Having accumulated sufficient amount of cash on her account, Anomandra was eager to go shopping. And since the word on the street had been that the best stuff was on sale in Ulgoth's Beard, we had to travel north. Note: Being proficient in both staves and two-handed style, Anomandra really wanted to get Aule's Staff as soon as possible (among others).
En route, Anomandra agreed to assist some local worshipers of the Stormlord with their petty fishing problems. Despite the men being an unsavory lot, the opportunity to tame the influence of a minor deity was a worthy distraction for our halfling priestess.
Armed with her newly purchased staff and Wand of Heavens, Anomandra visited Durlag's Tower next, fighting her way inside through the battle horrors to retrieve the Tome of Wisdom from the trapped altar (with the help of Greenstone Amulet).
With experience level 7 under her belt, it was now time to deal with Mulahey. First, Anomandra sets up a Glyph of Warding to cover her escape route.
Buffed with ProUndead scroll, ProEvil, Holy Power, DuHM, Greenstone Amulet and Storm Shield, she breaks her Sanctuary with a sling shot targetting Mulahey, followed by a quick Lightning Bolt cast. Within a heartbeat, the summoned kobold band triggers our glyph trap.
Not unexpectedly, the bouncing Lightning Bolt eliminates Xan together with the remaining kobolds. According to jurisprudence, this might qualify as indirectly willful act, but for us it's just force majeure - an act of god. Meanwhile, Mulahey takes one more bullet, Holy Smite load and then hits the dust.
Upon returning from the mines, Anomandra engages in several battles with arcane casters (Nimbul, Silke, Tranzig), letting her skeletons do all the work while sitting back under Sanctuary and reading the Sword Coast Tribune.
We also retrieve the pirate cove treasure with Manual of Bodily Health, whereby the sirines are avoided with Sanctuary, the traps in the cave foiled by Greenstone Amulet and the flesh golems beaten down with Aule's and +2 sling bullets.
Once we've purchased the necessary consumables and the Claw of Kazgaroth at High Hedge, we're set for the bandit camp via Raiken.
In order to separate the camp battle into two rounds, Anomandra first rushes the main tent. She's running Resist Fear, Shield Amulet, Potion of Strength, Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration, ProEvil, Chant, Greenstone Amulet, Holy Power, DuHM and Storm Shield for buffs, hoping not to get dispelled by Venkt. Our intention to get some back-and-forth lightning bounces fails when Anomandra's bolt has simply disappeared after giving a gentle nudge to Venkt. Nevermind, we'll just have to start this party in melee instead.
Anomandra saves against Blindness from Venkt (there's a Cure Disease memorized in her book just in case for less favorable rolls) and brings up Oils of Fiery Burning from her Potion Case. *Blast!*
It seems that the prisoner has just caught on fire. Which means that there'll most likely be another external casualty to our conquests after Xan. Although this time it's not force majeure but self-defense. He did charge us after all!
With his spellbook dry, Venkt's day just got worse. Good luck trying that!
Our spellbook, on the other hand, is still half-full.
Anomandra collects the documents, refreshes her short-duration buffs and heads outside...to find an unexpected ally.
They say you can't make friends with Mental Domination. But we're not looking for friends - we're looking for someone who can become a training dummy for hordes of archers. And Taurgosz qualified perfectly.
In fact, he did so well that we even had to kill him ourselves. Lousy bandits!
@lroumen I keep an up-to-date list with this information. It doesn't include dual-classes, because the number of possible combinations (with specific levels of dual-classing) would simply be too high:
Classes and kits still missing from the combined Hall of Heroes:
Ranger Stalker Undead Hunter Cleric Priest of Helm Priest of Talos Priest of Tempus Priest of Tyr Shapeshifter Avenger All Specialist Mages (except Wild Mage and Enchanter) Thief Bounty Hunter Shadow Dancer Bard Dark Moon Monk Shaman Fighter/Druid (has been done as a dual, but not as a multi) Cleric/Ranger
Interesting list... Should Fighter/Thief multi not be on it? I remember Golden_28 from the Bioware forums completing the trilogy with a Fighter/Thief dual (I think Kensai lvl 9 -> Thief). So like the Fighter/Druid multi, I think the Fighter/Thief multi is still up for grabs for those who like to be the first with a class.
It doesn't seem a lot for a critical hit - I think Monty could manage that against anyone, but Tarnesh may not have had a melee weapon equipped (in that case damage would be less than average).
How? Short sword is 1d6. Would max damage not be 26: (1d6+1)*2 +1d6*2? The first multiplication is for the critical hit, it includes Monty's +1 damage bonus for his 16 strength. The second multiplication is the double damage backstab modifier which, afaik, know doesn't include bonus strength damage.
Not unexpectedly, the bouncing Lightning Bolt eliminates Xan together with the remaining kobolds. According to jurisprudence, this might qualify as indirectly willful act, but for us it's just force majeure - an act of god.
Very nice! Good luck with your ungodly halfling!
Best of luck to @Neverused and @Grondo too. And a belated "nice to see you back" to @Flashburn. Glad to see your crew still going.
@Blackraven You're right. Fighter/Thief is missing from my list. Very strange... Over the years, I've double-checked it about 4 times, yet, somehow, I seem to have missed that one. Thanks!
Dreadnought is progressing through Dragonspear though he lost Edwin temporarily. Tenya raised him which meant that the rod of resurrection is still fully charged. That is being saved for Tenya's benefit.
Montaron's backstab is possible if Tarnesh were not wielding a melee weapon, in which case Montaron would get a +4 bonus to hit and damage. If Monty rolled a 5 on his 1d6, then Tarnesh's lack of a melee weapon would bump it up to 9, and the 4x multiplier would bump that up to 28. His STR bonus of +1 would be doubled by the critical hit but not multiplied by the backstab, so that 28 would go up to 30.
I don't know why Tarnesh wouldn't be wielding his normal staff, though.
Eager for treasure, the companions explored the valley of the tombs. They found little of interest there, nor in the gibberling mountains. Amahoro took the party east of Beregost, where she culled basilisks and had Korax take care of Mutamin, who dropped a girdle of bluntness along with the tome of clear thought.
A confrontation with Kirian I find hard to role-play for a good aligned party, but I took the encounter as an opportunity to teach a group of bullies some humility, without necessarily killing them. But when Algernon-charmed Peter received very violent opposition from his own comrades, battle was on. (Yes, Imoen is, conveniently for LG Amahoro, a bit of a kleptomaniac...) Korax paralyzing Kirian, Peter Holding Baerin, and Amahoro's Commands provided the spell support to tip the scales in favor of the party in what was otherwise physical combat.
As can be seen from the weapon icons in the above screenshot, everyone was still using mundane weaponry at this stage except Jaheira (Krumm's club +1) and Amahoro (Ashideena and sling +1). We've been lucky with early drops of stat tomes, but not with good weapons, though that also has to do with the fact that SCS changed almost all +1 weapons into unenchanted "fine" ones.
Kirian dropped a wand of fire, which Dynaheir used to dispatch three battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. Ghasts, a doom guard, and three more basilisks were slain as well. Dynaheir and Khalid (the latter using the red potion), copied lots of scrolls into their spellbooks. Scrolls are randomized by both SCS and Item Randomisation, and SCS added some IWD scrolls to Thalantyr's shop. I like Cat's Grace a lot for Khalid, as it raises his 15 DEX by 1d6, turning him into a better marksman and - less frequently - a sturdier frontliner. Dynaheir was very happy to have Web in her spellbook. As an Invoker she casts it with a -4 save penalty. When Delgod and Alexander followed Sendai from beyond the fog of war, much to my surprise, they were the first to get webbed. The encounter yielded another wand of fire, and Vax and Zal were good for a ring of the princes.
