Cant remeber which keys goes where. It may be either of these:
1) you need one key: Avery may have the key, and can be pickpocketed to get it - otherwise you have to do Nadalins quest and kill some salamanders...
2) you need a rusty dagger and a ring: Visit Haebal and open his desk with the key from area AR9700. The desk holds one and Draagis the other - I think you kill him en route doing Nadalins quest
Hope it makes sense, otherwise Jastey may be able to help you.
I am on my fourth undead hunter attempt. Not doing well . So I will spare you the reports
Haven't found Haebal. Also my game doesn't have area AR9700. I've killed Draagis and got his possessions in my bag, I did Nadalin's quest and killed the salamanders and also went to the island.
I'm beginning to think that if no-one cane tell me where to find Haebel that I'll have to use the console and create him
The walkthrough says that he should be in Larswood. I haven't been able to find him there.
I'm wondering if he got killed with a fireball when I was fighting some goblins and I never found the body, or something similar.
Starting the session I went invisibly into Gromnir's throne room - providing the opportunity to kill both mages while they were trying to cast true sight.
With the others dead, Gromnir himself was no threat and I activated Defensive Stance to beat him up toe to toe.
I used a PfU scroll on the way to find Nyalee and moved on to the Fire Temple. I used invisibility there to avoid most of the fighting while going upstairs to get the hearts - though I couldn't resist trying the Wave out for the first time on Imix.
Travelling to Yaga-Shura, I found him still invulnerable - and hastily backtracked to discuss the situation with Nyalee.
Next time Yaga was definitely vulnerable!
I stopped off at the Oasis just long enough for a question and Answerer session with Jamis.
In Amkethran I bought the Gargoyle Boots and K'logarath. The knock-back function of the latter tends to be a disadvantage in combat rather than helpful, but I just can't resist that sweet dwarvish axe .
Moving on to Sendai's Enclave, a GWW sorted out the Woodcutter before he could react. I went invisible and ran in to find Thelynn'ss who got the same treatment before Odamaron became a first victim for my new flying axe.
I've been caught out before when using run and throw tactics on the fast-moving Ogremoch, so this time just pumped crushing resistance up to 100 and gave him a good thrashing.
Having just written above about the problems with K'logarath I got a taste of that after killing Diaytha. Trying to GWW the demon knight I auto-followed him when he was knocked back and activated the vampire without having changed weapons - being drained as a result.
With saving throws now vulnerable and aura clouded that could have been a serious problem, but I was able to run back out of the room and take a potion of invulnerability before taking revenge on the vampire.
I then went to finish off the Hive Mother, but was shocked to see that immediately using maze - I regularly have problems with that spell, but not normally here. I'd only just used a GWW, so was worried a PfM scroll might not dispel the maze before it took effect - but it did so just in time.
It's still a blow losing one of those scrolls, but the other should be sufficient if there are no more mistakes.
There were no further problems getting through to Sendai (though there were more than I expected just getting that far ), but with the hour up that will have to wait for tomorrow.
Dwarven defender L40, 234 HPs, 1,410 kills (+535 in BG1)
@StummvonBordwehr I think that you have mistyped odd instead of old. Thanks though.
I must have spoken to Haebal without noticing his name.
He is supposed to be also in Solitary Valley, an area that I haven't come across yet. I think that's later perhaps.
I have a bug in Larswood so that could be part of my problem. In the Osmadi encounter. Every time I killed him the game crashed. I don't know if that is anything to do with my problems as I still don't have the book for entering Candlekeep even after entering that area that was inaccessible before.
Completing this mod is certainly not easy. Maybe it gets easier with time.
The next stage in Annick's story consisted in securing some more prizes and testing her mettle against more powerful monsters than those encountered before.
Neira was Commanded by Viconia and didn't survive the ensuing onslaught. Individual ankhegs failed to pose a threat to meleers Shar-Teel, Dorn, and Rasaad (wolf form), backed by Viconia and Annick's missiles and Eldoth's song. Shoal the Nereid killed Rasaad with her kiss, but agreed to restore the Sun Soul Monk when pressured by the party. They retreated quickly, allowing Rasaad to heal, even though they ran straight into three ghouls. Viconia Commanded Droth, and the party ensured he would not get back on his feet. The companions also slew whimsical Shoal, just to make sure she wouldn't try anything stupid.
Rasaad was then given some time to contemplate on his death experience, and Kivan came on board, triggering the BG1 NPC Project Jozzi Seasnake encounter. With Annick's wand of sleep for two sahuagin archers and a Command by Viconia for the sahuagin leader, the enemy stood no chance, and Annick earned herself a returning throwing dagger +2.
Annick used her new weapon to slay the basilisks in Mutamin's garden, inspired by Eldoth's song. Korax Held Mutamin, so the gnome and all basilisks fell withou putting up much of a fight. The same can be said of Kirian and her party. Viconia healed Korax and ainmated two skeletons. Annick interrupted Peter's casting with a wand of the heavens before ranged attcks finished him off, and Korax and the skeletons meleed Kirian together with an enraged Shar-Teel.
With the casters out of the way, Rasaad joined the fray, and Baerin and Lindin posed no further threat.
A visit to Durlag's tower saw Eldoth finish three battle horrors with wand scorchers, while Viconia's undead dealt with three greater basilisks. Meilum gave his gauntlets and his life in a hopeless battle against the party, and nine sirines (thanks to skeletons, Barbarian rage, and Dorn's helm of charm protection), three flesh golems, and countless Ulcaster dread wolves furthered the party's experience without any upsets. This is the party in front of a pile of dread wolves.
Dealing with the Iron Crisis and Rampant Banditry
Vicky stole a ring of free action and several scrolls and potions in Ulgoth's Beard before the party finally ventured into the Nashkel Mines. The spiders' corner was used to lure the kobold chieftain, shaman, and henchmen to the party. The shaman wasn't much of a threat thanks to Eldoth's song, but the chieftain could cause a lot of trouble with his poisoned arrows. However, forced to melee, they were easy pickings. In Mulahey's lair three skeletons, Dorn, and Shar-Teel lingered at the entranceto take care of summoned kobolds and undead, while Vicky, Rasaad and Annick snuck up on Mulahey. Viconia managed to Hold the half-orc before he could cast any spells.
In the Valley of the Tombs, enraged Shar-Teel dealt with the revenant, and two good hits by Dorn (bolt of lightning) and Annick (throwing dagger) were enough to fell Narcillicus.
The wizard's mustard jellies were overcome with brute forcce (Shar-Teel, Vicky, Dorn, Rasaad all meleeing them; Annick had no means to hit them though).
In Nashkel, Viconia failed to Silence Nimbul but she was more successful with an innate Confusion. Once his stoneskins were gone, Shar-Teel killed him with a single critical hit. The barbarian also sealed Tranzig's fate in Beregost after a a barrage of missiles prevented the mage from casting any spells.
On the way to Larswood Molkar and his gang showed up. Dorn's bolt of lightning interrupted Halacan's first spell, and Viconia's Confusion hit both Drakar and Morvin. Shar-Teel dueled Molkar while the others focused on Drakar and Halacan, although Viconia did Hold Molkar for good measure.
In Larswood the wand of fire helped the party collect dozens of scalps and enchanted arrows from black talons, while focused fire saw them defeat two druids. The Lamalha ambush followed. This one is trickier than the Molkar ambush due to the two backstabbing thieves. Annick charmed Telka with Algernon's cloak, and Eldoth paralyzed Maneira with his wand. Maneira did manage to go invisible first, forcing Eldoth to burn a scroll of detect invisibility later. Viconia Confused Zeela, and Dorn and Shar-Teel meleed Lamalha with ease. Another compelling victory, although I forgot to attack green-circled Telka, so she actually survived.
Less compelling was the party's handling of the bandits. Annick had sweet-talked Raiken and Tazok to get to explore the camp, but when Annick spoke to Taugosz, Shar-Teel taunted him and it suddenly made the camp go hostile. The companions retreated into the nearest tent.
With the alarm sounded, enemies kept pouring in, including the named ones like Venkt and Britik. Shar-Teel and Dorn were near the entrance, surrounded by enemies; the others stood a bit farther away. Venkt Blinded Dorn, an effect that halforc canceled by swigging a potion of magic blocking. Even without blindness, Dorn and to a lesser extent Shar-Teel suffered major blows. The party had three potions of extra healing. Dorn had to use two, and Shar-Teel one, and they both quaffed regeneration potions as well. The enemy's focus on the two warriors did allow the others launch missiles, cast spells etc. Viconia cast two Hold Persons and two Confusions, disabling most of the bandits. Rasaad (darts of wounding), Eldoth (acid arrows), and Annick (returning throwing dagger) all focused on Venkt. This screenshot gives an idea of the chaos in the tent.
But Annick felled Venkt. Viconia managed to retreat from an attacking black talon and quaff an invisibility potion. Annick engaged the black talon in melee for a change. Rasaad meleed Hakt in wolf form, and Eldoth slew many bandits at the same time with wand scorchers.
It was literally a bloody mess, but the crew prevailed. They're about to do some shopping for their impending trip through Cloakwood.
I have searched the web and discovered the reasons for the problems that I am having with NSoSC. If you don't do quests in exactly the right order, it messes things up. I've had to use CLUA to enabling the finishing of the game. Just the book to get into Candlekeep. I finished off the Grey Clan Episode, an area that is usually quite difficult. However, having done the Drizzt Saga it was straightforward. Now back in Candlekeep. The rest of BG1 should be straightforward. EDIT Candlekeep was indeed straightforward. What I was not expecting was that Fabio would then transport the party to Restenford!! I didn't realise that mod was installed. I suppose that it is all experience. Perhaps Dreadnought will reach level 9 before his return. At least I am pretty sure that this mod is bug free. It's a long time since I did the mod, so I hope that I can remember it well enough.
A quick question though: "Why is Diarmid unkillable upon leaving Candlekeep? I attacked him. He fled outside and he had hundreds of HPs worth of wounds but he wouldn't die. :puzzled
Neither of the cre files that I found gave him the usual item that maked a character unkillable. What gives?
Dreadnought has found a wand of cloudkill amongst other items in Restemford. That, along with an intelligence boosting tome are by far the most important item so far.
I'd decided not to rest before confronting Sendai, in order to take advantage of the PfM scroll used last session. Use of Defensive Stance allowed me to take minimal melee damage and a first use in the run of dispelling arrows helped take down the spellcasters a bit quicker. That meant the scroll was still active when the real Sendai came out to play. She was swiftly dispelled and, with no potential danger from her spells, a single melee GWW was too much for her.
At Abazigal's Lair, I made the mistake of meleeing his human form. The latest version of the EE seems to be much more susceptible to overlapping icons and when Draconis changed he sat on top of me so I couldn't move.
