At last Nashkel is at peace. If we perish in some ambush tomorrow then at least we shall have preserved one corner of the world. We saved Brage from his sickness, and hopefully he will master his grief and prove of service again. The mines too have at last been cleansed of their foul denizens. Kobolds, duregar wielding foul enchantents, that horde of spiders that made Gavin squeal, and the shuffling dead who I cannot touch... At the last Mulahey fell and we were able to free his noble captive, the Evereskan Herald Xan. Now the villagers who looked askance at us know something of our quality. Twice I was driven back. Three times I descended and drove the enemy back. And with each casualty we grew in our hunger and our skill, and refined our quality.
But the cost..we must choose our battles wisely. The enemy waits like a snake, ambushing at bridges and when we are unaware. Who laid that snare thither of a lady caught by gnolls? Those baseborn rogues who ambushed us as we made our weary climb were practiced assassins too strong to stand against on that narrow way. We shall not risk that path again. Molkar and his fellows came like thieves in the night, but they could not stand us... but it is the elves who I remember as I close my eyes. I remember Kagain breaking as they cut out his heart in the night. I remember Skie shrieking as they cut her before some enchantment whisked her away. But I do not blame Skie. It was she who called up hordes of Gibberlings. It was she who cooked them in fire with her wand. It was she who distracted them long enough for me to break their minds and my companions to break their skulls. We must take care however, and move unpredictably. I will not be baited into trouble again.
It was fortunate that at our next meeting Jaheira and Khalid saw fit to tell me more of their past. I can now see that Jaheira had a not unworthy upbringing, and while her paramour should display more steel his prowess cannot be faulted thus far. We have patrolled much of the north now in their company. We have learned much of the wilderness, and of the iniquities of things inhuman and human. Even among the Sirenes there are those who would kill like bandits, and those who would speak soft words and submit their grievances to our justice. We have culled the swarming ankhegs, we have dealt with the restless dead. We have disrupted the bandits' chain of command by eliminating that worthless wretch Tranzig. If Elminster himself (and Jaheira avouched as to the truth of *his* identity) had not assured us of the value of that information then I might doubt it further...but it is so, and the bandits may be found in the woods. We shall find them in due course, and learn what we can of their true masters.
[I've been rather sick but have made steady progress. Stirkus and his band are at around 30,000 XP now. After Kagain and Skie were chunked by backstabbing elves I've reshuffled to- Stirkus, psypher. Jaheira fighter/druid of Silvanus. Khalid- fighter. Isra- Cherub of the Ruby Rose. Ajantis- Everwatch Knight. Xan- Herald. Plenty of connections to the nobility here . The Psypher class is interesting, good at dealing with single opponents but not so much with groups. The mods are making things quite difficult, but adroit use of tactical retreats has kept the man himself safe so far, and I have downgraded any useful items acquired.]
Starting again, this time I didn't initially bother with any minor quests and encounters, but just went straight for high value targets. A summary of progress to date is: - Shoal - Nashkel to get Bhaal LMD - ankhegs (level up)
- a few odds and sods culminated with the Beregost spiders to get a further level up
- killed the basilisks then got another level by trapping Kirian's party
- cleared some high value enemies from Durlag's Tower - Melicamp once more survived and triggered another level
- hunted down various sirines and golems - doomed the Doomsayer and reversed the Revenant - sneaked through the Nashkel Mine and silenced Mulahey - watched Tranzig die to spirit snake poison - killed Bassilus while Kelddath was still alive to provide a reward. On the way to get that ran away from some ambushing amazons - killed Kelddath and the wolf pack at Beregost Temple - while doing some more odds and sods was ambushed by Molkar. No-one was invisible so I just ran away - did some exploring on the first level down of Durlag's, but didn't trust 85% find traps so left again after killing various dopplegangers and spiders. Upstairs, summons and stair hopping drained the ghost of spells to allow shamanic summons to finish it off. - some more lower value encounters were done to push everyone up a further level.
I'd been waiting for that and this time did actually use protection from lightning at the Bandit Camp.
A few slight differences from the previous run I noted: - I've used Shillelagh significantly more (primarily to finish disabled enemies off quicker). - I don't ever remember killing Joia before, but I did so this time thinking that would reduce reputation (but it didn't ).
- I remembered to use Pauper's true sight ability rather more regularly, e.g. on sirines. - I've got all the desired evil Bhaal powers so far.
Back in Baldur's Gate, we took out Cythandria and Krystin from a safe distance, letting skeletons do most of the work:
I also rescued Duke Eltan (though I didn't bother killing the greater doppelganger) and made my way to the duchal palace. With cloud giant strength, DUHM, heroism and oil of speed plus dualwielding I tried to boost Iloïnens damage output as much as possible in order to take out the doppelgangers before they could kill both dukes. While I failed to save Llia, Belt ended up surviving:
I once again used protection spells against the traps in the thieve's maze, and sanctuary allowed me to get past the Iron Throne party. I prepared for Sarevok with four skeletons and full buffs, luring my foe towards me. However, when Semaj teleported in, a remove magic got rid of some of my protection spells and greater malison lowered my saves, so I used a potion of clarity, which turned out to be a good idea:
With Semaj killed, I took the time to apply another giant strength potion and heroism plus defensive harmony before engaging Sarevok. After a couple of bullets, Iloïnen entered melee combat to test herself - I ended up not even losing a single skeleton:
As for Korlasz' tomb, I thought about sneaking past most foes while invisible and protected from undead, but decided against it, instead trying to clear the entire place, resting after every two groups under the protection of sanctuary. Everything went rather well - since I've managed to get past this place on LoB somehow, I'm not as scared of it as I used to be. A ray of enfeeblement trap in the room before Korlasz turned out to be quite annoying, preventing me from moving. The flaming fist healer died in this battle, but I had already bought the relevant scrolls and potions (mostly chaotic command scrolls, as Iloïnen doesn't have fifth level spells yet):
Btw, I don't know what most of the traps in SoD actually do, so things like this could easily be my downfall. Anyway, I opened up the Korlasz battle by throwing a necklace of missles charge at her allies:
One more charge and some sling attacks brought everyone but Korlasz down. She had the trouble of getting past my chaotic command spell, cast via one of the mentioned scrolls - the only one of her disable spells capable of doing something was glitterdust, but Iloïnen's thac0 was still good enough to easily hit and kill my foe:
And now, I'm all caught up - not sure when I will find the time to continue this run, but I'm looking forward to it!
Hrothgara I died down one flight at Dulgag's Tower. I wasn't careful enough against the doppelgangers. Hrothganger II has just left Candlekeep. Perhaps she will do a little better.
@Grond0 is probably one of those players the BG tips warns about - he needs to see that tip to remember to eat, as BioWare doesn't want to lose any dedicated players...as such, he leaves the rest of us behind, as far as our BG runs go anyways...
