Maybe @DavidW knows if this is intended behavior, if he's around? I'm playing on insane difficulty, so either SCS v32 has nerfed Death Ray or something is not working the way it should in my install.
Having had a quick look at unmodified BG2, it looks like Death Ray has no save penalty and doesn't bypass MR. I think I leave it alone.
I have a vague memory (so probably wrong) that it's not the standard beholder death ray that bypasses MR, but the specific ability of Vaxall in the Twisted Rune. I don't remember that as having a big save penalty, but perhaps I always kill him so quickly he doesn't get much chance to use it.
After playing with solo monks recently, I thought perhaps I should give this party another go. Last time out about 9 months ago they did pretty well to get into BG2 in an SCS installation, only for me to overwrite the saved game. Let's see if I can avoid such indignities this time.
After killing Shoal the monks went to Beregost where they helped Neera solve a mage problem - and then demanded she turn over her gem bag as a reward.
When Karlat refused to follow them outside they tried going in individually to use stunning blows on him (though Spirit managed to attack Spook by mistake while preparing to do that and only level 1 protection saved him). Once Karlat had been successfully stunned, everyone piled in to ensure a quick finish - and allow them to take their first level up.
The next level wasn't too long in coming. At the lake area a gnoll took Drizzt to near death before all the monks attacked him. After he'd used his charms and entangle spells on monks running away out of sight, Chimera ran him round while the others practised their shooting.
I don't expect to make use of the charm ability of Algernon's Cloak with this party, but picked it up anyway for the charisma benefit. Reputation then took a final knock at Ulgoth's Beard when dealing with Dushai.
Although she didn't have time to turn hostile, the villagers still didn't like it - so the monks will need to be careful not to chase any hostiles into the inn when they go back in future (as that would lose them access to the shop).
Back at the FAI Joia got her ring back, while Tarnesh failed to see trouble approaching.
Wraith and Spook stocked up on their favorite throwing daggers at High Hedge before the monks continued touring round, using missiles on helpless enemies. It didn't take too long for that to gain them a further level each.
A bit more touring round gained them Greywolf's sword to add to Drizzt's scimitars and the +1 dagger from Candlekeep they already had. The monks armed with those took their turns to hide and attack while the others ran the golems at High Hedge round.
Deciding to find some more golems they went to the lighthouse and spent a while manouvering sirines round to get them into a vulnerable position. With the others gone, Sil was all on her own and was stunned to find company suddenly appear around her.
The golems were then cut down at the cost of a bit of trap damage.
With another level now not that far off, they went to investigate the Cloud Peaks. Without any healing ability wounds took a while to disappear, but they still made good progress. Vax tried to remedy his lack of a ranged weapon by using an oil of speed, but still couldn't catch the monks - while other victims were largely stunned. However, they got the level with a bit of older-style shooting against a few wolves.
Wraith - L5, 39 HPs, 52 kills, 0 deaths
Spectre - L5, 47 HPs, 26 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L5, 48 HPs, 46 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L5, 40 HPs, 33 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L5, 35 HPs, 35 kills, 0 deaths
Chimera - L5, 46 HPs, 46 kills
So far, so good with no deaths and very good overall HPs.
Live by the sword, die by the sword... Gorch the evil half-orc shadowdancer got chunked from full health in one backstab by one of the duplicate Shennara at the top of the Iron Throne tower. Poetic justice, I guess. Fed his own medicine. He and his 3 party members were at the XP cap and the run felt unstoppable up to that point. A not-so-subtle reminder to be cautious with CHARNAME. RIP Gorch.
I'm going to update my rig with the latest SCS release candidate before starting another run. New character coming shortly.
Coremage the human level 9 mage/level 13 berserker (inactive) Traveling with: Minsc, Keldorn, Jaheira, Anomen, (Yoshimo), Imoen
Coremage has made huge progress since update. The basic quests (Trademeet, D'Arnise Keep, Umar Hills) were all handled without much incident.
We had some spare gold so decided to get the shield of Balduran and then do the Unseeing Eye quest. Yoshimo did good on the traps here. However, he nearly died in the first batch of undead in the Unseeing Eye pit. The party spammed heals on him, however, and he managed to survive.
Keldorn welcomed the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Next up was the Unseeing Eye priests. Our summons couldn't get it done and Minsc even died. So Anomen had to memorize raise dead, we rested and brought back Minsc. Rest of the lair went well and the quest was ultimately finished.
Decided with cleric backup, we should be able to do the Planar Prison, and in fact we handled it quite well. No problems here.
At this point Coremage was level 12 - I want to dual to mage at 13. So time for Spellhold! So we went after the vampire coven and we did quite well, with 1/2 the party being immune to level drain. Bodhi mostly fled thanks to Yoshimo's traps.
At Spellhold, Coremage was his berserker form and easily defeated Bhaal. After doing that, he was level 13! Imoen was recruited.
First order of business - Coremage and Imoen used potions to get 25 INT. Coremage then dualed to mage and was level 1. We have been saving all scrolls picked up since escaping Irenicus' dungeon. Coremage proceeded to memorize all of them, and giving any extras or duplicates to Imoen. After all those memorizations, Coremage got up to level 7! Imoen got a level as well.
Time to deal with some umber hulks. We tried a lot of stuff, but Imoen's death spell solved that problem. We then cleared the 1st level of Spellhold, without much trouble.
We did get some trouble in the 2nd area of Spellhold, when we tried messing with a book on a pedestal. We got a mind flayer enemy and it slew Jaheira and Minsc and stunned Anomen. But we did defeat it.
We then cleared the rest of the undead in the area without any difficulty. Minsc used a protection from undead scroll, though the undead were quite weak (probably because Coremage was so low level after dualing).
We then used the crystal and Dace's hand to get to the next level of Spellhold - we saved our session here. Coremage finished this session at level 9 - just 5 more levels to unlock his berserker abilities.
This is to report that after the dramatic introduction I'm putting this run on hold. The halflings have defeated Sarevok, but it was a rather chaotic adventure and there were more close calls than I'd consider appropriate.
The outcome is that I still didn't get comfortable playing with a party (my action timing and multitasking are both terrible) and I guess I'll stick to solo play for the time being. I may give it another shot in the near future, opting for NPCs rather than custom made characters.
This is to report that after the dramatic introduction I'm putting this run on hold. The halflings have defeated Sarevok, but it was a rather chaotic adventure and there were more close calls than I'd consider appropriate.
The outcome is that I still didn't get comfortable playing with a party (my action timing and multitasking are both terrible) and I guess I'll stick to solo play for the time being. I may give it another shot in the near future, opting for NPCs rather than custom made characters.
Best of luck to all the active runners.
I find playing with NPCs to be more fun than custom made characters, particularly with the BG1 Npc project installed. You get a reaction from the NPCs as if they were real people.
We arrive at the throne and one of the Fallen Solars immediately flings a Creeping Doom spell at us. I don't bother casting SI: Conjuration because Frisky Bits' saves were all -8 or lower, but I fail to consider Bodhi's Cloud of Bats, which does not offer a save.
Insect spells chew through Stoneskins in my install (I understand that the most recent update finally stops that, but I didn't see that behavior here), which means Frisky Bits is already in a bad position.
The good news is that we're handling Irenicus okay. Mazzy fires an Arrow of Dispelling at Jon-bon before his pre-buffs activate, and since there's a delay between her attack roll and the arrow actually hitting, the arrow takes down his opening PFMW buff. Better still, a follow-up arrow removes his PFMW Contingency.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Notice the auto-pause: I have my characters fire Arrows of Dispelling in stacks of a single arrow at a time, to make sure the game pauses right after I make the attack roll. That prevents me from wasting extra frames firing extra arrows.
Keldorn uses True Seeing in an attempt to frustrate Irenicus' illusions and we use Power Attack to stun-lock one of the the Fallen Solars...
[spoiler][/spoiler]
...but the Fallen Solars are unaffected, despite the line in the dialog box. They're immune to stun. We try to use Greater Whirlwind Attacks instead, but Bodhi's Cloud of Bats spell hits so fast that both Sarevok and Keldorn get disrupted.
Still, our superb damage output lets us bring down one of the Fallen Solars through sheer damage alone, immunities to stun be damned.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Always play ToB with lots of fighters.
The other Fallen Solar has fled to the north, so we run over to put it down, but I see Irenicus casting Time Stop, and Frisky Bits is in danger. Since casting a spell with Cloud of Bats active is not an option, we hand the Staff of the Magi over to Frisky Bits so Jon-bon won't be able to see them during Time Stop, lest he kill us with Energy Blades or some such.
