Isra & Sirine had become close in the weeks they'd been travelling together. Two sister Paladins, from different pantheons to be sure, but both warriors for good and justice, nonetheless. They had alternated being on point and rearguard, but they always ended up battling side by side at the front when the fighting began. Now Dispenser had moved them both to the front, along w/Khalid who handled recon. They sat by the fire, along w/the rest, deep in the Cloakwood taking dried beef & hard bread for sustenance & washing them down w/water (& wine - Isra always carried a few flasks of wine in the spirit of Sune). She & Sirine had helped Dispenser cleanse the wood of what evil they could find: a radical Druid near the Cloakwood Lodge, an infestation of spiders @ the Cloakwood Nest, & massive wyverns just a short distance from where they now sat. It all seemed surreal to her as she chatted quietly with her new friend while the others looked to their belongings. She had not known any of them three months ago & now she was spending every waking moment (& every sleeping moment) with them. And while her devotion to Sune was unbreakable, the bond she had w/Sirine, w/Dispenser, all of them was something special.
She picked up her new sword – a two-handed sword that she had recovered from a spider nest a couple of days back. It had a distinct glow emanating from within when unsheathed & it allowed her to move freely when she would otherwise be entangled. As she mulled the hours ahead, she cleaned the blade and oiled it with sword oil. She checked the wrap and the pommel just as she had w/the non-enchanted swords she had used before. Magical or not, equipment care was paramount to the warrior & the most important piece of equipment she had was her sword.
Tomorrow they would head to the Cloakwood Mines. Khalid had recon’d ahead of them earlier & she knew the mines lay ahead of them. She wondered what evil they would face & what dangers. Khalid was a fantastic ranger and his skill as an archer took a load off all of them – especially Sirine & her. Every foe they faced had at least one arrow sticking out of them somewhere – or so it seemed anyway. He would be invaluable in the hours & days ahead & she suspected Imoen would move up front with him once they were inside the mines to leverage her trap detecting skills. She knew the foes to come would be stronger, more deadly, & more cunning than many they had yet faced. But she was unafraid.
She caught herself yawning. She would rise in the morning before the rest to pray, just as Sune clerics do. Adventuring made it tough to attend to her usual devotional routine of a scented morning bath before prayer, but she always did her best to freshen up before approaching her goddess. She looked @ Sirine’s cat like eyes, ever watchful peering into the darkness for danger. She rose and bid her friend rest well, then left to find her bed roll. The morning haze would be here soon.
A DOUBLE BLESSING
Party info
Order of March: Khalid (Recon, Sirine & Isra (shock), Despenser (lead), Imoen (Traps), Valerie (Arcane) (Rear guard)
Trio - FINAL Update!
Lassiter - gnomish berserker, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Ulder - half-elf cleric/ranger (Gate70)
London - shapeshifter (Grond0)
The party made so much progress this session, until we hit anti-progress at the end. More on that in a moment
1) The party freed Hendak - pretty easy for this party , we have two true tanks so that makes it much simpler.
2) We did the Lilacor quest for the experience - the minor enemy shamans weren't much problem to Lassiter thanks to his enrage, but they did manage to hold a party member - the enemies could not capitalize on that however.
3) We rested and then took on the moored ship slavers, starting with Captain Haegan and his buddies. Lassiter enraged and charged the enemy cleric, and the other two party members took on Captain Haegan. Even though Lassiter had far more enemies on him, the other two were taking a beating with just the two enemies they were on - Lassiter had Officer Dirth's full plate, though, so that probably explains it. He also doesn't have potion allergies like his buddies do.
Next were the slaver wizards - with insect plague, enrage/improved invis (RoAC) by Lassiter and skeletons/silence, there was definitely no doubt as you can see.
Hendak was pleased with our success.
4) A few ambushes were weathered, but they were no problem for this group.
5) Next up was Trademeet. Thanks to skeletons, we didn't have to bother with protection from petrification - well at least, not inside the tent. However, outside the genie lamp genie managed to petrify Gate70. Luckily, Gate70's statue was not chunked so we were able to turn him back and get him in the party again with a helpful temple nearby with a StF scroll.
As for the druid grove itself, most of it was very, very smooth, the party taking advantage of all their various skills to make good progress. Well until just before meeting Faldhorn.
That group of 3 druids did amazing, dropping Lassiter's life to THREE HP (!!!) with a powerful 78 damage call lightning. It looked like he might have got hit twice, but only one actually registered. Gate70 had asked Corey_Russell how many HP did he have (just a sliver on screen) and Corey_Russell said 3 - Gate70 commented, just enough eh? Fortunately Lassiter did DUHM before the fight, or he would have died. Lassiter was gulping potions fast as he could and did managed to survive.
I didn't talk to Cernd, but that was a mistake, as Faldhorn didn't offer any option for London to duel her. So we had to talk to Cernd, tell him to do it on his own, and only then Faldhorn would let her get challenged by London - who duly cast insect plague, fire elemental and insects twice - Lassiter didn't even have to change to werewolf form to win.
Finally this quest was done.
6) Next up was Umar Hills. Lassiter rezlied his +1 long swords can't hurt the stone golem, but luckily his group mates were able to kill it. Rest of the Immesvale area went by the numbers.
Next up was fighting the undead trap guarding the entrance to the old Amaunator temple. The party didn't bother using the mirror as we just got all the free experience, no real hiccups doing this.
We delved deeper in and were doing pretty good. Up until the 2nd group of strong undead. Lassiter could have enraged, but didn't bother as he had Arbane equipped - he has been using his long swords the entire time. Unfortunately, Corey_Russell foolishly entered the inventory while in battle, and somehow this got his shortbow equipped. His save vs death wsa only 6, not bad but not a guarantee either. Well sure enough, a shadow fiend got a successful hold in this position, and the party members could do nothing but watch Lassiter die. They had paused as soon as he was held, but Lassiter fell almost immediately - RIP Lassiter.
Moving into the Cloud Peaks, Bash took advantage of the gap between casting a spell and the game realising combat had started to blind Sendai's archer friends and put his armor back on before attacking. After Rufie fortunately turned neutral before his berserk kicked in, Vax was another to be blinded from distance - allowing a sneak attack on Zal.
In the next area, Caldo & Krumm were charmed and moved away from the Dryad to avoid any little accidents. Drienne then got her cat back to push reputation to 20. Bash then got his 6th fighter level while collecting the charisma tome.
After buying some potions of genius, Bash went to High Hedge where he used a friends scroll to buy lots more scrolls cheaply. He also bought the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi and the Claw of Kazgaroth (though in retrospect he shouldn't have bothered with the latter - HPs are more useful for this character than usual due to being out of control and unable to retreat so much). He then headed for Ulgoth's Beard and bought the scrolls there - before learning everything with the help of potions.
Back in Beregost Karlat was pulled out of sight of everyone before engaging. That nearly ended in disaster when Karlat lost morale and tried to run, but fortunately he got stuck against a table before he could bring Bash into sight of any innocents.
At Firewine Bridge, Bentan and Poe were charmed and fed to kobolds. Meilum was then charmed and used to kill a non-responsive Kahrk - before being fed to kobolds.
The wolf pack at Beregost temple got a few chomps in, but not enough to be dangerous. Bash then moved on to the basilisk area. I made a mistake there in not switching to the crushing girdle before taking on the southern group of basilisks, but Bash still won that easily - getting his 6th illusionist level in the process.
I noted in the previous update that I've been taking fewer risks recently, but that's not the same as none . I intended to kill the separated basilisks to the north, but leave Mutamin and the greater and lesser basilisk near him. Doing that is potentially dangerous though due to the fact that his pet lesser basilisk sometimes appears near the statue - close enough to a couple of other basilisks to join in the fight and drag Mutamin in as well. The sensible thing to do therefore would have been to leave all those alone, but I decided to check where the lesser basilisk was. It was indeed in its less usual position and spotting it there meant a small chance of going berserk immediately. However, Bash retained control for the moment required to duck back out of sight. The sensible thing now would have been to retreat entirely. However, once more I didn't do that, but tried running to the edge of the map with the hope that Mutamin would lose track on the way. I have known that happen, but the chances were against it and he duly appeared as Bash finished off the first of the basilisks to follow. A second lesser basilisk was downed and Bash saved against a slow spell before attacking Mutamin himself. That was lucky - giving him some sort of chance of killing the mage before taking too much damage. However, Bash had no protection against magic missiles and took at least 2 lots of those in addition to other spells while working through Mutamin's mirrors. I think Bash did better than expected to actually kill Mutamin, but he was down to 3 HPs by then and still wearing the wrong girdle - it was therefore no surprise that he died before he had a chance to get any blows in against the greater basilisk.
Other people may be better players, but you are the best writer around.
Thank you buddy. I sincerely appreciate it!
I enjoy researching monsters and deities and Forgotten Realms to make them fun to read - takes me half a day to do one and review and edit and edit again and...
Tree of Life. The parasites are disposed of but my Brain Golem dies to Elder Earth Elementals. Irenicus is actually slightly challenging because I didn't have all my buffs up when I went to face him. He actually managed to dispel me successfully with Remove Magic but I was still better prepared than he was.
Down to hell. I do the trials of Selfishness and Greed, taking the good path on both. I trade the tears for -4 to saves (2 tears) and +30% magic resistance (3 tears) in exchange for -1 DEX, -2 max HP, and -75k XP. A small price to pay for a major defensive boost. Slayer time. I back away from the fight and focus on taking out the Balors first because of their no-save vorpal weapons. They go down quite fast, but one balor gates in a pair of nabassus and a marilith. I'd rather fight those than balors anyway. The planetar dispels the Glabrezus' Mirror Image with True Sight, so I shoot them down next and then onto the gated demons. This only takes a couple of rounds.
I run around stalling Irenicus and wait for his many castings of PfMW/Absolute Immunity to wear off. He tries Time Stop but I counter by holding the Staff of the Magi. He tries this at least twice.
He eventually takes down my Spell Shield and lands a Spellstrike. He summons a planetar during his second Time Stop, but I beat it to death before it can do anything. Finally, he runs out of anti-weapon buffs so I whack him with the Staff and just kite him to death.
Illasera. I expected her to be a little more proactive, but she went ethereal at the start of the fight and preferred to let her incompetant lackeys have at me instead. I readied the Reflection Shield just in case she ever started attacking me, but she only targeted my planetar once we annihilated her party. She goes down.
