Gate70: Teere, human female Priest of Lathander nee Tyr. Corey Russell: Corarcher, elf male Archer. Grond0: Mis, elf female Archer.
Our seasoned adventurers make their sixth appearance, only to stumble a few times. Can they hold it together for two hours and see the session out?
Mis is first into trouble, getting held. Teere wastes no time ordering Corarcher to pick off the outlying sharpshooters as she moves to hammer the first into the floorboards.
Disaster averted.
We head back to the Slums, either to pay off Gaelan Bayle or help Hendak. This is enough for Teere to stumble into danger, not realising Mis and Corarcher have gone to shoot up a carrion crawler. Instead of reacting correctly (run or command the nearby shaman) she relies on melee, only realising her mistake when held and noting there are no arrows whistling past her. Help is a loooooong way away, but Mis gets into range faster than pronto and Corarcher is right behind her. Phew.
Teer ought not to pay Mis back with this sort of mistake (believing I'd lassoo'd three skeletons I moved them across a prismatic spray trap only to realise Teere was selected instead of skellie 3). Mis reacts quickly once more and for a moment believes she is out of danger but multiplayer lag drags her back, and down.
After a few rests, Teere remembers to memorise Raise Dead and Mis is up once more. The rest of the slaver compound is cleared and we rush across some steps which Mis believes may stop some of us getting poisoned. Corarcher succeeds in skipping over the trap while Teere and Mis wait the effect out before healing up.
We move on to the Docks, dealing with a mad cleric and picking up Renal / Mae'Var's quest as well as a shiny amulet from Aran Linvail. Off to the Temple district where Teere remembers her change of faith (Tyr -> Lathander) when Arval asks for her help. OK then, although we may try to return to Tyr in a later edit.
It's 5am, so the stormy clerics will be up. We could kick some stones around or go play in the sewers.
After raiding the temple on our way out we return to the Docks and play with Rayic. He's no danger, unlike his traps eh...
There's just time to report back to Mae'Var for the last time.
At Bridgefort, I completed the various sidequests; Most notably, I obtained 80 void-tipped arrows +3 for Corwin, which I plan to use against Belhifet. Eventually, I commanded the flaming fist to attack, while my party kept to the back lines, using their ranged weapons:
Khalid didn't survive the battle, but I wasn't planning to take him along anyway.
Time for the next chapter! First things first: More sidequests! I completed every available one in the camp, Bloodbark Grove, Dead Man's Pass, the outside part of the Underground River and the Dragonspear Castle Courtyard without any issues, but things changed inside the actual Underground River area.
The first problem: I haven't mentioned Zaviak's vision quest so far - since there are so many options regarding the few available charges, I looked up the items one can obtain. I used my first charge to make the genie merchant in the coalition camp available - however, with the second charge, I planned to get myself another one of those elusive +3 weapons, so I used the glasses on the rakshasa Vidyadhar.
I didn't expect him to be so freaking powerful. While I was able to avoid him doing significant harm to my party with his spells, I was simply unable to deal meaningful damage to him. Because he used various aoe spells, I was forced to move the fight closer and closer to the entrance of the area, getting the crusaders involved:
Quite a lot of them ended up dying, though this gave me some time for more extensive buffs - specifically, I tried to improve the thac0 of my most important damage dealers (with strength potions and cleric spells), but even then, Vidyadhar's various defensive spells and great AC were too much for me: When he was slightly below half hp, he simply teleported away, leaving me with only 5k experience and no scimitar +3.
Oh well, could've been worse - and it got worse! My next mistake involved Strunk, this time I simply didn't remember how this encounter worked - I didn't think fighting him would turn the surrounding crusaders hostile, and I was quickly surrounded by enemies, with Corwin almost dying while I finally managed to kill the mage:
I did get out of this though: Corwin managed to drink an invisibility potion, the water elementals disappeared and the rest of the party dealt with the crusaders. The other fights around here went rather well: Both Ferrusk and Kherriun died before getting to use any of their spells:
Nabatil also used his last glasses charge on the lich down there to get a ring of regeneration. Always a useful item to have.
However, the next big fight was very messy once again: In the Dragonspear Castle Basement, I was just fighting the crusaders in the eastern room - when suddenly, the Hepernaan encounter started. I had no idea attacking these cursaders would trigger this fight, and I was in no way ready for it. I tried to quickly apply defensive buffs like remove fear (to counter a horror spell), but two unholy blight spells hit my party quite hard, forcing me to drink heaing options. As I wasn't ready to fight, I had to distract Hepernaan and his allies, so I used the summoning items I picked up during the game: One to summon lesser stone golems, the other to summon lesser water elementals. Meanwhile, Dynaheir almost died to the unholy blights, but was able to retreat and buff up:
Btw, the existence of unholy blight is the entire reason Nabatil is true neutral, so that certainly paid off
While Hephernaan proved to be quite capable of disabling or killing my summons, even confusing Voghiln, my party eventually stabilized and managed to get through the adversaries protections:
Thus, any further attempts at spellcasting were interrupted and pany further protections breached, making the rest of the battle trivial.
Finally, we are done with the underground river part. Next time, we will storm the castle!
We start all over again in ToB. The first few fights are nothing special, but we do make the Gromnir encounter much simpler by having our Alhoon chain-cast Time Stop to land a series of INT drain kills.
Overwhelming force once again works marvelously against the fire giants and their pet dragon.
Nyalee can be a big problem because she uses her Mirror of Opposition to summon hostile clones of the party, but druids have no defense against magic damage.
The Yaga-Shura army is much tougher this time around. The Lieutenant Mage not only uses a bunch of HLAs; he actually casts Time Stop twice in a row, in addition to his Improved Alacrity spell, to land a bunch of spells before we can react.
Gorky has lost his buffs, as have the Balor and Nizidramanii'yt. Completely unable to handle the mage, we focus on the Fallen Planetar instead.
The mage did a lot to weaken the party, but with Yaga-Shura on the map, there's really no reason to spend round after round trying to kill the mage when we can simply mob Yaga-Shura instead. When he goes down, the army vanishes.
On to Abazigal's lair. This time, we have no intention of seducing him, so we just bypass his PFMW with normal weapons.
Our unnaturally high APR and lack of weapon proficiencies means that we can use bare fists rather than spend a few minutes finding a nonmagical club or whatever, which would be the ideal for a normal party.
When we leave and come back to find more dragons waiting to avenge Draconis, Nizidramanii'yt can handle the enemy mostly on his own.
Partly because he's a dragon himself, but also because Soul Reaver imposes such crippling THAC0 penalties that the enemy can only hit him on a natural 20.
Soul Reaver should be one of the best options in ToB, since so many enemies rely on weapon damage and are easily hobbled by a few hits from Soul Reaver.
Gorky never got chunked in this run, but we replace him nonetheless, as Carnifex is still the superior choice.
The Tyrant Golems in Abazigal's lair are as frustrating as ever, but despite their demilich-grade resistances, they are vulnerable to Lower Resistance, which makes Horrid Wilting a good way of speeding up the fight.
As always, the fight with Abazigal is largely a contest of numbers rather than a puzzle or a chess match. And our numbers are bigger.
The Alhoon cast Black Blade of Disaster, which turned out to be a mistake, as it prevents it from switching weapons to get past Abazigal's PFMW.
But one character operating at less than full capacity for a few rounds is not enough to change the tide in Abazigal's favor.
Over at Sendai's lair, I try seducing a mod enemy named Baelden and Thelynn'ss, but both are subpar characters by our standards, and are not strong enough to replace the Balor.
The last time I fought Odamaron, I tried to have Frisky Bits kill the enemies with the Scorcher Ammunition during Time Stop, but I failed to realize that the Scorcher Ammunition won't do any physical damage unless you pair it with a normal crossbow, not the Big Metal Rod. I therefore hand the Scorcher Ammunition to the Alhoon and have it attack during Time Stop instead.
There aren't many targets the Alhoon can actually hit, since the mages have PFMW, the Balor is immune to +2 weapons and below, and I foolishly killed the enemy Magical Sword, but the Alhoon finds that it can target a clone instead, creating a bunch of scorcher projectiles that he can stretch over the enemies to catch the mages who would otherwise resist all of our weapons.
I finally find a solid replacement for our Balor: Ogremoch, who has even higher stats, including almost twice as much HP. Ogremoch cannot cast Stoneskin every round anymore, since he did that using a script, but he's still an awesome tank.
I run into a curious bug while moving from area to area: it appears that, when you're viewing the cutscenes where Sendai is badgering her subordinates, the party is actually on the same map. They're just holed up in a distant corner.