Balthazar has Lunar Stance active, but because he is hopelessly, hopelessly bugged, his AI constantly interrupts all of his actions. He only gets a single attack in before Lunar Stance wears off.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
@DavidW: This install was one of the pre-v32 SCS installs I had, I think. Does Balthazar have this problem in v32? As long as I can remember, Balthazar's script has completely broken his functioning; I'm lucky if I can get him to move more than two steps in an entire round, or get him to use a potion or a spell unless I give the order multiple times. Any order I give him is canceled almost immediately and he'll just stand there.
Frisky Bits has been taking heavy damage from Cloud of Bats this whole time and has only barely been able to stay afloat using potions. Keldorn loses 5 levels to Bodhi (our Protection from Undead scrolls were dispelled earlier on), but the other fighters have Negative Plane Protection from items and crush her soon after.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Guess why we've been taking so much damage? It's not because haste effects were doubling the damage from Bodhi's Cloud of Bats--it's because the Fallen Solar's Creeping Doom spell was also active this whole time. Having a save vs. breath below -10 did not stop Frisky Bits from getting affected by Creeping Doom.
The Fallen Solar goes invisible, but we can still see Irenicus. We hurry over and fire some nonmagical missiles at him, easily destroying his Stoneskins.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Naturally, that was only his clone, and the real Irenicus is in better shape. But the real Irenicus is also vulnerable, and while he has enough Stoneskins to let him nail Keldorn with a Comet (for a jaw-dropping... 32 damage!), he's still limited to 10 Stoneskins at maximum. Frisky Bits, now free from Creeping Doom and Cloud of Bats and with their own Stoneskin active once more, lands the final blow.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Then the REAL Irenicus appears (the second one was also a clone, apparently), only to lose all of his buffs to a single swing from Frisky Bits' Staff of the Magi.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The Fallen Solar heals itself and deals impressive damage to our fighters, but with Irenicus, Bodhi, and the other Fallen Solar gone, we have no distractions to keep us from applying full pressure on the last celestial on the map.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The three pools here offer three free rests altogether, which is important because Nalia doesn't have the Wisdom to Wish-rest for us (and SCS prevents her Project Image clones from using Potions of Insight), but I prefer to save those free rests for the final fight. We dedicate some more spell slots to buffing the party for the first pool fight. Haer'dalis has a spare Shapechange scroll, so he uses it to beat up some demons in Iron Golem form.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Mind flayer form is mostly useless against Melissan since all of the Five plus Mel herself are immune to INT drain in Ascension, but by casting Enchanted Weapon on Haer'dalis and having him activate Tenser's Transformation, he can eat the brains of the demons at the pools very easily. Fully buffed and hasted, he has 8 attacks per round at -10 THAC0! The other fighters help speed things up.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
That saves us some resources, though we already have more rests than we need.
We buff with everything I can possibly think of, even fortifying Nalia's HP with Vampiric Touch and using a Limited Wish scroll to get Haer'dalis a free casting of Chain Contingency (PFMW, Improved Haste, and Stoneskin on 50% HP). Frisky Bits has 4 Spell Immunity scrolls on hand and 7 PFMW scrolls just on the off chance that I completely screw things up--I could have created more, but I wanted to work with normal scroll limits in this run, since this is supposed to be a zero-exploit run.
@CharlestonianTemplar
Fatigue reduces Luck, which skews dice rolls against you so you will deal less damage and suffer more on average. At max fatigue your Luck is penalized by 99 which means you’ll always be taking maximum damage while dealing minimum damage.
29 Kythorn 1368: The Bandit Camp has
been destroyed – but the road continues from here into the
Cloakwood Forest. My new target is named Davaeorn & I should find him
there.
The Bandit Camp was
a challenge & I had to re-strategize quickly after an inauspicious start in
which, twice, Minsc fell to swarms of Bandits & Hobgoblin Chill. Seems each
time we’d engage, everyone in the camp would descend on my retinue. So, after
twice getting Minsc raised, once at the FAI, & once in Beregost, I tried
something different to great reward.
The third foray into
the camp, I decided I would use Imoen & Khalid to reconnoiter ahead &
locate the Bandits before we intercepted them as a party. By knowing the size
& strength, I could determine how to manage the battle(s), or if necessary,
restrain until I could find a better opportunity. Early on, Imoen, using her Stealth skills who was able to draw a couple of Bandits to me & the team
made quick work of them. Her next foray was golden. She managed to separate the leader of the BTE (i.e. Taurgosz
Khosann) & isolate him. He pursued her, quickly for someone in Full Plate Armor, right into my kill
sack. I dropped him w/Command, twice,
& Doom as my followers pelted him
w/arrows & stones. Imoen was the last to put an arrow in him & he was dead.
After that, it was
Khalid’s turn to use his Ranger/Archer skills to devastating effect. Under
cover of Stealth. He single handedly
took out around
half dozen Hobgoblins & a handful of Bandits before returning to bring the rest of
us up to raid the camp. Note to self: I’m using Khalid in this role much more, especially,
when we are in the outdoors.
KEY EVENT: I directed the destruction & looting of the rest of the camp before the
assault on the main structure in the northeast corner of the camp. My retinue
silently & skillfully eliminated all further enemies that included a single Hobgoblin supply
specialist, a Bandit, a Gnoll Chieftain, a Flind & six Gnoll Veterans/Gnolls.
Then I led us to the
front of what was obviously where the leadership resided. Expecting immediate
confrontation, I cast Bless &
Drake cast Chant, & then Aid, on himself. Eldoth always casts Armor on himself, so that was in place.
His mission was to cast Fireball from
a scroll as soon as he determined that there was, in fact, a threat. Meanwhile,
Drake had a Potion of Fiery Burning, that
he was expected to loose to great effect simultaneously. Sure enough, we were confronted & they both executed well (Note: I forgot about the prisoner - Reputation hit
-4 ☹) . I was facing a
mage, who’d already cast Mirror Image, a Gnoll, a Hobgoblin
& a senior BTE leader. Minsc went Berserk
& went after the mage while I tried, unsuccessfully to drop him with Command, twice. I followed with Doom which did take effect. At some
point in the fray, Eldotth fell while
the others-maintained pressure at the front line where the BTE & Gnoll were
standing – the Hobgoblin was back using a bow. Minsc severed the mages shoulder
& right arm from the rest of his body & he bled out right there. The
Gnoll & BTE were down shortly, & it wasn’t long before we’d gotten to
the Hobgoblin too. The most dangerous thing once the mage was gone was a
berserk Minsc loose with his 2-Handed Sword.
Guess why we've been taking so much damage? It's not because haste effects were doubling the damage from Bodhi's Cloud of Bats--it's because the Fallen Solar's Creeping Doom spell was also active this whole time. Having a save vs. breath below -10 did not stop Frisky Bits from getting affected by Creeping Doom.
Neither Insect Plague nor Creeping Doom offer a save against the damage, but only against the fear effect they can induce.
BG's sidequest hell is finished and it's now time for the Iron Throne fight. The fight is initiated from the back room via invisibility by summoning wraiths with Nyx in stealth as an observer. Yang throws out Greater Malison while they're distracted and Yin follows up with a Night Terrors + Deep Slumber minor sequencer, which manages to disable all the casters except two. Nyx casts Blinding Darkness on Aasim which takes, leaving only Naaman able to cast.
Naaman is hit with a Spell Thrust to remove his Minor Globe and is quickly killed before he can recover. Gardush, Zhalimar Cloudwulfe, and Aasim are killed inside the room with Thaldorn by way of Shadow Binding as they were the only ones who were still able to fight. Only the Shennara twins and Alai are left but they are incapacitated, as you can see.
The ogre magi ambush at Candlekeep gets dangerous. Both sorcerers go invisible with their respective spells, causing the magi to bunch up next to Nyx who is under Dark Mirage to tank briefly. When Yang goes to cast Greater Malison in preparation for Shadow Binding, he gets utterly bombarded with magic missiles, reducing him to critical health. The Malison lands and all the ogres are held and then killed.
The catacombs of Candlekeep are no trouble and the sorcerers gain level 10 and their first 5th level spell off the ghast gang and a doppelganger. Yin is starting to level up slightly faster than Yang due to remainders from XP division being given to him.
Prat's group is dealt with by using Web to trap them while they're still neutral, then attacking them to make them hostile to receive further debuffing with Grease and Greater Malison. The Greater Basilisks and spiders are killed by the faithful wraiths.
Yin kills some commoners to receive the Divine Wrath Bhaalpowers since DuHM is useless to him. Shandalar takes offense to our new trashy reputation and transports us to the Ice Island, which is beaten mostly by the wraiths. We try and fail to kill Shanladar. Despite being debuffed with Greater Malison, he still saved several times against Wands of Paralyzation while the wraiths held him still using Impose and Shadow Rope. He exhausts his scripted spell arsenal against the wraiths and Nyx, then teleports away. Damn.
