She will focus on the same weapons except I think I trade out the longsword for shortsword. It is not overly useful to have longsword at this point and you find many good short swords early game.
In all honesty that's a solid choice, and not just for early game, since the overall selection of SoA longswords is not as combat-ready as the shortswords selection, although the passive effects and abilities they give you far outweight anything shortwords can give you... Except for actual direct, hand-to-hand combat effectiveness (Kundane gives you an extra ApR, and you can get the +3 one off Renal rather early in the game, but you don't get any actually +3 longswords in SoA, and if you do, it's probably easier to get the +4 shortsword anyway). And if you really want the fancy immunities, you can just switch them when you need to, so nothing of value will be lost, although it requires you to go around switching them all the time.
Also, if you're willing to dual-wield a throwing dagger set to melee (it's cheesy, and since it goes to your main hand it looks a bit odd. Besides, you're capping yourself with a +3 (and a +2!!) weapon, which might not be ideal), it's an option worth looking at (least for SoA), since it gives you two ApR base, which means that if you add Kundane to your offhand you reach 4 ApR without any buffs. Besides, Firetooth+3 has a pretty sweet 2d4 damage roll. ApR is crutial for a Swashie, since you get enough damage and THAC0 bonuses to outweight not being a warrior class, but the ApR difference still remained a problem for them until the last patch, however it's not like that anymore now.
I was more thinking about snagging one of the paralysation daggers (stiletto or jade fang or even nebs) and use that to best effect. That gives me plenty of options and not worry about damage. Once they are downed I get guaranteed damage.
Most of the fancy weapons like kundane and Belm are not easy to get in IA so I am not going to count on them for now. While the vanilla long swords are good, in the end the upgraded weapons in IA are miles better but mostly warrior only. I will think about late game items for my thief once I get through the mid game.
Heading for Durlag's Tower, the combination of doom and illusionist bonus gave blind a decent chance of working against battle horrors. The ones on the path were surrounded and cut down before the one on the wall was pulled to the end - it can safely be attacked with 2-handed weapons there, though Will did once more get in on the act anyway using Drizzt's scimitars.
Inside the tower a combination of blindness and Will tanking sorted out the ghasts. One of the nice things about blindness in the unmodded game is that it doesn't turn neutrals hostile on a failed attempt - meaning Riggilo never stood a chance. The ghost and Kirinhale were left for now, but Bequest was able to disarm the trap leading onto the roof and the basilisks there allowed everyone to level up again - providing another good HP haul.
After deciding to make their way through the Cloud Peak mountains the party looked to make a start with Greywolf. In the EE he will automatically run to the PC, so Legacy went to wait for him near Prism. When he appeared Testament started casting doom prior to blinding him. Legacy could have run away and around the rock shelf below Prism, but chose to keep near the party in order to avoid losing a few seconds of attacks. That meant running around Greywolf, which is a maneuver I've done untold thousands of times. This time there didn't seem to be any problem, but one of the difficulties with a no-reload in this game is that things are not entirely predictable. To my astonishment Greywolf's sword suddenly doubled in length as it licked out and one-shotted Legacy ...
'Long-life challenge' - cleric to mage dual (update 1)
My long barren spell with this challenge still continues, so I thought I would generate yet another character. This one is interesting from the perspective that I don't ever remember playing a cleric dualled to a mage (and I've played very little with a cleric/mage multi- class).
A few minutes thought suggested to me I should be aiming for at least cleric level 11 (so wouldn't dual until SoA). Normally I don't bother with the use of harm, but for a cleric mage combination that just looks too tempting to resist .
I rolled up a starting character, based on a Priest of Lathander to get the APR advantage. I was originally looking for a total score of 93 or more, but half an hour's rolling didn't get that and I decided that 92 would be perfectly acceptable (dropping a point off constitution in addition to minimizing charisma.
Getting under way a half-hour of actual play saw: - Shoal being commanded to die to get a quick couple of levels.
- a further level was gained in Beregost for talking down Marl.
- Algernon found he no longer felt the cold and didn't require his cloak any more. Neera similarly had no more use for her gem bag, but Firebead survived after handing over a scroll case. - some magic bullets made short work of the golems at High Hedge before buying a potion case. - following Korax round soon resulted in level 5 and then level 6. Silence and hold person eliminated most of the threat from Kirian's gang and command prevented Peter even being able to attack in melee as Korax dealt with him as well.
After a rest, skeletons will be available and there's not much that can stand up to them in BG1.
Moving on speedily, a trip north saw Tarnesh screaming silently as skeletons moved in on him. A single group of skeletons cleared the ankheg nest - their automatic vulnerability to command helping a lot there. After giving Tenya her bowl back I didn't bother with skeletons on the ankheg nearby though and had to run away after failing to even get an attack in while it was commanded.
Dushai duly gave up her ring of free action before I headed south again. Wearing that, an ambushing ghast was even less threat than usual, but still provided an opportunity to get a first success with hold undead. That was on the way to pick up Melicamp and the wolf guarding him was enough to get me to level 7.
Melicamp didn't make it, but reputation was on offer from Ardrouine on the way to confront some sirines - buffed skeletons made short work of those. There were more magic bullets for the golems, though one of those did manage to get an attack in while I was trying to kick a bat out of the way.
Brage offered a lift to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor and learn LMD as a Bhaal power. I also bought the PfP scroll at the Carnival before heading to Durlag's Tower by way of Firewine Bridge to get Meilum's bracers. After using skeletons on the battle horrors I left most of the ghasts alone, but did sacrifice a scroll of PfM to make sure I wouldn't forget the wisdom tome. {I then added PfP to that to take out the basilisks on the roof and get my final BG1 level there.}
In fact I'd just killed the lesser basilisk and gone up to the upper level to attack the first of the greater ones. I paused the game to be safe while writing the above sentence in curly brackets, which probably took 10-15 seconds. I then went back to the game to find that somehow I'd managed to unpause it while switching to Notepad ...
