Imoen disarmed traps but was somehow spotted even being hidden so had to run to the side room and hide there again to scout further from the back.
The exact same thing happened to me on a previous run with Imoen. Imoen was dualled to mage and I wanted to try my luck with Ghoul's Touch against Davaeorn, but he spotted her even though she was invisible. I play on the EE, so it's not related to difference between BG version. I do play with IR and SR though, just like you. You can usually approach him while invisible with other characters, even with IR/SR. Maybe something related to Imoen specifically ?
Imoen disarmed traps but was somehow spotted even being hidden so had to run to the side room and hide there again to scout further from the back.
The exact same thing happened to me on a previous run with Imoen. Imoen was dualled to mage and I wanted to try my luck with Ghoul's Touch against Davaeorn, but he spotted her even though she was invisible. I play on the EE, so it's not related to difference between BG version. I do play with IR and SR though, just like you. You can usually approach him while invisible with other characters, even with IR/SR. Maybe something related to Imoen specifically ?
I don't know for certain but he had acted the same way in my last run, which was in BG Tutu, with SR but sans IR. 'My' Imoen is (was) a pure thief in both cases as I want to dual her at Thief (10) to have 100 in Find/Remove Traps, Open Locks and Detect Illusions. I never tried to approach him with another character as I need to disarm those traps first and usually Imoen is my only thief. As soon as she disarm the last trap (she always do it invisible of course) and see him his dialog kicks in. I presume, his dialog triggers via script and the only mods I can think of, which change creatures' scripts, are SR and SCS. In both this runs I use new SCS v.30 (while using v.21 before that) and I am inclined to think that SCS is the one 'guilty' here.
You can definitively approach him while invisible, at least with Charname, because I was able to one-shot him before with a level 8 cleric by hitting him with Cause Critical Wounds from invisibility (thanks to the changes made by SR). It's been too long since I played SCS without IR/SR with a team to attest your theory, but you're probably right.
@Serg_BlackStrider SCS 30 does this as far as I know. It started to me after upgrading to 30 a while back and if I disarm that last trap the speaking script starts every time.
Cromarty has crept on, doing Rasaad's quest, and tidying up some lose ends like the Solamnic knights and rescuing Ajantis. (The mod maintainer has made the globe only work in the Windspear Hills, which makes it less useful for escaping!) Ajantis has joined the party, chiefly on the back of his extreme flattery of Cromarty which he just couldn't say no to, especially after the unpleasant way they parted in BG1. After some thought I dropped Kelsey rather than Valygar for now, but it was a tricky decision as Kelsey has been very useful in some niche situations, and has a personality which gels a little better with the group. However the current whirlwind of steel being unleashed by Valy, Sirene, and Ajantis upon the Shadow Thief HQ is giving Xan a nice break from almost dying in melee .
With mention of IR, SR, and SCS I am curious to know if anyone has completed the trilogy with that sort of low-exploit set-up? Doing an RP run with those and a few other mods could be rather challenging.
With mention of IR, SR, and SCS I am curious to know if anyone has completed the trilogy with that sort of low-exploit set-up? Doing an RP run with those and a few other mods could be rather challenging.
Aasim used to run with IR and SR. He never completed a run, but he did make it to ToB (Sendai's lair) at least once.
(As an fyi, I've long been curious about IR + SR. I've only refrained from trying it due to the relatability issue. It's far more difficult for readers to comprehend an adventure when the game mechanics have been radically altered. It's easier to connect with a broad audience when you're playing by standard rules
That said, I'm looking forward to Grim Face's run! I enjoy reading IR + SR runs; I have nothing against them; I just recognize that some find them harder to follow)
Aestica, Neutral Good, Halfling Fighter: Nashkel Mines to the Bandit Camp
Let's continue, shall we?
By the time Aestica nixed Mulahey she had completed the vast majority of her early game objectives. She was ready to march through the storyline. That is what she did.
We'll cover this quick (there's not a lot to see here, really)
Nimbul
Nimbul was taken down under Shield + Greenstone. Darts of Stunning were not used in this encounter due to Nimbul's Shield + Boots of Avoidance combo. Instead, Aestica relied on the Amnish guard to peel images and skins.
Tranzig
Same plan here: Shield + Greenstone. The Darts of Stunning were skipped again because Tranzig was very nearly harmless in light of Aestica's defenses.
Bandit Camp
Aestica eliminated each and every bandit, Chill and Black Talon alike, starting with the head-honchos in the big top. Her buffs for this encounter were Pro Fire, Potion of Fire Resistance, Shield, Greenstone, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Potion of Regeneration.
Aestica entered the tent invisible and then opened with Dart of Stunning (Venkt) + Potion of Explosion. Venkt was stunned and killed soon after.
With Venkt out of the picture, and with Aestica's Cloak of Displacement + Boots of Avoidance missile weapon adjustment, the halbred wielding, Potion of Frost Giant Strength chugging Britik was the only concern. Fortunately gnolls are slow- halbred's are, too. Britik was easily evaded. Hooray for EE's decision to allow slings to stack strength bonuses. Nice ranged crit.
Down with Britik. Aestica took very little damage here.
The documents were recovered under Potion of Insulation + Boots of Grounding. Stealth out of the tent, and back to civilization was an option, but that armor, ya know?