But with multiple characters with wide circles in the party, we actually filled up that space, causing Ogremoch to teleport into Sendai's chamber--which started the final battle early!
Technically, I could try fighting my way out of this despite arriving with no buffs, but since Frisky Bits is still trapped in the corner, I'm not sure we could actually complete the game even if we won. After the fight, a teleport circle shows up in the middle of the room, and Frisky Bits could never access it, which presumably would make it impossible to ever reach Amkethran and therefore prevent us from facing Balthazar, breaking the main quest line. I try again.
Last up is the mind flayer area. The Alhoon does most of the work during Time Stop.
Then we enter Sendai's chamber properly. The nearest mage buffs with Improved Mantle, but we have enough +5 weapons to get right past it.
The next mage is also very well defended, but a Fire Storm from Frisky Bits' Planetar disrupts her first spell despite her immunity to fire.
One of the reasons Ogremoch was better than the Balor was because its natural attack can dispel on hit as a level 20-something caster.
The final Sendai also appears to buff with Improved Mantle--a very bad choice, considering you can get the Flail of Ages +5 if you kill Abazigal before Sendai.
Of course, Sendai also has PFMW...
...but PFMW, as always, will not block bare fists or normal weapons.
One of my mods, possibly Wheels of Prophecy, actually lets you fight Melissan early in Balthazar's chamber. She's just a crummy mage, though.
All that's left is to stomp a few demons and ravage the Ravager.
Our party is the same as last time, with the sole exception of Ogremoch. This is what he looks like:
This process actually took at least two days, but finally we're back to Melissan. Now we can try to fix the mistakes I made last time.
We leave the Pocket Plane and step out onto the Throne of Bhaal, floating inside an infinite void.
The twinkling stars beneath us fill us with determination.
We're off to a bad start. Somehow, I forgot to buff the Alhoon with SI: Abjuration. Nearly all its defenses go down.
We concentrate our fire on the Fallen Solars, easily the biggest threat in this fight. Right before our Alhoon dies, its Contingency and Chain Contingencies both fire, giving it enough time to drink a potion.
Because Protection from Undead scrolls apparently don't work in this location (a message actually told us this), Bodhi can actually drain our levels very easily. Fortunately, we have plenty.
We hurry up and crush Bodhi before the level drain becomes a problem, and Frisky Bits gets an SI: Conjuration spell off the ground to block a Creeping Doom from one of the Fallen Solars.
We break through the defenses of one of Jon-bon's clones, but Creeping Doom takes away the Alhoon's Stoneskins, leaving it vulnerable to the Fallen Solar's direct attacks once PFMW runs out. And with Creeping Doom active, re-casting PFMW isn't an option.
In retrospect, SI: Abjuration should always be paired with SI: Conjuration in this fight, because both Remove Magic and Creeping Doom can rob you of your PFMW spells.
Creeping Doom wears off, allowing the Unseeing Eye to restore its Stoneskins. We box in a Fallen Solar and bring it down.
Jon-bon himself is largely untouched, so the Unseeing Eye stops time and uses the Scorcher Ammunition to roast him. Irenicus' own Magical Sword is the perfect target.
No problems with the fights at the pools. The only sticking points are the Mariliths, whose PFMW are perfectly open for a Breach spell.
There's only one fight left before this run is finally over.
We use up every spell slot we can and use the pools to restore them. Most of those defenses are a waste, but the success or failure of a no-reload run can hinge on the roll of a single die.
To avoid accidentally killing Illasera early, we laid fewer Skull Traps in her position, and as a result, she's much healthier than she was in our previous run. But we have more celestials on hand this time.
Unlike the previous run, our dragons began in natural form. I thought this ran the risk of them getting hit by some Skull Traps, but it's worth it, because I can't have them shapeshift from wolf form to dragon form on the first round. I need their auras to be clear.
This is because, while we have Ogremoch to use our only Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai, we also need somebody to use a Control Circlet on Sarevok.
Sarevok is the only enemy on the map that can be charmed, and the charm effect from a Control Circlet offers no save and bypasses magic resistance, lasting for 6 hours (though elves and half-elves can resist it). Sarevok isn't the strongest enemy here, but charming him is definitely worth spending an aura using a Control Circlet.
I can't see Illasera, so we divide our pressure in between Sendai's Fallen Deva and Abazigal, whose PFMW we can bypass using normal weapons. We take him down to Near Death.
I don't want Melissan to show up yet, so I take some time to damage Yaga-Shura instead of finishing off Abazigal.
Illasera finally shows up! But it seems that Ogremoch's dispel ability allowed him to kill Sendai unusually early. Melissan appears earlier than we wanted her to.
With two of the Five in terrible condition, we can knock down Melissan twice by finishing off Yaga-Shura and Illasera.
Best to keep her down, so I order our celestials and the Alhoon (using the Scorcher Ammunition) to slay Sarevok while the rest of the party focuses on Gromnir, already at Near Death.
Melissan activates Divine Mantle, which almost makes her invincible unless we're willing to shell out a Ruby Ray of Reversal and a Breach spell (which we probably should, but we don't).
Abazigal tears through the Unseeing Eye's Stoneskins, reminding me to re-cast PFMW. With Sarevok dead, the Alhoon uses the Scorcher Ammunition to shred through Melissan's Stoneskins despite her Absolute Immunity spell.
We finish off Gromnir, knocking down Melissan, albeit only briefly.
Only Abazigal is left. We can hit him with normal weapons, but the Alhoon isn't careful with the Scorcher Ammunition, accidentally taking a significant chunk out of Ogremoch's HP before I notice what's happening.
Abazigal goes down, and then Melissan summons a pair of Fallen Solars--really not what I wanted to see here.
But we're still in strong condition, and we're bunched together, which means the Fallen Solars won't be running away to recover.
Melissan is alone. We prepare to amplify the pressure on her.
As for Frisky Bits, I've been keeping a close eye on them, making sure their PFMW spells do not run out like they did last time.
Apparently, though, Melissan has a lot more enemies for us to deal with.
Melissan starts dealing physical damage to us, but I can't figure out where it's coming from. It comes from all three damage types, even though Melissan's spear (at least in Ascension) and Globe of Blades are supposed to deal slashing damage alone.
She also does slashing damage in rapid succession to multiple characters which requires a save vs. death for half instead of a save vs. spell, which doesn't make sense for either her spear or a Globe of Blades spell.
Unable to deal with Melissan herself for another round, when Absolute Immunity wears off, we kill her summons instead. That way, they won't get in the way when Melissan herself becomes vulnerable.
We start softening up Melissan for our spells, while our celestials keep our fighters in good condition.
Melissan keeps up her strange Globe of Blades effect, but she loses her defenses, allowing us to attack her directly.
Melissan is still a very sturdy critter, but we've got the whole party bearing down on her.
We finally take the second chunk out of her health bar.
Meanwhile, Frisky Bits stays safe, preparing for a Time Stop that could prove fatal.
Melissan is wearing thin.
Finally, the Solar interrupts! The battle is over!
This run has proven tiring, and we are in need of a rest. We choose to let go of Bhaal's essence, choosing freedom over power.
I had to start over three times in this run: first, when my initial, undocumented Seducer died to Halatathlaer in SoD; second, when Mollyboo died to the Chosen of Cyric in BG2; and third, when Frisky died to Melissan in Throne of Bhaal. But we persisted despite all the setbacks and got past the obstacles before us. My first "solo" no-reload tetralogy run is finally over.
These are all of the critters that spent time in our party and contributed in some way to the success of the run:
Special thanks goes to the Cat and Gorken Bloodaxe in BG1, Darskhelin and Morentherene in SoD, Sion and the Balor in BG2, and Nizidramanii'yt and the Alhoon in ToB. Two mages, two mind flayers, two dragons, one demon, and a kitty cat.
Looking back on all that's happened, I'd say that the Seducer's power is really dependent on how it is used.
Used on its own, with no special tricks or optimizations, the Seducer as a character class is more or less average. It can charm all kinds of critters, but a simple save vs. spell can negate the effect, and there is little a Seducer can do besides charm stuff and pick a few locks.
Used with a mage using Greater Malison or an Archer using Called Shot, the Seducer is above average as a character class, because save penalties weaken the critical drawback of the Seducer's abilities: they all offer a saving throw.
Used to bring monsters into the party with Seduction, the Seducer is one of the strongest classes in the game. Monsters tend to have terrible stats and no proficiency points, but they come with all kinds of special powers that normal characters cannot have.
