Continuing their history of making great life choices, our intrepid team wander South, having relegated Morwen the ultrabard to a life of song and spell, sold all her gear, and given the proceeds to charity (and not in the optimal multiple donations bid either!).
I'm not sure why our reputation is so low. Here we are, betraying our employer in broad daylight after all.
Maybe it's because I keep forgetting that sanctuary doesn't actually stop the watch from being called or talking to you when you rob people?
Apparently the studded leather I found in Durlag's tower was, in fact, TN druid/shaman/barbarian only, and none of those pesky shorty barbarians either.
Why even have this as a game feature? What possible logic is there to it? Enchantments ain't free, someone is paying good money to ensure that only a specific brand of hobo, a particular race of that specific brand of hobo, and a specific worldview of that specific brand of race of hobo can equip something. And when a character isn't even some magically oriented class? Like a thief? There's a billion different variations on what the Thief class can represent, how the heck is it arbitrarily restricting against particularly sneaky fighters, rangers who can hide, or someone who happens to just wear that size?[/rant]
Whatever. There's exactly one character that's always necessary for a no-reload run to go successfully, and it's time to pick them up.
Yep, got our mage, this can't possibly go wrong. Hold Person flopped, but Garfield managed to drop the red wizard with Command next round before he started throwing around anything worse than mirror image. Skald boosted Ishlilka took him down after OHKOing the thugs in a single round.
Neera actually managed to get a decent, for her, HP at 17, only 3 off her maximum at level 5, and I finally have someone to wear Evermemory, not that I want her casting spells very often.
Wandering into High Hedge and beyond, Sirene has a lengthy conversation with Neera.
No consequences. At all.
Anyways, we're here for chicken and the dangerous mad cleric. Fortunately we all know a simple way to deal with the undead he has clustered around him.
For the record, I consider this to be one of the most roleplay justified nukes of blue circles in the game. A quick Armor Melt, and some archery crits that made it unnecessary, and Basillus is down. Garfield levels shortly after at the temple, hitting Swashbuckler 6. And with 90 in Find Traps, it's back off to Durlag's!
Wild Surges: 1. Neera slowed herself and a few waylaying bandits en route.
Trying to kill off the greaterlisks with Animate Dead proved troublesome after a crit dropped the last skeleton before the second greaterlisk, leaving Gabriel as the only viable target, and too slow to get out of range in time.
I'm so glad I neurotically horde potions. Mirrored Eyes saved the day faster than the speed of light.
Literally.
Since her own prot-pet is still active, Morgen finishes off the third somewhat more expensively with the wand of fire, at which point I remembered that I didn't actually have anyone with scimitar proficiency this game.
Derp. Better luck next time I guess.
Garf don't feel like talking.
And since ghosty doesn't turn hostile until he has a chat, an easy few level ups for Team Half-Breed (except Sirene, who's a quarter breed or something, I guess?).
Durlag's is an even bigger monty haul than usual, I half suspect Dark Horizons has something to do with it after picking up the +1 and +2 halberd in Durlag's second upper floor, along with the staff of striking. Since I have nobody proficient with halberds and the staff of striking is for lamers, hopefully that means Garfield can grab some decent armour before heading to advance the plot.
invest however many points into Find Traps are necessary to deal with the post-Ducal Palace maze traps (@Grond0, how much is that?).
@semiticgod I don't know the exact figure, but 50 would be sufficient.
And if that isn't sufficient, can always boost the trap scores temporarily with potions of mind focusing and perception. Well, if not a poverty run I guess should say...
With the phat l00t from Cyric's Chosen, we forge a few more items from Cromwell. Notable things include Water's Edge +4, Celestial Fury +5, and Daystar +4. We do the gong quest now that we're back in Athkatla and Rasaad levels up from the conclusion.
Now inside Suldanessellar, Irenicus' guardians are all dealt with and I learn to construct Mithril Golems.
Suneer kills himself in a Cloudkill from his Rakshasa ally.
Rasaad learns Solar Stance.
Coran sets a bunch of traps next to Johnny-boy. Irenicus is kill.
All the good paths in the hell trials are taken because they provide Brunash with the best benefits. All that awaits us now is Irenicus.
Nalia is on charged Breach duty so the golems can squish Johnny. But Johnny gets off his Time Stop in the first round, which I expected to be immune to due to my Staff of the Magi, but I was still affected by it for some reason. 2 Perfect Clays are up in his face and he demolishes one and nearly kills the other when the Time Stop ends. 2 normal Clays split off from the dead Perfect Clay.
One Balor down. I'm more worried about them Vorpaling my dudes than Johnny himself. Rasaad backs off and drinks a potion of magic shielding after being debuffed by Greater Malison to ensure he doesn't get instagibbed.
I notice that I've had all my buffs removed and use a Chain Contingency to ensure my survival: Haste, Mass Invisibilty, and Mislead. Around this time, the second Balor dies so its just the Glabrezus left who aren't as much of a threat so long as everybody stays at high HP.
Johnny-boy has destroyed all of my Perfect Clay golems but for each one gone, two more normal versions pop back out, and they continue to swarm him.
I get a charged Wish off: Greater Deathblow, Haste everyone, Hardiness, one piece of Iron to Mithril, Rest, and Improved Haste on party.
The last glabrezu falls, now its just us vs. Johnny-boy.
He's got PfMW up right now but that is easily fixed by Rasaad's Dragon Fist. Johnny receives a sound thrashing but he's not triggering his cutscene... He calls in a Fallen Planetar, despite being pummeled 6 ways to Sunday throughout his casting!
Just afterward, his Slayer transformation wears off as Rasaad uses the Gem of Seeing to uncover the Improved Invisible planetar. He takes a hit from it, but Johnny's cutscene plays instead, causing the planetar to twitch in defeat. I would've screenshotted this but you can't capture cutscenes.
Now in ToB, I take a minute to rest and repair the two surviving Clay golems, and refresh my Spell Trigger.
SoA Complete!
Now back to 1.69 NWN for a while. So many combinations to explore with the PRC pack.
Psions are hard to play with only 36 quickslots due to the metric asston of powers you get and because you don't always have to augment your powers to max level for them to be effective, so you have to choose the amount of Power Points you're willing to spend instead. Psions are unstoppable once they learn Shadow Body and Psionic Iron Body.
Careless targeting almost costs me my bazooka carrier as I catch them in the edge of the blast radius.
And then a ghast gets too close and shreds her in two rounds before I could save her. Oh well, she probably deserved it.
That's for not helping!
And Garfield finally gets a weapon upgrade. Bayard's 100% MR doesn't save him from Ishlilka's spell casting failure, and he folds from the collective attentions of the group.
And then Garfield found a manual of gainful exercise, just chilling on a bookshelf.
I honestly don't mind stat up tomes much, especially intelligence or charisma tomes, since the difference of 1 natural stat is frequently insignificant. In this case, Gabriel goes from 50lbs carry weight to 70lbs carry weight, which means he can actually hold more than his own gear before becoming over encumbered. Still though, if he were a more "normal" half-orc he could very easily be sitting at 24 natural strength, 25 if he was a warrior.
Whatever, Garf has a +3 Katana of petrification to sell/donate, and the plot to advance, right after recruiting Kagain to use the +2 axe of returning and +2 Heavy Crossbow just in case.
And so Garfield and Friends begin their epic search for the lost scion of Entar Silvershield, never to give up their noble pursuit.
At least until literally the moment they arrive in the map north of Beregost.
Cracks me up every time, he spends approximately zero minutes before giving up. I think he was just lonely in that shop and CHARNAME's party looked like fun.
It was about this point I remembered that I hadn't collected the final mandatory newfriend, so heading back to the Friendly Arms, then installing the mod because I'd actually forgotten to.
I started casting Hold on the mage just in case, but he died well before it cast.
Hi Newfriend!
Catboy is proficient with scimitars.
Tragedy strikes trying to complete Catboy's first quest.
Imoeeen! D=<
Fortunately the party was full, so I was justified in booting her to the curb, and a quick wand of lightning later, and I have me a brand new escritoire. And an enforced plot rest to bury my foster father.
At this point Neera reveals her quest area, conveniently freeing up a party slot giving Garfield a new epic quest to procrastinate on. Westwards! I just remembered I have a bunch of Sirenes left to kill.
The skeletons do a fine job soaking up those Dire Charms, and Kagain does a fine job soaking up arrows that otherwise might have inconvenienced more important people.
I did try to recover some animate dead castings before this, but two more Sirenes jumped me, which was awesome, but also ended up with Ishlilka chasing the party over half the map and ate a charge from the fire wand.
Garf tried to silence Sil's group while sending in the corpse party to avoid them turning invisible and making life harder, but only managed to get one of them. At least he managed to silence the squirrel. Damn squirrels.
Our land. Imperialism triumph's once more.
It took me a bit to remember that one of the Tweaks mods Kagain's 20 Con down to a "rules legal" 19, so no free healing for him. Thankfully with two clerics there's plenty of healing if necessary, even if it is distasteful to memorise cure spells.
As usual, a bunch of extra stuff in an already good loot stash. Why the ninjato? And why is everything restricted to bard and monk? Is this an attempt at competitive balance? It doesn't work, they still suck compared to Mage/Thief.
No sooner have I finished pillaging their natural resources than:
Verr'sza's quest #2. It's nothing too painful at this level, especially if you don't fight fair, which obviously is my top priority. Seven day time limit isn't hard either, since I should run into Brage before then. Still time to traumatise a small child in the meantime.
Hobgoblin ambush with Kobold Commandos actually gets dangerous.
All six Kobold Commandos focus fired Garfield, but with the cloak of displacement and belt of piercing he only eats the one crit (cleric/thief helmet ftw, since otherwise that would have been over half his health). Fortunately Neera's sleep spell takes out all but one, and the wild dog spawn is no threat to the party meatshields.
