@Corey_Russell they're certainly powerful at this stage, but standard animals leading enemies onto spirit summons would offer a decent alternative - and in the future fire elementals await .
Shamans are also pretty powerful as ranged magical attackers if you don't want to rely on summons. I've used Writhing Fog a certain amount in this run, but could have done so a lot more. Spirit Fire is also a decent fireball replacement and would no doubt have seen far more action if nymphs weren't crowding it out ...
Things did not go according to plan against Tenya. She cast rigid thinking, then asked for my help which I readily agreed to give, but then rigid thinking caused me to attack her, she became hostile and I had to kill her.
That was not at all how things were supposed to happen. I have the Tenya mod installed, and she was going to be recruited. Not this time. I will now just have to collect the reward from Sonner.
I then returned to the ankheg area where killing just one was enough to raise me to Level 6. I now have ** in katanas, ** in crossbows, and** in dual wielding. I saw that Aerie is selling a katana +1 but at the time it was a bit too expensive. Perhaps I will be able to afford it after I sell the ankheg shells.
A mod character asked me to go rescue somebody in an area near Peldvale, but the area doesn't appear to actually exist. While mucking around in Peldvale itself wondering where the hell I'm supposed to go, I run into a gang of Skeleton Lords who are camping out in the woods for some reason.
Skeleton Lords cast Lightning Bolt and in my experience they never run out, which means Trash Mammal is pretty much doomed.
Like most mod enemies outside of SCS, Skeleton Lords have crazy powers and big numbers but poor AI and no special tactics are necessary to beat them aside from using your own crazy powers and having bigger numbers than them. Witch Dagger's druid levels can shrug off the enemy's Lightning Bolts, allowing us to break up the Skeleton Lords using area-effect stuff.
Back in Baldur's Gate, I give the wrong password to the thieves guild guard because I picked the first name I saw in quotation marks during the previous dialogue.
At an inn, I run into a group of aspiring writers who apparently want to write a salacious novel starring Mae. Interestingly enough, a lot of the dialogue options here actually sound like something Mae would say in Night in the Woods, the game from which Mae originated.
In NITW, Mae tends to vacillate between self-pity and flights of fancy. She's screwed up in more ways than one, hence the self-pity, but she has some great lines in the original game. She'd really get along with these writers.
The writers keep prodding us for details. Some of the lines here actually could have come right out of Night in the Woods. They fit Mae like a glove.
And it keeps going...
In fact, one of the lines actually IS a quote from NITW:
Mae once said her ideal lover would be somebody who would wrestle her. She described this person as "Grrr."
Mae is single and her love life has been... messy, but she's not above bragging about stuff that never happened.
Canonically, Mae is either bi or gay or pansexual (I forget which; I think the creator specified), but the only character she took an interest in in NITW was female.
Finally the writers have enough material and get Mae's autograph. They sound like Mae's kind of people.
I consider backstabbing Marek and/or Lothander to death, but a glance at an online walkthrough suggest that this could prove fatal. Instead, I complete the quest normally. The whole party is cured automatically, but notably, Witch Dagger cannot drink the antidote we get, because of her Wizard Slayer kit.
Time to get on with the main quest and tackle the fight I've been dreading: the Iron Throne. Our Bounty Hunter, Killer, opens with a backstab from the Staff of Striking. A bug of some sort causes it to vanish despite having multiple charges left, but her scimitar is about as good anyway because most of her damage output comes from the Long-Legged Beasties multiplying the effects of Emotion: Hope.
Which is saying something, since the staff does hideous damage.
Notice the sudden introduction of Quayle, who is sitting around in mustard jelly form. I was so anxious about this fight that I wanted a sacrificial lamb of sorts, and Polymorph Self was an excellent way to keep Quayle safe from backstabs and disablers so he can use any of our spare scrolls if need be.
Notice the massive missile damage from Killer. She doesn't have the stealth skills to be a decent blind backstabber, but her blind traps are a ghastly spectacle.
Unfortunately for Quayle, it turns out that the backstabbers in this fight don't use piercing weapons, which means jelly form only prevents him from getting killed in one hit.
But not all is bad here. First of all, Mae has just petrified Alai using the Sorcerer's Staff. And although Killer fails to Hide with No Sight, she has a special thief-only item that lets her turn invisible once per day, allowing her to land a spectacular backstab on Aasim.
The enemy quickly finishes off Quayle, but thanks to the Bounty Hunter kit, we hit so, so much harder than they do.
We smash the opposition before they can deal much damage to the party, leaving only Naaman, who is helpless to Witch Dagger's spell failure on hit.
We have some overpowered equipment, but the Wizard Slayer, Bounty Hunter, and Berserker kits continue to be the key factors in our success. Mages are helpless against spell failure, mobs are helpless against traps (blind or otherwise), and Enrage keeps Mae afloat no matter the circumstances.
But now we have a problem. Before we leave for Candlekeep, our book gets stolen. And unlike my previous run, where I needed to use the console to skip the mod-introduced quest that's responsible for the theft...
...I actually found the relevant thieves where they were supposed to be, just north of the Friendly Arm Inn. I consider skipping the quest, since I didn't want it anyway, but just out of curiosity, I keep hunting down the allies of the guy who stole our book.
We find a note on Zernan's body. Ostensibly it's an undeciphered note, but it turns out to be quite legible.
I still need to look up the next location, and even then, I almost miss our target.
This is exactly why I object to BG1's massive empty areas. With so many places to wander, only metagame knowledge or long periods of tedious searching will actually get you where you need to go. The game is crushingly slow when you don't know where stuff is.
He summons a couple of Stone Golems for whatever reason but otherwise is not a real challenge. Our book now lies at the bottom of the Nashkel mines. After a spider ambush, we try to enter the mine...
...only to find that the guards have repositioned themselves in front of the otherwise open entrance. If we didn't have charm spells, this would be a game-breaking bug.
Right off the bat, we discover that the mines are much, much more dangerous than they ever have been before.
This place is crawling with spiders, including the Astral Phase Spiders that I thought were exclusive to SoD. Still have crummy defenses, though, and our strong AC and saves vs. death keep us safe from poison.
But without the Ring of Free Action, Potions of Freedom, or Spider's Bane (once again, our item restrictions come back to hurt us), we don't have a lot of defenses against Web and paralysis.
We manage to scrape by and keep moving. Since the mines are filled with overpowered mod-introduced critters, I go ahead and start stacking Emotion: Hope spells. I see no reason to hold back.
Although it is a bit overkill when I'm dealing with the lesser enemies.
That's screenshot 666.
Deeper in the mines, we find hordes of drow. All of which are... far too well-equipped for BG1.
I don't feel guilty about using Hope stacking on these guys. They have masses of HP and huge numbers across the board.
I have no idea what these guys are doing in BG1. If the mod creator wanted to create a fight like this, he or she really should have just put it in BG2, because simultaneously fighting multiple 70+ HP critters with +3 equipment is simply not for BG1 parties unlike they're rocking unbalanced mod items.
Which, despite all my item restrictions, we are. I have a single-classed thief who deals more damage than any vanilla BG1 fighter (though her THAC0 is a limiting factor).
Killer, our star party member through this whole dungeon simply because of her 4 APR Firetooth crossbow knockoff, scouts ahead in the next area and spots the final boss. It looks...
...unsafe.
We still have more enemies to take care of before we tangle with the big guys, but since all of the fights in between are just an overpowered party smashing an overpowered enemy...
...I'll skip ahead.
Okay. We've got a whole bunch of high-level drow including a mage and a priest, plus an Astral Phase Spider and a freaking Greater Basilisk. If we get blasted by a Remove Magic spell early on, everyone but Mae and Mayday, our Berserker/Mage and Sorcerer (who have Spell Immunity scrolls thanks to the scroll scribing mod) could get petrified in two rounds.
How am I going to get rid of all these guys before they pull some horrific trick that wipes out the whole party? Due to the close quarters and the angles of these tunnels, Killer would have trouble setting traps in the right places at the right times, and I don't want to just repeatedly rest and set 20 traps so I can lure the enemy across a field of land mines. I want to try something more interesting.
There happens to be a level 5 mod spell called Melf's Explosive Meteors. It summons a handful of darts that explode on hit. They grant 3 APR, +2 to hit, and deal 1d6 missile damage plus 2d6 fire damage, save negates (it's supposed to be a save for half, but it's coded wrong). The damage isn't impressive, really, and it's very party-unfriendly. The meteors would be much better in the hands of a Wizard Slayer, Assassin, Blackguard, or Archer, but unfortunately, Melf's Explosive Meteors, unlike Fire Seeds, cannot be passed to another character. So what good are they?
Well, because they deal 1d6 base missile damage instead of just dealing fire damage, Emotion: Hope grants the same damage boost to those meteors that the spell does for conventional weapons. And the Long-Legged Beasties, buggy boots that they are, will grant further bonuses.
I decide to go all out. Mayday casts a bunch of Emotion: Hope spells, Mae equips the boots and casts Melf's Explosive Meteors (you have to equip the weapon last to get the full benefit from this combination), and finally Mae turns the party invisible.
Witch Dagger sneaks in to impose some spell failure on the drow mage, but when the Drow High Priestess tries to reveal us, Witch Dagger switches targets.
Witch Dagger's main role, however, is not to shut down that mage. Her real purpose here is Ironskins and her other druids buffs, which are the only things that will let her survive the unbelievable stupidity that is Mae's Emotion: Hope-boosted, Long-Legged Beasties-boosted Melf's Explosive Meteors.
Mae has 3.5 APR with these things and subzero THAC0. Even these drow aren't tough enough to survive it. Not even close.
The first round of combat ends. Witch Dagger, shorn of her Ironskins, is close to death, but it's already over.
A swift, blitzkrieg-style bombing spells a crushing defeat for the enemy, just like 1967. The Six-Second War is over!
A few enemies ambush us from the sides. We punish their impudence with Mae's remaining meteors, and unfortunately Mur'Neth gets in the way.
We get a spectacular new suit of armor for Witch Dagger...
...the Narrator (whoever that is) clears us for our trip to Candlekeep...
...we sell off the drow's equipment at Durlag's Tower, and yes, these are real numbers for a BG1 quest...
...and a script belatedly removes the rest of the drow items.
Despite the absurd numbers we got from selling the loot, the disintegration is actually an incredibly lame trick to pull on the party. We got by with Emotion: Hope stacking, making the area an easy but sluggish chore, but for the average party, this would have been a nightmarish slog, and to return to the surface with so little treasure after so much effort would have been deeply, deeply unsatisfying.
