@semiticgod The best I can hope for against mages is to get damaged once or twice, then follow up with a critical from the Dragon Blade +3 and hope they don't survive a save vs. death at -4 and another at -6. Its mostly up to luck and weathering their magical storm, which is definitely not the best way to survive. As long as I can keep my save vs. spell at -2 or better and retreat if it goes too high, I should be okay.
If I could suggest a feature for the War Hulk, adding a Cleave or Great Cleave ability would be great. Like, anytime the War Hulk kills an enemy, their attacks/round are set back to normal instead of 0. Or a way to deal damage to groups in one hit based on its Great/Mighty/Massive Swing abilities from its source handbook.
Now in Athkatla, I loot the ruins of the intro dungeon thanks to Skip Chateau Irenicus and make a tidy profit doing so since a lot of it is mage-oriented stuff that I can't use. I deal with the circus and Aerie seems to prefer ogre form. I level up and get my first HLA, which will help massively in keeping me alive.
I free Hendak and the slaves and free Lilarcor. Doing the early part of Maevar's questline gives another level. Anything that survives a critical from me will have to not only save vs. death at -3 to avoid being stunned and KO'd for a round, now they have to save vs. death at -4 or die instantly. Deathblow doesn't work on anything that's immune to critical hits.
After Maevar's questline is completed, I kill a vampire harassing some shadow thieves and level up from it. Now survivors of my criticals will have to save vs. death at -3, -4, and then again at -6 to avoid instant death. Only things that are immune to criticals will be able to survive!
I do a few more sidequests and decide I want my Dragon Blade back. So I make for the Windspear Hills and give the acorns back to the dryads, earning a level.
Upon entering the cave to Firkraag's dungeon, I have to contend with the Ruhk Transmuter who is a fighter/mage and has excellent THAC0. I don't have too much trouble surviving against him until a vampiric wraith touches me and level drains me! Having lost my previous run to level drain, I NOPE the hell out of there and go back to a temple to get it healed, then buy restoration scrolls too.
Upon my return, I duel the Ruhk Transmuter again. It's a long and tedious process wearing down his 3 castings of Stoneskin, but I finally break through the last one and kill him.
Inside the dungeon, I agree to help Samia but then kill her. Once I discover the treasure, her friends arrive, which I completely forgot about because I usually just take the dialogue options to get everyone to spawn in at once (usually upon a bunch of pre-laid traps). I cheese them by plugging the doorway with the fighters, then use poisoned throwing daggers to kill Kaol.
Killing the wolfwere pack after that earns me another level.
Killing the Adamantium Golem behind the hidden wall was easier than I thought. It takes many hits to kill it, but we can only hit each other once per round, so I regenerate most of the damage it does to me. Further inside, I kill Tazok who was too scared to fight me the first time with Sarevok and get my critical sword back. This baby is going to carry me far.
I free Garren's child, but decide to save Firkraag for later. There's no way I can kill him right now.
With my sword back, it gets a workout on some victims in the sewers of the temple district. The Rakshasa fails its save against Deathblow.
I level up again from killing Mekrath.
The Yuan-ti are a big problem. They've got 2 castings of Stoneskin and just generally irritating. Fighting both of them with guerilla tactics and line-of-sight cheesing takes about 7 minutes until I get lucky and roll 2 successful Deathblows against them. The third one still inside Mekrath's lair also dies to one.
Further yet, I take on the Shade Lich with a Protection from Undead scroll. The first hit reduces it to 25% health, whereupon it buffs itself to hell and summons a Fallen Planetar. I book it outside and close the door on it like I did in Brunash's playthrough and wait until it gets unsummoned. I absolutely could take on a planetar in a straight-up melee fight and win, but it still has a formidable spell selection.
I have to be careful not to stay too close to the lich for too long lest it cast Remove Magic on itself and hit me with it. It summons 2 Mordy Swords, but I destroy them with Deathblow. Slowly, I carve my way through its Stoneskins and kill it.
In the Undead Burg, I spot a lich inside the mayor's home. It fires up the usual buffs and its undead allies chase me out. The lich doesn't follow but its buddies do. The Greater Mummies summon a bunch of skellies to deal with me, but I just cleave my way through them one at a time until I kill their masters and level up.
The Unseeing Eye is then put down and I level again. No point in displaying the HLAs anymore because I have one of everything now.
While resting, I realised that I had a use for the belt that I had found on the ogre. Upon donning it, I discovered that Branwen began to show an interest romantically, and that Safana was now willing to join my party. I dropped Jaheira off in Beregost after which I recruited Xzar and Montaron. His attribute points were all put in pick-pocketting. He acquired Algernon's Cloak after which he acquired quite a lot of loot at Ulgoth's Beard. We left him there and returned to Beregost to pick up Jaheira. We now need to pick up some potions and then we can perhaps hunt some basilisks.
After killing the Cult of the Eyeless, I head back into the Graveyard area to clear out Pai'nai and her spiders with a potion of explosions and take Kitthix with me. With the scroll of Spider Spawn, 5 of my poisoned throwing daggers, and a scroll of web, I make Improved Kitthix. His first task is to help me kill the Pebblecrusher Party, starting with Amon.
I do some quests in the Bridge District and upon my return a second time, I kill Lanneth with poisoned throwing daggers just outside of the cutscene trigger's boundary, causing her goons and Mereth to stay where they are. After killing Lanneth's goons too, I talk to Mereth and get her hairband from the crates she's standing next to for the Wooden Horse Necklace (read: Amulet of Protection +2).
Neb is up next on the chopping block and the Silver Pantaloons are procured.
From the pearls I got from Neb's captive child spirits, I decide to take on the Guarded Compound to forge the Citadel Helmet. Incidentally, I forgot to set Fiendish Ethereal Plane Shifting off, but it didn't matter because the Glabrezu guardian in question got gibbed by Deathblow through its Mirror Images.
Anyway, I went upstairs while invisible and waited for Sion's buffs to wear off before attacking him once and following up with a Firebreath potion. I retreat and fight Koshi, who gets one-shotted, and when Sion returns, he gets another Firebreath potion.
At this point I summon Improved Kitty to deal with Stallman and Ketta. He's a good spider, yes he is!
Next I try something I haven't done before: using a Protection from Undead scroll on a lich. It couldn't really be that easy, could it?
It is, in fact. Doing that turns off the lich's spellcasting and it just decides to melee you instead.
Onto the Planar Prison. This one's a doozy; I thought for sure I was going to die here. First I chunk the gnome thief for his Boots of Speed. My double-strength Haste kiting powers return! And then, its the fricken Yuan-ti mage platoon. I had enough of them the first time in the temple's sewers.
They basically throw every single spell they have memorized at me, yet I continue to stand. I have to gulp a Potion of Invulnerability to keep my save vs. spell at an acceptable threshold. They finally exhaust their spells and I slowly make progress in chopping through their stoneskins.
I regenerate all of my health via an Oil of Speed while whittling the lizard mages down. The Master of Thralls is killed in one hit; no exploding ghast death for me.
I expect the Warden to be a tough fight like always, but he's got PfMW up, which means I'm free to hack away at him with my normal number of attacks per round, giving me a better chance to break right through it like this:
Afterward, I forge the Stormlord's Heels and use another Protection from Undead scroll on the City Gates lich.
Onto the De'Arnise Keep. When I got there, I realized I didn't have a way to finish off trolls, so I had to sneak upstairs and kill Glaicus for the acid flail head. I return downstairs and kill the trolls I left behind and continue back upstairs. I put all the flail heads together and summon Improved Kitty for help against Tor'Gal.
I'll never get tired of breaking right through PfMW for an instant kill. Patch 2.5 can wait forever.
The Golem Construction mod gives the golems guarding the statues a chance to stay if you didn't destroy them and if you inherit the Keep. A Flesh and Clay golem have stayed for me! They unfortunately meet their end in the next questline I do.
The druids guarding the entrance to the grove's cave give me some trouble as they summon a bunch of Fire Elementals and cast a couple Insect Plagues. Insect Plague is my one weakness, so cheese the swarm by ducking into Adratha's cottage. They're all soon killed, however.
I let Cernd join up with me temporarily because I know that Faldorn will crush him if I let him go by himself. I transform him into a Greater Werewolf, but Faldorn summons Greater Bearweres. If I had him attack even a second later, Cernd would most assuredly be dead.
With Trademeet freed, I buy Blackblood +3, the Dwarven Thrower, and Ras +2, then forge Pitchwife +5.
Now that I have a weapon that strikes as at least +4, there's a certain demilich that needs slaying. I use another Scroll of Cheese except on myself this time. Kangaxx summons a Fallen Planetar, who I would've tried to defeat, but didn't want my scroll getting dispelled. I ran back upstairs until the planetar was unsummoned, then went back downstairs. A few whacks with Pitchwife later:
Kangaxx transforms but he's Improved Invisible. Instead of waiting out its duration I summon Ras the Dancing Sword to bait him into attacking. It works.
Ras does a good job at tanking Demigaxx until its hit with a Death Spell. With Demigaxx now visible, all I have to do is hit him then back off before a Remove Magic is cast on himself. Once his PfMW wears off:
I was absolutely stupid. Fighting the vampyrric wolves on the way to fight the basilisks I forgot to put on the ring of freedom of action. By the time that I realised, it was too late. Almost beat them anyway, but almost isn't good enough in "No Reloads."
Still protected from undead after fighting Kangaxx, I decide now is a good time to take on the illithid hideout beneath the temple sewers. Its nothing remarkable considering I kill the illithids in one hit before they can touch me. My scroll runs out before I get to the Alhoon, but I'm confident I can still survive. I take out its minions until it has to fight me personally. It summons a couple of Mordy Swords which I critically kill.
