Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 138 - 1st and final update Twanky (Elf Stalker, Grond0); Ghalys (Half-orc Assassin, Gate70) Previous run
After the failure of MP137 to open the gates to hell, we found ourselves transported back to Candlekeep with a backstabbing duo. I think we were both in a slightly reckless mood and there was an early indication of problems when Shoal reacted swiftly to a stab in the back by turning round for a kiss. We didn't fancy our chances against Droth, so just kept out of his way while making Shoal pay for her pleasures.
After working down to the Carnival to buy a PfP scroll and relieving Meilum of some bracers, Twanky showed the basilisks who was the backstabbing boss with a couple of one-shot hits.
Mutamin just survived his initial love tap, but a follow-up whack was on him before he could take any action.
Kirian's team didn't do much better as more backstabs took their toll.
The next major encounter was in the ankheg nest. Initially Twanky suggested that they try and kill the ones en route to the treasure. That was done by Twanky hiding behind them to get an opening backstab as Ghalys came in from the other side. No damage was taken from those 4 ankhegs and Twanky suggested continuing with more of them. Ghalys agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly, saying gloomily "it only takes one". In fact Ghalys was extremely fortunate in that prediction - it was indeed the next ankheg that survived longer than expected following a critical miss on Twanky's opening backstab and Ghalys dissolved in a flood of acid.
Not learning the lesson, Twanky continued to roll the dice on backstabs by trying to finish off Laryssa with a single blow. However, Laryssa just survived and Brage raced off after Twanky - just as she lost her senses to a rigid thinking. Ghalys tried to intervene by getting Brage's attention and looked like she might have succeeded while Twanky still had a whole HP left - but the Captain knew his duty and kept chasing Twanky until the chase was done ...
Despite being level 3 with ankheg armour, a moonblade and a ring of protection, Ælfric was killed with one blow by Krumm whose partner had fled due to the wounds inflicted on him. Dying seems to be habit-forming. I have noticed that in this set-up ranged weapons have a very poor chance of hitting. I am thinking that they must have been nerfed to be like BG2.
Back in Candlekeep, we decided not to kill the iron throne leaders so we wouldn't have to rest as often. The catacombs went rather well: No issues in the first level (wisdom tome for Sybia, strength for Nahema), and we used invisibility on Sybia in the second level to disarm all traps and avoid the battle against the annoying skeleton archers, instead going straight for the greater doppelganger:
For Prat, we used our whole array of buffs: Bless, Chant, Remove Fear, Haste, Skald Song. We opened with Web and Silence 10' radius - and at this point, Sybia certainly knew how to use the spell! Every hostile spellcaster was affected:
Aikar equipped one of my rings of free action to help the summons in finishing off the remaining targets:
Skeletons also tanked the greater basilisks, and we returned to Baldur's Gate.
There, we talked to Tamoko and got captured. At the flaming fist hq, we used our numerous crowd control spells to keep any flaming fist at bay:
The mercenaries inside the building were unable to control our summons:
So we saved the poisoned duke and went for Cythandria next:
Slythe died pretty quickly, but since he never initiated dialogue, Krystin didn't even show up, so I had to leave her, as using AoE spells would have killed innocents:
Finally, the duchal palace: We had potions of heroism for our damage dealers and cloud giant strength for Aikar ready. We chose spirit bears as summons, as a feared doppelganger can't kill dukes, and we would be using a greater malison scroll in this fight anyway. In addition to greater malison, we used 2 chaos scrolls - sadly, the first chaos hit before the saving throws were actually lowered:
Still, things went rather well, as a follow-up slow spell affected all but one of the remaining enemies:
And so, both dukes were saved.
We are done with vanilla BG1 content for now - time for TotSC. What can possibly go wrong?
Tough breaks there USSNorway, Grond0, Gate70 and Wise_Grimwald. Krumm does hit pretty hard, he's taken out my fighter/thieves before. And as for Brage's relative, I rarely take her on, as it is too risky unless you are immune to rigid thinking or are a party.
@Ygramul Just to report that I've uploaded the full versions of Bioware no-reload threads with all pictures embedded (at least those that where still available at the moment of creating archives, some where already lost). I also made some cosmetic changes to the Hall of Heroes and all links there are now working properly (hope, @Corey_Russell wouldn't mind). Links: Baldur's Gate 1 No-Reload Challenge. Baldur's Gate 2 No-Reload Challenge.
