Amahoro and her friends got through the Underdark, but the execution of their mission wasn't entirely flawless. They collaborated with Vithal and did not fight him afterwards, as he seemed reasonable. They contented themselves with a rod of absorption and a scroll. Deirex's previously cast Spell Turning expired immediately, as had happened with Irenicus.
I decided to ignore this bug and treat Deirex (and any future foes suffering from this bug) as if their Spell Turning is in place. Imoen's Ruby Ray of Reversal and Haer'dalis's Breach turned the lich into fodder for Amahoro, Anomen, Mazzy, and Jaheira.
The party got Blackblood and Kundane, their first speed weapon, out of their mission for Jarlaxle.
At House Jaelatt, the party got involved in a rather chaotic dust-up, with more foes than I had remembered. Jaheira and Anomen got Silenced. It taught me how much I go by auditory cues when doing battle: Anomen fell without me noticing it. An injured Imoen escaped a Chaos when she had already been Malisoned, through a quickly cast SI:Enchantment (thank you Robe of Vecna).
Either way, fully buffed Amahoro, Jaheira, Mazzy, and Haer'dalis, aided by Kitthix, were not put into danger by the larger enemy numbers.
Haer'dalis's Remove Magic was quite useful once again.
Both Matron Mother Ardulace and Phaere were fooled by the party. The former dropped the second wardstone needed to assemble Kangaxx's body parts. They swiftly led Ust Natha behind, and brought Adalon her eggs. The silver dragon did a good job in dispatching several drow and two glabrezus blocking the exit out of the Underdark, but she was nevertheless a bit too quick in abandoning the party to their taste. The companions tried to get out of a Sphere of Chaos, toward the enemy, but were still at the edge of the spell's AoE when Anomen was turned into a squirrel (he chugged an invisibility potion), and moments later it rendered Amahoro unconscious. With a few drow still in front of them and two stone golems, this meant trouble. Imoen managed to cast Invisibility on Amahoro.
Thankfully the glabrezus were gone, because they would have seen right through that ruse. Imoen got knocked out as well, and was saved by Haer'dalis after taking a first hit.
Those that managed to keep their footing fortunately dealt with the drow and the golems, and everyone was very thankful that the Sphere had no nastier surprises in store for them.
They agreed to help the elves of Suldanessalar against the drow. In turn Drizzt, the Order of the Radiant Heart, and the Shadow Thieves promised to help the party against Bodhi. But the companions had unfinished business to attend to first.
Kruin got his blade back and Cromwell upgraded several items before the party returned to Spellhold (through the Back to Brynnlaw mod), but they failed to locate Jan Jansen. They did battle several Cowled Wizards on the island and inside Spellhold. The ones in Spellhold were prolific summoners. But full buffs, a wide selection of debuffs, and Imoen's ADHW made the party capable enough to deal with such opposition.
It's quite a well-written mod, and the quest-giver, Roslin, was so kind as to partially restore Amahoro. She had given up a dex point to the fiend in the Bhaal dream, and now she got to choose an int, wis or cha point. She chose wisdom, raising it to 21.
An illithid lair beneath Athkatla's temple district was routed by the party. A first group was battled without Fire Storm as Jaheira kept making her casting gestures but failed to actually cast the spell. Through lots of pausing and running around, the others - all hasted - slew the enemy with ranged attacks.
The only real threat were the illithids' ballistic attacks and their detonates, enabling them deal significant amounts of damage.
The final room did see some AoE damage delivered by the party from a Fire Storm and a (less impactful) Storm of Vengeance before several illithids came teleporting toward the party.
The alhoon was the only one to stay behind. Anomen engaged the creature alone. He first turned it, then chunked it through his Turn Undead power.
More badassery by Anomen followed against several Liches. Shade lich and elemental were both debuffed by Imoen and Haer'dalis (very nice to have two arcane casters who can strip enemy casters of their buffs in one or two rounds). The former was slain by Anomen with the Mace of Disruption, while Mazzy vanquished the latter.
Kangaxx the lich suffered the same fate, but demi-lich Kangaxx gave the party trouble. The plan was to retreat before demi-lich Kangaxx could go after them, so they could rest and refresh their spell removal magic. However, Kangaxx not only followed the party, with every area transition he appeared at the precise location of Amahoro. Their circles overlapped perfectly, both Amahoro and Kangaxx got stuck, and Kangaxx could no longer be targeted by anyone with either spells or physical attacks. Those spells and attacks would be directed at Amahoro.
Note in the second screenshot how Jaheira rolled a 1 to save against the demi-lich's trap the soul ability.
I'm not sure if Kangaxx was able to target Amahoro, but I decided not to test this and just use ctrl-j. I'm willing to accept the cluster bug with Draconis, because he'll still be targetable, but a completely untouchable Kangaxx is a bit too much for me to go along with. The fight was taken outside, where Kangaxx managed to kill Imoen and nearly Haer'dalis too with a Comet. When his PfMW ran out, Anomen quickly destroyed the creature with his mace.
Finally, the lich in the crooked crane posed no trouble. Like the shade lich and the elemental lich, it had no answer to the party's swift debuffs.
Next was Twisted Rune, one of my favorite SoA encounters. The dispel trap didn't remove anyone's long-lasting buffs (Stoneskins, Ironskins, Impervious Sanctity of Mind), so that was a promising start. Haer'dalis cast six or seven Skull Traps from scroll at Vaxall's spawning point. A full pre-buffing session followed, and some summons were called: Kitthix, a deva (by Anomen), and an efreeti. I expected Shangalar to emerge in the chamber near the entrance, and thus near the party, but he didn't. He spawned in front of the table.
The Skull Traps killed Vaxall.
Anomen cast a Fire Storm at Shangalar and the deva and the efreeti defeated Revanek (who dropped Vhailor's helmet), before the lich completed a casting of Time Stop. Other than applying some buffs and summoning some mordy swords where I expected a planetar, Shangalar did very little with his time. Maybe because he couldn't see the party? He did eventually teleport to the party, but that was at the end of the Time Stop. He then cast a Teleport Field, which was actually a pretty good move, but Imoen and Haer'dalis still removed the creature's protections, and Anomen still managed to destroy it in two attempts. Shangalar dropped the frost giant strength girdle, making the assembly of Cromfaeyr an option, and a very obscure Lesser Grimoire of Demon Binding, seemingly an SCS item. The tome allows arcanists to try and bind gated fiends to do their bidding at the risk of seeing their alignment shift away from good and of losing their soul and their life. Not the type of item this party is likely to use.
The deva and the efreeti had a second kill in Shyressa. When Haer'dalis was teleported into the main room by the Teleport Field, Layene finally started to wake up. (She had hurled a few energy blades at the efreeti earlier, but that was before the efreeti was called back to the party and before Shangalar's Time Stop). She had a predominantly offensive Chain Contingency for Haer'dalis:
But the bard was affected only by his foe's ADHW, and not to the extent that his life was on the line. He cast a Pierce Magic, Imoen a Pierce Shield and a Breach, and Amahoro finished her with a critical from the FoA.
It seems to me that offensive debuffing of enemy mages, is the way to go as they'll get busy restoring their buffs, unlike vanilla wizards who can go full kamikaze.
The guarded compound battle is an encounter I normally skip as I've never been that much of a Celestial Fury fan, but with Item Randomisation, everything is different of course. In chapter 6, the enemy doesn't pose a huge threat. Sion was downed by a barrage of missiles that stopped him from even casting anything.
The warriors were all meleed by Anomen, Haer'dalis, and Amahoro, while Stalman the cleric was brought down by a collective ranged assault, much like Sion.
In the last screenshot, you can see a large stack of Spell Deflection scrolls. The bug I described before, where enemy Spell Defelection or Spell Turning immediately expires once cast, had affected Haer'dalis as well. He couldn't cast those spells from memory (they simply don't show up in the bar of memorized spells behind the magic button), and when cast from scrolls, they expire upon their casting. I'm not eager to tinker with my install at this point in the game, so I keepered a Book of Infinite Spells into Haer'dalis's inventory, giving him one Spell Turning per day, because through the book the spell does work. He still memorizes one useless Spell Turning in his spellbook, so there's no free level 7 spell for him. What is most peculiar is that Imoen can cast both Spell Deflection and Spell Turning without issue.
Downstairs, the party had to fight a number of constructs: battle horrors, mage constructs and rogue constructs. A change from the fiends I was used to.
Spell removal for the mages, and still active buffs ensured a convincing victory.
Belm and the ring of lockpicks were the most notable spoils. All speed weapons have been found. Cromwell forged the rings of lockpicks and danger sense, a pair of bracers of AC4, gloves of pickpocketing, and two rings of the princes into the gloves of the master thief: AC3, + 25% locks, +25 find traps, +20 pickpockets, +1 saves. They're perfect for Imoen, who has 75 locks, 75 traps and 75 pickpockets (those were her BG1 level 10 Swashbuckler stats and I restored them as well as her Swashbuckler levels at the beginning of the game).
Finally the time came to confront Bodhi. In the Graveyard District the party's number one undead slayer, and Amahoro's mate Anomen was sadly abducted by Bodhi. Amahoro picked up his mace, and the rest of his gear. She managed to chunk some of the lesser vampires outside.
In the catacombs, she was joined by paladins of the order of the Radiant Hart who had foolishly refrained from protecting themselves against level drain. Amahoro had her companions stay back, and went battling vampires with the mace of disruption.
Backstabs were a concern, but regeneration and healing potions made sure she didn't get into serious trouble.
Drizzt's party was more competent than the paladins, with everyone surviving,
and so were the Shadow Thieves.
But the encounter with Bodhi was a disappointment. She was bugged. Her cold flames did trigger (Drizzt killed himself hitting the cold flames shield) and she did use her cloud of bats ability, but she didn't fight. There were still the other vampires to worry about, including the two casters, as well as Artemis Entreri, but Haer'dalis could cast two Sunrays with upgraded Daystar, Jaheira had two False Dawns from the buckler of Amaunator, Mazzy was a sharpshooter, and Amahoro a beast with the Mace of Disruption. They prevailed with relative ease. I did a reload but couldn't get Bodhi to attack. Oh well, with a couple of PfU scrolls the outcome would have been similar I suppose.
Bodhi's room contained a pair of Legacy of the Masters and the blood pool in the spiked room Celestial Fury. Everyone but Imoen leveled up, and she got a level from talking Venduris and co out of attacking the party. She took a pip in katanas.
My documentation was pretty sloppy once I got to Amn. It's mainly just me going through the motions of the easy side quests so I didn't think it was interesting enough to warrant screenshots. I just find BG1 to be more fun these days, I guess.
The sorcerers take on the Pebblecrusher party after looting the ruins of Chateau Irenicus and getting some basics from Ribald. Nyx casts Dark Fortune on herself and pickpockets everything she can steal from the Pebblecrusher party and picks Brenden last. Since pickpocketing versus a fellow rogue is an opposed check, she fails it on purpose to turn the party hostile. With our buffs already in place and my Shadow Double at the ready, I unleash a Sigil of Misfortune+Night Terrors+Dread Silence sequencer on the party while Yang follows up with Web and my double casts Curse. This disables all of them except Sorcerous Amon.
Yang casts Polymorph Other on Amon the next round and it works. Nyx uses Shadow Comets (shadow weave version of Melf's Meteors) on Smelly Orcslicer and kills him. Mencar is held in place with Shadow Binding. Brennan is revealed with Unmask and poisoned to death by Nyx. Amon is overkilled by Shadowblast while Mencar is pelted with automatic hits.
Brenden is revealed with Detect Invisibility and easily killed.
At the Copper Coronet, Yin tries out Possess for the first time on Llynis. With his physical stats buffed to 25, he's great! He can also drink invisibility potions by script, as provided to him by SCS. By escaping from line of sight and stealthing, he pretty much solos the beast master and his pets but gets killed by a bear.
An otyugh is the next possession target. It clears out the coronet's sewers solo. It returns to us and Yin ends the possession, knocking it out cold.
Mae'var's first sidequest gets us level 15.
Spells gained: Black Ray of Destruction, Twin Mislead, Cone of Bitter Cold; Power Word: Stun, True Sight, Breach
-Black Ray of Destruction (lv.7): As Ruby Ray, but shuts off the target's spellcasting capabilities for 2 rounds.
-Twin Mislead (lv.6): As Mislead, but creates a second clone after 3 rounds regardless of the status of the first clone.
-Cone of Bitter Cold (lv.5): Deals 1d4 cold+1% of the victims' max HP per level, up to 20d4+20% max HP. Also causes Slow and 1d6 cold damage/round, both for 2 rounds+1 round/4 levels. Save vs. spell at -2 halves the damage from the d4's, negates the Slow, and lingering cold damage.
Rayic Gethras is owned by Power Word Stun while he's neutral.
The rest of Mae'var's questline is completed and he is killed with the help of the shades, Black Ray of Destruction, True Sight, and Night Terrors' panic effect. The graveyard district is cleared and so we move on to the De'Arnise Keep, as trolls are deathly allergic (ahaha) to Night Terrors and to level drain from summoned wraiths and devil shades. The iron golem at the keep is possessed and used to beat up the other golems and the trolls while Yang escorts it, finishing off the trolls with a Wand of Fire.
Once it has served its purpose, Yin summons his shades and they kill it, causing both sorcerers to level up.
-Merciless Blizzard (lv.8): 30' AoE cloud that deals 10d4 cold damage, slows all within for 2 rounds, and reduces their cold resistance by 20% for 1 turn each round. Save vs. spell at -2 or be paralyzed for a round as well. Bypasses MR.
-Spell Trigger: Shadow Weave users automatically learn Spell Trigger when they are able to cast 8th level spells.
Using a 3x Summon Shadow Spell Sequencer, the fight with Tor'Gal is no big deal. Merciless Blizzard locks the enemies in place while the wraiths and devil shades get to work. Tor'Gal himself is level drained to death.
Trademeet is up next. Nyx steals the genie lamp and Adratha is dealt with using a 3x Summon Shadow sequencer again. 3 devil shades and 6 wraiths are deadly. A shambling mound pushes the sorcerers to level 17.
Spells gained: Annulment, Sword of the Night; Mind Blank, Project Image (Ruby Ray was actually Yang's first pick in the final SoD post)
-Annulment (lv.8): Protection from Energy, but also gives immunity to 6th level spells and lower.
-Sword of the Night (lv.7): Mordy's Sword but deals 3d4+4 slashing and 2d4 cold.
Quests in the bridge district are done and part of the Umar Hills ruins, though we leave before the room that spawns the lich and 2 greater mummies, obviously aware of the danger they present as an Aerial Servant killed Torque the last time I was here. I should've done the Planar Prison to get him Boots of Speed, so we go do that next. Summoned shades and Merciless Blizzard make it much easier since the blizzard pretty much stymies any mage caught in it. The Master of Thralls and his goons provide level 18 and our first HLAs!
-Nightsinger's Tithe (lv.9): Power Word Kill but bypasses MR. 50% chance to gain +1 max HP per kill made with this spell. After 50 enemies are killed with it, max HP cannot be gained but caster permanently gains +2 CON, -1 saves, -1 casting speed.
-Chain Contingency: Shadow Weave users automatically learn Chain Contingency when they are able to cast 9th level spells.
-Summon Nightwalker: Better at straight-up melee than Planetar but not quite as sturdy. Immune to cold, takes half damage from everything else except electricity, magical, and magic fire. 300 HP, regens 1 HP/3 secs, 5 attacks (2d12 crushing, save vs. death at -6 or lose 2 STR), shares immunities with aTweaks demons and aTweaks undead and is immune to imprisonment and stun. Casts Shadow Weave spells instantly and is immune to their CON drain.
The Warden manages to escape a Merciless Blizzard directed at him and teleports over to Yin while hasted. Yin activates his anti-melee Spell Trigger of Shadeskin+Fireshield (Shadow)+PfWfW. The Warden switches targets to Yang, who casts PfMW. Frustrated, it tries Breach to no avail as both sorcerers are protected by Shadow Screen or Spell Shield. Yin activates a 3x Summon Shadow Spell Sequencer and the Warden casts PfMW himself. Once he's Breached by Yang, he throws up a Stoneskin contingency in response, but the shades are too fast for him and devour him. I didn't screenshot this part but I remember it pretty clearly.