Soon it activates its super mode (PfMW + Tenser's + Improved Haste trigger) but fighting it in this doorway causes it to stop attacking for some reason.
With the Wand of Wonder obtained, I go back to the Windspear Hills to tie up a certain big red loose end.
I use the spare Stone to Flesh scroll I found in his dungeon and he's not happy when he wakes up. I smack him with Pitchwife to get him to shut up. Oh Basilisk Loop, you have taught me well.
With this new strategy in mind, I buy some Stone to Flesh scrolls and make a few copies of the Wand of Wonder with the item dupe glitch. I head for the Umar Hills and its temple ruins. Its business as usual.
I take care of the Shade Lord first in case the Wand of Wonder strategy causes Thaxll to recognize me as hostile despite holding the shadow wardstone. But he goes down as easily as Firkraag.
Onto the planar sphere. Again, the name of the game is killing things in one hit and breaking through Stoneskin and PfMW.
Lavok is up next. I can't kill him instantly with Greater Deathblow like other things, so I basically have to tank his entire spell arsenal including 4 or 5 Horrid Wiltings and 3 Stoneskins. I'm not actually too afraid of mages anymore.
Tolgerias and his pet mage are dealt with.
And the rest of the quest is completed without trouble. Even the Marilith proved to be no match, though it didn't cast PfMW like the ones at the Throne.
Killing an Adamantium Golem in one hit from full health, aw yeah
Bodhi's hideout is then cleared, relying on Pitchwife's fast speed factor to get in and get out of vampires' range instead of using a Scroll of Cheese.
With all other sidequests in Athkatla and the surrounding lands completed, I decide to go into Watcher's Keep. The first floor was a bit underwhelming as I expected a mage and druid statue to attack once I performed the ritual, but they weren't there.
The second floor is more challenging but still no match for Krieg. I wondered how I was going to beat the Chromatic Demon with its massive damage resistance without it making me fly into a berserk death-spiral. Turns out its not as much of a badass as I thought. Improved Kitty helped a little bit but not too much.
Level 3 awaits. I'm not going to fight Tahazzar if I can help it because a 15% chance of a vorpal hit with no save sounds pretty deadly.
Mirlen, a Beastmaster in a Horrifically Modded Baldur's Gate: Part 3
Onto the Gnoll Stronghold!
Minsc and Jaheira both cast Entangle on Gnarl and Hairtooth. Both of them stopped and went nowhere while Mirlen and Khalid started firing arrows at them. They managed to kill Hairtooth, but Gnarl broke free of the vines and zipped over with ogrillion speed. He then used Greater Whirlwind Attack and punched several party members across the bridge. After some more brawling, the party slew Gnarl. Gnarl dropped Gauntlets of Crushing and a Big-Fisted Belt. Hairtooth dropped Gauntlets of Dexterity, which set Dexterity to 21. Minsc put it on.
The basic thing you need to know about gnolls in this mod is that they are powerful melee fighters (even basic gnolls have a lot of HP, very low THAC0 and high Strength) but they have 20 in all saving throws. Even the most powerful gnolls have terrible saving throws. Some gnolls also have spells.
After resting, the party fought through the Gnoll Stronghold with Entangle, Color Spray, and of course, bears.
The hardest fight was with the chieftain of the gnolls. The party sent the bear ahead to take the first hits. Several gnoll veterans cast Power Word, Stun on the bear. Minsc cast Earthquake on the gnolls, knocking them all down. Once the earthquake subsided, the party rushed in for the kill while the gnolls were still down.
The party rescued Dynaheir, who joined the party. Dynaheir has 99% fire resistance and gets +10 to hit and damage with her fists. More notably, she is considered to be 6 levels higher for purposes of determining the power of her mage spells. She can memorize Delayed Blast Fireball as a level 5 spell. She can cast Protection from Magical Energy once per day and Spellstrike three times per day. In this mod, Spellstrike temporarily gives 100% vulnerability to fire, cold, acid, electricity and magic damage. Out of all the modified NPCs in this mod, I think Dynaheir is my favorite.
On the way back to Nashkel, the party stopped at another Cloudpeaks area. There, they found Albert, the child who was looking for his dog. Mirlen agreed to help find the dog and received the dog's chew toy, only to discover that it weighed 400 lbs. She gave the thing to Jaheira to carry.
Eventually, the party found the dog, which was a monstrous beast with an aura of fire. Jaheira drank a potion of fire resistance walked back towards Albert while the dog followed her.
"Time to go home, Rufie. You'll like the Bleak Eternity much better than these cold climes."
In exchange for Rufie, Albert gave the party another one of the dog's chew toys.
Soon after, the party encountered Vax and Zal. In this mod, Zal has 10 attacks per round (now he really is the fastest dart thrower). Dynaheir hit them with two fireball spells from outside of their vision range, then they started attacking. Zal almost killed Dynaheir, but she ran away and the rest of the party finished the two of them off. Vax dropped Boots of Speed and a nice battleaxe. Zal dropped the Crimson Dart +1.
Once the party was back at Nashkel, they stopped at the carnival for the first time. There they sold a lot of junk and bought several scrolls of protection, a Necklace of Missiles, an Amulet of Shapeshifter Detection (which could come in handy), and the Ossifier +15. This cursed +15 quarterstaff casts Stoneskin (1 skin) on the target with each hit (it happens after the staff deals damage).
The party then went to the mines. There, they agreed to defend Prism from Greywolf. In this mod, Greywolf is very dangerous: he deals a lot of damage per hit, and he automatically gains Improved Haste for 1 round whenever he takes damage, but he also takes double damage from physical attacks. Depending on the party, the battle with Greywolf tends to end either with him dying in seconds or him wiping out the whole party in seconds. Thankfully in this playthrough the former happened.
Next time, the party will finally investigate the Nashkel Mines.
Before heading down to Watcher's Keep 3, I take a short detour to dismantle the Twisted Rune. Pretty easy. Protection from Undead on self and gib Shangalar, which causes everyone else to spawn in; take out Revanek from range and out of sight of the others; get Vaxall to chase me far enough away from the group that taking a reflected Charm ray doesn't aggro them; kill Shyressa from out of Layene's sight range; then finish off Layenne herself.
With the loot from Watcher's Keep 2 and from selling the Staff of the Magi, I buy Vhailor's Helm. Up next is Watcher's Keep 3 like I planned. Tahazzar starts out neutral this time thankfully. I ignore him and move further into the maze, but Ka'rashur attacks me on sight and gets killed in one hit. The devils are much weaker compared to the demons. All I have to do is kite the devils like I'm back in Avernus again. I return to Tahazzar with the devil's heart and level up.
I make it to Aesgareth's party. I think now is a good time to put my new helmet to use.
I leave the Deck alone as I have no way to protect myself against the Euryale draw.
The same thing is done for the rest of Watcher's Keep 4. Gotta drink a potion of magic shielding to prevent getting mazed by the githyanki's Psionic Maze. My clone disappears whenever I take damage for some reason... I thought that happened to Projected Images, not Simulacrums.
For the dragon on Watcher's Keep 5, it starts out hostile, so using the Wand of Wonder is not a viable strategy for this fight. With my clone I summon 2 Improved Kitties, who help a little bit. But the dragon hits me with an Insect Swarm while I'm Hasted and I have no way out of the room until it dies. I thought Insect Swarm was a save vs. breath at -4 negates (and I had a good enough Breath save to save at an even steeper penalty and beat it). Apparently not. I begin taking damage twice as often over time and I rush back to the room's entrance in a split second to get the dragon to avoid me. I fall into a massive rage spiral. I'm pretty sure this is the end because the dragon still has some Stoneskins up.
The swarm's duration mercifully runs out and I regain control long enough to kill it.
In the orcish endurance contest, I fall into yet another massive rage spiral but I'm saved by the Helmite Ghost that comes to interrupt. I would not have been able to survive for much longer.
With the keys from these 3 contests and the Eternal Warrior dungeon crawler, I reach the level cap and decide to leave Watcher's Keep because there is no more point in doing anything else other than advancing the story. I don't need any other loot from the seal guardians either, so I forge a few weapons including Ixil's Spike +6, then it's off to Spellhold.
At max level, I have a +131 bonus to hit and damage. This is obscene.
I never would have thought you'd have made it this far, @Flashburn. I'd have thought this was one of the absolute worst classes for soloing the game, but you've managed to work around the death spiral. You must have had to use some very precise movements to minimize enemy pressure, especially during BG1 when a single hit ran the risk of triggering the death spiral.
Isn't it satisfying to land those 100+ damage hits?
Wait, you have 694 HP? I know I rigged the HP growth to continue scaling at 2d6 after level 9, but I didn't realize that's how far it could go. Krieg must be harder to kill than Firkraag at this point!
@semiticgod Boots of Speed + Oil of Speed = VERY fast dorf running at incredible hihg speed. Utilizing that combo is mainly what I did in BG1, but I don't need Oils of Speed as much anymore because of a massive HP pool and acceptable AC.
Krieg can tank the big hits like its nothing but he's quite weak to being damaged repeatedly as the AC and Spell save penalties stack up and work together to initiate and keep you in berserk mode. The problem is compounded by facing large groups (every hit makes it more likely for them to inflict further hits; can only kill 1 thing per round by yourself). That's why it's important to know when to back off and let the rage simmer for a bit before leaping back into the fray.
The goal of Jharam is to guarantee that I can kill Belhifet. I've yet to finish SoD, and I lost my last attempt due to lack of +3 weapons. I'm going to make multiple side trips in BG1 to collect as many decent +3 weapons I can.