I posted somewhere not that long ago about the fact that greater basilisks are pretty dangerous in melee and this was a good illustration. That one had obviously found my AC of -6 all too easy to chew through .
Yesterday's session started with the Trio in Trademeet after sorting out Faldorn. We hadn't done the skinner quest, so Tiris didn't realize he needed help yet. There was still though a need to put a stop to the asexual reproduction habits of the skeletons in the tomb.
Back in Athkatla we went to sort out the Rune Assassins. Biff decided he would take the lead there, given his immunity to backstabs. However, the assassins are still hard-hitting and move pretty quickly and Biff had to not only run round, but take a few potions to ensure he survived.
A good target next appeared to be the Ring of Gaxx, but we'd forgotten that we couldn't find Oisig last session and thus had no access to the lich in the sewers. Deciding that stern measures were in order we produced a doppleganger of Oisig and sacrificed it in the temple and warned that the real one would be next if he didn't show himself immediately - which he then did .
Preparations for an assault on the liches didn't go entirely smoothly when I forgot that in addition to needing a strength potion / DUHM (or rage) combination to open Kangaxx's tomb and the one in the City Gates inn, we would also need it to kick open the chest with Daystar in. That meant that, after killing the liches using scrolls of PfU, we couldn't get Daystar to sort out Kangaxx. The fallback option was to use the +1/+4 hammer from the de'Arnise hold, though whether that would be sufficient to overcome damage resistance and regeneration seemed dubious. However, it wasn't tested because the hammer couldn't hit the demi-lich at all. That prompted my memory of a change the EE made in more recent patches such that weapons with higher to hit values only for certain creatures use their lower to hit values when determining whether something can be hit or not (for all except those certain creatures) - I'm not quite sure why that change was made as I thought in 2nd Edition P&P it was specifically provided that you always use the higher value for this purpose. Anyway, we shelled out a bit more cash for more PfU scrolls the next day and went to find Kangaxx to give him the Daystar treatment.
Next, we decided to do Aran's tasks and headed to the exit from the Docks. There were some muggers waiting there, which on the face of it shouldn't have been a problem. However, Biff had been experimenting with wearing the Human Flesh Armor from the skinner quest and that armor gives almost no protection against missile and piercing attacks - meaning he was down to 30 odd HPs by the end of the fight. Peer told him that was no worry as we could rest in the inn before tackling Aran's next task there, but on the way there another lot of ambushers appeared. Biff was targeted with lightning and this time he didn't survive. He did though demonstrate his ham acting skills - groaning no less than 3 times after his supposed death.
Hunter restored normality with a first use of the Rod of Resurrection taken from Mekrath and we were shortly on the way to the Graveyard - Hunter equipped with a newly-purchased Azuredge. Most of the vampires fell quickly, but Tanova managed to get PfMW up before being attacked and release a number of spells. Those stunned Hunter into submission, but she couldn't take advantage before Biff's mace of disruption took effect.
Downstairs, Peer made a first use of Daystar's sunray and then gave Bodhi a taste of that as well on the way out.
Deciding we could do with a reputation increase as well as upgrading the MoD, the final task undertaken was the Sir Sarles quest. Neb was another to make slightly strange comments after his death - his corpse laughing to itself.
Peer, Archer L11, 114 HPs, 239 kills (188 in BG1) Hunter, Undead Hunter L11, 130 HPs (inc. 10 from bracers, 5 from helm), 96 kills (119 in BG1), deaths 0 Biff, Barbarian L12, 131 HPs, 173 kills (210 in BG1), deaths 1
Tails lives again! Now with some better/worse stats than before. I cannot be bothered to check. But anyways, two proficiencies in dagger, one short sword, one club. She finds in Irenicus Dungeon the longtooth dagger and uses it to ice everybody in her path. No stupidity with being stunned by the lesser spirit spiders; Imoen just casts emotion to bring them down.
Once we get out of the dungeon we walk around the promenade, buy a scroll case and gem bag and exit to the slums. Via the mandatory cutscene we get to the Copper Coronet (rolling over some losers at the entrance) and have some fun with the locals. A casting of horror and poisoned daggers make short work of the pit, but we save the back rooms for later.
We talk to Nalia and will meet her at her keep. I want to stay with a small party and get better XP for a while. We also talk to Jierdan to get the ability to go to the Windspear hills and then we leave the slums through the Government district to get the quest to the Umar Hills. And via the city gates we get the quest to Trademeet. We do the fun interjection with Romeo and Juliet and decide to depart for the Umar Hills. The goal is to get Valygar and some easier quests around there. Then once we are done we move to either Trademeet (Maybe get Cernd and/or Rasaad early) or back to Athkatla around either the Docks (Jaheira's quest and the Thieves guild) or the Bridge district (Skinner Murders). I will see where I go tomorrow.
(a three day course coming up so I am not sure when I will post. Either tomorrow or next Saturday).
Jeanluc the inquisitor and his band of paladins & Imoen update (2nd attempt) Traveling with: Heather (Cavalier), Sarah (Undead hunter), April (Undead hunter), Forrest (Paladin), Imoen (thief) SETUP: BG 1 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
NOTE: This run is a restart of Jeanluc and gang - we restarted from Candlekeep, as the 1st attempt was petrified.
The party is continuing to make progress. Most of the party is level 4. Most of the bottom two rows of the map are cleared, as well as the areas on the road to Nashkel and Beregost quests. Nashkel Mines problem was easily solved for this team. Amazon assassins had a tough time with two undead hunters who are immune to hold leading the way. The team has good armor and good weapons - all range attackers now have a magical ammo launcher. Heather is also dual-wielding two +2 daggers (the one from the revenant and also the dagger of venom). As a result, ambushes are a piece of cake, as you can see with the example below.
