Addi and his gang of shorties traverse Cloakwood without incident. They side with Aldeth and defeat the druids by disrupting their spell casting. Kagain tanks the spiders while the others pelt them with missiles. The druid grove is left alone, though Peter of the North and his pets are slain, allowing Addi to pick up a spider egg ioun stone. Drasus is quick to engage some pre-summoned skellies on his own, leaving himself overly vulnerable to the party's ranged assault. Quayle silences Kysus and Rezdan but both wizards have Vocalize memorized (this is not always the case). Two barrages of elemental missiles quickly seal their fate anyway.
Inside the mine the party takes their chances with Hareishan for a change (after having dispatched her lackeys). She does manage to Confuse Quayle in a harmless place, with Alora and Addi luckily escaping,
but she has nothing on charm-protected Kagain. Natasha is the deadlier of the two wizardesses, forcing the entire party to quaff potions of absorption even after she has cast some of her invocations at the party's summons.
Brute force wins the day though.
The plan against Davaeorn is first to find a place to hide from the guards and black talons that will soon start to pour in. Davaeorn's web + stinking cloud is not nearly as well anticipated as the arrival of the guards:
I don't consider myself a rookie, but that was a rookie mistake. Everyone but Finch makes it to the side chamber, with Quayle quaffing a magic blocking potion. Finch, untouchable by the web thanks to her ring free action passes out in the stinking cloud. She takes damage from a fire ball and from the eager battle horrors but comes to her senses in time to swig an invisibility potion.
Everyone survives and the tried and tested tactic of fireballing the guards surrounding Davaeorn, followed by a physical assault on the wizard himself proves reliable once more.
There's a lot of work for the shorties in Baldur's Gate. In addition to the usual shopping and item hunting, the team quest around to restore their reputation to 20. Desreta (wand of paralyzation), Vay-ya, (Command), Yago (Command), Ramazith (wand of paralyzation), ogre mage in the sewers (Duhm + backstab), Larze (wand of paralyzation), Marek (Blindness + ranged attacks), Gervisse (arrow of dispelling + elemental missiles), the Mountain Maulers, and Degrodel are among the notable citizens that do not survive the party's sojourn in the Gate. Degrodel manages to cast a Chaos and a Confusion before he falls, despite his being poisoned by Alora's dagger of venom and pelted with missiles by the others.
The confused ones that go aggro do so on some summoned skellies rather than one another, so everyone survives. Sunin's MGoI is expired when his buddies drop to the ground under Addi's Emotion spell, though the wizard himself is not affected by said spell. He is slain with missiles and damaging magic.
The party's reconaissance of the Ice Island starts off roughly, with a Chaos by the welcoming party affecting not only the party's summons but also spying Monty and Alora. Kagain stops in front of Alora, ensuring she doesn't harm anyone with her bow, though she does waste a few arrows of dispelling. Confused Monty finds a quiet corner to wait out the spell's effect.
Once again, the party gets by unscathed. Marcellus follows the companions outside, but a dispelling arrow from Alora proves his death sentence. Back inside Andris, the most dangerous of the welcoming party, teleports into their midst, but he too is defenseless against a dispelling arrows and six attacking shorties.
The other mages don't give the party any difficulties thanks to their wands, summons and top tier missiles.
Another side trip the party undertakes is to the Red Wizards area. Waiting out MGoIs, followed by fireballs ensure success.
The Iron Throne fight is supposed to start with 6 fireballs from wands/necklaces/potions, but I guess my aim is too ambitious, several of the companions start to walk to a spot to launch the fireballs from. As that involves several seconds of exposure, I send them downstairs instead. Shennara 1 joins them, and is promptly stunned by Addi's wand. Aasim and Alai prove to have taken the stairs down as well. Both are pelted with missiles (with Alai requiring a dispelling arrow from Alora and a Blindness by Addi). Alora strength-buffed by Quayle finishes the remaining acolytes upstairs with backstabs, except Shennara 2, who is dispatched by the party
The ogre magi by the entrance to Candlekeep force the unbuffed party to fight them when one of them Charms Kagain. An Emotion from Addi puts two of the foes, and Kagain, to sleep, and a Command lays down another one.
Dealing with one or two of the ogres at a time makes this battle very doable.
Candlekeep itself is rather uneventful. While a failed pickpocketing attempt by Alora does lead the Iron Throne board to attack, the confrontation is abruptly brought to an end at a 2-0 score for the party (Tuth and Kestor),
when invisible Quayle goes upstairs mid-battle.
The next confrontation, with Prat and co, is yet another one that doesn't start off promisingly, when Prat reminds the party is reminded that Remove Fear has run out with a Horror that affects both Kagain and Monty.
(I had used Remove Fear for faux Elminster, because in my memory greater doppelgangers cast Horror, but I think in my current install they only cast Haste and MI and then attack.) This is more than inconvenient what with several spiders about and two greater basilisks that won't mind chunking both warriors if they get the chance. Addi Blinds Tam (their archer) and finishes him with help from Quayle, Finch tanks Sakul who is dispelled by Alora and subsequently slain by the party. Finch then closes in on Bor and two spiders, while Prat goes after panicked Kagain. But Addi casts Remove Fear at Kagain and Alora dispels Prat, and that's the end of Prat.
Monty thankfully stays away from the basilisks for the duration of the Horror spell.
Next up should be the Firewine ruins, the Isle of Balduran, and Durlag's Tower before the party returns to Baldur's Gate to deal wth Sarevok.
My internet was out for three days, which gave me plenty of time to make progress with the Rejects.
The Umar Hills are indeed next. We are fortunately not high enough leveled to get lich spawns, either. We're feeling pretty confident about taking on Thaxll. Rufus starts us off with a Shatter Weave to nullify Thaxll's MR while Garos follows up with Doom. Spaz capitalizes on both of these with a Noxious Blast, further debuffing Thaxll's saves. It's enough for Gaspar to take control of him for a little bit.
He does manage to get a breath weapon on our back line, but Bruss puts him in his place quite soon. Thanks to Gaspar's charm, he just stood there and took it.
The Shade Lord is underwhelming. I have the Improved Shade Lord component of SCS installed as well as Shadow Magic's Shade Lord, which gives him Shadow Weave spells. Maybe they're conflicting with each other. Rufus strips his protection from magic weapons (not weave-forged weapons?), which allows Bruss the Super Jelly Saiyan to kill him with Melee Rush.
Krieg levels up from finishing the quest while Spaz levels up from turning it in to Minister Lloyd. The Shade Lord drops the Shadow Phylactery while Shadow Patrick drops the new and improved Darkmail armor.
Out of Thaxll's scales, we make a suit of armor almost tailor-made for Rufus. Rufus will be wearing the Darkmail for now while Garos will be using the shadow dragon armor, at least until Spaz gets UAI so he can wear the Darkmail. It should mesh very well with the good-aligned warlock HLA that lets him do bonus magical damage.
Gaspar and Rufus level up from one of the de'Arnise Keep quests.
We're finishing up some loose ends now. We take on the illithid enclave in the sewers. The first room is a challenge because of the cramped hallway, but it gets cleared. In the next room over, we bait the mind flayers into following us into the first room so we have space to fight properly. Rufus' Nighthaunts are the bait for the Alhoon and his illithids. The illithids teleport over to us while the Alhoon tries to deal with the Nighthaunts. The illithids are wiped out, and the Alhoon comes after us soon after. His super-mode sequencer has triggered but his PfMW wore off, so Bruss tanks him. Spaz fires a Vitriolic Blast but is psionically mazed immediately afterward. The alhoon is then killed.
Bruss levels up from Sir Sarles' quest.
Now we're going lich hunting. Bruss volunteers to kill the city gates lich using a scroll of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes.
He does the same to the Bridge District lich, but this one has sense enough to come upstairs even after being protected from himself.
The Twisted Rune is a daunting prospect, but we'd come for them sooner or later anyway. We use 6 scrolls of PfU on the party. We still have plenty left, and I can't think of a situation where we'll need them more than this. Except for Bodhi. Shandalar gates in a Fallen Planetar, but Bruss and Krieg kill it without too much trouble. Shandalar is killed from range, which causes the rest of the Twisted Rune to spawn in.
We bought the Shield of Balduran earlier, so Vaxall spams a bunch of rays at Krieg, but Revanek keeps hitting him. I can't have Krieg lose control, so Krieg backs off a bit, pulling Vaxall with him. Now Vaxall sees many more delicious targets, so he hits Garos with an anti-magic ray and starts spamming rays at Krieg again while throwing up PfMW. Rufus responds with a Breaching Dark, but Vaxall's contingency fires and restores PfMW. Now we're out of Breaches. This is why I hate playing prepared casters. With spontaneous casters, you can cast something more times if you need it.
Super Saiyan Bruss Melee Rushes Revenek, killing him within the round. This activates Layenne. Layenne casts a sequencer of 3x Remove Magic on Bruss, removing his PfU scroll, but at least Rufus' Negative Immunity stayed. Gaspar charms Vaxall and has him try to Imprison Shyressa, but the charm only lasts 1 round and he can't move fast enough to get to Shyressa, so he cancels that order and uses a second PfMW. Shyressa comes over to play, draining Bruss of some Constitution, but he kills her anyway. Vaxall teleports over and starts spamming more rays, but Spaz puts an end to him with Vitriolic Blast. Krieg takes back the Shield of Balduran. Apparently, the shield is taken after a slight delay of the Telekinesis Ray, not immediately like all the other ray effects.
Rufus clears out Shyressa's mess with Night Terrors. Layenne and her simulacrum are now bearing down on us. Rufus is out of Breaches and Spaz's Devour Magic isn't working. Rufus summons his Nighthaunts to help. The main Layenne calls down a Comet on Gaspar, killing him.
Bruss Flash Steps over to Layenne as she casts Improved Alacrity and Time Stop, and thanks to the Staff of the Magi, her simulacrum is also immune to it, so they're both casting spells while time is stopped. Garos had casted Insect Plague at one of the Nighthaunts so it would spread to Layenne. She makes her save during this time stop and then casts a second one! But Insect Plague prevents her from casting much during this second one, so we make it out okay.
Layenne's simulacrum mazes Bruss (or maybe it was the main Layenne, I forget). The simulacrum is killed, and the Nighthaunts are working their level-draining magic, hitting Layenne several times and then killing her. Gaspar is brought back using the Rod of Resurrection and we wait for Bruss to find his way out of the maze.
The Shade Lich and his trusty Fallen Planetar are next, but Krieg uses an Oil of Speed so he can apply the PfU scroll faster. As a result, the lich puts up absolutely no resistance and doesn't summon his planetar buddy.
Kangaxx is next. His lich form is destroyed the same way as the Shade Lich, but with Garos sticking him with an arrow of dispelling so he'll transform. At this time, everyone except Krieg drinks a Potion of Magic Shielding to guarantee saving throws against Trap the Soul.
Krieg uses another PfU scroll on Demigaxx to prevent him from casting spells. Bruss unleashes the apex of his Saiyan strength by combining Super Saiyan with Kaioken x20, then initiates a Melee Rush against Kangaxx! Bruss is now hitting as hard as Krieg, but 7 times as fast! Demigaxx is killed with a critical hit.
So, that's all the liches out of the way. Krieg gets the Ring of Gaxx for the regeneration, AC, and saves. The planar sphere is next. Garos levels up against the fire elementals of the furnace room and chooses Impervious Sanctity of Mind for improved resistance to disablers.
Rufus turns Tolgerias into chunky salsa.
The rest of the quest goes without incident. Krieg, Spaz, and Gaspar level up at its conclusion. Spaz learns Utterdark Blast so he can debuff saving throws even further and possibly help Gaspar recruit creatures. Utterdark Blast actually requires a save vs. spell at -4, with an increasing -1 save penalty for every two points of CHA above 17. Currently, Spaz will force saves vs. spell at -7 or the victims will be drained of 4 levels. Ouch!
Using one of the demon hearts, we upgrade Spaz's Hellfire Blade that we bought back from Ribald. Rufus solos most of the Planar Prisonwith his asskicking spell combo. Now armed with Kundane, his offhand THAC0 won't be so bad since he's actually proficient with short swords. Bruss levels up after Rufus casts Night Terrors to kill the Warden's Mordy Swords, but it seems it also slayed other enemies.
Twin Mislead and Shadow Assault ran out, but constantly hitting Yuan-ti Fireshields gains Rufus Shar's Blessing back thanks to Spell Trap. He casts it and helps kill the Warden by poking him with the Staff of the Magi so Bruss can deliver a critical kick.
We're hitting up Watcher's Keep next.
Krieg - War Hulk 16 Garos - Warhorn Shaman 15 Bruss - Super Saiyan Monk(ey) 17 Rufus - Thief 14/Shadow Adept 12 Spaz - Warlock 19 Gaspar - Seducer 19
Just so you people know, I rolled up a human berserker Coremage who has 18 INT - he will dual to mage when he gets to level 13 fighter. He is using NPCs for party members. Currently, the party consists of Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen (not dualed), Ajantis, and Garrick. A couple of deaths low levels, but since we have more HP and better armor/equipment, there have been a lot less deaths. Party is about level 5. We will be hitting the Bandit Camp next session. Will post his stats then.
Now that Rufus is a fighting machine all on his own, we're back at Watcher's Keep. Rufus buffs up and performs the ritual. Both mages are backstabbed to death, but it exhausts Rufus's Spell Trap because he hit them too many times while they had Fireshield up. Bruss goes ballistic on the archer, but kills it too early and focuses down Spaz. Spaz drinks an invisibility potion to avoid getting killed. The iron golem is the last to fall.
On level two, a pair of fire giants dice Bruss up despite his -15 AC! This gets him Zenkai Boost #7.
Our backliners level up from releasing the poison gas into the ice room, while our frontliners level from freeing the Chromatic Demon. but I have plans for him, oh yes... Bruss also learns Full Power Super Saiyan, so he can stay Super all the time. Rufus learns Protection from Weave-forged Weapons, which is the same as PfMW.
- FULL POWER SUPER SAIYAN: After extensive training to maintain the transformation, the Saiyan may now instantly power up into a Super Saiyan and use the form freely without draining their stamina. The mastered form gives an additional 5% damage resistance, for a total of 15%, in addition to all of the other benefits of the form.
The Chromatic Demon is set free. Rufus casts Sigil of Misfortune and Spaz casts Noxious Blast. Both of them take, resulting in a -8 saving throw penalty for the demon. Spaz follows up with Utterdark Blast, draining 4 levels from it since it saves at a combined -15 penalty! Rufus summons his Nighthaunts and they drain away even more levels. This lets Gaspar recruit the Chromatic Demon!
I think I'll sic him on Firkraag. His 100% elemental resistance and 95% physical resistance should do nicely. His only weaknesses are electrical damage, magical damage, and, obviously, level drain. Still, he will need to get hit many times to actually die from level drain since he's 25 HD. Garos uses a Restoration scroll to restore the demon's levels. We can't go any further into Watcher's Keep without him being dead, since pickpocket apparently won't work.
This was the best idea ever! The Chromatic Demon can outlast Firkraag at triple HP! Well, he did get a little bit of help from Bruss and from Spaz's various summons, but he could've easily done it solo.
We're out in the wilderness areas to squeeze every last significantly XP gain out of Amn before going off to Spellhold. I get the idea to try pickpocketing the demon again. It works! You just need to get reaalllyy close to him, as in 'the center of his circle' kind of close. Spaz steals the portal key, Ixil's Spike, and the Circlet of Netheril.
Now that we have the key, we teleport back to Watcher's Keep with Mallon's Shifting Heart and use it to enter the third level. Garos heals Yakman, but we decide to leave for the time being. Instead, we finish up Bodhi's lair and make her surrender before she does anything to us.
We tie up a few more loose ends, build Perfect Flesh Golem MK I, and head back to Watcher's Keep. Spaz and Gaspar level up from a trapped and locked panel in the side of Tahazzar's wall. Spaz learns Dark Foresight.
We trudge through the maze and Chromatic Demon keeps proving how awesome he is by hitting things like a truck at 4 attacks/round and he can take all kinds of punishment. The devils are no match for us and we return to Tahazzar with Ka'rashur's heart, earning Krieg and Bruss a level.
We make it to the end of the maze. Gaspar steals away Aesgareth's hellcats and Spaz steals the Magic Golem tome from him. With that out of the way, Rufus casts his asskicking spell combo and tries backstabbing the mage, but all the tieflings seem to be immune to backstabs. Well, we still prevailed in the end. We will use the Deck later, once Rufus can use normal scrolls for Spell Immunity.
Garos levels up from some illithids on level 4 of the Keep. There's a considerable number of them here. Gaspar, Rufus, and Spaz level up from more illithids. Chromatic Demon is psionically mazed but returns after this big fight.
Saladrex is next on the chopping block. Chromatic Demon faces him with an Efreeti and Improved Kitthix, but none of them can make a dent in Sally's stoneskins. Bruss steps in after drinking a fire resistance potion to help, but has to back off quickly. Sally's Haste eventually wears off, which makes him much easier to deal with. Chromatic Demon is reduced to like 22 HP out of 200, and Sally could only hit him for 2 or 3 damage at a time.
We rest to heal our demon. Rufus is up next to deal with the Demilich. His strategy hinges on a PfU scroll combined with Shadow Screen to prevent dispels. He enters the room alone while buffed to maximum and uses the scroll on the demilich. It kind of works, because the demilich still gates in a planetar, but doesn't really do anything else. Rufus waits out its PfMW and then casts Fireshield (Shadow) and then PfW-fW (protection from weave-forged weapons). Anytime the planetar hits Rufus with the Fireshield up, it will take a cumulative -2 THAC0 penalty. And thanks to Rufus' Wisdom score, PfW-fW lasts slightly longer than 4 rounds, which is enough time to get through the Demilich's stoneskins and kill it.
With the demilich dead, the rest of the party can enter. Krieg, Bruss, and Spaz file in to kill the planetar.
Hmm, the demilich dropped something new...
Wow, okay. That is pretty nice for a dedicated Shadow Adept, but Rufus is also a thief who switches weapons, so we can't be restricted to just this book. It also carries a pretty substantial max HP penalty... Bruss levels up to 20 from lighting the colored torches, but Saiyans do not receive immunity to normal weapons at level 20. The minotaurs are dealt with and Carston is let go. Krieg earns a level from opening the way to level 5.
From the Machine of Lum the Mad, Krieg gains +1 DEX and CON; Garos gets +1 STR; and Rufus gets +1 WIS/INT/CHA. Onto Level 5 of Watcher's Keep.
Krieg - War Hulk 19 Garos - Warhorn Shaman 17 Bruss - Super Saiyan Monk(ey) 20 Rufus - Thief 16/Shadow Adept 13 Spaz - Warlock 22 Gaspar - Seducer 22
Do you remember Binadas? Well, I'm saddened to announce that I've had too much time to play which, unfortunately, resulted in a major gap between my reports and his progress. And before I've been able to finally wrap up the BG1 coverage, Binadas came to face improved Torgal and did not come out on the top. Lesson(s) learned.
And do you remember Saoirse, the gnomish thief/illusionist whom backstabbed Sarevok to death in the form of a mirrored imaged ogre? That's great if you do because she's now back in action.
I'll continue where we left off the last time and that means starting with Irenicus' dungeon (I'm still skipping SoD).
