@Arctodus I wanted to say that I like your rule of not adjusting your character creation rolls. Will try that myself. @JuliusBorisov and others, nice to see the Monty Python crew in SoD! @Enuhal, losing two of your crew is harsh indeed. I "like" it as it just shows how much of a struggle LoB can be. Hope you can get by without clerical support. Reading your reports, and @Grond0's, make me want to try LoB again myself (as Julius feared haha), but first things first...
"Heya, it's me Imoen, and you're nor fooling me lass!" Autumn had decided to travel alone after Gorion's death, but a failed HiPS attempt under a tree alongside the Lion's Way caused Imoen to join. Shit, I don't want to dump you at the FAI... So solo run becomes duo run, with Imoen as an unkitted Halfling Bard. The two Hobbits first explored Beregost and vicinity. All was well except that the green Hobgoblin south of Beregost didn't drop the boots of stealth. After some adventuring in the southwest (Charleston Nib, Brage), the girls went to check out Ulcaster's school to see if they could find any Worn Whispers shod Hobgoblin there. Thankfully they did. Autumn's early levels all served to increase her stealth skill, and the boots were an extra boost. With Gullykin so close, the gals decided to visit the Halfling village. They were rewarded with the company of a cheerful Swashbuckler, Alora.
I've said before that this run is meant for me to fully explore the Shadowdancer kit, which is best done solo imo (as with any class or kit). But I think having a roguish Halfling trio of Autumn, Imoen, and Alora will be good fun without necessarily compromising my plans with Autumn.
The three were at level 4 (with staves as Autumn's new weapon prof) when they went Basilisk hunting. Green scroll-protected Autumn dis the work, mostly from range as she still had a x1 backstab modifier. Level 5 meant her first Shadowstep, an ability that she immediately put to good use: See who's become Autumn's friend there? Two things are important here: 1. Shadowstep lasts for 7 seconds. After activating Shadowstep, the Shadowdancer will have to wait one round (six seconds) for her aura to clear. This leaves one second to complete or initiate a new aura-clouding action such as drinking a potion. 2. The Shadowdancer may not attack or cast spells during Shadowstep pursuant to the kit description, but she can still take offensive action. The Use Item button doesn't get blocked, nor do the quick item slots. Thus, the final second of a Shadowstep can also be used to read a scroll (green scrolls only at this stage but offensive scrolls come UAI), throw an explosive, use a wand (missiles only at this stage but again more options come UAI), or use an item under the Use Item button.
Autumn charmed Mutamin with Algernon's cloak before Shadowstep had expired, so she never had to fear the Gnome's magic. Nothing major yet, but I might find tactical uses of Shadowstep beyond just an escape button. I can imagine Shadowstep being (occasionally) useful, both defensively and offensively, against fast moving melee enemies, dangerous ranged enemies, and especially enemies that see through invisibility: position yourself at the ideal distance, use ability/item, and retreat.
Mutamin was led away from his Basilisks, so he would escape petrification, and be of use against Kirian and company with his spells, and to soak up some of their spells. This worked pretty well. Autumn (backstabs) and Imoen (wand scorchers) finished the four.
One of Autumn's most important purchases was the dagger of venom. With lower damage backstabs (due to her Halfling strength and the lower backstab modifier) but repeated backstabbing being cheap and easy, weapons with on-hit effects are more appealing for Autumn than pure damage weapons. I've never bothered with Celestial Fury for my Thieves but for Autumn this seems to be a great weapon. The same goes for the dagger of venom in BGEE. She used it to backstab her way past Sirines toward Alaric's cave for example. And traveling with two invisible companions (Imoen memorized Invisibility as her two level 2 spells), an ambushing Ogre Mage found himself ambushed by Autumn. The upper levels of Durlag's Tower helped the gals reach level 7.
Back in Beregost, Silke's sequencered Magic Missiles taught Autumn something new about her Shadowstep ability: it casts like a spell and can be interrupted. I play with aTweaks' Instant casting for warrior innates that should make warriors' and I assume thieves' innate abilities uninterruptable by magic, but I'm not sure if this always works, nor if it applies to Shadowstep. Dealing with Silke also cost Autumn a potion of clarity (to neutralize a Confusion), but other than that there were no issues. Autumn prevailed with the dagger of venom and acid arrows.
The slider affects other enemies as well. For example, in BG 2 in the planar sphere, the enemies with the halflings and fish men don't appear on a setting lower than core, but do appear on core. I discovered this quite by accident, as I was looking for the halfling with ogre gauntlets but he never appeared, but eventually discovered my difficulty got lowered by accident. When I raised the difficulty then the aforementioned enemies appeared. In BG 2 at least, I suspect the difficulty affects other enemies besides just these.
The slider affects other enemies as well. For example, in BG 2 in the planar sphere, the enemies with the halflings and fish men don't appear on a setting lower than core, but do appear on core. I discovered this quite by accident, as I was looking for the halfling with ogre gauntlets but he never appeared, but eventually discovered my difficulty got lowered by accident
Interesting. Can anyone replicate this?
(I'd be pretty surprised if the hungry, hungry halflings didn't appear on Normal)
@Blackraven: Even a instant-casting spell can be interrupted if the damage occurs on the very same frame as the spell. Since the IE games are 30 frames per second, that amounts to a 1/30 chance of disruption if you're damaged in the same second you cast the spell, or 1/180 if you're damaged in the same round.
The actual probability may be smaller--I'm not sure I've ever noticed it happens without auto-pause--but you can witness the phenomenon by setting auto-pause to on-hit or badly injured, then have the injured character use an instant-casting spell right after triggering the auto-pause. The spell should automatically fail, since it happens on the same frame as the damage.
It's actually perfectly possible to make spells uninterruptible without using scripts, but only (I'm pretty sure) if they're on-self spells. All you'd have to do is rig the spell so all the effects trigger when the spell begins casting, instead of after casting time. See, spells have two separate fields for their effects: the effects that apply to the target when the spell is finished casting, and the effects that apply to the caster when the spell begins casting. Almost all effects are found in the first field, but in spells like Pocket Plane, they have effects in the second field. In the case of Pocket Plane, those effects remove and then give back the Pocket Plane ability, ensuring that you can cast Pocket Plane an unlimited number of times per day even if it gets disrupted.
To make Shadowstep truly uninterruptible, go to the spell in Near Infinity, go to "Edit," scroll down and click on "Spell ability 0," and copy all of the effects. Then click "Add," then "Effect," and finally paste the stuff you copied. All of the effects that normally apply when the spell is finished casting will now apply when the spell begins casting, preventing the possibility of disruption.
The slider affects other enemies as well. For example, in BG 2 in the planar sphere, the enemies with the halflings and fish men don't appear on a setting lower than core, but do appear on core. I discovered this quite by accident, as I was looking for the halfling with ogre gauntlets but he never appeared, but eventually discovered my difficulty got lowered by accident
Interesting. Can anyone replicate this?