Now that one of us has the Boots of Speed, we return back to the Temple Ruins. Yin's Shadow Double uses scrolls of PfU on both the sorcerers and Nyx before they re-enter. The Planetar and Nightwalker are summoned against the Lich and his buddies. The Nightwalker devastates them all with Shadowplague, causing them 100% casting failure and then rips them apart while buffed by Shar's Blessing for 10 attacks per round.
They do the same thing to the next Lich + 2x Greater Mummy spawn trigger. We make it into Thaxll's lair and rest. While applying buffs, I forget that Thaxll will react to certain spellcasting actions.
Yin casted Shadow Screen so his aura was clouded, but he soaks up the Remove Magic without ill effect. Yang summons his planetar while Yin summons his Nightwalker on his next round. Nightwalkers always cast Shadow Assault as their first action after being summoned, much like devil shades, so the round after that, I have it cast Shar's Blessing. The Nightwalker just utterly trashes Thaxll in a few rounds even with his huge dragon HP. I'm surprised Thaxll didn't die from stat drain from how many times he was being hit.
We rest again and buff for the fight against the Shade Lord. Since Yin is a Shadow Disciple CHARNAME, he gets extra dialogue options against the Shade Lord. Yin challenges the Shade Lord to see who is the real master of shadows.
The battle starts but I'm a little confused by the Shade Lord's lack of spellcasting. Checking back on it now in NearInfinity, the script that he normally uses from SCS is filled with standard arcane spells. The script that he is supposed to be using from Shadow Magic's Shade Lord apparently doesn't exist and his spellbook is full of Shadow Weave spells. I feel bad for having summoned a planetar to kill the Shade Lord in his defenseless state. I'll have to remember not to install SCS's Improved Shade Lord if I use Shadow Magic at the same time.
The Shade Lord drops the Shadow Phylactery that Kaladan Za'al made for us back in SoD and Shadow Patrick drops the new Darkmail.
Here's how we're looking after casting long-term buffs.
We cross off the circus and leave for the slums where Gaelan Bayle is waiting. After talking to him we change ownership of the Copper Coronet and trek off to the docks. Both thief buildings there take a dose of ransacking, and we kill off three minotaurs in one building before heading to the Temple district.
The temple sewers look like fun and we spend a bit of time there dealing with a troll that refuses to die until shot with a fire arrow while still stood up, and the rakshasa's minions. Haer'Dalis is freed and then we unleash some traps and backstabs on Tarnor's gang. It's not much of a plan but good fun.
Henn almost kills Gaius with an opening backstab but he may have baulked Qat who only backstabs after Gauis has buffs activated. The blocking also forces Henn to run east instead of west, he then turns and runs back, giving several seconds more visibility than he planned.
Qat is running the other way as Henn receives a panic spell. He doesn't notice the flamestrike on Qat, or the obliteration of his buddy. The gig is up.
Henn then runs back into the fray while panic is active, his studded leather armour allowing him just long enough to see snares badly wound the closest enemy but Henn is next to die.
At the xvart village, I was a bit surprised to find Borda had haste as a pre-buff. However, he was faced with spirits and didn't have the spell damage to cause the shamans any real concern.
Working through wilderness areas to clear up as much as possible, mainly just using slings, the horde arrived at the Lake area. I was planning to have a go at Drizzt there, but didn't have much remaining stock of bullets so went to get fresh supplies. On return the gnolls were activated and Drizzt taken to near death before the shamans showed themselves. A lucky hit then got the kill very quickly.
A number of further areas were thoroughly cleared in the south. However, I drew the line at Firewine and stopped with Meilum rather than take a considerable risk by going after Kahrk. Similarly I didn't fancy the SCS enhanced encounters at Ulcaster and left those for later. Individual enemies like gnolls are obviously not worth much, but hundreds of them do eventually add up. A disadvantage of going after low-XP enemies though is that exacerbates the difference in XP gained by different members of the party - Toke at the back was now over 900 XP behind Chat at the front. Though nearly all of the action was straight-up fighting, the horde tried to get their level by returning Melicamp, but he proved too fragile to survive and the 6th level came from ploughing through another anonymous group of skeletons.
The long wait for a level proved worthwhile though, with their best set of rolls yet - totalling 56 out of a possible 60.
Deciding it was time for the Nashkel Mine, the horde stocked up on bullets. Entangle and Fog did a good job against the kobold hordes, while a first use of insects helped prevent the shaman from casting anything nasty.
The chieftain was the first to see one of the upgraded spirits in action.
Inside the cave the horde rested and killed the kobolds before activating Mulahey. He managed a successful hold and domination, but without ever causing any problem and a bear spirit picked up his kill.
Interestingly the bear spirit knew its real master and did not attack the dominated Grinch after that.
After emerging from the back door to the mine, the horde remembered they still had a bit of work to do in the area. Narcillicus was persuaded to create a couple of mustard jellies and they were led into pre-generated summons (both bears and panthers do slashing damage able to hit jellies.
Narcillicus used MGoI to avoid spell problems and annoyingly ignored summons while chasing after the horde. His globe and improved invisibility kept him alive and he had a good range of offensive spells, but failed to kill anyone and the shamans were able to switch around and heal themselves to avoid making any particularly tempting targets. Eventually the mage's spell protections ran out - and he was quickly toasted.
Back in Nashkel, one of a hail of bullets hit Nimbul a fraction before his stoneskin erupted - and immediately sent him running.
Without buffs he couldn't outrun the lightning.
In Beregost I actually got some value for once by handing a vial of Mysterious Liquid into Thunderhammer - prompting him to make some unbreakable weapons. Tranzig wasted most of his spells on summons before trying to hide in a corner - but finding things a bit chilly there.
I'd decided at the Bandit Camp to just rely on hit and run attacks - the potential damage from missiles is far too great for the relatively poor AC of the shamans to be able to tackle head on. They bounced back and forwards a few times before running into an ambush from Molkar. Lightning looked like winning them the contest easily early on, but Drakar surprisingly lasted a very long time at near death despite being attacked by most of the shamans and he caused trouble by holding 2 of them. However, Drakar eventually succumbed to some insects and the remainder of the enemies didn't last much longer.
A bit more bouncing to the Bandit Camp saw them pick up one or two victims each time using missiles, lightning and charms - Taurgosz was one of those at this point.
The Amazons then tried their hand at an ambush. I find the main danger from them is backstabs, but neither thief got too much damage with those and that was a pretty easy victory.
Back at the Camp it was becoming increasingly easy to establish themselves as the enemies dwindled. Once Venkt was blasted they only had to retreat a couple of times more and, as Hakt became the last of the named enemies to fall, they were able to remain there to clean up the remainder.
The Cloakwood lay open, but I decided to complete the remaining wilderness areas first. In Larswood and Peldvale there was danger from running heedlessly into groups of Black Talons, but I managed to always retreat after a single painful salvo of frosty arrows. The Beregost temple wolf pack was destroyed once the vampiric leaders were blasted with lightning.
There was more need for care at the basilisk area, however, given the lack of either petrification protection or restoration. Korax was lured down to the bottom of the map and recruited before trying to take on the basilisks separately - the horde only getting engaged when one was safely paralyzed.
Without invisibility I didn't fancy trying to lure the 2 basilisks near Mutamin away, so just sent Korax in. Fortunately the shaman's lightning attacks at the point they first sighted him proved fatal and Korax was then able to clean up the basilisks.
For Kirian's party, lightning failed to claim any immediate victims and Kirian's horror sent one of the shamans running, while Peter's hold disabled another. However, both spellcasters were hit with insects and I thought the rest of the battle might be reasonably straightforward. The scared shaman wandering dangerously close to bears was one problem though, which resulted in a supporting shaman (going to distract any would-be attackers) activating some gnolls and that meant lots of micro-management before the battle was finally won.
Other than TotSC areas, Ulcaster and Firewine, the only other area not vacuumed yet was the home of the Red Wizards of Thay. I thought the biggest danger there though would be web traps and spiders, but decided to attempt it anyway. Moving carefully up the eastern edge I activated the big spider group with summons ready. A phase spider appeared and poisoned Pretty Boy, but all the shamans know slow poison so that wasn't fatal.
Lorbag was webbed by a giant spider, causing him to stop dancing and the summons to disappear - but by that time the battle was all but over.
For the Red Wizards an opening attack killed one of them.
The others were then mainly occupied by summons, with another being killed. However, Denak chased them hard and with mirrors and MGoI was hard to stop. When the globe ran out I thought things would be OK, but he managed to finish off Pretty Boy with a magic missile before going down.
I went back to the temple to get Pretty Boy raised, but on the way back hit my worst fear - a basilisk ambush. Fortunately ambushing basilisks typically start in melee mode and this was one of those - the horde were therefore able to get out of range before it gazed.
Back in the area they were able to finish off the last Red Wizard easily enough.
That leaves them less than 5,000 party XP short of another level. Will I be able to manage that before leaving for the Cloakwood?
A productive session started at the Nashkel Carnival where Tabetha looked at her spell book and proclaimed there was no need for a green scroll to protect against petrification. Sure enough the Trio were soon in action against basilisks with levels coming thick and fast.
Mutamin managed to scare Yertone, but died in the process and the paladin fortunately didn't run into any more enemies.
Tabetha was very close to being able to cast 2nd level spells, so went to find Korax to lend a helping hand.
The additional level allowed her to not only blind Baerin and Lindin, but disable the others with a couple of stinking clouds - making that fight a simple shooting gallery.
Next up were the sirines at the Lighthouse - Yertone tanking them with the help of a potion of clarity.
He added an absorption potion to ensure the golems in the cave would find him tricky to hit.
As the tank of the party he claimed the HP bonus from the tome, to further increase his impressive HP tally to date.
After beating up some half-ogres to get Yertone a shield upgrade from Bjornin, a few tasks in Beregost included a swift and merciful (or do I mean merciless?) death for a blinded Silke.
There was then a quick trip to the FAI to pick up a ring or two. Next it was back south to the Cloud Peaks in search of Krumm's girdle and the charisma tome - the main excitement there when Tabetha had to get on her bike after failing to backstab a winter wolf.
Next it seemed time to visit Shoal. It is now possible to have dialogue with her without suffering a fatal kiss, but none of us were sure of the required option so Tabetha ended up having to battle Droth with a single HP - which she did successfully.
After running the ogre clan round for a bit, she decided to seek a consultation with the surgeon to restore her health.
That provided confidence about taking on the sirines in the area and they were duly dispatched despite Tabetha bringing along an additional guest.
With reputation up at 19, Yertone was anxious to get to grips with some ankhegs - and their nest was duly depopulated with Yertone only suffering a single hit. Talking to Farmer Brun maximized reputation and allowed a bit of cheap shopping at Ulgoth's Beard.
The final action of the session was clearing the exterior of Durlag's Tower. The first battle horror there proved pretty troublesome, with Gery unable to help much due to its immunity to missiles. However, after Yertone switched to the Golden Girdle and Tabetha unloaded blindness spells the remaining enemies went down far more easily.
15 Eliasias 1368: After the Cloakwood Nest, I led my followers into the section of the Cloakwood claimed by the Shadow Druids. As I led us through, we were attacked by a Cave Bear, two Dread Wolves & four Huge Spiders, which were easily dispatched. We’d passed over a bridge, & after destroying the Cave bear, we met a Shadow Druid, Faldorn, who I was glad to enlist, even as I easily dismissed Drake – something about that fellow. Besides he’ll be at the FAI, should I require his services again.
KEY EVENT: Enlisting Faldorn was genius, pure genius on my part. With her in my retinue, none of the druids of the Cloakwood would challenge us, thereby making my foray smooth. After a return to High Hedge to outfit Faldorn w/Darts of Fire +1 & resupply my missile troops w/enchanted arrows, I returned us to the Cloakwood where we dispatched two more Dread Wolves & a Vampiric Wolf that Khalid had spied & targeted during an earlier reconnaissance. While in High hedge we destroyed a Ghoul & 13 Skeletons. My followers & I also put the whoopass on some cur in a cave who was trying to tame two Baby Wyvern. The latter mission was offered to Faldorn by one of the druids in the area, who rewarded its completion with a Potion of Heroism which I passed on to Minsc or Khalid, I don’t recall which, & don’t rightly care as long as they continue to perform.
Following, I had us destroy four Worgs & three Huge Spiders before taking us back to the Beregost area. I’ll return to move deeper into the Cloakwood in a few days.
1 Elient 1368: The deepest area of the Cloakwood, prior to arriving at the mine site was much more foreboding than it turned out to be. I expected stepped up Iron Throne activity nearer to the mine itself but there wasn’t much. Aside from four roaming guards, that we pummeled quickly, the only real threat in the area was a Hamadryad but since Khalid had already spotted her, I was able to set up and draw her into an ambush & put her away too.
A MASTERFUL AMBUSH!
KEY EVENT: This area of the Cloakwood is named for the huge wyverns that live & nest here. I found a cave, & had us prep before we entered. The new protocol: I cast Bless & then Draw on Holy Might; Faldorn cast Barkskin & Armor of Faith while Eldoth remained protected by Armor, & Khalid prepped to Call Shot. Minsc worked himself into his Barbarian Rage.
Upon entering, it didn’t go off like I had planned & Minsc fell quickly. However, three Baby Wyverns were destroyed, but on seeing Minsc collapse, I withdrew us from the cave to buy time & space… & that is precisely what was needed. We spread out, & took turns dodging the two adult Wyverns. Slowly, steadily, they each began to weaken until they were destroyed. A lucrative haul there, including an enchanted bastard sword that should help make Khalid more deadly when he has to draw his melee weapon rather than use his longbow.
THE BATTLE FOR THE WYVERN CAVE
Following the Battle for the Wyvern Cave, we crossed a second bridge, but aside from six more Baby Wyverns & a Cave Bear, it was largely empty. Faldorn gives me hell every time we kill an animal, doesn’t matter that they attack us first. Still, she is turning out to be a valuable ally, so I will let her complain – for now. I led us up to where the mines were but chose to go back & strategize first. We’ve no need of supplies having purchased plenty of enchanted arrows & darts at High Hedge earlier.
Although I'd done the main encounters at the ankheg area, I hadn't fully explored the whole map, so felt I could justify returning there - picking up 2 more ankheg victims during the tour. In bypassing Farmer Brun I also realized I hadn't been to help another farmer with a zombie problem and quickly did that.
The Crossroads area was another one that I hadn't been back to thoroughly explore after an initial visit and doing that found large numbers of gibberlings and their diseased cousins waiting. Such large numbers in fact that they provided enough XP for a 7th level - an indifferent set of HP rolls this time though.
After stocking up again on bullets, the horde headed for the Cloakwood. They cleared the first area with slings before confronting Seniyad. A Fog disrupted his spell before the lightning crashed down.
On arrival in the second area they faced a greeting party of 4 phase spiders. Two were killed before the shamans had to run away to cure poison.
Back again and several more phase spiders appeared, along with some huge ones, but this time the horde were able to kill them while using slow poison on a couple of victims. That was good though as it meant there were no teleporting spiders left to cause problems while they were stuck in webs and they cleared the external area without problems. The potential difficulty with Centeol's nest is getting webbed by giant spiders with lots of attackers around. To reduce the chance of that one of them nipped in and out and ran for it to try and divide the opposition, while the others waited outside in support.
That worked well with only groups of 2 or 3 emerging until the horde all descended to strike down Centeol before he could use his wand.
In the third area there was plenty more slinging and lightning on show. Izefia caused a moment's concern when he survived 3 blasts and had to be finished off with a second lot before he could catch Chat.
My main worry though was over Amarande who's caused me plenty of problems in the past. After a number of hit and run attacks upstairs he followed down and fortunately his first spell failed to a Fog. Hit by doom, miscast magic and several lots of insects, this time the Arch-druid could see his fate all too clearly, but found there was nowhere to run.
I still can't believe though the poor rewards for that encounter - 120 XP for such a dangerous opponent seems derisory.
