I have joined forces with Tenya, Gavin, Montaron and Thorin. Having done some shopping we headed for Mutamin who we killed along with his siines and basilisks, after which I think that we will head for Nashkel and the mines. We were attacked by some adventurers near Mutamin all of whom were killed.
Our new run had a touch of deja-vu when Gate70 rolled up a berserker for the second time in 3 runs. Once more he went half-orc, but this time was joined by another hard nut rather than one of those wimpy mage types.
As is fairly typical we didn't bother buying much in the way of weapons or armor (I did shell out the extravagant 1 GP required for a helmet, though Gate70 wasn't willing to stretch to that). That meant that the decision to kill Imoen, Xzar and Montaron wasn't quite as easy as it might have been - but we managed in the end.
Imoen provided Tallu with a bow and arrows to help shoot down Shoal before moving on to Beregost. A few tasks there saw Cava improve his armor from leather to studded and finally chain, courtesy of Karlat.
Then it was off to Nashkel where Tallu got the star prize with the ankheg armor.
Up to that point Tallu had seen no need to spend all the energy required to rage, but decided to do so to deal with Greywolf - making it pretty easy to get his sword.
Cava got a sword upgrade of his own from Arghain before Tallu raged again to take Meilum's bracers.
Next it was off to the basilisk area - surviving an ambush on the way by a basilisk intent on meleeing us.
The green scroll resulted in a severe drop in the basilisk population before Tallu raged down Mutamin.
Another rage proved effective against Kirian's mob - lasting just long enough to see the last of them fall.
At the coast the sirines had no answer to rage.
The golems did a bit better, but without really threatening to cause an upset.
Tallu took the tome as Cava's HP rolls have been pretty good and regeneration for the half-orc should be a bit more useful than a few more HPs for Cava.
A quick trip through the Cloud Peaks produced a charisma tome before heading for Ulgoth's Beard. Stopping off at the ankheg nest on the way saw the ankhegs only manage a single hit in defense of their home. Reputation was maximised there to allow for some cut-price shopping.
A few more reputation quests pushed reputation from 20, to 20, to 20, to er 20 before Cava realised there might be better things to do (he's somewhat intellectually challenged). Moving on to Durlag's Tower some battle horrors provided good XP.
The basilisks on the roof should have provided something even better, but the final one of those tried to retreat from Cava's attack. It found Tallu in the way, but had managed to move just far enough that when it switched back to a gaze attack, Tallu was petrified.
Cava took a trip to buy a green scroll (and an intelligence potion in order to use it) before coming back to re-recruit his colleague. Regrettably Tallu had suffered the loss of all the XP earned at Durlag's Tower and was now some 20k behind Cava. That meant that the last few minutes of the session were spent chasing more XP from encounters we probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise - like more sirines and the Doomsayer.
Hello hello, happy new year all. Unfortunately my long awaited slice of fan fiction is still on another computer, my daughter had a fever over Christmas so I won't be able to pick it up until next week. So here's some news of Stirkus' latest close shave in more prosaic terms. He's an 11th level mage now, a level away from regaining his lockpicking skills, becoming wise in the ways of blasting spells and helping random strangers. However he fell foul of an unscrupulous mage's contest and plunged into Deep Gardens of Colour, against my usual prediliction to avoid locations you can't easily exit from. There he met many odd creatures and killed most of them until meeting the master of blackness and generally nasty stuff. And an unpleasant customer he was indeed, being swirled about with Improved Alacrity dust, invisibility, conjuring a vile Pit Fiend, and causing my computer to crash on no less than two occasions mid-battle. I like to think that they were occasions when Stirkus shouted "cut, cut, this wasn't in the script" and stormed off to call his agent. And indeed when I looked up the Master's stats indeed he should not have been able to call up the Pit Fiend, which has been hideously improved by Spell Revisions, as he is only 16th level and didn't know that spell.
How hideously....? Well... let's just say its poison was lethal, its meteor storms damn near killed everyone, and its Unholy Word did indeed wipe out everyone nearby without a save. Stirkus used the Expeditious Retreat spell to escape its clutches and flee with Jaheira (we couldn't transition as Nalia was still barely alive but running around)...was chased relentlessly by the fiend and its master, death seemed certain... until Stirkus was forced to plead for one of the local residents to grant him shelter. When they reemerged the Pit Fiend was gone, and the special effects people informed the Master that he was overrunning their budget and so he was summarily dispatched with little ceremony at the last time of asking.
This was a lesson for me. I really thought the run might be over as the Pit Fiend teleports after Charname, but since nothing in our bag of tricks seemed likely to help I just tried the expedient of talking to npcs in the hope that something useful might show up. Was rather happy to see the option to rest! A little gamey but also quite a believable storywise as the hero is hidden from a rampaging monster by a local resident who knows a hideyhole. And so he lives on, for now at least!
Hope the new year brings many new inspirations and discoveries to y'all .
Ridding the Troll menace from the rigtheous ruler D’Arnises land was the next glorious task that Inq undertook. The first floor of the keep was cleared and the Yuanti mage at the second flooor was plowed down with the stonefire axe and the shield of Harmony.
Stonefire proved instrumental, and Azuredge played its part for ranged attack (iron golems...). Torgal fell to Duhm and PfE and Inq even killed the umber hulks - just for show off
Ind added Nalia to the party and dumped her in the CC (just for the feel good vibe). Things where looking up
Inq paid WK another visit. The reflection shield and Azuredge provided 100.000 xp for the four statues and admitance to level 2.
Back in the city Inq went undead hunting with PfU and Azuredge. The XP where rolling in, and Inq decided to open chapter 3 - siding with the thieves.. well Gaylen B isnt evil . The amulet of power really opens some doors..
(Kangaxx was taken down with the nice mace Inq found at the vampire den..). Undead hunting becomes trivial with PfU and weapon that slays them unless they save at -4 - and you have 2,5 apr.
For more XP and some boots the planar prison was next. The first ambush and the Yuanti mages where handled with true sight and dispel. The air elementals where turned against there master with the RoAC. The wardens posse was taken care off by divide and conquer tactics - the warden himself was easy prey with true sight and dispel..
The planar prison gave Inq level 18, and HLA. A Mighty Deva was the frist choice:
Inq still wanted to do the Planar sphere and Firkragg before chapter 4. Inq could reach level 21-22 before spellhold... well that could happen if Inq as a spurr of moment hadnt taken on the twisted rune - playing with my phone in only one hand while tending my daughter, who is ill.
Rolled a fighter druid with a 99 stat roll instead...
Tis' the season for daughters to be ill! Unlucky, what killed you?
Thanks.. and the best to yours.
I started out with a simmy and then PfU. Shangalar didnt know what him (it was off course Azuredge). Revenek was easily slain and for Vaxall I had brought the shield of balduran. So far so good.
But Shyressa had wandered off - undead do that when PfU is on. I found her by Layenne. Foolishly I figured that Layenne would pull off meteor swarm and gate in a pit fiend (but she apparently only does that during time stop).
If she had pulled that combo, I would have gone PfE and dispelled Layenee - the pit fiend would have turned on Layenne due to the Meteor swarms Aoe damage, and it would have sliced up her .
Instead Layenne chose a lower level spell: the level 8 spell Maze .
I shouldnt have gone there, and after the first three I should have bailed out. But hybris brought me there, and nemesis showed me the exit
A long period of easy progress today ended with a bang of the wrong sort ...
The session started with easing through the Bashkill mines to sort out Mulahey.
The amazons, Nimbul and Tranzig all failed to make an impression on the way to the Bandit Camp. Taurgosz at least got a hit in, but was still comfortably defeated before Venkt & co became the source of a reddish redecoration scheme for Tazok's tent.
Spider's Bane was acquired on the way through the Cloakwood and put to use on Drasus & co - who managed a total of 0 points of damage between them, despite using no magical protections (though Tallu was enraged).
The chunks continued to fly on the way down to Davaeorn where the battle horrors also failed to get any hits.
Buoyed by recent successes Tallu disdained making use of any magical protections as he raged and launched himself at Davaeorn. He took a bit of damage from one of the corridor traps before being hit by a lightning bolt from Davaeorn - and hit again when the madly bouncing bolt returned from a trip around the area (narrowly missing Cava lurking by the entrance before bouncing back to the middle room). That left him with just 28 HPs as he closed in again on the teleporting mage - to be greeted by a fireball that provided a bit of payback for the numerous enemies chunked during the session.
That behavior of lightning bolts is a return to the sort of thing seen in vanilla BG1 - where a mage took his life in his hands casting that spell. Interestingly, the new pair we rolled up saw Gate70 in charge of a Priest of Talos. As a taster for a future update I'll mention that he's already seen some 'interesting' bounces - here's one fired at Greywolf coming back at the cleric having apparently traveled about half the map, bounced off the shed with the war dogs in and narrowly missed shocking him on its way back.
I currently have two unfinished no-reload runs: Mae the Berserker/Mage's run with underused items, and the solo LoB run with Mollyboo the Fighter/Mage/Thief. I'm announcing that I do not plan on resuming either of them for the foreseeable future, nor do I plan on starting any new runs.