Mods: SCS, Tweaks (Remove Blur Effect from Claw of Kazgaroth), JimFix Difficultly: Core WeiDU log:
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2000 // Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2020 // Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2080 // Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2120 // Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2170 // True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2180 // Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4040 // Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6020 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal get HLAs: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6033 // Smarter Mages -> Mages in BG1 cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat; mages in BG2 only do so if they are created in sight of the PC: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6043 // Smarter Priests -> Priests in BG1 cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat; priests in BG2 only do so if they are created in sight of the PC: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6102 // Potions for NPCs -> Half the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6521 // Smarter genies -> Genies have normal hit points: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6531 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have normal hit points: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6541 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have normal hit points: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6562 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have only original-game resistances; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies (matches original game): v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Spirit trolls have the same powers as in the original game: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v31 RC2 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v31 RC2 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Icon Improvements: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #200 // Remove Blur Effect from Items, e.g. Cloack of Displacement: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1020 // Alter HP Triggers for NPC Wounded Dialogues: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1030 // Reveal Wilderness Areas Before Chapter Six: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: v7 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Change Korgan to Neutral Evil: v7 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v31 RC2
So after 4 years of lingering in the BG no-reload community, I finally get to post my first SoA adventure. And I'm glad it's Saoirse who gets the honor - she's a very enjoyable personae and she fully deserves it.
Here's her character record after being released from the cell by Imoen.
With her spellbook optimized prior to importing, Saoirse is ready kick-off. First, she calls upon her trusty old lizardly friend to assist with the lightning mephit room.
Running Shield, Strength and Blur, Saoirse lands her first backstab.
She retreats and uses narrow corridors and stealth to avoid the remaining duegar before collecting the golem remote control and releasing the jar fella. Against the mephits, we use DuHM and MGoI (which seems to foil their magical attacks). Lousy backstab -> MMs for quick finish.
Her familiar joins the fray in the southern jar room once the MGoI expires.
The otyugh is taken down with MMMs.
And the duegar party at the portal receives a safe-distance fireball.
Sorry Saoirse, I know I've promised not to tell anyone, but I couldn't resist - it's just too hilarious not to be featured in the weekly BG bloopers.
We collect the Claw of Kazgaroth and the Metaspell Amulet, loot Ellesime's room and go invisible. However, the lesser golems never showed up and I assume they somehow got blocked by the duegar parties earlier on, when Saoirse played a little hide-and-seek with them.
Although our initial buffs were now gone, we still had some spells left and I faced a dilemma whether or not to attempt taking on Ilyich. He's got a full squad including a mage, we only had 9 arrows and I was afraid that SCS calls for help might catch us seriously outnumbered. However, Saoirse insisted that we have to help the captive dryads. So be it.
Saoirse approaches Ilyich invisible, buffs with Armor (scroll), MIs and opens with a Fireball (scroll).
She waits and listens - there's someone approaching from the library to the south. Saorise goes II.
She enters the room, buffs with DUHM, waits for her aura to clear, and then attempts to backstab the mage (who's unfortunately untouched by the opening fireball). Bummer.
She quickly summons MMMs and hits the fleeing mage with a quick burst of searing rocks.
Ilyich eats the remaining meteors and that's enough to finish him.
Saoirse grabs the nuts and mail but with our MIs gone, we have to disengage and hide in the northern corridor (while carefully avoiding the floor trap by leaning against the wall).
Exhausted, bruised and with a completely depleted spellbook, Saoirse reports her success to the dryads. She keeps saying it was worth the effort. I say that those nuts will now block one of our precious inventory slots until who knows when. She doesn't seem to be listening.
We enter the portal, relieve Yoshimo of his arrows, re-adjust our spells and rest. In preparation for the mephit room, Saoirse heals up and buffs with Shield, Strength, MMMs, Haste, DuHM and MGoI. She needs to refresh her MMMs in the middle of the fight but otherwise we're staying safe.
While her buffs are still running (in particular MGoI), she races to finish the two mephits and the assassin in the nearby corridor.
Avoiding any further confrontations with the duegar under stealth, Saoirse collects RoP +1 and couple of wands from the pillars. Frennedan is released and subsequently taken down via Wand of Cloudkill and backstabs.
Finally, the band of assassins - my favorite Chateau encounter. Saoirse buffs with Polymorph: Self, MIs, Blur, uses Wand of Monster Summoning and goes invisible with II. Already aware of these guys' intentions, she doesn't hesitate and opens with a backstab and then shifts to the piercing immune jelly form.
The remaining assassins target our summoned fodder only to be soon crushed by the jelly attacks.
So we've made it to the Promenade. Saoirse is now lvl 9 thief / lvl 9 illusionist with access to L5 spells. For the record, here's her inventory after selling all the unnecessary stuff to Ribald.
Her next move will be visiting some fellow gnomes in the circus. In the meantime we'll have to think about the equipment that we'll need for the Slums and the upcoming ambushes.
The occurrence of weird magic at the Promenade stirred Saoirse's academic interest. However, she reminded herself not to let the grandeur of illusions cloud her judgement.
Eventually, Saoirse makes a new friend - Aerie - by recovering the item she described. Preparing with Ghost Armor, Shield, Strength, Chant (courtesy of Aerie), ProEvil, Fire Shield, Haste, MGoI and II, Saorise was ready to meet the CEO. Not interested in subtlety this time, she rushed in and released Sunfire. Unfortunately, my estimates of higher level spells AoE are still slightly vague...
Master Quayle, I'm afraid you're not going to be okay today. I'm sorry Aerie.
At least Saoirse was free to launch her second Sunfire without limitations and thus put an end the whole circus thing.
I pity you Kalah, you could have been a good gnome. But you chose wrong.
By locating Giran's mother Saoirse gets at least a little satisfaction for her efforts. *Sigh*. Such is life of an adventurer.
With not much else to do here anymore, we trade our hard earned cash for Ring of Air Control (basically an uninterruptible extra L4 spell slot) and potions (of Freedom, of Genius, of Mind Focusing) and proceed to the Slums.
The Slums:
Talking business with Gaelan has dried our throats and we got a tip for a local establishment. The patrons were a strange mixture of familiar faces, drunks, sleazy Romeos, self-important PC college knights (you know who I mean *wink*) and plain aggressive thugs. Amalas was one of the latter. He challenged Saoirse to a duel. And he paid with his life.
Although disgusted by the omnipresent air of violence and testosterone, Saoirse decided she liked the place. Especially the music. She rents a room and, after taking a long nap, sets out to explore the suspicious backstage.
Time for some meta-gaming. In anticipation of bouncers-mages, Saoirse enters the holding cells in a jelly form and under II. Apparently, they'll only show up after you've talked to the first guard. He didn't make it.
Enjoying her semi-liquid state, Saoirse takes down the winter wolf at range.
She consolidates her buffs (Strength, Ghost Armor, Pro Normal Missiles, Resist Fear, Haste, Fire Shield, Shadow Door, DuHM) and sneaks upon the beast master. Polymorph: ogre. Bam!
Saoirse opens the cages and, one by one, she releases the remaining tortured beasts from their misery. There you have your show, you sick bloodthirsty fat freaks!
We release Hendak and help the gladiators to take control of the inn. It was intriguing to see that some of the bouncers were not only literate, but also professionally interested in the fine art of spellcasting. Thank you very much.
And thus the debt's been settled. And I gotta go.
Saoirse's now lvl 9 illusionist / lvl 11 thief and she's considering her next course of action. It seems likely that she'll have a closer look at this slaver business.
So far our stay in the Copper Coronet has been rather profitable. And the rent's pretty affordable too. Saoirse retraces her steps back to the Adventurers' Mart to upgrade her spellbook. Most notable additions, scribed under the effects of Potions of Genius and Mind Focusing, included Stoneskin, Breach, Lower Resistance, GoI and Death Fog.
We check the remaining stores at the Promenade for any discounts, but we end up buying only ProPoison scroll and Ammo Belt before returning to the Slums. Saoirse needs to take care of Cohrvale and Bregg. And being an unlicensed magic user, she has to take the fight into the tavern. Only Cohrvale follows at first, which of course was a fatal mistake (as he'll soon realize).
Leaving Cohrvale blinded in the midst of the pub crawl, Saoirse goes looking for his partner. Bregg is lured inside as well and taken down with MMs, Fire Shield and Amnish steel. Cohrvale ends up crisscrossed with arrows soon thereafter (while Nalia has seemingly accepted the vacant bouncer position).
We proceeded to the sewers to utilize the leverage of our present buffs (in particular the lingering effects of Potion of Mind Focusing). And oh boy, what a mess it was.
Saoirse had a decent opening on the hobgoblin band with backstab -> Sunfire.
She had finished the shaman, but came upon unexpected trouble while trying to snipe down the hobgoblin captain. I had no idea that these guys forged an alliance.
The kobold leader talks like he's going to give us a chance to leave, but he's effectively been launching his attack already. MGoI keeps us safe against the initial Hold Person, it's just that our protections won't last for much longer now.
And what the hell is that ugly thing doing over here? This is madness. It looks like we're not very welcome in this smelly abode. Saoirse's like "Let's get the hell outa here!" and uses RoAC.
Me: "Wait, wait! We've got DuHM and Potions of Freedom / Invisibility at the ready and we're buffed. So what could possibly go wrong?!''
Notes to self: a) backstabbing with an unenchanted weapon is a dull business, b) the kobold shaman is more beefy than he looks.
Saoirse tries to shoot him with arrows but his failed morale made him retreat to the north eastern corridor.
A mustard jelly?! I didn't even know it's there since I never take that shortcut to mushrooms. With our buffs gone we call this a draw and retreat to fight another day. Saoirse rests at the inn and returns in full strength.
First, the hobgoblin captain with his ridiculous AC.
Then the intervening kobold shaman, whom has already returned to his post.
And finally the otyugh.
We collect the ingredients for Lilarcor under stealth, retrieve the sword and clear the second hobgoblin group with Sunfires and arrows. Saoirse gets another rest in order to re-adjust her spellbook before taking aboard the slaver boat.
Our plan is to go melee & heavy with Stoneskin, Strength, Non-detection, Ghost Armor, Polymorph: Self, Resist Fear, Blur, MIs, Fire Shield, Pro Evil, Haste and Shadow Door.
Saoirse enters and sneaks upon the Priest of Cyric. Polymorph: Ogre -> DuHM. Bam!
With the cleric out of the way, we've got a lot more breathing space. Saoirse crushes one of the archers in the same round and shifts into spider form.
Our intention here was to wear the slavers down with quick jabs and poison, but the results were unsatisfactory, to say the least. We didn't have enough APR to compensate for the low damage output and our enemies had an easy time making their saves.
Note to self: Avoid using the spider form without Web triggers.
Saoirse needed to lower the pressure and consolidate the battlefield. She morphs back into the human gnomish form and releases Sunfire.
Haegan was nowhere to be found at the time and apparently has fled to the sewers. Saoirse goes after him, refreshes her MIs, pulls out Slow and engages in flind form under DuHM.
Haegan himself gets the ogre's punch for style.
Saoirse then deals with the trolls by using Blindness + flind's fire halberd, releases the kids and reports back to Hendak.
After the untimely end of Jaay, locked forever in the Flaming Fist dungeon, I rolled up a new random character.
Filwith Prismcog, Neutral Good, Gnome, fighter/illusionist. I rolled a 1 for party size, so committed to taking no companions for any reason... and I have no experience soloing. EE 2.5; Mods were SCS, some tweaks, BG1NPC, item randomiser; insane difficulty.
To make a long story short, Filwith crushed most encounters until the Ducal Palace. (The bandit camp has never felt so easy). At the palace, Filwith was 7/7, his max level under the XP cap. On the first attempt, the dopplegangers killed both dukes before Filwith could take down more than 2. He was a bit limited in spellbook. Can't cast chaos. Haven't found a malison scroll.
Having never soloed this battle before, I tried again a few dozen times to see if I could learn anything about effective strategy. The only thing that works: use every combat buff available. Pack as many summons as you can get in front of the dukes before the battle starts. Try to disrupt the doppleganger's attacks (I used teleport field; not much else worked). And finally, hitting Sarevok hard at the end before he takes out the near-dead dukes. I ended up using a double Melf's acid arrow sequencer for instant effect. (Edit: although it looks like that was a fluke; he has 100% magic resistance I think).
I'm considering giving Filwith another go; or maybe it's time to roll another random character...
I decided to go with Filwith Prismcog v2. Here's his character sheet:
Going with the same set of mods: SCS with full tactical challenges, item randomiser, some ease of use tweaks, BG1NPC. Hard difficulty this time, instead of insane. Self-imposed rules: follow alignment; go solo; no cheese.
Let's see if he can make it past the Ducal Palace... No-reload attempt #20.
@Blind_Visionary Condolences. I consider Ducal Palace to be the most difficult BG1 encounter and I've lost countless characters in that hall.
I'm not sure whether the Item Randomizer mod also changes the locations of items in stores (otherwise it is possible to get multiple copies of both Malison and Chaos scrolls in Sorcerous Sundries), but it sure does seem like a tough way to go for solo SCS no-reload.
For what it's worth, my observation is that Teleport Field, despite being a great spell, has the effect of complicating this particular battle by accelerating the dukes' demise. If you allow Arrows of Dispelling, I'd consider using them.
After dealing with Haegan, we didn't have to wait too long for Suna Seni to show up - they've waylaid us on our way out of the Slums. Here's how it played out.
Saorise was prepared. Travelling invisible with Non-Detection and some long duration buffs, she took the initiative and turned the entire ambush around.
Thinking about being on the safe side, Saoirse quaffed an Oil of Speed in addition her regular buffs. She targeted the unarmored cleric first. He's a joke.
Subsequent Sunfire took care of both the mage and the rogue.
The near dead archers were next.
With our movement speed advantage, Suna is soon outmaneuvered and sniped down with arrows.
That Oil of Speed quaff was probably an overkill, but it's better be safe than sorry at this early stage of SoA. Anyway, our equipment is starting to look much better with Arbane at Saoirse's waist.
Onward to the Bridge District to get some scrolls and potion case.
By the way, if you happen to know of any pre-Underdark location where to obtain Spell Shield scroll in BG2EE/SCS (I have "extra copies of hard to find spells" component installed) then I'd be very grateful if you could give me a tip.
By the way, if you happen to know of any pre-Underdark location where to obtain Spell Shield scroll in BG2EE/SCS (I have "extra copies of hard to find spells" component installed) then I'd be very grateful if you could give me a tip.
@Borco in the unmodded game I don't think there's any specific locations for it prior to the Underdark. It's a relatively common random drop, so you have a decent chance of finding it earlier, but no guarantee. That SCS component is supposed to provide one extra copy into a shop either in Athkatla or Trademeet, but which store it goes in is randomized during installation - I guess you can do a shopping tour though if you particularly want it.
I'm not sure whether the Item Randomizer mod also changes the locations of items in stores (otherwise it is possible to get multiple copies of both Malison and Chaos scrolls in Sorcerous Sundries), but it sure does seem like a tough way to go for solo SCS no-reload.
Item randomizer does scramble the locations of scrolls. On that particular run, Sorcerous Sundries didn't have either Malison or Chaos. (Not to mention I had made Halbadazzer Drin hostile somehow when fleeing from the ugly mage battle upstairs.) Ah well.
For what it's worth, my observation is that Teleport Field, despite being a great spell, has the effect of complicating this particular battle by accelerating the dukes' demise. If you allow Arrows of Dispelling, I'd consider using them.
Noted. I'll consider the arrows of dispelling next time. Although I think I went with the SCS option that removes all but 5 from Sorcerous Sundries. Are there other places to find them somewhere?
@Blind_Visionary If you enter the north-eastern part of Baldur's Gate from the eastern district (by which I mean: Going to the area where you first meet Marek and Lothander), there's a shop there where you can pick up any items laying around in barrels, on shelves etc. without anybody noticing you (it's been like this since the original game - there will be no guards called). Amongst other things, there are 4 dispelling arrows ready to be picked up there, and they will even be in the game if the SCS option to remove ALL dispelling arrows from stores is picked. 4 is not a lot, but it's certainly helpful.
The third and fourth levels of Cloakwood are easily completed - wyverns are simply lured out of their cave into some waiting traps and skeletons:
For Drasus, we use our usual established strategy for party fights: Scout with a slealthed Cephalus, get some skeletons in position, have Ceres apply two webs and shoot our trapped enemies at range:
Things get more interesting once we start facing the mages inside the mine. Hareishan is up first. Sending a full group of 5 skeletons into her room while we stay far away draws out some of her spells, and most of her guards end up dead (some to her own lightning spell), but she herself is unharmed:
So we equip Cephalus with the boots of speed and let him do some fun stealthshooting hit and run action - Hareishan isn't fast enough to retaliate as we attack and run away over and over again, and after a while, she has no more hitpoints left:
That's 1/4 mages done with. Our goal this time - after getting a character chunked by a lightning spell last time around - is not to get hit by a single spell. Let's see if we can meet it. Natasha is next - her guards aren't as powerful, and they prefer to go after our party - so the skeletons are able to deal with her while we stay far away, afraid of an unfortunate lightning bounce, which luckily never happens:
2/4 are done. Next is the ogre magus. Here, we do make a huge mistake - while trying to draw our invisible foe out into the open so that the skeletons can get to work, he is much faster than Dumuzid anticipates, suddenly revealing himself right at the doorway and casting his opening confusion spell. Trying to run away, Dumuzid and Ceres don't make it in time, which could've spelled their doom (walking into some hobgoblins would be certain death with meatgrinder settings) - but I don't get punished for my mistake, as they both make their save:
After that, everyone gets out of range of further spells, and skeletons take care of everything else:
That's 3/4 done. Davaeorn remains, so we need to rest again at level 1 (where only a single guard will interrupt resting, so it's basically free). Dumuzid approaches, carefully disarming all of the traps, and the skeletons get in to do their work. I know that vanilla Davaeorn simply can't deal with 5 skeletons by himself, so all I have to do is wait. Once his lightning and fireball spells are expended, Dumuzid can even take a look to watch our progress:
Time to enter the city and gather up some easy tomes and other items such as the Helm of Balduran - and, of course, Larze helps us by getting the Cloak from a charmed Quenash - though we do take an almost fatal hit while kiting him around due to positioning mistakes (I always forget that you have to gather your party to enter the undercellar):
We do some exploration and minor quests before tackling more dangerous party fights, such as this one at Helm & Cloak Inn - skeletons, traps and a few buffs such as PfE 10' radius, bless+chant, remove fear (just in case) and defensive harmony usually do the job:
The ogre mages at the docks are lured outside, to their doom:
Looking to improve Ouranus' strength, he does take an unfortunate hit, but success is ours:
The Marek and Lothander questline provides us with a second pair of boots of speed, because we manage to surround Lothander after getting him the gaeas removal scroll and kill him:
There's a short moment of dread in Ramazith's tower: Luring some Ghasts downstairs, they end up in a position where they have Ceres, our most vulnerable party member, surrounded - she uses a charge of the sandthief's ring to avoid getting hit, and since we don't have a ring of free action yet, Ouranus uses a greenstone amulet charge to secure safe tanking:
Degrodel's House is our last big assignment for now - we lure the guardians outside, skeletons help us out while we spam wand charges at them, but our summons aren't long for this world. Ouranus, our only somewhat tanky party member (because of his very low armor class - he still can only take 2-3 hits from most enemies, but rarely takes any) tries to enable the others to deal some of our pitiful melee damage (our ranged damage is fine by now, but without potions, we do almost nothing with melee weapons, and I didn't want to use any for this, hoping for our skeletons to last longer) - meanwhile, Ceres and Kaveh are busy kiting another dangerous monster:
This does end up getting a bit close, because Ouranus gets hit one more time, taking him to two hitpoints, so we have multiple instances of kiting going on at the same time, which requires a decent amount of micromanagement, especially when we enter the wand of fire scorcher rays into the mix, which we can't have hitting any civilians - but we succeed in the end. Eventually, all BG sidequests excluding those involving the sewers are finished - we'll delve down there next time.
