I had to do some finagling with my install order since the version of Improved Shamanic Dance I was using for BG2EE was very out of date. And I had to remake Garos from scratch in BG2 because I was summoning the standard Shaman spirits instead of warrior spirits after importing from SoD, so I also traded Creeping Doom for Impervious Sanctity of Mind. I found out that Chaotic Commands and ISoM both offer immunities that the other doesn't have, so I took both to be extra safe.
Relevant mods:
-SCS v30 (long-duration pre-buffs only, no tactical challenges except Improved Bodhi) -Ascension -Tweaks Anthology -Rogue Rebalancing -aTweaks -Item Upgrade -Enchant the Missile Launchers -Skip Chateau Irenicus I can't wait for patch 2.6 and SCS v32 so I can get a fresh new start, assuming patch 2.6 isn't also broke as hell like 2.5 is.
From the spoils of Irenicus's dungeon, I buy back my Fleshripper +2 bow from Ribald, but this soon turned out to be unnecessary as the Tuigan Bow +1 is just better. My spirit bros deal with the Copper Coronet slavers, earning me level 17.
Up next is the CC sewers and slaver compound. Spirit bros handle the sewers while I summon fire elementals to deal with the slavers. The Greater Fire Elemental engulfs Captain Haegan in flames, which renders him trapped. I use Sanctuary and start summoning my spirit bros since there's too many for me to take on by myself.
Inside the compound, I use a second casting of conjure fire elemental, this time only getting a standard elemental. I use Insect Plague on the pair of wizards which shuts them down. I only have 5 arrows of biting, but one for each wizard is enough to poison them through their stoneskins, helping to finish them off.
Next I go to the Docks and buy my Safeguard buckler back from Marina. I deal with Xzar's minions using Nature's Beauty and using the remaining 3 arrows of biting on them to kill them.
On the way to the Temple district for Mae'var, I get the Suna Seni ambush. They interrupt my Nature's Beauty casting by exhausting my Iron Skins, and it leaves me with pretty low health. Thankfully, Undying Fury has a casting time of only 1, so I use that instead to survive. While immortal, I use Fury of the Winds to eliminate them and strike down Eldarin with Call Lightning.
The rest of Mae'var's tasks are finished and I level up from tattling on him to Renal Bloodscalp. Level 18 means its time for HLAs. The Warhorn Shaman has no custom HLAs, so they just use the standard Shaman HLAs. I pick Spirit Form as my first HLA.
Against Mae'var and co., I try Nature's Beauty. It works, but the problem is that they all use the Blind Thief Trick against me as a result. They go into stealth, which means I have to resort to using Insect Plague on an object that I place on the ground so it will spread to them since I can't see them.
I use True Sight to attack them as well, but they tend to enter stealth very soon after being revealed. I try Dispel Magic to cure their blindness, but I guess I can't even dispel my own magic. I eventually take down Mae'var with more castings of True Sight and one casting of Fury of the Winds.
Since I'm at level 18, I get the final tier of spirits: Valkyries.
They come in Archer and Shieldmaiden varieties and move really fast. Archers are level 12 (+4 THAC0/damage with bows) and are Grandmasters in their +3 Composite Longbows. They have Called Shot (on hit: -1 THAC0, -1 STR, -1 save vs. spell) and can use some minor buff spells. Shieldmaidens are basically improved versions of Ancestral Spirits that use a bastard sword +3 and large shield +2. Shieldmaidens will cast Defensive Harmony, Chant, DuHM, Hold Person, and Armor of Faith when they get the chance.
The Pebblecrusher Party is wasted with one casting of Nature's Beauty with spirit bros as the cleanup crew.
Before I try doing more dangerous quests, I'm going to do the easier ones so I can build up gold and XP. I level up from an ambush that occurs as I travel to the De'Arnise Stronghold. This time I learn Favored of the Spirits, which grants me a second layer of immortality as Undying Fury does mostly the same thing.
Inside the De'Arnise stronghold, I have to escape the golem room with Sanctuary from the Safeguard buckler. Against a Clay and Iron golem, Fire elementals will just get crushed in a couple of rounds, so I put on Vhailor's Helm and have my simulacrum summon spirits to distract the golems while I try to summon Valkyrie spirits. They eventually win.
In the deepest part of the stronghold, I am unpleasantly surprised to learn that TorGal has invisibility detection. I had to unsummon my spirit bros against him because the fire elementals were killed and I had to finish off his giant troll pals before they regenerated. I make an escape with an Oil of Speed after getting badly injured. Upstairs, I heal and rebuff. TorGal is obviously waiting at the bottom of the stairs, so I cast Harm and go down the stairs. It hits, and I finish him with a flaming arrow.
Next I do the Trademeet quests. I level up near the troll mound and take Storm of Vengeance, which I've modified to suck far less, partly modeled after its NWN version: for 1 turn, 3d6 acid/round and save vs. spell or be stunned for 2 rounds and damaged by 6d6 electrical. I kept the save vs. death or be poisoned for 1 round, plus the "slay anything 8 HD and lower," and then added save vs. breath or be pulled back into the center of the storm. Now it's actually worth using.
When we run into the druids fighting trolls, my spirits let the caster druid live for too long and he summons a pair of Bearweres, then a pair of fire elementals!
Even I wouldn't use these summons. I wish the Bearwere summons were not part of the Shapeshifter Rebalancing component of Tweaks Anthology. Needless to say, the Bearweres obliterate my summons and spirits so I get out of there with Sanctuary. From out of the Bearweres' sight, I try to at least kill the enemy fire elementals with Storm of Vengeance and Wrath of the Skies, but they're a little too beefy. I decide to just leave with an invisibility potion.
I rest inside Adratha's cottage and then try to take her on with a fire elemental, Improved Kitthix, and spirit bros. But I keep getting pelted with fireballs and the summons are having trouble hitting the rakshasas. I go outside to heal and try summoning more spirits. To my delight, spellcasting spirits will try to heal their summoner!
The myconids and trolls are taken care of by Storm of Vengeance. I go back inside the cottage after healing up and finish off the rakshasas. Near the entrance to the druid grove, I let loose a devastating combo of Insect Plague, Storm of Vengeance, Wrath of the Skies, and Fury of the Winds. All opposition crumbles. It's kind of overkill but that druid wielding Flame Tongue and Gnasher +2 is deadly if you let him live for too long. I think he'll also summon Bearweres.
To finish this quest, I temporarily take Cernd into the party. He will most assuredly die if left to his own devices against Faldorn, and then I won't be able to complete the quest. Cernd challenges Faldorn and he transforms into the Greater Werewolf, but he is hit by Creeping Doom. Faldorn summons a pair of Bearweres, too. Even the Greater Werewolf's regeneration can't keep up and he dies.
Dammit. I go back to Trademeet and raise him, then have him memorize Insect Plague. We come back to the druid grove and challenge Faldorn again. I hand him his Greater Werewolf paw from outside the ring and both druids cast their AoE insect spells as their openers. Both druids cannot cast spells, but Cernd is way better at melee thanks to his werewolf form, so he wins.
I kick Cernd out of the party and go back to Trademeet to turn in the quests. From the loot I've collected, I pay off Gaelan to get the Amulet of Power and Ring of Protection +2.
I also forge the club Pitchwife +5 from Item Upgrade. I'm not proficient in clubs but I do have 3 stars in two-weapon fighting, so I'll put it in my offhand when I'm doing melee. Too bad I can't use any of the 3 speed weapons. The Windspear Hills and Firkraag's dungeon are up next.
We follow the plan laid ut beforehand, with a minor deviation: We do indeed start by clearing the Valley of the Tombs, mostly in the interest of aquiring a Wand of Summoning. Nothing proves particularly troublesome. Narcillicus didn't even pre-buff with MGoI, but has the poor manners to drop dead before Faldorn can even get Call Lightning off. Hmph.
The minor deviation comes from us clearing out the Ankheg nest as well as doing the minor Tenya and Zombie horde questlines. I'm going to go slightly unoptimal here: Jaheira will wear Ankheg Plate, Khalid will wear the best magical armor we can find, and Branwen will get Full Plate (once we aquire Gauntlets of Ogre Strength for her): I'm tired of constantly having to watch Jaheira and Khalid's encumbrance when they wear Full Plate, and I believe Ankheg Plate will do just fine for tanking purposes. While in the mood for tying up loose ends, we also clear the Temple area of its wolf infestation, and deal with Zordral at the Carnival.
So, after a quick rest at the FAI, we traverse the Cloakwood once again, and finally we get our long-awaited second ambush.
Too little, too late fellas. Halacan apparently realizes the entire party is too high-level for his Sleep scroll to have much effect and tries to pull out a Horror instead, but is Commanded and put down before getting anything done. Drakar is next on the chopping block, again not even getting a single spell off betwixt interrupting damage. Morvin is being annoying (he quaffed an Oil of Speed), so Cassius Dire Charms Molkar (I almost never use Dire Charm, but Cassius has a limited repertoire of level 3 spells) and we let the two duke it out a little. Once Morvin falls, we focus Molkar, and that's it for the second band of hunters.
On to the Mines! We rest up on the map before: 3x Animate Dead are prepared, and Cassius makes sure to memorize Minor Spell Deflection. Other than that, it's standard buffs: Bless, Chant, Resist Fear, a few Call Lightning on Faldorn. We will engage our foes honourably (because I know it's quite doable as long as you're not too shy about using a good potion or two). Cassius double-checks that the Wand of Summoning is in a quickslot, and we move to the Mines. Skeletons are summoned, basic buffs are applied, and Cassius starts the battle invisible. Stand and deliver, ye knaves!
The battle starts off well! Our three Skeletons momentarily distract Rezdan, Kysus and Genthore, but Drasus comes straight for us. His mistake: He hits hard and often, and quaffs a Potion of Magic Shielding first thing, but he lacks the AC to survive on his own. And why oh why aren't you wearing a helmet, Drasus?
We move east and engage the rest of the group (they've finished off the last Skeleton), Cassius calling some more fodder into existence using the Wand of Summoning. We are trying to stall for time: As soon as Rezdan and Kysus lose their MGoI, they are much easier to handle. When he has to reveal himself to summon, Cassius ensures MSD is cast right after, but that provides no protection from area-of-effect spells.
Cassius got Confused! But no one is targetting him, thankfully: I believe MSD is part of that. If they wanted to, Rezdan and Kysus could burn through it rather easily, but they don't, instead targetting other party members. And with their MGoI down, we can target them back with Call Lightning! With their big spells expended, Rezdan and Kysus can annoy us, but not kill us. Genthore falls by virtue of not having large amounts of Mirror Image and Stoneskin available, but is soon joined by his Mage compatriots. Victory!
That went swimmingly, apart from Cassius getting Confused. We only needed two charges from the Wand of Summoning, and managed to save all our anti-magic potions. We're in good enough shape to keep pushing a bit. The first level is easily cleared. For the second, we'll use Fireball to clear out a good chunk of the guards keeping Hareishan company, but won't stoop to mass Web. Faldorn charms Cook and sends her forward to do battle with the enemy.
That seems cruel, but if Cook stays where she is, she's going to get caught by a Fireball and torpedo our reputation, and there's no way to sneak her out of there without the guards noticing. We lob a gob of Fireballs at the gaggle of guards, and engage Hareishan. She Dire Charms Khalid, but we Charm him back (hooray!). She then Dire Charms him twice more, but as it's just Khalid and Hareishan visible to each other, she proceeds to try and beat him to death with her quarterstaff... you're going to need a lot more time than the 5 rounds a Dire Charm lasts to succeed at that, Hareishan. Not pictured: Jaheira sneaking past Hareishan and Khalid to beat up on the surviving guards.
We head downstairs, kill the first group of guards (so Jaheira hits Druid L6), then head back out to rest up. We utilize the same tactics as always: The Ogre Mage is simply bumrushed.
And once she has killed three Skeleton Warriors and Faldorn's Dread Wolf, Natasha has but a single Magic Missile remaining, and so falls to physical might.
We clear the rest of the level, nip down and take out Davaeorn's personal guard, then once again retreat to rest.
We'll pop one of our precious few scrolls of PfM here: Khalid will deal with Davaeorn with the help of some fair few potions. He'll get a small initial barrage to assist with taking down the Battle Horrors. Cassius, Imoen and Faldorn will be invisible to start, while three Skeleton Warriors along with Jaheira and Branwen will stand by at the very entrance to intercept reinforcements. En garde, fiends!
It takes him a while, but Khalid destroys the Battle Horrors and goes to work on Davaeorn from a distance. Davaeorn gave us a fright when he teleported to the north first thing (and spotted Jaheira), but somehow we enticed him into targetting Khalid instead. This should be fine!
... This is why Cassius is wearing the Boots of Grounding and has a Potion of Absorption in his inventory. If a Lightning Bolt can find a path to one of your characters, it will find a path to one of your characters. Sigh. At least that's the only misfortune that befalls us this time around. Davaeorn is out of big spells, and Khalid eventually gets through his protections, though Jaheira has to quaff a Potion of Invisibility to avoid being targetted.
Fortunately, we can carry Branwen's gear without much trouble (we stashed the Full Plate she's going to use later at the FAI precisely because it weighs a ton). We loot Davaeorn's treasures, killing his Mustard Jelly in the process, and flood the mines. The journey back to the FAI is uneventful, and Branwen is successfully restored.
Lookin' sharp there, I must say! We've got access to Sorcerous Sundries, and nothing pressing requiring our attention. I'll probably obey tradition and spend this time clearing up the remaining areas along the coast, but we'll see... I might go for the Stoneskin scroll before Cassius hits L7. For now, the party relaxes at the FAI, Faldorn and Jaheira engaging in philosophical discussions on nature vs civilization (we hid their weapons, so it's fine) while Khalid celebrates his newfound martial might with a prune juice.
Just FYI, Plurem and his gang of hard-hitting fighters have solved the Trademeet problem. The Dao Genies were solved by the berserkers by themselves (rest of party waiting outside) going in with protection from petrification (green scrolls). Namuraa silence was used on the druids in the druid grove, and none of the trolls were much of a problem for this team. Mazzy has been a good group-mate so far.
We decided to go for that delectable scroll of scrolls, Stoneskin. Which means tackling the Ice Island. Before heading off, we invest in 160 Acid Arrows +1; hopefully these will let Khalid get the jump on the many Mages to come.
We head in, and clear the two Winter Wolves at the entrance. My plan was to get past Andris and his friends without having to resort to a PfM scroll: We opt instead to summon some Skeleton Warriors (we have the Wand of Summoning for the later Mages), and hopefully Khalid with his fancy new arrows can make up the difference. We get an alright start: Beyn experiences the business end of a Potion of Firebreath as he lacks a MGoI, Marcellus buggered off to another part of the dungeon, and Andris teleported away upon discovering he was facing us alone.
A few rounds later, Andris pops more self-buffs, and teleports back in. He wastes two Chaos on Faldorn (fine, she can stand in the corner and be Confused), then hits Jaheira with a Skull Trap for 33 damage. Then he goes for a Fireball.
Wait.. what? HOW? Jaheira had about 35 hitpoints left. Did she fail her save and Andris just rolled all 6's? Unless.. oh no. Investigation of the combat log reveals that yes, Jaheira was still wearing the Belt of Antipode from battling the Winter Wolves. That Fireball hit her for 74 damage, more than enough to deep-fry her... permanently. If not for the belt, she would've still died, but not permanently.
This is just stupidity on a whole new level. In my frenzy to save a few healing potions (Belt of Antipode turns you immune to Winter Wolf attacks), I've gotten Jaheira chunked. Insert weary sigh here. That Andris falls is not much consolation.
I mean, there's nothing we can do. Chunked characters are gone. Khalid takes over tanking for the rest of the dungeon, Faldorn gathers up Jaheira's equipment, and we press on. We bruteforce Marcellus down, Garan causes some damage but the Greenstone Amulet keeps Khalid from being confused, and Cuchol gets beaten into puddin' by some Ogres courtesy of the Wand of Summoning.
Oh Ogre. Your heart is in the right place, but you can't replace Jaheira. For one thing, you smell a lot worse than she did. Also, the Ankheg Plate just won't fit you.
Tellan and Dezkiel are eventually brought down with the help of plentiful summons (many more such creatures required for Tellan than Dezkiel), and we teleport to the mainland. At least... at least we got the scroll.. but it wasn't worth it! Sob!
Alright, we're out a main tank. But who could possibly replace a Fighter/Druid multic... Yeslick. We rush to Jopalin's Tavern and sure enough, there he is, working in the kitchen. At first he seems reluctant to join, but speaking to him a second time clears all obstacles. Welcome, Yeslick!
Yeslick starts at 32000 experience, so he's a fair bit behind, but he's still the best choice. In fact, this will probably make the party stronger.. but don't tell Khalid that. Khalid, look.. can't you hook up with Faldorn? She's a druid too, and look at that smile! Never mind the claws. No? It's OK, take your time.
Yeslick swipes Ashideena +2 from Branwen, but otherwise will be using Jaheira's old gear. We swing by the Low Lantern and take down Desreta and Vay-Ya: Skeleton Warriors and an invisible Cassius employing Detect Invisibility ensures nothing goes awry, and Branwen gets her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength (and is now brandishing Full Plate Mail as a consequence).
So.. what now? Well, Cassius still hasn't hit L7, so we might as well go for that, and try and gather some more good scrolls while at it. Durlag's has a few scrolls easily available, and The Practical Defense +3 for Khalid would be a nice upgrade to his current Plate Mail +1. Alright, let's do it: We'll clear the Basilisk Gardens on the way. Cassius purchases six scrolls of Stone to Flesh (one for Tamah, five for every other party member.. if the worst should happen), and we are off.
Mutamin actually didn't memorize Remove Magic this time! He went for all damage spells instead... eh, he still goes down. Yeslick and Khalid clear the map under PfP (along with Corax, who falls against some Gnolls towards the end). Kirian's party are handled via some Skeleton Warriors and a nice Confusion from Faldorn's Nymph (affecting all but Kirian herself).
We can now reach Durlag's Tower. We clear the Battle Horrors outside, and head into the Tor proper, dropping down a level first. Not much to report here, it's all melee grunts and thus easily handled. We pick up Practical Defense +3 for Khalid along with several scrolls for Cassius, and head back upstairs without turning in the wine to Love.
The second floor as well as the outside of the Tower pass without incident, Yeslick and Khalid once again dealing with the Basilisks under PfP, and mere Ghasts proving no obstacle. On the third floor, we try to deal with the Ghost as per usual (Skeleton Warriors), but he manages to kill them too quickly, and starts roaming around: Several Lightning Bolts are thrown at our hastily summoned replacement skeleton (fortunately none of them bouncing badly), and Yeslick even eats a Chain Lightning, but we eventually bring the Ghost down.
We loot the rest of the level, Cassius gaining a point of Wisdom from the Tome (really, there's no point giving tomes to NPC's: BG1 isn't difficult enough that you need the tiny edge it gives). We ascend to the fourth and final floor, clearing the Ghasts. Khalid quaffs a Potion of Heroism and Oil of Speed, activates the Greenstone Amulet, and is joined in his assault on Kirinhale by a single Skeleton Warrior (all we had left). Everyone else is under Sanctuary or Invisibility. Kirinhale falls very quickly to Acid Arrows, her Staff Spear +2 going to Cassius (no one needs it).
On the way out, Riggilo gets some Succubus hair, and we a Potion of Cloud Giant Strength. Good trade. That's as far as we'll go in the Tower... for now.
We're at 17 reputation, so try our hand at a few minor reputation quests: Unfortunately, neither saving Charleston nor Arabelle provides a reputation boost (we still clear the areas). Brage is returned to the Temple of Helm, and somewhat frustrated, we high-tail it to Baldur's Gate and finish the Seven Suns quest, finally getting reputation +1.
With maximum reputation and 20+ Charisma a mere Friends spell away, we shop. Every single scroll we have yet to aquire or scribe is purchased; we pick up The Thresher for Yeslick, Buckley's Buckler for Branwen (she's wearing Full Plate, she should be OK.. if not we'll just sell the buckler), as well as anything and everything useful from Ulgoth's Beard and High Hedge, of course including Robe of the Good Archmagi for Cassius.
Done shopping, we indulge in scribing, Cassius' spellbook nearly bursting at the seams due to the sudden influx of power. We took a severe hit this session, but we bounced back. No more chunkings, ever! Next time, we will clean up the Sword Coast and the city of Baldur's Gate in one fell swoop. Then it's onward to the depths of Durlag's Tower, followed by a quick foray to Werewolf Island (I want Flametongue before going there), and then we move onto the endgame...
The first level of Firkraag's dungeon is cleared by the spirits. The Ruhk transmuter puts up a good fight with PfMW and 3 stoneskins, but the Valkyries are fast and tough enough to break down all of his stoneskins and kill him.
I level up while dealing with the troll cook, his hobgoblin friends, and their pet otyugh. I take Aura of Flaming Death this level to deal with Firkraag.
Up ahead, I use a scroll of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes to deal with the big undead group. I died to vampires last time and I'm not having my Constitution drained to 0 again.
Samia's group walks right into my ambush. Kaol manages to avoid the Insect Plague but still gets devastated by Wrath of the Skies+Storm of Vengeance.
The Greater Wolfwere group forces me to use Undying Fervor, both to avoid death and to deal with their fast regeneration.
Valkyries are actually quite effective at taking on golems. With 5 of them at my side, they destroy an Adamatite Golem in no time flat.
They also take down Tazok. He is beneath me at this point.
After talking to Firkraag, I kill Conster and rest. I'm not actually feeling too confident that I can kill Firkraag by myself, but I try it anyway. I buff with Aura of Flaming Death, Regeneration, Fury of the Winds, Iron Skins, Chaotic Commands, Impervious Sanctity of Mind, and Favored of the Spirits. I cast Harm and run down the stairs as fast as I can to tag him with it. It whiffs.
