@Wise_Grimwald~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Drizzt Saga for BGEE/Tutu/BGT -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): v3.00
~SOA/SETUP-SOA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Stone of Askavar for TotSC/Tutu/BGT/BGEE -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): 2.0
~SETUP-BP-BGT-WORLDMAP.TP2~ #0 #0 // Worldmap for Baldur's Gate - including colored Baldur's Gate map icons: v10.2.1 I've had issues with BP-BGT-WORLDMAP before as well; start a few junk new games and see if any of them have well-placed maps. There might also be a conflict for the install order for these three components since the first two require the third but the third is installed last of the three, but I've not used Drizzt Saga or Stone of Askavar before so I don't know what the quirks are.
Wimp charmed and disposed of Baerin with the help of a Flind. However, rather than deal with the others then she decided that it would be too much hassle to haul away all their equipment with her carrying capacity of 5 lbs - that's possible using the quick loot bar to move it over time to the edge of the map, but a bit time-consuming.
Instead she headed north to charm an ogre and collect a new belt. At the FAI a couple of guards were charmed to deal with Tarnesh and she also collected an invisibility potion from Jaheira. On the way further north she decided to pick up but not return a ring for Joia and was attacking one of the hobgoblins guarding that when I (being bloody-minded) tried to update my notes again while the game was running. While it would have been technically possible for the hobgoblin to suffer morale failure, run away then recover to attack Wimp without being distracted by the familiar and a charmed hobgoblin the chance of that happening would have been extremely small and I was happy to run the risk. However, I clearly hadn't checked the number of darts Wimp had left and a single blow from the hobgoblin was enough to chop her head off as she tried to punch its lights out.
@Wise_Grimwald~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Drizzt Saga for BGEE/Tutu/BGT -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): v3.00
~SOA/SETUP-SOA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Stone of Askavar for TotSC/Tutu/BGT/BGEE -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): 2.0
~SETUP-BP-BGT-WORLDMAP.TP2~ #0 #0 // Worldmap for Baldur's Gate - including colored Baldur's Gate map icons: v10.2.1 I've had issues with BP-BGT-WORLDMAP before as well; start a few junk new games and see if any of them have well-placed maps. There might also be a conflict for the install order for these three components since the first two require the third but the third is installed last of the three, but I've not used Drizzt Saga or Stone of Askavar before so I don't know what the quirks are.
My very next game was OK.
I don't understand it, but am quite pleased.
Osweald got as far as Tenya and she has joined him. He is now level 3 and has *** in axes ** in dual wielding.
My install is not quite as I wanted as I can't sleep anywhere. I will have to be more carefull in my next installation.
Wondering if I am being stupid playing on hard this time.
Journal of Osweald
At the Friendly Arms Inn we returned Joia's ring to her and killed Tarnesh with a little help from summoned skeletons. Upon entering the Inn, I bedded Lina much to our mutual delight after which I found a healing potion.
Judging from what you're saying, it almost sounds like you installed the map mod after starting the game, which doesn't make sense since I know you've installed mods before and know not to do that.
I'm thinking that I accidentally opened up an old game instead of importing the character from an old game as I intended to do. I'm blaming tiredness and senility.
@Grond0 - sorry to hear about wimp. Though his demise was not surprising. What about something different for you? Like you duoing with a NPC? You can listen to Minsc's butt-kicking battlecry while he helps you with your quest. And wouldn't be much to micro-manage.
I decided to try my hand at a solo tetralogy run using the latest version of my own Seducer kit mod, whose entire concept involves charming anything and everything in the game, even critters normally immune to charm. The most recent version allows the Seducer to bring charmed critters into the party itself using Seduction, but since this is a "solo" run, I won't be charming any normal NPCs (so no seducing Alora or Edwin or whatever).
Seducing a critter can only be done outside of combat, offers multiple saving throws, and the Seducer cannot seduce golems, plot-immune critters, or any critter more than half the Seducer's level. So you can totally charm a bandit or a ghoul if you're high enough level, but you won't be able to charm a troll, a clay golem, or a level 20 lich. Basilisks are also out of reach unless you remove the XP cap.
A Seducer's primary spells, however, are Charm and Domination. Charm can affect multiple targets (2 at level 1, and an extra 1 target every 10 levels), but Domination is much more likely to work. Both spells only last for 1d3 rounds, impose AC and movement rate penalties on the Seducer, and are pretty easy to resist until you get to higher levels--especially if the target is non-humanoid. The save bonuses are pretty generous (+4 at level 1 for Domination), but both spells can be cast at will.
Notable mods include SCS, Ascension, and a bunch of other random crap from BWS. Unlike my Undergate run, which also used BWS to install a zillion mods, I have neither Item Revisions nor Spell Revisions, and I will not be using any mod-introduced items except as gold fodder.
Our Charname this time is Mollyboo, a new face.
I do not plan on dual-classing Mollyboo to mage, but I wanted it to be possible in case I changed my mind (otherwise a halfling would be the superior choice by far). The portrait is lifted from a screenshot of Star Butterfly from Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I've only seen the show once, but I loved the character art.
First order of business is hitting level 4. Charming a nearby wolf and a few arrows launch Mollyboo up to level 4 in a few minutes, and all it cost was the life of a nereid.
This slightly improves her base charm ability, Domination (which is still pretty weak, though it scales dramatically with levels), but the bigger draw is her ability to use Seduction on level 2 critters.
Like the spiders in Beregost.
First off, we seduce Algernon. This lets us get Algernon's Cloak without killing him and therefore losing reputation.
More importantly, Algernon can lure out the Beregost spiders without putting Mollyboo in danger. He barely escapes with his life, but he buys enough time for Mollyboo to turn the spiders against each other and pick them off one by one.
To seduce an enemy, you first have to charm it, which offers a save vs. spell to resist, and spiders get an extra +2 bonus to those saves. Then, before the charm effect wears off in 1d3 rounds, you have to land a Seduction spell, which also offers a save at no penalty. This means you have to isolate an enemy before you can seduce it, and the enemy can attack you if it makes its saving throws.
It's a dangerous process and it takes some time, but Mollyboo manages to bring the last spider into the party.
Most monsters do not have normal character classes and cannot level up without crashing the game. The Seduction spell assigns those critters the fighter class, but applies a 50% XP penalty. So we get to use all of the spider's special abilities and its natural attack, but it gains levels very slowly, has terrible stats, and has no proficiencies with any weapons.
With only one attack per round, a Huge Spider is actually a pretty lousy fighter. But Mollyboo is a thief with 1d4 HP per level and no ability to use armor; she needs all the help she can get to avoid getting crushed to goo.
Next up is Silke. Firebead Elvenhair has 90% resistance to charm spells and therefore Algernon's Cloak, but Mollyboo's Domination spell ignores all racial immunities. Firebead and Silke both summon monsters for Mollyboo, which will remain in our control even when the charms wear off.
Silke doesn't stand a chance.
Mollyboo uses Charm to get past the guards in the manor in Beregost so she can rob the place, and finds a Potion of Invisibility, which will come in handy if and when I do something stupid.
At level 4, Mollyboo can't seduce very strong monsters, so we need to make her a little bit stronger. At 2,000 XP a pop, the Sirines at the temple east of Beregost are easy pickings. We charm the Sirines, force them to waste their charm and invisibility spells, and then use our spider to soak up their feeblemind attacks.
Note that Algernon's Cloak lasts for 12 hours and you can get the Sirines to leave the temple by ordering them to cast Dire Charm on you just as you're walking out the door (they'll only show up outside the northwest entrance, though; you won't see them at the front entrance).
We head to the Friendly Arm Inn to get our reward for killing (most of) the spiders. We're not remotely strong enough to tackle Tarnesh safely, but the local guards are easy to charm using Algernon's Cloak, and Tarnesh won't even fight back.
I actually use quick-saves to imitate the effect of resting to get back Algernon's Cloak charges when they fail. I use a lot of convenience cheats, especially CTRL-J. I am just too impatient to deal with everything at its normal pace.
North, to the ankheg farm! But we're not there to hunt ankhegs. Mollyboo finds a kitty cat and seduces it.
At 1 HP, the cat should be an invincible tank so long as I don't level it up. But portraits in EE glow when you're due for a level up, so I won't keep the cat at level 1 forever. Once it hits level 2, though, it'll be at 11 HP.
At which point that 90% physical damage resistance will become very useful indeed.
I also seduce a trio of chickens who happen to be nearby. But my theory about the invincibility of 1-HP level 1 characters does not exactly pan out.
The chickens are useless. But the cat will be an excellent tank if I can just get it to level 2.
But where do I get that XP when ankhegs just destroy us? Chickens are too weak to wear armor and they have no DEX bonus, so relying on AC is not a reasonable option when resurrecting dead chickens costs 100 gold at the temple.
Tenya can't get our cat to level 2, but she can get us a little bit closer using the few ankhegs near her.
Next is Dushai, whom we can kill using charm.
We're still not strong enough to deal with moderate threats. A Seducer is only as strong as the critters he or she can charm or seduce, and a spider and a cat are not going to take down Sarevok. Time to upgrade! But where do I find a strong low-level fighter?
Well, ogrillons are level 2. And they have 2 attacks per round. I find a couple of lone ogrillons to the south, and once one of them is dead...
...I can use Seduction, which otherwise can't be cast during combat. Ogrillons aren't great for conversations, but they do have a hidden gem.
Perhaps there is more depth to these critters than you'd think. After all, they're more intelligent than most humans.
I drew that portrait myself a while ago, and am quite proud of it. Notice Glint's portrait on one of our disposable chickens, and Asriel's portrait on our cat.
The chicken dies in a skeleton ambush, and the ogrillon nearly dies during a Winter Wolf ambush. We still need stronger allies. But where could we find them?
Well, you know those diggers at the ruins?
They're actually coded as mages, a very rare resource in a solo Seducer run. Unfortunately, their stats are atrocious.
I get the Digger up to level 2 with some minor fights and a small mod quest, but when I consider just how many Potions of Genius the Digger needs to scribe scrolls, I decide that it's not worth the XP investment and ditch him at the Friendly Arm Inn. Our parting is brief.
This party is still strong enough to tackle some obstacles, though nothing extraordinary. I get a little more XP and loot for the party, including the all-important Gauntlets of Dexterity.
Mollyboo has no need for the gauntlets, but seduced monsters tend to have abysmal stats, including very low DEX.
Mollyboo can use wands and scrolls in my install--maybe because I installed the Seducer kit last, and some mod-related effects never got applied to her when they were supposed to--and since we do have a Wand of Lightning, I decide to tackle Bassilus. Bassilus is much tougher than I expected, but we get lucky, and the cleric goes down.
The risk was worth it. We finally get our kitty cat to level 2!
He can now survive almost 11 hits before dying. It gets us through a few more minor fights, but we're still not making much progress.
Seducers are useful for more than just the Seduction spell. Their Charm and Domination spells also have many uses, and if you backstab a character under the effects of either Charm or Domination...
...the Seducer casts a "Betrayal" spell that can instantly kill the target, and even if the victim makes a save vs. death, they still take extra damage based on the Seducer's level. Seducers only get a 2x backstab multiplier regardless of level or mod items like RR's Short Sword of Backstabbing, but their backstabs are much stronger than a normal thief's if applied to a charmed target.
Betrayal only works with the Seducer's Charm and Domination spells, however (a wizard's Charm Person won't work), and you need to wait half a round before attacking, because Domination sets the Seducer's APR to 0 for three seconds.
I decide to try my hand at the ankhegs, but we still need a bit of luck to handle them without getting killed. Notice the cat's massive damage resistance and the ogrillon using Bassilus' hammer.
By the time we clear out most of the ankheg nest, the cat is at level 3, finally making it into a decent tank, and Mollyboo is up to level 6. Finally, we can seduce level 3 critters.
Which is a huge, huge game changer for us.
Ghouls have lousy stats and no proficiencies, just like our cat and ogrillon, and they suffer the same 50% XP penalty due to having no fighter class before being seduced, but our new ghoul does have all of its normal undead immunities and its paralyzation attack. Plus, it has unnaturally high APR.
It's a bit of a glass cannon until it gets another level, but having immunity to practically every disabler in the game will be very useful against mages, especially since the paralysis effect requires a save vs. death. We just need to make sure to shore up its lousy defenses.
But these caves offer more than just a ghoul we can seduce. We can also bring a bat into the party!
Terrible stats, like always, and the 90% physical damage resistance won't matter much, but we have a mage, and it's not quite as weak as the Digger was. We have to spend four Potions of Genius to scribe the spells our bat we'll be using for the next several levels, and kill some more ankhegs so our bat actually has spell slots.
This means we finally have Protection from Petrification. Mutamin's garden is next.
Current party: Mollyboo, Seducer Cat, Fighter Ghoul, Fighter Huge Spider, Fighter Bat, Mage
I use the pet basilisk trick to speed through Mutamin's garden. Basically, you use Algernon's Cloak to charm a basilisk, cast Protection from Petrification on the basilisk, and then use it to petrify all the other basilisks in the area. It's much faster than the conventional method using missile weapons. My install also adds Medusas to the garden, which are just as vulnerable to a basilisk's gaze. Even Mutamin goes down.
Mutamin doesn't drop his equipment if you petrify him, but if you use a Stone to Flesh scroll on him, he'll come back to life with only 1 hit point, at which point he is easy to kill.
I also use the basilisk XP loop, another trick I'm quite proud of, in which you use Stone to Flesh scrolls and a Lesser Basilisk to repeatedly petrify and un-petrify a Greater Basilisk for 7,000 XP per scroll. It's the fastest way of gaining XP in BG1 and can be done at very low cost. We have over 50 scrolls, but since I haven't settled on a final party just yet, I only use 10 or so of the scrolls.
Mollyboo is now level 7, the bat is level 6, and the cat and ghoul are level 5. I also switch the ghoul's portrait to the smiley face that used to belong to our ogrillon.
Despite our growing strength, seduced critters do generally suffer from poor DEX, poor AC, and poor HP, which makes them very, very easy to kill. We actually have to deploy the Wand of Fire just to make sure we don't suffer any deaths in the Nashkel mines...
...but a ghoul is a ghoul, and ours is 25 HP lower than a properly min-maxed fighter should be at its level. Even a Wand of Fire can't kill the enemy fast enough to save our carnivorous comrade.
It's a telling sign of things to come.
One of my mods adds a gang of dwarves to the lower levels of the mines, and they can be pretty nasty if you don't take them down quickly. Mollyboo evens the odds by charming the two clerics first and using them against the leader, Gorkan Bloodaxe.
Gorky's high HP isn't enough to save him, and the rest of the dwarves collapse when I turn the clerics' Hold Person spells against their friends.
As for Mulahey, we just charm him and make him waste his spells on thin air. When a Horror spell fails to disable enough enemies to keep our ghoul alive, we resort to the Wand of Fire.
I seduce a Gray Ooze on the way out, because it's immune to magic, but when I turn it loose against Narcillus, it proves quite vulnerable to its fellow jellies.
We manage to kill the jellies and charm Narcillus into wasting some of his spells, but he's a tough nut to crack. Only when Narcillus fails a save against our ghoul's natural weapon is the battle in our favor.
Gray Oozes are very strong, as I found in a previous run with a Seducer Charname. But their movement speed is just atrocious, and while you can cure that by using Relair's Mistake to switch them to wolf form, it's not worth it. I remove the ooze from the party.
For some reason, Officer Vai will buy anything at full price in my install. Even though experience has already taught me that I don't really need all that much money to deal with BG1's admittedly item-heavy endgame, I take advantage of the opportunity.
I clear out some Sirines to the far western coast and bring a carrion crawler into the party. Like our ghoul, it has poor stats and so forth, but it has an amazing 4 APR.
I worry about its long-term viability, however. I only have one pair of Gauntlets of Dexterity to go around this low-DEX party, and 4 APR doesn't mean much against bosses when your THAC0 is a pitiful 17.
Anyway, the cat renders the local Flesh Golems a non-issue, and the bat's Invisibility spell ensures that Mollyboo doesn't have to worry about the deadly backstabs in the pirate fight.
Morvin's gang jumps us, and to my dismay, we have not cast Invisibility on the whole party beforehand. Luckily, a failed save vs. our ghoul's natural weapon and our bat's Dire Charm turn the tide in our favor early on.
Despite our recent successes, I doubt we're equipped to handle the bandit camp. The fight outside is very heavy on ranged weapons, and without strong AC, we are extremely vulnerable. I don't think we can do very well under so much pressure, even with the Wand of Fire.
So I improvise. Mollyboo uses her at-will charm spells to take control of the bandits and send them to a copse in the west where they'll be far from the fight.
It takes time, but I eventually concentrate practically the whole camp into a single spot.
This means that, when we emerge from the main tent, it will take a long time for all the enemies to reach us, and we can pick them off in smaller groups.
Then I realize that there's really no reason to visit the main tent first when I've already got all these guys in one place.
The enemy is crippled right off the bat, but the counterattack is devastating. Mollyboo is forced to go invisible for her own safety, and Taurgosz Khosann crushes our ghoul in moments.
Our cat tussles with Taurgosz while our bat roasts everyone in sight--including our cat! Meanwhile, the carrion crawler is struggling to deal with the immense pressure that killed the ghoul.
Taurgosz and the carrion crawler both fall in short order. Then Venkt shows up, and I realize that the enemies from the main tent have come out to play.
This is still better than dealing with the main tent first, however, because fighting them out gives us plenty of room to run around in, and no Ender Sai to worry about accidentally killing with the Wand of Fire. The bat and the cat are both very sturdy critters thanks to their 90% physical damage resistance, but our bat is the only source of reliable damage left in the party. And when it gets blinded, it can barely use the Wand of Fire anymore.