With his Berserker rage, Minsc had no problem taking down nine sirines on the coast. (We didn't kill the ones at the temple of Lathander because they were not hostile, though we did dispatch the wolves in the eastern part of that area). The hard-hitting flesh golems gave the party more trouble.
Minsc gave the party more of his heroics inside the Ulcaster ruins, taking on the Wolf of Ulcaster on his own, while enraged. The party, with an important role for Dynaheir and her wand of fire, took care of incoming dread wolves and ghouls.
The above feats were just enough for Amahoro to reach Ranger level 5. The others were all level 5-6, as they had all joined at the earliest possible moment.
The party cleared the Nashkel Mines without incident, with Minsc finishing Mulahey with a devastating critical.
(Minsc has 4 pips in two-handed sword, and 1 in two-handed weapon style.)
Rasaad killed Nimbul, and Jaheira taught Amahoro a sense of pragmatism that was foreign to the Cleric/Ranger with her LG paladin-like mindset.
During their search for the bandit camp, the party was ambushed by Molkar and company. Amahoro Commanded Drakar, and the party got rid of him first. Minsc and Jaheira then took on Morvin, Dynaheir played tag with Halacan, who tried in vain to charm Imoen but was otherwise tame, and Amahoro dealt with Molkar.
A second ambush wasn't as harmless. Despite the warriors rushing north to provoke Maneira and Telka, the two rogues went invisible and only showed themselves as they jointly backstabbed Dynaheir.
The wizard might have gone invisible herself, but with both Zeela and Lamalha casting, she and Khalid had opted for wand of fire scorchers to disrupt the priestesses. Once they had revealed themselves the backstabbers were no threat anymore, and the scorchers left the priestesses severely injured, so they were easily dispatched.
Raiken took the party to the bandit camp. Carefully aimed fire damage from wands and potions ensured that Ender Sai survived where the bandits did not, except for Venkt and Raemon. But those two were soon dispatched with missiles.
The harder battle was fought outside, with little more than a Defensive Harmony from scroll for buffs. Amahoro and Minsc meleed Taugosz and prevailed, Jaheira tanked a Black Talon on the right flank, and Imoen, Khalid and Dynaheir picked off other bandits with their missiles and wands, including the wand of fear.
The Black Talons injured Jaheira and Khalid, but all survived. Among the spoils were a suit of full plate mail (from Taugosz, not randomised), boots of grounding (Ardenor), and the heavy crossbow of accuracy that no one has any use for.
Montaron's backstab is possible if Tarnesh were not wielding a melee weapon, in which case Montaron would get a +4 bonus to hit and damage. If Monty rolled a 5 on his 1d6, then Tarnesh's lack of a melee weapon would bump it up to 9, and the 4x multiplier would bump that up to 28. His STR bonus of +1 would be doubled by the critical hit but not multiplied by the backstab, so that 28 would go up to 30.
I don't know why Tarnesh wouldn't be wielding his normal staff, though.
You're right. I thought @Grond0 was suggesting 30 damage could be expected against any foe that's not protected against crits, even if they do wield a weapon.
It doesn't seem a lot for a critical hit - I think Monty could manage that against anyone, but Tarnesh may not have had a melee weapon equipped (in that case damage would be less than average).
How? Short sword is 1d6. Would max damage not be 26: (1d6+1)*2 +1d6*2? The first multiplication is for the critical hit, it includes Monty's +1 damage bonus for his 16 strength. The second multiplication is the double damage backstab modifier which, afaik, know doesn't include bonus strength damage.
I was assuming that Montaron was an assassin in your installation. Looking back at the screenshot you posted he was shown as attacking with a +5 modifier - if he wasn't using a magic sword (which would give its own damage bonus), then is that not the result of the +4 from stealth and +1 from assassin? That +1 bonus would be multiplied 4 times to push your 26 calculation up to 30.
Oof, LoB with all arcane sounds like it'd take so long...
LoB with any party is going to be a long business and I think it's true that the mages are slightly slower early on than a party of fighters (that I've also done). However, I think they will gain that time back once they start using things that allow automatic hits - like web, hold, chromatic orb and paralyzation.
Best of luck with your poverty run. Your group is virtually the same as the one I've tried a number of times - I just had a totemic druid in place of your shapeshifter to fighter.
That makes sense @Grond0. Montaron is not an Assassin in my install, just a regular Fighter/Thief. I finally figured it out though, he got his +1 to hit from being specialized in short swords, and +2 damage as well...
A rest-interrupt of around 15 kobolds all deciding to target my main character spells a quick doom to my poverty run. I'll be restarting from chapter 1 again... It's not too bad, since my shapeshifter was rolling terribly for health, and she's the only one supposed to be taking hits.
@Enuhal: I notice that a cleric/ranger is missing from the Hall of Heroes, but I thought you completed a solo tetralogy run with a cleric/ranger some time ago. Am I misremembering?
A rest-interrupt of around 15 kobolds all deciding to target my main character spells a quick doom to my poverty run. I'll be restarting from chapter 1 again... It's not too bad, since my shapeshifter was rolling terribly for health, and she's the only one supposed to be taking hits.
Until you've got invisibility, I think you really need to do your wilderness resting at the edge of a map so you can run away if necessary.
@Grond0 I was at the edge of the map, but a slight delay in pathing meant that I didn't get to the transition screen before I was turned into a pincushion. Adding Barkskin before resting or some such spell should help significantly though.
I just lost a solo mage run at the Ducal Palace. I don't know how exactly it went wrong, but I think Liia Jannath got confused by a Chaos spell from the doppelganger mage, and then attacked Sarevok, turning him hostile and causing him to attack her back, killing her in two hits.
Anybody ever see this happening before? Liia Jannath is still bugged to cast no spells during the fight in my install, but this time, her bugged status doesn't stop her from breaking invisibility (I cast Invisibility on her at the start of the fight) when she gets confused. It seems like the only way I could have prevented this would be to go all-out on the charm offensive and use Algernon's Cloak to draw some or all of the doppelgangers into one room, a safe distance from Liia Jannath. I wasn't aware that a Chaos spell could actually prompt her into breaking invisibility; I've never seen this happen, nor can I recall hearing about it.
Come to think of it, why not charm Liia Jannath herself and park her in a corner somewhere? I think you could get within range of charming her without getting close enough to Sarevok to start the dialog, and if you shoved her in a corner, she would be out of range of any Chaos spells and so forth that the mage might throw out.
We press on through Spellhold. Putting the horns back on the minotaur statue gets Spaz and Gaspar a level. Spaz learns Eldritch Pact, while Gaspar learns Psionic Breach.
Garos and Bruss level up for escaping the Spellhold maze. Bruss learns Shadowless Kick and Garos learns Mass Raise Dead.
The fight with Irenicus goes smoothly. Rufus keeps him locked down with Black Ray of Destruction as Garos follows up with Insect Plague. His constant contingencies and sequencers were annoying, but it could've been worse if Irenicus was allowed to cast spells too.