*** Hall of Heroes *** *** The Trilogy No Reloaders***
Character Name: Ogg Race: Half-Orc Class: Fighter/Cleric Difficulty: Core Entered by Frabjous
Character Name: Alanis Race: Elf Class: Sorcerer Notable Mods: Questpack, Tactics (Parts), Ascension Difficulty: Core Entered by Alesia_BH
Character Name: Hugh Race: Human Class: Inquisitor Difficulty: Core Entered by Wizworm
Character Name: Urmgi Race: Half-Orc Class: Cleric/Thief Difficulty: Core Entered by Frabjous
Character Name: Saros Race: Half-Elf Class: F/M/T Difficulty: Insane Notable Mods: SCS, IA 5.0 with Recommended Ease of Use Components Entered by Saros Shadow Follower
Character Name: Alia Race: Half-Elf Class: Blade Difficulty: Insane Notable Mods: SCS, IA 5.0 with Recommended Ease of Use Components Entered by Saros Shadow Follower
Character Name: Kalis Race: Human Class: Druid Difficulty: Core Entered by Enuhal
Character Name: Naji the Unspeakable Race: Human Class: Monk Difficulty: Core Entered by Enuhal
Character Name: Numa Stoneguard Race: Dwarf Class: Cleric 23 – Illusionist 19 Difficulty: Core Notable Mods: Keto-SOAv3 + Sarahtob-beta2 Entered by UssNorway
Character: Alisa Race: Half-Elf Class: Jester Difficulty: Core Notable mods: SCS for both BG 1 and BG 2, Ascension Entered by: Alesia_BH BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Blackstrider Race: Half-Elf Class: Blade Special: played as The Avatars: Alesia_BH as Alesia (elven Mage/Thief) Grond0 as Grond (human Archer) Gate70 as Krimlor (dwarven Fighter/Cleric) The Potty 1 as Pot (human Mage) USSnorway as Cassia (gnomish Shapeshifter) Corey_Russell as Corey Russell (human Undead Hunter) Difficulty: Core Notable Mods: SCS 21 for both BG 1 and BG 2, Ascension Entered by: Serg Blackstrider BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Russell V (Russell the fifth) Race: Human Class: FALLEN Inquisitor Diffficulty: Core Special: Unusual group, 5 paladins and cleric/thief for entire trilogy, no arcane Entered by: Corey_Russell BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Krak Race: Dwarf Class: Barbarian Difficulty: Core Special: Solo, no healing potions, antidotes (except 1 in BG 1), or RoR heals used in entire run. Entered by: Grond0 BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Rifft Race: Dwarf Class: Swashbuckler Difficulty: Core Special: Solo, no healing potions used in entire run nor mage scrolls. Entered by: Grond0 BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Augur Race: Dwarf Class: Wizard Slayer, solo (!) Difficulty: Core Special: No heal potions used in entire run Entered by: Grond0 BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Sage Race: Elf Class: Mage Difficulty: Core Special: No potions used during this run. Entered by: Grond0 BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Sir Gawain Race: Human Class: Fighter Difficulty: Core Entered by: Charlestonian Knight Templar BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
Character: Russell VI Race: Human Class: Inquisitor Difficulty: Core Special: Only paladins from Candlekeep to Melissan, except Mazzy allowed as a paladin of Avoreen Entered by: Corey_Russell BG1 Start BG1 Fin BG2 Start Melissan
@Serg_BlackStrider: Marvelous! Is there a quick way to search through the thread? I was hoping to take a look at Saros' Improved Anvil run.
Google search should work but it might take some time for it to make an index. My friend had made an embedded custom google search in *light* version but he still need to do that in *full* version and it also need to be indexed. Saros' runs though were on the older forums so there are no links to them in this archive (and they aren't even present there)...
I was hoping to take a look at Saros' Improved Anvil run.
Saros's runs were on the old-old Bioware forums They are lost forever, sadly, along with the original Ascension Solo Challenge and many, many great runs.
@Serg_BlackStrider: You mean they're not present at all? The only mentions of Saros in the archived thread, judging from a google search, aren't his IA runs.
@semiticgod Saros' successful triology runs are from a time before the bioware social network forum existed, and I don't think anyone has saved the no-reload threads from the forums before that (we had to make a new thread every 10 pages back then if I recall correctly). He wasn't as active in the "new" forums.
That being said, Saros did start a BG2 run somewhere on page 43 in the BG2 no-reload thread. The run seems to be spread over many, many pages.
Edit: I think you can find Saros' posts with google searches. Afaik all of his runs were IA (except for the BG1 parts, though he often skipped BG1)
@Ygramul Just to report that I've uploaded the full versions of Bioware no-reload threads with all pictures embedded (at least those that where still available at the moment of creating archives, some where already lost). I also made some cosmetic changes to the Hall of Heroes and all links there are now working properly (hope, @Corey_Russell wouldn't mind).
I have decided to run Ragnor again, but this time on Core Rules. I'm obviously not quite good enough to play on hard yet with this combination of mods, being relatively new to SCS.
No worries @Wise_Grimwald - I only win SCS fights when I can buff before-hand. But when I get ambushed and no time to buff, my party gets mauled. So went back to sans SCS. Doing the entire trilogy even on Core is still plenty hard, seeing how I usually fail.
My previous post ended with me asking: "What can possibly go wrong?" - of course, as some of you may have guessed, this was an allusion to the fact that I've already played ahead and something did, in fact, go very, very wrong.
We started our TotSC journey at the ice island, summoning some skeletons, taking out some mages who, for some reason, failed to react accordingly:
You can see Firun scouting for our summons here. What happens next? We have our skeleton attack the final mage of this group, Andris. His protections are triggered, he teleports to the east and casts another spell, seems like an invocation - meanwhile, Firun is walking back to the party. Aaand...
