Why don't we do a vote? If you want to make each poster contain only a single spoiler, with all text and images in that spoiler (one click per post), give an Agree to @Corey_Russell's post. If you want each image to come with its own spoiler, but with the story itself outside of spoilers, give an Agree to this post.
Just as a point of reference, BioWare No reload forum had a number of discussions about this topic. And after we discussed it, it was quite clear various forum members had different preferences on this topic. Rather than making it a hard and fast rule, we instead just wanted all forum members to be aware of the issues. For example, one poster often had 32 or more images in his post - he was mindful of the huge scrolling that would have resulted as well as possible slow load times, so as a courtesy he put them in spoilers. @Alesia_BH loved the story, so she would prefer no spoilers, but this meant her posts badly affected those with not the greatest internet. Me personally, I will usually put 1-3 cropped JPG images directly in post, and rest in spoilers, but that's just how I do it.
Since the no-reload forum at BioWare never needed a hard and fast rule, I don't know why we need one here. I would just recommend posters be mindful of how their posts affect others, and act accordingly.
Yeah, I don't think we want to bind anyone to these rules. But I do think it's good if we know which options are most popular. I would want to change my posting style if another style was more popular.
I know that cropped JPG images are popular - you get a close up of the action, and only see the relevant details, and get the added boon of very quick loading of the post. I do them often, but on occasion @Grond0 or @Gate70 will also. They do take time to make however, so certainly this method wouldn't appeal to everyone in terms of doing their posts. For some, the text descriptions are just fine, they just click the images they want to see - for others, the images are part of the story and they want others to see all of them. We are all individuals, and I have not observed a clear majority for any particular method of posting.
I actually think it's a good thing to have a variety of posting styles, though I agree that if images are being posted directly they should be jpg format and not too numerous (in order to minimise problems with page loading times - maybe aim for 10 or so per post).
In the land of the lakes patience was key While waiting for gnolls to wear down their victim They failed to break any weapons this time So Drizzt stayed awake if not in his prime But as arrows rained in his outlook was grim
Some donations and quests restored reputation Before resting in Nashkel to learn how to heal Bassilus died and gave up his hammer Korax was charmed by its extra glamor And clawed through the basilisks in a manner ideal
More questing pushed rep up to the max And cut prices down to bite-size Running away dodged an ambushing basilisk Though going invisible would have avoided the risk And would certainly have been far more wise
@Grond0 It's my single game player practice that if I intend to travel to the eastern maps, to buy the mirror eyes potions from Thalantyr, then that way I am sure to be safe in a basilisk ambush. That also means the invisibility potions are free for other uses. If you are solo, and you have auto-pause on enemy sighted turn on, you can almost always run south before the basilisk gets a chance to attack, or at least that's what happens in my games. But that basilisk ambush sure is scary in a party with no autopause.
Side note: I once had a party where a party member was petrified and we were forced to leave the map as we had no way to un-petrify them - later I got green StF scrolls, and randomly came across the same map and unpetrified them and got them back! That was quite a surprise, didn't know that could happen...
The reason for me wanting the pictures in spoiler tags, is due to the loading time on the mobile site version because of the said pictures.
I do have a very fast internet on my phone, or I use a very fast wifi. But the pictures still disrupts the site. The site refreshed twice on my phone today, when on the previous page in this thread - one of the time erasing a post I had used half an hour writing (a non posted update on my halfling barbarian).
I will accept the vote of the majority, but hope its pro spoiler tags. Otherwise happy gaming and good luck to you all.
@Grond0 It's my single game player practice that if I intend to travel to the eastern maps, to buy the mirror eyes potions from Thalantyr, then that way I am sure to be safe in a basilisk ambush. That also means the invisibility potions are free for other uses. If you are solo, and you have auto-pause on enemy sighted turn on, you can almost always run south before the basilisk gets a chance to attack, or at least that's what happens in my games. But that basilisk ambush sure is scary in a party with no autopause.
Side note: I once had a party where a party member was petrified and we were forced to leave the map as we had no way to un-petrify them - later I got green StF scrolls, and randomly came across the same map and unpetrified them and got them back! That was quite a surprise, didn't know that could happen...
@Corey_Russell I know it makes sense to have the Mirror Eyes potions, but I dislike buying anything except at rock-bottom prices, so tend to just take the risk . I don't use autopause, but I agree that it's normally possible to run from the ambushing basilisk - though there has been the odd occasion where that's not been the case ...
There are a limited number of ambush map areas. There are often more than one that can be used for each journey, but if you keep repeating the same journey it doesn't take long to find a statue again - like you I first discovered that by being surprised to find a statue out in the middle of the wilderness on a later journey .
How funny - I accidentally found out I can see who likes/agrees/finds insightful my posts by going to my profile, then clicking that category, then down below the avatars and names of who are those people show below for the respective posts of mine. I guess it's good to know, if I really want to know who had a reaction to my post, there is a way to see...hardly convenient though.
@Flashburn I was checking your no-reload and frankly I'm unapologetic.
I was reading your posts and you are using a custom kit. That wouldn't be a reason of disconcern, until you see that you are actually using - or should I say (ab)using - the game in such a way to make the challenge void and empty :
> You use a warlock custom kit with not only native spells (doubt many including me knows their effects) but that can learn spells from scrolls - that could be ok, until you see you use it to render void all the challenge, given that you actually buy spells just to level up and use a tweak that improves the amount gained by xp comparable to bg2 > The amount of xp could be tolerated, provided that you didn't have god stats out of an auto-roll >.< > the warlock kit you use has custom items for a warlock ( I'm on the edge for this too given that these could be extremely unbalancing as well) > you seem to add yourself xp based on who knows what
And in the end it seems like you reached level 19 in a game where your opponent, Sarevok, is level 15.
To be honest I find your run extremely weird
I usually run mod-added kits because the vanilla kits don't interest me and I want to play something new. I chose the Warlock because I'm familiar with how it plays in NWN2 and in NWN1's PRC Pack.
-The Warlock kit's abilities can be found here. -Warlocks can't learn spells from scrolls and they can't use mage scrolls either (not until BG2 anyway). -The XP is added because of the Basilisk Loop trick pioneered by @semiticgod. Each Stone to Flesh scroll is effectively worth 7000 XP when performing it, and there are a ton of Stone to Flesh scrolls in the game. There are 63 just in the city of Baldur's Gate alone. -The Warlock kit has three custom items, available for view on the first point, and I wouldn't consider any of them game-breaking.
I play with the XP cap off just because I don't like having excess XP I've earned do nothing for me. It makes me want to skip everything once I've capped out. But I agree that I rely on the Basilisk Loop too much to carry me and to make absolutely sure I survive SoD's final boss. I won't perform it next run.
Now in Dragonspear, I take care of the entry dungeon thanks to skellies and PfU. Pretty easy. I saved up a bunch of expensive equipment and jewelry to sell after communist hobos steal my money, so I get to the Coast Way Crossing and buy the brand-new Potions of Persuasion, which will let me stack my saves and AC as low as they can go by using Dark One's Own Luck and Leaps+Bounds.
I'm back inside the dwarven digsite, where I died in my first warlock no-reload attempt many months ago. Determined not to die in the same place twice, I only use party-friendly blasts, skellies, and two scrolls of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes. I am content to let the dwarves fight the undead while I stand back and spam blasts.
From the southern passage's critters, I level up. I learn my 1st Dark invocation, Binding Blast. Binding Blast's -4 save penalty actually scales further for every 2 points of CHA past 17 of the invoker. I also trade Tenacious Plague for Noxious Blast, which actually needs a save vs. spell at -2 and scales further for every 2 points of CHA beyond 17 as well.
Coldhearth is killed and his phylactery destroyed soon after thanks to The Secret Revealed.
I hold my own on the Coast Way bridge, but I'm beginning to feel a little outclassed at this point. My blast damage is okay-ish and it bypasses spell protections completely, and I've got a few unlimited use tricks, but that's about all I have going for me. It's kind of painful to be using the same few things over and over to win.
I skip the Troll Claw Woods using Walk Unseen and I'm looking for a fast and easy XP source since I'm close to leveling up again. I enter the goblin cave and put them to the torch with the Wand of Fire.
I'm going to skip the Temple of Cyric entirely since it's not worth the trouble, so I just use Flee the Scene to teleport into Bridgefort without needing the wardstone.
Well, that's cool and all, but I don't feel like doing the siege of Bridgefort either.
Now in the Coalition Camp (AKA sidequest hell), I take the barrel of bwoosh and the poison, then save Skie again at Dragonspear Castle and do a couple of sidequests there too, just because.
Next is the underground river. I skip most of the sidequests here too. They're just a waste of time. I get rid of the necromancer cabal with Halatathlaer's help and level up again.
My 2nd Dark invocation is Dark Foresight. Very helpful when caught by surprise, though my AC is already at late-ToB levels.
Inside Dragonspear's basement, I poison the food and water and decide to take everyone on from behind the fence again. It's decidedly less awesome than when I did it with Nukesalot and it takes far longer.
I return to the Coalition Camp and go to the parley, so now it's time for the siege on the camp. Trolls are up first. I counter the ogre mages' Haste with Devour Magic and follow up with Noxious Doom, which makes all of them easy prey for the fire archers.
During the mage fight, I get silenced, but it doesn't last too long.
I forgot to screenshot the priest/paladin fight, but they got owned by warmages because of my Devour Magic and Noxious Doom. The fight with the named goons pretty much goes the same way.
During the siege of Dragonspear, I use an Oil of Speed and infiltrate to the back lines, then cast Devour Magic, stripping everyone of their buffs. I'm pelted with a ton of nat20 arrows and magic missiles, so I fall back to the front lines for a bit. We aren't gaining ground though, so it's time to use the scorcher charge on the Wand of Fire powered up by my hellfire sword.
