Heh, the irony of that is that I think @Serg_BlackStrider was the one to complete the trilogy Avatar run, which is what you're proposing again. For myself, my archetype is probably a Human or Half-elf Skald.
We finished the Spellhold Asylum last time: Baroque's now heading for the Sahuaguin city. Some mod adds some lunatic trying to thwart Irenicus, but all he does it give us a set of boots off his corpse.
Backstabs by pirates are negated with True Seeing, and without any mages the fights are simple arrow and bolt fests. The Githyanki ambush is escaped invisibly, though apparently one member has to be visible for the rest of the cutscene to continue: either Alina or Mazzy reveal themselves, and we're sent underwater.
The Ettin is killed quickly, and the Drow traps are disarmed with no ill effects. I thought I'd have to kill the Beholder, having no member with both high INT and high WIS and no way to increase either under Item Revisions, but happily he allows me to access the chest. Upon fighting for the Cloak of Mirroring...
Note the lack of Death Ward on ANY of my members, Baroque included. That was an almost permanently fatal mistake. 4th level divine spells were rememorized to deal with this: I believe between Alina and Sebastian I had 6 Death Wards memorized at all times after this. Regardless, we first betray the King, then the prince. I didn't screenshot the Prince, but note Alina hitting a "boss" on a roll of a 3.
We arrive in the Underdark.
The first Drow fight is surprisingly simple this time. I think most of my other parties were more based around spells and disables, and the Drow's MR destroyed them in the past. But now, a Skald-based composition with Improved Haste, the ability to break past anything save Improved Mantle, and three members with Grand Mastery? They aren't able to apply the same pressure that I've experienced in the past. They simply don't have enough time. The most problematic thing was a Teleport Field getting Sebastian into the range of the Myconids, but the archers were enough to pick off the remainders of the Drow forces while Sebastian took out the spawns.
The Balor fight. Our buffs were Pro. Evil, 5x Death ward, with 2 more memorized in case of dispels, 4x Protection from Fire, Fireshield for Baroque due to having 50% fire resist from a ring, Spell Immunity: Abjuration on Baroque, Improved Haste on Mazzy and Alina, True Seeing on Alina (I don't remember why, fearing Mirror images?), DuHM and Ilmater's Endurance on Sebastian, and Mass Invisibility on everyone from Imoen. Weapons are FoA on Sebastian, Tansheron's bow on Mazzy, Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy using Blessed Bolts (considered +3) on Alina, and Tuigan's using Arrows of Piercing (also +3 in IR) on Imoen. We start the fight to a very encouraging roll.
Stoneskins come up on the Balor, though I'm more worried about the Aura of Flaming Death. Imoen Breaches it.
The Balor's Remove Magic come out, taking out almost all of Sebastian's defenses, though Baroque's Resist Fire seems to have made it out alright. He backs away and recasts Death Ward, though it's apparently unnecessary. The Balor falls.
I looked at our inventories: Alina used 4 bolts, and Imoen had only fired 3 arrows. No one used more than one aura use, I think, or at most two. I think this fight that I've always feared took this group less than two rounds to finish.
I get a bit cocky, though, and release everyone from their prison. The first fights were rather simple, and a Heal meant I cured someone of their permanent head damage. However, Alchra Diagott, the Lich... I simply had no way of dealing with him, and some bad positioning got me off to a horrid start. He starts with several spells in his contingency, most notably Pro. Magic Weapons, Spell Turning or some variant, and Spell Shield. It'd take Imoen 3 rounds to get a Breach off on the PfMW, and of course normal weapons can't hurt a lich. Sebastian takes the initial aggro, and to my dismay Alchra sees through and targets through Improved Invisibility. A Remove Magic strips my entire team of all their buffs. We retreat west, two Skeleton Warriors trying to soak spells. Alchra ignores them.
Mazzy activates True Sight via gem, and I see a worrying message: "Illithid: Illusion Dispelled." Three times. Seconds later, they all teleport in one by one into the middle of my party. Sebastian is still in the south trying to distract Alchra, and eats an Incendiary cloud for his troubles. Fortunately, though, Baroque is level 18+: his song grants immunity to Stun. The Illithids fall quickly, though Sebastian is the target of a second Incendiary Cloud. I dunno what I was thinking: Alina carries Zone of Sweet Air specifically for moments like this, but I didn't consider that as an option. Sebastian tries to retreat to the party, but a Teleport Field keeps sending him back into the clouds. Alina raced towards him with the Boots of Lightning Speed, an IR set of boots that quadruples movespeed but sets attacks to 0, and you can't cast in them either. Handing the boots to Sebastian, he manages to get out of the clouds and out of the Teleport Field to the east.
Alina, however, was targeted by Alchra now. A "VITA" follows. Either Finger of Death or ADHW is coming, and I'm betting on the second. We split, Alina heading even further north and drinking a potion to full heal. It's barely enough to survive.
Alchra uses a Dimension Door onto Mazzy. I have no choice, now. His aura's dirty, his AC's bad, and I still have a few summons remaining. We engage. He throws up Stoneskin again, but it's not nearly enough to save him.
I failed the questline last time in the Underdark due to not acquiring the parts of royal blood in time. I decide that we'll simply clear the Kuo-Toa now, as well as the Demon Knights.
Demon Knights first: I forgot their spell loadout. I knew they have Fireballs at a high caster level, but I forgot about the Remove Magics. Our Fire Resistance is destroyed immediately, and the entire party quaffs undispellable Potions of Fire Resistance. Sebastian has immunity to Level Drain due to his amulet, and the rest is simple. Sebastian takes the evil Helm of Glory that can be used by Neutral characters.
Kuo-Toa. I make a slight mistake and didn't take out the first chamber first, and end up flanked when taking the second due to Calls of Help. Mazzy grabs her short sword to make up the southern defense, leaving Imoen and Alina to be the main damage and spellcasters. Imoen's Slow and Chaos disrupts northern forces, and Alina and Mazzy clear the south. Eventually only the Prince remain. I watched the Prince take ~20 damage and return to Uninjured in around a second. I was kinda curious if I could do enough damage fast enough without ruining the tadpoles. The answer was yes.
We fight off the Drow in the west for the heck of it, suffering no real problems. Alina's Favored Enemy of Demon/Devil helps slaughter the two demons, and Sebastian, Mazzy, and Imoen deal with the others. Beholders were killed with the singular remaining Skeleton Warrior.
The second physical-based Drow warparty is an easy fight for us, and we go visit Adalon and get Drow-ified. Main purchases in the city were a bunch of spells for Imoen, the Greenstone Amulet for Baroque, and Firetooth for Imoen, and the Reflection Shield (Shield of Baldurun). Leaving the city for Phaere, the weird warparty is pretty easily defeated.
Despite most of my buffs still missing... I at least have Death ward on Baroque now.
We continue saving Phaere, and do a couple duels, stopping before the mage fights. I've lost characters permanently there, so... no. Alina and Mazzy use Defend to help take out the second-to-last fight, though.
...... Huh. I'm missing a ton of screenshots for this next period. The only major battle we undertake is Qilue, and the only major error I made that fight was not waiting to see which one of the Drow cast Mantle and which cast the PFMW. I needed to Breach the Mantle and shoot normal missiles at the PFMW user, but I have Imoen guess. And she guessed incorrectly, so that just made the battle take that much longer. We ignore Deirex, and do all the fetch quests and invisibly swap the eggs. We reach the surface with no issues. I... MIGHT try to deal with the Beholders some time in the future, but I don't think the risk is worth the reward for the Illithids.