But when pushed to its absolute limit, using level drain to weaken high-level enemies who would otherwise be immune to Seduction, the Seducer has far more potential than any other class, simply because level drain can add some absolutely ridiculous monsters to the party. Dragons, demons, and mind flayers all have immense potential. Seduction is pretty weak in BG1, but its power grows exponentially, until it eclipses practically everything somewhere in late BG2.
I think beating Ascension as a single-classed Seducer, without dual-classing, is perfectly doable, despite its lack of PFMW and generally abysmal defenses. Melissan can be killed before she gets a chance to get Time Stop off the ground. It should even be possible without the level drain trick, because a level 28 Seducer (3.96 million XP) can bring an Ancient Vampire into the party. Properly buffed, that vampire should be able to kill Melissan in two rounds using CON drain--or possibly even a single round, in the likely event that you can get the vampire enough XP to learn Critical Strike and therefore get automatic hits on Melissan. An Ancient Vampire's second weapon in SCS is a +4 weapon that drains 3 Constitution per hit with no save, bypassing magic resistance, for 50 rounds. Their base APR is 3, their fighter levels would bump it up to 4, and Improved Haste would bump it up to 8.
In an ideal party, a Seducer would definitely play a role. But it probably shouldn't be the main character, because Seducers are strongest when they're breaking invisibility and spending their aura by using Domination, which also puts them in danger.
I could remove the level drain exploit by adding a restoration effect to Seduction, because it really is overpowered. But it's just plain fun to have some crazy critter like a dragon join the party, even on the second playthrough.
Carrying on through the Cloud Peaks, Bash drew Caldo and Krumm away from the dryad before killing them. He didn't though complete the quest in order to save the reputation gain up for later. He took some potentially dangerous damage in ambushes by gnolls on the way, but survived and picked up the charisma tome.
Back at High Hedge he purchased a few scrolls to learn - including protection from petrification. Before going on to the basilisks though he also acquired a gem bag by charming Neera to avoid her talking to him. Starting with mirror images provided Bash with a bit of extra protection as he killed the 4 basilisks in the southern group (despite the fact that SCS basilisks quickly switch to melee when faced with someone using mage PfP). That got him another level each for fighter and mage.
The northern basilisks are more spread out, so the ones away from Mutamin are no problem so long as you stay away from him and they were soon dealt with. Korax was then recruited to try and deal with Mutamin. I should have made sure that Bash was invisible and moved in order to sight Mutamin while he was neutral - allowing Korax to get an immediate attack on him. However, I wasn't careful enough moving towards him and Korax was distracted by the basilisks (and once Mutamin was hostile I couldn't spot him due to the likelihood of then losing control). Mutamin used up what I thought would have been all his damage spells on Korax, so Bash buffed up with PfE and mirror images and attacked - and Mutamin immediately dispelled him and giggled insanely as the newest addition to his statuary collection appeared.
A quick update. After Cernd's death we rerecruited Kelsey and dealt with his wizardly stalker. After that we liberated the slaves of the Copper Coronet, taking great care with the traps. Then we dealt with the sphere, the only hitch there being Sirene bumping into a prismatic mantle and getting permastunned until she could be cured. Tolgerais, the golems, and the demons did not provide much opposition either.
Far more terror was provided by a vampiric ambush on the streets which drained Xan down to 1 life level, he does like to live on the edge...
After that we freed Haer, I had intended to take him into the party as a Hexblade, but when I recalled that he was a thief Cromarty's virtous enthusiasum waned somewhat. The Yvette mod seems to have stalled in its conversations a little as well, but for now she'll have to stay on as she fulfils the roles of both thief and cleric. The Planar Prison was swept through though there were a few fingers of death flying about so I really need to keep Death Ward on Cromarty with greater assidousness.
We also visited the Deep Gardens and basked in the colours there for a short while.
However now we are back in the cruel light of the Athkatla day and must consider our next move. The thief questline is off-limits, and beholders aren't my cup of tea for a no-reload so I think we will kill the Shadow Thieves for Aster and see about getting a boat. One other possible alternative is to pick up Ajantis at last, in a long awaited reunion, or to give Rasaad's questline a turn. We shall see...
I won a battle but lost the war... her champion of light and justice shit herself and hid from me but a druid doesn't need to see her targets to kill them... hardly matters because demons charmed my two fighters then tossed a fear into the bargain... the end!
A second attempt with this character (restricted to killing things with Brage's berserking sword) lasted only a couple of minutes when I absent-mindedly killed some rats in Candlekeep.
Aiming for third time lucky intelligently, Bash went straight to collect the sword without trouble. He also claimed his first victim in Nashkel after tiring of Noober prattling on. Picking up the ankheg armor there made him feel less naked, before talking to Oublek raised his reputation sufficiently to get CLW as a Bhaal ability. However, it appeared I didn't rest enough prior to heading back to Beregost as no ability had been gained by the time Algernon was the victim of a vicious critical. Firebead and Mr Colquetle gave him some reputation back before he tried sleeping some xvarts. I was afraid though that Hulrik would die in a berserk rage, so tried to get to him out of sight of the xvarts - but ran into a wolf. The delay from that meant the xvarts revived soon after he got there and he was not quite able to finish them off in time to save Arabelle - though he did come to his senses in time to avoid chopping the ungrateful Hulrik up.
Taking a major risk he went to collect Samuel - with only 11 HPs there are quite a few potential ambushes on that route that could kill him. However, the only ambush that triggered was by 4 dogs and he was just able to beat them up. I was tempted to pay for healing at the temple, but handing Samuel in had given Bash a level and with the 6 extra HPs from that he decided he had enough to attack the hobgoblins guarding Joia's ring. They were quickly disposed of and, with reputation back up to 10, Bash rested to make sure of the Bhaal power this time.
Back in Beregost, Neera was charmed and lured away to admire Bash's big sword at close range. He then completed his bag collection by killing some sleeping gnolls on the way to buy the potion case at High Hedge. Resting until a single skeleton tried an ambush provided him with a skull and a mage level - and moments later Melicamp was restored to give a nice XP bonus and a reputation boost.
Sleep made quests for Mirianne and Zhurlong simple - the latter providing a third fighter level. This time I didn't let Zhurlong get away with his theft though - managing to blind and kill him far enough away from others to avoid reputation damage.
The ogre with a belt fetish was once more slept from out of sight and Bash also got around to picking up the Ring of Wizardry before deciding it was time to seek revenge on the basilisks that ended his first run. High Hedge provided a few spells before he travelled to the basilisk area. This time, rather than starting in the south where 4 basilisks have to be fought at once, he went to the north to pick off the 4 basilisks separated from Mutamin. That was done without taking any damage, but Bash only picked up his 3rd mage level for that. Going south I prepared to battle the basilisks, but was interrupted by a question about what we needed from Tesco's and as a result only realised after hacking down the first basilisk (getting a 4th fighter level in the process) that Bash had not put his armor back on - giving him no real chance against the remaining basilisks.
I thought I'd have one more go at Bash and: - safely picked up the sword - rested to get Bhaal CLW - acquired Algernon's Cloak - returned a bowl to Tenya to get first levels - paid the temple for remove curse in order to be able to get safely past the ankheg to kill Dushai in Ulgoth's Beard (important due to the possibility of ghast & ghoul ambushes in some travel areas as well as allowing fighting in webs). - a series of minor tasks got Bash up to fighter L3 before he bought some spells and once more ventured to the basilisk area
Bash again headed for the northern basilisks and killed the first two easily. However, the lesser basilisk that's near Mutamin was in its much less usual position next to the statue - Bash didn't lose control immediately coming into sight of that, so was able to retreat, but that resulted in the basilisks all taking up new positions. After returning to the area Bash came across a lesser basilisk and raged immediately into the attack - only to find another lesser and a greater one waiting. Fortunately though there was no sign of Mutamin and Bash survived the contest (gaining 4th level in both classes).
After recruiting Korax, Bash sent him looking for Mutamin. A barrage of magic missiles showed when the search was successful and Bash tried inching closer in order to allow Korax to attack (as he couldn't move beyond the fog of war) - only to be trapped when berserk activated instantly as he spotted the mage.
Mutamin blinded Bash and made him save against charm person, but being blinded meant Bash could no longer see his opponent and was able to recover his senses and retreat - while doing that though he got some welcome news from the text and was able to quickly get back and claim the kill.
Rather than wait for Korax to go hostile while he was still blind, Bash attempted to level the playing field by blinding Korax.
