We're not quite ready for Spellhold. We need Frisk to hit level 20 and we also need an extra Rod of Resurrection due to having no cleric in the party. Over at Mekrath's lair, we send Meredath after the Coiled Cabal, only for the Yuan-ti to remind me that vampires are not immune to web.
They slither over to the main chamber, but Gorky blocks the way. He disrupts their spells with Sunfire and then discovers that he can apparently get past MGOI if he casts Skull Trap on himself.
Gorky can't hold the fort forever, but he wears down the enemy long enough for Maneira and the basilisk to take them down with darts and a gaze attack. Maneira also splatters Mekrath with the Staff of Striking.
Time to pay a visit to Firkraag's dungeon. We kite the Ruhk Transmuter for a little while and we trade blows, but in the end, the fight was decided by the roll of a single die.
Samia can be tough, but it seems that we set too many traps beforehand.
The Greater Wolfweres aren't a problem for an offensive-oriented party like ours, especially since the Lesser Basilisk can kill them instantly with a bit of luck.
15,000 XP for a few seconds work...
This sounds like a good deal. Why not do it again?
This marks the third time we deployed the basilisk XP loop in this run: first with the Greater Basilisk in BG1, then with the Neothelid in SoD, and now with Greater Wolfweres in SoA. It takes some time, but we bump Frisk up to level 20.
Why is level 20 important? Well, now Frisk can use Seduction on level 10 targets. And because we can revisit BG1 eras thanks to our EET install...
...we can get a very nice upgrade from our Lesser Basilisk.
Lesser Basilisks only get 1 APR, but Greater Basilisks get 3. This means our new basilisk has 3.5 attacks per round right off the bat. Low APR was the one true limitation of our old basilisk, and now we've cured it.
We push our way through the rest of the dungeon using brute force and end up killing Conster with traps.
Boring, yes, but practical.
Now, finally, we're ready for Spellhold. Thanks to one of my mods, we can now save Sanik. And thanks to our new Greater Basilisk, we can petrify mages that much faster.
Perth the Adept can be troublesome, but it turns out he doesn't have Stoneskin already active.
How am I going to deal with Bhaal in a pacifist run? Well, Frisk is allowed to attack people; they're just not allowed to deal the final blow. But why bother with that in the first place, when Haiass erroneously spawns in dream sequences?
Haiass doesn't join many fights because Frisk stays out of the fray and Haiass follows them, but whenever Frisk is close to the enemy, Haiass tips the balance in our favor.
While using CTRL-J to speed up the riddles in the Spellhold maze, I accidentally teleport Meredath into the middle of the rakshasa/mephit room. Per my normal rules, I can teleport back out and then go back in later once I've erected my buffs (as I intended to do already), but for some reason I decide to just go with it, and teleport the whole party over to Meredath.
Turns out buffs are really useful against mephits. Gorky might not have been immune to the Salt Mephits' stun effect, but he at least wouldn't have taken any fire damage.
We actually win the fight eventually, but a CTRL-J error and a bad decision afterward cost us two charges of the Rod of Resurrection. Luckily, we still have 18 left.
My bad judgment continues when I decide to send Meredath after another batch of Yuan-ti when I already saw her die to the previous batch. The cause of death is the same: Web.
The Yuan-ti give chase, but they run out their PFMW spells and perish one by one.
Thankfully, there is no Breudayael or Balors or bonus liches in my install, so the only real threat here is a single lich, who proves much more dangerous than I expected when he teleports right to the party before activating his defenses.
We really don't have the resources to disrupt the lich, since the chance of charming it with Domination is only about 10% per casting, so we're just going to have to deal with its spells for a while.
Why Gate? Well, I burned a whole bunch of Protection from Undead scrolls here precisely because I didn't see how else I was going to tackle the lich. The lich only has so many options for dealing with the scroll, and we already know how to stay away from them.
As for the Pit Fiend itself, Maneira can tank it if she drinks a couple Potions of Invulnerability to boost her saving throws, and the Flail of Ages and Short Sword of Backstabbing slow it down and pin it down.
After that, it's a simple matter of chasing down the lich, throwing +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars, and butchering the demons it summons.
For some reason, Bodhi doesn't make Frisk turn into the Slayer. Frisk has to escape before they get level drained to death.
Fun fact: Bodhi can cast Control Undead!
In the end, Frisk never transforms. Fortunately, it seems you can open the way to the next area without ever becoming the Slayer.
Just for fun, before we leave, I use the item duplication trick to create enough Mithril Tokens to purchase every pair of boots for sale.
Whoever came up with the idea of a coin-operated shoe closet was an idiot.
What about Jon-bon? Well, Maneira can get right past his Improved Mantle with her +5 darts, and Jon-bon has a critical weakness to a very rarely-used damage spell.
That's about it. We butcher the clones and move on.
I decide to test out the Slayer change trick, in which you use the quick-save trick combined with an area transition to stack a bunch of Potions of Power, boosting Frisk's HP to about 1600, and allowing them to survive the final blow of the Slayer Change spell.
It causes some weird inventory lag which I cure using EEKeeper for convenience's sake.
It's pretty much pointless in a pacifist run when Frisk isn't going to be doing any fighting to begin with, but a few defensive perks are reason enough for me.
That and the fact that walking around in Slayer form forever is just plain fun. It also adds a new flavor to certain dialogue options from Romantic Encounters.
It would fit in with Frisk's fanonical personality and the Seducer kit's concept, but I haven't been selecting any of these options since I'm too busy getting through the fights.
We find no trace of the Cloak of Mirroring in City Sushi. All we discover are some friends of Shoal's, who I neglected to consider had an instant death attack.
Nothing particularly exciting otherwise. We sell about 70,000 gold's worth of loot to the local temple, because it gives the best prices in the game, and move on to the Underdark.
I am greeted by a familiar group of mod enemies that I wished I could uninstall. Rather than struggle through a fight I do not want, or simply sneak past them in peace, I talk-block them and take advantage of the fact that some of them erroneously have zero magic resistance.
With them out of the picture, the rest of the fight is much less complicated.
Over by the elemental portals, we get badly pummeled by some Greater Earth Elementals who replaced the normal kind. Only when Gorky cast Enchanted Weapon on the Greater Basilisk to boost its gaze attack to +3 did the fight become bearable.
The vanilla drow ambush went terribly. Maneira died to a single spell, forcing us to lure the mages across several traps. Thankfully, Meredath is still low-level and gets the level 11 traps.
The survivor bombs our Greater Basilisk, but eventually his defenses run thin, allowing Gorky to kill him with the Serpent Shaft.
It came from the mod-introduced drow from before, but since it's a vanilla weapon, I can still use it. Killing the rest of the drow was a slow and painful ordeal, especially because of yet another Aerial Servant, but clerics don't have the kind of devastating options that mages do.
I free everyone in the imprisonment sphere except for Alchra Diagott. Not because I didn't have the means of killing him instantly...
...but because I didn't want to take any chances. A few thousand XP really isn't worth wrestling with a lich.
I decide to go easy on the traps with Balor, which from a strictly practical perspective is probably not wise.
Failing to buff Maneira with Protection from Fire was also not a great move. I've been making a lot of dumb but non-fatal decisions lately.
Maneira deals reliable damage with her +5 darts, but we've badly neglected to consider our defenses. Meredath suffers a vorpal strike (which is actually a slay effect, though that makes little difference with EE's Death Ward) and the Balor nails Gorky with Implosion.
Frisk slows down the Balor before it can finish off Gorky, and Maneira finally puts it down.
Against the Kuo-toa, Maneira gets stunned but it happens far back enough that the Kuo-toa don't finish her off, letting Gorky and Meredath tank them until Maneira comes back to supply the high APR we need to overcome the prince's regeneration.
As for the drow, Maneira again gives us an early advantage with backstabs and traps, though the Greater Basilisk lands some kills despite the enemy's MR.
Time to tackle the Death Knights, because Maneira can use the Soul Reaver at 5 APR. But... I overdo it with the traps again.
Wait--I only laid seven, the vanilla maximum.
Two of the knights survive without a scratch, but the traps kept off Remove Magic, which means we can keep our Improved Haste. Which is also kind of overkill considering Maneira's ludicrous APR.
Every time I play a Seducer, it makes me appreciate the kind of absurd powers the enemy gets--and how little they actually exploit those powers.
On to Ust Natha! First off, we need to rescue Psycho Bitch from the mind flayers. On the way, I notice something surprising.
N'ashtar is using some mod spell as a pre-buff. But it's a damage spell... and it's not party-friendly. I'm not even sure he's supposed to be using that spell in the first place; maybe it got miscoded and he was intended to use a defensive spell of some sort.
Then I start laughing.
Seriously? You give N'ashtar a cool new damage over time spell and you make him cast it on himself?
This is hilarious. It just keeps going!
He's actually calling for help! Even his party is suffering.
They're actually dying from this spell. I'm not complaining, but--really?
This is so unfair. It's not like N'ashtar's buddies were ever that dangerous, but still, it's silly. I clean up N'ashtar's mess.
N'ashtar himself is a little more dangerous, and he still has some strong defenses, but without PFMW, Meredath can kill him with CON drain.
Meredath is actually kind of a terrible character in most fights. Aside from her off hand (and she only has one pip in two weapon fighting thanks to a level up), her only two weapons she can use deal 1d6 damage each and inflict level drain or CON drain. Lots of critters are immune to the former, while the latter prevents us from gaining any XP from the kill.
And without immunity to either stun or confusion, she's extremely vulnerable to the worst disablers in the game, especially because she can't use rings due to her vampire immunities coming from a pair of non-removable rings.
She is therefore extremely vulnerable to Psionic Blast, so I take out the mind flayers with traps.
Meredath gets petrified in the fight with the "Elder Orb," but like all the other stonings in this run, she never gets shattered.
Maybe one of my mods changes something, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't possible to prevent petrification-related chunking unless you just replaced the petrification opcode with opcode 185 or something, like Spell Revisions does.
We get a temporary break from our duties at Ust Natha, and I notice that Frisk is only 1,137 XP away from level 24. I decide to take a chance on Alchra Diagott, who thankfully turns out to have no Stoneskin pre-buff.
Seducers don't get Spike Traps or Use Any Item; they get their own list of HLAs. One of them is particularly valuable for a Seducer Charname.
At two rounds, it's not long enough to keep Frisk safe from one of Ascension Melissan's Time Stops, but it does have the notable ability of temporarily warding off scary critters like liches, demons, and planetars. They could also be chain-cast, allowing you to alternate between using Psionic Invisibility and Domination or the like, charming critters without exposing yourself to danger. But that's a pretty resource-intensive strategy, so I'll mostly just be using this spell as an escape option.
In the temple of Llolth, I spot a new enemy. I never do figure out what it's capable of, though.
I poke around Ust Natha looking for a cleric. If Frisk was level 28, we'd have some good options, but as it stands, there are only a few rather mediocre candidates for our sixth party member. And while the Drow Torturer would be pretty decent, I don't like the idea of a character with that name traveling with us.
That being said, Seduction does give us the ability to save that djinni from being tortured. With the help of one of my mods, I send them all back to the Copper Coronet to kiss and make up.
I also use Domination to get Taso Kala out of the way when we're in the final stages of the Ust Natha questline. Normally I sneak past her instead. Unfortunately, it seems that she'll reappear in her old spot when you come out of Phaere's quarters.
The Ghaunadaur worshippers are weaker than I remembered...
...with the sole exception of Relonar, the mage. He opens with Improved Mantle, temporarily hides behind invisibility, and switches to PFMW using a Spell Trigger, but with her darts and Detect Illusions, Maneira can get through all three of those defenses on her own.
She also rescues the dragon eggs, killing the guards with a backstab and a couple traps and using a Potion of Invisibility to avoid the golems. We jog back to report to Taso Kala before I forget, go through the motions of the ritual, haste the party, go invisible, and flee the city.
And find a mind flayer waiting for us outside.
I don't know what his deal is exactly, but I have no interest in going on any mind flayer-related adventures. We'd need better defenses against stun for that. We take advantage of the fact that the mind flayer starts out as neutral to let Maneira hide immediately after breaking invisibility, letting her land two backstabs in a row.
All that's left is to report to Adalon. But I'm torn.
I don't usually have evil-aligned characters in my party, and Maneira is a spectacular candidate for the Human Flesh +5, because she'll eventually be able to use Carsomyr once she gets UAI. Problem is, I really don't want to kill Adalon.
There is, however, a mod that lets me get a bit of her blood. I don't know if I have to speak with Rejiek's contact in the Umar Hills first, so I use the Teleport spell to pay him a visit before reporting to Adalon.
Yes, the Teleport spell lets you escape the Underdark. Anyhoo, we go back and discover that we do in fact have a dialogue option to ask for her blood.
Unfortunately, Adalon has conditions of her own. She wants us to kill the Aboleth from Ust Natha, the one I normally talk out of revealing the party's true identity to the drow. And while I'm sure I can handle a minor side quest for a single item...
...Adalon's dialogue gives me pause.
Fighting drow guards is one thing, but it sounds like we'll also be fighting the Aboleth itself, who apparently has actual psionics it can use against us. And I have no idea just how strong this thing will actually be. It might just have the same sort of abilities you'd see on a typical mind flayer or the Neothelid. Or, it have bigger stuff like Psionic Disjunction or Psionic Maze, or the Ulitharid version of Psionic Blast with the 20-round duration and -4 save penalty.
I've been meaning to try out some of the many side quests in my installs. But I didn't start this run to go exploring; I started this run to beat Melissan with a Seducer. And I have a bunch of new plans for how to do that without the level drain trick.
I decide that the fate of the run is more important than being able to wear a coat of human skin.
Setting important priorities fills us with determination.
@Everyone. It's super cool that this list is so long, and yet I've still probably missed some one (not you, @Borco, I know you're there- I just haven't seen a recent post ). Nice work, everyone!
@ussnorway: Right-o. I've been wondering about them myself. I heard a suggestion to go without putting images in spoilers for a little while to see what it was like, but I think I'll go back to using them.
For most people, I think posting without spoilers is probably okay, but I do make inordinately long posts.
Freedom! We return to Athkatla and once again bankrupt the party buying scrolls, including the all-important Time Stop spell.
Now that Frisk is level 24, they can seduce level 12 critters. Guess what that means?
We can get another upgrade on Meredath. Elder Vampires with 2 APR are now within reach. And since I avoided a certain spawn trigger in Firkraag's dungeon, I can spawn them only just now.
First, we need to clear things up a bit.
If I charm one of them as they are, the others will just attack it, and I don't want them getting killed.. I can avoid that by casting Invisibility 10' Radius right after Frisk gets a failed save (casting Domination from behind a wall for safety's sake), but it's easier just to use the Wand of Lightning to apply a scroll of Protection from Undead to all of them. I can spare the scrolls.
I add two Elder Vampires to the party, each of which has 2.5 base APR and the same powers as Meredath. It'll be a while before Frisk hits level 28, but when they do, we can get those Ancient Vampires instead (who have 3 APR!).
We proceed to Firkraag. I think I know how to put him down with little trouble. Gorky can drop his MR to zero with a triple Lower Resistance Spell Trigger, and immediately apply Greater Malison using a Contingency.
The Greater Basilisk petrifies him on the first try. Not too surprising, since it was about a 50% chance with GM active and zero MR.
Now we have Carsomyr! Once Maneira hits epic levels, she'll be able to use it.
But...
Now that I think about it, 64,000 XP for a few seconds of work seems pretty nice. And we do still have a bunch of Stone to Flesh scrolls on hand...
I kick the Elder Vampires out of the party and return to Firkraag. We cure his petrification and turn him to stone again.
And again. And again and again and again, until we have to rest just to restore Gorky's Stoneskins and Mirror Images from the rare occasions when Firkraag actually gets more than a couple hits on Gorky before dying it. We pile on the level ups.
It goes on and on, until finally Gorky is at level 20 and Frisk is at level 28. We leave the giant statue where it is on the off chance I want to use it again, and go back to replace our Elder Vampires with a single Ancient Vampire.
With 4 total APR thanks to her fighter levels, the Ancient Vampire can obliterate practically anything using level drain or Constitution drain. She still has the same vulnerabilities and limitations (CON drain means no XP; level drain isn't always possible) as Meredath, but she has more than twice the APR as our old vampire.
An obnoxious drow questline once again kidnaps us from Athkatla, and for the third or fourth time in a row, I use Teleport to escape.
Let's go kill some liches! Seriously, why not?
With three Time Stop spells due to being a Conjurer, Gorken Bloodaxe can outlast most PFMW spells, and thanks to his unnaturally high APR at 2.5, he can cut through Stoneskins and deal damage during Time Stop much faster than the typical mage (indeed, at the same rate as a Fighter(9)->Mage with GM). But I'm more proud of using Chain Lightning to disrupt a lich's spell.
Even though I just took that idea from somebody who pointed out that Chain Lightning bypassed level spell level immunities due to being a level 6 spell.
Anyway, for some reason, Gorky's Firetooth throwing dagger doesn't remove nearly as many Stoneskins as it should--in fact, the lich still has some left when the last Time Stop is over.
I think the game is accidentally counting multiple projectiles as a single projectile if they hit on the same frame, which I didn't notice until EE. Anyway, the lich's defenses have run low anyway, letting the rest of the party join in.
I try the same trick on the Elemental Lich, but since Gorky is a Conjurer, he's not too great at dealing with illusion spells, and cannot target the lich itself due to invisibility.
Gorky re-casts Time Stop and finishes the planetar before it can do any harm.
Then Maneira gets chunked, possibly by a Globe of Blades-related bug I thought was patched out a little while ago.
It used to be that Globe of Blades could strike multiple times if the game was paused at the right frame, instantly killing practically anything purely by accident. I don't know if this is a bug or just a quirk of Time Stop, but as I've mentioned earlier, my standard practice is to treat non-petrification-related chunking as a normal death, so it makes little difference (I can probably live without Maneira considering my other options, but it just wouldn't be much fun without her).
Anyhoo, the lich finally goes visible, which allows Frisk to try out a new HLA: Psionic Lock, which "pauses" both the caster and target for 6 seconds, bypassing all defenses and offering no save.
It's really only useful when you have allies to act during the lock, and the duration is pitiful, but the fact that it always works makes it a great tactical tool. You can only pick the ability five times at most, though; you can't paralyze everyone indefinitely.
The lock buys us a little bit of extra time, just enough to wait out that pesky PFMW. Without it, the lich is helpless.
