Imoen's stuff is in the top room of the Ducal Palace where your stuff is, in the dresser in the bottom left corner.
Oh, I didn't know that. I had assumed that, considering that I hadn't gotten it back at the beginning of SOD, I wouldn't get it back later. Now it's too late, though.
@OlvynChuru: The Robe of Red Flames is not supposed to be on Edwin in SoD. You can only get the robe by having Edwin in your party: after you kill Vichand at Bridgefort, Edwin will give it to you as a reward (it will be added to your inventory). It only appears on Edwin in BG2, provided that you got it normally during SoD. The fact that you didn't find the robe on him in SoD is not a bug; that's intended behavior.
Meet Silas, a character I’m excited about playing. My character concepts are probably more important to me than the actual playthrough because I try hard to play the persona to the fullest based on alignment, class, background, etc. (My last character, Gawain/F/LG finished a completionist run from Carbos in Candlekeep to the defeat of Melissan at the Throne of Bhaal in the abyssal plane, 2015).
This character is based on Silas, the albino monk in The da Vinci Code. I like this character, especially because as a disfigured, albino he’s perfect as a Tiefling (I’m of the mindset that PCs need be a Tiefling because of the Bhaal paternal bloodline). The cowl Silas wears is perfect for the type cover a Tiefling, trying to hide his features, might wear.
He’s a Cleric and a Lorekeeper of Oghma (from @Raduziels Deities of Faerun). Since the Temple of Oghma is in Candlekeep, he would have been around it’s priests all his life and for this run I’ve decided it’s perfect and will stretch my role playing abilities. I’ve always wanted to play a cleric anyway, but as it’s my third favorite class to play, behind Paladin’s and Fighters, I’ve never actually done it.
Playing a TN is going to be a challenge. I’ve almost always been LG (although I’ve played LE or CE a time or two). My plan is to surround my PC with neutral NPCs, ideally TNs like my PC. If I have a NG then I’ll want to offset them with a NE, a LN with a CN. I’m going to use the NPCs feedback to guide me and respond in conversation by carefully choosing my selection.
As I look ahead, there’s a lot of interesting NPCs I’ve never played to get a ‘balanced’ neutral party, i.e., Skie, TN; Faldorn, TN; Eldoth, NE; Dorn, NE; Viconia, NE; and Safana, CN. Then there’s a few I have played and enjoyed that could spice up the mix, i.e., Jaheira, TN; Branwen, TN; Garrick, CN; Khalid & Minsc, both NG; Montaron, NE; Quayle, CN; Xan, LN and Neira, CN. Trying to find the right mix of ‘neutrality’ and character classes is going to a challenge, but one I’m up for. Oh, and I can’t wait to see what happens when I try to add Faldorn to a party with Jaheira in it – it can’t be good but I intend to find out.
Wow! I’m pumped just thinking about the exciting possibilities.
So here we go:
Introducing, Silas, TN, CL (Lorekeeper of Oghma).
4 Mirtul 1368: My service to Oghma has begun. So far, my life outside the walls of Candlekeep has been anything but boring from the moment Gorion & I passed through the gate.
I still don’t know why, but from the moment he told me to prepare for a journey, things have moved quickly. Gorion is dead, killed in an ambush just a short time after we left. I found a letter in his belongings, but it didn’t shed much light on what is happening, which means I’ve no idea when or where my life might be threatened. Even in the hour before I left Candlekeep, I was twice attacked by assassins within it’s very walls.
Shortly after the ambush, Imoen joined me. She’d been following just a couple of hours behind us. I am not crazy about her being here, mainly because she’s the only one in Faerun that I feel protective of. But, there’s that sappy, bubbly cackle too – she’s so naïve. Still, she does have some skills that might well be useful as I try to dissect this web. Gorion did tell me that should we be parted that I was to go the Friendly Army Inn (FAI), so that’s where I decided was best.
Shortly after we collected the spoils of the ambush we were joined by a Bard, Eldoth. This guy’s not to be trusted but he’s working an interesting scheme that might well payoff &, in the meantime, he’s agreed to travel with me toward whatever end I’m pursuing.
KEY EVENT: On approaching the FAI, I was attacked by a third assassin, this one a mage. I quickly cast, Command, & he was down. I called to Eldoth to join me as I rushed in to strike him while he was incapacitated. Imoen fired a Magic Missile from a wand she’d brought with her. The mage, Tarnish by name, recovered once but I cast Command again & he dropped for the last time. Eldoth finished him with his scimitar. Tarnish managed to get a spell off once, because when it was over I realized Imoen had fallen to a Sleep spell, but she was up in a few moments & getting in the way as I tried to decipher the spell book – which I eventually let her keep. I’m not sure this is the kind of wisdom Oghma would approve of.
At the FAI, I met up with Khalid & Jaheira, just as Gorion had admonished me. Both will be of assistance I believe. He’s a Ranger/Archer, with a confused tongue, also a victim of being ‘good’ whatever that means. Hopefully, his skill with a bow will keep him too busy to try to be my moral compass. His wife, Jaheira, is a Druid & an Avenger. She’s all business, so I think we’ll be fine as long as she keeps her mouth shut except when I ask for input.
Though the shaman is very well suited to this challenge, I still wanted to have a go at it without using summons. to that end I decided to roll up a dragon disciple. I'd been trying to roll a decent starting character for a while and obviously got a bit careless - going past a 97 which would have been my best roll for quite a while. However, the higher number gives no benefit for a sorcerer, so it made no difference when I accepted a 90 roll not long after.
Although I'm not intending to take any summoning spells, I'm happy to provide a faithful pseudo-dragon companion for Waxy and that helped him make swift progress in getting up to level 6 in Easthaven. A further level was gained from the small groups of enemies around the caravan cave before Waxy tackled the first large group. Webs slowed them down with the aim of splitting up the enemies and casting invisibility inside the cave and going outside was successful in that just 4 of the group followed - making finishing them off simple. The remaining ones were slightly trickier, but still handled without any need to rest.
The small groups of orcs in the cave were quickly dealt with before tackling the big group. A couple of confusions resulted in some damage, though not as much as I'd hoped, before using webs and invisibility. This time though 9 of the group followed outside, which was more than I'd hoped. However, as Waxy was invisible when she arrived in the area their follow-me script was not yet operating, so she used repeated confusions to thin the crowd out. After a couple of orcs had died, I tried killing one while it was confused on the grounds it couldn't alert others - but it did so anyway. That resulted in the others all going after Waxy, despite her going invisible. I had realized that was a danger, but had thought they would abandon her to chase the familiar if that was visible - most of them just stuck to Waxy like glue though and the familiar had to do a lot of running and nibbling, killing 2 orcs and an ogre to finally get him free again.
It didn't take long then to clean up - Waxy getting to level 9 here with just a couple of blinded ogres left.
At Kuldahar Pass finding space to rest was a bit of a problem, but a beetle cave provided a place to rest after it was cleared. I should have used confusion exclusively to then clear the goblins outside, but got impatient and tried attacking them more seriously. The plan was to retreat and strand those that followed inside the cave after going invisible. However, I got caught out when fewer followed immediately than I expected and I got trapped outside by the follow-me behavior from the stragglers. With no escape I let the familiar back out of the backpack to fight or die - it did the latter.
I think this should be a viable build, so will have another go.
Well, apparently there aren't any abjurers in the Hall of Heroes. Let's do something about that. I'm playing an abjurer... on Legacy of Bhaal!
The Blue Mage and the Black Mage vs. Legacy of Bhaal: Part 1
My mods: XP Cap Remover, IWD Divine Spells in BGEE, SOD and BG2EE (note that this mod adds some IWD arcane spells to the game but not all of them; there's no Mind Blank, for example), characters do not get HLAs upon reaching 3000000 experience (this is to prevent a bug where the HLA UI doesn't show up because it doesn't exist in BG1).
Difficulty: Legacy of Bhaal
Settings: Legacy of Bhaal Bonus Experience turned on
Here are my two characters:
Rules: Aseigh starts the game knowing every abjuration spell in the game but cannot learn or memorize ANY non-abjuration spells in the game. So he'll be all defense... for now. Shihuza starts the game knowing every necromancy spell in the game but cannot learn or memorize any non-necromancy spells, and this rule also applies to her divine spells. They can still cast spells from scrolls.
So how is this playthrough going to go? Very slowly in the beginning, as you might expect. Although enemies in Legacy of Bhaal give enormous amounts of experience when the bonus XP is turned on (over 2000 for a kobold), Aseigh and Shihuza start the game so weak that they wouldn't stand a chance against a single kobold, unless I was willing to spend hours and hours kiting.
So how did I get them through their first few levels? I made them take up the cow-whacking business.
With only a couple of exceptions, attacking animals doesn't cause nearby guards or commoners to turn hostile, and scenery animals are usually unarmed, which means that we get +4 to hit and damage against them. They have poor AC and their max HP is nothing special.
By killing various animals and occasionally managing to kill someone else, the party managed to gain a few levels. Even still, this was not a productive use of time. Aseigh and Shihuza were still too weak to fight a single kobold. So I realized my best option was to use the basilisk XP loop, which a charmed basilisk petrifies a Greater Basilisk and then you unpetrify it with a Stone to Flesh scroll, then repeat the process until you run out of scrolls.
In order to charm a basilisk, I would need Algernon's Cloak. In order get that in a party without a thief, Algernon has to die, but I don't want to lose reputation. My first plan was to lead the spiders from Landrin's house to Algernon, charm Algernon with a Charm Person scroll, have him attack the spiders and get killed by them. But I had forgotten that Algernon also has the Legacy of Bhaal bonuses, so he was not going to get killed in the 5 rounds that Charm Person lasts. I messed that up.
My second plan was simply to swallow my pride and recruit a thief to steal the cloak. The party went to the Seawatcher area and had Safana join the party. She did the job.
Since Safana had higher Charisma than the other party members, I had her equip Algernon's Cloak and buy all the Stone to Flesh scrolls from the temples of Garl Glittergold, Lathander, and Helm. I didn't end up buying scrolls from the temple of Yondalla at this time, though in hindsight I probably should've. I then took Algernon's Cloak from Safana and kicked her out of the party.
In the basilisk area, the party used the basilisk XP loop to amazing effect. They began with over 50 Stone to Flesh Scrolls, and each time the Greater Basilisk was petrified it gave 30000 experience! By the time the party ran out of scrolls, Aseigh was level 12, while Shihuza was a level 9 cleric and a level 11 necromancer.
Now the party can actually accomplish something! Aseigh can use his abjuration arsenal to become immune to pretty much everything a mage can do to him.
But it was Shihuza's skeletons that carried the party through the game. Without them the party wouldn't stand a chance, even at high level.
In a nutshell, almost every battle for the rest of the game consisted of Throw Skeletons at Enemies Until They Die.
When the party wanted to rest in a dungeon, they surrounded themselves with skeletons so that any enemies that interrupted their rest would go for the skeletons first.
By Chapter 4, Shihuza reached the point where she could deal a significant amount of damage with Skull Trap.
Though since the Skull Traps would harm the skeletons, I didn't use them much.
In Chapter 5, the party bought additional Stone to Flesh scrolls from the temple of Yondalla and the temples of Tymora, Gond and Helm in Baldur's Gate. They went back to the basilisk area to resume the basilisk XP loop. The party had killed one of the Greater Basilisks after using up their scrolls previously, but the other Greater Basilisk was still alive. The party charmed a Lesser Basilisk and had it petrify the remaining Greater Basilisk a couple of times, but then I made a mistake and forgot to stop the Lesser Basilisk, and it used its gaze on the Greater Basilisk while it was already petrified, chunking it into stone fragments.
I decided to go to Durlag's Tower and resume the XP loop with the Greater Basilisks on top of the tower. This time I managed to expend all of the scrolls and get all the experience. Not long after, Aseigh reached level 18! He will not get any HLAs until Baldur's Gate 2. Meanwhile, Shihuza had become a level 14 necromancer, capable of casting Finger of Death.
The party didn't get the Cloak of Balduran until Chapter 7. Aseigh charmed Quenash with Algernon's Cloak and threw her at Slythe. This time this strategy actually worked because, unlike Huge Spiders, Slythe is actually an impressive fighter, and Algernon's Cloak lasts way longer than Charm Person.
The party retrieved the Cloak of Balduran from her corpse.
I was scared of the Ducal Palace fight, since I wasn't sure how easy it would be to protect the Dukes. I made a test save to see what my party could accomplish. I beat the fight on the first try. Since that was a practice run, I had to do the fight over again in the real no-reload playthrough for it to count.
Here's what I did: First Shihuza summoned 5 Skeleton Warriors (which were the most powerful kind by this point). She used one of the party's Haste scrolls to haste all of the skeletons. I sent the skeletons in, triggered the cutscene, and once the doppelgangers had revealed themselves, Shihuza cast Greater Malison on them from a scroll. Both of the party members then used their Wands of Paralysis on the doppelgangers. These doppelgangers had really good saves: even with Greater Malison and the -4 save penalty from the wand, they made their saves half the time. But the strategy worked. Both of the Grand Dukes survived.
