Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, SoD Update 8 Last BG1EE update found here SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 First SoA update found here
This is actually the first time I've gotten this far in SoD. I'm relying on a walkthrough, so it's only a semi-blind playthrough, but still. And if I'm slightly nervous, you can imagine how Hubblepot feels! But there's no two ways about it: Them Devils need a sound kicking. We charge after Caelar, and are treated to her being betrayed by Hephernaan. Into Avernus!
Illaruel is just a tougher Erinyes, and falls in no time flat. I found all of the Devils surprisingly weak: The Cornugons are slightly annoying with their Absorb Health, and you should avoid attacking Hamatulas in melee due to their Barbed Defense, but Abishais of all sorts, Imps, Erinyes, Hellcats and Bone Fiends can't really put up much of a fight, as long as you're prepared for their status effects: Horror/Aura of Fear (counter with Commander's Chain Mail +3 or just a few Remove Fear) Hold Person (counter with Free Action) Command/Charm Person/Dire Charm (counter with Potion of Clarity or just boost saves)
In addition, Erinyes, Hellcats and Imps periodically go invisible. I had a few True Sight available, but you can just wait for them to reveal themselves. Thusly prepared, we battle through the relatively few encounters here. Skeleton Warriors are of course immune to all these status effects, and so are a good pick for summons (when are they ever not?).
Having slain the Devils he summons, we successfully answer Thrix's riddle, and opt for Longsword +3: Tongue of Acid as our reward, which of course goes to Khalid. Our three main fighter-types now have +3 weapons available, freeing us from relying on Enchanted Weapon.
So, you can rest uninterrupted inside the Basalt Tower before activating the lift. We take advantage of this. Almost all of our protections when fighting Belhifet will come from scrolls and potions, so we spend our slots mostly on offense and personal buffs: Lower Resistance, Breach (turned out to be pointless), Oracle, True Sight, Defensive Harmony, a few Mental Domination if someone somehow falls prey to a Dire Charm, Animate Dead (also turned out to be pointless), Lightning Bolt en masse (as Belhifet has 0% Lightning Resistance), some Webs and Magic Missiles.
Now, I was unaware exactly how things would work here. Once you start the elevator, you get a few waves of Devils spawning on you (quite easy to defeat, there aren't that many of them in each wave), but eventually the lift reaches the top, and you do not get to prepare for combat before going up against Belhifet. The time to apply very long-lasting buffs is before getting on the lift (PfE 10', scrolls of Protection from Fire, Chaotic Commands etc). Potions that last 1 to 2 hours should probably be done while ascending the lift, since you by my reckoning have about 10ish rounds before reaching the top.
So, all this meant we arrived with almost no buffs active. We of course bid Caelar join us.
Still, I didn't want to lose what few buffs we had up. Hubblepot quickly applied SI: Abjuration, while everyone else quaffed a Potion of Fire Resistance. The trick where you move one party member near Belhifet to absorb the initial Dispel Magic apparently still works: Hubblepot is immune to the dispel, and everyone else is outside the area of effect, and so keep their few buffs.
Belhifet and Hephernaan both go after Caelar. I'm not sure what's the best option here, but given that there are about 8-10 Devils on the battlefield, I opt to clean up a bit before hitting Big B. While doing so, everyone is busily applying potions and scrolls: I want everyone to have Potion of Clarity up, as well as 100%+ Fire Resistance. Fear immunity comes from Glint having Commander's Chain Mail +3 equipped. Glint also pops True Sight to dispel Belhifets Improved Invisibility, and thereafter (with Battle Tankard equipped) assists Caelar by popping Greater Restoration on her from scrolls, while everyone else just straight out kills the summoned Devils. There are a fair few of them to cut through, but we do so in good time, and Hephernaan bites the dust as well. Caelar is still going strong, mostly due to Glint's continuous application of Greater Restoration (these scrolls were very well worth it).
You'll note Hubblepot and Dynaheir are working on bringing down Belhifet's Magic Resistance in the last picture. You'll need 4x Lower Resistance to be certain that spells will stick on him, but since he occasionally teleports away (breaking any targetted casts in progress) it's probably best to have at least 5x, preferably 6x such spells prepared (you won't need 5th level arcane slots for much else here). Also, Glint gives summoning some Skeleton Warriors a shot. This only seems to trigger Belhifet into using his Firestorm-like ability: The poor Skeletons instantly take huge damage. Even if they didn't Belhifet kills them very quickly in melee, so they're not really much use here.
Belhifet also occasionally gates in more Devils, but with a full party, I found this to not be very problematic: Just kill them as they appear, and use the time inbetween to whittle down Belhifet.
Belhifet now stands alone, his vile servants all disposed of. His Magic Resistance well and truly negated, we apply Doom and Greater Malison successfully. Belhifet then fails his save against Slow and Blind. And... then he just dies.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! And another three! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
The great big bastard Belhifet lies slain! No one took more than a trifling amount of damage (Caelar excluded, but we easily kept her alive through continuous Greater Restoration, and she in turn tanked Belhifet the entire time). Looking back, all you really need is Fire immunity and Mind Shield from Potion of Clarity (and possibly Free Action on the frontliners). Lower Resistance was useful, but most of the damage done to Belhifet came from our tanks and Corwin.
The party returns to the portal, where Caelar opts to stay behind in Avernus. Not so for us: We hightail it out of there, and return to a celebration the likes of which have not been seen since that fabled night at the Elfsong. It is, however, not to last: Hubblepot is framed for a crime he didn't commit, and now survives as a soldier of fortune. If you are in trouble, if no one else can help, and if you can find him... maybe you can hire: The Gnome-Team! and is unjustly imprisoned awaiting execution. However, with all the good deeds Hubblepot's done, Belt himself springs Hubblepot from jail. I was very careful to place everything that imports from SoD into SoA in Hubblepots inventory before resting in Dragonspear, and good thing too, as you are given no opportunity to reshuffle inventory.
Hubblepot grabs his gear, sneaks out, reunites with Imoen and his trusty companions, and is the subject of a cowardly ambush.
