The second half of Jon's dungeon didn't detain us long and we had a good send off by picking up the XP for Ulvaryl - a nicely timed thrown trap from Trapper finishing her off before she could run away.
The circus provided some more gentle entertainment before we moved on to the Copper Coronet for a showdown with the Beastmaster - though a hold person made it more of a let down than a showdown.
A dive into the sewers took us to the slavers , where Captain Haegan didn't last long against an enraged attack. The slaver wizards did a bit better - but not well enough to save them.
The loot from that meant we were able to pay off Gaelan Bayle immediately before heading to the Docks. Suna Seni's ambush on the way was doomed to failure and we duly checked in with Aran Linvail and accepted an offer of work with Mae'Var's guild.
On the way to the Temple to pick up the necklace for Mae'Var we rescued Renfeld and, after returning him, took on Prebek & Sanasha to get access to the harper building. That resulted in a close escape when Prebek released a lightning bolt which bounced back and forwards across the room working its way to the south in the process - at much the same speed that Trapper was walking towards the far wall. He was hit 3 times, but managed to avoid a 4th encounter that would probably have killed him.
Trapper used a potion of master thievery to be able to get the helm of charm protection from the harpers. Keen to make the best possible use of that potion, he led the way to undo locks in both thief guilds, Kangaxx's door, the door to the City Gates lich, various containers in the Bridge District and a few more chests in the Temple of Talos.
By now potions were putting a serious dent in inventory space and we took a trip to Watcher's Keep to get the potion bag. The final few minutes of the session were spent looting the rooms to the left of the top level of the Keep. Next time we'll open the main door and see whether vampiric wraiths will be waiting to try their luck against Azuredge ...
Berserker - L10, 116 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 100 kills (+215 in BG1)
Bounty Hunter - L12, 75 HPs, 19 kills (+70 in BG1), 1 death
Fighter/cleric - L9/9, 101 HPs, 63 kills (+185 in BG1), 0 deaths
Melee Combat Specialists
This is why being good-aligned never pays off in the long run and is why my CHARNAMEs are usually neutral or evil. There are only three fights that I will back down from in the entire series unless I can win by having an overwhelming advantage:
1) The huge crusader fight in Dragonspear's basement.
2) Tahazzar's group.
3) The demon wraith further in on level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
Sorry can you explain better this part? Both why charname has to be evil, and why you think these three encounters are really bad for a no-reload.
1) The big fight in Dragonspear's basement is not worth doing to completion because there are so many enemies with sizeable HP pools and they aren't worth much XP anyway - maybe several hundred each. Reinforcements teleport in constantly, with strong named enemies eventually teleporting in at the end once you've probably used your best resources already. Winning that fight is just for style points; you just have to beat Hephernaan to be able to escape down the lift.
2) Tahazzar will attack you regardless of dialogue options chosen if your CHARNAME is good-aligned. If you're using aTweaks like I am, Balors are a force to be reckoned with as their swords have a 15% chance on-hit of causing a vorpal hit, which is instant death with no save. The only way to prevent it is by installing the "Death Ward prevents Vorpal Hits" component of aTweaks or somehow being immune to opcode 13 (Kill Target). Balors will gate in reinforcements upon being encountered, possibly gating a Marilith or another Balor by doing so.
3) The Demon Wraith is a high-level mage with casting ability similar to a very strong lich. It's surrounded by traps, level draining spirits, and is immune to level 5 spells and lower - just like a lich. Probably the easiest way to break it is by using a Protection from Undead scroll on it, but my bet is that it may be able to partially ignore it and continue to attack or cast - like I've seen with the Watcher's Keep demilich and Kangaxx the Demilich. Best thing to do is to swipe the assorted goodies in the room with quickloot and escape through the portal you came in from.
The past two playthroughs were mostly fighter-type characters so I want to go back to spellcasting, but a Fighter/Shapeshifter sounded boring so I thought of this instead. Time for more Shadow Magic.
Rolling for this character was difficult. Every single stat is important. Strength: it's a fighter, duh. Dexterity: free AC, obviously Constitution: Hitpoints; more importantly, this stat is drained upon failing a save vs. death at a respective penalty according to the shadow weave spell level (so save vs. death at -1 drains 1 CON to cast a level 1 spell, save @ -5 drains 5 CON for 5th level, etc.) Intelligence: Bonus shadow weave spell slots. Wisdom: Bonus cleric spell slots, +5% Shadow Weave spell duration for every point above 15. Charisma: +1 saving throws every even number starting at 16, +5% elemental resistance every odd number above 16.
Starting spells:
Deep Slumber: Sleep, but the HD limit is removed at caster level 9. Those above the HD threshold save at no penalty.
Blinding Darkness: Blindness, but save is at -2.
Straight out of Candlekeep, I blind the belt ogre and pelt it with sling bullets. Tarnesh and I exchange sleep spells, but I win in the end when his Mirror Image wears off.
Algernon is killed for his cloak (+1 saves) so Silke is fed to the spiders before I finish her. The spiders are kited to death with Blinding Darkness. Cleric 2 is earned from Landrin. Fighter 2 and a magic flail are gained from Tenya and the farmers. Shadow Adept 2 is gained from the ankheg behind her house who is blinded first.
Another level for all three classes is gained from killing Kelddath's sirenes using Algernon's Cloak. Interestingly, they do not react to being attacked while blinded, making this completely safe XP.
Spells gained:
Shadowfade (lv.2): Invisibility with minor healing effect if target is a shadow weave user.
Night Terrors (lv.2): Horror, but save is at -2 penalty.
Shadow Missile (lv.1): Magic Missile, but the +1 damage is cold and every missile penalizes target's THAC0 by 1 for 3 rounds.
+1 more level for all three classes. The wolf pack was separated by using Deep Slumber and Blinding Darkness. Korax works his magic in Basilisk Country.
Spells gained:
Dark Mirage (lv.2): Blur + Mirror Image. Lasts 1 hour.
Shadow Veil (lv.1): For 9 hours, +1 AC/3 levels, up to +4 @ 11. 5% chance to go invisible when the caster is hit, with +5% chance/10 levels.
Silence completely neuters Mutamin. When NPCs who attack you after dialogue are silenced, they cannot initiate dialogue with you in the first place. Combining this with the pacifying effect of blindness, Mutamin is safely killed at zero risk to myself. Cleric 3 is gained from his Greater Basilisk. I had considered using the basilisk loop since this is a very easy way to make his basilisk non-hostile, but I already killed all the other basilisks in the area.
Kirian's group is up. I charm Peter the cleric with Algernon's Cloak and then silence their whole group. Peter uses Hold Person on Baerin while Kirian gets Commanded and killed by my new skeleton and my bullets. Peter and Lindin end up killing each other, so I finish off Baerin with Blinding Darkness.
Shadow Adept 5 is gained from Billy's group.
Spells gained:
Expunge Magic (lv.3): Dispel Magic at 1.5x the caster's level.
Shadow Binding (lv.3): Paralyzes one enemy for 1 turn, bypassing MR. This spell was nerfed pretty badly from the last time I played a Shadow Mage and for good reason, as it uses the Paralyze opcode now instead of Hold Creature 2 opcode and now only affects 1 target instead of everything in 5 ft.
Shadow Rope (lv.1): Drags the target toward the caster and causes them to cease actions for 1 round, though this is not a true paralysis effect and the target will not suffer automatic hits.
Bassilus is taken out at zero risk with my new Silence + Blindness strategy, and so is Ivette Cold-Whisper - one of Kryn Darkflame's apprentices from the Shadow Magic mod - although Ivette is immune to blindness due to being a Shadow Adept herself, but she dies all the same simply from being silenced.
Shoal surrenders from a critical morningstar hit. Droth and I duke it out but I come out on top, finishing off Shoal for a nice XP windfall. The ogre band to the south of her is killed with Deep Slumber, Command, and Blinding Darkness for Cleric 6.
Fighter 6 and Shadow Adept 6 are gained from enemies outside Durlag's Tower. It's time to summon my faithful Shadowdancer familiar, Nyx. See you in a few weeks, 4 points of Constitution.
Spells gained:
Impose (lv.3): 3d6 crushing damage to target; stuns and blows them away for 1 round. Bypasses MR.
Dark Fortune (lv.2): As Luck, but lasts 1 hour and provides immunity to Doom and Greater Malison. Bonuses increase by +1 every 5 levels after 3rd, up to 23rd level.
I use a Greenstone Amulet charge to get the WIS tome while I'm in the tower. +5% mage spell duration GET !
After Drugar's unfortunate heel-turn from a succubus, I use another Greenstone Amulet charge to take on Kirinhale. She tries to charm me but every attempt fails. She needs to be hit with +2 weapons or better but I don't have any on me. I use Impose for a guaranteed 3d6 crushing damage and the few hits that Nyx gets on her let me finish her with a Shadow Missile. 11k XP GET !
Now that I have Nyx to disarm traps and open locks, I descend into the first level of Durlag's Tower. Lots of tasty consumables down here and some good sling bullets, too. A flesh golem provides Cleric 7.
I finish most of the rest of the first floor, leaving a skeleton warrior behind in the small room with the big treasure pile, but I use Sanctuary to take the beljuril and give it to the Greed warder. Time to go sirene hunting. With Nyx leading my two skeleton warriors, they have little trouble taking out the sirenes and the pair of Nereids, gaining me Shadow Adept 7. 4th level spells GET !
Spells gained:
Shadeskin (lv.4): Stoneskin, but gives 25% elemental damage resistance as long as at least 1 skin is up.
Summon Shadow (lv.4): Summons 3 shadows that get stronger depending on caster level. They can also cast shadow weave spells. Lasts 2 hours.
Mesmerize (lv.1): target must save vs. spell at -4 or be feebleminded for 1 turn and takes -6 AC penalty. The spell is broken if the target is hit.
Turning in Ardrouine's quest gets me Fighter 7 though I still have to EEKeeper in the extra half attack.
Our backpacks contained a few items from the bandit camp but rather than hitting a store we pressed on into Cloakwood. We fared pretty well against the ettercaps there, taking three hits between us but not getting poisoned while the dagger of venom proved unexpectedly competent at returning the favour.
