At the Bandit Camp the Crew did some running and shooting to kill a number of enemies. However, with Venkt appearing and Taurgosz chasing after using an oil of speed they decided discretion was the better part of valor and ran away. Coming back they bumped into Molkar's ambush, but made pretty short work of them.
After resting to heal up it was the turn of the Amazons to block the way to the Bandit Camp - but they were no more successful in doing so.
Back at the Camp, Taurgosz got to them quickly - and quickly died.
Everyone was targeting Mad Dog though as the Crew tried to convert to a running fight and he took further damage when the Crew paused to break down Venkt's defenses when he appeared.
They probably could have run away at that point, but didn't immediately do so - only to see Mad Dog hit twice more straight away. They did then try running, but a pathfinding glitch prevented them leaving the map for the second or two more until he died. I also realized at that point they hadn't picked up Taurgosz's armor, so tried to circle back to that to ensure it didn't disappear while they were away. However, Venkt had completed a haste spell as he died which had affected most of the attackers, making movement past them difficult, and, despite my efforts to rotate targets, the SCS tendency to pick on weak links allowed the bandits to claim another kill just before the Crew could win free.
Returning once more they now had fewer enemies to face, without many ice arrows left and no haste. That made things much easier and the Crew were able to finish off the remaining enemies without too many problems.
After looting the Camp, the Crew reported in to Officer Vai. That pushed reputation up to 20, but I decided to still not buy anything until I could get charisma up to 20 as well with the Helm of Glory. Before they could get that though they had to get through the Cloakwood. The first area was no problem, with Seniyad failing to complete a spell.
They got their long-awaited 7th level early on in the second Cloakwood area
and cleared that comfortably - bouncing in and out of the nest a couple of times to split up the spiders and dodge Centeol's wand blasts. In the third area Izefia failed to complete a spell, as did Takiyah. I've had quite a few problems with the Archdruid Amarande, but this time he died in the initial missile assault.
In the 4th area some wyverns were waiting, but failed to make an impression on Vito.
At the mine the surrounding area was cleared before Vito charmed Genthore and pulled him away for disposal. Drasus was then activated and chased the Crew to the edge of the map where he fought and died alone. Kysus and Rezdan were then shot at. The latter managed to dire charm Vito, prompting a general retreat, but soon enough they were back to finish the job despite Vito getting held.
Inside the mine, Al successfully sent the lightning bolt trap into Hareishan's guards.
The mage was hit twice and lost a spell - giving Al the opportunity to finish her off with fire arrows.
On the next level down Natasha was the main danger, but she was unable to keep her defenses up long enough to cast anything.
On the bottom level the guard was charmed and used to pull the battle horrors back.
Vito then successfully sighted Davaeorn without activating him - allowing the guard to kill him without any retaliation.
Possibly the easy victory over Davaeorn when I had been gearing up for a longer fight led to a lapse in concentration - or possibly it was just the end of a long night. Or, more probably, I'm just an idiot. However, after dealing with the mustard jelly the Crew had no more use for the guard and attacked him - or just possibly it wasn't him they attacked given that Carlo slumped to the floor ...
In order to keep XP aligned the others went to get Carlo raised before coming back and flooding the mine. They'll be moving on to the City shortly.
Baldur's Gate Side-Quests and some Unfinished Business on the Sword Coast
With a major blow dealt to the throne and one of their powerful agents dead, it is time to relax again, much like when Tazok had been beaten. The party travels to Baldur's Gate and gets involved in many side quests in the city as well as in long overdue quests and encounters in the countryside. Gilyn allies himself with Baldur's Gate's thieves guild and takes commissions from his friend Aldeth, a gnome named Brevlik and others. The companions survive Marek's poisoning of their rations (convincing Jalantha Mistmyr to hand over her scroll without requiring the tome of wisdom, a BGQE feature I guess).
A pair of Hands of Takkok is acquired for Branwen. Degrodel's minions are battled for XP. Sunin loses his ring and his life along with his aides. Ragefast is persuaded to let his nymph free. And Ramazith... well he gives Gilyn a run for his money. Gilyn approaches him alone, sets his snares away from the wizard, then attacks with a dispelling arrow but misses. The traps do nothing against the Stoneskinned wizard, much to Gilyn's disappointment, and Ramazith is free to attack with spells. Defeating the wizard alone turns into a matter of prestige, so he accepts having to quaff three potions of magic blocking, and still only barely prevails.
Up-country the party, or Kivan in this case, deals with Mutamin and the basilisks. Snares, divine buffs, haste, Korax, and skeletons ensure victory against Kirian and her party.
Durlag's tower's upper levels are cleaned up, including Kirinhale (thanks to traps) but excluding the ghostly dwarven servant. When Gilyn attempts to trick Rigilio into trading a lock of Kirinhale's hair for a potion of cloud giant strength, the human rogue goes hostile and pays for his insolence with his head.
On the coast, Yeslick, who has the best saves vs death gets knocked out by Shoal's kiss. (So indeed not killed @Grond0). Severely injured, he gets up and runs off with his boots of speed, straight into a new spawn of dread wolves. Faldorn quickly casts a Web to hold most of the monsters. Droth casts a magic missile at Xan, but Xan's Malison and Emotion put the ogre mage to sleep, which decides the confrontation in the party's favor.
Shoal's life is spared. Xan gets a missile weapon upgrade: a returning throwing dagger from Kivan's little Sahuagin quest (wand of monster summoning keeps the Sahuagin busy while they're being attacked from range). Skeletons, haste, and divine buffs make the sirines a cake walk, so Gilyn finally gets hold of the manual of bodily health for 16 natural CON, rendering Buckley's buckler superfluous. The same approach as with the sirines works wonders against the Wolf of Ulcaster. It doesn't even get to summon any ghouls.
Lendarn gives the party some trouble with a lightning bolt that injures Branwen and Yeslick, but the latter's innate Dispel Magic and Kivan's acid arrows seal the wizard's fate. Kivan also insta-kills the ogre mage with a glorious critical for 40 damage.
Dealing with the Iron Throne
Time to confront the Iron Throne. The party takes an almost honorable approach to this battle. That is, no hostilities occur before the enemy has gone hostile themselves and the stairs are not used at all. The caveat is that invisible Branwen and hidden Gilyn and Kivan go in first to deal with the Shennaras so that the companions can properly position themselves upon arrival. Branwen's skeletons draw the attention of the invisible Shennaras but not the still neutral others. The cleric, the archer and the bounty hunter finish both assassins with Branwen taking manageable backstab damage.
Branwen (Sanctuary) and Kivan (stealth) return to the group. Gilyn lingers to place some traps near the unsuspecting Throne acolytes (as close as possible to Naaman and Alai, to force them to go on the defensive first) before joining the others.
Extensive buffing follows. Branwen casts PfFear, and PfE 10' Radius, and Chant. Xan casts MSD, Blur, and MI. Faldorn casts Improved Invisibility and Strength of One. Yeslick casts Bless. Kivan quaffs a potion of invulnerability and Gilyn, Xan, and Faldorn potions of defense. Together they go up the stairs on the right hand side. Zhalimar does his speech, and the party wins the first round thanks to Gilyn's snares.
The ensuing window of opportunity is used to try and get off a couple of spells: Malison by Xan, Hold Person by Branwen and by Yeslick, and Insect Plague by Faldorn. The Hold Persons don't do anything, but Faldorn's Insect Plague and subsequent Web do a great job at debilitating the enemy mages and Zhalimar. Kivan finishes Aasim with acid arrows, but unfortunately the archer is positioned at one of the two sides of the stairway.
Diyab, the doppelanger and Gardush all choose Kivan's side to attack, so he has to tank with his halberd to prevent them from reaching vulnerable party members like Xan and Faldorn. Meanwhile the block of Branwen and Yeslick have very little tanking to do. Only Alai charges them. Diyab casts an Unholy Blight that hurts both Yeslick and Kivan. Gilyn removes Alai's protections with a dispelling arrow, and Xan casts an Emotion that knocks both Alai and Naaman out; Zhalimar stays held by Faldorn's Web. Yeslick and Branwen then divide their attention between the debilitated foes (would be a shame if they survived the Web/Emotion combo) and the attacking ones, while the others focus fully on fighting Diyab, the doppelganger, and Gardush, although Faldorn does cast one more Web into the room. Xan tries to polymorph Gardush, the biggest and most immediate threat, with his wand of polymorphing but the warrior saves. Gilyn attacks with fire arrows, Faldorn with the frost dart, and Xan with hs returning throwing dagger. Diyab and the doppelganger can't handle all that firepower, but Gardush most certainly can. Despite the potion of invulnerability, swapping out the cloak of non-detection for that of Balduran and equipping the golden girdle, Kivan can't compete with the powerful berserker. The elf has to rely on a potion of regeneration and three or four potions of extra healing to stand his ground. He barely survives.
There is no mercy for Thaldorn, and the party is off to tell Grand Duke Eltan that the Throne's real leaders are in Candlekeep of all places.
Yay! Blackraven is back! And everyone else is still here. This would be like a reunion were it not for the notable absence of one certain someone... Oh! That's right: I'm writing and that means I'm here. And if I'm here I can't be notably absent. So it is a reunion! Skiddly-diddly!
Hey Alesia! Nice to see you here! It's been a long time indeed, but I'm glad to see that time hasn't diminished your cheerfulness. Are you still out traveling or is there hope that you may grace the forums with another one of your fascinating runs?
Maybe a F/M/C? I agree btw with your analogy. So many options with an F/M/C. Maybe it would be cool if several players here rolled one and started playing one at the same time, comparing different approaches to different challenges. I have my ideas of how I would play a F/M/C at higher levels but I'm sure @semiticgod, you and others will come up with surprising tactics.
Anyway, thank you for saying hi, and until next time!
Quick reference to Saoirse's game: I usually like to use the ambush by Lamalha's amazon assassins to demonstrate some of the tactics employed by my characters during mid-game, so let's not break the habit (just let me know if you find it boring ).
Saorise always travels under Invisibility and this gives her the initial advantage over our would-be pursuers. Unaware of any threat, Maneira and Telka remain visible.
Big mistake, ladies.
Saoirse's running Strength, Ghost Armor, Blur, MIs, Improved Invisibility and Pro Evil. She's untargetable and her saves vs. spell are comfortably negative.
Emotion: Hopelessness does not see much use in our battle routine, but otherwise is a very competent spell. It's funny how when you look at the spell description, the actual effect seems rather drastic: Sometimes they can be heard to exclaim things such as "I lay down and die," or "I'm going home." Even Disintegration sounds like a blessing compared to THAT. However, Zeela embodied the description perfectly.
With no means of defense nor offense, it was just a matter of time till Lamalha joined the rest of the crew. And the Potion of Power is ours.
Ah, but the IA world is capless. True, true! And that of course was instrumental to her success. Fighter HLAs and cleric buffs and mid-level mage spells and Improved Alacrity is a pretty insane combination..
That is changed in the later versions though. Multi and dual classes have limited availability to certain hlas such as Alacrity, making the game less of a push over. And most creatures have been buffed to hell as well. Not to mention slower level progression but I suppose solo does not care about that. I cannot imagine a solo noreload fmc making it through the IA saga anymore. I can try though. Maybe I will run one next to my new party.
Playing solo in Improved Anvil is supposed to be impossible--and a big no-no under the mod's overbearing philosophy. When Saros Shadowfollower beat IA with a solo fighter/mage, the mod creator, Sikret, banned him from Black Wyrm's Lair and then posted a bunch of statements accusing Saros of cheating. It was a spectacular demonstration of the contempt for people who don't play by Sikret's rules.
I've heard that somebody else is now handling the mod, which is good news. But since the mod is designed to be impossible to beat without using a narrow set of prescribed strategies (to the extent that scripts can induce game-breaking bugs if you don't play the game the right way), it wouldn't surprise me if the updates had truly stamped out the last alternative pathways for beating the game.
Ah, the Cloakwood Forest with its autumn vibe! I was visiting a friend of mine in Nordmarka (gigantic woodland close to Oslo in Norway) this September and it felt EXACTLY like Cloakwood. However, after couples of days and nights spent in there, I can confirm that there's no evidence of Shadow Druids nor Wyverns nor indeed any Iron Throne activities whatsoever. Bummer.
Let's get back to Saoirse. Actually, there's not much to talk about en route to the mines, other than that we've collected the Cloak of Non-Detection and cleared the spider forest with Pro Poison and Potion of Freedom, thus earning access to L4 spells and darts proficiency. With Improved Invisibility at hand, Saorise fancies a detour to the Beregost area to conclude some unfinished business with Silke and Kirian (after which she's ambushed by Lamalha, as was covered in the previous post).
Silke yields to our newly discovered skills with Darts of Stunning and we, as a reward for our friendly intervention, stock on Potions of Defense by pickpocketing the survivors (while hiring Garrick to do the dirty job).
Despite a critically missed backstab, Kirian and her minions are disassembled with Emotion, Blindness and Hold Person and bested.
Back in Cloakwood, Drasus and his crew are cheesed with Cloudkill and Web scrolls from afar - the most difficult part was picking up the loot, really. I'm not particularly proud of this one, but we've got more important matters to worry about so I'll accept it as a collateral damage to Saoirse's style.
We raid the chest inside the barracks for second Potion of Magic Shielding (the first one was dropped by Drasus) and approach Davaeorn's lair under Invisibility.
Saoirse outruns the traps in the entrance corridor with Boots of Speed and lures the Doom Guards to their doom (haha, that's a bad one) via Wand of Frost. EDIT: I've realized it's Battle Horrors so no silly pun intended.
After that she applies light buffs in the form of Pro Cold (spell), Pro Fire (spell), Blur and Shield, mostly to induce a Remove Magic cast from Davaeorn. Unfortunately, stupid me gets caught in Davaeorn's sequenced Web / Stinking Cloud and, for a brief moment, Saorise falls unconscious to the vapours. Having zero save vs. spell score didn't help as Stinking Cloud uses save vs. poison, which is our Achilles' heel because of Claw of Kazgaroth. The guards are just starting to rush in.
And so, once again, Saorise has to quaff a valuable potion in order to escape a dangerous situation imposed by none other than myself. Mumbling complaints under her breath, she gets back on her feet.
Drawing upon holy luck, we avoid getting dispelled by Davaeorn's Remove Magic. This allows us to complete our buffs with Potion of Pro Fire, Potion of Pro Cold, Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration and Improved Invisibility and switch to offense.
First, dispel Davaeorn's illusions...
...and then press on with Wand of Fire, Molotovs of Fiery Burning and cold / acid arrows.