Oh dear. Firkraag then puts up his Stoneskin and dispels all of my buffs. I try to run away but he has no problem keeping up. I cast Undying Fervor just in case Favored of the Spirits discharges and Firkraag tries to use his fire breath on me.
I make it back up the stairs without dying. I rest again and rebuff, then cast Harm again. Back down the stairs, I hit with the second Harm attempt, but his MR blocks it. I try casting it again while Firkraag rips away at my Iron Skins, but the spell fizzles for some reason even though I took no damage.
I go back up the stairs to recast Iron Skins, then go back down the stairs and cast Wrath of the Skies to lower Firkraag's MR. I cast Harm a third time, tanking again with Iron Skins and it doesn't fizzle, thankfully. I land the Harm hit on Firkraag, but his remaining magic resistance blocks it...but he dies anyway.
I... I just... What? I have no godly idea what just happened. I mean, this is what I intended in the first place, that I basically told him "You are already dead," but I could swear that he blocked the Harm attack with his remaining 25% magic resistance because the "HP reduced by Harm" string did not appear, while the "Magic Resistance" string DID appear.
Speculation:
Harm allows Magic Resistance to block it and he pretty clearly did block it, as indicated by the combat log (Wrath of the Skies ignores MR, so it couldn't be that). If he was reduced to 1 HP from the second time I used Harm, why didn't he die immediately from this third one that had extra cold+electrical damage attached to it? The bonus damage from Fury hits first, and he doesn't have regeneration or healing spells as far as I know, so that should've been the end of it. However, if he wasn't reduced to 1 HP by the first Harm hit, then why did Harm work on the second hit despite it being blocked by his MR like the first Harm hit (as indicated in the combat log)? Additionally, the "Hit Points reduced by Harm" string does not appear in the combat log and the VFX that accompanies it did not appear either (like they did on TorGal). He then takes an instance of damage from Wrath of the Skies and keels over. Storm of Vengeance was only cast AFTER he'd died, so that doesn't factor into the equation at all.
That was... something. I'm still completely bewildered by this. I wonder why it worked when I hit him with Harm a second time if the first time didn't work, despite both being blocked by his MR.
My FMC just got through Shadows of Amn. The early game was rough because I went with a small party in order to maximize XP, using only Jaheira and Edwin (and sometimes Jan when I was worried about traps). Once we got our levels up a little, we added Mazzy to the party, since the IWD spells Emotion: Hope and Emotion: Rage would greatly empower Mazzy's damage output with the Tuigan Bow.
Next, we recruited Keldorn. Inquisitor Dispel Magic is nerfed in my install to 1.5 times the paladin's level, which is strong but not completely broken. The unnerfed dispel would be pretty game-breaking even in SCS, and the full nerf, bringing it to normal caster level, would make it virtually useless in a party run.
Keldorn and Mazzy served as our twin mage killers. If the enemy didn't have SI: Abjuration or we were able to remove it with magic attacks from Charname and Edwin, Keldorn had a good chance (usually just above 50/50, so not really reliable for no-reload purposes) to take down their defenses, and if the enemy buffed with PFMW, Mazzy could break through it simply by using the Tuigan Bow and normal arrows for 10 APR. With sling bullets from Charname and Jaheira, that allowed us to take down more than 10 Stoneskins per round, making it possible to complete the Planar Sphere at little risk. Death Fog also screwed up with a lot of enemy mages' spellcasting.
Unfortunately, this forced us to side with the Shadow Thieves instead of Bodhi (Keldorn and Mazzy will both leave the party if you side with Bodhi), but Charname had two pips in maces and was able to make short work of the vampires using a Protection from Undead scroll and the upgraded Mace of Disruption. Also, Keldorn was very fragile due to Item Randomizer taking away the Gauntlets of Dexterity, leaving him with poor AC.
By tackling a bunch of quests, we managed to take down the Guarded Compound early on and luckily Item Randomizer didn't remove Celestial Fury, which meant Mazzy could alternate between a stunning katana and a shortbow at 10 APR. We were still missing some important items, since the Robe of Vecna and Belm were both removed from their normal places and showed up nowhere else, but we were in good condition.
You know that guy who asks you about Edwin a little while after Edwin becomes Edwina? Well, I tried to trigger the fight early by exposing Edwin's identity, which resulted in him leaving the party and turning hostile. This cost us over 1.5 million XP and our best mage, but we recouped most of the loss by replacing him with Nalia. Turns out she's not that bad; Edwin's extra spell slots give decreasing marginal benefits. Nalia was able to fulfill all of his normal functions just fine.
Our last party member was Imoen, who remained a single-classed, unkitted thief in my install due to EET. She's mostly dead weight, but I'm playing with the Imoen romance mod and I wanted to have some HLA traps for later in ToB.
With multiple fighters in the group, including two fabulous mage killers, and an extremely tanky Charname that could combine mage buffs, cleric buffs, and fighter stats, we had little trouble with most fights in the game. I even went to the trouble of killing all three evil dragons, and while Item Randomizer took away the Crom Faeyr scroll, it didn't take away Carsomyr.
Fun fact: Keldorn actually has distinctly better damage output using the Impaler than Carsomyr as long you give him a couple pips in spears. Both weapons do the same amount against Chaotic Evil enemies, while Impaler does 5 more against all others.
We lost Jaheira forever when I booted her out to check on Haer'dalis' stats. Despite her quest appearing to be over (she already got the Harper Pin from Elminster) for quite some time, she acted as though we were ditching her midway through, and left the game permanently. This cost us more than 2 million XP and a good fighter, and Haer'dalis was a crummy level 15 bard who wouldn't get HLAs until late in ToB.
We even brought down the Twisted Rune, in large part because we used Great Shout to stun Layenne through her invisibility. Great Shout stuns for 1 round with no save, or 2 rounds on a failed save, though Nalia needed Chaotic Commands to avoid getting knocked out for 10 rounds herself.
The final fight against the Slayer was pretty bad because I didn't protect Nalia from a Glabrezu's PW: Stun, which somehow is undispellable (even an Arrow of Dispelling didn't work). Also, I didn't realize that, while the Slayer can't see through invisibility, it could teleport across the map to characters outside its field of vision during Time Stop. It killed Mazzy during one of its Time Stop spells, but with the Staff of the Magi in hand, we were able to kite it without even using Potions of Invisibility. As for its Fallen Planetar, Mazzy stun-locked it with Celestial Fury (and her saves were good enough to shrug off a vorpal strike even if she lost her buffs).
I've been avoiding using exploits in this run as well. We still haven't used any scrolls of Protection from Magic, and we only fought one mage whose pre-buffs we didn't allow to fire (I used Harm on Lavok; turns out attacking him before combat no longer causes a game-breaking bug). I was planning on using the blind thief trick, but since we've been working without any other exploits, I might avoid that one, too.
We killed Illasera's goons with traps and mobbed her with Charname protected by Divine Shell (an IWD spell which grants immunity to missile weapons and also the Breach projectile) and then the Shield of Reflection. Our newest party member is Sarevok, who will be able to use the Soul Reaver to cripple the various melee brutes of ToB. I don't know what I need to do to keep him from betraying me at the Throne, though.
It looks the final battle will involve a Dispel Magic on Sendai from Keldorn for a quick kill, a Harm spell cast via Spell Trigger (for which we'd need a scroll) from Charname for a quick kill on Yaga-Shura (probably aided by Critical Strike to make sure we don't miss), and then a stun-lock on Abazigal from Mazzy's Power Attack-boosted nonmagical arrows while the rest of the team keeps Melissan stun-locked by quickly killing Gromnir, Illasera, and Sarevok if he's not on our team.
Once Melissan's alone, we wait out her Divine Mantle and then nail her with Smite for a guaranteed stun that will last 3 rounds if we keep attacking. Even if we lose all of our buffs (aside from Charname, who will always have SI: Abjuration on hand), two Smite spells will be sufficient if we have Sarevok, and three will be sufficient if we don't have Sarevok on the team.
I'm not sure if Sendai comes buffed with SI: Abjuration, though, and pressure from Illasera could give us grief. Plus, Sendai probably has a PFMW Contingency that will slow us down for an extra round, and if she moves around too much, we might miss Keldorn's Dispel Magic. If things get ugly, we can always adopt a low-pressure approach and just have Sarevok impose heavy THAC0 penalties using Soul Reaver, but if we don't have Sarevok at the end, Charname might end up having to kite everyone to death.
I've been hesitant to make much use of the scroll scribing mod, but I'll probably create a bunch of PFMW, Spell Immunity, Improved Haste, and maybe even Wish scrolls just in case everything goes wrong and I have to spend most of the fight on the run.
Do you per chance remember at what level (amount of exp) Imoen re-joined you in Spellhold? I'm running BGT now, have her through BG1 as pure thief and then dualed to mage at the end of Irenicus' dungeon at level 11. I believe, unlike ordinary BG2, there is one character file of her (imoen1.cre) in BGT instead of imoen11/imoen13 to determine her stats/level in Spellhold. And after I cleared all pre-Spellhold areas (save for Liches, Dragons, Guarded Compound and Twisted Rune) my average party level was 13. But when Imoen rejoined me in Spellhold, she has something like 220000 (Thief 11 level I dualed her) + 75000 exp (I don't remember exact value but something like that). This is just silly low if you ask me... I just want to know what the case of it in EET.
edit:
I've checked ar1512 area script:
IF Global("ImoenPartyBG1","GLOBAL",1) Global("ImoenSpawned","GLOBAL",0) THEN RESPONSE #100 AddXPObject("Imoen2",305000) SetGlobal("ImoenSpawned","GLOBAL",1) END
so she actually start with + 305000 exp in Spellhold. Still too low.
edit 2:
By Ascension64 from shsforums: 8. Yes, Imoen will remain as a thief if you do not dual-class. When you rescue her from Spellhold she will gain 305000 XP.
Gilyn at the start of SoD:I change the settings to Insane without extra damage for more/stronger/smarter enemies.
Chapter 7-8
The soon to be disbanded party struggles somewhat in Korlasz' lair. Maybe it's the impending farewells, or maybe they are just battle-weary. Porios and his men are talked out of a confrontation but one level lower, heaps of undead aren't so reasonable. Wands, skeletal summons and necklaces of missiles see the companions prevail. And luck, yes, luck plays its part as well. A skeleton mage's Stinking Cloud renders Xan and Gilyn unconscious, and a misclick triggers the appearance of two jellies next to them. Thanks to the Fist, both elves live.
Korlasz surrenders after taking a couple of arrows and the party is no more. They have defeated Sarevok, the Iron Throne, and the last of their adherents. They have fulfilled their purpose as a team. Still, it saddens Gilyn to see his friends depart.
...
Gilyn, now the hero of Baldur's Gate, is living a fairly comfortable existence in the company of his childhood friend Imoen in the city, happy that recent events like Caelar Argent's crusade do not involve him for a change. That is until assassins in the employ of Argent try to poison and him, and get Imoen instead. He learns that Baldur's Gate is to march north to stop Argent, and Gilyn humors the Dukes in aiding their cause. Schael Corwin, captain of the Fist, informs Gilyn of acquaintances who might join him but disappointingly none of his old friends were among them. He hadn't even met some of these so-called acquaintances, so he sees no reason to ask any of those people along on the journey north.
Initially Gilyn is assigned the role of scout, a role that suits the rogue. His lone scouting results in him helping some folks and killing many spiders with traps and sneak attacks, a vampire (also with traps) and an evil mage and her golem (arrow of dispelling and acid arrows for the mage). Crusaders blow up Coast Way Crossing right in front of Gilyn. It means an alternative route via Boareaskyr Bridge is to be secured and to that end Gilyn is to undertake special missions for the expedition beyond scouting. A special missions unit is formed consisting of Gilyn, Captain Corwin, the drow priestess Viconia, and the drow sorcerer Baeloth. The latter two might not be the type of company Gilyn would normally keep, but in times of war anything goes. And these two are among the most competent in their respective field in the entire expedition.
The four clear an undead-infested dwarven dig site with a PfU Corwin doing the bulk of the work even though it is Gilyn who fells a lich with the Secret Revealed and his snares.
Chapter 9
In the Troll Claw Woods the unit learns that Caelar has taken Boareskyr Bridge and besieged Bridgefort. The warrior druid Jaheira and the skald Voghiln join Gilyn's unit. The party of six successfully dispatch the many bugbears, spiders, and trolls inhabiting the area, although spectral trolls prove formidable foes as Corwin learns in a near fatal way.
Next they need to retrieve a teleportation stone from a ruined temple of Bhaal of all deities. The stone should enable them to enter Bridgefort. The party run into Morentherene, who wakes up despite no buffing inside her cave and only long-lasting buffs (Stoneskins, PfE 10'Radius) in effect. Everyone retreats, gets PfPoison and full buffs. Back inside Viconia and Jaheira melee the beast, Corwin provides ranged support, Gilyn throws in some snares from afar. Viconia receives several blows but she also delivers the killing blow, becoming the party's first dragonslayer.
The dagger throwing trick has never worked for me so far. In the temple the unit proceeds to slay some invisible stalkers (with skeletal sumons), and several followers of Cyric, including Ziatar (wand summons + arrows of dispelling + missiles). A Neothelid is tanked by Jaheira and Viconia, while the other except singing Voghiln provide ranged support. Corwin gets the kill.
High priestess Akanna and her two aerial servants are distracted by some wand summons when Jaheira casts an Insect Plague at them. Gilyn's snares kill the aerial servants, and one backstab from Gilyn and a critical hit from Viconia's sling (Arla's Dragonbane) later, the teleportation stone is theirs.
Gilyn takes out a shadow aspect with his snares, a dirty way to deal with a dirty opponent. They buff to the max to fight an evil illithid-led party, and crush them. With hasted, buffed skeletons, hard-hitting ranged attacks, a few traps, and Baeloth's wands the fight is over surprisingly fast.
Baeloth levels up in Bridgefort and takes Enchanted Weapon as his 3rd level 4 spell (in addition to Stoneskin and Improved Invisibility). Afaik there is one one EW scroll and we might need more castings of that spell. Voghiln knows the spell too, but has only one level 4 spell slot so far.
The unit reaches Bridgefort and prepares the Bridgefort defenders for battle against Caelar's troops.
Has anyone run into problems with XP values after the party gets level-drained in Bridgefort? I have before, and in this run Viconia, Corwin and Jaheira don't get all their XP back after getting their levels back. Vicky for example goes from more than 370k before to 142k after. I correct this in EEKeeper.
The companions return to camp to call on the Fist to join the battle. The special missions unit fight with the besieged Bridgefort soldiers. They've only just started pre-buffing when one of the defenders lowers the drawbridge already. Nice teamwork mate! Gilyn steps back and Holds most of the attackers with his special snares. Vicky finishes her summoning of one skeleton but after that the party just moves to attack unbuffed.
Baeloth adds some wand summons. Corwin acts as mage killer as usual, with her dispelling and elemental arrows. Vicky leads the unit forward and Jaheira alternates between melee and ranged. Vicky wears the gauntlets of ogre power, full plate, the helm and cloak of Balduran, the star-strewn boots and Pellan's shield for an unbuffed AC of -10 and 97 MR. She's a great tank if low on HPs. She collects potions of fortitude which, together with Holy Power and Aid can take her HPs beyond 100. She's a good tank. Several of the Bridgefort defenders, including Khalid, survive.
Caelar's troops then decide to try and blow up Boaresky Bridge like they did with Coast Way Crossing. But the unit, this time properly buffed, intervenes. Baeloth sends in some wand summons for distraction, Corwin's arrow of dispelling strips the fire elemental summoning mage of her protections, and Gilyn who had snuck up behind her, finishes her with a single backstab.
The remaining melee grunts are no threat. Boaresky Bridge is secured and the troops can march on the coalition camp near Dragonspear Castle.
@Serg_BlackStrider: In my install, Imoen joined the party in Spellhold at 1,250,000 XP, jumping from level 11 to 15. I think you need to dual-class her in BG1, like the original BG2 assumed, if you want her to be a good Mage/Thief instead of simply a thief.
@Serg_BlackStrider: In my install, Imoen joined the party in Spellhold at 1,250,000 XP, jumping from level 11 to 15. I think you need to dual-class her in BG1, like the original BG2 assumed, if you want her to be a good Mage/Thief instead of simply a thief.
Thanks! I don't think it will change much if I dual her in BG1 in that case (BGT setup) assuming how ar1512 script work. Since I want her Thief lvl 11 (for 100 locks/traps/detect illusions) before dual, I'll better tweak that script to match player1 level instead in the future.
I think I'm going to retire Garos. He's basically hit his power ceiling already and he's only in his mid-20th level. XP will not make him any stronger; only gear will. I usually get affected by Restartitis if this happens to a character this early. I blame the Shaman class itself and the crappiness of the Druid's spell selection, even with (an old version of) IWDification installed. I keep imagining Garos would be an incredible force multiplier for a party because his abilities, rather than trying to tackle the saga alone.
After the Windspear Hills, I do the Umar Hills. The Temple Ruins are mostly uneventful, but it's good to know that my spirit bros can take down generic liches without help. Before entering the shadow dragon's chamber, I try to kill it with Harm, but I whiff the attack.
Thaxll puts up protections and begins attacking. He hits me with Greater Malison and then a Breach, taking down my most important buffs.
He tries Chaos, but I somehow succeed on the save despite not having any immunities and taking a penalty on saves. I cast Chaotic Commands to counter this, though I could've just enraged myself to even avoid rolling for confusion. On the next round, I cast Fury of the Winds for Haste and kite Thaxll around. He blinds me with his breath weapon, but the Amulet of Power prevents me from taking any negative levels. I cast Impervious Sanctity of Mind while far away from him and then Harm on the round after that. The Harm attack misses yet again.
I don't really have any other spells to attack him with, so I melee him for a while and then cast Wrath of the Skies. Since it's just a melee match now, I cast Battle Ardor for extra THAC0 and damage, which helps me kill Thaxll.
While still buffed from this fight, I fight the Shade Lord and enrage myself to deal with him. Kind of easy.
From the Windspear and Umar Hills, I have a couple of keys that need to be used. I use Valygar's body to open the Planar Sphere and then go into the Temple District to open the way to the Illithid hideout, but Draug Fea's party is in the way. I think the spirits and a fire elemental are enough to take them on, but I forget that there's 2 priests in that party who can summon Aerial Servants.
Ouch... Aerial Servants hit extremely hard and they can entangle their victims on a failed save vs. breath. With two of them attacking at once, they obliterate my HP pool like it's nothing. I hope I can cast Undying Fervor in time since I used a potion of extra healing the round before. Luckily, I make it in time.
Now immortal, I use Safeguard's Sanctuary charge and cast Fury of the Winds and then Regenerate. I heal up to full over the course of about 2 rounds, then cast Storm of Vengeance to hit the Aerial Servants while they're invisible. I also cast True Sight so I can melee them and they eventually fall. The spirits did a good job of killing the fighters of the party, since only Gaius and Gallchobhair are left. Gaius is killed by Storm of Vengeance and I finish off Gallchobhair myself.
Further in to the sewers, I ignore the Shade Lich and his Fallen Planetar buddy. To take on the Beholders, I bait out their Death Spell with Improved Kitthix and then send in fire elementals using my Simulacrum. I do the same thing once inside their nest.
The Unseeing Eye is killed.
Next is the Guarded Compound. Maybe I'll die here so I can give up on Garos. I buff up and use Sanctuary, choosing to go up the flight of stairs on the right. I go through the slime trap, whose damage is reduced by Pitchwife +5. In one of the bedrooms, I summon my Simulacrum for help. But Sion already knows we're here because he tried to cast True Sight while I was running into the bedroom. He teleports over with Dimension Door and fires up a sequencer. I disable him with Implosion for one round and Dispel his Magic on the next. Despite being pelted with arrows, he gets Time Stop off the ground.
He casts a couple of spell protections but I'm surprised he doesn't end the Time Stop with PfMW. This opens him up for an Arrow of Dispelling -> Moonblade combo.
With the major threat destroyed, both of us kill Sion's Lesser Iron Golem. Storm of Vengeance stuns and poisons Ketta, making her easy prey for the pair of Improved Kitthix that my simmy and I summon. I tank Koshi myself and kill him, since ISoM makes me immune to stun. The Improved Kitthix then devour the priest as he gets webbed by their attacks. Maferan and the other melee dude whatshisface are unremarkable.
So, that makes level 26. I'm not getting any stronger from levels and it's at this point where the character exhaustion sets in. I just don't like playing characters that plateau in strength at some point. It's not as if I'm not being challenged by SCS either, but I think I could stand to crank up the difficulty on it now that I've played it on these settings for some time. I hope SCS v32 comes out soon, because I don't want to spend 4 hours re-installing mods just because I want to increase the difficulty of v30, only for v32 to come out shortly afterward and invalidate all that time spent.
The last of the Sword Coast areas fly by. 5HD Skeleton Warriors make mincemeat out of the Sirenes, Droth falls, Imoen successfully pickpockets Bentan's PfM scroll (only item I bother pickpocketing... I find one Ring of Freedom to be sufficient, as you typically only want it on your tank) and Meilum gets demoted to second best swordsman on the Swoard Coast, Lendarn and his employer the Ogre Mage are undone (Skeleton Warriors! Hooray!)... even the Wolf of Ulcaster is destroyed in record time, as it drops just before its attendant Ghouls spawn into existence.