Jharam leaves Candlekeep with a Familiar, Darts, and a Blind spell, returns quickly with no spells, armor, and 4 more proficiency slots. (Quarterstaff, Longbow, Sling x 2)
Melicamp and Beregost get Jharam to level 3, and kiting in Nashkel goes a bit awry as the oft-killstealer bites the dust. Jharam failed the save, so was in no danger of actually dying to that spell, though it hurt.
Greywolf gets Jharam to level 4, and a bunch of Identify and eventually Invisibility spells.
Level 4 is... unfortunately still vulnerable to Sleep. Korax kills Mutamin, though, and gets Jharam to 5 for greater safety. 6 is also reached in the south.
Jharam duels Melium for a set of gauntlets before he heads north, pawning the Ring of Wizardry. Large Shield and Belt of Piercing keeps him safe from Ankheg missile attacks short of criticals, and a quick detour to Gullykin provides a free Ring of Free Action. Alora is dropped off afterwards.
Aule's Staff is picked up for the first +3 weapon. The Greenstone Amulet and Cloak of Displacement are also acquired.
Sirines provide level 7 and the warrior APR boost, and then kill the Flesh Golems with +1 bullets before heading south to commit Brage to the Temple. The +3 Berserker's sword is kept as a panic button for Minsc against Belhifit.
To prepare for SoD, a quick sidetrip for the gauntlets of DEX is made.
Finally, we begin the main quest. Jharam has two level 2 spells memorized: Invisibility, getting him to Mulahey safely, and Web, killing him safely.
The Free Action ring allows us to safely raid the tombs for the Wand of Monster Summoning, and Nimbul proves not nimble enough to dodge a crushing defeat. Literally. -13 vs Missiles is now achieved.
Should've prebuffed with Shield, but Tranzig dies eventually after pelting Jharam with multiple Magic Missiles.
Bandit Camp: Invisibly invade the tent, buff with a Hill Giant Strength potion, open with a Scorcher from Wand. Venkt falls. -19 AC vs Missiles says everyone else is irrelevant.
Aldeth is killed in the Cloakwood, the Spider's Bane is acquired for Minsc as well. Drasus is pulled away and killed by a Stone Giant Strength + Absorption potion, and then I steal his boots and run invisibly inside. Rushed to Davaeorn, activated a Pro. from Magic scroll and a Frost Giant Strength potion, and kited the two Battle Horrors to death before slinging bullets and Wand of Fire charges at Davaeorn and his lackeys respectively.
In Baldur's Gate itself, I'm trying to get gold to empty Sorcerous Sundries of useful items. Varci Roaringhorn is saved, Doppelgangers are slaughtered en masse, Ogre mages and phase spiders die, the Low Lantern is cleared, a Greater Basilisk is killed, and Ramazith is ambushed in his own tower.
Oh, and though I didn't take screenshots, the top of the Iron Throne is cleared out for the second Ring of Free Actions. It involved a lot of fireballs and dodging upstairs and downstairs; one Mage went invisible one level from the top and refused to reveal himself again, but he didn't have the ring on him so he was left alive to report to the Iron Throne.
The Potion of Magic Blocking failure as noted in the Adventurer's Lounge happened: as it was not supposed to work or not work like it did, as it may be, I redo the Ogre Mage fight, quaffing a Potion of Magic Shielding instead. Magic Blocking potions are almost useless at this point: the only spell effects worth dispelling that CAN be dispelled by it are... Blindness, Slow, and Ray of Enfeeblement?
Catacombs are looted, STR and WIS tomes looted, Pratt passed by invisibly, and Phase Spiders still track us like lasers the second we come out of stealth. At least due to all the experience I've gotten with sidequests, Jharam gets level 9 and GM in slings.
Wand of Summoning allows Jharam safety to kill Slythe. I still want to know: how do solo Thieves or Monks kill Slythe without dying? Seems a single backstab would be enough to kill either of them, and they can't get summons to bait out his potions...
Ducal Palace is a mess. The idea was scroll of Invisibility on Liia to ensure a victory, as long as I win the remaining fight. An early Dispel Magic reveals Liia, though, and I hurriedly check my scroll container. No scroll of Invisibility, but one of Improved Invisibility from Ulgoth's Beard. Well. I use it on Liia, but I have only one Turn to finish the battle. A Chromatic Orb is saved against this time, and multiple uses of the Wand of Summoning allows Jharam to finish the fight within the time limit.
Sarevok and allies are fought in standard fashion: Pro. from magic scroll, Diarmid first, Potion of Invisibility to get away from Sarevok, peeling off one of the mages, killing Angelo, killing Tazok, killing Semaj, stubbornly not using another Arrow of Dispelling and failing to kite Sarevok currently, resulting in a ton of potions drunk, but Sarevok dies.
I sent Nimran to free Viconia and went into the wilds to collect a ranger and a wild mage... she tanked some powerful undead by standing in a doorway and killing the shade lord gave me back a rep point
We made it to watchers just to grab a nice sword but the halfling had to save her sister so we agreed to that… the wild mage wanted some items from there as well. I swapped Mazzy for Hexxat, well more for the sack but she can stay for a while and we finished the wild mage quest line with poison backstab and shocking cleric tactics.
Wow, it's great to see you guys are still going strong. I salute you all for your dedication and skill, and for taking the time to keep writing. While being able to pay rent now is somewhat of a relief, I miss the days back in November when I was unemployed, trying no-reloads and keeping up with this thread religiously.
I'm telling you, there should be some kind of public pension for us. Civil servant: "You're a Baldur's Gate no-reloader? Why, you qualify for this $2,500 a month, life-long government assistance program!"
We'd started off outside the Cloakwood Mine. Drasus and his gang put up a good fight but snares, shadows and poison are too much for them. We play around inside the mine, Deughliya risking all against ghasts and Bump having to save her from her own stupidity.
Davaeorn falls to backstabs, and we head into Baldur's Gate.
The Undermountain gang wish they'd stayed there, after a running battle outside (Bump) and upstairs (Drughliya) wears them down. Drughliya heads out to help Bump and takes a critical for 30 odd damage.
Right back at you, Degrodel.
Lothander safely escaped our clutches, and after a few more city errands we headed into the Iron Throne HQ. Bump wanted to know the plan. The what?
Drughliya went up, safe in the shadows. Bump followed, safe in the shadows.
Not so fast, said Zhalimar Cloudewulfe. Bump looked at Drughliya - convinced she was not in the shadows. Drughliya looked at Bump - convinced he was not in the shadows.
We're both in the shadows. Bump doesn't look very much in the shadows to me but the text log confirms he is.
Well one of us must be visible...
Zhalimar is having none of it though, able to detect Bump through use of multiplayer-fu. Drughliya puts down a couple of snares so Bump can lead enemies in, but they have attacked him and despite further use of shadows and stairs he takes a Flame Strike. Then a second.
Drughliya picks up a smouldering pile of items and heads outside.
The game crashes as she exits the building. After recovering the autosave, a named save is made so we can contine to a temple and return for part two of the battle at a later date.
update 11 Hexxat for Yoshimo, I don't know but something about a graveyard... I assume its a vampire thing?
well we sided with the thief option because I may want to sell some stolen items at some future point. I grabbed the free ring of trap finding for myself and spend all our spare gold on "Mercykiller Ring" gift for Imoen
@histamiini has just completed a solo no-reload Legacy of Bhaal mode run of SCS and Ascension with a cleric/mage, Trabb! This is the first unkitted cleric/mage in the Hall, and the first solo LoB entry with a vanilla class. I have added it to the Hall of Heroes on the first page.
Jharam antagonizes the guy holding the key in Korlasz' tomb, and then casts Invisibility to get all the way to the lever to Korlasz herself. The Dispel trap catches him, so Jharam quaffs a Potion of Invisibility before getting detected and swarmed by undead. Casting Web from scroll invisibly from the bottom left, Arrow of Dispelling on Korlasz, lots of bullets until Korlasz surrenders.
As before, Minsc and Dynaheir are recruited. Minsc, despite having Spider's Bane available, will be mostly using DEX bracers and mace and shield for -7 AC, and the correct belt gives -10 AC.
We grab the spectacles for Dynaheir and leave. Corwin, M'khiin, and Glint fill out the 6-man squad, and we attempt to do a full clear of the first area. Jharan simply avoiding the fight gives safety vs possible Flesh to Stone spells, a Vampire is aided for regeneration, menhirs are sung to, and finally the Dwarves are aided. The undead are kinda exhausting: not knowing where the Mummy is, I'm continually under either Pro. from Fear or Remove Fear, and every time I clear a zone, I have M'khiin summon another 3 spirits. Minsc and Jharan do most of the physical damage, having crushing weapons, and Jharan and Dynaheir do some serious work with Wands of Fire, and the Secret Revealed makes the actual boss fight a breeze.
Spiders and trolls are dealt with fairly easily, no problems that I thought worthy of a screenshot. In the temple of Bhaal/Cyric, we completely ignore Morenthene, and use the strategy from Grond0 and Gate70's run: Web on Ziatar, and members with Free Action swarm before we can get hit by a 100+ damage Poison breath.
Glint almost dies before the Neothelid even emerges from the ground, but he goes Invisible via potion and the others smash through.
Aerial Servants freaking hurt, and Minsc is chugging potions to survive, but expendable Spirit animals help to take the attacks, and eventually take out Akanna.
I'm blind going further in: last run attempt, I just took the Wardstone and ran. But this time I feel strong enough to keep going in, and kill the last party. The largest problem is the Archer who decided to target M'khiin and Glint, but there're no casualties as we leave the dungeon.