Taugosz was neutralized with Darts of Stunning. A Potion of Absorption was an option here, too, but since Kysus and Rezdan cast Remove often in this install and Aestica wanted Drasus's boots, she used her darts.
All that remained was to finish up the Chill clan. Wand of Sleep.
Done and done. I'll cover the Cloakwood soon.
Best,
A.
Btw. Apologies for the super-concise coverage. Time is short and I have less than a month now until I leave for India. Plus, these encouters are pretty straight-forward/well-understood, I believe. I'll try to make up for it in BG-II!
With mention of IR, SR, and SCS I am curious to know if anyone has completed the trilogy with that sort of low-exploit set-up? Doing an RP run with those and a few other mods could be rather challenging.
Not yet.
Why not be the first?
I will try if I make it through the trilogy then, just running SR this time (and SCS for BG1). I had my first no-reload here end when I forgot that the IR Arbane's was different to vanilla!
As an fyi, I've long been curious about IR + SR. I've only refrained from trying it due to the relatability issue. It's far more difficult for readers to comprehend an adventure when the game mechanics have been radically altered. It's easier to connect with a broad audience when you're playing by standard rules
Agreed. That's why I'm trying to do my best in showing/explaining the differencies SR/IR have brought into the gameplay so the readers could better understand what's going on.
First, a question: What do you get when you cross a cloak with wood? A very impractical garment. Try wearing that to the next family wedding. Pair it with ankheg plate!
Not funny, huh? Well, you know what else isn't funny? Getting ambushed by Drakar. I mean, who wants to hang with a dude named after a 1980's fragrance for cognitively impaired boy-men?
My inclination was to take a pass on this encounter, but Aestica insisted that we fight. She said something about avenging a friend? I have no idea what she was talking about. Who am I to argue, though? Especially when the killing is this easy. After all, we're wearing full plate now. Greenstone Amulet and done.
Into the woods. Spider area. Pro Poison, Potion of Freedom, Potion of Hill Giant Strength.
No more Netflix and cheetos for you, Centeol.
The Mines
That brings us to the mines. The theme of this run has been proven strategies, executed with precision. (Yeah, I know: yawn- it doesn't make the best read...). The Cloakwood Mines were no different, although Davaeorn did put a mouse-sized wrinkle in Aestica's best laid plans.
First, Drasus et al. Actually, scratch that: last, Drasus et al. Aestica chose to deal with Davaeorn before Drasus. Potion of Invisibility and run. Check ya later cheese-muffins.
A second Potion of Invisibility, post Rill, brought Aestica to the inner sanctum. Pro Magic, Pro Fire, Pro Cold, Potion of Fire Resistance, Potion of Cold Resistance, Potion of Hill Giant Strength (The fire resistance was for bombs and horrors; cold for Arrows of Cold) Bring it on.
(Btw, did anyone notice the CoND icon? Yeah. Aestica totally shouldn't have been wearing that here. I like to fantasize that SCS mages detect the CoND, suppressing Divination casts, but I have no evidence to support that at all. Voodoo. When there's no opportunity cost, like when you're walking invisible, why not indulge flights of fancy? Still, having passed Kysus, Reszdan, and Hairy-Scary, there was no reason for that to be on instead of the Cloak of Displacement here. The fact that I missed that concerns me. It had very little impact here, since the guards still couldn't hit sub-crit, but stupid crap like that ends runs. Errors are the enemy. Inattention kills. I worry for Aestica. I need to get my sticks together)
Back to the action. Showdown in the stink pit! Nixed the battle horrors in toe-to-toe melee. Davaeorn skidaddled.
Next step: find Davaeorn. Not so easy, sadly. The boy, rightly, decided to turtle, since he couldn't hurt anyone on the field. We don't have Algernon. What to do? Same thing I do in RL when I get bored: chuck a molotov cocktail and see what happens
Yeah, so he's somewhere in the blast radius, but since his fire resistance is so high there's very little we can do with that information. And so we wait. Killed the guards -and I mean all of them, they stopped spawning- waiting for Pro Magic to wear off. Killed the mustard jelly, too. Finally, Davaeorn showed.
Danger! Davaeorn! No Pro Magic? Actually, not so much. Aestica had prepared for this contingency. She had brought po-pos and scro-scros to rebuff. So, yeah: you lose, Davaeorn! And fooey on you for wasting our potions!
Just Drasus and his crew left now. Low on invisibility charges, the plan had been to race pass protected by the Davaeorn buffs, and then return better equipped, post Sorcerer's Sundries. But when Drasus chased all the wat to the edge of the map, nixing him under Potion of Absorption + Potion of Frost Giant Strength was just too tempting.
One last mini-hurdle: the Amazonians. No interest in fighting here. Potion of Magic Blocking and go.
And that brings us to the Gate. Character record at the Elfsong.
NW: Aestica doesn't have a theme song yet. I'll let you know when I think of something.
Candlekeep Inn. Winthrop is chatting with Aestica while polishing the bar counter. Three cloaked figures are sitting in the far courner with mugs of dark ale talking quietly among themselves.
Sarevok Anchev, Joneleth Irenicus, Amelyssan the Blackhearted: - Who is this tiny little lass over there with Winthrop?