That tears right through them. Ashatiel then challenges me to 1v1, but I easily win that fight. Her Sanctuary did her no good against See the Unseen.
I have to deal with a bunch of stragglers up north, so I kite them into our main force and devour their magic. The siege is won. Upon entering Avernus, I level up yet again to 21.
Must be because I'm at the source of my power or something. I summon a few skellies and kill off the devils one at a time with Vitriolic Blast. Acid has always been my favorite element ever since I discovered that Mephistopheles from HotU takes full damage from it when he's highly resistant to every other element.
Now faced with Belhifet, I accidentally find out that certain dialogue options can lead to a 3rd way that the fight can start that I've never seen before: he incinerates Caelar with a flame strike, killing her instantly. That's... something. I was actually kind of depending on Caelar's help. Damn.
After Big B's opening Remove Magic strips my potion buffs, I apply an Oil of Speed. This is utterly essential if I want to survive the sea of teleporting devils. Elsewise this will happen.
Luckily, I can extricate myself with Flee the Scene, and my illusory clone will take the heat off me for the round.
The problem is that I can only hit Belhifet with Vitriolic Blast while I have See the Unseen active, which only lasts 5 rounds. Its casting time is only 2, reduced to 1 with my gauntlets, but even that can be risky. Big B keeps gating in more devils and the Erinyes' nat20 arrows keep piling up. I'm halfway there, but I need to end this forthwith if I don't want to drown in devilkind...
Soon I discover a slight rhythm to movement. Instead of moving big distances all at once, really fast, I figure out that the devils will usually teleport to you if they can see you. So I try moving a little bit at a time and waiting for a second as they begin to gather around me via teleport before moving once more.
The devils just keep coming. My heart is pounding. I get trapped once but free myself. I could easily tank with my -20 AC but I would rather not take any hits at all than risk being trapped for another round due to spell disruption. Just a little more...
Checkmate! Belhifet finally falls and I gain level 23!
Phew. I'll save leveling up to 23 for BG2, because I think that's when I get HLAs. Or maybe its 24. I forget.
After identifying the loot from CK and using the tomes, Isit headed to back to Durlags. Time to get two helmets and a goblet.
The vanguard, the roof top basilisk and the warders all hit Itis quite hard.
Had to use quite a few healing potions. After the warders fight I found that I had dumped my armor in CK to haul more loot - so the damage taken had its cause...
In the end I got Durlags goblet and Kiels helmet and skipped Durlags for now.
Time to get some scimitars. Buffed intensely
And got of to a good start
But then I started not hitting - a lot
But sipping from the goblet 3 times secured Isit the time to crit Drizzt to death. Really hate the guy. Back to the tower
Most was skipped invisible and with protection from the elements.
The chessboard was treated to 5 neklace blast - isolating the king.
No Scs = easy check mate
The final level drained my potions and got me hooked on sipping from the goblet. The greater ghouls and crawlers hits like trucks - and often. But with the ring of free action its just hack n’ slash (just the way I like it).
The demon knight dispelled my buffs twice - so it was just rage, using the greenstone amulet and the goblet, that carried Itis through. The prize: a nifty helmet
Headed to a temple to repair my rep, don a helmet, equip a scimitar and then unequip the helmet with a remove curse spell. But on the way I ran into an ambush..
I just ran away.. Laughing
In the city Isit got the invitations and invited the bar crew (Ichtyl and Bellamy) and the cleric of helm.
The cleric of helm spread out two entangles. Ichtyl opened with making Liia invisible, greater malison and chaos. The dopplegangers started out by taking out belt within a round. Leaving me with just Liia....
Liia broke invisibility and magic missiled the confused dopplegangers in tandem with Ichtyl. The flaming fist, the bar crew and Itis mopped up the opposition and faced Sarevok - who fled the scene.
A sweet victory - considering Belts early demise. But Liias script, which takes some time to trigger helped a lot. The script delay was mitigated by the invisibility... so again imvisibility saved the day. Ever usefull spell.
In Beregost I dumped a dagger in a Barrel. It won’t come back to haunt me...
The maze and undercity was skipped courtesy of the sandthief ring, running and dodging fights.
Sarevok was drawn from the dais with a blast from the necklace of missiles. Then treated to an arrow of dispelling (never realised how powerfull they are until then). He fell shortly after to a fully buffed Itis - no Durlag goblet needed
So its of to SoD. We shall see how Itis fares on uncommon ground..
More sirines lost out to an amulet charge And some golems provided a last level Then it was off for a trip to the Nashkel Mine Where Mulahey flinched and tried to resign But was crushed as I started to revel
With all desired goods already in hand Reputation once more took a dive The next Bhaal power was LMD And soon after that horror was free At least to those still alive
The Cloakwood was skipped on the way to the mine Where Drasus was pulled back and shocked Down in the depths a mage awaited But he found himself checkmated When his favorite spells were all blocked
How funny - I accidentally found out I can see who likes/agrees/finds insightful my posts by going to my profile, then clicking that category, then down below the avatars and names of who are those people show below for the respective posts of mine. I guess it's good to know, if I really want to know who had a reaction to my post, there is a way to see...hardly convenient though.
I hate that they changed the icons to only work with hover because that does not work on mobile devices.
For pictures I like a mix of it all. Links to other websites is not very handy because I have to force open in a new tab, otherwise the page needs to be reloaded. In-line pictures behind spoiler tags are nice but if small pics or low pic size they can still be outside of tags. Definitely low file size is appreciated. For pics under spoiler tags I like it if people group them by encounter and the description of the encounter is above the spoiler tags... Unless The encounter is really too long.
I'm sure there is no optimum for pics so whichever all y'all prefer.
Quests in the City pushed rep right back up And a glorious helm gave charisma With all goods in hand I ignored their aid And used the stairs to conduct a raid To discover the Iron Throne dogma
My journey lay next to my childhood home Where tombs were robbed of their treasure Prat and his gang were lying in wait But their status was soon changed to late And I gathered their goods in with pleasure
A trip to the Tower got the last tome And Slythe handed over some papers The doppleganger horde didn't last long And Sarevok proved to be not so strong To end this stage of my capers
In the SoD prologue I took a quick level up And skipped through to give Korlasz some magic NPCs were stripped of worthwhile equipment Then on reaching SoD proper I immediately went To rescue a vampire from a fate most tragic
With gold and XP in plentiful supply I moved straight to the temple of Cyric Some bugbears provided a final SoD boost Before Akanna's misdeeds came home to roost When she left it too late to panic
Boareskyr Bridge got me nice goods Including bullets and dragon's shield The fort was surrendered to save some time And this run I omitted the crime Of using fire to make the bridge mage yield
Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, SoD Update 5 Last BG1EE update found here SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Alright, let's finish Chapter 9 and proceed with the plot.
The party returns to bring the Crusaders the good news of Keherrem's rescue, and is thus allowed into the latters camp. We talk to Kharm for 250 GP, pick up a Dusty Chicken, and save Dorn (there was no option to return his gear to him, and we're not taking an evildoer into the party just to equip him.. so we'll sell the gear). That over with, we use the wardstone we've aquired to teleport into Bridgefort.
We do the little tasks here first: Pay 1500 gold to get the Boots of Speed fixed, and do the whole Wynan questchain (I remembered to protect all spellcasters from Level Drain before talking to him, but I needn't have bothered, as apparently the restoration you get at the end of the quest restores the spells you lost as well). While here, we of course avail ourselves of Jegg the Blacksmith's services, and craft 80x Void-tipped Arrows +3 (for later use by Corwin), Green Dragon Scale Shield (for Khalid once we get him), and Rhino Beetle Plate (for Glint, making him much more tanky). We also head outside and talk to the timid elf for 6000 experience; it wasn't night-time when we did so, so no nightmarish creature spawned.
This may have been overkill, but... we invest in 15x Potions of Genius from the alchemist Thirrim. I know, I know, but this way we can indulge in scribing as soon as we have a few good scrolls (and there are many good level 5 arcane scrolls available in SoD). Finally, we do the Junia questchain, which goes fine as we remembered to memorize a few Negative Plane Protection beforehand: It's a couple easy fights against Wights, basically. We talk to Khalid and advocate for lifting the siege by doing battle with the Crusaders with Flaming Fist support. So, we trek back to camp, arrange for such support, get a good night's rest in (setting up 2x Horror and 2x Glitterdust Minor Sequencers), then trek back to Bridgefort. Alright, time for some real action...
As always in any battle, the main concern must be enemy casters, where arcane casters are far more dangerous than divine ones. We must also remember to save some spells for dealing with the enemy Mage on the bridge, as unless you kill him (her? Can't rightly remember) quick enough, the game ends. Our divine slots are mostly filled with buffs, but we also bring a few Remove Paralysis/Zone of Sweet Air (I can't recall exactly what the enemy casters will do), as well as Mental Domination/Hold Person/Silence 15' Radius/Doom and even a couple Command. Arcane-wise, Dynaheir goes anti-mage (Breach, Oracle, Secret Word, Spell Thrust, Detect Invisibility), while Hubblepot goes for mass disablers (Chaos, Greater Malison, Slow). Both of course cast MMM before resting and have another casting prepared, to help with taking down enemy mages rapidly once we clear their defenses. And that's it.. we're as ready as we'll ever be, and will just have to adapt on the fly if something unexpected happens. Cry havoc, I suppose. We speak to Khalid and initiate the battle.
I won't do a scene-by-scene recounting of the battle, but suffice to say, despite severely non-optimal tactics and spell setup, we triumphed. The Crusader spellcasters did a surprisingly good job countering our crowd control (Haste to counter Slow, Remove Fear to counter Horror etc), but in the end, their Mages didn't really seem to do much offense-wise. I was expecting oodles of Chaos, Confusion, Fireball, Lightning Bolt and the like, but Oloneiros spent most of the fight casting Breach on Minsc (I've no idea why...) and dropping Greater Malison on us.