Sirene railroads you on a lot of quests like this. It's almost like she doesn't realise that she's not the party leader and would slavishly stab a small child if CHARNAME ordered her to. At least she's pretty quiet, presumably thanks to expecting SoD maps for any talks.
Brage tragically adds one more family member to his kill list, and a +1 Small Shield to my loot list. Thanks Brage.
Again, extra loot added to the loot depository for no reason.
I have no idea what "75% invisibility" is supposed to do, but it doesn't give a penalty to attackers, doesn't stop people from casting on the wearer, doesn't give an attack bonus, doesn't give a hide bonus, and is to all appearances simply cosmetic. It can also be worn by anyone, so Ishlilka is wearing it because why not.
Now, as a Cleric/Thief I could technically dress Garfield in the Ankheg Plate, but... See for yourself.
Maybe when I find something that looks cooler than the Shadow Armour, I guess.
Quite why assassins travel alone, announce their presence to a highly armed group of six, and then start casting "entangle" as though it ever helps escapes me, but thanks for the exp!
About the best thing about Dark Horizons I've seen so far is that it has introduced ammo sacks of infinite +0 ammo, which is ideal for keeping Neera from deciding she is a warrior or a mage on the back lines in between wand blasts. My reputation is getting dangerously high from all the epic loot I keep pawning/donating.
For the official record I have no idea where Oublek is, or what Kagain was doing out of Garfield's party during the two minutes thirty seven seconds after Oublek denied Garfield a reward.
After a minor misunderstanding, in which Neera was almost turned into a pincushion by around eight soldiers objecting to Garfield clearing out their guard barracks, the party fled East, for Catboy's quest.
Learning the lessons from the assassins targeting him, Garfield attacks without announcing his presence and introducing himself first, so Shantia doesn't get the chance to cast Fireshield and make life difficult. After a successful hold person, reality ensues and the party gets a 1/day shaman style summon, plus ANOTHER bard only ring.
Next step: Trying to remember what I wanted to do next while the heat dies down. Gnoll stronghold maybe?
Hi all. Unfortunately I left my latest work of staggering genius on another computer, so I'll post that next week. Stirkus has been doing quests in Athkatla for now, but must now venture farther afield to escape the hordes of children who follow him wherever he goes...
(My computer seems able to take screenshots again, just in time to catch this lovely glitch courtesy of the Amber mod!)
@Pantalion: That 75% "invisibility" cloak is indeed just cosmetic. I've looked at the actual opcodes and parameters for a lot of the items in your install, since they came up in my previous BWS installs, and that one just makes the user's sprite 75% transparent.
I changed my mind about what character to play next. Here is my Dwarven Inquisitor who has just returned to Candlekeep after being ambushed. I won't be posting during the Christmas Period so Happy Christmas to you all.
What the heck is it with the mod creator's bard on for musicians?
Dat 98 roll. At least she "only" had a crossbow of speed and a ring of bardzardry and a lute of dire charm.
Also: Lol, "very adept fighter". Her adjusted THAC0 is 15+, 14+ with her crossbow, worse than the ranger 3 levels behind her. What's with this idea that "second worst THAC0 progression in the game" somehow becomes competent because you can put a proficiency point into "Halberd" or something? Come back to me, glitchy Sirene, at least until I find someone less ridiculous to ditch you for until SoD.
Wild Surges: 2.
Damnit Neera, that was supposed to be Melf's so you could actually be helpful.
Ah well, 3000 Exp and a +2 dagger for denying a spirit their final wish in life. Game totally oriented towards good playthroughs.
Grumpy Slime Mage costs me a party member.
Stupid Mustard Jellies are immune to magic, piercing, non-magic weapons, and virtually immune to missile, cutting out everyone except Kagain at this point. Even the skeleton warriors were more to keep hits off Kagain than anything else, since they don't have magic weapons until level 7.
They made up for it shortly after, eating a lightning bolt and killing the mage for the team. A few skeletons later, and Garfield hits level 6 cleric, getting an extra level 3 spell slot.
Then, since yet another "well I guess I'll just talk to you in your sleep" effect exploded on him when he levelled, I figure I'd best try reinstalling my mods.
Well that was pointless. Still talking in sleep explosions on level up. Half tempted to export Garfield and start again to try and clear it, but that sounds a bit weird for a no-reload.
Also pointless: Neera's sidequest:
She was out of sight of everyone when she fired the zooka, then she was in sight and every single one landed. Meh. Also in a bid to fix Sirene (after deleting "Met in SOD variable from the autosave) I sent her back to the temple, so now Garfield gets to face off against high level mages with no mage.
Well, at least the entire quest is way less obnoxious without Neera, even though Beamdog apparently couldn't conceive of Neera being dead through the cutscenes, which makes everyone sound a bit schizophrenic.
Well let it not be said that Garfield is a quitter. Three people or not, Adoy awaits.
Arrows of Biting for the win. Despite only one snare setting successfully, Gabriel locked down main red mage guy with poison damage until he got off his last and only offensive spell there at the end while his two Animated Dead and Catboy's storyteller book summons occupied the others.
Educated the "best swordsman" that range beats melee on the way back to the temple...
And then murdered Bub Snikt. It was self defence, he was killing my frame rate.
Sorry Bub, if you weren't bugged I'd probably still have killed you for no rep loss loot. No idea what killed his usual chat though.
Speaking of killing people for their loot...
I shamelessly allow Drizzt to die for my personal amusement.
In return for avenging his death, Garfield gets a new outfit, and Catboy gets to use a scimitar with such a stupid name I don't even want to identify it.
Since our new wizard friend wants to murder another potential wizard friend, Garfield heads west again, continuing the party's habit of zigzagging the Sword Coast.
Pretty sure this is actually my first Dark Horizon's assassin team, though there was no dialogue or anything except some guys randomly attacking, so they might just be dark horizon's bandits?
Either way, asides from the mage confusing the meatshields, who then started chasing each other around like idiots, an easy thousand Exp and a grab bag of scrolls which Edwin fluffs magnificently despite having 22 Intelligence.
RIP Kagain. I hit the wrong button on my keyboard, hiding my party window and didn't realise he was on low health. RIP Catboy shortly after as I underestimated the "Gnoll Clan Leader" who, checking EEKeeper, apparently has 20 strength and a +2 Halberd with 3 APR, because of course he does.
Killing Dynaheir, because Edwin learned a lot of scrolls and I can only assume it will be funny if I now recruit Minsc, the trepid trio toddle towards the twit talking to the tiny talking tailless rodent.
Being an equal opportunity employer, Garfield agrees to let Minsc join the party to recover the honour he lost because the party killed his boss.
Garfield doing great against some assassins. It actually ended with zero deaths, thanks to Edwin paralysing anyone who started beating on Sirene and Catboy helpfully getting horror'd and luring one of their fighters around the entire map - which is why horror sucks.
Since they were in Gullykin, tradition dictates they murder the Ogre Mage.
I was trying to disrupt what I thought would be Imp. Inv. with Garfield at this point, but instead the mage casts Lightning, which is bugged to "reflect" off its target, hitting them multiple times for massive damage. I probably should have tried leaving the map with the rest of the party to remove Garfield mid-pain train, but decided to try chugging a potion instead. Time to reroll for me.
In their previous session this trio were very lucky to survive - so clearly that luck would continue on and on as they trod the path to greatness (or perhaps not).
The session opened with a quick trip through the Nashkel Mine. Grime threw in a Writhing Fog on Mulahey, but that's a slow way to kill things and Coresmash flew into a rage to speed things up.
More raging accounted for the amazons and Nimbul, though Croak got in on the act against Tranzig.
Cleaning up a few quests, they took Landrin's goods back to the FAI, where Tarnesh still lay in wait. Croak missed his backstab this time and ran in horror as a result, but Coresmash was raging again to make sure there was no danger.
Moving on to the Bandit Camp Taurgosz fell to call lightning before Croak one-shotted Venkt. Britik chased him back out of the tent, but ran into some more lightning as a result.
A bit more cleaning up included the Valley of the Tombs. Narcillicus had heard all about fighting fire with fire and decided to try and fight lightning with lightning - but discovered in the process it's tricky stuff to control.
Meilum also managed to dodge lightning, by the simple trick of allowing Croak to backstab him with a critical for 92 damage .
There was a nasty moment going through the Cloakwood when both Grime and Coresmash were webbed with ettercaps bearing down on them. That should really have prevented area travel, but Croak took advantage of a MP glitch to run away anyway.
There was a similar sort of MP glitch with one of the traps in the second Cloakwood area - Coresmash initially tripping it just as Croak found it (he then tried to walk through it and tripped it again).
At the Mine Grime threw in another Writhing Fog with the aim of killing the mages. Coresmash wasn't having any of that slow death nonsense though and advanced to throw a potion fireball. That finished off Kysus, but Rezdan survived and was annoyed. Not really prepared for combat, the trio were too close together and everyone failed their saves against a horror spell and were soon in deep trouble.
Coresmash lasted only a few seconds longer before it was Croak's turn.
Grime initially got lucky by running away from the main action, though he had Drasus treading on his trail. He tried to reverse direction and got stuck for a few seconds and was taken down to 3 HPs as a result. However, he then broke free and, with the horror spell due to expire shortly, I briefly had visions of another miraculous escape.
Regrettably he took a wrong turn and headed straight back to Rezdan. The mage was pretty much out of spells, but a LMD was all he needed ...
With the untimely death of the previous adventurers we rapidly set about constructing a new party. As usual, we roll our characters without discussion so no influence on each other.
I opted for something I've meant to try out for a while in no-reload. Up pops Felai the human female dragon disciple. Reminder of the kit
One meatshield has already turned up, Corey_Russell with Killye - a dwarven fighter / cleric. Felai nods approvingly, add some protection from fire and he should be up to the job.