The Thieves' Maze and the Undercity simply involved throwing Skeleton Warriors at enemies as always. In the Undercity fight, Shaldrissa actually cast Cloudkill multiple times on the skeletons that were right on top of their group.
Only the final battle was left. Like the Ducal Palace fight, I made a practice save because I didn't know how this was going to go. I shouldn't have worried, as I beat it on the first try in practice. So I restarted the fight to do it for real.
This time, it went even better than in the practice run. Here's what happened: Just as I did before the Ducal Palace fight, I summoned 5 Skeleton Warriors and hasted them with another scroll. I sent four of the skeletons right up to where Sarevok was, with another one staying behind to draw Semaj's attention.
The skeletons that were up front facing Sarevok wouldn't have been able to beat him on their own, but Aseigh and Shihuza both used their Wands of Paralysis to paralyze Angelo, Tazok, and Semaj.
Angelo was the first to fall, killed by the Skeleton Warriors. They killed Tazok soon after.
Then Semaj fell, killed instantly by Shihuza.
Now it was just Sarevok. By this point, he had killed two of the skeletons and was nowhere near death. Shihuza could still summon a couple more, but I'm not sure if they'd be enough. There is a better way to end this, however.
Here's the finale! Aseigh, currently a level 19 abjurer with nothing but abjuration spells, cast Improved Mantle and stepped up to his half-brother in close range. It's time for the reward for playing through Baldur's Gate 1: Legacy of Bhaal with a Magikarp as the main character. Aseigh used the Abjurer's ultimate spell on Sarevok!
Good riddance! And yes, the game does count this as killing Sarevok. I beat the game!
Siege of Dragonspear is next!
My reflections: When partnered with bonus experience and the removal of the experience cap, Legacy of Bhaal is actually kind of fun. You actually get experience for killing kobolds in the Nashkel Mines. This is the first playthrough in which I explored all of the Nashkel Mines in search of kobolds to kill. Usually I just head straight for Mulahey.
5 Mirtul 1368: The trip to Beregost was uneventful. At the advise of Khalid & Jaheira, we only stayed on the road a short time on the Coast Way, then made our way thru wilderness the rest of the way. Ever since we left, I’ve been hearing about caravan’s being raided and we came across one as we were making our way.
KEY EVENT: Beregost has been a productive stop. While looking for an inn, we came across a fellow who offered us work for his mistress. It turned out that she wanted us to kill some men who were threatening her & preventing her from getting work. Apparently, she was deceiving us, but we followed thru as agreed and took them out [Note: I expected a reputation loss but there wasn’t one). But after we’d done our part, Silke refused to pay, so I directed an attack. I cast Command and she dropped. Between Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen and Eldoth, she looked like a pin cushion. She managed to recover once, but I cast a 2nd Command and she was thru. I ended up with some excellent spoils. The gems weren’t worth much but she had 400gp, an enchanted quarterstaff and a suit of enchanted chainmail that brought in 2500gp at the smithy.
I tried to stay at an inn right next to where fought the battle with the mage, but I was accosted again, this time by a dwarf with a battleaxe. I decided to back off since I didn’t have anymore spells. Still, these constant attacks are starting to anger me. I withdrew and he didn’t pursue, so I decided on an inn around the corner, near where we’d met the tall guy that introduced us to Silke earlier – the Burning Wizard. I stayed there for a few hours, then we needed to find the smithy, Thunderhammer. Before we went though, I went back to the first inn, and sure enough the dwarf was there, and he came at me as soon as I walked in. I dropped him with a Command, & my retinue pelted him with arrows & stones. He may have recovered once, but not for long. Not much loot, just a set of chain that I sold off. A female gnome tried to assist me against the dwarf using a morning star, and after he was dead, I elected to let her come along – she’s a cleric but doesn’t seem to be affiliated with a Gnomish deity. Apparently, she’d been at Candlekeep, b/c she & Imoen were acquainted. She does have a set of glasses that allow her to Identify enchanted items. That will be helpful as long as I keep her along.
Blue Font: New information; Red Font: Monster encounters (first use) (Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
14 Mirtul 1368: I continue to get accosted every which way. The trip from Beregost to Nashkel was only interrupted by a couple of ogrillons that my retinue took out bit by bit, keeping distance between themselves and the aggressors until both of the oafs were dead.
Once in Nashkel, I was attached again @ the Nashkel Inn, this time by a female cleric. Using our same tactics, I cast Command, & the others used arrows and stones to pummel her while she was down. She made one move to recover, but I cast again, & she was thru.
I had us visit the Nashkel Store to resupply and offload some loot before I decided to join forces with a Barbarian names Minsc. He’s about as annoying as he can be & he’s not quite all there. I also decided that with him in my service, Finch would have to go. Minsc asked us to help him rescue ‘his witch’ named Dynahier who turned out to be way out west of Nashkel. After a rest I had us make the trek.
We came across and killed three gnoll’s on the way to Nashkel but other than that the trip was just long.
KEY EVENT: After making quick work of two ogrillons that apparently had the job of guarding the bridge that led to the Gnoll Stronghold, I had us ascend the fortress steps. After slaying 4 gnolls & 4 xvarts, this battle got all jacked up, mostly because of Minsc. He used some Berserk ability at the outset of the fight, that looked like it was gonna make things go quickly, as he obliterated two gnoll’s in about two seconds. But then he decided to go after Imoen, and me, and anyone allied with me that got close. He practically ignored the gnoll’s as he went by them chasing my followers. The battle could have been wrapped up in no time, but instead dragged on for far too long as we all had to avoid Minsc as much as we did the swarming gnoll’s. Even my Command spell didn’t bring him down – he was out of his mind, more than usual. By the time silence fell, there were atleast 16 dead gnolls, including their Chieftain, Elite’s, Veteran’s, & Slashers. Unfortunately, both Minsc and Khalid had also fallen, Khalid taken out by Minsc. We found ‘the witch’ but I elected to free her & leave her rather than bring her with. I could tell right off that that wouldn’t work. It’s good Minsc was a casualty because he might‘a lost his mind again & we were in no position to deal w/that. I had them grab the loot and collect Minsc & Khalid’s equipment.
Once in Nashkel again, I raised them both. I purchased all of the Potions of Healing from the priest at The Temple of Helm & divided them amongst us. Not sure they would’a helped @ the Gnoll Stronghold, but I think it’ll be better to have them available to everyone in the future.
Sorry about the lack of screenshots folks. Suddenly my screenshots were coming out black. Two days ago they were working around. I had a good shot of the Silke battle for the first battle report above, i.e., 4 Mirtul.
I found a workaround, wherein I have to go into Graphics & unselect Full Screen and take the screen shot that way.
Oh well. It's always something isn't it? Or is that just me?
I have most of the wilderness revealed and I collect the CHA tome. At the Valley of the Tombs, Narcillicus puts up a good defense but he gets poisoned, causing him to activate an invisibility sequencer.
He runs off somewhere. I notice the floating text above his invisible head so I head in the opposite direction to deal with his mustard jellies separately. The two slimes are defeated and after a rest, Narcillicus is dealt with by waiting out his Protection from Normal Missiles.
The revenant fight goes much differently than I remembered last time. Since when did the revenant have a hold gaze?
I have to spend a few minutes being repeatedly held by the zombie, until I finally get lucky enough to escape by making the save against the gaze or having my MR deflect it.
I can't use the Ring of Free Action either, so I just ignore the revenant and move on. 3 ghasts are lured out of their tomb so I can deal with Xarius the Black by himself. Evading his spells via a door transition is essential to his defeat. Poison and spell failure take their toll on him.
That's pretty much all the wilderness done. I blaze through the Nashkel Mines and put down the kobold shaman that gave Bruss a scare last time with ease. Mulahey is poisoned from range and then I retreat to deal with his minions so I can beat Mulahey by himself. One by one, the skeletons and kobolds fall. Mulahey fails to get a single offensive spell off thanks to poison ticks and missile damage.
Returning to Nashkel sees the end of Nimbul. He starts the fight with Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and Haste. He gets poisoned and takes several spell failure hits, so he goes in for melee. I think he was using throwing axes as a melee weapon for some reason. Again, anytime he tried to cast spells at me, I escaped through the door of the Nashkel store.
At Peldvale, I convince Raiken to let us join the bandits and also persuade Tazok too so I don't have to fight the entire camp all at once.
The inside of Tazok's tent gets a bit dangerous but Venkt, the real danger, was neutralized with some arrows of biting and finished off.
The trap on Ender Sai's chest is tanked with Boots of Grounding. I run away from the bandit camp. I try to see if I can at least beat Taurgosz before having to escape but he's too well-armored.
The first bounty hunters are eliminated. I have to use another Potion of Magic Blocking against the cleric but one of the amazons has one on her body, so there was no net loss.
The Cloakwood goes as expected. I manage to retrieve Spider's Bane in case I need Free Action. Drasus's party is pretty tough, forcing me to expend all of my extra-healing potions and two potions of magic blocking. But Drasus finally falls and I get his Boots of Speed, which should make kiting much easier. Genthore isn't nearly as strong as Drasus.
I go backwards through the cloakwood for one area to rest and recover HP, then return. Rezdan is cheesed with world map transitions when he tries to hit me with Chaos, but I then take the initiative and stick him with arrows of biting, poisoning him and causing spell failure.
The Cloakwood Mine isn't too bad. I skip the big fights and head straight to Dave. I have no choice but to use a scroll of Protection from Magic and trip all the traps. Dave launches a Web+Stinking Cloud minor sequencer to his own forces' detriment. While they're all caught in it, I deal with the Battle Horrors and level up from killing the second one. I take the level immediately.
The AoE clouds have worn off and all of Dave's help is now clustered around him. I wish I had Arrows of Detonation right about now.
I use Shatter Magic for the first time against Dave to get rid of his Stoneskin. It works, but he has a second casting of it.
I retreat into Dave's personal quarters. The Blacktalons seem to want to stick to Dave instead of seeking me out, so I pick them off one by one as if I wasn't playing with SCS. Once I thin their ranks a bit, I try another use of Shatter Magic to eliminate his 2nd casting of Stoneskin, and I manage to poison Dave as well. His mercs bodyblock him, keeping him from retreating into the center of the area.
Dave has taken several hits from me, so I make it a point to finish him off quickly. Once I do, his guards run away.
Baldur's Gate is now open to me, but I want something from Dorn's questline before going any further. I temporarily recruit him and have his AI act independently with no input from me other than to guide him to the place he's supposed to be for the encounter with Kryll. Once she's down, her Walking Dead crumble automatically.
The Amulet of Spell Warding is mine now and I tell Dorn to get lost. One of Darkflame's apprentices Chang Yu'ke is near the entrance to Baldur's Gate. I brush him off and head into the city anyway and do a couple of sidequests, then retrieve the Cloak of Balduran the easy way by killing Quenash. It reduces my sterling reputation down to 9 and I get the Cause Affliction Bhaal power. With 53% MR and better saves, I'm feeling much more confident about taking down Chang.
She gets stuck with an Arrow of Dispelling so I switch to Acid Arrows. Shatter Magic sees the rest of her defenses destroyed, but she ends up killing herself with a CON penalty for failing to save vs. death for attempting to cast a 4th level Shadow Magic spell. Shadow Weave spells are a double-edged sword for inexperienced casters.
The ogre mage in the sewers of BG is instantly killed with the specialized arrow for sale at Sorcerous Sundries. BG's sidequest hell will be a pleasant respite.
The party's trip south, after the events of Dragonspear went south in a metaphorical sense as well. They got ambushed and imprisoned by an anonymous enemy. It was Imoen (Swashbuckler 10 -> Mage) who managed to free Amahoro from her cell. The duo then proceeded to free Minsc and Jaheira, and the four set out to escape from the dungeon they found themselves in. Almost all their gear was gone, although Amahoro would find the golden pantaloons, her +3 sling and, on a duergar guard, a suit of chainmail +3. To minimize damage taking, Amahoro used stealth to divide the many duergar and to sneak up on (gating, aTweaks) mephits, and an otyugh. She also cast a few Spike Growths. Two golems were beaten without incurring any damage thanks to Jaheira and her Ironskins. She positioned herself in the front and had Minsc and Amahoro strike from the flanks. Amahoro also snuck past groups of mephits to exchange a genie bottle for a greatsword. Imoen (75 Find Traps) had trouble with some of the snares but a new recruit, Yoshimo, handled them quite well. Four mephit portals on the second level could have caused all kinds of trouble, but other than Jaheira getting blinded and confused at one point, the party, helped by a fire elemental the druid had summoned, rapidly destroyed the portals. The elemental took care of the remainder of the level.
Imoen was taken by Cowled Wizards for casting a Magic Missile, and the four remaining companions decided to rest at the Den of the Seven Vales. There, Yoshimo's special snares, two Spike Growths, a fire elemental helped the party defeat Mencar Pebblecrusher's violent party. Brennan Risling was a threat, backstabbing Yoshimo before Minsc felled him.
Amahoro saved against a Horror (she also cast Remove Fear while the projectile was coming her way) from Pooky. Amon and Smaeluv took the fight downstairs, where Amon in particular, showed his evil, as he Sunfired several innocent bystanders before he was beaten to death by Amahoro.