Onto Durlag's Tower. Nyx's Find Traps score isn't good enough to disarm everything, but it's enough to at least get us to the fight with the warders. 3 wraiths are summoned. Pride is hit with a Greater Malison + Shadow Binding combo. So much for his super strength. Fear is killed with 2x Wand of Fire scorcher charges from each sorcerer and Avarice is dealt with the same way, in case he goes invisible we can still know where he is thanks to the scorcher beams.
With the scorcher charges still active from killing Avarice, we use the second hits of it on Pride which finishes him off.
Love has his magic Expunged since Spell Thrust apparently didn't work, which leaves him defenseless.
Level 2 and 3 are a breather, though Yang has to tank the arrow trap that guards the wardstone down to level 3 by using Stoneskin and his natural fire resistance. Ashirukurus and greater ghouls provide the last level of BG1.
Spells gained:
Shadow Screen, Sigil of Misfortune, Shadowblast, Dread Silence; Lower Resistance, Polymorph Other, Protection from Fire, Resist
Fear. -Shadow Screen (lv.5): Spell Shield that also gives immunity to Dispel Effects. Lasts 2 hours. -Sigil of Misfortune (lv.4): Greater Malison that ignores MR. Stacks with Greater Malison. -Shadowblast
(lv.3): Fireball that deals 1d3/level of cold and magic damage, up to
10d6. Also causes -1 THAC0 and saves every 10 levels. Save vs. spell
negates magic damage/THAC0/save penalties. At caster level 10+, targets
suffer -20% cold & magic damage resistance for 1 turn, no save. -Dread Silence (lv.2): As Silence.
From the Fighter/Shapeshifter multiclass I was playing earlier, I learned that you don't even have to do the chessboard fight at all. You can simply open the door and move on.
Armed with new spells, the Demon Knight hardly poses a danger at all. Power Word: Stun/Kill can be avoided by maintaining full health; Remove Magic is negated by SI: Abjuration and Shadow Screen; the 20d6 fireball is turned into healing by Protection from Fire. Yang casts Lower Resistance on the demon knight, then the wraiths slam it into the southern wall by casting Impose on it twice. Greater Malison manages to land and Sigil of Misfortune is added into the mix as well.
Finally, Shadow Binding is cast on the demon. The demon's save vs. spell is 8, and all three spells combined tally up to a -12 penalty, resulting in a save vs. spell of 20 against Shadow Binding. The demon literally stood no chance at all!
We pick up Soultaker and go back to Ulgoth's Beard, going invisible after getting the dagger taken. The cultist mage attempts a Glitterdust, but it is saved against. The sorcerers rest, buff up, and then the wraiths are summoned. Nyx draws their attention and they receive a Greater Malison plus a Night Terrors + Deep Slumber combo. Thanks to Yin's latest level and his INT-based caster level bonus, Night Terrors now has the effects of Death Spell! The remaining cultist fighter/mage is dealt with by using Expunge Magic, letting the wraiths hit him more easily.
Night Terrors rips out the souls of the cultist fighters and assassins while the mages and laid low by Expunge Magic and wraiths.
Potions of Mirrored Eyes are used before the fight with Aec'Letec along with SI: Abjuration and Shadow Screen to ensure they don't get dispelled. Greater Malison blankets the demon and most of the sacrifices.
Sigil of Misfortune performs the same way. The cultist leader is struck down with Spell Thrust, a scorcher charge, and Shadowblast. Web and Grease are used to hold Aec'Letec in place. I get to work using more scorcher charges on the sacrifices, but I look up their .CRE files and see they're susceptible to Night Terrors. It is much faster to kill them this way.
With no one to respawn with, Aec is held by Shadow Binding at -12 like the demon knight and pelted with ranged attacks until he dies.
The werewolf island is probably next. I was thinking about not doing it since I didn't really have a plan to deal with Kaishas's werewolf army, but now that Night Terrors causes Death Spell, it should be very easy since she is vulnerable to it herself. Then onto the endgame.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 11 Yang - Dragon Disciple 11
In most of their previous runs the monks have been attempting completionist runs. This time they're not trying to do everything, so it didn't take too long for them to complete their intended work in the Cloudpeaks. They nipped over to Firewine to grab Meilum's bracers, but won't bother with Kahrk or the ruins. Similarly, at Gullykin they just invested a potion of hill giant strength in order to be able to grab a +1 sling.
Looking for something a bit more productive, the monks went to find some basilisks. Korax did all the heavy lifting there, with the monks staying stealthed or out of sight until paralysis had set in on the basilisks and Mutamin.
He also paralyzed Kirian before being killed. That fight was complicated due to Peter's cheesy use of hold persons - although initially aimed at those closest to him when he started the spell, they were eventually targeted on whichever was the nearest character when he finished the spell. That meant whoever was targeted initially couldn't just make themself safe by running away. Instead the monks had to 2 or 3-team the spells so that the chasing Lindin could be distracted away from any monk that was eventually held.
That was all done safely though, to leave just releasing Tamah from her stony prison as something to do in the area later.
They headed on to Durlag's Tower to try their luck at stealth attacking battle horrors. They still found it hard to hit those though and it took a lot of effort to kill the ones on the path - though monks' extra reach meant Wraith could put the boot in to the one on the wall without fear of retaliation once the skeletons were dead.
Inside the tower all the ghasts were shot down, though their habit of using multiple staircases to move between levels makes that harder to keep track of them. That got everyone close to level 6, but I didn't have any petrification protection yet to do the basilisks on the roof.
Instead they went to the Valley of the Tombs, where they mobbed the Revenant.
After clearing a few more ghasts from a tomb they persuaded Narcillicus to summon a couple of mustard jellies. They can do sizable damage, so there was some risk associated with that and the first jelly managed 2 criticals in the short time it took to kill it - but neither poisoned a monk.
After a long rest in the tomb (they still don't have any healing ability) they pulled back the second jelly - that one failed to get a hit in, leaving only Chimera short of XP for the next level.
Exploring the area they found an ankheg to ambush to get the necessary extra.
With the benefit of the additional level they risked a sneak attack on Narcillicus and succeeded in stunning him.
With level 7 being a very long way off, the monks decided it was time to visit the Nashkel Mine. The kobold hordes were chewed through easily enough on the way to find the shaman and chieftain. The shaman was invisible though, so the monks pulled the enemies back to the entrance to the level and dodged the shaman's horror when he appeared before beating him up.
Mulahey saved against initial stunning attacks and was able to call for help - but that didn't do him much good.
Resting in the cave finally got Chimera a CLW ability to supplement natural healing. The monks then edged out of the back exit to the mines looking for the Amazons - before I remembered where they were with SCS . They did though get to practise their stealth attacks against Nimbul - as I expected his saves against stun didn't help him. Tranzig had a significantly better chance of surviving an initial attack - but failed to do so.
They duly came across the Amazons while travelling. I was concerned about backstabs there, but in the event only 1 of the thief types tried that and the battle was easier than expected.
I wanted to reduce reputation before getting the next Bhaal ability, so returned to Firewine to kill Bentan and get his PfM scroll. On the way back from that Molkar tried his luck in an ambush. While he was himself a pretty capable opponent in melee, the ranged capabilities of his allies were limited and it was again a fairly easy victory.
With the SCS ambushers out of the way, retreating from the Bandit Camp becomes reasonably safe, so I could do that now. I'm undecided though whether to try and push on to level 7 first and whether to subdue the Camp or just sneak in and rob the chest in Tazok's tent.
Deciding to leave the Bandit Camp for the moment the monks looked to clean up a few other priorities. They started in Beregost by killing some spiders, then went to check on Silke's resistance to stun. That proved to be pretty good - but she still ran out of HPs before her buffs could fire.
After picking up the pantaloons, they splashed out on a protection from petrification scroll and returned to Durlag's Tower to kill the basilisks on the roof. While there they also tried their luck with a sneak attack on Riggilo. They had to be prepared to run quickly from invisible backstabs if he saved against stun - but he didn't. Moving into the underground, Phantom equipped Drizzt's sword, a ring of fire resistance and Mulahey's boots to give him as much elemental resistance as possible (without using any consumables) while the others watched out for teleporting spiders. The greater dopplegangers there provided a nice XP boost when their buffs were wasted and they were drawn out individually to be shot. The treasure they were guarding almost caused a first casualty though when Phantom got stuck on the doorway and was subjected to repeated lightning strikes. That illustrated that 50% protection from electricity is not really enough to be triggering traps in Durlag's, but Phantom continued to do it anyway and survived one other significant strike.