Unbalanced, unnecessary, inconvenient, punishing, and slow. This, apparently, was "Return to Nashkel" from a mod called "The Vault." It comes from the same mod as those ogres roving around Gullykin and those crazy level 6-9 mage scrolls they kept dropping, and I'm not surprised--the style is very much the same. If you want to kill endless waves of abnormally powerful clones, or just want to collect more XP but don't want to use the vastly easier basilisk XP loop, you might like the mod, but otherwise, I probably would not recommend it.
That being said, I think it was worth it in my case. The basilisk XP loop is impossible in this run due to my inability to use green Stone to Flesh scrolls, but all those drow gave us a lot of XP. Despite never delving deep into TotSC content, we're well north of the typical BG1 XP cap, putting us in a solid position for tackling Sarevok and Siege of Dragonspear. This is our party.
Mae and Killer took most of the kills so far for this chapter, but Trash Mammal still has more kills over the course of the game, simply because she had superior THAC0 during the previous chapters.
I try out another mod quest, but it turns out to be spectacularly boring. It's a huge area with multiple different characters, but the villain is obvious (he's the guy at the castle who hates you for no reason), the pacing is slow, and there's a lot of wandering around while you figure out what exactly you're supposed to do.
The highlight of the quest is a graveyard joke that doubles as an Undertale reference.
I end up killing a bunch of bad guys, but I don't know if the quest is complete, so I visit another mod area that I think is our next stop. It might not even be part of the same mod, but either way, the map is crawling with those level 12+ orc mages who nearly obliterated my party with a Death Spell a while back.
I cast Call Woodland Beings, but it seems that my mods really shake up the spell, summoning Hamadryads and Nymphs who don't have the same spells they used to. Instead of casting Mass Cure and Hold Monster and Confusion, they have a basic Charm Person spell, Entangle, and other useless spells like a charm animal ability.
And charming the local animals is not very effective.
Eventually I just say "screw it" and have Witch Dagger engage them more or less on her own. They can take down her defenses very easily, but she can impose 100% in short order using her darts and her dagger. Once their spellcasting is shut down, it's safe for the rest of the party to move in for the kill.
Witch Dagger can't keep all of them disabled simultaneously and ends up failing a save against Horror, but the orc mages just don't have the offensive power to kill our party, rendering the entire fight a fairly safe, but long and very tedious chore.
There is exactly one interesting thing on the map: the little entrance to some dungeon. I click on it and am rewarded with the ugliest trap I've ever seen.
This is just a jerk move to play (I would use different language if the Site Rules permitted). Locking off an area is one thing, but launching multiple Fireballs simultaneously just for clicking on it? Half my party dies instantly for absolutely no reason.
If Mae had gotten a little worse luck and hadn't been holding Frostbrand, she could have been instantly killed, bringing this entire run to an end because some modder had the stupid idea to create an instant death trap for a door that can't even be opened anyway.
Why not just display the "you can't enter yet" message? Why launch half a dozen Fireballs at once? Why kill the entire party? Why force the player to re-do the entire area just for clicking on the one thing in the entire map that's actually clickable and clearly is meant to be clicked?
We survived it thanks to Mae's strong defenses; we didn't have to reload. But it boggles the mind that a modder would do something this pointless and stupid. I find it offensive that somebody would deliberately include an instant death trap right after an incredibly long fight, in the one place where no player would reasonably expect any trap of any kind.
I've showered praise on practically every other mod I've ever played. I've written reviews in the community magazine just so more people would try out those excellent mods. I basically never say bad things about mods.
But this area is just flat-out bad. Very, very little thought was put into its design, and I can think of no excuse besides inexperience.
After I bring back our fallen characters, I notice that two orc mages are still alive--they got blinded and wandered away sometime during the fight. I realize that the next dungeon won't open until every orc is dead, so I scour every inch of the entire map just to hunt them down and kill them. It's an agonizingly slow process, but I want to know what's inside that dungeon that the mod creator so clearly does not want me to experience.
I click on the dungeon entrance and the whole party gets roasted all over again. Unbelievable. I track down the area's script file in Near Infinity and it seems that the trigger for that dungeon opening is a completely different quest that I don't even know how to begin.
I'm not sure how the area got on my map in the first place. There have been so many forgettable questgivers who added areas to my map, and no reminders of what's actually going on. Think about the Umar Hills questline--you can get the area location from two different quests, and whichever route you pick, you get a detailed reminder, including a clearly labeled journal entry, of exactly what the area is all about and what you're supposed to do to solve the problem. Mod areas tend to assume that you already know all about the quest, which really doesn't work well in a massive install where you have a dozen active mod quests, not all of whom even have journal entries.
I'm still curious what's in that dungeon. But it's simply not worth my time to find out how to open it, and if that trap is any indication, there's nothing worth seeing in there to begin with.
These mod quests are a waste of time. Time to go visit Balduran's Isle and do something interesting for once. At least the story is cool, even if the fights are kind of underwhelming for a level 10 party.
Don't underestimate those Nereids, though--in my install, they summon Water Weirds who also have an instant death attack.
The wolfweres are little trouble. Same goes for the mage; we already have a Wizard Slayer and a thief with high Detect Illusions.
Does anybody know who that baby is or what I'm supposed to do with it? I have a child in our Bag of Holding and it's kind of just sitting there.
Oddly enough, I'm actually able to talk my way off the island. Is this original game behavior, or the work of a mod?
On the way home, we stop by an island with a bunch of half-naked women and one very cheerful man. They keep saying we can stay as long as we like.
I don't see a clear path to a new quest objective or whatever, and it seems that we can actually leave anytime we want. So I just go back to Ulgoth's Beard.
Mendas puts up a bigger fight than I expected, largely because Witch Dagger's attack rolls are poor. Wizard Slayer spell failure only applies if you land a hit, and there's always a chance of a low roll.
But Mendas' Chaos spell disables no one, and the delay gives us enough time to kill Mendas' allies and finally impose spell failure on him.
He transformatizes, but when I give Mae the Long-Legged Beasties and have her cast Haste, she is an absolute monster with Balduran's sword.
We finally return to Candlekeep and I notice a disturbing message that indicates that a mod character has become a doppelganger, preventing us from completing a touch side quest.
The book we gave it was from the character's old friend at the temple of Lathander near Beregost. Giving it back was supposed to start a relationship between them, but... now a doppelganger has it.
We can't get the normal loot from Candlekeep due to item restrictions, but one of my mods adds a bunch of new crap to it. And the new crap happens to be stuff I've never seen before, which means using them is allowed.
My install also adds an overpowered Zombie Lord to the area. But we've gotten to the point where these guys are no longer a threat.
It's a good thing, because it's not like I can use a Protection from Undead scroll for these guys.
I don't like fighting Prat. So I don't.
In a previous game, I twice failed to cure Aiwell's husband (mod quest) of werewolfism, because I gave Thalantyr Guril Berries in lieu of belladonna flowers. Since we got the flowers at Balduran's Isle, we can finally complete the quest properly.
I forge a bunch of mod items with Thalantyr and Taerom, because there are some upgraded items that I've never actually made or used. We finally have some strong defensive accessories to pass around.
It's a convenient loophole. I've used the Amulet of Protection +1 and Helm of Charm Protection many times, which they're forbidden in this run, but the upgraded versions are new to me and therefore usable. Notice the Sword of Rage, which actually allows you cast the Berserker rage spell and get all of the normal immunities. It's the exact same spell, so it unfortunately can't be cast for the 5-round fatigue period after the normal spell ends, and Mae is still the only character who can use it, but who knows? An extra usage of rage could be very helpful later on.
We are done with side quests and it is time to finish BG1 and move on to SoD. But there's one last thing to do.
We have 169,000 gold. The moment we enter SoD, all of that money is gone. So, to preserve part of our money supply, I buy up all the wands I can get at Sorcerous Sundries, which should be enough to bump me back up to 100,000 gold if necessary in SoD. I can't use the wands, but I can still keep them for sale later on.
I probably should have kept more of my old equipment instead of liquifying my assets, but it makes little difference now. There's very little for me to purchase in SoD anyway.
The real benefit is that, since this is an EET install and I can revisit certain areas from previous games, I can smuggle 100,000 gold's worth of loot into BG2.
Back in the City nymphs did a nice job with holding Larze. Against Marek though they tried confusion rather than hold and Marek cast his own confusion in response. He died shortly afterwards anyway and the 3 confused nymphs really shouldn't have caused a problem. However, the last 2 of those moved away in opposite directions and one of them that I thought was safely out of the way by the far wall moved more quickly than expected to kill an innocent.
After selling some equipment I made some donations at the temple before doing a few quests to push reputation back up to 20. Ramazith's tower saw a number of uses of Spirit Fire just for Corey - one of them inflicting a bit of self-harm.
I decided that I should fight at the Iron Throne rather than just sneak through. There was a good start there when Diyab was charmed and nymphs then played their part while using the stairs. When Zhalimar uses the stairs he goes down the opposite side - meaning I could throw a spell at him without actually seeing him.
At Candlekeep I could open 2 of the tombs using DUHM, but to get the strength tome I had to resort to the violet potion. I didn't get targeting with confusion quite right against Prat's party and only he and Bor were disabled. Sakul and Tam both ran as a result of Bhaal horror though to allow a couple of kills. I then had to quickly take a potion of magic shielding to defend against Bor's darts of stunning before completing the job against Tam.
Back in the City I bought some expensive magic ammunition before going in search of Slythe. None of that was used on him though - the nymphs held him instead before confusing Krystin.
At the palace, nymph confusion was well-timed and all but two of the dopplegangers were confused or scared by Bhaal horror. Liia still died quickly, but Belt comfortably survived.
I beat up the inhabitants of the maze - just using nymphs as a distraction against the skeleton warriors. Against the Undercity party confusion was tried once more.
However, that failed to affect Rahvin and his exploding arrows swiftly killed all the nymphs. I was still able to finish everyone off though with judicious use of Writhing Fog.
Inside the temple a group of nymphs provided some distraction while arrows (including dispelling ones) did the damage on Semaj. He had teleported near the dais and activated Tazok and Angelo, so they were led into a corner where an invisibility potion set them up for a cold bath. Sarevok also suffered from a cold sore, with frosty arrows added to some fog damage to deal with him.
Well Dradeel's been on the island a long time and I thought his hut looked suspiciously clean for a wizard living on his own ...
Diary of Æthelioba Continued
After returning to Sonner, I realised just how sad it was that Sonner's will had prevailed. Talk about selfish!