In the fourth area the hamadryad was immune to cold and electricity, but not insects. She did charm Toke, only to see that reversed by a first use of the shaman special spell, Spiritual Clarity. The wyverns in the cave were dragged outside where lightning could strike.
In the fifth area they cleared the surroundings first - once more finding running into a group of Black Talons painful, but with no-one dying. At the mine the horde tried to blast Kysus while he was neutral, but I got the timing wrong and a Fog going in too quickly allowed Kysus to buff before the strike hit. That resulted in the horde running away and resting. Coming back, Drasus was electrocuted before they ran again and then Kysus struggled to complete spells while sitting in a Fog.
Rezdan's globe and mirrors kept him going for a while, but he had only disabling spells which were no problem for a full party.
Inside the mine Hareishan found placing a lightning trap near her rooms was perhaps not so clever an idea.
Worse perhaps, she was unable to tell where Fog damage was coming from and never went to investigate where the horde were hiding near the entrance.
The standard guards are significantly enhanced by SCS and a bit of bouncing was required to get past the ambush on the next level. However, the hobgoblins were easy meat, while Natasha did nearly all her damage to spirits before choking on Fog.
The ogre mage then got the whole treatment with Fog, insects and miscast magic nerfing it.
It would have been nice to have got to level 8 in order to have nymphs and shamanic fireballs available before tackling Davaeorn, but I couldn't see any options where they could get over 60k XP without XP farming - so they had to press on. They charmed Davaeorn's guard and used that to drag out one of the battle horrors, but the other retreated behind Davaeorn. As a result they tried out a Fog, which caused Davaeorn to run away somewhere, leaving the battle horror to fight a long, and eventually losing battle against a stream of spirits (who required criticals to hit).
I tried to locate Davaeorn to target spells or summons appropriately, but even though Toke was only in his sight for a split second he managed to unleash a sequencer.
Toke managed to save against that, but the first batch of guards arrived too quickly for the shamans to run away - and then Davaeorn teleported in to cause more trouble.
He was afflicted by miscast magic though and lost a spell to Fog before deciding to retreat when bitten by insects.
The sequencer ended, but more guards were arriving bringing along fresh stocks of those nasty Black Talon arrows.
However, I felt I was close to bringing things under full control when the screen changed. My instant reaction was my heart sinking as I wondered what could have killed Lorbag. In fact the news was rather better than that - the insects had finally chewed their way through Davaeorn's vitals.
After flooding the mine and resting to get Lorbag a second Bhaal horror, the horde are now on the threshold of Baldur's Gate.
Amahoro and company reached Suldanessellar only to encounter the beautiful elven city beset by golems and rakshasas. Unwilling to spend buffs on the golems, everyone but Mazzy went invisible to block the constructs; Mazzy took them down with her Gesen Bow.
Raamilat the drow had Spell Trap and Spell Shield activated in addition to combat buffs and protections. He cast a Remove at the party, but was in turn rendered vulnerable by a Secret Word > Pierce Shield > Breach combo by Haer'dalis and Imoen, and finished off in melee.
The rakshasas in the city were susceptible to Haer'dalis's Remove Magics, which was convenient as the party had to face those in groups.
A black dragon was no match for a fully buffed party despite not everyone being fully prepared to deal with its acid breath.
Debuffs weren't even required. Suneer and his entourage gave the party the hardest fight. A glabrezu with Removes, rakshasas, golems with poisonous clouds, and Suneer himself with an incendiary cloud made mage chess a tricky proposition. The companions ended up leaving the premises twice to evade the clouds and to wait out PfMW, and finished the wizard the third time they entered.
Suldanessellar yielded the party the Sling of Everard and the Defender of Easthaven (both long anticipated weapons for Amahoro), and Firetooth +3, a useful ranged weapon for Imoen. The only item I can think of that sadly failed to show up in SoA is the girdle of stone giant strength.
At the tree of life, Secret Word, Remove Magic (unreliable against Irenicus but in aTweaks it kills Nishruu and Hakeashar, and Irenicus had summoned two of those), Breach left Irenicus defenseless, and it was Mazzy who dealt the killing blow.
BTW I love the comments by the NPCs before facing off against Irenicus at the tree of life, upon arrival in hell, and before taking him on once more in hell. It was quite moving to see everyone express their love and their loyalty, very determined to stay by Amahoro's side no matter what.
In hell, Amahoro took the good path in every test except the selfishness test, where she took the neutral option conform the revised hell trials mod. This meant she got immunity to normal and +1 weapons, +2 to all saves, +20% fire/cold/electricity resistance, +1 Wis and +1 Cha, and (per revised hell trials) 30% slashing resistance.
She applied all her physical spell buffs, including a Hardiness, and beat Sarevok in a duel.
It was one of the rare cases where I used an HLA, as I've wanted to save those as much as possible for ToB. The neutral path in the selfishness test required Amahoro to fight the fiend (called Selfishness). She needed Anomen's mace because her FoA +3 didnt hurt the creature. Eventually the fiend gave up / got bored.
Mazzy was outfitted to deal with the elder orb and the other eye tyrants. With her undispellable saves in the negatives, 100% electricity resistance, and 50% magic damage resistance from the belt of the inertial barrier, she did indeed prevail though it still took a number of healing potions. The others received a Hakeashar and an Efreeti to play with.
Then, finally the time came to face Slayer Irenicus and his fiendish minions. Everyone had their usual full prebuffs up. They might have charged him and with some spell removals, killed him, but everyone fanned out instead. Imoen heard Irenicus starting an Alteration incantation. So she borrowed Amahoro's amulet of power, and cast a Time Stop. In it she cast a sequencered Spell Thrust + Secret Word + Magic Missile (I didn't have more debuffs when setting up the sequencer and couldn't be bothered with resting for it), a Breach, and an ADHW which she didn't quite manage to finish casting within the Time Stop. It resulted in Irenicus finishing his casting of Time Stop rather than being disrupted by her spell. He didn't make the most of his Time Stop though. Rather than attacking any of the companions he reapplied some buffs and summoned two Mordy Swords, but those were immediately destroyed by Imoen's ADHW.
Imoen ran off to the south, where some of the fiends had already found the others. She dropped a triple Death Fog (from a Spell Trigger) on two pursuing fiends, but it proved impossible to keep them in the fog, due to their smart targeting. Glabrezus and balors have zero acid resistance, so three Death Fogs could have dealt quite a bit of damage. Hasted Amahoro, Anomen, Haer'dalis, Jaheira, Mazzy all equipped their ranged weapons (Everard, Arvoreen, the Guide+2, Returning Frost Dart +3 from Rogue Rebalancing, and Gesen respectively). They made short work of the fiends in the southern part of the area thanks especially to Mazzy's impressive rate of fire and fully buffed Amahoro and Anomen's damage.
Even Imoen, wearing a hill giant strength belt, landed a very good hit.
Slayer Irenicus hung around the portal, as he has often done in my final SoA battles. Imoen had him waste some Death Spells on lowly wand summons,
before the party plus two Mordy Swords engaged him and his fallen planetar. The fallen planetar vorpaled one of the Mordy Swords, and the Slayer removed everyone's buffs but Amahoro's, as she was running away from the party to make sure the fallen planetar's Fire Storm would only hit her and not the others. Everyone ran to the south again. Jaheira and Anomen quickly reactivated their Death Wards and took the creature on in melee. Amahoro joined them, and Mazzy fired her arrows from a safe distance.
Imoen and Haer'dalis took the opportunity to reapply some buffs and protections.
The party then attacked Irenicus, with Mazzy interrupting his casting with Gesen's bow.
Note how Imoen and Haer'dalis are in the process of casting a Ruby Ray and a Pierce Shield to strip Irenicus of his protections. This was mostly a preemptive measure, to force their foe to take care of his defenses. Amahoro, Anomen, and Jaheira engaged Irenicus in close combat. It soon became clear that neither Anomen nor Jaheira could stand their ground for long.
Mazzy however, was quite successful with her bow, and the Slayer recognized that after seeing another casting of his disrupted by her. He quickly changed targets, and dealt Mazzy a vicious blow.
Evenually it was just Amahoro (Ages, DoE, AoF, Hardiness) plus two Mordy Swords that did the meleeing, while the others just rained their missiles down on him. This is the last screenshot I took:
The party should now transition to Watcher's Keep, as an interlude between SoA and ToB. This is an SCS v32 feature. I find @DavidW's rationale behind it compelling:
In roleplaying terms, the natural time to explore Watchers' Keep is between the end of Shadows of Amn and the start of Throne of Bhaal. Before chapter 4 you're probably too weak; in chapters 6 and 7 of SoA you're in a desperate race against time; in ToB, the way the start works makes it difficult not to take random time off from urgent business to explore Watchers' Keep. Also, the NPC dialog in Watcher's Keep is ToB-only, and won't play if you do it before you start ToB.
This component moves the start location of Throne of Bhaal to Watchers' Keep, so that you're moved there immediately after the end of SoA. You can then explore WK to your heart's content. When you want to start ToB, just leave WK via the world map. You can still return to WK after leaving.
Be warned: you don't have any stable base, or any way to change your party, as long as you're starting at WK. If you find you need either, you'll need to do the first part of ToB. Similarly, although you could start a new game of ToB using this component, this is only a good idea if you're masochistic enough to want to solo Watchers' Keep with a starting-level ToB character!
In the City the horde started their work with a trip to the sewers. Coming down on top of the ogre mage as I normally do seemed too dangerous with no protection against paralyzation, so a more roundabout route was used to eliminate the carrion crawlers before tackling their master.
The rest of the sewers were easy enough as well, though Toke took quite a lot of poison damage from a phase spider at one point when the text said she saved and there was no poison icon - but the 5 HPs damage was racking up anyway. A few things were immune to bullets, but spirits handled those without trouble.
I wrote in the previous update that Lorbag had rested to get horror. I'd obviously intended to do that, but not actually made sure . They'd just killed Arkion after returning a body to him from the sewers, but regrettably in getting back to him they'd also handed in Nester's dagger - meaning Lorbag actually got a useless slow poison when resting after that.
Moving on to the Docks they Fogged a basilisk from out of sight to get quite close to another level.
Then, moving down in the Low Lantern, they lured Desreta into an ambush. She responded by using a potion of invisibility, but tried to backstab one of the horde rather than attacking the spirits blocking her way. The stand-off was broken by Chat making a first use of Invisibility Purge. A second potion brought the same result and she didn't have a third. Vay-ya followed a similar route and her death allowed everyone to take their 8th level.
I was interrupted while doing that though and 2 of the shamans ended up with farsight as a result, where only one was intended.
The shamans tried their new Spirit Fire spells out for the first time on Ramazith for a quick kill.
They then went upstairs to the mustard jellies and managed to get some suitable summons going before all but 1 of them came back down. That didn't work as well as expected though when both Grinch and Lorbag seemed to mysteriously be taking poison damage. Both had received slow poisons, but without that apparently helping and Grinch eventually died as a result. To try and stave off death for Lorbag the other shamans cast cure light wounds spells on him and watching the text more carefully eventually revealed the problem - the mustard jellies upstairs were still attacking the shamans downstairs (you can see that in the screenshot of Grinch's death, though I didn't notice that until later) . Rather than trying to break the attack by going outside, cures were kept running on Lorbag until the spirits had finished killing the jellies.
Before doing the rest of the Tower, I thought I should do the poison quest before I forgot about that. Lothander is normally a target for his boots of speed, but this time it was only the 4k XP I was after.
I didn't use Writhing Fog on Marek because of the innocent bystanders, but miscast magic got him to fail with the one aggressive spell he tried before being held.
Back at Ramazith's Tower, the ghasts refused to be lured down to an ambush on the level below. That meant I had to do a much more dangerous tactic of a frontal attack. Two of the shamans were paralyzed, but ghasts don't have good defences and couldn't take advantage.
With the Tower complete, they went to find Drelik in the same area, but aborted an attack on him when he used protection from normal missiles. They waited some time until he was vulnerable again then lured him outside into a spirit ambush.
It took a bit of effort upstairs, but they managed to get Jardak into a fighting chain of spirits.
Continuing on through the City, Degrodel's guards offered lots of easy XP when they followed outside.
Degrodel himself dies of exquisite pleasure from the loving touch of some nymphs.
The nymphs starred again in the fight at the Helm & Cloak - confusing nearly all the opposition at the start of the battle and adding in a spot of domination and hold for good measure. Everyone also switched to throwing daggers for the first time there, to increase their firepower significantly.
Ragefast used his paralyzation wand to put 3 of the shamans out of action, but needed more damage capability to really worry them.
I forgot to talk to Ordulinian before killing Arkion & Nemphre, but otherwise picked up all the obvious XP in the City I was allowed - one painful omission was not getting the easy XP for the statues as I couldn't use the scrolls to restore them (you can still destroy them to get their equipment, but don't get the XP for that). The only difficult fight was against Sunin, where they didn't prepare properly in advance - I'm too used to taking Sunin on with a solo character, when he doesn't see you as you come in the door. The shamans tried dodging spells, but were caught out by pathfinding problems and hit by a sunfire leaving them all pretty vulnerable to further damage. They tried splitting up to avoid Sunin following them all - Chat had the most HPs left and acted as the decoy, but only just managed to get away himself after being hit by a fireball and MMM.
That was though a temporary reprieve as Sunin then went straight back into his house after the main group. They tried the same trick again, but Sunin summoned some monsters who also joined the chase. That led to difficult situations in 3 different areas at once, making for a lot of effort for not much happening . Fortunately though Sunin was finally running short on spells or Lorbag would have been in real trouble and the fights were eventually won without casualties.
For the Iron Throne I didn't think the horde stood a chance of getting established upstairs and was also wary of pathfinding problems if they tried to do too much stair hopping. Therefore they set up an ambush 2 floors down, while Grinch went up alone to annoy the opposition and try to get the odd one to follow. The enemies were pretty reluctant to follow, but Diyab, Aasim, Gardush and the doppleganger were persuaded down and summarily dispatched before the first Shennara followed. She had already backstabbed Grinch on the upper floor and ignored the spirits to do it again (he had been healed in the interim though). Trying to get Naaman to come down as well, Grinch was charmed. Four of the others came up to try and help, but were then stuck there. In theory there should have been nothing blocking the staircase, but I think the characters bumping each other did something funny as even individual characters couldn't get back down (on my screen Grinch was shown as being bumped by the others, but I wonder whether due to his charmed state the computer was in fact registering him as blocking the exit). That resulted in all 5 there being either confused or emotioned and Toke had to abandon the spirits downstairs and come up as well to act as a distraction.
Despite being blinded and then charmed she did that successfully until the others started to rejoin the fight (fortunately not having done themselves much injury while confused with missile weapons equipped in close quarters fighting).
Alai submitted meekly before the second Shennara caused a bit of concern. She had several potions of invisibility and though movement managed to waste a couple of those she hit with others (actually I think I should have had time to use Invisibility Purge there more than once, but forgot to do so). However, once the potions were gone, so was she.
That just left Zhalimar - he put up a decent fight, but the odds against him were too great.
Next up the horde will be returning to Candlekeep and will face another potentially formidable obstacle there in the ogre mage greeting party.
I decided to have a complete change and play Icewind Dale Complete. I rolled a Paladin, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Thief and Fighter/Illusionist. We have reached the Vale of Shadows and have entered the last area (A temple I think) So far everything has been straightforward. Only mod installed is the widescreen mod.
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1
The planar sphere is up next so I can build golems and get my apprentices to work. The Nightwalker has no competition and destroys the golem group in the clock area, granting us a level.
Spells gained:
Oblivion Pull, Shadow Shield; Improved Alacrity, Time Stop, Spell Trigger
-Oblivion Pull (lv.9): Imprisonment with 30' range instead of touch. Enemies within about 9' of the target must save vs. spell at -6 or also be imprisoned.
-Shadow Shield (lv.8): For 2 turns: +5 AC, +20% physical resistance, MR set to 20%, magic damage resistance set to 100%; Shadow Weave spells can be cast for free. This spell does not require a save nor does it drain CON.