This has been a long time in the making, as some of you might have noticed from reading my posts. The game has grown increasingly less fun for me over time, and I think it's because of burnout. I've been pushing myself to do increasingly difficult runs (the poverty runs being a good example, and I've dabbled in the solo LoB challenge) because a normal no-reload run just doesn't seem good enough. While I've learned a lot, I think I've ruined the fun of the game by focusing so much on completing tetralogy runs. I've been living for the post-Melissan credits, but even they aren't very satisfying anymore. Gameplay, more than anything else, feels like going through the same motions over and over again, trying to do it as fast as possible just so I can get to the next step.
Doing a bunch of boring, repetitive stuff to achieve a brief and increasingly disappointing thrill is not a good recipe for happiness.
I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do, but I think I'm going to drop the Infinite Engine for a while and make a point of taking risks and reloading at times, because I've noticed the no-reload impulse is interfering with other games as well.
I'll still be on the forum and will check on this thread now and then, but I think it's best if I just take a break. I figure I'll be happier if I do something that I find fun.
I have joined forces with Tenya, Gavin, Montaron and Thorin. Having done some shopping we headed for the temple area and killed several wolves.
Mutamin was then killed along with his sirines and basilisks.
We were also attacked by some adventurers near Mutamin all of whom were killed. In the middle of all this conflict Tenya passed on some information which will need acting upon in the future.
We then helped Ugh.
In transit we were attacked by a tribe of hobgoblins. We fled.
We then fought Greywolf and won easily before making a minor foray into the mines.
On the way to the carnival for some rest, yet more hobgoblins attacked.
On the way down the mines we were attacked by some powerful duerger, but prevailed.
Eventually after some skirmishes with some kobolds we took on Mulahey and won.
I'll still be on the forum and will check on this thread now and then, but I think it's best if I just take a break. I figure I'll be happier if I do something that I find fun.
@semiticgod I'm all for having fun . I hope you find something satisfying and thanks for all the information and entertainment you've provided.
I was hoping on posting on my Dragon Warrior Monsters low-grinding run, which unfortunately had a couple deaths. But it seems I overwrote almost all of my screenshots. So I'll just post the final blow of the main questline, which also did the most damage of any attack in the entire run:
Upon exiting the mine we did some speleology. That is, we investigated three caves and killed their inhabitants. We also killed three ankheg before heading to Nashkel where we were handsomely rewarded.
We headed north but Xan had foolishly not cast armour which meant that when we were ambushed by yet another horde of hobgoblins he was unable to cast mirror image. That led ultimately to his death.
Aerie raised him and we bought some grain and vegetables for the lady-ogres. We then headed for Beregost, did some shopping and then tackled the upper reaches of Durlag's Tower.
Having discovered what it is all about, I think that is one mod that I won't be installing.
Yeah, don't blame you, game isn't really balanced around automatically hitting high damage magical attacks ad infinitum, let alone invisibility and skeletons on demand.
Anyways...
One of the best things about no-reloads is the ample opportunities to practise my image manipulation. And make me sick enough of Candlekeep to cure my restartitis for pretty much good.
Cypher here is, despite the absence of anything showing it, a Spellfilcher, giving him minor perks in melee against mages and an innate silence spell, and eventually a single spell spellturning once per day.
I give him until chapter 2 at best, especially since he's rolled under the odds on HP rolls.
After the usual exp capping chores, there's the usual ogre mage killing chores.
Kahrk is love, Kahrk is life, Kahrk is shish-kebab'd on a +2 Shortsword critical backstab. Good thing I had a potion of invisibility in the party, since Kahrk also refused to stop whaling on Cypher, leaving him on 1 HP before he managed to disengage and heal back up.
More chores. The biggest hurdle for me is not getting bored and careless with this repetitive stuff, but having finished, he's a disgustingly well rounded individual.
Guess I'd best advance the plot now.
Woo! Chapter 3 get!
Lolwut. Damnit Xan. This is what I get for getting BG1NPC working.
Some close calls, a fatal call, and a bunch of wand charges (after I managed to make Cyph actually cooperate rather than just switch endlessly into crossbow shootery), and some reputation and a 10,000 Exp bonus for Xan for being a hero. At which point I dumped him from the party. Congrats, Xan, canon says you are one of the only people who aren't doomed.
Kivan's quest, on the other hand, involved one sleep spell and a focus fired chief for some free exp and a boomerang dagger, making me wish I'd picked "Dagger". Meh. Maybe next life.
It's all ogre now.
Apparently Kivan let me do something else that should be default gameplay. Wreck Tazok in his stupid face.
Strangely, the entire bandit camp stands in stunned, neutral, silence after watching their boss get dropped. But ol' reliable is the solution to that. Stabby stabby!
Chapter 4 get!
Murdering some druids is always the moral choice. Druids and paladins be crazy.
Sort of went bad around here. Cypher's AI sent him merrily charging through Baeloth's WoF scorcher, sending a stream of burning death through the party thanks to his Spell Turning. At least Kivan's at the Friendly Arms to replace Coran's corpse, I guess.
It's a shame Kivan's unique spear is Elf only for no reason whatsoever so Ish can't use it, and that he only has proficiency in halberds, not spears, and that it's a 0 value item that I can't even sell.
Anyways... Davaeorn is the last boss fight before Baldur's Gate. Nothing can go wrong. Right?
Dang right. Cypher invisibility'd up, Detect Illusion'd Dave's images, and solo'd him with the help of two traps he set earlier and some magic missiles.
Chapter 5 get, and I'm pretty sure this opens up Stone of Askovar to finally review its content.
Fighter Druid99 - natures less anoying and more powerfull servant awaits
Patience blessed me with a 99 Fighter/Druid.
The setup is an unmodded game played on iPhone - the diificult slider is set on insane and max HP on level up.
I had some mishaps, getting killed by dogs and wolfs - at level 1. So the current run is the third with the same character (restarted the game).
I chose scimitars and darts as proficencies at start (two pips in both). Had some trouble gauging the distance to a foe and the apr in a round. Darts have a tasty 7/2 apr at start up, and damage +2 if specialized... nice, but the enemies end up in your face if you dont get moving . Dying and restarting teaches a hard learned lesson.
Did some minor quests in Beregost, and went after Shoal. A multi class character really needs to kill her to get some mileage...
at level 3 FD99 gained access to charm person. Had tried it before but came to like it (not that Druids had other top tier level 2 spell picks to pick from - and not that charm person is top tier...). I managed to charm karlat. Figured Karlat could do the spiders, and FD99 would then kill the weakened foe
Well the spell doesnt last more than a turn. So FD99 had to kite 3 spiders and Karlat all over Beregost. And the spell does nothing to Dushai
But the spell did help FD99 against Silke and Neera in Nashkell
But with a save at +3 I figure it doesnt work in TOB unlike DUHM and chant would for priests...
Even with kiting FD99 struggled. High Thaco and low damage output is a killer - had some trouble with Zordral the mage. Couldnt bring him down quickly enough. I thought Zordral had MM as level 1 spell picks - he had LMD
Had to kite him even though he was out off spells. FD99 had used the shield amulet but it doesnt help against LMD...
With poor damage output FD99 went after Meilum and a damage output upgrade. The basilisk area provided some much needed XP for better Thaco. Got both even though Korax gave me a scare when he turned on me midst battling Kirians group. In the end it was just 175 more XP...
At level 7 the Thaco is 9 for darts +1 and the damage output is 6-8 at 4 apr. More dex and bless can nettet Thise odds. If only Druids had skeletons to do the tanking.... Thalantyr has a neat selection of elemental darts, which give a damage boost. They served FD99 well against the slow moving flesh golems
Durlags tower was paid an invisible visit. Grond0 had pointed out that the manor houses in Beregost and Nashkell has invisibility potions, and and some random drops of those + potions of mirror eyes + greenstone amulet gave FD99 a nice tome and the first magical scimitar +2.
After shopping the wand of heavens and necklace og missiles Mulahey, Nimbul, the Amazones, Tranzig and the bandit camp where killed quickly.
Rinse, lather, repeat...
For the tent I wanted something special. The mage was treated with some darts of wounding - it worked as intended.
With the wand of heavens the others fell quickly hereafter. Resting gave me the second CLW bhall power. I want the dark side Bhall powers for the next and luckily Dushai could help my too good rep (killing her dropped it to a fitting 9). Rushed through the woods - siding with the druids and picking up another scimitar +2 - FD99 has two pips in two weapon fighting style...
Next up the druid camp and the mines. Going to spend some time talking with the druids and see what happens. Never really played a druid before, so I’d better see the sights...
Stupid ogre mages and their stupid invisibility conga lined Baeloth, who I sort of forgot could or needed to cast Mirror Image.
Still, only the Iron Throne left to do and then Cypher can finally answer "Yes" to "Do you lift?", but first...
Mod enemies: Fighters and Archers: Vulnerable to Sleep. Cakewalk. Clerics of Bane: Cast entangle. Cakewalk. Stone Golems: 4 APR, 22 Strength, -2 effective THAC0, 50% MR, immune to non-magical weapons. Basically walking blenders that could easily kill any character in melee.
One of these things is not like the others, and when entering the tower it was into a small cramped room with two such golems who killed Yeslick in the single round when leaving the tower to flee. RIP Yeslick, I can't really be bothered to raise you either.
Apparently the Macguffins are magical rings that can be used by anyone, which is nice, since Ishlilka's empty slots make me sad, and the rest of the loot includes a somewhat garish set of armour.
And another one bites the dust.