After a few minor quests at Bridgefort, we elect to surrender the fort.
Fighting for the bridge itself, though... Really bad lightning bounces fries Corwin beyond any ability to save her.
More minor quests at the Coalition Camp before this happens:
Lesigh. It's that darned "all portraits go to black" bug. Even made sure that Mizhena didn't have a random kill in her dialogue. My last save is the autosave before travelling to the camp. CTRL-J gets some further stuff done, and Voghlin is my 6th member.
We continue to the forest for the cure, and Minsc almost bites the dust to a Bombadier Beetle. Those things are terrifying, with no-save stuns every now and then.
We rescue Skie for the heck of it before going to the tunnels. I dunno how to get the entire Ogre tribe to help, but we do everything else we can find, including ferrying grain back and forth between two crates. Druids are killed, and then we start a fight we're nowhere near prepared for.
Um. That's a dragon. From meta things, having read other people's runs, I'm pretty sure I don't have to kill this thing (I'm fairly sure Semiticgod would've tried to seduce this thing if he could've), but only have to kill the mage. Glint is level drained as well, but we take out the mage and raise Dynaheir with M'khiin's last level 5 slot. Another fight vs the mage controlling water elementals hurts a lot, but we emerge alive, and get a Restoration and rest in the Crusader camp.
Uh. No screenshot of Hephernaan, but last run I took huge damage from Physical Mirror + Blade Barrier combination. This time, Dynaheir has Breach prepared, and M'Khiin Detects Illusion to remove the Improved Invisibility. Others are using summons and fighting to the right: two Ankhegs and various other things provide a lot of distraction. We fight our way back to the elevator, and Invisibility: 10' gets us out safely.
Crusader camp: after a crash to desktop (I've had a lot of these this run...) we begin the defense. Archers vs Trolls, Thieves and a scroll of Chaos vs Paladin/Clerics, wizard slayers and Insect Plague vs Wizards, and Breach vs Blade Barrier.
Dragonspear itself is just a strain on my processor. It's almost impossible to make meaningful commands, but AoE spells and wands break through the ranks fairly simply. The duel is won almost insultingly easily, the only frustrating thing being that she kept using Sanctuary and healing and wasting time.
Hell fight: regular demons are no problem, shuffling around Charm Protection helmet when necessary. We have 20 +3 arrows, 20 +3 Bullets, a +3 weapon in Minsc's hands, an Enchanted Weapon memorized by Voghlin, an Enchanted Weapon scroll held by Jharam. The latter two are never used.
Game, set, match.
We take the Good ending, and start BG2 with 700k experience.
It has been a long year and three months... but Adamant has returned!
Adamant, Half-Elf Fighter/Mage, BG1EE Update 8 Previous update found here Next update found here
When last we saw our Half-Elf, he had just cleared out the Iron Throne. Next on the list: The Ice Island. Why? Because it's there. And because it has a Stoneskin scroll!
Usually, the safest way to handle the plethora of mages here is summons. Skeleton Warriors do wonders if you have them (and we do), but a Wand of Summoning works too. The main danger is Andris, and as alluded to in the last update, I decide to use one of our precious few scrolls of Protection from Magic to deal with him. Though Andris can run from Adamant (and he sure tries), he cannot hide.
It's actually quite possible to deal with Andris without blowing such important resources. The alternative approach basically involves sending a wave of summons at him and his two buddies. Even with SCS AI, said mages will happily blow their best damage spells trying to take down your summons (often splitting up in the process, since SCS AI likes to wander around between spellcasts). Once that happens, move in and start bashing them. Andris will teleport away, and you can finish off his friends. Once you see the Contingency message for Andris, you've got a few seconds before he teleports to your protagonist. Spread your characters out and make sure you have a few buffs active, and Andris will waste his first action on a Remove Magic. Counter by tearing down his Minor Globe of Invulnerability (if he has it up), and just let him have it: Wands of Flamestrike, Acid Arrows, MMM's. He'll go down quickly without his mage buddies.
The rest of the island poses no real difficulty, summons being used to bear the brunt of the enemy magic, and we lay our hands on the lovely Stoneskin scroll.
Next, we move out to Durlag's Tower. The first and second floors are just Ghasts, with some Basilisks out on the balcony, nothing difficult. There's a surprisingly high-level Ghost Mage on the third floor, but he's under a permanent Slow effect (and keeps getting interrupted by his own Cloudkill to boot). A few summons absorb the spells he manages to get off, and Adamant's blade seals his fate.
Fourth floor just has Ghasts and Kirinhale. Kirinhale can be bothersome if she starts to get traction (i.e. manages to charm some party members and starts teleporting around). The easiest and fastest way I've found to take her down is just to protect your best melee fighter against Charm with the Greenstone Amulet, have him quaff a good Strength potion, and proceed to just kill her on his own (she's got rather poor AC and HP). Following these preparations, Adamant rudely interrupts Kirinhale's attempt to teleport with a mighty 42 crit (Ajantis and Khalid turned out to be unnecessary).
Alright, now we're getting somewhere. The first underground level is just a handful of Ghasts. The second underground level has a variety of enemies, but they're all melee brutes, and so completely harmless. The Warders, however, are certainly not harmless. Once you hand over the final item to Love, it's on.
Fear is essentially a blurred Doppleganger that occasionally tries to fear someone. Not a real threat. Third priority. Avarice drops a Cloudkill on his position when he spawns, goes invisible and tries to backstab. Moderately dangerous. Second priority. Love is first priority. He/she/it casts Dire Charm/Slow/Confusion, has MGoI and Physical Mirror active, and renews them every few rounds if they get dispelled. If you're quick you can still bring Love down with magic, but melee works wonders. Pride comes affected by Champion's Strength and Haste, hits pretty much every time for 25-30 damage, is very difficult to hit in return, and has a bit of magic resistance. Dangerous as he is, he's the least important to focus on, mainly since he takes time to kill and is, badassery nonwithstanding, just another melee brute.
Love soon collapses under heavy melee pressure from a buffed duo of Adamant and Ajantis. We've summoned 4 Skeleton Warriors (immune to Avarice's Cloudkill) to hold the line against Pride while we deal with the other Warders.
With Love down, Avarice and Fear soon follow. I decide to blow a few wand charges to speed up Pride's demise. We wear him down.
The third underground level is cleared without major incident. One shouldn't get too complacent though, as I did: An Islanne doppleganger gets off a Confusion, snagging both Ajantis and Adamant. Thankfully, they refrain from killing each other (I wasn't worried about Adamant dying, but Ajantis...), and the rest of the party kills the doppleganger before it does more harm. One of the dopplegangers dies while in Durlag form, netting us a third Full Plate, which goes to Khalid. Though not strictly necessary, we deal with the Dwarven Doomguards by means of a double Web spell and Free Action'd Ajantis and Adamant.
Somewhere around here, several levels were earned: Branwen L8, Jaheira L8 druid, and (of course most importantly) Adamant L7 mage!
I celebrate by returning to Baldur's Gate and indulging in a scroll-scribing bonanza. Having both Minor Sequencer and Stoneskin available will certainly make Adamant an even greater terror on the battlefield, though such a prospect is difficult to believe.
As we leave our intrepid band, they stand ready to cleanse the fourth underground level of Durlag's Tower. Adamant is now a L6/L7 Fighter/Mage, with his final Fighter level right around the corner, and sporting the classical Mirror Image/Blur sequencer. Strong as an ox, clever as a fox, wise as the average potted houseplant.
I've been busy of late, and haven't been reading the thread, but I can see by a cursory glance that congratulations are in order- especially to semiticgod for his LoB solo. Outstanding work- both in the game world and in your head. I respect the lessons you learned from the experience as much as the triumph itself. Well done!
Congratulations, too, to anyone and everyone who is proud of what they've achieved in recent runs, be they successes as conventionally defined, or not. Keep playing, keep progressing, and above all else, keep having fun!
Blaggerd and his party venture into Durlags Tower for some looting. Some careless actions sees Imoen fried after detecting a trap.
Still, nothing a temple can't fix. At least she won't do that again. Well, at least a second one isn't fatal.
The entire level is carefully cleared after that and a plan is drawn up for the four warders. Blaggerd finds this is over much sooner than anticipated. Ah yes Cloudkill. Only level 6. Save penalty of 4. Oops.
No doubt he'll moulder on the ground for a while before being forced into another attempt.
The Iron Throne Mercs put up a good fight but their luck was out - Bump shrugging off one spell as Drughliya shrugs off another.
We return to Candlekeep, Bump taking poison from a spider but Drughliya was on-hand to slow the poison then heal him somewhat.
A greater doppelganger was safely defeated (unlike Shistal in the library who very nearly killed Drughliya).
Prat and his gang survived a backstab and two arrows of detonation but a third explosion concluded the battle with Drughliya once more looking worse for wear.
On to the Coronation. We start OK but having laid minimal snares it's going to require some hard work.
Drughliya stands idle for a few seconds, presumably her target having been killed while I was checking the health of Belt. This delay proves to be costly, the more so because on the way in I decided the ring of free action needed removing, then promptly forgot. Try as Bump could, both dukes died and Sarevok lied his way to victory.
There's just time for an ogre-mage encounter before anything more serious.
The Iron Throne headquarters almost cost our shaman her life when she is held, but we entice the enemies off her and onto more resistant targets. She is also confused, as is the fighter / cleric. Relentless pressure plus boot-hastened backstabs keeps the half-orcs alive while Zhalimar Cloudewulfe and his gang are cut down with no mercy.