Apart from Minsc getting Held by a Crusader Cleric and subsequently freed by Remove Paralysis courtesy of Glint, the only status effect we came under the effect of was Slow. Occasionally I had to pull Minsc and Khalid back behind the Bridgefort Defenders when they got focused by too many Crusaders at once, but they were never in any real danger of dying. Some shots of the action:
So after spending the battle doing not much at all, Oloneiros' defensive illusions finally drop, and we can focus the Mage down:
The nameless Crusader Mage is targetted next, and drops very quickly due to apparently not having defensive illusions up (or he had them at the start of the battle, but they just wore off in time):
Finally, Hormorn falls. Again, he just wasn't that dangerous: He spent the entire battle removing status effects and healing Crusaders. Annoying, certainly, but nothing that really threatened the party.
We apply a Haste we'd been saving and rush west to the bridge. Here, an Oracle by Dynaheir ensures we can kill the Crusader Mage in record time, preventing us losing the game.
Well, that went smoothly. Or not, but we got through it. A few lessons learned:
None of the enemy Mages used Stinking Cloud or Cloudkill, so Zone of Sweet Air was not necessary. Remove Paralysis was quite good, as the enemy Clerics were fond of Hold Person.
Detect Invisibility/Invisibility Purge was useless due to enemy Mages having MGoI up (which I don't recall being a problem in BG1EE... but I may be misremembering). Dynaheir spent two of her three L5 slots on Breach. She should've just gone for three Oracle instead. Since we couldn't dispel the Improved Invisibility of Oloneiros and Hormorn, we couldn't remove their MGoI (meaning Secret Word/Spell Thrust were wasted memorizations as well), and so couldn't pelt them to death with MMM as I intended.
You actually get to decide yourself when to start the fight after speaking to Khalid (by clicking the drawbridge). I should've probably started by summoning the standard wall of Skeleton Warriors and buffing profusely, to get the initial edge, before lowering the drawbridge. The two Skeleton Warriors I had time to summon during the battle did surprisingly well at holding off the Crusader melee mooks.
Several Remove Magic on Hubblepot/Dynaheir would've probably been helpful, in that we could've countered the Crusader spellcasters buffing their own troops (dispelling Remove Fear and re-applying Horror might've helped).
A double Fireball to start things off is probably a good idea. I didn't want to kill any of the Bridgefort defenders by accident, but careful targetting would've avoided that.
Still, we did it! We gather up all the loot and have our little vision while crossing the bridge. The Dusty Chicken is dropped into the well, along with a Battle Axe. The curmudgeonly Water Elemental thus summoned only yielded a Long Sword +1, but still. Off to Chapter 10!
So, the Coalition Camp. Seems a bit oddly timed, what with you being the big hero, yet still doing FedEx quests.. but alright. We clear out the quests, but as Corwin is our most charismatic member (and, much as she's just terrific, she ain't that charismatic) we miss out on the +2 THAC0 amulet as no one wants to speak to us about why they joined the crusade. Likewise, we miss out on the Thieves' Guild assisting us against the Crusade, which stings.
That out of the way, on to glory! We'll clear Dead Man's Pass and Bloodbark Grove, then try and sweet-talk our way into the courtyard of Dragonspear Keep to do the quests there, and finally proceed with the main plot via the underground river.
En route to Dead Man's Pass, the Shadowy Figure ambushes us, makes a nuisance of himself (forcing us to squander a few of the good healing potions), and ultimately, buggers off. He made his save against Wand of Paralyzation twice, so no loot for us. Pfeh.
So, Dead Man's Pass. I'll just give a quick recap: A group of Orogs got 2x Web, two Ettins and their pet Dire Wolves got 2x Stinking Cloud, Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds got a few Fireballs, a second group of Orogs was just beaten into submission after a few buffs, and a large group of Hill Giants were handled via a wall of Skeleton Warriors to soak up the hits.
Things got more interesting once we went into the Killer Mimic Cave. There is a, to put it mildly, large group of Spiders barring the way to the treasure:
As the timer for Free Action is already ticking down on Minsc and Khalid, we use our last dual Fireball to cleanse the monstrosities, after which Minsc and Khalid approach the disguised Mimic! As they are both properly protected with Free Action, even with substantial backup (Ochre Jelly 4x, Neo-Otyugh 1x, Phase Spider 2x, Astral Phase Spider 1x),there is little the creature can do but perish.
Note that Dynaheir is Held, and that a Phase Spider is teleporting after her... the Killer Mimic did its usual Hold power at the start of combat. Dynaheir failed her save, but I figured her safe since she was at the other end of the cave. Not so. A Phase Spider teleported after her, my response to which was a weary sigh as I made mental preparations for gathering all her items up, returning to camp and once again shelling out for a scroll of Raise Dead. Imagine my surprise when the Phase Spider, immediately upon teleporting to Dynaheir, teleported to Odrelomp without even attacking once inbetween! A pleasant surprise, I might add, since we escaped without casualties. Hooray!
We're still not done with all the random trash mobs. Another gaggle of Hill Giants are tanked by our surviving three Skeleton Warriors. A pack of Displacer Beasts are treated to a Cloudkill (they do not automatically die, but have to save to avoid doing so, and almost all of them fail their save). We make our way up a winding path only to bumble into some Spiders, one of which chucks a Web Tangle at Khalid! With lightning reflexes and intellect beyond the ken of mere mortals, Odrelomp instinctually calculates the necessary trajectory for throwing a Potion of Invisibility (uncorked) so that Khalid can catch just enough of it to go invisible, mere moments before the Web Tangle hits him. Hooray! Still no casualties!
At the top of the hill, there's a large group of Hobgoblins. I truly dislike these groups.. worth almost no experience, yet the damnable Hobgoblin Captain will use an Oil of Fiery Burning first thing, and with all the magical ammunition, the Archers can actually deal a bit of damage. We fight fire with fire. Literally, as the Hobgoblins are treated to 3x Potions of Explosion and 1x Oil of Fiery Burning. Overkill, yes, but worth every penny.
All that remains is the little Undead hidey-hole to the east of the area. I always just assume that whenever we fight Undead, there will be both Level Drain and Hold. That way, at worst I overprepare. Turns out this time I was right, as on Insane, the two Greater Shadows and four Shadows are joined by two (initially invisible) Wraiths. And that is it for Dead Man's Pass.
Alright, we have time for another small area I reckon. Off to Bloodbark Grove! As in Dead Man's Pass, there are a few trash encounters, but they're handled without much ado (double Web or double Fireball). The Vampire in the cellar is much more interesting. On Insane he gets a suitable entourage: I didn't count exactly, but something along the lines of 4x Vampiric Wolves, 4x Dread Wolves (the kind that you need fire or acid to permanently kill off), and for some reason 3x bog-standard Wolves. The Vampire himself is only Fledgling, though he still manages to Dominate Glint. You should've probably picked a better target, Vampire... Improved Invisible Khalid does a fine job holding off the entire mob of Wolves as the rest of the party engages from a distance.
And that's about it for this area. We summon some Skeleton Warriors to clear the large group of Burning Skeletons and their attendant Skeleton Mage (they are joined by 4x Bonebats on Insane), and I actually remembered to have Dynaheir memorize 2x Protection from Petrification, so we take out the Greater Basilisk last thing for its claw. Hooray, another area cleared without incident!
A good day's work done, the party retires to the Coalition Camp. We are making excellent progress, and little wonder: This is a supremely powerful group. We've got melee/ranged muscle (Khalid, Minsc, Corwin), arcane accoutrements (Dynaheir, Hubblepot), and just enough Clerical wherewithal to get us through any sticky status effects (Glint, Hubblepot again). With careful planning, we should not experience any real trouble until the very end of SoD.
But such planning can wait. Hubblepot can currently be found outside his tent, discussing the merits of Gnomes (They are the best! Huzzah!) with Glint while enjoying a small cup of Turnip Juice. He sneaked a bit of a taster before handing said Turnip Juice over to Neera. Don't judge! He remains a level 8/9 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, but we are gathering experience rapidly... methinks it shan't be long before a rather significant boost in power.
@everyone There is as compromise that can be done. Rather than all images in an individual spoiler, the entire story can be in a single spoiler. This way people who don't want to scroll so much can just not click the spoiler, and those that don't mind and want to follow the story can just click on the single spoiler, so to see the posts just as they are now.
Having every single image in a spoiler, I think might be a bit much the other way, as some events demand non spoiler images (final battles in BG1, BG 2, and ToB for example), and maybe special events (near deaths). Certain mundane unremarkable fights, I will put those images in a spoiler. I often crop my images and are also jpg, which means they don't affect load times at all when they are that small. But this paragraph is just my opinion.
I put most of my images in spoilers and just leave those that I think are particularly interesting out of spoilers. I think that is for the best.
-SCS v30 (long-duration pre-buffs only, no tactical challenges except Improved Bodhi) -Ascension -Tweaks Anthology -Rogue Rebalancing -More Style For Mages -aTweaks -Item Upgrade -Enchant the Missile Launchers -Skip Chateau Irenicus -Golem Construction
After waking up in Chateau Irenicus, I take my 23rd level and learn Utterdark Blast. This one's save penalty starts at -4 and increases by 1 for every 2 points past 17 CHA, up to a massive -8 at 25 CHA. Level drain is very nasty as it not only decreases saves, but also disables any save boosts provided by items or spells.
I skip Chateau Irenicus thanks to this kind rogue. Going through this intro dungeon every really grates on the nerves after 15 years.
Once outside, I search the rubble for everything that was inside the dungeon. I learn to create Flesh golems.