Returning, we forge Gesen's bow and purchase the Sling of Everand. Now I have 3 weapons capable of hitting past Mantle (iMoD and the two aforementioned ranged weapons.) After running around a bit, we recruit Valygar as Jaheira's replacement, at least until ToB. First, we gain our revenge for Vista and finish the Guarded Compound. There's a Helm of Defense on one of them, finally allowing Sebastian to upgrade his armor from the Mail of the Dead.
Three major questlines left: Windspear, Planar Sphere, Planar Prison. Windspear is the easiest, so that's our first goal. We finally return a couple acorns:
And a Transmuter is murdered rather quickly.
Golems are no problem for this party, and Alina showcases why single-class Clerics are wonderful things at times.
For the Guardians, we throw a couple Fire resist items on Sebastian for 120% fire resist. The worst thing was the Director, who actually had Beholder Rays. Mirror Shield stops him cold. For Samia, I over-prepared but it's kinda irrelevant as Holy Smite from Alina essentially ended the fight. We kill Tazok for the final time, and choose the dialogue with Firkraag to send Conster upstairs. We engage.
I'm much more lightly buffed than last time, Alina's picture notwithstanding. Mostly it's Pro. Fires, a couple divine protections on Alina (Divine Shell and some level 7 one, I think?), Improved Haste on Mazzy, Haste on everyone else, and Mass Invisibility. Only Baroque even has a Death Ward.
Firkraag starts with a Remove, but only Sebastian is caught. He starts kiting, trying to replenish his health against Firkraag's good THAC0. Firkraag manages to get a Fire Breath into the middle of everyone. It tickled.
Missiles soon prove too much for the red dragon, and Firkraag is dead.
Apparently Barbarians are paladins too, according to Carsomyr.
We clean up Conster, and now I'm debating on which subquest to go on now. Planar Sphere seems likely.
Edit: Stats, before I forget. Baroque, Human Skald 21.122 HP (11 from Ioun stone, and either 12 or 18 from Familiar, I'm still unsure on this.) 1 kill, Shadow. Sebastian, Human Painbearer of Ilmater 11 -> Fighter 15. 84 HP. 2 deaths, 1 petrification. 293 kills, Demon Knight. Valygar, Human Stalker 12. 95 HP. 0 deaths. 17 kills, Greater Wolfwere. Alina, Human Archer 9 -> Cleric 17. 122 HP. 0 deaths. 317 kills. Thaxll'sillyia. Mazzy, Halfling Fighter 16. 111 HP. 0 deaths. 284 kills. Firkraag. Imoen, Human Thief 7 -> Mage 16. 72 HP. 0 deaths. 50 kills. Lonk the Sane.
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.
Meanwhile, I am proud to report that Khael the Aegis, Cavalier, just completed Shadows of Amn.
(MOD SETUP: Only SCS enhanced AI and minor changes. Notably, no Tactics mod for end fight.)
As an honor rule, I stopped using HLAs post-Underdark. Specifically, I beat Irenicus without any HLA use.
After the Bhaal Tear XP loss he finished the game at around 3.8 million XP (lvl 20).
-
RE: DEFENSIVE LAYOUT AND SAVES
Forgot about the Bhaal Tear bonuses earlier. They are substantial on a Cavalier:
Currently, I am sitting on unbuffed saves of: -4 / -8 / -9 / -14 / -7 (Kazgaroth + Gaxx + Helm of Defense + Amulet of Seldarine + Cloak of Prot + Bhaal and Cavalier bonuses)
... with near-immunity to elemental damage (a bit weak on Acid and Cold) that is easily boosted even by his own Spells without party help or potions.
Combined with the following: - built in immunity to Poison - physical resistances can be boosted to 75% (Hardiness + DoE +Armor of Faith) - Magic resistance up to 80% (Carsomyr + Bhaal Tear + Seldarine Amulet + Ring of Gaxx)
With some item management, he should be able to tank anything other than a no-save death. (Which, if I am correct are only the Power Words, if HP falls too low, or Imprisonment. Correct me if I am missing something here.)
Looking forward to ToB with my first ever Cavalier going the distance....
Nice going @Ygramul, but don't relax - there are still threats out there. Not all status effects offer a save, e.g. sleep effect from Mel, implosion spell and Harm from Sendai, maze from Abazigal, stun from Balthazar. However, your party members should be able to help you out there.
Do you have Smarter Mages installed? Paladins cast spells as if they were 8 levels lower, which means your Armor of Faith spells will be very easy to dispel even when you max out at level 34 (assuming you still have the XP cap installed), since various ToB enemies will dispel stuff at caster levels well over 20.
Otherwise, remember that Maze offers no saving throw and instantly ends solo runs. Magic resistance can block it, but an 80% chance of survival sounds really unreliable. Drink Potions of Magic Protection whenever you're around mages to get that MR to 100, and if you see a nearby mage casting a conjuration spell, be aware that it might well be Maze, and you can't stop it once it finishes casting. I don't think there are ToB Maze traps, but I'm not positive.
Psionic Maze bypasses magic resistance, but it offers a save vs. spell at -4. Since your paladin has the Cavalier kit, you don't need to worry about an extra -2 save penalty for schoolless effects.
One more thing I'm concerned about: if you don't have everything from SCS installed, you might have vanilla celestials, and unless EE changed them, that means a Fallen Planetar has a 25% chance of landing a vorpal strike with no saving throw (the SCS version offers a save vs. death at -2). Don't know if you'll face any enemy Planetars in your install (I doubt it), but without that SCS nerf, they could easily be fatal.
Do you have Smarter Mages installed? Paladins cast spells as if they were 8 levels lower, which means your Armor of Faith spells will be very easy to dispel even when you max out at level 34 (assuming you still have the XP cap installed), since various ToB enemies will dispel stuff at caster levels well over 20.
Otherwise, remember that Maze offers no saving throw and instantly ends solo runs. Magic resistance can block it, but an 80% chance of survival sounds really unreliable. Drink Potions of Magic Protection whenever you're around mages to get that MR to 100, and if you see a nearby mage casting a conjuration spell, be aware that it might well be Maze, and you can't stop it once it finishes casting. I don't think there are ToB Maze traps, but I'm not positive.
Psionic Maze bypasses magic resistance, but it offers a save vs. spell at -4. Since your paladin has the Cavalier kit, you don't need to worry about an extra -2 save penalty for schoolless effects.
One more thing I'm concerned about: if you don't have everything from SCS installed, you might have vanilla celestials, and unless EE changed them, that means a Fallen Planetar has a 25% chance of landing a vorpal strike with no saving throw (the SCS version offers a save vs. death at -2). Don't know if you'll face any enemy Planetars in your install (I doubt it), but without that SCS nerf, they could easily be fatal.
I do have Smarter Mages and indeed they dispel my self buffs if they ever sneeze in my general direction. (Not so with Viconia and Imoen's buffs; they rarely go down.)
But Armor of Faith is cast fast and I use it basically only for melee emergencies. So, no great worry about that.
I do not dare solo runs. I have no discipline for it, I think.
Re: celestials. I think that is one of the SCS components that I do have as it seemed not too disruptive in the readme.
(I also, e.g., have Improved Dragons. Even with triple hit points and refusing to use HLAs, the endgame Black Dragon in the elf city was quite manageable with some care.)
Nice going @Ygramul, but don't relax - there are still threats out there. Not all status effects offer a save, e.g. sleep effect from Mel, implosion spell and Harm from Sendai, maze from Abazigal, stun from Balthazar. However, your party members should be able to help you out there.
Oooh, thanks for the warning.
See, I have never faced them in a no-reload run before. (I vaguely remember them from over a decade ago.) Hope I'll get that far.
Unless any of them have Time Stop immunity (I remember the shock of seeing for the first time that Mel does!!!), Imoen is beginning to get into her own formidable power. (She is a sorcerer in my game.)