I can get Maneira back, but per the rule I established earlier, I have to fight the lich all over again. This time, though, I click on him to turn him around (same principle as talk-blocking, but for a different purpose), allowing Maneira to land a backstab on the lich that would otherwise be impossible.
Her traps bring it down to Near Death (I probably should have set more than four of them), and Gorky fails to disrupt the lich's spells with Chain Lightning. It seems that spell is not a reliable disrupter.
I have very little interest in letting the lich get Time Stop off the ground, so I have Maneira dispel its illusions and Frisk hold it in place for 6 seconds, giving Gorky enough time to cast his own Time Stop first.
Because I haven't learned my lesson yet, I try to hurt him by throwing Firetooth instead of attacking in melee. As a result, Gorky disrupts the lich's spell but fails to deal any damage.
Still, we seem to have taken off enough Stoneskins to render the lich vulnerable. Down it goes!
Kangaxx is a whole other monster, however. We have tools to deal with its lich form, but I can't get anyone in the party to have a save vs. death low enough to resist SCS' Trap the Soul spell without relying on dispellable buffs.
Unless we get the Amulet of Life Protection.
But it seems that you can't get the amulet if you worked with High Watcher Oisig in the Unseeing Eye quest. You have to complete the illithium questline for the church of Lathander to get the amulet; the church of Helm gives you... well, a helm.
I had to pay a visit to the Temple Ruins to complete that questline (a mod extends the questline, but does not actually add any interesting content; it just makes a fetch quest longer), and on the way we visit Thaxll'ssillyia. It seems that all dragons short of Abazigal are vulnerable to petrification. Not that you'd usually use it on a dragon, considering the disadvantages in the unmodded game.
I don't use the basilisk XP loop on him; I don't have any new recruits in mind that would require higher levels from Frisk.
I find an extra Protection from Magic scroll outside Kangaxx's lair. Neat!
Anyway, on to Kangaxx. I've prepared for his lich form, but my preparations turn out to be unnecessary.
I'm not proud of the traps, but I'm quite pleased with the backstab.
Kangaxx transforms in a few seconds. This is where things get dicey. Trap the Soul offers a save vs. death at -5 in SCS, but our saving throws are simply not that great. The only person who is safe is Frisk themself, because SCS enemies don't imprison the main character. And if we let Gorky get imprisoned, casting Freedom to recover our companions would be... difficult.
Ideally, Frisk would take control of Kangaxx using Domination. But Frisk only has about a 10% chance of landing it (assuming Kangaxx has no spell-based save buffs), and while that's pretty awesome considering the payoff, it's not reliable.
I, however, have something of a trump card. Gorky stops time and gets ready.
Improved Alacrity lets you spam Psionic Blast if you pre-cast Shapechange, since you get a new casting of Psionic Blast every time you switch to mind flayer form.
I think I do it about 60 times, which amounts to one casting per frame for two whole seconds. The odds of Kangaxx making every save are 0.95^60, or less than 5%.
But when Time Stop finally ends...
...Kangaxx only had to make 5 saving throws. Chance of success, 77%. It's not surprising he made all 5 of them.
What I don't understand is why 60 Psionic Blast spells only hit 5 times altogether. This supports the theory that projectiles that hit on the same frame don't get counted twice. The Psionic Blast trick is far weaker than it may seem.
Or at least, it's much weaker during Time Stop, when all the spells come out at the same time. But I can't test it out with Time Stop gone; Improved Alacrity is over and in my install, Gorky can only cast it once per day. It's an innate ability instead of a level 9 mage spell.
Kangaxx stops time himself, but doesn't do much besides debuff us (which is actually a huge deal considering how much we need saving throw bonuses to handle Trap the Soul). Frisk tries another Domination spell, but Kangaxx resists the second one, too.
Notice Maneira drinking a Potion of Invulnerability. It saves her life a few seconds later.
Maneira uses Vhailor's Helm, but only at the last possible moment did I realize that she was not wearing the Ring of the Ram.
It's a massive, massive loss that could have easily been avoided. Because while clones in SCS (depending on your install) cannot use quick items, they can still use other items like the Ring of the Ram. Which happens to be one of the best anti-Kangaxx weapons around.
With Vhailor's Helm and a Simulacrum spell or scroll, you can cast it three times a day, enough to kill Kangaxx in a single round if you coordinate it right. But I was so focused on the Psionic Blast strategy that I didn't think to optimize my Ring of the Ram setup. We only get a single use out of the ring.
Kangaxx tries to imprison the Greater Basilisk. Because I foolishly made the Greater Basilisk a Barbarian instead of a Berserker like the Lesser Basilisk, our basilisk's only defense against Trap the Soul is a Potion of Invulnerability. And unlike Maneira, with her save-boosting items, the basilisk's save vs. death is around 10.
One character down. Maneira and the Ancient Vampire drink potions while Gorky halfheartedly throws a Pierce Magic spell at Kangaxx's Spell Turning buff. All we really want to do is wait out those PFMW spells.
Then something incredible happens.
Charmed! Charmed! It'll only last 1d3 rounds unless we get another failed save (which would come at an additional -3 penalty), but it's an extremely lucky roll that could prove decisive.
But what can we do when I only know for certain that we'll get a single round out of it? The answer quickly becomes clear.
At Kangaxx's current HP, that will only hold him for 2d4 rounds. But in a fight like this, where Kangaxx's life is measured in the duration of his PFMW spells, that could prove decisive.
It only lasts 2 rounds, maybe 3. But it's enough to burn through his PFMW. The Ancient Vampire drinks his blood (somehow), taking a few point off of his presumably low Constitution (it's 11).
I really don't want Kangaxx to re-cast PFMW. But we have exactly one method of stopping him:
It's only for 6 seconds, but it's a huge deal at this stage of the battle. We chip away at his HP, but Kangaxx fires back, imprisoning the Ancient Vampire.
But he doesn't re-cast PFMW. At least not fast enough to avoid Gorky's Black Blade of Disaster.
Finally, the Ring of Gaxx is ours.
But I really should have just used the Ring of the Ram, which I already knew worked perfectly.
Or just went through the mind flayer city and got a Control Circlet, which also works perfectly well on Kangaxx. I've actually gotten him to instantly kill himself with PW: Kill.
Potions of Firebreath, however, don't work in my install, as Kangaxx has 100% magic resistance and my Potions of Firebreath don't bypass MR.
Gorky casts Freedom and we get back our Greater Basilisk and Ancient Vampire. Check out the effects of the basilisk XP loop we pulled on Firkraag. Our Greater Basilisk is our historical MVP, just because of that one event.
Almost makes you think the Seducer kit might be a teensy bit overpowered.
Right about now, I realized that Gorky was supposed to be able to create his own spell scrolls. The only reason he didn't have the spell was because he lost them due to an EEKeeper directory error. I had to use EEKeeper to let myself change party members' soundsets and portraits (this was never necessary in my other installs; just my EET game), and because EEKeeper was in the wrong directory, it erased all the files it didn't recognize. Gorky lost a bunch of spells, including the scroll scribing one.
We probably also lost thousands and thousands of gold in mod items that would have been pawned off to various merchants. But the important thing is that Gorky can now create Time Stop scrolls for 5,000 gold a pop. And we just might need them.
Because we're going to one of the most challenging dungeons in the entire saga.
No, not Watcher's Keep. For some reason I can't go there; it doesn't even show up on my map. But EET lets me re-visit almost any BG1 area (and maybe some SoD ones; I haven't tried), and Durlag's Tower might have some nice treats for us.
The dungeon is somewhat less challenging when you enter at epic levels.
The puzzles were actually incredibly difficult, because I've only beaten the dungeon twice before, and wasn't paying much attention last time.
Just for funsies, I seduce Aec'Letec when we get back to Ulgoth's Beard.
He has 5 APR and a lot of the same immunities that our old Glabrezu did back in Mollyboo's old run. Unfortunately, when I try to see if it's still possible to get some XP out of him by petrifying him...
...I discover that he has become permanently immune to Seduction somehow. We have to put him down.
I really should have expected it, since I saw much the same thing happen to our old kitty cat from Candlekeep when I tried to preserve him using petrification. But we can do without Aec-Letec.
Baldur's Gate is unfortunately off-limits.
However, Seducers get a special Psionic Teleportation ability that lets you teleport anywhere on the map. And testing finds that we can actually go right back into the city if Frisk teleports over the wall. But I have no intention of going back; there's very little left for us there besides the threat of game-breaking bugs.
We bust out Time Stop against the Guarded Compound...
...Meteor Swarm against the Coiled Cabal in the Planar Prison...
...and Time Stop again against the Warden, though it takes a couple tries due to the Warden's Mantle...
...and yet more Time Stop spells in the beholder hive. Because screw beholders.
Maneira proves vulnerable to Psionic Blasts despite having the Amulet of Spell Warding and a save vs. spell of 1. Not because of the specialization bug thingy we've been discussing lately, but because Ulitharids' Psionic Blast comes with a -4 penalty.
Maneira has actually hit epic levels and can now wield both Carsomyr and the Soul Reaver at 5 APR, unhasted. But Gorky makes her pretty much unnecessary in most fights thanks to Time Stop.
Notice that the Greater Basilisk is gone. We've already gotten all the XP we could possibly want at this stage of the game thanks to the basilisk XP loop. Which means we really should kick out the basilisk so the rest of the party gets a bigger share of the XP rewards.
We stomp the mind flayers fast enough that we don't suffer more than one death.
This is what happens when a modder give 2.5 APR to a Nashkel mines bounty hunter. And accidentally codes him as a mage. And some other modder accidentally finds a way to seduce him.
Frisk helps too, you know.
Maneira suffers badly against the vampires, as she has no PFMW to block their CON drain, but Gorky once again comes to the rescue.
Downstairs, Gorky chain-casts Time Stop to take down Bodhi early. Even though she gets an extra Heal spell because he attacked her before her dialogue triggered, he still takes her down before running out of Time Stop spells.
Bodhi's death causes Manasseh and Hazzerbazzer to disappear. It seems that the best way to deal with Tactics Bodhi is simply to smash her while she's slowed, completely ignoring the mages and their bothersome PFMW spells.
As for Venduris and the Chosen of Cyric encounter...
...well, it's been a long time since they killed Mollyboo. I think my thirst for revenge has been sated, and I see no reason to endanger the run by fighting the Chosen of Cyric when I know I can talk my way out of it.
Sparing the lives of horribly dangerous murderers fills us with determination.
In the SoD prologue dungeon I sanctuaried through to Porios and convinced him to give up. The undead groups were mainly dealt with by sanctuaring among them using turn undead with summons and Flaming Fist mopping up. Korlasz tried running round, but was doomed and commanded to die - and did so.
In Baldur's Gate, apart from killing and looting NPCs I also obtained the Spectacles of Spectacle which I've not picked up before (in single player). With so much surplus XP carried forward from BG1 I didn't do any quests though before heading off with the army. Arriving at the Coast Way Crossing I bought a bag of holding and consolidated equipment using that before going to the Coast Way Forest. I helped the vampire to get a source of regeneration - Isabella was hard to hit, but went down eventually.
The messenger arriving from Tsolak also gave a bit of extra XP - giving me my final level very early in SoD.
Travelling back to the Coast Way Crossing I came across a fight between some orcs and trolls. Skeletons were produced, but the orcs made short work of those, suggesting that skeletons may be somewhat less of a force in SoD than BG1. I tried sanctuary with a view to doing more preparation, but enemies in SoD will follow you despite invisibility. No problem though - a few buffs and the orcs were comprehensively crushed.
Inside a cave a hoarded ring of infravision allowed me to get below a pond to pick up the Firefly sling, though I didn't bother killing the trolls there.
Back at the Crossing the only additional work done was to shoot down Teleria in order to get the Stone Ally (though that would need potions of genius to actually use).
I approached the bridge under sanctuary in order to avoid any fighting there.
Moving on to the Troll Claw Forest I found more trolls (surprise, surprise) and decided the shield taken from Isabella would make an appropriate introduction to them.
They were finished off without problems and I was able to pick up the Locket of Embracing (+1 to caster level and 2 bonus 1st level spells). One particular benefit of that is that animate dead produces an upgraded skeleton warrior at level 11.
I ignored a cave full of fungi on the way to the Forest of Wyrms. Fighting through a few things there on the way to the Temple of Bhaal took me to the XP cap - it's going to be a while before I get the chance to see that tick over again . Inside the cave I decided to attack Morentherene - just using standard clerical buffs. Retreating to the entrance meant the wyverns couldn't get past the dragon to attack, but it took a while to get through her stoneskins and I had to retreat outside to regenerate for a while before coming back in to finish the job.
Various bugbears made little impression on me in the next cave before skeletons were summoned to deal with Snorgash.
Most of the remaining bugbears died without trouble, but a warleader got 2 big criticals (and they were criticals as I'd swapped to the regenerating ioun stone at that time and ioun stones don't protect from criticals in SoD) forcing me to switch back to a helmet while completing that battle.
There are various traps in this location that have killed my characters in the past, so I took the opportunity to check their locations for future reference - I think this one may be variable as I've seen both feeblemind and maze effects going down there.
There was no save this time, so I assume that the effect was baffled by chaotic commands. The next potential killing trap I think uses charm from memory, but that was also no problem with chaotic commands.
After killing various guards the skeletons were a bit battered and I was out of most spells, so rested before going after Ziatar. As usual she used sanctuary to survive a bit longer, but this time I didn't resort to fireballs to finish her off quicker.
Instead I released some prisoners and then watched in amusement as a critical helped take down the Neothelid in seconds.
I was wary of being exposed to a backstab from the Shadow Aspect, but true sight and a screen of skeletons avoided any danger.
Darskhelin's support crew were also a potential nuisance so I rested prior to them. The skeletons lasted long enough to take out the more dangerous enemies and Darskhelin's improved invisibility didn't help him much against true seeing.
After another sanctuaried rest Akanna was the last of the temple's guardians to fall.
Since I'm trying to find the Greenstone Amulet, which gives permanent Mind Shield protection instead of having charges under IR, but can't find it because Item Randomizer, I decided to fight the Rieltar and his gang. Maybe they have it, you never know. Not much to say about the actual fight : an opening backstab from Alora, a bunch of fireballs, a few traps and melee power trashed them. No picture needed, really. They didn't have the Greenstone Amulet, sadly. ... I couldn't find the Greenstone Amulet yet, but I don't care anymore. I'll press on now. We're slowly approaching the end of BG1...
Just for you be aware in the future - Greenstone Amulet is the ToSC item (being introduced in Ulgoth's Beard store) and Item Randomiser place it -only- in ToSC areas (Durlag's Tower, Ice Island, Werewolf Isle) so there is no point to search for it in vanilla areas.
@Neverused: Frisk is still going. I only tacked on the pacifist requirement because that's how I normally play my Charnames; it wasn't the goal of this run. I'm just going to call the SoA portion "almost pacifist, except for that one dude I wasted."
When you think about it, it's hardly a pacifist run anyway when Frisk is seducing people and ordering them to murder their enemies.
Just a quick update on what Amaruq has been up to lately.
After raising some additional funds from the early quests in the south, we're finally able to obtain Greenstone Amulet and Darts of Stunning (and we're already rocking a single proficiency pip in darts). Why not try them against Amaruq's namesake? Yeah, why not. Especially if he wants to quaff a strength potion instead of Oil of Speed.
Meilum, on the other hand, was far less inclined to fail the save and had to be tackled with Charm -> Call Lightning -> 0 speed factor Aule's. Still, Amaruq earned couple of slashes in the process. This one was kinda lame and inglorious, but at least it's done.
In anticipation of the 7th druid level we decided to assist in regulating the ankegh population a little. Oh, all right, there it is.
This is good news as we've now got access to the nymphs. Combined with our fast weapon, Darts of Stunning, slinging range (if needed) and a sufficent collection of buff resources, we feel comfortable to proceed with the main questline.
But first, let us introduce the nymph lasses (or Ulene, Canya and Elyme if you like). Silke, meet Ulene and Canya. Excuse Elyme, she's out of office. The rest of you will get to see the girls a lot more.
Alright, onto the mines then! PoI quaff is definitely worth the kobold hassle here so let's just avoid them altogether. As for Mulahey, Amaruq prepares with summons, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Greenstone Amulet and ProUndead scroll (to be used againts the Revenant shortly after). Our plan was extremely straightforward: Wand of Sleep (for kobolds), Hold/Confusion (for Mulahey) and Aule's (for anything that moves).
The battle never really started, although it was by lucky chance that Ulene and Canya were able to release their opening Hold Monster projectiles despite being assaulted by Unholy Blight.
We loot the tombs, kill the Revenant and return to Nashkel. With the extended spell slots via Ring of Holiness (don't know the EE name), Amaruq is now able to summon the triplets againts Nimbul. We're confident that one Hold Monster (bypassing his MGoI) from the nymphs will connect. Nevertheless, Amaruq will keep her aura clear with Potion of Magic Blocking at the ready. It wasn't needed.
Btw: In contrast to my previous runs, I've decided not to recharge any items (most notably Greenstone and Shield amulets) and therefore I'm trying to limit their usage in lesser encounters. As a result, I expect the playstyle to be slightly more re-active (using aura defensively and according to the circumstances) rather than pro-active (complete pre-buffs and offensive use of aura). Amaruq is happy with the choice. So am I.
Just for you be aware in the future - Greenstone Amulet is the ToSC item (being introduced in Ulgoth's Beard store) and Item Randomiser place it -only- in ToSC areas (Durlag's Tower, Ice Island, Werewolf Isle) so there is no point to search for it in vanilla areas.
Aww, man... I would almost have preferred to not know that. I wasn't planning to finish ToSC content, but now I don't know. Greenstone Amulet under IR is such a nice security blanket. We'll see if I go to Wolfie Island or not...
Just for you be aware in the future - Greenstone Amulet is the ToSC item (being introduced in Ulgoth's Beard store) and Item Randomiser place it -only- in ToSC areas (Durlag's Tower, Ice Island, Werewolf Isle) so there is no point to search for it in vanilla areas.
Aww, man... I would almost have preferred to not know that. I wasn't planning to finish ToSC content, but now I don't know. Greenstone Amulet under IR is such a nice security blanket. We'll see if I go to Wolfie Island or not...
Sorry if my comment was out of place... Meanwhile, Werewolf Isle s pretty safe... But it should be your decision, so you'll not get on me if something will go wrong...