Saemon Havarian is killed for a free 18k XP and Krieg levels up while we're down in the City of Caverns, though I forget when this happened since I didn't notice the level up indicator until a bit later. Krieg learns Greater Deathblow. Now, enemies that Krieg critically hits must save vs. death at -4 and a second time at -6 or die instantly, if they weren't already killed by his massive damage.
Reaching the Underdark causes Rufus, Spaz, and Gaspar to gain a level. Spaz gets Extra Invocation I which lets him learn Beguiling Influence to free up some CHA-increasing equipment slots. Rufus learns Wrath of Darkness to improve his combat capability further. Gaspar learns Psionic Invisibility.
Bruss levels up from informing Goldander that the balor is dead, which Krieg killed in one hit. He gains Tiger Strike and another 0.5 attack/round, for a total of 5 attacks.
The imprisonment device is cleared and we help the imprisoned mage as well. Spaz clears out most of the beholder hive by spamming skellybros, though we had some close calls with a pair of elder orbs teleporting over to us as Bruss was escorting the skellies. Gaspar managed to charm one and had it imprison itself. Krieg levels up from the last beholder in the hive, learning Resist Magic, which is similar to the vanilla version, but the MR stacks instead of being set to 50%.
Illithid City is up next. Spaz, Garos, Rufus, and Gaspar level up here. Rufus gains a Spike Trap and learns Shar's Shield and Shadow Gate. Bruss finishes off the Elder Brain alone and levels up too, learning Solar Stance.
Back in the Underdark, Gaspar steals the pair of glabrezus away from the drow party guarding the gates to the surface. With 5 attacks per round each, invisibility detection, and aTweaks demon immunities, these guys are sure to come in handy. The way to Ust Natha is open and we see an interesting longsword for sale.
However, Rufus and Spaz both have better weapons than this. The aboleth gets Qilue's brain and most of the Rejects level up from bringing back the Svirf helmet to Phaere.
Deirex is critically hit by Krieg after being struck with a Devour Magic from Spaz.
House Jae'llat is raided and Bruss levels up from doing so, learning Lunar Stance. Bruss achieves a new form as a result. He has almost reached the apex of his Saiyan strength.
Bruss transforms! (.webm video) : YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHH : WHY IS MONKEY MAN YELLOWER AND LOUDER THAN USUAL : This rage... It's...beautiful...
- SUPER SAIYAN 3: The Saiyan powers up to their very limit! Their aura changes from a man-sized jagged column of energy into a spiky and golden ball surrounding them. The hurricane-force winds generated during the transformation process pushes away anyone nearby as the earth itself seems to quake in fear. The Saiyan gains extreme offensive benefits from this transformation, though it is less durable than Super Saiyan 2 and far more strenuous to maintain: +5 STR/CON; +10 THAC0/AC/damage/movement; +10% critical chance; 15% damage resistance; +3 saves; Haste. -2 to 4 CON drained/turn (accelerated due to Haste); +6 fatigue after spending 2 turns while transformed. Power up time: 29
The perfect challenge awaits the Rejects: The Siege of Ust Natha.
Krieg - War Hulk 24 Garos - Warhorn Shaman 21 Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 26 Rufus - Thief 19/Shadow Adept 15 Spaz - Warlock 28 Gaspar - Seducer 28
I was using the Green Soul kit in the hopes of getting a strong disabler-focused mage for BG2 and ToB, but the kit is kind of mediocre in BG1, at least for a solo character. Dealing half damage with Wands of Fire is a huge disadvantage for a solo mage, and I don't think the 50% extra duration for mage spells made much of a difference. Most level 1-5 mage spells with durations don't gain much from additional duration, since disablers already mean death, whether it's being held for 10 rounds or 15 rounds. It's not until BG2 when extra duration makes a big impact with spells like Animate Dead, Spell Immunity, PFMW, Improved Haste, Mislead, Mordenkainen's Sword, Mass Invisibility, Power Word: Blind, Maze (possibly), Time Stop, and Improved Alacrity.
@Flashburn: Good luck! That's a hideous fight, but you've got an excellent party with the levels to handle the challenge. Give us lots of screenshots! I want to know exactly how you tackled that obstacle.
Sorry about the Ducal Palace. It's one of the many challenges for that type of character. I've never seen Liia affected by Chaos but it would nevertheless be consistent with my own experiences. I've seen her revealed (after being made invisible by me) when the mage or the shaman cast a detection spell to reveal my character, so it's not only damage spells that seem to affect her.
As for the Green Soul kit, lower level spells like Spook PfE, Haste (great for summons), MGoI, Improved Invisibility, Domination, Chaos all seem to benefit greatly from double duration. Wouldn't the way around the kit disadvantage be to use other means of hurting foes than spell damage, such as using longer lasting summons, disablers as you said, and buffs/polymorphs to deal physical damage? Also, have you tried the scorcher function of the wand of fire? It may deal half damage but does it have double duration (four scorchers per charge rather than two)? When buffed and hasted, it should allow you to hit many foes with one scorcher.
@semiticgod I would be reluctant to charm Liia. I think even trying that by spell would turn her hostile in my installation. Trying by cloak would not, but she would go hostile when the effect ended - and I've been auto-killed in that situation. I do remember one post in this thread from someone who managed to get her to do her closing dialogue despite her being hostile, so you might get lucky, but it seems chancy to me. If you're going to use charms, then doing that to the dopplegangers (like the mage) would seem the safer option.
@Grond0 I was at the edge of the map, but a slight delay in pathing meant that I didn't get to the transition screen before I was turned into a pincushion. Adding Barkskin before resting or some such spell should help significantly though.
@Neverused that type of thing happens to me when my caution starts to break down a bit - resting just too far away, not arranging my positioning correctly or not pausing immediately after rest to see if there's an ambush (I don't use autopause, but that would be better in this situation if you allow that). My experience is that resting is totally safe if I do take the proper care (though a rest ambush followed by a travel ambush can be a problem in some situations), but if you wanted to provide a bit of extra protection you could get your shaman to dance up some summons before trying to rest.
@Blackraven: The revised version of the Green Soul kit doesn't get double duration for spells; it only gets +50% duration. I've incorporated polymorph spells and disablers into my strategy (we dual-wielded daggers during Web and Hold Person a lot), but Wands of Fire (which I usually used for the Agannazar's Schorcher charges) were much more efficient even when they dealt half damage.
Summons in BG1 generally don't last much longer than their actual duration because they're so easy to kill. The sole exception was Animate: since it could last 12 hours instead of 8, they could persist across two rest periods.
Buffs in BG1 don't do much for a solo mage with access to only very weak summons. A longer-lasting Improved Invisibility makes little difference when the enemy can still cut through your Mirror Images if you don't disable dangerous enemies early, and since you need level 2 spell slots for Invisibility as an escape option, Mirror Image as a defensive buff, and Web as a disabler, the extra duration doesn't buy much more durability for a solo, single-classed mage.
The increased duration does not influence the Agannazar's Scorcher's typical two-hit effect, which is determined by the spell's projectile. The duration modifier opcode only changes the duration of a spell effect; it does not alter projectile behavior. For the same reasons, a Green Soul mage's Web doesn't persist for 20 rounds--the field lasts for 10 rounds, but the duration of each round's web effect lasts for 9 seconds instead of 6 on a failed save. The duration modifier also doesn't affect "Delayed" action effects, so it doesn't change the duration of Melf's Acid Arrow in any way.
Here we go. We're hanging out where the Spelljammer beholder lands, since there's lots of room to move and there's only two chokepoints that the drow have to get through to get to us. The drow war parties spawn out of the party's sight, so we should be able to handle them as long as we've got the room covered in our field of view.