In both the Illisera and Irenicus fights she mopped the mage defenses with a Time Stop, opening the door for a beatdown.
In the last Irenicus fight, she layed down triple Chain Lightnings with Time Stop and finished off a Balor and maimed a Glabrezu (I figured MR was riskable in a cluster; it paid off).
ToB is pretty much void of banter, as I recall. I do recall at least dialogue between Sarevok and Viconia, but I can't think of a single banter from Minsc in ToB. Though that might be because I never really did play ToB with him still int he party.
Sarevok is marginally stronger and I would prefer him to Minsc. But a paladin would probably find it heartbreaking to part with Minsc after slaying so many evil monsters together.
We took on Bassilus. We tried to use command, but that failed, however an intense melee attack meant that he didn't get to succeed with his spells either. He died.
We then went ankheg hunting. We were only able to take on a couple before we needed to rest, and after that take on another couple. At least there is safe resting not too far away. The nest itself has been completed. Now there are just those outside and they are a bit more dangerous.
We might leave them for later.
EDIT
We didn't leave them till later. We were delighted that we never had to fight more than one at a time. Whilst fighting the last one, the plate armour that I acquired in Candlekeep fell to pieces. Fortunately I still had some splint armour, but we will have to see if we can replace the plate, indeed, we could use two sets.
We then took on the ogre with a belt fetish and won without any problems. We wanted to upgrade it but we didn't have enough gold. We therefore sold our ankheg shells and then headed south where we defeated three overly officious flaming fist mercenaries. They won't be bothering anyone else on the sword coast! Since we had already got some ankheg armour in Nashkel we only needed two of their suits of armour but the third could come in handy if we meet up with another Talonite.
We fought them in the Grove of Statues. We fought them in the Pocketplane. We fought them on the fourth level of Watcher's Keep. We fought them in the abyss. We fought demons and mind flayers and dragons and demons again. And we won. (Apart from that gambling cambion who beat us 2-1 but at least we got a Wish scroll out of it.) By the end Cromarty was really getting stuck in and not hanging back any more.... Finally we took Melissan down, and Cromarty claimed the Throne of Bhaal- to decidedly mixed reactions from his companions. Ajantis was practically crying over his report card to Helm... After this triumph everything is the same but different. I hope someone lets my bosses know .
There were not too many dicey moments. The grove was a whirlwind mess, and the third fight at the throne was a little tricky until multiple teleport fields kept the shadows off. Melissan did get a timestop off while far off when I didn't catch the opening incantation but Sirene survived it even at close range. Something to bear in mind for Ascension! Some Blizzard trolls refused to die like the trolls in the Fire Temple but fortuantely I didn't need to devise ways to kill them by stat draining, just activated the pool and left them. I didn't make much use of my party's more esterotic abilities. In truth I would be as happy if HLAs just gave passive bonuses like on hit effects, an endless bar of abilities isn't terribly easy to navigate through.
Please add my run to the list of immortals . For the record I used SCS for BG1, but not for BG2/ ToB- that just had some slight AI improvements courtesy of Quest Pack. I imagine that I shall try another run in the near future using Item Revisions as well as Spell Revisions & SCS all the way, with slightly reduced quest xp, and with 50% of ToB's Monty Haul items removed via randomiser. Apologies for the lack of pics still, new driver won't let me take them. But now, after many months of increasingly tense labour, I shall rest and play Majesty with my daughter. If you're unfamiliar it's a fun game where you watch your heroes running around trying to complete quests. Rather relaxing after this... Best of luck everyone.
Off to Bridgefort we went. After a few sidequests, we decided to attack the Crusade forces with the help of the Flaming Fists. Not much to say about it, except that fireballs ruled the day.
The entrance of the Underground River was next. I'm pretty sure there's a way to get in without fighting. Haven't found it yet.
Inside the Tunnel, Ferrusk was attacked in the name of two other druids. The fight caught me by surprise : he has a lot of goons with him. They even managed to kill Baeloth and Corwin, mostly because they were badly positioned at the start of the fight. We pulled through anyway.
Then, since I wanted the Dragon Blade for Minsc, I decided to go into the Kanaglym. That's another fight that really caught me by surprise by the sheer number of magic users we had to face. And a ghost dragon. That drains level on hit. Did not see that one coming.
And, obviously, the first character the dragon decide to target is Miluiel. So, she put a pair of Boots of the Cheetah on and made her best Benny Hill impersonation : she ran like crazy. She still got hit once, but otherwise was in the clear until the dragon decided to pursue Dynaheir instead. I'm ok with that.
During this time, the rest of the team was actually doing more than ok against this group. Corwin and Minsc got confused at one time, but Break Enchantment from Glint and one Harp of Descant charge nullified it. As nervous as I was at the start of combat, everything went quite smoothly in the end. When Kherriun went down, it freed the dragon, who helped me clean up the rest of the enemy, even though not many were left.
So, this sidequest got us the Dragon Blade for Minsc, which means that I'm pretty much ready for the end part of SoD : Minsc and Glint both have a +3 weapon and Baeloth chose Enchanted Weapon to make +3 arrows for Corwin and bullets and Glint, Dynaheir and himself, since SR still use the pre 2.3 Enchanted Weapon version of the spell. I'm still pondering if I will press on to poison the Crusaders food or just make a beeline to the finish. Even if I have to face more Crusaders, I have so many Arrows of Explosions, potions of Explosions and Fireball wands that it doesn't matter all that much. I'm strongly leaning toward the latter option.
Quick update on Corthief XIII the human thief Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Imoen, Viconia
Good news! We went to High Hedge and arrived at the area you get to when arriving from Beregost. We immediately rested and got a large skeleton ambush. After a long fight we did prevail, with Imoen gulping quite a few heal potions - think she was the 1st one seen. We then looted the skull, and even managed to save Melicamp. Now Thalantyr will let us buy from him, good deal.
We had a lot of trouble in the Drizzt area. Shar-Teel got held by a ghoul (we were battling three ghouls), and I fought the battle rather carelessly. I should have paused and had the ranged people equip their magical ranged ammo to speed up the kills of the ghouls - it is likely Shar-Teel would have lived, but I didn't - so now we were 800 gold poorer to bring her back at a temple.
So then we return and try continue to clear the area, but then we got too close to a pack of black bears. Shar-Teel was gulping blue potions like mad, she was getting hit so much. Corthief XIII and Imoen got attacked and started running - but Imoen didn't run fast enough and was killed. We were able to raise her, but yet another 800 gold poorer to do so. Finally though, the rest of the area was cleared without further incident.
We cleared a number of other areas, such as carnival - we finally talked to the Amazing Gazib and killed Oompah. In general, seems to be less enemies in BG 1 EE than there are in EasyTutu.
Not a lot of banter - mostly Viconia saying she respects Shar-Teel, and with Shar-Teel responding that flattery will get her nowhere, and also Shar-Teel telling Khalid she spits on his manhood, and Khalid being flabbergasted in response.
No pause + no-reload = no chance? Caesar, dwarf berserker {6} (update 1)
I thought it was about time to have another go at this challenge using an unmodded installation on Core difficulty. I didn't keep a record in my notes, but searching for previous posts where I listed my restrictions on pausing, those are: 1) Autopause of any sort not allowed. 2) Pausing using the space bar / clockwork button is not allowed at any time (game ending offence). 3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range). 4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation. 5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area). In addition I always play with the AI disabled, so there's no auto-targeting using that.
Caesar's previous best attempt was killing Slythe, only for the run to fail immediately after that by pausing to take a celebratory screenshot, so it would be nice to show a bit of progress by getting him into SoD. I couldn't find the starting save I'd used previously so re-rolled the character.