There's been some talk about swapping belts in this thread, especially with Alesia's new run. It's important to keep track of your belts! I usually do it myself, but sometimes I happen to forget. This time I forgot. Firun was still wearing the Belt of Antipode from tanking the winter wolves at the start of the dungeon. That's -100 fire resistance. Combine that with LoB, and we get 128 fire damage with a single fireball. Andris was actually targetting one of the skeletons that followed him to the location he teleported to, but Firun, just walking by, got caught in the blast radius. Now we're down to 5.
At this point I thought about just ending my run, but then I decided that, if I make it through the rest of TotSC with 5, we have adequate replacements for Firun in SoD and BG2: Corwin and Mazzy (though the lack of the archer bonuses for Mazzy isn't great). So we continue, and I vow to myself to never wear this belt again unless I specifically need it for the encounter. The downside has never been a problem for me thus far, but I guess it was only a matter of time.
For the remainder of the ice island, we let our summons do most of the work, with an invisible Sybia scouting and disarming traps. The party only provides some ranged support. To be sure, the belt is useful once again for dealing with further winter wolf groups:
We exit this damned place and prepare for the journey to Balduran's island (which includes buying lots of magical arrows and some potions - including all available potions of defense, as we propably can't avoid getting into melee range against some extremely powerful enemies.
We can deal with wolfpacks relatively well, our summons are still strong enough, though things aren't easy. The siren queen provides us with some good experience points, as we are getting closer to the xp cap:
Now, the shipwreck: This place could've been a nightmare, but as it turns out, you can lure enemies outside, and even all the way down. It soon was obvious that even with potions of defense and invulnerability, fighting in the contained space of the ship was too risky for our fragile party, so this is what we did:
I didn't want to rest at this point, so I had to support my own summons with a single wand of monster summoning charge at the end. Also, Arbogast and Aikar gained their final level for BG1. We have lvl 10 spirit animals now, and they are immune to normal weapons. As it turns out, these finally hit with magical claws themselves. Exiting the island, we didn't bother fighting any more werewolves, as our party was basically out of buffs and useful spells at this point, so we just ran:
We managed to get out of the caves and rested outside. The first Loup Garou seems to be somewhat strange, as she could be hurt by all kinds of weapons, not just those made of silver and gold:
Back in Ulgoth's Beard, we buffed and entered Mendas' home. While Nahema easily tanked one of our foes, Sybia was quickly forced to flee outside:
Luckily, we have great proficiencies to deal with these wolves: **Bastard Swords for Nahema, **Daggers for Aikar, and even *Bastard Swords for Ifirn if needed:
Durlag's Tower remains. Our party has been seriously hurt by the loss of Firun, but we are still powerful: Nahema has really come into her own, now having access to stoneskin, and the level 10 spirit animals can do some pretty amazing things. Let's see if that is enough.
Aestica has made significant progress since her last update. I'll provide catch-up coverage relatively soon. For now, I just thought I'd share some of Aestica's greatest recent hits.
The Warden
Irenicus
The Elder Orb
Phaere
Thaxxy
Kangaxx
I'd also like to announce that I've bestowed a new theme song upon Aestica, one to supersede here earlier, unsuitable anthem. It's Army of Me by Bjork. This has always been my favorite theme for a solo warrior. Nonetheless, I've never used it for one of my characters. Take this as a sign that I intend to see Aestica's adventure though to the end, and hope to give her the full benefit of my care and attention.
(The full Hall of Fame actually made it exceed the post length limit, so I put instead a link to your post.)
@Ygramul. If the problem is post length, why don't we try this. We can devote the first post in the thread to the rules and entry procedures. We can then use the second post (currently on Khael the Defiant) to host the Bioware and Beamdog hero halls .
(Khael's intro can be moved to the third post, currently on Neera's sex change. The Neera's sex change comment can become a PS to Khael's intro- we needn't lose any content at all.)
Inspired by Enuhal's progress I thought I would have a go at a LoB party run. I've played with a solo shaman in LoB a fair bit and it's a viable class there, but it's not easy making safe use of spirit summons as enemies prioritise attacking the shaman. With other party members available to help funnel attackers into the spirits, spell use, powerful magic items and strength bonuses on missile damage (they're all half-orcs) this should be an extremely strong party - hence it seemed appropriate to try them out on LoB. What is the collective noun for a group of shamans anyway? I've used hordes above, but I feel that should really apply to their followers and summons rather than the shamans themselves.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 139 - 1st and final update (138) Woo (Mage/Thief, Gate70); Lala (Bard, Grond0)
After a death, we usually roll up another pair straight-off, I can't 100% remember who was what so stand open to correction by Grond0. This mean fairly early yesterday we arrived with Woo and Lala. A short lalawoo ended up with a troublesome woolala ending.
Once more, Shoal died soon after the Candlekeep chores were completed and we wertled a ring back to the Mad Arcand. While trying to retrieve Perdue's sword Lala over-relied on precision and caught a fatal dose of multiplayer lag.
We then scooted down to Nashkel, picking up Zhurlong's boots and an amulet for Mr Colquetle on the way. Then we went in search of Samuel, choosing the wrong destination which led to a painful ambush but at least we walked (ran) away from it without further death.
After healing up, we found the correct place and picked him up. Returning him to the Friendly Arm Inn meant we may as well do some houseclearing on the way. 3 sleepy spiders and one blind spider.