For many characters that would have been a lethal situation (we had a MP run not long ago where that proved to be the case), but I was able to activate Defensive Stance and equip the Defender of Easthaven for the first time - pushing physical resistance up to 90%. I also had the Shadow Dragon Armor on to reduce damage from acid breath and attacked using Blackrazor for the first time - quickly reducing the dragon's levels as a result. Blackrazor also provided a bit of healing meaning I was never actually in trouble in the fight.
I whipped through the lair, sub-contracting to Bondari for the eyestalk, to get to Abazigal's cave. The salamanders were all killed there before activating the dragon and I then spent a while throwing axes at his human form to persuade him to change. As soon as he did so I activated Vhailor's Helm and used the simmy to put PfM on me as a precaution against a ranged maze attack. Two Grond0s were then far too much for the dragon to handle.
Back in the Pocket Plane I fully upgraded the FoA before the simmy got another workout when helping to overcome a different Grond0 clone.
The third challenge just required Defensive Stance and melee, as did the fourth - though I added the Gargoyle Boots for that.
That completed today's hour - I will have to try to remember to forge the BMU next time when I return to Amkethran.
Dwarven defender L40, 234 HPs, 1,472 kills (+535 in BG1)
A 5th attempt came to a halt just before I got to level 4 when I failed to notice one of the Army lose line of sight on a blinded Karlat behind a pillar and run up next to him - to be promptly chunked.
For this attempt today I've been trying to be patient and avoid taking on any battles without decent rewards. I haven't had total success with that, but progress so far has been decent: - tanked Shoal with the familiar. - activated a single gnoll to attack Drizzt (that's easy to do if you approach with the familiar, as that will activate the gnolls without them having any tendency to attack the familiar). I had also done that in the 5th attempt while I was having Christmas dinner and found the gnoll still managed to carve through his 350+ HPs without breaking its halberd. This one though was not so lucky and perhaps a couple of hours or so later I was able to collect the 12k for Drizzt to get an easy second level.
- blinded and shot down all the basilisks in Mutamin's area, getting up to level 3 in the process.
The mage was tackled by Korax and Kirian & co were charmed by Algernon's cloak. - charmed and killed the Beregost temple sirines (though Enya was taken down to a single HP during that when I was slow to react to a gibberling ambush when trying to rest).
- picked up the Ring of Wizardry and the piercing girdle on the way to return Tenya's bowl (level 4).
- grabbed Dushai's ring.
There have been several slight bits of carelessness so far, resulting in injuries - but no deaths to date. HPs are good this run, which helps provide a small amount of insurance against the expectation of further mistakes .
Quick update on my series of hapless random characters:
Sylvia the half-elf fighter/druid died from spider poison early in the run. When she looked in her pouch for an antidote potion, none were there... and she couldn't outrun the damage.
Fiona the true-neutral solo half-elf fighter/mage looked like she'd be giving Sarevok a real fight, but unfortunately, she talked to Tamoko in the Undercity. (I thought I could talk her out of battle; thus failed to buff.) Fiona wasn't quick enough on the draw and Tamoko nailed her with an Emotion: Hopelessness spell... not good. Sarevok proceeded to launch a war against Amn, unopposed.
Currently up: Helmo Snell, a chaotic evil hafling assassin. He's traveling with Viconia and Eldoth (for a max party size of three.) So far, the run's been a mixed bag. Before recruiting Eldoth, Helmo went to get Edwin. But their conversation didn't go well and the mage marched off in a huff. Later, Helmo styled the bandit camp, killing the entire tent party with only traps. But the party is struggling to find enough gold and to find places to rest where the Flaming Fist won't bother them. All of Beregost is pretty much off-limits at this point (just because of one time entering the city with a reputation of 3). And the party just got ambushed by SCS spiders in the Cloakwood, resulting in a major loss of magic items. (I should have sacrificed a few potions of freedom. Instead, the spiders webbed and killed both Viconia and Eldoth. Helmo couldn't carry all of their goodies and their bodies back to the temple. He had to leave many things behind, including a wand of monster summoning, a wand of lightning, a wand of fireball and a wand of fear... But Helmo don't care.
@Blind_Visionary Yikes! Your runs sounds rough. Incidentally, in vanilla anyways, not sure on EE, but in vanilla, if you get your rep high enough the ambushes in cities stop. Thus, once you get enough gold, go to Beregost Temple and donate. If I remember right, reputation of 6 stops the ambushes. Good luck in your run!
I duly forged some Big Metal equipment, before talking to Saemon in Amkethran. He took me into the monastery, where I ignored the defenders in the courtyard and nipped into the palace before they could attack. Balthazar wasn't much of a threat, given that I was immune to crushing damage - and he wasn't.
The game crashed on first killing him, but doing that again was no problem.
For the 5th challenge I dug into my backpack to get the reflection shield - only to find it wasn't there. That was a significant blow as I had been intending to make use of it in the final battles with Mel, but it wasn't really a problem for the Ravager - rather than running round throwing missiles, I just stood still against him while Defensive Stance and regeneration kept HPs up.
For the battles at the Throne I buffed up before entering and attacked. There was another immediate nasty surprise when the text reported Mel was unaffected by the FoA (though in retrospect I do vaguely remember the upgraded version of that being reported as bugged). After surviving a time stop thanks to high physical resistance I switched to Soul Reaver to nerf Mel's attacks. A couple of GWWs meant she struggled to hit and I kept just banging away at her until she'd had enough.
A switch to standard plate and missile weapons then dealt with Yan-C-Bin.
Mel's second incarnation got similar treatment, although a series of 3 critical hits in a row from her at one point took me below 100 HPs before she ran again.
As Cryonax fell the hour mark ticked over, but I decided to finish the contest anyway.
That contest nearly finished quickly when Mel's 3rd incarnation used maze (I always struggle to remember their different abilities). My final PfM scroll sorted that out and protected against further spamming of the spell.
Mel managed to hang around a long time at near death doing more damage to me and I eventually had to retreat in order to activate her departure.
After regenerating, I summoned some elementals and then brought out my simmy. The elementals provided a momentary distraction for the simmy to attack the solar and it successfully dealt with that using a couple of GWWs with K'logarath.
Annoyingly, I didn't kill the alu-fiend quickly enough after that though and the simmy got charmed - I had been hoping it would have stuck around for the start of the final battle with Mel.
For her final incarnation I switched tactics to using the Big Metal Rod to keep a stream of damage going from the pulse ammunition. That helped disrupt a number of her spells and once her attempt to heal herself failed the end wasn't long in coming.
Congratulations @Grond0 ! It's about time we get a dwarven defender into the hall. Seems like the "only playing one hour at a time"-strategy is really working for you!
Great job @Grond0! I agree with @Enuhal. It appears your rule kept you well in control of things (for example with the timely read PfMagic scroll when a Maze was heading your way). Congratulations!
After boosting reputation into double figures the Army went down to Nashkel to rest. With Bhaal CLW duly learned they headed off to Durlag's Tower - doing well to all survive a hobgoblin ambush on the way.
The exterior was cleared with magic missiles, blindness and invisible blockers before heading inside. There was one slight oddity in doing that when I made use of Dazzler's breath weapon to try and finish off a battle horror. I had tested beforehand that another invisible character could bypass Dazzler on a narrow strip and block the battle horror - necessary as the breath weapon imposes a short period of inaction on the user. However, that period of inaction proved to be not just an inability to give commands, but actually a period of stasis - meaning Dazzler couldn't be bumped aside the fraction necessary to allow the other character to get past. I had suspected that might happen though and Succour got up just in time to make Dazzler invisible before the battle horror could land a (probably fatal) blow.
Inside the Tower, they worked their way through the ghasts. There was another close shave there when one of them ran out of missiles and went in to melee a blinded ghast - fortunately saving against a hit before retreating. However, they did then have a first death when I was slow to react to stupid pathfinding (trying to move several characters at once along a narrow corridor resulting in them going in the wrong direction past a blinded ghast).
After returning from the temple, the Army got the XP for the basilisks on the roof. Iluse and his familiar were the only ones to dare the trap to get out onto the roof - with Iluse then staying invisible while the familiar nibbled all the basilisks to death.
That put another level in sight and that came closer after Silke was charmed and demonstrated the power of magic
before the final spider set her up for the kill. The remaining XP required was got at High Hedge by pulling golems into an invisible cage - this time they failed to demonstrate the reach needed to harm anyone from in there.
Now at level 5 the Army set about improving their reputation before buying more spells. They had to survive another tricky skeleton archer ambush,
but were rewarded by shortly afterwards restoring Melicamp.
Succour's new web spell made finishing off blinded creatures much easier and chromatic orb now also stunned victims, providing an opportunity for quick damage. That allowed them to do all the main encounters in the Cloud Peaks quite quickly, without much problem, and pushed reputation up to 20.
Season's greetings and congratulations to the peerless Grond0 . An update on Lyran's progress through a heavily tweaked SCS installation with some difficulty reductions & many mods.
I left off in Spellhold, and we made smooth progress through the Sahaugin City (helping the King) and the Underdark. I declined to release the imprisoned mage as the lich has previously caused problems, cleared the beholders & Kuo-Toans while voiding the Illithid lair, and followed the path of the Xulaye mod while swapping out dragon eggs. I was mildly disappointed that the ending for that didn't have any extra betrayals or Demon Lord related stuff though. Then to the surface...
Where we killed multiple leftover dragons, alhoons etc.
And dealt with some old debts, such as Lord Coprinth's insolence and the infernal knights of the Radiant Heart.
Though oddly we were stalked by some of the witnesses for a while....
Bodhi was no obstacle to our wrath either... but when we finally popped over to the Elven city karma struck. The avatar of Rillifane was not on his best form and his elven spirits were dispatched in short order by the Rakshasha and Balors that infested the city. I was so surprised and confused that I allowed my concentration to waver... and Verr'sza was immolated on a Balor's sword as a result. I wasn't sure how to treat the death so have left him in a tavern somewhere for now, where he can be recalled by the Fate Spirit if necessary... but he was replaced by Haldamir (Marksman - an archer style kit) for the final battles.
Neither the Tree of Life Irenicus or the Slayer had any answer for several mages flinging breaching spells, a bevy of summons, and some good ranged attacks, and so my first successful completion of SoA with SCS was complete. Sorry for the spotty reporting . Hopefully the new year will see some progress in ToB after a break.
The party sided with Seniyad after it turned Aldeth hadn't told the whole story. Lawful Evil doesn't like being made a fool of. They slew all the spiders and picked up Spider's Bane for Dorn. They left the Druids alone but dealt with Peter of the North, leading them to receive wraith spider egg from a (BGQE) messenger. Halbazzar can enchant it and turn it into an ioun stone that gives free action, a very nice item for Annick.
At the mine entrance Drasus's boots of speed brought him in fron of the party first. He stood no chance against three skeletons and five attacking companions. The others were battled all at the same time, although Rezdan retreated for some reason after charming Rasaad. They overpowered Kysus thanks to their many elemental attacks.
