Burning my bridges, I survived pocking my nose into the dwarfs cave by sending in some peons to distract the undead... the goblin was tempting but I already have a drow sorcerer.
Fights: Bridge = cleared the traps and start invisible gives me time to go against the gate then we all cast | shoot fire... the end.
My Vernia the Vile (Female Blackguard) run came to a sticky end underneath Dragonspear Castle.
Everything was so different compared with my last run. I didn't realise how different the endings can be. I'm saying no more on that as it would spoil things for others.
I had reached Hephernaan, and now know better what to do in future. A very enjoyable run.
I have started another run with a Heartwarder of Sune. I thought this run had come to an end fighting a solitary sirene after resting. Started with almost full health and was both confused and feebleminded with the result that over a period of several minutes health points were inexorably reduced from over 50 to 4 one point at a time! Then the spell wore off. Immediately I healed her and fled. Tried resting but was again attacked. Fled to the carnival and everything now hunky dory. If I had had an ally, any ally with ranged weapons there would have been no problem as I had such a good constitution. Must memorise that info! Will post more info later.
My Heartwarder of Sune is Sarita the Sunite. She is an Aasimar (Sub-race mod) All stats 18 except Wisdom 19, Charisma 10. The stats are great as Heartwardens of Sune can boost Charisma to 20 once/day.
AASIMAR: Aasimar carry the blood of a celestial being, the begotten offspring from the union of a mortal and a deity. Aasimar are usually good aligned and fight against evil in the world. They typically have fair skin, golden eyes, and often a birthmark in the shape of the deity’s holy symbol. Aasimar are blessed with insight and personal magnetism and are typically paladins. - ADVANTAGES: +1 to Wisdom, + 1 Charisma, Infravision, Sunfire 1/day, and +25% to Acid, Cold, and Electrical Resistances. - DISADVANTAGES: -10% experience modifier.
SILVERSTAR OF SELÛNE: Selûne (pronounced: seh-loon-ay), Our Lady of Silver, is the goddess of the moon, the stars, and those who use them to navigate. Her eternal foe is the evil Shar, goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness. Selûne is often called the Moonmaiden for her connection to the silver moon that orbits Faerun. She is the goddess of the moon and travelers. Selûne's home plane is The Gates of the Moon with her home a shining hall of silver called Argentil.
Non-evil lycanthropes honor Selûne as the master of their fate as do astrologers and fortune tellers. Selûne is also growing popular among alewives, laundresses, seamstresses and servants with the message of female empowerment. She is also worshiped by female spellcasters, navigators and sailors.
Selûne's clerics, called Silverstars of Selûne, are dedicated advocates of freedom and tolerance, wanderers on the path of truth and absolute foes of Shar. They seek to build harmony among lycanthropes and non-shapechangers, and they protect the weak and the oppressed everywhere. They cannot abide slavery, and they hate most undead. They rarely settle in one place for long, instead moving along when seized by wanderlust or enticed by a new cause or mission. They deal with lunar energies and phenomena and are, to a limited degree, able to wield the power of the moon, bringing its fierce, pure white light to Toril to advance the goddess's wishes.
Advantages: – May cast Free Action once per day every 5 levels (starts at 1st level with one use). – May cast Moon Shield once per day every 10 levels (starts at 1st level with one use), as detailed below.
MOON SHIELD: Upon casting this spell, the Silverstar receives a resistance to all magic. The resistance conferred is 2% per level of the cleric up to a maximum of 40% at 20th level. This resistance is set so if the target already has more magic resistance than the cleric would confer, it will actually lower it to the set value. This effect will last for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.
Disadvantages: – Alignment restricted to chaotic good, neutral good, and chaotic neutral.
Sirene and Gavin were found at the temple of Lathander near Beregost.
Sirene is a Paladin of Ilmater and Gavin the well-known Cleric of Lathander. Sadly I don't think that he is available in SoD. If I am wrong, please could somebody let me know.
The party has defeated Bassilus and Zargal and are wandering through unexplored areas of the sword coast as they await further instructions from the temple. Areas cleared include the ankheg swarm north of the FAI. Sarita and Gavin are curently level 6 clerics and Sarita a level 5 paladin. I am currently intending picking up Minsc and Dynaheir as well as Vyn the drow thief.
Sarita and friends killed quite a lot of bandits and also aquired the gauntlets and tome at the gnoll stronghold whilst waiting for the summons from the Temple. They killed all the bad guys in the basilisk area, got the reward and then went shopping. Sirene's belt now gives her a strength of 22. However she is now poor again. She picked up Vynd the drow assassin and now feels that the party may be strong enough to deal with the demons in the Nashkel mines. Everyone except Sirene are at level 7. She is at level 6. She intends picking up Jaheira and Khalid before going to the mines. She really wanted to recharge the necklace of missiles, but more gold is required for that. Reputation is now 20.
EDIT 1: Khalid and Jaheira dropped off at Nashkel. (I picked them up as I didn't want them disappearing as I may want them again particularly in SoD.) Sarita defeated the Dark Side Assassins with not too much difficulty. However the party are now low on health and there is only one charge left in the necklace of missiles. They will have to sell some of the loot to recharge it and recover somewhat.
EDIT 2
Upon leaving the mines, they rested in order to recover their health only to be attacked by two winter wolves. The wolves died. The pelts were sold, but still not enough to recharge the necklace of missiles. Then they were summoned to the temple of Lathander. They were given one last job to do. Fortunately they had enough gold to pay the locksmith for a key as even when his locking ability was 90, Vynd was unable to pick the lock. They then killed Bertram et al before taking a well deserved rest in preparation for the confrontation with Lady Valeria. Having done so, she was easily dealt with and the party went to the carnival to get the necklace of missiles. Gavin continually makes moves on Sarita with the result that she stops flirting with others.
Back in the mine now, but now going out with the Street Angels so that's it for today.
Just back from Street Angels. Did get 6 hours shuteye before being needed for Armed Forces day marshalling.
A smooth session today started with finishing a few tasks in Baldur's Gate - the last of those saw a first use of detonation arrows to help sort out the Iron Throne.
In Candlekeep, unmasking Shistal the doppleganger was the only slight delay on the way to the tombs. Babar used DUHM and rage to break open the tombs, with a couple of rests enabling him to recover from trap damage. Coreranger had racial memories showing bad experiences with lightning bolts from Prat and insisted on using a scroll of PFM, but Prat's party all expired in detonation blasts and he failed to complete any spells himself.
Back in the City Slythe was dispelled and beaten up. It was agreed that we would just leave after killing him, but that was done a bit slowly, allowing Krystin the chance to follow and throw a cloudkill at Coreranger - but he just beat it to the inn door, causing the magic to dissipate harmlessly and everyone was away and clear before Krystin was ready to try again.
At the palace the hard-hitting trio potioned up for some extra oomph. Rather than bother with dispelling arrows though they just smacked the dopplegangers down - Liia still died, but Belt survived comfortably.
The buffs from the palace made progress through the enemies in the maze easy. The Undercity party were then flanked and didn't survive a detonation assault from their rear. In the temple Babar sniped at Sarevok from range to pull him out on his own. After buffing up with a few potions, DUHM and rage he then decided to go for some extra style points with a melee kill rather than relying on ranged damage. Sarevok got a few lusty blows of his own in, but couldn't do quite enough damage to make Babar retreat before he eventually keeled over.
After reporting back to Duke Belt the trio were dispatched to Athkatla and were soon fighting through Jon's dungeon. They were a bit below the XP cap in BG1 and Coreranger only got to level 8 by beating up the Cambion.
There have been no problems with further progress and it shouldn't take long to complete their escape in the next session.
After the hard work required to get through SoD, Prof and Myn had an easier time in this session. The dungeon offered no threats and the clean-up there was completed by claiming Ulvaryl's scalp.
Moving quickly on they restored the Circus.
There was a first slight hiccup at the Copper Coronet when Myn unintentially caught Prof in a fireball blast (that's unusual - normally it's intentional ). With HPs suddenly dangerously low he had to retreat quickly while Myn threw a MMM to finish off the beastmaster.