(I'd be pretty surprised if the hungry, hungry halflings didn't appear on Normal)
Best,
A.
Just to be clear, @Alesia_BH it was on A setting lower than core - I do not remember which setting exactly (was a long time ago). So you may well be right about the normal bit.
Aestica and I had a pretty nice vacation. I got to watch some basketball, she got to chunk Edwin. Seeing as how my team, the Phoenix Mercury, lost and chunking Edwin is always a win, I think she had the better time. Regardless, it's time for us to get back into the action, into the flow. To get our groove thing on. Halfling style.
Fish City
Even with SCS's spruce up, Fish City is very nearly a free pass. Or so I thought. I had a five alarm freak-out when Prince Natty started firing up HLAs. With a save v death of -4, Aestica should have been safe here- assuming the specialist penalty doesn't apply, and that's an assumption I'm unwilling to make. We equipped Arvoreen, disengaged, and then re-engaged post Power Attack.
The Drow
I always enjoy watching drow buffs fire in the Underdark. It's like lighting a firework- without the risk of blowing off your hands and singeing your eyebrows
My approach to this battle was decidedly unclever. We dropped some priests with a Whirlwind, fell back, and then reengaged as we saw fit. The sling did most of the work, although we did get a little Ages in. D- for originality, B+ for efficacy. We won with little effort, if little style.
The Balor
Now that I've fully internalized the implications of the specialist penalty implementation issue, I'm inclined to have the Claw removed in Fish City- possibly Brynnlaw, pre-Spellhold. In the same way that Aestica's -4 may not have offered full protection from Prince Natty's Power Attack, it may not be sufficient for balor vorpals. What makes matters worse, in the case of balors, is that they cast Remove ad nauseam. This is a battle where an undispellable -5 v Death or lower is desirable. We gave him the sling. Carefully.
The Dragon Egg Quest
As many of you know, I've been on a life long mission to screw-up the Dragon Egg Quest in as many ways as possible. In my games, Adalon very nearly never gets her eggs back. Instead, she's forced to watch, helplessly, in horror, as I commit one damn-fool muff-up or another. Now, truth-be-told, most of these screw-ups have been semi-intentional, since I find the Dragon Egg Quest overlong and tedious. This time, however, I had a change of heart on account of an insight: if I complete the Dragon Egg quest, then Adalon will teleport me over the kuo-toans. And if I take a pass on the Bracers of Blinding Strike, then I won't have to fight the kuo-toans at all. Some of you probably know where I'm going with this. When I was a kid, my family used to go to this fish restaurant in North Carolina. They'd serve these, like, bite sized pieces of grouper that you'd dip in butter and cheese. That's kind of how I think of the kuo-toans: they're like sahuagin dipped in butter and cheese. I liked the restaurant. I hate the kuo-toans. Hate'em! They're my least favorite BG enemy by far. And if playing fetch with some drow will get them out of my life, well, then, hey, I'm all:
So, yeah. I actually tried to complete the quest this time. And, you know, I'm kind of proud of myself, because I didn't even come close to screwing it up. Except once, that is. Care to guess who the culprits were? Kuo-toans, of course: they brought Solaufein down to badly injured before the Phaere encounter. I was terrified that the umbers would chunk him, and I'd be blamed for it. Fortunately he lived. Yay!
And that meant that some other monsters would get to die. Like the elder orb. He went ProMW, we went GWW unenchanted. Our saves, the Helm of Defense, the Boots of Grounding, and the Dragon Shield kept us safe.
We're glad to have the Amulet of Spell Warding, even if Seldarine will obsolete it soon. And we're super glad to have the Greenstone Amulet. Don't fight Tamah without it.
Anyhoo. On to the easiest part of the quest: recovering Qilue's brain. We walked in the door, Whirlwinded her with Everard, went invisible, and then picked up her noggin. Simple-dimple.
The hardest part -or at least the scariest part- was ending the Ghaunadaur cult. SCS appears to have given this crew a boost. I had no idea. That lead us into this mess.
We were slowed and diseased by the otyugh's repeatedly, despite highly negative saves. I didn't panic until it occurred to me that if the save on the otyugh's on hit effect was changed, then the one on the green slime's on hit effect might have been changed as well. Fortunately, invisibility->heal->GWW allowed us to break free. The cost of this battle was high, however. It included a Potion of Invulnerability.
Eventually, we reached a point where the fetching was done.
All that remained was to make our escape. Fighting alongside Adalon can be frustrating in my installs. Sometimes she's a rock star -killing everyone and every thing within a couple rounds. On other occasions she's, like, easy listening: she takes forever. Tonight, she was easy: easy like Sunday morning. I think she was all stoned and eating Captain Crunch in her bathrobe when we showed up, because she just wasn't on her game.
We fell back. And then we fell back further. And then I realized: If we fall back one more step, then we'll end up fighting kuo-toans. And I'll cry. Fo'reals. It was time for us to stand and fight. Everard.
We did our part. And eventually, Adalon did hers. We were out. Adalon went back to her Captain Crunch, I guess
Just to be clear, @Alesia_BH it was on A setting lower than core - I do not remember which setting exactly (was a long time ago). So you may well be right about the normal bit.
Noted. Thank you for sharing, Corey.
I don't doubt that you observed what you observed, but without addition trials, I can't help but suspect that there may have been another variable at play here, a confound.
I'd be pretty surprised if the slider could remove the hungry, hungry halflings, even on Novice.
I've yet to see a controlled experiment demonstrating that enemy number and or type can be changed by the slider in the unmodded adventure (ie- classic installs). I'd be less surprised to hear that it occurs in BG2 EE unmodded, I guess, but, still, I'd like to see some experiments before drawing any conclusions.
Ok. I just did some quick tests. In EE v1.3, with SCS, I have observed a response to the slider in the Planar Sphere, with repeated trials. On Novice, the hungry, hungry halflings are there -all of them- but Necre and Taibela do not spawn in. On Normal and above, Necre and Taibela do appear.
If someone could replicate -in an install like mine, or a different one (especially classic unmodded)- that would be cool.
(In any case, I'm now less confident that your permanent death workaround will function as intended, semiticgod. I've yet to observe a response between Core and Normal, but it seems like a distinct possibility now, at least in EE. Thanks for raising this, Corey!)
Well, this thread is indeed full of bustle, and good news as well as bad.
Cromarty emerged from the Underdark and spent a short while doing Xan's quest, which linked on to the Eilistraee Clearing. I hightailed it out of there when I bumped into a demilich however, as my install is sans Spell Immunity and I didn't really need to take that big a risk.
After forging some weapons we despatched Bodhi without incident, Yvette's rediscovery of her ability to turn undead having had suitably explosive results (the game should really make undead unturnable in some unhallowed locations).