The first pocket plane challenge is eviscerated. Bodhi and Sarevok are kited to death, leaving Johnny by himself. He makes the same mistake as Azamantes by not attending to his defenses while time is stopped, so I beat him and his fallen planetar to death with the Staff. At-will invisibility is overrated.
I had built a Lightning Golem using my excess fortune, but discovered it was actually more of a fragile speedster as opposed to a hulking tank that I prefer my golems to be like. While it can teleport at will under aura cleansing, causing an electrical shockwave at its destination, that's not particularly helpful to me, so I leave it back at the pocket plane for when I have to fight Abazigal. Instead, I build Perfect Mithril golem MK II by casting Wish a couple of times to transmute iron bars into mithril.
Gromnir's castle. I open the fight by casting Power Word: Stun on Karun the Black. I would've preferred Kill instead, but that always crashes the game if the mage in question has a summoning or Horrid Wilting contingency that activates at the start of combat. I seriously hope SCS v32 fixes this.
For a round, I kite melee attackers and assess the situation as my aura returns. The other Il-khan battlemage casts Time Stop, so this is my cue to run around smacking people with the Staff to dispel their buffs. The mage's Absolute Immunity wears off during this time, so I beat her to death as well.
After the Time Stop is over, I cast Greater Malison near Gromnir and Karun, then use a 3x Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency in the same round, hoping I'll nuke them all with it. Karun is unaffected and Gromnir hangs on by a thread but the Perfect Clay golem is dehydrated into a Stone golem and rendered vulnerable to all physical damage types as a result. I catch Karun with his PfMW down and give him the trusty Staff whack. Everyone else falls quickly. Perfect Mithril MK II barely survives with 20 HP to spare.
Nyalee's temple, the fire giant enclave approach, the fire giant temple, and the return to Nyalee were all uneventful. Nyalee didn't even get to use her Mirror of Opposition. Brimstone was just another dragon that fell in our wake. Now it's time to fight Yaga-Shura. Greater Deathblow + Improved Haste = dead army. I have 10 uses of GDb, though I have to use a Dimension Door to free myself from being trapped by spawning enemies near the bridge.
When the army is killed, I have to wait about 1 turn before Yaga-Shura returns. When he does, all I have to do is concentrate on the mage for a little while, while the planetar and Perfect Mithril MK II keep the others distracted. The mage uses Time Stop, which I block and counterattack using the Staff, but this mage is actually smart enough to pull out an Absolute Immunity during the frozen time.
From having her prebuffs dispelled, it only takes a Warding Whip and Breach to kill the mage now.
Yaga-Shura is just a big pool of HP. I try using the illithid form to brain-drain him because I thought you could do this to him even with Ascension installed. I hit him at least 5 times and he takes down my stoneskins, getting a couple of clean hits on me too. I guess that won't work, so I transform back and just use Phase Arrow on him to take him down.
Everyone at the Oasis is killed with Greater Deathblow except the named guy who accuses you. Gathering all their magical equipment and selling it at Amkethran gains me more than 700k gold! And while I failed to kill Saemon Havarian the first time on when the githyanki and sahuagin boarded us, I make amends and use the illithid form to suck out his brain.
Vongoethe is no problem and finished off by Sunray after getting a couple of free hits on him before the cutscene that summons his undead helpers plays.
Draconis falls like all the other dragons: just by hitting him repeatedly. Anadramatis and the quad-dragon ambush follow suit, though Ithynasendra was troublesome because she kept healing. Anadramatis is a special case because Perfect Mithril MK II boxed him in in such a way that he couldn't reach me.
Time to fight Abazigal. I forgot to bring my lightning golem... My golem accidentally triggers his dragon transformation before I can kill off Abby's adds.
Abby is accompanied by two Tamah clones.
Wait, make that three!
I have a feeling I'm going to get a double Melissan final boss fight at this rate. My first planetar is killed by all the dragons, so I summon a second one who also dies, but not before getting off several self-Heals. I need more DPS, so I summon my clone with Vhailor's Helm, have it Improved Haste itself and let the arrows fly. This works for a few rounds, but when the third planetar dies, it's clear I'm going to have to switch tactics. We retreat to the crevice in the southwest that Krieg used to fight Abazigal a long time ago. The simulacrum is destroyed, so I try casting the spell instead, but the clone does not appear because the timer on the first one was still running. Dammit. I stand back and just kill all three Tamahs.
I'm wondering how on earth my golem is STILL alive. I know I fixed my Ascension installation so that Dragon Abazigal has 4 attacks/round. Abby may be only attacking my golem once per round because they're stuck inside each other's circles, so maybe that's messing him up or something because he wants to attack me instead. Regardless, I stand back and just shoot Abby to death.
With this, the Big Metal Rod and its tasty ammo is now available for use and so is the Adamatite Golem tome. I probably should've made these sooner.
Armed with the Big Metal Rod's ammo, I'm pretty much unstoppable now. The scorcher ammo allows me to do massive damage over time and can bypass PfMW as long as the primary target takes damage normally. Each hit also applies my Arcane Archer bonus damage, resulting in up to an extra 50 magical damage per round assuming the target fails all of their MR checks.
Demogorgon is easy as a result. The Staff counters his Time Stop, although I have trouble hitting him because my THAC0 with melee weapons is bad. When time unfreezes, I swap back to Firetooth+Scorcher ammo and lay into the demon horde. Demogorgon is easily killed.
Sendai is next. With Improved Haste, Scorcher ammo turns into death lasers. Sendai herself is super easy as a result. I'm breaking the game over my knee at this point.
I convince Balthazar to join me at the Throne. The Ravager stands no chance even with big damage reduction.
I cast Wish a bunch of times to transmute 12 iron bars into adamantite ore so I can build both Perfect Adamantite Golems. They will accompany me with Perfect Mithril Golem MK II. Now it's time for the Throne. I reorganize my spellbook a little bit, dropping spells that won't be useful at the Throne in exchange for backups of important buff spells. I seriously doubt the Throne will even cause me any trouble, even if two Melissans spawn again like last time.
Throne of Bhaal. Before leaving, I buff to maximum and share an Emotion: Hope with my golems. The fight with Irenicus, Bodhi, and their two fallen solar pals begins. I used a PfU scroll before entering the throne to keep Bodhi from using her Cloud of Bats on me. I have the golems beat her up since she can't do much against them while I concentrate on removing the solars. I shoot them with Scorcher ammo first and carefully watch their attack animations and equip the Reflection Shield and Water's Edge +4 when needed. Bodhi dies first.
The first solar is killed soon after. Johnny can wait. The second solar starts slaughtering my golems by dealing magical damage! Only one Perfect Adamantite golem remains once I'm through with the solar; the others have split into 2 normal mithril and adamantite golems.
With the second solar dead, I have Balthazar and my golems back away from Imoen so she doesn't die. This is needed to continue the fight. Johnny uses Time Stop but makes the same mistake as the last two times.
Now we just have to play keepaway with Imoen until she changes back. After about 30 seconds, she does.
The demon pools are but target practice, though I make it a point to eliminate the quick and invisible babau by using the Scorcher ammo. The mariliths just need to be Breached to be killed. Time to fight the Six. I'll try to spread the scorching hot love around instead of killing them all one at a time like I usually do. Abazigal gets shut down with a PfM scroll.
The fight begins in earnest. I order my golems to beat down Sendai's deva and then do whatever they want. I'm most concerned about Illasera and her dispelling & disrupting arrows. She is focused on killing one of my mithril golems and has PfMW up, so I focus Abazigal instead, pausing quickly to watch where Illasera is aiming.
Illasera chases down my golem as I keep shooting her friends. She eventually kills it and swaps to melee for some reason. Sendai teleports down near me, but Gromnir is the one who finally dies first.
Because of this, Melissan comes down to play, but the rest of the Six aren't looking so healthy. Illasera dies next, followed immediately by Sarevok and Abazigal.
Half of the Six are dead, so Melissan calls up some fallen solar buddies, who I immediately place into the Scorcher's ray, which kills one of them. I unload on Yaga-Shura since Sendai has PfMW up, so I use Yaga's scorcher rays to kill her instead. This second hits of this volley end up killing Yaga-Shura as well.
The Six are dead, so I chase down the fallen solar and kill it. Now it's just Balthazar, my golems, and me vs. Melissan. She gates in a ton of demons and I hear her say "Praeses, Alia...", so I ready my Staff and also cast Focus to be extra safe, but she ended up casting Divine Mantle instead, I think. I take out most of the horde with more scorcher ammo before they arrive.
Now Melissan is alone, so I use Warding Whip on her to get rid of her Spell Shield. She gates in more demons and eviscerates Balthazar. I'm the last Bhaalspawn standing.
The demon horde is also culled quickly after they were summoned. Melissan is furious now! She knocks me backwards and unconscious for a short time and then combos into a Time Stop! I had just cast Improved Haste on myself to refresh it when she started casting Time Stop. If I was knocked out for any longer, I would've been toast.
Because of my Improved Haste's timing, it didn't take effect during the Time Stop and it seemed to have fizzled completely after time resumed, so I used my 2nd casting of it to flee from Melissan. She's pretty fast. After time resumes, I use PfMW to counter her assault and just shoot her with many scorcher charges, now completely disregarding my golems' safety. After a few more rounds of getting shot at, Melissan is finally put in her place.
Unlike the my other three successes, Arrow Slinger chooses to remain mortal.
Arrow Slinger - Arcane Archer 50/Mage 42
At long last, this playthrough is complete. As much as I hate to say it, it's time to update to v2.5 because SCS v32 demands it. At least this means I'll get to update the other mods I use, too. I can hardly wait to see how bad the character stacking is first-hand.
Musings:
Fighter/Mages are already strong. Throwing in Arcane Archer makes it a great sustained ranged DPS character, especially once Phase Arrow is learned at level 13. The automatic enchantment bonus every 5 levels up to 20 allows ranged weapons to stay competitive with melee as far as weapon immunities go, which I greatly enjoyed.
This is the third arcane caster I've played to completion with. SCS v32 should make caster battles spicier than usual with IWD spells, so I'll see how that pans out. Maybe I'll try my luck with another Shadow Magic user, now that the casting speed boosts from high Intelligence have been removed, or maybe I should play a divine caster since I've basically mastered arcane spells.
Pathfinding tends to guide characters into the same spot, causing them to "stick" to each other and be unable to easily extricate themselves. See here.
@Wise_Grimwald: Hard luck. SoD can be very unforgiving with all the disablers it throws at you, much like BG2. May I ask what defenses you used for the mind flayer? I can't think of any items or spells that will grant immunity to stun but not confusion and feeblemind.