Our party is now at levels 6-8, and Ceres has picked up all the new spellscrolls - haste is, of course, a great addition to our buffs and our cause. Things are going well, but that doesn't mean a whole lot - the first time visiting the big city isn't usually a huge source of trouble for me.
We take off for Dead Man's Pass, and are interrupted by the final ambush, that of the Shadowy Figure. Unfortunately, we lack the instant damage to take him down before he stealths, and as a result, he gets away (he tried to backstab Minsc twice and whiffed both attempts).
Lots of stuff to fight in Dead Man's Pass! Most of the spawns are easily handled by Web/Glitterdust/Slow/Skull Trap/Fireball/Cloudkill. The few spawns of Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds/Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs are more bothersome (mainly as Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds hit so hard), but we focus down the Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs first, which allows for easy kiting of the big melee bruisers. The large undead group in the cellar are actually Turned by Viconia into fleeing in panic (difficult in such a small room), then get a 2x Glitterdust sequencer and are subsequently mopped up.
All that remains is the Killer Mimic Cave. The massive blob of spiders inside are treated to Fireball and Skull Trap, with Corwin quickly destroying the few vermin that survive. I find an easy way to deal with Gargantuan Spider's Web Tangle, should you lack Free Action, is to just have whoever is targetted by it quaff a Potion of Invisibility (there are a ton of these throughout SoD), as the Web Tangle seems to have a cooldown of a few rounds.
The Killer Mimic is handled the same way as the last two times: Most of the party goes invisible, while Minsc (under Viconia's Free Action) and some Skeleton Warriors take the fight to the monsters.
And that's it for Dead Man's Pass! Minsc gets the Bow of the Banshee +2 (though he'll probably never use it), and we rest up before heading for Bloodbark Grove. The Fledgling Vampire gets blocked by his own pack of wolves, and is unceremoniously shot down, as Minsc raging kept him safe from the Domination Gaze.
The only other thing of note in this tiny area occured when Benedict lingered within eyesight of the Greater Basilisk to the north for a second... fortunately, the Basilisk didn't react quickly enough, and we were able to move a Skeleton Warrior up to occupy it (we were fighting the undead spawn at the time and so I was momentarily distracted). On our way back to camp, we swing by Dragonspear Castle and rescue Skie.
All that remains is to push the plot forward a tad by heading for the Underground River (exterior). We clear the numerous spawns throughout the area using by now quite familiar spellworks (Web/Glitterdust/Slow/Skull Trap/Fireball), with Minsc's Rage keeping him safe from the Pacifier Spores of the Myconid Elder. Minsc actually Charmed a Mountain Lion and Brown Bear to help with a spawn, but of course the Mountain Lion turned on us midfight. Also, Benedict becomes leader of a tribe of Ogres, as Arbinge and Cheski were no match for Greater Malison followed by Emotion: Hopelessness and a flurry of the Biter +2.
Alright, let's procure a Seal of Caelar and open the way forward. We summon our finest (7HD) Skeleton Warriors, buff a tad, and move towards the guardian Cyclops. It falls in a round to concentrated attacks, and its attendant guards fare little better: Viconia had True Sight running, so the Crusader Scouts are revealed the instant they teleport in to assist (and of course, the two Crusader Mages are similarly bereaved of their defensive Illusions, making them easy targets). We push through, making sure to keep an eye out for evidence of the Crusade's villainy so as to persuade Rigah and Julann not to join them.
We're a bit light on spells now, but may as well clear what spawns we can. Myconids (they actually Confused both Corwin and Safana but we handled it), druidic creatures (Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs/Shambling Mounds/Dark Treants), more Myconids, more druidic creatures... we power through all of them. Minsc is beaten quite severely several times, but that's par for the course. With little left in the southern caverns but Ferrusk and Kanaglym, we opt to head back for a rest. On our way back, we swing by Dragonspear Courtyard and finish all the quests there, the only special preparation required being a bundle of Potions of Master Thievery to allow for Safana pickpocketing a Token of Faith.
Into Kanaglym! The undead spawn to the east are blocked by our own undead, and once we take down the Shadowed Souls, the rest of the fight is a foregone conclusion.
Across the bridge, we accidentally kill off Kherriun before her buffs fire. Her attendant Dark Magicians put up a bit of a fight, but they do nothing worse than lob a double Fireball at Safana/Viconia (who quaff Potions of Fire Resistance and equip Rings of Fire Resistance): I actually used a few Arrows of Dispelling to speed things up here, as we don't exactly have the 5th level slots for 5x Animate Dead and 5x Breach. Halatathlaer is freed and we are tasked with seeking out Daeros.
We swoop by the cave o' undead to the north, a Skull Trap and Fireball clearing most of them out, and Minsc under NPP tanks the remainder. Upon hurtling the ghosts' remains into the Fugue Plane rift in Kanaglym, we put Ferrusk out of his misery: Everyone goes invisible, with Minsc under Improved Invisibility and wearing the Ring of Free Action moving in to attack. The number of enemies and tight confines in which to battle actually leads to us popping first a Glitterdust, and once that proves insufficient, a Greater Malison and Web a la Dynaheir (which defuses the situation).
Oh, around here I remembered: We haven't killed Zadroth yet! So, off to Kanaglym for a third and hopefully last time (really, there's not much to see there). We pull the Lich into the Prime, pop The Secret Revealed, and receive a lovely Ring of Regeneration and Robe of Arcane Aptitude for our troubles.
Funnily enough, on the way out, Benedict actually managed to convince Endless Watcher that Zadroth was dead, and was presented with the Astral Crossbow +2 for his efforts. Unfortunately, that deprived us of the experience for defeating Endless Watcher, but it was still nice... I'm guessing 20 CHA (with the Peacock Cap) and 16 reputation made it possible.
Not much left to do down here. We head into the cave of the Lost, everyone except Minsc and Corwin invisible, and the latter two under Free Action, releasing the poor creatures from their miserable existence. Strunk is similarly released with the help of an Oracle and Breach we had saved up, and the Nereid rewards us with an Ioun Stone (Minsc, as always, took a beating from the Water Elementals, but none of them were killed). We subsequently head into the Warrens, steal everything that isn't nailed down, release Slug, and grab the Ogre's Treasure.
Here, we return to camp to sell off all the crap we've accumulated. This is followed by a massive shopping spree: We pick up magical ammunition, scrolls and potions to last us until the end of the game (which isn't that far off). Thus sated, we proceed into the cellars of Dragonspear Castle.
Belben and his cohorts are just treated to a Web and some Potions of Explosions (they'll be pointless against the fiends later, and we've got a dozen of them just kicking about).
We animate five 7HD Skeleton Warriors, leave them by the two Stone Golems (to hopefully act as stopgap against the large group of Crusaders to the southeast), then buff up and move towards Hephernaan. A solid salvo later, he retreats, and we swiftly mop up his mage goons (Viconia had True Sight running, leaving both mages vulnerable to elemental damage ammunition).
Moving with the utmost speed, Safana disarms and unlocks the two treasure chests moments before Minsc loots them, with Benedict talking to Daeros. I actually forgot to pick up his magical Full Plate on the way out, but it's alright: We don't need it for the fights before entering Avernus anyway, so we'll grab it later. Our Skeleton Warriors have been whittled down to three in number, but they're still holding the south-eastern Crusaders off. We rush towards the exit, and though some more Crusaders arrive from the elevator, we simply slip by them and are off!
Benedict sweet-talks the Ogres below, and we exit the Warrens unmolested. However, we have to fight our way out of the Underground River, though it's hardly that difficult: We face only a single mage and cleric, the rest being ranged/melee goons.
Upon our return to camp, we are informed that negotiations are taking place at Dead Man's Pass, and that we should proceed there with all due haste. And we shall, soon enough. Next time, we'll defend the camp, then take the fight to the Crusade, and eventually head to Hell itself... and back again, with any luck. Benedict is now a L11 Human Conjurer.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 167 (Journal entry 123 4) Thaal (female dwarf priest of Lathander, Gate70); Shane (male halfling swashbuckler, Grond0) Thaal and Shane have escaped the chateau and their first job is to sell loot. With that done a visit to the circus sees Thaal Command Kalah before we finish him off.
This is followed by freeing Hendak at the Copper Coronet. There was one death this session, Shane being a touch too keen to backstab a bear and drawing the attention of the beastmaster and Tabitha. Rather than retreating he was blocked then retreated and returned to find two hits in succession are enough to stop him.
Thaal drew off a few enemies then rested at the inn store so she could raise Shane and then heal him. Once he was re-equipped we finished off the encounter.
Gaelan Bayle greedily accepts 15000gp and we make deals with Aran Linvail and Renal Bloodscalp.
Suna Seni is hindered while Renfeld is helped. Xzar has died, Thaal upgrades her armour at the Seas Bounty tavern and the entry level of Watchers Keep has successfully been looted. Thaal used Hold Undead on Hareishan only to find her weapon ineffective and Shane had to resort to an oil of speed for his Varscona longsword to deal with her.
Alis wrapped up the last quests in the city, and headed for the iron throne. The posse was treated to a necklace blast and 3 arrows of detonation... The spellcasters didnt like it one bit, and only the two melee grunts remained.
At least for a moment...
In CK Alis grapped the tomes, and skipped the undead - no RPing, just risk avoidance.
Before going back to the city, Alis picked a helmet and a goblet at Durlags tower.
The low AC of the sword amd board paladin is a real treat - at least for me. The warders struck in vain, whilst Alis hit her mark.
Back in the city the throne fell again, the cellar assasins dispelled and deposed.
For the palace party Alis invited the cleric of helm (for two entangle spells) and Ithyl the barmaid for chaos and magic missile. The guests paved the way for a solid victory. Llia started invisible, but spammed magic missile from then on - mirror imaged off course..
The maze was done invisible and fully buffed.
Sarevok awaits.
Alis opened the fight with a necklace blast, which lured out Sarevok and Semaj.... Sarevok was dispelled and Semaj fired his spells in vain.. until cloudkill hit
I had forgotten to buff against poison!!!
But Sarevok had forgotten as well, and with Durlags goblet om hand the victory was clear.
Benedict, Human Conjurer, SoD Update 4 BG1EE updates: 1, 2 SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4 First BG2EE SoA update found here
So, after some preparation (Spell Sequencers using Robe of Arcane Aptitude and regular ol' Minor Spell Sequencers), we attend the negotiations at Dead Man's Pass, and are soon roped into protecting the coalition camp.
The first wave of Trolls are basically destroyed by a 3x Skull Trap sequencer from Dynaheir along with a few Arrows of Detonation.
I didn't set out to, but we unfortunately kill most of the Crusade wizards before their buffs fire. Eh, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, only a couple use Fireshield: Red, and none prebuffs with Protection from Fire (at least that I've seen). The head wizard, Cuvieronius (seriously, that name...) is undone by an Arrow of Dispelling.
The Warpriests and assorted melee bruisers are destroyed by a 2x Web Sequencer of Dynaheir's in conjunction with a single Glitterdust from Benedict (we had to intercept a few of them, as when blinded they immediately set off for the barrels at the south end of camp, given that they cannot see any enemies).
That just leaves Grimgor and his party. Though, as you'd expect, they're helpless against Benedict's 3x Skull Trap sequencer: Neither of the arcanists prebuffed with MGoI, leaving only Piercer of Boils alive (which was quickly rectified).
We did a final bout of scribing before moving on to Dragonspear, Benedict gaining some important spells (Lower Resistance, Spell Shield, Spell Immunity).
Once at the Castle, we actually let the coalition do most of the fighting, while the party hangs back and uses ranged weapons. Eventually, Ashatiel breaks things up, and Benedict accepts her duel.
The first move from my side was Spell Shield, which was a good move, as it blocked Ashatiel's one and only Breach, preserving Benedict's Protection from Fire/Cold/Lightning. The two traded spells for a few rounds, Benedict tearing down Ashatiel's defenses. In the end I popped a Lesser Stone Golem from the figurine, and along with a 3x Flame Arrow sequencer, it forced Ashatiel into Sanctuary to heal up. But Sanctuary is no protection from Sunfire.
We mop up the final batch of Crusaders to the north (some Skeleton Warriors hold them off while we pelt them from range). Following a rest inside the Castle proper, we're off to hell.
We prepare as we always do: Commander's Mail for fear immunity for the whole party, Free Action (we have two rings of it, and plenty of potions), as well as Potions of Clarity give immunity to almost everything the fiends can do. Protection from Fire, for some strange reason, is only really needed against Belhifet, though this time I did see a Cornugon toss a Lightning Bolt, so we probably should've had protection against that running (we had plenty of Potions of Absorption if necessary). I actually unequipped the Ring of Free Action on Minsc to put on the Ring of Regeneration, leading to him being Held, but fortunately Dynaheir had an Invisibility handy (we cleared the devils out in short order).
Thrix's goons are tanked by some Skeleton Warriors (I answered the riddle and chose the helmet, not realizing it's not wearable by Good characters... eh, none of the rewards were any use to us), and we arrive at the elevator. Benedict and Dynaheir both prepare defensive sequencers of both types. Upon resting, everyone gets immunity to fire and electricity (two scrolls each does it, with Minsc quaffing a Potion of Genius beforehand). Then we apply 6 - 3 hour buffs (Protection from Poison, Potions of Agility/Fortitude, as well as Potions of Mind Focusing once Dexterity was at 18 for everyone). Viconia, Minsc and Corwin apply Chaotic Commands from scrolls to everyone, Viconia tosses out PfE 10' Radius, and we ascend the elevator.
During the ride, we apply some good buff potions (Cloud Giant Strength/Power/Heroism/Invulnerability/Freedom of Action) to everyone, with Benedict popping SI: Abjuration when we're a few rounds from reaching the top. Our ruse (of course) works, as Belhifet wastes his singular Dispel Magic on the immune Benedict.
We let Caelar tank Belhifet: Viconia wearing the Battle Tankard leads with a True Sight to dispel Belhifets Improved Invisibility, and then keeps casting Greater Restoration on Caelar using scrolls. Everyone else goes after Belhifet's attendant devils. There's a slight mishap as Minsc, charging after an Erinyes, momentarily is outside Viconia's visual radius and so is susceptible to (and fails his save against) Horror, but we had a Remove Fear memorized, bringing him back into the fold.
On his own, Belhifet stands no chance. It takes a little longer than normal to bring him down, as I misclicked and cast 2x Lower Resistance on Hepheernan early on, and then another 2x Lower Resistance were wasted as Belhifet teleported out mid-cast, thus cancelling the spells (and so Belhifet had enough MR to resist several Slow spells), but in the end, it is Caelar herself that brings him low, using her innate Bolt of Glory.
Aun Argent is rescued, and Caelar opts to stand guard over the closing portal. I guess she doesn't need to eat, sleep or drink... or she's not expecting to live long enough that it'll become an issue.
Upon our return, we are lauded, then maligned, as The Hooded Man works his vile magics. However, owing to his impeccable character, Benedict is released from jail by Belt. Making good his escape, Benedict reunites with Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira. But there's an odd fog about...
Benedict finishes Siege of Dragonspear as a L11 Human Conjurer, and shall certainly return in Shadows of Amn.
Filwith v2 didn't fare any better at the Ducal Palace... this time, the strategy was to protect Liia with an Otiluke's sphere before triggering the battle, then layering in malison and a chaos via scroll. (No improved invisibility scroll found this run). It would have worked, if the dopplers hadn't killed Filwith outright. The doppler mage opened with a remove magic, and it stripped all of Filwith's buffs. Filwith chugged another strength potion, but without armor, he should have downed another defensive potion, too. The doppler assassin punished him for his mistake.... Alas.
(I replayed the fight several times afterward, and pulled it out each time. Belt always died, but the sphere kept Liia safe long enough to kill off most of the attackers, as long as I kept some defenses working.)
I think I've learned enough from Filwith's run. Here's the next random character:
Here he is just after the basilisk garden.
Ellisar. Elf. Lawful evil FMT. Will have 3 companions (who must not have alignment conflicts).
Mods: fresh install of EE 2.5, SCS (with all options), BGNPC1, and some convenience tweaks and quests. Item randomiser. Insane difficulty.
I think most parts of my install are working as expected, although some of the options to move NPCs to more convenient locations and the better kick-out dialogues (I think from SCS or tweak anthology) are not functioning.
Updates will be sporadic and brief. Hopefully past the palace this time...
After dealing with slavers in the Slums, Saoirse arrives to the Bridge District. First, she secures front seats for the Carbos vs. Shank MMA duel.
We purchase potion case from Ms Cragmoon, together with scrolls from the nearby entrepreneur (Minor Spell Sequencer, Spell Immunity, SI: A, SI: D, PfMW, PW: Silence, Improved Haste), and collect the Horn. Saoirse then uses the very same house to deal with the street muggers.
On her way to the Five Flagons, Saoirse triggers the first guild war encounter and collects the Contingency scroll from one of the Shadow Thieves. We scribe our new spells (using Potion of Genius and Mind Focusing as usual) and spend the night at the inn.
In the morning, Saoirse confronts Rejiek with the accumulated evidence and chases him down into his lair. While running the pre-buff routine, I realize that we didn't memorize Polymorph: Self - our coup de grâce for the rune assassins. However, there was no way back now. (Later on I've found out that these guys are quaffing Potions of Magic Shielding and so our spider form in a triggered double Web wouldn't work anyway.)
The first assassin follows Saoirse back upstairs, where she summons the berserker to act as a fodder.
The berserker went berserk, as befits his nature, and picked Saoirse as his target. The assassin was in turn focused on our berserker and, with Saoirse running in circles to keep her distance from both, the whole scene looked like a twisted dancefloor. MMs and Tuigan were sufficient here (check out Saoirse's piercing shot ) .
With Arbane to protect us against the ghouls' paralysis and MIs/Stoneskin to foil the backstabs, Saoirse charges the cellar and blasts it with Sunfire.
Fire Shield and Arbane take care of the rest.
We report our findings to the authorities and proceed to the Government District to pay for our spellcasting licence. While there, we stop by Jan and Viconia to say hi. I'm always thinking that I'd be willing to give in Viconia to that mob only if that fanatic leader had been voiced by Sir Christopher Lee. Unfortunately for him, he ain't no Lord Summerisle and Saoirse doesn't even like The Wicker Man. You're welcome, Viccy.
We make a short stop at the Graveyard next. Saoirse triggers Tidir and Littleman quests and deals with the Crypt King to obtain Namarra.
On her way out she runs into Renfeld .
I find this fight much safer to navigate than the Suna Seni ambush. Furthermore, our brand new SI: A is now protecting us against that annoying Remove Magic opener. Arriving invisible and non-detectable, Saoirse has all the time in the world to set-up her buffs (she skips Haste, as this would break her invisibility).
