The druids have continued to make good progress, though they had a couple of near-fatal encounters with traps.
The start of the session saw Mulahey held by nymphs.
Moving straight on to the Bandit Camp, they dived in and out of Tazok's tent to break the enemies there up.
While clearing the Cloakwood, I noticed Walker Boh seemed to be getting hit a lot. Investigating, that was because he'd changed shape to check what strength that gave and on changing back to human he'd lost the benefit of his ankheg armor (as well as the free action effect that I noted last time). That doesn't happen all the time he changes, but I've noticed it on the odd occasion. At the mine, nymphs helped soak up damage prior to meleeing Davaeorn.
Clearing up reputation tasks and a couple of quests in Baldur's Gate pushed reputation up to 20 and the druids went shopping before clearing most of the remaining wilderness areas - picking up level 8 in Ulcaster dungeon.
All the major encounters in the City were done without problems and reporting some of that work to Scar saw everyone to level 9.
They had a very lucky escape in Candlekeep when Walker Boh initially went to tackle the phase spiders on his own. After one of the spiders briefly teleported to the main group, I must have forgotten to cancel attacks by 3 of the druids and they all walked through the lightning trap - somehow each of them only got hit once by lightning though.
After nymphs and insects sorted out Prat's gang the nymphs first confused both basilisks and then dominated one of them. That gazed at the other one before the druids conducted a bear attack on it.
The 18(00) strength of bears means not too many enemies survive the initial joint attack (if they do the 3 APR for brown bears means a follow-up attack won't be long in coming).
Slythe and Krystin lost out to nymph confusion and insects - as did the dopplegangers at the palace.
Going through the maze I kept most of the druids out of the way while tripping some lightning traps - only for one of the bolts to come through the wall and strike them.
I've seen that sort of thing happen a number of times, so was being a bit bloody-minded not keeping the others even further away . After clearing the maze I accidentally made peace with Tamoko - a first use of Wands of Heavens in the run ensured she didn't get away though.
I was still a bit short of level 10 after killing the Undercity party and some nearby skeleton warriors, but carried on into the temple anyway. I was only intending to kill the battle horrors there before resting, but managed to activate Sarevok accidentally. That meant the druids had no insect plagues available, but Semaj was successfully held by a nymph. Cogline had to use a first invisibility potion of the run to escape Angelo's exploding arrows before he and Tazok were both confused by another nymph. That just left Sarevok. Doom wasn't sufficient for any spells to affect him, but the druids didn't take too long to shoot him down - getting just enough XP for their 10th level in the process.
They've just gone through the SoD prologue - Korlasz was surrounded by nymphs and found her attempt to surrender didn't save her.
The Hard Hitters - Update 4 Traveling with: 2 other Kensais and 2 other Berserkers (MP characters)
The team has just made it to the Cloakwood Mines. No trouble in the Cloakwood. I made a short video so people can see what it is like to fight with this party.
Rather than starting off SoD by doing everything, I cut right back to the essentials this time and quickly moved on to the temple. There was a first death there when I didn't put chaotic commands on Walker Boh and he was stunned by Darskhelin as he opened the door - the mindflayer then ignored everything else to come and suck his brains out.
The others just finished Darskhelin off,
but I hadn't got around to buying any raise dead scrolls this time, so had to go back to camp to raise Walker Boh before coming back to finish things off. On the way out the 15th dagger launched at Morentherene won the coconut.
I'd like to suggest some deep insight by the fact I made the dragonscale shield, but the reality is I wasn't concentrating. On this occasion though luck favored the unintelligent and I found that druids are allowed to use that shield (I didn't expect them to be able to as the standard druid restriction on shields is related to size rather than use of metal). This time I just surrendered the fort rather than fighting the battle at Boareskyr.
Missing out most of the content meant I didn't get up to level 11 until getting the bonus for reaching the Coalition Camp.
I visited the Underground River to sneak in and place the Bwoosh and poison the food and water. I didn't do any attacking there, but the druid doing the poisoning got blocked by traffic - meaning a couple of the others got attacked badly before they could eventually leave and sneak out invisibly.
As before the first 3 crusader waves at the Coalition Camp were handled with fireballs, while the final one got insect plagues.
At the siege I made sure to pre-buff before going to find Ashatiel and waited for him to buff and attack me first - but he still called foul and restarted the big battle.
There was quite a bit of fighting then until he eventually showed himself again to end the siege.
The druids rested before entering hell. There was another unnecessary death in the first area there though after all the devils were killed. I was slow to realize that the crusaders were then coming to attack Bremen (who had been charmed) and just failed to kill them before Bremen went down.
I'd bought some raise dead scrolls by this time though, so there was only a short delay before moving on.
The fight with Thrix was no problem and the druids did lots of buffing before getting on the elevator - and the game crashed. After another 10 minutes of buffing, I saved this time before pressing the elevator button once more. Rather than going for the quick kill with harm this time they tried using magic resistance on Belhifet, but he dodged just as the spell was about to complete.
The last of them then got the XP for level 12 moments after that
and a bunch of fire elementals then joined in the battle with Belhifet. They are fairly easily scared, but still did some damage to him, as well as absorbing a lot of damage themselves. Belhifet teleported out of one corner just before being killed, but then showed himself again and a +3 sling bullet homed in on him.
The epilogue was done and the druids found themselves transported to an Athkatlan dungeon.
Just because its sprite is small doesn't mean it's not a real threat. Honestly, dying to the Salt Mephit is easier than dying to Irenicus at the Tree of Life.
Huh? The battle with Irenicus at the Tree of Life is, from my experience, one of the hardest fights in the game, at least for a solo character. In several playthroughs (one with a solo sorcerer, one with a solo fighter/mage), Irenicus killed me over and over again, often with Maze, and often with Power Word: Kill, which almost no other mage in the game casts. I honestly find Irenicus in Suldenessalar much harder than Irenicus in hell, never mind salt mephits.
I don't want to start a huge argument over this. I know that it's possible to kill Irenicus almost immediately with certain parties and tactics. I'm just saying that I've had much more trouble with Suldenessalar Irenicus than with salt mephits.
Lanil, the Not-So-Perfect Fighter vs. Baldur's Gate: Round 2, Part 3
We return! Chapter 5 is next!
On the way into Baldur's Gate, the party picked up Quayle. Now the party had 6 members again. Then they went to the basilisk area, and Lanil killed all the basilisks.
The party stopped by at Durlag's Tower just to kill some enemies early on and get some experience without going too deep into the tower. Lanil was able to singlehandedly beat both battle horrors at once in melee.
The party then traveled all the way up to Ulgoth's Beard, where Lanil bought the Greenstone Amulet. Now that she could get protection from all mind-affecting spells, they went to the sirine area, and Lanil plowed through the area, killing all the sirenes and flesh golems.
Normally I tend to give stat-increasing books to my PC, but since Lanil already had 25 in all stats, I gave the Manual of Bodily Health to Yeslick.
Now it was time to enter Baldur's Gate! The party spent over 20000 gold buying lots of stuff from Sorcerous Sundries. They then went all over the city, getting most of the major magic items.
Highlights: (Why bother completing quests when you can skip them and get extra Boots of Speed for doing so?)
(By this point, Lanil is great against melee grunts, even tough ones.)
Though there is one melee grunt who is so powerful that I was too scared to have Lanil fight him: Larze. This guy has 141 hit points, THAC0 -3 and attacks 3 times per round for 13-22 damage, which is doubled due to Insane difficulty.
When the party reached the top of the Iron Throne and encountered Zhalimar's gang, Branwen and Faldorn used Wands of Terror while Imoen and Quayle used Wands of Fire. The initial wand salvo pretty much won the battle for me immediately. Those who weren't killed instantly ran away; Lanil and Yeslick hunted them down.
The druids made early inroads into BG2 at the Circus, Copper Coronet and Slavers. They cleared Trademeet and Allanon was first to the draw with insect plague to win the contest with Faldorn (having used iron skins for the first time there just in case he was hit while casting).
Back in Trademeet the tomb was cleared, but they hadn't yet done the Skinner quest so couldn't do the quest to help Tiris.
The final point of reputation to maximize that (after making donations at the Temple immediately after exiting the dungeon) came by returning Neb's Head. The reward for the Sir Sarles quest of the Helm of Glory also allowed Walker Boh to push his charisma to 20 to get the best shop prices. They hadn't quite finished their spending though when they went looking for an ankheg shell in the Bridge District. I had a vague memory of a group of powerful guards arriving if you took that, so produced some summons - who immediately killed a boy who protested at me stealing 1 gold piece .
No guards turned up in fact, so that was an expensive ankheg shell, but it was soon put to good use by paying Cromwell to forge some ankheg armor for Walker Boh. The remaining cash was then invested in donations to push reputation back up to 16.
The druids all took iron skins before doing the skinner quest to give them plenty of time to get summons active.
Most of them didn't bother with that against the Fallen Paladins though with no threat of backstabs.
While in the Bridge District they drew Dracandros out of his house into a couple of summons. Against Captain Dennis though they only used 1 fire elemental - I was thinking that a full round of insect plagues would kill things there, but potions kept Captain Dennis alive through the insects, while I didn't try and do any more damage to him. I tried going down the stairs instead once the situation seemed dangerous, but the bumping you get with a party prevented that working and Walker Boh died again.
With reputation back up to 19 they went to find Nalia at de'Arnise Hold. Going through that was straightforward and TorGal was honored with a full complement of summons.
On arrival back in Athkatla they got the final vampire ambush and decided it was time to pay Gaelan Bayle. That ended their long stay at level 12,
but there's an even longer one ahead at level 13 and let's not even think about level 14!
Walker Boh - L13, 90 HPs, 22 kills (+288 in BG1), 2 deaths Bremen - L13, 72 HPs, 28 kills (+238 in BG1), 1 death Galaphile - L13, 81 HPs, 30 kills (+196 in BG1), 0 deaths Allanon - L13, 92 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 38 kills (+308 in BG1) Brona - L13, 85 HPs, 26 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths Cogline - L13, 80 HPs, 29 kills (+125 in BG1), 0 deaths
We started completing the various quests in the city without any notable issues. Sunin managed to successfully cast chaos, but I was prepared for this and spread my hasted party out, so only one (in this case, Valeria) would be affected. I decided against using a defensive potion here, because there were no civilians around:
After completing everything from simple fetchquests to Degrodel's house (relatively easy with a bunch of wands and a very good tank), I moved on to the EE NPC quests, starting with the easiest one: Neera - I swapped out Thallian for that one:
Dorn was next - I had to lower my reputation by picking up Viconia before being allowed to get him into my party. Time for Ayla to sit that one out. The first part was easily solved via remove fear, the second battle wasn't much harder:
The Rasaad quest is generally the longest - once again, I swapped out Ayla for the monk. Things were made easier by carefully letting an invisible Valeria scout for traps in the mountain temple. The monks didn't stand much of a chance (no screenshots here). With Valeria reaching cleric level 7, I also decided to take on the Ulcaster Ruins. My attempt at casting protection from lightning against SCS Icharyd failed, as the second phase of the encounter seems to include some kind of automated rest, removing my buffs. However, it turned out that the lightning storm doesn't deal a ton of damage anyway. I moved downstairs, fought my way to the Wolf of Ulcaster and used mostly remove fear + haste, focusing all my attention on the wolf, leaving his summons for later:
Propably not the best approach, but it worked. Since I was already around these parts of the map and hat level 7 skeleton summons available, I decided to challenge Kahrk. Most of the party stayed far away from combat, with buffed skeletons, an enraged Cadrax and the true-sight-providing Ayla at the front lines:
I did have to use a couple of healing potions, and Ayla was affected by chaos at some point, but eventually, the ogre mage ran out of really dangerous spells, only getting rid of three skeletons before taking the fall:
For the Firewine Dungeon, an invisible Valeria disarmed all of the traps before we even delved further into the dungeon to avoid any unfortunate deaths. Masses of kobold commandos fell before Cadrax' hammer, and we eventually made it to Lendarn. He, however, turned invisible and ran away - Ayla was unable to find him right away. Skeletons did a great job of safely taking down the ogre mage, though:
Eventually, Lendarn was discovered and quickly taken down:
With all the wilderness areas and BG sidequests done for now, it was time to move to the Iron Throne HQ. I started off the battle by luring several foes (the mages and clerics) downstairs, where a hail of arrows awaited them. Eventually, with only fighters and thieves left, Cadrax and Ayla approched the remaining foes, with the rest of the party following. True sight was, as usual, very helpful in dealing with the thieves:
However, tables almost turned when Zhalimar Cloudwulfe suddenly gulped an oil of speed and switched his attention to Nabatil, whose aura was clouded from casting a slow spell - Two hits took away over half of his hitpoints, before he was finally able to drink an invisibility potion and save himself:
That could've been ugly. I can't wait for Nabatil to finally get access to stoneskin. Still, I kind of panicked and didn't think of obvious solutions here, such as equipping the boots of speed on Nabatil, which really would've helped. Definitely a mistake. I decided to go for one more encounter and travelled to Candlekeep in order to face the ogre mage assassins. Ayla struck first blood with the arrow of slaying:
I started combat with a bunch of defensive buffs, and Nabatil simply turned invisible to ensure his safety. Ayla's true sight allowed me to go on the offensive, and a chromatic orb stun on Thallian was all the ogre mages could muster before being killed - though I think that one of them must have escaped invisibly - despite scouting around with Ayla, I only ever found four bodies:
Not that I think anyone is at the edge of their seats after my 5-month hiatus, but it looks like I'll have some time to play again soon. Unfortunately, with 2.5 hitting, I'll probably let Aldain II rest and start something new (leaning towards a 97 roll Gnome C/I I've got saved up). As always, good to see this thread alive and kicking
Introducing a new character, a halfling thief/mage called Stealthstave who has got his nickname by creeping up behind his friends and tapping them with his staff. When it came to genuine enemies however he did exactly the same thing but at full strength. The first three incarnations came to sticky ends in Candlekeep due to him not finishing of the assassins with one blow. Strangely enough a different assassin killed him each time. Then upon the fourth incarnation he killed all three of them. You may ask why did he not just avoid those assassins? A good question. It is because those three assassins in my set-up are well-equipped thieves. Stavestaff needed their equipment!! For PCs who are not thieves, that equipment is of no great import, but for those who are, it is worth fighting for.
