for the unprepared no-reloader. First, CorEE used the protection from poison. Then he used an invisibility potion and tripped the web traps on the way to Area 3. Then he came back and CorEE and Jaheira battled their way through the ettercaps and spiders to get access to Area 3. This went smoothly.
Areas 3 and 4 were basically skipped, except we did talk to a druid to get a invulnerability potion before moving on.
Drassus Battle:
CorEE decided to use leather and the invulnerability potion. We had nymph backup and Jaheira and CorEE both used a charge from the Greenstone amulet. CorEE scouted forward to see Drassus and Jaheira and CorEE launched fireballs simultaneously (necklace of missiles, potion of explosion) - this somehow managed to kill both mages. A nymph eventually holds Drassus, he gets hit with a call lightning and both he and Genthore were finished off with backstabs from CorEE - success!
Jaheira will use the haste boots most of the time, as CorEE's stealth is still pretty unreliable and he needs to keep using his stealth boots.
We press into the mine and tried to get past level 2 undetected, but could not - we got spotted and then the party sees Heirashan! We do NOT have any lightning protection available. So Pronto Jaheira gets an insects on her and CorEE fires off his arrows of biting. Fortunately, both the poision from the arrows and the insects land, and Heirashan was unable to launch her lightning bolt (though she tried). Her guards were then easy to mop up.
CorEE put his full plate back on and the party meleed their way to Daveorn's level, using the most direct route although we did stop to get some free potions at a temple. The guard asked us a question about a prayer - I had no idea but randomly got the right answer. The potions were thus ours.
For Daveorn's level I put leather armor back on CorEE. CorEE also borrowed Jaheira's haste boots. CorEE disarmed most of the traps (though he must have missed one as he set one off while going after Daveorn). He was protected by magic and initially engaged Daveorn in melee but was planning to backstab as soon as Davaeorn ran out of mirrors - as it turned out that was enough as CorEE found Daveorn's true self even while the mirror images were up.
We flood the mine, go to FAI to sell, rest at Wyrm's Crossing and will venture into the great city of Baldur's Gate next session.
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core rules at all times
Restrictions: unless Jaheira gets chunked she is the only groupmate of CorEE
The party has made some progress in the big city:
* DEX tome went to CorEE - as a thief the DEX is quite helpful - Jaheira is using DEX gauntlets anyways
* Top floor of sorcerous sundries - some mages went hostile, however the duo were protected greenstone amulet charges to protect against horror - CorEE then went wild and did a few backstabs while poor Jaheira had to take all the punishment - it worked out in the end, lots of blue potions used by Jaheira though.
* Some thieves in a home battled - the crossbow thief did huge damage to CorEE, but the duo won the battle without casualty nevertheless
* Vaya and Deserta were also battled. In vanilla, Deserta moves forward and talks (which separates her from her mage ally). So in EE, instead she stays by her mage ally but never approaches to talks which meant Jaheira just used wand of heavens a few times to wipe out Deserta without Deserta so much as getting a swing in - I think vanilla approach is better here. Jaheira was protected from confusion via greenstone amulet - once drawn out, CorEE finished off Vaya with a huge backstab.
* Basilisk in warehouse killed - gauntlets returned to the lady in the warehouse next door also.
* Dopplegangers defeated at Seven Suns (easy). Scar asked us to do another task, investigate citizens disappearing - an ogre mage and his pets were found and killed.
We had bought the invis ring at Ulgoth's Beard for CorEE which cost a cool 15,000 gold - but already the party at end of session is back to 30,000 gold.
Last act of the session was to report to the dwarf who wanted the basilisk killed.
Will keep at it.
The party did so well, however, the one fight I was very uncertain about, because so many other no-reloaders had trouble this area, gave me trouble as well. I failed to save the dukes and thus got the scripted death.
Will re-roll some new BG 1 EE characters.
Traveling with:
Draman - dwarven berserker
Cierra - dwarven berserker
Lilly - dwarven Kensai
Rhianna - dwarven thief
Kivan - elven ranger
SETUP: BG 1 EE, Dragonspear, Core Rules at all times
Taking another stab at EE. This is a MP party, the idea being as hardy as I can to survive Dragonspear. While initially plan to be no-reload, even if I fail, will continue (just not in thread) until I beat Dragonspear. In essence this party will "scout" for me so that I can no-reload Dragonspear and EE in the future. So without further ado, here's CorEE II:
Here are his group mates:
The party is mostly around level 4. The main quests being complete are Nashkel Mines and the Bandit Camp. We actually took on the bandit at level 3 - we normally don't attempt it so low (and gulped a huge amount of blue potions), but Kivan was complaining so we took the camp out.
