@Blackraven Congrats on reaching SoD Looks like you might get to Amn before Dreadnought largely because I don't know what I'm doing in the extension. Dreadnought defeated Hephernan and is now on the way to the castle. He missed out a number of quests (The sort that Ajantis would reject such as poisoning supplies and using BWOOSH) and will now discover how important they are.
@Wise_Grimwald, thank you! Well done with Hephernaan. The cellars battle can be hard. To my knowledge there is another way to breach the Dragonspear Castle walls if you haven't placed the barrel. Won't spoil them for you though, unless you want me to Or you can go back and still place the barrel?
@Wise_Grimwald, thank you! Well done with Hephernaan. The cellars battle can be hard. To my knowledge there is another way to breach the Dragonspear Castle walls if you haven't placed the barrel. Won't spoil them for you though, unless you want me to Or you can go back and still place the barrel?
Dreadnought is now joining in on the seige of the castle. Caelar has invited him to join with her in her plans but he continues the assault.
Sadly Jarlaxle is dead, killed by a thieves' backstab whilst in the process of taking a healing potion.
I don't know if it is possible to get another party member at this stage. Sad that I won't be able to take jarlaxle into Amn. He had become quite powerful.
EDIT
Losing Jarlaxle was no big issue as it left room for Caelar to join the party.
Dozens of potions of superior healing must have been used. In future I must buy more potions of fire resistance!! I didn't realise that buffs are dispelled when you enter the nine hells.
The final battles were long and hard and I had to use the rod of resurrection twice.
I'm wondering just how much of my equipment will be available in Irenicus's dungeon.
I am certainly not au fait with SoD and what will happen now that I have left Caelar behind in the 9 Hells.
Now why did Caelar have to be left behind in SoD and nobody had to be left behind in the Drizzt Saga?
A bit of inconsistancy there.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Perhaps I ought to play a few SoD runs just to find out some of the different ways of playing it.
Perhaps I ought also to have Indira in the party instead of Dynaheir. That way I can keep a mage on into Amn.
Anomandra was hired to solve Trademeet's many problems and she embarked on the job by banishing the djinns. Chilling under Sanctuary, she let her Aerial Servant and skeletons deal with the bouncer at the entrance - Taquee.
Unable to transport her summoned army inside the tent, Anomandra had to face the remaining "turbans" on her own. Looking back at our rather successful history of Slay Living "backstabs", we decided to give it a shot once again. And he - who was Khan Zahraa of Calimshan, a dao djinn - failed his save. The spell will become largely obsolete soon, but it's practical usefulness in early SoA had been exceptional.
After collecting the reward for our efforts (Shield of Harmony is definitely one of my favorite SoA items), we were about to set off for the Druid Grove. It was then I realized that Anomandra had accepted Nalia's offer back at the Copper Coronet. I didn't know how much time we have to start the quest, all I knew was that there's a long stop date. Since missing out on the Flail of Ages would have been disastrous, we decided to proceed to D'Arnise Keep instead.
We didn't feel very confident about fighting trolls and so the beginning was very cautious. With Flaming Blade, Flame Strike and the Djinni Flask (Mr. Turban) being our only sources of fire/acid damage at the time, we dared not to engage larger groups of enemies, as this would result in a stalemate at best. With the help of Mr. Turban, Anomandra takes out the two lone trolls on the first floor (servants' room and the staircase).
Out on the courtyard, she removed the Otyugh with Slay Living and used Sanctuary to open the gates, after which the soldiers assisted us with the spawned trolls and Yuan-ti.
I vaguely remembered that there had been sort of a tradition back at the Bioware forums to deal with the local doggos in a goofy fashion. I suspect @Alesia_BH of starting the whole thing. Anyway, Anomandra felt obliged to follow the old ways.
Rexy, Spoty, Rover and Sparky were looking rather ill and they required professional treatment. First, we needed a calm working environment - no barking, no howling, no whining.
Next, we applied the anesthetics and performed the individual health checks.
With the operating room ready, the deconstructive surgery could begin.
Unfortunately, patient Rexy's condition was found to be beyond our healing skills - and thus the poor soul had to be slaughtered on the spot.
All right, back to more serious business regarding the troll infestation. Anomandra was in a grave need of something with which she could kill them in larger numbers. Upgraded version of the Flail of the Ages seemed to be the answer - and for that we required the keep key from the Yuan-ti mage.
Our initial plan was to approach with Sanctuary and take him out by Harm + Potion of Firebreath, but the damage was foiled by his MR.
Anomandra retreated back under the protection of her previously summoned skeletons and together they dealt with the separated trolls (with the mage nowhere in sight). The fight attracted more trolls and we had to call upon Mr. Turban once again.
When Anomandra returned to the library, she buffed with RoAC (II), Storm Shield and launched a Lightning Bolt against the Yuan-ti while he was protected by Spell Turning. This seemed to have generated a second bolt - the two bouncing lightnings quickly burned thought the remaining spell levels of his Spell Turning and killed him.
Glaicus was our next target. He was charmed via Mental Domination but immediately turned hostile again (despite not being attacked), instead of initiating the scripted dialogue, so Anomandra resorted to Hold Person. And yes, human fighters do have hard time making their saves v. spell even without applying any penalties.
With our two-headed flail, we were now finally able to eliminate the trolls without having to fear about the finishing touch.
Anomandra then released the annoying auntie, looted the statutes under Sanctuary and fed the umber hulks in the basement with what was left of Rex, Spot, Rover and Sparky. However, we didn't find the courage to enter the door leading to Tor Gal. He'll have to wait. We completed the Flail and returned to the Druid Grove, to finished our job there.
On the way to Sendai, Krieg runs into a scare from illithids draining his intelligence. One more hit and they would've killed him, but Bruss diligently killed them as Krieg ran away.
Sendai's boss fight was unremarkable. She thought she got the upper hand when one of her statues stopped time without Bruss in Lunar Stance, but Rufus still had his staff equipped and beat her with it until time resumed.
The rest of the statues are killed with minimal effort. Then Sendai herself comes out to play. Rufus uses Relentless Assault and starts debuffing her. Sendai uses her onyx ring to teleport to the upper-middle platform. Rufus follows as she uses a Mislead+PfMW contingency, using Detect Illusions to reveal her.
Once that happens, Bruss punches the magic out of her like he usually does. Rufus casts Oblivion Pull on her summoned Deva. Sendai tries to flee to the lower-middle platform, but it's too late.
Rufus redeems a level for the Arcane Lore HLA. It is bugged in my install to not give bonus spells, but I rectify that by consoling in a Shadow Scroll for each spell level.
Outside Sendai's underdark retreat, Nym the drow merchant from Icewind Dale appears. He offers golem building supplies and some useful green scrolls, such as 5 PfM scrolls.