In transit he was attacked by bandits. He fled!
At High Hedge he killed some gnolls.
He returned Joia's ring, calmed Marl down and took a tome to Firebead after which he joined up temporarilly with Rose who "found" Algernon's Cloak before leaving not far from where he picked her up. Rose is a bard who is reasonably good at pick-pocketting. (65%) By opening many locks in Beregost he eventually became a level 2 thief.
EDIT
He then tried to get mellicamp and a werewolf back into shape but failed on both occasions.
After getting a rabbit for Kessey, Stealthstave headed south but unfortunately didn't notice when his armour spell ran out with the result that he was seriously wounded, (1 HP left) however by fleeing he was able to hide and sneak up to where the Colquetle amulet lay.
He then went to Nashkel avoiding conflict until he was given a ring by Lord Foreshadow. In Nashkel he found some armour which he was unable to wear. He spoke to Joseph's wife and Noober before heading to the carnival where he gained the ability to heal himself.
Wrin and Tilly, update 2: Introduction Update 1 The last two things we have to wrap up/hunt down in the wilderness areas are Kirian's party and getting another Protection from Magic scroll. There's no surprise Basilisk ambush, and Spirit Fire does good work against clumped up enemies. It's not as good as Fireball for most cases in BG1, but bypassing Minor Globe of Invulnerability is going to be pretty good later.
We finally start getting Tilly online: Arrows of Detonation are the poor man's (or perhaps rich man's, given their price) Fire Seeds. She can now disable entire groups of casters with only four attacks. Unfortunately, most threats are now physical instead of magical... We take out the Ogre Mage and then the group in Sorcerous Sundries trying to hunt down more items, specifically the CON tome.
Wrin gets his last level courtesy of a basilisk. It's actually a bit dangerous, as killing a basilisk within a turn doesn't always happen.
More fights, Low Lantern, the Cloak and Helm fight (4 nymphs casting Confusion wrecked this fight), Marek, the temple of Umberlee, and finally that random paladin near the Temple of Helm. No CON tome, sadly, but we still claim the Helm of Balduran.
Iron Throne: Arrows of Detonation, Amulet of Missiles, Spirit Fire kill most things instantly. We abuse the stairs to avoid a Chaos spell, but Tilly's strong enough to clean up with her 4 points in Longbow.
Ogre mages are negated by a Potion of Magic Blocking from Wrin. Tilly is Charmed, but she has enough hitpoints to survive, and Call Lightning destroys the rest of them. Still hunting items, I kill Rieltar and company for the first time ever, I think. Still no CON tome, but I think one of them had the Helm of Charm protection. Since that's one of the worries in low-member parties, Wrin puts it on and Tilly takes the helm of Baldarun.
Violet Potion + Potion of Agility + Potion of fortitude allows Wrin to loot everything. There was one tome, but it turns out to be DEX, not CON. More area of effect spells and arrows burst Pratt and company, though a potion of magic shielding was wasted in prebuffing on Wrin to make sure he's not stunned by the Darts of Stunning. They never got to throw anything. Two potions of mirrored eyes allows a 25 STR Wrin to comfortably finish the two Basilisks.
Back in Baldur's Gate, the only thing we feel like doing is Slythe and Kristin. There's very few other locations where the tome of CON could be: Droth (Shoal's already dead), Ulcaster (no thief), Silvershield estate (no clue where in here this is), Trading coster desk (no clue how to get this), Firewine ruins (no thief), and some Undercity goons. It's simply not worth 9 additional health at this point. Anyways, Slythe still hurts, Krystin still cheats (goes invisible without aura or action). I'm actually pretty certain Slythe's AC isn't even legal at this point, but whatever.
Ducal palace is almost a disaster. Wizard Slayer is great for disabling mages for awhile, but... dealing with a bunch of hasted doppelgangers? No Oils of Speed make Tilly a sad halfling. Belt's killed pretty darn quickly, and Liia's not casting any spells. Wrin rushes to Liia to heal, using Bhaalspawn powers, and two Nymphs successfully get off a Mass Cure. The Mage recovers from its disable, and lobs a Fireball into the room, bringing Liia low again and Wrin to around half health. The Greater Doppels die, and Tilly gets more shots back on the mage, and we barely come out of this alive. Liia is drawn away from Sarevok's sight, and Tilly runs around in circles until Sarevok gives up.
Undercity party: Arrows of Detonation, Spirit Fire, regular arrows, and everyone dies. Onto the Temple of Bhaal. There's not too many prebuffs: Pro. Magic and... that's about everything a Wizard Slayer can do. Diarmid is a huge problem, since Tilly can't use the usual suite of missile deflectors that most characters have. No Elves' bane, no Cloak of Displacement (not that I own it due to Item Randomiser), no Boots of Avoidance since I need the Boots of Speed to stay ahead of Sarevok. Tilly's swigging potions to stay ahead of the Arrows of Acid that Diarmid's slinging out. Tazok falls first, and finally Diarmid falls second. Angelo runs out of useful spells and is sniped down with Arrows of Ice. Semaj... disappeared. This has happened to me before in the final battle, and he's nowhere to be found. I skip time forwards by 48 hours in case he was using an invisibility spell, but he's still not in the area. I can't even spawn him by console. Sarevok's at 1 HP, and I decide to essentially win the fight by console. I try to spawn Semaj, he won't spawn. I end up having to spawn a fake version of Sarevok and kill that one.
SoD: Wrin gets to level two with an invisibility potion, and an arrow of dispelling and denotation later, Korlasz surrenders.
We'll recruit a party for SoD. Wrin: Shaman 9 Tilly: Wizard Slayer 8
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Difficulty Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 1
After an attempt at a zero-gold run of Skyrim failed when I fell off a ledge, I decided to try my hand at Legendary difficulty in Skyrim. Legendary is the highest difficulty, only accessible if you have a certain expansion installed, and does two things:
1. You take three times as much damage. 2. All damage you deal is cut by 1/4.
In other words, the game is 12 times as difficult. It's a bit like the maximum difficulty in Oblivion (which was 36 times as difficult) in the sense that you can still die to a mudcrab if you're not careful and that it's very easy to get killed in a single blow. Worse yet, your weapon skills grow slower because weapon skill increases are based on damage output rather than number of strikes.
Normally, a Legendary run would involve lots of heavy grinding at the start until you got huge numbers and could abuse certain glitches. However, I'm playing with Skyrim Redone, the most popular overhaul mod for Skyrim, which removes a whole bunch of exploits and rebalances gameplay. We also have Apocalypse installed and SkyUI, which I previously couldn't install due to problems with SKSE, a script extender. We're no longer playing with Ordinator or Phenderix Magic Evolved, however, which means a lot of overpowered perks and spells are no longer available to us--notably, the Vancian Magic perk and Slow Time spell.
However, I've discovered two brilliant new options which will render the game playable. In fact, we're not even going to have to rely on followers, Conjuration, or Illusion to deal damage--nor will we use the Smithing and Enchant skills to create super-powered armor to even the odds. Instead, we're going to fight monsters with conventional weaponry.
Our Charname this time is Frost the Breton mage character. Bretons are badly nerfed in Skyrim Redone (also known as SkyRe), however: they get 15% magic resistance instead of 25% (which is already a huge nerf from Oblivion and Morrowind's 50%) and their Dragonskin greater power, which gives 50% spell absorption for 60 seconds, is gone.
The good news is that Bretons instead get a pair of lovely new greater powers instead: one that doubles the magnitude and halves the magicka cost of all your spells, and another that lets you summon as many monsters as you want without limit. Both powers last 60 seconds and deal constant damage to your health and stamina, which requires periodic healing, but being able to create a whole pack of wolves is very nice indeed.
We won't be relying on summons to deal damage, largely because this summoning power is really bad for your character's health (and it takes like 10 seconds to charge the power before you can cast it), but it's still cool.
The starting dungeon is pretty safe regardless of difficulty, because you always have Ralof (or Hadvar, depending on who you followed during the opening cutscenes) to fight bad guys for you. I take the time to spam Conjuration spells just to get a little skill progress while I wait for Ralof and the Stormcloaks to do the heavy lifting.
Unlike in other Elder Scrolls games, you have to cast Conjuration and Alteration spells in combat to get any experience from them. This means that safe fights are a valuable and finite resource for improving certain skills.
I try out a longbow against a local cave bear. Legendary really does cripple our damage output; even a sneak attack from a bow only takes a sliver out of the cave bear's health.
The key to this run is going to be Alchemy--and not because we'll be spamming powerful poisons and potions (though in some cases we will), but because there's one very special potion we can craft that can radically change the nature of gameplay. Normally, I pick the Mage Stone for our first and only standing stone bonus, but this time, the Thief Stone is ideal, since it will speed up our Alchemy skill gains.
We head to Riverwood. Apparently Skyrim Redone doesn't remove all exploits in the game: you can still but a basket over an NPC's head to make them blind and prevent them from seeing you stealing their stuff.
I don't like this trick very much, so I don't think I'll be using it, but I'll keep a basket or two on hand in case I change my mind.
Normally, we'd start off by tackling Bleak Falls Barrow, but that's a teensy bit suicidal for a level 1 character on Legendary. Instead, we just grab some free stuff from Ralof's friend in Riverwood and make our way to Whiterun, the first major city and an important hub for this run. The journey is pretty safe even though we can't fast-travel, but we do get a scare when a wolf pack crosses our path.
We hold them off with some wolf familiar summons and apply light damage with bows. We barely scrape by--if it weren't for that Conjure Familiar - Wolf spell that Bretons get at the start of the game, we wouldn't have been able to handle that fight without outside help.
There are several important things about Whiterun. Among other, less important things, Whiterun has a carriage we can use to fast-travel to other cities; an alchemist from which we can buy raw ingredients; and a whole bunch of mountain flowers and lavender growing all over the city, ripe for the picking.
The alchemist is the most important thing here. By performing a simple fetch quest for the local alchemist and her friend Farengar up at the Jarl's palace...
...the alchemist's disposition will improve, which means we can take any object from her shop that we like, as long as it's worth no more than 20 gold. This includes a very special and very rare item: Spriggan Sap.
In the vanilla game, Spriggan Sap is one of the few sources of the Fortify Enchant effect, which allows you to create some very broken and overpowered enchanted items--including Fortify Alchemy items that can in turn strengthen your potions. Skyrim Redone, however, removes those effects entirely in order to discourage players from micromanaging the crafting skills for huge rewards that don't require anything but tedious inventory management. The crafting system in Skyrim really rewards boring gameplay, which SkyRe changes.
That Fortify Enchant effect is replaced by something much more interesting, and that will serve as the basis of this run.
We spend many minutes running around Whiterun picking every flower in town, a boring but very productive chore considering how many important uses there are for Red, Blue, and Purple Mountain Flowers as well as Lavender. We're not swimming in gold quite yet, but we can easily afford to take a carriage to Winterhold, where gaining access to the local college is as simple as paying 30 gold and casting a single spell.
The College of Winterhold offers several benefits. First, we get a free room and access to an alchemy lab (resting before going to the lab gives us 10% faster Alchemy skill increases thanks to the "Rested" effect) as well as respawning ingredients in our room and in the lab itself. Our room has valuable Ice Wraith Teeth, which can be used for Invisibility potions, and the lab has two more samples of Spriggan Sap.
I have no real need for Invisibility potions, largely because they're very ineffective in Skyrim (enemies will keep attacking even when you go invisible, and they have rather excellent aim for several dangerous seconds before you can make your escape). However, they do yield potions with a high gold value, which also means they increase our Alchemy skill faster. I don't really need either one--the important thing is just having extra samples of Spriggan Sap--but they'll give some nice bonuses anyway.
I won't bore you with the details, but basically, getting our Alchemy to a high level and making money by selling potions is all about mixing ingredients and picking high-value effects that will yield potions that can be sold for higher prices. I already know a lot of the combinations, so finding new effects involves much less guesswork than it did in previous runs.
The value of a potion is just the sum of the magicka cost of its effects. This means that you can create a highly poisonous buffing potion that vendors will still view as highly valuable, even if you would never use it in combat. Imagine a delicious cake drizzled with rat poison, but everyone else in the world considers the rat poison to be icing on the cake.
Anyway, one of the most important poisons to brew are Slow poisons. They're not very useful, since all they do is slow down the victim's movement rate (I could be wrong, but the poisons don't seem to slow down their attack rates or spellcasting), but they yield lots of gold and two of the components, Deathbells and Salt Piles, are very easy to find.
The next step is hiring a carriage to reach all of the other main cities of Skyrim, then sell off your useless potions and poisons to them so you can buy new ingredients and continue the process. It doesn't require much time (though it requires some game knowledge to really get moving) and it yields lots of Alchemy increases and lots of gold.
There are some other important ingredients, some of which we'll have to find and some which we'll have to buy, but purchasing ingredients is very random. We get lucky by finding 6 Hagraven Claws in one place (though they're quite expensive). One of the best potions for leveling Alchemy is to mix a Giant's Toe (gross) with Wheat and a fish called a River Betty!
You can get Giant's Toes by slaying giants, but honestly, the best way to level Alchemy is just to buy ingredients and make whatever you can with the ingredients you get.
Over in the city of Markarth, we can perform another easy fetch quest for the local alchemist and earn the right to grab random crap off of her shelves--which includes 2 Hagraven Claws!
Finally, just outside Solitude, we can find some respawning butterflies. The monarch butterflies are good for healing potions, but the blue ones are more important.
Like Hagraven Claws and Spriggan Sap, they used to be ingredients for Fortify Enchant potions. Same goes for Snowberries, which are easier to find and cheaper (you can find snowberry bushes all over Skyrim).
One of our last stops is in Windhelm, where there are a lot of valuable ingredients just lying around. These ones aren't free, though--you have to steal those valuable Giant's Toes.
ALL of this stuff is respawning, so if we travel back and forth across Skyrim using fast-traveling and wait a day or two in between, we can do a full circuit of every cheap source of ingredients in the game.
So what's the point of all this? Well, we've been collecting all the ingredients that used to be Fortify Enchant potion components, so what did Skyrim Redone replace that effect with?