We don't have to wait too long before Grond0 adds Evas to the party. A dwarven fighter / thief. So we've covered off the fighting, arcane, divine and rogueish elements. Should be fun.
First though a Paint cut & shut of the party. (due to Grond0's usual tactic of adding a custom portrait new to both Corey_Russell and myself)
The Candlekeep chores are divvied up and we race out into the wilderness. Shoal the Nereid is blinded and pelted with missiles, but nobody gets a level so we move on to Mad Arcand then head around High Hedge to pick up a shortsword and finally reach Beregost. Marl and Firebead wave us off after Neera's demise, and then it is down south to Nashkel.
Killye squeezes into ankheg plate as Felai chats to Noober, and then we return to Beregost to deliver Mirianne's letter. A quick trip east to the temple for a scroll and we continue east to the rock garden where our adventure will continue next time.
A 94 roll is nothing compared to Ultra Bard 98 down in Nashkel carnival, but Taryn has an inherent advantage of not being a bard. Fingers crossed he actually survives past level 1.
Damnit.
Like last time, I'm hitting Friendly Arm Inn, but skipping Ishlilka for a bit.
Since I need time for Imoen to get killed off. *Cough.*
Tarnesh is no match for cheesy Lightning Bolt. Apparently it's casting well above Taryn's caster level, since he just took at least 3D6 damage from that. Fortunately Taryn made his save, unfortunately Imoen wasn't standing behind him.
Taryn fails to scribe both scrolls. Meh.
Well that didn't take long. After running out of ammo, rather than sit quietly in the corner, Imoen decided her bare hands were just the thing for fighting giant skittering abominations. Single class thieves. Ugh.
Familiars are so handy I dunno how other classes even manage, even having just played as two.
Familiar: Tank Basilisks. Most likely because the basilik's gaze is generally going to be of a cat's backside while it ignores them snootily (not staring in a basilisk's eyes is something humans have apparently yet to master). Scout out mage, since blue circles don't care about cats. Help melee mage after mage was silenced by Taryn (at which point he just stands waiting to die).
Honestly, scouting without triggering ambushes and fights is just so important.
I send Korax off into the corner of the map after flawlessly exterminating the entire group with the only action on their part being the mage getting off her dialogue before falling unconscious again. He's earned a quiet retirement this game.
After all of which my familiar gains 39 GP by stealing it from Taryn and giving it back to him (his name is apparently Schroedinger) and allowing him to carry everything the entire party was carrying as was actually worth carrying.
Ugh. I have a policy of never turning down NPCs, and a habit of going into the Jovial Juggler for my sleeping needs. Forgot uberbard#1 was in there and actively initiates conversation.
She also gives the party 1500 Exp, apparently for the "quest" of not completely fluffing a two exchange conversation.
Time to regear her and hit the temple. At least she's a bit more reasonable with her 84 roll than uberbard#2. And I can grab Alora to sacrifice on the altar of single class pure thieves while I'm at it. Hopefully remembering to grab a certain cloak in the interim.
Sigh. I hate Gullykin.
Yes, I did hit fatigued state while actively trying to rest four times in a row. And no sooner did they finally rest after ambush #5 than a Dire Wolf random spawn attacked. Sigh.
Finally.
[spoiler]
It was around this point that I realised I'd actually passed through and robbed 90% of Beregost... And forgot the cape.
Yeslick and Baeloth went in the wrong direction and followed Jaheira into a repeating trap that should have only triggered once, slightly wounding Jaheira and not even touching anyone else. I planned on letting Jaheira trigger it once, then healing her, seeing if it happened again, and then bringing in Coran to disarm the traps if necessary. But Yeslick and Baeloth disobeyed orders and went in the exact opposite direction I told them to.
I lost a successful run because of fucking pathfinding.
Wait just a minute!
I could have just teleported across the traps with Dimension Jump. And used the Reform party trick to get the rest of the party across.
Without a wand of fire this time round I was forced to apply the other method of dealing with Bassilus' undead army.
Butt kicking for justice!
A lightning bolt hello dropped the cleric to 20% health or so, while Taryn's Troublemakers moved north away from his army, letting the entangle keep them from following. A few animates to tank the skeletons' crossbows and Baz's hold persons later and it was nothing but cleanup, with Taryn's skald infused bludgeoning wiping out the skeletons with but a single casualty - Taryn's shield. Damn you kobolds and your shield eating shenanigans!
Having carried a chicken around for approximately twelve hours last game having forgotten to do the quest, thought I'd pull it off before turning in B's symbol.
No surprises. Failed.
I uh, sort of pressed the wrong dialogue key here. Taryn had already shielded up ready to drop a point blank lightning bolt, though, so it would have been a waste not to use it. Guess we're not getting Garrick this playthrough. Deep sorrow etc.
And we get friend#4.
Nope, hold on.
Verr'Sza the rakshasa ranger and, since they're in the neighbourhood, Ishlilka the level 1 fighter. At least there's still plenty of Sirene out there for levelling these two up.
Pickpocketting obvious mod NPCs nets Alora a +2 scimitar that is downright tame by the usual standards I've come to expect.
Also ganked: +2 Katana "Masamune" +1 Dex, +1 AC, Warrior classes only. Belt of permanent haste - LG human paladins/monks and half-orcs. They get infinite haste and they're still lame.
So yeah, pushed my luck trying to pick pocket the rogue (does anyone know how much it penalises rolls by?), and the pair turned hostile. The fighter was completely unarmed, while the thief was immediately shut down by Taryn's hold spell. Then Khalid and Jaheira randomly attacked, because harper scum that they are, they were just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Since all Bardette had to cast was Colour Spray, which apparently, not super crowd friendly, half of the Friendly Arms is hostile, yet no rep lost, no innocents killed, and another +2 Scimitar of shocking and some +3 Mithril chain of "maybe Drizzt Lives this game". No experience though, sadly. I've probably broken a quest or two now.
Another tweak is opening up Cloakwood, and since Taryn wandered in by mistake, may as well murder some druids for the sweet, sweet exp.
Honestly that went way easier than expected, since the arrows of ice Alora pick pocketed in bulk from the caravan guards all around the Friendly Arms area were in fact arrows of "freezing" with a 6 round hold effect.
Karma punished me however, and Taryn got focus fired by some Kobold Commandos on his way out of Cloakwood and died instantly in a blaze of crits. C'est la vie.
If nothing else, I think I've got enough out of the Dark Horizon's mod to give it an F and to uninstall it for future runs. Blech.
I think I'll run a nice traditional Mage/Thief next run. Open to suggestions on fun kits, because otherwise it's just going to be Swashbuckler because I'm lazy and complacent.
I've restarted the poverty run with a new gimmick: I'm abusing the Reform Party trick to restore kit abilities. So I've got a Totemic Druid who can summon spirit animals at will, ignoring aura, a Bounty Hunter who can set traps once per round infinitely, and a Cleric of Talos who can spam Lightning Bolts.
I'm only going to do this up until after the Ducal Palace; I just want to make up for lost time because of those awful traps in the pre-Sarevok maze. But the Reform Party trick, as fast as it is, is kind of repetitive if you do it over and over again. It's more fun if you don't rely on it to single-handedly win big fights, and just use it as a supplementary thing. I might end up relying on Baeloth again because those early Fireballs are just so convenient.
I actually only picked the Bounty Hunter because I don't think I can win against Ascension Melissan without pre-set Maze traps to isolate the Five and pick them off one by one. I also have an Archer who will dual-class to cleric at level 9 in SoA, because I'm going to use two consecutive Called Shots in combination with Energy Blades for massive stat drain (and I'm willing to use the Reform Party trick to restore it if I somehow get a bunch of critical misses in a row). With 10 APR and two Called Shot charges, the Archer/Cleric could drain 26.67 STR assuming all hits connect (or 30 STR if I use the Reform Party trick).
It's not really necessary, but I don't know what else to do with those player-created character slots, since so many roles can be covered by NPCs.
I actually only picked the Bounty Hunter because I don't think I can win against Ascension Melissan without pre-set Maze traps to isolate the Five and pick them off one by one. I also have an Archer who will dual-class to cleric at level 9 in SoA, because I'm going to use two consecutive Called Shots in combination with Energy Blades for massive stat drain (and I'm willing to use the Reform Party trick to restore it if I somehow get a bunch of critical misses in a row). With 10 APR and two Called Shot charges, the Archer/Cleric could drain 26.67 STR assuming all hits connect (or 30 STR if I use the Reform Party trick).
Does Spell Revisions change the archer? By default I thought the kit needs to get up to level 12 in order for called shot to damage strength.
@Grond0: SR and IR don't do anything to kits, though Kit Revisions does (it removes the STR drain and save penalty from Called Shot entirely!). This is a vanilla thing: kit abilities cast at the user's average level, so if the Archer/Cleric has 9 Archer levels and 15 cleric levels, it'll average out to level 12, which means Called Shot will impose STR drain.
Otherwise the Archer kit and cleric class don't mesh well in an SR poverty run. Although the Archer/Cleric will be able to use longbows, the longbow from Enchanted Weapon doesn't even grant the typical +0.5 APR of IR bows. Mostly it'll just be an Archer in early SoA, a cleric for the rest of SoA, and then suddenly get an instant death weapon at epic levels, which I can only use once per day due to the changes to HLAs in my install.
Another chastening multi-player day kicked off with this pairing returning to Baldur's Gate after their trip to Candlekeep. A backstab attempt on Slythe failed to register as a backstab, but Gruu dispelled Slythe as he hared after Sparkle and he was quickly finished off.
Moving on to the Palace, preparations were somewhat sub-optimal. Sparkle didn't know haste, but did use an oil of speed herself. Gruu wanted to do the same, but a MP glitch that kept free action active after unequipping Spiders' Bane meant we would have needed to do an area transition or save and reload the game - and we did neither. That meant the dopplegangers' chances were still poor, but rather better than they would have been and unfortunately they made a pretty concerted attack on the dukes. That resulted in a close race - but the dopplegangers won by a head.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 147 - 1st and final update Vreis and Diva
A new pairing. We quickly drag reputation up to 20 and bump up xp in a trice.