In Waukeen's Promenade's circus tent, Kalah was Commanded by Amahoro and swiftly slain. Rescued Aerie offered to join the party but Amahoro declined.
A suit of full plate, an invisibility ring, and girdles of piercing and bluntness were the most important items thus far. Item Randomiser had randomised some goods away but we didn't get anything special/useful in return.
In the Slums, Gaelan Bayle's offer to help Amahoro find Imoen struck the ranger as rather expensive (40,000 GP - though SCS even lets you go as far as 120,000 GP!). A first job they took on in hopes of getting that money together, was to deal with Lethinan. Yoshimo's snares helped against two battle mages,
and the beastmaster found most of his minions slain by sneaky Amahoro when he attacked the party. He dropped a priceless wolfskin bag of holding as well as a less useful Staff of Thunder and Lightning. (A nice item, but neither Jaheira nor Amahoro had the proficiencies for it.)
Yoshimo met an old colleague upstairs, and found a very nice item in his drawer:
Captain Haegan and his crew proved a challenge. The party struck first, with Jaheira summoning a fire elemental and casting an Insect Plague from out of sight of the enemy, and Amahoro and her casting Spike Growths. But the enemy priest Greater Commanded Jaheira and (a not yet enraged, still invisible) Minsc, so it was just Amahoro, Yoshimo and the elemental.
Amahoro killed the priest of Cyric from range, and Yoshimo brought Haegan to near death with a backstab.
Jaheira only survived thanks to the enemy focusing on the not disabled party members. When Minsc and she regained their senses, the party quickly thinned the enemy ranks. A slaver wizard managed to Confuse Jaheira (but not Amahoro, who rolled a 20 to save vs spell), before Minsc put him down. The remainder of the slavers posed no real threat.
At the Government District Jan Jansen joined the party. The Suna Seni ambush followed (with Suna Seni being replaced by Eldarin in the UB mod, as Suna Seni has a role to play in Valygar's story). Thanks to Jaheira's Pixie Dust everyone always traveled under invisibility, so it was the party doing the ambushing. The enemy had no answer to Jan and Yoshimo's snares, Jaheira and Amahoro's Spike Growths and a Slow from Jan.
A second ambush followed (Renfeld) soon after, and again the advantage of invisibility was helpful even though Spike Growths were less of an option what with Renfeld about. He was delivered at the compound in the Docks.
Trying to get some rest at the Sea's Bounty proved a bad idea as Jaheira was cursed by Baron Ployer. Removing that curse wasn't trivial because of Ployer's mages. Ployer himself was slain fairly easily. The party didn't have the means to battle all three wizards at the same time, so the mages were taken outside but that only led to a bunch of thugs joining the enemy and going after Yoshimo, who had to quaff several healing potions to survive. There was also a bug where an earth elemental and later a fire elemental summoned by the enemy had no circles around them so they couldn't be attacked, except perhaps through AI. This screenshot shows a hostile earth elemental.
First the thugs, and later the mages were all dispatched with traps and summons. I uninstalled aTweaks elementals hoping that would get rid of the bug.
In the Bridge District Ironskinned Jaheira, wearing the boots of speed, was able to witness Riejek Hidesman escape without her getting attacked by rune assassins. Jan got the party's offficial warning from the Cowled Wizards for casting Invisibility on himself just outside the Five Flagons. The companions didn't have the gold to pay, so they'd have to be very careful. Luckily, and unexpectedly, we got a free spell-casting license soon after thanks to UB's 'The Kidnapping of Boo' component.
It didn't involve any fighting, but we did have to correctly answer some riddles/questions and choose the right dialog options.
The party traveled to the Umar Hills, where clearing a cave yielded a ring of djinni summoning, and felling an ogre Ilbratha +1. The principal quest though, dealing with the undead infestation at the Temple Ruins, was a bit too much for the party to handle. The first rooms were cleared, and Mazzy was welcomed into the party, but two bone golems and especially a greater mummy (that required PfFear to prevent paralysis),
were more than a match for the party. Minsc had Lilarcor and Mazzy the Sword of Arvoreen but the others had no enchanted weapons, and Mazzy had grandmastery in shortbows; she was an archer more than a meleer. With the help of the Djinni, the companions managed to destroy the two bone golems, Minsc giving his life in the process.
They got out and tried their luck at the De'Arnise Hold, but the amount of spirit trolls was such that again, a lack of enchanted weapons kept them from effectively dealing with the enemy. The companions cleared or at least explored most of the first two levels, and that included the demise of the yuan-ti mage, thanks to the dijnni summon. Looting the golem room under Sanctuary yielded Amahoro her first, somewhat underwhelming magical weapon, the Kneecapper +1.
A somewhat hesitant start in Amn, the crew will travel to Trademeet next, to see if they can make more of a difference there.
Waxy - IWD HoF solo dragon disciple {2} (update 1)
Starting Waxy again, it didn't take long to clear Easthaven. This time I'd decided to take my old favorite skull trap as a first 3rd level spell and that provided quicker damage to groups. However, it also triggered follow-me behavior so I had to be careful not to let the big groups in the cave operate together. With the ogres I used confusion more extensively (which doesn't activate the opponents) to wear them down a bit.
One disappointment was that I'd taken LMD this time as a way of healing damage, but that's still bugged in IWDEE and only causes the damage component - as a result I also took vampiric touch, which I hadn't been intending to.
In Kuldahar Pass Waxy started by leading the closest group of goblins off to the cave adjoining the beetles to be stranded. With a bit of space to work with he then successfully cleared a couple of groups in the main area - using web from out of sight to immobilize groups, confusion to prevent them attacking him immediately if they broke free, skull traps to do most of the damage and blindness and chromatic orb to clean up stragglers. He failed to kill the next group though when a confused goblin wandered and spotted him - rather unfairly immediately activating all the others to chase. Waxy thus led yet more enemies into the goblin cave, causing the press of numbers in there to come uncomfortably close to blocking the door.
After killing a few more goblins, Waxy failed once more with the final group in the main area. He led those into the ogre's tower before retreating.
I noticed for the first time when preparing to attack them that stoneskin only lasts 8 hours in IWD so, unlike ironskin, it doesn't persist across a rest. However, it still provided protection while confusion readied the goblins for the kill. I didn't fancy trying the same trick though on the huge numbers in the goblin cave, but clearing the mill buildings was just enough to get to level 10 before leaving for Kuldahar.
After selling a bit of stuff in Kuldahar, Waxy moved on to the Vale of Shadows. His spells are not that well suited to undead, but the familiar could act as an invisible blocker while his new sunfire spell was useful for finishing injured enemies off quickly.
Progress wasn't as quick as using summons, but still decent and he got another level fairly early on in one of the tombs. There was a nasty moment later on when I was slow to react to the perennial problem of running out of MMMs and Waxy ran into a web without even stoneskins for protection. He got stuck initially, but luckily escaped at the first opportunity before the opponent could chop him up.
There were no further problems while Waxy worked through the first level of Kresselack's tomb. He was using quite a range of different tactics, such as familiar tanking, blind, web, skull traps, MMMs and sunfires. However, hold undead probably accounted for the greatest number of victims - he got up to level 12 by finishing off a held group of 4 with skull traps.
The Globe of Invulnerability learned will make triggering traps less hazardous.
With that level I decided it was finally time to go and finish the postponed work at Kuldahar Pass. Spirit armor, blur and stoneskins kept Waxy healthy while sunfires burnt up the opposition there.
Then it was back to work in the Vale. The main danger there was impatience and Waxy once had to run all the way back to Kuldahar when overestimating his ability to kill large numbers of undead with sunfires. On another occasion he forgot to use spirit armor and blur and had to resort to drinking his one invisibility potion to ensure he survived when surrounded by skeletons.
Shortly after that though he regrouped and picked up a further level.
There were no more alarms after that as Waxy swiftly finished off the final group of Spectral Guards on the way to find Kresselack.
Lysan was then stymied by a first use of mislead.
Back at Kuldahar Waxy used a friends scroll to make a bag of holding and a robe of enfusing slightly less ruinously expensive - the bag of holding might eventually recoup its cost though as a result of carrying more loot out of dungeons. He reported to Arundel before setting off in search of the Hearthstone Gem.
Dragon disciple 13, 99 HPs (incl. 22 from familiar, 10 from talisman), 427 kills L1 - Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Identify, LMD, Magic Missile L2 - Blindness, Web, Invisibility, Knock, Blur L3 - Skull Trap, MMM, Vampiric Touch, Hold Undead L4 - Confusion, Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Dimension Door L5 - Sunfire, Cloudkill, Shadow Door L6 - Globe of Invulnerability, Mislead
During our last visit at D'Arnise Keep we had decided to leave TorGal unchallenged, when survival instinct had overruled our determination to get the job done. There's no shame in that for Anomandra - it had been the right call back then. However, we did not forget about that unopened door in the keep's basement, and now was the time to finish what we started.
Our plan was to separate TorGal from his bodyguards and beat him up with Anomandra's own army, including our new L7 spell addition - a gated Pit Fiend. Quite unfair, I know, but damn efficient.
I botched it. I forgot that in order to execute the first part of the plan, I have to abuse TorGal's ability to see through invisibility. And instead of taking a sanctuaried approach, Anomandra simply walked through the door into a throne room full of scary trolls, umber hulks and yuan-ti. Just imagine the look on their faces when, while causally gnawing on the rotting carcass of Lord D'Arnise, they suddenly saw approaching a lone halfing, looking all funny with that oversized shield of hers. Yep, just like that.
Unfortunately for us, the initial surprise did not last for long. What followed was Anomandra's sobering realization of our mistake, followed by a frantic retreat to the staircase with the entire throne room at her heels. And when there's chaos, I don't have screenshots.
Our two aerial servants and a skeleton warrior waiting at the staircase tried to stop the rushing horde, but it wasn't enough. To underline our pessimistic outlooks, Anomandra got interrupted while trying to call in the Pit Fiend. Underbuffed and outnumbered, she retreated upstairs to catch her breath.
The two yuan-ti mages followed. Too bad for them - they did not launch their PfMW and thus made themselves easy targets to our sling with Sunstone Bullets, while holding Reflex in the off-hand and dispelling their illusions with True Sight.
Running Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration, Resist Fear, ProEvil, Armor of Faith, the Holy Trinity and Defensive Harmony, Anomandra then switched to Flail of Ages and Fortress Shield and descended into the basement...to find out that there's only TorGal and one giant troll left. We can make this.
With bonuses granted by Girdle of Piercing and ProEvil, Anomandra's effective AC against the trolls was at -19. Slow imposed by Flail of Ages would counter their regeneration rate, while Cloak of Fear was a non-issue. Dear Torgal, it seems you might have underestimated our little halfling a little.
Finally, we called in Mr. Turban to maximize our damage output.
Phew! That was messy. But we're alive and we didn't even spend any important resources after all. We reported both the good and the bad news to Nalia and returned to Athkatla to rest and resupply (rewarding ourselves for the victory by purchasing the Sling of Everard from Joluv).
Coremage the human beserker (for now) Traveling with: Jaheira, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Yoshimo SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
So Coremage found himself in Irenicus' dungeon. He recruited Jaheira once again (he was with her in BG 1). He's not sure about this big guy named Minsc, but recruited him as well, and of course Imoen, who was with Coremage in BG 1 as well. The quatro got out of the dungeon without any problems.
Coremage recruited Yoshimo in the dungeon. Which meant getting two more group mates. Anomen was quickly recruited, and the last group mate recruited was Keldorn. Once we had our group, we set about working on quests:
* Circus problem solved. Kalah just couldn't do much about our combined attacks. * Numerous ambushes, including Renfeld, Suna Seni, and many others, all victories without casualty. We have been using insect plague when available and it has been quite helpful. * Hendak was freed. We had some summons assisting and this made this rather straightforward. * We did the Lilacor quest for Minsc. Coremage was careful to enrage before engaging the shamans in the sewers - was a good thing as his group mates were getting held, although none died. * We cleared out Captain Haegan and the rest of the slavers in the moored ship. Anomen was getting slammed by Captain Haegan's throwing axes - maybe next time he should use the special ability of his shield (always forget about that). * Keldon brought his wife to the courts, and had her cheating lover executed. * Anomen did the lawful path concerning his killed sister. * Jaheira is getting quite friendly, although they are still only having quasi-romantic talks. * Jaheira got cursed by Baron Ployer - fortunately, insect plague was decisive against the Baron and his mage cohorts. * Protected by petrification by green scrolls, Keldorn and Coremage took out the genies persecuting Trademeet. This resulted in shield of harmony upgrade for Jaheira (Coremage usually dual-wields - he can also enrage if needed).
Minsc insisted they go to Umar Hills, so Coremage relented and did so. The mimic or the nearby umber hulks were no problem. The stone golem could do nothing as well. We will venture into the nearby abandoned Amaunator temple area next session. The plan is Jaheira and Coremage will stay in front since they are immune to hold. For this segment, Coremage is off-handing the Arbane, with Stonefire his primary weapon.