The bat tries to pin down Venkt with a Wand of Paralyzation before Venkt pulls any more tricks, but his saves hold fast, and he responds with magic damage that bypasses the cat and bat's physical damage resistances.
But as his allies crumble, Venkt doesn't have the power to finish us off; only to drain our potions. When we land a successful hit with the Wand of Paralyzation, it's all over for the bandits.
On to the Cloakwood! We stop by Centeol's lair. Really, it's just a contest between a Wand of Frost and a Wand of Fire.
Some mod-introduced druids ask us to slay a small dragon nearby. I've slain it before with ease, but it turns out to be much harder than I remembered.
Mollyboo barely escapes with her life, leaving her seduced monsters to wrestle with the dragon. But nobody in our group has immunity to fire, and the ghoul's final act is to show us that disabling the dragon is not a realistic possibility.
Those druids sent us on a suicide mission. We almost lost the run!
I decide to turn the tables on the druids. Notice the quick-save, which I use to speed up non-combat charm attempts.
I send in the druids to soak up the dragon's breath weapon. They die horribly, but buy us enough time to slay the dragon ourselves.
Our reward is a Ring of Protection +2. Although the quest comes from a mod, the item itself is from the original games, which means I can still use it despite my ban on mod items for this run.
I can't use mod items, but I can still sell them. So after a couple of tough but not particularly interesting mod-introduced ambushes, I stop by Officer Vai to multiply our gold supply by 10.
Fun fact: most of this gold will be spent on wands I will never use.
After adding some more scrolls to the bat's spellbook courtesy of a mod-introduced merchant, we march on the Cloakwood mines. My mods add some rather nasty archers to this fight, but by putting Mollyboo in a safe position and having her charm Genthore, I can quickly remove one troublesome foe at zero cost.
What idiots! The enemy goes hostile, but just by charming them one by one, I can get them to murder each other, until the whole group is in shambles.
Kysus proves resistant to Mollyboo's charms, so I bring out the ghoul. Kysus is not quite so good at making his saves vs. death.
Mollyboo keeps fomenting in the infighting among the survivors until their strength is totally broken. Then our party finally descends upon them.
It's a testament to the Seducer's other powers besides turning kitty cats into tanks. They can cause all kinds of havoc... as long as you keep them out of harm's way. Because with no armor, no defensive spells, and 1d4 HP per level, Seducers have by far the worst defenses of any character build in the IE games.
Current party: Mollyboo, Seducer Cat, Fighter Ghoul, Fighter Carrion Crawler, Fighter Bat, Mage
A few years ago, I started a BG Trilogy SCS-Ascension No Reload run following a lengthy break from play. I had made it far (farther than I had expected, at least…) but then I found myself completely stumped. I had no idea what to do.
I was in Irenicus’s Dungeon. My character was standing in the hallway near the Sewage Golem’s hidey-hole. I remembered that I had to do something but I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of what that something was. Then it hit me -and these were the words I thought exactly: “That’s right. I have to get that, like, box of crayons from the fish.”
The “box of crayons” was the power-cell; the fish was Rielev. I felt pretty stupid. How could I have forgotten? But then, a moment later, I re-examined Rielev’s name for the first time in years. Rielev: It’s like “re-live”, but also “relieve.” I never noticed that before. Something new! After all these years!
My character, an F/M who had high hopes for herself, was stunned speechless by my display of incompetence. She immediately cycled into despair. Her familiar -an unusually aloof and mysterious feline- saw it differently, however: “That Alesia may be a know-nothing fool, but if she can still observe, learn, and see the world a-new, after all these years, then there is hope for us- hope for us still.”
The F/M was named Arcadia, the familiar, Captain Swarmi. The rest, as they say, is history.
Why have I bothered to share this story? Because I’m back at it. And I’m every bit as naive and helpless as a little girl looking for crayons: Enter Aaliyah, half-elven Blade
Proficiencies: Scimitars, Darts
Mods: BG1: EE, SCS v30 (full prebuffs, all tactical components); BG2: EE, SCS v30 (full prebuffs, all tactical components except Irenicus and the Sendai/Abazgial Enclave upgrades), Ascension (All)
To those of you with long memories, this may have a familiar ring. Aaliyah is a copy, of a copy, of a copy. She’s a derivative character, with a lineage extending through SCS-Ascension Trilogy No Reloaders Alyssa (M/T), Alisa (Jester), and Arcadia (F/M). This was a deliberate choice. As Pablo Picasso once said, “ A good artist borrows; a great artists steals.” And who better to steal from than myself? My hope is to replicate my prior characters’ success, despite my rustiness, by hewing closely to battle tested strategies. A sensible strategy, no doubt, but there’s one person who isn’t happy about it: Aaliyah. In Aaliyah’s mind, she is not a copy; she is her own woman. She seeks to claim her unique place in the pantheon: Alyssa, Alisa, and Arcadia be damned. This is her run. And I better be up to the challenge, or there’s gonna be hell to pay.
Aaliyah’s theme song is Save Yourself by Stabbing Westward.
(It is also, kinda-sorta, my theme song, for now- at least until I get me bearings back. To those who might come seeking advice from desperately rusty little-old me: Note the lyrics…)
@Alesia_BH I don't think Aaliyah needs luck with your helping hand leading her but anyway - all the best and safe travels to both of you! Feels good to have you back!
After leaving the FAI Tenya and I fought some gnolls near High Hedge before trying to hlp Mellicamp. We failed at that but were able to help an apprentice mage who had been blamed for his predicament. We were also able to help a were-wolf to get back into shape using a guril berry potion.
Heading south we killed some ogrillon and some overl oficious flaming fist. I dodded their armour but it was too heavy for Tenya.
We also returned a rabbit to it's owner, though the ogre who had found it was rather disappointed.
Further south we killed hobgoblins and found the colquetle amulet.
In Nashkel we found some armour that Tenya CAN wear.
We talked to Noober, turned down a reward and did some baby-sitting.
In the carnival we bought a replacement rabbit for the ogre and returned to give it to him.
In Nashkel we returned the amulet to the Colquetle family and sorted out a quarrel.
EDIT
We also delivered a letter to Mirianne and whilst at the forge I stocked up with throwing axes and bought a sling +1 for Tenya. We now both have a ring of protection.
We reunited Rufie with his owner and then killed Vax and Zal with a little help from a couple of skeletons that Tenya had raised.
(About my installation: BWS kept complaining about some choices and I now don't have "Rest anywhere Something has changed the armour rules. Dex is reduced when wearing armour. This presumably affects everyone in the game, so is fair enough but will weaken heavy armour users relative to kensais and the like. These changes weren't intended but I'm not too familiar with BWS yet. I also noticed that Tenya can only raise 1 skeleton now. It used to be 3! Also the oil of speed is nowhere near as long lasting. I hope that the same doesn't apply for protection from petrification spells and potions. )
The Gallant Cromarty and friends go on, battling through the DeArnise keep & Temple Ruins, while being driven back from Watcher's Keep.
We dropped Kelsey for Nalia for the DeArnise keep, and quickly fought through to Torgal. However her grief clearly weakened her after we had avenged her father as she was repeatedly slain by Vampiric Wraiths at Watcher's Keep and we put off clearing the fortress. (Nothing good in the shops there either!)
Subsequently we cleared the Temple Ruins, helping Mazzy in her turn to avenge her comrades while Nalia drowned her sorrows at the Coronet. The Shadow Dragon also fell quickly (I may double some dragon hps now, a bit too easy without SCS.) Lava's Will o'the Wisp mod sent us on to the Umar Hills, from whence we picked up Valygar. I'm not 100% sure if we'll do the Sphere though, I'm not quite sold on how high it would rank on Cromarty's list vs. dealing with slavers and Valygar is hardly a damsel in distress. Party are all around 1.1 million XP.
As an aside Cernd has had an interesting arc. He defeated Faldorn as a totemic druid, but after the business with his son and being bitten by a werewolf around Windspear I switched him to Shapeshifter using Enhanced NPCs. His base form seemed rather weak & buggy so I'm using the BG Tweaks boosted version for now, having spent 15,000 *upgrading* Rieltar's Mistake as an ingame excuse. If his greater form proves too powerful then I shall probably wall off a few more equipment slots or drop him.
I think Wimp's got a lot of potential (certainly plenty of room for improvement ), so decided to give her another go. This time it took 10 restarts for her to successfully learn the identify scroll in Candlekeep. In most of my games I don't allow the use of intelligence potions and just take pot luck on whether spells will be learned successfully - Wimp won't be using that restriction, though it will be some time before she's likely to want to cast any spells anyway.
For once I didn't bother with Shoal, but Wimp soon gained a couple of levels by using Algernon's Cloak on the sirines at the Beregost temple - though annoyingly the last of those died to a maximum damage critical from the wild dog wearing it down. The pseudo-dragon then slashed all the basilisks and got a bit of help from Korax to deal with Mutamin as well. That's got Wimp up to level 5, though the total gain of 5 HPs for that was nothing to write home about.
The remainder of the session saw Wimp travelling north via the FAI and killing some fishermen. She's had several trips back to Beregost to put items for sale or later use into store, but has finally just arrived in Tenya's area.
Good to see you back @Alesia_BH. I hope Aaliyah's reputation doesn't suffer too much as a result of her vampiric cravings .
With attempt 136's demise, we swap again so I am protagonist looking for an elusive 3rd success between us. This was at the weekend and a distinct lack of notes means I am going from a couple of screenshots and an assumption that our starting approach followed the usual pattern.
The randomator threw up a Ranger for me and a Cleric / Ranger for Grond0.
Thus followed the Candlekeep Chores, ambush in the woods and a trip to the coast to play catch with Shoal the Nereid. Picking up Perdue's sword on the way to Beregost where we forcefully relieve Neera of her gembag, have a drink with Marl and obtain a book for Firebead. Possibly returning an amulet to Mr Colquette.
Then down to Nashkel, picking up some stealthy boots for Dave on the way and retrieving a letter before it is used for toilet purposes by a brace of ogrillions. There's some ankheg plate here, Hyra holding on to it but with the expectation of it being used rarely.
With a level or two under our belts we head out east to prey on basilisks and Mutamin. Korax the ghoul is recruited as rotting meat-shield against Kirian and her crew, making short work of them.
Dave asks how Hyra feels about ankhegs. Pretty good, it turns out, although the critters themselves are not fooled for a moment by the cunning ankheg plate disguise.
@Alesia_BH I don't think Aaliyah needs luck with your helping hand leading her
Thanks! I appreciate the vote of confidence. I'm pretty insanely rusty right now, though, and I only have about a month until I leave for India. We'll see how it goes!
Thrilled to see you back in business! I also note the intense character theme.
Thanks, Borco! Aaliyah's musical tastes aren't mine, exactly. She just looks goth-industrial to me.
(Btw. I'm considering making a few music videos for Aaliyah. If there are any goth-industrial music fans out there, feel free to PM me song suggestions!)
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 137 part 1 2 Hyra (Elf Ranger, Gate70); Dave (Half-elf Cleric/Ranger, Grond0)
Returning a body to Farmer Brun earns a bit of reputation, and shortly afterwards we heave Samuel into a temple to reach the cap of 20. Time to shop, a cloak of displacement and greenstone amulet being all we require. Old habits die hard though and we hoard a few more treasures for sale, our pile of coins growing far larger than we need.
Mulahey is dead and buried in Nashkel Mine, Tranzig won't be leaving his room other than in a (small) box. The memory of Taugosz Khosann will live on (with Dave hanging on to his armour) while Venkt and his gang put up little resistance to our intrusion.
Cloakwood almost caught us out when Hyra sprang a trap but the final ettercap was already keeling over from a surplus of bullets so we survived. More than can be said for Drasus and his gang, or Davaeorn.
We made our way into the city only for the game to crash, so the next session will resume from the the autosave made after crossing the bridge.
Dave has unintentionally drunk two blue healing potions!! One screenshotted, the other noted. Each time this was due to Hyra entering a building as Dave was about to click a spell.
+Today is the day I realise I can drag a group of pictures into the comment rather than one at a time. Once done I realise why it's not a good idea. Here's the randomator of how the uploads went - in no way connected to the story order.
Dave has unintentionally drunk two blue healing potions!! One screenshotted, the other noted. Each time this was due to Hyra entering a building as Dave was about to click a spell.
I reckon this was just a sneaky attempt to habituate me to the taste of those awful blue concoctions .
Dave has unintentionally drunk two blue healing potions!! One screenshotted, the other noted. Each time this was due to Hyra entering a building as Dave was about to click a spell.
I reckon this was just a sneaky attempt to habituate me to the taste of those awful blue concoctions .
Holy cow ! Without the screenshot, I think I wouldn't have believed it ! The earth might have stopped moving for a second...
What is it that decides why some may live and some may die? Better to cast these questions into the dark pool of a Shaman's grotto that he might rise up and tell the answers than to write, but write I must. Do all things have their season to wither? Why Cernd... but not I, or Xan, or any other? I have walked in a Temple of Murder, I have climbed the steps of hell, with the beast Verr'Sza at my side and the beast of murder in my heart. I had thought that the longing for blood which ever stirs within might have been tamed by the tortures of Irenicus, and that this Druid Cernd might have some wild secret to show. I was wrong and the end is only death, well cooked but bitter however it is served.
And now I have no time for writing, for I must lead, and find the strength to sing again.
Well, Valygar certainly had a nose for wizardry and death. No sooner were we back in the city than he was recommending the destruction of a guild- and the Shadow Thieves were certainly on my hitlist. But first we just walked through a door, and another door, as Valygar followed his damn nose. Our second encounter with a lich was even more costly than our first battle in the Council of Six building.
The lich (who I have mentally retconned as the returning Deril) is gone, but our party will be needing some reinforcements....and I'm not at all sure if I haven't had enough of Valygar already...or if he is the lone wolf in human form to fill the 'beast' slot in our group. Serves me right for doing a quick play while tired anyway - something I usually avoid!
So lets get started. Out of Candlekeep together with Imoen we cleared the first area noticing that BGT spawns are far less severe than I'm used to in Tutu (there are 1-2 creatures mostly in BGT while in Tutu there are always 6 of those). That means less tedious kiting early on but at the same time slow gaining first few levels. Anyway, right after that we headed straight to the Beregost through the High Hedge to complete all those usual tasks there and get Potion of Invisibility with Chainmail +1 out of local manor.
Fights with Hobgoblins south of Beregost showed us that lacking of critical hit protections makes trash mobs quite scary:
As it was the first time I've fiddled with BigWorldSetup, seems I unintentionally choose the component of SCS "Move NPCs to more convenient locations" so we've met Viconia south of Beregost and gladly invited her into the Crew. All further run proved her words upon joining - she doesn't fail me even once!
The newborn trio cleared the area and we headed to the FAI to complete the core of the Crew noticing another difference between BGT and Tutu alone the way (in BGT lightning hurts!):
In my current setup Conjurers' pre-buffs contains Monster Summoning II spell and those are Green Slimes! At the moment I didn't know if those are usual ones, able to perma-chunk any character if saves are failed and newbie characters have horrific saves so when Tarnesh summoned those we've made a tactical retreat to lure him away from them. Furthermore, those pre-buffed summons give no exp upon killing so I see no reason at all to fight them if not forced to (in a confined areas of similar situations). He cast Sleep on Imoen, which she saved vs, while I point my Wand of Missiles on him to get rid of his mirror images. His second Sleep on Imoen connected but it doesn't matter much as in my setup any inflicted damage wakes sleeping character and after Viconia Silenced him his fate was sealed. Invisibility spell scroll he dropped is priceless:
In the Inn we've returned Joia, Unshey and Landrin their belonings and joined with Jaheira and Khalid. As I've already mentioned in 'Einleitung' post my current setup forced me to drastically change my usual approach with Jaheira. Now, as she can't wear any metal equipment (helmets/armor/shields) she best be used as support caster/ranged damage dealer. I've installed 'Thalantyr - Item Upgrade' mod but then thought it will mess with Item Revisions so I didn't planned to make all those upgrades. Now I've made one single exception - asked him to forge the returning throwing dagger out of Candlekeep's Dagger+1 and Imoen's Oil of Speed (and later made another one for Dynaheir/Xan). And if in the past Jaheira usually was my main tank, now, with that puny 1D4+1 throwing +1 dagger, she is the Crew's best hunter outmarching in kills score even Khalid with his heavy hitting crossbow of accuracy +1 (1D10 bolts, THACO +2, Damage +3, additional +3 to attack rolls and +10% chance to score critical hits) and better THACO. Now guess, who took her place as Crew's main tank? Yep, it's Viconia and she shines in this role beyond reach!
Long story short the Crew wiped out an opposition from all the areas down to Nashkel and some more. Thalantyr also sold me the Bag of Holding filling my pack rat's soul with unspeakable joy. Now none a single piece of loot will be cast aside!
Melicamp doesn't survived the transformation and I already don't know whether this is a bad omen or not...
Down in Nashkel Inn Neira was Silenced, Held and demolished (we also made sure Jaheira doesn't cast Entangle this time to not upset locals). Viconia advanced to level 4 and I got a Healing Touch ability.
There we also joined Minsc in his rescue mission but for some reason Xvart village isn't accessible right from the Nashkel (as I'm used to) so we had to take another route through the Cloudpeaks (or Fire Leaf Forest) where we fought some Kobold Commandos and noticed yet another difference between BGT and Tutu - Commandos drop much more Arrows of Fire now and those arrows are magical +1 ones so we quickly formed a solid supply in case we need them to hit a creatures immune to normal weapons (i.e. Vampiric Wolves).
Vax was Held and without him Zal can't do much even being the 'fastest darts thrower in the west'... Studded Leather Armor +2 was a nice upgrade for Viconia while Imoen hunted down some Winter Wolves for their pelts (they are not pink but ... who cares?).