I then wandered into another mod encounter however, Sirene led us into a clearing where we confronted a figure from her past accompanied my multiple demons. I wasn't fully prepared for this fight, especially when the demons we killed started being replaced by more from a planar rift. Fortunately the opposing spellcaster was more concerned with self-protection than nuking us however, and eventually we took down his defences.
No more distractions then, and on to the Elven city. We dealt with the golems and drow without too much difficulty but one encounter did give me pause. When the Rakshasha fight the elven mages they always seem to charm one, and I was terrified of the hostile elf somehow triggering a bad reaction from other important characters, but our efforts to dispel the charm didn't work either and his eventual death didn't have any undue effects.
The dragon was slain, the avatar was summoned, and on we went up the helter-skelter of the tree of life. Irenicus fell once, and then twice in the depths of hell. Xan was fortunate to survive a barrage of power words, but apart from that there was no need to use any of the HLAs which we now have available. I shall start making use of them come ToB, but I can also see the sense of using an xp reducer sometimes from now on, especially on quest XP which is massively inflated. For the Hell Trials Cromarty mainly took the good options, but with one or two neutral ones as well where it seemed appropriate.
The hardest part is I suppose yet to come however. After my first no-reloads of SCS BG1 & SoD, I have to get through ToB now. Usually I dread its linear path but this time I shall have to be careful with its tactical challenges hopefully all the way to the throne.
Err... did anyone else run into damage immune Dreadwolves in SoD (in the Bloodbark Grove and a few other places)?
Basically, like trolls they become damage immune once "killed" and then regenerate and get back up. The only thing I have seen that can kill them is Fireball or Aganazzar's Scorcher (but not fire arrows etc.).
Given that they give a measly 420XP or something, this cannot be intentional.
(The only mod I am running is SCS v. 30.)
--
Separate question:
what is the save for a Bombardier Beetles stun?
My Cavalier got stunned again by one (luckily not dangerous by now with the rest of the party). But he has a Spell Save of -2 and a Death Save of 1. (I have been stacking save equipment like there is no tomorrow.) It seems implausible that Beetles should consistently stun through that.
@Alesia_BH: I don't know if Power Attack or the Balor's slay effect will apply a specialist mage penalty to the saving throw, but it's possible that one of them does and one of them doesn't. Power Attack stuns via an .eff file, while the vorpal strike comes from an .itm file, and they may behave differently. For both file types, though, the spell school is virtually always set to "None."
If testing confirms that those penalties apply to Power Attack, then all .eff file-based effects will impose the same penalties. But that means very little, since there are basically no .eff file-based effects that offer saves besides Power Attack.
But if the Balor's slay effect gets those penalties, that's a huge deal, because it means virtually ALL weapons used by any non-specialist enemy will apply the exact same -2 penalty. Everything from Planetar vorpal strikes to Kuo-toa Bolts to spider venom to Celestial Fury to a Cornugon's bleeding effect will get an extra -2 penalty to its saving throw.
@Ygramul: I too have seen damage-immune Dread Wolves in SoD, and had to use energy damage to kill them. Also had SCS installed at the time.
The Bombardier Beetles apply that stun effect using SPIN128.spl. Looks like it deals 3d4 acid damage, has a 20% chance of deafening the target for 7 rounds, and has a 20% chance of stunning the target for 5 rounds. All effects bypass magic resistance.
And all effects offer no saving throw whatsoever. Whether you get stunned or not is entirely dependent on a 1d100 roll, with a 20% chance of getting stunned for the whole 5 rounds.
@Ygramul: I too have seen damage-immune Dread Wolves in SoD, and had to use energy damage to kill them. Also had SCS installed at the time.
The Bombardier Beetles apply that stun effect using SPIN128.spl. Looks like it deals 3d4 acid damage, has a 20% chance of deafening the target for 7 rounds, and has a 20% chance of stunning the target for 5 rounds. All effects bypass magic resistance.
And all effects offer no saving throw whatsoever. Whether you get stunned or not is entirely dependent on a 1d100 roll, with a 20% chance of getting stunned for the whole 5 rounds.
Guess we'd better rely on the Greenstone Amulet.
Wow. Thanks for the insightful reply.
But, Gah!
I mean that's just stupid. And I refuse to accept it as good design. A silly beetle should not have an ability that for all intents and purposes is Vorpal to a solo character (which luckily mine wasn't).
So, to repeat my favorite question these days: Does either IR or SR modify this Bombardier Beetle ability? It seems an obvious oversight in need of a fix.
Okay, here is another potential game ender bug in SoD:
The 'Webbed' condition made by Gargantuan spider Web projectile is apparently not cured by the Priest Spell 'Remove Paralysis'.
Just had Dynaheir killed to this. (Superb AI there: she got mobbed by a horde of Phase Spiders and Sword Spiders that walked past my tanks, ate through her Stoneskins, and poisoned her.) If this had not been my Cavalier run (wielding Spider's Bane most of the time as habit) but my Dragon Disciple run I probably would have died here.
Shamanic hordes {7} - LoB party (update 1) Previous run I hadn't actually formalised it, but in the last few attempts I'd essentially been trying to avoid any deaths. Concluding that's pushing things a bit too far and that I was unlikely to make much progress like that, I've not used that restriction this time. One of the shamans was nearly killed when running too close to a gnoll early on, but was saved by level 1 protection. Incidentally I've been keeping an eye on that in these runs and it's only working about 60-70% of the time you would expect, i.e. when there is only one source of damage from a hit, so definitely not something you should rely on for a no-reload.
This time I managed to get all the intended XP from the area around Beregost and got close to a level. A bit more exploring for sundry hobgoblins and gibberlings tipped them over.
Pleased with that I sent the shamans north to help out Tenya. I also set a trap for the ankheg near her by having a couple of spirits waiting for it round the edge of the house. The ankheg arrived and I sent everyone to attack it - wait a minute, "everyone", so who's left dancing? Cue a quick scramble backwards, but Chat couldn't get out of range in time and became the first victim (in retrospect he should have tried to hide in the house).
Having decided not to worry about party deaths, there was no bar on the shamans continuing on and they soon got up to level 3 thanks to some basilisks.
They successfully cleared the area with no more deaths, though there was a difficult fight with Kirian (one of the shamans had to keep busy healing away an acid arrow, while others micro-managed movement against Kirian, gnolls and Tasloi without letting them near a sleeping shaman).
At the lighthouse again and this time spirits worked as intended with the first group of sirines - and there were no intrusions by hobgoblins or lightning to complicate things.
The first of Sil's companions was fed to a carrion crawler before the crawler itself allowed everyone to move on to level 4.
For fun I decided to leave the golems entirely to the spirits - they're easily hit, so take much less time than battle horrors for that trick and with 6 shamans dancing the flow of replacements was quick enough that the shamans never actually had to retreat from their positions.