A couple of Bhaal CLWs got him enough HPs back though to complete the pacification of the Copper Coronet.
Myn was having fun with cloudkills at this stage and some invisible travel allowed him to use one of those on Suna Seni.
That was done on the way to Watcher's Keep, where the initial target was the potion case. There were no vampiric wraiths on guard though, so the duo worked through the other occupants of the top level. The statues might have been left if Prof didn't have grandmastery in scimitars - that made Usuno's Blade a top target (the +3 longbow being a bonus prize). Meleeing the first 2 statues proved a bit more difficult than expected, so Myn tried to drag a statue into a pair of cloudkills. He eventually succeeded in doing so and managed to go invisible
- but the time taken to do that meant the cloudkill dissipated a second or so later and ranged attacks had to be used to finish it off. For the other statues Myn produced a pair of air elementals to help with the tanking and those lasted long enough that Prof only needed a single shot to kill the final statue after being forced to retreat.
Back in Athkatla, a visit to the Docks produced some armor from Officer Dirth to enhance Prof's tanking abilities. Prebek and Sanasha are poor at dealing with both improved invisibility and cloudkill and died with more of a whimper than a bang - allowing the harpers to be robbed of a few goodies. Mae'Var's tasks followed, with Rayic Gethras being another unsure what to do about improved invisibility (at least after an attempted true sight was interrupted ...).
The thieves then proved woefully inadequate to protect Mae'Var from receiving his just desserts.
To let Myn spread his wings a bit more the Cowled Wizards were given a brown envelope containing 5,000 gold (big envelope), before Gaelan Bayle also got a pay-off to provide Myn with an equipment upgrade. He was looking greedily at what else was available, but disinclined to pay high prices - so suggested doing some reputation quests. The slaver ship provided a couple of easy boosts and Neb lost his head
to give another. The Rune Assassins have proved dangerous against us on quite a few occasions - but not this one.
More quick reputation gains are on offer at Trademeet, so the duo travelled there. They met 2 ambushes on the way though and lightning bolts during those gave Myn a slight scare for pretty much the only time in the session.
On arrival, Myn's PfP spell just got a rare outing to ensure that the djinnis would claim no victims.
Prof, berserker 13, 117 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 180 kills (+624 in BG1) Myn, illusionist 13, 53 HPs, 103 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)
The other day I've started a solo no reload sorcerer again after years away from BG.
And though the Bioware forums appear to have disappeared, I'm amazed to see that some of the players whose journeys I followed (without ever being an active participant in the no reload community) so many. many years ago arestill active, even if Alesia, whose sorcerer playthroughs I most vividly remember, seems to have gone
Alesia's been doing a lot of travelling in recent years, but has popped up on the Forums a few times and with luck will do so again in the future . Why not post progress with your sorcerer run @FleshIsADesignFlaw given you're intending to do no reload anyway?
Alesia is still around. She's just not able to post much at the moment due to her current lifestyle. I think that she may be back later this year, but could be wrong on that one. EDIT @Grond0 Got there ahead of me.
I have just realised that I didn't install some mods such as the level 1 NPC mod before starting the current run. I think that I will install it and start again before I get too far. While I'm about it, I'll check for any other new mods that look interesting. EDIT Scrub that. Just read that though it is compatible with EE, it is not yet with SoD. However I am wondering if that is because it just doesn't change things in SoD though it works fine in ToSC. I wish web sites were a bit more specific when they say that a mod is incompatible by saying HOW they are incompatible.
For the information of anyone interested, Level 1 NPCs will not install in a SoD installation.
There were no particular problems working through the Druid Grove until the duo came to the fungi near Cernd. Prof made the mistake of giving the berserker from the horn an outing there - I wasn't surprised when Cernd cast a spell at that as he does that to summons quite regularly, but I was surprised when Cernd chased the berserker into a cloudkill.
That turned him hostile and he refused to have his normal conversation even when charmed. He also refused to follow into Faldorn's area either by means of casting a spell on someone transitioning or force-attacking.
Eventually giving up, we reluctantly went to find Jaheira - breaking our normal rule of no NPCs. On getting back though we found that Cernd was waiting for us and no longer hostile. Two possibilities occur to me there: 1) He's a jealous sort and couldn't bear to see another druid get his job . 2) He was charmed when we left the area and MP effects converted that into a permanent effect (a bit like summons initially produced by the client become permanent and under the control of the protagonist when you leave an area before the summons disappear).
After Faldorn had provided a light snack for Cernd, a couple more tasks in Trademeet helped boost reputation up to 18. Myn could also not resist in intervening in a philosophical argument and conclusively proved that a chromatic orb is mightier than a sword.
Back in Athkatla the duo got around to reporting some good news to Lt Aegisfield before Myn's malison + emotion showed why a group of fighters was called the Fallen Paladins.
With prices at low, low levels some shopping followed - picking up for instance Vecna, Vhaillor's Helm, the Shield of Balduran and lots of nice new spells for Myn.
In the mood for enhancing equipment further a couple of PfU scrolls and oils of speed were invested to relieve the City from the threat of liches.
There was also an amusing moment on the way to the first lich when we decided to get rid of Tarnor's gang. Myn had put his newly learnt improved haste spell to good use and with Prof attacking at 10 APR it was no surprise that Gaius died before his buffs could fire.
The speed with which the others went down was a bit shocking though and Myn's follow-up emotion spell only just got there in time to prevent Tarnor from experiencing the moment of his death.
We also spent a few moments finishing Mekrath off and feeling that it was slightly unfair that he was only guarded by umber hulks (our characters, despite being insanely powerful, were still well under 2m XP).
Immediately after dealing with Kangaxx we went to witness Mook's fate before stumbling across our first vampire ambush (obviously not been spending much time travelling at night, though that's not been deliberate).
Then it was back to the Temple Sewers to undertake the Unseeing Eye quest. Prof decided there that he should be able to rage and deal with a few beholders - which he did, though not entirely comfortably and he reflected that perhaps he should be digging Balduran's Shield out of his pack.
That was duly done for the beholder nest after sorting out the Greater Mummy leading a pack of undead on the way. The beholders didn't last long against Prof, but still managed to provide a bit of entertainment with their habit of shooting rays at Myn - irrespective of where he was or how many walls were in the way. In this screenshot Myn was already paralysed near the top of the area, but still had to save against a ray from the gauth guarding the rift device part.
Eventually he recovered his senses though and was able to watch as the Eye closed for the last time.
Looking to speed things up a bit the duo went next to the Planar Prison to get some new boots - an improved hasted entrance there making that fight simple.
Myn was also keen to pick up the death spell there in order to improve his own speedy killing ability to match his partner's, but was disappointed when reminded of the inability of illusionists to learn necromantic spells . It didn't take long though to work round the area and settle accounts with the warden.
He was also guarded only by umber hulks, though the duo did breach the 2m XP mark as they left the prison. Gate70 remarked that it felt more like the characters were at the 3m mark and I agree with that.
The session concluded with doing a bit more work for Aran Linvail and the vampires will be under assault next time. While on the way there Myn was able to claim some headgear for himself.
Given how powerful the characters are already, the next move after the vampires will be to take ship for Spellhold and get some speedy boots for Myn as well.
Prof, berserker 16, 126 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 374 kills (+624 in BG1) Myn, illusionist 15, 60 HPs (incl. 5 from ioun stone), 187 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)
My run has come to an end. I sent Sirene to fight the dragon in the spider area because she had 100% fire resistance. The dragon however sought out Sarita and burned her. Despite all my efforts I was unable to save her. Am thinking that in future the PC will need invisibility. I had also forgotten to collect the ring of fire resistance. DUH!
Following the demise of Sarita the Sunite I am starting another run using an old fighter roll. Details below. The extra wisdom comes from being an Aasimar.
From Sub-race Read-me: AASIMAR: Aasimar carry the blood of a celestial being, the begotten offspring from the union of a mortal and a deity. Aasimar are usually good aligned and fight against evil in the world. They typically have fair skin, golden eyes, and often a birthmark in the shape of the deity’s holy symbol. Aasimar are blessed with insight and personal magnetism and are typically paladins. - ADVANTAGES: +1 to Wisdom, + 1 Charisma, Infravision, Sunfire 1/day, and +25% to Acid, Cold, and Electrical Resistances. - DISADVANTAGES: -10% experience modifier.
