@semiticgod You can always put a series of images within one spoiler tag. I do that for a single battle. It avoids having to do too much clicking on the tags.
On a completely different topic,
I am currently doing the Grey Clan Episode.
This is what the walkthrough says should happen, and that is how I remember it.
• Go near the Tower of Ramazith and find General Jedyan (map1). • Talk to General Jedyan. Then he leaves. • Find Jusam near the Hall of Wonders (map2). Talk to him. • Accept his offer and join Jedyan's organization. A group of bandits appears and attacks you. • Kill all of the six bandits, and cause enough damage to the Tattooed Man to make him cast his Dimension Door. Talk to Jusam. A Flaming Fist spy appears and brings news about their captured soldier.
However, the spy hasn't turned up. Does anyone know what his code is so that I can force the situation? Otherwise I won't be able to proceed with the quest.
I have looked in shadowkeeper creature browser and Flaming Fist spy isn't mentioned. However there are 5 Flaming Fist scouts and 2 watchers.
@Wise_Grimwald: My memory of that mod is hazy. I'm pretty sure the spy tells you to go to a house and rescue somebody, but looking at the files in Near Infinity, I cannot see anyone with "Spy" in their name aside from some critters from SoD.
But I think the "captured soldier" you have to rescue is "Injured Woman." Her .cre file is "BW05FFAP." If you summon her and talk to her, conceivably you could progress the storyline further, even if you're not in the right area (which may be necessary for the right script to figure).
Based on a couple of scripts, "BW05MONI" and "BW05TERG" might also help you move forward.
If none of that works, I'm not sure what to do without more information, since I don't know the spy's name.
@Wise_Grimwald I don't know how you did this battle, but I find a common way to fail this type of quest is for one of the target enemies to be killed while on your side (due to charm/domination effects). In that case the game won't count it towards the total - making the quest impossible to complete without using console etc.
@Grond0 No, I didn't do any charming, and all six of them died. I have their armour to prove it!
@semiticgod Creating the injured woman won't work. To speak to her, first you have to talk to one of the Flaming Fist in the same room, and he won't talk until all the grey clan in the room are killed.
I also know that the FAI doesn't change until you speak to the woman.
I'll try "BW05MONI" and "BW05TERG" and see if they might help.
The Tattooed Man did teleport away, which causes me to think that everything up until that point was OK.
Neither Tergius nor Monica would speak.
I'll see if I can post on Black Wyrm Lair. They might be able to help since they host the mod.
It's got nothing to do with charm (which shouldn't cause any issues anyway). It simply bugs out occasionally. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. I'm guessing sometimes the bandits don't increase the global that counts their deaths when they die. I've done the fight, had the bug happen, reloaded and tried again and it worked.
The global variable is Global("BW05_TGC1","GLOBAL",2).
By the end of the last installment, Aestica had made subtle but significant progress toward a happy, healthy life in Amn. She had acquired Lilacor and Arbane, giving her non-dispellable immunity to the greatest threats in the early-mid game: charm, confusion, and hold. And with her newly acquired RoAC complementing her BG imported Ring of the Kazgaroth, she could reliably make the save on early-mid game disablers that apply effects other than charm, confusion, or hold. Critically, she had also built a comprehensive defensive potion collection, including, but not limited to Potions of Invisibility, Oils of Speed, Potions of Freedom, Potions of Clarity, Potions of Invulnerability, Potions of Stone Form, Potions of Fire Resistance and Potions of Insulation. She was looking good. All the boxes were checked. I was almost satisfied, but Aestica would hear nothing of it: her defenses were far short of where she insisted that they should be. You see, I was thinking active. She was thinking passive. And when it comes to defense, passive is the play. I thank her for reminding me.
The problem with relying on item switching and potion counters is that it's hard. Not hard as in impossible, but hard as in something other than brain-dead simple, and what we should be aiming for is brain dead simple. No reload play isn't just about what your character can, in theory, do in the game world: it's about the mental operations that you can perform in your head- flawlessly, without error, over and over again. If your character can deal out scatty-eight gazzillion HP of damage every round, while being virtually invulnerable if and only if you juggle a dozen moving elements, then, well, that's great. But, you know, someday you're going to fumble. And when that happens, you'll be dead. It happens to us all. None of us are as smart as we like to pretend we are.
The way to get smart is to acknowledge that you're stupid. Set up a fool proof system. And when nothing goes wrong -because it very nearly can't- then you'll start looking clever. The reason I've succeeded as a no reloader is that I understand that I'm an idiot. It's that insight -and that insight alone- that makes me appear smart. Don't tell anyone. Let it be our secret.
Here's what we want: We want Harmony in the off hand with the Sword of Arvoreen and Dragonslayer in main hand slots. That won't make us invulnerable, but it will shrink the space of mission critical in combat decisions that we'll have to make. That's way more valuable than a little extra damage and an off-hand attack. Collecting Harmony is the first step. So: To Trademeet.
(But, first, let's act on that tip we got from Hendak and take down another slaver...)
Ok, now really: to Trademeet!
My initial intention had been to fight the creepy-deepies in the grove on the way to Cernd, but after thinking it over, I decide to stealth through. We'll comeback later rocking Harmony.
Eventually we reached Cernd. I made Aestica wait here for a good long time. You see, I've never faced v30 Improved Faldorn. I was aware, however, that in v30 Cernd gets his furry-butt shaved if he fights Faldorn out of the party. And I had no intention of watching anyone's butt get shaved. That sounds gross.
I weighed the It's-a-Bug theory of Cernd's behavior in this fight, and contemplated modding. I even scoured the SCS message boards for indications of David's intent. In the end, I decided, as I had in the past, that the evidence is inconclusive, and that I should accept the dynamic as it is. What to do?