My pickpocket skill is extremely high, so I go shoplifting and take whatever I need. Time for the circus. Aerie's feeling pretty comfortable in ogre form.
I go to Gaelan's house and steal Arledrian's Silverblaze dagger. I test whether my invocations will bring down the Cowled Wizards on me. They do.
Amalas challenges me to a pit fight. He is handily beaten, earning me a level and my first HLA.
Freeing Hendak leads me to an awful discovery.
I think my skellybros have been changed by aTweaks. Enemies apparently do not react to them at all for some reason, and they absolutely will not forgive friendly fire. I'll have to get rid of them next level. Hendak is freed and I get to work eliminating the rest of the slaver scum. Apparently, trolls are also weak to level drain.
On my way out from the slaver's compound, I forget that I still have See the Unseen active, which calls down the Cowled Wizards. Dammit.
I run inside the Copper Coronet. They can't really do much against me because of my excellent saves, good luck, and elemental resistances. But I can't do too much to them either. I can use Devour Magic on them, but they respond with more contingencies or use SI:Abjuration. And I find out that my direct-targeted invocations don't actually bypass spell protections at all, and can rebound on me if they have Spell Turning up. That's okay, since I can take what I dish out thanks to DOOL's Luck bonus. Their favorite tactic to shut me down is Power Word, Silence.
Back outside the Coronet, I try to get rid of the last Cowled Bastards but that just calls down more of them. In addition, I completely misaim an Utterdark Doom, maiming my reputation. Wonderful.
I run back inside and try to fight them.
I go back outside yet again to shake them off. Once my silence wears off, I scout them out with Walk Unseen, but decide to just get out of there. If I keep antagonizing them when I'm this weak, I won't survive when they send their best after me.
I decide to go to the Umar Hills to get Valygar's body so I can open the Planar Sphere and start making loyal golem helpers. I level up after dealing with Madulf and Minister Lloyd. I trade The Dead Walk for Charm. Charm also has a scaling save penalty and works more like Domination in practice, since its not limited to one creature type.
I test out Charm. I'm not usually a fan of charm spells, but it's not like there's any other Lesser invocation worth using right now.
Valygar is normally my bro, but this is a solo playthrough, so I kill him to use his body to open the Sphere. I sell off some excess items and pay Ribald enough money to buy back my Hellfire Sword. I return to the slums and go plane hopping. The halflings are putting up quite the fight, so I summon Air Elementals with a scroll. I get lucky: an Elder Air Elemental comes to help the normal Air Elemental.
They're eventually taken care of. I learn to build Clay Golems and I level up from the next fight.
The purple Eldritch HLAs and the Hellfire HLAs are mutually exclusive. Unresistable fire damage sounds cool, especially how the die size is increased to d10, but it doesn't bypass magic resistance (which I can't lower using invocations), so I'm taking the non-evil Eldritch Paragon route. Eldritch Focus is 1x/day. Next up is Lavok. This brings back memories of Krieg since I basically tank his entire spell arsenal since Devour Magic won't work thanks to SI:Abjuration.
Tolgerias and his pet are next. Taking what I learned from the fights with the Cowled Wizards and Lavok, I spam Eldritch Dooms at Tolgerias. He silences me, but I respond with mage scrolls. Death Fog finishes him off.
Outside in one of the lairs of the Abyss, I level up again by dissolving a Fire Salamander.
I'm hoping Call Fiend is good, but I use it against the resident Glabrezu and my summoned Nabassu gets butchered. I can't really do anything to the glabrezu either because it just spams Mirror Image (which my blasts conveniently do not ignore). I give Utterdark Blast a try and it disintegrates the glabrezu. Cool!
With demon hearts in hand, I power the sphere back up and return to the Prime Material. Now the sphere serves as my golem building workshop, but I need more parts to build them.
I take on the Pebblecrusher party. This time I summon a Glabrezu, but even they can tear through it. I level drain and stun Mencar, while Smaeluv finishes him off while berserk.
I steal a Limited Wish scroll and start the gong quest, then visit Jerlia the Ore Merchant to buy golem building materials, and build Perfect Clay Golem MK I.
I've been really behind because it took so long to post my Legendary mode Skyrim run, but I'm actually near the end of a solo Druid/Mage run. I wasn't able to install Faith and Powers quite right (and reinstalling was not an option because BWS took 26 hours to install), but I rigged up a proper Druid/Mage using a combination of EEKeeper and some personal restrictions. Due to the sphere system of Faith and Powers, this druid is a little different from a vanilla one:
1. The druid doesn't get certain spells from vanilla, like Death Ward, Armor of Faith, Nature's Beauty, Summon Fire Elemental, and Summon Deva. 2. The druid gets some spells that druids normally couldn't get, like Sanctuary, Cone of Cold, Spike Growth, and Foresight. 3. Some spells, like Call Woodland Beings, belong to different spell levels. 4. The druid gains the ability to use bows, but loses the ability to use scimitars.
Anyway, the deal is that this druid is more offensive-oriented than a normal one, which is actually pretty important in ToB. Here's Poppy the Druid/Mage killing Abazigal with a flurry of druid spells under Improved Alacrity.
I probably won't be posting on the gameplay in as great detail as I normally would, as I'm feeling kind of burned out. Even after my lengthy hiatus from the IE games (I don't know how many months it was), I still feel weary, and I've actually considered intentionally killing Poppy to officially end my no-reload "career."
I think the no-reload thing is making it harder to enjoy certain games, and I've toyed with the idea of swearing off of them, but it's a hard habit to break. I've thought about doing a ritual killing of each of my characters just to prevent myself from getting a true no-reload run so I stop worrying about it, but I'm still left with the same problem: I want to be able to beat the game without intentionally dying once, which means the midgame is rushed and the endgame is tense because I want to secure the win and get it over with.
Adding a Druid/Mage to the Hall of Heroes sounds nice, but I'm wondering if this is my chance to break the no-reload habit. I've caught myself thinking about an all-Archer run or a restless run, and I'm concerned that I'm going to get caught in the same "trophy-seeking" loop where I try out a difficult run and then can't stop until I finish it, even if it stops being fun.
@semiticgod Do whatever you think is fun. If a run is no longer interesting to you, just delete the save to make sure the temptation to finish it doesn't bite you and subsequently drain what little remains of your desire to play BG.
There was shopping with the genie at the Camp Before saving Skie at Dragonspear Next was Underground to place a barrel And sprinkle poison to be extra cruel Before running away with a sneer
The Camp invasions met exploding arrows To leave the first 3 groups needing rehab With no defending immortals the final force Required digging deeper into my resource Before Grimgor was pierced by backstab
At the Castle Ashatiel fought and died Before I ploughed through devils in hell Caelar was restored to bring down Belhifet And there were no mistakes to bring regret As another game obstacle fell
With Perfect Clay at my side, we clear out the graveyard district and level up from helping Kamir.
Eldritch Paragon combined with Dark One's Own Luck drops my saving throws to rock-bottom and I can brush off Horrid Wiltings like they're nothing. I have Kitthix's figurine and the ingredients needed to upgrade it, so I head to Cromwell's. But he makes an interesting proposition first.
Wow! Now this is blade fitting for a high-powered Warlock! Gotta be careful though, that listed -4 CON really is -4 CON and not -2, so my HP is reduced by 20 while wielding it. I go to the Temple District for Mae'Var, but its daytime and the Temple of Lathander is being guarded, so I'll go down into the sewers until it's nighttime. The sewer party is disposed of, thanks to a Friends scroll boosting my CHA to max so Utterdark Chain causes level drain on a save vs. spell at -8!
I level up again from them.
With Beguiling Influence, I don't need to rely on Friends scrolls or any CHA-boosting items like the Nymph Cloak anymore. My CHA will be maxed out, so any Eldritch Essences that require a save will inflict their maximum save penalties. At Merkrath's I learn to make Maggot Golems and further in to the sewers, I have Perfect Clay kill the beholders for me. Another level obtained.
This time I learn Brimstone Blast. Extra fire damage over time sounds more useful to me than the -4 DEX from Hellrime Blast. Next we enter the undead village. A lich and his mummies don't take too kindly to our type 'round here. The lich is surprisingly conservative with its spells.
I think that I've killed the lich, but it was just one of his Simulacra. Perfect Clay gets beaten up by Aerial Servants summoned by the Greater Mummies and splits in half.
The lich backs off for some reason, content to let his mummies and skellies fight us instead. I clean them up and Devour the lich's magic, finishing him off with melee.
More Beholder tanking thanks to Perfect Clay's offspring earns me Bewitching Blast.
The Unseeing Eye is killed and so are the cultists, earning yet another level. From here on, I'm not going to document any more level ups because I've obtained all the unique abilities already. The only things I can take now are Call Fiend, Scribe Scroll, and Alchemy.
Now that it's daytime, I steal the statuette of Lathander, but I get caught. I Walk Unseen and I book it for the Docks. While I'm there, I use the spoils from the Unseeing Eye's dungeon to get Linvale's help and the Amulet of Power with it.
The clay golem dies in Rayic Gethras' home, punched to death by Stone Golems. The previous floor was a pretty close call because I was stunned for an extended period because of those annoying mephits' abilities. Clay Golem thinned their numbers and I broke free. o7
Mae'var is assassinated and I build Perfect Flesh MK I.
I take on the Guarded Compound and tell Perfect Flesh to wait downstairs this time. I manage to tag Sion with an Utterdark Blast before he teleports upstairs, but he resists the level drain. I was going to use Walk Unseen and use a Mislead scroll to fight them all, but a trap dispelled my invisibility. Koshi was immediately put down by a Binding Hideous Blow -> Brimstone Blast combo. Luckily, Sion was weakened by my blast from earlier, so it only took a couple more blasts to finish him. The rest were pieces of cake.