Then we head to Durlags Tower and as Vreis scoots around picking off skeletons Diva uses a wand on the main enemy. Vreis gets himself somwhat blocked in, and heads out of the way as Diva tries to add another skeleton to the wand effect. Net effect, we cross paths...
RIP F/M/T, C/T, C/R, C/R. C/R, and Garfield II. You did not last long enough for me to remember most of your names. Also C/M, who lasted long enough to remember their name, but not long enough for me to actually post it.
So I finally went M/T, and elf eventually to be turned into half-elf for Ishlilka's romance in SoD, and sticking with Swashbuckler because Warlock is broken.
Val is a gloomy sort, partly because he's died around six million times, partly because he rolled past a 99.
Val's early life was largely uneventful. No wolf killing him in a single crit as he walked to recover his father's belt, no waylaid by enemies where he was focus fired to death by bandits within a single round, just a nice peaceful wander East, murdering two of the adventuring party while the other two fled under a horror scroll, never to be seen again, passed through Beregost... At which point I figured he'd actually been alive long enough to actually document this inevitable train wreck.
This is one of those safe exp things I like. Shoal cannot deal lethal damage, so worst case would be her somehow landing enough hits to actually knock the cat down for a bit. 5,000 free Exp enough to push Val up to level 5/6, at which point he goes to visit his first newfriend:
The mad gnome with the overpowered summon. The ghast wrecks Sirene, ogres, and pretty much anything vulnerable to a 3 APR super Korax, which is apparently most things.
Catboy's first quest was brief after a quick silence spell pre-fight. So brief I didn't even bother ssing it, so here's a picture of Verr'Sza asking if the person who's been routinely taking on ogres, basilisks, ghouls, ghasts,
Much of the run has been wandering around vaguely trying to remember what I was supposed to do.
Sort of assume a flamethrower is at least tangentially related, whatever it was.
Ogre Magi at Candlekeep can deal 44 damage on a critical hit to an unarmed character, enough to kill a level 5 sorcerer. It seems I can't wait in that fight for even a moment unless our introductory Horror spell takes down all nearby Ogre Mages.
At least it only cost me a day. With CTRL-J, the Reform Party trick, Tiax's ghast, and Baeloth at 10,000 XP, BG1 is lightning fast. I'll go ahead and post on what the run looked like so I won't have to do it again later.
For this run, our player-created characters include three sorcerers, an Archer who can dual-class to cleric, a Bounty Hunter, and a Totemic Druid. We ditch the Archer and two sorcerers (the third is Charname, Frisk), then grab Tiax and steal his ghast to murdalize some basilisks. I did this in the daytime, so scouting was not an option and Frisk had to make a save against Horror.
The Reform Party trick gives us unlimited uses from kit abilities like Set Special Snare and Summon Spirit Animal, but I fail to fix the bug on the former which makes it non-functional before level 6, forcing us to lure Kirian et al across the map where our spirit critters can win the fight for us.
Unlimited spirit critters is as overpowered as it seems. We stomp on the ogre with Unshey's girdle, kill Tarnesh with a single thrown trap, nab Baeloth once we've hit 10,000 XP, and use a combination of traps, summons, and Baeloth's Web spell to take down the highly dangerous Kobold Chieftain and Kobold Shaman.
Mulahey is easy to kill with a few traps, and while traps do precious little damage to skeletons due to their missile damage resistances, Fireball polishes them off quite nicely.
Tranzig doesn't buff with Shield in my install, only Ghost Armor, so all Baeloth has to do is head downstairs to escape Tranzig's introductory Slow spell and then spam Magic Missile.
As always, I reduce the party to Frisk and travel around while invisible until triggering the Lamalha and Molkar ambushes.
Expeditious Retreat is no longer necessary to win the fight with Tazok; we can spam Summon Spirit Animal to keep him at bay.
Tiax only knows Bless and Doom and has to get a level up to learn Sanctuary (some bug with my install), and I don't remember where Viconia is supposed to be in SCS, so I foolishly decide to rob the bandit camp without Sanctuary. Like before, the end result is no chapter transition and a lot of hostile bandits that we're forced to lure out of the tent (otherwise the next chapter will not start).
Expeditious Retreat gets us to the edge of the map with minimal injuries, allowing us to spam traps and spirit critters as the enemies come looking for us.
Baeloth applies some spell damage and we clean up the camp much, much faster than when I had to do it via alternating west and south area transitions. We still need to clear out the main tent, which involves ducking in and out of the entrance to avoid suffering too much pressure. One of the archers reminds us of just how much Item Revisions nerfs Arrows of Biting.
The damage is so slow that there's very little chance of spell disruption.
We have gathered practically no side quest XP and Baeloth therefore has no Invisibility Sphere. But we don't need it when we have Special Snares, since they do enough damage to kill a Phase Spider when combined with Magic Missile.
We can take down one Phase Spider before it can make a single attack roll, and then flee the map if more arrive before we're ready to handle it.
Frisk gets disabled by Web Tangle during a spider ambush, showing the dangers of traveling here without Invisibility Sphere, but traps and spell damage take down the spiders before they can gobble up our Bhaalspawn.
Being able to throw out infinite traps makes the Drasus fight embarrassingly easy.
It also lets us chew up the Cloakwood guards while our invincible wall of summons makes feeble attempts to break through Hareishan's defenses.
Frisk goes invisible to check in on the situation and we press forward with the help of a Spirit Bear's fear attack on Hareishan (I use a mix of spirit animals in this run), allowing our Bounty Hunter, Carl, to throw traps a little farther back and catch the enemies to the far south.
That wasn't possible while Hareishan was still close to the northeastern hall; the enemy would have been in Carl's line of sight. We cut down the remains of Hareishan's entourage and finally wear her down, with an Obscuring Mist spell to limit her visual range and keep her from spotting party members.
A similar process works against Natasha, even though I misplace Yeslick's Dispel Magic.
Unfortunately, I try to detect a trap that doesn't exist and tiptoe into Davaeorn's field of vision, initiating combat while the Battle Horrors are still active. I fall back with Expeditious Retreat.
Davaeorn doesn't follow us, surprisingly enough, allowing us to take down the Battle Horrors at our leisure. But the moment I send a spirit animal over to probe the situation, Davaeorn's pre-buffs activate. He still doesn't attack us, though, until I send out Baeloth to peek on him.
Baeloth gets webbed and Davaeorn teleports over to the party, which is fully visible and completely defenseless to Fireball. But Davaeorn has just put himself right in front of Yeslick, who can take down all of his buffs at once.
He teleports away before Frisk can hit him with Melf's Acid Arrow, but Carl's traps activate much quicker. Guards pour into the room, only to land right on top of Carl's pre-set traps.
Davaeorn doesn't teleport far enough away, and another trap finishes him off.
We used traps on some Phase Spiders in the Baldur's Gate sewers to get Baeloth access to Invisibility Sphere before taking down the Ogre Mage, burgling the Iron Throne, and heading over to Candlekeep, where our second attempt at tackling the quadruple Ogre Mage ambush ended in a single blow when I failed to appreciate just how dangerous a single Ogre Mage was when not under the effects of Horror.
I've started over and have hurried through the early game. Notable difference include bombing Kirian et al with traps (now that I fixed the bug) and killing some ankhegs to level up Tiax, allowing him to use Sanctuary at the bandit camp and obviating the need for wiping out all the bandits.
I have no idea why Tiax's 25% electrical resistance from Resist Elements didn't block any of the damage from the Lightning Bolt trap.
I thought it was time to have another go at this concept in an SCS installation. Bash can use any tactics, but is only allowed to be responsible for killing anything by using Brage's cursed berserking sword - that includes not allowing summons to kill for him.
A sixth attempt started well until I got a bit too cute with Kirian. All alone she was affected by horror, but Freda only managed a single hit while chasing her round. I did have the XP for level 5, but hadn't taken the levels and the moment Kirian recovered she put Bash to sleep.
A seventh attempt also ended at the basilisks. I had done significantly more work prior to going there this time and should have made short work of them. However, when casting web near the first basilisk, I pushed the sight boundary too closely and moved forward slightly in casting - getting into sight of the basilisk and immediately berserking. Without any armor (though the Shield spell was active) Bash's chances of killing 4 basilisks were not good. He did reasonably well to kill one lesser and the greater basilisk, but was poisoned in the process of that and expired.
An eighth attempt started early on Christmas morning (after all what else is there to do at Christmas ) and seemed to be going well when lots of basilisks were killed. However, travelling back from that area Bash was ambushed by several kobold commandos and lots of kobolds. He killed quite a few of them, but without the ability to target intelligently the kobold commandos were finally able to shoot him down (helped by him not having switched back to the belt of piercing after meleeing basilisks).
A ninth attempt ended very carelessly when I sent a charmed sirine too far in search of a wild dog and found the large group of various wolves to the east of Beregost Temple ...
It was still pretty early so I decided to have one more attempt before the family got up. Progress with that so far has been: - went directly to Brage to get the sword (also picked up the ankheg armor while in Nashkel). - Algernon was Bash's first victim and his Cloak allowed Bash to approach Neera without her talking. - the sirines were pulled one-by-one outside the Beregost Temple where dogs wore them down (without letting the attackers be visible to Bash). That took him up to level 3/3.
- sleep from out of sight allowed him to collect an ogre's belt on the way to the Ring of Wizardry at the FAI. - after buying invisibility he went up to Ulgoth's Beard (using invisibility to keep the ankheg near Tenya underground so as not to triger his berserk). Dushai was charmed there and taken away for disposal. That gained Bash both free action and a web spell - a very useful combination for this challenge. - 1,300 gold pieces were invested in 4 reputation points at the temple and various quests added to that. Bash managed to keep Charleston Nib alive by charming him to be able to move him out of the way of berserk attacks and Melicamp was successfully restored (getting up to level 4/4 there).
