@Corey_Russell I'd be a fool to ignore advice given by veterans on this forum. It's a dangerous world out there, and if I can improve my party's chances by drawing on your experience, surely I will!
So thanks for the tip! Resist Fear spells (arcane and divine) are indispensable. Running with my Bard (and using the Bard Song component of IWDification) I also should have a free and unlimited anti-Fear buff (although my run so far indicates that changing songs in this mod-version takes a full round and uses up one's aura, which is a strong limitation to bear in mind).
Zordral whupped me first time round because of his Mirror Image blocking my weapons and thus allowing him to pop off a couple of Sleep spells, incapacitating my whole party. I replayed the battle a few times to get a sound strategy, and in my new run I had no troubles with him! Full initial update/post coming soon.
The Mage battles I'm dreading/excited about are of course in SoA/ToB. I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
@Stromael said... I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
While I don't know off hand, however, I do know there's an answer in the old BioWare forum threads - Alesia_BH spelled this out one time. The answer is one of these archived threads, but not sure where off-hand, maybe someone can help you find it:
As for the various incantations, there's actually a nice video on YouTube.
I'm unable to give a full list of what to be aware of, but this is usually the dangerous stuff I try to look and listen for in BG2 (casting time is indicated in the brackets):
Abjuration: Remove Magic (short), Imprisonment (long + touch range) Alteration: Flesh to Stone (medium), Sphere of Chaos (medium), Time Stop (long) Conjuration: Maze (short + touch range), Prismatic Spray (medium), Symbols (long), druidic Insect spells (long) Divination: Nothing to worry about directly. Enchantment: Chaos (medium), Greater Malison (medium) Invocation: Mordy Sword (medium) and elemental damage spells, priest Flame Strike (mediumlong) Illusion: Nothing to worry about directly (Blindness in BG1) Necromancy: FoD (shortmedium), ADHW (long), Wail of the Banshee (long)
I didn't include Power Words, which may come at any time if your characters are vulnerable to their effects (most notoriously PW: Stun when under 90 HP). Some high level mages may use 3x Flame Arrow or Skull Trap triggers which may be difficult to counter.
@Stromael said... I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
While I don't know off hand, however, I do know there's an answer in the old BioWare forum threads - Alesia_BH spelled this out one time. The answer is one of these archived threads, but not sure where off-hand, maybe someone can help you find it:
Here they are by @BelgarathMTH, or Saros Shadow Follower, or someone else. I don't know who is the first author.
1) Illusion: "Veritas, Credo, Oculos" = "The truth, I believe, with my eyes" 2) Alteration: "Praeses, Alia, Fero" = "Protecting, another, I bring this forth" 3) Necromancy: "Vita, Mortis, Careo" = "Life, and death, I am without" 4) Divination: "Scio, Didici, Pecto" = "I know, for I have studied, with my mind" 5) Abjuration: "Manus, Potentis, Paro" = "A hand, powerful, I prepare" 6) Evocation: "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" = "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command" 7) Conjuration: "Facio, Voco, Ferre" = "This I do, I call, to bring you forth" 8) Enchantment: "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" = "I want, excellence, allowed to me"
Or you might just use the JimFix mod with ''Add spell school notifications to the combat log'' component. This way you'll be aware of the school of coming spell even with the sound off.
Alteration can also indicate Slow, another very dangerous spell early on, and Necromancy can indicate Skull Trap, both of which have a quick casting time of 3. Note that Flame Strike and Finger of Death are actually very slow-casting spells, with casting times of 8 and 7, respectively.
@Stromael said... Zordral whupped me first time round because of his Mirror Image blocking my weapons and thus allowing him to pop off a couple of Sleep spells, incapacitating my whole party.
Ah I see. That's right you are SCS. In that case, your dual-wielding warrior using greenstone amulet might be able almost solo him, as I believe the amulet protects against sleep. Potions of magic shielding would work too, but they are quite rare in BG 1. Potions of magic blocking are pretty plentiful however, and would work well for this case.
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.
If I want a bit more XP, I'll do some work in at least the first underground level of Durlag's Tower. I imagine you've got protection from fire and lightning available - that allows you to drag all the enemies out to the party. 3 x greater dopplegangers, couple of flesh golems, skeleton warriors, phase spiders etc all add up to a decent haul.
No Protection from Lightning; clerics don't level that fast. I fought some spiders in the Baldur's Gate sewers and in the Cloakwood, but ultimately, I realized that ankhegs or wyverns were the most time-efficient source of XP, so I just spawned 40 wyverns over the course of several days. Baeloth is now level 8, our other sorcerer is level 6, and our cleric is now level 7. I think we're ready now.
@semiticgod if you aren't using the randomizer, then a green scroll protection from lightning and Mulahey's boots would be 100%. Potion of absorption would also give you 100% lighting protection. Best combo is using the boots and the green scroll, as you would have protection for long time.
Tres continued with spawning and kiting, taking a brief break after each group of orcs. I still had a couple of hours before I needed to get ready for work, but most of that was taken up with chewing through orcs - leaving the battlefield knee-deep in corpses and orc axes. Finally Tres picked up a 9th level and 7 more HPs.
In the evening I rejoined the fight. The extra damage, APR and stunning attack gained at 9th level all speeded up killing enemies, while the improved AC slightly reduced damage when I took liberties with them. And then of course, practice makes perfect . As a result I progressed quicker than I expected - the 225k (112 orcs) required for level 10 taking probably less than 2 hours. The final one of a group of 4 was stun-locked and lost all its HPs without getting an attack in.
Quivering Palm is still some way off, but so far, so good.
@Stromael said... I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
While I don't know off hand, however, I do know there's an answer in the old BioWare forum threads - Alesia_BH spelled this out one time. The answer is one of these archived threads, but not sure where off-hand, maybe someone can help you find it:
Here they are by @BelgarathMTH, or Saros Shadow Follower, or someone else. I don't know who is the first author.
1) Illusion: "Veritas, Credo, Oculos" = "The truth, I believe, with my eyes" 2) Alteration: "Praeses, Alia, Fero" = "Protecting, another, I bring this forth" 3) Necromancy: "Vita, Mortis, Careo" = "Life, and death, I am without" 4) Divination: "Scio, Didici, Pecto" = "I know, for I have studied, with my mind" 5) Abjuration: "Manus, Potentis, Paro" = "A hand, powerful, I prepare" 6) Evocation: "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" = "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command" 7) Conjuration: "Facio, Voco, Ferre" = "This I do, I call, to bring you forth" 8) Enchantment: "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" = "I want, excellence, allowed to me"
Or you might just use the JimFix mod with ''Add spell school notifications to the combat log'' component. This way you'll be aware of the school of coming spell even with the sound off.
I can't take any credit for that reference of the incantations. I clearly either linked it or copy-pasted it from somewhere, but those are definitely not mine. Whenever I shared the info, it was years ago, so I have no memory at all of what the context might have been. I'm sorry, but I don't remember where the information came from, either.
@Corey_Russell: I can't use any magic items in this run, so the Protection from Lightning priest spell and MGOI are the only available sources.
Anyway, I've just beaten BG1. The Ducal Palace went smoother than I had thought: we covered Liia Jannath with Invisibility 10' Radius, then had our Cleric of Helm chase the Doppelganger Mage, using True Seeing to remove its Mirror Image and Improved Invisibility spells. As it happened, the Doppelganger Mage didn't use MGOI as a pre-buff; it had to cast it later, after it had fled to another room. It was hard to get True Seeing to hit, since the Doppelganger Mage was running around and hiding behind corners, but by the time its MGOI came up, our second Fighter/Illusionst (besides Charname) was able to hurry in and nail it with Spell Thrust, allowing us to disrupt its spells with Melf's Acid Arrow. Until then, the rest of the party focused on disrupting the Doppelganger Shaman and slaying the other doppelgangers.
My Cleric of Helm thankfully had hit level 7 and could cover Baeloth with Protection from Lightning, and combined with Charname's Protection from Fire spell and Baeloth's own shield, he could trigger all of the traps in the maze and allow us to get through safely.
I dropped off all of our player-created party members besides our Archer in Sarevok's lair, I recruited Dynaheir, Tiax, and Faldorn and killed several dozen ankhegs for some level ups, which turned out to be rather important, as I needed extra Fireballs to kill Diarmid from offscreen.
We had a brief scare when Angelo confused our Nymph, causing our Nymph to attack our player-created cleric in the southwest... who was currently outside the party, which meant she turned hostile. Fortunately, a Dire Charm from Baeloth let us charm her, talk to her, and bring her into the party so that we wouldn't permanently lose our preferred cleric.
Anyway, Angelo failed a save against the Nymphs Confusion spell (they confused each other in the same round!), but it might not have been necessary, since we took down his Improved Invisibility and MGOI with Invisibility Purge from Faldorn and Spell Thrust from our second Fighter/Illusionist while Angelo's aura was fogged, allowing our Fighter/Illusionist and Baeloth to dissolve Angelo with a series of Melf's Acid Arrow spells.
Then I had some oatmeal while Diarmid's Protection from Magic scroll ran out and blasted them with Fireballs from Baeloth, our second sorcerer, Dynaheir, and our Skald, just barely killing Diarmid. Tiax's traps, set before the fight began, helped bring down Tazok, and Baeloth's Greater Malison probably made it possible to kill Diarmid. I thought I only had about 100 HP to take down, but a potion or two helped Diarmid survive very long even though we used Tiax's Chant spell to increase the dice rolls.
We re-cast Chant and Greater Malison to penalize Sarevok's saves before entering his field of vision and drawing his attention to Dynaheir, and we had both Faldorn and Tiax simultaneously cast Doom to make sure at least one of them hit. That amounted to a total save penalty of -7, and our Fighter/Illusionists cast Blindness with an additional -2 penalty. As it happened, the very first Blindness spell hit, though we had many, many others memorized.
With Dynaheir spent and Faldorn and Tiax no longer needed, we kicked them out and bringed in more of our player-created characters to help bring down the Skeleton Warriors while Sarevok stared at the corner where his previous target, Dynaheir, left the party. Baeloth spent his last spells on Sarevok and ran in circles to distract the Skeleton Warriors, and once the skeletons were gone, we kicked him out and got all of our player-created party members back in the party for SoD.
20 Mirtul 1368: Following the
efforts @ the Gnoll Stronghold, I undertook to look into the happenings @ the
Nashkel Mines. In route, I was accosted by a group of that intended to rob me.
Before they could, an angry Half-Orc interrupted them, apparently to settle a
score they had between them. I stood back as they started to battle. My retinue was still somewhat in the
crossfire, but it was mainly between them. The Half-Orc fell as did all but one
of them, the leader they called Senjak. He fought w/2 Wakizashi, one
enchanted. Eventually, my group finished him. In the final tally, we killed five Elves, three of them
Crossbowmen, & two
Bandits.
