I wouldn't take liches too casually. You would need a spell save of -5 or below to ensure the avoidance of status effects you're not immune to - are your basic saves really that low?
Not without buffs.
My spell save sits at -2, going to -6 with Improved Invisibility (I keep the Air ring for emergencies and have Imoen cast it on me regularly whenever a spellcaster is nearby). I also gulped a Potion of Invulnerability the handful of times I was hit with Malison.
I may skip the Twisted Rune in this run. (I don't like closed spaces with spell casters and beholders. I lost a run there sometime ago, I think.)
I was facing Drasus and his gang. The two fighters where managed on at a time. Drasus hits hard, so I just summoned some skeleton warriors to do the dirty work:
The skelotons took out both mages, whilst I chipped in with my sling - at a distance off course
In the mine Hareishan and the bandits where blasted with the necklace of missiles.
At the bottom I had to face Davaeorn. Parked the battle horrors in anteroom and went arter the elusive mage.
I buffed with protection from lightning and the shield + greenstone amulet - no need for protection from fire, because he doesnt cast fireball... well it turned out my memory was a bit flawed... but down he went.
Forgot to talk to Stephan, so he was drowned ... no rep loss.
In the city I picked up a necklace and all the tomes.
This time I took out the Iron Throne. Or should I say my skeletons did
Back at candlekeep it was all about looting and invisibility
Back in the city I paid the Iron Throne another visit. I summoned 3 skeletons to secure my victory.. But the two ogres do chrushing damage and the skelllies where falling apart. So when my opponent surrendered I gracefully accepted her parley - in the nick of time I might add.
In the undercellar the skeletons fared better. Much better...
Piercing attacks and magic is pretty much useless against them. Nice
Next up was the Duchal Palace. I tried som reruns with my former champion, and he still didnt fare better. Even when summoned monsters clouded the room, the dukes died quickly. But the skeletons are no ordinary monster..
Buffed with chant, bless and prot. from evil +10, I sent 5 of them ahead. I charmed a few guards to position them right. The victory wasnt overwhelming - but a victory still
Quick note about Corthief XIII the human thief and his party Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Imoen, Viconia Setup: BG 1 EE
I would like to get to the level cap for everyone. So now we are clearing the fog of war in all the areas we have explored to date. This does mean killing a lot of low experience minions, but Imoen needs 140,000 exp for just her max level, and I think Corthief XIII needs 160,000, so every little bit helps. Generally Khalid and Shar-Teel tank, with the rest of the party using ranged fire. Sometimes we get too many enemies, in which case then Viconia will be an off-tank those times. Imoen generally walks around in the leather armor from the Amazons, unless planning a hard fight and then we'll take her armor off. She has some wands, so it's not often she needs to take off her leather.
The party is mostly level 5 at this point. Oh, and we have defeated Mulahey. Viconia managed to silence him out of sight, so was a pretty simple fight. The Amazons also got silenced and spent too much time attacking our decoy skeleton. It was fatal for them.
At the Nashkel Mine I could have sneaked through invisibly, but in accordance with the completionist run I fully explored everywhere and wiped out all the kobolds. Mulahey then found himself and his guards outgunned.
Nimbul didn't have anything to say for himself and Tranzig was overcome by summons before the WIP got a lift to the Bandit Camp with Teven. Tazok seemed a bit annoyed by that, but after he'd been shot up for a while he agreed to let them stay on a trial basis. They quickly abused his hospitality by charming a succession of Black Talons and elite hobgoblins and leading them away to their doom. The same thing happened to Taurgosz before the party entered Tazok's tent. This time they finished their preparation without letting Raemon see them.
That made the fight relatively easy, with Britik just getting one chop in on Perky and Whistle picking up a poisoned arrow when a hobgoblin managed to fight free of webs momentarily.
After cleaning up the rest of the Camp, the WIP were on their way to sell stuff when Molkar intervened. A wand was used to bring out summons rapidly while Molkar was helpfully blinded immediately. Drakar failed to cast a spell through a missile storm and the others were then quickly shot down as well.
Travelling back to the Camp it was the Amazons turn to have a go, but this time the WIP were invisible. Whistle's detect illusion again seemed ineffective against the scripted invisibility though and the Amazons start attacking as soon as any action is taken (even if not within their sight). As a result Melody suffered a fatal backstab after creating some summons. Perky was held, but the Amazons are not very strong in melee combat and, once the threat of backstabs was lifted, were soon cut down.
Melody's death against the Amazons was reasonable, but she had another more annoying one shortly afterwards when a pathfinding glitch sent her into the middle of some spiders. After being poisoned she was too slow to move out and took another hit before Artemis could get to her to cure the poison.
The area was cleared after that with Seniyad being too slow to cast any spells.
On first arriving in the second area they were met by 4 phase spiders teleporting in. That was too many to handle and they ran away. The next time there were only 2 spiders initially and they established a foothold - though Perky only just survived the couple of seconds of being poisoned (at 10 HPs per tick) before Artemis cured her. Several more phase spiders and some huge spiders joined in during the fight, but with a bit of space to work with they were easy enough to handle.
The area was almost cleared when I got a text message saying that Melody had been attacked. Checking on the map I found there had been another pathfinding problem that I hadn't noticed earlier
- Melody was hit, but fortunately saved against the poison that would have killed her before the others could get back to her. This time I made sure to nip in and out of the nest too quickly for Centeol to freeze anyone to death.
In the third area sneak attacks on the druids outside were too much for them. The archdruid in the tree has had his share of success against me, but this time he was trapped at the bottom of the stairs and never managed to complete a spell.
In the fourth area Tawny was lucky not to be poisoned after being webbed by a giant spider, but otherwise there were no problems. The wyverns in the cave were shot up from behind an invisible screen.
The Black Talons in the 5th area took a while to subdue, but were done without casualties. Drasus and co were another group stuck in webs. His companions were all killed before he appeared to be held. That didn't actually prevent him moving, but in short order he was blinded and killed anyway.
Ulcaster! One of the things our mod items does simplify is melee grunt work. I never found melee fights to be particularly interesting, so I'm glad we can get done with them quickly.
It seems that yet another mod, one I've never seen before, also adds wolfweres to Ulcaster. Same strategy works fine: whomp them until they die.
There's also an enemy mage here, but like the mages downstairs, he has a constant Slow effect that makes his spellcasting very sluggish. His defenses don't last long enough for him to do anything.
I have plenty of Remove Fear spells, so I think I can handle the Wolves of Ulcaster. But it seems they're not alone. A pair of Greater Wolfweres have joined them. I'm not sure if we have the damage output to overcome their regeneration, so I stun one of them with Thunderslap.
Unfortunately, it seems they have a Ring of Free Action equipped. A special version that blocks stun, unlike the normal ring in my install, which I can't use anyway. Thunderslap does nothing to it. It also seems that the Wolves of Ulcaster have a hold effect.
Witch Dagger tries Static Charge, which deals high damage and bypasses MR, but it's not enough. Trash Mammal croaks.
I figure I can still make some progress on the enemy and decide to stick around a little bit longer, but then Mae loses her invisibility to Remove Magic.
Now the run itself is in jeopardy. Mae dons the Boots of Boredom, ensuring a successful retreat, but Mayday dies before landing a Blindness spell on Killer, who blinds the enemy with Nature's Beauty to help our non-invisible party members slip by.
On the way out, Witch Dagger gets boxed in and fails a save against a fear effect. There's no saving them without putting Mae in danger.
Resurrect, rest, and return. The Wolves of Ulcaster are abstracted from the Greater Wolfweres, so I can chop them up one at a time in a safe, low-pressure context.
Without all those wolves cluttering the map, I can set a bunch of traps to overcome the Greater Wolfwere's regeneration. Done!