South of the FAI I then killed the ogre with a belt fetish, followed by Zargos Flintblade at the entrance to the Nashkel Mines. The guards there were of great help. I then headed east where I reunited Rufie with his owner and helped a dryad against some thugs who made me ashamed to be human. After Drienne's cat was resurrected, she gave me a scroll as a reward. I then returned to the carnival, ostensibly to rest, but then I was attacked by a rampaging exploding ogre called Oopah. I rested and shortly afterwards Aerie asked me to help Bentha. I was successful. I rested again before returning to Beregost where I was attacked by Silke who I also killed. The world will be a better place for her demise. I went into the nearby inn for a jar of my favoutite drink, Old Peculiar, when Karlat attacked me too. He didn't survive either. When badly injured he fled from me, but he couldn't outrun a crossbow bolt. Upon going to the beach to relax, sirines attacked me. My protection from charm ability served me well. I went to another beach to find out if that was any quieter but it wasn't. Upon discovering that nowhere was safe, I returned to Nashkel where Greywolf attacked me and subsequently died, The guards were once again most helpful.
Continuing from last time, the group decided to clear the Nashkel Mines. They saved Miner Beldin thanks to Webbing the yipping demons. Actually, no kobold pack in the mines (including the Kobold Shaman group) could resist the Web+Summons tactics.
As soon as Mulahey went hostile, Sigyn started to cast Doom on him, while a successful attack by a party skeleton prevented the priest from finishing his casting. 2 spirit bears held the place where kobolds and enemy skeletons spawned. Mulahey then was silenced by Dazbog, while 2 Webs were thrown to support the spirit bears.
Silent Mulahey then one-shotted Dazbog but was blinded by Glod the moment later. He was dead soon afterwards. His minions didn't harm the group as there were enough Web spells available.
Back in Nashkel, Nimbul was approached cautiously so that the spirit snake was what the assassin saw first. Nimbul was poisoned by the snake, saved against Silence but failed his save during the second attempt. Then he was blinded and killed.
Jagen summoned a familiar and his HPs went from 21 to 55 (due to the LoB big HP pool for summons). I used the EE-Keeper and lowered HPs to 27 (as 6 is exactly 1/2 of 12 base HPs of a familiar not on the LoB).
Tranzig too was approached by the spirit snake but he didn't stay in the room. He managed to cast Slow even while taking damage. Summon Insects and subsequent Poison from the snake finished him.
The party decided to gather some additinal XP before sieging the Bandit Camp so they went ankheg-hunting. The beasts hit hard and summons didn't last long against them, so it usually took 2 Webs + 2-4 summons per 2 ankhegs.
The first ankheg in the pit didn't see Sigyn as Uzume entered the pit first. Ankhegs brought new levels for Glod and Uzume (both of them got 4 hps as fighters). Now the group had a wand of Fire and additional darts.
Tenya was injured for 16 hps and immediately asked to stop fighting. The good alignment of party members meant Sonner and his friends were left alive.
When the group travelled back to Tenya they were waylaid by Molkar. Remember I mentioned darts? Cochrane, using Darts of Wounding, managed to poison Halacan, the enemy mage, before the dialogue with Molkar started. Morvin was paralyzed by the wand (Jagen). Dazbog summoned animals by another wand, right next to Halacan. Morvin also failed his saving throw against the wand of Fear (Sigyn).
Glod casted Web towards Drakar. Halacan, even under Poison and attacks by animals finished Charm (Uzume). Summon Insects on Drakar made sure the priest couldn't cast anything (in addition to Web). Jagen kited Molkar.
Drakar was then silenced. Molkar failed his saving throw against Blindness. The battle was won.
After gathering all the ankheg shells they could find and resting, the group was again waylaid while travelling to Beregost, this time by the amazons. I have waited for this encounter for so long! Everything had to be done very quickly in the first round of this encounter.
Telka and Maneira went invisible the moment I saw the ambush screen. Jagen and Glod - both casted Mirror Image. Dazbog - used the wand of summoning. Sigyn - started to cast Invisibility Purge. Cochrane again used Darts of Wounding.
Jagen, Glod and Dazbog started moving to the East and the South-East, while the battle log showed Telka and Maneira targeted Uzume. So the fighter/thief kited to the West. Both Zeela and Lamalha casted Hold Person (simultaneusly) at Cochrane, who gulped the potion of Invisibility to stay save (he saved twice, though, so it turned out to be a pre-caution only). The next moment Sigyn dispelled invisibility and the main threat was over.
Now Glod casted Web towards Zeela, Telka and Maneira. Jagen saved against Command by Lamalha and then kited her for a bit. Zeela finished casting Doom (Uzume) but soon got held by Web. Lamalha was poisoned by Cochrane - and shortly after that blinded by Glod. Zeela saved against Silence by Dazbog but she was still held.
Web was still in effect (and soon another Web was added), Horror from the wand affected Telka. The battle was basically won.
Here’re the current standings (88 days and 22 hours): Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 5, 27 HPs, 25 kills, Greater Basilisk (4% in the group) Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 5/4, 35 HPs, 152 kills, Revenant (25% in the group), 0 deaths Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 5/5, 42 HPs, 162 kills, Greater Basilisk (26% in the group), 0 deaths Cochrane, archer, lvl 5, 42 HPs, 195 kills, Vampiric Wolf (32% in the group), 0 deaths Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 6, 45 HPs, 34 kills, Polar Bear (5% in the group), 0 deaths Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/4, 20 HPs, 36 kills, Lesser Basilisk (5% in the group), 4 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal; 1 - Mulahey)
I think I've got used to playing on the LoB and don't feel the big difference if compared to Insane right now. Enemies have more hitpoints, yes, but disabling them is what wins fights, not the amount of damage. I like the fact the LoB improves enemy saving throws so more disablers are needed (thus there're more rounds when my casters are busy).
After my defeat by the unseeing eye, I was really upset and quite mad at my self. I had figured I wouldnt roll a new charname for months... but the game is addictive.
The dice smiled at me, and granted med another 95 character. This time a human cleric of Lathander. The setup is no mods, hard (no extra damage) and max hp at level up
He is planned to dual at level 11 in SoA. So a long dual, and chances are that he isnt making it. (I was going for a fighter/druid, but a 96 roll has been elusive so far)... my 95 cleric will have to suffice.
Cleric F95 (just CF when amongst friends..) is proficient in maces and slings.
He did the quests in CK and ventured off. He calmed down Marl and delivered a book for his first level up. Bought a sling +1 and kited for some XP.
Killed Shoal and reached level 4, and got second level spells. DUHM enabled me to get the stupefier. I actually left some sort of payment. I am LG after all - I just really need the mace...
I took a trip to Ulgoths beard for the greenstone amulet. Killing Sonner en route.. and giving the bowl back.
Next up was Durlags Tower and a tome, that I could pick up thanks to sanctuary and the Greenstone amulet.. on the way I decided to face Meilum as a spur of the moment. I figured the Boon of Latander combined with DUHM and aid would give me the edge (two attacks with 19 str and a further +2 damage). Things started well
But the boon ran out, and the fight got out of hand. But in the end I was victorious (and goes to show why I prefer max hp at level up).
The scare confirmed that the Cleric is a good tank and damagedealer - but not without buffs, and that I keep on making the same mistakes.
Instead of the tome, I decided to get some XP. Next stop basilisk valley. I enlisted Korax, and he was a great help. I even healed him on the way
I left Korax right by Kirian, and thanked him for getting me to level 6 - and 3 animate dead spells. Perhaps I will deal with Kirian later...
I then picked up the tome
I then did some minor quest like Melicamp (I am 2-1 on saving him), Tarnesh and Karlat. Karlat was a pleasing win - I scored two criticals whilst fully buffed - dealing out 64 damage in 1 round
The last session included the sirens by the coast, buffed and using the greenstone amulet they where defeated. I had some trouble when I was kiting a wolf. But apparently even Talos likes me
I slew the sirenes and dodged the golems thanks to sanctuary. I am going to do some minor quests, and pick up some belts and a tome before I take on the mines. Mulaheys ring will serve me well.
I am thinking about picking up some help. a cleric only run perhaps?
@StummvonBordwehr If you want more HP, you could have transferred some of your intelligence points into constitution. Or were you thinking "mindflayers" ?
Diary of Æthelioba Continued
I killed some vampyric wolves et al followed by Kieran's party and basilisks together with medusae. The mines are looming close now.
@StummvonBordwehr If you want more HP, you could have transferred some of your intelligence points into constitution. Or were you thinking "mindflayers" ? >
@Wise_Grimwald I will skip the mindflayers... but in general I like my charnames with a high Intelligence - charisma is my preffered dumb stat. I loathe the idea of a sub 90 stat charname without max HP...
I tried min-maxing my Character. The 15 con, will be boosted by the con tome to 16 (I am skipping the maze in wk due to ineptitude). Because my dual is at level 11, I dont think I will benefit further by a higher con? If I wrong I will execute Cleric F95 right away..
It probably won't make too big of a difference, but there's a Good trial in Hell end of BG2 that involves losing a point of CON. Not the biggest deal to lose 10 HP then since DUHM, that girdle at the end of the Unseeing eye quest and potions of fortitude should max out your health anyhow.
It probably won't make too big of a difference, but there's a Good trial in Hell end of BG2 that involves losing a point of CON. Not the biggest deal to lose 10 HP then since DUHM, that girdle at the end of the Unseeing eye quest and potions of fortitude should max out your health anyhow.
@Neverused isnt that a point of dex you loose? And I then saw my mistake. The 17 dex was maxed - only if I use machine of Lum the mad - damn. Oh well If Cleric F95 makes it there he has earned it... but he is dead man walking until then.
I tried min-maxing my Character. The 15 con, will be boosted by the con tome to 16 (I am skipping the maze in wk due to ineptitude). Because my dual is at level 11, I dont think I will benefit further by a higher con? If I wrong I will execute Cleric F95 right away.
You're right @StummvonBordwehr. If you dual from a fighter to a cleric you keep previous con bonuses for 16+, but the other way round you miss out on them.
Rather than go straight to the mines, I decided to plunder Durlag's first. I missed out the ghost and the basilisk. They'll have to come later. However, despite not having a thief, I aquired a lot of treasure, the most important ones being a couple of tomes and a katana+3 which I think is from a mad. Not sure about that though as it could be from EE or SoD. There was no need to buy the katana +1 from Aerie.
Diary of Æthelioba
I was surprised at how easy it was.
I have now reached 161000 experience but have the Drizzt Saga level cap. What I intend to do is not level up my own character or any NPC uafter reaching an experience of 161,000. However when I start doing the mod quests such as The Drizzt Saga, I will then level up. I believe that I will lose any ridiculously high experience upon starting SoD and am happy with that. I now need to decide on a party.
So far the Cleric Drake, the assassin Vynd, the cleric-ranger Khalid and the druid Jaheira have joined.
Ok, so we were on the last stretch of SoD. We went up the Warrens into the underground of Dragonspear Castle, where we had to fight another big bunch of enemies. We dispatched the first wave, but decided to get out of this place when the second wave arrived. No useless risks for me.