Hubblepot awakens on a cold metal floor. He is imprisoned, bereft of all his belongings, and tortured by that vile hooded man. You have made a fatal mistake, hooded man... Hubblepot is a Mage of no small power himself! Rubbing a tiny magical tattoo in a place best left unmentioned, Hubblepot opens a portal to a miniscule demiplane. Reaching into the plane, he grabs his spellbook, his divine scroll, and most importantly, a small flask of Gnome's Choice Turnip Brandy. A fortifying clunk later, our hero stands at the ready. There will be a reckoning, there will be an epic adventure, there will be a celebrated public display of Hubblepot's famous bugg-jigg-waltz! Maybe not the last part.
Shifty meanwhile has battled hia way to the Cloakwood mines killing wyverns spiders and a dragon on the way. Will now have to sell some loot as the wand of fire is virtually out of spells.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 165 (12345 6) Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0) Update 6 covers two sessions today, all subject to making rapid progress at the expense of safety.
Part 1 sees Sparky take an early fall as we head into eye-opening territory.
Lunkh has full pockets so he heads to a temple, gets Sparky breathing again and straight back down to get her gear off the floor. As things have gone well so far we decide to deal with the Unseeing Eye - and after avoiding a wilting targeted at skeletons Lunkh survives a second.
(and an earlier combat showing our innate ways of out-living the beholders)
We'd discussed dealing with Tarnor earlier and his time eventually arrived.
Part 2 sees us work through a number of quests, Rayic Gethras taking umbrage to true sight and dispel magic.
We should pick up a rod of resurrection. More fun, but nothing too dangerous.
The ring of Gaxx is our eventual target, Lunkh feeling protection from undead would not work but Sparky more confident. It turns out Lunkh is correct and he uses a protection from magic scroll while Sparky resolutely holds out from using hers. Kangaxx also refuses to give up his normal form for a minute or two, eventually changing several rounds after Sparky summons a skeleton warrior. Lunkh switches to a non-proficient Daystar and sets to work.
Not a bad recovery but we head underground at the graveyard where Sparky goes for broke and dies again. With only five of Pai'Na's spiders still alive Sparky has been poisoned and constant blocking and buffeting prevent Lunkh from reaching her. He sighs as he picks up an elixir of (abstinent) health thrown to her, and uses the rod of resurrection for the first time.
During this time we have killed Mae'Var, handed Neb's head in, scared off Rejiek Hidesman, dealt with the fallen paladins and completed the first two tasks for Aran Linvail. Picked up the berserk warrior, picked off a few muggers and agreed to foil some other Talosian agents despite Sparky's inherent respect for them.
Okay guys, I played a bit more but now I'm facing a really bad issue in my playthrough. A bug that probably will hinder all my progress and will make my no reload career come to a halt. [Spell Revision opinion]
> The removal of protection from petrification scroll seems absolutely silly. I may appreciate the mod on a BG2 playthrough (but the issues of lich petrification I read on G3 forums remind me that I should probably avoid the current iteration of the mod). If I will go for it, I will use Bartimaeus's version.
Now as for why I don't like it on BG. Removing the spell doesn't add anything to the playthrough, no strategic elements, nothing at all. It just becomes a cheese fest. Why? Instead of casting on yourself spell from petrification you:
1) Get one npc with invisibility/berserk/sanctuary 2) Use it to scout 3) Deal accordingly.
And the deal accordingly option is composed by so many cheesy options it actually becomes silly. From casting skeletons from afar that will actually scout the map for you to charming bears to kill basilisks for you.
How to fix this --> add the petrification spell back. Improve the dps the basilisk do.
I'm not sure I understand what you find wrong with petrifciation. Using creatures immune to petrification has been used on Mutamin for ages now. Korax is there just for that since BG1 was first released. Petrficiation spell is still there, it just works differently. It doesn't kill you, but instead permanantly freezes you. This is done for a multitude of reasons (romance breaking, people shattering etc.) Pro Petrification scroll (green version) hasn't been touched. Judging by your screenshot, Minsc *is* petrified. He's got Hold icon on him, his skin colour is changed. Unless his custom berserk opcode uses "immunity to hold2" - which isn't used almost anywhere in the game since this is used to stop creatures otherwise Hold-immune)....I'll check it out. But any other berserk ability surely won't prevent petrification. If you lack pro petrification spell - you can use potions of Mirrored eyes, they stop the effect, and there are at least 7 you can buy before opening BG gates. What exactly is the "strategic element" of casting Pro Petrification on yourself before fighting basilisks? Finally, SR won't ever be preventing stuff such as Sanctuary+Mass Skeleton army. But you can get this even w/o spell revisions, it's not like it's an exclusive.
Now as for why I don't like it on BG. Removing the spell doesn't add anything to the playthrough, no strategic elements, nothing at all. It just becomes a cheese fest. Why? Instead of casting on yourself spell from petrification you:
1) Get one npc with invisibility/berserk/sanctuary 2) Use it to scout 3) Deal accordingly.
And the deal accordingly option is composed by so many cheesy options it actually becomes silly. From casting skeletons from afar that will actually scout the map for you to charming bears to kill basilisks for you.
How to fix this --> add the petrification spell back. Improve the dps the basilisk do.
I'm not sure I understand what you find wrong with petrifciation. Using creatures immune to petrification has been used on Mutamin for ages now. Korax is there just for that since BG1 was first released. Petrficiation spell is still there, it just works differently. It doesn't kill you, but instead permanantly freezes you. This is done for a multitude of reasons (romance breaking, people shattering etc.) Pro Petrification scroll (green version) hasn't been touched. Judging by your screenshot, Minsc *is* petrified. He's got Hold icon on him, his skin colour is changed. Unless his custom berserk opcode uses "immunity to hold2" - which isn't used almost anywhere in the game since this is used to stop creatures otherwise Hold-immune)....I'll check it out. But any other berserk ability surely won't prevent petrification. If you lack pro petrification spell - you can use potions of Mirrored eyes, they stop the effect, and there are at least 7 you can buy before opening BG gates. What exactly is the "strategic element" of casting Pro Petrification on yourself before fighting basilisks? Finally, SR won't ever be preventing stuff such as Sanctuary+Mass Skeleton army. But you can get this even w/o spell revisions, it's not like it's an exclusive.
I left the relevant part of my message inside the "quote". The issue with the way Spell Revision is now is that the change is deliberate and adds nothing at all. To me it felt like it was a forced way to play the game according to what the author of Spell revision felt appropriate.