Outside the Friendly Arm Inn Tarnesh survived a backstab and managed to mirror. Woo ran and ran, getting around a corner and stopping briefly to hide (failed) then running once more. Bang - hit by Horror. She turns and runs all the way back to Tarnesh, while Lala has been running in the opposite direction. Lala sees what is happening and runs back, but Tarnesh breezes past her and resolutely downs Woo with two groups of Magic Missiles. By the time the second set are on their way (screenshot), Woo has returned to where she'd just tried to hide with Tarnesh having ignored Lala as he passed her.
A bit about multiplayer lag / asynchronous play while I try to remember our classes/kits without resorting to switching another computer on
n.b. multiplayer lag is probably not so much lag as re-harmonisation of two (or more if many clients) views into one view. As I understand it each player sees their view where their game manages friend and foe movements. Every so often this is brought to a consistent view, so clients in particular may see everything but their character move if they had diverged. Hence, clients can think they were safe while in reality they were not.
From the original BGII manual: 1. Asynchronous: Baldur’s Gate II is an asynchronous game. If you happen to be playing with somebody whose system is very close by, you may see slightly different things happen on each system. The point to remember is that while things happen somewhat differently, the result of the actions is always the same
edit: Grond0 was unable to confirm class/kit. Bard was correct but Woo was a Mage/Thief rather than Fighter/Thief.
I returned to the old camp where Mizhena raised my two compadres and swapped the monk for a bard... on the way in we saved a green dragon and heading back we stopped to pick up some elven scale.
We make short work of the bridge guards before they can detonate the barrels... I honestly don't see why they needed me to do this but Neera wants to go to Forest of Wyrms so we killed her spider and popped in on the sleeping dragon. a 'doom' to open then let rip with wand of heavens + any other elemental attack makes this an easy win without having to deal with her smaller kindred.
I have the dragon armor and Sarah takes the bug shield;
then we have that awkward issue at the bridge before I can progress... Neera is very understanding about it so I've made a commitment now and gave Safana the news that we are just friends from now on.
I see Edwin has returned to camp but I'm happy to porn his robes to purchase a wizard hat for Neera and a lucky belt for Corwin... thats one shot of my glasses used.
party; Neera ... my mage | romance interest Voghiln ... magic and dance Corwin ... a lucky ranger is a deadly ranger! Safana ... currently friend zoned but still my thief Sarah ... My conscience and tank
M'khiin ... executed for morale of the troops Khalid ... died like a hero (Jaheira should be proud) Edwin ... returned to find all his gear sold
Porn his robes...? My but Edwin is really not going to want that robe back
My daughter has accidentally deleted the first version of this so the short short version...
Cromarty hit the underdark, freeing the mage, and dealing with the Kuo-Toa, drow, and balor. After that we hit Ust Natha and freed Phaere, fighting off the illithid ambush.
Then a misclick led me to wander unbuffed in front of some beholders...
Fortunately no ill came of this and I encountered a highly amusing randomised drop. The elder orb had a ring of folly and the Shield of Balduran! Clearly it was about to throw out the trash.... Since I can't bring myself to use the shield I randomised a similar drop in its place.
We dealt with the Ust Natha quests, getting blood from the Kuo Toa lair and also fighting a lich from the Quest Pack. (Not the Demon Knights though, out of character for Cromarty to sacrifice to Demo.)
We fooled around with one or two other things like the tavern fights, and amazingly I managed to get the egg drops right... I was more tense about that than most battles....
Then Adalon whisked us off... though for some reason Valygar seemed to get carried away and hack at her too. Must all the rangers who accompany me go crazy in the end? The call of the wild indeed...
Now we wander in the fresh air again and I'm exploring some of the new quests like Xan's character quest and equipping a bit. Apologies, V1 was a bit more detailed!
(The full Hall of Fame actually made it exceed the post length limit, so I put instead a link to your post.)
@Ygramul. If the problem is post length, why don't we try this. We can devote the first post in the thread to the rules and entry procedures. We can then use the second post (currently on Khael the Defiant) to host the Bioware and Beamdog hero halls .
I thought of that actually, but it is fundamentally a temporary reprieve and I don't want to distribute the original post to multiple ones. I may consider it again in the future, but I think the current solution is stable: the list is just one click away after all.
I thought of that actually, but it is fundamentally a temporary reprieve and I don't want to distribute the original post to multiple ones. I may consider it again in the future, but I think the current solution is stable: the list is just one click away after all.
The original post would remain intact. We'd just be moving the more recently added hall content to the house next door.
If space becomes an issue later, I'm sure we can address that.
I do think it would be tidier if we could have the two halls together, side by side, in spoiler tags, on the front page, just after the entry procedures and rules.
In the end, though, it's your call. I'm perfectly content to go with whatever option you prefer.
I thought of that actually, but it is fundamentally a temporary reprieve and I don't want to distribute the original post to multiple ones. I may consider it again in the future, but I think the current solution is stable: the list is just one click away after all.
The original post would remain intact. We'd just be moving the more recently added hall content to the house next door.
If space becomes an issue later, I'm sure we can address that.