Then, the Coalition camp attack was to be dealt with. The first time I did these fights was with a solo pure fighter on LoB. I had to be helped by lots of summons and the choices of allies for each wave were crucial for success. It was really tense. 'Twas not the case under the normal circumstances... Opening with 5 fireballs (from wands and potions) against each wave cleared them before they started. Again, a bit underwhelming when I think of the difficulty I had under LoB.
Rejoining Marshal Nederlok was then a piece of cake : stay behind the immortals and, with a small sprinkle of fireballs, you're good to go !
Now, it's time to take down the Siege of Dragonspear Castle ! Onward, to victory ! This is one of the nicest fight in SoD. Not the hardest, obviously, but there's just so many bodies all around that it's a unique feeling among all the fights of the BG saga. This is much better than the fight against the Tethyrian army in ToB. The enemy opened with an Obscuring Mist (an AoE SR spell that blinds people who stays within its range), which is actually not a bad move. We got quite a few allies blinded because of that. However, fireballs managed to save the day yet again, so we could break the first wave.
Ashatiel decide to challenge me to a duel. Ok. I buffed up to the max, with an eye on going pure melee against her, just to show her that bards too can fight. Buuuut, since we're no-reloading here, I just sent a quick Hold Person from a wand her way. It sticks. I won.
Now, we're really near the end. We go into the portal leading in Avernus and start to mow down ourselves some demons. Oh yeah...
Since the first few fights in Avernus were quite easy, I got a bit overconfident. Which always lead to bad things. Since I was well equiped to face Belhifet himself and didn't need his sword, I said to Thrix to go to hell (pun intended) and fought the goons he summoned. Did not went all that well... Minsc and Glint got surrounded fast because they were badly placed.
They fought bravely, but eventually fell under the pressure they were suffering. So, just before that last one fight, I lose my two best melee damage dealers to a stupid mistake. I had no scrolls of resurrection that Corwin could have cast, nothing. After mulling things over and over again, I decided to let Corwin decide the fate of this fight. I'll summon a bunch of monsters to form a wall and will have Corwin shoot those +3 arrows created by Baeloth with Enchanted Weapon (which, under SR, still use the old version of the spell).
But then it struck me : Caelar can be recruited in the last fight ! I got a big tank left ! So, I do the dubious move of letting Glint's body rot in hell to be able to recruit Caelar before the last fight. So, we buff up with potions of Clear Thoughts, Scrolls of Fire Protection, Free Action and, from Baeloth, Dispelling Screen (an SR spell that protects against a single dispel magic before disapearing). Because we had those buffs, Belhifet never tried to dispel us or use his fire spells. He mainly went aggro in melee. For Caelar, she's already a superb fighter with all the right immunities, so I had her drink a potion of Storm Giant Strength, a potion of Haste and stacked all the best melee gear I could on her. She morphed into a fantastic tank. Even surrounded by lots of demons, she was standing her ground. So, we started to work of Belhifet...
... until he fell.
We're going to Amn ! We're going to Amn !
P.S. : I'll post some thoughts on SoD tomorrow. Now, I'm going to bed...
Then... then who's the other baby in my inventory?
Because I turned in Peladan, and I've still got another one!
Scratch that... it seems that the baby in the Bag of Holding is indeed Peladan.
It's possible you did still complete that quest. I've come across a number of examples where quest items are not removed when a quest is finished if they're in bags. I have to regularly clear my bag of holding of the items used to get out of the first level of Spellhold for instance, but I've seen this behavior elsewhere as well.
I didn't use PfU in the opening SoD, but just bulled through, mainly using area damage spells. Lots of retreating there exposed the Flaming Fist and they were soon reduced down to just the healer. At some point in the early fights I got a level, which meant a hard choice about which of the lovely selection of 5th level spells to take. In the end I went for iron skins, just because of the danger from backstabbers.
Rather than rest to get more summons for Korlasz I just used exploding arrows to thin out her guards and then arrows of biting to poison her - quickly persuading her to give up.
Various NPCs were stripped of their equipment before it was time to hit the road. The first encounter was saving a vampire from some hunters thanks to the old nymph confusion trick. The next was an ambush area with a bunch of trolls. Ironskins, barkskin, DUHM and the girdle of piercing provided a good defence while spirit fire wore down the trolls in the upper cave. There were more down below, but I just grabbed the Firefly sling and left them.
Moving towards the bridge I again failed to get my summons there first and resorted to a fireball to disrupt initial spells while the nymphs threw in various spells from outside the barrier. Once the parley was over I couldn't resist attacking the enemies and had killed all but the mage I think. On approaching him I saw him throw a hold person, but ignored that as the buckler I was using gave immunity to hold. Unfortunately I also decided at just that moment to swap the sling I had been using for a bow in order to get through stoneskins quicker - thus deactivating the effect of the buckler ...
Picking up my monk challenge again I decided to reroll all the characters to give something of a fresh feel to it. Incidentally, in doing that I was surprised at how easily I got good rolls. I've posted on lots of occasions about the tendency for HP rolls to be high, but haven't previously considered whether the same thing might occur with initial stat rolls. It may very well be that I was just lucky this morning, but I'll keep more of an eye on future characters to see if that tendency for lucky stat rolls persists.
The changes are very limited to my previous set of monks though - the only significant one is swapping the initial missile weapon mix to 3x sling, 2x dagger and 1x dart (rather than 2x dart and 1x dagger as before). That reflects the greater damage done by daggers in the EE and the 400% increase in stack sizes for them). I've also imported into the EE this time the custom monk script Gate70 wrote for me a long time ago - that doesn't do any fighting, but can automate attempts at some other actions, in particular stealth.
They're only playing on Core difficulty and with just my standard restrictions this time. Although this installation includes SCS, that makes this a relatively easy setup, so I'll be disappointed if they don't at least get into SoD.
With 2 dagger users in the party ammunition could be a considerable expense. Thus, after shooting down Shoal, the monks spent a while trying to get a good night's rest at High Hedge - collecting a backpack full of daggers in the process .
The extra XP from all those skeletons meant that a conversation with Marl got all the monks their first level.
Everyone was invited to a party in the inn to celebrate, though things got a bit rowdy at one point (you know what monks are like when they've had one too many metheglins) and a casualty resulted.
Still half-drunk, the monks attacked Neera on the street, but without checking that everyone had a missile weapon equipped. Neera pulled in some bystanders to join in the argument, but they proved unable to help themselves.
I lost the XP for one of the sirines at Beregost Temple to a critical from a wild dog, but the others provided just enough to tip everyone over to level 3.
This was a fun session of ToB. We started off with a one-sided massacre at the oasis:
You know you're starting to develop godlike powers when you don't even have a scratch after taking on an entire army, I guess. And, as @JuliusBorisov has mentioned, at a certain point LoB starts to feel a bit like a regular run on insane difficulty. For me, this only really started to happen somewhere mid-BG2, but I do agree that things start to feel much easier in late BG1 already. However, SoD provided me with a quick return back to how LoB is propably supposed to feel, so be on your guard
Most fights in Amkethran aren't worth talking about, but that doesn't include Vongoethe - he often offers an interesting challenge (and has a very interesting spellbook, even in vanilla). With all these banshees, the party was really glad to have death ward. I prepared a couple of sunray spells for this battle, and also equipped sunray-providing items to speed things up:
This battle took quite a while: While the deva did a great job, our sunrays didn't get us any instant kills, and we had to remove the lich's protections multiple times, wait for him to be revealed to true sight (he used multiple instant shadow door spells) etc. - he didn't cast his dragon's breath, but I was prepared for that one anyway, having buffed the entire party with protection from fire. He did, however, affect Arbogast and Anomen with greater malison. Still, eventually, he couldn't escape our wrath forever:
And the battle is won, right? Well, not quite - a couple of mostly harmless skeleton archers, should be no trouble... well, here's something I didn't think about or even bothered to check: It seems that there isn't only a teleport field going on this screen, but also a sphere of chaos? That's the only explanation I have for what happened next:
Say hello to Sir Squirrel Delryn, Rodent of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. This is funny in many different ways - especially since I just recently mentioned that I had never gotten a party member polymorphed before, thus claiming that I didn't see the point of ever protecting against this. Well, turns out the greater malison actually made it possible. This was potentially really bad for me - with his sudden 1 hp left, one arrow could've easily chunked Amoen. Luckily, his aura was clear, and he was able to drink a potion of invisibility even in squirrel form - and the polymorph effect ended rather quickly:
That was a close one. Marlowe even survived, and we left to clear the outside areas of the enclaves. Why? Because I wanted to face my archenemy Draconis early on, this time - I wanted to test a strategy I had prepared for him.
First, the multiple drow ambushes, though - I needed money to buy some crucial scrolls first. This hive mother used her anti-magic ray on Arbogast, forcing him to run. She did send a death ray right after him, but with no chance to get past his saves.
With true sight, some summons and improved haste at the ready, these drow didn't really stand a chance:
Now, let's have a chat with Draconis, my old friend: We opened with a couple of summons (elemental prince, deva, 2 mordy swords) and let him waste his initial chain contingency on them:
A breach spell later, and his human form was gone:
As soon as he turned into his dragon form (with the transformation killing my summons), I used a couple of instant-summoning abilites (like the golem manual, the berserker's horn and a spirit animal). Imoen, separated from the rest of the party, started casting time stop. Arbogast tried to add an elemental prince while the fighters used smite, attempting to stun Draconis - but he seems to be immune to stun effects.
Now, he had previously cast PFMW - for my plan to work I had to breach him with Nahema before Imoen's timestop fired. He also used remove magic, but targeting himself, so I wasn't scared of losing my protections. Sadly, breach didn't hit in time, and draconis remained immune to Imoen's attempts to kill him via int drain as a mind flayer... plan a) has failed, but I still had plan b) and c) going. Plan c) would be running away, btw.
Plan b) involved Mazzy, the Sling of Everard and the Helm of Vhailor, plus some GWWs. It took some time to set this up, tough. First, a wing buffet forced Arbogast and Aikar away, while Draconis was chasing Imoen. He eventually used breach on her, removing not only stoneskin but, more importantly, protection from acid - one breath attack on her would mean a certain chunking, so she had to get away, and she did (with ihaste still going, she was faster than the dragon, and Arbogast managed to distract him with spirit animals, who turned out to be very useful due to how quickly he can summon them - even distracting Draconis for one round is totally worth it). Anyway, I managed to get Mazzy + simmy in position and they started to deal tons of damage. Anomen and Aikar tried to help, though I had to move them around a bit thanks to invisible stalkers still being a somewhat serious threat with LoB extra damage.