Phantom spent quite a while journeying back and forwards, pulling enemies out to the others through a permanent fireball trap. Most of that was straightforward, but I'd forgotten about a web trap at one point and stepping into that looked nasty when he was in the process of dragging a mustard jelly out. Fortunately though I don't think it could get through a narrow doorway there and it stopped before it could see him again. Phantom completed his investigations of the rest of the area, with the exception of fighting the dwarf guardians of the portal - I couldn't remember the SCS behavior of those sufficiently well to feel confident about that fight. However, even just the XP and treasure from the first level was a decent haul.
Having updated the above description while eating my breakfast, I went back to the game to save it prior to starting work - but was greeted by a dismaying sight.I'd obviously forgotten to pause the game and, while in most areas that wouldn't matter if there were no enemies in sight, in that area there are several SCS enemies that can wander around. That was disappointing as having completed a lot of the more difficult encounters without any party deaths I had been hoping to finish BG1 on that basis .
@Grond0 With wounds like you got against Molkar, I wouldn't have called it a fairly easy victory. Victory yes, easy no.
Easy by my standards - Molkar was never in combat with a monk where he had any chance of killing them even with a critical. I could have substantially reduced the damage taken if necessary by switching to ranged attacks much earlier on as soon as both the casters were dead, but running two enemies round at once would have required a bit more micro-management - so I just switched melee options round to even out the damage taken until Morvin was dead.
3 Flamerule 1368: The Cloakwood Lodge
area was not of much interest, although a pack of Dread Wolves & Worgs
did manage to bring
Minsc down once. Aside from that event & tussles with Huge Spiders & a trio
of Ogrillon, it was mostly just a matter of clearing the black.
SWATTING SOME WORGS
KEY EVENT: One interesting encounter, I will note. I found a hunting Lodge &
spoke with a man named Aldeth
who asked for my
help in staving off some, ‘savages’ who turned out to be some radical druids. I’d
initially agreed, but once I realized his ‘savages’ were, in fact, Druids, I
felt that my best option lay in supporting the Druids, the leader of whom went
by Seniyad. However, on hearing that I’d changed my mind, Aldeth attacked &
we defeated him &
his two companions – all semi-tough in their martial skills. Aldeth was carrying some decent
coin & a diamond. Pretty certain the druids wouldn’t have been carrying
anything more than berries. It also appears that I will be in these woods a
while longer so ticking off the Druids is not likely in my best interest.
Guys help! I have destroyed the Bandit Camp & finished Cloakwood Lodge, but I can't get Cloakwood Nest to open up.
What's up do you think? It's been awhile since I got this far, but I think it should be available, although I've gone off all sides. Am I forgetting something? CT
@CharlestonianTemplar: Depending on your SCS install, you might be allowed to visit the first area of the Cloakwood before the chapter transition after the bandit camp, but not any other until the bandit camp is completed. If you got the documents from the bandit camp and then fled too quickly, it's possible that the chapter transition didn't trigger.
One possible solution: go back to the bandit camp, make sure the documents are in your inventory, and walk around inside the main tent to see if you get a chapter transition. Once you get that chapter transition, the rest of the Cloakwood should open up (though you may still need to walk all the way to the edge of the Cloakwood Lodge map again in order to enter it).
One possible solution: go back to the bandit camp, make sure the documents are in your inventory, and walk around inside the main tent to see if you get a chapter transition. Once you get that chapter transition, the rest of the Cloakwood should open up (though you may still need to walk all the way to the edge of the Cloakwood Lodge map again in order to enter it).
Thanks. I thought I got the transition, but, maybe since we accidently killed Endar Sai, it screwed things up. Luckily I still have the documents in a drawer at The Burning Wizard, so I will fish them out. Thanks again. CT
The werewolf island is a breeze, although wraiths still have to be summoned against wolfweres since they have 50% MR. Karoug's wife has a MINHP1 ring on until you get her health low enough for her to transform, which explains why Shadow Binding didn't work on her...
Upstairs against Karoug, Greater Malison and Shadow Binding continue to work their magic, holding all but two wolfweres including Karoug himself. Sigil of Misfortune is then cast and Yang follows this up by casting Polymorph Other on Karoug, reducing his max HP significantly, though a stab from Werebane isn't enough to end him like I thought. A Wand of Frost finishes him but it does overkill damage and apparently takes Peladan too. Oh man.
We rest to set the time of day to nighttime before reporting back to Kaishas. The werewolf village's souls are reaped with Night Terrors. This is worth like 5400 XP.
The fast route through the tunnel is taken and then wraiths are summoned to hold off Kaishas's werewolf army. Kaishas's MR is reduced by Lower Resistance and Breaching Dark, then her saves are lowered with Malison and Misfortune. Finally, she is turned into a squirrel with the Wand of Polymorphing and stabbed with Werebane. Her werewolf army suffers a fatal case of Night Terrors as well.
Back in Ulgoth's Beard, Mendas is lured outside of his house to be dealt with easier so he can't escape Spell Thrusts. His magic is expunged and gets a beatdown, prompting him to transform into a Loup Garou. His MR is lowered like his wife's and then has his soul reaped.
The same happens to the Baresh twins. That's all for TotSC!
At the coronation, Malison + Night Terrors disables or kills all the doppelgangers except the mage. After chasing him through the doorways for a few minutes, he finally dies. At this point, Yin gets close to Sarevok to aggro him when he gives his post-duke-defense dialog. Shadeskin and Dark Mirage lets him tank until he flees.
The undercity party is skipped. At the temple we arrive buffed to maximum with PfU scrolls, Protection from Normal Missiles, and Nondetection. Drinking some INT potions lets Yin achieve a caster level of 16, causing him to summon a devil shade and 2 wraiths with Summon Shadow.
When the battle begins, I try to get the shades to target Diarmid, but they keep trying to use their spells on him, so I lead them away from him. Angelo approaches at the Bhaal insignia, but gets his magic expunged and then his saving throws lowered with Greater Malison. Shadow Binding holds him in place next.
Since we have PfU up, we don't need to worry about the skeleton warriors that form when one of Sarevok's lackeys die. The wraiths are destroyed by a fireball from Semaj, so its only the devil shade left. It's doing a good job tanking Sarevok since it's immune to his weapon and also scoring level draining hits. I decide I need more summons and summon another devil shade and 2 wraiths. When they arrive, the wraiths cast Impose on Tazok and send him flying. A magical dart chaser finishes him.
Just Diarmid and Semaj are left. Expunge Magic wrecks Semaj's buffs except his minor globe, which is taken down by Spell Thrust. He responds with Stoneskin and another minor globe as we cast Sigil of Misfortune and Greater Malison, attempting to soften him and Sarevok up. Ignoring the new minor globe, Yang opts for a scroll of Chaos in hopes that the massive combined save penalty will disable Semaj. Incredibly, he makes his save against it. The devil shades are draining Sarevok of many levels while this mage fencing match is occuring.
Since Yin doesn't have any offensive or disabling spells for level 4 or 5, I have him use Shadow Binding on Sarevok. With Sarevok having so many levels drained from him while being debuffed by Greater Malison and Sigil of Misfortune at the same time, Shadow Binding is most likely automatically successful. Sarevok is then level drained to death by the devil shades. I would've settled for turning him into a squirrel but this works too.
Onward to Dragonspear!
Yin - Shadow Disciple 11 Yang - Dragon Disciple 11
Shoot. It's still not letting me. I'll take it off this thread and try to go figure it out elsewhere. Thanks again.
@CharlestonianTemplar : I had this issue in my last install. Not sure what caused it. Solved it by using the command console to force travel to the second Cloakwood area, then back to the first. That opened up the normal route of travel (without any real cheating).
Shoot. It's still not letting me. I'll take it off this thread and try to go figure it out elsewhere. Thanks again.
@CharlestonianTemplar : I had this issue in my last install. Not sure what caused it. Solved it by using the command console to force travel to the second Cloakwood area, then back to the first. That opened up the normal route of travel (without any real cheating).
Thank you. Can you advise me how to do that? I haven't done it in a long time.
Another no-reload entrant has left Candlekeep. I'm playing randomized characters. Here's the latest result:
Human female. Priestess of Helm. Lawful Neutral. Dice gods decreed that she must dual to fighter at some point in her journey. And that she must travel solo for as far as she can go in the tetralogy.
I've named her Aless. Here she is after messing up some basilisks:
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
I hope things continue to go well; but given my recent record, she's probably closer to a gruesome death than she is to the Throne.
Well, looks like I'm gonna have to scrap this Silas run... shoot.
For some reason I can't get to the Cloakwood Nest - et al, even though I've completed the bandit camp, had the dream etc.
I can go back & reset my mods to allow the entire Cloakwood to open, but that'll kill this game. I hate that, I felt this was a good mix. There's probably a way to do it - but I don't know how. CT
@CharlestonianTemplar rather than abandon your game I suggest you try @Blind_Visionary's suggestion of travelling there by console. Assuming you have an updated version of the EE you no longer need to use console commands to do that, instead you can: - open up the console by pressing ctrl-space together (see this thread if you need more detail) - you'll see in the top left hand corner a list of all the area locations in the game. Scroll down to AR2100 and click on it and then click travel. Hope it works for you.