I do think it would be tidier if we could have the two halls together, side by side, in spoiler tags, on the front page, just after the entry procedures and rules.
In the end, though, it's your call. I'm perfectly content to go with whatever option you prefer.
Thanks again for everything, Ygramul!
Best,
A.
Thanks for the feedback on this. I may want to do something like this sometime down the road. Today, of all times, is a bit unwieldy for me to ponder on major edits and changes.
Comments
good try Gate70
Twanky (Elf Stalker, Grond0); Ghalys (Half-orc Assassin, Gate70)
Previous run
After the failure of MP137 to open the gates to hell, we found ourselves transported back to Candlekeep with a backstabbing duo. I think we were both in a slightly reckless mood and there was an early indication of problems when Shoal reacted swiftly to a stab in the back by turning round for a kiss. We didn't fancy our chances against Droth, so just kept out of his way while making Shoal pay for her pleasures.
After working down to the Carnival to buy a PfP scroll and relieving Meilum of some bracers, Twanky showed the basilisks who was the backstabbing boss with a couple of one-shot hits.
The next major encounter was in the ankheg nest. Initially Twanky suggested that they try and kill the ones en route to the treasure. That was done by Twanky hiding behind them to get an opening backstab as Ghalys came in from the other side. No damage was taken from those 4 ankhegs and Twanky suggested continuing with more of them. Ghalys agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly, saying gloomily "it only takes one". In fact Ghalys was extremely fortunate in that prediction - it was indeed the next ankheg that survived longer than expected following a critical miss on Twanky's opening backstab and Ghalys dissolved in a flood of acid.
Not learning the lesson, Twanky continued to roll the dice on backstabs by trying to finish off Laryssa with a single blow. However, Laryssa just survived and Brage raced off after Twanky - just as she lost her senses to a rigid thinking. Ghalys tried to intervene by getting Brage's attention and looked like she might have succeeded while Twanky still had a whole HP left - but the Captain knew his duty and kept chasing Twanky until the chase was done ...
I have noticed that in this set-up ranged weapons have a very poor chance of hitting. I am thinking that they must have been nerfed to be like BG2.
Previous posts:
Part II: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903150/#Comment_903150
Part III: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903226/#Comment_903226
Part IV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903521/#Comment_903521
Part V: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903598/#Comment_903598
Part VI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903749/#Comment_903749
Part VII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903878/#Comment_903878
Back in Candlekeep, we decided not to kill the iron throne leaders so we wouldn't have to rest as often. The catacombs went rather well: No issues in the first level (wisdom tome for Sybia, strength for Nahema), and we used invisibility on Sybia in the second level to disarm all traps and avoid the battle against the annoying skeleton archers, instead going straight for the greater doppelganger:
For Prat, we used our whole array of buffs: Bless, Chant, Remove Fear, Haste, Skald Song. We opened with Web and Silence 10' radius - and at this point, Sybia certainly knew how to use the spell! Every hostile spellcaster was affected:
Aikar equipped one of my rings of free action to help the summons in finishing off the remaining targets:
Skeletons also tanked the greater basilisks, and we returned to Baldur's Gate.
There, we talked to Tamoko and got captured. At the flaming fist hq, we used our numerous crowd control spells to keep any flaming fist at bay:
The mercenaries inside the building were unable to control our summons:
So we saved the poisoned duke and went for Cythandria next:
Slythe died pretty quickly, but since he never initiated dialogue, Krystin didn't even show up, so I had to leave her, as using AoE spells would have killed innocents:
Finally, the duchal palace: We had potions of heroism for our damage dealers and cloud giant strength for Aikar ready. We chose spirit bears as summons, as a feared doppelganger can't kill dukes, and we would be using a greater malison scroll in this fight anyway. In addition to greater malison, we used 2 chaos scrolls - sadly, the first chaos hit before the saving throws were actually lowered:
Still, things went rather well, as a follow-up slow spell affected all but one of the remaining enemies:
And so, both dukes were saved.
We are done with vanilla BG1 content for now - time for TotSC. What can possibly go wrong?
Enuhal
Just to report that I've uploaded the full versions of Bioware no-reload threads with all pictures embedded (at least those that where still available at the moment of creating archives, some where already lost). I also made some cosmetic changes to the Hall of Heroes and all links there are now working properly (hope, @Corey_Russell wouldn't mind).
Links:
Baldur's Gate 1 No-Reload Challenge.
Baldur's Gate 2 No-Reload Challenge.