(Note: I am seriously
bummed that Dorn died. I just figured the game wouldn’t let him but he did – I
read that it’s a bug. Unfortunately, it’s a playthrough, so I just had to
change my plans to enlist him).
Finally arriving @
the Nashkel Mines, I found the foreman, & received permission to enter. The
mine was four levels deep. Besides a Kobold on the 1st level, the place
was empty save the miners. On the 2nd level down, we killed 25 Kobolds. The 3rd
level was a bit more challenging, as in addition to 47 Kobolds, (including a
Commando), we destroyed two
Huge Spiders &
a Ghoul.
KEY EVENT: After returning to Nashkel once, to raise Minsc & Imoen, I led us
back to descend into a cave that was on the 4th level. In it, I
found the answer to the mystery of the mines – or @ least, I started to find
the answer. At first, we swatted a handful of Kobolds. But, we were
confronted by a Half-Orc who believed we were sent by someone named Tazok… I
played along, but then he got angry & summoned a Skeleton Warrior, two
skeletons & about five more Kobolds. I focused attention on getting him out
of the way before mopping up the Kobold dogs & the skeletons. I cast Command once, & then again as he
started to recover. Eldoth finished him off. It took a while to finish off the
skeletons, as my retinue was exhausted, but eventually the last one shattered.
Jaheira & Eldoth were casualties of the battle. A letter amongst the
Half-Orc’s loot, names a Tranzig, who should be in Beregost at the Feldepost
Inn. All correspondence bears the name Tazok, including letters the assassin’s
that have tried to kill me.
BATTLE OF NASHKEL MINES
Uopn
returning to Nashkel, collecting my reward, & raising Jaheira & Eldoth,
I was attacked by another assassin. My party was not
really in a position to battle again without rest, especially Jaheira &
Eldoth, fresh from being raised @ the Temple of Helm. But, I survived, although Jaheira fell again, as did Eldoth. When
Nimbul confronted us, I stood back to try & use my Ring of Energy. Minsc flew into his Berserk state of mind, while
Jaheira cast Chromatic orb (before
she fell). Likewise, Eldoth cast Magic Missile.
Imoen used her Wand of Magic Missiles
& Khalid stood back with his longbow. The assassin managed to bring a Wild
Dog to his side, but they were both gone in no time.
Competition: My retinue has a
competition between them, after I had to settle a dispute between Imoen &
Eldoth over who gets to keep scrolls – it seems Imoen fancies them too. Whoever
has the most significant kill gets to choose first when any new enchanted itam
is found (If I choose not to use the item myself). The second most significant
goes next & so on.They figure out who can use it, then of those who can,
who has the best kill. At this time:
It's a rough start in Amn. While scavenging the ruins of Chateau Irenicus let me afford Daeros's Full Plate +1 from Ribald, Torque still struggles against melee-oriented enemies as they tend to need at least 4 hits to go down, which is one-and-a-half more attacks per round than what he has at first.
After the circus, the slavers are taken care of first by luring them down into the sewers and into the Cloudkill trap. Reporting back earns a level.
After that, the Docks district is next for some (hopefully) easy XP. The steam mephits in Rayic Gethras' house are juked using the door transitions to avoid their automatic stun ability. Gethras himself is quite easy after waiting out his Improved Mantle.
When it comes time to fight Maevar, I get reminded why thieves are a total pain in the ass to fight. Attempting to use area transitions to avoid spells just lets the thieves stealth for a free backstab when I return down the stairs, plus they'll spam invisibility potions. I use DuHM to help tank these constant facestabs and then kill Maevar with Shatter Magic after his goons are disposed of.
After that disaster, I buy the Bloody Bone Plate +2 from Ribald to prevent future backstabs and it sees use again against the assassins aligned with Rejiek Hidesman. Hunting for more easy XP, I use a scroll of Protection from Undead to kill the Crypt King on the way in to the graveyard's underground, incidentally earning a level.
I have enough time to kill Pai'na's spiders and do the first part of the undead section, but my scroll wears off before I open the secret door to where mummies await. I decide to come back later once my save vs. spell is improved enough to withstand mummy fear without risk. The Trademeet druids are next.
I do a minor sidequest or two and then head for the De'Arnise Keep. It's nothing special, but the fight with Tor'Gal gets Torque perilously close to death.
I wasn't paying attention even though I had the Shield of Harmony which could block Chaos. The yuan-ti mages are lured upstairs and are easily killed through inducing spell failure and finishing them off with Shatter Magic. Nothing's more satisfying than destroying a mage's stoneskin in one hit, only for a stoneskin contingency to spring up, which gets destroyed again by another hit.
The fight with Tor'Gal is just a slugfest. Why does he have extra-healing potions? Why doesn't he fall down when he's near death?
I'm thinking about doing the Umar Hills, so I need the Daystar longsword. Using DuHM, I break through the hidden wall and use a scroll of PfU on the lich guarding it, killing it easily.
Torque is not proficient in a weapon that does crushing damage, so Daystar will be a great alternative to use against skeletal undead. This is unfortunately short-lived. On the way to the shadow dragon in the temple ruins, a lich and a pair of greater mummies spawn. The first group were disposed of with Sunray and some luck, but the lich uses a Haste wish just as a greater mummy summons an Aerial Servant, which hastes it too.
Aerial Servants are already good summons, but aTweaks makes them even more annoying to fight against since they go invisible after each round. This, combined with their 23 Strength, 5 THAC0, and 8d4 damage crushing attacks all but guarantees hard hits on Torque, twice per round. Torque cannot run away and heal fast enough to escape the Aerial Servant and is killed on the way out of the temple ruins. Should've ran to the right after leaving the dungeon to escape to the world map.
Wizard Slayers are highly dependent on items and the three types of anti-magic potions that were so plentiful in BG1 are extremely rare in BG2. Now I hate fighting priests.
Alteration can also indicate Slow, another very dangerous spell early on, and Necromancy can indicate Skull Trap, both of which have a quick casting time of 3. Note that Flame Strike and Finger of Death are actually very slow-casting spells, with casting times of 8 and 7, respectively.
I've double checked this to find out that both arcane and divine FoDs actually cast at 5, so it's somewhere in between.
For my new run, I decided to go with a party of four. Being unfamiliar with no-reload party play as I am, six characters just felt too much of a difficulty bump compared to solo playthroughs.
When thinking about the concept of the run I was like...yea, halflings! And since they're limited to three single classes (with kits, including barbarian) and one multi-class option, four was the perfect number.
I'm pleased to introduce the personae:
Kazi, fighter/thief, NG
Kazi will be the Swiss army knife of our team, performing all kinds of combat as well as non-combat roles. She specializes in scimitars (2x) and is proficient with darts (1x) and two-weapon style (1x). She doesn't know yet, but she's also a Bhaalspawn. The success of our journey depends on her.
Paran, fighter (unkitted), CG
Paran is the muscle and steam of the party - a flamboyant joker who's expected to do most of the heavy-lifting. He starts with specialization in axes (2x) and slings (2x).
Ysa, bounty hunter, NG
Without Ysa, we'd be half-blind and half-deaf. She's got the brains, she's got the "first in - last out" attitude and she knows that her job is to make sure we're prepared for anything and everything, anytime. She starts with proficiency points in staves and bows.
Oranfal, priest of Lathander, LG
Oranfal is our lifelink, our shield and our anvil. He'll make sure that everything we do, we do better, safer and smarter. His proficiencies are maces and slings.
Here's our merry little party in Candlekeep, considering their first move. I'm sure we'll have fun.
Still progressing at better than 1 orc per minute, there was enough time this morning for Tres to push up another level.The move to L11 didn't give him a lot of combat advantage, but the reduced THAC0 does mean he now only misses the orcs on a critical miss using his standard fist attack.
After work I took up the challenge again. I felt rather tired and lethargic to start with, so should really have not played given how easy it would be to die and waste all the effort to date. However, I managed to keep nibbling away at the XP requirement and in due course hit level 12.
That gave another significant combat upgrade with fists now counted +2 weapons and APR up to 3.
Having done so much kiting already I should definitely have called it a day there, but pushed on to see if I could get up to level 13 before bedtime. With only 60k XP needed it looked like that could prove costly when I got trapped for the first time.Fortunately, with the improved attack and defence gained by this point, I managed to beat a way out before it was too late.Apart from being tired, another reason for that error was the increasing difficulty of making smooth movement over a battlefield covered with the hundreds of axes dropped by the orcs. I was being stubborn about not leaving the area to rest though and just carried on. There were no more scares as Tres finally picked up his 13th level.The advantage of that is that it allows instant kills with Quivering Palm. That provides a way to deal with the cheesy follow-me AI that attempts to surround stealthed characters with large groups. We'll see how well that works tomorrow.
30 Mirtul 1368: I departed with my
retinue for Beregost again, intent on catching up w/Tranzig. When I first
arrived, I was met a second time by Elminster. He seems very interested in my
actions. I was also approached by a young girl who told me someone named
Officer Vai was looking for me at the Jovial Juggler. I met with Officer Vai,
and she asked me to bring her as many Bandit scalps as I can @ 50gp each. I
agreed. From there, I found Tranzig alone in a room @ the top of the
stairs @ Feldeposts, just as the letter said he’d be. He was immediately
confrontational & I had him eliminated, lest he tell others of our
whereabouts and the makeup/strength of my retinue. Before he could cast a
spell, I cast Command, & put him
on the ground. Minsc fell on him w/his 2-handed sword while Eldoth cast Magic Missile, Jaheira Chromatic Orb & Imoen, also Magic Missile, with her wand. Khalid
found a place to pelt Tranzig with his longbow. He struggled a bit, but we made
relatively quick work of him & the fight was never in doubt.
I led us to Peldvale
in search of Tazok. When we arrived, I was tired & decided to camp. Shortly
after we settled down, five Bandits ambushed us. The
noise attracted two
Black Talon Elite (BTE). The Bandits weren’t a challenge but the BTE are equipped w/Arrows of Ice & Arrows +1 & they
were able to make it a tad iffy. After finally getting some shuteye, we ran
into three
Flinds, one of whom took Minsc out w/one blow, so after we finished them, & a
lone Bandit, we had to return to
FAI to raise Minsc.
Heading back, I
encountered seven
Hobgoblins just outside the FAI, which my retinue dispatched easily, before we
continued on to Peldvale. Before we arrived, we were attacked by two angry Worgs, which are no more.