All that remains are the Red Wizards. We clear the map, but this time I actually found a sure-fire way to beat them with minimal inconvenience: Hasted Skeleton Warriors. Don't know why I never applied Haste before... I think I usually do this area before scribing the Haste scroll you find in Cloakwood Mines. Anyway, with Haste our Skeleton Warriors just straight up don't care about Mirror Image, Stoneskin or even Improved Invisibility. We don't even lose a single Skeleton, and that's it for the Sword Coast.
On to Baldur's Gate! The majority of the questing here is uneventful: Khalid has a near miss when he is Web Tangled by a Giant Spider in the Sewers and a Phase Spider teleports next to him, but every divine caster of ours always has 1x Slow Poison memorized, so we Scorcher the offending Phase Spider and Branwen saves Khalid from (temporarily) joining his wife.
Niemain and his fellow Necromancers get treated to our hasted Skeleton Warriors, much to their dismay. Marek is just straight up beaten by Yeslick, Imoen and Khalid. I'm fine with using a few charges of the Greenstone Amulet to expedite things, and with his Confusion removed from the equation, Marek doesn't amount to much.
There are of course more encounters, but standard buff-and-charge tactics solve almost all of them. Sunin's attendant Fighters are quickly undone, and by scattering when Sunin tries to Dispel our Haste, we retain it on everyone but Yeslick, and the Mage's defenses can't keep up. Ramazith, lacking defensive Illusions, can just be bumrushed without risk, and Drelik the Butler wastes all his spells trying to get through Yeslick's (thanks to Cloak of Balduran) 25% MR and excellent saves.
Well, that was easy. Let's clear out the Iron Throne, then. We as always set up in the back room, sneaking in under Invisibility and Sanctuary. The Shennara's, starting out hostile unlike the rest of the Iron Throne goons, are lured into our tender embrace with a few disposable summons from the Wand of Summoning.
We summon five Skeleton Warriors, buff them thoroughly (PfE 10' Radius/Defensive Harmony/Strength of One/Bless/Chant/Haste) and move them into position around Diyab. Khalid has a brief chat with Zhalimar, and we engage! We leave the Skeleton Warriors to do their job: Soak up the most dangerous spells, and kill as many enemies as possible. Khalid is Hasted and wears the Boots of Speed, so hovers around the edge of vision, taking potshots and directing our summons.
That went splendidly. Our brave Skeletons are undone, but the enemy has paid a heavy cost for virtually no gain: Diyab, Aasim and Gardush all lie slain. Cassius spends his action calling more fodder into existence via the Wand of Summoning. Foolish Alai, his best spells spent, wanders into sight of the entire party, and suffers a ranged barrage from which there is no recovery.
Only Zhalimar and Naaman remain. Zhalimar steadfastly makes every save imaginable, but there is simply too many high quality magical Arrows/Bullets flying around, and though he deals tremendous damage in return, Zhalimar stands no chance.
With only Naaman remaining, Faldorn conjures a few Nymphs. They Hold him firmly in place, and there is naught Naaman can do.. but fall.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! That went very smoothly: Usually the Skeleton Warriors get one, maybe two kills , and then typically one of those is the regular Doppleganger, but this time, they (with some assistance from Khalid) took down no less than three major enemies! Excellent. We gather our spoils, pressure Thaldorn for information, and leave to rest up.
Before proceeding to Candlekeep, we venture up and down the Sword Coast one last time, visiting every vendor: Potions of Storm/Cloud Giant Strength, Potions of Power, Potions of Mind Focusing, Potions of Regeneration and a few Wands of the Heavens are purchased. With everything we could possibly want bought and about 15000 gold still in the bank, we speak with Duke Eltan and depart for Candlekeep.
It would be silliness in the extreme to have Cassius die to a massed barrage of Chromatic Orb/Melf's Acid Arrow/Magic Missile from some lowly Ogre Mages, so he quaffs an Invisibility potion while the rest of the party deals with the ambush. Oh: Faldorn has 5th level slots now, a fact which the Ogres are made painfully aware of.
Afterwards, it turns out one of the Ogre Mages dropped a scroll of Invisibility 10' Radius. Since we're going on to SoD (and it's available directly in the first dungeon there) it doesn't really matter, but still, a complete spellbook is a complete spellbook, and it'll at least make it easier for us to sneak back into Baldur's Gate later.
We leave Rieltar and his friends alive, but somehow they still end up dead, and we are sprung from jail, delivered into the Catacombs. We quickly cleanse these without incident: Prat and his gang are introduced to the wonders of fully buffed Skeleton Warriors, though their amazement quickly turns to horror. Go gaggle gang, go!
Our Skeletons aid Yeslick and Khalid in clearing the rest of the caverns (we had several scrolls of PfP available, so the Basilisks were no issue), and we climb back into the light. In lieu of Baldur's Gate, however, the party makes their way to Beregost. The allure of attaining greater arcane might before confronting Sarevok in his seat of power cannot be denied. Cassius will purge Durlag's Tower of its fell inhabitants before proceeding with the plot, and there is even talk of a scholar seeking mighty heroes to depart for a strange island...
Well, we made our way through SoD with a couple of deaths here and there, but nothing serious. However, for the second time now, one of my run ended because of the Boaresky Bridge barrels blowing up the map. This time, I knew not to blow up the barrels myself, but my usual strategy - hitting the mage with arrows of dispelling in order to stop him from completing his summoning spell - failed, because Shamash kept missing the enemy spellcaster - thanks to his poor thac0, despite having extra attacks due to an oil of speed. In hindsight, I should have buffed him with an agility potion, heroism, power etc. to prevent that from happening. Anyway, so far I've always killed this mage before he used his spell, so from previous descriptions, I thought that maybe two fire elemtals would appear and I would have to kill them (which would've been very easy, to be honest). However, it seems like on insane diffculty, there are huge groups of monsters coming constantly through the portal, and they only stop coming after about 10 (or more) groups. Some of them also prefer to attack the barrels instead of the party despite getting whacked to death in melee combat. I was able to use potions and scrolls to grant my party fire immunity or 90 resistance, improve my damage output with oils of speed and some additional buffs, but with the monsters just coming and coming, the group eventually got so big that new monsters decided not to bother with the party, and I was unable to stop them, getting blocked by the huge mass of enemies:
After dying due to destroyed barrels, I thought that maybe the huge number of spawns might be a bug, but some testing revealed that they eventually do stop. If I would've entered combat with full buffs, my damage output could maybe have been high enough to get rid of the groups quickly enough to keep up, but because of my inexperience with this encounter, I wasn't prepared. Oh well.
@Enuhal: I had no idea any of that could happen. As far as I knew, the encounter was just about preventing the fire elemental coming out or killing it. What's this "portal" spawning in all those salamanders and mephits?
@semiticgod Well, the portal seems to appear if one fails to interrupt the mage on the bridge casting their spell, apparently. It's impossible to interact with it, and it keeps spawning groups of fire mephits, fire salamanders, efreeti, fire elementals, greater fire elementals and the like. Maybe it only appears on insane difficulty, or maybe it was secretly added in in a recent patch? I don't know. What I do know is that if you're somehow able to defeat a certain (very high) number of waves before either getting killed or having them kill the barrels (which is the more likely outcome if one isn't prepared for such a huge battle), the portal will disappear.
I haven't actually found any descriptions of this portal battle online, which seems strange. This is a completely mod-free installation as well, so I would've expected someone to have encountered the same problem as I did. I should also note that this occured after assaulting the crusader camp, not surrendering it, so maybe the encounter plays out differently if you surrender? It seems like some tests are required.
That behavior of creating a portal that generates fire creatures is standard. I've seen that on a number of occasions with solo characters and, at least on core difficulty, a fighter type does have enough damage output to kill the monsters. However, I actually died in that encounter with a wild mage this morning who couldn't keep up with them. Part of the problem is the danger of using area damage spells as those will destroy the barrels. I also died there not long ago as a result of using confusion on the soldiers helping the mage - causing at least one of them to target a barrel with his attacks. I haven't tested it, but I suspect that cloudkill might be a viable option there - next time I get there with an arcane user I'm intending to try cloudkill in conjunction with a PfP scroll.
Oh - the behavior on the bridge is the same whether you surrender the fort or not.
@Enuhal: I had no idea any of that could happen. As far as I knew, the encounter was just about preventing the fire elemental coming out or killing it. What's this "portal" spawning in all those salamanders and mephits?
@Enuhal and @semiticgod I have observed the same thing in my latest run. I think its the 2.5 update thats happening.
Itis barely survived the many fire creatures in my latest run. But I was buffed and had 4 apr at sub zero thaco... it helped (it does that a lot).
Okay, I confirmed what @Grond0 and @StummvonBordwehr said with my own tests. The difference between core rules and insane is quite significant here. On core rules, there are ~7 waves, usually of 3 mephits or fire salamanders, 2 lesser fire elementals or 1 fire elemental. On insane, there are 9-10 waves, with much stronger foes, such as 2 greater fire elementals, combinations of 3 fire mephits/3 fire salamanders, 3 fire mephits/2 efreets, 3 fire mephits/2 fire elementals, 3 fire slamanders/2 efreets, 3 fire salamanders/2 fire elementals and the like. The groups seem to be spawning about every 2 rounds.
A well-buffed full party should still be able to to kill these spawns quickly enough on insane (with haste, summons and the like), but for people who want to play solo on insane difficulty with turned off extra damage instead of core rules (which is a very reasonable setting), be aware - you will propably need every little bit of damage you can get unless you're able to reliably interrupt the mage summoning the portal.
On the subject of interrupting mages by the way, I'd note that the Ring of Energy is an under-appreciated item. The damage isn't huge, but as it strikes twice it does add up fairly quickly and it automatically hits through stoneskins and mirror images. It's also magic damage, which gets less resisted than elemental.
Cassius, Elf Diviner, BG1EE Update 6 BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 First SoD update found here
The party proceeds with clearing the last vestiges of monster holdouts across the Coast, starting with the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.
Fear, Love, Avarice and Pride fall in order, and without much protest; Pride did not even manage to hack his way through all five Skeleton Warriors barring his path afore his time was up. The path to the third underground level lies open.
The third level is almost entirely uneventful, drama arriving only when Khalid underestimates the THAC0 of the Dwarven Doomguards, and is rewarded for his arrogance by his spleen once again taking a beating.
The fourth level is even quieter than the third, as precious few inhabitants of the Tower are a threat to us anymore. Since I installed the component to remove Arrows of Dispelling from stores, the 10 Arrows of Dispelling available if you kill the Skeleton Archers here before they have a chance to fire are most welcome (and gives you something to do with all those Wands of Fire).
We are teleported onto the Chess board, and express our disapproval of the fact that the enemy pieces need not care at all about the movement rules by melting said pieces into their component elements. A True Sight from Faldorn ensures the King has nowhere to hide.
On to the fifth and final level. We pass through barely needing even to buff: Yeslick with the Ring of Free Action holds the front lines, and there is little the enemy here can do but die. Grael is considered potentially dangerous, and so get the full Skeleton Warrior treatment, but this is the only time we even cast spells on this level.
We stop just short of engaging the Demon Knight, and teleport back onto the surface, returning to Ulgoth's Beard shortly thereafter. Following a quick chat with Mendas, we sneak into Baldur's Gate and assault the Counting House, obtaining the requisite charts and soon after setting sail.
Upon arrival, we talk to all the inhabitants in the walled village, and head towards the northern part of the island. Clearing the island exterior is straightforward: While in possession of decent HP and THAC0, the Wolfweres require only +1 weapons to hit, and so everyone happily joins in pelting the wolves to death. Likewise, the first three levels of Balduran's ship pass by swiftly: Yeslick and Khalid under a full complement of Cleric buffs make short work of the masses of enemies.
The fourth level is slightly different. This was almost certainly overkill, but I opt to send Khalid in, under PfM and a heap of potions. Thus protected, he makes mincemeat of everything in sight, including Karoug (as he is wielding the Flametongue +1). We of course deliver Dradeel's spellbook and loot his little hut for the Staff Mace +2, going to Cassius for (much later) importing into Shadows of Amn... hopefully!
Returning to the village, we are betrayed, but ultimately manage to convince Kaishas to let us leave unopposed. Upon our return to Ulgoth's Beard, Mendas is somewhat upset, and so understandably tries to kill us all. However, with some careful positioning to avoid the entire party loosing their standard Mage/Cleric buffs from Mendas' initial Remove Magic, no powerful potions or scrolls are required: We beat Mendas and his bodyguard thoroughly (Mendas' MGoI provides no protection from Wand of the Heavens), and though their Loup Garou forms dish out some damage to Khalid as he is dissecting them with Flametongue +1, it's nothing the Half-Elf can't handle.
Cassius scoops up the Chain Mail +3 (to be imported as well.. mostly because it's fun with someone on the front lines not wearing Plate, if only for a short while), and we retire to the local inn. Time to finish this...
A good rest later, the party sneaks into Baldur's Gate under Invisibility 10' Radius. We get in, rescue Eltan, and get out with the Flaming Fist none the wiser. Problems arise, however, when dealing with Cythandria. Thinking to save some spell slots (why?! We could've just rested right after!) we opt to only call 3 Skeleton Warriors and do not apply any buffs. Cythandria's Golems fall swiftly, but the Mage herself proves more of a handful, as she demonstrates when she zings Cassius with a Lightning Bolt, even though the brave Elf quaffed a Potion of Invisibility before Cythandria cast her spell!
And that is why the Mage protagonist always wears the Boots of Grounding. That bit of unpleasantness over with, let's just take Cythandria down with no further accidents.
I guess I should be happy Cythandria was out of area-of-effect spells by now, or we'd be picking up Half-Elf pieces. We finally put the dread arcanist down, and Cassius was still lugging around five scrolls of Stone to Flesh, so Khalid is restored. Phew. No Khalid would've made the Palace fight as well as the Sarevok showdown harder (not impossible, just harder).
Dealing with Slythe and Krystin goes better: Slythe drops almost immediately, and though Krystin makes an absolute nuisance of herself (constantly breaking line of sight by ducking in and out of siderooms, and showcasing the bug where she periodically goes invisible), she joins her despicable husband soon enough.
Time for the Palace. We do nothing special: Five Skeleton Warriors, full Cleric buffs and Haste. Cassius starts the battle by casting Invisibility on Liia Jannath, all but ensuring our victory right then and there. The Shaman nearly gave me hiccups when it got a Flame Strike off on Cassius, but then I remembered: Mage protagonist, in addition to Boots of Grounding, also wears Ring of Fire Resistance! And Cassius' Mirror Image ate the Flame Strike anyway. After that, neither the Mage nor Shaman managed to get any spells off. The Assassin got a single backstab in but died as soon as he showed himself, and Sarevok soon fled. Liia and Belt both survived, hooray!
This time I recall that all the traps along the route through the Maze to the Undercity are actually marked by green splotches on the wall, so we make very good time (Yeslick and Khalid both got to quaff STR potions, I just wanted to power through). In the Undercity, we try a somewhat less dishonourable but still pretty cowardly means of dealing with the mercenaries: Greater Malison and 3x Confusion (courtesy of Faldorn's three Nymphs) from out of sight. It actually works: Everyone but Shaldrissa is affected, and even Shaldrissa cannot save against the next move from the nymph trio, three Hold Monster (her MGoI provides no defense).
We talk Tamoko out of fighting us, and take a final rest outside the Temple of Bhaal. I am cheeky enough to have Cassius memorize spells suitable for dealing with the initial dungeon in Siege of Dragonspear: Mage spells aren't much use in the final battle until it's basically over anyway, and if Cassius really wants to pitch in, he has half an inventory full of wands.
The plan is simply and almost foolproof: Yeslick and Khalid pop PfM (Yeslick drinking a Potion of Genius first so he can read the scroll), then buff with potions and wreck everything. The rest of the party summons forth five Skeleton Warriors, apply full Cleric buffs as well as Haste, then turn invisible and hide by the entrance (the Skeleton Warriors are for distracting Sarevok initially). Pretty much the only way this tactic can fail is if you stop paying attention and Sarevok gets a real nice Deathbringer Assault on your tank, but otherwise it works very well. You also need to watch out for stray Fireballs and possible Lightning Bolts, but that's why Cassius wears the mentioned protection items. Faldorn will help out by running True Sight for 20 consecutive rounds, but otherwise, it's all Yeslick and Khalid.
Yeslick, Khalid and the gaggle gang move north to engage. Sarevok gives his speech, gets an Arrow of Dispelling in an unpleasant place to remove his Haste effect, and the game is afoot!
Sorry for the lack of exciting narration, but it really wasn't that exciting. Yeslick and Khalid have an edge with their Oils of Speed. Diarmid (and Tazok, not pictured) always die quickly due to no real defenses. Semaj suffers from the same bug as Krystin where he goes invisible every two rounds, so it takes a while to kill him, but eventually he drops. By then, Angelo's plethora of buffs have mostly run their course, so Khalid can land Arrows of Dispelling to clear several Stoneskins, and Angelo soon drops.
Once it's just Sarevok and his undead acolytes, the fight is over. Cassius reveals himself to summon some fodder, and the entire party lays into the enemy. There is nothing Sarevok can do (apart from refuse to end the game after he dies.. sore loser!).
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! A few mishaps (Jaheira... and Khalid getting petrified), but we muddled through, and are now rewarded. The iron crisis is ended, Baldur's Gate is saved, and that vile murderer Sarevok gets his just desserts!
While the rest of the city celebrates, Cassius and his friends are more sombre. They opt to slip out of the city quietly, returning to the Cloakwood. There, they erect a simple shrine: A ring of obsidian stones around Jaheira's favoured Club +1. Upon being driven into the ground, that simple Club somehow sprouted roots, instantly growing into a small oak. A divination cast by Cassius reveals a faint trace of Jaheira's druidic power in the tree. Perhaps we shall see Jaheira again. Cassius and Khalid both hope so.
The party returns to the city after the festivities have run their course. Cassius is growing increasingly worried. For some time now, his attempts to divine his own immediate future have been frustrated by an unknown force. That force, at first little more than a shadow at the edge of Cassius' consciousness, has now grown into a tangible blackness, preventing all attempts to dispel it, or discern its origins. Something has turned its gaze onto our hero. Something.. dark.
The messenger from the Grand Dukes finds the party brooding at the Helm and Cloak Inn. There are vestiges of Sarevok's followers still entrenched in the city, and Cassius is called upon once more. The Elf will acquiesce to this request, but with his divinatory powers all but blocked, little does he realize where this path he now embarks upon will lead.
I'm now just going to switch between meatgrinder challenge runs and solo attempts until I succeed at one of these two things (or get bored). This solo run is very standard - core rules, no mods, nothing special. I'm using the same F/M/T that previously failed her run thanks to a gargantuan spider in SoD - a run which I mentioned, but never reported on here. The reason I'm re-using Arinja is a) because I've determined that a F/M/T is propably my best chance at succeeding with a solo-run after so many failures and b) it took me literally hours to roll up her stats (something to do while listening to a long podcast, I guess), so it would be a shame not to load up her character file again.
Arinja is a true neutral elf. Her stats: Strength: 18/91 Dexterity: 19 Constitution: 17 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom: 5 Charisma: 18
So far, I've completed the Candlekeep quests (for no good reason), killed Shoal, talked down Marl, helped Firebead and met up with Corax to take down Mutamin and his basilisks:
This has brought Arinja to level 4/4/5.
My proficiency plan is this: She starts with **War Hammer, **Longbow, will get **Two Weapon Style next, after that *Mace (for the iMoD +2), **Scimitar (for the off-hand weapon) and the last point will go to two weapon style again. There's also a very simple plan for her potential HLA choices (the only purpose of this plan is to take down Amelyssan): UAI, 12 Spike Traps, 1 WW, 6 GWW. 12 spike traps is what you need in vanilla to skip every Mel battle except for the first one. not exactly fair, but effective. But first, I have to stop losing my solo characters to random early game encounters (and get past Abazigal and Balthazar, the other bosses who have previously ended some of my solo runs).
Trio Update SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods Yeldon - half-elf cleric/ranger, protagonist (Corey_Russell) Denko - human dark moon monk (Gate70) Keras - dwarven kensai (Grond0)
I thought for sure the run was finished - somebody was looking out for Yeldon and team today. On to the adventure:
* Our save said liches, so we bought what scrolls we needed and started with Temple District Lich. Little problem - we hadn't even gotten the Unseeing Eye quest and our buffs were running! We quickly got the quest and returned. We got the key from Gaal and then Denko spawned the lich. Despite our protection from undead, the lich targeted Denko with a bunch of spells. This stunned Yeldon. Keras tried to help, but then Denko got held, and Keras wasn't able to survive. We thought it was over here - but no! The lich seemed to recognize our PfU, and ignored Denko and Yeldon. Eventually the duo shook it off and killed the lich. Close one. Cost a lot of time though.
* We then headed for lich in Bridge District. We were getting ambushes on the way, slowing us down yet further. We were running out of buffs. But this lich fell much faster (lucky Azuredge hit) and we headed to Kangaxx.
* We had already busted Kangaxx door just before doing Gate District Lich. Keras went in and tried to one shot the lich form with Azuredge but failed. Keras got in trouble (and died) with the summoned Djinn and then Denko picked up the Daystar and meleed (with protection from magic) while Yeldon did the best he could to stay out of the way. The lich seemed unkillable - but wait, once all his spells were expended he changed to the demi-lich form! Luckily Denko was able to slay this form and Keras was raised with the Resurrection Rod.
* We then cleared out Watcher's Keep. Despite getting both mephits and vampiric mists, the team prevailed, mostly we think due to the skeleton warriors that assisted us (Yeldon summons). The rest of the 1st level of the Keep went well. We didn't need anything from the statues, so gave them a pass. Yeldon needed a rest to use righteous magic and DUHM to bust open the crimson dart chest. Then we headed out.
