Just had a new installation. 1) Because last one was buggy 2) Because it wasn't an EET installation as I had thought. It seems a very long time for the game to save at the beginning of the adventure.
Diary of Axeswinger, the Inquisitor of Azuth
Being a dwarf it is hardly surprising that I became an Inquisitor since we as a race are suspicious of magic anyway. I am less suspicious than some of my race, as I accept that it can be used for good purposes, but when it comes to evil mages, I will wade in, axe swinging. That is what happened to Tarnesh. He hurt me so badly that I had to sleep nearly three days to recover, but then, he will never recover.
EDIT
Being an Inquisitor, I thought that Axeswinger would be strong enough to beat Zordral. I was wrong.
I decided it was time to attack the Nashkel Mine. However, I didn't want to spend time fighting kobolds so went through that invisibly. Mulahey was then webbed and blinded.
Outside the mine it was a bad day for the Amazons.
Nimbul was another victim of web and blind, allowing Legacy to get a few more HPs by using a scroll to summon a familiar. Tranzig's saves are too good for that tactic, but he's vulnerable to direct assault and failed to complete any spells - a first use of skeletons there.
At the Bandit Camp the main tactic was just direct assault, with a few rests to heal damage. Taurgosz though was doomed and blinded to speed things up against him. Inside the tent Venkt resisted 21 attempts before finally being blinded. Hakt and Britik both went the same way to leave Raemon no chance when hostilities commenced.
At that point I should have been able to push reputation up to 20 and do some shopping. However, I'd forgotten to talk to Officer Vai after completing the Nashkel Mine and lost out on that potential reputation gain.
Moving on the the Cloakwood, Seniyad was targeted with a heavy attack and failed to complete a spell. The attack on him included what I think was the first use of any items in the run - a wand scorcher.
The spiders in the second area and more druids in the third
were also negotiated without difficulty. In the 4th area invisible blockers made the wyvern cave easy.
At the mine area blind accounted for the mages and Genthore, while Drasus was silenced and didn't react when the slaughter commenced.
Inside the mine the majority of Hareishan's guards were dragged away and killed. However, an attempt to do that with the mage backfired when she targeted Will with a flame arrow and a bit of bumping meant the party was unable to run away quite in time.
By this stage I was getting a bit tired of the game and things rather deteriorated. On the way back from the temple I fought a pair of wyverns. I was trying to run one of them round while the rest of the party dealt with the other. The odds of success were good, but on this occasion Will didn't last quite long enough.
Coming back from the temple again, Hareishan was webbed and poisoned. That resulted in her death, but Will strayed just too close and was caught by the web himself and died for the third time in quick succession.
Coming back once more the party went downstairs. I hadn't bothered with invisibility though and didn't carefully control movement either - the predictable result of that was that Endowment failed to get past the guards.
Finally decided more care was needed, the next return saw the party sneak down to Davaeorn invisibly. His spells were wasted on a pair of skeletons before he was shot down.
With reputation now up to 20 the party toured the shops to buy up everything useful prior to going to the City.
I've finished PoE2:Deadfire twice now, and while the game is awesome and a lot of fun, I'll wait for a promised patch which will increase and balance the difficulty level of the Path of the Damned mode before returning to the game (it's really a bit too easy for veterans of the genre right now). In the meantime, I'm able to return to my current Baldur's Gate run!
I've prepared a lot of fireball charges (via necklaces of missles, wands of fire and the two types of fireball potions) for the SoD-part of this run. I have two basic strategies for most of the enemy groups in SoD, given that the rules of this challenge would make going into melee combat with any of the hostile hordes provided by insane difficulty a quick way to certain death: First, firebombing everything while taking down crucial enemies like shadowed souls (can kill anyone at range within a few seconds), bonebats (will prevent the potential escape option normally provided by going invisible), enemy spellcasters etc. with wand of the heavens charges and other nukes. This is somehwat expensive in the long run and doesn't work against all types of foes, but it's mostly safe. Second, having fire elementals deal with my enemies while the party stays invisible thanks to invisibility 10' radius. This only works if the enemies don't have +2 weapons or powerful magic, but there are a lot of foes who can't deal with a fire elemental, allowing for very safe combat.
Strong single enemies and specific groups (for example, those who are immune to fire damage or have tons of hitpoints) require more substantial approaches. In that case, or whenever I make a significant mistake (which will propably happen quite a lot, let's be real - most opponents in SoD, especially all thieves and spellcasters, can easily oneshot most of my party members), I will talk about it here - otherwise, I'm not going to mention a ton of battles.
I was able to take down everything with firebombing and a few summons in Korlasz' tomb (having some experience with the place by now), while Korlasz herself fell to a single arrow of dispelling.
After finishing up the quests in the city, I made my way to the Coast Way Crossing, where six quick fireballs won the bridge battle for my party.
After taking down the vampire as well, I suffered my first SoD death of the party on the ambush map, when my berserker got hit by a neo-otyugh multiple times, losing health rather quickly from the disease damage - faster than I could try to heal with potions and CWL spells. I did manage to save Sabellius, though:
However, in the Repository of Undeath, Sabellius did eventually get killed when facing the bronze sentry. With the thing being immune to fire and resistant to ranged attacks, I decided to try some quick melee damage, guessing that everyone would be able to take at least one hit before having to retreat. I was wrong - one hit was all my enemy needed to take down a full hp half orc fighter/cleric:
I took down the lich via The Secret Revealed and made my way to the Troll Claw Woods. An encounter with a group of orcs left me underprepared and facing two invisible thieves, forcing me to drink some invisibility potions to avoid backstabs (which would propably be certain death) - otherwise, nothing of consequence happened here until I made it to the spider caves in the Forest of Wyrms. With the damage bonus, these astral phase spiders can kill any party member in the blink of an eye, and Aetius' aura was clouded, so he couldn't use any antidotes. However, I always have slow poison memorized on each of my (three) divine spellcasters, so one of them was close enough to save my dragon disciple. I killed the rhino beetle and moved on:
Morentherene suffered a quick death to throwing daggers, and my summons dealt with any cult members in the temple, especially Ziatar, who I can't face with such a low hp party - her breath weapon would propably kill multiple party members in an instant. I also stayed away from the Neothelid. The full force of three spirit lions and two fire elementals is, luckily, enough for most enemies if they don't have an army at their side. I did make a mistake against Darkshelin, missing the mind flayer with my initial fireball barrage, but even with two stunned party members he was killed before draining away any intelligence. Since I've learned a lot from my LoB run, I only made a short and very safe attempt against the Shadow Aspect, instantly retreating when it was obvious that my army of summons wouldn't be enough to take it down - I don't need his sword anyway.
Next, the party solved the various Bridgefort quests and attacked the enemy with the help of the flaming fist. The battle went very well, I didn't have to use more than a couple of fireballs and still had all of my spirit animal summons left:
However, when facing the final guardians of the bridge, I was unable to quickly take down the mage's stoneskins, and he got to cast lightning bolt before being killed. Hjállmar, who was a bit hurt at this point, didn't survive:
However, Swidhun was able to resurrect him (getting level 5 cleric spells early in SoD means that I at least don't have to spend any money on all the resurrections).
Some more updates: I forged a dragonscale shield, a rhino beetle armor and some voidstone bullets. I also successfully managed to get another pair of boots of speed (a first for me in a no-reload run!). 5th level spellpick for my dragon disciple: Spell Immunity (I really wanted to take Breach, but safety has to come first) Weapon pips: *Quarterstaff for my druid, and the second point in two-weapon style for Hjállmar.
Also, this run is turning very much into a "try to never get hit by anything"-challenge. Most deaths here are one hit kills or are otherwise induced by one instance of damage. I've always managed to keep Swidhun out of the line of fire for now, but any mistake here could easily be fatal. Wish me luck
First and last Post Bloodaxe a champion of Tempus overreached himself upon taking on Zargos Flintblade. He thought he had won and just needed the finishing blow only for Zargos to land a lucky blow. I will run him again soon. Next time I will use tactics both fair and foul, the foul being enlisting the help of Amnish guards. However before doing that I will be running a Helmite Champion who was already waiting in the wings.
We meet Gaelan, and go to the Copper Coronet. I... dunno what script just fired. But that's terrifying.
The slaves are freed, and Lehtinan is swiftly removed from power.
From there, we go into the Sewers, claim a sword, attempt to rest and almost get someone killed by Kobolds before sensibly going back to the Copper Coronet to heal up. We enter Hasted and Invisible, with the majority holding off the West while Fenix engages in a ranged duel. It doesn't go well for Haegan. Ranged spells and a well paced bolt finishes off the Mages and the last of the threats.
Ambush 1...
And ambush 2
Prebek's house... doesn't go well. Being unable to cast any arcane spells means Aerie's limited to Divine spells, and there's no counter to the Slow that proceeds to wreck us. Minsc and Jaheira are taken down before I can put down the brutes.
Before Raising them, I did a bit of testing with another character: Pickpockets 85 is NOT a guaranteed success for Bernard's Ring of Regeneration. 105, after 5 tests, succeeded every time. One Potion of Perception later...
And two rests later, the Renfield quests are over.
Our first trip is to collect Cernd. We never acquired a Pro. Petrification scroll for Aerie, but she DOES have 3 Improved Invisibility casts... And they're sufficient to kill the Genies before the spell can ever be cast. Fenix is there under Regular Invisibility, doing nothing but Detecting Illusions for when the insta-invis spells come out.
Druid grove: Trolls < Fire elementals, party < slowed Druids, Myconid spawners < Invisibility, Divine casters < Silence, and Faldorn < Improved Invisibility, Greater Werewolf Cernd.
Next up, Nalia's keep. Nothing much to say early on, Fire Elementals are still good vs Trolls, and the Yuan-ti mage is slaughtered easily.
Glaicus goes hostile again after a Charm spell, so... we kill him.
Iron golem! How are we going to deal with this sucker without immunity to Poison? Fenix, under Improved Invisibility, has a negative save vs Death. It takes two casts, and Tansheron's bow, but it dies without doing anything. Invisible blockers are sufficient for all the rest.
Torgal is pulled, though the others try to get in... A slammed door in the face says otherwise. Torgal falls underneath the weight of attacks.
