Started over. This time I was even more aggressive with cutting corners. For one thing, I used a few cheats to quickly end some zero-risk fights, which included not just kobolds, but even the Cloakwood Phase Spiders: with the ability to set traps at the start of the area and finish off a Phase Spider with Magic Missile, the only remaining risk in that event is trying to rest in the previous area of the Cloakwood, but unlimited traps make resting completely safe. I also failed to collect numerous optional sources of XP, leaving Baeloth at level 6 and Frisk at level 4 into the late game.
Once again, we somehow trigger the fight with Davaeorn early, and once again, he doesn't actually initiate combat, including his Minor Sequencer, until we probe the southwest with a spirit critter. This gives us time to set up some traps for the guards. In the end, Yeslick's Dispel Magic breaks the fight.
Staying at such low levels and failing to micromanage our Bhaalspawn powers (I considered using EEKeeper to replicate the effects of micromanagement, but even that was too much trouble) means that we have no Horror spell to use against the Ogre Magi at Candlekeep. Right before I spoke to Duke Eltan, I realize that I could just go back to Candlekeep and set traps beforehand.
Six traps kill Slythe; Dispel Magic kill Kristin. We don't bother with Cythandria.
Fire Traps and snares take down the doppelgangers with very little difficulty, using the positions I outlined in a previous post.
The Mustard Jellies in the maze gave us trouble in our previous run, since all of our animal summons dealt piercing damage and couldn't touch the jellies even with Magic Fang. I was only able to kill them with 4 skeletons. Yeslick can only summon two in this run because I've been starving the party of valuable XP and he was still level 5, but I make up the difference by attacking from afar with Spiritual Hammer.
After killing some undead in the Undercity, we reach our final levels: level 5/5 for Yeslick, and level 7 for everyone else.
Unwilling to go fetch Dynaheir and level her up so we would have enough Fireballs to beat Sarevok the normal way, I decide to rely entirely on Special Snares. Since Baeloth had no Stoneskin, he has to cast Haste on Yeslick to ensure that Yeslick would have enough time to cast Sanctuary before Sarevok hit him.
But I make the mistake of summoning all five spirit critters before battle. One of them gets too close to the center of the map and ends up drawing Diarmid's attention, forcing Baeloth to use another level 3 spell slot to keep the party from getting swarmed.
We take down Angelo's defenses using Dispel Magic, but fail to apply sufficient pressure to keep him from activating a Minor Sequencer and going invisible. He ends up wandering down south to cast Shadow Door.
We lure him back north, but I fail to keep our summons spread out. When Angelo wipes out all of our spirit critters with Fireburst, we are unable to bring out new critters before he wanders over to the party, forcing Baeloth to burn yet another Invisibility Sphere, lest Angelo destroy us with a Confusion spell or something.
The next round of summons (again, the Reform Party trick means Poppy, our Totemic Druid, can summon them at will, ignoring aura) brings down Angelo, and in the process, we discover that the Flame Strike spell that triggers on Sarevok's minions is not cosmetic in SR: because SR makes Flame Strike area-effect, it actually hurts nearby characters.
We throw out Special Snares, but find that the Skeleton Warriors come after us, forcing us to rely on summons to bring them down. I don't know if this happens when using Fireballs rather than snares.
After spamming Set Special Snare for many rounds, we finally take down Sarevok, but for some reason, SoD does not begin.
We're still in control of all of our characters; it's not a stalled cutscene. Nothing is happening. I suspect it has something to do with killing Sarevok before finishing off the Skeleton Warriors, but when I re-do the fight and kill the Skeleton Warriors first, the problem persists.
Does anyone know why the game doesn't react to Sarevok's death?
I've spent so much time re-tracing my steps in BG1. If I die in SoD, BG2, or ToB, I doubt I will make another attempt at this challenge; I'm too sick of starting over from Candlekeep.
Okay, my install is truly broken re the Sarevok fight. There's nothing you can do to trigger the transition to SoD--and trying to create a new party in SoD based on our current one means that all BG1 areas would either be in their original state (dead critters would be alive, quests would be uncompleted and so forth) or probably flat-out unavailable. In the end, we had to use the console both to teleport the party to the starting dungeon of SoD and also spawn Imoen, who was otherwise missing. I also had to make sure that Frisk was the only one who arrived in the SoD dungeon, because only a single character could teleport to the dungeon before the intro cutscene would begin, stalling the game if Frisk wasn't present to speak with Imoen.
Frisk has high CHA, so we get to talk down Porios. The side effect is that we're unable to fight the guys outside of Porios' room, who normally would start out hostile.
This makes the game easier, but after working so hard just to get the game to work properly, I have no interest in trying to re-create the fight.
Another weird side effect of the transition is that Frisk loses all Bhaalspawn powers. I don't care enough about them to use EEKeeper to fix the bug.
We are no longer using the Reform Party trick, so we have to beat the first dungeon of SoD with an underleveled, unequipped party of 5. Fireballs are key to taking down Shadowed Souls who otherwise would eat us alive with magic damage.
The whole dungeon essentially revolves around Fireballs, Special Snares, and summons as a buffer. But then, that's how a poverty run operates in general.
Yeslick, as always, is devastating against enemy mages. Korlasz doesn't stand a chance. I don't let her surrender; I know she's just going to break out of jail later.
I send Yeslick away in the hopes that I can collect him later.
Another problem with the way we enter SoD (or maybe an inherent bug in my install) is Baldur's Gate itself. The game doesn't quite register which game we're in, so we can't do area transitions properly in the city.
With a little persuasion, I bring M'Khiin into the party despite also having Baeloth. Unfortunately, M'Khiin is not quite willing to abide by the terms of the poverty run.
I already decided that non-removable items were permissible because deleting Baeloth's ring via EEKeeper would only make him stronger (the advantage of the ring, bonus spell picks, is actually only present on Baeloth's .cre file; the ring only has disadvantages), so M'Khiin's items will stay until I can find a way to get rid of them. In the meantime, I can effectively remove her axe just by switching to her bare hands, though she'll still have her shield and armor.
Once Carl kills some spiders and a nearby Stone Golem with Special Snares, Baeloth finally hits level 8, gaining access to Enchanted Weapon. Thanks to the twin glitches I found with SR's Enchanted Weapon, our entire party can throw +3 bullets, Carl can throw +3 crossbow bolts (1d10+3 damage in IR!), and our newest party member, Corwin, has a limitless supply of +3 arrows with a +3 longbow that deals +5 damage.
Unfortunately, we're at such low XP that Corwin is only level 6, and due to an SR bug, M'Khiin is unable to equip the +3 arrows from Enchanted Weapon.
Once we do the bridge thing, we should be able to revisit some BG1 areas and collect a little extra XP from some of the quests we skipped in the rush to reach SoD. We certainly don't need to hit the SoD level cap by the endgame (we can probably beat Belhifet at 300,000 XP--or even 100,000!), but we really should gain levels as fast as we can. Since SoD does have some high-intensity fights and it's definitely in our best interest to learn Recall Spirit or Harper's Call (if SoD Jaheira knows it, as her .cre file suggests) before we suffer a death, instead of after. The key points, as always, will be the temple of Bhaal, Bridgefort, Dragonspear Castle, and Belhifet.
We have a little wiggle room in the meantime. No one has died in this run (although Baeloth nearly wasted Frisk on two separate occasions using Fireball), so Shoal is still available for a party-wide resurrection.
Fun fact: Neutralize Poison grants immunity to poison damage in SR, so we'll be able to take down Morentherene in this run.
My previous character Cleric F95 is still in the bandit Camp, but restartis seems to get the better of him... his lackluster HP pool, apr and damage output without boon of Lathander has simply ended my interest in him.
So enter Inq 97. A human inquisitor with a not to shabby 97 stat roll...
I had opted for a better roll for better mental stats, and a better str percentage. But the tomes will help me a bit - if I get there. Inq has to pips in broadswords and axes. He is a sword & board pally with a strong sense of justice (he wont dual wield or go for 2 handel weapons). Throwing axes will be my ranged option. Inq 97 can detect evil and he is set on chrushing all evil before him. Evil beware.
Confiscating loot from evil persons and picking up stuff on or from the ground (favors from Torm) is ok - but no breaking and entering.
Its an unmodded game played on iOS (iPhone 6s), and its played on hard (max HP on level up). No NPC is allowed - besides picking up a gem bag - that one is a gift from Torm (he is the God of imventory management... says Inq 97).
In ck he did all the quests and headed out. After seeing the foul murder of Gorion, Torm appeared and bid Inq 97 serve the armoered figure some justice (kill him - or does that goes without saying?). Gorion may have been a boring sage, but his killing was unjustified - such a man should have died in his sleep...
In the morning Inq headed out and Torm provided in plenty. Two evil persons suffered their fate and gave Inq some potions - whilst a good hearted thief was turned away (Inq kept the potions for safe keeping).
Inq 97 did some minor quests in Beregost and the wilderness. He then went for the coastal areas and some adventuring.. He quickly found him self in troubled water - whilst on dry land..
A nice surgeon provided some much needed healing while Inq 97 ran for his life.. Even at level 3-4 Inq 97 couldnt hit a thing with his throwing axes. So running was the only solution. Money was low so a change of gameplan was needed.
A quick trip to Nashkel provided Inq with a bhall power and some better armor.
More evil was taken care off
Inq 97 then realized he had no access to the FAI - so Tarmesh was next. True sight would take care of his defences - Inq only needed to make a save against his horror for an easy win.
Three guards helped take him down - well the three guards, true sight and luck (the scene coulis have been seen in the Benny Hill show as well).
The FAI gives you acces to buckleys buckler. Regeneration was in sight - huzza.
A quick basilisk hunt gave a huge XP boost - and a unlikely friend: an undead. Torm guided me to my new insight. You cant judge a book by its cover - detect evil is so much better at that (even though Charleston Nibs partner turned out not evil..??).