@Wise_Grimwald: Hard luck. SoD can be very unforgiving with all the disablers it throws at you, much like BG2. May I ask what defenses you used for the mind flayer? I can't think of any items or spells that will grant immunity to stun but not confusion and feeblemind.
I had helms that protect against domination plus a similar clerical spell. I was also protected from "Hold" and "Web" using a combination of items and spells. I should obviously have used a "Protection from magic" scroll or potion. Being an Inquisitor would have protected her from many spells. Sadly none of the party other than Faith could dispell magic at that time.
Or, even better, not let them cast the spells at all by using improved invisibility, web, cloudkill. I'm not at all proficient at this sort of play. Up until this point none of the enemy's spells were particularly dangerous.
I could of course have used summons instead.
I just wasn't expecting such an effective attack as half the party were disabled in one way or another. If it had just been one or two disabled, I think that the party would have survived.
Isn't hindsight wonderful.
I am about to play a Holy Redeemer Fighter/Cleric run. He is a dwarf called पवित्र उद्धारकर्ता or Pabitra Uddharkarta in Romanised script. His name means surprise surprise: "Holy Redeemer." However during the run he will just be called Pabitra.
I think that this is the first time of using this kit.
EDIT
Ihave just remembered that I decided to run a fresh installation due to more mods and improved mods. By the time I have installed them I may well have decided on another kit to play. There is a LOT of choice nowadays.
Let's hope that I have no problems with installation.
@Wise_Grimwald: I don't remember if the mind flayer uses all of its abilities at every difficulty level (some might not show up unless you're playing at higher difficulties; I don't know), but if it does use its Psionic Blast ability in a given run, that will be a stun effect, and the only things that will block it are Chaotic Commands (Belegarm sells a few such scrolls), the Greenstone Amulet, rage immunities, or a save vs. spell. Magic resistance, Potions of Magic Blocking, and Protection from Magic scrolls will all fail to block Psionic Blast, since Psionic Blast is a level 0 nonmagical effect. Any of the above can block Chaos, as can Exaltation and Potions of Clarity, plus an SoD-exclusive helm from the first dungeon, the Helm of Unwavering Purpose. Note that Free Action and other things that grant immunity to hold and paralysis won't grant immunity to stun (unless perhaps it's a mod-introduced spell or item). It's my understanding that Remove Paralysis can cure stun, even if it can't prevent it. Dispel Magic, though, will not cure Psionic Blast, as the effect is undispellable. If you don't have access to Chaotic Commands, Potions of Invulnerability/Stone Form/Magic Shielding can help improve your saves vs. spell, and all of those potions stack (though the Dexterity drain from Potions of Stone Form can be fatal with multiple doses!).
Also note that the mind flayer can drain 5 Intelligence with every hit, so even a couple of lucky critical hits could kill certain characters. You can stack Potions of Genius or Mind Focusing to ward that off, but the mind flayer moves slowly and you can attack it from range instead.
I couldn't come up with a good strategy to beat Thaxxy, so we tried a bunch of different things a few times. First was killing him via spell damage. Didn't work. Second was disabling him with Fear, then somehow dealing enough damage to kill him.
But his script doesn't register for when he's under the effects of Fear (is this a bug?), so it doesn't work either (and it's not like five rounds of the guy running around hasted with -12 AC would have been enough for us), we leave again and rest. We try frying him with spells again. Seems like Insect type spells are rather useful since they bypass MR, and Cernd also hit Thaxxy with a Dolorous Decay, but the dragon has like 700 HP (not a bug, just 450% scaling) or more so scratching it like that won't do anything. So I just head up outside, beat the Shade Lord and stop wasting time with the Shadow Dragon. We'll annihilate him later.
Back in Imnsvale we took onto the rangers protecting Valygar which somehow turned into a super difficult battle because we still had our """dragon-slaying""" spells memorised and I let the Priest in their group summon an Aerial Servant and Silence out casters. Yvralline almost dies to the Aerial Servant and it was a mess but in the end I just used a bunch of Invisibility potions and all was good. I did re-order everyone's spellbooks after this, weird that I forgot to do it initially since I always pay attention to that.
We went back to Athkatla to recruit Keldorn, our final permanent party member, but we got intercepted by a messenger telling Cernd to go visit his child and I decided to clean the group of adventurers in the sewers, but first I had to rest. After getting interrupted by 5 (!) waves of Goblins I decided that I should just go to the Copper Coronet and sleep there, except we ran into Gorf outside and had Mazzy stab him a bunch of times.
After this, we dealt with the group of adventurers in the sewers, although not without trouble, since the mage was past level 18 I suppose and used Time Stop besides being a big annoyance in general, but everyone except Cernd (I'm not sure what killed him, but I don't really care since we got the Mage the round after he died) made it out alive (although only those in our party, the others, not so lucky). We ran from the Raskasha (spelling?) a Fire Elemental running in Fear and Anomen running after him accidentally triggered (expletives!), since we weren't in a state good enough to put up a fight. We kicked Anomen, but forgot to take his armour with us. We'll be coming back to the Copper Coronet for it later.
We tried to initiate the Unseeing Eye quest, but I'm not sure what's going on here.
I don't ever remember seeing this. Is it because I took too long after I accepted the quest or maybe because I didn't talk to the right person or didn't get Keldorn's fight against the zombie (a bunch of Goblins were slinging arrows at us). I have no idea, but we'll leave it for later. Hopefully Keldorn doesn't leave because of it.
After all this we started Cernd's child's questline, and after some talking got to Deril's state. Here I made the mistake of casting Arcane spells (or not? This seems like a bug to me, since, well, he's a mage and has not so clean dealings with the guards, why have Cowled Wizards even check if magic is being cast in this area? It's also pretty hard to deal with him without using Arcane magic and even more if you also have to deal with a regiment of Cowled Enforcers), so we cheesed every single spell all of the wizards in there had, threw in a couple of Fire Elementals (that only killed one Enforcer I think didn't wreck out Rep luckily) and waited till the Cowled Wizards would de-spawn and Deril had no spells (except a few Firebursts which Mazzy and Cernd alone got hit by. We just used potions and kept swinging at him), which means he died shortly thereafter.
Cernd left us, and since Keldorn had gotten hit by an Imprisonment spell Deril had thrown at him, we kicked him and had him rejoin before it took effect, so that he'd just die instead of staying imprisoned. We raised him and travelled to the Druid Grove only to find that the Spirit Trolls that we ran away from the last time were still there, and, what's more, Jan's personal quest also triggered. And as if that wasn't enough, I picked up Keldorn's stuff with Cernd because I forgot he'd leave. The eternal circus of Baldur's Gate never fails to provide amusement and intrigue.
@CrevsDaak: That passage is blocked off until you speak with one the local church leaders about the cult. There's no timer after speaking to them in my experience, so if you spoke with High Watcher Oisig or his equivalents in the temples of Lathander or Talos, that passage should be open. If you did speak to them, you'll just have to use the console to fix the bug.
Could you explain what exactly you did with Keldorn and that Imprisonment spell? I've never heard of Reform Party being used to avoid an Imprisonment spell.
Could you explain what exactly you did with Keldorn and that Imprisonment spell? I've never heard of Reform Party being used to avoid an Imprisonment spell.
I decided to test a bit because I wasn't completely certain on what was exactly happening now, but seems like kicking Keldorn from my party had no effect on the Imprisonment at all. That was just it's default effect, which I failed to describe.
First, I'll explain how Imprisonment works in my install, and how I thought it worked before testing it out.
The bigg's tweakpack changes Imprisonment so that it acts as a Maze spell followed by an instant death. While there are many practical reasons of why this works like this, it makes Imprisonment trivial for a party that, like mine, has not a single Freedom scroll.
(effects are sorted by the order in which they're applied, except for Freedom which is applied before the kill target opcode)
I thought this worked differently, and that Imprisonment would apply the Maze effect for an indefinite amount of time. Now, if you have any Mazed creatures in your party, you cannot leave areas with that have a required party check. I thought either this or that I would lose Keldorn (not permanently, but still) would be what happened if I didn't kick him, since I didn't see Freedom scrolls for sale anywhere (I always buy at least one if I see them).
Now, I knew about the way Imprisonment worked but thought that behaviour was limited to neutral creatures or enemies (I tested using it together with Freedom for an XP loop, but found out it doesn't work), and that I could get around it by kicked and re-recruiting Keldorn. In the end that didn't make a difference because Imprisonment in my install is rather forgiving.
I might consider changing Imprisonment into a permanent Maze spell, since the current version of Imprisonment kills you in 30 seconds which might not be enough to save Yvralline, and isn't enough to make Imprisonment more than an no save Slay spell, which is not strong enough against the party for a level 9 spell (and I think that if you have Death Ward from an equipped item, you'd be able to avoid the insta-death even).
so if you spoke with High Watcher Oisig or his equivalents in the temples of Lathander or Talos, that passage should be open. If you did speak to them, you'll just have to use the console to fix the bug.
Thanks. Must be a bug because I'm pretty certain I did talk to Oisig, but I'll try talking to him again (and to the Lathander one as well, just in case) if that doesn't work, I'll just set the appropriate variable via the console.
I thought this worked differently, and that Imprisonment would apply the Maze effect for an indefinite amount of time. Now, if you have any Mazed creatures in your party, you cannot leave areas with that have a required party check.
That's why I changed it. Ditto Flesh to Stone. W/o means to remove it, you're stuck permanently. In case of petrification, you can kill/raise affected character; but with Imprisonment there's no such option.
I might consider changing Imprisonment into a permanent Maze spell, since the current version of Imprisonment kills you in 30 seconds which might not be enough to save Yvralline, and isn't enough to make Imprisonment more than an no save Slay spell, which is not strong enough against the party for a level 9 spell (and I think that if you have Death Ward from an equipped item, you'd be able to avoid the insta-death even).
I don't think a spell can be made more powerful - no save kill that bypasses MR. The only way I can imagine it being more powerful is by giving it AoE.
I could go around Death Ward protection (have to check out if it prevents death in the first place).
I prefer the permanent maze effect myself, along with the extra Freedom scrolls added by SCS of course! (They were needed for that funky Prismatic Spray permanent stun effect too...)
Rather than go with a random choice this time, I decided to appoint another berserker to lead our latest charge towards glory. Drubb's stats include strength of 18(00) and wisdom of 9, so he's a bit more inclined to fight than cast, but can still provide some useful spell support. Trapper adds thrown traps and backstabs along with thieving utility functions to round off a strong unit.