Yes, Fortify Enchant has become the same effect I used in my last run, Slow Time. Except this time, it lasts far, far longer than the spell I used. Granted, I'll need to find some very rare ingredients and burn a new potion every time I want it, and I still have to deal with Legendary, but each potion will give me over a full minute of slowed time.
While time is slowed, Frost will move at half speed, but everything else will move at a sluggish crawl--maybe 10% of their normal speed. As long as we're careful to dodge every slow-moving threat that comes our way, it's equivalent to about 30 seconds of fully stopped time.
But that's not all. We have Restore Health potions that can bring back over 100 health a pop, and some rather difficult-to-get Ravage Health poisons that can deal 24 damage per second for 10 seconds, or about 60 damage when factoring in Legendary mode, and a perk lets us get multiple uses out of the same poison. We'll have some nice rescue options and some tough poisons (including some paralysis poisons that last over 10 seconds!) as well as some elemental resistance potions.
We are investing every single level up in health rather than magicka or stamina because death can happen in less than a single second in Legendary, and we absolutely need to make sure that we have time to spam healing potions if we ever get in trouble. As we tell Tolfdir, we have no plans on experiencing sudden death.
We need Tolfdir as a source of Alteration spell books. Since melee combat is extremely dangerous and Alteration can be grinded out of combat by using Detect Life (though only after we get Alteration from 20 to 40), it's much safer to use Alteration to boost our defenses against physical damage than wear armor. Problem is, right after you first meet Tolfdir, he goes off to Saarthal, where you'll have to visit him if you want to buy any more spell books.
Saarthal isn't far from Winterhold, but on the way, I've run into wolves, Saber Cats, and Ice Wraiths, all of which could be extremely dangerous. Rather than try to make the trip on my own, I pick the slow route, and walk with Tolfdir and the students out of the college and over to Saarthal.
Sure enough, we run into a couple of Ice Wraiths on the way, but Tolfdir and the students are more than capable of handling the situation (Tolfdir is even immortal by virtue of being plot-critical to a major questline) on their own. I take the time to cast Conjure Flame Atronach a few times for experience.
With Tolfdir now in a safe position we can fast-travel to any time we want, we now have all the resources we need in just the right spaces. Now we can get to work on our first truly dangerous task: getting Alteration to 40, which we can only do in-combat.
Remember what we said about dying to mudcrabs if we're not careful? We're gonna have to be careful.
I hadn't reported to the guard outside the circus tent, so that pushed reputation to 20 and allowed a bit more shopping - in particular Allanon pulled rank and bought the +5 sling for himself.
Thinking it was about time to get revenge for the previous druid party, Allanon's group went to Watcher's Keep. This time I used more insect spells and none of the statues outlived the summons.
Looking for some more easy quests the druids went to Umar Hills. There was a nice surprise there when the Shield of the Lost proved to be another shield that, rather surprisingly, can be used by druids - helps make up for the lack of decent bucklers in BG2. Galaphile nearly died at the entrance to the temple when I was slow to see he had been paralysed by a shadow fiend, but help arrived just in time.
Inside, the druids' relatively low XP meant the undead presented no challenge, but Thaxy was more of a problem. He got lucky in resisting 4 of the 5 initial insect plagues, despite a Magic Resistance spell taking his MR down to 26% MR. Lots more insects did eventually wear him down, but not until just after Bremen failed to survive being breathed on for a second time.
After a trip to the temple the druids rested and came back to find insects doing a much cleaner job on the Shade Lord.
Back in Athkatla Cromwell forged some dragon armor before the druids went to unlock the Planar Sphere with Valygar's body. Going through there Allanon was held by one of the Tanar'ri, but there was plenty of support and killing the demons took only a few moments.
It didn't take long until they were able to restart the Sphere and return to Athkatla.
I was getting a bit tired of this run, but steeled myself to do some more work (mainly safely) this morning - clearing the Graveyard, Mae'Var's quests and the party in the Promenade inn. I then decided to have a go at the Cowled Wizards - I regularly do that with mages, but other groups can annoy them as well using the Ring of Air Control. For some reason the original Cowled Enforcer in each group was able to shrug off the effects of the insect plagues descending on him as the others appeared, but fire elementals handled him. In the last group Zallanora managed to cast his scripted time stop, but died from the plagues before he could disappear.
The temple sewers were also cleared, with nothing there able to stand up to both fire elementals and insect plague. There was a bit of a scare when starting the Unseeing Eye though. Allanon was paralyzed by one the stray shots you sometimes get from beholders, but I didn't initially worry about it as he was out of sight of any enemies. However, a gauth was horrified by insect plagues and ran in sight of him and Cogline had to hurry back and use Pixie Dust to save him.
I was more careful in the beholder hive though and the Unseeing Eye itself was closed for good.
The druids still need the best part of 1m XP to get to level 14. That shouldn't take too long, but the 9m XP needed to get level 15 after that will take a while . I'm away for a few days now though - possibly the break will help me avoid taking too many risks ...
Walker Boh - L13, 90 HPs, 75 kills (+288 in BG1), 2 deaths Bremen - L13, 72 HPs, 71 kills (+238 in BG1), 2 deaths Galaphile - L13, 81 HPs, 90 kills (+196 in BG1), 0 deaths Allanon - L13, 92 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 103 kills (+308 in BG1) Brona - L13, 93 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 61 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths Cogline - L13, 80 HPs, 72 kills (+125 in BG1), 0 deaths
Stealthstave died by acting in too risky a fashion near Greywolf, (New tactics have been worked out concerning him) but when Stealthstave started again in Candlekeep he was more effective. When he went to the training room he got buffed with bless and protection from evil whilst he used Deder's oil of speed himself. He then went straight to Mendas whilst he was fully buffed and took him out easily. By the time he got to the other assassins the spells had worn off but the oil of speed was still active. That was enough. He was able to take them on toe to toe and win. He went to the FAI where he used sleep to good effect against the hobgoblins, but they seemed to be resistant to sleep with the result that some running away was necessary.
In the first game Stealthstave had used the wand of frost against Zargos Flintblade. With the mods that I have installed he should have dropped his possessions when he froze, but he didn't with the result that the axe +1 was lost. I will have to remember that quirk for my new game.
The first two levels of the Candlekeep catacombs were easy enough to clear out, with Valeria getting another wisdom tome and Cadrax improving his strength. The hostile party in the caverns was approached invisibly by skeletons and the Cadrax + Ayla combo. They quickly took down the first mage, while greater malison was cast by Sarastro:
Meanwhile, Prat had managed to run away, seeking safety in one of the spider lairs. He came back with a chaos spell which I was unable to interrupt, but most of the group was at a safe distance, so only Valeria got affected. Shortly after that, after having blinded two of the fighters already, Sarastro managed to disable Prat via spook while the others took care of any spiders to protect Valeria:
With that, we just had to take out the basilisks and make our way back to the Gate. There, after walking around town under invisiblity 10' radius for a bit, the party broke into the Flaming Fist HQ, using greater malison + silence 10' radius to neutralize all of the spellcasters:
This is a really neat combo. Anyway, for Cythandria, it was once again Cadrax, Ayla and skeletons who approached our foe, taking down her SCS golems (I did have to use a healing potion here) before chasing down the mage:
The reason I'm usually choosing these two for any magic-heavy combat is a) they have the best hp and ac scores, b) they have good saving throws and good options to improve these even further, c) Cadrax has rage, the most powerful defense at this point, and Ayla has true sight, a great offensive tool and d) it wouldn't matter too much if one of them were to die (though they haven't come close to doing so). Slythe and Krystin were handled in a very similiar fashion:
The Ducal Palace event saw us buying a chaos scroll in preparation. We started with summons and buffs, adding greater malison, chaos, slow and more AOE disables into the mix:
Most doppelgangers were disabled in some way, and those who didn't soon fell to our blades. A rather convincing victory, but I noticed that Liia doesn't seem to use her improved 2.5 script with SCS for some reason. Very strange.
We started with our first piece of TotSC content - the ice island. Most of it was done solo by Cadrax, protected via PfM scroll:
However, two of the mages managed to go invisible and stay hidden until the scroll's duration ran out, so I did a second sweep of the place, and Cadrax was aided by Ayla and her true sight ability - the remaining foes were quickly spotted and killed:
Balduran's Island turned out to be quite easy. Cadrax was easily able to tank full groups of werewolves, and the loup garou fell thanks to his bastard sword specialization (which basically only exists to make this place easier) and oils of speed. We took the peaceful solution provided by SCS and made our way back rather quickly, eager to enter Durlag's Tower (though we had reached the experience cap by now). The first level was cleared, and the warder fight started - we took out the thief right away, with a little bit of true sight to help out. Meanwhile, Thallian got held, but he was well protected against any kind of damage. Luckily, love didn't really join the battle right away.
Most of the warders were easy to take down with the full power of our hasted party. The fighter among them proved to be the toughest, as he took quite a chunk out of Cadrax' health, but he didn't pose a real threat, as I could've run away at any point during the battle:
The second level turned out to be a simple affair - even the dwarven doom guards were easily taken down by our fighters. I had to be careful with the Ashirukuru on the third level. Watching the combat log very closely, I realized that they really didn't want to go for my bait (summoned skeletons), trying to kill Nabatil instead, so he drank an invisibility potion and stayed out of combat entirely. True sight and strong frontliners helped a lot, and none of my foes managed to land a backstab on any party members. I made my way to the chessboard (no transition bug here, luckily) - and was surprised when two foes (the knights) sprinted at Nabatil right away under a haste effect - they were faster than the four web spells (two via minor sequencer) flying in the direction of my foes, forcing Nabatil to drink an invisibility potion yet again, while Sarastro reinforced our webs with greater malison and Cadrax started to take down the knights:
I started throwing fireballs at the webbed enemies, and the knights were defeated via ranged weapons and Cadrax' attacks. A couple of additional webs were used, as the king, who seems to have very good saves, kept breaking out. Eventually, the battlefield was secured and victory was soon ours:
Next time, we shall explore the final level of Durlag's and try our hands at the very dangerous cult.
With the mods that I have installed he should have dropped his possessions when he froze, but he didn't with the result that the axe +1 was lost. I will have to remember that quirk for my new game.
If any enemy dies to cold damage, their equipment is lost. This is vanilla behavior. Thus, no cold damage should be used to kill a target if you want their loot. It's why I don't use cold damage much, though it's useful against the various wolves you encounter in BG 1 since they have no loot. You can use cold damage to whittle down a target's health, and as long as the cold damage itself doesn't get the "kill shot", then nothing is lost. Would be tricky to use it such a manner.
With the mods that I have installed he should have dropped his possessions when he froze, but he didn't with the result that the axe +1 was lost. I will have to remember that quirk for my new game.
If any enemy dies to cold damage, their equipment is lost. This is vanilla behavior. Thus, no cold damage should be used to kill a target if you want their loot. It's why I don't use cold damage much, though it's useful against the various wolves you encounter in BG 1 since they have no loot. You can use cold damage to whittle down a target's health, and as long as the cold damage itself doesn't get the "kill shot", then nothing is lost. Would be tricky to use it such a manner.
For Zargos I think one or two blasts with the wand would be best. He takes a lot of killing.
Anyway back to Stealthstave Mark II. Things went much the same as Mark I. Once more he failed to help both Mellicamp and the werewolf. I was hoping for a different outcome there. He hasn't yet taken on Zargos or Greywolf opting instead to pick up the ring of fire protection and take Samuel to the FAI. He avoided many of the enemies on the road to Nashkel due to his poor armour. He used a lot of sleep spells against the gnoll at High Hedge and was pleasantly surprised at how effective it was against the ogrillon south of Beregost. (Better than against the gnoll.) He has switched from using a shortbow to using the sling +1 from Beregost Smithy. He is having to be very careful as he certainly isn't a tank! When he has gone up another two levels as a mage, he should be a bit more competant, IF he gets there. Perhaps Mark II also needs to enlist Rose's pickpocket spells.
@Wise_Grimwald Are you playing solo? The sleep wand from Thalantyr is an excellent investment for a non-tank character, it can help making kills easier, as well as be good defense in ambushes. This wand is usable by any character as long as they have 9 INT, and of course as long as a class doesn't prohibit it (such a wizard slayers)
@Wise_Grimwald Are you playing solo? The sleep wand from Thalantyr is an excellent investment for a non-tank character, it can help making kills easier, as well as be good defense in ambushes. This wand is usable by any character as long as they have 9 INT, and of course as long as a class doesn't prohibit it (such a wizard slayers)
I may well take your advice on that one as the wand is far more effective than the spell. A couple more enemies and he should be level 2 mage, level 3 thief. Also considering a foray into Durlag's. Plenty of safe experience for thieves there. You just have to avoid fighting. Just south of Beregost Stealthstave was attacked by a GIBBERLING! With one blow Stealthstave was reduced to 1 HP!! What's more he had previously cast "Armour" so he was reasonably protected! Stealthstave is currently solo but it won't stay that way. I want to level him up quickly. He rescued Corianna from petrification and by so doing got a potion of mirrored eyes. That will be useful at Durlag's.
He bought some arrows with which he was able to slay the werewolf and he received abetter than average +1 sword from High Hedge for the body. If and when he acquires a party it may well be useful.
EDIT
Tried to backstab Riggilo. Failed. He won the subsequent encounter. The end.
Starting: In BG1EE. Difficulty: Core rules, max HP on level up. Self-imposed restrictions: No easter eggs (tree diamond, extra Ring of Wizardry/Ankheg Plate/Ring of Fire Resistance, gold from Firebead etc), no recharging items by selling and buying them back, no using unidentified items. Mods: Essentially full SCS (including full pre-buffing for mages and priests), see spoiler for WeiDU.