Aestica the Halfling, sipping chamomile tea and noticing them with the edge of an eye (though just barely): - You will know my name... All of you will... just in time!
(this might be better suited to Alisa the Jester, considering the name of the singer, or Aaliyah the Blade due to her alignment and background but... who knows? ).
Wow! Cool, but, yeah: It doesn't really fit Aestica.
She's more experimental singer-songwriter.
The two artists I associate with Aestica are EMA and St Vincent- especially St Vincent, since I imagine Aestica having St Vincent's striking poise and precision of movement.
The problem is that none of St Vincent's songs (or EMA's) fit lyric wise. Setting aside lyrics, the song that best evokes Aestica is probably Digital Witness. We can call that her theme song, I guess.
Candlekeep Inn. Winthrop is chatting with Aestica while polishing the bar counter. Three cloaked figures are sitting in the far courner with mugs of dark ale talking quietly among themselves.
Are you sure there's not also a hulking figure peering through one of the windows?
Aestica, Neutral Good, Halfling Fighter: Candlekeep and the Dukes
By now Aestica was on cruise control: with Davaeorn dead, gold in the hold- potions, potions and that short sword motion, nothing was going to stop her. Nothing, I say.
Just a few chores before Candlekeep and the endgame. We needed the Golden Girdle and the Manual of Bodily Health. These had been left till after the Gate because the Greenstone Amulet was very nearly cashed and we needed disabler defenses for spells and traps respectively.
Girdle first. Potion of Freedom, Potion of Clarity, Shield, Potion of Hill Giant Strength. For a heaping bucketfull of over-kill, we threw in a Potion of Firebreath. New belt! Hooray! And hmm!: that charred flesh smell! Smokay!
On to the golem cave. We used the last Greenstone Amulet charge here (Farewell, old friend, farewell...) Girdle of Bluntness + Full Plate + Large Shield + Whistling Sword for the golems. No need for hit and run tactics here. Good ol' fashion chunk-a-hunk
And that meant it was time for the end game. Winthrop! We're coming home!
The ogre mage ambush was thwarted with a Potion of Magic Blocking.
The catacombs. Pro Poison for the spiders; Potion of Freedom for their Web trap. Pro Fire and Potion of Fire Resistance for the flamey traps; Potion of Insulation and Boots of Grounding for the sparky ones. Shield Amulet for the Magic Missile traps.
The Violet Potion + Potion of Fortitude + Potion of Agility let us open the tomby-things. Invisibility charges from Sandthief handled everything else.
Down, down we go: into the Undercellars. Slythe and Krystin chit-chatted away with breezy self-confidence. Little did they know they were seriously overmatched. Pro Magic + Potion of Mind Focusing + Potion of Frost Giant Strength + Draw on Holy Might + Potion of Regeneration. Balduran + Full Plate + Girdle of Piercing + RoP. This is not -not- going to be fun, S & K.
Slythe landed a backstab, but with Aestica's buffed con HP total, it wasn't nearly enough. He basically just dropped dead.
Krystin was similarly helpless. She did, however, leave us wondering how much XP she has. She's a T->M. She took ProMW, and did not read a scroll, as far as I'm aware. So, she has an L6 slot. That means she has at least 12 mage levels. That's more than Davaeorn, and puts her north of 750k across the two classes. Why isn't she the one taking over the city? Tell me that's a scroll and the notification is missing.
Whatever. She chunks up good just like everyone else. Electrical Bullets were used to test for the expiration of ProMW. Then it was Arrow of Dispelling-> Arrow of Biting -> Whistling Sword. Were the Arrows of Biting necessary, you ask? Naw: I just enjoy poisoning Krystin. You try, you like.
On to the Duchal Palace. Ain't nothin' but a party, y'all. An Oil of Speed quaff let Aestica reach the hall buffed and ready. DUHM was recast just before the fray. As they say at the Copper Coronet: Begin!
With over-buffed warriors like Aestica, I prefer to stick with the dukes, drop the active assailants, and deal with the evasive mage last. This has always worked. No exception here. Aestica dropped the melee dopes before the mage did anything threatening. The v30 battle is so much easier than the older one with the MI + Haste spamming, Horror casting, confusion on hit weapon wielding super-fly, super-dopes. This is not a complaint.
The v30 battle is so much easier than the older one with the MI + Haste spamming, Horror casting, confusion on hit weapon wielding super-fly, super-dopes. This is not a complaint.
That's good to know, thanks for mentioning it! I'm still to have my first dating with v30 Greater Dopes and this information is just priceless!
And now for the thrilling conclusion of Aestica in BG1.
The battle plan here was simple: buff, debuff, debone. The buffs were scrolls and potions. The debuffing instrument was a quiver full of Arrows of Dispelling. The deboning instrument was the Whistling Sword. This was expected to go well and it did.
As per usual, Aestica's opening move was to dispel Sarevok's haste effect.
Next, she targeted the casters, Angelo and Semaj, with dispelling arrows. Diarmid got some love, too, when he applied an Oil of Speed.
With all haste effects neutralized, and Aestica running Oil of Speed, the battlefield was Aestica's. Semaj and Angelo realized this and tossed Removes, but they were quickly countered with Invisibility->rebuff.