I still haven't figured out why our Darts of Wounding did not force Davaeorn (who's not running ProMW) to make the save against poison on hit. Or maybe he did make all of his saves and it just wasn't shown in the log. Such mysteries.
Unable to poison him, Saorise buffs with Strength and proposes to Davaeorn a melee duel of honor. It's just that neither thiefs nor illusionist tend to play fair.
Playing solo in Improved Anvil is supposed to be impossible--and a big no-no under the mod's overbearing philosophy.
Yuppers. Sikret hated soloing and no reloading (and a lot of other things...). And he sought to make both impossible or very nearly so. At one point he went so far as to insta-kill by script any character that showed up on a scene alone (I believe that would happen in Gromnir's Lair- not sure which version). I found his antics in this respect (and others) misguided, limiting, and unintentionally hilarious. Sikret was a talented modder, but he had an unpleasant and comically misplaced authoritarian streak (Think Stalin MCing a Hungry, Hungry Hippos Tournament...). The dynamics between SIkret and Saros were full on Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
I never liked the mod. And even if I did, I never would have played or immersed myself in the community. The IA culture was authoritarian, elitist and conflict oriented- the precise opposite of what a player community should be, in my opinion. Hopefully the community has changed under new leadership. While it was never to my taste, the IA mod did have its merits. It was a shame that that work was buried under a mountain of buffle-headedness.
Anyhoo, my intent wasn't really to talk about IA: It was to talk about F/M/Cs. IA only came up because my limited experience with the class happened to have occurred in IA. Let's talk about F/M/C's, if we're to continue this (And we should do it over in the lounge, I suppose).
Ah, the Cloakwood Forest with its autumn vibe! I was visiting a friend of mine in Nordmarka (gigantic woodland close to Oslo in Norway) this September and it felt EXACTLY like Cloakwood. However, after couples of days and nights spent in there, I can confirm that there's no evidence of Shadow Druids nor Wyverns nor indeed any Iron Throne activities whatsoever. Bummer.
Wonderful pic @Borco! Beautiful place, and I love wandering in the woods.
Good progress, glad you got lucky with that Stinking Cloud.
As for darts of wounding, I've also had disapppointing results with the so far. Gilyn's level 4 proficiency went to darts, but I haven't been able to poison anyone with them yet. Gilyn kept them for use against wizards with their poor saves vs death and to disrupt casting. But I think in 2.5 they no longer go through Stoneskin and MI. A justifiable change but it greatly reduces their usefulness against the one enemy type I like to use them against...
Hey Alesia! Nice to see you here! It's been a long time indeed, but I'm glad to see that time hasn't diminished your cheerfulness. Are you still out traveling or is there hope that you may grace the forums with another one of your fascinating runs?
Thanks for welcoming me back! It's good to be here!
While I am semi-sorta-kinda feeling an urge to play, I don't think that'll happen. I'm more in to RL adventures these days. I just walked from Mexico to Canada and I'm currently in the preparatory stages of a longer journey. These trips are a lot like NR runs: you have your equipment, you meet fellow adventures, and you try not to die. It's fun.
I may noodle around on the forums a bit over the next couple weeks, but I doubt I'll play. I'll vanish again in early November.
Anyhoo, happy trails to all the active challengers!
@Borco: The reason Davaeorn didn't need to make saves against the Darts of Wounding is because EE v2.5 makes Stoneskin grant immunity to poison effects (not instantaneous poison damage like from a green dragon's breath, but lingering poison damage like from spider attacks). I believe this matches the pre-EE behavior. I'm not sure if it blocks the effects of poison spells as well. You have to remove the Stoneskins in order to poison a mage with Arrows of Biting, Bolts of Biting, Darts of Wounding, or Poison Weapon.
As for darts of wounding, I've also had disapppointing results with the so far. Gilyn's level 4 proficiency went to darts, but I haven't been able to poison anyone with them yet. Gilyn kept them for use against wizards with their poor saves vs death and to disrupt casting. But I think in 2.5 they no longer go through Stoneskin and MI. A justifiable change but it greatly reduces their usefulness against the one enemy type I like to use them against...
I agree it's a shame that poison no longer goes through stoneskin. Mages are the natural target for those weapons, but it's pretty rare now that you get any real benefit from them. There's a contrast there with elemental damage versions of missiles which are as good as ever against stoneskin and much more useful than the poisonous ones (though the prices would suggest that wasn't the original intention of the designers).
My FMC just got through Baldur's Gate, though a bug prevented us from killing Sarevok (he got to 1 HP and wouldn't die). This time around, I didn't screw with the enemy's AI: rather than luring Sarevok to a corner, tackling Angelo to the north, and then bombing Sarevok's other goons from out of the fog of war, I triggered all of them at once. Diarmid died early to Potions of Firebreath, which go through Protection from Magic scrolls in my install, as did Angelo, who lost all of his buffs to a Dispel Magic from Yeslick (again, the innate ability ignores level in my install).
Semaj Breached Baeloth, but otherwise didn't apparently use any Remove Magic spells, so my FMC just tanked his spells with a Potion of Magic Shielding until Indira, a mod-introduced NPC, was able to kill him with Arrows of Dispelling (which took a while; he managed to go invisible once or twice and had a Stoneskin Contingency). Xan and Alora both died early partly because Potions of Firebreath are touch-range to activate, which screwed up our positioning, but Yeslick managed to kite Sarevok until all of the other enemies were dead (everyone pre-buffed with Oils of Speed, so everyone was very fast).
Then Baeloth tanked and kited Sarevok with Mirror Image and Stoneskin until we killed the skeletons with Wand of Fire charges and missile attacks. After that, we just kited Sarevok to death.
The FMC is very strong. It has a set of very excellent options in spite of its slow leveling and limited spell slots:
1. It can deal heavy damage with Borok's Fist and slings. 2. It can maintain strong defenses using Shield and Mirror Image. 3. It can use all wands. 4. It can cast Sanctuary and eventually Invisibility to avoid combat.
Honestly, though, Charname's class doesn't seem to matter much in a party run. You've got five other characters to do the real work; Charname's only job is to not die.
It was a rough run, though. Aside from Item Randomizer screwing up our normal plans, we permanently lost Tenya to a chunking by Slythe (which was a bug that could warrant a reload, but meh) and also lost Coran to a mod-introduced dialogue that makes him leave the party at the Firewine Ruins. I couldn't tell if he was supposed to return or not after we completed the relevant quest, so I wasn't sure if using the console to get him back would constitute a cheat or a bugfix. In the end, I just replaced him.
Party runs are a lot more fun. Due to all of the setbacks, our average character level was a little over 6 by the endgame, so Xan and Alora both died in like two hits, but even in a weakened state, we were able to handle the challenges without relying on wands for everything or screwing with the enemy's AI. It feels more active and dynamic to work with a full party.
After flooding the mine the Crew went to Beregost temple to hand in a wyvern head and took the opportunity to ensure no-one else would be offered a similar deal.
In Baldur's Gate they worked their way systematically through all the City encounters. They picked up the Helm of Glory from Jardak
and used that to get the best possible prices on a shopping spree. Solo casters struggled more than ever to survive attacks - for instance Marek's pre-buff stoneskin and initial mirror image spell only protected him for a few seconds.
The party at the Helm & Cloak might have been more challenging, but the Crew used magical ammunition on a general basis for the first time and ripped through them as well.
I made a mistake in somehow dropping or selling one of the skyship components, but decided to go and kill the Halruuan mage anyway.
That turned the thieves hostile, but they didn't do a lot of damage with their backstabs. There were no other particular problems in clearing things on the way to the Iron Throne. The Crew used fireballs there for the first time in the run, killing a couple of the enemies,
though they were less effective than they should have been due to a pathfinding glitch on the stairs. The Shennaras both survived and got several backstabs in, but after they both went down together, the others didn't last long.
Deciding I should aim to get the last level for the Crew before returning to Candlekeep, they went back to Durlag's Tower. Al used the PfP scroll from the Iron Throne to deal with the basilisks on the roof before the Crew went after Kirinhale - a general attack on her killed her almost immediately.
A bit of stair hopping then sorted out the ghost.
Moving down to the basement a bit of exploration netted some spiders, several greater dopplegangers and various ghasts. The level up then came when Al dragged a flesh golem out from a side tunnel.
Reporting in to Duke Eltan, the Crew were transported to Candlekeep. They didn't use any protection, but saved against a couple of charm spells before dispelling arrows and melee tore through the ogre magi.
Inside the library they made short work of the Iron Throne leaders before exposing a greater doppleganger and giving themselves up. The catacombs were also no trouble, with Prat's gang being split up using area transitions.
I decided not to bother with more TotSC content, but push on to SoD - so went in search of Slythe and Krystin. Slythe quickly died in melee, but Krystin was more difficult than I expected as a result of constantly disappearing from plain sight - I presume that means she's been classed as a shadowdancer / mage in v2.5. However, eventually she stayed visible a bit too long and suffered the consequences.
I then decided not to use charms for the palace fight, but did dig out some of the many potions not used in the run to date. Dispelling arrows made the dopplegangers vulnerable and they all died pretty quickly - with Belt still totally untouched.
Sarevok killed Liia before running for it, but that just meant an extra invisibility ring to pick up.
There was a problem going through the maze when I thought that all 3 lightning traps had tripped, but one of the bolts I saw must have been an earlier one that had gone through a wall. As a result when unprotected characters followed Al they were hit hard.
After that I chose to rest rather than continue on with buffs intact.
It's a while since I did the Sarevok fight with SCS, so I went for the trusty old use of an invisibility potion to put all of the enemies except Angelo in a corner.
The others tempted Angelo out of hiding and, when he used chaos on Mad Dog, dispelling arrows helped finish him off in no time.
Some fireballs later and the other acolytes were dead, leaving Sarevok to face the music.
The game didn't automatically translate to SoD, so I had to import it. Unfortunately that's meant the Crew have lost all their containers stuffed with valuable items and lost all the reputation they had gained. However, given they tend to use items so sparingly anyway they should be able to struggle on in SoD.
@semiticgod, agreed the F/M/C is even at lower levels super strong. They can fight well, cast and use most good items in the game, except bladed weapons and bows and crossbows. I never missed the bladed weapons, but not being able to se arrows or bolts is a bit of a downside (especially when solo). You'll find your character even stronger in SoD, when you get level 4 (mage and cleric) and 5 (mage) spells, and the extra 1/2 attack from fighter level 7. @Grond0, congrats! I don't know if you've started in SoD already, but what works for me, instead of importing, is using the console commands to make an area transition, e.g. back to the Undercity and then back into Bhaal's Temple if needed. That triggers the transition to SoD for me.
Thanks @Blackraven. I've actually just finished at the Coast Way, so don't think I'll go back - none of the stuff I lost was that vital, so I don't really mind rolling with it. However, I did just test your method and it works for me too. I'll try (and probably fail) to remember what to do next time .
The Crew are pretty tough by SoD standards, but still sped things up in the prologue by using a number of fireballs to make their way through the enemy hordes. Korlasz tried to give up after her buffs were dispelled, but was shot down anyway.
In the City the Crew had lost all their valuable trinkets being saved for SoD, but were still able to raise a fair amount of money from selling items - including those looted from the bodies of NPCs.
The first action in SoD proper was going vampire hunting - or more precisely vampire hunters hunting. Vito had a single dart of stunning left over from a few she'd found at some point and tried that out on the mage - successfully.
Back at the Coast Way Crossing, the Crew cleared the area before going into the dwarven dig. They picked up the bard's treasure before pressing on to the next level. I was concerned about the fear effect of the mummy there, but everyone saved against that while pulling undead back to the entrance.
After clearing the place they discovered Coldhearth's true nature and collected the Secret Revealed from Brother Deepvein. That didn't prevent the lich from stopping time, but all his other spells failed before he was shot down.
Then it was a race to destroy the phylactery before the lich could put himself back together.
With everything else done they moved to the bridge. The fight there is tough for a solo character and I've got into the habit of skipping it, but there seemed no need to do that with the Crew and indeed the enemies were all dead well before Caelar called for a parley.
The trash mobs in the Troll Claw Woods didn't cause much problem and the Crew set off for the Forest of Wyrms. First though they had an ambush stop to sort out some orcs and trolls - which they did.
I was getting a bit too tired to be still playing by now and paid the price for that when advancing rather heedlessly into the spider cave - Vito was caught in a web tangle and couldn't be saved from all the attacking spiders despite reducing their numbers with a couple of fireballs.
After going back to camp, Mizhena raised him - only for him to immediately die again when I re-equipped the Claw. Personally I think it's a bit unfair for that effect to reduce current (as opposed to maximum) HPs, but it does. I put his equipment back on and saved the game there.
Vito - L8, 92 HPs (incl. -16 from Claw), 58 kills (+490 in BGEE), 3 deaths, **** scimitar / ** darts Baby Face - L8, 102 HPs, 74 kills (+316 in BGEE), 1 death, **** long sword / ** crossbow Mad Dog - L8, 108 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 50 kills (+294 in BGEE), 1 death, **** axe / ** dual wielding Carlo - L8, 103 HPs, 62 kills (+373 in BGEE), 1 death, **** flail / ** sling Bugsy - L8, 107 HPs, 72 kills (+325 in BGEE), 0 deaths, **** hammer / ** shortbow Al (PC) - L8, 96 HPs, 95 kills (+461 in BGEE), **** 2-handed sword / ** longbow
Playing solo in Improved Anvil is supposed to be impossible--and a big no-no under the mod's overbearing philosophy.
Yuppers. Sikret hated soloing and no reloading (and a lot of other things...). And he sought to make both impossible or very nearly so. At one point he went so far as to insta-kill by script any character that showed up on a scene alone (I believe that would happen in Gromnir's Lair- not sure which version). I found his antics in this respect (and others) misguided, limiting, and unintentionally hilarious. Sikret was a talented modder, but he had an unpleasant and comically misplaced authoritarian streak (Think Stalin MCing a Hungry, Hungry Hippos Tournament...). The dynamics between SIkret and Saros were full on Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.
I never liked the mod. And even if I did, I never would have played or immersed myself in the community. The IA culture was authoritarian, elitist and conflict oriented- the precise opposite of what a player community should be, in my opinion. Hopefully the community has changed under new leadership. While it was never to my taste, the IA mod did have its merits. It was a shame that that work was buried under a mountain of buffle-headedness.
Anyhoo, my intent wasn't really to talk about IA: It was to talk about F/M/Cs. IA only came up because my limited experience with the class happened to have occurred in IA. Let's talk about F/M/C's, if we're to continue this (And we should do it over in the lounge, I suppose).