I think he just knows so much about BG that he can pick the absolute fastest path between each source of XP or loot, and he knows so much about the game engine that he can rapidly take down challenges with surgical precision.
It's been some time, but finally here's some progress. The last report described how the Bandit Camp was defeated, so now it was Cloakwood's turn.
First, Seniyad. Blindness worked and thus blocked any Call Lightning risks. Silence and summons finished the battle.
Invisibility, 10 Radius proved to be the best spell the party needed. Cloakwood's ambushes can be nasty, but insibible travelling let the party to start these fights the way they wanted. Usually it meant retreating out of the enemies' sight, summoning and then attacking from the distance.
This spell helped greatly at the spiders' area. No phase spiders upon entering, calm disarming of all traps in the area - it was possible because of the Invis spell. Only when the area was fully disarmed, the group started fighing local spiders.
100% resistance against Cold (from Gorion's belt) let Uzume draw out the spiders from the Centeol cave safely. The cursed creature was later backstabbed.
Good alignment meant no Amarande fight, as the druid provided useful information about the Iron Throne's location.
The Hamadryad and wyverns from the cave coulndn't handle the group's summons.
Now, the fight against Drasus, another important step. I played it fair and let Drasus see the main character, talk to him and later charge forward (so no off-screen Web). 2 spririt bears and 2 skeletons met Drasus while the rest of his party didn't interfere. Doom and Blindness from several attempts finished him.
Sigyn then casted Invisibility Purge to reveal two hidden mages, and this time it seemed fair to cast Web and attack with summons.
Rezdan failed his saves against Web, Death (arrows of biting) and then Horror from the spirit bears.
Uzume gulped the potion of Freedom and explored the Webbed area a bit to find Kysus and order the summons to attack the second mage. Genthore was held at that time because of Web, so the group safely casted Blindnes and Hold Person on him. The second spell worked. Kysus, protected by MGoI, started to move forward.
Looking at insane Sunfires Kysus kept spamming, the group, especially the main character, tried not to stay close to him. The spirit bear kept attacking the mage in melee. Only Cochrane who gulped the potion of Fire Resistance, was allowed to stay closer to Kysus.
The spirit bear doesn't have poison attacks but Horror can be effective as well. Yes, the enemy keeps running which makes you constantly follow him, but it still doesn't let any dangerous casting. Finally Kysus failed his save against death from arrows of biting.
I still tried to put at least the main character out of the mage's line of sight, and it paid off. At one moment, the Horror effect ended and Kysus fired a Minor Sequencer towards Sigyn (with 2 Melf's Acid Arrows). The mage was dead the second later but the group still didn't have enough healing spells to counter ~20 damage per round (I didn't want to use the Protection from Magic scroll or any of the limited anti-magic potions). The battle was won at the price of one resurrection of Sigyn (and thanks to the Invisibility spell travelling will be safe).
Here’re the current standings (111 days and 23 hours): Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 6, 32 HPs, 36 kills, Greater Basilisk (4% in the group) Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 5/5, 38 HPs, 224 kills, Revenant (27% in the group), 0 deaths Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 5/6, 45 HPs, 210 kills, Greater Basilisk (26% in the group), 0 deaths Cochrane, archer, lvl 6, 51 HPs, 253 kills, Vampiric Wolf (31% in the group), 0 deaths Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 7, 51 HPs, 44 kills, Polar Bear (5% in the group), 1 death (Kysus) Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/5, 22 HPs, 40 kills, Lesser Basilisk (4% in the group), 4 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal; 1 - Mulahey)
I went through the Cloakwood once more just cleaning up the second area on the way. I did make a mistake with one journey however by forgetting to rest after arriving - with the result that I ran out of invisibility and was lucky that a rest while visible was successful.
Drasus and co were webbed and failed to take any action before I wandered down to find Davaeorn. This time I did have a go at charming the guard and trying to kill Davaeorn with his attacks. The charm didn't last quite long enough to finish him off, but he was badly wounded and an attack by invisible summons finished him off before he could call for help.
I rested to get a second Bhaal horror before flooding the mine.
In the City I was making swift progress, but a moment's inattention proved costly. For the basilisk I sent Hardup in to trigger the conversation while the sorcerers buffed up. They then came in and started pelting the basilisk with magic missiles, but guess who hadn't left the building . As the basilisk switched from its gaze to melee attack it spotted Hardup in the distance and he proved to be a bit too far away from the door to get out before the gaze hit. At least now the statue blocking the doorway will serve as a reminder to future generations of adventurers to be more careful.
There's no way to get him back in my installation, so that's the end of the run.
@Grond0 Technically, when you talk to Degrodel you get 5 stone to flesh scrolls as part of the quest (thus, are quest items), couldn't you use those to bring your guy back?
I hadn't thought about it before, but perhaps Stone to Flesh would be a good spell pick for a Charname sorcerer in a poverty BG2 run after PFMW and Contingency. Freedom would also be important; we don't have the option of using a Freedom scroll in case something goes wrong.
CTRL-J caused a game-breaking bug because I skipped over the chapter trigger in Davaeorn's lair, but the console let me go back and walk over it, beginning the next chapter and opening up Baldur's Gate.
There are some dangerous archers in a mod ambush on the bridge, with multiple archers who use arrows that paralyze the target with no saving throw (it's supposed to offer a save, but doesn't). Fortunately, they start out neutral and cannot see through invisibility.
But rather than walking past them, we used dryads to charm them and turn them against each other, instantly paralyzing every hostile archer. It didn't take long, but it could have: the archers are elves or half-elves and are resistant to charm effects.
I'm not familiar with the city of Baldur's Gate, so I just stomped the ogre mage and Seven Suns doppelgangers with summons and left for Mutamin's garden. With two Spirit Snakes and three skeletons, we were easily able to take down the Medusae, and a Fireball softened up Mutamin so our snakes could finish him off with poison. Mutamin's most dangerous spell is Remove Magic, but since I kept the party at a distance while invisible, and because our summons were innately immune to petrification, we were completely safe. We killed Kirian with traps.
From there, we stopped by Durlag's Tower, slaying the Battle Horrors with spell damage and letting our summons do most of the work up until the fight with Love et al, which I declined to start. My Bounty Hunter only had 50 in Detect Traps and couldn't disarm many of the traps in the area, so my Totemic Druid had to use their buffs to tank the traps and lead the summons around.
Our summons took down the Firewine Bridge ruins, including Lendarne, the ogre mage, and some mod-introduced trolls outside (finished off with Acid Arrow spells). Lendarne, like Mutamin, suffered an introductory Fireball before our Spirit Snakes poisoned him to death. The poison has proven more reliable than I expected.