Although Korax was still neutral after being affected by the blind, the game deemed that combat had begun and thus Bash could not put his armor back on immediately (it's safe to switch armor while a projectile is en route, but not after it arrives). However, as Korax was still neutral Biff could just retreat a step out of sight and wait a bit until he could put his armor on and finish the job.
For the southern basilisks he pre-cast web from out of sight to hold a couple of them, which enabled him to attack the group individually. The greater basilisk got a couple of nasty bites in, but Bash survived once more and picked up a 5th fighter level.
@Wise_Grimwald it's been a struggle, but it seems Shar (or Tymora) is watching over Bash now. With the basilisks down and enough levels gained to ignore sleep he should have a fighting chance to make decent further progress.
At the FAI Bash helped Joia out before sticking Tarnesh in a web. There were more web victims to come as Bash did a round of a few quests. There was a severe setback at the minesite though, when a digger unexpectedly appeared out of a webbed area (presumably as a result of SCS calls for help, though it couldn't see Bash and all its colleagues were stuck in the webs). While held they don't trigger berserk behavior, so the aim had been to pick off the last few in webs. However, the digger's appearance in the doorway meant Charleston Nib was in the firing line as the next target - causing Bash's reputation to plummet back down.
Feeling I'd probably had enough of this run, that decided me to throw Bash at the Doomsayer - that was a relatively even contest, but the lack of any buffs for Bash meant he couldn't quite pull out a victory.
Quick Question: Does anyone have a copy of the Jimfix mod? Blackraven's old link is no longer active. In particular, I want the Abazigal, Irenicus, and Fallen Solar fixes. Thanks!
Best,
A.
Btw. I'm actually factually going to start playing soon. Hooray!
Btw II. I just noticed the conclusion of Semiticgod's run. Congrats! I'll have to spend some time reading to understand the run. I may comment further then. In any case, yay!
Quick Question: Does anyone have a copy of the Jimfix mod? Blackraven's old link is no longer active. In particular, I want the Abazigal, Irenicus, and Fallen Solar fixes. Thanks!
Best,
A.
Btw. I'm actually factually going to start playing soon. Hooray!
@Alesia_BH and/or @Alesia_B_H: Since I don't think I included a link in my previous posts, the Seducer kit is a kit I designed a while ago and revised many times since. You can find it, along with the (rather detailed) description, here.
@Ygramul, would you add Mollyboo/Frisky Bits' run to the first post?
I'm not sure if it truly counts as a solo run; technically it's two or three connected runs; and the ban on most mod items didn't apply on the re-run through BG1, SoD, and most of SoA. But asterisks or no, here it is.
Mollyboo the Seducer/Frisky Bits the Seducer/Mage: @semiticgod Notable mods: "basically everything" ("SCS and Ascension including full pre-buffing and universal HLAs")
For Mollyboo: (BG1 run begins here and ends here) (SoD run begins here and ends here) (SoA run begins here and ends here) For Frisky Bits: (BG1 run is here) (SoD run is here) (SoA run begins here and ends here) (1st ToB run begins here and ends here) (2nd ToB run begins here and ends here)
After escaping from the Section and raising everyone we headed for Cloakwood. There we agreed to help the Druids my rescuing one Beador and his friend. We avoided conflict as much as possible, though we did fight a woodsman in a cave and rescued a deliverer of eggs.
In transit we killed wyverns and upon arriving near to Beador fought a Hamadryad.
We then had to fight the Shadow Druids who were torturing Beador. The battle was tough but we prevailed.
We then had more wyverns to kill:
We then took on Andarthe. She asked for mercy, but when it was given sshe attacked us again forcing a very bloody battle, Vynd being killed.
After telling the Druids of our success, we raised Vynd, and since we were nearby returned to the Section HQ. Which we found difficult. First of all we ensured that our way out was clear by killing Andrea and her cohorts.
Tenya got killed by operatives using stealth so we returned to the surface to raise her.
Sirene was then killed by Ashirikuru so again we returned to the surface.
The rest was difficult, but we survived. Dynaheir used web, but the enemies AI must have been good as none of the enemy walked into webbed areas. This caused our plans to go somewhat awry. We somehow survived though we had to keep leaving the penultimate level to rest and recuperate. We slept several times!!! I was so engrossed that I forgot to take screenshots.
Quick Question: Does anyone have a copy of the Jimfix mod? Blackraven's old link is no longer active. In particular, I want the Abazigal, Irenicus, and Fallen Solar fixes. Thanks!
Lol. It was a bit of an in-joke for me during testing that my tactics had serious issues if Sirene somehow managed to die. I deliberately designed her to probably be the most innately durable (as-in, not a mage) NPC in the game. Not that I'm casting doubt on your own tactics, I just find it amusing when something actually kills her.
Lol. It was a bit of an in-joke for me during testing that my tactics had serious issues if Sirene somehow managed to die. I deliberately designed her to probably be the most innately durable (as-in, not a mage) NPC in the game. Not that I'm casting doubt on your own tactics, I just find it amusing when something actually kills her.
I find the Ashirikuru to be the hardest enemy in the game, particularly the Dark Horizons ones. They have potions of oil of speed and several potions of invisibility. What's more they have an excellent AI. If you have a mage or thief anywhere near they get killed with one blow, so that you have to make sure that you only have your fighters anywhere nearby. The Ashirikuru backstab and immediately go invisible before you have a chance to land a blow. If I was powergaming I suppose that I could web them, dispell invisibility and then use ranged weapons, fireballs etc. but I prefer to play as if I didn't know they were there.
The other tactic that I considered using, but decided against for role playing reasons was to have everyone hasted and invisible and just avoid them altogether.
The mods I have also reduce her dexterity with the result that her armour is weaker. (That is true for all heavy armour users, which enhances light armour users in comparison)
In the light of a new day I slightly regretted throwing Bash's previous incarnation away - still it didn't take long to get him up and running again .
The early stages were pretty clean, with the first point of interest being the contest with Tarnesh. The mage used his magic missiles and sleep up on a couple of guards, so Bash was happy to show himself. His berserk rage initially protected him against horror as he struck down Tarnesh. Despite the icon showing on him, the panic still didn't take effect even when the berserk condition disappeared - but it did as soon as he did an area transition into the FAI itself.
This time Bash only did the separated basilisks in the north, before going to do a few more odd jobs in the wilderness. That meant he got up to fighter level 5 for hacking down the greater basilisk in the south and its lesser companions stood little chance while sitting in webs.
Mutamin's basilisks were in their standard configuration,
which allowed Bash to spot him safely and Korax to get an initial attack in on the mage - but he missed 3 times in a row before turning to attack the greater basilisk. Trying to get sight of Mutamin again Bash went berserk and things looked bad as Mutamin cast a successful dispel on him. However, in the short period until the lesser basilisk realised he had a vulnerable enemy, Korax successfully paralysed it (the greater one having already been paralysed) and once both basilisks were dead Mutamin quickly followed.
He then used charm and web to deal with Kirian's companions, before it was her turn.
Buoyed by that success, Bash moved on to Firewine Bridge. Bentan and Poe regrettably failed to survive an attack by kobolds, but Bash revenged them with the help of a couple of sleep spells.
With the way open to find Meilum, web once more proved its worth.
Web wasn't as good an option against Greywolf as it would have had to be pre-cast with the hope of luring him into it. However, with blur and mirror image added to PfE I thought Bash would have a fairly easy victory. However, I forgot to swap belts, so Greywolf was hitting more easily than expected and he also got pretty lucky die-rolls. That made the contest a toss-up with Bash taken down to 2 HPs while Greywolf was at near death before Bash found a conclusive final argument.
He'd managed to get a bit away from Prism before berserking, so the encounter ended happily.
After rescuing Samuel, Bash explored the Cloud Peaks. I made a mistake with Caldo & Krumm when not preparing webs or sleeps to disable them after they were annoyed by being blinded - that resulted in Bash attacking the dryad after killing the duo, but fortunately he came to his senses just in time.
At the xvart cave he picked up the tome to give him 20 charisma without even using friends. In the area to the north a polar bear was caught napping in a web to allow him to get some boots to sell.
After a few more encounters, Bash was approaching fighter level 6 when he went to the mine site that ended his previous run. This time the encounter with Charleston Nib seemed to be going as desired with the last 2 diggers stuck in webs when Bash attacked them beserkly. I thought that would give him a safe amount of time to recover from his berserk state - but it appeared not!
Once more Bash responded by throwing himself at the Doomsayer, but this time not so recklessly - with webs, PfE and the appropriate belt equipped he won pretty easily.