The exterior of Cloakwood mine saw us pick off a couple of guards then after blinding Genthore we tried to poison Rezdan and thump Kysus. Both survived and we had a bit of a run-around until the three sighted enemies were down and Genthore could be battered into submission. He may have recovered from the dark moon monk blindness as he gave chase eventually, but to no avail.
Davaeorn's personal guard was always going to struggle against us, so Footloose decided to give him a helping hand - the "excuse" being that Nebal was standing on the guard so made himself fair game. No matter, as expected we eliminated his sorry life soon afterwards.
Nebal fished in his potion case before suddenly realising Footloose had dragged a battle horror towards us, and just managed to close the container and prepare for combat instead. Some hiding round corners saw it and a second battle horror dealt with.
Another fish in the potion case found two blue potions giving five rounds of uninterrupted fun. Can Davaeorn survive - we think not.
Plenty of time to race into and around the city of Baldur's Gate. All goes well until we decide to relieve Desreta of her ogre gauntlets. They're perfectly designed to maximise critical hits, and she proves this with a well-timed and well-aimed strike. Down goes Nebal and attempt 189 comes to a rapid conclusion.
Another random draw spits out the next two characters for attempt 190.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
When I was raised in Candlekeep there were only two other elves who had a similar stance to mine regarding the undead.
One was Jiwan: a Doomguide of Kelemvor – a Fighter/Cleric;
and the other was: Trixter; a Death Tricker – a Mage/Thief.
In Candlekeep there were some powerful assassins who tried to kill us, but because they worked as individuals rather than as a team we were able to prevail. Upon their bodies was thieving equipment which made Trixter into a fairly proficient thief. Sadly the equipment was of little use to Jiwan and I.
Sadly, outside Candlekeep Gorion was killed. Trixter upon finding Gorion’s robe undamaged quickly donned it and discovered that if he cast armour when wearing the robe, his protection was quite good.
After burying Gorion new headed for the Friendly Arms Inn, picking up a couple of useful rings on the way. At the entrance to the keep we were attacked by a mage, but because we easily outnumbered him, we were able to prevail.
We then sought out some hobgoblins at the request of Joia, and upon slaying them returned Joia’s ring to her.
Upon heading south we calmed down Marl and took a tome to Firebead before heading out to High Hedge.
After dealing with Samia's group and found out the whole area was clear of loot and free of monsters, we decided it was time to take on Conster. Or more correctly should I say make him step on a lot of traps and give us free XP for doing so, because that's what happened, and the Windspear quest was completed. Now on to sell all the junk we picked up. After selling a lot of our stuff to the Fence in Jan's guild we decided it was time to deal with the Harpers.
Questpack lets you kill them instead of Xzar, so we're going with that because they give you a lot of XP, and you can kill Xzar in the end anyway. Prebek saw himself defenceless after a Secret Word struck him, and his apprentice or whatever was her name died to Aerie's Cone of Cold. Shazzelim was found among their belongings together with the Rod of Lordly Might, both helped quite a bit when dealing with the Harpers. Rylock let us in and we took the Harper assassin to Xzar. Xzar killed her and sent us to find Montaron. We killed all the Harpers and looted the place. Once we got outside, a Shazzelim backstab did the job for Rylock. We took Montaron's body with us, and killed Xzar as he teleported out for a second pair of Bracers to the Death, since Rylock already had a pair. Feels cheesy, but I think it's still OK.
I decided it was time to finally deal with the Rakshaka we left running around in the Temple District, so I buffed Cernd and had him swing around his paws at the extraplanar being while said enemy did the same. It took a while and actually it happened because I had Mazzy throw some arrows at the Rakshaka, but it eventually fell and we were rewarded with a meagre 3k XP, two Potions of Healing and a Long Sword.
Into the Sewers we ran into Merkath's lair, and had a rather complicated fight against the trio of Yuan-Ti Mages. They're pretty high level and can cast up to level eight spells, but a proper strategy (drag them out one by one by casting Waves of Fatigue on them and then having them conveniently run into Fire Traps, and if that wasn't enough, entertain them with a bunch of Fire Elementals and pelt them with arrows) it was possible, although it did take us quite a while.
I remembered Merkath's Imp as being a much more formidable foe. He went down in two rounds and his Lesser Earth Elemental in three, courtesy of Speedy CarCernd of the Wolfracers competitive racing team. And, also thanks to Mr. Fire Trapper Cernd, Merkath was also quite easy and gave us both his quest's completion and death XP. I cannot estimate how hard a fair fight would have been, but if Yuan-Ti Mages casting ADHW is of any indication, this man is probably too dangerous for us now.
Next is the de'Arnise Hold. I wanted to wait until Aerie could cast level 6 Cleric spells, but we're a over a million short of XP for that, and Cernd's Fire Elementals are good enough to replace Aerial Servants (as long as we buff them and helm them), which also do not deal any fire/acid damage (although, Cernd has the Blackwood club, which leaves us without much need for another fire/acid damage source).
The floor level was dealt with with a bunch of Fire Elementals and a light buffing routine. On the outside we had some trouble because Keldorn, Mazzy and Yvralline got pinned in a corner, but after a lengthy fight for survival, we got out, only wasting three invisibility potions about a dozen of Extra Healing ones. A small price to pay for our lives.
For the second floor, I had Jan lure out all of the Trolls in the corridors with Waves of Fatigue, and then had Cernd bombard them with Fire Trap while Mazzy and Keldorn held them off. The Yuan-Ti Mage was entertained with a bunch of Fire Elementals, but then it Mazed them with a Shadow Door and used Dimesnion Door directly into our party. Bad idea. Yvralline cast Breach; Aerie, Secret Word, Keldorn; Dispel Magic and Jan a Magic Missile that did not connect, because Cernd had already killed the poor lizard. Cernd also killed the Iron Golem, alone now, and Keldorn used his innate Dispel Magic on the charmed guard for 22550 XP. We probably lost whatever treasure he was carrying since I forgot to pickpocket him, but it was worth it for the experience alone. Next is the lower levels and Tor'Gal.
I do a few more things in the wilderness and then go to the Nashkel mines. Nyx and I just walk straight through it with stealth and invisibility. I dub the following trick: Pacifying Silence.
When silenced, NPCs who go hostile after talking to you will not speak to you from a distance and actually cannot converse at all. They will not respond in any way to being attacked; they will simply stand there and stay neutral instead of turning hostile. They only await the sweet release of death.
I employ my new tactic against Mulahey, who puts up no resistance to being killed by my minions. He doesn't even call his kobold/skeleton reinforcements.
Nimbul and Tranzig are the next victims of Pacifying Silence.
I get Raiken to let me "join" the bandits. Under Sanctuary, I enter Tazok's tent and find a spot where I can buff up and summon my minions without Raemon spotting me. The ensuing fight is pretty easy with Venkt silenced.
Taurgosz is taken out with Pacifying Silence.
But, umm... this doesn't seem normal. I know there's a lot of bandits in the camp but this seems excessive. I use the Wand of Lightning trick combined with a Wand of Fire to take out the crowd.
What is happening!? There's still tons of them! I'm not playing Dragonspear yet!
OH GOD THERE'S MORE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA oh hey a shadow adept level
I go invisible with a potion, heal up, and try a WoL-Wand of Fire again. They just will not stop coming! Officer Vai had better appreciate this, as I picked up over 250 bandit scalps and hundreds of Arrows +1 and Arrows of Ice! Thank God for @Adul's quickloot.
After this final WoL-Wand of Fire, I leave the bandit camp. It's probably stuck like this now, spawning bandits infinitely as long as I'm present. Maybe I'll come back and farm some more later on if I make it to BG2.
Spells gained:
Negative Immunity (lv.4): Immunity to level drain, sleep, fear, confusion and blindness for 1 turn/level.
Shadowblast (lv.3): Fireball that does half cold and half magic. Save vs. spell for only cold damage. At caster level 10, victims' cold and magic damage resistances are reduced by 20% for 1 turn.
I already did part of the Cloakwood as part of my wilderness exploration, so its time for the mines. Silence eliminates Kysus and Rezdan from the fight and it delays Drasus from becoming hostile, although neither he nor Genthore respond any further to provocation. They just let us kill them.
I use invisibility to walk through the mines unimpeded. The Pacifying Silence trick didn't work on Dave's guard for some reason. I call up Nyx temporarily to remove the traps beyond the secret door, then unsummon her and sneak behind Dave using Sanctuary. He still spots me and fires his prebuffs but does not respond further because I'm under Sanctuary. I cast Expunge Magic on him and it works, leaving only his Minor Spell Turning and making him easy prey for Shadow Comets and skeleton warriors. I gain Cleric 8 from his death.
After gaining access to Baldur's Gate, I can finally buy Potions of Defense so I can get Thalantyr to make a few items for me. I have him combine all the simple and elemental resistant mage robes into one. I haven't used this robe before and it'll be replacing the Evil Archmagi Robe that I jacked from Baeloth. Using it in combination with the Improved Shield Amulet (AC 4) results in a net +2 bonus to AC as the necklace replaces my Amulet of Protection +1.
Killing Ragefast after letting Abela free gives Fighter 8. Ramazith is nowhere to be found and disappears upon having his home broken into, so I just use Sanctuary to loot the INT tome. Killing Jalantha Mistmyr after talking to Tenya and Lothander gives Shadow Adept 9. Level 5 spells GET !
Spells gained:
Shadow Screen (lv.5): Spell Shield plus immunity to Dispel Effects for as long as the Screen is up. Lasts 2 hours.
Summon Nighthaunt (lv.5): Nighthaunts are mid-tier summons and strike as +4 weapons, draining 2 levels per hit. Their aura buffs the THAC0 and damage of nearby undead creatures by +1 while doing the reverse to the living. They can cast Shadeskin, Shadow Assault, and Fireshield (Shadow). Summons 2 Nighthaunts at caster level 14.
From this latest Shadow Adept level, my shadows are upgraded to Shadow Fiends whose attacks can cause paralysis. This works out great against Lothander and Marek.
Iron Throne fight. I send my undead minions and my new Nighthaunt in from the back using invisibility. They defeat the hostile thieves quite easily. With a casting of silence, all the casters except one are disabled, making this an easy fight by virtue of the Nighthaunt's level draining claws.