Spaz uses a scroll of Stoneskin, Spell Turning, and Spell Shield. Rufus uses a scroll of Spell Trigger and loads his ass-kicking spell combo into it, then drinks a potion of heroism for some extra THAC0. He'll be using the Edge of Eclipse longsword for this fight for its extra critical chance and he's not proficient in longswords. Krieg and Bruss drink potions of invulnerability as the drow begin sending their forces after us. Bruss powers up to SSJ2 for now since SSJ3 burns CON too fast to be any more helpful against the early waves. A drow mage catches us by surprise in our hangout as he already has PfMW up, but Spaz devours his magic, letting Bruss finish him.
I'm not gonna lie here, Spaz is pretty much the lynchpin to destroying Ust Natha successfully, as Devour Magic is basically an unlimited-use Remove Magic. And since he's technically a bard kit, Spaz has more than enough levels to successfully dispel any drow.
The fight begins in earnest as a bunch of drow march through the top-left passageway. There's a mage, a priestess, and a bunch of fighters. The priestess casts a bunch of pre-buffs to help the fighters, but Spaz devours their magic, leaving them completely vulnerable. Bruss flash steps behind the crowd and beats the mage and then the fighters into a bloody pulp. Rufus' aura is clear, so I have him use a scroll of Improved Haste on Bruss to get him to 10 APR.
Another wave arrives in the lower-left corner as we're almost done killing the first wave. Spaz devours their magic too. I have to be extra careful with Spaz's aura management because Devour Magic, as I said, it essential to this fight. He levels up and gains Summon Fiend.
Right after this, Rufus activates his asskicking spell trigger of Twin Mislead + Shadow Assault + Shar's Blessing. This turns him into an untouchable backstabber with 8 attacks per round and a x9 backstab multiplier. The results are deadly, as you can see. A couple more waves just like these first two come and go. Gaspar is hit by an Aerial Servant and our melee fighters rush it down and kill it. Gaspar activates Psionic Invisibility, which works like Protection from Undead, except it works against everything. The problem with this is that he cannot drink potions while psionically invisible like this as a result of this "protection from everyone including yourself." Now I know what its like you use PfU scrolls on liches. Gaspar levels up during this assault and chooses Psionic Time Stop, just so he has one of everything.
As Spaz devours drow magic left and right, Krieg and Bruss mainly hang out at the top of the screen, fighting the mage waves after they're left vulnerable. Rufus takes on the priestess groups by himself by backstabbing the crap out of them. Every now and then, the drow last long enough to summon Aerial Servants or Mordy Swords, which Rufus disposes of using Night Terrors. Garos and Chromatic Demon pick off any stragglers that manage to get to the middle of the room. Gaspar does... well, nothing. Krieg, Bruss, and Rufus kill the drow too fast for Domination to be of much help. The waves arrive about once per two rounds, and that's about how long it takes them to kill the waves, so we don't have to worry about getting swamped. Krieg soon levels up too.
A matron mother appears and gives us a dialogue. I think that means things are about to get serious.
Their magic is still devoured all the same and Rufus one-shots the matron mother with a x9 backstab crit. They were nothing too special, I guess.
On the left side, demons are now joining the fight and so does a drow archmage. Got to be careful about the glabrezu; I've had too many casters get Power Word, Stunned by them and then killed with their 5 attacks/round. Spaz devours the archmage's magic, but he throws up a PfMW and Stoneskin contingency. Bruss uses Dragon Fist on the mage to tear it down, then finishes him off, now contending with the demons and leveling up as a result.
The demons and drow are fended off and there is a lull in the battle. Bruss uses this time to heal using a potion and then transforms into SSJ3, but a wave arrives about a round before he's ready. We make do without him as he continues to power up, pushing away some drow. More drow arrive in the side of the room since they were out of sight range of our party. Bruss finishes powering up and sprints over to the side to kill them.
Drow priestesses are crowding the lower-left corridor again, so Rufus uses Shadow Walk to teleport behind them and backstab them again. That's two matron mothers down. Bruss powers down to SSJ2 to prevent a HP penalty from low CON. SSJ2 drains double its normal CON drain rate since he is Improved Hasted.
A couple more waves of drow getting their magic devoured come after this but they are soundly beaten. We form up in the middle of the room and wait for more reinforcements. They don't come.
Rufus scouts around and discovers some demon stragglers. With Bruss' help, he kills all three of them and the remaining drow fighter. Again, we form up in the middle of the room, but nothing else comes after us.
We check inside the temple and kill the rest of the drow there.
We also scout around the city, looking for more drow to exterminate. The tavern and its upstairs is also cleared out. Even the caged slaves are killed. Now that I can save the game, I redeem Bruss' level for Shadow Stance.
Ust Natha is now a ghost town. Population: a lone dog that I spared out of pity.
: WHAT A WONDERFUL GENOCIDE JAMBOREE : Hell yeah! I wish there were more! : Don't thank me all at once or anything. I know, I know - I'm awesome. : We should make this an annual tradition. Teaching these fools true darkness was immensely satisfying. : Great job out there, guys. You didn't need my help at all. : Just like always. Chromatic Demon keeps reminding me that you're not completely useless after all. : Ahaha. Thank you for the touching display of support.
Krieg - War Hulk 25 Garos - Warhorn Shaman 21 Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 27 Rufus - Thief 19/Shadow Adept 15 Spaz - Warlock 29 Gaspar - Seducer 29
Worthiest of note in Cloakwood were the party's dealings with the Shadow Druid sect, thanks to Jaheira's presence in the party. She managed to peacefully resolve the conflict between Seniyad and Aldeth, but as a service to Seniyad she was to rescue a member of his circle from the Shadow Druids, Beador (who seemed to have a past with Jaheira as well). A spider-infested area was cleared with ease, and in the Shadow Druid grove Izefia and Takiyah and their men, whom I usually befriend, went hostile as soon as they saw Jaheira. Massive fire damage overcame the former, and Amahoro and Jaheira treated the latter to some of their own medicine: Hold Person + Spike Growth.
Spike Growth is a great spell I've discovered, but I'm sure many Icewind Dale players know this.
During their search of Beador, Khalid bailed out Amahoro and Jaheira when they got webbed by ambushing huge spiders. He cast Sleep on them. The party found Beador surrounded by hostile Shadow Druids. I was afraid they'd attack him and kill him, but thankfully they focused their aggro on the party. AoE damage not being an option, we tried with Web but somehow the druids could cast Free Action, not a spell that druids can normally cast. We then tried with Fear (from wand) but one of the Druids cast Remove Fear, again illegally. A good example of the enemy sensibly using IWD spells is this Thorn Spray being cast at Minsc.
A Silence from Amahoro affected two of the druids, but not two higher level druids who proved to be avengers. They cast Chaos on Dynaheir and they Webbed Jaheira. Still, with disruptive ranged attacks and Minsc meleeing with Spider's Bane, we managed to save Jaheira while confused Dynaheir was away from the action, so she survived unscathed.
Beador begged the party to return to the Shadow Druid grove to rescue his beloved Maretha. Andarthe and a henchman stood in the party's way. The latter cast Chaos from (improved) invisibility, affecting Amahoro, Minsc, and Imoen, but that was right after Amahoro Algernon-charmed Andarthe. Thankfully the confused party members didn't kill each other, and Andarthe took care of the henchman with an Insect Plague. When everyone was back to their senses, the companions healed up, and entered Amarande's tree home. He had Maretha, so he was lured outside to find a fully buffed Andarthe with two summoned fire elementals ready to deal with him and his cronies.