Seems, Item Randomiser kindly took into account of me being an Illusionist rearranging spell scrolls...:
Caldo & Krumm were both Held and we found another Chainmail+1 in the nearby cave. Drienne gave us Protection from Undead scroll though it's not the same as in vanilla (the recipient is immune to level drain effects and attacks made by undead creatures receive -2 penalty while all saving throws vs such attacks are made with +2 bonus). I.e. not a complete ignoring of protected character which is good IMO when fighting Vampires (those just went invisible if protected by vanilla scroll character is nearby). While speaking with Ingot Minsc showed that he is quite unreliable person and best be avoided if possible. :
So we hurry up to the Gnoll Stronghold to complete his mission and get rid of insane warrior as soon as possible:
We went back to civilisation through the Bear River picking local Ogre Berserkers from the distance as those (not speaking of Bears) could easily chunk any of us with lucky critical.
Both Gibberlings and Xvart Hordes are also less crowdy then I remember them:
Fight vs Teyngan & Co was quite intence as it took quite a while to neutralise Jemby who saved vs all our Silence spells unloading a full stock of her own spells in return:
Gravediggers' area is full of Kobold Commandos (more arrows of fire) and tough Gnolls (Dynaheir's quest) and we found a Composite Longbow +1 which none of us can use. We avoided Doomsayer at the moment taking lift to Nashkel with Brage.
One of Carnival shops has a Night's Embrace rings on sale which stacks together and with two of those Imoen's needs in Hide in Shadows skill is fully covered.
There we saved two more damsels in distress (Viconia soloed Zordral - with her MR it's quite a simple task).
and then continued 'help'em all' mission further to the east:
Shipwreck's Coast was our next destination where Dynaheir was chosen to talk with Shoal. Droth conjured the full stock of various monsters but after we made a tactical retreat those began to fight between themselves and even killed their own master in the end. We only need to pick the Shadow Armor out of his corpse:
We've fought some more Ogres but then, after Imoen scouted the whole map looking for monsters and marking their positions on the map, they all (but Sirenes) suddenly just disappeared (so no Carrion Crawlers near Shipwrek, no wolves or Ogrillons...). This BGT spawn mechanics works pretty weird sometimes...
The Lonely Peaks is by far my least favorite area in all BG1 - those damn Ogres... And those Berserkers -they take quite the efforts (and resources) to deal with and then, at near death, their rage ends, they loose 15hp and die... and you get nothing (no exp). And as you just turn around they immediately spawn again behind your back. More so, this time we've encountered an Ogre Mage there! And after we put even more efforts/resources to fight him, at near death he panicked and just gone (fled from the map). Arrgh, I hate this area!
En-route to the Mutamin's Garden through the Beregost Temple area we were greeted by the wolves pack we accidentally triggered some time before so had to fight them unprepared in the very confined space. But with Potion of Freedom, some skellies and kobold's arrows of fire we've managed to deal with them.
I had hoped to cover all Grim Face's exploits in this new run in one go up to the point when he fell with his first incarnation (up to the Baldur's Gate City) but seems it's quite a task so that's it for now and more will come tomorrow.
Good to see you back, @Alesia_B_H! You've always been a treasure to the community.
Also good to see BWS in some new installs. Mod items can be broken and game-breaking if you pick the best ones, but there are some awfully interesting mod fights that still haven't been well-developed. I still don't know how to win the Chosen of Cyric encounter without relying on certain mod items.
Finally, the Cloakwood Mines. The cat is a fabulous tank despite its poor AC, with 51 HP and 90% physical damage resistance. Granted, it does have lousy saving throws and no immunities...
...but since the cat has poor attack power and doesn't rely much on potions to stay alive, the only real risk of losing control of the cat is that he might kill the nearby cook. Mollyboo solves that problem by charming the cook. She still ends up dead, but we don't lose reputation.
Mollyboo is much less sturdy, however, and SCS enemies are smart enough to identify high-AC targets like our main character.
I pull Mollyboo back before she gets killed and have her drink a potion while our ghoul and carrion crawler rush into battle, worried that the enemy might walk right past our cat to attack our vulnerable Seducer. Unfortunately, our ghoul and carrion crawler, the only real damage dealers in our party aside from wands, aren't remotely as tough as the cat.
They cling to life, however, and bludgeon some of the guards to death, though Hareishan makes her saves against the ghoul's paralysis attacks. A guard comes to flank Mollyboo, but a Blindness spell keeps her safe.
Hareishan inches closer and launches a Confusion spell at Mollyboo. Mollyboo's aura isn't clear; she can't drink a potion to protect herself. The best she can do is run away to keep the Confusion spell from hitting our bat. She doesn't make her save.
The hallway is pretty empty, but I don't know it will stay that way. There may be a ghast loitering around at the end, and more guards may spill in and attack Mollyboo. To keep her out of trouble, I have her dump all of her equipment save for a couple of suits of armor and have our bat turn her invisible.
Why was no one wearing that suit of full plate mail? Simple: in my install, armor, including full plate, has a 1% chance of breaking with every hit, so I've been using enchanted armor exclusively. With the Bag of Holding now in our bat's hands and Mollyboo too weighed down to wander around and break invisibility by attacking somebody, Mollyboo is almost completely safe--as long as no one gets close to her.
Anxious to end the fight while we're still more or less okay, our bat casts Horror and follows up with a Wand of Fire charge. One guard makes it to the southern hallway, but with the rest of the enemies on the run, we can bring in our fighters to take him down before he can endanger Mollyboo.
We chase down Hareishan before Horror wears off and paralyze her.
I expect Natasha to play out the same way, wasting her disablers on the cat until she's too weak to hold off our ghoul and carrion crawler. But it seems Natasha prefers a more direct approach to her enemies.
I pull back the cat and only send it back when it's healthy again, but it's not long before it gets in trouble again.
Without bigger potions, the cat can't survive. 90% physical damage resistance is useless against spell damage.
We send in some monsters from the Wand of Monster Summoning, but Natasha is still quite strong. The carrion crawler collapses as well.
But then Mollyboo lands a Domination spell. It doesn't last long, but all I need to do is keep Natasha from refreshing her defenses while the monsters tear her down.
One of the nice things about Domination is that it ignores the Seducer's line of sight. It can go right through walls, which can compensate for the Seducer's squishiness in certain areas.
I like how our party is turning out so far, but it has some severe limitations. While the cat is nearly immune to melee weapons, it suffers horribly to magical arrows and spells of all kinds, and it is an extremely poor damage dealer. The ghoul has high APR and lots of immunities, but it can barely stand up to melee weapons or spell damage, and its THAC0 is mediocre. The carrion crawler has even higher APR, but its THAC0 is atrocious, and its defenses are even worse than the ghoul's. The bat is basically just a single-classed mage, and Mollyboo will only survive if her companions are around to absorb enemy pressure. Having no clerics or druids doesn't help, either.
For all our party's special powers, the drawbacks are pretty heavy. We're actually weaker than a conventional party of the same level, or even a properly-constructed solo character. We're going to have to rely on the Wand of Monster Summoning to deal with Davaeorn and his many, many guards.
First off, we need to deal with the archer using Arrows of Detonation. See, there's a diverse enemy party right before Davaeorn in my install, and one of them really loves those arrows. So much so, in fact, that he'll wipe out his own comrades just to kill some cheap summons.
Those arrows won't last forever, so we're still going to have to deal with most of the enemy party. One of them is a backstabber, so the bat makes sure to keep Mollyboo safe from a potentially fatal critical backstab.
The mage quickly puts our bat in the red with a Minor Sequencer, shutting down the bat's spellcasting by forcing it to drink potions, but the ghoul manages to paralyze the mage.
With all the summoned monsters acting in concert, and with all those Arrows of Detonation bombing the enemy party, we clear out the first room. It's a pity that we can't use mod items, because one of the enemies drops a pair of boots that grants full-blown haste, with the extra +1 APR and everything.
I hoped to deal with the Battle Horrors using missile weapons, but it seems that could take a while.
Since Seducers cannot set or disarm traps, I have to tank the traps beneath the Battle Horrors. I send in the cat, thinking its physical damage resistances would at least keep the Battle Horrors from finishing it off, but it seems they use fire damage as well as slashing damage, and the cat has no such resistances.
The cat will not be able to topple the Battle Horrors before they roast the poor kitten. Instead, our bat uses some of its limited spell slots to weaken the enemy while Mollyboo turns them against each other, allowing my other fighters to pitch in without getting chopped up in the process.
Now comes the tricky part. First, I send in the ghoul, knowing that it will be totally immune to any disablers Davaeorn might throw out, with the notable exception of Web.
I keep the rest of the party concentrated in the previous area so we can pounce on Davaeorn once he teleports over. If we're lucky, the carrion crawler can paralyze him, and then the battle will be won.
But I've forgotten that Davaeorn is a big fan of damage spells. And the core of my party is all packed together when he blasts us.
The bat is dead and all our fighters are below 50% HP. And it's not like even their maximum HP is particularly high. Our fighters chase after Davaeorn, hoping to paralyze him before he wipes us out, but the carrion crawler gets webbed and bombed down to 2 HP while our ghoul fails to pin down Davaeorn.
Worse yet, his guards have started pouring in from the northeast.
Either because I have one mod working correctly, or a different mod working incorrectly, Mollyboo is able to use wands. This allows us to put up a temporary barrier against the enemy fighters.
Barrier or no, the cat can hold off a lot of fighters with little trouble. But the ghoul struggles against Davaeorn's Minute Meteors.
Molly has just drunk a Potion of Magic Shielding. Davaeorn might be able to dispel it, but if he doesn't, she's almost guaranteed to survive any spells he might throw at her. But Mollyboo still has no defense against the enemy's swords if the cat should fall.
Which it does, when Davaeorn launches another Fireball.
Some of the mod-introduced enemies we've fought have dropped Potions of Extra Healing, and since the potions if not the former owners date back to the original games, our ghoul is allowed to use them, giving him 18 more HP than he could get with a normal potion.
Mollyboo still has one trick up her sleeve: 5 Arrows of Dispelling. She lands a hit on the first try, and Davaeorn's defenses go down.
The carrion crawler dies still ensnared in Davaeorn's Web, but the ghoul manages to force a failed save vs. death on Davaeorn, paralyzing him for 30 seconds. Davy is doomed.
Enemies come pouring in, but all we have to do is push over Davaeorn. The battle is won.
On the way out, we meet Perwell, a small boy we freed from the mines. We have to escort him to his mother outside the Friendly Arm Inn. Since Perwell died horribly to a wyvern ambush the last time I tried to escort him, I turn him invisible to prevent any wyvern-related mishaps.
We do in fact get ambushed by wyverns, but Perwell is still invisible when we arrive at the new map.
But, to my absolute disbelief, Perwell breaks his invisibility just to punch a wyvern with his tiny fists.
The wyvern obliterates him, and I am left wondering if it's even possible to complete this questline with Perwell still alive.
I am not looking forward to the meeting with his mom.
We get ambushed again on one of the normal maps by a mod-introduced party of bounty hunters. Mollyboo goes invisible right off the bat using a potion, but the rest of the party decides to duke it out.
The enemy targets our ghoul, and they deal so much damage that not even a Potion of Extra Healing can keep him alive. Not even for a single round.
The cat and carrion crawler rush in to engage the enemy before they can fire any more arrows. The cat does well (notice its critical hit from Varscona, which it wields in the off-hand when in wolf form from Relair's Mistake), but the carrion crawler is even weaker than the ghoul. Another party member goes down.
Our bat casts a Fireball while the cat uses its high movement rate to escape the blast. It's all we can do, now that our glass cannons have been so easily shattered.
We bring down all but one enemy, and then I see another one. A mage.
Because of course it had to be a mage.
The bat uses the Wand of Monster Summoning to box in the mage while the cat suffers a backstab in which most of the damage is electrical.
The bat buffs our summons, only for the enemy mage to send them into disarray.
But after sustained pressure and high APR, we cut through his Stoneskins and drag him to the ground. One last enemy appears, but he doesn't have the defenses to last long.
You'll notice that Mollyboo did absolutely nothing in this fight. I don't always know very much about the enemy's abilities and tactics, but I avoid a lot of deaths just by making sure my Charname is far from the battle and has a clear aura.
We get a lot of nice mod items from the fight, but since we can't use them, we just pawn them off to Officer Vai.
Yet more gold that we will largely waste.
Before we enter Baldur's Gate, there is still one last group of mod enemies that could give us a lot of grief. With four archers armed with magical arrows that deal cold damage and can paralyze on a failed save vs. death, they could wipe us out in seconds if we're not prepared. But our bat has a level 2 spell that, by itself, will ensure we make it to Baldur's Gate in one piece.
Invisibility.
Why should I fight these guys when I can't even use their loot?
Now that we're finally in Baldur's Gate, we can bring the next member of the party into our team.
Schlumpsa is only level 2 and has poor defenses and poor damage output, but he does have some important abilities that will become very important very soon.
Despite his low stats, he does have 4 APR, and has a ranged weapon that deals poison damage and slows the target for 200 seconds (!) on a failed save. On top of that, he's immune to normal weapons (meh) and missile damage, which will be a huge deal in the final battle. He's quite sluggish in his natural form, unfortunately, so he'll need to use Relair's Mistake to shapeshift into wolf form most of the time.
With our sky-high APR, single mages like Ragefast and Ramazith are a cinch.
We buy some Stone to Flesh scrolls before we enter the Iron Throne.
The Iron Throne fight has always been very tough for me. Enemy backstabbers kill my spellcasters, enemy fighters kill my fighters, and enemy spellcasters disable everyone. I send forward our cat to soak up the enemy's first attacks and spells.
Then our carrion crawler fails a save against Domination. Seducers can dispel charm effects using Dispel Charm, but the target must make a save vs. spell at +5 for it to work. And our carrion crawler has terrible saving throws.
One of the two thieves, both named Shennara, targets Mollyboo, who has to flee south lest a critical backstab slays her. To the west, the other Shennara attacks our cat, who just shrugs off the backstab.
Then something horrible happens.
Two party members are now charmed, including our best and only tank. On top of that, the bat, our only mage, is paralyzed. Half the party is out of our control, and Mollyboo has to stay invisible to survive, leaving our ghoul and Schlumpsa to do all the work.
But because of a mod issue or simply because many of our party members have surprisingly high Intelligence (except, ironically, for our mage), several of our party members can use wands. Once I get the ghoul in the right position, the effect is devastating, though it won't be enough to win us this fight.
And with the enemy partly distracted by our many summoned monsters, the ghoul and Schlumpsa can paralyze and poison the enemy on a failed save.
Naaman tries to paralyze the ghoul, but the ghoul and Schlumpsa both have all the standard undead immunities. They keep making progress as the enemy fails to subdue them.
The bat recovers from paralysis! Mollyboo reveals Naaman while he was hiding! The ghoul survives Gardush's axe! The bat lands Greater Malison! And Schlumpsa poisons the now-visible Naaman!
It gets better. The cat recovers from Domination and Schlumpsa kills Gardush, whom the ghoul has pushed to the brink of death using a Wand of Fire.
Alai has been struggling with Schlumpsa's poison, and without Gardush to distract Schlumpsa, Alai is out of time.
Finally, the ghoul seals Naaman's fate with its natural weapon.
We won, but that was terrible. I'm not used to glass cannon parties like these; I tend to create extremely defensive builds as a bulwark against bad luck, and I tend to manipulate the enemy's behavior to drain its strength before pouncing. It works great in a no-reload context, but defensive builds are hard to find among enemies in BG1, which means Mollyboo's Seduction power mostly just gives us access to glass cannons like the ghoul. The cat is certainly very sturdy, but only against one type of threat, and it's not much good for anything else.
Anyway, we head over to Candlekeep, with our new Ring of Free Action on Mollyboo, because practically all my defensive options end up on my main character. We visit an old friend, Alec.
Alec might be from the Romantic Encounters mod, but I doubt it--as far as I know, you can only get to first base with him.
The catacombs are uneventful. Prat's comrades die to Wand of Fire charges, and though Prat himself makes a lot of his saving throws, eventually we manage to paralyze him. One of the nice things about having the ghoul and Schlumpsa in the party is that we don't need Protection from Petrification to deal with basilisks and Medusas--a very important detail since our only mage died a lightning bolt trap.
My ban on mod items makes an exception for crafting items, so Mollyboo gets a Ring of Free Action +2, granting both free action and +2 to AC and saves.
By now, we have collected 95 Stone to Flesh scrolls. The basilisk XP loop allows us to give everyone in the party at least one level up by using up the scrolls.
But since I've already done the basilisk XP loop a few times before and I'm tired of going through the motions, I just do the math in Excel, drop a bunch of scrolls on the ground, and use the console to give everyone the XP they would have gotten normally. Mollyboo hits level 10, which means her Charm ability can now hit three targets.
Which, just like the Wand of Lightning, can be used to multiply the effects of on-self items and spells. Any item or spell with multiple targets can do this.
A solo Seducer has virtually no need for high ability scores. But I just like seeing stupidly high values on my Charname's Record screen, even though they've never been particularly meaningful.
Next up, Cythandria! Schlumpsa poisons her in the first round, one of her goons dies soon after, and she loses one of her first spells--which are typically the strongest for SCS mages.
But those Web spells have been paralyzing the ghoul and the cat for quite some time, and they're getting close to death. And though Cythandria lost her first spell, she doesn't lose the others. With two spells, she nearly slays over half the party.
And with Schlumpsa caught in her web and the carrion crawler unable to paralyze Cythandria due to her Teleport Field, the only one who can bail out the party is Mollyboo, who breaks invisibility to fire an Arrow of Dispelling at Cythandria.
It's worked for us before. But it requires an attack roll to work, and Mollyboo misses every time. Cythandria strikes back.
Half the party is now dead, and Cythandria's defenses remain strong. The bat tries to land a Chaos spell, but the walls get in the way, and Cythandria avoids it entirely. Schlumpsa chases after her, trying to slow her and poison her, but she fights back hard, and she keeps making her saving throws.