Dorn has bolts of biting, Rasaad his special fire based attacks, Vicky Ashideena, Shar-Teel Varscona, and Annick her frozen fists. And Eldoth, wearer of the gauntlets of dexterity, can chip in with acid arrows while song-twisting. Genthore and Rezdan (who got poisoned by Rasaad's darts of wounding) perished shortly after Kysus.
Inside the mine, some of Hareishan's guards turned out to have poisoned arrows. Together with the ice arrow launching black talons and the melee grunts, they injured Dorn and especially Shar-Teel quite badly before they fell.
Natasha couldn't handle another elemental assault,
and the Ogre Mage was Commanded and slain within the round. He dropped a katana +1, pretty nice.
My usual strategy with Davaeorn is to disarm/trigger traps, kill the battle horrors, wait for him to be surrounded by his own guards and attack with fireballs/explosives. This time however, he teleported to the party before the second battle horror was slain. His invocations can be dangerous, but rather than chugging all emergency potions the companions took a reactionary approach. Davaeorn opted twice for Cone of Cold. Spreading up in the room and swapping the boots of the north and Gorion's belt around, allowed the party to mitigate most damage. With 11-12 missiles coming his way every round, the wizard was quickly defeated.
Baldur's Gate
Just outside the city wall the party exacted revenge for Dorn on Simmeon, secuing a second golden girdle, a suit of elven chain and Albruin. More useful items followed soon after. Viconia got the best upgrades: ogre power gauntlets (after Eldoth stunned Desreta with his wand), the shield of the fallen stars, and the helm and cloak (for 90% MR) of Balduran. Dorn donned the helm of glory for a slight AC boost after its former owner Jardak had been paralyzed by Eldoth and slain by the party. Arrows of dispelling and detonation were bought for Eldoth (the party's only archer). And a (Rogue Rebalancing) returning frost dart became Rasaad's ranged weapon. Annick took Ramazith's guard's ring after the wizard, like other wizards before him, succumbed to a barrage of elemental missiles. With that ring, the claw of kazgaroth, amulet of spell warding, and cloak of displacement her saves are now: 7/4/5/6/3. With her innate Blur those saves go down by 1. So stone form / invulnerability potions and/or spell buffs can easily get her saves into the negatives.
Rasaad's dealings with Dark Moon Monks provided an interesting side adventure. The battles weren't very challenging, as was to be expected from monks at BG1 levels. But the role-playing questions were interesting for someone who's just not capable of throwing all role-playing considerations in the waste basket. How are Annick and Viconia going to help Rasaad take down their fellow Sharrans? Her clandestine training by Hemma in Candlekeep taught Annick the ways of the dark goddess, fostering strength and discipline while hardening her heart (as the character bio states). But it was Gorion's demise at the hands of a powerful warrior right at the beginning of her adventuring career that sealed the deal. Annick's world is 'red in tooth and claw'. Vengeful nihilism is her driving force and Shar recognizes it. Annick's only lawful insofar as she's disciplined in her monastic practice. Annick consorts with Rasaad because she sees strength in him and potential. She hopes to convince him to cast aside his beliefs. And she has no qualms about killing the Dark Moon cultists. If they're that weak they don't even deserve the name of Dark Moon monks. As Viconia observes: one must cull the weak to thrive. The game actually gives plenty of dialogue options and good interjections by Viconia to do this quest in a credible way:
The spoils are great of course: special Thac0 gauntlets and the big-fisted belt for Rasaad, making him a legit frontliner. The story is heart-breaking: more poignant imo than that of Charname and Sarevok.
With Eldoth's dispelling arrows, mage battles, like with Sunin, became even more straightforward.
The companions used Degrodel's minions to test if their prowess against martial foes matched their mage-killing ability. They were fought in two batches outside the house. Annick and Rasaad succesfuly contributed in melee.
Another side adveture worth mentioning is Kahrk, who was sought out for completonist purposes. He managed to affect Eldoth, Rasaad, Shar-Teel, and Dorn with his Chaos spells. Shar-Teel was an accident, I think I had paused to have her enrage, but then had her walk before she could actually enrage. She was later also charmed. The others were bad luck / underestimations of the AoE of Chaos. There was also some good luck for the party though: confused Eldoth critically hit Kahrk with an arrow of dispelling from melee range.
Kahrk slew Eldoth after it, but Vicky and Annick finished the ogre mage off with their wands of the heavens and a Vampiric Touch.
As confused Dorn slew Poe, the party had donated gold at the church of Helm and did all remaining reputation quests (four I think).
Iron Throne
The battle with the Irone Throne acolytes was quite straight forward. The companions appeared on the left-hand side and opened with four necklace fireballs, an oil of fiery burning, and one wand fireball, killing he doppelganger, Naaman, Alai, Diyab, and one Shennara.
As the 2nd, invisible Shennara was attacking, the party then descended the stairs. Zhalimar, Gardush, and Shennara followed them. Vicky cast her innate Confusion which affected Shennara, who proceeded to backstab Zhalimar.
The companions then focused fire on Gardush (the hardest hitting enemy of the three), Zhalimar, and Shennara. Upstairs Aasim (wand of the heavens) and Thaldorn were taken care of. Thaldorn was first charmed and confessed everything the Iron Throne had done.
Candlekeep
Rieltar was charmed, and he too confessed his and the Iron Throne's doings. He helped out against his own cohorts before he was executed. Below Candlekeep Annick got her final stat upgrades, with that sweet 19 STR making a big difference. In the caves, invisible Viconia disarmed the four traps, summoned three skeletons and buffed the party with PfE, Chant, and Defesive Harmony. Dorn contributed with a Bless, and Annic cast Blur on herself. The party then approached Prat & Co very aggressively. Vicky opened with a Confusion that affected Bor and invisible Prat. Two skeletons occupied themselves with Bor. Eldoth hit Sakul with an arrow of dispelling. And the wizard fell soon after thanks to 19 STR critical hit with her throwing dagger.
Shar-Teel and the third skeleton took care of Tam, and Prat revealed himself, attacking a skeleton. Still confused, the battlemage put up little resistance.
The companions dealt with the ogre mages (had rushed past them upon arrival), and then traveled to Ulgoth's Beard. They're getting ready for the tales of the Sword Coast.
Buying spells and a couple of Robes of the Archmagi used up all the Army's hard won gold. To address that they went ankheg hunting using web and blindness - not only recovering the treasure from their nest, but numerous valuable shells as well. They did though have another death when investigating the final encounter spot. The text reported an ankheg attacking and Dazzler duly went invisible to leave it stranded on the surface. Succour then came up to cast web on it prior to blinding it - only to find another ankheg had activated from somewhere and surfaced right next to him. Fortunately he was only killed and not chunked.
Potions were used to give a decent chance of learning spells and everyone now had something useful at levels 2 and 3 in addition to 1.
I went to try and sort out Bassilus, but made the mistake of trying to talk to him with the familiar while everyone else was invisible. That resulted in no valid responses and he wouldn't then do any more talking either. I then spent a while charming and disposing of his undead companions. Travelling to avoid a rest ambush during that triggered another skeleton ambush. That included a maximum damage critical of 32 from an archer - that would have killed any of the party, other than Iluse himself who managed to shrug it off. When they finally attacked Bassilus he was blinded and all his spells were disrupted before he was finally held at near death.
Moving on to the Lighthouse the sirines were individually charmed and pulled away. Rather than be worn down against enemies they were just blinded and tanked by the familiar - even if feebleminded an individual sirine doesn't do enough damage to pose a problem for it in melee. Inside the pirate cave the golems were invisibly caged - but this time with both a +1 and +3 staff attacking, it only took half the time to finish those off.
The party were pushing up towards their 6th level by this time and I'd saved the game last night with everyone ready to travel invisibly back to Nashkel - that was important as the route they would go on has a chance of an ogre mage ambush. Starting a new session in the early morning though I had a bit of a brain fade and decided it would be a good idea when an ambush occurred for the familiar to tempt the ogre mage out of hiding. I had in mind that the chance of the familiar being killed by an Acid Arrow was very low, while the chance of the ogre mage being blinded by one of the 6 spells coming at it in retaliation was very high (and if that failed I could run away). In the unmodded game that would have been a reasonable strategy, but I realized only at the last moment that the SCS ogre mage could well start the combat with a chromatic orb - and the odds of surviving that were nothing like as favorable ...
Micro-update for Coremage the human berserker Traveling with: Ajantis, Khalid, Imoen, Garrick, Jaheira
We've cleared non-TotSC areas pre-chapter 4. We are about to venture into the Cloakwood. The party managed to stay in one piece. We even used Garrick for some pick-pocketing to get the free action ring from Dushai. While we were in Ulgoth's Beard we also pick-pocketed Shandalar, and we beat the odds this time. The party is about level 6. One thing unusual is that since Ajantis and Coremage are the frontlines, I have Khald use the longbow from the bandit camp and this is working out quite well. Garrick is rapid firing his crossbow of speed, Jaheira her sling, and Imoen her +1 shortbow.
Will keep it.
EDIT: We have cleared up to level 2 of the Cloakwood Mines. For Cloakwood Area 2, I had Imoen go invisible (via potion) and attempt to de-trap all the traps I could remember. She did managed to trip a few, so was a little waiting there. Cloakwood Area 3 was pretty smooth, except for the Arch druid battle. Coremage got hit with rigid thinking, so the party waited outside until that wore off. But it's funny because Coremage could have just enraged to prevent that... In Cloakwood Area 4 attempted to block the wyverns with invisible blockers which Grondo used in his arcane army run long time ago, but it didn't work so we had to melee/range after all.
As for Drassus and pals we opened with a lot of fireballs (potions and Garrick's fire wand), but that did not kill all of Drassus buddies. It DID, however, take out the enemy mages, which made Drassus and Genthore pretty easy to deal with by then.
For Cloakwood Mines level 2, attempted to have Ajantis solo Heirashan and her buddies. I thought I had a good plan as Ajantis was protected from fire and lightning, and did a greenstone amulet charge. However, he was dispelled! Ajantis was forced to retreat. This worked out great, however, as the archers got mad at Heirashan using fireballs on them and they started shooting Heirashan and poisoned her!!! We waited until she died, then charged - success! Ghasts in nearby passage were no trouble. However, I had issues with party members being inside each other - took a bit to get them unjumbled.
We will venture into level 3 of the Cloakwood Mines next session...
Helmo Snell (chaotic evil hafling assassin) has just defeated Sarevok (hardcore, SCS) and is now headed to SoD, along with Viconia and Baeloth.
Notable events:
Eldoth got chunked by Davaeorn (cone of cold). Lots of early game loot went with him.