Tolgerias is Possessed and he kills his mage lackey with Power Word Kill. I have him take on the ice room alone and get him killed to save me the trouble.
The outside of the planar sphere is handled by the Nightwalker again. It blasts through the demons with Shar's Blessing. Even a Marilith, as speedy as they are, is no match for it. I have to wonder if the Nightwalker will ever meet a worthy opponent. Probably not until the dragon bosses of ToB.
It's time to destroy the Twisted Rune. Yin's Shadow Double protects both sorcerers with PfU scrolls. They step on the trigger to make Shangalar appear and pelt him from range until he's near death. Then they buff to maximum and summon a planetar and a nightwalker. The summons are sent forward to Layenne's position while Yang kills Shangalar with a sling bullet, prompting the rest of the Twisted Rune to teleport in.
Layenne and Vaxall fire their prebuffs. The planetar casts True Sight, rendering Layenne visible and the Nightwalker casts Shadowplague on Layenne's simulacra to lock her spellcasting down. She has no time to respond and is killed within the round.
Shyressa is assumedly thrashed by the Nightwalker while it's under Shar's Blessing in less than a round again. The only ones left are Revenek and Vaxall, who wisely puts up a PfMW. But Yang casts Improved Alacrity with the intention of letting Yin kill the beholder with Nightsinger's Tithe. Spell Thrust is cast first to eliminate a potential Spell Shield, then Ruby Ray comes next to tear down his Spell Deflection. The beholder is now vulnerable to spells.
Greater Malison, Breach, Horrid Wilting, and Magic Missile are then cast in rapid succession. The Horrid Wilting proved to be too much for Vaxall and he dies from it. Oh well. There's plenty more targets out there to satisfy Shar's hunger. Revenek was obliterated by the Nightwalker. Vaxall tried using some beholder rays on Yin, but they did nothing at all due to the combined effects of Shadow Screen and Annulment blocking the anti-magic rays and the offensive rays, respectively. The sorcerers redeem level 20.
Spells gained:
Umbral Stasis; Dragon's Breath, Spellstrike
-Umbral Stasis (lv.9): Time Stop. Caster's movement speed is doubled and casting speed gains a +4 bonus.
The sorcerers can now exert their full strength and help each other while both are under aura cleansing. Yang can take out anti-magic buffs and follow up with a planetar for an instant True Sight, which will allow Yin to debuff enemies further, which will let Yang cast highly damaging Horrid Wiltings, and let Yin sacrifice the survivors to Shar. That's pretty much how the fight in the Guarded Compound plays out.
Yin attempts a Nightsinger's Tithe at the fight on Sion...but it fails for some reason despite his prebuffs not having fired yet. Yang gets Improved Alacrity off the ground and goes to town, stripping Sion of his anti-magical protections and then stunning him with PW: Stun, then casting Greater Malison and Web on his friends.
Yin recovers from his failed sacrifice and finishes a Relentless Assault, casting Sigil of Misfortune and Curse to debuff everyone further. While Maferan, Ketta, and Koshi bang away at his Shadow Fireshield, Yin casts Shadow Binding and holds Koshi and Ketta. Yang casts Horrid Wilting, severely weakening the group. Stalman is polymorphed into a squirrel by Yang and finished by the planetar's Insect Plague. The same befalls Olaf and Ketta. Maferan and Sion's iron golem are sacrificed to Shar with Nightsinger's Tithe, granting Yin +2 max HP.
Winning a fight with Improved Alacrity is always satisfying, now doubly so with two sorcerers helping each other with two different kinds of magic. The fight in the Guarded Compound was exactly what I wanted out of this playthrough.
The Unseeing Eye quest is next. The Nightwalker pwns the Unseeing Eye and its Death Tyrants, gaining the sorcerers level 21.
Spells gained:
Shar's Shield; Pierce Magic
-Shar's Shield (lv.6): Globe of Invulnerability + 20% MR.
-Sigil of Despair
-Dark Fortune
-Blackfire Arrow
-Shar's Blessing
-Shadow Blade
-Black Rose
-Shadow Gate
-Negastorm
-Darkbolt
A planetar deals with Gaal. Time to fight Kangaxx. The two liches required to raise him were uncerimoniously beaten with PfU scrolls. We're not doing that against Kangaxx. Both sorcerers are bristling with magical power before awakening the lich. He fires all of his prebuffs and gates in a Fallen Planetar. Yin finishes casting a Black Ray of Destruction to deactivate Kangaxx's spellcasting for two rounds and removes his Spell Trap. Yang runs away and casts Detect Invisibility to reveal the planetar, then Yin seals it away with Oblivion Pull.
Yang uses a Pierce Magic to eliminate the Spell Shield, then uses Spellstrike to destroy all of his anti-magic buffs. Kangaxx gets a Time Stop off the ground, but the Staff of the Magi gives the wielder immunity to it. Yang gives the Staff to Yin, who casts Shar's Blessing to gain Fighter THAC0 and deliver the pain to Kangaxx manually. Kangaxx transforms during the time stop.
Demigaxx has double fire shields, PfMW and Shadow Door going on plus some anti-magic buffs. Yin gives back the Staff to Yang, who re-casts Spell Shield to prevent a Breach. The Nightwalker casts Shadowplague on Demigaxx to cause 100% casting failure and also do a bit of damage through his PfMW, but it keeps banging away at Demigaxx's fire shield, eventually killing itself. Yin summons another and can't do much else because Demigaxx is improved invisible and can't be breached either. Yang works on ridding Demigaxx of his spell protections and finally makes headway when his True Sight dispels Shadow Door. Seizing the opporunity, Yin casts Darkbolt to totally nullify Demigaxx's MR for 5 rounds so Yang could follow up, but it ends up killing Demigaxx instead. Nice!
I think those are all the hard parts of SoA. Smooth sailing from here.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 21
Yang - Dragon Disciple 21
I had been scared about the ogre mage ambush, but on arrival at Candlekeep, two of the horde luckily saved against charm person. That allowed them to quickly shift position before unleashing a full salvo of Spirit Fires. That proved deadly with 3 of the ogre magi evaporating entirely and a 4th running scared at near death.
They used several Invisibility Purges to try and find the final one, but without success and they entered Candlekeep to have a rest.
Inside the library, Spirit Fires didn't quite kill Tuth or Brunos, but they didn't last much longer.
Shistal was then shot down before the horde handed themselves in to the authorities. In the catacombs they left all the treasure, but killed all the enemies. Prat survived a first lot of Spirit Fires, but was confused by nymphs and didn't move away before follow-ups that got Sakul and Bor as well.
The spiders were mainly shot down before Fogs disposed of the basilisks from out of sight.
Outside Candlekeep I had another try to find the last ogre mage, but without joy and headed back to the City. Going to the Flaming Fist there I misjudged the range on Spirit Fire and managed to kill Chat as well as his attacker. A visit to the temple soon put that to rights and the horde rescued Duke Eltan and took him to safety.
At the Iron Throne I tried to lead just one golem down to some spirits, but both were determined to come. However, the spirits proved equal to the challenge thanks to the poor AC of the golems.
Spirit Fires then finished off Cythandria before she could do much.
The horde were still the best part of 50k XP short of being able to take their final BG1 level, so decided to return to Durlag's Tower. I couldn't help thinking that the basilisks on the roof might be possible. The lesser basilisks don't attack instantly, so it seemed quite possible the shamans could hit it with Spirit Fires before it gazed. Risking everything on the roll of a dice they tried it - and the basilisk gazed at the same time as their spells fired. Lady Luck was smiling though and Chat saved.
The first greater basilisk was then killed just with Fog from a distance to avoid the danger of it being alerted to a Spirit Fire attack from 2 or 3 of them at once.
The second and third though were speeded up with rounds of Spirit Fire.
Underground, the shamans could now muster full lightning and fire protection to allow them to explore more fully. It took a while, but enemies were gradually pulled back into the main room for spirits to tank. They hadn't quite completed that process when a phase spider teleported in after a rest and they were able to take the final level.
Deciding to try and complete the level anyway they activated the warders and threw in some Spirit Fires, but failed to do much damage. Avarice also ignored the nearby summons and went straight after Lorbag for the backstab - fortunately rolling poor damage.
The horde ran for the level exit, but found the warders coming through on top of their stragglers.
Four of them got up to the next level, but Grunt was charmed by the warders and taken down to a single HP with further attacks before they left him alone. Meanwhile Toke was suffering from another mysterious blocked exit. Despite trying to go up alone and no-one apparently being in the way when she got there, repeated efforts to exit failed and she was cut down (possibly Avarice was blocking invisibly, but not attacking for some reason, though the cursor appeared to show the exit point as clear).
Despite it being a while since the others had gone upstairs, Pride obviously knew where to search and popped up after them immediately Toke was killed. Spirits were ready for him and I think could have eventually taken him down - except that he was regenerating faster than they could damage them, so for once the spirits didn't offer a solution. He also seemed to have high magic resistance so nymph spells didn't look likely to work - leaving the 4 active shamans no real option but to leave. However, they still had a problem. Grunt was being continually attacked by Fear and permanently held as a result, but not being killed. A bit of concerted movement produced some summons for Pride to attack while Pretty Boy nipped downstairs and inflicted a first death on Grunt.
However, he also found the exit blocked and was then held and charmed. Upstairs, Grinch had kept the summons going to distract Pride, but paid for that with his life when I spent too long at one time watching what was happening downstairs. That left only 2 shamans waiting outside the Tower and I thought I might be in an impossible situation there if Pretty Boy was also left alive, but permanently disabled by the warders - but luckily Love decided to kill him this time.
Even without having picked up most treasure, the party still had over 80k gold, so fees for raise dead and buying more cheap equipment were not a problem. Everyone's now armed and ready for the next target - which won't be a return to Durlag's Tower .
@Grond0, the Warders are easily enough to end anybody's run prematurely. Well done on escaping, and having the due caution not to return.
@Wise_Grimwald, I fully second @semiticgod on the Icewind Dale love. Nice work in the Vale. Did the Skeletal Mage and cronies give you any issues? I always find them troublesome: he has a tendency to blanket the place in Stinking Cloud, which his undead buddies are immune to...
I was tempted by the idea of both Ice Isle and the werewolves. If I was confident about being able to talk my way past Kaishas I would have gone for the latter, but I'm not sure of the dialogue requirements and fighting her would have been a toss-up given her magic resistance - and my luck in this run has already been too heavily relied on.
So instead it was time for Slythe. Krystin came out to support him quicker than I expected and threw in a chain lightning at Grunt - causing him to move out of position to try and spare the others. The result was he was caught by a follow-up chaos and finished off by Slythe.
Slythe himself was the next to fall though.
After exchanging a few spells with nymphs, Krystin was dominated, but recovered instantly. She was dominated again shortly afterwards though and her spell book showed she was out of her most dangerous spells - it didn't then take long to finish her off.
At the Palace 5 nymphs were produced for the first time. They wasted their domination spells while the horde buffed up. Confusion spells were timed for the change to dopplegangers, but were disappointing in only affecting one of them.
None of their hold monster spells worked either and Liia fell to the greater dopplegangers while the shaman, assassin and mage were concentrating on the other end of the room.
One notable feature at this point was Pretty Boy dispelling the mage's mirrors with a first successful use of the shaman dispel illusion ability.
The shaman fell, but 2 new nymphs both failed with hold monster attempts to relieve the pressure on Belt.
The assassin and one of the greater dopplegangers went down, but the mage had disappeared into a shadow door. Hunting for him using dispel illusion eventually found him, just before the last of his companions was struck down.
The mage wasn't finished yet though and managed to release a lightning bolt. That cris-crossed the room 4 times, hitting Belt twice and Pretty Boy at least twice - enough to kill him anyway.
A magic missile minor sequencer nearly sent Grinch the same way, but the mage found himself out of stoneskins as Belt got his revenge for Liia's death.
The horde moved away quickly enough to entice Belt into the back room and ensure Sarevok wouldn't claim another victim.
After all the recent excitement I took things more sedately in the maze, using spirits to kill everything - though doing that against 3 skeleton warriors at once (2 of them archers) was a marginal tactic and required a lot of changing positions.
In the Undercity Tamoko was protected against hold, but not against insects.
A round of Spirit Fire killed all the party there except Gorf and Rahvin - the former was confused, but both died anyway in the impacts from the latter's exploding arrows.
The area was then thoroughly cleaned of undead.
Now came the moment of truth. With invisibility the final battle against Sarevok would be very easy. Without invisibility though I expected it to be much more challenging. The shamans started off by summoning some nymphs and charming a couple of bats. I tried farsight, but as with other times I've attempted that it appears to be bugged and did nothing - meaning I didn't proceed with the idea for the bats to attack on their own (and potentially trigger in-fighting among the enemies). A round of spirit fires was used instead, but killed no-one. The follow-up confusions from the nymphs showed no saving throws though, suggesting that the damage had not resulted in anyone going hostile. Therefore a second round was used, but this time I noticed in the text that, though Semaj and Tazok were killed, there was no text reporting on Angelo and Diarmid (though both had been referred to as buffing when the shamans first entered the temple).
A charmed bat successfully dragged the skeleton warriors back into spirits while Sarevok was occupied killing nymphs, but I was rather disheartened.
I've found the failure of Angelo and Diarmid to spawn properly is a pretty common occurrence in my SCS installations and abandoned a number of games as a result. I did continue playing for a bit, watching Sarevok in battle with spirits - confirming it should be possible for them to kill him, although they obviously couldn't do that in this situation where he was still regenerating due to not having lost all his acolytes. I used an animal summons to drag Sarevok out of sight again so I could save the game, but I'm not quite sure now whether to abandon the run or use some sort of cheat to continue (I've checked that loading the autosave won't correct the spawning even if I don't attack Sarevok before his dialogue).
@Wise_Grimwald, I fully second @semiticgod on the Icewind Dale love. Nice work in the Vale. Did the Skeletal Mage and cronies give you any issues? I always find them troublesome: he has a tendency to blanket the place in Stinking Cloud, which his undead buddies are immune to...
So far it has been color spray which has been the biggest problem. Entire party put to sleep!
After that it was the mummy due to shortage of weapons that were effective. Also didn't have the best spells memorised. However the party survived.
Coremage the human level 12 mage/level 13 berserker (inactive) Update
Traveling with: Keldorn, Minsc, Jaheira, Anomen, Imoen
The party continues to make great progress. We were able to convince Lonk to release the prisoners for 2000 gold. Then it was time for Irenicus. We had huge number of hits on him, plus Imoen's dispelling arrows wasn't doing him any favors - he eventually realized he needed to retreat. Wanev didn't even get time for a time stop.
Next up was the Saemon Havarian shenanigans. We eventually find ourselves in the City of Caverns. This was pretty easy for the party, as the death spell works on many of these enemies. Keldorn used a protection from undead and Daystar against the group of undead in the area. We supported the King - Keldorn wanted them to all die anyways, so seems fitting somehow.
Time for the Underdark! This went mostly smooth. Our 1st goal was freeing the mage - we didn't push our luck and was happy enough with the horrid wilting spell as reward. We also helped the gnome village. Despite 1/2 the party being held, but the party still beat the demon.
The Kua-Toa lair was perfect - no problems there. Not even the Demon Knights were much of a problem, surprisingly. Beholder Lair, Minsc got imprisoned but Imoen cast a freedom spell from a scroll and then we were back in business. We skipped most of the trapped souls, other than releasing the trapped gnome. Jaheira died a few times in the Illithid City, but otherwise that went pretty smooth as well.
Ust Natha quests went well as well, and were by the numbers (good routes). Thanks to 20 CHA, Coremage convinced Phaere to not have sex with him, which Jaheira was pleasantly surprised about. We eventually make our way to the Underdark Exit.
After being insulted by Elhan, we then went to some unfinished business from Chapter Two. In particular, we need to talk to some dragons. Thaxxy died incredibly quick - Anomen used magic resist to lower the dragon's magic resistance then used finger of death - result? Dead dragon!
So next up was headed to Windspear Hills to find another Dragon - maybe Keldorn can get a weapon upgrade here? We were just about to enter Firkraag's lair and ended the session here.