Best,
A.
it was V5 where he put all that weird stuff in. And even if he did not kill a solo player, he had countless scripted dispels when a player showed up alone, or some loot like the robe of Vecna would never drop. Yep, I still like the mod for party play. It's just different for a change. And critto removed all of the lame stuff and added more options for fights. He's doing a great job in my opinion.
Anyhow, so we all start the FMC in bg1? I have not enough experience to tackle SoD solo, having played it only once (still noreload though), but okay I'm game.
That Gnome of Gnomes, Hubblepot Gogglebur, is transitioning into BG2EE Shadows of Amn.
Importing from Siege of Dragonspear into BG2EE SoA. Difficulty: Core Rules, max HP on level-up. Self-imposed restrictions: No using unidentified items, no recharging items by selling and buying them back. Mods: Full-on SCS, including full prebuffs. See spoiler for WeiDU.
Initialise mod (all other components require this): v31 RC2 Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v31 RC2 Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v31 RC2 More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2 Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2 Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2 Modify the Harm spell so it does damage rather than reducing target to 1 hp -> Enemy and player Harm spells both do 150 hp of damage: v31 RC2 Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v31 RC2 Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v31 RC2 Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v31 RC2 Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v31 RC2 Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v31 RC2 Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v31 RC2 Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2 Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v31 RC2 Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2 True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v31 RC2 Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v31 RC2 Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v31 RC2 Replace +1 magical weapons with Fine ones: v31 RC2 Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Stores sell a maximum of 5 Arrows of Dispelling: v31 RC2 Remove the Shield of Balduran from the game: v31 RC2 Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v31 RC2 Move Vhailor's Helm into Throne of Bhaal: v31 RC2 Move the Cloak of Mirroring: v31 RC2 Move the Robe of Vecna into Throne of Bhaal: v31 RC2 Make the healing and resurrection powers of the Rod of Resurrection into separate abilities: v31 RC2 Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v31 RC2 Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2 Improved shapeshifting: v31 RC2 Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2 Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v31 RC2 Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v31 RC2 Remove unrealistically helpful items from certain areas: v31 RC2 Remove unrealistically convenient ammunition from certain areas -> Remove all ammo from random containers: v31 RC2 Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): v31 RC2 Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2 Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2 Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2 Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v31 RC2 Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2 Smarter general AI: v31 RC2 Better calls for help: v31 RC2 Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn get HLAs: v31 RC2 Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2 Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2 Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2 Improved Spiders: v31 RC2 Improved golems: v31 RC2 Improved fiends -> Fiends have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2 Smarter genies -> Genies have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2 Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2 Smarter dragons -> Dragons have a substantial hit point increase: v31 RC2 Smarter beholders -> Don't give beholder rays any chance of burning through spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v31 RC2 Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies: v31 RC2 Smarter githyanki: v31 RC2 Improved Vampires: v31 RC2 Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v31 RC2 Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v31 RC2 Improved Shade Lord: v31 RC2 Spellcasting Demiliches: v31 RC2 More resilient trolls: v31 RC2 Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Mildly increased difficulty: v31 RC2 Improved Random Encounters: v31 RC2 Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Enhanced spirit trolls (as in Tactics): v31 RC2 Improved Unseeing Eye: v31 RC2 Improved Bodhi (Tactics Remix) -> "Toned-down" version of the original Tactics Improved Bodhi, with SCSII scripting: v31 RC2 Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v31 RC2 Improved Sahuagin: v31 RC2 Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v31 RC2 Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v31 RC2 Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v31 RC2 Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v31 RC2 Improved Fire Giant temple: v31 RC2 Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v31 RC2 Improved Abazigal's Lair: v31 RC2 Improved Minor Encounters: v31 RC2
Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, BG2EE SoA Update 1 Last BG1EE update found here Last SoD update found here BG2EE SoA updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
Hubblepot is sprung by his partner-in-epic-crimes Imoen, and the game is afoot! Immediately joined by Minsc and Jaheira, the quartet set out to make the lands a better place.
Hubblepot shall gather unto him a party of undeniably Good characters: Minsc, Jaheira (she's really Neutral Good...), Imoen (temporarily replaced by Yoshimo), Anomen and Mazzy. We'll have plenty of divine power (1 1/2 Clerics, 1/2 Druid). Arcane power is acceptable at 1 1/2 Mages, but could be better. But, we will have 2 1/2 Fighters to cover our bases, one of which has spectacular saves against almost everything. Oh, and the obligatory 1/10 Thief (just enough to cover locks and traps). Proficiency-wise, I don't really know yet. I always give Mazzy Axe proficiency, in the vain hope that we'll live long enough that she gets to wield Axe of the Unyielding, but as for the rest, we'll just have to wait and see.
But first thing's first. We escape the dungeon without much fanfare; Hubblepot had a full spell selection that proved very useful in navigating the dangers of Irenicus' lair, and we did not even have to rest once. The most notable occurance was Ulvaryl getting utterly destroyed by the Shadow Thief Mage, followed by the Mage casting Chromatic Orb at herself (?) twice. Eh.
Freed from imprisonment but bereft of Imoen, the party assists in cleansing the Circus of miscreants (Hubblepot had a True Sight), and also purchases a few Scroll Cases and a Gem Bag before heading into the slums. We agree to gather the requisite sum, and opt to begin by liberating the Copper Coronet of slavers (recruiting Anomen in the process). Hubblepot drops a Cloudkill on the dread Beastmaster, but realizes his folly when charging in after the fog dissipates, only to find said Beastmaster and a bundle of enemies bunched up against the far wall. Should've aimed a little bit farther afield. So, we take some damage clearing the critters, but nothing major.
The Sewers are stomped through, Cloudkill (one cast, one Wand) being used to down the Hobgoblin groups. A simple Web would've probably done as well, but Hubblepot has bad memories of Hobgoblins from Siege of Dragonspear, and takes no chances. We emerge into the beached Slaver ship, and attack! The Priest of Cyric is slain first, and once he is gone, any hope the enemy had of victory is gone as well.
The Slaver Wizards are treated to Skeleton Warriors and Insect Plague, from which they do not recover.
On our way back to Hendak, the entire party gets some small measure of enjoyment watching the despicable murdering duo of Cohrvale and Bregg get their comeuppance, the daft dastardly deviants trying and failing to bring down a Fire Elemental with non-magical weapons.
Alright! That pushed us a little north of 15000 gold. Next stop, getting Mazzy. We travel to the Government District to-
... Yoshimo's going to die, isn't he? Yep.
Slowed Yoshimo was by far the weakest target available, and man oh man, they just went for him, full tilt. No Invisibility potions, so no escape. As you can see though, Jaheira helped turn the tides: An Insect Plague was helpful, and with her Iron Skins she was able to get Call Lightning off as well. Hubblepot and Minsc both take a real beating, but we suffer no further casualties.
Side note: Jaheira had Wondrous Recall available, so she instantly Raised Yoshimo using Harper's Call, and with her three Call Woodland Beings, we pretty much restored everyone to full health. Good stuff.
While in the Government District, we shell out the 5000 gold for a magical license. I already got a warning from accidentally casting Friends before shopping for scroll cases, and I really don't need my absent-mindedness causing the run to end due to a sudden influx of high-level Mages and their inevitable summoned Demons. We also take the time to rescue Viconia and get another suit of Plate Mail. After talking to Delon, it's off to Imnesvale.
We pick up the little sidequests here, and then tackle the Mimic with the aid of some Skeleton Warriors (everyone but Minsc is turned invisible via Hubblepot's Invisibility 10' Radius, with Minsc under the effect of Free Action). The Skeletons then assist Confusion-immune Minsc in mopping up the Umberhulks here. On a related note, as we exit the Mimic cave, we stumble upon some Shadows. I had forgotten how vulnerable Shadow Fiends are against Lightning, but Jaheira kindly demonstrates this. I just though it was kind of funny seeing Jaheira dealing the big damage for once.
We press on to the former Temple of Amaunator. Yoshimo almost does a repeat of his performance against Suna Seni (some of the Shadow Fiends are inexplicably not killed by the reflected light), but the entire party comes charging in, and we manage to save the battered thief in the nick of time! Hooray!
Our lack of magical weapons forces creativity. I discover (I'm guessing most people already know this) that yes, Shillelagh is considered a magical weapon for purposes of what it can hit.
A small army of Undead loyal to us in turn hold off a small army of Undead very much not loyal to us. Also pictured: Hubblepot sharing his keen tactical acumen and directions with the spectacularly unimpressed Undead.
Finally, we reach and recruit Mazzy, whom upon immediately leveling gets + in Axes. It'll be a long road to Grand Mastery, but once she hits level 12 she'll at least be Specialized. We press on, and as we're running out of summons, Jaheira at long last breaks out a few Fire Elementals (we get the bug where one spell summons two of them, so a total of three). My face when I realize that the only creature in the dungeon that can hit Fire Elementals is the Bone Golem, and thus we could've just let them do all the work:
We loot everything and open the door to the Shadow Dragon, but refrain from going further. SCS Shade Lord is truly frightening, and I've no designs on dealing with him just yet. I probably could, but probably isn't good enough for no-reload.. I need to be sure. So, we retreat back to Imnesvale. We could go for Imoen right now, but we'd be all but broke in the Underdark, and there's some interesting stuff for sale there. Let's do another sidequest, and actually finish it this time. Mazzy needs a proper axe, and through his divinations, Hubblepot has determined where to procure one... that castle now filled with horrors, De'Arnise keep! Following a good night's rest, we head towards the Slums to speak with Nalia. As we then head to her keep, the Renfield questline finally kicks into gear.
By all means: It'll mean a small bit of quest experience for each party member, and some additional minor loot and scrolls. Prebek and Sasha accomplish nothing beyond Slowing the party, but when we deliver the Harper assassin to Xzar...
Really Jaheira? You had to do that now, when we're on the De'Arnise clock? Sigh. Fine. We'll just head out without y-
When it rains it pours, huh. Well, Hubblepot has had enough of this. We will still have to rest to pass the time until Jaheira returns, so we unleash the full might of Hubblepot's spell book. Greater Malison and Slow are devastating to these Orogs, and once we start getting some Skeleton Warriors on the field, it's all over. The Mage makes an extreme nuisance of herself (as they are wont to do), but in the end only manages to shave a few hitpoints off Hubblepot using her MMM. Good riddance.
That over with, we resume our march to the De'Arnise keep. We speak with Nalia, then nip inside just far enough to reach and speak with Daleson. There, since the quest is now officially started, we should have as much time as we want to clear the keep. We loot what we can reach without fighting anything, then head back outside, and return uneventfully to the Copper Coronet. Following resting, Jaheira does indeed return, and the party departs to pay another visit to the Harpers.
Fortunately, Hubblepot scried their wicked intent, and the party bursts into the Harper base, spells blazing and weapons wielded! With several Breach and True Sight at our disposal, we roll right over the would-be Harpers (the tone was set when the enemy Mages started by casting Chromatic Orb and Blindness... not exactly enchantments of earth-shattering potency).
Well, that was an exercise in futi-
Are there any other Harper bases you would have us visit, Jaheira? Perhaps you have a Cleric nemesis somewhere with a deceptively potent ring? No? Because it's fine by me if you do.
That mess dealt with, we once again return to the Copper Coronet, this time taking great care in our spell selection: Ideally, we want to be able to clear the entire De'Arnise keep, including Golems and Tor'Gal, in one go. I believe this quite possible with our current party. Thus prepared, we head out for De'Arnise Keep, and of course get some random scrubs ambushing us. Well, maybe we can just beat them down, quaff a few potions and be on our way, without having to waste any spells.
Holy Backstabbing Frickadels! Hubblepot rushes to a corner, and has just enough time to quaff a Potion of Invisibility before another backstab finishes him off. And these are complete bloody scrubs... they don't even have +1 weapons, sheesh. Fine. You wanted it, you got it: Enjoy some Fire Elementals and high-tier Enchantment spells.
You'll note that, in Hubblepot's absence, Yoshimo got treated to several backstabs. Well, the scrubs got what they deserved in the end. We'll have to rest once we reach the Keep.
Friggin' Spirit Trolls, man. We arrived to a Spirit Troll and four regular Trolls immediately setting upon us, and the Spirit Troll's initial Greater Command caught both Minsc and Mazzy before we could do anything. Hubblepot's Save vs Spell is 1, so he's fine. Through a great deal of careful finagling, we manage to NOT have Mazzy and Minsc killed by the bloody Trolls. Hubblepot has to eat a Flame Strike from the Spirit Troll (but one of his Mirror Images soaks it up), so Anomen responds in kind. Enjoy being far too toastily warm, bloody Troll.
Alright, so that was pretty annoying, but maybe now we can get some rest.
... Another band of Trolls spawned the moment we were out of sight of the spawn point, but our Skeleton Warriors were still visible to said Trolls. However, by now we have Chaotic Commands up on most everyone, and focus down the Spirit Troll quickly, although we waste even more spells doing so. Finally, we navigate a bit west, Hubblepot applies Invisibility 10' Radius, and we manage to rest uninterrupted. Phew.
This was a way too long update, but I couldn't find any good place to stop until now. The party is back together (well, except for Imoen...), we've got money, we've got a little bit of gear, and we're all set for launching our assault on the keep proper. Amidst all the confusion, many levels were gained, one important such being Anomen rising to Cleric level 11 (and thus unlocking a single 6th level spell, which I'll be filling with Wondrous Recall). The Trolls won't know what hit 'em.
Hubblepot is now a L9/L11 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
Honestly, though, Charname's class doesn't seem to matter much in a party run. You've got five other characters to do the real work; Charname's only job is to not die.
Yeah, who cares about those 'expendables'... even if they do all the dirty work for you, if they die for you... All that matters is who enters the Hall of Heroes at the end...
Sorry, but I don't like it... Don't like it at all.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 165 (123456 7) Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0) Our seventh session is less aw than shock. We've started in Pai'Na's hideout and the illithium ore in our backpacks is a clue. So off we go to find the vampires. Lassal isn't up to the job so Bodhi weighs in, and decides she will come back for us later. Lunkh wants to pose for a photo but Sparky is already heading for the exit and our next adventure.
After upgrading the Mace of Disruption we are set for Watchers Keep. The welcoming party are still gathered and Sparky puts up a good show, while Lunkh barely holds himself together.
Sparky shows the Helmites how it should be done.
Having looted what we wanted from the Keep we leave and travel to Trademeet instead. Sparky rolls her eyes as Lunkh slows poison on one of the Trademeet guards. Her compassion is more restricted, take for example this greater command which leaves Khan Zahraa unable to defend himself.
We scoot around the Druid Grove and make sure Cernd has a hearty meal before returning to civilisation. Our reward is a couple of statues around the Trademeet fountain, which we admire as we deal with a mantle and well-deserved demise of Rejiek Hidesman.