Eventually I found a solution. I found it here- in these forums. I'll credit the author when I find the post again. The problem with Cernd in the SCS v30 Faldorn fight is that he forgets that he's a Shapeshifter (ie: he doesn't turn himself into a werewolf). The solution is to remind him. Add him to the party. Shapeshift him. Kick him out. He'll run off, but then a second later you'll find him chilling in the grove, barking and licking his testicles, like a puppy-wup should.
Problem solved: We win.
And now the dao. The dao can be a little irksome in SCS. They're tricky, evasive buggers, who toss insta-kills every now and then. They cast Stoneskins, Invisibility, and Improved Haste at will- not to mention Flesh to Stone. Aestica's solution was Protection from Petrification and patience. When Taquee fell quick, i thought we were destined for an easy, low cost victory.
But then Khan disappeared. And I mean disappeared. He went invisible and just, like, left. I had no idea where he was. Eventually, I just shrugged. Aestica went to sleep, seeking to wait out Khan's invisibility. She awoke to this:
Not sure what the rock he was doing over there, but, whatever. Gave him some Namarra to put the kibosh on his cutesy-cutesy. That worked. A Potion of Stone Form covered the Flesh to Stone threat (via the -3)
It's got nothing to do with charm (which shouldn't cause any issues anyway). It simply bugs out occasionally. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. I'm guessing sometimes the bandits don't increase the global that counts their deaths when they die. I've done the fight, had the bug happen, reloaded and tried again and it worked.
The global variable is Global("BW05_TGC1","GLOBAL",2).
We should feel free to post as we choose- with Spoiler tags or without- while being mindful of file sizes and post length.
Yep.
I think the spirit of this thread has been no policing, no hard rules, and no arbitrary exclusions, just an expectation of good will. So far it worked, I think.
We returned to Cloakwood where Sirene took on a dragon singlehanded. Admittedly it was a small one, and she had all the fire resistant equipment that we had, but it was still brave of her. In transit we took on wyverns and told Beador that Maretha was now safe. We then took on a nestful of wyverns.
None of us are as smart as we like to pretend we are.
The way to get smart is to acknowledge that you're stupid. Set up a fool proof system. And when nothing goes wrong -because it very nearly can't- then you'll start looking clever. The reason I've succeeded as a no reloader is that I understand that I'm an idiot. It's that insight -and that insight alone- that makes me appear smart. Don't tell anyone. Let it be our secret.
I don't know about you guys and gals, but to me, that's pure gold !!
Have we ever lost a character to the Killer Mimic? I don't recall anyone falling here, but it sure seems possible: 3d12 Acid w/ Hold Creature (109) v Breath unmodified is a pretty wicked weapon. I mean, damn: I'd rock that...
Aestica is coming into her own as a toe-to-toe melee fighter. Running RoAC II + DUHM with her RoP + Kazgaroth + full plate + Harmony set up gives her an effective AC in the mid teens (-). Most SoA enemies have trouble hitting her. We're both looking forward to getting those numbers down even lower. Defender, Fortress Shield, RoP + 2, Vhailor: they're all in Aestica's future. They'll be a whole-lotta-wiffin' goin' on. There already is, and Ibratha multiplies that effect.
I've alway felt short swords were underrated in SoA. Sure, there are other weapons types that can do more damage, but let's take a full accounting. Hold immunity via Arbane; stun and slow immunity via Arvoreen, if you're a HLA rogue or halfling. You get the +1 APR Kundane, and an early access, zero speed factor, +4 in the Short Sword of the Mask. And, for the UAIers, let's not forget the Chaos blade, one of the game's gnarliest weapons: stat drain to death, 100% prob, with no save is pretty wicked. Further, the dueling-potential of Arvoreen and the SSoM shouldn't be under-estimated. These are quick blades that slow or immobilize. Stab and go. Fade. Give'em the sling. Short swords have a lot to offer.
Took a nappy-poo and then re-buffed for the bone golem. Between RoAC II + Ibratha MI, the shield and the plate, Mr. Personality couldn't connect- not often enough to be a threat, at least, even with his skelly flankers.
Pro Undead for the Shade Lord. Mmm, mmm: Lame-o-licious!
The Druid Grove will be next, followed by De'Arnise.
As a result of the extra eperience in taking on the Section early, Dynaheir can now cast cloudkill and uses web, cloudkill, fireballs very effectively in the Cloakwood mines though when Dark Sylvia has an assassination attempt, it is foiled by good old melee. Davaeorn however is caughht by Dynaheir's web/cloudkill combination.
Upon reaching the Gate, Jhaeros Auglatha was lured away from his allies and killed with melee and after that, his cohorts fell to a web/cloudkill combination. A potion of mirrored eyes was enough for the basilisk, and Marek fell to a strong melee attack. The same applied to Ramazith, Desreta and Vay-ya.
We had some problems finding the gibberlings that Geraldo the Magnificent wanted killing, largely because he said that his house was to the west, when it was actually to the east! The Throne was dealt with by stealth and then we went to Candlekeep where we were ambushed by ogre-mages.
Dynaheir was taken out with a chaos spell, but fortunately she wasn't killed as a result. She had already immobilised most of the mages with web, so the melee experts had no difficulty in finishing the job. Prat escaped Dynaheir's web/cloudkill combination, but not our swords and axes. I took a potion of mirrored eyes to defeat the medusae.
We tried to kill Diarmid but sadly found that somebody had cheated to make him unkillable. We therefore had to flee.
I have attempted to acknowledge my own idiocy, but keep lapsing into delusions of competence .
I agree that SoD's XP is less unbalancing than doing all of the strongholds pre-Spellhold, there's the excess items to consider as well. I have gradually become more comfortable with leaving them more and more, even with item randomiser, and will have to try an extra-speedy run for a character who is desperate to rescue Imoen. When I played through with my daughter she was keen to have Imoen rescued as quickly as possible which was a nice change!
With our altar boy Ajantis in tow we kicked in the doors of the Shadow Thief headquarters and beat a path to the Shadowlord's door. Combat was usually almost rudely brief but on one or two occasions we had trouble breaking down mage defences which made me think longingly of the Kelster. In the final confrontation this theme continued as Aran was able to summon a death knight, though it did not last long enough to do any real harm.