So far his progress has been roughly as follows: - killed Algernon for his cloak. - picked up the ankheg armor. - charmed the sirines in Beregost temple to get up to level 4 despite losing the XP for one of them when it ran away from one wild dog straight into another that had respawned close by.
- used a green PfP scroll to hack down the basilisks to get to level 6 (the greater basilisk next to Mutamin was shot).
Kirian's companions were charmed and disposed of before Korax helped out with Mutamin and Kirian.
- the magic swords from Kirian's group were helpful, as Caesar had broken all but 2 of his normal long swords on the basilisks. However, Caesar still wanted an upgrade and Greywolf provided that.
- a quick trip through the Cloud Peaks produced a charisma tome. - some sirines and golems were brushed aside to get a constitution tome and reach level 7.
- battle horrors and ghasts couldn't stop him getting the wisdom tome from Durlags, though he had no protection at the time to be able to take on the basilisks. He did take down Riggilo though while raging anyway to defeat the charm trap guarding the tome.
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. Screenshots unsuitable for minors omitted.
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 Zargos Flintblade, a dwarven assassin as well as Greywolf.
We headed west where we helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat. We took on Bassilus. We tried to use command, but that failed, however an intense melee attack meant that he didn't get to succeed with his spells either. He died.
We then went ankheg hunting. We were only able to take on a couple before we needed to rest, and after that take on another couple. At least there is safe resting not too far away. The nest itself has been completed. Now there are just those outside and they are a bit more dangerous. We might leave them for later.
EDIT
We didn't leave them till later. We were delighted that we never had to fight more than one at a time. Whilst fighting the last one, the plate armour that I acquired in Candlekeep fell to pieces. Fortunately I still had some splint armour, but we will have to see if we can replace the plate, indeed, we could use two sets. We then took on the ogre with a belt fetish and won without any problems.
We wanted to upgrade it but we didn't have enough gold. We therefore sold our ankheg shells and then headed south where we defeated three overly officious flaming fist mercenaries. They won't be bothering anyone else on the sword coast!
Since we had already got some ankheg armour in Nashkel we only needed two of their suits of armour but the third could come in handy if we meet up with another Talonite Fighter.
We headed west, killed Zargal et al and headed further west where we killed three sirines using our Talonite protections for safety.
Inside the cave we killed two of the golems, but left the third one alone as he wasn't hindering us.
Thing is, both Jan and Minsc have hilarious banters with Sarevok. If I had to throw someone out, it would be Jaheira or Vicky.
Vicky would have my guts for garters, if I tried.
... and Jaheira is starting to kick serious but while keeping everyone alive.
After all, this is still a no-reload run: I can't quite risk not having at least two healers in the party, especially now that they can cast Mass Raise Dead. (Used it a few times as "Heal everyone quick" last resort when hit with AoE damage.)
I think my survivability for this run is much higher with Jaheira in the party versus Minsc instead.
Re my party of followers of Talos, I am wondering which NPCs, mod NPCs and otherwise would get on with my prty from a RP point of view. My party are a bit xenophobic, particularly with regards to elves. They did allow Xzar and Montaron to join but almost immediately got rid of Xzar in an upper room in Beregost because of his height. After Montaron did some pickpocketting in Beregost, he did some more at Ulgoth's Beard. He then left the party to be replaced by Tiax who opens locks far better than Montaron.
Can you think of any dwarves who might be followers of Talos?
The only shorty mage that I can think of is the cleric-illusionist who I believe to be chaotic neutral. That would be fine for a Talossian so long as his script doesn't preclude it.
Since the run has come to an end. The Dark Horizon Assassins in the gnoll fortress cast chaos on the party which affected all four. The mage who cast it was quickly killed, but the talossians then proceeded to kill each other. End of game. An enjoyable one but quite short. I realised afterwards that my tactics weren't great in that battle.
There were several moments when I could have eliminated that mage at the cost of slight injury. I could also have silenced him. So I basically lacked intelligence.
New run plus another kit that I haven't tried before. Hammer of Moradin. The details of the character were decided by the portrait that I found, a dwarf with a halberd.
EDIT
The hammer isn't working, so I am going to run another character.
Thing is, both Jan and Minsc have hilarious banters with Sarevok. If I had to throw someone out, it would be Jaheira or Vicky.
Vicky would have my guts for garters, if I tried.
... and Jaheira is starting to kick serious but while keeping everyone alive.
After all, this is still a no-reload run: I can't quite risk not having at least two healers in the party, especially now that they can cast Mass Raise Dead. (Used it a few times as "Heal everyone quick" last resort when hit with AoE damage.)
I think my survivability for this run is much higher with Jaheira in the party versus Minsc instead.
Hard luck Wise.
It's an odd quirk of the game that a berserk Minsc is probably more likely to 'friendly fire' you than your old foe Sarevok.
Caesar has continued to make good progress: - going north of Beregost to get the third in his belt collection before finding some pantaloons at the FAI. - none of the ankhegs in the nest managed to hit him, though the one near Tenya got one successful shot. - Caesar reached reputation 20 by helping out Charleston Nib and celebrated by beating up the Doomsayer.
- after doing some shopping he quickly fought through the Nashkel Mine and refused Mulahey's pleas for mercy.
- outside, the Amazons proved ineffective in melee.
- he got his final BG1 level returning a ring in Nashkel
before hacking down Nimbul and Tranzig in one and two hits respectively. - at the Bandit Camp Taurgosz provided an armor upgrade,
while a single rage was more than enough to clear Tazok's tent and gain some bracers to improve further his damage output.
- the Cloakwood was essentially skipped, with a potion of freedom avoiding any potential trouble from the web traps. - Caesar had intended to charm Drasus' companions, but an annoying pathfinding glitch turned them hostile so he just ran away. Coming back to the area he used a scroll of PfM to ensure there were no problems from the mages after drawing the others away to be beaten up.
- in the mine he did minimum combat on the way down, just running past Hareishan before she could react. On Davaeorn's level the guard was successfully charmed, but it didn't last long against the battle horrors. However, Caesar made short work of those and was almost at full health after a couple of Bhaal CLWs. A potion of magic blocking was used for an initial assault on Davaeorn. When that expired though I think I was a fraction slow in using rage and Caesar had to save against a hold person just before finishing the contest.
- in the City he picked up the tomes, Helm of Balduran, nymph cloak, Helm of Glory (to enable charisma to go to 20). There were no problems with any of that, with Jardak and his butler
the only ones to do significant damage for those combats. - I made another mistake after taking on all Degrodel's guards without taking much damage (switching to a shield there rather than dual-wielding).
I mis-clicked and informed the mage Caesar wanted to die . He had no rage left, but managed to kill Degrodel at the cost of just an acid arrow, but the mage had also summoned several more guards and Caesar had to run from the last of those (no screenshot as I was a bit busy, but Caesar was taken down to 12 HPs before running) to recuperate before coming back to finish it off.
- Caesar tried depetrifying Vail anyway, but he had no useful information. However, as there were still various reputation quests available I decided Quenash deserved to die (I didn't fancy trying to get her stuck in Krystin's cloudkill without being able to pause).
Some temple donations and a few quests later (including the Seven Suns that I hadn't intended to do) reputation was back up to 20. - at the Iron Throne there were multiple potential sources of magical damage, so Caesar used another PfM scroll while beating them up.
To get a bit of extra value from that he also sought out Sunin to get a cash boost from his ring. - Caesar has just arrived in Candlekeep and rested a few times to pick up a couple more Bhaal powers.
Berserker L8, 111 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 326 kills
we swapped the fake Hexxat for a real one... then ran around doing a few cloak + dagger for the smaller thief guild... yes I own a home in my dreams but this isn't it.