The ogre magi ambush upon the return to Candlekeep is dealt with the same way.
The last of Darkflame's apprentices is killed with the Pacifying Silence trick. Nyx unlocks the STR tome's tomb.
The fight with Prat's group is uninteresting. Back to Durlag's Tower. The Warders are easily overcome, especially with Pride getting paralyzed by shadow fiends. Cleric level 9 is gained near the end of Level 2 against doppelgangers impersonating the Trollkiller clan. Fighter 9 and Shadow Adept 10 are gained from the air challenge room on level 3 of the tower.
Spells gained:
Breaching Dark (lv.5): Breach + Lower Resistance
Fireshield (Shadow) (lv.4): As Fireshield Blue but does half cold and half magic damage, plus lowers attackers' THAC0 and AC by 1 per hit.
The Death Knight is stomped on. His Remove Magic is completely ineffective against Skaarj while he has Shadow Screen up. Shadow Fiends pin it against a wall using Impose.
I return to Ulgoth's Beard under invisibility and summon my host of undead again. The cultists prove to be remarkably resilent, though they can't particuarly hurt my shadow fiends or my Nighthaunt. The Fighter 15/Mage 15 cultist enforcers are showing me that I have little in the way of anti-magic attacks aside from Breaching Dark and Expunge Magic (and Shadow Spear but I don't have that memorized).
Time to fight Aec'Letec. I don't have to worry about his Death Gaze because it's a save vs. spell at no modifier which I can save against with ease. So all I have to do is kill Tracea Carol with Breaching Dark and have my minions finish her, then kill off the sacrifices. I cast Recitation and Prayer to assist my minions in paralyzing the sacrifices for free hits, and with the Nighthaunt draining two levels per hit, it goes faster than I thought it would. Aec'Letec is also defeated rather swiftly and was no danger to Skaarj thanks to Negative Immunity protecting him from Aec'Letec's level draining hits.
Might as well do the Ice Island while I'm here. My minions plow through all competition. There was an Ice Paraelemental near the end, which I haven't seen before, but it's no trouble.
I think I can kill Shandalar using my Shadow Fiends' castings of Impose. Impose causes a no-save stun for 1 round, so I can use it to have my Nighthaunt get guaranteed hits to level drain him, reducing his saves and max HP. I cast Doom on him and have the other shadow fiends attack as well, attempting to score paralyzing hits on him, and it works!
Just to make extra sure he's held in place, I cast Recitation and Hold Person on him which also works. The Nighthaunt drains many levels from Shandalar, allowing me to finish him off with Shadow Comets. When I was fighting the cultists outside their compound, I accidentally killed a commoner who I couldn't see with a Shadowblast, cutting my 20 reputation in half, so I don't need reputation anymore because I already got both DuHM Bhaalpowers.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
Upon heading towards Nashkel, we were accosted by some overly officious mercenaries who attacked us. Sadly Trixter was unprepared for the assault and as a result was killed. Fortunately it was not too expensive to raise him.
After receiving Lord Foreshadow's ring and picking up some goodies in the town, we went to the Carnival where we were forced to kill Zordral.
We went south and killed Zargos Flintblade before heading East, picking up a ring of Fire Protection, and taking Samuel to the Friendly Arms Inn.
We then headed north where we killed the evil Sonner and his cronies along with a lot of Ankheg.
Trixter was almost killed again due to forgetting to cast a spell to make the ankhegs see double. Somehow he survived.
Heading south of High Hedge, we came across Mellicamp who was in the form of a chicken. We did all that we could to restore him, but sadly the spell killed him outright.
We then tried to restore Aiwell's husband but once more we were unsuccessful. His body however turned out to be useful and we were given a +1 sword in return for it.
In Beregost karlat was killed quite easily and so afterwards we were able to get Tonder back into shape.
South of Beregost we took on Tristan and Isolde and prevailed.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
We returned to Nashkel and eliminated Neira.
after which we killed Greywolf.
We reunited Rufie with his owner after which we took on Vax and Zal. Unfortunately Trixter was hit with a critical which killed him. More expensive this time.
To the west we helped a dryad whose tree was under assault.
I took the precaution of buying a helm of Charm Protection before going sirine hunting.
We were able to avoid hostilities with Sil by killing some pirates.
We then killed flesh golem in order to acquire treasure from a cave.
After killing a pack of wolves in all their varied guises, we headed to the basilisk area where we killed Mutamin as well as his basilisk and medusa allies.
@ussnorway I did make mistakes, but nothing crucial.
Trixter tricked Oublek into helping us against a baby wyvern, the first that I have ever seen, never mind fought.
Sadly he was killed, though he is no great loss to the world. We killed the baby wyvern, but then had to cool down the owner's father.
Fortunately we didn't have to fight him as that could have exacerbated the situation.
We then visited a xvart village where we were assaulted by well over a hundred of them plus several bears. The Xvarts tried to disable us with hold spells, but were only partially successful with the result that we triumphed.
Having defeated them we have now proceeded to the gnoll stronghold where after killing those guarding th bridge, we killed a party of assassins. Summon weasels was particularly useful as it was the weasels that were attacked not the party.
The rest of the gnolls and xvarts were killed and Dynaheir rescued. We rescued a boy there too. We will see what will come of it. We recovered Dynaheir's Journal and proceeded to Bear River where we got some boots of protection from cold for Dynaheir and killed a lot of minor enemies. Sadly the game crashed after just about finishing the area and we had to clear it again.
The first time Lauren's final conversation was as it should have been, but the second time it wouldn't trigger.
There were no panicked gibberlings anywhere so I don't know what the problem was.
I was going to play the game with just a party of three. However I think that having Dynaheir in the party will be a boon.
I'm skipping the werewolf island again so it's time for the coronation. Quite standard: Ithtyl is brought along, vastly increasing the effectiveness of my minions. The doppelgangers are defeated in no time.
Now for the fight against Sarevok. I could've sworn that the Nymph Cloak Halbazzer Drin gives you for Abela's hair has 40 charges, yet it's only 1x/day when I pull it out of my bag of holding, so I charm Gorf, Wudei, and Shaldrissa for the fight. I try baiting Sarevok into the corner and going invisible like usual, but my idiot minions attract his attention. I guess we're doing an all-out brawl.
Semaj tries Remove Magic (which fails), then Secret Word to get rid of Shadow Screen and then Breach to dispel my Shadeskin, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, and PfE 10'. Tazok goes down first thanks to his Berserker Rage.
The Artisan's Kitpack changes the Berserker's rage from "push button for immunity to everything" to "big damage and THAC0 but big AC penalty and self-damage over time."
Immediately after he goes down, Shaldrissa's Remove Magic hits everyone, dispelling Semaj and Angelo. I immediately shift priorities to killing Semaj, who puts up Stoneskin to stay afloat, but I tear it down with Breaching Dark. Shaldrissa's True Sight procs and also eliminates his Mirror Image, sealing Semaj's fate. But the mage casts a last-ditch Remove Magic on Shaldrissa just before his death, dispelling her charm effect.
While this is happening, I'm having Wudei cast Harm. She finishes casting after Semaj's Remove Magic hits, so I have her go up to Angelo and she successfully hits him with it!
But as soon as I move to finish him off, Sarevok suddenly dies! Cutscenes cannot be screenshotted so here is the combat log from when he died. My Nighthaunt level drained him to death!
That would take 8 hits. The Nighthaunt was under Shadeskin and Fireshield (Shadow) so Sarevok must have been hoist by his own petard by continuing to attack the Nighthaunt. Every hit was blocked by Shadeskin and Fireshield (Shadow) reduced his AC and THAC0, making it much easier for the Nighthaunt to not only survive but hit Sarevok enough times to level drain him to death!
Due to their being good against undead, I thought that a trip to Durlag's was in order even before the nashkel Mines. It was! I completed everything up until giving Love the wine. I put it in a barrel to wait until I am asked to go to Durlag's. My cleric got the Wisdom Tome and my Champion the Strength Tome.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
Due to my smite ability against undead I took on the ghost. (Usually I leave it) I was successful.
I found an excellent Katana which is my Champion's preferred weapon. **
Dreen the gnomish thief and his party of thieves update
Traveling with:
April - dwarven fighter/thief
Sarah - elven bounty hunter
The party is still kicking. We've just cleared out Samia's group in Firkraag's lair, the genies guarding the Sword and Shield Samia wanted, and also 1st level of Watcher's Keep. We had run into vampiric wraiths earlier, which were just devastating. So had to use protection from undead scrolls on whole party to safely negotiate them. This is a really good team, and we have just a ridiculous amount of snares, though some enemies are immune to them.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
Having safely negotiated the upper reachesd of Durlag's Tower, we thought that we might be ready for facing the demons in the nashkel Mines.
The first major trial was taking on some assassins led by Gorken Bloodaxe. By using our spells wisely we easily defeated them.
Dealing with Mulahey wasn't too difficult, but one mistake was made. Xan got burnt to a crisp by accident. Fortunately it did not result in losing reputation.
A scroll of PfU makes the starting dungeon easy. I bypass Korlasz's vanguard of the living with invisibility and Nyx disarms the Arrow of Dispelling trap. Korlasz surrenders from a single Shadowblast.
I find a Flesh Golem tome in Korlasz's chambers and bringing the Bhaal research to Imoen grants Shadow Adept 11.
Protection from Undead scrolls and lots of Wands of Fire charges get me Cleric 10 from the Coldhearth Crypt. I go ahead and kill the dwarves of Dumathoin to get Coldhearth's help.
Fighter 10 is gained from a hobgoblin band in the Troll Claws.
I get to Morentherene and prepare to fight it head-to-head since the Shadow Adept constantly and invisibly casts spells to update its bonuses from mental stats. This unfortunately awakens the dragon and there's nothing I can do about it. I enter the cave, summon my shadow fiends, and get to work.
I cast Sigil of Misfortune and summon my Nighthaunt, which works wonders at reducing the dragon's saving throws. It goes down pretty fast. The rest of her dragons pals are just cleanup.
There goes Ziatar.
The Neothelid takes retaliation damage from the Nighthaunt's Fireshield despite being underneath the floor. I never say no to free damage.