Andarthe was let off after he begged for mercy, but fell to a missile anyway.
Jaheira received the Eye of the Storm (club +2 with 25% electricity resistance and Call Lightning 1/day) from Seniyad, a very useful gift for one specialized in clubs.
Traveling to the Cloakwood Mines - and away from them to avoid a Chaos from Kysus - saw the party ambushed a few times more. One such ambush saw Jaheira webbed and poisoned by giant spiders. The others were too slow in killing them, or maybe I was too optimistic in thinking an invisibility would suffice, as the poison did her in. According to the SCS v32 readme, giant spiders "get a modified bite attack that does less poison damage, but wraps the target in webbing." Sadly, it proved to be still enough to kill her.
We clearly didn't have enough freedom potions for Cloakwood, so it was time for a meta-gaming trip to Ulgoth's Beard where Imoen pickpocketed Dushai's ring of free action to be swapped around to whoever needed it.
The confrontation with Drasus' group was tricky in that the enemy was still near the entry point of the area. So the party arrived unbuffed from the previous area, while the enemy had their prebuffs in place. The companions left the area to evade Kysus and Rezdan's disablers. When they returned, neither Kysus nor Rezdan had MGoI running. Dynaheir successfully (2x) webbed Genthore and both wizards, leaving only Drasus as an immediate, but manageable threat.
Inside the mines our thoroughness was rewarded when Natasha, who was less dangerous with her Mordenkainen's Force Missiles than she would have been with say Lightning Bolt, dropped the gauntlets of dexterity. Davaeorn and his army stood no chance against Dynaheir's Webs and Jaheira and Amahoro's Spike Growths.
The most notable prizes were the Dale's Protector for Khalid and a robe of the good archmagi for Dynaheir.
In Baldur's Gate Imoen gifted Amahoro a necklace with a pin that she said had belonged to Gorion. It has the properties of an amulet of protection that can be worn with another protection item. Because of Item Randomisation, the party was again very thorough, doing almost all quests, having Imoen burgle around, and seeking out all high profile targets.
There isn't so much to report as everything went pretty smoothly. One thing that did stand out is the fact that enemy mages in this latest SCS v32 install are a lot less predictable than in other versions of SCS. This is in part because of the already mentioned inclusion of Icewind Dale spells in enemies' spell repertoires, but also because they use different defenses. In previous versions of SCS all level 7+ mages would come prebuffed with Stoneskin, MGoI, an armor spell, and Mirror Image. This is not the the case with SCS v32. Sunin for example didn't come with MGoI and he summoned elementals. I like this change as variety is the spice of life.
Important loot: tome of leadership and influence, girdle of piercing, honorary ring of Sune (for Jaheira), metaspell influence amulet (Dynaheir), ring of fire resistance, Legacy of the Masters for Minsc, the eagle bow (for Imoen), and of course the helm and cloak of Balduran (both for Amahoro).
Spike Growths allowed the party to tie up some loose ends in the wilderness (Kahrk, Red Wizards, Lendarn and ogre mage), before the Iron Throne was confronted. We opened with a lot of fire from the west.
I prefer that entry point because it's where Alai and Naaman are, whom I consider more dangerous than Aasim and Diyab on the other side.[spoiler]
Amahoro slew an already injured Shennara but when the other Shennara seriously injured Jaheira with a backstab, the party went downstairs. Alai and Shennara followed them there, but Shennara was slain quickly. Amahoro took a Lance of Disruption from Alai, and elemental damage finished him off. Of the remaining foes, Gardush was the hardest, until Khalid Blinded him. All in all a reasonably sound victory, time to revisit Candlekeep...
Buffs in BG1 don't do much for a solo mage with access to only very weak summons. A longer-lasting Improved Invisibility makes little difference when the enemy can still cut through your Mirror Images if you don't disable dangerous enemies early, and since you need level 2 spell slots for Invisibility as an escape option, Mirror Image as a defensive buff, and Web as a disabler, the extra duration doesn't buy much more durability for a solo, single-classed mage.
I hear most of what you said, except perhaps the above. If you level up fast with the easy quests (basilisks, ankhegs, non-ranged enemies, 'talk quests') you shouldn't take long in reaching level 7. With Ghost Armor (AC3, found in ankheg cave) or Spirit Armor (AC1, Ulgoth's Beard), 18 DEX (-4), PfE (-2), Blur (-3), Claw of Kazgaroth (-1/-4 against missiles), an amulet of protection (-1), the cloak of displacement (-4 against missiles), senses of the cat boots (-5 against missiles) you'd have AC -8 or -10 against any melee weapon type, and -20 or -22 against missiles. You can swap AC belts for an extra -3, and use MI and Stoneskin for those rare instances you do get hit.
I imagine Siege of Dragonspear to be harder because of the masses of enemies, something you don't encounter as much in BG1 (the bandit camp comes to mind and indeed the doppelgangers).
Ust Natha is now a ghost town. Population: a lone dog that I spared out of pity.
Some people are so soft-hearted .</p>
And leaving all that dog food behind to make sure the poor creature won't starve...
@Flashburn, that looks scary. I don't think I'll try this anytime soon. I'll probbaly be excited enought to even make it that far again... Congrats, and finish strong!
The sesssion started with charming Shar-Teel and sending her to face Kirian. Shar-Teel can't be killed by damage, which makes her a great tank. The instant kill effect from chromatic orb can still take her down though and that happened this time, meaning the easy way to do the combat was lost. However, one of the 6 blindness spells thrown at her while her aura was clouded succeeded and she was subsequently charmed. Negotiating round 3 lots of enemies activated by movement was a bit of a problem and Iluse was hit once during that, but eventually Kirian was worn down and finished off.
The Army had each started with lots of sling bullets, but they were down to their last couple of hundred each by this point and went to stock up again before returning to the ankheg area. Normally attacking a single ankheg using the familiar as a target is easy, but the first ankheg there immediately managed to hit the familiar with a critical (causing morale failure), before being blinded by the follow-up. Despite my blocking attempts the scared familiar then ran close enough to the ankheg to activate it again, causing it to submerge underground where it couldn't be attacked. Once the familiar had regenerated HPs I tried using it to tank the blinded ankheg, but it was hit again almost immediately and had to retreat to regenerate once more. Coming back in again my attention must have wandered while I was switching some of the army to use magic missiles, as this message came as a total surprise.
Looking back on the text before the death screen had a chance to appear confirmed that the ankheg had indeed got another critical before.
Over that sequence the ankheg had attacked 7 times and, needing a critical to hit, had done so with 4 of those attacks. That was pretty lucky for it, but my death was still just down to not paying attention properly .
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Previous posts: 1
En route, Anomandra agreed to assist some local worshipers of the Stormlord with their petty fishing problems. Despite the men being an unsavory lot, the opportunity to tame the influence of a minor deity was a worthy distraction for our halfling priestess.
Armed with her newly purchased staff and Wand of Heavens, Anomandra visited Durlag's Tower next, fighting her way inside through the battle horrors to retrieve the Tome of Wisdom from the trapped altar (with the help of Greenstone Amulet).
With experience level 7 under her belt, it was now time to deal with Mulahey. First, Anomandra sets up a Glyph of Warding to cover her escape route.