I sell their loot and have Cromwell upgrade Celestial Fury to +5, create the Citadel Helmet, and then take on the Shade Lich that I left alone earlier. I know he sends out a Fallen Planetar, but I try using a PfU scroll on him to prevent it. While this disables his spellcasting, he decides to gate the planetar in anyway.
I power up using Eldritch Focus and deal a large amount of damage to the planetar, but it recovers with its 3x use, instant-casting Heal spell. It manages to hit me and dispel my Oil of Speed, AND hit me with Insect Plague, so I decide to just leave the sewer and wait for it to be unsummoned. But I must gather my party before venturing forth. Stupid golems... I summon Improved Kitthix and ditch the planetar, closing the door behind me.
I can tank a planetar just fine, it seems, but I just can't deal enough damage to it when I've only got 1 spellcasting action per round. With the shade lich still struck stupid, I finish it off. The planetar leaves shortly afterward.
Sigh, I will be posting my improved anvil noreload attempt 3 (?) today.
I failed to two mutated spiders that I suspect to regenerate over 1hp/sec and have around 150hp, are immune to all magic damage, element damage, poison, acid, piercing and missile damage types and have more than 50% resistance to slashing and crushing damage.
I even tried to reload a few times but I had absolutely no chance to get them past badly injured with all the resources I have available. To pass it safely i need to postpone this until much later or change the party composition. This is the graveyard towards the lower crypts though, so optional, but since I had korgan I needed to do it for his quest (that I already delayed a lot) and I failed miserably.
I never had problems before so I'll also ask critto if this spider is new or I am just misremembering it. Maybe my party composition has always been better in the past using custom npcs, who knows...
My experience with both non-reloading and playing SCS in SoA is very limited (non-existent for ToB) and therefore I didn't have high hopes of getting too far. Unfortunately, our road had came to an end before I was able to post any progress.
The failure is a tough one to swallow. We had been on a hunt for Pale Green Ioun Stone with Viccy when suddenly:
Apparently, the spider form via Polymorph: Self is not immune to the targeted Web of Giant Spiders. Stranger still, I've noticed that running Arbane in off-hand prior to morphing results in getting both Haste (spider form) and Free Action (Arbane), which seems rather buggy and I kept removing off-hand items when shifting. Nevertheless, with no II/Spirit Armor Gisli's saves were above the negative safe zone. His MIs were taken away in no time. You may also note that Viccy was locked in Champion's Strength.
Here comes the final window of opportunity. Gisli's Polymorph runs out and I click the invisibility potion.
Nope.
Anyway, I'll use the opportunity to familiarize myself with the game and eventually complete it with reloads. I also don't know what to expect from the Enhanced Edition content and so the learning curve should be rather steep.
I'm also inclined to start a Polymorph: Self thread for sharing experience with the spell's behaviour in the current version of the game.
Tough luck @Borco. Note though that, assuming you haven't modded it, Arbane protects against hold - but not web. Unfortunately the icon used is the same, but you don't have full free action protection (which is why it can co-exist with haste) so it's easy to get caught out by a different form of movement restriction (slow, web, entangle, grease).
Comments
Since the no-reload forum at BioWare never needed a hard and fast rule, I don't know why we need one here. I would just recommend posters be mindful of how their posts affect others, and act accordingly.
Previous updates:
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In the land of the lakes patience was key
While waiting for gnolls to wear down their victim
They failed to break any weapons this time
So Drizzt stayed awake if not in his prime
But as arrows rained in his outlook was grim
Some donations and quests restored reputation
Before resting in Nashkel to learn how to heal
Bassilus died and gave up his hammer
Korax was charmed by its extra glamor
And clawed through the basilisks in a manner ideal
More questing pushed rep up to the max
And cut prices down to bite-size
Running away dodged an ambushing basilisk
Though going invisible would have avoided the risk
And would certainly have been far more wise
Side note: I once had a party where a party member was petrified and we were forced to leave the map as we had no way to un-petrify them - later I got green StF scrolls, and randomly came across the same map and unpetrified them and got them back! That was quite a surprise, didn't know that could happen...
I do have a very fast internet on my phone, or I use a very fast wifi. But the pictures still disrupts the site. The site refreshed twice on my phone today, when on the previous page in this thread - one of the time erasing a post I had used half an hour writing (a non posted update on my halfling barbarian).
I will accept the vote of the majority, but hope its pro spoiler tags. Otherwise happy gaming and good luck to you all.
There are a limited number of ambush map areas. There are often more than one that can be used for each journey, but if you keep repeating the same journey it doesn't take long to find a statue again - like you I first discovered that by being surprised to find a statue out in the middle of the wilderness on a later journey
-The Warlock kit's abilities can be found here.
-Warlocks can't learn spells from scrolls and they can't use mage scrolls either (not until BG2 anyway).
-The XP is added because of the Basilisk Loop trick pioneered by @semiticgod. Each Stone to Flesh scroll is effectively worth 7000 XP when performing it, and there are a ton of Stone to Flesh scrolls in the game. There are 63 just in the city of Baldur's Gate alone.
-The Warlock kit has three custom items, available for view on the first point, and I wouldn't consider any of them game-breaking.
I play with the XP cap off just because I don't like having excess XP I've earned do nothing for me. It makes me want to skip everything once I've capped out. But I agree that I rely on the Basilisk Loop too much to carry me and to make absolutely sure I survive SoD's final boss. I won't perform it next run.
Spaz III the Warlock!
BG1: 0.5, 1, 2, 3I'm back inside the dwarven digsite, where I died in my first warlock no-reload attempt many months ago. Determined not to die in the same place twice, I only use party-friendly blasts, skellies, and two scrolls of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes. I am content to let the dwarves fight the undead while I stand back and spam blasts.
From the southern passage's critters, I level up. I learn my 1st Dark invocation, Binding Blast. Binding Blast's -4 save penalty actually scales further for every 2 points of CHA past 17 of the invoker. I also trade Tenacious Plague for Noxious Blast, which actually needs a save vs. spell at -2 and scales further for every 2 points of CHA beyond 17 as well.
Coldhearth is killed and his phylactery destroyed soon after thanks to The Secret Revealed.
I hold my own on the Coast Way bridge, but I'm beginning to feel a little outclassed at this point. My blast damage is okay-ish and it bypasses spell protections completely, and I've got a few unlimited use tricks, but that's about all I have going for me. It's kind of painful to be using the same few things over and over to win.
I skip the Troll Claw Woods using Walk Unseen and I'm looking for a fast and easy XP source since I'm close to leveling up again. I enter the goblin cave and put them to the torch with the Wand of Fire.
I'm going to skip the Temple of Cyric entirely since it's not worth the trouble, so I just use Flee the Scene to teleport into Bridgefort without needing the wardstone.
Well, that's cool and all, but I don't feel like doing the siege of Bridgefort either.
Now in the Coalition Camp (AKA sidequest hell), I take the barrel of bwoosh and the poison, then save Skie again at Dragonspear Castle and do a couple of sidequests there too, just because.
Next is the underground river. I skip most of the sidequests here too. They're just a waste of time. I get rid of the necromancer cabal with Halatathlaer's help and level up again.
My 2nd Dark invocation is Dark Foresight. Very helpful when caught by surprise, though my AC is already at late-ToB levels.
Inside Dragonspear's basement, I poison the food and water and decide to take everyone on from behind the fence again. It's decidedly less awesome than when I did it with Nukesalot and it takes far longer.
I return to the Coalition Camp and go to the parley, so now it's time for the siege on the camp. Trolls are up first. I counter the ogre mages' Haste with Devour Magic and follow up with Noxious Doom, which makes all of them easy prey for the fire archers.
During the mage fight, I get silenced, but it doesn't last too long.
I forgot to screenshot the priest/paladin fight, but they got owned by warmages because of my Devour Magic and Noxious Doom. The fight with the named goons pretty much goes the same way.
During the siege of Dragonspear, I use an Oil of Speed and infiltrate to the back lines, then cast Devour Magic, stripping everyone of their buffs. I'm pelted with a ton of nat20 arrows and magic missiles, so I fall back to the front lines for a bit. We aren't gaining ground though, so it's time to use the scorcher charge on the Wand of Fire powered up by my hellfire sword.
That tears right through them. Ashatiel then challenges me to 1v1, but I easily win that fight. Her Sanctuary did her no good against See the Unseen.
I have to deal with a bunch of stragglers up north, so I kite them into our main force and devour their magic. The siege is won. Upon entering Avernus, I level up yet again to 21.
Must be because I'm at the source of my power or something. I summon a few skellies and kill off the devils one at a time with Vitriolic Blast. Acid has always been my favorite element ever since I discovered that Mephistopheles from HotU takes full damage from it when he's highly resistant to every other element.
Now faced with Belhifet, I accidentally find out that certain dialogue options can lead to a 3rd way that the fight can start that I've never seen before: he incinerates Caelar with a flame strike, killing her instantly. That's... something. I was actually kind of depending on Caelar's help. Damn.
After Big B's opening Remove Magic strips my potion buffs, I apply an Oil of Speed. This is utterly essential if I want to survive the sea of teleporting devils. Elsewise this will happen.
Luckily, I can extricate myself with Flee the Scene, and my illusory clone will take the heat off me for the round.
The problem is that I can only hit Belhifet with Vitriolic Blast while I have See the Unseen active, which only lasts 5 rounds. Its casting time is only 2, reduced to 1 with my gauntlets, but even that can be risky. Big B keeps gating in more devils and the Erinyes' nat20 arrows keep piling up. I'm halfway there, but I need to end this forthwith if I don't want to drown in devilkind...
Soon I discover a slight rhythm to movement. Instead of moving big distances all at once, really fast, I figure out that the devils will usually teleport to you if they can see you. So I try moving a little bit at a time and waiting for a second as they begin to gather around me via teleport before moving once more.