While Draconis wasted his time killing a spirit wolf, Aikar and Mazzy got him to near death. Anomen, however, got hit with remove magic - I equipped him with with some acid resistance via a helm, hoping this would give him the ability to at least not get chunked by a potential breath weapon:
Instead of chasing Anomen, Draconis tried to turn invisible, but Imoen - who stayed at a certain distance, but close enough to make sure she was still useful with true sight - revealed him right away. He went invisible once again, this time fleeing to the south (with Imoen revealing him after a few seconds), and used an instantly cast cure critical wounds - but that doesn't do a lot compared to the damage we are able to dish out:
Draconis used another breath weapon, but not on the two vulnerable characters - he did hit almost everyone else, but 100% resistance is a very useful thing to have. At the same time, Mazzy landed the final hit:
There's a reason I chose grandmastery in slings for Mazzy instead training her with a melee weapon! And yes, I did shamelessly steal that build from @Alesia_BH
I will propably try my hand at Sendai's Enclave next time.
Comments
Shamans are also pretty powerful as ranged magical attackers if you don't want to rely on summons. I've used Writhing Fog a certain amount in this run, but could have done so a lot more. Spirit Fire is also a decent fireball replacement and would no doubt have seen far more action if nymphs weren't crowding it out ...
Diary of Æthelioba
Things did not go according to plan against Tenya. She cast rigid thinking, then asked for my help which I readily agreed to give, but then rigid thinking caused me to attack her, she became hostile and I had to kill her.That was not at all how things were supposed to happen. I have the Tenya mod installed, and she was going to be recruited. Not this time.
I then returned to the ankheg area where killing just one was enough to raise me to Level 6. I now have ** in katanas, ** in crossbows, and** in dual wielding. I saw that Aerie is selling a katana +1 but at the time it was a bit too expensive. Perhaps I will be able to afford it after I sell the ankheg shells.
Night in the Woods: Mae in Baldur's Gate
Part 5https://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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909861/#Comment_909861
A mod character asked me to go rescue somebody in an area near Peldvale, but the area doesn't appear to actually exist. While mucking around in Peldvale itself wondering where the hell I'm supposed to go, I run into a gang of Skeleton Lords who are camping out in the woods for some reason.
Skeleton Lords cast Lightning Bolt and in my experience they never run out, which means Trash Mammal is pretty much doomed.
Like most mod enemies outside of SCS, Skeleton Lords have crazy powers and big numbers but poor AI and no special tactics are necessary to beat them aside from using your own crazy powers and having bigger numbers than them. Witch Dagger's druid levels can shrug off the enemy's Lightning Bolts, allowing us to break up the Skeleton Lords using area-effect stuff.
Back in Baldur's Gate, I give the wrong password to the thieves guild guard because I picked the first name I saw in quotation marks during the previous dialogue.
At an inn, I run into a group of aspiring writers who apparently want to write a salacious novel starring Mae. Interestingly enough, a lot of the dialogue options here actually sound like something Mae would say in Night in the Woods, the game from which Mae originated.
In NITW, Mae tends to vacillate between self-pity and flights of fancy. She's screwed up in more ways than one, hence the self-pity, but she has some great lines in the original game. She'd really get along with these writers.
The writers keep prodding us for details. Some of the lines here actually could have come right out of Night in the Woods. They fit Mae like a glove.
And it keeps going...
In fact, one of the lines actually IS a quote from NITW:
Mae once said her ideal lover would be somebody who would wrestle her. She described this person as "Grrr."
Mae is single and her love life has been... messy, but she's not above bragging about stuff that never happened.
Canonically, Mae is either bi or gay or pansexual (I forget which; I think the creator specified), but the only character she took an interest in in NITW was female.
Finally the writers have enough material and get Mae's autograph. They sound like Mae's kind of people.
I consider backstabbing Marek and/or Lothander to death, but a glance at an online walkthrough suggest that this could prove fatal. Instead, I complete the quest normally. The whole party is cured automatically, but notably, Witch Dagger cannot drink the antidote we get, because of her Wizard Slayer kit.
Time to get on with the main quest and tackle the fight I've been dreading: the Iron Throne. Our Bounty Hunter, Killer, opens with a backstab from the Staff of Striking. A bug of some sort causes it to vanish despite having multiple charges left, but her scimitar is about as good anyway because most of her damage output comes from the Long-Legged Beasties multiplying the effects of Emotion: Hope.
Which is saying something, since the staff does hideous damage.
Notice the sudden introduction of Quayle, who is sitting around in mustard jelly form. I was so anxious about this fight that I wanted a sacrificial lamb of sorts, and Polymorph Self was an excellent way to keep Quayle safe from backstabs and disablers so he can use any of our spare scrolls if need be.
Notice the massive missile damage from Killer. She doesn't have the stealth skills to be a decent blind backstabber, but her blind traps are a ghastly spectacle.
Unfortunately for Quayle, it turns out that the backstabbers in this fight don't use piercing weapons, which means jelly form only prevents him from getting killed in one hit.
But not all is bad here. First of all, Mae has just petrified Alai using the Sorcerer's Staff. And although Killer fails to Hide with No Sight, she has a special thief-only item that lets her turn invisible once per day, allowing her to land a spectacular backstab on Aasim.
The enemy quickly finishes off Quayle, but thanks to the Bounty Hunter kit, we hit so, so much harder than they do.
We smash the opposition before they can deal much damage to the party, leaving only Naaman, who is helpless to Witch Dagger's spell failure on hit.
We have some overpowered equipment, but the Wizard Slayer, Bounty Hunter, and Berserker kits continue to be the key factors in our success. Mages are helpless against spell failure, mobs are helpless against traps (blind or otherwise), and Enrage keeps Mae afloat no matter the circumstances.
But now we have a problem. Before we leave for Candlekeep, our book gets stolen. And unlike my previous run, where I needed to use the console to skip the mod-introduced quest that's responsible for the theft...
...I actually found the relevant thieves where they were supposed to be, just north of the Friendly Arm Inn. I consider skipping the quest, since I didn't want it anyway, but just out of curiosity, I keep hunting down the allies of the guy who stole our book.
We find a note on Zernan's body. Ostensibly it's an undeciphered note, but it turns out to be quite legible.
I still need to look up the next location, and even then, I almost miss our target.
This is exactly why I object to BG1's massive empty areas. With so many places to wander, only metagame knowledge or long periods of tedious searching will actually get you where you need to go. The game is crushingly slow when you don't know where stuff is.
He summons a couple of Stone Golems for whatever reason but otherwise is not a real challenge. Our book now lies at the bottom of the Nashkel mines. After a spider ambush, we try to enter the mine...
...only to find that the guards have repositioned themselves in front of the otherwise open entrance. If we didn't have charm spells, this would be a game-breaking bug.
Right off the bat, we discover that the mines are much, much more dangerous than they ever have been before.
This place is crawling with spiders, including the Astral Phase Spiders that I thought were exclusive to SoD. Still have crummy defenses, though, and our strong AC and saves vs. death keep us safe from poison.
But without the Ring of Free Action, Potions of Freedom, or Spider's Bane (once again, our item restrictions come back to hurt us), we don't have a lot of defenses against Web and paralysis.
We manage to scrape by and keep moving. Since the mines are filled with overpowered mod-introduced critters, I go ahead and start stacking Emotion: Hope spells. I see no reason to hold back.
Although it is a bit overkill when I'm dealing with the lesser enemies.
That's screenshot 666.
Deeper in the mines, we find hordes of drow. All of which are... far too well-equipped for BG1.
I don't feel guilty about using Hope stacking on these guys. They have masses of HP and huge numbers across the board.
I have no idea what these guys are doing in BG1. If the mod creator wanted to create a fight like this, he or she really should have just put it in BG2, because simultaneously fighting multiple 70+ HP critters with +3 equipment is simply not for BG1 parties unlike they're rocking unbalanced mod items.
Which, despite all my item restrictions, we are. I have a single-classed thief who deals more damage than any vanilla BG1 fighter (though her THAC0 is a limiting factor).
Killer, our star party member through this whole dungeon simply because of her 4 APR Firetooth crossbow knockoff, scouts ahead in the next area and spots the final boss. It looks...
...unsafe.
We still have more enemies to take care of before we tangle with the big guys, but since all of the fights in between are just an overpowered party smashing an overpowered enemy...
...I'll skip ahead.
Okay. We've got a whole bunch of high-level drow including a mage and a priest, plus an Astral Phase Spider and a freaking Greater Basilisk. If we get blasted by a Remove Magic spell early on, everyone but Mae and Mayday, our Berserker/Mage and Sorcerer (who have Spell Immunity scrolls thanks to the scroll scribing mod) could get petrified in two rounds.
How am I going to get rid of all these guys before they pull some horrific trick that wipes out the whole party? Due to the close quarters and the angles of these tunnels, Killer would have trouble setting traps in the right places at the right times, and I don't want to just repeatedly rest and set 20 traps so I can lure the enemy across a field of land mines. I want to try something more interesting.
There happens to be a level 5 mod spell called Melf's Explosive Meteors. It summons a handful of darts that explode on hit. They grant 3 APR, +2 to hit, and deal 1d6 missile damage plus 2d6 fire damage, save negates (it's supposed to be a save for half, but it's coded wrong). The damage isn't impressive, really, and it's very party-unfriendly. The meteors would be much better in the hands of a Wizard Slayer, Assassin, Blackguard, or Archer, but unfortunately, Melf's Explosive Meteors, unlike Fire Seeds, cannot be passed to another character. So what good are they?
Well, because they deal 1d6 base missile damage instead of just dealing fire damage, Emotion: Hope grants the same damage boost to those meteors that the spell does for conventional weapons. And the Long-Legged Beasties, buggy boots that they are, will grant further bonuses.
I decide to go all out. Mayday casts a bunch of Emotion: Hope spells, Mae equips the boots and casts Melf's Explosive Meteors (you have to equip the weapon last to get the full benefit from this combination), and finally Mae turns the party invisible.
Witch Dagger sneaks in to impose some spell failure on the drow mage, but when the Drow High Priestess tries to reveal us, Witch Dagger switches targets.
Witch Dagger's main role, however, is not to shut down that mage. Her real purpose here is Ironskins and her other druids buffs, which are the only things that will let her survive the unbelievable stupidity that is Mae's Emotion: Hope-boosted, Long-Legged Beasties-boosted Melf's Explosive Meteors.
Mae has 3.5 APR with these things and subzero THAC0. Even these drow aren't tough enough to survive it. Not even close.
The first round of combat ends. Witch Dagger, shorn of her Ironskins, is close to death, but it's already over.
A swift, blitzkrieg-style bombing spells a crushing defeat for the enemy, just like 1967. The Six-Second War is over!
A few enemies ambush us from the sides. We punish their impudence with Mae's remaining meteors, and unfortunately Mur'Neth gets in the way.
We get a spectacular new suit of armor for Witch Dagger...