Buffed with ProUndead scroll, ProEvil, Holy Power, DuHM, Greenstone Amulet and Storm Shield, she breaks her Sanctuary with a sling shot targetting Mulahey, followed by a quick Lightning Bolt cast. Within a heartbeat, the summoned kobold band triggers our glyph trap.
Not unexpectedly, the bouncing Lightning Bolt eliminates Xan together with the remaining kobolds. According to jurisprudence, this might qualify as indirectly willful act, but for us it's just force majeure - an act of god. Meanwhile, Mulahey takes one more bullet, Holy Smite load and then hits the dust.
Upon returning from the mines, Anomandra engages in several battles with arcane casters (Nimbul, Silke, Tranzig), letting her skeletons do all the work while sitting back under Sanctuary and reading the Sword Coast Tribune.
We also retrieve the pirate cove treasure with Manual of Bodily Health, whereby the sirines are avoided with Sanctuary, the traps in the cave foiled by Greenstone Amulet and the flesh golems beaten down with Aule's and +2 sling bullets.
Once we've purchased the necessary consumables and the Claw of Kazgaroth at High Hedge, we're set for the bandit camp via Raiken.
In order to separate the camp battle into two rounds, Anomandra first rushes the main tent. She's running Resist Fear, Shield Amulet, Potion of Strength, Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration, ProEvil, Chant, Greenstone Amulet, Holy Power, DuHM and Storm Shield for buffs, hoping not to get dispelled by Venkt. Our intention to get some back-and-forth lightning bounces fails when Anomandra's bolt has simply disappeared after giving a gentle nudge to Venkt. Nevermind, we'll just have to start this party in melee instead.
Anomandra saves against Blindness from Venkt (there's a Cure Disease memorized in her book just in case for less favorable rolls) and brings up Oils of Fiery Burning from her Potion Case. *Blast!*
It seems that the prisoner has just caught on fire. Which means that there'll most likely be another external casualty to our conquests after Xan. Although this time it's not force majeure but self-defense. He did charge us after all!
With his spellbook dry, Venkt's day just got worse. Good luck trying that!
Our spellbook, on the other hand, is still half-full.
Anomandra collects the documents, refreshes her short-duration buffs and heads outside...to find an unexpected ally.
They say you can't make friends with Mental Domination. But we're not looking for friends - we're looking for someone who can become a training dummy for hordes of archers. And Taurgosz qualified perfectly.
In fact, he did so well that we even had to kill him ourselves. Lousy bandits!
We're off to Cloakwood next.
Regards,
B.
The first multiplication is for the critical hit, it includes Monty's +1 damage bonus for his 16 strength. The second multiplication is the double damage backstab modifier which, afaik, know doesn't include bonus strength damage.
Best of luck to @Neverused and @Grondo too. And a belated "nice to see you back" to @Flashburn. Glad to see your crew still going.
Tenya raised him which meant that the rod of resurrection is still fully charged.
That is being saved for Tenya's benefit.
I don't know why Tarnesh wouldn't be wielding his normal staff, though.
BG1: 1
Eager for treasure, the companions explored the valley of the tombs. They found little of interest there, nor in the gibberling mountains. Amahoro took the party east of Beregost, where she culled basilisks and had Korax take care of Mutamin, who dropped a girdle of bluntness along with the tome of clear thought.
A confrontation with Kirian I find hard to role-play for a good aligned party, but I took the encounter as an opportunity to teach a group of bullies some humility, without necessarily killing them. But when Algernon-charmed Peter received very violent opposition from his own comrades, battle was on. (Yes, Imoen is, conveniently for LG Amahoro, a bit of a kleptomaniac...) Korax paralyzing Kirian, Peter Holding Baerin, and Amahoro's Commands provided the spell support to tip the scales in favor of the party in what was otherwise physical combat.
Kirian dropped a wand of fire, which Dynaheir used to dispatch three battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. Ghasts, a doom guard, and three more basilisks were slain as well.
Dynaheir and Khalid (the latter using the red potion), copied lots of scrolls into their spellbooks. Scrolls are randomized by both SCS and Item Randomisation, and SCS added some IWD scrolls to Thalantyr's shop. I like Cat's Grace a lot for Khalid, as it raises his 15 DEX by 1d6, turning him into a better marksman and - less frequently - a sturdier frontliner. Dynaheir was very happy to have Web in her spellbook. As an Invoker she casts it with a -4 save penalty. When Delgod and Alexander followed Sendai from beyond the fog of war, much to my surprise, they were the first to get webbed. The encounter yielded another wand of fire, and Vax and Zal were good for a ring of the princes.
With his Berserker rage, Minsc had no problem taking down nine sirines on the coast. (We didn't kill the ones at the temple of Lathander because they were not hostile, though we did dispatch the wolves in the eastern part of that area). The hard-hitting flesh golems gave the party more trouble.
The above feats were just enough for Amahoro to reach Ranger level 5. The others were all level 5-6, as they had all joined at the earliest possible moment.
The party cleared the Nashkel Mines without incident, with Minsc finishing Mulahey with a devastating critical.
Rasaad killed Nimbul, and Jaheira taught Amahoro a sense of pragmatism that was foreign to the Cleric/Ranger with her LG paladin-like mindset.
A second ambush wasn't as harmless. Despite the warriors rushing north to provoke Maneira and Telka, the two rogues went invisible and only showed themselves as they jointly backstabbed Dynaheir.
Raiken took the party to the bandit camp. Carefully aimed fire damage from wands and potions ensured that Ender Sai survived where the bandits did not, except for Venkt and Raemon. But those two were soon dispatched with missiles.
Next destination: Cloakwood...
Best of luck with your poverty run. Your group is virtually the same as the one I've tried a number of times - I just had a totemic druid in place of your shapeshifter to fighter.
Anybody ever see this happening before? Liia Jannath is still bugged to cast no spells during the fight in my install, but this time, her bugged status doesn't stop her from breaking invisibility (I cast Invisibility on her at the start of the fight) when she gets confused. It seems like the only way I could have prevented this would be to go all-out on the charm offensive and use Algernon's Cloak to draw some or all of the doppelgangers into one room, a safe distance from Liia Jannath. I wasn't aware that a Chaos spell could actually prompt her into breaking invisibility; I've never seen this happen, nor can I recall hearing about it.
Come to think of it, why not charm Liia Jannath herself and park her in a corner somewhere? I think you could get within range of charming her without getting close enough to Sarevok to start the dialog, and if you shoved her in a corner, she would be out of range of any Chaos spells and so forth that the mage might throw out.
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
We press on through Spellhold. Putting the horns back on the minotaur statue gets Spaz and Gaspar a level. Spaz learns Eldritch Pact, while Gaspar learns Psionic Breach.
Garos and Bruss level up for escaping the Spellhold maze. Bruss learns Shadowless Kick and Garos learns Mass Raise Dead.
The fight with Irenicus goes smoothly. Rufus keeps him locked down with Black Ray of Destruction as Garos follows up with Insect Plague. His constant contingencies and sequencers were annoying, but it could've been worse if Irenicus was allowed to cast spells too.
Saemon Havarian is killed for a free 18k XP and Krieg levels up while we're down in the City of Caverns, though I forget when this happened since I didn't notice the level up indicator until a bit later. Krieg learns Greater Deathblow. Now, enemies that Krieg critically hits must save vs. death at -4 and a second time at -6 or die instantly, if they weren't already killed by his massive damage.