The final mission we were set was to deal with Bodhi, but my death drive kicked in a bit, as the paladins remembered yet another potential threat to the city which could not go unchecked forever. And so it was that they kicked in a rather heavier door and entered the Alhoon's lair. Unfortunately it was here that Ajantis managed to get his report card thoroughly blackened as he spent most of his time in a daze induced by illithid poetry recitals.
Enough of that, we left him to his bewildered ramblings on the nature of reality and paladinhood- poor boy had been rather confused by his stay in the pocket dimension. It time to call in some magical artillery. Kelsey was happy to oblige and soon whipped up a storm of summons. The Alhoon foolishly opened the door to our knockings, and soon realised that we were not in fact delivering his subscription to The Tentacle. Its lair was however decidedly short on magical goodies, perhaps the Hidden had been running some sort of mental health charity after all?
Then we cleared up a quest or two- for some reason Sir Sarles was in town already- and then moved on to the underground. Cromarty had not spent much time around the graveyard- he's too gallant to disturb the dead or to loot houses- but we quickly discovered the vampires' nest and cut them down. Unfortunately the level drain resistant items in our possession were only usable by Sirene and Yvette, so Cromarty had to swallow his pride and let the ladies clean the place out with the assistance of Kelsey's summons for the most part, though at the end he and Valygar had a chance to gang up on Bodhi. Now on to the big bad madhouse I suppose.
After exiting Candlekeep we ere asked to help in regaining possession of the Stone of Askavar. This we did, only two battles giving us cause for concern.
CorEE II the dwarven priest of Lathander and his band of dwarves and Kivan Update:
Adventures in the great City of Baldur's Gate: *********************************************
We got a number of things done so far:
* The mages upstairs in Sorcerous Sundries apparently have no defense to a party using resist fear and were wiped out
* Triggered the poison quest
* Wiped out Jalantha and her cohorts at the Water Queen temple (needed that body she was carrying and the Geas scroll for Lathander)
* Defeated Deserta and Vay-ya. The group easily defeated Deserta, then Vay-ya didn't have a good defense to a single berserker using enrage.
* We found a basilisk in a warehouse - but nothing Cierra couldn't handle with the help of a mirror eyed potion were carrying.
* Agreed to help Euric - the mom was so pleased she gave us a necklace of missiles.
* Tried to do Narlen's quest, but he wouldn't spawn by the Blade and Stars. I rested a bunch of times but he was just a no show, no matter what time of the day/night it was. The 1st part of the quest worked (the one where you meet Narlen by the Sturgeon). So abandoned this quest, apparently bugged in EE.
* Larze was defeated by use using our best buffs (enrage, kai, chant, bless), as well as our best ammo. He still got a few licks before he went down but no harm done.
* Marek apparently didn't have a contingency for two berserkers using enrage and went down. Poison quest complete. Note we had killed Lathander and got some extra haste boots that way.
* Since the Narlen quest was bugged, not going to do the thieve's guild quest. So we had Cierra buffed by a single potion of magic blocking (my favorite anti-mage potion), and she slaughtered the sisters (e.g., the sisters guarding the air ship components). We did this mostly for the necklace of missiles, we plan on using in SoD.
We were just about out of time, so parked in front of the Seven Suns and will deal with that problem next session.
Despite winning at the Ducal Palace, I was no match for the Grey Clan Mage on the top floor of the FAI. Chaos disabled most of the party and when I died there was only Vynd left alive.
As a textbook case of restartitis, I put on freeze my Dragon Disciple who is nearly at the of BG1 and started a....
** CAVALIER **
I have every intention to go the full monty with this Cavalier from Candlekeep to Hell and back and would love to know how to ensure the survival of such a character. (As a personal OCD I almost always play mage variants and aim for anti-mage spell stuff from spell defenses to spell removals. I just don't know how to protect a 'muggle' character without.)
I'm confident that a BG1 run is a reliable bet for my experience level, but beyond that I am not confident.
So.....
- Can I hope to have enough item based defenses eventually.
MR seems to never hit reliable sure-fire levels of security for noreload, since I cannot hit 100MR. But how about saves?
- How should I expect to deal with troubles such as
Lich / high level mage Beholder Mindflayer (others to beware?)
- Is the following weapon loadout order sensible: ths ++ thw + flail + // -> flail + tws ++ bast sword ++ tws +
Should I Axe?
- Should I count on a companion mage always to defensively buff the Cavalier or can the Cavalier hope to stand resolute & safe by himself.
Glad to see you excited about a run, Ygramul! Good hunting!
Once upon a time, I no reloaded a solo undead hunter, Alessandra, in an SCS/Ascenion install up to Tougher Abazigal. Had she made it passed Tamah, I'm pretty confident she would have reached the Hall. If you'll be running SCS/Ascenion, I'll happily provide some advice based on Alessandra's experience.
If you'll be playing vanilla, then I'll let others take the lead.
Oooh, fascinating backstory about an ethically ambiguous paladin. Thanks for sharing!
Also interesting bit about deciding to give one item at start. How do you decide on what is not overpowered?
(I once gave a starting character a free action ring for flavor. Half way through I deleted her due to cumulative guilt!)
BTW, re: Ascension. I never used it before. I feel like I should succeed on a vanilla+SCS run of the trilogy before that. Loooong way that one...
P.S. Too bad that your old images and videos seem to be lost in translation from the Bioware forums. I always liked reading your posts back there and the upbeat attention to detail in them. Looking forward to seeing more of that here as well.
Also interesting bit about deciding to give one item at start. How do you decide on what is not overpowered?
My characters occasionally received customized personal items, much like the Bioware NPCs. The purpose was to enhance the role playing experience and give each character a unique feel. I also found that I played better when I forged a connection with my character, and that the items helped in establishing a connection.