Goleeeeems! *Shakes fist.* Since I had to explore approximately two full maps on the mod's little treasure hunt Ishlilka ended up aggroing the entire map before finding the macguffin NPC and more stone golems. She made it back to the party but got held, and a golem's machine gun punches chunked her in half a round after resisting a wand of paralysis stun. Also Quayle died. Meh.
Yay. Fetch quests.
Yay mages with -3 AC, another Stone Golem, two high level fighters with Grand Mastery, and two other mages just to make up numbers.
For a moment I thought the quest broken, which would have made me pretty salty about the whole thing, and then I remembered some rando wizard from earlier in the questline and gave him a shot. Well, I'd hate to have killed off half my party and severely hurt my chances of winning with the remaining trio without a few thousand gold compensation.
Three people or not, the plot must be ever more advanced.
Wand of Fire, traps, a few stair evades, and not a(nother) soul lost. Take that Iron Throne! You're way less dangerous than Gatling Golems!
Thank goodness Tethtoril doesn't respect due process. Just a shame that Cypher doesn't use daggers for 7/2 APR melee with his newfound 19 Strength.
Seriously, I cannot begin to say how easy this is compared to those bloody golems.
Chapter 6 get!
Fighter THAC0 backstabs sure are convenient supplements for the dozen wands in Cypher's backpack.
Eurrgghhh. Inventory management. Even my bag of holding is full.
This is gonna suck.
Prediction: Correct. That did suck.
I have no idea how those doppels all failed their saves so hard, but it was a rout,
Hate that maze so, so much. First Tiax dies to a zap trap, then Sirene dies to another lightning trap wandering over to the obnoxiously archer-y skeleton warriors. Cypher almost survives, but after chugging his potion of invisibility, he spontaneously, despite AI being turned off in advance, reappears for no reason to start looting Sirene's corpse which he was standing on, and despite his -14 AC against missiles, skeleton warrior crits as he's about to recast invisibility from a spell.
Next time I get this far I'm just going to chug a bunch of fire resistance potions, potion of absorption, Shield up, boots of haste and just trigger everything in advance. Also possibly "avoid losing half my party right beforehand".
ToB begins. I have to go easy on Illasera's gang because if the mage dies to traps before he can get his buffs off, it crashes the game. I start us off with Mass Invisibility before the fight begins. The mage dies to traps anyway and doesn't crash the game for some reason, so that's good.
I buff with PfMW because if Illasera tags me, I'm as good as dead. Illasera chooses Coran as her target instead. Coran has no way to defend himself from her excellent THAC0 and invisibility detection, so he dies.
I can see that Illasera isn't pulling her punches, so I don't pull mine anymore. A charged Wish brings back Coran and Nalia sends out the Improved Kitthix swarm against Illasera.
Swamped by the swarm plus Korgan's improved hasted Critical Strike, she falls. Her black reaver orog buddy dies immediately afterward.
Inside the Pocket Plane, Coran gets replaced by Sarevok. Having learned his lesson long ago by dying to Montaron, Sarevok dual classes into an Assassin. He also gets his sword back, which he powers up.
Sarevok inherits most of Coran's equipment. Just in case Sarevok gets chunked somehow, Coran is staying in the pocket plane with his arrows and Teleomortis still equipped.
The first challenge room goes mostly as planned until Johnny-boy uses a Time Stop. Thankfully I'm immune to this one thanks to my staff.
I buff with Improved Alactriy and start casting some defensive spells and anti-magic spells as Johnny throws a Spellstrike my way. It's been a while since I played so I forget that SI: Abjuration won't stop it and only get my Spell Shield off after the Time Stop ends, which takes down my Spell Trap. But it doesn't matter because I checked his HP during the Time Stop and it was only 33. I use a charged scroll of Power Word, Kill from Cyric's Chosen which should burn through his Spell Turning and kill him. It works.
Bodhi takes a bite out of Nalia but is quickly put down. Sarevok gains several levels from this challenge room and has the Short Sword of Backstabbing +5 forged for him.
Saradush's sidequests are finished without incident and I get golem building equipment from Lazarus Librarus so I can build golems in the Pocket Plane. Perfect Clay MK IV is constructed. Rasaad learns Lunar Stance, which will be a massive help against Time Stop using enemies as he can join me in fighting back while time is frozen.
Time to fight Gromnir. I'm a bit worried about Sarevok because his saving throws are pretty bad right now. I use a charged Protection from Magic Energy scroll on all six of us before going upstairs. Here's what the initial volley is looking like.
Korgan gulps an Oil of Speed and uses Crom Faeyr to instantly destroy both enemy Perfect golems. Sarevok keeps Berrna Elkan off Nalia by stunning her. Nalia summons in a Planetar but my Time Stop comes out before it can step through the gate and fully appear.
With Rasaad in Lunar Stance, he kills Ramazith the cheetah. I use a charged Banish Golem Spirit on the splitting golems, though it was a waste of time in hindsight. I cast Improved Alacrity and buff with several defensive spells and start picking away at the mages' protections. As I cast Spell Deflection, my Time Stop wears off. I cast a charged Wish afterward but I forgot how excruciatingly long the genies take to talk to you.
Karun the Black gets off a Time Stop as Nalia is poisoned by Eler Had. Rasaad is still under Lunar Stance and my Improved Alacrity is running out. The Il-Khan Battlemage is unprotected, so Rasaad kills her while time is stopped. Soon after, his Lunar Stance expires and he cannot help me now.
Karun the Black has gone improved invisible so I use the last of my Improved Alacrity to summon a Planetar, then use a scroll of True Sight to get him to come out of hiding. But True Sight doesn't work while time is stopped, but Karun dumbly decides to Breach Korgan, revealing himself. His Time Stop is over and True Sight takes effect, removing his Improved Invisibility. Nalia has not taken any damage from poison over the Time Stop but she cures herself with an Elixir of Health. Anomen gets off a Storm of Vengeance, which I have modified to work as it does in NWN (3d6 acid/round no save, save vs. spell or 6d6 electrical and be stunned for 2 rounds).
Finally, the genies I summoned several rounds ago begin granting my wishes: Hardiness, 1 iron -> 1 mithril, Improved Haste on all party members, Restoration, Rest, and Horrid Wilting. The Horrid Wilting kills La'shara. I Breach Karun who immediately refreshes his PfMW with a contingency. Nalia's planetar casts Insect Plague at him and Nalia begins casting Breach on him, when Gromnir finally dies.
Karun is completely unprotected from spells at the moment so I have my planetar cast Flame Strike on him. He fails his save and crumples. Nalia gets her Breach off just as he dies and her planetar's insect swarm hasn't even arrived yet. With the mages and Gromnir disposed of, its just the fighters who are left and they are easily defeated.
Onward to Watcher's Keep! But we get ambushed by some Sharran assassins after Rasaad, which I wasn't expecting. I use a charged Wand of Paralysis and they all fail their saves against it. Talk about ownage.
At Watcher's Keep, I buy a Staff of Wizardry and activate it, then get Cespenar to upgrade it. This Thrall ability could prove useful...it reminds me of one of the Seducer's abilities.
Now to get Sarevok up to speed with us from the oodles of XP that Watcher's Keep provides. He's already proven to be quite deadly while Hasted even without his Fighter levels back yet.
Ucurian and his band of rejects - Part IV: Tales of the Sword Coast and Sarevok
The remaining ice island was easily cleared, and the party made their way to Balduran's Island. At the shipwreck, I always lured some wolfweres downstairs before clearing out the remaining ones. With bastard sword proficiencies for both Camalan and Ayla (just for this purpose), it was easy enough to take down the greater wolfwere, especially after Ismene Santal hit him with a wand of paralyzation charge on her second try:
Camalan is so strong at this point that he can basically tank anything as long as he wants to. I made my way back to the Beard and cured my party of Lycanthropy. It should also be mentioned that, in the shipwreck, item randomizer provided me with the Durlag's Tower tome, which was randomized to be another dexterity tome (not very useful for me at this point, but I'll take it).
At Durlag's Tower, I did surprisingly well against the dwarven warders, mainly thanks to true sight and great saves (I used invulnerability and stone form if needed to resist any enchantment spells thrown at my party). Not much to say about the rest of the tower: I encountered the chess board bug, but used the console to get there. Webs helped out greatly in this battle:
Our final foe, the demon knight, wasted his dispel magic on my skeletons. While he was able to deal decent melee damage to Camalan (mostly because I didn't use defensive stance or any potions at all), it certainly wasn't enough to kill him:
With my party now having hit the experience cap, I also took down Kahrk - this is a completionist run after all. No trouble there.
Back in Ulgoth's Beard, everyone immediately used a potion of invisibility, allowing me to seek a safe space to summon skeletons and buff my party. True sight took away any advantage the cult assassins might've provided my opponents - and Saldor was protected via stoneskins anyway. True sight was also the key to preventing any serious damage from the remaining cultist groups. Aec'Letec did manage to dispel some of my buffs, but I still had potions of magic shielding to counter any death gaze, and while he did manage to silence most of my party, at this point, he was already close to death himself:
At this point, I also noticed that oils of speed seem to be indicated by the symbol for improved haste in this installation for some reason (though they still have their normal effect).