After reching level 6 Inq decided that the con tome was next. A brutal battle it was.. the sirenes where easy with true sight and the green stone amulet. But the golems hit hard, and Inq almost had no potions left - but Inq prevailed. Con 20 check ...
From then on things cleared up a bit. Evil was smited...
... well Inq 97 cant say if they all where evil, but the world will surely become a better place - and even more so the more powerfull Inq 97 becomes...
Better mental stats would have helped Inq in his journey. But power and mental stats dont always go hand in hand - and Inq 97 will have to suffice with that what Torm provides. He is level 7 now and has just entered the mines..
I rolled up a party, and after a while remembered I still had a Blaggerd on the go. Scrolling back confirmed I hadn't lost the save so carried on with that a bit too.
Blaggerd As I recall, a previous Blaggerd had gathered his party and foolishly ventured forth into Aloy's enclave. I'd wanted to use a party but after that death had run Blaggerd solo. On returning yesterday he larked around killing a few things he didn't need to and not bothering to rest. Eventually his brave Sir Robin moment came and he was forced to run away. (at this point he also changed his voice to avoid some invalid commanding strings)
While recuperating he fancied a bit of Wild, and once that was achieved he added Rasaad and Imoen.
The Horde I'd mentioned to Grond0 about running a group of half-orcs. They're starting off ranged apart from the barbarian and assassin, and are likely to switch over to melee later in the game.
Swashbuckler. Using Buckleys Buckler for Con 20 Barbarian, bastard sword and shield while learning to dual-wield. Fighter/Cleric. (Edit: Almost) The only character who could benefit from Con 17-19 but I forgot and treated as a cleric. Shaman. Assassin. Bounty Hunter. Having to cancel a few snares as repeatedly keep forgetting they aren't thrown in BG:EE.
This left no room for Dorn unless there is a chunking.
To date the horde have made their way out of Candlekeep and picked up enough reputation to purchase the finest goods they can lay their hands on. Such finery covered most needs but a brief foray into Durlags Tower added golden armour. Only one of the party could use it though, and their ankheg plate was more utilitarian so instead the armour was sold.
It's a long trek down to get a shield +2, sling +3 and Bala's Axe so the horde have left and may not return.
There have been 2-3 party deaths so far, and a mistake where the berserker forgot to drink her potion of mirrored eyes before facing a basilisk on the roof of Durlags Tower. The assassin was already outside and had backstabbed as the berserker turned to stone, and the rest of the party cancelled their exit. The assassin made one save against being petrified and killed the basilisk. After a long trudge to a temple to purchase a stone to flesh scroll we confirmed the berserker had indeed forgotten to drink. She made no further error on the main roof, one potion being enough for the three greater basilisks there.
Current inventory, belatedly realising we forgot to stash a lever on the way out of the tower.
There's not much to show of them in action, other than the aftermath of Kirian and co.
RIP Val, when ten kobolds spawn next to you when you rest, out of sight of everyone else, and kill you in a round from full health, time to admit that the game probably didn't want you winning that one. Serves me right for not tracking two days into town and back again to try and get Ulcaster to spawn again. Or something.
Fate, the Cleric/Mage who, as usual, is a Cleric of Talos because being pure is lame and having a mage saving throw malus is both too powerful and sort of dull compared to being a lightning throwing badass stormsaint.
Once again, a 94 roll, pretty quickly this time too, and no missed 99, about which I'm totally not bitter.
Being fatalistic, Imoen is allowed to join, and given a new portrait based on just how many times she's shuffled off this mortal coil.
Things went poorly with Bassi this time around. What was hoped to be a quick ghast kill ended up with Fate having to tank pretty much everything (with initially great success, because zombies and skeletons suck), up to the point a dread wolf spawned on my escape route and Bassilus got into melee, leaving Fate at 2 HP before getting caught in his own entangle.
Imoen gets the killing shot. Nobody levels. Bleh.
What are the chances of two mods having a weird bard fetish? I thought it was Dark Horizons, but apparently the +1 APR longsword and the ultrabard are Dark Side of the Sword Coast.
Meh, whatever. As a bard, her stats are largely worthless, and her spells and starting at 3 levels ahead of Fate doesn't matter much either considering I'll be slapping on the gauntlets of fumbling and using her as an ablative jukebox as long as she lives.
Everything overall was going swimmingly, save for an unfortunate run in with a carrior crawler outside of Con Tome Cove.
Thank goodness for Command.
And for invisible scout familiars. Schroedinger spotted a poor helpless traveller being attacked by Gnolls, but he had died by the time they got there to help. Shame.
Ulcaster dungeon was weirdly deserted.
No spiders and only half the usual number of wolf spawns was a bit weird, but at least there were three Dread Wolves in the fire wand room. According to game logic those suckers as tough as a Ghast.
Which is obviously untrue. Ghasts are damn nasty. You can see that Fate clearly made that save, but that Ghast held him anyway. If he hadn't had the flamer running already that could have been nasty.
Jellies tracked me across the entire map. So much for "mindless". Thankfully they're weak enough that a Cleric/Mage and a Cleric/Thief with a non-proficient longsword can handle them, because everything else they have in the party is piercing.
Triggering the dialogue under sanctuary, then discovering that sanctuary is broken by the conversation. Run, Tiax! Run!
Apparently a lot of locker room conflict for the guardians this morning, but either way, Tiax lives to rule another day and the party is free to flee to collect some meatshields.
Since they were in Gullykin, tradition dictates they murder the Ogre Mage.
Garfield has been avenged. Keep hating Mondays, or whatever it was you did, little wussy Cleric/Thief guy.
Fate then fails to scribe all four scrolls to redress the cosmic balance. Sigh.
Phase spiders low risk kills? @semiticgod I hate those bois in SCS, they are so unpredictable. They teleport to you as soon as you enter Cloakwood sometimes and stabs the no-armor party members. No to mention they are the most poisonous thing in the whole game.
How do they work in SCS? There is no AI pattern that I can detect. The teleports are completely random?
Corthief XIII the human thief - microupdate Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Viconia, Imoen
Was able to adventure a little bit during the 3 day Christmas break. We cleared out the Xvart village, making sure to make Borda pay for offering cursed items. The area on the coast just north of the Gnoll fortress was also cleared, very carefully. With Shar-Teel's low HP, the ogres were a big threat, but the team managed to pull through.
For most fights, we have Shar-Teel and Khalid tank, with the party offering ranged fire. If appropriate, Imoen will use her fire wand to open a fight. Corthief XIII never goes for a backstab but stays at a distance firing off his crossbow of speed. In cases of a large ambush, Viconia will help off-tank, since her AC is good, even if not her HP.
We want to get Imoen to level 9 if possible, so we are combing every area, making to sure to visit each one, though we don't worry about any low experience enemies (such as the Taslois on the Brage map). In this game, Imoen dualed to mage at level 2. We don't care about her thief skills much (Corthief XIII handles that), but we do like that she can use her bow and her short sword +2 rather than a slow firing sling and staff.
Phase spiders low risk kills? @semiticgod I hate those bois in SCS, they are so unpredictable. They teleport to you as soon as you enter Cloakwood sometimes and stabs the no-armor party members. No to mention they are the most poisonous thing in the whole game.
How do they work in SCS? There is no AI pattern that I can detect. The teleports are completely random?
The teleports are random, and in most cases they would most certainly not be low-risk kills. But after fighting them several times in the Cloakwood, I discovered that there was always enough time to cast a single Magic Missile at them when they teleported to the party (which could be fatal if you also set a trap the moment you arrived), and you'd still be able to escape the area without the spiders making even a single attack roll, as long as you never took a step away from your starting positions.
The ettercap ambushes on area transitions were also perfectly safe if you knew which steps to take, and while this strategy required me to rest in the previous area of the Cloakwood, resting is perfectly safe in my run thanks to the Reform Party trick, which allows me to set multiple traps before resting, even if I already used both in the spider area.
So the Phase Spiders in the Cloakwood, the ettercap ambushes, and the spider and tasloi rest ambushes were all zero-risk encounters. Everywhere else in the run, however, Phase Spiders were not safe kills at all, and I fought them normally.
Only the meatiest and beefiest of shields need apply, though Dorn is only sticking around until he gets his venge on, since the man is kind of melodramatic.
Good thing I brought 'em too, since apparently two level 6 mages and kobolds with +6 poison damage daggers and arrows is appropriate for the second dungeon that a player is supposed to wander into. Kagain wandered into two traps as he angled on the last kobold shaman, so I took a detour out of the mine and head back to pick up Ishlilka to replace him and drop the bard for Verr'Sza too, since I just remembered they existed.
Wellp, time to advance the plot.
So, drop two high level mages in as a mini-boss battle, leave the boss battle a total cakewalk with extra loot, including a set of +2/+2 cleric only gloves which frees up Fate's previous Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise for Dorn.
Honestly Ishlilka's battle was harder than this, and I pretrapped the whole area beforehand.
After killing twenty ankhegs for fun and profit, I was feeling good enough about Fate's team to try to push deeper into Durlag's.
Blah. Didn't notice it changed into Islanne, and the ol' lightning bug kills me again. Is this finally fixed in 2.5? Because I'm sick of dying to this particular bug.
Inq 97 marched through the mines. He didnt bother with the kobolds - only Mulahey was on the the rooster for the day. It didnt come as a surpise when Mulahey turned out to be EVIL
Well he got served
After the mines Inq stumbled into the Amazones. They are static in the unmodded game, so it was purely a mistake. Inq should have used the greenstone amulet, but Inq used the necklace of missiles instead - with succes. Thinking that a hold spell was next, Inq pushed his luck and tried another blast. Before the flaming missile was off a rigid thinking landed... but the flaming missile went off and killed 3 amazones .
Only the cleric was left, and she chose melee as her next move. Praise be Torm the just
Inq didnt even shrug off rigid thinking before she died.