Initialise mod (all other components require this): v31 RC2 Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v31 RC2 More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2 Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2 Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2 Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v31 RC2 Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2 Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2 Replace BG1-style elemental arrows with BG2 versions: v31 RC2 Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v31 RC2 Replace many +1 magical weapons with Fine ones -> Fine weapons are affected by the iron crisis: v31 RC2 Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Stores sell a maximum of 5 Arrows of Dispelling: v31 RC2 Faster Bears: v31 RC2 Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2 Improved shapeshifting: v31 RC2 Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2 Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v31 RC2 NPCs go to inns: v31 RC2 Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2 Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2 Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2 Ensure Shar-Teel doesn't die in the original challenge: v31 RC2 Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2 Smarter general AI: v31 RC2 Better calls for help: v31 RC2 Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2 Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2 Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2 Improved Spiders: v31 RC2 Smarter sirines and dryads: v31 RC2 Slightly harder carrion crawlers: v31 RC2 Smarter basilisks: v31 RC2 Improved doppelgangers: v31 RC2 Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: v31 RC2 Improved deployment for parties of assassins: v31 RC2 Dark Side-based kobold upgrade: v31 RC2 Relocated bounty hunters: v31 RC2 Improved Ulcaster: v31 RC2 Improved Balduran's Isle: v31 RC2 Improved Durlag's Tower: v31 RC2 Improved Demon Cultists: v31 RC2 Improved Cloakwood Druids: v31 RC2 Improved Bassilus: v31 RC2 Improved Drasus party: v31 RC2 Improved Red Wizards: v31 RC2 Improved Undercity party: v31 RC2 Tougher chapter-two end battle: v31 RC2 Tougher chapter-three end battle: v31 RC2 Tougher chapter-four end battle: v31 RC2 Tougher chapter-five end battle: v31 RC2 Improved final battle: v31 RC2 Improved minor encounters: v31 RC2
Meet our likeable though certainly not loveable hero: Somewhat warty, suspiciously snaggle-toothed but perennially plucky, Hubblepot Gogglebur (distant third cousin twice removed on his mothers' side of famed Halfling Cleric Odrelomp Gogglebur)!
I know the portrait does not do his description justice, but there are surprisingly few warty, snaggletoothed yet cheery Gnome Cleric pictures out there. Hubblepot has (apart from his face) the physical characteristics of the ancient greek god of your choice, a mental acuity even learned sages can scarce dream to aspire to, and all the social skills you'd expect from someone who spent his entire youth around a gaggle of decrepit old monks. So... not the life of the party. But who needs social skills when you're able to dodge arrows, recite Faerunian poetry, consume copious amounts of dwarven mead, write a dissertation on the mathematics of Abjuration and wrestle an Ogre at the same time? Not Hubblepot, at least!
Hubblepot has opted for + in War Hammer and Sling. For his starting Illusionist spells, he has selected Find Familiar, Sleep and Spook. Blindness would've probably been a better initial pick than Spook, but we can just swing by High Hedge first thing and pick up a scroll (which Hubblepot is guaranteed to scribe successfully, with his 95 + 15 = 110% chance to scribe Illusion spells). Other than that, these spells should do us just fine until we hit arcane spell level 2. As a Cleric/Illusionist, Hubblepot will probably be a little behind the curve in terms of raw power at any given point of the game. However, his enormous versatility (not to mention excellent saves for those inevitable times when I forget to completely protect him against some nasty effect) will hopefully make up for it. Plus, he eventually gets some interesting options for spell triggers...
Hubblepot shall gather unto him the standard Good complement of companions: Imoen (Thief 5 -> Mage 9 with 100% Detect Illusions), Khalid, Jaheira, Kivan to be replaced by Coran, and Branwen to be replaced by Yeslick (Hubblepot will pick up Mace proficiency before we reach Yeslick anyway, so there won't be competition for weapons). The only weak link is Jaheira, really, given that Yeslick will have dibs on the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Still, at least she'll get a few Call Woodland Beings towards the end, and I guess she can just hang in the back with a sling and spend her remaining slots on Bless/CLW/SoO/CMW, leaving the clerics free to go full offense/self buffs/summons.
Away we go! Hubblepot briskly clears the Candlekeep errands (Command sorts out Carbos, while a Mirror Image'd Familiar holds off Shank). Imoen is recruited, along with Montaron and Xzar, the latter chiefly to relieve them of a few potions. Tarnesh has no defense against Command, and once past this initial hurdle, Montaron and Xzar decide to retire in the FAI indefinitely. We pick up Khalid and Jaheira, clear the hobgoblins around the inn, and head north.
I always go for the treasure in the ankheg lair first thing. If I have no cleric, I'll send Imoen in under stealth, and have her quaff Jaheira's Potion of Invisibility right after looting the goodies. This time, however, a single Sanctuary lets Hubblepot swipe the entire stash and get out, with about 3 rounds of Sanctuary remaining. This affords us that game-changingly potent item, the Wand of Fire! Huzzah! I fight my inner penny-pincher and splurge 100g to have the wand identified at the FAI. Things are looking up already.
The party proceeds south. We clear the Belted Ogre, and swing by High Hedge to pick up Kivan. We also pick up two scrolls, Blindness and Identify, and I risk a little scribing without using any intelligence potions. To my great delight, Hubblepot succeeds spectacularly: We scribe Blindness (which was guaranteed), Armor, Burning Hands, Identify and Magic Missile, only failing to scribe Infravision. Couldn't be happier about how that went, and now we definitely have a fairly diverse spell book for the early game, though of course 99% of the time we will just be casting Sleep and/or Blindness.
Everything directly south of Beregost on the road to Nashkel is cleansed, Command and Sleep as always reducing enemy resistance to nothing. Branwen is freed at the Carnival, Neira is Commanded and focused down in a few seconds... even Noober grudgingly gives up his quest XP.
After Neira, we dip towards the Nashkel Mines to trigger Dorn's ambush, solely to get the Plate Mail for Khalid, and then head straight back to the Nashkel Inn for a quick rest. The plan: Do the west-of-Nashkel circuit, then head back up towards Beregost while clearing Bjonin's Half-Ogres and Bassilus, then clear Beregost itself. That should get us a few levels at very low risk, after which we'll be comfortable proceeding with the main plot. We travel west!
New Xvartia is utterly demolished by our passing, as is to be expected. Entangle, Sleep, Command... we've got the tools we need to comfortably handle these areas.
Ever westward. Neville and his band of merry murderers are undone (Doom and Command on Neville as always... I find his saves are a bit too good to play the odds on Command sticking unassisted). I opt to burn (pun intended) a few Wand of Fire charges at the bridge: A Fireball deals with the Hobgoblin Elites, one dying and two fleeing in panic to be picked off at our leisure, while two Scorchers keeps the Ogre Berserkers from doing much.
We also clear Laurel's Gibberlings. I opted against the utter evilness of falling back and letting her fight the entire Gibberling horde alone (in which case, since SCS quadruples the number of gibberlings, she's quite likely to succumb to mass critical hits, allowing you to loot her Plate Mail), and duly assist. Slaying the Polar Bear threatening Jared also gets Branwen a level up, paving the way for more options (Hold Person, Silence 15' Radius and Chant being the critical ones).
South we must go, and so we do. Slaying the bridge-guarding Ogrillons gets Khalid a level up, and so the Gnoll Fortress presents little obstacle. Large groups of low-level melee grunts were never really a danger. The Gnoll Chieftain actually yielded a Web scroll. It is highly likely Hubblepot will have hit Illusionist level 3 by the time we reach the Bandit Camp, and so he'll be able to cast it anyway (Web being integral to my preferred tactic of just butchering the entire camp at once), but an extra such scroll is always a good thing.
Back east, Ingot the Gnoll is put down. To my great delight, we actually get 2 random spawns of Winter Wolves here. Their experience catapults Hubblepot to Cleric level 2. Not a massive boost in power, but the extra 5 HP is welcome. The rest of the area is duly cleared (we did not even need to rest, but could use what spells we had remaining from the Gnoll Fortress). Again, we press east!
We tried to rest here, but got a 5 Skeleton ambush with Composite Bows. I pondered fighting them, but decided the risk was too great with Hubblepot in full view of all 5 of them, so we had to double back west, rest, and then return. Which cost us 32 hours... hopefully we'll still have time to reach the Bandit Camp before Kivan's timer kicks in (I'm not entirely sure this is still a thing in EE, as I've never taken more than 21 days after recruiting Kivan to reach the Bandit Camp). Anyway, Sendai and her friends fall to Command, Doom and Hold Person, as do Vax and Zal.
And that's the western Nashkel circuit done! On average one level and change for each party member, and a couple of important items (notably Bracers of Dexterity and Bracers of Archery). We could probably clear the Doomsayer out and retrieve Brage, but as said, we lost a bit of time doubling back, so better to press on. The party takes a well-deserved rest at the Nashkel Inn, and moves into Half-Ogre territory.
We're just tearing through the enemies here. Drizzt's Gnolls unfortunately drop nothing special. Jemby is Commanded by Hubblepot, Zekar is Commanded by Branwen, Teyngan is Doomed by Jaheira and then Held by Branwen... a good day for divine casters. The Half-Ogres succumb to a simple Entangle. To the North!
Bassilus' area goes smoothly, for once. Sleep and Command do for Zorgal and his henchmen. Bassilus himself always has the potential to cause some havoc. However, this time a Magic Missile from Imoen (we still have her original wand) interrupts his initial Enchantment spell, and then he fails his save against Silence 15' Radius courtesy of Branwen. In the next round, a Command buys us just enough time to kill him off. Quite happy he didn't get off an Aerial Servant or Flame Strike.
We swing by High Hedge again, attempt to restore Melicamp, and actually succeed! Hooray! A nice bit of extra experience for the party. On the way out we clear the Gnolls, and head east, back to Beregost.
By now, we don't even need a full set of spells to clear Beregost. We hit a small snag fighting Landrin's Spiders, wherein Khalid gets critically hit 3 times and (being Khalid) fails his Save vs Poison 3 times... so a few healing potions were spent. But otherwise, not much to report. Silke give me a small scare when she moved out of the area of effect of a Silence 15' Radius, but we had good enough THAC0 to bring her down before she could hit us with anything. We finish off by handing in Bassilus' Holy Symbol, and travel south towards Nashkel.
The party uneventfully arrives in Nashkel, where they take to the Inn. There they can still be found, mulling over tactical considerations as pertains to their imminent all-out assault on the Nashkel Mines. We're in good shape: Everyone has a few levels, we've got some gear (though much of it is still unidentified and thus, by my own restrictions, we cannot use it yet), we've got more than enough cash, some of which will be spent picking up The One Gift Lost... all's good. Next time, we advance the plot!
Hubblepot is now a L3/L2 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
Rolled another character. Again a F/D, and this time a female with a 95 roll
I had a male F/D a while back, but he didnt fare well. Adamant on improving my game and seeing that no F/D had reached the throne I got decided to get my game together.
This time FD has pips in daggers and scimitar. I tried darts the last time, but didnt like the short reach - daggers work better for me on that notion alone (playing on a iPhone only leaves you with little room for kiting).
I tried my kiting skills early on. I wanted the ogres belt, but ended up being chased by the ogre, a wolf and a gibberling to Beregost... level 1 kiting isnt working for me (its prop. the small screen... ).
In beregost I did some minor quests and killed Shoal (really roleplaying the Druid here...). Back in Beregost I charmed Karlat and got the gem bag from Neera - after some scrambling.
Found some scimitars on the ground after some drow dropped them after a row with some gnolls... The God of cheese soon found its venegence when I realized that I could only equip 1 of the lovely weapons... . A total facepalm moment..
FD on the other hand liked the lovely cash the scimitar netted.
After that it was simply a matter of getting XP and loot. So Meilum, Basilisk are and the sirenes where next.
The golems nearly ended the run when I was unattentive.. luck saved me (not the spell...)
Durlags is usually last on my list, but I covetted the nice tome - so off we went.
I will come back for the goblet and the helmet
The xp finally gave me the fighter level 7 I want before going to Mulahey. It may be overkill, but clerics are (almost) never interrupted when they cast - and Mulahey knows hold person.
flamestrike helped a bit on the odds..
Tranzig was killed easily. The camp fell to dagger throwing and some flame strikes
With Dushais ring I went to Cloakwood. Killed some over zealous druids - I will kill Sashenstar in BG (promise). I had to take the fighting indoors due to nasty weather
Made up for the lack of RP by killing Coran and Eldoth for being dicks (FD is female).
At the mine my Nymphs showed their force. Drasus and co. charmed and held by Nymphs. No damage taken
Overconfidence almost proved costly. The nymphs dominated the master of the mines, but he woke up and held me
Confusion from the nymphs saved the day. Thanks sisters.
At the city tomes, loot and moneys is on the bucket list. Druids are fun and awesome. Tbc
Spiders, ghouls and carrion crawlers provided little resistance on our way to the Demon Knight. The final foe of Durlag's was approached carefully, with only Cadrax and the skeletons engaging him at first. As predicted, he used his dispel magic on the dwarf, who was able to re-apply defenses via enrage. That didn't protect him from PW:Blind, though, and I added Ayla and later Sarastro into the mix to improve damage output. The last spell the Demon Knight tried to cast was propably a fireball, so I spread out my party, but he didn't get to finish his attempt:
When travelling from BG City to Ulgoth's Beard, it only takes 16 hours, so invisibility 10' radius stays active, which allowed my party to circumvent the opening ambush:
Instead, the opponents were the ones who were in for a surprise, as Cadrax lured them into a fully buffed party, 5 skeletons and Ayla's true sight, revealing the otherwise deadly cult assassins:
The second and third cultist group were defeated in a similiar fashion, and it was time to rest and buff for Aec'Letec. Some potions of strength and heroism for improved damage, and most importantly, magic shielding to resist the various save or else-effects were used. I was able to kill the enemy mage before her buffs fired, and while Aec'Letec had one dispel magic, I was able to have it only hit Cadrax - and it turned out not to dispel any of his buffs. I just went around with the hasted fighters, killing one cultist after the other, mostly being able to ignore Aec'Letec, somtimes drinking healing potions when the demon managed to hit a party member. Eventually, victory was ours (and with a very nice crit by Ayla, too!):
The Undercity Party had the misfortune of getting entangled in multiple webs from off screen while Cadrax and Ayla, protected via Ring of Freedom and Spider's Bane, took them down:
We entered the Temple of Bhaal, buffing up the party and trying to lure our foes to the entrance. At first, nobody wanted to follow Cadrax, but I eventually got Tazok to take the bait:
His replacement skeleton was taken down right away, and Diarmid approched, together with Sarevok. Meanwhile, Angelo and Semaj ran around invisibly but didn't really do anything significant. Diarmid was quickly killed, while the skeletons distracted Sarevok. A well timed true sight revealed Semaj, and Ayla started to attack both him and Sarevok with dispelling arrows (they are removed from stores in my installation, but I think I found about 16 of them throughout the game in other places):
With Sarevok slowed down, he stopped being a threat, and Semaj was quickly taken down. Angelo ran into true sight range, eventually attacking the party with his sword. His defenses were a bit tougher to take down (mostly because I forgot to use dispelling arrows again), and he eventually started to use chaos spells on Ayla. I was able to have her run away from the rest of the party and drink a clarity potion:
Finally, Angelo's defenses fell and only Sarevok was left. Cadrax and Ayla took some turns tanking the big guy until he was defeated:
The transition to SoD doesn't seem to work with SCS. I had to manually import the game and lost all my bags and their contents in the process, while some random (mostly useless) items were added to my inventory. Very strange. Luckily, SoD on core shouldn't be all that challenging compared to the SCS base games, so I think I can manage without the contents of my potion bag or my scroll case for now. However, future updates for this run will be relatively slow to come, as I have some other stuff to focus on for now.