I have 15k gold! As per my last post, I didn't mean to install the SCS component requiring more gold, so one console later...
Minsc hasn't triggered the Boo quest yet. A quick google gives me the trigger, and...
One magic license! We drop Minsc immediately after: his 6 Wisdom is a huge hindrance under SoB, getting only 85% of the experience of everyone else. And his other low mental stats are giving him negatives to saves, and... yeah. Keldorn is my intended replacement, so into the sewers we go! A Chaos gets all of the gang, and it's a quick fight after that. A funny moment is a Slay Living killing Zorl's own teammate...
I kept getting Level Drained in the Temple, so we spend like a day total having Aerie restore us. There was a scare as the Vampiric Mists trap Fenix, but the others get there in time to save my CHARNAME from an ignoble death. In the first Beholder fight...
Not pictured: the 5 or 6 spells the Beholders Evaded consecutively. I had to dump both Nalia's and Aerie's spellbooks to get these kills. Also, speaking of Evasion: COME ON ALREADY.
More shenanigans: only Thieves should have Evasion... Jaheira has it anyways. Considering a reinstall if this isn't intended.
Oh yeah. There's a Lich. I didn't see the Skull Trap Sequencer, nor buff my mages with MGoI. Ow. Aerie, Jaheira, and Cernd instantly die. Keldorn Dispels Magic on the Lich, which breaks enough things to let us kill it.
We burn two potions of Invisibility to get back to the surface after claiming the Gloves of Dexterity. I don't think we're equipped to fight Beholders yet, much less the Unseeing Eye. Maybe I'll recruit Korgan later, who knows? We head to the Bridge District, and Aerie, Keldorn, Cernd, and Nalia go down the stairs first, everyone with Stoneskin or Ironskin and in Keldorn's case True Seeing active to not die vs the Rune Assassins. Fenix and Jaheira follow, and the fight's not even close this time. Keldorn is such a powerhouse at this point.
I get Jaheira cursed, and get a rematch vs the trio that ended my run last time. Chaotic Commands on all the important people is an almost guaranteed win, and Nalia's Chaos sealed the deal.
We deal with 3/4 of the personal quests: Nalia's kidnapped, Cernd recovers his kid, and Keldorn has a day with his family. We also get the Firetooth Crossbow for Fenix' +3 (or +4) weapon. I'm now waiting for Jaheira to be summoned to the Hold, but after that it's time to go pick up Haer'Dalis for my Jaheira replacement.
Update... stop pocking me! that real thief has proved herself to be something of a double edged issue... she got cut nose to toe by Sarevok in the BHAAL temple which was a devastating lost
we eventually decided to push on as a five man team with the monk eating the traps that can't be avoided and heavy reliance on the flaming fist healer
the main downside is simply all the loot that we had to leave on the floor for lack of space but a new adventure calls and I ran around town collecting peons | gear when who should mysteriously show up, unharmed so it looks like the bugs work in my favour this time... yipee!
I abandoned my EET cleric-ranger run for now and focused on Improved Anvil game. Unfortunately I am running out of steam, so I will restart and rethink my party.
Run 1: I start a simple warrior which has some modded innates that allow her to cast some spells (shocking hands with a chance to hold, inflict moderate wounds with increasing damage per level, finger of death with save bonuses, and burning hands which does not seem to work, hehe).
I recruit the following NPCs 1. Jaheira a melee modified avenger (gets summons and many melee spells) 2. Minsc now a Barbarian 3. Anomen still F/C. 4. Nalia still dual-classed T/M.
I run easily through Irenicus dungeon, mildly underestimating the lesser spirit spiders there. Then outside the circus and most of the docks. I get Jaheira's quest done and meet Ployer. From there to the bridge where the Grotesque Creature there is quite resilient. Maevar's quests in the Temple district and the docks are next which are easily handled. Edwins things as well. The only problem is Rayic Gethras who has some nasty golems. Fortunately, Jaheira has a Clan hunter summon which hurts stuff really well. Mobbing Rayic with normal weapons takes care of his protections. I meet Suna Seni which is at this point doable enough and contemplate the Copper Coronet or Nalia's Keep. The keep it is... but here I hit the wall of my 5 man party. I barely make it past the front gate fight, where a souped up Greater Yuan-ti Fighter tears through the ranks and an impossible Whisper spider blocks my path. While making it past them, the fight inside is worse and the Yuan-ti Mage is killed with luck but Glacius is just not possible. I do get to petrify a spider, but they replenish quite quickly and Glacius has hardiness while I have no breach available at this time. I will download the new IA version (I had a temp version for this run) and rethink my party. Probably I will start with a Necromancer or something, get decent spells (I decided not to give Nalia some crucial spells yet) and see where that leads me.
Alice, the Heroin of the attempt Getting ass-whooped by a Grotesque Creature in Rejiek's place Clan hunters hit hard And Rayic falls Just not enough steam.
I've got several different runs in progress already, which makes for hard choices about which one to play - the best way out of that conundrum seemed to be to start another new run .
Bash is a fighter/mage who is restricted by being forbidden to ever kill anything except by the use of Brage's berserking sword. He's operating in an SCS installation.
After a few non-lethal tasks in Candlekeep, Bash went to Beregost where he helped Firebead out. He then travelled on, ignoring the odd hobgoblin spotted on the way to find Brage. He rested in Nashkel to get CLW before returning to Beregost and equipping the sword to get Algernon's Cloak. Charming Neera with that allowed him to get her gem bag.
Hopping over to the Beregost temple Bash was aiming to charm the sirines there, but on first arrival found they had obviously heard he was coming and all 4 of them were invisible . After a rest though they all duly appeared and Bash set about charming them and sending them out into the world to find dogs to wear them down, while he waited just out of sight. That all went nicely and took Bash to level 3/3.
After buying invisibility at High Hedge, Bash headed north. An ogre was slept to get his belt collection, before the same happened to a group of fishermen (there's a random element in whether Bash goes berserk instantly on seeing enemies or only after a second or two).
Tenya got her bowl back before Bash used invisibility to get past the ankheg on the way to Ulgoth's Beard. He charmed and cut down Dushai there, successfully picking up the nice combination of web + free action.
A couple of charmed guards dealt with Tarnesh while Bash returned Joia's ring to improve his despised reputation. Mr Colquetle helped with that, though Melicamp kicked the bucket. On the way to find Charleston Nib, Bash took on Laryssa - using his immunity to hold person to good effect against her and getting a 4th fighter level in the process.
Charleston Nib was successfully charmed to get him out of the line of fire when Bash went berserk against the diggers.
Sleep allowed Bash to quickly help Ardrouine with some worgs and Hulrik with some xvarts (slept enemies don't trigger berserk). Samuel then got a free lift back to the FAI to push reputation up into double figures.
I hadn't got around to picking up the ankheg armor when passing through Nashkel before, so took the opportunity to do that - also teaching Noober not to waste people's time there.
Bjornin's half-ogres were hacked down to get a 4th mage level
before returning to Beregost to clear up a few little errands there. That included inflicting a bad day on Karlat - charming him to pull him outside, where he was both blinded and webbed before being put out of his misery.
After returning Landrin's goods, Bash went back to the ankheg area and invaded the nest. Pre-casting web on spots where the ankhegs would emerge meant they got few attacks in and Bash got up to fighter level 5 while clearing that.
That makes exploring the Cloud Peaks a bit less risky (as sleep from an ambushing ogre mage is no longer potentially lethal) and that will be the next destination.
Web and sleep made progress in the Cloud Peaks easy and Bash got his 5th mage level by helping out a dryad. Back in Beregost I was thinking it was time to kill Silke, but s often happens got confused about what installation I was playing in. A single hit on her while she was webbed put her to near death, but her stoneskin then activated to keep her alive until she broke free and disappeared with a minor sequencer. Bash immediately attacked a commoner, but fortunately he regained control of himself just before killing them, while Silke had got held again, allowing Bash the chance to run away. Unfortunately, while he hadn't actually attacked the commoner, he had shown a clear intention to do so and before he could get out of sight he was distracted by another irate townsman. That cost 2 deaths and the loss of 8 reputation before Bash could withdraw. Annoyed by that I immediately made another mistake by not pausing the game at the edge of the map while writing up these notes. Silke has a follow-me script, so was able to immediately track Bash down and I came back to the game to find he was confused and had just survived a charm person spell. Silke would have done better to have packed more direct damage spells though as the single magic missile she had was not sufficient and Bash carved through her stoneskin and mirror images before finishing her off with a critical.
The Beregost temple got a nice cash injection from donations before Bash decided it was time to track down some basilisks. The greater basilisks are a far greater threat in melee than the lesser ones, so it was lucky that Bash didn't go berserk until he had been able to target the one in the south - then finishing that off while it was stuck in webs.
The remaining separated basilisks were safely dealt with before Bash recruited Korax to try and paralyze Mutamin. He failed to do so though and the mage's rapid movement brought him into sight of Bash - triggering berserk. Mindful of the threat from dispel magic + petrification, Korax went to try and keep the basilisks under control, leaving Bash to attack Mutamin. This time he wasn't so lucky with a mage attack and charm person struck home.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 157 - update 12 3 Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 9, Gate70) Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 7 / mage 7)
The pattern is clear. Another two mini sessions and no notes. Rae fishes around and finds a couple of screenshots. Casting her mind back, she recalls the previous session was a tale of two mines, from Nashkel to Cloakwood. All safely negotiated with the accidental deaths of Rasaad, Quayle and maybe one or two other NPC bystanders.
Needle had memorised Web somewhere along the way.
The second mini session gets the duo from Baldur's Gate back to the gates of Candlekeep. Again, nothing too dangerous although Rae decided to fool Larze after several attempts at blinding him failed and he caught her mid-cast with a sling equipped. She didn't fancy her chances so conned him away.
The Iron Throne HQ saw Needle fail with six attempts at blinding enemy casters. Rae had blinded her two, and switched to help but also failed. Oh well, that's what webs and a fiery breath ability are all about, although Gardush and Zhalimar required meteors, magic missiles and scorchers before they succumbed.