In the Temple of the Forgotten God there were lots of ways to disable or block the Verbeeg, although none of them led to particularly quick kills. The acolytes were potentially more dangerous and Waxy had to save against a hold person while unbuffed at one point. Moving on to the entrance to the second level, Waxy finally got some decent value from his cloudkill spell. After finishing off the stragglers it didn't take long to move down to the final grouping - who got a bit distracted. Arriving at Dragon's Eye, Waxy tried leaving a mislead outside the entrance - but that didn't prevent the lizardmen from attacking him. Coming back again he just buffed up before releasing the sunfires - picking up his 14th level as a result. Unfortunately I had to replay that bit as a result of the disappearing portrait bug - that seems annoyingly frequent in IWDEE. Waxy took project image as his first 7th level spell, which speeded things up a bit - though the lizard men shamans did have a nasty habit of dispelling those. They failed to do that when attacking the King's forces though.
I was close to finishing off the first level when disaster carelessness struck. I had been used to using the familiar to help hold a choke point while the project image used confusion, cloudkill, skull traps etc. To start with I was being careful about placement of the spells, but over time repetition can erode attention to detail - and that can prove fatal.
Anomandra's journey has come to an end in the Underdark - suffering the dark fate of Imprisonment.
I did not expect an Elder Orb to guard the entrance to the beholder dungeon (together with a second beholder, which is not visible on the final screenshot below). Anomandra did not have the chance to prepare her summons and the brutal combination of anti-magic ray and Imprisonment proved to be fatal. Her last resort ProMagic scroll came in too late...
I kind of expected that this run would end in something like this, although that doesn't make in any easier to swallow. At this point, Anomandra (level 31) was already over-leveled for SoA.
I believe that there's a generally accepted view that single class clerics are missing out on their potential, and that they are always better off when dual/multi classing. I'd like to disagree - they do play differently, but are perfectly capable and flexible class on their own. Their quick level progression in SoA and extra clerical levels make their buffs and protections resistant to Remove/Dispel Magic and create much more flexibility when managing their spellbook. I have not been using certain spells (e.g. Aid, Barkskin) until I had enough spell slots to squeeze these in and until their duration was long enough to become relevant in mid-term battle planning. L7 spells and HLAs are game changing, and each available spell slot is precious (Anomandra was even using the Symbol of Talos because of this).
Oh no, I'm really sorry @Borco! I loved your run (and reporting style) with Anomandra It's good to be reminded of Elder Orb Maze. I thought SCS enemies used neither Maze nor Imprisonment on Charname, but it's been ages for me, so I'm sure my memory is fuzzy. Your run does indeed show what a solo Cleric can do, which is quite a lot. So well done!
@Grond0, condolences too, even though the incident at Dragon's Eye doesn't look that fatal to me.
@Grond0, condolences too, even though the incident at Dragon's Eye doesn't look that fatal to me.
On LoB death of a familiar is bad news. You immediately permanently lose all the HPs gained (normally 22) and then lose double the familiar's HPs (88) as a temporary penalty. You thus need at least 111 HPs prior to the familiar's death to survive it - which is likely to require a pretty high level ...
I'm right before the Ducal Palace fight with an underleveled party in a new "no magic items" run, and I've just now realized I'd probably be much better equipped to handle Sarevok if I had created a Shadowdancer instead of a second Fighter/Illusionist. I don't know if I'll have enough spells to (1) kill Angelo on his own, (2) bomb Diarmid, Semaj, and Tazok from the fog of war, and (3) kite Sarevok safely, even if I do grind a little and gain a level for a few party members.
We have enough Fireballs to kill Diarmid, Semaj, and maybe Tazok, but killing Angelo will be challenging unless I wait out his MGOI (or remove it with Spell Thrust) and use Melf's Acid Arrows to disrupt his spells, like I did against Davaeorn, Cythandria, and Kristin. Problem is, that leaves us with a lot fewer damage spells to kill Sarevok, whose haste is undispellable in my install (like it has been in all of my installs), and since we have no magic items available, either Boots of Speed or Oils of Haste, kiting him seems... iffy, especially if I have trouble bringing down those Skeleton Warriors with their sky-high MR and resistance to missile damage.
I'm anxious about the Ducal Palace fight as well. The plan is to use my Cleric of Helm's True Sight to reveal the mage and nail it with Spell Thrust before firing off some Melf's Acid Arrow spells. But things could get very sticky, and if we fail to stop it from casting Confusion or Chaos, we might see Liia Jannath enter the fight and get killed.
We've got two Fighter/Illusionists at levels 5/5 and 5/4, a Cleric of Helm at 6, Baeloth at 7, a Skald almost at 7, a sorcerer at 5, and we also have a player-created Archer at level 1 hanging out in Beregost, whom I will bring to the fight with Sarevok so we can switch to the Archer once Baeloth runs out of spells (otherwise we won't be able to bring the Archer into SoD, BG2, and ToB, and we need that archer's Called Shot spells to deal with the Ravager and Melissan). With no healing potions or utility options, we'd have immense trouble surviving much pressure from the doppelgangers even if we did manage to kill the mage early.
Gaining levels with a mostly player-created party without access to magic items is awfully hard, especially since we couldn't spare room for a thief that could disarm traps in Durlag's Tower. Aside from Charname, Baeloth, and our Archer waiting for us in Beregost, we're just shy of 40,000 XP. I was hoping we'd have about twice that number by the time we reached the endgame.
I may or may not continue this challenge if I fail, but if I do, I'll probably invest in a Shadowdancer. But the THAC0 problem is giving me pause: a single-classed thief will be at 17 base THAC0 at level 7 (getting to level 8 would involve taking on additional risks), and without items and with limited buffing options, the potential THAC0 by endgame BG1 is kinda weak:
Half-orc with longsword backstabs: 11 THAC0 for 16 damage
Halfling with sling and friendly Strength buff: 13 THAC0 for 6.5 damage
Elf with bow: 13 THAC0 for 3.5 damage at 2 APR
Human with bow: 15 THAC0 for 3.5 damage at 2 APR
Human with longsword backstabs and friendly Strength buff: 12 THAC0 for 12 damage
That would make Sarevok take forever, and I wouldn't really be able to do much with it elsewhere, so it might be best just to dual-class the poor thing to cleric or mage later on, which unfortunately would require us to pick a human.
I'm not using the Reform Party trick anymore, which is why I don't have a Bounty Hunter or Totemic Druid, who could otherwise completely wreck the Ducal Palace and Sarevok by spamming Special Snares and spirit critters.
@semiticgod a thief is able to lay maximum traps at both the Palace and the battle with Sarevok, so that significantly cuts down the disadvantage against a spell user. It's a while since I've done it, but even without haste boots a thief should be able to backstab Sarevok to death round the pillars reasonably quickly. If you also take into account the extra XP you can get from Durlag's (though a thief isn't actually essential for that anyway if you've got spells to protect against fire and lightning and stealth might be a better investment for thieving skill points) I would have thought one would be well worth a place - and a bounty hunter would make some late game encounters in BG2 easier. Also are no katanas available in your installation for backstabbing and shouldn't there be 2 difference between THAC0 for half-orc (strength 19) and human thief (strength 18(50)?
I can't remember if your original post mentioned it, but presumably if you're using fighter / illusionists you're allowing the use of scrolls - is that purely for learning, or can you use those in action as well?
Both the shaman and sorcerer seem to me to almost certainly be capable of completing the challenge - although with any solo character a slight slip can lead to disaster. However, I still had a hankering to see if I could manage this with a non magic-using character and decided to go back to the monk.
As I knew this would have to be a very long haul, I was prepared to restart several times in order to get decent HPs for the character. However, on my first attempt, killing the beetles and off-loading a bottle of cheap wine got Tres up to level 5 - with a sensational 48 HPs out of 50. Would that be a good omen?
A few goblins were taken down using stealth to get stun attacks in, then switching to dual-wielding to maximise attacks before going back to run and hit. Just the 7 HPs this time, but that's acceptable. The wolves and a few orcs from the caravan cave were enough for level 7 and 8 more HPs.
Killing the remaining orcs in small groups was no problem, but left Tres well short of a competitive level for future encounters. I therefore stooped to something I don't normally allow and rested specifically to generate enemies for XP. Rest ambushes in the outside area generate 4 orcs at a time. If you're careful that's not enough to trap you or even get an attack in (as a result of their slow weapon speed). Tres did get hit a number of times though, particularly as fatigue became a factor. With just one more orc needed for a level Tres was tagged with a critical for the first time, but stuck around in order to get his revenge - just the 6 HPs this time though.
@Grond0, condolences too, even though the incident at Dragon's Eye doesn't look that fatal to me.
On LoB death of a familiar is bad news. You immediately permanently lose all the HPs gained (normally 22) and then lose double the familiar's HPs (88) as a temporary penalty. You thus need at least 111 HPs prior to the familiar's death to survive it - which is likely to require a pretty high level ...
I understand now that your last screenie was after the loss of the initial 22 HPs but before the LoB bonus HPs...
@semiticgod: did you at least try Durlag's Towers upper levels? If not, note the following re: the tower. Outside there are three Battle Horrors that can be slain with Fireballs (one of them aided by lowly skeletons whose ranged attacks you'll want to protect your mage against). On the second upper level you could go south and then east to reach the roof with three greater basilisks. You'll have to kill a ghast first and walk over a repeating chromatic orb trap that can stun you (use MSD or MGoI against it). Your Fighter/Illusionists can then kill the three basilisks on the roof. Three battle horrors + three greater basilisks = 33,650 XP. You could push that to the 40k XP you're looking for by killing ten more ghasts from levels 2 and 3 (luring them to the ground floor if there are too many, or use invisible blockers if necessary). Careful with the cellars if you want to kill ghasts there, because there are some nasty traps there (one gives confusion).
For the Ducal Palace fight your strategy sounds sensible, but please have your cleric summon as many skellies as possible, haste them, and place them between the Dukes and the doppelgangers before the fight starts to greatly decrease the likelihood of the dukes receiving too much aggro. You can then focus on the mage. The mage may run off to one of the antechambers, in which case you may want to leave it there and focus on the the other doppelgangers first.
The final battle looks very rough, and I don't have any advice there, except that Sarevok is quite vulnerable to magic. A Doom + Malison followed by your Illusionists' Blindness should give you a good chance of blinding him. waiting out Angelo's MGoI seems wise. Good luck!
BG's sidequest hell is rather relaxing. It's basically free XP. I find a good chokepoint to hold when fighting Degrodel's guardians.
With most everything completed, the Iron Throne tower is the only thing keeping me from the return to Candlekeep. I fire off three arrows of detonation, which kill all four of the casters in the back: Diyab, Alai, Aasim, and Naaman. Lovely!
Shennara #1 is killed, then the doppelganger, Gardush, Shennara #2, and finally Zhalimar Cloudwulfe. I should remember to fire arrows of detonation at Diyab in future playthroughs.
The ogre ambush at Candlekeep is utterly foiled by quaffing a Potion of Magic Protection.
The strongest of Darkflame's apprentices is taken down after lots of kiting. He was immune to arrows of dispelling thanks to Shadow Screen and one of his summoned wraiths got a lucky level draining hit on me.
I am acutely aware of just how dangerous level drain it. It is tense having to travel through the rest of the Candlekeep Catacombs and the cave while level drained. Prat's group is put down, though Prat himself was quite cowardly and did not want to engage me at all because of my middling-high MR. I took off the Cloak of Balduran to bait him into casting against me, then put it back on and interrupted his spells.
After finally reaching the exit, I book it to the Beregost Temple to heal the level drain and level up as a result.
The rest of Durlag's Tower is up next. The first level of the dungeon goes smoothly, but I know the warders are going to be extremely difficult. There's no way that I can defeat them as a group. Instead, I kite them away from each other and separate them so I can deal with them individually. Pride is tricked into coming up the stairs from the cellar, and I use another set of stairs to go to the second floor, then sneak back down into level 1 of the dungeon to take on Fear.
I equip Spider's Bane to negate any chance of him paralyzing me, as it seems he uses the same attacks as the revenant in the Valley of the Tombs. Up close, he prefers to use a gaze attack that does crushing damage, so I bait him into using it and beat him down. He has to be finished off like a troll, so I use an acid arrow.
Pride is next and he is easily the most dangerous of them all. Using all four of the clerical super-strength buffs at the same time, (Holy Power, Champion's Strength, DuHM, and Righteous Magic) I obviously stand no chance in direct combat. Instead, I have to spend 45 minutes kiting him from one stairway inside the entrance of the tower to the next, shooting him with Acid Arrows. Several times, he is able to hit me even though he was downstairs, so I have to keep myself above at least 50 HP to make sure I don't die from a disembodied battleaxe. Mercifully, he finally falls.
Avarice just needs to be beaten up directly so I use my DuHM Bhaal power to help with that.
Love is no problem either, though I had to scour the entire first floor of the dungeon to find him. Since he spams Physical Mirror, he has to be beaten up too. Spell failure keeps him from doing anything.
Level 2 and 3 are beaten handily, but things get scary at the chessboard, as usual. Before killing the fourth elemental guardian, I buff with two scrolls of Protection from Lightning and then drink a Potion of Magic Protection as I kill the Air Aspect. The chessboard pieces come charging straight at me while hasted. But taking out the spellcasters is more important, so I keep launching Arrows of Detonation into the crowd until they're thinned out and ignore the pieces melee'ing me.
