@Alesia_BH: I thought the Helm of Opposite Alignment wasn't available in BG2. Where could I find it?
I considered Viconia, but I really wanted Keldorn in my party--partly for the romance I've just installed, and partly to take advantage of his HoF-boosted Dispel Magic spells--and he kills Viconia if they stay in the party too long together.
The charmed vampires would indeed have HoF bonuses. I'd just have to cast the custom spell right after they were conjured.
Speaking of which, Heart of Fury mode should make the bunny rabbits much stronger than they already are.
On the way to the Promenade, we get a cute dialogue that reminds me what I've been missing in my multiplayer runs.
We needed to get back to the Promenade to gain access to Minor Spell Turning, which will let us bounce Aganazzar's Scorcher spells for crazy damage. There's an obscure merchant here that I only heard about online. He sells the scroll.
I do a test to make sure the fire loop triggers properly.
I forgot to activate the HoF spell, so this probably wouldn't have killed the soldier under normal circumstances.
After much thought, I decide not to take on the gang beneath the Temple District sewers. I can't see myself maneuvering quickly enough to catch the whole enemy party with the scorcher loop, and Gaius would survive anyway. Instead, I just grab Keldorn and move on.
Further testing with the scorcher loop reminded me that I need to be more careful with the aiming.
Also, those enemies didn't have HoF bonuses. I forgot to cast the spell again.
We get another nice dialogue. This is why I like Keldorn.
He's such a good spirit.
We try the scorcher loop once more, only to be reminded of yet another weakness of the trick.
After much thought, I decide to get Jan into the party instead of Nalia. I didn't want to use Jan, since I'd used him so much before, but I don't want to go to the De'Arnise Hold yet, and multi-classes are much stronger in HoF. On the way, we fight off some Beshabans. Farsight and Sanctuary guide our summons.
As per Keldorn's request, we visit his family. It doesn't go too well.
His wife has been cheating on him. The other man also has been acting as a father to Keldorn's children. We track down the culprit. He's some rich guy in funny pants.
We don't do anything to him--Keldorn finds it more important to make peace with his family, so he returns home.
We hunt for XP in his absence. The scorcher trick, despite its absurd power, cannot bring down the Crypt King. But it certainly does help.
We have to resort to summons to win the fight. Again. Aerie gets crushed when her Stoneskins run out and her aura isn't clear, but she doesn't get chunked.
We don't need the sword, but it's worth a bunch of money.
For Pai'Na, who has a LOT of extra-powerful spiders at her command, and Chain Lightning spells that could ruin us, we have to take special precautions. Everybody gets Protection from Lightning, for one. We enter under Invisibility 10' Radius. Once inside, Jan begins casting the spell again. Right before he finishes casting, the other party members begin their own spells. The party turns invisible the instant it breaks invisibility. All Pai'Na saw was a flash.
Pai'Na doesn't call her spider friends for feeding, since there's nothing for them to eat--our summons are all inedible--and so she gets broken down very easily.
Another Spell Immunity scroll falls into our hands. We also get Kitty!
After we finish Mae'Var's first task and meet Edwin, Keldorn returns to the party. Things haven't gone so well with the family.
I'm not too happy with the run so far. The only nice thing about it is the banter I've been missing for the past several runs.
Heart of Fury mode really wrecks the game balance. If I was using IWD-style HoF mode, I could resort to disablers to harm the enemy, but IWD2-style HoF mode, the enemies get crazy save bonuses that render save or else spells nearly useless. The only thing left is summoning magic, and I don't want to rely on that. I could tweak the spell so it gives IWD-style bonuses, but it seems lame to lower the difficulty like that. Not after I've already decided to use the harder version.
For those who haven't seen my other thread about the scorcher loop:
You can make Aganazzar's Scorcher do more damage than any other spell if you bounce it between two casters with (Minor) Spell Turning. Putting the scorchers in a (Minor) Sequencer or Spell Trigger is especially effective, as it only counts as a single level 2 spell, and therefore bounces more times. Everything in between the two casters gets hit by many scorchers within a few seconds.
I was hoping to find a situation in which the scorcher loop would be effective and balanced, but I need to get to level 14 before it can be truly practical. A double Aganazzar's Scorcher Minor Sequencer with a Minor Spell Turning spell, cast between two mages, is devastating in normal mode, doing about 250 damage. But in Heart of Fury mode, I can't expect that to take down many strong enemies.
Things won't change until I get Edwin in the party and bump him up to level 14. Once we gain access to Spell Turning and Spell Sequencer, the scorcher loop will do a lot more damage (about 950 with Edwin at level 14, and 2,650 when our multi-class critters hit level 14), and we can stop relying so much on summons.
If I really want to mess things up later in the game, I could duplicate the Book of Daily spell via the simulacrum trick, then use Simulacrum clones to cast Aganazzar's Scorcher across two mages who are using the Wand of Lightning trick to chain-cast Spell Turning from the Book of Daily Spell. Testing found that whichever creature was between the two mages would get hit by the scorchers over 10,000 times (no, seriously) for over 10,000d6 damage.
But it makes a weird sound, so I don't think I'll bother with that. I just think it's cool that it's possible.
By the way... Insane difficulty appears to double damage after resistances have been calculated. I gave Keldorn 99% fire resistance for the tests mentioned above, but the scorchers did 2 damage per hit instead of 1.
@Alesia_BH: I just remembered... I abandoned the prospect of doing the vampire trick somewhere along the way, but then forgot. I couldn't do it with this party. Keldorn means no Viconia, and my Charname had to be good-aligned to romance Keldorn.
Control Undead can charm undead critters, but not with their stupid HoF save bonuses. I guess the 9 WIS was a mistake.
Bart accepted comely Aerie's company even after he learned she wasn't a Bard but a Cleric/Mage (decided to Keeper her back to her original class after I found Rogue Rebalancing Bard song was clearly not working).
The duo made a bit of progress yesterday/today, so here's an update. After some shopping (Vecna was immediately secured for Aerie), they decided to confront the slavers at Hendak's behest. They reached the slaver compound via the sewers, where Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Slimes and an Otyugh formed no obstacle for backstabbing Bart. The companions solved a riddle and saw themselves rewarded with Lilarcor, a chatty, unwieldy blade that would end up in the stock of one of the city's merchants.
At the compound Aerie remained invisible (her role for the time being was to intervene only when her help was needed), while Bart and Kitty, took care of several slavers (including a priest) and their captain.
Two Trolls were knocked unconscious, and finished with WotH-Flamestrikes, to release a number of child slaves. Kitthix, who was still around, and an Aerial Servant that Bart had recently learn to summon were decisive in a confrontation with a second contingent of slavers, one that included two wizards and two Yuan-Ti.
Bart and Aerie reported to Hendak, accepted a reward, and rested at Waukeen's Promenade's Den of the Seven Vales.
The next day they got into a fight with a boorish Dwarf who was also staying at the inn with his adventurer friends. Normally Bart would have let the Dwarf's insults slip, but he found himself strangely riled up by the warrior's disrespect for Aerie. Had he begun to take a special liking to the Avariel? Anyway hostilities broke out. An opening Holy Smite by Bart blinded and injured several of the adventurers.
but summoned Skeletons and Kitthix were didn't accomplish much, even though Kitty did manage to kill a rogue before she was banished from the prime material plane.
When a wizard summoned a host of monsters, Aerie and Bart decided to retreat.
Downstairs an Aerial Servant helped a great deal against a Barbarian warrior and a Mephit, while Bartholomew took care of the rude Dwarf with attacks from the shadows.
The wizard, who had chosen to remain upstairs, couldn't bear Bart's Divine Wrath.
The Cloak of Non-Detection he dropped was a welcome addition to the Gnome's wardrobe.
At the Council of Six Building, Bart paid a hefty sum of 10,000 GP in order for him to be allowed to use certain enchanted items (which was considered 'spell casting') and for Aerie to cast her arcane spells in the city. The trickster, not at all pleased with this deal decided to try and pick some pockets to lower the cost somewhat. This only made things worse, as Bylanna found him out:
What can I say? A leopard can't change its spots... Mishaps like this had happened before, with Imoen on the Sword Coast, and they might happen again. One hostile enforcer followed the two outside. A Fiend might be gated in at a later stage to deal with him, although I'd prefer a cleaner way of getting rid of the guard.
Near the Council of Six Building the duo met a boy named Delon, who begged them to visit his town Imnesvale in the Umar Hills, to investigate mysterious killings and disappearances. With their recent run-in with the law, Bart and Aerie eagerly offered the child their help. They reached the hills in good order and didn't take long in discovering that shadowy creatures were the cause of the Imnesvale's troubles. They successfully defended a local Cowled Wizard against an unruly Golem (thanks to two crits by Aerie!),
before their investigations took them to the nearby Temple Ruins.
They met more Shadows, Wraiths and Shadow Wolves there and, more interestingly, Faldorn who claimed to have changed her ways and offered to join Bart and Aerie.
Inside the Temple Ruins invisible Aerie waited by the entrance, while scout Bart cast PfUndead on himself and went exploring. He slew more of she shadowy creatures as well as two Skeleton Warriors and paved the way through the ruins. Importantly he found that a small corridor that led to a square with trapped letters, was empty,
but a mere instant later, when he passed the corridor with Aerie behind him, two Greater Mummies, two Skeleton Warriors, and a Lich had suddenly spawned.
The latter killed Aerie with an ADHW.
We were extremely lucky here she didn't get chunked. Aerie had 59 HPs at full health plus six from the Pale Green Ioun Stone, for 65 HPs. She suffered 95 damage. Almost looks like a bug working in my favor no?
Bart, infuriated and still PfUndead, avenged the sweet Elf, defeating two Liches and a number of Greater Mummies and Skeleton Warriors. All this took some time as Glabrezus and Dark Planetars had to be evaded and the Liches had two or three castings of Stoneskin each. In his fury Bart forgot that deep in his Wolfskin Bag he had kept a Rod of Resurrection. He only resurrected Aerie after the business with the Liches, Mummies and Skeleton Warriors, meaning that Aerie was now lagging behind a bit in XP.
The two rested in a Shadow Dragon's lair, and left the place invisible. They were no longer PfUndead when ran into the Shade Lord, the architect of the evil that had befallen the Umar Hills. Out of sight of the monster (and other creatures) they each cast a Sol's Searing Orb. Against undead these orbs deal 12d6 (or 9d6 if save a vs spell is made) of fire damage, which is a good damage type against the non-resistant Shade Lord. But what is even more important is that the orbs also inevitably blind undead for 12 rounds or 6 rounds if a save vs spell is made. First Aerie and then Bart launched their orbs at the Shade Lord, and indeed it got blinded.
Bart destroyed a Shadow Alter with a single sunstone bullet,
and then engaged a Shadow Warrior (Patrick) in melee combat. Meanwhile Aerie Lowered the Shade Lord's Magic Resistance twice, launched a Skull Trap at the Shade Lord, suffered slight electricity damage from a Call Lightning by the Shadow Warrior (she was wearing the Boots of Grounding), and finished the Shade Lord with Flamestrikes (from her spell book) and with Wand of Fire scorchers.
The two rescued a captured Halfling named Mazzy, and decided to accept her into the party for the time being after her moving tale of her capture and the death of her friends, including her mate, at the hands of the Shade Lord and its cohorts.
Gaining XP is taking longer than I'd expected. We head out to the Umar Hills, and underestimate the rangers defending Valygar.
I have to reload for some reason... I don't remember if the game crashed or what... and this time we fight them in the daytime. Skeletons keep the rangers busy so Keldorn has room to debuff them.
In my install, Inquisitors cast Dispel Magic at 1.5 times their level. They're still pretty amazing, though we won't be debuffing liches anytime soon.
We follow up with a scorcher loop.
I wish we had more mages in our group, and the party was a bit higher-level... we only get one shot per day at using the scorcher loop, unless we spend an extra two rounds buffing for both characters. One hideous blast per day, and then we're done.
Keldorn tries to pitch in, but Heart of Fury is no place for a melee tank.
Seconds later, Phen runs out of Stoneskin and gets half of her health taken out with one hit. She flees the area, only to find another enemy waiting for her.
Luckily, the cat was busy slaying woodland critters, which gave us enough time to finish off the rangers. We bring back Keldorn.
This guy comes back from the dead, and his first thoughts are of his family. Keldorn is intense.
We move on to the Temple Ruins. The battles with the local undead are awful boring.
In my install, +1 weapons get replaced with nonmagical "Fine" weapons, a bit like in vanilla IWD. This means Skeleton Warriors can't hurt Jaheira's Fire Elementals. Neither can the Shadows or Shadow Fiends or Shade Wolves: they've always attacked with nonmagical weapons.
Phen and Aerie turn undead while invisible to keep the enemies from attacking our visible party members nearby. That's about all the strategy we've got.
Later on, Jan tries to speed things up, casting Haste on our summons. I thought he'd be able to turn invisible before he could get hurt much, since he had Stoneskin up, but I was wrong.
Later still, he gets paralyzed.
He just can't win.
Keldorn gets mopey when we leave the dungeon early.
This is exactly why Alora should be in BG2.
I've noticed my posts are getting increasingly image-heavy, with little text. The battles just aren't that interesting, to be honest. So much of it is just Fire Elementals punching bad guys.
Notice our cunning strategy: summoning stuff while Jan turns us invisible. It's repetitive tasks like this that make the game... well... doable, with this install.
So, guess what tactic we used for Plath Rededge?