Draconis is the next one to go. Spaz buffs Krieg and Bruss with Protection from Acid scrolls. Gaspar keeps him frozen with a Psionic Lock, though Spaz cannot devour his magic due to SI: Abjuration. Bruss has to wait until the next round since he readied a Lunar Stance. Draconis gets the magic punched out of him too, in both human and dragon form.
Hmmm, I don't remember this yellow dragon being here.
We try being nice, but still have to fight it anyway. Gaspar charms it and has it give an Improved Haste to SSJ3 Bruss, letting us win easily.
Immediately after the dragon surrenders, it gets killed by Chromatic Demon. I was going to call off our party from attacking, but the dragon just had so little health left that it just couldn't take another hit. Whoops...
Further ahead, I decide against adding Olhydra to our party. Ogremoch isn't as useful as I thought he would be, especially since he has to be given orders to attack instead of attacking on his own like Chromatic Demon. Apparently, we have to go back to Amkethran to get some rope, since the monk doesn't have it anymore. Rufus sets out some traps on our way out. I'm not sure where the quadruple dragon ambush will spawn, so I spread them out. We return after getting the rope.
A double black dragon fight, huh? Reminds me of NWN. I'm a little relieved yet disappointed that I'm not fighting four dragons at the same time, which is the impression that I got from the name "quadruple dragon ambush," since these dragons are pretty weak. They just have a lot of hitpoints, is all. Breaching Dark, Devour Magic, and Dragon Fist make short work of all four dragons. Rufus tries out his Shadow Double ability for the first time and its as disappointing as I thought it would be since its a simulacrum. I seriously don't understand the love Simulacra get. Just look at this pathetic spell list. Project Image is where it's at.
Back inside Abazigal's domain, these floating eye things are as annoying as I remember them. Perfect Clay can tank them just fine, but I try getting Bruss to help and he gets heavily injured. I think they automatically hit with their missile attacks. Bruss races back to Garos for a Regeneration spell, and at one point reaches 9 HP, but drinks a potion of superior healing to stave off death. Then Perfect Clay discovers a bunch of Tyrant beholders. That's Bruss's cue to NOPE out of there.
The tyrants hover completely still as Perfect Clay beats them up. Gaspar recruits two of the Death Tyrants, as they have pretty nice resistances. But they still attack Bruss with beholder rays despite being a follower. They cannot be trusted. Bruss powers up to SSJ3 and helps Perfect Clay deal with these traitors.
After subcontracting Bondari to get the gauth's eyestalk, Abazigal is next. Several party members buff with electrical resistance potions. The hasted wyverns are slaughtered. Tamah is also killed with Dragon Fist.
Now we can fight Abazigal alone. His human form is quickly beaten and he transforms. He has SI: Abjuration up but not Spell Shield, so Rufus casts Breaching Dark to remove PfMW and also help lower his MR, but Abby responds with a PfMW contingency. Bruss punches it out and our fighters go ham on Abby.
Rufus then readies Relentless Assault. Abazigal uses his breath weapon on his next round. It does a bit of damage to everyone because of their good saves and electrical resistance...except for Rufus, who fails his save and takes just slightly more than his max HP in damage.
Well, that hasn't happened in a while. Behind us, the dead Tamah fires a Spell Sequencer. I think it to be a glitch and keep fighting, but then the dragon emerges from the fog of war! What the hell?
Abazigal is beaten as he had low health when his pal came back from the dead. When we return from the Solar rudely interrupting us, Tamah opens up a Dimension Door and flees. Rufus is brought back with a Mass Raise Dead.
We take the two challenges opened by the deaths of Sendai and Abazigal. Krieg learns Dark Taint, gains negative plane protection, and +5% MR. Krieg convinces Balthazar to join him with his 20 rep, a potion of wisdom, and taking off the silver dragon armor. Rufus gains Shadow Pact IV. The Big Metal Unit is forged and equipped on Bruss. I disabled its avatar change and it also gives the wearer immunity to knockback.
The last challenge remains. I examine the Ravager's .CRE file and for some reason, the scads of immunities it had are gone. Huh, okay then. Krieg, Bruss, and Rufus beat on it while the others contend with the bone blades.
Only the throne is left. Spaz builds Perfect Mithril Golem MK I. We don't have enough Adamantine Ore to build a Greater Adamantite golem, and the only ways to get them are through a one-time Limited Wish (+1) and from casting Wish (+1 per cast). Rufus has 3 scrolls of Wish, but I want to use them during the fight at the Throne instead.
With Mallon's Warping Eye, we return back to Watcher's Keep and get some wild magic stone fragments to build Magic Golem MK I. Magic Golems are completely immune to all disablers, all elemental damage, spell levels 1-9, and magical weapons. Their sole weakness is normal weapons. I'm pretty sure everything at the throne uses magical weapons.
A wild cornugon appears as Spaz was building the golem. Good ol' Chromatic Demon is a lovely bodyguard.
We buff for the final fight. I swap the belts that Rufus and Gaspar were wearing so Rufus won't fail any more unmodified saves vs. breath since Gaspar has great saves from 5x Psionic Foresights. Here's how we're looking:
Greetings. When last I left off the band of Lyran, Angelo, Adrian, Korgan, Verr’sza, and Faren had made it to Amkethran. We first took a detour to the DeArnise Stronghold to dispose of a demon infestation (Kulyok’s Reunion mod), but this wasn’t particularly challenging as only a few Mariliths were really in evidence. After wandering the town a little disposing of trouble and shopping- during which time Lyran had his first close scare in awhile as the rest of the party accidentally targeted him , it was time to move on.
Of his siblings Lyran resolved to tackle Sendai’s lair first. The drow were slightly augmented by a number of Driders, who frequently summoned Balors. These Atweaks monstrosities were given top priority, but apart from that we didn’t have too much trouble cutting them down. It took a little time to dispose of the lich’s protections, and a horde of summons assisted handily at range by the rest of the party took down the mixed party of beasties. As ToB wore on and ranged weapons became ever more viable again I gradually fell into a bad habit of letting party members stand back while summons did the work and over-resting. It’s something I’ll add some extra restrictions against in the future I suppose. Even with the removal of 1/3 of the usual magic items via randomizer Lyran was still able to employ Firetooth, Korgan had Aegis-Fang, and Verr employed the Dagger of the Stars to lethal effect against demons (Item Revisions versions). Sendai herself also failed to cause much difficulty, apart from an inconvenient Abi-Dalzims.