We then head back to Durlags Tower, figuring Kirinhale will be an easy mark. Our barbarian takes an energy drain so enrages and good job she does - everyone else is dominated and one of us hacks down our shaman. The barbarian is on her own and decides dying will be a bad idea so she scoots away and waits for an opportunity.
Kirinhale has teleported away and as each party member recovers they are moved from those still dominated. The five half-orcs hatch a plan, send in the backstabber. She does the job and clears up several ghasts before returning.
We head downstairs and our assassin brutalises one greater doppelganger. She attempts to do the same to a second but it and a third have other ideas and her 54hp evaporate before she can flee the room.
Another temple visit. Some time later we return to face the four warders. Griban steps over a mouldering Blackguard and turns back to claw at the corpse. Eugh, tastes like smoked chicken.
Griban carefully instructs his level 6/6 cleric / fighter to keep his distance. The berserker has no such qualms and we take the battle to them - with added backstabs and snares.
That's enough for one day. Here they are in all their orcglory.
Comments
The best I can hope for against mages is to get damaged once or twice, then follow up with a critical from the Dragon Blade +3 and hope they don't survive a save vs. death at -4 and another at -6. Its mostly up to luck and weathering their magical storm, which is definitely not the best way to survive. As long as I can keep my save vs. spell at -2 or better and retreat if it goes too high, I should be okay.
If I could suggest a feature for the War Hulk, adding a Cleave or Great Cleave ability would be great. Like, anytime the War Hulk kills an enemy, their attacks/round are set back to normal instead of 0. Or a way to deal damage to groups in one hit based on its Great/Mighty/Massive Swing abilities from its source handbook.
Krieg the War Hulk
"So much flesh to strrrip!"
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1
Now in Athkatla, I loot the ruins of the intro dungeon thanks to Skip Chateau Irenicus and make a tidy profit doing so since a lot of it is mage-oriented stuff that I can't use. I deal with the circus and Aerie seems to prefer ogre form. I level up and get my first HLA, which will help massively in keeping me alive.
I free Hendak and the slaves and free Lilarcor. Doing the early part of Maevar's questline gives another level. Anything that survives a critical from me will have to not only save vs. death at -3 to avoid being stunned and KO'd for a round, now they have to save vs. death at -4 or die instantly. Deathblow doesn't work on anything that's immune to critical hits.
After Maevar's questline is completed, I kill a vampire harassing some shadow thieves and level up from it. Now survivors of my criticals will have to save vs. death at -3, -4, and then again at -6 to avoid instant death. Only things that are immune to criticals will be able to survive!
I do a few more sidequests and decide I want my Dragon Blade back. So I make for the Windspear Hills and give the acorns back to the dryads, earning a level.
Upon entering the cave to Firkraag's dungeon, I have to contend with the Ruhk Transmuter who is a fighter/mage and has excellent THAC0. I don't have too much trouble surviving against him until a vampiric wraith touches me and level drains me! Having lost my previous run to level drain, I NOPE the hell out of there and go back to a temple to get it healed, then buy restoration scrolls too.
Upon my return, I duel the Ruhk Transmuter again. It's a long and tedious process wearing down his 3 castings of Stoneskin, but I finally break through the last one and kill him.
Inside the dungeon, I agree to help Samia but then kill her. Once I discover the treasure, her friends arrive, which I completely forgot about because I usually just take the dialogue options to get everyone to spawn in at once (usually upon a bunch of pre-laid traps). I cheese them by plugging the doorway with the fighters, then use poisoned throwing daggers to kill Kaol.
Killing the wolfwere pack after that earns me another level.
Killing the Adamantium Golem behind the hidden wall was easier than I thought. It takes many hits to kill it, but we can only hit each other once per round, so I regenerate most of the damage it does to me. Further inside, I kill Tazok who was too scared to fight me the first time with Sarevok and get my critical sword back. This baby is going to carry me far.
I free Garren's child, but decide to save Firkraag for later. There's no way I can kill him right now.
With my sword back, it gets a workout on some victims in the sewers of the temple district. The Rakshasa fails its save against Deathblow.
I level up again from killing Mekrath.
The Yuan-ti are a big problem. They've got 2 castings of Stoneskin and just generally irritating. Fighting both of them with guerilla tactics and line-of-sight cheesing takes about 7 minutes until I get lucky and roll 2 successful Deathblows against them. The third one still inside Mekrath's lair also dies to one.
Further yet, I take on the Shade Lich with a Protection from Undead scroll. The first hit reduces it to 25% health, whereupon it buffs itself to hell and summons a Fallen Planetar. I book it outside and close the door on it like I did in Brunash's playthrough and wait until it gets unsummoned. I absolutely could take on a planetar in a straight-up melee fight and win, but it still has a formidable spell selection.
I have to be careful not to stay too close to the lich for too long lest it cast Remove Magic on itself and hit me with it. It summons 2 Mordy Swords, but I destroy them with Deathblow. Slowly, I carve my way through its Stoneskins and kill it.
In the Undead Burg, I spot a lich inside the mayor's home. It fires up the usual buffs and its undead allies chase me out. The lich doesn't follow but its buddies do. The Greater Mummies summon a bunch of skellies to deal with me, but I just cleave my way through them one at a time until I kill their masters and level up.
The Unseeing Eye is then put down and I level again. No point in displaying the HLAs anymore because I have one of everything now.
Krieg - War Hulk 27
Diary of Gloryseeker
While resting, I realised that I had a use for the belt that I had found on the ogre. Upon donning it, I discovered that Branwen began to show an interest romantically, and that Safana was now willing to join my party.I dropped Jaheira off in Beregost after which I recruited Xzar and Montaron. His attribute points were all put in pick-pocketting. He acquired Algernon's Cloak after which he acquired quite a lot of loot at Ulgoth's Beard.
We left him there and returned to Beregost to pick up Jaheira.
We now need to pick up some potions and then we can perhaps hunt some basilisks.
Krieg the War Hulk
"I'm not full yet!"
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1
BG2: 1
After killing the Cult of the Eyeless, I head back into the Graveyard area to clear out Pai'nai and her spiders with a potion of explosions and take Kitthix with me. With the scroll of Spider Spawn, 5 of my poisoned throwing daggers, and a scroll of web, I make Improved Kitthix. His first task is to help me kill the Pebblecrusher Party, starting with Amon.
I do some quests in the Bridge District and upon my return a second time, I kill Lanneth with poisoned throwing daggers just outside of the cutscene trigger's boundary, causing her goons and Mereth to stay where they are. After killing Lanneth's goons too, I talk to Mereth and get her hairband from the crates she's standing next to for the Wooden Horse Necklace (read: Amulet of Protection +2).
Neb is up next on the chopping block and the Silver Pantaloons are procured.
From the pearls I got from Neb's captive child spirits, I decide to take on the Guarded Compound to forge the Citadel Helmet. Incidentally, I forgot to set Fiendish Ethereal Plane Shifting off, but it didn't matter because the Glabrezu guardian in question got gibbed by Deathblow through its Mirror Images.
Anyway, I went upstairs while invisible and waited for Sion's buffs to wear off before attacking him once and following up with a Firebreath potion. I retreat and fight Koshi, who gets one-shotted, and when Sion returns, he gets another Firebreath potion.
At this point I summon Improved Kitty to deal with Stallman and Ketta. He's a good spider, yes he is!
Next I try something I haven't done before: using a Protection from Undead scroll on a lich. It couldn't really be that easy, could it?
It is, in fact. Doing that turns off the lich's spellcasting and it just decides to melee you instead.
Onto the Planar Prison. This one's a doozy; I thought for sure I was going to die here. First I chunk the gnome thief for his Boots of Speed. My double-strength Haste kiting powers return! And then, its the fricken Yuan-ti mage platoon. I had enough of them the first time in the temple's sewers.
They basically throw every single spell they have memorized at me, yet I continue to stand. I have to gulp a Potion of Invulnerability to keep my save vs. spell at an acceptable threshold. They finally exhaust their spells and I slowly make progress in chopping through their stoneskins.
I regenerate all of my health via an Oil of Speed while whittling the lizard mages down. The Master of Thralls is killed in one hit; no exploding ghast death for me.
I expect the Warden to be a tough fight like always, but he's got PfMW up, which means I'm free to hack away at him with my normal number of attacks per round, giving me a better chance to break right through it like this:
Afterward, I forge the Stormlord's Heels and use another Protection from Undead scroll on the City Gates lich.
Onto the De'Arnise Keep. When I got there, I realized I didn't have a way to finish off trolls, so I had to sneak upstairs and kill Glaicus for the acid flail head. I return downstairs and kill the trolls I left behind and continue back upstairs. I put all the flail heads together and summon Improved Kitty for help against Tor'Gal.
The Golem Construction mod gives the golems guarding the statues a chance to stay if you didn't destroy them and if you inherit the Keep. A Flesh and Clay golem have stayed for me! They unfortunately meet their end in the next questline I do.
The druids guarding the entrance to the grove's cave give me some trouble as they summon a bunch of Fire Elementals and cast a couple Insect Plagues. Insect Plague is my one weakness, so cheese the swarm by ducking into Adratha's cottage. They're all soon killed, however.
I let Cernd join up with me temporarily because I know that Faldorn will crush him if I let him go by himself. I transform him into a Greater Werewolf, but Faldorn summons Greater Bearweres. If I had him attack even a second later, Cernd would most assuredly be dead.
With Trademeet freed, I buy Blackblood +3, the Dwarven Thrower, and Ras +2, then forge Pitchwife +5.