The extra wisdom will be useful after dualling to a cleric. (I don't know which deity yet)
@Wise_Grimwald I'm not sure why you said hard luck, as my run of 5 dwarves and Kivan is still going strong. But thanks?!
I only realised afterwards that I had been looking at an old post which is why I edited it out. At least I spotted my mistake before you posted. Best of luck as you continue.
The name Maredud Margred means Magnificent Pearl. Maredud was a Welsh King
Journal of Maredud Margred
I was most disappointed that because of my lack of charisma, I was unable to become a paladin. Gorion suggested that I become a cleric, but at that stage in my life I still hadn't decided which deity to follow, so he suggested that I train as a warrior and switch to becoming a cleric when I knew better which cleric I favoured (Or who favoured me). Of course I could dual to either a mage or a thief, but neither of those options attract me.
I got as far as the FAI and have wiped out the hobgoblins before heading northward where I killed a zombie who was pestering his widow.
I agreed to help Sonner, but upon learning his deceit, I killed him. A side-benefit is that I now own an unbreakable flail.
South of the FAI I then killed an ogre with a belt fetish before killing three gnolls with a crossbow at High Hedge despite having no skill with that weapon.
I then headed southwards towards Nashkel killing a wolf that was attacking a chicken and more hobgoblins in the process. At the carnival I gained the ability to cure light wounds.
Albert now wants me to find his doggie called Rufie. Let's hope that I come across him.
I came across a dryad also needing help. I killed both Krumm and Caldo, but almost died myself. A bit of help from the dryad would not have gone amiss! I then rested in order to recuperate. It took a full day! Nearby I killed three dire wolves and a xvart before heading for the carnival for some well-deserved R&R. This included relaxing Bardolan before getting passionate with him. We both felt much more relaxed afterwards.
As I investigated a forest, I was attacked by Corsonne. He died and I became a level 3 fighter. I am now considering whether I should dual to a cleric in the near future. It seems to me that the possibilities are: Silverstar of Selûne, Battleguard of Tempus, Firewalker of Kossuth, Lorekeeper of Oghma, Heartwarder of Sune, or Priest of Lathander.
In the end I decided to become a Heartwarder of Sune and took proficiencies in sling and dual-wielding.
After speaking to Tenya I reached level 2 and shortly afterwards told Leila that her undead husband had been killed.
At the FAI I returned Joia's ring and in Beregost I returned the necklace belonging to his deceased family. At that I reached level 3 and became quite popular.
I then helped Melicamp get back into shape, and what a shape! We spent a very pleasant time in amorous embraces. He is quite a good kisser!
Heading back south I was able to find Rufie for his owner, I told the dryad that I had killed Caldo and Krumm, and I returned Drienne's cat thus reaching level 4 and becoming a hero just as I have always wanted.
South of Nashkel I then killed zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. I needed to recuperate at the carnival after weach fight as they were both tough. To kill Greywolf I had to flee, rest, and start again. In the meantime he too had recuperated, but the second time round I fought just a little better. It was enough. Reputation now 18. I then met Noober and due to my patience gained yet more experience.
I joined up with Xzar and Montaron, left Xzar in Beregost whilst Montaron picked up a few things in Beregost and Ulgoth's Beard. I then left Montaron in Beregost and picked up Drake, a Cleric of Tyr who insisted that we deal with Bassilus. That proved fairly easy. We then accidentally encountered Zargal et al. Because we were already buffed, that encounter ended well also.
When last I left off Cromarty's tale he and his fellows were just poking around the realm of a dwarven lich. He and his band slew the foul creature and flung its phylactery into eternal fire, before moving on to a forest where they slew a vampire. Unfortunately the vampire had charmed Minsc into attacking some vampire hunters too, so there was some extra bloodshed there... We cleared the Trollclaw forest and another troll area, before moving on to Boareskyr Bridge and the Forest of Wyrms. The temple was done without a hitch, though the dragon waking up the very second we came through the door gave us a nasty start, possibly it had been wakened by our pre-buffing. I generally erred on the side of caution using scrolls of protection from poison and then chaotic commands to ensure that Cromarty was in little danger. We also made use of our extensive stock of wands to summon hordes of allies where necessary, which helped us to deal with the psionic threat without suffering any casualties.
My computer did how ever slow to a crawl at points... Returning to the Bridge we dealt with the fort quests and are now on the verge of undertaking the first set-piece battle. This fills me with foreboding...primarily on the hardware side of things as if the battle runs like treacle I have already decided to skip on to SoA. Otherwise the party have been performing alright and should be able to deal with most threats if our resources remain well stocked....
The Gnoll citadel brought the game to a sticky end. The improvements to the bosses there certainly made it challenging. A short but enjoyable game. I have started playing on hard rather than core nowadays. It makes a difference!
Gavin the Aasimar Cleric of Lathander
I have just started a new game with an Aasimar Cleric of Lathander called Gavin who is a bit more powerful than the mod Gavin having rolled 95.
Journal of Gavin the Aasimar Cleric of Lathander
After the death of Gorion I fled towards Candlekeep but was unable to gain access. I returned to the site of the ambush and found some useful articles.
I headed towards the FAI where I cleared the area of hobgoblins.
North of there I killed the zombie husband of a widow who pleaded for my help.
I agreed to help Sonner, but when I discovered his duplicity I killed him and told Tenya thus reaching level 3.
EDIT
Gavin made a mistake at the FAI. He took on Tarnesh! He had cast Remove Fear which was quite important. However when both he and Tarnesh were almost dead, Tarnesh was the one with the killer blow. Almost winning is not good enough in no-reloads.
I am now starting another run of Maredud Margred the character that I posted on June 28th. Playing on Hard.
Journal of Maredud Margred
I was most disappointed that because of my lack of charisma, I was unable to become a paladin. Gorion suggested that I become a cleric, but at that stage in my life I still hadn't decided which deity to follow, so he suggested that I train as a warrior and switch to becoming a cleric when I knew better which cleric I favoured (Or who favoured me). Of course I could dual to either a mage or a thief, but neither of those options attract me.
I have begun playing @sarevok57's new Icewind Dale mod and decided to try tackling it no-reload. This is a blind playthrough, and I will be playing on Insane difficulty so I can fight all of the mod's new enemies. Bonus XP and damage are both disabled.
My party makeup is actually very similar to my previous IWD no-reload, though not by design. First off is Frisk, our cleric/illusionist, because I adore Frisk and cleric/illusionists.
Chara is next, a necessary part of any party run involving Frisk. They'll be our primary tank.
Notice the abnormally low Constitution. Chara will be dual-classing to druid, which requires really high stat totals. I would have made them a Berserker, but the IWD Mega Mod's alignment tweaks make it impossible for Berserkers to dual into druids.
Wherever Frisk and Chara go, Asriel must follow. He is too much of an adorable fuzzball for us to leave behind. Here he is, sleepily chewing on one of his long, floppy ears.
Sorcerers are great in IWD because mage scrolls are so incredibly scarce. Only one mage or bard is truly necessary, but I wanted to have two. Hence Mollyboo, a new face.
The portrait comes from a picture of Star Butterfly, who has a spectacular character design.
Next up is Carl, since I created a voice set for him from the Youtube series Llamas with Hats, and I love his voice.
Bounty Hunters are game-breaking in certain parts of IWD for reasons that will quickly become apparent.
Finally, we have Snowy Tae, an old face who is normally a cleric of some sort in my games. But Archers are so much more practical in IWD.
Notice that she is a halfling ranger. I don't remember if the mega mod allows this or I just tweaked it myself, but it'll give her some saving throw bonuses (nerfed by the mega mod) at the cost of 1 STR.
Easthaven can be dangerous for low-level parties, but that's what Carl is for.