New run with a Berserker/thief elf. The sub-race mod increased his Con by one and reduced Int by 1 if you choose wood elf as the sub-race. Str 18, Dex 19, Con 18, Int 17 Wis 17, Cha 8. He successfully pickpocketed Algernon's Cloak on the second attempt, but before he was challenged about his first attempt. So far no increases in rep despite giving Joia her ring, helping Mellicamp get back into shape, and getting Aiwell's beloved back into shape and taking a tome to Firebead. Can anyone explain that? @semiticgod Thanks for explanation below. At least he got the 1000 exp for helping Mellicamp and the +1 fire sword for helping the werewolf. He will now attempt to plunder Beregost.
@Wise_Grimwald: If you're playing with SCS, there's a component that slows down reputation gain. But that slowdown is based on probabilities that depend on your install options: you might, for example, have a 50% chance of getting a reputation point every time you'd get one normally. Since it's random, it's entirely possible for you to do three good deeds but get 0 reputation points. The odds are the same as getting 3 reputation points: a 12.5% chance of getting a 50/50 chance three times in a row.
Popping in and good to see everyone still hard at it! After much effort I managed to beat the roguelike Sil recently, which is a wonderful roguelike if you like Tolkien. Back to BG stuff my Blackguard hasn't been touched in awhile- poor him- but had made some unreported progress. He went over to Ulgoth's to deal with the cult, who were rather tough as everything is over-leveled in my game. One unfortunate guard had some substandard equipment though:
After a lot of running about and hacking, the demon also fell:
In theory this will open up some more adventures in the expansion mods I installed, but after dealing with the Stone of Askavar (sometimes by the sorts of 'gamey' methods I usually don't bother with like door-dodging) I think I'll probably just move on with the main plot whenever I continue.
@Mantis37 I don't consider door-dodging to be gamey. If you saw a spell coming straight at you, wouldn't you try and escape its effects by going through a door? Of course you might be somebody who thinks that spells should be able to go through doors. IMO that's for the game-makers to decide.
Comments
Previous updates:
The druids have continued to make good progress, though they had a couple of near-fatal encounters with traps.
The start of the session saw Mulahey held by nymphs.
While clearing the Cloakwood, I noticed Walker Boh seemed to be getting hit a lot. Investigating, that was because he'd changed shape to check what strength that gave and on changing back to human he'd lost the benefit of his ankheg armor (as well as the free action effect that I noted last time). That doesn't happen all the time he changes, but I've noticed it on the odd occasion. At the mine, nymphs helped soak up damage prior to meleeing Davaeorn.
Clearing up reputation tasks and a couple of quests in Baldur's Gate pushed reputation up to 20 and the druids went shopping before clearing most of the remaining wilderness areas - picking up level 8 in Ulcaster dungeon.
All the major encounters in the City were done without problems and reporting some of that work to Scar saw everyone to level 9.
They had a very lucky escape in Candlekeep when Walker Boh initially went to tackle the phase spiders on his own. After one of the spiders briefly teleported to the main group, I must have forgotten to cancel attacks by 3 of the druids and they all walked through the lightning trap - somehow each of them only got hit once by lightning though.
Slythe and Krystin lost out to nymph confusion and insects - as did the dopplegangers at the palace.
Going through the maze I kept most of the druids out of the way while tripping some lightning traps - only for one of the bolts to come through the wall and strike them.
I was still a bit short of level 10 after killing the Undercity party and some nearby skeleton warriors, but carried on into the temple anyway. I was only intending to kill the battle horrors there before resting, but managed to activate Sarevok accidentally. That meant the druids had no insect plagues available, but Semaj was successfully held by a nymph. Cogline had to use a first invisibility potion of the run to escape Angelo's exploding arrows before he and Tazok were both confused by another nymph. That just left Sarevok. Doom wasn't sufficient for any spells to affect him, but the druids didn't take too long to shoot him down - getting just enough XP for their 10th level in the process.
They've just gone through the SoD prologue - Korlasz was surrounded by nymphs and found her attempt to surrender didn't save her.
Walker Boh - L10, 84 HPs, 288 kills, 0 deaths
Bremen - L10, 66 HPs, 238 kills, 0 deaths
Galaphile - L10, 75 HPs, 196 kills, 0 deaths
Allanon - L10, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 308 kills
Brona - L10, 79 HPs, 171 kills, 0 deaths
Cogline - L10, 74 HPs, 125 kills, 0 deaths
Traveling with: 2 other Kensais and 2 other Berserkers (MP characters)
The team has just made it to the Cloakwood Mines. No trouble in the Cloakwood. I made a short video so people can see what it is like to fight with this party.
Plurem and gang fight Drassus (video)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006819/#Comment_1006819
Rather than starting off SoD by doing everything, I cut right back to the essentials this time and quickly moved on to the temple. There was a first death there when I didn't put chaotic commands on Walker Boh and he was stunned by Darskhelin as he opened the door - the mindflayer then ignored everything else to come and suck his brains out.
The others just finished Darskhelin off,
Missing out most of the content meant I didn't get up to level 11 until getting the bonus for reaching the Coalition Camp.
As before the first 3 crusader waves at the Coalition Camp were handled with fireballs, while the final one got insect plagues.
At the siege I made sure to pre-buff before going to find Ashatiel and waited for him to buff and attack me first - but he still called foul and restarted the big battle.
The druids rested before entering hell. There was another unnecessary death in the first area there though after all the devils were killed. I was slow to realize that the crusaders were then coming to attack Bremen (who had been charmed) and just failed to kill them before Bremen went down.
The fight with Thrix was no problem and the druids did lots of buffing before getting on the elevator - and the game crashed. After another 10 minutes of buffing, I saved this time before pressing the elevator button once more. Rather than going for the quick kill with harm this time they tried using magic resistance on Belhifet, but he dodged just as the spell was about to complete.
The epilogue was done and the druids found themselves transported to an Athkatlan dungeon.
Walker Boh - L12, 84 HPs, 288 kills, 1 death
Bremen - L12, 66 HPs, 238 kills, 1 death
Galaphile - L12, 75 HPs, 196 kills, 0 deaths
Allanon - L12, 86 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 308 kills
Brona - L12, 79 HPs, 171 kills, 0 deaths
Cogline - L12, 74 HPs, 125 kills, 0 deaths
I don't want to start a huge argument over this. I know that it's possible to kill Irenicus almost immediately with certain parties and tactics. I'm just saying that I've had much more trouble with Suldenessalar Irenicus than with salt mephits.
Lanil, the Not-So-Perfect Fighter vs. Baldur's Gate: Round 2, Part 3
We return! Chapter 5 is next!On the way into Baldur's Gate, the party picked up Quayle. Now the party had 6 members again. Then they went to the basilisk area, and Lanil killed all the basilisks.
The party stopped by at Durlag's Tower just to kill some enemies early on and get some experience without going too deep into the tower. Lanil was able to singlehandedly beat both battle horrors at once in melee.
The party then traveled all the way up to Ulgoth's Beard, where Lanil bought the Greenstone Amulet. Now that she could get protection from all mind-affecting spells, they went to the sirine area, and Lanil plowed through the area, killing all the sirenes and flesh golems.
Normally I tend to give stat-increasing books to my PC, but since Lanil already had 25 in all stats, I gave the Manual of Bodily Health to Yeslick.
Now it was time to enter Baldur's Gate! The party spent over 20000 gold buying lots of stuff from Sorcerous Sundries. They then went all over the city, getting most of the major magic items.
Highlights:
(Why bother completing quests when you can skip them and get extra Boots of Speed for doing so?)
(By this point, Lanil is great against melee grunts, even tough ones.)
Though there is one melee grunt who is so powerful that I was too scared to have Lanil fight him: Larze. This guy has 141 hit points, THAC0 -3 and attacks 3 times per round for 13-22 damage, which is doubled due to Insane difficulty.
When the party reached the top of the Iron Throne and encountered Zhalimar's gang, Branwen and Faldorn used Wands of Terror while Imoen and Quayle used Wands of Fire. The initial wand salvo pretty much won the battle for me immediately. Those who weren't killed instantly ran away; Lanil and Yeslick hunted them down.
Here is Lanil, right before Chapter 6:
(Yes, her favorite weapon is still Fist.)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006819/#Comment_1006819
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006960/#Comment_1006960
The druids made early inroads into BG2 at the Circus, Copper Coronet and Slavers. They cleared Trademeet and Allanon was first to the draw with insect plague to win the contest with Faldorn (having used iron skins for the first time there just in case he was hit while casting).
The final point of reputation to maximize that (after making donations at the Temple immediately after exiting the dungeon) came by returning Neb's Head. The reward for the Sir Sarles quest of the Helm of Glory also allowed Walker Boh to push his charisma to 20 to get the best shop prices. They hadn't quite finished their spending though when they went looking for an ankheg shell in the Bridge District. I had a vague memory of a group of powerful guards arriving if you took that, so produced some summons - who immediately killed a boy who protested at me stealing 1 gold piece
The druids all took iron skins before doing the skinner quest to give them plenty of time to get summons active.
While in the Bridge District they drew Dracandros out of his house into a couple of summons. Against Captain Dennis though they only used 1 fire elemental - I was thinking that a full round of insect plagues would kill things there, but potions kept Captain Dennis alive through the insects, while I didn't try and do any more damage to him. I tried going down the stairs instead once the situation seemed dangerous, but the bumping you get with a party prevented that working and Walker Boh died again.
With reputation back up to 19 they went to find Nalia at de'Arnise Hold. Going through that was straightforward and TorGal was honored with a full complement of summons.
On arrival back in Athkatla they got the final vampire ambush and decided it was time to pay Gaelan Bayle. That ended their long stay at level 12,
Walker Boh - L13, 90 HPs, 22 kills (+288 in BG1), 2 deaths
Bremen - L13, 72 HPs, 28 kills (+238 in BG1), 1 death
Galaphile - L13, 81 HPs, 30 kills (+196 in BG1), 0 deaths
Allanon - L13, 92 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 38 kills (+308 in BG1)
Brona - L13, 85 HPs, 26 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths
Cogline - L13, 80 HPs, 29 kills (+125 in BG1), 0 deaths
Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005776/#Comment_1005776
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005931/#Comment_1005931
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006256/#Comment_1006256
We started completing the various quests in the city without any notable issues. Sunin managed to successfully cast chaos, but I was prepared for this and spread my hasted party out, so only one (in this case, Valeria) would be affected. I decided against using a defensive potion here, because there were no civilians around:
After completing everything from simple fetchquests to Degrodel's house (relatively easy with a bunch of wands and a very good tank), I moved on to the EE NPC quests, starting with the easiest one: Neera - I swapped out Thallian for that one:
Dorn was next - I had to lower my reputation by picking up Viconia before being allowed to get him into my party. Time for Ayla to sit that one out. The first part was easily solved via remove fear, the second battle wasn't much harder:
The Rasaad quest is generally the longest - once again, I swapped out Ayla for the monk. Things were made easier by carefully letting an invisible Valeria scout for traps in the mountain temple. The monks didn't stand much of a chance (no screenshots here). With Valeria reaching cleric level 7, I also decided to take on the Ulcaster Ruins. My attempt at casting protection from lightning against SCS Icharyd failed, as the second phase of the encounter seems to include some kind of automated rest, removing my buffs. However, it turned out that the lightning storm doesn't deal a ton of damage anyway. I moved downstairs, fought my way to the Wolf of Ulcaster and used mostly remove fear + haste, focusing all my attention on the wolf, leaving his summons for later:
Propably not the best approach, but it worked.
Since I was already around these parts of the map and hat level 7 skeleton summons available, I decided to challenge Kahrk. Most of the party stayed far away from combat, with buffed skeletons, an enraged Cadrax and the true-sight-providing Ayla at the front lines:
I did have to use a couple of healing potions, and Ayla was affected by chaos at some point, but eventually, the ogre mage ran out of really dangerous spells, only getting rid of three skeletons before taking the fall:
For the Firewine Dungeon, an invisible Valeria disarmed all of the traps before we even delved further into the dungeon to avoid any unfortunate deaths. Masses of kobold commandos fell before Cadrax' hammer, and we eventually made it to Lendarn. He, however, turned invisible and ran away - Ayla was unable to find him right away. Skeletons did a great job of safely taking down the ogre mage, though:
Eventually, Lendarn was discovered and quickly taken down:
With all the wilderness areas and BG sidequests done for now, it was time to move to the Iron Throne HQ. I started off the battle by luring several foes (the mages and clerics) downstairs, where a hail of arrows awaited them. Eventually, with only fighters and thieves left, Cadrax and Ayla approched the remaining foes, with the rest of the party following. True sight was, as usual, very helpful in dealing with the thieves:
However, tables almost turned when Zhalimar Cloudwulfe suddenly gulped an oil of speed and switched his attention to Nabatil, whose aura was clouded from casting a slow spell - Two hits took away over half of his hitpoints, before he was finally able to drink an invisibility potion and save himself:
That could've been ugly. I can't wait for Nabatil to finally get access to stoneskin. Still, I kind of panicked and didn't think of obvious solutions here, such as equipping the boots of speed on Nabatil, which really would've helped. Definitely a mistake.