We have yet to go to the high experience areas such as Ankhegs, Sirines or Basilisks yet. Mostly getting upgrades for the crew.
A few incidents of note:
* Neira was rapidly defeated. Trying to cast hold person on our enraged berserkers didn't help her much.
* We had a scary moment when fighting Mulahey and his minions. Before dying, Mulahey managed to hold Lilly. She was under attack by two kobolds and a skeleton. Cierra and Draman were working on Mulahey still, so the rest of the party moved to assist. CorEE II engaged the attackers in melee and managed to hold both kobolds. Rest of the party helped best they could and CorEE also cast heal a few times on Lilly - she survives! A close one...
* We buffed heavily for Tazok's Tent, and the enemies were will rapidly defeated. Venkt did manage to get off horror, but since CorEE II did resist fear earlier, that didn't help. Poor Hakt had to face a powerful dwarven party all by himself at the end.
We did try Rhassad earlier, but we weren't impressed with him. He eventually got himself killed and then we didn't bother raising but instead put Kivan in his place. Kivan is much more helpful and useful.
Will keep at it.
They nevertheless cleared the building, making copious use of their wand stash, but things couldn't go on this way. Cromarty visited the temple of Helm where they'd met a Paladin who had mistakenly killed a child earlier. He sighed, and prayed, and cried a little... but Ajantis still stood there with a gaze like unsheathed steel. And when Cromarty asked him what could make things better he coughed and pointed at the Radiant Heart donation box. Cromarty took the hint, and stuffed it full of gold pieces and Ajantis lightened up a bit. But with Minsc now on double cockblocking duty as well a change had to come.
Cromarty left the city and decided to turn to those who already were in his debt, the rescued threesome of Xan, Yeslick, and Verr'sza. The Rakshasha was a dangerous customer, and sometimes wandered off to perform unspeakable deeds by himself, but Cromarty now more than ever felt that he had to tame his dark side or be consumed by it. Perhaps it did not hurt that he had visions of Verr cutting down magic wielding females...
Another part of this death wish- as Xan named it- was the clearing of the upper levels of Durlag's. The only real hitch came when Safana's potion ran out and the party risked further trouble by ambushing a basilisk. Then it was on to Candlekeep where they showed no mercy to the Iron Throne - having some trouble with darts of stunning in the process however- and then cleared the catacombs. The only trouble here was some of the more 'helpful' npcs constantly running about and pulling dangerous adversaries, but things went smoothly enough. Now the party enjoys a well earned rest, and I contemplate how far Cromarty would like to push into the death trap of Durlag's again before getting on with dealing with Sarevok. I am slightly pessimistic that my rig will deal well enough with SoD's mass combats for no-reload play if I get that far so may skip it.
Tag-1,
so far, so good,I’m giving my other sister a go this time... is it just me or are all his female children thieves?
Fights: Sarevok put up a solid defence this time and it cost half my party to tackle the bugger but Skie already cleared the important traps and I brung an extra monster summoning wand so the end result was never ending in any other outcome.
I am also currently in Dragonspear with my Drow Blackguard. Will post about how she got there when I have a spare hour or two.
Just remember that there is more than one way to kill a cat. You can send an eagle after it, choke it with cream. Poison it. That is, use your imagination and remember that most bad decisions are not fatal if you survive the individual battles. I have found tactics that you will already have learned are very appropriate in this game. Scout ahead with a thief or ranger etc. Web followed by cloudkill and fireballs works well, but mage needs Mirror Image. Barkskin or stoneskin is also helpful. You will understand why in time. Also remember that using high speed to escape a stronger enemy than you are can be a winning tactic and often is. Having dispell invisibility is also very helpful as the Dragonspear enemies use stealth VERY effectively.
Something you may not know is that reactions change depending upon who is in your party.
Tag-2,
A bridge too far,I’ve survived the undercity and managed to keep two of the three guards alive... it is much easier to loot the place after the lady boss has given up.
Fights: Skie cleared the trap and monster summons go against the lady then we all cast | shoot fire... the end.
Prof, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Myn, gnome illusionist (Gate70)
It seems like a long time since we generated these characters at the end of our last run, but they finally got underway yesterday.