Neera couldn't rest without kicking the red wizards from the area and the big final battle is easy if you don't follow the scripts.
we asked Bodhi to take us to see spellhold but she needs some quests done first... favor for a favor sort of thing.
party; Sarah, Jaheira, Dorn, Neera, Viconia and Hexxat (real)
In the Catacombs Caesar kept a scroll of PfP handy in case the phase spiders got lucky - but none of them even managed a hit. He opened the tombs with a potion of fire giant strength topped up by DUHM. After brushing aside some dopplegangers, Caesar relied on his rage against Prat's gang and defeated them without damage (though I thought Prat had cast a lightning bolt and checking back through the text there was one that bounced off Caesar's cloak).
A potion of mirrored eyes provided plenty of time to deal with a couple of basilisks on the way out.
Before going back to the City, Caesar paid a visit to the Red Wizard area. An opening fireball killed one of the mages and a follow-up sling shot another. Caesar then tried to rage - only to find he'd forgotten to rest after Candlekeep and was all raged out . He ran away a bit and fortunately saved against a horror just before he managed to activate the Horn of Kazgaroth and kill a chasing mage.
Another charge from the Horn ensured a further horror would bounce off as Caesar completed the job.
Back in Baldur's Gate Caesar sought out Slythe. A few potions enabled him to finish that fight quickly and retreat before Krystin was ready to get involved.
A potion of regeneration then topped up his HPs on the way to the Palace where the plan was to add DUHM and rage to his existing potion buffs. However, he still hadn't rested so couldn't do that! While the dopplegangers would have no real chance of killing Caesar directly, there is a distinct possibility of them killing the dukes before they die - so Caesar decided to write off the potions and retreat until he could try fully buffed.
After resting to get his final Bhaal power, Caesar tried again at the Palace. It was a good job he was fully buffed as I was both quick and accurate with targeting during a hectic battle (lasting less than 10 seconds), but Belt was already at near death as Caesar attacked the final doppleganger and it was a toss-up whether the next thing to come was victory or Sarevok's laughter as Caesar perished in a flame strike.
His existing potion buffs allowed Caesar to fight his way through the maze without problems. In the Undercity he took a detour to get in behind the party there and fired a few exploding arrows at them before closing for the kill.
I was a bit concerned for the final fight that, without pausing, I wouldn't be able to shoot Sarevok and retreat fast enough to only have to fight him and Semaj - and that indeed proved to be the case. Caesar had pre-buffed with another scroll of PfM, but in the rush of events he didn't even manage an attack while running round until he managed to use a potion of invisibility (from a quick slot). Once out of sight and with no enemies active (checked by quicksaving) he was allowed to go into inventory and use a potion of regeneration to get HPs back up before scouting the situation.
Tazok wasn't yet visible, but it looked like Angelo might be on his own so he was attacked first. That was over in a couple of seconds before he could do anything, but Tazok did indeed appear and got a chop in before being the next to fall. Semaj teleported in as well and also died, along with an interfering battle horror.
That just left Sarevok and, with no more danger of remove magic, Caesar put on full offensive (though not defensive) potion buffs once more. I expected that to mean he would be able to crush Sarevok and, though the big man got a couple of juicy hits in, he was still well beaten.
Caesar has duly arrived in SoD and taken an immediate level. I suspect his life in SoD is likely to be nasty, brutish and short - but where there's life there's hope ...
Berserker L9, 126 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 376 kills
Comments
Baroque, Human Skald, update 7
Previous updates:
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3,
BG1 end
Update 4, SoA start
Update 5
Update 6
We finished the Spellhold Asylum last time: Baroque's now heading for the Sahuaguin city. Some mod adds some lunatic trying to thwart Irenicus, but all he does it give us a set of boots off his corpse.
Backstabs by pirates are negated with True Seeing, and without any mages the fights are simple arrow and bolt fests. The Githyanki ambush is escaped invisibly, though apparently one member has to be visible for the rest of the cutscene to continue: either Alina or Mazzy reveal themselves, and we're sent underwater.
The Ettin is killed quickly, and the Drow traps are disarmed with no ill effects. I thought I'd have to kill the Beholder, having no member with both high INT and high WIS and no way to increase either under Item Revisions, but happily he allows me to access the chest. Upon fighting for the Cloak of Mirroring...
Note the lack of Death Ward on ANY of my members, Baroque included. That was an almost permanently fatal mistake. 4th level divine spells were rememorized to deal with this: I believe between Alina and Sebastian I had 6 Death Wards memorized at all times after this. Regardless, we first betray the King, then the prince. I didn't screenshot the Prince, but note Alina hitting a "boss" on a roll of a 3.
We arrive in the Underdark.
The first Drow fight is surprisingly simple this time. I think most of my other parties were more based around spells and disables, and the Drow's MR destroyed them in the past. But now, a Skald-based composition with Improved Haste, the ability to break past anything save Improved Mantle, and three members with Grand Mastery? They aren't able to apply the same pressure that I've experienced in the past. They simply don't have enough time. The most problematic thing was a Teleport Field getting Sebastian into the range of the Myconids, but the archers were enough to pick off the remainders of the Drow forces while Sebastian took out the spawns.
The Balor fight. Our buffs were Pro. Evil, 5x Death ward, with 2 more memorized in case of dispels, 4x Protection from Fire, Fireshield for Baroque due to having 50% fire resist from a ring, Spell Immunity: Abjuration on Baroque, Improved Haste on Mazzy and Alina, True Seeing on Alina (I don't remember why, fearing Mirror images?), DuHM and Ilmater's Endurance on Sebastian, and Mass Invisibility on everyone from Imoen. Weapons are FoA on Sebastian, Tansheron's bow on Mazzy, Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy using Blessed Bolts (considered +3) on Alina, and Tuigan's using Arrows of Piercing (also +3 in IR) on Imoen. We start the fight to a very encouraging roll.
Stoneskins come up on the Balor, though I'm more worried about the Aura of Flaming Death. Imoen Breaches it.
The Balor's Remove Magic come out, taking out almost all of Sebastian's defenses, though Baroque's Resist Fire seems to have made it out alright. He backs away and recasts Death Ward, though it's apparently unnecessary. The Balor falls.
I looked at our inventories: Alina used 4 bolts, and Imoen had only fired 3 arrows. No one used more than one aura use, I think, or at most two. I think this fight that I've always feared took this group less than two rounds to finish.
I get a bit cocky, though, and release everyone from their prison. The first fights were rather simple, and a Heal meant I cured someone of their permanent head damage. However, Alchra Diagott, the Lich... I simply had no way of dealing with him, and some bad positioning got me off to a horrid start. He starts with several spells in his contingency, most notably Pro. Magic Weapons, Spell Turning or some variant, and Spell Shield. It'd take Imoen 3 rounds to get a Breach off on the PfMW, and of course normal weapons can't hurt a lich. Sebastian takes the initial aggro, and to my dismay Alchra sees through and targets through Improved Invisibility. A Remove Magic strips my entire team of all their buffs. We retreat west, two Skeleton Warriors trying to soak spells. Alchra ignores them.
Mazzy activates True Sight via gem, and I see a worrying message: "Illithid: Illusion Dispelled." Three times. Seconds later, they all teleport in one by one into the middle of my party. Sebastian is still in the south trying to distract Alchra, and eats an Incendiary cloud for his troubles. Fortunately, though, Baroque is level 18+: his song grants immunity to Stun. The Illithids fall quickly, though Sebastian is the target of a second Incendiary Cloud. I dunno what I was thinking: Alina carries Zone of Sweet Air specifically for moments like this, but I didn't consider that as an option. Sebastian tries to retreat to the party, but a Teleport Field keeps sending him back into the clouds. Alina raced towards him with the Boots of Lightning Speed, an IR set of boots that quadruples movespeed but sets attacks to 0, and you can't cast in them either. Handing the boots to Sebastian, he manages to get out of the clouds and out of the Teleport Field to the east.