Corthief XIII the Human Thief update Traveling with: Khalid, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Coran, Imoen
Corthief XIII has made more progress. We have finished the quests in Baldur's Gate (the city) that we are going to do. We decided we wouldn't bother fighting a the top of the Iron Throne HQ, and instead had Coran sneak his way to Thaldhorn to get the info we needed. We have saved our session just before talking to Duke Eltan. The battles went our way pretty decisively. Here is a screenshot of our encounter with the Mountain Maulers, who weren't able to do much mauling.
Another pretty clean session from this muscle-bound pairing with, sadly, not much hint of any deaths .
The escape from the dungeon went pretty well. The only slightly nasty moment was when Hunter and Biff were both stunned by the salt mephit as a horde of goblins attacked. Peer was able to shoot them down pretty quickly though and neither of the stunnees got too low on HPs. Ulvaryl didn't last long on the way out.
The show at the circus didn't have much of interest, so the party were soon off to the Slums to talk to Gaelan Bayle. Next up the Beastmaster couldn't do much to foil a takeover of the Copper Coronet by Hendak.
Hunter was keen to get hold of Lilarcor so the sewers were soon swept clean and Hunter picked up a level as a reward.
While in the area the slavers seemed an obvious next target. Captain Haegan didn't last long against Biff and Peer, while Hunter relied on his spell immunities to tank the cleric. Things were slightly less coordinated against the slaver wizards, who spotted us coming a bit sooner than planned. However, once everyone was engaged in the assault the pressure on the defenders quickly told.
Hunter had found himself a bit more vulnerable to attacks by the slaver guards than he would like, so went to find Officer Dirth.
With his new(ish), shiny (though scratched) armor he led the way into the pirate hideout.
After paying up 15,000 for a ring and amulet the trio travelled to Watcher's Keep. Unusually, everyone was protected against the potential level-draining vampiric wraiths there (Peer - amulet, Hunter - natural immunity, Biff - rage), so the vampiric wraiths wisely chose not to show themselves. The other defenders were cleared before taking on just the first 2 statues in order to provide Hunter with a bastard sword upgrade.
The session ended with a safe return to Athkatla - surprisingly, still with no Suna Seni ambush.
Peer, Archer L9, 108 HPs, 106 kills (188 in BG1) Hunter, Undead Hunter L9, 124 HPs (inc. 10 from bracers, 5 from helm), 36 kills (119 in BG1), deaths 0 Biff, Barbarian L9, 122 HPs, 91 kills (210 in BG1), deaths 0
Corthief XIII the human thief update Traveling with: Khalid, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Coran, Imoen
I am pleased to report that Corthief XIII successfully defeated Sarevok. He will continue onto Amn. The intent is to recruit all 3 love interests (this is in part why he was human) - he wants to see them squabble.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 157 - update 123 4 Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 10, Gate70) Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 8 / mage 9, Grond0)
BG:EE from Candlekeep to Sarevok Candlekeep is less friendly than before. No chores, and a chance to visit jail. We break out and loot the catacombs to boot. Prat and his gang try to stop us. Glitterdust.
After making our way back to the city it is time to crash the coronation. Greater doppelgangers ambush the two dukes and all looks lost. Glitterdust.
With the two dukes saved and Sarevok foiled we chase after him. Through the thieves maze we go, running into Rahvin and his Iron Throne cronies. To their right are arrows of detonation and to their left is a wand of fire.
Needle starts attacking some skeleton warriors while under a protection from undead scroll but decides Rae will get bored waiting. No way, she's quite happy to entertain the idea of one-sided attacks and tells him to get on with it.
Inside the temple of Bhaal is Sarevok. And Semaj. Needle thinks they're probably not that much of a threat to us despite the evidence to the contrary from a few whacks. He stomps on an electricity trap and is lucky to get a magic resistance break.
Semaj sportingly catches some MMMeteors and Magic Missiles as Needle parks Sarevok, gulps a potion of invisibility and moves to help cull a mage. Semaj fails to spot an Arrow of Dispelling which is a fraction ahead of more Magic Missiles. Down he goes.
The big man is malisoned, but Rae realises he is not dispelled. A brief conflab confirms she expected an arrow from Needle to do the job while he expected a spell from her to do the same.
It's not much fun having this lumbering oaf snapping at your heels, so Needle nocks another arrow and slows him down to size. He's still grumbling about dispelling the malison when another one takes effect.
Our two pairs of Boots of Speed now give us the edge and allow a careful selection of spells. Glitterdust.
Unhasted, malisoned and temporarily blinded by the Glitterdust, Sarevok is shown no mercy.
SoA escaping the chateau All our gear is gone but with 1 and a half arcane casters that doesn't slow us down much. We're soon standing outside the chateau with all the loot we can carry. A brief trade sees us with more than 5000gp and we stand at the edge of the promenade looking for a way to avoid Gaelan Bayle. Fat chance - he'll make his presence known next time.
Prudence would suggest the purchase of a magic licence. Will we remember this?
Introducing Moonsword a Female Half-elven Champion of Helm with good Stats. Called Moonsword because she has been chosen by a Moonblade. Before the game starts her Moonblade was stolen by an assassin/thief, however he was killed by Moonsword and thus the sword was recovered.
At the Friendly Arms Inn, Tarnesh was easily beaten.
Karlat was no problem either.
At High Hedge neither of the rolls went well with the result that neither the vampire nor Mellicamp survived.
At least Moonblade acquired second decent sword. North of Beregost, an ogre with a belt fetish was quickly killed.
After him Zargal was also killed.
Zargos Flintblade was the next to die before she went hunting Ankheg.
At the Carnival Zordral was disposed of without difficulty.
She then went wolf hunting before joining up with Isra, anoter paladin.
I couldn't believe how much more powerful the "Improved Bassilus" is. He is ridiculously powerful, so much so that it makes powergaming almost essential. Sad as I don't like powergaming. Sirene died from his first attack and Moonblade not much afterwards as she was put to sleep.
I cleared the Bloodbark Grove and the Dead Man's Pass, even having some fun in the hidden cellar with an invisible Swidhun using his evil-cleric turn undead, forcing my foes to turn on each other:
The only spot of trouble I ran into was in the spider cave. An astral phase spider managed to teleport to Aetius and hit him before he was able to move away. With his very low hp and attacks being able to poison through stoneskin, one hit was enough to kill him - I tried to have him drink an antidote and started casting slow poison at the same time, but both options didn't work fast enough:
The killer mimic battle has been quite the challenge in previous runs, so I was prepared this time, buffing everyone with free action. Still, the killer mimic can two-shot any party member (and one-shot some of them), so I had to rotate and run around quite a bit in order to avoid further deaths.
Next, I made my way to the Underground River. I skipped the blind albino wyrmlings (they can deal way too much burst damage for my liking, even with acid protection scrolls active) but cleared the remaining area without any trouble (Kanaglym was made quite easy by using a bunch of dispelling arrows). I made it to the castle basement, firebombing the first group and the group blocking the elevator after poisoning the food and water supplies. After triggering the Hephernaan dialogue, I fled the area, not wanting to risk this rather difficult fight:
Next, I started the coalition camp battle, firebombing the first three groups. Since firebombing doesn't really work for the final attack force, a rather drawn out battle occured, but since I was able to avoid any backstabs thanks to true sight and Ingeburg was able to land insect plague on the enemy spellcasters, victory was eventually ours. I also reached the experience cap during these battles. A quick update on pips: *Flail for Sabellius and *Dagger for Sextus. Aetius' spellpicks: Improved Invisibility, Breach.
Now, the actual siege of Dragonspear Castle. Time for Sextus to shine - not because of any special abilities, but because he is our primary archer, thus able to use all the special arrows I collected throughout the games. I assisted my troops with firebombing and ranged attacks early on. Aetius got affected by Chaos at some point, but I was able to prevent him from running anywhere and getting himself killed. Meanwhile, an invisible Sextus started disarming the traps to the west, to prepare for the battle against Ashatiel's party. For this unavoidable fight (since Swidhun doesn't stand a chance of winning the duel), I had to fight my way through hordes of enemies, assisted by some spirit lions and arrows of detonation. Dispelling arrows took down any arcane defenses, and the party further moved along to catch up to Ashatiel, who teleported away. She was eventually found, and her remaining companions fell to detonation arrows, though the battle was tough, with Hjálmarr taking some damage:
However, true sight prevented the primary source of concern (backstabs) while dispelling arrows took down any further defenses. After Ashatiel was isolated, it was easy to finally take her down:
The party entered Avernus with tons of potions and scrolls in their inventory. At this point, I was fairly confident that I could take Belhifet (the siege was my primary concern for this run, mostly because I previously had some issues with traps and backstabs plus fighting my way to Ashatiel, and the duel would've been way too risky). My LoB run has given me enough knowledge about this battle to feel like it shouldn't be too much of an issue if I don't make a huge mistake (like getting all of my buffs dispelled). First, I made my way to big B by ignoring the enemies on the first map and taking down those on the second with the help of some chaotic command scrolls (I had tons of those at this point). I rested and stated a very extensive buffing sequence. With fortitude, agility and strength potions, all the low stats that my randomized party usually suffers from were simply ignored. I also increased ranged thac0 further with mind focusing, heroism and power, added full immunity to fire and lightning damage, chaotic commands from scrolls and the full regiment of divine and arcane buffs in my arsenal, with remove fear being the most important. Potions of defense and invulnerability were also used, and I might be forgetting additional stuff at this point (I had started preparing for this in early BG1, with three full potion bags available to me). After three fights in the elevator, Aetius cast Spell Immunity:Abjuration (and, not to forget, Enchant Weapon on Hjálmarr, since my berserker can't use any of the +3 weapons available).