After killing Shoal and passing through Beregost and Nashkel, Gate70 suggested going to find some basilisks. However, Prof would normally expect to melee there, but had taken scimitar as his main proficiency and didn't yet have an appropriate weapon, so:
- he suggested going to Durlag's Tower to get the +2 scimitar on the roof, but the battle horrors in the way were a significant obstacle, so:
- Myn led the way to the FAI, to pick up the Ring of Wizardry and a magic missile scroll from Tarnesh, but Myn failed to learn the latter, so:
- a trip to the Cloud Peaks, saw another scroll successfully obtained at the Gnoll Stronghold while Prof picked up a magic halberd on the way. As he was non-proficient in that though he wanted to improve his THAC0, so:
- set off to find Meilum, failing to get a benefit from saving Arabelle on the way (game getting confused as a result of the client killing some of the xvarts). Meilum was duly blinded and finished off and ...
- finally arriving at Durlag's Myn blinded the battle horrors and wore them down a bit before Prof finished them off with his halberd (attacking from out of sight range, so that his poor THAC0 was not an issue).
The basilisks on the roof had no answer to PfP and Prof was soon equipped with a decent weapon. That helped make short work of more basilisks - one of whom had a web scroll, which was bad news for Mutamin and then Kirian and her friends.
While doing some reputation tasks a bunch of sirines made little impression on Prof after he used a potion of clarity (though rage would have lasted long enough to kill them anyway). The golems got a couple of decent whacks in on him though and he had to be careful while shooting the last of them down.
With reputation up to 20 the duo headed to Ulgoth's Beard for some shopping, stopping off to put some ankhegs to sleep on the way. With equipment upgraded it was time to get cracking with the main quest and Mulahey soon became another web victim.
The final bit of action saw Nimbul and Tranzig fail to pose a challenge and the Bandit Camp will be next for the chop.
Prof, berserker 7, 80 HPs, 176 kills
Myn, illusionist 7, 35 HPs, 67 kills, 0 deaths
After that Sarevok and his cronies fell, though the battle took near on 90 minutes due to computer slowdown and tactical caution! I have begun to poke around SoD but am likely to skip on to BG2 if the battles are going to slow down this much. I shall just assume that Irenicus and the Shadow Thieves lost their patience!
Prof, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Myn, gnome illusionist (Gate70)
Previous updates
After picking up the pantaloons the duo waltzed through the Bandit Camp with the help of the odd sleep and a first malison + emotion combo for Taurgosz.
In the Cloakwood invisibility ensured traps were no danger. Prof wasn't interested in Spider's Bane so they moved on quickly to the mine. Drasus there eventually escaped from a web and raced towards Prof with weapon raised - but was cut down by magic missiles before he could get there.
The Cloakwood Mine didn't take long. The duo moved straight down to Davaeorn, with the only slight problem when Myn was getting pushed around by a roomful of guards and had to do a bit of dancing around before finding space to put them to sleep.
In the City, Myn updated his spell selection before being fitted for some new boots.
At that point Prof decided he wanted to upgrade his scimitar and led the way to find Drizzt. Prof fired some 70 magic arrows of various sorts at him and Myn tried his luck with a number of spells and numerous MMMs - the net result of that lot being a single hit on Drizzt before giving up the assault.
Back in Baldur's Gate Prof sought out the Cloak of Balduran and Ramazith's ring. The XP from that, including all Degrodel's guards, was enough to get Prof his final level. A few more little tasks were then enough to allow Myn to cast level 5 spells.
Aster seeking out Drizzt again - this time with a supply of helpful potions - the duo started off with some missile attacks. Taking a potion or 2 encouraged Drizzt to try a dispel magic, but a successful shot made the spell fail and Prof finished his drinking before topping that off with improved invisibility and rage. A melee assault then demonstrated that Drizzt can be beaten in (fairish) combat.
After making some donations at the temple, a few quick tasks pushed reputation back to 20 before tackling the Iron Throne. 3 of the 4 casters were blinded there and web, stinking cloud and cloudkill made a mess of the others.
At Candlekeep the Gate Guard took a valuable book from Prof, but refused to then open the gate. Not to be deterred the gnome and dwarf used ctrl+j to quickly find a hole in the wall to crawl through. The tombs were looted before a mis-click on the conversation with the dopplegangers meant a number of them had to be tackled at once. Myn then sneaked past Prat and blinded Sakul before putting down a web. Prof used his new ring of free action to take full advantage of that and Prat's situation was already hopeless before Myn tried casting a belated Emotion.
The final few moments of the session saw Prof equipped with a couple of fully-charged Necklaces for potential use in SoD.
Prof, berserker 8, 93 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 298 kills
Myn, illusionist 9, 44 HPs, 108 kills, 0 deaths
Prof, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Myn, gnome illusionist (Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/882933/#Comment_882933
The session started by going in search of Slythe - he was hit by a dispelling arrow as he rushed up to try and talk to Prof.