Reaching the Underdark causes Rufus, Spaz, and Gaspar to gain a level. Spaz gets Extra Invocation I which lets him learn Beguiling Influence to free up some CHA-increasing equipment slots. Rufus learns Wrath of Darkness to improve his combat capability further. Gaspar learns Psionic Invisibility.
Bruss levels up from informing Goldander that the balor is dead, which Krieg killed in one hit. He gains Tiger Strike and another 0.5 attack/round, for a total of 5 attacks.
The imprisonment device is cleared and we help the imprisoned mage as well. Spaz clears out most of the beholder hive by spamming skellybros, though we had some close calls with a pair of elder orbs teleporting over to us as Bruss was escorting the skellies. Gaspar managed to charm one and had it imprison itself. Krieg levels up from the last beholder in the hive, learning Resist Magic, which is similar to the vanilla version, but the MR stacks instead of being set to 50%.
Illithid City is up next. Spaz, Garos, Rufus, and Gaspar level up here. Rufus gains a Spike Trap and learns Shar's Shield and Shadow Gate. Bruss finishes off the Elder Brain alone and levels up too, learning Solar Stance.
Back in the Underdark, Gaspar steals the pair of glabrezus away from the drow party guarding the gates to the surface. With 5 attacks per round each, invisibility detection, and aTweaks demon immunities, these guys are sure to come in handy. The way to Ust Natha is open and we see an interesting longsword for sale.
However, Rufus and Spaz both have better weapons than this. The aboleth gets Qilue's brain and most of the Rejects level up from bringing back the Svirf helmet to Phaere.
Deirex is critically hit by Krieg after being struck with a Devour Magic from Spaz.
House Jae'llat is raided and Bruss levels up from doing so, learning Lunar Stance. Bruss achieves a new form as a result. He has almost reached the apex of his Saiyan strength.
Bruss transforms! (.webm video)
+5 STR/CON; +10 THAC0/AC/damage/movement; +10% critical chance; 15% damage resistance; +3 saves; Haste.
-2 to 4 CON drained/turn (accelerated due to Haste); +6 fatigue after spending 2 turns while transformed.
Power up time: 29
The perfect challenge awaits the Rejects: The Siege of Ust Natha.
Krieg - War Hulk 24
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 21
Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 26
Rufus - Thief 19/Shadow Adept 15
Spaz - Warlock 28
Gaspar - Seducer 28
A solo mage in the hall would be great!
Sorry about the Ducal Palace. It's one of the many challenges for that type of character. I've never seen Liia affected by Chaos but it would nevertheless be consistent with my own experiences. I've seen her revealed (after being made invisible by me) when the mage or the shaman cast a detection spell to reveal my character, so it's not only damage spells that seem to affect her.
As for the Green Soul kit, lower level spells like Spook PfE, Haste (great for summons), MGoI, Improved Invisibility, Domination, Chaos all seem to benefit greatly from double duration.
Wouldn't the way around the kit disadvantage be to use other means of hurting foes than spell damage, such as using longer lasting summons, disablers as you said, and buffs/polymorphs to deal physical damage? Also, have you tried the scorcher function of the wand of fire? It may deal half damage but does it have double duration (four scorchers per charge rather than two)? When buffed and hasted, it should allow you to hit many foes with one scorcher.
@Flashburn, best of luck with that!
Summons in BG1 generally don't last much longer than their actual duration because they're so easy to kill. The sole exception was Animate: since it could last 12 hours instead of 8, they could persist across two rest periods.
Buffs in BG1 don't do much for a solo mage with access to only very weak summons. A longer-lasting Improved Invisibility makes little difference when the enemy can still cut through your Mirror Images if you don't disable dangerous enemies early, and since you need level 2 spell slots for Invisibility as an escape option, Mirror Image as a defensive buff, and Web as a disabler, the extra duration doesn't buy much more durability for a solo, single-classed mage.
The increased duration does not influence the Agannazar's Scorcher's typical two-hit effect, which is determined by the spell's projectile. The duration modifier opcode only changes the duration of a spell effect; it does not alter projectile behavior. For the same reasons, a Green Soul mage's Web doesn't persist for 20 rounds--the field lasts for 10 rounds, but the duration of each round's web effect lasts for 9 seconds instead of 6 on a failed save. The duration modifier also doesn't affect "Delayed" action effects, so it doesn't change the duration of Melf's Acid Arrow in any way.
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Here we go. We're hanging out where the Spelljammer beholder lands, since there's lots of room to move and there's only two chokepoints that the drow have to get through to get to us. The drow war parties spawn out of the party's sight, so we should be able to handle them as long as we've got the room covered in our field of view.
Spaz uses a scroll of Stoneskin, Spell Turning, and Spell Shield. Rufus uses a scroll of Spell Trigger and loads his ass-kicking spell combo into it, then drinks a potion of heroism for some extra THAC0. He'll be using the Edge of Eclipse longsword for this fight for its extra critical chance and he's not proficient in longswords. Krieg and Bruss drink potions of invulnerability as the drow begin sending their forces after us. Bruss powers up to SSJ2 for now since SSJ3 burns CON too fast to be any more helpful against the early waves. A drow mage catches us by surprise in our hangout as he already has PfMW up, but Spaz devours his magic, letting Bruss finish him.
I'm not gonna lie here, Spaz is pretty much the lynchpin to destroying Ust Natha successfully, as Devour Magic is basically an unlimited-use Remove Magic. And since he's technically a bard kit, Spaz has more than enough levels to successfully dispel any drow.
The fight begins in earnest as a bunch of drow march through the top-left passageway. There's a mage, a priestess, and a bunch of fighters. The priestess casts a bunch of pre-buffs to help the fighters, but Spaz devours their magic, leaving them completely vulnerable. Bruss flash steps behind the crowd and beats the mage and then the fighters into a bloody pulp. Rufus' aura is clear, so I have him use a scroll of Improved Haste on Bruss to get him to 10 APR.
Another wave arrives in the lower-left corner as we're almost done killing the first wave. Spaz devours their magic too. I have to be extra careful with Spaz's aura management because Devour Magic, as I said, it essential to this fight. He levels up and gains Summon Fiend.
Right after this, Rufus activates his asskicking spell trigger of Twin Mislead + Shadow Assault + Shar's Blessing. This turns him into an untouchable backstabber with 8 attacks per round and a x9 backstab multiplier. The results are deadly, as you can see. A couple more waves just like these first two come and go. Gaspar is hit by an Aerial Servant and our melee fighters rush it down and kill it. Gaspar activates Psionic Invisibility, which works like Protection from Undead, except it works against everything. The problem with this is that he cannot drink potions while psionically invisible like this as a result of this "protection from everyone including yourself." Now I know what its like you use PfU scrolls on liches. Gaspar levels up during this assault and chooses Psionic Time Stop, just so he has one of everything.
As Spaz devours drow magic left and right, Krieg and Bruss mainly hang out at the top of the screen, fighting the mage waves after they're left vulnerable. Rufus takes on the priestess groups by himself by backstabbing the crap out of them. Every now and then, the drow last long enough to summon Aerial Servants or Mordy Swords, which Rufus disposes of using Night Terrors. Garos and Chromatic Demon pick off any stragglers that manage to get to the middle of the room. Gaspar does... well, nothing. Krieg, Bruss, and Rufus kill the drow too fast for Domination to be of much help. The waves arrive about once per two rounds, and that's about how long it takes them to kill the waves, so we don't have to worry about getting swamped. Krieg soon levels up too.