The plan was for the spell immune Aetius to run towards Belhifet, absorbing his dispel magic. However, I had miscalculated: SI:A ran out right before Belhifet was casting his spell, and Aetius lost all of his buffs. Due to poor positioning, the spell also affected Hjálmarr, though everyone else was save. Time for some damage control. Priority Nr. 1 was to keep control of my two unbuffed characters, preventing any save or else-effects - Magic Shielding for Aetius, Rage for Hjálmarr:
Since my primary ranged damage dealers weren't affected, I started to take down the initial devils summoned by Belhifet. Ingeburg supported the party with some spirit animals as well. Hjálmarr and Aetius started rebuffing (with immunity to fire and lightning being the priority), and I moved them away from big B to avoid any fire damage. After taking down the first wave of enemies, the boss was isolated for the first time, with Caelar still standing strong:
I equipped my +3 weapons (bullets of darkness for Sabellius, bullets +3 for Swidhun, the Root of All Evil for Ingeburg, +3 arrows for Sextus, with the other two still rebuffing). Belhifet summoned another wave of devils, but they were quickly taken down. Our foe teleported away, though any attempts to go invisble failed thanks to our constantly running true sight:
At this point, I was able to fully protect Aetius and Hjálmarr again, with the berserker even drinking another cloud giant strength potions and Aetius buffing him with my second and last Enchant Weapon scroll. Most surprisingly, Caelar was still standing and Belhifet hadn't been able to get through Ingeburg's ironskins yet. The strong frontline gave my ranged attackers great opportunities to deal damage - when Belhifet summoned allies for a third time, the Cornugon died almost immediately:
And a few seconds later, Sabellius finished off our foe:
I have to say, the difference between LoB and insane is huge in this battle. The fact that you can actually quite easily take down all the devils takes this from possibly the most stressful encounter in the vanilla games to a rather relaxed affair, provided all of the protections against the various bad things that can happen here stay active. Anyway, I made my way through the outro and out of the dungeon, cleared the circus tent and defeated Mencar with totemic druid strats before stopping for now:
Also: Congratulations to all the people who recently took down Sarevok
Enuhal
Edit: 9 deaths in the party so far. Around the number I would've expected. The best thing: No chunkings (I was quite fearful of backstabs in SoD resulting in permanent death, but didn't get hit by a single one). Now that we're in Amn, we're basically back to the original version of this challenge (minus the one official bioware NPC that was traditionally allowed).
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 157 - update 123 4 5 Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 11, Gate70) Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 9 / mage 10, Grond0)
Our second outing in Amn starts with trying to pay for a magic licence. We had enough cash until we purchased some glasses of identification. So instead we head out to Watchers Keep and tell Odren to mind his own business about our experience. The plan is to loot the western side before checking whether there are any vampiric wraiths. There are not.
Spirit Armour reduces Needle's save vs spell to 5. With no deaths so far in the run it is tempting to play safe but we're gamblers and a Finger of Death trap beckons.
The house wins: After raising Needle...
We clear a side-room the unconventional way - Needle opening a door as Rae was protecting him from fire. Instead of her unleashing a fiery ball of fire she lies down and snoozes. Needle draws the mephit out and after killing it he too has a slumber.
The oozes / jellies / slimes manage an attack or two but we pull through.
Rae is waiting at the exit but Needle is thinking he can safely interact with the pulpit so long as he only puts things in. Wrong.
We escape, leaving two angry statues behind. After a rest we buff up and go back to properly introduce ourselves to them. They put up a running battle until the first is defeated, then Rae comes to her senses and goes for Malison -> Glitterdust. Magic resistance or not, it works.
Back in the city we can afford a licence, and treat ourselves to some malisoned and glitterdusted armour. We also find 15,000gp so pay Gaelan Bayle in preparation for meeting Aran Linvail.
That went well so we loot a pirate hoard.
It's gone dark outside and Hareishan is snacking on thieves. With her eliminated, Needle delicately suggests the thieves weren't much help.
A vampire a day night doesn't keep the vampire away. Malison and Glitterdust does though.
We loot an amulet for Mae'Var. Pick up Suna Seni's shortsword, Arbane, for Needle. Add some chores (Unseeing Eye, Sir Sarles, Fallen Paladins) to our list. Meet up with Edwin and have Needle's cloudkill kill Rayic Gethras as well as it almost finishing Needle off too.
Star Butterfly vs. the Legion of the Chimera: No-Reload Icewind Dale 2 Run
Part 9
With Star herself at level 18, we can deal with lots of ordinary encounters simply using Wail of the Banshee. Ordinary encounters are less interesting and profitable, so it's good to keep them short.
We get multiple castings. When those run out, we have Flesh to Stone as well, another Transmutation spell that benefits from the same feat. It's also an instant death spell.
We get multiple castings of that spell as well. When those run out, we have Icelance, an Evocation spell that benefits from a different feat that Star already has. It's basically an instant death spell.
When those run out, we rest and then re-start the process. Lots of XP for very little effort--that's the result of aggressive level squatting. Anyone who survives Star's spells has to answer to Dipper and his axe.
Or Marco and his hammer.
The yuan-ti priestesses have Death Ward and the sorceresses appear to buff with MGOI (visual effects don't show up on enemies with Improved Invisibility, so I'm not sure), but Icelance can still stun the clerics and Flesh to Stone can petrify them both.
Down to the final level, where Olive Slimes await. They can only be killed by lots and lots and lots of fire damage. As it happens, Star knows Delayed Blast Fireball.
In semiOverhaul, it's possible to skip all of Dragon's Eye just by forcing open the door to Lord Pyros' Domain. But there's a Protection from Magic scroll in Thorasskus' horde that we really want to have. How do I get the scroll without going through all the painstaking steps of completing the area normally?
I pack a bunch of summons next to the right door and have Asriel turn into a rhinoceros beetle. His circle can't fit in the small space, so the game teleports him to the nearest available spot: on the other side of the door!
Asriel collects the loot from the treasure chamber, passes it to the rest of the party via the inventory screen, and then summons a Shambling Mound to kill him.
Mabel uses Raise Dead to bring him back on the right side and then have him turn into a tree to force open the door to the next level.
We sell and then buy several hundred thousand gold (yes, several hundred thousand) in various types of ammunition before proceeding to Lord Pyros' Domain.
This is the worst part of IWD2 by far. But in semiOverhaul, you can skip the entire thing simply by exiting through the north door.
We arrive immediately in the Fields of Slaughter, without having to perform any of the tedious fetch quests of either Dragon's Eye or Lord Pyros' Domain.
The party did a fair number of encounters in the City. Most of those were no trouble, but Jalantha did kill 2 of them with the help of a unholy blight. That illustrated the need for care when taking on spell casters who are doing about 5 times as much damage with their direct damage spells as on core.
I was still happy to let the party take on Drelik - gambling on interrupting his more dangerous spells. What I'd forgotten though was that in this installation he's very dangerous as a thief in addition to his mage abilities. He was surrounded invisibly and attacked, but responded by disappearing himself and chunking Endowment with a front stab.
As usual I won't continue with a run after one of my characters has been chunked. I'm minded to have another go at this though - next time taking a more cautious approach and trying to avoid any casualties.
Corthief XIII the Human Thief Update Traveling with: Minsc, Mazzy, Jaheira, Viconia, Aerie SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods, Core Rules at all times
So the party continues to make progress:
* We escaped Irencus' dungeon with no problem. Nothing of note happened during this. * We fixed the Circus problem and recruited Aerie * We traveled to the government district and rescued then recruited Viconia. * We did the quests in Umar Hills, then worked on that Temple Ruins quest just long enough to recruit Mazzy. We then had 7 so, so sent Yoshimo to the Copper Coronet since Corthief XIII is more than capable of doing the thief duties anyways. * We needed some armor upgrades. We eventually ran into Suna Suni, so that provided AC 2 armor. Beastmaster provided some plate mail for Jaheira. And Officer Dirth gave Minsc full plate. However, Jaheira got cursed when getting Officer Dirth's full plate. So we had her memorize insect plague. This makes the encounter with Ployer and his mage buddies much safer. * We needed the potion bag, so made a brief stop by Watcher's Keep for that. We didn't feel confident enough to venture inside yet. * We needed a way to kill trolls. At first we thought of the crossbow of searing, since Corthief XIII has crossbow skill. But that ended up being a dead end, as that was a heavy crossbow and Corthief XIII can't use it. Eventually Mazzy can use the flail of ages, but that need a way to kill them before we can assemble it. So decided to buy a bunch of fire arrows, and Minsc will use his longbow to kill them. Minsc normally uses the Sword of Chaos. * Before taking on trolls, could be helpful to get a shield upgrade for Jaheira. (Mazzy is using the Shield of the Lost). So we paid a stop by Trademeet. We had Aerie give protection from petrification on the main line fighters and Corthief XIII, then did a few buffs and attacked the genies - success! Jaheira was happy for the shield upgrade (Shield of Harmony). * Our 1st death in Amn happened during an ambush - Viconia got penned in by Orogs and was killed. Jaheira raised Viconia at Trademeet. Interestingly enough, Viconia's stats were quite low after the resurrection - it took one more rest before she was full strength stat-wise. Must be an EE effect, or possibly a side effect of using Harper's Call.
We ended our session just entering D'Arnise Keep - time to go to work in RL.
Interestingly enough, Viconia's stats were quite low after the resurrection - it took one more rest before she was full strength stat-wise. Must be an EE effect, or possibly a side effect of using Harper's Call.
It's the latter. Harper's call reduces all stats by 5 for a short time post resurrection: at one point during the EE's, this actually made Harper's Call not function correctly, since a character would be raised with 1 HP, lose HP due to the CON loss, and be taken instantly to 0 again.
I'd just like to praise the current thread subtitle .
Called is making good progress and has somehow turned into a goody two-shoes by day and kleptomaniac by night through the joys of randomisation. Currently in Baldur's Gate rocking at around 80,000 xp with Safana (gypsy), Branwen (F/C), Kivan (Archer), Khalid (Marksman), and Imoen (Scout). Bounced off the SCS Bandit Camp about three times due to poor prep, and Imoen narrowly avoided being fried by Daeveron in the Mines. Of other recent notables Jaheira had to take a rest after repeatedly being criticaled by Ogre Berserkers, and Mur'Neth got a shock when checking for traps at Durlag's. The Card is fun, Called's magic is fine on defence but on offence he has a habit of dropping Stinking Clouds on his own party. Installation is quite interesting with some unfamiliar quests so will push on with trying Northern Tales etc. now... assuming Called agrees.
died at the hands of Krumm and Caldo partly because they were just too strong and partly because of interruption by my wife. Had it not been for the interruption Stygian could have run away and returned when stronger. He ALMOST died when helping Charleston Nib. This set-up is HARD.