On the next level, through an invisible door in a chamber to the south (a mod adds the entrance, but there's no clear indication where it actually is), we meet Arch Mage Arias. He, too, has a constant Slow effect which slows down his spellcasting, but we simply can't disrupt any of his spells. We barely break through his defenses before he slaughters Trash Mammal.
We use some traps on the next mage, Anton Valor, and his melee goons before falling back, letting our own skeleton soak up a Stinking Cloud.
Missile weapons and trap damage bring down the melee goons while Anton Valor stays put to the far west.
Then we discover that Anton Valor's script allows him to cast spells at us even though we're far, FAR from his field of vision. I've never even heard of a script that can do that, but we lose Mayday to a Chromatic Orb and the party gets webbed.
Anton Valor also apparently has Improved Alacrity, or at least a script that replicates it. He can cast multiple spells in the same round.
Witch Dagger casts Storm Shield, an IWDification spell that grants 50% resistance to fire, cold, and electricity for 10 rounds, and nails Anton Valor with Static Charge. Undead, of course, are usually immune to electricity damage.
It doesn't matter. It turns out that Anton Valor has poor defenses, and since we don't have to fight inside a Stinking Cloud or Web, we can tackle him safely.
There's still one more level, filled with high-XP enemies with poor defenses and few tricks, earning us three levels in as many minutes.
Finally, Witch Dagger has recovered her Wizard Slayer levels, and we can inflict spell failure via darts again. Mae still needs another level; mages gain levels much slower than druids.
The loot in this place is crazy. What a shame we can't use any of it.
The last major enemy is Arch Mage Natas, another Slowed mage with Improved Alacrity. Witch Dagger applies spell failure via darts, but it seems that Natas is immune to spell failure, probably due to scripting. The rest of the party takes down Natas' allies while staying out of range.
The reason Killer has magic resistance (33%, specifically) is because of Bala's Leather, taken from the ogre mage Kharaz from Gullykin.
Witch Dagger keeps stacking the spell failure, but my suspicions are confirmed. Natas' script completely bypasses any spell failure we might impose on her.
Also notice she has infinite range on her spells, just like Anton Valor.
There's simply nothing we can do to stop those spells.
Exaltation, another spell from IWD, fails to cure Witch Dagger's charm effect. Apparently only Acclamation and Spiritual Clarity from the Tyr kit or Shaman class (all three are fairly similar spells) can do that.
Seeing no way to escape Natas' spells, I send in Trash Mammal to simply chop her up. Turns out Natas isn't big on defensive spells.
A quick look at Natas' script reveals that it's only 134 lines long, virtually identical to that of the other mages, and does basically nothing but use ForceSpell to spam offensive spells with 1- or 2-second delays in between. These mages are the polar opposite of the SCS kind: extremely simple, strictly offensive, uninterruptible, and frankly pretty boring.
I reluctantly head to Durlag in search of more XP. In my last run, I went through Durlag's Tower in BG2 when I had HLAs, and it was dreadfully tedious, and while this run will be more challenging, I'm still only doing it as a XP-related chore. There's another ghost mage here, but this one's spells are interruptible. And yet, the spell disruption is also an example of poor scripting, because the stupid ghost's own Cloudkill spells disrupt it.
This one, at least, is vulnerable to Witch Dagger's darts. Once the Cloudkill clears, Witch Dagger shuts down its spellcasting until it falls.
Next up, the wardens. Killer's traps take out half the enemy's HP, and I didn't even rest to set more of them.
Thanks to Emotion: Hope from the IWDification spell (Mayday, our sorcerer, can learn mod-introduced spells), we can solidify an early advantage using brute force.
How are we doing so much damage? Emotion: Hope happens to stack, and though I don't plan on using Hope stacking like I did in one of my other runs, I did want to try it out.
I also discover that one of my mod-introduced boots happens to magnify the effect. "The Long-Legged Beasties" are a pair of boots that increase your movement rate but cut your damage output to 75% of its normal value. But because it uses the wrong opcode, that damage penalty does nothing.
In fact, for some reason, it actually roughly doubles the +2 damage bonus from Emotion: Hope, which allows Killer to land backstabs using a +3 scimitar that normally would only be possible in BG2 with the Staff of Striking (another forbidden item in my run).
This is my problem. This is what always happens when I decide not to use powerful options. I just keep finding other ones.
The enemy lands a kill on Killer, but otherwise the fight is completely one-sided. We crush the wardens.
Note that Killer might very well have gotten chunked by that last backstab in a normal game, but I used Tresset's anti-chunking fix. All of Mae's incarnations are totally immune to chunking unless it comes from cold damage or petrification.
After killing a few doppelgangers on the next level, Mae finally hits level 8 and can now use her old Berserker abilities. The party has now hit its peak, and we should be able to handle just about anything as long as no mod enemy throws me some sort of life-ending curveball. We ditch Durlag's Tower the moment I find Durlag's Goblet.
I've never once used the goblet, which means it's entirely permissible for me to use it in this run. Even though I probably won't, ever.
To Baldur's Gate! We sell off all our forbidden ammunition for 17,000 gold, all our forbidden potions for 26,000 gold, and end up with over 300,000 gold total by the time we're done shopping. Most of the gold is a total waste--with so many item restrictions, I don't have anything to spend it on--but I do find a few special items that are still usable in this run. Notably, three copies of a level 7 mage scroll...
...an underpowered Wand of Paralyzation variant...
...100 extremely cheap potions that heal 30 HP a pop...
...and the Sorcerer's Staff, which can petrify on enemies on hit...
...with no saving throw. I'm using the same install I used for my Seducer run, so those petrifications will never destroy any loot.
I don't think I'm going to be using much of the Sorcerer's Staff, since Frostbrand is a better defensive option due to its 50% fire resistance, but it's nice to have the staff on hand in case I change my mind. I bought this in my Undergate run but never bothered using it because it seemed too powerful.
Not much of a fight, actually, as a berserk Minsc hit it with a Mace of Disruption a few times and Puff! Demilich gone.
Ordinary Lich form was not too bad for a buffed party: If I survive reliably for three rounds in front a Lich, Imoen repeals their defenses with RRR and Jan concurrently hits them with a Breach. Then they barely last a round of two with Mace of Disruption wailing at them. For some reason, none of the Liches summoned a demon yet, though it may be my luck as Jaheira interrupted some spells with her Creeping Doom (lvl 7, passes through most immunities).
(Note: In my run, Imoen is a sorcerer and SCS does NOT permit mages to insta-buff with short duration spells, although they still get their long term buffs and sequencers for a formidable defensive array.)
Now I need to do Bodhi and Irenicus, before I attempt ToB.
Side question: are there extra Strength boost items in ToB?
So far, I am choosing not to assemble Crom Faeyr as Jaheira, Viconia, and Minsc all use Strength items. (In Viconia's case this also means the freedom to use Full Plate and Large Shield.)
Not sure if I should grab this hammer before I move on or not.
My last game and installation was abandoned due to bugs. A new Trio of Talonite Dwarves.
We have very clear instructions from Talos himself not to cause mahem in Candlekeep and to try and improve our reputation. This caused us some amazement, particularly when he ordered us to work together in harmony, but we will do our best to obey his instructions as Talos is not the sort of god that it is wise to cross.
@Ygramul: These are the STR-boosting stuff you can find in ToB:
1. Angurvadal: 22 STR (temporarily at first, then while equipped after upgrading it) 2. Girdle of Fire Giant Strength: 22 STR 3. Wish: 25 STR (four rounds only, relies on random Wish options) 4. Machine of Lum the Mad: +1 STR, permanent
I'm not a big fan of Crom Faeyr, but mathematically, it's usually a good investment. Crom Faeyr's 25 STR grants +7 to hit and +14 to damage, while the gauntlets and girdle grant +3/+6 and +4/+9, respectively.