One of my skellies gets knocked unconscious by a mutated crawler. That's a thing that can happen, I guess.
Darskhelin goes down too. Chaotic Commands protects me from psionic blast and I keep my distance using Shadow Comets.
Dealing with the spellstone at Bridgefort gets me a max HP bonus.
The siege of Bridgefort is where I really learn that I'm still vulnerable to Breach even with Shadow Screen up. It only works like Spell Shield against the anti-spell anti-magicks and Remove/Dispel/Expunge Magic. My Shadeskins, Chaotic Commands, PfE 10', and Death Ward are all taken down, leaving me open to some nat20s. I go invisible with a potion and reorient myself, but get revealed by an anti-invisibility spell.
But I managed to paralyze The Barghest using Shadow Binding, thinking that would end the siege prematurely, but it didn't. So I heal up and silence the mages up fighting Bridgefort's defenders. Hormorn counters with Vocalize but it's still more than enough time to end him.
The bridge mage is taken out with Shadow Comets and the melee attackers are held still with a tasty Hold Person centered on myself.
The mimic cave in Dead Man's Pass provides Cleric 11. My Skeleton Warriors get upgraded to their penultimate level.
I kill the Shadowy Figure. At first I used a Wand of Paralysis to stun him, but the anti-magic zone removed the stun effect the next round. Silly me.
Instead, I use Potions of Firebreath to tag him and deal damage even when I can't see him. Always a good strategy.
In the Underground River area, I am wary of the Blind Albino Wyrmlings. I use a Greenstone Amulet charge to prevent the sleep effect from their tail constriction. Lo and behold, the 15% chance of it happening on-hit actually occurs but I am perfectly fine.
With them out of the way, I use the Spectacles of Spectale to assist Kaladan Za'al with his Shadow Chimera problem. He banishes it for a round using Void Blast so I kill it when it returns.
As thanks for helping him, he gives me a wand of Shadow Binding and this cool cloak. I don't need to travel at nighttime anymore! (But I promptly forget to use it later.)
Killing Strunk gets me Fighter 11 and Shadow Adept 12. My Shadow Fiends get upgraded to Wraiths, who have an expanded spell pool compared to Shadow Fiends and drain 1 level per hit instead of causing paralysis.
Spells gained:
Shatter Weave (lv.6): Secret Word and then sets enemy's MR to 0% for 2 rounds. Mages take additional 4d10 magical damage and 50% spell failure for 2 rounds.
Protection from Weave-forged Weapons (lv.6): PfMW. Abbreviated hereafter as PfWfW.
Nightshade (lv.5): Target takes 2%/caster level in its max HP in damage up to 40%, save vs. death for half.
Greater Shadowfade (lv.4): Improved Invisibility + Nondetection + 2d6 healing per round if at least partially invisible.
In Kanaglym, Kherriun withstands an Expunge Magic, so Breaching Dark takes down her stoneskins and gets Halatathlaer on our side.
Up next is the Dragonspear basement, the sieges, and Hell.
Tabby has been to Hell and back
We kicked ass... true to say it was a very iffy battle but the Ranger is worth her space when the chips are down
Mods: I'm going with the new scs32.4 & Imoen is a Cleric dual. She has 17 Wisdom and only 11 intel... I gave her all the Wisdom books in BG and her first two points are spent in Longsword & Shortbow because that is how I got her
WeiDU
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3550 // Increase the power of Cure Wounds and Cause Wounds spells to the level found in 3rd Edition D&D -> Spells heal or inflict a random amount of damage (1d8 per level of the spell, plus 1 point per caster level, to a maximum of 5 points per spell level): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3580 // Restoration and Lesser Restoration spells heal ability-score damage: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Improved NPC customisation and management: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4150 // Allow the Cowled Wizards to detect spellcasting in most indoor, above-ground areas in Athkatla: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6560 // Smarter mind flayers: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix"): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8090 // Party's items are taken from them in Spellhold: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Improved Drow: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Improved Watcher's Keep: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Improved Sendai's Enclave: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v32.4
Bug 1: I like the custom build part of scs but it comes with a bug that resets the control scripts to default... this was reported before but its a minor bug
Dragonspear basement. I summon all my minions plus a new Aerial Servant, then book it with an Oil of Speed to poison the food and water. But Olvenaun bodyblocks the gate back to the lift, so I cast Expunge Magic and take down everyone's buffs including Hephernaan's, then kill Olvenaun. A mage hits me with Breach, taking down my most important buffs.
Furthermore, the trouble is that I can't easily reach Hephernaan and he still has either Physical Mirror or Minor Spell Turning up, but I don't want to find out which one it is. When my minions start losing ground, I use a Spell Sequencer from the Robe of Arcane Aptitude to call in 9 wraiths!
Heifer is defeated with ease and he teleports out, but I've been hit with a Silence spell.
So now I can't cast spells but I can still use Bhaalpowers. I cast DuHM and start hacking away. My minions and I start to make headway and the Aerial Servant is still quite healthy.
Then the named goons teleport in. Aw jeez. Time to get back near the lift. Then I remember I can use the Amulet of Whispers to become Vocalized and cure the Silence.
Just when the crusaders think they have me cornered, I cast PfWfW... only to be immediately Breached the following round. Alright. Then I cast Silence which disables all the mages and priests, though one counters with Vocalize. I follow up with Night Terrors, sending most of the pack fleeing away.
Now I just have to hack away at the melee enemies. I blind the named melee goon and pelt him from range, clearing out the lift room.
The middle of the basement is cleared using Silence, though Therrin counters with Vocalize, but I counter his Mirror Image with True Sight, spelling his end.
Only two more soldiers remain. I blind the halberd dude and kill the priest in the meanwhile, then hit the blinded guy with sling bullets. One Dragonspear basement fight, complete.
Cleric 12 is gained from the meeting with Caelar at Dead Man's Pass before the Coalition Camp siege.
I've been saving Arrows of Detonation for this part of the game. The trolls, mages, fighters, and named goons all get a taste of them since arrows of detonation cannot miss.
Moar arrows of detonation are used at the siege of Dragonspear. I cast Sigil of Misfortune first to soften them up.
Ashatiel loses a 1v1 duel because her DuHM wore off, hahaha.
I free Mizhena's dad from being a prisoner and get rewarded with the Blazing Glory morningstar +3. Now I don't have to use Sundermaul and risk an Earthquake instead. Venturing into hell, the devils are easy and profitable XP. Fighter 12 is gained from fighting Thrix's second wave of devils after trying to goad him into fighting me. The Wrath of Darkness HLA will enhance my otherwise lackluster melee ability and make up for my lack of grandmastery, as Tweaks Anthology apparently won't touch multiclass kits - just normal multiclasses.
I use the Wand of Monster Summoning on the elevator up, saving my summons for Belhifet. The three second lag indicates the final save, so I use an Oil of Speed, Potion of Absorption, and cast Entropy Shield. At the start of the fight, I move out of Belhifet's field of view, causing his Remove Magic to fizzle. My first move is to summon my 3 wraiths.
After that, I hit Belhifet with my Sling +3, then summon my Nighthaunt and have it cast Shadeskin upon its arrival. I help my minions finish off the weaker devils with sling bullets when Belhifet gates in more reinforcements. The devils have already killed two of my three wraiths, so I use my spell sequencer to summon 9 more to counter it.
I have no problems hitting Belhifet with melee or ranged attacks, but the irritating thing I find about Blazing Glory +3 is that the Chant also cuts your movement speed in half and it can't be prevented by Free Action. I try casting Sigil of Misfortune but it fails to bypass Belhifet's MR despite its description. I attack him some more in between spell castings and then try True Sight, but it gets interrupted by his Blazing Inferno. He teleports away because he gets surrounded by wraiths so we move out of the AoE and keep attacking. I cast Invisibility Purge and immediately after, Belhifet expends his aura on something useless. I take this opportunity to cast Nightshade on him, dealing 12% of his max HP in damage.
Caelar gets chunked by the Nighthaunt. Being level -2 seems pretty hazardous to one's health. I whack Belhifet with another sling bullet, then the Nighthaunt finishes the devil off. SoD complete!
I probably should've used True Sight -> Shatter Weave -> Sigil of Misfortune -> whatever else earlier in the fight. But I had no problems hitting Belhifet so I could've just beaten him to death if that's what I had to do. We'll see how SoA goes. I hope I don't get insta-gibbed again since I've got Death Ward. Can't believe I'm taking HLAs and I can't even cast level 7 priest or mage spells.
Dispenser knew it was time, so when he found Indira, bedraggled & exhausted in the ruins of Firewine but with fierce determination to drive on, he offered Khalid an out. Khalid would never had complained, & his duty to the cause of goodness was always first, but Dispenser knew he missed her, & so he let Khalid exit on his terms and return to Jaheira. Always the warrior, Khalid offered Indira everything he had gained travelling with Dispenser including the Bracers of Archery & Boots of Speed. He departed with reservation and only on the strict assurance that Dispenser would call on him, & Jaheira, in a moment if he needed them. Dispenser was happy for his friend.
Indira was a fighter. She did not have Khalid’s stealth, something Dispenser would have to figure out, but she packed a punch by blasting enemies with Magic Missiles on contact. And she certainly was not as lethal as Khalid w/her short bow compared to Khalid’s Longbow of Marksmanship +3, but equipped w/Bracers of Archery & Arrows +2, she could still do significant damage. The addition of mage support to augment Valerie, without a complete loss of ranged support (she was still good with a bow), seemed a sound tradeoff.
They’d knocked out the Firewine Ruins together & she had done well – at times very well. He ran into the problem he had feared when they were trying to cleanse Gullykin. Indira had been scouting ahead of the main body when she had gotten pinched between some assassins and four Kobold Commando’s (KC) & had fallen there. It was only after they had pushed forward without recon that they’d found her body - & the fight – a tough fight. When they first made contact, they quickly mowed down the four KCs, a warrior-cleric & a warrior-mage before running into two really tough fighters that were hard to bring down. It concerned Dispenser because they had fought much stronger opponents. Of course, he was down a man, but he was certain that had also been the case when he fought Davaeorn and he was sure it was when he brought down the IT in Baldur’s Gate. Potions of Invisibility would do the trick in the future but it wasn’t like those things were plentiful on the adventurers market.