* Properly equipped and rested, we then tried out Planar Sphere. Due to MP lag, Keras was killed quickly in the initial fight, but Denko and Yeldon managed to win. RoR once again used to bring Keras back to life. * Next major fight was umber hulks and thralls. Denko approached in melee, but that was a blunder as the hulks surrounded and killed him. Keras and Yeldon did manage to beat the hulks, but Keras got to a sliver of life and Yeldon used a RoR to get him to full health. * Next up was a single thrall and hulk. Denko's stealth failed and he got confused and killed. Yeldon and Keras did win though, and Denko was brought back to life with the RoR. Good thing we had this, this area would have been much more difficult otherwise.
* Next up we activated the Warden. The idea was to draw out his dangerous spells with summons and attack. Denko apparently didn't learn his lesson with the thrall and foolishly approached the Warden in stealth. Stealth failed and Denko got turned to STONE!
We paused and considered our options. We noticed were weren't in combat, as Yeldon and Keras weren't seen by the Warden, and luckily either is Denko! We had the ring of earth control but it wasn't identified. We rested, IDed it and brought Denko back to life. RoR got him to full health. We tried out plan once again of drawing out spells with summons - a skeleton warrior managed to kill the Warden! We looted and got the heck out of there.
We ran out of time here, so saved and will sell our loot next session. It bit too exciting...
Lost a multiclass Thief 6/Shadow Adept 5 to the drow Shadow Adept hiding in the cave just south of Beregost. I knew he was going to be strong, but man, he came prepared with like 5 prebuffs and a sequencer that summoned 3 shadows, who could also cast Shadow Weave spells. I wasn't expecting him to be that strong given that he was placed in an early location.
I rolled up this character some months ago, but have only actually played a few minutes with it - discovering the hard way there that it's a bad idea to kill Firebead in Candlekeep in the EE. This time round I've done a bit better in an opening session: - shooting Shoal (L2/3) - tried trapping Elminster, but he survived a full complement of those. However, a series of stealth shots eventually succeeded in finding a critical to finish him off (L5/5)
- shot an ogre for its belt - murdered Algernon for his cloak, Neera for her bag and Dushai for her ring - picked up some stealth boots from a hobgoblin - led Drizzt into some traps (L5/6).
Normally I don't use his armor because it prevents using protection items. However, the ability to stealth in decent armor is useful for fighter/thieves and I put that on - with reputation down to 2 there was a severe danger of bounty hunters spawning in civilized areas, so went to help out Ardrouine, then the Dryad of the Cloudpeaks (getting a nice backstab there on Krumm)
and then trapped Greywolf to 'help' Prism - I rested to get LMD before collecting Samuel and going to the FAI. After backstabbing Tarnesh I bought Buckley's Buckler to help keep HPs up - with reputation back up to 7 I thought I'd double-check whether killing Firebead in Beregost would harm it. The answer was yes and reputation went all the way back down to 3 (so Firebead is obviously considered a representative of 'authority' rather than just an innocent)
- I successfully restored Melicamp (though only after killing a couple of golems with stealth attacks)
- I gave Joia her ring back (L6/6) and escorted Brage back to Nashkel where I was able to explain the whereabouts of Greywolf to Oublek - charmed and dragged the Beregost temple sirines outside where they could be quickly backstabbed and trapped without even the need to wear them down against other enemies - followed Korax around the basilisks (L6/7).
Mutamin was backstabbed,
as was Kirian;
Korax managing to paralyze Peter before he died to avoid any possible complications there - the ankhegs in the nest got a couple of criticals, but that wasn't enough to stop me clearing the place - it didn't take long to clear the Valley of the Tombs (L7/7)
- the Gnoll Stronghold yielded up the charisma tome and I tided up a few more encounters in the southern areas before returning to the Lighthouse. The potion of clarity provided protection there, while dual-wielding made short work of the sirines (final BGEE level at L7/8)
- saving Arabelle bumped reputation back up to 10, before I rather belatedly went to Firewine to get Meilum's bracers - on the trail of the final wilderness tome I went to Durlag's Tower. Backstabs and melee soon sorted out the battle horrors and ghasts. A PfP scroll turned the basilisks into walking XP farms, while a PfM scroll let me grab the tome and melee the ghost.
I wasn't sure if Kirinhale's charm ability was magical or natural in origin, so used potions of both invulnerability and stone form to boost saves before attacking her.
- the unusual sensation of actually being able to loot things at Durlag's provided a temptation to go deeper into the Tower. However, with XP already at the cap and no shortage of money, there wasn't much point to doing so and I've just arrived at the Nashkel Mine.
With a pair of squishy mages even the fights in Candlekeep looked challenging and both mages took damage against their assassin opponents.
On the plus side though mage spells provide some nice disablers. Shoal was faced with 4 chances of being blinded and failed her first test to provide a level each.
A few tasks in Beregost included blinding Silke - despite that she was still happy to talk and summon up some merchants, but when hostilities commenced she found her improved invisibility spell expired long before blindness did.
Meldar had taken PfP as one of his known spells, so an early visit to the basilisk area seemed in order and the first of those monsters provided their next level.
Even though Rev was non-proficient with a staff, the combination of blindness and having no melee weapon equipped let her do decent damage (attacking from beyond the sight range of the basilisk). A few minutes, and a greater basilisk later, and both mages were up to level 4.
With all the basilisks dead, Mutamin was the next target. The idea was that Meldar would start the combat with Melf's Acid Arrow - with a bit of luck that would interrupt a spell or two allowing Rev to join in with LMD and missiles. However, Meldar fell victim to MP lag and didn't actually cast until well after Mutamin had started fighting. That resulted in him falling victim to horror and a couple of acid arrows later he was on the ground.
With Mutamin out of higher level spells, Rev was keen to continue the fight though and swapped some LMDs before running and shooting until Mutamin had had enough.
After raising Meldar the mages returned to the area to seek out Kirian (after a quick trip to the FAI to pick up the Ring of Wizardry). Blindness spells soon made her companions helpless and a stinking cloud helped do the same to her before the slaughter commenced.
Thinking they were on to a good thing, the duo moved on to Durlag's Tower to take on some battle horrors. I'd forgotten that LMD no longer affects those in v2.5 though, which meant that Meldar's acid arrows were the only spell we had that could hurt them.
That wasn't enough damage for clean kills, but resting in the area allowed them to be taken down in 2 bites - theoretically Rev could have killed the blinded enemies with her staff, but while waiting for the criticals to add up would be a standard tactic for me in single player, we look for a bit more action in our MP games .
On the roof of the Tower we went hunting more basilisks. The first greater one resisted blindness and spent a while chasing Rev round (getting one successful nibble in). With her spell protection due to be wearing off soon, Rev resorted to a few MM wand charges to help finish it off quickly.
After resting, the other 2 were more co-operative and died without a whimper.
Riggilo was another blind victim, though he struggled mightily against that (saving against 7 spells before failing on the 8th and last attempt).
That provided Rev with the opportunity for another level, but she chose to wait until Meldar can join in with the celebrations next time.
My FMC has just slain the Ravager, but we're going to hold off on Melissan until we go through a bit of Watcher's Keep. Mostly, I just want the poison head for the Flail of Ages so we can hit Abazigal with a slightly better weapon, but it would also help if Nalia hit level 22 and got her 3rd level 9 spell slot.
We dropped Imoen in favor of Haer'dalis, since he had better offensive capabilities and could use Soul Reaver more easily, which was important since turning Sarevok Chaotic Good (the only way for my good-aligned character, I think, to keep Sarevok on our side at the Throne) made him unable to use it. This is our party setup and roles:
Charname: Tanking with Flail of Ages, PFMW, SI: Abjuration. Their job is just to stay alive.
Haer'dalis: Tanking with PFMW and SI: Abjuration, with the Soul Reaver to apply THAC0 penalties (though he's terrible at it; Korgan would have been a better choice but I can't choose him because I never met him in SoA and I'm not willing to go back even though I have an EET install)
Mazzy: Dual-wielding Celestial Fury and Kundane at 10 APR for stun-locking and damage
Sarevok: Psionic Blade +5 (he's got nothing special aside from big numbers)
Keldorn: Impaler +3, Carsomyr +6, and Dispel Magic (currently at level 23, so Dispel Magic is level 34)
Nalia: Staff of the Magi and Project Image for cheap Improved Haste and Summon Planetar spells
Having four fighters in the party appears to be ideal for ToB considering how important melee damage is; Mazzy in particular is a critical party member due to her 10 APR. Things have been going very smoothly because of them; we didn't even have much trouble when we spawned three clones of Tamah instead of the normal (and also bugged) two clones. Having two tanks with SI: Abjuration also let us avoid a lot of Remove Magic spells, preserving Improved Haste on our fighters.
Haer'dalis got chunked by Tamah, but since SCS' anti-chunking component is broken due to a simple bug, I used a reload to keep him. As I've mentioned before, the anti-chunking component has no effect due to erroneously setting a 1 to a 0. If it wasn't for that bug, the component would block 100% of all chunkings aside from maybe petrification and cold damage chunking. Unlike Tenya, who also got chunked in BG1, I wasn't willing to lose Haer'dalis to a bug.
Not having Wish-resting (Nalia can't do it via Project Image unless I let her clone drink potions, which I won't) is going to make the Throne very different. That said, we don't really rely very heavily on resting in this party; our two Hardiness spells and 19 charges from our two Rods of Resurrection should keep everyone in good shape. With 4 castings of Smite, we should be able to lock down any potential problems in the final fight, and with our damage output as high as it is, we don't really need to worry about Melissan once she's alone.
If we take down Melissan, I'll post screenshots and more in-depth discussion.
Cassius, Elf Diviner of peerless skill and slightly moody disposition, is journeying into Siege of Dragonspear.
Importing from BG1EE into Siege of Dragonspear. Difficulty: Insane with no extra damage, max HP on level-up. Self-imposed restrictions: No using unidentified items, no recharging items by selling and buying them back. Mods: None. Protagonist: Cassius, L9 Elf Diviner.
As usual, we will be starting a new game and then opting to import Cassius from the final save, instead of selecting to import the save directly: This way, Cassius gets the standard party with standard gear. Cassius will also have his own inventory severely ransacked in the interest of maintaining early-game balance in SoD. For those so interested, Cassius starts with the following items:
Robe of the Good Archmagi Xarnous' Second Sword Arm The Amplifier Evermemory Batalista's Passport Cloak of Protection +1 Talos' Gift [No belt] Sling +1 Staff Mace +2 80x each of Bullet +1, Bullet of Fire +1, Bullet +2 5x Potion of Healing (the 9 HP version) 2x Potion of Invisibility 1x Wand of Fire with 5 charges each of Fireball and Scorcher Chain Mail +3 (for later importing into SoA, hopefully)
Finally, a small additional restriction: Cassius may freely use the available companions and all their items, charged or otherwise, to get through Korlasz's tomb. He may not, however, take his party members' expensive items to sell later, or spend his gold on items from the Flaming Fist Healer with the intent of saving these items to sell later. Basically, he will act as if unaware that all of his gold will be taken from him, and that his companions will soon leave. Of course, he is free to save any valuable items found in the dungeon to sell later.
So, Jaheira is back! Healthy as ever and decidedly NOT burnt to a crisp. Cassius counts his blessings and presses on, intent to let sleeping dogs lie... perhaps he simply confused this reality with another potential reality (a common occurence for Diviners, what with frequently viewing a plethora of possibilities due to their powers).
The first group of Sarevok's followers are surprisingly vulnerable to the Wand of Horror: One charge knocks out all but two enemies. Jaheira uses her Cloak of the Nymph to Charm the Cleric in the group, and we get Aid + 2x Cure Light Wounds for free. Huzzah for saving potions!
I think I might try to use this trick with Mental Domination/Domination in BG2EE.. there are typically Clerics in the groups that ambush you inbetween areas there. I just thought it was nifty.
With CHA 19, Cassius smoothly convinces Porios to surrender without a fight. We agree to assist Fanegonorom in getting those damnable kids to lower the volume, and descend into the tomb proper.
Cassius' Wand of Fire and spell selection proves useful: We encounter much less trouble than usual down here. Although, true to form, the optional fight in the hidden sideroom proves more bothersome: Khalid falls! We actually end up doing a fighting retreat north to get some assistance from the Flaming Fist. Thankfully, the Healer doesn't die (although she comes close...) and so Khalid is restored to us. These large Undead mobs can wear you down if you don't take out the Shadowed Souls quickly.
Pressing on, Safana under Invisibility goes ahead to remove traps. Of course, she is spotted by a Bonebat, and has to run back to the party. Unfortunately, while the party is content to take potshots at Undead stuck in a Web, the Flaming Fist Healer believes in a more hands-on approach.. leading not only to the death of herself and one of her guards, but also to the large group of Sarevok's followers joining in! Fortunately, the Skeleton Mage's Stinking Cloud helps keep them from reaching us, and we triumph.
The final Flaming Fist dies trying to help us against Korlasz... I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. But I am looting their corpses. We kill off most of Korlasz's followers with area-of-effect damage (we run out of Fireballs, spell-wise and charge-wise, here but that's fine) before the Mage herself surrenders. We return the Spirit's Staff to its tomb, allowing it to rest, and allowing us to loot some gems. Following this, we ascend the rope to the first floor. We saved a Haste and Slow for this final fight, and it works out well: We easily take down the spectral Undead (Minsc and Khalid even quaffed their respective Strength potions). Ammon gets her Moss, Fanogonorom thanks us via a very nice Medium Shield +2 (as well as gold and gems), and we return to the palace.
The city quests are mostly uneventful, though I (to some degree inadvertently) take a more bloodthirsty approach than usual: The Doppleganger in the basement of the Ducal Palace is slain, after Korlasz tried and failed to kill a single Skeleton Warrior while Cassius hid in a corner.
Not exactly a physical titan, Cassius fails to intimidate Bartleby (the bodyguard that gets called on the second floor of Three Old kegs) and has to kill him, yielding a pointless Kensai weapon we'll sell. In other news at the Three Old Kegs: Minsc and Dynaheir are recruited, the trio of nobles are tricked into revealing their dastardly plans, some robbers are convinced to turn themselves in to the Flaming Fist, and we intervene in a bar fight, killing Lucilla for her Cudgel of Montgomer +1 (which goes to Minsc... this is actually a good tank weapon, what with the 10% chance to cast CLW on the wielder per hit) and getting Eadro's Blade +1 from Autinn. The latter might actually be good for Jaheira, we'll keep it around.
The rest of the city passes by quickly. We pick up Safana and loot everything (the basement of the Ducal Palace yielding a good amount of coin and gems). Happy with our progress, we buy a few items but have plenty of cash left. Off to face the Crusade!
Alright, first thing's first, let's get our party for the chapter in order. Safana is replaced by Glint, Corwin is recruited, and we head north, picking up M'Khiin. Her spells if anyone cares, with the ones in bold added by me as she leveled up:
Armor of Faith / Bless / Cure Light Wounds / Doom / Entangle / Spirit Ward Barkskin / Flame Blade / Resist Fire and Cold / Slow Poison / Writhing Fog Call Lightning / Cure Medium Wounds / Spiritual Clarity / Summon Insects Call Woodland Beings / Defensive Harmony / Spirit Fire
Alright, we have a party! Glint, M'Khiin and Corwin all leveled and so could do with a rest... but let's press on as far as we can go first. Not keen on repeating the performance of Adamant (How does Cassius know that name? Again with the multiple realities...), the perfidious Spiders are treated to a dual Fireball. Which both Gargantuan Spiders survive, but that's fine: The threat here is someone getting Web Tangled and then targetted by the Sword Spiders.
Ah, Dwarves of Dumathoin... one of my favourite quests in SoD. We clear the first level: Lots of Fireballs are helpful. Also, the Mutated Crawlers are entirely vulnerable to Cloudkill (the Neo-Otyugh and the Umber Hulks, while they take damage from it, are too high-level to fall to its instant kill effect). Through a combination of Fireball, Web, Animate Dead and some Spirit Animals courtesy of M'Khiin, we prevail rather easily. But there is no way we can make our way through the lower level without rest, so we return to camp. A full spell selection later, we return, venturing deeper into the Undead warrens.
Again, spell selections are tailored around full-on destruction: Fireball (and Sunfire for Dynaheir, though not for Cassius... it's too risky getting in close with such a frail protagonist!), Web, Magic Missile, Haste, and a single Improved Invisibility if Minsc has to tank something unpleasant. Glint really doesn't have many spell slots yet, but what he does have goes toward standard Cleric buffs, including Remove Fear since there are Mummys down here. M'Khiin of course needs no spell preparations, but we note that she has area-of-effect potential in Writhing Fog (though most Undead are immune to Cold damage) and Spirit Fire.
We find a group of Undead with no Bonebats attached. Cue invisible Dynaheir and her Sunfire.
Yes, that second screenshot is after she cast Sunfire twice. I guess I'm misremembering, but seems to me like Sunfire really should break Invisibility. It doesn't however, to the dismay of the massive Undead horde that just got annihilated.
We head further west. Minsc borrows Batalista's Passport and gets a Resist Fire and Cold from M'Khiin, and we engage the Burning Skeletons. Since she has nothing better to do with her second level slots, M'Khiin pushes out three Writhing Fog for the Burning Skeleton Archers to stand in. They quickly succumb.
The party presses on. The Bronze Sentry deals a little damage but is eventually mobbed by Major Animal Spirits. A single Web (from Dynaheir, so requires a Save vs Spell at a -4 penalty) in conjunction with Major Animal Spirits proves enough to handle certain spawns: Most Undead will fail their save, and when they do get to move, they'll go after the entirely disposable Spirits.
There is a very large spawn of Undead inside the Laboratory: We break out our own Undead, but they prove insufficient to hold the line. A bit of shuffling and some Scorcher from our still not depleted Wand of Fire later, victory is ours.
Excellent! There remain only two Undead groups. The one in the hidden room gets treated to Web in conjunction with Major Animal Spirits, falling in much the same fashion as the last group subjected to this combo.
We open the path towards the Lich's sanctum. There remains a very large group of Undead here, including two full-fledged Skeleton Warriors! We burn our last Fireball and Spirit Fire, successfully clearing most of the group. The Skeleton Warriors force us to keep moving (and even so we take heavy damage), but it turns out that Improved Invisible Minsc with Shield of Egons +2, Full Plate Mail and Golden Girdle of Urnst can reliably tank them.
The way unbarred, we witness the transformation of the Coldhearth Lich. But in our eagerness to inform Brother Deepvein, we forget to retrieve the documents in the warded chest that proves what a scoundrel Coldhearth is. Fortunately, Semal speaks up as to the dwarf's poor character, and we are tasked by Deepvein with the latter's destruction, assisted by The Secret Revealed. Coldhearth never gets a spell off: We had saved a Haste spell for this. Minsc rushes along the hidden corridor, grabs the plylactery, and hurtles it into the flame. Huzzah! We collect our lovely reward from Brother Deepvein and depart the musty halls.
Slightly worse for wear, we indulge in a rest and subsequently heal up. All that remains is to clear the minor quests here before proceeding with the plot. Not wont to underestimate a Mage, the party buffs thoroughly before engaging Teleria, leading to her rapid demise (that 6 Acid damage is from a batch of Darts of Acid +1 that Cassius found somewhere).
As is customary, the Orc raiding party in the area to the west get treated to a Cloudkill. They do not enjoy the experience. We agree to help the Vampire hunters, and as it's only eight hours until dark, we just travel back and forth between the two areas once. Tsolak literally drops in one round, wasting his singular action on attempting to Dominate Isabella. On our way back to the camp, we get the first ambush. Hooray! We're low on buffs but have some damage spells (including the 1/day Sunfire from Suncatcher +2, which Minsc is currently using). Press on! It turns out Minsc with PfE is almost impossible for the Trolls to hit, and so we have a field day. The Firefly +2 goes to Glint, of course.
And that's it! We hand the quest in to Takos, get The Biter +2 (which goes to Cassius, he'll make good use of it with his 20 DEX) and also get to keep Suncatcher +2 thanks to Cassius' silver tongue. We return to camp, rest up, and move to engage the Crusaders at the bridge.
Sunfire. You've got to love it. Two Sunfire from Dynaheir kills everyone apart from Barachus (by simple virtue of him being outside the spell's range), and a handful of arrows/bolts in conjunction with M'Khiin's Call Lightning does for the Orog. We get all the loot! Huzzah! Most of it is unremarkable (though Potions of all sorts are always useful), but there's a Long Sword +2 here for Khalid to use later on.
We have our little dialogue with Caelar, and return to camp. Off to chapter 10!
We arrive at Dead Man's Pass unimpeded. Though his attempts at divining the future remain blocked, Cassius can still detect individual power signatures in the immediate area... and to the north, one very familiar such one resides: Jaheira!
Very soon, the party will embark to recruit new allies. Which unfortunately means that old ones must step aside, for the moment at least. Feeling appropriately woeful, Cassius breaks out a bottle of the same cheap sherry the party enjoyed back when their greatest worries consisted of fighting Ettercaps. Everyone has a glass, reveling around the campfire.
Next time, we will gather Jaheira and Voghiln, replacing Minsc and Dynaheir. Then, we press on to a derelict Temple of Bhaal, oblivious to the horrors that certainly await us there... although with any luck M'Khiin's newfound Insect Plague (her first L5 spell, as she leveled) will help combat said monstrosities! Cassius is now a L10 Elf Diviner.
Melissan has fallen! Turns out Sendai pre-buffs with both SI: Abjuration and SI: Divination, so Keldorn's Dispel Magic was useless, but she didn't pre-buff with Mislead or Improved Invisibility, which meant that Charname's Simulacrum clone could stun-lock her with Smite and some normal bullets delivered via the Sling of Everard. Mazzy, protected from Illasera's arrows with the Shield of Reflection, dealt damage to Abazigal via nonmagical darts, though he proved immune to stun. Sendai fell to sling bullets (her Fallen Deva also got stun-locked; the Sling of Everard can toggle between nonmagical bullets and +5 bullets), Abazigal fell to Mazzy's darts and Keldorn's bolts, and Illasera fell shortly after to magical weapons.