Semaj was target one. As expected he used invisibility and rebuff sequencers wisely. Eventually, though, he was exposed and buff free. Once he was, Aestica switched to the Sling of Unerring Accuracy and punished him. One down.
The rest of Saverok's acolytes met similar fates, although Angelo, having turtled invisible, had the honor of dying by Arrows of Explosion.
After cleaning up the skellies, it was time for a showdown: mano a mano, Aestica vs Sarevok. The question was whether Aestica could nix a fully healed and healthy Sarevok in toe-to-toe melee without disengaging. I'll spare you the buff list, and just share her character record. Check it, and then place your bets.
And the result? Yes, yes: the Whistling Sword filleted him nicely- no need to disengage. And while Aestica did quaff a single healing potion at the end of the fray, that was because I have an aversion to red portraits. it wasn't really needed. Aestica had the upper hand in this fight. Or, well, lower, I guess, given her height. In any case, Aestica prevailed with ease.
On to the golem cave. We used the last Greenstone Amulet charge here (Farewell, old friend, farewell...)
Ah, I see you had the strength to throw the amulet into the mountain! Myself, I often succumb to its shiny abilities and end up overusing the charges (while feeling bad about it at the same time). But it's so...precious.
With over-buffed warriors like Aestica, I prefer to stick with the dukes, drop the active assailants, and deal with the evasive mage last. This has always worked. No exception here. Aestica dropped the melee dopes before the mage did anything threatening. The v30 battle is so much easier than the older one with the MI + Haste spamming, Horror casting, confusion on hit weapon wielding super-fly, super-dopes. This is not a complaint.
Glad it worked perfectly for Aestica. There's a tricky part regarding the mage, which I came to realize the hard way with my beastmaster Kazi. Sooner or later it (or is it he? you never know with these doppies) will try to cast Chaos and, if successful, the confused Flaming Fist guys can eventually make Sarevok go hostile - with Liia and Belt probably at his reach. Then it's bad. Pretty bad.
Glad it worked perfectly for Aestica. There's a tricky part regarding the mage, which I came to realize the hard way with my beastmaster Kazi. Sooner or later it (or is it he? you never know with these doppies) will try to cast Chaos and, if successful, the confused Flaming Fist guys can eventually make Sarevok go hostile - with Liia and Belt probably at his reach. Then it's bad. Pretty bad.
Yes. I'm aware of that risk. It takes him awhile, though, in my experience. With over-buffed warriors, it's possible to drop the threatening dopes before he gets the chance to cast, thus saving Belt. With weaker characters, I prefer to target the mage first.
(NW: And just to clarify, I had done some experimenting with this shortly after I upgraded and I found that with warriors, in my install, given how I play, the conventional wisdom wasn't right: killing the mage first did not work out better. I had 10 trials in each condition. The only failures were in the mage first condition. Basically, the mage drew my character away from Belt, causing Belt to perish. Sarevok then killed Liia after the last dope had fallen. YMMV)
(NWII: I do usually pop him with a dispelling arrow before he gets out of sight. That may slow down his Confusion cast by forcing him to re-buff, although I haven't collected data on the issue. After the initial arrow, I don't worry about him until most of the dopes are dead and Belt is reasonably safe )
@Alesia_BH I would have like to see Aestica in SoD. Some parts would have been tricky for a solo pure class fighter. Have you ever played it ?
Noppers. It came out while I was on break, thru-hiking and traveling. I'd like to try it, but I don't have time now since I'll be going abroad again in about a month.
(Someday I'll play it. And hopefully by then they'll be a way of running SoD with the classic avatars/interface...)
Someday I'll play it. And hopefully by then they'll be a way of running SoD with the classic avatars/interface...)
I would love to have an opportunity to play EE with vanilla BG1 avatars/interface too but I do not have too much count on it. There are some work-in-progress mods here, which implements them, but whether they will be released soon (if at all) I don't know... Dreams, dreams...
(Don't mind me. I actually counted how many Kobold Commandos I had to kill to clear the Firewine Ruins. Yep. 71 &#$%^#$!$# lot of them is what it took. My Dragon Disciple is now unhinged.)
The catacombs. Pro Poison for the spiders; Potion of Freedom for their Web trap. Pro Fire and Potion of Fire Resistance for the flamey traps; Potion of Insulation and Boots of Grounding for the sparky ones. Shield Amulet for the Magic Missile traps.
I've spoken before of precision and discipline in no-reload runs, and this is a perfect example. Having such a complete knowledge of the game, both the dangers you face and the resources available to you, that you know exactly how to negate threats. My playstyle is very sloppy by comparison (though I kind of like it that way).
After finishing my goal of no-reloading SoD, I wasn't too motivated to continue this run into SoA and ToB. With the additional starting experience, my party (which included Keldorn, Nalia, Jaheira, Anomen and Haer'Dalis) felt overpowered, and I breezed through all the available chapter 2 and 3 quests. Eventually, I was so confident that I also killed the various liches, mind flayers, the twisted rune and the dragons - though a major misstep during the Firkraag battle caused the chunking of Haer'Dalis and almost ended my run (the tiefling blade was eventually replaced with Minsc).