Now that I have a weapon that strikes as at least +4, there's a certain demilich that needs slaying. I use another Scroll of Cheese except on myself this time. Kangaxx summons a Fallen Planetar, who I would've tried to defeat, but didn't want my scroll getting dispelled. I ran back upstairs until the planetar was unsummoned, then went back downstairs. A few whacks with Pitchwife later:
Kangaxx transforms but he's Improved Invisible. Instead of waiting out its duration I summon Ras the Dancing Sword to bait him into attacking. It works.
Ras does a good job at tanking Demigaxx until its hit with a Death Spell. With Demigaxx now visible, all I have to do is hit him then back off before a Remove Magic is cast on himself. Once his PfMW wears off:
I SWALLOWED YOUR SOUL!
Krieg - War Hulk 33
Diary of Gloryseeker Last Entry
I was absolutely stupid. Fighting the vampyrric wolves on the way to fight the basilisks I forgot to put on the ring of freedom of action. By the time that I realised, it was too late.Krieg the War Hulk
"THERE'S NO FENCE ON THIS FENCE"
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1
BG2: 1, 2
Still protected from undead after fighting Kangaxx, I decide now is a good time to take on the illithid hideout beneath the temple sewers. Its nothing remarkable considering I kill the illithids in one hit before they can touch me. My scroll runs out before I get to the Alhoon, but I'm confident I can still survive. I take out its minions until it has to fight me personally. It summons a couple of Mordy Swords which I critically kill.
Soon it activates its super mode (PfMW + Tenser's + Improved Haste trigger) but fighting it in this doorway causes it to stop attacking for some reason.
With the Wand of Wonder obtained, I go back to the Windspear Hills to tie up a certain big red loose end.
I use the spare Stone to Flesh scroll I found in his dungeon and he's not happy when he wakes up. I smack him with Pitchwife to get him to shut up. Oh Basilisk Loop, you have taught me well.
With this new strategy in mind, I buy some Stone to Flesh scrolls and make a few copies of the Wand of Wonder with the item dupe glitch. I head for the Umar Hills and its temple ruins. Its business as usual.
I take care of the Shade Lord first in case the Wand of Wonder strategy causes Thaxll to recognize me as hostile despite holding the shadow wardstone. But he goes down as easily as Firkraag.
Onto the planar sphere. Again, the name of the game is killing things in one hit and breaking through Stoneskin and PfMW.
Lavok is up next. I can't kill him instantly with Greater Deathblow like other things, so I basically have to tank his entire spell arsenal including 4 or 5 Horrid Wiltings and 3 Stoneskins. I'm not actually too afraid of mages anymore.
Tolgerias and his pet mage are dealt with.
And the rest of the quest is completed without trouble. Even the Marilith proved to be no match, though it didn't cast PfMW like the ones at the Throne.
Bodhi's hideout is then cleared, relying on Pitchwife's fast speed factor to get in and get out of vampires' range instead of using a Scroll of Cheese.
With all other sidequests in Athkatla and the surrounding lands completed, I decide to go into Watcher's Keep. The first floor was a bit underwhelming as I expected a mage and druid statue to attack once I performed the ritual, but they weren't there.
The second floor is more challenging but still no match for Krieg. I wondered how I was going to beat the Chromatic Demon with its massive damage resistance without it making me fly into a berserk death-spiral. Turns out its not as much of a badass as I thought. Improved Kitty helped a little bit but not too much.
Level 3 awaits. I'm not going to fight Tahazzar if I can help it because a 15% chance of a vorpal hit with no save sounds pretty deadly.
Krieg - War Hulk 43
Mirlen, a Beastmaster in a Horrifically Modded Baldur's Gate: Part 3
Onto the Gnoll Stronghold!Minsc and Jaheira both cast Entangle on Gnarl and Hairtooth. Both of them stopped and went nowhere while Mirlen and Khalid started firing arrows at them. They managed to kill Hairtooth, but Gnarl broke free of the vines and zipped over with ogrillion speed. He then used Greater Whirlwind Attack and punched several party members across the bridge. After some more brawling, the party slew Gnarl. Gnarl dropped Gauntlets of Crushing and a Big-Fisted Belt. Hairtooth dropped Gauntlets of Dexterity, which set Dexterity to 21. Minsc put it on.
The basic thing you need to know about gnolls in this mod is that they are powerful melee fighters (even basic gnolls have a lot of HP, very low THAC0 and high Strength) but they have 20 in all saving throws. Even the most powerful gnolls have terrible saving throws. Some gnolls also have spells.
After resting, the party fought through the Gnoll Stronghold with Entangle, Color Spray, and of course, bears.
The hardest fight was with the chieftain of the gnolls. The party sent the bear ahead to take the first hits. Several gnoll veterans cast Power Word, Stun on the bear. Minsc cast Earthquake on the gnolls, knocking them all down. Once the earthquake subsided, the party rushed in for the kill while the gnolls were still down.
The party rescued Dynaheir, who joined the party. Dynaheir has 99% fire resistance and gets +10 to hit and damage with her fists. More notably, she is considered to be 6 levels higher for purposes of determining the power of her mage spells. She can memorize Delayed Blast Fireball as a level 5 spell. She can cast Protection from Magical Energy once per day and Spellstrike three times per day. In this mod, Spellstrike temporarily gives 100% vulnerability to fire, cold, acid, electricity and magic damage. Out of all the modified NPCs in this mod, I think Dynaheir is my favorite.
On the way back to Nashkel, the party stopped at another Cloudpeaks area. There, they found Albert, the child who was looking for his dog. Mirlen agreed to help find the dog and received the dog's chew toy, only to discover that it weighed 400 lbs. She gave the thing to Jaheira to carry.
Eventually, the party found the dog, which was a monstrous beast with an aura of fire. Jaheira drank a potion of fire resistance walked back towards Albert while the dog followed her.
"Time to go home, Rufie. You'll like the Bleak Eternity much better than these cold climes."
In exchange for Rufie, Albert gave the party another one of the dog's chew toys.
Soon after, the party encountered Vax and Zal. In this mod, Zal has 10 attacks per round (now he really is the fastest dart thrower). Dynaheir hit them with two fireball spells from outside of their vision range, then they started attacking. Zal almost killed Dynaheir, but she ran away and the rest of the party finished the two of them off. Vax dropped Boots of Speed and a nice battleaxe. Zal dropped the Crimson Dart +1.
Once the party was back at Nashkel, they stopped at the carnival for the first time. There they sold a lot of junk and bought several scrolls of protection, a Necklace of Missiles, an Amulet of Shapeshifter Detection (which could come in handy), and the Ossifier +15. This cursed +15 quarterstaff casts Stoneskin (1 skin) on the target with each hit (it happens after the staff deals damage).
The party then went to the mines. There, they agreed to defend Prism from Greywolf. In this mod, Greywolf is very dangerous: he deals a lot of damage per hit, and he automatically gains Improved Haste for 1 round whenever he takes damage, but he also takes double damage from physical attacks. Depending on the party, the battle with Greywolf tends to end either with him dying in seconds or him wiping out the whole party in seconds. Thankfully in this playthrough the former happened.
Next time, the party will finally investigate the Nashkel Mines.
Krieg the War Hulk
"The STING of POWER!"
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1
BG2: 1, 2, 3
Before heading down to Watcher's Keep 3, I take a short detour to dismantle the Twisted Rune. Pretty easy. Protection from Undead on self and gib Shangalar, which causes everyone else to spawn in; take out Revanek from range and out of sight of the others; get Vaxall to chase me far enough away from the group that taking a reflected Charm ray doesn't aggro them; kill Shyressa from out of Layene's sight range; then finish off Layenne herself.
With the loot from Watcher's Keep 2 and from selling the Staff of the Magi, I buy Vhailor's Helm. Up next is Watcher's Keep 3 like I planned. Tahazzar starts out neutral this time thankfully. I ignore him and move further into the maze, but Ka'rashur attacks me on sight and gets killed in one hit. The devils are much weaker compared to the demons. All I have to do is kite the devils like I'm back in Avernus again. I return to Tahazzar with the devil's heart and level up.
I make it to Aesgareth's party. I think now is a good time to put my new helmet to use.
I leave the Deck alone as I have no way to protect myself against the Euryale draw.
The same thing is done for the rest of Watcher's Keep 4. Gotta drink a potion of magic shielding to prevent getting mazed by the githyanki's Psionic Maze. My clone disappears whenever I take damage for some reason... I thought that happened to Projected Images, not Simulacrums.
For the dragon on Watcher's Keep 5, it starts out hostile, so using the Wand of Wonder is not a viable strategy for this fight. With my clone I summon 2 Improved Kitties, who help a little bit. But the dragon hits me with an Insect Swarm while I'm Hasted and I have no way out of the room until it dies. I thought Insect Swarm was a save vs. breath at -4 negates (and I had a good enough Breath save to save at an even steeper penalty and beat it). Apparently not. I begin taking damage twice as often over time and I rush back to the room's entrance in a split second to get the dragon to avoid me. I fall into a massive rage spiral. I'm pretty sure this is the end because the dragon still has some Stoneskins up.
The swarm's duration mercifully runs out and I regain control long enough to kill it.
In the orcish endurance contest, I fall into yet another massive rage spiral but I'm saved by the Helmite Ghost that comes to interrupt. I would not have been able to survive for much longer.
With the keys from these 3 contests and the Eternal Warrior dungeon crawler, I reach the level cap and decide to leave Watcher's Keep because there is no more point in doing anything else other than advancing the story. I don't need any other loot from the seal guardians either, so I forge a few weapons including Ixil's Spike +6, then it's off to Spellhold.
At max level, I have a +131 bonus to hit and damage. This is obscene.