@Ygramul: These are the STR-boosting stuff you can find in ToB:
1. Angurvadal: 22 STR (temporarily at first, then while equipped after upgrading it) 2. Girdle of Fire Giant Strength: 22 STR 3. Wish: 25 STR (four rounds only, relies on random Wish options) 4. Machine of Lum the Mad: +1 STR, permanent
I'm not a big fan of Crom Faeyr, but mathematically, it's usually a good investment. Crom Faeyr's 25 STR grants +7 to hit and +14 to damage, while the gauntlets and girdle grant +3/+6 and +4/+9, respectively.
Thank you. Good points to consider.
I am torn between metagaming these future items or ignoring this hammer for the moment.
--
Similarly torn about the decision of which jewelry to wear for my Cavalier:
Do I wear Kangaxx + Kazgaroth OR Kangaxx + Fire Control?
(I really like being Fire-immune as per second option since it means I can carpet-bomb atop my Cavalier with Incendiary Clouds and Fire Storms without worrying about dispelled protections. But the first option has much better saves.)
I hoped to dump Kazgaroth near endgame, but without it my Spell save (unbuffed) is stuck at -1 which is not scot-free from danger.
1. Fire resistance is easier to switch out. Dragonscale helm and shield offer 50% and if a Dragon's Breath spell is on the horizon, you can always switch Gaxx for Ring of Fire Control. It will require a reaction on your party to block the damage, but fire damage is less likely to be instantly fatal than a failed save. Fire resistance potions are also easier to come by than save-boosting potions. 2. Kazgaroth can grant guaranteed saves without using aura, but cannot be unequipped without Remove Curse. That will limit your options either way.
I don't like that -1 save vs. spell. An Ulitharid's Psionic Blast is -4, a Symbol, Stun spell is -4, Finger of Death is -2, and Remove Magic and Greater Malison are everywhere. Ascension Melissan imposes save penalties on hit, which only makes things that much worse.
It also depends on your save vs. death. Kazgaroth's +4 save penalty seems really dangerous in ToB, too. You can always equip the Spear of the Unicorn for +3 to saves vs. death, but Fallen Planetars have a vorpal strike effect with a -2 save vs. death in SCS, 25% chance of triggering per hit, and since the dispel effect occurs before the vorpal strike, I'm reasonably certain that Potions of Invulnerability will not keep you safe if the unthinkable happens.
Your unbuffed save vs. death needs to be -1 to guarantee a successful save against that vorpal strike. That should require the Helm of Balduran, Gaxx, Amulet of the Seldarine, Hell save bonuses, and Cloak of Protection +2 if you're also wearing Kazgaroth, unless paladin save bonuses also apply to saves vs. death.
1. Fire resistance is easier to switch out. Dragonscale helm and shield offer 50% and if a Dragon's Breath spell is on the horizon, you can always switch Gaxx for Ring of Fire Control. It will require a reaction on your party to block the damage, but fire damage is less likely to be instantly fatal than a failed save. Fire resistance potions are also easier to come by than save-boosting potions. 2. Kazgaroth can grant guaranteed saves without using aura, but cannot be unequipped without Remove Curse. That will limit your options either way.
I don't like that -1 save vs. spell. An Ulitharid's Psionic Blast is -4, a Symbol, Stun spell is -4, Finger of Death is -2, and Remove Magic and Greater Malison are everywhere. Ascension Melissan imposes save penalties on hit, which only makes things that much worse.
It also depends on your save vs. death. Kazgaroth's +4 save penalty seems really dangerous in ToB, too. You can always equip the Spear of the Unicorn for +3 to saves vs. death, but Fallen Planetars have a vorpal strike effect with a -2 save vs. death in SCS, 25% chance of triggering per hit, and since the dispel effect occurs before the vorpal strike, I'm reasonably certain that Potions of Invulnerability will not keep you safe if the unthinkable happens.
Your unbuffed save vs. death needs to be -1 to guarantee a successful save against that vorpal strike. That should require the Helm of Balduran, Gaxx, Amulet of the Seldarine, Hell save bonuses, and Cloak of Protection +2 if you're also wearing Kazgaroth, unless paladin save bonuses also apply to saves vs. death.
A lot to think about. Thanks particularly for the Vorpal save breakdown. I was worried about that.
Paladin saves are +2 across the board (unlike monks who get a specific bonus against spells).
In ToB you might want to think about using the ioun stone with +4 vs death rather than Helm of Balduran if you're still using the Claw.
Also remember the specialist mage bonus applying in certain situations, e.g. a lich may be classed as a conjurer and hence apply a -6 penalty to a symbol stun.
In the Cloakwood Mine the WIP stayed out of the way while successive waves of summons wore down Hareishan and her guards. They carried on downstairs, using invisibility to allow them to generate and buff more summons to help clear out various guards and hobgoblins. Moving those summons on to Sanasha though prompted her to chase the party while ignoring them. She also appeared to be able to see round corners - resulting in a first death for Tawny, while Misty was only saved by the magic resistance from her robe.
Sanasha used the last of her sunfires on a skeleton warrior chasing her though and the rest of the party were able to take revenge for Tawny.
Returning from the temple the WIP made their way down to Davaeorn's level. They tried and failed a few times to charm the guard there and ended up just beating it up. Summons then pulled back the battle horrors - their death getting Tawny her 9th level and access to a 5th level spell. Artemis then very briefly went into sight of Davaeorn - allowing the summons to attack him without alerting the mage to the party's presence. That allowed the summons to attack unopposed and they didn't take long to make that huge advantage count.
I considered nerfing reputation in order to get a horror ability, but decided the party already had enough arcane tricks - so just flooded the mine and left for the City.
In Baldur's Gate the WIP started working their way systematically through all areas and encounters. Encounters with mages were immediately made easier by insect plague (which is not nerfed by SCS in my installation).
However, that is not a complete protection against mage spells as Artemis was shortly to find out.
After killing Arkion they went to talk to Nemphre. She had no use for a high reputation party, so the WIP decided to just kill her. She was duly plagued and taken down to near death within a few seconds. In that type of general melee I nearly always allow the protagonist to take their chances along with the rest of the party and that was the case here. Hence, when Nemphre released a chromatic orb sequencer, Artemis had about a 15% chance of being targeted. Once targeted she had a 20% chance of failing her save - and once failing she had a 100% chance of dying ...
@Grond0 Hard luck. I don't think that she has ever brought my runs to an end in the last few years. My usual tactic for neutral parties is to do her quest for the experience and then kill her.
Good parties wouldn't do that, though of course they would fight back in the case of a failed pickpocket.
So it's probably a good thing Grant Pix died to Khark, because he's also dying to the battle at the top of the Iron Throne tower. Mostly because I still don't have my zerks back.
After the Duchal Palace I was headed down into the Maze.
I had played a cleric before, but hadnt used sanctuary before. Sanctuary is a super cool level 1 spell that gives you 100% resistance against all damage, but it breaks if you make an attack...
Apparently it doesnt block trap damage and elemental damage. Go figure...
I was very lucky to still be alive after that stupid mistake. Had I not chosen the max HP at level the run would have been over. This game has been forgiving so far. I really cant expect that dumb luck will help me all the time..
I buffed for the rest of the maze, and avoided all fighting. Time for the temple and Sarevok.
I had to watch some videos to remeber the fight (my restartis has been hard on many a run, and I prefer BG2...)
I buffed to the max
and started out by luring Semaj out. Semaj used his dimension door and reveiled himself just under the Bhall floor patern.