The last couple of occasions when Bash tried to save Arabelle he failed and trashed his reputation. Berserk doesn't trigger when enemies are sleeping, so it shouldn't be that difficult to do, but you need to be careful about xvarts coming to find you as soon as sleep activates them. This time one again tried that, but Bash was already moving away after his cast and was at a safe distance before berserking. The rest of the sleeping beauties could then be killed at his leisure.
- a couple more reputation points were gained on the way through the Cloud Peak mountains. Krumm's belt and the charisma tome were also significant gains there. - Bjornin's half-ogres and Samuel both proved no trouble to get reputation to 19 and the final gain came from talking to Oublek. - I very rarely actually pay for full plate, but decided doing that was justified for this run. After buying a few spells as well, Bash was just short of the cost of a Robe of the Archmagi so decided to take on Karlat. Things looked bad when Karlat's morale broke and he ran into the main room, but Bash recovered his senses an instant before striking down a civilian.
I realized during that contest that Thalantyr didn't sell a Robe for evil mages anyway , so headed for the basilisks. On the way the same kobold ambush as last time triggered, but Bash's better armor proved a good investment there (several shots missing with die rolls of 18) and he fought his way through them.
- at the basilisk area, this time Bash managed to get his buffs and 2 webs in place before engaging the southern group and won with a little bit in hand - getting to level 5/5 in the process.
- after clearing the separated basilisks to the north, Bash recruited Korax who managed to paralyse Mutamin for Bash to finish off. Kirian's friends were then charmed and disposed of before Kirian herself was stuck in webs.
Unbefuckinglievable. Natasha went invisible with a potion and hid for round after round after round. It took ages to track her down, and when she finally did, she killed Frisk with a Cone of Cold. She completely ignored our summons until Frisk approached her, even though Frisk was invisible.
I'll just avoid her next time. Why bother fighting these people anyway?
Christmas appears to be hard going for no-reload ...
Bash cleared the ankheg area - none of the beasts managing to get the critical they needed to hit him. At the Valley of the Tombs he nearly killed the Revenant in a web, but it ran outside - there was no escape there though. I didn't want to risk fighting a pair of mustard jellies, so opted out of that when Narcillicus broke free of a web just before dying (getting to level 6/6 there). I was caught by surprise after that though to find that the ghasts were all outside their tomb (possibly as a result of the Revenant going outside). However, even without any buffing Bash plowed through them with no trouble.
Greywolf could have been a problem in straight melee, so I set webs up in advance for him. That meant though that Bash was dangerously close to Prism - but fortunately he dropped out of the berserk state very quickly.
There was also a nasty moment in a skeleton ambush when Bash fixated on trying to attack an archer, but then got stuck against one of the other skeletons. That meant he had to survive long enough for the archer to run out of arrows and come within attack range - which he managed to do easily enough in fact.
Meilum failed to break free of his webs - his bracers pushing Bash's minimum damage while berserk up even further to a juicy 16.
Deciding it was time to take on the sirines Bash went to the Lighthouse. I intended to use a potion of clarity, but first cast shield and PfE. For some reason the latter appeared to activate the sirines, though I'd been careful to stay out of sight of them, and as they started moving forward Bash instantly lost control.
That left him vulnerable to both charms and arrows, but he was only poisoned once while killing 2 of them and badly wounding the third and with half his HPs left it looked like he might actually survive. He'd already resisted several charms though and his luck ran out when the last sirine tried one more of those just before it died ...
Comments
Maybe it's because I keep forgetting that sanctuary doesn't actually stop the watch from being called or talking to you when you rob people?
Apparently the studded leather I found in Durlag's tower was, in fact, TN druid/shaman/barbarian only,
and none of those pesky shorty barbarians either.
Why even have this as a game feature? What possible logic is there to it?
Enchantments ain't free, someone is paying good money to ensure that only a specific brand of hobo, a particular race of that specific brand of hobo, and a specific worldview of that specific brand of race of hobo can equip something. And when a character isn't even some magically oriented class? Like a thief? There's a billion different variations on what the Thief class can represent, how the heck is it arbitrarily restricting against particularly sneaky fighters, rangers who can hide, or someone who happens to just wear that size?[/rant]
Whatever. There's exactly one character that's always necessary for a no-reload run to go successfully, and it's time to pick them up.
Yep, got our mage, this can't possibly go wrong. Hold Person flopped, but Garfield managed to drop the red wizard with Command next round before he started throwing around anything worse than mirror image. Skald boosted Ishlilka took him down after OHKOing the thugs in a single round.
Neera actually managed to get a decent, for her, HP at 17, only 3 off her maximum at level 5, and I finally have someone to wear Evermemory, not that I want her casting spells very often.
Wandering into High Hedge and beyond, Sirene has a lengthy conversation with Neera.
No consequences. At all.
Anyways, we're here for chicken and the dangerous mad cleric. Fortunately we all know a simple way to deal with the undead he has clustered around him.
For the record, I consider this to be one of the most roleplay justified nukes of blue circles in the game. A quick Armor Melt, and some archery crits that made it unnecessary, and Basillus is down. Garfield levels shortly after at the temple, hitting Swashbuckler 6. And with 90 in Find Traps, it's back off to Durlag's!
Wild Surges: 1. Neera slowed herself and a few waylaying bandits en route.
Trying to kill off the greaterlisks with Animate Dead proved troublesome after a crit dropped the last skeleton before the second greaterlisk, leaving Gabriel as the only viable target, and too slow to get out of range in time.
I'm so glad I neurotically horde potions. Mirrored Eyes saved the day faster than the speed of light.
Literally.
Since her own prot-pet is still active, Morgen finishes off the third somewhat more expensively with the wand of fire, at which point I remembered that I didn't actually have anyone with scimitar proficiency this game.
Derp. Better luck next time I guess.
Garf don't feel like talking.
And since ghosty doesn't turn hostile until he has a chat, an easy few level ups for Team Half-Breed (except Sirene, who's a quarter breed or something, I guess?).
Durlag's is an even bigger monty haul than usual, I half suspect Dark Horizons has something to do with it after picking up the +1 and +2 halberd in Durlag's second upper floor, along with the staff of striking. Since I have nobody proficient with halberds and the staff of striking is for lamers, hopefully that means Garfield can grab some decent armour before heading to advance the plot.
Just... one more level before I go.
Journal Agrina Morningstar
I introduced the kit used using Shadowkeeper. I would have used the Tempus kit, but it didn't install.
However Berserker is very similar.
Brunash "Taller Than a Tallfellow" the Halfling Enchanter!
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9SoD: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6.5, 7
With the phat l00t from Cyric's Chosen, we forge a few more items from Cromwell. Notable things include Water's Edge +4, Celestial Fury +5, and Daystar +4. We do the gong quest now that we're back in Athkatla and Rasaad levels up from the conclusion.
Now inside Suldanessellar, Irenicus' guardians are all dealt with and I learn to construct Mithril Golems.
Suneer kills himself in a Cloudkill from his Rakshasa ally.
Rasaad learns Solar Stance.
Coran sets a bunch of traps next to Johnny-boy. Irenicus is kill.
All the good paths in the hell trials are taken because they provide Brunash with the best benefits. All that awaits us now is Irenicus.
Nalia is on charged Breach duty so the golems can squish Johnny. But Johnny gets off his Time Stop in the first round, which I expected to be immune to due to my Staff of the Magi, but I was still affected by it for some reason. 2 Perfect Clays are up in his face and he demolishes one and nearly kills the other when the Time Stop ends. 2 normal Clays split off from the dead Perfect Clay.
One Balor down. I'm more worried about them Vorpaling my dudes than Johnny himself. Rasaad backs off and drinks a potion of magic shielding after being debuffed by Greater Malison to ensure he doesn't get instagibbed.
I notice that I've had all my buffs removed and use a Chain Contingency to ensure my survival: Haste, Mass Invisibilty, and Mislead. Around this time, the second Balor dies so its just the Glabrezus left who aren't as much of a threat so long as everybody stays at high HP.
Johnny-boy has destroyed all of my Perfect Clay golems but for each one gone, two more normal versions pop back out, and they continue to swarm him.
I get a charged Wish off: Greater Deathblow, Haste everyone, Hardiness, one piece of Iron to Mithril, Rest, and Improved Haste on party.
The last glabrezu falls, now its just us vs. Johnny-boy.
He's got PfMW up right now but that is easily fixed by Rasaad's Dragon Fist. Johnny receives a sound thrashing but he's not triggering his cutscene... He calls in a Fallen Planetar, despite being pummeled 6 ways to Sunday throughout his casting!
Just afterward, his Slayer transformation wears off as Rasaad uses the Gem of Seeing to uncover the Improved Invisible planetar. He takes a hit from it, but Johnny's cutscene plays instead, causing the planetar to twitch in defeat. I would've screenshotted this but you can't capture cutscenes.
Now in ToB, I take a minute to rest and repair the two surviving Clay golems, and refresh my Spell Trigger.
SoA Complete!
Now back to 1.69 NWN for a while. So many combinations to explore with the PRC pack.Psions are hard to play with only 36 quickslots due to the metric asston of powers you get and because you don't always have to augment your powers to max level for them to be effective, so you have to choose the amount of Power Points you're willing to spend instead. Psions are unstoppable once they learn Shadow Body and Psionic Iron Body.
And then a ghast gets too close and shreds her in two rounds before I could save her. Oh well, she probably deserved it.
That's for not helping!
And Garfield finally gets a weapon upgrade. Bayard's 100% MR doesn't save him from Ishlilka's spell casting failure, and he folds from the collective attentions of the group.