Helmo replaced the hapless bard with Baeloth. (Under current SCS NPC leveling behavior, you get to have the sorceror add more spells to his book than normally warranted. Maybe double. He's OP. But Helmo needed help and Edwin was not available)
Helmo didn't like the way Duke Eltan gave him no choices when investigating the Iron Throne. So after rescuing the duke from dopplegangers, instead of bringing him to the harbormaster as requested, Helmo stuffed him into a bathtub down in the sewers. No telling what happened to the duke down there
Baeloth tried to protect Liia at the coronation with an Otiluke's Sphere scroll. It kept her alive, while Belt died (Sarevok smacked him right before teleporting out). Liia was none too happy when the spell wore off; but somehow she had her normal conversation with the party despite being hostile. Helmo sped out of there while Liia started fighting her own guards. No telling how that turned out
For the final fight, Helmo kept his companions invisible. He took on Sarevok & Co. with dispelling arrows (had just enough), a scroll of protection from magic, and poisoned exploding arrows (learning the hard way that it is possible to poison yourself if too close to the explosion, even under magic protection). No bats survived.
Helmo hoarded tomes. He now has natural 18 str, 20 dex, and 20 con.
The people of Beregost are not sad to see the evil halfling go. (Despite all the gold he donated to the temple, his final reputation ended at 2.)
It's been a while since I've done SoD, and never with an evil character. Last time was on core difficulty; this time it's hardcore. Onward we go!
It's been a while since my last update. Cephalus' run is still going, and I'm going to write two updates today, but it might be quite a while until I will have time to play again. Lots of RL stuff going on right now!
Most of the asylum is no trouble with a few skeleton summons and a PfU scroll at our disposal. Aerial servants and traps help with the potentially dangerous triple clay golem battle:
Soon, we have to face off against Irenicus. While retreating, we take a few shots at him, taking his health down to the point were we only have to wait for his retreat-trigger:
Usually, Irenicus' retreat is delayed until he has summoned clones of the party. Not this time, though: He just retreats before doing anything, Wanev doesn't even get to finish his timestop. Now, the far more dangerous murderers (on these settings, anyway) are about to appear. We don't want to face backstabbing foes, since we have no stoneskins to protect us - so we go invisible and just run away:
It seems like the murderers' KI is smart enough not to go after any summons, only interested in attacking player characters at this point: We know they're here (we've bumped into a few stealthed foes on our way out), but our summons are left in peace.
I've also discovered another interesting AI behaviour: Being invisible during the githyanki attack on Saemon's ship apparently stops the encounter from concluding. Saemon even gets killed here, because his script doesn't kick in:
We have to do a short reveal before the Sahuagin appear. In their city, we mostly make use of our summons and have some fun with The Reflex:
Early on in the Underdark, we get access to our first HLAs. Kaveh takes UAI and will be going for smite + spike traps next. Oedipus starts with fallen deva, UAI and spike traps as well. Cephalus is going to start with smite and GWWs. Smite is a crucial way for us to control the battlefied, especially in those fights were hiding behind a wall of summons isn't possile. If we make it to Mel, it should also be crucial in order to stun her for a short time. Some of our new traps are used to take down the Balor:
Fallen deva, skeleton warriors and the Cloak of Mirroring + cleric buffs allow Cephalus to approach the demon knights without fear:
The elder orb is next - we swap around the Shield of Balduran for a bit, as we are forced to always keep this foe at a safe distance to prevent imprisonment:
No screenshots from the Illithid City - but it wasn't too difficult. We primarily use ranged weapons anyway, chaotic commands are always active at this point, and a protected deva does a great job against the flayers (so do traps, in any case). The death spell helmet (pickpocketed from Vithal) helps with another illithid battle:
We had killed the Underdark party with some well-prepared traps earlier on. Before we can do the remaining drow tasks, the aboleth approaches us. We enter Quile's home invisibly, we get into a good position, summons are used to gain the advantage:
During some drow sidequests, Cephalus actually is in danger for the first time in a while: During the duel with Chalinthra, I didn't notice her mirror physical mirror. Two hits were almost enough for him to commit suicide here, so I have to use a couple of healing potions and switch to melee weapons:
The remaining drow quests are done until we're ready for the ritual. We run past Deirex, out of his line of sight, avoiding his timestop, before sending a fallen deva after him:
We sabotage the ritual and flee the drow city - being invisible allows for Adalon to take down the guards without us getting into danger (there's another backstabber here, after all). We've done a good job of taking almost no hits in Spellhold or the Underdark. Lots of "boring" safety plays, but if the fact that we're down to three party members has taught us anything, it's that these are neccessary in order to survive with meatgrinder settings.
By now, we're doing the old "cc+death ward+PfE 10' radius+remove fear, summon 5 skeletons or 4 skeletons and a deva, send them in, only assist them if we're safe, otherwise stay invisible, use as many traps as possible"-strategy for most battles. If we don't get time to summon, statue summons and additional buffs are required (for example use of our Cephalus' GWWs, the constitution belt, additional defensive items via UAI, improved haste from bracers). We're also about to pick up alchemy and scribe scrolls in order to get an infinite supply of oils of speed and haste scrolls, which should increase our mobility and APR (and those of our summons) whenever neccessary. UAI does provide at least two of our party members with a variety of defensive options, and so far I've been able to always swap in the required defensive items if anything dangerous could've been about to happen. Sadly, Cephalus doesn't have the same item access, but I'm usually extra-careful with him anyway.
We're back from the Underdark - time to hunt down some liches, dragons and the like! The poor city gate lich is in bad shape. As we have already entered his chamber in chapter 2 in order to steal Daystar, his pre-buffs don't fire the second time around, so he is easily slain:
The two dragons just fall to traps. Nothing to see here. Kangaxx' first form is trapped as well, the second killed via PfM + iMoD +2:
The guarded compound party is lured downstairs into traps and summons in small groups. Sunrays and a deva do a great job against Bodhi and her vampires:
The Twisted Rune is next. The lich dies to traps, while, to our surprise, our fallen deva is able to take down the entire remaining group by herself:
We go on to do a big shopping tour around the world, picking up lots of potions and scrolls. There's one encounter we've decided to skip: Coran's house, the one full of mists. It's actually unreasonably deadly for our party and the options at their disposal: The mists can't be lured outside, there's no time to summon, they tend to ignore summons anyway, so statues won't be enough, some of them see through invisibility... there are no safe options to take this place down (well, I guess putting on the Robe of Vecna and waisting a timestop scroll would be relatively safe, but we need these scrolls for ToB), and since there's no relevant reward, I'm not going to take the risk. The other part of the game I plan to skip is WK levels 3-5. No-magic zones, small areas, often no time for preparation? No thank you. There would be very, very useful loot for us down there, but I think WK3 is way too risky (I'd be fine with level 4 and most of level 5, tough). I've though about skipping WK2 as well, because of the electricty room: While we can easily gain immunity to the lightning damage, air elemtals in big numbers throw around crushing damage at range. Combine that with the insane difficullty double damage and our low hitpoint total, and this could be deadly, especially considering that the storms in the room tend to kick the party around for a bit. Still, I decided to do it, thinking that a few traps will certainly help to reduce the danger - and I did succeed, though some healing potions were needed:
The other rooms are easy to clear, and the chromatic demon is highly vulnerable to spike traps:
I wasn't sure he would be, so I had waited for his frost form, with tons of fire damage prepared, but that turned out to be wasted preparation time. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
Now, the elven city. Two spike traps are enough to kill an adamantite golem, which is great for us. The deva, assisted by some Crom Faeyr hits, does the remainder of the work. There is some potential danger here: Saving Demin requires a battle against three rakshasa in an enclosed space with no time to summon - we can't let them use their AoE damage spells, so we use our smites for the first time to stun them right away:
The black dragon is lured into traps. Since we can't just surround and trap him, we do have to prepare for an actual battle, though - especially in case he gets the opportunity to use his breath weapon before taking us down, so we equip our acid protection gear and use three green scrolls (we have bought all we could find throughout the game, for this guy and for Draconis). He does indeed get to breathe once, but only hits our summons:
We make it to the tree and trap Irenicus to death. In hell, all trials are done the good way. Some Shield of Balduran action is required one last time, with the help of some traps, a deva and a safe distance in case of strange things going on:
For the final SoA battle, we lure the spawning demons into traps - two perish, two get killed by our deva and a few ranged weapon attacks. We have a few exta potion buffs and a simmy going for this one. The slayer is quickly found and, surprisingly, pretty much already out of meaningful protections. All we have to do while our deva is tanking are a couple of ranged attacks, and victory is secured:
Now, we look on as the first of the five falls to a few traps and complete the first pocket plane challenge with the help of skeletons, true sight and our oils of speed (I've decided to rest a bunch of times in order to use alchemy and get a few of those ready - they should be almost always active in ToB):
Before stopping play for now, I've also completed the sidequests in Saradush without any trouble. Whenever I get to play next, I'll try to go after Gromnir. Everything from now on will be quite tricky, so wish me luck.
Viper and ?? are stood outside the Burning Wizard tavern. Garrick is beside them, hankering for some assistance. Viper raises our price to 400gp once we encounter Silke but the deed is heinous and we refuse, being forced instead to cut her down. With her out of the way we return a sword to Perdue and move on.
The search for reputation takes us through a xvart village where our darker heritage takes hold, leaving all behind dead. The paths around a gnoll fortress sees more of the same, as do Caldo and Krumm. We relent a bit further on, being bought off with pocket money in return for a drowned cat.
The ankheg nest is revisited with more success than previously. Beregost yields a spider corpse so we go the the Friendly Arm Inn and trade them for some frankly undrinkable green potions. Viper uses his inestimable charm to say the wrong thing to a noble and is asked to leave empty-handed. Viper and ?? briefly confer before using bullets to obtain the golden pantaloons and leave reputation back at 9.
Returning Brage to a temple, then confirming we are not Greywolf help us somewhat. We then give a bloodied amulet back in Beregost and decide 45 minutes is enough for today. No sense planning ahead either, since we would fail to remember it anyway.
I thought I'd have a go at a wild mage following the same routine of limiting play on that to an hour a day. Making progress safely with the wild mage requires a fair amount of patience, so the time restriction should help ration that.
At the start of the session I produced a familiar (that should be the only spell cast for quite a while) and left Candlekeep to: - kite Shoal (level 3).
- kill Algernon for his cloak and pick up gem and scroll containers. - kite an ogre for its belt collection. - return a bowl to Tenya (level 4).
- charm Dushai and move her to a discreet killing ground to get her ring.
That took not much over 20 minutes before I went to see how well some gnolls did in attacking Drizzt (taking my only damage to date from a hobgoblin arrow on the way). I was really only expecting to grab some loot after the gnolls killed Drizzt, as they don't break weapons very often in v2.5. However, in this case one did so fairly early on. It would have seemed rude not to go for the kill after that and I managed the ticklish operation to dispose of all the other gnolls without activating Drizzt. It was then just a question of doing other things until Drizzt was beaten unconscious so I could get his XP (level 5).
There were only 10 minutes left at that point, which saw reputation recover a bit thanks to Ardrouine, Mr Colquetle and Joia. Next time a bit more work will see reputation pushed up to 10 before going to Nashkel to get some healing ability.