Without spell revision you just cast the protection from petrification spell on yourself and you are done.
With Spell revision all he has done was just remove a way of playing. It didn't add any meaningful choice, actually on the contrary he removed the best option just for the sake of removing it.
So, given these premises, why would I deliberately remove myself of a option, just to satisfy the vision of a mod author?
Just an edit: I doubt very much that, without that option, I would face Aec'Letec. Whatever, I would say just pick the poison you enjoy the most. I pick the soup without Spell revision.
Edit 2: the currently promoted style: > Just use one npc to scout everywhere. > Drink an invisibility potion. > When staying in front of the basilisk drink a potion of mirrored eyes > beat him > Go to step one again.
So why would I do all these ? Just to appease the vision of Demiurgus? I can just use the green scroll and skip this annoying thing instead of trashing the metagame (buying the scroll) for another way of metagaming (get enough invisibility potions and potions of mirrored eyes).
It just gets silly.
Edit 3: By the way, the bug is fixed. Don't ask me why. I had even booted the pc a couple of times and the bug kept reappering. I'm back once again.
No need explaining such stuff or options you have to me - I'm the one who coded petrification tweak in the first place I was worried about Minsc NOT getting petrified if under Rage (given your post "Get one npc with invisibility/berserk/sanctuary"); but given this is working fine (just checked); carry on with no-reloading.
No need explaining such stuff or options you have to me - I'm the one who coded petrification tweak in the first place I was worried about Minsc NOT getting petrified if under Rage (given your post "Get one npc with invisibility/berserk/sanctuary"); but given this is working fine (just checked); carry on with no-reloading.
I like your change very much to be honest. The only thing I would change is to add a note that the holded character needs to be saved by a stone to flesh scroll. Because I waited a lot (I didn't realize there had been a bugfix within Spell Revision).
An edit: sorry if I didn't write it properly in the first place.
Shifty's run came to a sudden end at the hands of a rather powerful thief at the top of the Cloakwood Mines. Largely my own fault for forgetting about him and leaving Shifty in Studded Leather Armour. Good Studded Leather, but I had better plate that he could have worn.
Itis was lurking around in the coalition camp - her main focus was just buying stuff and getting ready for the final battles. No straying for extra xp and loot.
A badly timed buying and selling spree left her with no funds - I will chose my vendors for selling more prudently next time... In all I didnt get to buy all I wanted, but with more than enough to pose a threat to most.
Trying to avoid risk, Itis simply paved her way into the underground river by force. And once in, went forth with stealth
Hephernan was scared and fled the scene. Iris left by stealth and placed the barrel on the way out
Rushed home for the parley and the ensuing attack. Everything went as planned. Only scare was when the wizard slayers where caught in a detonation arrow blast - they luckily didnt turn on me
Victory was ours by a fine margin. Huzzah
The attack at the castle went really well. Itis buffed and buffed. 8 scrolls and 15 potions. So she missed the fun... But a fine buff it was
The duel against Ashatiel was over within a round. A 66 critical end
In Avernus Itis rushed for the elevator. Scroll buffing before getting in, and potion buffing on the way down.
The plan was to keep Caelar alive with restoration scrolls... Itis was buffed to keep herself alive and fled behind a pillar when the fight started - firing arrows of dispelling at Hephernan until he died. But in the mayhem Itis forgot Caelar, and she died. So it was a halfling against Big B.
Drinking twice from Durlags goblet kept Itis alive for the win. Big B fell to the halfling lass
Its all over and Itis will move on to BG2... God knows I have missed it. So badly
Bounty Hunter. Core diffculty. Notable mods: SCS fully installed, Rogue Rebalancing (though without changes to Thieves). No stat re-distribution as per my rule. Great roll, but rather poor DEX for a single class thief with only 20 skill points per level, though nothing a pair of gauntlets can't fix of course. Weapon profs are long swords and shortbows. Thieving points all invested in set traps. The idea is to do a full playthrough of BG1 with an anti Iron Throne party: Xan, Branwen, Kivan, Faldorn, Yeslick. Gilyn is a wanderer and a free spirit only willing to team up with those who share his agenda.
Gilyn starts out solo, getting some easy XP for himself as well as the most basic of items such as a ring of the princes, a scroll case and the girdle of piercing, using his special snare and his bow to fell the ogre. Note that the special snares can be thrown again, just like in BGT/Tutu and in BG2:EE. Hurray! The most remarkable encounter is with Drizzt, who goes hostile when Gilyn refuses to battle about a dozen gnolls alongside the ranger. That's Chaotic Neutral for you: might save your life, might steal your car. Now Drizzt is a dangerous foe to have, and Gilyn has enough enemies wanting his head already, so he gets rid of the drow.
He gets his rep back up to 10 slaying Charleston Nib's diggers, with difficulty,
and 11 from Brage and Nalin, as he first reaches Nashkel. This results in an aTweaks healing touch as his first bhaalpower.
At 20k XP (level 5) he descends into the Nashkel Mines. I didn't want to get any further XP because I didn't want maximum NPC joining levels for a change. For me this is quite thrilling as Gilyn is of much lower level than my usual solo characters at this stage, and with his average rep, no good gear has been purchased yet as I wait for 20 rep to start spending. So he just has to make do with his mundane studded leather, two mundane long swords, his bow and arrows, and of course stealth and traps. He uses his special snares to kill some kobolds that carry mineral poison (delivering it to Thalantyr is worth 750 XP with the UB mod), and he sneaks past the group with the chieftain and shaman, bypassing rather than disarming their traps. As Xan is to be recruited, Gilyn cannot just stealth past the kobolds guarding the entrance to Mulahey's lair, since they will probably shoot the mage down on the way out. Snares and arrows kill some, but others, including a few archers survive. Gilyn tries to use the entrance to Mulahey's lair for hiding and backstabs but they follow him inside and what is more, the kobolds guarding Xan attack as well. The yelpers don't follow him outside though, so Gilyn can stab his foes to death until both his long swords have shattered.
Gilyn slays the remaining foes with his bow and arrows, and sets seven traps: three near Mulahey, four near the enemy kobold/skeleton spawning point. Mulahey and the kobolds die instantly; the highly resistant skeletons are slowed and at near death status. Gilyn can finish them with his bow and arrows. Xan (16k XP) joins to continue his investigation of the iron crisis, and buffed with PfE and MI, he gets safely past the oozes.