Krieg - War Hulk 50
Isn't it satisfying to land those 100+ damage hits?
Boots of Speed + Oil of Speed = VERY fast dorf running at incredible hihg speed. Utilizing that combo is mainly what I did in BG1, but I don't need Oils of Speed as much anymore because of a massive HP pool and acceptable AC.
Krieg can tank the big hits like its nothing but he's quite weak to being damaged repeatedly as the AC and Spell save penalties stack up and work together to initiate and keep you in berserk mode. The problem is compounded by facing large groups (every hit makes it more likely for them to inflict further hits; can only kill 1 thing per round by yourself). That's why it's important to know when to back off and let the rage simmer for a bit before leaping back into the fray.
Jharam, Illusionist 3 -> Fighter
Introduction
The goal of Jharam is to guarantee that I can kill Belhifet. I've yet to finish SoD, and I lost my last attempt due to lack of +3 weapons. I'm going to make multiple side trips in BG1 to collect as many decent +3 weapons I can.
Jharam leaves Candlekeep with a Familiar, Darts, and a Blind spell, returns quickly with no spells, armor, and 4 more proficiency slots. (Quarterstaff, Longbow, Sling x 2)
Melicamp and Beregost get Jharam to level 3, and kiting in Nashkel goes a bit awry as the oft-killstealer bites the dust. Jharam failed the save, so was in no danger of actually dying to that spell, though it hurt.
Greywolf gets Jharam to level 4, and a bunch of Identify and eventually Invisibility spells.
Level 4 is... unfortunately still vulnerable to Sleep. Korax kills Mutamin, though, and gets Jharam to 5 for greater safety. 6 is also reached in the south.
Jharam duels Melium for a set of gauntlets before he heads north, pawning the Ring of Wizardry. Large Shield and Belt of Piercing keeps him safe from Ankheg missile attacks short of criticals, and a quick detour to Gullykin provides a free Ring of Free Action. Alora is dropped off afterwards.
Aule's Staff is picked up for the first +3 weapon. The Greenstone Amulet and Cloak of Displacement are also acquired.
Sirines provide level 7 and the warrior APR boost, and then kill the Flesh Golems with +1 bullets before heading south to commit Brage to the Temple. The +3 Berserker's sword is kept as a panic button for Minsc against Belhifit.
To prepare for SoD, a quick sidetrip for the gauntlets of DEX is made.
Finally, we begin the main quest. Jharam has two level 2 spells memorized: Invisibility, getting him to Mulahey safely, and Web, killing him safely.
The Free Action ring allows us to safely raid the tombs for the Wand of Monster Summoning, and Nimbul proves not nimble enough to dodge a crushing defeat. Literally. -13 vs Missiles is now achieved.
Should've prebuffed with Shield, but Tranzig dies eventually after pelting Jharam with multiple Magic Missiles.
Bandit Camp: Invisibly invade the tent, buff with a Hill Giant Strength potion, open with a Scorcher from Wand. Venkt falls. -19 AC vs Missiles says everyone else is irrelevant.
Aldeth is killed in the Cloakwood, the Spider's Bane is acquired for Minsc as well. Drasus is pulled away and killed by a Stone Giant Strength + Absorption potion, and then I steal his boots and run invisibly inside. Rushed to Davaeorn, activated a Pro. from Magic scroll and a Frost Giant Strength potion, and kited the two Battle Horrors to death before slinging bullets and Wand of Fire charges at Davaeorn and his lackeys respectively.
In Baldur's Gate itself, I'm trying to get gold to empty Sorcerous Sundries of useful items. Varci Roaringhorn is saved, Doppelgangers are slaughtered en masse, Ogre mages and phase spiders die, the Low Lantern is cleared, a Greater Basilisk is killed, and Ramazith is ambushed in his own tower.
Oh, and though I didn't take screenshots, the top of the Iron Throne is cleared out for the second Ring of Free Actions. It involved a lot of fireballs and dodging upstairs and downstairs; one Mage went invisible one level from the top and refused to reveal himself again, but he didn't have the ring on him so he was left alive to report to the Iron Throne.
The Potion of Magic Blocking failure as noted in the Adventurer's Lounge happened: as it was not supposed to work or not work like it did, as it may be, I redo the Ogre Mage fight, quaffing a Potion of Magic Shielding instead. Magic Blocking potions are almost useless at this point: the only spell effects worth dispelling that CAN be dispelled by it are... Blindness, Slow, and Ray of Enfeeblement?
Catacombs are looted, STR and WIS tomes looted, Pratt passed by invisibly, and Phase Spiders still track us like lasers the second we come out of stealth. At least due to all the experience I've gotten with sidequests, Jharam gets level 9 and GM in slings.
Wand of Summoning allows Jharam safety to kill Slythe. I still want to know: how do solo Thieves or Monks kill Slythe without dying? Seems a single backstab would be enough to kill either of them, and they can't get summons to bait out his potions...
Ducal Palace is a mess. The idea was scroll of Invisibility on Liia to ensure a victory, as long as I win the remaining fight. An early Dispel Magic reveals Liia, though, and I hurriedly check my scroll container. No scroll of Invisibility, but one of Improved Invisibility from Ulgoth's Beard. Well. I use it on Liia, but I have only one Turn to finish the battle. A Chromatic Orb is saved against this time, and multiple uses of the Wand of Summoning allows Jharam to finish the fight within the time limit.
Sarevok and allies are fought in standard fashion: Pro. from magic scroll, Diarmid first, Potion of Invisibility to get away from Sarevok, peeling off one of the mages, killing Angelo, killing Tazok, killing Semaj, stubbornly not using another Arrow of Dispelling and failing to kite Sarevok currently, resulting in a ton of potions drunk, but Sarevok dies.
Onto SoD, with 3 +3 weapons in hand.
Hawk King the Temporal Mage
- Stats: str 5, dex 3, con 4, int 22, wis 19, cha 14
- specializes in "time & reality altering spells" only (haste, slow, time stop, etc. and a mix of transmutation and divination spells)
- kit bonus: Tenured
- opposition school: Necromancy
- deity: none
Hawk spent his entire life in the Candlekeep library. Now, events propelled him to leave the confines of his chair explore the realms...
I sent Nimran to free Viconia and went into the wilds to collect a ranger and a wild mage... she tanked some powerful undead by standing in a doorway and killing the shade lord gave me back a rep point
We made it to watchers just to grab a nice sword but the halfling had to save her sister so we agreed to that… the wild mage wanted some items from there as well. I swapped Mazzy for Hexxat, well more for the sack but she can stay for a while and we finished the wild mage quest line with poison backstab and shocking cleric tactics.
I'm telling you, there should be some kind of public pension for us. Civil servant: "You're a Baldur's Gate no-reloader? Why, you qualify for this $2,500 a month, life-long government assistance program!"
Drughliya (Dwarf Swashbuckler, Gate70); Bump (dwarf Assassin, Grond0)
Session 3 was going well, until the end.
We'd started off outside the Cloakwood Mine. Drasus and his gang put up a good fight but snares, shadows and poison are too much for them. We play around inside the mine, Deughliya risking all against ghasts and Bump having to save her from her own stupidity.
The Undermountain gang wish they'd stayed there, after a running battle outside (Bump) and upstairs (Drughliya) wears them down. Drughliya heads out to help Bump and takes a critical for 30 odd damage.
Drughliya went up, safe in the shadows. Bump followed, safe in the shadows.
Not so fast, said Zhalimar Cloudewulfe. Bump looked at Drughliya - convinced she was not in the shadows. Drughliya looked at Bump - convinced he was not in the shadows.
We're both in the shadows. Bump doesn't look very much in the shadows to me but the text log confirms he is.
Well one of us must be visible...
Zhalimar is having none of it though, able to detect Bump through use of multiplayer-fu. Drughliya puts down a couple of snares so Bump can lead enemies in, but they have attacked him and despite further use of shadows and stairs he takes a Flame Strike. Then a second.
The game crashes as she exits the building. After recovering the autosave, a named save is made so we can contine to a temple and return for part two of the battle at a later date.
Hexxat for Yoshimo, I don't know but something about a graveyard... I assume its a vampire thing?
well we sided with the thief option because I may want to sell some stolen items at some future point. I grabbed the free ring of trap finding for myself and spend all our spare gold on "Mercykiller Ring" gift for Imoen
For those who haven't been following @Harpagornis's solo LoB thread (which includes both no-reload and normal runs), you can see @histamiini's run begin here.
Yoshimo for Imoen i pay wisdom to open a door and Viconia tricks a guard into a trap
we have 3 mages so magic missiles open the boss fight as J puts out a swarm. I grabbed the horn and we set sail again.
BG1: Introduction
BG1 end
Jharam antagonizes the guy holding the key in Korlasz' tomb, and then casts Invisibility to get all the way to the lever to Korlasz herself. The Dispel trap catches him, so Jharam quaffs a Potion of Invisibility before getting detected and swarmed by undead. Casting Web from scroll invisibly from the bottom left, Arrow of Dispelling on Korlasz, lots of bullets until Korlasz surrenders.
As before, Minsc and Dynaheir are recruited. Minsc, despite having Spider's Bane available, will be mostly using DEX bracers and mace and shield for -7 AC, and the correct belt gives -10 AC.
We grab the spectacles for Dynaheir and leave. Corwin, M'khiin, and Glint fill out the 6-man squad, and we attempt to do a full clear of the first area. Jharan simply avoiding the fight gives safety vs possible Flesh to Stone spells, a Vampire is aided for regeneration, menhirs are sung to, and finally the Dwarves are aided. The undead are kinda exhausting: not knowing where the Mummy is, I'm continually under either Pro. from Fear or Remove Fear, and every time I clear a zone, I have M'khiin summon another 3 spirits. Minsc and Jharan do most of the physical damage, having crushing weapons, and Jharan and Dynaheir do some serious work with Wands of Fire, and the Secret Revealed makes the actual boss fight a breeze.