Now, back to Sarevok: With skeletons and some of my remaining buffs at the ready, I sadly wasted my traps on the big man himself. Whoever, I used the 4 arrows of dispelling that I had found (since SCS removes them from stores), and Ayla dispelled Sarevok's haste with the third one. Now, I quickly took down Tazok with my ranged weapons, while waiting for some of Semaj's and Angelo's buffs to expire. The two of them failed to affect me with any spells, and I refreshed my skeletons with a monster summoning charge while taking the two spellcasters down:
Diarmid was the next one to die, and now it was easy to defeat the slowed down Sarevok:
I also made my way through Korlasz' tomb with liberal use of some necklace of missle charges and managed to kill Korlasz before her protections even fired:
Finally, the minor quests in Baldur's Gate were completed as I sold and bought a ton of items to get ready for SoD.
Intending to do a co-op run on BG2:EE with SCS, is there any other component than just SCS you need to make it work? And I assume you must have the exact same components installed to get it to work?
Just realised that I have had the wrong name for my character in the heading for the entire run. I have corrected them all to what it should have been all the way through - Storak Swiftaxe
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
The party has just headed north from Beregost and using stealth wiped out the party of assassins including Malious. Web and area spells wiped them out. We then headed for the bandit camp where we fought Tazok who tthen enrolled us. Since we were still buffed we headed for Brotus Bloodthirsty. We intended to use stealth again, but Brotus spotted us and approached. We retreated and cast more buffs before he initiated conversation. That tactic is a good one as he had to fight us without the aid of his cohorts. However, it was not intended. We defeated him which gave us a chance to identify the loot and sleep before we took on the rest of his party. Sorry, no screenshot for fight against Malious.
EDIT
The bandit Camp turned out easier than expected. There was one problem when Thorin was poisoned by a hobgoblin elite for he had wandered into one of Xan's webs and so couldn't take an antidote. However, the web ran out and the first thing he did was to use an antidote, the second thing being a potion of extra healing. Montaron got a bit too close to Taugoz and so had to take two potions of healing, but the only other major expendables that were used were two blasts of the wand of healing against Taugoz.
edit
The reason why the bandit camp was so much easier this time was that the web and silence spells were timed perfectly with the result that the party didn't have to deal with opposition spells. The bandits also arrived in dribs and drabs so that we were able to kill them as they arrived. That was the result of web slowing the arrival of some of them.
EDIT
We then headed back to Beregost, stopping on the way to deal with two groups of bandits.
We killed Tranzig and afterwards were forced to kill Vallius et al at the FAI.
The randomator throws out cleric and fighter kits straight after the previous failure and they set about their task with grim determination. Failure to make any notes or post on the day means there is little to say, other than picking on a nereid is about to escalate into taunting sirines.
n.b. 1 screenshot of returning lightning bolt with line added to show where it came from - almost a case of Zepp pressing his own exit button. 2 install appears not to have Grond0's portrait once more but Zepp isn't too fussed about mere details.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 149 part 1 2 Zepp (Dwarven cleric of Talos, Gate70); Fiery (Dwarven Kensai, Grond0)
Sirines proved to be no obstacle, for we had skeletons. We moved on and explored a flesh golem cave, Fiery suggesting Zepp was pushing our luck with hold and charm, but no friendly fire ensued.
A Storm Shield was used for the first time when facing Silke but she failed to cast a spell.
Zepp foolishly ran back from Tarnesh, thinking Fiery would be in melee but realised as the Horror closed in that the spell had been dragged back to the kensai. Fiery saved, Tarnesh failed to save against daggers.
There was a brief scare on the way to the basilisks when we encountered a basilisk. It attacked instead of gazing, so we ran. Only later did Zepp decide a battle could have been had.
Kirian and her gang found they were no match for a few skeletons while Silence and Command were flying around - not to mention Fiery using his swords through the skeletons and into the enemy.
The poisonous hobgoblins found skeletons held their attention for too long.
Durlags Tower yielded plenty of XP from Battle Horrors and Greater Basilisks, although a second visit was called for when we realised that the tome of wisdom had been forgotten after a charm trap.
Nashkel Mine was next, Mulahey taking Silence and a sword on the chin. Then in the final moments of the session we returned some Amazons to sender - Zepp deciding to get a defensive Glyph in first...
After battling through Cloakwood we have just about caught up with Killye and party, but so far have seen no sign of them. We killed Hareishan and her guards but not without some difficulty as she cast chaos which took all of my spellcasters out of action. However, we killed her quickly and we did have a summoned skeleton so the battle finished without too many problems other than the fact that we needed to rest afterwards. We exited the mine to do that and will make further investigations tomorrow.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 149 part 12 3 Zepp (Dwarven cleric of Talos, Gate70); Fiery (Dwarven Kensai, Grond0)
Session 3 was reasonably smooth, albeit a bit free and loose with lightning.
We'd sorted out Nashkel Mine so all that was left to do was inform the mayor and let Rasaad get all the glory (again).
The thing about mines is that you wait for ages and then two come along at once. Fun for all.
With Davaeorn dead we headed into the city, doing a few deeds and after a minor episode of food poisoning are ready to go and say hello to the Iron Throne next time.
The visit to the druid grove was uneventfull, so FD99 just ran for the mines.. Drasus and Genthore where divided and tanked. The mages where treated to some insects.
Nice pests...
In the mines both mages fell to FD99. Potions and amulets rendered them defenceless in the end:
No insects this time - just potions.
Golin Vend and two cows provided FD 99 with 17 xp and -4 to reputation. Hence Horror came up as next Bhall power
Thats for forcing dialogue upon each and everyone. The cows where just collateral damage
In the city, more shopping was on the menu. Quenesh provided the next random kill needed to maintain the bad boy rep..
The bad boy reputation meant that shopping was more expensive than usual - thusly more dangerous foes needed to be killed. Sunin and the Iron Throne was up:
FD99’s run nearly ended because he had no protection from fire available.. more shopping was needed.
The catacombs where handled with minimum risk.
In the undercellar FD99 and a nymph dispelled Slythes invisibility and held him - the same happened at the iron Thrane. FD99 ran to the palace once the invitaions where grabbed..
Left the nymph at the undercellar. Dont like to think what the noblemen will do the nymph..
Before the palace FD99 rested and charmed the inn keeper, a creepy uncle and a waitress/sorcerer to do his bidding. Entered the palace and summoned 6 nymphs, and buffed.
The room was quite crowded, and the fight was chaotic. The nymphs provided distraction and a nice mass heal (actually 4), and thusly keeping Belt alive.
Luck was on FD99’s side.. the fight was poorly executed. I dislike micromanagement, and the small touchscreen off the iPhone 6s doesnt change my preferences at all... lets just say that Ithtyls greater malison and chaos combo did more than all other things I did in tjat fight. So thanks @semiticgod for the Ithtyl tip
The mazed was cleared with heavy buffing and invisibility. At the temple Semaj was tanked whilst heavily buffed and Angelos remove magic was shrugged off - so Saravok was approached with the buffing intact:
This time both Angelo and Sarevok sprinted towards FD99. FD managed to dump Angelo and was left with Sarevok and a Battle horror. Being 100% fire resistant helped a lot. Another poorly executed play came to a succesfull end, egen Sarevok dies whilst FD99 had only 4 hp left. Angelo managed to deal the killing blow with another arrow of detonation. He had fired 6 off those, and while FD99 was immune to the fire damage - Sarevok not so much...
At last we reached the bottom of the mine where we were met by a number of powerful enemies. However web, fireballs and other area effect spells wiped out all but Dark Da Silva who was using stealth. However True Sight destroyed his invisibility. He landed one powerful blow on Montaron before his death. Montaron was also poisoned, but I was on hand to neutralise that. We edged forward and managed to lure most of Davaeorns cohorts towards us with summoned skeletons etc. and kill them before he joined the battle. He tried to lure us into his web and stinking cloud, but we all resisted the temptation to fiollow him. Ranged weapons and area effect spells finished him off. His spells actually hindered his few remaining allies.
In fact, you can't get much more MAD than a Gnome Shadow Adept/Thief, who wants 18 or better in every single stat.
But don't worry, his name isn't Charles "Charlie" Atlas for nothing. This little beardless gnome is going to achieve some big things. Assuming he survives.
Step One: Make a whole mess of friends.
Step Two: Hit the beach!
Step Three: Go fishing!
Step Four: Ditch the survivors, grab the murderknife, and go kill things bigger than you, starting with Shoal, and drinking one of your ex-friend's haste oils while you're at it (because chugging bottles of grease does a body good).
Ogres extinct, time for...
Step Five: Visit the friendly mage who gives you free Exp for walking a few feet.
Thanks, Thalantyr!
Okay, fine, you too, Fatbeard, via the Friendly Arm Inn, a magic cloak, and some more free Exp.
Step Six: Visit a rock garden, to meet a new friend to (ultimately) ditch!
You are best friend, Korax, and if someone wants to make a mod where you're a permanent party follower who needs to periodically kill things to eat and heal or you turn hostile, we would totally travel the Sword Coast murdering things together.
Pays off weirdly frequently.
And, now with 32k Exp, time for...
Step Eight: make some super reliable and tanky friends.
I think I'm doing it wrong.
On the upside, Aura is a rune crafter and probably the best healer in my modded game thanks to her healing arrows, which are 4-14 HP healed per round, at range, along with, at this level, 6 Magic Missile runes per day - because lets face it, magic missile is the best thing she gets, and Charlie can also use them thanks to his gnomic intelligence to turn any targets world into bullet hell.
Still weirdly effective.
Step Nine: Trundle around picking up some better lackeys.
Via the Friendly Arm Inn.
And the Temple of Lathander.