At least this one was mildly more complicated: we had to force the Fire Elementals to change target to prevent Plath Rededge from finishing a divination spell.
We head back to Athkatla, because rescuing Garren's child can wait a few more days. Or weeks. Keldorn finally tells me what happened with his wife: she left him five days after he finally got home.
This romance isn't very romantic so far. You can throw some seductive lines at him, but they seem so... over the top. You can hit on him, but it's so not subtle, and it seems so inappropriate given his grief. I was hoping to RP a Chaotic Good succubus gnome with heat vision for this run, but Keldorn is such a Debby Downer.
I learned about another way of doing Heart of Fury mode in BG2, and implemented it for convenience's sake.
It works by patching almost all .cre files, so I don't have to cast my custom HoF spell anymore. With the new system in place, enemies no longer have huge stat bonuses, but their AC is a LOT better. I remove the double XP bonuses on our party via Shadowkeeper and increase the base XP to compensate.
Jan's quest triggers. Even Jan has a sob story. His love left him, too, for an abusive jerkface named Vaelag. So now we have to find the Hidden, whatever that is, and to do that, we need to pay a visit to the Sea's Bounty Tavern. This is also where we meet an old friend of Keldorn's as part of the romance plot thingy. We can kill two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, Jaheira also has a quest in the Sea's Bounty.
So this surly slaver summons some sorcerers to curse Jaheira. Now we have another mess to take care of. But first, we should kill the Githyanki. I forget why we do this... it's just part of the Jan quest.
I break our pattern and attack the Githyanki while fully visible. Since our party stays out of reach, he focuses on our summons despite our lack of invisibility.
Keldorn is using Bolts of Lightning (no, not Lightning Bolts, you silly goose) to add a teensy bit of damage through Stoneskin. It takes a long time, but our Fire Elemental holds because... wait for it... even the Githyanki use nonmagical weapons.
The second Githyanki finally gets off his lazy ass and comes to help out. But by that time, any GOI effect he'd had has worn off. You know what this means?
Scorcher loop!
The Githyanki fall after a very long, drawn-out battle. Now we can get Jan back in the party. But for some reason, I go fight Baron Ployer and his cronies first.
It's just as well. Shortly after dispelling the enemy mages' defenses, a stray Lightning Bolt comes out way. It isn't pretty.
People really underestimate the power of Lightning Bolt. I'd have used it more often in this run, but I don't have many castings of Protection from Lightning, and it's not worth the risk of turning our elementals hostile.
While the enemy mages focus on our summons, we very gradually add up damage. For some reason--perhaps because of confusion effects, or maybe because of fear--our summons and most of the enemies leave the room, fighting outside. It's a good thing, too. We might not have survived the next hostile spell that was about to arrive.
Keldorn helps our summons finish off the mages with Bolts of Lightning.
Phen even manages to disable Baron Ployer.
And you know what? Even with 10 rounds of automatic hits, we still can't kill Baron Ployer. He recovers from Hold Person before he dies. That's just how much HP these guys have.
Baron Ployer hits Keldorn and the Firecam sword hits back. But since that backlash effect is tagged as a mage spell, the Cowled Wizards jump in.
I remove the problem with CTRL-Y. That sword really shouldn't trigger the Cowled Wizards, or else Keldorn would have been sent to jail numerous times over the course of his career.
Next up: the most boring quest I've ever seen in BG2.
@semiticgod, glad that Phen is still alive. Am feeling a bit sorry for poor Jan (he died a lot no?) I think you're taking the right course (i.e. completing manageable parts of quests and postponing the fireworks for later).
Btw image-heavy is fine. I always wonder after producing a wall of text, a specialty of mine, 'who on earth is going to read all that'?
Keldorn met an old friend by chance not long ago, and it turns out his friend has been involved in some illegal activities. So, we have to investigate.
This involves infiltrating some rich person's house. Some of the lies you can tell to justify your presence are pretty awesome.
It's like Planescape: Torment, but instead of learning about your past, you get to learn about wine.
There are like 12 pages of dialogue, and they're all about wine. Either the author is a major wine lover (I don't know the proper term... wino?) or they're poking fun at people who are.
We get some documents that expose shady dealings, but Keldorn says we can't get far with the little evidence we have right now. Powerful people would counter any accusations we made. A lot of thought has been put into this mod... my only complaint, actually, is the lengthy dialogue about wine.
Well, that and the lack of seduction. Phen and I are still firmly stuck in the friendzone. We'll have to wait for Keldorn to get through the grieving process before we make any progress on the romantic front.
How long does he have to grieve about losing his family, anyway? It's not like he ever saw them.
I am reminded of a line from the Simpsons: "I'm not the kinda dad who does stuff, or says stuff, or looks at you. But the love is there!"
To be fair, Keldorn is a paladin. The Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart is a lot more important than his disloyal wife. And his daughters are probably jerks, too.
... So anyway, now we have to kill Rayic Gethras. Because Edwin has gobs of spell slots and access to Minor Spell Turning. Protection from Fire allows us to kill the Mephits on the first floor of Ray-Ray's house... but the first takes at least 30 rounds, just because the Mephits have so much HP, and regeneration as well. Oh, and guess how we fought the Stone Golems?
Relying on our summons takes forever. But the payoff is pretty sweet.
That's just silly.
I originally planned on fighting Ray-Ray only after I gained access to Pierce Magic, as I wanted to remove his GOI and hit him with the scorcher loop. But since multi-classes take ages to get high-level spells, I decide to fight him early.
We greet Ray-Ray with two Melf's Acid Arrow spells, a Fire Elemental, a Magic Missile, and a Dispel Magic from Keldorn. SI: Abjuration protects our mages from Dispel Magic, but Jaheira has to stay out of the way.
Ray-Ray is easily disrupted without his PFMW or Protection from Normal Missiles spells. The Acid Arrows help, too.
Then, amazingly, Jan stuns the guy with a flasher.
He fails two more saves later on. Ray-Ray goes down without a fight.
I check the files. Ray-Ray has a save vs. spell of -4. It's impossible for him to fail a save against a flasher, as flashers only have a -1 save penalty, and we inflicted no others. So, I reload, grab Ray-Ray with CTRL-Q, and check his saving throws.
Yup. Ray-Ray automatically fails all saves vs. spell. It turns out the HoF mod I downloaded has the same problem as I had seen with my spell: negative base saves on enemies tend to roll over and result in very high values, guaranteeing failed saves.
I tweak the .tp2 file so it doesn't grant any save bonuses. To compensate, I'll just play as though the save bonuses were there: I won't bother using many disablers, and focus on other things instead.
We fight Ray-Ray again, this time with his normal saving throws, and the battle is just as easy. Dispel Magic takes down his buffs, and then he's helpless to stop our attacks. No PFMW and no Stoneskin make a dead mage, even with four times as much HP as normal. I still can't believe PFMW is dispellable... I thought it was like spell protections, and wasn't affected by Dispel Magic.
Either way, now we get Edwin. A couple of Potions of Genius later, Edwin has both Minor Spell Turning and Aganazzar's Scorcher, plus the Stoneskin he doesn't come with. Unfortunately, like Jan, he has no Minor Sequencer, so his scorcher loops would be pathetic.
All that's left is to kill Mae'Var and clear out the guildhouse. Guess how we handle this battle?
Sigh. My game plan wasn't too great. Disablers are especially unreliable with the high saving throws the enemies in HoF mode are supposed to get, Keldorn is little more than a debuffer, and with Minor Sequencer and Minor Spell Turning so rare, and Spell Turning so far away, the fact is that Jaheira is just plain better than my other characters. Heart of Fury in general weakens fighters and damage spells, IWD2-style save bonuses weaken disablers, I'm trying to use few exploits besides the scorcher loop... all that's left are summons. And Fire Elementals beat everything at this point in the game.
Meh. It'll get more complex later. Mae'Var, at least, isn't as simple to fight. I attacked him without resting, and so our elementals were stuck on the above floor, leaving us without our best summons. But Dispel Magic and Breach were enough to take down Mae'Var's defenses.
The rest of the encounter mostly involved attacking with ranged weapons while our summons held the fort. We report back to Renal Bloodscalp, get 15,000 gold, and go to side with Bodhi.
Then I realize Keldorn doesn't like Bodhi, and leaves the party if you pick her. It's either her or him, and the power gamer in me has mixed feelings. Choosing Bodhi keeps a lot of vampires off our back, which is important since I don't feel like using Protection from Undead in this run (of all the times I started making restrictions on myself, it had to be the Heart of Fury run). Choosing Bodhi would also let us take Viconia into the group, and let us summon lots of our own vampires to turn against our enemies. Plus, Viconia will get big spells at later levels. But Keldorn is an excellent debuffer. He's a big part of our strategy, and the extra levels of Heart of Fury mode will make fighting high-level mages a lot easier.
The roleplayer in me makes the decision. I want Keldorn. We tell Bodhi we're not interested.
Btw image-heavy is fine. I always wonder after producing a wall of text, a specialty of mine, 'who on earth is going to read all that'?
I like to read your "walls" of text. Strategies, descriptions, elements of roleplaying, they have everything. More generally, as long as people do not write three pages to describe candlekeep, that's ok.
@The_Potty_1: The issue I had is that if you have Keldorn and Viconia in your party, he'll eventually kill Viconia. Keldorn leaves if you side with Bodhi, which makes room for Viconia. I'm not willing to move any other characters around, so siding with Bodhi means we have Keldorn but not Viconia, and siding with the Shadow Thieves means we have Viconia but not Keldorn.
I get waylaid on the way to the Windspear Hills. I hear the enemy cleric casting Greater Command, so I have Phen drink a Potion of Invisibility. She has no Chaotic Commands pre-buff, so Greater Command might kill her if the enemies can see her. It costs us a valuable escape option, but at least it keeps us alive. I position Jan to cast Invisibility 10' Radius, for further safety.
Surprisingly enough, the whole party makes their saves. I think for a moment and decide to go ahead and take on the bandits. They're not too high-level, and we all have Stoneskin and are functional.
Things get complicated very quickly. Keldorn gets backstabbed in the middle of casting Dispel Magic on the enemy. The enemy mage casts Chaos, and the only two characters who make their saves are Aerie. As if that wasn't enough, Phen loses her invisibility to Invisibility Purge. She's on her way to the north end of the map, so hopefully she'll get in range of Jan's Invisibility 10' Radius spell, once it's cast.
This calls for drastic measures. There's no way Phen is going to survive if even an enemy targets her; her Stoneskin won't last with the enemy's 95% hit chance and the many rounds of confusion she has ahead of her.
I have Keldorn take a few steps away and cast Dispel Magic on the party. It's normally a bad idea for spellcaster-heavy parties, but Keldorn should be able to remove all spell effects from everybody, and our Stoneskins can be replaced the moment that Chaos is gone. From there, we can flee the area.
Dispel Magic goes bad.
Only Aerie loses her Stoneskin, which is nice. But Phen retains both her Stoneskin and her confusion, and TWO enemies have already targeted her.
Aerie is nearby, but she doesn't have an Invisibility spell, and her aura is not clear. Edwin has Invisibility, but he ran off to stay safe, and Teleport Field extended the distance. Our only hope is to bring Edwin over to cover her with Invisibility.
But I'm 95% positive Phen will die within the next 10 seconds.
To my surprise, Edwin gets a slight boost from Teleport Field on the way. He reaches Phen and begins casting Invisibility. This is our last chance.
The enemy mage finishes an Enchantment spell.
100% chance of death. I'm absolutely positive.
Yup.
I thought of this as a minimal reload run, but... meh. The run wasn't that much fun anyway, not when Fire Elementals ad Invisibility 10' Radius were superior to almost all other strategies. The Keldorn romance, and the hope of using the scorcher loop with a full Spell Turning+Minor Spell Turning+Spell Sequencer combination, was the only reason I actually bothered continuing the run. The rest of it was rather tedious. I'll probably call it quits.
I would recommend the Keldorn romance. I didn't get to see much of it--most of it was limited to Keldorn's grief and a simple side quest--but the romance itself is well thought out and well-written. It makes sense given Keldorn's background (there had to be some way of getting his wife out of the way) and the lines are strong and fit Keldorn's character. The writer, aside from an apparent affection for wine, put a lot of thought into making the mod seem authentic. Keldorn talks about duty and good and other paladin issues--it seems very real, very true to Keldorn. You're talking to an intelligent and thoughtful person about stuff that clearly matters to him. BG2 is known for its strong dialogue and vivid characters, and the Keldorn romance mod more than lives up to that very, very high standard. It is real.
I wouldn't recommend Heart of Fury mode for BG2 unless you're using very high-powered characters. A party of multi-class Fighter/Mages and sorcerers would be able to tolerate the automatic hits and monstrous damage, but most characters would end up very reliant on summons. If you don't give the enemy big save bonuses, disablers would be viable and add some variety to the gameplay.
IWD-style Heart of Fury mode is suitable for the BG2 system. It grants no save bonuses; it just makes the enemies hit harder and last longer. The battles would either come off as tediously long, or epically long. But IWD2-style Heart of Fury mode does not suit the BG2 engine, at least not for a no-reload game. Adding +5 or +10 to enemy saving throws effectively breaks the disablers that compose so much of standard BG2 gameplay. Unlike in IWD2, the save penalties on your spells don't increase with level, so your spells would only get steadily less powerful as time went on. AC has the same problem: unlike in IWD2, you can't get crazy low AC even if you use munchkin-like characters like the infamous Deep Gnome monk build. AC is helpful throughout BG1 and BG2, but with a +10 bonus to enemy THAC0, it's not going to help you much.