As for power, the items were always designed to be on the low end of the distribution of the NPC personal item range. So, I'd never consider making an item as powerful as, say, Edwin's Amulet, Nalia's Signet Ring, Alora's Rabbit's Foot, HaerDaelis's Chaos Blade or Mazzy's Sword of Arvoreen. I'd aim for something powered more like Cernd's cloak or Mazzy's bow. I'd also frequently delay conferral in the interest of balance.
The items would rarely confer immunities (exceptions: My bounty hunter, Alesia's thieve's hood, Quick and the Dead, which conferred blindness immunity, like Jan's Spectroscopes; My beast master, Ashanti's helm, Call of the Wild, which conferred immunity to fear, like Kiel's Helmet), and never critical immunities that are unavailable in undispelable form (ex- Sleep). Bonuses of any type were limited to 1 (ex- AC -1, Saves -1, ETC). Typically, the idea was for the item to be relevant in BG1 while still being useable in BG2. Most became obsolete by the end of SoA. Alessandra wore her bracers, Fast and Frightening (Chant while equipped, -1 weapon speed factor), until late in the adventure, but, there were more powerful items available by then, such as the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization.
P.S. Too bad that your old images and videos seem to be lost in translation from the Bioware forums.
Yeah. Photobucket is willing to fix that for me for a mere 399 USD/year...
I'm considering reposting and annotating my more interesting runs (Alesia, Alastria, Ashanti, Alessandra, Alicia, Alisa, Alyssa, Arcadia, Aphril, Arkona) with images on a Blog. That would be a big project though. We'll see
I always liked reading your posts back there and the upbeat attention to detail in them. Looking forward to seeing more of that here as well.
Thanks! I'm glad to be here! I was saddened when the Bioware forums closed, but, in then, I suppose it's just help grow the family. It's good to be together.
- Can I hope to have enough item based defenses eventually.
The game definitely provides the resources paladins need to keep themselves safe. Your worn/wielded items will cover most threats, eventually. Use potions to fill in the gaps. Read and understand this chart. I study it before every run, and re-memorize the essentials as they pertain to my current kit/class
MR seems to never hit reliable sure-fire levels of security for noreload, since I cannot hit 100MR. But how about saves?
Despite being tall-folk, Paladin's can keep their saves out of the danger zone. I prefer the Claw. Claw + Gaxx + Improved CoP+ Lavender Ion Stone is a solid endgame combo.
Keep a supply of Potions of Magic Shielding, Potions of Invulnerability and Potions of Stone Form on hand to counter Malison and Doom, and or to make tough saves
- Is the following weapon loadout order sensible: ths ++ thw + flail + // -> flail + tws ++ bast sword ++ tws +
It's not unreasonable. You'll want ths, thw, flail, and bastard swords by the BG2 end game.
BG1 offers a lot of flexibility with regards to proficiencies. I'm sure there's away to make your order work, although I've never executed anything like that personally. I like ranged weapons and low-speed factor melee.
Yes. You should have a ranged weapon, and axes are an excellent choice for cavaliers. Further, if you're playing with SCS, you'll still want to keep your distance from vamps, irrespective of your NPP status.
- Should I count on a companion mage always to defensively buff the Cavalier or can the Cavalier hope to stand resolute & safe by himself.
Mage buffs are a lot less formidable when they aren't locked in with SI:A + SI:D + Spell Shield + Spell Protection and a companion mage won't be able to cast those spells on you.
Could a mage be good to have around? Sure! But the buffs in particular might be less helpful than you'd imagine.
Puk has killed his half brother and lost the help of his half sister until she finishes her magic training... we will need to be extra careful as a five person party in the catacombs.
Mods: nothing
Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on insane level with extra damage turned off.
@Ygramul a pally no reload tends to be a solo run or a stand at the back fighter... I assume both these options are out unless you are ok with throwing daggers | axes?
Despite being tall-folk, Paladin's can keep their saves out of the danger zone. I prefer the Claw. Claw + Gaxx + Improved CoP+ Lavender Ion Stone is a solid endgame combo.
One of the changes made by the EE was to remove critical protection from ioun stones - so personally I probably wouldn't use those with a fighter class these days. The Helm of Glory offers the same AC protection and is particularly RP appropriate for a paladin, but doesn't provide the nice saving throw benefit vs death of the Lavender. Paladins get good saves against that anyway though and by ToB your death saving throw should be fine for general purposes (obviously still watching out for things like malison).
Incidentally, if you want to use the Claw in BG2 then remember not to take the Helm of Balduran to the final fight, as that will take precedence for the transfer.
Axes would be my first choice for a cavalier, but I would be playing solo. If you're in a party then a good missile weapon option is not essential - though it's nice to be able to mow undead down with Azuredge from a distance. If you're aiming to use Carsomyr later I would look to invest a second pip in 2-handed weapons at some point, as I think the advantages of weapon speed are under-appreciated in the game (but you need to micro-manage fights to fully benefit from that, which you may not wish to do).
Lilarcor will protect you nicely against charm & confusion and Arbane against hold, while you've have natural fear immunity. However, that still leaves quite a few spells to worry about so you will need to have potion protection available against things like FoD. Easy things to forget about include: - your death saving throw will be relatively poor thanks to the Claw, so make sure you have options to push it down to 1 if things are throwing a Wail of the Banshee against you (which is possible in SoA if you're using SCS). - symbol stun requires a saving throw down to -3 normally, but when done by a conjurer -5 is needed to be safe (watch out for liches doing that). - late in the game there are several sleep and stun effects that don't check for a saving throw. The greenstone amulet may help you there.
Too bad that your old images and videos seem to be lost in translation from the Bioware forums. I always liked reading your posts back there and the upbeat attention to detail in them. Looking forward to seeing more of that here as well.
Yeah. Photobucket is willing to fix that for me for a mere 399 USD/year...