The devils just keep coming. My heart is pounding. I get trapped once but free myself. I could easily tank with my -20 AC but I would rather not take any hits at all than risk being trapped for another round due to spell disruption. Just a little more...
Checkmate! Belhifet finally falls and I gain level 23!
Phew. I'll save leveling up to 23 for BG2, because I think that's when I get HLAs. Or maybe its 24. I forget.
Siege of Dragonspear Complete!
Spaz III - Warlock 22(+)
Itis - the helmet fetishist
PreviouslyPs. Have changed her name to Itis al’Lessia
After identifying the loot from CK and using the tomes, Isit headed to back to Durlags. Time to get two helmets and a goblet.
The vanguard, the roof top basilisk and the warders all hit Itis quite hard.
In the end I got Durlags goblet and Kiels helmet and skipped Durlags for now.
Time to get some scimitars. Buffed intensely
And got of to a good start
But then I started not hitting - a lot
But sipping from the goblet 3 times secured Isit the time to crit Drizzt to death. Really hate the guy. Back to the tower
Most was skipped invisible and with protection from the elements.
The chessboard was treated to 5 neklace blast - isolating the king.
The final level drained my potions and got me hooked on sipping from the goblet. The greater ghouls and crawlers hits like trucks - and often. But with the ring of free action its just hack n’ slash (just the way I like it).
The demon knight dispelled my buffs twice - so it was just rage, using the greenstone amulet and the goblet, that carried Itis through. The prize: a nifty helmet
Headed to a temple to repair my rep, don a helmet, equip a scimitar and then unequip the helmet with a remove curse spell. But on the way I ran into an ambush..
In the city Isit got the invitations and invited the bar crew (Ichtyl and Bellamy) and the cleric of helm.
The cleric of helm spread out two entangles. Ichtyl opened with making Liia invisible, greater malison and chaos. The dopplegangers started out by taking out belt within a round. Leaving me with just Liia....
Liia broke invisibility and magic missiled the confused dopplegangers in tandem with Ichtyl. The flaming fist, the bar crew and Itis mopped up the opposition and faced Sarevok - who fled the scene.
In Beregost I dumped a dagger in a Barrel. It won’t come back to haunt me...
The maze and undercity was skipped courtesy of the sandthief ring, running and dodging fights.
Sarevok was drawn from the dais with a blast from the necklace of missiles. Then treated to an arrow of dispelling (never realised how powerfull they are until then). He fell shortly after to a fully buffed Itis - no Durlag goblet needed
So its of to SoD. We shall see how Itis fares on uncommon ground..
Previous updates:
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018272/#Comment_1018272
More sirines lost out to an amulet charge
And some golems provided a last level
Then it was off for a trip to the Nashkel Mine
Where Mulahey flinched and tried to resign
But was crushed as I started to revel
With all desired goods already in hand
Reputation once more took a dive
The next Bhaal power was LMD
And soon after that horror was free
At least to those still alive
The Cloakwood was skipped on the way to the mine
Where Drasus was pulled back and shocked
Down in the depths a mage awaited
But he found himself checkmated
When his favorite spells were all blocked
For pictures I like a mix of it all. Links to other websites is not very handy because I have to force open in a new tab, otherwise the page needs to be reloaded. In-line pictures behind spoiler tags are nice but if small pics or low pic size they can still be outside of tags. Definitely low file size is appreciated. For pics under spoiler tags I like it if people group them by encounter and the description of the encounter is above the spoiler tags... Unless The encounter is really too long.
I'm sure there is no optimum for pics so whichever all y'all prefer.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018013/#Comment_1018013
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018272/#Comment_1018272
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018378/#Comment_1018378
Quests in the City pushed rep right back up
And a glorious helm gave charisma
With all goods in hand I ignored their aid
And used the stairs to conduct a raid
To discover the Iron Throne dogma
My journey lay next to my childhood home
Where tombs were robbed of their treasure
Prat and his gang were lying in wait
But their status was soon changed to late
And I gathered their goods in with pleasure
A trip to the Tower got the last tome
And Slythe handed over some papers
The doppleganger horde didn't last long
And Sarevok proved to be not so strong
To end this stage of my capers
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018013/#Comment_1018013
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018272/#Comment_1018272
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018378/#Comment_1018378
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018405/#Comment_1018405
In the SoD prologue I took a quick level up
And skipped through to give Korlasz some magic
NPCs were stripped of worthwhile equipment
Then on reaching SoD proper I immediately went
To rescue a vampire from a fate most tragic
With gold and XP in plentiful supply
I moved straight to the temple of Cyric
Some bugbears provided a final SoD boost
Before Akanna's misdeeds came home to roost
When she left it too late to panic
Boareskyr Bridge got me nice goods
Including bullets and dragon's shield
The fort was surrendered to save some time
And this run I omitted the crime
Of using fire to make the bridge mage yield
Last BG1EE update found here
SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Alright, let's finish Chapter 9 and proceed with the plot.
The party returns to bring the Crusaders the good news of Keherrem's rescue, and is thus allowed into the latters camp. We talk to Kharm for 250 GP, pick up a Dusty Chicken, and save Dorn (there was no option to return his gear to him, and we're not taking an evildoer into the party just to equip him.. so we'll sell the gear). That over with, we use the wardstone we've aquired to teleport into Bridgefort.
We do the little tasks here first: Pay 1500 gold to get the Boots of Speed fixed, and do the whole Wynan questchain (I remembered to protect all spellcasters from Level Drain before talking to him, but I needn't have bothered, as apparently the restoration you get at the end of the quest restores the spells you lost as well). While here, we of course avail ourselves of Jegg the Blacksmith's services, and craft 80x Void-tipped Arrows +3 (for later use by Corwin), Green Dragon Scale Shield (for Khalid once we get him), and Rhino Beetle Plate (for Glint, making him much more tanky).
We also head outside and talk to the timid elf for 6000 experience; it wasn't night-time when we did so, so no nightmarish creature spawned.
This may have been overkill, but... we invest in 15x Potions of Genius from the alchemist Thirrim.
I know, I know, but this way we can indulge in scribing as soon as we have a few good scrolls (and there are many good level 5 arcane scrolls available in SoD).
Finally, we do the Junia questchain, which goes fine as we remembered to memorize a few Negative Plane Protection beforehand: It's a couple easy fights against Wights, basically.
We talk to Khalid and advocate for lifting the siege by doing battle with the Crusaders with Flaming Fist support. So, we trek back to camp, arrange for such support, get a good night's rest in (setting up 2x Horror and 2x Glitterdust Minor Sequencers), then trek back to Bridgefort. Alright, time for some real action...
As always in any battle, the main concern must be enemy casters, where arcane casters are far more dangerous than divine ones. We must also remember to save some spells for dealing with the enemy Mage on the bridge, as unless you kill him (her? Can't rightly remember) quick enough, the game ends.
Our divine slots are mostly filled with buffs, but we also bring a few Remove Paralysis/Zone of Sweet Air (I can't recall exactly what the enemy casters will do), as well as Mental Domination/Hold Person/Silence 15' Radius/Doom and even a couple Command.
Arcane-wise, Dynaheir goes anti-mage (Breach, Oracle, Secret Word, Spell Thrust, Detect Invisibility), while Hubblepot goes for mass disablers (Chaos, Greater Malison, Slow). Both of course cast MMM before resting and have another casting prepared, to help with taking down enemy mages rapidly once we clear their defenses.
And that's it.. we're as ready as we'll ever be, and will just have to adapt on the fly if something unexpected happens. Cry havoc, I suppose. We speak to Khalid and initiate the battle.
I won't do a scene-by-scene recounting of the battle, but suffice to say, despite severely non-optimal tactics and spell setup, we triumphed. The Crusader spellcasters did a surprisingly good job countering our crowd control (Haste to counter Slow, Remove Fear to counter Horror etc), but in the end, their Mages didn't really seem to do much offense-wise. I was expecting oodles of Chaos, Confusion, Fireball, Lightning Bolt and the like, but Oloneiros spent most of the fight casting Breach on Minsc (I've no idea why...) and dropping Greater Malison on us.
Apart from Minsc getting Held by a Crusader Cleric and subsequently freed by Remove Paralysis courtesy of Glint, the only status effect we came under the effect of was Slow. Occasionally I had to pull Minsc and Khalid back behind the Bridgefort Defenders when they got focused by too many Crusaders at once, but they were never in any real danger of dying.
Some shots of the action:
So after spending the battle doing not much at all, Oloneiros' defensive illusions finally drop, and we can focus the Mage down:
The nameless Crusader Mage is targetted next, and drops very quickly due to apparently not having defensive illusions up (or he had them at the start of the battle, but they just wore off in time):
Finally, Hormorn falls. Again, he just wasn't that dangerous: He spent the entire battle removing status effects and healing Crusaders. Annoying, certainly, but nothing that really threatened the party.
We apply a Haste we'd been saving and rush west to the bridge. Here, an Oracle by Dynaheir ensures we can kill the Crusader Mage in record time, preventing us losing the game.
Well, that went smoothly. Or not, but we got through it. A few lessons learned:
- None of the enemy Mages used Stinking Cloud or Cloudkill, so Zone of Sweet Air was not necessary. Remove Paralysis was quite good, as the enemy Clerics were fond of Hold Person.
- Detect Invisibility/Invisibility Purge was useless due to enemy Mages having MGoI up (which I don't recall being a problem in BG1EE... but I may be misremembering). Dynaheir spent two of her three L5 slots on Breach. She should've just gone for three Oracle instead. Since we couldn't dispel the Improved Invisibility of Oloneiros and Hormorn, we couldn't remove their MGoI (meaning Secret Word/Spell Thrust were wasted memorizations as well), and so couldn't pelt them to death with MMM as I intended.