And then Garfield found a manual of gainful exercise, just chilling on a bookshelf.
I honestly don't mind stat up tomes much, especially intelligence or charisma tomes, since the difference of 1 natural stat is frequently insignificant. In this case, Gabriel goes from 50lbs carry weight to 70lbs carry weight, which means he can actually hold more than his own gear before becoming over encumbered. Still though, if he were a more "normal" half-orc he could very easily be sitting at 24 natural strength, 25 if he was a warrior.
Whatever, Garf has a +3 Katana of petrification to sell/donate, and the plot to advance, right after recruiting Kagain to use the +2 axe of returning and +2 Heavy Crossbow just in case.
And so Garfield and Friends begin their epic search for the lost scion of Entar Silvershield, never to give up their noble pursuit.
Cracks me up every time, he spends approximately zero minutes before giving up. I think he was just lonely in that shop and CHARNAME's party looked like fun.
It was about this point I remembered that I hadn't collected the final mandatory newfriend, so heading back to the Friendly Arms, then installing the mod because I'd actually forgotten to.
Hi Newfriend!
Catboy is proficient with scimitars.
Tragedy strikes trying to complete Catboy's first quest.
Fortunately the party was full, so I was justified in booting her to the curb, and a quick wand of lightning later, and I have me a brand new escritoire. And an enforced plot rest to bury my foster father.
At this point Neera reveals her quest area,
conveniently freeing up a party slotgiving Garfield a new epic quest to procrastinate on. Westwards! I just remembered I have a bunch of Sirenes left to kill.I did try to recover some animate dead castings before this, but two more Sirenes jumped me, which was awesome, but also ended up with Ishlilka chasing the party over half the map and ate a charge from the fire wand.
Garf tried to silence Sil's group while sending in the corpse party to avoid them turning invisible and making life harder, but only managed to get one of them. At least he managed to silence the squirrel. Damn squirrels.
Our land. Imperialism triumph's once more.
It took me a bit to remember that one of the Tweaks mods Kagain's 20 Con down to a "rules legal" 19, so no free healing for him. Thankfully with two clerics there's plenty of healing if necessary, even if it is distasteful to memorise cure spells.
As usual, a bunch of extra stuff in an already good loot stash. Why the ninjato? And why is everything restricted to bard and monk? Is this an attempt at competitive balance? It doesn't work, they still suck compared to Mage/Thief.
No sooner have I finished pillaging their natural resources than:
Verr'sza's quest #2. It's nothing too painful at this level, especially if you don't fight fair, which obviously is my top priority. Seven day time limit isn't hard either, since I should run into Brage before then. Still time to traumatise a small child in the meantime.
Hobgoblin ambush with Kobold Commandos actually gets dangerous.
Sirene railroads you on a lot of quests like this. It's almost like she doesn't realise that she's not the party leader and would slavishly stab a small child if CHARNAME ordered her to. At least she's pretty quiet, presumably thanks to expecting SoD maps for any talks.
Brage tragically adds one more family member to his kill list, and a +1 Small Shield to my loot list. Thanks Brage.
Sirene tells it like it is. Me me me.
Garfield actually survived to Chapter 2.
I have no idea what "75% invisibility" is supposed to do, but it doesn't give a penalty to attackers, doesn't stop people from casting on the wearer, doesn't give an attack bonus, doesn't give a hide bonus, and is to all appearances simply cosmetic. It can also be worn by anyone, so Ishlilka is wearing it because why not.
Now, as a Cleric/Thief I could technically dress Garfield in the Ankheg Plate, but... See for yourself.
Maybe when I find something that looks cooler than the Shadow Armour, I guess.
Quite why assassins travel alone, announce their presence to a highly armed group of six, and then start casting "entangle" as though it ever helps escapes me, but thanks for the exp!
About the best thing about Dark Horizons I've seen so far is that it has introduced ammo sacks of infinite +0 ammo, which is ideal for keeping Neera from deciding she is a warrior or a mage on the back lines in between wand blasts. My reputation is getting dangerously high from all the epic loot I keep pawning/donating.
For the official record I have no idea where Oublek is, or what Kagain was doing out of Garfield's party during the two minutes thirty seven seconds after Oublek denied Garfield a reward.
After a minor misunderstanding, in which Neera was almost turned into a pincushion by around eight soldiers objecting to Garfield clearing out their guard barracks, the party fled East, for Catboy's quest.
Learning the lessons from the assassins targeting him, Garfield attacks without announcing his presence and introducing himself first, so Shantia doesn't get the chance to cast Fireshield and make life difficult. After a successful hold person, reality ensues and the party gets a 1/day shaman style summon, plus ANOTHER bard only ring.
Next step: Trying to remember what I wanted to do next while the heat dies down. Gnoll stronghold maybe?
(My computer seems able to take screenshots again, just in time to catch this lovely glitch courtesy of the Amber mod!)
Journal of Belgar
I changed my mind about what character to play next. Here is my Dwarven Inquisitor who has just returned to Candlekeep after being ambushed.I won't be posting during the Christmas Period so Happy Christmas to you all.
Dat 98 roll. At least she "only" had a crossbow of speed and a ring of bardzardry and a lute of dire charm.
Also: Lol, "very adept fighter". Her adjusted THAC0 is 15+, 14+ with her crossbow, worse than the ranger 3 levels behind her. What's with this idea that "second worst THAC0 progression in the game" somehow becomes competent because you can put a proficiency point into "Halberd" or something? Come back to me, glitchy Sirene, at least until I find someone less ridiculous to ditch you for until SoD.
Wild Surges: 2.
Damnit Neera, that was supposed to be Melf's so you could actually be helpful.
Ah well, 3000 Exp and a +2 dagger for denying a spirit their final wish in life. Game totally oriented towards good playthroughs.
Grumpy Slime Mage costs me a party member.
Stupid Mustard Jellies are immune to magic, piercing, non-magic weapons, and virtually immune to missile, cutting out everyone except Kagain at this point. Even the skeleton warriors were more to keep hits off Kagain than anything else, since they don't have magic weapons until level 7.
They made up for it shortly after, eating a lightning bolt and killing the mage for the team. A few skeletons later, and Garfield hits level 6 cleric, getting an extra level 3 spell slot.
Then, since yet another "well I guess I'll just talk to you in your sleep" effect exploded on him when he levelled, I figure I'd best try reinstalling my mods.
She was out of sight of everyone when she fired the zooka, then she was in sight and every single one landed. Meh. Also in a bid to fix Sirene (after deleting "Met in SOD variable from the autosave) I sent her back to the temple, so now Garfield gets to face off against high level mages with no mage.
Well, at least the entire quest is way less obnoxious without Neera, even though Beamdog apparently couldn't conceive of Neera being dead through the cutscenes, which makes everyone sound a bit schizophrenic.
Well let it not be said that Garfield is a quitter. Three people or not, Adoy awaits.
Arrows of Biting for the win. Despite only one snare setting successfully, Gabriel locked down main red mage guy with poison damage until he got off his last and only offensive spell there at the end while his two Animated Dead and Catboy's storyteller book summons occupied the others.
Educated the "best swordsman" that range beats melee on the way back to the temple...
And then murdered Bub Snikt. It was self defence, he was killing my frame rate.
Sorry Bub, if you weren't bugged I'd probably still have killed you for no rep loss loot. No idea what killed his usual chat though.
Speaking of killing people for their loot...
In return for avenging his death, Garfield gets a new outfit, and Catboy gets to use a scimitar with such a stupid name I don't even want to identify it.
Since our new wizard friend wants to murder another potential wizard friend, Garfield heads west again, continuing the party's habit of zigzagging the Sword Coast.
Pretty sure this is actually my first Dark Horizon's assassin team, though there was no dialogue or anything except some guys randomly attacking, so they might just be dark horizon's bandits?
Either way, asides from the mage confusing the meatshields, who then started chasing each other around like idiots, an easy thousand Exp and a grab bag of scrolls which Edwin fluffs magnificently despite having 22 Intelligence.
RIP Kagain. I hit the wrong button on my keyboard, hiding my party window and didn't realise he was on low health. RIP Catboy shortly after as I underestimated the "Gnoll Clan Leader" who, checking EEKeeper, apparently has 20 strength and a +2 Halberd with 3 APR, because of course he does.
Killing Dynaheir, because Edwin learned a lot of scrolls and I can only assume it will be funny if I now recruit Minsc, the trepid trio toddle towards the twit talking to the tiny talking tailless rodent.
Being an equal opportunity employer, Garfield agrees to let Minsc join the party to recover the honour he lost because the party killed his boss.
Garfield doing great against some assassins. It actually ended with zero deaths, thanks to Edwin paralysing anyone who started beating on Sirene and Catboy helpfully getting horror'd and luring one of their fighters around the entire map - which is why horror sucks.
Since they were in Gullykin, tradition dictates they murder the Ogre Mage.
I was trying to disrupt what I thought would be Imp. Inv. with Garfield at this point, but instead the mage casts Lightning, which is bugged to "reflect" off its target, hitting them multiple times for massive damage. I probably should have tried leaving the map with the rest of the party to remove Garfield mid-pain train, but decided to try chugging a potion instead. Time to reroll for me.
(Corey_Russell, Grond0, Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/932690/#Comment_932690
In their previous session this trio were very lucky to survive - so clearly that luck would continue on and on as they trod the path to greatness (or perhaps not).
The session opened with a quick trip through the Nashkel Mine. Grime threw in a Writhing Fog on Mulahey, but that's a slow way to kill things and Coresmash flew into a rage to speed things up.
Cleaning up a few quests, they took Landrin's goods back to the FAI, where Tarnesh still lay in wait. Croak missed his backstab this time and ran in horror as a result, but Coresmash was raging again to make sure there was no danger.
Moving on to the Bandit Camp Taurgosz fell to call lightning before Croak one-shotted Venkt. Britik chased him back out of the tent, but ran into some more lightning as a result.