That was pretty unfair move on the Photobucket side, if you ask me... Anyway, who am I to judge? For now I have 'short' versions of our former threads uploaded on my page. They take like 280MB for BG1 thread and 260MB for BG2 thread. I also have 'full' versions of those threads with all images embedded but they take much more space: 5.62GB for BG1 and 5.77GB for BG2. I'll check on Monday if I have enough space on a hosting to upload the 'full' versions and let you know. If there is an interest of course.
One of the changes made by the EE was to remove critical protection from ioun stones
Is that really the case? If so was it a 2.0 change? As of 1.3, EE hadn't successfully implemented that. There are a few threads about this on the forums. I've confirmed that ioun stones do protect against critical hits in my EE install.
Undispellable save v death bonuses are valuable on a claw wearing protagonist due to the presence of save v death vorpal weapons with significant (-4, possibly -6) save penalties.
The Helm of Glory offers the same AC protection and is particularly RP appropriate for a paladin, but doesn't provide the nice saving throw benefit vs death of the Lavender.
Right. And the point is the save v death bonus to complement the Claw.
Incidentally, if you want to use the Claw in BG2 then remember not to take the Helm of Balduran to the final fight, as that will take precedence for the transfer.
You can take it to the final fights and wear it in the final fight. Just be sure to discard it before the final save is created. I ditch Balduran when Sarevok reaches near death.
- symbol stun requires a saving throw down to -3 normally, but when done by a conjurer -5 is needed to be safe (watch out for liches doing that).
Yes. And for everyone's reference, the -2 penalty applies to all schooled spells and spell like effects applied by a specialist in that school. Due to an implementation issue, this also erroneously applies to non-schooled spells and spell like effects applied by non-specialists. And since SCS randomizes kits -while the game is inconsistent about schools on spell like abilities- it is best to always assume that the -2 may apply.
Comments
We should feel free to post as we choose- with Spoiler tags or without- while being mindful of file sizes and post length.
Does that sum it up, more-or-less?
Best,
A.
On a completely different topic,
I am currently doing the Grey Clan Episode.This is what the walkthrough says should happen, and that is how I remember it.
• Go near the Tower of Ramazith and find General Jedyan (map1).
• Talk to General Jedyan. Then he leaves.
• Find Jusam near the Hall of Wonders (map2). Talk to him.
• Accept his offer and join Jedyan's organization. A group of bandits appears and attacks you.
• Kill all of the six bandits, and cause enough damage to the Tattooed Man to make him cast his Dimension Door. Talk to Jusam. A Flaming Fist spy appears and brings news about their captured soldier.
However, the spy hasn't turned up.
Does anyone know what his code is so that I can force the situation? Otherwise I won't be able to proceed with the quest.
I have looked in shadowkeeper creature browser and Flaming Fist spy isn't mentioned.
But I think the "captured soldier" you have to rescue is "Injured Woman." Her .cre file is "BW05FFAP." If you summon her and talk to her, conceivably you could progress the storyline further, even if you're not in the right area (which may be necessary for the right script to figure).
Based on a couple of scripts, "BW05MONI" and "BW05TERG" might also help you move forward.
If none of that works, I'm not sure what to do without more information, since I don't know the spy's name.
@semiticgod Creating the injured woman won't work.
To speak to her, first you have to talk to one of the Flaming Fist in the same room, and he won't talk until all the grey clan in the room are killed.
I also know that the FAI doesn't change until you speak to the woman.
I'll try "BW05MONI" and "BW05TERG" and see if they might help.
The Tattooed Man did teleport away, which causes me to think that everything up until that point was OK.
Neither Tergius nor Monica would speak.
I'll see if I can post on Black Wyrm Lair. They might be able to help since they host the mod.
The global variable is Global("BW05_TGC1","GLOBAL",2).
So, I've got that going for me, which is nice...
By the end of the last installment, Aestica had made subtle but significant progress toward a happy, healthy life in Amn. She had acquired Lilacor and Arbane, giving her non-dispellable immunity to the greatest threats in the early-mid game: charm, confusion, and hold. And with her newly acquired RoAC complementing her BG imported Ring of the Kazgaroth, she could reliably make the save on early-mid game disablers that apply effects other than charm, confusion, or hold. Critically, she had also built a comprehensive defensive potion collection, including, but not limited to Potions of Invisibility, Oils of Speed, Potions of Freedom, Potions of Clarity, Potions of Invulnerability, Potions of Stone Form, Potions of Fire Resistance and Potions of Insulation. She was looking good. All the boxes were checked. I was almost satisfied, but Aestica would hear nothing of it: her defenses were far short of where she insisted that they should be. You see, I was thinking active. She was thinking passive. And when it comes to defense, passive is the play. I thank her for reminding me.
The problem with relying on item switching and potion counters is that it's hard. Not hard as in impossible, but hard as in something other than brain-dead simple, and what we should be aiming for is brain dead simple. No reload play isn't just about what your character can, in theory, do in the game world: it's about the mental operations that you can perform in your head- flawlessly, without error, over and over again. If your character can deal out scatty-eight gazzillion HP of damage every round, while being virtually invulnerable if and only if you juggle a dozen moving elements, then, well, that's great. But, you know, someday you're going to fumble. And when that happens, you'll be dead. It happens to us all. None of us are as smart as we like to pretend we are.
The way to get smart is to acknowledge that you're stupid. Set up a fool proof system. And when nothing goes wrong -because it very nearly can't- then you'll start looking clever. The reason I've succeeded as a no reloader is that I understand that I'm an idiot. It's that insight -and that insight alone- that makes me appear smart. Don't tell anyone. Let it be our secret.
Here's what we want: We want Harmony in the off hand with the Sword of Arvoreen and Dragonslayer in main hand slots. That won't make us invulnerable, but it will shrink the space of mission critical in combat decisions that we'll have to make. That's way more valuable than a little extra damage and an off-hand attack. Collecting Harmony is the first step. So: To Trademeet.