The party is now at level 7. Since I farmed lots ankhegs earlier on, I don't want to dig into a bunch of side quests to earn XP, but I really should get my cleric to level 9 so I can resurrect my third sorcerer, just for extra firepower to use against Sarevok. Balduran's Isle seems much too melee-heavy for our party to survive and Durlag's Tower will require a higher Detect Traps skill for us to succeed (I have no intention of ever tackling the Death Knight at all, or even the chess match), so maybe I'll stop by some mod areas like the second and third levels of the Ulcaster ruins. The enemies there are really strong, but their AI is terrible and they give lots of XP. And maybe I could farm some of the ogres attacking Gullykin, whenever they show up.
Does anyone know what Sarevok's stats will be when his cronies are dead? Will he have massive MR? Because if he does, we absolutely cannot face him before our sorcerers hit level 10 and get Lower Resistance; our summons simply won't be strong enough on their own.
@Grond0, do you have any thoughts about the fight with Sarevok? So far my only idea is to bait the enemy with a couple of cheap summons and then wait out all of their buffs using Invisibility and Invisibility 10' Radius. Then, hopefully, our snakes can poison the mages, our skeletons can take down Diarmid, and then we can kite Tazok and Sarevok with spell damage.
I may need over 200,000 XP to handle Sarevok regardless of his MR. We can't get a Fire Elemental until my Totemic Druid hits level 11, and my Bounty Hunter will need 220,000 XP to get lingering poison damage traps. Those two factors could really make the difference.
@Grond0 Technically, when you talk to Degrodel you get 5 stone to flesh scrolls as part of the quest (thus, are quest items), couldn't you use those to bring your guy back?
That comes down to your definition of a poverty run. I agree that some people would allow the use of quest items, but my rules forbid ever either using or equipping anything. That does mean some quests can't be done, but nothing significant.
@Grond0, do you have any thoughts about the fight with Sarevok? So far my only idea is to bait the enemy with a couple of cheap summons and then wait out all of their buffs using Invisibility and Invisibility 10' Radius. Then, hopefully, our snakes can poison the mages, our skeletons can take down Diarmid, and then we can kite Tazok and Sarevok with spell damage.
Assuming you just have the standard SCS battle it should be possible without over-levelling. Everyone except Angelo follows Sarevok in the battle so if one character sights Sarevok and leads him into a corner before going invisible then the others all follow him. Summons can then tempt Angelo out of invisibility and beat him up (skeletons or spirits are a good choice as they won't get confused or scared and run into the other enemies). Sarevok and the others won't react to area damage from out of sight so skull traps etc will deal with them (best to wait 10 turns to let Diarmid's PfM scroll wear off first). Once all the others are dead Sarevok has no magic resistance so volleys of magic missiles will make short work of him.
Sounds like bad scripting if they seriously won't respond to getting hit with Fireballs from outside their line of sight.
Good. Bad scripting is good.
Unfortunately, only one sorcerer knows Fireball; my Dragon Disciple only knows Slow and Invisibility 10' Radius. If my other sorcerer casts six Fireballs at level 8 and my Bounty Hunter throws two Special Snares, we're looking at about 121 damage assuming all saving throws are successful. But that looks almost enough to take down Diarmid, Tazok, and Semaj, leaving only the Skeleton Warriors.
@Grond0: I just performed a test and it looks like Sarevok has 100% magic resistance in my install even if Semaj, Angelo, Tazok, and Diarmid are all dead, as well as if the Skeleton Warriors who replace them are dead as well. Sarevok also has 40% resistance to fire, acid, cold, and electrical damage. On top of that, his Haste is completely undispellable; it comes from an item and even CTRL-R won't remove it.
On the plus side, his weapon is bugged. Instead of a sword, he wields... 7 gold pieces. Which deal zero damage when he hits. So I could just punch him until he falls down and then use Shillelagh to deal the final blow. The only problem would be taking down his goons.
Testing also found that Diarmid is immune to Web even after his Protection from Magic scroll has worn off and that Tazok's fire resistance is temporary rather than permanent.
I just tried my hand at the enemies on the third level of the Ulcaster ruins and it seems that they can cast level 12+ Chromatic Orbs at you even if you're invisible and have never even entered his field of vision. My Totemic Druid hadn't buffed with Death Ward and failed a save against the odds. All I have is two sorcerers, a Bounty Hunter, and a Cleric of Helm. I simply need those Totemic Druid summons if we're going to function properly.
@Mantis37: Apparently not. I think SCS only modifies vanilla enemies and a few specific Tactics or Ascension enemies depending on your install; it doesn't modify all mod-introduced mages.
Anyway, I fought the respawning Gullykin ogres for over an hour and collected about 20,000 XP per party member, putting us about 80,000 shy of Raise Dead. We had three extremely close calls in the process, though: the enemy fighters hit hard and often and nearly killed both my Bounty Hunter (!) and my cleric (!!!) on separate occasions, and a Horror spell caught us off guard, though fortunately we were able to cast Remove Fear on the Bounty Hunter and Invisibility on our second sorcerer. We're now at sorcerer level 9, and have double Fireballs plus Minute Meteors and Emotion: Hopelessness (which in my install stuns for 10 rounds instead of putting enemies to sleep for 2 rounds per level).
I didn't think things would get quite this complicated. I planned on a low=risk, low-intensity poverty run where I kept the party invisible pretty much 100% of the time up until the fight with Sarevok. But without a Totemic Druid, we simply have to participate in fights; a cleric's summons are really not adequate on their own.
Anyway, I fought the respawning Gullykin ogres for over an hour and collected about 20,000 XP per party member, putting us about 80,000 shy of Raise Dead.
@semiticgod what spawns do you get in the pirate cave in your installation? If that's golems then they would be a very quick and easy source of XP - just use invisibility to block off your sorcerers and MMM them to death.
semiticgod said:On the plus side, his weapon is bugged. Instead of a sword, he wields... 7 gold pieces. Which deal zero damage when he hits. So I could just punch him until he falls down and then use Shillelagh to deal the final blow. The only problem would be taking down his goons.
Unless EE has changed things, you can kill him by just punching him. I once played in Tutu a non-violent fighter/thief and the object was to complete BG1 without killing anybody. I backstabbed him with my fists and killed him.
I was wanting to get him killed by setting off a trap, but he died before I got to the stage.
PS I f you have the Vynd mod, he throws gold pieces at a character in the Cloakwood mines (The one who asks for 100gp) and they do one HP of damage.
I may need over 200,000 XP to handle Sarevok regardless of his MR. We can't get a Fire Elemental until my Totemic Druid hits level 11, and my Bounty Hunter will need 220,000 XP to get lingering poison damage traps. Those two factors could really make the difference.
If there are no other quests that you want to do, you can always try sleeping in the ankheg lair. I avoid doing that myself unless I am just wanting a few thousand in order to level up. Experience mining isn't my scene.