At that point it was time to go to work, providing a natural break before Bash has a chance to do anything even more stupid ...
@Ygramul, would you add Mollyboo/Frisky Bits' run to the first post?
I'm not sure if it truly counts as a solo run; technically it's two or three connected runs; and the ban on most mod items didn't apply on the re-run through BG1, SoD, and most of SoA. But asterisks or no, here it is.
Mollyboo the Seducer/Frisky Bits the Seducer/Mage: @semiticgod Notable mods: "basically everything" ("SCS and Ascension including full pre-buffing and universal HLAs")
For Mollyboo: (BG1 run begins here and ends here) (SoD run begins here and ends here) (SoA run begins here and ends here) For Frisky Bits: (BG1 run is here) (SoD run is here) (SoA run begins here and ends here) (1st ToB run begins here and ends here) (2nd ToB run begins here and ends here)
I don't want to be picky, but since you died during the ToB final fight with Frisky Bits, and had to reload at the start of ToB, does that count as a successful run ? Doesn't the rule imply a full Trilogy/Tetralogy no-reload to be considered a success or no-reloading individual games in sufficient ? It's merely a question to clarify things I have.
I don't want to be picky, but since you died during the ToB final fight with Frisky Bits, and had to reload at the start of ToB, does that count as a successful run ? Doesn't the rule imply a full Trilogy/Tetralogy no-reload to be considered a success or no-reloading individual games in sufficient ? It's merely a question to clarify things I have.
Back on Bioware boards we didn't considered a no-reloading of individual games as sufficient for the proper full Trilogy no-reload run. I believe the same is assumed here. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Comments
Gate70: Teere, human female Priest of Lathander nee Tyr.
Corey Russell: Corarcher, elf male Archer.
Grond0: Mis, elf female Archer.
Our seasoned adventurers make their sixth appearance, only to stumble a few times. Can they hold it together for two hours and see the session out?
Mis is first into trouble, getting held. Teere wastes no time ordering Corarcher to pick off the outlying sharpshooters as she moves to hammer the first into the floorboards.
We head back to the Slums, either to pay off Gaelan Bayle or help Hendak. This is enough for Teere to stumble into danger, not realising Mis and Corarcher have gone to shoot up a carrion crawler. Instead of reacting correctly (run or command the nearby shaman) she relies on melee, only realising her mistake when held and noting there are no arrows whistling past her. Help is a loooooong way away, but Mis gets into range faster than pronto and Corarcher is right behind her. Phew.
We move on to the Docks, dealing with a mad cleric and picking up Renal / Mae'Var's quest as well as a shiny amulet from Aran Linvail. Off to the Temple district where Teere remembers her change of faith (Tyr -> Lathander) when Arval asks for her help. OK then, although we may try to return to Tyr in a later edit.
It's 5am, so the stormy clerics will be up. We could kick some stones around or go play in the sewers.
Nabatil, halfling shadowdancer, update 5
Previous post: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901294/#Comment_901294
At Bridgefort, I completed the various sidequests; Most notably, I obtained 80 void-tipped arrows +3 for Corwin, which I plan to use against Belhifet. Eventually, I commanded the flaming fist to attack, while my party kept to the back lines, using their ranged weapons:
Khalid didn't survive the battle, but I wasn't planning to take him along anyway.
Time for the next chapter! First things first: More sidequests! I completed every available one in the camp, Bloodbark Grove, Dead Man's Pass, the outside part of the Underground River and the Dragonspear Castle Courtyard without any issues, but things changed inside the actual Underground River area.
The first problem: I haven't mentioned Zaviak's vision quest so far - since there are so many options regarding the few available charges, I looked up the items one can obtain. I used my first charge to make the genie merchant in the coalition camp available - however, with the second charge, I planned to get myself another one of those elusive +3 weapons, so I used the glasses on the rakshasa Vidyadhar.
I didn't expect him to be so freaking powerful. While I was able to avoid him doing significant harm to my party with his spells, I was simply unable to deal meaningful damage to him. Because he used various aoe spells, I was forced to move the fight closer and closer to the entrance of the area, getting the crusaders involved:
Quite a lot of them ended up dying, though this gave me some time for more extensive buffs - specifically, I tried to improve the thac0 of my most important damage dealers (with strength potions and cleric spells), but even then, Vidyadhar's various defensive spells and great AC were too much for me: When he was slightly below half hp, he simply teleported away, leaving me with only 5k experience and no scimitar +3.
Oh well, could've been worse - and it got worse! My next mistake involved Strunk, this time I simply didn't remember how this encounter worked - I didn't think fighting him would turn the surrounding crusaders hostile, and I was quickly surrounded by enemies, with Corwin almost dying while I finally managed to kill the mage:
I did get out of this though: Corwin managed to drink an invisibility potion, the water elementals disappeared and the rest of the party dealt with the crusaders. The other fights around here went rather well: Both Ferrusk and Kherriun died before getting to use any of their spells:
Nabatil also used his last glasses charge on the lich down there to get a ring of regeneration. Always a useful item to have.
However, the next big fight was very messy once again: In the Dragonspear Castle Basement, I was just fighting the crusaders in the eastern room - when suddenly, the Hepernaan encounter started. I had no idea attacking these cursaders would trigger this fight, and I was in no way ready for it. I tried to quickly apply defensive buffs like remove fear (to counter a horror spell), but two unholy blight spells hit my party quite hard, forcing me to drink heaing options. As I wasn't ready to fight, I had to distract Hepernaan and his allies, so I used the summoning items I picked up during the game: One to summon lesser stone golems, the other to summon lesser water elementals. Meanwhile, Dynaheir almost died to the unholy blights, but was able to retreat and buff up:
Btw, the existence of unholy blight is the entire reason Nabatil is true neutral, so that certainly paid off
While Hephernaan proved to be quite capable of disabling or killing my summons, even confusing Voghiln, my party eventually stabilized and managed to get through the adversaries protections:
Thus, any further attempts at spellcasting were interrupted and pany further protections breached, making the rest of the battle trivial.
Finally, we are done with the underground river part. Next time, we will storm the castle!
Enuhal
Frisky Bits: A "Solo" Seducer in Throne of Bhaal
Part 29
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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899532/#Comment_899532
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899677/#Comment_899677
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899690/#Comment_899690
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899705/#Comment_899705
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899899/#Comment_899899
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900093/#Comment_900093
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900164/#Comment_900164
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900364/#Comment_900364
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900440/#Comment_900440
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900689/#Comment_900689
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900912/#Comment_900912
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900928/#Comment_900928
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900951/#Comment_900951
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900997/#Comment_900997
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901002/#Comment_901002
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901189/#Comment_901189
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901215/#Comment_901215
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901358/#Comment_901358
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901390/#Comment_901390
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901428/#Comment_901428
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901443/#Comment_901443
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901473/#Comment_901473
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901475/#Comment_901475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901554/#Comment_901554
We start all over again in ToB. The first few fights are nothing special, but we do make the Gromnir encounter much simpler by having our Alhoon chain-cast Time Stop to land a series of INT drain kills.
Overwhelming force once again works marvelously against the fire giants and their pet dragon.
Nyalee can be a big problem because she uses her Mirror of Opposition to summon hostile clones of the party, but druids have no defense against magic damage.
The Yaga-Shura army is much tougher this time around. The Lieutenant Mage not only uses a bunch of HLAs; he actually casts Time Stop twice in a row, in addition to his Improved Alacrity spell, to land a bunch of spells before we can react.
Gorky has lost his buffs, as have the Balor and Nizidramanii'yt. Completely unable to handle the mage, we focus on the Fallen Planetar instead.
The mage did a lot to weaken the party, but with Yaga-Shura on the map, there's really no reason to spend round after round trying to kill the mage when we can simply mob Yaga-Shura instead. When he goes down, the army vanishes.
On to Abazigal's lair. This time, we have no intention of seducing him, so we just bypass his PFMW with normal weapons.
Our unnaturally high APR and lack of weapon proficiencies means that we can use bare fists rather than spend a few minutes finding a nonmagical club or whatever, which would be the ideal for a normal party.
When we leave and come back to find more dragons waiting to avenge Draconis, Nizidramanii'yt can handle the enemy mostly on his own.
Partly because he's a dragon himself, but also because Soul Reaver imposes such crippling THAC0 penalties that the enemy can only hit him on a natural 20.
Soul Reaver should be one of the best options in ToB, since so many enemies rely on weapon damage and are easily hobbled by a few hits from Soul Reaver.
Gorky never got chunked in this run, but we replace him nonetheless, as Carnifex is still the superior choice.