Don't let Firkraag kill you!! Many of my runs have ended there.
Indeed! Mine as well. He's much easier if you wait until after the Underdark to deal with him. We got a lot more levels to help with that. As well as some powerful summons and good weapons.
@Grond0, for future trips to the Isle of Balduran:
To talk your way past Kaishas your protagonist needs either Intelligence 14+, or Wisdom 14+ and good alignment, and you need to have saved Maralee's baby and befriended Durlayle or Delainy.
Very sorry about that Sarevok battle. Did you trigger his dialog? Even an invisible character can approach the platform and trigger that dialog. After it, his minions always materialize in my install. I never deal any (AoE) damage before it, so I'm not sure if the opening spirit fires may have messed with a script.
Could you solve the issue by spawning Angelo and Diarmid through the console?
@Corey_Russell and @Flashburn, looking good guys! I hope and I think Amahoro will be in good company in ToB soon.
22 Marpenoth 1368: The entrance to the mines is protected inside a Motte-and-bailey fortification deep in the Cloakwood. In the woods, to its west, my retinue eliminated eight BTE & Five Guards, which netted 11 sets of Splint Mail (it seems the Iron Crisis effected my foes as well). Minsc fell in the last tussle w/BTE, so my retinue & I had the extra burden of carrying his gear with us.
KEY EVENT: Once the BTE & Guards were destroyed outside & I had cleared the black to my satisfaction, I decided not to head back & ordered assault on the Motte-and-bailey. Khalid went ahead using stealth & identified two Guards. He identified where Faldorn needed to cast Entangle & she did just that. Then my archers & Faldorn w/her darts, took them out. We hid their bodies under the bridge after I had their Splint Mail taken. But, then, things got downright desperate & stayed that way for many hours.
Sending the stealthy Khalid ahead to recon has been masterful strategy. But, there’s always the danger he gets mauled, or returns bringing a hornet’s nest w/him – he did the latter. As he came back across the bridge, he was dogged by a knight wearing Boots of Speed. I cast Command, to no effect. It then became a desperate race to bring the enemy down while avoiding his Morning Star. Despite his boots, we spread out & attacked him from different directions. As he reacted first to one, then to another, & so forth, he was never able to take any of us out & eventually, he fell.
GOT HIM!
With his boots & Morning Star +1 (that I kept for myself), the strategy changed & Khalid took the boots & used them to go ahead, multiple times & spy the remaining enemy, two mages & a knight. But, there just didn’t seem to be a way to get @ them. Finally, I allowed us to rest & refresh our spells for another day.
Khalid & Faldorn used their same strategy to take out a second, more heavily armored knight & then everyone came forward & focused on him. Despite a healing potion, he was immobile in Faldorn’s Entangle spell & we did finally bring him down. The battle was a fast-moving place. The two mages were engaging & had already flooded the fight with summoned creatures.
After a couple of tries that I realized, that w/o Minsc, I couldn’t get to the mages with the retinue I have. I had Imoen give up her Cloak of Non-detection to Khalid, & under cover of stealth, sent him to recover the equipment of the fallen knight – a set of Plate Armor. Faldorn Blessed him & he was able to get the armor, but the mages locked in on him. He was scorched good when he returned & I got us out of there. I quickly to returned us, sold the armor, raised Minsc & got back before the IT react.
On return, I equipped Minsc w/The Boots of Speed, & Potions of Magic Blocking, Explosions & Extra Healing. He was to charge the bridge, release the Potion of Explosions into the courtyard & charge the nearest mage. It didn’t work but it kept the most difficult of mages engaged, especially after he went from Barbarian Rage to Berserk. The rest of us focused on the weaker mage, & when Khalid used the Arrows of Ice in his quiver rather than Arrows +1 it was instantly effective. Quickly he did big damage to the second mage. We all tasted blood & moved in for the easy kill.
Or @ least, I thought, b/c in quick succession the other mage managed to bring Minsc, Khalid & Eldoth down. With the first mage dead, Imoen, Faldorn & I had to get the other down. Luckily, before he fell, Khalid had pelted him with the Ice Arrows. He was barely wounded when I descended on him with the others, but, his protections had worn off & he was out of offensive spells. I kept the various summoned creatures busy with my own Animate Dead & Faldorn’s Summoned Dread Wolf, while the three of us finally killed the last of the enemy adventurers. After that, I collected the battlefield, amongst the three of us, & headed back to civilization after quickly clearing the outbuildings of the Motte-and-bailey.
Thanks for the information @Blackraven - that means then that this group would have to fight her as Lorbag is neutral. Still, thinking about it, nymphs could use lightning on her as well as the shamans themselves, so I think they would have a pretty good chance of success.
I said in the last update I'd tried loading the autosave and Angelo and Diarmid still didn't spawn when talking to Sarevok. However, my past experience with this encounter is that it works inconsistently and so I tried it again - and this time they did spawn. Regrettably though I hadn't done any preparation and, with no buffs or summons and out of position, it didn't take long for Sarevok to wipe the floor with Lorbag.
I don't allow any test battles during my runs, so that was that. However, given the circumstances I felt justified in reloading the autosave again to see how my intended tactics would work if I try this run again. I didn't play it right through, but successfully stranded everyone but Angelo in a corner using a couple of charmed bats (normally I would use invisibility for that, but shamans don't get that until level 5 - and Pixie Dust is anyway so slow casting it would probably be interrupted). Angelo confused Lorbag with a chaos, but he managed to stay out of trouble while the others dispelled Angelo's invisibility and the nymphs then held him. The shamans have an absolutely huge amount of area damage available between them, so the battle was effectively won at that point. While not foolproof I think that tactic has a pretty reasonable chance of success ...
@Wise_Grimwald, I fully second @semiticgod on the Icewind Dale love. Nice work in the Vale. Did the Skeletal Mage and cronies give you any issues? I always find them troublesome: he has a tendency to blanket the place in Stinking Cloud, which his undead buddies are immune to...
Just got to him. He did indeed cause problems. Due to the cloud, my paladin succumbed to death and if he hadn't been raised at the temple he might have become a follower of Myrkul too.
That was very expensive and made me wonder if I should have spent money on slightly better armour. It all depends on whether you get away with it. If you do, buying the armour is a waste as, if I remember correctly there is some decent armour to be found.
It is such a long time since I played that I cannot even remember where the traps are. It is almost as if I am playing a new game.
So, back to the vale it is. I could have chosen to farm experience using the lesser shadows that respawn, but decided against it. Just killed them whenever they reappeared in the course of the game.
I said in the last update I'd tried loading the autosave and Angelo and Diarmid still didn't spawn when talking to Sarevok.
Sorry I missed that. Am a poor reader during my commutes I think (which makes @Mantis37's no-reload achievement all the grander to me). Looks like you may have to re-install SCS then, or just wait for v32 (which in its current form still has some bugs of its own). Good luck with your next endeavor.
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2
Firkraag's dungeon is up next. Nightwalkers and Planetars clear it out while aura cleansing annihilates Samia's party. Assembling King Strohm's mask gains Yin a level while the nearby golem group gets Yang a level. Yang's pretty much capped out as far as HLAs go, but Yin still has plenty of room to get stronger.
Time to fight Firkraag. Conster is killed by Nightsinger's Tithe before revealing Firkraag from the fog of war. He doesn't care at all! Yin summons his Nightwalker and Yang casts Protection from Fire on it. This should keep it from dying against the dragon's fire breath. The sorcerers power up with aura cleansing and Yin begins with Darkbolt to set Firkraag's MR to 0 for a while and potentially cut his max HP in half. He saves against it, though.
Greater Malison + Sigil of Misfortune + Minor Sequencer of Curse + Sigil of Despair reduces Firkraag's saves by 11. Cone of Bitter Cold strikes Firkraag for 48 damage + 110 from his max HP. Nightwalker uses Shadowplague to cause minor piercing damage at double speed since Firkraag is hasted.
Yang hits with Magic Missile, Horrid Wilting, and Skull Trap. Firkraag is finished off by a Negastorm from Yin. The fight is over in less than two rounds because Relentless Assault is refreshed.
Negastorm (lv.8): Deals 1d4 cold/2 levels, up to 10d4 and 10% of targets' max HP, +1% after 16 up to 14%. Also drains 2 STR and 1 level. Save vs. spell negates level drain and d4 cold damage. Negastorm hits once per round for two rounds and is party-friendly. Every 5 levels after 20, the save penalty increases by 1 and max HP damage increases by 1%.
The key to the illithid enclave in the temple sewers is used. The Nightwalker clears it out for us. The alhoon is imprisoned with Oblivion Pull once its spell protections are removed. Both sorcerers have to use PfMW/PfWfW to avoid getting brain-drained by the alhoon's spell trigger of Improved Haste+Tenser's Transformation+SI: Abjuration.
Watcher's Keep is next in the neverending quest for more power. The statues are destroyed by a planetar and the nightwalker working together. Curiously, there was no mage statue.
The Chromatic Demon is beaten by the Nightwalker at lightning speed. A pit fiend in the dead magic area of the maze provides another level.
Aesgareth's party is on the chopping block. I don't need the Wish scroll nor Spectral Brand so Yin cuts to the chase. Under aura cleansing, he casts Umbral Stasis to boost his casting speed by 4, which, when combined with his +5 bonus casting speed from 25 INT, lets his cast all of his spells instantly. The tiefling mage is sacrificed with Nightsinger's Tithe. Yin then casts Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade and starts slashing away at Aesgareth at 5 attacks/round at negative THAC0. Yang meanwhile casts Greater Malison, Horrid Wilting, and then Dragon's Breath during the Umbral Stasis. Aesgareth is sacrificed to Shar as well.
Yang's damage spells either wipe out or severely weaken Aesgareth's tiefling entourage, letting a Nightwalker mop them up easily.
Time to use the Deck. Yang uses SI: Abjuration+Evocation but draws the Jester card. 50k XP would've more than closed the XP gap between him and Yin. The second draw has Yang put up SI: Alteration and Necromancy. Yin takes a risk on the last draw, fortunately not drawing Fool. A planetar could've fixed him if he did draw it, though.
A nightwalker and a planetar work together in the illithid enclave of Watcher's Keep 4, but it's tricky to navigate as the illithid are very numerous and teleport over to the sorcerers with Planar Travel. Yin has to use Shadow Walk to escape being surrounded at one point. A nightwalker and Perfect Clay Golem MK I beat Saladrex by themselves while under Protection from Fire. Nyx levels up and gains HLAs!
The sorcerers are up to the challenge to beat the resident demilich. From their performance against Kangaxx, I'm sure they'll do just fine. Though they're not buffed to the gills, the fight begins. Black Ray is fired to prevent the demilich from casting spells and to eliminate its Spell Turning. Darkbolt follows next to negate its MR for 5 rounds, followed by Shadowplague to cause more casting failure. Darkbolt deals significant damage, though the demilich saves against having its max HP cut in half.
The demilich casts Time Stop. Yang casts Dragon's Breath and uses his breath weapon, then hands over the staff to Yin, who casts Merciless Blizzard and then cancels out part of the Demilich's own Time Stop using Shadowstep! This is actually the first time that Yin has even used his Shadowstep ability. Yin gives the staff back to Yang so he can still cast spells during Shadowstep. There isn't much else that can be done during the Time Stop, though.
Once it's over, the effects resolve. The Demilich uses a Chain Contingency of Spell Deflection and Spell Shield. Yang is still under aura cleansing, so he tears that right down with a Pierce Magic and a Ruby Ray. Yang's Dragon Breath kills the demilich immediately afterward.
The Nosferatu tome is on the demilich. It's extremely powerful, but that massive HP penalty makes it not worth it. One errant Power Word Stun and Yin could be toast while wielding it, and I know how much Glabrezus like to cast that spell.
Yin takes all the stat buffs from the Machine of Lum the Mad and the way to Level 5 of Watcher's Keep is opened. I think I'll save it for later. I want Yin to have some Boots of Speed before doing any more high level stuff because it's a pain for only Yang to have them.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 26
Yang - Dragon Disciple 26
A Tale of Two Sorcerers
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2
Firkraag's dungeon is up next... I want Yin to have some Boots of Speed before doing any more high level stuff because it's a pain for only Yang to have them.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 26
Yang - Dragon Disciple 26
The Nosferatu tome is on the demilich. It's extremely powerful, but that massive HP penalty makes it not worth it. One errant Power Word Stun and Yin could be toast while wielding it, and I know how much Glabrezus like to cast that spell.
Hmm... a book called Nosferatu that can be used as a weapon by a dark mage to life drain people a limited number of times? Sounds like a reference to Fire Emblem.
The Nosferatu tome is on the demilich. It's extremely powerful, but that massive HP penalty makes it not worth it. One errant Power Word Stun and Yin could be toast while wielding it, and I know how much Glabrezus like to cast that spell.
Hmm... a book called Nosferatu that can be used as a weapon by a dark mage to life drain people a limited number of times? Sounds like a reference to Fire Emblem.
That's pretty cool! I've never played Fire Emblem before but a quick look on its wiki all but confirms that you're right. Here's what it looks like when you attack with it.
Shamanic hordes (8th and final update)
I said in the last update I'd tried loading the autosave and Angelo and Diarmid still didn't spawn when talking to Sarevok. However, my past experience with this encounter is that it works inconsistently and so I tried it again - and this time they did spawn. Regrettably though I hadn't done any preparation and, with no buffs or summons and out of position, it didn't take long for Sarevok to wipe the floor with Lorbag.
I don't allow any test battles during my runs, so that was that. However, given the circumstances I felt justified in reloading the autosave again to see how my intended tactics would work if I try this run again. I didn't play it right through, but successfully stranded everyone but Angelo in a corner using a couple of charmed bats (normally I would use invisibility for that, but shamans don't get that until level 5 - and Pixie Dust is anyway so slow casting it would probably be interrupted). Angelo confused Lorbag with a chaos, but he managed to stay out of trouble while the others dispelled Angelo's invisibility and the nymphs then held him. The shamans have an absolutely huge amount of area damage available between them, so the battle was effectively won at that point. While not foolproof I think that tactic has a pretty reasonable chance of success ...
Damn, I'm sorry about the bug and subsequent mix-up with your pre-battle-prep, @Grond0. I was really enjoying the variety of tactics you used with Lorbag's horde! Especially impressed with the tactical challenges they took on from BG1; I see some players skipping some meaty bits of the game to get into BG2 quickly. Looking forward to the next horde.
Just got to him. He did indeed cause problems. Due to the cloud, my paladin succumbed to death and if he hadn't been raised at the temple he might have become a follower of Myrkul too.
That was very expensive and made me wonder if I should have spent money on slightly better armour. It all depends on whether you get away with it. If you do, buying the armour is a waste as, if I remember correctly there is some decent armour to be found.
Before my move to no-reload I would have played it risky and gambled on picking up the plate mail later. But that extra point of AC adds up, especially considering that with the literal hordes of enemies in IWD long-term survival is really a statistical process, and the law of averages really has a big effect. A paladin tank should really have plate as soon as possible, in my opinion.
It is such a long time since I played that I cannot even remember where the traps are. It is almost as if I am playing a new game.
I recently had a playthrough of IWD, and it was my first time back in the game in years; I had exactly the same feelings, it was awesome! On top of that I was playing Heart of Fury mode, starting from level 1 in Easthaven. Crikey the first sections were a slog, but it made every battle super exciting.
Comments
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 5
SoA: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Amahoro and her friends got through the Underdark, but the execution of their mission wasn't entirely flawless. They collaborated with Vithal and did not fight him afterwards, as he seemed reasonable. They contented themselves with a rod of absorption and a scroll. Deirex's previously cast Spell Turning expired immediately, as had happened with Irenicus.
At House Jaelatt, the party got involved in a rather chaotic dust-up, with more foes than I had remembered. Jaheira and Anomen got Silenced. It taught me how much I go by auditory cues when doing battle: Anomen fell without me noticing it. An injured Imoen escaped a Chaos when she had already been Malisoned, through a quickly cast SI:Enchantment (thank you Robe of Vecna).