Sharp eyes may have noticed some portrait changes. I wasn't happy with two of the female portraits so changed those. We are currently clearing out the Ankheg nest. We are on our way to Ulgoth's Beard to get more blue potions.
After the death of Gorion Stein made his way to the Friendly Arms Inn picking up a couple of useful rings as he did so. He then cleared the area of hobgoblins before killing Tarnesh.
Heading southwards towards Beregost he came face to face with an ogre who was rapidly dispatched and his belts appropriated.
After heading to Beregost he calmed down Marl Before heading to High Hedge where he was able to help Mellicamp.
Unfortunately he was unable to help a werewolf and was forced to kill it.
He then took some good advice and went hunting ankheg. However he quickly realised that they were quite tough and went after Zargal instead.
He then headed southwards finding the Colquetle Amulet and some Ankheg armour as he did so. He then killed Zargos Flintblade who had a +1 axe, a real boon to Stein.
He then went to the Carnival where, at Aerie's request, he helped Bentha.
Teyngan and his cohorts were then killed.
Jemby was killed next.
Once he was dead he helped Drizzt before going back to kill more ankheg.
He killed Bassilus before joining up with Gavin and Sirene.
Together they cleared up the basilisk at the request of the Lathander Temple.
Star Butterfly vs. the Legion of the Chimera: No-Reload Icewind Dale 2 Run
Part 12
On the way to the half-dragon summit meeting, we have to deal with some lesser grunts. Dipper now has Pudu's Blight, which has a 25% chance of stunning the target for 3 seconds. It's not nearly as strong as Celestial Fury from BG2, but the Fortitude DC on the stun effect is extremely high and very hard to resist even for tough enemies.
It's unfortunate that you get it so very late in the game, though. You don't get to use it much unless you import it into a new HoF game or something.
Before we arrive at the half-dragon fight, Star casts Mass Invisibility, granting 10 rounds of Improved Invisibility to everyone. Most of the party gets stunned on the first round of combat, but that invisibility keeps us safe. When we break invisibility, we hit hard and bring the first half-dragon down within seconds.
Star takes down two Red Wizards and two more half-dragons with Wail of the Banshee, and Mabel stuns the enemy priest with a Holy Word spell, which buys Star enough time to take down three more enemies.
When the enemy priest recovers and tries casting Tremor, a potentially fatal spell for anyone in the party, we simply stun him with another Holy Word and crush him.
With four elementals on the map thanks to Asriel, the last enemy goes down in short order.
It's time to bring down Isair and Madae.
Mabel has just hit cleric level 15 and gained access to Holy Aura, which will slightly improve our spell resistance going into the final fight. Star uses the How to Be an Adventurer guide to reach level 21, we rest up, and then use all the potions and scrolls and buffing spells we want. Marco and Dipper both have a single mage level, which means they can both use high-level mage scrolls, from Black Blade of Disaster to Vipergout.
The whole party has sky-high AC, from 45-55, powerful saving throws, and lots of resistances. Dipper in particular is an absolute monster. Iron Body makes him practically indestructible.
Marco has the most offensive potential. In semiOverhaul, Black Blade of Disaster has a 50% chance of applying a Disintegrate effect with a rather high save DC.
The fight gets off to a good start. An enemy mage, Serak, loses his first spell to the spell failure of Blink, and Marco's Vipergout summons absorb some damage for us. Best of all, we have nailed Madae with a Protection from Magic scroll, removing all of her buffs and imposing 100% spell failure, blocking the Blasphemy spells that could otherwise wreck our party. Our only problem are the twin liches, both of which have constant effect Improved Alacrity just like M'darfein.
Star's True Seeing spell robs almost every enemy of their Improved Invisibility buffs, negating one of the enemy's most powerful defenses. Better still, one of the liches fails a save against Marco's Black Blade of Disaster and gets completely wiped out.
Just moments later, the other one meets the same fate!
With the liches gone and Madae unable to get a single spell off the ground, we have seized the advantage early. We concentrate fire on Madae, who isn't remotely as sturdy without her buffs.
The cambions flee, and we overpower the remaining enemies with raw damage and Wail of the Banshee.
But Mourn T'orgh, a high-level mage, remains very much alive, and he has some very strong spells. Thanks to high Spellcraft, we can see his Wail of the Banshee spell coming and fall back to safety.
Mirror Image can block Disintegrate outright due to how the spell works, but not everyone in our party has Mirror Image on hand, and it doesn't occur to me to use Mirror Image scrolls on Marco and Dipper. A bad roll on the Fortitude save could mean instant death. Star could probably disrupt Mourn T'orgh with Great Shout's stunning effect, but her aura is clouded due to using Lower Resistance on the mage.
I scour our inventory and find a solution: Darts of Stunning!
That was a lucky roll; Mourn T'orgh had about a 65% chance of resisting the stun per hit. We rush in and butcher him while he's vulnerable.
With the room free of enemies, we can open the door to the south and proceed to the second half of the fight. Isair has no buffs active, so we jump on him while Star casts Wail of the Banshee, wiping out a Slayer Knight of Xvim and one of the two Slayer demons (who even have the Slayer animation from BG2) before refreshing her Mirror Images.
Isair's pre-buffs finally triggering, granting him both Improved Invisibility and Blink, leaving us with a flat 62.5% miss change regardless of our attack rolls--or 75% for those without the Blind-Fight feat.
But Star can drop that to 50% using True Seeing. Madae scares us off with a Tremor spell, but we can't get out of reach in time. Fortunately, we make our saves.
We rush back in to tackle Isair, and then the interface goes gray.
It's over! The cambion twins are down!