A typical start saw Trapper gain a level from shooting down Shoal.
A few tasks in Beregost included dragging some spiders out of Landrin's house into a couple of waiting traps.
Then it was on down to Nashkel to pick up some decent armor. Drubb was conducting his own private war on NPCs and successfully took down Edwin there at the same time as Noober came to a sticky end (later events proved though that sort of conduct is not entirely risk free ...).
Purchasing a PfP scroll at the carnival allowed some quick and easy XP from carving up the basilisks. Mutamin failed to register any protest as he was chopped down and Kirian's gang were also struck dumb in wonder by Trapper's vicious backstabbing.
After passing through the FAI, an assault on the ankheg nest was undertaken without any need for spells.
Then we headed back south to persuade Bassilus to hand over his war hammer to Drubb. He was allowed to keep talking in order to destroy his undead companions, but his spells had no impact on an enraged berserker.
Rage was used again at the Lighthouse to plough through a couple of groups of sirines.
Inside the pirate cave, Crest decided to go in hard on the golems rather than muck about with arrows and stealth attacks. The first 2 of those died quickly, but the third got a couple of lusty blows in to force Crest to retreat. Drubb took over tanking duties, but came close to paying the ultimate price for that.
Learning from that experience, Crest decided the Trio were not quite up to the Doomsayer yet and left his idol untouched while going to get a lift back to Nashkel with Brage - maximising reputation as a result. In the town Drubb successfully killed Minsc while no soldiers were in sight, but then moved to attack Rasaad just as Trapper laid a trap outside the inn with a view to tempting Neira outside to step in it. The nearby soldiers were outraged by Rasaad's death and one of them was immediately impaled by the springing trap - halving reputation at a stroke.
After running from the remaining soldiers, some temple donations were followed by going to find Greywolf - he became a victim of a first successful hold person.
Samuel was delivered back to the FAI and Arabelle then rescued on the way to get Meilum's bracers. Trapper liked the idea of getting some bracers of his own and there was just time left in the session to go and find Zal to provide those.
Last week, I've started a new run with the new version of SCS (full installation). I've decided to play on core rules with the "tactical"-setting when it comes to the SCS-AI. This is propably overall easier compared to my previous SCS run, however, I am quite rusty, having not played for a while, and I'm completely unfamiliar with the new IWD spells added to the game (I know some of the cleric spells, but that's about it).
To test these new IWD spells, I've decided to create a party uniquely suited to do so, containing a single-class spellcaster of each type (druid, cleric, mage). To support these, I've added a skald, and for physical damage, a berserker and a fighter/thief. Meet the party of Constantia:
Constantia, lawful neutral female halfling Priest of Tyr:
I'm good at keeping divine spellcasters alive, and there is no Priest of Tyr in the Hall of Heroes yet - this is why Constantia is my bhaalspawn. Why Priest of Tyr? Because I hope that Exaltation will allow me to counter some potentially new types of crowd control added via IWD spells.
Sigismund, true neutral male elven generalist mage:
I usually never play generalists, but since I want to test new spells, having a forbidden school seems like a bad idea.
Graun, true neutral male dwarven berserker:
Your standard powerhouse berserker, might eventually be wielding Crom Faeyr + Belm. Let's see.
Carpani, true neutral male half-elven skald:
I love skalds for the huge power boost they add to a full party. Also, I want to have a secondary arcane spellcaster for faster protection dispelling.
Schilling, true neutral male halfling fighter/thief:
Early shortbow action might get replaced with dual-wielding (Angurvidal + Kundane, maybe?) later on. I enjoy having dispel illusions, traps and backstab in SCS.
If I'm going to have a single-class druid despite playing with SCS, it's going to be my favorite kit.
I've already gotten quite far and taken 111 screenshots with this party, but I don't feel motivated to do a detailed report. I'm just going to describe my general strategy, mention some notable encounters and talk about my experiences with the new SCS and the IWD spells.
First things first: I didn't check the readme, so I didn't know at first what "tactical" difficulty would mean, exactly. It seems like enemies do pre-buff, but mostly with long-term spells. However, propably due to some changes to spellbook randomization, this is not what I thought initially: I decided to go for Tarnesh early on (for testing how his AI would react, and because I felt relatively comfortable with a fully party, a spirit animal and the skald song), and he didn't prebuff (or maybe he died before he could do so?). He only ended up casting mirror image before getting commanded and killed:
This did lead me to believe that mage battles would be quite easy in this run - so I decided to attack Silke upon reaching Beregost. Indeed, no stoneskin despite her having fourth level spells. I felt comfortable. However, what she did have was a minor sequencer, and she used it in a very strange way: She went invisible after getting to low hp and, instead of running away, she started attacking Carpani with her quarterstaff! The lvl 1 protection completely failed, and my poor skald was killed in one shot right as I entered the Red Sheaf, looking for safety from the crazed invisible bard:
She did not end up using any of her actual level 4 spells before I was able to kill her (the minor sequencer is an innate ability with the new SCS version, so that one couldn't have been it). Very strange. First death, but luckily the only on for quite a while. Future spellcasters would end up behaving much more as expected, with relatively standard prebuffs (though shield wasn't as common as in previous runs, so magic missle ended up being relatively useful) and spell usage, including stoneskind plus some new nukes and crowd control effects from IWD.
This is a completionist run, so I journeyed through the wildnerness areas first, taking down easy targets to get some early experience, coming back for tougher ones later. I left the Ulcaster School, the Firewine Dungeon and Kahrk for later after doing basically everything else, including the upper levels of Durlag's. During this time, I mostly used my traditional tactics: Skald-buffed ranged weapons supported by crowd control (sleep, command, hold person and now also sunscorch and icelance), group buffs (bless, chant, later on prayer and recitation), summons (spirit animals, later on skeletons, beetles, forest beings) and a single tank (my berserker) with all the good defensive equipment. Later on, I added some more defensive buffs and mage buffs into the mix (haste and the awesome new emotion spells). Also, quite a few interesting nukes, be they new or old. I almost lost Sigismund once due to an ogre berserker hit, but he was able to survive. All in all, my party felt quite powerful at this point, especially when it came to offensive abilities and damage output.
Some fun with new spells:
Sunscorch is basically a short duration blind + a decent nuke. Awesome. Druids have propably gained the most from IWD spells early on:
Second level druid spells have also received a huge boon with Alicorn Lance. The nuke damage isn't great, but I like the -2 AC. Doesn't last for long, but still good for party DPS, and applies even on a failed save.
Now, Icelance isn't super amazing, but early on in BG1 you're unlikely to have big level 3 hits such as haste, slow, MMM etc. - and icelance is certainly better than low level flame arrow or hold person, as it combines nuke and crowd control:
Now, I've always thought that bombardeer beetles were kind of unfair: They have a chance to stun you without allowing for a saving throw! Well, thanks to IWD spells, your druid can now show your opponents the same kind of unfair treatment (you can't control the ability, but they will use it automatically early on in combat):
You know, you could propably stun Amelyssan with those things. I see some great potential here.
A lot of the new spells have cone effects, lance-type effects or do AoE damage despite being single target. I find those kind of hard to use with a full party, but some of them might be great in specific situations. Wall of Moonlight is kind of cool:
However, I ended up liking the new group-buffs the most. Emotion: Courage and Emotion: Hope, Prayer, Recitation - you can get AMAZING thac0 and saving throws with these. Especially large parties with summons will profit. The difference these can make is incredible. I've tried all the other new spells available in BG1 as well, but the ones I've mentioned are still in my spellbook, seeing lots of use. Oh, and with me finding tons of icelance scrolls, watch as the first bounty hunter ambush turns out very bad for old Molkar right from the get go:
Zero damage taken during that fight.
The bandit camp was an opportunity to use Sigismund's new innate minor sequencer - double webs:
The amazon ambush was a bit more tricky, as Sigismund actually got backstabed - he survived, but that's mostly down to luck:
Before entering the Cloakwood Mines, I completed the remaining wilderness areas, only skipping Kahrk for now (I would eventually end up forgetting about Kahrk, despite my plans to take him down after my visist to Durlag's Tower).
Webs once again won me the battle for the boots of speed:
Enemy spellcasters are definitely much more likely to use summoning spells against you in this SCS version. Anyway, I fought my way through the mines using a combination of invisibility + summons, webs and careful ranged weapon usage. Davaeorn somehow failed to fire off his prebuffs when spirit animals and skeletons started attacking him (maybe because he hadn't talked to my party yet):
The city of Baldur's Gate saw me using Exaltation for the first time, due to a new IWD cc spell which causes the berserk status affect:
I ended up using it one more time later on to get rid of a confusion effect. My battle against Arkion was completely ridiculous, because I forgot to prebuff with remove fear and his horror spell was basically instant cast (maybe it was in a sequencer? I don't quite remember). I was punished for this - the entire party failed their saves, but Arkion failed to capitalize on what could've easily been the end of the line and only got two party members to about half hitpoints before the duration of the spell ended:
Thanks to the new thac0 buffs and druid nukes, my battle against Degrodel's guardians was the easiest it's ever been:
Feeling confident, I decided to go for an aggressive approach against the Iron Throne party (I usually just lure them downstairs into waiting summons and/or traps). With full buffs, a double web sequencer, and, most importantly, true sight, this approach proved to be successful:
At the gates of Candlekeep, two ogre mages died during the first round (one due to the arrow of slaying), and true sight allowed me to quickly chase down the remaining ones:
Fighting my way through Candlekeep was not a challenge, and back in Baldur's Gate, both dukes ended up in good health at the Ducal Palace. I added an insect plague and silence spell into the mix, but by the time these hit my foes, the battle was basically already won. I think "tactical" difficulty didn't really increase the difficulty of that one, unlike my previous full installation.