Stop by Lord Foreshadow to achieve goal #6: Charisma is now 20, thanks to his Ring of Human Influence he supplies you in the interest of wooing.
Neera forgets we're not playing Skyrim.
Step 10: Tedious and repetitive grinding:
Until:
Yin'Rou is a regenerating, undead expendable tank wolf with a few crowd control and tanking spells. Not quite as potent as the immortal bard with lasers and a saving throw malus bard song for being True Neutral, but still, an expendable scout that doesn't trigger blue circles and is immune to cold and electrical damage is more or less worth the wait and the crippled Con score.
Meanwhile Aura the Weeaboo gnome gets a not-regenerating, but still expendable, scout mecha to do her bidding.
Not that the invisible Shadow Adept with Detect Illusions isn't going to be standing front and centre anyway, but the feeblemind hitting the golem instead of Sirene is an overall bonus.
Step 11: Desregard Plot. Acquire Tomes.
Also evil idols.
Also annoying map of goblins with composite bows, meaning these goblins all have 18 strength to be able to use them which is probably the most nonsensical feature of the entire map.
This scene is much shorter, and much less annoying, with Neera dead. Also shorter and less annoying when you prepare the area with explosive charges beforehand. Still, considering she's level 8 I'd best raise her this time around I suppose so she can scribe and learn all the stoneskins and stop being so lame.
Lightning immunity plus melee plus lightning spell being glitchy = Mages frying themselves and all the other melee critters attacking Yin.
Regenerating scout makes Firewine far less annoying than usual. At least until it dies, Ishlilka dies scouting as an expendable replacement, and I end up with over a hundred fire arrows plodding to the exit. Yeuch.
Too bad about the mecha, which died in Firewine and is now glitched to never return, but the familiar just keeps on coming back.
Also +4 armour.
Tomes acquired, but not used. Charles Atlas understands that winners do not do drugs until the right moment.
Step 12: Finally advance the plot.
Done. More tomes.
Step 13: Tomes!
Aw yuss. Time to grab the cloak and finish this-
Step 14: Die instantly to an x3 backstab from an invisible ninja spawning on top of the main character faster than he could cast stoneskins. Damn you weeaboo gnome and your weeaboo plot!
Comments
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.
Having discovered what it is all about, I think that is one mod that I won't be installing.
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
I have joined forces with Tenya, Gavin, Montaron and Thorin. Having done some shopping we headed for Mutamin who we killed along with his siines and basilisks, after which I think that we will head for Nashkel and the mines. We were attacked by some adventurers near Mutamin all of whom were killed.Cava (Human Cavalier, Grond0); Tallu (Half-orc berserker, Gate70)
Previous run:
Our new run had a touch of deja-vu when Gate70 rolled up a berserker for the second time in 3 runs. Once more he went half-orc, but this time was joined by another hard nut rather than one of those wimpy mage types.
As is fairly typical we didn't bother buying much in the way of weapons or armor (I did shell out the extravagant 1 GP required for a helmet, though Gate70 wasn't willing to stretch to that). That meant that the decision to kill Imoen, Xzar and Montaron wasn't quite as easy as it might have been - but we managed in the end.
Imoen provided Tallu with a bow and arrows to help shoot down Shoal before moving on to Beregost. A few tasks there saw Cava improve his armor from leather to studded and finally chain, courtesy of Karlat.
Up to that point Tallu had seen no need to spend all the energy required to rage, but decided to do so to deal with Greywolf - making it pretty easy to get his sword.
Next it was off to the basilisk area - surviving an ambush on the way by a basilisk intent on meleeing us.
At the coast the sirines had no answer to rage.
A quick trip through the Cloud Peaks produced a charisma tome before heading for Ulgoth's Beard. Stopping off at the ankheg nest on the way saw the ankhegs only manage a single hit in defense of their home. Reputation was maximised there to allow for some cut-price shopping.
A few more reputation quests pushed reputation from 20, to 20, to 20, to er 20 before Cava realised there might be better things to do (he's somewhat intellectually challenged). Moving on to Durlag's Tower some battle horrors provided good XP.
Cava took a trip to buy a green scroll (and an intelligence potion in order to use it) before coming back to re-recruit his colleague. Regrettably Tallu had suffered the loss of all the XP earned at Durlag's Tower and was now some 20k behind Cava. That meant that the last few minutes of the session were spent chasing more XP from encounters we probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise - like more sirines and the Doomsayer.
Cava, Cavalier 7, 80 HPs, 98 kills
Tallu, Berserker 6, 71 HPs, 106 kills, 0 deaths
How hideously....? Well... let's just say its poison was lethal, its meteor storms damn near killed everyone, and its Unholy Word did indeed wipe out everyone nearby without a save. Stirkus used the Expeditious Retreat spell to escape its clutches and flee with Jaheira (we couldn't transition as Nalia was still barely alive but running around)...was chased relentlessly by the fiend and its master, death seemed certain... until Stirkus was forced to plead for one of the local residents to grant him shelter. When they reemerged the Pit Fiend was gone, and the special effects people informed the Master that he was overrunning their budget and so he was summarily dispatched with little ceremony at the last time of asking.
This was a lesson for me. I really thought the run might be over as the Pit Fiend teleports after Charname, but since nothing in our bag of tricks seemed likely to help I just tried the expedient of talking to npcs in the hope that something useful might show up. Was rather happy to see the option to rest! A little gamey but also quite a believable storywise as the hero is hidden from a rampaging monster by a local resident who knows a hideyhole. And so he lives on, for now at least!
Hope the new year brings many new inspirations and discoveries to y'all
Inq 96 - final justice in Amn
Previously in AmnRidding the Troll menace from the rigtheous ruler D’Arnises land was the next glorious task that Inq undertook. The first floor of the keep was cleared and the Yuanti mage at the second flooor was plowed down with the stonefire axe and the shield of Harmony.
Stonefire proved instrumental, and Azuredge played its part for ranged attack (iron golems...).
Torgal fell to Duhm and PfE and Inq even killed the umber hulks - just for show off
Ind added Nalia to the party and dumped her in the CC (just for the feel good vibe). Things where looking up
Inq paid WK another visit. The reflection shield and Azuredge provided 100.000 xp for the four statues and admitance to level 2.
Back in the city Inq went undead hunting with PfU and Azuredge. The XP where rolling in, and Inq decided to open chapter 3 - siding with the thieves.. well Gaylen B isnt evil
(Kangaxx was taken down with the nice mace Inq found at the vampire den..). Undead hunting becomes trivial with PfU and weapon that slays them unless they save at -4 - and you have 2,5 apr.
For more XP and some boots the planar prison was next. The first ambush and the Yuanti mages where handled with true sight and dispel. The air elementals where turned against there master with the RoAC. The wardens posse was taken care off by divide and conquer tactics - the warden himself was easy prey with true sight and dispel..
The planar prison gave Inq level 18, and HLA. A Mighty Deva was the frist choice:
Inq still wanted to do the Planar sphere and Firkragg before chapter 4. Inq could reach level 21-22 before spellhold... well that could happen if Inq as a spurr of moment hadnt taken on the twisted rune - playing with my phone in only one hand while tending my daughter, who is ill.
Rolled a fighter druid with a 99 stat roll instead...
I started out with a simmy and then PfU. Shangalar didnt know what him (it was off course Azuredge). Revenek was easily slain and for Vaxall I had brought the shield of balduran. So far so good.
But Shyressa had wandered off - undead do that when PfU is on. I found her by Layenne. Foolishly I figured that Layenne would pull off meteor swarm and gate in a pit fiend (but she apparently only does that during time stop).
If she had pulled that combo, I would have gone PfE and dispelled Layenee - the pit fiend would have turned on Layenne due to the Meteor swarms Aoe damage, and it would have sliced up her
Instead Layenne chose a lower level spell: the level 8 spell Maze
I shouldnt have gone there, and after the first three I should have bailed out. But hybris brought me there, and nemesis showed me the exit
Cava (Human Cavalier, Grond0); Tallu (Half-orc berserker, Gate70)
Previous update:
A long period of easy progress today ended with a bang of the wrong sort ...
The session started with easing through the Bashkill mines to sort out Mulahey.
Spider's Bane was acquired on the way through the Cloakwood and put to use on Drasus & co - who managed a total of 0 points of damage between them, despite using no magical protections (though Tallu was enraged).
That behavior of lightning bolts is a return to the sort of thing seen in vanilla BG1 - where a mage took his life in his hands casting that spell. Interestingly, the new pair we rolled up saw Gate70 in charge of a Priest of Talos. As a taster for a future update I'll mention that he's already seen some 'interesting' bounces - here's one fired at Greywolf coming back at the cleric having apparently traveled about half the map, bounced off the shed with the war dogs in and narrowly missed shocking him on its way back.
This has been a long time in the making, as some of you might have noticed from reading my posts. The game has grown increasingly less fun for me over time, and I think it's because of burnout. I've been pushing myself to do increasingly difficult runs (the poverty runs being a good example, and I've dabbled in the solo LoB challenge) because a normal no-reload run just doesn't seem good enough. While I've learned a lot, I think I've ruined the fun of the game by focusing so much on completing tetralogy runs. I've been living for the post-Melissan credits, but even they aren't very satisfying anymore. Gameplay, more than anything else, feels like going through the same motions over and over again, trying to do it as fast as possible just so I can get to the next step.
Doing a bunch of boring, repetitive stuff to achieve a brief and increasingly disappointing thrill is not a good recipe for happiness.