*** Hall of Heroes ***
*** The Trilogy No Reloaders***
Character Name: Ogg
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Fighter/Cleric
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Frabjous
Character Name: Alanis
Race: Elf
Class: Sorcerer
Notable Mods: Questpack, Tactics (Parts), Ascension
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Alesia_BH
Character Name: Hugh
Race: Human
Class: Inquisitor
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Wizworm
Character Name: Urmgi
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Cleric/Thief
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Frabjous
Character Name: Saros
Race: Half-Elf
Class: F/M/T
Difficulty: Insane
Notable Mods: SCS, IA 5.0 with Recommended Ease of Use Components
Entered by Saros Shadow Follower
Character Name: Alia
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Blade
Difficulty: Insane
Notable Mods: SCS, IA 5.0 with Recommended Ease of Use Components
Entered by Saros Shadow Follower
Character Name: Kalis
Race: Human
Class: Druid
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Enuhal
Character Name: Naji the Unspeakable
Race: Human
Class: Monk
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Enuhal
Character Name: Numa Stoneguard
Race: Dwarf
Class: Cleric 23 – Illusionist 19
Difficulty: Core
Notable Mods: Keto-SOAv3 + Sarahtob-beta2
Entered by UssNorway
Character Name: Candar
Race: Dwarf
Class: Berserker
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Lotan
Race: Human
Class: Fighter/Druid (dual from level 9 fighter)
Difficulty: Core
Entered by Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Weirdo
Race: Gnome
Class: Thief/Illusionist
Difficulty: Core
Notable Mods: BG1- aTweaks, SCS; BG2- aTweaks, Ascension, Randomiser, SCS II, Weimer Item Upgrades
Entered by Weirdo
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character Name: Anatole
Race: Human
Class: Assassin
Difficulty: Insane
Entered by BBMorti
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Vessen
Race: Halfling
Class: Priest of Lathander
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Corey Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: (Multi-player): Pendal
Race: Gnome
Class: Fighter/Illlusionist
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Gate70 - assisted by Thimble (Grond0)
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Alyssa
Race: Elf
Class: Mage/Thief
Difficulty: Core
Notable mods: SCS for both BG 1 and BG 2, Ascension
Entered by: Alesia_BH
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Klonk
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Berserker
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Gate70
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Alisa
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Jester
Difficulty: Core
Notable mods: SCS for both BG 1 and BG 2, Ascension
Entered by: Alesia_BH
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Blackstrider
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Blade
Special: played as The Avatars:
Alesia_BH as Alesia (elven Mage/Thief)
Grond0 as Grond (human Archer)
Gate70 as Krimlor (dwarven Fighter/Cleric)
The Potty 1 as Pot (human Mage)
USSnorway as Cassia (gnomish Shapeshifter)
Corey_Russell as Corey Russell (human Undead Hunter)
Difficulty: Core
Notable Mods: SCS 21 for both BG 1 and BG 2, Ascension
Entered by: Serg Blackstrider
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Corbeast
Race: Human
Class: Beastmaster
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Corey Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Russell V (Russell the fifth)
Race: Human
Class: FALLEN Inquisitor
Diffficulty: Core
Special: Unusual group, 5 paladins and cleric/thief for entire trilogy, no arcane
Entered by: Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Krak
Race: Dwarf
Class: Barbarian
Difficulty: Core
Special: Solo, no healing potions, antidotes (except 1 in BG 1), or RoR heals used in entire run.
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Rifft
Race: Dwarf
Class: Swashbuckler
Difficulty: Core
Special: Solo, no healing potions used in entire run nor mage scrolls.
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Augur
Race: Dwarf
Class: Wizard Slayer, solo (!)
Difficulty: Core
Special: No heal potions used in entire run
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Hale
Race: Elf
Class: Wild Mage, solo(!)
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Coremonk III
Race: Human
Class: Monk
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Delilah
Race: Human
Class: Cavalier (solo)
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Corarcher
Race: Elf
Class: Archer
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Sage
Race: Elf
Class: Mage
Difficulty: Core
Special: No potions used during this run.
Entered by: Grond0
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Arcadia
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Fighter/Mage
Difficulty: Core
Notable mods: SCS, Ascension
Entered by: Alesia_BH
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Eren, Last Child
Race: Human
Class: level 9 fighter/level 39 thief
Difficulty: Core
Notable mods: Enhanced Edition, SCS, Ascension, Rogue Rebalancing, Tweaks
Entered by: Golden28
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Arkona
Race: Halfling
Class: Barbarian
Difficulty: Core
Notable mods: SCS, Ascension, ATweaks
Special: First solo no-reload SCS Watcher's Keep
Entered by: Alesia_BH
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Kaxir
Race: Dwarf
Class: Kensai (solo)
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Gate70
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Sir Gawain
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Charlestonian Knight Templar
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Russell VI
Race: Human
Class: Inquisitor
Difficulty: Core
Special: Only paladins from Candlekeep to Melissan, except Mazzy allowed as a paladin of Avoreen
Entered by: Corey_Russell
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Sahal
Race: Gnome
Class: Cleric/Illusionist
Difficulty: Core
Entered by: Enuhal
BG1 Start
BG1 Fin
BG2 Start
Melissan
Character: Dyara
Race: Elf
Class: Fighter/Mage/Thief (solo)
Difficulty: Core
Notable Mods: SCS, Ascension, Item Upgrade,...
Entered by: Dyara
Candlekeep (21.2.16)
End of BG1EE (10.3.16)
Starting BG2EE (27.4.16)
End of SoA: (29.6.16)
Start of ToB: (7.7.16)
End of ToB: (2.8.16)
Thank you so much!
Cheers,
A.
Best,
A.
That being said, Saros did start a BG2 run somewhere on page 43 in the BG2 no-reload thread. The run seems to be spread over many, many pages.
Edit: I think you can find Saros' posts with google searches. Afaik all of his runs were IA (except for the BG1 parts, though he often skipped BG1)
Thanks @Serg_BlackStrider
I have updated the original post with the links.