I only started this run to check out the Keldorn romance and find a balanced environment for the scorcher loop trick, a situation in which the scorcher loop would be useful but not game-breaking. But the scorcher loop is kind of hard to do--not because the process is complicated (it's not), but because the relevant scrolls are pretty rare. You get two scrolls of Minor Sequencer from the evening merchant of the western Bridge District, a single scroll of Minor Spell Turning from the merchant of the far west Promenade, another scroll from the De'Arnise Hold, and Edwin comes with the spell already in his spellbook. There are enough scrolls to do the trick, but they're much less common than I'd like.
Time for another run, I think. I'll probably structure the party so more people can use the scorcher loop, but I should make sure the party has other cool options, in case I find the scorcher loop to be too reductive for my tastes.
I think I'll design a new kit based on loops. That'll let me keep them balanced.
So Mazzy joined Bart and Aerie. This was a rather spontaneous decision, one which meant that Gaelan Bayle wasn't going to receive his 30,000 GP yet. Instead some shopping was done to give Mazzy some equipment befitting a proper knight. She got Balduran's Plate from Deidre, and her Sword of Arvoreen was upgraded by Cromwell (thanks to the Item Upgrade mod):
Mazzy has a special kit in my install btw, Truesword of Arvoreen:
As you can see the kit's properties are largely an implementation of the abilities she already has in her vanilla form. Note the disadvantage though: no specialization in weapons other than Shortbows, Short Swords or Slings.
During a visit to the Copper Coronet the newly formed trio promised to help out a young noblewoman, Nalia d'Arnise, whose lands had been invaded by what turned out to be Trolls. The quest really allowed new recruit Mazzy to shine. With her mastery of short swords and her Sword of Arvoreen she was quite efficient in melee, especially when self-buffed, and with her grandmastery in short bows, she was a ranged powerhouse. She practically soloed the Arnise Keep's first two floors. Bartholomew limited himself to a supportive role with Holy Smites and backstabs; Aerie remained invisible as usual, ready to intervene in case of emergencies. On the ground floor there were no incidents, but upstairs a Yuan-Ti Mage gave the companions a scare by rudely Dimension Dooring right into their faces instead of fighting two Mountain Bears with some of its Troll friends as it was supposed to.
The companions managed to shake it off so that they could first focus on the many Trolls. A dominated Guard, Glaicus, was brought back to his senses by Aerie as with the Ring of Human Influence's Charm ability. He thanked her with a Flail part that Bart would forge with other parts into the Flail of Ages, a nice weapon for the Gnome who had recently become proficient in the use of Flails. Bart destroyed Flesh, Stone and Clay Golems with sneak attacks, and Mazzy relied on Tansheron's Bow and boosted saves vs death (Cloak of Deflection, Ring of Protection) to finish off an Iron Golem.
A second meeting with the Yuan-Ti Mage went more to the taste of the companions. Its spell protections had expired, except the inevitable Stoneskin. A salvo of spell-interrupting ice arrows from Mazzy did the snake in.
In the courtyard Bart dispatched an Otyugh, and he reluctantly slew four dogs to make a dog stew for a number of Umber Hulks the trio had been warned of.
The Umber Hulks and other powerful creatures resided in the cellars (dungeon). Bart led the Umber Hulks to their feeding place, and Mazzy surprised them and killed them off.
In a large room, the leader of the Trolls, TorGal and a number of minions (Yuan-Ti Mages, Elder Umber Hulk, Giant Trolls) were assembled. Bart placed a number of snares near the door, and Bart and Aerie summoned some help in the form of an Aerial Servant, Kitthix, and two Mountain Bears.
Thus the enemy was easily bottlenecked in the doorway.
Mazzy killed TorGal,
But most of the summons got confused by the Elder Umber Hulk, and the party decided to retreat. Two Giant Trolls were brought down by Mazzy, but Aerie whom I had foolishly forgotten to protect with Chaotic Commands, got Confused, probably due to being within the AoE of a Yuan-Ti Mage's Chaos. She proceeded to attack the Elder Umber Hulk. (And she wasn't even Stoneskinned... see how much I suck at buffing? But that wasn't the real problem: even though she had been invisible, she should have been at a safe distance).
Anyway, Mazzy saved the day. She finished one of two Yuan-Ti Mages with her ice arrows just when Aerie got confused, then brought down the Elder Umber Hulk who had been at near death status, and finally eliminated the second Yuan-Ti Mage without allowing it to cast another spell.
Back in Athkatla, the trio had a couple of run-ins with Vampires, as if to remind them that it might be a good idea to accept the help of Bart's Shadow Thief friends. They also tried to deceive a sculptor with a fake alloy of his favorite material, for the Temple of Helm, and for the Temple of Lathander they procured a ring that had been stolen by Talassans. Mazzy taught an oaf, Gorf the Squisher, not to mess with her. And Neb the child killer from Baldur's Gate finally paid for his evil deeds with his life. A Drow priestess was saved from the stake but her request to be accepted into the party was declined.
In the Sewers, on a mission for the Temple of Helm to investigate a Cult of the Unseeing Eye, Aerie and Bart buffed up Kitthix and witnessed the Spider web a Rakshasa and kill several Kobolds. The Rakshasa dropped a cloak that ended up covering Mazzy's back and shoulders. More fascinating was Kitty's duel with a Beholder. The Beholder banished the Spider from the prime material plane, but fell soon after to Kitty's poison. (Buffs used included: PfE, Death Ward, PfP, Chaotic Commands, Invisibility). An Aerial Servant finished two Gauths that had accompanied the Beholder.
Jan Jansen, Gnomish peddler cum inventor cum adventurer joined the party soon after. One invention may be of special interest to the reader:
I believe this is a mod addition.
Back in the Sewers, more hostilities awaited the party.
Bart retreated, quaffed an oil of speed, and fully exploited the corridors for a backstab fest.
Only one foe proved to be dangerous: Gaius the wizard. First of all he cheatingly cast a Sphere of Chaos at Bart from without the Gnome's line of sight. The rogue narrowly escaped possible disaster.
Equally annoying, three castings of ADHW couldn't be interrupted by Mazzy's ice arrows. The following screenshot for example shows five consecutive damage-dealing hits that failed to interrupt Gaius.
(Not really cool imo: "let's tweak the most powerful class.") At any rate, the valiant Halfling received Bart's Belt of Inertial Barrier and with her sound shorty saves, shrugged off the damage as she continued pelting Gaius with ice arrows until he fell.
The party left the sewers to rest in an inn, and had difficulty shaking off an Aerial Servant that had been summoned by a priest,
Bart, Mazzy, Jan, and Aerie had a rendezvous in the Graveyard District with Bodhi, the mistress of the guild that had been rivaling the Shadow Thieves. She offered the party a cheaper alternative to get to Imoen and Irenicus, but Mazzy and Aerie advised strongly against siding with the mistress. Bart heeded his friends' words and declined the offer. Before they left the graveyard, Bart dispatched a number of undead creatures in the lower tombs.
They paid Gaelan Bayle a visit and ended up paying him the same amount as Bodhi had asked (30k GP), for his and the Shadow Thieves' help in finding Imoen. They met the Shadow Master Aran Linvail, received two nice trinkets (AoP for Bart, RoP +2 for Mazzy), and the news that all was not well. There were still a number of hurdles to be overcome, before the companions could actually leave for Imoen.
Apart from that, the friends had a number of commitments in Athkatla still. One of these commitments was to investigate a Cult of the Eyeless. On their way to the cult's abode, they were in for a nasty surprise when an Ooze Mephit knocked out several of the companions, including Bart, with toxic vapors. Fortunately three Hell Hounds that were attacking, proved vulnerable to the gas as well.
All survived. They finished the monsters and received a key from Gaal to the lower reaches, where they were supposed to secure part of a rift device.
Down there, they faced a group of Yuan-Ti, including a Mage. Mazzy and Bart took care of them.
And they also dealt with Mummies and Ghasts a bit further.
Across a bridge three Beholders and two Gauths awaited the party. None of the companions was powerful enough in terms of saving throws or spell protections to deal with such a mob, but buffed up Kitthix brought one Beholder to Near Death before she fell. Two Gauths then went after the companions. Bart slew one of them with Holy Smites while it was focusing on two Mountain Bears, and Mazzy, buffed by Bart and Aerie, dealt with the other one
and with the severely injured Beholder.
(In the screenshot Mazzy's buffs had been removed. The incoming rays were harmless though, thanks to the Helm of Charm Protection and Sword of Arvoreen.) After a rest, three Aerial Servants plus Kitthix, all PfE and Hasted (Kitthix was also protected with PfP, Death Ward, and Chaotic Commands) performed verexy well against the two remaining Beholders.
(There was also a Skull Trap from Aerie, but I can't remember whom and when it hit.) The companions got the first part of the rift device from a weak avatar of Amanautor. Together with the other part of the rod, which was in the possession of the Unseeing Eye Beholder, the leader of the cult, the companions would be able to slay said Beholder, according to an ex-cultist.
They descended down a long ladder, to the Beholder lair. On their way they came through an undead town. Mazzy (hasted, free actioned, and protected from fear) soloed its Mummies, Ghouls, and Ghasts. Interestingly there was no Lich, so Mazzy could pick up the Gauntlets of Dex without difficulty.
The Beholder lair was even further down. Bart finished a lone Gauth with sneak attacks (and repeated invisibility),
before he scouted three Beholders and three Gauths. Three Aerial Servants and Kitthix, buffed like before, did their job quite competently once more.
The companions then found an exit. Jan and Bart placed six traps near it. In a node Bart found the second part of the rift device, and without doing anything he witnessed how the two parts magically fused together. The Unseeing Eye, probably aware of what had just happened, suddenly appeared in front of him. Much to Bart's fright and frustrtation the device took a long time in activating as he tried to use it against the Beholder. Meanwhile the Unseeing Eye sent its first rays at Bart. He rushed toward his fellows, and was relieved when he heard Mazzy utter a triumphant shout behind him.
Two Death Tyrants that had come to the Unseeing Eye's aid, couldn't handle the combination of Bart's and Jan's traps, Aerie's and Bart's Holy Smites, and Mazzy's trusty blade.
After a rest, the party proceeded to properly cleanse the wicked place (with the summons that had proven themselves before).
An unexpected encounter with another group of Yuan-Ti warriors plus mage (didn't know they respawned), saw the companions in dire straits when the mage cast True Sight right after they had gone invisible. The warriors were hasted and injured some of the companions who ended up entering and leaving the lower reaches a couple of times, until they shook off the Yuan-Ti Mage. The warriors were then confused by Jan (Chaos) and easily dispatched; the mage went down after Mazzy's ice arrow barrage. The extra rest meant that summons were again available. After the Beholder Gaal and other remaining cultists were no problem to them.
Back on the surface, the party reported their success to te Temple of Helm, sold some loot, took care of guild business, had Cromwell forge the Ring of Regeneration +2 (Ring of Protection +2 combined with Ring of Regeneration) for Mazzy, and traveled to Trademeet to try and save teh Halfling's sister who according to a messanger had fallen ill after having drunk a 'love potion'.
I've decided not to create a new loop-based kit. There are only three projectiles that are both area-effect and will be reflected by Spell Turning: the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile, a white variant of the scorcher projectile (for ice rays, though you never see the projectile), and lightning bolts. I could create new projectiles, but that sounds hard and would require Infinity Animation (which is unavailable due to the G3 website being down, I think) or the BAM editor that doesn't seem to work on my computer.
So, I just started a normal run. Meet Poppy, again.
I'm just really fond of that portrait.
Poppy's lack of a kit makes her much more versatile, and I like having lots of options open. More importantly, Kensais and Berserkers seem too conventionally strong... it wouldn't feel right. Poppy specializes in short swords, two-weapon fighting style, and darts. No katanas or flails here.
Since we're playing with a full party and Heart of Fury mode is no longer installed, we have a hope of slaying Ilyich. But I want to drag all the benefit out of our only rest period that we can, so I run the party ragged, clearing out everything besides the library and using every tiny resource we have, including Charm Person or Mammal.
There's nothing quite like charming an enemy and then turning on it after forcing it to kill its friends.
After studying our options, I realize we're perfectly capable of handling the Mephit Portal room without resting. Imoen's Summon Monster I gives us a decoy for the Radiant Mephits' Color Spray attacks, and her Haste lets us make quick progress on the portals themselves.
Yoshimo is a dangerous backstabber. We take advantage of the boost from Haste still lingering from the last fight.
Thieves might not have such great DPS as fighters, but it doesn't matter so much if it happens all at once.
I keep squeezing the party of the few resources it has left. It works well.
More squeezing.
Finally, I don't have any fights left that I can survive without more spells. So we rest. Even with lots of spells, Yoshimo leads the way.
The bookshelves make it easy for Yoshimo to hide.
The nice thing about backstabbing is that it lets you concentrate all the damage on a single problem target. Apply enough pressure, and they pop like a balloon.
I leave the Cambion alone--he's pretty tough and the loot isn't worth it--and sneak past the big group of Mephits in the Air Elemental Plane.
Funny thing is, as I realized midway through, you could just have Jaheira cast Protection from Fire on Minsc, send him out into either the Air Elemental Plane or the Mephit Portal room, and the Mephits won't be able to do much. His Berserk ability grants him immunity to both stun and unconsciousness, rendering the biggest threats a non-issue.