As you may remember from past attempts, this poor fellow had an unfortunate childhood and, though supposedly a gnome, his appearance suggests the possibility that perhaps his mother lay under the wrong blanket at one point. From an early age he was teased mercilessly by other children and his personality warped under the strain. At this point it's a toss-up whether he will be thrown out of Candlekeep before storming off by himself. He has a huge amount of rage pent-up inside him and is just searching for the right tool that could let it out ...
All the Bash runs have operated under the restriction that he's not allowed to be responsible for enemy deaths, i.e. receive the XP for them, except through the use of Brage's berserking sword. In his last few incarnations he's been a fighter/illusionist, which really should provide him with the opportunity to go a long way - even though he's operating in an SCS installation. Let's see if he can live up to his potential this time ...
After a few non-lethal tasks in Candlekeep, Bash avoided Imoen on the way to Beregost where he calmed Marl down. He then travelled on, avoiding any encounters on the way to find Brage. He picked up the ankheg armor and a potion of invisibility there before resting to get CLW as a first Bhaal power. Returning to Beregost, he equipped the sword and claimed his first kill to get Algernon's Cloak. He used that to charm Neera at the second attempt in order to get close enough to her to acquire her gem bag without activating her dialogue.
Heading north, Bash slept an ogre to get his belt collection and picked up rings of protection and wizardry before returning a bowl to Tenya to acquire his first levels.
I still didn't fancy his chances against the nearby ankheg though, so he went back to the Beregost temple to charm the sirines there. They were all worn down against enemies, while Bash waited just out of sight to come in and kill them.
Deciding to see what Drizzt might have to offer, Bash journeyed to the Lake area. Moving in cautiously he cast sleep ahead in order to disable the gnolls before he came into sight - his berserk won't be triggered by sleeping enemies. I wasn't sure going into sight of a sleeping gnoll would activate it, but the plan actually worked well and it duly attacked Drizzt once it woke up. I didn't of course want any sort of real fight with Drizzt, so would only attack him if the gnoll broke its weapon. That meant I just left the game running for a while to see if he would turn out to be dead or unconscious. As it happened this time he was unconscious. Bash therefore threw another sleep in from out of sight and then charged in - successfully finishing off Drizzt as his first target before cutting down the gnolls in his berserk rage.
Heading back to the FAI, Bash charmed a couple of gate guards and waved them in front of Tarnesh to draw out a few spells. He then showed himself and attacked - Tarnesh threw in a successful horror, then blanched (briefly) as the berserk Bash ploughed straight on towards him.
Deciding to now risk the ankheg, Bash headed for Ulgoth's Beard - and arrived unscathed when he was able to get up close to the ankheg before going berserk (if attacking from full 2-handed range the ankheg won't get the penalties for using a missile weapon in melee range and would be more dangerous). He charmed and cut down Dushai there to get her ring and web scroll (though he didn't try to learn that yet).
A few reputation quests ensured he could travel in civilized areas without attracting bounty hunters. He also charmed Meilum into equipping his fists before chopping him down to increase even more his attacking potential. On a trip through the Cloud Peaks I realised Bash had never picked up Gorion's Belt when he came across a winter wolf. Oh well, it's more trouble than it's worth usually due to forgetting about the penalty to fire resistance. That did though remind me to go and kill Imoen, Xzar & Montaron for their equipment. Back in the Cloud Peaks he soon got the XP for his 5th levels.
With inventory being crowded I decided it was time to get the potion case - I'd been holding off on that until I was confident of beating up the golems at High Hedge. On the way though Bash had his first full bandit ambush. That's trickier in SCS as the bandits try a bit to avoid melee combat, giving the others more time to score with arrows and Bash was glad to find himself more or less in one piece when he came to his senses.
He then went to find the golems - hitting with a 2, it didn't take him long to kill those and his new girdle helped restrict the golems to a single hit in return.
I tend to only buy things when prices are at a minimum, but in this case Bash benefits so much from extra spells that I decided to stretch a point and invest in various scrolls at exorbitant rates. To make sure those were not wasted, he also acquired some potions of genius from the FAI temple. With a range of useful spells learned he should be able to make pretty quick progress on from here.
Some quick XP awaited Bash in the basilisk area. He now knew protection from petrification, so didn't need to rely on Korax and his ability to one-shot a basilisk demonstrated his attacking potential (doing that to 2 basilisks in a row). Webs helped ensure minimal resistance from groups of basilisks: it was concerning when Mutamin briefly broke free from 3 webs, but fortunately he got stuck again before getting out of the webbed area. None of Kirian's gang managed to break free at all.
Back in Beregost Bash webbed Silke and attacked her. I had forgotten her stoneskin buff would activate even with her trapped in a web though, so it was lucky that she failed to break free from that during the several rounds required to finish her off.
There was more quick XP on offer at Durlag's Tower, where webs ensured the 2 battle horrors on the path were helpless (taking 6th levels as a result). The one on the wall couldn't easily be webbed, but mirror image, blur and protection from fire meant it was still an acceptable risk - though Bash in fact got very poor attack rolls there and took more hits than I expected.
Inside the Tower I was lucky on the bottom floor when rage didn't last long enough to attack Bayard after killing some ghasts - I think one of my earlier runs may have ended as a result of doing that. The remaining ghasts were no problem and Riggilo failed to escape from webs. MSD allowed Bash to grab the tome and avoid the stun trap on the way to the roof where more basilisk goodness awaited - providing his 7th levels (he also used that spell in defending against traps while looting the upper Tower).
Bash already knew remove curse, so now had the option of taking his sword off for free. He did that for the first time to drag Greywolf away from Prism before going berserk. However, now that he was well equipped to make further progress I rather perversely lost interest in doing that a bit and started taking more risks. Eventually that proved costly when I tried to take the Red Wizards of Thay on as a group. The experience with Silke had shown the problem posed by stoneskins and, while dealing with the wizards individually (using charm or web+blindness to split them up) would have been realistic, taking them on as a group while berserk was not - and Bash was soundly defeated despite his buffs and webs.
Brynnlaw may be lawless and corrupt, it was also a place of hope and anticipation for Amahoro and her dearest friends, blissfully ignorant of the grim turn their story was about to take. Saemon's treachery, some vampires and even two mages standing in their way did not lower their spirits.[spoiler][/spoiler](Perth gave the party some trouble with a clone and some efreetis, hence Jan's condition and the transition to the temple.)
The pary picked up a pair of Senses of the cat, entered Spellhold and finally saw Imoen again. Her condition broke Amahoro's heart though. Rest followed and a dream of Imoen and Bhaal which saw Amahoro sacrifice some of her agility and lose her soul. Irenicus then left the party to Bodhi who set them loose in the Spellhold maze. There, I had to make the hated decision about the composition of the party. It took me a long time, but I eventually had Amahoro take Imoen back into the party, taking Jan's place. I love Jan, but I think Amahoro wouldn't leave Imoen to her own devices after everything that had happened. A mod which allows NPCs to silently follow the party out of the asylum would be nice. They could then find a way on their own off the island and back to Athkatla. I do have Back to Brynnlaw installed and I want to play it to see if we can find Jan.
I dismissed all the NPCs except Imoen, and had her copy lots scrolls into her spellbook before the others would ask if they really had to leave (to which Amahoro would say no). Thus Imoen gained some XP to come a get closer to the rest. Obviously Amahoro got ahead this way. I hadn't really prepared for Imoen's joining, so I didn't have much gear for her. On the flipside, the party still had their items. During my reinstall of the game and all mods, I didn't install the party loses gear in Spellhold SCS component that I had installed before. As a result the Spellhold dungeon was pretty doable even with Bodhi chasing the party when resting. To my surprise there was no lich in the undead-infested area, so Anomen could just clean up using his Turn Undead ability and his mace. The party brute-force-meleed a mind flayer and a beholder at a summoning altar. Mordy Swords helped against an ulitharid.[spoiler][/spoiler]Anomen made sure to be invisible and turning undead, when Amahoro changed into Slayer form to go after Bodhi.[spoiler][/spoiler]Then it was time to confront Irenicus. These were his pre-buffs:[spoiler][/spoiler]There are two issues here. First of all he uses a Chain Contingency to trigger most of his defenses, despite my insane difficulty setting. I would have expected even short buffs to trigger as "cast previously". Secondly, the battle log suggests that his Spell Turning expires right after casting it, or maybe he had an undocumented previously cast Spell Turning up (or the battle log was simply wrong). It was fine with me in this case because the party hadn't buffed either. I had wanted to do that after talking to Lonk, forgetful of the fact that the party is moved straight to the inmates after said talk. A Pierce Magic from Imoen quickly followed by a Breach from Haer'Dalis stripped Irenicus of his buffs, and allowed the party to land several hits.[spoiler][/spoiler]Things became a bit harder when the clones started working their magic. Faux Imoen's Chaos confused both Jaheira and Haer'dalis. It inspired the real Imoen to cast the spell as well, and it affected many enemies. Haer'dalis suffered a sleep effect, so Imoen cast Invisibility on him. The others except confused Jaheira kept the pressure on Irenicus. They overpowered him, but Anomen's Exaltation was interrupted, and Jaheira fell.[spoiler][/spoiler]Everyone went invisible when they heard "Beg for death, and I'll make it quick." Amahoro picked up Jaheira's gear under stealth and non-detection, and raised her in one of the chambers. The murderers were slain by an efreeti and an aerial servant.