After our initial backstab attempt is unsuccesful, Saoirse lays down a Telefield to avoid getting boxed and uses the extra space to shoot down the mage.
She retreats a bit further away to blast Sunfire and finish in melee.
With Renfeld now in our pack (!), we have to take a detour via the Docks, where we see more guild wars and ruffians.
Prebek and Sanasha are taken down under anti-mage buffs (including SI: A, II, MGoI and MSD) with Sunfires.
I'll note that I've found myself juggling with L4 and L5 spell slot allocation alot, depending on the circumstances. With Spell Immunities (and we'll want to add Spell Shield on top of these sooner or later) stretching our L5 capacity, we usually opt to take Improved Invisibility via the L4 spells instead of Shadow Door, which in turns squeezes out some of our L4 offensive punch (Polymorph: Self, Minor Spell Trigger, Fire Shield etc.). So Saoirse's current spell book requires constant maintenance, but it's flexible and that seems to work so far.
But enough about spells. I think I haven't posted any backstabs lately. So here you go.
We finish the Harper quest and meet up with the Bridge District kidnappers. They're about to face Malison -> spider form -> double Web trigger. This has worked for Reti (the human is more important because of Boots of Avoidance), but the dwarf seemed to be immune to our Web. I might have missed a Potion of Freedom or Magic Shielding quaff, but that's not important anymore because he's disappeared when Saoirse went invisible to adjust her tactics and we've not been able to track him down.
Our last tasks before leaving the city involved returning Littleman to Wellyn and visiting Pai'Na, for which Saoirse used her green ProPoison scroll.
Here's the opening backstab.
Followed by triggered double MMs.
And concluded with Sunfire.
Saoirse collects the Green Ioun Stone and Kithix and we're off to D'Arnise Keep.
En route to D'Arnise Keep, Saoirse avoided the Orog ambush by quaffing a PoI.
Upon reaching our destination, we talked to Nalia and proceeded inside the castle. Our purpose there was not to fight Torgal, but rather just to stop the clock by speaking to Daleson. Saoirse backstabs the first troll and enters the courtyard through the main entrance (in my install it's not possible to use the secret entrance for exiting the keep).
The otyugh is fried by MMMs, whereas the trolls on the battlements are simply avoided under stealth. With the drawbridge lowered, we're free to leave. Sorry Nalia, the garrison will have to handle the situation for the time being. We promise to return another day.
We're off to Trademeet and Druid Grove. And that means it's time to report on our botched fight with Dalok and his Shadow Druid crew (the rest of map was avoided under invisibility/stealth, with Saoirse only stopping to pick up Belm, as she's already rocking a scimitar proficiency pip). The problem here was that I got overconfident and I wasn't focused.
Running Fire Shield: Red and SI: C as protection for Insect Plagues/Creeping Dooms (among other buffs), Saoirse opened with a backstab + Blindness, which forced an early Cure Disease cast from one of the druids.
The fight attracted the cave bears to the east (I need to remind myself to get rid of them before engaging the druids next time) and the druids spammed their owns summons. Saoirse tried to clean up the place with Sunfire but with little success (apart from taking down the no-name Shadow Druid).
Suddenly, the situation was looking rather bleak:
Morphed into spider form, Saoirse tries to take down at least the fighter but he's been too resilient. Soon, our defenses are breached and we have to retreat by using an emergency II cast via RoAC. We'll need to come back tomorrow.
And so we did, this time taking no chances at failure. Spider form + Web trigger + Kitthix have taken care of Dalok, though the Adherent required an extra Blindness cast combined with Tuigan (he's pretty solid).
After the cave bears are hunted down with Tuigan and backstabs, the way to the caves is clear.
I did not remember how the druid challenge works when Cernd's not in your party. Therefore, I decided to recruit him, optimize his spells and make him face Faldorn in our party. Despite the fact that Cernd opened with Insect Plague, Faldorn was able to pull off her opening Creeping Doom as well - and that single spell was sufficient to defeat us. Apparently, when under Creeping Doom, it's not possible to shapeshift (as the action gets interrupted) nor use special items (eventually Cernd got RoAC during the battle from Saoirse, even though I didn't want to cheat at first).
Great, so our druid's dead and our precious RoAC is lying on the bottom of the pit, with no way of recovering it. We can only hope it will remain there until we come back with resurrected Cernd. Saoirse returns to Trademeet, spends hard earned coin on temple services and, together with Cernd, jogs all the way back to the grove.
Round 2. We're wrong about the ring - it's no longer there, it's gone for good. We wanted Faldorn to pay for this loss. Cernd opens with a fast casting Decolouros Decay and shifts into Greater Werewolf before Faldorn's Creeping Doom can land.
It's not enough: Cernd still gets overwhelmed by the constant damage, spammed summons, panic and whatnot. Seriously annoyed by the result, Saoirse complains about not being allowed to buff him prior to the fight. I try to explain to her that it's called fair play, but at the same time, I agree that it was a mistake. At that point, Cernd was deader than dead. We'll need to find a new champion.
But first, we turn our frustration against the Dao djinns in Trademeet. Taquee, who's been guarding the djinn lamp, falls first (the djinns inside the tent are already red-circled but they did not follow us outside). Saoirse then rests and enters the tent invisible. She lands a lucky blow on Faafirah - her real purpose was just to show herself (to trigger their Stoneskin / Improved Haste casts) and go invisible again.
Only Khan Zahraa, the Minsc impersonator, now remains. Saoirse waits out his Improved Haste, jumps outside to buff and starts to work through his defenses by Breach -> Malison -> Slow.
Staying safe behind II, Ghost Armor, MSD, Fire Shield: Red and MIs, Saoirse summons her own Efreeti. Two fire-shielded scimitar-wielding demons were just too much for Mr Zahraa to handle.
So, as I said before, we need a druid. In particular one that could carry our newly acquired Shield of Harmony into the pit of death. What about this one?
Well, what about someone with less appointments elsewhere?
And what about someone with less enemies from the past? I mean, seriously?! I thought that at this stage, you're supposed to pick up Jaheira at the Harper's compound. Instead, she rushes back to Saoirse while we're resting at Sea's Bounty - of course, she jumps straight into Ployer's trap.
And I thought that this is going to be straightforward. Never mind, we'll just be need to be patient and proceed step-by-step. Good evening Mr. Ployer:
I'm afraid your mage friends are somewhat useless (unless and until they decide to take away our spell protections of course).
Following her opening backstab, Saoirse releases Sunfire and incinerates the baron. Efreeti comes into play next and he gets an early kill, while Saoirse is dispelling the illusions with Detect Illusion.
Saoirse shoots down the second mage with Acid Arrows, but not before he targets her with Secret Word.
Hidden by II, Saoirse first dispels the remaining mage's illusions and then opens with Acid Arrows. His Chaos bounces of her negative save v. spell.
Done.
With Jaheira freed from the curse, we finally made it to Druid Grove. Wait, what?!
At this point, when the dialogue box popped up, I was pretty sure that she's going to leave. Fortunately, Jaheira's out-of-office worked and we managed to postpone her meetings until later.
If you're asking about Faldorn, then note that she got crushed. And that's despite Jaheira's low levels (7/7). Okay, we didn't play it fair at all - she received key buffs from Saoirse (II, Resist Fear, Strength, Haste), quaffed a Potion of Defense and was aided by Kitthix and Efreeti (with all the items being smuggled into the pit by Saoirse). And you know what? I don't feel bad about it at all.
And now, the Hero of Trademeet needs to do some shopping (the loss of RoAC is still too fresh)!
I've made some good progress in the last two days, so there will be two big updates coming this evening.
We concluded our first visit to Baldur's Gate by clearing the sewers, taking down the ogre mage in the process:
I almost forgot - we do still have to fight the Iron Throne party. Skeletons and traps are placed in preparation one floor below, and a single party member lures everyone downstairs:
At Candlekeep, we decide to take out Rieltar:
We rest again before fighting our way out of the caves, not forgetting to pick up some more valuable tomes:
By now, our party is in a position to comfortably take on any encounters that don't force us into melee combat or force us into very enclosed spaces. With everyone having gained access to at least 2 weapon profiency points, our thac0's are mostly fine, and while we still don't have a good option for tanking, skeletons can do the job for us. Of course, the buffs make all of the difference. By now, for a difficult encounter, our full arsenal looks like this: Bless, chant, remove fear, PfE 10' radius, defensive harmony, haste, and for the clerics holy strength + DUHM (and now also DUHM for Cephalus). Once we get the stoneskin scroll from the ice island, Ceres should be able to add her own defensive buffs (propably, blur, MI, stoneskin and some kind of armor spell).
Already, we're back in the city, this time rescuing a duke from his doppelganger healer, taking down Sarevok's girlfriend at the same time:
After obtaining invitations from a pair of unfortunate assassins, we enter the ducal palace. Our party is fully buffed, the skeletons are in protective position, and we have the greater malison + chaos combo ready to go. Liia's mirror image spell helps out quite a bit while our hasted ranged weapons users and skeletons throw down their damage:
The greater malison + chaos combo proves to be pointless, as, when Ceres is finally are done with casting the second scroll, only one enemy is still standing, and only for a fraction of a second at that. Both dukes survive:
We enter the thieve's maze, exploring the entire horribly annoying area (because this is the kind of extreme completionist run calling for us to do that, I'm afraid). We only get into trouble once, when one invisible stalker sneaks past our wall of skeletons, getting a hit in on Dumuzid. We counter with some magical nukes and wand charges to take it out before it can kill someone:
In the undercity, we use the old double-web to neutralize the enemy party:
After exploring the entire place, we make it back to the surface. Sarevok has to wait: We have expansion content to do first.
The Ice Island is solved mostly by Cephalus himself, using a PfM scroll:
For the ankheg room, we add the fully buffed party into the mix, and a sleep spell takes out most of the beasts. The stoneskins croll is our primary reward. Shortly after that, we're off to Balduran's Island. Nothing noteworthy happens for most of the quest - we explore the island, do some minor quests and make use of luring opponents downstairs (into skeletons and traps, as usual) for an easier go at the shipwreck:
A very clean victory there. The shipwreck has given me trouble in previous meatgrinder attempts, so I was proud of my play, which lead to overconfidence - one of the most common downfalls of the no-reloader. Back in the village, when the others turned on me, I made a few crucial mistakes. The first and biggest: Not preparing for the village to turn hostile by summoning some skeletons outside before talking to Kaishas. The entrance of Kaishas' hut is a terrible place to fight: Enemies can actually hit your party from ground level if you're up on the balcony as long as you're standing very close to the edge - and of course, pathfinding is absolutely terrible here. With multiple werewolves coming at me and no room for kiting, I had to try and tank. At this point, I didn't notice that Ceres was absolutely screwed and in a terrible position thanks to pathfinding, not able to assist a) by tanking with her stoneskins or b) by using her wand of monster summoning. Ouranus, who has great AC, was trying to hold off the beasts, but with the werewolves rolling two quick natural twenties, he didn't stand much of a chance - and was killed:
With my characters trying to get to their assigned positins, pushing each other to the edge of the balcony, one of the werewolves was actually able to get a hit in on my Bhaalspawn, Cephalus! From 74 to 28 hp in one hit, thanks to insane difficulty. I made sure to have Cephalus stand as close to the walls as possible from then on. Meanwhile, Ceres had gotten into positon to at least use her monster summoning wand, but a little bit too late: Oedipus was forced to face one of the beasts, and he's anything but a good tank:
Luckily, the werewolf was taken down before being able to hit Oedipus again, and I was able to position my party closer to the walls, with the wand summons now blocking off access. This allowed for us to take down the remaining foes with our ranged weapons before picking up Ouranus' equipment and sneaking our way to the beach after a short rest. Kaishas didn't stand much of a chance, and after taking care of his companion, we only had to use one charge of our wand of paralyzation to stun Mendas, which allowed our fighters to use gold/silver weapons to take him down despite having no relevant proficiencies:
We resurrected Ouranus and rested up, preparing for Durlag's Tower. That one was a bit too close for comfort - Cephalus was in real danger for propably the first time in this run.
Durlag's Tower started out easy enough - we cleared the upper levels (having already done parts of them very early on in this run) and ventured down into level 1 - no trouble here. Having 6 traps available is really helpeful against the dwarven warders - a quick takedown with no damage taken on our part:
We also had no difficulty defeating greater doppelgangers on level 2. However, I made a huge mistake when dealing with the dwarven doom guards - playing on auto-pilot, I just randomly walked into their room, disarmed traps, opened locks and started looting - completely forgetting that this would start the encounter. These are enclosed spaces, my party was unbuffed and out of position, and the doom guards are immune to missle damage - basically, this group's worst nightmare. I did have my skeletons, but they were out of position. With three of my characters isolated, I had to save them with invisibility potions right away, while the party tried taking down one of the powerful enemies with melee attacks and wand charges, hoping that only skeletons would get attacked:
While we were able to get that one doomguard, our skeletons quickly crumbled and we had no hope of defeating our enemies in any way, shape or form in direct melee combat - I had to run away, though running away came at a cost: To secure a getaway without deaths, I had to burn three more invisibility potions, leaving me only with six more for the remainder of the game:
In the end, a bunch of wand charges allowed me to take down the remaining doomguards:
This one has always been one of the more troublesome battles in meatgrinder runs, though starting it by accident certainly didn't help this time around.
On to level 3. Getting to the elemental rooms was no problem (I killed the wyverns first, used PfU to deal with the skeletons and went with some stealth-scouting + skeletons for the final path), but the air aspect kind of surprised me with its sheer speed - it rushed towards my party and was able to hit Ouranus right away, for devastating damage - I had no chance to summon skeletons, my only active buffs were haste and stoneskin (for Ceres). I tried to run away, but the air aspect followed me outside. If Ouranus wasn't able to tank it, no one except Ceres would stand a chance - but she didn't have the required low AC without buffs to keep her stoneskins for long - I added defensive harmony to help her out:
However, her stoneskins crumbled before the air aspect did. Kiting this very fast enemy is quite hard - and Kaveh was the one to feel its wrath while trying to do so. One hit, one kill:
However, a wand of the heavens charge was enough to finish this dangerous battle after my party had already dealt some significant damage:
I had to walk all the way back up, through the fireball room, back to FAI, in order to get Kaveh back. After that, everyone drank a potion of absorption in preparation for the chessboard, where we started throwing two sets of five fireballs:
Most enemies were dead after that, and we used our electricity immunity to charge the two remaining ones:
Level 4 was much easier, allowing for the standard skeletons + ranged weapons approach - though due to potentially high acid damage on the way, Grael was defeated with most of the party not being involved:
Luckily, I know the vanilla demon knight and its script very well: It will start with dispel magic on the nearest party member, continue with a fireball, follow up with powerword: stun and start attacking. I prepared with the usual buffs, and after sending the skeletons in, Ouranus embarked on a special mission: Run to the other end of the room (with the other party members remaining out of sight) to draw the dispel magic and fireball spells away from the skeletons and the party. After the demon knight started to cast dispel magic, Ouranus started his storm shield - my plan being that storm shield would finish after dispel magic hit, so it wouldn't be dispelled, but it would be ready in time to neutralize the fireball damage - this worked out great, and after Ouranus also got hit by the PW:Stun, the party joined in to shoot down the demon knight:
Our foe didn't even get the chance to kill any more skeletons:
Back to Ulgoth's Beard - though before traveling there, we rested at the BG bridge, with Ceres casting invisibility on 4 party members (saving invisibility potions in the process - the spell lasts through the entire journey from the bridge to the Beard). Luckily, we had something very nice in store to make the coming cult ambush relatively easy:
See, we had been using all of our previous trips to the Beard to set traps at the entrance of the area whenever we got there, until we had a full seven at the ready. Savage metagaming, I know, but I want to get some use out of having so many thieves. In any case, we didn't even need invisibility potions to avoid any immediate combat - we were able to retreat to the north without being seen by the remaining cult forces, summon a bunch of skeletons and return to the village entrance with full force, taking down the first and second cult groups, luring the third one outside (into some more traps, though only our usual 6 this time) and resting.
Time to buff up for Aec'Letec - full melee damage is the name of the game, also some better armor class. We didn't spare any expenses regarding potions this time around, going for storm giant strength and the like - especially important: One potion of magic shielding for everyone - this does wonders to turn Aec'Letec from a dangerous foe into a relatively harmless inconvenience. Once downstairs, we start killing the cultists one by one with our now very high damage output (without our potion buffs, our melee damage is pitiful, but with them, any party will reach extreme heights, especially if they have a couple of fighter-types amongst them). Every time Aec started going for a specific character, that character would run around and kite the demon for a bit - and eventually, our foe was isolated:
And, seconds later, dead, with only Dumuzid taking a little bit of damage from one or two gaze attacks:
Time to do some final selling and buying of items. Only now do we rebuy wands/necklaces of missles etc. - we also get some green scrolls, potions and special ammo for SoD. After all that, we return to the Undercity to face Sarevok. Five skeletons and six traps will await Semaj once he teleports to us, and we have arrows of dispelling. This time, the party is potion-buffed for ranged damage, with agility potions and mind focusing all going strong. Ouranus lures Sarevok, Semaj teleports in and gets hit by traps:
They don't actually instantly kill him - we add a dispelling arrow, and that is his downfall. Sarevok is robbed of his haste effect next:
And now, Cephalus' half-brother even gets affected by his own web trap:
Victory!
While this battle was quite easy, over all, this was far from a flawless performance - we will need to do much better to make it through arguably the most difficult part of this challenge - SoD.
I prepared with the usual buffs, and after sending the skeletons in, Ouranus embarked on a special mission: Run to the other end of the room (with the other party members remaining out of sight) to draw the dispel magic and fireball spells away from the skeletons and the party. After the demon knight started to cast dispel magic, Ouranus started his storm shield - my plan being that storm shield would finish after dispel magic hit, so it wouldn't be dispelled, but it would be ready in time to neutralize the fireball damage - this worked out great, and after Ouranus also got hit by the PW:Stun, the party joined in to shoot down the demon knight:
The Trademeet quest had been exhausting, but at least the local shops were now opened. Saoirse purchased Belt of Inertial Barrier, Cloak of Displacement and Tansheron's Bow. She even managed to find a Spell Shield scroll at the smithy, yay! We concluded the investigation of the Bridge District murders, cleared the local tomb and set out to Umar Hills.
Our first task here was to obtain the mimic's blood. With no access to confusion immunity via items, Saoirse relied on her negative save v. spell against the umber hulks (we tried Minor Spell Turning for fun, but to no effect). She approached the mimic with Arbane, summoned her Efreeti and MMMs...and that was it.
MMMs were later used against Jermien's Stone Golem and thus Ilbratha (i.e. free L2 spell slot) became ours.
For the most part, the Amaunator temple crawl was not very enjoyable. Combination of too many respawning enemies (with dangerous on-hit abilities) and too many collectibles forced us to rely on stealth instead of raw strength. At one point, however, we resorted to cheesy tactics, by pairing Spectral Blade with off-hand Belm and Improved Haste, against the Bone Golems. The result was devastating, but not very satisfactory from the game-balance perspective (the dual-wielding bug has been discussed here).
Saoirse's now got access to L6 spells. The first thing we did was creating our Helpless: Improved Invisibility contingency. The question now was, how to prepare for the Shade Lord (the Shadow Dragon was avoided). I was reluctant to use ProUndead scroll, especially since I'm not using the "Improved Share Lord" component of SCS and therefore the battle should be perfectly doable without it.