KEY EVENT: Once we arrived back in Peldvale, after a short march to get back to
where we’d turned back previously, we were accosted by a group of Bandits,
eight in all, they were not much of a fight. I cast Command, & took the leader out, while my retinue worked over
the other’s w/arrows & stones. Minsc waded in & kept the pressure on,
so that the bandits had a difficult time using their bows. It was over in just
a few moments.
After that tussle,
we ‘cleared the black’ in Peldvale, destroying 10 Huge Spiders, six more BTE & 18
Gibberlings.
TOUGH GETTING SERVICE HERE WITH ELDOTH IN MY RETINUE
It appears that to get even a halfway decent looking post I now have to use a combination of Chrome and Internet Explorer as different things are broken on each. I hope the new text editor sorts things out ...
Anyway, back to the game. Tres ventured into the cave and activated the Quivering Palm. He hit one orc twice ... and nothing happened. Dashing outside he rested and tried again. This time at least the orc rolled a save - but did that successfully twice. The orcs now had the follow-me ability activated so Tres had to go back to the inn to rest before trying once more - and this time he claimed his first instant kill.
After that progress was very rapid through the remaining small groups in the cave. He picked up a ring that gives +2 to saves, which looked very attractive. I actually expected the big group with the ogres in to be no trouble either and killed a couple of those, before running away and resting - still in the cave. I wanted to remain in there to provide greater options to run round and there should have been plenty of space. Regrettably though, the very first time Tres tried to run past the first couple of orcs approaching him, his icon got caught against one of the enemies. That's not a particularly unusual situation in EE pathfinding and quickly changing the intended destination would have enabled him to break free, but I was a bit slow to perceive the possible danger and react. By the time I did so a third orc had arrived and managed to block Tres in against a wall. I'd just rested though and had the Palm available, so there seemed a good chance I would be able to clear a route. The orc attacked saved against the first attack, but died to the second blow - but that fraction of time had allowed another orc to arrive just quickly enough to plug the gap. With more orcs and ogres coming into view things looked bleak - and they were …
That was mainly my fault for relaxing slightly having done all the hard work to get to level 13. I don't think that's something I'll try again in the near future, but maybe one day I'll get the urge again .
In Trademeet and the nearby Druid Grove, the party did indeed fare a bit better than in the Umar Hills and at the De'Arnise lands.
Yoshimo's snares earned the party the Shield of Harmony and an Efreeti Bottle at the cost of the three dao djinns' lives. (The party had no one who would have been able to resist Flesh to Stone with certainty, not even Jan who still had to learn a lot of spells, so traps seemed the safest option.)
The druid Cernd directed the companions to the Druid Grove. There, Amahoro looted a troll mound for Mauler's Arm and Orc Leather +3, nothing particularly useful for the party. A greater earth elemental was dispensed with by missile attacks and Jan's magic. The gnome then had a somewhat overdue spell scribing session, doing reasonably well despite his specialist penalty and his
potions of mind focusing and genius not guaranteeing success. The party slew some of the local trolls, though just
as at the De'Arnise Keep is was tedious work due to the party's
underwhelming arsenal for dealing with the nasty spirit trolls that
start out undetctably invisible and drain strength on hit. (They didn't
cast Greater Command or any other spell in spite of my insane settings).
Kyland Lind's party was Webbed and easily dispatched. Invisibility helped the companions past six myconids, shambling mounds were beaten with brute force, and Dalok and his aides fell to a combination of thrown snares, Spike Growths and Insect Plague. We had to battle one of the shadow druids twice, as his Armor of Faith kept triggering (and stacking) while he was Held by Yoshimo's special snare, making him invulnerable to physical damage.[spoiler] [/spoiler]Due to my settings unlocking strongholds regardless of PC class (so that I can roleplay that some of my NPCs also get strongholds), it was Amahoro who had to challenge Faldorn. Amahoro had never agreed to fight Faldorn unarmed, so her companions threw her some of her gear. The first rounds were for Faldorn, who removed Amahoro's invisibility, (thankfully only) blinded her through Nature's Beauty, and cast an Alicorn Lance at her. But when Amahoro summoned her Efreeti and a Djinni through the ring of Dinni Summoning she had found before, the tide turned quickly thanks to their magic missiles and fire spells.[spoiler] [/spoiler]Jaheira was now in charge of restoring the balance at the grove. Back in Trademeet Raissa was rescued and restored and the mantle of Waukeen was recovered and brought to Logan Coprith. None of the party's good deeds led to any reputation gains, so Amahoro donated thousands of recently earned gold at the temple of waukeen to boost the party's rep to 18. In the meantime Jan Jansen nicked a couple of scrolls, enchanted ammo and weapons from the merchants. Again, nothing extraordinary was spared by the Item Randomiser, so no Inertial Barrier, Archmagi robes, Blackblood, Ras, Belm, etc. Item Randomiser doesn't tend to put any of the really good items in shops.
The company returned to Athkatla, where Jan decided to stay with love of his life Lissa and look after her ill daughter while the party went out to look for a cure for the girl. Their quest brought them to the Copper Coronet, which triggered Mazzy's encounter with Gorf the Squisher. The halfling slew the brute through swift strikes and retreats, drawing Anomen's attention. The warrior cleric occupied the (temporarily vacant) sixth slot in the party. In the Bridge district the companions bought the Red Scimitar +3 (each hit grants wielder +1 to Thac0 for one round, a Quest Pack item). It became Jaheira's main weapon (even though she was only proficient in the use of scimitars at that point). The purchase allowed Yoshimo to shine one last time: his snares (barely) killed Abraxxi, a powerful (level 20) demon who had claimed the scimitar as hers.[spoiler] [/spoiler]Two githyanki were slain (under Chaotic Commands) at the behest of a 'Hidden' illithid who then cured Lissa's child. Jan joined again and Yoshimo was thanked for his service.
The crew returned to the Umar Hills with a scroll of PfU. Amahoro used it to dispatch the greater mummies and other undead in the temple ruins, though some of the undead got themselves killed on the trapped floor tiles.[spoiler] [/spoiler]Notable loot: Namarra +2, a sling +3 for Anomen, and a ring of lockpicks.
The party rested in the shadow dragon's lair, and buffed for their impending confrontation with the Shade Lord: PfE and Recitation for everyone, Berserk (Minsc), and Chaotic Commands, NPP and Death Ward for Anomen and Amahoro. The latter also cast Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, a powerful level 5 spell that gives +1 to hit and to saves, and +8 to HPs to allies, while the caster and allies of the same alignment (i.e. Mazzy) get +2 to hit, damage, saves, an extra APR (cancelling Haste) and immunity to charm and hold spells. The downside is fatigue when the spell expires. The party had no sunstone bullets so it took some time to destroy the shadow altar. This was left to Mazzy. Minsc took on Shadow Patrick. Anomen cast some spells (Sol's Searing Orb, Holy Smites). Jan engaged the Shade Lord who was PfMW, hurting it with wand scorchers and trying to remain at a distance that would prevent him from getting level-drained too often or from getting hit by the creature's black blade of disaster. Jaheira and Amahoro occupied themselves with summoned shadows.[spoiler] [/spoiler]Shadow Patrick dropped the cloak of displacement. Jaheira managed to cast an Insect Plague that affected the altar and later the Shade Lord (initially the insects were deflected by it). The altar was soon destroyed and with Jan's scorchers and Jaheira's insects the Shade Lord failed to cast any of its nasty spells (I remember it casting Finger of Death in previous runs). Jan also consistently detected illusions to dispel any MIs, IIs and other illusions. The companions attacked their foe with missiles as soon as they could, i.e. as soon as no more PfMWs were activated, and it was fitting that an arrow of Mazzy's felled the dark creature.[spoiler] [/spoiler]The party finally got a reputation boost (19) from a quest when they reported their success to the mayor of Imnesvale. Some fairly uneventful side-questing followed - obtaining real and fake illithium, acquiring the antidote to the poison that had afflicted Mazzy's sister - before the party visited the Delryn estate to meet Lord Cor Delryn and to learn of the murder of Anomen's sister. Anomen took some convincing from Amahoro to choose the law over his honor and refrain from taking revenge. At least his attitude notwithstanding he had the insight to seek the counsel of his wise and perceptive love interest.
For a distraction Amahoro took poor Anomen and the rest to the Five Flagons Inn to watch a play at the theater, only to learn that one of the main actors had been taken captive by an evil wizard. His replacement pleased only Minsc. The troupe hired the party to liberate Haer'Dalis and bring him back to the Five Flagons, but that's something I hope to report on next time.
Back in Trademeet Raissa was rescued and restored and the mantle of Waukeen was recovered and brought to Logan Coprith. None of the party's good deeds led to any reputation gains, so Amahoro donated thousands of recently earned gold at the temple of waukeen to boost the party's rep to 18.
IIRC, you'll get a reputation point by talking to Tidir's parents after you've restored Raissa.
Back in Trademeet Raissa was rescued and restored and the mantle of Waukeen was recovered and brought to Logan Coprith. None of the party's good deeds led to any reputation gains, so Amahoro donated thousands of recently earned gold at the temple of waukeen to boost the party's rep to 18.
IIRC, you'll get a reputation point by talking to Tidir's parents after you've restored Raissa.
If you're not greedy when you return the mantle you get a point of reputation for that as well. Along with the point you get for defeating Faldorn that means you can get a quick boost of 3 in Trademeet (and you also have to complete the skinner quest before Tirdir's quest opens, which provides another).
@Blackraven By the way if you like roleplaying that npcs get strongholds you can install the NPC Strongholds mod from Gibberlings. Some surprises there too, though I once lost half my party to the Paladin Stronghold questline .
@Borco and @Grond0, I should have probably mentioned that I'm playing with SCS's Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v32 RC8. For optimal shop prices, it seems best to just make donations at a temple until 18 reputation has been established, and then hope that some of the original reputation quests, do indeed boost reputation. In BG1 I didn't really need donations (though I think I made two), but in BG2 there are fewer quests that raise reputation.
@Blackraven By the way if you like roleplaying that npcs get strongholds you can install the NPC Strongholds mod from Gibberlings. Some surprises there too, though I once lost half my party to the Paladin Stronghold questline .
Very interesting. More interesting even than my current setup in this regard. Will try it some time! Especially the Paladin Stronghold...
Draconis is first up, and his human form buffs with PFMW. As we've discussed, only Absolute Immunity can stop us from crushing mages at this point, and SCS mages nearly always rely on PFMW and Improved Mantle. If SCS mages used Teleport Field and Protection from Normal Missiles, they'd be much, much harder to kill.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Since this install uses an older version of SCS where the magic attacks use invisible critters, Nalia's Project Image clone fails to land most of its magic attacks under Improved Alacrity, because Draconis' dragon form keeps running around. Draconis attacks Nalia while she's helpless due to Project Image, forcing Frisky Bits to kill her clone so Nalia can move around again.