The multiple deaths kept Melissan unconscious for a moment, giving Charname enough time to activate a Harm Spell Trigger, wait 6 seconds, and use Critical Strike to bump the chance of a hit up to 100%. The Harm spell killed Yaga-Shura instantly and we stomped on Gromnir, isolating Melissan.
While Melissan lay on the ground, Nalia removed her Spell Trap with Pierce Shield and Haer'dalis took down her Divine Mantle with a Wand of Spell Striking. Once her weapon immunities were gone, we stun-locked her with Smite and, after a few tries, even managed to stun her with the Wand of Paralyzation despite not having Greater Malison on hand. Due to a bug, she had 90% resistance to physical damage instead of 75% (she has a helmet with 15% resistance, but she's supposed to lose it if Balthazar is dead or on your side), but having 2.5 times as much effective HP made no difference. Melissan healed herself instantly and delivered a vanilla dialogue line, which I think isn't supposed to happen in Ascension, but we killed her again anyway, and she didn't get up after that. That's what happens when you have four fighters in a party.
It seems that fighters really do dominate ToB. ToB is very much a game of numbers, crammed with big bosses with sky-high MR, vast HP pools, and lots of regeneration and immunities that make it a struggle for spellcasters and thieves to bring them down. Even if I had the Robe of Vecna, I don't think Nalia would have brought much to the table by using Improved Alacrity. Sheer damage output appears to be the primary factor in ToB fights.
Honestly, I think you only need one mage in ToB. Project Image will let a single mage cover everyone with Improved Haste and situational buffs (and protect them by tanking enemy Remove Magic spells), and a single Planetar will perform all the normal healing duties, including powerful rescue options in the form of SCS celestials' instant-casting Heal spells. Clerics and druids are largely redundant. ToB is easiest when you have a party crammed with fighters to tank with Hardiness and stun-lock key enemies with Power Attack and Smite.
I'll post screenshots later. I think this is the first run I've done without using any tricks or exploits--not even the normal ones, like messing with enemy AI in the fights against Davaeorn and Sarevok, or using Protection from Magic scrolls on enemy mages.
I stealthed through most of the Nashkel Mine before trying a backstab on Mulahey. He just survived that, but not the following stroke.
Nimbul failed to survive his backstab. Tranzig survived both backstab and a first use of LMD, but his attempt to run away failed.
After picking up the pantaloons I arrived at the Bandit Camp. Most of the external bandits were just meleed, though Taurgosz was softened up first in some pre-laid traps.
Before going into Tazok's tent though I briefly returned to Beregost. The main purpose of that was to get caught stealing and reduce reputation back to 9 in order to get horror as a next Bhaal power. However, I found to my own horror that I hadn't rested enough since doing the Nashkel Mine and got a second LMD. That's not really a big problem, but as I don't allow any use of healing items, it does mean the Unseeing Eye quest can't be completed in BG2. I took my annoyance out by deciding to kill an interfering busybody for the second time (I can't ever remember doing that before).
Back at the Bandit Camp, Venkt died without knowing what hit him.
I had some traps outside, but didn't bother with those as the others were quickly meleed to death. I kept hold of Hakt's bow as that's the best available for shooting non-proficient arrows (essentially for dispelling purposes). I could have disarmed the trap, but chose to use it as usual to kill Ender Sai.
After resting to get horror, I donated at the Temple to push reputation back to 10 before I forgot and then just ran through the Cloakwood to get to the mine. Genthore was charmed and pulled away first. Kysus was next and he started casting fireball just in case I missed with a backstab - I emphatically didn't though.
Rezdan also died from a foreign body entering his spine, but not before producing a few monsters to help kill Drasus.
As my stealth is so poor I fought down to the bottom level before charming the guard. He then soaked up some damage from Davaeorn until it was time to unleash a backstab.
Arriving at Baldur's Gate I didn't take the opportunity to kill Elminster for a 3rd time. Apart from trying to manage an over-full inventory there were no problems with the city quests as I pushed reputation up to 20. Acquiring the Helm of Glory
let me do the same to charisma to take a not really advantage of low shop prices. I didn't take any chances at the Iron Throne - fireballs from the shadows being used to kill all except the fighters.
Back at Candlekeep I had the luxury of not needing to tank the traps for once. I realized too late that I only had one inventory space, so had to drop the Helm of Glory in order to carry both tomes out - there's nothing more to buy at the moment anyway though. I couldn't resist dealing with Prat - another nice backstab making short work of him.
Back in Baldur's Gate, Slythe was badly injured in traps and failed to get a hit in. Krystin was softened up by a first use of bolts of biting before I finished her off in melee.
At the Palace one of the dopplegangers died in pre-laid traps. I decided to just melee the others rather than muck about with dispelling them and 2 of them attacked me anyway - the others didn't do too much damage to the dukes.
After cruising through the maze, fireballs were used to kill the Undercity party - mainly to get an extra couple of exploding arrows from Rahvin. In the temple the same logic saw the lightning trap repeatedly triggered to kill Angelo before he could use any of his 8 exploding arrows. Some running and shooting and a few backstabs then saw off Sarevok.
F7/T8, 76 HPs (+5 from Helm; -5 from Claw), 448 kills
Comments
Garos the Warhorn Shaman
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1, 2
I had to do some finagling with my install order since the version of Improved Shamanic Dance I was using for BG2EE was very out of date. And I had to remake Garos from scratch in BG2 because I was summoning the standard Shaman spirits instead of warrior spirits after importing from SoD, so I also traded Creeping Doom for Impervious Sanctity of Mind. I found out that Chaotic Commands and ISoM both offer immunities that the other doesn't have, so I took both to be extra safe.
-Ascension
-Tweaks Anthology
-Rogue Rebalancing
-aTweaks
-Item Upgrade
-Enchant the Missile Launchers
-Skip Chateau Irenicus
I can't wait for patch 2.6 and SCS v32 so I can get a fresh new start, assuming patch 2.6 isn't also broke as hell like 2.5 is.
From the spoils of Irenicus's dungeon, I buy back my Fleshripper +2 bow from Ribald, but this soon turned out to be unnecessary as the Tuigan Bow +1 is just better. My spirit bros deal with the Copper Coronet slavers, earning me level 17.
Up next is the CC sewers and slaver compound. Spirit bros handle the sewers while I summon fire elementals to deal with the slavers. The Greater Fire Elemental engulfs Captain Haegan in flames, which renders him trapped. I use Sanctuary and start summoning my spirit bros since there's too many for me to take on by myself.
Inside the compound, I use a second casting of conjure fire elemental, this time only getting a standard elemental. I use Insect Plague on the pair of wizards which shuts them down. I only have 5 arrows of biting, but one for each wizard is enough to poison them through their stoneskins, helping to finish them off.
Next I go to the Docks and buy my Safeguard buckler back from Marina. I deal with Xzar's minions using Nature's Beauty and using the remaining 3 arrows of biting on them to kill them.
On the way to the Temple district for Mae'var, I get the Suna Seni ambush. They interrupt my Nature's Beauty casting by exhausting my Iron Skins, and it leaves me with pretty low health. Thankfully, Undying Fury has a casting time of only 1, so I use that instead to survive. While immortal, I use Fury of the Winds to eliminate them and strike down Eldarin with Call Lightning.
The rest of Mae'var's tasks are finished and I level up from tattling on him to Renal Bloodscalp. Level 18 means its time for HLAs. The Warhorn Shaman has no custom HLAs, so they just use the standard Shaman HLAs. I pick Spirit Form as my first HLA.
Against Mae'var and co., I try Nature's Beauty. It works, but the problem is that they all use the Blind Thief Trick against me as a result. They go into stealth, which means I have to resort to using Insect Plague on an object that I place on the ground so it will spread to them since I can't see them.
I use True Sight to attack them as well, but they tend to enter stealth very soon after being revealed. I try Dispel Magic to cure their blindness, but I guess I can't even dispel my own magic. I eventually take down Mae'var with more castings of True Sight and one casting of Fury of the Winds.
Since I'm at level 18, I get the final tier of spirits: Valkyries.
The Pebblecrusher Party is wasted with one casting of Nature's Beauty with spirit bros as the cleanup crew.
Before I try doing more dangerous quests, I'm going to do the easier ones so I can build up gold and XP. I level up from an ambush that occurs as I travel to the De'Arnise Stronghold. This time I learn Favored of the Spirits, which grants me a second layer of immortality as Undying Fury does mostly the same thing.
Inside the De'Arnise stronghold, I have to escape the golem room with Sanctuary from the Safeguard buckler. Against a Clay and Iron golem, Fire elementals will just get crushed in a couple of rounds, so I put on Vhailor's Helm and have my simulacrum summon spirits to distract the golems while I try to summon Valkyrie spirits. They eventually win.
In the deepest part of the stronghold, I am unpleasantly surprised to learn that TorGal has invisibility detection. I had to unsummon my spirit bros against him because the fire elementals were killed and I had to finish off his giant troll pals before they regenerated. I make an escape with an Oil of Speed after getting badly injured. Upstairs, I heal and rebuff. TorGal is obviously waiting at the bottom of the stairs, so I cast Harm and go down the stairs. It hits, and I finish him with a flaming arrow.
Next I do the Trademeet quests. I level up near the troll mound and take Storm of Vengeance, which I've modified to suck far less, partly modeled after its NWN version: for 1 turn, 3d6 acid/round and save vs. spell or be stunned for 2 rounds and damaged by 6d6 electrical. I kept the save vs. death or be poisoned for 1 round, plus the "slay anything 8 HD and lower," and then added save vs. breath or be pulled back into the center of the storm. Now it's actually worth using.
When we run into the druids fighting trolls, my spirits let the caster druid live for too long and he summons a pair of Bearweres, then a pair of fire elementals!
Even I wouldn't use these summons. I wish the Bearwere summons were not part of the Shapeshifter Rebalancing component of Tweaks Anthology. Needless to say, the Bearweres obliterate my summons and spirits so I get out of there with Sanctuary. From out of the Bearweres' sight, I try to at least kill the enemy fire elementals with Storm of Vengeance and Wrath of the Skies, but they're a little too beefy. I decide to just leave with an invisibility potion.
I rest inside Adratha's cottage and then try to take her on with a fire elemental, Improved Kitthix, and spirit bros. But I keep getting pelted with fireballs and the summons are having trouble hitting the rakshasas. I go outside to heal and try summoning more spirits. To my delight, spellcasting spirits will try to heal their summoner!
The myconids and trolls are taken care of by Storm of Vengeance. I go back inside the cottage after healing up and finish off the rakshasas. Near the entrance to the druid grove, I let loose a devastating combo of Insect Plague, Storm of Vengeance, Wrath of the Skies, and Fury of the Winds. All opposition crumbles. It's kind of overkill but that druid wielding Flame Tongue and Gnasher +2 is deadly if you let him live for too long. I think he'll also summon Bearweres.
To finish this quest, I temporarily take Cernd into the party. He will most assuredly die if left to his own devices against Faldorn, and then I won't be able to complete the quest. Cernd challenges Faldorn and he transforms into the Greater Werewolf, but he is hit by Creeping Doom. Faldorn summons a pair of Bearweres, too. Even the Greater Werewolf's regeneration can't keep up and he dies.
Dammit. I go back to Trademeet and raise him, then have him memorize Insect Plague. We come back to the druid grove and challenge Faldorn again. I hand him his Greater Werewolf paw from outside the ring and both druids cast their AoE insect spells as their openers. Both druids cannot cast spells, but Cernd is way better at melee thanks to his werewolf form, so he wins.
I kick Cernd out of the party and go back to Trademeet to turn in the quests. From the loot I've collected, I pay off Gaelan to get the Amulet of Power and Ring of Protection +2.
I also forge the club Pitchwife +5 from Item Upgrade. I'm not proficient in clubs but I do have 3 stars in two-weapon fighting, so I'll put it in my offhand when I'm doing melee. Too bad I can't use any of the 3 speed weapons. The Windspear Hills and Firkraag's dungeon are up next.
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 20
BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
We follow the plan laid ut beforehand, with a minor deviation: We do indeed start by clearing the Valley of the Tombs, mostly in the interest of aquiring a Wand of Summoning.
Nothing proves particularly troublesome. Narcillicus didn't even pre-buff with MGoI, but has the poor manners to drop dead before Faldorn can even get Call Lightning off. Hmph.
The minor deviation comes from us clearing out the Ankheg nest as well as doing the minor Tenya and Zombie horde questlines. I'm going to go slightly unoptimal here: Jaheira will wear Ankheg Plate, Khalid will wear the best magical armor we can find, and Branwen will get Full Plate (once we aquire Gauntlets of Ogre Strength for her): I'm tired of constantly having to watch Jaheira and Khalid's encumbrance when they wear Full Plate, and I believe Ankheg Plate will do just fine for tanking purposes.
While in the mood for tying up loose ends, we also clear the Temple area of its wolf infestation, and deal with Zordral at the Carnival.
So, after a quick rest at the FAI, we traverse the Cloakwood once again, and finally we get our long-awaited second ambush.
Too little, too late fellas. Halacan apparently realizes the entire party is too high-level for his Sleep scroll to have much effect and tries to pull out a Horror instead, but is Commanded and put down before getting anything done. Drakar is next on the chopping block, again not even getting a single spell off betwixt interrupting damage.
Morvin is being annoying (he quaffed an Oil of Speed), so Cassius Dire Charms Molkar (I almost never use Dire Charm, but Cassius has a limited repertoire of level 3 spells) and we let the two duke it out a little. Once Morvin falls, we focus Molkar, and that's it for the second band of hunters.
On to the Mines! We rest up on the map before: 3x Animate Dead are prepared, and Cassius makes sure to memorize Minor Spell Deflection. Other than that, it's standard buffs: Bless, Chant, Resist Fear, a few Call Lightning on Faldorn. We will engage our foes honourably (because I know it's quite doable as long as you're not too shy about using a good potion or two). Cassius double-checks that the Wand of Summoning is in a quickslot, and we move to the Mines. Skeletons are summoned, basic buffs are applied, and Cassius starts the battle invisible. Stand and deliver, ye knaves!
The battle starts off well! Our three Skeletons momentarily distract Rezdan, Kysus and Genthore, but Drasus comes straight for us. His mistake: He hits hard and often, and quaffs a Potion of Magic Shielding first thing, but he lacks the AC to survive on his own. And why oh why aren't you wearing a helmet, Drasus?
We move east and engage the rest of the group (they've finished off the last Skeleton), Cassius calling some more fodder into existence using the Wand of Summoning. We are trying to stall for time: As soon as Rezdan and Kysus lose their MGoI, they are much easier to handle.
When he has to reveal himself to summon, Cassius ensures MSD is cast right after, but that provides no protection from area-of-effect spells.
Cassius got Confused! But no one is targetting him, thankfully: I believe MSD is part of that. If they wanted to, Rezdan and Kysus could burn through it rather easily, but they don't, instead targetting other party members. And with their MGoI down, we can target them back with Call Lightning!
With their big spells expended, Rezdan and Kysus can annoy us, but not kill us. Genthore falls by virtue of not having large amounts of Mirror Image and Stoneskin available, but is soon joined by his Mage compatriots. Victory!
That went swimmingly, apart from Cassius getting Confused. We only needed two charges from the Wand of Summoning, and managed to save all our anti-magic potions. We're in good enough shape to keep pushing a bit. The first level is easily cleared. For the second, we'll use Fireball to clear out a good chunk of the guards keeping Hareishan company, but won't stoop to mass Web.
Faldorn charms Cook and sends her forward to do battle with the enemy.
That seems cruel, but if Cook stays where she is, she's going to get caught by a Fireball and torpedo our reputation, and there's no way to sneak her out of there without the guards noticing.
We lob a gob of Fireballs at the gaggle of guards, and engage Hareishan. She Dire Charms Khalid, but we Charm him back (hooray!). She then Dire Charms him twice more, but as it's just Khalid and Hareishan visible to each other, she proceeds to try and beat him to death with her quarterstaff... you're going to need a lot more time than the 5 rounds a Dire Charm lasts to succeed at that, Hareishan. Not pictured: Jaheira sneaking past Hareishan and Khalid to beat up on the surviving guards.
We head downstairs, kill the first group of guards (so Jaheira hits Druid L6), then head back out to rest up.
We utilize the same tactics as always: The Ogre Mage is simply bumrushed.
And once she has killed three Skeleton Warriors and Faldorn's Dread Wolf, Natasha has but a single Magic Missile remaining, and so falls to physical might.
We clear the rest of the level, nip down and take out Davaeorn's personal guard, then once again retreat to rest.
We'll pop one of our precious few scrolls of PfM here: Khalid will deal with Davaeorn with the help of some fair few potions. He'll get a small initial barrage to assist with taking down the Battle Horrors.
Cassius, Imoen and Faldorn will be invisible to start, while three Skeleton Warriors along with Jaheira and Branwen will stand by at the very entrance to intercept reinforcements. En garde, fiends!
It takes him a while, but Khalid destroys the Battle Horrors and goes to work on Davaeorn from a distance.
Davaeorn gave us a fright when he teleported to the north first thing (and spotted Jaheira), but somehow we enticed him into targetting Khalid instead. This should be fine!
... This is why Cassius is wearing the Boots of Grounding and has a Potion of Absorption in his inventory. If a Lightning Bolt can find a path to one of your characters, it will find a path to one of your characters. Sigh. At least that's the only misfortune that befalls us this time around. Davaeorn is out of big spells, and Khalid eventually gets through his protections, though Jaheira has to quaff a Potion of Invisibility to avoid being targetted.
Fortunately, we can carry Branwen's gear without much trouble (we stashed the Full Plate she's going to use later at the FAI precisely because it weighs a ton).
We loot Davaeorn's treasures, killing his Mustard Jelly in the process, and flood the mines.
The journey back to the FAI is uneventful, and Branwen is successfully restored.
Lookin' sharp there, I must say! We've got access to Sorcerous Sundries, and nothing pressing requiring our attention. I'll probably obey tradition and spend this time clearing up the remaining areas along the coast, but we'll see... I might go for the Stoneskin scroll before Cassius hits L7.
For now, the party relaxes at the FAI, Faldorn and Jaheira engaging in philosophical discussions on nature vs civilization (we hid their weapons, so it's fine) while Khalid celebrates his newfound martial might with a prune juice.
Cassius is now a L6 Elf Diviner.
Just FYI, Plurem and his gang of hard-hitting fighters have solved the Trademeet problem. The Dao Genies were solved by the berserkers by themselves (rest of party waiting outside) going in with protection from petrification (green scrolls). Namuraa silence was used on the druids in the druid grove, and none of the trolls were much of a problem for this team. Mazzy has been a good group-mate so far.
D'Arnise Keep will be done next session.
BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
We decided to go for that delectable scroll of scrolls, Stoneskin. Which means tackling the Ice Island.
Before heading off, we invest in 160 Acid Arrows +1; hopefully these will let Khalid get the jump on the many Mages to come.
We head in, and clear the two Winter Wolves at the entrance. My plan was to get past Andris and his friends without having to resort to a PfM scroll: We opt instead to summon some Skeleton Warriors (we have the Wand of Summoning for the later Mages), and hopefully Khalid with his fancy new arrows can make up the difference. We get an alright start: Beyn experiences the business end of a Potion of Firebreath as he lacks a MGoI, Marcellus buggered off to another part of the dungeon, and Andris teleported away upon discovering he was facing us alone.
A few rounds later, Andris pops more self-buffs, and teleports back in. He wastes two Chaos on Faldorn (fine, she can stand in the corner and be Confused), then hits Jaheira with a Skull Trap for 33 damage.
Then he goes for a Fireball.
Wait.. what? HOW? Jaheira had about 35 hitpoints left. Did she fail her save and Andris just rolled all 6's? Unless.. oh no. Investigation of the combat log reveals that yes, Jaheira was still wearing the Belt of Antipode from battling the Winter Wolves. That Fireball hit her for 74 damage, more than enough to deep-fry her... permanently. If not for the belt, she would've still died, but not permanently.
This is just stupidity on a whole new level. In my frenzy to save a few healing potions (Belt of Antipode turns you immune to Winter Wolf attacks), I've gotten Jaheira chunked. Insert weary sigh here. That Andris falls is not much consolation.
I mean, there's nothing we can do. Chunked characters are gone. Khalid takes over tanking for the rest of the dungeon, Faldorn gathers up Jaheira's equipment, and we press on.
We bruteforce Marcellus down, Garan causes some damage but the Greenstone Amulet keeps Khalid from being confused, and Cuchol gets beaten into puddin' by some Ogres courtesy of the Wand of Summoning.
Oh Ogre. Your heart is in the right place, but you can't replace Jaheira. For one thing, you smell a lot worse than she did. Also, the Ankheg Plate just won't fit you.
Tellan and Dezkiel are eventually brought down with the help of plentiful summons (many more such creatures required for Tellan than Dezkiel), and we teleport to the mainland.
At least... at least we got the scroll.. but it wasn't worth it! Sob!
Alright, we're out a main tank. But who could possibly replace a Fighter/Druid multic... Yeslick.
We rush to Jopalin's Tavern and sure enough, there he is, working in the kitchen.
At first he seems reluctant to join, but speaking to him a second time clears all obstacles.
Welcome, Yeslick!
Yeslick starts at 32000 experience, so he's a fair bit behind, but he's still the best choice.
In fact, this will probably make the party stronger.. but don't tell Khalid that.