- You actually get to decide yourself when to start the fight after speaking to Khalid (by clicking the drawbridge). I should've probably started by summoning the standard wall of Skeleton Warriors and buffing profusely, to get the initial edge, before lowering the drawbridge. The two Skeleton Warriors I had time to summon during the battle did surprisingly well at holding off the Crusader melee mooks.
- Several Remove Magic on Hubblepot/Dynaheir would've probably been helpful, in that we could've countered the Crusader spellcasters buffing their own troops (dispelling Remove Fear and re-applying Horror might've helped).
- A double Fireball to start things off is probably a good idea. I didn't want to kill any of the Bridgefort defenders by accident, but careful targetting would've avoided that.
Still, we did it! We gather up all the loot and have our little vision while crossing the bridge.The Dusty Chicken is dropped into the well, along with a Battle Axe. The curmudgeonly Water Elemental thus summoned only yielded a Long Sword +1, but still. Off to Chapter 10!
So, the Coalition Camp. Seems a bit oddly timed, what with you being the big hero, yet still doing FedEx quests.. but alright. We clear out the quests, but as Corwin is our most charismatic member (and, much as she's just terrific, she ain't that charismatic) we miss out on the +2 THAC0 amulet as no one wants to speak to us about why they joined the crusade. Likewise, we miss out on the Thieves' Guild assisting us against the Crusade, which stings.
That out of the way, on to glory! We'll clear Dead Man's Pass and Bloodbark Grove, then try and sweet-talk our way into the courtyard of Dragonspear Keep to do the quests there, and finally proceed with the main plot via the underground river.
En route to Dead Man's Pass, the Shadowy Figure ambushes us, makes a nuisance of himself (forcing us to squander a few of the good healing potions), and ultimately, buggers off. He made his save against Wand of Paralyzation twice, so no loot for us. Pfeh.
So, Dead Man's Pass. I'll just give a quick recap: A group of Orogs got 2x Web, two Ettins and their pet Dire Wolves got 2x Stinking Cloud, Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds got a few Fireballs, a second group of Orogs was just beaten into submission after a few buffs, and a large group of Hill Giants were handled via a wall of Skeleton Warriors to soak up the hits.
Things got more interesting once we went into the Killer Mimic Cave. There is a, to put it mildly, large group of Spiders barring the way to the treasure:
As the timer for Free Action is already ticking down on Minsc and Khalid, we use our last dual Fireball to cleanse the monstrosities, after which Minsc and Khalid approach the disguised Mimic!
As they are both properly protected with Free Action, even with substantial backup (Ochre Jelly 4x, Neo-Otyugh 1x, Phase Spider 2x, Astral Phase Spider 1x),there is little the creature can do but perish.
Note that Dynaheir is Held, and that a Phase Spider is teleporting after her... the Killer Mimic did its usual Hold power at the start of combat. Dynaheir failed her save, but I figured her safe since she was at the other end of the cave. Not so. A Phase Spider teleported after her, my response to which was a weary sigh as I made mental preparations for gathering all her items up, returning to camp and once again shelling out for a scroll of Raise Dead. Imagine my surprise when the Phase Spider, immediately upon teleporting to Dynaheir, teleported to Odrelomp without even attacking once inbetween! A pleasant surprise, I might add, since we escaped without casualties. Hooray!
We're still not done with all the random trash mobs. Another gaggle of Hill Giants are tanked by our surviving three Skeleton Warriors. A pack of Displacer Beasts are treated to a Cloudkill (they do not automatically die, but have to save to avoid doing so, and almost all of them fail their save).
We make our way up a winding path only to bumble into some Spiders, one of which chucks a Web Tangle at Khalid! With lightning reflexes and intellect beyond the ken of mere mortals, Odrelomp instinctually calculates the necessary trajectory for throwing a Potion of Invisibility (uncorked) so that Khalid can catch just enough of it to go invisible, mere moments before the Web Tangle hits him. Hooray! Still no casualties!
At the top of the hill, there's a large group of Hobgoblins. I truly dislike these groups.. worth almost no experience, yet the damnable Hobgoblin Captain will use an Oil of Fiery Burning first thing, and with all the magical ammunition, the Archers can actually deal a bit of damage.
We fight fire with fire. Literally, as the Hobgoblins are treated to 3x Potions of Explosion and 1x Oil of Fiery Burning.
Overkill, yes, but worth every penny.
All that remains is the little Undead hidey-hole to the east of the area. I always just assume that whenever we fight Undead, there will be both Level Drain and Hold. That way, at worst I overprepare.
Turns out this time I was right, as on Insane, the two Greater Shadows and four Shadows are joined by two (initially invisible) Wraiths. And that is it for Dead Man's Pass.
Alright, we have time for another small area I reckon. Off to Bloodbark Grove!
As in Dead Man's Pass, there are a few trash encounters, but they're handled without much ado (double Web or double Fireball). The Vampire in the cellar is much more interesting.
On Insane he gets a suitable entourage: I didn't count exactly, but something along the lines of 4x Vampiric Wolves, 4x Dread Wolves (the kind that you need fire or acid to permanently kill off), and for some reason 3x bog-standard Wolves. The Vampire himself is only Fledgling, though he still manages to Dominate Glint. You should've probably picked a better target, Vampire... Improved Invisible Khalid does a fine job holding off the entire mob of Wolves as the rest of the party engages from a distance.
And that's about it for this area. We summon some Skeleton Warriors to clear the large group of Burning Skeletons and their attendant Skeleton Mage (they are joined by 4x Bonebats on Insane), and I actually remembered to have Dynaheir memorize 2x Protection from Petrification, so we take out the Greater Basilisk last thing for its claw. Hooray, another area cleared without incident!
A good day's work done, the party retires to the Coalition Camp. We are making excellent progress, and little wonder: This is a supremely powerful group. We've got melee/ranged muscle (Khalid, Minsc, Corwin), arcane accoutrements (Dynaheir, Hubblepot), and just enough Clerical wherewithal to get us through any sticky status effects (Glint, Hubblepot again). With careful planning, we should not experience any real trouble until the very end of SoD.
But such planning can wait. Hubblepot can currently be found outside his tent, discussing the merits of Gnomes (They are the best! Huzzah!) with Glint while enjoying a small cup of Turnip Juice. He sneaked a bit of a taster before handing said Turnip Juice over to Neera. Don't judge!
He remains a level 8/9 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, but we are gathering experience rapidly... methinks it shan't be long before a rather significant boost in power.
Spaz III the Warlock!
BG1: 0.5, 1, 2, 3SoD: 1
-Ascension
-Tweaks Anthology
-Rogue Rebalancing
-More Style For Mages
-aTweaks
-Item Upgrade
-Enchant the Missile Launchers
-Skip Chateau Irenicus
-Golem Construction
After waking up in Chateau Irenicus, I take my 23rd level and learn Utterdark Blast. This one's save penalty starts at -4 and increases by 1 for every 2 points past 17 CHA, up to a massive -8 at 25 CHA. Level drain is very nasty as it not only decreases saves, but also disables any save boosts provided by items or spells.
I skip Chateau Irenicus thanks to this kind rogue. Going through this intro dungeon every really grates on the nerves after 15 years.
Once outside, I search the rubble for everything that was inside the dungeon. I learn to create Flesh golems.
My pickpocket skill is extremely high, so I go shoplifting and take whatever I need. Time for the circus. Aerie's feeling pretty comfortable in ogre form.
I go to Gaelan's house and steal Arledrian's Silverblaze dagger. I test whether my invocations will bring down the Cowled Wizards on me. They do.
Amalas challenges me to a pit fight. He is handily beaten, earning me a level and my first HLA.
Freeing Hendak leads me to an awful discovery.
I think my skellybros have been changed by aTweaks. Enemies apparently do not react to them at all for some reason, and they absolutely will not forgive friendly fire. I'll have to get rid of them next level. Hendak is freed and I get to work eliminating the rest of the slaver scum. Apparently, trolls are also weak to level drain.
On my way out from the slaver's compound, I forget that I still have See the Unseen active, which calls down the Cowled Wizards. Dammit.
I run inside the Copper Coronet. They can't really do much against me because of my excellent saves, good luck, and elemental resistances. But I can't do too much to them either. I can use Devour Magic on them, but they respond with more contingencies or use SI:Abjuration. And I find out that my direct-targeted invocations don't actually bypass spell protections at all, and can rebound on me if they have Spell Turning up. That's okay, since I can take what I dish out thanks to DOOL's Luck bonus. Their favorite tactic to shut me down is Power Word, Silence.
Back outside the Coronet, I try to get rid of the last Cowled Bastards but that just calls down more of them. In addition, I completely misaim an Utterdark Doom, maiming my reputation. Wonderful.
I run back inside and try to fight them.
I go back outside yet again to shake them off. Once my silence wears off, I scout them out with Walk Unseen, but decide to just get out of there. If I keep antagonizing them when I'm this weak, I won't survive when they send their best after me.
I decide to go to the Umar Hills to get Valygar's body so I can open the Planar Sphere and start making loyal golem helpers. I level up after dealing with Madulf and Minister Lloyd. I trade The Dead Walk for Charm. Charm also has a scaling save penalty and works more like Domination in practice, since its not limited to one creature type.
I test out Charm. I'm not usually a fan of charm spells, but it's not like there's any other Lesser invocation worth using right now.
Valygar is normally my bro, but this is a solo playthrough, so I kill him to use his body to open the Sphere. I sell off some excess items and pay Ribald enough money to buy back my Hellfire Sword. I return to the slums and go plane hopping. The halflings are putting up quite the fight, so I summon Air Elementals with a scroll. I get lucky: an Elder Air Elemental comes to help the normal Air Elemental.
They're eventually taken care of. I learn to build Clay Golems and I level up from the next fight.
