Corearcher VI - FINAL BG 1 update!
Corearcher - gnomish fighter, level 8
**** long bow
** two-hand sword
Traveling with: Khalid, Viconia, Imoen
I hadn't posted on this run, been doing it past several days. The run went real smooth, only death was Imoen died in a house in Baldur's Gate. Generally, on any hard fight, Imoen would throw in web, Viconia, sileneces and hold persons, and combined with Corearcher's impressive ranged power, that always carried the day. When we were in the Cloakwood Forest, we recruited Coran. And then when we got out of Candlekeep, we recruited another archer, Kivan.
Unsurprisingly, this made Duchal Palace a snap. In addition, Sarevok fell very fast, within 3 rounds I think. On to Amn! Here are a few screenshots of the adventure:
I'll post a character sheet in my first BG 2 post. Here are his stats at the end of BG 1:
Corearcher VI
chaotic good
gnomish fighter
STR 19 DEX 19 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 3 CHA 9
@Grond0 : I am very interested in your Wizard Slayer. My first attempt at no-reload was with a WS (random rolls for stats/race etc.) and I found it quite interesting.
What weapons do you prefer/recommand ?
I ended up with darts and it was quite interesting with the high APR and special darts, but I guess bows would be very good too (arrows of dispelling/explosion in BG1/SoD), or even crossbow with the crossbow of speed + magical bolts
What melee weapons would you recommend for a full saga run (no mods) ? And lastly, are there special recommendations to play a WS effectively ? The drawbacks seem so stringent that I don't see much versality in gameplay.
I agree darts are a reasonable choice and I've gone with them before. In this run though I've got grand mastery with shortbows - which gives the same 5 APR as darts in BG2 when using Tuigan. However, I've still made a decent amount of use of non-proficient stunning darts for a number of encounters. If you are using a bow, don't forget about arrows of piercing - you have plenty of money as a WS and for tougher enemies they may be able to do more damage than acid arrows (and help guarantee shutting down mages quickly).
With most characters I tend to maximise proficiency in melee weapons, rather than missiles - but the relative weakness defensively of the WS means missiles are relatively a bit better than usual. In BG1 I put a couple of pips into scimitars in order to take advantage of Twinkle when melee was required. In BG2 I was thinking of long swords, flails and 2-handed swords (with their high MR, use of Soul Reaver by a WS is especially difficult for enemies to deal with).
You might have noticed I've used horror quite a bit and that gives some variety to game play. It's undoubtedly true though that you are more limited as a WS in the things that you can do - I quite like exploring how to work within those sort of tight limits though.
Other things you can do for a bit of variety in BG2 are using summons (Ras, elemental staffs) and Vhailor's Helm for simmy (I don't normally allow that in SoA, but it's available). At higher levels you also have HLAs to play with of course.
Incidentally, his rod of resurrection is, a bit surprisingly, usable by wizard slayers - though it contravenes my personal item-based healing restriction so was just sold anyway,
I went on to kill a few beholders with the help of Balduran's Shield, but had failed to learn Bhaal CLW in BG1 and was therefore unable to get the quest to open up the main beholder area.
Would the rod of resurrection work on the demon apparition so that you can continue the quest? (Or would it violate your restriction on the use of healing items?)
Michio proudly waves his new staff. See, that was easy.
Nobody is looking at him. He's invisible, the fool.
@Gate70, great update! Loved the Twisted Rune action.
@monico, thank you for your informative reply. I'm not too interested in a summons-oriented run, though I'm not going as far as to outright ban them, as you saw in my first BG2 post. The other two approaches do appeal. I think I'll want at least four physical damage dealers and no more than two utility characters (CC, thieving etc). Now I think I'm going to sleep on the exact names.
Thanks @Blackraven. Its always good to have you posting - your posts are always a treat and I Treasure your time spend on feedback. Thank you on both accounts.
Thank you, for your kind words and for the info!
I had to get used to party play as well. But unlike you I've often been sloppy with my main chars, trying too hard to keep everyone alive and losing the focus on Charname. I'm glad you're smarter than that
As for Corwin, regular studded leather provides better AC than hide armor against both slashing and missile weapons (because of AC modifiers), something to keep in mind perhaps. Just like should keep in mind that Corwin indeed has skeletal undead as her favored enemy. Just checked it in my game... I wonder if it's always been so.
Incidentally, his rod of resurrection is, a bit surprisingly, usable by wizard slayers - though it contravenes my personal item-based healing restriction so was just sold anyway,
I went on to kill a few beholders with the help of Balduran's Shield, but had failed to learn Bhaal CLW in BG1 and was therefore unable to get the quest to open up the main beholder area.
Would the rod of resurrection work on the demon apparition so that you can continue the quest? (Or would it violate your restriction on the use of healing items?)
The latter - the rod would work, but I don't allow it. I expect I would at least consider bending my rules if I thought the game was at fault. I've done that for instance by allowing Caelar to join me in the fight against Belhifet, as it seems to me by far the most likely option that she would fight him independently given the chance (that's a possibility if you have a full party or are playing MP, but not if you have an available space in SP). Hence I allow her to join, but leave her totally controlled by her own AI as the nearest equivalent of what I think should happen.
In this case the game is not at fault. I have the option to use Bhaal healing to do the quest, but just cocked it up - mea culpa.
@monico, thank you for your informative reply. I'm not too interested in a summons-oriented run, though I'm not going as far as to outright ban them, as you saw in my first BG2 post. The other two approaches do appeal. I think I'll want at least four physical damage dealers and no more than two utility characters (CC, thieving etc). Now I think I'm going to sleep on the exact names.
I agree, summons is boring. I just put it there because it is effective, after all.
I might be wrong but to me, the best damage dealers would be Haer’Dalis, Valygar, Mazzy, and Korgan (not especially in that order off course). And the first three can be used both in melee or ranged, depending on the encounter and preferences (Haer’Dalis with MMM’s and Offensive Spin = win)
EDIT: I forgot Anomen. With righteous magic, he is quite the damage dealer. But I hate his personality and tend to forget he exists
Corearcher VI the gnomish fighter - update 2
***** long bow
** two-hand sword
Traveling with: Korgan, Viconia, Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo
Well, somehow, Corearcher VI is still alive. However, his party has suffered an incredible amount of deaths in the early going. And TWICE, after two encounters, Corearcher VI was the only survivor!!! More on that in a bit...