Next up, some expansion content: Graun used PfM to solo the ice island, and on Balduran's Island, Karoug was paralyzed with a single wand charge:
At this point, I recruited the EE NPCs in order to complete their questlines for more items (I was at the experience cap already) before entering Durlag's Tower. The new buffs allowed me to steamroll foes such as the dwarven warders or the dwarven doom guards:
The chessboard was mostly solved via mass fireballs and ignoring the rules to kill the remaining pieces thanks to six potions of absorption:
The demon knight basically fell to my summons before I was even able to really get into the fight, so I made my way back to the Beard, entering under the protection of six invisibility spells in order to move northwards. This allowed me time to freely summon allies and buff the party. True sight dealt with any potential cult assassin threat:
This is Graun with his buffs for Aec'Letec (note that there could've been more potion buffs added):
Full buffs, potions of magic shielding and of mirrored eyes turn this encounter into an easy one. The demon stood no chance:
Sarevok was a bit more tricky, because I had to avoid getting my buffs dispelled, which required a lot of attention and some movement:
The first dispel only hit Sigismund. Second one: Only Schilling:
Both retained a decent number of buffs, and everyone else was allowed to focus on damage. Soon, there was only Sarevok left:
He even started panicking thanks to the insect plague - never seen that one before:
Victory was quickly achieved:
My simple strategy for Korlasz's tomb: Use PfU to deal with undead groups, firebomb all humanoid groups:
That was satisfying:
And now, for the second character death. A lousy street ambush in BG city, where I completely missed the presence of a stealthed thief who was able to oneshot Sigismund. Why was he able to do that? Because I was too stingy with my potions of genius - I wanted to wait until I was able to buy the new SoD scrolls before having him learn stoneskin:
Also, there is literally no way to get access to resurrection services/scrolls in the Baldur's Gate City part of SoD. Luckily, I knew that already thanks to some losses in Korlasz's tomb in a previous run, and I bought raise dead scrolls from the Flaming Fist healer in the tomb, just in case. So, not a big problem, just very, very embarassing. Anyway, here we are: The party has entered Coast Way Crossing, and now we're all caught up with the run in one very long post!
We occasionally have problems right at the start of sessions, but we'd cunningly saved the game with both of us stunned by the trap after returning from killing the basilisks in Durlag's Tower - so had a bit of time to settle down before we could move . I grabbed the wisdom tome and noticed that Gate70 is playing a fighter/cleric in this game as well as the current Trio game - but this one has a wisdom of 18 (rather than just 9), so was keen to grab the tome ...
After a quick review of the map suggested there wasn't much exploring left to do, we decided to head straight for the Nashkel Mine. It didn't take long to get down to Mulahey and, with him rudely failing to say hello, we decided to give him the appropriate punishment.
The skeletons were a definite luxury for Mulahey, but slightly more justifiable for the silent amazons outside. Nimbul was also silenced, but he was casually struck down without the assistance of summons. Tranzig wasn't silenced, but tried and failed to run after taking a single blow from Grozzul.
At the Bandit Camp the bandits did surprisingly well at shooting Grozzul and forced him to retreat. Taurgosz tried chasing by himself, but found that effort was doomed (and held) to failure.
Inside the tent silence reigned once more.
After hastening through the Cloakwood, silence was once more all that was needed against Drasus & co.
A quick trip downstairs saw the battle horrors dragged back to where Grozzul could tank them while Reflex dodged in and out using the partition wall to hide behind. A rare use of a potion by Reflex saw Davaeorn's spells bounce off magic blocking while he was shot down.
Arriving at Baldur's Gate, Grozzul nobly gave up the dexterity tome to Reflex, but did grab another wisdom tome while doing the poison quest. Larze hit hard during that quest and forced Grozzul to switch to missiles,
but Marek lasted only a few seconds. The disappointment though was that Lothander managed to disappear with his boots - multiplayer lag prevented Grozzul from attacking until the last second and the skeletons from attacking at all, while Reflex clearly wasn't standing right next to Lothander as he appeared to be on my screen and was unable to attack with his dagger (and switched to his crossbow too late to get any attacks of his own in).
The rest of the work in the City went pretty smoothly, with the only slight potential concern when Degrodel managed to get a horror away and send Reflex running - but by that time a fatal bolt was already en-route to the mage.
Silence did a good job yet again at the Iron Throne where none of the casters was able to even attempt a spell.
Arriving at Candlekeep, Reflex realized he hadn't bought any potions - but fortunately already had a cloud giant strength potion in his bag to top up with DUHM to get the strength tome. The time spent on looting the tombs and playing with the spiders did mean however that the protection from lightning spell Grozzul cast on himself had run out - and he didn't realize that as he was wearing the Boots of Grounding. Fortunately he had plenty of HPs when he ran through the repeating lightning trap.
Prat was another silent victim. Rather than shooting him down though Reflex got his dagger of venom out. That had seen quite a bit of use, but it seemed almost everything attacked was immune to its poison (battle horrors, doom guards, invisible stalkers, skeletons etc). Reflex was therefore keen to check it was still working (and Grozzul was reluctant to act as a guinea pig despite Reflex pointing out he could cure the poison .
A couple more basilisks saw Reflex pick up the final BG1 level for this pair and they should be moving quickly on to confront Sarevok in the next session.
Just a quick note - my band of druids lead by Lordan got wiped out by Kirian's party - really should have waited until we had call lightning and insects to make it a closer fight. In any case, rolled up an Undead Hunter Russell IX. He will use NPCs this run. Intend a small party - Khalid, Branwen, and Imoen. Will dual Imoen as soon as she has 60% in locks and 80% in traps (e.g., at a point where she can be bumped to 100% by a single thieving and perception potion). Still very early, we just left Nashkel for the Gnoll fortress. For once, I did not sacrifice INT for my Paladin but DEX - perhaps that will give him wisdom when it comes to Thaxxy!
Having spent days on it, I at last have a finished installation on EET. It isn't exactly what I want, but it's a start. I hope to get it a lot closer to my ideal set-up in due time, but it could have been a lot worse. I now have an inkling as to how the mod-installer works. Time will tell as to how good the installation is.
My character is a male elf Knight of the Red facon called Falchion Rouge. He battled fiercely to get through Candlekeep and though the battles were long and hard, he succeeded where many have fallen. Now at the site of Gorion's Ambush where he returned after nasty battles.
AS per usual, I upgraded the assassins in Candlekeep with the result that they gave me quite a battle. Some of the equipment they were carrying has been sold and as a result I was able to buy a matching kantana to the one that I found.
Russell IX the Human Undead Hunter - Update 1
Traveling with:
Khalid - half-elf fighter
Branwen - human cleric
Imoen - human level 5 thief/level 6 mage
As a small group, we have made tremendous progress. We have done most high experience areas in chapter 3 (Ankhegs, Sirines, Basilisks) - most of the party is level 6. No deaths, this team works real well together. Russell IX stays in front with Branwen, and Khalid assists with his long bow and Imoen assisted with throwing daggers as a mage, then shortbow now that she just now regained her thief abilities.
We have purchased a potion of thievery and perception so Imoen will be 100% for the bandit camp for traps and locks, and next session, will attack this fortress of evil.
Branwen was happy she got to get her revenge on Tranzig, who had turned her to stone. We usually don't use a lot of magic, with the exception of enemy parties we do silence and fireballs, which works really well. We also defeated Kirian's party soundly and therefore avenged Lordan's druids demise there.
Comments
She picked up her new sword – a two-handed sword that she had recovered from a spider nest a couple of days back. It had a distinct glow emanating from within when unsheathed & it allowed her to move freely when she would otherwise be entangled. As she mulled the hours ahead, she cleaned the blade and oiled it with sword oil. She checked the wrap and the pommel just as she had w/the non-enchanted swords she had used before. Magical or not, equipment care was paramount to the warrior & the most important piece of equipment she had was her sword.
Tomorrow they would head to the Cloakwood Mines. Khalid had recon’d ahead of them earlier & she knew the mines lay ahead of them. She wondered what evil they would face & what dangers. Khalid was a fantastic ranger and his skill as an archer took a load off all of them – especially Sirine & her. Every foe they faced had at least one arrow sticking out of them somewhere – or so it seemed anyway. He would be invaluable in the hours & days ahead & she suspected Imoen would move up front with him once they were inside the mines to leverage her trap detecting skills. She knew the foes to come would be stronger, more deadly, & more cunning than many they had yet faced. But she was unafraid.
She caught herself yawning. She would rise in the morning before the rest to pray, just as Sune clerics do. Adventuring made it tough to attend to her usual devotional routine of a scented morning bath before prayer, but she always did her best to freshen up before approaching her goddess. She looked @ Sirine’s cat like eyes, ever watchful peering into the darkness for danger. She rose and bid her friend rest well, then left to find her bed roll. The morning haze would be here soon.
Order of March: Khalid (Recon, Sirine & Isra (shock), Despenser (lead), Imoen (Traps), Valerie (Arcane) (Rear guard)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Sword Spiders (4), Phase Spiders (4),Centeol, Senjak (Thief/4), Dorn Il-Khan (Anti-Paladin/4), Dorotea (Cleric/4), Cave Bears (3), Dread Wolves (8), Ettercaps (11), Ghast, Hamadryad, Giant Spiders (15), Baby Wyverns (10), Huge Spiders (14), Peter of the North, Black Bears (5), Ogrillons (3), Worgs (8), Bandits (2), Skeletons (7/HH), Tasloi (30), Xvarts (6)
CASUALTIES: Valerie (Druid), Khalid (Sword Spider)
LEVEL UP: Valerie, Sorcerer/4, Khalid, Ranger (Archer)/4, Imoen, Thief (Adventurer)/5, Dispenser, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/5, Sirine, Paladin (Martyr of Ilmatar)/5, Isra, Paladin, (Cavalier or Sune)/5
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE GAINED: (Gold = 443 gp)
Armor & weapons: 2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane), Katana +1, Scimitar +1, 2H/Sword +1 (Rancor), B/Sword +1, S/Shields +1 (2), Plate Mail
Gems/jewelry: Ring/Protection +1, Ring of Animal Friendship, Mithril Ring (?), Fire Opal Ring, Water Opal, Garnet Gem
Potions: Invulnerability, Extra Healing, Heroism
Scrolls: Magic Missile
Wands: Fear
Misc & Artifacts: Cloak of Non-Detection
Best Kill:
1) Khalid, (Seniyad) (4000 exp)
2) Sirene:(Taurgosz Khosann), & Valerie & Dispenser: (Sword Spiders) (2000 exp ea)
3) Isra, Phase Spider (1400 exp)
4) Imoen: (Osmadi) (1000 exp)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Bivouac in the Cloakwoods
NEXT STEPS: Cloakwood Mines
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 15)
Silas: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/5 (HP 36) Studded Leather w/ L/Sword +2/+1 Cold, Spells: Animate Dead, Holy Smite, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command, Doom, Protection from Evil; Remove Fear, Abilities: Hold person; (None) (1)
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr of Ilmater)/5 (HP 43) Full Plate w/2H/Sword +1 & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise, Abilities: Lay on Hands (2), Sacrifice, D/Evil (6); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/5 (HP 46) Full Plate & Cloak +1 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** (THWS**), Abilities: Remove Fear (2), Prot/Evil (2), Lay Hands (2), D/Evil (6), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Khalid: Ranger (Archer)/4 (HP 35) St/Leather +2 & Cloak/Non-Detection w/L/bow****, Bracers of Archery & B/Sword +1* (TWS**) Skills: MS 48, HS 48; (Fighter Ranged) (4)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//5 (HP 30) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1, S/bow*, S/Sword* & Master Belt; Skills: OL 80, PP 40, FT 70, MS 50, HS 45, DI 15, ST 20; (Thief Ranged) (5)
Valerie: Sorcerer/4 (HP 13) Mage Robe Cold Resistance, RoP +1, Ring Energy &, WoMMs, Sling* & Q/Staff, Spells: Melf’s Acid Arrow, Magic Missile (5), Sleep (5) , Spook (5), (Advanced AI) (6)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
(Current AI) (Chain of Command rank)
Lassiter - gnomish berserker, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Ulder - half-elf cleric/ranger (Gate70)
London - shapeshifter (Grond0)
The party made so much progress this session, until we hit anti-progress at the end. More on that in a moment
1) The party freed Hendak - pretty easy for this party , we have two true tanks so that makes it much simpler.