The buffs were: Ghost Armor, Shield, Spell Deflection, Strength, Resist Fear, Polymorph: Self, ProFire, ProEvil, Blur, MIs, Fire Shield: Red/Blue, Shadow Door, MGoI, SI:A, SI:D, Spell Shield and Improved Haste. Saoirse morphed into Flind form, buffed with DuHM and opened with a backstab on Shadow Patrick.
With her 4 APR, she was able to finish Patrick in the first round. At the same time, the Shade Lord took down her Spell Shield by launching a Spellstrike.
I can't really decrypt what happened next, but this is what the record shows (there was also a save v. breath roll by Saoirse against the level drain):
Maybe someone familiar with Shade Lord's abilities (unmodded) can shed some light into this? Where did the blindness come from? What's up with the level drain (I'm aware there's a certain per round aura included in the Improved Shade Lord, but this looks like a targeted ability). Note that Saoirse's untargetable under Shadow Door and her Spell Deflection and MGoI are both intact. Either way, I'll make sure to bring some True Sight scrolls next time to counter that blindness (this is also one of SCS's tweak components).
Anyway, back to the battle. Our Efreeti was on his way now and Saoirse, despite being blinded, focused on the Shadow Altar.
Kitthix joined the battlefield to further distract the Shade Lord, while Saoirse and Efreeti were clearing up the place.
Before long, the Shade Lord fell to our melee pressure.
Back in Athkatla, Saoirse purchased Arrows of Dispelling at the Promenade and paid a visit to Mencar and his crew. I still remember loosing one of my more recent characters here (a Necromancer called Anek-si) and so this one was personal. Like an avatar of vengeance, Saoirse came without warning.
Papa! Papa! .... Papa?
One down, four left. Saoirse repositions herself and opens up a Telefield at her feet.
Pooky gets incinerated by Sunfire. His MGoI was useless. Two down, three left.
The rogue is brought near death with our Tuigan Bow and MMs, but lucky teleport throws him near the exit and, taking the advantage of his Oil of Speed, he flees. Saoirse chases him downstairs, but he's vanished. Two down, one gone, two left. Correction, only one left.
Mencar's waiting downstairs. Saoirse engages and casts PfMW to gain some breathing space.
At that time, it felt almost unfair when the whole fight against the menacing dwarven fighter was ended with a lowly L1 spell. But I suppose that's what you get for making fun of illusionists and their specialist saving throw penalties.
Four down, one gone, none left.
Saoirse's currently taking a day off at Copper Coronet, thinking about Gaelan's offer. She's level 12 illusionist / level 14 thief.
@Enuhal Oh and confratulations on defeating Sarevok (and completing ToSC)! Safe travels in SoD - my experience is very limited, but I understand that it can be extremely tricky for no-reloads.
Comments
First report
Addi and his gang of shorties traverse Cloakwood without incident. They side with Aldeth and defeat the druids by disrupting their spell casting. Kagain tanks the spiders while the others pelt them with missiles. The druid grove is left alone, though Peter of the North and his pets are slain, allowing Addi to pick up a spider egg ioun stone.
Drasus is quick to engage some pre-summoned skellies on his own, leaving himself overly vulnerable to the party's ranged assault. Quayle silences Kysus and Rezdan but both wizards have Vocalize memorized (this is not always the case). Two barrages of elemental missiles quickly seal their fate anyway.
Natasha is the deadlier of the two wizardesses, forcing the entire party to quaff potions of absorption even after she has cast some of her invocations at the party's summons.
There's a lot of work for the shorties in Baldur's Gate. In addition to the usual shopping and item hunting, the team quest around to restore their reputation to 20. Desreta (wand of paralyzation), Vay-ya, (Command), Yago (Command), Ramazith (wand of paralyzation), ogre mage in the sewers (Duhm + backstab), Larze (wand of paralyzation), Marek (Blindness + ranged attacks), Gervisse (arrow of dispelling + elemental missiles), the Mountain Maulers, and Degrodel are among the notable citizens that do not survive the party's sojourn in the Gate. Degrodel manages to cast a Chaos and a Confusion before he falls, despite his being poisoned by Alora's dagger of venom and pelted with missiles by the others.
Sunin's MGoI is expired when his buddies drop to the ground under Addi's Emotion spell, though the wizard himself is not affected by said spell. He is slain with missiles and damaging magic.
The party's reconaissance of the Ice Island starts off roughly, with a Chaos by the welcoming party affecting not only the party's summons but also spying Monty and Alora. Kagain stops in front of Alora, ensuring she doesn't harm anyone with her bow, though she does waste a few arrows of dispelling. Confused Monty finds a quiet corner to wait out the spell's effect.
Another side trip the party undertakes is to the Red Wizards area. Waiting out MGoIs, followed by fireballs ensure success.
The Iron Throne fight is supposed to start with 6 fireballs from wands/necklaces/potions, but I guess my aim is too ambitious, several of the companions start to walk to a spot to launch the fireballs from. As that involves several seconds of exposure, I send them downstairs instead. Shennara 1 joins them, and is promptly stunned by Addi's wand. Aasim and Alai prove to have taken the stairs down as well. Both are pelted with missiles (with Alai requiring a dispelling arrow from Alora and a Blindness by Addi). Alora strength-buffed by Quayle finishes the remaining acolytes upstairs with backstabs, except Shennara 2, who is dispatched by the party
The ogre magi by the entrance to Candlekeep force the unbuffed party to fight them when one of them Charms Kagain. An Emotion from Addi puts two of the foes, and Kagain, to sleep, and a Command lays down another one.
Candlekeep itself is rather uneventful. While a failed pickpocketing attempt by Alora does lead the Iron Throne board to attack, the confrontation is abruptly brought to an end at a 2-0 score for the party (Tuth and Kestor),
when invisible Quayle goes upstairs mid-battle.
The next confrontation, with Prat and co, is yet another one that doesn't start off promisingly, when Prat reminds the party is reminded that Remove Fear has run out with a Horror that affects both Kagain and Monty.
Addi Blinds Tam (their archer) and finishes him with help from Quayle, Finch tanks Sakul who is dispelled by Alora and subsequently slain by the party. Finch then closes in on Bor and two spiders, while Prat goes after panicked Kagain. But Addi casts Remove Fear at Kagain and Alora dispels Prat, and that's the end of Prat.
Next up should be the Firewine ruins, the Isle of Balduran, and Durlag's Tower before the party returns to Baldur's Gate to deal wth Sarevok.
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2
My internet was out for three days, which gave me plenty of time to make progress with the Rejects.
The Umar Hills are indeed next. We are fortunately not high enough leveled to get lich spawns, either. We're feeling pretty confident about taking on Thaxll. Rufus starts us off with a Shatter Weave to nullify Thaxll's MR while Garos follows up with Doom. Spaz capitalizes on both of these with a Noxious Blast, further debuffing Thaxll's saves. It's enough for Gaspar to take control of him for a little bit.
He does manage to get a breath weapon on our back line, but Bruss puts him in his place quite soon. Thanks to Gaspar's charm, he just stood there and took it.
The Shade Lord is underwhelming. I have the Improved Shade Lord component of SCS installed as well as Shadow Magic's Shade Lord, which gives him Shadow Weave spells. Maybe they're conflicting with each other. Rufus strips his protection from magic weapons (not weave-forged weapons?), which allows Bruss the Super Jelly Saiyan to kill him with Melee Rush.
Krieg levels up from finishing the quest while Spaz levels up from turning it in to Minister Lloyd. The Shade Lord drops the Shadow Phylactery while Shadow Patrick drops the new and improved Darkmail armor.
Out of Thaxll's scales, we make a suit of armor almost tailor-made for Rufus. Rufus will be wearing the Darkmail for now while Garos will be using the shadow dragon armor, at least until Spaz gets UAI so he can wear the Darkmail. It should mesh very well with the good-aligned warlock HLA that lets him do bonus magical damage.
Gaspar and Rufus level up from one of the de'Arnise Keep quests.
We're finishing up some loose ends now. We take on the illithid enclave in the sewers. The first room is a challenge because of the cramped hallway, but it gets cleared. In the next room over, we bait the mind flayers into following us into the first room so we have space to fight properly. Rufus' Nighthaunts are the bait for the Alhoon and his illithids. The illithids teleport over to us while the Alhoon tries to deal with the Nighthaunts. The illithids are wiped out, and the Alhoon comes after us soon after. His super-mode sequencer has triggered but his PfMW wore off, so Bruss tanks him. Spaz fires a Vitriolic Blast but is psionically mazed immediately afterward. The alhoon is then killed.
Bruss levels up from Sir Sarles' quest.
Now we're going lich hunting. Bruss volunteers to kill the city gates lich using a scroll of Protection from Run-Ending Assholes.
He does the same to the Bridge District lich, but this one has sense enough to come upstairs even after being protected from himself.
The Twisted Rune is a daunting prospect, but we'd come for them sooner or later anyway. We use 6 scrolls of PfU on the party. We still have plenty left, and I can't think of a situation where we'll need them more than this. Except for Bodhi. Shandalar gates in a Fallen Planetar, but Bruss and Krieg kill it without too much trouble. Shandalar is killed from range, which causes the rest of the Twisted Rune to spawn in.
We bought the Shield of Balduran earlier, so Vaxall spams a bunch of rays at Krieg, but Revanek keeps hitting him. I can't have Krieg lose control, so Krieg backs off a bit, pulling Vaxall with him. Now Vaxall sees many more delicious targets, so he hits Garos with an anti-magic ray and starts spamming rays at Krieg again while throwing up PfMW. Rufus responds with a Breaching Dark, but Vaxall's contingency fires and restores PfMW. Now we're out of Breaches. This is why I hate playing prepared casters. With spontaneous casters, you can cast something more times if you need it.
Super Saiyan Bruss Melee Rushes Revenek, killing him within the round. This activates Layenne. Layenne casts a sequencer of 3x Remove Magic on Bruss, removing his PfU scroll, but at least Rufus' Negative Immunity stayed. Gaspar charms Vaxall and has him try to Imprison Shyressa, but the charm only lasts 1 round and he can't move fast enough to get to Shyressa, so he cancels that order and uses a second PfMW. Shyressa comes over to play, draining Bruss of some Constitution, but he kills her anyway. Vaxall teleports over and starts spamming more rays, but Spaz puts an end to him with Vitriolic Blast. Krieg takes back the Shield of Balduran. Apparently, the shield is taken after a slight delay of the Telekinesis Ray, not immediately like all the other ray effects.
Rufus clears out Shyressa's mess with Night Terrors. Layenne and her simulacrum are now bearing down on us. Rufus is out of Breaches and Spaz's Devour Magic isn't working. Rufus summons his Nighthaunts to help. The main Layenne calls down a Comet on Gaspar, killing him.
Bruss Flash Steps over to Layenne as she casts Improved Alacrity and Time Stop, and thanks to the Staff of the Magi, her simulacrum is also immune to it, so they're both casting spells while time is stopped. Garos had casted Insect Plague at one of the Nighthaunts so it would spread to Layenne. She makes her save during this time stop and then casts a second one! But Insect Plague prevents her from casting much during this second one, so we make it out okay.
Layenne's simulacrum mazes Bruss (or maybe it was the main Layenne, I forget). The simulacrum is killed, and the Nighthaunts are working their level-draining magic, hitting Layenne several times and then killing her. Gaspar is brought back using the Rod of Resurrection and we wait for Bruss to find his way out of the maze.
The Shade Lich and his trusty Fallen Planetar are next, but Krieg uses an Oil of Speed so he can apply the PfU scroll faster. As a result, the lich puts up absolutely no resistance and doesn't summon his planetar buddy.
Kangaxx is next. His lich form is destroyed the same way as the Shade Lich, but with Garos sticking him with an arrow of dispelling so he'll transform. At this time, everyone except Krieg drinks a Potion of Magic Shielding to guarantee saving throws against Trap the Soul.
Krieg uses another PfU scroll on Demigaxx to prevent him from casting spells. Bruss unleashes the apex of his Saiyan strength by combining Super Saiyan with Kaioken x20, then initiates a Melee Rush against Kangaxx! Bruss is now hitting as hard as Krieg, but 7 times as fast! Demigaxx is killed with a critical hit.
So, that's all the liches out of the way. Krieg gets the Ring of Gaxx for the regeneration, AC, and saves. The planar sphere is next. Garos levels up against the fire elementals of the furnace room and chooses Impervious Sanctity of Mind for improved resistance to disablers.
Rufus turns Tolgerias into chunky salsa.
The rest of the quest goes without incident. Krieg, Spaz, and Gaspar level up at its conclusion. Spaz learns Utterdark Blast so he can debuff saving throws even further and possibly help Gaspar recruit creatures. Utterdark Blast actually requires a save vs. spell at -4, with an increasing -1 save penalty for every two points of CHA above 17. Currently, Spaz will force saves vs. spell at -7 or the victims will be drained of 4 levels. Ouch!
Using one of the demon hearts, we upgrade Spaz's Hellfire Blade that we bought back from Ribald. Rufus solos most of the Planar Prisonwith his asskicking spell combo. Now armed with Kundane, his offhand THAC0 won't be so bad since he's actually proficient with short swords. Bruss levels up after Rufus casts Night Terrors to kill the Warden's Mordy Swords, but it seems it also slayed other enemies.
Twin Mislead and Shadow Assault ran out, but constantly hitting Yuan-ti Fireshields gains Rufus Shar's Blessing back thanks to Spell Trap. He casts it and helps kill the Warden by poking him with the Staff of the Magi so Bruss can deliver a critical kick.
We're hitting up Watcher's Keep next.
Krieg - War Hulk 16
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 15
Bruss - Super Saiyan Monk(ey) 17
Rufus - Thief 14/Shadow Adept 12
Spaz - Warlock 19
Gaspar - Seducer 19
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3
Day 2 of no internet begins here.
Now that Rufus is a fighting machine all on his own, we're back at Watcher's Keep. Rufus buffs up and performs the ritual. Both mages are backstabbed to death, but it exhausts Rufus's Spell Trap because he hit them too many times while they had Fireshield up. Bruss goes ballistic on the archer, but kills it too early and focuses down Spaz. Spaz drinks an invisibility potion to avoid getting killed. The iron golem is the last to fall.
On level two, a pair of fire giants dice Bruss up despite his -15 AC! This gets him Zenkai Boost #7.
Our backliners level up from releasing the poison gas into the ice room, while our frontliners level from freeing the Chromatic Demon. but I have plans for him, oh yes... Bruss also learns Full Power Super Saiyan, so he can stay Super all the time. Rufus learns Protection from Weave-forged Weapons, which is the same as PfMW.
The Chromatic Demon is set free. Rufus casts Sigil of Misfortune and Spaz casts Noxious Blast. Both of them take, resulting in a -8 saving throw penalty for the demon. Spaz follows up with Utterdark Blast, draining 4 levels from it since it saves at a combined -15 penalty! Rufus summons his Nighthaunts and they drain away even more levels. This lets Gaspar recruit the Chromatic Demon!
I think I'll sic him on Firkraag. His 100% elemental resistance and 95% physical resistance should do nicely. His only weaknesses are electrical damage, magical damage, and, obviously, level drain. Still, he will need to get hit many times to actually die from level drain since he's 25 HD. Garos uses a Restoration scroll to restore the demon's levels. We can't go any further into Watcher's Keep without him being dead, since pickpocket apparently won't work.
This was the best idea ever! The Chromatic Demon can outlast Firkraag at triple HP! Well, he did get a little bit of help from Bruss and from Spaz's various summons, but he could've easily done it solo.
We're out in the wilderness areas to squeeze every last significantly XP gain out of Amn before going off to Spellhold. I get the idea to try pickpocketing the demon again. It works! You just need to get reaalllyy close to him, as in 'the center of his circle' kind of close. Spaz steals the portal key, Ixil's Spike, and the Circlet of Netheril.
Now that we have the key, we teleport back to Watcher's Keep with Mallon's Shifting Heart and use it to enter the third level. Garos heals Yakman, but we decide to leave for the time being. Instead, we finish up Bodhi's lair and make her surrender before she does anything to us.
We tie up a few more loose ends, build Perfect Flesh Golem MK I, and head back to Watcher's Keep. Spaz and Gaspar level up from a trapped and locked panel in the side of Tahazzar's wall. Spaz learns Dark Foresight.
We trudge through the maze and Chromatic Demon keeps proving how awesome he is by hitting things like a truck at 4 attacks/round and he can take all kinds of punishment. The devils are no match for us and we return to Tahazzar with Ka'rashur's heart, earning Krieg and Bruss a level.
We make it to the end of the maze. Gaspar steals away Aesgareth's hellcats and Spaz steals the Magic Golem tome from him. With that out of the way, Rufus casts his asskicking spell combo and tries backstabbing the mage, but all the tieflings seem to be immune to backstabs. Well, we still prevailed in the end. We will use the Deck later, once Rufus can use normal scrolls for Spell Immunity.
Garos levels up from some illithids on level 4 of the Keep. There's a considerable number of them here. Gaspar, Rufus, and Spaz level up from more illithids. Chromatic Demon is psionically mazed but returns after this big fight.
Saladrex is next on the chopping block. Chromatic Demon faces him with an Efreeti and Improved Kitthix, but none of them can make a dent in Sally's stoneskins. Bruss steps in after drinking a fire resistance potion to help, but has to back off quickly. Sally's Haste eventually wears off, which makes him much easier to deal with. Chromatic Demon is reduced to like 22 HP out of 200, and Sally could only hit him for 2 or 3 damage at a time.
We rest to heal our demon. Rufus is up next to deal with the Demilich. His strategy hinges on a PfU scroll combined with Shadow Screen to prevent dispels. He enters the room alone while buffed to maximum and uses the scroll on the demilich. It kind of works, because the demilich still gates in a planetar, but doesn't really do anything else. Rufus waits out its PfMW and then casts Fireshield (Shadow) and then PfW-fW (protection from weave-forged weapons). Anytime the planetar hits Rufus with the Fireshield up, it will take a cumulative -2 THAC0 penalty. And thanks to Rufus' Wisdom score, PfW-fW lasts slightly longer than 4 rounds, which is enough time to get through the Demilich's stoneskins and kill it.
With the demilich dead, the rest of the party can enter. Krieg, Bruss, and Spaz file in to kill the planetar.
Hmm, the demilich dropped something new...
Wow, okay. That is pretty nice for a dedicated Shadow Adept, but Rufus is also a thief who switches weapons, so we can't be restricted to just this book. It also carries a pretty substantial max HP penalty... Bruss levels up to 20 from lighting the colored torches, but Saiyans do not receive immunity to normal weapons at level 20. The minotaurs are dealt with and Carston is let go. Krieg earns a level from opening the way to level 5.
From the Machine of Lum the Mad, Krieg gains +1 DEX and CON; Garos gets +1 STR; and Rufus gets +1 WIS/INT/CHA. Onto Level 5 of Watcher's Keep.
Krieg - War Hulk 19
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 17
Bruss - Super Saiyan Monk(ey) 20
Rufus - Thief 16/Shadow Adept 13
Spaz - Warlock 22
Gaspar - Seducer 22
And do you remember Saoirse, the gnomish thief/illusionist whom backstabbed Sarevok to death in the form of a mirrored imaged ogre? That's great if you do because she's now back in action.