In Nashkel true sight helped Inq indispose Nimbul. A failed save against horror and no active shield amulet left Inq open for magic missile - 60 HP drained (will Inq ever learn..)
Evil Tranzig was next
Then the evil bandits
The bandits where plowed down with a strenght boosted throwing axe (of justice), true sight, a necklace of missiles and a greenstone amulet. Smooth sailing at last.
Inq raced to the other mines. Picking up some boots en route...
You run fast Drasus - but not fast enough to escape judgement.
The sandthief ring granted Inq a private audience with Daveorn. True sight and dispel magic really made the day. After being exposed the evil mage only summoned some ogres and picked up his staff. That match was unfair - and Inq was actually over buffed (fire and electricity 100% and and a greenstone charge down the drain...)
Inq was over 100.000 xp and headed for the Big city. Time to serve justice in BG...
Ucurian and his band of rejects - Part II: The City of Baldur's Gate and Ucurian's Return to Candlekeep
I completed all the sidequests in the city of Baldur's Gate with relative ease - no deaths, no one getting disabled, no one getting to low hp, so there's really not much worth mentioning. Item randomizer continued to deny me any further magical war hammers (Ayla, my undead hunter, really wants one), so I decided to just steal the one you get for killing Aec'Letec with my bard, Ismene Santal, and two potions of master thievery. After getting some levels and equipment in the city, I decided to complete the missing EE companion quests.
First, finding Adoy. Taking Neera into my party actually added some risks (wild surges), though I did encounter some useful side effects: MMMs for everyone!
Here, we also suffered our second party death, when Neera got backstabbed by a stealthed goblin - a one hit kill:
Still, this was the only trouble both during this quest and Rasaad's. Before returning to the city, though, I still had some remaining wilderness dungeons to deal with- the Wolf of Ulcaster turned out to be less dangerous than I expected:
And I did fairly well in the Firewine Dungeon. When I sent some skeleton warriors to draw out Lendam, the mage used web, which, among other things, affected the ogre mage, who had decided to join the fray. This provided me with an easy opportunity to use my ring of free action and take down the first of these two spellcasters:
Lendam didn't interfer, so I figured he was hiding - and so he was. After Camalan found him, the mage panicked after failing to beat the dwarven defenders excellent saves with his first spell, and he tried to flee - thus walking right into my waiting party:
It's a good thing I didn't decide to skip this dungeon, because this is where I found the dexterity tome!
Now, back to the city: The only thing to do (besides Kahrk and TotSC content) was to continue with the main quest and take down the Iron Throne HQ. This was the most difficult battle so far, mostly because I made a rather stupid mistake. As usual, I tried luring my opponents downstairs, into waiting skeletons and buffed party members, while using true sight and spell thrust to remove any defenses - so far, so good:
However, I was having difficulties luring some foes downstairs: Some opponents refused to follow Camalan. This is when I had the dwarf go upstairs alone, getting the remaining iron throne lackey's attention, while the others entered from the west. This would've worked fine, but I simply didn't realize that, at this point, the second thief added by SCS hadn't actually shown himself yet at all, and he wasn't taking the bait - he just refused to attack Camalan. I briefly forgot about his existence, and this allowed him to backstab and almost kill Saldor:
Saldor's aura wasn't completely clean yet, because he had cast a buff just before going upstairs. I had him drink an invisibility potion as soon as possible (while Ucurian renewed true sight to keep tabs on the thief) - the thief was allowed to execute another attack before the invisibility potion kicked in, but he missed. Ismene, threatened because of her low hp and being targeted by an archer, also disappeared (via spell, not potion):
Two further backstab attempts were foiled by true sight, and eventually, the battle was won.
The next thing of importance was another brief moment of forgetting about SCS changes: I talked to Duke Eltan, but right after I finished the conversation, I realized: I forgot about the ogre mage ambush! Luckily, my party was well rested, though I wouldn't call myself prepared. I used monster summoning wands as a distraction, remove fear for safety, and a combination of greater malison, wands of paralyzation and some fast attacks. The ogres failed to use the surprise factor to their advantage, mostly just casting a couple of relatively harmless save or else-spells (which all failed to do anything). Things were soon under control:
I had a rather easy time dealing with the Candlekeep Catacombs, though I am still missing the strength tome - I hope I will find it somewhere back in Baldur's Gate.
That's it for now. Next time, I will try my hand at the BG1 endgame - though not Sarevok, because I want to clear all of TotSC first.
Blah. Didn't notice it changed into Islanne, and the ol' lightning bug kills me again. Is this finally fixed in 2.5? Because I'm sick of dying to this particular bug.
I think the beta has increased the amount of bouncing again to be closer to how lightning operated in vanilla.
I did not pay attention to the fact that phase spiders are slow on selecting targets. Actually very useful. Managed to dispose of them with magic missiles pretty quickly. @semiticgod
Inq 97 was in the Big City and didnt waste time. Tomes and Items was on the rooster for the day:
- two leecherous men where executed, and Torm favored Inq with a tome and a robe
True sight and dispel rocks against mages..
Picking up another necklace of missiles, killing Marek and helping retrieve a dead boy gave Inq his final level. Killing doppelgangers netted Kondar and access to the duke. The necklace of missiles and the greenstone amulet won the fight at the Throne - and edvetars gift... off to CK. Easy peasy so far..
In the Crypt Inq buffed with fire, electricity, undead, poison, shield amulet, the violet potion, potion of fortitude+agility+speed and topped it with a greenstone amulet charge. It felt much like a college frat party - but it netted 2 tomes and the throwing axe +2, so Inq will have to live with the hangover... He finished the keg party with a potion of mirror eyes and killed the basilisk
Back in the city the Iron Throne fell once again, whilst the two assasins only killed poor Quenesh this time... Inq had tried to turn her from her ways, but she wandered into a cloudkill spell - poor soul (and thank you for the cloak)
Next stop: the Ducal palace. Inq buffed like in the catacombs only adding true sight and Duhm. Charmed a few guards and went in... Inq was set on clearing his name. True sight did its thing and dispelled the mirrors. Inq then opted on dispelling the haste - but was to close by his own dispelling. Ten potions down the drain and 6 problems at hand.
The doppelgangers killed Llia straight away, and Belt was down to 2 bars of health.. Inq gave himself as a meat shield for the duke and fended of the doppelgangers. Sarevok was left, but Inq was strugling.. Sarevok brought Inq to less than 10 HP, and Inq had to back out and tried kiting brother Grim - hoping Belt would survive
Poor AI saved the day. Praise be Torm - righteous god of poor AI....
In the Maze and in the temple the Keg fest continued. Potions, amulets and scrolls galore, before Sarevok and his Goons where next up.
Whilst invisible Semajs script was triggered. Semaj transported himself and met his doom - three times the stout axe, and he was dead within a round
Inq then decided to treat the rest with a true sight and a dispel magic... true sight exposed them all, and the dispel hit everybody - besides Sarevok who was going for Inqs throat. And a remove magic was incomming
Inq went from 183 HP, 25 str and dex, with 3 apr to something less fancy. Sarevok was in his face so a potion of invisibility provided Inq with the opportunity for another potion fest. 12 round later he stepped up to his brother and exacted justice. And justice prevailed.
The battle was hard, and the afterparty must have been even harder. Inq woke up naked in a dungeon (no SoD for iPhones ydet) with a bunch of strangers who insist on lnowing Inq. Next up some gear and a AA meeting.
Blah. Didn't notice it changed into Islanne, and the ol' lightning bug kills me again. Is this finally fixed in 2.5? Because I'm sick of dying to this particular bug.
I think the beta has increased the amount of bouncing again to be closer to how lightning operated in vanilla.
So long as it bounces off walls, rather than the initial target, that's fine by me. If it just bounces more frequently with the current behaviour then it's going to hit the initial target even more frequently, which just makes the problem even worse.
Long live Raphael. Please.
I'm just about sick enough of the early grind that I'm willing to engage maximum trollverdrive. Raphael has just petrified a basilisk with another basilisk over a dozen times, and is now out of the rat race.
Random reptile wrecked by rapid rodent response. Ridiculous RNG.
Despite not needing experience, per se, Raphael still ends up doing pretty much all the same stuff anyway, because his underlings still need experience, and because I'm greedy and want all the loot. Mm, loot.
Assuming I ever get to SoD, I'm going to miss you, Tiax, you are such a bro.
Also, having played Cleric/Thief I can't get used to having to stretch over to F5 now, `->F1 is just so handy.
Pretty sure I have a very bad learning curve though.
Thankfully I managed to talk myself out of trying for the +3 sling on grounds of "not dying", and "Raphael doesn't even use slings" and am now trying to talk myself out of going down one level for the helm for the exact same reason.
The true victory here is over my ADHD. Also the mage, who killed a charmed Ogre Magi with OP lightning bolt without killing Raphael for a change. I should probably advance the plot pretty sharpish before I decide to do something pointless, like doing Neera's quest for a crappy belt or Dorn's quest for a non-crappy but nowhere near worth it for the massive pain in the neck that fight is. Will probably MoveTo:Area the Rasaad quest though, that's a fun one.
The poverty run is over. I covered half the party with Neutralize Poison in anticipation of fighting Morentherene, but forgot that she also uses Dragon Fear. We failed too many saves and never got the chance to recover. Funny thing is, I had just been considering recruiting Yeslick or Viconia so I could buff the party with Resist Fear, but decided against it because I wanted to recruit Viconia when we were at a higher XP level, and I just opted out of picking Resist Fear as one of Baeloth's spell picks for the simple reason that I felt casting Luck on Corwin would be better for Belhifet. If I had made either of those decisions, we would have entered the fight with immunity to fear and Morentherene should have been fairly easy.
Like I said before, I'm not going to start over in hopes of completing another poverty saga run. I've already done BG1 too many times, and while I can get through it in a few hours with the right formula and the right tricks, it's simply not worth it. I don't want to spend hours being bored just so I can get to the interesting parts.