Deciding to look for some more sirines the party travelled up the coast. Finding something there that looked like a sirine they tried talking to it, but Pretty Boy got more than he bargained for when he stole a kiss. However, he was soon back and the shamans managed to soak up damage from Droth's spells without further casualties (surprisingly he had no magic missiles and only 1 chromatic orb). Rather than receiving a reward from Shoal the shamans then gave her what she deserved.
Initially I then tried to split the ogre clan up, but that proved both difficult and time-consuming and a couple of shamans were hit in the process when I didn't keep track of all the separate bits of action. Hence I reverted to just running round as a group, turning and firing every now and then. That was somewhat easier and the enemies were all finished off without any further damage being taken.
There were still 2 groups of ghouls, some dire wolves and kobolds to deal with which took a while, but eventually the shamans found more sirines and in due course they were out of arrows, spells and luck.
There was still time for one more party death though after they charmed Mad Arcand and tried to feed him to some wolves - only for him to turn hostile when bitten by a dominated wolf. It would have been sensible to leave at that point, but the shamans tried fighting and Toke paid the penalty for that by being smitten - at which point the others did run away to avoid XP getting distorted.
I mean that's just stupid. And I refuse to accept it as good design. A silly beetle should not have an ability that for all intents and purposes is Vorpal to a solo character (which luckily mine wasn't).
There's lots of things that can kill you as a solo character - I'm not sure why you find the beetles so objectionable. They have killed me a couple of times in SoD, but I'm now wary of them and just kill them from range (they need to get close to use their acid spray).
Okay, here is another potential game ender bug in SoD:
The 'Webbed' condition made by Gargantuan spider Web projectile is apparently not cured by the Priest Spell 'Remove Paralysis'.
I don't think that's a bug - web has always been a different condition from hold or paralysis and I wouldn't expect it to be cured by that priest spell.
Here are all the weapons that do NOT have a spell school of "None":
Black Blade of Disaster: Necromancy BONEDAG.itm (don't know who uses this): Enchantment Cause Wounds/Harm: Necromancy Energy Blades: Invocation Melf's Minute Meteors: Invocation Fire Seeds: Invocation Ghoul Touch: Necromancy Mordenkainen's Sword: Enchanter (for some reason) Phantom Blade: Invocation Shocking Grasp: Transmutation Slay Living: Necromancy Sol's Searing Orb: Invocation
Everything else is a "None," which means if specialist penalties apply to any one of them, they apply to ALL other weapons.
Testing might also discover if Spell Immunity can block Black Blade of Disaster and so forth.
I remember someone testing Celestial Fury and confirming that the specialist penalty did apply to using that. I'm not sure if that was in the EE, but doubt if any changes have been made even if it wasn't.
Spell trap works on weapon hits - making the Black Blade of Disaster an efficient way to implement an infinite spells strategy.
I bet the soul of Safana to answer a riddle and then Neera pops 3 skull traps onto the mage lackey... Corwin and Sarah, set about cutting him down as this time I won... wait, o bugger he still has one last group of reinforcements
observant viewers may notice that Corwin did kill the boss so I was tempted to claim a moral victory but the honest truth is Puk took his eye off the ball and paid the price.
SP- Start, A new run, I’m re-entering the challenge with another group; · Sarah Paddlepop a Gnome L-Neutral Illusionist | Thief · Puk Twoblades a half-elf Neutral-G Blade
Puk has stepped aside to give Sarah her run... we will be more careful this time. Mods: nothing Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on insane level with extra damage turned off.
We start off by - oh come on, I was clearly out of range!
As revenge, we get to watch our fire elementals kill these insolent hobgoblins.
A group of goblins further north shared the same fate. But letting our summons do the work wasn't going to be an option for the goblin cave, so I decided to use my double-web sequencer, as its important to disable them as fast as possible - otherwise, the goblin archers and sharpshooters will kill us. We reinforced the webs with greater malison and insect plague:
And thus, this battle was won.
Now, to Bridgefort. We forged the dragonscale shield (which druids can use, because it isn't made of metal! That's awesome! Anything to make Arbogast as surviveable as possible), gave Neera some ingredients for her quest, tried to make boots of speed (failed, as usual) and talked to Hess. After that, we first completed the quest involving the three dead bodies (which was easy) and gained entry into the crusader camp. There, we assassinated Vichand. Though he had pre-casted a number of buffs, including stoneskins and II, he decided that the best course of action would be to... cast oracle for some reason? and after that attack with his staff? What's going on here?
We forged 80 void-tipped arrows and prepared for the main event: Invading the camp with our flaming fist forces. The first wave of enemies was easily dealt with, but then it was time for what would be the primary fight, involving all the named opponents. Most importantly, we have a mage on the left and on the right, and the Barghest, by far the most dangerous fighter, in the middle:
We decided that the mages would propably waste most of their spells on the flaming fist soldiers, as damage spells are so weak in LoB, and decided to focus on the Barghest first: Greater Malison + Chaos took him out:
Meanwhile, Arbogast used insect plague on the mage on the right, effectively making him useless. When we turned to the remaining spellcaster, he was already out of spells, so we eventually killed him with our ranged weapons - meanwhile, all of our flaming fist allies, except for a single soldier, had fallen. Oh well:
We rested and turned to summons + buffs for the bridge battle - taking out the mage first:
An easy win here, and we even got some more experience from dropping a chicken in the fountain and killing the well spirit.
The 'Webbed' condition made by Gargantuan spider Web projectile is apparently not cured by the Priest Spell 'Remove Paralysis'.
not a bug mate
*sigh*
One should expect the damn Priest spell to have some use. Oh, well, I should have tried casting Free Action on her.
Anyways. Today I'm proud of my micromanagement ability in that I just survived a 'Hidden Cellar' walking in unprepared to be ambushed by a horde of shadowy things.
A berserk Minsc and a NPPed charname (Cavalier) carried the day.
(... with Voghlin on the Bagpipes and Dynaheir at the back vocals.)
One should expect the damn Priest spell to have some use. Oh, well, I should have tried casting Free Action on her.
FYI, you should cast Free Action -before- Web Tangle hit you. Casting it -after- is a waste - it will not help. I've lost my first incarnation of Grim Face in the BG Sewers to Giant Spider's Web Tangle this way. Besides, this *damn Priest spell* will save thy hide vs any hold, paralyzation and stun attacks - Ghoul's Touch, Hold Person and even PW: Stun!
@Alesia_BH: I don't know if Power Attack or the Balor's slay effect will apply a specialist mage penalty to the saving throw, but it's possible that one of them does and one of them doesn't. Power Attack stuns via an .eff file, while the vorpal strike comes from an .itm file, and they may behave differently.
Yes. It's possible that one, neither, or both do. To be safe, in the absence of testing, it's best to assume all.
For both file types, though, the spell school is virtually always set to "None."