Abazigal’s lair was next, and the porter Draconis was initially frustratingly impervious but then slightly easier to dispose of in his dragon form than usual- possibly a party member or two were caught in his circle when he transformed and that hampered his movements. Unfortunately my casual inattention and Lyran’s surly temperament combined to make things a little more difficult as Lyran declined to subcontract out his work to a group of lowly amateurs and instead the group plunged into combat with a group of Elder Orbs. The resulting combat was decidedly lengthy and inconveniently timed on my commute . The most embarrassing moment was when I realised that my futile efforts to release Adrian from his paralysis were due to his being petrified without my noticing J. Fortune and attention to Lyran’s saving throws saw us through the Elder Orbs’ extensive prebuffing however, and after a similar confrontation with the mad wizard we could move on to the dragons. Lyran continued his fit of pique by slicing up the sub-porter Fyzsa-whatsist, though sadly not to any randomised reward. Abazzy was then mobbed in similar fashion, though he did show off one or two interesting special attacks first.
Returning to the desert town I decided that Lyran wouldn't accept Saemon's help. I did wonder which way he'd go on the soul stone but evidently that quest had now timed out and the lich simply attacked outright. We made a hurried exit as a result before returning to teach him a lesson in manners .
It was time to move to the end. We broke in on Balthazar's discussion with Melissan- though our conversation with him suffered from some broken links. The battle itself was not especially difficult, I chose this point to experiment with the new Spacewarp spell to mixed effect.
Despite some bugs relating to moving to the glade battle in Wheels of Prophecy we finally made it there. In the following battle a horde of summons and some battlefield control spells like Spacewarp & Chaos let us slice through the demons, except of course for the Fallen Solar. That notable fellow actually managed to chunk Faren despite SCS (after disjunctioning his death ward away ) before Korgan brutalised it down. I followed this run's practice of rolling a die on whether he could be wished & ressurected back as in p&p but will have to rethink how to handle this in future.
The next step was to go through the pocketplane challenges. On this particular occasion none of the challenges proved to be especially difficult, despite the reduced xp our party was overleveled at this point. I even dropped by the Planescape mod Test your Mettle to see if there was anything interesting there and grind Adrian to 9th level spells in his mage multiclass but it wasn't especially interesting. Too many Meteor Swarm traps almost fried Angelo too...
To the throne then. Apart from some troll-related bugs (the blizzard trolls were immune to everything including stat drain seemingly!) things went fairly smoothly. Melissan's second incarnation healed herself on a few occasions, and the fallen solar briefly threatened to focus on someone other than the death-magic proof characters. Melissan didn't throw out any super-strong contingencies or the like though, and was unable to corner any party members. The end came for her all too soon...
And so Lyran mounted the stairway to the Heavens, and all must tremble and despair... Except for Adrian (M/C), Angelo (F/ Abjurer via More Stuff for Mages), Faren (F/ T dual), Korgan (Fighter, unkitted) and Verr'sza (Ranger, unique kit) of course!
In sum my first SCS no-reload success turned slightly easier than expected by the end, it can't compare with any of the high level difficulty exploits many of you deal with though! It was however a hard 6-7 months worth of effort, though with fewer close calls on this occasion- I only really remember using a note from Romantic Encounters to escape from the Druid Grove Rakshasha, and that was as much for convenience as safety!
What made it harder than usual: Item & Spell Revisions, increased levels & Hard difficulty in BG, reduced XP, 35% of magic items removed in randomiser, playing on Android all the way.
What made it easier: Reduced levels in BG2, relaxed rules on chunking, more resting than usual, some mods probably gave excess xp anyway. No SoD this time.
Edit: Also, I effectively disabled Timestop by using the setting in SCS that means no melee attacks may be made- and applied the same restriction to myself.
Since I've been gifted with a free copy of NN by Beamdog I shall probably toy with that next, though reading Vance's Dying Earth has me anticipating a possible future run as an unscrupulous rogue . Safe no-reloading!
Sorry, had some trouble attaching pics so they have come out a little oddly here. Amusingly you may note the Planetar attempting to help out Melissan. The Planetars AI was somewhat surly and non-compliant throughout. Clearly Angelo's powers of persuasion were insufficient!
@semiticgod The last time Krieg made it to the Throne, he had even more impressive stats than that. But a mistimed casting of Focus caused him to get beaten up by a Time Stop -> Whirlwind Attack from Melissan, and he then suffered from a rage death-spiral with no hope of recovery since his AC and save vs. spell shot up to 20 from the repeated hits.
I'm going to be verrryy careful about watching Melissan when she comes back down to join the Five.
Here's Anomandra's inventory upon arriving to the Druid Grove for the record.
The prospect of facing hordes of trolls (with strength draining Spirit Trolls amongst them) with a lone mid-level cleric didn't sound very attractive. We decided to take a stealthy approach and crossed the boggy forest under Sanctuary, avoiding any contract with both creatures and druids.
With her summons and combat buffs ready, Anomandra faced the Shambling Mounds at the second bridge. She used the opportunity to pump up her HP with the Vampiric Touch power before moving deeper into the grove.
I'll note that Anomandra is starting to learn how to properly switch her shields. It takes a little practice, but after all it's not that difficult - Reflex for archers and mages, Fortress for melee grunts and Harmony for anything that uses enchantment spells/abilities. When in doubt, use Harmony. The shields, together with long lasting buffs such as Resist Fear and ProEvil 10' (we're really looking forward to add Shield of Archons), are the frontline of her defenses.
For Dalok and his adherents, we prepared with Armor of Faith, Chant, the Holy Trinity, Storm Shield and RoAC. The fighter engaged our summons and the casters - being unable to target Anomandra with their nasty druidic spells - had nothing to do other than trying to conjure up their own summons. However, their Iron Skins could not protect them against our Lightning Bolts.
The only thing that remained was taking Cernd (with optimized spellbook and smuggled RoAC and Belm at his disposal) into the pit to let him feast on Faldorn.
Anomandra reported back to the High Merchant and used the price money to finance her extensive purchases in the newly opened shops - Cloak of Displacement and Belt of Inertial Barrier were now ours. We concluded our visit of Trademeet by returning the coveted mantle to the High Merchant and dealing with the skindancers. All and all, it was a lot of work but we have to admit that "Hero of Trademeet" doesn't sound that bad.
By the end of the quest Anomandra was at level 12 - still far from L7 spells, but at least her 1 round/level spells were starting to get more duration, which in turn meant easier management of our spellbook. She's also got two Storm Shields and four Lightning Bolts per day, both extremely useful in various situations, to complement her spell arsenal.
We drink some more buff potions before moving on to the throne. Then the fight begins in earnest. I had to restart it twice because Balthazar wouldn't fire his post-Irenicus+Bodhi+Solar conversation.