At the palace Prof slowed down the dopplegangers attacking the dukes using dispelling arrows. Myn's summons, MMMs and MMs then finished them off pretty quickly. The final one was shown as only slightly injured and Prof attacked it in melee, intending to switch to ranged after one attack in order to drag Belt away to safety before his conversation. However, a 52 damage critical meant Sarevok was activated immediately - fortunately though he only attacked Prof so Belt remained safe.
The maze posed no problems and the Undercity party lasted only moments after being webbed, cloudkilled and hit by detonating arrows.
In the temple Sarevok avoided a dispelling arrow fired from distance and rushed out to support the teleporting Semaj. The mage lasted longer than expected in a web/stinking cloud/cloudkill/malison confection, but a couple of dispelling arrows and continuing poison damage eventually proved too much for him.
In the SoD starting dungeon Porios was convinced to surrender. Fireballs whittled down most of the undead to allow easy progress through to Korlasz. She talked a good fight, but actually surrendered within a second - a dispelling arrow followed by a fireball hurting her badly.
In the City, Prof sold items from his bags to raise funds before leaving - that cash allowed the purchase of a bag of holding in the first camp. Prof led the way to find Tsolak the vampire to try and get some useful headgear for Myn. He had no luck hitting the vampire hunters though and it was only Myn's magic missiles that just managed to save Tsolak.
Moving on to the bridge, the duo tried to finish off the casters before Caelar intervened. Two of those went down and the last was at near death, but Myn stayed still a moment too long in trying to finish that one off and suffered his first death.
Prof, berserker 8, 93 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 341 kills
Myn, illusionist 9, 44 HPs, 155 kills, 1 death
Prof, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Myn, gnome illusionist (Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/882933/#Comment_882933
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/883872/#Comment_883872
Today's session saw the duo making good progress in SoD. The action started (or not) with bypassing all encounters in Troll Claw Woods. A few myconids encountered on the way to the next area were still enough though to get Prof up to level 9 and Myn also got another level shortly afterwards.
Moving on to the Temple we decided to tackle the dragon head on. Prof used DUHM and rage, while Myn added in haste and improved invisibility. With the help of a dispelling arrow to eliminate stoneskins that resulted in a comfortable victory.
In the next area Myn was grateful for her stoneskins when hit by a critical backstab by a bugbear stalker. With various sets of guards eliminated the next main target was Ziatar. She was under severe pressure, but managed to cast sanctuary to give herself a breathing space - or not ...
Prof raged to ensure the Neothelid wouldn't get any free hits on him and some summons helped conclude the battle very quickly.
Initially Akanna was told she was free to go. However, as Boareskyr Bridge had not yet been visited, she didn't realise we wanted her wardstone - so that had to be forcibly removed before moving on.
At Boareskyr, Jegg made a shield from the dragon scales and we also got him to produce a quiver of void arrows before surrendering to the Barghest to avoid a battle. It was still necessary to kill the mage before he destroyed the bridge, but a dispelling arrow helped do that easily enough.
Dead Man's Pass was passed without incident, but we did have a fight with a Shadowy Figure on the way to the next area. Spells don't function there, but Prof could still rage and was able to take down the Figure's allies while only getting one backstab in return. Rather than stick around and risk punishment itself though the Figure ran away (next time we might try fire protection and a series of fireballs to see if we can kill it).
After a few tasks at Bloodbark Grove, including a visit to a vampire's lair where Myn got her final SoD level,
Prof, berserker 9, 105 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 531 kills
Myn, illusionist 11, 51 HPs, 301 kills, 1 death
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/879185/#Comment_879185
After a couple of weeks break the Trio were back tearing their way through the Sword Coast today.
The session started with Coreranger keen to seek out some easy XP - that led to the sirines in Shoal's area who couldn't do much against Babar's rage. Then Coreranger wanted to upgrade his magic flail to a morningstar - so sought out Molkar's party in Gullykin and threw in a couple of fiery potions to warm them up. He fell victim to a rigid thinking, but it was still an easy victory.
With the prologue completed it was back to the main story in the Cloakwood. The run nearly ended there when Babar got tired of playing it safe and hiding behind Coreranger while killing ettercaps. For the last of the group surrounded by web traps he attacked directly - and was poisoned. The poison ticks quite rapidly so his chances of curing himself with his Bhaal ability were not great - but he tried anyway. After failing that there probably wasn't time to take an antidote (even if he'd been prepared to do so), but a last-ditch rest proved successful
Moving on to the Mine, Coreranger took a magic blocking potion and assaulted the mages accompanying Drasus. Babar raged in support while Meffal provided ranged back-up. That proved sufficient to deal with the mages pretty quickly and the fighters didn't do too much damage thereafter - helped by Meffal stunning Drasus.