Well, I've just made two huge mistakes that resulted in the end of my current run. While combat didn't provide any meaningful challenges in Chapters 2/3 of SoA for my party, my own stupidity was too powerful to overcome. First, I got my totemic druid (90 hp, the party member with the most health at this point) chunked by a single source of damage - because I stepped into a trap in the Wild Forest, trying out if you can do Neera's quests without taking her into your party. It was the trap right at the entrance, where the illusionary gnome is standing. I somehow misremembered that getting rid of the gnome would disarm the trap. It doesn't.
This was annoying, but not a huge problem. Ingeburg had gotten me through BG1, SoD and the SoA early game - her job was basically done at this point, I was happy to continue either way. I did all non-stronghold quests, cleared the Guarded Compound and eventually completed all stronghold quests except for Windspear Hills, Planar Sphere and Planar Prison. No issues at all... until after I defeat the Warden (with the help of some skeleton warriors).
I had no idea that the Planar Prison Key actually serves a purpose. I simply never forgot to loot the Warden before going to free Haer'Dalis before. This time, I did forget. So, it turns out that if you enter the area where the prisoners are kept without having the key, you get turned to stone. This happened to Swidhun, ending my game at this point - well, at least this run did result in me learning something completely new to me: I had no idea it was even possible to die this way.
@Enuhal Scripted deaths are rough. Sorry about that. I never knew the key kept you alive, I thought you wouldn't gain access to the prisoners - never realized it served as a kind of ward apparently. Live and learn, as they say!
Enuhal said:The Meatgrinder Challenge - Final Update
I had no idea that the Planar Prison Key actually serves a purpose. I simply never forgot to loot the Warden before going to free Haer'Dalis before. This time, I did forget. So, it turns out that if you enter the area where the prisoners are kept without having the key, you get turned to stone. This happened to Swidhun, ending my game at this point - well, at least this run did result in me learning something completely new to me: I had no idea it was even possible to die this way. Enuhal
I wonder if you die when protected from petrification. Just curious.
A new run with a dwarven fighter called Caedmon. **** in Hammers. As per usual in addition to the mods in my Weidu log which hasn't changed since my last two or three games, I added better weapons and armour to the Candlekeep Assassins to try and make those fights interesting. In this game they got a bit TOO interesting as Mendas ALMOST killed him. Caedmon had to use all three of his healing potions to survive. (He was 1 point from death!!!)
He has since replenished his healing potions and is now just south of Beregost.
Comments
1) Because last one was buggy
2) Because it wasn't an EET installation as I had thought.
It seems a very long time for the game to save at the beginning of the adventure.
Diary of Axeswinger, the Inquisitor of Azuth
Being a dwarf it is hardly surprising that I became an Inquisitor since we as a race are suspicious of magic anyway. I am less suspicious than some of my race, as I accept that it can be used for good purposes, but when it comes to evil mages, I will wade in, axe swinging. That is what happened to Tarnesh. He hurt me so badly that I had to sleep nearly three days to recover, but then, he will never recover.EDIT
Being an Inquisitor, I thought that Axeswinger would be strong enough to beat Zordral.I was wrong.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980494/#Comment_980494
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980653/#Comment_980653
I decided it was time to attack the Nashkel Mine. However, I didn't want to spend time fighting kobolds so went through that invisibly. Mulahey was then webbed and blinded.
Nimbul was another victim of web and blind, allowing Legacy to get a few more HPs by using a scroll to summon a familiar. Tranzig's saves are too good for that tactic, but he's vulnerable to direct assault and failed to complete any spells - a first use of skeletons there.
At the Bandit Camp the main tactic was just direct assault, with a few rests to heal damage. Taurgosz though was doomed and blinded to speed things up against him. Inside the tent Venkt resisted 21 attempts before finally being blinded. Hakt and Britik both went the same way to leave Raemon no chance when hostilities commenced.
At that point I should have been able to push reputation up to 20 and do some shopping. However, I'd forgotten to talk to Officer Vai after completing the Nashkel Mine and lost out on that potential reputation gain.
Moving on the the Cloakwood, Seniyad was targeted with a heavy attack and failed to complete a spell. The attack on him included what I think was the first use of any items in the run - a wand scorcher.
Inside the mine the majority of Hareishan's guards were dragged away and killed. However, an attempt to do that with the mage backfired when she targeted Will with a flame arrow and a bit of bumping meant the party was unable to run away quite in time.
By this stage I was getting a bit tired of the game and things rather deteriorated. On the way back from the temple I fought a pair of wyverns. I was trying to run one of them round while the rest of the party dealt with the other. The odds of success were good, but on this occasion Will didn't last quite long enough.
Finally decided more care was needed, the next return saw the party sneak down to Davaeorn invisibly. His spells were wasted on a pair of skeletons before he was shot down.
Will, Berserker L6, 71 HPs, 147 kills, 5 deaths
Heritage, Dwarven Defender L6, 84 HPs, 75 kills, 2 deaths
Bequest, Fighter L5 / Thief L5, 47 HPs, 79 kills, 2 deaths
Legacy, Dragon Disciple L5, 29 HPs, 28 kills
Endowment, Fighter L5 / Illusionist L4, 44 HPs, 107 kills, 1 death
Testament, Fighter L5 / Cleric L5, 58 HPs, 67 kills, 1 death
The Meatgrinder Challenge - Fourth update
Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/977200/#Comment_977200
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/977570/#Comment_977570
I've prepared a lot of fireball charges (via necklaces of missles, wands of fire and the two types of fireball potions) for the SoD-part of this run. I have two basic strategies for most of the enemy groups in SoD, given that the rules of this challenge would make going into melee combat with any of the hostile hordes provided by insane difficulty a quick way to certain death:
First, firebombing everything while taking down crucial enemies like shadowed souls (can kill anyone at range within a few seconds), bonebats (will prevent the potential escape option normally provided by going invisible), enemy spellcasters etc. with wand of the heavens charges and other nukes. This is somehwat expensive in the long run and doesn't work against all types of foes, but it's mostly safe.
Second, having fire elementals deal with my enemies while the party stays invisible thanks to invisibility 10' radius. This only works if the enemies don't have +2 weapons or powerful magic, but there are a lot of foes who can't deal with a fire elemental, allowing for very safe combat.
Strong single enemies and specific groups (for example, those who are immune to fire damage or have tons of hitpoints) require more substantial approaches. In that case, or whenever I make a significant mistake (which will propably happen quite a lot, let's be real - most opponents in SoD, especially all thieves and spellcasters, can easily oneshot most of my party members), I will talk about it here - otherwise, I'm not going to mention a ton of battles.
I was able to take down everything with firebombing and a few summons in Korlasz' tomb (having some experience with the place by now), while Korlasz herself fell to a single arrow of dispelling.
After finishing up the quests in the city, I made my way to the Coast Way Crossing, where six quick fireballs won the bridge battle for my party.
After taking down the vampire as well, I suffered my first SoD death of the party on the ambush map, when my berserker got hit by a neo-otyugh multiple times, losing health rather quickly from the disease damage - faster than I could try to heal with potions and CWL spells. I did manage to save Sabellius, though:
However, in the Repository of Undeath, Sabellius did eventually get killed when facing the bronze sentry. With the thing being immune to fire and resistant to ranged attacks, I decided to try some quick melee damage, guessing that everyone would be able to take at least one hit before having to retreat. I was wrong - one hit was all my enemy needed to take down a full hp half orc fighter/cleric:
I took down the lich via The Secret Revealed and made my way to the Troll Claw Woods. An encounter with a group of orcs left me underprepared and facing two invisible thieves, forcing me to drink some invisibility potions to avoid backstabs (which would propably be certain death) - otherwise, nothing of consequence happened here until I made it to the spider caves in the Forest of Wyrms. With the damage bonus, these astral phase spiders can kill any party member in the blink of an eye, and Aetius' aura was clouded, so he couldn't use any antidotes. However, I always have slow poison memorized on each of my (three) divine spellcasters, so one of them was close enough to save my dragon disciple. I killed the rhino beetle and moved on:
Morentherene suffered a quick death to throwing daggers, and my summons dealt with any cult members in the temple, especially Ziatar, who I can't face with such a low hp party - her breath weapon would propably kill multiple party members in an instant. I also stayed away from the Neothelid. The full force of three spirit lions and two fire elementals is, luckily, enough for most enemies if they don't have an army at their side. I did make a mistake against Darkshelin, missing the mind flayer with my initial fireball barrage, but even with two stunned party members he was killed before draining away any intelligence. Since I've learned a lot from my LoB run, I only made a short and very safe attempt against the Shadow Aspect, instantly retreating when it was obvious that my army of summons wouldn't be enough to take it down - I don't need his sword anyway.
Next, the party solved the various Bridgefort quests and attacked the enemy with the help of the flaming fist. The battle went very well, I didn't have to use more than a couple of fireballs and still had all of my spirit animal summons left:
However, when facing the final guardians of the bridge, I was unable to quickly take down the mage's stoneskins, and he got to cast lightning bolt before being killed. Hjállmar, who was a bit hurt at this point, didn't survive:
However, Swidhun was able to resurrect him (getting level 5 cleric spells early in SoD means that I at least don't have to spend any money on all the resurrections).
Some more updates:
I forged a dragonscale shield, a rhino beetle armor and some voidstone bullets. I also successfully managed to get another pair of boots of speed (a first for me in a no-reload run!).
5th level spellpick for my dragon disciple: Spell Immunity (I really wanted to take Breach, but safety has to come first)
Weapon pips: *Quarterstaff for my druid, and the second point in two-weapon style for Hjállmar.
Also, this run is turning very much into a "try to never get hit by anything"-challenge. Most deaths here are one hit kills or are otherwise induced by one instance of damage. I've always managed to keep Swidhun out of the line of fire for now, but any mistake here could easily be fatal. Wish me luck
Enuhal
Bloodaxe a champion of Tempus overreached himself upon taking on Zargos Flintblade. He thought he had won and just needed the finishing blow only for Zargos to land a lucky blow.
I will run him again soon. Next time I will use tactics both fair and foul, the foul being enlisting the help of Amnish guards.
Fenix, update 4
BG1 Intro
BG1 end
SoD end
SoA beginning
We meet Gaelan, and go to the Copper Coronet. I... dunno what script just fired. But that's terrifying.