Both Matron Mother Ardulace and Phaere were fooled by the party. The former dropped the second wardstone needed to assemble Kangaxx's body parts. They swiftly led Ust Natha behind, and brought Adalon her eggs. The silver dragon did a good job in dispatching several drow and two glabrezus blocking the exit out of the Underdark, but she was nevertheless a bit too quick in abandoning the party to their taste. The companions tried to get out of a Sphere of Chaos, toward the enemy, but were still at the edge of the spell's AoE when Anomen was turned into a squirrel (he chugged an invisibility potion), and moments later it rendered Amahoro unconscious. With a few drow still in front of them and two stone golems, this meant trouble. Imoen managed to cast Invisibility on Amahoro.
They agreed to help the elves of Suldanessalar against the drow. In turn Drizzt, the Order of the Radiant Heart, and the Shadow Thieves promised to help the party against Bodhi. But the companions had unfinished business to attend to first.
Kruin got his blade back and Cromwell upgraded several items before the party returned to Spellhold (through the Back to Brynnlaw mod), but they failed to locate Jan Jansen. They did battle several Cowled Wizards on the island and inside Spellhold. The ones in Spellhold were prolific summoners. But full buffs, a wide selection of debuffs, and Imoen's ADHW made the party capable enough to deal with such opposition.
An illithid lair beneath Athkatla's temple district was routed by the party. A first group was battled without Fire Storm as Jaheira kept making her casting gestures but failed to actually cast the spell. Through lots of pausing and running around, the others - all hasted - slew the enemy with ranged attacks.
The final room did see some AoE damage delivered by the party from a Fire Storm and a (less impactful) Storm of Vengeance before several illithids came teleporting toward the party.
I'm not sure if Kangaxx was able to target Amahoro, but I decided not to test this and just use ctrl-j. I'm willing to accept the cluster bug with Draconis, because he'll still be targetable, but a completely untouchable Kangaxx is a bit too much for me to go along with. The fight was taken outside, where Kangaxx managed to kill Imoen and nearly Haer'dalis too with a Comet. When his PfMW ran out, Anomen quickly destroyed the creature with his mace.
Next was Twisted Rune, one of my favorite SoA encounters. The dispel trap didn't remove anyone's long-lasting buffs (Stoneskins, Ironskins, Impervious Sanctity of Mind), so that was a promising start. Haer'dalis cast six or seven Skull Traps from scroll at Vaxall's spawning point. A full pre-buffing session followed, and some summons were called: Kitthix, a deva (by Anomen), and an efreeti. I expected Shangalar to emerge in the chamber near the entrance, and thus near the party, but he didn't. He spawned in front of the table.
The Skull Traps killed Vaxall.
The deva and the efreeti had a second kill in Shyressa. When Haer'dalis was teleported into the main room by the Teleport Field, Layene finally started to wake up. (She had hurled a few energy blades at the efreeti earlier, but that was before the efreeti was called back to the party and before Shangalar's Time Stop). She had a predominantly offensive Chain Contingency for Haer'dalis:
The guarded compound battle is an encounter I normally skip as I've never been that much of a Celestial Fury fan, but with Item Randomisation, everything is different of course. In chapter 6, the enemy doesn't pose a huge threat. Sion was downed by a barrage of missiles that stopped him from even casting anything.
Downstairs, the party had to fight a number of constructs: battle horrors, mage constructs and rogue constructs. A change from the fiends I was used to.
Belm and the ring of lockpicks were the most notable spoils. All speed weapons have been found. Cromwell forged the rings of lockpicks and danger sense, a pair of bracers of AC4, gloves of pickpocketing, and two rings of the princes into the gloves of the master thief: AC3, + 25% locks, +25 find traps, +20 pickpockets, +1 saves. They're perfect for Imoen, who has 75 locks, 75 traps and 75 pickpockets (those were her BG1 level 10 Swashbuckler stats and I restored them as well as her Swashbuckler levels at the beginning of the game).
Finally the time came to confront Bodhi. In the Graveyard District the party's number one undead slayer, and Amahoro's mate Anomen was sadly abducted by Bodhi. Amahoro picked up his mace, and the rest of his gear. She managed to chunk some of the lesser vampires outside.
Drizzt's party was more competent than the paladins, with everyone surviving,
But the encounter with Bodhi was a disappointment. She was bugged. Her cold flames did trigger (Drizzt killed himself hitting the cold flames shield) and she did use her cloud of bats ability, but she didn't fight. There were still the other vampires to worry about, including the two casters, as well as Artemis Entreri, but Haer'dalis could cast two Sunrays with upgraded Daystar, Jaheira had two False Dawns from the buckler of Amaunator, Mazzy was a sharpshooter, and Amahoro a beast with the Mace of Disruption. They prevailed with relative ease. I did a reload but couldn't get Bodhi to attack. Oh well, with a couple of PfU scrolls the outcome would have been similar I suppose.
Bodhi's room contained a pair of Legacy of the Masters and the blood pool in the spiked room Celestial Fury. Everyone but Imoen leveled up, and she got a level from talking Venduris and co out of attacking the party. She took a pip in katanas.
Time to try and save Suldanessalar...
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
My documentation was pretty sloppy once I got to Amn. It's mainly just me going through the motions of the easy side quests so I didn't think it was interesting enough to warrant screenshots. I just find BG1 to be more fun these days, I guess.
The sorcerers take on the Pebblecrusher party after looting the ruins of Chateau Irenicus and getting some basics from Ribald. Nyx casts Dark Fortune on herself and pickpockets everything she can steal from the Pebblecrusher party and picks Brenden last. Since pickpocketing versus a fellow rogue is an opposed check, she fails it on purpose to turn the party hostile. With our buffs already in place and my Shadow Double at the ready, I unleash a Sigil of Misfortune+Night Terrors+Dread Silence sequencer on the party while Yang follows up with Web and my double casts Curse. This disables all of them except Sorcerous Amon.
At the Copper Coronet, Yin tries out Possess for the first time on Llynis. With his physical stats buffed to 25, he's great! He can also drink invisibility potions by script, as provided to him by SCS. By escaping from line of sight and stealthing, he pretty much solos the beast master and his pets but gets killed by a bear.
An otyugh is the next possession target. It clears out the coronet's sewers solo. It returns to us and Yin ends the possession, knocking it out cold.
Mae'var's first sidequest gets us level 15.
-Twin Mislead (lv.6): As Mislead, but creates a second clone after 3 rounds regardless of the status of the first clone.
-Cone of Bitter Cold (lv.5): Deals 1d4 cold+1% of the victims' max HP per level, up to 20d4+20% max HP. Also causes Slow and 1d6 cold damage/round, both for 2 rounds+1 round/4 levels. Save vs. spell at -2 halves the damage from the d4's, negates the Slow, and lingering cold damage.
The rest of Mae'var's questline is completed and he is killed with the help of the shades, Black Ray of Destruction, True Sight, and Night Terrors' panic effect. The graveyard district is cleared and so we move on to the De'Arnise Keep, as trolls are deathly allergic (ahaha) to Night Terrors and to level drain from summoned wraiths and devil shades. The iron golem at the keep is possessed and used to beat up the other golems and the trolls while Yang escorts it, finishing off the trolls with a Wand of Fire.
-Spell Trigger: Shadow Weave users automatically learn Spell Trigger when they are able to cast 8th level spells.
Trademeet is up next. Nyx steals the genie lamp and Adratha is dealt with using a 3x Summon Shadow sequencer again. 3 devil shades and 6 wraiths are deadly. A shambling mound pushes the sorcerers to level 17.
-Sword of the Night (lv.7): Mordy's Sword but deals 3d4+4 slashing and 2d4 cold.
Quests in the bridge district are done and part of the Umar Hills ruins, though we leave before the room that spawns the lich and 2 greater mummies, obviously aware of the danger they present as an Aerial Servant killed Torque the last time I was here. I should've done the Planar Prison to get him Boots of Speed, so we go do that next. Summoned shades and Merciless Blizzard make it much easier since the blizzard pretty much stymies any mage caught in it. The Master of Thralls and his goons provide level 18 and our first HLAs!
HLAs gained: Summon Nightwalker; Summon Planetar.
-Chain Contingency: Shadow Weave users automatically learn Chain Contingency when they are able to cast 9th level spells.
-Summon Nightwalker: Better at straight-up melee than Planetar but not quite as sturdy. Immune to cold, takes half damage from everything else except electricity, magical, and magic fire. 300 HP, regens 1 HP/3 secs, 5 attacks (2d12 crushing, save vs. death at -6 or lose 2 STR), shares immunities with aTweaks demons and aTweaks undead and is immune to imprisonment and stun. Casts Shadow Weave spells instantly and is immune to their CON drain.
Now that one of us has the Boots of Speed, we return back to the Temple Ruins. Yin's Shadow Double uses scrolls of PfU on both the sorcerers and Nyx before they re-enter. The Planetar and Nightwalker are summoned against the Lich and his buddies. The Nightwalker devastates them all with Shadowplague, causing them 100% casting failure and then rips them apart while buffed by Shar's Blessing for 10 attacks per round.
We rest again and buff for the fight against the Shade Lord. Since Yin is a Shadow Disciple CHARNAME, he gets extra dialogue options against the Shade Lord. Yin challenges the Shade Lord to see who is the real master of shadows.
Here's how we're looking after casting long-term buffs.
Henn (dwarf fighter/thief, Gate70); Qat (dwarf thief, Grond0)
Another day, starting in the Promenade.
We cross off the circus and leave for the slums where Gaelan Bayle is waiting. After talking to him we change ownership of the Copper Coronet and trek off to the docks. Both thief buildings there take a dose of ransacking, and we kill off three minotaurs in one building before heading to the Temple district.
The temple sewers look like fun and we spend a bit of time there dealing with a troll that refuses to die until shot with a fire arrow while still stood up, and the rakshasa's minions. Haer'Dalis is freed and then we unleash some traps and backstabs on Tarnor's gang. It's not much of a plan but good fun.
Henn almost kills Gaius with an opening backstab but he may have baulked Qat who only backstabs after Gauis has buffs activated. The blocking also forces Henn to run east instead of west, he then turns and runs back, giving several seconds more visibility than he planned.
Qat is running the other way as Henn receives a panic spell. He doesn't notice the flamestrike on Qat, or the obliteration of his buddy. The gig is up.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
At the xvart village, I was a bit surprised to find Borda had haste as a pre-buff. However, he was faced with spirits and didn't have the spell damage to cause the shamans any real concern.
Deciding it was time for the Nashkel Mine, the horde stocked up on bullets. Entangle and Fog did a good job against the kobold hordes, while a first use of insects helped prevent the shaman from casting anything nasty.
After emerging from the back door to the mine, the horde remembered they still had a bit of work to do in the area. Narcillicus was persuaded to create a couple of mustard jellies and they were led into pre-generated summons (both bears and panthers do slashing damage able to hit jellies.
In Beregost I actually got some value for once by handing a vial of Mysterious Liquid into Thunderhammer - prompting him to make some unbreakable weapons. Tranzig wasted most of his spells on summons before trying to hide in a corner - but finding things a bit chilly there.
Chat - L6, 49 HPs, 270 kills, 1 death
Grinch - L6, 51 HPs, 248 kills, 1 death
Grunt - L6, 52 HPs, 259 kills, 0 deaths
Lorbag (PC) - L6, 51 HPs, 266 kills, 0 deaths
Pretty Boy - L6, 53 HPs, 221 kills, 1 death
Toke - L6, 49 HPs, 237 kills, 1 death
Gery - half-elf archer (Grond0)
Yertone - human inquisitor (Corey_Russell)
Tabetha - gnome illusionist / thief (Gate70)
Previous updates:
A productive session started at the Nashkel Carnival where Tabetha looked at her spell book and proclaimed there was no need for a green scroll to protect against petrification. Sure enough the Trio were soon in action against basilisks with levels coming thick and fast.
Tabetha was very close to being able to cast 2nd level spells, so went to find Korax to lend a helping hand.
Next up were the sirines at the Lighthouse - Yertone tanking them with the help of a potion of clarity.
After beating up some half-ogres to get Yertone a shield upgrade from Bjornin, a few tasks in Beregost included a swift and merciful (or do I mean merciless?) death for a blinded Silke.
Next it seemed time to visit Shoal. It is now possible to have dialogue with her without suffering a fatal kiss, but none of us were sure of the required option so Tabetha ended up having to battle Droth with a single HP - which she did successfully.
With reputation up at 19, Yertone was anxious to get to grips with some ankhegs - and their nest was duly depopulated with Yertone only suffering a single hit. Talking to Farmer Brun maximized reputation and allowed a bit of cheap shopping at Ulgoth's Beard.
The final action of the session was clearing the exterior of Durlag's Tower. The first battle horror there proved pretty troublesome, with Gery unable to help much due to its immunity to missiles. However, after Yertone switched to the Golden Girdle and Tabetha unloaded blindness spells the remaining enemies went down far more easily.
Archer - L6, 72 HPs, 112 kills
Inquisitor - L6, 84 HPs, 49 kills, 0 deaths
Illusionist/thief - L4/5, 25 HPs, 22 kills, 1 death
KEY EVENT: Enlisting Faldorn was genius, pure genius on my part. With her in my retinue, none of the druids of the Cloakwood would challenge us, thereby making my foray smooth. After a return to High Hedge to outfit Faldorn w/Darts of Fire +1 & resupply my missile troops w/enchanted arrows, I returned us to the Cloakwood where we dispatched two more Dread Wolves & a Vampiric Wolf that Khalid had spied & targeted during an earlier reconnaissance. While in High hedge we destroyed a Ghoul & 13 Skeletons. My followers & I also put the whoopass on some cur in a cave who was trying to tame two Baby Wyvern. The latter mission was offered to Faldorn by one of the druids in the area, who rewarded its completion with a Potion of Heroism which I passed on to Minsc or Khalid, I don’t recall which, & don’t rightly care as long as they continue to perform.
Following, I had us destroy four Worgs & three Huge Spiders before taking us back to the Beregost area. I’ll return to move deeper into the Cloakwood in a few days.
Best Kill Competition:
• Khalid (Sword Spider, 2000 exp), Minsc (Sword Spider, 2000 exp), Imoen, (Taurgosz Khosann, exp 2000)
• Eldoth (Corsone) (1000 exp ea)
• Faldorn (Skeleton – 65 exp)
CASUALTIES: None
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Cave Bears (2 – 1 @ High Hedge) , Dread Wolves (4), Wyvern, Babies (2), Huge Spiders (7 – 3 @ High hedge), Woodsman (Peter of the North), Ghoul, Skeletons (13 – High Hedge),
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 172gp) Armor & weapons: Gems/jewelry: Potions: Scrolls: Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying @ Cloakwood Lodge
RESTING @ OUR CLOAKWOOD LODGE BASEOPS
NEXT STEPS: Move deeper into Cloakwood
LEVEL UP: None
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 6)
• Silas Cl/5(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding, M/star*, Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, DOHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd
(3), Doom, P/Evil; (Marl) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/4(Archer)(HP35) S/Leather w/L/bow*** & B/sword*; (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/5 (Adventurer)(HP30) S/Leather +2 Clk/Non-det w/S/bow* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 65, FT 60, PP 35, MS 50, HS 45, DI 20, ST15; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/4 (Barbarian)(HP34) C/mail +1 & 2H/sword; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Def)
• Eldoth Bd/5 (HP24) Cloak +1 w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM, Armor, Blind; S/ability: Poison arrows; (Corsone)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
• Faldorn Dr/4 (HP22) S/Leather w/Club* & Dart* (Q/Staff*); Spells: Barskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Skeleton)(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
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
A MASTERFUL AMBUSH!
KEY EVENT: This area of the Cloakwood is named for the huge wyverns that live & nest here. I found a cave, & had us prep before we entered. The new protocol: I cast Bless & then Draw on Holy Might; Faldorn cast Barkskin & Armor of Faith while Eldoth remained protected by Armor, & Khalid prepped to Call Shot. Minsc worked himself into his Barbarian Rage.