I'm at pretty low health at this point, so I swap to Kiel's helmet and drink from Durlag's Goblet. One of the pawns reaches the other side of the chessboard and gets turned into a Queen, which casts Remove Magic on me, dispelling my electrical scroll buffs. I reach back into my Bag of Hoarding and pull out another electrical protection scroll, then put on the Boots of Grounding.
A couple of arrows of detonation and some sword swings later, the chessboard is cleared. Ugh. I am uninstalling this """improved""" chessboard fight component of SCS next time I have to re-install my mods. There just isn't a way to make this fight interesting that doesn't boil down to "spam AoE damage everywhere."
Level 4 is cleared with no trouble. I break the demon knight's mirror and the mirror fiend that comes out kills it. I kill my mirror-kin copy.
The Demon Knight would've given me a level if I got the killing blow. I leave the Soultaker Dagger on the demon's corpse and go to Ulcaster to kill the last of Darkflame's apprentices. A dread wolf guarding the Wolf of Ulcaster gives me the last bit of XP for level 10.
The Wolf of Ulcaster is pretty easy now that my save vs. spell is 1, so I don't have to worry about its fear howls. It only seems to use howls if you're rather close to it anyway, so kiting it with a bow makes this fight a cinch.
Duke Eltan is rescued and all of Darkflame's apprentices' staves are returned. Resolving this quest gains me the Shadovar Amulet and 10k XP. Now the dukes need to be protected from the doppelgangers. Arrows of detonation are out of the question, so I have no choice but to use acid arrows. I equip the Shadovar Amulet and use it to reduce my casting time so I can use DuHM quickly, replacing it with the Amulet of Spell Warding afterward.
I try my best to gather the doppelgangers onto me instead of the dukes and its working, though I have to take a drink from the goblet again. I place myself next to Sarevok before killing the last doppelganger so he'll attack me instead of the dukes and it works.
I avoid the Undercity party and go into the temple, buffing with a Protection from Magic scroll. The battle begins!
Diarmid is my first target because he can attack from range. He used an Oil of Speed after using the PfM scroll. I probably should've used an Arrow of Dispelling to counter it, but I killed him the old-fashioned way instead. Sarevok beats me up pretty badly, so I use the item dupe glitch to make a second goblet since I forgot to 'recharge' it at a merchant.
I hit Sarevok with an Arrow of Dispelling to remove his Haste, however.
Tazok is easily kited and brought down.
All that's left are Angelo and Semaj who are both hiding using invisibility. I manage to tag both of them with Arrows of Detonation, using a bats as a target, as I noticed Sarevok was walking unusually as if there was something in his way. Angelo decides to stop hiding and attacks.
Now only Semaj remains. I considered kiting Sarevok until my PfM scroll wore off but Semaj gets caught in another AoD blast.
Sarevok is then kited to death with acid arrows.
Phew...! There were several times where I was sure I wasn't going to make it, but I pulled through in the end! It might be best to skip SoD this time as Icewind Dale horde fights with a wizard slayer don't sound very entertaining to me. I want to slay some wizards.
Hey all, long-time lurker on this thread, but planning to make my own foray into no-reloading before too long, since I'm feeling very inspired after reading so many literally exciting and crazy playthroughs. ("Is your relationship feeling flat and dull? Do you find yourself repeatedly unable to connect with your significant other? Then try our new forum-ula: no-reload is the way to go!")
But I have a quick question: I notice on page 1 that F/M/C is no longer on the list of as-yet uncompleted trilogy playthroughs, but I can'nae find the corresponding run through. Can one of you veterans remember who completed that class and (roughly) when? Or is it an accidental omission? (I'm sorry to see that @semiticgod posted a premature conclusion to one very recently!)
Hey all, long-time lurker on this thread, but planning to make my own foray into no-reloading before too long, since I'm feeling very inspired after reading so many literally exciting and crazy playthroughs. ("Is your relationship feeling flat and dull? Do you find yourself repeatedly unable to connect with your significant other? Then try our new forum-ula: no-reload is the way to go!")
But I have a quick question: I notice on page 1 that F/M/C is no longer on the list of as-yet uncompleted trilogy playthroughs, but I can'nae find the corresponding run through. Can one of you veterans remember who completed that class and (roughly) when? Or is it an accidental omission? (I'm sorry to see that @semiticgod posted a premature conclusion to one very recently!)
Well met and welcome @Stromael! Always nice to have new no-reloaders join in!
Welcome, @Stromael ! Great to see you join in on the fun!
The reason the F/M/C is gone from the list is the following: @semiticgod did indeed complete a full FMC run some time ago, and he already mentioned much earlier in this thread that the run was a success. However, he hasn't fully caught up when it comes to writing all the updates (the last one can be found here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1040551/#Comment_1040551 - this one's about Sendai, Abazigal should be next, at some point) - runs usually only get added into the hall once all the updates have been posted, so this character isn't in there yet.
@Blackraven Thanks for your kind words of support!
@Stromael Welcome! Looking forward to see you rollin'.
@Flashburn Congratulations on beating the first leg of the game. Pulling this off with a WS is an impresive feat in its own right.
I'm considering what to do for my next run. Maybe I should get out of my comfort zone and try a party playthough, although I admit it seems substantially more difficult than playing solo.
@Blackraven, @Enuhal, thanks for clarifying! I shall give that a read-through as well (honestly, dipping in and out of this thread is like poking your nose into a great novel), and hopefully @semiticgod will find the time and inspiration to continue his always excellent reportage.
My plans to take the premier F/M/C to the Throne scuppered, I'm turning to my back-up plan: a Bard (I always preferred rogues anyway). And thank you, @all, for your kind welcomes!
I made a first attempt at the game in the last couple of hours (playing Tutu, with SCS and a few small P'n'P-ish tweak mods) but subsequently suffered my first defeat at the hands of Zordral the Mage at the Nashkel Carnival---I'm pretty rusty these days, having not played properly in a few years, and also having been a sufferer of chronic restartitis/reloadenza. I won't bore you with the screenshots, and will make my next attempt soon, taking much greater care with those most pesky of enemies: spell-casters. (I really should've learned my lesson from all the experiences I've witnessed in this thread!)
My FMC run is indeed complete but not yet fully documented. I actually completely forgot about it for several months, and only recently remembered to keep posting on it!
As for the "no magic items" run: I'm afraid I can't use mage scrolls in-combat; I can only use them to add spells to my mages' spellbooks.
I have done the roof of Durlag's Tower, using Invisibility to get past the stun trap and Protection from Petrification to slay the basilisks. That nets me thousands of XP, but I'm still a bit short--since I need a party of player-created characters to get the kits and the stats to operate without magical items, I can't crank up my Bhaalspawn's XP and then recruit higher-level NPCs. Only Baeloth is strong enough to warrant replacing an character, due to his Fireballs and Web spells.
I hadn't considered using Blindness on Sarevok. The only problem is that it requires Greater Malison (otherwise my odds of blinding him after burning all my spell slots isn't even 90%), and Baeloth needs another 14,000 XP to get it. I'm not sure where I'd get that without resorting to grinding ankhegs or wyverns, and I've already done a fair amount of both.
I have another idea: what if I just temporarily recruited Xan, Dynaheir, Tiax, Faldorn, and Quayle for extra spell slots and disposable characters for the Ducal Palace and Sarevok? Xzar isn't available, since I killed him and Montaron for their items earlier on, but the others should get me some cheap summons to distract Angelo, extra Blindness spells for Sarevok, and a couple Fireballs as well.
@Stromael You can ignore the following advice if you want.
For any enemy (mage) that can cast horror, or in BG 2 also Symbol: Fear (liches love that one), you need a defense for that. Ideally buffing with the cleric spell resist fear will do the trick. But if solo, or no cleric, then you need alternatives. One of the more common ways is to draw out the horror first with either a summon or a character that is not the player character, this way even if the party member runs in horror, the others come and save them. You can also defend with potions, such as potion of magic shielding, and don't forget the greenstone amulet - I use that item all the time. Finally, protection from magic green scroll also works - there's a good number in BG 1, but they are as precious as gold in BG 2.
Good luck in your travels and I hope you enjoy playing no-reload!
Comments
Hi everyone.
Meet Silas, a character I’m excited about playing. My character concepts are probably more important to me than the actual playthrough because I try hard to play the persona to the fullest based on alignment, class, background, etc. (My last character, Gawain/F/LG finished a completionist run from Carbos in Candlekeep to the defeat of Melissan at the Throne of Bhaal in the abyssal plane, 2015).
This character is based on Silas, the albino monk in The da Vinci Code. I like this character, especially because as a disfigured, albino he’s perfect as a Tiefling (I’m of the mindset that PCs need be a Tiefling because of the Bhaal paternal bloodline). The cowl Silas wears is perfect for the type cover a Tiefling, trying to hide his features, might wear.
He’s a Cleric and a Lorekeeper of Oghma (from @Raduziels Deities of Faerun). Since the Temple of Oghma is in Candlekeep, he would have been around it’s priests all his life and for this run I’ve decided it’s perfect and will stretch my role playing abilities. I’ve always wanted to play a cleric anyway, but as it’s my third favorite class to play, behind Paladin’s and Fighters, I’ve never actually done it.
Playing a TN is going to be a challenge. I’ve almost always been LG (although I’ve played LE or CE a time or two). My plan is to surround my PC with neutral NPCs, ideally TNs like my PC. If I have a NG then I’ll want to offset them with a NE, a LN with a CN. I’m going to use the NPCs feedback to guide me and respond in conversation by carefully choosing my selection.
As I look ahead, there’s a lot of interesting NPCs I’ve never played to get a ‘balanced’ neutral party, i.e., Skie, TN; Faldorn, TN; Eldoth, NE; Dorn, NE; Viconia, NE; and Safana, CN. Then there’s a few I have played and enjoyed that could spice up the mix, i.e., Jaheira, TN; Branwen, TN; Garrick, CN; Khalid & Minsc, both NG; Montaron, NE; Quayle, CN; Xan, LN and Neira, CN. Trying to find the right mix of ‘neutrality’ and character classes is going to a challenge, but one I’m up for. Oh, and I can’t wait to see what happens when I try to add Faldorn to a party with Jaheira in it – it can’t be good but I intend to find out.
Wow! I’m pumped just thinking about the exciting possibilities.
So here we go:
Introducing, Silas, TN, CL (Lorekeeper of Oghma).
4 Mirtul 1368: My service to Oghma has begun. So far, my life outside the walls of Candlekeep has been anything but boring from the moment Gorion & I passed through the gate.
I still don’t know why, but from the moment he told me to prepare for a journey, things have moved quickly. Gorion is dead, killed in an ambush just a short time after we left. I found a letter in his belongings, but it didn’t shed much light on what is happening, which means I’ve no idea when or where my life might be threatened. Even in the hour before I left Candlekeep, I was twice attacked by assassins within it’s very walls.
Shortly after the ambush, Imoen joined me. She’d been following just a couple of hours behind us. I am not crazy about her being here, mainly because she’s the only one in Faerun that I feel protective of. But, there’s that sappy, bubbly cackle too – she’s so naïve. Still, she does have some skills that might well be useful as I try to dissect this web. Gorion did tell me that should we be parted that I was to go the Friendly Army Inn (FAI), so that’s where I decided was best.
Shortly after we collected the spoils of the ambush we were joined by a Bard, Eldoth. This guy’s not to be trusted but he’s working an interesting scheme that might well payoff &, in the meantime, he’s agreed to travel with me toward whatever end I’m pursuing.
KEY EVENT: On approaching the FAI, I was attacked by a third assassin, this one a mage. I quickly cast, Command, & he was down. I called to Eldoth to join me as I rushed in to strike him while he was incapacitated. Imoen fired a Magic Missile from a wand she’d brought with her. The mage, Tarnish by name, recovered once but I cast Command again & he dropped for the last time. Eldoth finished him with his scimitar. Tarnish managed to get a spell off once, because when it was over I realized Imoen had fallen to a Sleep spell, but she was up in a few moments & getting in the way as I tried to decipher the spell book – which I eventually let her keep. I’m not sure this is the kind of wisdom Oghma would approve of.
At the FAI, I met up with Khalid & Jaheira, just as Gorion had admonished me. Both will be of assistance I believe. He’s a Ranger/Archer, with a confused tongue, also a victim of being ‘good’ whatever that means. Hopefully, his skill with a bow will keep him too busy to try to be my moral compass. His wife, Jaheira, is a Druid & an Avenger. She’s all business, so I think we’ll be fine as long as she keeps her mouth shut except when I ask for input.