(The full Hall of Fame actually made it exceed the post length limit, so I put instead a link to your post.)
Previous posts:
Part II: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903150/#Comment_903150
Part III: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903226/#Comment_903226
Part IV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903521/#Comment_903521
Part V: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903598/#Comment_903598
Part VI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903749/#Comment_903749
Part VII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/903878/#Comment_903878
Part VIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904203/#Comment_904203
My previous post ended with me asking: "What can possibly go wrong?" - of course, as some of you may have guessed, this was an allusion to the fact that I've already played ahead and something did, in fact, go very, very wrong.
We started our TotSC journey at the ice island, summoning some skeletons, taking out some mages who, for some reason, failed to react accordingly:
You can see Firun scouting for our summons here. What happens next? We have our skeleton attack the final mage of this group, Andris. His protections are triggered, he teleports to the east and casts another spell, seems like an invocation - meanwhile, Firun is walking back to the party. Aaand...
There's been some talk about swapping belts in this thread, especially with Alesia's new run. It's important to keep track of your belts! I usually do it myself, but sometimes I happen to forget. This time I forgot. Firun was still wearing the Belt of Antipode from tanking the winter wolves at the start of the dungeon. That's -100 fire resistance. Combine that with LoB, and we get 128 fire damage with a single fireball. Andris was actually targetting one of the skeletons that followed him to the location he teleported to, but Firun, just walking by, got caught in the blast radius. Now we're down to 5.
At this point I thought about just ending my run, but then I decided that, if I make it through the rest of TotSC with 5, we have adequate replacements for Firun in SoD and BG2: Corwin and Mazzy (though the lack of the archer bonuses for Mazzy isn't great). So we continue, and I vow to myself to never wear this belt again unless I specifically need it for the encounter. The downside has never been a problem for me thus far, but I guess it was only a matter of time.
For the remainder of the ice island, we let our summons do most of the work, with an invisible Sybia scouting and disarming traps. The party only provides some ranged support. To be sure, the belt is useful once again for dealing with further winter wolf groups:
We exit this damned place and prepare for the journey to Balduran's island (which includes buying lots of magical arrows and some potions - including all available potions of defense, as we propably can't avoid getting into melee range against some extremely powerful enemies.
We can deal with wolfpacks relatively well, our summons are still strong enough, though things aren't easy. The siren queen provides us with some good experience points, as we are getting closer to the xp cap:
Now, the shipwreck: This place could've been a nightmare, but as it turns out, you can lure enemies outside, and even all the way down. It soon was obvious that even with potions of defense and invulnerability, fighting in the contained space of the ship was too risky for our fragile party, so this is what we did:
I didn't want to rest at this point, so I had to support my own summons with a single wand of monster summoning charge at the end. Also, Arbogast and Aikar gained their final level for BG1. We have lvl 10 spirit animals now, and they are immune to normal weapons. As it turns out, these finally hit with magical claws themselves.
Exiting the island, we didn't bother fighting any more werewolves, as our party was basically out of buffs and useful spells at this point, so we just ran:
We managed to get out of the caves and rested outside. The first Loup Garou seems to be somewhat strange, as she could be hurt by all kinds of weapons, not just those made of silver and gold:
Back in Ulgoth's Beard, we buffed and entered Mendas' home. While Nahema easily tanked one of our foes, Sybia was quickly forced to flee outside:
Luckily, we have great proficiencies to deal with these wolves: **Bastard Swords for Nahema, **Daggers for Aikar, and even *Bastard Swords for Ifirn if needed:
Durlag's Tower remains. Our party has been seriously hurt by the loss of Firun, but we are still powerful: Nahema has really come into her own, now having access to stoneskin, and the level 10 spirit animals can do some pretty amazing things. Let's see if that is enough.
Enuhal
Aestica has made significant progress since her last update. I'll provide catch-up coverage relatively soon. For now, I just thought I'd share some of Aestica's greatest recent hits.
The Warden
Irenicus
The Elder Orb
Phaere
Thaxxy
Kangaxx
I'd also like to announce that I've bestowed a new theme song upon Aestica, one to supersede here earlier, unsuitable anthem. It's Army of Me by Bjork. This has always been my favorite theme for a solo warrior. Nonetheless, I've never used it for one of my characters. Take this as a sign that I intend to see Aestica's adventure though to the end, and hope to give her the full benefit of my care and attention.
Full updates coming soon.
Best,
A.
@USSNorway. Looking forward to seeing your team recover!
@Wise_Grimwald . Sorry for your loss. The Sword Coast is deadly these days, it seems
Best,
A.
(Khael's intro can be moved to the third post, currently on Neera's sex change. The Neera's sex change comment can become a PS to Khael's intro- we needn't lose any content at all.)
Best,
A.
Inspired by Enuhal's progress I thought I would have a go at a LoB party run. I've played with a solo shaman in LoB a fair bit and it's a viable class there, but it's not easy making safe use of spirit summons as enemies prioritise attacking the shaman. With other party members available to help funnel attackers into the spirits, spell use, powerful magic items and strength bonuses on missile damage (they're all half-orcs) this should be an extremely strong party - hence it seemed appropriate to try them out on LoB.