Xan and Gilyn travel back to Nashkel, leaving an exploration of the Mine exit area for later. Snares fail to kill Nimbul, so Xan and Gilyn retreat to the Carnival. They decide to cast Stone to Flesh on what seems to be a warrior woman, maybe she can help them against Nimbul in return for the favor they do her? Branwen, kitted as a battle priestess of Tempus (a nice v2.5 feature), joins the crew. Her skeleton warriors attack Nimbul, but it is the monk Rasaad who kindly but superfluously intervenes to steal the kill. On Nimbul's corpse Gilyn finds a letter pointing to one Tranzig residing in Beregost, much to Branwen's surprise. Tranzig was the name of the wizard who had petrified her. The companions decide to seek this Tranzig out.
@StummvonBordwehr Well done. You've played it completely differently to my runs but just as successfully it seems.
@Wise_Grimwald Thanks. I do potions buffing a great deal. The halfling greatly benefits from it. It has super saves against spell - but cant hit anything without potions or rage.
I tend to buy all potions and save the best ones. Potions of herroism for the big fights - stacking them. Kept 2 potions of power from bg1 and stacked them with the 5 potions from SoD for a 100% boost in HP.
There is a thread where LoB + ScS was done, and the potions of power along with Durlags goblet seemed the standard for the final SoD fight, so I did it as well. Nothing new, and all of it found on this forum.
@StummvonBordwehr, congrats man! You're a quick learner and kudos for doing this solo. I see you slew lots of fiends before getting to Big B. Is that the way to go? A quick kill, within a couple of rounds of B is not feasible?
Anyway have fun in BG2 (have missd it too, it's been ages...) and be careful because it would be such a shame to get stunned by a salt mephit or charmed by a duergar mage in chateau Irenicus.
A new run with a race that I don't usually play, a half-orc. Looking at me, you wouldn't believe that I am neutral good, never mind a follower of Torm. Appearances can be deceptive. However they didn't help my charisma one bit. I have reached the gate of Candlekeep after being ambushed. However they won't let me in again. It looks as if I will have to wander the sword coast until I can discover who the murderer of Gorion is. Being a strong believer in justice, I will do my utmost to bring the murderer before the courts.
@StummvonBordwehr, congrats man! You're a quick learner and kudos for doing this solo. I see you slew lots of fiends before getting to Big B. Is that the way to go? A quick kill, within a couple of rounds of B is not feasible?
Anyway have fun in BG2 (have missd it too, it's been ages...) and be careful because it would be such a shame to get stunned by a salt mephit or charmed by a duergar mage in chateau Irenicus.
@Blackraven Praise from Caesar. I wouldn’t say I am quick learner (should only be spoken with a thick austrian accent), the LoB + ScS thread is 10 miles long... and the final fight is covered in detail.
The demon slaying is manageble. They are gated in, and I slew them quickly. Here is the screenshot from after the buffing
I didnt rage of duhm out of fear of ruining the potions of power with the con boost.
The damage output is 20-27 with 4 apr and -3/-1 thaco. On top of that the mordron heart ads +2 thaco and damage. The belt of the skillfull blade ads 10% on top of that - dont know if the chant from the ring of purity makes it 21-27. In all the damage output is decent with scimitars, and the demons where quickly out of the way.
With 383 HP (legal) Durlags goblet really shine. A quick drink once every 4-5 rounds and youre good.
Itis is a barb, so I raged against the pesky memphits. No chances taken...
Continuing on, still trying to avoid risk: - after learning horror, quickly did a series of reputation quests to push that up to 20. Also picked up the pantaloons and the charisma tome. - did some shopping before running through the Cloakwood. - at the mine Drasus and Genthore were pulled away and meleed. Rezdan and Kysus failed to get any spells off against arrows of biting, so there was no need for any dodging.
- the guards put up no real fight in the mine on the way down to Davaeorn. The battle horrors were pulled back one at a time before a potion of magic blocking was used to hunt down the mage.
- I skipped most of the content in the City, just grabbing the Helm and Cloak of Balduran before fighting a running battle up and down the stairs at the Iron Throne.
- back at Candlekeep just grabbed the tomes and left invisibly (even leaving the basilisks). - fireballed the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy. - killed Ramazith for the +2 ring, though didn't bother with the tower. - shot Slythe with a dispelling arrow and meleed him without bothering about Krystin. - at the palace buffed with potions and shot with dispelling arrows the 3 dopplegangers that attacked the dukes to ensure a comfortable victory.
- avoided the Undercity party on the way to the old temple and used the lightning trap there to leave Sarevok on his own and requiring only a single blow to finish him off.
Dwarven defender L8, 105 HPs (incl 5 from Helm, -8 from Claw), 332 kills
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...
Mutated mutated spiders was added in IA6. Horrible creatures, I avoid them whenever I can.
What you need? FIGHTERS. with two Riskbreakers, Minsc (Lilarcor) and by using Jaheira new shield I managed to win two encounters before I drank all my potions, decided it is not worth it and reloaded. Roughly it goes like this: Open with emotion spell, save scum until all minor spiders are affected, kill - spirit - mutated mutated (must do this before all the rest will rise up) - emotion - all minor spiders - mutated mutated. I found this fight annoying and tedious but somewhat fun actually.
After a pretty clean run through BGEE, most of SoD didn't take long - though it was a pretty long final battle: - Korlasz quickly gave up after being targeted twice with the Ring of Energy (providing a level up in the process). She was killed anyway as she tried to get away (to avoid having to deal with her again in Baldur's Gate).
- in the City stripped some NPCs of equipment and did a minimal amount of work to get the Battle Tankard and Spectacles. - used Defensive Stance and Horn of Kazgaroth to ensure saves against status effects while helping Tsolak against Isabella and Ikros.
- hid behind the tent at the Coast Way Crossing bridge until Caelar came to parley. - ran through Troll Claw Woods, then used invisibility to bypass enemies on the way to Cyric's temple. - killed Ziatar's guards and meleed her. Did the same with the Neothelid, using Stance to push save vs spell negative.