)I didn't think things would get quite this complicated. I planned on a low=risk, low-intensity poverty run where I kept the party invisible pretty much 100% of the time up until the fight with Sarevok. But without a Totemic Druid, we simply have to participate in fights; a cleric's summons are really not adequate on their own.
Well, I have the feeling that your situation also has a lot to do with your install. With all those mod introduces enemies (with little regards to balance, as far as I've seen in your runs lately), you make your own life a lot more miserable than it could be. Your playing a "hard-as-balls" version of a poverty run.
What are your thoughts about that ? Do you think mods crank up the difficulty - and if so, is it too much ? Or do you think that you would actually run into the same type of problems in a less modded install ?
Anyway, I fought the respawning Gullykin ogres for over an hour and collected about 20,000 XP per party member, putting us about 80,000 shy of Raise Dead.
@semiticgod what spawns do you get in the pirate cave in your installation? If that's golems then they would be a very quick and easy source of XP - just use invisibility to block off your sorcerers and MMM them to death.
Or wyverns in the Wyvern's Cave in Cloakwood. They give 1,400 xp.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 143 part 12 3 Tynea, halfling Cleric (Gate70) Brave, human Skald (Grond0)
Another day, another lack of journal entries. After a minute or two Tynea and Brave remember they are in Baldur's Gate stood outside Sorcerous Sundries. A quick inventory check reveals some bracers that cannot be handed in at the docks, and Nestor's dagger which is returned to his friend. We try to get the cloak of Balduran but there are a couple of issues.
First, Tynea is pinned inside Degrodel's house as she tries to lure enemies outside - forcing a round at 13hp after a cure wounds spell fails before she can gulp a potion of invisibility. With those enemies defeated it should be plain sailing but Quenash refuses to talk to us after Tynea is rude to Vail. Later Quenash, later.
Our party moves on to the Seven Suns and Iron Throne headquarters, leaving no evidence of our passage
Duke Eltan wants us to go check out Candlekeep, although looting the catacombs was not what he meant we think he should be happy with our other work while there.
On our return though, there is no sign of him. Instead we track down Slythe and kill him, then send a skeleton warrior in to stand near Quenash and guard her against cloudkill. Our ruse works, and after killing Krystin off we pick up the cloak of Balduran.
There are some invitations to the coronation, so we mosey on over and stick some annoyance into Sarevok's plans.
After a one-sided encounter outside an abandoned temple we head inside and treat Sarevok to another dose of the same. (Brave never even asks why Tynea is sticking to unenchanted bullets instead of finally using +2's)
Siege of Dragonspear Korlasz is holed up in her safehouse, and we've been sent in to deal with her. The initial area only has two groups of enemies, the first being meleed and the second coerced into surrender. We head downstairs.
Tynea tries turning the first two groups of undead from invisibility and sanctuary. Not entirely successful but the numbers are thinned and their formation is broken so don't last long against us.
Brave lights up the next group with a fireball before Tynea orders her quintet of buffed skeleton warriors to the front. After clearing that encounter, they do much the same in the next although Brave makes time to get himself poisoned and head to a healer mid battle rather than use a potion or get Tynea to cast a special ability.
Korlasz tries to cheat death by turning neutral while commanded so our attacking skeleton warriors switch to other targets. Tynea quickly forces her skeleton warriors to turn back on the prone magelet and the safehouse is ours. Although Brave found time to compliment the AI of enemy archers in this final safehouse encounter, one in particular shooting, switching to melee, running, and repeating. At one point it looked like the archer would come out on top but Brave landed a hit with his staff just as it got interesting.
We've just got time to take a pile of loot to the shops, and pick up some spectacles for the skald.
I defeated some pretty powerful assassins in Candlekeep andd after the death of Gorion proceeded northwards to Sonner's village. I sensed that he was evil and so disposed of him and his cohorts. What surprised me was that he didn't use his enchanted flail. Clearly he didn't have a great deal of intelligence.
I then proceeded north to meet Tenya. From her I discovered that Sonner was indeed evil. She joined me and I was amazed at how experienced such a young cleric can be, (What she needs is a kit! However cleric of Umberlee not yet available) She was level 5 to my level 1. However that soon changed as I then became level 2. We then fought and defeated an ankheg. before calling it a day and having a well-deserved sleep.
Well, I have the feeling that your situation also has a lot to do with your install. With all those mod introduces enemies (with little regards to balance, as far as I've seen in your runs lately), you make your own life a lot more miserable than it could be. Your playing a "hard-as-balls" version of a poverty run.
What are your thoughts about that ? Do you think mods crank up the difficulty - and if so, is it too much ? Or do you think that you would actually run into the same type of problems in a less modded install ?
The mod enemies do grant a lot of additional XP, often well over 1,000 each, so some of them are very much worth tackling. But based on the death of the Totemic Druid and the near-death of two other party members who only survived thanks to Invisibility spells at the right moment, I have to say that the mod enemies make the game much more challenging, especially in a poverty run.
I had kind of a rough week, but still manage to pick things up lately. So, here goes...
We decided to explore the Windspear Hills. Killed some knights, some child got abduced, threaten by a dragon, yada yada yada, the usual stuff. Into Firkraag's lair, the first significant fight was Ruhk the Transmuter. Since I installed SCS "More Consistent Breach Spell" component, that fight was not as hard as it used to be. Jaheira dispelled his cloud with Gust of Wind and Xan casted True Seeing, Pierce Magic and Breach in succession, while the rest of the team was meleeing Ruhk. When Ruhk's Contingency fired, Miluiel breached him again. Ruhk fell soon enough.
Then, I buffed up Jaheira and Gavin so they could take down the two Stone Golems and the Juggernaut Golem. Jaheira was still using Shillelagh in this fight (it's really an awesome spell with IR). They did a wonderful job.
Next, the vampires... The plan was simple : block the first room with Gavin and buff him up while he takes those vampires down with the Mace of Disruption, with, if possible, help from ranged attack. It kinda worked that way... First, as soon as I met the second group of orcs in Firkraag's lair, the vampires decided to join the fray instantly. I managed to kill a few orcs at range, but had to retreat when the vampires showed up, because we were unprepared for them. I rearranged my spell selection, slept and went back in. I lured the vampires in, blocked the door with Gavin and managed to kill one vampire before the one next to it shapechanged into a wolf and bypassed Gavin to enter the room he was protecting. So, we had to scramble. Gavin was hunting those vampire bastards while everyone else were running for their life. Fully buffed, Gavin was attacking at very solid 4 APR (level 13 Divine Power, Boon of Lathander and Haste) with 21 Strength, so he did an very good job there. Eventually, we had three party members charmed, so we had to leave the room, because a charmed Kivan with the Strong Arm bow is not something fun to deal with. Gavin eventually managed to clear the place.