I decided to go for one more encounter and travelled to Candlekeep in order to face the ogre mage assassins. Ayla struck first blood with the arrow of slaying:
I started combat with a bunch of defensive buffs, and Nabatil simply turned invisible to ensure his safety. Ayla's true sight allowed me to go on the offensive, and a chromatic orb stun on Thallian was all the ogre mages could muster before being killed - though I think that one of them must have escaped invisibly - despite scouting around with Ayla, I only ever found four bodies:
The first three incarnations came to sticky ends in Candlekeep due to him not finishing of the assassins with one blow. Strangely enough a different assassin killed him each time.
Then upon the fourth incarnation he killed all three of them.
You may ask why did he not just avoid those assassins? A good question. It is because those three assassins in my set-up are well-equipped thieves. Stavestaff needed their equipment!!
For PCs who are not thieves, that equipment is of no great import, but for those who are, it is worth fighting for.
In transit he was attacked by bandits. He fled!
At High Hedge he killed some gnolls.
Rose is a bard who is reasonably good at pick-pocketting. (65%)
By opening many locks in Beregost he eventually became a level 2 thief.
EDIT
He then tried to get mellicamp and a werewolf back into shape but failed on both occasions.After getting a rabbit for Kessey, Stealthstave headed south but unfortunately didn't notice when his armour spell ran out with the result that he was seriously wounded, (1 HP left) however by fleeing he was able to hide and sneak up to where the Colquetle amulet lay.
He then went to Nashkel avoiding conflict until he was given a ring by Lord Foreshadow. In Nashkel he found some armour which he was unable to wear. He spoke to Joseph's wife and Noober before heading to the carnival where he gained the ability to heal himself.
Time for bed.
Introduction
Update 1
The last two things we have to wrap up/hunt down in the wilderness areas are Kirian's party and getting another Protection from Magic scroll. There's no surprise Basilisk ambush, and Spirit Fire does good work against clumped up enemies. It's not as good as Fireball for most cases in BG1, but bypassing Minor Globe of Invulnerability is going to be pretty good later.
We finally start getting Tilly online: Arrows of Detonation are the poor man's (or perhaps rich man's, given their price) Fire Seeds. She can now disable entire groups of casters with only four attacks. Unfortunately, most threats are now physical instead of magical... We take out the Ogre Mage and then the group in Sorcerous Sundries trying to hunt down more items, specifically the CON tome.
Wrin gets his last level courtesy of a basilisk. It's actually a bit dangerous, as killing a basilisk within a turn doesn't always happen.
More fights, Low Lantern, the Cloak and Helm fight (4 nymphs casting Confusion wrecked this fight), Marek, the temple of Umberlee, and finally that random paladin near the Temple of Helm. No CON tome, sadly, but we still claim the Helm of Balduran.
Iron Throne: Arrows of Detonation, Amulet of Missiles, Spirit Fire kill most things instantly. We abuse the stairs to avoid a Chaos spell, but Tilly's strong enough to clean up with her 4 points in Longbow.
Ogre mages are negated by a Potion of Magic Blocking from Wrin. Tilly is Charmed, but she has enough hitpoints to survive, and Call Lightning destroys the rest of them. Still hunting items, I kill Rieltar and company for the first time ever, I think. Still no CON tome, but I think one of them had the Helm of Charm protection. Since that's one of the worries in low-member parties, Wrin puts it on and Tilly takes the helm of Baldarun.
Violet Potion + Potion of Agility + Potion of fortitude allows Wrin to loot everything. There was one tome, but it turns out to be DEX, not CON. More area of effect spells and arrows burst Pratt and company, though a potion of magic shielding was wasted in prebuffing on Wrin to make sure he's not stunned by the Darts of Stunning. They never got to throw anything. Two potions of mirrored eyes allows a 25 STR Wrin to comfortably finish the two Basilisks.
Back in Baldur's Gate, the only thing we feel like doing is Slythe and Kristin. There's very few other locations where the tome of CON could be: Droth (Shoal's already dead), Ulcaster (no thief), Silvershield estate (no clue where in here this is), Trading coster desk (no clue how to get this), Firewine ruins (no thief), and some Undercity goons. It's simply not worth 9 additional health at this point. Anyways, Slythe still hurts, Krystin still cheats (goes invisible without aura or action). I'm actually pretty certain Slythe's AC isn't even legal at this point, but whatever.
Ducal palace is almost a disaster. Wizard Slayer is great for disabling mages for awhile, but... dealing with a bunch of hasted doppelgangers? No Oils of Speed make Tilly a sad halfling. Belt's killed pretty darn quickly, and Liia's not casting any spells. Wrin rushes to Liia to heal, using Bhaalspawn powers, and two Nymphs successfully get off a Mass Cure. The Mage recovers from its disable, and lobs a Fireball into the room, bringing Liia low again and Wrin to around half health. The Greater Doppels die, and Tilly gets more shots back on the mage, and we barely come out of this alive. Liia is drawn away from Sarevok's sight, and Tilly runs around in circles until Sarevok gives up.
Undercity party: Arrows of Detonation, Spirit Fire, regular arrows, and everyone dies. Onto the Temple of Bhaal. There's not too many prebuffs: Pro. Magic and... that's about everything a Wizard Slayer can do. Diarmid is a huge problem, since Tilly can't use the usual suite of missile deflectors that most characters have. No Elves' bane, no Cloak of Displacement (not that I own it due to Item Randomiser), no Boots of Avoidance since I need the Boots of Speed to stay ahead of Sarevok. Tilly's swigging potions to stay ahead of the Arrows of Acid that Diarmid's slinging out. Tazok falls first, and finally Diarmid falls second. Angelo runs out of useful spells and is sniped down with Arrows of Ice. Semaj... disappeared. This has happened to me before in the final battle, and he's nowhere to be found. I skip time forwards by 48 hours in case he was using an invisibility spell, but he's still not in the area. I can't even spawn him by console. Sarevok's at 1 HP, and I decide to essentially win the fight by console. I try to spawn Semaj, he won't spawn. I end up having to spawn a fake version of Sarevok and kill that one.
SoD: Wrin gets to level two with an invisibility potion, and an arrow of dispelling and denotation later, Korlasz surrenders.
We'll recruit a party for SoD.
Wrin: Shaman 9
Tilly: Wizard Slayer 8
Frost the Breton Mage: No-Reload Legendary Difficulty Run of Skyrim Redone
Part 1
After an attempt at a zero-gold run of Skyrim failed when I fell off a ledge, I decided to try my hand at Legendary difficulty in Skyrim. Legendary is the highest difficulty, only accessible if you have a certain expansion installed, and does two things:1. You take three times as much damage.
2. All damage you deal is cut by 1/4.
In other words, the game is 12 times as difficult. It's a bit like the maximum difficulty in Oblivion (which was 36 times as difficult) in the sense that you can still die to a mudcrab if you're not careful and that it's very easy to get killed in a single blow. Worse yet, your weapon skills grow slower because weapon skill increases are based on damage output rather than number of strikes.
Normally, a Legendary run would involve lots of heavy grinding at the start until you got huge numbers and could abuse certain glitches. However, I'm playing with Skyrim Redone, the most popular overhaul mod for Skyrim, which removes a whole bunch of exploits and rebalances gameplay. We also have Apocalypse installed and SkyUI, which I previously couldn't install due to problems with SKSE, a script extender. We're no longer playing with Ordinator or Phenderix Magic Evolved, however, which means a lot of overpowered perks and spells are no longer available to us--notably, the Vancian Magic perk and Slow Time spell.
However, I've discovered two brilliant new options which will render the game playable. In fact, we're not even going to have to rely on followers, Conjuration, or Illusion to deal damage--nor will we use the Smithing and Enchant skills to create super-powered armor to even the odds. Instead, we're going to fight monsters with conventional weaponry.
Our Charname this time is Frost the Breton mage character. Bretons are badly nerfed in Skyrim Redone (also known as SkyRe), however: they get 15% magic resistance instead of 25% (which is already a huge nerf from Oblivion and Morrowind's 50%) and their Dragonskin greater power, which gives 50% spell absorption for 60 seconds, is gone.
The good news is that Bretons instead get a pair of lovely new greater powers instead: one that doubles the magnitude and halves the magicka cost of all your spells, and another that lets you summon as many monsters as you want without limit. Both powers last 60 seconds and deal constant damage to your health and stamina, which requires periodic healing, but being able to create a whole pack of wolves is very nice indeed.
We won't be relying on summons to deal damage, largely because this summoning power is really bad for your character's health (and it takes like 10 seconds to charge the power before you can cast it), but it's still cool.
The starting dungeon is pretty safe regardless of difficulty, because you always have Ralof (or Hadvar, depending on who you followed during the opening cutscenes) to fight bad guys for you. I take the time to spam Conjuration spells just to get a little skill progress while I wait for Ralof and the Stormcloaks to do the heavy lifting.
Unlike in other Elder Scrolls games, you have to cast Conjuration and Alteration spells in combat to get any experience from them. This means that safe fights are a valuable and finite resource for improving certain skills.
I try out a longbow against a local cave bear. Legendary really does cripple our damage output; even a sneak attack from a bow only takes a sliver out of the cave bear's health.
The key to this run is going to be Alchemy--and not because we'll be spamming powerful poisons and potions (though in some cases we will), but because there's one very special potion we can craft that can radically change the nature of gameplay. Normally, I pick the Mage Stone for our first and only standing stone bonus, but this time, the Thief Stone is ideal, since it will speed up our Alchemy skill gains.
We head to Riverwood. Apparently Skyrim Redone doesn't remove all exploits in the game: you can still but a basket over an NPC's head to make them blind and prevent them from seeing you stealing their stuff.
I don't like this trick very much, so I don't think I'll be using it, but I'll keep a basket or two on hand in case I change my mind.
Normally, we'd start off by tackling Bleak Falls Barrow, but that's a teensy bit suicidal for a level 1 character on Legendary. Instead, we just grab some free stuff from Ralof's friend in Riverwood and make our way to Whiterun, the first major city and an important hub for this run. The journey is pretty safe even though we can't fast-travel, but we do get a scare when a wolf pack crosses our path.
We hold them off with some wolf familiar summons and apply light damage with bows. We barely scrape by--if it weren't for that Conjure Familiar - Wolf spell that Bretons get at the start of the game, we wouldn't have been able to handle that fight without outside help.
There are several important things about Whiterun. Among other, less important things, Whiterun has a carriage we can use to fast-travel to other cities; an alchemist from which we can buy raw ingredients; and a whole bunch of mountain flowers and lavender growing all over the city, ripe for the picking.
The alchemist is the most important thing here. By performing a simple fetch quest for the local alchemist and her friend Farengar up at the Jarl's palace...
...the alchemist's disposition will improve, which means we can take any object from her shop that we like, as long as it's worth no more than 20 gold. This includes a very special and very rare item: Spriggan Sap.
In the vanilla game, Spriggan Sap is one of the few sources of the Fortify Enchant effect, which allows you to create some very broken and overpowered enchanted items--including Fortify Alchemy items that can in turn strengthen your potions. Skyrim Redone, however, removes those effects entirely in order to discourage players from micromanaging the crafting skills for huge rewards that don't require anything but tedious inventory management. The crafting system in Skyrim really rewards boring gameplay, which SkyRe changes.
That Fortify Enchant effect is replaced by something much more interesting, and that will serve as the basis of this run.
We spend many minutes running around Whiterun picking every flower in town, a boring but very productive chore considering how many important uses there are for Red, Blue, and Purple Mountain Flowers as well as Lavender. We're not swimming in gold quite yet, but we can easily afford to take a carriage to Winterhold, where gaining access to the local college is as simple as paying 30 gold and casting a single spell.
The College of Winterhold offers several benefits. First, we get a free room and access to an alchemy lab (resting before going to the lab gives us 10% faster Alchemy skill increases thanks to the "Rested" effect) as well as respawning ingredients in our room and in the lab itself. Our room has valuable Ice Wraith Teeth, which can be used for Invisibility potions, and the lab has two more samples of Spriggan Sap.
I have no real need for Invisibility potions, largely because they're very ineffective in Skyrim (enemies will keep attacking even when you go invisible, and they have rather excellent aim for several dangerous seconds before you can make your escape). However, they do yield potions with a high gold value, which also means they increase our Alchemy skill faster. I don't really need either one--the important thing is just having extra samples of Spriggan Sap--but they'll give some nice bonuses anyway.
I won't bore you with the details, but basically, getting our Alchemy to a high level and making money by selling potions is all about mixing ingredients and picking high-value effects that will yield potions that can be sold for higher prices. I already know a lot of the combinations, so finding new effects involves much less guesswork than it did in previous runs.
The value of a potion is just the sum of the magicka cost of its effects. This means that you can create a highly poisonous buffing potion that vendors will still view as highly valuable, even if you would never use it in combat. Imagine a delicious cake drizzled with rat poison, but everyone else in the world considers the rat poison to be icing on the cake.
Anyway, one of the most important poisons to brew are Slow poisons. They're not very useful, since all they do is slow down the victim's movement rate (I could be wrong, but the poisons don't seem to slow down their attack rates or spellcasting), but they yield lots of gold and two of the components, Deathbells and Salt Piles, are very easy to find.
The next step is hiring a carriage to reach all of the other main cities of Skyrim, then sell off your useless potions and poisons to them so you can buy new ingredients and continue the process. It doesn't require much time (though it requires some game knowledge to really get moving) and it yields lots of Alchemy increases and lots of gold.
There are some other important ingredients, some of which we'll have to find and some which we'll have to buy, but purchasing ingredients is very random. We get lucky by finding 6 Hagraven Claws in one place (though they're quite expensive). One of the best potions for leveling Alchemy is to mix a Giant's Toe (gross) with Wheat and a fish called a River Betty!
You can get Giant's Toes by slaying giants, but honestly, the best way to level Alchemy is just to buy ingredients and make whatever you can with the ingredients you get.
Over in the city of Markarth, we can perform another easy fetch quest for the local alchemist and earn the right to grab random crap off of her shelves--which includes 2 Hagraven Claws!