Khalid, look.. can't you hook up with Faldorn? She's a druid too, and look at that smile! Never mind the claws. No? It's OK, take your time.
Yeslick swipes Ashideena +2 from Branwen, but otherwise will be using Jaheira's old gear.
We swing by the Low Lantern and take down Desreta and Vay-Ya: Skeleton Warriors and an invisible Cassius employing Detect Invisibility ensures nothing goes awry, and Branwen gets her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength (and is now brandishing Full Plate Mail as a consequence).
So.. what now? Well, Cassius still hasn't hit L7, so we might as well go for that, and try and gather some more good scrolls while at it. Durlag's has a few scrolls easily available, and The Practical Defense +3 for Khalid would be a nice upgrade to his current Plate Mail +1. Alright, let's do it: We'll clear the Basilisk Gardens on the way. Cassius purchases six scrolls of Stone to Flesh (one for Tamah, five for every other party member.. if the worst should happen), and we are off.
Mutamin actually didn't memorize Remove Magic this time! He went for all damage spells instead... eh, he still goes down. Yeslick and Khalid clear the map under PfP (along with Corax, who falls against some Gnolls towards the end). Kirian's party are handled via some Skeleton Warriors and a nice Confusion from Faldorn's Nymph (affecting all but Kirian herself).
We can now reach Durlag's Tower. We clear the Battle Horrors outside, and head into the Tor proper, dropping down a level first. Not much to report here, it's all melee grunts and thus easily handled.
We pick up Practical Defense +3 for Khalid along with several scrolls for Cassius, and head back upstairs without turning in the wine to Love.
The second floor as well as the outside of the Tower pass without incident, Yeslick and Khalid once again dealing with the Basilisks under PfP, and mere Ghasts proving no obstacle.
On the third floor, we try to deal with the Ghost as per usual (Skeleton Warriors), but he manages to kill them too quickly, and starts roaming around: Several Lightning Bolts are thrown at our hastily summoned replacement skeleton (fortunately none of them bouncing badly), and Yeslick even eats a Chain Lightning, but we eventually bring the Ghost down.
We loot the rest of the level, Cassius gaining a point of Wisdom from the Tome (really, there's no point giving tomes to NPC's: BG1 isn't difficult enough that you need the tiny edge it gives).
We ascend to the fourth and final floor, clearing the Ghasts. Khalid quaffs a Potion of Heroism and Oil of Speed, activates the Greenstone Amulet, and is joined in his assault on Kirinhale by a single Skeleton Warrior (all we had left). Everyone else is under Sanctuary or Invisibility. Kirinhale falls very quickly to Acid Arrows, her Staff Spear +2 going to Cassius (no one needs it).
On the way out, Riggilo gets some Succubus hair, and we a Potion of Cloud Giant Strength. Good trade.
That's as far as we'll go in the Tower... for now.
We're at 17 reputation, so try our hand at a few minor reputation quests: Unfortunately, neither saving Charleston nor Arabelle provides a reputation boost (we still clear the areas). Brage is returned to the Temple of Helm, and somewhat frustrated, we high-tail it to Baldur's Gate and finish the Seven Suns quest, finally getting reputation +1.
With maximum reputation and 20+ Charisma a mere Friends spell away, we shop.
Every single scroll we have yet to aquire or scribe is purchased; we pick up The Thresher for Yeslick, Buckley's Buckler for Branwen (she's wearing Full Plate, she should be OK.. if not we'll just sell the buckler), as well as anything and everything useful from Ulgoth's Beard and High Hedge, of course including Robe of the Good Archmagi for Cassius.
Done shopping, we indulge in scribing, Cassius' spellbook nearly bursting at the seams due to the sudden influx of power. We took a severe hit this session, but we bounced back. No more chunkings, ever!
Next time, we will clean up the Sword Coast and the city of Baldur's Gate in one fell swoop.
Then it's onward to the depths of Durlag's Tower, followed by a quick foray to Werewolf Island (I want Flametongue before going there), and then we move onto the endgame...
Cassius is now a L7 Elf Diviner.
Garos the Warhorn Shaman
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1, 2
BG2: 1
Firkraag Weirdness
The first level of Firkraag's dungeon is cleared by the spirits. The Ruhk transmuter puts up a good fight with PfMW and 3 stoneskins, but the Valkyries are fast and tough enough to break down all of his stoneskins and kill him.
I level up while dealing with the troll cook, his hobgoblin friends, and their pet otyugh. I take Aura of Flaming Death this level to deal with Firkraag.
Up ahead, I use a scroll of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes to deal with the big undead group. I died to vampires last time and I'm not having my Constitution drained to 0 again.
Samia's group walks right into my ambush. Kaol manages to avoid the Insect Plague but still gets devastated by Wrath of the Skies+Storm of Vengeance.
The Greater Wolfwere group forces me to use Undying Fervor, both to avoid death and to deal with their fast regeneration.
Valkyries are actually quite effective at taking on golems. With 5 of them at my side, they destroy an Adamatite Golem in no time flat.
They also take down Tazok. He is beneath me at this point.
After talking to Firkraag, I kill Conster and rest. I'm not actually feeling too confident that I can kill Firkraag by myself, but I try it anyway. I buff with Aura of Flaming Death, Regeneration, Fury of the Winds, Iron Skins, Chaotic Commands, Impervious Sanctity of Mind, and Favored of the Spirits. I cast Harm and run down the stairs as fast as I can to tag him with it. It whiffs.
Oh dear. Firkraag then puts up his Stoneskin and dispels all of my buffs. I try to run away but he has no problem keeping up. I cast Undying Fervor just in case Favored of the Spirits discharges and Firkraag tries to use his fire breath on me.
I make it back up the stairs without dying. I rest again and rebuff, then cast Harm again. Back down the stairs, I hit with the second Harm attempt, but his MR blocks it. I try casting it again while Firkraag rips away at my Iron Skins, but the spell fizzles for some reason even though I took no damage.
I go back up the stairs to recast Iron Skins, then go back down the stairs and cast Wrath of the Skies to lower Firkraag's MR. I cast Harm a third time, tanking again with Iron Skins and it doesn't fizzle, thankfully. I land the Harm hit on Firkraag, but his remaining magic resistance blocks it...but he dies anyway.
I... I just... What? I have no godly idea what just happened. I mean, this is what I intended in the first place, that I basically told him "You are already dead," but I could swear that he blocked the Harm attack with his remaining 25% magic resistance because the "HP reduced by Harm" string did not appear, while the "Magic Resistance" string DID appear.
Speculation:
That was... something. I'm still completely bewildered by this. I wonder why it worked when I hit him with Harm a second time if the first time didn't work, despite both being blocked by his MR.
Garos - Confused Warhorn Shaman 22
Next, we recruited Keldorn. Inquisitor Dispel Magic is nerfed in my install to 1.5 times the paladin's level, which is strong but not completely broken. The unnerfed dispel would be pretty game-breaking even in SCS, and the full nerf, bringing it to normal caster level, would make it virtually useless in a party run.
Keldorn and Mazzy served as our twin mage killers. If the enemy didn't have SI: Abjuration or we were able to remove it with magic attacks from Charname and Edwin, Keldorn had a good chance (usually just above 50/50, so not really reliable for no-reload purposes) to take down their defenses, and if the enemy buffed with PFMW, Mazzy could break through it simply by using the Tuigan Bow and normal arrows for 10 APR. With sling bullets from Charname and Jaheira, that allowed us to take down more than 10 Stoneskins per round, making it possible to complete the Planar Sphere at little risk. Death Fog also screwed up with a lot of enemy mages' spellcasting.
Unfortunately, this forced us to side with the Shadow Thieves instead of Bodhi (Keldorn and Mazzy will both leave the party if you side with Bodhi), but Charname had two pips in maces and was able to make short work of the vampires using a Protection from Undead scroll and the upgraded Mace of Disruption. Also, Keldorn was very fragile due to Item Randomizer taking away the Gauntlets of Dexterity, leaving him with poor AC.
By tackling a bunch of quests, we managed to take down the Guarded Compound early on and luckily Item Randomizer didn't remove Celestial Fury, which meant Mazzy could alternate between a stunning katana and a shortbow at 10 APR. We were still missing some important items, since the Robe of Vecna and Belm were both removed from their normal places and showed up nowhere else, but we were in good condition.
You know that guy who asks you about Edwin a little while after Edwin becomes Edwina? Well, I tried to trigger the fight early by exposing Edwin's identity, which resulted in him leaving the party and turning hostile. This cost us over 1.5 million XP and our best mage, but we recouped most of the loss by replacing him with Nalia. Turns out she's not that bad; Edwin's extra spell slots give decreasing marginal benefits. Nalia was able to fulfill all of his normal functions just fine.
Our last party member was Imoen, who remained a single-classed, unkitted thief in my install due to EET. She's mostly dead weight, but I'm playing with the Imoen romance mod and I wanted to have some HLA traps for later in ToB.
With multiple fighters in the group, including two fabulous mage killers, and an extremely tanky Charname that could combine mage buffs, cleric buffs, and fighter stats, we had little trouble with most fights in the game. I even went to the trouble of killing all three evil dragons, and while Item Randomizer took away the Crom Faeyr scroll, it didn't take away Carsomyr.
Fun fact: Keldorn actually has distinctly better damage output using the Impaler than Carsomyr as long you give him a couple pips in spears. Both weapons do the same amount against Chaotic Evil enemies, while Impaler does 5 more against all others.
We lost Jaheira forever when I booted her out to check on Haer'dalis' stats. Despite her quest appearing to be over (she already got the Harper Pin from Elminster) for quite some time, she acted as though we were ditching her midway through, and left the game permanently. This cost us more than 2 million XP and a good fighter, and Haer'dalis was a crummy level 15 bard who wouldn't get HLAs until late in ToB.
We even brought down the Twisted Rune, in large part because we used Great Shout to stun Layenne through her invisibility. Great Shout stuns for 1 round with no save, or 2 rounds on a failed save, though Nalia needed Chaotic Commands to avoid getting knocked out for 10 rounds herself.
The final fight against the Slayer was pretty bad because I didn't protect Nalia from a Glabrezu's PW: Stun, which somehow is undispellable (even an Arrow of Dispelling didn't work). Also, I didn't realize that, while the Slayer can't see through invisibility, it could teleport across the map to characters outside its field of vision during Time Stop. It killed Mazzy during one of its Time Stop spells, but with the Staff of the Magi in hand, we were able to kite it without even using Potions of Invisibility. As for its Fallen Planetar, Mazzy stun-locked it with Celestial Fury (and her saves were good enough to shrug off a vorpal strike even if she lost her buffs).
I've been avoiding using exploits in this run as well. We still haven't used any scrolls of Protection from Magic, and we only fought one mage whose pre-buffs we didn't allow to fire (I used Harm on Lavok; turns out attacking him before combat no longer causes a game-breaking bug). I was planning on using the blind thief trick, but since we've been working without any other exploits, I might avoid that one, too.
We killed Illasera's goons with traps and mobbed her with Charname protected by Divine Shell (an IWD spell which grants immunity to missile weapons and also the Breach projectile) and then the Shield of Reflection. Our newest party member is Sarevok, who will be able to use the Soul Reaver to cripple the various melee brutes of ToB. I don't know what I need to do to keep him from betraying me at the Throne, though.
Once Melissan's alone, we wait out her Divine Mantle and then nail her with Smite for a guaranteed stun that will last 3 rounds if we keep attacking. Even if we lose all of our buffs (aside from Charname, who will always have SI: Abjuration on hand), two Smite spells will be sufficient if we have Sarevok, and three will be sufficient if we don't have Sarevok on the team.
I'm not sure if Sendai comes buffed with SI: Abjuration, though, and pressure from Illasera could give us grief. Plus, Sendai probably has a PFMW Contingency that will slow us down for an extra round, and if she moves around too much, we might miss Keldorn's Dispel Magic. If things get ugly, we can always adopt a low-pressure approach and just have Sarevok impose heavy THAC0 penalties using Soul Reaver, but if we don't have Sarevok at the end, Charname might end up having to kite everyone to death.
I've been hesitant to make much use of the scroll scribing mod, but I'll probably create a bunch of PFMW, Spell Immunity, Improved Haste, and maybe even Wish scrolls just in case everything goes wrong and I have to spend most of the fight on the run.
offtopic
Do you per chance remember at what level (amount of exp) Imoen re-joined you in Spellhold? I'm running BGT now, have her through BG1 as pure thief and then dualed to mage at the end of Irenicus' dungeon at level 11. I believe, unlike ordinary BG2, there is one character file of her (imoen1.cre) in BGT instead of imoen11/imoen13 to determine her stats/level in Spellhold. And after I cleared all pre-Spellhold areas (save for Liches, Dragons, Guarded Compound and Twisted Rune) my average party level was 13. But when Imoen rejoined me in Spellhold, she has something like 220000 (Thief 11 level I dualed her) + 75000 exp (I don't remember exact value but something like that). This is just silly low if you ask me... I just want to know what the case of it in EET.
edit:
I've checked ar1512 area script:
IF
Global("ImoenPartyBG1","GLOBAL",1)
Global("ImoenSpawned","GLOBAL",0)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
AddXPObject("Imoen2",305000)
SetGlobal("ImoenSpawned","GLOBAL",1)
END
so she actually start with + 305000 exp in Spellhold. Still too low.
edit 2:
By Ascension64 from shsforums:
8. Yes, Imoen will remain as a thief if you do not dual-class. When you rescue her from Spellhold she will gain 305000 XP.
I don't think I want to run BGT ever again...
BG1:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Gilyn at the start of SoD:
Chapter 7-8
The soon to be disbanded party struggles somewhat in Korlasz' lair. Maybe it's the impending farewells, or maybe they are just battle-weary. Porios and his men are talked out of a confrontation but one level lower, heaps of undead aren't so reasonable. Wands, skeletal summons and necklaces of missiles see the companions prevail. And luck, yes, luck plays its part as well. A skeleton mage's Stinking Cloud renders Xan and Gilyn unconscious, and a misclick triggers the appearance of two jellies next to them. Thanks to the Fist, both elves live.
...
Gilyn, now the hero of Baldur's Gate, is living a fairly comfortable existence in the company of his childhood friend Imoen in the city, happy that recent events like Caelar Argent's crusade do not involve him for a change. That is until assassins in the employ of Argent try to poison and him, and get Imoen instead. He learns that Baldur's Gate is to march north to stop Argent, and Gilyn humors the Dukes in aiding their cause. Schael Corwin, captain of the Fist, informs Gilyn of acquaintances who might join him but disappointingly none of his old friends were among them. He hadn't even met some of these so-called acquaintances, so he sees no reason to ask any of those people along on the journey north.
Initially Gilyn is assigned the role of scout, a role that suits the rogue. His lone scouting results in him helping some folks and killing many spiders with traps and sneak attacks, a vampire (also with traps) and an evil mage and her golem (arrow of dispelling and acid arrows for the mage). Crusaders blow up Coast Way Crossing right in front of Gilyn. It means an alternative route via Boareaskyr Bridge is to be secured and to that end Gilyn is to undertake special missions for the expedition beyond scouting. A special missions unit is formed consisting of Gilyn, Captain Corwin, the drow priestess Viconia, and the drow sorcerer Baeloth. The latter two might not be the type of company Gilyn would normally keep, but in times of war anything goes. And these two are among the most competent in their respective field in the entire expedition.
The four clear an undead-infested dwarven dig site with a PfU Corwin doing the bulk of the work even though it is Gilyn who fells a lich with the Secret Revealed and his snares.
Chapter 9
In the Troll Claw Woods the unit learns that Caelar has taken Boareskyr Bridge and besieged Bridgefort. The warrior druid Jaheira and the skald Voghiln join Gilyn's unit. The party of six successfully dispatch the many bugbears, spiders, and trolls inhabiting the area, although spectral trolls prove formidable foes as Corwin learns in a near fatal way.
The party run into Morentherene, who wakes up despite no buffing inside her cave and only long-lasting buffs (Stoneskins, PfE 10'Radius) in effect. Everyone retreats, gets PfPoison and full buffs. Back inside Viconia and Jaheira melee the beast, Corwin provides ranged support, Gilyn throws in some snares from afar. Viconia receives several blows but she also delivers the killing blow, becoming the party's first dragonslayer.
In the temple the unit proceeds to slay some invisible stalkers (with skeletal sumons), and several followers of Cyric, including Ziatar (wand summons + arrows of dispelling + missiles). A Neothelid is tanked by Jaheira and Viconia, while the other except singing Voghiln provide ranged support. Corwin gets the kill.
Gilyn takes out a shadow aspect with his snares, a dirty way to deal with a dirty opponent. They buff to the max to fight an evil illithid-led party, and crush them. With hasted, buffed skeletons, hard-hitting ranged attacks, a few traps, and Baeloth's wands the fight is over surprisingly fast.
The unit reaches Bridgefort and prepares the Bridgefort defenders for battle against Caelar's troops.
Has anyone run into problems with XP values after the party gets level-drained in Bridgefort? I have before, and in this run Viconia, Corwin and Jaheira don't get all their XP back after getting their levels back. Vicky for example goes from more than 370k before to 142k after. I correct this in EEKeeper.
The companions return to camp to call on the Fist to join the battle. The special missions unit fight with the besieged Bridgefort soldiers. They've only just started pre-buffing when one of the defenders lowers the drawbridge already. Nice teamwork mate!
Gilyn steps back and Holds most of the attackers with his special snares. Vicky finishes her summoning of one skeleton but after that the party just moves to attack unbuffed.
Garos the Warhorn Shaman
BG1: 1, 2SoD: 1, 2
BG2: 1, 2
I think I'm going to retire Garos. He's basically hit his power ceiling already and he's only in his mid-20th level. XP will not make him any stronger; only gear will. I usually get affected by Restartitis if this happens to a character this early. I blame the Shaman class itself and the crappiness of the Druid's spell selection, even with (an old version of) IWDification installed. I keep imagining Garos would be an incredible force multiplier for a party because his abilities, rather than trying to tackle the saga alone.
Thaxll puts up protections and begins attacking. He hits me with Greater Malison and then a Breach, taking down my most important buffs.
He tries Chaos, but I somehow succeed on the save despite not having any immunities and taking a penalty on saves. I cast Chaotic Commands to counter this, though I could've just enraged myself to even avoid rolling for confusion. On the next round, I cast Fury of the Winds for Haste and kite Thaxll around. He blinds me with his breath weapon, but the Amulet of Power prevents me from taking any negative levels. I cast Impervious Sanctity of Mind while far away from him and then Harm on the round after that. The Harm attack misses yet again.
I don't really have any other spells to attack him with, so I melee him for a while and then cast Wrath of the Skies. Since it's just a melee match now, I cast Battle Ardor for extra THAC0 and damage, which helps me kill Thaxll.
While still buffed from this fight, I fight the Shade Lord and enrage myself to deal with him. Kind of easy.
From the Windspear and Umar Hills, I have a couple of keys that need to be used. I use Valygar's body to open the Planar Sphere and then go into the Temple District to open the way to the Illithid hideout, but Draug Fea's party is in the way. I think the spirits and a fire elemental are enough to take them on, but I forget that there's 2 priests in that party who can summon Aerial Servants.
Ouch... Aerial Servants hit extremely hard and they can entangle their victims on a failed save vs. breath. With two of them attacking at once, they obliterate my HP pool like it's nothing. I hope I can cast Undying Fervor in time since I used a potion of extra healing the round before. Luckily, I make it in time.
Now immortal, I use Safeguard's Sanctuary charge and cast Fury of the Winds and then Regenerate. I heal up to full over the course of about 2 rounds, then cast Storm of Vengeance to hit the Aerial Servants while they're invisible. I also cast True Sight so I can melee them and they eventually fall. The spirits did a good job of killing the fighters of the party, since only Gaius and Gallchobhair are left. Gaius is killed by Storm of Vengeance and I finish off Gallchobhair myself.
Further in to the sewers, I ignore the Shade Lich and his Fallen Planetar buddy. To take on the Beholders, I bait out their Death Spell with Improved Kitthix and then send in fire elementals using my Simulacrum. I do the same thing once inside their nest.
The Unseeing Eye is killed.
Next is the Guarded Compound. Maybe I'll die here so I can give up on Garos. I buff up and use Sanctuary, choosing to go up the flight of stairs on the right. I go through the slime trap, whose damage is reduced by Pitchwife +5. In one of the bedrooms, I summon my Simulacrum for help. But Sion already knows we're here because he tried to cast True Sight while I was running into the bedroom. He teleports over with Dimension Door and fires up a sequencer. I disable him with Implosion for one round and Dispel his Magic on the next. Despite being pelted with arrows, he gets Time Stop off the ground.
He casts a couple of spell protections but I'm surprised he doesn't end the Time Stop with PfMW. This opens him up for an Arrow of Dispelling -> Moonblade combo.
With the major threat destroyed, both of us kill Sion's Lesser Iron Golem. Storm of Vengeance stuns and poisons Ketta, making her easy prey for the pair of Improved Kitthix that my simmy and I summon. I tank Koshi myself and kill him, since ISoM makes me immune to stun. The Improved Kitthix then devour the priest as he gets webbed by their attacks. Maferan and the other melee dude whatshisface are unremarkable.
So, that makes level 26. I'm not getting any stronger from levels and it's at this point where the character exhaustion sets in. I just don't like playing characters that plateau in strength at some point. It's not as if I'm not being challenged by SCS either, but I think I could stand to crank up the difficulty on it now that I've played it on these settings for some time. I hope SCS v32 comes out soon, because I don't want to spend 4 hours re-installing mods just because I want to increase the difficulty of v30, only for v32 to come out shortly afterward and invalidate all that time spent.