CASUALTIES: None
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Tarnish, Mage (assassin), Shank, Assassin, Carbos, Fighter/Thief (assassin), Diseased Gibberling
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Gps = 126) Armor & weapons: Gems/jewelry: Angel Skin Ring; Potions: Scrolls: M/Missile, S/Cloud(2), Blindness, Armor, B/Hands; Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recovering, recuperating @ the FAI
NEXT STEPS: Nashkel by way of Beregost
LEVEL UP: Jaheira to Druid (Avenger)/2
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
• Silas Cl/1 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP8) S/mail, M/star*; Spells: Command (3)
• Jaheira Dr/2) (Avenger)(HP15) Leather w/Sling* & Q/staff*; Spells: Ch/Orb, CLWs, Entangle, Shillelagh
• Khalid Rgr/1 (Archer)(HP12) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*
• Imoen Th/1 (Adventurer)(HP6) S/Leather w/S/bow* & S/sword*, Skills: OL 45, FT 30, PP25, MS 30, HS 25, DI 10, ST5
• Eldoth Bd/3 (HP15) S/Leather w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
Though the shaman is very well suited to this challenge, I still wanted to have a go at it without using summons. to that end I decided to roll up a dragon disciple. I'd been trying to roll a decent starting character for a while and obviously got a bit careless - going past a 97 which would have been my best roll for quite a while. However, the higher number gives no benefit for a sorcerer, so it made no difference when I accepted a 90 roll not long after.
Although I'm not intending to take any summoning spells, I'm happy to provide a faithful pseudo-dragon companion for Waxy and that helped him make swift progress in getting up to level 6 in Easthaven. A further level was gained from the small groups of enemies around the caravan cave before Waxy tackled the first large group. Webs slowed them down with the aim of splitting up the enemies and casting invisibility inside the cave and going outside was successful in that just 4 of the group followed - making finishing them off simple. The remaining ones were slightly trickier, but still handled without any need to rest.
The small groups of orcs in the cave were quickly dealt with before tackling the big group. A couple of confusions resulted in some damage, though not as much as I'd hoped, before using webs and invisibility. This time though 9 of the group followed outside, which was more than I'd hoped. However, as Waxy was invisible when she arrived in the area their follow-me script was not yet operating, so she used repeated confusions to thin the crowd out. After a couple of orcs had died, I tried killing one while it was confused on the grounds it couldn't alert others - but it did so anyway. That resulted in the others all going after Waxy, despite her going invisible. I had realized that was a danger, but had thought they would abandon her to chase the familiar if that was visible - most of them just stuck to Waxy like glue though and the familiar had to do a lot of running and nibbling, killing 2 orcs and an ogre to finally get him free again.
At Kuldahar Pass finding space to rest was a bit of a problem, but a beetle cave provided a place to rest after it was cleared. I should have used confusion exclusively to then clear the goblins outside, but got impatient and tried attacking them more seriously. The plan was to retreat and strand those that followed inside the cave after going invisible. However, I got caught out when fewer followed immediately than I expected and I got trapped outside by the follow-me behavior from the stragglers. With no escape I let the familiar back out of the backpack to fight or die - it did the latter.
I think this should be a viable build, so will have another go.
The Blue Mage and the Black Mage vs. Legacy of Bhaal: Part 1
My mods: XP Cap Remover, IWD Divine Spells in BGEE, SOD and BG2EE (note that this mod adds some IWD arcane spells to the game but not all of them; there's no Mind Blank, for example), characters do not get HLAs upon reaching 3000000 experience (this is to prevent a bug where the HLA UI doesn't show up because it doesn't exist in BG1).Difficulty: Legacy of Bhaal
Settings: Legacy of Bhaal Bonus Experience turned on
Here are my two characters:
Rules: Aseigh starts the game knowing every abjuration spell in the game but cannot learn or memorize ANY non-abjuration spells in the game. So he'll be all defense... for now. Shihuza starts the game knowing every necromancy spell in the game but cannot learn or memorize any non-necromancy spells, and this rule also applies to her divine spells. They can still cast spells from scrolls.
So how is this playthrough going to go? Very slowly in the beginning, as you might expect. Although enemies in Legacy of Bhaal give enormous amounts of experience when the bonus XP is turned on (over 2000 for a kobold), Aseigh and Shihuza start the game so weak that they wouldn't stand a chance against a single kobold, unless I was willing to spend hours and hours kiting.
So how did I get them through their first few levels? I made them take up the cow-whacking business.
With only a couple of exceptions, attacking animals doesn't cause nearby guards or commoners to turn hostile, and scenery animals are usually unarmed, which means that we get +4 to hit and damage against them. They have poor AC and their max HP is nothing special.
By killing various animals and occasionally managing to kill someone else, the party managed to gain a few levels. Even still, this was not a productive use of time. Aseigh and Shihuza were still too weak to fight a single kobold. So I realized my best option was to use the basilisk XP loop, which a charmed basilisk petrifies a Greater Basilisk and then you unpetrify it with a Stone to Flesh scroll, then repeat the process until you run out of scrolls.
In order to charm a basilisk, I would need Algernon's Cloak. In order get that in a party without a thief, Algernon has to die, but I don't want to lose reputation. My first plan was to lead the spiders from Landrin's house to Algernon, charm Algernon with a Charm Person scroll, have him attack the spiders and get killed by them. But I had forgotten that Algernon also has the Legacy of Bhaal bonuses, so he was not going to get killed in the 5 rounds that Charm Person lasts. I messed that up.
My second plan was simply to swallow my pride and recruit a thief to steal the cloak. The party went to the Seawatcher area and had Safana join the party. She did the job.
Since Safana had higher Charisma than the other party members, I had her equip Algernon's Cloak and buy all the Stone to Flesh scrolls from the temples of Garl Glittergold, Lathander, and Helm. I didn't end up buying scrolls from the temple of Yondalla at this time, though in hindsight I probably should've. I then took Algernon's Cloak from Safana and kicked her out of the party.
In the basilisk area, the party used the basilisk XP loop to amazing effect. They began with over 50 Stone to Flesh Scrolls, and each time the Greater Basilisk was petrified it gave 30000 experience! By the time the party ran out of scrolls, Aseigh was level 12, while Shihuza was a level 9 cleric and a level 11 necromancer.
Now the party can actually accomplish something! Aseigh can use his abjuration arsenal to become immune to pretty much everything a mage can do to him.
But it was Shihuza's skeletons that carried the party through the game. Without them the party wouldn't stand a chance, even at high level.
In a nutshell, almost every battle for the rest of the game consisted of Throw Skeletons at Enemies Until They Die.
When the party wanted to rest in a dungeon, they surrounded themselves with skeletons so that any enemies that interrupted their rest would go for the skeletons first.
By Chapter 4, Shihuza reached the point where she could deal a significant amount of damage with Skull Trap.
Though since the Skull Traps would harm the skeletons, I didn't use them much.
In Chapter 5, the party bought additional Stone to Flesh scrolls from the temple of Yondalla and the temples of Tymora, Gond and Helm in Baldur's Gate. They went back to the basilisk area to resume the basilisk XP loop. The party had killed one of the Greater Basilisks after using up their scrolls previously, but the other Greater Basilisk was still alive. The party charmed a Lesser Basilisk and had it petrify the remaining Greater Basilisk a couple of times, but then I made a mistake and forgot to stop the Lesser Basilisk, and it used its gaze on the Greater Basilisk while it was already petrified, chunking it into stone fragments.
I decided to go to Durlag's Tower and resume the XP loop with the Greater Basilisks on top of the tower. This time I managed to expend all of the scrolls and get all the experience. Not long after, Aseigh reached level 18! He will not get any HLAs until Baldur's Gate 2. Meanwhile, Shihuza had become a level 14 necromancer, capable of casting Finger of Death.
The party didn't get the Cloak of Balduran until Chapter 7. Aseigh charmed Quenash with Algernon's Cloak and threw her at Slythe. This time this strategy actually worked because, unlike Huge Spiders, Slythe is actually an impressive fighter, and Algernon's Cloak lasts way longer than Charm Person.
The party retrieved the Cloak of Balduran from her corpse.
I was scared of the Ducal Palace fight, since I wasn't sure how easy it would be to protect the Dukes. I made a test save to see what my party could accomplish. I beat the fight on the first try. Since that was a practice run, I had to do the fight over again in the real no-reload playthrough for it to count.
Here's what I did: First Shihuza summoned 5 Skeleton Warriors (which were the most powerful kind by this point). She used one of the party's Haste scrolls to haste all of the skeletons. I sent the skeletons in, triggered the cutscene, and once the doppelgangers had revealed themselves, Shihuza cast Greater Malison on them from a scroll. Both of the party members then used their Wands of Paralysis on the doppelgangers. These doppelgangers had really good saves: even with Greater Malison and the -4 save penalty from the wand, they made their saves half the time. But the strategy worked. Both of the Grand Dukes survived.
The Thieves' Maze and the Undercity simply involved throwing Skeleton Warriors at enemies as always. In the Undercity fight, Shaldrissa actually cast Cloudkill multiple times on the skeletons that were right on top of their group.
Only the final battle was left. Like the Ducal Palace fight, I made a practice save because I didn't know how this was going to go. I shouldn't have worried, as I beat it on the first try in practice. So I restarted the fight to do it for real.
This time, it went even better than in the practice run. Here's what happened: Just as I did before the Ducal Palace fight, I summoned 5 Skeleton Warriors and hasted them with another scroll. I sent four of the skeletons right up to where Sarevok was, with another one staying behind to draw Semaj's attention.
The skeletons that were up front facing Sarevok wouldn't have been able to beat him on their own, but Aseigh and Shihuza both used their Wands of Paralysis to paralyze Angelo, Tazok, and Semaj.
Angelo was the first to fall, killed by the Skeleton Warriors. They killed Tazok soon after.
Then Semaj fell, killed instantly by Shihuza.
Now it was just Sarevok. By this point, he had killed two of the skeletons and was nowhere near death. Shihuza could still summon a couple more, but I'm not sure if they'd be enough. There is a better way to end this, however.
Here's the finale! Aseigh, currently a level 19 abjurer with nothing but abjuration spells, cast Improved Mantle and stepped up to his half-brother in close range. It's time for the reward for playing through Baldur's Gate 1: Legacy of Bhaal with a Magikarp as the main character. Aseigh used the Abjurer's ultimate spell on Sarevok!
Good riddance! And yes, the game does count this as killing Sarevok. I beat the game!
Siege of Dragonspear is next!
My reflections: When partnered with bonus experience and the removal of the experience cap, Legacy of Bhaal is actually kind of fun. You actually get experience for killing kobolds in the Nashkel Mines. This is the first playthrough in which I explored all of the Nashkel Mines in search of kobolds to kill. Usually I just head straight for Mulahey.
Wait, hold on... I missed something even more impressive.
Congratulations! It's no small feat to make LoB mode fun!
KEY EVENT: Beregost has been a productive stop. While looking for an inn, we came across a fellow who offered us work for his mistress. It turned out that she wanted us to kill some men who were threatening her & preventing her from getting work. Apparently, she was deceiving us, but we followed thru as agreed and took them out [Note: I expected a reputation loss but there wasn’t one). But after we’d done our part, Silke refused to pay, so I directed an attack. I cast Command and she dropped. Between Khalid, Jaheira, Imoen and Eldoth, she looked like a pin cushion. She managed to recover once, but I cast a 2nd Command and she was thru. I ended up with some excellent spoils. The gems weren’t worth much but she had 400gp, an enchanted quarterstaff and a suit of enchanted chainmail that brought in 2500gp at the smithy.
I tried to stay at an inn right next to where fought the battle with the mage, but I was accosted again, this time by a dwarf with a battleaxe. I decided to back off since I didn’t have anymore spells. Still, these constant attacks are starting to anger me. I withdrew and he didn’t pursue, so I decided on an inn around the corner, near where we’d met the tall guy that introduced us to Silke earlier – the Burning Wizard. I stayed there for a few hours, then we needed to find the smithy, Thunderhammer. Before we went though, I went back to the first inn, and sure enough the dwarf was there, and he came at me as soon as I walked in. I dropped him with a Command, & my retinue pelted him with arrows & stones. He may have recovered once, but not for long. Not much loot, just a set of chain that I sold off. A female gnome tried to assist me against the dwarf using a morning star, and after he was dead, I elected to let her come along – she’s a cleric but doesn’t seem to be affiliated with a Gnomish deity. Apparently, she’d been at Candlekeep, b/c she & Imoen were acquainted. She does have a set of glasses that allow her to Identify enchanted items. That will be helpful as long as I keep her along.
CASUALTIES: None
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Silke (Mage), Karlat (Dwarven Fighter), three thieves
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Gps = 3,327) Armor & weapons: Mail of the Dead, C/Mail, Axe, M/shield; Gems/jewelry: Turquoise, Sunstone, Lynx Eye & Fire Agate gems; Potions: Extra Healing (2), Invulnerability, Defense(3); Scrolls: Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recovering, recuperating @ the Burning Wizard
NEXT STEPS: Nashkel
LEVEL UP: None
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
• Silas Cl/1 (Lorekeeper of Oghma)(HP8) S/mail, M/star*; Spells: Command (3);(Carbos)(AI none)
• Jaheira Dr/2) (Avenger)(HP15) Leather w/Sling* & Q/staff*; Spells: Ch/Orb, CLWs, Entangle, Shillelagh;(Tessilan)(AI: Adv
AI)(2)
• Khalid Rgr/1 (Archer)(HP12) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/1 (Adventurer)(HP6) S/Leather w/S/bow* & S/sword*, Skills: OL 45, FT 30, PP25, MS 30, HS 25, DI 10, ST5;
(Silke)(Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/1 (Barbarian)(HP12) S/mail & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Gnarl)(AI: Ftr Def)
• Eldoth Bd/3 (HP15) S/Leather w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows; (Ogrillon)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
14 Mirtul 1368: I continue to get accosted every which way. The trip from Beregost to Nashkel was only interrupted by a couple of ogrillons that my retinue took out bit by bit, keeping distance between themselves and the aggressors until both of the oafs were dead.