- buffed with a few potions before using Arrows of Detonation to soften up Darskhelin and his crew. After they were finished off in melee, Akanna had no chance against those buffs.
- on the way out of the temple a second thrown dagger struck home in the dragon's heart.
- at Boareskyr Bridge I surrendered the fort before using arrows of dispelling to quickly render the mage on the bridge helpless.
- at the Coalition Camp did some shopping with the genie before, just for a change, going to get some lucky boots made (I was thinking they gave a luck bonus, but in fact they would just improve already good saving throws, so not really worth it). - saved Skie at Dragonspear. - at the Underground River beat up some myconids for their Bloom-Sac. Killed the cyclops for its seal, then ignored the rest of the guards and went invisibly inside.
- placed the Bwoosh before convincing Turin to let me inside the guarded area. Used invisibility to do the poisoning and, after showing myself to Hephernaan, more invisibility to run away. - back at the Camp, exploding arrows made short work of the first 3 lots of invaders. A PfM scroll and potions of firebreath / ring of energy soon sorted out the leaders.
- at the Castle another PfM scroll was used while fighting Ashatiel in single combat.
- moving on to hell Illaruel was bypassed before fighting some devils summoned by Thrix.
- I added more buffs in the elevator on the way to find Belhifet. After killing his supporting devils I kept Caelar alive with restoration scrolls, while using the void hammer to attack Belhifet. However, for some reason Caelar just chose to stand there like a lemon, while the void hammer is pathetic for a +3 weapon so progress was slow. I got a bit tired of the fight as a result and nearly paid the penalty when not realizing that a cornugon's absorb health ability would bypass magic resistance - that took me down to single figure HPs. Eventually I ran out of restoration scrolls and switched to using Drizzt's scimitars in a running fight. Relatively poor THAC0 and Belhifet's regeneration meant that still took quite a while, but finally I managed to cut through his defenses.
- after safely negotiating the epilogue (realizing during that I'd forgotten to take my 10th level, which is part of the reason Belhifet seemed harder than I'd expected) it's time for BG2.
Dwarven defender L10, 126 HPs (incl 5 from Helm, -9 from Claw), 551 kills
@StummvonBordwehr: I don't recognize all of the items on that inventory screen. Could you tell me what the amulet, the boots, the statue with three charges, and the second ring on the right are?
As for the Chant effect from the Ring of Purity: yes, it would modify your damage range from 20-27 to 21-27. It works just like a luck effect, which amounts to an invisible +1 to your attack rolls as well as +0.833 average damage per dice roll (and 0.833 less damage on average from every incoming spell damage dice).
There was a bad start to BG2 when I found the pantaloons had not been transferred and realized I'd forgotten to take them out of the bag of holding at the end of SoD. I then cleared the opening level of the dungeon without problems, but hit trouble against the mephits. To avoid them all attacking at once I edged forward and destroyed the first 2 portals before the radiant mephit came out to play. It got lucky to successfully tag me with a color spray, but that only has a 5 round duration so I 'knew' it would need to be successful for a second time to have a chance of killing me - except that on this occasion the color spray had at least a 10 round duration and I never woke up .
I did load the autosave and confirmed that a couple of further successful color sprays only lasted the expected 5 rounds,
so I don't think my strategy was hugely at fault (in the past I would have disabled the radiant mephit with horror, but that's bugged in v2.5 BG2EE and won't prevent enemies from attacking) - though next time I dare say I will try and destroy the magma mephit portal with missile weapons before activating the radiant mephit ...
To make sure I only count what I would define as a 'clean' run, I only reload for directly game ending bugs (like the disappearing portrait bug) or a program crash. That's just my personal preference though rather than a general requirement of a no-reload run.
I see a fair number of bugs in my install and I'm too lazy to fix them all, so I generally don't worry about them unless they're fatal. I used to accept a reload even if the bug wasn't directly fatal (that is, if it was entirely possible to survive in spite of the bug), but since I don't re-do fights where bugs hurt the enemy, I'm kind of shying away from that. I can't actually think of a time when I've died to a bug that wasn't directly fatal.
I've noticed that I've become increasingly like @Grond0 in terms of my restrictions. My rules are becoming much more strict, and I've gradually given up on using exploits because they're not as fun as they used to be.
That being said, it's a basic principle of this thread that people can follow their own rules as long as they're transparent about them. There's no requirement to do it extra "hardcore" like @Grond0. No-reload runs are challenging enough even with generous rules about the terms.
@semiticgod Agree completely. I'm the same. I don't keep checking to see if there's a bug. I just get on with it for better or for worse unless the bug itself is the reason why the game is over - a missing item that is game breaking for instance.
@Grond0 I assume you were watching closely, and the mephit didn't just say, do color spray a 2nd time? Or does it only do the color spray one time ever per combat? Do we know for sure?
@Corey_Russell the mephits can use color spray more than once, but I went carefully back over the text at the point I paused the game (with 7 HPs left) and copied all of that into the screenshot posted - there was no second color spray even attempted (I suspect the script would only have tried that at the point an unconscious person recovered).
Comments
Last BG1EE update found here
SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
First SoA update found here
This is actually the first time I've gotten this far in SoD. I'm relying on a walkthrough, so it's only a semi-blind playthrough, but still. And if I'm slightly nervous, you can imagine how Hubblepot feels!
But there's no two ways about it: Them Devils need a sound kicking.
We charge after Caelar, and are treated to her being betrayed by Hephernaan. Into Avernus!
Illaruel is just a tougher Erinyes, and falls in no time flat. I found all of the Devils surprisingly weak: The Cornugons are slightly annoying with their Absorb Health, and you should avoid attacking Hamatulas in melee due to their Barbed Defense, but Abishais of all sorts, Imps, Erinyes, Hellcats and Bone Fiends can't really put up much of a fight, as long as you're prepared for their status effects:
Horror/Aura of Fear (counter with Commander's Chain Mail +3 or just a few Remove Fear)
Hold Person (counter with Free Action)
Command/Charm Person/Dire Charm (counter with Potion of Clarity or just boost saves)
In addition, Erinyes, Hellcats and Imps periodically go invisible. I had a few True Sight available, but you can just wait for them to reveal themselves. Thusly prepared, we battle through the relatively few encounters here. Skeleton Warriors are of course immune to all these status effects, and so are a good pick for summons (when are they ever not?).