The party found a robe of the evil archmagi in Irenicus' chambers, an interesting armor option for Haer'dalis come UAI. They ran into Saemon Havarian again, and sailed off with him. A githyanki attack would have resulted in death for stunned Imoen if it weren't for sahuagin intervention. The drow area didn't yield anything useful but the ghoul lord dropped the Hands of Takkok. The party bartered with the generous shopkeeper and helped the rebel prince take over from the crazy king. It seemed the right thing to do, if only to have a stronger enemy for the drow and for the illithids. The party was well-buffed so physical force worked fine.
The Underdark was their next destination. It saw the companions except Imoen obtain their first HLAs. Pretty early I guess, but we did almost all chapter 2 quests (except Kangaxx, Twisted Rune, and Alhoon) and we did a few extra stronghold quests, though we only finished the ranger and cleric ones. Watcher's Keep should be the starting point of ToB in this install, so shan't be visited before.
Three elemental portals and a drow war party were dealt with first. Fully buffed the companions were stronger than their drow enemy and their summons. We cast a lot before combat, and very little during combat - basically just buff removal spells. (Remove Magic by Haer'dalis tends to work fine against non-bosses such as these drow wizards.)
A balor hit hard, as Anomen and Mazzy would notice, but four warriors protected by Death Ward were still too much for it to handle.[spoiler][/spoiler]With Alchra Diagott it was the other way around: a quick Pierce Magic by Imoen notwithstanding, the party was ill-prepared for a Death Fog, Comet, Time Stop, Incendiary Cloud, Death Fog (2nd), Mordenkainen's Swords etc casting lich.[spoiler][/spoiler]They did manage to get everyone sufficiently fireproof to escape with their lives. The wand of monster summoning was used, with monsters sent to the lich one after the other, to get it to empty its spellbook as far as possible. It did cast several spells (Incendiary Cloud, Bigby's Clenched Fist, Bigby's Crushing Hand, Cone of Cold, ADHW among others), and it had a melee attack that dealt slashing and elctricity damage. I don't know what it was. When the party approached, it had a nasty surprise for Anomen: a spell trigger with Remove Magic, Greater Malison and Death spell. Anomen survived that and destroyed the lich with his mace.
Having had good experiences with beholders in the cult of the Unseeing Eye quest, the party fancied their chances in the Underdark beholder lair. The strategy was the same: Polymorph Jelly form for Haer'dalis and ranged AoE damage by Imoen in lieu of Jan. There was one crucial difference, this lair housed a hive mother, the most powerful of beholders, with spell-casting ability in addition to her rays, and with the power to see through invisibility. She also proved very hardy and even capable of healing. Anomen helped out with two Fire Storms, Jaheira with an Insect Plague (the effect of which was limited due to the creature's MR), and Imoen with Cloudkills. This was more than enough to slay several lesser eye tyrants.[spoiler]
[/spoiler]But the hive mother (resisting most fire damage as can be seen in the first screenshot above), was still in reasonable health when an impatient Mazzy stepped up to the plate. With a stunning Power Attack, an Improved Haste, and fine shorty saves, she perforated the creature with acid arrows until it dropped to the ground.[spoiler][/spoiler]She's such a badass! One of my favorite NPCs ever since I first played BG2 (also because of her personality). The remainder of the dungeon was peanuts compared to the hive mother, and the robe of vecna and azuredge dropped by an elder orb and a greenstone amulet were ample compensation for their efforts.
The Kuo-Toa, including their Crom Faeyr scroll dropping prince, were overcome by the pre-buffed party with overwhelming physical force, much like the drow war party before. The same goes for five death knights even though Amahoro unexpectedly panicked at one point. But Anomen's Remove Fear prevented any issues with that. One of the death knights dropped some fantastic loot: the staff of the magi, the belt of the inertial barrier, and the shield of balduran. Amahoro donned the belt, and Imoen or Haer'dalis will have to become proficient in staves... Note that one of my mods nerfs the staff. I assume it's SCS v32. It dispels on hit at level 30. So in the late game (ToB) its dispel will probably work best in the hands of Haer'dalis who can get up to 10 APR with Whirlwind (which replaces the epic bardsong for Blades in Rogue Rebalancing).
I haven't used many HLAs yet. Haer'dalis took UAI, Amahoro Power Attack and Critical Strike, Mazzy too, Anomen Energy Blades, Jaheira Power Attack.
In Ust Natha, I was a bit apprehensive about the first job for House Despana, rescuing Phaere from mind flayers and umber hulks. I've failed at that before. With no traps and friendly fire a no-go, the companions had to strike hard and fast. They arrived fully buffed and accompanied by five Mordy Swords. Haer'dalis can cast those as well as Imoen, because I'm playing with Anthology Tweaks' enhanced spell progression for all caster classes. It gives all single class casters (friend and foe) more spells to cast, making them somewhat more competitive with multi-classes. This strategy worked out fine:[spoiler][/spoiler]Amahoro found the Hammer of Thunderbolts on the corpse of one member of a group of adventurers that couldn't be appeased.
Things got interesting again when the party decided to visit the illithids in search of more blood of neigboring races. Chaotic Commands, fire resistance, Fire Storm (the only no save allowing, MR ignoring, AoE damage dealing option we had), and Haste helped the companions deal with mind flayers, ulitharids and umber hulks.[spoiler][/spoiler]There was a rough moment for Haer'dalis when he got cornered by an umber hulk and three teleporting illithids, but a quick PfMW (which I've only used reactively so far), and the death of the umber hulk due to the Fire Storm let him escape his predicament.[spoiler][/spoiler]The chamber with the Elder Brain posed trouble as well when the brain dispelled the party's buffs.[spoiler][/spoiler]With the greenstone amulet they were able to quickly protect themselves against (non-physical) psionics again. A charmed mind flayer helped out as well, devouring two brain golem brains while the party dealt with the elder brain.[spoiler][/spoiler]Soul Reaver was a nice prize!
Comments
Traveling with: Minsc, Keldorn, Jaheira, Anomen, (Yoshimo), Imoen
Coremage has made huge progress since update. The basic quests (Trademeet, D'Arnise Keep, Umar Hills) were all handled without much incident.
We had some spare gold so decided to get the shield of Balduran and then do the Unseeing Eye quest. Yoshimo did good on the traps here. However, he nearly died in the first batch of undead in the Unseeing Eye pit. The party spammed heals on him, however, and he managed to survive.
Keldorn welcomed the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Next up was the Unseeing Eye priests. Our summons couldn't get it done and Minsc even died. So Anomen had to memorize raise dead, we rested and brought back Minsc. Rest of the lair went well and the quest was ultimately finished.
Decided with cleric backup, we should be able to do the Planar Prison, and in fact we handled it quite well. No problems here.
At this point Coremage was level 12 - I want to dual to mage at 13. So time for Spellhold! So we went after the vampire coven and we did quite well, with 1/2 the party being immune to level drain. Bodhi mostly fled thanks to Yoshimo's traps.
At Spellhold, Coremage was his berserker form and easily defeated Bhaal. After doing that, he was level 13! Imoen was recruited.
First order of business - Coremage and Imoen used potions to get 25 INT. Coremage then dualed to mage and was level 1. We have been saving all scrolls picked up since escaping Irenicus' dungeon. Coremage proceeded to memorize all of them, and giving any extras or duplicates to Imoen. After all those memorizations, Coremage got up to level 7! Imoen got a level as well.
Time to deal with some umber hulks. We tried a lot of stuff, but Imoen's death spell solved that problem. We then cleared the 1st level of Spellhold, without much trouble.
We did get some trouble in the 2nd area of Spellhold, when we tried messing with a book on a pedestal. We got a mind flayer enemy and it slew Jaheira and Minsc and stunned Anomen. But we did defeat it.
We then cleared the rest of the undead in the area without any difficulty. Minsc used a protection from undead scroll, though the undead were quite weak (probably because Coremage was so low level after dualing).