Normal traps do 2d8+5 damage; a Bounty Hunter's Special Snares do 3d8+5 damage and can be thrown from a distance. It's enough to wipe out almost anything in Easthaven, as long as you keep your Bounty Hunter out of range.
Then I see something surprising.
A spellcaster in our first fight? This could get ugly. Against the odds, Chara makes a saving throw against Hold Person, and Snowy Tae, with her superior saves and high APR with a longbow, hurries out to slay the Goblin Shaman. But the shaman has more HP than I expected, and Snowy Tae's saving throws are far from ironclad.
We hurry over to save Snowy Tae, but without our Archer, our ranged power isn't great. The shaman fries Snowy Tae with two Sunscorch spells.
But it seems the shaman is low on ammo, and resorts to melee combat. With a few arrows, darts, and Chromatic Orbs, we manage to weaken him enough for Chara to cut him down.
Raising Snowy Tae bankrupts the party, but we're back in business. The moment we enter the orc caves, we find another surprise: a sorcerer. But we're better prepared than we were before, because Frisk memorized Command.
Even so, the sorcerer is high enough level to survive the attack and cast Mirror Image. Mercifully, the sorcerer casts Grease instead of Sleep, and though it knocks out Snowy Tae, she's at a safe distance from the other orcs.
The rest of the orc bands are less complicated for one simple reason: we can catch them by surprise. This means Carl can now set traps! Carl carries the party through the whole area.
Kuldahar Valley is the greater challenge. The problem here is that we can't rest without a very high chance of spawning a bunch of goblins on us, which means Carl only gets so many traps before we need to make our escape to Kuldahar. We play it cautious, but there's another Goblin Shaman about, and Chara's poor saving throws come into play.
We rush in to distract the enemy, hoping to save Chara's life, and Snowy Tae manages to survive the next Hold Person spell before we bring down the shaman. Frisk runs away when a Goblin Marshal moves in for the kill (Frisk has poor AC due to the lack of armor), only to find a goblin archer waiting for them.
This area is really dangerous, so I decide to use one of our only potions to keep Frisk afloat. But it seems there was another goblin archer just behind the first one, and both of them land a hit.
We make it out with Chara still intact, but we're out of potions, Frisk is dead, and Mollyboo is close to death. We sneak out way east and Carl uses his only Special Snare to wipe out a crowd of goblins. But it's not enough--there's still another crowd, and we have to pass them if we're going to make it to Kuldahar.
Snowy Tae sneaks ahead to pick off a few extra goblins near the edge, but she and Carl are the only two party members who can use stealth. The others will have to run. Rather than fight off the crowd near the edge of the map, we just run past them. We make it!
The sight of Kuldahar's bigass oak tree fills us with determination.
Today's session commenced by finishing off the escape from Jon's dungeon. That went smoothly with Coreranger managing to get a deadly hit on Ulvaryl at the last possible instant before she changed form.
A first trip to the Circus proved therapeutic - particularly watching the fireworks as Kalah exploded into chunks. However, a crash following the transition to the restored circus meant the encounter had to be done again - so we had the joy of watching a second chunking.
In the Slums the Copper Coronet was soon restored - Babar took a few hefty blows there as a result of the Beastmaster spotting the attack earlier than intended, but still had a bit of margin in hand.
After buying some weapon upgrades, we decided there was no need to pay for an armor upgrade when Officer Dirth had no more need for his .
Coreranger wanted to be able to manage his drinking problem better, so led the way to get the potion case at Watcher's Keep. An assault on some undead there proved unexpectedly difficult when Babar's attempt to rage was interrupted and he was level drained. Meffal got the same treatment as the trio ran round the area getting in each other's way. Azuredge was helpful in picking off the opponents, though Coreranger joined the fun by getting held by the final shadow fiend.
There were no vampiric wraiths so the remainder of the top floor was looted as well, Meffal surviving a finger of death trap and Coreranger a petrification trap in the process.
On the way to the de'Arnise Hold, Suna Seni's ambush failed to make much impression. There was some discussion about who should take Arbane's sword - but later on we realised that no-one had actually picked it up anyway .
At the Hold Meffal was determined to stun the yuan-ti mage - and eventually managed it, if only posthumously.
Glaicas proved a problem when his morale broke and he started running here, there and everywhere while under the influence of an oil of speed. Eventually he was cornered, but responded with some hard-hitting and Babar had to withdraw to protect his last few HPs while Coreranger got a final blow in.
TorGal showed no similar inclinations to run though and died without fuss to give the opportunity for Babar to accept the job of managing a Stronghold.
I have begun playing @sarevok57's new Icewind Dale mod and decided to try tackling it no-reload. This is a blind playthrough, and I will be playing on Insane difficulty so I can fight all of the mod's new enemies. Bonus XP and damage are both disabled.
Even if you have to break no-reload, I'd love to see you finish. You're a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.
"Let me count the ways" - the ways to die that is ...
We hadn't really planned a session, but Gate70 had been suffering from a dodgy broadband connection, so we thought we would test out how it was performing ahead of the trilogy session (reported above).
Things seemed to be going well enough as the vampires' HQ fell and the Graveyard tombs were emptied. After forging the iMoD it was off to Spellhold where Perth was too slow to react to a sneak attack on him. His wardstone allowed the duo to cross the trapped bridge to Spellhold and that is where the problems started (and finished).
I didn't bother protecting Prof from level drain from the group of undead at the other end of the bridge (by equipping the iMoD, raging, using ranged attacks or even just prioritising certain attackers). That was partly just laziness, but I also thought Prof had a scroll of restoration. Before looking for that though it seemed reasonable to go and quickly attack the other group of undead - taking advantage of Prof's boots of speed. The undead quickly died and, while waiting a few moments for Myn to arrive, Prof opened the door to Spellhold.
Myn duly arrived and noted Prof's condition (by this time he'd searched his backpack and admitted that scrolls of restoration were notable by their absence), so it was agreed they'd 'play safe' and go back to the Temple in Brynnlaw. They set off there ... but did not arrive.
Checking with the autosave confirmed that you don't need to actually go into Spellhold to make the wardstone disappear - simply opening the door is sufficient .
There's a trap on the bridge between Brynnlaw and Spellhold. If you try to move across the bridge towards Spellhold without the wardstone the game gives you a warning, but you can choose to ignore that - and immediately die. If you have the wardstone though there's no warning of the trap and you can pass through freely.
Opening the door to Spellhold removes the wardstone from your inventory, but the trap is still there at that stage (and I don't think it gives a warning when you journey back towards Brynnlaw, though I was in inventory at the time and could have missed that I suppose).
When you defeat Irenicus and talk to Saemon there must be a trigger to remove the trap as it's no longer there when you travel back after completing Spellhold.
I didn't notice the wardstone had gone (not that I would be certain to realise the consequences in multiplayer-time), and as I was trundling along behind Grond0 I saw these three lines * Petrification * Prof - Petrification * Prof - Petrification
He managed to run across the first trap and into the second due to his boots of speed
Scripting of the traps, their deactivation and the warning if you are interested
The traps (there are two)
IF
IsOverMe([ANYONE])
IsActive(Myself)
!StateCheck(LastTrigger,STATE_STONE_DEATH)
!PartyHasItem("misc8v") // Wardstone for Asylum
THEN
RESPONSE #100
ReallyForceSpell(LastTrigger,FORCE_STONE_TRAP) // SPIN865.SPL (Flesh to Stone)
END
How they deactivate after the Asylum has been dealt with
IF
GlobalGT("AsylumPlot","GLOBAL",11)
Global("DeactivateTrap","AR1500",0)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("DeactivateTrap","AR1500",1)
TriggerActivation("StoneTrap",FALSE)
TriggerActivation("StoneTrap2",FALSE)
END
The warning (if you try entering without the wardstone, and before reaching the Asylum)
IF
Global("BridgeWarning","AR1500",0)
GlobalLT("AsylumPlot","GLOBAL",12)
!PartyHasItem("misc8v") // Wardstone for Asylum
THEN
RESPONSE #100
SetGlobal("BridgeWarning","AR1500",1)
Wait(1)
DisplayString(Player1,837) // You see a shimmering of magic across the path ahead. It would probably not be wise to proceed unless you have the proper tools to access the asylum.