Once in Nashkel, I was attached again @ the Nashkel Inn, this time by a female cleric. Using our same tactics, I cast Command, & the others used arrows and stones to pummel her while she was down. She made one move to recover, but I cast again, & she was thru.
I had us visit the Nashkel Store to resupply and offload some loot before I decided to join forces with a Barbarian names Minsc. He’s about as annoying as he can be & he’s not quite all there. I also decided that with him in my service, Finch would have to go. Minsc asked us to help him rescue ‘his witch’ named Dynahier who turned out to be way out west of Nashkel. After a rest I had us make the trek.
We came across and killed three gnoll’s on the way to Nashkel but other than that the trip was just long.
KEY EVENT: After making quick work of two ogrillons that apparently had the job of guarding the bridge that led to the Gnoll Stronghold, I had us ascend the fortress steps. After slaying 4 gnolls & 4 xvarts, this battle got all jacked up, mostly because of Minsc. He used some Berserk ability at the outset of the fight, that looked like it was gonna make things go quickly, as he obliterated two gnoll’s in about two seconds. But then he decided to go after Imoen, and me, and anyone allied with me that got close. He practically ignored the gnoll’s as he went by them chasing my followers. The battle could have been wrapped up in no time, but instead dragged on for far too long as we all had to avoid Minsc as much as we did the swarming gnoll’s. Even my Command spell didn’t bring him down – he was out of his mind, more than usual. By the time silence fell, there were atleast 16 dead gnolls, including their Chieftain, Elite’s, Veteran’s, & Slashers. Unfortunately, both Minsc and Khalid had also fallen, Khalid taken out by Minsc. We found ‘the witch’ but I elected to free her & leave her rather than bring her with. I could tell right off that that wouldn’t work. It’s good Minsc was a casualty because he might‘a lost his mind again & we were in no position to deal w/that. I had them grab the loot and collect Minsc & Khalid’s equipment.
Once in Nashkel again, I raised them both. I purchased all of the Potions of Healing from the priest at The Temple of Helm & divided them amongst us. Not sure they would’a helped @ the Gnoll Stronghold, but I think it’ll be better to have them available to everyone in the future.
CASUALTIES: Khalid (Minsc), Minsc (Gnoll)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Neira, Cleric (assassin), 4 Ogrillons, ~16 Gnoll’s (Chieftain, Elite’s, Veteran’s, Slashers), 4 Xvarts
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse GPs = 1769) Armor & weapons: C/Mail, Gems/jewelry: Gems (Horn Coral, Bloodstone, Andar, Lol, Sunstone, Lynx Eye), Rings (Flamedance Bloodstone, Ring, Gold(2), Bluestone Necklace; Potions: Scrolls: Horror; Wands: Misc & Artifacts: Ring of Energy
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying in Nashkel.
NEXT STEPS: Nashkel Mines
LEVEL UP: Jaheira
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
• Silas Cl/1 (Lorekeeper of Oghma)(HP8) S/mail, M/star* & Rg of Energy; Spells: Command (3);(Gnoll Veteran)(AI none)
• Jaheira Dr/3) (Avenger)(HP15) Leather w/Sling* & Q/staff*; Spells: Ch/Orb, CLWs, Entangle, Shillelagh;(Tessilan)(AI: Adv
AI)(2)
• Khalid Rgr/1 (Archer)(HP12) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/1 (Adventurer)(HP6) S/Leather w/S/bow* & S/sword* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 45, FT 30, PP25, MS 30, HS 25, DI 10, ST5;
(Silke)(Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/1 (Barbarian)(HP12) S/mail & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Gnarl)(AI: Ftr Def)
• Eldoth Bd/3 (HP15) S/Leather w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows; (Ogrillon)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
I found a workaround, wherein I have to go into Graphics & unselect Full Screen and take the screen shot that way.
Oh well. It's always something isn't it? Or is that just me?
Torque the (Rebalanced) Wizard Slayer
BG1: 1I have most of the wilderness revealed and I collect the CHA tome. At the Valley of the Tombs, Narcillicus puts up a good defense but he gets poisoned, causing him to activate an invisibility sequencer.
He runs off somewhere. I notice the floating text above his invisible head so I head in the opposite direction to deal with his mustard jellies separately. The two slimes are defeated and after a rest, Narcillicus is dealt with by waiting out his Protection from Normal Missiles.
The revenant fight goes much differently than I remembered last time. Since when did the revenant have a hold gaze?
I can't use the Ring of Free Action either, so I just ignore the revenant and move on. 3 ghasts are lured out of their tomb so I can deal with Xarius the Black by himself. Evading his spells via a door transition is essential to his defeat. Poison and spell failure take their toll on him.
That's pretty much all the wilderness done. I blaze through the Nashkel Mines and put down the kobold shaman that gave Bruss a scare last time with ease. Mulahey is poisoned from range and then I retreat to deal with his minions so I can beat Mulahey by himself. One by one, the skeletons and kobolds fall. Mulahey fails to get a single offensive spell off thanks to poison ticks and missile damage.
Returning to Nashkel sees the end of Nimbul. He starts the fight with Stoneskin, Mirror Image, and Haste. He gets poisoned and takes several spell failure hits, so he goes in for melee. I think he was using throwing axes as a melee weapon for some reason. Again, anytime he tried to cast spells at me, I escaped through the door of the Nashkel store.
At Peldvale, I convince Raiken to let us join the bandits and also persuade Tazok too so I don't have to fight the entire camp all at once.
The first bounty hunters are eliminated. I have to use another Potion of Magic Blocking against the cleric but one of the amazons has one on her body, so there was no net loss.
The Cloakwood goes as expected. I manage to retrieve Spider's Bane in case I need Free Action. Drasus's party is pretty tough, forcing me to expend all of my extra-healing potions and two potions of magic blocking. But Drasus finally falls and I get his Boots of Speed, which should make kiting much easier. Genthore isn't nearly as strong as Drasus.
The Cloakwood Mine isn't too bad. I skip the big fights and head straight to Dave. I have no choice but to use a scroll of Protection from Magic and trip all the traps. Dave launches a Web+Stinking Cloud minor sequencer to his own forces' detriment. While they're all caught in it, I deal with the Battle Horrors and level up from killing the second one. I take the level immediately.
Baldur's Gate is now open to me, but I want something from Dorn's questline before going any further. I temporarily recruit him and have his AI act independently with no input from me other than to guide him to the place he's supposed to be for the encounter with Kryll. Once she's down, her Walking Dead crumble automatically.
The Amulet of Spell Warding is mine now and I tell Dorn to get lost. One of Darkflame's apprentices Chang Yu'ke is near the entrance to Baldur's Gate. I brush him off and head into the city anyway and do a couple of sidequests, then retrieve the Cloak of Balduran the easy way by killing Quenash. It reduces my sterling reputation down to 9 and I get the Cause Affliction Bhaal power. With 53% MR and better saves, I'm feeling much more confident about taking down Chang.
She gets stuck with an Arrow of Dispelling so I switch to Acid Arrows. Shatter Magic sees the rest of her defenses destroyed, but she ends up killing herself with a CON penalty for failing to save vs. death for attempting to cast a 4th level Shadow Magic spell. Shadow Weave spells are a double-edged sword for inexperienced casters.
The ogre mage in the sewers of BG is instantly killed with the specialized arrow for sale at Sorcerous Sundries. BG's sidequest hell will be a pleasant respite.
Torque - (Rebalanced) Wizard Slayer 9
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 5
The party's trip south, after the events of Dragonspear went south in a metaphorical sense as well. They got ambushed and imprisoned by an anonymous enemy. It was Imoen (Swashbuckler 10 -> Mage) who managed to free Amahoro from her cell. The duo then proceeded to free Minsc and Jaheira, and the four set out to escape from the dungeon they found themselves in. Almost all their gear was gone, although Amahoro would find the golden pantaloons, her +3 sling and, on a duergar guard, a suit of chainmail +3.
To minimize damage taking, Amahoro used stealth to divide the many duergar and to sneak up on (gating, aTweaks) mephits, and an otyugh. She also cast a few Spike Growths. Two golems were beaten without incurring any damage thanks to Jaheira and her Ironskins. She positioned herself in the front and had Minsc and Amahoro strike from the flanks. Amahoro also snuck past groups of mephits to exchange a genie bottle for a greatsword. Imoen (75 Find Traps) had trouble with some of the snares but a new recruit, Yoshimo, handled them quite well.
Four mephit portals on the second level could have caused all kinds of trouble, but other than Jaheira getting blinded and confused at one point, the party, helped by a fire elemental the druid had summoned, rapidly destroyed the portals. The elemental took care of the remainder of the level.
Imoen was taken by Cowled Wizards for casting a Magic Missile, and the four remaining companions decided to rest at the Den of the Seven Vales. There, Yoshimo's special snares, two Spike Growths, a fire elemental helped the party defeat Mencar Pebblecrusher's violent party. Brennan Risling was a threat, backstabbing Yoshimo before Minsc felled him.
In Waukeen's Promenade's circus tent, Kalah was Commanded by Amahoro and swiftly slain. Rescued Aerie offered to join the party but Amahoro declined.
A suit of full plate, an invisibility ring, and girdles of piercing and bluntness were the most important items thus far. Item Randomiser had randomised some goods away but we didn't get anything special/useful in return.
In the Slums, Gaelan Bayle's offer to help Amahoro find Imoen struck the ranger as rather expensive (40,000 GP - though SCS even lets you go as far as 120,000 GP!). A first job they took on in hopes of getting that money together, was to deal with Lethinan. Yoshimo's snares helped against two battle mages,
Yoshimo met an old colleague upstairs, and found a very nice item in his drawer:
Captain Haegan and his crew proved a challenge. The party struck first, with Jaheira summoning a fire elemental and casting an Insect Plague from out of sight of the enemy, and Amahoro and her casting Spike Growths. But the enemy priest Greater Commanded Jaheira and (a not yet enraged, still invisible) Minsc, so it was just Amahoro, Yoshimo and the elemental.
At the Government District Jan Jansen joined the party. The Suna Seni ambush followed (with Suna Seni being replaced by Eldarin in the UB mod, as Suna Seni has a role to play in Valygar's story). Thanks to Jaheira's Pixie Dust everyone always traveled under invisibility, so it was the party doing the ambushing. The enemy had no answer to Jan and Yoshimo's snares, Jaheira and Amahoro's Spike Growths and a Slow from Jan.
Trying to get some rest at the Sea's Bounty proved a bad idea as Jaheira was cursed by Baron Ployer. Removing that curse wasn't trivial because of Ployer's mages. Ployer himself was slain fairly easily. The party didn't have the means to battle all three wizards at the same time, so the mages were taken outside but that only led to a bunch of thugs joining the enemy and going after Yoshimo, who had to quaff several healing potions to survive. There was also a bug where an earth elemental and later a fire elemental summoned by the enemy had no circles around them so they couldn't be attacked, except perhaps through AI. This screenshot shows a hostile earth elemental.
In the Bridge District Ironskinned Jaheira, wearing the boots of speed, was able to witness Riejek Hidesman escape without her getting attacked by rune assassins. Jan got the party's offficial warning from the Cowled Wizards for casting Invisibility on himself just outside the Five Flagons. The companions didn't have the gold to pay, so they'd have to be very careful. Luckily, and unexpectedly, we got a free spell-casting license soon after thanks to UB's 'The Kidnapping of Boo' component.
The party traveled to the Umar Hills, where clearing a cave yielded a ring of djinni summoning, and felling an ogre Ilbratha +1. The principal quest though, dealing with the undead infestation at the Temple Ruins, was a bit too much for the party to handle. The first rooms were cleared, and Mazzy was welcomed into the party, but two bone golems and especially a greater mummy (that required PfFear to prevent paralysis),
They got out and tried their luck at the De'Arnise Hold, but the amount of spirit trolls was such that again, a lack of enchanted weapons kept them from effectively dealing with the enemy. The companions cleared or at least explored most of the first two levels, and that included the demise of the yuan-ti mage, thanks to the dijnni summon. Looting the golem room under Sanctuary yielded Amahoro her first, somewhat underwhelming magical weapon, the Kneecapper +1.
A somewhat hesitant start in Amn, the crew will travel to Trademeet next, to see if they can make more of a difference there.
Starting Waxy again, it didn't take long to clear Easthaven. This time I'd decided to take my old favorite skull trap as a first 3rd level spell and that provided quicker damage to groups. However, it also triggered follow-me behavior so I had to be careful not to let the big groups in the cave operate together. With the ogres I used confusion more extensively (which doesn't activate the opponents) to wear them down a bit.