We haste the party and make our way to the exit, dodging the remaining enemies as we go.
One no-reload Icewind Dale 2 run with semiOverhaul, complete.
After returning to the Temple of Lathander Stein got involved with Silke and was forced to kill her. He enlisted the help of one of those he came to help using Algernon'S Cloak. To Stein's surprise Silke merely knocked his new ally out rather than killing him.
He then did some more ankheg hunting prior to going to the gnoll fortress where he was ambushed. The ambush failed.
On entering the mines there was another ambush by Gorken Bloodaxe and his cohorts. However nobody in the mine was able to stand against the mighty trio.
Upon exiting the mine he investigated the nearby caves after which he fought Narcillicus.
Upon returning northwards Stein was able to take out Malious et al.
He was then joined by his ols friend Imoen, a thief/conjurer who despite her skills is rather fragile, being killed again and again.
Note that Imoen being a thief/conjurer must necessarily be a half-elf. I therefore chose a different portrait for her the one used being the only elf that I could find with auburn hair.
We've never had an Improved Anvil run before! There's so much I don't know about the mod.
saros_shadow_follower did several runs on the Bioforums. He's still got a few videos on YT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYMHX_aXj_0 The guy was insanely hardcore and if there was any exploit he would find it.
Saros did great work. He also posted some runs on the BWL which still exists. I only managed one noreload of IA with an earlier version that still had the OP bard armor, but I needed a shadow party that did a lot of reloading on the tough fights. Right now I am making mistakes left and right. I expect to die once IA picks up speed, hopefully somewhere in chapter 6 though, not in chapters 2 or 3 unless through stupid mistakes (taking on some dangerous places too early or forgetting to check for traps).
I go through the troubles of accepting money from the kids and giving it back because I should be the good guy here. Next I attempt to pick pocket the chickens, but since they turn hostile I have to kill them until I get the gem (needed for upgrades later). Madulf is easily aided with speech. Jermien, now that's an interesting case. I go into the cave and the mimic does ~30 acid damage per hit to Minsc. Not too bad, but then I decide to clear out the rest of the place from the umber hulks. I have one chaotic commands which I cast on Tails and I run in... of course Minsc gets torn to pieces by the hulks and we barely get one dead with magic missile. Then the last umber hulk kills Minsc, almost gets Tails, and confuses everybody except Tails. She runs around chucking poisoned daggers but none seem to stick. Then on and off Jaheira and Aerie unconfuse and cast 1-2 offensive spells before being confused again. It is after a few nasty rounds of run away, run away that I get Jaheira to cast her innate summon, the Clan Hunter (basically a tank cast by Avenger druids). That summon makes short work of the last umber hulk and we go to the inn to memorise 2x Harpers Call and raise Minsc and Aerie. We help Jermien and get Ilbratha which will help Tails in the near future. Then we fight Derrick and his ranger friends (I said I am not with the Cowled wizards but those fanatics did not believe me... sigh), recruit Valygar, and then we leave for Trademeet.
I think I really need the experience to get me some nice spells. Then also I need Cernd in order to take the charge of the druid stronghold and I may drop Jaheira after I do her Harper quests and I will drop Aerie at some point for Rasaad or Neera to swap in and out NPCs for questing (I also need to swap in Hexxat at some point if I want to get the Jade Fang... I think that is not randomised yet).
Saros did do some posting in those forums a few years ago, but I think the bulk of the commentary being referred to was in the old, old Bioware forums .
Ah yes, I remember that forum - I was just beginning my no-reload career just before they closed that old, old forum down - I remember some real doozies, like being caught in the thunderhammer smithy stealing, then defending ourselves against quite a few flaming fists (which destroyed my reputation), then the party complaining to hell that change my ways or else. The good old days? lol.
@Incas: I watched that run! I just wish it had commentary; I barely understood most of it.
He did all his commentary on the old Bio forums (rip).
Well, you know, you can still access an archive of the old bioware forums:
Totally forgot that they did a backup of the later Bioforums. Funny to read my old posts (nick:Incantatar), I completely forgot I no reloaded two Cavaliers in BG1 and 7 years ago on this day said I'll never play BG1 again without SCS.
@Incas: I watched that run! I just wish it had commentary; I barely understood most of it.
He did all his commentary on the old Bio forums (rip).
Well, you know, you can still access an archive of the old bioware forums:
Totally forgot that they did a backup of the later Bioforums. Funny to read my old posts (nick:Incantatar), I completely forgot I no reloaded two Cavaliers in BG1 and 7 years ago on this day said I'll never play BG1 again without SCS.
Well, it wasn't really "they" - one of the forumites, Serg_Blackstrider, volunteered to make a backup of the no-reload forums on his own server, so that way they weren't lost forever, which otherwise they would have been.
Oh, those were only the bioware forums... does anyone remember the good old days of the blackisle forums before that time? I lived on those forums from when BG was created until they transferred into the bioware ones . But yes, the best walkthroughs were not described on those forums, except maybe the explorations of Use R Unfriendly and Elmonster, but my memory is a bit fuzzy on those accounts.
In any case, if you go through those logs from Saros you get to read a lot about how IA enemies work and how stupidly overpowered they are in resistances, on-hit effects, dispel abilities, debuff abilities, and where loot is more or less distributed. I probably learned more about the game from his recounts than from any of the testing and playing that I did myself, and I am nowhere near his level of playing. But I cannot forget to mention that there are at least 20 or so IA players that are also soo much better and dedicated than me. I hope that they get to post some play throughs again now that IA is at a new install version that supports BG2EEv2.3.
Anyway, I hope to be somewhat entertaining in my playthroughs (I did not get through any real IA content yet so now it is mostly BG2EE Vanilla that I am tackling until I level a bit. Level leverage is what a player like me needs, other IA players would likely steamroll the game right from the start... ).