Soon, Draconis' PFMW runs out normally, at which point we can just whomp on him. Turns out that even an SCS-buffed dragon doesn't have the HP to stand up to all of our warriors striking simultaneously.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Warriors are so much better than other classes in ToB.
We stop by the Pocket Plane, stomp on the evil Frisky Bits and the Slayer, and then proceed to Anadramatis, who wipes out most of our buffs using a Wish Breach, which bypasses Spell Shield in my install. Anadramatis is bugged to have no weapon equipped, though, and he or she has no immunity to his or her own breath weapon, so s/he deals nonlethal damage to us and actually takes damage from his or her own piercing breath weapon.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Frisky Bits casts Stoneskin and strikes from afar to avoid taking damage (Stoneskin will block dragon breath weapons that use physical damage) and soon the dragon surrenders, allowing us to get the breath potion.
On the way back to Amkethran, we get ambushed by Eler Had and Karun the Black from the Gromnir fight, apparently to exact vengeance for our previous victory. But they don't really have any special tricks up their sleeve, so when we hide via Potions of Invisibility and then re-enter the fight after buffing the party, the fight proves pretty simple.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
We sell 200,000 gold in junk loot and upgrade Carsomyr to +6 (honestly, a pretty meaningless boost at this point) before getting the rope from Amkethran and returning to Abazigal's lair, where the first two dragons of the quadruple dragon ambush approach us. We've already buffed with Protection from Acid, and since some careful positioning ensured that only Keldorn lost his buffs to Remove Magic (and he didn't even lose all of them!), the fight is a simple matter of damage output and HP.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Frisky Bits is immune to poison thanks to items (either the Ring of Gaxx or the v2.5 Protection from Poison Scroll), so the green dragon is little threat, either.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The final dragon, Carnifex, arrives, but he has pretty minimal mage buffs and it's easy to remove his defenses. SCS dragons in my install cast spells instantly, but we hit him so many times that we disrupt one of his spells despite him having a 1-frame casting time on all of his spells!
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The same thing happened to the green dragon. Carnifex dies in seconds.
The Tyrant Golems are always a pain to deal with. Nalia can wipe out the Death Tyrants using a triple Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency (which I normally don't use, since I don't find it very interesting), but the only realistic way to deal with the Tyrant Golems is to Imprison them during Time Stop, which we cast before entering combat to make sure they can't fight back.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
This allows us to take down the remaining Tyrant Golem individually.
Notice that Sarevok has fallen to a Death Ray, which means he loses access to the Soul Reaver--turning Chaotic Good prevented him from using the sword, but only a death or a level up can forcibly unequip an item. On the upside, Sarevok can level up without an opportunity cost, and he takes Smite as his next HLA.
Since I object to the use of the Imprisonment spell on moral grounds, even for presumably mindless golems, I use Freedom to bring back the remaining Tyrant Golems and quickly kill them. They're easier to deal with when you don't have to fight all of them at once.
Before engaging Abazigal, I want to kill Tamah first, since a clone of Tamah always shows up in my installs. After dispatching the drakes (I covered the party with a lot of buffs to protect everyone from their various breath attacks) and an Ice Golem, we concentrate fire on Tamah, though our fighters take heavy damage from her breath weapon before she goes down, since I saved their Hardiness spells for Abazigal himself.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Finally, we approach Abazigal and kite him mercilessly while he's stuck in his slow-moving human form. He uses Hardiness to attain immunity to missile damage, but we still can use the hitstun from ranged attacks to hobble him while Frisky Bits switches to melee.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
To my dismay, two clones of Tamah show up instead of one--we have to deal with three dragons despite killing another one just moments before. Fortunately, Tamah doesn't have PFMW, so Mazzy can completely destroy Tamah's buffs with a couple Arrows of Dispelling.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
To my surprise, Haer'dalis runs out of Stoneskins while he's tanking all three dragons and a Magical Sword, but he manages to get PFMW off the ground before they tear him to pieces... though they still nearly kill him with their breath weapons, as he did not have Stoneskin to block the Tamah clones' breath weapons and their crushing damage.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Then, somehow, a third breath weapon nails him and chunks him.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Again, SCS's anti-chunking component does absolutely nothing. This constitutes a bug, so we can bring back Haer'dalis with a reload, but I still have to win this fight normally before we can do so.
We don't really need him much for this fight, anyway; he was just there to hold the fort for a few rounds with his mage buffs. The real damage comes from Frisky Bits, Mazzy, Keldorn, and Sarevok.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The second Tamah clone goes down shortly, and only Abazigal is left. He removes some of our buffs with Remove Magic, but Nalia can restore some of them with Project Image and Keldorn can cover his vulnerability to electricity using a Potion of Magic Shielding. When Abazigal activates PFMW and erects some spell protections, we tear them down with Khelben's Warding Whip and Breach from Frisky Bits and Nalia. And when he casts Stoneskin, Mazzy can take that down with a simple Arrow of Dispelling.
With all of his defenses finally down, Abazigal's incredible AC, HP, and resistances are not enough to hold off four epic-level fighters with Improved Haste active.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Due to engine limitations, I can't get Haer'dalis back without reloading. But since we already won the fight legitimately, I create a custom weapon to save us the trouble of dealing with the same obstacle twice.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Honestly, once Yaga-Shura went down, the only real threat to this run's survival was Melissan. These guys are just not tough enough to cut it against a fighter-heavy party like ours.
Haer'dalis finally gets the Enhanced Bard Song, then we stomp on the Chosen of Cyric challenge and kill the captain of the guard at Amkethran so we can quickly slip into Balthazar's lair and convince him to join us. With high CHA, reputation, and a Chaotic Good alignment, we fit all the requirements to win him over. I think the dialog choices are all just 1's.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
My plan for the Ravager was to have Haer'dalis cast Tenser's Transformation and land some hits with the Soul Reaver to impose THAC0 penalties on the Ravager until it couldn't land any more hits on us. But we had such strong damage output that it wasn't necessary: only Mazzy was ever in danger, and Nalia's planetar had instant-casting Heal spells whenever Mazzy got in trouble.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Before we take on Melissan, I decide to do the first couple levels of Watcher's Keep, just on the off chance that Item Randomizer gives us something good.
Amahoro bought Borok's Fist (a copy of Ashideena, her trusty weapon in BG1 and SoD) and then commenced the operation to rescue Haer'Dalis from his captor Mekrath. It took the party to the sewers, where they had to battle their way to Mekrath's lair. A Cloudkill took care of a rakshasa that dropped the girdle of fortitude. Tarnor and his gang were ambushed: Jan had set some snares at different points near them, and a djinn, efreeti, fire elemental, and aerial servant had been summoned to form a first line of defense. Anomen triggered the dialogue with Tarnor (as a rule I won't attack not-yet-hostile enemies), and retreated quickly. Jan, Jaheira, and Amahoro cast Cloudkill and Spike Growth (2x) at the enemy. Draug charged first, but Jan's traps and a rain of missiles dropped him before he could get into melee range. His Wyvern's Tail became Anomen's melee weapon of choice. (Anomen, a level 9 Fighter -> Cleric aleady has 5 pips in maces thanks to SCS v32's NPC leveling component, and with Tweaks Anthology morningstars can be grouped together with maces instead of flails as one weapon type, hence Wyvern's Tail). Rengaard summoned an aerial servant, but he himself was badly wounded. Like Draug Fea he too was slain through missiles. The party meleed the aerial servant. Since Gaius was kept inside the Cloudkill/Spike Growth AoE by the party's summons that he felt compelled to attack, the wizard was no threat to the party.[spoiler] [/spoiler]And Gallchobhair and Tarnor could not disturb the party on their own. The only loss was the djinn summon. Apparently the djinn summoning ring gets destroyed once the summon dies, something I didn't know, and Tarnor and Gallchobhair did kill it. (You can only get that ring by siding with Bodhi, which I never do, so I wasn't familiar with its use. To my knowledge its the only summoning item that's lost once the summon is slain.)
Mekrath was displeased by Amahoro's confrontational tone, so he didn't even offer them his little mirror quest. This was not expected, the party wasn't even buffed beyond some longer lasting buffs from the encounter with Tarnor's crew. Luckily he cast PfMW rather than one of the Mantle spells. The companions simply attacked with their 'fine' mundane weapons. (A nice side-effect of SCS replacing +1 weapons with unenchanted fine ones is that those latter weapons are slightly better than regular mundane weapons for hitting PfMW enemies.) Mekrath wasted two rounds on a Remove Magic and an Invsibility that was dispelled by Jan (with 100 DI), but he also scared Minsc with a Flesh to Stone.[spoiler] [/spoiler]The warrior saved and the party broke though their foe's Stoneskins and felled him. Mekrath's yuan-ti friends were weakened by Cloudkill before an enraged Minsc led the assault to finish them off. They ran into Haer'Dalis and found a gemstone he was looking for (as well as a pair of glasses of ID and a suit of dark chainmail), but they didn't return to the Five Flagons immediately. First they: - had Cromwell forge a suit of enhanced ankheg armor for Jaheira (as per Item Upgrades), - allowed Jan to copy a large number of spells into his spellbook, - dealt with a bunch of Fallen Paladins, - saw (Sir) Anomen knighted, and - looked in vain for Montaron at the Galvarey estate (Prebek's home yielded the party a pair of bracers of archery).
From the Five Flagons to an Astral Prison one cannot leave until its warden is slain: it's known as one of the hardest Chapter 2 quests, mostly because of said warden. Somehow my characters tend to fare well in the prison, and it was no different for Amahoro. My last time in this dungeon, with Gilyn the bounty hunter and his crew, I took a very cautious approach, relying on stealth and backstabs and using one of the holes for refuge. Amahoro and company were well-buffed and took a much more aggressive, direct approach. They managed to down one of the yuan-ti mages with missiles before it was ready to attack.[spoiler] [/spoiler]The second yuan-ti mage didn't do much better thanks to Mazzy's disruptive acid arrows. Jaheira provided some crowd control with an Insect Plague, and Amahoro, Minsc, and Anomen did the dirty melee work.[spoiler] [/spoiler]The Bone Club +2 dropped by Aawill finally meant an enchanted club for Jaheira. One thrall (mage) followed. Invisible Jan detected illusions, while waiting for her PfMW to expire. She was then slain through elemental attacks. More yuan-ti succumbed to fire (wand of fire) and poison (Cloudkill). A second thrall (warrior) then dropped the Brawling Hands, perfect for Anomen. A third thrall managed to confuse Amahoro with a Chaos, after her Chaotic Commands had expired, but Anomen removed that effect with an Exaltation.