: IM BACK TO PICK YOUR SPINE CLEAN JUST LIKE I SAID I WOULD MURDER-LADY
Everyone scatters to avoid Bodhi's Cloud of Bats. She chooses Garos as the target but he also gets hit by Johnny's Remove Magic, tearing down his buffs since Garos is only level 27 compared to Johnny's level 30. He gets hit with the cloud of bats and starts taking a lot of damage over time, though Johnny's Remove Magic conveniently left his Oil of Speed intact, so now he's taking double damage. I equip the Axe of the Unyielding +5 to counter with its 3 HP/round regen.
Bruss, Spaz, Rufus, and Gaspar focus on the Solar on the right side while everyone else piles on to Bodhi to keep her from doing anything else. Perfect Mithril Golem kills her.
Gaspar charms the Solar they were fighting and sics it on one of Irenicus' Simulacra while continuing to wail on the Solar.
The Solar heals itself, so Bruss rushes over to Irenicus to stop him before he can try anything else. He had just used a spell sequencer so his aura was clouded, making him ripe for a Dragon Fist.
Garos is now stuck panicking from getting hit by a Solar's Creeping Doom. Fantastic. Cloud of Bats+Creeping Doom at the same time. We split our party in half to kill both Solars. Once the left Solar is down, we finish off the right one. Spaz flees from another Creeping Doom from the other Solar, but whips out a scroll of SI: Conjuration before it can reach him.
: NOT THE BEES AAAAAAAA : NOT THE BEES AAAAAAAA ...Phew.
Spaz uses an Emotion: Courage scroll to finally rid Garos of his panic. Then Balthazar and Imoen fire their conversations. Good, that means we can continue on normally.
Using Relentless Assault, Rufus places down all of his traps and Krieg opens a pool. Rufus activates his ass-kicking Spell Trigger and is able to kill a few of the cambions and a succubus, but Time Traps don't last very long.
The other traps go off, weakening the demons and they are finished off easily.
The second pool is dealt with in the same fashion. Bruss, Garos, and Rufus all level up one last time. Rufus learns Summon Nightwalker, which is the Shadow Adept version of Summon Planetar.
Before taking on the third pool, Rufus buffs further with Relentless Assault and puts down two Shadow Gates, spawning in a ton of shadow fiends, devil shades, and even a Nightwalker! The demons get mincemeat made out of them. Rufus uses another Relentless Assault to place down all of his traps for the Five, except a Time Trap.
Now it's time to fight the Five. I had to restart this part of the fight once because I crashed. Sendai probably had something to do with it. This type of crash always happens when a mage tries to use a Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency while dead.
I need to take out Abazigal, Illasera, and Sendai first. Krieg uses a scroll of Protection from Magic on Abazigal while Spaz does the same to Sendai. With their spellcasting disabled, Krieg, Bruss, and Garos pile on to Illasera while Spaz and Rufus work on Sendai, as our summons and golems deal with Abazigal and Gromnir.
Gromnir is the first to fall, which causes Melissan to come down to play.
Illasera follows very quickly.
Sendai foolishly teleports down to where the main chunk of our party is fighting Sarevok, so we pile onto her instead. She dies too, but not before Abazigal because I didn't even notice his death, but you can see Chromatic Demon standing on top of his corpse.
Sarevok is next as most of us dog-pile Yaga-Shura.
Shortly before Yaga-Shura goes down too, Melissan gates in two Fallen Solars. Crap. One of them casts Creeping Doom, which hits Spaz and causes him to fail spellcasting for a while. Krieg is being hit by Melissan repeatedly, which severely increases his save vs. spell to 6 even with a Potion of Invulnerability lowering his saves even further. He drinks a Potion of Magic Shielding just in time to guarantee saving throws.
All Five are down and Melissan is mortal almost as soon as Krieg drinks the potion.
Last time Krieg got to this point, Melissan teleported away some distance, summoned her fiends, and then did a Time Stop -> Whirlwind Attack combo. Not wanting to get caught in it again, Krieg readies focus to be cast on his next round and it can't come soon enough. Bruss strikes a Lunar Stance and Rufus readies his staff. Bruss kills one of the Solars without letting it heal.
As soon as this happens, Melissan gates in a ton of demons. Garos readies Wrath of the Skies to reduce all enemy MR by 50%. That Time Stop is coming any second now...
Rufus is surrounded by demons! In retrospect, I could've used Shadow Walk to teleport out of there, but Oblivion Pull thinned their numbers considerably. Bruss rushes over to the other side of the throne and focuses the other Fallen Solar.
The demons take their time getting here to the Throne. It's long enough that Rufus can activate another ass-kicking Trigger.
Bruss crushes the last Fallen Solar.
We manage to kill the demon horde and start focusing on Melissan. But something extremely weird happens... Melissan performs another conversation as if one of the Five was killed just after she brought them back, and Sarevok is back for the fourth time!!
: Now THIS is a final boss fight! BRING! IT! ON!
Melissan #2 gates in two more Fallen Solars and a few mariliths, so Bruss uses Melee Rush against the solars. Spaz fights against the Creeping Doom swarm to use a scroll of Improved Haste on Bruss. Rufus decides that if the game is gonna cheat like this, he will too. He uses the Wand of Lightning combined with a Wish scroll. We get: Hardiness, Greater Deathblow, Breach enemies, Resurrection+full health, and two useless Wishes. Then he casts Shadow Gate where the main part of the fight is occurring. I'm pretty sure Ogremoch is killed by a solar at this point.
Bruss manages to kill one of the Solars with Perfect Mithril Golem's help. Melissan #2 is flailing uselessly against Magic Golem. Krieg and Chromatic Demon are fighting the real Melissan whose health is dipping pretty low. She can't hit Krieg fast enough to penalize his saving throws enough to risk him going Berserk, thanks to the Potion of Magic Shielding.
As an Improved Hasted SSJ3, the other Solar falls quite quickly. Krieg's Focus is refreshed and he awaits a Time Stop from either one of the Melissans. But it never comes, as Bruss knocks away the last bit of health on the real Melissan to trigger the cutscene.
Krieg devours the real Melissan and becomes a god.
: MY FLESH IS FOREVER, MURDER-LADY! NOW TO SCRAPE YOUR FACE FROM MY FINGERNAILS!
Krieg - War Hulk 35 Garos - Warhorn Shaman 28 Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 38 Rufus - Thief 25/Shadow Adept 19 Spaz - Warlock 40 Gaspar - Seducer 40 Chromatic Demon - Tanar'ri 25 Balthazar - Monk 30
: So, uhhh... What do we do with this other Melissan?
ROFL, looks like the game took exception to all those crazy kits and tried to kick the table over! Melissan #2 now tries to make ends meet waitressing at Delosar's Inn...
@Mantis37@Flashburn: Congratulations both! Post an entry for the Hall of Heroes and I'll add it to the list.