TOUGHER THAN EXPECTED
He thought ahead to tomorrow. He had stumbled across the ruins Ulcaster School on the way back from FWB/ruins. He’d head there first & then cut a swath across to the Archaeological Site on the sword coast. He was in a race. He had to get back to Sarevok but destroying every stem of evil he could, no matter how small, seemed the first order of business. He remembered the halving dead on the North Nashkel Road all those weeks ago, killed by Ogrillons, & the caravan’s wiped out on the Coast Way. Even kobolds and xvarts and gibberlings were a danger to everyday folk and he intended to do wipe them out before he faced Sarevok – a challenge he knew inside he might not survive. In his mind it was first things first. If he could make the sword coast just a little bit safer, he could face his challenge without reservation.
Party info
Order of March: Indira (Scout), Sirine & Isra (Shock troops), Dispenser (Leader), Imoen (Traps), Valerie (Arcane support)
Dreen the gnomish thief and his party of thieves update
Traveling with:
April - dwarven fighter/thief
Sarah - elven bounty hunter
Imoen - human thief/mage
So the party has made it to Spellhold. This was not smooth sailing. For one, when Sarah went to get the stake to get Dace's hand, she got held by a ghast and died.
Next problem? Apparently thieves stink vs. mind flayers. Despite buffs, traps and summons, the mindflayer was devastating to the party and only Dreen's backstab saved himself.
We finally get back and recruit the crazy inmates to help us defeat Irenicus, which we did thankfully.
This party doesn't need to go to the fish city and indeed, am worried the fish stun bolts might actually be effective vs. us. So instead, we head off to the Underdark portal. We lay tons of traps for the 3 mindflayers above us, and April uses an invulnerability potion to put her save vs. spell to negatives, and this allowed success.
We then destroyed lots of elementals, then tried to silence the drow party but wasn't very effective due to their magic resistance. We had a hard battle but no one died. Spores died to cloudkill.
I had thought 7 snares was plenty for the gnome demon - nope! Not at all! Only got it to 75% I think. April got stunned and killed, Imoen ran around in fear. Sarah tried for a backstab but apparently the demon sees invis. She tries to tank it, but dies quickly. Dreen is alone!!! He tries to change to slayer form, but no it got interrupted!He is near death and runs for his life...
Even though I knew the demon saw through invis, I ran back to the gnome mayor's room and tried to hide - but wait! The demon is too big for the door! Is this my salvation?
Yes!! I can plink away with the firetooth crossbow until it dies! I used a haste potion and mind focusing potion to speed up the kill. Survival!
I don't know how many more rabbits Dreen can pull out of his hat, but somehow the run continues...
Well once again, the snares were not effective, and we needed Adalon dead to forge the flesh armor. However, April got stunned and once she died the party was slaughtered - RIP Dreen.
Always wanted to get a party of druids far, but they never have, will roll some druids and try again.
Comments
I am definitely not used to this set-up. The bandit camp is now much harder than it was. I used to be able to do it in my sleep.
Crest - dwarf berserker (Grond0)
Trapper - halfling bounty hunter (Corey_Russell)
Drubb - dwarf fighter/cleric (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1082132/#Comment_1082132
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1083853/#Comment_1083853
The second half of Jon's dungeon didn't detain us long and we had a good send off by picking up the XP for Ulvaryl - a nicely timed thrown trap from Trapper finishing her off before she could run away.
The circus provided some more gentle entertainment before we moved on to the Copper Coronet for a showdown with the Beastmaster - though a hold person made it more of a let down than a showdown.
The loot from that meant we were able to pay off Gaelan Bayle immediately before heading to the Docks. Suna Seni's ambush on the way was doomed to failure and we duly checked in with Aran Linvail and accepted an offer of work with Mae'Var's guild.
On the way to the Temple to pick up the necklace for Mae'Var we rescued Renfeld and, after returning him, took on Prebek & Sanasha to get access to the harper building. That resulted in a close escape when Prebek released a lightning bolt which bounced back and forwards across the room working its way to the south in the process - at much the same speed that Trapper was walking towards the far wall. He was hit 3 times, but managed to avoid a 4th encounter that would probably have killed him.
Trapper used a potion of master thievery to be able to get the helm of charm protection from the harpers. Keen to make the best possible use of that potion, he led the way to undo locks in both thief guilds, Kangaxx's door, the door to the City Gates lich, various containers in the Bridge District and a few more chests in the Temple of Talos.
By now potions were putting a serious dent in inventory space and we took a trip to Watcher's Keep to get the potion bag. The final few minutes of the session were spent looting the rooms to the left of the top level of the Keep. Next time we'll open the main door and see whether vampiric wraiths will be waiting to try their luck against Azuredge ...
Berserker - L10, 116 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 100 kills (+215 in BG1)
Bounty Hunter - L12, 75 HPs, 19 kills (+70 in BG1), 1 death
Fighter/cleric - L9/9, 101 HPs, 63 kills (+185 in BG1), 0 deaths
2) Tahazzar will attack you regardless of dialogue options chosen if your CHARNAME is good-aligned. If you're using aTweaks like I am, Balors are a force to be reckoned with as their swords have a 15% chance on-hit of causing a vorpal hit, which is instant death with no save. The only way to prevent it is by installing the "Death Ward prevents Vorpal Hits" component of aTweaks or somehow being immune to opcode 13 (Kill Target). Balors will gate in reinforcements upon being encountered, possibly gating a Marilith or another Balor by doing so.
3) The Demon Wraith is a high-level mage with casting ability similar to a very strong lich. It's surrounded by traps, level draining spirits, and is immune to level 5 spells and lower - just like a lich. Probably the easiest way to break it is by using a Protection from Undead scroll on it, but my bet is that it may be able to partially ignore it and continue to attack or cast - like I've seen with the Watcher's Keep demilich and Kangaxx the Demilich. Best thing to do is to swipe the assorted goodies in the room with quickloot and escape through the portal you came in from.
The past two playthroughs were mostly fighter-type characters so I want to go back to spellcasting, but a Fighter/Shapeshifter sounded boring so I thought of this instead. Time for more Shadow Magic.
Rolling for this character was difficult. Every single stat is important.
Strength: it's a fighter, duh.
Dexterity: free AC, obviously
Constitution: Hitpoints; more importantly, this stat is drained upon failing a save vs. death at a respective penalty according to the shadow weave spell level (so save vs. death at -1 drains 1 CON to cast a level 1 spell, save @ -5 drains 5 CON for 5th level, etc.)
Intelligence: Bonus shadow weave spell slots.
Wisdom: Bonus cleric spell slots, +5% Shadow Weave spell duration for every point above 15.
Charisma: +1 saving throws every even number starting at 16, +5% elemental resistance every odd number above 16.
Starting spells:
Deep Slumber: Sleep, but the HD limit is removed at caster level 9. Those above the HD threshold save at no penalty.
Blinding Darkness: Blindness, but save is at -2.
Straight out of Candlekeep, I blind the belt ogre and pelt it with sling bullets. Tarnesh and I exchange sleep spells, but I win in the end when his Mirror Image wears off.
Algernon is killed for his cloak (+1 saves) so Silke is fed to the spiders before I finish her. The spiders are kited to death with Blinding Darkness. Cleric 2 is earned from Landrin. Fighter 2 and a magic flail are gained from Tenya and the farmers. Shadow Adept 2 is gained from the ankheg behind her house who is blinded first.
Another level for all three classes is gained from killing Kelddath's sirenes using Algernon's Cloak. Interestingly, they do not react to being attacked while blinded, making this completely safe XP.
Spells gained:
Shadowfade (lv.2): Invisibility with minor healing effect if target is a shadow weave user.
Night Terrors (lv.2): Horror, but save is at -2 penalty.
Shadow Missile (lv.1): Magic Missile, but the +1 damage is cold and every missile penalizes target's THAC0 by 1 for 3 rounds.
+1 more level for all three classes. The wolf pack was separated by using Deep Slumber and Blinding Darkness. Korax works his magic in Basilisk Country.
Spells gained:
Dark Mirage (lv.2): Blur + Mirror Image. Lasts 1 hour.
Shadow Veil (lv.1): For 9 hours, +1 AC/3 levels, up to +4 @ 11. 5% chance to go invisible when the caster is hit, with +5% chance/10 levels.
Silence completely neuters Mutamin. When NPCs who attack you after dialogue are silenced, they cannot initiate dialogue with you in the first place. Combining this with the pacifying effect of blindness, Mutamin is safely killed at zero risk to myself. Cleric 3 is gained from his Greater Basilisk. I had considered using the basilisk loop since this is a very easy way to make his basilisk non-hostile, but I already killed all the other basilisks in the area.
Kirian's group is up. I charm Peter the cleric with Algernon's Cloak and then silence their whole group. Peter uses Hold Person on Baerin while Kirian gets Commanded and killed by my new skeleton and my bullets. Peter and Lindin end up killing each other, so I finish off Baerin with Blinding Darkness.
Shadow Adept 5 is gained from Billy's group.
Spells gained:
Expunge Magic (lv.3): Dispel Magic at 1.5x the caster's level.
Shadow Binding (lv.3): Paralyzes one enemy for 1 turn, bypassing MR. This spell was nerfed pretty badly from the last time I played a Shadow Mage and for good reason, as it uses the Paralyze opcode now instead of Hold Creature 2 opcode and now only affects 1 target instead of everything in 5 ft.
Shadow Rope (lv.1): Drags the target toward the caster and causes them to cease actions for 1 round, though this is not a true paralysis effect and the target will not suffer automatic hits.
Bassilus is taken out at zero risk with my new Silence + Blindness strategy, and so is Ivette Cold-Whisper - one of Kryn Darkflame's apprentices from the Shadow Magic mod - although Ivette is immune to blindness due to being a Shadow Adept herself, but she dies all the same simply from being silenced.
Shoal surrenders from a critical morningstar hit. Droth and I duke it out but I come out on top, finishing off Shoal for a nice XP windfall. The ogre band to the south of her is killed with Deep Slumber, Command, and Blinding Darkness for Cleric 6.