Specifically when confused, and Tiax is held and can't run away, alas.
Thankfully Xan was around and ready to carry, if not the team, then all of the team's junk, because I totally forgot to vend a bunch of junk from Durlag's and spent the entire Mines trip overloaded.
At which point Xan got killed by a skeleton ambush on the way to the Carnival because he has the durability of a wet tissue, and I spent ten minutes playing inventory management minigame. At least the Carnival has some shops, and a vital new team member to replace my lost cleric.
I hope you didn't think I meant the human. Quayle the wonder gnome isn't particularly sturdy either, especially compared to Tiax, but he can at least use a helm, and Yeslick isn't far off it he dies. Unfortunately Sirene's glitchiness seems directly died to her being a Fighter/Cleric, so she's been a paladin this game.
"Medicinal" arrow after Raphael got feebleminded trying to sweep up some spare Sirenes for Quayle. Thankfully while you can't remove armour from stunned characters you can still swap it for other items in the same slot, so Raphael's anti-missile boots and belt could be removed to let Alora shoot him in the face while making some psychotic declaration about smiling, happiness, or clowns.
"I'm on my way to the bandit camp, why not just take out the red wizard posse." I thought.
What the everloving crap? Well someone's been feeding the red mage group their wheaties? One of them just Improved Alacrity'd or somat, then dropped webs, Mordy's Swords, and six or so other scripted spells with no respect for "not actually being able to see Raphael". If I hadn't had him chug a potion of magic blocking mid deluge this would probably be run over at this point, and I was already being borderline paranoid about keeping out of a straight fight already.
Thankfully wand summons won the day and then treating Raphael to a dozen scrolls he won't have the level to use until BG2. Whew.
Bassilus was just too powerful. I should have made him wait. RIP Belgar.
New Run
Before actually trying to become the first Dwarven Paladin I thought that we were being excluded due to our race only to discover that I was wrong and that it was due to our own mistrust of the Orders that I was the first of our kind to enter their sacred halls.
After fighting numerous assassins, I have returned to the place of Gorion's demise.
@Pantalion: I had the same problem with several mod enemies in my own BWS install. A lot of less-well-constructed spellcaster scripts not only make spells uninterruptible, but also forget to check whether the mage has already cast a spell that round or is even able to see its target. I lost a Totemic Druid in my poverty run to a Chromatic Orb that was cast from across the map.
But then, I've also used the WoL trick to do the exact same thing to all sorts of enemies in BG2.
Ucurian and his band of rejects - Part III: Back to Baldur's Gate
The usual steps before the duchal palace event provided no troubles for my party - rescuing a duke, defeating Cythandria and taking out Slythe and Krystin. At the palace, I improved my damage output with fire giant strength + heroism for Camalan and Ayla. Greater malison + slow were the only spells added into the mix of my usual buffs, and victory was easily achieved:
After I made my way through the maze, it was time for a true test of Camalan's tanking abilities when I sent him alone against the iron throne party while spamming fireballs and using greater malison + silence to take out any spellcasters:
By the way, here I finally found the +2 sword you normally get from Greywolf. Also, Tamoko was nice enough to provide Ayla with a third set of unenchanted full plate! Now, at this point I made my way back to the city, and I hadn't found the strength tome yet, so I decided to look up spoilers for item randomizer, and I found out that it could be forever lost, because I didn't kill the iron throne leaders at Candlekeep - or it could be at Entar Silvershield's estate. I did end up finding it there, though this means that I won't be able to obtain the shadow armor for my bounty hunter. I also encountered this strange bug:
After learning some additional spells, I encountered my next bug when I found myself to be unable to insert spells into a minor sequencer. That's really disappoining - my opponents keep using these all the time, but I can't. We shall see if this is related to the 2.5 beta.
Finally, I made my way to the ice island, though I only completed the very first battle so far - I wanted to try out polymorph self with Saldor, but it turns out that the SCS AI is smart enough not to waste any spells on the jelly form. Instead, Andris started attacking with MMMs, so I had Saldor switch back to his gnome form and retreat. On the plus side, this separated Andris from his companions, and alone, I was able to pierce his defenses with the help of true sight, and he was slain:
After that, the other two mages were unable to deal with my skeleton warriors.
Next time, the entire Ice Island and Balduran's Island shall be explored.
Upon reaching High Hedge I managed to help Mellicamp
I was then able to help both Tonder and Jamdak.
Upon reaching Beregost I was able to defeat Karlat due to both his weapon and his shield breaking.
That was a relief as his last blow was exceedingly powerful. I was then able to return Perdue's sword. At that point I reached level 3. I headed North and upon discovering that Sonner and his cohorts were evil, I dealt with them as their deeds deserved.
Further north still I killed an ankheg before returning to the FAI with Joia's ring. There I killed an assassin called Tarnesh
before heading south to the Nashkel Mines where I killed Zargos Flintblade with great difficulty. Once he panicked I breathed a sigh of relief and used ranged weapons upon him.
That made that the battle straightforward. What is more, I gained a +1 Axe. Heading westward I killed both Vax and his henchman. I killed vax with great difficulty, however his henchman caused no problems at all.
I then reunited Rufie and his owner before heading further west where I killed Krumm and Caldo.
Upon returning to Beregost we went to find a stolen axe which we found quite easily.
I then spent some time ankheg hunting which went exceedingly well.
Inq 96 woke up naked in a dungeon. 3 prisoners insisted on knowing him - and after a check up he found that his stats where 96 before the tomes (and not 97 as stated before before). Hence the change of name.. It must be a nightmare of some sort.
Inq equipped as well as possible and ventured out. The first part was straight forward. He picked up Balas axe (nice), and killed the cambion to get his broadsword +1. The axe worked well against the escaped clone
The Claw was in Inqs backpack. I have never used it before, but these Challenges are about learning, so I ended up wearning it - but only after the memphit portal ended Inqs run (damn radiant memphits...)
After the dungeon Inq bought a shield and smited some evil. An evil slaver killed himself courtesy of the shield
The reflectionshield works better when your AC is low, so no pips in sword and shield even though shields are a must have... Smitting evil gave Inq a nice full plate.
Since evil is all around the city, killing and selling stuff is easy for the just
With his reputation sparring Inq could purchase Azuredge and Stonefire. Two brilliant axes for less than 7.000 gp. No wonder IR nerfs them...
After freeing the slaves Inq took his chances at WK. Luckily only memphits awaited Inq, so a potion bag, the paladins bracers and Foebane was netted... only 5 Heals from Sister Garlena, a potion of speed and frost giant str was needed (her Heals come cheap: 400 gp, so its 2.000 for Foebane and 40.000 xp. - a good trade imo)
Back in the city the Tanner quest and Neb gave another level - fitting for the class..
Smiting some more evil was also on the menu
Sorry Viccy - Inq have to stay in character. Mekrath was easy thanks to dispel magic... A nice rod was gifted from Torm himself.
Inq dared not do the Arnise quest without the shield of Harmony. In sats of old I used to help the Daos, but a quick detect evil made the choice easy - and a summon genii flask to boot.
With the shield in hand Inq did the druid grove quest. Inq avoided as much battle as possible - Kylind Lind was tanked with a mustard jelly form (first time for me as well - learning new stuff after 15 years playing the game so it seems...)
It comes from a mod that gives you tomes in order to give kits to NPCs. The reward for that particular quest is a tome that gives a kit to a mage. I like that mod as with most mods that give kits to NPCs, your choice of kit is fixed upon installation. With this one it isn't. You choose the kit in-game. My weidu log is attached:
Wellp, after losing Raphael to a small child (out of game, distracted me so I wandered into two web traps and died), I decided to fix up my install and reselect mods, removing DSotC and hopefully purging my game of bards and bard items.
Anyways...
See Jack.
See Jack's run. (At least after I fix that glitched THAC0).
Run, Jack, run!
Apparently one of the mods adds a cursed lamp to your inventory free of charge. I'm sure messing with it will have no-
Hi, newfriend!
Jini the Djinni offers to equip you with a bunch of gear, call up specific items for you, buff you, or you can just decline to give you just a conversation partner who is as useless as a bundle of wet twigs. Naturally I chose option C. because Jack as an Eldritch Theurge is already beholden to an inhuman force that gives him nice things.
Jini periodically pops out of her lamp to chat, freezing time when she does so, and giving the player conversations without a great deal of freedom of choice, and a lot of (action tags), which I personally don't care for. Still, I think Jack managed to voluntarily incarcerate himself in the genie's lamp at a later date, which will be one of the more novel deaths I've had.
No petrification abuse this runthrough, since I haven't actually played every iteration of Warlock a dozen times.
Korax turned hostile mid-basilisk, forcing Jack to put him down, only to turn the corner into near melee range with the basilisk that had apparently been silently stalking him the whole time.
Thankfully one save later Jack was still wriggling and an Eldritch Blast finished it off, because I had zero hope of getting out of range of the next gaze.
After getting our obligatory mad cleric, bypassing Aura, who would make life even easier than the magic genie even without rest abuse, having Tiax murder Algernon (since apparently the Cloak of Shadows invocation doesn't improve pickpockets despite the description), and then murder a bunch of schlubs.
Truefax: Tiax does not follow you in SoD because he knows his might would make things too easy and prevent you from reaching your destiny.
Tiax rules from the front!
Also, see Jack level from this good deed of killing druids, picking up level 3 spells and his first Lesser Invocation: The Dead Walk, an infinite use Animate Dead I shall try desperately not to abuse by keeping it to one at a time rather than an endless army of animated dead that is summoned faster than it dies, drowning every threat with sheer numbers at zero risk.
Even one undead meat (or bone) shield each is enough for Jack and Tiax to take down the battle horrors one by one without a wand, thanks to Jack's endless supply of 6d3+6 single target magic damage for some exp goodness.
And then things got weird.