I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do, but I think I'm going to drop the Infinite Engine for a while and make a point of taking risks and reloading at times, because I've noticed the no-reload impulse is interfering with other games as well.
I'll still be on the forum and will check on this thread now and then, but I think it's best if I just take a break. I figure I'll be happier if I do something that I find fun.
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
I have joined forces with Tenya, Gavin, Montaron and Thorin. Having done some shopping we headed for the temple area and killed several wolves.Eventually after some skirmishes with some kobolds we took on Mulahey and won.
Journal of Narkon Nimbleaxe
Upon exiting the mine we did some speleology. That is, we investigated three caves and killed their inhabitants. We also killed three ankheg before heading to Nashkel where we were handsomely rewarded.We headed north but Xan had foolishly not cast armour which meant that when we were ambushed by yet another horde of hobgoblins he was unable to cast mirror image. That led ultimately to his death.
Aerie raised him and we bought some grain and vegetables for the lady-ogres. We then headed for Beregost, did some shopping and then tackled the upper reaches of Durlag's Tower.
Anyways...
One of the best things about no-reloads is the ample opportunities to practise my image manipulation. And make me sick enough of Candlekeep to cure my restartitis for pretty much good.
Cypher here is, despite the absence of anything showing it, a Spellfilcher, giving him minor perks in melee against mages and an innate silence spell, and eventually a single spell spellturning once per day.
I give him until chapter 2 at best, especially since he's rolled under the odds on HP rolls.
After the usual exp capping chores, there's the usual ogre mage killing chores.
Kahrk is love, Kahrk is life, Kahrk is shish-kebab'd on a +2 Shortsword critical backstab. Good thing I had a potion of invisibility in the party, since Kahrk also refused to stop whaling on Cypher, leaving him on 1 HP before he managed to disengage and heal back up.
More chores. The biggest hurdle for me is not getting bored and careless with this repetitive stuff,
but having finished, he's a disgustingly well rounded individual.
Guess I'd best advance the plot now.
Woo! Chapter 3 get!
Lolwut. Damnit Xan. This is what I get for getting BG1NPC working.
Some close calls, a fatal call, and a bunch of wand charges (after I managed to make Cyph actually cooperate rather than just switch endlessly into crossbow shootery), and some reputation and a 10,000 Exp bonus for Xan for being a hero. At which point I dumped him from the party. Congrats, Xan, canon says you are one of the only people who aren't doomed.
Kivan's quest, on the other hand, involved one sleep spell and a focus fired chief for some free exp and a boomerang dagger, making me wish I'd picked "Dagger". Meh. Maybe next life.
It's all ogre now.
Apparently Kivan let me do something else that should be default gameplay. Wreck Tazok in his stupid face.
Strangely, the entire bandit camp stands in stunned, neutral, silence after watching their boss get dropped. But ol' reliable is the solution to that. Stabby stabby!
Chapter 4 get!
Murdering some druids is always the moral choice. Druids and paladins be crazy.
Sort of went bad around here. Cypher's AI sent him merrily charging through Baeloth's WoF scorcher, sending a stream of burning death through the party thanks to his Spell Turning. At least Kivan's at the Friendly Arms to replace Coran's corpse, I guess.
It's a shame Kivan's unique spear is Elf only for no reason whatsoever so Ish can't use it, and that he only has proficiency in halberds, not spears, and that it's a 0 value item that I can't even sell.
Anyways... Davaeorn is the last boss fight before Baldur's Gate. Nothing can go wrong. Right?
Dang right. Cypher invisibility'd up, Detect Illusion'd Dave's images, and solo'd him with the help of two traps he set earlier and some magic missiles.
Chapter 5 get, and I'm pretty sure this opens up Stone of Askovar to finally review its content.
Patience blessed me with a 99 Fighter/Druid.
The setup is an unmodded game played on iPhone - the diificult slider is set on insane and max HP on level up.
I had some mishaps, getting killed by dogs and wolfs - at level 1. So the current run is the third with the same character (restarted the game).
I chose scimitars and darts as proficencies at start (two pips in both). Had some trouble gauging the distance to a foe and the apr in a round. Darts have a tasty 7/2 apr at start up, and damage +2 if specialized... nice, but the enemies end up in your face if you dont get moving
Did some minor quests in Beregost, and went after Shoal. A multi class character really needs to kill her to get some mileage...
at level 3 FD99 gained access to charm person. Had tried it before but came to like it (not that Druids had other top tier level 2 spell picks to pick from - and not that charm person is top tier...). I managed to charm karlat. Figured Karlat could do the spiders, and FD99 would then kill the weakened foe
Well the spell doesnt last more than a turn. So FD99 had to kite 3 spiders and Karlat all over Beregost. And the spell does nothing to Dushai
But the spell did help FD99 against Silke and Neera in Nashkell
But with a save at +3 I figure it doesnt work in TOB unlike DUHM and chant would for priests...
Even with kiting FD99 struggled. High Thaco and low damage output is a killer - had some trouble with Zordral the mage. Couldnt bring him down quickly enough. I thought Zordral had MM as level 1 spell picks - he had LMD
Had to kite him even though he was out off spells. FD99 had used the shield amulet but it doesnt help against LMD...
With poor damage output FD99 went after Meilum and a damage output upgrade. The basilisk area provided some much needed XP for better Thaco. Got both even though Korax gave me a scare when he turned on me midst battling Kirians group. In the end it was just 175 more XP...
At level 7 the Thaco is 9 for darts +1 and the damage output is 6-8 at 4 apr. More dex and bless can nettet Thise odds. If only Druids had skeletons to do the tanking.... Thalantyr has a neat selection of elemental darts, which give a damage boost. They served FD99 well against the slow moving flesh golems
Durlags tower was paid an invisible visit. Grond0 had pointed out that the manor houses in Beregost and Nashkell has invisibility potions, and and some random drops of those + potions of mirror eyes + greenstone amulet gave FD99 a nice tome and the first magical scimitar +2.
After shopping the wand of heavens and necklace og missiles Mulahey, Nimbul, the Amazones, Tranzig and the bandit camp where killed quickly.
Rinse, lather, repeat...
For the tent I wanted something special. The mage was treated with some darts of wounding - it worked as intended.
With the wand of heavens the others fell quickly hereafter. Resting gave me the second CLW bhall power. I want the dark side Bhall powers for the next and luckily Dushai could help my too good rep (killing her dropped it to a fitting 9). Rushed through the woods - siding with the druids and picking up another scimitar +2 - FD99 has two pips in two weapon fighting style...
Next up the druid camp and the mines. Going to spend some time talking with the druids and see what happens. Never really played a druid before, so I’d better see the sights...
Stupid ogre mages and their stupid invisibility conga lined Baeloth, who I sort of forgot could or needed to cast Mirror Image.
Still, only the Iron Throne left to do and then Cypher can finally answer "Yes" to "Do you lift?", but first...
Mod enemies:
Fighters and Archers: Vulnerable to Sleep. Cakewalk.
Clerics of Bane: Cast entangle. Cakewalk.
Stone Golems: 4 APR, 22 Strength, -2 effective THAC0, 50% MR, immune to non-magical weapons. Basically walking blenders that could easily kill any character in melee.
One of these things is not like the others, and when entering the tower it was into a small cramped room with two such golems who killed Yeslick in the single round when leaving the tower to flee. RIP Yeslick, I can't really be bothered to raise you either.
Apparently the Macguffins are magical rings that can be used by anyone, which is nice, since Ishlilka's empty slots make me sad, and the rest of the loot includes a somewhat garish set of armour.
And another one bites the dust.
Goleeeeems! *Shakes fist.*
Since I had to explore approximately two full maps on the mod's little treasure hunt Ishlilka ended up aggroing the entire map before finding the macguffin NPC and more stone golems. She made it back to the party but got held, and a golem's machine gun punches chunked her in half a round after resisting a wand of paralysis stun. Also Quayle died. Meh.
Yay. Fetch quests.
Yay mages with -3 AC, another Stone Golem, two high level fighters with Grand Mastery, and two other mages just to make up numbers.
For a moment I thought the quest broken, which would have made me pretty salty about the whole thing, and then I remembered some rando wizard from earlier in the questline and gave him a shot. Well, I'd hate to have killed off half my party and severely hurt my chances of winning with the remaining trio without a few thousand gold compensation.
Three people or not, the plot must be ever more advanced.
Wand of Fire, traps, a few stair evades, and not a(nother) soul lost. Take that Iron Throne! You're way less dangerous than Gatling Golems!
Thank goodness Tethtoril doesn't respect due process. Just a shame that Cypher doesn't use daggers for 7/2 APR melee with his newfound 19 Strength.
Seriously, I cannot begin to say how easy this is compared to those bloody golems.
Chapter 6 get!
Fighter THAC0 backstabs sure are convenient supplements for the dozen wands in Cypher's backpack.
Eurrgghhh. Inventory management. Even my bag of holding is full.
This is gonna suck.
Prediction: Correct. That did suck.
I have no idea how those doppels all failed their saves so hard, but it was a rout,
Hate that maze so, so much. First Tiax dies to a zap trap, then Sirene dies to another lightning trap wandering over to the obnoxiously archer-y skeleton warriors. Cypher almost survives, but after chugging his potion of invisibility, he spontaneously, despite AI being turned off in advance, reappears for no reason to start looting Sirene's corpse which he was standing on, and despite his -14 AC against missiles, skeleton warrior crits as he's about to recast invisibility from a spell.