And that's what worries me. Prior tests have suggested that the specialist save penalty was implemented by looking for matches in the spell effect school and the kit field without excluding double zeros. So, if there is a double zero (no school, no kit) the penalty applies.
But if the Balor's slay effect gets those penalties, that's a huge deal, because it means virtually ALL weapons used by any non-specialist enemy will apply the exact same -2 penalty. Everything from Planetar vorpal strikes to Kuo-toa Bolts to spider venom to Celestial Fury to a Cornugon's bleeding effect will get an extra -2 penalty to its saving throw.
It is a big deal. We've confirmed the case of Celestial Fury. Koshi has no kit in vanilla, the Celestial Fury effect is schooless. The penalty does apply- at least according to Grim Jim's tests.
Since the game is inconsistent with regards to kit and schools on NPCs, items, and special abilities, and SCS randomizes spell schools on casters, I find it best to assume that the penalty may always apply. I'd exclude specific weapon/NPCs combos only after both file examination and testing.
Btw. I just checked Prince Natty and David's balors. They are both coded "NO_KIT." The penalty likely applies. Turing this around, though, Aestica, who is a pure fighter coded "NO_KIT," may gain a +2 bonus versus schooless effects, cancelling out the penalty.
Also, Aestica may be enjoying the penalty when she tosses her darts of stunning and activates Power Attack. Perhaps there is an advantage to going kitless after all?
EDIT: I did some testing in a multiplayer game with a berserker and an unkitted fighter. The results were not as I expected. I'll need to do more testing before sharing my findings
FYI, you should cast Free Action -before- Web Tangle hit you. Casting it -after- is a waste - it will not help. I've lost my first incarnation of Grim Face in the BG Sewers to Giant Spider's Web Tangle this way.
That's the standard effect for free action - it will prevent effects, but not cancel existing ones. That can be used in your favor, e.g. casting haste on someone and then adding free action will allow them to benefit from both the extra attack and protection from hold etc.
Meet Aestica and Bestica. Aestica and Bestica are twins. Aestica is a pure fighter, Bestica is a berserker.
Both have save v spells of 1.
If Aestica and Bestica throw darts of stunning at each other, Bestica, the berserker, will roll between 3 and 22, she'll never fail her save.
Aestica, the unkitted fighter, will never roll above 18 and she will fail her save.
It looks like Bestica, but not Aestica, is enjoying specialist bonuses on both her rolls and enemy rolls in relation to darts of stunning. Can someone replicate and or make sense of this for me?
Best,
A.
NW: Pehaps we should create a new Adventurer's Lounge for stuff like this?
NW II: Ok. It looks like Koshi does have a kit, kensai. It thus appears that Grim Jim's reporting may have been inaccurate on that point. Does the penalty apply when an on hit weapon is used by a kitted warrior, rather than an unkitted warrior? That would reconcile the Aestica/Bestica observations with the Koshi/Fury findings. It would, however, still leave us puzzling over the mechanics, to an extent.
NW III. The Aestica/Bestica results have been replicated with Celestial Fury, wielded by each other. Aestica will fail her save, Bestica will roll up to 22
NW IV. Aestica will fail her save against Celestial Fury, with a save v spells of 1, against a version of Koshi, confirmed to be kitted to kensai. I've yet to see Bestica fail her save against Fury wielded by Koshi, confirmed to be a kensai, although I'd like more observations before reaching a conclusion
Comments
@Arctodus I wanted to say that I like your rule of not adjusting your character creation rolls. Will try that myself.
@JuliusBorisov and others, nice to see the Monty Python crew in SoD!
@Enuhal, losing two of your crew is harsh indeed. I "like" it as it just shows how much of a struggle LoB can be. Hope you can get by without clerical support. Reading your reports, and @Grond0's, make me want to try LoB again myself (as Julius feared haha), but first things first...
Autumn, 1st BGEE report
"Heya, it's me Imoen, and you're nor fooling me lass!" Autumn had decided to travel alone after Gorion's death, but a failed HiPS attempt under a tree alongside the Lion's Way caused Imoen to join. Shit, I don't want to dump you at the FAI... So solo run becomes duo run, with Imoen as an unkitted Halfling Bard. The two Hobbits first explored Beregost and vicinity. All was well except that the green Hobgoblin south of Beregost didn't drop the boots of stealth. After some adventuring in the southwest (Charleston Nib, Brage), the girls went to check out Ulcaster's school to see if they could find any Worn Whispers shod Hobgoblin there. Thankfully they did. Autumn's early levels all served to increase her stealth skill, and the boots were an extra boost. With Gullykin so close, the gals decided to visit the Halfling village. They were rewarded with the company of a cheerful Swashbuckler, Alora.
I've said before that this run is meant for me to fully explore the Shadowdancer kit, which is best done solo imo (as with any class or kit). But I think having a roguish Halfling trio of Autumn, Imoen, and Alora will be good fun without necessarily compromising my plans with Autumn.
The three were at level 4 (with staves as Autumn's new weapon prof) when they went Basilisk hunting. Green scroll-protected Autumn dis the work, mostly from range as she still had a x1 backstab modifier. Level 5 meant her first Shadowstep, an ability that she immediately put to good use:
See who's become Autumn's friend there?
Two things are important here:
1. Shadowstep lasts for 7 seconds. After activating Shadowstep, the Shadowdancer will have to wait one round (six seconds) for her aura to clear. This leaves one second to complete or initiate a new aura-clouding action such as drinking a potion.
2. The Shadowdancer may not attack or cast spells during Shadowstep pursuant to the kit description, but she can still take offensive action. The Use Item button doesn't get blocked, nor do the quick item slots. Thus, the final second of a Shadowstep can also be used to read a scroll (green scrolls only at this stage but offensive scrolls come UAI), throw an explosive, use a wand (missiles only at this stage but again more options come UAI), or use an item under the Use Item button.
Autumn charmed Mutamin with Algernon's cloak before Shadowstep had expired, so she never had to fear the Gnome's magic. Nothing major yet, but I might find tactical uses of Shadowstep beyond just an escape button. I can imagine Shadowstep being (occasionally) useful, both defensively and offensively, against fast moving melee enemies, dangerous ranged enemies, and especially enemies that see through invisibility: position yourself at the ideal distance, use ability/item, and retreat.
Mutamin was led away from his Basilisks, so he would escape petrification, and be of use against Kirian and company with his spells, and to soak up some of their spells. This worked pretty well. Autumn (backstabs) and Imoen (wand scorchers) finished the four.
One of Autumn's most important purchases was the dagger of venom. With lower damage backstabs (due to her Halfling strength and the lower backstab modifier) but repeated backstabbing being cheap and easy, weapons with on-hit effects are more appealing for Autumn than pure damage weapons. I've never bothered with Celestial Fury for my Thieves but for Autumn this seems to be a great weapon. The same goes for the dagger of venom in BGEE. She used it to backstab her way past Sirines toward Alaric's cave for example.