@Serg_BlackStrider Hey, don't worry mate. Your comment was more than welcome ! It just got me thinking. You're right that Werewolf Island shoudn't pose problem, because it's just filled with melee grunts. I have no Bastard sword user, but I could buff Kivan into oblivion and let him take on Karoug. I think I'll delay the end of BG1 just a bit.
Edit : And any mishap that would happen is obviously all on me !
You're right that Werewolf Island shoudn't pose problem, because it's just filled with melee grunts. I have no Bastard sword user, but I could buff Kivan into oblivion and let him take on Karoug.
In my experience, (greater) wolfies are quite susceptible to Wand of Paralyzation and Heavens. Having Karoug disabled you could poke him with Silver Dagger even by infirm Diviner. Item Revisions changes Wands to cast spells instead but in case of Paralyzation one the effect is mostly the same.
I knew about the wands of Heavens, but not about wands of Paralyzation. Thanks ! However, from experience, even without the relevant proficiencies, a dual wielding Kivan with sword of Balduran and Werebane dagger, Haste and 25 strength from potions and SR Strength of One should also tear through him. Mendas is theoritically a bit harder, but shouldn't pose any real problem at this stage.
I'm still unsure if I will go there or not, but I'm slightly leaning on yes for now.
At Boareskyr Bridge I knew this time where to find Vichand's scroll and was shortly able to defeat a wraith
and get Jegg to make some +3 bullets (though I noted he was totally out of stock of any other kind ). He also made a dragonscale shield to improve my AC a bit more. The only other thing done was to talk to Thirrim and buy a few more potions not to use before getting the Flaming Fist and Bridgefortians to jointly attack the crusaders. I boldly led the Fist attack from the rear and waited for things to calm down a bit before summoning skeletons to help take down the Barghest. The skellies had enough oomph left to deal with Olaneiros and the remaining attackers as well.
There wasn't too much left over for the bridge mage, but I wasn't sure whether that encounter could be left while resting and true sight quickly made him vulnerable.
After resting for a while to identify all the junk picked up after the battle I moved on to the Coalition Camp. Using the spectacles there enabled a new merchant, though the only thing I thought worth having for me there was the lucky belt.
I didn't think there was anything useful in Dead Man's Pass, so carried straight on through. The same applied in Bloodbark Grove, so it was on to the Underground River. Chaotic commands was used there to beat up some myconids and get a Bloom-Sac. Writing up a note on that could have ended the run when I failed to pause the game and came back to it to find a wandering bear was chewing my leg off - oh well, no great harm done this time .
Finding the entrance to the underground some skeletons attempted to deal with a cyclops and other guards, but came off worst there with one of the mages still left alive. I ran away and managed to activate sanctuary at the second attempt before coming back to buff, then silence and kill the mage.
The other guards were no longer hasted and were split up with Bhaal horror and soon finished off. There were lots more guards inside the gate though and I had to resort to running and shooting against them - and eventually to just running when my retreat activated a group of greater wyverns.
Attempting to get back to the Underground River I found a dead magic zone. Up to this point I'd used no consumable resources at all in SoD, but with spells not available I tried to resort to potions for the first time - only to find they didn't work there either. A test showed Bhaal abilities were also blocked and, though from MP experience here I knew wands worked, I thought my chances of killing the Shadowy Figure before he ran away were probably less than his of killing me - and I took the coward's route .
Back at the Underground River it didn't take long for the wyverns to congregate and kill all my skeletons (once active, most SoD enemies will hunt you down irrespective of invisibility, resting or leaving & returning maps). A rest allowed another lot of skeletons to appear though and they had little trouble with the remaining guards.
I left Rigah alone as this character has no use for 2-handed swords.
I was now in territory that I've not done before in single player and I briefly consulted a walkthrough to see what to do. That suggested that a wand of water elemental summoning could be obtained by telling a story to some sahuagin, but they apparently didn't like my tale. Deciding not to read further I just followed the prompts of the stone dowser to find a suitable place for the Bwoosh and placed that without any need for conflict. I then tried to talk my way into the Warrens, but was unable to convince Turin Brassbreaker to open up. However, my journal kindly advised that placing a potion of firebreath in a cooking pot would provide a suitable distraction and moments later I was inside. I poisoned some food and water using sanctuary, but couldn't immediately get the elevator down again. A bit of experience with MP there suggested that the mage needed to be aware of your presence before the elevator would work, so I spoke to him to turn him hostile and then used a potion of invisibility before running for it. I stopped to kill the sahuagin on the way out in case they had the wand referred to before, but it appeared they must have stashed it somewhere else .
After convincing the Fist leaders not to hand me over to Caelar in a parley, I briefly travelled to Dragonspear Castle to rescue Skie and looked at the Courtyard, but found that was now walled off so quests there are inaccessible (I checked earlier and found that travelling to the Castle was disabled - experience in MP suggests there's something buggy about that transition as it's not always available when it should be).
Back at the Coalition Camp I was expecting to have more time to prepare, but found myself facing trolls and ogres before having produced any summons. Two potions of firebreath later and there wasn't much left of them though.
I then summoned a few skeletons, but again was caught out by how quickly the mages appeared for the next battle (I expect this timing issue is the result of this being my first time in SP, but having done this battle several times before in MP - where I play at half the speed). I was vulnerable to spells there, but reduced the danger somewhat by equipping a helm of charm protection before using another potion of firebreath. I then retreated as the skeletons arrived to help the wizard slayers clear up the mess.
The third attacking force found skeletons already in position and they provided a delay while the war mages tried some disablers. The crusaders still looked pretty powerful though, so potions of firebreath were once more put into action.
For the final fight some of my assassins perished due to 'friendly firebreath', but Auziel appeared to be immortal and held the attention of the last few enemies as they were finished off.
Next up will be the confrontation at Dragonspear Castle.
Well this thread has been going like gangbusters since I last logged on. I've been sick past few days, so haven't had much chance to make much progress or keep up with Baldur's Gate anything.
Corthief XIII is still going. We've done some high experience areas like Ankhegs and Basilisks, but nothing of note has really happened yet which is why I didn't post anything. Will keep at it.
Our kill rate is really slow - thinking of adding a strong and also high DEX character like Shar-Teel to speed up the kills, though will also slow our experience gain.
On to Suldannessellar! Rakshasas, like practically everything else in the game, cannot stand up to Gorky during Time Stop.
But I don't want to kill all of these guys. I leave one alive and seduce him, granting us a very special new mage.
Rajahs are coded as level 11 mages and have 3.5 APR in addition to low THAC0, low AC, and immunity to level 1-7 spells (though SCS lets Breach get past them, I think). The Rajah will be kind of weak for a while compared to the rest of the party (and it costs over 50,000 gold to get him all of the spells we want him to have), but once we reach ToB, his XP should jump up to 2.5 million, putting him at the normal value for a non-completionist party of 6 entering ToB from SoA.
(Maharajahs, despite meaning "great king" to the Rajah's "king," are actually weaker than Rajahs in Suldannessellar, which is why we went with the Rajah.)
But we're not tackling Suldannessellar just yet. Once we get the Rajah, we head back to Athkatla to take down the Twisted Rune.
I actually don't think we're entirely optimized for this fight, but I do have a couple of tricks up my sleeve. First of all, there's a little-known fact about an SCS' vampires CON drain attack: it also heals the vampire by a small amount of HP, which can put the vampire over its maximum. It lasts 20 rounds and cannot be dispelled.
Which means that if we summon a whole bunch of critters...
...our Ancient Vampire can crank up its HP to more than 700. We could actually push it even higher, but 700 is more than enough.
Unfortunately, vampires are by no means unstoppable even with HP like that. Layenne's Fallen Planetar could easily kill the Ancient Vampire with a vorpal strike. Vaxall could also do it with the right beholder ray.
We can deal with a planetar, I think, but Vaxall is another story. He chain-casts PFMW and his rays, naturally, cannot be disrupted. So what do we do?
Well, we can try setting traps, but they won't reach him; they'd only hit Shangalar. And since we can't enter the next chamber without crossing a trigger that spawns Shangalar and brings his party into the area, we'd only be able to lay a single trap before Vaxall showed up.
But... We just so happen to have a spare copy of a scroll that could let Maneira hop right over that spawn point. And thanks to UAI, she can use it despite having no mage levels.
And since Maneira has Vhailor's Helm, she can set even more traps than she'd normally be able to. Better still, her simulacrum will use those normal snares at level 11, which deals lingering poison damage.
Unfortunately, Shangalar soaks up most of the traps, which I meant for Layenne. The good news is that most of the traps around Vaxall's spawn point were just out of reach, and therefore remain intact.
Both Spike Traps hit! Vaxall is down! The biggest threat in this fight has just been neutralized.
Traps tend to be pretty reductive, but I'm quite proud of using that Dimension Door scroll to make all this possible. Now the only threat left is Layenne. Gorky stops time to squash her remaining allies, just so they won't get in the way.
Since spell durations run during Time Stop, Layenne loses her PFMW, leaving her helpless.
I don't know why Layenne wasn't invisible at the end. Maybe Maneira revealed her at just the right time. But it was an important detail, because Gorky as a Conjurer cannot cast divination spells.
Okay, we're finally done with Athkatla. And with all other side quests already completed--with the exception of Watcher's Keep, which I still don't see on the map anywhere for some reason--it is time to bring Shadows of Amn to an end.
Nizidramanii'yt falls to several consecutive Time Stops. Normally this wouldn't be possible for a single-classed mage, but Gorky has the APR of a dual-classed Fighter/Mage with Grandmastery.
Suneer survives much longer due to invisibility, but Maneira can reveal him to Gorky.
The fight with Irenicus is more complicated, since Jon-bon has multiple illusory clones. Gorky has to beat them one by one to isolate the real Irenicus.
Notice Gorky was using his bare hands to deal damage through PFMW.
The real Irenicus is a harder nut to crack. He's totally immune to Horrid Wilting, unlike his clone, but he still has one important weakness.
Yup. Cone of Cold is a great tool against SCS mages. Jon-bon falls and we wake up in Hell.
We pick all the good options in the Hell trials, but we do have one other thing to take care of before we fight Irenicus. I want a sixth party member.
And Wraith Sarevok happens to be a level 15 fighter. At level 32, Frisk can easily seduce him.
We can't leave until he's dead, though, so we have to put him down and resurrect him outside.
Notice that Frisk dealt the final blow. I didn't realize this until later, but it seems that Frisk made two exceptions to the pacifist rules in SoA. I really should pay more attention to who's attacking.
Since I know Wraith Sarevok will get an XP boost in ToB, I dual-class him to thief. His THAC0 will be poor in the fight with the Slayer, but he'll still be a spectacular tank. Interestingly enough, dual-classing removes his normal sprite and makes him into a dwarf.
Notice I gave him the Berserker kit before dual-classing, since his saving throws aren't great. Wraith Sarevok gets a few paltry levels from the other trials, but nothing that really makes him useful. The final fight of SoA will depend mostly on Maneira, Gorky, and possibly the Ancient Vampire.
To prepare for the fight, Maneira sets a bunch of traps, including Time Traps, in a separate location where Frisk can hide from the Slayer's Time Stop spells. Otherwise, Frisk should be okay--their defenses are spectacular, partly due to the permanent Slayer form and partly due to Seducers getting level-based bonuses to melee weapons and saves vs. spell.
Frisk is a veritable tank, but that's very unusual for a Seducer. Without the Slayer form, their AC would be 9 points higher and their MR and elemental resistances would be 50% lower.
The fight begins, and I scatter the party to minimize the danger from Remove Magic.
Notice the big elementals, courtesy of the Staff of Elemental Mastery from Item Upgrade.
Gorky stops time, but the Slayer's PFMW spell is still active, so he busies himself with the other demons.
Another Time Stop spell, however, gets Gorky past the PFMW duration.
Unfortunately, the Slayer's regeneration and HP are sky-high, and Gorky mistimes his next Time Stop. Killing a Balor during Time Stop turns out to be a mistake; these Balors explode and disrupt spells when they die.
Now we're in trouble. The Slayer lost its first spell, which I'm sure was Time Stop, but it has enough breathing room to re-cast PFMW. Less importantly, a Balor kills Wraith Sarevok (without apparently landing a vorpal strike, which doesn't make much sense for a 600-HP critter like Wraith Sarevok).
The Slayer targets Frisk, who responds with Psionic Invisibility. Gorky runs away to make sure his next Time Stop doesn't get disrupted, and the rest of the party, having nothing else to do, fights the Balor.
Gorky only has so many Time Stop spells he can cast per day, but we created a few extra scrolls just in case we might need them. But he only needs one scroll (which we would have had anyway; one from Ribald to scribe and another from Suldannessellar to cast) to stop time long enough to bring down Jon-bon.
The battle is won! Shadows of Amn is over! On to Throne of Bhaal! SoA might not be a pacifist run, but I'll still try to beat ToB without Frisk killing anybody.
Melissan is waiting. We are filled with determination.
At the Castle I took the short-cut of challenging Ashatiel to solo combat. With a scroll of PfM and AC of -19 against missiles she failed to do anything to me while being shot down herself. Muddling my way through the castle I found Caelar and hopped through a doorway to Hell. I was poisoned there by an imp and forgot I wouldn't be able to use a spell to cure that, so was low on HPs by the time a green scroll took effect. However, a potion of regeneration helped boost HPs back up after eventually shooting down Illaruel (I wasn't sure if that was necessary to do or not).
I didn't think there would be much opportunity to cast spells later on, so produced some skeletons and buffed them a bit to attack Thrix. My experience in MP has been that he is hard to kill quickly though and that proved to be the case again. However, some running round with a sling eventually saw the back of him. The remaining enemies wouldn't have lasted long at all, except that ...
I'd actually checked my saving throws only just prior to that and spell save was at 0, but the potion of stone form must have just run out as it was up to 3 at the point of being held. Not having replenished it earlier was rather silly given I had loads of those, but I suppose I'd been thinking of it as a replacement for a potion of defense even though I knew it only lasted half as long.
@Grond0 Too bad about your cleric/thief - we don't see many solo of those around in the no-reload threads. @semiticgod Best of luck against Melissan. Take your time!
Throne of Bhaal bumps your XP up to 2.5 million if it's not already there, so the Rajah will get a few extra levels right off the bat, and Wraith Sarevok will recover his Berserker levels almost instantly.
But the XP reward doesn't trigger.
I keep waiting. Nothing. I don't know if it's a bug or a feature of EET, but we're not getting the XP you normally get at the start of ToB.
It's a nonfatal bug, so I roll with it. Wraith Sarevok needs over a million more XP before he regains his Berserker levels. He's probably going to be stuck as an unkitted thief for most of the game, if not all of it. He's still a great character--he has 3.5 APR, 600 HP, and excellent stats and resistances--but he'll never get HLAs.
And as I would realize only just now, he's suffering from a 50% XP penalty due to receiving his fighter kit from Seduction (his original class is "Sarevok").
It's not the only weird behavior I see. Illasera's goons never go hostile, and she fires her arrows right at the Ancient Vampire's Shield of Reflection.
She's not even hostile, which means Maneira can backstab Illasera in plain sight. Nonfatal bugs can work both for and against you.
Notice Maneira using the upgraded Sword of Arvoreen, which we nicked from Mazzy after seducing her (technically we're not supposed to bring any NPCs into the party, but I didn't want to kill Mazzy). This was actually a huge mistake, because the upgraded sword grants no immunity to stun or PW: Stun.
Which is a huge loss, because we have no way of achieving immunity to stun. We haven't seen the Greenstone Amulet since the end of SoD.
Due to a slow reaction, I let Irenicus launch the first Time Stop in the first Pocket Plane trial.
Luckily for Frisk, he does not use his Energy Blades on them. Gorky takes control of time and obliterates everyone.
The vampires of Saradush are no trouble. Just for fun, I have Maneira solo the next mage using the Staff of the Magi.
As for Gromnir... Well, that's what Gorky is for.
He butchers Gromnir during Time Stop and also puts down the only visible mage, dual-wielding Firetooth and Gnasher for the former and deploying the Staff of the Magi for the latter.
SCS lets people make a saving throw against Carsomyr, but there is no such nerf to the Staff of the Magi.
Gorky makes excellent progress in the limited time he has, but he mistimes enough Time Stop spells that it gives Karun the Black enough time to cast his own Time Stop. Maneira goes down for the first time in a long time.
Gorky casts his own Time Stop once again, using Improved Alacrity to debuff Karun the Black, but it's not quite enough to Breach him. When his weapons fail, Gorky just uses Sunfire to disrupt Karun the Black's next spell.
Of course, since PFMW lasts 4 rounds and Time Stop lasts 3, it's only a few seconds before Karun the Black becomes vulnerable to the Staff of the Magi, at which point he's toast.
If Gorky seems to be doing most of the work in this run so far, it's because he is.
Yaga-Shura is next. On the way, we buy a spare Bag of Holding and discover that it's the same item as one of our bags from SoD. And while most of the contents are just spare scrolls, we also find the Martyr's Morningstar!
Not to mention our old Greenstone Amulet, which we promptly recharge.
Fun fact: the Martyr's Morningstar reduces the targets HP by 15% of its maximum on a critical hit. Helmets will block the effect, but weapon immunities do not. The Critical Strike and Smite HLAs will both trigger the effect on every hit, so once Maneira gets Critical Strike, she can instantly kill anything in a single round as long as it doesn't have a helmet.
One of my mods adds a special item for Wilson which boosts his Dexterity by one point.
Each one costs thousands of gold and you'd need to give Wilson five of them just to improve his AC by a single point, but Maneira can use the Wand of Lightning trick to eat six of them at once.
Her THAC0 comes from a custom weapon I was using to conduct some tests; she doesn't really have -46 THAC0 with any of her real weapons.
For some reason, we cannot use Teleport anymore.
I assumed it was typical behavior for the Teleport mod, but looking at the readme, it seems that you're supposed to be able to use the spell to revisit SoA areas even in ToB, as well as navigate around the normal areas of ToB. It seems a variable was erroneously interfering with our attempts to teleport.
Speaking of areas we can't access, we still can't go to Watcher's Keep.
I'm not a big fan of the fire giant temple. We can deal with the giants themselves, but the Burning Men can dispel all of Gorky's defenses, bypassing all of his spell protections, and then kill him more or less instantly.
The Fire Lich is also kind of irritating, but only becomes it takes so long.
Well, time to kill a dragon.
Done. Let's move on to something more interesting. Like killing other things during Time Stop!
There is one interesting thing about this fight: apparently the Shambling Mound's weapon has the wrong parameters for a damage effect, causing it to deal about 90% of Wraith Sarevok's 600+ HP pool in two hits.