2) We did the Lilacor quest for the experience - the minor enemy shamans weren't much problem to Lassiter thanks to his enrage, but they did manage to hold a party member - the enemies could not capitalize on that however.
3) We rested and then took on the moored ship slavers, starting with Captain Haegan and his buddies. Lassiter enraged and charged the enemy cleric, and the other two party members took on Captain Haegan. Even though Lassiter had far more enemies on him, the other two were taking a beating with just the two enemies they were on - Lassiter had Officer Dirth's full plate, though, so that probably explains it. He also doesn't have potion allergies like his buddies do.
Next were the slaver wizards - with insect plague, enrage/improved invis (RoAC) by Lassiter and skeletons/silence, there was definitely no doubt as you can see.
Hendak was pleased with our success.
4) A few ambushes were weathered, but they were no problem for this group.
5) Next up was Trademeet. Thanks to skeletons, we didn't have to bother with protection from petrification - well at least, not inside the tent. However, outside the genie lamp genie managed to petrify Gate70. Luckily, Gate70's statue was not chunked so we were able to turn him back and get him in the party again with a helpful temple nearby with a StF scroll.
As for the druid grove itself, most of it was very, very smooth, the party taking advantage of all their various skills to make good progress. Well until just before meeting Faldhorn.
That group of 3 druids did amazing, dropping Lassiter's life to THREE HP (!!!) with a powerful 78 damage call lightning. It looked like he might have got hit twice, but only one actually registered. Gate70 had asked Corey_Russell how many HP did he have (just a sliver on screen) and Corey_Russell said 3 - Gate70 commented, just enough eh? Fortunately Lassiter did DUHM before the fight, or he would have died. Lassiter was gulping potions fast as he could and did managed to survive.
I didn't talk to Cernd, but that was a mistake, as Faldhorn didn't offer any option for London to duel her. So we had to talk to Cernd, tell him to do it on his own, and only then Faldhorn would let her get challenged by London - who duly cast insect plague, fire elemental and insects twice - Lassiter didn't even have to change to werewolf form to win.
Finally this quest was done.
6) Next up was Umar Hills. Lassiter rezlied his +1 long swords can't hurt the stone golem, but luckily his group mates were able to kill it. Rest of the Immesvale area went by the numbers.
Next up was fighting the undead trap guarding the entrance to the old Amaunator temple. The party didn't bother using the mirror as we just got all the free experience, no real hiccups doing this.
We delved deeper in and were doing pretty good. Up until the 2nd group of strong undead. Lassiter could have enraged, but didn't bother as he had Arbane equipped - he has been using his long swords the entire time. Unfortunately, Corey_Russell foolishly entered the inventory while in battle, and somehow this got his shortbow equipped. His save vs death wsa only 6, not bad but not a guarantee either. Well sure enough, a shadow fiend got a successful hold in this position, and the party members could do nothing but watch Lassiter die. They had paused as soon as he was held, but Lassiter fell almost immediately - RIP Lassiter.
Grond0 will be the next protagonist in the Trio.
Previous update:
Moving into the Cloud Peaks, Bash took advantage of the gap between casting a spell and the game realising combat had started to blind Sendai's archer friends and put his armor back on before attacking. After Rufie fortunately turned neutral before his berserk kicked in, Vax was another to be blinded from distance - allowing a sneak attack on Zal.
In the next area, Caldo & Krumm were charmed and moved away from the Dryad to avoid any little accidents. Drienne then got her cat back to push reputation to 20. Bash then got his 6th fighter level while collecting the charisma tome.
After buying some potions of genius, Bash went to High Hedge where he used a friends scroll to buy lots more scrolls cheaply. He also bought the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi and the Claw of Kazgaroth (though in retrospect he shouldn't have bothered with the latter - HPs are more useful for this character than usual due to being out of control and unable to retreat so much). He then headed for Ulgoth's Beard and bought the scrolls there - before learning everything with the help of potions.
Back in Beregost Karlat was pulled out of sight of everyone before engaging. That nearly ended in disaster when Karlat lost morale and tried to run, but fortunately he got stuck against a table before he could bring Bash into sight of any innocents.
At Firewine Bridge, Bentan and Poe were charmed and fed to kobolds. Meilum was then charmed and used to kill a non-responsive Kahrk - before being fed to kobolds.
The wolf pack at Beregost temple got a few chomps in, but not enough to be dangerous. Bash then moved on to the basilisk area. I made a mistake there in not switching to the crushing girdle before taking on the southern group of basilisks, but Bash still won that easily - getting his 6th illusionist level in the process.
I noted in the previous update that I've been taking fewer risks recently, but that's not the same as none
Other people may be better players, but you are the best writer around.
Thank you buddy. I sincerely appreciate it!
I enjoy researching monsters and deities and Forgotten Realms to make them fun to read - takes me half a day to do one and review and edit and edit again and...
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071330#Comment_1071330
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071334#Comment_1071334
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071592#Comment_1071592
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071877#Comment_1071877
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071887#Comment_1071887
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072358#Comment_1072358
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072373#Comment_1072373
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073313#Comment_1073313
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073411#Comment_1073411
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1078371#Comment_1078371
Tree of Life. The parasites are disposed of but my Brain Golem dies to Elder Earth Elementals. Irenicus is actually slightly challenging because I didn't have all my buffs up when I went to face him. He actually managed to dispel me successfully with Remove Magic but I was still better prepared than he was.
Down to hell. I do the trials of Selfishness and Greed, taking the good path on both. I trade the tears for -4 to saves (2 tears) and +30% magic resistance (3 tears) in exchange for -1 DEX, -2 max HP, and -75k XP. A small price to pay for a major defensive boost. Slayer time. I back away from the fight and focus on taking out the Balors first because of their no-save vorpal weapons. They go down quite fast, but one balor gates in a pair of nabassus and a marilith. I'd rather fight those than balors anyway. The planetar dispels the Glabrezus' Mirror Image with True Sight, so I shoot them down next and then onto the gated demons. This only takes a couple of rounds.
Illasera. I expected her to be a little more proactive, but she went ethereal at the start of the fight and preferred to let her incompetant lackeys have at me instead. I readied the Reflection Shield just in case she ever started attacking me, but she only targeted my planetar once we annihilated her party. She goes down.
The first pocket plane challenge is eviscerated. Bodhi and Sarevok are kited to death, leaving Johnny by himself. He makes the same mistake as Azamantes by not attending to his defenses while time is stopped, so I beat him and his fallen planetar to death with the Staff. At-will invisibility is overrated.
I had built a Lightning Golem using my excess fortune, but discovered it was actually more of a fragile speedster as opposed to a hulking tank that I prefer my golems to be like. While it can teleport at will under aura cleansing, causing an electrical shockwave at its destination, that's not particularly helpful to me, so I leave it back at the pocket plane for when I have to fight Abazigal. Instead, I build Perfect Mithril golem MK II by casting Wish a couple of times to transmute iron bars into mithril.
Gromnir's castle. I open the fight by casting Power Word: Stun on Karun the Black. I would've preferred Kill instead, but that always crashes the game if the mage in question has a summoning or Horrid Wilting contingency that activates at the start of combat. I seriously hope SCS v32 fixes this.
Nyalee's temple, the fire giant enclave approach, the fire giant temple, and the return to Nyalee were all uneventful. Nyalee didn't even get to use her Mirror of Opposition. Brimstone was just another dragon that fell in our wake. Now it's time to fight Yaga-Shura. Greater Deathblow + Improved Haste = dead army. I have 10 uses of GDb, though I have to use a Dimension Door to free myself from being trapped by spawning enemies near the bridge.
Everyone at the Oasis is killed with Greater Deathblow except the named guy who accuses you. Gathering all their magical equipment and selling it at Amkethran gains me more than 700k gold! And while I failed to kill Saemon Havarian the first time on when the githyanki and sahuagin boarded us, I make amends and use the illithid form to suck out his brain.
Vongoethe is no problem and finished off by Sunray after getting a couple of free hits on him before the cutscene that summons his undead helpers plays.
Draconis falls like all the other dragons: just by hitting him repeatedly. Anadramatis and the quad-dragon ambush follow suit, though Ithynasendra was troublesome because she kept healing. Anadramatis is a special case because Perfect Mithril MK II boxed him in in such a way that he couldn't reach me.
Time to fight Abazigal. I forgot to bring my lightning golem... My golem accidentally triggers his dragon transformation before I can kill off Abby's adds.
I have a feeling I'm going to get a double Melissan final boss fight at this rate. My first planetar is killed by all the dragons, so I summon a second one who also dies, but not before getting off several self-Heals. I need more DPS, so I summon my clone with Vhailor's Helm, have it Improved Haste itself and let the arrows fly. This works for a few rounds, but when the third planetar dies, it's clear I'm going to have to switch tactics. We retreat to the crevice in the southwest that Krieg used to fight Abazigal a long time ago. The simulacrum is destroyed, so I try casting the spell instead, but the clone does not appear because the timer on the first one was still running. Dammit. I stand back and just kill all three Tamahs.
With this, the Big Metal Rod and its tasty ammo is now available for use and so is the Adamatite Golem tome. I probably should've made these sooner.
Demogorgon is next on the chopping block.