Having slain the Devils he summons, we successfully answer Thrix's riddle, and opt for Longsword +3: Tongue of Acid as our reward, which of course goes to Khalid. Our three main fighter-types now have +3 weapons available, freeing us from relying on Enchanted Weapon.
So, you can rest uninterrupted inside the Basalt Tower before activating the lift. We take advantage of this.
Almost all of our protections when fighting Belhifet will come from scrolls and potions, so we spend our slots mostly on offense and personal buffs: Lower Resistance, Breach (turned out to be pointless), Oracle, True Sight, Defensive Harmony, a few Mental Domination if someone somehow falls prey to a Dire Charm, Animate Dead (also turned out to be pointless), Lightning Bolt en masse (as Belhifet has 0% Lightning Resistance), some Webs and Magic Missiles.
Now, I was unaware exactly how things would work here. Once you start the elevator, you get a few waves of Devils spawning on you (quite easy to defeat, there aren't that many of them in each wave), but eventually the lift reaches the top, and you do not get to prepare for combat before going up against Belhifet.
The time to apply very long-lasting buffs is before getting on the lift (PfE 10', scrolls of Protection from Fire, Chaotic Commands etc). Potions that last 1 to 2 hours should probably be done while ascending the lift, since you by my reckoning have about 10ish rounds before reaching the top.
So, all this meant we arrived with almost no buffs active. We of course bid Caelar join us.
Still, I didn't want to lose what few buffs we had up. Hubblepot quickly applied SI: Abjuration, while everyone else quaffed a Potion of Fire Resistance. The trick where you move one party member near Belhifet to absorb the initial Dispel Magic apparently still works: Hubblepot is immune to the dispel, and everyone else is outside the area of effect, and so keep their few buffs.
Belhifet and Hephernaan both go after Caelar. I'm not sure what's the best option here, but given that there are about 8-10 Devils on the battlefield, I opt to clean up a bit before hitting Big B.
While doing so, everyone is busily applying potions and scrolls: I want everyone to have Potion of Clarity up, as well as 100%+ Fire Resistance. Fear immunity comes from Glint having Commander's Chain Mail +3 equipped. Glint also pops True Sight to dispel Belhifets Improved Invisibility, and thereafter (with Battle Tankard equipped) assists Caelar by popping Greater Restoration on her from scrolls, while everyone else just straight out kills the summoned Devils. There are a fair few of them to cut through, but we do so in good time, and Hephernaan bites the dust as well. Caelar is still going strong, mostly due to Glint's continuous application of Greater Restoration (these scrolls were very well worth it).
You'll note Hubblepot and Dynaheir are working on bringing down Belhifet's Magic Resistance in the last picture. You'll need 4x Lower Resistance to be certain that spells will stick on him, but since he occasionally teleports away (breaking any targetted casts in progress) it's probably best to have at least 5x, preferably 6x such spells prepared (you won't need 5th level arcane slots for much else here).
Also, Glint gives summoning some Skeleton Warriors a shot. This only seems to trigger Belhifet into using his Firestorm-like ability: The poor Skeletons instantly take huge damage. Even if they didn't Belhifet kills them very quickly in melee, so they're not really much use here.
Belhifet also occasionally gates in more Devils, but with a full party, I found this to not be very problematic: Just kill them as they appear, and use the time inbetween to whittle down Belhifet.
Belhifet now stands alone, his vile servants all disposed of.
His Magic Resistance well and truly negated, we apply Doom and Greater Malison successfully. Belhifet then fails his save against Slow and Blind. And... then he just dies.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! And another three! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
The great big bastard Belhifet lies slain! No one took more than a trifling amount of damage (Caelar excluded, but we easily kept her alive through continuous Greater Restoration, and she in turn tanked Belhifet the entire time). Looking back, all you really need is Fire immunity and Mind Shield from Potion of Clarity (and possibly Free Action on the frontliners). Lower Resistance was useful, but most of the damage done to Belhifet came from our tanks and Corwin.
The party returns to the portal, where Caelar opts to stay behind in Avernus.
Not so for us: We hightail it out of there, and return to a celebration the likes of which have not been seen since that fabled night at the Elfsong. It is, however, not to last: Hubblepot is framed for a crime he didn't commit,
and now survives as a soldier of fortune. If you are in trouble, if no one else can help, and if you can find him... maybe you can hire: The Gnome-Team!and is unjustly imprisoned awaiting execution. However, with all the good deeds Hubblepot's done, Belt himself springs Hubblepot from jail. I was very careful to place everything that imports from SoD into SoA in Hubblepots inventory before resting in Dragonspear, and good thing too, as you are given no opportunity to reshuffle inventory.Hubblepot grabs his gear, sneaks out, reunites with Imoen and his trusty companions, and is the subject of a cowardly ambush.
Hubblepot awakens on a cold metal floor. He is imprisoned, bereft of all his belongings, and tortured by that vile hooded man. You have made a fatal mistake, hooded man... Hubblepot is a Mage of no small power himself! Rubbing a tiny magical tattoo in a place best left unmentioned, Hubblepot opens a portal to a miniscule demiplane. Reaching into the plane, he grabs his spellbook, his divine scroll, and most importantly, a small flask of Gnome's Choice Turnip Brandy. A fortifying clunk later, our hero stands at the ready. There will be a reckoning, there will be an epic adventure, there will be a celebrated public display of Hubblepot's famous bugg-jigg-waltz! Maybe not the last part.
Hubblepot will return in Shadows of Amn.
@Scourge Sorry to hear about your bugs. @aldain Well done.
Shifty meanwhile has battled hia way to the Cloakwood mines killing wyverns spiders and a dragon on the way.
Will now have to sell some loot as the wand of fire is virtually out of spells.
Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0)
Update 6 covers two sessions today, all subject to making rapid progress at the expense of safety.
Part 1 sees Sparky take an early fall as we head into eye-opening territory.
(and an earlier combat showing our innate ways of out-living the beholders)
Part 2 sees us work through a number of quests, Rayic Gethras taking umbrage to true sight and dispel magic.
During this time we have killed Mae'Var, handed Neb's head in, scared off Rejiek Hidesman, dealt with the fallen paladins and completed the first two tasks for Aran Linvail. Picked up the berserk warrior, picked off a few muggers and agreed to foil some other Talosian agents despite Sparky's inherent respect for them.