* We freed Hendak - this was pretty by much by the numbers
* Korgan was complaining, so we had to help him with his quest. One reason I rarely recruit him is I find his quest very difficult in the early going, and this run proved no exception. In the opening mass of undead, I forgot about the vampire and Korgan got charmed - he had a berserk available (oops). Korgan duly went about and slaughtered Minsc and did massive damage to the party before his charm wore off. We very carefully pressed in, being mindful to disarm traps which went well. But then on our exit, Yoshimo died to a FoD trap - hey Yoshi, you missed one!
So we go resurrect our fallen and do the next two parts of Korgan's quest.
We then tried to deal with Prebek and Sansha. I should have had Korgan go in first and only after the confusions get cast, sent in the rest of the party. But I gave them a fair fight. We took massive damage, mostly from the enemies ourselves (party confused).
Perhaps in hindsight a mistake I did the Harper Quest. The reason why is because Jaheira does not romance a gmome, the quest was hyper accelerated - that is, I had to go to Harper Hold early. Usually insect plague comes through for me, but I forgot that you can't get that off, if you don't also have true seeing running. This mean Jaheira's plague of insects failed to land. Worse, no one but Minsc could hurt the earth elemental, but Minsc died early (our equipment is still pretty bad). Eventually there were 4 enemies and only Corearcher the survivor. I was tempted to die, but said, no must run and did, and barely escaped.
So I had to pay to resurrect Viconia, she resurrected Jaheira, and then the 2 of them brought back the rest of the party. I could not save all the equipment, but did get most of the important stuff. After healing up and changing our spells, I entered with PIXIE DUST We then went to far side (out of sight) and brought up some summons. With summons we avenged our previous deaths.
Korgan went on about checking out Valygar (I got the quest from Tolgerias) - I went to Valygar's house, but chose the wrong dialog option. Result? - entire party wiped out by Cowled Enforcers, except Corarcher VI who ran away!!!
Once again he went to Waukeen's Promenade, raised Viconia, who raised Jaheira and then the two girls brought every one back. Although, actually before, that, I rested one night (to make the enforcers disappear) and only Viconia and Corearcher VI went back to get all our stuff, so we didn't lose anything and got the note about Valygar's cabin.
Finally we get to Immesvale. We battle our way to Valygar, but then it dawned on me - I can't kill him, or Minsc will go hostile! Oops...so I let Valygar go, can't do Tolgerias quest...
While working on the quests in Umar Hills, I rested and who shows up? Revianne! She manages to confuse most of the party, except Korgan and Corearcher VI (his gnomish saves have really saved his bacon this run). Eventually Corearcher VI does win, but ONLY Corearcher VI and Minsc survive! We're not going to have the money for Imoen if we keep having to pay for resurrections...
We need some easier quests, so started the Lilacor quest at the end of the session. Here is Corearcher VI by the way:
After Isra joined me, we went to the Carnival where we saved Bentha from Zordral.
We then returned to Beregost where we delivered a letter we had found to Mirianne much to her delight as she was quite concerned.
Continuing North, we called in at the Friendly Arms Inn where we were attacked by Tarnesh. Isra's "True Sight" got rid of Tarnesh's Illusion and made him easy to kill.
Killing the hobgoblins who had taken Joia's ring was enough for Isra to level up.
Isra used her ability to detect evil so that she could decide who was evil, Tenya or Sonner. We therefore decided to kill Sonner and Party.
We then killed a zombie who was frightening a widow.
We then cleareed the area of ankheg.
By that time, I had reached level 5.
We picked up Tenya and returned to find that further ankhegs had hatched.
By that time Tenya was also level 5.
Upon returning to Beregost, both Gavin and Sirene joined us and we went hunting wolves nearby.
We also plundered a nearby cave and found a very good set of armour amongst other things.
North of there we rescued a gnome who was the slave of goblins.
Killing some ghasts allowed Isra to level up.
A temple messenger then asked Gavin for help.
We were asked to deal with Bassilus which we did.
After returning to Keldath with the evidence we headed back south where we reunited Rufie with his master and killed Vax and Zal.
Further to the west, we killed Caldo and Krumm.
We then deemed it time to deal with the basilisk problem and whilst there killed Lindin and his cohorts when we discovered that they were evil.
When we came across the soure of the basilisk problem, Mutamin cast horror upon us and we scattered.
This caused Korax to join with us in fighting our enemies.
We have reached Cloakwood, but I will write up our adventures later.
With tolerable saving throws and good equipment, progress continues to seem easy at the moment (reading through my draft suggests I need to keep reminding myself that getting this far is not easy and I should really try and take advantage ). That probably means it will be time to start hunting dragons soon, but at the start of this session I had some business at the Graveyard. That included shooting down Pai'Na (though I can't use Kitthix unfortunately) and her spiders.
I got a level shortly after that exploring the Southern Tombs.
In the vampire lair I had to do some running round to deal with the vampires, but eventually Azuredge forced a way through to get the MoD.
I upgraded that to provide protection against level drain before returning to deal with Bodhi with a bit of help from Ras.
Although I refused to take ship just yet, talking to Aran still gained me enough experience to learn WW as a first HLA.
A PfU scroll then provided protection while 3 throws of Azuredge accounted for 3 liches.
Kangaxx then became a victim of the iMoD - pity I can't wear his ring though.
Doing some tasks for Mae'Var included taking on Rayic Gethras. I tried to use a dispelling arrow to get rid of PfMW (by having that launched before his buffs fired and hit afterwards), but was just too early with the shot. Oh well - a WW with fists is less elegant, but just as effective from a WS.
Reporting his death was enough for another level.
Soon after that Mae'Var was gunned down despite the best (not very good) efforts of his assassins.
With only a few minutes left I just had time to go and sort out Captain Dennis. That fight was effectively over in the 4 round duration for Ras thanks to a GWW and WW.
I'll probably head for Umar Hills next time, though there might still be a few odds and sods to do in the City first.
Wizard Slayer L21, 154 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 532 kills (+677 in BG1)
Yeah that's not good. In my run I have used Remove Magic on dominated or charmed characters, arrows of dispelling could be another option to stop several rounds of carnage.