What is the collective noun for a group of shamans anyway? I've used hordes above, but I feel that should really apply to their followers and summons rather than the shamans themselves.
Lorbag - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills
Chat - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths
Pretty Boy - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths
Grinch - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths
Grunt - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths
Toke - L1, 10 HPs, 0 kills, 0 deaths
Woo (Mage/Thief, Gate70); Lala (Bard, Grond0)
After a death, we usually roll up another pair straight-off, I can't 100% remember who was what so stand open to correction by Grond0. This mean fairly early yesterday we arrived with Woo and Lala. A short lalawoo ended up with a troublesome woolala ending.
Once more, Shoal died soon after the Candlekeep chores were completed and we wertled a ring back to the Mad Arcand. While trying to retrieve Perdue's sword Lala over-relied on precision and caught a fatal dose of multiplayer lag.
Outside the Friendly Arm Inn Tarnesh survived a backstab and managed to mirror. Woo ran and ran, getting around a corner and stopping briefly to hide (failed) then running once more. Bang - hit by Horror. She turns and runs all the way back to Tarnesh, while Lala has been running in the opposite direction. Lala sees what is happening and runs back, but Tarnesh breezes past her and resolutely downs Woo with two groups of Magic Missiles. By the time the second set are on their way (screenshot), Woo has returned to where she'd just tried to hide with Tarnesh having ignored Lala as he passed her.
A bit about multiplayer lag / asynchronous play while I try to remember our classes/kits without resorting to switching another computer on
n.b. multiplayer lag is probably not so much lag as re-harmonisation of two (or more if many clients) views into one view. As I understand it each player sees their view where their game manages friend and foe movements. Every so often this is brought to a consistent view, so clients in particular may see everything but their character move if they had diverged. Hence, clients can think they were safe while in reality they were not.
From the original BGII manual:
1. Asynchronous: Baldur’s Gate II is an asynchronous game. If you happen to be playing with somebody whose system is very close by, you may see slightly different things happen on each system. The point to remember is that while things happen somewhat differently, the result of the actions is always the same
edit: Grond0 was unable to confirm class/kit. Bard was correct but Woo was a Mage/Thief rather than Fighter/Thief.
PT-4,
said hi to dad,I returned to the old camp where Mizhena raised my two compadres and swapped the monk for a bard... on the way in we saved a green dragon and heading back we stopped to pick up some elven scale.
We make short work of the bridge guards before they can detonate the barrels... I honestly don't see why they needed me to do this but Neera wants to go to Forest of Wyrms so we killed her spider and popped in on the sleeping dragon. a 'doom' to open then let rip with wand of heavens + any other elemental attack makes this an easy win without having to deal with her smaller kindred.
I have the dragon armor and Sarah takes the bug shield;
then we have that awkward issue at the bridge before I can progress... Neera is very understanding about it so I've made a commitment now and gave Safana the news that we are just friends from now on.
I see Edwin has returned to camp but I'm happy to porn his robes to purchase a wizard hat for Neera and a lucky belt for Corwin... thats one shot of my glasses used.
party;
Neera ... my mage | romance interest
Voghiln ... magic and dance
Corwin ... a lucky ranger is a deadly ranger!
Safana ... currently friend zoned but still my thief
Sarah ... My conscience and tank
M'khiin ... executed for morale of the troops
Khalid ... died like a hero (Jaheira should be proud)
Edwin ... returned to find all his gear sold
My daughter has accidentally deleted the first version of this so the short short version...
Cromarty hit the underdark, freeing the mage, and dealing with the Kuo-Toa, drow, and balor. After that we hit Ust Natha and freed Phaere, fighting off the illithid ambush.
Then a misclick led me to wander unbuffed in front of some beholders...
Fortunately no ill came of this and I encountered a highly amusing randomised drop. The elder orb had a ring of folly and the Shield of Balduran! Clearly it was about to throw out the trash.... Since I can't bring myself to use the shield I randomised a similar drop in its place.
We dealt with the Ust Natha quests, getting blood from the Kuo Toa lair and also fighting a lich from the Quest Pack. (Not the Demon Knights though, out of character for Cromarty to sacrifice to Demo.)
We fooled around with one or two other things like the tavern fights, and amazingly I managed to get the egg drops right... I was more tense about that than most battles....
Then Adalon whisked us off... though for some reason Valygar seemed to get carried away and hack at her too. Must all the rangers who accompany me go crazy in the end? The call of the wild indeed...
Now we wander in the fresh air again and I'm exploring some of the new quests like Xan's character quest and equipping a bit. Apologies, V1 was a bit more detailed!
I thought of that actually, but it is fundamentally a temporary reprieve and I don't want to distribute the original post to multiple ones. I may consider it again in the future, but I think the current solution is stable: the list is just one click away after all.
If space becomes an issue later, I'm sure we can address that.
I do think it would be tidier if we could have the two halls together, side by side, in spoiler tags, on the front page, just after the entry procedures and rules.
In the end, though, it's your call. I'm perfectly content to go with whatever option you prefer.
Thanks again for everything, Ygramul!
Best,
A.
Best,
A.