He hurled some spells at me, where only magic missile did any damage (forgot the shield amulet - another mistake).
I was using my sling, but I chose the flail+2 for more damage instead. I closed in for melee. Semaj ran for his door again and appeared to the right. He popped out cloudkill next. But since I was meleeing him, it landed right in his own face... on top of the that I triggered a trap, that produced: cloudkill...
I had protection from poison which didnt help. So I just ran outside the cloud, and watched Semaj die in the fumes. Nice
I decided to draw out the next bad guy... and it was Sarevok himself. I ran over to the cloud and quaffed an invisibility potion.
Sarevok stayed in the cloud which brought him to injured. Thanks Semaj - I knew you had it in you...
I then tried my luck again. I went toe to toe with Sarevok. He was brought to near death, but so was I. I went invisible and healed my self.
I then remembered that I hadnt used any skeletons at all. 5 of these would give me and easy win.
But the first summon triggered a battle horror. A fight was on my hand, and my skeleton and I attacked the horror. Whereafter Saravok joined the fight. I tried kiting Saravok instead of just taking my time to figure it out. When I again ran out of patience, I chose to duke it out....
And actually it worked rather well..
The game so far has been fun, but also very forgiving at crusual times. But some times the unworthy prevail. Thanks Fortuna - I hope to see you soon.. next up Chateau Irenicus
Quick note about Corthief XIII the human thief: Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Viconia, Khalid, Imoen
The run is still going but ran into a problem that I would never get in EasyTutu. Namely, I turned in Melicamp to Thalantyr, but we can't find any skeletons to kill (think we killed them already without looting the skull). I tried resting, but they don't appear to be respawning. And when I talk to Thalantyr, there is no option to buy anything, he just reminds you to find a skull, which we can't do.
So not only did the Melicamp quest fail, we apparently can't get the robe of the good arch magi for Imoen either.
But will keep at it. This never happens in EasyTutu as the skeletons spawn forever. I gotta remember these quirks of EE.
@Grond0 At least, it wasn't due to chunking this time. But to tell the truth, I'd feel gutted to lose because of Nemphre, who is at about 0.1% of being important during the run. You continuous attempts, though, serve as an inspiration to me (if memory serves, it's your fifth or sixth attempt while I still haven't reached Mulahey).
@Ygramul If you feel SoA is not challenging, compensate it by installing the Tactics component for the final SoA fight.
The constitution tome was decided to give to the F/I. The sorcerer, even while being the protagonist, always has defensive spells at his disposal (Shield and Mirror Image so far), while the F/I may need the very last of HPs to survive.
The C/M was sacrificed to Shoal the Nereid, and the party prepared for their first ogre mage. SIlence and then poison made this fight easy.
The C/M got a new mage level and only 1 HP. Now when I know there's an issue with HPs I feel especially unlucky getting minimal rolls.
Web + 2 Spirit Animals indeed makes battles quicker and less troublesome. It may even feel like playing not on the LoB difficulty if you forget you can't melee enemies and must always blind those who escape the Web area. Ogres, sirenes, gnolls, - now they weren't a problem.
Ba'ruk and his kobold commando*5 came close to kill the F/I (I didn't meta-game the positioning here) but 30+ hps make characters less likely to die, at least not from such hard-hitters as golems.
Almost all diggers were drawn away by a spirit bear (while one of them was blinded).
Now, the Doomsayer. Unlike golems, he was immune to magical arrows, so the F/T had to backstab him. Of course, first he was blinded (after Doom). This was the first chunking the F/T inflicted on her enemy during this run. Even though general backstabbing doesn't make enemies die on the LoB difficulty, I find the F/T essential to dispatch desolate but HP-heavy creatures. She needs many attempts on LoB, yes, but she is doing her job.
Brage and Laryssa... This was an unfortunate situation for the girl. She asks the party to stop and not get close to Brage. But the Good characters have a task from the Nashkel Temple to try and bring Brage back. The dialogue doesn't offer any option to tell Laryssa about it, so it's a compulsory fight for good characters, to me. But this time Brage did everything. He went berserk as soon as saw red-circled Laryssa and finished her (due to insane damage) in seconds.
The group, of course, fulfilled their promise to the Nashkel priest. Back in Nashkel, they desided to enter all the tents in the Carnival area. I chose darts for the archer on the 3rd level and plan to actually put even the 2nd pip there. Darts of Wounding are lethal in the archer's hands. Zordral was poisoned as soon as the battle started and soon the spirit snake worsened his health further (although he did manage to finish casting Slow).
On the way to the xvart village the group was waylaid... by an ogre-mage. I play with enemy pre-buffs, so this was going to be a nasty encounter.
I knew an ogre-mage could one-shot the main character, who was in his AoS with different spells, but looking at actual options, only Magic Missiles and Chromatic Orb/Minor Sequencer looked like the fastest options. So I couldn't let the sorcerer cast Mirror Image here (due to longer than "1" casting time). So Shield went up, while the F/I and the C/M (who didn't have Shield among memorized spells) tried Mirror Images. The ogre actually indeed chosen Magic Missiles, and alhough the C/M managed to finish his spell before they hit, he was left with only 3 HPs left. Here the Darts of Wounding again helped. The poison worked, and soon Doom+Blindness turned the odds into my favou.
The xvart village was not a problem, as Web + Spirits again worked fine. It was a race to kill them all before the effect of last Web ended.
The party didn't expect to buy cursed items from Borda (of which they could learn only the following day with new Identify memorized), and being Good they didn't insult this "merchant".
Neville, his hobgoblins and ogres fell to the group's arsenal, while Laurel the paladin somehow started to attack a wandering hobgoblin elite. It brought her to a bridge, which I used to my advantage - the gibberling horde. which could be a nightmare on the LoB, spawned at some distance. It all let the party to hold their enemies and kept Laurel's life.
An ogre who wanted to finish his dinner before fighting dropped a Knock spell scroll. It will come handy as the F/T didn't put much into lock picking.
The party helped Drizzt, killed Zekar, Jemby and Teyngan, and had success against half-ogres as Bjornin had asked. Guess what? The C/M again got only 1 HP, but at least the group will have skeletons at their disposal from now.
Here’re the current standings: Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 5, 21 HPs, 23 kills (4% in the group) Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 4/4, 31 HPs, 115 kills (23% in the group), 0 deaths Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 4/5, 38 HPs, 133 kills (26% in the group), 0 deaths Cochrane, archer, lvl 5, 42 HPs, 170 kills (34% in the group), 0 deaths Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 6, 45 HPs, 28 kills (5% in the group), 0 deaths Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/4, 20 HPs, 27 kills (5% in the group), 3 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal)
@StummvonBordwehr Congrats over Sarevok's defeat! Something you should know is that Sanctuary provides no damage resistances, but rather that no enemy can target you directly with attacks or spells. Area damage and traps will still have full effect. @Corey_Russell Skeletons respawn in the EE: if you wander around in the night, you'll get a group eventually.
@Grond0 At least, it wasn't due to chunking this time. But to tell the truth, I'd feel gutted to lose because of Nemphre, who is at about 0.1% of being important during the run.
That end's not surprising (or particularly annoying) to me. In a completionist run there are so many opportunities for problems that unless you take a more risk-averse approach than I tend to do the odds have a way of catching up with you eventually .
@Corey_Russell To get new respawns just go from one side of the map to another - the spawns happen when you cross certain markers, not when you rest.
You do get spawns when you rest, although they're not particularly common. However, given that resting only takes a second it's vastly quicker to rest half a dozen or so times until an ambush occurs than to hunt all across the map for a respawn.