Arrow Slinger - Arcane Archer 50/Mage 39
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071330#Comment_1071330
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071334#Comment_1071334
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071592#Comment_1071592
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071877#Comment_1071877
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071887#Comment_1071887
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072358#Comment_1072358
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072373#Comment_1072373
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073313#Comment_1073313
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073411#Comment_1073411
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1078371#Comment_1078371
SoA Finale -> Mid-ToB: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1079375#Comment_1079375
Armed with the Big Metal Rod's ammo, I'm pretty much unstoppable now. The scorcher ammo allows me to do massive damage over time and can bypass PfMW as long as the primary target takes damage normally. Each hit also applies my Arcane Archer bonus damage, resulting in up to an extra 50 magical damage per round assuming the target fails all of their MR checks.
Demogorgon is easy as a result. The Staff counters his Time Stop, although I have trouble hitting him because my THAC0 with melee weapons is bad. When time unfreezes, I swap back to Firetooth+Scorcher ammo and lay into the demon horde. Demogorgon is easily killed.
Sendai is next. With Improved Haste, Scorcher ammo turns into death lasers. Sendai herself is super easy as a result. I'm breaking the game over my knee at this point.
I convince Balthazar to join me at the Throne. The Ravager stands no chance even with big damage reduction.
I cast Wish a bunch of times to transmute 12 iron bars into adamantite ore so I can build both Perfect Adamantite Golems. They will accompany me with Perfect Mithril Golem MK II. Now it's time for the Throne. I reorganize my spellbook a little bit, dropping spells that won't be useful at the Throne in exchange for backups of important buff spells. I seriously doubt the Throne will even cause me any trouble, even if two Melissans spawn again like last time.
Here's how I'm looking:
Arrow Slinger - Arcane Archer 50/Mage 42
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071330#Comment_1071330
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071334#Comment_1071334
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071592#Comment_1071592
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071877#Comment_1071877
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071887#Comment_1071887
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072358#Comment_1072358
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1072373#Comment_1072373
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073313#Comment_1073313
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1073411#Comment_1073411
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1078371#Comment_1078371
SoA Finale -> Mid-ToB: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1079375#Comment_1079375
ToB: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1079398#Comment_1079398
Throne of Bhaal. Before leaving, I buff to maximum and share an Emotion: Hope with my golems. The fight with Irenicus, Bodhi, and their two fallen solar pals begins. I used a PfU scroll before entering the throne to keep Bodhi from using her Cloud of Bats on me. I have the golems beat her up since she can't do much against them while I concentrate on removing the solars. I shoot them with Scorcher ammo first and carefully watch their attack animations and equip the Reflection Shield and Water's Edge +4 when needed. Bodhi dies first.
The demon pools are but target practice, though I make it a point to eliminate the quick and invisible babau by using the Scorcher ammo. The mariliths just need to be Breached to be killed. Time to fight the Six. I'll try to spread the scorching hot love around instead of killing them all one at a time like I usually do. Abazigal gets shut down with a PfM scroll.
Because of this, Melissan comes down to play, but the rest of the Six aren't looking so healthy. Illasera dies next, followed immediately by Sarevok and Abazigal.
The Six are dead, so I chase down the fallen solar and kill it. Now it's just Balthazar, my golems, and me vs. Melissan. She gates in a ton of demons and I hear her say "Praeses, Alia...", so I ready my Staff and also cast Focus to be extra safe, but she ended up casting Divine Mantle instead, I think. I take out most of the horde with more scorcher ammo before they arrive.
The demon horde is also culled quickly after they were summoned. Melissan is furious now! She knocks me backwards and unconscious for a short time and then combos into a Time Stop! I had just cast Improved Haste on myself to refresh it when she started casting Time Stop. If I was knocked out for any longer, I would've been toast.
Unlike the my other three successes, Arrow Slinger chooses to remain mortal.
Arrow Slinger - Arcane Archer 50/Mage 42
At long last, this playthrough is complete. As much as I hate to say it, it's time to update to v2.5 because SCS v32 demands it. At least this means I'll get to update the other mods I use, too. I can hardly wait to see how bad the character stacking is first-hand.
Musings:
This is the third arcane caster I've played to completion with. SCS v32 should make caster battles spicier than usual with IWD spells, so I'll see how that pans out. Maybe I'll try my luck with another Shadow Magic user, now that the casting speed boosts from high Intelligence have been removed, or maybe I should play a divine caster since I've basically mastered arcane spells.
Faith had just expressed he feelings for me before her departure from Faerun.
We thought that things were going so well.
We killed a dragon:
Ziatar;
And the Neothelid;
but whilst we thought that we had adequate protection from mind attacks, they did not protect us from Feeblemind or Chaos.
Arrow Slinger the Arcane Archer/Mage: @Flashburn
Notable mods: SCS v31 (full prebuffs), Ascension v1.5 BETA, Tweaks Anthology, Rogue Rebalancing, More Style For Mages, IWDification beta 4, Skip Chateau Irenicus, aTweaks, Golem Construction v5.3, Artisan's Kitpack v1
Difficulty: Insane (extra damage disabled)
Special: Solo Run
Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1071325#Comment_1071325 (May 30, 2019)
End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1079416#Comment_1079416 (June 25, 2019)
I had helms that protect against domination plus a similar clerical spell. I was also protected from "Hold" and "Web" using a combination of items and spells. I should obviously have used a "Protection from magic" scroll or potion. Being an Inquisitor would have protected her from many spells. Sadly none of the party other than Faith could dispell magic at that time.
Or, even better, not let them cast the spells at all by using improved invisibility, web, cloudkill. I'm not at all proficient at this sort of play. Up until this point none of the enemy's spells were particularly dangerous.
I could of course have used summons instead.
I just wasn't expecting such an effective attack as half the party were disabled in one way or another. If it had just been one or two disabled, I think that the party would have survived.
Isn't hindsight wonderful.
I am about to play a Holy Redeemer Fighter/Cleric run. He is a dwarf called पवित्र उद्धारकर्ता or Pabitra Uddharkarta in Romanised script. His name means surprise surprise: "Holy Redeemer." However during the run he will just be called Pabitra.
I think that this is the first time of using this kit.
EDIT
Ihave just remembered that I decided to run a fresh installation due to more mods and improved mods. By the time I have installed them I may well have decided on another kit to play. There is a LOT of choice nowadays.
Let's hope that I have no problems with installation.
I've finally started a run with the new SCS version. Some decent progress in BG1, will propably report on it on friday!
Also note that the mind flayer can drain 5 Intelligence with every hit, so even a couple of lucky critical hits could kill certain characters. You can stack Potions of Genius or Mind Focusing to ward that off, but the mind flayer moves slowly and you can attack it from range instead.
Best of luck with Pabitra!
But his script doesn't register for when he's under the effects of Fear (is this a bug?), so it doesn't work either (and it's not like five rounds of the guy running around hasted with -12 AC would have been enough for us), we leave again and rest. We try frying him with spells again. Seems like Insect type spells are rather useful since they bypass MR, and Cernd also hit Thaxxy with a Dolorous Decay, but the dragon has like 700 HP (not a bug, just 450% scaling) or more so scratching it like that won't do anything. So I just head up outside, beat the Shade Lord and stop wasting time with the Shadow Dragon. We'll annihilate him later.
Back in Imnsvale we took onto the rangers protecting Valygar which somehow turned into a super difficult battle because we still had our """dragon-slaying""" spells memorised and I let the Priest in their group summon an Aerial Servant and Silence out casters. Yvralline almost dies to the Aerial Servant and it was a mess but in the end I just used a bunch of Invisibility potions and all was good. I did re-order everyone's spellbooks after this, weird that I forgot to do it initially since I always pay attention to that.
We went back to Athkatla to recruit Keldorn, our final permanent party member, but we got intercepted by a messenger telling Cernd to go visit his child and I decided to clean the group of adventurers in the sewers, but first I had to rest. After getting interrupted by 5 (!) waves of Goblins I decided that I should just go to the Copper Coronet and sleep there, except we ran into Gorf outside and had Mazzy stab him a bunch of times.
After this, we dealt with the group of adventurers in the sewers, although not without trouble, since the mage was past level 18 I suppose and used Time Stop besides being a big annoyance in general, but everyone except Cernd (I'm not sure what killed him, but I don't really care since we got the Mage the round after he died) made it out alive (although only those in our party, the others, not so lucky). We ran from the Raskasha (spelling?) a Fire Elemental running in Fear and Anomen running after him accidentally triggered (expletives!), since we weren't in a state good enough to put up a fight. We kicked Anomen, but forgot to take his armour with us. We'll be coming back to the Copper Coronet for it later.
We tried to initiate the Unseeing Eye quest, but I'm not sure what's going on here.
I don't ever remember seeing this. Is it because I took too long after I accepted the quest or maybe because I didn't talk to the right person or didn't get Keldorn's fight against the zombie (a bunch of Goblins were slinging arrows at us). I have no idea, but we'll leave it for later. Hopefully Keldorn doesn't leave because of it.
After all this we started Cernd's child's questline, and after some talking got to Deril's state. Here I made the mistake of casting Arcane spells (or not? This seems like a bug to me, since, well, he's a mage and has not so clean dealings with the guards, why have Cowled Wizards even check if magic is being cast in this area? It's also pretty hard to deal with him without using Arcane magic and even more if you also have to deal with a regiment of Cowled Enforcers), so we cheesed every single spell all of the wizards in there had, threw in a couple of Fire Elementals (that only killed one Enforcer I think didn't wreck out Rep luckily) and waited till the Cowled Wizards would de-spawn and Deril had no spells (except a few Firebursts which Mazzy and Cernd alone got hit by. We just used potions and kept swinging at him), which means he died shortly thereafter.
Cernd left us, and since Keldorn had gotten hit by an Imprisonment spell Deril had thrown at him, we kicked him and had him rejoin before it took effect, so that he'd just die instead of staying imprisoned. We raised him and travelled to the Druid Grove only to find that the Spirit Trolls that we ran away from the last time were still there, and, what's more, Jan's personal quest also triggered. And as if that wasn't enough, I picked up Keldorn's stuff with Cernd because I forgot he'd leave. The eternal circus of Baldur's Gate never fails to provide amusement and intrigue.
Could you explain what exactly you did with Keldorn and that Imprisonment spell? I've never heard of Reform Party being used to avoid an Imprisonment spell.
First, I'll explain how Imprisonment works in my install, and how I thought it worked before testing it out.
The bigg's tweakpack changes Imprisonment so that it acts as a Maze spell followed by an instant death. While there are many practical reasons of why this works like this, it makes Imprisonment trivial for a party that, like mine, has not a single Freedom scroll.