Honestly, though, Charname's class doesn't seem to matter much in a party run. You've got five other characters to do the real work; Charname's only job is to not die.
Yeah, who cares about those 'expendables'... even if they do all the dirty work for you, if they die for you... All that matters is who enters the Hall of Heroes at the end...
Sorry, but I don't like it... Don't like it at all.
That's what "no resurrection" runs are for. They force you to take care of characters besides Charname. I'd have to play a little differently if I wasn't able to resurrect people. But I really don't like the idea of letting party members die and leaving them behind, because it means I won't be using all of my favorites. Knowing me, even if I did go for a "no resurrection" run, I'd probably just use more expendable characters, because I'd rather let Xzar and Montaron die at the bandit camp than lose Khalid and Jaheira or whoever.
And if I changed the rules such that I had to die if any character died, I'd probably just play with a very small party of the sturdiest NPCs I could find.
In this particular run, though, my Charname has actually been doing most of the work. Last I checked, she had almost 50% of the party kills (even in the current chapter; not just because she tackled Mutamin's Garden solo) and has been our primary tank for the entire game. She's the only one with 18 DEX and she has the highest levels as well as Mirror Image, so she's just plain sturdier than everyone else.
That's what "no resurrection" runs are for. They force you to take care of characters besides Charname. I'd have to play a little differently if I wasn't able to resurrect people. But I really don't like the idea of letting party members die and leaving them behind, because it means I won't be using all of my favorites. Knowing me, even if I did go for a "no resurrection" run, I'd probably just use more expendable characters, because I'd rather let Xzar and Montaron die at the bandit camp than lose Khalid and Jaheira or whoever.
I see your point. What I meant to say is that I, personally, never take my teammates as 'expendables'. If I take them in my Crew, than I, at least, try to keep them all alive at all costs. I still haven't a single 'no resurrection' run but each and every my teammate's death means a new scar on my heart. And if my teammate suffer a chunked death then I would rather quit the run than continue, because in that case I see it somewhat failed already (some of the old Bioware forumites might remember the discussion on Cassia's chunked death during the Avatar's run and my uncertainty whether I should continue the run or it already was spoiled). I like my Crew and that's why it always the same. If I don't like Xzar, Montaron, Edwin or whoever else, I just don't take them, even if only to throw them as a meatshield onto a suicide mission (that is what summons are for). Furthermore, I don't equip only my character with best gear leaving others to roam in rags just to keep him alone alive no matter what. And if I want him to succeed in no-reload challenge, see him succeeding, then he should take an active involvement in the run. Most active involvement. Because if the only thing he does is hiding on the backs of his teammates or in some safe hole, clad in the shiny armor and all the best gear, protected by numerous buffs cast on him by those teammates who did it to the detriment of themselves, then he just not worthy to be called a hero and ascend to the Hall.
@Serg_BlackStrider: It's almost as if you see party members like our good friends Minsc and Imoen as human beings with personal worth and meaning instead of robots with no purpose beyond punching monsters until they die pointless deaths.
@Serg_BlackStrider: It's almost as if you see party members like our good friends Minsc and Imoen as human beings with personal worth and meaning instead of robots with no purpose beyond punching monsters until they die pointless deaths.
Mostly I just focus on the mechanical and gameplay aspects of the run. I like dissecting systems and figuring out how they work and how they can be manipulated.
Unless you add on roleplaying provisions or extra restrictions, no-reload runs have a limited set of rules with a single goal, and some strategies are more successful simply because of the nature of the challenge. If Charname's death determines the success or failure of the run more than any other factor, then defensive and evasive tactics win out over the course of many iterations, and the Charnames who survive the longest tend to be those whose party members support them in that strategy.
From a realism and roleplaying perspective, having Xan run out to his death makes very little sense (well, Xan views every fight as running to his death, but that's besides the point). But it greatly increases the party's chance of success if Xan's risk-taking forces the enemy to waste critical resources that it needs to overcome the party's defenses. This means the Charname who tells Xan "don't worry; we'll raise you at the temple later" is more likely to survive in the long run.
Consider it an extension of ordinary tanking. Fighters move to the front of the line so vulnerable thieves don't get crushed; party members tank the enemy so vulnerable Charnames don't end the run by dying.
I still have some RP habits I'm not willing to shake. Even if I never plan on using a character again, I'll always burn 800 gold to raise them at a temple before kicking them out of the party (unless they're evil-aligned, in which case I don't feel much obligation to keep them alive). I also never use Imprisonment because the spell description is horrific. And I can't play evil-aligned Charnames because it just doesn't feel right to help them win. Even in IWD2, where evil characters are so much better-suited to no-reload gameplay due to late-game enemies spamming Blasphemy, I can't bring myself to play evil parties. I can't even pick impolite dialog options because it feels wrong.
But as long as Charname's primary goal is saving the world from Sarevok/Caelar/Irenicus/Melissan/Belhifet/Isair and Madae, and as long as they're not utterly evil in their methods, I'm willing to let Minsc take a few extra punches in the process.
Understood. For me the prize (ascending to the Hall) just much less important than the process itself (role play, fair play and all that). Maybe that's why I still have only a single success (with Avatars) and, I think, largely because there were real people (my friends) behind the characters so I took even more extreme care on them.
I think of noreload as needing to be more merciless and resurrect my fallen allies rather than allow reloads to save them from the fourth wall protagonists stupidity (like walking straight across deadly traps or the, hey, let's not spend hours buffing for this fight.... splut....).
Then again, I don't resurrect in noreload runs either. /ponder
Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, BG2EE SoA Update 2 Last BG1EE update found here Last SoD update found here BG2EE SoA updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
Trolls aplenty await. The party presses onward into the De'Arnise keep.
Immediately, a minor flaw in Hubblepot's nearly perfect plan reveals itself: It was perhaps not entirely optimal to expect the party to be able to handle large groups of Trolls with almost no buffs.
We are literally stepping across fallen Trolls to make it further into the keep. That was just the first group: Two Giant Trolls, five Trolls, and two Spirit Trolls. And did they do a number on us. Mazzy can tank them (sort of) with Girdle of Piercing, but Minsc gets torn to shreds if he gets in close. We will need to be more careful with positioning.
Even with SCS, Trolls and Giant Trolls are just melee brutes. Spirit Trolls are much worse: Apart from requiring magical weapons to hit and draining STR on hit, they can cast Flame Strike and Greater Command. Flame Strike sounds worse than it is, although it's good if you at least have Resist Fire/Cold up; Greater Command can get half the party killed easily, and absolutely must be countered with Chaotic Commands on frontliners.
We loop around the first level. More Trolls..
You really need to watch your positioning: If a Troll gets a whiff of someone in melee range with crappier AC than Mazzy, it'll follow that person at breakneck speed for quite some distance before giving up. We head into the courtyard, easily best the Otyugh, and clear the trolls on the ramparts. We're pushing through, but taking serious damage, and we're long since out of healing spells (we're using a large stockpile of 9 HP Potions of Healing, but they are running low as well).
What's worse: We're running low on sources of Fire/Acid damage. I had expected to face groups of 3-4 Trolls, not twice that number, and so figured some 18 Arrows of Fire on Yoshimo and a MMM on Hubblepot would cover things easily. Not so. We were actually lucky that the Troll attacking Guards inside (once you lower the drawbridge) killed the Guard with Fire Arrows, because we really needed those.
After making some Dog Stew, we climb the stairs to the second floor. We manage to deal with the Yuan-Ti Mage here with minimal resource expenditure: The one-charge Wand of Summoning from Irenicus' dungeon absorbs the worst spells, and we then simply mob the Mage.
We're now out of both MMM and Arrows of Fire. But Hubblepot always has an ace up his sleeve! Delving into his scroll case, he fishes out three scrolls of Fireball. Jaheira still has 2x Protection from Fire and 2x Resist Fire/Cold, and so applies Fire immunity to Mazzy and Minsc. Thankfully, the next group of Trolls only number three regular such creatures, and so we kill three Trolls with one scroll.
I think Hubblepot's damage taken was a result of the incessant Unholy Blight spam from the Spirit Trolls. Hard to counter pure magical damage at this level. If we had two arcane casters, I would've probably just gone crazy with Fireball/Sunfire spam while protecting the frontliners from Fire, but as all we've got is Hubblepot, we must be more conservative for the time being.
With the Trolls outside the door cleared, we head towards Glaicus. Hubblepot tries to Charm him, which fails. He then pops out a scroll of Dispel Magic, which takes! But not before Glaicus comes within inches of murdering our beloved Gnome.
That was truly stupid. One more hit by Glaicus would've ended the run. In my defense, Hubblepot had Stoneskin up, but apparently only one skin was left... it's a minor miracle the massive damage didn't interrupt Hubblepot's casting. Still, we survived.
Why was this important? Because when uncharmed, Glaicus gifts us with the Acid Head for the Flail of Ages! Which is good, because we're quite low on ways to kill off Trolls. We rush back downstairs to reassemble-
What the deuce? Four Trolls immediately pop up in front of us on the stairs when we head back down! I guess they must've been trying to path to us (maybe Glaicus called for help when he attacked us?) but couldn't reach, and so followed us on area transition. Good thing there were four of them, as we have exactly one Arrow of Fire and one scroll each of Chromatic Orb/Melf's Acid Arrow/Flame Arrow. Just enough to take care of all of them. That done with, Yoshimo sneaks off, carefully avoiding getting in sight of any spawn points, and forges the Flail of Ages +2. Huzzah! We can now kill Trolls with impunity. And I believe we shall.
We make our way over to Lady Delcia and her long-suffering guard. Since we still had Chaotic Commands up, we nipped into the basement, cleared the Troll spawn (we only got four total that time), and placed the Dog Stew to attract the Umber Hulks. We may clear them out after TorGal is dead, but we'll see how it goes.
Now then... Mazzy needs a new axe. And that means we need to take on some Golems. There are three pairs: Two pairs of a Stone and Flesh golem, and one of a Clay and Iron (or Adamantine, depending on your level, but we got Iron, thankfully). Funnily enough, the Iron Golem only activates when you pick up the arguably crappiest treasure: The Elven Court Bow +3. We grabbed the other treasures first (Frostreaver +3 for Mazzy, Kneecapper +1 for Anomen and Fire Head for the Flail of Ages), and dealt with the golems accordingly: Flesh Golems just require magical weapons and have no special abilities, while Stone Golems can cause Slow, which we countered with Free Action on Minsc and Hubblepot (Mazzy used her special shortsword to gain immunity). Hubblepot tanked the Stone Golems: We have scrolls of Mirror Image and Stoneskin if necessary, and right now it's more important to avoid massive damage.
Here, we once more nipped downstairs to forge the completed Flail of Ages +3, which goes to Hubblepot until and unless someone else gets proficiencies to use it better. So, there remains the Clay and Iron Golem. We could just leave the bow... but it should sell for a fair bit... and I don't like leaving things alone! Alright. We're bringing out some big guns: Hubblepot conjures up four Skeleton Warriors (we're saving Anomen's 7HD versions for the final battle). Their job will be to soak up damage from the Iron Golem, as well as take the attacks from the Clay Golem, as the latter induces Cursed Wounds (unable to heal until Remove Curse is applied), and I simply didn't think to prepare Remove Curse. The Iron Golem requires +3 weapons, so Minsc, Mazzy, Hubblepot and Anomen can hit it. The Clay Golem is worse, requiring Blunt weapons, so Hubblepot and Anomen will handle that first, before joining the assault on the Iron Golem.
The plan works surprisingly well. The Iron Golem gets a few Poison Clouds off, but as it targets individual people, we scatter, and the person that gets poisoned just moves out of the cloud and quaffs an Antidote. The poor Skeleton Warriors are of course bludgeoned beyond recognition, but that was their job.
How about that: The way lies open to TorGal, and we have successfully saved almost all of our high-tier spellworks. We'll have a full complement of summons, a full set of buffs, several Lower Resistance, Breach, Greater Malison, Slow etc to deal with both TorGal and his Mages... looking good! Yoshimo makes things look even more rosy when he successfully sets three Special Snares and two regular ones. That'll be very helpful: Even if they just kill one or two of the Giant Trolls, it's still good.
We conjure four 7HD Skeleton Warriors, and attempt to conjure a Fire Elemental... but get a message that no more creatures can be summoned (?). Maybe a bug in the same vein as when you occasionally get two Elementals instead of one. Regardless, every buff we have left is applied, Minsc goes ahead and triggers TorGal, and the game is afoot!
Friggin'... gah! Trolls! TROOOOOOOOLLS! So, what happened: The Skeleton Warriors held off TorGal and his fellow Trolls while we attempted to kill something, anything, as Yoshimo's traps only killed the Umber Hulk Elder. And we just didn't have the damage to take down anything beyond a Giant Troll. Eventually, the Yuan-Ti Mages arrived on the scene, and between their Breach/Dispel Magic and Spirit Trolls spamming Greater Command, we couldn't do much. We got TorGal down to Injured, but that's not enough. So, eventually everyone except Hubblepot failed a save against something. Hubblepot quaffed an Oil of Speed, spent a round gathering everyone's loot and stuffing it in a crate, then ducked into a side corridor and went invisible.
TorGal sees straight through Invisibility, but apparently he no longer follows you when you go back upstairs. So Hubblepot made it outside, applied Invisibility 10' Radius, and successfully rested. Anomen was Raised, came back with Wondrous Recall and so immediately could cast Raise Dead x2, and Jaheira similarly came back with Wondrous Recall and a resultant 2x Harper's Call.
Of course, everyone except Hubblepot was naked. So, we went back inside, Hubblepot buffed defensively and stood at the forefront, tanking TorGal and his Troll posse while everyone else went to gather their gear (Sanctuaried Anomen picked it all up, so as not to break anyone's Invisibility). Hubblepot nearly got trapped since there were a total of five Trolls chasing him, but the entire party made it back outside, gear in hand.
Funny thing is, this is the third time I have this happen (once before it ended a run, once as now the protagonist somehow got away). Underestimating TorGal is generally a bad idea; the only thing that kept Hubblepot alive was his excellent saves. Still, the good news is that TorGal and his Trolls are now separated from the Yuan-Ti Mages (they never showed up while we were gathering our gear, guess they ran back to their starting point). Which means it should be much easier to beat them. I'll have Hubblepot tanking with dual Fireshields, Ghost Armor, Blur, Mirror Image, DUHM.. the whole nine yards. Let's see how it works out.