The rest of the dungeon was not as hard. While doing the Samia's quest, we killed the Director and the Guandian in quick succession.
Since it was late and I wanted to go to sleep, but still wanted to finish the Samia's arc, I cheesed their encounter by putting Alora's traps, Skull traps (Xan and Miluiel) and Fire traps (Jaheira) where they spawned. That killed the majority of them, but two of their guys managed to survive somehow. We mopped them up a few second later. That strat reeks of cheese, but I don't feel bad, because I just wanted to get this arc over with and that's probably the only time I'm gonna do such a thing in my run.
Next up : Greater Werewolves and Golems. Nothing of note here - and nothing Gavin and Jaheira (with Shillelagh again ) couldn't handle. I have only the golem's fight on picture, because these are the only one worth reporting.
The Tazok fight was nothing but a little bump into our progression, but I made sure that Kivan would be the one who killed the evil bastard. In his BG2 mod, Kivan decide to rip Tazok heart out to make sure he doesn't get resurrected again. I let him keep the heart in his inventory.
The Conster fight went smoothly also. While Jaheira and Gavin were summoning help, Xan did the buff removal : True Seeing, Pierce Magic, Breach, Secret Word (from Miluiel), and another Breach were enough to render him helpless. He managed to throw a Remove Magic at some point, but Miluiel responded with a Dispelling Screen. He went down fast enough.
So, we freed Garren Windspear's child and got our reputation cleaned up. We got back to the city, sold our stuff and paid the Shadow Thieves. It's the logical way to go for a bard. We then went in the upper room of Gaelan Bayle's house to see what the guy here had to sell, and a mod (don't know which) seems to had a shiny dagger to his possession, but he refuse to sell it. Intringued, I tried to steal it (with 165 in pick pockets), but muffed my attempt. Sadly, we had to kill the guy, because I couldn't manage to charm him back (he must be an elf). I feel bad for it (well, only a little), but I gained a wonderful dagger for Miluiel in the process.
It's gonna be a really nice weapon to use against those nasty vampires.
This is by far my most successful run ever. However, the "easy" sidequests are over now. I will not go destroy Bodhi's lair yet, because I want my party to be a bit stronger. I don't know what I'll do, though... I'm afraid of all the rest : Unseeing Eye quest, the Planar Prison and the Planar Sphere. Since I'm a bard, I'll probably go in the Planar Prison. I've also never done the bard Stronghold quest. I hope there's not too many surprises awaiting me here...
Good work so far, @Arctodus ! I would recommend NOT heading to the Planar Prison yet: it's probably the most dangerous of all the stronghold quests. A Triple Yuan-ti mage battle that can pull in the Master of Thralls with Better Cries for Help is asking for some serious trouble. And then the Warden himself has this terrifying Black Blade of Disaster + Timestop combo that could be an easy disintegration. It was the last stronghold quest in SoA that Baroque finished, and even then I kind of wanted to just skip it entirely! I did find out that, at least in my install, the Warden's A.I. doesn't function if he only sees summoned units: I think an Aerial servant killed him for me.
Comments
At last Nashkel is at peace. If we perish in some ambush tomorrow then at least we shall have preserved one corner of the world. We saved Brage from his sickness, and hopefully he will master his grief and prove of service again. The mines too have at last been cleansed of their foul denizens. Kobolds, duregar wielding foul enchantents, that horde of spiders that made Gavin squeal, and the shuffling dead who I cannot touch... At the last Mulahey fell and we were able to free his noble captive, the Evereskan Herald Xan. Now the villagers who looked askance at us know something of our quality. Twice I was driven back. Three times I descended and drove the enemy back. And with each casualty we grew in our hunger and our skill, and refined our quality.
But the cost..we must choose our battles wisely. The enemy waits like a snake, ambushing at bridges and when we are unaware. Who laid that snare thither of a lady caught by gnolls? Those baseborn rogues who ambushed us as we made our weary climb were practiced assassins too strong to stand against on that narrow way. We shall not risk that path again. Molkar and his fellows came like thieves in the night, but they could not stand us... but it is the elves who I remember as I close my eyes. I remember Kagain breaking as they cut out his heart in the night. I remember Skie shrieking as they cut her before some enchantment whisked her away. But I do not blame Skie. It was she who called up hordes of Gibberlings. It was she who cooked them in fire with her wand. It was she who distracted them long enough for me to break their minds and my companions to break their skulls. We must take care however, and move unpredictably. I will not be baited into trouble again.
It was fortunate that at our next meeting Jaheira and Khalid saw fit to tell me more of their past. I can now see that Jaheira had a not unworthy upbringing, and while her paramour should display more steel his prowess cannot be faulted thus far. We have patrolled much of the north now in their company. We have learned much of the wilderness, and of the iniquities of things inhuman and human. Even among the Sirenes there are those who would kill like bandits, and those who would speak soft words and submit their grievances to our justice. We have culled the swarming ankhegs, we have dealt with the restless dead. We have disrupted the bandits' chain of command by eliminating that worthless wretch Tranzig. If Elminster himself (and Jaheira avouched as to the truth of *his* identity) had not assured us of the value of that information then I might doubt it further...but it is so, and the bandits may be found in the woods. We shall find them in due course, and learn what we can of their true masters.
[I've been rather sick but have made steady progress. Stirkus and his band are at around 30,000 XP now. After Kagain and Skie were chunked by backstabbing elves I've reshuffled to- Stirkus, psypher. Jaheira fighter/druid of Silvanus. Khalid- fighter. Isra- Cherub of the Ruby Rose. Ajantis- Everwatch Knight. Xan- Herald. Plenty of connections to the nobility here
Previous run
Starting again, this time I didn't initially bother with any minor quests and encounters, but just went straight for high value targets. A summary of progress to date is:
- Shoal
- Nashkel to get Bhaal LMD
- ankhegs (level up)
- Melicamp once more survived and triggered another level
- doomed the Doomsayer and reversed the Revenant
- sneaked through the Nashkel Mine and silenced Mulahey
- watched Tranzig die to spirit snake poison
- killed Bassilus while Kelddath was still alive to provide a reward. On the way to get that ran away from some ambushing amazons
- killed Kelddath and the wolf pack at Beregost Temple
- while doing some more odds and sods was ambushed by Molkar. No-one was invisible so I just ran away
- did some exploring on the first level down of Durlag's, but didn't trust 85% find traps so left again after killing various dopplegangers and spiders. Upstairs, summons and stair hopping drained the ghost of spells to allow shamanic summons to finish it off.
- some more lower value encounters were done to push everyone up a further level.
A few slight differences from the previous run I noted:
- I've used Shillelagh significantly more (primarily to finish disabled enemies off quicker).