Nonfatal bugs are actually surprisingly common in EET. There have also been a fair number of spontaneous crashes during area transitions, but nothing I've been able to replicate (I just reloaded and did it again). Still, EET is perfectly playable, and I'd say it's actually worth it to be able to revisit areas from previous games, even though I didn't take advantage of it very much.
On the way out, I see something very strange.
It seems one of my mods adds an expansion to this area. I decide to peek inside, just to see what's there...
...but apparently only poison-immune characters can go in.
The Ancient Vampire, of course, is completely immune to poison. I send it down and the game asks me if I'm sure.
Now that it asks me, I'm a bit hesitant. The Ancient Vampire is really strong, and I doubt whatever lies below is going to be too much trouble for it, but I don't really know what's going to happen.
I really want to find out what's going on down there. But I'm not sure we could survive the loss of the Ancient Vampire. My future strategies are absolutely dependent on the Ancient Vampire's presence, and if we somehow lost it, we'd be in serious trouble.
In the end, I decide to once again play it safe and walk away. Not just because I'm worried about the Ancient Vampire's health, but because I don't see a profit that could justify the risk.
Out of curiosity, I try the Wand of Lightning trick on the Staff of Elemental Mastery and immediately regret it.
I really don't need these many summons; not with this party. In fact, I don't need them at all. Gorky is strong enough to handle almost anything, Maneira can fill in the few gaps in his arsenal, the Ancient Vampire has a devasting CON drain ability, and we still have three perfectly decent party members after that. I don't want to let my summons do all the work; this isn't an LoB run.
Unwilling to put them down with CTRL-Y, however, I just leave most of them behind while we head across the bridge to deal with Yaga-Shura. I only bring the three elementals that the staff is supposed to be able to summon. [spoiler]
Yaga-Shura reappears unusually fast, but he does so right in the midst of our many extraneous elementals.
Screw it. It hardly matters. We already have the tools for an early kill on Yaga-Shura. The epic-level mage that comes with Yaga-Shura can't do much besides remove some potion buffs and throw out some decidedly nonfatal HLAs.
I was planning on killing Yaga-Shura with CON drain (unlike Abazigal and Sendai, the first three big Bhaalspawn you fight in ToB do not have a death dialogue you have to trigger) but the Ancient Vampire is looking a little weak and I don't want to burn a Rod of Resurrection charge or a swig of Durlag's Goblet to heal her. Instead I just let Gorky handle it, since I already know he can.
The damage is pretty unimpressive, but Yaga-Shura's resistances are supposed to go down with time. Gorky keeps going, but rather than finish off the giant using Time Stop scrolls, I just let time go back to normal and have Maneira join in. Yaga-Shura's resistances are still well north of 50% when we take away the last of his impressive 350 HP pool.
The Martyr's Morningstar probably could have killed him, too, since Yaga-Shura has no helmet, at least not in my install.
Time Stop wins the second trial in the Pocket Plane, but invisibility once again frustrates Gorky's attempts to kill the mage, Semaj. Fortunately, any mage without innate immunity to normal weapons is vulnerable to Maneira's darts, whether the nonmagical kind or the +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars, and she can apply Power Attack to all but guarantee two rounds of stun on the target.
To my surprise, it seems that one of my mods lets you talk your way out of the fight at the Oasis!
Unfortunately, Jamis Tombelthen carries the Answerer, the awesome +4 longsword that lowers AC by 2 and MR by 15% with every hit, an extremely valuable tool against the likes of Abazigal and Melissan. And if we don't fight him, we don't get that sword.
But as a level 16 fighter, Jamis Tombelthen is vulnerable to level 33 Frisk's Seduction spell. We can just pluck it right from his inventory.
Finding a rare opportunity for a nonviolent solution fills us with determination.
Time to kill some more dragons. I want to conserve Gorky's Time Stop spells, even though we can afford plenty of extra scrolls on the off chance we might need them, so I use other methods to deal with the first phase of combat. Aside from an uneventful Time Stop, Draconis mostly just summons demons for us to stomp.
By the time the Balor croaks, Draconis' PFMW spells are out. And with them gone, his human form won't last long.
Draconis goes invisible right before Gorky casts Time Stop, and the pre-cast True Sight from the Rajah has no effect--probably, now that I think about it, because it uses a projectile, and Time Stop freezes projectiles in place. Gorky settles for some debuffers until Time Stop ends, at which point True Sight kicks in.
This time, he stays visible during Time Stop. We take his head.
What about Anadramatis? Time Stop. What about those demons? Time Traps from Maneira. What about the kuo-toa? I didn't even bother taking a screenshot.
But the quadruple dragon ambush is a different kind of challenge. Gorky doesn't enough Time Stop spells to kill all of them without using valuable scrolls, so I decide to give the Ancient Vampire a chance to prove herself. First, Gorky summons some critters for her to gobble up with her CON drain attack.
The Ancient Vampire dashes to the north alone, with nothing but 905 HP to protect her. She absolutely destroys both dragons with level drain.
It's not over yet. A green dragon with poison breath approaches from behind, followed by a red dragon. But the Ancient Vampire obliterates Ithy'nassendra all the same. The dragons are dealing massive damage, but the Ancient Vampire can easily survive it.
Then another copy of the red dragon appears and delivers the line he was supposed to. It seems we now have a quintuple dragon ambush to deal with.
The Ancient Vampire can probably take down both red dragons easily, but the rest of the party is too close, and I'm concerned that Carnifex #2 will hurt Frisk. Frisk pins down the dragon using Psionic Lock, ensuring that Gorky can get a Time Stop off the ground.
Gorky is simply too much for him. Carnifex #2 falls during Time Stop, and his twin explodes soon after.
Our Ancient Vampire just killed four dragons without breaking a sweat. And the only reason she didn't kill the fifth is because the party got in the way.
SCS vampires are really not making effective use of their powers.
Gorky dispatches the Tyrant Golems largely on his own, though their ridiculous demilich-grade resistances make it a slow and tedious process.
Aside from the Bronze Pantalettes, which we later forge into the Big Metal Unit, we also find a very special new golem tome.
A magic golem would be indestructible in the final fight; no one uses normal weapons there. But a Protection from Magic scroll is a steep price to pay considering we only have 3 and I have exactly 3 important uses for each one.
Besides, I've been hoarding golem components for the past four playthroughs of the trilogy, and I still haven't created a single golem. As far as I know, the golem tomes don't even work! I'm probably not going to end up forging any in this run, either.
Plus, it says you have to construct them in a wild magic zone. And Watcher's Keep is still inaccessible for some reason.
Okay, time to deal with Abazigal and his twin wives, Tamah and Tamah (I'm pretty sure there's only supposed to be one of them, but there's always two). First, the drakes rush us. They have a lot of nasty breath weapons (including one that deals level drain!) and tend to turn invisible, making them a bit of a pain.
Abazigal shows up in human form, but his movement rate is average, so Gorky kites him with Energy Blades while Abazigal lumbers after him. Meanwhile, our fighters struggle to finish off the drakes and get them out of the way.
Abazigal transforms, Tamah joins the fight, and we still have to fight some side enemies. Tamah blasts us with her breath weapon, and Maneira takes full damage because I forgot to equip Roranach's Horn or use Hardiness.
Up north, Wraith Sarevok is keeping Abazigal busy. Wraith Sarevok isn't great for dealing damage but has lots of HP, so it's the lowest-cost solution to dealing with Abazigal and his PFMW spells.
Gorky, meanwhile, is using magic attacks to break down Abazigal's defenses. We might need to land a Breach later on in the fight.
Maneira and Wraith Sarevok are looking a little green, but thanks to a successful Wish-rest, Gorky can put a second Fallen Planetar on the map, healing both of our troubled comrades.
Gorky memorized Wish because Time Stop is largely useless in this fight; Abazigal is immune to it and casting the spell just gives him free reign to attack.
It seems that Abazigal's shockwave attack spell weapon thingy has infinite range. It even reaches Frisk and the Rajah, who has puttering around to the east, waiting for something to do because it's not even level 18 yet.
The Ancient Vampire wipes out the first copy of Tamah using level drain. The next one is in good shape, but not for long. Notice Gorky using Dragon's Breath to sneak a little extra damage past the enemy's MR.
Gorky casts Improved Haste on Maneira, allowing her to hit poor Abazigal 10 times per round with the Soul Reaver.
Even if he could survive all the damage, he wouldn't be able to hit any of us without rolling a natural 20. Soon, Abazigal is dead.
On the way out, another dragon shows up. It's Tiamat, the dragon god!
But due to a bug of some sort, Tiamat won't speak to us. She just gives us a weird stare. Whatever quest or conversation she was meant to introduce, we're not gonna get it.
Awkwardly excusing ourselves from a silent conversation fills us with determination.
Next up, Sendai's enclave! We've forged the Big Metal Unit and, far more importantly, the Scorcher Ammunition and Frag Grenades (they're just... better than other weapons). Apparently Seducers can use it, because it's not flagged to be unusable by Shapeshifters (they use the same usability flags). Frisk's AC is so low that even Melissan would need to land a critical hit.
It causes weird stuttering, though, because apparently the "Animation Change" opcode causes collision problems when you layer two such opcodes on at once, and Frisk is already using one of those opcodes by being in Slayer form all the time. We pass the BMU over to Maneira.
Our party is roughly at its peak, with both Gorky and Frisk at nearly 6 million XP. A quick look at Gorky's Record screen shows why he's been so important all this time.
Maneira's stats aren't quite as crazy, but she does have 5 base APR, and she's just inches away from getting the level 21 Bounty Hunter Maze traps.
Then we have our Ancient Vampire. She doesn't have nearly the same utility as Gorky or Maneira, but she can crank her HP up to 1,000 given enough time, and can drain 12 Constitution per round unhasted, which should be able to win us the fight against Melissan--if I play things correctly.
Then there's Wraith Sarevok, whose main function is to get punched in the face and not fall down. And the Rajah, who has no particular purpose due to being inferior to Gorky in practically every way--mostly just because he never got that XP boost he was supposed to at the beginning of ToB.
Anyway, we try out the Frag Grenades against the local drow. The area-effect projectile lets us apply Power Attack stun through all weapon immunities. Maneira can already almost do that just using her darts, but the Frag Grenades can also hurt liches with PFMW, and bypass invisibility. And they also get higher APR, at 5 instead of 4.
I fix the bug that prevents us from using the Teleport spell, but I don't have any plans for re-visiting old areas. With Watcher's Keep still missing from the map, the only other major questline is Werewolf Island (and visiting that place could cause problems since I'd have to use Psionic Teleportation to reach Baldur's Gate itself to get those sea charts or whatever).
Anyway, deeper into Sendai's enclave, Maneira continues to dominate the scene with the Frag Grenades and Scorcher Ammunition.
It would be nice if I could get Gorky to use the Scorcher Ammunition on Odamaron and his Apprentices, but unlike Chara from my old Undergate run, who had both Time Stop and Use Any Item, Gorky cannot use any crossbows besides the Big Metal Rod, which means he can't deal missile damage with the Scorcher Ammunition. That means Gorky can't remove Stoneskins using the ammunition. Maneira might not have Time Stop, but she can still drag the Scorcher Ammunition across the screen to net the liches despite their PFMW.
Of course, we need a good target for that. And since Wraith Sarevok has 600 HP, we don't have to worry about killing him in the process.
Gorky still has stuff to do, of course. He casts Wish and Time Stop, burning through the enemy's introductory PFMW just in case we want to attack them directly. But Maneira is doing quite nicely on her own.
Even so, why kill when you can use overkill? Gorky stops time and pelts Energy Blades at Odamaron now that Maneira has shorn him of his Stoneskins.
We burn down the rest of the opposition.
Ogremoch proves immune to the effects of the Martyr's Morningstar, unfortunately, but we still have enough APR to overcome his infinite Stoneskin spells.
I normally deal with Diaytha by attacking during Time Stop, which conveniently can be cast before the battle begins, since Diaytha waits for you. Turns out that the Wish Time Stop is bugged in my install: the djinni casts Time Stop instead of casting it for Gorky. All it does is freeze everyone for 36 seconds.
Instead, we use the normal version. Works just fine.
But right before I kill the enemy Ancient Vampire, I stop and consider bringing her into the group. We already have an Ancient Vampire, but it's not like the Rajah or Wraith Sarevok really need to be in the party. I decide to bring her in, replacing the Rajah and adding a second Ancient Vampire to the party.
But this Ancient Vampire isn't just a carbon copy of our first one, and its higher levels aren't the only way. This one only has 3.5 base APR instead of 4... but it's actually even stronger than the first vampire.
How so? This one doesn't use the same CON drain weapon as the first one. It uses a more powerful version, which drains 5 CON instead of 3 and boosts the vampire's HP by 25 instead of 15. It'll never get HLAs, however, which means we can't use Critical Strike. That means we can't quite guarantee hits on Melissan when the time comes. But having another 500+ HP vampire on the team can't possibly hurt.
Captain Egeissag (which I like to pronounce Eggy-Sag) challenges Frisk to a duel. I don't know if there's any alternative, so I agree to it.
I don't believe I've mentioned this, but Haiass vanished at some point, perhaps at the beginning of ToB. We've relied on Haiass to fight the Unknowable Horror in SoD and Bhaal in Spellhold when the party is disabled, but what are we going to do now?
First, Frisk activates Psionic Invisibility, which grants automatic backstabs for the whole duration. It's less impressive when you consider that Seducers never go above 2x.
When he's one more hit away from death, Frisk leaves him alone and relies on our summons to finish him off.
We return to our old tricks when facing the mind flayers, because I have no intention of letting anyone die to a string of critical hits. Gorky stops time, blasts the enemy with Dragon's Breath, and discovers that Wish Breach finally works, maybe because of an EE update. It slips past whatever spell protections the enemy mage has and removes her PFMW and Stoneskins.
All that's left is Sendai herself. The cleric is easy to disrupt, but the mage is more challenging. Against the odds, it makes all of its saves against the Power Attack stun on Maneira's Frag Grenades.
But Remove Magic doesn't take down a single one of our buffs. Probably because Gorky is level 25 and that statue, now that I look it up in Near Infinity, appears to be only level 20. Chance of a successful dispel is 0% (or 1% if it works properly in my install).
We keep up the pressure, not worrying too much about the other drow. Normally, those drow are horribly dangerous due to their sky-high damage output, but we managed to stack Hardiness spells via Wish, minimizing the risk.
Another mage shows up, but it's buffed with Improved Mantle.
It's an awesome spell... in Shadows of Amn. But with the Staff of the Magi, a +5 Sword of Arvoreen, and Carsomyr at our disposal, Improved Mantle may as well not even be there.
The last statue falls a few rounds later. And because I know it's the last statue, I know that Maneira can set a trap right after it falls...
...giving her 10 seconds of automatic hits on Sendai right off the bat.
Sendai falls. All that's left is to go to Amkethran and convince Balthazar to join us in the fight against Melissan.
In Ascension, you get special powers at the end of each Pocket Plane trial, and you can get either the good or the evil one depending on your response to the Solar during Expositional Storytime--and the evil ones happen to be the better defensive options.
Being pointlessly rude to the nice friendly Solar fills us with determination.
Current party: Frisk, Seducer Gorky, Conjurer Maneira, Fighter/Bounty Hunter Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler Wraith Sarevok, Berserker(15)->Thief
Despite having awful AI and totally insane soundset, Amaruq's triplets have proven their worth in many a fight. Like with Tranzig, for instance.
Bassilus followed. And what do you think, did I fail to notice that Free Action is among his pre-buffs and dumped the initial round-full of Hold spells into waste? Of course I did!
Amaruq curses me across generations for my ineptitude and casually quaffs a Potion of Freedom to counter his own Hold attempt.
Change of the plan - if we can't win with tricks, we'll just brute-force our way. Let's just be smarter next time.
Now, you might want to say that all this nymph spamming is rather cheesy and dull. I'm conscious of that and I promise to try and come up with something more creative. However, you'll still see the triplets play a role in some future encounters (Kirian and Seniyad come to mind).
Anyway, we collect the gold, load supplies at High Hedge (including the Claw) and we're off to the bandit ca...Lamahla! It's good to see you, you old witch. You've been somewhat expected.
Amaruq: PoI -> Potion of Freedom -> Armor of Faith -> Dart of Stunning (unsuccessful) -> Necklace of Missiles (always successful ).
Telka gets Aule's.
Maneira gets a bullet.
Strength of One -> Charm -> swan song for Zeela and Lamahla.
I'll finally cover the bandit camp in the next post. Amaruq is currently enjoying a day off at FAI, getting ready for Cloakwood.
Btw: In contrast to my previous runs, I've decided not to recharge any items (most notably Greenstone and Shield amulets) and therefore I'm trying to limit their usage in lesser encounters.
That's how I prefer to play it, too. Recharging items has always felt exploit-y to me.
I made an exception in Abigail's run, recharging the Necklace of Missiles for use in the final battle, due to concerns with invisibility from Angelo and Semaj, and it didn't feel right. That's one of the reasons I decided not to continue her game.
Amaruq: PoI -> Potion of Freedom -> Armor of Faith -> Dart of Stunning (unsuccessful) -> Necklace of Missiles (always successful ).
Had Zeela and Lamalha used their 3's by the time you went Necklace of Missiles? They have 3 between them. I'd be concerned with using my aura under PoF + AoF only until I saw all 3, due to Rigid Thinking. I think it's pretty much always Unholy Blight x 2 and Animate Dead from them, but I haven't fought that battle enough under v30 to know for certain.
(I've recently been going Potion of Magic Blocking->Skiddaddle in that encounter, but Invisibility-> buff incl. Potion of Freedom->observe the 3s with a clear aura->Attack is making sense to me now. It would come down to my PoI budgeting, in all likelihood)
I made an exception in Abigail's run, recharging the Necklace of Missiles for use in the final battle, due to concerns with invisibility from Angelo and Semaj, and it didn't feel right. That's one of the reasons I decided not to continue her game.
Had Zeela and Lamalha used their 3's by the time you went Necklace of Missiles? They have 3 between them. I'd be concerned with using my aura under PoF + AoF only until I saw all 3, due to Rigid Thinking. I think it's pretty much always Unholy Blight x 2 and Animate Dead from them, but I haven't fought that battle enough under v30 to know for certain.