I summon a Nymph for one of the Duergar battles, but it doesn't get to do much--we overwhelm the Duergar with Haste. Jaheira killed the mage using wolf form for high APR, one Duergar got held, another was stunned by Chromatic Orb, and the others just crumpled to pure damage. So, we get ready to sneak past the Assassins, as Poppy has no Stoneskin to keep off backstabs.
My Nymph only has one spell left, so we waste it for kicks. Another lucky saving throw.
It was Miscast Magic, which I normally don't view as very useful. But it kind of is an instant kill for mages (that bypasses immunities) if the target fails its save.
Of course, a backstab works, too.
And a Fireball and Bounty Hunter trap clears up the rest.
We're out of the first dungeon and Poppy has almost already recovered her fighter levels. Yay.
I want a small party so Poppy gets access to Spell Turning soon. I might not use the scorcher loop much in this run, but I want to use it in a context that isn't just another test. I want to see it impact gameplay. So I ditch Jaheira, Minsc, and Yoshimo as soon as I sell off everything Poppy doesn't need.
We buy scrolls of Chill Touch, Ghoul Touch, and Agannazar's Scorcher from Galoomp, and a scroll of Minor Spell Turning from Jayes. By the time Poppy encounters the next fight, she's recovered her fighter levels and can try out her new spells. Turns out Chill Touch is pretty nice.
Unlike Shocking Grasp, Chill Touch doesn't go away after a single blow. Same goes for Ghoul Touch. Chill Touch's cold damage can be blocked by spell protections or MR, and Ghoul Touch's hold effect can be blocked by a save vs. death or MR, but both effects bypass PFMW, as both attacks are nonmagical.
With our newfound gold, we buy the Shield of Reflection +1. It'll help keep Poppy safe. I also would like to do a dart bounce off of an enemy cleric's Physical Mirror. That'll be cool.
We join Nalia rather than sending her to the De'Arnise Hold--I haven't done that in some time. Nalia is a big component of our future strategy, since I want a good mage and don't feel like bringing Edwin into a small group.
And unlike my previous runs, we're not dealing with the Copper Coronet yet. I'm tired of my routine, my formula. I wanna smash something big. And I want Arbane's Sword. Poppy's Fairy Dragon turns the whole party invisible and we do area transitions until we trigger the Suna Seni ambush. Huzzah for metagaming!
We arrive invisible, ambushed by an enemy that doesn't even know we're there.
I've already set up our spellbook to deal specifically with this fight. We run to the northwest and cast our buffs: Blur, Mirror Image, Fire Shield: Red for Nalia, Protection from Normal Missiles for Aerie, and Remove Fear. Aerie sets up some Skeletons, Nalia, still invisible, scouts on the enemy, and we blast them with damage spells.
Only Suna Seni survived. But not for long, with Chill Touch at hand.
That was too easy. Fireball doesn't get enough love.
To my surprise, we get ambushed directly after the Suna Seni ambush. This time it's the Renfeld fight, and we have no invisibility to prepare. We still have plenty of resources left: Slow, Chaos, and Summon Monster I.
Aerie paralyzes one of the enemies with Hold Person, Nalia stuns the mage with Chromatic Orb, and Poppy starts chopping up the only enemy that's not disabled.
See that little green orb? I was messing around with projectiles to test stuff out (a notable finding is that a lightning bolt won't bounce if you double its speed), and that's a duplicate of the Disintegrate sphere, which I tweaked to go 1/5 of its normal speed. The idea is to have an eerily slow-moving circle of death gradually advancing on its target. I changed Doom to have that projectile to see what it looked like, and forgot to turn it back to normal.
We turn in Renfeld to Rylock. I think the last dialogue option, 4, gives a little more XP and/or gold than the other options. Now we have to kill Prebek.
I buff in the Temple of Oghma and head over to Prebek's house. Poppy has a Sunfire spell thanks to some leftover gold at the Adventurer's Mart. Turns out Prebek comes pre-buffed with Protection from Fire.
Both Poppy and Nalia are disabled, but so is Prebek. Aerie pelts him with Acid Arrow, followed by Magic Missiles, until he dies. We're not in any danger: Sunfire took out the other enemies and Poppy's Shield of Reflection will block any arrows Nalia flings her way. Once Prebek is dead and our party has recovered, Nalia drinks a Potion of Master Thievery and unlocks every lock and disarms every trap in the Harper Hold, Mae'Var's guild hall, and also the entrance to Kangaxx's lair.
So what's next? I don't know. We should probably head over to the De'Arnise Hold before Nalia complains.
Bart could still hardly believe it himself, but he still hadn't died. Maybe it was time that folks started calling him Lucky rather than Dandy.
Mazzy saw her sister survive her hardships in Trademeet while Jan, Aerie and Bart dispatched a band of Fallen Paladins in Athkatla,
Mazzy later rejoined. Mook, a Shadow Thief the companions had been asked to protect, didn't survive a Vampire attack. Two Shadow Thieves that were about to sell out to the other guild were done in by Bart & Co, as was the rival guild contact.
Arledrian, another 'Shadow Thief' (in reality an Elven spy, but Bart kept his secret) was aided against a number of Vampires near what turned out to be their lair.
The Vampires were members of the rival guild, which pretty much consisted entirely of Vampires.
Aran Linvail asked the friends to deal with the bloodsuckers. This was no light task. Bart administered a number of nice backstabs, and an Aerial Servant dished out significant damage as well, but one of the Vampires (Gellal) wouldn't die.
Three times it was brought down to near death, at which point it would hide en fully heal until at one point it simply disappeared. (This worried me because as far as I knew, Gellal had to be staked, along with Durst and Lassal in order for Bodhi to appear.) The companions picked up a Mace of Disruption, and saw it upgraded by Cromwell, so that Mazzy would be more of a threat to the Vamps. When they returned at the Vampire den, they ran into a spellcasting variant, Tanova she called herself. This Tanova had powerful magics at her disposal: she summoned a Mordenkainen's Sword and gated in a Glabrezu, prompting the companions to retreat. But then the Glabrezu PW:Stunned Aerie.
(Not buffing was still RPing on my part. I knew Tanova was a spellcaster. Bart and companions didn't know spellcasting Vampires existed. However I must say I felt I had reached a point where I might have to compromise on the RPing so as to decrease the likelihood of a soon and sudden ending of the adventure.)
Thankfully, an emergency Otiluke's Resilient Sphere kept the Elf from harm.
Mazzy, brave as always engaged the female, and Bart hung around detecting illusions. Both wore Helms of Charm Protection. Aerie or Jan then Breached Tanova from a safe distance, causing the Vampire to shapeshift into a wolf. Mazzy meleed it, and Bart slew it with backstabs.
Other Vampires proved no threat to Mazzy with her upgraded MoD.
Bart staked two vampires in their coffins (Lassal and Durst). Much to his surprise and mine, since Gellal hadn't been killed/staked yet, Bodhi appeared in front of him.
Tired from battle and unprepared, he applied an oil of speed and retreated. Apparently Bodhi was in no mood to go look for him.
Bart & Co decided not to return to Aran Linvail yet, expecting that Bodhi might return at some point. They freed Haer'Dalis, an enslaved Tiefling Bard, from a wizard named Mekrath at Quayle and Aerie's behest. Not without difficulty btw. Three Yuan-Ti Mages was a lot to handle for the quartet. They managed to slay one with Aerie Breaching and Mazzy pelting acid arrows, but had to flee soon after. More Breaches and elemental missiles finished the remaining Yuan-Ti Mages; their warriors and a pack of Goblins were less of a threat.
Kitthix webbed Mekrath, allowing for an easy kill of the evil wizard and ending the enslavement of Haer'Dalis. In his search for a gemstone the Tiefling had been after, Bart overlooked a trap and nearly died because of it (1HP).
The companions helped Hare'Dalis and his troupe open an interplanar portal but stayed out of a fight the Bards got themselves in with a band of bounty hunters. They might have a look at the portal sometime later though.
They traveled to the Windspear Hills, initially to help one Lord Firkraag. But when it turned out that the latter had tricked them into killing innocent people, the companions worked against him. Bart delivered the acorns he had taken from Ilych in Irenicus' Dungeon to a Dryad. Aerie, Bart's sweetheart but otherwise a meek, reserved member of the party thus far, was gradually becoming a more confident, assertive woman, much to Bart's pleasure.
It was in the Windspear Hills that Bart accomplished his first 100+ backstab btw (his backstabs had not been very impressive until then in spiteof priestly buffs).
The companions' search for Firkraag led them to undead-infested ruins.
There the party overcame several dangerous foes including: - a Ruhk Transmuter (that injured Mazzy and killed an Aerial Servant with triggered Skull Traps, before he got webbed by Kitty), - Vampiric Mists (slain by Mazzy with the iMoD). - two lines of Orcs (soloed by Bart with the Reflection Shield and Holy Smites), - a Juggernaut and two Iron Golems (dispatched by an Aerial Servant), - a room full of Vampires, Mummies and Ghasts (taken care of by PfU Mazzy), - six guardian Genies (buffed with HP/DUHM/RM, Bart could insta-kill them with Staff of Striking backstabs) - a Director Beholder (Jan's and Bart's traps), and - a Guardian Fire Elemental (which injured itself by opening an acid blob trapped door before Mazzy and Bart dispatched it).
With all this hard work the companions had to rest a few times. One such time they decided to rest in a small room where they had found an enchanted blade and shield. However their rest was disturbed by Wraiths. They rested again, this time with Bart's and Jan's snares near them. When they got up they were accosted by an adventuring party that wanted to kill the friends for their possessions. The snares triggered and insta-killed a wizard. The other enemies fell to the snares' delayed poison damage.
(I definitely didn't expect this. First of the range of the traps was larger than I expected, and secondly, the ambushers seemed to all have turned hostile at pretty much the same time.)
Additional rests were required to kill three Greater Werewolves (and later two more) with traps. The party had no other means of dealing with those monsters. Aerial Servants dispatched two more Iron Golems, and Mazzy finished a bottlenecked Adamantite Golem with Tansheron's Bow. The Aerial Servants were also very effective against resurrected Tazok and some Orogs. The companions encountered Firkraag in his true, Dragon form, and negotiated with him the release of a hostage. They were told to secure the key from his lackey Conster, a wizard. Conster was not willing to hand over the key, so battle ensued. His buffs were too many for the companions to prevent him from casting dangerous spells such as Sphere of Chaos and ADHW, but good movement allowed them to mitigate most damage. (Jan got Confused for a moment, and both the Gnome and Aerie suffered limited damage from the ADHW.) As soon as he was Breached, Conster had no answer to Mazzy's and one Aerial Servant's attacks.
When they left the ruins, one of Jan's many cousins accosted the trickster, telling him of his lost live Lissa, who was staying at the Jansen's home with her diseased child. Although there was no hard evidence, the culprit seemed to have been Lissa's husband Vaelag, a cruel and abusive Gnome. The companions needed the help of a Mind Flayer, the Hidden, to get the child healed, and - as part of Jan's Extended Quest - resorted to tarnishing Vaelag's reputation (replacing a valuable telescope that Vaelag had stolen and promised to a buyer, with a mundane one) and setting him up against the Shadow Thieves he had been associated with, before they killed him. Vaelag was a wizard and he had two Guards and not one but two Assassins aiding him, as Bart learned in a most painful way. He had been tanking the Guards, with difficulty, in order to allow Mazzy to pelt Vaelag. One of the Assassins was already down, when shluck the other Assassin thrusted his blade deep into Bart's innards.
As with the trap in Mekrath's abode, Bart escaped with 1 HP. There was still one Guard though, and the Assassin. And Bart's aura was unclear from a Holy Smite. He was lucky neither of his attackers used ranged weapons. He limped away and managed to swig an invisibility potion, and witnessed how Aerie, Mazzy and Jan dealt with the remaining enemies.
A short time before Jan's affair Valygar Corthala, a mage hunter, had joined the party. He was to grant the companions access to the Planar Sphere in the Slums, to kill Valygar's evil forefather, Lavok.
You played with fire (or glue ) in Mekrath's house!
Yep. It's been narrow this time... (I just updated my report, which I posted before I was done with it. In the new parts you'll come across another narrow escape.)
All in all, this kind of warning probably helps the player. Good to focus on the game after such an event. Well, that's my feeling when I unexpectedly cheat death. As regards the second event, I think it was harder to forecast the enemy actions.
A few weeks ago, I started a new playthrough with a solo halfling fighter/thief and your posts are a great invitation to go back to this game. Unfortunately, all my free time this weekend was used to convert/fix The Ritual in the Tactics mod. However I had not enough time to test it! Perhaps tomorrow evening.
We bought a couple of scrolls of Minor Sequencer from the fence in the Bridge District, but scribed neither. I haven't decided who should get the scrolls, largely because I don't know if Edwin is going to be joining the party in the future. We also got Teleport Field and filled out some other important holes in our spellbooks, but we still don't have all the toys I want. Since I got tired of drinking Potions of Genius in my previous run, I've decided to turn down the difficulty when scribing scrolls (it's normally at Core).
With all the ingredients we need for the scorcher loop, we head to the De'Arnise Hold. I've been looking forward to this. I'm disappointed when I see the first group.
To my delight, some other Trolls charge in from the north. I try out the scorcher loop in a normal context for the first time.
It absolutely roasts them. One scorcher loop takes out all of the enemies, including the Spirit Troll next to Nalia that escapes most of the blast.
I'm so happy.