After shooting down Bjornin's half-ogres, I got a lift to Nashkel with Brage before talking to Oublek to push reputation into double figures and pick up Bhaal CLW. Some more sling work included rescuing Arabelle on the way to Firewine Bridge where Bentan was charmed and killed by kobolds. Poe was also charmed and killed by Meilum before the latter's bracers were made available by sling shots.
I spent a while charming and successfully disposing of the first 3 sirines at Beregost temple, though the final one was lost to a dog critical.
However, more easy XP was on offer by following Korax round at the basilisk area and a few basilisks soon brought up level 6, with the rest of them also being just enough for level 7.
Mutamin was another paralysis victim, while Kirian and her companions were mainly disposed of using charm - Baerin was the last to go and somewhat dumbfounded by being faced with an unkillable (at least by physical damage) Shar-Teel.
Travelling away from that area a basilisk attempted an ambush, but fortunately started off in melee mode and I could just run away (it would have been safer to have used an invisibility potion immediately, but where's the fun in that ). Moving on to the Lighthouse, the first 2 sirines were charmed and drawn away. The second of those managed to feeblemind the familiar just before it died though and waiting for that to wear off consumed the small amount of time left in the session.
Carrying on work at the Lighthouse, I attempted to charm the 3rd of the group of hostile sirines. That proved troublesome and needed 5 attempts to be successful - and the sirine used up one of its valuable arrows at that point (I like to try and get them all to sell even if I can't use them myself).
Note that the attempts to charm sirines can make use of an oddity of the game engine: that resting is only disabled when enemies are attempting physical combat (and not using other attacking abilities). It's thus possible to inch into view of a sirine, fail to charm it, fall back a step and rest - all before it's finished casting a charm of its own.
The other group of 3 sirines start non-hostile and the first 2 were charmed and disposed of without trouble. Sil was charmed at the 4th attempt - wasting her dire charms in the meantime on the familiar. I cocked up finishing her off though after she was paralyzed by a nearby carrion crawler. I successfully drew that away using the familiar, but then moved further away slightly too quickly away and the crawler turned back and got the kill on Sil just before I could finish her off.
I had no way of dealing with the golems in the cave yet, so went to save Charleston Nib from some crazed diggers - the Doomsayer was something else left for now though. There was more reputation on offer in the Cloud Peak Mountains. All the encounters there were done with charm and sling, though I picked up the frost wand from the Nashkel Mine as a potential alternative. Kiting various things took a while and I found time was up after grabbing the charisma tome at the Gnoll Stronghold. I'll look to do the remaining reputation tasks next time before buying some choice equipment.
Dreadnought is having great difficulty in finishing Secret of Bonehill. The mod has been changed so much that I hardly recognise it. Also, all the wizards seem to have rings that make web useless. Of course this means that I now have more rings of Eventar than I know what to with.
Comments
Merry Christmas to you and all.
Cant remeber which keys goes where. It may be either of these:
1) you need one key:
Avery may have the key, and can be pickpocketed to get it - otherwise you have to do Nadalins quest and kill some salamanders...
2) you need a rusty dagger and a ring:
Visit Haebal and open his desk with the key from area AR9700. The desk holds one and Draagis the other - I think you kill him en route doing Nadalins quest
Hope it makes sense, otherwise Jastey may be able to help you.
I am on my fourth undead hunter attempt. Not doing well
I'm beginning to think that if no-one cane tell me where to find Haebel that I'll have to use the console and create him
The walkthrough says that he should be in Larswood. I haven't been able to find him there.
I'm wondering if he got killed with a fireball when I was fighting some goblins and I never found the body, or something similar.
Sorry. AR9700 is an odd number for the area just south of Beregost.
There is a tree (by the Lake??) just by the road - the key is in the tree
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032457/#Comment_1032457
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032927/#Comment_1032927
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033210/#Comment_1033210
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033397/#Comment_1033397
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033645/#Comment_1033645
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033891/#Comment_1033891
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034225/#Comment_1034225
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034519/#Comment_1034519
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034736/#Comment_1034736
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034865/#Comment_1034865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035101/#Comment_1035101
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035456/#Comment_1035456
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035865/#Comment_1035865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036079/#Comment_1036079
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036305/#Comment_1036305
Starting the session I went invisibly into Gromnir's throne room - providing the opportunity to kill both mages while they were trying to cast true sight.
I used a PfU scroll on the way to find Nyalee and moved on to the Fire Temple. I used invisibility there to avoid most of the fighting while going upstairs to get the hearts - though I couldn't resist trying the Wave out for the first time on Imix.
I stopped off at the Oasis just long enough for a question and Answerer session with Jamis.
Moving on to Sendai's Enclave, a GWW sorted out the Woodcutter before he could react. I went invisible and ran in to find Thelynn'ss who got the same treatment before Odamaron became a first victim for my new flying axe.
Having just written above about the problems with K'logarath I got a taste of that after killing Diaytha. Trying to GWW the demon knight I auto-followed him when he was knocked back and activated the vampire without having changed weapons - being drained as a result.
There were no further problems getting through to Sendai (though there were more than I expected just getting that far
Dwarven defender L40, 234 HPs, 1,410 kills (+535 in BG1)
I must have spoken to Haebal without noticing his name.
He is supposed to be also in Solitary Valley, an area that I haven't come across yet. I think that's later perhaps.
I have a bug in Larswood so that could be part of my problem. In the Osmadi encounter. Every time I killed him the game crashed. I don't know if that is anything to do with my problems as I still don't have the book for entering Candlekeep even after entering that area that was inaccessible before.
Completing this mod is certainly not easy. Maybe it gets easier with time.
BG1: 1
Becoming an Experienced War Party
The next stage in Annick's story consisted in securing some more prizes and testing her mettle against more powerful monsters than those encountered before.
Neira was Commanded by Viconia and didn't survive the ensuing onslaught. Individual ankhegs failed to pose a threat to meleers Shar-Teel, Dorn, and Rasaad (wolf form), backed by Viconia and Annick's missiles and Eldoth's song.
Shoal the Nereid killed Rasaad with her kiss, but agreed to restore the Sun Soul Monk when pressured by the party. They retreated quickly, allowing Rasaad to heal, even though they ran straight into three ghouls. Viconia Commanded Droth, and the party ensured he would not get back on his feet. The companions also slew whimsical Shoal, just to make sure she wouldn't try anything stupid.
Rasaad was then given some time to contemplate on his death experience, and Kivan came on board, triggering the BG1 NPC Project Jozzi Seasnake encounter. With Annick's wand of sleep for two sahuagin archers and a Command by Viconia for the sahuagin leader, the enemy stood no chance, and Annick earned herself a returning throwing dagger +2.
Annick used her new weapon to slay the basilisks in Mutamin's garden, inspired by Eldoth's song. Korax Held Mutamin, so the gnome and all basilisks fell withou putting up much of a fight.
The same can be said of Kirian and her party. Viconia healed Korax and ainmated two skeletons. Annick interrupted Peter's casting with a wand of the heavens before ranged attcks finished him off, and Korax and the skeletons meleed Kirian together with an enraged Shar-Teel.
A visit to Durlag's tower saw Eldoth finish three battle horrors with wand scorchers, while Viconia's undead dealt with three greater basilisks. Meilum gave his gauntlets and his life in a hopeless battle against the party, and nine sirines (thanks to skeletons, Barbarian rage, and Dorn's helm of charm protection), three flesh golems, and countless Ulcaster dread wolves furthered the party's experience without any upsets. This is the party in front of a pile of dread wolves.
Dealing with the Iron Crisis and Rampant Banditry
Vicky stole a ring of free action and several scrolls and potions in Ulgoth's Beard before the party finally ventured into the Nashkel Mines. The spiders' corner was used to lure the kobold chieftain, shaman, and henchmen to the party. The shaman wasn't much of a threat thanks to Eldoth's song, but the chieftain could cause a lot of trouble with his poisoned arrows. However, forced to melee, they were easy pickings.
In Mulahey's lair three skeletons, Dorn, and Shar-Teel lingered at the entranceto take care of summoned kobolds and undead, while Vicky, Rasaad and Annick snuck up on Mulahey. Viconia managed to Hold the half-orc before he could cast any spells.
In Nashkel, Viconia failed to Silence Nimbul but she was more successful with an innate Confusion. Once his stoneskins were gone, Shar-Teel killed him with a single critical hit. The barbarian also sealed Tranzig's fate in Beregost after a a barrage of missiles prevented the mage from casting any spells.
On the way to Larswood Molkar and his gang showed up. Dorn's bolt of lightning interrupted Halacan's first spell, and Viconia's Confusion hit both Drakar and Morvin. Shar-Teel dueled Molkar while the others focused on Drakar and Halacan, although Viconia did Hold Molkar for good measure.
The Lamalha ambush followed. This one is trickier than the Molkar ambush due to the two backstabbing thieves. Annick charmed Telka with Algernon's cloak, and Eldoth paralyzed Maneira with his wand. Maneira did manage to go invisible first, forcing Eldoth to burn a scroll of detect invisibility later. Viconia Confused Zeela, and Dorn and Shar-Teel meleed Lamalha with ease. Another compelling victory, although I forgot to attack green-circled Telka, so she actually survived.
Less compelling was the party's handling of the bandits. Annick had sweet-talked Raiken and Tazok to get to explore the camp, but when Annick spoke to Taugosz, Shar-Teel taunted him and it suddenly made the camp go hostile. The companions retreated into the nearest tent.
This screenshot gives an idea of the chaos in the tent.
Edit: I keep forgetting about party stats...
Annick, Dark Moon Monk, level 7, 152 kills (Drizzt)
Rasaad, Sun Soul Monk, level 7, 103 kills (Mustard Jelly), 1 death (Shoal)
Viconia, Nightcloak of Shar/Thief, level 6/6, 33 kills (Shoal), 0 deaths
Eldoth, Skald, level 7, 143 kills (Battle Horror), 0 deaths
Dorn, Blackguard, level 6, 181 kills (Sirine), 0 deaths
Shar-Teel, Barbarian, level 7, 159 kills (Revenant), 0 deaths
Just the book to get into Candlekeep.
I finished off the Grey Clan Episode, an area that is usually quite difficult. However, having done the Drizzt Saga it was straightforward.
Now back in Candlekeep.
The rest of BG1 should be straightforward.
EDIT
Candlekeep was indeed straightforward. What I was not expecting was that Fabio would then transport the party to Restenford!!
I didn't realise that mod was installed.
I suppose that it is all experience.
Perhaps Dreadnought will reach level 9 before his return.
At least I am pretty sure that this mod is bug free.
It's a long time since I did the mod, so I hope that I can remember it well enough.
A quick question though: "Why is Diarmid unkillable upon leaving Candlekeep?
I attacked him. He fled outside and he had hundreds of HPs worth of wounds but he wouldn't die. :puzzled
Neither of the cre files that I found gave him the usual item that maked a character unkillable.