And traveling with two invisible companions (Imoen memorized Invisibility as her two level 2 spells), an ambushing Ogre Mage found himself ambushed by Autumn.
The upper levels of Durlag's Tower helped the gals reach level 7.
Back in Beregost, Silke's sequencered Magic Missiles taught Autumn something new about her Shadowstep ability: it casts like a spell and can be interrupted.
I play with aTweaks' Instant casting for warrior innates that should make warriors' and I assume thieves' innate abilities uninterruptable by magic, but I'm not sure if this always works, nor if it applies to Shadowstep.
Dealing with Silke also cost Autumn a potion of clarity (to neutralize a Confusion), but other than that there were no issues. Autumn prevailed with the dagger of venom and acid arrows.
The Nashkel Mines are next.
This was in vanilla SoA.
(I'd be pretty surprised if the hungry, hungry halflings didn't appear on Normal)
Best,
A.
The actual probability may be smaller--I'm not sure I've ever noticed it happens without auto-pause--but you can witness the phenomenon by setting auto-pause to on-hit or badly injured, then have the injured character use an instant-casting spell right after triggering the auto-pause. The spell should automatically fail, since it happens on the same frame as the damage.
It's actually perfectly possible to make spells uninterruptible without using scripts, but only (I'm pretty sure) if they're on-self spells. All you'd have to do is rig the spell so all the effects trigger when the spell begins casting, instead of after casting time. See, spells have two separate fields for their effects: the effects that apply to the target when the spell is finished casting, and the effects that apply to the caster when the spell begins casting. Almost all effects are found in the first field, but in spells like Pocket Plane, they have effects in the second field. In the case of Pocket Plane, those effects remove and then give back the Pocket Plane ability, ensuring that you can cast Pocket Plane an unlimited number of times per day even if it gets disrupted.
To make Shadowstep truly uninterruptible, go to the spell in Near Infinity, go to "Edit," scroll down and click on "Spell ability 0," and copy all of the effects. Then click "Add," then "Effect," and finally paste the stuff you copied. All of the effects that normally apply when the spell is finished casting will now apply when the spell begins casting, preventing the possibility of disruption.
Aestica and I had a pretty nice vacation. I got to watch some basketball, she got to chunk Edwin. Seeing as how my team, the Phoenix Mercury, lost and chunking Edwin is always a win, I think she had the better time. Regardless, it's time for us to get back into the action, into the flow. To get our groove thing on. Halfling style.
Fish City
Even with SCS's spruce up, Fish City is very nearly a free pass. Or so I thought. I had a five alarm freak-out when Prince Natty started firing up HLAs. With a save v death of -4, Aestica should have been safe here- assuming the specialist penalty doesn't apply, and that's an assumption I'm unwilling to make. We equipped Arvoreen, disengaged, and then re-engaged post Power Attack.
The Drow
I always enjoy watching drow buffs fire in the Underdark. It's like lighting a firework- without the risk of blowing off your hands and singeing your eyebrows
My approach to this battle was decidedly unclever. We dropped some priests with a Whirlwind, fell back, and then reengaged as we saw fit. The sling did most of the work, although we did get a little Ages in. D- for originality, B+ for efficacy. We won with little effort, if little style.
The Balor
Now that I've fully internalized the implications of the specialist penalty implementation issue, I'm inclined to have the Claw removed in Fish City- possibly Brynnlaw, pre-Spellhold. In the same way that Aestica's -4 may not have offered full protection from Prince Natty's Power Attack, it may not be sufficient for balor vorpals. What makes matters worse, in the case of balors, is that they cast Remove ad nauseam. This is a battle where an undispellable -5 v Death or lower is desirable. We gave him the sling. Carefully.
The Dragon Egg Quest
As many of you know, I've been on a life long mission to screw-up the Dragon Egg Quest in as many ways as possible. In my games, Adalon very nearly never gets her eggs back. Instead, she's forced to watch, helplessly, in horror, as I commit one damn-fool muff-up or another. Now, truth-be-told, most of these screw-ups have been semi-intentional, since I find the Dragon Egg Quest overlong and tedious. This time, however, I had a change of heart on account of an insight: if I complete the Dragon Egg quest, then Adalon will teleport me over the kuo-toans. And if I take a pass on the Bracers of Blinding Strike, then I won't have to fight the kuo-toans at all. Some of you probably know where I'm going with this. When I was a kid, my family used to go to this fish restaurant in North Carolina. They'd serve these, like, bite sized pieces of grouper that you'd dip in butter and cheese. That's kind of how I think of the kuo-toans: they're like sahuagin dipped in butter and cheese. I liked the restaurant. I hate the kuo-toans. Hate'em! They're my least favorite BG enemy by far. And if playing fetch with some drow will get them out of my life, well, then, hey, I'm all:
So, yeah. I actually tried to complete the quest this time. And, you know, I'm kind of proud of myself, because I didn't even come close to screwing it up. Except once, that is. Care to guess who the culprits were? Kuo-toans, of course: they brought Solaufein down to badly injured before the Phaere encounter. I was terrified that the umbers would chunk him, and I'd be blamed for it. Fortunately he lived. Yay!
And that meant that some other monsters would get to die. Like the elder orb. He went ProMW, we went GWW unenchanted. Our saves, the Helm of Defense, the Boots of Grounding, and the Dragon Shield kept us safe.
We're glad to have the Amulet of Spell Warding, even if Seldarine will obsolete it soon. And we're super glad to have the Greenstone Amulet. Don't fight Tamah without it.
Anyhoo. On to the easiest part of the quest: recovering Qilue's brain. We walked in the door, Whirlwinded her with Everard, went invisible, and then picked up her noggin. Simple-dimple.
The hardest part -or at least the scariest part- was ending the Ghaunadaur cult. SCS appears to have given this crew a boost. I had no idea. That lead us into this mess.
We were slowed and diseased by the otyugh's repeatedly, despite highly negative saves. I didn't panic until it occurred to me that if the save on the otyugh's on hit effect was changed, then the one on the green slime's on hit effect might have been changed as well. Fortunately, invisibility->heal->GWW allowed us to break free. The cost of this battle was high, however. It included a Potion of Invulnerability.
Eventually, we reached a point where the fetching was done.
All that remained was to make our escape. Fighting alongside Adalon can be frustrating in my installs. Sometimes she's a rock star -killing everyone and every thing within a couple rounds. On other occasions she's, like, easy listening: she takes forever. Tonight, she was easy: easy like Sunday morning. I think she was all stoned and eating Captain Crunch in her bathrobe when we showed up, because she just wasn't on her game.
We fell back. And then we fell back further. And then I realized: If we fall back one more step, then we'll end up fighting kuo-toans. And I'll cry. Fo'reals. It was time for us to stand and fight. Everard.