Not this bridge, I popped into a cave to gab a sling... then wiped out the bridge defenders with 'web', 'icestorm' and fire.
p.s, with the bridge captured I now have time to go hunting 7 legged spiders Fights: Bridge = start invisible, open with 'Greater Malison' and kill the gate guards then move in (with my allies) to take on the camp... tip; killing the two mage bosses ends this part of the fight.
In the unlikely event that someone would notice that this update is titled 134 and the previous one was 132, I'll explain that in MP133 Gate70 was running a mage in the company of my shaman. They got a couple of levels before trying their luck down south and running into a hobgoblin ambush. Gate70 has become gradually more reluctant over time to use healing potions and tried to just make a run for it - with conspicuous lack of success.
Rolling up new characters we got a better balanced duo this time and soon hit the road out of Candlekeep. There was a slight glitch there when I mis-clicked on the conversation with Xzar and he attempted to leave - that was prevented, but Montaron did escape with his potion of speed.
After picking up a couple of levels from Shoal and tasks around Beregost, Foci enquired whether Treecal was up to killing a few ankhegs. The barbarian was initially willing to give that a go, but after breaking his scimitar on a fisherman's head, he changed his mind. He did make use of the fisherman's flail to attack the ankheg near Tenya, but wasn't much good with it and was relieved when the ankheg eventually fell asleep at Foci's third attempt.
Treecal was keen to go and get the +2 scimitar on the roof of Durlag's Tower, but Foci pointed out he currently had no damaging spells at all - having failed with 2 attempts at LMD and one with magic missile at that point. Obviously actually paying for spells at that point was out of the question , so Foci suggested a trip to the Gnoll Stronghold - where he failed once more with both magic missile and LMD (though he did successfully learn chromatic orb on the way).
After racking our brains for the location of more mage scrolls, we did a few encounters we don't normally bother with. I think Jemby provided a LMD that was successfully learnt and Arkushule contributed a burning hands.
While at the Lighthouse, Treecal decided to use the potion of clarity from Candlekeep to assault the sirines. That went smoothly enough, though he did take an uncomfortable amount of damage while shooting down the golems in the cave.
Tiring of the search for magic missiles the duo headed to Durlags. The battle horrors were separately blinded and the combination of chromatic orbs with Treecal's non-proficient attacks proved sufficient to finish them off. On the roof, Treecal picked up his shiny new scimitar and the basilisks provided some useful XP.
A few tasks followed to push reputation up to 19. The final increase should have been awarded for escorting Brage to the Nashkel Temple. However, you may have noticed that the EE pathfinding isn't great and it's possible for a character to get stuck behind things. That behavior applies in cut scenes as well and Foci found he was unable to talk to the priest because Treecal's burly body was in the way and determined not to move .
That required a force-quit and reloading the autosave meant we also had to go back and kill the Doomsayer again - which was duly done.
The final action saw the ankheg nest cleared. They were saving pretty well against sleep, but didn't last long against Treecal's flashing scimitar anyway.
Comments
Tag-3,
Burning my bridges,I survived pocking my nose into the dwarfs cave by sending in some peons to distract the undead... the goblin was tempting but I already have a drow sorcerer.
Fights: Bridge = cleared the traps and start invisible gives me time to go against the gate then we all cast | shoot fire... the end.
Everything was so different compared with my last run. I didn't realise how different the endings can be. I'm saying no more on that as it would spoil things for others.
I had reached Hephernaan, and now know better what to do in future. A very enjoyable run.
I have started another run with a Heartwarder of Sune. I thought this run had come to an end fighting a solitary sirene after resting. Started with almost full health and was both confused and feebleminded with the result that over a period of several minutes health points were inexorably reduced from over 50 to 4 one point at a time! Then the spell wore off. Immediately I healed her and fled. Tried resting but was again attacked. Fled to the carnival and everything now hunky dory. If I had had an ally, any ally with ranged weapons there would have been no problem as I had such a good constitution. Must memorise that info! Will post more info later.
AASIMAR: Aasimar carry the blood of a celestial being, the begotten offspring from the union
of a mortal and a deity. Aasimar are usually good aligned and fight against evil in the
world. They typically have fair skin, golden eyes, and often a birthmark in the shape of the
deity’s holy symbol. Aasimar are blessed with insight and personal magnetism and are
typically paladins.
- ADVANTAGES: +1 to Wisdom, + 1 Charisma, Infravision, Sunfire 1/day, and +25% to Acid,
Cold, and Electrical Resistances.
- DISADVANTAGES: -10% experience modifier.
SILVERSTAR OF SELÛNE: Selûne (pronounced: seh-loon-ay), Our Lady of Silver, is the goddess of the moon, the stars, and those who use them to navigate. Her eternal foe is the evil Shar, goddess of darkness, night, loss, and forgetfulness. Selûne is often called the Moonmaiden for her connection to the silver moon that orbits Faerun. She is the goddess of the moon and travelers. Selûne's home plane is The Gates of the Moon with her home a shining hall of silver called Argentil.
Non-evil lycanthropes honor Selûne as the master of their fate as do astrologers and fortune tellers. Selûne is also growing popular among alewives, laundresses, seamstresses and servants with the message of female empowerment. She is also worshiped by female spellcasters, navigators and sailors.
Selûne's clerics, called Silverstars of Selûne, are dedicated advocates of freedom and tolerance, wanderers on the path of truth and absolute foes of Shar. They seek to build harmony among lycanthropes and non-shapechangers, and they protect the weak and the oppressed everywhere. They cannot abide slavery, and they hate most undead. They rarely settle in one place for long, instead moving along when seized by wanderlust or enticed by a new cause or mission. They deal with lunar energies and phenomena and are, to a limited degree, able to wield the power of the moon, bringing its fierce, pure white light to Toril to advance the goddess's wishes.
Advantages:
– May cast Free Action once per day every 5 levels (starts at 1st level with one use).
– May cast Moon Shield once per day every 10 levels (starts at 1st level with one use), as detailed below.
MOON SHIELD: Upon casting this spell, the Silverstar receives a resistance to all magic. The resistance conferred is 2% per level of the cleric up to a maximum of 40% at 20th level. This resistance is set so if the target already has more magic resistance than the cleric would confer, it will actually lower it to the set value. This effect will last for the duration of the spell or until dispelled.
Disadvantages:
– Alignment restricted to chaotic good, neutral good, and chaotic neutral.
Sirene and Gavin were found at the temple of Lathander near Beregost.
Sirene is a Paladin of Ilmater and Gavin the well-known Cleric of Lathander. Sadly I don't think that he is available in SoD. If I am wrong, please could somebody let me know.
The party has defeated Bassilus and Zargal and are wandering through unexplored areas of the sword coast as they await further instructions from the temple. Areas cleared include the ankheg swarm north of the FAI. Sarita and Gavin are curently level 6 clerics and Sarita a level 5 paladin. I am currently intending picking up Minsc and Dynaheir as well as Vyn the drow thief.
EDIT 1: Khalid and Jaheira dropped off at Nashkel. (I picked them up as I didn't want them disappearing as I may want them again particularly in SoD.) Sarita defeated the Dark Side Assassins with not too much difficulty. However the party are now low on health and there is only one charge left in the necklace of missiles. They will have to sell some of the loot to recharge it and recover somewhat.
EDIT 2
Upon leaving the mines, they rested in order to recover their health only to be attacked by two winter wolves. The wolves died. The pelts were sold, but still not enough to recharge the necklace of missiles. Then they were summoned to the temple of Lathander. They were given one last job to do. Fortunately they had enough gold to pay the locksmith for a key as even when his locking ability was 90, Vynd was unable to pick the lock. They then killed Bertram et al before taking a well deserved rest in preparation for the confrontation with Lady Valeria. Having done so, she was easily dealt with and the party went to the carnival to get the necklace of missiles.
Gavin continually makes moves on Sarita with the result that she stops flirting with others.
Back in the mine now, but now going out with the Street Angels so that's it for today.