In Kuldahar Pass Waxy started by leading the closest group of goblins off to the cave adjoining the beetles to be stranded. With a bit of space to work with he then successfully cleared a couple of groups in the main area - using web from out of sight to immobilize groups, confusion to prevent them attacking him immediately if they broke free, skull traps to do most of the damage and blindness and chromatic orb to clean up stragglers. He failed to kill the next group though when a confused goblin wandered and spotted him - rather unfairly immediately activating all the others to chase. Waxy thus led yet more enemies into the goblin cave, causing the press of numbers in there to come uncomfortably close to blocking the door.
After killing a few more goblins, Waxy failed once more with the final group in the main area. He led those into the ogre's tower before retreating.
After selling a bit of stuff in Kuldahar, Waxy moved on to the Vale of Shadows. His spells are not that well suited to undead, but the familiar could act as an invisible blocker while his new sunfire spell was useful for finishing injured enemies off quickly.
There were no further problems while Waxy worked through the first level of Kresselack's tomb. He was using quite a range of different tactics, such as familiar tanking, blind, web, skull traps, MMMs and sunfires. However, hold undead probably accounted for the greatest number of victims - he got up to level 12 by finishing off a held group of 4 with skull traps.
With that level I decided it was finally time to go and finish the postponed work at Kuldahar Pass. Spirit armor, blur and stoneskins kept Waxy healthy while sunfires burnt up the opposition there.
There were no more alarms after that as Waxy swiftly finished off the final group of Spectral Guards on the way to find Kresselack.
Back at Kuldahar Waxy used a friends scroll to make a bag of holding and a robe of enfusing slightly less ruinously expensive - the bag of holding might eventually recoup its cost though as a result of carrying more loot out of dungeons. He reported to Arundel before setting off in search of the Hearthstone Gem.
Dragon disciple 13, 99 HPs (incl. 22 from familiar, 10 from talisman), 427 kills
L1 - Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Identify, LMD, Magic Missile
L2 - Blindness, Web, Invisibility, Knock, Blur
L3 - Skull Trap, MMM, Vampiric Touch, Hold Undead
L4 - Confusion, Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Dimension Door
L5 - Sunfire, Cloudkill, Shadow Door
L6 - Globe of Invulnerability, Mislead
Previous posts (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Previous posts (SoA): 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
During our last visit at D'Arnise Keep we had decided to leave TorGal unchallenged, when survival instinct had overruled our determination to get the job done. There's no shame in that for Anomandra - it had been the right call back then. However, we did not forget about that unopened door in the keep's basement, and now was the time to finish what we started.
Our plan was to separate TorGal from his bodyguards and beat him up with Anomandra's own army, including our new L7 spell addition - a gated Pit Fiend. Quite unfair, I know, but damn efficient.
I botched it. I forgot that in order to execute the first part of the plan, I have to abuse TorGal's ability to see through invisibility. And instead of taking a sanctuaried approach, Anomandra simply walked through the door into a throne room full of scary trolls, umber hulks and yuan-ti. Just imagine the look on their faces when, while causally gnawing on the rotting carcass of Lord D'Arnise, they suddenly saw approaching a lone halfing, looking all funny with that oversized shield of hers. Yep, just like that.
Unfortunately for us, the initial surprise did not last for long. What followed was Anomandra's sobering realization of our mistake, followed by a frantic retreat to the staircase with the entire throne room at her heels. And when there's chaos, I don't have screenshots.
Our two aerial servants and a skeleton warrior waiting at the staircase tried to stop the rushing horde, but it wasn't enough. To underline our pessimistic outlooks, Anomandra got interrupted while trying to call in the Pit Fiend. Underbuffed and outnumbered, she retreated upstairs to catch her breath.
The two yuan-ti mages followed. Too bad for them - they did not launch their PfMW and thus made themselves easy targets to our sling with Sunstone Bullets, while holding Reflex in the off-hand and dispelling their illusions with True Sight.
Running Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration, Resist Fear, ProEvil, Armor of Faith, the Holy Trinity and Defensive Harmony, Anomandra then switched to Flail of Ages and Fortress Shield and descended into the basement...to find out that there's only TorGal and one giant troll left. We can make this.
With bonuses granted by Girdle of Piercing and ProEvil, Anomandra's effective AC against the trolls was at -19. Slow imposed by Flail of Ages would counter their regeneration rate, while Cloak of Fear was a non-issue. Dear Torgal, it seems you might have underestimated our little halfling a little.
Finally, we called in Mr. Turban to maximize our damage output.
Phew! That was messy. But we're alive and we didn't even spend any important resources after all. We reported both the good and the bad news to Nalia and returned to Athkatla to rest and resupply (rewarding ourselves for the victory by purchasing the Sling of Everard from Joluv).
Regards,
B.
Traveling with: Jaheira, Minsc, Keldorn, Anomen, Yoshimo
SETUP: BG 2 EE, no mods, core rules at all times
So Coremage found himself in Irenicus' dungeon. He recruited Jaheira once again (he was with her in BG 1). He's not sure about this big guy named Minsc, but recruited him as well, and of course Imoen, who was with Coremage in BG 1 as well. The quatro got out of the dungeon without any problems.
Coremage recruited Yoshimo in the dungeon. Which meant getting two more group mates. Anomen was quickly recruited, and the last group mate recruited was Keldorn. Once we had our group, we set about working on quests:
* Circus problem solved. Kalah just couldn't do much about our combined attacks.
* Numerous ambushes, including Renfeld, Suna Seni, and many others, all victories without casualty. We have been using insect plague when available and it has been quite helpful.
* Hendak was freed. We had some summons assisting and this made this rather straightforward.
* We did the Lilacor quest for Minsc. Coremage was careful to enrage before engaging the shamans in the sewers - was a good thing as his group mates were getting held, although none died.
* We cleared out Captain Haegan and the rest of the slavers in the moored ship. Anomen was getting slammed by Captain Haegan's throwing axes - maybe next time he should use the special ability of his shield (always forget about that).
* Keldon brought his wife to the courts, and had her cheating lover executed.
* Anomen did the lawful path concerning his killed sister.
* Jaheira is getting quite friendly, although they are still only having quasi-romantic talks.
* Jaheira got cursed by Baron Ployer - fortunately, insect plague was decisive against the Baron and his mage cohorts.
* Protected by petrification by green scrolls, Keldorn and Coremage took out the genies persecuting Trademeet. This resulted in shield of harmony upgrade for Jaheira (Coremage usually dual-wields - he can also enrage if needed).
Minsc insisted they go to Umar Hills, so Coremage relented and did so. The mimic or the nearby umber hulks were no problem. The stone golem could do nothing as well. We will venture into the nearby abandoned Amaunator temple area next session. The plan is Jaheira and Coremage will stay in front since they are immune to hold. For this segment, Coremage is off-handing the Arbane, with Stonefire his primary weapon.
Anomandra's journey has come to an end in the Underdark - suffering the dark fate of Imprisonment.
I kind of expected that this run would end in something like this, although that doesn't make in any easier to swallow. At this point, Anomandra (level 31) was already over-leveled for SoA.
I believe that there's a generally accepted view that single class clerics are missing out on their potential, and that they are always better off when dual/multi classing. I'd like to disagree - they do play differently, but are perfectly capable and flexible class on their own. Their quick level progression in SoA and extra clerical levels make their buffs and protections resistant to Remove/Dispel Magic and create much more flexibility when managing their spellbook. I have not been using certain spells (e.g. Aid, Barkskin) until I had enough spell slots to squeeze these in and until their duration was long enough to become relevant in mid-term battle planning. L7 spells and HLAs are game changing, and each available spell slot is precious (Anomandra was even using the Symbol of Talos because of this).
It's good to be reminded of Elder Orb Maze. I thought SCS enemies used neither Maze nor Imprisonment on Charname, but it's been ages for me, so I'm sure my memory is fuzzy.
Your run does indeed show what a solo Cleric can do, which is quite a lot. So well done!
@Grond0, condolences too, even though the incident at Dragon's Eye doesn't look that fatal to me.
@semiticgod: did you at least try Durlag's Towers upper levels? If not, note the following re: the tower. Outside there are three Battle Horrors that can be slain with Fireballs (one of them aided by lowly skeletons whose ranged attacks you'll want to protect your mage against). On the second upper level you could go south and then east to reach the roof with three greater basilisks. You'll have to kill a ghast first and walk over a repeating chromatic orb trap that can stun you (use MSD or MGoI against it). Your Fighter/Illusionists can then kill the three basilisks on the roof. Three battle horrors + three greater basilisks = 33,650 XP. You could push that to the 40k XP you're looking for by killing ten more ghasts from levels 2 and 3 (luring them to the ground floor if there are too many, or use invisible blockers if necessary). Careful with the cellars if you want to kill ghasts there, because there are some nasty traps there (one gives confusion).
For the Ducal Palace fight your strategy sounds sensible, but please have your cleric summon as many skellies as possible, haste them, and place them between the Dukes and the doppelgangers before the fight starts to greatly decrease the likelihood of the dukes receiving too much aggro. You can then focus on the mage. The mage may run off to one of the antechambers, in which case you may want to leave it there and focus on the the other doppelgangers first.
The final battle looks very rough, and I don't have any advice there, except that Sarevok is quite vulnerable to magic. A Doom + Malison followed by your Illusionists' Blindness should give you a good chance of blinding him. waiting out Angelo's MGoI seems wise. Good luck!
Torque the (Rebalanced) Wizard Slayer
BG1: 1, 2BG's sidequest hell is rather relaxing. It's basically free XP. I find a good chokepoint to hold when fighting Degrodel's guardians.
The ogre ambush at Candlekeep is utterly foiled by quaffing a Potion of Magic Protection.
I am acutely aware of just how dangerous level drain it. It is tense having to travel through the rest of the Candlekeep Catacombs and the cave while level drained. Prat's group is put down, though Prat himself was quite cowardly and did not want to engage me at all because of my middling-high MR. I took off the Cloak of Balduran to bait him into casting against me, then put it back on and interrupted his spells.
After finally reaching the exit, I book it to the Beregost Temple to heal the level drain and level up as a result.
I equip Spider's Bane to negate any chance of him paralyzing me, as it seems he uses the same attacks as the revenant in the Valley of the Tombs. Up close, he prefers to use a gaze attack that does crushing damage, so I bait him into using it and beat him down. He has to be finished off like a troll, so I use an acid arrow.
Level 2 and 3 are beaten handily, but things get scary at the chessboard, as usual. Before killing the fourth elemental guardian, I buff with two scrolls of Protection from Lightning and then drink a Potion of Magic Protection as I kill the Air Aspect. The chessboard pieces come charging straight at me while hasted. But taking out the spellcasters is more important, so I keep launching Arrows of Detonation into the crowd until they're thinned out and ignore the pieces melee'ing me.
I'm at pretty low health at this point, so I swap to Kiel's helmet and drink from Durlag's Goblet. One of the pawns reaches the other side of the chessboard and gets turned into a Queen, which casts Remove Magic on me, dispelling my electrical scroll buffs. I reach back into my Bag of Hoarding and pull out another electrical protection scroll, then put on the Boots of Grounding.
Phew...! There were several times where I was sure I wasn't going to make it, but I pulled through in the end! It might be best to skip SoD this time as Icewind Dale horde fights with a wizard slayer don't sound very entertaining to me. I want to slay some wizards.
Also, screw Vanilla's new rich text formatting.
But I have a quick question: I notice on page 1 that F/M/C is no longer on the list of as-yet uncompleted trilogy playthroughs, but I can'nae find the corresponding run through. Can one of you veterans remember who completed that class and (roughly) when? Or is it an accidental omission? (I'm sorry to see that @semiticgod posted a premature conclusion to one very recently!)
@Stromael Welcome! Looking forward to see you rollin'.
@Flashburn Congratulations on beating the first leg of the game. Pulling this off with a WS is an impresive feat in its own right.
I'm considering what to do for my next run. Maybe I should get out of my comfort zone and try a party playthough, although I admit it seems substantially more difficult than playing solo.
My plans to take the premier F/M/C to the Throne scuppered, I'm turning to my back-up plan: a Bard (I always preferred rogues anyway). And thank you, @all, for your kind welcomes!
I made a first attempt at the game in the last couple of hours (playing Tutu, with SCS and a few small P'n'P-ish tweak mods) but subsequently suffered my first defeat at the hands of Zordral the Mage at the Nashkel Carnival---I'm pretty rusty these days, having not played properly in a few years, and also having been a sufferer of chronic restartitis/reloadenza. I won't bore you with the screenshots, and will make my next attempt soon, taking much greater care with those most pesky of enemies: spell-casters. (I really should've learned my lesson from all the experiences I've witnessed in this thread!)
For any enemy (mage) that can cast horror, or in BG 2 also Symbol: Fear (liches love that one), you need a defense for that. Ideally buffing with the cleric spell resist fear will do the trick. But if solo, or no cleric, then you need alternatives. One of the more common ways is to draw out the horror first with either a summon or a character that is not the player character, this way even if the party member runs in horror, the others come and save them. You can also defend with potions, such as potion of magic shielding, and don't forget the greenstone amulet - I use that item all the time. Finally, protection from magic green scroll also works - there's a good number in BG 1, but they are as precious as gold in BG 2.
Good luck in your travels and I hope you enjoy playing no-reload!