@Flashburn: I've seen some weird behavior at the Throne where Ascension Melissan will revert to vanilla behavior, instantly healing herself and delivering a dialog indicating she just emerged from the pillar at the center of the map, which she does thrice in vanilla but is only supposed to do once in Ascension. I consider it a victory to just kill her once, since her resurrection is a bug.
Wow, lots of successes racking up in here... congrats @Enuhal and @Flashburn! (And @Mantis37! two in one day?)
Unfortunately, Helmo Snell the chaotic evil halfling assassin will not be joining any hall of heroes. He backstabbed his way to the brain-thingy in the mad cultists' temple in SOD, where he failed to buff adequately. Alas...
Next up: Roiya the lawful good human female sorceress. (Class, alignment, race, gender, etc. chosen randomly). The dice capped her party size at 2. Not sure who she'll be traveling with yet.
Key mods: SCS v32b with all options, randomizer w/ 5% chance for items to be gone, a few convenience tweaks, BG1NPC, insane difficulty.
Wow, succesful saga runs have become more common of late, but two in one day is something special. Congratulations to both @Flashburn and @Mantis37! Great jobs!!
While I was awaiting a reply to the above post I decided to start a new run only to have it end during the Gorion ambush. Now that was something that I didn't expect!
@Wise_Grimwald That is not supposed to happen. That is a bug. Level 1 protection should have prevented that from happening. You would be allowed to reload if you wish. EDIT: or do you have so many mods, you made it to level 2 just in Candlekeep? If that's the case, then guess that wouldn't be a bug then.
No I was still level 1 but did have a party of 2. I don't know if that makes a difference. My mods don't affect Candlekeep apart from making the assassins there a bit stronger. No extra experience they just have slightly stronger weapons and armour.
EDIT
I think that I now know which mod might be responsible.
My character is affected by Faith n' Powers mod. He has the Knight of the Red Falcon Paladin kit. I'll ask about it on the Faith n' Powers page. Could also be SCS or Finn Jos Subrace Mod.
Anyway, it's no big deal, it didn't take that long to start again from scratch. This time they survived.
Thanks everyone, though I actually finished my run last weekend! I am somewhat sluggardly with the write-ups as my PC is damaged so I have to do them on mobile.
Hall of Heroes entry:
Lyran the Blackguard: @Mantis37 Notable Mods: Heavily modded install. Item & Spell Revisions. SCS (Some tactical options). Crevs Daak's level adder (+ in BG1, - in BG2). Item Randomiser reduced available magic items by 1/3. Rules & kit changes via mods like Scales of Balance.
Difficulty: Hard in BG1 (no damage increase), Core in BG2.
Have we had many other touchscreen no-reloads by the way? Playing on a tablet can add a layer of difficulty in my opinion as it is harder to pause quickly and to select accurately. Playing while commuting at least forces me to stick to short sessions though!
@semiticgod Krieg the War Hulk : @Flashburn Full Tetrology Run Notable mods: SCS v31 (full prebuffs+almost all tactical challenges), BP Ascension v1.5 BETA; Golem Construction v5.3, More Style for Mages v1.54, Item Upgrade, aTweaks, Rogue Rebalancing, Tweaks Anthology, Oversight (Monk HLAs); War Hulk Kit, Warhorn Shaman v1.1, Warlock v0.8, Shadow Magic v1.9.34, Seducer Kit Difficulty: Insane (extra damage disabled) Start (November 2018) Finish (January 2019)
@OlvynChuru What, exactly, are the conditions for the Hall of Heroes? Is it simply to clear the entire Baldur's Gate saga no-reload?
Since the original baldur's gate only had BG 1, BG 2 and ToB, that is considered a trilogy run, and any no-reload of all those in succession by the same character without dying are recorded. This challenge has been going on for many years by now, and SoD didn't exist when it started. Also, there have been COUNTLESS successful no-reloads of BG1 and BG 2 - it is highly impractical to record all of those - thus the Hall of Heroes only records successful Candlekeep to Throne of Bhaal runs (SoD optional).
@Mantis37: Could you add links to the first and last posts of your run so people viewing the Hall can skip right to them?
The Hall of Heroes is for continuous saga runs with no reloads at any point between Candlekeep and the Throne of Bhaal. Restarting from Candlekeep and then completing the rest of the game without reloading is acceptable; restarting at Chateau Irenicus after dying in Spellhold would not qualify for the Hall. Siege of Dragonspear is optional by precedent, since many runs predated SoD, but I think it's an important part of the saga for the purposes of this challenge, since SoD is complex and roughly as difficult to beat no-reload as the rest of the saga. All of my saga runs thus far have been tetralogy runs with SoD.
Comments
Well done with Hephernaan. The cellars battle can be hard. To my knowledge there is another way to breach the Dragonspear Castle walls if you haven't placed the barrel. Won't spoil them for you though, unless you want me to
Sadly Jarlaxle is dead, killed by a thieves' backstab whilst in the process of taking a healing potion.
I don't know if it is possible to get another party member at this stage. Sad that I won't be able to take jarlaxle into Amn. He had become quite powerful.
EDIT
Losing Jarlaxle was no big issue as it left room for Caelar to join the party.
Dozens of potions of superior healing must have been used. In future I must buy more potions of fire resistance!! I didn't realise that buffs are dispelled when you enter the nine hells.
The final battles were long and hard and I had to use the rod of resurrection twice.
I'm wondering just how much of my equipment will be available in Irenicus's dungeon.
I am certainly not au fait with SoD and what will happen now that I have left Caelar behind in the 9 Hells.
Now why did Caelar have to be left behind in SoD and nobody had to be left behind in the Drizzt Saga?
A bit of inconsistancy there.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Perhaps I ought to play a few SoD runs just to find out some of the different ways of playing it.
Perhaps I ought also to have Indira in the party instead of Dynaheir. That way I can keep a mage on into Amn.
Previous posts (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Previous posts (SoA): 6, 7, 8
Anomandra was hired to solve Trademeet's many problems and she embarked on the job by banishing the djinns. Chilling under Sanctuary, she let her Aerial Servant and skeletons deal with the bouncer at the entrance - Taquee.
Unable to transport her summoned army inside the tent, Anomandra had to face the remaining "turbans" on her own. Looking back at our rather successful history of Slay Living "backstabs", we decided to give it a shot once again. And he - who was Khan Zahraa of Calimshan, a dao djinn - failed his save.
The spell will become largely obsolete soon, but it's practical usefulness in early SoA had been exceptional.
After collecting the reward for our efforts (Shield of Harmony is definitely one of my favorite SoA items), we were about to set off for the Druid Grove. It was then I realized that Anomandra had accepted Nalia's offer back at the Copper Coronet. I didn't know how much time we have to start the quest, all I knew was that there's a long stop date. Since missing out on the Flail of Ages would have been disastrous, we decided to proceed to D'Arnise Keep instead.