Usually insect plague comes through for me, but I forgot that you can't get that off, if you don't also have true seeing running.
Insect Plague can be cast at a neutral or friendly character, or item on the ground, etc. In multiplayer Grond0 often casts it on me as I move in before a party turns hostile so the spell arrives earlier than it would otherwise and his aura is mostly clear for the next spell when combat actually starts. In the situation you describe you could have cast at Korgan or Minsc and the insects would bounce off them and settle on the invisible enemies.
Last night Michio reported in to Aran Linvail and set sail for Brynnlaw (part 12345678910 11121314 15)
Our inventory is getting a bit messy (it's not that bad but I like to keep on top of this rather than have everybody full of junk and selectively looting items I'd normally take or discarding items as higher-worth stuff appears). In this case we have picked up a sewer key somewhere in Windspear. Hah, just one tiny key but let's open the sewers up to get rid of it. So while we're there we pick up the Hammer of Thunderbolts and our inventory gets a little more cluttered. Edwin uses Death spells to remove any umber hulks while Korgan and Haer'Dalis melee the illithid with ranged support.
We go back to the Temple district and find ourselves in need of a lesson at the Guarded Compound. Jan tries to detect a couple of traps upstairs but an earlier selection of malison sees him revert to that so we are stuck in the corner for a few moments.
Michio has slightly mis-targeted a Cloudkill so we're fighting in the wake of that. Viconia gets targeted by Koshi and runs. Koshi follows her but Korgan and Magic Missiles get to him first and the threat of Celestial Fury boom-stun effects is removed.
Next we target Sion, and Haer'Dalis has a perfectly-timed attack as a de-buff lands. With no suitable defences left their mage succumbs to the strike and we are left fighting a mostly-confused remnant.
Ketta also goes for Viconia and it is fortunate that extra healing potions have been consumed. We counter and kill her before she can disappear.
Stalman, Maferan and Olaf Rassmusem are lambs to the slaughter by this point.
There are only two tasks left to do in the Temple district so we decide to complete the Unseeing Eye before dealing with the Fallen Paladins. Korgan survives against a beholder and two gauth - having both gulped potions and run away once to obtain healing. This is enough for us to purchase the shield of Balduran before we descend into a pit to face larger numbers of eyestalks. Korgan pretty much solos the area to prevent the rest of the party from getting caught out.
The Fallen Paladins fall to Greater Command (and malison, hold monster, glitterdust).
Michio suspects this is most tasks done so we report back to Aran Linvail and set off for Brynnlaw. We treat Perth the Adept to the same fate as Chremy, and on the first attempt the book of infinite spells opens to Spell Turning. We'll take (and probably never use) that.
Michio finds all his Bhaalspawn abilities are removed by Irenicus. Not that he used them much other than the Cure Light Wounds x2.
We are released into Spellhold with the promise from Bodhi that we have a chance to escape. Korgan feels up to fighting enemies but Edwin tires of waiting and uses Death spell to speed up several encounters.
Rather than hang about we find an early removal of Bodhi to be beneficial.
With her out of the picture we retrace our steps to clear out the rest of the area. Death spell makes further appearances between other actions and then we go upstairs for the rapidly brutal removal of Lonk the Sane.
Our next encounter with Jon Irenicus has him at the point of surrender within a round, but he takes several more rounds to acknowledge the fact so we buff slightly from a safe distance in case a group of murderers turn up.
Saemon Havarian has a plan to aid our escape from Brynnlaw and it sounds good until we have to fight gith and then sahuagin. Once our ship flounders we find ourselves in the City of Caverns and it isn't long before we arrange the deaths of both Sahuagin King and Prince.
We end the session in the city of caverns, but all that is left to do will be to throw a rope down a hole and descend into whatever awaits us.
Usually insect plague comes through for me, but I forgot that you can't get that off, if you don't also have true seeing running.
Insect Plague can be cast at a neutral or friendly character, or item on the ground, etc. In multiplayer Grond0 often casts it on me as I move in before a party turns hostile so the spell arrives earlier than it would otherwise and his aura is mostly clear for the next spell when combat actually starts. In the situation you describe you could have cast at Korgan or Minsc and the insects would bounce off them and settle on the invisible enemies.
Doing that also has the major advantage that things like spell turning don't work against the spread, even though they would defeat a spell coming directly at the intended target.
Journal of Æthelburg of Kent Continued
We dealt with Zargal before going to Gullykin where we helped Smeagol.
Being sent to the temple once more, we went to deal with Valeria.
That was highly beneficial concerning experience.
With the route to Durlag's now being open, we went there next, Gavin being a casualty in the first fight. WE quickly picked up his belongings and ran before we had yet more casualties.
We plundered the upper reaches, killing both Kirinhale and the man we gave her hair to. The latter seemed the kindest thing to do given that we hadn't previously been very kind.
Bering fully rested, we were able to kill the other battle horror on the way out.
We then killed a belt collecter.
and went to the FAI to upgrade it so that Tenya has a decent strength.
That impoverished us!
Jaheira got badly hurt by lightning.
And after helping Charleston we had a doomsayer and doom guards to deal with.
We found a warm place for Noober. No experience and very easy, but the kind thing to do.
We then went to the gnoll stronghold in search of Aaron and had some tough battles on the way, but web and fireballs ensured success.
In the lighthouse area, the sirenes and their pets were difficult foes, but we prevailed.
Killing Droth and Shoal left Khalid in a bad way, but we survived.
We then killed some more sirine.
We then managed to get Lethe to show Tenya how to use her bowl.
Melium and then Kahrk were then killed.
We then trashed the Nashkel mines with no difficulty,
killing Zeela et al on the way back.
We had to leave Khalid down the mine in order to rescue Xan. We will go back for him later. He is competent enough to look after himself.
In Nashkel a charmed Oublek helped us to fight a baby wyvern. Sadly he died, but at least this unlikely fellow managed to die a hero's death.
On the way out of Nashkel we gave some lady ogres some dietary advice and as a result saved David Jansen.
We then rescued some elven slaves. This boosted xan's experience with the result that he levelled up.
However we decided to leave him in the safety of the Friendly Arms Inn.