Spontaneously appearing here with "the hooded man" having kidnapped Jini the Djinni Genie CHARNAME makes an impassioned speech about how fun he finds life with the three to four conversations they had, and resolves to wander around a repeating maze to find something or other to save her. Most recently is mention of a planetar, so this may be the end of this particular run...
Nope! Asides from about a hundred Exp from the various locks that even a Warlock (who gets no Open Locks or skill points) can open, there's a big scavenger hunt for the guy's sword in the big, empty, suspiciously modern looking, Silent Hill building's filing cabinets. Then wandering around to talk to a hag, then a marilith (who you decline to sacrifice your genie buddy to, again without any option either way), then leaving with more railroading. Yeesh.
And then a TPK from the Firewine Magi's confusion spell combined with the Mage's lightning. I guess I get to sit through that long ass dream sequence again now. Probably as a Cleric/Warlock Eldritch Disciple. Stupid lightning. Grumble grumble.
Slightly less than 2 hours today but a fair amount of ground covered. There was, of course, a party death, so Grond0 was happy.
After a temple visit to get the fallen back on his feet we ran around the basilisks with all three of us protected from their gazes. About 25 minutes of our session was spent in this area and the final act was captured with a screenshot (only took two during the session).
With the area cleared, we moved on.
Out fighter / cleric (Killye) was crying out for a magical war hammer so we silenced Bassilus and bashed his undead companions back into the ground. This only took a few minutes so we headed south and picked up Greywolf's sword for our fighter / thief (Evas). Felai found this somewhat painful as Greywolf struck immediately and her sling proved a bit of a liability, but running around with 6hp is fine when a pair of dwarves can trip up the opposition.
Zal and Vax were next, followed by Caldo and Krumm. Then over to the gnoll fortress to retrieve a tome - Killye learning the hard way that Dragon Disciple breath covers a lot of ground and the damage runs ahead of the spell effect. He survived...
A polar bear died next, followed by the Doomsayer and Neira. We picked Samuel up and put Tarnesh down, grabbed Buckleys Buckler for Evas and backpacked the golden pantaloons. Joia's ring and Farmer Brun's son were enough for reputation to reach 20 so we picked off Tenya on the way to Ulgoth's Beard where we purchased a staff, greenstone amulet and cloak.
Ulgoth's Beard habits died hard. Grond0 purchased potions of mirrored eyes while Felai is perfectly capable of providing that spell at will.
Comments
Started over. This time I was even more aggressive with cutting corners. For one thing, I used a few cheats to quickly end some zero-risk fights, which included not just kobolds, but even the Cloakwood Phase Spiders: with the ability to set traps at the start of the area and finish off a Phase Spider with Magic Missile, the only remaining risk in that event is trying to rest in the previous area of the Cloakwood, but unlimited traps make resting completely safe. I also failed to collect numerous optional sources of XP, leaving Baeloth at level 6 and Frisk at level 4 into the late game.
Once again, we somehow trigger the fight with Davaeorn early, and once again, he doesn't actually initiate combat, including his Minor Sequencer, until we probe the southwest with a spirit critter. This gives us time to set up some traps for the guards. In the end, Yeslick's Dispel Magic breaks the fight.
Staying at such low levels and failing to micromanage our Bhaalspawn powers (I considered using EEKeeper to replicate the effects of micromanagement, but even that was too much trouble) means that we have no Horror spell to use against the Ogre Magi at Candlekeep. Right before I spoke to Duke Eltan, I realize that I could just go back to Candlekeep and set traps beforehand.
Six traps kill Slythe; Dispel Magic kill Kristin. We don't bother with Cythandria.
Fire Traps and snares take down the doppelgangers with very little difficulty, using the positions I outlined in a previous post.
The Mustard Jellies in the maze gave us trouble in our previous run, since all of our animal summons dealt piercing damage and couldn't touch the jellies even with Magic Fang. I was only able to kill them with 4 skeletons. Yeslick can only summon two in this run because I've been starving the party of valuable XP and he was still level 5, but I make up the difference by attacking from afar with Spiritual Hammer.
After killing some undead in the Undercity, we reach our final levels: level 5/5 for Yeslick, and level 7 for everyone else.
Unwilling to go fetch Dynaheir and level her up so we would have enough Fireballs to beat Sarevok the normal way, I decide to rely entirely on Special Snares. Since Baeloth had no Stoneskin, he has to cast Haste on Yeslick to ensure that Yeslick would have enough time to cast Sanctuary before Sarevok hit him.
But I make the mistake of summoning all five spirit critters before battle. One of them gets too close to the center of the map and ends up drawing Diarmid's attention, forcing Baeloth to use another level 3 spell slot to keep the party from getting swarmed.
We take down Angelo's defenses using Dispel Magic, but fail to apply sufficient pressure to keep him from activating a Minor Sequencer and going invisible. He ends up wandering down south to cast Shadow Door.
We lure him back north, but I fail to keep our summons spread out. When Angelo wipes out all of our spirit critters with Fireburst, we are unable to bring out new critters before he wanders over to the party, forcing Baeloth to burn yet another Invisibility Sphere, lest Angelo destroy us with a Confusion spell or something.
The next round of summons (again, the Reform Party trick means Poppy, our Totemic Druid, can summon them at will, ignoring aura) brings down Angelo, and in the process, we discover that the Flame Strike spell that triggers on Sarevok's minions is not cosmetic in SR: because SR makes Flame Strike area-effect, it actually hurts nearby characters.
We throw out Special Snares, but find that the Skeleton Warriors come after us, forcing us to rely on summons to bring them down. I don't know if this happens when using Fireballs rather than snares.
After spamming Set Special Snare for many rounds, we finally take down Sarevok, but for some reason, SoD does not begin.
We're still in control of all of our characters; it's not a stalled cutscene. Nothing is happening. I suspect it has something to do with killing Sarevok before finishing off the Skeleton Warriors, but when I re-do the fight and kill the Skeleton Warriors first, the problem persists.
Does anyone know why the game doesn't react to Sarevok's death?
Okay, my install is truly broken re the Sarevok fight. There's nothing you can do to trigger the transition to SoD--and trying to create a new party in SoD based on our current one means that all BG1 areas would either be in their original state (dead critters would be alive, quests would be uncompleted and so forth) or probably flat-out unavailable. In the end, we had to use the console both to teleport the party to the starting dungeon of SoD and also spawn Imoen, who was otherwise missing. I also had to make sure that Frisk was the only one who arrived in the SoD dungeon, because only a single character could teleport to the dungeon before the intro cutscene would begin, stalling the game if Frisk wasn't present to speak with Imoen.
Frisk has high CHA, so we get to talk down Porios. The side effect is that we're unable to fight the guys outside of Porios' room, who normally would start out hostile.
This makes the game easier, but after working so hard just to get the game to work properly, I have no interest in trying to re-create the fight.
Another weird side effect of the transition is that Frisk loses all Bhaalspawn powers. I don't care enough about them to use EEKeeper to fix the bug.
We are no longer using the Reform Party trick, so we have to beat the first dungeon of SoD with an underleveled, unequipped party of 5. Fireballs are key to taking down Shadowed Souls who otherwise would eat us alive with magic damage.
The whole dungeon essentially revolves around Fireballs, Special Snares, and summons as a buffer. But then, that's how a poverty run operates in general.
Yeslick, as always, is devastating against enemy mages. Korlasz doesn't stand a chance. I don't let her surrender; I know she's just going to break out of jail later.
I send Yeslick away in the hopes that I can collect him later.
Another problem with the way we enter SoD (or maybe an inherent bug in my install) is Baldur's Gate itself. The game doesn't quite register which game we're in, so we can't do area transitions properly in the city.
With a little persuasion, I bring M'Khiin into the party despite also having Baeloth. Unfortunately, M'Khiin is not quite willing to abide by the terms of the poverty run.
I already decided that non-removable items were permissible because deleting Baeloth's ring via EEKeeper would only make him stronger (the advantage of the ring, bonus spell picks, is actually only present on Baeloth's .cre file; the ring only has disadvantages), so M'Khiin's items will stay until I can find a way to get rid of them. In the meantime, I can effectively remove her axe just by switching to her bare hands, though she'll still have her shield and armor.
Once Carl kills some spiders and a nearby Stone Golem with Special Snares, Baeloth finally hits level 8, gaining access to Enchanted Weapon. Thanks to the twin glitches I found with SR's Enchanted Weapon, our entire party can throw +3 bullets, Carl can throw +3 crossbow bolts (1d10+3 damage in IR!), and our newest party member, Corwin, has a limitless supply of +3 arrows with a +3 longbow that deals +5 damage.
Unfortunately, we're at such low XP that Corwin is only level 6, and due to an SR bug, M'Khiin is unable to equip the +3 arrows from Enchanted Weapon.
Once we do the bridge thing, we should be able to revisit some BG1 areas and collect a little extra XP from some of the quests we skipped in the rush to reach SoD. We certainly don't need to hit the SoD level cap by the endgame (we can probably beat Belhifet at 300,000 XP--or even 100,000!), but we really should gain levels as fast as we can. Since SoD does have some high-intensity fights and it's definitely in our best interest to learn Recall Spirit or Harper's Call (if SoD Jaheira knows it, as her .cre file suggests) before we suffer a death, instead of after. The key points, as always, will be the temple of Bhaal, Bridgefort, Dragonspear Castle, and Belhifet.
We have a little wiggle room in the meantime. No one has died in this run (although Baeloth nearly wasted Frisk on two separate occasions using Fireball), so Shoal is still available for a party-wide resurrection.
Fun fact: Neutralize Poison grants immunity to poison damage in SR, so we'll be able to take down Morentherene in this run.
Inq 97 - justice is served
My previous character Cleric F95 is still in the bandit Camp, but restartis seems to get the better of him... his lackluster HP pool, apr and damage output without boon of Lathander has simply ended my interest in him.So enter Inq 97. A human inquisitor with a not to shabby 97 stat roll...