To reduce resting, we also pile on Fireballs, but we have to be mindful of our resistances. We only have the cleric version of Protection from Fire to protect Aerie and Poppy, which will only last us 11 rounds. Nalia's Fire Shield, at 12 rounds, isn't much better. When we run out of fire spells, Nalia uses Cloudkill instead.
Trolls can be slain by poison as well as acid or fire damage. Instant death effects, including the Death Spell, also work against them. But we're a ways away from level 12, so no instant death stuff for us.
The Yuan-ti Mage is a cinch. He pre-buffs with the absolute worst spell he could possibly use against this party.
It's the exact same spell we use to establish the scorcher loop. He's toast.
We grab a scroll of Minor Spell Turning and have Nalia scribe it. Now everybody has a copy. The MST seems a bit weak for an SCS mage, so I double-check and everything is installed correctly. I re-install SCS anyway to make sure.
The tight hallways prove an obstacle to the scorcher loop, but with a little micromanagement, we make sure the loop hits everything it has to.
I've realized that the best way to use the scorcher loop is not to have two mages position themselves and then hit each other with Agannazar's Scorcher. Instead, I have Aerie or Nalia hit Poppy with a scorcher, and once they begin casting, Poppy runs ahead and moves side to side to create a fan. This dramatically improves the range of the scorcher loop, and allows you to shape the spell.
The scorcher loop won't help us against the golems, unfortunately. But we can bring down the Stone and Flesh Golems with brute force, and Phantom Blade, obtained from the Harper Hold, is enough to whittle down the Iron Golem.
Our lesser elementals aren't much help. Aerie's Lesser Earth Elemental couldn't hit the golem (and was crushed in two hits), and Nalia's Lesser Air Elementals always stay neutral; they neither turn green nor turn red, rendering the spell utterly ineffectual.
Two Sunfire spells fail to kill the Clay Golem, but at least we have the War Hammer +1, +4 vs. Giantkin. Turns out Lesser Earth Elementals are even weaker than I thought.
Back to Troll hunting. We get ambushed in the hall again, and it takes some maneuvering to roast the Trolls.
The triangle is cute. Once we get high enough levels, we can spawn some clones and form a burning Star of David.
Glaicas gets badly hurt by the scorcher loop, but he has the sense to run away. We chase him down.
Cloudkill slays the Umber Hulks, and though Poppy gets confused in the process of luring a couple stragglers into the cloud, she has enough HP to tolerate the cloud.
By the time we reach TorGal, we have enough spell slots to use the scorcher loop two or three times without resting. TorGal is tough as nails, but 30% magic and fire resistance isn't enough to save him.
We accept the fighter stronghold for RP reasons. The mage stronghold is more useful, I think, but I can't tell Nalia we won't protect her keep.
@semiticgod, the mod is this one: http://akadis.baldursgateworld.fr/Jan/JansQuestEn.html It's the first time I've explored it, so I don't know what happens in/after ToB. At the end of the adventure Jan said that he would accompany Bart in his quest and then get together with Lissa again.
Btw I've run into a problem. Bart has currently a bit more than 3 million XP. He already picked his first HLA (UAI). However when I loaded the game, his XP was set at the SoA level cap of 2.95 million XP and would not increase when new XP was earned. I never opted for this. It's basically the same problem as someone metioned here: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27031.
Would you know a way to solve this? I've attached my Weidu-log.
I choose a simple target for our next quest. The Druid Grove awaits. We get surprised by a pair of Spirit Trolls, but they don't last long.
I always hated you guys. Your invisibility won't help you anymore.
The scorcher loop is not without its risks, however. If Protection from Fire is dispelled or runs out, you're looking at some catastrophic damage from your own spells.
Poppy as a fighter with high CON has a solid HP pool, but all the same, I'll want to get the mage version of Protection from Fire, which lasts 1 turn per level instead of 3 rounds +1 round per level.
Inside the Troll Mound, Aerie gets in the way of a Poppy-Nalia scorcher loop, before she used Protection from Fire on herself.
She's doomed, but it doesn't matter. We don't need the extra power to bring down the Trolls. If it burns, we can kill it.
Kyland Lind poses a potential threat. I don't know if he's immune to fire. I open with some disablers to make sure we make some progress early on.
Those wiffle balls are SI: Conjuration, to block Insect Plague. Not that I've seen that spell in a while. We've also got Protection from Lightning on Aerie and Poppy (no spell slots for Nalia) to block Call Lightning.
Turns out druids are flammable.
I try the same trick on the Spore Colonies, but pay too little attention to burning the Myconids at the front. We kill half of the colonies with one loop, but some survive, and the resulting Myconids confuse both Aerie and Nalia. Chaotic Commands, thankfully, is already on Poppy, who casts Teleport Field and then drinks a Potion of Invisibility to ensure that she can run away if her friends should die.
Aerie and Nalia recover, however, and blast away the Myconids and the Trolls that joined the fight.
We roast Dalok, nab Belm, get Cernd to slay Faldorn, CTRL-Y Faldorn to speed up the process, and return to Trademeet. We cast Protection from Petrification on every party member before taking on the genies. Khan Zahraa escapes us at Near Death, which worries me.
I go outside to kill Faafirah, who left the area in confusion shortly before, and return in the hopes that Khan Zahraa will reveal himself. He does. It wasn't a good idea.
I'm not sure what comes next. We have plenty of easy side quests available, but we can also handle some tougher stuff, too. Even vampires won't be able to stand up to the scorcher loop.
I also have ambitious plans for burning dragons to death with the scorcher loop--I might not even have to lower their MR. I can do it by level 14, and only Firkraag and Saladrex would be able to survive.
Comments
Would the charmed vamps have Heart of Fury bonuses?
Best,
A.
Btw. Good luck! Looks fun!
I considered Viconia, but I really wanted Keldorn in my party--partly for the romance I've just installed, and partly to take advantage of his HoF-boosted Dispel Magic spells--and he kills Viconia if they stay in the party too long together.
The charmed vampires would indeed have HoF bonuses. I'd just have to cast the custom spell right after they were conjured.
Speaking of which, Heart of Fury mode should make the bunny rabbits much stronger than they already are.
We needed to get back to the Promenade to gain access to Minor Spell Turning, which will let us bounce Aganazzar's Scorcher spells for crazy damage. There's an obscure merchant here that I only heard about online. He sells the scroll.
I do a test to make sure the fire loop triggers properly.
I forgot to activate the HoF spell, so this probably wouldn't have killed the soldier under normal circumstances.
After much thought, I decide not to take on the gang beneath the Temple District sewers. I can't see myself maneuvering quickly enough to catch the whole enemy party with the scorcher loop, and Gaius would survive anyway. Instead, I just grab Keldorn and move on.
Further testing with the scorcher loop reminded me that I need to be more careful with the aiming.
Also, those enemies didn't have HoF bonuses. I forgot to cast the spell again.
We get another nice dialogue. This is why I like Keldorn.
He's such a good spirit.
We try the scorcher loop once more, only to be reminded of yet another weakness of the trick.
After much thought, I decide to get Jan into the party instead of Nalia. I didn't want to use Jan, since I'd used him so much before, but I don't want to go to the De'Arnise Hold yet, and multi-classes are much stronger in HoF. On the way, we fight off some Beshabans. Farsight and Sanctuary guide our summons.
As per Keldorn's request, we visit his family. It doesn't go too well.
His wife has been cheating on him. The other man also has been acting as a father to Keldorn's children. We track down the culprit. He's some rich guy in funny pants.
We don't do anything to him--Keldorn finds it more important to make peace with his family, so he returns home.
We hunt for XP in his absence. The scorcher trick, despite its absurd power, cannot bring down the Crypt King. But it certainly does help.
We have to resort to summons to win the fight. Again. Aerie gets crushed when her Stoneskins run out and her aura isn't clear, but she doesn't get chunked.
We don't need the sword, but it's worth a bunch of money.
For Pai'Na, who has a LOT of extra-powerful spiders at her command, and Chain Lightning spells that could ruin us, we have to take special precautions. Everybody gets Protection from Lightning, for one. We enter under Invisibility 10' Radius. Once inside, Jan begins casting the spell again. Right before he finishes casting, the other party members begin their own spells. The party turns invisible the instant it breaks invisibility. All Pai'Na saw was a flash.
Pai'Na doesn't call her spider friends for feeding, since there's nothing for them to eat--our summons are all inedible--and so she gets broken down very easily.
Another Spell Immunity scroll falls into our hands. We also get Kitty!
After we finish Mae'Var's first task and meet Edwin, Keldorn returns to the party. Things haven't gone so well with the family.
It's a pretty grim start to the Keldorn romance.
I was just wondering how you intended to charm the vamps en masse with a good cleric.
They spawn in hostile. Typically an evil cleric's Turn Undead is used to gain control of them. I need a smiley for this...
Have fun!
Best,
A.
Heart of Fury mode really wrecks the game balance. If I was using IWD-style HoF mode, I could resort to disablers to harm the enemy, but IWD2-style HoF mode, the enemies get crazy save bonuses that render save or else spells nearly useless. The only thing left is summoning magic, and I don't want to rely on that. I could tweak the spell so it gives IWD-style bonuses, but it seems lame to lower the difficulty like that. Not after I've already decided to use the harder version.
For those who haven't seen my other thread about the scorcher loop:
You can make Aganazzar's Scorcher do more damage than any other spell if you bounce it between two casters with (Minor) Spell Turning. Putting the scorchers in a (Minor) Sequencer or Spell Trigger is especially effective, as it only counts as a single level 2 spell, and therefore bounces more times. Everything in between the two casters gets hit by many scorchers within a few seconds.
I was hoping to find a situation in which the scorcher loop would be effective and balanced, but I need to get to level 14 before it can be truly practical. A double Aganazzar's Scorcher Minor Sequencer with a Minor Spell Turning spell, cast between two mages, is devastating in normal mode, doing about 250 damage. But in Heart of Fury mode, I can't expect that to take down many strong enemies.
Things won't change until I get Edwin in the party and bump him up to level 14. Once we gain access to Spell Turning and Spell Sequencer, the scorcher loop will do a lot more damage (about 950 with Edwin at level 14, and 2,650 when our multi-class critters hit level 14), and we can stop relying so much on summons.
If I really want to mess things up later in the game, I could duplicate the Book of Daily spell via the simulacrum trick, then use Simulacrum clones to cast Aganazzar's Scorcher across two mages who are using the Wand of Lightning trick to chain-cast Spell Turning from the Book of Daily Spell. Testing found that whichever creature was between the two mages would get hit by the scorchers over 10,000 times (no, seriously) for over 10,000d6 damage.
But it makes a weird sound, so I don't think I'll bother with that. I just think it's cool that it's possible.
By the way... Insane difficulty appears to double damage after resistances have been calculated. I gave Keldorn 99% fire resistance for the tests mentioned above, but the scorchers did 2 damage per hit instead of 1.
Control Undead can charm undead critters, but not with their stupid HoF save bonuses. I guess the 9 WIS was a mistake.
Anyhoo. Enjoy your run!
Best,
A.
Bart accepted comely Aerie's company even after he learned she wasn't a Bard but a Cleric/Mage (decided to Keeper her back to her original class after I found Rogue Rebalancing Bard song was clearly not working).
The duo made a bit of progress yesterday/today, so here's an update. After some shopping (Vecna was immediately secured for Aerie), they decided to confront the slavers at Hendak's behest. They reached the slaver compound via the sewers, where Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Slimes and an Otyugh formed no obstacle for backstabbing Bart. The companions solved a riddle and saw themselves rewarded with Lilarcor, a chatty, unwieldy blade that would end up in the stock of one of the city's merchants.
At the compound Aerie remained invisible (her role for the time being was to intervene only when her help was needed), while Bart and Kitty, took care of several slavers (including a priest) and their captain.
Kitthix, who was still around, and an Aerial Servant that Bart had recently learn to summon were decisive in a confrontation with a second contingent of slavers, one that included two wizards and two Yuan-Ti.
The next day they got into a fight with a boorish Dwarf who was also staying at the inn with his adventurer friends. Normally Bart would have let the Dwarf's insults slip, but he found himself strangely riled up by the warrior's disrespect for Aerie. Had he begun to take a special liking to the Avariel? Anyway hostilities broke out. An opening Holy Smite by Bart blinded and injured several of the adventurers.
At the Council of Six Building, Bart paid a hefty sum of 10,000 GP in order for him to be allowed to use certain enchanted items (which was considered 'spell casting') and for Aerie to cast her arcane spells in the city. The trickster, not at all pleased with this deal decided to try and pick some pockets to lower the cost somewhat. This only made things worse, as Bylanna found him out:
Mishaps like this had happened before, with Imoen on the Sword Coast, and they might happen again. One hostile enforcer followed the two outside. A Fiend might be gated in at a later stage to deal with him, although I'd prefer a cleaner way of getting rid of the guard.
Near the Council of Six Building the duo met a boy named Delon, who begged them to visit his town Imnesvale in the Umar Hills, to investigate mysterious killings and disappearances. With their recent run-in with the law, Bart and Aerie eagerly offered the child their help. They reached the hills in good order and didn't take long in discovering that shadowy creatures were the cause of the Imnesvale's troubles. They successfully defended a local Cowled Wizard against an unruly Golem (thanks to two crits by Aerie!),
They met more Shadows, Wraiths and Shadow Wolves there and, more interestingly, Faldorn who claimed to have changed her ways and offered to join Bart and Aerie.