(But, first, let's act on that tip we got from Hendak and take down another slaver...)
Ok, now really: to Trademeet!
My initial intention had been to fight the creepy-deepies in the grove on the way to Cernd, but after thinking it over, I decide to stealth through. We'll comeback later rocking Harmony.
Eventually we reached Cernd. I made Aestica wait here for a good long time. You see, I've never faced v30 Improved Faldorn. I was aware, however, that in v30 Cernd gets his furry-butt shaved if he fights Faldorn out of the party. And I had no intention of watching anyone's butt get shaved. That sounds gross.
I weighed the It's-a-Bug theory of Cernd's behavior in this fight, and contemplated modding. I even scoured the SCS message boards for indications of David's intent. In the end, I decided, as I had in the past, that the evidence is inconclusive, and that I should accept the dynamic as it is. What to do?
Eventually I found a solution. I found it here- in these forums. I'll credit the author when I find the post again. The problem with Cernd in the SCS v30 Faldorn fight is that he forgets that he's a Shapeshifter (ie: he doesn't turn himself into a werewolf). The solution is to remind him. Add him to the party. Shapeshift him. Kick him out. He'll run off, but then a second later you'll find him chilling in the grove, barking and licking his testicles, like a puppy-wup should.
Problem solved: We win.
And now the dao. The dao can be a little irksome in SCS. They're tricky, evasive buggers, who toss insta-kills every now and then. They cast Stoneskins, Invisibility, and Improved Haste at will- not to mention Flesh to Stone. Aestica's solution was Protection from Petrification and patience. When Taquee fell quick, i thought we were destined for an easy, low cost victory.
But then Khan disappeared. And I mean disappeared. He went invisible and just, like, left. I had no idea where he was. Eventually, I just shrugged. Aestica went to sleep, seeking to wait out Khan's invisibility. She awoke to this:
Not sure what the rock he was doing over there, but, whatever. Gave him some Namarra to put the kibosh on his cutesy-cutesy. That worked. A Potion of Stone Form covered the Flesh to Stone threat (via the -3)
Care to guess where we're headed next?
Best,
A.
It worked.
I think the spirit of this thread has been no policing, no hard rules, and no arbitrary exclusions, just an expectation of good will. So far it worked, I think.
Journal of Osweald
We returned to Cloakwood where Sirene took on a dragon singlehanded. Admittedly it was a small one, and she had all the fire resistant equipment that we had, but it was still brave of her.In transit we took on wyverns and told Beador that Maretha was now safe. We then took on a nestful of wyverns.
We proceeded to the Cloakwood mines
Let's head for the hills, kids!
Have we ever lost a character to the Killer Mimic? I don't recall anyone falling here, but it sure seems possible: 3d12 Acid w/ Hold Creature (109) v Breath unmodified is a pretty wicked weapon. I mean, damn: I'd rock that...
Aestica is coming into her own as a toe-to-toe melee fighter. Running RoAC II + DUHM with her RoP + Kazgaroth + full plate + Harmony set up gives her an effective AC in the mid teens (-). Most SoA enemies have trouble hitting her. We're both looking forward to getting those numbers down even lower. Defender, Fortress Shield, RoP + 2, Vhailor: they're all in Aestica's future. They'll be a whole-lotta-wiffin' goin' on. There already is, and Ibratha multiplies that effect.
I've alway felt short swords were underrated in SoA. Sure, there are other weapons types that can do more damage, but let's take a full accounting. Hold immunity via Arbane; stun and slow immunity via Arvoreen, if you're a HLA rogue or halfling. You get the +1 APR Kundane, and an early access, zero speed factor, +4 in the Short Sword of the Mask. And, for the UAIers, let's not forget the Chaos blade, one of the game's gnarliest weapons: stat drain to death, 100% prob, with no save is pretty wicked. Further, the dueling-potential of Arvoreen and the SSoM shouldn't be under-estimated. These are quick blades that slow or immobilize. Stab and go. Fade. Give'em the sling. Short swords have a lot to offer.
Took a nappy-poo and then re-buffed for the bone golem. Between RoAC II + Ibratha MI, the shield and the plate, Mr. Personality couldn't connect- not often enough to be a threat, at least, even with his skelly flankers.
Pro Undead for the Shade Lord. Mmm, mmm: Lame-o-licious!
The Druid Grove will be next, followed by De'Arnise.
Best
A.
Upon reaching the Gate, Jhaeros Auglatha was lured away from his allies and killed with melee and after that, his cohorts fell to a web/cloudkill combination. A potion of mirrored eyes was enough for the basilisk, and Marek fell to a strong melee attack. The same applied to Ramazith, Desreta and Vay-ya.
We had some problems finding the gibberlings that Geraldo the Magnificent wanted killing, largely because he said that his house was to the west, when it was actually to the east!
The Throne was dealt with by stealth and then we went to Candlekeep where we were ambushed by ogre-mages.
Dynaheir was taken out with a chaos spell, but fortunately she wasn't killed as a result. She had already immobilised most of the mages with web, so the melee experts had no difficulty in finishing the job.
Prat escaped Dynaheir's web/cloudkill combination, but not our swords and axes.
We tried to kill Diarmid but sadly found that somebody had cheated to make him unkillable.
I agree that SoD's XP is less unbalancing than doing all of the strongholds pre-Spellhold, there's the excess items to consider as well. I have gradually become more comfortable with leaving them more and more, even with item randomiser, and will have to try an extra-speedy run for a character who is desperate to rescue Imoen. When I played through with my daughter she was keen to have Imoen rescued as quickly as possible which was a nice change!
With our altar boy Ajantis in tow we kicked in the doors of the Shadow Thief headquarters and beat a path to the Shadowlord's door. Combat was usually almost rudely brief but on one or two occasions we had trouble breaking down mage defences which made me think longingly of the Kelster. In the final confrontation this theme continued as Aran was able to summon a death knight, though it did not last long enough to do any real harm.