I had opted for a better roll for better mental stats, and a better str percentage. But the tomes will help me a bit - if I get there. Inq has to pips in broadswords and axes. He is a sword & board pally with a strong sense of justice (he wont dual wield or go for 2 handel weapons). Throwing axes will be my ranged option. Inq 97 can detect evil and he is set on chrushing all evil before him. Evil beware.
Confiscating loot from evil persons and picking up stuff on or from the ground (favors from Torm) is ok - but no breaking and entering.
Its an unmodded game played on iOS (iPhone 6s), and its played on hard (max HP on level up). No NPC is allowed - besides picking up a gem bag - that one is a gift from Torm (he is the God of imventory management... says Inq 97).
In ck he did all the quests and headed out. After seeing the foul murder of Gorion, Torm appeared and bid Inq 97 serve the armoered figure some justice (kill him - or does that goes without saying?). Gorion may have been a boring sage, but his killing was unjustified - such a man should have died in his sleep...
In the morning Inq headed out and Torm provided in plenty. Two evil persons suffered their fate and gave Inq some potions - whilst a good hearted thief was turned away (Inq kept the potions for safe keeping).
Inq 97 did some minor quests in Beregost and the wilderness. He then went for the coastal areas
and some adventuring.. He quickly found him self in troubled water - whilst on dry land..
A nice surgeon provided some much needed healing while Inq 97 ran for his life..
Even at level 3-4 Inq 97 couldnt hit a thing with his throwing axes. So running was the only solution. Money was low so a change of gameplan was needed.
A quick trip to Nashkel provided Inq with a bhall power and some better armor.
More evil was taken care off
Inq 97 then realized he had no access to the FAI - so Tarmesh was next. True sight would take care of his defences - Inq only needed to make a save against his horror for an easy win.
Three guards helped take him down - well the three guards, true sight and luck (the scene coulis have been seen in the Benny Hill show as well).
The FAI gives you acces to buckleys buckler. Regeneration was in sight - huzza.
A quick basilisk hunt gave a huge XP boost - and a unlikely friend: an undead. Torm guided me to my new insight. You cant judge a book by its cover - detect evil is so much better at that (even though Charleston Nibs partner turned out not evil..??).
After reching level 6 Inq decided that the con tome was next. A brutal battle it was.. the sirenes where easy with true sight and the green stone amulet. But the golems hit hard, and Inq almost had no potions left - but Inq prevailed. Con 20 check ...
From then on things cleared up a bit. Evil was smited...
... well Inq 97 cant say if they all where evil, but the world will surely become a better place - and even more so the more powerfull Inq 97 becomes...
Better mental stats would have helped Inq in his journey. But power and mental stats dont always go hand in hand - and Inq 97 will have to suffice with that what Torm provides. He is level 7 now and has just entered the mines..
Blaggerd
As I recall, a previous Blaggerd had gathered his party and foolishly ventured forth into Aloy's enclave. I'd wanted to use a party but after that death had run Blaggerd solo. On returning yesterday he larked around killing a few things he didn't need to and not bothering to rest. Eventually his brave Sir Robin moment came and he was forced to run away.
(at this point he also changed his voice to avoid some invalid commanding strings)
The Horde
I'd mentioned to Grond0 about running a group of half-orcs. They're starting off ranged apart from the barbarian and assassin, and are likely to switch over to melee later in the game.
Swashbuckler. Using Buckleys Buckler for Con 20
Barbarian, bastard sword and shield while learning to dual-wield.
Fighter/Cleric. (Edit: Almost) The only character who could benefit from Con 17-19 but I forgot and treated as a cleric.
Shaman.
Assassin.
Bounty Hunter. Having to cancel a few snares as repeatedly keep forgetting they aren't thrown in BG:EE.
This left no room for Dorn unless there is a chunking.
To date the horde have made their way out of Candlekeep and picked up enough reputation to purchase the finest goods they can lay their hands on. Such finery covered most needs but a brief foray into Durlags Tower added golden armour. Only one of the party could use it though, and their ankheg plate was more utilitarian so instead the armour was sold.
It's a long trek down to get a shield +2, sling +3 and Bala's Axe so the horde have left and may not return.
There have been 2-3 party deaths so far, and a mistake where the berserker forgot to drink her potion of mirrored eyes before facing a basilisk on the roof of Durlags Tower. The assassin was already outside and had backstabbed as the berserker turned to stone, and the rest of the party cancelled their exit. The assassin made one save against being petrified and killed the basilisk. After a long trudge to a temple to purchase a stone to flesh scroll we confirmed the berserker had indeed forgotten to drink. She made no further error on the main roof, one potion being enough for the three greater basilisks there.
Current inventory, belatedly realising we forgot to stash a lever on the way out of the tower.
Once again, a 94 roll, pretty quickly this time too, and no missed 99, about which I'm totally not bitter.
Being fatalistic, Imoen is allowed to join, and given a new portrait based on just how many times she's shuffled off this mortal coil.
Things went poorly with Bassi this time around. What was hoped to be a quick ghast kill ended up with Fate having to tank pretty much everything (with initially great success, because zombies and skeletons suck), up to the point a dread wolf spawned on my escape route and Bassilus got into melee, leaving Fate at 2 HP before getting caught in his own entangle.
Imoen gets the killing shot. Nobody levels. Bleh.
What are the chances of two mods having a weird bard fetish? I thought it was Dark Horizons, but apparently the +1 APR longsword and the ultrabard are Dark Side of the Sword Coast.
Meh, whatever. As a bard, her stats are largely worthless, and her spells and starting at 3 levels ahead of Fate doesn't matter much either considering I'll be slapping on the gauntlets of fumbling and using her as an ablative jukebox as long as she lives.
Everything overall was going swimmingly, save for an unfortunate run in with a carrior crawler outside of Con Tome Cove.
Thank goodness for Command.
And for invisible scout familiars. Schroedinger spotted a poor helpless traveller being attacked by Gnolls, but he had died by the time they got there to help. Shame.
Ulcaster dungeon was weirdly deserted.
No spiders and only half the usual number of wolf spawns was a bit weird, but at least there were three Dread Wolves in the fire wand room. According to game logic those suckers as tough as a Ghast.
Which is obviously untrue. Ghasts are damn nasty. You can see that Fate clearly made that save, but that Ghast held him anyway. If he hadn't had the flamer running already that could have been nasty.
Jellies tracked me across the entire map. So much for "mindless". Thankfully they're weak enough that a Cleric/Mage and a Cleric/Thief with a non-proficient longsword can handle them, because everything else they have in the party is piercing.
Triggering the dialogue under sanctuary, then discovering that sanctuary is broken by the conversation. Run, Tiax! Run!
Apparently a lot of locker room conflict for the guardians this morning, but either way, Tiax lives to rule another day and the party is free to flee to collect some meatshields.
Since they were in Gullykin, tradition dictates they murder the Ogre Mage.
Garfield has been avenged. Keep hating Mondays, or whatever it was you did, little wussy Cleric/Thief guy.
Fate then fails to scribe all four scrolls to redress the cosmic balance. Sigh.
How do they work in SCS? There is no AI pattern that I can detect. The teleports are completely random?
Traveling with: Shar-Teel, Khalid, Viconia, Imoen
Was able to adventure a little bit during the 3 day Christmas break. We cleared out the Xvart village, making sure to make Borda pay for offering cursed items. The area on the coast just north of the Gnoll fortress was also cleared, very carefully. With Shar-Teel's low HP, the ogres were a big threat, but the team managed to pull through.
For most fights, we have Shar-Teel and Khalid tank, with the party offering ranged fire. If appropriate, Imoen will use her fire wand to open a fight. Corthief XIII never goes for a backstab but stays at a distance firing off his crossbow of speed. In cases of a large ambush, Viconia will help off-tank, since her AC is good, even if not her HP.
We want to get Imoen to level 9 if possible, so we are combing every area, making to sure to visit each one, though we don't worry about any low experience enemies (such as the Taslois on the Brage map). In this game, Imoen dualed to mage at level 2. We don't care about her thief skills much (Corthief XIII handles that), but we do like that she can use her bow and her short sword +2 rather than a slow firing sling and staff.
Will keep at it.
Comisserations, @semiticgod and @Grond0 and @Gate70 - it has been a rough no-reload week-end!
The ettercap ambushes on area transitions were also perfectly safe if you knew which steps to take, and while this strategy required me to rest in the previous area of the Cloakwood, resting is perfectly safe in my run thanks to the Reform Party trick, which allows me to set multiple traps before resting, even if I already used both in the spider area.
So the Phase Spiders in the Cloakwood, the ettercap ambushes, and the spider and tasloi rest ambushes were all zero-risk encounters. Everywhere else in the run, however, Phase Spiders were not safe kills at all, and I fought them normally.
Only the meatiest and beefiest of shields need apply, though Dorn is only sticking around until he gets his venge on, since the man is kind of melodramatic.
Good thing I brought 'em too, since apparently two level 6 mages and kobolds with +6 poison damage daggers and arrows is appropriate for the second dungeon that a player is supposed to wander into. Kagain wandered into two traps as he angled on the last kobold shaman, so I took a detour out of the mine and head back to pick up Ishlilka to replace him and drop the bard for Verr'Sza too, since I just remembered they existed.
Wellp, time to advance the plot.
Honestly Ishlilka's battle was harder than this, and I pretrapped the whole area beforehand.
After killing twenty ankhegs for
fun andprofit, I was feeling good enough about Fate's team to try to push deeper into Durlag's.Blah. Didn't notice it changed into Islanne, and the ol' lightning bug kills me again. Is this finally fixed in 2.5? Because I'm sick of dying to this particular bug.