A valid point and nope - they were not out of their L3's at the time. I admit I did take a calculated risk based on:
1. my previous observations, as I've yet to see them use Rigid Thinking in v30 instead of the two spells you mentioned (note that my experience with earlier SCS versions are limited); 2. my reluctance to use Greenstone Amulet; 3. available worst case scenario solution: "In case of enchantment incantation despite your Free Action - screw them and run." (I understand this may not be acceptable for some players playing under stricter self-imposed rules)
For the record: Rigid Thinking casting script it's definitely not something to be ignored, since other mid-level clerics (e.g. Mulahey) tend to use it. Zeela (charmed) only had Unholy Blight and Hold Person in her spellbook.
(I've recently been going Potion of Magic Blocking->Skiddaddle in that encounter, but Invisibility-> buff incl. Potion of Freedom->observe the 3s with a clear aura->Attack is making sense to me now. It would come down to my PoI budgeting, in all likelihood)
Makes sense. Looking back, I realize that PoI was not worth the questionable tactical advantage in Amaruq's case. A precisely timed Potion of Freedom in the beginning would suffice. I suppose it's just that irrational urge to go invisible and feel safe in the face of a sudden ambush .
Yes. That's why I brought up the recharge restriction first. That's the only reason we can have this conversation. Had you been willing to recharge the amulet, surely you would have opened with it. My comments weren't unrelated
For the record: Rigid Thinking casting script it's definitely not something to be ignored, since other mid-level clerics (e.g. Mulahey) tend to use it. Zeela (charmed) only had Unholy Blight and Hold Person in her spellbook.
Yes. I have seen it from Mulahey. From them, it's typically R1: Unholy Blight x2; R2: Animate Dead. But, again, I haven't seen enough from them to know for certain, and I prefer not to look at their files.
If they do open with the blights, then you're good the moment you hear "vita."
Makes sense. Looking back, I realize that PoI was not worth the questionable tactical advantage in Amaruq's case. A precisely timed Potion of Freedom in the beginning would suffice. I suppose it's just that irrational urge to go invisible and feel safe in the face of a sudden ambush .
Assuming that Rigid Thinking isn't a possibility, yes. Otherwise, not so much. If you opened with Potion of Freedom, and they went Rigid Thinking, you'd be screwed. If you go PoI->PoF and then break with a clear aura, however, you'd be in a position to counter. There's a difference.
I've made some progress into ToB and since I'm too dead tired to play right now I shall make a brief report. To be honest I find the play a little bit of a struggle in any case, as ToB is my least favourite part of the series. Overleveled mooks and linear content do not make for enticing content. I mean we even leave our strongholds behind to rot....
We dealt with the Illasera and the first pocket plane challenge, with Jon showing up again at the end. Then we visited Saradush, and knocked on Gromnir's door.
On to the deadly dull marching mountains from there, where giants fell like ninepins. The only thing of note was a bug which made the fire trolls invincible, but luckily we'd already grabbed the token we needed and they didn't pursue us forever.
Then down went Yaga's foster mother, and the man himself. Though I did manage to forget the sequence of the battle somewhat and accidentally spawned his army on top of the party while stealthing ahead.
Fortunately we were then able to talk our way around the Tethyrian army, and avoid any more senseless bloodshed.
Next we'll have an actual choice of which road to take. I don't anticipate poking around too much in Watcher's Keep, we're already weighed down with enough items, but there may be one or two additional things to do like Sirene's ToB content. Sorry not to be too positive, the Fire Temple is probably my least favourite part of the series so I expect to get a second wind from here and get back into the RP side . I think I may return to BGT for my full SCS run next, the EEs can get a little bit too laggy on my rustbucket.
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Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Shadows of Amn
Part 7
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
We're not quite ready for Spellhold. We need Frisk to hit level 20 and we also need an extra Rod of Resurrection due to having no cleric in the party. Over at Mekrath's lair, we send Meredath after the Coiled Cabal, only for the Yuan-ti to remind me that vampires are not immune to web.
They slither over to the main chamber, but Gorky blocks the way. He disrupts their spells with Sunfire and then discovers that he can apparently get past MGOI if he casts Skull Trap on himself.
Gorky can't hold the fort forever, but he wears down the enemy long enough for Maneira and the basilisk to take them down with darts and a gaze attack. Maneira also splatters Mekrath with the Staff of Striking.
Time to pay a visit to Firkraag's dungeon. We kite the Ruhk Transmuter for a little while and we trade blows, but in the end, the fight was decided by the roll of a single die.
Samia can be tough, but it seems that we set too many traps beforehand.
The Greater Wolfweres aren't a problem for an offensive-oriented party like ours, especially since the Lesser Basilisk can kill them instantly with a bit of luck.
15,000 XP for a few seconds work...
This sounds like a good deal. Why not do it again?
This marks the third time we deployed the basilisk XP loop in this run: first with the Greater Basilisk in BG1, then with the Neothelid in SoD, and now with Greater Wolfweres in SoA. It takes some time, but we bump Frisk up to level 20.
Why is level 20 important? Well, now Frisk can use Seduction on level 10 targets. And because we can revisit BG1 eras thanks to our EET install...
...we can get a very nice upgrade from our Lesser Basilisk.
Lesser Basilisks only get 1 APR, but Greater Basilisks get 3. This means our new basilisk has 3.5 attacks per round right off the bat. Low APR was the one true limitation of our old basilisk, and now we've cured it.
We push our way through the rest of the dungeon using brute force and end up killing Conster with traps.
Boring, yes, but practical.
Now, finally, we're ready for Spellhold. Thanks to one of my mods, we can now save Sanik. And thanks to our new Greater Basilisk, we can petrify mages that much faster.
Perth the Adept can be troublesome, but it turns out he doesn't have Stoneskin already active.
How am I going to deal with Bhaal in a pacifist run? Well, Frisk is allowed to attack people; they're just not allowed to deal the final blow. But why bother with that in the first place, when Haiass erroneously spawns in dream sequences?
Haiass doesn't join many fights because Frisk stays out of the fray and Haiass follows them, but whenever Frisk is close to the enemy, Haiass tips the balance in our favor.
While using CTRL-J to speed up the riddles in the Spellhold maze, I accidentally teleport Meredath into the middle of the rakshasa/mephit room. Per my normal rules, I can teleport back out and then go back in later once I've erected my buffs (as I intended to do already), but for some reason I decide to just go with it, and teleport the whole party over to Meredath.
Turns out buffs are really useful against mephits. Gorky might not have been immune to the Salt Mephits' stun effect, but he at least wouldn't have taken any fire damage.
We actually win the fight eventually, but a CTRL-J error and a bad decision afterward cost us two charges of the Rod of Resurrection. Luckily, we still have 18 left.
My bad judgment continues when I decide to send Meredath after another batch of Yuan-ti when I already saw her die to the previous batch. The cause of death is the same: Web.
The Yuan-ti give chase, but they run out their PFMW spells and perish one by one.
Thankfully, there is no Breudayael or Balors or bonus liches in my install, so the only real threat here is a single lich, who proves much more dangerous than I expected when he teleports right to the party before activating his defenses.
We really don't have the resources to disrupt the lich, since the chance of charming it with Domination is only about 10% per casting, so we're just going to have to deal with its spells for a while.
Why Gate? Well, I burned a whole bunch of Protection from Undead scrolls here precisely because I didn't see how else I was going to tackle the lich. The lich only has so many options for dealing with the scroll, and we already know how to stay away from them.
As for the Pit Fiend itself, Maneira can tank it if she drinks a couple Potions of Invulnerability to boost her saving throws, and the Flail of Ages and Short Sword of Backstabbing slow it down and pin it down.
After that, it's a simple matter of chasing down the lich, throwing +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars, and butchering the demons it summons.
For some reason, Bodhi doesn't make Frisk turn into the Slayer. Frisk has to escape before they get level drained to death.
Fun fact: Bodhi can cast Control Undead!
In the end, Frisk never transforms. Fortunately, it seems you can open the way to the next area without ever becoming the Slayer.
Just for fun, before we leave, I use the item duplication trick to create enough Mithril Tokens to purchase every pair of boots for sale.
Whoever came up with the idea of a coin-operated shoe closet was an idiot.
What about Jon-bon? Well, Maneira can get right past his Improved Mantle with her +5 darts, and Jon-bon has a critical weakness to a very rarely-used damage spell.
That's about it. We butcher the clones and move on.
I decide to test out the Slayer change trick, in which you use the quick-save trick combined with an area transition to stack a bunch of Potions of Power, boosting Frisk's HP to about 1600, and allowing them to survive the final blow of the Slayer Change spell.
It causes some weird inventory lag which I cure using EEKeeper for convenience's sake.
It's pretty much pointless in a pacifist run when Frisk isn't going to be doing any fighting to begin with, but a few defensive perks are reason enough for me.
That and the fact that walking around in Slayer form forever is just plain fun. It also adds a new flavor to certain dialogue options from Romantic Encounters.
It would fit in with Frisk's fanonical personality and the Seducer kit's concept, but I haven't been selecting any of these options since I'm too busy getting through the fights.
We find no trace of the Cloak of Mirroring in City Sushi. All we discover are some friends of Shoal's, who I neglected to consider had an instant death attack.
Nothing particularly exciting otherwise. We sell about 70,000 gold's worth of loot to the local temple, because it gives the best prices in the game, and move on to the Underdark.
I am greeted by a familiar group of mod enemies that I wished I could uninstall. Rather than struggle through a fight I do not want, or simply sneak past them in peace, I talk-block them and take advantage of the fact that some of them erroneously have zero magic resistance.
With them out of the picture, the rest of the fight is much less complicated.
Over by the elemental portals, we get badly pummeled by some Greater Earth Elementals who replaced the normal kind. Only when Gorky cast Enchanted Weapon on the Greater Basilisk to boost its gaze attack to +3 did the fight become bearable.
The vanilla drow ambush went terribly. Maneira died to a single spell, forcing us to lure the mages across several traps. Thankfully, Meredath is still low-level and gets the level 11 traps.
The survivor bombs our Greater Basilisk, but eventually his defenses run thin, allowing Gorky to kill him with the Serpent Shaft.
It came from the mod-introduced drow from before, but since it's a vanilla weapon, I can still use it. Killing the rest of the drow was a slow and painful ordeal, especially because of yet another Aerial Servant, but clerics don't have the kind of devastating options that mages do.
I free everyone in the imprisonment sphere except for Alchra Diagott. Not because I didn't have the means of killing him instantly...
...but because I didn't want to take any chances. A few thousand XP really isn't worth wrestling with a lich.
I decide to go easy on the traps with Balor, which from a strictly practical perspective is probably not wise.
Failing to buff Maneira with Protection from Fire was also not a great move. I've been making a lot of dumb but non-fatal decisions lately.
Maneira deals reliable damage with her +5 darts, but we've badly neglected to consider our defenses. Meredath suffers a vorpal strike (which is actually a slay effect, though that makes little difference with EE's Death Ward) and the Balor nails Gorky with Implosion.
Frisk slows down the Balor before it can finish off Gorky, and Maneira finally puts it down.
Against the Kuo-toa, Maneira gets stunned but it happens far back enough that the Kuo-toa don't finish her off, letting Gorky and Meredath tank them until Maneira comes back to supply the high APR we need to overcome the prince's regeneration.
As for the drow, Maneira again gives us an early advantage with backstabs and traps, though the Greater Basilisk lands some kills despite the enemy's MR.
Time to tackle the Death Knights, because Maneira can use the Soul Reaver at 5 APR. But... I overdo it with the traps again.
Wait--I only laid seven, the vanilla maximum.
Two of the knights survive without a scratch, but the traps kept off Remove Magic, which means we can keep our Improved Haste. Which is also kind of overkill considering Maneira's ludicrous APR.
Every time I play a Seducer, it makes me appreciate the kind of absurd powers the enemy gets--and how little they actually exploit those powers.
On to Ust Natha! First off, we need to rescue Psycho Bitch from the mind flayers. On the way, I notice something surprising.
N'ashtar is using some mod spell as a pre-buff. But it's a damage spell... and it's not party-friendly. I'm not even sure he's supposed to be using that spell in the first place; maybe it got miscoded and he was intended to use a defensive spell of some sort.
Then I start laughing.
Seriously? You give N'ashtar a cool new damage over time spell and you make him cast it on himself?
This is hilarious. It just keeps going!
He's actually calling for help! Even his party is suffering.
They're actually dying from this spell. I'm not complaining, but--really?
This is so unfair. It's not like N'ashtar's buddies were ever that dangerous, but still, it's silly. I clean up N'ashtar's mess.
N'ashtar himself is a little more dangerous, and he still has some strong defenses, but without PFMW, Meredath can kill him with CON drain.
Meredath is actually kind of a terrible character in most fights. Aside from her off hand (and she only has one pip in two weapon fighting thanks to a level up), her only two weapons she can use deal 1d6 damage each and inflict level drain or CON drain. Lots of critters are immune to the former, while the latter prevents us from gaining any XP from the kill.
And without immunity to either stun or confusion, she's extremely vulnerable to the worst disablers in the game, especially because she can't use rings due to her vampire immunities coming from a pair of non-removable rings.
She is therefore extremely vulnerable to Psionic Blast, so I take out the mind flayers with traps.
Meredath gets petrified in the fight with the "Elder Orb," but like all the other stonings in this run, she never gets shattered.
Maybe one of my mods changes something, but I was pretty sure that it wasn't possible to prevent petrification-related chunking unless you just replaced the petrification opcode with opcode 185 or something, like Spell Revisions does.
We get a temporary break from our duties at Ust Natha, and I notice that Frisk is only 1,137 XP away from level 24. I decide to take a chance on Alchra Diagott, who thankfully turns out to have no Stoneskin pre-buff.
Seducers don't get Spike Traps or Use Any Item; they get their own list of HLAs. One of them is particularly valuable for a Seducer Charname.
At two rounds, it's not long enough to keep Frisk safe from one of Ascension Melissan's Time Stops, but it does have the notable ability of temporarily warding off scary critters like liches, demons, and planetars. They could also be chain-cast, allowing you to alternate between using Psionic Invisibility and Domination or the like, charming critters without exposing yourself to danger. But that's a pretty resource-intensive strategy, so I'll mostly just be using this spell as an escape option.
In the temple of Llolth, I spot a new enemy. I never do figure out what it's capable of, though.
I poke around Ust Natha looking for a cleric. If Frisk was level 28, we'd have some good options, but as it stands, there are only a few rather mediocre candidates for our sixth party member. And while the Drow Torturer would be pretty decent, I don't like the idea of a character with that name traveling with us.
That being said, Seduction does give us the ability to save that djinni from being tortured. With the help of one of my mods, I send them all back to the Copper Coronet to kiss and make up.
I also use Domination to get Taso Kala out of the way when we're in the final stages of the Ust Natha questline. Normally I sneak past her instead. Unfortunately, it seems that she'll reappear in her old spot when you come out of Phaere's quarters.
The Ghaunadaur worshippers are weaker than I remembered...
...with the sole exception of Relonar, the mage. He opens with Improved Mantle, temporarily hides behind invisibility, and switches to PFMW using a Spell Trigger, but with her darts and Detect Illusions, Maneira can get through all three of those defenses on her own.
She also rescues the dragon eggs, killing the guards with a backstab and a couple traps and using a Potion of Invisibility to avoid the golems. We jog back to report to Taso Kala before I forget, go through the motions of the ritual, haste the party, go invisible, and flee the city.
And find a mind flayer waiting for us outside.
I don't know what his deal is exactly, but I have no interest in going on any mind flayer-related adventures. We'd need better defenses against stun for that. We take advantage of the fact that the mind flayer starts out as neutral to let Maneira hide immediately after breaking invisibility, letting her land two backstabs in a row.
All that's left is to report to Adalon. But I'm torn.
I don't usually have evil-aligned characters in my party, and Maneira is a spectacular candidate for the Human Flesh +5, because she'll eventually be able to use Carsomyr once she gets UAI. Problem is, I really don't want to kill Adalon.
There is, however, a mod that lets me get a bit of her blood. I don't know if I have to speak with Rejiek's contact in the Umar Hills first, so I use the Teleport spell to pay him a visit before reporting to Adalon.
Yes, the Teleport spell lets you escape the Underdark. Anyhoo, we go back and discover that we do in fact have a dialogue option to ask for her blood.
Unfortunately, Adalon has conditions of her own. She wants us to kill the Aboleth from Ust Natha, the one I normally talk out of revealing the party's true identity to the drow. And while I'm sure I can handle a minor side quest for a single item...
...Adalon's dialogue gives me pause.
Fighting drow guards is one thing, but it sounds like we'll also be fighting the Aboleth itself, who apparently has actual psionics it can use against us. And I have no idea just how strong this thing will actually be. It might just have the same sort of abilities you'd see on a typical mind flayer or the Neothelid. Or, it have bigger stuff like Psionic Disjunction or Psionic Maze, or the Ulitharid version of Psionic Blast with the 20-round duration and -4 save penalty.
I've been meaning to try out some of the many side quests in my installs. But I didn't start this run to go exploring; I started this run to beat Melissan with a Seducer. And I have a bunch of new plans for how to do that without the level drain trick.
I decide that the fate of the run is more important than being able to wear a coat of human skin.
Setting important priorities fills us with determination.
Current party:
Frisk, Seducer
Gorken Bloodaxe, Conjurer
Maneira, Fighter/Bounty Hunter
Meredath, Fighter/Bounty Hunter
Greater Basilisk, Barbarian
@Grond0. Enjoy SoD!
@USSNorway. Congrats on completing BG1. Safe journies in Amn!
@semiticgod. Great progress! Frisk is on the way!
@Arctodus. Best of luck in the BG1 endgame. Be on the lookout for Abigail (she's on her way to Sarevok now)
@Neverused. Glad to see early SoA playing out well!
@Enuhal. Awesome as always!
@Everyone. It's super cool that this list is so long, and yet I've still probably missed some one (not you, @Borco, I know you're there- I just haven't seen a recent post
Best,
A.
For most people, I think posting without spoilers is probably okay, but I do make inordinately long posts.
Fixed the last post and it does look better.
Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Shadows of Amn
Part 8
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906799/#Comment_906799
Freedom! We return to Athkatla and once again bankrupt the party buying scrolls, including the all-important Time Stop spell.
Now that Frisk is level 24, they can seduce level 12 critters. Guess what that means?
We can get another upgrade on Meredath. Elder Vampires with 2 APR are now within reach. And since I avoided a certain spawn trigger in Firkraag's dungeon, I can spawn them only just now.
First, we need to clear things up a bit.