What gives?
Dreadnought has found a wand of cloudkill amongst other items in Restemford. That, along with an intelligence boosting tome are by far the most important item so far.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032457/#Comment_1032457
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032927/#Comment_1032927
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033210/#Comment_1033210
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033397/#Comment_1033397
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033645/#Comment_1033645
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033891/#Comment_1033891
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034225/#Comment_1034225
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034519/#Comment_1034519
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034736/#Comment_1034736
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034865/#Comment_1034865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035101/#Comment_1035101
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035456/#Comment_1035456
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035865/#Comment_1035865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036079/#Comment_1036079
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036305/#Comment_1036305
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036488/#Comment_1036488
I'd decided not to rest before confronting Sendai, in order to take advantage of the PfM scroll used last session. Use of Defensive Stance allowed me to take minimal melee damage and a first use in the run of dispelling arrows helped take down the spellcasters a bit quicker. That meant the scroll was still active when the real Sendai came out to play. She was swiftly dispelled and, with no potential danger from her spells, a single melee GWW was too much for her.
At Abazigal's Lair, I made the mistake of meleeing his human form. The latest version of the EE seems to be much more susceptible to overlapping icons and when Draconis changed he sat on top of me so I couldn't move.
I whipped through the lair, sub-contracting to Bondari for the eyestalk, to get to Abazigal's cave. The salamanders were all killed there before activating the dragon and I then spent a while throwing axes at his human form to persuade him to change. As soon as he did so I activated Vhailor's Helm and used the simmy to put PfM on me as a precaution against a ranged maze attack. Two Grond0s were then far too much for the dragon to handle.
Back in the Pocket Plane I fully upgraded the FoA before the simmy got another workout when helping to overcome a different Grond0 clone.
That completed today's hour - I will have to try to remember to forge the BMU next time when I return to Amkethran.
Dwarven defender L40, 234 HPs, 1,472 kills (+535 in BG1)
A 5th attempt came to a halt just before I got to level 4 when I failed to notice one of the Army lose line of sight on a blinded Karlat behind a pillar and run up next to him - to be promptly chunked.
For this attempt today I've been trying to be patient and avoid taking on any battles without decent rewards. I haven't had total success with that, but progress so far has been decent:
- tanked Shoal with the familiar.
- activated a single gnoll to attack Drizzt (that's easy to do if you approach with the familiar, as that will activate the gnolls without them having any tendency to attack the familiar). I had also done that in the 5th attempt while I was having Christmas dinner and found the gnoll still managed to carve through his 350+ HPs without breaking its halberd. This one though was not so lucky and perhaps a couple of hours or so later I was able to collect the 12k for Drizzt to get an easy second level.
- charmed and killed the Beregost temple sirines (though Enya was taken down to a single HP during that when I was slow to react to a gibberling ambush when trying to rest).
There have been several slight bits of carelessness so far, resulting in injuries - but no deaths to date. HPs are good this run, which helps provide a small amount of insurance against the expectation of further mistakes
Dazzler (Dragon Disciple) - L4, 25 HPs, 11 kills, 0 deaths
Enya (Enchanter) - L4, 223 HPs, 11 kills, 0 deaths
Mazy (Pure-class) - L4, 22 HPs, 7 kills, 0 deaths
Iluse (Illusionist - PC) - L4, 45 HPs (incl. 22 from familiar), 3 kills
Succour (Sorcerer) - L4, 23 HPs, 19 kills, 0 deaths
Destiny (Diviner) - L4, 20 HPs, 5 kills, 0 deaths
Sylvia the half-elf fighter/druid died from spider poison early in the run. When she looked in her pouch for an antidote potion, none were there... and she couldn't outrun the damage.
Fiona the true-neutral solo half-elf fighter/mage looked like she'd be giving Sarevok a real fight, but unfortunately, she talked to Tamoko in the Undercity. (I thought I could talk her out of battle; thus failed to buff.) Fiona wasn't quick enough on the draw and Tamoko nailed her with an Emotion: Hopelessness spell... not good. Sarevok proceeded to launch a war against Amn, unopposed.
Currently up: Helmo Snell, a chaotic evil hafling assassin. He's traveling with Viconia and Eldoth (for a max party size of three.) So far, the run's been a mixed bag. Before recruiting Eldoth, Helmo went to get Edwin. But their conversation didn't go well and the mage marched off in a huff. Later, Helmo styled the bandit camp, killing the entire tent party with only traps. But the party is struggling to find enough gold and to find places to rest where the Flaming Fist won't bother them. All of Beregost is pretty much off-limits at this point (just because of one time entering the city with a reputation of 3). And the party just got ambushed by SCS spiders in the Cloakwood, resulting in a major loss of magic items. (I should have sacrificed a few potions of freedom. Instead, the spiders webbed and killed both Viconia and Eldoth. Helmo couldn't carry all of their goodies and their bodies back to the temple. He had to leave many things behind, including a wand of monster summoning, a wand of lightning, a wand of fireball and a wand of fear... But Helmo don't care.
(Lets see if I can salvage this run)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032457/#Comment_1032457
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1032927/#Comment_1032927
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033210/#Comment_1033210
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033397/#Comment_1033397
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033645/#Comment_1033645
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033891/#Comment_1033891
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034225/#Comment_1034225
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034519/#Comment_1034519
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034736/#Comment_1034736
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034865/#Comment_1034865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035101/#Comment_1035101
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035456/#Comment_1035456
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035865/#Comment_1035865
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036079/#Comment_1036079
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036305/#Comment_1036305
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036488/#Comment_1036488
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1036716/#Comment_1036716
I duly forged some Big Metal equipment, before talking to Saemon in Amkethran. He took me into the monastery, where I ignored the defenders in the courtyard and nipped into the palace before they could attack. Balthazar wasn't much of a threat, given that I was immune to crushing damage - and he wasn't.
For the 5th challenge I dug into my backpack to get the reflection shield - only to find it wasn't there. That was a significant blow as I had been intending to make use of it in the final battles with Mel, but it wasn't really a problem for the Ravager - rather than running round throwing missiles, I just stood still against him while Defensive Stance and regeneration kept HPs up.
For the battles at the Throne I buffed up before entering and attacked. There was another immediate nasty surprise when the text reported Mel was unaffected by the FoA (though in retrospect I do vaguely remember the upgraded version of that being reported as bugged). After surviving a time stop thanks to high physical resistance I switched to Soul Reaver to nerf Mel's attacks. A couple of GWWs meant she struggled to hit and I kept just banging away at her until she'd had enough.
Mel's second incarnation got similar treatment, although a series of 3 critical hits in a row from her at one point took me below 100 HPs before she ran again.
That contest nearly finished quickly when Mel's 3rd incarnation used maze (I always struggle to remember their different abilities). My final PfM scroll sorted that out and protected against further spamming of the spell.
After regenerating, I summoned some elementals and then brought out my simmy. The elementals provided a momentary distraction for the simmy to attack the solar and it successfully dealt with that using a couple of GWWs with K'logarath.
For her final incarnation I switched tactics to using the Big Metal Rod to keep a stream of damage going from the pulse ammunition. That helped disrupt a number of her spells and once her attempt to heal herself failed the end wasn't long in coming.
I agree with @Enuhal. It appears your rule kept you well in control of things (for example with the timely read PfMagic scroll when a Maze was heading your way). Congratulations!
Previous updates:
After boosting reputation into double figures the Army went down to Nashkel to rest. With Bhaal CLW duly learned they headed off to Durlag's Tower - doing well to all survive a hobgoblin ambush on the way.
Inside the Tower, they worked their way through the ghasts. There was another close shave there when one of them ran out of missiles and went in to melee a blinded ghast - fortunately saving against a hit before retreating. However, they did then have a first death when I was slow to react to stupid pathfinding (trying to move several characters at once along a narrow corridor resulting in them going in the wrong direction past a blinded ghast).
After returning from the temple, the Army got the XP for the basilisks on the roof. Iluse and his familiar were the only ones to dare the trap to get out onto the roof - with Iluse then staying invisible while the familiar nibbled all the basilisks to death.
Now at level 5 the Army set about improving their reputation before buying more spells. They had to survive another tricky skeleton archer ambush,
Time for a bit more shopping I think.
Dazzler (Dragon Disciple) - L5, 32 HPs, 29 kills, 0 deaths
Enya (Enchanter) - L5, 27 HPs, 22 kills, 0 deaths
Mazy (Pure-class) - L5, 25 HPs, 20 kills, 0 deaths
Iluse (Illusionist - PC) - L5, 51 HPs (incl. 22 from familiar), 19 kills
Succour (Sorcerer) - L5, 28 HPs, 27 kills, 0 deaths
Destiny (Diviner) - L5, 23 HPs, 26 kills, 1 death
I left off in Spellhold, and we made smooth progress through the Sahaugin City (helping the King) and the Underdark. I declined to release the imprisoned mage as the lich has previously caused problems, cleared the beholders & Kuo-Toans while voiding the Illithid lair, and followed the path of the Xulaye mod while swapping out dragon eggs. I was mildly disappointed that the ending for that didn't have any extra betrayals or Demon Lord related stuff though. Then to the surface...
Where we killed multiple leftover dragons, alhoons etc.
And dealt with some old debts, such as Lord Coprinth's insolence and the infernal knights of the Radiant Heart.
Though oddly we were stalked by some of the witnesses for a while....
Bodhi was no obstacle to our wrath either... but when we finally popped over to the Elven city karma struck. The avatar of Rillifane was not on his best form and his elven spirits were dispatched in short order by the Rakshasha and Balors that infested the city. I was so surprised and confused that I allowed my concentration to waver... and Verr'sza was immolated on a Balor's sword as a result. I wasn't sure how to treat the death so have left him in a tavern somewhere for now, where he can be recalled by the Fate Spirit if necessary... but he was replaced by Haldamir (Marksman - an archer style kit) for the final battles.
Neither the Tree of Life Irenicus or the Slayer had any answer for several mages flinging breaching spells, a bevy of summons, and some good ranged attacks, and so my first successful completion of SoA with SCS was complete. Sorry for the spotty reporting
BG1: 1, 2
Cloakwood
The party sided with Seniyad after it turned Aldeth hadn't told the whole story. Lawful Evil doesn't like being made a fool of. They slew all the spiders and picked up Spider's Bane for Dorn. They left the Druids alone but dealt with Peter of the North, leading them to receive wraith spider egg from a (BGQE) messenger. Halbazzar can enchant it and turn it into an ioun stone that gives free action, a very nice item for Annick.
At the mine entrance Drasus's boots of speed brought him in fron of the party first. He stood no chance against three skeletons and five attacking companions. The others were battled all at the same time, although Rezdan retreated for some reason after charming Rasaad. They overpowered Kysus thanks to their many elemental attacks.
Genthore and Rezdan (who got poisoned by Rasaad's darts of wounding) perished shortly after Kysus.