You don't have to wander all over the map Corey - each time you come into sight of an encounter spot there's a chance of respawning. Thus you can just go backwards and forwards over the same encounter spot until one appears (resting is quicker for the skeletons, but the above is the general situation if you want to do something like farming XP for instance).
Guys, I've sometimes considered doing a no-reload run made entirely of player-created NPCs, each of which was named after a no-reloader in this thread. The character class would be whichever build the no-reloader in question is most notable for attempting, or which most suits his or her general playstyle.
Thanks for mentioning me in that list And that is an interesting idea. I think that deserves a separate thread, so that people maybe could even share not only classes/kits but also character concepts (like favourite spells used, restricted spells, restricted actions/items etc), or portraits.
That thread could also help in order not to miss anyone, like @Serg_BlackStrider (don't blame me for mentioning this), for example
Journal of the Talonites We went to the FAI, killed Tarnesh using command to disable him. It was well that he failed the save as he had put two of the trio to sleep. He died.
I spent a pleasurable night with Lena after she had given me a very personal massage.
We cleared the FAI of hobgoblins and then went north where we helped a widow whose undead husband was pestering her.
We then helped Tenya by killing Sonner et al, but she doesn't know about it yet.
We helped Mellicamp get back into shape and killed a couple of ogrillon before heading south to the carnival. On the way we killed a hobgoblin who had some boots of stealth which I can wear, but which don't do me much good.
South of Nashkel we killed a dwarven assassin as well as Greywolf.
We headed west where we helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat.
Comments
My spell save sits at -2, going to -6 with Improved Invisibility (I keep the Air ring for emergencies and have Imoen cast it on me regularly whenever a spellcaster is nearby). I also gulped a Potion of Invulnerability the handful of times I was hit with Malison.
I may skip the Twisted Rune in this run. (I don't like closed spaces with spell casters and beholders. I lost a run there sometime ago, I think.)
Pondering if I should attempt Kangaxx though....
previously
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909490/#Comment_909490
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909584/#Comment_909584
I was facing Drasus and his gang. The two fighters where managed on at a time. Drasus hits hard, so I just summoned some skeleton warriors to do the dirty work:
The skelotons took out both mages, whilst I chipped in with my sling - at a distance off course
In the mine Hareishan and the bandits where blasted with the necklace of missiles.
At the bottom I had to face Davaeorn. Parked the battle horrors in anteroom and went arter the elusive mage.
I buffed with protection from lightning and the shield + greenstone amulet - no need for protection from fire, because he doesnt cast fireball... well it turned out my memory was a bit flawed... but down he went.
Forgot to talk to Stephan, so he was drowned ... no rep loss.
In the city I picked up a necklace and all the tomes.
This time I took out the Iron Throne. Or should I say my skeletons did
Back at candlekeep it was all about looting and invisibility
Back in the city I paid the Iron Throne another visit. I summoned 3 skeletons to secure my victory.. But the two ogres do chrushing damage and the skelllies where falling apart. So when my opponent surrendered I gracefully accepted her parley - in the nick of time I might add.
In the undercellar the skeletons fared better. Much better...
Piercing attacks and magic is pretty much useless against them. Nice
Next up was the Duchal Palace. I tried som reruns with my former champion, and he still didnt fare better. Even when summoned monsters clouded the room, the dukes died quickly. But the skeletons are no ordinary monster..
Buffed with chant, bless and prot. from evil +10, I sent 5 of them ahead. I charmed a few guards to position them right. The victory wasnt overwhelming - but a victory still
We shall see how Sarevok likes them skeletons!!
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Imoen, Viconia
Setup: BG 1 EE
I would like to get to the level cap for everyone. So now we are clearing the fog of war in all the areas we have explored to date. This does mean killing a lot of low experience minions, but Imoen needs 140,000 exp for just her max level, and I think Corthief XIII needs 160,000, so every little bit helps. Generally Khalid and Shar-Teel tank, with the rest of the party using ranged fire. Sometimes we get too many enemies, in which case then Viconia will be an off-tank those times. Imoen generally walks around in the leather armor from the Amazons, unless planning a hard fight and then we'll take her armor off. She has some wands, so it's not often she needs to take off her leather.
The party is mostly level 5 at this point. Oh, and we have defeated Mulahey. Viconia managed to silence him out of sight, so was a pretty simple fight. The Amazons also got silenced and spent too much time attacking our decoy skeleton. It was fatal for them.
Will keep at it.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909419/#Comment_909419
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909538/#Comment_909538
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909704/#Comment_909704
At the Nashkel Mine I could have sneaked through invisibly, but in accordance with the completionist run I fully explored everywhere and wiped out all the kobolds. Mulahey then found himself and his guards outgunned.
Nimbul didn't have anything to say for himself and Tranzig was overcome by summons before the WIP got a lift to the Bandit Camp with Teven. Tazok seemed a bit annoyed by that, but after he'd been shot up for a while he agreed to let them stay on a trial basis. They quickly abused his hospitality by charming a succession of Black Talons and elite hobgoblins and leading them away to their doom. The same thing happened to Taurgosz before the party entered Tazok's tent. This time they finished their preparation without letting Raemon see them.
After cleaning up the rest of the Camp, the WIP were on their way to sell stuff when Molkar intervened. A wand was used to bring out summons rapidly while Molkar was helpfully blinded immediately. Drakar failed to cast a spell through a missile storm and the others were then quickly shot down as well.
Travelling back to the Camp it was the Amazons turn to have a go, but this time the WIP were invisible. Whistle's detect illusion again seemed ineffective against the scripted invisibility though and the Amazons start attacking as soon as any action is taken (even if not within their sight). As a result Melody suffered a fatal backstab after creating some summons. Perky was held, but the Amazons are not very strong in melee combat and, once the threat of backstabs was lifted, were soon cut down.
Melody's death against the Amazons was reasonable, but she had another more annoying one shortly afterwards when a pathfinding glitch sent her into the middle of some spiders. After being poisoned she was too slow to move out and took another hit before Artemis could get to her to cure the poison.
On first arriving in the second area they were met by 4 phase spiders teleporting in. That was too many to handle and they ran away. The next time there were only 2 spiders initially and they established a foothold - though Perky only just survived the couple of seconds of being poisoned (at 10 HPs per tick) before Artemis cured her. Several more phase spiders and some huge spiders joined in during the fight, but with a bit of space to work with they were easy enough to handle.
In the third area sneak attacks on the druids outside were too much for them. The archdruid in the tree has had his share of success against me, but this time he was trapped at the bottom of the stairs and never managed to complete a spell.
Perky - Priest of Tyr L7, 50 HPs, 73 kills, 2 deaths
Misty - Fighter / illusionist L6/6, 54 HPs, 243 kills, 3 deaths
Melody - Fighter / mage / thief L5/5/6, 45 HPs, 223 kills, 4 deaths
Artemis - Archer L7, 71HPs, 419 kills
Tawny - Totemic Druid L8, 59 HPs, 42 kills, 0 deaths
Whistle - Bounty Hunter L8, 50 HPs, 110 kills, 2 deaths
Night in the Woods: Mae in Baldur's Gate
Part 4https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909103/#Comment_909103
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909200/#Comment_909200
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909567/#Comment_909567
Ulcaster! One of the things our mod items does simplify is melee grunt work. I never found melee fights to be particularly interesting, so I'm glad we can get done with them quickly.
It seems that yet another mod, one I've never seen before, also adds wolfweres to Ulcaster. Same strategy works fine: whomp them until they die.
There's also an enemy mage here, but like the mages downstairs, he has a constant Slow effect that makes his spellcasting very sluggish. His defenses don't last long enough for him to do anything.