The master of thralls was drawn to the consternation. Anomen had an aerial servant occupy it in melee, and that proved a good decision, considering the rate at which the fiend drained levels.[spoiler][/spoiler]An enraged Minsc stepped in, while the other aimed their missiles at the creature. Other than a Silence that party had little to fear from the fiend.[spoiler][/spoiler]The Gesen bow shaft and the Staff of Air for Jan were the prizes. The companions then took the northern route (from the entry point) to the warden, and were lucky to see it unaccompanied by any yuan-ti. They retreated quickly and waited for his two efreeti to be unsummoned. Jan then send in several lowly monsters, summoned with his wand, to soak up such potentially fatal spells as ADHW, Emotion: Hopelessness (which stuns enemies in my current install), and Prismatic Spray. When the warden no longer cast any spells at the summons nor renewed his PfMWs, the party charged in. The warden cast a Chaos at Jan, so he went south as far as he could. The gnome did get affected, but only when he was already away from all the others. The warden then quickly cast a Mantle, making it a lot harder to hurt him. Still, Anomen had Holy Smites and the others swapped two wands of magic missiles around to disrupt their foe and to injure him with magic damage.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Jaheira cast a (IWD) spell named Star Metal Cudgel, which creates a magical club +2 that counts as +4 in terms of what it can hit, and deals an additional 2d6 damage to outer-planar creatures.
Thus the party survived the Mantle with relative ease. Mazzy shot him down with her acid arrows once his protection had expired. He dropped Tansheron's Bow, a very nice upgrade for Mazzy from her Bow of Arvoreen, and the Book of Infinite Spells. While this book may contain several valuable spells for certain solo characters, there was only one spell Amahoro was interested in, and she was glad to find it after turning a few pages:[spoiler][/spoiler]The party, falsely confident they had prevailed, were in for a very nasty surprise when a group of yuan-ti, including three mages spawned. They literally came out of nowhere to attack the no longer buffed party. One of the mages was swiftly dispatched but everyone took some serious spell damage from the others. Check out this well-aimed Lance of Disruption:[spoiler][/spoiler]Healing potions, summons and ranged attacks saw the party prevail, but this was the hardest part of the entire Astral Prison. The party said farewell to Haer'Dalis's troupe but the bard himself returned to the prime with the party and joined them, taking Minsc's place. I hate throwing companions out. Minsc had been with Amahoro almost from the very beginning of her adventuring career. But Amahoro considered trading Minsc's brute berserker force for Haer'Dalis's flexibility to be for the greater good. I already fear I won't be capable of throwing Jan out for Imoen, should we get to free her, not after all his contributions to Amahoro's quest
Haer'Dalis equipped several recently obtained items: melodic chain, gauntlets of weapon skill, girdle of fortitude, and bard hat (though the latter item is hardly of use with Haer'Dalis rarely singing). Cromwell upgraded his blades to +3 versions (per Item Upgrades). Since his joining XP was 1.25 million, Haer'Dalis came as specialized in long swords as well as short swords. With Angurvadal +5 and the right gear (including the belt of the skillful blade), he might remain a decent fighter even at ToB levels, but that's not something to worry about right now.
The party competently dealt with Galvarey and his goons. The companions were fully buffed, and Haer'Dalis cast his powerful Remove Magic, allowing for an easy victory.[spoiler][/spoiler]The Reaching Ring was enthusiastically equipped by Jan (even though he had yet to receive his first level 6 spell).
The gnome reminded the party of their job for Renal Bloodscalp - eager to run his own guildhouse much? - and holy warriors Anomen, Mazzy, and Amahoro reluctantly humored the gnome. They understood it was probably better to have eccentric Jansen in charge of the guildhouse than sadistic Mae'Var. Mephits (Cloudkill), Golems (buffed Haer'Dalis), and Rayic Gethras (Remove Magic / Secret Word) were no obstacles, but a trapped table was. It left Jan with 1 HP. The combination of impatience and a fuzzy memory is a recipe for trouble when it comes to disarming traps. It wasn't the first time...
Haer'Dalis was imprisoned for a theft he never committed; the party exposed the real culprit. Anomen had to find a way to deal with the murder of his father. Man the guy has a rough life.
The Shadow Thieves were unpleasantly surprised by the traps that Jan had prepared for them though the game somehow considered the snares as set by Mazzy:[spoiler]
[/spoiler]One powerful divine abjuration spell is Entropy Shield:[spoiler][/spoiler]Anomen, Jaheira, and Amahoro cast it before (or during) every signficant battle. Against the Shadow Thieves it was useful mainly because of the AC bonus, especially for Anomen and Amahoro who had no Stonekins/Ironskins. So far, my conclusion is that SCS v32 makes Clerics more competitive by making them more flexible. Most importantly they get better defensive spells. Entropy Shield is one of them. The level 7 spell Impervious Sanctity of Mind (protection against several status effects, casting failure prevention, and spell shield to absorb a removal spell in one), and the level 5 and 7 spells Divine Protection (immunity to damage for 3 rounds) and Greater Divine Protection (immunity to damage + 100% MR for 3 rounds) are amazing too. And the good thing is, enemies cast such spells too, so the main reason I used to stay away from IWDification - unfair because enemies can't cast those spells - no longer applies. Besides better defenses, priests also have more options for damage through spells, more party buffs, and a wider range of summons in SCS v32.
Backed by an Insect Plague, a Remove Magic, and Jan's Detect Illusions the party had no difficulty dispatching Mae'Var who dropped the Armor of the Viper, and his stable of thieves. Completing the quest gave Jan access to his first level 6 spells.
The party returned to the Umar Hills for Amahoro's ranger duties, and to the De'Arnise Keep to finally get rid of those trolls. Haer'Dalis had one level 6 spell slot, and he used it for Death Spells that would wipe out groups of troll, except for spirit trolls. However with Jan's wand of fire scorchers, better enchanted weapons (Borok's Fist, Wyvern's Tail, Tansheron's Bow, Flametongue) the companions fared much better than the first time. They picked up FoA's cold head on the ground floor and the two remaining heads in the cellars, after slaying more trolls and several umber hulks (manageable thanks Chaotic Commands and using the door for bottlenecking purposes).
Jan trapped the doorstep to Tor'Gal's hiding place. The party buffed up and called forth a number of summons, including Shades (level 6 Illusion spell). Although we failed to lure Tro'Gal alone to the door, he was the first to arrive and to trigger the traps. It only took a couple more hits, and an acid arrow from Mazzy to fell the creature.[spoiler] [/spoiler]The companions then retreated but the enemy didn't take long in dispatching the summons. Again, one of the doorways was used as a bottleneck, allowing the party to focus their efforts on an umber hulk elder. It was barely slain when a first yuan-ti mage appeared. The party retreated further and killed the mage (Mazzy's markswomanship is that good) as well as some trolls near the stairs. When the floor was clear, they picked up the Cloak of the Sewers and the Helm of Balduran, dispatched the golems, and reported back to Nalia.
Coremage the human berserker Traveling with: Jaheira, Minsc, Keldorn, Yoshimo, Anomen
The party worked on clearing out the undead in the old Amaunator Temple. The party did very well. Coremage used 3 fire resistance potions near the lava pit to loot and make it bit safer to pull the enemies. Despite poor trap skill, Yoshimo even managed to lay some traps. Since we weren't high level, we only had skeleton warriors and shadow fiends to deal with and the party handled those pretty well. Keldorn, Jaheira (Shield of Haromony), Coremage (Arbane) were all immune to hold, so that made the fiends much less of a problem, although Minsc got held once. However, the healers of the party spammed heals on Minsc and he managed to survive.
I've finally learned my lesson - leave Thaxxy alone until I return from the Underdark. I have lost so many runs to Thaxxy by taking him on early. One of the key buffs against the Shade Lord was death ward on Coremage. Shade Lord battle went well, and no deaths.
After reporting our success to the Mayor of Immesvale, we decided it was about time we gave Wellyn his bear - we had been carrying it around for some time. We needed to rest a few times until we found Wellyn. Anomen was then summoned to be judged by the Radiant Heart. Since I had him do the good route, he was approved as a knight of the order.
We will probably work on Trademeet next to get Jaheira a better weapon. She is using a basic club, so really could use a magical one for her.
Comments
So thanks for the tip! Resist Fear spells (arcane and divine) are indispensable. Running with my Bard (and using the Bard Song component of IWDification) I also should have a free and unlimited anti-Fear buff (although my run so far indicates that changing songs in this mod-version takes a full round and uses up one's aura, which is a strong limitation to bear in mind).
Zordral whupped me first time round because of his Mirror Image blocking my weapons and thus allowing him to pop off a couple of Sleep spells, incapacitating my whole party. I replayed the battle a few times to get a sound strategy, and in my new run I had no troubles with him! Full initial update/post coming soon.
The Mage battles I'm dreading/excited about are of course in SoA/ToB. I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
I've definitely got to learn to recognise the incantations for each school of magic, to have any chance of anticipating imminent annihilation. Don't suppose anybody's got some tips for those?
Archived BioWare BG 1 forum thread
Archived BioWare BG 2 forum thread
I'm unable to give a full list of what to be aware of, but this is usually the dangerous stuff I try to look and listen for in BG2 (casting time is indicated in the brackets):
Abjuration: Remove Magic (short), Imprisonment (long + touch range)
Alteration: Flesh to Stone (medium), Sphere of Chaos (medium), Time Stop (long)
Conjuration: Maze (short + touch range), Prismatic Spray (medium), Symbols (long), druidic Insect spells (long)
Divination: Nothing to worry about directly.
Enchantment: Chaos (medium), Greater Malison (medium)
Invocation: Mordy Sword (medium) and elemental damage spells, priest Flame Strike (mediumlong)
Illusion: Nothing to worry about directly (Blindness in BG1)
Necromancy: FoD (shortmedium), ADHW (long), Wail of the Banshee (long)
I didn't include Power Words, which may come at any time if your characters are vulnerable to their effects (most notoriously PW: Stun when under 90 HP). Some high level mages may use 3x Flame Arrow or Skull Trap triggers which may be difficult to counter.
Edit: minor corrections
1) Illusion: "Veritas, Credo, Oculos" = "The truth, I believe, with my eyes"
2) Alteration: "Praeses, Alia, Fero" = "Protecting, another, I bring this forth"
3) Necromancy: "Vita, Mortis, Careo" = "Life, and death, I am without"
4) Divination: "Scio, Didici, Pecto" = "I know, for I have studied, with my mind"
5) Abjuration: "Manus, Potentis, Paro" = "A hand, powerful, I prepare"
6) Evocation: "Incertus, Pulcher, Imperio" = "Uncertain, beautiful things, I command"
7) Conjuration: "Facio, Voco, Ferre" = "This I do, I call, to bring you forth"
8) Enchantment: "Cupio, Virtus, Licet" = "I want, excellence, allowed to me"
Or you might just use the JimFix mod with ''Add spell school notifications to the combat log'' component. This way you'll be aware of the school of coming spell even with the sound off.