We did our part. And eventually, Adalon did hers. We were out. Adalon went back to her Captain Crunch, I guess
We'll cover the lichy-poos next.
Best,
A.
I don't doubt that you observed what you observed, but without addition trials, I can't help but suspect that there may have been another variable at play here, a confound.
I'd be pretty surprised if the slider could remove the hungry, hungry halflings, even on Novice.
I've yet to see a controlled experiment demonstrating that enemy number and or type can be changed by the slider in the unmodded adventure (ie- classic installs). I'd be less surprised to hear that it occurs in BG2 EE unmodded, I guess, but, still, I'd like to see some experiments before drawing any conclusions.
Best,
A.
If someone could replicate -in an install like mine, or a different one (especially classic unmodded)- that would be cool.
(In any case, I'm now less confident that your permanent death workaround will function as intended, semiticgod. I've yet to observe a response between Core and Normal, but it seems like a distinct possibility now, at least in EE. Thanks for raising this, Corey!)
Best,
A.
Cromarty emerged from the Underdark and spent a short while doing Xan's quest, which linked on to the Eilistraee Clearing. I hightailed it out of there when I bumped into a demilich however, as my install is sans Spell Immunity and I didn't really need to take that big a risk.
After forging some weapons we despatched Bodhi without incident, Yvette's rediscovery of her ability to turn undead having had suitably explosive results (the game should really make undead unturnable in some unhallowed locations).
I then wandered into another mod encounter however, Sirene led us into a clearing where we confronted a figure from her past accompanied my multiple demons. I wasn't fully prepared for this fight, especially when the demons we killed started being replaced by more from a planar rift. Fortunately the opposing spellcaster was more concerned with self-protection than nuking us however, and eventually we took down his defences.
No more distractions then, and on to the Elven city. We dealt with the golems and drow without too much difficulty but one encounter did give me pause. When the Rakshasha fight the elven mages they always seem to charm one, and I was terrified of the hostile elf somehow triggering a bad reaction from other important characters, but our efforts to dispel the charm didn't work either and his eventual death didn't have any undue effects.
The dragon was slain, the avatar was summoned, and on we went up the helter-skelter of the tree of life.
Irenicus fell once, and then twice in the depths of hell. Xan was fortunate to survive a barrage of power words, but apart from that there was no need to use any of the HLAs which we now have available. I shall start making use of them come ToB, but I can also see the sense of using an xp reducer sometimes from now on, especially on quest XP which is massively inflated. For the Hell Trials Cromarty mainly took the good options, but with one or two neutral ones as well where it seemed appropriate.
The hardest part is I suppose yet to come however. After my first no-reloads of SCS BG1 & SoD, I have to get through ToB now. Usually I dread its linear path but this time I shall have to be careful with its tactical challenges hopefully all the way to the throne.
Basically, like trolls they become damage immune once "killed" and then regenerate and get back up. The only thing I have seen that can kill them is Fireball or Aganazzar's Scorcher (but not fire arrows etc.).
Given that they give a measly 420XP or something, this cannot be intentional.
(The only mod I am running is SCS v. 30.)
--
Separate question:
what is the save for a Bombardier Beetles stun?
My Cavalier got stunned again by one (luckily not dangerous by now with the rest of the party). But he has a Spell Save of -2 and a Death Save of 1. (I have been stacking save equipment like there is no tomorrow.) It seems implausible that Beetles should consistently stun through that.
If testing confirms that those penalties apply to Power Attack, then all .eff file-based effects will impose the same penalties. But that means very little, since there are basically no .eff file-based effects that offer saves besides Power Attack.
But if the Balor's slay effect gets those penalties, that's a huge deal, because it means virtually ALL weapons used by any non-specialist enemy will apply the exact same -2 penalty. Everything from Planetar vorpal strikes to Kuo-toa Bolts to spider venom to Celestial Fury to a Cornugon's bleeding effect will get an extra -2 penalty to its saving throw.
The Bombardier Beetles apply that stun effect using SPIN128.spl. Looks like it deals 3d4 acid damage, has a 20% chance of deafening the target for 7 rounds, and has a 20% chance of stunning the target for 5 rounds. All effects bypass magic resistance.
And all effects offer no saving throw whatsoever. Whether you get stunned or not is entirely dependent on a 1d100 roll, with a 20% chance of getting stunned for the whole 5 rounds.
Guess we'd better rely on the Greenstone Amulet.
Black Blade of Disaster: Necromancy
BONEDAG.itm (don't know who uses this): Enchantment
Cause Wounds/Harm: Necromancy
Energy Blades: Invocation
Melf's Minute Meteors: Invocation
Fire Seeds: Invocation
Ghoul Touch: Necromancy
Mordenkainen's Sword: Enchanter (for some reason)
Phantom Blade: Invocation
Shocking Grasp: Transmutation
Slay Living: Necromancy
Sol's Searing Orb: Invocation
Everything else is a "None," which means if specialist penalties apply to any one of them, they apply to ALL other weapons.
Testing might also discover if Spell Immunity can block Black Blade of Disaster and so forth.
But, Gah!
I mean that's just stupid. And I refuse to accept it as good design. A silly beetle should not have an ability that for all intents and purposes is Vorpal to a solo character (which luckily mine wasn't).
So, to repeat my favorite question these days:
Does either IR or SR modify this Bombardier Beetle ability? It seems an obvious oversight in need of a fix.
Okay, here is another potential game ender bug in SoD:
The 'Webbed' condition made by Gargantuan spider Web projectile is apparently not cured by the Priest Spell 'Remove Paralysis'.
Just had Dynaheir killed to this.
(Superb AI there: she got mobbed by a horde of Phase Spiders and Sword Spiders that walked past my tanks, ate through her Stoneskins, and poisoned her.)
If this had not been my Cavalier run (wielding Spider's Bane most of the time as habit) but my Dragon Disciple run I probably would have died here.
Previous run
I hadn't actually formalised it, but in the last few attempts I'd essentially been trying to avoid any deaths. Concluding that's pushing things a bit too far and that I was unlikely to make much progress like that, I've not used that restriction this time. One of the shamans was nearly killed when running too close to a gnoll early on, but was saved by level 1 protection. Incidentally I've been keeping an eye on that in these runs and it's only working about 60-70% of the time you would expect, i.e. when there is only one source of damage from a hit, so definitely not something you should rely on for a no-reload.
This time I managed to get all the intended XP from the area around Beregost and got close to a level. A bit more exploring for sundry hobgoblins and gibberlings tipped them over.
Having decided not to worry about party deaths, there was no bar on the shamans continuing on and they soon got up to level 3 thanks to some basilisks.
At the lighthouse again and this time spirits worked as intended with the first group of sirines - and there were no intrusions by hobgoblins or lightning to complicate things.