Alina, however, was targeted by Alchra now. A "VITA" follows. Either Finger of Death or ADHW is coming, and I'm betting on the second. We split, Alina heading even further north and drinking a potion to full heal. It's barely enough to survive.
Alchra uses a Dimension Door onto Mazzy. I have no choice, now. His aura's dirty, his AC's bad, and I still have a few summons remaining. We engage. He throws up Stoneskin again, but it's not nearly enough to save him.
I failed the questline last time in the Underdark due to not acquiring the parts of royal blood in time. I decide that we'll simply clear the Kuo-Toa now, as well as the Demon Knights.
Demon Knights first: I forgot their spell loadout. I knew they have Fireballs at a high caster level, but I forgot about the Remove Magics. Our Fire Resistance is destroyed immediately, and the entire party quaffs undispellable Potions of Fire Resistance. Sebastian has immunity to Level Drain due to his amulet, and the rest is simple. Sebastian takes the evil Helm of Glory that can be used by Neutral characters.
Kuo-Toa. I make a slight mistake and didn't take out the first chamber first, and end up flanked when taking the second due to Calls of Help. Mazzy grabs her short sword to make up the southern defense, leaving Imoen and Alina to be the main damage and spellcasters. Imoen's Slow and Chaos disrupts northern forces, and Alina and Mazzy clear the south. Eventually only the Prince remain. I watched the Prince take ~20 damage and return to Uninjured in around a second. I was kinda curious if I could do enough damage fast enough without ruining the tadpoles. The answer was yes.
We fight off the Drow in the west for the heck of it, suffering no real problems. Alina's Favored Enemy of Demon/Devil helps slaughter the two demons, and Sebastian, Mazzy, and Imoen deal with the others. Beholders were killed with the singular remaining Skeleton Warrior.
The second physical-based Drow warparty is an easy fight for us, and we go visit Adalon and get Drow-ified. Main purchases in the city were a bunch of spells for Imoen, the Greenstone Amulet for Baroque, and Firetooth for Imoen, and the Reflection Shield (Shield of Baldurun). Leaving the city for Phaere, the weird warparty is pretty easily defeated.
Despite most of my buffs still missing... I at least have Death ward on Baroque now.
We continue saving Phaere, and do a couple duels, stopping before the mage fights. I've lost characters permanently there, so... no. Alina and Mazzy use Defend to help take out the second-to-last fight, though.
...... Huh. I'm missing a ton of screenshots for this next period. The only major battle we undertake is Qilue, and the only major error I made that fight was not waiting to see which one of the Drow cast Mantle and which cast the PFMW. I needed to Breach the Mantle and shoot normal missiles at the PFMW user, but I have Imoen guess. And she guessed incorrectly, so that just made the battle take that much longer. We ignore Deirex, and do all the fetch quests and invisibly swap the eggs. We reach the surface with no issues. I... MIGHT try to deal with the Beholders some time in the future, but I don't think the risk is worth the reward for the Illithids.
Returning, we forge Gesen's bow and purchase the Sling of Everand. Now I have 3 weapons capable of hitting past Mantle (iMoD and the two aforementioned ranged weapons.) After running around a bit, we recruit Valygar as Jaheira's replacement, at least until ToB. First, we gain our revenge for Vista and finish the Guarded Compound. There's a Helm of Defense on one of them, finally allowing Sebastian to upgrade his armor from the Mail of the Dead.
Three major questlines left: Windspear, Planar Sphere, Planar Prison. Windspear is the easiest, so that's our first goal. We finally return a couple acorns:
And a Transmuter is murdered rather quickly.
Golems are no problem for this party, and Alina showcases why single-class Clerics are wonderful things at times.
For the Guardians, we throw a couple Fire resist items on Sebastian for 120% fire resist. The worst thing was the Director, who actually had Beholder Rays. Mirror Shield stops him cold. For Samia, I over-prepared but it's kinda irrelevant as Holy Smite from Alina essentially ended the fight. We kill Tazok for the final time, and choose the dialogue with Firkraag to send Conster upstairs. We engage.
I'm much more lightly buffed than last time, Alina's picture notwithstanding. Mostly it's Pro. Fires, a couple divine protections on Alina (Divine Shell and some level 7 one, I think?), Improved Haste on Mazzy, Haste on everyone else, and Mass Invisibility. Only Baroque even has a Death Ward.
Firkraag starts with a Remove, but only Sebastian is caught. He starts kiting, trying to replenish his health against Firkraag's good THAC0. Firkraag manages to get a Fire Breath into the middle of everyone. It tickled.
Missiles soon prove too much for the red dragon, and Firkraag is dead.
Apparently Barbarians are paladins too, according to Carsomyr.
We clean up Conster, and now I'm debating on which subquest to go on now. Planar Sphere seems likely.
Edit: Stats, before I forget.
Baroque, Human Skald 21.122 HP (11 from Ioun stone, and either 12 or 18 from Familiar, I'm still unsure on this.) 1 kill, Shadow.
Sebastian, Human Painbearer of Ilmater 11 -> Fighter 15. 84 HP. 2 deaths, 1 petrification. 293 kills, Demon Knight.
Valygar, Human Stalker 12. 95 HP. 0 deaths. 17 kills, Greater Wolfwere.
Alina, Human Archer 9 -> Cleric 17. 122 HP. 0 deaths. 317 kills. Thaxll'sillyia.
Mazzy, Halfling Fighter 16. 111 HP. 0 deaths. 284 kills. Firkraag.
Imoen, Human Thief 7 -> Mage 16. 72 HP. 0 deaths. 50 kills. Lonk the Sane.
Looking forward to the runs this notion will generate.
Feel free to cross-link any new threads and no-reload runs here.
After the new thread develops I am also happy to feature it on the front page here.
(MOD SETUP: Only SCS enhanced AI and minor changes. Notably, no Tactics mod for end fight.)
As an honor rule, I stopped using HLAs post-Underdark. Specifically, I beat Irenicus without any HLA use.
After the Bhaal Tear XP loss he finished the game at around 3.8 million XP (lvl 20).
-
RE: DEFENSIVE LAYOUT AND SAVES
Forgot about the Bhaal Tear bonuses earlier. They are substantial on a Cavalier:
Currently, I am sitting on unbuffed saves of: -4 / -8 / -9 / -14 / -7
(Kazgaroth + Gaxx + Helm of Defense + Amulet of Seldarine + Cloak of Prot + Bhaal and Cavalier bonuses)
... with near-immunity to elemental damage (a bit weak on Acid and Cold) that is easily boosted even by his own Spells without party help or potions.
Combined with the following:
- built in immunity to Poison
- physical resistances can be boosted to 75% (Hardiness + DoE +Armor of Faith)
- Magic resistance up to 80% (Carsomyr + Bhaal Tear + Seldarine Amulet + Ring of Gaxx)
With some item management, he should be able to tank anything other than a no-save death.
(Which, if I am correct are only the Power Words, if HP falls too low, or Imprisonment. Correct me if I am missing something here.)
Looking forward to ToB with my first ever Cavalier going the distance....
Otherwise, remember that Maze offers no saving throw and instantly ends solo runs. Magic resistance can block it, but an 80% chance of survival sounds really unreliable. Drink Potions of Magic Protection whenever you're around mages to get that MR to 100, and if you see a nearby mage casting a conjuration spell, be aware that it might well be Maze, and you can't stop it once it finishes casting. I don't think there are ToB Maze traps, but I'm not positive.