TorGal.. yesh. That is one nasty troll. Against every buff under the sun and two Fireshields, TorGal still easily managed to get through Hubblepot's MI/Stoneskin and deal some damage. After Lower Resistance x2, Greater Malison, Doom and 2x Flamestrike, TorGal FINALLY goes down, and we can clear the scant few remaining trolls.
We stumbled over the Yuan-Ti Mages to the south, but without TorGal, a handful of Skeleton Warriors took care of them. We also killed the Umberhulks (again.. no TorGal backing 'em up, so piece of cake), swiped the gold/gems/scroll from the stash, and reported our moderate success to Nalia.
That was one truly close call. When those Greater Commands started putting the entire party down, I was already mentally preparing to bring Fuller some bolts for the umpteenth time... glad I am that mighty Hubblepot lives to fight another day!
Hubblepot applies his trademark Invisibility 10' Radius, and the party arrives uneventfully at the Copper Coronet. Feeling rather sheepish for getting everyone else killed, drinks are on Hubblepot for the rest of the night. And there are a few drinks.
Hubblepot is now a L10/L11 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
Gilyn and his war party have made good progress. I'll summarize here, highlighting for every quest the most eventful moments.
Candlekeep revisited
The party enters the library with the intention of taking out Rieltar and his clique, but Sarevok beats them to it. This is complete thoughtlessness on my part. I have the party explore the upper levels first. It's a shame for Yeslick especially, that he didn't get the chance to exact justice for Rieltar's deceit. At least the evil wizard is no more. In the caves below Candlekeep, Xan casts invisibility on Gilyn so he can disarm the web traps. Prat and his fellows die for their complicity in the Iron Throne's evil exploits. The approach is similar to the one taken at the Iron Throne HQ. The same prebuffs are cast, and skeletons for support. The skeletons also allow Faldorn to cast Insect Plague from out of sight of the enemy. It neutralizes the warriors. The mages escape the AoE but not Kivan's dispelling arrows, wich leave them defenseless.
The skeletons also kill the two greater basilisks, one of which drops a scroll of Invisibility 10' Radius, the scroll my BG1 parties tend to miss the most since it's only available as a random drop. The party insists on resting even though it means having to kill a couple of phase spiders. Well-rested they have no difficulty with the ogre mages they had managed to slip past on the way in. And guess what one of them drops? Another Invis 10' Radius scroll... What are the odds of that?
Ice Island
Upon entering the dungeon the combat log shows that Andris and his two friends already have a MGoI up, and thanks to @GrimJim it is quite clear when the spell runs out. We use the same strategy with extensive preparation: Animate Dead (x4), MSD, Blur, MI for Xan, PfE 15' Radius, Remove Fear, Strength of One, Bless, Chant, Haste. Insect Plague cast at one of the skeletons. The party is never at risk, even though a Teleport Field makes fighting the enemy a bit more tedious. Yeslick for instance prefers to use Ashideena against stoneskinned mages rather than sling bullets. Andris wisely hides and waits out the Insect Plague, but when he shows up, another arrow of dispelling seals his fate.
I find this the hardest battle because you're dealing with three mages at the same time. The other encounters are much easier. Cuchol (whom we had had given the wardstone to see what woud happen) and Garan both fall to Gilyn's backstabs,
and Tellan to ranged attacks with Yeslick's innate Dispel and another arrow of dispelling used. The encounter with Dezkiel, in an extra area added by UB, is basically more of the same.
Interlude
The party wraps up some unfinished business after this, including dealing with Silke and snatching four potions of defense from Feldepost's men, and dispatching Kahrk. Kivan had an arrow of slaying for the occasion. But Kahrk manages to cast PfMW right before the arrow hits...
Skeletons occupy the ogre mage, as the others wait out the PfMW. Another arrow of dispelling (boy do I love those!) leaves its life ready for the taking.
Island of Balduran
There's a slightly disturbing moment when Gilyn fails to land a backstab and the sirine queen confuses/feebleminds him, but with Kivan and Yeslick around, he was never in danger really.
Yeslick and Branwen manage to tank small packs of 3-5 wolfweres; Gilyn and Kivan provide ranged support with acid arrows. Gilyn accidentally triggers the showdown with Karoug and Daese & co by taking the wrong flight of stairs. They follow him downstairs, to Kivan's advantage: it allows Gilyn to loot the Sword of Balduran, a second weapon that Kivan can fight Karoug with. Instead of going for high mastery in longbows, I had Kivan take a pip in bastard swords, just for this quest. Out of sight of Karoug and Daese, Gilyn successfully places four snares which should soften up Karoug. Kivan buffs with storm giant strength, dexterity, fortitude, mind focusing, heroism (2x), defense, speed, and regen, but that turns out to be overkill. Surprisingly Gilyn's snares kill Karoug. Kivan can focus on hitting Daese with his arrows, forcing her to take wolfwere form. Buffed as he is, he has no trouble with the remaining wolfweres (and werewolves when they turn against the party).
As the companions have helped Maralee, Delaney and others, the villagers speak up for Gilyn, convincing Kaishas to let the party leave in peace (an SCS feature I believe). Back in Ulgoth's Beard Baresh is a huge pain. I'm still unsure as to whether it's intentional or not, but he turns into two(!) greater werewolves that are stuck in the same position. Kivan, with pretty much the same buffs has to quaff several extra healing potions to survive the duel.
Durlag's Tower (Lower Levels)
The main challenge here is dealing with all those traps. Gilyn's Find Traps skill at level 9 is only 60. He uses Yeslick's Gauntlets of Dexterity, Rogue Rebalancing's Deep Red Ioun Stone (+1 dex) and Masterbelt (+10% find traps, set traps, and open locks), and potions of perception for 100 FT. In order not compromise Yeslick's tankiness, Gilyn fully explores each level alone, before enemies are fought.
On level 1 buffed and hasted skeletons, helped by Gilyn's snares, deal with Love and they tank Pride.
Avarice's Cloudkill and backstab take 42 HPs from Gilyn but focused fire prevents further harm.
Yeslick and Branwen, who both wear free action rings tank Fear and get ranged support from Gilyn and Kivan.
Level 2 brings one major upset: one of the companions triggers an undetected trap that was hitherto unbeknownst to me, on the false stairway. It drops a Stinking Cloud and activates three skeleton warriors. Xan and Faldorn, invisible like most of the time, have nothing to fear, but the same cannot be said of the others. Kivan passes out, which is not surprising as he wears the Claw of Kazgaroth. Branwen, Yeslick and Gilyn fortunately make their saves. All three immediately swig potions of magic shielding. Interstingly a skeleton right next to Kivan chooses to attack Gilyn, who's a bit further away, and a ranged skeleton warrior does the same. It means Kivan gets to live but it also means Gilyn has to fear for his life. In the cramped chamber he has tremendous difficulty getting away from his pursuers.
He barely manages to escape with an invisibility potion. Branwen and Yeslick, and even Kivan during a short awakening, deal with the skeleton warriors.
Level 3 goes smoothly, until the chessboard. Yeslick activate all the statues at once, and the adventurers manage to slay two of the three Greater Wyverns for the party. Teleportation to the chessboard is still not working in my install. Xan casts Invis 10' Radius on the party and everyone gets 100% electricity resistance from potions. With the console the party is placed on the chessboard. They haven't finished buffing yet, behind the opposition, when the King casts a detection spell.
This changes the plan considerably. The party decides to strike. 2x wand of the heavens + 1x wand of frost + 3x necklace of missiles kills some pawns and severly injures the King. This opening salvo is followed up by physical attacks, with Yeslick charging in with Ashideena and the others with ranged attacks. Gilyn's buffs, including PfElectricty get removed, and he also receives aggro from a Rook (archer) and a Knight. Their King then disappears but the tab button still displays his name. Gilyn's HPs diminish rapidly so the companions, relying on the tab button, throw another massive fire bomb in the King's general direction, and that kills him.
The final level poses no difficulties to the party. The Demon Knight is too occupied with Faldorn's insects and Branwen and Yeslick's skeletons to do someting against the bullets and arrows hitting it from different angles.
Interlude
On their way to Ulgoth's Beard the companions run into four aggressive Red Wizards. Speaking to them and immediately retreating leads to them clustering together. One arrow of detonation (Kivan) and five fireballs (four from necklace) later, they're gone.
Aec'Letec
I'm a bit lazy: I'm not too interested in fighting nameless cult enforcers, I want the boss battle. The party reaches the ritual room invisibly, and finds a corner away from Tracea Carol to pre-buff. We role-play this as an example of the invisible gorilla experiment, with the cultists too engrossed by their summoning ritual to notice the party. In addition to the usual skeleton summons and spell buffs, each party members receive 2-4 potions out of cloud giant strength, heroism, defense, invulnerability, magic protection, speed. We're not stingy today. Gilyn sets three snares (he fails with one). Skeletons again charge in first, enabling Faldorn to cast Insect Plague unmolested. That spell proves quite effective in that it causes Aec'Letec to panic repeatedly. Xan summons a phase spider (Spider Spawn). Kivan goes after Tracea with arrows of dispelling and acid arrows. The others focus on the static cultists. Tracea doesn't accomplish anything beyond summoning an ettercap before she falls.
Kivan is just quick enough to quaff a potion of mirrored eyes when a death gaze is directed at him. Xan casts a Malison and Faldorn transforms into a sword spider, hoping that she and the phase spider can poison the cultists.
Xan saves against a death gaze (before he could actually drink his potion), which is favorable because it means Kivan won't have to fire a dispelling arrow at him. Faldorn, Branwen, Gilyn, and Yeslick are never really under threat beyond a few unsuccessful castings of Silence. Before long all the cultists are slain. The party assault Aec'Letec with missile weapons, with Gilyn claiming the kill.
Comments
Previous updates:
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At the Bandit Camp the Crew did some running and shooting to kill a number of enemies. However, with Venkt appearing and Taurgosz chasing after using an oil of speed they decided discretion was the better part of valor and ran away. Coming back they bumped into Molkar's ambush, but made pretty short work of them.
Back at the Camp, Taurgosz got to them quickly - and quickly died.
Returning once more they now had fewer enemies to face, without many ice arrows left and no haste. That made things much easier and the Crew were able to finish off the remaining enemies without too many problems.
After looting the Camp, the Crew reported in to Officer Vai. That pushed reputation up to 20, but I decided to still not buy anything until I could get charisma up to 20 as well with the Helm of Glory. Before they could get that though they had to get through the Cloakwood. The first area was no problem, with Seniyad failing to complete a spell.
At the mine the surrounding area was cleared before Vito charmed Genthore and pulled him away for disposal. Drasus was then activated and chased the Crew to the edge of the map where he fought and died alone. Kysus and Rezdan were then shot at. The latter managed to dire charm Vito, prompting a general retreat, but soon enough they were back to finish the job despite Vito getting held.
Inside the mine, Al successfully sent the lightning bolt trap into Hareishan's guards.
Possibly the easy victory over Davaeorn when I had been gearing up for a longer fight led to a lapse in concentration - or possibly it was just the end of a long night. Or, more probably, I'm just an idiot.
In order to keep XP aligned the others went to get Carlo raised before coming back and flooding the mine. They'll be moving on to the City shortly.
Vito - L7, 97 HPs, 403 kills, 1 death, **** scimitar / ** darts
Baby Face - L6, 91 HPs, 239 kills, 1 death, **** long sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L7, 92 HPs, 234 kills, 1 death, **** axe / ** dual wielding
Carlo - L7, 93 HPs, 317 kills, 1 death, **** flail / ** sling
Bugsy - L7, 97 HPs, 259 kills, 0 deaths, **** hammer / ** shortbow
Al (PC) - L7, 85 HPs, 386 kills **** 2-handed sword / ** longbow
1st report
2nd report
3rd report
Baldur's Gate Side-Quests and some Unfinished Business on the Sword Coast
With a major blow dealt to the throne and one of their powerful agents dead, it is time to relax again, much like when Tazok had been beaten. The party travels to Baldur's Gate and gets involved in many side quests in the city as well as in long overdue quests and encounters in the countryside.
Gilyn allies himself with Baldur's Gate's thieves guild and takes commissions from his friend Aldeth, a gnome named Brevlik and others. The companions survive Marek's poisoning of their rations (convincing Jalantha Mistmyr to hand over her scroll without requiring the tome of wisdom, a BGQE feature I guess).
On the coast, Yeslick, who has the best saves vs death gets knocked out by Shoal's kiss. (So indeed not killed @Grond0). Severely injured, he gets up and runs off with his boots of speed, straight into a new spawn of dread wolves. Faldorn quickly casts a Web to hold most of the monsters. Droth casts a magic missile at Xan, but Xan's Malison and Emotion put the ogre mage to sleep, which decides the confrontation in the party's favor.
The same approach as with the sirines works wonders against the Wolf of Ulcaster. It doesn't even get to summon any ghouls.
Dealing with the Iron Throne
Time to confront the Iron Throne. The party takes an almost honorable approach to this battle. That is, no hostilities occur before the enemy has gone hostile themselves and the stairs are not used at all. The caveat is that invisible Branwen and hidden Gilyn and Kivan go in first to deal with the Shennaras so that the companions can properly position themselves upon arrival. Branwen's skeletons draw the attention of the invisible Shennaras but not the still neutral others. The cleric, the archer and the bounty hunter finish both assassins with Branwen taking manageable backstab damage.
Together they go up the stairs on the right hand side. Zhalimar does his speech, and the party wins the first round thanks to Gilyn's snares.
(edited to include links to previous posts)
Maybe a F/M/C? I agree btw with your analogy. So many options with an F/M/C. Maybe it would be cool if several players here rolled one and started playing one at the same time, comparing different approaches to different challenges. I have my ideas of how I would play a F/M/C at higher levels but I'm sure @semiticgod, you and others will come up with surprising tactics.
Anyway, thank you for saying hi, and until next time!
Previous entries: 1, 2
Quick reference to Saoirse's game: I usually like to use the ambush by Lamalha's amazon assassins to demonstrate some of the tactics employed by my characters during mid-game, so let's not break the habit (just let me know if you find it boring
Saorise always travels under Invisibility and this gives her the initial advantage over our would-be pursuers. Unaware of any threat, Maneira and Telka remain visible.
Big mistake, ladies.
Saoirse's running Strength, Ghost Armor, Blur, MIs, Improved Invisibility and Pro Evil. She's untargetable and her saves vs. spell are comfortably negative.
Emotion: Hopelessness does not see much use in our battle routine, but otherwise is a very competent spell. It's funny how when you look at the spell description, the actual effect seems rather drastic: Sometimes they can be heard to exclaim things such as "I lay down and die," or "I'm going home." Even Disintegration sounds like a blessing compared to THAT. However, Zeela embodied the description perfectly.