If I charm one of them as they are, the others will just attack it, and I don't want them getting killed.. I can avoid that by casting Invisibility 10' Radius right after Frisk gets a failed save (casting Domination from behind a wall for safety's sake), but it's easier just to use the Wand of Lightning to apply a scroll of Protection from Undead to all of them. I can spare the scrolls.
I add two Elder Vampires to the party, each of which has 2.5 base APR and the same powers as Meredath. It'll be a while before Frisk hits level 28, but when they do, we can get those Ancient Vampires instead (who have 3 APR!).
We proceed to Firkraag. I think I know how to put him down with little trouble. Gorky can drop his MR to zero with a triple Lower Resistance Spell Trigger, and immediately apply Greater Malison using a Contingency.
The Greater Basilisk petrifies him on the first try. Not too surprising, since it was about a 50% chance with GM active and zero MR.
Now we have Carsomyr! Once Maneira hits epic levels, she'll be able to use it.
But...
Now that I think about it, 64,000 XP for a few seconds of work seems pretty nice. And we do still have a bunch of Stone to Flesh scrolls on hand...
I kick the Elder Vampires out of the party and return to Firkraag. We cure his petrification and turn him to stone again.
And again. And again and again and again, until we have to rest just to restore Gorky's Stoneskins and Mirror Images from the rare occasions when Firkraag actually gets more than a couple hits on Gorky before dying it. We pile on the level ups.
It goes on and on, until finally Gorky is at level 20 and Frisk is at level 28. We leave the giant statue where it is on the off chance I want to use it again, and go back to replace our Elder Vampires with a single Ancient Vampire.
With 4 total APR thanks to her fighter levels, the Ancient Vampire can obliterate practically anything using level drain or Constitution drain. She still has the same vulnerabilities and limitations (CON drain means no XP; level drain isn't always possible) as Meredath, but she has more than twice the APR as our old vampire.
An obnoxious drow questline once again kidnaps us from Athkatla, and for the third or fourth time in a row, I use Teleport to escape.
Let's go kill some liches! Seriously, why not?
With three Time Stop spells due to being a Conjurer, Gorken Bloodaxe can outlast most PFMW spells, and thanks to his unnaturally high APR at 2.5, he can cut through Stoneskins and deal damage during Time Stop much faster than the typical mage (indeed, at the same rate as a Fighter(9)->Mage with GM). But I'm more proud of using Chain Lightning to disrupt a lich's spell.
Even though I just took that idea from somebody who pointed out that Chain Lightning bypassed level spell level immunities due to being a level 6 spell.
Anyway, for some reason, Gorky's Firetooth throwing dagger doesn't remove nearly as many Stoneskins as it should--in fact, the lich still has some left when the last Time Stop is over.
I think the game is accidentally counting multiple projectiles as a single projectile if they hit on the same frame, which I didn't notice until EE. Anyway, the lich's defenses have run low anyway, letting the rest of the party join in.
I try the same trick on the Elemental Lich, but since Gorky is a Conjurer, he's not too great at dealing with illusion spells, and cannot target the lich itself due to invisibility.
Gorky re-casts Time Stop and finishes the planetar before it can do any harm.
Then Maneira gets chunked, possibly by a Globe of Blades-related bug I thought was patched out a little while ago.
It used to be that Globe of Blades could strike multiple times if the game was paused at the right frame, instantly killing practically anything purely by accident. I don't know if this is a bug or just a quirk of Time Stop, but as I've mentioned earlier, my standard practice is to treat non-petrification-related chunking as a normal death, so it makes little difference (I can probably live without Maneira considering my other options, but it just wouldn't be much fun without her).
Anyhoo, the lich finally goes visible, which allows Frisk to try out a new HLA: Psionic Lock, which "pauses" both the caster and target for 6 seconds, bypassing all defenses and offering no save.
It's really only useful when you have allies to act during the lock, and the duration is pitiful, but the fact that it always works makes it a great tactical tool. You can only pick the ability five times at most, though; you can't paralyze everyone indefinitely.
The lock buys us a little bit of extra time, just enough to wait out that pesky PFMW. Without it, the lich is helpless.
I can get Maneira back, but per the rule I established earlier, I have to fight the lich all over again. This time, though, I click on him to turn him around (same principle as talk-blocking, but for a different purpose), allowing Maneira to land a backstab on the lich that would otherwise be impossible.
Her traps bring it down to Near Death (I probably should have set more than four of them), and Gorky fails to disrupt the lich's spells with Chain Lightning. It seems that spell is not a reliable disrupter.
I have very little interest in letting the lich get Time Stop off the ground, so I have Maneira dispel its illusions and Frisk hold it in place for 6 seconds, giving Gorky enough time to cast his own Time Stop first.
Because I haven't learned my lesson yet, I try to hurt him by throwing Firetooth instead of attacking in melee. As a result, Gorky disrupts the lich's spell but fails to deal any damage.
Still, we seem to have taken off enough Stoneskins to render the lich vulnerable. Down it goes!
Kangaxx is a whole other monster, however. We have tools to deal with its lich form, but I can't get anyone in the party to have a save vs. death low enough to resist SCS' Trap the Soul spell without relying on dispellable buffs.
Unless we get the Amulet of Life Protection.
But it seems that you can't get the amulet if you worked with High Watcher Oisig in the Unseeing Eye quest. You have to complete the illithium questline for the church of Lathander to get the amulet; the church of Helm gives you... well, a helm.
I had to pay a visit to the Temple Ruins to complete that questline (a mod extends the questline, but does not actually add any interesting content; it just makes a fetch quest longer), and on the way we visit Thaxll'ssillyia. It seems that all dragons short of Abazigal are vulnerable to petrification. Not that you'd usually use it on a dragon, considering the disadvantages in the unmodded game.
I don't use the basilisk XP loop on him; I don't have any new recruits in mind that would require higher levels from Frisk.
I find an extra Protection from Magic scroll outside Kangaxx's lair. Neat!
Anyway, on to Kangaxx. I've prepared for his lich form, but my preparations turn out to be unnecessary.
I'm not proud of the traps, but I'm quite pleased with the backstab.
Kangaxx transforms in a few seconds. This is where things get dicey. Trap the Soul offers a save vs. death at -5 in SCS, but our saving throws are simply not that great. The only person who is safe is Frisk themself, because SCS enemies don't imprison the main character. And if we let Gorky get imprisoned, casting Freedom to recover our companions would be... difficult.
Ideally, Frisk would take control of Kangaxx using Domination. But Frisk only has about a 10% chance of landing it (assuming Kangaxx has no spell-based save buffs), and while that's pretty awesome considering the payoff, it's not reliable.
I, however, have something of a trump card. Gorky stops time and gets ready.
Improved Alacrity lets you spam Psionic Blast if you pre-cast Shapechange, since you get a new casting of Psionic Blast every time you switch to mind flayer form.
I think I do it about 60 times, which amounts to one casting per frame for two whole seconds. The odds of Kangaxx making every save are 0.95^60, or less than 5%.
But when Time Stop finally ends...
...Kangaxx only had to make 5 saving throws. Chance of success, 77%. It's not surprising he made all 5 of them.
What I don't understand is why 60 Psionic Blast spells only hit 5 times altogether. This supports the theory that projectiles that hit on the same frame don't get counted twice. The Psionic Blast trick is far weaker than it may seem.
Or at least, it's much weaker during Time Stop, when all the spells come out at the same time. But I can't test it out with Time Stop gone; Improved Alacrity is over and in my install, Gorky can only cast it once per day. It's an innate ability instead of a level 9 mage spell.
Kangaxx stops time himself, but doesn't do much besides debuff us (which is actually a huge deal considering how much we need saving throw bonuses to handle Trap the Soul). Frisk tries another Domination spell, but Kangaxx resists the second one, too.
Notice Maneira drinking a Potion of Invulnerability. It saves her life a few seconds later.
Maneira uses Vhailor's Helm, but only at the last possible moment did I realize that she was not wearing the Ring of the Ram.
It's a massive, massive loss that could have easily been avoided. Because while clones in SCS (depending on your install) cannot use quick items, they can still use other items like the Ring of the Ram. Which happens to be one of the best anti-Kangaxx weapons around.
With Vhailor's Helm and a Simulacrum spell or scroll, you can cast it three times a day, enough to kill Kangaxx in a single round if you coordinate it right. But I was so focused on the Psionic Blast strategy that I didn't think to optimize my Ring of the Ram setup. We only get a single use out of the ring.
Kangaxx tries to imprison the Greater Basilisk. Because I foolishly made the Greater Basilisk a Barbarian instead of a Berserker like the Lesser Basilisk, our basilisk's only defense against Trap the Soul is a Potion of Invulnerability. And unlike Maneira, with her save-boosting items, the basilisk's save vs. death is around 10.
One character down. Maneira and the Ancient Vampire drink potions while Gorky halfheartedly throws a Pierce Magic spell at Kangaxx's Spell Turning buff. All we really want to do is wait out those PFMW spells.
Then something incredible happens.
Charmed! Charmed! It'll only last 1d3 rounds unless we get another failed save (which would come at an additional -3 penalty), but it's an extremely lucky roll that could prove decisive.
But what can we do when I only know for certain that we'll get a single round out of it? The answer quickly becomes clear.
At Kangaxx's current HP, that will only hold him for 2d4 rounds. But in a fight like this, where Kangaxx's life is measured in the duration of his PFMW spells, that could prove decisive.
It only lasts 2 rounds, maybe 3. But it's enough to burn through his PFMW. The Ancient Vampire drinks his blood (somehow), taking a few point off of his presumably low Constitution (it's 11).
I really don't want Kangaxx to re-cast PFMW. But we have exactly one method of stopping him:
It's only for 6 seconds, but it's a huge deal at this stage of the battle. We chip away at his HP, but Kangaxx fires back, imprisoning the Ancient Vampire.
But he doesn't re-cast PFMW. At least not fast enough to avoid Gorky's Black Blade of Disaster.
Finally, the Ring of Gaxx is ours.
But I really should have just used the Ring of the Ram, which I already knew worked perfectly.
Or just went through the mind flayer city and got a Control Circlet, which also works perfectly well on Kangaxx. I've actually gotten him to instantly kill himself with PW: Kill.
Potions of Firebreath, however, don't work in my install, as Kangaxx has 100% magic resistance and my Potions of Firebreath don't bypass MR.
Gorky casts Freedom and we get back our Greater Basilisk and Ancient Vampire. Check out the effects of the basilisk XP loop we pulled on Firkraag. Our Greater Basilisk is our historical MVP, just because of that one event.
Almost makes you think the Seducer kit might be a teensy bit overpowered.
Right about now, I realized that Gorky was supposed to be able to create his own spell scrolls. The only reason he didn't have the spell was because he lost them due to an EEKeeper directory error. I had to use EEKeeper to let myself change party members' soundsets and portraits (this was never necessary in my other installs; just my EET game), and because EEKeeper was in the wrong directory, it erased all the files it didn't recognize. Gorky lost a bunch of spells, including the scroll scribing one.
We probably also lost thousands and thousands of gold in mod items that would have been pawned off to various merchants. But the important thing is that Gorky can now create Time Stop scrolls for 5,000 gold a pop. And we just might need them.
Because we're going to one of the most challenging dungeons in the entire saga.
No, not Watcher's Keep. For some reason I can't go there; it doesn't even show up on my map. But EET lets me re-visit almost any BG1 area (and maybe some SoD ones; I haven't tried), and Durlag's Tower might have some nice treats for us.
The dungeon is somewhat less challenging when you enter at epic levels.
The puzzles were actually incredibly difficult, because I've only beaten the dungeon twice before, and wasn't paying much attention last time.
Just for funsies, I seduce Aec'Letec when we get back to Ulgoth's Beard.
He has 5 APR and a lot of the same immunities that our old Glabrezu did back in Mollyboo's old run. Unfortunately, when I try to see if it's still possible to get some XP out of him by petrifying him...
...I discover that he has become permanently immune to Seduction somehow. We have to put him down.
I really should have expected it, since I saw much the same thing happen to our old kitty cat from Candlekeep when I tried to preserve him using petrification. But we can do without Aec-Letec.
Baldur's Gate is unfortunately off-limits.
However, Seducers get a special Psionic Teleportation ability that lets you teleport anywhere on the map. And testing finds that we can actually go right back into the city if Frisk teleports over the wall. But I have no intention of going back; there's very little left for us there besides the threat of game-breaking bugs.
We bust out Time Stop against the Guarded Compound...
...Meteor Swarm against the Coiled Cabal in the Planar Prison...
...and Time Stop again against the Warden, though it takes a couple tries due to the Warden's Mantle...
...and yet more Time Stop spells in the beholder hive. Because screw beholders.
Maneira proves vulnerable to Psionic Blasts despite having the Amulet of Spell Warding and a save vs. spell of 1. Not because of the specialization bug thingy we've been discussing lately, but because Ulitharids' Psionic Blast comes with a -4 penalty.
Maneira has actually hit epic levels and can now wield both Carsomyr and the Soul Reaver at 5 APR, unhasted. But Gorky makes her pretty much unnecessary in most fights thanks to Time Stop.
Notice that the Greater Basilisk is gone. We've already gotten all the XP we could possibly want at this stage of the game thanks to the basilisk XP loop. Which means we really should kick out the basilisk so the rest of the party gets a bigger share of the XP rewards.
We stomp the mind flayers fast enough that we don't suffer more than one death.
This is what happens when a modder give 2.5 APR to a Nashkel mines bounty hunter. And accidentally codes him as a mage. And some other modder accidentally finds a way to seduce him.
Frisk helps too, you know.
Maneira suffers badly against the vampires, as she has no PFMW to block their CON drain, but Gorky once again comes to the rescue.
Downstairs, Gorky chain-casts Time Stop to take down Bodhi early. Even though she gets an extra Heal spell because he attacked her before her dialogue triggered, he still takes her down before running out of Time Stop spells.
Bodhi's death causes Manasseh and Hazzerbazzer to disappear. It seems that the best way to deal with Tactics Bodhi is simply to smash her while she's slowed, completely ignoring the mages and their bothersome PFMW spells.
As for Venduris and the Chosen of Cyric encounter...
...well, it's been a long time since they killed Mollyboo. I think my thirst for revenge has been sated, and I see no reason to endanger the run by fighting the Chosen of Cyric when I know I can talk my way out of it.
Sparing the lives of horribly dangerous murderers fills us with determination.
Current party:
Frisk, Seducer
Gorken Bloodaxe, Conjurer
Maneira, Fighter/Bounty Hunter
Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906663/#Comment_906663
In the SoD prologue dungeon I sanctuaried through to Porios and convinced him to give up. The undead groups were mainly dealt with by sanctuaring among them using turn undead with summons and Flaming Fist mopping up. Korlasz tried running round, but was doomed and commanded to die - and did so.
In Baldur's Gate, apart from killing and looting NPCs I also obtained the Spectacles of Spectacle which I've not picked up before (in single player). With so much surplus XP carried forward from BG1 I didn't do any quests though before heading off with the army. Arriving at the Coast Way Crossing I bought a bag of holding and consolidated equipment using that before going to the Coast Way Forest. I helped the vampire to get a source of regeneration - Isabella was hard to hit, but went down eventually.
Travelling back to the Coast Way Crossing I came across a fight between some orcs and trolls. Skeletons were produced, but the orcs made short work of those, suggesting that skeletons may be somewhat less of a force in SoD than BG1. I tried sanctuary with a view to doing more preparation, but enemies in SoD will follow you despite invisibility. No problem though - a few buffs and the orcs were comprehensively crushed.
Back at the Crossing the only additional work done was to shoot down Teleria in order to get the Stone Ally (though that would need potions of genius to actually use).
Moving on to the Troll Claw Forest I found more trolls (surprise, surprise) and decided the shield taken from Isabella would make an appropriate introduction to them.
I ignored a cave full of fungi on the way to the Forest of Wyrms. Fighting through a few things there on the way to the Temple of Bhaal took me to the XP cap - it's going to be a while before I get the chance to see that tick over again
Various bugbears made little impression on me in the next cave before skeletons were summoned to deal with Snorgash.
After killing various guards the skeletons were a bit battered and I was out of most spells, so rested before going after Ziatar. As usual she used sanctuary to survive a bit longer, but this time I didn't resort to fireballs to finish her off quicker.
Previous posts: 1, 2
Just a quick update on what Amaruq has been up to lately.
After raising some additional funds from the early quests in the south, we're finally able to obtain Greenstone Amulet and Darts of Stunning (and we're already rocking a single proficiency pip in darts). Why not try them against Amaruq's namesake? Yeah, why not. Especially if he wants to quaff a strength potion instead of Oil of Speed.
Meilum, on the other hand, was far less inclined to fail the save and had to be tackled with Charm -> Call Lightning -> 0 speed factor Aule's. Still, Amaruq earned couple of slashes in the process. This one was kinda lame and inglorious, but at least it's done.
In anticipation of the 7th druid level we decided to assist in regulating the ankegh population a little. Oh, all right, there it is.
This is good news as we've now got access to the nymphs. Combined with our fast weapon, Darts of Stunning, slinging range (if needed) and a sufficent collection of buff resources, we feel comfortable to proceed with the main questline.
But first, let us introduce the nymph lasses (or Ulene, Canya and Elyme if you like). Silke, meet Ulene and Canya. Excuse Elyme, she's out of office. The rest of you will get to see the girls a lot more.
Alright, onto the mines then! PoI quaff is definitely worth the kobold hassle here so let's just avoid them altogether. As for Mulahey, Amaruq prepares with summons, Potion of Hill Giant Strength, Greenstone Amulet and ProUndead scroll (to be used againts the Revenant shortly after). Our plan was extremely straightforward: Wand of Sleep (for kobolds), Hold/Confusion (for Mulahey) and Aule's (for anything that moves).
The battle never really started, although it was by lucky chance that Ulene and Canya were able to release their opening Hold Monster projectiles despite being assaulted by Unholy Blight.
We loot the tombs, kill the Revenant and return to Nashkel. With the extended spell slots via Ring of Holiness (don't know the EE name), Amaruq is now able to summon the triplets againts Nimbul. We're confident that one Hold Monster (bypassing his MGoI) from the nymphs will connect. Nevertheless, Amaruq will keep her aura clear with Potion of Magic Blocking at the ready. It wasn't needed.
Btw: In contrast to my previous runs, I've decided not to recharge any items (most notably Greenstone and Shield amulets) and therefore I'm trying to limit their usage in lesser encounters. As a result, I expect the playstyle to be slightly more re-active (using aura defensively and according to the circumstances) rather than pro-active (complete pre-buffs and offensive use of aura). Amaruq is happy with the choice. So am I.