A matron mother appears and gives us a dialogue. I think that means things are about to get serious.
Their magic is still devoured all the same and Rufus one-shots the matron mother with a x9 backstab crit. They were nothing too special, I guess.
On the left side, demons are now joining the fight and so does a drow archmage. Got to be careful about the glabrezu; I've had too many casters get Power Word, Stunned by them and then killed with their 5 attacks/round. Spaz devours the archmage's magic, but he throws up a PfMW and Stoneskin contingency. Bruss uses Dragon Fist on the mage to tear it down, then finishes him off, now contending with the demons and leveling up as a result.
The demons and drow are fended off and there is a lull in the battle. Bruss uses this time to heal using a potion and then transforms into SSJ3, but a wave arrives about a round before he's ready. We make do without him as he continues to power up, pushing away some drow. More drow arrive in the side of the room since they were out of sight range of our party. Bruss finishes powering up and sprints over to the side to kill them.
Drow priestesses are crowding the lower-left corridor again, so Rufus uses Shadow Walk to teleport behind them and backstab them again. That's two matron mothers down. Bruss powers down to SSJ2 to prevent a HP penalty from low CON. SSJ2 drains double its normal CON drain rate since he is Improved Hasted.
A couple more waves of drow getting their magic devoured come after this but they are soundly beaten. We form up in the middle of the room and wait for more reinforcements. They don't come.
Rufus scouts around and discovers some demon stragglers. With Bruss' help, he kills all three of them and the remaining drow fighter. Again, we form up in the middle of the room, but nothing else comes after us.
We check inside the temple and kill the rest of the drow there.
We also scout around the city, looking for more drow to exterminate. The tavern and its upstairs is also cleared out. Even the caged slaves are killed. Now that I can save the game, I redeem Bruss' level for Shadow Stance.
Ust Natha is now a ghost town. Population: a lone dog that I spared out of pity.
Krieg - War Hulk 25
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 21
Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 27
Rufus - Thief 19/Shadow Adept 15
Spaz - Warlock 29
Gaspar - Seducer 29
BG1: 1, 2
Worthiest of note in Cloakwood were the party's dealings with the Shadow Druid sect, thanks to Jaheira's presence in the party. She managed to peacefully resolve the conflict between Seniyad and Aldeth, but as a service to Seniyad she was to rescue a member of his circle from the Shadow Druids, Beador (who seemed to have a past with Jaheira as well).
A spider-infested area was cleared with ease, and in the Shadow Druid grove Izefia and Takiyah and their men, whom I usually befriend, went hostile as soon as they saw Jaheira. Massive fire damage overcame the former, and Amahoro and Jaheira treated the latter to some of their own medicine: Hold Person + Spike Growth.
During their search of Beador, Khalid bailed out Amahoro and Jaheira when they got webbed by ambushing huge spiders. He cast Sleep on them. The party found Beador surrounded by hostile Shadow Druids. I was afraid they'd attack him and kill him, but thankfully they focused their aggro on the party. AoE damage not being an option, we tried with Web but somehow the druids could cast Free Action, not a spell that druids can normally cast. We then tried with Fear (from wand) but one of the Druids cast Remove Fear, again illegally. A good example of the enemy sensibly using IWD spells is this Thorn Spray being cast at Minsc.
Jaheira received the Eye of the Storm (club +2 with 25% electricity resistance and Call Lightning 1/day) from Seniyad, a very useful gift for one specialized in clubs.
Traveling to the Cloakwood Mines - and away from them to avoid a Chaos from Kysus - saw the party ambushed a few times more. One such ambush saw Jaheira webbed and poisoned by giant spiders. The others were too slow in killing them, or maybe I was too optimistic in thinking an invisibility would suffice, as the poison did her in. According to the SCS v32 readme, giant spiders "get a modified bite attack that does less poison damage, but wraps the target in webbing." Sadly, it proved to be still enough to kill her.
The confrontation with Drasus' group was tricky in that the enemy was still near the entry point of the area. So the party arrived unbuffed from the previous area, while the enemy had their prebuffs in place. The companions left the area to evade Kysus and Rezdan's disablers. When they returned, neither Kysus nor Rezdan had MGoI running. Dynaheir successfully (2x) webbed Genthore and both wizards, leaving only Drasus as an immediate, but manageable threat.
Davaeorn and his army stood no chance against Dynaheir's Webs and Jaheira and Amahoro's Spike Growths.
In Baldur's Gate Imoen gifted Amahoro a necklace with a pin that she said had belonged to Gorion. It has the properties of an amulet of protection that can be worn with another protection item.
Because of Item Randomisation, the party was again very thorough, doing almost all quests, having Imoen burgle around, and seeking out all high profile targets.
There isn't so much to report as everything went pretty smoothly. One thing that did stand out is the fact that enemy mages in this latest SCS v32 install are a lot less predictable than in other versions of SCS. This is in part because of the already mentioned inclusion of Icewind Dale spells in enemies' spell repertoires, but also because they use different defenses. In previous versions of SCS all level 7+ mages would come prebuffed with Stoneskin, MGoI, an armor spell, and Mirror Image. This is not the the case with SCS v32. Sunin for example didn't come with MGoI and he summoned elementals. I like this change as variety is the spice of life.
Important loot: tome of leadership and influence, girdle of piercing, honorary ring of Sune (for Jaheira), metaspell influence amulet (Dynaheir), ring of fire resistance, Legacy of the Masters for Minsc, the eagle bow (for Imoen), and of course the helm and cloak of Balduran (both for Amahoro).
Spike Growths allowed the party to tie up some loose ends in the wilderness (Kahrk, Red Wizards, Lendarn and ogre mage), before the Iron Throne was confronted. We opened with a lot of fire from the west.
I imagine Siege of Dragonspear to be harder because of the masses of enemies, something you don't encounter as much in BG1 (the bandit camp comes to mind and indeed the doppelgangers).
@Flashburn, that looks scary. I don't think I'll try this anytime soon. I'll probbaly be excited enought to even make it that far again... Congrats, and finish strong!
I'm pleased the more-variety thing is working; that was a major goal, one I was prepared to sacrifice a certain amount of difficulty for.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1041025/#Comment_1041025
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1041203/#Comment_1041203
The sesssion started with charming Shar-Teel and sending her to face Kirian. Shar-Teel can't be killed by damage, which makes her a great tank. The instant kill effect from chromatic orb can still take her down though and that happened this time, meaning the easy way to do the combat was lost. However, one of the 6 blindness spells thrown at her while her aura was clouded succeeded and she was subsequently charmed. Negotiating round 3 lots of enemies activated by movement was a bit of a problem and Iluse was hit once during that, but eventually Kirian was worn down and finished off.
The Army had each started with lots of sling bullets, but they were down to their last couple of hundred each by this point and went to stock up again before returning to the ankheg area. Normally attacking a single ankheg using the familiar as a target is easy, but the first ankheg there immediately managed to hit the familiar with a critical (causing morale failure), before being blinded by the follow-up. Despite my blocking attempts the scared familiar then ran close enough to the ankheg to activate it again, causing it to submerge underground where it couldn't be attacked. Once the familiar had regenerated HPs I tried using it to tank the blinded ankheg, but it was hit again almost immediately and had to retreat to regenerate once more. Coming back in again my attention must have wandered while I was switching some of the army to use magic missiles, as this message came as a total surprise.