With no means of defense nor offense, it was just a matter of time till Lamalha joined the rest of the crew. And the Potion of Power is ours.
I'll cover the Cloakwood next, as promised.
Regards,
B.
I cannot imagine a solo noreload fmc making it through the IA saga anymore. I can try though. Maybe I will run one next to my new party.
I've heard that somebody else is now handling the mod, which is good news. But since the mod is designed to be impossible to beat without using a narrow set of prescribed strategies (to the extent that scripts can induce game-breaking bugs if you don't play the game the right way), it wouldn't surprise me if the updates had truly stamped out the last alternative pathways for beating the game.
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3
Ah, the Cloakwood Forest with its autumn vibe! I was visiting a friend of mine in Nordmarka (gigantic woodland close to Oslo in Norway) this September and it felt EXACTLY like Cloakwood. However, after couples of days and nights spent in there, I can confirm that there's no evidence of Shadow Druids nor Wyverns nor indeed any Iron Throne activities whatsoever. Bummer.
Let's get back to Saoirse. Actually, there's not much to talk about en route to the mines, other than that we've collected the Cloak of Non-Detection and cleared the spider forest with Pro Poison and Potion of Freedom, thus earning access to L4 spells and darts proficiency. With Improved Invisibility at hand, Saorise fancies a detour to the Beregost area to conclude some unfinished business with Silke and Kirian (after which she's ambushed by Lamalha, as was covered in the previous post).
Silke yields to our newly discovered skills with Darts of Stunning and we, as a reward for our friendly intervention, stock on Potions of Defense by pickpocketing the survivors (while hiring Garrick to do the dirty job).
Despite a critically missed backstab, Kirian and her minions are disassembled with Emotion, Blindness and Hold Person and bested.
Back in Cloakwood, Drasus and his crew are cheesed with Cloudkill and Web scrolls from afar - the most difficult part was picking up the loot, really. I'm not particularly proud of this one, but we've got more important matters to worry about so I'll accept it as a collateral damage to Saoirse's style.
We raid the chest inside the barracks for second Potion of Magic Shielding (the first one was dropped by Drasus) and approach Davaeorn's lair under Invisibility.
Saoirse outruns the traps in the entrance corridor with Boots of Speed and lures the Doom Guards to their doom (haha, that's a bad one) via Wand of Frost. EDIT: I've realized it's Battle Horrors so no silly pun intended.
After that she applies light buffs in the form of Pro Cold (spell), Pro Fire (spell), Blur and Shield, mostly to induce a Remove Magic cast from Davaeorn. Unfortunately, stupid me gets caught in Davaeorn's sequenced Web / Stinking Cloud and, for a brief moment, Saorise falls unconscious to the vapours. Having zero save vs. spell score didn't help as Stinking Cloud uses save vs. poison, which is our Achilles' heel because of Claw of Kazgaroth. The guards are just starting to rush in.
And so, once again, Saorise has to quaff a valuable potion in order to escape a dangerous situation imposed by none other than myself. Mumbling complaints under her breath, she gets back on her feet.
Drawing upon holy luck, we avoid getting dispelled by Davaeorn's Remove Magic. This allows us to complete our buffs with Potion of Pro Fire, Potion of Pro Cold, Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration and Improved Invisibility and switch to offense.
First, dispel Davaeorn's illusions...
...and then press on with Wand of Fire, Molotovs of Fiery Burning and cold / acid arrows.
I still haven't figured out why our Darts of Wounding did not force Davaeorn (who's not running ProMW) to make the save against poison on hit. Or maybe he did make all of his saves and it just wasn't shown in the log. Such mysteries.
Unable to poison him, Saorise buffs with Strength and proposes to Davaeorn a melee duel of honor. It's just that neither thiefs nor illusionist tend to play fair.
Onward to the big city!
Regards,
B.
I never liked the mod. And even if I did, I never would have played or immersed myself in the community. The IA culture was authoritarian, elitist and conflict oriented- the precise opposite of what a player community should be, in my opinion. Hopefully the community has changed under new leadership. While it was never to my taste, the IA mod did have its merits. It was a shame that that work was buried under a mountain of buffle-headedness.
Anyhoo, my intent wasn't really to talk about IA: It was to talk about F/M/Cs. IA only came up because my limited experience with the class happened to have occurred in IA. Let's talk about F/M/C's, if we're to continue this (And we should do it over in the lounge, I suppose).
Best,
A.
Good progress, glad you got lucky with that Stinking Cloud.
As for darts of wounding, I've also had disapppointing results with the so far. Gilyn's level 4 proficiency went to darts, but I haven't been able to poison anyone with them yet. Gilyn kept them for use against wizards with their poor saves vs death and to disrupt casting. But I think in 2.5 they no longer go through Stoneskin and MI. A justifiable change but it greatly reduces their usefulness against the one enemy type I like to use them against...
While I am semi-sorta-kinda feeling an urge to play, I don't think that'll happen. I'm more in to RL adventures these days. I just walked from Mexico to Canada and I'm currently in the preparatory stages of a longer journey. These trips are a lot like NR runs: you have your equipment, you meet fellow adventures, and you try not to die. It's fun.
I may noodle around on the forums a bit over the next couple weeks, but I doubt I'll play. I'll vanish again in early November.
Anyhoo, happy trails to all the active challengers!
Best,
A.
Semaj Breached Baeloth, but otherwise didn't apparently use any Remove Magic spells, so my FMC just tanked his spells with a Potion of Magic Shielding until Indira, a mod-introduced NPC, was able to kill him with Arrows of Dispelling (which took a while; he managed to go invisible once or twice and had a Stoneskin Contingency). Xan and Alora both died early partly because Potions of Firebreath are touch-range to activate, which screwed up our positioning, but Yeslick managed to kite Sarevok until all of the other enemies were dead (everyone pre-buffed with Oils of Speed, so everyone was very fast).
Then Baeloth tanked and kited Sarevok with Mirror Image and Stoneskin until we killed the skeletons with Wand of Fire charges and missile attacks. After that, we just kited Sarevok to death.
The FMC is very strong. It has a set of very excellent options in spite of its slow leveling and limited spell slots:
1. It can deal heavy damage with Borok's Fist and slings.
2. It can maintain strong defenses using Shield and Mirror Image.
3. It can use all wands.
4. It can cast Sanctuary and eventually Invisibility to avoid combat.
Honestly, though, Charname's class doesn't seem to matter much in a party run. You've got five other characters to do the real work; Charname's only job is to not die.
It was a rough run, though. Aside from Item Randomizer screwing up our normal plans, we permanently lost Tenya to a chunking by Slythe (which was a bug that could warrant a reload, but meh) and also lost Coran to a mod-introduced dialogue that makes him leave the party at the Firewine Ruins. I couldn't tell if he was supposed to return or not after we completed the relevant quest, so I wasn't sure if using the console to get him back would constitute a cheat or a bugfix. In the end, I just replaced him.
Party runs are a lot more fun. Due to all of the setbacks, our average character level was a little over 6 by the endgame, so Xan and Alora both died in like two hits, but even in a weakened state, we were able to handle the challenges without relying on wands for everything or screwing with the enemy's AI. It feels more active and dynamic to work with a full party.
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After flooding the mine the Crew went to Beregost temple to hand in a wyvern head and took the opportunity to ensure no-one else would be offered a similar deal.
In Baldur's Gate they worked their way systematically through all the City encounters. They picked up the Helm of Glory from Jardak
I made a mistake in somehow dropping or selling one of the skyship components, but decided to go and kill the Halruuan mage anyway.
Deciding I should aim to get the last level for the Crew before returning to Candlekeep, they went back to Durlag's Tower. Al used the PfP scroll from the Iron Throne to deal with the basilisks on the roof before the Crew went after Kirinhale - a general attack on her killed her almost immediately.
Reporting in to Duke Eltan, the Crew were transported to Candlekeep. They didn't use any protection, but saved against a couple of charm spells before dispelling arrows and melee tore through the ogre magi.
I decided not to bother with more TotSC content, but push on to SoD - so went in search of Slythe and Krystin. Slythe quickly died in melee, but Krystin was more difficult than I expected as a result of constantly disappearing from plain sight - I presume that means she's been classed as a shadowdancer / mage in v2.5. However, eventually she stayed visible a bit too long and suffered the consequences.
I then decided not to use charms for the palace fight, but did dig out some of the many potions not used in the run to date. Dispelling arrows made the dopplegangers vulnerable and they all died pretty quickly - with Belt still totally untouched.
There was a problem going through the maze when I thought that all 3 lightning traps had tripped, but one of the bolts I saw must have been an earlier one that had gone through a wall. As a result when unprotected characters followed Al they were hit hard.
It's a while since I did the Sarevok fight with SCS, so I went for the trusty old use of an invisibility potion to put all of the enemies except Angelo in a corner.
The game didn't automatically translate to SoD, so I had to import it. Unfortunately that's meant the Crew have lost all their containers stuffed with valuable items and lost all the reputation they had gained. However, given they tend to use items so sparingly anyway they should be able to struggle on in SoD.
Vito - L8, 92 HPs (incl. -16 from Claw), 490 kills, 1 death, **** scimitar / ** darts
Baby Face - L8, 102 HPs, 316 kills, 1 death, **** long sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L8, 108 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 294 kills, 1 death, **** axe / ** dual wielding
Carlo - L8, 103 HPs, 373 kills, 1 death, **** flail / ** sling
Bugsy - L8, 107 HPs, 325 kills, 0 deaths, **** hammer / ** shortbow
Al (PC) - L8, 96 HPs, 461 kills **** 2-handed sword / ** longbow
@Grond0, congrats! I don't know if you've started in SoD already, but what works for me, instead of importing, is using the console commands to make an area transition, e.g. back to the Undercity and then back into Bhaal's Temple if needed. That triggers the transition to SoD for me.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1020145/#Comment_1020145
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1020383/#Comment_1020383
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1020421/#Comment_1020421
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1020483/#Comment_1020483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1020729/#Comment_1020729
The Crew are pretty tough by SoD standards, but still sped things up in the prologue by using a number of fireballs to make their way through the enemy hordes. Korlasz tried to give up after her buffs were dispelled, but was shot down anyway.
In the City the Crew had lost all their valuable trinkets being saved for SoD, but were still able to raise a fair amount of money from selling items - including those looted from the bodies of NPCs.
The first action in SoD proper was going vampire hunting - or more precisely vampire hunters hunting. Vito had a single dart of stunning left over from a few she'd found at some point and tried that out on the mage - successfully.
Back at the Coast Way Crossing, the Crew cleared the area before going into the dwarven dig. They picked up the bard's treasure before pressing on to the next level. I was concerned about the fear effect of the mummy there, but everyone saved against that while pulling undead back to the entrance.
The trash mobs in the Troll Claw Woods didn't cause much problem and the Crew set off for the Forest of Wyrms. First though they had an ambush stop to sort out some orcs and trolls - which they did.
I was getting a bit too tired to be still playing by now and paid the price for that when advancing rather heedlessly into the spider cave - Vito was caught in a web tangle and couldn't be saved from all the attacking spiders despite reducing their numbers with a couple of fireballs.
Vito - L8, 92 HPs (incl. -16 from Claw), 58 kills (+490 in BGEE), 3 deaths, **** scimitar / ** darts
Baby Face - L8, 102 HPs, 74 kills (+316 in BGEE), 1 death, **** long sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L8, 108 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 50 kills (+294 in BGEE), 1 death, **** axe / ** dual wielding
Carlo - L8, 103 HPs, 62 kills (+373 in BGEE), 1 death, **** flail / ** sling
Bugsy - L8, 107 HPs, 72 kills (+325 in BGEE), 0 deaths, **** hammer / ** shortbow
Al (PC) - L8, 96 HPs, 95 kills (+461 in BGEE), **** 2-handed sword / ** longbow
Anyhow, so we all start the FMC in bg1? I have not enough experience to tackle SoD solo, having played it only once (still noreload though), but okay I'm game.
Edit: oh wait, Semi went with a full party.
Importing from Siege of Dragonspear into BG2EE SoA.
Difficulty: Core Rules, max HP on level-up.
Self-imposed restrictions: No using unidentified items, no recharging items by selling and buying them back.
Mods: Full-on SCS, including full prebuffs. See spoiler for WeiDU.
Initialise mod (all other components require this): v31 RC2
Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v31 RC2
Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v31 RC2
More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2
Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2
Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2
Modify the Harm spell so it does damage rather than reducing target to 1 hp -> Enemy and player Harm spells both do 150 hp of damage: v31 RC2
Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v31 RC2
Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v31 RC2
Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v31 RC2
Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v31 RC2
Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v31 RC2
Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v31 RC2
Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2
Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v31 RC2
Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2
True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v31 RC2
Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v31 RC2
Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v31 RC2
Replace +1 magical weapons with Fine ones: v31 RC2
Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Stores sell a maximum of 5 Arrows of Dispelling: v31 RC2
Remove the Shield of Balduran from the game: v31 RC2
Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v31 RC2
Move Vhailor's Helm into Throne of Bhaal: v31 RC2
Move the Cloak of Mirroring: v31 RC2
Move the Robe of Vecna into Throne of Bhaal: v31 RC2
Make the healing and resurrection powers of the Rod of Resurrection into separate abilities: v31 RC2
Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v31 RC2
Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2
Improved shapeshifting: v31 RC2
Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2
Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v31 RC2
Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v31 RC2
Remove unrealistically helpful items from certain areas: v31 RC2
Remove unrealistically convenient ammunition from certain areas -> Remove all ammo from random containers: v31 RC2
Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): v31 RC2
Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2
Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2
Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2
Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v31 RC2
Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2
Smarter general AI: v31 RC2
Better calls for help: v31 RC2
Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn get HLAs: v31 RC2
Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2
Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v31 RC2
Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2
Improved Spiders: v31 RC2
Improved golems: v31 RC2
Improved fiends -> Fiends have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2
Smarter genies -> Genies have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2
Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v31 RC2
Smarter dragons -> Dragons have a substantial hit point increase: v31 RC2
Smarter beholders -> Don't give beholder rays any chance of burning through spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v31 RC2
Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies: v31 RC2
Smarter githyanki: v31 RC2
Improved Vampires: v31 RC2
Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v31 RC2
Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v31 RC2
Improved Shade Lord: v31 RC2
Spellcasting Demiliches: v31 RC2
More resilient trolls: v31 RC2
Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Mildly increased difficulty: v31 RC2
Improved Random Encounters: v31 RC2
Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Enhanced spirit trolls (as in Tactics): v31 RC2
Improved Unseeing Eye: v31 RC2
Improved Bodhi (Tactics Remix) -> "Toned-down" version of the original Tactics Improved Bodhi, with SCSII scripting: v31 RC2
Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v31 RC2
Improved Sahuagin: v31 RC2
Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v31 RC2
Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v31 RC2
Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v31 RC2
Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v31 RC2
Improved Fire Giant temple: v31 RC2
Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v31 RC2
Improved Abazigal's Lair: v31 RC2
Improved Minor Encounters: v31 RC2
Protagonist: Hubblepot Gogglebur, L9/L10 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
Hubblepot Gogglebur, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, BG2EE SoA Update 1
Last BG1EE update found here
Last SoD update found here
BG2EE SoA updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
Hubblepot is sprung by his partner-in-epic-crimes Imoen, and the game is afoot! Immediately joined by Minsc and Jaheira, the quartet set out to make the lands a better place.