@lroumen My introduction to Baldur's Gate Forums was through Gamebanshee. I learnt a lot. Sadly a lot of the things that I learnt are now obsolete. When Gamebanshee deteriorated I switched to Blackisle and then here.
Stein made peace with Sil by killing the pirates. Sadly he didn't get the cloak that gives 100% protection from cold. Presumably that came from a mod that I have omitted or which has altered. Inside the golems were no problem and after killing a couple more sirines they headed south, helped Charlestone Nib (And got a new quest) and then Brage. Spoke to the Mayor of Nashkel. Imoen was then able to get the emeralds in the statue. They were given to Oublek. Oublek was charmed and then killed by one of the two assassins in Nashkel who were then both killed with ease. Reputation now 19. Perhaps time to boost it to 20 and do some shopping. The only problem is wealth is now 0gp having bought some special boots as well as jams in Nashkel. Perhaps the shopping will have to wait.
Jeanluc the Inquisitor and his band of paladins and Imoen (attempt #2) Traveling with: Heather (Cavalier), Sarah (Undead hunter), April (Undead hunter), Forrest (Paladin), Imoen (thief) SETUP: BG 1 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
The paladins are making good progress - they are level 6 currently. They have cleared most of the map, and are soon going to embark into the Cloakwood. The paladins breezed through the bandits as though they didn't exist, only Imoen could get hurt. Magical ammo was more than sufficient for Khosahnn. Concentrated attacks also brought down Venkt before he could do anything. Imoen got poisoned, but an antidote fixed her up.
Basilisks went smoothly this time. Sirenes were easy, with Heather being not only immune to their charms but also their poison. As paladins, we couldn't let an evil ogre mage like Khark stick around to threaten other adventurers - he could not withstand us. Molkar's group were an absolute cake walk.
I think for this group, the hardest fight will probably be against Jeanluc's half-brother. But with magical ammo, think we'll be all right. Here's a few screenies of our adventure so far:
Mods as before but with the addition of Finn Jo's Sub-Race Mod and the Helarine NPC mod. (For further details see comments that I have made in the Sub-race thread. )
Comments
We've never had an Improved Anvil run before! There's so much I don't know about the mod.
Also, if you're willing to dual-wield a throwing dagger set to melee (it's cheesy, and since it goes to your main hand it looks a bit odd. Besides, you're capping yourself with a +3 (and a +2!!) weapon, which might not be ideal), it's an option worth looking at (least for SoA), since it gives you two ApR base, which means that if you add Kundane to your offhand you reach 4 ApR without any buffs. Besides, Firetooth+3 has a pretty sweet 2d4 damage roll. ApR is crutial for a Swashie, since you get enough damage and THAC0 bonuses to outweight not being a warrior class, but the ApR difference still remained a problem for them until the last patch, however it's not like that anymore now.
That gives me plenty of options and not worry about damage. Once they are downed I get guaranteed damage.
Most of the fancy weapons like kundane and Belm are not easy to get in IA so I am not going to count on them for now.
While the vanilla long swords are good, in the end the upgraded weapons in IA are miles better but mostly warrior only. I will think about late game items for my thief once I get through the mid game.
Previous updates:
Heading for Durlag's Tower, the combination of doom and illusionist bonus gave blind a decent chance of working against battle horrors. The ones on the path were surrounded and cut down before the one on the wall was pulled to the end - it can safely be attacked with 2-handed weapons there, though Will did once more get in on the act anyway using Drizzt's scimitars.
Inside the tower a combination of blindness and Will tanking sorted out the ghasts. One of the nice things about blindness in the unmodded game is that it doesn't turn neutrals hostile on a failed attempt - meaning Riggilo never stood a chance. The ghost and Kirinhale were left for now, but Bequest was able to disarm the trap leading onto the roof and the basilisks there allowed everyone to level up again - providing another good HP haul.
After deciding to make their way through the Cloud Peak mountains the party looked to make a start with Greywolf. In the EE he will automatically run to the PC, so Legacy went to wait for him near Prism. When he appeared Testament started casting doom prior to blinding him. Legacy could have run away and around the rock shelf below Prism, but chose to keep near the party in order to avoid losing a few seconds of attacks. That meant running around Greywolf, which is a maneuver I've done untold thousands of times. This time there didn't seem to be any problem, but one of the difficulties with a no-reload in this game is that things are not entirely predictable. To my astonishment Greywolf's sword suddenly doubled in length as it licked out and one-shotted Legacy ...
My long barren spell with this challenge still continues, so I thought I would generate yet another character. This one is interesting from the perspective that I don't ever remember playing a cleric dualled to a mage (and I've played very little with a cleric/mage multi- class).
A few minutes thought suggested to me I should be aiming for at least cleric level 11 (so wouldn't dual until SoA). Normally I don't bother with the use of harm, but for a cleric mage combination that just looks too tempting to resist
I rolled up a starting character, based on a Priest of Lathander to get the APR advantage. I was originally looking for a total score of 93 or more, but half an hour's rolling didn't get that and I decided that 92 would be perfectly acceptable (dropping a point off constitution in addition to minimizing charisma.
Getting under way a half-hour of actual play saw:
- Shoal being commanded to die to get a quick couple of levels.
- some magic bullets made short work of the golems at High Hedge before buying a potion case.
- following Korax round soon resulted in level 5 and then level 6. Silence and hold person eliminated most of the threat from Kirian's gang and command prevented Peter even being able to attack in melee as Korax dealt with him as well.
After a rest, skeletons will be available and there's not much that can stand up to them in BG1.