...the Narrator (whoever that is) clears us for our trip to Candlekeep...
...we sell off the drow's equipment at Durlag's Tower, and yes, these are real numbers for a BG1 quest...
...and a script belatedly removes the rest of the drow items.
Despite the absurd numbers we got from selling the loot, the disintegration is actually an incredibly lame trick to pull on the party. We got by with Emotion: Hope stacking, making the area an easy but sluggish chore, but for the average party, this would have been a nightmarish slog, and to return to the surface with so little treasure after so much effort would have been deeply, deeply unsatisfying.
Unbalanced, unnecessary, inconvenient, punishing, and slow. This, apparently, was "Return to Nashkel" from a mod called "The Vault." It comes from the same mod as those ogres roving around Gullykin and those crazy level 6-9 mage scrolls they kept dropping, and I'm not surprised--the style is very much the same. If you want to kill endless waves of abnormally powerful clones, or just want to collect more XP but don't want to use the vastly easier basilisk XP loop, you might like the mod, but otherwise, I probably would not recommend it.
That being said, I think it was worth it in my case. The basilisk XP loop is impossible in this run due to my inability to use green Stone to Flesh scrolls, but all those drow gave us a lot of XP. Despite never delving deep into TotSC content, we're well north of the typical BG1 XP cap, putting us in a solid position for tackling Sarevok and Siege of Dragonspear. This is our party.
Mae and Killer took most of the kills so far for this chapter, but Trash Mammal still has more kills over the course of the game, simply because she had superior THAC0 during the previous chapters.
Night in the Woods: Mae in Baldur's Gate
Part 6https://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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909861/#Comment_909861
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/911181/#Comment_911181
I try out another mod quest, but it turns out to be spectacularly boring. It's a huge area with multiple different characters, but the villain is obvious (he's the guy at the castle who hates you for no reason), the pacing is slow, and there's a lot of wandering around while you figure out what exactly you're supposed to do.
The highlight of the quest is a graveyard joke that doubles as an Undertale reference.
I end up killing a bunch of bad guys, but I don't know if the quest is complete, so I visit another mod area that I think is our next stop. It might not even be part of the same mod, but either way, the map is crawling with those level 12+ orc mages who nearly obliterated my party with a Death Spell a while back.
I cast Call Woodland Beings, but it seems that my mods really shake up the spell, summoning Hamadryads and Nymphs who don't have the same spells they used to. Instead of casting Mass Cure and Hold Monster and Confusion, they have a basic Charm Person spell, Entangle, and other useless spells like a charm animal ability.
And charming the local animals is not very effective.
Eventually I just say "screw it" and have Witch Dagger engage them more or less on her own. They can take down her defenses very easily, but she can impose 100% in short order using her darts and her dagger. Once their spellcasting is shut down, it's safe for the rest of the party to move in for the kill.
Witch Dagger can't keep all of them disabled simultaneously and ends up failing a save against Horror, but the orc mages just don't have the offensive power to kill our party, rendering the entire fight a fairly safe, but long and very tedious chore.
There is exactly one interesting thing on the map: the little entrance to some dungeon. I click on it and am rewarded with the ugliest trap I've ever seen.
This is just a jerk move to play (I would use different language if the Site Rules permitted). Locking off an area is one thing, but launching multiple Fireballs simultaneously just for clicking on it? Half my party dies instantly for absolutely no reason.
If Mae had gotten a little worse luck and hadn't been holding Frostbrand, she could have been instantly killed, bringing this entire run to an end because some modder had the stupid idea to create an instant death trap for a door that can't even be opened anyway.
Why not just display the "you can't enter yet" message? Why launch half a dozen Fireballs at once? Why kill the entire party? Why force the player to re-do the entire area just for clicking on the one thing in the entire map that's actually clickable and clearly is meant to be clicked?
We survived it thanks to Mae's strong defenses; we didn't have to reload. But it boggles the mind that a modder would do something this pointless and stupid. I find it offensive that somebody would deliberately include an instant death trap right after an incredibly long fight, in the one place where no player would reasonably expect any trap of any kind.
I've showered praise on practically every other mod I've ever played. I've written reviews in the community magazine just so more people would try out those excellent mods. I basically never say bad things about mods.
But this area is just flat-out bad. Very, very little thought was put into its design, and I can think of no excuse besides inexperience.
After I bring back our fallen characters, I notice that two orc mages are still alive--they got blinded and wandered away sometime during the fight. I realize that the next dungeon won't open until every orc is dead, so I scour every inch of the entire map just to hunt them down and kill them. It's an agonizingly slow process, but I want to know what's inside that dungeon that the mod creator so clearly does not want me to experience.
I click on the dungeon entrance and the whole party gets roasted all over again. Unbelievable. I track down the area's script file in Near Infinity and it seems that the trigger for that dungeon opening is a completely different quest that I don't even know how to begin.
I'm not sure how the area got on my map in the first place. There have been so many forgettable questgivers who added areas to my map, and no reminders of what's actually going on. Think about the Umar Hills questline--you can get the area location from two different quests, and whichever route you pick, you get a detailed reminder, including a clearly labeled journal entry, of exactly what the area is all about and what you're supposed to do to solve the problem. Mod areas tend to assume that you already know all about the quest, which really doesn't work well in a massive install where you have a dozen active mod quests, not all of whom even have journal entries.
I'm still curious what's in that dungeon. But it's simply not worth my time to find out how to open it, and if that trap is any indication, there's nothing worth seeing in there to begin with.
These mod quests are a waste of time. Time to go visit Balduran's Isle and do something interesting for once. At least the story is cool, even if the fights are kind of underwhelming for a level 10 party.
Don't underestimate those Nereids, though--in my install, they summon Water Weirds who also have an instant death attack.
The wolfweres are little trouble. Same goes for the mage; we already have a Wizard Slayer and a thief with high Detect Illusions.
Does anybody know who that baby is or what I'm supposed to do with it? I have a child in our Bag of Holding and it's kind of just sitting there.
Oddly enough, I'm actually able to talk my way off the island. Is this original game behavior, or the work of a mod?
On the way home, we stop by an island with a bunch of half-naked women and one very cheerful man. They keep saying we can stay as long as we like.
I don't see a clear path to a new quest objective or whatever, and it seems that we can actually leave anytime we want. So I just go back to Ulgoth's Beard.
Mendas puts up a bigger fight than I expected, largely because Witch Dagger's attack rolls are poor. Wizard Slayer spell failure only applies if you land a hit, and there's always a chance of a low roll.
But Mendas' Chaos spell disables no one, and the delay gives us enough time to kill Mendas' allies and finally impose spell failure on him.
He transformatizes, but when I give Mae the Long-Legged Beasties and have her cast Haste, she is an absolute monster with Balduran's sword.
We finally return to Candlekeep and I notice a disturbing message that indicates that a mod character has become a doppelganger, preventing us from completing a touch side quest.
The book we gave it was from the character's old friend at the temple of Lathander near Beregost. Giving it back was supposed to start a relationship between them, but... now a doppelganger has it.
We can't get the normal loot from Candlekeep due to item restrictions, but one of my mods adds a bunch of new crap to it. And the new crap happens to be stuff I've never seen before, which means using them is allowed.
My install also adds an overpowered Zombie Lord to the area. But we've gotten to the point where these guys are no longer a threat.
It's a good thing, because it's not like I can use a Protection from Undead scroll for these guys.
I don't like fighting Prat. So I don't.
In a previous game, I twice failed to cure Aiwell's husband (mod quest) of werewolfism, because I gave Thalantyr Guril Berries in lieu of belladonna flowers. Since we got the flowers at Balduran's Isle, we can finally complete the quest properly.
I forge a bunch of mod items with Thalantyr and Taerom, because there are some upgraded items that I've never actually made or used. We finally have some strong defensive accessories to pass around.
It's a convenient loophole. I've used the Amulet of Protection +1 and Helm of Charm Protection many times, which they're forbidden in this run, but the upgraded versions are new to me and therefore usable. Notice the Sword of Rage, which actually allows you cast the Berserker rage spell and get all of the normal immunities. It's the exact same spell, so it unfortunately can't be cast for the 5-round fatigue period after the normal spell ends, and Mae is still the only character who can use it, but who knows? An extra usage of rage could be very helpful later on.
We are done with side quests and it is time to finish BG1 and move on to SoD. But there's one last thing to do.
We have 169,000 gold. The moment we enter SoD, all of that money is gone. So, to preserve part of our money supply, I buy up all the wands I can get at Sorcerous Sundries, which should be enough to bump me back up to 100,000 gold if necessary in SoD. I can't use the wands, but I can still keep them for sale later on.
I probably should have kept more of my old equipment instead of liquifying my assets, but it makes little difference now. There's very little for me to purchase in SoD anyway.
The real benefit is that, since this is an EET install and I can revisit certain areas from previous games, I can smuggle 100,000 gold's worth of loot into BG2.
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/911061/#Comment_911061
Back in the City nymphs did a nice job with holding Larze. Against Marek though they tried confusion rather than hold and Marek cast his own confusion in response. He died shortly afterwards anyway and the 3 confused nymphs really shouldn't have caused a problem. However, the last 2 of those moved away in opposite directions and one of them that I thought was safely out of the way by the far wall moved more quickly than expected to kill an innocent.
After selling some equipment I made some donations at the temple before doing a few quests to push reputation back up to 20. Ramazith's tower saw a number of uses of Spirit Fire just for Corey - one of them inflicting a bit of self-harm.
I decided that I should fight at the Iron Throne rather than just sneak through. There was a good start there when Diyab was charmed and nymphs then played their part while using the stairs. When Zhalimar uses the stairs he goes down the opposite side - meaning I could throw a spell at him without actually seeing him.
At Candlekeep I could open 2 of the tombs using DUHM, but to get the strength tome I had to resort to the violet potion. I didn't get targeting with confusion quite right against Prat's party and only he and Bor were disabled. Sakul and Tam both ran as a result of Bhaal horror though to allow a couple of kills. I then had to quickly take a potion of magic shielding to defend against Bor's darts of stunning before completing the job against Tam.
Back in the City I bought some expensive magic ammunition before going in search of Slythe. None of that was used on him though - the nymphs held him instead before confusing Krystin.
At the palace, nymph confusion was well-timed and all but two of the dopplegangers were confused or scared by Bhaal horror. Liia still died quickly, but Belt comfortably survived.
I beat up the inhabitants of the maze - just using nymphs as a distraction against the skeleton warriors. Against the Undercity party confusion was tried once more.
Inside the temple a group of nymphs provided some distraction while arrows (including dispelling ones) did the damage on Semaj. He had teleported near the dais and activated Tazok and Angelo, so they were led into a corner where an invisibility potion set them up for a cold bath. Sarevok also suffered from a cold sore, with frosty arrows added to some fog damage to deal with him.