South of the FAI we killed more assassins.
In Beregost we were attacked by Silke who was quickly dispatched.
We then killed Karlat.
We returned Perdue's sword and got Alanna's neighbour back into shape before picking up Khalid once more.
Upon leaving the mines we killed a Revenant, other undead and finally a mage and some mustard jellys.
The latter proved to be deadly, killing Jaheira who was unable to recover from poison in time. Being short of gold, we had to sell a jewel in order to raise her from death.
In Nashkel we killed a couple of assassins before making our way to the bandit camp where we defeated Tazok who fled with his tail between his legs.
The battle that ensued was tough.
Sadly Ender Sai was killed when we opened a trapped chest.
We killed Deke and some bandits before killing Tranzig who was totally evil if weak.
We then killed Vallious before being attacked by Davenport.
We then killed his cohorts before setting off for some hidden mines.
In Cloakwood we killed numerous spiders, Centeol, a dragon and some druids.
As someone else noted recently, it's easy to fall victim to a lack of concentration at the start of a session - and that happened to us today. Nearv did set traps for Illasera, which killed her as she appeared - while her Black Reavers sensibly stayed neutral and were able to wander away.
In the Pocket Plane the first challenge awaited. Tens was ready to rush in where angels fear to tread, but Nearv clearly had a premonition something might go wrong and suggested producing some summons - so 5 skeleton warriors took the brunt of the early fighting while Nearv prepared a couple of traps near the entrance.
Everything went smoothly until Sarevok, Bodhi and Jon joined the fun. Attacking them in the crowd wasn't easy, but Tens did use his smite ability to stun first Sarevok and then Bodhi. Crucially, however, he didn't follow that up with a GWW on either of them and their fighting abilities were undiminished. I'd warned Gate70 I was feeling dozy and demonstrated that by leaving the Amulet of Seldarine in place when fighting Bodhi and being slow to react when I was both drained and taken low on HPs.
Tens tried to lead Bodhi into the traps, but she appeared to stop after being spiked by the first of those and one of Jon's summons triggered the others. After a bit more running round, Nearv had successfully got the attention of Bodhi and Sarevok and aimed to keep them chasing him while Tens used a sling and gently regenerated. However, as soon as he reached his intended position, Tens tried to target Sarevok - but failed to register a click on him. We tend not to use pause that much in MP, but in that situation I should have made sure a target was selected. Failure to do so sent Tens hurtling towards the action - just as Bodhi came by while chasing Nearv. A claw reached out for Tens, who was particularly vulnerable as a result of still having his sling equipped, and that was the end of that ...
So I had to pay to resurrect Viconia, she resurrected Jaheira, and then the 2 of them brought back the rest of the party. I could not save all the equipment, but did get most of the important stuff. After healing up and changing our spells, I entered with PIXIE DUST We then went to far side (out of sight) and brought up some summons. With summons we avenged our previous deaths.
Chapter IX (Amkethra, Sendai’s Lair), 24 Eleasias 1370
Neera did not see Nalia fall. The battle was so confusing, and she was trying to keep magic going downrange. Somewhere in there, one of the Sendai Statues got to Nalia and inflicted a critical wound. When the battle was over, it was clear that there would be nothing Dispenser could do to bring her back. She and Nalia had not been overly close, but they were not adversaries either. They had both traveled with Dispenser, but it wasn't until he summoned her with the Fate Spirit, that they both accompanied him. Neera was suddenly (secretly) nervous at the prospect of being the only mage in Dispensers entourage. Nalia had always been the First Mage but now it was going to be her. Nalia also had so many more spells, especially those Dispenser coveted most – anti-mage spells. She did the math. Nalia had also handled Dispensers rogue responsibilities. With her gone, Dispenser would need someone else, and the chances of getting another Mage-Thief, she thought, would be slim.
Dispenser wanted to assault Sendai’s Enclave next. Sendai was one of the five Bhaalspawn that Melissan had warned Dispenser about. He had already defeated the Fire Giant Yaga-Shura and Sendai’s Enclave was closest to Amkethran. Before they departed, Dispenser confronted a Graveyard Lich, Vangoethe at the request of a man named Marlowe. Marlowe told Dispenser the lich had taken his daughter's soul and he desperately begged for help in saving her. It turns out that the story Marlowe gave was a lie, but the lich met his end and the young girl, Nalla, is fine. Dispenser gave her 5000gp to help her get started with a new life, as her father Marlowe was not so lucky.
Sendai’s Enclave was not overly difficult, but before she got there, Neera had been the recipient of Dispensers’ Wand of Resurrection twice as they were clearing out the cave the Graveyard Lich had haunted – once to an Ice Golem, once to a Greater Fire Elemental. Neera had always charged in, preferring melee to spell-casting but now, after seeing Nalia fall, she wondered if she could restrain that urge to be a fighter. She wished she could get back to Waukeen’s Promenade and go spell shopping.
In Sendai’s Enclave, Dispenser destroyed Ogremoch, the Prince of Evil Earth; Odamaron, another Lich (Yasraena destroyed Odamoron with one-hit from Runehammer +5); Thelynn’ss, a Drow Kensai, Diatha, a Drow Cleric, and two Hive-Mothers. The battle between Dispenser and Sendai’s guard captain, Captain Egeisag, a Drow Kensai, was underwhelming as Dispenser received nary a scratch – Energy Blades ended the fight before the Drow could get near Dispenser. It did lead to some comic relief when Dispenser and the Spectator (yeah, the same one from Ust Natha) had a light-hearted exchange before the Spectator moved on. He may be the first evil creature that Dispenser has ever allowed to live, but he made Dispenser laugh. “Besides,” said Dispenser, “He will just re-form and come back again somewhere else." Dispenser was also ready to get back to the Pocket Plane to Cespenar because he had secured the Poison Head, and final head, to the Flail of the Ages +5. “He loves that flail,” Neera thought.