We didn't feel very confident about fighting trolls and so the beginning was very cautious. With Flaming Blade, Flame Strike and the Djinni Flask (Mr. Turban) being our only sources of fire/acid damage at the time, we dared not to engage larger groups of enemies, as this would result in a stalemate at best. With the help of Mr. Turban, Anomandra takes out the two lone trolls on the first floor (servants' room and the staircase).
Out on the courtyard, she removed the Otyugh with Slay Living and used Sanctuary to open the gates, after which the soldiers assisted us with the spawned trolls and Yuan-ti.
I vaguely remembered that there had been sort of a tradition back at the Bioware forums to deal with the local doggos in a goofy fashion. I suspect @Alesia_BH of starting the whole thing. Anyway, Anomandra felt obliged to follow the old ways.
Rexy, Spoty, Rover and Sparky were looking rather ill and they required professional treatment. First, we needed a calm working environment - no barking, no howling, no whining.
Next, we applied the anesthetics and performed the individual health checks.
With the operating room ready, the deconstructive surgery could begin.
Unfortunately, patient Rexy's condition was found to be beyond our healing skills - and thus the poor soul had to be slaughtered on the spot.
All right, back to more serious business regarding the troll infestation. Anomandra was in a grave need of something with which she could kill them in larger numbers. Upgraded version of the Flail of the Ages seemed to be the answer - and for that we required the keep key from the Yuan-ti mage.
Our initial plan was to approach with Sanctuary and take him out by Harm + Potion of Firebreath, but the damage was foiled by his MR.
Anomandra retreated back under the protection of her previously summoned skeletons and together they dealt with the separated trolls (with the mage nowhere in sight). The fight attracted more trolls and we had to call upon Mr. Turban once again.
When Anomandra returned to the library, she buffed with RoAC (II), Storm Shield and launched a Lightning Bolt against the Yuan-ti while he was protected by Spell Turning. This seemed to have generated a second bolt - the two bouncing lightnings quickly burned thought the remaining spell levels of his Spell Turning and killed him.
Glaicus was our next target. He was charmed via Mental Domination but immediately turned hostile again (despite not being attacked), instead of initiating the scripted dialogue, so Anomandra resorted to Hold Person. And yes, human fighters do have hard time making their saves v. spell even without applying any penalties.
With our two-headed flail, we were now finally able to eliminate the trolls without having to fear about the finishing touch.
Anomandra then released the annoying auntie, looted the statutes under Sanctuary and fed the umber hulks in the basement with what was left of Rex, Spot, Rover and Sparky. However, we didn't find the courage to enter the door leading to Tor Gal. He'll have to wait. We completed the Flail and returned to the Druid Grove, to finished our job there.
Regards,
B.
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
ToB: 1, 2
On the way to Sendai, Krieg runs into a scare from illithids draining his intelligence. One more hit and they would've killed him, but Bruss diligently killed them as Krieg ran away.
Sendai's boss fight was unremarkable. She thought she got the upper hand when one of her statues stopped time without Bruss in Lunar Stance, but Rufus still had his staff equipped and beat her with it until time resumed.
Rufus redeems a level for the Arcane Lore HLA. It is bugged in my install to not give bonus spells, but I rectify that by consoling in a Shadow Scroll for each spell level.
Outside Sendai's underdark retreat, Nym the drow merchant from Icewind Dale appears. He offers golem building supplies and some useful green scrolls, such as 5 PfM scrolls.
Draconis is the next one to go. Spaz buffs Krieg and Bruss with Protection from Acid scrolls. Gaspar keeps him frozen with a Psionic Lock, though Spaz cannot devour his magic due to SI: Abjuration. Bruss has to wait until the next round since he readied a Lunar Stance. Draconis gets the magic punched out of him too, in both human and dragon form.
Hmmm, I don't remember this yellow dragon being here.
Further ahead, I decide against adding Olhydra to our party. Ogremoch isn't as useful as I thought he would be, especially since he has to be given orders to attack instead of attacking on his own like Chromatic Demon. Apparently, we have to go back to Amkethran to get some rope, since the monk doesn't have it anymore. Rufus sets out some traps on our way out. I'm not sure where the quadruple dragon ambush will spawn, so I spread them out. We return after getting the rope.
A double black dragon fight, huh? Reminds me of NWN. I'm a little relieved yet disappointed that I'm not fighting four dragons at the same time, which is the impression that I got from the name "quadruple dragon ambush," since these dragons are pretty weak. They just have a lot of hitpoints, is all. Breaching Dark, Devour Magic, and Dragon Fist make short work of all four dragons. Rufus tries out his Shadow Double ability for the first time and its as disappointing as I thought it would be since its a simulacrum. I seriously don't understand the love Simulacra get. Just look at this pathetic spell list. Project Image is where it's at.
Back inside Abazigal's domain, these floating eye things are as annoying as I remember them. Perfect Clay can tank them just fine, but I try getting Bruss to help and he gets heavily injured. I think they automatically hit with their missile attacks. Bruss races back to Garos for a Regeneration spell, and at one point reaches 9 HP, but drinks a potion of superior healing to stave off death. Then Perfect Clay discovers a bunch of Tyrant beholders. That's Bruss's cue to NOPE out of there.
After subcontracting Bondari to get the gauth's eyestalk, Abazigal is next. Several party members buff with electrical resistance potions. The hasted wyverns are slaughtered. Tamah is also killed with Dragon Fist.
We take the two challenges opened by the deaths of Sendai and Abazigal. Krieg learns Dark Taint, gains negative plane protection, and +5% MR. Krieg convinces Balthazar to join him with his 20 rep, a potion of wisdom, and taking off the silver dragon armor. Rufus gains Shadow Pact IV. The Big Metal Unit is forged and equipped on Bruss. I disabled its avatar change and it also gives the wearer immunity to knockback.
The last challenge remains. I examine the Ravager's .CRE file and for some reason, the scads of immunities it had are gone. Huh, okay then. Krieg, Bruss, and Rufus beat on it while the others contend with the bone blades.
Only the throne is left. Spaz builds Perfect Mithril Golem MK I. We don't have enough Adamantine Ore to build a Greater Adamantite golem, and the only ways to get them are through a one-time Limited Wish (+1) and from casting Wish (+1 per cast). Rufus has 3 scrolls of Wish, but I want to use them during the fight at the Throne instead.