Fighter 6 and Shadow Adept 6 are gained from enemies outside Durlag's Tower. It's time to summon my faithful Shadowdancer familiar, Nyx. See you in a few weeks, 4 points of Constitution.
Spells gained:
Impose (lv.3): 3d6 crushing damage to target; stuns and blows them away for 1 round. Bypasses MR.
Dark Fortune (lv.2): As Luck, but lasts 1 hour and provides immunity to Doom and Greater Malison. Bonuses increase by +1 every 5 levels after 3rd, up to 23rd level.
I use a Greenstone Amulet charge to get the WIS tome while I'm in the tower. +5% mage spell duration GET !
I finish most of the rest of the first floor, leaving a skeleton warrior behind in the small room with the big treasure pile, but I use Sanctuary to take the beljuril and give it to the Greed warder. Time to go sirene hunting. With Nyx leading my two skeleton warriors, they have little trouble taking out the sirenes and the pair of Nereids, gaining me Shadow Adept 7. 4th level spells GET !
Spells gained:
Shadeskin (lv.4): Stoneskin, but gives 25% elemental damage resistance as long as at least 1 skin is up.
Summon Shadow (lv.4): Summons 3 shadows that get stronger depending on caster level. They can also cast shadow weave spells. Lasts 2 hours.
Mesmerize (lv.1): target must save vs. spell at -4 or be feebleminded for 1 turn and takes -6 AC penalty. The spell is broken if the target is hit.
Turning in Ardrouine's quest gets me Fighter 7 though I still have to EEKeeper in the extra half attack.
The Nashkel Mines are next, probably.
Skaarj Sunspire - Dark Justiciar 7/7/7
Nebal (male dark moon monk, Gate70); Footloose (male monk, Grond0)
Our backpacks contained a few items from the bandit camp but rather than hitting a store we pressed on into Cloakwood. We fared pretty well against the ettercaps there, taking three hits between us but not getting poisoned while the dagger of venom proved unexpectedly competent at returning the favour.
Another random draw spits out the next two characters for attempt 190.
@ussnorway the current version of SCS seems to be stable as well as offering some nice new options.
When I was raised in Candlekeep there were only two other elves who had a similar stance to mine regarding the undead.
One was Jiwan: a Doomguide of Kelemvor – a Fighter/Cleric;
and the other was: Trixter; a Death Tricker – a Mage/Thief.
In Candlekeep there were some powerful assassins who tried to kill us, but because they worked as individuals rather than as a team we were able to prevail. Upon their bodies was thieving equipment which made Trixter into a fairly proficient thief. Sadly the equipment was of little use to Jiwan and I.
Sadly, outside Candlekeep Gorion was killed. Trixter upon finding Gorion’s robe undamaged quickly donned it and discovered that if he cast armour when wearing the robe, his protection was quite good.
After burying Gorion new headed for the Friendly Arms Inn, picking up a couple of useful rings on the way. At the entrance to the keep we were attacked by a mage, but because we easily outnumbered him, we were able to prevail.
We then sought out some hobgoblins at the request of Joia, and upon slaying them returned Joia’s ring to her.
Upon heading south we calmed down Marl and took a tome to Firebead before heading out to High Hedge.
Questpack lets you kill them instead of Xzar, so we're going with that because they give you a lot of XP, and you can kill Xzar in the end anyway. Prebek saw himself defenceless after a Secret Word struck him, and his apprentice or whatever was her name died to Aerie's Cone of Cold. Shazzelim was found among their belongings together with the Rod of Lordly Might, both helped quite a bit when dealing with the Harpers. Rylock let us in and we took the Harper assassin to Xzar. Xzar killed her and sent us to find Montaron. We killed all the Harpers and looted the place. Once we got outside, a Shazzelim backstab did the job for Rylock. We took Montaron's body with us, and killed Xzar as he teleported out for a second pair of Bracers to the Death, since Rylock already had a pair. Feels cheesy, but I think it's still OK.
I decided it was time to finally deal with the Rakshaka we left running around in the Temple District, so I buffed Cernd and had him swing around his paws at the extraplanar being while said enemy did the same. It took a while and actually it happened because I had Mazzy throw some arrows at the Rakshaka, but it eventually fell and we were rewarded with a meagre 3k XP, two Potions of Healing and a Long Sword.
Into the Sewers we ran into Merkath's lair, and had a rather complicated fight against the trio of Yuan-Ti Mages. They're pretty high level and can cast up to level eight spells, but a proper strategy (drag them out one by one by casting Waves of Fatigue on them and then having them conveniently run into Fire Traps, and if that wasn't enough, entertain them with a bunch of Fire Elementals and pelt them with arrows) it was possible, although it did take us quite a while.
I remembered Merkath's Imp as being a much more formidable foe. He went down in two rounds and his Lesser Earth Elemental in three, courtesy of Speedy CarCernd of the Wolfracers competitive racing team. And, also thanks to Mr. Fire Trapper Cernd, Merkath was also quite easy and gave us both his quest's completion and death XP. I cannot estimate how hard a fair fight would have been, but if Yuan-Ti Mages casting ADHW is of any indication, this man is probably too dangerous for us now.
Next is the de'Arnise Hold. I wanted to wait until Aerie could cast level 6 Cleric spells, but we're a over a million short of XP for that, and Cernd's Fire Elementals are good enough to replace Aerial Servants (as long as we buff them and helm them), which also do not deal any fire/acid damage (although, Cernd has the Blackwood club, which leaves us without much need for another fire/acid damage source).
The floor level was dealt with with a bunch of Fire Elementals and a light buffing routine. On the outside we had some trouble because Keldorn, Mazzy and Yvralline got pinned in a corner, but after a lengthy fight for survival, we got out, only wasting three invisibility potions about a dozen of Extra Healing ones. A small price to pay for our lives.
For the second floor, I had Jan lure out all of the Trolls in the corridors with Waves of Fatigue, and then had Cernd bombard them with Fire Trap while Mazzy and Keldorn held them off. The Yuan-Ti Mage was entertained with a bunch of Fire Elementals, but then it Mazed them with a Shadow Door and used Dimesnion Door directly into our party. Bad idea. Yvralline cast Breach; Aerie, Secret Word, Keldorn; Dispel Magic and Jan a Magic Missile that did not connect, because Cernd had already killed the poor lizard. Cernd also killed the Iron Golem, alone now, and Keldorn used his innate Dispel Magic on the charmed guard for 22550 XP. We probably lost whatever treasure he was carrying since I forgot to pickpocket him, but it was worth it for the experience alone. Next is the lower levels and Tor'Gal.
Previous updates:
When silenced, NPCs who go hostile after talking to you will not speak to you from a distance and actually cannot converse at all. They will not respond in any way to being attacked; they will simply stand there and stay neutral instead of turning hostile. They only await the sweet release of death.
I employ my new tactic against Mulahey, who puts up no resistance to being killed by my minions. He doesn't even call his kobold/skeleton reinforcements.
I get Raiken to let me "join" the bandits. Under Sanctuary, I enter Tazok's tent and find a spot where I can buff up and summon my minions without Raemon spotting me. The ensuing fight is pretty easy with Venkt silenced.
Taurgosz is taken out with Pacifying Silence.
After this final WoL-Wand of Fire, I leave the bandit camp. It's probably stuck like this now, spawning bandits infinitely as long as I'm present. Maybe I'll come back and farm some more later on if I make it to BG2.
Spells gained:
Shadowblast (lv.3): Fireball that does half cold and half magic. Save vs. spell for only cold damage. At caster level 10, victims' cold and magic damage resistances are reduced by 20% for 1 turn.
After gaining access to Baldur's Gate, I can finally buy Potions of Defense so I can get Thalantyr to make a few items for me. I have him combine all the simple and elemental resistant mage robes into one. I haven't used this robe before and it'll be replacing the Evil Archmagi Robe that I jacked from Baeloth. Using it in combination with the Improved Shield Amulet (AC 4) results in a net +2 bonus to AC as the necklace replaces my Amulet of Protection +1.
Killing Ragefast after letting Abela free gives Fighter 8. Ramazith is nowhere to be found and disappears upon having his home broken into, so I just use Sanctuary to loot the INT tome. Killing Jalantha Mistmyr after talking to Tenya and Lothander gives Shadow Adept 9. Level 5 spells GET !
Spells gained:
Shadow Screen (lv.5): Spell Shield plus immunity to Dispel Effects for as long as the Screen is up. Lasts 2 hours.
Summon Nighthaunt (lv.5): Nighthaunts are mid-tier summons and strike as +4 weapons, draining 2 levels per hit. Their aura buffs the THAC0 and damage of nearby undead creatures by +1 while doing the reverse to the living. They can cast Shadeskin, Shadow Assault, and Fireshield (Shadow). Summons 2 Nighthaunts at caster level 14.
Iron Throne fight. I send my undead minions and my new Nighthaunt in from the back using invisibility. They defeat the hostile thieves quite easily. With a casting of silence, all the casters except one are disabled, making this an easy fight by virtue of the Nighthaunt's level draining claws.
The fight with Prat's group is uninteresting. Back to Durlag's Tower. The Warders are easily overcome, especially with Pride getting paralyzed by shadow fiends. Cleric level 9 is gained near the end of Level 2 against doppelgangers impersonating the Trollkiller clan. Fighter 9 and Shadow Adept 10 are gained from the air challenge room on level 3 of the tower.
Spells gained:
Breaching Dark (lv.5): Breach + Lower Resistance
Fireshield (Shadow) (lv.4): As Fireshield Blue but does half cold and half magic damage, plus lowers attackers' THAC0 and AC by 1 per hit.
The Death Knight is stomped on. His Remove Magic is completely ineffective against Skaarj while he has Shadow Screen up. Shadow Fiends pin it against a wall using Impose.
I return to Ulgoth's Beard under invisibility and summon my host of undead again. The cultists prove to be remarkably resilent, though they can't particuarly hurt my shadow fiends or my Nighthaunt. The Fighter 15/Mage 15 cultist enforcers are showing me that I have little in the way of anti-magic attacks aside from Breaching Dark and Expunge Magic (and Shadow Spear but I don't have that memorized).