Inside the mine, some of Hareishan's guards turned out to have poisoned arrows. Together with the ice arrow launching black talons and the melee grunts, they injured Dorn and especially Shar-Teel quite badly before they fell.
My usual strategy with Davaeorn is to disarm/trigger traps, kill the battle horrors, wait for him to be surrounded by his own guards and attack with fireballs/explosives. This time however, he teleported to the party before the second battle horror was slain. His invocations can be dangerous, but rather than chugging all emergency potions the companions took a reactionary approach. Davaeorn opted twice for Cone of Cold. Spreading up in the room and swapping the boots of the north and Gorion's belt around, allowed the party to mitigate most damage. With 11-12 missiles coming his way every round, the wizard was quickly defeated.
Baldur's Gate
Just outside the city wall the party exacted revenge for Dorn on Simmeon, secuing a second golden girdle, a suit of elven chain and Albruin. More useful items followed soon after. Viconia got the best upgrades: ogre power gauntlets (after Eldoth stunned Desreta with his wand), the shield of the fallen stars, and the helm and cloak (for 90% MR) of Balduran. Dorn donned the helm of glory for a slight AC boost after its former owner Jardak had been paralyzed by Eldoth and slain by the party. Arrows of dispelling and detonation were bought for Eldoth (the party's only archer). And a (Rogue Rebalancing) returning frost dart became Rasaad's ranged weapon.
Annick took Ramazith's guard's ring after the wizard, like other wizards before him, succumbed to a barrage of elemental missiles. With that ring, the claw of kazgaroth, amulet of spell warding, and cloak of displacement her saves are now: 7/4/5/6/3. With her innate Blur those saves go down by 1. So stone form / invulnerability potions and/or spell buffs can easily get her saves into the negatives.
Rasaad's dealings with Dark Moon Monks provided an interesting side adventure. The battles weren't very challenging, as was to be expected from monks at BG1 levels. But the role-playing questions were interesting for someone who's just not capable of throwing all role-playing considerations in the waste basket. How are Annick and Viconia going to help Rasaad take down their fellow Sharrans? Her clandestine training by Hemma in Candlekeep taught Annick the ways of the dark goddess, fostering strength and discipline while hardening her heart (as the character bio states). But it was Gorion's demise at the hands of a powerful warrior right at the beginning of her adventuring career that sealed the deal. Annick's world is 'red in tooth and claw'. Vengeful nihilism is her driving force and Shar recognizes it. Annick's only lawful insofar as she's disciplined in her monastic practice.
Annick consorts with Rasaad because she sees strength in him and potential. She hopes to convince him to cast aside his beliefs. And she has no qualms about killing the Dark Moon cultists. If they're that weak they don't even deserve the name of Dark Moon monks. As Viconia observes: one must cull the weak to thrive. The game actually gives plenty of dialogue options and good interjections by Viconia to do this quest in a credible way:
With Eldoth's dispelling arrows, mage battles, like with Sunin, became even more straightforward.
Another side adveture worth mentioning is Kahrk, who was sought out for completonist purposes. He managed to affect Eldoth, Rasaad, Shar-Teel, and Dorn with his Chaos spells. Shar-Teel was an accident, I think I had paused to have her enrage, but then had her walk before she could actually enrage. She was later also charmed. The others were bad luck / underestimations of the AoE of Chaos.
There was also some good luck for the party though: confused Eldoth critically hit Kahrk with an arrow of dispelling from melee range.
Iron Throne
The battle with the Irone Throne acolytes was quite straight forward. The companions appeared on the left-hand side and opened with four necklace fireballs, an oil of fiery burning, and one wand fireball, killing he doppelganger, Naaman, Alai, Diyab, and one Shennara.
Candlekeep
Rieltar was charmed, and he too confessed his and the Iron Throne's doings. He helped out against his own cohorts before he was executed.
Below Candlekeep Annick got her final stat upgrades, with that sweet 19 STR making a big difference. In the caves, invisible Viconia disarmed the four traps, summoned three skeletons and buffed the party with PfE, Chant, and Defesive Harmony. Dorn contributed with a Bless, and Annic cast Blur on herself. The party then approached Prat & Co very aggressively. Vicky opened with a Confusion that affected Bor and invisible Prat. Two skeletons occupied themselves with Bor. Eldoth hit Sakul with an arrow of dispelling. And the wizard fell soon after thanks to 19 STR critical hit with her throwing dagger.
The companions dealt with the ogre mages (had rushed past them upon arrival), and then traveled to Ulgoth's Beard. They're getting ready for the tales of the Sword Coast.
Edit: (again!!)
Party info:
Annick, Dark Moon Monk, level 8, 292 kills (Drizzt)
Rasaad, Sun Soul Monk, level 8, 182 kills (Tuth), 1 death (Shoal)
Viconia, Nightcloak of Shar/Thief, level 7/7, 86 killls (Shoal), 0 deaths
Eldoth, Skald, level 9, 161 kills (Battle Horror), 1 death (Kahrk)
Dorn, Blackguard, level 7, 357 kills (Battle Horror), 0 deaths
Shar-Teel, Barbarian, level 7, 320 kills (Daveorn), 0 deaths
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1037125/#Comment_1037125
Buying spells and a couple of Robes of the Archmagi used up all the Army's hard won gold. To address that they went ankheg hunting using web and blindness - not only recovering the treasure from their nest, but numerous valuable shells as well. They did though have another death when investigating the final encounter spot. The text reported an ankheg attacking and Dazzler duly went invisible to leave it stranded on the surface. Succour then came up to cast web on it prior to blinding it - only to find another ankheg had activated from somewhere and surfaced right next to him. Fortunately he was only killed and not chunked.
Potions were used to give a decent chance of learning spells and everyone now had something useful at levels 2 and 3 in addition to 1.
I went to try and sort out Bassilus, but made the mistake of trying to talk to him with the familiar while everyone else was invisible. That resulted in no valid responses and he wouldn't then do any more talking either. I then spent a while charming and disposing of his undead companions. Travelling to avoid a rest ambush during that triggered another skeleton ambush. That included a maximum damage critical of 32 from an archer - that would have killed any of the party, other than Iluse himself who managed to shrug it off. When they finally attacked Bassilus he was blinded and all his spells were disrupted before he was finally held at near death.
Moving on to the Lighthouse the sirines were individually charmed and pulled away. Rather than be worn down against enemies they were just blinded and tanked by the familiar - even if feebleminded an individual sirine doesn't do enough damage to pose a problem for it in melee. Inside the pirate cave the golems were invisibly caged - but this time with both a +1 and +3 staff attacking, it only took half the time to finish those off.
The party were pushing up towards their 6th level by this time and I'd saved the game last night with everyone ready to travel invisibly back to Nashkel - that was important as the route they would go on has a chance of an ogre mage ambush. Starting a new session in the early morning though I had a bit of a brain fade and decided it would be a good idea when an ambush occurred for the familiar to tempt the ogre mage out of hiding. I had in mind that the chance of the familiar being killed by an Acid Arrow was very low, while the chance of the ogre mage being blinded by one of the 6 spells coming at it in retaliation was very high (and if that failed I could run away). In the unmodded game that would have been a reasonable strategy, but I realized only at the last moment that the SCS ogre mage could well start the combat with a chromatic orb - and the odds of surviving that were nothing like as favorable ...
Traveling with: Ajantis, Khalid, Imoen, Garrick, Jaheira
We've cleared non-TotSC areas pre-chapter 4. We are about to venture into the Cloakwood. The party managed to stay in one piece. We even used Garrick for some pick-pocketing to get the free action ring from Dushai. While we were in Ulgoth's Beard we also pick-pocketed Shandalar, and we beat the odds this time. The party is about level 6. One thing unusual is that since Ajantis and Coremage are the frontlines, I have Khald use the longbow from the bandit camp and this is working out quite well. Garrick is rapid firing his crossbow of speed, Jaheira her sling, and Imoen her +1 shortbow.
Will keep it.
EDIT:
We have cleared up to level 2 of the Cloakwood Mines. For Cloakwood Area 2, I had Imoen go invisible (via potion) and attempt to de-trap all the traps I could remember. She did managed to trip a few, so was a little waiting there. Cloakwood Area 3 was pretty smooth, except for the Arch druid battle. Coremage got hit with rigid thinking, so the party waited outside until that wore off. But it's funny because Coremage could have just enraged to prevent that...
As for Drassus and pals we opened with a lot of fireballs (potions and Garrick's fire wand), but that did not kill all of Drassus buddies. It DID, however, take out the enemy mages, which made Drassus and Genthore pretty easy to deal with by then.
For Cloakwood Mines level 2, attempted to have Ajantis solo Heirashan and her buddies. I thought I had a good plan as Ajantis was protected from fire and lightning, and did a greenstone amulet charge. However, he was dispelled! Ajantis was forced to retreat. This worked out great, however, as the archers got mad at Heirashan using fireballs on them and they started shooting Heirashan and poisoned her!!! We waited until she died, then charged - success! Ghasts in nearby passage were no trouble. However, I had issues with party members being inside each other - took a bit to get them unjumbled.
We will venture into level 3 of the Cloakwood Mines next session...
Notable events:
It's been a while since I've done SoD, and never with an evil character. Last time was on core difficulty; this time it's hardcore. Onward we go!
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
Update 5: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1031786/#Comment_1031786
Update 6: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033031/#Comment_1033031
Update 7: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033340/#Comment_1033340
Update 8: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034874/#Comment_1034874
Update 9: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035114/#Comment_1035114
Update 10: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035699/#Comment_1035699
Update 11: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035983/#Comment_1035983
It's been a while since my last update. Cephalus' run is still going, and I'm going to write two updates today, but it might be quite a while until I will have time to play again. Lots of RL stuff going on right now!
Most of the asylum is no trouble with a few skeleton summons and a PfU scroll at our disposal. Aerial servants and traps help with the potentially dangerous triple clay golem battle:
Soon, we have to face off against Irenicus. While retreating, we take a few shots at him, taking his health down to the point were we only have to wait for his retreat-trigger:
Usually, Irenicus' retreat is delayed until he has summoned clones of the party. Not this time, though: He just retreats before doing anything, Wanev doesn't even get to finish his timestop. Now, the far more dangerous murderers (on these settings, anyway) are about to appear. We don't want to face backstabbing foes, since we have no stoneskins to protect us - so we go invisible and just run away:
It seems like the murderers' KI is smart enough not to go after any summons, only interested in attacking player characters at this point: We know they're here (we've bumped into a few stealthed foes on our way out), but our summons are left in peace.