YASRAENA ONE-HITS THE LICH ODAMARON WITH RUNEHAMMER +5
KELDORN DESTROYS A HIVE-MOTHER
DISPENSER'S NEW FRIEND
Sendai was next, and it was a grueling, exhausting, and costly battle. Sendai had used the time her slaves had given her to prepare. She had six statues of herself up on six separate platforms around a 30x30’ throne room. Dispenser had to destroy all six of them, two Fallen Planetars, and about a dozen Drow. When he finally killed the last statue, the real Sendai appeared, but it was over by then. Nalia was dead, granted, but Yasraena, the Paladins, and Dispenser closed on her and cornered her. She escaped through a Shadow Door a couple of times, but the four of them reacted quickly and were pressing her again instantly. She died, as they all have, cursing Dispenser to their last breath.
SENDAI EVERYWHERE
AND A FALLEN PLANETAR OR TWO
SENDAI'S NIGHTMARE
BITTERSWEET VICTORY
They were back in the inn in Amkethran now. Dispenser had visited the Fate Spirits and made the difficult decision to bring his little sister, Imoen, into his journey of destiny. There would be no way he could do this without a rogue’s skills, and none of the other options the Fate’s gave him were sufficient. Dispenser worried because Imoen does not have the experience the rest of his retinue does - since he dismissed her as soon as he could after rescuing her from Spellhold. Imoen had been spending her time gambling - and winning - at the Copper Coronet these past months. Dispenser equipped Imoen with many items Nalia had worn: Amulet of the Master Harper, Dusty Rune Ioun Stone, Boots of Elvenkind, Cloak of Elvenkind, Bracers of Defence AC3.
Neera looked over at Dispenser lying on his bedroll on the floor. She wished he was lying next to her at least, but Keldorn and Imoen were between them (there were only two beds available that night – they cast lots and Isra and Yasraena won). Neera wished she could comfort her lover now, but it was awkward, and suddenly she felt a little jealous of Imoen. She was not ashamed; neither was he, but they were not intimate often and sometimes that worried her. Dispenser was intense, and he rarely relaxed enough to come to her – the last time had been here the night they first arrived. She wondered when this was all over if that will change.
PARTY INFORMATION
ORDER OF MARCH: Yasraena, Isra, & Keldorn (Shock), Dispenser (leader), Neera (Arcane Support), Imoen (Recon & Traps),
Dispenser: LG Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/31 (HP 104) Shield +4 (Darksteel), Helm of the Noble +1, Holy Symbol of Tyr, Gauntlets of Dexterity, Cloak of Balduran, Girdle of Fire Giant Strength, Rings of Fire Resistance & Regeneration & Boots of Etherealness w/ Flail of the Ages +5 (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison) & Longsword +4 (The Answerer) (Bastard Sword*, Flail*, Long Sword*, Mace/Morning Star*, Warhammer*, SSS*, SWS*, TWS**); Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Detect Invisibility, Divine Might (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Holy Word, Strength of One, Slayer Change, Pocket Plane, Mass Healing; High-Level Abilities: Aura of Flaming Death, Earthquake, Elemental Summoning, Energy Blades, Mass Raise Dead, Implosion, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Deva; Skills: None; Spells: Aura of Flaming Death, Earthquake, Elemental Summoning, Energy Blades, Fire Storm, Implosion, Mass Raise Dead, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Deva, Aerial Servant, Animal Summoning III, Blade Barrier, Bolt of Glory (2), False Dawn, Harm, Heal, Sol’s Searing Orb, Wondrous Recall, Cause Critical Wounds, Chaotic Commands, Cure Critical Wounds, Flame Strike, Greater Command, Mass Cure, Raise Dead, Righteous Magic, Slay Living, True Seeing, Cause Serious Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, Death Ward, Defensive Harmony, Farsight, Free Action, Restoration, Negative Plane Protection, Free Action, Neutralize Poison, Poison, Protection from Evil 10’ (2), Animate Dead, Cure Disease, Cure Medium Wounds, Dispel Magic, Holy Smite, Invisibility Purge, Prayer, Remove Curse, Rigid Thinking, Zone of Sweet Air, Aid, Chant (3), Draw on Holy Might (2), Hold Person (2), Resist Fire & Cold, Silence 15’ (2), Slow Poison (2), Armor of Faith (2), Bless (2), Command (2), Cure Light Wounds, Doom, Faerie Fire (2), Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Sanctuary; (Adv AI) (1)
Isra: LG Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/24 (HP 135), Red Dragon Scale Plate, Ghadir Family Ring, Painbearer’s Amulet, Pale Green Ioun Stone, Cloak of the Shield, Boots of Hastened Departure w/ Two-Handed Sword +5 (Carsomyr), Mace +5 (Storm Star), Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, (Axe**, Bastard Sword**, Mace/Morning Star**, Two-Handed Sword**, Warhammer*, THWS**); Abilities: Cure Disease, Detect Evil (26), Lay on Hands, Protection from Evil (23), Remove Fear (23); High-Level Abilities: Critical Strike, Death Blow, Greater Deathblow, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Power Attack, Resist Magic, Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None: Spells: Defensive Harmony, Free Action, Neutralize Poison, Cure Disease, Holy Smite, Zone of Sweet Air, Chant, Draw on Holy Might, Armor of Faith, Bless, Command; (Adv AI) (2)
Yasraena: CG Fighter//27 (HP 159), Shuruppak’s Plate, Wong Fei’s Ioun Stone, Girdle of Frost Giant Strength, Boots of Speed w/ Short Sword +5 (Ironkiss), Short Sword +5 (Fireflower) & Warhammer +5 (Runehammer), (Short Sword/Nija-to*****, Two-Weapon Style***, Warhammer**), w/ Gauntlet’s of Extraordinary Specialization, (Sword Sword*****, Warhammer*****, 2WS***) w/ Rings of Regeneration & Anti-venom; Abilities: None; High-Level Abilities: Critical Strike, Death Blow, Greater Death Blow, Power Attack, Resist Magic, Smite, Whirlwind Attack, Greater Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None: Spells: None; (Adv AI) (nil)
Keldorn: LG Paladin(Inquisitor)/21 (HP 142), Red Dragon Scale, Helm of Charm Protection, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength, Greenstone Amulet, Ring of Regeneration, Cloak of the Shield, w/ Blessed Paladin’s Bracers, Horn of Valhalla & Boots of the North w/ Two-handed Sword +5 (Graham the Sword of Grief), Crossbow +5 (Firetooth), Flail +3 (Defender of Easthaven), (Crossbow**, Flail**, Long Sword**, Two-Handed Sword**, Halberd8, THWS**); Abilities:: Detect Evil (24), Protection from Evil (21), Dispel Magic (6), True Sight (6); High-Level Abilities: Deathblow, Greater Deathblow, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None; Spells: None; (Adv AI) (3)