Upon entering, it didn’t go off like I had planned & Minsc fell quickly. However, three Baby Wyverns were destroyed, but on seeing Minsc collapse, I withdrew us from the cave to buy time & space… & that is precisely what was needed. We spread out, & took turns dodging the two adult Wyverns. Slowly, steadily, they each began to weaken until they were destroyed. A lucrative haul there, including an enchanted bastard sword that should help make Khalid more deadly when he has to draw his melee weapon rather than use his longbow.
THE BATTLE FOR THE WYVERN CAVE
Following the Battle for the Wyvern Cave, we crossed a second bridge, but aside from six more Baby Wyverns & a Cave Bear, it was largely empty. Faldorn gives me hell every time we kill an animal, doesn’t matter that they attack us first. Still, she is turning out to be a valuable ally, so I will let her complain – for now. I led us up to where the mines were but chose to go back & strategize first. We’ve no need of supplies having purchased plenty of enchanted arrows & darts at High Hedge earlier.
Best Kill Competition:
1. Khalid (Sword Spider), Minsc (Sword Spider), Imoen (Taurgosz Khosann) (2000 exp ea),
2. Eldoth (Corsone) (1000 exp)
3. Faldorn (Phase Spider – 1400 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (Wyvern Cave)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Wyverns (2), Phase Spider, Hamadryad, Wyverns (Baby - 5), Giant Spider, Guards (4), Tasloi (4)
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 1226gp) Armor & weapons: Bastard Sword +1, Plate Mail, Splint Mail (4); Gems/jewelry: Mithril Ring; Potions: Scrolls: Wands: Wand of Fear; Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying @ Cloakwood Lodge
NEXT STEPS: Assault the Cloakwood Mines
LEVEL UP: None
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 6)
• Silas Cl/5(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding (w/Gauntlets of Dexterity), M/star*, & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, DOHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; (Marl) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/4(Archer)(HP35) S/Leather, L/bow*** & B/sword +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/5 (Adventurer)(HP30) S/Leather +2 Clk/Non-det w/S/bow* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 65, FT 60, PP 35, MS 50, HS 45, DI 20, ST15; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/4 (Barbarian)(HP34) C/mail +1 & Spiders Bane +2; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Def)
• Eldoth Bd/5 (HP24) Cloak +1 w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MM, Armor, Blind; S/ability: Poison arrows; (Corsone)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
• Faldorn Dr/4 (HP22) S/Leather w/Club* & Dart* (Q/Staff*); Spells: Barskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider)(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
Blue Font: New information;
Red Font: Monster encounters (first use)
(Best kill)(Current AI)(Chain of Command)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047092/#Comment_1047092
Although I'd done the main encounters at the ankheg area, I hadn't fully explored the whole map, so felt I could justify returning there - picking up 2 more ankheg victims during the tour. In bypassing Farmer Brun I also realized I hadn't been to help another farmer with a zombie problem and quickly did that.
The Crossroads area was another one that I hadn't been back to thoroughly explore after an initial visit and doing that found large numbers of gibberlings and their diseased cousins waiting. Such large numbers in fact that they provided enough XP for a 7th level - an indifferent set of HP rolls this time though.
After stocking up again on bullets, the horde headed for the Cloakwood. They cleared the first area with slings before confronting Seniyad. A Fog disrupted his spell before the lightning crashed down.
On arrival in the second area they faced a greeting party of 4 phase spiders. Two were killed before the shamans had to run away to cure poison.
In the third area there was plenty more slinging and lightning on show. Izefia caused a moment's concern when he survived 3 blasts and had to be finished off with a second lot before he could catch Chat.
In the fourth area the hamadryad was immune to cold and electricity, but not insects. She did charm Toke, only to see that reversed by a first use of the shaman special spell, Spiritual Clarity. The wyverns in the cave were dragged outside where lightning could strike.
In the fifth area they cleared the surroundings first - once more finding running into a group of Black Talons painful, but with no-one dying. At the mine the horde tried to blast Kysus while he was neutral, but I got the timing wrong and a Fog going in too quickly allowed Kysus to buff before the strike hit. That resulted in the horde running away and resting. Coming back, Drasus was electrocuted before they ran again and then Kysus struggled to complete spells while sitting in a Fog.
Inside the mine Hareishan found placing a lightning trap near her rooms was perhaps not so clever an idea.
It would have been nice to have got to level 8 in order to have nymphs and shamanic fireballs available before tackling Davaeorn, but I couldn't see any options where they could get over 60k XP without XP farming - so they had to press on. They charmed Davaeorn's guard and used that to drag out one of the battle horrors, but the other retreated behind Davaeorn. As a result they tried out a Fog, which caused Davaeorn to run away somewhere, leaving the battle horror to fight a long, and eventually losing battle against a stream of spirits (who required criticals to hit).
I tried to locate Davaeorn to target spells or summons appropriately, but even though Toke was only in his sight for a split second he managed to unleash a sequencer.
After flooding the mine and resting to get Lorbag a second Bhaal horror, the horde are now on the threshold of Baldur's Gate.
Chat - L7, 53 HPs, 350 kills, 1 death
Grinch - L7, 61 HPs, 306 kills, 1 death
Grunt - L7, 56 HPs, 327 kills, 0 deaths
Lorbag (PC) - L7, 56 HPs, 327 kills
Pretty Boy - L7, 62 HPs, 281 kills, 1 death
Toke - L7, 57 HPs, 301 kills, 1 death
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 5
SoA: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Amahoro and company reached Suldanessellar only to encounter the beautiful elven city beset by golems and rakshasas. Unwilling to spend buffs on the golems, everyone but Mazzy went invisible to block the constructs; Mazzy took them down with her Gesen Bow.
Raamilat the drow had Spell Trap and Spell Shield activated in addition to combat buffs and protections. He cast a Remove at the party, but was in turn rendered vulnerable by a Secret Word > Pierce Shield > Breach combo by Haer'dalis and Imoen, and finished off in melee.
At the tree of life, Secret Word, Remove Magic (unreliable against Irenicus but in aTweaks it kills Nishruu and Hakeashar, and Irenicus had summoned two of those), Breach left Irenicus defenseless, and it was Mazzy who dealt the killing blow.
BTW I love the comments by the NPCs before facing off against Irenicus at the tree of life, upon arrival in hell, and before taking him on once more in hell. It was quite moving to see everyone express their love and their loyalty, very determined to stay by Amahoro's side no matter what.
In hell, Amahoro took the good path in every test except the selfishness test, where she took the neutral option conform the revised hell trials mod. This meant she got immunity to normal and +1 weapons, +2 to all saves, +20% fire/cold/electricity resistance, +1 Wis and +1 Cha, and (per revised hell trials) 30% slashing resistance.
She applied all her physical spell buffs, including a Hardiness, and beat Sarevok in a duel.
Then, finally the time came to face Slayer Irenicus and his fiendish minions. Everyone had their usual full prebuffs up. They might have charged him and with some spell removals, killed him, but everyone fanned out instead. Imoen heard Irenicus starting an Alteration incantation. So she borrowed Amahoro's amulet of power, and cast a Time Stop. In it she cast a sequencered Spell Thrust + Secret Word + Magic Missile (I didn't have more debuffs when setting up the sequencer and couldn't be bothered with resting for it), a Breach, and an ADHW which she didn't quite manage to finish casting within the Time Stop. It resulted in Irenicus finishing his casting of Time Stop rather than being disrupted by her spell. He didn't make the most of his Time Stop though. Rather than attacking any of the companions he reapplied some buffs and summoned two Mordy Swords, but those were immediately destroyed by Imoen's ADHW.
The party then attacked Irenicus, with Mazzy interrupting his casting with Gesen's bow.
The party should now transition to Watcher's Keep, as an interlude between SoA and ToB. This is an SCS v32 feature. I find @DavidW's rationale behind it compelling:
This component moves the start location of Throne of Bhaal to Watchers' Keep, so that you're moved there immediately after the end of SoA. You can then explore WK to your heart's content. When you want to start ToB, just leave WK via the world map. You can still return to WK after leaving.
Be warned: you don't have any stable base, or any way to change your party, as long as you're starting at WK. If you find you need either, you'll need to do the first part of ToB. Similarly, although you could start a new game of ToB using this component, this is only a good idea if you're masochistic enough to want to solo Watchers' Keep with a starting-level ToB character!
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047092/#Comment_1047092
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047239/#Comment_1047239
In the City the horde started their work with a trip to the sewers. Coming down on top of the ogre mage as I normally do seemed too dangerous with no protection against paralyzation, so a more roundabout route was used to eliminate the carrion crawlers before tackling their master.
I wrote in the previous update that Lorbag had rested to get horror. I'd obviously intended to do that, but not actually made sure
Moving on to the Docks they Fogged a basilisk from out of sight to get quite close to another level.
The shamans tried their new Spirit Fire spells out for the first time on Ramazith for a quick kill.
Before doing the rest of the Tower, I thought I should do the poison quest before I forgot about that. Lothander is normally a target for his boots of speed, but this time it was only the 4k XP I was after.
Back at Ramazith's Tower, the ghasts refused to be lured down to an ambush on the level below. That meant I had to do a much more dangerous tactic of a frontal attack. Two of the shamans were paralyzed, but ghasts don't have good defences and couldn't take advantage.
Continuing on through the City, Degrodel's guards offered lots of easy XP when they followed outside.
I forgot to talk to Ordulinian before killing Arkion & Nemphre, but otherwise picked up all the obvious XP in the City I was allowed - one painful omission was not getting the easy XP for the statues as I couldn't use the scrolls to restore them (you can still destroy them to get their equipment, but don't get the XP for that). The only difficult fight was against Sunin, where they didn't prepare properly in advance - I'm too used to taking Sunin on with a solo character, when he doesn't see you as you come in the door. The shamans tried dodging spells, but were caught out by pathfinding problems and hit by a sunfire leaving them all pretty vulnerable to further damage. They tried splitting up to avoid Sunin following them all - Chat had the most HPs left and acted as the decoy, but only just managed to get away himself after being hit by a fireball and MMM.
For the Iron Throne I didn't think the horde stood a chance of getting established upstairs and was also wary of pathfinding problems if they tried to do too much stair hopping. Therefore they set up an ambush 2 floors down, while Grinch went up alone to annoy the opposition and try to get the odd one to follow. The enemies were pretty reluctant to follow, but Diyab, Aasim, Gardush and the doppleganger were persuaded down and summarily dispatched before the first Shennara followed. She had already backstabbed Grinch on the upper floor and ignored the spirits to do it again (he had been healed in the interim though). Trying to get Naaman to come down as well, Grinch was charmed. Four of the others came up to try and help, but were then stuck there. In theory there should have been nothing blocking the staircase, but I think the characters bumping each other did something funny as even individual characters couldn't get back down (on my screen Grinch was shown as being bumped by the others, but I wonder whether due to his charmed state the computer was in fact registering him as blocking the exit). That resulted in all 5 there being either confused or emotioned and Toke had to abandon the spirits downstairs and come up as well to act as a distraction.
Next up the horde will be returning to Candlekeep and will face another potentially formidable obstacle there in the ogre mage greeting party.
Chat - L8, 63 HPs, 350 kills, 1 death
Grinch - L8, 68 HPs, 306 kills, 2 deaths
Grunt - L8, 64 HPs, 327 kills, 0 deaths
Lorbag (PC) - L8, 59 HPs, 327 kills
Pretty Boy - L8, 69 HPs, 281 kills, 1 death
Toke - L8, 64 HPs, 301 kills, 1 death
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1
The planar sphere is up next so I can build golems and get my apprentices to work. The Nightwalker has no competition and destroys the golem group in the clock area, granting us a level.
-Oblivion Pull (lv.9): Imprisonment with 30' range instead of touch. Enemies within about 9' of the target must save vs. spell at -6 or also be imprisoned.
-Shadow Shield (lv.8): For 2 turns: +5 AC, +20% physical resistance, MR set to 20%, magic damage resistance set to 100%; Shadow Weave spells can be cast for free. This spell does not require a save nor does it drain CON.
It's time to destroy the Twisted Rune. Yin's Shadow Double protects both sorcerers with PfU scrolls. They step on the trigger to make Shangalar appear and pelt him from range until he's near death. Then they buff to maximum and summon a planetar and a nightwalker. The summons are sent forward to Layenne's position while Yang kills Shangalar with a sling bullet, prompting the rest of the Twisted Rune to teleport in.
-Umbral Stasis (lv.9): Time Stop. Caster's movement speed is doubled and casting speed gains a +4 bonus.
The sorcerers can now exert their full strength and help each other while both are under aura cleansing. Yang can take out anti-magic buffs and follow up with a planetar for an instant True Sight, which will allow Yin to debuff enemies further, which will let Yang cast highly damaging Horrid Wiltings, and let Yin sacrifice the survivors to Shar. That's pretty much how the fight in the Guarded Compound plays out.
Yin attempts a Nightsinger's Tithe at the fight on Sion...but it fails for some reason despite his prebuffs not having fired yet. Yang gets Improved Alacrity off the ground and goes to town, stripping Sion of his anti-magical protections and then stunning him with PW: Stun, then casting Greater Malison and Web on his friends.
The Unseeing Eye quest is next. The Nightwalker pwns the Unseeing Eye and its Death Tyrants, gaining the sorcerers level 21.
Spells gained:
-Shar's Shield (lv.6): Globe of Invulnerability + 20% MR.
-Dark Fortune
-Blackfire Arrow
-Shar's Blessing
-Shadow Blade
-Black Rose
-Shadow Gate
-Negastorm
-Darkbolt
Yin - Shadow Disciple 21
Yang - Dragon Disciple 21
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047298/#Comment_1047298
I had been scared about the ogre mage ambush, but on arrival at Candlekeep, two of the horde luckily saved against charm person. That allowed them to quickly shift position before unleashing a full salvo of Spirit Fires. That proved deadly with 3 of the ogre magi evaporating entirely and a 4th running scared at near death.
Inside the library, Spirit Fires didn't quite kill Tuth or Brunos, but they didn't last much longer.
Outside Candlekeep I had another try to find the last ogre mage, but without joy and headed back to the City. Going to the Flaming Fist there I misjudged the range on Spirit Fire and managed to kill Chat as well as his attacker. A visit to the temple soon put that to rights and the horde rescued Duke Eltan and took him to safety.
The horde were still the best part of 50k XP short of being able to take their final BG1 level, so decided to return to Durlag's Tower. I couldn't help thinking that the basilisks on the roof might be possible. The lesser basilisks don't attack instantly, so it seemed quite possible the shamans could hit it with Spirit Fires before it gazed. Risking everything on the roll of a dice they tried it - and the basilisk gazed at the same time as their spells fired. Lady Luck was smiling though and Chat saved.
Underground, the shamans could now muster full lightning and fire protection to allow them to explore more fully. It took a while, but enemies were gradually pulled back into the main room for spirits to tank. They hadn't quite completed that process when a phase spider teleported in after a rest and they were able to take the final level.
Despite it being a while since the others had gone upstairs, Pride obviously knew where to search and popped up after them immediately Toke was killed. Spirits were ready for him and I think could have eventually taken him down - except that he was regenerating faster than they could damage them, so for once the spirits didn't offer a solution. He also seemed to have high magic resistance so nymph spells didn't look likely to work - leaving the 4 active shamans no real option but to leave. However, they still had a problem. Grunt was being continually attacked by Fear and permanently held as a result, but not being killed. A bit of concerted movement produced some summons for Pride to attack while Pretty Boy nipped downstairs and inflicted a first death on Grunt.
Even without having picked up most treasure, the party still had over 80k gold, so fees for raise dead and buying more cheap equipment were not a problem. Everyone's now armed and ready for the next target - which won't be a return to Durlag's Tower
Chat - L9, 72 HPs, 395 kills, 2 deaths
Grinch - L9, 72 HPs, 342 kills, 3 deaths
Grunt - L9, 70 HPs, 373 kills, 1 death
Lorbag (PC) - L9, 69 HPs, 356 kills
Pretty Boy - L9, 77 HPs, 329 kills, 2 deaths
Toke - L9, 74 HPs, 341 kills, 2 deaths
@Wise_Grimwald, I fully second @semiticgod on the Icewind Dale love. Nice work in the Vale. Did the Skeletal Mage and cronies give you any issues? I always find them troublesome: he has a tendency to blanket the place in Stinking Cloud, which his undead buddies are immune to...