A bit more cleaning up included the Valley of the Tombs. Narcillicus had heard all about fighting fire with fire and decided to try and fight lightning with lightning - but discovered in the process it's tricky stuff to control.
There was a nasty moment going through the Cloakwood when both Grime and Coresmash were webbed with ettercaps bearing down on them. That should really have prevented area travel, but Croak took advantage of a MP glitch to run away anyway.
At the Mine Grime threw in another Writhing Fog with the aim of killing the mages. Coresmash wasn't having any of that slow death nonsense though and advanced to throw a potion fireball. That finished off Kysus, but Rezdan survived and was annoyed. Not really prepared for combat, the trio were too close together and everyone failed their saves against a horror spell and were soon in deep trouble.
(Corey_Russell, Grond0, Gate70)
With the
untimely death of the previous adventurers we rapidly set about constructing a new party. As usual, we roll our characters without discussion so no influence on each other.I opted for something I've meant to try out for a while in no-reload. Up pops Felai the human female dragon disciple. Reminder of the kit
One meatshield has already turned up, Corey_Russell with Killye - a dwarven fighter / cleric. Felai nods approvingly, add some protection from fire and he should be up to the job.
We don't have to wait too long before Grond0 adds Evas to the party. A dwarven fighter / thief. So we've covered off the fighting, arcane, divine and rogueish elements. Should be fun.
First though a Paint cut & shut of the party.
(due to Grond0's usual tactic of adding a custom portrait new to both Corey_Russell and myself)
Killye squeezes into ankheg plate as Felai chats to Noober, and then we return to Beregost to deliver Mirianne's letter. A quick trip east to the temple for a scroll and we continue east to the rock garden where our adventure will continue next time.
Stats at the end of the session:
A 94 roll is nothing compared to Ultra Bard 98 down in Nashkel carnival, but Taryn has an inherent advantage of not being a bard. Fingers crossed he actually survives past level 1.
Damnit.
Like last time, I'm hitting Friendly Arm Inn, but skipping Ishlilka for a bit.
Tarnesh is no match for cheesy Lightning Bolt. Apparently it's casting well above Taryn's caster level, since he just took at least 3D6 damage from that. Fortunately Taryn made his save, unfortunately Imoen wasn't standing behind him.
Taryn fails to scribe both scrolls. Meh.
Well that didn't take long. After running out of ammo, rather than sit quietly in the corner, Imoen decided her bare hands were just the thing for fighting giant skittering abominations. Single class thieves. Ugh.
Familiars are so handy I dunno how other classes even manage, even having just played as two.
Scout out mage, since blue circles don't care about cats.
Help melee mage after mage was silenced by Taryn (at which point he just stands waiting to die).
Honestly, scouting without triggering ambushes and fights is just so important.
I send Korax off into the corner of the map after flawlessly exterminating the entire group with the only action on their part being the mage getting off her dialogue before falling unconscious again. He's earned a quiet retirement this game.
After all of which my familiar gains 39 GP by stealing it from Taryn and giving it back to him (his name is apparently Schroedinger) and allowing him to carry everything the entire party was carrying as was actually worth carrying.
She also gives the party 1500 Exp, apparently for the "quest" of not completely fluffing a two exchange conversation.
Time to regear her and hit the temple. At least she's a bit more reasonable with her 84 roll than uberbard#2. And I can grab Alora to sacrifice on the altar of single class pure thieves while I'm at it. Hopefully remembering to grab a certain cloak in the interim.
Sigh. I hate Gullykin.
Yes, I did hit fatigued state while actively trying to rest four times in a row. And no sooner did they finally rest after ambush #5 than a Dire Wolf random spawn attacked. Sigh.
Finally.
[spoiler]
It was around this point that I realised I'd actually passed through and robbed 90% of Beregost... And forgot the cape.
Sigh. Backtracking.
I could have just teleported across the traps with Dimension Jump. And used the Reform party trick to get the rest of the party across.
Butt kicking for justice!
A lightning bolt hello dropped the cleric to 20% health or so, while Taryn's Troublemakers moved north away from his army, letting the entangle keep them from following. A few animates to tank the skeletons' crossbows and Baz's hold persons later and it was nothing but cleanup, with Taryn's skald infused bludgeoning wiping out the skeletons with but a single casualty - Taryn's shield. Damn you kobolds and your shield eating shenanigans!
Having carried a chicken around for approximately twelve hours last game having forgotten to do the quest, thought I'd pull it off before turning in B's symbol.
No surprises. Failed.
I uh, sort of pressed the wrong dialogue key here. Taryn had already shielded up ready to drop a point blank lightning bolt, though, so it would have been a waste not to use it. Guess we're not getting Garrick this playthrough. Deep sorrow etc.
And we get friend#4.
Nope, hold on.
Verr'Sza the rakshasa ranger and, since they're in the neighbourhood, Ishlilka the level 1 fighter. At least there's still plenty of Sirene out there for levelling these two up.
Pickpocketting obvious mod NPCs nets Alora a +2 scimitar that is downright tame by the usual standards I've come to expect.
Also ganked: +2 Katana "Masamune" +1 Dex, +1 AC, Warrior classes only.
Belt of permanent haste - LG human paladins/monks and half-orcs. They get infinite haste and they're still lame.
So yeah, pushed my luck trying to pick pocket the rogue (does anyone know how much it penalises rolls by?), and the pair turned hostile. The fighter was completely unarmed, while the thief was immediately shut down by Taryn's hold spell. Then Khalid and Jaheira randomly attacked, because harper scum that they are, they were just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Since all Bardette had to cast was Colour Spray, which apparently, not super crowd friendly, half of the Friendly Arms is hostile, yet no rep lost, no innocents killed, and another +2 Scimitar of shocking and some +3 Mithril chain of "maybe Drizzt Lives this game". No experience though, sadly. I've probably broken a quest or two now.
Another tweak is opening up Cloakwood, and since Taryn wandered in by mistake, may as well murder some druids for the sweet, sweet exp.
Honestly that went way easier than expected, since the arrows of ice Alora pick pocketed in bulk from the caravan guards all around the Friendly Arms area were in fact arrows of "freezing" with a 6 round hold effect.
Karma punished me however, and Taryn got focus fired by some Kobold Commandos on his way out of Cloakwood and died instantly in a blaze of crits. C'est la vie.
If nothing else, I think I've got enough out of the Dark Horizon's mod to give it an F and to uninstall it for future runs. Blech.
I think I'll run a nice traditional Mage/Thief next run. Open to suggestions on fun kits, because otherwise it's just going to be Swashbuckler because I'm lazy and complacent.
I'm only going to do this up until after the Ducal Palace; I just want to make up for lost time because of those awful traps in the pre-Sarevok maze. But the Reform Party trick, as fast as it is, is kind of repetitive if you do it over and over again. It's more fun if you don't rely on it to single-handedly win big fights, and just use it as a supplementary thing. I might end up relying on Baeloth again because those early Fireballs are just so convenient.
I actually only picked the Bounty Hunter because I don't think I can win against Ascension Melissan without pre-set Maze traps to isolate the Five and pick them off one by one. I also have an Archer who will dual-class to cleric at level 9 in SoA, because I'm going to use two consecutive Called Shots in combination with Energy Blades for massive stat drain (and I'm willing to use the Reform Party trick to restore it if I somehow get a bunch of critical misses in a row). With 10 APR and two Called Shot charges, the Archer/Cleric could drain 26.67 STR assuming all hits connect (or 30 STR if I use the Reform Party trick).
It's not really necessary, but I don't know what else to do with those player-created character slots, since so many roles can be covered by NPCs.
Otherwise the Archer kit and cleric class don't mesh well in an SR poverty run. Although the Archer/Cleric will be able to use longbows, the longbow from Enchanted Weapon doesn't even grant the typical +0.5 APR of IR bows. Mostly it'll just be an Archer in early SoA, a cleric for the rest of SoA, and then suddenly get an instant death weapon at epic levels, which I can only use once per day due to the changes to HLAs in my install.
Sparkle (Gnome illusionist / thief, Grond0); Gruu (Half-orc berserker, Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/931679/#Comment_931679
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/932537/#Comment_932537
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/933117/#Comment_933117
Another chastening multi-player day kicked off with this pairing returning to Baldur's Gate after their trip to Candlekeep. A backstab attempt on Slythe failed to register as a backstab, but Gruu dispelled Slythe as he hared after Sparkle and he was quickly finished off.
Moving on to the Palace, preparations were somewhat sub-optimal. Sparkle didn't know haste, but did use an oil of speed herself. Gruu wanted to do the same, but a MP glitch that kept free action active after unequipping Spiders' Bane meant we would have needed to do an area transition or save and reload the game - and we did neither. That meant the dopplegangers' chances were still poor, but rather better than they would have been and unfortunately they made a pretty concerted attack on the dukes. That resulted in a close race - but the dopplegangers won by a head.
Vreis and Diva
A new pairing. We quickly drag reputation up to 20 and bump up xp in a trice.
So I finally went M/T, and elf eventually to be turned into half-elf for Ishlilka's romance in SoD, and sticking with Swashbuckler because Warlock is broken.
Val is a gloomy sort, partly because he's died around six million times, partly because he rolled past a 99.
Val's early life was largely uneventful. No wolf killing him in a single crit as he walked to recover his father's belt, no waylaid by enemies where he was focus fired to death by bandits within a single round, just a nice peaceful wander East, murdering two of the adventuring party while the other two fled under a horror scroll, never to be seen again, passed through Beregost... At which point I figured he'd actually been alive long enough to actually document this inevitable train wreck.
This is one of those safe exp things I like. Shoal cannot deal lethal damage, so worst case would be her somehow landing enough hits to actually knock the cat down for a bit. 5,000 free Exp enough to push Val up to level 5/6, at which point he goes to visit his first newfriend:
The mad gnome with the overpowered summon. The ghast wrecks Sirene, ogres, and pretty much anything vulnerable to a 3 APR super Korax, which is apparently most things.