Priest of Lathander L6, 47 HPs, 20 kills
Previous updates:
Moving on speedily, a trip north saw Tarnesh screaming silently as skeletons moved in on him. A single group of skeletons cleared the ankheg nest - their automatic vulnerability to command helping a lot there. After giving Tenya her bowl back I didn't bother with skeletons on the ankheg nearby though and had to run away after failing to even get an attack in while it was commanded.
Dushai duly gave up her ring of free action before I headed south again. Wearing that, an ambushing ghast was even less threat than usual, but still provided an opportunity to get a first success with hold undead. That was on the way to pick up Melicamp and the wolf guarding him was enough to get me to level 7.
Melicamp didn't make it, but reputation was on offer from Ardrouine on the way to confront some sirines - buffed skeletons made short work of those. There were more magic bullets for the golems, though one of those did manage to get an attack in while I was trying to kick a bat out of the way.
Brage offered a lift to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armor and learn LMD as a Bhaal power. I also bought the PfP scroll at the Carnival before heading to Durlag's Tower by way of Firewine Bridge to get Meilum's bracers. After using skeletons on the battle horrors I left most of the ghasts alone, but did sacrifice a scroll of PfM to make sure I wouldn't forget the wisdom tome. {I then added PfP to that to take out the basilisks on the roof and get my final BG1 level there.}
In fact I'd just killed the lesser basilisk and gone up to the upper level to attack the first of the greater ones. I paused the game to be safe while writing the above sentence in curly brackets, which probably took 10-15 seconds. I then went back to the game to find that somehow I'd managed to unpause it while switching to Notepad ...
I posted somewhere not that long ago about the fact that greater basilisks are pretty dangerous in melee and this was a good illustration. That one had obviously found my AC of -6 all too easy to chew through
Grond0 Hard luck.
Grond0: Peer, Elf Archer. Chaotic Good
Corey_Russell: Hunter, Human Undead Hunter. Lawful Good
Gate70: Biff, Dwarf Barbarian. Neutral Evil
Previous updates:
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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/981756/#Comment_981756
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/984046/#Comment_984046
Yesterday's session started with the Trio in Trademeet after sorting out Faldorn. We hadn't done the skinner quest, so Tiris didn't realize he needed help yet. There was still though a need to put a stop to the asexual reproduction habits of the skeletons in the tomb.
Back in Athkatla we went to sort out the Rune Assassins. Biff decided he would take the lead there, given his immunity to backstabs. However, the assassins are still hard-hitting and move pretty quickly and Biff had to not only run round, but take a few potions to ensure he survived.
A good target next appeared to be the Ring of Gaxx, but we'd forgotten that we couldn't find Oisig last session and thus had no access to the lich in the sewers. Deciding that stern measures were in order we produced a doppleganger of Oisig and sacrificed it in the temple and warned that the real one would be next if he didn't show himself immediately - which he then did
Preparations for an assault on the liches didn't go entirely smoothly when I forgot that in addition to needing a strength potion / DUHM (or rage) combination to open Kangaxx's tomb and the one in the City Gates inn, we would also need it to kick open the chest with Daystar in. That meant that, after killing the liches using scrolls of PfU, we couldn't get Daystar to sort out Kangaxx. The fallback option was to use the +1/+4 hammer from the de'Arnise hold, though whether that would be sufficient to overcome damage resistance and regeneration seemed dubious. However, it wasn't tested because the hammer couldn't hit the demi-lich at all. That prompted my memory of a change the EE made in more recent patches such that weapons with higher to hit values only for certain creatures use their lower to hit values when determining whether something can be hit or not (for all except those certain creatures) - I'm not quite sure why that change was made as I thought in 2nd Edition P&P it was specifically provided that you always use the higher value for this purpose. Anyway, we shelled out a bit more cash for more PfU scrolls the next day and went to find Kangaxx to give him the Daystar treatment.
Next, we decided to do Aran's tasks and headed to the exit from the Docks. There were some muggers waiting there, which on the face of it shouldn't have been a problem. However, Biff had been experimenting with wearing the Human Flesh Armor from the skinner quest and that armor gives almost no protection against missile and piercing attacks - meaning he was down to 30 odd HPs by the end of the fight. Peer told him that was no worry as we could rest in the inn before tackling Aran's next task there, but on the way there another lot of ambushers appeared. Biff was targeted with lightning and this time he didn't survive. He did though demonstrate his ham acting skills - groaning no less than 3 times after his supposed death.
Hunter restored normality with a first use of the Rod of Resurrection taken from Mekrath and we were shortly on the way to the Graveyard - Hunter equipped with a newly-purchased Azuredge. Most of the vampires fell quickly, but Tanova managed to get PfMW up before being attacked and release a number of spells. Those stunned Hunter into submission, but she couldn't take advantage before Biff's mace of disruption took effect.
Deciding we could do with a reputation increase as well as upgrading the MoD, the final task undertaken was the Sir Sarles quest. Neb was another to make slightly strange comments after his death - his corpse laughing to itself.
Peer, Archer L11, 114 HPs, 239 kills (188 in BG1)
Hunter, Undead Hunter L11, 130 HPs (inc. 10 from bracers, 5 from helm), 96 kills (119 in BG1), deaths 0
Biff, Barbarian L12, 131 HPs, 173 kills (210 in BG1), deaths 1
Now with some better/worse stats than before. I cannot be bothered to check. But anyways, two proficiencies in dagger, one short sword, one club.
She finds in Irenicus Dungeon the longtooth dagger and uses it to ice everybody in her path. No stupidity with being stunned by the lesser spirit spiders; Imoen just casts emotion to bring them down.
We talk to Nalia and will meet her at her keep. I want to stay with a small party and get better XP for a while. We also talk to Jierdan to get the ability to go to the Windspear hills and then we leave the slums through the Government district to get the quest to the Umar Hills. And via the city gates we get the quest to Trademeet. We do the fun interjection with Romeo and Juliet and decide to depart for the Umar Hills.