Time to fight Aec'Letec. I don't have to worry about his Death Gaze because it's a save vs. spell at no modifier which I can save against with ease. So all I have to do is kill Tracea Carol with Breaching Dark and have my minions finish her, then kill off the sacrifices. I cast Recitation and Prayer to assist my minions in paralyzing the sacrifices for free hits, and with the Nighthaunt draining two levels per hit, it goes faster than I thought it would. Aec'Letec is also defeated rather swiftly and was no danger to Skaarj thanks to Negative Immunity protecting him from Aec'Letec's level draining hits.
Might as well do the Ice Island while I'm here. My minions plow through all competition. There was an Ice Paraelemental near the end, which I haven't seen before, but it's no trouble.
I think I can kill Shandalar using my Shadow Fiends' castings of Impose. Impose causes a no-save stun for 1 round, so I can use it to have my Nighthaunt get guaranteed hits to level drain him, reducing his saves and max HP. I cast Doom on him and have the other shadow fiends attack as well, attempting to score paralyzing hits on him, and it works!
Killing Sarevok and moving on to SoD are next.
Skaarj Sunspire - Fighter 9/Shadow Adept 10/Cleric 9
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
Upon heading towards Nashkel, we were accosted by some overly officious mercenaries who attacked us. Sadly Trixter was unprepared for the assault and as a result was killed. Fortunately it was not too expensive to raise him.
After receiving Lord Foreshadow's ring and picking up some goodies in the town, we went to the Carnival where we were forced to kill Zordral.
We went south and killed Zargos Flintblade before heading East, picking up a ring of Fire Protection, and taking Samuel to the Friendly Arms Inn.
We then headed north where we killed the evil Sonner and his cronies along with a lot of Ankheg.
Trixter was almost killed again due to forgetting to cast a spell to make the ankhegs see double. Somehow he survived.
Heading south of High Hedge, we came across Mellicamp who was in the form of a chicken. We did all that we could to restore him, but sadly the spell killed him outright.
We then tried to restore Aiwell's husband but once more we were unsuccessful. His body however turned out to be useful and we were given a +1 sword in return for it.
In Beregost karlat was killed quite easily and so afterwards we were able to get Tonder back into shape.
South of Beregost we took on Tristan and Isolde and prevailed.
We returned to Nashkel and eliminated Neira.
after which we killed Greywolf.
We reunited Rufie with his owner after which we took on Vax and Zal. Unfortunately Trixter was hit with a critical which killed him. More expensive this time.
To the west we helped a dryad whose tree was under assault.
I took the precaution of buying a helm of Charm Protection before going sirine hunting.
We were able to avoid hostilities with Sil by killing some pirates.
We then killed flesh golem in order to acquire treasure from a cave.
After killing a pack of wolves in all their varied guises, we headed to the basilisk area where we killed Mutamin as well as his basilisk and medusa allies.
Trixter tricked Oublek into helping us against a baby wyvern, the first that I have ever seen, never mind fought.
Sadly he was killed, though he is no great loss to the world. We killed the baby wyvern, but then had to cool down the owner's father.
Fortunately we didn't have to fight him as that could have exacerbated the situation.
We then visited a xvart village where we were assaulted by well over a hundred of them plus several bears. The Xvarts tried to disable us with hold spells, but were only partially successful with the result that we triumphed.
Having defeated them we have now proceeded to the gnoll stronghold where after killing those guarding th bridge, we killed a party of assassins. Summon weasels was particularly useful as it was the weasels that were attacked not the party.
The rest of the gnolls and xvarts were killed and Dynaheir rescued. We rescued a boy there too. We will see what will come of it. We recovered Dynaheir's Journal and proceeded to Bear River where we got some boots of protection from cold for Dynaheir and killed a lot of minor enemies. Sadly the game crashed after just about finishing the area and we had to clear it again.
The first time Lauren's final conversation was as it should have been, but the second time it wouldn't trigger.
There were no panicked gibberlings anywhere so I don't know what the problem was.
I was going to play the game with just a party of three. However I think that having Dynaheir in the party will be a boon.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
Now for the fight against Sarevok. I could've sworn that the Nymph Cloak Halbazzer Drin gives you for Abela's hair has 40 charges, yet it's only 1x/day when I pull it out of my bag of holding, so I charm Gorf, Wudei, and Shaldrissa for the fight. I try baiting Sarevok into the corner and going invisible like usual, but my idiot minions attract his attention. I guess we're doing an all-out brawl.
That would take 8 hits. The Nighthaunt was under Shadeskin and Fireshield (Shadow) so Sarevok must have been hoist by his own petard by continuing to attack the Nighthaunt. Every hit was blocked by Shadeskin and Fireshield (Shadow) reduced his AC and THAC0, making it much easier for the Nighthaunt to not only survive but hit Sarevok enough times to level drain him to death!
Nice job, minion! You're getting a promotion!
Skaarj - Fighter 9/Shadow Adept 10/Cleric 9
Interesting. Where did you find those kits?
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/65700/kit-pack-i-hate-undead-v2-9-5-iwd-eet-bgee-bg2ee/p4
Due to their being good against undead, I thought that a trip to Durlag's was in order even before the nashkel Mines. It was! I completed everything up until giving Love the wine. I put it in a barrel to wait until I am asked to go to Durlag's. My cleric got the Wisdom Tome and my Champion the Strength Tome.
Journal of Deathslayer, Knight of the Eternal Order.
Due to my smite ability against undead I took on the ghost. (Usually I leave it) I was successful.
I found an excellent Katana which is my Champion's preferred weapon. **
Traveling with:
April - dwarven fighter/thief
Sarah - elven bounty hunter
The party is still kicking. We've just cleared out Samia's group in Firkraag's lair, the genies guarding the Sword and Shield Samia wanted, and also 1st level of Watcher's Keep. We had run into vampiric wraiths earlier, which were just devastating. So had to use protection from undead scrolls on whole party to safely negotiate them. This is a really good team, and we have just a ridiculous amount of snares, though some enemies are immune to them.
Will keep at it!
Having safely negotiated the upper reachesd of Durlag's Tower, we thought that we might be ready for facing the demons in the nashkel Mines.
The first major trial was taking on some assassins led by Gorken Bloodaxe. By using our spells wisely we easily defeated them.
Dealing with Mulahey wasn't too difficult, but one mistake was made. Xan got burnt to a crisp by accident. Fortunately it did not result in losing reputation.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
A scroll of PfU makes the starting dungeon easy. I bypass Korlasz's vanguard of the living with invisibility and Nyx disarms the Arrow of Dispelling trap. Korlasz surrenders from a single Shadowblast.
Protection from Undead scrolls and lots of Wands of Fire charges get me Cleric 10 from the Coldhearth Crypt. I go ahead and kill the dwarves of Dumathoin to get Coldhearth's help.
Fighter 10 is gained from a hobgoblin band in the Troll Claws.
I get to Morentherene and prepare to fight it head-to-head since the Shadow Adept constantly and invisibly casts spells to update its bonuses from mental stats. This unfortunately awakens the dragon and there's nothing I can do about it. I enter the cave, summon my shadow fiends, and get to work.
The Neothelid takes retaliation damage from the Nighthaunt's Fireshield despite being underneath the floor. I never say no to free damage.
One of my skellies gets knocked unconscious by a mutated crawler. That's a thing that can happen, I guess.
Dealing with the spellstone at Bridgefort gets me a max HP bonus.
The siege of Bridgefort is where I really learn that I'm still vulnerable to Breach even with Shadow Screen up. It only works like Spell Shield against the anti-spell anti-magicks and Remove/Dispel/Expunge Magic. My Shadeskins, Chaotic Commands, PfE 10', and Death Ward are all taken down, leaving me open to some nat20s. I go invisible with a potion and reorient myself, but get revealed by an anti-invisibility spell.
The mimic cave in Dead Man's Pass provides Cleric 11. My Skeleton Warriors get upgraded to their penultimate level.
I kill the Shadowy Figure. At first I used a Wand of Paralysis to stun him, but the anti-magic zone removed the stun effect the next round. Silly me.
In the Underground River area, I am wary of the Blind Albino Wyrmlings. I use a Greenstone Amulet charge to prevent the sleep effect from their tail constriction. Lo and behold, the 15% chance of it happening on-hit actually occurs but I am perfectly fine.
Killing Strunk gets me Fighter 11 and Shadow Adept 12. My Shadow Fiends get upgraded to Wraiths, who have an expanded spell pool compared to Shadow Fiends and drain 1 level per hit instead of causing paralysis.
Spells gained:
Shatter Weave (lv.6): Secret Word and then sets enemy's MR to 0% for 2 rounds. Mages take additional 4d10 magical damage and 50% spell failure for 2 rounds.
Protection from Weave-forged Weapons (lv.6): PfMW. Abbreviated hereafter as PfWfW.
Nightshade (lv.5): Target takes 2%/caster level in its max HP in damage up to 40%, save vs. death for half.
Greater Shadowfade (lv.4): Improved Invisibility + Nondetection + 2d6 healing per round if at least partially invisible.
In Kanaglym, Kherriun withstands an Expunge Magic, so Breaching Dark takes down her stoneskins and gets Halatathlaer on our side.
Up next is the Dragonspear basement, the sieges, and Hell.
Skaarj Sunspire - Fighter 11/Shadow Adept 12/Cleric 11
We kicked ass... true to say it was a very iffy battle but the Ranger is worth her space when the chips are down
Mods: I'm going with the new scs32.4 & Imoen is a Cleric dual. She has 17 Wisdom and only 11 intel... I gave her all the Wisdom books in BG and her first two points are spent in Longsword & Shortbow because that is how I got her
WeiDU
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3550 // Increase the power of Cure Wounds and Cause Wounds spells to the level found in 3rd Edition D&D -> Spells heal or inflict a random amount of damage (1d8 per level of the spell, plus 1 point per caster level, to a maximum of 5 points per spell level): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3580 // Restoration and Lesser Restoration spells heal ability-score damage: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Improved NPC customisation and management: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4150 // Allow the Cowled Wizards to detect spellcasting in most indoor, above-ground areas in Athkatla: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6560 // Smarter mind flayers: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix"): v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8090 // Party's items are taken from them in Spellhold: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Improved Drow: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Improved Watcher's Keep: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Improved Sendai's Enclave: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v32.4
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v32.4
Bug 1: I like the custom build part of scs but it comes with a bug that resets the control scripts to default... this was reported before but its a minor bug
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085932#Comment_1085932
Dragonspear basement. I summon all my minions plus a new Aerial Servant, then book it with an Oil of Speed to poison the food and water. But Olvenaun bodyblocks the gate back to the lift, so I cast Expunge Magic and take down everyone's buffs including Hephernaan's, then kill Olvenaun. A mage hits me with Breach, taking down my most important buffs.