The slaves are freed, and Lehtinan is swiftly removed from power.
Ambush 1...
And ambush 2
Prebek's house... doesn't go well. Being unable to cast any arcane spells means Aerie's limited to Divine spells, and there's no counter to the Slow that proceeds to wreck us. Minsc and Jaheira are taken down before I can put down the brutes.
Before Raising them, I did a bit of testing with another character: Pickpockets 85 is NOT a guaranteed success for Bernard's Ring of Regeneration. 105, after 5 tests, succeeded every time. One Potion of Perception later...
Druid grove: Trolls < Fire elementals, party < slowed Druids, Myconid spawners < Invisibility, Divine casters < Silence, and Faldorn < Improved Invisibility, Greater Werewolf Cernd.
Next up, Nalia's keep. Nothing much to say early on, Fire Elementals are still good vs Trolls, and the Yuan-ti mage is slaughtered easily.
Glaicus goes hostile again after a Charm spell, so... we kill him.
Iron golem! How are we going to deal with this sucker without immunity to Poison? Fenix, under Improved Invisibility, has a negative save vs Death. It takes two casts, and Tansheron's bow, but it dies without doing anything. Invisible blockers are sufficient for all the rest.
Torgal is pulled, though the others try to get in... A slammed door in the face says otherwise. Torgal falls underneath the weight of attacks.
I have 15k gold! As per my last post, I didn't mean to install the SCS component requiring more gold, so one console later...
Minsc hasn't triggered the Boo quest yet. A quick google gives me the trigger, and...
One magic license! We drop Minsc immediately after: his 6 Wisdom is a huge hindrance under SoB, getting only 85% of the experience of everyone else. And his other low mental stats are giving him negatives to saves, and... yeah. Keldorn is my intended replacement, so into the sewers we go! A Chaos gets all of the gang, and it's a quick fight after that. A funny moment is a Slay Living killing Zorl's own teammate...
I kept getting Level Drained in the Temple, so we spend like a day total having Aerie restore us. There was a scare as the Vampiric Mists trap Fenix, but the others get there in time to save my CHARNAME from an ignoble death. In the first Beholder fight...
Not pictured: the 5 or 6 spells the Beholders Evaded consecutively. I had to dump both Nalia's and Aerie's spellbooks to get these kills. Also, speaking of Evasion: COME ON ALREADY.
More shenanigans: only Thieves should have Evasion... Jaheira has it anyways. Considering a reinstall if this isn't intended.
Oh yeah. There's a Lich. I didn't see the Skull Trap Sequencer, nor buff my mages with MGoI. Ow. Aerie, Jaheira, and Cernd instantly die. Keldorn Dispels Magic on the Lich, which breaks enough things to let us kill it.
We burn two potions of Invisibility to get back to the surface after claiming the Gloves of Dexterity. I don't think we're equipped to fight Beholders yet, much less the Unseeing Eye. Maybe I'll recruit Korgan later, who knows?
We head to the Bridge District, and Aerie, Keldorn, Cernd, and Nalia go down the stairs first, everyone with Stoneskin or Ironskin and in Keldorn's case True Seeing active to not die vs the Rune Assassins. Fenix and Jaheira follow, and the fight's not even close this time. Keldorn is such a powerhouse at this point.
I get Jaheira cursed, and get a rematch vs the trio that ended my run last time. Chaotic Commands on all the important people is an almost guaranteed win, and Nalia's Chaos sealed the deal.
We deal with 3/4 of the personal quests: Nalia's kidnapped, Cernd recovers his kid, and Keldorn has a day with his family. We also get the Firetooth Crossbow for Fenix' +3 (or +4) weapon. I'm now waiting for Jaheira to be summoned to the Hold, but after that it's time to go pick up Haer'Dalis for my Jaheira replacement.
that real thief has proved herself to be something of a double edged issue... she got cut nose to toe by Sarevok in the BHAAL temple which was a devastating lost
we eventually decided to push on as a five man team with the monk eating the traps that can't be avoided and heavy reliance on the flaming fist healer
the main downside is simply all the loot that we had to leave on the floor for lack of space but a new adventure calls and I ran around town collecting peons | gear when who should mysteriously show up, unharmed so it looks like the bugs work in my favour this time... yipee!
Run 1:
I start a simple warrior which has some modded innates that allow her to cast some spells (shocking hands with a chance to hold, inflict moderate wounds with increasing damage per level, finger of death with save bonuses, and burning hands which does not seem to work, hehe).
I recruit the following NPCs
1. Jaheira a melee modified avenger (gets summons and many melee spells)
2. Minsc now a Barbarian
3. Anomen still F/C.
4. Nalia still dual-classed T/M.
I run easily through Irenicus dungeon, mildly underestimating the lesser spirit spiders there. Then outside the circus and most of the docks. I get Jaheira's quest done and meet Ployer. From there to the bridge where the Grotesque Creature there is quite resilient. Maevar's quests in the Temple district and the docks are next which are easily handled. Edwins things as well. The only problem is Rayic Gethras who has some nasty golems. Fortunately, Jaheira has a Clan hunter summon which hurts stuff really well. Mobbing Rayic with normal weapons takes care of his protections. I meet Suna Seni which is at this point doable enough and contemplate the Copper Coronet or Nalia's Keep. The keep it is... but here I hit the wall of my 5 man party. I barely make it past the front gate fight, where a souped up Greater Yuan-ti Fighter tears through the ranks and an impossible Whisper spider blocks my path. While making it past them, the fight inside is worse and the Yuan-ti Mage is killed with luck but Glacius is just not possible. I do get to petrify a spider, but they replenish quite quickly and Glacius has hardiness while I have no breach available at this time.
I will download the new IA version (I had a temp version for this run) and rethink my party. Probably I will start with a Necromancer or something, get decent spells (I decided not to give Nalia some crucial spells yet) and see where that leads me.
Alice, the Heroin of the attempt
Getting ass-whooped by a Grotesque Creature in Rejiek's place
Clan hunters hit hard
And Rayic falls
Just not enough steam.
Original post and previous run:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/936609/#Comment_936609
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/962844/#Comment_962844
I've got several different runs in progress already, which makes for hard choices about which one to play - the best way out of that conundrum seemed to be to start another new run
Bash is a fighter/mage who is restricted by being forbidden to ever kill anything except by the use of Brage's berserking sword. He's operating in an SCS installation.
After a few non-lethal tasks in Candlekeep, Bash went to Beregost where he helped Firebead out. He then travelled on, ignoring the odd hobgoblin spotted on the way to find Brage. He rested in Nashkel to get CLW before returning to Beregost and equipping the sword to get Algernon's Cloak. Charming Neera with that allowed him to get her gem bag.
Hopping over to the Beregost temple Bash was aiming to charm the sirines there, but on first arrival found they had obviously heard he was coming and all 4 of them were invisible
After buying invisibility at High Hedge, Bash headed north. An ogre was slept to get his belt collection, before the same happened to a group of fishermen (there's a random element in whether Bash goes berserk instantly on seeing enemies or only after a second or two).
A couple of charmed guards dealt with Tarnesh while Bash returned Joia's ring to improve his despised reputation. Mr Colquetle helped with that, though Melicamp kicked the bucket. On the way to find Charleston Nib, Bash took on Laryssa - using his immunity to hold person to good effect against her and getting a 4th fighter level in the process.
Sleep allowed Bash to quickly help Ardrouine with some worgs and Hulrik with some xvarts (slept enemies don't trigger berserk). Samuel then got a free lift back to the FAI to push reputation up into double figures.
I hadn't got around to picking up the ankheg armor when passing through Nashkel before, so took the opportunity to do that - also teaching Noober not to waste people's time there.
Bjornin's half-ogres were hacked down to get a 4th mage level
After returning Landrin's goods, Bash went back to the ankheg area and invaded the nest. Pre-casting web on spots where the ankhegs would emerge meant they got few attacks in and Bash got up to fighter level 5 while clearing that.
Fighter 5 / Mage 4, 47 HPs, 92 kills
Previous updates:
Web and sleep made progress in the Cloud Peaks easy and Bash got his 5th mage level by helping out a dryad. Back in Beregost I was thinking it was time to kill Silke, but s often happens got confused about what installation I was playing in. A single hit on her while she was webbed put her to near death, but her stoneskin then activated to keep her alive until she broke free and disappeared with a minor sequencer. Bash immediately attacked a commoner, but fortunately he regained control of himself just before killing them, while Silke had got held again, allowing Bash the chance to run away. Unfortunately, while he hadn't actually attacked the commoner, he had shown a clear intention to do so and before he could get out of sight he was distracted by another irate townsman. That cost 2 deaths and the loss of 8 reputation before Bash could withdraw. Annoyed by that I immediately made another mistake by not pausing the game at the edge of the map while writing up these notes. Silke has a follow-me script, so was able to immediately track Bash down and I came back to the game to find he was confused and had just survived a charm person spell. Silke would have done better to have packed more direct damage spells though as the single magic missile she had was not sufficient and Bash carved through her stoneskin and mirror images before finishing her off with a critical.
The Beregost temple got a nice cash injection from donations before Bash decided it was time to track down some basilisks. The greater basilisks are a far greater threat in melee than the lesser ones, so it was lucky that Bash didn't go berserk until he had been able to target the one in the south - then finishing that off while it was stuck in webs.
The remaining separated basilisks were safely dealt with before Bash recruited Korax to try and paralyze Mutamin. He failed to do so though and the mage's rapid movement brought him into sight of Bash - triggering berserk. Mindful of the threat from dispel magic + petrification, Korax went to try and keep the basilisks under control, leaving Bash to attack Mutamin. This time he wasn't so lucky with a mage attack and charm person struck home.
Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 9, Gate70)
Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 7 / mage 7)
The pattern is clear. Another two mini sessions and no notes. Rae fishes around and finds a couple of screenshots. Casting her mind back, she recalls the previous session was a tale of two mines, from Nashkel to Cloakwood. All safely negotiated with the accidental deaths of Rasaad, Quayle and maybe one or two other NPC bystanders.
Needle had memorised Web somewhere along the way.