Then I realize that Cythandria has lost her MGOI.
So...
Yeah. I could have done that much earlier, if I had thought to.
Anyhoo, down to the Undercellars. Turns out Romantic Encounters adds a sex scene to... Slythe and Kristin. Of all people.
Then, something even weirder happens.
Um...
Now what?
I wouldn't put it past a mod to introduce an instant death script to a dialogue. And Slythe is exactly the kind of person who would murder you when your guard was down. Staying still does not seem remotely safe.
But what if it's the other way around? What if he's just toying with me, and fighting back would spur him to kill me? Even if that option doesn't involve an instant death script, and just started combat normally, I don't know if Mollyboo would have her equipment when it began. And if she doesn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand, she might suffer a fatal backstab before she can even escape the room.
What am I supposed to do?
I seriously don't know. None of the options seem safe. I don't even know why I agreed to this; I hadn't bothered with most of the other Romantic Encounters content, despite so many of them being a perfect fit for a Seducer protagonist.
Based on my limited understanding of the twisted mind behind the Romantic Encounters mod, I decide to pick the second option, to freeze instead of fighting back.
He doesn't kill me. But unfortunately, a roll in the hay will not get those invitations to the Ducal Palace. The fight begins anyway, despite me cooperating at every step of the way.
But Mollyboo still has her equipment.
She goes invisible and escapes the room while our cat, still in wolf form, runs out to handle Slythe. Slythe can barely scratch it.
But Krystin is another story, and she will only focus on her defenses for so long before taking aggressive action. She's clearly readying some hideous disabler for our kitty cat.
I bring out the rest of the party, certain that the cat will need help at some point, and Kristin directs her Chaos spell at the party. The carrion crawler fails its save, but the ghoul is immune, and the bat manages to resist the effect.
Notice the carrion crawler getting weighed down. Like I did with the cat when it got confused in the Cloakwood mines, I put a couple suits of armor in the carrion crawler's inventory so it couldn't walk around and chomp on one of the nearby innocents.
The bat and Kristin trade meaningless spells. With 90% damage resistance, the bat barely needs its mage defenses, the bat's Chaos spell fails entirely, and Kristin's Slow spell only affects the cat, who can keep tanking Slythe despite the penalties.
But when the bat tries Greater Malison first, its next Chaos spell works on both targets.
The battle continues a bit longer, but with Slythe and Kristin unable to use potions or defensive spells, they can't hold us off for long.
To the Ducal Palace! Mollyboo charms the doppelgangers before the fight and sends them all to a single room, allowing us to seal them off from the main room with the Wand of Monster Summoning.
I believe I used talk-blocking to make sure that I could turn Liia Jannath invisible before the dialogue started. In some cases, I've seen dialogues disrupt spells.
The doppelgangers hurt the carrion crawler badly before it escapes, but by the time they claw their way out of their room, we've already broken their strength.
We move into position to contain Sarevok, ensuring that Belt as well as Liia Jannath survives. Check out the bat's badass tanking skills.
The bat's damage resistances really don't synergize well with its mage class, since it still needs Mirror Image and Stoneskin to avoid spell disruption, but it does keep the bat a little safer.
I spend all my gold in anticipation of Siege of Dragonspear. When Sorcerous Sundries has nothing left for me, I use the scroll scribing mod to create a bunch of spare scrolls, which Mollyboo can use for whatever reason (I still don't know which mod makes this happen, nor do I plan on finding out). Unfortunately, I can't scribe scrolls of Emotion: Hope from the IWDification mod or Dimension Door.
Only one fight left before Sarevok, the Undercity party. Fortunately, one of them is stupid enough to fire Arrows of Detonation at our cat even when the cat is right next to his own party members.
Those Arrows of Detonation won't be enough to win the battle. So the carrion crawler adds its own.
Two enemies survive while our cat dies, but they're not too dangerous without their friends to help out.
I mentioned that Schlumpsa would have a critical role in the final battle, and he does. With his immunity to missile damage, he's the only one who can completely resist both forms of damage from Arrows of Detonation. Tazok and Diarmid aren't so lucky, and Diarmid dies in moments.
But I can only keep this up for so long before Sarevok starts to kill Schlumpsa, and I'm not willing to trade Schlumpsa's life just to finish off Tazok. Unfortunately, I forget to stop everyone from firing while the ghoul is on the move.
It takes some finagling and we take some damage, but I move around the party and get Schlumpsa in position to be our Arrow of Detonation target.
Tazok and Diarmid are both dead, leaving only Angelo, Semaj, and Sarevok himself. Angelo vanishes, leaving us with no clear next move.
We focus on breaking apart the Skeleton Warriors while Mollyboo struggles to land an Arrow of Dispelling on Semaj and Schlumpsa, still in wolf form to improve its movement speed, runs away from Sarevok.
Mollyboo lands a hit, but all it gets her is a Breach spell and a new Stoneskin on Semaj.
Mollyboo uses another Stoneskin scroll. Angelo breaks invisibility to nail Mollyboo with Lightning Bolt, but she's immune. We swarm Semaj, but he can still zap the rest of the group.
It's not enough. We box him in.
Angelo's defenses are still strong. Until Mollyboo lands another Arrow of Dispelling.
We break apart the remaining Skeleton Warriors and mob Sarevok, who foolishly targets our kitty cat.
With Sarevok's allies dead and our party in strong condition, Sarevok has no options left but to hack at the horde as it eats him alive.
Victory! We enter Siege of Dragonspear at around 200,000 XP apiece, or 100,000 for our fighters, loaded with wands and Arrows of Detonation and such.
In all honesty, I have trouble measuring the power of a solo Seducer in BG1. We pulled off some early kills thanks to the paralysis attacks of our ghoul and carrion crawler, but we suffered an abnormally high death rate even in the late game, and there's a chance we might not have made it past Davaeorn if our dead bat was the only one who could use wands.
As for the final battle, I very much doubt this party could have beaten Sarevok without relying on wands and Arrows of Detonation. Those items so dominate late BG1 gameplay that a party's actual abilities are practically irrelevant once you collect enough gold.
Still, it was a very fun playthrough. I liked having a kitty cat and a ghoul as my frontline fighters. Seducers play very differently from other classes, and for me, the most important thing is that I get to try out something weird and interesting. And Siege of Dragonspear should be even weirder and even more interesting.
Because Seducers can pull some really, really crazy stunts in SoD.
Mollyboo has made it through Baldur's Gate primarily thanks to wands and Arrows of Detonation. Now she's faced with the prospect of getting through Siege of Dragonspear, where enemies are much tougher and far more intelligent than typical BG1 enemies. Wands will win us a lot of fights, but we're going to have to do better than that if we're going to win the more complicated ones.
Despite being a solo character, Mollyboo has used her Seduction ability to bring 5 critters into the party without building any at character creation or recruiting typical NPCs. She's had to find whatever random critters were weak enough for her to control. This includes:
A cat with 90% physical damage resistance A ghoul A carrion crawler A bat with 90% physical damage resistance and mage spells Schlumpsa the Sewer King
All of them have terrible stats, high AC, low HP, and crummy THAC0. But they have all the special immunities and on-hit effects that they did in the original game, allowing them to compete in BG1. They used to have their original sprites, but the transition to SoD reset them all to human sprites. So, the bat now looks like a human mage.
I'd change the sprites back, because it gives us an unfair movement rate advantage in some cases, but this party won't last long enough for it to matter. It will take some work, but I have big plans for Mollyboo's future recruits.
We get thrashed by the Shadowed Souls in the first dungeon (nobody in the party is immune or even resistant to magic damage), and have to resort to Wands of Fire to avoid losing half the party in our second major fight.
But this fight gets us a very nice prize. Because Mollyboo is at level 10, she can use Seduction on level 5 enemies and below. And the Skeletal Mage in this fight just happens to be level 5!
We have to get rid of its allies first and then repeatedly attempt to take control of it outside of combat before it can break free and attack us again, but eventually Mollyboo persuades it to join the party, replacing our carrion crawler (who had always been far too easy to kill). The Skeletal Mage's spellbook is largely empty, but it does have some pretty nice resistances, plus all the normal undead immunities to disablers.
The portrait is Carl from Llamas with Hats. I created a soundset from Carl's lines and am very fond of bringing Carls into my games. But shortly after, I changed his portrait to the Sans portrait that used to belong to our bat mage, since having a Sans portrait on the non-skeletal mage would be silly.
Our cat has historically been extremely difficult to kill, but enemies in SoD do more than just whomp you with swords. Level drain and energy damage pierce right through our cat's defenses. More than once, we have to resort to big magic to bail out our kitty cat.
By the time we reach Korlasz, I know better than to just rely on our cat as a tank. We bomb her followers into oblivion and swarm her until she surrenders.
Unfortunately, Schlumpsa's ranged attack was still in the air when she surrendered, hence Korlasz's last-minute chunking.
I keep things brief in Baldur's Gate and hurry on to the next area. I'm impatient to get my hands on a very special new critter, one that I would have loved to have had in BG1.
We find our future MVP harassing a hill giant in a cave. The giant nearly kills it, but with the help of our bat's Greater Malison, Mollyboo manages to charm it and pull it away to safety.
Our new recruit is a wight. Its almost identical to our ghast in all ways, except it has 1 attack per round instead of 3, and is many levels behind.
But it's not a ghast.
It's a wight.
Many of you can probably see where this is going. If not, just wait--you'll see soon enough.
Anyhoo, the wight's power lays dormant for now. After all, it's not likely it can contribute to the fights in the first real dungeon.
I've set the difficulty to Insane but disabled the bonus XP and damage, so we've got a lot of nasty enemies to deal with in these halls. Fortunately, none of them are particularly resistant to Wands of Fire.
Honestly, it doesn't matter if we use up all our wands halfway through the game (even if we could spend all of those charges). I've actually gone through most of SoD with Mollyboo once before, but I got killed by Halatathlaer close to the end. I'm quite willing to speed through the early game.
The first time I played SoD, I accidentally turned the Dwarves of Dumathoin hostile, and ended up fighting a level 18 lich with a level 9 party. Everyone died but my main character.
This time, I use an item the dwarves gave me.
We destroy the lich's phylactery and scribe a bunch of scrolls for our Skeletal Mage to learn. Unfortunately, it seems that the Skeletal Mage is immune to the Intelligence modifier.
This means that it's immune to mind flayer INT drain. But it also can't use Potions of Genius. And that's a huge liability--I very much doubt I can use the Skeletal Mage to replace our bat, even though the skeleton has all kinds of awesome immunities that the bat does not. For now, I'll hold onto them both.
We fight our way across the bridge. A blitzkrieg attack and a Potion of Invisibility for Mollyboo pave the way to the next area.
To the old temple of Bhaal.
This is where things in SoD get really weird, really crazy, and really awesome.
After giving Tenya back her bowl, Wimp dodged the ankheg in order to travel on to Ulgoth's Beard. She struck lucky there with only 4 attempts needed to charm Dushai and move him away from the village to be eaten by the familiar. Back at the FAI she donated at the temple to boost reputation by 5 - I tend not to do that much, but some of the potential reputation quests would be a bit of a slog for her and I'd like to boost it as soon as possible in order to buy a few spell scrolls cheaply (with no reduction in price for reputation possible in BG1 funds won't be quite as plentiful as normal).
Joia was pleased to get her ring back and Firebead and Mr Colquetle also got presents for more easy reputation. Travelling by day to avoid nasty ambushes she went down to the Carnival and took advantage of Vitiare's cowardly nature (he tries to run when attacked, so there's no risk in confronting him if you don't let him get close enough to pickpocket you).
At the Nashkel Mine she charmed Greywolf. Charm attempts by Wimp are not risk free at the moment as, without invisibility, there's a risk of being ambushed by archers when attempting to rest and then ambushed again when running between areas. However, she succeeded at the 4th or 5th attempt and after Greywolf was worn down against some kobolds Wimp grabbed his XP thanks to a lucky critical from the pseudo-dragon - that gained her another HP for getting to level 6.
Moving through the Cloud Peaks Krumm switched sides to kill his partner before suffering a fatal accident himself.
With her low charisma though Wimp was never going to be able to get a top-tier reward from Drienne and didn't bother waiting to get friends in order to get the last of her allowance.
Hairtooth and Gnarl were another couple to have a falling out as Wimp worked her way into the cave to find a way to increase her charisma by over 33%. Rather than spend a very long time killing groups of xvarts she tried to collect them up in order to give her time to get in and out of the cave before they could arrive. That's a bit risky and she got hit once in bypassing one group, but got away with it and was able to dodge one xvart that had been left in the cave when the others chased her out earlier. Note the tome on the floor outside the cave in one screenshot as she couldn't spend the time to stand still long enough to read it in the cave, but that was soon done outside.
She laboriously carried the bracers of dexterity back to Nashkel. Originally I was intending to stash those for later, but realised it was much better to wear them rather than the belt of piercing (which along with the Cloak of Algernon had been using up her entire weight limit for a while) - the bracers improve her AC by a handy 7 .
That was pretty much her hour up, so she'll continue the hunt for reputation tomorrow.
I lost a ranger to backstab and gained a bard... hardly a bargain but Neera is twice the man Edwin was so it evens out in the end, which is beginning soon!
(About my installation: BWS kept complaining about some choices and I now don't have "Rest anywhere Something has changed the armour rules. Dex is reduced when wearing armour. This presumably affects everyone in the game, so is fair enough but will weaken heavy armour users relative to kensais and the like. These changes weren't intended but I'm not too familiar with BWS yet. I also noticed that Tenya can only raise 1 skeleton now. It used to be 3! Also the oil of speed is nowhere near as long lasting. I hope that the same doesn't apply for protection from petrification spells and potions. )
The same DOES APPLY to the protection from petrification scroll! It has changed its name and only lasts 10 turns. I bought the necklace of missiles before discovering that it is no longer a necklace of missiles.
I'm wondering what mod has nerfed all these items. The game will be much harder as a result of these changes. I think that I might be forced into using the Dark Horizon items that I have recently avoided using.
Journal of Osweald
We helped the dryad and rescued a cat.
Upon returning to Nashkel we were hired my a mage who turned out to be pure evil and not only that, powerful too! However, we survived.
We then took on Bassilus, but he turned out to be more straightforward.
Zargal was next and was equally straightforward.
We then moved to the Lighthouse area and killed some sirine before making friends with Sil.
Buffs and skeletons protected us from the first flesh golem, but we had to take on the other two without such help with the result that we were hurt.
We were heading for the mines when Zargos Flintblade attacked. We managed to kill him but he hurt us badly.
In the Mutamin's Garden I first scouted the whole area under Invisibility spell and marked the location of all enemies on the map so we could deal with them effectively using our poor resources: there is no Pro vs Petrification spell in Spell Revisions, Green scroll lasts 'only' 10 turns and we have a single copy of it, while Potion of Mirrored Eyes lasts 5 turns and that's it. Then we buffed Jaheira with Barkskin, Aid, Potions of Heroism and Mirrored Eyes, called for some skellies and they quickly dealt with all the vile creatures except the ones near Mutamin himself.
We hired Korax to join our skellies in the fight with Mutamin but the latter had Green Slimes as a pre-buff and some more Hobgoblins immediatelly summoned so between those and his pet Basilisks Korax and then skellies fell. At least they soaked some Mutamin's spells and killed his Greater Basilisk. So after Green Slimes unsummoned (I still avoided to fight them) Jaheira dealt with the remaining Lesser Basilisk while we finished Mutamin (he managed to Charm Khalid but with my Break Enchantment at the ready it's not a big issue).
Mutamin dropped an interesting War Hammer +2 for Viconia and our first rare piece of equipment with critical hit protection.
Then we've encountered the Kirian's group and I've got some insights of how my Crew members see me:
Anyway, the fight ensured and with some skellies acting as a bait we filled the battlefield with all kinds of AoE disablers: Obscuring Mist (a some kind of SR 'substitute' of vanilla Blindness spell), Grease, Entangle, Silence, Web followed by some Hold Person and then just mop them down. The loot was pretty insignificant (Splint Mail +1 at best):
"You know, Silke, the fact that you have Stoneskins as a pre-buff and can cast Haste doesn't matter much if you fail your save vs Hold Person... And btw, thanks for those Bracers of Archery and Potions of Invisibility, they will come in handy!"
"And Mr.Bassilus, you are such a chatty dude that Viconia has a headache of you already! Dynaheir isn't happy either..."
IR Wand of Lightning, we got from Bassilus, is quite a tool vs Stoneskinned/Mirror Imaged mages as its three bolts are single target now and strikes right through those defences.
Sendai & Co provided me and Jaheira with another levels so I now can have two cruicial spells always memorised:
With no more relatively safe areas to explore now it's time to clear Nashkel' Mines (and deal with Greywolf, if not for Varscona, which he no longer possess due to Randomiser, but just... because).
The Mines were cleared of 'demons' without issues but their master provided some tricks and heavy punches before were eliminated:
His treasure chest contained another valuable wand for us to use and we swapped Dynaheir for Xan. I like her and she is very capable mage (even more so in Spell Revisions setup, where many spells have changed their schools) but I just want to have at least one new face in my usual, years-ago-built Crew. So far I did not regret of that decision.
On the surface we hunted down some Ankhegs to make a better armor for Jaheira later and cleared local tombs of various undead to get a better bow for Imoen and another rare suit of armor for me to wear for a long long time:
Narcillicus was separated from his Mustard Jellies so I, wearing Spiritual Hammer, and Viconia as a tank could deal with them in relative safety:
Narcillicus, even being a decent mage, but alone and after MGoI expired can't do much:
Nimbul had solid buffs and a number of spells/potions to use but with some skellies led by Viconia to waste them on and acid from Xan's Melf's Acid Arrow eating his flesh he doesn't last too long. A third elemental Wand to my collection is always welcome:
Tranzig is somewhat broken in this setup as he only cast Magic Missiles and nothing more...