Shaman 9, 79 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 362 kills
Because I turned in Peladan, and I've still got another one!
Diary of Æthelioba Continued
After returning to Sonner, I realised just how sad it was that Sonner's will had prevailed. Talk about selfish!South of the FAI I then killed the ogre with a belt fetish, followed by Zargos Flintblade at the entrance to the Nashkel Mines. The guards there were of great help.
I then headed east where I reunited Rufie with his owner and helped a dryad against some thugs who made me ashamed to be human.
1. Prologue
2. First Steps
3. First Level Ups
4. First Real Challenges
5. First Casualties
6. First Wands
7. Sometimes they do roll 1 during their HP rolls!
8. Surviving the ambush
Continuing from last time, the group decided to clear the Nashkel Mines. They saved Miner Beldin thanks to Webbing the yipping demons. Actually, no kobold pack in the mines (including the Kobold Shaman group) could resist the Web+Summons tactics.
As soon as Mulahey went hostile, Sigyn started to cast Doom on him, while a successful attack by a party skeleton prevented the priest from finishing his casting. 2 spirit bears held the place where kobolds and enemy skeletons spawned. Mulahey then was silenced by Dazbog, while 2 Webs were thrown to support the spirit bears.
Silent Mulahey then one-shotted Dazbog but was blinded by Glod the moment later. He was dead soon afterwards. His minions didn't harm the group as there were enough Web spells available.
Back in Nashkel, Nimbul was approached cautiously so that the spirit snake was what the assassin saw first. Nimbul was poisoned by the snake, saved against Silence but failed his save during the second attempt. Then he was blinded and killed.
Jagen summoned a familiar and his HPs went from 21 to 55 (due to the LoB big HP pool for summons). I used the EE-Keeper and lowered HPs to 27 (as 6 is exactly 1/2 of 12 base HPs of a familiar not on the LoB).
Tranzig too was approached by the spirit snake but he didn't stay in the room. He managed to cast Slow even while taking damage. Summon Insects and subsequent Poison from the snake finished him.
The party decided to gather some additinal XP before sieging the Bandit Camp so they went ankheg-hunting. The beasts hit hard and summons didn't last long against them, so it usually took 2 Webs + 2-4 summons per 2 ankhegs.
The first ankheg in the pit didn't see Sigyn as Uzume entered the pit first. Ankhegs brought new levels for Glod and Uzume (both of them got 4 hps as fighters). Now the group had a wand of Fire and additional darts.
Tenya was injured for 16 hps and immediately asked to stop fighting. The good alignment of party members meant Sonner and his friends were left alive.
When the group travelled back to Tenya they were waylaid by Molkar. Remember I mentioned darts? Cochrane, using Darts of Wounding, managed to poison Halacan, the enemy mage, before the dialogue with Molkar started. Morvin was paralyzed by the wand (Jagen). Dazbog summoned animals by another wand, right next to Halacan. Morvin also failed his saving throw against the wand of Fear (Sigyn).
Glod casted Web towards Drakar. Halacan, even under Poison and attacks by animals finished Charm (Uzume). Summon Insects on Drakar made sure the priest couldn't cast anything (in addition to Web). Jagen kited Molkar.
Drakar was then silenced. Molkar failed his saving throw against Blindness. The battle was won.
After gathering all the ankheg shells they could find and resting, the group was again waylaid while travelling to Beregost, this time by the amazons. I have waited for this encounter for so long! Everything had to be done very quickly in the first round of this encounter.
Telka and Maneira went invisible the moment I saw the ambush screen. Jagen and Glod - both casted Mirror Image. Dazbog - used the wand of summoning. Sigyn - started to cast Invisibility Purge. Cochrane again used Darts of Wounding.
Jagen, Glod and Dazbog started moving to the East and the South-East, while the battle log showed Telka and Maneira targeted Uzume. So the fighter/thief kited to the West. Both Zeela and Lamalha casted Hold Person (simultaneusly) at Cochrane, who gulped the potion of Invisibility to stay save (he saved twice, though, so it turned out to be a pre-caution only). The next moment Sigyn dispelled invisibility and the main threat was over.
Now Glod casted Web towards Zeela, Telka and Maneira. Jagen saved against Command by Lamalha and then kited her for a bit. Zeela finished casting Doom (Uzume) but soon got held by Web. Lamalha was poisoned by Cochrane - and shortly after that blinded by Glod. Zeela saved against Silence by Dazbog but she was still held.
Web was still in effect (and soon another Web was added), Horror from the wand affected Telka. The battle was basically won.
Here’re the current standings (88 days and 22 hours):
Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 5, 27 HPs, 25 kills, Greater Basilisk (4% in the group)
Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 5/4, 35 HPs, 152 kills, Revenant (25% in the group), 0 deaths
Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 5/5, 42 HPs, 162 kills, Greater Basilisk (26% in the group), 0 deaths
Cochrane, archer, lvl 5, 42 HPs, 195 kills, Vampiric Wolf (32% in the group), 0 deaths
Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 6, 45 HPs, 34 kills, Polar Bear (5% in the group), 0 deaths
Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/4, 20 HPs, 36 kills, Lesser Basilisk (5% in the group), 4 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal; 1 - Mulahey)
I think I've got used to playing on the LoB and don't feel the big difference if compared to Insane right now. Enemies have more hitpoints, yes, but disabling them is what wins fights, not the amount of damage. I like the fact the LoB improves enemy saving throws so more disablers are needed (thus there're more rounds when my casters are busy).
After my defeat by the unseeing eye, I was really upset and quite mad at my self. I had figured I wouldnt roll a new charname for months... but the game is addictive.
The dice smiled at me, and granted med another 95 character. This time a human cleric of Lathander. The setup is no mods, hard (no extra damage) and max hp at level up
He is planned to dual at level 11 in SoA. So a long dual, and chances are that he isnt making it. (I was going for a fighter/druid, but a 96 roll has been elusive so far)... my 95 cleric will have to suffice.
Cleric F95 (just CF when amongst friends..) is proficient in maces and slings.
He did the quests in CK and ventured off. He calmed down Marl and delivered a book for his first level up. Bought a sling +1 and kited for some XP.
Killed Shoal and reached level 4, and got second level spells. DUHM enabled me to get the stupefier. I actually left some sort of payment. I am LG after all - I just really need the mace...
I took a trip to Ulgoths beard for the greenstone amulet. Killing Sonner en route.. and giving the bowl back.
Next up was Durlags Tower and a tome, that I could pick up thanks to sanctuary and the Greenstone amulet.. on the way I decided to face Meilum as a spur of the moment. I figured the Boon of Latander combined with DUHM and aid would give me the edge (two attacks with 19 str and a further +2 damage). Things started well
But the boon ran out, and the fight got out of hand. But in the end I was victorious (and goes to show why I prefer max hp at level up).
The scare confirmed that the Cleric is a good tank and damagedealer - but not without buffs, and that I keep on making the same mistakes.
Instead of the tome, I decided to get some XP. Next stop basilisk valley. I enlisted Korax, and he was a great help. I even healed him on the way
I left Korax right by Kirian, and thanked him for getting me to level 6 - and 3 animate dead spells. Perhaps I will deal with Kirian later...
I then picked up the tome
I then did some minor quest like Melicamp (I am 2-1 on saving him), Tarnesh and Karlat. Karlat was a pleasing win - I scored two criticals whilst fully buffed - dealing out 64 damage in 1 round
The last session included the sirens by the coast, buffed and using the greenstone amulet they where defeated. I had some trouble when I was kiting a wolf. But apparently even Talos likes me
I slew the sirenes and dodged the golems thanks to sanctuary. I am going to do some minor quests, and pick up some belts and a tome before I take on the mines. Mulaheys ring will serve me well.
I am thinking about picking up some help. a cleric only run perhaps?
If you want more HP, you could have transferred some of your intelligence points into constitution. Or were you thinking "mindflayers" ?
Diary of Æthelioba Continued
I killed some vampyric wolves et al followed by Kieran's party and basilisks together with medusae.The mines are looming close now.
I tried min-maxing my Character. The 15 con, will be boosted by the con tome to 16 (I am skipping the maze in wk due to ineptitude). Because my dual is at level 11, I dont think I will benefit further by a higher con? If I wrong I will execute Cleric F95 right away..
However, despite not having a thief, I aquired a lot of treasure, the most important ones being a couple of tomes and a katana+3 which I think is from a mad. Not sure about that though as it could be from EE or SoD. There was no need to buy the katana +1 from Aerie.
Diary of Æthelioba
I was surprised at how easy it was.
I have now reached 161000 experience but have the Drizzt Saga level cap. What I intend to do is not level up my own character or any NPC uafter reaching an experience of 161,000. However when I start doing the mod quests such as The Drizzt Saga, I will then level up. I believe that I will lose any ridiculously high experience upon starting SoD and am happy with that. I now need to decide on a party.
So far the Cleric Drake, the assassin Vynd, the cleric-ranger Khalid and the druid Jaheira have joined.
Miluiel, the elven bard
BG1 posts : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD posts : 1, 2, 3, 4
Notable mods
- SCS
- IR/SR
- Rogue Rebalancing
- plenty of NPC mods
- Tweak Anthology
Ok, so we were on the last stretch of SoD. We went up the Warrens into the underground of Dragonspear Castle, where we had to fight another big bunch of enemies. We dispatched the first wave, but decided to get out of this place when the second wave arrived. No useless risks for me.
Then, the Coalition camp attack was to be dealt with. The first time I did these fights was with a solo pure fighter on LoB. I had to be helped by lots of summons and the choices of allies for each wave were crucial for success. It was really tense. 'Twas not the case under the normal circumstances... Opening with 5 fireballs (from wands and potions) against each wave cleared them before they started. Again, a bit underwhelming when I think of the difficulty I had under LoB.
Rejoining Marshal Nederlok was then a piece of cake : stay behind the immortals and, with a small sprinkle of fireballs, you're good to go !
Now, it's time to take down the Siege of Dragonspear Castle ! Onward, to victory ! This is one of the nicest fight in SoD. Not the hardest, obviously, but there's just so many bodies all around that it's a unique feeling among all the fights of the BG saga. This is much better than the fight against the Tethyrian army in ToB. The enemy opened with an Obscuring Mist (an AoE SR spell that blinds people who stays within its range), which is actually not a bad move. We got quite a few allies blinded because of that. However, fireballs managed to save the day yet again, so we could break the first wave.
Ashatiel decide to challenge me to a duel. Ok. I buffed up to the max, with an eye on going pure melee against her, just to show her that bards too can fight. Buuuut, since we're no-reloading here, I just sent a quick Hold Person from a wand her way. It sticks. I won.