Hubblepot shall gather unto him a party of undeniably Good characters: Minsc, Jaheira (she's really Neutral Good...), Imoen (temporarily replaced by Yoshimo), Anomen and Mazzy.
We'll have plenty of divine power (1 1/2 Clerics, 1/2 Druid). Arcane power is acceptable at 1 1/2 Mages, but could be better. But, we will have 2 1/2 Fighters to cover our bases, one of which has spectacular saves against almost everything. Oh, and the obligatory 1/10 Thief (just enough to cover locks and traps).
Proficiency-wise, I don't really know yet. I always give Mazzy Axe proficiency, in the vain hope that we'll live long enough that she gets to wield Axe of the Unyielding, but as for the rest, we'll just have to wait and see.
But first thing's first. We escape the dungeon without much fanfare; Hubblepot had a full spell selection that proved very useful in navigating the dangers of Irenicus' lair, and we did not even have to rest once.
The most notable occurance was Ulvaryl getting utterly destroyed by the Shadow Thief Mage, followed by the Mage casting Chromatic Orb at herself (?) twice. Eh.
Freed from imprisonment but bereft of Imoen, the party assists in cleansing the Circus of miscreants (Hubblepot had a True Sight), and also purchases a few Scroll Cases and a Gem Bag before heading into the slums. We agree to gather the requisite sum, and opt to begin by liberating the Copper Coronet of slavers (recruiting Anomen in the process). Hubblepot drops a Cloudkill on the dread Beastmaster, but realizes his folly when charging in after the fog dissipates, only to find said Beastmaster and a bundle of enemies bunched up against the far wall. Should've aimed a little bit farther afield. So, we take some damage clearing the critters, but nothing major.
The Sewers are stomped through, Cloudkill (one cast, one Wand) being used to down the Hobgoblin groups. A simple Web would've probably done as well, but Hubblepot has bad memories of Hobgoblins from Siege of Dragonspear, and takes no chances. We emerge into the beached Slaver ship, and attack!
The Priest of Cyric is slain first, and once he is gone, any hope the enemy had of victory is gone as well.
The Slaver Wizards are treated to Skeleton Warriors and Insect Plague, from which they do not recover.
On our way back to Hendak, the entire party gets some small measure of enjoyment watching the despicable murdering duo of Cohrvale and Bregg get their comeuppance, the daft dastardly deviants trying and failing to bring down a Fire Elemental with non-magical weapons.
Alright! That pushed us a little north of 15000 gold. Next stop, getting Mazzy. We travel to the Government District to-
... Yoshimo's going to die, isn't he? Yep.
Slowed Yoshimo was by far the weakest target available, and man oh man, they just went for him, full tilt. No Invisibility potions, so no escape. As you can see though, Jaheira helped turn the tides: An Insect Plague was helpful, and with her Iron Skins she was able to get Call Lightning off as well. Hubblepot and Minsc both take a real beating, but we suffer no further casualties.
Side note: Jaheira had Wondrous Recall available, so she instantly Raised Yoshimo using Harper's Call, and with her three Call Woodland Beings, we pretty much restored everyone to full health. Good stuff.
While in the Government District, we shell out the 5000 gold for a magical license. I already got a warning from accidentally casting Friends before shopping for scroll cases, and I really don't need my absent-mindedness causing the run to end due to a sudden influx of high-level Mages and their inevitable summoned Demons. We also take the time to rescue Viconia and get another suit of Plate Mail.
After talking to Delon, it's off to Imnesvale.
We pick up the little sidequests here, and then tackle the Mimic with the aid of some Skeleton Warriors (everyone but Minsc is turned invisible via Hubblepot's Invisibility 10' Radius, with Minsc under the effect of Free Action). The Skeletons then assist Confusion-immune Minsc in mopping up the Umberhulks here.
On a related note, as we exit the Mimic cave, we stumble upon some Shadows. I had forgotten how vulnerable Shadow Fiends are against Lightning, but Jaheira kindly demonstrates this. I just though it was kind of funny seeing Jaheira dealing the big damage for once.
We press on to the former Temple of Amaunator. Yoshimo almost does a repeat of his performance against Suna Seni (some of the Shadow Fiends are inexplicably not killed by the reflected light), but the entire party comes charging in, and we manage to save the battered thief in the nick of time! Hooray!
Our lack of magical weapons forces creativity. I discover (I'm guessing most people already know this) that yes, Shillelagh is considered a magical weapon for purposes of what it can hit.
A small army of Undead loyal to us in turn hold off a small army of Undead very much not loyal to us.
Also pictured: Hubblepot sharing his keen tactical acumen and directions with the spectacularly unimpressed Undead.
Finally, we reach and recruit Mazzy, whom upon immediately leveling gets + in Axes. It'll be a long road to Grand Mastery, but once she hits level 12 she'll at least be Specialized.
We press on, and as we're running out of summons, Jaheira at long last breaks out a few Fire Elementals (we get the bug where one spell summons two of them, so a total of three).
My face when I realize that the only creature in the dungeon that can hit Fire Elementals is the Bone Golem, and thus we could've just let them do all the work:
We loot everything and open the door to the Shadow Dragon, but refrain from going further.
SCS Shade Lord is truly frightening, and I've no designs on dealing with him just yet.
I probably could, but probably isn't good enough for no-reload.. I need to be sure.
So, we retreat back to Imnesvale. We could go for Imoen right now, but we'd be all but broke in the Underdark, and there's some interesting stuff for sale there. Let's do another sidequest, and actually finish it this time.
Mazzy needs a proper axe, and through his divinations, Hubblepot has determined where to procure one...
that castle now filled with horrors, De'Arnise keep!
Following a good night's rest, we head towards the Slums to speak with Nalia.
As we then head to her keep, the Renfield questline finally kicks into gear.
By all means: It'll mean a small bit of quest experience for each party member, and some additional minor loot and scrolls. Prebek and Sasha accomplish nothing beyond Slowing the party, but when we deliver the Harper assassin to Xzar...
Really Jaheira? You had to do that now, when we're on the De'Arnise clock? Sigh. Fine.
We'll just head out without y-
When it rains it pours, huh. Well, Hubblepot has had enough of this. We will still have to rest to pass the time until Jaheira returns, so we unleash the full might of Hubblepot's spell book.
Greater Malison and Slow are devastating to these Orogs, and once we start getting some Skeleton Warriors on the field, it's all over. The Mage makes an extreme nuisance of herself (as they are wont to do), but in the end only manages to shave a few hitpoints off Hubblepot using her MMM. Good riddance.
That over with, we resume our march to the De'Arnise keep. We speak with Nalia, then nip inside just far enough to reach and speak with Daleson. There, since the quest is now officially started, we should have as much time as we want to clear the keep. We loot what we can reach without fighting anything, then head back outside, and return uneventfully to the Copper Coronet. Following resting, Jaheira does indeed return, and the party departs to pay another visit to the Harpers.
Fortunately, Hubblepot scried their wicked intent, and the party bursts into the Harper base, spells blazing and weapons wielded! With several Breach and True Sight at our disposal, we roll right over the would-be Harpers (the tone was set when the enemy Mages started by casting Chromatic Orb and Blindness... not exactly enchantments of earth-shattering potency).
Well, that was an exercise in futi-
Are there any other Harper bases you would have us visit, Jaheira? Perhaps you have a Cleric nemesis somewhere with a deceptively potent ring? No? Because it's fine by me if you do.
That mess dealt with, we once again return to the Copper Coronet, this time taking great care in our spell selection: Ideally, we want to be able to clear the entire De'Arnise keep, including Golems and Tor'Gal, in one go. I believe this quite possible with our current party.
Thus prepared, we head out for De'Arnise Keep, and of course get some random scrubs ambushing us. Well, maybe we can just beat them down, quaff a few potions and be on our way, without having to waste any spells.
Holy Backstabbing Frickadels! Hubblepot rushes to a corner, and has just enough time to quaff a Potion of Invisibility before another backstab finishes him off. And these are complete bloody scrubs... they don't even have +1 weapons, sheesh. Fine. You wanted it, you got it: Enjoy some Fire Elementals and high-tier Enchantment spells.
You'll note that, in Hubblepot's absence, Yoshimo got treated to several backstabs. Well, the scrubs got what they deserved in the end. We'll have to rest once we reach the Keep.
Friggin' Spirit Trolls, man. We arrived to a Spirit Troll and four regular Trolls immediately setting upon us, and the Spirit Troll's initial Greater Command caught both Minsc and Mazzy before we could do anything.
Hubblepot's Save vs Spell is 1, so he's fine. Through a great deal of careful finagling, we manage to NOT have Mazzy and Minsc killed by the bloody Trolls. Hubblepot has to eat a Flame Strike from the Spirit Troll (but one of his Mirror Images soaks it up), so Anomen responds in kind. Enjoy being far too toastily warm, bloody Troll.
Alright, so that was pretty annoying, but maybe now we can get some rest.
... Another band of Trolls spawned the moment we were out of sight of the spawn point, but our Skeleton Warriors were still visible to said Trolls. However, by now we have Chaotic Commands up on most everyone, and focus down the Spirit Troll quickly, although we waste even more spells doing so.
Finally, we navigate a bit west, Hubblepot applies Invisibility 10' Radius, and we manage to rest uninterrupted. Phew.
This was a way too long update, but I couldn't find any good place to stop until now.
The party is back together (well, except for Imoen...), we've got money, we've got a little bit of gear, and we're all set for launching our assault on the keep proper.
Amidst all the confusion, many levels were gained, one important such being Anomen rising to Cleric level 11 (and thus unlocking a single 6th level spell, which I'll be filling with Wondrous Recall).
The Trolls won't know what hit 'em.
Hubblepot is now a L9/L11 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
Sorry, but I don't like it... Don't like it at all.
Lunkh (human male Inquisitor, Gate70); Sparky (gnome female Cleric of Talos, Grond0)
Our seventh session is less aw than shock. We've started in Pai'Na's hideout and the illithium ore in our backpacks is a clue. So off we go to find the vampires. Lassal isn't up to the job so Bodhi weighs in, and decides she will come back for us later. Lunkh wants to pose for a photo but Sparky is already heading for the exit and our next adventure.
And if I changed the rules such that I had to die if any character died, I'd probably just play with a very small party of the sturdiest NPCs I could find.
In this particular run, though, my Charname has actually been doing most of the work. Last I checked, she had almost 50% of the party kills (even in the current chapter; not just because she tackled Mutamin's Garden solo) and has been our primary tank for the entire game. She's the only one with 18 DEX and she has the highest levels as well as Mirror Image, so she's just plain sturdier than everyone else.
Unless you add on roleplaying provisions or extra restrictions, no-reload runs have a limited set of rules with a single goal, and some strategies are more successful simply because of the nature of the challenge. If Charname's death determines the success or failure of the run more than any other factor, then defensive and evasive tactics win out over the course of many iterations, and the Charnames who survive the longest tend to be those whose party members support them in that strategy.
From a realism and roleplaying perspective, having Xan run out to his death makes very little sense (well, Xan views every fight as running to his death, but that's besides the point). But it greatly increases the party's chance of success if Xan's risk-taking forces the enemy to waste critical resources that it needs to overcome the party's defenses. This means the Charname who tells Xan "don't worry; we'll raise you at the temple later" is more likely to survive in the long run.
Consider it an extension of ordinary tanking. Fighters move to the front of the line so vulnerable thieves don't get crushed; party members tank the enemy so vulnerable Charnames don't end the run by dying.
I still have some RP habits I'm not willing to shake. Even if I never plan on using a character again, I'll always burn 800 gold to raise them at a temple before kicking them out of the party (unless they're evil-aligned, in which case I don't feel much obligation to keep them alive). I also never use Imprisonment because the spell description is horrific. And I can't play evil-aligned Charnames because it just doesn't feel right to help them win. Even in IWD2, where evil characters are so much better-suited to no-reload gameplay due to late-game enemies spamming Blasphemy, I can't bring myself to play evil parties. I can't even pick impolite dialog options because it feels wrong.
But as long as Charname's primary goal is saving the world from Sarevok/Caelar/Irenicus/Melissan/Belhifet/Isair and Madae, and as long as they're not utterly evil in their methods, I'm willing to let Minsc take a few extra punches in the process.
I think of noreload as needing to be more merciless and resurrect my fallen allies rather than allow reloads to save them from the fourth wall protagonists stupidity (like walking straight across deadly traps or the, hey, let's not spend hours buffing for this fight.... splut....).
Then again, I don't resurrect in noreload runs either. /ponder
Last BG1EE update found here
Last SoD update found here
BG2EE SoA updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
Trolls aplenty await. The party presses onward into the De'Arnise keep.
Immediately, a minor flaw in Hubblepot's nearly perfect plan reveals itself: It was perhaps not entirely optimal to expect the party to be able to handle large groups of Trolls with almost no buffs.
We are literally stepping across fallen Trolls to make it further into the keep.
That was just the first group: Two Giant Trolls, five Trolls, and two Spirit Trolls. And did they do a number on us. Mazzy can tank them (sort of) with Girdle of Piercing, but Minsc gets torn to shreds if he gets in close.
We will need to be more careful with positioning.
Even with SCS, Trolls and Giant Trolls are just melee brutes. Spirit Trolls are much worse: Apart from requiring magical weapons to hit and draining STR on hit, they can cast Flame Strike and Greater Command.
Flame Strike sounds worse than it is, although it's good if you at least have Resist Fire/Cold up; Greater Command can get half the party killed easily, and absolutely must be countered with Chaotic Commands on frontliners.
We loop around the first level. More Trolls..
You really need to watch your positioning: If a Troll gets a whiff of someone in melee range with crappier AC than Mazzy, it'll follow that person at breakneck speed for quite some distance before giving up.
We head into the courtyard, easily best the Otyugh, and clear the trolls on the ramparts. We're pushing through, but taking serious damage, and we're long since out of healing spells (we're using a large stockpile of 9 HP Potions of Healing, but they are running low as well).