We've spent 10 days in Feldepost's Inn waiting for Jaheira's new armor to be made but moving outside one lovely early morning we were greeted by some unfriendly brutes:
Being catch offguard, unbuffed, forced to fight in the VERY confined space (literally unable to move freely and regroup) we had to use some our scarce and valuable resources (like Potion of Invisibility or Extra Healing) to stay alive and eventually win this encounter:
And right after we've rested in Joviar Juggler Inn to heal our wounds and headed outside to check the smithy if our armor is ready another group of assassins 'sprang out of the box'...
This time we retreated inside the Inn to take the fight there more comfortably.
And finally (FINALLY!) Jaheira got a decent armor she doesn't refuse to wear:
Our next destination was a mysterious Durlag's Tower but more on that later.
(About my installation: BWS kept complaining about some choices and I now don't have "Rest anywhere Something has changed the armour rules. Dex is reduced when wearing armour. This presumably affects everyone in the game, so is fair enough but will weaken heavy armour users relative to kensais and the like. These changes weren't intended but I'm not too familiar with BWS yet. I also noticed that Tenya can only raise 1 skeleton now. It used to be 3! Also the oil of speed is nowhere near as long lasting. I hope that the same doesn't apply for protection from petrification spells and potions. )
The same DOES APPLY to the protection from petrification scroll! It has changed its name and only lasts 10 turns. I bought the necklace of missiles before discovering that it is no longer a necklace of missiles.
I'm wondering what mod has nerfed all these items. The game will be much harder as a result of these changes. I think that I might be forced into using the Dark Horizon items that I have recently avoided using.
This is Item Revisions. I have it installed myself and I LOVE it! Yep, the game is harder with it but IMO it's much more realistic, logical and balanced now. Heavy armors are indeed only for sale as I don't see another use for those and my new favorites are Chainmails, considering that Mail of the Dead is one of the very few items which provide critical hit protection. All in all this mod is a must for me from now on.
Comments
~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Drizzt Saga for BGEE/Tutu/BGT -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): v3.00 ~SOA/SETUP-SOA.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Stone of Askavar for TotSC/Tutu/BGT/BGEE -> BP-BGT Worldmap version: all areas added to worldmap (requires BP-BGT Worldmap): 2.0 ~SETUP-BP-BGT-WORLDMAP.TP2~ #0 #0 // Worldmap for Baldur's Gate - including colored Baldur's Gate map icons: v10.2.1I've had issues with BP-BGT-WORLDMAP before as well; start a few junk new games and see if any of them have well-placed maps. There might also be a conflict for the install order for these three components since the first two require the third but the third is installed last of the three, but I've not used Drizzt Saga or Stone of Askavar before so I don't know what the quirks are.Wimp charmed and disposed of Baerin with the help of a Flind. However, rather than deal with the others then she decided that it would be too much hassle to haul away all their equipment with her carrying capacity of 5 lbs - that's possible using the quick loot bar to move it over time to the edge of the map, but a bit time-consuming.
Instead she headed north to charm an ogre and collect a new belt. At the FAI a couple of guards were charmed to deal with Tarnesh and she also collected an invisibility potion from Jaheira. On the way further north she decided to pick up but not return a ring for Joia and was attacking one of the hobgoblins guarding that when I (being bloody-minded) tried to update my notes again while the game was running. While it would have been technically possible for the hobgoblin to suffer morale failure, run away then recover to attack Wimp without being distracted by the familiar and a charmed hobgoblin the chance of that happening would have been extremely small and I was happy to run the risk. However, I clearly hadn't checked the number of darts Wimp had left and a single blow from the hobgoblin was enough to chop her head off as she tried to punch its lights out.
I don't understand it, but am quite pleased.
Osweald got as far as Tenya and she has joined him. He is now level 3 and has *** in axes ** in dual wielding.
My install is not quite as I wanted as I can't sleep anywhere.
@Grond0 Hard intelligence.
Wondering if I am being stupid playing on hard this time.
Journal of Osweald
At the Friendly Arms Inn we returned Joia's ring to her and killed Tarnesh with a little help from summoned skeletons. Upon entering the Inn, I bedded Lina much to our mutual delight after which I found a healing potion.Mollyboo: A "Solo" Seducer in Baldur's Gate
I decided to try my hand at a solo tetralogy run using the latest version of my own Seducer kit mod, whose entire concept involves charming anything and everything in the game, even critters normally immune to charm. The most recent version allows the Seducer to bring charmed critters into the party itself using Seduction, but since this is a "solo" run, I won't be charming any normal NPCs (so no seducing Alora or Edwin or whatever).Seducing a critter can only be done outside of combat, offers multiple saving throws, and the Seducer cannot seduce golems, plot-immune critters, or any critter more than half the Seducer's level. So you can totally charm a bandit or a ghoul if you're high enough level, but you won't be able to charm a troll, a clay golem, or a level 20 lich. Basilisks are also out of reach unless you remove the XP cap.
A Seducer's primary spells, however, are Charm and Domination. Charm can affect multiple targets (2 at level 1, and an extra 1 target every 10 levels), but Domination is much more likely to work. Both spells only last for 1d3 rounds, impose AC and movement rate penalties on the Seducer, and are pretty easy to resist until you get to higher levels--especially if the target is non-humanoid. The save bonuses are pretty generous (+4 at level 1 for Domination), but both spells can be cast at will.
Notable mods include SCS, Ascension, and a bunch of other random crap from BWS. Unlike my Undergate run, which also used BWS to install a zillion mods, I have neither Item Revisions nor Spell Revisions, and I will not be using any mod-introduced items except as gold fodder.
Our Charname this time is Mollyboo, a new face.
I do not plan on dual-classing Mollyboo to mage, but I wanted it to be possible in case I changed my mind (otherwise a halfling would be the superior choice by far). The portrait is lifted from a screenshot of Star Butterfly from Star vs. the Forces of Evil. I've only seen the show once, but I loved the character art.
First order of business is hitting level 4. Charming a nearby wolf and a few arrows launch Mollyboo up to level 4 in a few minutes, and all it cost was the life of a nereid.
This slightly improves her base charm ability, Domination (which is still pretty weak, though it scales dramatically with levels), but the bigger draw is her ability to use Seduction on level 2 critters.
Like the spiders in Beregost.
First off, we seduce Algernon. This lets us get Algernon's Cloak without killing him and therefore losing reputation.
More importantly, Algernon can lure out the Beregost spiders without putting Mollyboo in danger. He barely escapes with his life, but he buys enough time for Mollyboo to turn the spiders against each other and pick them off one by one.
To seduce an enemy, you first have to charm it, which offers a save vs. spell to resist, and spiders get an extra +2 bonus to those saves. Then, before the charm effect wears off in 1d3 rounds, you have to land a Seduction spell, which also offers a save at no penalty. This means you have to isolate an enemy before you can seduce it, and the enemy can attack you if it makes its saving throws.
It's a dangerous process and it takes some time, but Mollyboo manages to bring the last spider into the party.
Most monsters do not have normal character classes and cannot level up without crashing the game. The Seduction spell assigns those critters the fighter class, but applies a 50% XP penalty. So we get to use all of the spider's special abilities and its natural attack, but it gains levels very slowly, has terrible stats, and has no proficiencies with any weapons.
With only one attack per round, a Huge Spider is actually a pretty lousy fighter. But Mollyboo is a thief with 1d4 HP per level and no ability to use armor; she needs all the help she can get to avoid getting crushed to goo.
Next up is Silke. Firebead Elvenhair has 90% resistance to charm spells and therefore Algernon's Cloak, but Mollyboo's Domination spell ignores all racial immunities. Firebead and Silke both summon monsters for Mollyboo, which will remain in our control even when the charms wear off.
Silke doesn't stand a chance.
Mollyboo uses Charm to get past the guards in the manor in Beregost so she can rob the place, and finds a Potion of Invisibility, which will come in handy if and when I do something stupid.
At level 4, Mollyboo can't seduce very strong monsters, so we need to make her a little bit stronger. At 2,000 XP a pop, the Sirines at the temple east of Beregost are easy pickings. We charm the Sirines, force them to waste their charm and invisibility spells, and then use our spider to soak up their feeblemind attacks.
Note that Algernon's Cloak lasts for 12 hours and you can get the Sirines to leave the temple by ordering them to cast Dire Charm on you just as you're walking out the door (they'll only show up outside the northwest entrance, though; you won't see them at the front entrance).
We head to the Friendly Arm Inn to get our reward for killing (most of) the spiders. We're not remotely strong enough to tackle Tarnesh safely, but the local guards are easy to charm using Algernon's Cloak, and Tarnesh won't even fight back.
I actually use quick-saves to imitate the effect of resting to get back Algernon's Cloak charges when they fail. I use a lot of convenience cheats, especially CTRL-J. I am just too impatient to deal with everything at its normal pace.
North, to the ankheg farm! But we're not there to hunt ankhegs. Mollyboo finds a kitty cat and seduces it.
At 1 HP, the cat should be an invincible tank so long as I don't level it up. But portraits in EE glow when you're due for a level up, so I won't keep the cat at level 1 forever. Once it hits level 2, though, it'll be at 11 HP.
At which point that 90% physical damage resistance will become very useful indeed.
I also seduce a trio of chickens who happen to be nearby. But my theory about the invincibility of 1-HP level 1 characters does not exactly pan out.
The chickens are useless. But the cat will be an excellent tank if I can just get it to level 2.
But where do I get that XP when ankhegs just destroy us? Chickens are too weak to wear armor and they have no DEX bonus, so relying on AC is not a reasonable option when resurrecting dead chickens costs 100 gold at the temple.
Tenya can't get our cat to level 2, but she can get us a little bit closer using the few ankhegs near her.
Next is Dushai, whom we can kill using charm.
We're still not strong enough to deal with moderate threats. A Seducer is only as strong as the critters he or she can charm or seduce, and a spider and a cat are not going to take down Sarevok. Time to upgrade! But where do I find a strong low-level fighter?
Well, ogrillons are level 2. And they have 2 attacks per round. I find a couple of lone ogrillons to the south, and once one of them is dead...
...I can use Seduction, which otherwise can't be cast during combat. Ogrillons aren't great for conversations, but they do have a hidden gem.
Perhaps there is more depth to these critters than you'd think. After all, they're more intelligent than most humans.
I drew that portrait myself a while ago, and am quite proud of it. Notice Glint's portrait on one of our disposable chickens, and Asriel's portrait on our cat.
The chicken dies in a skeleton ambush, and the ogrillon nearly dies during a Winter Wolf ambush. We still need stronger allies. But where could we find them?
Well, you know those diggers at the ruins?
They're actually coded as mages, a very rare resource in a solo Seducer run. Unfortunately, their stats are atrocious.
I get the Digger up to level 2 with some minor fights and a small mod quest, but when I consider just how many Potions of Genius the Digger needs to scribe scrolls, I decide that it's not worth the XP investment and ditch him at the Friendly Arm Inn. Our parting is brief.
This party is still strong enough to tackle some obstacles, though nothing extraordinary. I get a little more XP and loot for the party, including the all-important Gauntlets of Dexterity.
Mollyboo has no need for the gauntlets, but seduced monsters tend to have abysmal stats, including very low DEX.
Mollyboo can use wands and scrolls in my install--maybe because I installed the Seducer kit last, and some mod-related effects never got applied to her when they were supposed to--and since we do have a Wand of Lightning, I decide to tackle Bassilus. Bassilus is much tougher than I expected, but we get lucky, and the cleric goes down.
The risk was worth it. We finally get our kitty cat to level 2!
He can now survive almost 11 hits before dying. It gets us through a few more minor fights, but we're still not making much progress.
Seducers are useful for more than just the Seduction spell. Their Charm and Domination spells also have many uses, and if you backstab a character under the effects of either Charm or Domination...
...the Seducer casts a "Betrayal" spell that can instantly kill the target, and even if the victim makes a save vs. death, they still take extra damage based on the Seducer's level. Seducers only get a 2x backstab multiplier regardless of level or mod items like RR's Short Sword of Backstabbing, but their backstabs are much stronger than a normal thief's if applied to a charmed target.
Betrayal only works with the Seducer's Charm and Domination spells, however (a wizard's Charm Person won't work), and you need to wait half a round before attacking, because Domination sets the Seducer's APR to 0 for three seconds.
I decide to try my hand at the ankhegs, but we still need a bit of luck to handle them without getting killed. Notice the cat's massive damage resistance and the ogrillon using Bassilus' hammer.
By the time we clear out most of the ankheg nest, the cat is at level 3, finally making it into a decent tank, and Mollyboo is up to level 6. Finally, we can seduce level 3 critters.
Which is a huge, huge game changer for us.
Ghouls have lousy stats and no proficiencies, just like our cat and ogrillon, and they suffer the same 50% XP penalty due to having no fighter class before being seduced, but our new ghoul does have all of its normal undead immunities and its paralyzation attack. Plus, it has unnaturally high APR.
It's a bit of a glass cannon until it gets another level, but having immunity to practically every disabler in the game will be very useful against mages, especially since the paralysis effect requires a save vs. death. We just need to make sure to shore up its lousy defenses.
But these caves offer more than just a ghoul we can seduce. We can also bring a bat into the party!
Terrible stats, like always, and the 90% physical damage resistance won't matter much, but we have a mage, and it's not quite as weak as the Digger was. We have to spend four Potions of Genius to scribe the spells our bat we'll be using for the next several levels, and kill some more ankhegs so our bat actually has spell slots.
This means we finally have Protection from Petrification. Mutamin's garden is next.
Current party:
Mollyboo, Seducer
Cat, Fighter
Ghoul, Fighter
Huge Spider, Fighter
Bat, Mage
Mollyboo: A "Solo" Seducer in Baldur's Gate
Part 2
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899226/#Comment_899226
I use the pet basilisk trick to speed through Mutamin's garden. Basically, you use Algernon's Cloak to charm a basilisk, cast Protection from Petrification on the basilisk, and then use it to petrify all the other basilisks in the area. It's much faster than the conventional method using missile weapons. My install also adds Medusas to the garden, which are just as vulnerable to a basilisk's gaze. Even Mutamin goes down.
Mutamin doesn't drop his equipment if you petrify him, but if you use a Stone to Flesh scroll on him, he'll come back to life with only 1 hit point, at which point he is easy to kill.
I also use the basilisk XP loop, another trick I'm quite proud of, in which you use Stone to Flesh scrolls and a Lesser Basilisk to repeatedly petrify and un-petrify a Greater Basilisk for 7,000 XP per scroll. It's the fastest way of gaining XP in BG1 and can be done at very low cost. We have over 50 scrolls, but since I haven't settled on a final party just yet, I only use 10 or so of the scrolls.
Mollyboo is now level 7, the bat is level 6, and the cat and ghoul are level 5. I also switch the ghoul's portrait to the smiley face that used to belong to our ogrillon.
Despite our growing strength, seduced critters do generally suffer from poor DEX, poor AC, and poor HP, which makes them very, very easy to kill. We actually have to deploy the Wand of Fire just to make sure we don't suffer any deaths in the Nashkel mines...
...but a ghoul is a ghoul, and ours is 25 HP lower than a properly min-maxed fighter should be at its level. Even a Wand of Fire can't kill the enemy fast enough to save our carnivorous comrade.
It's a telling sign of things to come.
One of my mods adds a gang of dwarves to the lower levels of the mines, and they can be pretty nasty if you don't take them down quickly. Mollyboo evens the odds by charming the two clerics first and using them against the leader, Gorkan Bloodaxe.
Gorky's high HP isn't enough to save him, and the rest of the dwarves collapse when I turn the clerics' Hold Person spells against their friends.
As for Mulahey, we just charm him and make him waste his spells on thin air. When a Horror spell fails to disable enough enemies to keep our ghoul alive, we resort to the Wand of Fire.
I seduce a Gray Ooze on the way out, because it's immune to magic, but when I turn it loose against Narcillus, it proves quite vulnerable to its fellow jellies.
We manage to kill the jellies and charm Narcillus into wasting some of his spells, but he's a tough nut to crack. Only when Narcillus fails a save against our ghoul's natural weapon is the battle in our favor.
Gray Oozes are very strong, as I found in a previous run with a Seducer Charname. But their movement speed is just atrocious, and while you can cure that by using Relair's Mistake to switch them to wolf form, it's not worth it. I remove the ooze from the party.
For some reason, Officer Vai will buy anything at full price in my install. Even though experience has already taught me that I don't really need all that much money to deal with BG1's admittedly item-heavy endgame, I take advantage of the opportunity.
I clear out some Sirines to the far western coast and bring a carrion crawler into the party. Like our ghoul, it has poor stats and so forth, but it has an amazing 4 APR.
I worry about its long-term viability, however. I only have one pair of Gauntlets of Dexterity to go around this low-DEX party, and 4 APR doesn't mean much against bosses when your THAC0 is a pitiful 17.
Anyway, the cat renders the local Flesh Golems a non-issue, and the bat's Invisibility spell ensures that Mollyboo doesn't have to worry about the deadly backstabs in the pirate fight.
Morvin's gang jumps us, and to my dismay, we have not cast Invisibility on the whole party beforehand. Luckily, a failed save vs. our ghoul's natural weapon and our bat's Dire Charm turn the tide in our favor early on.
Despite our recent successes, I doubt we're equipped to handle the bandit camp. The fight outside is very heavy on ranged weapons, and without strong AC, we are extremely vulnerable. I don't think we can do very well under so much pressure, even with the Wand of Fire.
So I improvise. Mollyboo uses her at-will charm spells to take control of the bandits and send them to a copse in the west where they'll be far from the fight.