Just back from Street Angels. Did get 6 hours shuteye before being needed for Armed Forces day marshalling.
The rest of the mine was easy.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/879185/#Comment_879185
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884558/#Comment_884558
A smooth session today started with finishing a few tasks in Baldur's Gate - the last of those saw a first use of detonation arrows to help sort out the Iron Throne.
In Candlekeep, unmasking Shistal the doppleganger was the only slight delay on the way to the tombs. Babar used DUHM and rage to break open the tombs, with a couple of rests enabling him to recover from trap damage. Coreranger had racial memories showing bad experiences with lightning bolts from Prat and insisted on using a scroll of PFM, but Prat's party all expired in detonation blasts and he failed to complete any spells himself.
Back in the City Slythe was dispelled and beaten up. It was agreed that we would just leave after killing him, but that was done a bit slowly, allowing Krystin the chance to follow and throw a cloudkill at Coreranger - but he just beat it to the inn door, causing the magic to dissipate harmlessly and everyone was away and clear before Krystin was ready to try again.
At the palace the hard-hitting trio potioned up for some extra oomph. Rather than bother with dispelling arrows though they just smacked the dopplegangers down - Liia still died, but Belt survived comfortably.
The buffs from the palace made progress through the enemies in the maze easy. The Undercity party were then flanked and didn't survive a detonation assault from their rear. In the temple Babar sniped at Sarevok from range to pull him out on his own. After buffing up with a few potions, DUHM and rage he then decided to go for some extra style points with a melee kill rather than relying on ranged damage. Sarevok got a few lusty blows of his own in, but couldn't do quite enough damage to make Babar retreat before he eventually keeled over.
After reporting back to Duke Belt the trio were dispatched to Athkatla and were soon fighting through Jon's dungeon. They were a bit below the XP cap in BG1 and Coreranger only got to level 8 by beating up the Cambion.
Babar, barbarian L8, 100 HPs, 264 kills
Coreranger, ranger L8, 96 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 211 kills, 0 deaths
Meffal, monk L8, 60 HPs, 107 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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884262/#Comment_884262
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884730/#Comment_884730
After the hard work required to get through SoD, Prof and Myn had an easier time in this session. The dungeon offered no threats and the clean-up there was completed by claiming Ulvaryl's scalp.
There was a first slight hiccup at the Copper Coronet when Myn unintentially caught Prof in a fireball blast (that's unusual - normally it's intentional
Myn was having fun with cloudkills at this stage and some invisible travel allowed him to use one of those on Suna Seni.
Back in Athkatla, a visit to the Docks produced some armor from Officer Dirth to enhance Prof's tanking abilities. Prebek and Sanasha are poor at dealing with both improved invisibility and cloudkill and died with more of a whimper than a bang - allowing the harpers to be robbed of a few goodies. Mae'Var's tasks followed, with Rayic Gethras being another unsure what to do about improved invisibility (at least after an attempted true sight was interrupted ...).
To let Myn spread his wings a bit more the Cowled Wizards were given a brown envelope containing 5,000 gold (big envelope), before Gaelan Bayle also got a pay-off to provide Myn with an equipment upgrade. He was looking greedily at what else was available, but disinclined to pay high prices - so suggested doing some reputation quests. The slaver ship provided a couple of easy boosts and Neb lost his head
More quick reputation gains are on offer at Trademeet, so the duo travelled there. They met 2 ambushes on the way though and lightning bolts during those gave Myn a slight scare for pretty much the only time in the session.
Prof, berserker 13, 117 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 180 kills (+624 in BG1)
Myn, illusionist 13, 53 HPs, 103 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)
And though the Bioware forums appear to have disappeared, I'm amazed to see that some of the players whose journeys I followed (without ever being an active participant in the no reload community) so many. many years ago arestill active, even if Alesia, whose sorcerer playthroughs I most vividly remember, seems to have gone
Makes me nostalgic
EDIT
@Grond0 Got there ahead of me.
EDIT
Scrub that. Just read that though it is compatible with EE, it is not yet with SoD. However I am wondering if that is because it just doesn't change things in SoD though it works fine in ToSC. I wish web sites were a bit more specific when they say that a mod is incompatible by saying HOW they are incompatible.
For the information of anyone interested, Level 1 NPCs will not install in a SoD installation.
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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884730/#Comment_884730
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/885998/#Comment_885998
There were no particular problems working through the Druid Grove until the duo came to the fungi near Cernd. Prof made the mistake of giving the berserker from the horn an outing there - I wasn't surprised when Cernd cast a spell at that as he does that to summons quite regularly, but I was surprised when Cernd chased the berserker into a cloudkill.
Eventually giving up, we reluctantly went to find Jaheira - breaking our normal rule of no NPCs. On getting back though we found that Cernd was waiting for us and no longer hostile. Two possibilities occur to me there:
1) He's a jealous sort and couldn't bear to see another druid get his job
2) He was charmed when we left the area and MP effects converted that into a permanent effect (a bit like summons initially produced by the client become permanent and under the control of the protagonist when you leave an area before the summons disappear).
After Faldorn had provided a light snack for Cernd, a couple more tasks in Trademeet helped boost reputation up to 18. Myn could also not resist in intervening in a philosophical argument and conclusively proved that a chromatic orb is mightier than a sword.
Back in Athkatla the duo got around to reporting some good news to Lt Aegisfield before Myn's malison + emotion showed why a group of fighters was called the Fallen Paladins.
In the mood for enhancing equipment further a couple of PfU scrolls and oils of speed were invested to relieve the City from the threat of liches.
Immediately after dealing with Kangaxx we went to witness Mook's fate before stumbling across our first vampire ambush (obviously not been spending much time travelling at night, though that's not been deliberate).
Looking to speed things up a bit the duo went next to the Planar Prison to get some new boots - an improved hasted entrance there making that fight simple.
The session concluded with doing a bit more work for Aran Linvail and the vampires will be under assault next time. While on the way there Myn was able to claim some headgear for himself.
Prof, berserker 16, 126 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 374 kills (+624 in BG1)
Myn, illusionist 15, 60 HPs (incl. 5 from ioun stone), 187 kills (+339 in BG1), 0 deaths (+2 in BG1)
Following the demise of Sarita the Sunite I am starting another run using an old fighter roll.
Details below.
From Sub-race Read-me:
AASIMAR: Aasimar carry the blood of a celestial being, the begotten offspring from the union
of a mortal and a deity. Aasimar are usually good aligned and fight against evil in the
world. They typically have fair skin, golden eyes, and often a birthmark in the shape of the
deity’s holy symbol. Aasimar are blessed with insight and personal magnetism and are
typically paladins.
- ADVANTAGES: +1 to Wisdom, + 1 Charisma, Infravision, Sunfire 1/day, and +25% to Acid,
Cold, and Electrical Resistances.
- DISADVANTAGES: -10% experience modifier.
The extra wisdom will be useful after dualling to a cleric. (I don't know which deity yet)
The name Maredud Margred means Magnificent Pearl. Maredud was a Welsh King
Journal of Maredud Margred
I was most disappointed that because of my lack of charisma, I was unable to become a paladin. Gorion suggested that I become a cleric, but at that stage in my life I still hadn't decided which deity to follow, so he suggested that I train as a warrior and switch to becoming a cleric when I knew better which cleric I favoured (Or who favoured me). Of course I could dual to either a mage or a thief, but neither of those options attract me.I got as far as the FAI and have wiped out the hobgoblins before heading northward where I killed a zombie who was pestering his widow.
I agreed to help Sonner, but upon learning his deceit, I killed him. A side-benefit is that I now own an unbreakable flail.
South of the FAI I then killed an ogre with a belt fetish before killing three gnolls with a crossbow at High Hedge despite having no skill with that weapon.
I then headed southwards towards Nashkel killing a wolf that was attacking a chicken and more hobgoblins in the process. At the carnival I gained the ability to cure light wounds.
Albert now wants me to find his doggie called Rufie. Let's hope that I come across him.