I'll continue where we left off the last time and that means starting with Irenicus' dungeon (I'm still skipping SoD).
Regards,
B.
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Mods: SCS, Tweaks (Remove Blur Effect from Claw of Kazgaroth), JimFix
Difficultly: Core
WeiDU log:
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2000 // Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2020 // Antimagic attacks penetrate improved invisibility: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2080 // Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2120 // Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2170 // True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2180 // Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4040 // Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6020 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal get HLAs: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6033 // Smarter Mages -> Mages in BG1 cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat; mages in BG2 only do so if they are created in sight of the PC: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6043 // Smarter Priests -> Priests in BG1 cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat; priests in BG2 only do so if they are created in sight of the PC: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6102 // Potions for NPCs -> Half the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6521 // Smarter genies -> Genies have normal hit points: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6531 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have normal hit points: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6541 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have normal hit points: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6562 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have only original-game resistances; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies (matches original game): v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Spirit trolls have the same powers as in the original game: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v31 RC2
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v31 RC2
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Icon Improvements: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #200 // Remove Blur Effect from Items, e.g. Cloack of Displacement: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1020 // Alter HP Triggers for NPC Wounded Dialogues: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1030 // Reveal Wilderness Areas Before Chapter Six: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: v7
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Change Korgan to Neutral Evil: v7
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v31 RC2
So after 4 years of lingering in the BG no-reload community, I finally get to post my first SoA adventure. And I'm glad it's Saoirse who gets the honor - she's a very enjoyable personae and she fully deserves it.
With her spellbook optimized prior to importing, Saoirse is ready kick-off. First, she calls upon her trusty old lizardly friend to assist with the lightning mephit room.
Running Shield, Strength and Blur, Saoirse lands her first backstab.
She retreats and uses narrow corridors and stealth to avoid the remaining duegar before collecting the golem remote control and releasing the jar fella. Against the mephits, we use DuHM and MGoI (which seems to foil their magical attacks). Lousy backstab -> MMs for quick finish.
Her familiar joins the fray in the southern jar room once the MGoI expires.
The otyugh is taken down with MMMs.
And the duegar party at the portal receives a safe-distance fireball.
Sorry Saoirse, I know I've promised not to tell anyone, but I couldn't resist - it's just too hilarious not to be featured in the weekly BG bloopers.
We collect the Claw of Kazgaroth and the Metaspell Amulet, loot Ellesime's room and go invisible. However, the lesser golems never showed up and I assume they somehow got blocked by the duegar parties earlier on, when Saoirse played a little hide-and-seek with them.
Although our initial buffs were now gone, we still had some spells left and I faced a dilemma whether or not to attempt taking on Ilyich. He's got a full squad including a mage, we only had 9 arrows and I was afraid that SCS calls for help might catch us seriously outnumbered. However, Saoirse insisted that we have to help the captive dryads. So be it.
Saoirse approaches Ilyich invisible, buffs with Armor (scroll), MIs and opens with a Fireball (scroll).
She waits and listens - there's someone approaching from the library to the south. Saorise goes II.
She enters the room, buffs with DUHM, waits for her aura to clear, and then attempts to backstab the mage (who's unfortunately untouched by the opening fireball). Bummer.
She quickly summons MMMs and hits the fleeing mage with a quick burst of searing rocks.
Ilyich eats the remaining meteors and that's enough to finish him.
Saoirse grabs the nuts and mail but with our MIs gone, we have to disengage and hide in the northern corridor (while carefully avoiding the floor trap by leaning against the wall).
Exhausted, bruised and with a completely depleted spellbook, Saoirse reports her success to the dryads. She keeps saying it was worth the effort. I say that those nuts will now block one of our precious inventory slots until who knows when. She doesn't seem to be listening.
We enter the portal, relieve Yoshimo of his arrows, re-adjust our spells and rest. In preparation for the mephit room, Saoirse heals up and buffs with Shield, Strength, MMMs, Haste, DuHM and MGoI. She needs to refresh her MMMs in the middle of the fight but otherwise we're staying safe.
While her buffs are still running (in particular MGoI), she races to finish the two mephits and the assassin in the nearby corridor.
Avoiding any further confrontations with the duegar under stealth, Saoirse collects RoP +1 and couple of wands from the pillars. Frennedan is released and subsequently taken down via Wand of Cloudkill and backstabs.
Finally, the band of assassins - my favorite Chateau encounter. Saoirse buffs with Polymorph: Self, MIs, Blur, uses Wand of Monster Summoning and goes invisible with II. Already aware of these guys' intentions, she doesn't hesitate and opens with a backstab and then shifts to the piercing immune jelly form.
The remaining assassins target our summoned fodder only to be soon crushed by the jelly attacks.
So we've made it to the Promenade. Saoirse is now lvl 9 thief / lvl 9 illusionist with access to L5 spells. For the record, here's her inventory after selling all the unnecessary stuff to Ribald.
Her next move will be visiting some fellow gnomes in the circus. In the meantime we'll have to think about the equipment that we'll need for the Slums and the upcoming ambushes.
Regards,
B.
Previous entries (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Previous entries (SoA): 8
The occurrence of weird magic at the Promenade stirred Saoirse's academic interest. However, she reminded herself not to let the grandeur of illusions cloud her judgement.
Eventually, Saoirse makes a new friend - Aerie - by recovering the item she described. Preparing with Ghost Armor, Shield, Strength, Chant (courtesy of Aerie), ProEvil, Fire Shield, Haste, MGoI and II, Saorise was ready to meet the CEO. Not interested in subtlety this time, she rushed in and released Sunfire. Unfortunately, my estimates of higher level spells AoE are still slightly vague...
Master Quayle, I'm afraid you're not going to be okay today. I'm sorry Aerie.
At least Saoirse was free to launch her second Sunfire without limitations and thus put an end the whole circus thing.
I pity you Kalah, you could have been a good gnome. But you chose wrong.
By locating Giran's mother Saoirse gets at least a little satisfaction for her efforts. *Sigh*. Such is life of an adventurer.
With not much else to do here anymore, we trade our hard earned cash for Ring of Air Control (basically an uninterruptible extra L4 spell slot) and potions (of Freedom, of Genius, of Mind Focusing) and proceed to the Slums.
The Slums:
Talking business with Gaelan has dried our throats and we got a tip for a local establishment. The patrons were a strange mixture of familiar faces, drunks, sleazy Romeos, self-important PC college knights (you know who I mean *wink*) and plain aggressive thugs. Amalas was one of the latter. He challenged Saoirse to a duel. And he paid with his life.
Although disgusted by the omnipresent air of violence and testosterone, Saoirse decided she liked the place. Especially the music. She rents a room and, after taking a long nap, sets out to explore the suspicious backstage.
Time for some meta-gaming. In anticipation of bouncers-mages, Saoirse enters the holding cells in a jelly form and under II. Apparently, they'll only show up after you've talked to the first guard. He didn't make it.
Enjoying her semi-liquid state, Saoirse takes down the winter wolf at range.
She consolidates her buffs (Strength, Ghost Armor, Pro Normal Missiles, Resist Fear, Haste, Fire Shield, Shadow Door, DuHM) and sneaks upon the beast master. Polymorph: ogre. Bam!
Saoirse opens the cages and, one by one, she releases the remaining tortured beasts from their misery. There you have your show, you sick bloodthirsty fat freaks!
We release Hendak and help the gladiators to take control of the inn. It was intriguing to see that some of the bouncers were not only literate, but also professionally interested in the fine art of spellcasting. Thank you very much.
And thus the debt's been settled. And I gotta go.
Saoirse's now lvl 9 illusionist / lvl 11 thief and she's considering her next course of action. It seems likely that she'll have a closer look at this slaver business.
Regards,
B.
Previous entries (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Previous entries (SoA): 8, 9
Slops and Boats:
So far our stay in the Copper Coronet has been rather profitable. And the rent's pretty affordable too. Saoirse retraces her steps back to the Adventurers' Mart to upgrade her spellbook. Most notable additions, scribed under the effects of Potions of Genius and Mind Focusing, included Stoneskin, Breach, Lower Resistance, GoI and Death Fog.
We check the remaining stores at the Promenade for any discounts, but we end up buying only ProPoison scroll and Ammo Belt before returning to the Slums. Saoirse needs to take care of Cohrvale and Bregg. And being an unlicensed magic user, she has to take the fight into the tavern. Only Cohrvale follows at first, which of course was a fatal mistake (as he'll soon realize).
Leaving Cohrvale blinded in the midst of the pub crawl, Saoirse goes looking for his partner. Bregg is lured inside as well and taken down with MMs, Fire Shield and Amnish steel. Cohrvale ends up crisscrossed with arrows soon thereafter (while Nalia has seemingly accepted the vacant bouncer position).
We proceeded to the sewers to utilize the leverage of our present buffs (in particular the lingering effects of Potion of Mind Focusing). And oh boy, what a mess it was.
Saoirse had a decent opening on the hobgoblin band with backstab -> Sunfire.
She had finished the shaman, but came upon unexpected trouble while trying to snipe down the hobgoblin captain. I had no idea that these guys forged an alliance.
The kobold leader talks like he's going to give us a chance to leave, but he's effectively been launching his attack already. MGoI keeps us safe against the initial Hold Person, it's just that our protections won't last for much longer now.
And what the hell is that ugly thing doing over here? This is madness. It looks like we're not very welcome in this smelly abode. Saoirse's like "Let's get the hell outa here!" and uses RoAC.
Me: "Wait, wait! We've got DuHM and Potions of Freedom / Invisibility at the ready and we're buffed. So what could possibly go wrong?!''
Notes to self: a) backstabbing with an unenchanted weapon is a dull business, b) the kobold shaman is more beefy than he looks.
Saoirse tries to shoot him with arrows but his failed morale made him retreat to the north eastern corridor.
A mustard jelly?! I didn't even know it's there since I never take that shortcut to mushrooms. With our buffs gone we call this a draw and retreat to fight another day. Saoirse rests at the inn and returns in full strength.
First, the hobgoblin captain with his ridiculous AC.
Then the intervening kobold shaman, whom has already returned to his post.
And finally the otyugh.
We collect the ingredients for Lilarcor under stealth, retrieve the sword and clear the second hobgoblin group with Sunfires and arrows. Saoirse gets another rest in order to re-adjust her spellbook before taking aboard the slaver boat.
Our plan is to go melee & heavy with Stoneskin, Strength, Non-detection, Ghost Armor, Polymorph: Self, Resist Fear, Blur, MIs, Fire Shield, Pro Evil, Haste and Shadow Door.
Saoirse enters and sneaks upon the Priest of Cyric. Polymorph: Ogre -> DuHM. Bam!
With the cleric out of the way, we've got a lot more breathing space. Saoirse crushes one of the archers in the same round and shifts into spider form.
Our intention here was to wear the slavers down with quick jabs and poison, but the results were unsatisfactory, to say the least. We didn't have enough APR to compensate for the low damage output and our enemies had an easy time making their saves.
Note to self: Avoid using the spider form without Web triggers.
Saoirse needed to lower the pressure and consolidate the battlefield. She morphs back into the
humangnomish form and releases Sunfire.Haegan was nowhere to be found at the time and apparently has fled to the sewers. Saoirse goes after him, refreshes her MIs, pulls out Slow and engages in flind form under DuHM.
Haegan himself gets the ogre's punch for style.
Saoirse then deals with the trolls by using Blindness + flind's fire halberd, releases the kids and reports back to Hendak.
Character and inventory screens for the record:
Regards,
B.
Filwith Prismcog, Neutral Good, Gnome, fighter/illusionist. I rolled a 1 for party size, so committed to taking no companions for any reason... and I have no experience soloing. EE 2.5; Mods were SCS, some tweaks, BG1NPC, item randomiser; insane difficulty.
To make a long story short, Filwith crushed most encounters until the Ducal Palace. (The bandit camp has never felt so easy). At the palace, Filwith was 7/7, his max level under the XP cap. On the first attempt, the dopplegangers killed both dukes before Filwith could take down more than 2. He was a bit limited in spellbook. Can't cast chaos. Haven't found a malison scroll.
Having never soloed this battle before, I tried again a few dozen times to see if I could learn anything about effective strategy. The only thing that works: use every combat buff available. Pack as many summons as you can get in front of the dukes before the battle starts. Try to disrupt the doppleganger's attacks (I used teleport field; not much else worked). And finally, hitting Sarevok hard at the end before he takes out the near-dead dukes. I ended up using a double Melf's acid arrow sequencer for instant effect. (Edit: although it looks like that was a fluke; he has 100% magic resistance I think).
I'm considering giving Filwith another go; or maybe it's time to roll another random character...
Going with the same set of mods: SCS with full tactical challenges, item randomiser, some ease of use tweaks, BG1NPC. Hard difficulty this time, instead of insane. Self-imposed rules: follow alignment; go solo; no cheese.
Let's see if he can make it past the Ducal Palace... No-reload attempt #20.
I'm not sure whether the Item Randomizer mod also changes the locations of items in stores (otherwise it is possible to get multiple copies of both Malison and Chaos scrolls in Sorcerous Sundries), but it sure does seem like a tough way to go for solo SCS no-reload.
For what it's worth, my observation is that Teleport Field, despite being a great spell, has the effect of complicating this particular battle by accelerating the dukes' demise. If you allow Arrows of Dispelling, I'd consider using them.
Anyway, safe travels to Filwith 2.
Regards,
B.
After dealing with Haegan, we didn't have to wait too long for Suna Seni to show up - they've waylaid us on our way out of the Slums. Here's how it played out.
Saorise was prepared. Travelling invisible with Non-Detection and some long duration buffs, she took the initiative and turned the entire ambush around.
Thinking about being on the safe side, Saoirse quaffed an Oil of Speed in addition her regular buffs. She targeted the unarmored cleric first. He's a joke.
Subsequent Sunfire took care of both the mage and the rogue.
The near dead archers were next.
With our movement speed advantage, Suna is soon outmaneuvered and sniped down with arrows.
That Oil of Speed quaff was probably an overkill, but it's better be safe than sorry at this early stage of SoA. Anyway, our equipment is starting to look much better with Arbane at Saoirse's waist.
Onward to the Bridge District to get some scrolls and potion case.
By the way, if you happen to know of any pre-Underdark location where to obtain Spell Shield scroll in BG2EE/SCS (I have "extra copies of hard to find spells" component installed) then I'd be very grateful if you could give me a tip.
Regards,
B.
Previous updates:
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1028542/#Comment_1028542
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1029429/#Comment_1029429
The third and fourth levels of Cloakwood are easily completed - wyverns are simply lured out of their cave into some waiting traps and skeletons:
For Drasus, we use our usual established strategy for party fights: Scout with a slealthed Cephalus, get some skeletons in position, have Ceres apply two webs and shoot our trapped enemies at range:
Things get more interesting once we start facing the mages inside the mine. Hareishan is up first. Sending a full group of 5 skeletons into her room while we stay far away draws out some of her spells, and most of her guards end up dead (some to her own lightning spell), but she herself is unharmed:
So we equip Cephalus with the boots of speed and let him do some fun stealthshooting hit and run action - Hareishan isn't fast enough to retaliate as we attack and run away over and over again, and after a while, she has no more hitpoints left:
That's 1/4 mages done with. Our goal this time - after getting a character chunked by a lightning spell last time around - is not to get hit by a single spell. Let's see if we can meet it. Natasha is next - her guards aren't as powerful, and they prefer to go after our party - so the skeletons are able to deal with her while we stay far away, afraid of an unfortunate lightning bounce, which luckily never happens:
2/4 are done. Next is the ogre magus. Here, we do make a huge mistake - while trying to draw our invisible foe out into the open so that the skeletons can get to work, he is much faster than Dumuzid anticipates, suddenly revealing himself right at the doorway and casting his opening confusion spell. Trying to run away, Dumuzid and Ceres don't make it in time, which could've spelled their doom (walking into some hobgoblins would be certain death with meatgrinder settings) - but I don't get punished for my mistake, as they both make their save:
After that, everyone gets out of range of further spells, and skeletons take care of everything else:
That's 3/4 done. Davaeorn remains, so we need to rest again at level 1 (where only a single guard will interrupt resting, so it's basically free). Dumuzid approaches, carefully disarming all of the traps, and the skeletons get in to do their work. I know that vanilla Davaeorn simply can't deal with 5 skeletons by himself, so all I have to do is wait. Once his lightning and fireball spells are expended, Dumuzid can even take a look to watch our progress:
Time to enter the city and gather up some easy tomes and other items such as the Helm of Balduran - and, of course, Larze helps us by getting the Cloak from a charmed Quenash - though we do take an almost fatal hit while kiting him around due to positioning mistakes (I always forget that you have to gather your party to enter the undercellar):
We do some exploration and minor quests before tackling more dangerous party fights, such as this one at Helm & Cloak Inn - skeletons, traps and a few buffs such as PfE 10' radius, bless+chant, remove fear (just in case) and defensive harmony usually do the job:
The ogre mages at the docks are lured outside, to their doom:
Looking to improve Ouranus' strength, he does take an unfortunate hit, but success is ours:
The Marek and Lothander questline provides us with a second pair of boots of speed, because we manage to surround Lothander after getting him the gaeas removal scroll and kill him:
There's a short moment of dread in Ramazith's tower: Luring some Ghasts downstairs, they end up in a position where they have Ceres, our most vulnerable party member, surrounded - she uses a charge of the sandthief's ring to avoid getting hit, and since we don't have a ring of free action yet, Ouranus uses a greenstone amulet charge to secure safe tanking:
Degrodel's House is our last big assignment for now - we lure the guardians outside, skeletons help us out while we spam wand charges at them, but our summons aren't long for this world. Ouranus, our only somewhat tanky party member (because of his very low armor class - he still can only take 2-3 hits from most enemies, but rarely takes any) tries to enable the others to deal some of our pitiful melee damage (our ranged damage is fine by now, but without potions, we do almost nothing with melee weapons, and I didn't want to use any for this, hoping for our skeletons to last longer) - meanwhile, Ceres and Kaveh are busy kiting another dangerous monster:
This does end up getting a bit close, because Ouranus gets hit one more time, taking him to two hitpoints, so we have multiple instances of kiting going on at the same time, which requires a decent amount of micromanagement, especially when we enter the wand of fire scorcher rays into the mix, which we can't have hitting any civilians - but we succeed in the end. Eventually, all BG sidequests excluding those involving the sewers are finished - we'll delve down there next time.
Our party is now at levels 6-8, and Ceres has picked up all the new spellscrolls - haste is, of course, a great addition to our buffs and our cause. Things are going well, but that doesn't mean a whole lot - the first time visiting the big city isn't usually a huge source of trouble for me.
BG1EE updates: 1, 2
SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
We take off for Dead Man's Pass, and are interrupted by the final ambush, that of the Shadowy Figure. Unfortunately, we lack the instant damage to take him down before he stealths, and as a result, he gets away (he tried to backstab Minsc twice and whiffed both attempts).
Lots of stuff to fight in Dead Man's Pass! Most of the spawns are easily handled by Web/Glitterdust/Slow/Skull Trap/Fireball/Cloudkill.
The few spawns of Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds/Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs are more bothersome (mainly as Dark Treants/Shambling Mounds hit so hard), but we focus down the Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs first, which allows for easy kiting of the big melee bruisers.