We buff for the final fight. I swap the belts that Rufus and Gaspar were wearing so Rufus won't fail any more unmodified saves vs. breath since Gaspar has great saves from 5x Psionic Foresights. Here's how we're looking:
Of his siblings Lyran resolved to tackle Sendai’s lair first. The drow were slightly augmented by a number of Driders, who frequently summoned Balors. These Atweaks monstrosities were given top priority, but apart from that we didn’t have too much trouble cutting them down. It took a little time to dispose of the lich’s protections, and a horde of summons assisted handily at range by the rest of the party took down the mixed party of beasties. As ToB wore on and ranged weapons became ever more viable again I gradually fell into a bad habit of letting party members stand back while summons did the work and over-resting. It’s something I’ll add some extra restrictions against in the future I suppose. Even with the removal of 1/3 of the usual magic items via randomizer Lyran was still able to employ Firetooth, Korgan had Aegis-Fang, and Verr employed the Dagger of the Stars to lethal effect against demons (Item Revisions versions). Sendai herself also failed to cause much difficulty, apart from an inconvenient Abi-Dalzims.
Abazigal’s lair was next, and the porter Draconis was initially frustratingly impervious but then slightly easier to dispose of in his dragon form than usual- possibly a party member or two were caught in his circle when he transformed and that hampered his movements. Unfortunately my casual inattention and Lyran’s surly temperament combined to make things a little more difficult as Lyran declined to subcontract out his work to a group of lowly amateurs and instead the group plunged into combat with a group of Elder Orbs. The resulting combat was decidedly lengthy and inconveniently timed on my commute
Returning to the desert town I decided that Lyran wouldn't accept Saemon's help. I did wonder which way he'd go on the soul stone but evidently that quest had now timed out and the lich simply attacked outright. We made a hurried exit as a result before returning to teach him a lesson in manners
Despite some bugs relating to moving to the glade battle in Wheels of Prophecy we finally made it there. In the following battle a horde of summons and some battlefield control spells like Spacewarp & Chaos let us slice through the demons, except of course for the Fallen Solar. That notable fellow actually managed to chunk Faren despite SCS (after disjunctioning his death ward away ) before Korgan brutalised it down. I followed this run's practice of rolling a die on whether he could be wished & ressurected back as in p&p but will have to rethink how to handle this in future.
The next step was to go through the pocketplane challenges. On this particular occasion none of the challenges proved to be especially difficult, despite the reduced xp our party was overleveled at this point. I even dropped by the Planescape mod Test your Mettle to see if there was anything interesting there and grind Adrian to 9th level spells in his mage multiclass but it wasn't especially interesting. Too many Meteor Swarm traps almost fried Angelo too...
To the throne then. Apart from some troll-related bugs (the blizzard trolls were immune to everything including stat drain seemingly!) things went fairly smoothly. Melissan's second incarnation healed herself on a few occasions, and the fallen solar briefly threatened to focus on someone other than the death-magic proof characters. Melissan didn't throw out any super-strong contingencies or the like though, and was unable to corner any party members. The end came for her all too soon...
And so Lyran mounted the stairway to the Heavens, and all must tremble and despair... Except for Adrian (M/C), Angelo (F/ Abjurer via More Stuff for Mages), Faren (F/ T dual), Korgan (Fighter, unkitted) and Verr'sza (Ranger, unique kit) of course!
In sum my first SCS no-reload success turned slightly easier than expected by the end, it can't compare with any of the high level difficulty exploits many of you deal with though! It was however a hard 6-7 months worth of effort, though with fewer close calls on this occasion- I only really remember using a note from Romantic Encounters to escape from the Druid Grove Rakshasha, and that was as much for convenience as safety!
What made it harder than usual: Item & Spell Revisions, increased levels & Hard difficulty in BG, reduced XP, 35% of magic items removed in randomiser, playing on Android all the way.
What made it easier: Reduced levels in BG2, relaxed rules on chunking, more resting than usual, some mods probably gave excess xp anyway. No SoD this time.
Edit: Also, I effectively disabled Timestop by using the setting in SCS that means no melee attacks may be made- and applied the same restriction to myself.
Since I've been gifted with a free copy of NN by Beamdog I shall probably toy with that next, though reading Vance's Dying Earth has me anticipating a possible future run as an unscrupulous rogue
Sorry, had some trouble attaching pics so they have come out a little oddly here. Amusingly you may note the Planetar attempting to help out Melissan. The Planetars AI was somewhat surly and non-compliant throughout. Clearly Angelo's powers of persuasion were insufficient!
I mean, if your Bhaalspawn only has 500 HP and -91 THAC0, you're probably gonna need it.
The last time Krieg made it to the Throne, he had even more impressive stats than that. But a mistimed casting of Focus caused him to get beaten up by a Time Stop -> Whirlwind Attack from Melissan, and he then suffered from a rage death-spiral with no hope of recovery since his AC and save vs. spell shot up to 20 from the repeated hits.
I'm going to be verrryy careful about watching Melissan when she comes back down to join the Five.
Previous posts (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Previous posts (SoA): 6, 7, 8, 9
Here's Anomandra's inventory upon arriving to the Druid Grove for the record.
The prospect of facing hordes of trolls (with strength draining Spirit Trolls amongst them) with a lone mid-level cleric didn't sound very attractive. We decided to take a stealthy approach and crossed the boggy forest under Sanctuary, avoiding any contract with both creatures and druids.
With her summons and combat buffs ready, Anomandra faced the Shambling Mounds at the second bridge. She used the opportunity to pump up her HP with the Vampiric Touch power before moving deeper into the grove.
I'll note that Anomandra is starting to learn how to properly switch her shields. It takes a little practice, but after all it's not that difficult - Reflex for archers and mages, Fortress for melee grunts and Harmony for anything that uses enchantment spells/abilities. When in doubt, use Harmony. The shields, together with long lasting buffs such as Resist Fear and ProEvil 10' (we're really looking forward to add Shield of Archons), are the frontline of her defenses.
For Dalok and his adherents, we prepared with Armor of Faith, Chant, the Holy Trinity, Storm Shield and RoAC. The fighter engaged our summons and the casters - being unable to target Anomandra with their nasty druidic spells - had nothing to do other than trying to conjure up their own summons. However, their Iron Skins could not protect them against our Lightning Bolts.
The only thing that remained was taking Cernd (with optimized spellbook and smuggled RoAC and Belm at his disposal) into the pit to let him feast on Faldorn.
Anomandra reported back to the High Merchant and used the price money to finance her extensive purchases in the newly opened shops - Cloak of Displacement and Belt of Inertial Barrier were now ours. We concluded our visit of Trademeet by returning the coveted mantle to the High Merchant and dealing with the skindancers. All and all, it was a lot of work but we have to admit that "Hero of Trademeet" doesn't sound that bad.
By the end of the quest Anomandra was at level 12 - still far from L7 spells, but at least her 1 round/level spells were starting to get more duration, which in turn meant easier management of our spellbook. She's also got two Storm Shields and four Lightning Bolts per day, both extremely useful in various situations, to complement her spell arsenal.