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 26 (Retired)
BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
The last of the Sword Coast areas fly by. 5HD Skeleton Warriors make mincemeat out of the Sirenes, Droth falls, Imoen successfully pickpockets Bentan's PfM scroll (only item I bother pickpocketing... I find one Ring of Freedom to be sufficient, as you typically only want it on your tank) and Meilum gets demoted to second best swordsman on the Swoard Coast, Lendarn and his employer the Ogre Mage are undone (Skeleton Warriors! Hooray!)... even the Wolf of Ulcaster is destroyed in record time, as it drops just before its attendant Ghouls spawn into existence.
All that remains are the Red Wizards. We clear the map, but this time I actually found a sure-fire way to beat them with minimal inconvenience: Hasted Skeleton Warriors. Don't know why I never applied Haste before... I think I usually do this area before scribing the Haste scroll you find in Cloakwood Mines. Anyway, with Haste our Skeleton Warriors just straight up don't care about Mirror Image, Stoneskin or even Improved Invisibility. We don't even lose a single Skeleton, and that's it for the Sword Coast.
On to Baldur's Gate! The majority of the questing here is uneventful: Khalid has a near miss when he is Web Tangled by a Giant Spider in the Sewers and a Phase Spider teleports next to him, but every divine caster of ours always has 1x Slow Poison memorized, so we Scorcher the offending Phase Spider and Branwen saves Khalid from (temporarily) joining his wife.
Niemain and his fellow Necromancers get treated to our hasted Skeleton Warriors, much to their dismay.
Marek is just straight up beaten by Yeslick, Imoen and Khalid. I'm fine with using a few charges of the Greenstone Amulet to expedite things, and with his Confusion removed from the equation, Marek doesn't amount to much.
There are of course more encounters, but standard buff-and-charge tactics solve almost all of them.
Sunin's attendant Fighters are quickly undone, and by scattering when Sunin tries to Dispel our Haste, we retain it on everyone but Yeslick, and the Mage's defenses can't keep up. Ramazith, lacking defensive Illusions, can just be bumrushed without risk, and Drelik the Butler wastes all his spells trying to get through Yeslick's (thanks to Cloak of Balduran) 25% MR and excellent saves.
Well, that was easy. Let's clear out the Iron Throne, then.
We as always set up in the back room, sneaking in under Invisibility and Sanctuary.
The Shennara's, starting out hostile unlike the rest of the Iron Throne goons, are lured into our tender embrace with a few disposable summons from the Wand of Summoning.
We summon five Skeleton Warriors, buff them thoroughly (PfE 10' Radius/Defensive Harmony/Strength of One/Bless/Chant/Haste) and move them into position around Diyab. Khalid has a brief chat with Zhalimar, and we engage! We leave the Skeleton Warriors to do their job: Soak up the most dangerous spells, and kill as many enemies as possible. Khalid is Hasted and wears the Boots of Speed, so hovers around the edge of vision, taking potshots and directing our summons.
That went splendidly. Our brave Skeletons are undone, but the enemy has paid a heavy cost for virtually no gain: Diyab, Aasim and Gardush all lie slain. Cassius spends his action calling more fodder into existence via the Wand of Summoning.
Foolish Alai, his best spells spent, wanders into sight of the entire party, and suffers a ranged barrage from which there is no recovery.
Only Zhalimar and Naaman remain. Zhalimar steadfastly makes every save imaginable, but there is simply too many high quality magical Arrows/Bullets flying around, and though he deals tremendous damage in return, Zhalimar stands no chance.
With only Naaman remaining, Faldorn conjures a few Nymphs. They Hold him firmly in place, and there is naught Naaman can do.. but fall.
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! That went very smoothly: Usually the Skeleton Warriors get one, maybe two kills , and then typically one of those is the regular Doppleganger, but this time, they (with some assistance from Khalid) took down no less than three major enemies! Excellent.
We gather our spoils, pressure Thaldorn for information, and leave to rest up.
Before proceeding to Candlekeep, we venture up and down the Sword Coast one last time, visiting every vendor: Potions of Storm/Cloud Giant Strength, Potions of Power, Potions of Mind Focusing, Potions of Regeneration and a few Wands of the Heavens are purchased.
With everything we could possibly want bought and about 15000 gold still in the bank, we speak with Duke Eltan and depart for Candlekeep.
It would be silliness in the extreme to have Cassius die to a massed barrage of Chromatic Orb/Melf's Acid Arrow/Magic Missile from some lowly Ogre Mages, so he quaffs an Invisibility potion while the rest of the party deals with the ambush. Oh: Faldorn has 5th level slots now, a fact which the Ogres are made painfully aware of.
Afterwards, it turns out one of the Ogre Mages dropped a scroll of Invisibility 10' Radius. Since we're going on to SoD (and it's available directly in the first dungeon there) it doesn't really matter, but still, a complete spellbook is a complete spellbook, and it'll at least make it easier for us to sneak back into Baldur's Gate later.
We leave Rieltar and his friends alive, but somehow they still end up dead, and we are sprung from jail, delivered into the Catacombs. We quickly cleanse these without incident: Prat and his gang are introduced to the wonders of fully buffed Skeleton Warriors, though their amazement quickly turns to horror.
Go gaggle gang, go!
Our Skeletons aid Yeslick and Khalid in clearing the rest of the caverns (we had several scrolls of PfP available, so the Basilisks were no issue), and we climb back into the light.
In lieu of Baldur's Gate, however, the party makes their way to Beregost.
The allure of attaining greater arcane might before confronting Sarevok in his seat of power cannot be denied.
Cassius will purge Durlag's Tower of its fell inhabitants before proceeding with the plot, and there is even talk of a scholar seeking mighty heroes to depart for a strange island...
Cassius is now a L8 Elf Diviner.
Well, we made our way through SoD with a couple of deaths here and there, but nothing serious. However, for the second time now, one of my run ended because of the Boaresky Bridge barrels blowing up the map. This time, I knew not to blow up the barrels myself, but my usual strategy - hitting the mage with arrows of dispelling in order to stop him from completing his summoning spell - failed, because Shamash kept missing the enemy spellcaster - thanks to his poor thac0, despite having extra attacks due to an oil of speed. In hindsight, I should have buffed him with an agility potion, heroism, power etc. to prevent that from happening. Anyway, so far I've always killed this mage before he used his spell, so from previous descriptions, I thought that maybe two fire elemtals would appear and I would have to kill them (which would've been very easy, to be honest). However, it seems like on insane diffculty, there are huge groups of monsters coming constantly through the portal, and they only stop coming after about 10 (or more) groups. Some of them also prefer to attack the barrels instead of the party despite getting whacked to death in melee combat. I was able to use potions and scrolls to grant my party fire immunity or 90 resistance, improve my damage output with oils of speed and some additional buffs, but with the monsters just coming and coming, the group eventually got so big that new monsters decided not to bother with the party, and I was unable to stop them, getting blocked by the huge mass of enemies:
After dying due to destroyed barrels, I thought that maybe the huge number of spawns might be a bug, but some testing revealed that they eventually do stop. If I would've entered combat with full buffs, my damage output could maybe have been high enough to get rid of the groups quickly enough to keep up, but because of my inexperience with this encounter, I wasn't prepared. Oh well.
I haven't actually found any descriptions of this portal battle online, which seems strange. This is a completely mod-free installation as well, so I would've expected someone to have encountered the same problem as I did. I should also note that this occured after assaulting the crusader camp, not surrendering it, so maybe the encounter plays out differently if you surrender? It seems like some tests are required.
Oh - the behavior on the bridge is the same whether you surrender the fort or not.
I have observed the same thing in my latest run. I think its the 2.5 update thats happening.
Itis barely survived the many fire creatures in my latest run. But I was buffed and had 4 apr at sub zero thaco... it helped (it does that a lot).
A well-buffed full party should still be able to to kill these spawns quickly enough on insane (with haste, summons and the like), but for people who want to play solo on insane difficulty with turned off extra damage instead of core rules (which is a very reasonable setting), be aware - you will propably need every little bit of damage you can get unless you're able to reliably interrupt the mage summoning the portal.
BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
First SoD update found here
The party proceeds with clearing the last vestiges of monster holdouts across the Coast, starting with the lower levels of Durlag's Tower.
Fear, Love, Avarice and Pride fall in order, and without much protest; Pride did not even manage to hack his way through all five Skeleton Warriors barring his path afore his time was up. The path to the third underground level lies open.
The third level is almost entirely uneventful, drama arriving only when Khalid underestimates the THAC0 of the Dwarven Doomguards, and is rewarded for his arrogance by his spleen once again taking a beating.
The fourth level is even quieter than the third, as precious few inhabitants of the Tower are a threat to us anymore. Since I installed the component to remove Arrows of Dispelling from stores, the 10 Arrows of Dispelling available if you kill the Skeleton Archers here before they have a chance to fire are most welcome (and gives you something to do with all those Wands of Fire).
We are teleported onto the Chess board, and express our disapproval of the fact that the enemy pieces need not care at all about the movement rules by melting said pieces into their component elements. A True Sight from Faldorn ensures the King has nowhere to hide.
On to the fifth and final level. We pass through barely needing even to buff: Yeslick with the Ring of Free Action holds the front lines, and there is little the enemy here can do but die.
Grael is considered potentially dangerous, and so get the full Skeleton Warrior treatment, but this is the only time we even cast spells on this level.
We stop just short of engaging the Demon Knight, and teleport back onto the surface, returning to Ulgoth's Beard shortly thereafter.
Following a quick chat with Mendas, we sneak into Baldur's Gate and assault the Counting House, obtaining the requisite charts and soon after setting sail.
Upon arrival, we talk to all the inhabitants in the walled village, and head towards the northern part of the island. Clearing the island exterior is straightforward: While in possession of decent HP and THAC0, the Wolfweres require only +1 weapons to hit, and so everyone happily joins in pelting the wolves to death.
Likewise, the first three levels of Balduran's ship pass by swiftly: Yeslick and Khalid under a full complement of Cleric buffs make short work of the masses of enemies.
The fourth level is slightly different. This was almost certainly overkill, but I opt to send Khalid in, under PfM and a heap of potions. Thus protected, he makes mincemeat of everything in sight, including Karoug (as he is wielding the Flametongue +1). We of course deliver Dradeel's spellbook and loot his little hut for the Staff Mace +2, going to Cassius for (much later) importing into Shadows of Amn... hopefully!
Returning to the village, we are betrayed, but ultimately manage to convince Kaishas to let us leave unopposed. Upon our return to Ulgoth's Beard, Mendas is somewhat upset, and so understandably tries to kill us all.
However, with some careful positioning to avoid the entire party loosing their standard Mage/Cleric buffs from Mendas' initial Remove Magic, no powerful potions or scrolls are required: We beat Mendas and his bodyguard thoroughly (Mendas' MGoI provides no protection from Wand of the Heavens), and though their Loup Garou forms dish out some damage to Khalid as he is dissecting them with Flametongue +1, it's nothing the Half-Elf can't handle.
Cassius scoops up the Chain Mail +3 (to be imported as well.. mostly because it's fun with someone on the front lines not wearing Plate, if only for a short while), and we retire to the local inn.
Time to finish this...
A good rest later, the party sneaks into Baldur's Gate under Invisibility 10' Radius. We get in, rescue Eltan, and get out with the Flaming Fist none the wiser.
Problems arise, however, when dealing with Cythandria. Thinking to save some spell slots (why?! We could've just rested right after!) we opt to only call 3 Skeleton Warriors and do not apply any buffs.
Cythandria's Golems fall swiftly, but the Mage herself proves more of a handful, as she demonstrates when she zings Cassius with a Lightning Bolt, even though the brave Elf quaffed a Potion of Invisibility before Cythandria cast her spell!
And that is why the Mage protagonist always wears the Boots of Grounding.
That bit of unpleasantness over with, let's just take Cythandria down with no further accidents.
I guess I should be happy Cythandria was out of area-of-effect spells by now, or we'd be picking up Half-Elf pieces. We finally put the dread arcanist down, and Cassius was still lugging around five scrolls of Stone to Flesh, so Khalid is restored. Phew. No Khalid would've made the Palace fight as well as the Sarevok showdown harder (not impossible, just harder).
Dealing with Slythe and Krystin goes better: Slythe drops almost immediately, and though Krystin makes an absolute nuisance of herself (constantly breaking line of sight by ducking in and out of siderooms, and showcasing the bug where she periodically goes invisible), she joins her despicable husband soon enough.
Time for the Palace. We do nothing special: Five Skeleton Warriors, full Cleric buffs and Haste.
Cassius starts the battle by casting Invisibility on Liia Jannath, all but ensuring our victory right then and there. The Shaman nearly gave me hiccups when it got a Flame Strike off on Cassius, but then I remembered: Mage protagonist, in addition to Boots of Grounding, also wears Ring of Fire Resistance! And Cassius' Mirror Image ate the Flame Strike anyway. After that, neither the Mage nor Shaman managed to get any spells off. The Assassin got a single backstab in but died as soon as he showed himself, and Sarevok soon fled. Liia and Belt both survived, hooray!
This time I recall that all the traps along the route through the Maze to the Undercity are actually marked by green splotches on the wall, so we make very good time (Yeslick and Khalid both got to quaff STR potions, I just wanted to power through). In the Undercity, we try a somewhat less dishonourable but still pretty cowardly means of dealing with the mercenaries: Greater Malison and 3x Confusion (courtesy of Faldorn's three Nymphs) from out of sight. It actually works: Everyone but Shaldrissa is affected, and even Shaldrissa cannot save against the next move from the nymph trio, three Hold Monster (her MGoI provides no defense).
We talk Tamoko out of fighting us, and take a final rest outside the Temple of Bhaal.
I am cheeky enough to have Cassius memorize spells suitable for dealing with the initial dungeon in Siege of Dragonspear: Mage spells aren't much use in the final battle until it's basically over anyway, and if Cassius really wants to pitch in, he has half an inventory full of wands.
The plan is simply and almost foolproof: Yeslick and Khalid pop PfM (Yeslick drinking a Potion of Genius first so he can read the scroll), then buff with potions and wreck everything.
The rest of the party summons forth five Skeleton Warriors, apply full Cleric buffs as well as Haste, then turn invisible and hide by the entrance (the Skeleton Warriors are for distracting Sarevok initially).
Pretty much the only way this tactic can fail is if you stop paying attention and Sarevok gets a real nice Deathbringer Assault on your tank, but otherwise it works very well. You also need to watch out for stray Fireballs and possible Lightning Bolts, but that's why Cassius wears the mentioned protection items.
Faldorn will help out by running True Sight for 20 consecutive rounds, but otherwise, it's all Yeslick and Khalid.
Yeslick, Khalid and the gaggle gang move north to engage. Sarevok gives his speech, gets an Arrow of Dispelling in an unpleasant place to remove his Haste effect, and the game is afoot!
Sorry for the lack of exciting narration, but it really wasn't that exciting. Yeslick and Khalid have an edge with their Oils of Speed. Diarmid (and Tazok, not pictured) always die quickly due to no real defenses.
Semaj suffers from the same bug as Krystin where he goes invisible every two rounds, so it takes a while to kill him, but eventually he drops. By then, Angelo's plethora of buffs have mostly run their course, so Khalid can land Arrows of Dispelling to clear several Stoneskins, and Angelo soon drops.
Once it's just Sarevok and his undead acolytes, the fight is over. Cassius reveals himself to summon some fodder, and the entire party lays into the enemy. There is nothing Sarevok can do (apart from refuse to end the game after he dies.. sore loser!).
Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! A few mishaps (Jaheira... and Khalid getting petrified), but we muddled through, and are now rewarded. The iron crisis is ended, Baldur's Gate is saved, and that vile murderer Sarevok gets his just desserts!
While the rest of the city celebrates, Cassius and his friends are more sombre.
They opt to slip out of the city quietly, returning to the Cloakwood.
There, they erect a simple shrine: A ring of obsidian stones around Jaheira's favoured Club +1.
Upon being driven into the ground, that simple Club somehow sprouted roots, instantly growing into a small oak. A divination cast by Cassius reveals a faint trace of Jaheira's druidic power in the tree.
Perhaps we shall see Jaheira again. Cassius and Khalid both hope so.
The party returns to the city after the festivities have run their course.
Cassius is growing increasingly worried. For some time now, his attempts to divine his own immediate future have been frustrated by an unknown force. That force, at first little more than a shadow at the edge of Cassius' consciousness, has now grown into a tangible blackness, preventing all attempts to dispel it, or discern its origins. Something has turned its gaze onto our hero. Something.. dark.
The messenger from the Grand Dukes finds the party brooding at the Helm and Cloak Inn.
There are vestiges of Sarevok's followers still entrenched in the city, and Cassius is called upon once more.
The Elf will acquiesce to this request, but with his divinatory powers all but blocked, little does he realize where this path he now embarks upon will lead.
Cassius will return in Siege of Dragonspear.
I'm now just going to switch between meatgrinder challenge runs and solo attempts until I succeed at one of these two things (or get bored). This solo run is very standard - core rules, no mods, nothing special. I'm using the same F/M/T that previously failed her run thanks to a gargantuan spider in SoD - a run which I mentioned, but never reported on here. The reason I'm re-using Arinja is a) because I've determined that a F/M/T is propably my best chance at succeeding with a solo-run after so many failures and b) it took me literally hours to roll up her stats (something to do while listening to a long podcast, I guess), so it would be a shame not to load up her character file again.
Arinja is a true neutral elf. Her stats:
Strength: 18/91
Dexterity: 19
Constitution: 17
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 18
So far, I've completed the Candlekeep quests (for no good reason), killed Shoal, talked down Marl, helped Firebead and met up with Corax to take down Mutamin and his basilisks:
This has brought Arinja to level 4/4/5.
My proficiency plan is this: She starts with **War Hammer, **Longbow, will get **Two Weapon Style next, after that *Mace (for the iMoD +2), **Scimitar (for the off-hand weapon) and the last point will go to two weapon style again.
There's also a very simple plan for her potential HLA choices (the only purpose of this plan is to take down Amelyssan): UAI, 12 Spike Traps, 1 WW, 6 GWW. 12 spike traps is what you need in vanilla to skip every Mel battle except for the first one. not exactly fair, but effective. But first, I have to stop losing my solo characters to random early game encounters (and get past Abazigal and Balthazar, the other bosses who have previously ended some of my solo runs).
SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods
Yeldon - half-elf cleric/ranger, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Denko - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Keras - dwarven kensai (Grond0)
I thought for sure the run was finished - somebody was looking out for Yeldon and team today. On to the adventure:
* Our save said liches, so we bought what scrolls we needed and started with Temple District Lich. Little problem - we hadn't even gotten the Unseeing Eye quest and our buffs were running! We quickly got the quest and returned. We got the key from Gaal and then Denko spawned the lich. Despite our protection from undead, the lich targeted Denko with a bunch of spells. This stunned Yeldon. Keras tried to help, but then Denko got held, and Keras wasn't able to survive. We thought it was over here - but no! The lich seemed to recognize our PfU, and ignored Denko and Yeldon. Eventually the duo shook it off and killed the lich. Close one. Cost a lot of time though.
* We then headed for lich in Bridge District. We were getting ambushes on the way, slowing us down yet further. We were running out of buffs. But this lich fell much faster (lucky Azuredge hit) and we headed to Kangaxx.
* We had already busted Kangaxx door just before doing Gate District Lich. Keras went in and tried to one shot the lich form with Azuredge but failed. Keras got in trouble (and died) with the summoned Djinn and then Denko picked up the Daystar and meleed (with protection from magic) while Yeldon did the best he could to stay out of the way. The lich seemed unkillable - but wait, once all his spells were expended he changed to the demi-lich form! Luckily Denko was able to slay this form and Keras was raised with the Resurrection Rod.
* We then cleared out Watcher's Keep. Despite getting both mephits and vampiric mists, the team prevailed, mostly we think due to the skeleton warriors that assisted us (Yeldon summons). The rest of the 1st level of the Keep went well. We didn't need anything from the statues, so gave them a pass. Yeldon needed a rest to use righteous magic and DUHM to bust open the crimson dart chest. Then we headed out.
* Properly equipped and rested, we then tried out Planar Sphere. Due to MP lag, Keras was killed quickly in the initial fight, but Denko and Yeldon managed to win. RoR once again used to bring Keras back to life.
* Next major fight was umber hulks and thralls. Denko approached in melee, but that was a blunder as the hulks surrounded and killed him. Keras and Yeldon did manage to beat the hulks, but Keras got to a sliver of life and Yeldon used a RoR to get him to full health.
* Next up was a single thrall and hulk. Denko's stealth failed and he got confused and killed. Yeldon and Keras did win though, and Denko was brought back to life with the RoR. Good thing we had this, this area would have been much more difficult otherwise.
* Next up we activated the Warden. The idea was to draw out his dangerous spells with summons and attack. Denko apparently didn't learn his lesson with the thrall and foolishly approached the Warden in stealth. Stealth failed and Denko got turned to STONE!
We paused and considered our options. We noticed were weren't in combat, as Yeldon and Keras weren't seen by the Warden, and luckily either is Denko! We had the ring of earth control but it wasn't identified. We rested, IDed it and brought Denko back to life. RoR got him to full health. We tried out plan once again of drawing out spells with summons - a skeleton warrior managed to kill the Warden! We looted and got the heck out of there.
We ran out of time here, so saved and will sell our loot next session. It bit too exciting...
I rolled up this character some months ago, but have only actually played a few minutes with it - discovering the hard way there that it's a bad idea to kill Firebead in Candlekeep in the EE. This time round I've done a bit better in an opening session:
- shooting Shoal (L2/3)
- tried trapping Elminster, but he survived a full complement of those. However, a series of stealth shots eventually succeeded in finding a critical to finish him off (L5/5)
- murdered Algernon for his cloak, Neera for her bag and Dushai for her ring
- picked up some stealth boots from a hobgoblin
- led Drizzt into some traps (L5/6).