The final mission we were set was to deal with Bodhi, but my death drive kicked in a bit, as the paladins remembered yet another potential threat to the city which could not go unchecked forever. And so it was that they kicked in a rather heavier door and entered the Alhoon's lair. Unfortunately it was here that Ajantis managed to get his report card thoroughly blackened as he spent most of his time in a daze induced by illithid poetry recitals.
Enough of that, we left him to his bewildered ramblings on the nature of reality and paladinhood- poor boy had been rather confused by his stay in the pocket dimension. It time to call in some magical artillery. Kelsey was happy to oblige and soon whipped up a storm of summons. The Alhoon foolishly opened the door to our knockings, and soon realised that we were not in fact delivering his subscription to The Tentacle. Its lair was however decidedly short on magical goodies, perhaps the Hidden had been running some sort of mental health charity after all?
Then we cleared up a quest or two- for some reason Sir Sarles was in town already- and then moved on to the underground. Cromarty had not spent much time around the graveyard- he's too gallant to disturb the dead or to loot houses- but we quickly discovered the vampires' nest and cut them down. Unfortunately the level drain resistant items in our possession were only usable by Sirene and Yvette, so Cromarty had to swallow his pride and let the ladies clean the place out with the assistance of Kelsey's summons for the most part, though at the end he and Valygar had a chance to gang up on Bodhi. Now on to the big bad madhouse I suppose.
Journal of Osweald
After exiting Candlekeep we ere asked to help in regaining possession of the Stone of Askavar. This we did, only two battles giving us cause for concern.Adventures in the great City of Baldur's Gate:
*********************************************
We got a number of things done so far:
* The mages upstairs in Sorcerous Sundries apparently have no defense to a party using resist fear and were wiped out
* Triggered the poison quest
* Wiped out Jalantha and her cohorts at the Water Queen temple (needed that body she was carrying and the Geas scroll for Lathander)
* Defeated Deserta and Vay-ya. The group easily defeated Deserta, then Vay-ya didn't have a good defense to a single berserker using enrage.
* We found a basilisk in a warehouse - but nothing Cierra couldn't handle with the help of a mirror eyed potion were carrying.
* Agreed to help Euric - the mom was so pleased she gave us a necklace of missiles.
* Tried to do Narlen's quest, but he wouldn't spawn by the Blade and Stars. I rested a bunch of times but he was just a no show, no matter what time of the day/night it was. The 1st part of the quest worked (the one where you meet Narlen by the Sturgeon). So abandoned this quest, apparently bugged in EE.
* Larze was defeated by use using our best buffs (enrage, kai, chant, bless), as well as our best ammo. He still got a few licks before he went down but no harm done.
* Marek apparently didn't have a contingency for two berserkers using enrage and went down. Poison quest complete. Note we had killed Lathander and got some extra haste boots that way.
* Since the Narlen quest was bugged, not going to do the thieve's guild quest. So we had Cierra buffed by a single potion of magic blocking (my favorite anti-mage potion), and she slaughtered the sisters (e.g., the sisters guarding the air ship components). We did this mostly for the necklace of missiles, we plan on using in SoD.
We were just about out of time, so parked in front of the Seven Suns and will deal with that problem next session.
Journal of Osweald
Despite winning at the Ducal Palace, I was no match for the Grey Clan Mage on the top floor of the FAI. Chaos disabled most of the party and when I died there was only Vynd left alive.Okay, time to seek wisdom for my new run:
As a textbook case of restartitis, I put on freeze my Dragon Disciple who is nearly at the of BG1 and started a....
** CAVALIER **
I have every intention to go the full monty with this Cavalier from Candlekeep to Hell and back and would love to know how to ensure the survival of such a character. (As a personal OCD I almost always play mage variants and aim for anti-mage spell stuff from spell defenses to spell removals. I just don't know how to protect a 'muggle' character without.)
I'm confident that a BG1 run is a reliable bet for my experience level, but beyond that I am not confident.
So.....
- Can I hope to have enough item based defenses eventually.
MR seems to never hit reliable sure-fire levels of security for noreload, since I cannot hit 100MR. But how about saves?
- How should I expect to deal with troubles such as
Lich / high level mage
Beholder
Mindflayer
(others to beware?)
- Is the following weapon loadout order sensible:
ths ++ thw + flail + // -> flail + tws ++ bast sword ++ tws +
Should I Axe?
- Should I count on a companion mage always to defensively buff the Cavalier or can the Cavalier hope to stand resolute & safe by himself.
Thanks in advance.
Once upon a time, I no reloaded a solo undead hunter, Alessandra, in an SCS/Ascenion install up to Tougher Abazigal. Had she made it passed Tamah, I'm pretty confident she would have reached the Hall. If you'll be running SCS/Ascenion, I'll happily provide some advice based on Alessandra's experience.
If you'll be playing vanilla, then I'll let others take the lead.
Looking forward to your run!
Best,
A.
EDIT: Link to Alessandra's run below
http://blackstrider.net/forum_bioware_arhiv/forum.bioware.com/topic/124277-baldurs-gate-2-no-reload-challenge/page-119.html
Oooh, fascinating backstory about an ethically ambiguous paladin. Thanks for sharing!
Also interesting bit about deciding to give one item at start. How do you decide on what is not overpowered?
(I once gave a starting character a free action ring for flavor. Half way through I deleted her due to cumulative guilt!)
BTW, re: Ascension.
I never used it before. I feel like I should succeed on a vanilla+SCS run of the trilogy before that. Loooong way that one...
P.S. Too bad that your old images and videos seem to be lost in translation from the Bioware forums. I always liked reading your posts back there and the upbeat attention to detail in them. Looking forward to seeing more of that here as well.