The red dragon managed to hit the entire party with dispel magic, and everyone's buffs (except Nalia's) were dispelled, including of course any fire resistance spells.
A use of his breath weapon almost killed Nabatil:
I could've avoided this very close call by switching the ring of fire protection to my Bhaalspawn, but somehow, I completely forgot about that option and instead had him try to drink a fire protection potion while his aura wasn't clear. Surviving on 14 hp, Nabatil ran far away and din't participate in the battle any further.
My next mistake was trying to end the fight as fast as possible by using my time for offensive spells & buffs instead of getting any defenses back up. This almost seemed to work, and the dragon was near death, but so were many of my party members:
Unable to deal the final points of damage, I suffered the consequences: Anomen was killed, and an unprotected Haer'Dalis got chunked by the dragon's breath weapon:
Finally, Jaheira managed to slay the beast, though not before Nalia died as well:
While I was able to avoid any further embarassing mistakes until entering the Underdark, this if where my run ended - it was really surprising to me, actually. Nabatil was imprisoned by Raevilin Strathi of all people. I didn't even know he would try to cast that spell, as, usually, I kill him before he gets his protections up.
It's pretty clear why this run really failed though - I was playing the BG2-part of it not with a no-reload mindest, but with a "let's get through this as fast as possible" mindset. I'm looking forward to try something different for my next run - maybe Legacy of Bhaal? I didn't like it when I first tried it, as everything took forever, which didn't seem very fun, but with the right party, it might be interesting enough.
After finishing my goal of no-reloading SoD, I wasn't too motivated to continue this run into SoA and ToB. With the additional starting experience, my party felt overpowered, and I breezed through all the available chapter 2 and 3 quests.
That, to me, has alway been the obvious problem with inserting a new adventure in between BG1 and BG2: It's bound to throw off level balancing, absent XP progression restrictions that few players would accept.
How much XP do SoD protagonists typically have when they enter SoA?
I've spoken before of precision and discipline in no-reload runs, and this is a perfect example. Having such a complete knowledge of the game, both the dangers you face and the resources available to you, that you know exactly how to negate threats.
Thanks.
This habit has bled over into my RL, actually. When I travel/adventure, people sometimes ask how or why I always have the exact right things at the exact right moment on every journey, despite carrying an unusually small & light bag. I have never answered that question.
You know what feels weird? Moving a character over to BG2 without shifting to a new thread. That feels weird. Very weird.
Anyhoo, here's our girl:
Let's cover the Chateau, shall we? Don't worry: this won't hurt a bit.
While I have never installed Dungeon Begone -and would never install Dungeon Begone- my approach to the Chateau does have a Dungeon Begone-esque dimension to it. My objective is get the chuck out of dodge. Fast. I mean, most of time I don't even detour to pick up the Potion of Firebreath, and I love me some firebreath. I just head for the door.
Aestica's march was pretty standard, although she did make one move that surpised even me.
Minimal conflict enroute to the activation stone. Got the crayons from the fish, but didn't use them.
Am I the only one who feels like a rockstar when I time my Bhaalspawn Power Slow Poison in between damage ticks, first try. Baller!
That was followed by a mad -and I mean mad- dash to the portal. The lesser clay golems were stupid fast. They were on us like ugly on Ringo Starr. Grabbed Kazgaroth and bailed.
Rested on the second floor. And that's when things went unexpected-like.
Who let the Yosh out?
Yeah. Aestica joined Yoshi for the escape. It was fun. I mean, check out this teamwork. We were all simultaneous up in this.
More teamwork. It was a backstabbin', dwarf slappin' good time.
Grabbed the RoP, donned Kazgaroth. Ok: We're ready for that caster and his possible Charm Person.
Still, let's not take any chances. Do it to it Yosh!
Comments
With mention of IR, SR, and SCS I am curious to know if anyone has completed the trilogy with that sort of low-exploit set-up? Doing an RP run with those and a few other mods could be rather challenging.
Why not be the first?
(As an fyi, I've long been curious about IR + SR. I've only refrained from trying it due to the relatability issue. It's far more difficult for readers to comprehend an adventure when the game mechanics have been radically altered. It's easier to connect with a broad audience when you're playing by standard rules
That said, I'm looking forward to Grim Face's run! I enjoy reading IR + SR runs; I have nothing against them; I just recognize that some find them harder to follow)
Best,
A.
Let's continue, shall we?
By the time Aestica nixed Mulahey she had completed the vast majority of her early game objectives. She was ready to march through the storyline. That is what she did.
We'll cover this quick (there's not a lot to see here, really)
Nimbul
Nimbul was taken down under Shield + Greenstone. Darts of Stunning were not used in this encounter due to Nimbul's Shield + Boots of Avoidance combo. Instead, Aestica relied on the Amnish guard to peel images and skins.
Tranzig
Same plan here: Shield + Greenstone. The Darts of Stunning were skipped again because Tranzig was very nearly harmless in light of Aestica's defenses.
Bandit Camp
Aestica eliminated each and every bandit, Chill and Black Talon alike, starting with the head-honchos in the big top. Her buffs for this encounter were Pro Fire, Potion of Fire Resistance, Shield, Greenstone, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Potion of Regeneration.