Bandit camp action coming up next.
See ya!
Meanwhile, Werewolf Isle s pretty safe...
But it should be your decision, so you'll not get on me if something will go wrong...
Edit : And any mishap that would happen is obviously all on me !
I'm still unsure if I will go there or not, but I'm slightly leaning on yes for now.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906663/#Comment_906663
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906886/#Comment_906886
At Boareskyr Bridge I knew this time where to find Vichand's scroll and was shortly able to defeat a wraith
After resting for a while to identify all the junk picked up after the battle I moved on to the Coalition Camp. Using the spectacles there enabled a new merchant, though the only thing I thought worth having for me there was the lucky belt.
I didn't think there was anything useful in Dead Man's Pass, so carried straight on through. The same applied in Bloodbark Grove, so it was on to the Underground River. Chaotic commands was used there to beat up some myconids and get a Bloom-Sac. Writing up a note on that could have ended the run when I failed to pause the game and came back to it to find a wandering bear was chewing my leg off - oh well, no great harm done this time
Attempting to get back to the Underground River I found a dead magic zone. Up to this point I'd used no consumable resources at all in SoD, but with spells not available I tried to resort to potions for the first time - only to find they didn't work there either. A test showed Bhaal abilities were also blocked and, though from MP experience here I knew wands worked, I thought my chances of killing the Shadowy Figure before he ran away were probably less than his of killing me - and I took the coward's route
Back at the Underground River it didn't take long for the wyverns to congregate and kill all my skeletons (once active, most SoD enemies will hunt you down irrespective of invisibility, resting or leaving & returning maps). A rest allowed another lot of skeletons to appear though and they had little trouble with the remaining guards.
I was now in territory that I've not done before in single player and I briefly consulted a walkthrough to see what to do. That suggested that a wand of water elemental summoning could be obtained by telling a story to some sahuagin, but they apparently didn't like my tale. Deciding not to read further I just followed the prompts of the stone dowser to find a suitable place for the Bwoosh and placed that without any need for conflict. I then tried to talk my way into the Warrens, but was unable to convince Turin Brassbreaker to open up. However, my journal kindly advised that placing a potion of firebreath in a cooking pot would provide a suitable distraction and moments later I was inside. I poisoned some food and water using sanctuary, but couldn't immediately get the elevator down again. A bit of experience with MP there suggested that the mage needed to be aware of your presence before the elevator would work, so I spoke to him to turn him hostile and then used a potion of invisibility before running for it. I stopped to kill the sahuagin on the way out in case they had the wand referred to before, but it appeared they must have stashed it somewhere else
After convincing the Fist leaders not to hand me over to Caelar in a parley, I briefly travelled to Dragonspear Castle to rescue Skie and looked at the Courtyard, but found that was now walled off so quests there are inaccessible (I checked earlier and found that travelling to the Castle was disabled - experience in MP suggests there's something buggy about that transition as it's not always available when it should be).
Back at the Coalition Camp I was expecting to have more time to prepare, but found myself facing trolls and ogres before having produced any summons. Two potions of firebreath later and there wasn't much left of them though.
Next up will be the confrontation at Dragonspear Castle.
Corthief XIII is still going. We've done some high experience areas like Ankhegs and Basilisks, but nothing of note has really happened yet which is why I didn't post anything. Will keep at it.
Our kill rate is really slow - thinking of adding a strong and also high DEX character like Shar-Teel to speed up the kills, though will also slow our experience gain.
Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Shadows of Amn
Part 9
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906799/#Comment_906799
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906869/#Comment_906869
On to Suldannessellar! Rakshasas, like practically everything else in the game, cannot stand up to Gorky during Time Stop.
But I don't want to kill all of these guys. I leave one alive and seduce him, granting us a very special new mage.
Rajahs are coded as level 11 mages and have 3.5 APR in addition to low THAC0, low AC, and immunity to level 1-7 spells (though SCS lets Breach get past them, I think). The Rajah will be kind of weak for a while compared to the rest of the party (and it costs over 50,000 gold to get him all of the spells we want him to have), but once we reach ToB, his XP should jump up to 2.5 million, putting him at the normal value for a non-completionist party of 6 entering ToB from SoA.
(Maharajahs, despite meaning "great king" to the Rajah's "king," are actually weaker than Rajahs in Suldannessellar, which is why we went with the Rajah.)
But we're not tackling Suldannessellar just yet. Once we get the Rajah, we head back to Athkatla to take down the Twisted Rune.
I actually don't think we're entirely optimized for this fight, but I do have a couple of tricks up my sleeve. First of all, there's a little-known fact about an SCS' vampires CON drain attack: it also heals the vampire by a small amount of HP, which can put the vampire over its maximum. It lasts 20 rounds and cannot be dispelled.
Which means that if we summon a whole bunch of critters...
...our Ancient Vampire can crank up its HP to more than 700. We could actually push it even higher, but 700 is more than enough.
Unfortunately, vampires are by no means unstoppable even with HP like that. Layenne's Fallen Planetar could easily kill the Ancient Vampire with a vorpal strike. Vaxall could also do it with the right beholder ray.
We can deal with a planetar, I think, but Vaxall is another story. He chain-casts PFMW and his rays, naturally, cannot be disrupted. So what do we do?
Well, we can try setting traps, but they won't reach him; they'd only hit Shangalar. And since we can't enter the next chamber without crossing a trigger that spawns Shangalar and brings his party into the area, we'd only be able to lay a single trap before Vaxall showed up.
But... We just so happen to have a spare copy of a scroll that could let Maneira hop right over that spawn point. And thanks to UAI, she can use it despite having no mage levels.
And since Maneira has Vhailor's Helm, she can set even more traps than she'd normally be able to. Better still, her simulacrum will use those normal snares at level 11, which deals lingering poison damage.
Unfortunately, Shangalar soaks up most of the traps, which I meant for Layenne. The good news is that most of the traps around Vaxall's spawn point were just out of reach, and therefore remain intact.
Both Spike Traps hit! Vaxall is down! The biggest threat in this fight has just been neutralized.
Traps tend to be pretty reductive, but I'm quite proud of using that Dimension Door scroll to make all this possible. Now the only threat left is Layenne. Gorky stops time to squash her remaining allies, just so they won't get in the way.
Since spell durations run during Time Stop, Layenne loses her PFMW, leaving her helpless.
I don't know why Layenne wasn't invisible at the end. Maybe Maneira revealed her at just the right time. But it was an important detail, because Gorky as a Conjurer cannot cast divination spells.
Okay, we're finally done with Athkatla. And with all other side quests already completed--with the exception of Watcher's Keep, which I still don't see on the map anywhere for some reason--it is time to bring Shadows of Amn to an end.
Nizidramanii'yt falls to several consecutive Time Stops. Normally this wouldn't be possible for a single-classed mage, but Gorky has the APR of a dual-classed Fighter/Mage with Grandmastery.
Suneer survives much longer due to invisibility, but Maneira can reveal him to Gorky.
The fight with Irenicus is more complicated, since Jon-bon has multiple illusory clones. Gorky has to beat them one by one to isolate the real Irenicus.
Notice Gorky was using his bare hands to deal damage through PFMW.
The real Irenicus is a harder nut to crack. He's totally immune to Horrid Wilting, unlike his clone, but he still has one important weakness.
Yup. Cone of Cold is a great tool against SCS mages. Jon-bon falls and we wake up in Hell.
We pick all the good options in the Hell trials, but we do have one other thing to take care of before we fight Irenicus. I want a sixth party member.
And Wraith Sarevok happens to be a level 15 fighter. At level 32, Frisk can easily seduce him.
We can't leave until he's dead, though, so we have to put him down and resurrect him outside.
Notice that Frisk dealt the final blow. I didn't realize this until later, but it seems that Frisk made two exceptions to the pacifist rules in SoA. I really should pay more attention to who's attacking.
Since I know Wraith Sarevok will get an XP boost in ToB, I dual-class him to thief. His THAC0 will be poor in the fight with the Slayer, but he'll still be a spectacular tank. Interestingly enough, dual-classing removes his normal sprite and makes him into a dwarf.
Notice I gave him the Berserker kit before dual-classing, since his saving throws aren't great. Wraith Sarevok gets a few paltry levels from the other trials, but nothing that really makes him useful. The final fight of SoA will depend mostly on Maneira, Gorky, and possibly the Ancient Vampire.
To prepare for the fight, Maneira sets a bunch of traps, including Time Traps, in a separate location where Frisk can hide from the Slayer's Time Stop spells. Otherwise, Frisk should be okay--their defenses are spectacular, partly due to the permanent Slayer form and partly due to Seducers getting level-based bonuses to melee weapons and saves vs. spell.
Frisk is a veritable tank, but that's very unusual for a Seducer. Without the Slayer form, their AC would be 9 points higher and their MR and elemental resistances would be 50% lower.
The fight begins, and I scatter the party to minimize the danger from Remove Magic.
Notice the big elementals, courtesy of the Staff of Elemental Mastery from Item Upgrade.
Gorky stops time, but the Slayer's PFMW spell is still active, so he busies himself with the other demons.
Another Time Stop spell, however, gets Gorky past the PFMW duration.
Unfortunately, the Slayer's regeneration and HP are sky-high, and Gorky mistimes his next Time Stop. Killing a Balor during Time Stop turns out to be a mistake; these Balors explode and disrupt spells when they die.
Now we're in trouble. The Slayer lost its first spell, which I'm sure was Time Stop, but it has enough breathing room to re-cast PFMW. Less importantly, a Balor kills Wraith Sarevok (without apparently landing a vorpal strike, which doesn't make much sense for a 600-HP critter like Wraith Sarevok).
The Slayer targets Frisk, who responds with Psionic Invisibility. Gorky runs away to make sure his next Time Stop doesn't get disrupted, and the rest of the party, having nothing else to do, fights the Balor.
Gorky only has so many Time Stop spells he can cast per day, but we created a few extra scrolls just in case we might need them. But he only needs one scroll (which we would have had anyway; one from Ribald to scribe and another from Suldannessellar to cast) to stop time long enough to bring down Jon-bon.
The battle is won! Shadows of Amn is over! On to Throne of Bhaal! SoA might not be a pacifist run, but I'll still try to beat ToB without Frisk killing anybody.
Melissan is waiting. We are filled with determination.
Current party:
Frisk, Seducer
Gorken Bloodaxe, Conjurer
Maneira, Fighter/Bounty Hunter
Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler
Rajah, Mage
Wraith Sarevok, Berserker(15)->Thief
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906663/#Comment_906663
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906886/#Comment_906886
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906946/#Comment_906946
At the Castle I took the short-cut of challenging Ashatiel to solo combat. With a scroll of PfM and AC of -19 against missiles she failed to do anything to me while being shot down herself. Muddling my way through the castle I found Caelar and hopped through a doorway to Hell. I was poisoned there by an imp and forgot I wouldn't be able to use a spell to cure that, so was low on HPs by the time a green scroll took effect. However, a potion of regeneration helped boost HPs back up after eventually shooting down Illaruel (I wasn't sure if that was necessary to do or not).
I didn't think there would be much opportunity to cast spells later on, so produced some skeletons and buffed them a bit to attack Thrix. My experience in MP has been that he is hard to kill quickly though and that proved to be the case again. However, some running round with a sling eventually saw the back of him. The remaining enemies wouldn't have lasted long at all, except that ...
I'd actually checked my saving throws only just prior to that and spell save was at 0, but the potion of stone form must have just run out as it was up to 3 at the point of being held. Not having replenished it earlier was rather silly given I had loads of those, but I suppose I'd been thinking of it as a replacement for a potion of defense even though I knew it only lasted half as long.
Reading all this, I'm nearly ready for a LoB+SCS party playthrough.
@semiticgod Best of luck against Melissan. Take your time!
Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Throne of Bhaal
Part 10
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906799/#Comment_906799
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906869/#Comment_906869
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906993/#Comment_906993
Throne of Bhaal bumps your XP up to 2.5 million if it's not already there, so the Rajah will get a few extra levels right off the bat, and Wraith Sarevok will recover his Berserker levels almost instantly.
But the XP reward doesn't trigger.
I keep waiting. Nothing. I don't know if it's a bug or a feature of EET, but we're not getting the XP you normally get at the start of ToB.
It's a nonfatal bug, so I roll with it. Wraith Sarevok needs over a million more XP before he regains his Berserker levels. He's probably going to be stuck as an unkitted thief for most of the game, if not all of it. He's still a great character--he has 3.5 APR, 600 HP, and excellent stats and resistances--but he'll never get HLAs.
And as I would realize only just now, he's suffering from a 50% XP penalty due to receiving his fighter kit from Seduction (his original class is "Sarevok").
It's not the only weird behavior I see. Illasera's goons never go hostile, and she fires her arrows right at the Ancient Vampire's Shield of Reflection.
She's not even hostile, which means Maneira can backstab Illasera in plain sight. Nonfatal bugs can work both for and against you.
Notice Maneira using the upgraded Sword of Arvoreen, which we nicked from Mazzy after seducing her (technically we're not supposed to bring any NPCs into the party, but I didn't want to kill Mazzy). This was actually a huge mistake, because the upgraded sword grants no immunity to stun or PW: Stun.
Which is a huge loss, because we have no way of achieving immunity to stun. We haven't seen the Greenstone Amulet since the end of SoD.
Due to a slow reaction, I let Irenicus launch the first Time Stop in the first Pocket Plane trial.
Luckily for Frisk, he does not use his Energy Blades on them. Gorky takes control of time and obliterates everyone.
The vampires of Saradush are no trouble. Just for fun, I have Maneira solo the next mage using the Staff of the Magi.
As for Gromnir... Well, that's what Gorky is for.
He butchers Gromnir during Time Stop and also puts down the only visible mage, dual-wielding Firetooth and Gnasher for the former and deploying the Staff of the Magi for the latter.
SCS lets people make a saving throw against Carsomyr, but there is no such nerf to the Staff of the Magi.
Gorky makes excellent progress in the limited time he has, but he mistimes enough Time Stop spells that it gives Karun the Black enough time to cast his own Time Stop. Maneira goes down for the first time in a long time.
Gorky casts his own Time Stop once again, using Improved Alacrity to debuff Karun the Black, but it's not quite enough to Breach him. When his weapons fail, Gorky just uses Sunfire to disrupt Karun the Black's next spell.
Of course, since PFMW lasts 4 rounds and Time Stop lasts 3, it's only a few seconds before Karun the Black becomes vulnerable to the Staff of the Magi, at which point he's toast.
If Gorky seems to be doing most of the work in this run so far, it's because he is.
Yaga-Shura is next. On the way, we buy a spare Bag of Holding and discover that it's the same item as one of our bags from SoD. And while most of the contents are just spare scrolls, we also find the Martyr's Morningstar!
Not to mention our old Greenstone Amulet, which we promptly recharge.
Fun fact: the Martyr's Morningstar reduces the targets HP by 15% of its maximum on a critical hit. Helmets will block the effect, but weapon immunities do not. The Critical Strike and Smite HLAs will both trigger the effect on every hit, so once Maneira gets Critical Strike, she can instantly kill anything in a single round as long as it doesn't have a helmet.
One of my mods adds a special item for Wilson which boosts his Dexterity by one point.
Each one costs thousands of gold and you'd need to give Wilson five of them just to improve his AC by a single point, but Maneira can use the Wand of Lightning trick to eat six of them at once.
Her THAC0 comes from a custom weapon I was using to conduct some tests; she doesn't really have -46 THAC0 with any of her real weapons.
For some reason, we cannot use Teleport anymore.
I assumed it was typical behavior for the Teleport mod, but looking at the readme, it seems that you're supposed to be able to use the spell to revisit SoA areas even in ToB, as well as navigate around the normal areas of ToB. It seems a variable was erroneously interfering with our attempts to teleport.
Speaking of areas we can't access, we still can't go to Watcher's Keep.
I'm not a big fan of the fire giant temple. We can deal with the giants themselves, but the Burning Men can dispel all of Gorky's defenses, bypassing all of his spell protections, and then kill him more or less instantly.
The Fire Lich is also kind of irritating, but only becomes it takes so long.
Well, time to kill a dragon.
Done. Let's move on to something more interesting. Like killing other things during Time Stop!
There is one interesting thing about this fight: apparently the Shambling Mound's weapon has the wrong parameters for a damage effect, causing it to deal about 90% of Wraith Sarevok's 600+ HP pool in two hits.
Nonfatal bugs are actually surprisingly common in EET. There have also been a fair number of spontaneous crashes during area transitions, but nothing I've been able to replicate (I just reloaded and did it again). Still, EET is perfectly playable, and I'd say it's actually worth it to be able to revisit areas from previous games, even though I didn't take advantage of it very much.
On the way out, I see something very strange.
It seems one of my mods adds an expansion to this area. I decide to peek inside, just to see what's there...
...but apparently only poison-immune characters can go in.
The Ancient Vampire, of course, is completely immune to poison. I send it down and the game asks me if I'm sure.
Now that it asks me, I'm a bit hesitant. The Ancient Vampire is really strong, and I doubt whatever lies below is going to be too much trouble for it, but I don't really know what's going to happen.
I really want to find out what's going on down there. But I'm not sure we could survive the loss of the Ancient Vampire. My future strategies are absolutely dependent on the Ancient Vampire's presence, and if we somehow lost it, we'd be in serious trouble.
In the end, I decide to once again play it safe and walk away. Not just because I'm worried about the Ancient Vampire's health, but because I don't see a profit that could justify the risk.
Out of curiosity, I try the Wand of Lightning trick on the Staff of Elemental Mastery and immediately regret it.
I really don't need these many summons; not with this party. In fact, I don't need them at all. Gorky is strong enough to handle almost anything, Maneira can fill in the few gaps in his arsenal, the Ancient Vampire has a devasting CON drain ability, and we still have three perfectly decent party members after that. I don't want to let my summons do all the work; this isn't an LoB run.
Unwilling to put them down with CTRL-Y, however, I just leave most of them behind while we head across the bridge to deal with Yaga-Shura. I only bring the three elementals that the staff is supposed to be able to summon.
[spoiler]
Yaga-Shura reappears unusually fast, but he does so right in the midst of our many extraneous elementals.
Screw it. It hardly matters. We already have the tools for an early kill on Yaga-Shura. The epic-level mage that comes with Yaga-Shura can't do much besides remove some potion buffs and throw out some decidedly nonfatal HLAs.