It takes time, but I eventually concentrate practically the whole camp into a single spot.
This means that, when we emerge from the main tent, it will take a long time for all the enemies to reach us, and we can pick them off in smaller groups.
Then I realize that there's really no reason to visit the main tent first when I've already got all these guys in one place.
The enemy is crippled right off the bat, but the counterattack is devastating. Mollyboo is forced to go invisible for her own safety, and Taurgosz Khosann crushes our ghoul in moments.
Our cat tussles with Taurgosz while our bat roasts everyone in sight--including our cat! Meanwhile, the carrion crawler is struggling to deal with the immense pressure that killed the ghoul.
Taurgosz and the carrion crawler both fall in short order. Then Venkt shows up, and I realize that the enemies from the main tent have come out to play.
This is still better than dealing with the main tent first, however, because fighting them out gives us plenty of room to run around in, and no Ender Sai to worry about accidentally killing with the Wand of Fire.
The bat and the cat are both very sturdy critters thanks to their 90% physical damage resistance, but our bat is the only source of reliable damage left in the party. And when it gets blinded, it can barely use the Wand of Fire anymore.
The bat tries to pin down Venkt with a Wand of Paralyzation before Venkt pulls any more tricks, but his saves hold fast, and he responds with magic damage that bypasses the cat and bat's physical damage resistances.
But as his allies crumble, Venkt doesn't have the power to finish us off; only to drain our potions. When we land a successful hit with the Wand of Paralyzation, it's all over for the bandits.
On to the Cloakwood! We stop by Centeol's lair. Really, it's just a contest between a Wand of Frost and a Wand of Fire.
Some mod-introduced druids ask us to slay a small dragon nearby. I've slain it before with ease, but it turns out to be much harder than I remembered.
Mollyboo barely escapes with her life, leaving her seduced monsters to wrestle with the dragon. But nobody in our group has immunity to fire, and the ghoul's final act is to show us that disabling the dragon is not a realistic possibility.
Those druids sent us on a suicide mission. We almost lost the run!
I decide to turn the tables on the druids. Notice the quick-save, which I use to speed up non-combat charm attempts.
I send in the druids to soak up the dragon's breath weapon. They die horribly, but buy us enough time to slay the dragon ourselves.
Our reward is a Ring of Protection +2. Although the quest comes from a mod, the item itself is from the original games, which means I can still use it despite my ban on mod items for this run.
I can't use mod items, but I can still sell them. So after a couple of tough but not particularly interesting mod-introduced ambushes, I stop by Officer Vai to multiply our gold supply by 10.
Fun fact: most of this gold will be spent on wands I will never use.
After adding some more scrolls to the bat's spellbook courtesy of a mod-introduced merchant, we march on the Cloakwood mines. My mods add some rather nasty archers to this fight, but by putting Mollyboo in a safe position and having her charm Genthore, I can quickly remove one troublesome foe at zero cost.
What idiots! The enemy goes hostile, but just by charming them one by one, I can get them to murder each other, until the whole group is in shambles.
Kysus proves resistant to Mollyboo's charms, so I bring out the ghoul. Kysus is not quite so good at making his saves vs. death.
Mollyboo keeps fomenting in the infighting among the survivors until their strength is totally broken. Then our party finally descends upon them.
It's a testament to the Seducer's other powers besides turning kitty cats into tanks. They can cause all kinds of havoc... as long as you keep them out of harm's way. Because with no armor, no defensive spells, and 1d4 HP per level, Seducers have by far the worst defenses of any character build in the IE games.
Current party:
Mollyboo, Seducer
Cat, Fighter
Ghoul, Fighter
Carrion Crawler, Fighter
Bat, Mage
Aaliyah, Half-Elven, Neutral Evil Blade
A few years ago, I started a BG Trilogy SCS-Ascension No Reload run following a lengthy break from play. I had made it far (farther than I had expected, at least…) but then I found myself completely stumped. I had no idea what to do.I was in Irenicus’s Dungeon. My character was standing in the hallway near the Sewage Golem’s hidey-hole. I remembered that I had to do something but I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of what that something was. Then it hit me -and these were the words I thought exactly: “That’s right. I have to get that, like, box of crayons from the fish.”
The “box of crayons” was the power-cell; the fish was Rielev. I felt pretty stupid. How could I have forgotten? But then, a moment later, I re-examined Rielev’s name for the first time in years. Rielev: It’s like “re-live”, but also “relieve.” I never noticed that before. Something new! After all these years!
My character, an F/M who had high hopes for herself, was stunned speechless by my display of incompetence. She immediately cycled into despair. Her familiar -an unusually aloof and mysterious feline- saw it differently, however: “That Alesia may be a know-nothing fool, but if she can still observe, learn, and see the world a-new, after all these years, then there is hope for us- hope for us still.”
The F/M was named Arcadia, the familiar, Captain Swarmi. The rest, as they say, is history.
Why have I bothered to share this story? Because I’m back at it. And I’m every bit as naive and helpless as a little girl looking for crayons: Enter Aaliyah, half-elven Blade
Proficiencies: Scimitars, Darts
Mods: BG1: EE, SCS v30 (full prebuffs, all tactical components); BG2: EE, SCS v30 (full prebuffs, all tactical components except Irenicus and the Sendai/Abazgial Enclave upgrades), Ascension (All)
To those of you with long memories, this may have a familiar ring. Aaliyah is a copy, of a copy, of a copy. She’s a
derivative character, with a lineage extending through SCS-Ascension Trilogy No Reloaders Alyssa (M/T), Alisa (Jester), and Arcadia (F/M). This was a deliberate choice. As Pablo Picasso once said, “ A good artist borrows; a great artists steals.” And who better to steal from than myself? My hope is to replicate my prior characters’ success, despite my rustiness, by hewing closely to battle tested strategies. A sensible strategy, no doubt, but there’s one person who isn’t happy about it: Aaliyah. In Aaliyah’s mind, she is not a copy; she is her own woman. She seeks to claim her unique place in the pantheon: Alyssa, Alisa, and Arcadia be damned. This is her run. And I better be up to the challenge, or there’s gonna be hell to pay.
Aaliyah’s theme song is Save Yourself by Stabbing Westward.
(It is also, kinda-sorta, my theme song, for now- at least until I get me bearings back. To those who might come seeking advice from desperately rusty little-old me: Note the lyrics…)
Anyhoo. Wish Aaliyah luck! Updates coming soon! Feels good to be back! Yay!
Best,
A.
Journal of Osweald
After leaving the FAI Tenya and I fought some gnolls near High Hedge before trying to hlp Mellicamp. We failed at that but were able to help an apprentice mage who had been blamed for his predicament. We were also able to help a were-wolf to get back into shape using a guril berry potion.Heading south we killed some ogrillon and some overl oficious flaming fist. I dodded their armour but it was too heavy for Tenya.
We also returned a rabbit to it's owner, though the ogre who had found it was rather disappointed.
Further south we killed hobgoblins and found the colquetle amulet.
In Nashkel we found some armour that Tenya CAN wear.
We talked to Noober, turned down a reward and did some baby-sitting.
In the carnival we bought a replacement rabbit for the ogre and returned to give it to him.
In Nashkel we returned the amulet to the Colquetle family and sorted out a quarrel.
EDIT
We also delivered a letter to Mirianne and whilst at the forge I stocked up with throwing axes and bought a sling +1 for Tenya. We now both have a ring of protection.
We reunited Rufie with his owner and then killed Vax and Zal with a little help from a couple of skeletons that Tenya had raised.
(About my installation: BWS kept complaining about some choices and I now don't have "Rest anywhere
The Gallant Cromarty and friends go on, battling through the DeArnise keep & Temple Ruins, while being driven back from Watcher's Keep.
We dropped Kelsey for Nalia for the DeArnise keep, and quickly fought through to Torgal. However her grief clearly weakened her after we had avenged her father as she was repeatedly slain by Vampiric Wraiths at Watcher's Keep and we put off clearing the fortress. (Nothing good in the shops there either!)
Subsequently we cleared the Temple Ruins, helping Mazzy in her turn to avenge her comrades while Nalia drowned her sorrows at the Coronet. The Shadow Dragon also fell quickly (I may double some dragon hps now, a bit too easy without SCS.) Lava's Will o'the Wisp mod sent us on to the Umar Hills, from whence we picked up Valygar. I'm not 100% sure if we'll do the Sphere though, I'm not quite sold on how high it would rank on Cromarty's list vs. dealing with slavers and Valygar is hardly a damsel in distress. Party are all around 1.1 million XP.
As an aside Cernd has had an interesting arc. He defeated Faldorn as a totemic druid, but after the business with his son and being bitten by a werewolf around Windspear I switched him to Shapeshifter using Enhanced NPCs. His base form seemed rather weak & buggy so I'm using the BG Tweaks boosted version for now, having spent 15,000 *upgrading* Rieltar's Mistake as an ingame excuse. If his greater form proves too powerful then I shall probably wall off a few more equipment slots or drop him.
I think Wimp's got a lot of potential (certainly plenty of room for improvement
For once I didn't bother with Shoal, but Wimp soon gained a couple of levels by using Algernon's Cloak on the sirines at the Beregost temple - though annoyingly the last of those died to a maximum damage critical from the wild dog wearing it down. The pseudo-dragon then slashed all the basilisks and got a bit of help from Korax to deal with Mutamin as well. That's got Wimp up to level 5, though the total gain of 5 HPs for that was nothing to write home about.
The remainder of the session saw Wimp travelling north via the FAI and killing some fishermen. She's had several trips back to Beregost to put items for sale or later use into store, but has finally just arrived in Tenya's area.
Good to see you back @Alesia_BH. I hope Aaliyah's reputation doesn't suffer too much as a result of her vampiric cravings
B.
Hyra (Elf Ranger, Gate70); Dave (Half-elf Cleric/Ranger, Grond0)
With attempt 136's demise, we swap again so I am protagonist looking for an elusive 3rd success between us. This was at the weekend and a distinct lack of notes means I am going from a couple of screenshots and an assumption that our starting approach followed the usual pattern.
The randomator threw up a Ranger for me and a Cleric / Ranger for Grond0.
Thus followed the Candlekeep Chores, ambush in the woods and a trip to the coast to play catch with Shoal the Nereid. Picking up Perdue's sword on the way to Beregost where we forcefully relieve Neera of her gembag, have a drink with Marl and obtain a book for Firebead. Possibly returning an amulet to Mr Colquette.
Then down to Nashkel, picking up some stealthy boots for Dave on the way and retrieving a letter before it is used for toilet purposes by a brace of ogrillions. There's some ankheg plate here, Hyra holding on to it but with the expectation of it being used rarely.
With a level or two under our belts we head out east to prey on basilisks and Mutamin. Korax the ghoul is recruited as rotting meat-shield against Kirian and her crew, making short work of them.
(Btw. I'm considering making a few music videos for Aaliyah. If there are any goth-industrial music fans out there, feel free to PM me song suggestions!)
Best,
A.
Hyra (Elf Ranger, Gate70); Dave (Half-elf Cleric/Ranger, Grond0)
Returning a body to Farmer Brun earns a bit of reputation, and shortly afterwards we heave Samuel into a temple to reach the cap of 20. Time to shop, a cloak of displacement and greenstone amulet being all we require. Old habits die hard though and we hoard a few more treasures for sale, our pile of coins growing far larger than we need.
Mulahey is dead and buried in Nashkel Mine, Tranzig won't be leaving his room other than in a (small) box. The memory of Taugosz Khosann will live on (with Dave hanging on to his armour) while Venkt and his gang put up little resistance to our intrusion.
Cloakwood almost caught us out when Hyra sprang a trap but the final ettercap was already keeling over from a surplus of bullets so we survived. More than can be said for Drasus and his gang, or Davaeorn.
We made our way into the city only for the game to crash, so the next session will resume from the the autosave made after crossing the bridge.
Dave has unintentionally drunk two blue healing potions!! One screenshotted, the other noted. Each time this was due to Hyra entering a building as Dave was about to click a spell.
+Today is the day I realise I can drag a group of pictures into the comment rather than one at a time. Once done I realise why it's not a good idea. Here's the randomator of how the uploads went - in no way connected to the story order.
What is it that decides why some may live and some may die? Better to cast these questions into the dark pool of a Shaman's grotto that he might rise up and tell the answers than to write, but write I must. Do all things have their season to wither? Why Cernd... but not I, or Xan, or any other? I have walked in a Temple of Murder, I have climbed the steps of hell, with the beast Verr'Sza at my side and the beast of murder in my heart. I had thought that the longing for blood which ever stirs within might have been tamed by the tortures of Irenicus, and that this Druid Cernd might have some wild secret to show. I was wrong and the end is only death, well cooked but bitter however it is served.
And now I have no time for writing, for I must lead, and find the strength to sing again.
Well, Valygar certainly had a nose for wizardry and death. No sooner were we back in the city than he was recommending the destruction of a guild- and the Shadow Thieves were certainly on my hitlist. But first we just walked through a door, and another door, as Valygar followed his damn nose. Our second encounter with a lich was even more costly than our first battle in the Council of Six building.
The lich (who I have mentally retconned as the returning Deril) is gone, but our party will be needing some reinforcements....and I'm not at all sure if I haven't had enough of Valygar already...or if he is the lone wolf in human form to fill the 'beast' slot in our group. Serves me right for doing a quick play while tired anyway - something I usually avoid!
Setup/WeiDU: (BWS/BGT: SCS/Spell Revisions/Item Revisions/aTweaks/Polytweak/Item Randomiser)
TOC:
1. Einleitung.
Chapter I.
So lets get started. Out of Candlekeep together with Imoen we cleared the first area noticing that BGT spawns are far less severe than I'm used to in Tutu (there are 1-2 creatures mostly in BGT while in Tutu there are always 6 of those). That means less tedious kiting early on but at the same time slow gaining first few levels. Anyway, right after that we headed straight to the Beregost through the High Hedge to complete all those usual tasks there and get Potion of Invisibility with Chainmail +1 out of local manor.
Fights with Hobgoblins south of Beregost showed us that lacking of critical hit protections makes trash mobs quite scary:
As it was the first time I've fiddled with BigWorldSetup, seems I unintentionally choose the component of SCS "Move NPCs to more convenient locations" so we've met Viconia south of Beregost and gladly invited her into the Crew. All further run proved her words upon joining - she doesn't fail me even once!
The newborn trio cleared the area and we headed to the FAI to complete the core of the Crew noticing another difference between BGT and Tutu alone the way (in BGT lightning hurts!):
In my current setup Conjurers' pre-buffs contains Monster Summoning II spell and those are Green Slimes! At the moment I didn't know if those are usual ones, able to perma-chunk any character if saves are failed and newbie characters have horrific saves so when Tarnesh summoned those we've made a tactical retreat to lure him away from them. Furthermore, those pre-buffed summons give no exp upon killing so I see no reason at all to fight them if not forced to (in a confined areas of similar situations).
He cast Sleep on Imoen, which she saved vs, while I point my Wand of Missiles on him to get rid of his mirror images. His second Sleep on Imoen connected but it doesn't matter much as in my setup any inflicted damage wakes sleeping character and after Viconia Silenced him his fate was sealed. Invisibility spell scroll he dropped is priceless:
In the Inn we've returned Joia, Unshey and Landrin their belonings and joined with Jaheira and Khalid. As I've already mentioned in 'Einleitung' post my current setup forced me to drastically change my usual approach with Jaheira. Now, as she can't wear any metal equipment (helmets/armor/shields) she best be used as support caster/ranged damage dealer. I've installed 'Thalantyr - Item Upgrade' mod but then thought it will mess with Item Revisions so I didn't planned to make all those upgrades. Now I've made one single exception - asked him to forge the returning throwing dagger out of Candlekeep's Dagger+1 and Imoen's Oil of Speed (and later made another one for Dynaheir/Xan). And if in the past Jaheira usually was my main tank, now, with that puny 1D4+1 throwing +1 dagger, she is the Crew's best hunter outmarching in kills score even Khalid with his heavy hitting crossbow of accuracy +1 (1D10 bolts, THACO +2, Damage +3, additional +3 to attack rolls and +10% chance to score critical hits) and better THACO. Now guess, who took her place as Crew's main tank? Yep, it's Viconia and she shines in this role beyond reach!
Long story short the Crew wiped out an opposition from all the areas down to Nashkel and some more. Thalantyr also sold me the Bag of Holding filling my pack rat's soul with unspeakable joy. Now none a single piece of loot will be cast aside!
Melicamp doesn't survived the transformation and I already don't know whether this is a bad omen or not...
Down in Nashkel Inn Neira was Silenced, Held and demolished (we also made sure Jaheira doesn't cast Entangle this time to not upset locals). Viconia advanced to level 4 and I got a Healing Touch ability.
There we also joined Minsc in his rescue mission but for some reason Xvart village isn't accessible right from the Nashkel (as I'm used to) so we had to take another route through the Cloudpeaks (or Fire Leaf Forest) where we fought some Kobold Commandos and noticed yet another difference between BGT and Tutu - Commandos drop much more Arrows of Fire now and those arrows are magical +1 ones so we quickly formed a solid supply in case we need them to hit a creatures immune to normal weapons (i.e. Vampiric Wolves).
Vax was Held and without him Zal can't do much even being the 'fastest darts thrower in the west'... Studded Leather Armor +2 was a nice upgrade for Viconia while Imoen hunted down some Winter Wolves for their pelts (they are not pink but ... who cares?).
Seems, Item Randomiser kindly took into account of me being an Illusionist rearranging spell scrolls...:
Caldo & Krumm were both Held and we found another Chainmail+1 in the nearby cave. Drienne gave us Protection from Undead scroll though it's not the same as in vanilla (the recipient is immune to level drain effects and attacks made by undead creatures receive -2 penalty while all saving throws vs such attacks are made with +2 bonus). I.e. not a complete ignoring of protected character which is good IMO when fighting Vampires (those just went invisible if protected by vanilla scroll character is nearby).