We then used the crystal and Dace's hand to get to the next level of Spellhold - we saved our session here. Coremage finished this session at level 9 - just 5 more levels to unlock his berserker abilities.
This is to report that after the dramatic introduction I'm putting this run on hold. The halflings have defeated Sarevok, but it was a rather chaotic adventure and there were more close calls than I'd consider appropriate.
The outcome is that I still didn't get comfortable playing with a party (my action timing and multitasking are both terrible) and I guess I'll stick to solo play for the time being. I may give it another shot in the near future, opting for NPCs rather than custom made characters.
Best of luck to all the active runners.
Frisky Bits the Fighter/Mage/Cleric
29 Kythorn 1368: The Bandit Camp has been destroyed – but the road continues from here into the Cloakwood Forest. My new target is named Davaeorn & I should find him there.
The Bandit Camp was a challenge & I had to re-strategize quickly after an inauspicious start in which, twice, Minsc fell to swarms of Bandits & Hobgoblin Chill. Seems each time we’d engage, everyone in the camp would descend on my retinue. So, after twice getting Minsc raised, once at the FAI, & once in Beregost, I tried something different to great reward.
The third foray into the camp, I decided I would use Imoen & Khalid to reconnoiter ahead & locate the Bandits before we intercepted them as a party. By knowing the size & strength, I could determine how to manage the battle(s), or if necessary, restrain until I could find a better opportunity. Early on, Imoen, using her Stealth skills who was able to draw a couple of Bandits to me & the team made quick work of them. Her next foray was golden. She managed to separate the leader of the BTE (i.e. Taurgosz Khosann) & isolate him. He pursued her, quickly for someone in Full Plate Armor, right into my kill sack. I dropped him w/Command, twice, & Doom as my followers pelted him w/arrows & stones. Imoen was the last to put an arrow in him & he was dead.
After that, it was Khalid’s turn to use his Ranger/Archer skills to devastating effect. Under cover of Stealth. He single handedly took out around half dozen Hobgoblins & a handful of Bandits before returning to bring the rest of us up to raid the camp. Note to self: I’m using Khalid in this role much more, especially, when we are in the outdoors.
KEY EVENT: I directed the destruction & looting of the rest of the camp before the assault on the main structure in the northeast corner of the camp. My retinue silently & skillfully eliminated all further enemies that included a single Hobgoblin supply specialist, a Bandit, a Gnoll Chieftain, a Flind & six Gnoll Veterans/Gnolls. Then I led us to the front of what was obviously where the leadership resided. Expecting immediate confrontation, I cast Bless & Drake cast Chant, & then Aid, on himself. Eldoth always casts Armor on himself, so that was in place. His mission was to cast Fireball from a scroll as soon as he determined that there was, in fact, a threat. Meanwhile, Drake had a Potion of Fiery Burning, that he was expected to loose to great effect simultaneously. Sure enough, we were confronted & they both executed well (Note: I forgot about the prisoner - Reputation hit -4 ☹) . I was facing a mage, who’d already cast Mirror Image, a Gnoll, a Hobgoblin & a senior BTE leader. Minsc went Berserk & went after the mage while I tried, unsuccessfully to drop him with Command, twice. I followed with Doom which did take effect. At some point in the fray, Eldotth fell while the others-maintained pressure at the front line where the BTE & Gnoll were standing – the Hobgoblin was back using a bow. Minsc severed the mages shoulder & right arm from the rest of his body & he bled out right there. The Gnoll & BTE were down shortly, & it wasn’t long before we’d gotten to the Hobgoblin too. The most dangerous thing once the mage was gone was a berserk Minsc loose with his 2-Handed Sword.
Best Kill Competition:
· Imoen, (Taurgosz Khosann, exp 2000)
· Minsc (Raemon, 1200 exp)
· Khalid (Osmadi), Eldoth (Corsone) (1000 exp ea)
· Drake (Gnoll Veteran, 120 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (Bandits/Hobgoblin-Chill (2), Eldoth (Final battle/unknown)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Taurgosz Khosann (Ftr/11), Ardenor Crush (Hbg/7), Venkt (Mage/6), Hakt (Hbg/5), Raemon (Ftr/5), (Giant Spiders (3), Britik (Gnoll/4), Garclax (Gnoll/2), Flind, Gnoll Veterans (6), Bandits - incl/Credus (9) Hobgoblins-Chill (8)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 6098gp) Armor & weapons: Full Plate Mail, Warhammer +1, M/Shield +1, Cloak +1; Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Boots of Grounding; Gems/jewelry: Star Sapphire; Pearl Nacklace; Potions: Firebreath; Scrolls: Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying in Beregost @ the Burning Wizard
NEXT STEPS: Into the Cloakwood Forest
LEVEL UP: Minsc, Fighter (Barbarian)/3
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 6)
· Silas Cl/3(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP18) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding, M/star*, Gauntlet’s Wpns
Exp & Rg of Energy; Spells: Draw Upon HM, H/Person, Slince 15', Slow Poison, Bless, Command
(3), Doom;(Gnoll Veteran)(AI none)
· Khalid Rgr/2(Archer)(HP27) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
· Imoen Th/4 (Adventurer)(HP25) S/Leather +2 w/S/bow* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1* &
Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 60, FT 50, PP 35, MS 45, HS 40, DI 15, ST10; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf
Rgd Atk)(4)
· Minsc Ftr/3 (Barbarian)(HP26) C/mail +1 & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Nimbul)(AI: Ftr Def)
· Eldoth Bd/4 (HP20) Cloak +1 w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows;
(Mulahey)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
· Drake Cl/3 (Holy Justice of Tyr)(HP30) S/mail, M/shield +1, Warhammer +1* & Sling*, S/ability:
H/Person, Str/of One; (Gnoll Veteran)(Cleric Agg)(5)
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)
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2BG's sidequest hell is finished and it's now time for the Iron Throne fight. The fight is initiated from the back room via invisibility by summoning wraiths with Nyx in stealth as an observer. Yang throws out Greater Malison while they're distracted and Yin follows up with a Night Terrors + Deep Slumber minor sequencer, which manages to disable all the casters except two. Nyx casts Blinding Darkness on Aasim which takes, leaving only Naaman able to cast.
Spells gained: Breaching Dark; Spell Immunity
-Breaching Dark (lv.5): Breach + Lower Resistance.
Yin kills some commoners to receive the Divine Wrath Bhaalpowers since DuHM is useless to him. Shandalar takes offense to our new trashy reputation and transports us to the Ice Island, which is beaten mostly by the wraiths. We try and fail to kill Shanladar. Despite being debuffed with Greater Malison, he still saved several times against Wands of Paralyzation while the wraiths held him still using Impose and Shadow Rope. He exhausts his scripted spell arsenal against the wraiths and Nyx, then teleports away. Damn.
-Shadow Screen (lv.5): Spell Shield that also gives immunity to Dispel Effects. Lasts 2 hours.
-Sigil of Misfortune (lv.4): Greater Malison that ignores MR. Stacks with Greater Malison.
-Shadowblast (lv.3): Fireball that deals 1d3/level of cold and magic damage, up to 10d6. Also causes -1 THAC0 and saves every 10 levels. Save vs. spell negates magic damage/THAC0/save penalties. At caster level 10+, targets suffer -20% cold & magic damage resistance for 1 turn, no save.
-Dread Silence (lv.2): As Silence.
The werewolf island is probably next. I was thinking about not doing it since I didn't really have a plan to deal with Kaishas's werewolf army, but now that Night Terrors causes Death Spell, it should be very easy since she is vulnerable to it herself. Then onto the endgame.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 11
Yang - Dragon Disciple 11
3 Flamerule 1368: The Cloakwood Lodge area was not of much interest, although a pack of Dread Wolves & Worgs did manage to bring Minsc down once. Aside from that event & tussles with Huge Spiders & a trio of Ogrillon, it was mostly just a matter of clearing the black.
SWATTING SOME WORGS
KEY EVENT: One interesting encounter, I will note. I found a hunting Lodge & spoke with a man named Aldeth who asked for my help in staving off some, ‘savages’ who turned out to be some radical druids. I’d initially agreed, but once I realized his ‘savages’ were, in fact, Druids, I felt that my best option lay in supporting the Druids, the leader of whom went by Seniyad. However, on hearing that I’d changed my mind, Aldeth attacked & we defeated him & his two companions – all semi-tough in their martial skills. Aldeth was carrying some decent coin & a diamond. Pretty certain the druids wouldn’t have been carrying anything more than berries. It also appears that I will be in these woods a while longer so ticking off the Druids is not likely in my best interest.