Petrficiation spell is still there, it just works differently. It doesn't kill you, but instead permanantly freezes you. This is done for a multitude of reasons (romance breaking, people shattering etc.)
Pro Petrification scroll (green version) hasn't been touched.
Judging by your screenshot, Minsc *is* petrified. He's got Hold icon on him, his skin colour is changed. Unless his custom berserk opcode uses "immunity to hold2" - which isn't used almost anywhere in the game since this is used to stop creatures otherwise Hold-immune)....I'll check it out. But any other berserk ability surely won't prevent petrification.
If you lack pro petrification spell - you can use potions of Mirrored eyes, they stop the effect, and there are at least 7 you can buy before opening BG gates.
What exactly is the "strategic element" of casting Pro Petrification on yourself before fighting basilisks?
Finally, SR won't ever be preventing stuff such as Sanctuary+Mass Skeleton army. But you can get this even w/o spell revisions, it's not like it's an exclusive.
Without spell revision you just cast the protection from petrification spell on yourself and you are done.
With Spell revision all he has done was just remove a way of playing. It didn't add any meaningful choice, actually on the contrary he removed the best option just for the sake of removing it.
So, given these premises, why would I deliberately remove myself of a option, just to satisfy the vision of a mod author?
Just an edit: I doubt very much that, without that option, I would face Aec'Letec. Whatever, I would say just pick the poison you enjoy the most. I pick the soup without Spell revision.
Edit 2: the currently promoted style:
> Just use one npc to scout everywhere.
> Drink an invisibility potion.
> When staying in front of the basilisk drink a potion of mirrored eyes
> beat him
> Go to step one again.
So why would I do all these ? Just to appease the vision of Demiurgus? I can just use the green scroll and skip this annoying thing instead of trashing the metagame (buying the scroll) for another way of metagaming (get enough invisibility potions and potions of mirrored eyes).
It just gets silly.
Edit 3: By the way, the bug is fixed. Don't ask me why. I had even booted the pc a couple of times and the bug kept reappering. I'm back once again.
I was worried about Minsc NOT getting petrified if under Rage (given your post "Get one npc with invisibility/berserk/sanctuary");
but given this is working fine (just checked); carry on with no-reloading.
An edit: sorry if I didn't write it properly in the first place.
Itis in Sod - and beyond
Previouslyhttps://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1018368/#Comment_1018368
Itis was lurking around in the coalition camp - her main focus was just buying stuff and getting ready for the final battles. No straying for extra xp and loot.
A badly timed buying and selling spree left her with no funds - I will chose my vendors for selling more prudently next time... In all I didnt get to buy all I wanted, but with more than enough to pose a threat to most.
Trying to avoid risk, Itis simply paved her way into the underground river by force. And once in, went forth with stealth
Hephernan was scared and fled the scene. Iris left by stealth and placed the barrel on the way out
Rushed home for the parley and the ensuing attack. Everything went as planned. Only scare was when the wizard slayers where caught in a detonation arrow blast - they luckily didnt turn on me
The attack at the castle went really well. Itis buffed and buffed. 8 scrolls and 15 potions. So she missed the fun...
But a fine buff it was
The duel against Ashatiel was over within a round. A 66 critical end
In Avernus Itis rushed for the elevator. Scroll buffing before getting in, and potion buffing on the way down.
The plan was to keep Caelar alive with restoration scrolls... Itis was buffed to keep herself alive and fled behind a pillar when the fight started - firing arrows of dispelling at Hephernan until he died.
But in the mayhem Itis forgot Caelar, and she died. So it was a halfling against Big B.
Drinking twice from Durlags goblet kept Itis alive for the win. Big B fell to the halfling lass
Its all over and Itis will move on to BG2... God knows I have missed it. So badly
Bounty Hunter. Core diffculty. Notable mods: SCS fully installed, Rogue Rebalancing (though without changes to Thieves). No stat re-distribution as per my rule. Great roll, but rather poor DEX for a single class thief with only 20 skill points per level, though nothing a pair of gauntlets can't fix of course. Weapon profs are long swords and shortbows. Thieving points all invested in set traps.
The idea is to do a full playthrough of BG1 with an anti Iron Throne party: Xan, Branwen, Kivan, Faldorn, Yeslick. Gilyn is a wanderer and a free spirit only willing to team up with those who share his agenda.
Gilyn starts out solo, getting some easy XP for himself as well as the most basic of items such as a ring of the princes, a scroll case and the girdle of piercing, using his special snare and his bow to fell the ogre. Note that the special snares can be thrown again, just like in BGT/Tutu and in BG2:EE. Hurray!
The most remarkable encounter is with Drizzt, who goes hostile when Gilyn refuses to battle about a dozen gnolls alongside the ranger. That's Chaotic Neutral for you: might save your life, might steal your car. Now Drizzt is a dangerous foe to have, and Gilyn has enough enemies wanting his head already, so he gets rid of the drow.
He gets his rep back up to 10 slaying Charleston Nib's diggers, with difficulty,
At 20k XP (level 5) he descends into the Nashkel Mines. I didn't want to get any further XP because I didn't want maximum NPC joining levels for a change. For me this is quite thrilling as Gilyn is of much lower level than my usual solo characters at this stage, and with his average rep, no good gear has been purchased yet as I wait for 20 rep to start spending. So he just has to make do with his mundane studded leather, two mundane long swords, his bow and arrows, and of course stealth and traps. He uses his special snares to kill some kobolds that carry mineral poison (delivering it to Thalantyr is worth 750 XP with the UB mod), and he sneaks past the group with the chieftain and shaman, bypassing rather than disarming their traps.
As Xan is to be recruited, Gilyn cannot just stealth past the kobolds guarding the entrance to Mulahey's lair, since they will probably shoot the mage down on the way out. Snares and arrows kill some, but others, including a few archers survive. Gilyn tries to use the entrance to Mulahey's lair for hiding and backstabs but they follow him inside and what is more, the kobolds guarding Xan attack as well. The yelpers don't follow him outside though, so Gilyn can stab his foes to death until both his long swords have shattered.