Inq 97 - even more justice is served
Previously on Judge Dredd/JudyInq 97 marched through the mines. He didnt bother with the kobolds - only Mulahey was on the the rooster for the day. It didnt come as a surpise when Mulahey turned out to be EVIL
Well he got served
After the mines Inq stumbled into the Amazones. They are static in the unmodded game, so it was purely a mistake. Inq should have used the greenstone amulet, but Inq used the necklace of missiles instead - with succes. Thinking that a hold spell was next, Inq pushed his luck and tried another blast. Before the flaming missile was off a rigid thinking landed... but the flaming missile went off and killed 3 amazones
Only the cleric was left, and she chose melee as her next move. Praise be Torm the just
In Nashkel true sight helped Inq indispose Nimbul. A failed save against horror and no active shield amulet left Inq open for magic missile - 60 HP drained (will Inq ever learn..)
Evil Tranzig was next
Then the evil bandits
The bandits where plowed down with a strenght boosted throwing axe (of justice), true sight, a necklace of missiles and a greenstone amulet. Smooth sailing at last.
Inq raced to the other mines. Picking up some boots en route...
You run fast Drasus - but not fast enough to escape judgement.
The sandthief ring granted Inq a private audience with Daveorn. True sight and dispel magic really made the day. After being exposed the evil mage only summoned some ogres and picked up his staff. That match was unfair - and Inq was actually over buffed (fire and electricity 100% and and a greenstone charge down the drain...)
Inq was over 100.000 xp and headed for the Big city. Time to serve justice in BG...
I completed all the sidequests in the city of Baldur's Gate with relative ease - no deaths, no one getting disabled, no one getting to low hp, so there's really not much worth mentioning. Item randomizer continued to deny me any further magical war hammers (Ayla, my undead hunter, really wants one), so I decided to just steal the one you get for killing Aec'Letec with my bard, Ismene Santal, and two potions of master thievery. After getting some levels and equipment in the city, I decided to complete the missing EE companion quests.
First, finding Adoy. Taking Neera into my party actually added some risks (wild surges), though I did encounter some useful side effects: MMMs for everyone!
Here, we also suffered our second party death, when Neera got backstabbed by a stealthed goblin - a one hit kill:
Still, this was the only trouble both during this quest and Rasaad's. Before returning to the city, though, I still had some remaining wilderness dungeons to deal with- the Wolf of Ulcaster turned out to be less dangerous than I expected:
And I did fairly well in the Firewine Dungeon. When I sent some skeleton warriors to draw out Lendam, the mage used web, which, among other things, affected the ogre mage, who had decided to join the fray. This provided me with an easy opportunity to use my ring of free action and take down the first of these two spellcasters:
Lendam didn't interfer, so I figured he was hiding - and so he was. After Camalan found him, the mage panicked after failing to beat the dwarven defenders excellent saves with his first spell, and he tried to flee - thus walking right into my waiting party:
It's a good thing I didn't decide to skip this dungeon, because this is where I found the dexterity tome!
Now, back to the city: The only thing to do (besides Kahrk and TotSC content) was to continue with the main quest and take down the Iron Throne HQ. This was the most difficult battle so far, mostly because I made a rather stupid mistake. As usual, I tried luring my opponents downstairs, into waiting skeletons and buffed party members, while using true sight and spell thrust to remove any defenses - so far, so good:
However, I was having difficulties luring some foes downstairs: Some opponents refused to follow Camalan. This is when I had the dwarf go upstairs alone, getting the remaining iron throne lackey's attention, while the others entered from the west. This would've worked fine, but I simply didn't realize that, at this point, the second thief added by SCS hadn't actually shown himself yet at all, and he wasn't taking the bait - he just refused to attack Camalan. I briefly forgot about his existence, and this allowed him to backstab and almost kill Saldor:
Saldor's aura wasn't completely clean yet, because he had cast a buff just before going upstairs. I had him drink an invisibility potion as soon as possible (while Ucurian renewed true sight to keep tabs on the thief) - the thief was allowed to execute another attack before the invisibility potion kicked in, but he missed. Ismene, threatened because of her low hp and being targeted by an archer, also disappeared (via spell, not potion):
Two further backstab attempts were foiled by true sight, and eventually, the battle was won.
The next thing of importance was another brief moment of forgetting about SCS changes: I talked to Duke Eltan, but right after I finished the conversation, I realized: I forgot about the ogre mage ambush! Luckily, my party was well rested, though I wouldn't call myself prepared. I used monster summoning wands as a distraction, remove fear for safety, and a combination of greater malison, wands of paralyzation and some fast attacks. The ogres failed to use the surprise factor to their advantage, mostly just casting a couple of relatively harmless save or else-spells (which all failed to do anything). Things were soon under control:
I had a rather easy time dealing with the Candlekeep Catacombs, though I am still missing the strength tome - I hope I will find it somewhere back in Baldur's Gate.
That's it for now. Next time, I will try my hand at the BG1 endgame - though not Sarevok, because I want to clear all of TotSC first.
Enuhal
Inq 97 - final justice in BG
PreviouslyInq 97 was in the Big City and didnt waste time. Tomes and Items was on the rooster for the day:
- two leecherous men where executed, and Torm favored Inq with a tome and a robe
Picking up another necklace of missiles, killing Marek and helping retrieve a dead boy gave Inq his final level. Killing doppelgangers netted Kondar and access to the duke. The necklace of missiles and the greenstone amulet won the fight at the Throne - and edvetars gift... off to CK. Easy peasy so far..
In the Crypt Inq buffed with fire, electricity, undead, poison, shield amulet, the violet potion, potion of fortitude+agility+speed and topped it with a greenstone amulet charge. It felt much like a college frat party - but it netted 2 tomes and the throwing axe +2, so Inq will have to live with the hangover... He finished the keg party with a potion of mirror eyes and killed the basilisk
Back in the city the Iron Throne fell once again, whilst the two assasins only killed poor Quenesh this time... Inq had tried to turn her from her ways, but she wandered into a cloudkill spell - poor soul (and thank you for the cloak)
Next stop: the Ducal palace. Inq buffed like in the catacombs only adding true sight and Duhm. Charmed a few guards and went in... Inq was set on clearing his name. True sight did its thing and dispelled the mirrors. Inq then opted on dispelling the haste - but was to close by his own dispelling. Ten potions down the drain and 6 problems at hand.
The doppelgangers killed Llia straight away, and Belt was down to 2 bars of health.. Inq gave himself as a meat shield for the duke and fended of the doppelgangers. Sarevok was left, but Inq was strugling.. Sarevok brought Inq to less than 10 HP, and Inq had to back out and tried kiting brother Grim - hoping Belt would survive
Poor AI saved the day. Praise be Torm - righteous god of poor AI....
In the Maze and in the temple the Keg fest continued. Potions, amulets and scrolls galore, before Sarevok and his Goons where next up.
Whilst invisible Semajs script was triggered. Semaj transported himself and met his doom - three times the stout axe, and he was dead within a round
Inq then decided to treat the rest with a true sight and a dispel magic... true sight exposed them all, and the dispel hit everybody - besides Sarevok who was going for Inqs throat. And a remove magic was incomming
Inq went from 183 HP, 25 str and dex, with 3 apr to something less fancy. Sarevok was in his face so a potion of invisibility provided Inq with the opportunity for another potion fest. 12 round later he stepped up to his brother and exacted justice. And justice prevailed.
The battle was hard, and the afterparty must have been even harder. Inq woke up naked in a dungeon (no SoD for iPhones ydet) with a bunch of strangers who insist on lnowing Inq. Next up some gear and a AA meeting.
Long live Raphael. Please.
I'm just about sick enough of the early grind that I'm willing to engage maximum trollverdrive. Raphael has just petrified a basilisk with another basilisk over a dozen times, and is now out of the rat race.
Random reptile wrecked by rapid rodent response. Ridiculous RNG.
Despite not needing experience, per se, Raphael still ends up doing pretty much all the same stuff anyway, because his underlings still need experience, and because I'm greedy and want all the loot. Mm, loot.
Assuming I ever get to SoD, I'm going to miss you, Tiax, you are such a bro.
Also, having played Cleric/Thief I can't get used to having to stretch over to F5 now, `->F1 is just so handy.
Pretty sure I have a very bad learning curve though.
Thankfully I managed to talk myself out of trying for the +3 sling on grounds of "not dying", and "Raphael doesn't even use slings" and am now trying to talk myself out of going down one level for the helm for the exact same reason.
The true victory here is over my ADHD. Also the mage, who killed a charmed Ogre Magi with OP lightning bolt without killing Raphael for a change. I should probably advance the plot pretty sharpish before I decide to do something pointless, like doing Neera's quest for a crappy belt or Dorn's quest for a non-crappy but nowhere near worth it for the massive pain in the neck that fight is. Will probably MoveTo:Area the Rasaad quest though, that's a fun one.
Like I said before, I'm not going to start over in hopes of completing another poverty saga run. I've already done BG1 too many times, and while I can get through it in a few hours with the right formula and the right tricks, it's simply not worth it. I don't want to spend hours being bored just so I can get to the interesting parts.
I'll post some notes in the Lounge.
Specifically when confused, and Tiax is held and can't run away, alas.
Thankfully Xan was around and ready to carry, if not the team, then all of the team's junk, because I totally forgot to vend a bunch of junk from Durlag's and spent the entire Mines trip overloaded.
At which point Xan got killed by a skeleton ambush on the way to the Carnival because he has the durability of a wet tissue, and I spent ten minutes playing inventory management minigame. At least the Carnival has some shops, and a vital new team member to replace my lost cleric.
I hope you didn't think I meant the human. Quayle the wonder gnome isn't particularly sturdy either, especially compared to Tiax, but he can at least use a helm, and Yeslick isn't far off it he dies. Unfortunately Sirene's glitchiness seems directly died to her being a Fighter/Cleric, so she's been a paladin this game.
"Medicinal" arrow after Raphael got feebleminded trying to sweep up some spare Sirenes for Quayle. Thankfully while you can't remove armour from stunned characters you can still swap it for other items in the same slot, so Raphael's anti-missile boots and belt could be removed to let Alora shoot him in the face while making some psychotic declaration about smiling, happiness, or clowns.