Importantly he found that a small corridor that led to a square with trapped letters, was empty,
Bart, infuriated and still PfUndead, avenged the sweet Elf, defeating two Liches and a number of Greater Mummies and Skeleton Warriors. All this took some time as Glabrezus and Dark Planetars had to be evaded and the Liches had two or three castings of Stoneskin each.
In his fury Bart forgot that deep in his Wolfskin Bag he had kept a Rod of Resurrection. He only resurrected Aerie after the business with the Liches, Mummies and Skeleton Warriors, meaning that Aerie was now lagging behind a bit in XP.
The two rested in a Shadow Dragon's lair, and left the place invisible. They were no longer PfUndead when ran into the Shade Lord, the architect of the evil that had befallen the Umar Hills. Out of sight of the monster (and other creatures) they each cast a Sol's Searing Orb. Against undead these orbs deal 12d6 (or 9d6 if save a vs spell is made) of fire damage, which is a good damage type against the non-resistant Shade Lord. But what is even more important is that the orbs also inevitably blind undead for 12 rounds or 6 rounds if a save vs spell is made.
First Aerie and then Bart launched their orbs at the Shade Lord, and indeed it got blinded.
The two rescued a captured Halfling named Mazzy, and decided to accept her into the party for the time being after her moving tale of her capture and the death of her friends, including her mate, at the hands of the Shade Lord and its cohorts.
I have to reload for some reason... I don't remember if the game crashed or what... and this time we fight them in the daytime. Skeletons keep the rangers busy so Keldorn has room to debuff them.
In my install, Inquisitors cast Dispel Magic at 1.5 times their level. They're still pretty amazing, though we won't be debuffing liches anytime soon.
We follow up with a scorcher loop.
I wish we had more mages in our group, and the party was a bit higher-level... we only get one shot per day at using the scorcher loop, unless we spend an extra two rounds buffing for both characters. One hideous blast per day, and then we're done.
Keldorn tries to pitch in, but Heart of Fury is no place for a melee tank.
Seconds later, Phen runs out of Stoneskin and gets half of her health taken out with one hit. She flees the area, only to find another enemy waiting for her.
Luckily, the cat was busy slaying woodland critters, which gave us enough time to finish off the rangers. We bring back Keldorn.
This guy comes back from the dead, and his first thoughts are of his family. Keldorn is intense.
We move on to the Temple Ruins. The battles with the local undead are awful boring.
In my install, +1 weapons get replaced with nonmagical "Fine" weapons, a bit like in vanilla IWD. This means Skeleton Warriors can't hurt Jaheira's Fire Elementals. Neither can the Shadows or Shadow Fiends or Shade Wolves: they've always attacked with nonmagical weapons.
Phen and Aerie turn undead while invisible to keep the enemies from attacking our visible party members nearby. That's about all the strategy we've got.
Later on, Jan tries to speed things up, casting Haste on our summons. I thought he'd be able to turn invisible before he could get hurt much, since he had Stoneskin up, but I was wrong.
Later still, he gets paralyzed.
He just can't win.
Keldorn gets mopey when we leave the dungeon early.
This is exactly why Alora should be in BG2.
I've noticed my posts are getting increasingly image-heavy, with little text. The battles just aren't that interesting, to be honest. So much of it is just Fire Elementals punching bad guys.
Notice our cunning strategy: summoning stuff while Jan turns us invisible. It's repetitive tasks like this that make the game... well... doable, with this install.
So, guess what tactic we used for Plath Rededge?
At least this one was mildly more complicated: we had to force the Fire Elementals to change target to prevent Plath Rededge from finishing a divination spell.
We head back to Athkatla, because rescuing Garren's child can wait a few more days. Or weeks. Keldorn finally tells me what happened with his wife: she left him five days after he finally got home.
This romance isn't very romantic so far. You can throw some seductive lines at him, but they seem so... over the top. You can hit on him, but it's so not subtle, and it seems so inappropriate given his grief. I was hoping to RP a Chaotic Good succubus gnome with heat vision for this run, but Keldorn is such a Debby Downer.
I learned about another way of doing Heart of Fury mode in BG2, and implemented it for convenience's sake.
There's a beta mod uploaded to a thread (https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/25777/heart-of-fury-mode-emulator-for-bgee-bg2ee-testers-needed/p2), which uses a different system. All enemies get:
Triple HP, +80 on top
-11 to AC
-10 to THAC0
-5 to all saves
Triple XP, +2000 on top
It works by patching almost all .cre files, so I don't have to cast my custom HoF spell anymore. With the new system in place, enemies no longer have huge stat bonuses, but their AC is a LOT better. I remove the double XP bonuses on our party via Shadowkeeper and increase the base XP to compensate.
Jan's quest triggers. Even Jan has a sob story. His love left him, too, for an abusive jerkface named Vaelag. So now we have to find the Hidden, whatever that is, and to do that, we need to pay a visit to the Sea's Bounty Tavern. This is also where we meet an old friend of Keldorn's as part of the romance plot thingy. We can kill two birds with one stone.
Unfortunately, Jaheira also has a quest in the Sea's Bounty.
So this surly slaver summons some sorcerers to curse Jaheira. Now we have another mess to take care of. But first, we should kill the Githyanki. I forget why we do this... it's just part of the Jan quest.
I break our pattern and attack the Githyanki while fully visible. Since our party stays out of reach, he focuses on our summons despite our lack of invisibility.
Keldorn is using Bolts of Lightning (no, not Lightning Bolts, you silly goose) to add a teensy bit of damage through Stoneskin. It takes a long time, but our Fire Elemental holds because... wait for it... even the Githyanki use nonmagical weapons.
The second Githyanki finally gets off his lazy ass and comes to help out. But by that time, any GOI effect he'd had has worn off. You know what this means?
Scorcher loop!
The Githyanki fall after a very long, drawn-out battle. Now we can get Jan back in the party. But for some reason, I go fight Baron Ployer and his cronies first.
It's just as well. Shortly after dispelling the enemy mages' defenses, a stray Lightning Bolt comes out way. It isn't pretty.
People really underestimate the power of Lightning Bolt. I'd have used it more often in this run, but I don't have many castings of Protection from Lightning, and it's not worth the risk of turning our elementals hostile.
While the enemy mages focus on our summons, we very gradually add up damage. For some reason--perhaps because of confusion effects, or maybe because of fear--our summons and most of the enemies leave the room, fighting outside. It's a good thing, too. We might not have survived the next hostile spell that was about to arrive.
Keldorn helps our summons finish off the mages with Bolts of Lightning.
Phen even manages to disable Baron Ployer.
And you know what? Even with 10 rounds of automatic hits, we still can't kill Baron Ployer. He recovers from Hold Person before he dies. That's just how much HP these guys have.
Baron Ployer hits Keldorn and the Firecam sword hits back. But since that backlash effect is tagged as a mage spell, the Cowled Wizards jump in.
I remove the problem with CTRL-Y. That sword really shouldn't trigger the Cowled Wizards, or else Keldorn would have been sent to jail numerous times over the course of his career.
Next up: the most boring quest I've ever seen in BG2.
I think you're taking the right course (i.e. completing manageable parts of quests and postponing the fireworks for later).
Btw image-heavy is fine. I always wonder after producing a wall of text, a specialty of mine, 'who on earth is going to read all that'?
This involves infiltrating some rich person's house. Some of the lies you can tell to justify your presence are pretty awesome.
It's like Planescape: Torment, but instead of learning about your past, you get to learn about wine.
There are like 12 pages of dialogue, and they're all about wine. Either the author is a major wine lover (I don't know the proper term... wino?) or they're poking fun at people who are.
We get some documents that expose shady dealings, but Keldorn says we can't get far with the little evidence we have right now. Powerful people would counter any accusations we made. A lot of thought has been put into this mod... my only complaint, actually, is the lengthy dialogue about wine.
Well, that and the lack of seduction. Phen and I are still firmly stuck in the friendzone. We'll have to wait for Keldorn to get through the grieving process before we make any progress on the romantic front.
How long does he have to grieve about losing his family, anyway? It's not like he ever saw them.
I am reminded of a line from the Simpsons: "I'm not the kinda dad who does stuff, or says stuff, or looks at you. But the love is there!"
To be fair, Keldorn is a paladin. The Most Noble Order of the Radiant Heart is a lot more important than his disloyal wife. And his daughters are probably jerks, too.
... So anyway, now we have to kill Rayic Gethras. Because Edwin has gobs of spell slots and access to Minor Spell Turning. Protection from Fire allows us to kill the Mephits on the first floor of Ray-Ray's house... but the first takes at least 30 rounds, just because the Mephits have so much HP, and regeneration as well. Oh, and guess how we fought the Stone Golems?
Relying on our summons takes forever. But the payoff is pretty sweet.
That's just silly.
I originally planned on fighting Ray-Ray only after I gained access to Pierce Magic, as I wanted to remove his GOI and hit him with the scorcher loop. But since multi-classes take ages to get high-level spells, I decide to fight him early.
We greet Ray-Ray with two Melf's Acid Arrow spells, a Fire Elemental, a Magic Missile, and a Dispel Magic from Keldorn. SI: Abjuration protects our mages from Dispel Magic, but Jaheira has to stay out of the way.
Ray-Ray is easily disrupted without his PFMW or Protection from Normal Missiles spells. The Acid Arrows help, too.
Then, amazingly, Jan stuns the guy with a flasher.
He fails two more saves later on. Ray-Ray goes down without a fight.
I check the files. Ray-Ray has a save vs. spell of -4. It's impossible for him to fail a save against a flasher, as flashers only have a -1 save penalty, and we inflicted no others. So, I reload, grab Ray-Ray with CTRL-Q, and check his saving throws.
Yup. Ray-Ray automatically fails all saves vs. spell. It turns out the HoF mod I downloaded has the same problem as I had seen with my spell: negative base saves on enemies tend to roll over and result in very high values, guaranteeing failed saves.
I tweak the .tp2 file so it doesn't grant any save bonuses. To compensate, I'll just play as though the save bonuses were there: I won't bother using many disablers, and focus on other things instead.
We fight Ray-Ray again, this time with his normal saving throws, and the battle is just as easy. Dispel Magic takes down his buffs, and then he's helpless to stop our attacks. No PFMW and no Stoneskin make a dead mage, even with four times as much HP as normal. I still can't believe PFMW is dispellable... I thought it was like spell protections, and wasn't affected by Dispel Magic.
Either way, now we get Edwin. A couple of Potions of Genius later, Edwin has both Minor Spell Turning and Aganazzar's Scorcher, plus the Stoneskin he doesn't come with. Unfortunately, like Jan, he has no Minor Sequencer, so his scorcher loops would be pathetic.
All that's left is to kill Mae'Var and clear out the guildhouse. Guess how we handle this battle?
Sigh. My game plan wasn't too great. Disablers are especially unreliable with the high saving throws the enemies in HoF mode are supposed to get, Keldorn is little more than a debuffer, and with Minor Sequencer and Minor Spell Turning so rare, and Spell Turning so far away, the fact is that Jaheira is just plain better than my other characters. Heart of Fury in general weakens fighters and damage spells, IWD2-style save bonuses weaken disablers, I'm trying to use few exploits besides the scorcher loop... all that's left are summons. And Fire Elementals beat everything at this point in the game.
Meh. It'll get more complex later. Mae'Var, at least, isn't as simple to fight. I attacked him without resting, and so our elementals were stuck on the above floor, leaving us without our best summons. But Dispel Magic and Breach were enough to take down Mae'Var's defenses.
The rest of the encounter mostly involved attacking with ranged weapons while our summons held the fort. We report back to Renal Bloodscalp, get 15,000 gold, and go to side with Bodhi.
Then I realize Keldorn doesn't like Bodhi, and leaves the party if you pick her. It's either her or him, and the power gamer in me has mixed feelings. Choosing Bodhi keeps a lot of vampires off our back, which is important since I don't feel like using Protection from Undead in this run (of all the times I started making restrictions on myself, it had to be the Heart of Fury run). Choosing Bodhi would also let us take Viconia into the group, and let us summon lots of our own vampires to turn against our enemies. Plus, Viconia will get big spells at later levels. But Keldorn is an excellent debuffer. He's a big part of our strategy, and the extra levels of Heart of Fury mode will make fighting high-level mages a lot easier.
The roleplayer in me makes the decision. I want Keldorn. We tell Bodhi we're not interested.
More generally, as long as people do not write three pages to describe candlekeep, that's ok.
Surprisingly enough, the whole party makes their saves. I think for a moment and decide to go ahead and take on the bandits. They're not too high-level, and we all have Stoneskin and are functional.
Things get complicated very quickly. Keldorn gets backstabbed in the middle of casting Dispel Magic on the enemy. The enemy mage casts Chaos, and the only two characters who make their saves are Aerie. As if that wasn't enough, Phen loses her invisibility to Invisibility Purge. She's on her way to the north end of the map, so hopefully she'll get in range of Jan's Invisibility 10' Radius spell, once it's cast.
This calls for drastic measures. There's no way Phen is going to survive if even an enemy targets her; her Stoneskin won't last with the enemy's 95% hit chance and the many rounds of confusion she has ahead of her.
I have Keldorn take a few steps away and cast Dispel Magic on the party. It's normally a bad idea for spellcaster-heavy parties, but Keldorn should be able to remove all spell effects from everybody, and our Stoneskins can be replaced the moment that Chaos is gone. From there, we can flee the area.
Dispel Magic goes bad.