- I don't ever remember killing Joia before, but I did so this time thinking that would reduce reputation (but it didn't
- I've got all the desired evil Bhaal powers so far.
Beggar, Totemic Druid - L7, 53 HPs, 18 kills
Pauper, Priest of Helm - L6, 41 HPs, 71 kills, 0 deaths
Hardup, Shaman - L6, 44 HPs, 20 kills, 0 deaths
Washout, Bounty Hunter - L7, 47 HPs, 25 kills, 0 deaths
Aspire, Sorcerer - L6, 31 HPs, 37 kills, 0 deaths
Skint, Sorcerer - L6, 32 HPs, 41 kills, 0 deaths
HPs at this stage are significantly lower than the previous run, with Pauper actually dipping below the theoretical average.
Previous posts:
Part II: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/916040/#Comment_916040
Back in Baldur's Gate, we took out Cythandria and Krystin from a safe distance, letting skeletons do most of the work:
I also rescued Duke Eltan (though I didn't bother killing the greater doppelganger) and made my way to the duchal palace. With cloud giant strength, DUHM, heroism and oil of speed plus dualwielding I tried to boost Iloïnens damage output as much as possible in order to take out the doppelgangers before they could kill both dukes. While I failed to save Llia, Belt ended up surviving:
I once again used protection spells against the traps in the thieve's maze, and sanctuary allowed me to get past the Iron Throne party. I prepared for Sarevok with four skeletons and full buffs, luring my foe towards me. However, when Semaj teleported in, a remove magic got rid of some of my protection spells and greater malison lowered my saves, so I used a potion of clarity, which turned out to be a good idea:
With Semaj killed, I took the time to apply another giant strength potion and heroism plus defensive harmony before engaging Sarevok. After a couple of bullets, Iloïnen entered melee combat to test herself - I ended up not even losing a single skeleton:
As for Korlasz' tomb, I thought about sneaking past most foes while invisible and protected from undead, but decided against it, instead trying to clear the entire place, resting after every two groups under the protection of sanctuary. Everything went rather well - since I've managed to get past this place on LoB somehow, I'm not as scared of it as I used to be. A ray of enfeeblement trap in the room before Korlasz turned out to be quite annoying, preventing me from moving. The flaming fist healer died in this battle, but I had already bought the relevant scrolls and potions (mostly chaotic command scrolls, as Iloïnen doesn't have fifth level spells yet):
Btw, I don't know what most of the traps in SoD actually do, so things like this could easily be my downfall. Anyway, I opened up the Korlasz battle by throwing a necklace of missles charge at her allies:
One more charge and some sling attacks brought everyone but Korlasz down. She had the trouble of getting past my chaotic command spell, cast via one of the mentioned scrolls - the only one of her disable spells capable of doing something was glitterdust, but Iloïnen's thac0 was still good enough to easily hit and kill my foe:
And now, I'm all caught up - not sure when I will find the time to continue this run, but I'm looking forward to it!
Enuhal
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
9. Molkar and Lamalha groups are defeated
10. Taking on the full Bandit Camp
It's been some time, but finally here's some progress. The last report described how the Bandit Camp was defeated, so now it was Cloakwood's turn.
First, Seniyad. Blindness worked and thus blocked any Call Lightning risks. Silence and summons finished the battle.
Invisibility, 10 Radius proved to be the best spell the party needed. Cloakwood's ambushes can be nasty, but insibible travelling let the party to start these fights the way they wanted. Usually it meant retreating out of the enemies' sight, summoning and then attacking from the distance.
This spell helped greatly at the spiders' area. No phase spiders upon entering, calm disarming of all traps in the area - it was possible because of the Invis spell. Only when the area was fully disarmed, the group started fighing local spiders.
100% resistance against Cold (from Gorion's belt) let Uzume draw out the spiders from the Centeol cave safely. The cursed creature was later backstabbed.
Good alignment meant no Amarande fight, as the druid provided useful information about the Iron Throne's location.
The Hamadryad and wyverns from the cave coulndn't handle the group's summons.
Now, the fight against Drasus, another important step. I played it fair and let Drasus see the main character, talk to him and later charge forward (so no off-screen Web). 2 spririt bears and 2 skeletons met Drasus while the rest of his party didn't interfere. Doom and Blindness from several attempts finished him.
Sigyn then casted Invisibility Purge to reveal two hidden mages, and this time it seemed fair to cast Web and attack with summons.
Rezdan failed his saves against Web, Death (arrows of biting) and then Horror from the spirit bears.
Uzume gulped the potion of Freedom and explored the Webbed area a bit to find Kysus and order the summons to attack the second mage. Genthore was held at that time because of Web, so the group safely casted Blindnes and Hold Person on him. The second spell worked. Kysus, protected by MGoI, started to move forward.
Looking at insane Sunfires Kysus kept spamming, the group, especially the main character, tried not to stay close to him. The spirit bear kept attacking the mage in melee. Only Cochrane who gulped the potion of Fire Resistance, was allowed to stay closer to Kysus.
The spirit bear doesn't have poison attacks but Horror can be effective as well. Yes, the enemy keeps running which makes you constantly follow him, but it still doesn't let any dangerous casting. Finally Kysus failed his save against death from arrows of biting.
I still tried to put at least the main character out of the mage's line of sight, and it paid off. At one moment, the Horror effect ended and Kysus fired a Minor Sequencer towards Sigyn (with 2 Melf's Acid Arrows). The mage was dead the second later but the group still didn't have enough healing spells to counter ~20 damage per round (I didn't want to use the Protection from Magic scroll or any of the limited anti-magic potions). The battle was won at the price of one resurrection of Sigyn (and thanks to the Invisibility spell travelling will be safe).
Here’re the current standings (111 days and 23 hours):
Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 6, 32 HPs, 36 kills, Greater Basilisk (4% in the group)
Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 5/5, 38 HPs, 224 kills, Revenant (27% in the group), 0 deaths
Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 5/6, 45 HPs, 210 kills, Greater Basilisk (26% in the group), 0 deaths
Cochrane, archer, lvl 6, 51 HPs, 253 kills, Vampiric Wolf (31% in the group), 0 deaths
Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 7, 51 HPs, 44 kills, Polar Bear (5% in the group), 1 death (Kysus)
Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 5/5, 22 HPs, 40 kills, Lesser Basilisk (4% in the group), 4 deaths (2 by a kobold commando; 1 - Shoal; 1 - Mulahey)
Previous updates
Yep - the tortoise wins again
I went through the Cloakwood once more just cleaning up the second area on the way. I did make a mistake with one journey however by forgetting to rest after arriving - with the result that I ran out of invisibility and was lucky that a rest while visible was successful.
Drasus and co were webbed and failed to take any action before I wandered down to find Davaeorn. This time I did have a go at charming the guard and trying to kill Davaeorn with his attacks. The charm didn't last quite long enough to finish him off, but he was badly wounded and an attack by invisible summons finished him off before he could call for help.