- with reputation down to 2 there was a severe danger of bounty hunters spawning in civilized areas, so went to help out Ardrouine, then the Dryad of the Cloudpeaks (getting a nice backstab there on Krumm)
- I rested to get LMD before collecting Samuel and going to the FAI. After backstabbing Tarnesh I bought Buckley's Buckler to help keep HPs up
- with reputation back up to 7 I thought I'd double-check whether killing Firebead in Beregost would harm it. The answer was yes and reputation went all the way back down to 3 (so Firebead is obviously considered a representative of 'authority' rather than just an innocent)
- charmed and dragged the Beregost temple sirines outside where they could be quickly backstabbed and trapped without even the need to wear them down against other enemies
- followed Korax around the basilisks (L6/7).
- the ankhegs in the nest got a couple of criticals, but that wasn't enough to stop me clearing the place
- it didn't take long to clear the Valley of the Tombs (L7/7)
- on the trail of the final wilderness tome I went to Durlag's Tower. Backstabs and melee soon sorted out the battle horrors and ghasts. A PfP scroll turned the basilisks into walking XP farms, while a PfM scroll let me grab the tome and melee the ghost.
F7/T8, 78 HPs, 225 kills
Rev (elf female diviner, Grond0); Meldar (human male abjurer, Gate70)
With a pair of squishy mages even the fights in Candlekeep looked challenging and both mages took damage against their assassin opponents.
On the plus side though mage spells provide some nice disablers. Shoal was faced with 4 chances of being blinded and failed her first test to provide a level each.
A few tasks in Beregost included blinding Silke - despite that she was still happy to talk and summon up some merchants, but when hostilities commenced she found her improved invisibility spell expired long before blindness did.
Meldar had taken PfP as one of his known spells, so an early visit to the basilisk area seemed in order and the first of those monsters provided their next level.
With all the basilisks dead, Mutamin was the next target. The idea was that Meldar would start the combat with Melf's Acid Arrow - with a bit of luck that would interrupt a spell or two allowing Rev to join in with LMD and missiles. However, Meldar fell victim to MP lag and didn't actually cast until well after Mutamin had started fighting. That resulted in him falling victim to horror and a couple of acid arrows later he was on the ground.
After raising Meldar the mages returned to the area to seek out Kirian (after a quick trip to the FAI to pick up the Ring of Wizardry). Blindness spells soon made her companions helpless and a stinking cloud helped do the same to her before the slaughter commenced.
Thinking they were on to a good thing, the duo moved on to Durlag's Tower to take on some battle horrors. I'd forgotten that LMD no longer affects those in v2.5 though, which meant that Meldar's acid arrows were the only spell we had that could hurt them.
On the roof of the Tower we went hunting more basilisks. The first greater one resisted blindness and spent a while chasing Rev round (getting one successful nibble in). With her spell protection due to be wearing off soon, Rev resorted to a few MM wand charges to help finish it off quickly.
Riggilo was another blind victim, though he struggled mightily against that (saving against 7 spells before failing on the 8th and last attempt).
Rev, diviner L5, 27 HPs, 29 kills
Meldar, abjurer L5, 29 HPs, 26 kills, 1 death
We dropped Imoen in favor of Haer'dalis, since he had better offensive capabilities and could use Soul Reaver more easily, which was important since turning Sarevok Chaotic Good (the only way for my good-aligned character, I think, to keep Sarevok on our side at the Throne) made him unable to use it. This is our party setup and roles:
Charname: Tanking with Flail of Ages, PFMW, SI: Abjuration. Their job is just to stay alive.
Haer'dalis: Tanking with PFMW and SI: Abjuration, with the Soul Reaver to apply THAC0 penalties (though he's terrible at it; Korgan would have been a better choice but I can't choose him because I never met him in SoA and I'm not willing to go back even though I have an EET install)
Mazzy: Dual-wielding Celestial Fury and Kundane at 10 APR for stun-locking and damage
Sarevok: Psionic Blade +5 (he's got nothing special aside from big numbers)
Keldorn: Impaler +3, Carsomyr +6, and Dispel Magic (currently at level 23, so Dispel Magic is level 34)
Nalia: Staff of the Magi and Project Image for cheap Improved Haste and Summon Planetar spells
Having four fighters in the party appears to be ideal for ToB considering how important melee damage is; Mazzy in particular is a critical party member due to her 10 APR. Things have been going very smoothly because of them; we didn't even have much trouble when we spawned three clones of Tamah instead of the normal (and also bugged) two clones. Having two tanks with SI: Abjuration also let us avoid a lot of Remove Magic spells, preserving Improved Haste on our fighters.
Haer'dalis got chunked by Tamah, but since SCS' anti-chunking component is broken due to a simple bug, I used a reload to keep him. As I've mentioned before, the anti-chunking component has no effect due to erroneously setting a 1 to a 0. If it wasn't for that bug, the component would block 100% of all chunkings aside from maybe petrification and cold damage chunking. Unlike Tenya, who also got chunked in BG1, I wasn't willing to lose Haer'dalis to a bug.
Not having Wish-resting (Nalia can't do it via Project Image unless I let her clone drink potions, which I won't) is going to make the Throne very different. That said, we don't really rely very heavily on resting in this party; our two Hardiness spells and 19 charges from our two Rods of Resurrection should keep everyone in good shape. With 4 castings of Smite, we should be able to lock down any potential problems in the final fight, and with our damage output as high as it is, we don't really need to worry about Melissan once she's alone.
If we take down Melissan, I'll post screenshots and more in-depth discussion.
Importing from BG1EE into Siege of Dragonspear.
Difficulty: Insane with no extra damage, max HP on level-up.
Self-imposed restrictions: No using unidentified items, no recharging items by selling and buying them back.
Mods: None.
Protagonist: Cassius, L9 Elf Diviner.
As usual, we will be starting a new game and then opting to import Cassius from the final save, instead of selecting to import the save directly: This way, Cassius gets the standard party with standard gear.
Cassius will also have his own inventory severely ransacked in the interest of maintaining early-game balance in SoD. For those so interested, Cassius starts with the following items:
Robe of the Good Archmagi
Xarnous' Second Sword Arm
The Amplifier
Evermemory
Batalista's Passport
Cloak of Protection +1
Talos' Gift
[No belt]
Sling +1
Staff Mace +2
80x each of Bullet +1, Bullet of Fire +1, Bullet +2
5x Potion of Healing (the 9 HP version)
2x Potion of Invisibility
1x Wand of Fire with 5 charges each of Fireball and Scorcher
Chain Mail +3 (for later importing into SoA, hopefully)
Finally, a small additional restriction: Cassius may freely use the available companions and all their items, charged or otherwise, to get through Korlasz's tomb. He may not, however, take his party members' expensive items to sell later, or spend his gold on items from the Flaming Fist Healer with the intent of saving these items to sell later. Basically, he will act as if unaware that all of his gold will be taken from him, and that his companions will soon leave. Of course, he is free to save any valuable items found in the dungeon to sell later.
So.. let us begin.
Cassius, Elf Diviner, SoD update 1
BG1EE updates: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
So, Jaheira is back! Healthy as ever and decidedly NOT burnt to a crisp. Cassius counts his blessings and presses on, intent to let sleeping dogs lie... perhaps he simply confused this reality with another potential reality (a common occurence for Diviners, what with frequently viewing a plethora of possibilities due to their powers).
The first group of Sarevok's followers are surprisingly vulnerable to the Wand of Horror: One charge knocks out all but two enemies. Jaheira uses her Cloak of the Nymph to Charm the Cleric in the group, and we get Aid + 2x Cure Light Wounds for free. Huzzah for saving potions!
I think I might try to use this trick with Mental Domination/Domination in BG2EE.. there are typically Clerics in the groups that ambush you inbetween areas there. I just thought it was nifty.
With CHA 19, Cassius smoothly convinces Porios to surrender without a fight. We agree to assist Fanegonorom in getting those damnable kids to lower the volume, and descend into the tomb proper.
Cassius' Wand of Fire and spell selection proves useful: We encounter much less trouble than usual down here. Although, true to form, the optional fight in the hidden sideroom proves more bothersome:
Khalid falls! We actually end up doing a fighting retreat north to get some assistance from the Flaming Fist.
Thankfully, the Healer doesn't die (although she comes close...) and so Khalid is restored to us.
These large Undead mobs can wear you down if you don't take out the Shadowed Souls quickly.
Pressing on, Safana under Invisibility goes ahead to remove traps. Of course, she is spotted by a Bonebat, and has to run back to the party. Unfortunately, while the party is content to take potshots at Undead stuck in a Web, the Flaming Fist Healer believes in a more hands-on approach.. leading not only to the death of herself and one of her guards, but also to the large group of Sarevok's followers joining in!
Fortunately, the Skeleton Mage's Stinking Cloud helps keep them from reaching us, and we triumph.
The final Flaming Fist dies trying to help us against Korlasz... I swear I'm not doing this on purpose.
But I am looting their corpses. We kill off most of Korlasz's followers with area-of-effect damage (we run out of Fireballs, spell-wise and charge-wise, here but that's fine) before the Mage herself surrenders.
We return the Spirit's Staff to its tomb, allowing it to rest, and allowing us to loot some gems.
Following this, we ascend the rope to the first floor. We saved a Haste and Slow for this final fight, and it works out well: We easily take down the spectral Undead (Minsc and Khalid even quaffed their respective Strength potions). Ammon gets her Moss, Fanogonorom thanks us via a very nice Medium Shield +2 (as well as gold and gems), and we return to the palace.
The city quests are mostly uneventful, though I (to some degree inadvertently) take a more bloodthirsty approach than usual: The Doppleganger in the basement of the Ducal Palace is slain, after Korlasz tried and failed to kill a single Skeleton Warrior while Cassius hid in a corner.
Not exactly a physical titan, Cassius fails to intimidate Bartleby (the bodyguard that gets called on the second floor of Three Old kegs) and has to kill him, yielding a pointless Kensai weapon we'll sell.
In other news at the Three Old Kegs: Minsc and Dynaheir are recruited, the trio of nobles are tricked into revealing their dastardly plans, some robbers are convinced to turn themselves in to the Flaming Fist, and we intervene in a bar fight, killing Lucilla for her Cudgel of Montgomer +1 (which goes to Minsc... this is actually a good tank weapon, what with the 10% chance to cast CLW on the wielder per hit) and getting Eadro's Blade +1 from Autinn. The latter might actually be good for Jaheira, we'll keep it around.
The rest of the city passes by quickly. We pick up Safana and loot everything (the basement of the Ducal Palace yielding a good amount of coin and gems). Happy with our progress, we buy a few items but have plenty of cash left. Off to face the Crusade!
Alright, first thing's first, let's get our party for the chapter in order.
Safana is replaced by Glint, Corwin is recruited, and we head north, picking up M'Khiin.
Her spells if anyone cares, with the ones in bold added by me as she leveled up:
Armor of Faith / Bless / Cure Light Wounds / Doom / Entangle / Spirit Ward
Barkskin / Flame Blade / Resist Fire and Cold / Slow Poison / Writhing Fog
Call Lightning / Cure Medium Wounds / Spiritual Clarity / Summon Insects
Call Woodland Beings / Defensive Harmony / Spirit Fire
Alright, we have a party! Glint, M'Khiin and Corwin all leveled and so could do with a rest... but let's press on as far as we can go first.
Not keen on repeating the performance of Adamant (How does Cassius know that name? Again with the multiple realities...), the perfidious Spiders are treated to a dual Fireball. Which both Gargantuan Spiders survive, but that's fine: The threat here is someone getting Web Tangled and then targetted by the Sword Spiders.
Ah, Dwarves of Dumathoin... one of my favourite quests in SoD.
We clear the first level: Lots of Fireballs are helpful. Also, the Mutated Crawlers are entirely vulnerable to Cloudkill (the Neo-Otyugh and the Umber Hulks, while they take damage from it, are too high-level to fall to its instant kill effect). Through a combination of Fireball, Web, Animate Dead and some Spirit Animals courtesy of M'Khiin, we prevail rather easily. But there is no way we can make our way through the lower level without rest, so we return to camp. A full spell selection later, we return, venturing deeper into the Undead warrens.
Again, spell selections are tailored around full-on destruction: Fireball (and Sunfire for Dynaheir, though not for Cassius... it's too risky getting in close with such a frail protagonist!), Web, Magic Missile, Haste, and a single Improved Invisibility if Minsc has to tank something unpleasant. Glint really doesn't have many spell slots yet, but what he does have goes toward standard Cleric buffs, including Remove Fear since there are Mummys down here. M'Khiin of course needs no spell preparations, but we note that she has area-of-effect potential in Writhing Fog (though most Undead are immune to Cold damage) and Spirit Fire.
We find a group of Undead with no Bonebats attached. Cue invisible Dynaheir and her Sunfire.
Yes, that second screenshot is after she cast Sunfire twice. I guess I'm misremembering, but seems to me like Sunfire really should break Invisibility. It doesn't however, to the dismay of the massive Undead horde that just got annihilated.
We head further west. Minsc borrows Batalista's Passport and gets a Resist Fire and Cold from M'Khiin, and we engage the Burning Skeletons.
Since she has nothing better to do with her second level slots, M'Khiin pushes out three Writhing Fog for the Burning Skeleton Archers to stand in. They quickly succumb.
The party presses on. The Bronze Sentry deals a little damage but is eventually mobbed by Major Animal Spirits.
A single Web (from Dynaheir, so requires a Save vs Spell at a -4 penalty) in conjunction with Major Animal Spirits proves enough to handle certain spawns: Most Undead will fail their save, and when they do get to move, they'll go after the entirely disposable Spirits.
There is a very large spawn of Undead inside the Laboratory: We break out our own Undead, but they prove insufficient to hold the line. A bit of shuffling and some Scorcher from our still not depleted Wand of Fire later, victory is ours.
Excellent! There remain only two Undead groups. The one in the hidden room gets treated to Web in conjunction with Major Animal Spirits, falling in much the same fashion as the last group subjected to this combo.
We open the path towards the Lich's sanctum. There remains a very large group of Undead here, including two full-fledged Skeleton Warriors! We burn our last Fireball and Spirit Fire, successfully clearing most of the group. The Skeleton Warriors force us to keep moving (and even so we take heavy damage), but it turns out that Improved Invisible Minsc with Shield of Egons +2, Full Plate Mail and Golden Girdle of Urnst can reliably tank them.
The way unbarred, we witness the transformation of the Coldhearth Lich. But in our eagerness to inform Brother Deepvein, we forget to retrieve the documents in the warded chest that proves what a scoundrel Coldhearth is. Fortunately, Semal speaks up as to the dwarf's poor character, and we are tasked by Deepvein with the latter's destruction, assisted by The Secret Revealed.
Coldhearth never gets a spell off: We had saved a Haste spell for this. Minsc rushes along the hidden corridor, grabs the plylactery, and hurtles it into the flame. Huzzah! We collect our lovely reward from Brother Deepvein and depart the musty halls.
Slightly worse for wear, we indulge in a rest and subsequently heal up.
All that remains is to clear the minor quests here before proceeding with the plot.
Not wont to underestimate a Mage, the party buffs thoroughly before engaging Teleria, leading to her rapid demise (that 6 Acid damage is from a batch of Darts of Acid +1 that Cassius found somewhere).
As is customary, the Orc raiding party in the area to the west get treated to a Cloudkill. They do not enjoy the experience.
We agree to help the Vampire hunters, and as it's only eight hours until dark, we just travel back and forth between the two areas once. Tsolak literally drops in one round, wasting his singular action on attempting to Dominate Isabella.
On our way back to the camp, we get the first ambush. Hooray! We're low on buffs but have some damage spells (including the 1/day Sunfire from Suncatcher +2, which Minsc is currently using). Press on!
It turns out Minsc with PfE is almost impossible for the Trolls to hit, and so we have a field day. The Firefly +2 goes to Glint, of course.
And that's it! We hand the quest in to Takos, get The Biter +2 (which goes to Cassius, he'll make good use of it with his 20 DEX) and also get to keep Suncatcher +2 thanks to Cassius' silver tongue.
We return to camp, rest up, and move to engage the Crusaders at the bridge.
Sunfire. You've got to love it. Two Sunfire from Dynaheir kills everyone apart from Barachus (by simple virtue of him being outside the spell's range), and a handful of arrows/bolts in conjunction with M'Khiin's Call Lightning does for the Orog.
We get all the loot! Huzzah! Most of it is unremarkable (though Potions of all sorts are always useful), but there's a Long Sword +2 here for Khalid to use later on.
We have our little dialogue with Caelar, and return to camp. Off to chapter 10!
We arrive at Dead Man's Pass unimpeded. Though his attempts at divining the future remain blocked, Cassius can still detect individual power signatures in the immediate area... and to the north, one very familiar such one resides: Jaheira!
Very soon, the party will embark to recruit new allies. Which unfortunately means that old ones must step aside, for the moment at least.
Feeling appropriately woeful, Cassius breaks out a bottle of the same cheap sherry the party enjoyed back when their greatest worries consisted of fighting Ettercaps. Everyone has a glass, reveling around the campfire.
Next time, we will gather Jaheira and Voghiln, replacing Minsc and Dynaheir. Then, we press on to a derelict Temple of Bhaal, oblivious to the horrors that certainly await us there... although with any luck M'Khiin's newfound Insect Plague (her first L5 spell, as she leveled) will help combat said monstrosities!
Cassius is now a L10 Elf Diviner.
The multiple deaths kept Melissan unconscious for a moment, giving Charname enough time to activate a Harm Spell Trigger, wait 6 seconds, and use Critical Strike to bump the chance of a hit up to 100%. The Harm spell killed Yaga-Shura instantly and we stomped on Gromnir, isolating Melissan.
While Melissan lay on the ground, Nalia removed her Spell Trap with Pierce Shield and Haer'dalis took down her Divine Mantle with a Wand of Spell Striking. Once her weapon immunities were gone, we stun-locked her with Smite and, after a few tries, even managed to stun her with the Wand of Paralyzation despite not having Greater Malison on hand. Due to a bug, she had 90% resistance to physical damage instead of 75% (she has a helmet with 15% resistance, but she's supposed to lose it if Balthazar is dead or on your side), but having 2.5 times as much effective HP made no difference. Melissan healed herself instantly and delivered a vanilla dialogue line, which I think isn't supposed to happen in Ascension, but we killed her again anyway, and she didn't get up after that. That's what happens when you have four fighters in a party.
It seems that fighters really do dominate ToB. ToB is very much a game of numbers, crammed with big bosses with sky-high MR, vast HP pools, and lots of regeneration and immunities that make it a struggle for spellcasters and thieves to bring them down. Even if I had the Robe of Vecna, I don't think Nalia would have brought much to the table by using Improved Alacrity. Sheer damage output appears to be the primary factor in ToB fights.
Honestly, I think you only need one mage in ToB. Project Image will let a single mage cover everyone with Improved Haste and situational buffs (and protect them by tanking enemy Remove Magic spells), and a single Planetar will perform all the normal healing duties, including powerful rescue options in the form of SCS celestials' instant-casting Heal spells. Clerics and druids are largely redundant. ToB is easiest when you have a party crammed with fighters to tank with Hardiness and stun-lock key enemies with Power Attack and Smite.
I'll post screenshots later. I think this is the first run I've done without using any tricks or exploits--not even the normal ones, like messing with enemy AI in the fights against Davaeorn and Sarevok, or using Protection from Magic scrolls on enemy mages.
Previous updates:
I stealthed through most of the Nashkel Mine before trying a backstab on Mulahey. He just survived that, but not the following stroke.
Nimbul failed to survive his backstab. Tranzig survived both backstab and a first use of LMD, but his attempt to run away failed.
After picking up the pantaloons I arrived at the Bandit Camp. Most of the external bandits were just meleed, though Taurgosz was softened up first in some pre-laid traps.
Back at the Bandit Camp, Venkt died without knowing what hit him.
After resting to get horror, I donated at the Temple to push reputation back to 10 before I forgot and then just ran through the Cloakwood to get to the mine. Genthore was charmed and pulled away first. Kysus was next and he started casting fireball just in case I missed with a backstab - I emphatically didn't though.
As my stealth is so poor I fought down to the bottom level before charming the guard. He then soaked up some damage from Davaeorn until it was time to unleash a backstab.
Arriving at Baldur's Gate I didn't take the opportunity to kill Elminster for a 3rd time. Apart from trying to manage an over-full inventory there were no problems with the city quests as I pushed reputation up to 20. Acquiring the Helm of Glory
Back at Candlekeep I had the luxury of not needing to tank the traps for once. I realized too late that I only had one inventory space, so had to drop the Helm of Glory in order to carry both tomes out - there's nothing more to buy at the moment anyway though. I couldn't resist dealing with Prat - another nice backstab making short work of him.
Back in Baldur's Gate, Slythe was badly injured in traps and failed to get a hit in. Krystin was softened up by a first use of bolts of biting before I finished her off in melee.
At the Palace one of the dopplegangers died in pre-laid traps. I decided to just melee the others rather than muck about with dispelling them and 2 of them attacked me anyway - the others didn't do too much damage to the dukes.
After cruising through the maze, fireballs were used to kill the Undercity party - mainly to get an extra couple of exploding arrows from Rahvin. In the temple the same logic saw the lightning trap repeatedly triggered to kill Angelo before he could use any of his 8 exploding arrows. Some running and shooting and a few backstabs then saw off Sarevok.
F7/T8, 76 HPs (+5 from Helm; -5 from Claw), 448 kills