I have plenty of Remove Fear spells, so I think I can handle the Wolves of Ulcaster. But it seems they're not alone. A pair of Greater Wolfweres have joined them. I'm not sure if we have the damage output to overcome their regeneration, so I stun one of them with Thunderslap.
Unfortunately, it seems they have a Ring of Free Action equipped. A special version that blocks stun, unlike the normal ring in my install, which I can't use anyway. Thunderslap does nothing to it. It also seems that the Wolves of Ulcaster have a hold effect.
Witch Dagger tries Static Charge, which deals high damage and bypasses MR, but it's not enough. Trash Mammal croaks.
I figure I can still make some progress on the enemy and decide to stick around a little bit longer, but then Mae loses her invisibility to Remove Magic.
Now the run itself is in jeopardy. Mae dons the Boots of Boredom, ensuring a successful retreat, but Mayday dies before landing a Blindness spell on Killer, who blinds the enemy with Nature's Beauty to help our non-invisible party members slip by.
On the way out, Witch Dagger gets boxed in and fails a save against a fear effect. There's no saving them without putting Mae in danger.
Resurrect, rest, and return. The Wolves of Ulcaster are abstracted from the Greater Wolfweres, so I can chop them up one at a time in a safe, low-pressure context.
Without all those wolves cluttering the map, I can set a bunch of traps to overcome the Greater Wolfwere's regeneration. Done!
On the next level, through an invisible door in a chamber to the south (a mod adds the entrance, but there's no clear indication where it actually is), we meet Arch Mage Arias. He, too, has a constant Slow effect which slows down his spellcasting, but we simply can't disrupt any of his spells. We barely break through his defenses before he slaughters Trash Mammal.
We use some traps on the next mage, Anton Valor, and his melee goons before falling back, letting our own skeleton soak up a Stinking Cloud.
Missile weapons and trap damage bring down the melee goons while Anton Valor stays put to the far west.
Then we discover that Anton Valor's script allows him to cast spells at us even though we're far, FAR from his field of vision. I've never even heard of a script that can do that, but we lose Mayday to a Chromatic Orb and the party gets webbed.
Anton Valor also apparently has Improved Alacrity, or at least a script that replicates it. He can cast multiple spells in the same round.
Witch Dagger casts Storm Shield, an IWDification spell that grants 50% resistance to fire, cold, and electricity for 10 rounds, and nails Anton Valor with Static Charge. Undead, of course, are usually immune to electricity damage.
It doesn't matter. It turns out that Anton Valor has poor defenses, and since we don't have to fight inside a Stinking Cloud or Web, we can tackle him safely.
There's still one more level, filled with high-XP enemies with poor defenses and few tricks, earning us three levels in as many minutes.
Finally, Witch Dagger has recovered her Wizard Slayer levels, and we can inflict spell failure via darts again. Mae still needs another level; mages gain levels much slower than druids.
The loot in this place is crazy. What a shame we can't use any of it.
The last major enemy is Arch Mage Natas, another Slowed mage with Improved Alacrity. Witch Dagger applies spell failure via darts, but it seems that Natas is immune to spell failure, probably due to scripting. The rest of the party takes down Natas' allies while staying out of range.
The reason Killer has magic resistance (33%, specifically) is because of Bala's Leather, taken from the ogre mage Kharaz from Gullykin.
Witch Dagger keeps stacking the spell failure, but my suspicions are confirmed. Natas' script completely bypasses any spell failure we might impose on her.
Also notice she has infinite range on her spells, just like Anton Valor.
There's simply nothing we can do to stop those spells.
Exaltation, another spell from IWD, fails to cure Witch Dagger's charm effect. Apparently only Acclamation and Spiritual Clarity from the Tyr kit or Shaman class (all three are fairly similar spells) can do that.
Seeing no way to escape Natas' spells, I send in Trash Mammal to simply chop her up. Turns out Natas isn't big on defensive spells.
A quick look at Natas' script reveals that it's only 134 lines long, virtually identical to that of the other mages, and does basically nothing but use ForceSpell to spam offensive spells with 1- or 2-second delays in between. These mages are the polar opposite of the SCS kind: extremely simple, strictly offensive, uninterruptible, and frankly pretty boring.
I reluctantly head to Durlag in search of more XP. In my last run, I went through Durlag's Tower in BG2 when I had HLAs, and it was dreadfully tedious, and while this run will be more challenging, I'm still only doing it as a XP-related chore. There's another ghost mage here, but this one's spells are interruptible. And yet, the spell disruption is also an example of poor scripting, because the stupid ghost's own Cloudkill spells disrupt it.
This one, at least, is vulnerable to Witch Dagger's darts. Once the Cloudkill clears, Witch Dagger shuts down its spellcasting until it falls.
Next up, the wardens. Killer's traps take out half the enemy's HP, and I didn't even rest to set more of them.
Thanks to Emotion: Hope from the IWDification spell (Mayday, our sorcerer, can learn mod-introduced spells), we can solidify an early advantage using brute force.
How are we doing so much damage? Emotion: Hope happens to stack, and though I don't plan on using Hope stacking like I did in one of my other runs, I did want to try it out.
I also discover that one of my mod-introduced boots happens to magnify the effect. "The Long-Legged Beasties" are a pair of boots that increase your movement rate but cut your damage output to 75% of its normal value. But because it uses the wrong opcode, that damage penalty does nothing.
In fact, for some reason, it actually roughly doubles the +2 damage bonus from Emotion: Hope, which allows Killer to land backstabs using a +3 scimitar that normally would only be possible in BG2 with the Staff of Striking (another forbidden item in my run).
This is my problem. This is what always happens when I decide not to use powerful options. I just keep finding other ones.
The enemy lands a kill on Killer, but otherwise the fight is completely one-sided. We crush the wardens.
Note that Killer might very well have gotten chunked by that last backstab in a normal game, but I used Tresset's anti-chunking fix. All of Mae's incarnations are totally immune to chunking unless it comes from cold damage or petrification.
After killing a few doppelgangers on the next level, Mae finally hits level 8 and can now use her old Berserker abilities. The party has now hit its peak, and we should be able to handle just about anything as long as no mod enemy throws me some sort of life-ending curveball. We ditch Durlag's Tower the moment I find Durlag's Goblet.
I've never once used the goblet, which means it's entirely permissible for me to use it in this run. Even though I probably won't, ever.
To Baldur's Gate! We sell off all our forbidden ammunition for 17,000 gold, all our forbidden potions for 26,000 gold, and end up with over 300,000 gold total by the time we're done shopping. Most of the gold is a total waste--with so many item restrictions, I don't have anything to spend it on--but I do find a few special items that are still usable in this run. Notably, three copies of a level 7 mage scroll...
...an underpowered Wand of Paralyzation variant...
...100 extremely cheap potions that heal 30 HP a pop...
...and the Sorcerer's Staff, which can petrify on enemies on hit...
...with no saving throw. I'm using the same install I used for my Seducer run, so those petrifications will never destroy any loot.
I don't think I'm going to be using much of the Sorcerer's Staff, since Frostbrand is a better defensive option due to its 50% fire resistance, but it's nice to have the staff on hand in case I change my mind. I bought this in my Undergate run but never bothered using it because it seemed too powerful.
My Cavalier, Khael, just defeated Kangaxx.
Not much of a fight, actually, as a berserk Minsc hit it with a Mace of Disruption a few times and Puff! Demilich gone.
Ordinary Lich form was not too bad for a buffed party:
If I survive reliably for three rounds in front a Lich, Imoen repeals their defenses with RRR and Jan concurrently hits them with a Breach. Then they barely last a round of two with Mace of Disruption wailing at them.
For some reason, none of the Liches summoned a demon yet, though it may be my luck as Jaheira interrupted some spells with her Creeping Doom (lvl 7, passes through most immunities).