The Tyrant Golems in Abazigal's lair are as frustrating as ever, but despite their demilich-grade resistances, they are vulnerable to Lower Resistance, which makes Horrid Wilting a good way of speeding up the fight.
As always, the fight with Abazigal is largely a contest of numbers rather than a puzzle or a chess match. And our numbers are bigger.
The Alhoon cast Black Blade of Disaster, which turned out to be a mistake, as it prevents it from switching weapons to get past Abazigal's PFMW.
But one character operating at less than full capacity for a few rounds is not enough to change the tide in Abazigal's favor.
Over at Sendai's lair, I try seducing a mod enemy named Baelden and Thelynn'ss, but both are subpar characters by our standards, and are not strong enough to replace the Balor.
The last time I fought Odamaron, I tried to have Frisky Bits kill the enemies with the Scorcher Ammunition during Time Stop, but I failed to realize that the Scorcher Ammunition won't do any physical damage unless you pair it with a normal crossbow, not the Big Metal Rod. I therefore hand the Scorcher Ammunition to the Alhoon and have it attack during Time Stop instead.
There aren't many targets the Alhoon can actually hit, since the mages have PFMW, the Balor is immune to +2 weapons and below, and I foolishly killed the enemy Magical Sword, but the Alhoon finds that it can target a clone instead, creating a bunch of scorcher projectiles that he can stretch over the enemies to catch the mages who would otherwise resist all of our weapons.
I finally find a solid replacement for our Balor: Ogremoch, who has even higher stats, including almost twice as much HP. Ogremoch cannot cast Stoneskin every round anymore, since he did that using a script, but he's still an awesome tank.
I run into a curious bug while moving from area to area: it appears that, when you're viewing the cutscenes where Sendai is badgering her subordinates, the party is actually on the same map. They're just holed up in a distant corner.
But with multiple characters with wide circles in the party, we actually filled up that space, causing Ogremoch to teleport into Sendai's chamber--which started the final battle early!
Technically, I could try fighting my way out of this despite arriving with no buffs, but since Frisky Bits is still trapped in the corner, I'm not sure we could actually complete the game even if we won. After the fight, a teleport circle shows up in the middle of the room, and Frisky Bits could never access it, which presumably would make it impossible to ever reach Amkethran and therefore prevent us from facing Balthazar, breaking the main quest line. I try again.
Last up is the mind flayer area. The Alhoon does most of the work during Time Stop.
Then we enter Sendai's chamber properly. The nearest mage buffs with Improved Mantle, but we have enough +5 weapons to get right past it.
The next mage is also very well defended, but a Fire Storm from Frisky Bits' Planetar disrupts her first spell despite her immunity to fire.
One of the reasons Ogremoch was better than the Balor was because its natural attack can dispel on hit as a level 20-something caster.
The final Sendai also appears to buff with Improved Mantle--a very bad choice, considering you can get the Flail of Ages +5 if you kill Abazigal before Sendai.
Of course, Sendai also has PFMW...
...but PFMW, as always, will not block bare fists or normal weapons.
One of my mods, possibly Wheels of Prophecy, actually lets you fight Melissan early in Balthazar's chamber. She's just a crummy mage, though.
All that's left is to stomp a few demons and ravage the Ravager.
Our party is the same as last time, with the sole exception of Ogremoch. This is what he looks like:
This process actually took at least two days, but finally we're back to Melissan. Now we can try to fix the mistakes I made last time.
We leave the Pocket Plane and step out onto the Throne of Bhaal, floating inside an infinite void.
The twinkling stars beneath us fill us with determination.
Frisky Bits: A "Solo" Seducer in Throne of Bhaal
Part 30
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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899532/#Comment_899532
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899677/#Comment_899677
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899690/#Comment_899690
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899705/#Comment_899705
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/899899/#Comment_899899
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900093/#Comment_900093
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900164/#Comment_900164
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900364/#Comment_900364
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900440/#Comment_900440
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900689/#Comment_900689
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900912/#Comment_900912
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900928/#Comment_900928
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900951/#Comment_900951
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/900997/#Comment_900997
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901002/#Comment_901002
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901189/#Comment_901189
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901215/#Comment_901215
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901358/#Comment_901358
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901390/#Comment_901390
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901428/#Comment_901428
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901443/#Comment_901443
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901473/#Comment_901473
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901475/#Comment_901475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901554/#Comment_901554
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901612/#Comment_901612
We're off to a bad start. Somehow, I forgot to buff the Alhoon with SI: Abjuration. Nearly all its defenses go down.
We concentrate our fire on the Fallen Solars, easily the biggest threat in this fight. Right before our Alhoon dies, its Contingency and Chain Contingencies both fire, giving it enough time to drink a potion.
Because Protection from Undead scrolls apparently don't work in this location (a message actually told us this), Bodhi can actually drain our levels very easily. Fortunately, we have plenty.
We hurry up and crush Bodhi before the level drain becomes a problem, and Frisky Bits gets an SI: Conjuration spell off the ground to block a Creeping Doom from one of the Fallen Solars.
We break through the defenses of one of Jon-bon's clones, but Creeping Doom takes away the Alhoon's Stoneskins, leaving it vulnerable to the Fallen Solar's direct attacks once PFMW runs out. And with Creeping Doom active, re-casting PFMW isn't an option.
In retrospect, SI: Abjuration should always be paired with SI: Conjuration in this fight, because both Remove Magic and Creeping Doom can rob you of your PFMW spells.
Creeping Doom wears off, allowing the Unseeing Eye to restore its Stoneskins. We box in a Fallen Solar and bring it down.
Jon-bon himself is largely untouched, so the Unseeing Eye stops time and uses the Scorcher Ammunition to roast him. Irenicus' own Magical Sword is the perfect target.
No problems with the fights at the pools. The only sticking points are the Mariliths, whose PFMW are perfectly open for a Breach spell.
There's only one fight left before this run is finally over.
We use up every spell slot we can and use the pools to restore them. Most of those defenses are a waste, but the success or failure of a no-reload run can hinge on the roll of a single die.
To avoid accidentally killing Illasera early, we laid fewer Skull Traps in her position, and as a result, she's much healthier than she was in our previous run. But we have more celestials on hand this time.
Unlike the previous run, our dragons began in natural form. I thought this ran the risk of them getting hit by some Skull Traps, but it's worth it, because I can't have them shapeshift from wolf form to dragon form on the first round. I need their auras to be clear.
This is because, while we have Ogremoch to use our only Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai, we also need somebody to use a Control Circlet on Sarevok.
Sarevok is the only enemy on the map that can be charmed, and the charm effect from a Control Circlet offers no save and bypasses magic resistance, lasting for 6 hours (though elves and half-elves can resist it). Sarevok isn't the strongest enemy here, but charming him is definitely worth spending an aura using a Control Circlet.
I can't see Illasera, so we divide our pressure in between Sendai's Fallen Deva and Abazigal, whose PFMW we can bypass using normal weapons. We take him down to Near Death.
I don't want Melissan to show up yet, so I take some time to damage Yaga-Shura instead of finishing off Abazigal.
Illasera finally shows up! But it seems that Ogremoch's dispel ability allowed him to kill Sendai unusually early. Melissan appears earlier than we wanted her to.
With two of the Five in terrible condition, we can knock down Melissan twice by finishing off Yaga-Shura and Illasera.
Best to keep her down, so I order our celestials and the Alhoon (using the Scorcher Ammunition) to slay Sarevok while the rest of the party focuses on Gromnir, already at Near Death.
Melissan activates Divine Mantle, which almost makes her invincible unless we're willing to shell out a Ruby Ray of Reversal and a Breach spell (which we probably should, but we don't).
Abazigal tears through the Unseeing Eye's Stoneskins, reminding me to re-cast PFMW. With Sarevok dead, the Alhoon uses the Scorcher Ammunition to shred through Melissan's Stoneskins despite her Absolute Immunity spell.
We finish off Gromnir, knocking down Melissan, albeit only briefly.
Only Abazigal is left. We can hit him with normal weapons, but the Alhoon isn't careful with the Scorcher Ammunition, accidentally taking a significant chunk out of Ogremoch's HP before I notice what's happening.
Abazigal goes down, and then Melissan summons a pair of Fallen Solars--really not what I wanted to see here.
But we're still in strong condition, and we're bunched together, which means the Fallen Solars won't be running away to recover.
Melissan is alone. We prepare to amplify the pressure on her.
As for Frisky Bits, I've been keeping a close eye on them, making sure their PFMW spells do not run out like they did last time.