"I'm on my way to the bandit camp, why not just take out the red wizard posse." I thought.
What the everloving crap? Well someone's been feeding the red mage group their wheaties? One of them just Improved Alacrity'd or somat, then dropped webs, Mordy's Swords, and six or so other scripted spells with no respect for "not actually being able to see Raphael". If I hadn't had him chug a potion of magic blocking mid deluge this would probably be run over at this point, and I was already being borderline paranoid about keeping out of a straight fight already.
Thankfully wand summons won the day and then treating Raphael to a dozen scrolls he won't have the level to use until BG2. Whew.
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
Bassilus was just too powerful. I should have made him wait. RIP Belgar.New Run
Before actually trying to become the first Dwarven Paladin I thought that we were being excluded due to our race only to discover that I was wrong and that it was due to our own mistrust of the Orders that I was the first of our kind to enter their sacred halls.
After fighting numerous assassins, I have returned to the place of Gorion's demise.
But then, I've also used the WoL trick to do the exact same thing to all sorts of enemies in BG2.
The usual steps before the duchal palace event provided no troubles for my party - rescuing a duke, defeating Cythandria and taking out Slythe and Krystin. At the palace, I improved my damage output with fire giant strength + heroism for Camalan and Ayla. Greater malison + slow were the only spells added into the mix of my usual buffs, and victory was easily achieved:
After I made my way through the maze, it was time for a true test of Camalan's tanking abilities when I sent him alone against the iron throne party while spamming fireballs and using greater malison + silence to take out any spellcasters:
By the way, here I finally found the +2 sword you normally get from Greywolf. Also, Tamoko was nice enough to provide Ayla with a third set of unenchanted full plate! Now, at this point I made my way back to the city, and I hadn't found the strength tome yet, so I decided to look up spoilers for item randomizer, and I found out that it could be forever lost, because I didn't kill the iron throne leaders at Candlekeep - or it could be at Entar Silvershield's estate. I did end up finding it there, though this means that I won't be able to obtain the shadow armor for my bounty hunter. I also encountered this strange bug:
After learning some additional spells, I encountered my next bug when I found myself to be unable to insert spells into a minor sequencer. That's really disappoining - my opponents keep using these all the time, but I can't. We shall see if this is related to the 2.5 beta.
Finally, I made my way to the ice island, though I only completed the very first battle so far - I wanted to try out polymorph self with Saldor, but it turns out that the SCS AI is smart enough not to waste any spells on the jelly form. Instead, Andris started attacking with MMMs, so I had Saldor switch back to his gnome form and retreat. On the plus side, this separated Andris from his companions, and alone, I was able to pierce his defenses with the help of true sight, and he was slain:
After that, the other two mages were unable to deal with my skeleton warriors.
Next time, the entire Ice Island and Balduran's Island shall be explored.
Enuhal
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
Upon reaching High Hedge I managed to help MellicampUpon reaching Beregost I was able to defeat Karlat due to both his weapon and his shield breaking.
At that point I reached level 3.
I headed North and upon discovering that Sonner and his cohorts were evil, I dealt with them as their deeds deserved.
Upon returning to Beregost we went to find a stolen axe which we found quite easily.
Inq 96 - justice in Amn
Inq 96 woke up naked in a dungeon. 3 prisoners insisted on knowing him - and after a check up he found that his stats where 96 before the tomes (and not 97 as stated before before). Hence the change of name.. It must be a nightmare of some sort.Inq equipped as well as possible and ventured out. The first part was straight forward. He picked up Balas axe (nice), and killed the cambion to get his broadsword +1.
The axe worked well against the escaped clone
The Claw was in Inqs backpack. I have never used it before, but these Challenges are about learning, so I ended up wearning it - but only after the memphit portal ended Inqs run (damn radiant memphits...)
After the dungeon Inq bought a shield and smited some evil. An evil slaver killed himself courtesy of the shield
The reflectionshield works better when your AC is low, so no pips in sword and shield even though shields are a must have... Smitting evil gave Inq a nice full plate.
Since evil is all around the city, killing and selling stuff is easy for the just
With his reputation sparring Inq could purchase Azuredge and Stonefire. Two brilliant axes for less than 7.000 gp. No wonder IR nerfs them...
After freeing the slaves Inq took his chances at WK. Luckily only memphits awaited Inq, so a potion bag, the paladins bracers and Foebane was netted... only 5 Heals from Sister Garlena, a potion of speed and frost giant str was needed (her Heals come cheap: 400 gp, so its 2.000 for Foebane and 40.000 xp. - a good trade imo)
Back in the city the Tanner quest and Neb gave another level - fitting for the class..
Smiting some more evil was also on the menu
Sorry Viccy - Inq have to stay in character. Mekrath was easy thanks to dispel magic... A nice rod was gifted from Torm himself.
Inq dared not do the Arnise quest without the shield of Harmony. In sats of old I used to help the Daos, but a quick detect evil made the choice easy - and a summon genii flask to boot.
With the shield in hand Inq did the druid grove quest. Inq avoided as much battle as possible - Kylind Lind was tanked with a mustard jelly form (first time for me as well - learning new stuff after 15 years playing the game so it seems...)
d’Arnise will be next. Inq is alomst level 12..
The reward for that particular quest is a tome that gives a kit to a mage.
I like that mod as with most mods that give kits to NPCs, your choice of kit is fixed upon installation.
With this one it isn't. You choose the kit in-game.
My weidu log is attached:
Anyways...
See Jack.
See Jack's run. (At least after I fix that glitched THAC0).
Run, Jack, run!
Apparently one of the mods adds a cursed lamp to your inventory free of charge. I'm sure messing with it will have no-
Hi, newfriend!
Jini the Djinni offers to equip you with a bunch of gear, call up specific items for you, buff you, or you can just decline to give you just a conversation partner who is as useless as a bundle of wet twigs. Naturally I chose option C. because Jack as an Eldritch Theurge is already beholden to an inhuman force that gives him nice things.
Jini periodically pops out of her lamp to chat, freezing time when she does so, and giving the player conversations without a great deal of freedom of choice, and a lot of (action tags), which I personally don't care for. Still, I think Jack managed to voluntarily incarcerate himself in the genie's lamp at a later date, which will be one of the more novel deaths I've had.
No petrification abuse this runthrough, since I haven't actually played every iteration of Warlock a dozen times.
Korax turned hostile mid-basilisk, forcing Jack to put him down, only to turn the corner into near melee range with the basilisk that had apparently been silently stalking him the whole time.
Thankfully one save later Jack was still wriggling and an Eldritch Blast finished it off, because I had zero hope of getting out of range of the next gaze.
After getting our obligatory mad cleric, bypassing Aura, who would make life even easier than the magic genie even without rest abuse, having Tiax murder Algernon (since apparently the Cloak of Shadows invocation doesn't improve pickpockets despite the description), and then murder a bunch of schlubs.
Truefax: Tiax does not follow you in SoD because he knows his might would make things too easy and prevent you from reaching your destiny.
Tiax rules from the front!
Also, see Jack level from this good deed of killing druids, picking up level 3 spells and his first Lesser Invocation: The Dead Walk, an infinite use Animate Dead I shall try desperately not to abuse by keeping it to one at a time rather than an endless army of animated dead that is summoned faster than it dies, drowning every threat with sheer numbers at zero risk.
Even one undead meat (or bone) shield each is enough for Jack and Tiax to take down the battle horrors one by one without a wand, thanks to Jack's endless supply of 6d3+6 single target magic damage for some exp goodness.
And then things got weird.
Spontaneously appearing here with "the hooded man" having kidnapped Jini the Djinni Genie CHARNAME makes an impassioned speech about how fun he finds life with the three to four conversations they had, and resolves to wander around a repeating maze to find something or other to save her. Most recently is mention of a planetar, so this may be the end of this particular run...
Nope! Asides from about a hundred Exp from the various locks that even a Warlock (who gets no Open Locks or skill points) can open, there's a big scavenger hunt for the guy's sword in the big, empty, suspiciously modern looking, Silent Hill building's filing cabinets. Then wandering around to talk to a hag, then a marilith (who you decline to sacrifice your genie buddy to, again without any option either way), then leaving with more railroading. Yeesh.
And then a TPK from the Firewine Magi's confusion spell combined with the Mage's lightning. I guess I get to sit through that long ass dream sequence again now. Probably as a Cleric/Warlock Eldritch Disciple. Stupid lightning. Grumble grumble.
Without fixing the escalating innates on a character it tends to malfunction sometime in SoD, but supposedly there's a patch for that coming out.
(Corey_Russell: Killye, Grond0: Evas, Gate70: Felai)
Slightly less than 2 hours today but a fair amount of ground covered. There was, of course, a party death, so Grond0 was happy.
Out fighter / cleric (Killye) was crying out for a magical war hammer so we silenced Bassilus and bashed his undead companions back into the ground. This only took a few minutes so we headed south and picked up Greywolf's sword for our fighter / thief (Evas). Felai found this somewhat painful as Greywolf struck immediately and her sling proved a bit of a liability, but running around with 6hp is fine when a pair of dwarves can trip up the opposition.
Zal and Vax were next, followed by Caldo and Krumm. Then over to the gnoll fortress to retrieve a tome - Killye learning the hard way that Dragon Disciple breath covers a lot of ground and the damage runs ahead of the spell effect. He survived...
A polar bear died next, followed by the Doomsayer and Neira. We picked Samuel up and put Tarnesh down, grabbed Buckleys Buckler for Evas and backpacked the golden pantaloons. Joia's ring and Farmer Brun's son were enough for reputation to reach 20 so we picked off Tenya on the way to Ulgoth's Beard where we purchased a staff, greenstone amulet and cloak.
Ulgoth's Beard habits died hard. Grond0 purchased potions of mirrored eyes while Felai is perfectly capable of providing that spell at will.