Zordral whupped me first time round because of his Mirror Image blocking my weapons and thus allowing him to pop off a couple of Sleep spells, incapacitating my whole party.
Ah I see. That's right you are SCS. In that case, your dual-wielding warrior using greenstone amulet might be able almost solo him, as I believe the amulet protects against sleep. Potions of magic shielding would work too, but they are quite rare in BG 1. Potions of magic blocking are pretty plentiful however, and would work well for this case.
In the evening I rejoined the fight. The extra damage, APR and stunning attack gained at 9th level all speeded up killing enemies, while the improved AC slightly reduced damage when I took liberties with them. And then of course, practice makes perfect
20 Mirtul 1368: Following the efforts @ the Gnoll Stronghold, I undertook to look into the happenings @ the Nashkel Mines. In route, I was accosted by a group of that intended to rob me. Before they could, an angry Half-Orc interrupted them, apparently to settle a score they had between them. I stood back as they started to battle. My retinue was still somewhat in the crossfire, but it was mainly between them. The Half-Orc fell as did all but one of them, the leader they called Senjak. He fought w/2 Wakizashi, one enchanted. Eventually, my group finished him. In the final tally, we killed five Elves, three of them Crossbowmen, & two Bandits.
(Note: I am seriously bummed that Dorn died. I just figured the game wouldn’t let him but he did – I read that it’s a bug. Unfortunately, it’s a playthrough, so I just had to change my plans to enlist him).
Finally arriving @ the Nashkel Mines, I found the foreman, & received permission to enter. The mine was four levels deep. Besides a Kobold on the 1st level, the place was empty save the miners. On the 2nd level down, we killed 25 Kobolds. The 3rd level was a bit more challenging, as in addition to 47 Kobolds, (including a Commando), we destroyed two Huge Spiders & a Ghoul.
KEY EVENT: After returning to Nashkel once, to raise Minsc & Imoen, I led us back to descend into a cave that was on the 4th level. In it, I found the answer to the mystery of the mines – or @ least, I started to find the answer. At first, we swatted a handful of Kobolds. But, we were confronted by a Half-Orc who believed we were sent by someone named Tazok… I played along, but then he got angry & summoned a Skeleton Warrior, two skeletons & about five more Kobolds. I focused attention on getting him out of the way before mopping up the Kobold dogs & the skeletons. I cast Command once, & then again as he started to recover. Eldoth finished him off. It took a while to finish off the skeletons, as my retinue was exhausted, but eventually the last one shattered. Jaheira & Eldoth were casualties of the battle. A letter amongst the Half-Orc’s loot, names a Tranzig, who should be in Beregost at the Feldepost Inn. All correspondence bears the name Tazok, including letters the assassin’s that have tried to kill me.
BATTLE OF NASHKEL MINES
Uopn returning to Nashkel, collecting my reward, & raising Jaheira & Eldoth, I was attacked by another assassin. My party was not really in a position to battle again without rest, especially Jaheira & Eldoth, fresh from being raised @ the Temple of Helm. But, I survived, although Jaheira fell again, as did Eldoth. When Nimbul confronted us, I stood back to try & use my Ring of Energy. Minsc flew into his Berserk state of mind, while Jaheira cast Chromatic orb (before she fell). Likewise, Eldoth cast Magic Missile. Imoen used her Wand of Magic Missiles & Khalid stood back with his longbow. The assassin managed to bring a Wild Dog to his side, but they were both gone in no time.
Competition: My retinue has a competition between them, after I had to settle a dispute between Imoen & Eldoth over who gets to keep scrolls – it seems Imoen fancies them too. Whoever has the most significant kill gets to choose first when any new enchanted itam is found (If I choose not to use the item myself). The second most significant goes next & so on.They figure out who can use it, then of those who can, who has the best kill. At this time:
· Imoen, (Silke, 900 exp)
· Khalid (Neira), Minsc (Nimbul), & Eldoth (Mulahey) (650 exp ea)
· Jaheira’s (Ghoul, 175 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (trap, level 3), Imoen (Grey Ooze, level 4), Jaheira (Kobold or skeleton level 5), Jaheira & Eldoth (Nimbul)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Mulahey, Cleric/5; Nimbul, Bard/5, Senjak (Elven, Thief), Grey Ooze (2), Huge Spiders (2), Dorotea (Elven, Cleric), Ghoul, Crowsbowmen (3), Bandits (2), Kobolds (~80), Wild Dog
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 8595gp) Armor & weapons: Plate Armor, Splint Mail +1, Studded Leather +2, Wakizashi +1, S/Shield +1, Plate Mail; Gems/jewelry: Potions: Healing, Invulnerability; Scrolls: Magic Missile, Agannazar’s Scorcher, Horror, Stinking Cloud, Blindness, Ch/Orb, Identify; Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying in Nashkel.
NEXT STEPS: Return to Beregost in search of Tranzig
LEVEL UP: Silas, Cleric (Lorekeeper of Ohgma)/2, Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/2, Jaheira, Druid (Avenger)/3
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
· Silas Cl/2 (Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP13) S/mail +1, M/star* & Rg of Energy; Spells: Command (3);(Gnoll Veteran)(AI none)
· Jaheira Dr/3) (Avenger)(HP20) Leather w/Sling* & Q/staff*; Spells: Ch/Orb, CLWs, Entangle,
Shillelagh;(Ghoul)(AI: Adv AI)(2)
· Khalid Rgr/1 (Archer)(HP12) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
· Imoen Th/2 (Adventurer)(HP14) S/Leather +2 w/S/bow* & S/sword +1* & 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; (Nimbul)(AI: Ftr Def)
· Eldoth Bd/3 (HP15) S/Leather w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows;
(Mulahey)(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)
Torque the (Rebalanced) Wizard Slayer
BG1: 1, 2, 3It's a rough start in Amn. While scavenging the ruins of Chateau Irenicus let me afford Daeros's Full Plate +1 from Ribald, Torque still struggles against melee-oriented enemies as they tend to need at least 4 hits to go down, which is one-and-a-half more attacks per round than what he has at first.
After the circus, the slavers are taken care of first by luring them down into the sewers and into the Cloudkill trap. Reporting back earns a level.
After that, the Docks district is next for some (hopefully) easy XP. The steam mephits in Rayic Gethras' house are juked using the door transitions to avoid their automatic stun ability. Gethras himself is quite easy after waiting out his Improved Mantle.
When it comes time to fight Maevar, I get reminded why thieves are a total pain in the ass to fight. Attempting to use area transitions to avoid spells just lets the thieves stealth for a free backstab when I return down the stairs, plus they'll spam invisibility potions. I use DuHM to help tank these constant facestabs and then kill Maevar with Shatter Magic after his goons are disposed of.
After that disaster, I buy the Bloody Bone Plate +2 from Ribald to prevent future backstabs and it sees use again against the assassins aligned with Rejiek Hidesman. Hunting for more easy XP, I use a scroll of Protection from Undead to kill the Crypt King on the way in to the graveyard's underground, incidentally earning a level.
I have enough time to kill Pai'na's spiders and do the first part of the undead section, but my scroll wears off before I open the secret door to where mummies await. I decide to come back later once my save vs. spell is improved enough to withstand mummy fear without risk. The Trademeet druids are next.
I do a minor sidequest or two and then head for the De'Arnise Keep. It's nothing special, but the fight with Tor'Gal gets Torque perilously close to death.
I wasn't paying attention even though I had the Shield of Harmony which could block Chaos. The yuan-ti mages are lured upstairs and are easily killed through inducing spell failure and finishing them off with Shatter Magic. Nothing's more satisfying than destroying a mage's stoneskin in one hit, only for a stoneskin contingency to spring up, which gets destroyed again by another hit.
The fight with Tor'Gal is just a slugfest. Why does he have extra-healing potions? Why doesn't he fall down when he's near death?
I'm thinking about doing the Umar Hills, so I need the Daystar longsword. Using DuHM, I break through the hidden wall and use a scroll of PfU on the lich guarding it, killing it easily.
Torque is not proficient in a weapon that does crushing damage, so Daystar will be a great alternative to use against skeletal undead. This is unfortunately short-lived. On the way to the shadow dragon in the temple ruins, a lich and a pair of greater mummies spawn. The first group were disposed of with Sunray and some luck, but the lich uses a Haste wish just as a greater mummy summons an Aerial Servant, which hastes it too.
Aerial Servants are already good summons, but aTweaks makes them even more annoying to fight against since they go invisible after each round. This, combined with their 23 Strength, 5 THAC0, and 8d4 damage crushing attacks all but guarantees hard hits on Torque, twice per round. Torque cannot run away and heal fast enough to escape the Aerial Servant and is killed on the way out of the temple ruins. Should've ran to the right after leaving the dungeon to escape to the world map.
Wizard Slayers are highly dependent on items and the three types of anti-magic potions that were so plentiful in BG1 are extremely rare in BG2. Now I hate fighting priests.
Torque - (Rebalanced) Wizard Slayer 19 (RIP)
The fight with Tor'Gal is just a slugfest. Why does he have extra-healing potions? Why doesn't he fall down when he's near death?
Tor'Gal doesn't fall down when near death because he's Tor'Gal. He's not some ordinary troll; he's special.
For my new run, I decided to go with a party of four. Being unfamiliar with no-reload party play as I am, six characters just felt too much of a difficulty bump compared to solo playthroughs.
When thinking about the concept of the run I was like...yea, halflings! And since they're limited to three single classes (with kits, including barbarian) and one multi-class option, four was the perfect number.
I'm pleased to introduce the personae:
Kazi, fighter/thief, NG
Paran, fighter (unkitted), CG
Ysa, bounty hunter, NG
Oranfal, priest of Lathander, LG
Here's our merry little party in Candlekeep, considering their first move. I'm sure we'll have fun.
Regards,
B.
Still progressing at better than 1 orc per minute, there was enough time this morning for Tres to push up another level.
The move to L11 didn't give him a lot of combat advantage, but the reduced THAC0 does mean he now only misses the orcs on a critical miss using his standard fist attack.
After work I took up the challenge again. I felt rather tired and lethargic to start with, so should really have not played given how easy it would be to die and waste all the effort to date. However, I managed to keep nibbling away at the XP requirement and in due course hit level 12.
That gave another significant combat upgrade with fists now counted +2 weapons and APR up to 3.
Having done so much kiting already I should definitely have called it a day there, but pushed on to see if I could get up to level 13 before bedtime. With only 60k XP needed it looked like that could prove costly when I got trapped for the first time.