In the City I was making swift progress, but a moment's inattention proved costly. For the basilisk I sent Hardup in to trigger the conversation while the sorcerers buffed up. They then came in and started pelting the basilisk with magic missiles, but guess who hadn't left the building
I hadn't thought about it before, but perhaps Stone to Flesh would be a good spell pick for a Charname sorcerer in a poverty BG2 run after PFMW and Contingency. Freedom would also be important; we don't have the option of using a Freedom scroll in case something goes wrong.
CTRL-J caused a game-breaking bug because I skipped over the chapter trigger in Davaeorn's lair, but the console let me go back and walk over it, beginning the next chapter and opening up Baldur's Gate.
There are some dangerous archers in a mod ambush on the bridge, with multiple archers who use arrows that paralyze the target with no saving throw (it's supposed to offer a save, but doesn't). Fortunately, they start out neutral and cannot see through invisibility.
But rather than walking past them, we used dryads to charm them and turn them against each other, instantly paralyzing every hostile archer. It didn't take long, but it could have: the archers are elves or half-elves and are resistant to charm effects.
I'm not familiar with the city of Baldur's Gate, so I just stomped the ogre mage and Seven Suns doppelgangers with summons and left for Mutamin's garden. With two Spirit Snakes and three skeletons, we were easily able to take down the Medusae, and a Fireball softened up Mutamin so our snakes could finish him off with poison. Mutamin's most dangerous spell is Remove Magic, but since I kept the party at a distance while invisible, and because our summons were innately immune to petrification, we were completely safe. We killed Kirian with traps.
From there, we stopped by Durlag's Tower, slaying the Battle Horrors with spell damage and letting our summons do most of the work up until the fight with Love et al, which I declined to start. My Bounty Hunter only had 50 in Detect Traps and couldn't disarm many of the traps in the area, so my Totemic Druid had to use their buffs to tank the traps and lead the summons around.
Our summons took down the Firewine Bridge ruins, including Lendarne, the ogre mage, and some mod-introduced trolls outside (finished off with Acid Arrow spells). Lendarne, like Mutamin, suffered an introductory Fireball before our Spirit Snakes poisoned him to death. The poison has proven more reliable than I expected.
The party is now at level 7. Since I farmed lots ankhegs earlier on, I don't want to dig into a bunch of side quests to earn XP, but I really should get my cleric to level 9 so I can resurrect my third sorcerer, just for extra firepower to use against Sarevok. Balduran's Isle seems much too melee-heavy for our party to survive and Durlag's Tower will require a higher Detect Traps skill for us to succeed (I have no intention of ever tackling the Death Knight at all, or even the chess match), so maybe I'll stop by some mod areas like the second and third levels of the Ulcaster ruins. The enemies there are really strong, but their AI is terrible and they give lots of XP. And maybe I could farm some of the ogres attacking Gullykin, whenever they show up.
Does anyone know what Sarevok's stats will be when his cronies are dead? Will he have massive MR? Because if he does, we absolutely cannot face him before our sorcerers hit level 10 and get Lower Resistance; our summons simply won't be strong enough on their own.
@Grond0, do you have any thoughts about the fight with Sarevok? So far my only idea is to bait the enemy with a couple of cheap summons and then wait out all of their buffs using Invisibility and Invisibility 10' Radius. Then, hopefully, our snakes can poison the mages, our skeletons can take down Diarmid, and then we can kite Tazok and Sarevok with spell damage.
Assuming you just have the standard SCS battle it should be possible without over-levelling. Everyone except Angelo follows Sarevok in the battle so if one character sights Sarevok and leads him into a corner before going invisible then the others all follow him. Summons can then tempt Angelo out of invisibility and beat him up (skeletons or spirits are a good choice as they won't get confused or scared and run into the other enemies). Sarevok and the others won't react to area damage from out of sight so skull traps etc will deal with them (best to wait 10 turns to let Diarmid's PfM scroll wear off first). Once all the others are dead Sarevok has no magic resistance so volleys of magic missiles will make short work of him.
Good. Bad scripting is good.
Unfortunately, only one sorcerer knows Fireball; my Dragon Disciple only knows Slow and Invisibility 10' Radius. If my other sorcerer casts six Fireballs at level 8 and my Bounty Hunter throws two Special Snares, we're looking at about 121 damage assuming all saving throws are successful. But that looks almost enough to take down Diarmid, Tazok, and Semaj, leaving only the Skeleton Warriors.
@Grond0: I just performed a test and it looks like Sarevok has 100% magic resistance in my install even if Semaj, Angelo, Tazok, and Diarmid are all dead, as well as if the Skeleton Warriors who replace them are dead as well. Sarevok also has 40% resistance to fire, acid, cold, and electrical damage. On top of that, his Haste is completely undispellable; it comes from an item and even CTRL-R won't remove it.
On the plus side, his weapon is bugged. Instead of a sword, he wields... 7 gold pieces. Which deal zero damage when he hits. So I could just punch him until he falls down and then use Shillelagh to deal the final blow. The only problem would be taking down his goons.
Testing also found that Diarmid is immune to Web even after his Protection from Magic scroll has worn off and that Tazok's fire resistance is temporary rather than permanent.
I just tried my hand at the enemies on the third level of the Ulcaster ruins and it seems that they can cast level 12+ Chromatic Orbs at you even if you're invisible and have never even entered his field of vision. My Totemic Druid hadn't buffed with Death Ward and failed a save against the odds. All I have is two sorcerers, a Bounty Hunter, and a Cleric of Helm. I simply need those Totemic Druid summons if we're going to function properly.
Anyway, I fought the respawning Gullykin ogres for over an hour and collected about 20,000 XP per party member, putting us about 80,000 shy of Raise Dead. We had three extremely close calls in the process, though: the enemy fighters hit hard and often and nearly killed both my Bounty Hunter (!) and my cleric (!!!) on separate occasions, and a Horror spell caught us off guard, though fortunately we were able to cast Remove Fear on the Bounty Hunter and Invisibility on our second sorcerer. We're now at sorcerer level 9, and have double Fireballs plus Minute Meteors and Emotion: Hopelessness (which in my install stuns for 10 rounds instead of putting enemies to sleep for 2 rounds per level).
I didn't think things would get quite this complicated. I planned on a low=risk, low-intensity poverty run where I kept the party invisible pretty much 100% of the time up until the fight with Sarevok. But without a Totemic Druid, we simply have to participate in fights; a cleric's summons are really not adequate on their own.
Unless EE has changed things, you can kill him by just punching him. I once played in Tutu a non-violent fighter/thief and the object was to complete BG1 without killing anybody. I backstabbed him with my fists and killed him.