I came across a dryad also needing help. I killed both Krumm and Caldo, but almost died myself. A bit of help from the dryad would not have gone amiss! I then rested in order to recuperate. It took a full day! Nearby I killed three dire wolves and a xvart before heading for the carnival for some well-deserved R&R. This included relaxing Bardolan before getting passionate with him. We both felt much more relaxed afterwards.
As I investigated a forest, I was attacked by Corsonne. He died and I became a level 3 fighter. I am now considering whether I should dual to a cleric in the near future. It seems to me that the possibilities are: Silverstar of Selûne, Battleguard of Tempus, Firewalker of Kossuth, Lorekeeper of Oghma, Heartwarder of Sune, or Priest of Lathander.
In the end I decided to become a Heartwarder of Sune and took proficiencies in sling and dual-wielding.
After speaking to Tenya I reached level 2 and shortly afterwards told Leila that her undead husband had been killed.
At the FAI I returned Joia's ring and in Beregost I returned the necklace belonging to his deceased family. At that I reached level 3 and became quite popular.
I then helped Melicamp get back into shape, and what a shape! We spent a very pleasant time in amorous embraces.
Heading back south I was able to find Rufie for his owner, I told the dryad that I had killed Caldo and Krumm, and I returned Drienne's cat thus reaching level 4 and becoming a hero just as I have always wanted.
South of Nashkel I then killed zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. I needed to recuperate at the carnival after weach fight as they were both tough. To kill Greywolf I had to flee, rest, and start again. In the meantime he too had recuperated, but the second time round I fought just a little better. It was enough.
Journal of Maredud Margred
I joined up with Xzar and Montaron, left Xzar in Beregost whilst Montaron picked up a few things in Beregost and Ulgoth's Beard.I then left Montaron in Beregost and picked up Drake, a Cleric of Tyr who insisted that we deal with Bassilus. That proved fairly easy. We then accidentally encountered Zargal et al. Because we were already buffed, that encounter ended well also.
When last I left off Cromarty's tale he and his fellows were just poking around the realm of a dwarven lich. He and his band slew the foul creature and flung its phylactery into eternal fire, before moving on to a forest where they slew a vampire. Unfortunately the vampire had charmed Minsc into attacking some vampire hunters too, so there was some extra bloodshed there... We cleared the Trollclaw forest and another troll area, before moving on to Boareskyr Bridge and the Forest of Wyrms. The temple was done without a hitch, though the dragon waking up the very second we came through the door gave us a nasty start, possibly it had been wakened by our pre-buffing. I generally erred on the side of caution using scrolls of protection from poison and then chaotic commands to ensure that Cromarty was in little danger. We also made use of our extensive stock of wands to summon hordes of allies where necessary, which helped us to deal with the psionic threat without suffering any casualties.
My computer did how ever slow to a crawl at points... Returning to the Bridge we dealt with the fort quests and are now on the verge of undertaking the first set-piece battle. This fills me with foreboding...primarily on the hardware side of things as if the battle runs like treacle I have already decided to skip on to SoA. Otherwise the party have been performing alright and should be able to deal with most threats if our resources remain well stocked....
Journal of Maredud Margred
The Gnoll citadel brought the game to a sticky end. The improvements to the bosses there certainly made it challenging.Gavin the Aasimar Cleric of Lathander
I have just started a new game with an Aasimar Cleric of Lathander called Gavin who is a bit more powerful than the mod Gavin having rolled 95.Journal of Gavin the Aasimar Cleric of Lathander
After the death of Gorion I fled towards Candlekeep but was unable to gain access. I returned to the site of the ambush and found some useful articles.I headed towards the FAI where I cleared the area of hobgoblins.
North of there I killed the zombie husband of a widow who pleaded for my help.
I agreed to help Sonner, but when I discovered his duplicity I killed him and told Tenya thus reaching level 3.
EDIT
Gavin made a mistake at the FAI. He took on Tarnesh! He had cast Remove Fear which was quite important. However when both he and Tarnesh were almost dead, Tarnesh was the one with the killer blow.I am now starting another run of Maredud Margred the character that I posted on June 28th. Playing on Hard.
Journal of Maredud Margred
I was most disappointed that because of my lack of charisma, I was unable to become a paladin. Gorion suggested that I become a cleric, but at that stage in my life I still hadn't decided which deity to follow, so he suggested that I train as a warrior and switch to becoming a cleric when I knew better which cleric I favoured (Or who favoured me). Of course I could dual to either a mage or a thief, but neither of those options attract me.Underdale 1: Frisk in Icewind Dale
Part 1
I have begun playing @sarevok57's new Icewind Dale mod and decided to try tackling it no-reload. This is a blind playthrough, and I will be playing on Insane difficulty so I can fight all of the mod's new enemies. Bonus XP and damage are both disabled.My party makeup is actually very similar to my previous IWD no-reload, though not by design. First off is Frisk, our cleric/illusionist, because I adore Frisk and cleric/illusionists.
Chara is next, a necessary part of any party run involving Frisk. They'll be our primary tank.
Notice the abnormally low Constitution. Chara will be dual-classing to druid, which requires really high stat totals. I would have made them a Berserker, but the IWD Mega Mod's alignment tweaks make it impossible for Berserkers to dual into druids.
Wherever Frisk and Chara go, Asriel must follow. He is too much of an adorable fuzzball for us to leave behind. Here he is, sleepily chewing on one of his long, floppy ears.
Sorcerers are great in IWD because mage scrolls are so incredibly scarce. Only one mage or bard is truly necessary, but I wanted to have two. Hence Mollyboo, a new face.
The portrait comes from a picture of Star Butterfly, who has a spectacular character design.
Next up is Carl, since I created a voice set for him from the Youtube series Llamas with Hats, and I love his voice.
Bounty Hunters are game-breaking in certain parts of IWD for reasons that will quickly become apparent.
Finally, we have Snowy Tae, an old face who is normally a cleric of some sort in my games. But Archers are so much more practical in IWD.
Notice that she is a halfling ranger. I don't remember if the mega mod allows this or I just tweaked it myself, but it'll give her some saving throw bonuses (nerfed by the mega mod) at the cost of 1 STR.
Easthaven can be dangerous for low-level parties, but that's what Carl is for.
Normal traps do 2d8+5 damage; a Bounty Hunter's Special Snares do 3d8+5 damage and can be thrown from a distance. It's enough to wipe out almost anything in Easthaven, as long as you keep your Bounty Hunter out of range.
Then I see something surprising.
A spellcaster in our first fight? This could get ugly. Against the odds, Chara makes a saving throw against Hold Person, and Snowy Tae, with her superior saves and high APR with a longbow, hurries out to slay the Goblin Shaman. But the shaman has more HP than I expected, and Snowy Tae's saving throws are far from ironclad.
We hurry over to save Snowy Tae, but without our Archer, our ranged power isn't great. The shaman fries Snowy Tae with two Sunscorch spells.
But it seems the shaman is low on ammo, and resorts to melee combat. With a few arrows, darts, and Chromatic Orbs, we manage to weaken him enough for Chara to cut him down.
Raising Snowy Tae bankrupts the party, but we're back in business. The moment we enter the orc caves, we find another surprise: a sorcerer. But we're better prepared than we were before, because Frisk memorized Command.
Even so, the sorcerer is high enough level to survive the attack and cast Mirror Image. Mercifully, the sorcerer casts Grease instead of Sleep, and though it knocks out Snowy Tae, she's at a safe distance from the other orcs.
The rest of the orc bands are less complicated for one simple reason: we can catch them by surprise. This means Carl can now set traps! Carl carries the party through the whole area.
Kuldahar Valley is the greater challenge. The problem here is that we can't rest without a very high chance of spawning a bunch of goblins on us, which means Carl only gets so many traps before we need to make our escape to Kuldahar. We play it cautious, but there's another Goblin Shaman about, and Chara's poor saving throws come into play.
We rush in to distract the enemy, hoping to save Chara's life, and Snowy Tae manages to survive the next Hold Person spell before we bring down the shaman. Frisk runs away when a Goblin Marshal moves in for the kill (Frisk has poor AC due to the lack of armor), only to find a goblin archer waiting for them.