Fortunately, with the improved attack and defence gained by this point, I managed to beat a way out before it was too late.
Apart from being tired, another reason for that error was the increasing difficulty of making smooth movement over a battlefield covered with the hundreds of axes dropped by the orcs. I was being stubborn about not leaving the area to rest though and just carried on. There were no more scares as Tres finally picked up his 13th level.
The advantage of that is that it allows instant kills with Quivering Palm. That provides a way to deal with the cheesy follow-me AI that attempts to surround stealthed characters with large groups. We'll see how well that works tomorrow.
30 Mirtul 1368: I departed with my retinue for Beregost again, intent on catching up w/Tranzig. When I first arrived, I was met a second time by Elminster. He seems very interested in my actions. I was also approached by a young girl who told me someone named Officer Vai was looking for me at the Jovial Juggler. I met with Officer Vai, and she asked me to bring her as many Bandit scalps as I can @ 50gp each. I agreed. From there, I found Tranzig alone in a room @ the top of the stairs @ Feldeposts, just as the letter said he’d be. He was immediately confrontational & I had him eliminated, lest he tell others of our whereabouts and the makeup/strength of my retinue. Before he could cast a spell, I cast Command, & put him on the ground. Minsc fell on him w/his 2-handed sword while Eldoth cast Magic Missile, Jaheira Chromatic Orb & Imoen, also Magic Missile, with her wand. Khalid found a place to pelt Tranzig with his longbow. He struggled a bit, but we made relatively quick work of him & the fight was never in doubt.
I led us to Peldvale in search of Tazok. When we arrived, I was tired & decided to camp. Shortly after we settled down, five Bandits ambushed us. The noise attracted two Black Talon Elite (BTE). The Bandits weren’t a challenge but the BTE are equipped w/Arrows of Ice & Arrows +1 & they were able to make it a tad iffy. After finally getting some shuteye, we ran into three Flinds, one of whom took Minsc out w/one blow, so after we finished them, & a lone Bandit, we had to return to FAI to raise Minsc.
Heading back, I encountered seven Hobgoblins just outside the FAI, which my retinue dispatched easily, before we continued on to Peldvale. Before we arrived, we were attacked by two angry Worgs, which are no more.
KEY EVENT: Once we arrived back in Peldvale, after a short march to get back to where we’d turned back previously, we were accosted by a group of Bandits, eight in all, they were not much of a fight. I cast Command, & took the leader out, while my retinue worked over the other’s w/arrows & stones. Minsc waded in & kept the pressure on, so that the bandits had a difficult time using their bows. It was over in just a few moments.
After that tussle, we ‘cleared the black’ in Peldvale, destroying 10 Huge Spiders, six more BTE & 18 Gibberlings.
TOUGH GETTING SERVICE HERE WITH ELDOTH IN MY RETINUE
Best Kill Competition:
· Minsc (Tranzig, 950 exp)
· Imoen, (Silke, 900 exp)
· Khalid (Neira), Eldoth (Mulahey) (650 exp ea)
· Jaheira’s (Huge Spider, 270 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (Flind, BTE x2)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Tranzig (Mage/6), Raiken (Fighter-Bandit/5), Huge Spiders (10), Black Talon Elite (8), Flind (3), Worg (2), Bandits (13), Hobgoblins (7), Gibberlings (18)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 1886gp) Armor & weapons: Gems/jewelry: Flamedance Ring, Horn Coral Gem; Potions: Scrolls: Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying @ FAI
NEXT STEPS: Descend on Lawrswood
LEVEL UP: Khalid, Ranger (Archer)/2, Silas, Cleric (Lorekeeper of Oghma)/3, Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/3, Minsc Fighter (Barbarian)/2
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 10)
Silas Cl/3(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP18) S/mail +1, M/star* & Rg of Energy; Spells: Command (3);(Gnoll Veteran)(AI none)
Jaheira Dr/3) (Avenger)(HP20) Leather w/Sling* & Q/staff*; Spells: Ch/Orb, CLWs, Entangle, Shillelagh;(HuGe Spider)(AI: Adv AI)(2)
Khalid Rgr/2(Archer)(HP20) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
Imoen Th/3 (Adventurer)(HP19) S/Leather +2 w/S/bow* & S/sword +1* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 45, FT 30, PP25, MS 30, HS 25, DI 10, ST5; (Silke)(Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
Minsc Ftr/2 (Barbarian)(HP19) C/mail +1 & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Nimbul)(AI: Ftr Def)
Eldoth Bd/3 (HP15) S/Leather w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows; (Mulahey)(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)
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 5
SoA: 6
In Trademeet and the nearby Druid Grove, the party did indeed fare a bit better than in the Umar Hills and at the De'Arnise lands.
Yoshimo's snares earned the party the Shield of Harmony and an Efreeti Bottle at the cost of the three dao djinns' lives. (The party had no one who would have been able to resist Flesh to Stone with certainty, not even Jan who still had to learn a lot of spells, so traps seemed the safest option.)
The druid Cernd directed the companions to the Druid Grove. There, Amahoro looted a troll mound for Mauler's Arm and Orc Leather +3, nothing particularly useful for the party. A greater earth elemental was dispensed with by missile attacks and Jan's magic. The gnome then had a somewhat overdue spell scribing session, doing reasonably well despite his specialist penalty and his potions of mind focusing and genius not guaranteeing success.
The party slew some of the local trolls, though just as at the De'Arnise Keep is was tedious work due to the party's underwhelming arsenal for dealing with the nasty spirit trolls that start out undetctably invisible and drain strength on hit. (They didn't cast Greater Command or any other spell in spite of my insane settings). Kyland Lind's party was Webbed and easily dispatched. Invisibility helped the companions past six myconids, shambling mounds were beaten with brute force, and Dalok and his aides fell to a combination of thrown snares, Spike Growths and Insect Plague. We had to battle one of the shadow druids twice, as his Armor of Faith kept triggering (and stacking) while he was Held by Yoshimo's special snare, making him invulnerable to physical damage.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Due to my settings unlocking strongholds regardless of PC class (so that I can roleplay that some of my NPCs also get strongholds), it was Amahoro who had to challenge Faldorn. Amahoro had never agreed to fight Faldorn unarmed, so her companions threw her some of her gear. The first rounds were for Faldorn, who removed Amahoro's invisibility, (thankfully only) blinded her through Nature's Beauty, and cast an Alicorn Lance at her. But when Amahoro summoned her Efreeti and a Djinni through the ring of Dinni Summoning she had found before, the tide turned quickly thanks to their magic missiles and fire spells.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Jaheira was now in charge of restoring the balance at the grove.
Back in Trademeet Raissa was rescued and restored and the mantle of Waukeen was recovered and brought to Logan Coprith. None of the party's good deeds led to any reputation gains, so Amahoro donated thousands of recently earned gold at the temple of waukeen to boost the party's rep to 18. In the meantime Jan Jansen nicked a couple of scrolls, enchanted ammo and weapons from the merchants. Again, nothing extraordinary was spared by the Item Randomiser, so no Inertial Barrier, Archmagi robes, Blackblood, Ras, Belm, etc. Item Randomiser doesn't tend to put any of the really good items in shops.
The company returned to Athkatla, where Jan decided to stay with love of his life Lissa and look after her ill daughter while the party went out to look for a cure for the girl. Their quest brought them to the Copper Coronet, which triggered Mazzy's encounter with Gorf the Squisher. The halfling slew the brute through swift strikes and retreats, drawing Anomen's attention. The warrior cleric occupied the (temporarily vacant) sixth slot in the party.
In the Bridge district the companions bought the Red Scimitar +3 (each hit grants wielder +1 to Thac0 for one round, a Quest Pack item). It became Jaheira's main weapon (even though she was only proficient in the use of scimitars at that point). The purchase allowed Yoshimo to shine one last time: his snares (barely) killed Abraxxi, a powerful (level 20) demon who had claimed the scimitar as hers.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Two githyanki were slain (under Chaotic Commands) at the behest of a 'Hidden' illithid who then cured Lissa's child. Jan joined again and Yoshimo was thanked for his service.
The crew returned to the Umar Hills with a scroll of PfU. Amahoro used it to dispatch the greater mummies and other undead in the temple ruins, though some of the undead got themselves killed on the trapped floor tiles.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Notable loot: Namarra +2, a sling +3 for Anomen, and a ring of lockpicks.
The party rested in the shadow dragon's lair, and buffed for their impending confrontation with the Shade Lord: PfE and Recitation for everyone, Berserk (Minsc), and Chaotic Commands, NPP and Death Ward for Anomen and Amahoro. The latter also cast Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, a powerful level 5 spell that gives +1 to hit and to saves, and +8 to HPs to allies, while the caster and allies of the same alignment (i.e. Mazzy) get +2 to hit, damage, saves, an extra APR (cancelling Haste) and immunity to charm and hold spells. The downside is fatigue when the spell expires. The party had no sunstone bullets so it took some time to destroy the shadow altar. This was left to Mazzy. Minsc took on Shadow Patrick. Anomen cast some spells (Sol's Searing Orb, Holy Smites). Jan engaged the Shade Lord who was PfMW, hurting it with wand scorchers and trying to remain at a distance that would prevent him from getting level-drained too often or from getting hit by the creature's black blade of disaster. Jaheira and Amahoro occupied themselves with summoned shadows.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Shadow Patrick dropped the cloak of displacement. Jaheira managed to cast an Insect Plague that affected the altar and later the Shade Lord (initially the insects were deflected by it). The altar was soon destroyed and with Jan's scorchers and Jaheira's insects the Shade Lord failed to cast any of its nasty spells (I remember it casting Finger of Death in previous runs). Jan also consistently detected illusions to dispel any MIs, IIs and other illusions. The companions attacked their foe with missiles as soon as they could, i.e. as soon as no more PfMWs were activated, and it was fitting that an arrow of Mazzy's felled the dark creature.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]The party finally got a reputation boost (19) from a quest when they reported their success to the mayor of Imnesvale. Some fairly uneventful side-questing followed - obtaining real and fake illithium, acquiring the antidote to the poison that had afflicted Mazzy's sister - before the party visited the Delryn estate to meet Lord Cor Delryn and to learn of the murder of Anomen's sister. Anomen took some convincing from Amahoro to choose the law over his honor and refrain from taking revenge. At least his attitude notwithstanding he had the insight to seek the counsel of his wise and perceptive love interest.
For a distraction Amahoro took poor Anomen and the rest to the Five Flagons Inn to watch a play at the theater, only to learn that one of the main actors had been taken captive by an evil wizard. His replacement pleased only Minsc. The troupe hired the party to liberate Haer'Dalis and bring him back to the Five Flagons, but that's something I hope to report on next time.