Apparently, though, Melissan has a lot more enemies for us to deal with.
Melissan starts dealing physical damage to us, but I can't figure out where it's coming from. It comes from all three damage types, even though Melissan's spear (at least in Ascension) and Globe of Blades are supposed to deal slashing damage alone.
She also does slashing damage in rapid succession to multiple characters which requires a save vs. death for half instead of a save vs. spell, which doesn't make sense for either her spear or a Globe of Blades spell.
Unable to deal with Melissan herself for another round, when Absolute Immunity wears off, we kill her summons instead. That way, they won't get in the way when Melissan herself becomes vulnerable.
We start softening up Melissan for our spells, while our celestials keep our fighters in good condition.
Melissan keeps up her strange Globe of Blades effect, but she loses her defenses, allowing us to attack her directly.
Melissan is still a very sturdy critter, but we've got the whole party bearing down on her.
We finally take the second chunk out of her health bar.
Meanwhile, Frisky Bits stays safe, preparing for a Time Stop that could prove fatal.
Melissan is wearing thin.
Finally, the Solar interrupts! The battle is over!
This run has proven tiring, and we are in need of a rest. We choose to let go of Bhaal's essence, choosing freedom over power.
I had to start over three times in this run: first, when my initial, undocumented Seducer died to Halatathlaer in SoD; second, when Mollyboo died to the Chosen of Cyric in BG2; and third, when Frisky died to Melissan in Throne of Bhaal. But we persisted despite all the setbacks and got past the obstacles before us. My first "solo" no-reload tetralogy run is finally over.
These are all of the critters that spent time in our party and contributed in some way to the success of the run:
Mollyboo
Frisky Bits
Algernon
Huge Spider
Chicken
Chicken
Chicken
Cat
Ogrillon
Ghoul
Bat
Carrion Crawler
Gray Ooze
Schlumpsa the Sewer King
Gorken/Gorkan Bloodaxe
Wight
Skeleton Mage
Morentherene
Ziatar
Darskhelin
Medusa
Wight
Sion
Wraith
Greater Wolfwere
Glabrezu
Kuo-toa Prince
Balor
Drow
Warden
Unseeing Eye
Alhoon
Nizidramanii'yt
Draconis
Carnifex
Ogremoch
Special thanks goes to the Cat and Gorken Bloodaxe in BG1, Darskhelin and Morentherene in SoD, Sion and the Balor in BG2, and Nizidramanii'yt and the Alhoon in ToB. Two mages, two mind flayers, two dragons, one demon, and a kitty cat.
Used on its own, with no special tricks or optimizations, the Seducer as a character class is more or less average. It can charm all kinds of critters, but a simple save vs. spell can negate the effect, and there is little a Seducer can do besides charm stuff and pick a few locks.
Used with a mage using Greater Malison or an Archer using Called Shot, the Seducer is above average as a character class, because save penalties weaken the critical drawback of the Seducer's abilities: they all offer a saving throw.
Used to bring monsters into the party with Seduction, the Seducer is one of the strongest classes in the game. Monsters tend to have terrible stats and no proficiency points, but they come with all kinds of special powers that normal characters cannot have.
But when pushed to its absolute limit, using level drain to weaken high-level enemies who would otherwise be immune to Seduction, the Seducer has far more potential than any other class, simply because level drain can add some absolutely ridiculous monsters to the party. Dragons, demons, and mind flayers all have immense potential. Seduction is pretty weak in BG1, but its power grows exponentially, until it eclipses practically everything somewhere in late BG2.
I think beating Ascension as a single-classed Seducer, without dual-classing, is perfectly doable, despite its lack of PFMW and generally abysmal defenses. Melissan can be killed before she gets a chance to get Time Stop off the ground. It should even be possible without the level drain trick, because a level 28 Seducer (3.96 million XP) can bring an Ancient Vampire into the party. Properly buffed, that vampire should be able to kill Melissan in two rounds using CON drain--or possibly even a single round, in the likely event that you can get the vampire enough XP to learn Critical Strike and therefore get automatic hits on Melissan. An Ancient Vampire's second weapon in SCS is a +4 weapon that drains 3 Constitution per hit with no save, bypassing magic resistance, for 50 rounds. Their base APR is 3, their fighter levels would bump it up to 4, and Improved Haste would bump it up to 8.
In an ideal party, a Seducer would definitely play a role. But it probably shouldn't be the main character, because Seducers are strongest when they're breaking invisibility and spending their aura by using Domination, which also puts them in danger.
I could remove the level drain exploit by adding a restoration effect to Seduction, because it really is overpowered. But it's just plain fun to have some crazy critter like a dragon join the party, even on the second playthrough.
Congrats @semiticgod - good to see Mel being humbled again.
Previous updates:
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Back at High Hedge he purchased a few scrolls to learn - including protection from petrification. Before going on to the basilisks though he also acquired a gem bag by charming Neera to avoid her talking to him. Starting with mirror images provided Bash with a bit of extra protection as he killed the 4 basilisks in the southern group (despite the fact that SCS basilisks quickly switch to melee when faced with someone using mage PfP). That got him another level each for fighter and mage.
The northern basilisks are more spread out, so the ones away from Mutamin are no problem so long as you stay away from him and they were soon dealt with. Korax was then recruited to try and deal with Mutamin. I should have made sure that Bash was invisible and moved in order to sight Mutamin while he was neutral - allowing Korax to get an immediate attack on him. However, I wasn't careful enough moving towards him and Korax was distracted by the basilisks (and once Mutamin was hostile I couldn't spot him due to the likelihood of then losing control). Mutamin used up what I thought would have been all his damage spells on Korax, so Bash buffed up with PfE and mirror images and attacked - and Mutamin immediately dispelled him and giggled insanely as the newest addition to his statuary collection appeared.
Tough luck on the seducer run and congrats on the seducer run.
Poor bash!
A quick update. After Cernd's death we rerecruited Kelsey and dealt with his wizardly stalker. After that we liberated the slaves of the Copper Coronet, taking great care with the traps. Then we dealt with the sphere, the only hitch there being Sirene bumping into a prismatic mantle and getting permastunned until she could be cured. Tolgerais, the golems, and the demons did not provide much opposition either.
Far more terror was provided by a vampiric ambush on the streets which drained Xan down to 1 life level, he does like to live on the edge...
After that we freed Haer, I had intended to take him into the party as a Hexblade, but when I recalled that he was a thief Cromarty's virtous enthusiasum waned somewhat. The Yvette mod seems to have stalled in its conversations a little as well, but for now she'll have to stay on as she fulfils the roles of both thief and cleric. The Planar Prison was swept through though there were a few fingers of death flying about so I really need to keep Death Ward on Cromarty with greater assidousness.
We also visited the Deep Gardens and basked in the colours there for a short while.
However now we are back in the cruel light of the Athkatla day and must consider our next move. The thief questline is off-limits, and beholders aren't my cup of tea for a no-reload so I think we will kill the Shadow Thieves for Aster and see about getting a boat. One other possible alternative is to pick up Ajantis at last, in a long awaited reunion, or to give Rasaad's questline a turn. We shall see...
A charmed life,
I won a battle but lost the war... her champion of light and justice shit herself and hid from me but a druid doesn't need to see her targets to kill them... hardly matters because demons charmed my two fighters then tossed a fear into the bargain... the end!
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901509/#Comment_901509
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901650/#Comment_901650
A second attempt with this character (restricted to killing things with Brage's berserking sword) lasted only a couple of minutes when I absent-mindedly killed some rats in Candlekeep.
Aiming for third time
luckyintelligently, Bash went straight to collect the sword without trouble. He also claimed his first victim in Nashkel after tiring of Noober prattling on. Picking up the ankheg armor there made him feel less naked, before talking to Oublek raised his reputation sufficiently to get CLW as a Bhaal ability. However, it appeared I didn't rest enough prior to heading back to Beregost as no ability had been gained by the time Algernon was the victim of a vicious critical. Firebead and Mr Colquetle gave him some reputation back before he tried sleeping some xvarts. I was afraid though that Hulrik would die in a berserk rage, so tried to get to him out of sight of the xvarts - but ran into a wolf. The delay from that meant the xvarts revived soon after he got there and he was not quite able to finish them off in time to save Arabelle - though he did come to his senses in time to avoid chopping the ungrateful Hulrik up.Taking a major risk he went to collect Samuel - with only 11 HPs there are quite a few potential ambushes on that route that could kill him. However, the only ambush that triggered was by 4 dogs and he was just able to beat them up. I was tempted to pay for healing at the temple, but handing Samuel in had given Bash a level and with the 6 extra HPs from that he decided he had enough to attack the hobgoblins guarding Joia's ring. They were quickly disposed of and, with reputation back up to 10, Bash rested to make sure of the Bhaal power this time.