Finally, just outside Solitude, we can find some respawning butterflies. The monarch butterflies are good for healing potions, but the blue ones are more important.
Like Hagraven Claws and Spriggan Sap, they used to be ingredients for Fortify Enchant potions. Same goes for Snowberries, which are easier to find and cheaper (you can find snowberry bushes all over Skyrim).
One of our last stops is in Windhelm, where there are a lot of valuable ingredients just lying around. These ones aren't free, though--you have to steal those valuable Giant's Toes.
ALL of this stuff is respawning, so if we travel back and forth across Skyrim using fast-traveling and wait a day or two in between, we can do a full circuit of every cheap source of ingredients in the game.
So what's the point of all this? Well, we've been collecting all the ingredients that used to be Fortify Enchant potion components, so what did Skyrim Redone replace that effect with?
Yes, Fortify Enchant has become the same effect I used in my last run, Slow Time. Except this time, it lasts far, far longer than the spell I used. Granted, I'll need to find some very rare ingredients and burn a new potion every time I want it, and I still have to deal with Legendary, but each potion will give me over a full minute of slowed time.
While time is slowed, Frost will move at half speed, but everything else will move at a sluggish crawl--maybe 10% of their normal speed. As long as we're careful to dodge every slow-moving threat that comes our way, it's equivalent to about 30 seconds of fully stopped time.
But that's not all. We have Restore Health potions that can bring back over 100 health a pop, and some rather difficult-to-get Ravage Health poisons that can deal 24 damage per second for 10 seconds, or about 60 damage when factoring in Legendary mode, and a perk lets us get multiple uses out of the same poison. We'll have some nice rescue options and some tough poisons (including some paralysis poisons that last over 10 seconds!) as well as some elemental resistance potions.
We are investing every single level up in health rather than magicka or stamina because death can happen in less than a single second in Legendary, and we absolutely need to make sure that we have time to spam healing potions if we ever get in trouble. As we tell Tolfdir, we have no plans on experiencing sudden death.
We need Tolfdir as a source of Alteration spell books. Since melee combat is extremely dangerous and Alteration can be grinded out of combat by using Detect Life (though only after we get Alteration from 20 to 40), it's much safer to use Alteration to boost our defenses against physical damage than wear armor. Problem is, right after you first meet Tolfdir, he goes off to Saarthal, where you'll have to visit him if you want to buy any more spell books.
Saarthal isn't far from Winterhold, but on the way, I've run into wolves, Saber Cats, and Ice Wraiths, all of which could be extremely dangerous. Rather than try to make the trip on my own, I pick the slow route, and walk with Tolfdir and the students out of the college and over to Saarthal.
Sure enough, we run into a couple of Ice Wraiths on the way, but Tolfdir and the students are more than capable of handling the situation (Tolfdir is even immortal by virtue of being plot-critical to a major questline) on their own. I take the time to cast Conjure Flame Atronach a few times for experience.
With Tolfdir now in a safe position we can fast-travel to any time we want, we now have all the resources we need in just the right spaces. Now we can get to work on our first truly dangerous task: getting Alteration to 40, which we can only do in-combat.
Remember what we said about dying to mudcrabs if we're not careful? We're gonna have to be careful.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006819/#Comment_1006819
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006960/#Comment_1006960
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1007148/#Comment_1007148
I hadn't reported to the guard outside the circus tent, so that pushed reputation to 20 and allowed a bit more shopping - in particular Allanon pulled rank and bought the +5 sling for himself.
Thinking it was about time to get revenge for the previous druid party, Allanon's group went to Watcher's Keep. This time I used more insect spells and none of the statues outlived the summons.
Looking for some more easy quests the druids went to Umar Hills. There was a nice surprise there when the Shield of the Lost proved to be another shield that, rather surprisingly, can be used by druids - helps make up for the lack of decent bucklers in BG2. Galaphile nearly died at the entrance to the temple when I was slow to see he had been paralysed by a shadow fiend, but help arrived just in time.
Back in Athkatla Cromwell forged some dragon armor before the druids went to unlock the Planar Sphere with Valygar's body. Going through there Allanon was held by one of the Tanar'ri, but there was plenty of support and killing the demons took only a few moments.
I was getting a bit tired of this run, but steeled myself to do some more work (mainly safely) this morning - clearing the Graveyard, Mae'Var's quests and the party in the Promenade inn. I then decided to have a go at the Cowled Wizards - I regularly do that with mages, but other groups can annoy them as well using the Ring of Air Control. For some reason the original Cowled Enforcer in each group was able to shrug off the effects of the insect plagues descending on him as the others appeared, but fire elementals handled him. In the last group Zallanora managed to cast his scripted time stop, but died from the plagues before he could disappear.
The temple sewers were also cleared, with nothing there able to stand up to both fire elementals and insect plague. There was a bit of a scare when starting the Unseeing Eye though. Allanon was paralyzed by one the stray shots you sometimes get from beholders, but I didn't initially worry about it as he was out of sight of any enemies. However, a gauth was horrified by insect plagues and ran in sight of him and Cogline had to hurry back and use Pixie Dust to save him.
The druids still need the best part of 1m XP to get to level 14. That shouldn't take too long, but the 9m XP needed to get level 15 after that will take a while
Walker Boh - L13, 90 HPs, 75 kills (+288 in BG1), 2 deaths
Bremen - L13, 72 HPs, 71 kills (+238 in BG1), 2 deaths
Galaphile - L13, 81 HPs, 90 kills (+196 in BG1), 0 deaths
Allanon - L13, 92 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 103 kills (+308 in BG1)
Brona - L13, 93 HPs (incl. 8 from ioun stone), 61 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths
Cogline - L13, 80 HPs, 72 kills (+125 in BG1), 0 deaths
He went to the FAI where he used sleep to good effect against the hobgoblins, but they seemed to be resistant to sleep with the result that some running away was necessary.
In the first game Stealthstave had used the wand of frost against Zargos Flintblade.
With the mods that I have installed he should have dropped his possessions when he froze, but he didn't with the result that the axe +1 was lost. I will have to remember that quirk for my new game.
Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005776/#Comment_1005776
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005931/#Comment_1005931
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006256/#Comment_1006256
Update 5: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1007209/#Comment_1007209
The first two levels of the Candlekeep catacombs were easy enough to clear out, with Valeria getting another wisdom tome and Cadrax improving his strength. The hostile party in the caverns was approached invisibly by skeletons and the Cadrax + Ayla combo. They quickly took down the first mage, while greater malison was cast by Sarastro:
Meanwhile, Prat had managed to run away, seeking safety in one of the spider lairs. He came back with a chaos spell which I was unable to interrupt, but most of the group was at a safe distance, so only Valeria got affected. Shortly after that, after having blinded two of the fighters already, Sarastro managed to disable Prat via spook while the others took care of any spiders to protect Valeria:
With that, we just had to take out the basilisks and make our way back to the Gate. There, after walking around town under invisiblity 10' radius for a bit, the party broke into the Flaming Fist HQ, using greater malison + silence 10' radius to neutralize all of the spellcasters:
This is a really neat combo. Anyway, for Cythandria, it was once again Cadrax, Ayla and skeletons who approached our foe, taking down her SCS golems (I did have to use a healing potion here) before chasing down the mage:
The reason I'm usually choosing these two for any magic-heavy combat is a) they have the best hp and ac scores, b) they have good saving throws and good options to improve these even further, c) Cadrax has rage, the most powerful defense at this point, and Ayla has true sight, a great offensive tool and d) it wouldn't matter too much if one of them were to die (though they haven't come close to doing so). Slythe and Krystin were handled in a very similiar fashion:
The Ducal Palace event saw us buying a chaos scroll in preparation. We started with summons and buffs, adding greater malison, chaos, slow and more AOE disables into the mix:
Most doppelgangers were disabled in some way, and those who didn't soon fell to our blades. A rather convincing victory, but I noticed that Liia doesn't seem to use her improved 2.5 script with SCS for some reason. Very strange.
We started with our first piece of TotSC content - the ice island. Most of it was done solo by Cadrax, protected via PfM scroll:
However, two of the mages managed to go invisible and stay hidden until the scroll's duration ran out, so I did a second sweep of the place, and Cadrax was aided by Ayla and her true sight ability - the remaining foes were quickly spotted and killed:
Balduran's Island turned out to be quite easy. Cadrax was easily able to tank full groups of werewolves, and the loup garou fell thanks to his bastard sword specialization (which basically only exists to make this place easier) and oils of speed. We took the peaceful solution provided by SCS and made our way back rather quickly, eager to enter Durlag's Tower (though we had reached the experience cap by now). The first level was cleared, and the warder fight started - we took out the thief right away, with a little bit of true sight to help out. Meanwhile, Thallian got held, but he was well protected against any kind of damage. Luckily, love didn't really join the battle right away.
Most of the warders were easy to take down with the full power of our hasted party. The fighter among them proved to be the toughest, as he took quite a chunk out of Cadrax' health, but he didn't pose a real threat, as I could've run away at any point during the battle:
The second level turned out to be a simple affair - even the dwarven doom guards were easily taken down by our fighters. I had to be careful with the Ashirukuru on the third level. Watching the combat log very closely, I realized that they really didn't want to go for my bait (summoned skeletons), trying to kill Nabatil instead, so he drank an invisibility potion and stayed out of combat entirely. True sight and strong frontliners helped a lot, and none of my foes managed to land a backstab on any party members. I made my way to the chessboard (no transition bug here, luckily) - and was surprised when two foes (the knights) sprinted at Nabatil right away under a haste effect - they were faster than the four web spells (two via minor sequencer) flying in the direction of my foes, forcing Nabatil to drink an invisibility potion yet again, while Sarastro reinforced our webs with greater malison and Cadrax started to take down the knights:
I started throwing fireballs at the webbed enemies, and the knights were defeated via ranged weapons and Cadrax' attacks. A couple of additional webs were used, as the king, who seems to have very good saves, kept breaking out. Eventually, the battlefield was secured and victory was soon ours:
Next time, we shall explore the final level of Durlag's and try our hands at the very dangerous cult.
With the mods that I have installed he should have dropped his possessions when he froze, but he didn't with the result that the axe +1 was lost. I will have to remember that quirk for my new game.
If any enemy dies to cold damage, their equipment is lost. This is vanilla behavior. Thus, no cold damage should be used to kill a target if you want their loot. It's why I don't use cold damage much, though it's useful against the various wolves you encounter in BG 1 since they have no loot. You can use cold damage to whittle down a target's health, and as long as the cold damage itself doesn't get the "kill shot", then nothing is lost. Would be tricky to use it such a manner.
Anyway back to Stealthstave Mark II. Things went much the same as Mark I. Once more he failed to help both Mellicamp and the werewolf.
Just south of Beregost Stealthstave was attacked by a GIBBERLING! With one blow Stealthstave was reduced to 1 HP!! What's more he had previously cast "Armour" so he was reasonably protected!
Stealthstave is currently solo but it won't stay that way. I want to level him up quickly.
He rescued Corianna from petrification and by so doing got a potion of mirrored eyes. That will be useful at Durlag's.
He bought some arrows with which he was able to slay the werewolf and he received abetter than average +1 sword from High Hedge for the body. If and when he acquires a party it may well be useful.
EDIT
Tried to backstab Riggilo. Failed. He won the subsequent encounter.
Starting: In BG1EE.
Difficulty: Core rules, max HP on level up.
Self-imposed restrictions: No easter eggs (tree diamond, extra Ring of Wizardry/Ankheg Plate/Ring of Fire Resistance, gold from Firebead etc), no recharging items by selling and buying them back, no using unidentified items.
Mods: Essentially full SCS (including full pre-buffing for mages and priests), see spoiler for WeiDU.
Initialise mod (all other components require this): v31 RC2
Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v31 RC2
More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2
Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2
Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2
Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v31 RC2
Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2
Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2
Replace BG1-style elemental arrows with BG2 versions: v31 RC2
Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v31 RC2
Replace many +1 magical weapons with Fine ones -> Fine weapons are affected by the iron crisis: v31 RC2
Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Stores sell a maximum of 5 Arrows of Dispelling: v31 RC2
Faster Bears: v31 RC2
Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2
Improved shapeshifting: v31 RC2
Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2
Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v31 RC2
NPCs go to inns: v31 RC2
Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2
Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2
Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2
Ensure Shar-Teel doesn't die in the original challenge: v31 RC2
Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2
Smarter general AI: v31 RC2
Better calls for help: v31 RC2
Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2
Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2
Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2
Improved Spiders: v31 RC2
Smarter sirines and dryads: v31 RC2
Slightly harder carrion crawlers: v31 RC2
Smarter basilisks: v31 RC2
Improved doppelgangers: v31 RC2
Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: v31 RC2
Improved deployment for parties of assassins: v31 RC2
Dark Side-based kobold upgrade: v31 RC2
Relocated bounty hunters: v31 RC2
Improved Ulcaster: v31 RC2
Improved Balduran's Isle: v31 RC2
Improved Durlag's Tower: v31 RC2
Improved Demon Cultists: v31 RC2
Improved Cloakwood Druids: v31 RC2
Improved Bassilus: v31 RC2
Improved Drasus party: v31 RC2
Improved Red Wizards: v31 RC2
Improved Undercity party: v31 RC2
Tougher chapter-two end battle: v31 RC2
Tougher chapter-three end battle: v31 RC2
Tougher chapter-four end battle: v31 RC2
Tougher chapter-five end battle: v31 RC2
Improved final battle: v31 RC2
Improved minor encounters: v31 RC2
Meet our likeable though certainly not loveable hero: Somewhat warty, suspiciously snaggle-toothed but perennially plucky, Hubblepot Gogglebur (distant third cousin twice removed on his mothers' side of famed Halfling Cleric Odrelomp Gogglebur)!
I know the portrait does not do his description justice, but there are surprisingly few warty, snaggletoothed yet cheery Gnome Cleric pictures out there.
Hubblepot has (apart from his face) the physical characteristics of the ancient greek god of your choice, a mental acuity even learned sages can scarce dream to aspire to, and all the social skills you'd expect from someone who spent his entire youth around a gaggle of decrepit old monks. So... not the life of the party.