The second mini session gets the duo from Baldur's Gate back to the gates of Candlekeep. Again, nothing too dangerous although Rae decided to fool Larze after several attempts at blinding him failed and he caught her mid-cast with a sling equipped. She didn't fancy her chances so conned him away.
The Iron Throne HQ saw Needle fail with six attempts at blinding enemy casters. Rae had blinded her two, and switched to help but also failed. Oh well, that's what webs and a fiery breath ability are all about, although Gardush and Zhalimar required meteors, magic missiles and scorchers before they succumbed.
Traveling with: Khalid, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Coran, Imoen
Corthief XIII has made more progress. We have finished the quests in Baldur's Gate (the city) that we are going to do. We decided we wouldn't bother fighting a the top of the Iron Throne HQ, and instead had Coran sneak his way to Thaldhorn to get the info we needed. We have saved our session just before talking to Duke Eltan. The battles went our way pretty decisively. Here is a screenshot of our encounter with the Mountain Maulers, who weren't able to do much mauling.
Grond0: Peer, Elf Archer. Chaotic Good
Corey_Russell: Hunter, Human Undead Hunter. Lawful Good
Gate70: Biff, Dwarf Barbarian. Neutral Evil
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/975701/#Comment_975701
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/977126/#Comment_977126
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980290/#Comment_980290
Another pretty clean session from this muscle-bound pairing with, sadly, not much hint of any deaths
The escape from the dungeon went pretty well. The only slightly nasty moment was when Hunter and Biff were both stunned by the salt mephit as a horde of goblins attacked. Peer was able to shoot them down pretty quickly though and neither of the stunnees got too low on HPs. Ulvaryl didn't last long on the way out.
The show at the circus didn't have much of interest, so the party were soon off to the Slums to talk to Gaelan Bayle. Next up the Beastmaster couldn't do much to foil a takeover of the Copper Coronet by Hendak.
While in the area the slavers seemed an obvious next target. Captain Haegan didn't last long against Biff and Peer, while Hunter relied on his spell immunities to tank the cleric. Things were slightly less coordinated against the slaver wizards, who spotted us coming a bit sooner than planned. However, once everyone was engaged in the assault the pressure on the defenders quickly told.
Hunter had found himself a bit more vulnerable to attacks by the slaver guards than he would like, so went to find Officer Dirth.
After paying up 15,000 for a ring and amulet the trio travelled to Watcher's Keep. Unusually, everyone was protected against the potential level-draining vampiric wraiths there (Peer - amulet, Hunter - natural immunity, Biff - rage), so the vampiric wraiths wisely chose not to show themselves. The other defenders were cleared before taking on just the first 2 statues in order to provide Hunter with a bastard sword upgrade.
The session ended with a safe return to Athkatla - surprisingly, still with no Suna Seni ambush.
Peer, Archer L9, 108 HPs, 106 kills (188 in BG1)
Hunter, Undead Hunter L9, 124 HPs (inc. 10 from bracers, 5 from helm), 36 kills (119 in BG1), deaths 0
Biff, Barbarian L9, 122 HPs, 91 kills (210 in BG1), deaths 0
Traveling with: Khalid, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Coran, Imoen
I am pleased to report that Corthief XIII successfully defeated Sarevok. He will continue onto Amn. The intent is to recruit all 3 love interests (this is in part why he was human) - he wants to see them squabble.
Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 10, Gate70)
Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 8 / mage 9, Grond0)
BG:EE from Candlekeep to Sarevok
Candlekeep is less friendly than before. No chores, and a chance to visit jail. We break out and loot the catacombs to boot. Prat and his gang try to stop us. Glitterdust.
Inside the temple of Bhaal is Sarevok. And Semaj. Needle thinks they're probably not that much of a threat to us despite the evidence to the contrary from a few whacks. He stomps on an electricity trap and is lucky to get a magic resistance break.
It's not much fun having this lumbering oaf snapping at your heels, so Needle nocks another arrow and slows him down to size. He's still grumbling about dispelling the malison when another one takes effect.
SoA escaping the chateau
All our gear is gone but with 1 and a half arcane casters that doesn't slow us down much. We're soon standing outside the chateau with all the loot we can carry. A brief trade sees us with more than 5000gp and we stand at the edge of the promenade looking for a way to avoid Gaelan Bayle. Fat chance - he'll make his presence known next time.
Prudence would suggest the purchase of a magic licence. Will we remember this?
Called Moonsword because she has been chosen by a Moonblade. Before the game starts her Moonblade was stolen by an assassin/thief, however he was killed by Moonsword and thus the sword was recovered.
At the Friendly Arms Inn, Tarnesh was easily beaten.
At the Carnival Zordral was disposed of without difficulty.
End of the story of Moonsword
I couldn't believe how much more powerful the "Improved Bassilus" is. He is ridiculously powerful, so much so that it makes powergaming almost essential.Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/977200/#Comment_977200
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/977570/#Comment_977570
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980954/#Comment_980954
I cleared the Bloodbark Grove and the Dead Man's Pass, even having some fun in the hidden cellar with an invisible Swidhun using his evil-cleric turn undead, forcing my foes to turn on each other:
The only spot of trouble I ran into was in the spider cave. An astral phase spider managed to teleport to Aetius and hit him before he was able to move away. With his very low hp and attacks being able to poison through stoneskin, one hit was enough to kill him - I tried to have him drink an antidote and started casting slow poison at the same time, but both options didn't work fast enough:
The killer mimic battle has been quite the challenge in previous runs, so I was prepared this time, buffing everyone with free action. Still, the killer mimic can two-shot any party member (and one-shot some of them), so I had to rotate and run around quite a bit in order to avoid further deaths.
Next, I made my way to the Underground River. I skipped the blind albino wyrmlings (they can deal way too much burst damage for my liking, even with acid protection scrolls active) but cleared the remaining area without any trouble (Kanaglym was made quite easy by using a bunch of dispelling arrows). I made it to the castle basement, firebombing the first group and the group blocking the elevator after poisoning the food and water supplies. After triggering the Hephernaan dialogue, I fled the area, not wanting to risk this rather difficult fight:
Next, I started the coalition camp battle, firebombing the first three groups. Since firebombing doesn't really work for the final attack force, a rather drawn out battle occured, but since I was able to avoid any backstabs thanks to true sight and Ingeburg was able to land insect plague on the enemy spellcasters, victory was eventually ours. I also reached the experience cap during these battles.
A quick update on pips: *Flail for Sabellius and *Dagger for Sextus. Aetius' spellpicks: Improved Invisibility, Breach.
Now, the actual siege of Dragonspear Castle. Time for Sextus to shine - not because of any special abilities, but because he is our primary archer, thus able to use all the special arrows I collected throughout the games. I assisted my troops with firebombing and ranged attacks early on. Aetius got affected by Chaos at some point, but I was able to prevent him from running anywhere and getting himself killed. Meanwhile, an invisible Sextus started disarming the traps to the west, to prepare for the battle against Ashatiel's party. For this unavoidable fight (since Swidhun doesn't stand a chance of winning the duel), I had to fight my way through hordes of enemies, assisted by some spirit lions and arrows of detonation. Dispelling arrows took down any arcane defenses, and the party further moved along to catch up to Ashatiel, who teleported away. She was eventually found, and her remaining companions fell to detonation arrows, though the battle was tough, with Hjálmarr taking some damage:
However, true sight prevented the primary source of concern (backstabs) while dispelling arrows took down any further defenses. After Ashatiel was isolated, it was easy to finally take her down:
The party entered Avernus with tons of potions and scrolls in their inventory. At this point, I was fairly confident that I could take Belhifet (the siege was my primary concern for this run, mostly because I previously had some issues with traps and backstabs plus fighting my way to Ashatiel, and the duel would've been way too risky). My LoB run has given me enough knowledge about this battle to feel like it shouldn't be too much of an issue if I don't make a huge mistake (like getting all of my buffs dispelled).
First, I made my way to big B by ignoring the enemies on the first map and taking down those on the second with the help of some chaotic command scrolls (I had tons of those at this point). I rested and stated a very extensive buffing sequence. With fortitude, agility and strength potions, all the low stats that my randomized party usually suffers from were simply ignored. I also increased ranged thac0 further with mind focusing, heroism and power, added full immunity to fire and lightning damage, chaotic commands from scrolls and the full regiment of divine and arcane buffs in my arsenal, with remove fear being the most important. Potions of defense and invulnerability were also used, and I might be forgetting additional stuff at this point (I had started preparing for this in early BG1, with three full potion bags available to me). After three fights in the elevator, Aetius cast Spell Immunity:Abjuration (and, not to forget, Enchant Weapon on Hjálmarr, since my berserker can't use any of the +3 weapons available).
The plan was for the spell immune Aetius to run towards Belhifet, absorbing his dispel magic. However, I had miscalculated: SI:A ran out right before Belhifet was casting his spell, and Aetius lost all of his buffs. Due to poor positioning, the spell also affected Hjálmarr, though everyone else was save. Time for some damage control. Priority Nr. 1 was to keep control of my two unbuffed characters, preventing any save or else-effects - Magic Shielding for Aetius, Rage for Hjálmarr:
Since my primary ranged damage dealers weren't affected, I started to take down the initial devils summoned by Belhifet. Ingeburg supported the party with some spirit animals as well. Hjálmarr and Aetius started rebuffing (with immunity to fire and lightning being the priority), and I moved them away from big B to avoid any fire damage. After taking down the first wave of enemies, the boss was isolated for the first time, with Caelar still standing strong:
I equipped my +3 weapons (bullets of darkness for Sabellius, bullets +3 for Swidhun, the Root of All Evil for Ingeburg, +3 arrows for Sextus, with the other two still rebuffing). Belhifet summoned another wave of devils, but they were quickly taken down. Our foe teleported away, though any attempts to go invisble failed thanks to our constantly running true sight:
At this point, I was able to fully protect Aetius and Hjálmarr again, with the berserker even drinking another cloud giant strength potions and Aetius buffing him with my second and last Enchant Weapon scroll. Most surprisingly, Caelar was still standing and Belhifet hadn't been able to get through Ingeburg's ironskins yet. The strong frontline gave my ranged attackers great opportunities to deal damage - when Belhifet summoned allies for a third time, the Cornugon died almost immediately:
And a few seconds later, Sabellius finished off our foe:
I have to say, the difference between LoB and insane is huge in this battle. The fact that you can actually quite easily take down all the devils takes this from possibly the most stressful encounter in the vanilla games to a rather relaxed affair, provided all of the protections against the various bad things that can happen here stay active. Anyway, I made my way through the outro and out of the dungeon, cleared the circus tent and defeated Mencar with totemic druid strats before stopping for now:
Also: Congratulations to all the people who recently took down Sarevok
Enuhal
Edit: 9 deaths in the party so far. Around the number I would've expected. The best thing: No chunkings (I was quite fearful of backstabs in SoD resulting in permanent death, but didn't get hit by a single one). Now that we're in Amn, we're basically back to the original version of this challenge (minus the one official bioware NPC that was traditionally allowed).