The goal is to get Valygar and some easier quests around there. Then once we are done we move to either Trademeet (Maybe get Cernd and/or Rasaad early) or back to Athkatla around either the Docks (Jaheira's quest and the Thieves guild) or the Bridge district (Skinner Murders). I will see where I go tomorrow.
(a three day course coming up so I am not sure when I will post. Either tomorrow or next Saturday).
Traveling with: Heather (Cavalier), Sarah (Undead hunter), April (Undead hunter), Forrest (Paladin), Imoen (thief)
SETUP: BG 1 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
NOTE: This run is a restart of Jeanluc and gang - we restarted from Candlekeep, as the 1st attempt was petrified.
The party is continuing to make progress. Most of the party is level 4. Most of the bottom two rows of the map are cleared, as well as the areas on the road to Nashkel and Beregost quests. Nashkel Mines problem was easily solved for this team. Amazon assassins had a tough time with two undead hunters who are immune to hold leading the way. The team has good armor and good weapons - all range attackers now have a magical ammo launcher. Heather is also dual-wielding two +2 daggers (the one from the revenant and also the dagger of venom). As a result, ambushes are a piece of cake, as you can see with the example below.
Sharp eyes may have noticed some portrait changes. I wasn't happy with two of the female portraits so changed those. We are currently clearing out the Ankheg nest. We are on our way to Ulgoth's Beard to get more blue potions.
A new berserker Stein Stoneaxe
After the death of Gorion Stein made his way to the Friendly Arms Inn picking up a couple of useful rings as he did so. He then cleared the area of hobgoblins before killing Tarnesh.
Heading southwards towards Beregost he came face to face with an ogre who was rapidly dispatched and his belts appropriated.
Star Butterfly vs. the Legion of the Chimera: No-Reload Icewind Dale 2 Run
Part 12
On the way to the half-dragon summit meeting, we have to deal with some lesser grunts. Dipper now has Pudu's Blight, which has a 25% chance of stunning the target for 3 seconds. It's not nearly as strong as Celestial Fury from BG2, but the Fortitude DC on the stun effect is extremely high and very hard to resist even for tough enemies.It's unfortunate that you get it so very late in the game, though. You don't get to use it much unless you import it into a new HoF game or something.
Before we arrive at the half-dragon fight, Star casts Mass Invisibility, granting 10 rounds of Improved Invisibility to everyone. Most of the party gets stunned on the first round of combat, but that invisibility keeps us safe. When we break invisibility, we hit hard and bring the first half-dragon down within seconds.
Star takes down two Red Wizards and two more half-dragons with Wail of the Banshee, and Mabel stuns the enemy priest with a Holy Word spell, which buys Star enough time to take down three more enemies.
When the enemy priest recovers and tries casting Tremor, a potentially fatal spell for anyone in the party, we simply stun him with another Holy Word and crush him.
With four elementals on the map thanks to Asriel, the last enemy goes down in short order.
It's time to bring down Isair and Madae.
Mabel has just hit cleric level 15 and gained access to Holy Aura, which will slightly improve our spell resistance going into the final fight. Star uses the How to Be an Adventurer guide to reach level 21, we rest up, and then use all the potions and scrolls and buffing spells we want. Marco and Dipper both have a single mage level, which means they can both use high-level mage scrolls, from Black Blade of Disaster to Vipergout.
The whole party has sky-high AC, from 45-55, powerful saving throws, and lots of resistances. Dipper in particular is an absolute monster. Iron Body makes him practically indestructible.
Marco has the most offensive potential. In semiOverhaul, Black Blade of Disaster has a 50% chance of applying a Disintegrate effect with a rather high save DC.
The fight gets off to a good start. An enemy mage, Serak, loses his first spell to the spell failure of Blink, and Marco's Vipergout summons absorb some damage for us. Best of all, we have nailed Madae with a Protection from Magic scroll, removing all of her buffs and imposing 100% spell failure, blocking the Blasphemy spells that could otherwise wreck our party. Our only problem are the twin liches, both of which have constant effect Improved Alacrity just like M'darfein.
Star's True Seeing spell robs almost every enemy of their Improved Invisibility buffs, negating one of the enemy's most powerful defenses. Better still, one of the liches fails a save against Marco's Black Blade of Disaster and gets completely wiped out.
Just moments later, the other one meets the same fate!
With the liches gone and Madae unable to get a single spell off the ground, we have seized the advantage early. We concentrate fire on Madae, who isn't remotely as sturdy without her buffs.
The cambions flee, and we overpower the remaining enemies with raw damage and Wail of the Banshee.
But Mourn T'orgh, a high-level mage, remains very much alive, and he has some very strong spells. Thanks to high Spellcraft, we can see his Wail of the Banshee spell coming and fall back to safety.
Mirror Image can block Disintegrate outright due to how the spell works, but not everyone in our party has Mirror Image on hand, and it doesn't occur to me to use Mirror Image scrolls on Marco and Dipper. A bad roll on the Fortitude save could mean instant death. Star could probably disrupt Mourn T'orgh with Great Shout's stunning effect, but her aura is clouded due to using Lower Resistance on the mage.
I scour our inventory and find a solution: Darts of Stunning!
That was a lucky roll; Mourn T'orgh had about a 65% chance of resisting the stun per hit. We rush in and butcher him while he's vulnerable.
With the room free of enemies, we can open the door to the south and proceed to the second half of the fight. Isair has no buffs active, so we jump on him while Star casts Wail of the Banshee, wiping out a Slayer Knight of Xvim and one of the two Slayer demons (who even have the Slayer animation from BG2) before refreshing her Mirror Images.
Isair's pre-buffs finally triggering, granting him both Improved Invisibility and Blink, leaving us with a flat 62.5% miss change regardless of our attack rolls--or 75% for those without the Blind-Fight feat.