(Note: In my run, Imoen is a sorcerer and SCS does NOT permit mages to insta-buff with short duration spells, although they still get their long term buffs and sequencers for a formidable defensive array.)
Now I need to do Bodhi and Irenicus, before I attempt ToB.
So far, I am choosing not to assemble Crom Faeyr as Jaheira, Viconia, and Minsc all use Strength items. (In Viconia's case this also means the freedom to use Full Plate and Large Shield.)
Not sure if I should grab this hammer before I move on or not.
Journal of the Talonites
My last game and installation was abandoned due to bugs. A new Trio of Talonite Dwarves.We have very clear instructions from Talos himself not to cause mahem in Candlekeep and to try and improve our reputation. This caused us some amazement, particularly when he ordered us to work together in harmony, but we will do our best to obey his instructions as Talos is not the sort of god that it is wise to cross.
1. Angurvadal: 22 STR (temporarily at first, then while equipped after upgrading it)
2. Girdle of Fire Giant Strength: 22 STR
3. Wish: 25 STR (four rounds only, relies on random Wish options)
4. Machine of Lum the Mad: +1 STR, permanent
I'm not a big fan of Crom Faeyr, but mathematically, it's usually a good investment. Crom Faeyr's 25 STR grants +7 to hit and +14 to damage, while the gauntlets and girdle grant +3/+6 and +4/+9, respectively.
I am torn between metagaming these future items or ignoring this hammer for the moment.
--
Similarly torn about the decision of which jewelry to wear for my Cavalier:
Do I wear Kangaxx + Kazgaroth OR Kangaxx + Fire Control?
(I really like being Fire-immune as per second option since it means I can carpet-bomb atop my Cavalier with Incendiary Clouds and Fire Storms without worrying about dispelled protections. But the first option has much better saves.)
I hoped to dump Kazgaroth near endgame, but without it my Spell save (unbuffed) is stuck at -1 which is not scot-free from danger.
1. Fire resistance is easier to switch out. Dragonscale helm and shield offer 50% and if a Dragon's Breath spell is on the horizon, you can always switch Gaxx for Ring of Fire Control. It will require a reaction on your party to block the damage, but fire damage is less likely to be instantly fatal than a failed save. Fire resistance potions are also easier to come by than save-boosting potions.
2. Kazgaroth can grant guaranteed saves without using aura, but cannot be unequipped without Remove Curse. That will limit your options either way.
I don't like that -1 save vs. spell. An Ulitharid's Psionic Blast is -4, a Symbol, Stun spell is -4, Finger of Death is -2, and Remove Magic and Greater Malison are everywhere. Ascension Melissan imposes save penalties on hit, which only makes things that much worse.
It also depends on your save vs. death. Kazgaroth's +4 save penalty seems really dangerous in ToB, too. You can always equip the Spear of the Unicorn for +3 to saves vs. death, but Fallen Planetars have a vorpal strike effect with a -2 save vs. death in SCS, 25% chance of triggering per hit, and since the dispel effect occurs before the vorpal strike, I'm reasonably certain that Potions of Invulnerability will not keep you safe if the unthinkable happens.
Your unbuffed save vs. death needs to be -1 to guarantee a successful save against that vorpal strike. That should require the Helm of Balduran, Gaxx, Amulet of the Seldarine, Hell save bonuses, and Cloak of Protection +2 if you're also wearing Kazgaroth, unless paladin save bonuses also apply to saves vs. death.
Thanks particularly for the Vorpal save breakdown. I was worried about that.
In ToB you might want to think about using the ioun stone with +4 vs death rather than Helm of Balduran if you're still using the Claw.
Also remember the specialist mage bonus applying in certain situations, e.g. a lich may be classed as a conjurer and hence apply a -6 penalty to a symbol stun.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909419/#Comment_909419
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909538/#Comment_909538
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909704/#Comment_909704
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909813/#Comment_909813
In the Cloakwood Mine the WIP stayed out of the way while successive waves of summons wore down Hareishan and her guards. They carried on downstairs, using invisibility to allow them to generate and buff more summons to help clear out various guards and hobgoblins. Moving those summons on to Sanasha though prompted her to chase the party while ignoring them. She also appeared to be able to see round corners - resulting in a first death for Tawny, while Misty was only saved by the magic resistance from her robe.
Returning from the temple the WIP made their way down to Davaeorn's level. They tried and failed a few times to charm the guard there and ended up just beating it up. Summons then pulled back the battle horrors - their death getting Tawny her 9th level and access to a 5th level spell. Artemis then very briefly went into sight of Davaeorn - allowing the summons to attack him without alerting the mage to the party's presence. That allowed the summons to attack unopposed and they didn't take long to make that huge advantage count.
I considered nerfing reputation in order to get a horror ability, but decided the party already had enough arcane tricks - so just flooded the mine and left for the City.
In Baldur's Gate the WIP started working their way systematically through all areas and encounters. Encounters with mages were immediately made easier by insect plague (which is not nerfed by SCS in my installation).
After killing Arkion they went to talk to Nemphre. She had no use for a high reputation party, so the WIP decided to just kill her. She was duly plagued and taken down to near death within a few seconds. In that type of general melee I nearly always allow the protagonist to take their chances along with the rest of the party and that was the case here. Hence, when Nemphre released a chromatic orb sequencer, Artemis had about a 15% chance of being targeted. Once targeted she had a 20% chance of failing her save - and once failing she had a 100% chance of dying ...
Good parties wouldn't do that, though of course they would fight back in the case of a failed pickpocket.
Previously
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909584/#Comment_909584
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909781/#Comment_909781
After the Duchal Palace I was headed down into the Maze.
I had played a cleric before, but hadnt used sanctuary before. Sanctuary is a super cool level 1 spell that gives you 100% resistance against all damage, but it breaks if you make an attack...
Apparently it doesnt block trap damage and elemental damage. Go figure...
I was very lucky to still be alive after that stupid mistake. Had I not chosen the max HP at level the run would have been over. This game has been forgiving so far. I really cant expect that dumb luck will help me all the time..
I buffed for the rest of the maze, and avoided all fighting. Time for the temple and Sarevok.
I had to watch some videos to remeber the fight (my restartis has been hard on many a run, and I prefer BG2...)
I buffed to the max
and started out by luring Semaj out. Semaj used his dimension door and reveiled himself just under the Bhall floor patern.
He hurled some spells at me, where only magic missile did any damage (forgot the shield amulet - another mistake).
I was using my sling, but I chose the flail+2 for more damage instead. I closed in for melee. Semaj ran for his door again and appeared to the right. He popped out cloudkill next. But since I was meleeing him, it landed right in his own face... on top of the that I triggered a trap, that produced: cloudkill...
I had protection from poison which didnt help. So I just ran outside the cloud, and watched Semaj die in the fumes. Nice
I decided to draw out the next bad guy... and it was Sarevok himself. I ran over to the cloud and quaffed an invisibility potion.
Sarevok stayed in the cloud which brought him to injured. Thanks Semaj - I knew you had it in you...
I then tried my luck again. I went toe to toe with Sarevok. He was brought to near death, but so was I. I went invisible and healed my self.
I then remembered that I hadnt used any skeletons at all. 5 of these would give me and easy win.
But the first summon triggered a battle horror. A fight was on my hand, and my skeleton and I attacked the horror. Whereafter Saravok joined the fight. I tried kiting Saravok instead of just taking my time to figure it out. When I again ran out of patience, I chose to duke it out....
And actually it worked rather well..