Aestica entered the tent invisible and then opened with Dart of Stunning (Venkt) + Potion of Explosion. Venkt was stunned and killed soon after.
With Venkt out of the picture, and with Aestica's Cloak of Displacement + Boots of Avoidance missile weapon adjustment, the halbred wielding, Potion of Frost Giant Strength chugging Britik was the only concern. Fortunately gnolls are slow- halbred's are, too. Britik was easily evaded. Hooray for EE's decision to allow slings to stack strength bonuses. Nice ranged crit.
Down with Britik. Aestica took very little damage here.
The documents were recovered under Potion of Insulation + Boots of Grounding. Stealth out of the tent, and back to civilization was an option, but that armor, ya know?
Taugosz was neutralized with Darts of Stunning. A Potion of Absorption was an option here, too, but since Kysus and Rezdan cast Remove often in this install and Aestica wanted Drasus's boots, she used her darts.
All that remained was to finish up the Chill clan. Wand of Sleep.
Done and done. I'll cover the Cloakwood soon.
Best,
A.
Btw. Apologies for the super-concise coverage. Time is short and I have less than a month now until I leave for India. Plus, these encouters are pretty straight-forward/well-understood, I believe. I'll try to make up for it in BG-II!
Hey, kids! It's time for some Cloakwood!
First, a question: What do you get when you cross a cloak with wood? A very impractical garment. Try wearing that to the next family wedding. Pair it with ankheg plate!
Not funny, huh? Well, you know what else isn't funny? Getting ambushed by Drakar. I mean, who wants to hang with a dude named after a 1980's fragrance for cognitively impaired boy-men?
My inclination was to take a pass on this encounter, but Aestica insisted that we fight. She said something about avenging a friend? I have no idea what she was talking about. Who am I to argue, though? Especially when the killing is this easy. After all, we're wearing full plate now. Greenstone Amulet and done.
Into the woods. Spider area. Pro Poison, Potion of Freedom, Potion of Hill Giant Strength.
No more Netflix and cheetos for you, Centeol.
The Mines
That brings us to the mines. The theme of this run has been proven strategies, executed with precision. (Yeah, I know: yawn- it doesn't make the best read...). The Cloakwood Mines were no different, although Davaeorn did put a mouse-sized wrinkle in Aestica's best laid plans.
First, Drasus et al. Actually, scratch that: last, Drasus et al. Aestica chose to deal with Davaeorn before Drasus. Potion of Invisibility and run. Check ya later cheese-muffins.
A second Potion of Invisibility, post Rill, brought Aestica to the inner sanctum. Pro Magic, Pro Fire, Pro Cold, Potion of Fire Resistance, Potion of Cold Resistance, Potion of Hill Giant Strength (The fire resistance was for bombs and horrors; cold for Arrows of Cold) Bring it on.
(Btw, did anyone notice the CoND icon? Yeah. Aestica totally shouldn't have been wearing that here. I like to fantasize that SCS mages detect the CoND, suppressing Divination casts, but I have no evidence to support that at all. Voodoo. When there's no opportunity cost, like when you're walking invisible, why not indulge flights of fancy? Still, having passed Kysus, Reszdan, and Hairy-Scary, there was no reason for that to be on instead of the Cloak of Displacement here. The fact that I missed that concerns me. It had very little impact here, since the guards still couldn't hit sub-crit, but stupid crap like that ends runs. Errors are the enemy. Inattention kills. I worry for Aestica. I need to get my sticks together)
Back to the action. Showdown in the stink pit! Nixed the battle horrors in toe-to-toe melee. Davaeorn skidaddled.
Next step: find Davaeorn. Not so easy, sadly. The boy, rightly, decided to turtle, since he couldn't hurt anyone on the field. We don't have Algernon. What to do? Same thing I do in RL when I get bored: chuck a molotov cocktail and see what happens
Yeah, so he's somewhere in the blast radius, but since his fire resistance is so high there's very little we can do with that information. And so we wait. Killed the guards -and I mean all of them, they stopped spawning- waiting for Pro Magic to wear off. Killed the mustard jelly, too. Finally, Davaeorn showed.
Danger! Davaeorn! No Pro Magic? Actually, not so much. Aestica had prepared for this contingency. She had brought po-pos and scro-scros to rebuff. So, yeah: you lose, Davaeorn! And fooey on you for wasting our potions!
Just Drasus and his crew left now. Low on invisibility charges, the plan had been to race pass protected by the Davaeorn buffs, and then return better equipped, post Sorcerer's Sundries. But when Drasus chased all the wat to the edge of the map, nixing him under Potion of Absorption + Potion of Frost Giant Strength was just too tempting.
One last mini-hurdle: the Amazonians. No interest in fighting here. Potion of Magic Blocking and go.
And that brings us to the Gate. Character record at the Elfsong.
Best,
A.
Sarevok Anchev, Joneleth Irenicus, Amelyssan the Blackhearted:
- Who is this tiny little lass over there with Winthrop?
Aestica the Halfling, sipping chamomile tea and noticing them with the edge of an eye (though just barely):
- You will know my name... All of you will... just in time!
(this might be better suited to Alisa the Jester, considering the name of the singer, or Aaliyah the Blade due to her alignment and background but... who knows? ).