Spiders and trolls are dealt with fairly easily, no problems that I thought worthy of a screenshot. In the temple of Bhaal/Cyric, we completely ignore Morenthene, and use the strategy from Grond0 and Gate70's run: Web on Ziatar, and members with Free Action swarm before we can get hit by a 100+ damage Poison breath.
Glint almost dies before the Neothelid even emerges from the ground, but he goes Invisible via potion and the others smash through.
Aerial Servants freaking hurt, and Minsc is chugging potions to survive, but expendable Spirit animals help to take the attacks, and eventually take out Akanna.
I'm blind going further in: last run attempt, I just took the Wardstone and ran. But this time I feel strong enough to keep going in, and kill the last party. The largest problem is the Archer who decided to target M'khiin and Glint, but there're no casualties as we leave the dungeon.
After a few minor quests at Bridgefort, we elect to surrender the fort.
Fighting for the bridge itself, though... Really bad lightning bounces fries Corwin beyond any ability to save her.
More minor quests at the Coalition Camp before this happens:
Lesigh. It's that darned "all portraits go to black" bug. Even made sure that Mizhena didn't have a random kill in her dialogue. My last save is the autosave before travelling to the camp. CTRL-J gets some further stuff done, and Voghlin is my 6th member.
We continue to the forest for the cure, and Minsc almost bites the dust to a Bombadier Beetle. Those things are terrifying, with no-save stuns every now and then.
We rescue Skie for the heck of it before going to the tunnels. I dunno how to get the entire Ogre tribe to help, but we do everything else we can find, including ferrying grain back and forth between two crates. Druids are killed, and then we start a fight we're nowhere near prepared for.
Um. That's a dragon. From meta things, having read other people's runs, I'm pretty sure I don't have to kill this thing (I'm fairly sure Semiticgod would've tried to seduce this thing if he could've), but only have to kill the mage. Glint is level drained as well, but we take out the mage and raise Dynaheir with M'khiin's last level 5 slot. Another fight vs the mage controlling water elementals hurts a lot, but we emerge alive, and get a Restoration and rest in the Crusader camp.
Uh. No screenshot of Hephernaan, but last run I took huge damage from Physical Mirror + Blade Barrier combination. This time, Dynaheir has Breach prepared, and M'Khiin Detects Illusion to remove the Improved Invisibility. Others are using summons and fighting to the right: two Ankhegs and various other things provide a lot of distraction. We fight our way back to the elevator, and Invisibility: 10' gets us out safely.
Crusader camp: after a crash to desktop (I've had a lot of these this run...) we begin the defense. Archers vs Trolls, Thieves and a scroll of Chaos vs Paladin/Clerics, wizard slayers and Insect Plague vs Wizards, and Breach vs Blade Barrier.
Dragonspear itself is just a strain on my processor. It's almost impossible to make meaningful commands, but AoE spells and wands break through the ranks fairly simply. The duel is won almost insultingly easily, the only frustrating thing being that she kept using Sanctuary and healing and wasting time.
Hell fight: regular demons are no problem, shuffling around Charm Protection helmet when necessary. We have 20 +3 arrows, 20 +3 Bullets, a +3 weapon in Minsc's hands, an Enchanted Weapon memorized by Voghlin, an Enchanted Weapon scroll held by Jharam. The latter two are never used.
Game, set, match.
We take the Good ending, and start BG2 with 700k experience.
Adamant, Half-Elf Fighter/Mage, BG1EE Update 8
Previous update found here
Next update found here
When last we saw our Half-Elf, he had just cleared out the Iron Throne. Next on the list: The Ice Island. Why? Because it's there. And because it has a Stoneskin scroll!
Usually, the safest way to handle the plethora of mages here is summons. Skeleton Warriors do wonders if you have them (and we do), but a Wand of Summoning works too. The main danger is Andris, and as alluded to in the last update, I decide to use one of our precious few scrolls of Protection from Magic to deal with him. Though Andris can run from Adamant (and he sure tries), he cannot hide.
It's actually quite possible to deal with Andris without blowing such important resources. The alternative approach basically involves sending a wave of summons at him and his two buddies. Even with SCS AI, said mages will happily blow their best damage spells trying to take down your summons (often splitting up in the process, since SCS AI likes to wander around between spellcasts). Once that happens, move in and start bashing them. Andris will teleport away, and you can finish off his friends.
Once you see the Contingency message for Andris, you've got a few seconds before he teleports to your protagonist. Spread your characters out and make sure you have a few buffs active, and Andris will waste his first action on a Remove Magic. Counter by tearing down his Minor Globe of Invulnerability (if he has it up), and just let him have it: Wands of Flamestrike, Acid Arrows, MMM's. He'll go down quickly without his mage buddies.
The rest of the island poses no real difficulty, summons being used to bear the brunt of the enemy magic, and we lay our hands on the lovely Stoneskin scroll.
Next, we move out to Durlag's Tower. The first and second floors are just Ghasts, with some Basilisks out on the balcony, nothing difficult. There's a surprisingly high-level Ghost Mage on the third floor, but he's under a permanent Slow effect (and keeps getting interrupted by his own Cloudkill to boot). A few summons absorb the
spells he manages to get off, and Adamant's blade seals his fate.
Fourth floor just has Ghasts and Kirinhale. Kirinhale can be bothersome if she starts to get traction (i.e. manages to charm some party members and starts teleporting around). The easiest and fastest way I've found to take her down is just to protect your best melee fighter against Charm with the Greenstone Amulet, have him quaff a good Strength potion, and proceed to just kill her on his own (she's got rather poor AC and HP).
Following these preparations, Adamant rudely interrupts Kirinhale's attempt to teleport with a mighty 42 crit (Ajantis and Khalid turned out to be unnecessary).
Alright, now we're getting somewhere. The first underground level is just a handful of Ghasts. The second underground level has a variety of enemies, but they're all melee brutes, and so completely harmless.
The Warders, however, are certainly not harmless. Once you hand over the final item to Love, it's on.
Fear is essentially a blurred Doppleganger that occasionally tries to fear someone. Not a real threat. Third priority.
Avarice drops a Cloudkill on his position when he spawns, goes invisible and tries to backstab. Moderately dangerous. Second priority.
Love is first priority. He/she/it casts Dire Charm/Slow/Confusion, has MGoI and Physical Mirror active, and renews them every few rounds if they get dispelled. If you're quick you can still bring Love down with magic, but melee works wonders.
Pride comes affected by Champion's Strength and Haste, hits pretty much every time for 25-30 damage, is very difficult to hit in return, and has a bit of magic resistance. Dangerous as he is, he's the least important to focus on, mainly since he takes time to kill and is, badassery nonwithstanding, just another melee brute.
Love soon collapses under heavy melee pressure from a buffed duo of Adamant and Ajantis. We've summoned 4 Skeleton Warriors (immune to Avarice's Cloudkill) to hold the line against Pride while we deal with the other Warders.
With Love down, Avarice and Fear soon follow.
I decide to blow a few wand charges to speed up Pride's demise. We wear him down.
The third underground level is cleared without major incident. One shouldn't get too complacent though, as I did: An Islanne doppleganger gets off a Confusion, snagging both Ajantis and Adamant. Thankfully, they refrain from killing each other (I wasn't worried about Adamant dying, but Ajantis...), and the rest of the party kills the doppleganger before it does more harm.
One of the dopplegangers dies while in Durlag form, netting us a third Full Plate, which goes to Khalid.
Though not strictly necessary, we deal with the Dwarven Doomguards by means of a double Web spell and Free Action'd Ajantis and Adamant.
Somewhere around here, several levels were earned: Branwen L8, Jaheira L8 druid, and (of course most importantly) Adamant L7 mage!
I celebrate by returning to Baldur's Gate and indulging in a scroll-scribing bonanza. Having both Minor Sequencer and Stoneskin available will certainly make Adamant an even greater terror on the battlefield, though such a prospect is difficult to believe.
As we leave our intrepid band, they stand ready to cleanse the fourth underground level of Durlag's Tower.
Adamant is now a L6/L7 Fighter/Mage, with his final Fighter level right around the corner, and sporting the classical Mirror Image/Blur sequencer. Strong as an ox, clever as a fox, wise as the average potted houseplant.
I've been busy of late, and haven't been reading the thread, but I can see by a cursory glance that congratulations are in order- especially to semiticgod for his LoB solo. Outstanding work- both in the game world and in your head. I respect the lessons you learned from the experience as much as the triumph itself. Well done!
Congratulations, too, to anyone and everyone who is proud of what they've achieved in recent runs, be they successes as conventionally defined, or not. Keep playing, keep progressing, and above all else, keep having fun!
Cheers,
A.
No doubt he'll moulder on the ground for a while before being forced into another attempt.
Drughliya (Dwarf Swashbuckler, Gate70); Bump (dwarf Assassin, Grond0)
The Iron Throne Mercs put up a good fight but their luck was out - Bump shrugging off one spell as Drughliya shrugs off another.
There's just time for an ogre-mage encounter before anything more serious.
Kirinhale has teleported away and as each party member recovers they are moved from those still dominated. The five half-orcs hatch a plan, send in the backstabber. She does the job and clears up several ghasts before returning.
Griban carefully instructs his level 6/6 cleric / fighter to keep his distance. The berserker has no such qualms and we take the battle to them - with added backstabs and snares.