The game so far has been fun, but also very forgiving at crusual times. But some times the unworthy prevail. Thanks Fortuna - I hope to see you soon.. next up Chateau Irenicus
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Viconia, Khalid, Imoen
The run is still going but ran into a problem that I would never get in EasyTutu. Namely, I turned in Melicamp to Thalantyr, but we can't find any skeletons to kill (think we killed them already without looting the skull). I tried resting, but they don't appear to be respawning. And when I talk to Thalantyr, there is no option to buy anything, he just reminds you to find a skull, which we can't do.
So not only did the Melicamp quest fail, we apparently can't get the robe of the good arch magi for Imoen either.
But will keep at it. This never happens in EasyTutu as the skeletons spawn forever. I gotta remember these quirks of EE.
@Ygramul If you feel SoA is not challenging, compensate it by installing the Tactics component for the final SoA fight.
@Pokota Sorry to see your character go.
@StummvonBordwehr Congrats on already reaching the part your previous character didn't get to. Edit: Congrats on beating BG1!
@Corey_Russell To get new respawns just go from one side of the map to another - the spawns happen when you cross certain markers, not when you rest.
Party LoB + SCS run - Surviving the ambush
Prologue
First Steps
First Level Ups
First Real Challenges
First Casualties
First Wands
Sometimes they do roll 1 during their HP rolls!
The constitution tome was decided to give to the F/I. The sorcerer, even while being the protagonist, always has defensive spells at his disposal (Shield and Mirror Image so far), while the F/I may need the very last of HPs to survive.
The C/M was sacrificed to Shoal the Nereid, and the party prepared for their first ogre mage. SIlence and then poison made this fight easy.
The C/M got a new mage level and only 1 HP. Now when I know there's an issue with HPs I feel especially unlucky getting minimal rolls.
Web + 2 Spirit Animals indeed makes battles quicker and less troublesome. It may even feel like playing not on the LoB difficulty if you forget you can't melee enemies and must always blind those who escape the Web area. Ogres, sirenes, gnolls, - now they weren't a problem.
Ba'ruk and his kobold commando*5 came close to kill the F/I (I didn't meta-game the positioning here) but 30+ hps make characters less likely to die, at least not from such hard-hitters as golems.
Almost all diggers were drawn away by a spirit bear (while one of them was blinded).
Now, the Doomsayer. Unlike golems, he was immune to magical arrows, so the F/T had to backstab him. Of course, first he was blinded (after Doom). This was the first chunking the F/T inflicted on her enemy during this run. Even though general backstabbing doesn't make enemies die on the LoB difficulty, I find the F/T essential to dispatch desolate but HP-heavy creatures. She needs many attempts on LoB, yes, but she is doing her job.
Brage and Laryssa... This was an unfortunate situation for the girl. She asks the party to stop and not get close to Brage. But the Good characters have a task from the Nashkel Temple to try and bring Brage back. The dialogue doesn't offer any option to tell Laryssa about it, so it's a compulsory fight for good characters, to me. But this time Brage did everything. He went berserk as soon as saw red-circled Laryssa and finished her (due to insane damage) in seconds.
The group, of course, fulfilled their promise to the Nashkel priest. Back in Nashkel, they desided to enter all the tents in the Carnival area. I chose darts for the archer on the 3rd level and plan to actually put even the 2nd pip there. Darts of Wounding are lethal in the archer's hands. Zordral was poisoned as soon as the battle started and soon the spirit snake worsened his health further (although he did manage to finish casting Slow).
On the way to the xvart village the group was waylaid... by an ogre-mage. I play with enemy pre-buffs, so this was going to be a nasty encounter.
I knew an ogre-mage could one-shot the main character, who was in his AoS with different spells, but looking at actual options, only Magic Missiles and Chromatic Orb/Minor Sequencer looked like the fastest options. So I couldn't let the sorcerer cast Mirror Image here (due to longer than "1" casting time). So Shield went up, while the F/I and the C/M (who didn't have Shield among memorized spells) tried Mirror Images. The ogre actually indeed chosen Magic Missiles, and alhough the C/M managed to finish his spell before they hit, he was left with only 3 HPs left. Here the Darts of Wounding again helped. The poison worked, and soon Doom+Blindness turned the odds into my favou.
The xvart village was not a problem, as Web + Spirits again worked fine. It was a race to kill them all before the effect of last Web ended.
The party didn't expect to buy cursed items from Borda (of which they could learn only the following day with new Identify memorized), and being Good they didn't insult this "merchant".
Neville, his hobgoblins and ogres fell to the group's arsenal, while Laurel the paladin somehow started to attack a wandering hobgoblin elite. It brought her to a bridge, which I used to my advantage - the gibberling horde. which could be a nightmare on the LoB, spawned at some distance. It all let the party to hold their enemies and kept Laurel's life.
An ogre who wanted to finish his dinner before fighting dropped a Knock spell scroll. It will come handy as the F/T didn't put much into lock picking.
The party helped Drizzt, killed Zekar, Jemby and Teyngan, and had success against half-ogres as Bjornin had asked. Guess what? The C/M again got only 1 HP, but at least the group will have skeletons at their disposal from now.
Here’re the current standings:
Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 5, 21 HPs, 23 kills (4% in the group)
Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 4/4, 31 HPs, 115 kills (23% in the group), 0 deaths
Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 4/5, 38 HPs, 133 kills (26% in the group), 0 deaths
Cochrane, archer, lvl 5, 42 HPs, 170 kills (34% in the group), 0 deaths
Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 6, 45 HPs, 28 kills (5% in the group), 0 deaths
Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/4, 20 HPs, 27 kills (5% in the group), 3 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal)
@Corey_Russell Skeletons respawn in the EE: if you wander around in the night, you'll get a group eventually.
But I have yet to complete a trilogy run -- and made it into ToB rarely enough that I want to try to base game first (+ SCS AI, of course).
@Corey_Russell To get new respawns just go from one side of the map to another - the spawns happen when you cross certain markers, not when you rest.
I canvassed the entire map - all edges of map and interior - no spawns.
@Corey_Russell Skeletons respawn in the EE: if you wander around in the night, you'll get a group eventually.
I'll try that, thanks!
You do get spawns when you rest, although they're not particularly common. However, given that resting only takes a second it's vastly quicker to rest half a dozen or so times until an ambush occurs than to hunt all across the map for a respawn.
You don't have to wander all over the map Corey - each time you come into sight of an encounter spot there's a chance of respawning. Thus you can just go backwards and forwards over the same encounter spot until one appears (resting is quicker for the skeletons, but the above is the general situation if you want to do something like farming XP for instance).
For me, that would be a gnomish cleric/mage, and I assume @Alesia_BH would be a halfling Bounty Hunter. What about you guys? What character class would best represent you? @Grond0? @JuliusBorisov? @Enuhal? @Ygramul? @Gotural? @Blackraven? @Wise_Grimwald? @Corey_Russell? @Neverused? @Pokota? @StummvonBordwehr? @Mantis37? @Arctodus? @Harpagornis? @ussnorway? @Iroumen? Anyone else I've forgotten?
That thread could also help in order not to miss anyone, like @Serg_BlackStrider (don't blame me for mentioning this), for example
We went to the FAI, killed Tarnesh using command to disable him. It was well that he failed the save as he had put two of the trio to sleep. He died.
I spent a pleasurable night with Lena after she had given me a very personal massage.
We cleared the FAI of hobgoblins and then went north where we helped a widow whose undead husband was pestering her.
We then helped Tenya by killing Sonner et al, but she doesn't know about it yet.
We helped Mellicamp get back into shape and killed a couple of ogrillon before heading south to the carnival. On the way we killed a hobgoblin who had some boots of stealth which I can wear, but which don't do me much good.
South of Nashkel we killed a dwarven assassin as well as Greywolf.
We headed west where we helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat.
Images to follow. It's time for bed said Zebedee,