She's more experimental singer-songwriter.
The two artists I associate with Aestica are EMA and St Vincent- especially St Vincent, since I imagine Aestica having St Vincent's striking poise and precision of movement.
The problem is that none of St Vincent's songs (or EMA's) fit lyric wise. Setting aside lyrics, the song that best evokes Aestica is probably Digital Witness. We can call that her theme song, I guess.
https://youtu.be/mVAxUMuhz98
Best,
A.
By now Aestica was on cruise control: with Davaeorn dead, gold in the hold- potions, potions and that short sword motion, nothing was going to stop her. Nothing, I say.
Just a few chores before Candlekeep and the endgame. We needed the Golden Girdle and the Manual of Bodily Health. These had been left till after the Gate because the Greenstone Amulet was very nearly cashed and we needed disabler defenses for spells and traps respectively.
Girdle first. Potion of Freedom, Potion of Clarity, Shield, Potion of Hill Giant Strength. For a heaping bucketfull of over-kill, we threw in a Potion of Firebreath. New belt! Hooray! And hmm!: that charred flesh smell! Smokay!
On to the golem cave. We used the last Greenstone Amulet charge here (Farewell, old friend, farewell...) Girdle of Bluntness + Full Plate + Large Shield + Whistling Sword for the golems. No need for hit and run tactics here. Good ol' fashion chunk-a-hunk
And that meant it was time for the end game. Winthrop! We're coming home!
The ogre mage ambush was thwarted with a Potion of Magic Blocking.
The catacombs. Pro Poison for the spiders; Potion of Freedom for their Web trap. Pro Fire and Potion of Fire Resistance for the flamey traps; Potion of Insulation and Boots of Grounding for the sparky ones. Shield Amulet for the Magic Missile traps.
The Violet Potion + Potion of Fortitude + Potion of Agility let us open the tomby-things. Invisibility charges from Sandthief handled everything else.
Down, down we go: into the Undercellars. Slythe and Krystin chit-chatted away with breezy self-confidence. Little did they know they were seriously overmatched. Pro Magic + Potion of Mind Focusing + Potion of Frost Giant Strength + Draw on Holy Might + Potion of Regeneration. Balduran + Full Plate + Girdle of Piercing + RoP. This is not -not- going to be fun, S & K.
Slythe landed a backstab, but with Aestica's buffed con HP total, it wasn't nearly enough. He basically just dropped dead.
Krystin was similarly helpless. She did, however, leave us wondering how much XP she has. She's a T->M. She took ProMW, and did not read a scroll, as far as I'm aware. So, she has an L6 slot. That means she has at least 12 mage levels. That's more than Davaeorn, and puts her north of 750k across the two classes. Why isn't she the one taking over the city? Tell me that's a scroll and the notification is missing.
Whatever. She chunks up good just like everyone else. Electrical Bullets were used to test for the expiration of ProMW. Then it was Arrow of Dispelling-> Arrow of Biting -> Whistling Sword. Were the Arrows of Biting necessary, you ask? Naw: I just enjoy poisoning Krystin. You try, you like.
On to the Duchal Palace. Ain't nothin' but a party, y'all. An Oil of Speed quaff let Aestica reach the hall buffed and ready. DUHM was recast just before the fray. As they say at the Copper Coronet: Begin!
With over-buffed warriors like Aestica, I prefer to stick with the dukes, drop the active assailants, and deal with the evasive mage last. This has always worked. No exception here. Aestica dropped the melee dopes before the mage did anything threatening. The v30 battle is so much easier than the older one with the MI + Haste spamming, Horror casting, confusion on hit weapon wielding super-fly, super-dopes. This is not a complaint.
Arrow of Dispelling-> Whistling Sword.
Done and done. Liia and Belt both survived.
One more fight then we're off to Amn.
Best,
A.
And now for the thrilling conclusion of Aestica in BG1.
The battle plan here was simple: buff, debuff, debone. The buffs were scrolls and potions. The debuffing instrument was a quiver full of Arrows of Dispelling. The deboning instrument was the Whistling Sword. This was expected to go well and it did.
As per usual, Aestica's opening move was to dispel Sarevok's haste effect.
Next, she targeted the casters, Angelo and Semaj, with dispelling arrows. Diarmid got some love, too, when he applied an Oil of Speed.
With all haste effects neutralized, and Aestica running Oil of Speed, the battlefield was Aestica's. Semaj and Angelo realized this and tossed Removes, but they were quickly countered with Invisibility->rebuff.
Semaj was target one. As expected he used invisibility and rebuff sequencers wisely. Eventually, though, he was exposed and buff free. Once he was, Aestica switched to the Sling of Unerring Accuracy and punished him. One down.
The rest of Saverok's acolytes met similar fates, although Angelo, having turtled invisible, had the honor of dying by Arrows of Explosion.
After cleaning up the skellies, it was time for a showdown: mano a mano, Aestica vs Sarevok. The question was whether Aestica could nix a fully healed and healthy Sarevok in toe-to-toe melee without disengaging. I'll spare you the buff list, and just share her character record. Check it, and then place your bets.