Psionic Maze bypasses magic resistance, but it offers a save vs. spell at -4. Since your paladin has the Cavalier kit, you don't need to worry about an extra -2 save penalty for schoolless effects.
One more thing I'm concerned about: if you don't have everything from SCS installed, you might have vanilla celestials, and unless EE changed them, that means a Fallen Planetar has a 25% chance of landing a vorpal strike with no saving throw (the SCS version offers a save vs. death at -2). Don't know if you'll face any enemy Planetars in your install (I doubt it), but without that SCS nerf, they could easily be fatal.
Here is the state of Khael the Aegis, chilling in style at the Pocket Plane:
Basically, I have followed a defense-first layout at every stage.
I do have Smarter Mages and indeed they dispel my self buffs if they ever sneeze in my general direction. (Not so with Viconia and Imoen's buffs; they rarely go down.)
But Armor of Faith is cast fast and I use it basically only for melee emergencies. So, no great worry about that.
I do not dare solo runs. I have no discipline for it, I think.
Re: celestials. I think that is one of the SCS components that I do have as it seemed not too disruptive in the readme.
(I also, e.g., have Improved Dragons. Even with triple hit points and refusing to use HLAs, the endgame Black Dragon in the elf city was quite manageable with some care.)
Oooh, thanks for the warning.
See, I have never faced them in a no-reload run before. (I vaguely remember them from over a decade ago.) Hope I'll get that far.
Unless any of them have Time Stop immunity (I remember the shock of seeing for the first time that Mel does!!!), Imoen is beginning to get into her own formidable power. (She is a sorcerer in my game.)
In both the Illisera and Irenicus fights she mopped the mage defenses with a Time Stop, opening the door for a beatdown.
In the last Irenicus fight, she layed down triple Chain Lightnings with Time Stop and finished off a Balor and maimed a Glabrezu (I figured MR was riskable in a cluster; it paid off).
Nice team work so far.
Oh, hey, wanted to ask one more thing. (Pardon my many posts today.)
From a RP and game narrative point, do you recommend taking Sarevok along?
My party so far is:
Imoen, Jan, Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia
If I take Sarevok along (considering dualing him to Mage) then I may have to drop Minsc as all others are necessary.
But I am worried about missing out some nice Minsc banter. (It has been ages since I played ToB.)
So, whaddayathink?
Minsc? Sarevok?
Banterwise?
Sarevok is marginally stronger and I would prefer him to Minsc. But a paladin would probably find it heartbreaking to part with Minsc after slaying so many evil monsters together.
That settles it, I think...
(I wish I could dual-wield Jan.)
Journal of the Talonites
We took on Bassilus. We tried to use command, but that failed, however an intense melee attack meant that he didn't get to succeed with his spells either. He died.We then went ankheg hunting. We were only able to take on a couple before we needed to rest, and after that take on another couple. At least there is safe resting not too far away. The nest itself has been completed. Now there are just those outside and they are a bit more dangerous.
We might leave them for later.
EDIT
We didn't leave them till later. We were delighted that we never had to fight more than one at a time.We then took on the ogre with a belt fetish and won without any problems. We wanted to upgrade it but we didn't have enough gold. We therefore sold our ankheg shells and then headed south where we defeated three overly officious flaming fist mercenaries. They won't be bothering anyone else on the sword coast! Since we had already got some ankheg armour in Nashkel we only needed two of their suits of armour but the third could come in handy if we meet up with another Talonite.
We fought them in the Grove of Statues. We fought them in the Pocketplane. We fought them on the fourth level of Watcher's Keep. We fought them in the abyss. We fought demons and mind flayers and dragons and demons again. And we won. (Apart from that gambling cambion who beat us 2-1 but at least we got a Wish scroll out of it.) By the end Cromarty was really getting stuck in and not hanging back any more.... Finally we took Melissan down, and Cromarty claimed the Throne of Bhaal- to decidedly mixed reactions from his companions. Ajantis was practically crying over his report card to Helm... After this triumph everything is the same but different. I hope someone lets my bosses know
There were not too many dicey moments. The grove was a whirlwind mess, and the third fight at the throne was a little tricky until multiple teleport fields kept the shadows off. Melissan did get a timestop off while far off when I didn't catch the opening incantation but Sirene survived it even at close range. Something to bear in mind for Ascension! Some Blizzard trolls refused to die like the trolls in the Fire Temple but fortuantely I didn't need to devise ways to kill them by stat draining, just activated the pool and left them. I didn't make much use of my party's more esterotic abilities. In truth I would be as happy if HLAs just gave passive bonuses like on hit effects, an endless bar of abilities isn't terribly easy to navigate through.
Please add my run to the list of immortals
Miluiel, the elven bard
BG1 posts : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD posts : 1, 2, 3
Notable mods
- SCS
- IR/SR
- Rogue Rebalancing
- plenty of NPC mods
- Tweak Anthology
Off to Bridgefort we went. After a few sidequests, we decided to attack the Crusade forces with the help of the Flaming Fists. Not much to say about it, except that fireballs ruled the day.
The entrance of the Underground River was next. I'm pretty sure there's a way to get in without fighting. Haven't found it yet.
Inside the Tunnel, Ferrusk was attacked in the name of two other druids. The fight caught me by surprise : he has a lot of goons with him. They even managed to kill Baeloth and Corwin, mostly because they were badly positioned at the start of the fight. We pulled through anyway.
Then, since I wanted the Dragon Blade for Minsc, I decided to go into the Kanaglym. That's another fight that really caught me by surprise by the sheer number of magic users we had to face. And a ghost dragon. That drains level on hit. Did not see that one coming.
And, obviously, the first character the dragon decide to target is Miluiel. So, she put a pair of Boots of the Cheetah on and made her best Benny Hill impersonation : she ran like crazy. She still got hit once, but otherwise was in the clear until the dragon decided to pursue Dynaheir instead. I'm ok with that.
During this time, the rest of the team was actually doing more than ok against this group. Corwin and Minsc got confused at one time, but Break Enchantment from Glint and one Harp of Descant charge nullified it. As nervous as I was at the start of combat, everything went quite smoothly in the end. When Kherriun went down, it freed the dragon, who helped me clean up the rest of the enemy, even though not many were left.
So, this sidequest got us the Dragon Blade for Minsc, which means that I'm pretty much ready for the end part of SoD : Minsc and Glint both have a +3 weapon and Baeloth chose Enchanted Weapon to make +3 arrows for Corwin and bullets and Glint, Dynaheir and himself, since SR still use the pre 2.3 Enchanted Weapon version of the spell. I'm still pondering if I will press on to poison the Crusaders food or just make a beeline to the finish. Even if I have to face more Crusaders, I have so many Arrows of Explosions, potions of Explosions and Fireball wands that it doesn't matter all that much. I'm strongly leaning toward the latter option.
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Imoen, Viconia
Good news! We went to High Hedge and arrived at the area you get to when arriving from Beregost. We immediately rested and got a large skeleton ambush. After a long fight we did prevail, with Imoen gulping quite a few heal potions - think she was the 1st one seen. We then looted the skull, and even managed to save Melicamp. Now Thalantyr will let us buy from him, good deal.
We had a lot of trouble in the Drizzt area. Shar-Teel got held by a ghoul (we were battling three ghouls), and I fought the battle rather carelessly. I should have paused and had the ranged people equip their magical ranged ammo to speed up the kills of the ghouls - it is likely Shar-Teel would have lived, but I didn't - so now we were 800 gold poorer to bring her back at a temple.