I've also discovered another interesting AI behaviour: Being invisible during the githyanki attack on Saemon's ship apparently stops the encounter from concluding. Saemon even gets killed here, because his script doesn't kick in:
We have to do a short reveal before the Sahuagin appear. In their city, we mostly make use of our summons and have some fun with The Reflex:
Early on in the Underdark, we get access to our first HLAs. Kaveh takes UAI and will be going for smite + spike traps next. Oedipus starts with fallen deva, UAI and spike traps as well. Cephalus is going to start with smite and GWWs. Smite is a crucial way for us to control the battlefied, especially in those fights were hiding behind a wall of summons isn't possile. If we make it to Mel, it should also be crucial in order to stun her for a short time. Some of our new traps are used to take down the Balor:
Fallen deva, skeleton warriors and the Cloak of Mirroring + cleric buffs allow Cephalus to approach the demon knights without fear:
The elder orb is next - we swap around the Shield of Balduran for a bit, as we are forced to always keep this foe at a safe distance to prevent imprisonment:
No screenshots from the Illithid City - but it wasn't too difficult. We primarily use ranged weapons anyway, chaotic commands are always active at this point, and a protected deva does a great job against the flayers (so do traps, in any case). The death spell helmet (pickpocketed from Vithal) helps with another illithid battle:
We had killed the Underdark party with some well-prepared traps earlier on. Before we can do the remaining drow tasks, the aboleth approaches us. We enter Quile's home invisibly, we get into a good position, summons are used to gain the advantage:
During some drow sidequests, Cephalus actually is in danger for the first time in a while: During the duel with Chalinthra, I didn't notice her mirror physical mirror. Two hits were almost enough for him to commit suicide here, so I have to use a couple of healing potions and switch to melee weapons:
The remaining drow quests are done until we're ready for the ritual. We run past Deirex, out of his line of sight, avoiding his timestop, before sending a fallen deva after him:
We sabotage the ritual and flee the drow city - being invisible allows for Adalon to take down the guards without us getting into danger (there's another backstabber here, after all). We've done a good job of taking almost no hits in Spellhold or the Underdark. Lots of "boring" safety plays, but if the fact that we're down to three party members has taught us anything, it's that these are neccessary in order to survive with meatgrinder settings.
By now, we're doing the old "cc+death ward+PfE 10' radius+remove fear, summon 5 skeletons or 4 skeletons and a deva, send them in, only assist them if we're safe, otherwise stay invisible, use as many traps as possible"-strategy for most battles. If we don't get time to summon, statue summons and additional buffs are required (for example use of our Cephalus' GWWs, the constitution belt, additional defensive items via UAI, improved haste from bracers). We're also about to pick up alchemy and scribe scrolls in order to get an infinite supply of oils of speed and haste scrolls, which should increase our mobility and APR (and those of our summons) whenever neccessary.
UAI does provide at least two of our party members with a variety of defensive options, and so far I've been able to always swap in the required defensive items if anything dangerous could've been about to happen. Sadly, Cephalus doesn't have the same item access, but I'm usually extra-careful with him anyway.
The next update will feature the SoA endgame.
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
Update 5: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1031786/#Comment_1031786
Update 6: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033031/#Comment_1033031
Update 7: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1033340/#Comment_1033340
Update 8: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1034874/#Comment_1034874
Update 9: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035114/#Comment_1035114
Update 10: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035699/#Comment_1035699
Update 11: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1035983/#Comment_1035983
Update 12: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1038285/#Comment_1038285
We're back from the Underdark - time to hunt down some liches, dragons and the like! The poor city gate lich is in bad shape. As we have already entered his chamber in chapter 2 in order to steal Daystar, his pre-buffs don't fire the second time around, so he is easily slain:
The two dragons just fall to traps. Nothing to see here. Kangaxx' first form is trapped as well, the second killed via PfM + iMoD +2:
The guarded compound party is lured downstairs into traps and summons in small groups. Sunrays and a deva do a great job against Bodhi and her vampires:
The Twisted Rune is next. The lich dies to traps, while, to our surprise, our fallen deva is able to take down the entire remaining group by herself:
We go on to do a big shopping tour around the world, picking up lots of potions and scrolls. There's one encounter we've decided to skip: Coran's house, the one full of mists. It's actually unreasonably deadly for our party and the options at their disposal: The mists can't be lured outside, there's no time to summon, they tend to ignore summons anyway, so statues won't be enough, some of them see through invisibility... there are no safe options to take this place down (well, I guess putting on the Robe of Vecna and waisting a timestop scroll would be relatively safe, but we need these scrolls for ToB), and since there's no relevant reward, I'm not going to take the risk.
The other part of the game I plan to skip is WK levels 3-5. No-magic zones, small areas, often no time for preparation? No thank you. There would be very, very useful loot for us down there, but I think WK3 is way too risky (I'd be fine with level 4 and most of level 5, tough). I've though about skipping WK2 as well, because of the electricty room: While we can easily gain immunity to the lightning damage, air elemtals in big numbers throw around crushing damage at range. Combine that with the insane difficullty double damage and our low hitpoint total, and this could be deadly, especially considering that the storms in the room tend to kick the party around for a bit. Still, I decided to do it, thinking that a few traps will certainly help to reduce the danger - and I did succeed, though some healing potions were needed:
The other rooms are easy to clear, and the chromatic demon is highly vulnerable to spike traps:
I wasn't sure he would be, so I had waited for his frost form, with tons of fire damage prepared, but that turned out to be wasted preparation time. Oh well, better safe than sorry.
Now, the elven city. Two spike traps are enough to kill an adamantite golem, which is great for us. The deva, assisted by some Crom Faeyr hits, does the remainder of the work. There is some potential danger here: Saving Demin requires a battle against three rakshasa in an enclosed space with no time to summon - we can't let them use their AoE damage spells, so we use our smites for the first time to stun them right away:
The black dragon is lured into traps. Since we can't just surround and trap him, we do have to prepare for an actual battle, though - especially in case he gets the opportunity to use his breath weapon before taking us down, so we equip our acid protection gear and use three green scrolls (we have bought all we could find throughout the game, for this guy and for Draconis). He does indeed get to breathe once, but only hits our summons:
We make it to the tree and trap Irenicus to death. In hell, all trials are done the good way. Some Shield of Balduran action is required one last time, with the help of some traps, a deva and a safe distance in case of strange things going on:
For the final SoA battle, we lure the spawning demons into traps - two perish, two get killed by our deva and a few ranged weapon attacks. We have a few exta potion buffs and a simmy going for this one. The slayer is quickly found and, surprisingly, pretty much already out of meaningful protections. All we have to do while our deva is tanking are a couple of ranged attacks, and victory is secured:
Now, we look on as the first of the five falls to a few traps and complete the first pocket plane challenge with the help of skeletons, true sight and our oils of speed (I've decided to rest a bunch of times in order to use alchemy and get a few of those ready - they should be almost always active in ToB):
Before stopping play for now, I've also completed the sidequests in Saradush without any trouble. Whenever I get to play next, I'll try to go after Gromnir. Everything from now on will be quite tricky, so wish me luck.
?? (human necromancer, Gate70); Viper (human blackguard, Grond0)
Viper and ?? are stood outside the Burning Wizard tavern. Garrick is beside them, hankering for some assistance. Viper raises our price to 400gp once we encounter Silke but the deed is heinous and we refuse, being forced instead to cut her down. With her out of the way we return a sword to Perdue and move on.
The search for reputation takes us through a xvart village where our darker heritage takes hold, leaving all behind dead. The paths around a gnoll fortress sees more of the same, as do Caldo and Krumm. We relent a bit further on, being bought off with pocket money in return for a drowned cat.
The ankheg nest is revisited with more success than previously. Beregost yields a spider corpse so we go the the Friendly Arm Inn and trade them for some frankly undrinkable green potions. Viper uses his inestimable charm to say the wrong thing to a noble and is asked to leave empty-handed. Viper and ?? briefly confer before using bullets to obtain the golden pantaloons and leave reputation back at 9.
Returning Brage to a temple, then confirming we are not Greywolf help us somewhat. We then give a bloodied amulet back in Beregost and decide 45 minutes is enough for today. No sense planning ahead either, since we would fail to remember it anyway.
I thought I'd have a go at a wild mage following the same routine of limiting play on that to an hour a day. Making progress safely with the wild mage requires a fair amount of patience, so the time restriction should help ration that.
At the start of the session I produced a familiar (that should be the only spell cast for quite a while) and left Candlekeep to:
- kite Shoal (level 3).
- kite an ogre for its belt collection.
- return a bowl to Tenya (level 4).
That took not much over 20 minutes before I went to see how well some gnolls did in attacking Drizzt (taking my only damage to date from a hobgoblin arrow on the way). I was really only expecting to grab some loot after the gnolls killed Drizzt, as they don't break weapons very often in v2.5. However, in this case one did so fairly early on. It would have seemed rude not to go for the kill after that and I managed the ticklish operation to dispose of all the other gnolls without activating Drizzt. It was then just a question of doing other things until Drizzt was beaten unconscious so I could get his XP (level 5).
There were only 10 minutes left at that point, which saw reputation recover a bit thanks to Ardrouine, Mr Colquetle and Joia. Next time a bit more work will see reputation pushed up to 10 before going to Nashkel to get some healing ability.
Wild mage L5, 31 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 39 kills
Previous updates at:
After shooting down Bjornin's half-ogres, I got a lift to Nashkel with Brage before talking to Oublek to push reputation into double figures and pick up Bhaal CLW. Some more sling work included rescuing Arabelle on the way to Firewine Bridge where Bentan was charmed and killed by kobolds. Poe was also charmed and killed by Meilum before the latter's bracers were made available by sling shots.
I spent a while charming and successfully disposing of the first 3 sirines at Beregost temple, though the final one was lost to a dog critical.
Travelling away from that area a basilisk attempted an ambush, but fortunately started off in melee mode and I could just run away (it would have been safer to have used an invisibility potion immediately, but where's the fun in that
Wild mage L7, 43 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 85 kills
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1038601/#Comment_1038601
Carrying on work at the Lighthouse, I attempted to charm the 3rd of the group of hostile sirines. That proved troublesome and needed 5 attempts to be successful - and the sirine used up one of its valuable arrows at that point (I like to try and get them all to sell even if I can't use them myself).
The other group of 3 sirines start non-hostile and the first 2 were charmed and disposed of without trouble. Sil was charmed at the 4th attempt - wasting her dire charms in the meantime on the familiar. I cocked up finishing her off though after she was paralyzed by a nearby carrion crawler. I successfully drew that away using the familiar, but then moved further away slightly too quickly away and the crawler turned back and got the kill on Sil just before I could finish her off.
I had no way of dealing with the golems in the cave yet, so went to save Charleston Nib from some crazed diggers - the Doomsayer was something else left for now though. There was more reputation on offer in the Cloud Peak Mountains. All the encounters there were done with charm and sling, though I picked up the frost wand from the Nashkel Mine as a potential alternative. Kiting various things took a while and I found time was up after grabbing the charisma tome at the Gnoll Stronghold. I'll look to do the remaining reputation tasks next time before buying some choice equipment.
Wild mage L7, 43 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 126 kills
Also, all the wizards seem to have rings that make web useless. Of course this means that I now have more rings of Eventar than I know what to with.