What's worse: We're running low on sources of Fire/Acid damage. I had expected to face groups of 3-4 Trolls, not twice that number, and so figured some 18 Arrows of Fire on Yoshimo and a MMM on Hubblepot would cover things easily. Not so. We were actually lucky that the Troll attacking Guards inside (once you lower the drawbridge) killed the Guard with Fire Arrows, because we really needed those.
After making some Dog Stew, we climb the stairs to the second floor. We manage to deal with the Yuan-Ti Mage here with minimal resource expenditure: The one-charge Wand of Summoning from Irenicus' dungeon absorbs the worst spells, and we then simply mob the Mage.
We're now out of both MMM and Arrows of Fire. But Hubblepot always has an ace up his sleeve!
Delving into his scroll case, he fishes out three scrolls of Fireball. Jaheira still has 2x Protection from Fire and 2x Resist Fire/Cold, and so applies Fire immunity to Mazzy and Minsc. Thankfully, the next group of Trolls only number three regular such creatures, and so we kill three Trolls with one scroll.
I think Hubblepot's damage taken was a result of the incessant Unholy Blight spam from the Spirit Trolls. Hard to counter pure magical damage at this level. If we had two arcane casters, I would've probably just gone crazy with Fireball/Sunfire spam while protecting the frontliners from Fire, but as all we've got is Hubblepot, we must be more conservative for the time being.
With the Trolls outside the door cleared, we head towards Glaicus. Hubblepot tries to Charm him, which fails. He then pops out a scroll of Dispel Magic, which takes! But not before Glaicus comes within inches of murdering our beloved Gnome.
That was truly stupid. One more hit by Glaicus would've ended the run. In my defense, Hubblepot had Stoneskin up, but apparently only one skin was left... it's a minor miracle the massive damage didn't interrupt Hubblepot's casting. Still, we survived.
Why was this important? Because when uncharmed, Glaicus gifts us with the Acid Head for the Flail of Ages! Which is good, because we're quite low on ways to kill off Trolls. We rush back downstairs to reassemble-
What the deuce? Four Trolls immediately pop up in front of us on the stairs when we head back down!
I guess they must've been trying to path to us (maybe Glaicus called for help when he attacked us?) but couldn't reach, and so followed us on area transition. Good thing there were four of them, as we have exactly one Arrow of Fire and one scroll each of Chromatic Orb/Melf's Acid Arrow/Flame Arrow. Just enough to take care of all of them.
That done with, Yoshimo sneaks off, carefully avoiding getting in sight of any spawn points, and forges the Flail of Ages +2. Huzzah! We can now kill Trolls with impunity. And I believe we shall.
We make our way over to Lady Delcia and her long-suffering guard. Since we still had Chaotic Commands up, we nipped into the basement, cleared the Troll spawn (we only got four total that time), and placed the Dog Stew to attract the Umber Hulks. We may clear them out after TorGal is dead, but we'll see how it goes.
Now then... Mazzy needs a new axe. And that means we need to take on some Golems.
There are three pairs: Two pairs of a Stone and Flesh golem, and one of a Clay and Iron (or Adamantine, depending on your level, but we got Iron, thankfully).
Funnily enough, the Iron Golem only activates when you pick up the arguably crappiest treasure: The Elven Court Bow +3. We grabbed the other treasures first (Frostreaver +3 for Mazzy, Kneecapper +1 for Anomen and Fire Head for the Flail of Ages), and dealt with the golems accordingly: Flesh Golems just require magical weapons and have no special abilities, while Stone Golems can cause Slow, which we countered with Free Action on Minsc and Hubblepot (Mazzy used her special shortsword to gain immunity).
Hubblepot tanked the Stone Golems: We have scrolls of Mirror Image and Stoneskin if necessary, and right now it's more important to avoid massive damage.
Here, we once more nipped downstairs to forge the completed Flail of Ages +3, which goes to Hubblepot until and unless someone else gets proficiencies to use it better.
So, there remains the Clay and Iron Golem. We could just leave the bow... but it should sell for a fair bit... and I don't like leaving things alone!
Alright. We're bringing out some big guns: Hubblepot conjures up four Skeleton Warriors (we're saving Anomen's 7HD versions for the final battle). Their job will be to soak up damage from the Iron Golem, as well as take the attacks from the Clay Golem, as the latter induces Cursed Wounds (unable to heal until Remove Curse is applied), and I simply didn't think to prepare Remove Curse.
The Iron Golem requires +3 weapons, so Minsc, Mazzy, Hubblepot and Anomen can hit it.
The Clay Golem is worse, requiring Blunt weapons, so Hubblepot and Anomen will handle that first, before joining the assault on the Iron Golem.
The plan works surprisingly well. The Iron Golem gets a few Poison Clouds off, but as it targets individual people, we scatter, and the person that gets poisoned just moves out of the cloud and quaffs an Antidote. The poor Skeleton Warriors are of course bludgeoned beyond recognition, but that was their job.
How about that: The way lies open to TorGal, and we have successfully saved almost all of our high-tier spellworks. We'll have a full complement of summons, a full set of buffs, several Lower Resistance, Breach, Greater Malison, Slow etc to deal with both TorGal and his Mages... looking good! Yoshimo makes things look even more rosy when he successfully sets three Special Snares and two regular ones. That'll be very helpful: Even if they just kill one or two of the Giant Trolls, it's still good.
We conjure four 7HD Skeleton Warriors, and attempt to conjure a Fire Elemental... but get a message that no more creatures can be summoned (?). Maybe a bug in the same vein as when you occasionally get two Elementals instead of one. Regardless, every buff we have left is applied, Minsc goes ahead and triggers TorGal, and the game is afoot!
Friggin'... gah! Trolls! TROOOOOOOOLLS!
So, what happened: The Skeleton Warriors held off TorGal and his fellow Trolls while we attempted to kill something, anything, as Yoshimo's traps only killed the Umber Hulk Elder. And we just didn't have the damage to take down anything beyond a Giant Troll. Eventually, the Yuan-Ti Mages arrived on the scene, and between their Breach/Dispel Magic and Spirit Trolls spamming Greater Command, we couldn't do much. We got TorGal down to Injured, but that's not enough. So, eventually everyone except Hubblepot failed a save against something. Hubblepot quaffed an Oil of Speed, spent a round gathering everyone's loot and stuffing it in a crate, then ducked into a side corridor and went invisible.
TorGal sees straight through Invisibility, but apparently he no longer follows you when you go back upstairs.
So Hubblepot made it outside, applied Invisibility 10' Radius, and successfully rested. Anomen was Raised, came back with Wondrous Recall and so immediately could cast Raise Dead x2, and Jaheira similarly came back with Wondrous Recall and a resultant 2x Harper's Call.
Of course, everyone except Hubblepot was naked. So, we went back inside, Hubblepot buffed defensively and stood at the forefront, tanking TorGal and his Troll posse while everyone else went to gather their gear (Sanctuaried Anomen picked it all up, so as not to break anyone's Invisibility).
Hubblepot nearly got trapped since there were a total of five Trolls chasing him, but the entire party made it back outside, gear in hand.
Funny thing is, this is the third time I have this happen (once before it ended a run, once as now the protagonist somehow got away). Underestimating TorGal is generally a bad idea; the only thing that kept Hubblepot alive was his excellent saves. Still, the good news is that TorGal and his Trolls are now separated from the Yuan-Ti Mages (they never showed up while we were gathering our gear, guess they ran back to their starting point).
Which means it should be much easier to beat them. I'll have Hubblepot tanking with dual Fireshields, Ghost Armor, Blur, Mirror Image, DUHM.. the whole nine yards. Let's see how it works out.
TorGal.. yesh. That is one nasty troll. Against every buff under the sun and two Fireshields, TorGal still easily managed to get through Hubblepot's MI/Stoneskin and deal some damage. After Lower Resistance x2, Greater Malison, Doom and 2x Flamestrike, TorGal FINALLY goes down, and we can clear the scant few remaining trolls.
We stumbled over the Yuan-Ti Mages to the south, but without TorGal, a handful of Skeleton Warriors took care of them. We also killed the Umberhulks (again.. no TorGal backing 'em up, so piece of cake), swiped the gold/gems/scroll from the stash, and reported our moderate success to Nalia.
That was one truly close call. When those Greater Commands started putting the entire party down, I was already mentally preparing to bring Fuller some bolts for the umpteenth time... glad I am that mighty Hubblepot lives to fight another day!
Hubblepot applies his trademark Invisibility 10' Radius, and the party arrives uneventfully at the Copper Coronet. Feeling rather sheepish for getting everyone else killed, drinks are on Hubblepot for the rest of the night. And there are a few drinks.
Hubblepot is now a L10/L11 Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.
1st report
2nd report
3rd report
4th report
Gilyn and his war party have made good progress. I'll summarize here, highlighting for every quest the most eventful moments.
Candlekeep revisited
The party enters the library with the intention of taking out Rieltar and his clique, but Sarevok beats them to it. This is complete thoughtlessness on my part. I have the party explore the upper levels first. It's a shame for Yeslick especially, that he didn't get the chance to exact justice for Rieltar's deceit. At least the evil wizard is no more.
In the caves below Candlekeep, Xan casts invisibility on Gilyn so he can disarm the web traps. Prat and his fellows die for their complicity in the Iron Throne's evil exploits. The approach is similar to the one taken at the Iron Throne HQ. The same prebuffs are cast, and skeletons for support. The skeletons also allow Faldorn to cast Insect Plague from out of sight of the enemy. It neutralizes the warriors. The mages escape the AoE but not Kivan's dispelling arrows, wich leave them defenseless.
The party insists on resting even though it means having to kill a couple of phase spiders. Well-rested they have no difficulty with the ogre mages they had managed to slip past on the way in. And guess what one of them drops? Another Invis 10' Radius scroll... What are the odds of that?
Ice Island
Upon entering the dungeon the combat log shows that Andris and his two friends already have a MGoI up, and thanks to @GrimJim it is quite clear when the spell runs out. We use the same strategy with extensive preparation: Animate Dead (x4), MSD, Blur, MI for Xan, PfE 15' Radius, Remove Fear, Strength of One, Bless, Chant, Haste. Insect Plague cast at one of the skeletons. The party is never at risk, even though a Teleport Field makes fighting the enemy a bit more tedious. Yeslick for instance prefers to use Ashideena against stoneskinned mages rather than sling bullets. Andris wisely hides and waits out the Insect Plague, but when he shows up, another arrow of dispelling seals his fate.
Interlude
The party wraps up some unfinished business after this, including dealing with Silke and snatching four potions of defense from Feldepost's men, and dispatching Kahrk. Kivan had an arrow of slaying for the occasion. But Kahrk manages to cast PfMW right before the arrow hits...
Island of Balduran
There's a slightly disturbing moment when Gilyn fails to land a backstab and the sirine queen confuses/feebleminds him, but with Kivan and Yeslick around, he was never in danger really.
Out of sight of Karoug and Daese, Gilyn successfully places four snares which should soften up Karoug. Kivan buffs with storm giant strength, dexterity, fortitude, mind focusing, heroism (2x), defense, speed, and regen, but that turns out to be overkill. Surprisingly Gilyn's snares kill Karoug. Kivan can focus on hitting Daese with his arrows, forcing her to take wolfwere form. Buffed as he is, he has no trouble with the remaining wolfweres (and werewolves when they turn against the party).
Back in Ulgoth's Beard Baresh is a huge pain. I'm still unsure as to whether it's intentional or not, but he turns into two(!) greater werewolves that are stuck in the same position. Kivan, with pretty much the same buffs has to quaff several extra healing potions to survive the duel.
Durlag's Tower (Lower Levels)
The main challenge here is dealing with all those traps. Gilyn's Find Traps skill at level 9 is only 60. He uses Yeslick's Gauntlets of Dexterity, Rogue Rebalancing's Deep Red Ioun Stone (+1 dex) and Masterbelt (+10% find traps, set traps, and open locks), and potions of perception for 100 FT. In order not compromise Yeslick's tankiness, Gilyn fully explores each level alone, before enemies are fought.
On level 1 buffed and hasted skeletons, helped by Gilyn's snares, deal with Love and they tank Pride.
Level 2 brings one major upset: one of the companions triggers an undetected trap that was hitherto unbeknownst to me, on the false stairway. It drops a Stinking Cloud and activates three skeleton warriors. Xan and Faldorn, invisible like most of the time, have nothing to fear, but the same cannot be said of the others. Kivan passes out, which is not surprising as he wears the Claw of Kazgaroth. Branwen, Yeslick and Gilyn fortunately make their saves. All three immediately swig potions of magic shielding. Interstingly a skeleton right next to Kivan chooses to attack Gilyn, who's a bit further away, and a ranged skeleton warrior does the same. It means Kivan gets to live but it also means Gilyn has to fear for his life. In the cramped chamber he has tremendous difficulty getting away from his pursuers.
Level 3 goes smoothly, until the chessboard. Yeslick activate all the statues at once, and the adventurers manage to slay two of the three Greater Wyverns for the party.
Teleportation to the chessboard is still not working in my install. Xan casts Invis 10' Radius on the party and everyone gets 100% electricity resistance from potions. With the console the party is placed on the chessboard. They haven't finished buffing yet, behind the opposition, when the King casts a detection spell.
The final level poses no difficulties to the party. The Demon Knight is too occupied with Faldorn's insects and Branwen and Yeslick's skeletons to do someting against the bullets and arrows hitting it from different angles.
Interlude
On their way to Ulgoth's Beard the companions run into four aggressive Red Wizards. Speaking to them and immediately retreating leads to them clustering together. One arrow of detonation (Kivan) and five fireballs (four from necklace) later, they're gone.
Aec'Letec
I'm a bit lazy: I'm not too interested in fighting nameless cult enforcers, I want the boss battle. The party reaches the ritual room invisibly, and finds a corner away from Tracea Carol to pre-buff. We role-play this as an example of the invisible gorilla experiment, with the cultists too engrossed by their summoning ritual to notice the party. In addition to the usual skeleton summons and spell buffs, each party members receive 2-4 potions out of cloud giant strength, heroism, defense, invulnerability, magic protection, speed. We're not stingy today. Gilyn sets three snares (he fails with one). Skeletons again charge in first, enabling Faldorn to cast Insect Plague unmolested. That spell proves quite effective in that it causes Aec'Letec to panic repeatedly. Xan summons a phase spider (Spider Spawn). Kivan goes after Tracea with arrows of dispelling and acid arrows. The others focus on the static cultists. Tracea doesn't accomplish anything beyond summoning an ettercap before she falls.