Rae (lawful evil female half-elf dragon disciple 11, Gate70)
Needle (chaotic good male half elf fighter 9 / mage 10, Grond0)
Our second outing in Amn starts with trying to pay for a magic licence. We had enough cash until we purchased some glasses of identification. So instead we head out to Watchers Keep and tell Odren to mind his own business about our experience. The plan is to loot the western side before checking whether there are any vampiric wraiths. There are not.
Spirit Armour reduces Needle's save vs spell to 5. With no deaths so far in the run it is tempting to play safe but we're gamblers and a Finger of Death trap beckons.
The house wins: After raising Needle...
We clear a side-room the unconventional way - Needle opening a door as Rae was protecting him from fire. Instead of her unleashing a fiery ball of fire she lies down and snoozes. Needle draws the mephit out and after killing it he too has a slumber.
The oozes / jellies / slimes manage an attack or two but we pull through.
We escape, leaving two angry statues behind. After a rest we buff up and go back to properly introduce ourselves to them. They put up a running battle until the first is defeated, then Rae comes to her senses and goes for Malison -> Glitterdust. Magic resistance or not, it works.
daynight doesn't keep the vampire away. Malison and Glitterdust does though.Star Butterfly vs. the Legion of the Chimera: No-Reload Icewind Dale 2 Run
Part 9
With Star herself at level 18, we can deal with lots of ordinary encounters simply using Wail of the Banshee. Ordinary encounters are less interesting and profitable, so it's good to keep them short.We get multiple castings. When those run out, we have Flesh to Stone as well, another Transmutation spell that benefits from the same feat. It's also an instant death spell.
We get multiple castings of that spell as well. When those run out, we have Icelance, an Evocation spell that benefits from a different feat that Star already has. It's basically an instant death spell.
When those run out, we rest and then re-start the process. Lots of XP for very little effort--that's the result of aggressive level squatting. Anyone who survives Star's spells has to answer to Dipper and his axe.
Or Marco and his hammer.
The yuan-ti priestesses have Death Ward and the sorceresses appear to buff with MGOI (visual effects don't show up on enemies with Improved Invisibility, so I'm not sure), but Icelance can still stun the clerics and Flesh to Stone can petrify them both.
Down to the final level, where Olive Slimes await. They can only be killed by lots and lots and lots of fire damage. As it happens, Star knows Delayed Blast Fireball.
In semiOverhaul, it's possible to skip all of Dragon's Eye just by forcing open the door to Lord Pyros' Domain. But there's a Protection from Magic scroll in Thorasskus' horde that we really want to have. How do I get the scroll without going through all the painstaking steps of completing the area normally?
I pack a bunch of summons next to the right door and have Asriel turn into a rhinoceros beetle. His circle can't fit in the small space, so the game teleports him to the nearest available spot: on the other side of the door!
Asriel collects the loot from the treasure chamber, passes it to the rest of the party via the inventory screen, and then summons a Shambling Mound to kill him.
Mabel uses Raise Dead to bring him back on the right side and then have him turn into a tree to force open the door to the next level.
We sell and then buy several hundred thousand gold (yes, several hundred thousand) in various types of ammunition before proceeding to Lord Pyros' Domain.
This is the worst part of IWD2 by far. But in semiOverhaul, you can skip the entire thing simply by exiting through the north door.
We arrive immediately in the Fields of Slaughter, without having to perform any of the tedious fetch quests of either Dragon's Eye or Lord Pyros' Domain.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980494/#Comment_980494
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980653/#Comment_980653
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/980845/#Comment_980845
The party did a fair number of encounters in the City. Most of those were no trouble, but Jalantha did kill 2 of them with the help of a unholy blight. That illustrated the need for care when taking on spell casters who are doing about 5 times as much damage with their direct damage spells as on core.
I was still happy to let the party take on Drelik - gambling on interrupting his more dangerous spells. What I'd forgotten though was that in this installation he's very dangerous as a thief in addition to his mage abilities. He was surrounded invisibly and attacked, but responded by disappearing himself and chunking Endowment with a front stab.
As usual I won't continue with a run after one of my characters has been chunked. I'm minded to have another go at this though - next time taking a more cautious approach and trying to avoid any casualties.
Traveling with: Minsc, Mazzy, Jaheira, Viconia, Aerie
SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods, Core Rules at all times
So the party continues to make progress:
* We escaped Irencus' dungeon with no problem. Nothing of note happened during this.
* We fixed the Circus problem and recruited Aerie
* We traveled to the government district and rescued then recruited Viconia.
* We did the quests in Umar Hills, then worked on that Temple Ruins quest just long enough to recruit Mazzy. We then had 7 so, so sent Yoshimo to the Copper Coronet since Corthief XIII is more than capable of doing the thief duties anyways.
* We needed some armor upgrades. We eventually ran into Suna Suni, so that provided AC 2 armor. Beastmaster provided some plate mail for Jaheira. And Officer Dirth gave Minsc full plate. However, Jaheira got cursed when getting Officer Dirth's full plate. So we had her memorize insect plague. This makes the encounter with Ployer and his mage buddies much safer.
* We needed the potion bag, so made a brief stop by Watcher's Keep for that. We didn't feel confident enough to venture inside yet.
* We needed a way to kill trolls. At first we thought of the crossbow of searing, since Corthief XIII has crossbow skill. But that ended up being a dead end, as that was a heavy crossbow and Corthief XIII can't use it. Eventually Mazzy can use the flail of ages, but that need a way to kill them before we can assemble it. So decided to buy a bunch of fire arrows, and Minsc will use his longbow to kill them. Minsc normally uses the Sword of Chaos.
* Before taking on trolls, could be helpful to get a shield upgrade for Jaheira. (Mazzy is using the Shield of the Lost). So we paid a stop by Trademeet. We had Aerie give protection from petrification on the main line fighters and Corthief XIII, then did a few buffs and attacked the genies - success! Jaheira was happy for the shield upgrade (Shield of Harmony).
* Our 1st death in Amn happened during an ambush - Viconia got penned in by Orogs and was killed. Jaheira raised Viconia at Trademeet. Interestingly enough, Viconia's stats were quite low after the resurrection - it took one more rest before she was full strength stat-wise. Must be an EE effect, or possibly a side effect of using Harper's Call.
We ended our session just entering D'Arnise Keep - time to go to work in RL.
Called is making good progress and has somehow turned into a goody two-shoes by day and kleptomaniac by night through the joys of randomisation. Currently in Baldur's Gate rocking at around 80,000 xp with Safana (gypsy), Branwen (F/C), Kivan (Archer), Khalid (Marksman), and Imoen (Scout). Bounced off the SCS Bandit Camp about three times due to poor prep, and Imoen narrowly avoided being fried by Daeveron in the Mines. Of other recent notables Jaheira had to take a rest after repeatedly being criticaled by Ogre Berserkers, and Mur'Neth got a shock when checking for traps at Durlag's. The Card is fun, Called's magic is fine on defence but on offence he has a habit of dropping Stinking Clouds on his own party. Installation is quite interesting with some unfamiliar quests so will push on with trying Northern Tales etc. now... assuming Called agrees.
Stygian Bloodaxe
died at the hands of Krumm and Caldo partly because they were just too strong and partly because of interruption by my wife. Had it not been for the interruption Stygian could have run away and returned when stronger. He ALMOST died when helping Charleston Nib.Well, I've just made two huge mistakes that resulted in the end of my current run. While combat didn't provide any meaningful challenges in Chapters 2/3 of SoA for my party, my own stupidity was too powerful to overcome. First, I got my totemic druid (90 hp, the party member with the most health at this point) chunked by a single source of damage - because I stepped into a trap in the Wild Forest, trying out if you can do Neera's quests without taking her into your party. It was the trap right at the entrance, where the illusionary gnome is standing. I somehow misremembered that getting rid of the gnome would disarm the trap. It doesn't.
This was annoying, but not a huge problem. Ingeburg had gotten me through BG1, SoD and the SoA early game - her job was basically done at this point, I was happy to continue either way. I did all non-stronghold quests, cleared the Guarded Compound and eventually completed all stronghold quests except for Windspear Hills, Planar Sphere and Planar Prison. No issues at all... until after I defeat the Warden (with the help of some skeleton warriors).
I had no idea that the Planar Prison Key actually serves a purpose. I simply never forgot to loot the Warden before going to free Haer'Dalis before. This time, I did forget. So, it turns out that if you enter the area where the prisoners are kept without having the key, you get turned to stone. This happened to Swidhun, ending my game at this point - well, at least this run did result in me learning something completely new to me: I had no idea it was even possible to die this way.
Enuhal
I had no idea that the Planar Prison Key actually serves a purpose. I simply never forgot to loot the Warden before going to free Haer'Dalis before. This time, I did forget. So, it turns out that if you enter the area where the prisoners are kept without having the key, you get turned to stone. This happened to Swidhun, ending my game at this point - well, at least this run did result in me learning something completely new to me: I had no idea it was even possible to die this way. Enuhal
I wonder if you die when protected from petrification. Just curious.
As per usual in addition to the mods in my Weidu log which hasn't changed since my last two or three games, I added better weapons and armour to the Candlekeep Assassins to try and make those fights interesting.
In this game they got a bit TOO interesting as Mendas ALMOST killed him. Caedmon had to use all three of his healing potions to survive.
He has since replenished his healing potions and is now just south of Beregost.