The purple Eldritch HLAs and the Hellfire HLAs are mutually exclusive. Unresistable fire damage sounds cool, especially how the die size is increased to d10, but it doesn't bypass magic resistance (which I can't lower using invocations), so I'm taking the non-evil Eldritch Paragon route. Eldritch Focus is 1x/day. Next up is Lavok. This brings back memories of Krieg since I basically tank his entire spell arsenal since Devour Magic won't work thanks to SI:Abjuration.
Tolgerias and his pet are next. Taking what I learned from the fights with the Cowled Wizards and Lavok, I spam Eldritch Dooms at Tolgerias. He silences me, but I respond with mage scrolls. Death Fog finishes him off.
Outside in one of the lairs of the Abyss, I level up again by dissolving a Fire Salamander.
I'm hoping Call Fiend is good, but I use it against the resident Glabrezu and my summoned Nabassu gets butchered. I can't really do anything to the glabrezu either because it just spams Mirror Image (which my blasts conveniently do not ignore). I give Utterdark Blast a try and it disintegrates the glabrezu. Cool!
With demon hearts in hand, I power the sphere back up and return to the Prime Material. Now the sphere serves as my golem building workshop, but I need more parts to build them.
I take on the Pebblecrusher party. This time I summon a Glabrezu, but even they can tear through it. I level drain and stun Mencar, while Smaeluv finishes him off while berserk.
I steal a Limited Wish scroll and start the gong quest, then visit Jerlia the Ore Merchant to buy golem building materials, and build Perfect Clay Golem MK I.
Spaz III - Warlock 27
1. The druid doesn't get certain spells from vanilla, like Death Ward, Armor of Faith, Nature's Beauty, Summon Fire Elemental, and Summon Deva.
2. The druid gets some spells that druids normally couldn't get, like Sanctuary, Cone of Cold, Spike Growth, and Foresight.
3. Some spells, like Call Woodland Beings, belong to different spell levels.
4. The druid gains the ability to use bows, but loses the ability to use scimitars.
Anyway, the deal is that this druid is more offensive-oriented than a normal one, which is actually pretty important in ToB. Here's Poppy the Druid/Mage killing Abazigal with a flurry of druid spells under Improved Alacrity.
I probably won't be posting on the gameplay in as great detail as I normally would, as I'm feeling kind of burned out. Even after my lengthy hiatus from the IE games (I don't know how many months it was), I still feel weary, and I've actually considered intentionally killing Poppy to officially end my no-reload "career."
I think the no-reload thing is making it harder to enjoy certain games, and I've toyed with the idea of swearing off of them, but it's a hard habit to break. I've thought about doing a ritual killing of each of my characters just to prevent myself from getting a true no-reload run so I stop worrying about it, but I'm still left with the same problem: I want to be able to beat the game without intentionally dying once, which means the midgame is rushed and the endgame is tense because I want to secure the win and get it over with.
Adding a Druid/Mage to the Hall of Heroes sounds nice, but I'm wondering if this is my chance to break the no-reload habit. I've caught myself thinking about an all-Archer run or a restless run, and I'm concerned that I'm going to get caught in the same "trophy-seeking" loop where I try out a difficult run and then can't stop until I finish it, even if it stops being fun.
What do you guys think?
Do whatever you think is fun. If a run is no longer interesting to you, just delete the save to make sure the temptation to finish it doesn't bite you and subsequently drain what little remains of your desire to play BG.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018013/#Comment_1018013
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018272/#Comment_1018272
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018378/#Comment_1018378
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018405/#Comment_1018405
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018469/#Comment_1018469
There was shopping with the genie at the Camp
Before saving Skie at Dragonspear
Next was Underground to place a barrel
And sprinkle poison to be extra cruel
Before running away with a sneer
The Camp invasions met exploding arrows
To leave the first 3 groups needing rehab
With no defending immortals the final force
Required digging deeper into my resource
Before Grimgor was pierced by backstab
At the Castle Ashatiel fought and died
Before I ploughed through devils in hell
Caelar was restored to bring down Belhifet
And there were no mistakes to bring regret
As another game obstacle fell
Spaz III the Warlock!
BG1: 0.5, 1, 2, 3SoD: 1
BG2: 1
Eldritch Paragon combined with Dark One's Own Luck drops my saving throws to rock-bottom and I can brush off Horrid Wiltings like they're nothing. I have Kitthix's figurine and the ingredients needed to upgrade it, so I head to Cromwell's. But he makes an interesting proposition first.
Wow! Now this is blade fitting for a high-powered Warlock! Gotta be careful though, that listed -4 CON really is -4 CON and not -2, so my HP is reduced by 20 while wielding it. I go to the Temple District for Mae'Var, but its daytime and the Temple of Lathander is being guarded, so I'll go down into the sewers until it's nighttime. The sewer party is disposed of, thanks to a Friends scroll boosting my CHA to max so Utterdark Chain causes level drain on a save vs. spell at -8!
I level up again from them.
With Beguiling Influence, I don't need to rely on Friends scrolls or any CHA-boosting items like the Nymph Cloak anymore. My CHA will be maxed out, so any Eldritch Essences that require a save will inflict their maximum save penalties. At Merkrath's I learn to make Maggot Golems and further in to the sewers, I have Perfect Clay kill the beholders for me. Another level obtained.
This time I learn Brimstone Blast. Extra fire damage over time sounds more useful to me than the -4 DEX from Hellrime Blast. Next we enter the undead village. A lich and his mummies don't take too kindly to our type 'round here. The lich is surprisingly conservative with its spells.
I think that I've killed the lich, but it was just one of his Simulacra. Perfect Clay gets beaten up by Aerial Servants summoned by the Greater Mummies and splits in half.
The lich backs off for some reason, content to let his mummies and skellies fight us instead. I clean them up and Devour the lich's magic, finishing him off with melee.
More Beholder tanking thanks to Perfect Clay's offspring earns me Bewitching Blast.
The Unseeing Eye is killed and so are the cultists, earning yet another level. From here on, I'm not going to document any more level ups because I've obtained all the unique abilities already. The only things I can take now are Call Fiend, Scribe Scroll, and Alchemy.
Now that it's daytime, I steal the statuette of Lathander, but I get caught. I Walk Unseen and I book it for the Docks. While I'm there, I use the spoils from the Unseeing Eye's dungeon to get Linvale's help and the Amulet of Power with it.
The clay golem dies in Rayic Gethras' home, punched to death by Stone Golems. The previous floor was a pretty close call because I was stunned for an extended period because of those annoying mephits' abilities. Clay Golem thinned their numbers and I broke free. o7
Mae'var is assassinated and I build Perfect Flesh MK I.
I take on the Guarded Compound and tell Perfect Flesh to wait downstairs this time. I manage to tag Sion with an Utterdark Blast before he teleports upstairs, but he resists the level drain. I was going to use Walk Unseen and use a Mislead scroll to fight them all, but a trap dispelled my invisibility. Koshi was immediately put down by a Binding Hideous Blow -> Brimstone Blast combo. Luckily, Sion was weakened by my blast from earlier, so it only took a couple more blasts to finish him. The rest were pieces of cake.
I sell their loot and have Cromwell upgrade Celestial Fury to +5, create the Citadel Helmet, and then take on the Shade Lich that I left alone earlier. I know he sends out a Fallen Planetar, but I try using a PfU scroll on him to prevent it. While this disables his spellcasting, he decides to gate the planetar in anyway.
I power up using Eldritch Focus and deal a large amount of damage to the planetar, but it recovers with its 3x use, instant-casting Heal spell. It manages to hit me and dispel my Oil of Speed, AND hit me with Insect Plague, so I decide to just leave the sewer and wait for it to be unsummoned. But I must gather my party before venturing forth. Stupid golems... I summon Improved Kitthix and ditch the planetar, closing the door behind me.
I can tank a planetar just fine, it seems, but I just can't deal enough damage to it when I've only got 1 spellcasting action per round. With the shade lich still struck stupid, I finish it off. The planetar leaves shortly afterward.
Spaz III - Warlock 35
I failed to two mutated spiders that I suspect to regenerate over 1hp/sec and have around 150hp, are immune to all magic damage, element damage, poison, acid, piercing and missile damage types and have more than 50% resistance to slashing and crushing damage.
I even tried to reload a few times but I had absolutely no chance to get them past badly injured with all the resources I have available. To pass it safely i need to postpone this until much later or change the party composition. This is the graveyard towards the lower crypts though, so optional, but since I had korgan I needed to do it for his quest (that I already delayed a lot) and I failed miserably.
I never had problems before so I'll also ask critto if this spider is new or I am just misremembering it. Maybe my party composition has always been better in the past using custom npcs, who knows...
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
My experience with both non-reloading and playing SCS in SoA is very limited (non-existent for ToB) and therefore I didn't have high hopes of getting too far. Unfortunately, our road had came to an end before I was able to post any progress.
The failure is a tough one to swallow. We had been on a hunt for Pale Green Ioun Stone with Viccy when suddenly:
Apparently, the spider form via Polymorph: Self is not immune to the targeted Web of Giant Spiders. Stranger still, I've noticed that running Arbane in off-hand prior to morphing results in getting both Haste (spider form) and Free Action (Arbane), which seems rather buggy and I kept removing off-hand items when shifting. Nevertheless, with no II/Spirit Armor Gisli's saves were above the negative safe zone. His MIs were taken away in no time. You may also note that Viccy was locked in Champion's Strength.
Here comes the final window of opportunity. Gisli's Polymorph runs out and I click the invisibility potion.
Nope.
Anyway, I'll use the opportunity to familiarize myself with the game and eventually complete it with reloads. I also don't know what to expect from the Enhanced Edition content and so the learning curve should be rather steep.
I'm also inclined to start a Polymorph: Self thread for sharing experience with the spell's behaviour in the current version of the game.
Regards,
B.