I was wanting to get him killed by setting off a trap, but he died before I got to the stage.
PS I f you have the Vynd mod, he throws gold pieces at a character in the Cloakwood mines (The one who asks for 100gp) and they do one HP of damage.
What are your thoughts about that ? Do you think mods crank up the difficulty - and if so, is it too much ? Or do you think that you would actually run into the same type of problems in a less modded install ?
Tynea, halfling Cleric (Gate70)
Brave, human Skald (Grond0)
Another day, another lack of journal entries. After a minute or two Tynea and Brave remember they are in Baldur's Gate stood outside Sorcerous Sundries. A quick inventory check reveals some bracers that cannot be handed in at the docks, and Nestor's dagger which is returned to his friend. We try to get the cloak of Balduran but there are a couple of issues.
First, Tynea is pinned inside Degrodel's house as she tries to lure enemies outside - forcing a round at 13hp after a cure wounds spell fails before she can gulp a potion of invisibility. With those enemies defeated it should be plain sailing but Quenash refuses to talk to us after Tynea is rude to Vail. Later Quenash, later.
Our party moves on to the Seven Suns and Iron Throne headquarters, leaving
noevidence of our passageThere are some invitations to the coronation, so we mosey on over and stick some annoyance into Sarevok's plans.
(Brave never even asks why Tynea is sticking to unenchanted bullets instead of finally using +2's)
Siege of Dragonspear
Korlasz is holed up in her safehouse, and we've been sent in to deal with her. The initial area only has two groups of enemies, the first being meleed and the second coerced into surrender. We head downstairs.
Tynea tries turning the first two groups of undead from invisibility and sanctuary. Not entirely successful but the numbers are thinned and their formation is broken so don't last long against us.
Journal of Hrothgara
I defeated some pretty powerful assassins in Candlekeep andd after the death of Gorion proceeded northwards to Sonner's village. I sensed that he was evil and so disposed of him and his cohorts. What surprised me was that he didn't use his enchanted flail. Clearly he didn't have a great deal of intelligence.I then proceeded north to meet Tenya. From her I discovered that Sonner was indeed evil. She joined me and I was amazed at how experienced such a young cleric can be, (What she needs is a kit! However cleric of Umberlee not yet available) She was level 5 to my level 1. However that soon changed as I then became level 2. We then fought and defeated an ankheg.
Miluiel, the elven bard
BG1 posts : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD posts : 1, 2, 3, 4
SoA posts : 1, 2, 3
Notable mods
- SCS (full prebuffs, full Tactical Challenges)
- IR/SR
- Rogue Rebalancing
- plenty of NPC mods
- Tweak Anthology
- Refinements
I had kind of a rough week, but still manage to pick things up lately. So, here goes...
We decided to explore the Windspear Hills. Killed some knights, some child got abduced, threaten by a dragon, yada yada yada, the usual stuff. Into Firkraag's lair, the first significant fight was Ruhk the Transmuter. Since I installed SCS "More Consistent Breach Spell" component, that fight was not as hard as it used to be. Jaheira dispelled his cloud with Gust of Wind and Xan casted True Seeing, Pierce Magic and Breach in succession, while the rest of the team was meleeing Ruhk. When Ruhk's Contingency fired, Miluiel breached him again. Ruhk fell soon enough.
Then, I buffed up Jaheira and Gavin so they could take down the two Stone Golems and the Juggernaut Golem. Jaheira was still using Shillelagh in this fight (it's really an awesome spell with IR). They did a wonderful job.
Next, the vampires... The plan was simple : block the first room with Gavin and buff him up while he takes those vampires down with the Mace of Disruption, with, if possible, help from ranged attack. It kinda worked that way... First, as soon as I met the second group of orcs in Firkraag's lair, the vampires decided to join the fray instantly. I managed to kill a few orcs at range, but had to retreat when the vampires showed up, because we were unprepared for them. I rearranged my spell selection, slept and went back in. I lured the vampires in, blocked the door with Gavin and managed to kill one vampire before the one next to it shapechanged into a wolf and bypassed Gavin to enter the room he was protecting. So, we had to scramble. Gavin was hunting those vampire bastards while everyone else were running for their life. Fully buffed, Gavin was attacking at very solid 4 APR (level 13 Divine Power, Boon of Lathander and Haste) with 21 Strength, so he did an very good job there. Eventually, we had three party members charmed, so we had to leave the room, because a charmed Kivan with the Strong Arm bow is not something fun to deal with. Gavin eventually managed to clear the place.
The rest of the dungeon was not as hard. While doing the Samia's quest, we killed the Director and the Guandian in quick succession.
Since it was late and I wanted to go to sleep, but still wanted to finish the Samia's arc, I cheesed their encounter by putting Alora's traps, Skull traps (Xan and Miluiel) and Fire traps (Jaheira) where they spawned. That killed the majority of them, but two of their guys managed to survive somehow. We mopped them up a few second later. That strat reeks of cheese, but I don't feel bad, because I just wanted to get this arc over with and that's probably the only time I'm gonna do such a thing in my run.
Next up : Greater Werewolves and Golems. Nothing of note here - and nothing Gavin and Jaheira (with Shillelagh again
The Tazok fight was nothing but a little bump into our progression, but I made sure that Kivan would be the one who killed the evil bastard. In his BG2 mod, Kivan decide to rip Tazok heart out to make sure he doesn't get resurrected again. I let him keep the heart in his inventory.
The Conster fight went smoothly also. While Jaheira and Gavin were summoning help, Xan did the buff removal : True Seeing, Pierce Magic, Breach, Secret Word (from Miluiel), and another Breach were enough to render him helpless. He managed to throw a Remove Magic at some point, but Miluiel responded with a Dispelling Screen. He went down fast enough.
So, we freed Garren Windspear's child and got our reputation cleaned up. We got back to the city, sold our stuff and paid the Shadow Thieves. It's the logical way to go for a bard. We then went in the upper room of Gaelan Bayle's house to see what the guy here had to sell, and a mod (don't know which) seems to had a shiny dagger to his possession, but he refuse to sell it. Intringued, I tried to steal it (with 165 in pick pockets), but muffed my attempt. Sadly, we had to kill the guy, because I couldn't manage to charm him back (he must be an elf). I feel bad for it (well, only a little), but I gained a wonderful dagger for Miluiel in the process.
It's gonna be a really nice weapon to use against those nasty vampires.
This is by far my most successful run ever. However, the "easy" sidequests are over now. I will not go destroy Bodhi's lair yet, because I want my party to be a bit stronger. I don't know what I'll do, though... I'm afraid of all the rest : Unseeing Eye quest, the Planar Prison and the Planar Sphere. Since I'm a bard, I'll probably go in the Planar Prison. I've also never done the bard Stronghold quest. I hope there's not too many surprises awaiting me here...