In BG1 I didn't really need donations (though I think I made two), but in BG2 there are fewer quests that raise reputation.
Very interesting. More interesting even than my current setup in this regard. Will try it some time! Especially the Paladin Stronghold...
Frisky Bits the Fighter/Mage/Cleric
Frisky Bits the Fighter/Mage/Cleric
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoA: 6, 7
Amahoro bought Borok's Fist (a copy of Ashideena, her trusty weapon in BG1 and SoD) and then commenced the operation to rescue Haer'Dalis from his captor Mekrath. It took the party to the sewers, where they had to battle their way to Mekrath's lair. A Cloudkill took care of a rakshasa that dropped the girdle of fortitude. Tarnor and his gang were ambushed: Jan had set some snares at different points near them, and a djinn, efreeti, fire elemental, and aerial servant had been summoned to form a first line of defense. Anomen triggered the dialogue with Tarnor (as a rule I won't attack not-yet-hostile enemies), and retreated quickly. Jan, Jaheira, and Amahoro cast Cloudkill and Spike Growth (2x) at the enemy. Draug charged first, but Jan's traps and a rain of missiles dropped him before he could get into melee range. His Wyvern's Tail became Anomen's melee weapon of choice. (Anomen, a level 9 Fighter -> Cleric aleady has 5 pips in maces thanks to SCS v32's NPC leveling component, and with Tweaks Anthology morningstars can be grouped together with maces instead of flails as one weapon type, hence Wyvern's Tail).
Rengaard summoned an aerial servant, but he himself was badly wounded. Like Draug Fea he too was slain through missiles. The party meleed the aerial servant. Since Gaius was kept inside the Cloudkill/Spike Growth AoE by the party's summons that he felt compelled to attack, the wizard was no threat to the party.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]And Gallchobhair and Tarnor could not disturb the party on their own. The only loss was the djinn summon. Apparently the djinn summoning ring gets destroyed once the summon dies, something I didn't know, and Tarnor and Gallchobhair did kill it. (You can only get that ring by siding with Bodhi, which I never do, so I wasn't familiar with its use. To my knowledge its the only summoning item that's lost once the summon is slain.)
Mekrath was displeased by Amahoro's confrontational tone, so he didn't even offer them his little mirror quest. This was not expected, the party wasn't even buffed beyond some longer lasting buffs from the encounter with Tarnor's crew. Luckily he cast PfMW rather than one of the Mantle spells. The companions simply attacked with their 'fine' mundane weapons. (A nice side-effect of SCS replacing +1 weapons with unenchanted fine ones is that those latter weapons are slightly better than regular mundane weapons for hitting PfMW enemies.) Mekrath wasted two rounds on a Remove Magic and an Invsibility that was dispelled by Jan (with 100 DI), but he also scared Minsc with a Flesh to Stone.[spoiler]
- had Cromwell forge a suit of enhanced ankheg armor for Jaheira (as per Item Upgrades),
- allowed Jan to copy a large number of spells into his spellbook,
- dealt with a bunch of Fallen Paladins,
- saw (Sir) Anomen knighted, and
- looked in vain for Montaron at the Galvarey estate (Prebek's home yielded the party a pair of bracers of archery).
From the Five Flagons to an Astral Prison one cannot leave until its warden is slain: it's known as one of the hardest Chapter 2 quests, mostly because of said warden. Somehow my characters tend to fare well in the prison, and it was no different for Amahoro. My last time in this dungeon, with Gilyn the bounty hunter and his crew, I took a very cautious approach, relying on stealth and backstabs and using one of the holes for refuge. Amahoro and company were well-buffed and took a much more aggressive, direct approach. They managed to down one of the yuan-ti mages with missiles before it was ready to attack.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]The second yuan-ti mage didn't do much better thanks to Mazzy's disruptive acid arrows. Jaheira provided some crowd control with an Insect Plague, and Amahoro, Minsc, and Anomen did the dirty melee work.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]The Bone Club +2 dropped by Aawill finally meant an enchanted club for Jaheira. One thrall (mage) followed. Invisible Jan detected illusions, while waiting for her PfMW to expire. She was then slain through elemental attacks. More yuan-ti succumbed to fire (wand of fire) and poison (Cloudkill). A second thrall (warrior) then dropped the Brawling Hands, perfect for Anomen. A third thrall managed to confuse Amahoro with a Chaos, after her Chaotic Commands had expired, but Anomen removed that effect with an Exaltation.
The companions then took the northern route (from the entry point) to the warden, and were lucky to see it unaccompanied by any yuan-ti. They retreated quickly and waited for his two efreeti to be unsummoned. Jan then send in several lowly monsters, summoned with his wand, to soak up such potentially fatal spells as ADHW, Emotion: Hopelessness (which stuns enemies in my current install), and Prismatic Spray. When the warden no longer cast any spells at the summons nor renewed his PfMWs, the party charged in. The warden cast a Chaos at Jan, so he went south as far as he could. The gnome did get affected, but only when he was already away from all the others. The warden then quickly cast a Mantle, making it a lot harder to hurt him. Still, Anomen had Holy Smites and the others swapped two wands of magic missiles around to disrupt their foe and to injure him with magic damage.[spoiler]
I hate throwing companions out. Minsc had been with Amahoro almost from the very beginning of her adventuring career. But Amahoro considered trading Minsc's brute berserker force for Haer'Dalis's flexibility to be for the greater good. I already fear I won't be capable of throwing Jan out for Imoen, should we get to free her, not after all his contributions to Amahoro's quest
Haer'Dalis equipped several recently obtained items: melodic chain, gauntlets of weapon skill, girdle of fortitude, and bard hat (though the latter item is hardly of use with Haer'Dalis rarely singing). Cromwell upgraded his blades to +3 versions (per Item Upgrades). Since his joining XP was 1.25 million, Haer'Dalis came as specialized in long swords as well as short swords. With Angurvadal +5 and the right gear (including the belt of the skillful blade), he might remain a decent fighter even at ToB levels, but that's not something to worry about right now.
The party competently dealt with Galvarey and his goons. The companions were fully buffed, and Haer'Dalis cast his powerful Remove Magic, allowing for an easy victory.[spoiler]
The gnome reminded the party of their job for Renal Bloodscalp - eager to run his own guildhouse much? - and holy warriors Anomen, Mazzy, and Amahoro reluctantly humored the gnome. They understood it was probably better to have eccentric Jansen in charge of the guildhouse than sadistic Mae'Var. Mephits (Cloudkill), Golems (buffed Haer'Dalis), and Rayic Gethras (Remove Magic / Secret Word) were no obstacles, but a trapped table was. It left Jan with 1 HP. The combination of impatience and a fuzzy memory is a recipe for trouble when it comes to disarming traps. It wasn't the first time...
Haer'Dalis was imprisoned for a theft he never committed; the party exposed the real culprit. Anomen had to find a way to deal with the murder of his father. Man the guy has a rough life.
The Shadow Thieves were unpleasantly surprised by the traps that Jan had prepared for them though the game somehow considered the snares as set by Mazzy:[spoiler]
So far, my conclusion is that SCS v32 makes Clerics more competitive by making them more flexible. Most importantly they get better defensive spells. Entropy Shield is one of them. The level 7 spell Impervious Sanctity of Mind (protection against several status effects, casting failure prevention, and spell shield to absorb a removal spell in one), and the level 5 and 7 spells Divine Protection (immunity to damage for 3 rounds) and Greater Divine Protection (immunity to damage + 100% MR for 3 rounds) are amazing too. And the good thing is, enemies cast such spells too, so the main reason I used to stay away from IWDification - unfair because enemies can't cast those spells - no longer applies. Besides better defenses, priests also have more options for damage through spells, more party buffs, and a wider range of summons in SCS v32.
Backed by an Insect Plague, a Remove Magic, and Jan's Detect Illusions the party had no difficulty dispatching Mae'Var who dropped the Armor of the Viper, and his stable of thieves. Completing the quest gave Jan access to his first level 6 spells.
The party returned to the Umar Hills for Amahoro's ranger duties, and to the De'Arnise Keep to finally get rid of those trolls. Haer'Dalis had one level 6 spell slot, and he used it for Death Spells that would wipe out groups of troll, except for spirit trolls. However with Jan's wand of fire scorchers, better enchanted weapons (Borok's Fist, Wyvern's Tail, Tansheron's Bow, Flametongue) the companions fared much better than the first time. They picked up FoA's cold head on the ground floor and the two remaining heads in the cellars, after slaying more trolls and several umber hulks (manageable thanks Chaotic Commands and using the door for bottlenecking purposes).
Jan trapped the doorstep to Tor'Gal's hiding place. The party buffed up and called forth a number of summons, including Shades (level 6 Illusion spell). Although we failed to lure Tro'Gal alone to the door, he was the first to arrive and to trigger the traps. It only took a couple more hits, and an acid arrow from Mazzy to fell the creature.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]The companions then retreated but the enemy didn't take long in dispatching the summons. Again, one of the doorways was used as a bottleneck, allowing the party to focus their efforts on an umber hulk elder. It was barely slain when a first yuan-ti mage appeared. The party retreated further and killed the mage (Mazzy's markswomanship is that good) as well as some trolls near the stairs. When the floor was clear, they picked up the Cloak of the Sewers and the Helm of Balduran, dispatched the golems, and reported back to Nalia.
Traveling with: Jaheira, Minsc, Keldorn, Yoshimo, Anomen
The party worked on clearing out the undead in the old Amaunator Temple. The party did very well. Coremage used 3 fire resistance potions near the lava pit to loot and make it bit safer to pull the enemies. Despite poor trap skill, Yoshimo even managed to lay some traps. Since we weren't high level, we only had skeleton warriors and shadow fiends to deal with and the party handled those pretty well. Keldorn, Jaheira (Shield of Haromony), Coremage (Arbane) were all immune to hold, so that made the fiends much less of a problem, although Minsc got held once. However, the healers of the party spammed heals on Minsc and he managed to survive.
I've finally learned my lesson - leave Thaxxy alone until I return from the Underdark. I have lost so many runs to Thaxxy by taking him on early. One of the key buffs against the Shade Lord was death ward on Coremage. Shade Lord battle went well, and no deaths.
After reporting our success to the Mayor of Immesvale, we decided it was about time we gave Wellyn his bear - we had been carrying it around for some time. We needed to rest a few times until we found Wellyn. Anomen was then summoned to be judged by the Radiant Heart. Since I had him do the good route, he was approved as a knight of the order.
We will probably work on Trademeet next to get Jaheira a better weapon. She is using a basic club, so really could use a magical one for her.
Will keep at it.