(effects are sorted by the order in which they're applied, except for Freedom which is applied before the kill target opcode)
I thought this worked differently, and that Imprisonment would apply the Maze effect for an indefinite amount of time. Now, if you have any Mazed creatures in your party, you cannot leave areas with that have a required party check. I thought either this or that I would lose Keldorn (not permanently, but still) would be what happened if I didn't kick him, since I didn't see Freedom scrolls for sale anywhere (I always buy at least one if I see them).
Now, I knew about the way Imprisonment worked but thought that behaviour was limited to neutral creatures or enemies (I tested using it together with Freedom for an XP loop, but found out it doesn't work), and that I could get around it by kicked and re-recruiting Keldorn. In the end that didn't make a difference because Imprisonment in my install is rather forgiving.
I might consider changing Imprisonment into a permanent Maze spell, since the current version of Imprisonment kills you in 30 seconds which might not be enough to save Yvralline, and isn't enough to make Imprisonment more than an no save Slay spell, which is not strong enough against the party for a level 9 spell (and I think that if you have Death Ward from an equipped item, you'd be able to avoid the insta-death even). Thanks. Must be a bug because I'm pretty certain I did talk to Oisig, but I'll try talking to him again (and to the Lathander one as well, just in case) if that doesn't work, I'll just set the appropriate variable via the console.
I'm pretty sure this is from Spell Revisions. Bigg's tweak doesn't kill.
That's why I changed it. Ditto Flesh to Stone. W/o means to remove it, you're stuck permanently. In case of petrification, you can kill/raise affected character; but with Imprisonment there's no such option.
I don't think a spell can be made more powerful - no save kill that bypasses MR. The only way I can imagine it being more powerful is by giving it AoE.
I could go around Death Ward protection (have to check out if it prevents death in the first place).
Crest - dwarf berserker (Grond0)
Trapper - halfling bounty hunter (Corey_Russell)
Drubb - dwarf fighter/cleric (Gate70)
Previous run:
Rather than go with a random choice this time, I decided to appoint another berserker to lead our latest charge towards glory. Drubb's stats include strength of 18(00) and wisdom of 9, so he's a bit more inclined to fight than cast, but can still provide some useful spell support. Trapper adds thrown traps and backstabs along with thieving utility functions to round off a strong unit.
A typical start saw Trapper gain a level from shooting down Shoal.
Purchasing a PfP scroll at the carnival allowed some quick and easy XP from carving up the basilisks. Mutamin failed to register any protest as he was chopped down and Kirian's gang were also struck dumb in wonder by Trapper's vicious backstabbing.
After passing through the FAI, an assault on the ankheg nest was undertaken without any need for spells.
Rage was used again at the Lighthouse to plough through a couple of groups of sirines.
Learning from that experience, Crest decided the Trio were not quite up to the Doomsayer yet and left his idol untouched while going to get a lift back to Nashkel with Brage - maximising reputation as a result. In the town Drubb successfully killed Minsc while no soldiers were in sight, but then moved to attack Rasaad just as Trapper laid a trap outside the inn with a view to tempting Neira outside to step in it. The nearby soldiers were outraged by Rasaad's death and one of them was immediately impaled by the springing trap - halving reputation at a stroke.
After running from the remaining soldiers, some temple donations were followed by going to find Greywolf - he became a victim of a first successful hold person.
Berserker - L5, 62 HPs, 70 kills
Bounty Hunter - L6, 41 HPs, 9 kills, 0 deaths
Fighter/cleric - L4/5, 52 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths
Last week, I've started a new run with the new version of SCS (full installation). I've decided to play on core rules with the "tactical"-setting when it comes to the SCS-AI. This is propably overall easier compared to my previous SCS run, however, I am quite rusty, having not played for a while, and I'm completely unfamiliar with the new IWD spells added to the game (I know some of the cleric spells, but that's about it).
To test these new IWD spells, I've decided to create a party uniquely suited to do so, containing a single-class spellcaster of each type (druid, cleric, mage). To support these, I've added a skald, and for physical damage, a berserker and a fighter/thief. Meet the party of Constantia:
Constantia, lawful neutral female halfling Priest of Tyr:
Sigismund, true neutral male elven generalist mage:
Graun, true neutral male dwarven berserker:
Carpani, true neutral male half-elven skald:
Schilling, true neutral male halfling fighter/thief:
Alexandra, true neutral female half-elven totemic druid:
I've already gotten quite far and taken 111 screenshots with this party, but I don't feel motivated to do a detailed report. I'm just going to describe my general strategy, mention some notable encounters and talk about my experiences with the new SCS and the IWD spells.
First things first: I didn't check the readme, so I didn't know at first what "tactical" difficulty would mean, exactly. It seems like enemies do pre-buff, but mostly with long-term spells. However, propably due to some changes to spellbook randomization, this is not what I thought initially: I decided to go for Tarnesh early on (for testing how his AI would react, and because I felt relatively comfortable with a fully party, a spirit animal and the skald song), and he didn't prebuff (or maybe he died before he could do so?). He only ended up casting mirror image before getting commanded and killed:
This is a completionist run, so I journeyed through the wildnerness areas first, taking down easy targets to get some early experience, coming back for tougher ones later. I left the Ulcaster School, the Firewine Dungeon and Kahrk for later after doing basically everything else, including the upper levels of Durlag's. During this time, I mostly used my traditional tactics: Skald-buffed ranged weapons supported by crowd control (sleep, command, hold person and now also sunscorch and icelance), group buffs (bless, chant, later on prayer and recitation), summons (spirit animals, later on skeletons, beetles, forest beings) and a single tank (my berserker) with all the good defensive equipment. Later on, I added some more defensive buffs and mage buffs into the mix (haste and the awesome new emotion spells). Also, quite a few interesting nukes, be they new or old. I almost lost Sigismund once due to an ogre berserker hit, but he was able to survive. All in all, my party felt quite powerful at this point, especially when it came to offensive abilities and damage output.
Some fun with new spells:
Sunscorch is basically a short duration blind + a decent nuke. Awesome. Druids have propably gained the most from IWD spells early on:
Now, Icelance isn't super amazing, but early on in BG1 you're unlikely to have big level 3 hits such as haste, slow, MMM etc. - and icelance is certainly better than low level flame arrow or hold person, as it combines nuke and crowd control:
A lot of the new spells have cone effects, lance-type effects or do AoE damage despite being single target. I find those kind of hard to use with a full party, but some of them might be great in specific situations. Wall of Moonlight is kind of cool:
The bandit camp was an opportunity to use Sigismund's new innate minor sequencer - double webs:
Webs once again won me the battle for the boots of speed:
Next up, some expansion content: Graun used PfM to solo the ice island, and on Balduran's Island, Karoug was paralyzed with a single wand charge:
Sarevok was a bit more tricky, because I had to avoid getting my buffs dispelled, which required a lot of attention and some movement:
My simple strategy for Korlasz's tomb: Use PfU to deal with undead groups, firebomb all humanoid groups:
Reflex (male half-elf archer, Grond0); Grozzul (male dwarf fighter/cleric, Gate70)
Previous updates
We occasionally have problems right at the start of sessions, but we'd cunningly saved the game with both of us stunned by the trap after returning from killing the basilisks in Durlag's Tower - so had a bit of time to settle down before we could move
After a quick review of the map suggested there wasn't much exploring left to do, we decided to head straight for the Nashkel Mine. It didn't take long to get down to Mulahey and, with him rudely failing to say hello, we decided to give him the appropriate punishment.
At the Bandit Camp the bandits did surprisingly well at shooting Grozzul and forced him to retreat. Taurgosz tried chasing by himself, but found that effort was doomed (and held) to failure.
After hastening through the Cloakwood, silence was once more all that was needed against Drasus & co.
Arriving at Baldur's Gate, Grozzul nobly gave up the dexterity tome to Reflex, but did grab another wisdom tome while doing the poison quest. Larze hit hard during that quest and forced Grozzul to switch to missiles,
The rest of the work in the City went pretty smoothly, with the only slight potential concern when Degrodel managed to get a horror away and send Reflex running - but by that time a fatal bolt was already en-route to the mage.
Arriving at Candlekeep, Reflex realized he hadn't bought any potions - but fortunately already had a cloud giant strength potion in his bag to top up with DUHM to get the strength tome. The time spent on looting the tombs and playing with the spiders did mean however that the protection from lightning spell Grozzul cast on himself had run out - and he didn't realize that as he was wearing the Boots of Grounding. Fortunately he had plenty of HPs when he ran through the repeating lightning trap.
Prat was another silent victim. Rather than shooting him down though Reflex got his dagger of venom out. That had seen quite a bit of use, but it seemed almost everything attacked was immune to its poison (battle horrors, doom guards, invisible stalkers, skeletons etc). Reflex was therefore keen to check it was still working (and Grozzul was reluctant to act as a guinea pig despite Reflex pointing out he could cure the poison
Reflex, archer 8, 96 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 212 kills
Grozzul, fighter 7 / cleric 7, 78 HPs, 150 kills, 0 deaths
For the Trio, 7 snares was more than enough to take down Thaxxy. However, it didn't even come close to being enough for Brentan - RIP Brentan.
Rolled up a party of druids. Will post if they make progress. Stay tuned.
My character is a male elf Knight of the Red facon called Falchion Rouge. He battled fiercely to get through Candlekeep and though the battles were long and hard, he succeeded where many have fallen. Now at the site of Gorion's Ambush where he returned after nasty battles.
AS per usual, I upgraded the assassins in Candlekeep with the result that they gave me quite a battle. Some of the equipment they were carrying has been sold and as a result I was able to buy a matching kantana to the one that I found.
Traveling with:
Khalid - half-elf fighter
Branwen - human cleric
Imoen - human level 5 thief/level 6 mage
As a small group, we have made tremendous progress. We have done most high experience areas in chapter 3 (Ankhegs, Sirines, Basilisks) - most of the party is level 6. No deaths, this team works real well together. Russell IX stays in front with Branwen, and Khalid assists with his long bow and Imoen assisted with throwing daggers as a mage, then shortbow now that she just now regained her thief abilities.
We have purchased a potion of thievery and perception so Imoen will be 100% for the bandit camp for traps and locks, and next session, will attack this fortress of evil.
Branwen was happy she got to get her revenge on Tranzig, who had turned her to stone. We usually don't use a lot of magic, with the exception of enemy parties we do silence and fireballs, which works really well. We also defeated Kirian's party soundly and therefore avenged Lordan's druids demise there.
Will keep at it.