Best Kill Competition:
· Imoen, (Taurgosz Khosann, exp 2000)
· Minsc (Raemon, 1200 exp)
· Khalid (Osmadi), Eldoth (Corsone) (1000 exp ea)
· Drake (Balquo, 600 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (Wolves)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Hunter (Fighter – Aldeth), Dread Wolves (6), Hunters (Fighters – Palin & Balquo), Huge Spiders (5), Ogrillons (3), Worgs (8), Tasloi (31), Xvarts (6)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 7227gp) Armor & weapons: Cloak of non-detection, Gems/jewelry: 1250gp (Aldeth), Diamond, Potions: Scrolls: Blindness, Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying @ Cloakwood Lodge
NEXT STEPS: Deeper into the Cloakwood
LEVEL UP: Drake, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/4
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 6)
· Silas Cl/3(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP18) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding, M/star*, Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp & Rg of Energy; Spells: Draw/Holy Might, H/Person, Silence/15, Slow Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, Prot/Evil, ;(Marl) (AI none)
· Khalid Rgr/2(Archer)(HP27) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Neira)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
· Imoen Th/4 (Adventurer)(HP25) S/Leather +2 Clk/Non-det w/S/bow* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 60, FT 50, PP 35, MS 45, HS 40, DI 15, ST10; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
· Minsc Ftr/3 (Barbarian)(HP26) C/mail +1 & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Nimbul)(AI: Ftr Def)
· Eldoth Bd/4 (HP20) Cloak +1 w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM(2), S/ability: Poison arrows; (Mulahey)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
· Drake Cl/4 (Holy Justice of Tyr)(HP37) S/mail, M/shield +1, Warhammer +1* & Sling*; Spells: Aid, Draw/Holy Might, H/Person, Armor/Faith, Bless, Cmd, Doom, Prot/Evil; S/ability: H/Person, Str/One; (Balquo)(Cl Agg)(5)
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
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
What's up do you think? It's been awhile since I got this far, but I think it should be available, although I've gone off all sides. Am I forgetting something? CT
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3The werewolf island is a breeze, although wraiths still have to be summoned against wolfweres since they have 50% MR. Karoug's wife has a MINHP1 ring on until you get her health low enough for her to transform, which explains why Shadow Binding didn't work on her...
The undercity party is skipped. At the temple we arrive buffed to maximum with PfU scrolls, Protection from Normal Missiles, and Nondetection. Drinking some INT potions lets Yin achieve a caster level of 16, causing him to summon a devil shade and 2 wraiths with Summon Shadow.
Onward to Dragonspear!
Yin - Shadow Disciple 11
Yang - Dragon Disciple 11
For some reason I can't get to the Cloakwood Nest - et al, even though I've completed the bandit camp, had the dream etc.
I can go back & reset my mods to allow the entire Cloakwood to open, but that'll kill this game. I hate that, I felt this was a good mix. There's probably a way to do it - but I don't know how. CT
- open up the console by pressing ctrl-space together (see this thread if you need more detail)
- you'll see in the top left hand corner a list of all the area locations in the game. Scroll down to AR2100 and click on it and then click travel.
Hope it works for you.
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 5
SoA: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Brynnlaw may be lawless and corrupt, it was also a place of hope and anticipation for Amahoro and her dearest friends, blissfully ignorant of the grim turn their story was about to take. Saemon's treachery, some vampires and even two mages standing in their way did not lower their spirits.[spoiler]
The pary picked up a pair of Senses of the cat, entered Spellhold and finally saw Imoen again. Her condition broke Amahoro's heart though. Rest followed and a dream of Imoen and Bhaal which saw Amahoro sacrifice some of her agility and lose her soul. Irenicus then left the party to Bodhi who set them loose in the Spellhold maze. There, I had to make the hated decision about the composition of the party. It took me a long time, but I eventually had Amahoro take Imoen back into the party, taking Jan's place. I love Jan, but I think Amahoro wouldn't leave Imoen to her own devices after everything that had happened. A mod which allows NPCs to silently follow the party out of the asylum would be nice. They could then find a way on their own off the island and back to Athkatla. I do have Back to Brynnlaw installed and I want to play it to see if we can find Jan.
I dismissed all the NPCs except Imoen, and had her copy lots scrolls into her spellbook before the others would ask if they really had to leave (to which Amahoro would say no). Thus Imoen gained some XP to come a get closer to the rest. Obviously Amahoro got ahead this way. I hadn't really prepared for Imoen's joining, so I didn't have much gear for her. On the flipside, the party still had their items. During my reinstall of the game and all mods, I didn't install the party loses gear in Spellhold SCS component that I had installed before.
As a result the Spellhold dungeon was pretty doable even with Bodhi chasing the party when resting. To my surprise there was no lich in the undead-infested area, so Anomen could just clean up using his Turn Undead ability and his mace. The party brute-force-meleed a mind flayer and a beholder at a summoning altar. Mordy Swords helped against an ulitharid.[spoiler]
It was fine with me in this case because the party hadn't buffed either. I had wanted to do that after talking to Lonk, forgetful of the fact that the party is moved straight to the inmates after said talk.
A Pierce Magic from Imoen quickly followed by a Breach from Haer'Dalis stripped Irenicus of his buffs, and allowed the party to land several hits.[spoiler]
The party found a robe of the evil archmagi in Irenicus' chambers, an interesting armor option for Haer'dalis come UAI. They ran into Saemon Havarian again, and sailed off with him. A githyanki attack would have resulted in death for stunned Imoen if it weren't for sahuagin intervention. The drow area didn't yield anything useful but the ghoul lord dropped the Hands of Takkok. The party bartered with the generous shopkeeper and helped the rebel prince take over from the crazy king. It seemed the right thing to do, if only to have a stronger enemy for the drow and for the illithids. The party was well-buffed so physical force worked fine.
The Underdark was their next destination. It saw the companions except Imoen obtain their first HLAs. Pretty early I guess, but we did almost all chapter 2 quests (except Kangaxx, Twisted Rune, and Alhoon) and we did a few extra stronghold quests, though we only finished the ranger and cleric ones. Watcher's Keep should be the starting point of ToB in this install, so shan't be visited before.
Three elemental portals and a drow war party were dealt with first. Fully buffed the companions were stronger than their drow enemy and their summons. We cast a lot before combat, and very little during combat - basically just buff removal spells. (Remove Magic by Haer'dalis tends to work fine against non-bosses such as these drow wizards.)
A balor hit hard, as Anomen and Mazzy would notice, but four warriors protected by Death Ward were still too much for it to handle.[spoiler]
Having had good experiences with beholders in the cult of the Unseeing Eye quest, the party fancied their chances in the Underdark beholder lair. The strategy was the same: Polymorph Jelly form for Haer'dalis and ranged AoE damage by Imoen in lieu of Jan. There was one crucial difference, this lair housed a hive mother, the most powerful of beholders, with spell-casting ability in addition to her rays, and with the power to see through invisibility. She also proved very hardy and even capable of healing. Anomen helped out with two Fire Storms, Jaheira with an Insect Plague (the effect of which was limited due to the creature's MR), and Imoen with Cloudkills. This was more than enough to slay several lesser eye tyrants.[spoiler]
The Kuo-Toa, including their Crom Faeyr scroll dropping prince, were overcome by the pre-buffed party with overwhelming physical force, much like the drow war party before. The same goes for five death knights even though Amahoro unexpectedly panicked at one point. But Anomen's Remove Fear prevented any issues with that. One of the death knights dropped some fantastic loot: the staff of the magi, the belt of the inertial barrier, and the shield of balduran. Amahoro donned the belt, and Imoen or Haer'dalis will have to become proficient in staves... Note that one of my mods nerfs the staff. I assume it's SCS v32. It dispels on hit at level 30. So in the late game (ToB) its dispel will probably work best in the hands of Haer'dalis who can get up to 10 APR with Whirlwind (which replaces the epic bardsong for Blades in Rogue Rebalancing).
I haven't used many HLAs yet. Haer'dalis took UAI, Amahoro Power Attack and Critical Strike, Mazzy too, Anomen Energy Blades, Jaheira Power Attack.
In Ust Natha, I was a bit apprehensive about the first job for House Despana, rescuing Phaere from mind flayers and umber hulks. I've failed at that before. With no traps and friendly fire a no-go, the companions had to strike hard and fast. They arrived fully buffed and accompanied by five Mordy Swords. Haer'dalis can cast those as well as Imoen, because I'm playing with Anthology Tweaks' enhanced spell progression for all caster classes. It gives all single class casters (friend and foe) more spells to cast, making them somewhat more competitive with multi-classes. This strategy worked out fine:[spoiler]
Things got interesting again when the party decided to visit the illithids in search of more blood of neigboring races. Chaotic Commands, fire resistance, Fire Storm (the only no save allowing, MR ignoring, AoE damage dealing option we had), and Haste helped the companions deal with mind flayers, ulitharids and umber hulks.[spoiler]