While speaking with Ingot Minsc showed that he is quite unreliable person and best be avoided if possible. :
So we hurry up to the Gnoll Stronghold to complete his mission and get rid of insane warrior as soon as possible:
We went back to civilisation through the Bear River picking local Ogre Berserkers from the distance as those (not speaking of Bears) could easily chunk any of us with lucky critical.
Both Gibberlings and Xvart Hordes are also less crowdy then I remember them:
Fight vs Teyngan & Co was quite intence as it took quite a while to neutralise Jemby who saved vs all our Silence spells unloading a full stock of her own spells in return:
Gravediggers' area is full of Kobold Commandos (more arrows of fire) and tough Gnolls (Dynaheir's quest) and we found a Composite Longbow +1 which none of us can use. We avoided Doomsayer at the moment taking lift to Nashkel with Brage.
One of Carnival shops has a Night's Embrace rings on sale which stacks together and with two of those Imoen's needs in Hide in Shadows skill is fully covered.
There we saved two more damsels in distress (Viconia soloed Zordral - with her MR it's quite a simple task).
and then continued 'help'em all' mission further to the east:
Shipwreck's Coast was our next destination where Dynaheir was chosen to talk with Shoal. Droth conjured the full stock of various monsters but after we made a tactical retreat those began to fight between themselves and even killed their own master in the end. We only need to pick the Shadow Armor out of his corpse:
We've fought some more Ogres but then, after Imoen scouted the whole map looking for monsters and marking their positions on the map, they all (but Sirenes) suddenly just disappeared (so no Carrion Crawlers near Shipwrek, no wolves or Ogrillons...). This BGT spawn mechanics works pretty weird sometimes...
The Lonely Peaks is by far my least favorite area in all BG1 - those damn Ogres... And those Berserkers -they take quite the efforts (and resources) to deal with and then, at near death, their rage ends, they loose 15hp and die... and you get nothing (no exp). And as you just turn around they immediately spawn again behind your back. More so, this time we've encountered an Ogre Mage there! And after we put even more efforts/resources to fight him, at near death he panicked and just gone (fled from the map).
Arrgh, I hate this area!
En-route to the Mutamin's Garden through the Beregost Temple area we were greeted by the wolves pack we accidentally triggered some time before so had to fight them unprepared in the very confined space. But with Potion of Freedom, some skellies and kobold's arrows of fire we've managed to deal with them.
I had hoped to cover all Grim Face's exploits in this new run in one go up to the point when he fell with his first incarnation (up to the Baldur's Gate City) but seems it's quite a task so that's it for now and more will come tomorrow.
to be continued...
Also good to see BWS in some new installs. Mod items can be broken and game-breaking if you pick the best ones, but there are some awfully interesting mod fights that still haven't been well-developed. I still don't know how to win the Chosen of Cyric encounter without relying on certain mod items.
Mollyboo: A "Solo" Seducer in Baldur's Gate
Part 3
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899226/#Comment_899226
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899249/#Comment_899249
Finally, the Cloakwood Mines. The cat is a fabulous tank despite its poor AC, with 51 HP and 90% physical damage resistance. Granted, it does have lousy saving throws and no immunities...
...but since the cat has poor attack power and doesn't rely much on potions to stay alive, the only real risk of losing control of the cat is that he might kill the nearby cook. Mollyboo solves that problem by charming the cook. She still ends up dead, but we don't lose reputation.
Mollyboo is much less sturdy, however, and SCS enemies are smart enough to identify high-AC targets like our main character.
I pull Mollyboo back before she gets killed and have her drink a potion while our ghoul and carrion crawler rush into battle, worried that the enemy might walk right past our cat to attack our vulnerable Seducer. Unfortunately, our ghoul and carrion crawler, the only real damage dealers in our party aside from wands, aren't remotely as tough as the cat.
They cling to life, however, and bludgeon some of the guards to death, though Hareishan makes her saves against the ghoul's paralysis attacks. A guard comes to flank Mollyboo, but a Blindness spell keeps her safe.
Hareishan inches closer and launches a Confusion spell at Mollyboo. Mollyboo's aura isn't clear; she can't drink a potion to protect herself. The best she can do is run away to keep the Confusion spell from hitting our bat. She doesn't make her save.
The hallway is pretty empty, but I don't know it will stay that way. There may be a ghast loitering around at the end, and more guards may spill in and attack Mollyboo. To keep her out of trouble, I have her dump all of her equipment save for a couple of suits of armor and have our bat turn her invisible.
Why was no one wearing that suit of full plate mail? Simple: in my install, armor, including full plate, has a 1% chance of breaking with every hit, so I've been using enchanted armor exclusively. With the Bag of Holding now in our bat's hands and Mollyboo too weighed down to wander around and break invisibility by attacking somebody, Mollyboo is almost completely safe--as long as no one gets close to her.
Anxious to end the fight while we're still more or less okay, our bat casts Horror and follows up with a Wand of Fire charge. One guard makes it to the southern hallway, but with the rest of the enemies on the run, we can bring in our fighters to take him down before he can endanger Mollyboo.
We chase down Hareishan before Horror wears off and paralyze her.
I expect Natasha to play out the same way, wasting her disablers on the cat until she's too weak to hold off our ghoul and carrion crawler. But it seems Natasha prefers a more direct approach to her enemies.
I pull back the cat and only send it back when it's healthy again, but it's not long before it gets in trouble again.
Without bigger potions, the cat can't survive. 90% physical damage resistance is useless against spell damage.
We send in some monsters from the Wand of Monster Summoning, but Natasha is still quite strong. The carrion crawler collapses as well.
But then Mollyboo lands a Domination spell. It doesn't last long, but all I need to do is keep Natasha from refreshing her defenses while the monsters tear her down.
One of the nice things about Domination is that it ignores the Seducer's line of sight. It can go right through walls, which can compensate for the Seducer's squishiness in certain areas.
I like how our party is turning out so far, but it has some severe limitations. While the cat is nearly immune to melee weapons, it suffers horribly to magical arrows and spells of all kinds, and it is an extremely poor damage dealer. The ghoul has high APR and lots of immunities, but it can barely stand up to melee weapons or spell damage, and its THAC0 is mediocre. The carrion crawler has even higher APR, but its THAC0 is atrocious, and its defenses are even worse than the ghoul's. The bat is basically just a single-classed mage, and Mollyboo will only survive if her companions are around to absorb enemy pressure. Having no clerics or druids doesn't help, either.
For all our party's special powers, the drawbacks are pretty heavy. We're actually weaker than a conventional party of the same level, or even a properly-constructed solo character. We're going to have to rely on the Wand of Monster Summoning to deal with Davaeorn and his many, many guards.
First off, we need to deal with the archer using Arrows of Detonation. See, there's a diverse enemy party right before Davaeorn in my install, and one of them really loves those arrows. So much so, in fact, that he'll wipe out his own comrades just to kill some cheap summons.
Those arrows won't last forever, so we're still going to have to deal with most of the enemy party. One of them is a backstabber, so the bat makes sure to keep Mollyboo safe from a potentially fatal critical backstab.
The mage quickly puts our bat in the red with a Minor Sequencer, shutting down the bat's spellcasting by forcing it to drink potions, but the ghoul manages to paralyze the mage.
With all the summoned monsters acting in concert, and with all those Arrows of Detonation bombing the enemy party, we clear out the first room. It's a pity that we can't use mod items, because one of the enemies drops a pair of boots that grants full-blown haste, with the extra +1 APR and everything.
I hoped to deal with the Battle Horrors using missile weapons, but it seems that could take a while.
Since Seducers cannot set or disarm traps, I have to tank the traps beneath the Battle Horrors. I send in the cat, thinking its physical damage resistances would at least keep the Battle Horrors from finishing it off, but it seems they use fire damage as well as slashing damage, and the cat has no such resistances.
The cat will not be able to topple the Battle Horrors before they roast the poor kitten. Instead, our bat uses some of its limited spell slots to weaken the enemy while Mollyboo turns them against each other, allowing my other fighters to pitch in without getting chopped up in the process.
Now comes the tricky part. First, I send in the ghoul, knowing that it will be totally immune to any disablers Davaeorn might throw out, with the notable exception of Web.
I keep the rest of the party concentrated in the previous area so we can pounce on Davaeorn once he teleports over. If we're lucky, the carrion crawler can paralyze him, and then the battle will be won.
But I've forgotten that Davaeorn is a big fan of damage spells. And the core of my party is all packed together when he blasts us.
The bat is dead and all our fighters are below 50% HP. And it's not like even their maximum HP is particularly high. Our fighters chase after Davaeorn, hoping to paralyze him before he wipes us out, but the carrion crawler gets webbed and bombed down to 2 HP while our ghoul fails to pin down Davaeorn.
Worse yet, his guards have started pouring in from the northeast.
Either because I have one mod working correctly, or a different mod working incorrectly, Mollyboo is able to use wands. This allows us to put up a temporary barrier against the enemy fighters.
Barrier or no, the cat can hold off a lot of fighters with little trouble. But the ghoul struggles against Davaeorn's Minute Meteors.
Molly has just drunk a Potion of Magic Shielding. Davaeorn might be able to dispel it, but if he doesn't, she's almost guaranteed to survive any spells he might throw at her. But Mollyboo still has no defense against the enemy's swords if the cat should fall.
Which it does, when Davaeorn launches another Fireball.
Some of the mod-introduced enemies we've fought have dropped Potions of Extra Healing, and since the potions if not the former owners date back to the original games, our ghoul is allowed to use them, giving him 18 more HP than he could get with a normal potion.
Mollyboo still has one trick up her sleeve: 5 Arrows of Dispelling. She lands a hit on the first try, and Davaeorn's defenses go down.
The carrion crawler dies still ensnared in Davaeorn's Web, but the ghoul manages to force a failed save vs. death on Davaeorn, paralyzing him for 30 seconds. Davy is doomed.
Enemies come pouring in, but all we have to do is push over Davaeorn. The battle is won.
On the way out, we meet Perwell, a small boy we freed from the mines. We have to escort him to his mother outside the Friendly Arm Inn. Since Perwell died horribly to a wyvern ambush the last time I tried to escort him, I turn him invisible to prevent any wyvern-related mishaps.
We do in fact get ambushed by wyverns, but Perwell is still invisible when we arrive at the new map.
But, to my absolute disbelief, Perwell breaks his invisibility just to punch a wyvern with his tiny fists.
The wyvern obliterates him, and I am left wondering if it's even possible to complete this questline with Perwell still alive.
I am not looking forward to the meeting with his mom.
We get ambushed again on one of the normal maps by a mod-introduced party of bounty hunters. Mollyboo goes invisible right off the bat using a potion, but the rest of the party decides to duke it out.
The enemy targets our ghoul, and they deal so much damage that not even a Potion of Extra Healing can keep him alive. Not even for a single round.
The cat and carrion crawler rush in to engage the enemy before they can fire any more arrows. The cat does well (notice its critical hit from Varscona, which it wields in the off-hand when in wolf form from Relair's Mistake), but the carrion crawler is even weaker than the ghoul. Another party member goes down.
Our bat casts a Fireball while the cat uses its high movement rate to escape the blast. It's all we can do, now that our glass cannons have been so easily shattered.
We bring down all but one enemy, and then I see another one. A mage.
Because of course it had to be a mage.
The bat uses the Wand of Monster Summoning to box in the mage while the cat suffers a backstab in which most of the damage is electrical.
The bat buffs our summons, only for the enemy mage to send them into disarray.
But after sustained pressure and high APR, we cut through his Stoneskins and drag him to the ground. One last enemy appears, but he doesn't have the defenses to last long.
You'll notice that Mollyboo did absolutely nothing in this fight. I don't always know very much about the enemy's abilities and tactics, but I avoid a lot of deaths just by making sure my Charname is far from the battle and has a clear aura.
We get a lot of nice mod items from the fight, but since we can't use them, we just pawn them off to Officer Vai.
Yet more gold that we will largely waste.
Before we enter Baldur's Gate, there is still one last group of mod enemies that could give us a lot of grief. With four archers armed with magical arrows that deal cold damage and can paralyze on a failed save vs. death, they could wipe us out in seconds if we're not prepared. But our bat has a level 2 spell that, by itself, will ensure we make it to Baldur's Gate in one piece.
Invisibility.
Why should I fight these guys when I can't even use their loot?
Mollyboo: A "Solo" Seducer in Baldur's Gate
Part 4
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899226/#Comment_899226
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899249/#Comment_899249
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899476/#Comment_899476
Now that we're finally in Baldur's Gate, we can bring the next member of the party into our team.
Schlumpsa is only level 2 and has poor defenses and poor damage output, but he does have some important abilities that will become very important very soon.
Despite his low stats, he does have 4 APR, and has a ranged weapon that deals poison damage and slows the target for 200 seconds (!) on a failed save. On top of that, he's immune to normal weapons (meh) and missile damage, which will be a huge deal in the final battle. He's quite sluggish in his natural form, unfortunately, so he'll need to use Relair's Mistake to shapeshift into wolf form most of the time.
With our sky-high APR, single mages like Ragefast and Ramazith are a cinch.
We buy some Stone to Flesh scrolls before we enter the Iron Throne.
The Iron Throne fight has always been very tough for me. Enemy backstabbers kill my spellcasters, enemy fighters kill my fighters, and enemy spellcasters disable everyone. I send forward our cat to soak up the enemy's first attacks and spells.
Then our carrion crawler fails a save against Domination. Seducers can dispel charm effects using Dispel Charm, but the target must make a save vs. spell at +5 for it to work. And our carrion crawler has terrible saving throws.
One of the two thieves, both named Shennara, targets Mollyboo, who has to flee south lest a critical backstab slays her. To the west, the other Shennara attacks our cat, who just shrugs off the backstab.
Then something horrible happens.
Two party members are now charmed, including our best and only tank. On top of that, the bat, our only mage, is paralyzed. Half the party is out of our control, and Mollyboo has to stay invisible to survive, leaving our ghoul and Schlumpsa to do all the work.
But because of a mod issue or simply because many of our party members have surprisingly high Intelligence (except, ironically, for our mage), several of our party members can use wands. Once I get the ghoul in the right position, the effect is devastating, though it won't be enough to win us this fight.
And with the enemy partly distracted by our many summoned monsters, the ghoul and Schlumpsa can paralyze and poison the enemy on a failed save.
Naaman tries to paralyze the ghoul, but the ghoul and Schlumpsa both have all the standard undead immunities. They keep making progress as the enemy fails to subdue them.
The bat recovers from paralysis! Mollyboo reveals Naaman while he was hiding! The ghoul survives Gardush's axe! The bat lands Greater Malison! And Schlumpsa poisons the now-visible Naaman!
It gets better. The cat recovers from Domination and Schlumpsa kills Gardush, whom the ghoul has pushed to the brink of death using a Wand of Fire.
Alai has been struggling with Schlumpsa's poison, and without Gardush to distract Schlumpsa, Alai is out of time.
Finally, the ghoul seals Naaman's fate with its natural weapon.
We won, but that was terrible. I'm not used to glass cannon parties like these; I tend to create extremely defensive builds as a bulwark against bad luck, and I tend to manipulate the enemy's behavior to drain its strength before pouncing. It works great in a no-reload context, but defensive builds are hard to find among enemies in BG1, which means Mollyboo's Seduction power mostly just gives us access to glass cannons like the ghoul. The cat is certainly very sturdy, but only against one type of threat, and it's not much good for anything else.
Anyway, we head over to Candlekeep, with our new Ring of Free Action on Mollyboo, because practically all my defensive options end up on my main character. We visit an old friend, Alec.
Alec might be from the Romantic Encounters mod, but I doubt it--as far as I know, you can only get to first base with him.
The catacombs are uneventful. Prat's comrades die to Wand of Fire charges, and though Prat himself makes a lot of his saving throws, eventually we manage to paralyze him. One of the nice things about having the ghoul and Schlumpsa in the party is that we don't need Protection from Petrification to deal with basilisks and Medusas--a very important detail since our only mage died a lightning bolt trap.
My ban on mod items makes an exception for crafting items, so Mollyboo gets a Ring of Free Action +2, granting both free action and +2 to AC and saves.
By now, we have collected 95 Stone to Flesh scrolls. The basilisk XP loop allows us to give everyone in the party at least one level up by using up the scrolls.
But since I've already done the basilisk XP loop a few times before and I'm tired of going through the motions, I just do the math in Excel, drop a bunch of scrolls on the ground, and use the console to give everyone the XP they would have gotten normally. Mollyboo hits level 10, which means her Charm ability can now hit three targets.
Which, just like the Wand of Lightning, can be used to multiply the effects of on-self items and spells. Any item or spell with multiple targets can do this.
A solo Seducer has virtually no need for high ability scores. But I just like seeing stupidly high values on my Charname's Record screen, even though they've never been particularly meaningful.
Next up, Cythandria! Schlumpsa poisons her in the first round, one of her goons dies soon after, and she loses one of her first spells--which are typically the strongest for SCS mages.
But those Web spells have been paralyzing the ghoul and the cat for quite some time, and they're getting close to death. And though Cythandria lost her first spell, she doesn't lose the others. With two spells, she nearly slays over half the party.
And with Schlumpsa caught in her web and the carrion crawler unable to paralyze Cythandria due to her Teleport Field, the only one who can bail out the party is Mollyboo, who breaks invisibility to fire an Arrow of Dispelling at Cythandria.
It's worked for us before. But it requires an attack roll to work, and Mollyboo misses every time. Cythandria strikes back.
Half the party is now dead, and Cythandria's defenses remain strong. The bat tries to land a Chaos spell, but the walls get in the way, and Cythandria avoids it entirely. Schlumpsa chases after her, trying to slow her and poison her, but she fights back hard, and she keeps making her saving throws.