Next time I get this far I'm just going to chug a bunch of fire resistance potions, potion of absorption, Shield up, boots of haste and just trigger everything in advance. Also possibly "avoid losing half my party right beforehand".
And damnit, I'm keeping the portrait!
Brunash "Towering Pillar of Halfling" the 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, 8
ToB begins. I have to go easy on Illasera's gang because if the mage dies to traps before he can get his buffs off, it crashes the game. I start us off with Mass Invisibility before the fight begins. The mage dies to traps anyway and doesn't crash the game for some reason, so that's good.
I buff with PfMW because if Illasera tags me, I'm as good as dead. Illasera chooses Coran as her target instead. Coran has no way to defend himself from her excellent THAC0 and invisibility detection, so he dies.
I can see that Illasera isn't pulling her punches, so I don't pull mine anymore. A charged Wish brings back Coran and Nalia sends out the Improved Kitthix swarm against Illasera.
Swamped by the swarm plus Korgan's improved hasted Critical Strike, she falls. Her black reaver orog buddy dies immediately afterward.
Inside the Pocket Plane, Coran gets replaced by Sarevok. Having learned his lesson long ago by dying to Montaron, Sarevok dual classes into an Assassin. He also gets his sword back, which he powers up.
Sarevok inherits most of Coran's equipment. Just in case Sarevok gets chunked somehow, Coran is staying in the pocket plane with his arrows and Teleomortis still equipped.
The first challenge room goes mostly as planned until Johnny-boy uses a Time Stop. Thankfully I'm immune to this one thanks to my staff.
I buff with Improved Alactriy and start casting some defensive spells and anti-magic spells as Johnny throws a Spellstrike my way. It's been a while since I played so I forget that SI: Abjuration won't stop it and only get my Spell Shield off after the Time Stop ends, which takes down my Spell Trap. But it doesn't matter because I checked his HP during the Time Stop and it was only 33. I use a charged scroll of Power Word, Kill from Cyric's Chosen which should burn through his Spell Turning and kill him. It works.
Bodhi takes a bite out of Nalia but is quickly put down. Sarevok gains several levels from this challenge room and has the Short Sword of Backstabbing +5 forged for him.
Saradush's sidequests are finished without incident and I get golem building equipment from Lazarus Librarus so I can build golems in the Pocket Plane. Perfect Clay MK IV is constructed. Rasaad learns Lunar Stance, which will be a massive help against Time Stop using enemies as he can join me in fighting back while time is frozen.
Time to fight Gromnir. I'm a bit worried about Sarevok because his saving throws are pretty bad right now. I use a charged Protection from Magic Energy scroll on all six of us before going upstairs. Here's what the initial volley is looking like.
Korgan gulps an Oil of Speed and uses Crom Faeyr to instantly destroy both enemy Perfect golems. Sarevok keeps Berrna Elkan off Nalia by stunning her. Nalia summons in a Planetar but my Time Stop comes out before it can step through the gate and fully appear.
With Rasaad in Lunar Stance, he kills Ramazith the cheetah. I use a charged Banish Golem Spirit on the splitting golems, though it was a waste of time in hindsight. I cast Improved Alacrity and buff with several defensive spells and start picking away at the mages' protections. As I cast Spell Deflection, my Time Stop wears off. I cast a charged Wish afterward but I forgot how excruciatingly long the genies take to talk to you.
Karun the Black gets off a Time Stop as Nalia is poisoned by Eler Had. Rasaad is still under Lunar Stance and my Improved Alacrity is running out. The Il-Khan Battlemage is unprotected, so Rasaad kills her while time is stopped. Soon after, his Lunar Stance expires and he cannot help me now.
Karun the Black has gone improved invisible so I use the last of my Improved Alacrity to summon a Planetar, then use a scroll of True Sight to get him to come out of hiding. But True Sight doesn't work while time is stopped, but Karun dumbly decides to Breach Korgan, revealing himself. His Time Stop is over and True Sight takes effect, removing his Improved Invisibility. Nalia has not taken any damage from poison over the Time Stop but she cures herself with an Elixir of Health. Anomen gets off a Storm of Vengeance, which I have modified to work as it does in NWN (3d6 acid/round no save, save vs. spell or 6d6 electrical and be stunned for 2 rounds).
Finally, the genies I summoned several rounds ago begin granting my wishes: Hardiness, 1 iron -> 1 mithril, Improved Haste on all party members, Restoration, Rest, and Horrid Wilting. The Horrid Wilting kills La'shara. I Breach Karun who immediately refreshes his PfMW with a contingency. Nalia's planetar casts Insect Plague at him and Nalia begins casting Breach on him, when Gromnir finally dies.
Karun is completely unprotected from spells at the moment so I have my planetar cast Flame Strike on him. He fails his save and crumples. Nalia gets her Breach off just as he dies and her planetar's insect swarm hasn't even arrived yet. With the mages and Gromnir disposed of, its just the fighters who are left and they are easily defeated.
Onward to Watcher's Keep! But we get ambushed by some Sharran assassins after Rasaad, which I wasn't expecting. I use a charged Wand of Paralysis and they all fail their saves against it. Talk about ownage.
At Watcher's Keep, I buy a Staff of Wizardry and activate it, then get Cespenar to upgrade it. This Thrall ability could prove useful...it reminds me of one of the Seducer's abilities.
Now to get Sarevok up to speed with us from the oodles of XP that Watcher's Keep provides. He's already proven to be quite deadly while Hasted even without his Fighter levels back yet.
Brunash - Enchanter 22
Sir Anomen - Fighter 7 -> Priest of Helm 28
Korgan - Berserker 26
Rasaad - Sun Soul Monk 28
Sarevok - Fighter 18 -> Assassin 11
Nalia - Sorcerer 22
The remaining ice island was easily cleared, and the party made their way to Balduran's Island. At the shipwreck, I always lured some wolfweres downstairs before clearing out the remaining ones. With bastard sword proficiencies for both Camalan and Ayla (just for this purpose), it was easy enough to take down the greater wolfwere, especially after Ismene Santal hit him with a wand of paralyzation charge on her second try:
Camalan is so strong at this point that he can basically tank anything as long as he wants to. I made my way back to the Beard and cured my party of Lycanthropy. It should also be mentioned that, in the shipwreck, item randomizer provided me with the Durlag's Tower tome, which was randomized to be another dexterity tome (not very useful for me at this point, but I'll take it).
At Durlag's Tower, I did surprisingly well against the dwarven warders, mainly thanks to true sight and great saves (I used invulnerability and stone form if needed to resist any enchantment spells thrown at my party). Not much to say about the rest of the tower: I encountered the chess board bug, but used the console to get there. Webs helped out greatly in this battle:
Our final foe, the demon knight, wasted his dispel magic on my skeletons. While he was able to deal decent melee damage to Camalan (mostly because I didn't use defensive stance or any potions at all), it certainly wasn't enough to kill him:
With my party now having hit the experience cap, I also took down Kahrk - this is a completionist run after all. No trouble there.
Back in Ulgoth's Beard, everyone immediately used a potion of invisibility, allowing me to seek a safe space to summon skeletons and buff my party. True sight took away any advantage the cult assassins might've provided my opponents - and Saldor was protected via stoneskins anyway. True sight was also the key to preventing any serious damage from the remaining cultist groups. Aec'Letec did manage to dispel some of my buffs, but I still had potions of magic shielding to counter any death gaze, and while he did manage to silence most of my party, at this point, he was already close to death himself:
At this point, I also noticed that oils of speed seem to be indicated by the symbol for improved haste in this installation for some reason (though they still have their normal effect).
Now, back to Sarevok: With skeletons and some of my remaining buffs at the ready, I sadly wasted my traps on the big man himself. Whoever, I used the 4 arrows of dispelling that I had found (since SCS removes them from stores), and Ayla dispelled Sarevok's haste with the third one. Now, I quickly took down Tazok with my ranged weapons, while waiting for some of Semaj's and Angelo's buffs to expire. The two of them failed to affect me with any spells, and I refreshed my skeletons with a monster summoning charge while taking the two spellcasters down:
Diarmid was the next one to die, and now it was easy to defeat the slowed down Sarevok:
I also made my way through Korlasz' tomb with liberal use of some necklace of missle charges and managed to kill Korlasz before her protections even fired:
Finally, the minor quests in Baldur's Gate were completed as I sold and bought a ton of items to get ready for SoD.
Enuhal
Intending to do a co-op run on BG2:EE with SCS, is there any other component than just SCS you need to make it work? And I assume you must have the exact same components installed to get it to work?
Sorry for the Off-topic question.
I have corrected them all to what it should have been all the way through - Storak Swiftaxe
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
The party has just headed north from Beregost and using stealth wiped out the party of assassins including Malious. Web and area spells wiped them out.We then headed for the bandit camp where we fought Tazok who tthen enrolled us.
Since we were still buffed we headed for Brotus Bloodthirsty.
We intended to use stealth again, but Brotus spotted us and approached.
We retreated and cast more buffs before he initiated conversation.
That tactic is a good one as he had to fight us without the aid of his cohorts. However, it was not intended.
We defeated him which gave us a chance to identify the loot and sleep before we took on the rest of his party.
Sorry, no screenshot for fight against Malious.