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047298/#Comment_1047298
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047423/#Comment_1047423
I was tempted by the idea of both Ice Isle and the werewolves. If I was confident about being able to talk my way past Kaishas I would have gone for the latter, but I'm not sure of the dialogue requirements and fighting her would have been a toss-up given her magic resistance - and my luck in this run has already been too heavily relied on.
So instead it was time for Slythe. Krystin came out to support him quicker than I expected and threw in a chain lightning at Grunt - causing him to move out of position to try and spare the others. The result was he was caught by a follow-up chaos and finished off by Slythe.
At the Palace 5 nymphs were produced for the first time. They wasted their domination spells while the horde buffed up. Confusion spells were timed for the change to dopplegangers, but were disappointing in only affecting one of them.
The mage wasn't finished yet though and managed to release a lightning bolt. That cris-crossed the room 4 times, hitting Belt twice and Pretty Boy at least twice - enough to kill him anyway.
After all the recent excitement I took things more sedately in the maze, using spirits to kill everything - though doing that against 3 skeleton warriors at once (2 of them archers) was a marginal tactic and required a lot of changing positions.
In the Undercity Tamoko was protected against hold, but not against insects.
Now came the moment of truth. With invisibility the final battle against Sarevok would be very easy. Without invisibility though I expected it to be much more challenging. The shamans started off by summoning some nymphs and charming a couple of bats. I tried farsight, but as with other times I've attempted that it appears to be bugged and did nothing - meaning I didn't proceed with the idea for the bats to attack on their own (and potentially trigger in-fighting among the enemies). A round of spirit fires was used instead, but killed no-one. The follow-up confusions from the nymphs showed no saving throws though, suggesting that the damage had not resulted in anyone going hostile. Therefore a second round was used, but this time I noticed in the text that, though Semaj and Tazok were killed, there was no text reporting on Angelo and Diarmid (though both had been referred to as buffing when the shamans first entered the temple).
A charmed bat successfully dragged the skeleton warriors back into spirits while Sarevok was occupied killing nymphs, but I was rather disheartened.
Chat - L9, 72 HPs, 427 kills, 2 deaths
Grinch - L9, 72 HPs, 354 kills, 3 deaths
Grunt - L9, 70 HPs, 387 kills, 2 deaths
Lorbag (PC) - L9, 69 HPs, 378 kills
Pretty Boy - L9, 77 HPs, 349 kills, 3 deaths
Toke - L9, 74 HPs, 355 kills, 2 deaths
So far it has been color spray which has been the biggest problem. Entire party put to sleep!
After that it was the mummy due to shortage of weapons that were effective. Also didn't have the best spells memorised.
Traveling with: Keldorn, Minsc, Jaheira, Anomen, Imoen
The party continues to make great progress. We were able to convince Lonk to release the prisoners for 2000 gold. Then it was time for Irenicus. We had huge number of hits on him, plus Imoen's dispelling arrows wasn't doing him any favors - he eventually realized he needed to retreat. Wanev didn't even get time for a time stop.
Next up was the Saemon Havarian shenanigans. We eventually find ourselves in the City of Caverns. This was pretty easy for the party, as the death spell works on many of these enemies. Keldorn used a protection from undead and Daystar against the group of undead in the area. We supported the King - Keldorn wanted them to all die anyways, so seems fitting somehow.
Time for the Underdark! This went mostly smooth. Our 1st goal was freeing the mage - we didn't push our luck and was happy enough with the horrid wilting spell as reward. We also helped the gnome village. Despite 1/2 the party being held, but the party still beat the demon.
The Kua-Toa lair was perfect - no problems there. Not even the Demon Knights were much of a problem, surprisingly. Beholder Lair, Minsc got imprisoned but Imoen cast a freedom spell from a scroll and then we were back in business. We skipped most of the trapped souls, other than releasing the trapped gnome. Jaheira died a few times in the Illithid City, but otherwise that went pretty smooth as well.
Ust Natha quests went well as well, and were by the numbers (good routes). Thanks to 20 CHA, Coremage convinced Phaere to not have sex with him, which Jaheira was pleasantly surprised about. We eventually make our way to the Underdark Exit.
After being insulted by Elhan, we then went to some unfinished business from Chapter Two. In particular, we need to talk to some dragons. Thaxxy died incredibly quick - Anomen used magic resist to lower the dragon's magic resistance then used finger of death - result? Dead dragon!
So next up was headed to Windspear Hills to find another Dragon - maybe Keldorn can get a weapon upgrade here? We were just about to enter Firkraag's lair and ended the session here.
Indeed! Mine as well. He's much easier if you wait until after the Underdark to deal with him. We got a lot more levels to help with that. As well as some powerful summons and good weapons.
Could you solve the issue by spawning Angelo and Diarmid through the console?
@Corey_Russell and @Flashburn, looking good guys! I hope and I think Amahoro will be in good company in ToB soon.
@Wise_Grimwald, best of luck in the Dale!
KEY EVENT: Once the BTE & Guards were destroyed outside & I had cleared the black to my satisfaction, I decided not to head back & ordered assault on the Motte-and-bailey. Khalid went ahead using stealth & identified two Guards. He identified where Faldorn needed to cast Entangle & she did just that. Then my archers & Faldorn w/her darts, took them out. We hid their bodies under the bridge after I had their Splint Mail taken. But, then, things got downright desperate & stayed that way for many hours.
Sending the stealthy Khalid ahead to recon has been masterful strategy. But, there’s always the danger he gets mauled, or returns bringing a hornet’s nest w/him – he did the latter. As he came back across the bridge, he was dogged by a knight wearing Boots of Speed. I cast Command, to no effect. It then became a desperate race to bring the enemy down while avoiding his Morning Star. Despite his boots, we spread out & attacked him from different directions. As he reacted first to one, then to another, & so forth, he was never able to take any of us out & eventually, he fell.
GOT HIM!
With his boots & Morning Star +1 (that I kept for myself), the strategy changed & Khalid took the boots & used them to go ahead, multiple times & spy the remaining enemy, two mages & a knight. But, there just didn’t seem to be a way to get @ them. Finally, I allowed us to rest & refresh our spells for another day.
Khalid & Faldorn used their same strategy to take out a second, more heavily armored knight & then everyone came forward & focused on him. Despite a healing potion, he was immobile in Faldorn’s Entangle spell & we did finally bring him down. The battle was a fast-moving place. The two mages were engaging & had already flooded the fight with summoned creatures.
After a couple of tries that I realized, that w/o Minsc, I couldn’t get to the mages with the retinue I have. I had Imoen give up her Cloak of Non-detection to Khalid, & under cover of stealth, sent him to recover the equipment of the fallen knight – a set of Plate Armor. Faldorn Blessed him & he was able to get the armor, but the mages locked in on him. He was scorched good when he returned & I got us out of there. I quickly to returned us, sold the armor, raised Minsc & got back before the IT react.
On return, I equipped Minsc w/The Boots of Speed, & Potions of Magic Blocking, Explosions & Extra Healing. He was to charge the bridge, release the Potion of Explosions into the courtyard & charge the nearest mage. It didn’t work but it kept the most difficult of mages engaged, especially after he went from Barbarian Rage to Berserk. The rest of us focused on the weaker mage, & when Khalid used the Arrows of Ice in his quiver rather than Arrows +1 it was instantly effective. Quickly he did big damage to the second mage. We all tasted blood & moved in for the easy kill.
Or @ least, I thought, b/c in quick succession the other mage managed to bring Minsc, Khalid & Eldoth down. With the first mage dead, Imoen, Faldorn & I had to get the other down. Luckily, before he fell, Khalid had pelted him with the Ice Arrows. He was barely wounded when I descended on him with the others, but, his protections had worn off & he was out of offensive spells. I kept the various summoned creatures busy with my own Animate Dead & Faldorn’s Summoned Dread Wolf, while the three of us finally killed the last of the enemy adventurers. After that, I collected the battlefield, amongst the three of us, & headed back to civilization after quickly clearing the outbuildings of the Motte-and-bailey.
FINISHED!
Best Kill Competition:
1. Khalid (Sword Spider), Minsc (Sword Spider), Imoen (Taurgosz Khosann) (2000 exp ea),
2. Faldorn (Phase Spider – 1400 exp)
3. Eldoth (Rezdan) (1200 exp)
CASUALTIES: Minsc (BTE); Khalid (Mage); Eldoth (Mage #2)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Knight (Drasus), Mage (Kysus), Knight (Genthore), Mage (Rezdan), BTE (8), Guards (11), Wolves (2),
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Purse = 494gp) Armor & weapons: Gems/jewelry: Potions: Scrolls: Wands: Misc & Artifacts:
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating, recovering & resupplying in Cloakwood Motte & bailey barracks
NEXT STEPS: Into the Cloakwood MInes
LEVEL UP: Khalid, Ranger (Archer)/5; Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/6; Eldoth, Bard/6
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 6)
• Silas Cl/5(Lorekeeper of Oghma) (HP26) S/mail +1 & Boots/Grounding (w/Gauntlets of Dexterity), M/star*, & Rg of Energy; Spells: A/Dead, C/Disease, DOHM, F/Blade, H/Person, Silence 15’, S/Poison, Bless, Cmd (3), Doom, P/Evil; S/ability: Heal Touch (2), Affliction, Friends; (Marl) (AI none)
• Khalid Rgr/5(Archer)(HP42) S/Leather, L/bow*** & B/sword +1* w/Gauntlet’s Wpns Exp; Skills: MS 55, HS 55 (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Ranged Atk)(3)
• Imoen Th/6 (Adventurer)(HP36) S/Leather +2 Clk/Non-det w/S/bow* (w/Bracers of Archery) & S/sword +1* & Wand of MMs, Skills: OL 70, FT 65, PP 40, MS 55, HS 50, DI 20, ST15; (Taurgosz Khosann) (Thf Rgd Atk)(4)
• Minsc Ftr/4 (Barbarian)(HP34) C/mail +1 & Spiders Bane +2; S/ability: Bsk, Bar Rg; (Sword Spider)(AI: Ftr Def)
• Eldoth Bd/6 (HP29) Cloak +1 w/L/bow* & Scimitar*, Spells: MAA, Stink, MM, Armor, Blind; S/ability: Poison arrows, (Rezdan)(AI:Wzd Agg)(6)
• Faldorn Dr/4 (HP22) S/Leather w/Club* & Dart* (Q/Staff*); Spells: Barskin, B/Claw, Ch/Person/Mammal, S/Poison, Ar/Faith, Bless, Entangle, CLWs, Shillelagh, (Phase Spider)(Cl Agg)(5)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Toduched 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)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047018/#Comment_1047018
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047092/#Comment_1047092
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047298/#Comment_1047298
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047423/#Comment_1047423
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1047493/#Comment_1047493
Thanks for the information @Blackraven - that means then that this group would have to fight her as Lorbag is neutral. Still, thinking about it, nymphs could use lightning on her as well as the shamans themselves, so I think they would have a pretty good chance of success.
I said in the last update I'd tried loading the autosave and Angelo and Diarmid still didn't spawn when talking to Sarevok. However, my past experience with this encounter is that it works inconsistently and so I tried it again - and this time they did spawn. Regrettably though I hadn't done any preparation and, with no buffs or summons and out of position, it didn't take long for Sarevok to wipe the floor with Lorbag.
I don't allow any test battles during my runs, so that was that. However, given the circumstances I felt justified in reloading the autosave again to see how my intended tactics would work if I try this run again. I didn't play it right through, but successfully stranded everyone but Angelo in a corner using a couple of charmed bats (normally I would use invisibility for that, but shamans don't get that until level 5 - and Pixie Dust is anyway so slow casting it would probably be interrupted). Angelo confused Lorbag with a chaos, but he managed to stay out of trouble while the others dispelled Angelo's invisibility and the nymphs then held him. The shamans have an absolutely huge amount of area damage available between them, so the battle was effectively won at that point. While not foolproof I think that tactic has a pretty reasonable chance of success ...
Just got to him. He did indeed cause problems. Due to the cloud, my paladin succumbed to death and if he hadn't been raised at the temple he might have become a follower of Myrkul too.
That was very expensive and made me wonder if I should have spent money on slightly better armour. It all depends on whether you get away with it. If you do, buying the armour is a waste as, if I remember correctly there is some decent armour to be found.
It is such a long time since I played that I cannot even remember where the traps are. It is almost as if I am playing a new game.
So, back to the vale it is. I could have chosen to farm experience using the lesser shadows that respawn, but decided against it. Just killed them whenever they reappeared in the course of the game.
Sorry I missed that. Am a poor reader during my commutes I think (which makes @Mantis37's no-reload achievement all the grander to me). Looks like you may have to re-install SCS then, or just wait for v32 (which in its current form still has some bugs of its own). Good luck with your next endeavor.
BG1: 1, 2, 3, 4
SoD: 1, 2
SoA: 1, 2
Firkraag's dungeon is up next. Nightwalkers and Planetars clear it out while aura cleansing annihilates Samia's party. Assembling King Strohm's mask gains Yin a level while the nearby golem group gets Yang a level. Yang's pretty much capped out as far as HLAs go, but Yin still has plenty of room to get stronger.
Time to fight Firkraag. Conster is killed by Nightsinger's Tithe before revealing Firkraag from the fog of war. He doesn't care at all! Yin summons his Nightwalker and Yang casts Protection from Fire on it. This should keep it from dying against the dragon's fire breath. The sorcerers power up with aura cleansing and Yin begins with Darkbolt to set Firkraag's MR to 0 for a while and potentially cut his max HP in half. He saves against it, though.
The key to the illithid enclave in the temple sewers is used. The Nightwalker clears it out for us. The alhoon is imprisoned with Oblivion Pull once its spell protections are removed. Both sorcerers have to use PfMW/PfWfW to avoid getting brain-drained by the alhoon's spell trigger of Improved Haste+Tenser's Transformation+SI: Abjuration.
Watcher's Keep is next in the neverending quest for more power. The statues are destroyed by a planetar and the nightwalker working together. Curiously, there was no mage statue.
Time to use the Deck. Yang uses SI: Abjuration+Evocation but draws the Jester card. 50k XP would've more than closed the XP gap between him and Yin. The second draw has Yang put up SI: Alteration and Necromancy. Yin takes a risk on the last draw, fortunately not drawing Fool. A planetar could've fixed him if he did draw it, though.
A nightwalker and a planetar work together in the illithid enclave of Watcher's Keep 4, but it's tricky to navigate as the illithid are very numerous and teleport over to the sorcerers with Planar Travel. Yin has to use Shadow Walk to escape being surrounded at one point. A nightwalker and Perfect Clay Golem MK I beat Saladrex by themselves while under Protection from Fire. Nyx levels up and gains HLAs!
The sorcerers are up to the challenge to beat the resident demilich. From their performance against Kangaxx, I'm sure they'll do just fine. Though they're not buffed to the gills, the fight begins. Black Ray is fired to prevent the demilich from casting spells and to eliminate its Spell Turning. Darkbolt follows next to negate its MR for 5 rounds, followed by Shadowplague to cause more casting failure. Darkbolt deals significant damage, though the demilich saves against having its max HP cut in half.
Yin - Shadow Disciple 26
Yang - Dragon Disciple 26
Nice update brother.
Hmm... a book called Nosferatu that can be used as a weapon by a dark mage to life drain people a limited number of times? Sounds like a reference to Fire Emblem.
Before my move to no-reload I would have played it risky and gambled on picking up the plate mail later. But that extra point of AC adds up, especially considering that with the literal hordes of enemies in IWD long-term survival is really a statistical process, and the law of averages really has a big effect. A paladin tank should really have plate as soon as possible, in my opinion. I recently had a playthrough of IWD, and it was my first time back in the game in years; I had exactly the same feelings, it was awesome! On top of that I was playing Heart of Fury mode, starting from level 1 in Easthaven. Crikey the first sections were a slog, but it made every battle super exciting.