Now, we're really near the end. We go into the portal leading in Avernus and start to mow down ourselves some demons. Oh yeah...
Since the first few fights in Avernus were quite easy, I got a bit overconfident. Which always lead to bad things. Since I was well equiped to face Belhifet himself and didn't need his sword, I said to Thrix to go to hell (pun intended) and fought the goons he summoned. Did not went all that well... Minsc and Glint got surrounded fast because they were badly placed.
They fought bravely, but eventually fell under the pressure they were suffering. So, just before that last one fight, I lose my two best melee damage dealers to a stupid mistake. I had no scrolls of resurrection that Corwin could have cast, nothing. After mulling things over and over again, I decided to let Corwin decide the fate of this fight. I'll summon a bunch of monsters to form a wall and will have Corwin shoot those +3 arrows created by Baeloth with Enchanted Weapon (which, under SR, still use the old version of the spell).
But then it struck me : Caelar can be recruited in the last fight ! I got a big tank left ! So, I do the dubious move of letting Glint's body rot in hell to be able to recruit Caelar before the last fight. So, we buff up with potions of Clear Thoughts, Scrolls of Fire Protection, Free Action and, from Baeloth, Dispelling Screen (an SR spell that protects against a single dispel magic before disapearing). Because we had those buffs, Belhifet never tried to dispel us or use his fire spells. He mainly went aggro in melee. For Caelar, she's already a superb fighter with all the right immunities, so I had her drink a potion of Storm Giant Strength, a potion of Haste and stacked all the best melee gear I could on her. She morphed into a fantastic tank. Even surrounded by lots of demons, she was standing her ground. So, we started to work of Belhifet...
... until he fell.
We're going to Amn ! We're going to Amn !
P.S. : I'll post some thoughts on SoD tomorrow. Now, I'm going to bed...
'Long-life challenge' - shaman {16} (4th and final update)
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/911061/#Comment_911061
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/911233/#Comment_911233
I didn't use PfU in the opening SoD, but just bulled through, mainly using area damage spells. Lots of retreating there exposed the Flaming Fist and they were soon reduced down to just the healer. At some point in the early fights I got a level, which meant a hard choice about which of the lovely selection of 5th level spells to take. In the end I went for iron skins, just because of the danger from backstabbers.
Rather than rest to get more summons for Korlasz I just used exploding arrows to thin out her guards and then arrows of biting to poison her - quickly persuading her to give up.
Various NPCs were stripped of their equipment before it was time to hit the road. The first encounter was saving a vampire from some hunters thanks to the old nymph confusion trick. The next was an ambush area with a bunch of trolls. Ironskins, barkskin, DUHM and the girdle of piercing provided a good defence while spirit fire wore down the trolls in the upper cave. There were more down below, but I just grabbed the Firefly sling and left them.
Moving towards the bridge I again failed to get my summons there first and resorted to a fireball to disrupt initial spells while the nymphs threw in various spells from outside the barrier. Once the parley was over I couldn't resist attacking the enemies and had killed all but the mage I think. On approaching him I saw him throw a hold person, but ignored that as the buckler I was using gave immunity to hold. Unfortunately I also decided at just that moment to swap the sling I had been using for a bow in order to get through stoneskins quicker - thus deactivating the effect of the buckler ...
Or perhaps the game just offers a way to pass the time ...
As for success in no-reload I've always subscribed to the idea that it's not the winning it's the taking part that's important
Phantasmic 6 {65} - monks party (update 1)
Previous run:
Picking up my monk challenge again I decided to reroll all the characters to give something of a fresh feel to it. Incidentally, in doing that I was surprised at how easily I got good rolls. I've posted on lots of occasions about the tendency for HP rolls to be high, but haven't previously considered whether the same thing might occur with initial stat rolls. It may very well be that I was just lucky this morning, but I'll keep more of an eye on future characters to see if that tendency for lucky stat rolls persists.
The changes are very limited to my previous set of monks though - the only significant one is swapping the initial missile weapon mix to 3x sling, 2x dagger and 1x dart (rather than 2x dart and 1x dagger as before). That reflects the greater damage done by daggers in the EE and the 400% increase in stack sizes for them). I've also imported into the EE this time the custom monk script Gate70 wrote for me a long time ago - that doesn't do any fighting, but can automate attempts at some other actions, in particular stealth.
They're only playing on Core difficulty and with just my standard restrictions this time. Although this installation includes SCS, that makes this a relatively easy setup, so I'll be disappointed if they don't at least get into SoD.
With 2 dagger users in the party ammunition could be a considerable expense. Thus, after shooting down Shoal, the monks spent a while trying to get a good night's rest at High Hedge - collecting a backpack full of daggers in the process
The extra XP from all those skeletons meant that a conversation with Marl got all the monks their first level.
Still half-drunk, the monks attacked Neera on the street, but without checking that everyone had a missile weapon equipped. Neera pulled in some bystanders to join in the argument, but they proved unable to help themselves.
I lost the XP for one of the sirines at Beregost Temple to a critical from a wild dog, but the others provided just enough to tip everyone over to level 3.
Wraith - L3, 26 HPs, 19 kills, 0 deaths
Spectre - L3, 27 HPs, 15 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L3, 28 HPs, 17 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L3, 22 HPs, 22 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L3, 27 HPs, 16 kills, 0 deaths
Chimera - L3, 23 HPs, 18 kills
Previous posts:
BG1 end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904835/#Comment_904835
SoD start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904866/#Comment_904866
SoD end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906579/#Comment_906579
BG2 start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906698/#Comment_906698
BG2 end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909375/#Comment_909375
ToB start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/909665/#Comment_909665
Part IXL: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/910474/#Comment_910474
Hah! Found some time to play again!
This was a fun session of ToB. We started off with a one-sided massacre at the oasis:
You know you're starting to develop godlike powers when you don't even have a scratch after taking on an entire army, I guess. And, as @JuliusBorisov has mentioned, at a certain point LoB starts to feel a bit like a regular run on insane difficulty. For me, this only really started to happen somewhere mid-BG2, but I do agree that things start to feel much easier in late BG1 already. However, SoD provided me with a quick return back to how LoB is propably supposed to feel, so be on your guard
Most fights in Amkethran aren't worth talking about, but that doesn't include Vongoethe - he often offers an interesting challenge (and has a very interesting spellbook, even in vanilla). With all these banshees, the party was really glad to have death ward. I prepared a couple of sunray spells for this battle, and also equipped sunray-providing items to speed things up:
This battle took quite a while: While the deva did a great job, our sunrays didn't get us any instant kills, and we had to remove the lich's protections multiple times, wait for him to be revealed to true sight (he used multiple instant shadow door spells) etc. - he didn't cast his dragon's breath, but I was prepared for that one anyway, having buffed the entire party with protection from fire. He did, however, affect Arbogast and Anomen with greater malison. Still, eventually, he couldn't escape our wrath forever:
And the battle is won, right? Well, not quite - a couple of mostly harmless skeleton archers, should be no trouble... well, here's something I didn't think about or even bothered to check: It seems that there isn't only a teleport field going on this screen, but also a sphere of chaos? That's the only explanation I have for what happened next:
Say hello to Sir Squirrel Delryn, Rodent of the Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart. This is funny in many different ways - especially since I just recently mentioned that I had never gotten a party member polymorphed before, thus claiming that I didn't see the point of ever protecting against this. Well, turns out the greater malison actually made it possible. This was potentially really bad for me - with his sudden 1 hp left, one arrow could've easily chunked Amoen. Luckily, his aura was clear, and he was able to drink a potion of invisibility even in squirrel form - and the polymorph effect ended rather quickly:
That was a close one. Marlowe even survived, and we left to clear the outside areas of the enclaves. Why? Because I wanted to face my archenemy Draconis early on, this time - I wanted to test a strategy I had prepared for him.
First, the multiple drow ambushes, though - I needed money to buy some crucial scrolls first. This hive mother used her anti-magic ray on Arbogast, forcing him to run. She did send a death ray right after him, but with no chance to get past his saves.
With true sight, some summons and improved haste at the ready, these drow didn't really stand a chance:
Now, let's have a chat with Draconis, my old friend: We opened with a couple of summons (elemental prince, deva, 2 mordy swords) and let him waste his initial chain contingency on them:
A breach spell later, and his human form was gone:
As soon as he turned into his dragon form (with the transformation killing my summons), I used a couple of instant-summoning abilites (like the golem manual, the berserker's horn and a spirit animal). Imoen, separated from the rest of the party, started casting time stop. Arbogast tried to add an elemental prince while the fighters used smite, attempting to stun Draconis - but he seems to be immune to stun effects.
Now, he had previously cast PFMW - for my plan to work I had to breach him with Nahema before Imoen's timestop fired. He also used remove magic, but targeting himself, so I wasn't scared of losing my protections. Sadly, breach didn't hit in time, and draconis remained immune to Imoen's attempts to kill him via int drain as a mind flayer... plan a) has failed, but I still had plan b) and c) going. Plan c) would be running away, btw.
Plan b) involved Mazzy, the Sling of Everard and the Helm of Vhailor, plus some GWWs. It took some time to set this up, tough. First, a wing buffet forced Arbogast and Aikar away, while Draconis was chasing Imoen. He eventually used breach on her, removing not only stoneskin but, more importantly, protection from acid - one breath attack on her would mean a certain chunking, so she had to get away, and she did (with ihaste still going, she was faster than the dragon, and Arbogast managed to distract him with spirit animals, who turned out to be very useful due to how quickly he can summon them - even distracting Draconis for one round is totally worth it).
Anyway, I managed to get Mazzy + simmy in position and they started to deal tons of damage. Anomen and Aikar tried to help, though I had to move them around a bit thanks to invisible stalkers still being a somewhat serious threat with LoB extra damage.
While Draconis wasted his time killing a spirit wolf, Aikar and Mazzy got him to near death. Anomen, however, got hit with remove magic - I equipped him with with some acid resistance via a helm, hoping this would give him the ability to at least not get chunked by a potential breath weapon:
Instead of chasing Anomen, Draconis tried to turn invisible, but Imoen - who stayed at a certain distance, but close enough to make sure she was still useful with true sight - revealed him right away. He went invisible once again, this time fleeing to the south (with Imoen revealing him after a few seconds), and used an instantly cast cure critical wounds - but that doesn't do a lot compared to the damage we are able to dish out:
Draconis used another breath weapon, but not on the two vulnerable characters - he did hit almost everyone else, but 100% resistance is a very useful thing to have. At the same time, Mazzy landed the final hit:
There's a reason I chose grandmastery in slings for Mazzy instead training her with a melee weapon! And yes, I did shamelessly steal that build from @Alesia_BH
I will propably try my hand at Sendai's Enclave next time.
Enuhal