There wasn't much combat on the way down to Davaeorn, where Coreranger successfully dragged the battle horrors back individually. He then used another magic blocking potion to attack Davaeorn. The mage's lightning bolt bounced here there and (almost) everywhere, but Babar somehow managed to dodge it before going to help with the last rites.
After looting the place and flooding the mine the Trio went to sell surplus equipment. Meffal had realised while fighting the mustard jelly guarding Davaeorn's treasure that he was using a sub-standard longsword and suggested revisiting the Nashkel Mine. Greywolf was indeed there and was surprised, nay stunned, to see the Trio finally turning up.
A glance at the map then showed that the area north of the FAI had not yet been visited. Plenty of ankhegs later the Trio moved on with the intention of returning a bowl to Tenya. Gate70 knows that my nefarious plan tends to be to give Tenya the bowl before killing her while she's trying to teleport away. As a result Meffal watched as Babar had a conversation with Tenya and then attacked, stunned and killed the cleric when Babar spoke to her again. Unfortunately Babar had chosen the wrong conversation option the first time around, so we missed out on a reward there
Moving into the City the first quest undertaken was a poisonous one. To my surprise, Lothander was unable to find a way out through the Trio and was hacked down to give a movement upgrade to Babar.
Balduran's Helm was an obvious target and was grabbed with no hassle. Balduran's Cloak was also desirable and came with the side benefit of getting plenty of XP for luring Degrodel's guards outside the house one or two at a time. The mage himself was also hacked down before Babar rather meanly used stone to flesh scrolls on all the statues before shooting them down. Babar's main proficiency is axes, so he was prepared for a hard fight to get Gretek's +2 axe. However, the fight was much easier than expected when only Gretek initially went hostile.
Babar, barbarian L7, 85 HPs, 193 kills
Coreranger, ranger L7, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 175 kills, 0 deaths
Meffal, monk L7, 51 HPs, 78 kills, 1 death
After a superb run of high HPs for early levels the dice have turned firmly against all of us with Babar now just below average HPs and the others only just above.
Prof, dwarf berserker (Grond0) & Myn, gnome illusionist (Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/882933/#Comment_882933
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/883872/#Comment_883872
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884262/#Comment_884262
Pushing on in SoD the duo placed some Bwoosh and poisoned food and water in the castle before making a run for it.
Back in the Coalition Camp arrows of detonation were helpful to beat back some crusader waves. Grimgor was the latest enemy to try using sanctuary to stave off death, but as he showed no sign of moving this time fireballs were not used and we just waited until he could be attacked normally.
Prof had got his final SoD level during that encounter. I've never had a character in the EE which has got a full set of hit dice and ended up with fewer than the notional average HPs - but Prof came close with only 1 more than average.
Rather than fight a major battle with the potential of losing track of threats, Prof challenged Ashatiel to individual combat. Rage allowed a successful melee combat there, though with the addition of a dispelling arrow to get rid of stoneskins. However, there was a sterner fight after that when Chloe's ability to hide in plain sight allowed her to get a couple of backstabs on Prof - resulting in quite a bit of retreating to get coalition forces to help out.
Inside the castle, Belegarm provided some fresh potion supplies before moving on to face some demons. There was an immediate problem there when Prof relied on improved invisibility to buff his saves, but that was immediately dispelled and Prof dominated. Myn did a good job there to lead him away and kill the following demons before using a potion to disappear.
A bit further on Prof went for a quick kill on Thrix, but didn't really manage it. By the time he did get the kill
The duo buffed up while taking a ride on an elevator, but that cunning plan was disrupted when Gate70 dropped from the game and found all Myn's buffs had disappeared on reconnecting. Pushing on regardless though, the final fight with Belhifet was triggered. Initially Hephernaan was targeted, but by the time he went down Caelar was also dead.
By this stage Belhifet was pretty low on HPs and Prof would have tried to finish him off - except that the demon was outside the range of his scimitar
A potion of regeneration boosted health while running round before Prof renewed his buffs and went back into melee with Belhifet - and this time the big fella went down.
I expected the game to end quickly after that (in the same manner as with Sarevok), but there was still a significant amount of content. That caused a major problem when we had a MP crash on one of the transitions - and I hadn't saved the game after beating Belhifet
Prof, berserker 10, 108 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 28 kills (+624 in BG1)
Myn, illusionist 11, 51 HPs, 30 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)