Deciding to look for some more sirines the party travelled up the coast. Finding something there that looked like a sirine they tried talking to it, but Pretty Boy got more than he bargained for when he stole a kiss. However, he was soon back and the shamans managed to soak up damage from Droth's spells without further casualties (surprisingly he had no magic missiles and only 1 chromatic orb). Rather than receiving a reward from Shoal the shamans then gave her what she deserved.
There were still 2 groups of ghouls, some dire wolves and kobolds to deal with which took a while, but eventually the shamans found more sirines and in due course they were out of arrows, spells and luck.
Lorbag - L4, 33 HPs, 30 kills
Chat - L4, 30 HPs, 20 kills, 1 death
Pretty Boy - L4, 34 HPs, 29 kills, 1 death
Grinch - L4, 33 HPs, 26 kills, 0 deaths
Grunt - L4, 33 HPs, 24 kills, 0 deaths
Toke - L4, 32 HPs, 29 kills, 1 death
Spell trap works on weapon hits - making the Black Blade of Disaster an efficient way to implement an infinite spells strategy.
PT-6,
the end,I bet the soul of Safana to answer a riddle and then Neera pops 3 skull traps onto the mage lackey... Corwin and Sarah, set about cutting him down as this time I won... wait, o bugger he still has one last group of reinforcements
observant viewers may notice that Corwin did kill the boss so I was tempted to claim a moral victory but the honest truth is Puk took his eye off the ball and paid the price.
A new run,
I’m re-entering the challenge with another group;
· Sarah Paddlepop a Gnome L-Neutral Illusionist | Thief
· Puk Twoblades a half-elf Neutral-G Blade
Puk has stepped aside to give Sarah her run... we will be more careful this time.
Mods: nothing
Beamdog version install ... I’m playing on insane level with extra damage turned off.
Previous posts:
BG1 end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904835/#Comment_904835
SoD start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904866/#Comment_904866
Part XIV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904934/#Comment_904934
Part XV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904982/#Comment_904982
Part XVI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/905032/#Comment_905032
Part XVII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/905184/#Comment_905184
Part XVIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/905354/#Comment_905354
We start off by - oh come on, I was clearly out of range!
As revenge, we get to watch our fire elementals kill these insolent hobgoblins.
A group of goblins further north shared the same fate. But letting our summons do the work wasn't going to be an option for the goblin cave, so I decided to use my double-web sequencer, as its important to disable them as fast as possible - otherwise, the goblin archers and sharpshooters will kill us. We reinforced the webs with greater malison and insect plague:
And thus, this battle was won.
Now, to Bridgefort. We forged the dragonscale shield (which druids can use, because it isn't made of metal! That's awesome! Anything to make Arbogast as surviveable as possible), gave Neera some ingredients for her quest, tried to make boots of speed (failed, as usual) and talked to Hess. After that, we first completed the quest involving the three dead bodies (which was easy) and gained entry into the crusader camp. There, we assassinated Vichand. Though he had pre-casted a number of buffs, including stoneskins and II, he decided that the best course of action would be to... cast oracle for some reason? and after that attack with his staff? What's going on here?
We forged 80 void-tipped arrows and prepared for the main event: Invading the camp with our flaming fist forces. The first wave of enemies was easily dealt with, but then it was time for what would be the primary fight, involving all the named opponents. Most importantly, we have a mage on the left and on the right, and the Barghest, by far the most dangerous fighter, in the middle:
We decided that the mages would propably waste most of their spells on the flaming fist soldiers, as damage spells are so weak in LoB, and decided to focus on the Barghest first: Greater Malison + Chaos took him out:
Meanwhile, Arbogast used insect plague on the mage on the right, effectively making him useless. When we turned to the remaining spellcaster, he was already out of spells, so we eventually killed him with our ranged weapons - meanwhile, all of our flaming fist allies, except for a single soldier, had fallen. Oh well:
We rested and turned to summons + buffs for the bridge battle - taking out the mage first:
An easy win here, and we even got some more experience from dropping a chicken in the fountain and killing the well spirit.
Next time, we will start Chapter 10.
Enuhal
One should expect the damn Priest spell to have some use. Oh, well, I should have tried casting Free Action on her.
Anyways. Today I'm proud of my micromanagement ability in that I just survived a 'Hidden Cellar' walking in unprepared to be ambushed by a horde of shadowy things.
A berserk Minsc and a NPPed charname (Cavalier) carried the day.
(... with Voghlin on the Bagpipes and Dynaheir at the back vocals.)
Besides, this *damn Priest spell* will save thy hide vs any hold, paralyzation and stun attacks - Ghoul's Touch, Hold Person and even PW: Stun!
http://blackstrider.net/forum_bioware_arhiv/The_Lounge_Arhiv/forum.bioware.com/topic/560248-the-adventurers-lounge-guidance-and-support-for-no-reload-challengers-newbie-or-veteran/page-13.html
Since the game is inconsistent with regards to kit and schools on NPCs, items, and special abilities, and SCS randomizes spell schools on casters, I find it best to assume that the penalty may always apply. I'd exclude specific weapon/NPCs combos only after both file examination and testing.
Best,
A.
Also, Aestica may be enjoying the penalty when she tosses her darts of stunning and activates Power Attack. Perhaps there is an advantage to going kitless after all?
EDIT: I did some testing in a multiplayer game with a berserker and an unkitted fighter. The results were not as I expected. I'll need to do more testing before sharing my findings
Best of luck with Sarah!
Meet Aestica and Bestica. Aestica and Bestica are twins. Aestica is a pure fighter, Bestica is a berserker.
Both have save v spells of 1.
If Aestica and Bestica throw darts of stunning at each other, Bestica, the berserker, will roll between 3 and 22, she'll never fail her save.
Aestica, the unkitted fighter, will never roll above 18 and she will fail her save.
It looks like Bestica, but not Aestica, is enjoying specialist bonuses on both her rolls and enemy rolls in relation to darts of stunning. Can someone replicate and or make sense of this for me?
Best,
A.
NW: Pehaps we should create a new Adventurer's Lounge for stuff like this?
NW II: Ok. It looks like Koshi does have a kit, kensai. It thus appears that Grim Jim's reporting may have been inaccurate on that point. Does the penalty apply when an on hit weapon is used by a kitted warrior, rather than an unkitted warrior? That would reconcile the Aestica/Bestica observations with the Koshi/Fury findings. It would, however, still leave us puzzling over the mechanics, to an extent.
NW III. The Aestica/Bestica results have been replicated with Celestial Fury, wielded by each other. Aestica will fail her save, Bestica will roll up to 22
NW IV. Aestica will fail her save against Celestial Fury, with a save v spells of 1, against a version of Koshi, confirmed to be kitted to kensai. I've yet to see Bestica fail her save against Fury wielded by Koshi, confirmed to be a kensai, although I'd like more observations before reaching a conclusion
One just doesn't expect to find such inconsistencies after so many Fixes and Tweaks.
Although, this is perhaps an artifact of the EE?