I was planning on killing Yaga-Shura with CON drain (unlike Abazigal and Sendai, the first three big Bhaalspawn you fight in ToB do not have a death dialogue you have to trigger) but the Ancient Vampire is looking a little weak and I don't want to burn a Rod of Resurrection charge or a swig of Durlag's Goblet to heal her. Instead I just let Gorky handle it, since I already know he can.
The damage is pretty unimpressive, but Yaga-Shura's resistances are supposed to go down with time. Gorky keeps going, but rather than finish off the giant using Time Stop scrolls, I just let time go back to normal and have Maneira join in. Yaga-Shura's resistances are still well north of 50% when we take away the last of his impressive 350 HP pool.
The Martyr's Morningstar probably could have killed him, too, since Yaga-Shura has no helmet, at least not in my install.
Time Stop wins the second trial in the Pocket Plane, but invisibility once again frustrates Gorky's attempts to kill the mage, Semaj. Fortunately, any mage without innate immunity to normal weapons is vulnerable to Maneira's darts, whether the nonmagical kind or the +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars, and she can apply Power Attack to all but guarantee two rounds of stun on the target.
To my surprise, it seems that one of my mods lets you talk your way out of the fight at the Oasis!
Unfortunately, Jamis Tombelthen carries the Answerer, the awesome +4 longsword that lowers AC by 2 and MR by 15% with every hit, an extremely valuable tool against the likes of Abazigal and Melissan. And if we don't fight him, we don't get that sword.
But as a level 16 fighter, Jamis Tombelthen is vulnerable to level 33 Frisk's Seduction spell. We can just pluck it right from his inventory.
Finding a rare opportunity for a nonviolent solution fills us with determination.
Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Throne of Bhaal
Part 11
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906799/#Comment_906799
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906869/#Comment_906869
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906993/#Comment_906993
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907021/#Comment_907021
Time to kill some more dragons. I want to conserve Gorky's Time Stop spells, even though we can afford plenty of extra scrolls on the off chance we might need them, so I use other methods to deal with the first phase of combat. Aside from an uneventful Time Stop, Draconis mostly just summons demons for us to stomp.
By the time the Balor croaks, Draconis' PFMW spells are out. And with them gone, his human form won't last long.
Draconis goes invisible right before Gorky casts Time Stop, and the pre-cast True Sight from the Rajah has no effect--probably, now that I think about it, because it uses a projectile, and Time Stop freezes projectiles in place. Gorky settles for some debuffers until Time Stop ends, at which point True Sight kicks in.
This time, he stays visible during Time Stop. We take his head.
What about Anadramatis? Time Stop. What about those demons? Time Traps from Maneira. What about the kuo-toa? I didn't even bother taking a screenshot.
But the quadruple dragon ambush is a different kind of challenge. Gorky doesn't enough Time Stop spells to kill all of them without using valuable scrolls, so I decide to give the Ancient Vampire a chance to prove herself. First, Gorky summons some critters for her to gobble up with her CON drain attack.
The Ancient Vampire dashes to the north alone, with nothing but 905 HP to protect her. She absolutely destroys both dragons with level drain.
It's not over yet. A green dragon with poison breath approaches from behind, followed by a red dragon. But the Ancient Vampire obliterates Ithy'nassendra all the same. The dragons are dealing massive damage, but the Ancient Vampire can easily survive it.
Then another copy of the red dragon appears and delivers the line he was supposed to. It seems we now have a quintuple dragon ambush to deal with.
The Ancient Vampire can probably take down both red dragons easily, but the rest of the party is too close, and I'm concerned that Carnifex #2 will hurt Frisk. Frisk pins down the dragon using Psionic Lock, ensuring that Gorky can get a Time Stop off the ground.
Gorky is simply too much for him. Carnifex #2 falls during Time Stop, and his twin explodes soon after.
Our Ancient Vampire just killed four dragons without breaking a sweat. And the only reason she didn't kill the fifth is because the party got in the way.
SCS vampires are really not making effective use of their powers.
Gorky dispatches the Tyrant Golems largely on his own, though their ridiculous demilich-grade resistances make it a slow and tedious process.
Aside from the Bronze Pantalettes, which we later forge into the Big Metal Unit, we also find a very special new golem tome.
A magic golem would be indestructible in the final fight; no one uses normal weapons there. But a Protection from Magic scroll is a steep price to pay considering we only have 3 and I have exactly 3 important uses for each one.
Besides, I've been hoarding golem components for the past four playthroughs of the trilogy, and I still haven't created a single golem. As far as I know, the golem tomes don't even work! I'm probably not going to end up forging any in this run, either.
Plus, it says you have to construct them in a wild magic zone. And Watcher's Keep is still inaccessible for some reason.
Okay, time to deal with Abazigal and his twin wives, Tamah and Tamah (I'm pretty sure there's only supposed to be one of them, but there's always two). First, the drakes rush us. They have a lot of nasty breath weapons (including one that deals level drain!) and tend to turn invisible, making them a bit of a pain.
Abazigal shows up in human form, but his movement rate is average, so Gorky kites him with Energy Blades while Abazigal lumbers after him. Meanwhile, our fighters struggle to finish off the drakes and get them out of the way.
Abazigal transforms, Tamah joins the fight, and we still have to fight some side enemies. Tamah blasts us with her breath weapon, and Maneira takes full damage because I forgot to equip Roranach's Horn or use Hardiness.
Up north, Wraith Sarevok is keeping Abazigal busy. Wraith Sarevok isn't great for dealing damage but has lots of HP, so it's the lowest-cost solution to dealing with Abazigal and his PFMW spells.
Gorky, meanwhile, is using magic attacks to break down Abazigal's defenses. We might need to land a Breach later on in the fight.
Maneira and Wraith Sarevok are looking a little green, but thanks to a successful Wish-rest, Gorky can put a second Fallen Planetar on the map, healing both of our troubled comrades.
Gorky memorized Wish because Time Stop is largely useless in this fight; Abazigal is immune to it and casting the spell just gives him free reign to attack.
It seems that Abazigal's shockwave attack spell weapon thingy has infinite range. It even reaches Frisk and the Rajah, who has puttering around to the east, waiting for something to do because it's not even level 18 yet.
The Ancient Vampire wipes out the first copy of Tamah using level drain. The next one is in good shape, but not for long. Notice Gorky using Dragon's Breath to sneak a little extra damage past the enemy's MR.
Gorky casts Improved Haste on Maneira, allowing her to hit poor Abazigal 10 times per round with the Soul Reaver.
Even if he could survive all the damage, he wouldn't be able to hit any of us without rolling a natural 20. Soon, Abazigal is dead.
On the way out, another dragon shows up. It's Tiamat, the dragon god!
But due to a bug of some sort, Tiamat won't speak to us. She just gives us a weird stare. Whatever quest or conversation she was meant to introduce, we're not gonna get it.
Awkwardly excusing ourselves from a silent conversation fills us with determination.
Undergate Pacifist Run: A "Solo" Seducer in Throne of Bhaal
Part 12
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906323/#Comment_906323
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906475/#Comment_906475
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906551/#Comment_906551
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906569/#Comment_906569
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906591/#Comment_906591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906702/#Comment_906702
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906799/#Comment_906799
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906869/#Comment_906869
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906993/#Comment_906993
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907021/#Comment_907021
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907034/#Comment_907034
Next up, Sendai's enclave! We've forged the Big Metal Unit and, far more importantly, the Scorcher Ammunition and Frag Grenades (they're just... better than other weapons). Apparently Seducers can use it, because it's not flagged to be unusable by Shapeshifters (they use the same usability flags). Frisk's AC is so low that even Melissan would need to land a critical hit.
It causes weird stuttering, though, because apparently the "Animation Change" opcode causes collision problems when you layer two such opcodes on at once, and Frisk is already using one of those opcodes by being in Slayer form all the time. We pass the BMU over to Maneira.
Our party is roughly at its peak, with both Gorky and Frisk at nearly 6 million XP. A quick look at Gorky's Record screen shows why he's been so important all this time.
Maneira's stats aren't quite as crazy, but she does have 5 base APR, and she's just inches away from getting the level 21 Bounty Hunter Maze traps.
Then we have our Ancient Vampire. She doesn't have nearly the same utility as Gorky or Maneira, but she can crank her HP up to 1,000 given enough time, and can drain 12 Constitution per round unhasted, which should be able to win us the fight against Melissan--if I play things correctly.
Then there's Wraith Sarevok, whose main function is to get punched in the face and not fall down. And the Rajah, who has no particular purpose due to being inferior to Gorky in practically every way--mostly just because he never got that XP boost he was supposed to at the beginning of ToB.
Anyway, we try out the Frag Grenades against the local drow. The area-effect projectile lets us apply Power Attack stun through all weapon immunities. Maneira can already almost do that just using her darts, but the Frag Grenades can also hurt liches with PFMW, and bypass invisibility. And they also get higher APR, at 5 instead of 4.
I fix the bug that prevents us from using the Teleport spell, but I don't have any plans for re-visiting old areas. With Watcher's Keep still missing from the map, the only other major questline is Werewolf Island (and visiting that place could cause problems since I'd have to use Psionic Teleportation to reach Baldur's Gate itself to get those sea charts or whatever).
Anyway, deeper into Sendai's enclave, Maneira continues to dominate the scene with the Frag Grenades and Scorcher Ammunition.
It would be nice if I could get Gorky to use the Scorcher Ammunition on Odamaron and his Apprentices, but unlike Chara from my old Undergate run, who had both Time Stop and Use Any Item, Gorky cannot use any crossbows besides the Big Metal Rod, which means he can't deal missile damage with the Scorcher Ammunition. That means Gorky can't remove Stoneskins using the ammunition. Maneira might not have Time Stop, but she can still drag the Scorcher Ammunition across the screen to net the liches despite their PFMW.
Of course, we need a good target for that. And since Wraith Sarevok has 600 HP, we don't have to worry about killing him in the process.
Gorky still has stuff to do, of course. He casts Wish and Time Stop, burning through the enemy's introductory PFMW just in case we want to attack them directly. But Maneira is doing quite nicely on her own.
Even so, why kill when you can use overkill? Gorky stops time and pelts Energy Blades at Odamaron now that Maneira has shorn him of his Stoneskins.
We burn down the rest of the opposition.
Ogremoch proves immune to the effects of the Martyr's Morningstar, unfortunately, but we still have enough APR to overcome his infinite Stoneskin spells.
I normally deal with Diaytha by attacking during Time Stop, which conveniently can be cast before the battle begins, since Diaytha waits for you. Turns out that the Wish Time Stop is bugged in my install: the djinni casts Time Stop instead of casting it for Gorky. All it does is freeze everyone for 36 seconds.
Instead, we use the normal version. Works just fine.
But right before I kill the enemy Ancient Vampire, I stop and consider bringing her into the group. We already have an Ancient Vampire, but it's not like the Rajah or Wraith Sarevok really need to be in the party. I decide to bring her in, replacing the Rajah and adding a second Ancient Vampire to the party.
But this Ancient Vampire isn't just a carbon copy of our first one, and its higher levels aren't the only way. This one only has 3.5 base APR instead of 4... but it's actually even stronger than the first vampire.
How so? This one doesn't use the same CON drain weapon as the first one. It uses a more powerful version, which drains 5 CON instead of 3 and boosts the vampire's HP by 25 instead of 15. It'll never get HLAs, however, which means we can't use Critical Strike. That means we can't quite guarantee hits on Melissan when the time comes. But having another 500+ HP vampire on the team can't possibly hurt.
Captain Egeissag (which I like to pronounce Eggy-Sag) challenges Frisk to a duel. I don't know if there's any alternative, so I agree to it.
I don't believe I've mentioned this, but Haiass vanished at some point, perhaps at the beginning of ToB. We've relied on Haiass to fight the Unknowable Horror in SoD and Bhaal in Spellhold when the party is disabled, but what are we going to do now?
First, Frisk activates Psionic Invisibility, which grants automatic backstabs for the whole duration. It's less impressive when you consider that Seducers never go above 2x.
When he's one more hit away from death, Frisk leaves him alone and relies on our summons to finish him off.
We return to our old tricks when facing the mind flayers, because I have no intention of letting anyone die to a string of critical hits. Gorky stops time, blasts the enemy with Dragon's Breath, and discovers that Wish Breach finally works, maybe because of an EE update. It slips past whatever spell protections the enemy mage has and removes her PFMW and Stoneskins.
All that's left is Sendai herself. The cleric is easy to disrupt, but the mage is more challenging. Against the odds, it makes all of its saves against the Power Attack stun on Maneira's Frag Grenades.
But Remove Magic doesn't take down a single one of our buffs. Probably because Gorky is level 25 and that statue, now that I look it up in Near Infinity, appears to be only level 20. Chance of a successful dispel is 0% (or 1% if it works properly in my install).
We keep up the pressure, not worrying too much about the other drow. Normally, those drow are horribly dangerous due to their sky-high damage output, but we managed to stack Hardiness spells via Wish, minimizing the risk.
Another mage shows up, but it's buffed with Improved Mantle.
It's an awesome spell... in Shadows of Amn. But with the Staff of the Magi, a +5 Sword of Arvoreen, and Carsomyr at our disposal, Improved Mantle may as well not even be there.
The last statue falls a few rounds later. And because I know it's the last statue, I know that Maneira can set a trap right after it falls...
...giving her 10 seconds of automatic hits on Sendai right off the bat.
Sendai falls. All that's left is to go to Amkethran and convince Balthazar to join us in the fight against Melissan.
In Ascension, you get special powers at the end of each Pocket Plane trial, and you can get either the good or the evil one depending on your response to the Solar during Expositional Storytime--and the evil ones happen to be the better defensive options.
Being pointlessly rude to the nice friendly Solar fills us with determination.
Current party:
Frisk, Seducer
Gorky, Conjurer
Maneira, Fighter/Bounty Hunter
Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler
Ancient Vampire, Fighter/Swashbuckler
Wraith Sarevok, Berserker(15)->Thief
Previous posts: 1, 2, 3
Despite having awful AI and totally insane soundset, Amaruq's triplets have proven their worth in many a fight. Like with Tranzig, for instance.
Bassilus followed. And what do you think, did I fail to notice that Free Action is among his pre-buffs and dumped the initial round-full of Hold spells into waste? Of course I did!
Amaruq curses me across generations for my ineptitude and casually quaffs a Potion of Freedom to counter his own Hold attempt.
Change of the plan - if we can't win with tricks, we'll just brute-force our way. Let's just be smarter next time.
Now, you might want to say that all this nymph spamming is rather cheesy and dull. I'm conscious of that and I promise to try and come up with something more creative. However, you'll still see the triplets play a role in some future encounters (Kirian and Seniyad come to mind).
Anyway, we collect the gold, load supplies at High Hedge (including the Claw) and we're off to the bandit ca...Lamahla! It's good to see you, you old witch. You've been somewhat expected.
Amaruq: PoI -> Potion of Freedom -> Armor of Faith -> Dart of Stunning (unsuccessful) -> Necklace of Missiles (always successful
Telka gets Aule's.
Maneira gets a bullet.
Strength of One -> Charm -> swan song for Zeela and Lamahla.
I'll finally cover the bandit camp in the next post. Amaruq is currently enjoying a day off at FAI, getting ready for Cloakwood.
See ya!
I made an exception in Abigail's run, recharging the Necklace of Missiles for use in the final battle, due to concerns with invisibility from Angelo and Semaj, and it didn't feel right. That's one of the reasons I decided not to continue her game. Had Zeela and Lamalha used their 3's by the time you went Necklace of Missiles? They have 3 between them. I'd be concerned with using my aura under PoF + AoF only until I saw all 3, due to Rigid Thinking. I think it's pretty much always Unholy Blight x 2 and Animate Dead from them, but I haven't fought that battle enough under v30 to know for certain.
(I've recently been going Potion of Magic Blocking->Skiddaddle in that encounter, but Invisibility-> buff incl. Potion of Freedom->observe the 3s with a clear aura->Attack is making sense to me now. It would come down to my PoI budgeting, in all likelihood)
In any case, know that I'm enjoying the run!
Best,
A.
1. my previous observations, as I've yet to see them use Rigid Thinking in v30 instead of the two spells you mentioned (note that my experience with earlier SCS versions are limited);
2. my reluctance to use Greenstone Amulet;
3. available worst case scenario solution: "In case of enchantment incantation despite your Free Action - screw them and run." (I understand this may not be acceptable for some players playing under stricter self-imposed rules)
For the record: Rigid Thinking casting script it's definitely not something to be ignored, since other mid-level clerics (e.g. Mulahey) tend to use it. Zeela (charmed) only had Unholy Blight and Hold Person in her spellbook. Makes sense. Looking back, I realize that PoI was not worth the questionable tactical advantage in Amaruq's case. A precisely timed Potion of Freedom in the beginning would suffice. I suppose it's just that irrational urge to go invisible and feel safe in the face of a sudden ambush
If they do open with the blights, then you're good the moment you hear "vita."
Assuming that Rigid Thinking isn't a possibility, yes. Otherwise, not so much. If you opened with Potion of Freedom, and they went Rigid Thinking, you'd be screwed. If you go PoI->PoF and then break with a clear aura, however, you'd be in a position to counter. There's a difference.
Best,
A.
I've made some progress into ToB and since I'm too dead tired to play right now I shall make a brief report. To be honest I find the play a little bit of a struggle in any case, as ToB is my least favourite part of the series. Overleveled mooks and linear content do not make for enticing content. I mean we even leave our strongholds behind to rot....
We dealt with the Illasera and the first pocket plane challenge, with Jon showing up again at the end. Then we visited Saradush, and knocked on Gromnir's door.
On to the deadly dull marching mountains from there, where giants fell like ninepins. The only thing of note was a bug which made the fire trolls invincible, but luckily we'd already grabbed the token we needed and they didn't pursue us forever.
Then down went Yaga's foster mother, and the man himself. Though I did manage to forget the sequence of the battle somewhat and accidentally spawned his army on top of the party while stealthing ahead.
Fortunately we were then able to talk our way around the Tethyrian army, and avoid any more senseless bloodshed.
Next we'll have an actual choice of which road to take. I don't anticipate poking around too much in Watcher's Keep, we're already weighed down with enough items, but there may be one or two additional things to do like Sirene's ToB content. Sorry not to be too positive, the Fire Temple is probably my least favourite part of the series so I expect to get a second wind from here and get back into the RP side