But Star can drop that to 50% using True Seeing. Madae scares us off with a Tremor spell, but we can't get out of reach in time. Fortunately, we make our saves.
We rush back in to tackle Isair, and then the interface goes gray.
It's over! The cambion twins are down!
We haste the party and make our way to the exit, dodging the remaining enemies as we go.
One no-reload Icewind Dale 2 run with semiOverhaul, complete.
Stein Stoneaxe Continued
After returning to the Temple of Lathander Stein got involved with Silke and was forced to kill her. He enlisted the help of one of those he came to help using Algernon'S Cloak. To Stein's surprise Silke merely knocked his new ally out rather than killing him.On entering the mines there was another ambush by Gorken Bloodaxe and his cohorts. However nobody in the mine was able to stand against the mighty trio.
Upon returning northwards Stein was able to take out Malious et al.
Note that Imoen being a thief/conjurer must necessarily be a half-elf. I therefore chose a different portrait for her the one used being the only elf that I could find with auburn hair.
Post 1
I go through the troubles of accepting money from the kids and giving it back because I should be the good guy here. Next I attempt to pick pocket the chickens, but since they turn hostile I have to kill them until I get the gem (needed for upgrades later). Madulf is easily aided with speech.
Jermien, now that's an interesting case. I go into the cave and the mimic does ~30 acid damage per hit to Minsc. Not too bad, but then I decide to clear out the rest of the place from the umber hulks. I have one chaotic commands which I cast on Tails and I run in... of course Minsc gets torn to pieces by the hulks and we barely get one dead with magic missile.
Then the last umber hulk kills Minsc, almost gets Tails, and confuses everybody except Tails. She runs around chucking poisoned daggers but none seem to stick. Then on and off Jaheira and Aerie unconfuse and cast 1-2 offensive spells before being confused again. It is after a few nasty rounds of run away, run away that I get Jaheira to cast her innate summon, the Clan Hunter (basically a tank cast by Avenger druids). That summon makes short work of the last umber hulk and we go to the inn to memorise 2x Harpers Call and raise Minsc and Aerie. We help Jermien and get Ilbratha which will help Tails in the near future. Then we fight Derrick and his ranger friends (I said I am not with the Cowled wizards but those fanatics did not believe me... sigh), recruit Valygar, and then we leave for Trademeet.
I think I really need the experience to get me some nice spells. Then also I need Cernd in order to take the charge of the druid stronghold and I may drop Jaheira after I do her Harper quests and I will drop Aerie at some point for Rasaad or Neera to swap in and out NPCs for questing (I also need to swap in Hexxat at some point if I want to get the Jade Fang... I think that is not randomised yet).
Messily gamed but still alive.
Edit: recruitment of valygar
BG 1 archive: blackstrider.net/forum_bioware_arhiv/forum.bioware.com/topic/124374-baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge/index.html
BG 2 archive: blackstrider.net/forum_bioware_arhiv/forum.bioware.com/topic/124277-baldurs-gate-2-no-reload-challenge/index.html
In any case, if you go through those logs from Saros you get to read a lot about how IA enemies work and how stupidly overpowered they are in resistances, on-hit effects, dispel abilities, debuff abilities, and where loot is more or less distributed. I probably learned more about the game from his recounts than from any of the testing and playing that I did myself, and I am nowhere near his level of playing. But I cannot forget to mention that there are at least 20 or so IA players that are also soo much better and dedicated than me. I hope that they get to post some play throughs again now that IA is at a new install version that supports BG2EEv2.3.
Anyway, I hope to be somewhat entertaining in my playthroughs (I did not get through any real IA content yet so now it is mostly BG2EE Vanilla that I am tackling until I level a bit. Level leverage is what a player like me needs, other IA players would likely steamroll the game right from the start...
Stein Stoneaxe Continued
Stein made peace with Sil by killing the pirates. Sadly he didn't get the cloak that gives 100% protection from cold.Inside the golems were no problem and after killing a couple more sirines they headed south, helped Charlestone Nib (And got a new quest) and then Brage. Spoke to the Mayor of Nashkel. Imoen was then able to get the emeralds in the statue. They were given to Oublek. Oublek was charmed and then killed by one of the two assassins in Nashkel who were then both killed with ease. Reputation now 19. Perhaps time to boost it to 20 and do some shopping. The only problem is wealth is now 0gp having bought some special boots as well as jams in Nashkel. Perhaps the shopping will have to wait.
Traveling with: Heather (Cavalier), Sarah (Undead hunter), April (Undead hunter), Forrest (Paladin), Imoen (thief)
SETUP: BG 1 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
The paladins are making good progress - they are level 6 currently. They have cleared most of the map, and are soon going to embark into the Cloakwood. The paladins breezed through the bandits as though they didn't exist, only Imoen could get hurt. Magical ammo was more than sufficient for Khosahnn. Concentrated attacks also brought down Venkt before he could do anything. Imoen got poisoned, but an antidote fixed her up.
Basilisks went smoothly this time. Sirenes were easy, with Heather being not only immune to their charms but also their poison. As paladins, we couldn't let an evil ogre mage like Khark stick around to threaten other adventurers - he could not withstand us. Molkar's group were an absolute cake walk.
I think for this group, the hardest fight will probably be against Jeanluc's half-brother. But with magical ammo, think we'll be all right. Here's a few screenies of our adventure so far:
The Demise of Stein Stoneaxe
Brotus Bloodaxe at the bandit camp landed a lucky blow.Mora of Moradin a Hammer of Moradin Arctic Dwarf
Mods as before but with the addition of Finn Jo's Sub-Race Mod and the Helarine NPC mod. (For further details see comments that I have made in the Sub-race thread. )