Regards,
B.
Flashburn's Rejects
BG1: Prologue, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
ToB: 1, 2, 3
We drink some more buff potions before moving on to the throne. Then the fight begins in earnest. I had to restart it twice because Balthazar wouldn't fire his post-Irenicus+Bodhi+Solar conversation.
Everyone scatters to avoid Bodhi's Cloud of Bats. She chooses Garos as the target but he also gets hit by Johnny's Remove Magic, tearing down his buffs since Garos is only level 27 compared to Johnny's level 30. He gets hit with the cloud of bats and starts taking a lot of damage over time, though Johnny's Remove Magic conveniently left his Oil of Speed intact, so now he's taking double damage. I equip the Axe of the Unyielding +5 to counter with its 3 HP/round regen.
Bruss, Spaz, Rufus, and Gaspar focus on the Solar on the right side while everyone else piles on to Bodhi to keep her from doing anything else. Perfect Mithril Golem kills her.
Using Relentless Assault, Rufus places down all of his traps and Krieg opens a pool. Rufus activates his ass-kicking Spell Trigger and is able to kill a few of the cambions and a succubus, but Time Traps don't last very long.
Now it's time to fight the Five. I had to restart this part of the fight once because I crashed. Sendai probably had something to do with it. This type of crash always happens when a mage tries to use a Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency while dead.
I need to take out Abazigal, Illasera, and Sendai first. Krieg uses a scroll of Protection from Magic on Abazigal while Spaz does the same to Sendai. With their spellcasting disabled, Krieg, Bruss, and Garos pile on to Illasera while Spaz and Rufus work on Sendai, as our summons and golems deal with Abazigal and Gromnir.
All Five are down and Melissan is mortal almost as soon as Krieg drinks the potion.
We manage to kill the demon horde and start focusing on Melissan. But something extremely weird happens... Melissan performs another conversation as if one of the Five was killed just after she brought them back, and Sarevok is back for the fourth time!!
Melissan #2 gates in two more Fallen Solars and a few mariliths, so Bruss uses Melee Rush against the solars. Spaz fights against the Creeping Doom swarm to use a scroll of Improved Haste on Bruss. Rufus decides that if the game is gonna cheat like this, he will too. He uses the Wand of Lightning combined with a Wish scroll. We get: Hardiness, Greater Deathblow, Breach enemies, Resurrection+full health, and two useless Wishes. Then he casts Shadow Gate where the main part of the fight is occurring. I'm pretty sure Ogremoch is killed by a solar at this point.
Krieg devours the real Melissan and becomes a god.
Krieg - War Hulk 35
Garos - Warhorn Shaman 28
Bruss - Super Saiyan 3 Monk 38
Rufus - Thief 25/Shadow Adept 19
Spaz - Warlock 40
Gaspar - Seducer 40
Chromatic Demon - Tanar'ri 25
Balthazar - Monk 30
@Flashburn: I've seen some weird behavior at the Throne where Ascension Melissan will revert to vanilla behavior, instantly healing herself and delivering a dialog indicating she just emerged from the pillar at the center of the map, which she does thrice in vanilla but is only supposed to do once in Ascension. I consider it a victory to just kill her once, since her resurrection is a bug.
Unfortunately, Helmo Snell the chaotic evil halfling assassin will not be joining any hall of heroes. He backstabbed his way to the brain-thingy in the mad cultists' temple in SOD, where he failed to buff adequately. Alas...
Next up: Roiya the lawful good human female sorceress. (Class, alignment, race, gender, etc. chosen randomly). The dice capped her party size at 2. Not sure who she'll be traveling with yet.
Key mods: SCS v32b with all options, randomizer w/ 5% chance for items to be gone, a few convenience tweaks, BG1NPC, insane difficulty.
Dreadnought update
SoD beaten Caelar has been left behind in the hells whilst Dreadnought has escaped.
A quick query to those who are a lot more experienced with BGT/ EET than I am. I have EET installed, at least I think I have.
To keep my party am I supposed to import them in BG2 or just carry on with where the game takes me?
In any case, you can get through the cutscene safely by immediately hitting Escape.
EDIT
I think that I now know which mod might be responsible.
My character is affected by Faith n' Powers mod. He has the Knight of the Red Falcon Paladin kit. I'll ask about it on the Faith n' Powers page. Could also be SCS or Finn Jos Subrace Mod.
Anyway, it's no big deal, it didn't take that long to start again from scratch. This time they survived.
Hall of Heroes entry:
Lyran the Blackguard: @Mantis37
Notable Mods: Heavily modded install. Item & Spell Revisions. SCS (Some tactical options). Crevs Daak's level adder (+ in BG1, - in BG2). Item Randomiser reduced available magic items by 1/3. Rules & kit changes via mods like Scales of Balance.
Difficulty: Hard in BG1 (no damage increase), Core in BG2.
Start: June 2018
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/988745#Comment_988745
Finish: January 2019
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40393/maybe-this-time-no-reload-thread-soloing-all-to-way-to-the-end/p308
Have we had many other touchscreen no-reloads by the way? Playing on a tablet can add a layer of difficulty in my opinion as it is harder to pause quickly and to select accurately. Playing while commuting at least forces me to stick to short sessions though!
Krieg the War Hulk : @Flashburn
Full Tetrology Run
Notable mods: SCS v31 (full prebuffs+almost all tactical challenges), BP Ascension v1.5 BETA; Golem Construction v5.3, More Style for Mages v1.54, Item Upgrade, aTweaks, Rogue Rebalancing, Tweaks Anthology, Oversight (Monk HLAs); War Hulk Kit, Warhorn Shaman v1.1, Warlock v0.8, Shadow Magic v1.9.34, Seducer Kit
Difficulty: Insane (extra damage disabled)
Start (November 2018)
Finish (January 2019)
Since the original baldur's gate only had BG 1, BG 2 and ToB, that is considered a trilogy run, and any no-reload of all those in succession by the same character without dying are recorded. This challenge has been going on for many years by now, and SoD didn't exist when it started. Also, there have been COUNTLESS successful no-reloads of BG1 and BG 2 - it is highly impractical to record all of those - thus the Hall of Heroes only records successful Candlekeep to Throne of Bhaal runs (SoD optional).
The Hall of Heroes is for continuous saga runs with no reloads at any point between Candlekeep and the Throne of Bhaal. Restarting from Candlekeep and then completing the rest of the game without reloading is acceptable; restarting at Chateau Irenicus after dying in Spellhold would not qualify for the Hall. Siege of Dragonspear is optional by precedent, since many runs predated SoD, but I think it's an important part of the saga for the purposes of this challenge, since SoD is complex and roughly as difficult to beat no-reload as the rest of the saga. All of my saga runs thus far have been tetralogy runs with SoD.