Back in Beregost, Neera was charmed and lured away to admire Bash's big sword at close range. He then completed his bag collection by killing some sleeping gnolls on the way to buy the potion case at High Hedge. Resting until a single skeleton tried an ambush provided him with a skull and a mage level - and moments later Melicamp was restored to give a nice XP bonus and a reputation boost.
Sleep made quests for Mirianne and Zhurlong simple - the latter providing a third fighter level. This time I didn't let Zhurlong get away with his theft though - managing to blind and kill him far enough away from others to avoid reputation damage.
The ogre with a belt fetish was once more slept from out of sight and Bash also got around to picking up the Ring of Wizardry before deciding it was time to seek revenge on the basilisks that ended his first run. High Hedge provided a few spells before he travelled to the basilisk area. This time, rather than starting in the south where 4 basilisks have to be fought at once, he went to the north to pick off the 4 basilisks separated from Mutamin. That was done without taking any damage, but Bash only picked up his 3rd mage level for that. Going south I prepared to battle the basilisks, but was interrupted by a question about what we needed from Tesco's and as a result only realised after hacking down the first basilisk (getting a 4th fighter level in the process) that Bash had not put his armor back on - giving him no real chance against the remaining basilisks.
@Grond0 You have obviously not been giving Shar sufficient offerings.
PS I've forgotten to put the armour back on myself.
Previous updates:
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I thought I'd have one more go at Bash and:
- safely picked up the sword
- rested to get Bhaal CLW
- acquired Algernon's Cloak
- returned a bowl to Tenya to get first levels
- paid the temple for remove curse in order to be able to get safely past the ankheg to kill Dushai in Ulgoth's Beard (important due to the possibility of ghast & ghoul ambushes in some travel areas as well as allowing fighting in webs).
- a series of minor tasks got Bash up to fighter L3 before he bought some spells and once more ventured to the basilisk area
Bash again headed for the northern basilisks and killed the first two easily. However, the lesser basilisk that's near Mutamin was in its much less usual position next to the statue - Bash didn't lose control immediately coming into sight of that, so was able to retreat, but that resulted in the basilisks all taking up new positions. After returning to the area Bash came across a lesser basilisk and raged immediately into the attack - only to find another lesser and a greater one waiting. Fortunately though there was no sign of Mutamin and Bash survived the contest (gaining 4th level in both classes).
After recruiting Korax, Bash sent him looking for Mutamin. A barrage of magic missiles showed when the search was successful and Bash tried inching closer in order to allow Korax to attack (as he couldn't move beyond the fog of war) - only to be trapped when berserk activated instantly as he spotted the mage.
For the southern basilisks he pre-cast web from out of sight to hold a couple of them, which enabled him to attack the group individually. The greater basilisk got a couple of nasty bites in, but Bash survived once more and picked up a 5th fighter level.
@Wise_Grimwald it's been a struggle, but it seems Shar (or Tymora) is watching over Bash now. With the basilisks down and enough levels gained to ignore sleep he should have a fighting chance to make decent further progress.
Fighter 5 / Mage 4, 45 HPs, 45 kills
Previous updates:
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901650/#Comment_901650
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901702/#Comment_901702
Or perhaps not ...
At the FAI Bash helped Joia out before sticking Tarnesh in a web. There were more web victims to come as Bash did a round of a few quests. There was a severe setback at the minesite though, when a digger unexpectedly appeared out of a webbed area (presumably as a result of SCS calls for help, though it couldn't see Bash and all its colleagues were stuck in the webs). While held they don't trigger berserk behavior, so the aim had been to pick off the last few in webs. However, the digger's appearance in the doorway meant Charleston Nib was in the firing line as the next target - causing Bash's reputation to plummet back down.
Feeling I'd probably had enough of this run, that decided me to throw Bash at the Doomsayer - that was a relatively even contest, but the lack of any buffs for Bash meant he couldn't quite pull out a victory.
Best,
A.
Btw. I'm actually factually going to start playing soon. Hooray!
Btw II. I just noticed the conclusion of Semiticgod's run. Congrats! I'll have to spend some time reading to understand the run. I may comment further then. In any case, yay!
I'm not sure if it truly counts as a solo run; technically it's two or three connected runs; and the ban on most mod items didn't apply on the re-run through BG1, SoD, and most of SoA. But asterisks or no, here it is.
Mollyboo the Seducer/Frisky Bits the Seducer/Mage: @semiticgod
Notable mods: "basically everything" ("SCS and Ascension including full pre-buffing and universal HLAs")
For Mollyboo:
(BG1 run begins here and ends here)
(SoD run begins here and ends here)
(SoA run begins here and ends here)
For Frisky Bits:
(BG1 run is here)
(SoD run is here)
(SoA run begins here and ends here)
(1st ToB run begins here and ends here)
(2nd ToB run begins here and ends here)
Journal of Osweald
After escaping from the Section and raising everyone we headed for Cloakwood. There we agreed to help the Druids my rescuing one Beador and his friend.We avoided conflict as much as possible, though we did fight a woodsman in a cave and rescued a deliverer of eggs.
We then had to fight the Shadow Druids who were torturing Beador. The battle was tough but we prevailed.
We then took on Andarthe. She asked for mercy, but when it was given sshe attacked us again forcing a very bloody battle, Vynd being killed.
After telling the Druids of our success, we raised Vynd, and since we were nearby returned to the Section HQ. Which we found difficult. First of all we ensured that our way out was clear by killing Andrea and her cohorts.
Tenya got killed by operatives using stealth so we returned to the surface to raise her.
Sirene was then killed by Ashirikuru so again we returned to the surface.
The rest was difficult, but we survived. Dynaheir used web, but the enemies AI must have been good as none of the enemy walked into webbed areas. This caused our plans to go somewhat awry. We somehow survived though we had to keep leaving the penultimate level to rest and recuperate. We slept several times!!!
I was so engrossed that I forgot to take screenshots.
The other tactic that I considered using, but decided against for role playing reasons was to have everyone hasted and invisible and just avoid them altogether.
The mods I have also reduce her dexterity with the result that her armour is weaker. (That is true for all heavy armour users, which enhances light armour users in comparison)
Previous updates:
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901650/#Comment_901650
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901678/#Comment_901678
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901702/#Comment_901702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901708/#Comment_901708
In the light of a new day I slightly regretted throwing Bash's previous incarnation away - still it didn't take long to get him up and running again
The early stages were pretty clean, with the first point of interest being the contest with Tarnesh. The mage used his magic missiles and sleep up on a couple of guards, so Bash was happy to show himself. His berserk rage initially protected him against horror as he struck down Tarnesh. Despite the icon showing on him, the panic still didn't take effect even when the berserk condition disappeared - but it did as soon as he did an area transition into the FAI itself.
This time Bash only did the separated basilisks in the north, before going to do a few more odd jobs in the wilderness. That meant he got up to fighter level 5 for hacking down the greater basilisk in the south and its lesser companions stood little chance while sitting in webs.
Buoyed by that success, Bash moved on to Firewine Bridge. Bentan and Poe regrettably failed to survive an attack by kobolds, but Bash revenged them with the help of a couple of sleep spells.
Web wasn't as good an option against Greywolf as it would have had to be pre-cast with the hope of luring him into it. However, with blur and mirror image added to PfE I thought Bash would have a fairly easy victory. However, I forgot to swap belts, so Greywolf was hitting more easily than expected and he also got pretty lucky die-rolls. That made the contest a toss-up with Bash taken down to 2 HPs while Greywolf was at near death before Bash found a conclusive final argument.
After rescuing Samuel, Bash explored the Cloud Peaks. I made a mistake with Caldo & Krumm when not preparing webs or sleeps to disable them after they were annoyed by being blinded - that resulted in Bash attacking the dryad after killing the duo, but fortunately he came to his senses just in time.
After a few more encounters, Bash was approaching fighter level 6 when he went to the mine site that ended his previous run. This time the encounter with Charleston Nib seemed to be going as desired with the last 2 diggers stuck in webs when Bash attacked them beserkly. I thought that would give him a safe amount of time to recover from his berserk state - but it appeared not!
At that point it was time to go to work, providing a natural break before Bash has a chance to do anything even more stupid ...
Fighter 6 / Mage 5, 54 HPs, 187 kills