So then we return and try continue to clear the area, but then we got too close to a pack of black bears. Shar-Teel was gulping blue potions like mad, she was getting hit so much. Corthief XIII and Imoen got attacked and started running - but Imoen didn't run fast enough and was killed. We were able to raise her, but yet another 800 gold poorer to do so. Finally though, the rest of the area was cleared without further incident.
We cleared a number of other areas, such as carnival - we finally talked to the Amazing Gazib and killed Oompah. In general, seems to be less enemies in BG 1 EE than there are in EasyTutu.
Not a lot of banter - mostly Viconia saying she respects Shar-Teel, and with Shar-Teel responding that flattery will get her nowhere, and also Shar-Teel telling Khalid she spits on his manhood, and Khalid being flabbergasted in response.
Will keep at it.
Caesar, dwarf berserker {6} (update 1)
I thought it was about time to have another go at this challenge using an unmodded installation on Core difficulty. I didn't keep a record in my notes, but searching for previous posts where I listed my restrictions on pausing, those are:
1) Autopause of any sort not allowed.
2) Pausing using the space bar / clockwork button is not allowed at any time (game ending offence).
3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range).
4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation.
5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).
In addition I always play with the AI disabled, so there's no auto-targeting using that.
Caesar's previous best attempt was killing Slythe, only for the run to fail immediately after that by pausing to take a celebratory screenshot, so it would be nice to show a bit of progress by getting him into SoD. I couldn't find the starting save I'd used previously so re-rolled the character.
So far his progress has been roughly as follows:
- killed Algernon for his cloak.
- picked up the ankheg armor.
- charmed the sirines in Beregost temple to get up to level 4 despite losing the XP for one of them when it ran away from one wild dog straight into another that had respawned close by.
- some sirines and golems were brushed aside to get a constitution tome and reach level 7.
Berserker L7, 96 HPs, 110 kills
Please tag me with a pasteable 'quote' text including any links that you want me to post.
@Mantis37 Congratulations and jubilations.
The images for my run so far, as promised.
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.
Screenshots unsuitable for minors omitted.
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 Zargos Flintblade, a dwarven assassin as well as Greywolf.
We headed west where we helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat.
We took on Bassilus. We tried to use command, but that failed, however an intense melee attack meant that he didn't get to succeed with his spells either. He died.
We then went ankheg hunting. We were only able to take on a couple before we needed to rest, and after that take on another couple. At least there is safe resting not too far away. The nest itself has been completed. Now there are just those outside and they are a bit more dangerous.
We might leave them for later.
EDIT
We didn't leave them till later. We were delighted that we never had to fight more than one at a time.We then took on the ogre with a belt fetish and won without any problems.
We wanted to upgrade it but we didn't have enough gold. We therefore sold our ankheg shells and then headed south where we defeated three overly officious flaming fist mercenaries. They won't be bothering anyone else on the sword coast!
Since we had already got some ankheg armour in Nashkel we only needed two of their suits of armour but the third could come in handy if we meet up with another Talonite Fighter.
We headed west, killed Zargal et al and headed further west where we killed three sirines using our Talonite protections for safety.
Inside the cave we killed two of the golems, but left the third one alone as he wasn't hindering us.
... and Jaheira is starting to kick serious but while keeping everyone alive.
After all, this is still a no-reload run: I can't quite risk not having at least two healers in the party, especially now that they can cast Mass Raise Dead. (Used it a few times as "Heal everyone quick" last resort when hit with AoE damage.)
I think my survivability for this run is much higher with Jaheira in the party versus Minsc instead.
Can you think of any dwarves who might be followers of Talos?
The only shorty mage that I can think of is the cleric-illusionist who I believe to be chaotic neutral. That would be fine for a Talossian so long as his script doesn't preclude it.
Since the run has come to an end. The Dark Horizon Assassins in the gnoll fortress cast chaos on the party which affected all four. The mage who cast it was quickly killed, but the talossians then proceeded to kill each other. End of game. An enjoyable one but quite short. I realised afterwards that my tactics weren't great in that battle.
There were several moments when I could have eliminated that mage at the cost of slight injury. I could also have silenced him. So I basically lacked intelligence.
EDIT
The hammer isn't working, so I am going to run another character.It's an odd quirk of the game that a berserk Minsc is probably more likely to 'friendly fire' you than your old foe Sarevok.
Caesar, dwarf berserker {6} (update 2)
Previous update
Caesar has continued to make good progress:
- going north of Beregost to get the third in his belt collection before finding some pantaloons at the FAI.
- none of the ankhegs in the nest managed to hit him, though the one near Tenya got one successful shot.
- Caesar reached reputation 20 by helping out Charleston Nib and celebrated by beating up the Doomsayer.
- at the Bandit Camp Taurgosz provided an armor upgrade,
- Caesar had intended to charm Drasus' companions, but an annoying pathfinding glitch turned them hostile so he just ran away. Coming back to the area he used a scroll of PfM to ensure there were no problems from the mages after drawing the others away to be beaten up.
- I made another mistake after taking on all Degrodel's guards without taking much damage (switching to a shield there rather than dual-wielding).
- at the Iron Throne there were multiple potential sources of magical damage, so Caesar used another PfM scroll while beating them up.
- Caesar has just arrived in Candlekeep and rested a few times to pick up a couple more Bhaal powers.
Berserker L8, 111 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 326 kills
SP-9,
last minute errands,we swapped the fake Hexxat for a real one... then ran around doing a few cloak + dagger for the smaller thief guild... yes I own a home in my dreams but this isn't it.
Neera couldn't rest without kicking the red wizards from the area and the big final battle is easy if you don't follow the scripts.
we asked Bodhi to take us to see spellhold but she needs some quests done first... favor for a favor sort of thing.
party;
Sarah,
Jaheira, Dorn, Neera, Viconia and Hexxat (real)
Rolled up an inquisitor that was one-shotted by the ankheg near Tenya.
Caesar, dwarf berserker {6} (update 3)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/910291/#Comment_910291
In the Catacombs Caesar kept a scroll of PfP handy in case the phase spiders got lucky - but none of them even managed a hit. He opened the tombs with a potion of fire giant strength topped up by DUHM. After brushing aside some dopplegangers, Caesar relied on his rage against Prat's gang and defeated them without damage (though I thought Prat had cast a lightning bolt and checking back through the text there was one that bounced off Caesar's cloak).
Before going back to the City, Caesar paid a visit to the Red Wizard area. An opening fireball killed one of the mages and a follow-up sling shot another. Caesar then tried to rage - only to find he'd forgotten to rest after Candlekeep and was all raged out
Back in Baldur's Gate Caesar sought out Slythe. A few potions enabled him to finish that fight quickly and retreat before Krystin was ready to get involved.
After resting to get his final Bhaal power, Caesar tried again at the Palace. It was a good job he was fully buffed as I was both quick and accurate with targeting during a hectic battle (lasting less than 10 seconds), but Belt was already at near death as Caesar attacked the final doppleganger and it was a toss-up whether the next thing to come was victory or Sarevok's laughter as Caesar perished in a flame strike.
His existing potion buffs allowed Caesar to fight his way through the maze without problems. In the Undercity he took a detour to get in behind the party there and fired a few exploding arrows at them before closing for the kill.
I was a bit concerned for the final fight that, without pausing, I wouldn't be able to shoot Sarevok and retreat fast enough to only have to fight him and Semaj - and that indeed proved to be the case. Caesar had pre-buffed with another scroll of PfM, but in the rush of events he didn't even manage an attack while running round until he managed to use a potion of invisibility (from a quick slot). Once out of sight and with no enemies active (checked by quicksaving) he was allowed to go into inventory and use a potion of regeneration to get HPs back up before scouting the situation.
Berserker L9, 126 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 376 kills