The large undead group in the cellar are actually Turned by Viconia into fleeing in panic (difficult in such a small room), then get a 2x Glitterdust sequencer and are subsequently mopped up.
All that remains is the Killer Mimic Cave. The massive blob of spiders inside are treated to Fireball and Skull Trap, with Corwin quickly destroying the few vermin that survive. I find an easy way to deal with Gargantuan Spider's Web Tangle, should you lack Free Action, is to just have whoever is targetted by it quaff a Potion of Invisibility (there are a ton of these throughout SoD), as the Web Tangle seems to have a cooldown of a few rounds.
The Killer Mimic is handled the same way as the last two times: Most of the party goes invisible, while Minsc (under Viconia's Free Action) and some Skeleton Warriors take the fight to the monsters.
And that's it for Dead Man's Pass! Minsc gets the Bow of the Banshee +2 (though he'll probably never use it), and we rest up before heading for Bloodbark Grove. The Fledgling Vampire gets blocked by his own pack of wolves, and is unceremoniously shot down, as Minsc raging kept him safe from the Domination Gaze.
The only other thing of note in this tiny area occured when Benedict lingered within eyesight of the Greater Basilisk to the north for a second... fortunately, the Basilisk didn't react quickly enough, and we were able to move a Skeleton Warrior up to occupy it (we were fighting the undead spawn at the time and so I was momentarily distracted). On our way back to camp, we swing by Dragonspear Castle and rescue Skie.
All that remains is to push the plot forward a tad by heading for the Underground River (exterior).
We clear the numerous spawns throughout the area using by now quite familiar spellworks (Web/Glitterdust/Slow/Skull Trap/Fireball), with Minsc's Rage keeping him safe from the Pacifier Spores of the Myconid Elder. Minsc actually Charmed a Mountain Lion and Brown Bear to help with a spawn, but of course the Mountain Lion turned on us midfight. Also, Benedict becomes leader of a tribe of Ogres, as Arbinge and Cheski were no match for Greater Malison followed by Emotion: Hopelessness and a flurry of the Biter +2.
Alright, let's procure a Seal of Caelar and open the way forward. We summon our finest (7HD) Skeleton Warriors, buff a tad, and move towards the guardian Cyclops. It falls in a round to concentrated attacks, and its attendant guards fare little better: Viconia had True Sight running, so the Crusader Scouts are revealed the instant they teleport in to assist (and of course, the two Crusader Mages are similarly bereaved of their defensive Illusions, making them easy targets). We push through, making sure to keep an eye out for evidence of the Crusade's villainy so as to persuade Rigah and Julann not to join them.
We're a bit light on spells now, but may as well clear what spawns we can.
Myconids (they actually Confused both Corwin and Safana but we handled it), druidic creatures (Hamadryads/Corrupted Nymphs/Shambling Mounds/Dark Treants), more Myconids, more druidic creatures... we power through all of them. Minsc is beaten quite severely several times, but that's par for the course. With little left in the southern caverns but Ferrusk and Kanaglym, we opt to head back for a rest. On our way back, we swing by Dragonspear Courtyard and finish all the quests there, the only special preparation required being a bundle of Potions of Master Thievery to allow for Safana pickpocketing a Token of Faith.
Into Kanaglym! The undead spawn to the east are blocked by our own undead, and once we take down the Shadowed Souls, the rest of the fight is a foregone conclusion.
Across the bridge, we accidentally kill off Kherriun before her buffs fire. Her attendant Dark Magicians put up a bit of a fight, but they do nothing worse than lob a double Fireball at Safana/Viconia (who quaff Potions of Fire Resistance and equip Rings of Fire Resistance): I actually used a few Arrows of Dispelling to speed things up here, as we don't exactly have the 5th level slots for 5x Animate Dead and 5x Breach.
Halatathlaer is freed and we are tasked with seeking out Daeros.
We swoop by the cave o' undead to the north, a Skull Trap and Fireball clearing most of them out, and Minsc under NPP tanks the remainder. Upon hurtling the ghosts' remains into the Fugue Plane rift in Kanaglym, we put Ferrusk out of his misery: Everyone goes invisible, with Minsc under Improved Invisibility and wearing the Ring of Free Action moving in to attack. The number of enemies and tight confines in which to battle actually leads to us popping first a Glitterdust, and once that proves insufficient, a Greater Malison and Web a la Dynaheir (which defuses the situation).
Oh, around here I remembered: We haven't killed Zadroth yet! So, off to Kanaglym for a third and hopefully last time (really, there's not much to see there). We pull the Lich into the Prime, pop The Secret Revealed, and receive a lovely Ring of Regeneration and Robe of Arcane Aptitude for our troubles.
Funnily enough, on the way out, Benedict actually managed to convince Endless Watcher that Zadroth was dead, and was presented with the Astral Crossbow +2 for his efforts. Unfortunately, that deprived us of the experience for defeating Endless Watcher, but it was still nice... I'm guessing 20 CHA (with the Peacock Cap) and 16 reputation made it possible.
Not much left to do down here. We head into the cave of the Lost, everyone except Minsc and Corwin invisible, and the latter two under Free Action, releasing the poor creatures from their miserable existence.
Strunk is similarly released with the help of an Oracle and Breach we had saved up, and the Nereid rewards us with an Ioun Stone (Minsc, as always, took a beating from the Water Elementals, but none of them were killed). We subsequently head into the Warrens, steal everything that isn't nailed down, release Slug, and grab the Ogre's Treasure.
Here, we return to camp to sell off all the crap we've accumulated. This is followed by a massive shopping spree: We pick up magical ammunition, scrolls and potions to last us until the end of the game (which isn't that far off). Thus sated, we proceed into the cellars of Dragonspear Castle.
Belben and his cohorts are just treated to a Web and some Potions of Explosions (they'll be pointless against the fiends later, and we've got a dozen of them just kicking about).
We animate five 7HD Skeleton Warriors, leave them by the two Stone Golems (to hopefully act as stopgap against the large group of Crusaders to the southeast), then buff up and move towards Hephernaan. A solid salvo later, he retreats, and we swiftly mop up his mage goons (Viconia had True Sight running, leaving both mages vulnerable to elemental damage ammunition).
Moving with the utmost speed, Safana disarms and unlocks the two treasure chests moments before Minsc loots them, with Benedict talking to Daeros. I actually forgot to pick up his magical Full Plate on the way out, but it's alright: We don't need it for the fights before entering Avernus anyway, so we'll grab it later.
Our Skeleton Warriors have been whittled down to three in number, but they're still holding the south-eastern Crusaders off. We rush towards the exit, and though some more Crusaders arrive from the elevator, we simply slip by them and are off!
Benedict sweet-talks the Ogres below, and we exit the Warrens unmolested.
However, we have to fight our way out of the Underground River, though it's hardly that difficult: We face only a single mage and cleric, the rest being ranged/melee goons.
Upon our return to camp, we are informed that negotiations are taking place at Dead Man's Pass, and that we should proceed there with all due haste. And we shall, soon enough.
Next time, we'll defend the camp, then take the fight to the Crusade, and eventually head to Hell itself... and back again, with any luck.
Benedict is now a L11 Human Conjurer.
Thaal (female dwarf priest of Lathander, Gate70); Shane (male halfling swashbuckler, Grond0)
Thaal and Shane have escaped the chateau and their first job is to sell loot. With that done a visit to the circus sees Thaal Command Kalah before we finish him off.
This is followed by freeing Hendak at the Copper Coronet. There was one death this session, Shane being a touch too keen to backstab a bear and drawing the attention of the beastmaster and Tabitha. Rather than retreating he was blocked then retreated and returned to find two hits in succession are enough to stop him.
Thaal drew off a few enemies then rested at the inn store so she could raise Shane and then heal him. Once he was re-equipped we finished off the encounter.
Gaelan Bayle greedily accepts 15000gp and we make deals with Aran Linvail and Renal Bloodscalp.
Suna Seni is hindered while Renfeld is helped. Xzar has died, Thaal upgrades her armour at the Seas Bounty tavern and the entry level of Watchers Keep has successfully been looted. Thaal used Hold Undead on Hareishan only to find her weapon ineffective and Shane had to resort to an oil of speed for his Varscona longsword to deal with her.
Alis - not Buffy
First postAlis wrapped up the last quests in the city, and headed for the iron throne. The posse was treated to a necklace blast and 3 arrows of detonation... The spellcasters didnt like it one bit, and only the two melee grunts remained.
In CK Alis grapped the tomes, and skipped the undead - no RPing, just risk avoidance.
Before going back to the city, Alis picked a helmet and a goblet at Durlags tower.
Back in the city the throne fell again, the cellar assasins dispelled and deposed.
For the palace party Alis invited the cleric of helm (for two entangle spells) and Ithyl the barmaid for chaos and magic missile. The guests paved the way for a solid victory. Llia started invisible, but spammed magic missile from then on - mirror imaged off course..
The maze was done invisible and fully buffed.
Alis opened the fight with a necklace blast, which lured out Sarevok and Semaj....
Sarevok was dispelled and Semaj fired his spells in vain.. until cloudkill hit
But Sarevok had forgotten as well, and with Durlags goblet om hand the victory was clear.
Off to SoD and loads of undead.
BG1EE updates: 1, 2
SoD updates: 1, 2, 3, 4
First BG2EE SoA update found here
So, after some preparation (Spell Sequencers using Robe of Arcane Aptitude and regular ol' Minor Spell Sequencers), we attend the negotiations at Dead Man's Pass, and are soon roped into protecting the coalition camp.
The first wave of Trolls are basically destroyed by a 3x Skull Trap sequencer from Dynaheir along with a few Arrows of Detonation.
I didn't set out to, but we unfortunately kill most of the Crusade wizards before their buffs fire. Eh, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, only a couple use Fireshield: Red, and none prebuffs with Protection from Fire (at least that I've seen). The head wizard, Cuvieronius (seriously, that name...) is undone by an Arrow of Dispelling.
The Warpriests and assorted melee bruisers are destroyed by a 2x Web Sequencer of Dynaheir's in conjunction with a single Glitterdust from Benedict (we had to intercept a few of them, as when blinded they immediately set off for the barrels at the south end of camp, given that they cannot see any enemies).
That just leaves Grimgor and his party. Though, as you'd expect, they're helpless against Benedict's 3x Skull Trap sequencer: Neither of the arcanists prebuffed with MGoI, leaving only Piercer of Boils alive (which was quickly rectified).
We did a final bout of scribing before moving on to Dragonspear, Benedict gaining some important spells (Lower Resistance, Spell Shield, Spell Immunity).
Once at the Castle, we actually let the coalition do most of the fighting, while the party hangs back and uses ranged weapons. Eventually, Ashatiel breaks things up, and Benedict accepts her duel.
The first move from my side was Spell Shield, which was a good move, as it blocked Ashatiel's one and only Breach, preserving Benedict's Protection from Fire/Cold/Lightning. The two traded spells for a few rounds, Benedict tearing down Ashatiel's defenses. In the end I popped a Lesser Stone Golem from the figurine, and along with a 3x Flame Arrow sequencer, it forced Ashatiel into Sanctuary to heal up. But Sanctuary is no protection from Sunfire.
We mop up the final batch of Crusaders to the north (some Skeleton Warriors hold them off while we pelt them from range). Following a rest inside the Castle proper, we're off to hell.
We prepare as we always do: Commander's Mail for fear immunity for the whole party, Free Action (we have two rings of it, and plenty of potions), as well as Potions of Clarity give immunity to almost everything the fiends can do. Protection from Fire, for some strange reason, is only really needed against Belhifet, though this time I did see a Cornugon toss a Lightning Bolt, so we probably should've had protection against that running (we had plenty of Potions of Absorption if necessary).
I actually unequipped the Ring of Free Action on Minsc to put on the Ring of Regeneration, leading to him being Held, but fortunately Dynaheir had an Invisibility handy (we cleared the devils out in short order).
Thrix's goons are tanked by some Skeleton Warriors (I answered the riddle and chose the helmet, not realizing it's not wearable by Good characters... eh, none of the rewards were any use to us), and we arrive at the elevator. Benedict and Dynaheir both prepare defensive sequencers of both types.
Upon resting, everyone gets immunity to fire and electricity (two scrolls each does it, with Minsc quaffing a Potion of Genius beforehand). Then we apply 6 - 3 hour buffs (Protection from Poison, Potions of Agility/Fortitude, as well as Potions of Mind Focusing once Dexterity was at 18 for everyone).
Viconia, Minsc and Corwin apply Chaotic Commands from scrolls to everyone, Viconia tosses out PfE 10' Radius, and we ascend the elevator.
During the ride, we apply some good buff potions (Cloud Giant Strength/Power/Heroism/Invulnerability/Freedom of Action) to everyone, with Benedict popping SI: Abjuration when we're a few rounds from reaching the top. Our ruse (of course) works, as Belhifet wastes his singular Dispel Magic on the immune Benedict.
We let Caelar tank Belhifet: Viconia wearing the Battle Tankard leads with a True Sight to dispel Belhifets Improved Invisibility, and then keeps casting Greater Restoration on Caelar using scrolls. Everyone else goes after Belhifet's attendant devils. There's a slight mishap as Minsc, charging after an Erinyes, momentarily is outside Viconia's visual radius and so is susceptible to (and fails his save against) Horror, but we had a Remove Fear memorized, bringing him back into the fold.
On his own, Belhifet stands no chance. It takes a little longer than normal to bring him down, as I misclicked and cast 2x Lower Resistance on Hepheernan early on, and then another 2x Lower Resistance were wasted as Belhifet teleported out mid-cast, thus cancelling the spells (and so Belhifet had enough MR to resist several Slow spells), but in the end, it is Caelar herself that brings him low, using her innate Bolt of Glory.
Aun Argent is rescued, and Caelar opts to stand guard over the closing portal. I guess she doesn't need to eat, sleep or drink... or she's not expecting to live long enough that it'll become an issue.
Upon our return, we are lauded, then maligned, as The Hooded Man works his vile magics.
However, owing to his impeccable character, Benedict is released from jail by Belt. Making good his escape, Benedict reunites with Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira. But there's an odd fog about...
Benedict finishes Siege of Dragonspear as a L11 Human Conjurer, and shall certainly return in Shadows of Amn.
(I replayed the fight several times afterward, and pulled it out each time. Belt always died, but the sphere kept Liia safe long enough to kill off most of the attackers, as long as I kept some defenses working.)
I think I've learned enough from Filwith's run. Here's the next random character:
Ellisar. Elf. Lawful evil FMT. Will have 3 companions (who must not have alignment conflicts).
Mods: fresh install of EE 2.5, SCS (with all options), BGNPC1, and some convenience tweaks and quests. Item randomiser. Insane difficulty.
I think most parts of my install are working as expected, although some of the options to move NPCs to more convenient locations and the better kick-out dialogues (I think from SCS or tweak anthology) are not functioning.
Updates will be sporadic and brief. Hopefully past the palace this time...
Previous entries (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Previous entries (SoA): 8, 9, 10
We purchase potion case from Ms Cragmoon, together with scrolls from the nearby entrepreneur (Minor Spell Sequencer, Spell Immunity, SI: A, SI: D, PfMW, PW: Silence, Improved Haste), and collect the Horn. Saoirse then uses the very same house to deal with the street muggers.
On her way to the Five Flagons, Saoirse triggers the first guild war encounter and collects the Contingency scroll from one of the Shadow Thieves. We scribe our new spells (using Potion of Genius and Mind Focusing as usual) and spend the night at the inn.
In the morning, Saoirse confronts Rejiek with the accumulated evidence and chases him down into his lair. While running the pre-buff routine, I realize that we didn't memorize Polymorph: Self - our coup de grâce for the rune assassins. However, there was no way back now. (Later on I've found out that these guys are quaffing Potions of Magic Shielding and so our spider form in a triggered double Web wouldn't work anyway.)
The first assassin follows Saoirse back upstairs, where she summons the berserker to act as a fodder.
The berserker went berserk, as befits his nature, and picked Saoirse as his target. The assassin was in turn focused on our berserker and, with Saoirse running in circles to keep her distance from both, the whole scene looked like a twisted dancefloor. MMs and Tuigan were sufficient here (check out Saoirse's piercing shot
With Arbane to protect us against the ghouls' paralysis and MIs/Stoneskin to foil the backstabs, Saoirse charges the cellar and blasts it with Sunfire.
Fire Shield and Arbane take care of the rest.
We report our findings to the authorities and proceed to the Government District to pay for our spellcasting licence. While there, we stop by Jan and Viconia to say hi. I'm always thinking that I'd be willing to give in Viconia to that mob only if that fanatic leader had been voiced by Sir Christopher Lee. Unfortunately for him, he ain't no Lord Summerisle and Saoirse doesn't even like The Wicker Man. You're welcome, Viccy.
We make a short stop at the Graveyard next. Saoirse triggers Tidir and Littleman quests and deals with the Crypt King to obtain Namarra.
On her way out she runs into Renfeld .
I find this fight much safer to navigate than the Suna Seni ambush. Furthermore, our brand new SI: A is now protecting us against that annoying Remove Magic opener. Arriving invisible and non-detectable, Saoirse has all the time in the world to set-up her buffs (she skips Haste, as this would break her invisibility).
After our initial backstab attempt is unsuccesful, Saoirse lays down a Telefield to avoid getting boxed and uses the extra space to shoot down the mage.
She retreats a bit further away to blast Sunfire and finish in melee.
With Renfeld now in our pack (!), we have to take a detour via the Docks, where we see more guild wars and ruffians.
Prebek and Sanasha are taken down under anti-mage buffs (including SI: A, II, MGoI and MSD) with Sunfires.
I'll note that I've found myself juggling with L4 and L5 spell slot allocation alot, depending on the circumstances. With Spell Immunities (and we'll want to add Spell Shield on top of these sooner or later) stretching our L5 capacity, we usually opt to take Improved Invisibility via the L4 spells instead of Shadow Door, which in turns squeezes out some of our L4 offensive punch (Polymorph: Self, Minor Spell Trigger, Fire Shield etc.). So Saoirse's current spell book requires constant maintenance, but it's flexible and that seems to work so far.
But enough about spells. I think I haven't posted any backstabs lately. So here you go.
We finish the Harper quest and meet up with the Bridge District kidnappers. They're about to face Malison -> spider form -> double Web trigger. This has worked for Reti (the human is more important because of Boots of Avoidance), but the dwarf seemed to be immune to our Web. I might have missed a Potion of Freedom or Magic Shielding quaff, but that's not important anymore because he's disappeared when Saoirse went invisible to adjust her tactics and we've not been able to track him down.
Our last tasks before leaving the city involved returning Littleman to Wellyn and visiting Pai'Na, for which Saoirse used her green ProPoison scroll.
Here's the opening backstab.
Followed by triggered double MMs.
And concluded with Sunfire.
Saoirse collects the Green Ioun Stone and Kithix and we're off to D'Arnise Keep.
Regards,
B.
Previous entries (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Previous entries (SoA): 8, 9, 10, 11
Troubles in Trademeet:
Upon reaching our destination, we talked to Nalia and proceeded inside the castle. Our purpose there was not to fight Torgal, but rather just to stop the clock by speaking to Daleson. Saoirse backstabs the first troll and enters the courtyard through the main entrance (in my install it's not possible to use the secret entrance for exiting the keep).
The otyugh is fried by MMMs, whereas the trolls on the battlements are simply avoided under stealth. With the drawbridge lowered, we're free to leave. Sorry Nalia, the garrison will have to handle the situation for the time being. We promise to return another day.