As for power, the items were always designed to be on the low end of the distribution of the NPC personal item range. So, I'd never consider making an item as powerful as, say, Edwin's Amulet, Nalia's Signet Ring, Alora's Rabbit's Foot, HaerDaelis's Chaos Blade or Mazzy's Sword of Arvoreen. I'd aim for something powered more like Cernd's cloak or Mazzy's bow. I'd also frequently delay conferral in the interest of balance.
The items would rarely confer immunities (exceptions: My bounty hunter, Alesia's thieve's hood, Quick and the Dead, which conferred blindness immunity, like Jan's Spectroscopes; My beast master, Ashanti's helm, Call of the Wild, which conferred immunity to fear, like Kiel's Helmet), and never critical immunities that are unavailable in undispelable form (ex- Sleep). Bonuses of any type were limited to 1 (ex- AC -1, Saves -1, ETC). Typically, the idea was for the item to be relevant in BG1 while still being useable in BG2. Most became obsolete by the end of SoA. Alessandra wore her bracers, Fast and Frightening (Chant while equipped, -1 weapon speed factor), until late in the adventure, but, there were more powerful items available by then, such as the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization. Yeah. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that either.
Designing low powered unique items for you character can be cool though. You mat want to try it.
BTW, re: Ascension.
I never used it before. I feel like I should succeed on a vanilla+SCS run of the trilogy before that. Loooong way that one...
Yeah. Photobucket is willing to fix that for me for a mere 399 USD/year...
I'm considering reposting and annotating my more interesting runs (Alesia, Alastria, Ashanti, Alessandra, Alicia, Alisa, Alyssa, Arcadia, Aphril, Arkona) with images on a Blog. That would be a big project though. We'll see Thanks! I'm glad to be here! I was saddened when the Bioware forums closed, but, in then, I suppose it's just help grow the family. It's good to be together.
Best,
A.
Best,
A.
https://www.sorcerers.net/Games/BG2/SpellsReference/Immunities.htm Despite being tall-folk, Paladin's can keep their saves out of the danger zone. I prefer the Claw. Claw + Gaxx + Improved CoP+ Lavender Ion Stone is a solid endgame combo.
Keep a supply of Potions of Magic Shielding, Potions of Invulnerability and Potions of Stone Form on hand to counter Malison and Doom, and or to make tough saves It's not unreasonable. You'll want ths, thw, flail, and bastard swords by the BG2 end game.
BG1 offers a lot of flexibility with regards to proficiencies. I'm sure there's away to make your order work, although I've never executed anything like that personally. I like ranged weapons and low-speed factor melee. Yes. You should have a ranged weapon, and axes are an excellent choice for cavaliers. Further, if you're playing with SCS, you'll still want to keep your distance from vamps, irrespective of your NPP status.
Mage buffs are a lot less formidable when they aren't locked in with SI:A + SI:D + Spell Shield + Spell Protection and a companion mage won't be able to cast those spells on you.
Could a mage be good to have around? Sure! But the buffs in particular might be less helpful than you'd imagine.
Good hunting!
Best,
A.
PT- Start,
A new run,I’m re-entering the challenge with another group;
· Puk Tenderfoot a Gnome T-Neutral Cleric of HELM
· Sarah of Darkshades a Human LG Paladin
Puk has killed his half brother and lost the help of his half sister until she finishes her magic training... we will need to be extra careful as a five person party in the catacombs.
Mods: nothing
Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on insane level with extra damage turned off.
Incidentally, if you want to use the Claw in BG2 then remember not to take the Helm of Balduran to the final fight, as that will take precedence for the transfer.
Axes would be my first choice for a cavalier, but I would be playing solo. If you're in a party then a good missile weapon option is not essential - though it's nice to be able to mow undead down with Azuredge from a distance. If you're aiming to use Carsomyr later I would look to invest a second pip in 2-handed weapons at some point, as I think the advantages of weapon speed are under-appreciated in the game (but you need to micro-manage fights to fully benefit from that, which you may not wish to do).
Lilarcor will protect you nicely against charm & confusion and Arbane against hold, while you've have natural fear immunity. However, that still leaves quite a few spells to worry about so you will need to have potion protection available against things like FoD. Easy things to forget about include:
- your death saving throw will be relatively poor thanks to the Claw, so make sure you have options to push it down to 1 if things are throwing a Wail of the Banshee against you (which is possible in SoA if you're using SCS).
- symbol stun requires a saving throw down to -3 normally, but when done by a conjurer -5 is needed to be safe (watch out for liches doing that).
- late in the game there are several sleep and stun effects that don't check for a saving throw. The greenstone amulet may help you there.
For now I have 'short' versions of our former threads uploaded on my page. They take like 280MB for BG1 thread and 260MB for BG2 thread. I also have 'full' versions of those threads with all images embedded but they take much more space: 5.62GB for BG1 and 5.77GB for BG2. I'll check on Monday if I have enough space on a hosting to upload the 'full' versions and let you know. If there is an interest of course.
Undispellable save v death bonuses are valuable on a claw wearing protagonist due to the presence of save v death vorpal weapons with significant (-4, possibly -6) save penalties. Right. And the point is the save v death bonus to complement the Claw. You can take it to the final fights and wear it in the final fight. Just be sure to discard it before the final save is created. I ditch Balduran when Sarevok reaches near death. Agreed.
(Although, I'd be disinclined to run a cavalier in the first place.) 100% agreed.
(I didn't let Alessandra wield two-handed swords until she had gotten her second pip in two-handed weapon style.) Yes. And for everyone's reference, the -2 penalty applies to all schooled spells and spell like effects applied by a specialist in that school. Due to an implementation issue, this also erroneously applies to non-schooled spells and spell like effects applied by non-specialists. And since SCS randomizes kits -while the game is inconsistent about schools on spell like abilities- it is best to always assume that the -2 may apply. Arbane and Lilacor are good to have on hand in the early game. I switch to the Shield of Harmony ASAP, though. Agreed. The Greenstone Amulet is a must have when facing Tamah from the Ascension Abazigal encounter.
Best,
A.