Neera: CN Wild Mage/19 (HP 49) Robe of Invocation, Bracers of Defense AC6, & Belt of Inertial Barrier, w/ Quarter Staff +2 & Throwing Darts (Dagger*, Q/staff*, Sling*); Abilities: Scribe Scrolls; Skills: None; High-Level Abilities: Energy Blades; Spells: Spellstrike, Maze, Simulacrum, Incendiary Cloud, Improved Chaos Shield, Mass Invisibility, Prismatic Spray, Project Image, Chain Lightning, Contingency, Improved Haste, Pierce Magic, Cone of Cold, Domination, Feeblemind, Lower Resistance, Minor Spell Turning, Sunfire, Confusion, Fire Shield Red, Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Stoneskin, Teleport Field, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Haste, Hold Person, Melf’s Minute Meteors, Remove Magic, Blur, Chaos Shield, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Stinking Cloud, Magic Missile (4), Chromatic Orb, Nahal’s Reckless Dweomer; (Adv AI) (nil)
Imoen: NG Thief/Adventurer//16 (HP 75) Elven Chain +1 w/ Buckler +3, Dusty Rose Ioun Stone, Amulet of the Master Harper, Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind, & Belt of Inertial Barrier w/ Short Bow of Gesen & Short Sword +3 (Dagger*, Dart*, Katana*, Q/staff*, Scimitar*, Short Bow*, Short Sword*); Abilities: Set Snare (4); Skills: OL 175, PP 40, FT 160, MS 110, HS 135, DI 30, ST 30 (w/ Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind); High-Level Abilities: None; Spells: None; (Adv AI) (nil)
Nalia: CG Mage/Thief//21/4 (HP 73), Necklace of Protection +1, Robe of the Good Arch-Magi, Dusty Rose Ioun Stone, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Amulet of the Master Harper & Amulet of Power w/ Shortbow of Gesen, Staff of the Magi; (Club*, Crossbow*, Dagger*, Dart*, Q/staff*, Short Bow*, Short Sword/Ninja-to* ); Abilities: Set Snare, Scribe Scrolls; Skills: OL 85, PP 40, FT 105, MS 55, HS 70, DI 10, ST 10 w/ Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind; High-Level Abilities: Energy Blades, Extra 6th Level Spell, Extra 7th Level Spell, Extra 8th Level Spell; Spells: (w/ Ring of Acuity & Halruuan Component Pouch), Time Stop, Freedom, Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting, Maze, Pierce Shield, Simulacrum, Spell Trigger, Khelban’s Warding Whip, Limited Wish, Mordenkainen’s Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal, Spell Sequencer, Chain Lightning, Contingency, Pierce Magic, Spell Deflection, Summon Nishru, Animate Dead, Breach, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Lower Resistance, Monster Summoning III, Fire Shield (Blue), Fire Shield (Red), Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Minor Sequencer, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Secret Word, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Slow, Spell Thrust, Ghoul Touch, Invisibility, Knock, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Stinking Cloud, Web, Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Grease, Identify Magic Missile, Spook; (Adv AI) (nil)
The actual threats in Sendai's Enclave are not the ones I'd imagined them to be. Odamaron does start off with a PfMW and Incendiary Cloud, but Imoen instantly gets a Planetar next to him, and Moira manages to land the shot to disrupt what I think was his Timestop, or possibly his own Fallen Planetar.
Mazzy is dealing with the Skeleton Warriors with the iMoD, and after a quick check of the log we see the Apprentice Vampire has no Spell Shield up: Spell Strike can take down absolutely everything. Imoen follows up with a Breach, and Mazzy follows up with the iMoD.
Meanwhile, Moira is still throwing Fire Seeds around at two different targets, trying to make sure neither the Lich nor Odamaron can cast. The rest of the team kind of just wait around until the PfMWs go down, or run from a Sequencer. I don't remember what hit Imoen, but whatever it was clearly wasn't enough.
There's a small mistake that could've been fatal in the Drow ambush that follows: since they're all in fog of war with a natural choke point of a bridge, every one of our spellcasters throws out their AoE spells while Nalia summons a Planetar. Now, we do manage to kill all the Drow with little to no problem... but the Planetar stays alive, and was hit by Jehu's Stone Spikes, which is enough to get it to swing at Jehu (!!!) after the fight was over. It missed and I manually moved the Planetar afterwards, but a combo of a Dispelling hit + Vorpal hit would've been enough to end the run.
Ogremoch is the next gigantic problem for us. I didn't realize this elemental prince was going to be so darn hard to kill: he hits extremely hard, can cast a Stoneskin per round, and the only time he doesn't is when he casts Earthquake. Without a WW or GWW, all my fighters together probably hit him for damage maybe once every two rounds? It takes at least 20 turns to end this fight, in which Moira dies at least once, and only ends because he finally decided to cast Earthquake instead of Stoneskin near the end.
In the next room over, there's a Hive Mother. I thought Mazzy and Moira had the saves to combat her, and they DID, so it came as a bit of a shock when Moira died to a Death Ray. I only realized later that the Ancient Vampire had hit Moira before she put the Runehammer on, nuking her saves and allowing that shot to hit. Something to remember for next time. Imoen ends the fight with an HLA.
The Drow cleric herself in the room is no threat, I can't recall what she did. For the Mind Flayers, we take a rest, throw up 6 Chaotic Commands, and then inch our way slowly through the compound. Mazzy is drained to 2 INT at one point, but she's taken out of the front line (as though that means anything with Planar Travel available), and we suffer no losses. We've used few enough resources that we decide to go for Sendai immediately.
Our plan is roughly: Jehu gets regular summons up, one of our mages gets a Planetar up, Anomen, Imoen, and Nalia sweep through the regular Drow mobs, and Moira and Mazzy zip from corner to corner and destroy the Sendai clones. None of them buff with Absolute Immunity, so Moira and Mazzy are using unenchanted weapons for the mages, but I don't think any of them last more than 2 rounds. Have a montage!