We're off to Trademeet and Druid Grove. And that means it's time to report on our botched fight with Dalok and his Shadow Druid crew (the rest of map was avoided under invisibility/stealth, with Saoirse only stopping to pick up Belm, as she's already rocking a scimitar proficiency pip). The problem here was that I got overconfident and I wasn't focused.
Running Fire Shield: Red and SI: C as protection for Insect Plagues/Creeping Dooms (among other buffs), Saoirse opened with a backstab + Blindness, which forced an early Cure Disease cast from one of the druids.
The fight attracted the cave bears to the east (I need to remind myself to get rid of them before engaging the druids next time) and the druids spammed their owns summons. Saoirse tried to clean up the place with Sunfire but with little success (apart from taking down the no-name Shadow Druid).
Suddenly, the situation was looking rather bleak:
Morphed into spider form, Saoirse tries to take down at least the fighter but he's been too resilient. Soon, our defenses are breached and we have to retreat by using an emergency II cast via RoAC. We'll need to come back tomorrow.
And so we did, this time taking no chances at failure. Spider form + Web trigger + Kitthix have taken care of Dalok, though the Adherent required an extra Blindness cast combined with Tuigan (he's pretty solid).
After the cave bears are hunted down with Tuigan and backstabs, the way to the caves is clear.
I did not remember how the druid challenge works when Cernd's not in your party. Therefore, I decided to recruit him, optimize his spells and make him face Faldorn in our party. Despite the fact that Cernd opened with Insect Plague, Faldorn was able to pull off her opening Creeping Doom as well - and that single spell was sufficient to defeat us. Apparently, when under Creeping Doom, it's not possible to shapeshift (as the action gets interrupted) nor use special items (eventually Cernd got RoAC during the battle from Saoirse, even though I didn't want to cheat at first).
Great, so our druid's dead and our precious RoAC is lying on the bottom of the pit, with no way of recovering it. We can only hope it will remain there until we come back with resurrected Cernd. Saoirse returns to Trademeet, spends hard earned coin on temple services and, together with Cernd, jogs all the way back to the grove.
Round 2. We're wrong about the ring - it's no longer there, it's gone for good. We wanted Faldorn to pay for this loss. Cernd opens with a fast casting Decolouros Decay and shifts into Greater Werewolf before Faldorn's Creeping Doom can land.
It's not enough: Cernd still gets overwhelmed by the constant damage, spammed summons, panic and whatnot. Seriously annoyed by the result, Saoirse complains about not being allowed to buff him prior to the fight. I try to explain to her that it's called fair play, but at the same time, I agree that it was a mistake. At that point, Cernd was deader than dead. We'll need to find a new champion.
But first, we turn our frustration against the Dao djinns in Trademeet. Taquee, who's been guarding the djinn lamp, falls first (the djinns inside the tent are already red-circled but they did not follow us outside). Saoirse then rests and enters the tent invisible. She lands a lucky blow on Faafirah - her real purpose was just to show herself (to trigger their Stoneskin / Improved Haste casts) and go invisible again.
Only Khan Zahraa, the Minsc impersonator, now remains. Saoirse waits out his Improved Haste, jumps outside to buff and starts to work through his defenses by Breach -> Malison -> Slow.
Staying safe behind II, Ghost Armor, MSD, Fire Shield: Red and MIs, Saoirse summons her own Efreeti. Two fire-shielded scimitar-wielding demons were just too much for Mr Zahraa to handle.
So, as I said before, we need a druid. In particular one that could carry our newly acquired Shield of Harmony into the pit of death. What about this one?
Well, what about someone with less appointments elsewhere?
And what about someone with less enemies from the past? I mean, seriously?! I thought that at this stage, you're supposed to pick up Jaheira at the Harper's compound. Instead, she rushes back to Saoirse while we're resting at Sea's Bounty - of course, she jumps straight into Ployer's trap.
And I thought that this is going to be straightforward. Never mind, we'll just be need to be patient and proceed step-by-step. Good evening Mr. Ployer:
I'm afraid your mage friends are somewhat useless (unless and until they decide to take away our spell protections of course).
Following her opening backstab, Saoirse releases Sunfire and incinerates the baron. Efreeti comes into play next and he gets an early kill, while Saoirse is dispelling the illusions with Detect Illusion.
Saoirse shoots down the second mage with Acid Arrows, but not before he targets her with Secret Word.
Hidden by II, Saoirse first dispels the remaining mage's illusions and then opens with Acid Arrows. His Chaos bounces of her negative save v. spell.
Done.
With Jaheira freed from the curse, we finally made it to Druid Grove. Wait, what?!
At this point, when the dialogue box popped up, I was pretty sure that she's going to leave. Fortunately, Jaheira's out-of-office worked and we managed to postpone her meetings until later.
If you're asking about Faldorn, then note that she got crushed. And that's despite Jaheira's low levels (7/7). Okay, we didn't play it fair at all - she received key buffs from Saoirse (II, Resist Fear, Strength, Haste), quaffed a Potion of Defense and was aided by Kitthix and Efreeti (with all the items being smuggled into the pit by Saoirse). And you know what? I don't feel bad about it at all.
And now, the Hero of Trademeet needs to do some shopping (the loss of RoAC is still too fresh)!
Regards,
B.
Previous updates:
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1028542/#Comment_1028542
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1029429/#Comment_1029429
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1030921/#Comment_1030921
I've made some good progress in the last two days, so there will be two big updates coming this evening.
We concluded our first visit to Baldur's Gate by clearing the sewers, taking down the ogre mage in the process:
I almost forgot - we do still have to fight the Iron Throne party. Skeletons and traps are placed in preparation one floor below, and a single party member lures everyone downstairs:
At Candlekeep, we decide to take out Rieltar:
We rest again before fighting our way out of the caves, not forgetting to pick up some more valuable tomes:
By now, our party is in a position to comfortably take on any encounters that don't force us into melee combat or force us into very enclosed spaces. With everyone having gained access to at least 2 weapon profiency points, our thac0's are mostly fine, and while we still don't have a good option for tanking, skeletons can do the job for us. Of course, the buffs make all of the difference. By now, for a difficult encounter, our full arsenal looks like this: Bless, chant, remove fear, PfE 10' radius, defensive harmony, haste, and for the clerics holy strength + DUHM (and now also DUHM for Cephalus). Once we get the stoneskin scroll from the ice island, Ceres should be able to add her own defensive buffs (propably, blur, MI, stoneskin and some kind of armor spell).
Already, we're back in the city, this time rescuing a duke from his doppelganger healer, taking down Sarevok's girlfriend at the same time:
After obtaining invitations from a pair of unfortunate assassins, we enter the ducal palace. Our party is fully buffed, the skeletons are in protective position, and we have the greater malison + chaos combo ready to go. Liia's mirror image spell helps out quite a bit while our hasted ranged weapons users and skeletons throw down their damage:
The greater malison + chaos combo proves to be pointless, as, when Ceres is finally are done with casting the second scroll, only one enemy is still standing, and only for a fraction of a second at that. Both dukes survive:
We enter the thieve's maze, exploring the entire horribly annoying area (because this is the kind of extreme completionist run calling for us to do that, I'm afraid). We only get into trouble once, when one invisible stalker sneaks past our wall of skeletons, getting a hit in on Dumuzid. We counter with some magical nukes and wand charges to take it out before it can kill someone:
In the undercity, we use the old double-web to neutralize the enemy party:
After exploring the entire place, we make it back to the surface. Sarevok has to wait: We have expansion content to do first.
The Ice Island is solved mostly by Cephalus himself, using a PfM scroll:
For the ankheg room, we add the fully buffed party into the mix, and a sleep spell takes out most of the beasts. The stoneskins croll is our primary reward. Shortly after that, we're off to Balduran's Island. Nothing noteworthy happens for most of the quest - we explore the island, do some minor quests and make use of luring opponents downstairs (into skeletons and traps, as usual) for an easier go at the shipwreck:
A very clean victory there. The shipwreck has given me trouble in previous meatgrinder attempts, so I was proud of my play, which lead to overconfidence - one of the most common downfalls of the no-reloader.
Back in the village, when the others turned on me, I made a few crucial mistakes. The first and biggest: Not preparing for the village to turn hostile by summoning some skeletons outside before talking to Kaishas. The entrance of Kaishas' hut is a terrible place to fight: Enemies can actually hit your party from ground level if you're up on the balcony as long as you're standing very close to the edge - and of course, pathfinding is absolutely terrible here. With multiple werewolves coming at me and no room for kiting, I had to try and tank. At this point, I didn't notice that Ceres was absolutely screwed and in a terrible position thanks to pathfinding, not able to assist a) by tanking with her stoneskins or b) by using her wand of monster summoning. Ouranus, who has great AC, was trying to hold off the beasts, but with the werewolves rolling two quick natural twenties, he didn't stand much of a chance - and was killed:
With my characters trying to get to their assigned positins, pushing each other to the edge of the balcony, one of the werewolves was actually able to get a hit in on my Bhaalspawn, Cephalus! From 74 to 28 hp in one hit, thanks to insane difficulty. I made sure to have Cephalus stand as close to the walls as possible from then on. Meanwhile, Ceres had gotten into positon to at least use her monster summoning wand, but a little bit too late: Oedipus was forced to face one of the beasts, and he's anything but a good tank:
Luckily, the werewolf was taken down before being able to hit Oedipus again, and I was able to position my party closer to the walls, with the wand summons now blocking off access. This allowed for us to take down the remaining foes with our ranged weapons before picking up Ouranus' equipment and sneaking our way to the beach after a short rest. Kaishas didn't stand much of a chance, and after taking care of his companion, we only had to use one charge of our wand of paralyzation to stun Mendas, which allowed our fighters to use gold/silver weapons to take him down despite having no relevant proficiencies:
We resurrected Ouranus and rested up, preparing for Durlag's Tower. That one was a bit too close for comfort - Cephalus was in real danger for propably the first time in this run.
Previous updates:
Update 1: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1028542/#Comment_1028542
Update 2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1029429/#Comment_1029429
Update 3: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1030921/#Comment_1030921
Update 4: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1031740/#Comment_1031740
Durlag's Tower started out easy enough - we cleared the upper levels (having already done parts of them very early on in this run) and ventured down into level 1 - no trouble here. Having 6 traps available is really helpeful against the dwarven warders - a quick takedown with no damage taken on our part:
We also had no difficulty defeating greater doppelgangers on level 2. However, I made a huge mistake when dealing with the dwarven doom guards - playing on auto-pilot, I just randomly walked into their room, disarmed traps, opened locks and started looting - completely forgetting that this would start the encounter. These are enclosed spaces, my party was unbuffed and out of position, and the doom guards are immune to missle damage - basically, this group's worst nightmare. I did have my skeletons, but they were out of position. With three of my characters isolated, I had to save them with invisibility potions right away, while the party tried taking down one of the powerful enemies with melee attacks and wand charges, hoping that only skeletons would get attacked:
While we were able to get that one doomguard, our skeletons quickly crumbled and we had no hope of defeating our enemies in any way, shape or form in direct melee combat - I had to run away, though running away came at a cost: To secure a getaway without deaths, I had to burn three more invisibility potions, leaving me only with six more for the remainder of the game:
In the end, a bunch of wand charges allowed me to take down the remaining doomguards:
This one has always been one of the more troublesome battles in meatgrinder runs, though starting it by accident certainly didn't help this time around.
On to level 3. Getting to the elemental rooms was no problem (I killed the wyverns first, used PfU to deal with the skeletons and went with some stealth-scouting + skeletons for the final path), but the air aspect kind of surprised me with its sheer speed - it rushed towards my party and was able to hit Ouranus right away, for devastating damage - I had no chance to summon skeletons, my only active buffs were haste and stoneskin (for Ceres). I tried to run away, but the air aspect followed me outside. If Ouranus wasn't able to tank it, no one except Ceres would stand a chance - but she didn't have the required low AC without buffs to keep her stoneskins for long - I added defensive harmony to help her out:
However, her stoneskins crumbled before the air aspect did. Kiting this very fast enemy is quite hard - and Kaveh was the one to feel its wrath while trying to do so. One hit, one kill:
However, a wand of the heavens charge was enough to finish this dangerous battle after my party had already dealt some significant damage:
I had to walk all the way back up, through the fireball room, back to FAI, in order to get Kaveh back. After that, everyone drank a potion of absorption in preparation for the chessboard, where we started throwing two sets of five fireballs:
Most enemies were dead after that, and we used our electricity immunity to charge the two remaining ones:
Level 4 was much easier, allowing for the standard skeletons + ranged weapons approach - though due to potentially high acid damage on the way, Grael was defeated with most of the party not being involved:
Luckily, I know the vanilla demon knight and its script very well: It will start with dispel magic on the nearest party member, continue with a fireball, follow up with powerword: stun and start attacking. I prepared with the usual buffs, and after sending the skeletons in, Ouranus embarked on a special mission: Run to the other end of the room (with the other party members remaining out of sight) to draw the dispel magic and fireball spells away from the skeletons and the party. After the demon knight started to cast dispel magic, Ouranus started his storm shield - my plan being that storm shield would finish after dispel magic hit, so it wouldn't be dispelled, but it would be ready in time to neutralize the fireball damage - this worked out great, and after Ouranus also got hit by the PW:Stun, the party joined in to shoot down the demon knight:
Our foe didn't even get the chance to kill any more skeletons:
Back to Ulgoth's Beard - though before traveling there, we rested at the BG bridge, with Ceres casting invisibility on 4 party members (saving invisibility potions in the process - the spell lasts through the entire journey from the bridge to the Beard). Luckily, we had something very nice in store to make the coming cult ambush relatively easy:
See, we had been using all of our previous trips to the Beard to set traps at the entrance of the area whenever we got there, until we had a full seven at the ready. Savage metagaming, I know, but I want to get some use out of having so many thieves. In any case, we didn't even need invisibility potions to avoid any immediate combat - we were able to retreat to the north without being seen by the remaining cult forces, summon a bunch of skeletons and return to the village entrance with full force, taking down the first and second cult groups, luring the third one outside (into some more traps, though only our usual 6 this time) and resting.
Time to buff up for Aec'Letec - full melee damage is the name of the game, also some better armor class. We didn't spare any expenses regarding potions this time around, going for storm giant strength and the like - especially important: One potion of magic shielding for everyone - this does wonders to turn Aec'Letec from a dangerous foe into a relatively harmless inconvenience. Once downstairs, we start killing the cultists one by one with our now very high damage output (without our potion buffs, our melee damage is pitiful, but with them, any party will reach extreme heights, especially if they have a couple of fighter-types amongst them). Every time Aec started going for a specific character, that character would run around and kite the demon for a bit - and eventually, our foe was isolated:
And, seconds later, dead, with only Dumuzid taking a little bit of damage from one or two gaze attacks:
Time to do some final selling and buying of items. Only now do we rebuy wands/necklaces of missles etc. - we also get some green scrolls, potions and special ammo for SoD. After all that, we return to the Undercity to face Sarevok. Five skeletons and six traps will await Semaj once he teleports to us, and we have arrows of dispelling. This time, the party is potion-buffed for ranged damage, with agility potions and mind focusing all going strong. Ouranus lures Sarevok, Semaj teleports in and gets hit by traps:
They don't actually instantly kill him - we add a dispelling arrow, and that is his downfall. Sarevok is robbed of his haste effect next:
And now, Cephalus' half-brother even gets affected by his own web trap:
Victory!
While this battle was quite easy, over all, this was far from a flawless performance - we will need to do much better to make it through arguably the most difficult part of this challenge - SoD.
That's so badass!
Previous entries (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Previous entries (SoA): 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Umar Hills:
Our first task here was to obtain the mimic's blood. With no access to confusion immunity via items, Saoirse relied on her negative save v. spell against the umber hulks (we tried Minor Spell Turning for fun, but to no effect). She approached the mimic with Arbane, summoned her Efreeti and MMMs...and that was it.
MMMs were later used against Jermien's Stone Golem and thus Ilbratha (i.e. free L2 spell slot) became ours.
For the most part, the Amaunator temple crawl was not very enjoyable. Combination of too many respawning enemies (with dangerous on-hit abilities) and too many collectibles forced us to rely on stealth instead of raw strength. At one point, however, we resorted to cheesy tactics, by pairing Spectral Blade with off-hand Belm and Improved Haste, against the Bone Golems. The result was devastating, but not very satisfactory from the game-balance perspective (the dual-wielding bug has been discussed here).
Saoirse's now got access to L6 spells. The first thing we did was creating our Helpless: Improved Invisibility contingency. The question now was, how to prepare for the Shade Lord (the Shadow Dragon was avoided). I was reluctant to use ProUndead scroll, especially since I'm not using the "Improved Share Lord" component of SCS and therefore the battle should be perfectly doable without it.
The buffs were: Ghost Armor, Shield, Spell Deflection, Strength, Resist Fear, Polymorph: Self, ProFire, ProEvil, Blur, MIs, Fire Shield: Red/Blue, Shadow Door, MGoI, SI:A, SI:D, Spell Shield and Improved Haste. Saoirse morphed into Flind form, buffed with DuHM and opened with a backstab on Shadow Patrick.
With her 4 APR, she was able to finish Patrick in the first round. At the same time, the Shade Lord took down her Spell Shield by launching a Spellstrike.
I can't really decrypt what happened next, but this is what the record shows (there was also a save v. breath roll by Saoirse against the level drain):
Maybe someone familiar with Shade Lord's abilities (unmodded) can shed some light into this? Where did the blindness come from? What's up with the level drain (I'm aware there's a certain per round aura included in the Improved Shade Lord, but this looks like a targeted ability). Note that Saoirse's untargetable under Shadow Door and her Spell Deflection and MGoI are both intact. Either way, I'll make sure to bring some True Sight scrolls next time to counter that blindness (this is also one of SCS's tweak components).
Anyway, back to the battle. Our Efreeti was on his way now and Saoirse, despite being blinded, focused on the Shadow Altar.
Kitthix joined the battlefield to further distract the Shade Lord, while Saoirse and Efreeti were clearing up the place.
Before long, the Shade Lord fell to our melee pressure.
Back in Athkatla, Saoirse purchased Arrows of Dispelling at the Promenade and paid a visit to Mencar and his crew. I still remember loosing one of my more recent characters here (a Necromancer called Anek-si) and so this one was personal. Like an avatar of vengeance, Saoirse came without warning.
Papa! Papa! .... Papa?
One down, four left. Saoirse repositions herself and opens up a Telefield at her feet.
Pooky gets incinerated by Sunfire. His MGoI was useless. Two down, three left.
The rogue is brought near death with our Tuigan Bow and MMs, but lucky teleport throws him near the exit and, taking the advantage of his Oil of Speed, he flees. Saoirse chases him downstairs, but he's vanished. Two down, one gone, two left. Correction, only one left.
Mencar's waiting downstairs. Saoirse engages and casts PfMW to gain some breathing space.
At that time, it felt almost unfair when the whole fight against the menacing dwarven fighter was ended with a lowly L1 spell. But I suppose that's what you get for making fun of illusionists and their specialist saving throw penalties.
Four down, one gone, none left.
Saoirse's currently taking a day off at Copper Coronet, thinking about Gaelan's offer. She's level 12 illusionist / level 14 thief.
Regards,
B.