This area is really dangerous, so I decide to use one of our only potions to keep Frisk afloat. But it seems there was another goblin archer just behind the first one, and both of them land a hit.
We make it out with Chara still intact, but we're out of potions, Frisk is dead, and Mollyboo is close to death. We sneak out way east and Carl uses his only Special Snare to wipe out a crowd of goblins. But it's not enough--there's still another crowd, and we have to pass them if we're going to make it to Kuldahar.
Snowy Tae sneaks ahead to pick off a few extra goblins near the edge, but she and Carl are the only two party members who can use stealth. The others will have to run. Rather than fight off the crowd near the edge of the map, we just run past them. We make it!
The sight of Kuldahar's bigass oak tree fills us with determination.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/879185/#Comment_879185
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884558/#Comment_884558
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/885941/#Comment_885941
Today's session commenced by finishing off the escape from Jon's dungeon. That went smoothly with Coreranger managing to get a deadly hit on Ulvaryl at the last possible instant before she changed form.
A first trip to the Circus proved therapeutic - particularly watching the fireworks as Kalah exploded into chunks. However, a crash following the transition to the restored circus meant the encounter had to be done again - so we had the joy of watching a second chunking.
In the Slums the Copper Coronet was soon restored - Babar took a few hefty blows there as a result of the Beastmaster spotting the attack earlier than intended, but still had a bit of margin in hand.
Coreranger wanted to be able to manage his drinking problem better, so led the way to get the potion case at Watcher's Keep. An assault on some undead there proved unexpectedly difficult when Babar's attempt to rage was interrupted and he was level drained. Meffal got the same treatment as the trio ran round the area getting in each other's way. Azuredge was helpful in picking off the opponents, though Coreranger joined the fun by getting held by the final shadow fiend.
On the way to the de'Arnise Hold, Suna Seni's ambush failed to make much impression. There was some discussion about who should take Arbane's sword - but later on we realised that no-one had actually picked it up anyway
At the Hold Meffal was determined to stun the yuan-ti mage - and eventually managed it, if only posthumously.
Babar, barbarian L9, 112 HPs, 317 kills
Coreranger, ranger L9, 106 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 240 kills, 0 deaths
Meffal, monk L9, 70 HPs, 147 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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884262/#Comment_884262
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/884730/#Comment_884730
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/885998/#Comment_885998
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/886272/#Comment_886272
"Let me count the ways" - the ways to die that is ...
We hadn't really planned a session, but Gate70 had been suffering from a dodgy broadband connection, so we thought we would test out how it was performing ahead of the trilogy session (reported above).
Things seemed to be going well enough as the vampires' HQ fell and the Graveyard tombs were emptied. After forging the iMoD it was off to Spellhold where Perth was too slow to react to a sneak attack on him. His wardstone allowed the duo to cross the trapped bridge to Spellhold and that is where the problems started (and finished).
I didn't bother protecting Prof from level drain from the group of undead at the other end of the bridge (by equipping the iMoD, raging, using ranged attacks or even just prioritising certain attackers). That was
partlyjust laziness, but I also thought Prof had a scroll of restoration. Before looking for that though it seemed reasonable to go and quickly attack the other group of undead - taking advantage of Prof's boots of speed. The undead quickly died and, while waiting a few moments for Myn to arrive, Prof opened the door to Spellhold.Myn duly arrived and noted Prof's condition (by this time he'd searched his backpack and admitted that scrolls of restoration were notable by their absence), so it was agreed they'd 'play safe' and go back to the Temple in Brynnlaw. They set off there ... but did not arrive.
Checking with the autosave confirmed that you don't need to actually go into Spellhold to make the wardstone disappear - simply opening the door is sufficient
Opening the door to Spellhold removes the wardstone from your inventory, but the trap is still there at that stage (and I don't think it gives a warning when you journey back towards Brynnlaw, though I was in inventory at the time and could have missed that I suppose).
When you defeat Irenicus and talk to Saemon there must be a trigger to remove the trap as it's no longer there when you travel back after completing Spellhold.
* Petrification
* Prof - Petrification
* Prof - Petrification
He managed to run across the first trap and into the second due to his boots of speed
Scripting of the traps, their deactivation and the warning if you are interested
The traps (there are two)
IF IsOverMe([ANYONE]) IsActive(Myself) !StateCheck(LastTrigger,STATE_STONE_DEATH) !PartyHasItem("misc8v") // Wardstone for Asylum THEN RESPONSE #100 ReallyForceSpell(LastTrigger,FORCE_STONE_TRAP) // SPIN865.SPL (Flesh to Stone) ENDHow they deactivate after the Asylum has been dealt withIF GlobalGT("AsylumPlot","GLOBAL",11) Global("DeactivateTrap","AR1500",0) THEN RESPONSE #100 SetGlobal("DeactivateTrap","AR1500",1) TriggerActivation("StoneTrap",FALSE) TriggerActivation("StoneTrap2",FALSE) ENDThe warning (if you try entering without the wardstone, and before reaching the Asylum)IF Global("BridgeWarning","AR1500",0) GlobalLT("AsylumPlot","GLOBAL",12) !PartyHasItem("misc8v") // Wardstone for Asylum THEN RESPONSE #100 SetGlobal("BridgeWarning","AR1500",1) Wait(1) DisplayString(Player1,837) // You see a shimmering of magic across the path ahead. It would probably not be wise to proceed unless you have the proper tools to access the asylum.Tag-4,
Not this bridge,I popped into a cave to gab a sling... then wiped out the bridge defenders with 'web', 'icestorm' and fire.
p.s, with the bridge captured I now have time to go hunting 7 legged spiders
Fights: Bridge = start invisible, open with 'Greater Malison' and kill the gate guards then move in (with my allies) to take on the camp... tip; killing the two mage bosses ends this part of the fight.
Foci, human conjurer (Grond0) & Treecal, dwarf barbarian (Gate70)
In the unlikely event that someone would notice that this update is titled 134 and the previous one was 132, I'll explain that in MP133 Gate70 was running a mage in the company of my shaman. They got a couple of levels before trying their luck down south and running into a hobgoblin ambush. Gate70 has become gradually more reluctant over time to use healing potions and tried to just make a run for it - with conspicuous lack of success.
Rolling up new characters we got a better balanced duo this time and soon hit the road out of Candlekeep. There was a slight glitch there when I mis-clicked on the conversation with Xzar and he attempted to leave - that was prevented, but Montaron did escape with his potion of speed.
After picking up a couple of levels from Shoal and tasks around Beregost, Foci enquired whether Treecal was up to killing a few ankhegs. The barbarian was initially willing to give that a go, but after breaking his scimitar on a fisherman's head, he changed his mind. He did make use of the fisherman's flail to attack the ankheg near Tenya, but wasn't much good with it and was relieved when the ankheg eventually fell asleep at Foci's third attempt.
Treecal was keen to go and get the +2 scimitar on the roof of Durlag's Tower, but Foci pointed out he currently had no damaging spells at all - having failed with 2 attempts at LMD and one with magic missile at that point. Obviously actually paying for spells at that point was out of the question
After racking our brains for the location of more mage scrolls, we did a few encounters we don't normally bother with. I think Jemby provided a LMD that was successfully learnt and Arkushule contributed a burning hands.
Tiring of the search for magic missiles the duo headed to Durlags. The battle horrors were separately blinded and the combination of chromatic orbs with Treecal's non-proficient attacks proved sufficient to finish them off. On the roof, Treecal picked up his shiny new scimitar and the basilisks provided some useful XP.
A few tasks followed to push reputation up to 19. The final increase should have been awarded for escorting Brage to the Nashkel Temple. However, you may have noticed that the EE pathfinding isn't great and it's possible for a character to get stuck behind things. That behavior applies in cut scenes as well and Foci found he was unable to talk to the priest because Treecal's burly body was in the way and determined not to move
The final action saw the ankheg nest cleared. They were saving pretty well against sleep, but didn't last long against Treecal's flashing scimitar anyway.
Foci, conjurer 6, 37 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 43 kills
Treecal, barbarian 6, 83 HPs, 110 kills, 0 deaths