But who needs social skills when you're able to dodge arrows, recite Faerunian poetry, consume copious amounts of dwarven mead, write a dissertation on the mathematics of Abjuration and wrestle an Ogre at the same time? Not Hubblepot, at least!
Hubblepot has opted for + in War Hammer and Sling.
For his starting Illusionist spells, he has selected Find Familiar, Sleep and Spook. Blindness would've probably been a better initial pick than Spook, but we can just swing by High Hedge first thing and pick up a scroll (which Hubblepot is guaranteed to scribe successfully, with his 95 + 15 = 110% chance to scribe Illusion spells). Other than that, these spells should do us just fine until we hit arcane spell level 2.
As a Cleric/Illusionist, Hubblepot will probably be a little behind the curve in terms of raw power at any given point of the game. However, his enormous versatility (not to mention excellent saves for those inevitable times when I forget to completely protect him against some nasty effect) will hopefully make up for it. Plus, he eventually gets some interesting options for spell triggers...
Hubblepot shall gather unto him the standard Good complement of companions: Imoen (Thief 5 -> Mage 9 with 100% Detect Illusions), Khalid, Jaheira, Kivan to be replaced by Coran, and Branwen to be replaced by Yeslick (Hubblepot will pick up Mace proficiency before we reach Yeslick anyway, so there won't be competition for weapons). The only weak link is Jaheira, really, given that Yeslick will have dibs on the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Still, at least she'll get a few Call Woodland Beings towards the end, and I guess she can just hang in the back with a sling and spend her remaining slots on Bless/CLW/SoO/CMW, leaving the clerics free to go full offense/self buffs/summons.
Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, BG1EE Update 1
BG1EE Updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Away we go! Hubblepot briskly clears the Candlekeep errands (Command sorts out Carbos, while a Mirror Image'd Familiar holds off Shank). Imoen is recruited, along with Montaron and Xzar, the latter chiefly to relieve them of a few potions. Tarnesh has no defense against Command, and once past this initial hurdle, Montaron and Xzar decide to retire in the FAI indefinitely. We pick up Khalid and Jaheira, clear the hobgoblins around the inn, and head north.
I always go for the treasure in the ankheg lair first thing. If I have no cleric, I'll send Imoen in under stealth, and have her quaff Jaheira's Potion of Invisibility right after looting the goodies. This time, however, a single Sanctuary lets Hubblepot swipe the entire stash and get out, with about 3 rounds of Sanctuary remaining. This affords us that game-changingly potent item, the Wand of Fire! Huzzah! I fight my inner penny-pincher and splurge 100g to have the wand identified at the FAI. Things are looking up already.
The party proceeds south. We clear the Belted Ogre, and swing by High Hedge to pick up Kivan.
We also pick up two scrolls, Blindness and Identify, and I risk a little scribing without using any intelligence potions. To my great delight, Hubblepot succeeds spectacularly: We scribe Blindness (which was guaranteed), Armor, Burning Hands, Identify and Magic Missile, only failing to scribe Infravision. Couldn't be happier about how that went, and now we definitely have a fairly diverse spell book for the early game, though of course 99% of the time we will just be casting Sleep and/or Blindness.
Everything directly south of Beregost on the road to Nashkel is cleansed, Command and Sleep as always reducing enemy resistance to nothing. Branwen is freed at the Carnival, Neira is Commanded and focused down in a few seconds... even Noober grudgingly gives up his quest XP.
After Neira, we dip towards the Nashkel Mines to trigger Dorn's ambush, solely to get the Plate Mail for Khalid, and then head straight back to the Nashkel Inn for a quick rest.
The plan: Do the west-of-Nashkel circuit, then head back up towards Beregost while clearing Bjonin's Half-Ogres and Bassilus, then clear Beregost itself. That should get us a few levels at very low risk, after which we'll be comfortable proceeding with the main plot. We travel west!
New Xvartia is utterly demolished by our passing, as is to be expected. Entangle, Sleep, Command... we've got the tools we need to comfortably handle these areas.
Ever westward. Neville and his band of merry murderers are undone (Doom and Command on Neville as always... I find his saves are a bit too good to play the odds on Command sticking unassisted). I opt to burn (pun intended) a few Wand of Fire charges at the bridge: A Fireball deals with the Hobgoblin Elites, one dying and two fleeing in panic to be picked off at our leisure, while two Scorchers keeps the Ogre Berserkers from doing much.
We also clear Laurel's Gibberlings. I opted against the utter evilness of falling back and letting her fight the entire Gibberling horde alone (in which case, since SCS quadruples the number of gibberlings, she's quite likely to succumb to mass critical hits, allowing you to loot her Plate Mail), and duly assist. Slaying the Polar Bear threatening Jared also gets Branwen a level up, paving the way for more options (Hold Person, Silence 15' Radius and Chant being the critical ones).
South we must go, and so we do. Slaying the bridge-guarding Ogrillons gets Khalid a level up, and so the Gnoll Fortress presents little obstacle. Large groups of low-level melee grunts were never really a danger.
The Gnoll Chieftain actually yielded a Web scroll. It is highly likely Hubblepot will have hit Illusionist level 3 by the time we reach the Bandit Camp, and so he'll be able to cast it anyway (Web being integral to my preferred tactic of just butchering the entire camp at once), but an extra such scroll is always a good thing.
Back east, Ingot the Gnoll is put down. To my great delight, we actually get 2 random spawns of Winter Wolves here. Their experience catapults Hubblepot to Cleric level 2. Not a massive boost in power, but the extra 5 HP is welcome. The rest of the area is duly cleared (we did not even need to rest, but could use what spells we had remaining from the Gnoll Fortress). Again, we press east!
We tried to rest here, but got a 5 Skeleton ambush with Composite Bows. I pondered fighting them, but decided the risk was too great with Hubblepot in full view of all 5 of them, so we had to double back west, rest, and then return. Which cost us 32 hours... hopefully we'll still have time to reach the Bandit Camp before Kivan's timer kicks in (I'm not entirely sure this is still a thing in EE, as I've never taken more than 21 days after recruiting Kivan to reach the Bandit Camp).
Anyway, Sendai and her friends fall to Command, Doom and Hold Person, as do Vax and Zal.
And that's the western Nashkel circuit done! On average one level and change for each party member, and a couple of important items (notably Bracers of Dexterity and Bracers of Archery). We could probably clear the Doomsayer out and retrieve Brage, but as said, we lost a bit of time doubling back, so better to press on.
The party takes a well-deserved rest at the Nashkel Inn, and moves into Half-Ogre territory.
We're just tearing through the enemies here. Drizzt's Gnolls unfortunately drop nothing special. Jemby is Commanded by Hubblepot, Zekar is Commanded by Branwen, Teyngan is Doomed by Jaheira and then Held by Branwen... a good day for divine casters. The Half-Ogres succumb to a simple Entangle. To the North!
Bassilus' area goes smoothly, for once. Sleep and Command do for Zorgal and his henchmen.
Bassilus himself always has the potential to cause some havoc. However, this time a Magic Missile from Imoen (we still have her original wand) interrupts his initial Enchantment spell, and then he fails his save against Silence 15' Radius courtesy of Branwen. In the next round, a Command buys us just enough time to kill him off. Quite happy he didn't get off an Aerial Servant or Flame Strike.
We swing by High Hedge again, attempt to restore Melicamp, and actually succeed! Hooray! A nice bit of extra experience for the party. On the way out we clear the Gnolls, and head east, back to Beregost.
By now, we don't even need a full set of spells to clear Beregost. We hit a small snag fighting Landrin's Spiders, wherein Khalid gets critically hit 3 times and (being Khalid) fails his Save vs Poison 3 times... so a few healing potions were spent. But otherwise, not much to report. Silke give me a small scare when she moved out of the area of effect of a Silence 15' Radius, but we had good enough THAC0 to bring her down before she could hit us with anything. We finish off by handing in Bassilus' Holy Symbol, and travel south towards Nashkel.
The party uneventfully arrives in Nashkel, where they take to the Inn. There they can still be found, mulling over tactical considerations as pertains to their imminent all-out assault on the Nashkel Mines.
We're in good shape: Everyone has a few levels, we've got some gear (though much of it is still unidentified and thus, by my own restrictions, we cannot use it yet), we've got more than enough cash, some of which will be spent picking up The One Gift Lost... all's good. Next time, we advance the plot!
Hubblepot is now a L3/L2 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
FD95 - another druid/fighter
Rolled another character. Again a F/D, and this time a female with a 95 rollI had a male F/D a while back, but he didnt fare well. Adamant on improving my game and seeing that no F/D had reached the throne I got decided to get my game together.
This time FD has pips in daggers and scimitar. I tried darts the last time, but didnt like the short reach - daggers work better for me on that notion alone (playing on a iPhone only leaves you with little room for kiting).
I tried my kiting skills early on. I wanted the ogres belt, but ended up being chased by the ogre, a wolf and a gibberling to Beregost... level 1 kiting isnt working for me (its prop. the small screen...
In beregost I did some minor quests and killed Shoal (really roleplaying the Druid here...). Back in Beregost I charmed Karlat and got the gem bag from Neera - after some scrambling.
Found some scimitars on the ground after some drow dropped them after a row with some gnolls... The God of cheese soon found its venegence when I realized that I could only equip 1 of the lovely weapons...
FD on the other hand liked the lovely cash the scimitar netted.
After that it was simply a matter of getting XP and loot. So Meilum, Basilisk are and the sirenes where next.
Durlags is usually last on my list, but I covetted the nice tome - so off we went.
The xp finally gave me the fighter level 7 I want before going to Mulahey. It may be overkill, but clerics are (almost) never interrupted when they cast - and Mulahey knows hold person.
Tranzig was killed easily. The camp fell to dagger throwing and some flame strikes
With Dushais ring I went to Cloakwood.
Killed some over zealous druids - I will kill Sashenstar in BG (promise). I had to take the fighting indoors due to nasty weather
Made up for the lack of RP by killing Coran and Eldoth for being dicks (FD is female).
At the mine my Nymphs showed their force. Drasus and co. charmed and held by Nymphs. No damage taken
Overconfidence almost proved costly. The nymphs dominated the master of the mines, but he woke up and held me
At the city tomes, loot and moneys is on the bucket list. Druids are fun and awesome. Tbc
Previous updates:
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005776/#Comment_1005776
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1005931/#Comment_1005931
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1006256/#Comment_1006256
Update 5: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1007209/#Comment_1007209
Update 6: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1007536/#Comment_1007536
Spiders, ghouls and carrion crawlers provided little resistance on our way to the Demon Knight. The final foe of Durlag's was approached carefully, with only Cadrax and the skeletons engaging him at first. As predicted, he used his dispel magic on the dwarf, who was able to re-apply defenses via enrage. That didn't protect him from PW:Blind, though, and I added Ayla and later Sarastro into the mix to improve damage output. The last spell the Demon Knight tried to cast was propably a fireball, so I spread out my party, but he didn't get to finish his attempt:
When travelling from BG City to Ulgoth's Beard, it only takes 16 hours, so invisibility 10' radius stays active, which allowed my party to circumvent the opening ambush:
Instead, the opponents were the ones who were in for a surprise, as Cadrax lured them into a fully buffed party, 5 skeletons and Ayla's true sight, revealing the otherwise deadly cult assassins:
The second and third cultist group were defeated in a similiar fashion, and it was time to rest and buff for Aec'Letec. Some potions of strength and heroism for improved damage, and most importantly, magic shielding to resist the various save or else-effects were used. I was able to kill the enemy mage before her buffs fired, and while Aec'Letec had one dispel magic, I was able to have it only hit Cadrax - and it turned out not to dispel any of his buffs. I just went around with the hasted fighters, killing one cultist after the other, mostly being able to ignore Aec'Letec, somtimes drinking healing potions when the demon managed to hit a party member. Eventually, victory was ours (and with a very nice crit by Ayla, too!):
The Undercity Party had the misfortune of getting entangled in multiple webs from off screen while Cadrax and Ayla, protected via Ring of Freedom and Spider's Bane, took them down:
We entered the Temple of Bhaal, buffing up the party and trying to lure our foes to the entrance. At first, nobody wanted to follow Cadrax, but I eventually got Tazok to take the bait:
His replacement skeleton was taken down right away, and Diarmid approched, together with Sarevok. Meanwhile, Angelo and Semaj ran around invisibly but didn't really do anything significant. Diarmid was quickly killed, while the skeletons distracted Sarevok. A well timed true sight revealed Semaj, and Ayla started to attack both him and Sarevok with dispelling arrows (they are removed from stores in my installation, but I think I found about 16 of them throughout the game in other places):
With Sarevok slowed down, he stopped being a threat, and Semaj was quickly taken down. Angelo ran into true sight range, eventually attacking the party with his sword. His defenses were a bit tougher to take down (mostly because I forgot to use dispelling arrows again), and he eventually started to use chaos spells on Ayla. I was able to have her run away from the rest of the party and drink a clarity potion:
Finally, Angelo's defenses fell and only Sarevok was left. Cadrax and Ayla took some turns tanking the big guy until he was defeated:
The transition to SoD doesn't seem to work with SCS. I had to manually import the game and lost all my bags and their contents in the process, while some random (mostly useless) items were added to my inventory. Very strange. Luckily, SoD on core shouldn't be all that challenging compared to the SCS base games, so I think I can manage without the contents of my potion bag or my scroll case for now. However, future updates for this run will be relatively slow to come, as I have some other stuff to focus on for now.
Was it IR? or SCS?
He successfully pickpocketed Algernon's Cloak on the second attempt, but before he was challenged about his first attempt.
So far no increases in rep despite giving Joia her ring, helping Mellicamp get back into shape, and getting Aiwell's beloved back into shape and taking a tome to Firebead.
Can anyone explain that?
@semiticgod Thanks for explanation below.
At least he got the 1000 exp for helping Mellicamp and the +1 fire sword for helping the werewolf.
He will now attempt to plunder Beregost.
After a lot of running about and hacking, the demon also fell:
In theory this will open up some more adventures in the expansion mods I installed, but after dealing with the Stone of Askavar (sometimes by the sorts of 'gamey' methods I usually don't bother with like door-dodging) I think I'll probably just move on with the main plot whenever I continue.