Only Aerie loses her Stoneskin, which is nice. But Phen retains both her Stoneskin and her confusion, and TWO enemies have already targeted her.
Aerie is nearby, but she doesn't have an Invisibility spell, and her aura is not clear. Edwin has Invisibility, but he ran off to stay safe, and Teleport Field extended the distance. Our only hope is to bring Edwin over to cover her with Invisibility.
But I'm 95% positive Phen will die within the next 10 seconds.
To my surprise, Edwin gets a slight boost from Teleport Field on the way. He reaches Phen and begins casting Invisibility. This is our last chance.
The enemy mage finishes an Enchantment spell.
100% chance of death. I'm absolutely positive.
Yup.
I thought of this as a minimal reload run, but... meh. The run wasn't that much fun anyway, not when Fire Elementals ad Invisibility 10' Radius were superior to almost all other strategies. The Keldorn romance, and the hope of using the scorcher loop with a full Spell Turning+Minor Spell Turning+Spell Sequencer combination, was the only reason I actually bothered continuing the run. The rest of it was rather tedious. I'll probably call it quits.
I would recommend the Keldorn romance. I didn't get to see much of it--most of it was limited to Keldorn's grief and a simple side quest--but the romance itself is well thought out and well-written. It makes sense given Keldorn's background (there had to be some way of getting his wife out of the way) and the lines are strong and fit Keldorn's character. The writer, aside from an apparent affection for wine, put a lot of thought into making the mod seem authentic. Keldorn talks about duty and good and other paladin issues--it seems very real, very true to Keldorn. You're talking to an intelligent and thoughtful person about stuff that clearly matters to him. BG2 is known for its strong dialogue and vivid characters, and the Keldorn romance mod more than lives up to that very, very high standard. It is real.
I wouldn't recommend Heart of Fury mode for BG2 unless you're using very high-powered characters. A party of multi-class Fighter/Mages and sorcerers would be able to tolerate the automatic hits and monstrous damage, but most characters would end up very reliant on summons. If you don't give the enemy big save bonuses, disablers would be viable and add some variety to the gameplay.
IWD-style Heart of Fury mode is suitable for the BG2 system. It grants no save bonuses; it just makes the enemies hit harder and last longer. The battles would either come off as tediously long, or epically long. But IWD2-style Heart of Fury mode does not suit the BG2 engine, at least not for a no-reload game. Adding +5 or +10 to enemy saving throws effectively breaks the disablers that compose so much of standard BG2 gameplay. Unlike in IWD2, the save penalties on your spells don't increase with level, so your spells would only get steadily less powerful as time went on. AC has the same problem: unlike in IWD2, you can't get crazy low AC even if you use munchkin-like characters like the infamous Deep Gnome monk build. AC is helpful throughout BG1 and BG2, but with a +10 bonus to enemy THAC0, it's not going to help you much.
I only started this run to check out the Keldorn romance and find a balanced environment for the scorcher loop trick, a situation in which the scorcher loop would be useful but not game-breaking. But the scorcher loop is kind of hard to do--not because the process is complicated (it's not), but because the relevant scrolls are pretty rare. You get two scrolls of Minor Sequencer from the evening merchant of the western Bridge District, a single scroll of Minor Spell Turning from the merchant of the far west Promenade, another scroll from the De'Arnise Hold, and Edwin comes with the spell already in his spellbook. There are enough scrolls to do the trick, but they're much less common than I'd like.
Time for another run, I think. I'll probably structure the party so more people can use the scorcher loop, but I should make sure the party has other cool options, in case I find the scorcher loop to be too reductive for my tastes.
I think I'll design a new kit based on loops. That'll let me keep them balanced.
Bartholomew, 4th BG2 update
So Mazzy joined Bart and Aerie. This was a rather spontaneous decision, one which meant that Gaelan Bayle wasn't going to receive his 30,000 GP yet. Instead some shopping was done to give Mazzy some equipment befitting a proper knight. She got Balduran's Plate from Deidre, and her Sword of Arvoreen was upgraded by Cromwell (thanks to the Item Upgrade mod):
During a visit to the Copper Coronet the newly formed trio promised to help out a young noblewoman, Nalia d'Arnise, whose lands had been invaded by what turned out to be Trolls. The quest really allowed new recruit Mazzy to shine. With her mastery of short swords and her Sword of Arvoreen she was quite efficient in melee, especially when self-buffed, and with her grandmastery in short bows, she was a ranged powerhouse. She practically soloed the Arnise Keep's first two floors. Bartholomew limited himself to a supportive role with Holy Smites and backstabs; Aerie remained invisible as usual, ready to intervene in case of emergencies.
On the ground floor there were no incidents, but upstairs a Yuan-Ti Mage gave the companions a scare by rudely Dimension Dooring right into their faces instead of fighting two Mountain Bears with some of its Troll friends as it was supposed to.
A dominated Guard, Glaicus, was brought back to his senses by Aerie as with the Ring of Human Influence's Charm ability. He thanked her with a Flail part that Bart would forge with other parts into the Flail of Ages, a nice weapon for the Gnome who had recently become proficient in the use of Flails.
Bart destroyed Flesh, Stone and Clay Golems with sneak attacks, and Mazzy relied on Tansheron's Bow and boosted saves vs death (Cloak of Deflection, Ring of Protection) to finish off an Iron Golem.
The Umber Hulks and other powerful creatures resided in the cellars (dungeon). Bart led the Umber Hulks to their feeding place, and Mazzy surprised them and killed them off.
Back in Athkatla, the trio had a couple of run-ins with Vampires, as if to remind them that it might be a good idea to accept the help of Bart's Shadow Thief friends. They also tried to deceive a sculptor with a fake alloy of his favorite material, for the Temple of Helm, and for the Temple of Lathander they procured a ring that had been stolen by Talassans. Mazzy taught an oaf, Gorf the Squisher, not to mess with her. And Neb the child killer from Baldur's Gate finally paid for his evil deeds with his life. A Drow priestess was saved from the stake but her request to be accepted into the party was declined.
In the Sewers, on a mission for the Temple of Helm to investigate a Cult of the Unseeing Eye, Aerie and Bart buffed up Kitthix and witnessed the Spider web a Rakshasa and kill several Kobolds. The Rakshasa dropped a cloak that ended up covering Mazzy's back and shoulders. More fascinating was Kitty's duel with a Beholder. The Beholder banished the Spider from the prime material plane, but fell soon after to Kitty's poison. (Buffs used included: PfE, Death Ward, PfP, Chaotic Commands, Invisibility). An Aerial Servant finished two Gauths that had accompanied the Beholder.
Jan Jansen, Gnomish peddler cum inventor cum adventurer joined the party soon after. One invention may be of special interest to the reader:
Back in the Sewers, more hostilities awaited the party.
Bart, Mazzy, Jan, and Aerie had a rendezvous in the Graveyard District with Bodhi, the mistress of the guild that had been rivaling the Shadow Thieves. She offered the party a cheaper alternative to get to Imoen and Irenicus, but Mazzy and Aerie advised strongly against siding with the mistress. Bart heeded his friends' words and declined the offer. Before they left the graveyard, Bart dispatched a number of undead creatures in the lower tombs.
They met the Shadow Master Aran Linvail, received two nice trinkets (AoP for Bart, RoP +2 for Mazzy), and the news that all was not well. There were still a number of hurdles to be overcome, before the companions could actually leave for Imoen.
Apart from that, the friends had a number of commitments in Athkatla still. One of these commitments was to investigate a Cult of the Eyeless. On their way to the cult's abode, they were in for a nasty surprise when an Ooze Mephit knocked out several of the companions, including Bart, with toxic vapors. Fortunately three Hell Hounds that were attacking, proved vulnerable to the gas as well.
Down there, they faced a group of Yuan-Ti, including a Mage. Mazzy and Bart took care of them.
Two Gauths then went after the companions. Bart slew one of them with Holy Smites while it was focusing on two Mountain Bears, and Mazzy, buffed by Bart and Aerie, dealt with the other one
They descended down a long ladder, to the Beholder lair. On their way they came through an undead town. Mazzy (hasted, free actioned, and protected from fear) soloed its Mummies, Ghouls, and Ghasts. Interestingly there was no Lich, so Mazzy could pick up the Gauntlets of Dex without difficulty.
Bart finished a lone Gauth with sneak attacks (and repeated invisibility),
The companions then found an exit. Jan and Bart placed six traps near it. In a node Bart found the second part of the rift device, and without doing anything he witnessed how the two parts magically fused together.
The Unseeing Eye, probably aware of what had just happened, suddenly appeared in front of him.
Much to Bart's fright and frustrtation the device took a long time in activating as he tried to use it against the Beholder. Meanwhile the Unseeing Eye sent its first rays at Bart. He rushed toward his fellows, and was relieved when he heard Mazzy utter a triumphant shout behind him.
An unexpected encounter with another group of Yuan-Ti warriors plus mage (didn't know they respawned), saw the companions in dire straits when the mage cast True Sight right after they had gone invisible. The warriors were hasted and injured some of the companions who ended up entering and leaving the lower reaches a couple of times, until they shook off the Yuan-Ti Mage. The warriors were then confused by Jan (Chaos) and easily dispatched; the mage went down after Mazzy's ice arrow barrage.
The extra rest meant that summons were again available. After the Beholder Gaal and other remaining cultists were no problem to them.
Back on the surface, the party reported their success to te Temple of Helm, sold some loot, took care of guild business, had Cromwell forge the Ring of Regeneration +2 (Ring of Protection +2 combined with Ring of Regeneration) for Mazzy, and traveled to Trademeet to try and save teh Halfling's sister who according to a messanger had fallen ill after having drunk a 'love potion'.
So, I just started a normal run. Meet Poppy, again.
I'm just really fond of that portrait.
Poppy's lack of a kit makes her much more versatile, and I like having lots of options open. More importantly, Kensais and Berserkers seem too conventionally strong... it wouldn't feel right. Poppy specializes in short swords, two-weapon fighting style, and darts. No katanas or flails here.
Since we're playing with a full party and Heart of Fury mode is no longer installed, we have a hope of slaying Ilyich. But I want to drag all the benefit out of our only rest period that we can, so I run the party ragged, clearing out everything besides the library and using every tiny resource we have, including Charm Person or Mammal.
There's nothing quite like charming an enemy and then turning on it after forcing it to kill its friends.
After studying our options, I realize we're perfectly capable of handling the Mephit Portal room without resting. Imoen's Summon Monster I gives us a decoy for the Radiant Mephits' Color Spray attacks, and her Haste lets us make quick progress on the portals themselves.
Yoshimo is a dangerous backstabber. We take advantage of the boost from Haste still lingering from the last fight.
Thieves might not have such great DPS as fighters, but it doesn't matter so much if it happens all at once.
I keep squeezing the party of the few resources it has left. It works well.
More squeezing.
Finally, I don't have any fights left that I can survive without more spells. So we rest. Even with lots of spells, Yoshimo leads the way.
The bookshelves make it easy for Yoshimo to hide.
The nice thing about backstabbing is that it lets you concentrate all the damage on a single problem target. Apply enough pressure, and they pop like a balloon.
I leave the Cambion alone--he's pretty tough and the loot isn't worth it--and sneak past the big group of Mephits in the Air Elemental Plane.
Funny thing is, as I realized midway through, you could just have Jaheira cast Protection from Fire on Minsc, send him out into either the Air Elemental Plane or the Mephit Portal room, and the Mephits won't be able to do much. His Berserk ability grants him immunity to both stun and unconsciousness, rendering the biggest threats a non-issue.
I summon a Nymph for one of the Duergar battles, but it doesn't get to do much--we overwhelm the Duergar with Haste. Jaheira killed the mage using wolf form for high APR, one Duergar got held, another was stunned by Chromatic Orb, and the others just crumpled to pure damage. So, we get ready to sneak past the Assassins, as Poppy has no Stoneskin to keep off backstabs.
My Nymph only has one spell left, so we waste it for kicks. Another lucky saving throw.
It was Miscast Magic, which I normally don't view as very useful. But it kind of is an instant kill for mages (that bypasses immunities) if the target fails its save.
Of course, a backstab works, too.
And a Fireball and Bounty Hunter trap clears up the rest.
We're out of the first dungeon and Poppy has almost already recovered her fighter levels. Yay.
We buy scrolls of Chill Touch, Ghoul Touch, and Agannazar's Scorcher from Galoomp, and a scroll of Minor Spell Turning from Jayes. By the time Poppy encounters the next fight, she's recovered her fighter levels and can try out her new spells. Turns out Chill Touch is pretty nice.
Unlike Shocking Grasp, Chill Touch doesn't go away after a single blow. Same goes for Ghoul Touch. Chill Touch's cold damage can be blocked by spell protections or MR, and Ghoul Touch's hold effect can be blocked by a save vs. death or MR, but both effects bypass PFMW, as both attacks are nonmagical.
With our newfound gold, we buy the Shield of Reflection +1. It'll help keep Poppy safe. I also would like to do a dart bounce off of an enemy cleric's Physical Mirror. That'll be cool.
We join Nalia rather than sending her to the De'Arnise Hold--I haven't done that in some time. Nalia is a big component of our future strategy, since I want a good mage and don't feel like bringing Edwin into a small group.
And unlike my previous runs, we're not dealing with the Copper Coronet yet. I'm tired of my routine, my formula. I wanna smash something big. And I want Arbane's Sword. Poppy's Fairy Dragon turns the whole party invisible and we do area transitions until we trigger the Suna Seni ambush. Huzzah for metagaming!