And the result? Yes, yes: the Whistling Sword filleted him nicely- no need to disengage. And while Aestica did quaff a single healing potion at the end of the fray, that was because I have an aversion to red portraits. it wasn't really needed. Aestica had the upper hand in this fight. Or, well, lower, I guess, given her height. In any case, Aestica prevailed with ease.
Off to Amn we go. Yay!
Best,
A.
Note to self (currently on a study leave): Reading many many new posts of non-reloaders is not procrastinating.
(NW: And just to clarify, I had done some experimenting with this shortly after I upgraded and I found that with warriors, in my install, given how I play, the conventional wisdom wasn't right: killing the mage first did not work out better. I had 10 trials in each condition. The only failures were in the mage first condition. Basically, the mage drew my character away from Belt, causing Belt to perish. Sarevok then killed Liia after the last dope had fallen. YMMV)
(NWII: I do usually pop him with a dispelling arrow before he gets out of sight. That may slow down his Confusion cast by forcing him to re-buff, although I haven't collected data on the issue. After the initial arrow, I don't worry about him until most of the dopes are dead and Belt is reasonably safe ) Thanks! But it's not playing either is it, darling dear! Start rolling, start playing, start posting, my friend!
Best,
A.
(Someday I'll play it. And hopefully by then they'll be a way of running SoD with the classic avatars/interface...)
Best,
A.
After finishing my goal of no-reloading SoD, I wasn't too motivated to continue this run into SoA and ToB. With the additional starting experience, my party (which included Keldorn, Nalia, Jaheira, Anomen and Haer'Dalis) felt overpowered, and I breezed through all the available chapter 2 and 3 quests. Eventually, I was so confident that I also killed the various liches, mind flayers, the twisted rune and the dragons - though a major misstep during the Firkraag battle caused the chunking of Haer'Dalis and almost ended my run (the tiefling blade was eventually replaced with Minsc).
The red dragon managed to hit the entire party with dispel magic, and everyone's buffs (except Nalia's) were dispelled, including of course any fire resistance spells.
A use of his breath weapon almost killed Nabatil:
I could've avoided this very close call by switching the ring of fire protection to my Bhaalspawn, but somehow, I completely forgot about that option and instead had him try to drink a fire protection potion while his aura wasn't clear. Surviving on 14 hp, Nabatil ran far away and din't participate in the battle any further.
My next mistake was trying to end the fight as fast as possible by using my time for offensive spells & buffs instead of getting any defenses back up. This almost seemed to work, and the dragon was near death, but so were many of my party members:
Unable to deal the final points of damage, I suffered the consequences: Anomen was killed, and an unprotected Haer'Dalis got chunked by the dragon's breath weapon:
Finally, Jaheira managed to slay the beast, though not before Nalia died as well:
While I was able to avoid any further embarassing mistakes until entering the Underdark, this if where my run ended - it was really surprising to me, actually. Nabatil was imprisoned by Raevilin Strathi of all people. I didn't even know he would try to cast that spell, as, usually, I kill him before he gets his protections up.
It's pretty clear why this run really failed though - I was playing the BG2-part of it not with a no-reload mindest, but with a "let's get through this as fast as possible" mindset. I'm looking forward to try something different for my next run - maybe Legacy of Bhaal? I didn't like it when I first tried it, as everything took forever, which didn't seem very fun, but with the right party, it might be interesting enough.
Enuhal
Best,
A.
How much XP do SoD protagonists typically have when they enter SoA?
Best,
A.
This habit has bled over into my RL, actually. When I travel/adventure, people sometimes ask how or why I always have the exact right things at the exact right moment on every journey, despite carrying an unusually small & light bag. I have never answered that question. This reminds me of an old Woody Allen joke...
I'd characterize your playing style as Doc Brown-esque: wild-eyed, universe hacker, extraordinaire:
Best,
A.
You know what feels weird? Moving a character over to BG2 without shifting to a new thread. That feels weird. Very weird.
Anyhoo, here's our girl:
Let's cover the Chateau, shall we? Don't worry: this won't hurt a bit.
While I have never installed Dungeon Begone -and would never install Dungeon Begone- my approach to the Chateau does have a Dungeon Begone-esque dimension to it. My objective is get the chuck out of dodge. Fast. I mean, most of time I don't even detour to pick up the Potion of Firebreath, and I love me some firebreath. I just head for the door.
Aestica's march was pretty standard, although she did make one move that surpised even me.
Minimal conflict enroute to the activation stone. Got the crayons from the fish, but didn't use them.
Am I the only one who feels like a rockstar when I time my Bhaalspawn Power Slow Poison in between damage ticks, first try. Baller!
That was followed by a mad -and I mean mad- dash to the portal. The lesser clay golems were stupid fast. They were on us like ugly on Ringo Starr. Grabbed Kazgaroth and bailed.
Rested on the second floor. And that's when things went unexpected-like.
Who let the Yosh out?
Yeah. Aestica joined Yoshi for the escape. It was fun. I mean, check out this teamwork. We were all simultaneous up in this.
More teamwork. It was a backstabbin', dwarf slappin' good time.
Grabbed the RoP, donned Kazgaroth. Ok: We're ready for that caster and his possible Charm Person.
Still, let's not take any chances. Do it to it Yosh!
And with that, we were away. Promenade next.
Best,
A.