Back in the Pocket Plane, between all our items and casters, we have 4 overlapping True Seeings, and Stoneskins and Ironskins means even if they DO get a backstab, it's not likely to do anything. The Chosen of Cyric manage to drink all of one potion of Invisibility each before being unceremoniously dealt with.
Back in Amkethran, two GWWs out of the gate get Balthazar to Badly Injured. Another series of attack and we're home free to the final Pocket Plane challenge.
The Ravager is a positive nightmare to face: incredibly high damage with a chance to knock unconscious, infinite spawns of Bone Blades that aren't coded as Summons: Death Spell doesn't do anything to them, immunity to a lot of different weapons, and very high health and damage resistance. Moira is killed fairly early on by being knocked unconscious and being focused down. Jehu Mass Raise Dead's, and Moira reequips with everything save her armor. The Ravager apparently also has a ranged attack, and tried to go after Anomen, but Mazzy throws the Shield of Reflection at him, and the Ravager switches targets after hitting himself 2-3 times. All of our fighters are bleeding pretty badly by the time the Ravager throws in the towel.
We have 3 Hardiness between our Fighters: Mazzy has two, Moira has one. We prebuff in the pocket plane with standard buffs, and throw a couple extras on top of it: Jehu gets a potion of Magic Shielding, and Moira gets a Pro. from Magic scroll, and both Mazzy and Anomen get some sort of strength potion and Potion of Invulnerability.
Mazzy tanks for the first battle, and to my surprise Melissan has no PfMWs or anything like that, just a lone Stoneskin. Improved Haste and GWWs destroy it, and Mazzy's not even at half health when Melissan retreats: granted, she probably drank a healing potion at some point. She's thrown a Regeneration potion as well, since I might as well use them up.
We rush the first pool, only stopping to get a bunch of summons: I forgot this is the iteration of Melissan that knocks everything back early on. Anomen is targeted by the Death Tyrant with an Anti-Magic ray, so his spell defenses are down for the rest of the fights with no way of replenishing them. Regardless, even though Melissan does take out every single elemental, she's again nowhere close to taking out any of us.
Imoen still has fire spells for some unknown reason (OK, it's my forgetfulness), and tosses them in the direction of the ice-based second pool along with our Skeleton Warriors that Mellisan would just destroy instantly anyways. We make more summons and fight Melissan for the 3rd time. She summons Shadow Slayers this time around, and they have a level drain on-hit. Moira, Mazzy, and Jehu have item-based immunities, but Anomen is hit and level-drained. I have no way I can think of to fix this, so Anomen's saving throws are going to be low for the rest of the fights. Even though Mellisan teleports, it's not enough and Mazzy, Anomen and Moira take her down in the north of the map with a Planetar still alive.
It's going to despawn fairly soon, so I send the Planetar towards the final pool to see if it can get lucky against the Fallen Solar. It doesn't. But the Fallen Solar is now active, and roaming slowly towards us. Apparently, it recognizes the Shield of Reflection and doesn't try to fire vorpal arrows at someone with it, but that's fine by me: Anomen takes it out.
Final battle. We use our remaining buffs, Improved Invisibilities, Improved Hastes, Emotion: Courages and whatnot. Jehu uses the second to last of his 6th and 7th level spell slots to get another army of elementals, and we summon our final Planetar for good measure as well. Anomen is going to be tanking with the Defender of Easthaven, Armor of Faith, and I think he has the helm that grants damage resistance as well. Mazzy and Moira both have at least 1 GWW left each. Moira is hit by a Demon Knight and level drained, and has to retreat to heal, but even though her area is surrounded by a veritable army of dead summon, Amelyssan's plot is over.
Jehu chooses to stay mortal, and adds a Shaman to the list of classes officially completed.
Thoughts about Shaman, pt 2: I honestly don't know how much different Jehu was making by the end: Mazzy, Moira and Anomen were dominating the final bosses, and Imoen and Nalia's HLAs destroyed the crowds. Jehu was almost completely support-oriented by as early as Sendai's enclave, but he never really did anything a Druid of any stripe couldn't do (A Cleric wouldn't have worked because Fireseeds and arguably Ironskins). Maybe the gigantic armies he continually summoned helped, but that's kind of hard to know: it definitely took pressure off of my damage-dealers, but... It was helpful, though, that with all the defensive spell-choices he took, Jehu was basically invincible at times, and so any mistakes I made with the others could be fixed over time, since Jehu himself wasn't easy to kill. It seems a bit silly that Jehu survived to the end not by actually contributing too much but by living, but... them's the breaks, I guess.
Grond the randomly rolled dwarven berserker stares at Stawk. Did nobody tell him he's just a Bhaalspawn ranger and not a Bhaalspawn Stalker. Never mind.
Grond thinks we should be ideally suited to a quick sprint around the Sword Coast. The only flaw in this plan is that after escaping Candlekeep and killing Shoal the Nereid we talk to the Mad Arcand about his ring and then notice we still have it on arrival at Beregost. So we go back and hand it over when perhaps the best (for Arcand as well as us) thing to do would have been to throw it away.
More so when we are ambushed on our way back to Beregost. Still, we survive.
Stawk has picked up a couple of scimitars and mithral chain armour that we found near an agitated group of gnolls, so he decides that Grond really should get a decent warhammer. Here's one.
Greywolf is persuaded to die in melee.
Returning Joseph to the Friendly Arm temple gives us time to deliver a letter to Mirianne, exchange boots a couple of times with Zhurlong and continue onwards to a nest of ankhegs. We emerge victorious, having not taken a single injury while down there and having added several quick kills.
Zal and Vax are removed from their bracers - Stawk equipping them but not really intending to use them
We've also passed near to the gnoll fortress, picking up some dextrous gauntlets for Grond and carelessly not picking up some frosted boots for him (Stawk's low charisma of 10 was used to talk instead of Grond's much better 16).
Anyway, we move on and play with basilisks.
Mutamin the illusionist doesn't put up much of a fight so we pick on Kirian and her gang. An enraged Grond draws their focus as Stawk gets two quick hits onto Kirian and kills her. Grond kills Peter and thinks he has their undivided attention but Baerin has followed Stawk only to switch back to Grond as the ranger stealths behind a rocky outcrop.