Catboy's first quest was brief after a quick silence spell pre-fight. So brief I didn't even bother ssing it,
so here's a picture of Verr'Sza asking if the person who's been routinely taking on ogres, basilisks, ghouls, ghasts,
Much of the run has been wandering around vaguely trying to remember what I was supposed to do.
Sort of assume a flamethrower is at least tangentially related, whatever it was.
Ogre Magi at Candlekeep can deal 44 damage on a critical hit to an unarmed character, enough to kill a level 5 sorcerer. It seems I can't wait in that fight for even a moment unless our introductory Horror spell takes down all nearby Ogre Mages.
For this run, our player-created characters include three sorcerers, an Archer who can dual-class to cleric, a Bounty Hunter, and a Totemic Druid. We ditch the Archer and two sorcerers (the third is Charname, Frisk), then grab Tiax and steal his ghast to murdalize some basilisks. I did this in the daytime, so scouting was not an option and Frisk had to make a save against Horror.
The Reform Party trick gives us unlimited uses from kit abilities like Set Special Snare and Summon Spirit Animal, but I fail to fix the bug on the former which makes it non-functional before level 6, forcing us to lure Kirian et al across the map where our spirit critters can win the fight for us.
Unlimited spirit critters is as overpowered as it seems. We stomp on the ogre with Unshey's girdle, kill Tarnesh with a single thrown trap, nab Baeloth once we've hit 10,000 XP, and use a combination of traps, summons, and Baeloth's Web spell to take down the highly dangerous Kobold Chieftain and Kobold Shaman.
Mulahey is easy to kill with a few traps, and while traps do precious little damage to skeletons due to their missile damage resistances, Fireball polishes them off quite nicely.
Tranzig doesn't buff with Shield in my install, only Ghost Armor, so all Baeloth has to do is head downstairs to escape Tranzig's introductory Slow spell and then spam Magic Missile.
As always, I reduce the party to Frisk and travel around while invisible until triggering the Lamalha and Molkar ambushes.
Expeditious Retreat is no longer necessary to win the fight with Tazok; we can spam Summon Spirit Animal to keep him at bay.
Tiax only knows Bless and Doom and has to get a level up to learn Sanctuary (some bug with my install), and I don't remember where Viconia is supposed to be in SCS, so I foolishly decide to rob the bandit camp without Sanctuary. Like before, the end result is no chapter transition and a lot of hostile bandits that we're forced to lure out of the tent (otherwise the next chapter will not start).
Expeditious Retreat gets us to the edge of the map with minimal injuries, allowing us to spam traps and spirit critters as the enemies come looking for us.
Baeloth applies some spell damage and we clean up the camp much, much faster than when I had to do it via alternating west and south area transitions. We still need to clear out the main tent, which involves ducking in and out of the entrance to avoid suffering too much pressure. One of the archers reminds us of just how much Item Revisions nerfs Arrows of Biting.
The damage is so slow that there's very little chance of spell disruption.
We have gathered practically no side quest XP and Baeloth therefore has no Invisibility Sphere. But we don't need it when we have Special Snares, since they do enough damage to kill a Phase Spider when combined with Magic Missile.
We can take down one Phase Spider before it can make a single attack roll, and then flee the map if more arrive before we're ready to handle it.
Frisk gets disabled by Web Tangle during a spider ambush, showing the dangers of traveling here without Invisibility Sphere, but traps and spell damage take down the spiders before they can gobble up our Bhaalspawn.
Being able to throw out infinite traps makes the Drasus fight embarrassingly easy.
It also lets us chew up the Cloakwood guards while our invincible wall of summons makes feeble attempts to break through Hareishan's defenses.
Frisk goes invisible to check in on the situation and we press forward with the help of a Spirit Bear's fear attack on Hareishan (I use a mix of spirit animals in this run), allowing our Bounty Hunter, Carl, to throw traps a little farther back and catch the enemies to the far south.
That wasn't possible while Hareishan was still close to the northeastern hall; the enemy would have been in Carl's line of sight. We cut down the remains of Hareishan's entourage and finally wear her down, with an Obscuring Mist spell to limit her visual range and keep her from spotting party members.
A similar process works against Natasha, even though I misplace Yeslick's Dispel Magic.
Unfortunately, I try to detect a trap that doesn't exist and tiptoe into Davaeorn's field of vision, initiating combat while the Battle Horrors are still active. I fall back with Expeditious Retreat.
Davaeorn doesn't follow us, surprisingly enough, allowing us to take down the Battle Horrors at our leisure. But the moment I send a spirit animal over to probe the situation, Davaeorn's pre-buffs activate. He still doesn't attack us, though, until I send out Baeloth to peek on him.
Baeloth gets webbed and Davaeorn teleports over to the party, which is fully visible and completely defenseless to Fireball. But Davaeorn has just put himself right in front of Yeslick, who can take down all of his buffs at once.
He teleports away before Frisk can hit him with Melf's Acid Arrow, but Carl's traps activate much quicker. Guards pour into the room, only to land right on top of Carl's pre-set traps.
Davaeorn doesn't teleport far enough away, and another trap finishes him off.
We used traps on some Phase Spiders in the Baldur's Gate sewers to get Baeloth access to Invisibility Sphere before taking down the Ogre Mage, burgling the Iron Throne, and heading over to Candlekeep, where our second attempt at tackling the quadruple Ogre Mage ambush ended in a single blow when I failed to appreciate just how dangerous a single Ogre Mage was when not under the effects of Horror.
I've started over and have hurried through the early game. Notable difference include bombing Kirian et al with traps (now that I fixed the bug) and killing some ankhegs to level up Tiax, allowing him to use Sanctuary at the bandit camp and obviating the need for wiping out all the bandits.
I have no idea why Tiax's 25% electrical resistance from Resist Elements didn't block any of the damage from the Lightning Bolt trap.
Original post and previous run update:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/901925/#Comment_901925
I thought it was time to have another go at this concept in an SCS installation. Bash can use any tactics, but is only allowed to be responsible for killing anything by using Brage's cursed berserking sword - that includes not allowing summons to kill for him.
A sixth attempt started well until I got a bit too cute with Kirian. All alone she was affected by horror, but Freda only managed a single hit while chasing her round. I did have the XP for level 5, but hadn't taken the levels and the moment Kirian recovered she put Bash to sleep.
A seventh attempt also ended at the basilisks. I had done significantly more work prior to going there this time and should have made short work of them. However, when casting web near the first basilisk, I pushed the sight boundary too closely and moved forward slightly in casting - getting into sight of the basilisk and immediately berserking. Without any armor (though the Shield spell was active) Bash's chances of killing 4 basilisks were not good. He did reasonably well to kill one lesser and the greater basilisk, but was poisoned in the process of that and expired.
An eighth attempt started early on Christmas morning (after all what else is there to do at Christmas
A ninth attempt ended very carelessly when I sent a charmed sirine too far in search of a wild dog and found the large group of various wolves to the east of Beregost Temple ...
It was still pretty early so I decided to have one more attempt before the family got up. Progress with that so far has been:
- went directly to Brage to get the sword (also picked up the ankheg armor while in Nashkel).
- Algernon was Bash's first victim and his Cloak allowed Bash to approach Neera without her talking.
- the sirines were pulled one-by-one outside the Beregost Temple where dogs wore them down (without letting the attackers be visible to Bash). That took him up to level 3/3.
- after buying invisibility he went up to Ulgoth's Beard (using invisibility to keep the ankheg near Tenya underground so as not to triger his berserk). Dushai was charmed there and taken away for disposal. That gained Bash both free action and a web spell - a very useful combination for this challenge.
- 1,300 gold pieces were invested in 4 reputation points at the temple and various quests added to that. Bash managed to keep Charleston Nib alive by charming him to be able to move him out of the way of berserk attacks and Melicamp was successfully restored (getting up to level 4/4 there).
- Bjornin's half-ogres and Samuel both proved no trouble to get reputation to 19 and the final gain came from talking to Oublek.
- I very rarely actually pay for full plate, but decided doing that was justified for this run. After buying a few spells as well, Bash was just short of the cost of a Robe of the Archmagi so decided to take on Karlat. Things looked bad when Karlat's morale broke and he ran into the main room, but Bash recovered his senses an instant before striking down a civilian.
Fighter 5 / Mage 5, 47 HPs, 152 kills
I'll just avoid her next time. Why bother fighting these people anyway?
Previous updates:
Christmas appears to be hard going for no-reload ...
Bash cleared the ankheg area - none of the beasts managing to get the critical they needed to hit him. At the Valley of the Tombs he nearly killed the Revenant in a web, but it ran outside - there was no escape there though. I didn't want to risk fighting a pair of mustard jellies, so opted out of that when Narcillicus broke free of a web just before dying (getting to level 6/6 there). I was caught by surprise after that though to find that the ghasts were all outside their tomb (possibly as a result of the Revenant going outside). However, even without any buffing Bash plowed through them with no trouble.
Greywolf could have been a problem in straight melee, so I set webs up in advance for him. That meant though that Bash was dangerously close to Prism - but fortunately he dropped out of the berserk state very quickly.
There was also a nasty moment in a skeleton ambush when Bash fixated on trying to attack an archer, but then got stuck against one of the other skeletons. That meant he had to survive long enough for the archer to run out of arrows and come within attack range - which he managed to do easily enough in fact.
Meilum failed to break free of his webs - his bracers pushing Bash's minimum damage while berserk up even further to a juicy 16.
Deciding it was time to take on the sirines Bash went to the Lighthouse. I intended to use a potion of clarity, but first cast shield and PfE. For some reason the latter appeared to activate the sirines, though I'd been careful to stay out of sight of them, and as they started moving forward Bash instantly lost control.