Xan and Gilyn travel back to Nashkel, leaving an exploration of the Mine exit area for later. Snares fail to kill Nimbul, so Xan and Gilyn retreat to the Carnival. They decide to cast Stone to Flesh on what seems to be a warrior woman, maybe she can help them against Nimbul in return for the favor they do her? Branwen, kitted as a battle priestess of Tempus (a nice v2.5 feature), joins the crew. Her skeleton warriors attack Nimbul, but it is the monk Rasaad who kindly but superfluously intervenes to steal the kill. On Nimbul's corpse Gilyn finds a letter pointing to one Tranzig residing in Beregost, much to Branwen's surprise. Tranzig was the name of the wizard who had petrified her. The companions decide to seek this Tranzig out.
Thanks.
I do potions buffing a great deal. The halfling greatly benefits from it. It has super saves against spell - but cant hit anything without potions or rage.
I tend to buy all potions and save the best ones. Potions of herroism for the big fights - stacking them. Kept 2 potions of power from bg1 and stacked them with the 5 potions from SoD for a 100% boost in HP.
There is a thread where LoB + ScS was done, and the potions of power along with Durlags goblet seemed the standard for the final SoD fight, so I did it as well. Nothing new, and all of it found on this forum.
Anyway have fun in BG2 (have missd it too, it's been ages...) and be careful because it would be such a shame to get stunned by a salt mephit or charmed by a duergar mage in chateau Irenicus.
Looking at me, you wouldn't believe that I am neutral good, never mind a follower of Torm.
Appearances can be deceptive. However they didn't help my charisma one bit.
I have reached the gate of Candlekeep after being ambushed. However they won't let me in again. It looks as if I will have to wander the sword coast until I can discover who the murderer of Gorion is. Being a strong believer in justice, I will do my utmost to bring the murderer before the courts.
Praise from Caesar.
I wouldn’t say I am quick learner (should only be spoken with a thick austrian accent), the LoB + ScS thread is 10 miles long... and the final fight is covered in detail.
The demon slaying is manageble. They are gated in, and I slew them quickly. Here is the screenshot from after the buffing
I didnt rage of duhm out of fear of ruining the potions of power with the con boost.
The damage output is 20-27 with 4 apr and -3/-1 thaco. On top of that the mordron heart ads +2 thaco and damage. The belt of the skillfull blade ads 10% on top of that - dont know if the chant from the ring of purity makes it 21-27. In all the damage output is decent with scimitars, and the demons where quickly out of the way.
With 383 HP (legal) Durlags goblet really shine. A quick drink once every 4-5 rounds and youre good.
Itis is a barb, so I raged against the pesky memphits. No chances taken...
Previous updates:
Continuing on, still trying to avoid risk:
- after learning horror, quickly did a series of reputation quests to push that up to 20. Also picked up the pantaloons and the charisma tome.
- did some shopping before running through the Cloakwood.
- at the mine Drasus and Genthore were pulled away and meleed. Rezdan and Kysus failed to get any spells off against arrows of biting, so there was no need for any dodging.
- fireballed the Red Wizards to get the Ring of Energy.
- killed Ramazith for the +2 ring, though didn't bother with the tower.
- shot Slythe with a dispelling arrow and meleed him without bothering about Krystin.
- at the palace buffed with potions and shot with dispelling arrows the 3 dopplegangers that attacked the dukes to ensure a comfortable victory.
Dwarven defender L8, 105 HPs (incl 5 from Helm, -8 from Claw), 332 kills
What you need? FIGHTERS. with two Riskbreakers, Minsc (Lilarcor) and by using Jaheira new shield I managed to win two encounters before I drank all my potions, decided it is not worth it and reloaded.
Roughly it goes like this: Open with emotion spell, save scum until all minor spiders are affected, kill - spirit - mutated mutated (must do this before all the rest will rise up) - emotion - all minor spiders - mutated mutated. I found this fight annoying and tedious but somewhat fun actually.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1019529/#Comment_1019529
After a pretty clean run through BGEE, most of SoD didn't take long - though it was a pretty long final battle:
- Korlasz quickly gave up after being targeted twice with the Ring of Energy (providing a level up in the process). She was killed anyway as she tried to get away (to avoid having to deal with her again in Baldur's Gate).
- used Defensive Stance and Horn of Kazgaroth to ensure saves against status effects while helping Tsolak against Isabella and Ikros.
- ran through Troll Claw Woods, then used invisibility to bypass enemies on the way to Cyric's temple.
- killed Ziatar's guards and meleed her. Did the same with the Neothelid, using Stance to push save vs spell negative.
- saved Skie at Dragonspear.
- at the Underground River beat up some myconids for their Bloom-Sac. Killed the cyclops for its seal, then ignored the rest of the guards and went invisibly inside.
- back at the Camp, exploding arrows made short work of the first 3 lots of invaders. A PfM scroll and potions of firebreath / ring of energy soon sorted out the leaders.
Dwarven defender L10, 126 HPs (incl 5 from Helm, -9 from Claw), 551 kills
As for the Chant effect from the Ring of Purity: yes, it would modify your damage range from 20-27 to 21-27. It works just like a luck effect, which amounts to an invisible +1 to your attack rolls as well as +0.833 average damage per dice roll (and 0.833 less damage on average from every incoming spell damage dice).
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1019529/#Comment_1019529
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1019580/#Comment_1019580
There was a bad start to BG2 when I found the pantaloons had not been transferred and realized I'd forgotten to take them out of the bag of holding at the end of SoD. I then cleared the opening level of the dungeon without problems, but hit trouble against the mephits. To avoid them all attacking at once I edged forward and destroyed the first 2 portals before the radiant mephit came out to play. It got lucky to successfully tag me with a color spray, but that only has a 5 round duration so I 'knew' it would need to be successful for a second time to have a chance of killing me - except that on this occasion the color spray had at least a 10 round duration and I never woke up
I did load the autosave and confirmed that a couple of further successful color sprays only lasted the expected 5 rounds,
I've noticed that I've become increasingly like @Grond0 in terms of my restrictions. My rules are becoming much more strict, and I've gradually given up on using exploits because they're not as fun as they used to be.
That being said, it's a basic principle of this thread that people can follow their own rules as long as they're transparent about them. There's no requirement to do it extra "hardcore" like @Grond0. No-reload runs are challenging enough even with generous rules about the terms.