We arrive invisible, ambushed by an enemy that doesn't even know we're there.
I've already set up our spellbook to deal specifically with this fight. We run to the northwest and cast our buffs: Blur, Mirror Image, Fire Shield: Red for Nalia, Protection from Normal Missiles for Aerie, and Remove Fear. Aerie sets up some Skeletons, Nalia, still invisible, scouts on the enemy, and we blast them with damage spells.
Only Suna Seni survived. But not for long, with Chill Touch at hand.
That was too easy. Fireball doesn't get enough love.
To my surprise, we get ambushed directly after the Suna Seni ambush. This time it's the Renfeld fight, and we have no invisibility to prepare. We still have plenty of resources left: Slow, Chaos, and Summon Monster I.
Aerie paralyzes one of the enemies with Hold Person, Nalia stuns the mage with Chromatic Orb, and Poppy starts chopping up the only enemy that's not disabled.
See that little green orb? I was messing around with projectiles to test stuff out (a notable finding is that a lightning bolt won't bounce if you double its speed), and that's a duplicate of the Disintegrate sphere, which I tweaked to go 1/5 of its normal speed. The idea is to have an eerily slow-moving circle of death gradually advancing on its target. I changed Doom to have that projectile to see what it looked like, and forgot to turn it back to normal.
We turn in Renfeld to Rylock. I think the last dialogue option, 4, gives a little more XP and/or gold than the other options. Now we have to kill Prebek.
I buff in the Temple of Oghma and head over to Prebek's house. Poppy has a Sunfire spell thanks to some leftover gold at the Adventurer's Mart. Turns out Prebek comes pre-buffed with Protection from Fire.
Both Poppy and Nalia are disabled, but so is Prebek. Aerie pelts him with Acid Arrow, followed by Magic Missiles, until he dies. We're not in any danger: Sunfire took out the other enemies and Poppy's Shield of Reflection will block any arrows Nalia flings her way. Once Prebek is dead and our party has recovered, Nalia drinks a Potion of Master Thievery and unlocks every lock and disarms every trap in the Harper Hold, Mae'Var's guild hall, and also the entrance to Kangaxx's lair.
So what's next? I don't know. We should probably head over to the De'Arnise Hold before Nalia complains.
Bart could still hardly believe it himself, but he still hadn't died. Maybe it was time that folks started calling him Lucky rather than Dandy.
Mazzy saw her sister survive her hardships in Trademeet while Jan, Aerie and Bart dispatched a band of Fallen Paladins in Athkatla,
Mook, a Shadow Thief the companions had been asked to protect, didn't survive a Vampire attack. Two Shadow Thieves that were about to sell out to the other guild were done in by Bart & Co, as was the rival guild contact.
Aran Linvail asked the friends to deal with the bloodsuckers. This was no light task. Bart administered a number of nice backstabs, and an Aerial Servant dished out significant damage as well, but one of the Vampires (Gellal) wouldn't die.
The companions picked up a Mace of Disruption, and saw it upgraded by Cromwell, so that Mazzy would be more of a threat to the Vamps. When they returned at the Vampire den, they ran into a spellcasting variant, Tanova she called herself. This Tanova had powerful magics at her disposal: she summoned a Mordenkainen's Sword and gated in a Glabrezu, prompting the companions to retreat. But then the Glabrezu PW:Stunned Aerie.
Thankfully, an emergency Otiluke's Resilient Sphere kept the Elf from harm.
Bart & Co decided not to return to Aran Linvail yet, expecting that Bodhi might return at some point. They freed Haer'Dalis, an enslaved Tiefling Bard, from a wizard named Mekrath at Quayle and Aerie's behest.
Not without difficulty btw. Three Yuan-Ti Mages was a lot to handle for the quartet. They managed to slay one with Aerie Breaching and Mazzy pelting acid arrows, but had to flee soon after. More Breaches and elemental missiles finished the remaining Yuan-Ti Mages; their warriors and a pack of Goblins were less of a threat.
They traveled to the Windspear Hills, initially to help one Lord Firkraag. But when it turned out that the latter had tricked them into killing innocent people, the companions worked against him. Bart delivered the acorns he had taken from Ilych in Irenicus' Dungeon to a Dryad.
Aerie, Bart's sweetheart but otherwise a meek, reserved member of the party thus far, was gradually becoming a more confident, assertive woman, much to Bart's pleasure.
There the party overcame several dangerous foes including:
- a Ruhk Transmuter (that injured Mazzy and killed an Aerial Servant with triggered Skull Traps, before he got webbed by Kitty),
- Vampiric Mists (slain by Mazzy with the iMoD).
- two lines of Orcs (soloed by Bart with the Reflection Shield and Holy Smites),
- a Juggernaut and two Iron Golems (dispatched by an Aerial Servant),
- a room full of Vampires, Mummies and Ghasts (taken care of by PfU Mazzy),
- six guardian Genies (buffed with HP/DUHM/RM, Bart could insta-kill them with Staff of Striking backstabs)
- a Director Beholder (Jan's and Bart's traps), and
- a Guardian Fire Elemental (which injured itself by opening an acid blob trapped door before Mazzy and Bart dispatched it).
With all this hard work the companions had to rest a few times. One such time they decided to rest in a small room where they had found an enchanted blade and shield. However their rest was disturbed by Wraiths. They rested again, this time with Bart's and Jan's snares near them. When they got up they were accosted by an adventuring party that wanted to kill the friends for their possessions. The snares triggered and insta-killed a wizard. The other enemies fell to the snares' delayed poison damage.
Additional rests were required to kill three Greater Werewolves (and later two more) with traps. The party had no other means of dealing with those monsters. Aerial Servants dispatched two more Iron Golems, and Mazzy finished a bottlenecked Adamantite Golem with Tansheron's Bow. The Aerial Servants were also very effective against resurrected Tazok and some Orogs.
The companions encountered Firkraag in his true, Dragon form, and negotiated with him the release of a hostage. They were told to secure the key from his lackey Conster, a wizard. Conster was not willing to hand over the key, so battle ensued. His buffs were too many for the companions to prevent him from casting dangerous spells such as Sphere of Chaos and ADHW, but good movement allowed them to mitigate most damage. (Jan got Confused for a moment, and both the Gnome and Aerie suffered limited damage from the ADHW.) As soon as he was Breached, Conster had no answer to Mazzy's and one Aerial Servant's attacks.
When they left the ruins, one of Jan's many cousins accosted the trickster, telling him of his lost live Lissa, who was staying at the Jansen's home with her diseased child. Although there was no hard evidence, the culprit seemed to have been Lissa's husband Vaelag, a cruel and abusive Gnome.
The companions needed the help of a Mind Flayer, the Hidden, to get the child healed, and - as part of Jan's Extended Quest - resorted to tarnishing Vaelag's reputation (replacing a valuable telescope that Vaelag had stolen and promised to a buyer, with a mundane one) and setting him up against the Shadow Thieves he had been associated with, before they killed him.
Vaelag was a wizard and he had two Guards and not one but two Assassins aiding him, as Bart learned in a most painful way. He had been tanking the Guards, with difficulty, in order to allow Mazzy to pelt Vaelag. One of the Assassins was already down, when shluck the other Assassin thrusted his blade deep into Bart's innards.
A short time before Jan's affair Valygar Corthala, a mage hunter, had joined the party. He was to grant the companions access to the Planar Sphere in the Slums, to kill Valygar's evil forefather, Lavok.
Well, that's my feeling when I unexpectedly cheat death.
As regards the second event, I think it was harder to forecast the enemy actions.
A few weeks ago, I started a new playthrough with a solo halfling fighter/thief and your posts are a great invitation to go back to this game.
Unfortunately, all my free time this weekend was used to convert/fix The Ritual in the Tactics mod. However I had not enough time to test it!
Perhaps tomorrow evening.
With all the ingredients we need for the scorcher loop, we head to the De'Arnise Hold. I've been looking forward to this. I'm disappointed when I see the first group.
To my delight, some other Trolls charge in from the north. I try out the scorcher loop in a normal context for the first time.
It absolutely roasts them. One scorcher loop takes out all of the enemies, including the Spirit Troll next to Nalia that escapes most of the blast.
I'm so happy.
To reduce resting, we also pile on Fireballs, but we have to be mindful of our resistances. We only have the cleric version of Protection from Fire to protect Aerie and Poppy, which will only last us 11 rounds. Nalia's Fire Shield, at 12 rounds, isn't much better. When we run out of fire spells, Nalia uses Cloudkill instead.
Trolls can be slain by poison as well as acid or fire damage. Instant death effects, including the Death Spell, also work against them. But we're a ways away from level 12, so no instant death stuff for us.
The Yuan-ti Mage is a cinch. He pre-buffs with the absolute worst spell he could possibly use against this party.
It's the exact same spell we use to establish the scorcher loop. He's toast.
We grab a scroll of Minor Spell Turning and have Nalia scribe it. Now everybody has a copy. The MST seems a bit weak for an SCS mage, so I double-check and everything is installed correctly. I re-install SCS anyway to make sure.
The tight hallways prove an obstacle to the scorcher loop, but with a little micromanagement, we make sure the loop hits everything it has to.
I've realized that the best way to use the scorcher loop is not to have two mages position themselves and then hit each other with Agannazar's Scorcher. Instead, I have Aerie or Nalia hit Poppy with a scorcher, and once they begin casting, Poppy runs ahead and moves side to side to create a fan. This dramatically improves the range of the scorcher loop, and allows you to shape the spell.
The scorcher loop won't help us against the golems, unfortunately. But we can bring down the Stone and Flesh Golems with brute force, and Phantom Blade, obtained from the Harper Hold, is enough to whittle down the Iron Golem.
Our lesser elementals aren't much help. Aerie's Lesser Earth Elemental couldn't hit the golem (and was crushed in two hits), and Nalia's Lesser Air Elementals always stay neutral; they neither turn green nor turn red, rendering the spell utterly ineffectual.
Two Sunfire spells fail to kill the Clay Golem, but at least we have the War Hammer +1, +4 vs. Giantkin. Turns out Lesser Earth Elementals are even weaker than I thought.
Back to Troll hunting. We get ambushed in the hall again, and it takes some maneuvering to roast the Trolls.
The triangle is cute. Once we get high enough levels, we can spawn some clones and form a burning Star of David.
Glaicas gets badly hurt by the scorcher loop, but he has the sense to run away. We chase him down.
Cloudkill slays the Umber Hulks, and though Poppy gets confused in the process of luring a couple stragglers into the cloud, she has enough HP to tolerate the cloud.
By the time we reach TorGal, we have enough spell slots to use the scorcher loop two or three times without resting. TorGal is tough as nails, but 30% magic and fire resistance isn't enough to save him.
We accept the fighter stronghold for RP reasons. The mage stronghold is more useful, I think, but I can't tell Nalia we won't protect her keep.
It's the first time I've explored it, so I don't know what happens in/after ToB. At the end of the adventure Jan said that he would accompany Bart in his quest and then get together with Lissa again.
Btw I've run into a problem. Bart has currently a bit more than 3 million XP. He already picked his first HLA (UAI). However when I loaded the game, his XP was set at the SoA level cap of 2.95 million XP and would not increase when new XP was earned. I never opted for this.
It's basically the same problem as someone metioned here: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27031.
Would you know a way to solve this? I've attached my Weidu-log.
I always hated you guys. Your invisibility won't help you anymore.
The scorcher loop is not without its risks, however. If Protection from Fire is dispelled or runs out, you're looking at some catastrophic damage from your own spells.
Poppy as a fighter with high CON has a solid HP pool, but all the same, I'll want to get the mage version of Protection from Fire, which lasts 1 turn per level instead of 3 rounds +1 round per level.
Inside the Troll Mound, Aerie gets in the way of a Poppy-Nalia scorcher loop, before she used Protection from Fire on herself.
She's doomed, but it doesn't matter. We don't need the extra power to bring down the Trolls. If it burns, we can kill it.
Kyland Lind poses a potential threat. I don't know if he's immune to fire. I open with some disablers to make sure we make some progress early on.
Those wiffle balls are SI: Conjuration, to block Insect Plague. Not that I've seen that spell in a while. We've also got Protection from Lightning on Aerie and Poppy (no spell slots for Nalia) to block Call Lightning.
Turns out druids are flammable.
I try the same trick on the Spore Colonies, but pay too little attention to burning the Myconids at the front. We kill half of the colonies with one loop, but some survive, and the resulting Myconids confuse both Aerie and Nalia. Chaotic Commands, thankfully, is already on Poppy, who casts Teleport Field and then drinks a Potion of Invisibility to ensure that she can run away if her friends should die.
Aerie and Nalia recover, however, and blast away the Myconids and the Trolls that joined the fight.
We roast Dalok, nab Belm, get Cernd to slay Faldorn, CTRL-Y Faldorn to speed up the process, and return to Trademeet. We cast Protection from Petrification on every party member before taking on the genies. Khan Zahraa escapes us at Near Death, which worries me.
I go outside to kill Faafirah, who left the area in confusion shortly before, and return in the hopes that Khan Zahraa will reveal himself. He does. It wasn't a good idea.
I'm not sure what comes next. We have plenty of easy side quests available, but we can also handle some tougher stuff, too. Even vampires won't be able to stand up to the scorcher loop.
I also have ambitious plans for burning dragons to death with the scorcher loop--I might not even have to lower their MR. I can do it by level 14, and only Firkraag and Saladrex would be able to survive.