EDIT
The bandit Camp turned out easier than expected. There was one problem when Thorin was poisoned by a hobgoblin elite for he had wandered into one of Xan's webs and so couldn't take an antidote. However, the web ran out and the first thing he did was to use an antidote, the second thing being a potion of extra healing.Montaron got a bit too close to Taugoz and so had to take two potions of healing, but the only other major expendables that were used were two blasts of the wand of healing against Taugoz.
edit
The reason why the bandit camp was so much easier this time was that the web and silence spells were timed perfectly with the result that the party didn't have to deal with opposition spells. The bandits also arrived in dribs and drabs so that we were able to kill them as they arrived. That was the result of web slowing the arrival of some of them.EDIT
We then headed back to Beregost, stopping on the way to deal with two groups of bandits.We killed Tranzig and afterwards were forced to kill Vallius et al at the FAI.
Now for Cloakwood.
Zepp (Dwarven cleric of Talos, Gate70); Fiery (Dwarven Kensai, Grond0)
The randomator throws out cleric and fighter kits straight after the previous failure and they set about their task with grim determination. Failure to make any notes or post on the day means there is little to say, other than picking on a nereid is about to escalate into taunting sirines.
n.b.
1 screenshot of returning lightning bolt with line added to show where it came from - almost a case of Zepp pressing his own exit button.
2 install appears not to have Grond0's portrait once more but Zepp isn't too fussed about mere details.
Zepp (Dwarven cleric of Talos, Gate70); Fiery (Dwarven Kensai, Grond0)
Sirines proved to be no obstacle, for we had skeletons. We moved on and explored a flesh golem cave, Fiery suggesting Zepp was pushing our luck with hold and charm, but no friendly fire ensued.
Corey_Russell: Killye, Dwarven Fighter / Cleric. Lawful Good
Grond0: Evas, Dwarven Fighter / Thief. Chaotic Good
Gate70: Felai, Human Dragon Disciple and Protagonist. Lawful Neutral
We head through Gullykin and stumble across Morvin, Molkar, Halacan and aah never mind they're dead.
Felai has 73 kills. Evas 208. Killye 121.
Somewhere in that little lot we added sirines, Meilum, the revenant, Nimbul, Tranzig and the Bandit camp.
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
After battling through Cloakwood we have just about caught up with Killye and party, but so far have seen no sign of them. We killed Hareishan and her guards but not without some difficulty as she cast chaos which took all of my spellcasters out of action. However, we killed her quickly and we did have a summoned skeleton so the battle finished without too many problems other than the fact that we needed to rest afterwards.We exited the mine to do that and will make further investigations tomorrow.
Zepp (Dwarven cleric of Talos, Gate70); Fiery (Dwarven Kensai, Grond0)
Session 3 was reasonably smooth, albeit a bit free and loose with lightning.
We'd sorted out Nashkel Mine so all that was left to do was inform the mayor and let Rasaad get all the glory (again).
Fighter Druid 99 - nature’s servant
Previously...The visit to the druid grove was uneventfull, so FD99 just ran for the mines.. Drasus and Genthore where divided and tanked. The mages where treated to some insects.
In the mines both mages fell to FD99. Potions and amulets rendered them defenceless in the end:
Golin Vend and two cows provided FD 99 with 17 xp and -4 to reputation. Hence Horror came up as next Bhall power
In the city, more shopping was on the menu. Quenesh provided the next random kill needed to maintain the bad boy rep..
The bad boy reputation meant that shopping was more expensive than usual - thusly more dangerous foes needed to be killed. Sunin and the Iron Throne was up:
The catacombs where handled with minimum risk.
In the undercellar FD99 and a nymph dispelled Slythes invisibility and held him - the same happened at the iron Thrane. FD99 ran to the palace once the invitaions where grabbed..
Before the palace FD99 rested and charmed the inn keeper, a creepy uncle and a waitress/sorcerer to do his bidding. Entered the palace and summoned 6 nymphs, and buffed.
The room was quite crowded, and the fight was chaotic. The nymphs provided distraction and a nice mass heal (actually 4), and thusly keeping Belt alive.
Luck was on FD99’s side.. the fight was poorly executed. I dislike micromanagement, and the small touchscreen off the iPhone 6s doesnt change my preferences at all... lets just say that Ithtyls greater malison and chaos combo did more than all other things I did in tjat fight. So thanks @semiticgod for the Ithtyl tip
The mazed was cleared with heavy buffing and invisibility. At the temple Semaj was tanked whilst heavily buffed and Angelos remove magic was shrugged off - so Saravok was approached with the buffing intact:
This time both Angelo and Sarevok sprinted towards FD99. FD managed to dump Angelo and was left with Sarevok and a Battle horror. Being 100% fire resistant helped a lot. Another poorly executed play came to a succesfull end, egen Sarevok dies whilst FD99 had only 4 hp left. Angelo managed to deal the killing blow with another arrow of detonation. He had fired 6 off those, and while FD99 was immune to the fire damage - Sarevok not so much...
Next up Amn...
Journal of Storak Swiftaxe
At last we reached the bottom of the mine where we were met by a number of powerful enemies. However web, fireballs and other area effect spells wiped out all but Dark Da Silva who was using stealth. However True Sight destroyed his invisibility. He landed one powerful blow on Montaron before his death. Montaron was also poisoned, but I was on hand to neutralise that.We edged forward and managed to lure most of Davaeorns cohorts towards us with summoned skeletons etc. and kill them before he joined the battle.
He tried to lure us into his web and stinking cloud, but we all resisted the temptation to fiollow him. Ranged weapons and area effect spells finished him off. His spells actually hindered his few remaining allies.
In fact, you can't get much more MAD than a Gnome Shadow Adept/Thief, who wants 18 or better in every single stat.
But don't worry, his name isn't Charles "Charlie" Atlas for nothing. This little beardless gnome is going to achieve some big things. Assuming he survives.
Step One: Make a whole mess of friends.
Step Two: Hit the beach!
Step Three: Go fishing!
Step Four: Ditch the survivors, grab the murderknife, and go kill things bigger than you, starting with Shoal, and drinking one of your ex-friend's haste oils while you're at it (because chugging bottles of grease does a body good).
Ogres extinct, time for...
Step Five: Visit the friendly mage who gives you free Exp for walking a few feet.
Thanks, Thalantyr!
Okay, fine, you too, Fatbeard, via the Friendly Arm Inn, a magic cloak, and some more free Exp.
Step Six: Visit a rock garden, to meet a new friend to (ultimately) ditch!
You are best friend, Korax, and if someone wants to make a mod where you're a permanent party follower who needs to periodically kill things to eat and heal or you turn hostile, we would totally travel the Sword Coast murdering things together.
Pays off weirdly frequently.
And, now with 32k Exp, time for...
Step Eight: make some super reliable and tanky friends.
I think I'm doing it wrong.
On the upside, Aura is a rune crafter and probably the best healer in my modded game thanks to her healing arrows, which are 4-14 HP healed per round, at range, along with, at this level, 6 Magic Missile runes per day - because lets face it, magic missile is the best thing she gets, and Charlie can also use them thanks to his gnomic intelligence to turn any targets world into bullet hell.
Still weirdly effective.
Step Nine: Trundle around picking up some better lackeys.
Via the Friendly Arm Inn.
And the Temple of Lathander.
Stop by Lord Foreshadow to achieve goal #6: Charisma is now 20, thanks to his Ring of Human Influence he supplies you in the interest of wooing.
Neera forgets we're not playing Skyrim.
Step 10: Tedious and repetitive grinding:
Until:
Yin'Rou is a regenerating, undead expendable tank wolf with a few crowd control and tanking spells. Not quite as potent as the immortal bard with lasers and a saving throw malus bard song for being True Neutral, but still, an expendable scout that doesn't trigger blue circles and is immune to cold and electrical damage is more or less worth the wait and the crippled Con score.
Meanwhile Aura the Weeaboo gnome gets a not-regenerating, but still expendable, scout mecha to do her bidding.
Not that the invisible Shadow Adept with Detect Illusions isn't going to be standing front and centre anyway, but the feeblemind hitting the golem instead of Sirene is an overall bonus.
Step 11: Desregard Plot. Acquire Tomes.
Also evil idols.
Also annoying map of goblins with composite bows, meaning these goblins all have 18 strength to be able to use them which is probably the most nonsensical feature of the entire map.
This scene is much shorter, and much less annoying, with Neera dead. Also shorter and less annoying when you prepare the area with explosive charges beforehand. Still, considering she's level 8 I'd best raise her this time around I suppose so she can scribe and learn all the stoneskins and stop being so lame.
Lightning immunity plus melee plus lightning spell being glitchy = Mages frying themselves and all the other melee critters attacking Yin.
Regenerating scout makes Firewine far less annoying than usual. At least until it dies, Ishlilka dies scouting as an expendable replacement, and I end up with over a hundred fire arrows plodding to the exit. Yeuch.
Too bad about the mecha, which died in Firewine and is now glitched to never return, but the familiar just keeps on coming back.
Also +4 armour.
Tomes acquired, but not used. Charles Atlas understands that winners do not do drugs until the right moment.
Step 12: Finally advance the plot.
Done. More tomes.
Step 13: Tomes!
Aw yuss. Time to grab the cloak and finish this-
Step 14: Die instantly to an x3 backstab from an invisible ninja spawning on top of the main character faster than he could cast stoneskins. Damn you weeaboo gnome and your weeaboo plot!