Cleric 12 is gained from the meeting with Caelar at Dead Man's Pass before the Coalition Camp siege.
I free Mizhena's dad from being a prisoner and get rewarded with the Blazing Glory morningstar +3. Now I don't have to use Sundermaul and risk an Earthquake instead. Venturing into hell, the devils are easy and profitable XP. Fighter 12 is gained from fighting Thrix's second wave of devils after trying to goad him into fighting me. The Wrath of Darkness HLA will enhance my otherwise lackluster melee ability and make up for my lack of grandmastery, as Tweaks Anthology apparently won't touch multiclass kits - just normal multiclasses.
I use the Wand of Monster Summoning on the elevator up, saving my summons for Belhifet. The three second lag indicates the final save, so I use an Oil of Speed, Potion of Absorption, and cast Entropy Shield. At the start of the fight, I move out of Belhifet's field of view, causing his Remove Magic to fizzle. My first move is to summon my 3 wraiths.
I probably should've used True Sight -> Shatter Weave -> Sigil of Misfortune -> whatever else earlier in the fight. But I had no problems hitting Belhifet so I could've just beaten him to death if that's what I had to do. We'll see how SoA goes. I hope I don't get insta-gibbed again since I've got Death Ward. Can't believe I'm taking HLAs and I can't even cast level 7 priest or mage spells.
Skaarj Sunspire - Dark Justiciar 12/12/12
Indira was a fighter. She did not have Khalid’s stealth, something Dispenser would have to figure out, but she packed a punch by blasting enemies with Magic Missiles on contact. And she certainly was not as lethal as Khalid w/her short bow compared to Khalid’s Longbow of Marksmanship +3, but equipped w/Bracers of Archery & Arrows +2, she could still do significant damage. The addition of mage support to augment Valerie, without a complete loss of ranged support (she was still good with a bow), seemed a sound tradeoff.
They’d knocked out the Firewine Ruins together & she had done well – at times very well. He ran into the problem he had feared when they were trying to cleanse Gullykin. Indira had been scouting ahead of the main body when she had gotten pinched between some assassins and four Kobold Commando’s (KC) & had fallen there. It was only after they had pushed forward without recon that they’d found her body - & the fight – a tough fight. When they first made contact, they quickly mowed down the four KCs, a warrior-cleric & a warrior-mage before running into two really tough fighters that were hard to bring down. It concerned Dispenser because they had fought much stronger opponents. Of course, he was down a man, but he was certain that had also been the case when he fought Davaeorn and he was sure it was when he brought down the IT in Baldur’s Gate. Potions of Invisibility would do the trick in the future but it wasn’t like those things were plentiful on the adventurers market.
TOUGHER THAN EXPECTED
He thought ahead to tomorrow. He had stumbled across the ruins Ulcaster School on the way back from FWB/ruins. He’d head there first & then cut a swath across to the Archaeological Site on the sword coast. He was in a race. He had to get back to Sarevok but destroying every stem of evil he could, no matter how small, seemed the first order of business. He remembered the halving dead on the North Nashkel Road all those weeks ago, killed by Ogrillons, & the caravan’s wiped out on the Coast Way. Even kobolds and xvarts and gibberlings were a danger to everyday folk and he intended to do wipe them out before he faced Sarevok – a challenge he knew inside he might not survive. In his mind it was first things first. If he could make the sword coast just a little bit safer, he could face his challenge without reservation.
Order of March: Indira (Scout), Sirine & Isra (Shock troops), Dispenser (Leader), Imoen (Traps), Valerie (Arcane support)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Lendarn, Mage (Invoker)/, Drakar (Fighter/Cleric 5/5), Molkar (Fighter/6), Cave Bears (2 - XV), Dread Wolves (3 – Gk), Morvin (Fighter/5), Ogre Berserkers (3 - LP), Ogre Mage (FWR), Teyngan (Fighter/6), Jenby (Mage/Conjurer 5 – FL), Billy (Fighter/6), Ioin (Fighter/6), Jenkal (Fighter/Thief 4/4), Half Ogres (4/2/4 – FL/NNR/LP), Ogres (3/3 – FL/LP), Halacan (Fighter/Mage 6/6), Ghoul s (3 – NNR), Ogrillons (1/1/4 WM/LP/FWR), Dribben (Fighter/6), Dire Wolves (5 - XV), Hobgoblin Elites (6/2 – NNR/LP), Bandit (NNR), Gnoll Elites (5 – FL), Skeletons (5/9 – FL/FWB), Zekar (Hobgoblin), Zombies (6 – FWB), Gibberlings (8 – WM), Kobold Commando (1/83/4 FWB/FWR/Gk), Gnolls (15 – FL), Xvarts (30/8 – XV/LP), Kobolds (12/4/6/5/18 – NNR/LP/FWB/FWR/Gk)
Legend: FL (Fisherman’s Lake), FWB (Firewine Bridge), FWR (Firewine Ruins), Gk (Gullykin), LP (Lonely Peaks),
NNR (North Nashkel Road), XV (Xvart Village), WM (Wandering Monster)
CASUALTIES: Indira (Molkar battle)
LEVEL UP: Dispenser, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/7
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Gold = ~1559 gp [36546])
Armor & weapons: Ring Protection +2
Gems/jewelry: Water Opal, Sphene Gem
Potions: Power
Scrolls: Fireball (2 - FWR), Lightning Bolt
Wands:
Misc & Artifacts:
BEST KILL:
1) Isra, Greater Basilisk (7000 exp)
2) Sirene, Zhalimar Cloudwulfe (3000 exp)
3) Valerie & Dispenser: (Sword Spiders) (2000 exp ea)
4) Imoen, Wyvern (1400 exp)
5) Indira, Dread Wolf (650 exp)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating & resupplying @ Beregost
NEXT STEPS: Ulcaster Ruins, South Beregost Road, Red Canyons, Archaeological Site, Lighthouse, High Hedge
PARTY: (Reputation: 20 - Heroic)
Dispenser: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/7 (HP 49) Mail of the Dead +2, Shield of the Stars +1 w/Girdle of Bluntness & Ring of Free Action; L/Sword +2/+1* & Warhammer +2/ (+1)* (SWS*) & Wand of the Heavens; Spells: Defensive Harmony, Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Holy Smite, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command, Doom, Protection from Evil; Remove Fear; Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Strength of One; Divine Might; (None) (1)
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr of Ilmater)/6 (HP 50) Full Plate & Amulet/Protection +1; 2H/Sword +1** (Flail**, THWS**) & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise; Abilities: Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Lay on Hands (3), D/Evil (8); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/6 (HP 54) Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** & Morning Star +1** w/ Gauntlet’s of Weapon Skill, (THWS**, Mc/MS*), ), Abilities: Remove Fear (6), Prot/Evil (6), Lay Hands, D/Evil (9), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Indira: Fighter/Mage 5/5 (HP 26) Indira’s Chain Vest, Ring of Protection +2,Girdle of Piercing & Boots of Speed; Short Bow*** w/Bracers of Archery & L/Sword +1**; Spells; Haste, Melf’s Acid Arrow (2), Magic Missile (4); (Advanced AI) (4)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//7 (HP 41) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1; S/bow +1* & Dagger of Venom* (Short Sword/Ninja-to*); Skills: OL 85, PP 40, FT 75, MS 60, HS 55, DI 25, ST 30, w/Master Belt; (Thief Ranged) (6)
Valerie: Sorcerer/6 (HP 18) Robe of the Good Arch-Magi & Ring/Protection +1; Ring Energy, Necklace of Missiles, Sling +1* (Dart*); Spells: Remove Magic, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Ray of Enfeeblement (5), Magic Missile (5), Chromatic Orb (#), Spook (5),Sleep (5), (Advanced AI) (5)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
(Current AI) (Chain of Command rank)
Traveling with:
April - dwarven fighter/thief
Sarah - elven bounty hunter
Imoen - human thief/mage
So the party has made it to Spellhold. This was not smooth sailing. For one, when Sarah went to get the stake to get Dace's hand, she got held by a ghast and died.
Next problem? Apparently thieves stink vs. mind flayers. Despite buffs, traps and summons, the mindflayer was devastating to the party and only Dreen's backstab saved himself.
We finally get back and recruit the crazy inmates to help us defeat Irenicus, which we did thankfully.
This party doesn't need to go to the fish city and indeed, am worried the fish stun bolts might actually be effective vs. us. So instead, we head off to the Underdark portal. We lay tons of traps for the 3 mindflayers above us, and April uses an invulnerability potion to put her save vs. spell to negatives, and this allowed success.
We then destroyed lots of elementals, then tried to silence the drow party but wasn't very effective due to their magic resistance. We had a hard battle but no one died. Spores died to cloudkill.
I had thought 7 snares was plenty for the gnome demon - nope! Not at all! Only got it to 75% I think. April got stunned and killed, Imoen ran around in fear. Sarah tried for a backstab but apparently the demon sees invis. She tries to tank it, but dies quickly. Dreen is alone!!! He tries to change to slayer form, but no it got interrupted! He is near death and runs for his life...
Even though I knew the demon saw through invis, I ran back to the gnome mayor's room and tried to hide - but wait! The demon is too big for the door! Is this my salvation?
Yes!! I can plink away with the firetooth crossbow until it dies! I used a haste potion and mind focusing potion to speed up the kill. Survival!
I don't know how many more rabbits Dreen can pull out of his hat, but somehow the run continues...
Well once again, the snares were not effective, and we needed Adalon dead to forge the flesh armor. However, April got stunned and once she died the party was slaughtered - RIP Dreen.
Always wanted to get a party of druids far, but they never have, will roll some druids and try again.