Then I realize that Cythandria has lost her MGOI.
So...
Yeah. I could have done that much earlier, if I had thought to.
Anyhoo, down to the Undercellars. Turns out Romantic Encounters adds a sex scene to... Slythe and Kristin. Of all people.
Then, something even weirder happens.
Um...
Now what?
I wouldn't put it past a mod to introduce an instant death script to a dialogue. And Slythe is exactly the kind of person who would murder you when your guard was down. Staying still does not seem remotely safe.
But what if it's the other way around? What if he's just toying with me, and fighting back would spur him to kill me? Even if that option doesn't involve an instant death script, and just started combat normally, I don't know if Mollyboo would have her equipment when it began. And if she doesn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand, she might suffer a fatal backstab before she can even escape the room.
What am I supposed to do?
I seriously don't know. None of the options seem safe. I don't even know why I agreed to this; I hadn't bothered with most of the other Romantic Encounters content, despite so many of them being a perfect fit for a Seducer protagonist.
Based on my limited understanding of the twisted mind behind the Romantic Encounters mod, I decide to pick the second option, to freeze instead of fighting back.
He doesn't kill me. But unfortunately, a roll in the hay will not get those invitations to the Ducal Palace. The fight begins anyway, despite me cooperating at every step of the way.
But Mollyboo still has her equipment.
She goes invisible and escapes the room while our cat, still in wolf form, runs out to handle Slythe. Slythe can barely scratch it.
But Krystin is another story, and she will only focus on her defenses for so long before taking aggressive action. She's clearly readying some hideous disabler for our kitty cat.
I bring out the rest of the party, certain that the cat will need help at some point, and Kristin directs her Chaos spell at the party. The carrion crawler fails its save, but the ghoul is immune, and the bat manages to resist the effect.
Notice the carrion crawler getting weighed down. Like I did with the cat when it got confused in the Cloakwood mines, I put a couple suits of armor in the carrion crawler's inventory so it couldn't walk around and chomp on one of the nearby innocents.
The bat and Kristin trade meaningless spells. With 90% damage resistance, the bat barely needs its mage defenses, the bat's Chaos spell fails entirely, and Kristin's Slow spell only affects the cat, who can keep tanking Slythe despite the penalties.
But when the bat tries Greater Malison first, its next Chaos spell works on both targets.
The battle continues a bit longer, but with Slythe and Kristin unable to use potions or defensive spells, they can't hold us off for long.
To the Ducal Palace! Mollyboo charms the doppelgangers before the fight and sends them all to a single room, allowing us to seal them off from the main room with the Wand of Monster Summoning.
I believe I used talk-blocking to make sure that I could turn Liia Jannath invisible before the dialogue started. In some cases, I've seen dialogues disrupt spells.
The doppelgangers hurt the carrion crawler badly before it escapes, but by the time they claw their way out of their room, we've already broken their strength.
We move into position to contain Sarevok, ensuring that Belt as well as Liia Jannath survives. Check out the bat's badass tanking skills.
The bat's damage resistances really don't synergize well with its mage class, since it still needs Mirror Image and Stoneskin to avoid spell disruption, but it does keep the bat a little safer.
I spend all my gold in anticipation of Siege of Dragonspear. When Sorcerous Sundries has nothing left for me, I use the scroll scribing mod to create a bunch of spare scrolls, which Mollyboo can use for whatever reason (I still don't know which mod makes this happen, nor do I plan on finding out). Unfortunately, I can't scribe scrolls of Emotion: Hope from the IWDification mod or Dimension Door.
Only one fight left before Sarevok, the Undercity party. Fortunately, one of them is stupid enough to fire Arrows of Detonation at our cat even when the cat is right next to his own party members.
Those Arrows of Detonation won't be enough to win the battle. So the carrion crawler adds its own.
Two enemies survive while our cat dies, but they're not too dangerous without their friends to help out.
I mentioned that Schlumpsa would have a critical role in the final battle, and he does. With his immunity to missile damage, he's the only one who can completely resist both forms of damage from Arrows of Detonation. Tazok and Diarmid aren't so lucky, and Diarmid dies in moments.
But I can only keep this up for so long before Sarevok starts to kill Schlumpsa, and I'm not willing to trade Schlumpsa's life just to finish off Tazok. Unfortunately, I forget to stop everyone from firing while the ghoul is on the move.
It takes some finagling and we take some damage, but I move around the party and get Schlumpsa in position to be our Arrow of Detonation target.
Tazok and Diarmid are both dead, leaving only Angelo, Semaj, and Sarevok himself. Angelo vanishes, leaving us with no clear next move.
We focus on breaking apart the Skeleton Warriors while Mollyboo struggles to land an Arrow of Dispelling on Semaj and Schlumpsa, still in wolf form to improve its movement speed, runs away from Sarevok.
Mollyboo lands a hit, but all it gets her is a Breach spell and a new Stoneskin on Semaj.
Mollyboo uses another Stoneskin scroll. Angelo breaks invisibility to nail Mollyboo with Lightning Bolt, but she's immune. We swarm Semaj, but he can still zap the rest of the group.
It's not enough. We box him in.
Angelo's defenses are still strong. Until Mollyboo lands another Arrow of Dispelling.
We break apart the remaining Skeleton Warriors and mob Sarevok, who foolishly targets our kitty cat.
With Sarevok's allies dead and our party in strong condition, Sarevok has no options left but to hack at the horde as it eats him alive.
Victory! We enter Siege of Dragonspear at around 200,000 XP apiece, or 100,000 for our fighters, loaded with wands and Arrows of Detonation and such.
In all honesty, I have trouble measuring the power of a solo Seducer in BG1. We pulled off some early kills thanks to the paralysis attacks of our ghoul and carrion crawler, but we suffered an abnormally high death rate even in the late game, and there's a chance we might not have made it past Davaeorn if our dead bat was the only one who could use wands.
As for the final battle, I very much doubt this party could have beaten Sarevok without relying on wands and Arrows of Detonation. Those items so dominate late BG1 gameplay that a party's actual abilities are practically irrelevant once you collect enough gold.
Still, it was a very fun playthrough. I liked having a kitty cat and a ghoul as my frontline fighters. Seducers play very differently from other classes, and for me, the most important thing is that I get to try out something weird and interesting. And Siege of Dragonspear should be even weirder and even more interesting.
Because Seducers can pull some really, really crazy stunts in SoD.
Mollyboo: A "Solo" Seducer in Siege of Dragonspear
Part 5
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899226/#Comment_899226
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899249/#Comment_899249
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899476/#Comment_899476
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899528/#Comment_899528
Mollyboo has made it through Baldur's Gate primarily thanks to wands and Arrows of Detonation. Now she's faced with the prospect of getting through Siege of Dragonspear, where enemies are much tougher and far more intelligent than typical BG1 enemies. Wands will win us a lot of fights, but we're going to have to do better than that if we're going to win the more complicated ones.
Despite being a solo character, Mollyboo has used her Seduction ability to bring 5 critters into the party without building any at character creation or recruiting typical NPCs. She's had to find whatever random critters were weak enough for her to control. This includes:
A cat with 90% physical damage resistance
A ghoul
A carrion crawler
A bat with 90% physical damage resistance and mage spells
Schlumpsa the Sewer King
All of them have terrible stats, high AC, low HP, and crummy THAC0. But they have all the special immunities and on-hit effects that they did in the original game, allowing them to compete in BG1. They used to have their original sprites, but the transition to SoD reset them all to human sprites. So, the bat now looks like a human mage.
I'd change the sprites back, because it gives us an unfair movement rate advantage in some cases, but this party won't last long enough for it to matter. It will take some work, but I have big plans for Mollyboo's future recruits.
We get thrashed by the Shadowed Souls in the first dungeon (nobody in the party is immune or even resistant to magic damage), and have to resort to Wands of Fire to avoid losing half the party in our second major fight.
But this fight gets us a very nice prize. Because Mollyboo is at level 10, she can use Seduction on level 5 enemies and below. And the Skeletal Mage in this fight just happens to be level 5!
We have to get rid of its allies first and then repeatedly attempt to take control of it outside of combat before it can break free and attack us again, but eventually Mollyboo persuades it to join the party, replacing our carrion crawler (who had always been far too easy to kill). The Skeletal Mage's spellbook is largely empty, but it does have some pretty nice resistances, plus all the normal undead immunities to disablers.
The portrait is Carl from Llamas with Hats. I created a soundset from Carl's lines and am very fond of bringing Carls into my games. But shortly after, I changed his portrait to the Sans portrait that used to belong to our bat mage, since having a Sans portrait on the non-skeletal mage would be silly.
Our cat has historically been extremely difficult to kill, but enemies in SoD do more than just whomp you with swords. Level drain and energy damage pierce right through our cat's defenses. More than once, we have to resort to big magic to bail out our kitty cat.
By the time we reach Korlasz, I know better than to just rely on our cat as a tank. We bomb her followers into oblivion and swarm her until she surrenders.
Unfortunately, Schlumpsa's ranged attack was still in the air when she surrendered, hence Korlasz's last-minute chunking.
I keep things brief in Baldur's Gate and hurry on to the next area. I'm impatient to get my hands on a very special new critter, one that I would have loved to have had in BG1.
We find our future MVP harassing a hill giant in a cave. The giant nearly kills it, but with the help of our bat's Greater Malison, Mollyboo manages to charm it and pull it away to safety.
Our new recruit is a wight. Its almost identical to our ghast in all ways, except it has 1 attack per round instead of 3, and is many levels behind.
But it's not a ghast.
It's a wight.
Many of you can probably see where this is going. If not, just wait--you'll see soon enough.
Anyhoo, the wight's power lays dormant for now. After all, it's not likely it can contribute to the fights in the first real dungeon.
I've set the difficulty to Insane but disabled the bonus XP and damage, so we've got a lot of nasty enemies to deal with in these halls. Fortunately, none of them are particularly resistant to Wands of Fire.
Honestly, it doesn't matter if we use up all our wands halfway through the game (even if we could spend all of those charges). I've actually gone through most of SoD with Mollyboo once before, but I got killed by Halatathlaer close to the end. I'm quite willing to speed through the early game.
The first time I played SoD, I accidentally turned the Dwarves of Dumathoin hostile, and ended up fighting a level 18 lich with a level 9 party. Everyone died but my main character.
This time, I use an item the dwarves gave me.
We destroy the lich's phylactery and scribe a bunch of scrolls for our Skeletal Mage to learn. Unfortunately, it seems that the Skeletal Mage is immune to the Intelligence modifier.
This means that it's immune to mind flayer INT drain. But it also can't use Potions of Genius. And that's a huge liability--I very much doubt I can use the Skeletal Mage to replace our bat, even though the skeleton has all kinds of awesome immunities that the bat does not. For now, I'll hold onto them both.
We fight our way across the bridge. A blitzkrieg attack and a Potion of Invisibility for Mollyboo pave the way to the next area.
To the old temple of Bhaal.
This is where things in SoD get really weird, really crazy, and really awesome.
Previous updates:
After giving Tenya back her bowl, Wimp dodged the ankheg in order to travel on to Ulgoth's Beard. She struck lucky there with only 4 attempts needed to charm Dushai and move him away from the village to be eaten by the familiar. Back at the FAI she donated at the temple to boost reputation by 5 - I tend not to do that much, but some of the potential reputation quests would be a bit of a slog for her and I'd like to boost it as soon as possible in order to buy a few spell scrolls cheaply (with no reduction in price for reputation possible in BG1 funds won't be quite as plentiful as normal).
Joia was pleased to get her ring back and Firebead and Mr Colquetle also got presents for more easy reputation. Travelling by day to avoid nasty ambushes she went down to the Carnival and took advantage of Vitiare's cowardly nature (he tries to run when attacked, so there's no risk in confronting him if you don't let him get close enough to pickpocket you).
At the Nashkel Mine she charmed Greywolf. Charm attempts by Wimp are not risk free at the moment as, without invisibility, there's a risk of being ambushed by archers when attempting to rest and then ambushed again when running between areas. However, she succeeded at the 4th or 5th attempt and after Greywolf was worn down against some kobolds Wimp grabbed his XP thanks to a lucky critical from the pseudo-dragon - that gained her another HP for getting to level 6.
Moving through the Cloud Peaks Krumm switched sides to kill his partner before suffering a fatal accident himself.
She laboriously carried the bracers of dexterity back to Nashkel. Originally I was intending to stash those for later, but realised it was much better to wear them rather than the belt of piercing (which along with the Cloak of Algernon had been using up her entire weight limit for a while) - the bracers improve her AC by a handy 7
That was pretty much her hour up, so she'll continue the hunt for reputation tomorrow.
SD-4,
so far, so good,I lost a ranger to backstab and gained a bard... hardly a bargain but Neera is twice the man Edwin was so it evens out in the end, which is beginning soon!
I'm wondering what mod has nerfed all these items. The game will be much harder as a result of these changes.
Journal of Osweald
We helped the dryad and rescued a cat.Upon returning to Nashkel we were hired my a mage who turned out to be pure evil and not only that, powerful too! However, we survived.
We then took on Bassilus, but he turned out to be more straightforward.
Zargal was next and was equally straightforward.
We then moved to the Lighthouse area and killed some sirine before making friends with Sil.
Buffs and skeletons protected us from the first flesh golem, but we had to take on the other two without such help with the result that we were hurt.
We were heading for the mines when Zargos Flintblade attacked. We managed to kill him but he hurt us badly.
Setup/WeiDU: (BWS/BGT: SCS/Spell Revisions/Item Revisions/aTweaks/Polytweak/Item Randomiser)
TOC:
1. Einleitung.
2. Chapter I.
Chapter II.
In the Mutamin's Garden I first scouted the whole area under Invisibility spell and marked the location of all enemies on the map so we could deal with them effectively using our poor resources: there is no Pro vs Petrification spell in Spell Revisions, Green scroll lasts 'only' 10 turns and we have a single copy of it, while Potion of Mirrored Eyes lasts 5 turns and that's it. Then we buffed Jaheira with Barkskin, Aid, Potions of Heroism and Mirrored Eyes, called for some skellies and they quickly dealt with all the vile creatures except the ones near Mutamin himself.
We hired Korax to join our skellies in the fight with Mutamin but the latter had Green Slimes as a pre-buff and some more Hobgoblins immediatelly summoned so between those and his pet Basilisks Korax and then skellies fell. At least they soaked some Mutamin's spells and killed his Greater Basilisk. So after Green Slimes unsummoned (I still avoided to fight them) Jaheira dealt with the remaining Lesser Basilisk while we finished Mutamin (he managed to Charm Khalid but with my Break Enchantment at the ready it's not a big issue).
Mutamin dropped an interesting War Hammer +2 for Viconia and our first rare piece of equipment with critical hit protection.
Then we've encountered the Kirian's group and I've got some insights of how my Crew members see me:
Anyway, the fight ensured and with some skellies acting as a bait we filled the battlefield with all kinds of AoE disablers: Obscuring Mist (a some kind of SR 'substitute' of vanilla Blindness spell), Grease, Entangle, Silence, Web followed by some Hold Person and then just mop them down. The loot was pretty insignificant (Splint Mail +1 at best):
"You know, Silke, the fact that you have Stoneskins as a pre-buff and can cast Haste doesn't matter much if you fail your save vs Hold Person... And btw, thanks for those Bracers of Archery and Potions of Invisibility, they will come in handy!"
"And Mr.Bassilus, you are such a chatty dude that Viconia has a headache of you already! Dynaheir isn't happy either..."
IR Wand of Lightning, we got from Bassilus, is quite a tool vs Stoneskinned/Mirror Imaged mages as its three bolts are single target now and strikes right through those defences.
Sendai & Co provided me and Jaheira with another levels so I now can have two cruicial spells always memorised:
With no more relatively safe areas to explore now it's time to clear Nashkel' Mines (and deal with Greywolf, if not for Varscona, which he no longer possess due to Randomiser, but just... because).
The Mines were cleared of 'demons' without issues but their master provided some tricks and heavy punches before were eliminated:
His treasure chest contained another valuable wand for us to use and we swapped Dynaheir for Xan. I like her and she is very capable mage (even more so in Spell Revisions setup, where many spells have changed their schools) but I just want to have at least one new face in my usual, years-ago-built Crew. So far I did not regret of that decision.
On the surface we hunted down some Ankhegs to make a better armor for Jaheira later and cleared local tombs of various undead to get a better bow for Imoen and another rare suit of armor for me to wear for a long long time:
Narcillicus was separated from his Mustard Jellies so I, wearing Spiritual Hammer, and Viconia as a tank could deal with them in relative safety:
Narcillicus, even being a decent mage, but alone and after MGoI expired can't do much:
Nimbul had solid buffs and a number of spells/potions to use but with some skellies led by Viconia to waste them on and acid from Xan's Melf's Acid Arrow eating his flesh he doesn't last too long. A third elemental Wand to my collection is always welcome:
Tranzig is somewhat broken in this setup as he only cast Magic Missiles and nothing more...
We've spent 10 days in Feldepost's Inn waiting for Jaheira's new armor to be made but moving outside one lovely early morning we were greeted by some unfriendly brutes:
Being catch offguard, unbuffed, forced to fight in the VERY confined space (literally unable to move freely and regroup) we had to use some our scarce and valuable resources (like Potion of Invisibility or Extra Healing) to stay alive and eventually win this encounter:
And right after we've rested in Joviar Juggler Inn to heal our wounds and headed outside to check the smithy if our armor is ready another group of assassins 'sprang out of the box'...
This time we retreated inside the Inn to take the fight there more comfortably.
And finally (FINALLY!) Jaheira got a decent armor she doesn't refuse to wear:
Our next destination was a mysterious Durlag's Tower but more on that later.
to be continued...