Grond is dealing with Lindin while Stawk picks on Barin, and we converge on the hapless last man standing.
Next on our list is Durlags Tower, where we grab a tome and deal with the rooftop-basilisks.
Having gifted Riggilo with some succubus hair we plan to kill him. Stawk stealths thinking Grond will talk to him but Grond smashes at him with his Ashideena warhammer. OK, we'll just kill him without any small talk.
Stawk jumps around a few maps, opening up areas and quickly gets us to a position where Grond can relieve Meilum of his bracers. Time to draw the session to a close before we suffer another mishap.
We're both into the 90's so far as kills go, Grond with a slight lead. Party inventory
Trio 21 (20) Canore - dwarf Shadowdancer, protagonist (Gate70)
Doubt - human dark moon monk (Grond0)
Russell X - human Undead Hunter (Corey_Russell)
We rolled this trio up in the last few minutes of our previous session and left them safely in Candlekeep. The first task today was to strip the joint bare, purchase some gear and get out of there alive.
Canore grins, he has a couple of tanky characters - one a sidekick and the other able to discern evil from a distance (both Canore and Doubt are nearby and evil so maybe they'll slip through the net. This should be fun while it lasts.
We all wait for each other to start picking on Shoal the nereid. Canore eventually asks Doubt to blind her and the Dark Moon Monk suggests there is no need, but does so anyway.
Russell X picks up a bear near High Hedge and then a couple of skeletons. Their combined distraction causes him to collapse to the ground wailing that he was a mile away from the bear. If you haven't played BG:EE in multiplayer you'd think he was lying to save face however anyone who has been mugged by multiplayer lag can only have sympathy (and a little chuckle) at his plight.
We find a temple to raise our dead traveller and almost immediately run into an ambush. Once we escape Russell X laughs that nobody even tried to shoot at us. Doubt suggests at least 11 arrows were aimed, and we were fortunate they all missed.
Greywolf is next on Canore's list. Russell X poo-poo's this saying we are only level 1 (and a bit) so shouldn't be able to take on a level 7 combatant. He may have a point but Canore isn't going to admit it and nudges Doubt to blind this sucker too.
We've picked Samuel up by this time and decide to kill off an ogre. Not like that though, Doubt lucky to survive and the ringing noise in her ear sounds a lot like "almost a chunking" in a paladin-esque voice.
Tarnesh survives a backstab (as a Shadowdancer, Canore has a reduction of 1 to his multiplier so there are some early x1 backstabs). We pile on a bit of pressure then flee as we weaken. Tarnesh also panics so Doubt runs back in but Tarnesh is over his panic in a flash and bang out pops a spell. Down goes Doubt.
Canore is merrily panic-stricken and has run outside the courtyard while Russell X finally gets the better of Tarnesh.
We pick up Melicamp and proceed south to Bassilus. Yep he survives another weak backstab so Canore moves away to plink with arrows leaving Doubt and Russell X to stand their ground.
Zargal and his hobgoblin friends think they can get the better of us. Not quite.
We move on to the basilisks. Doubt insists on getting a piece of the melee while Canore is closer than he should be even while ranged. The first greater basilisk turns and moves, then turns back. Canore has distanced himself but Doubt feels she is further away than Russell X so should be safe. Not the case.
We have a stone to flesh scroll handy (for Tamah), but it belatedly dawns upon us that Canore headed towards the temple and stopped since Russell X had the best charisma. Russell X stopped also though and yes you guessed it Doubt purchased the scroll so it was petrified with her.
Canore turns to leave but is reminded that if we return we will have no protection from petrification. So we kill the greater basilisk and nearby lesser basilisk before leaving to get another stone to flesh scroll.
We'll come back to this area later.
Zal and Vax earn our ire, costing them their equipment and lives.
Krumm is blinded so doesn't see Caldo perish but soon follows him.
After heading to the gnoll fortress Canore and Doubt have a good rest planned but after one rest Russell X heads for another cave and starts a fight. So we join him. Doubt insists on close combat again and survives being held.
We take down a polar bear on the way back to civilisation.
After wandering around Beregost we get into a fight with Silke. Feel the backstab might. x2 now.
Our anti-heroic attitude and epic abilities mean we'll probably do something silly at the start of our next session. The save game name mentions recruiting Korax which feels profoundly stupid in a multiplayer trio but there is only one way to learn this stuff eh.
The party starts to crumble for Michio, situation vacant (part 12345678910 1112131415 16)
Korgan uses the shield of Balduran as we enter a beholder lair. A fireball singes us, and with the initial two beholders badly wounded the rest of us weigh in. Our opening volley is conclusive.
Korgan does a solo run of the lair, the only disappointment being when a second Elder Orb is spotted in a group of beholders but it vanishes for good as it moves around to engage with him.
A nearby illithid lair is too inviting to pass up. Before long we have done enough to allow Simyaz and his gith party their escape. We're a little worse for wear, or at least Haer'Dalis is feeling brain-nibbled.
A bit further on both Korgan and Haer'Dalis have chewy-brain moments and have to retreat. We bump together down a corridor and a moment of stupidity follows when Jan tries to use Invisibility 10' as Viconia is held. The ulitharid chasing us kills Viconia and we stop to gather our thoughts after killing it. Korgan has rejoined us while Haer-Dalis ran the other way, and only as Haer'Dalis dies do we realise the combat was not over.
Michio uses the rod of resurrection for the first time to raise Viconia, and she then raises Haer'Dalis. We're more careful for the rest of this lair, and Edwin discovers the Master Brain is as susceptible to Death spell as humdrum umber hulks.
Simyaz has made the mistake of waiting outside to face us. He doesn't appear to have much of interest, nor do the bodies of his companions.
A group of drow could be problematic but with Korgan and Haer'Dalis at the front they are unable to do anything more than die.
An imprisonment device is thoroughly investigated - anything threatening us is killed and anything that wants to leave is allowed to do so.
As we leave the device we spot a couple of drow from the earlier encounter.
A western area contains kuo-toa, beholders and other assorted enemies. We find new ways to kill them, or as Edwin insists - Death spells.
Back in the entry area of the underdark Michio hears of a balor. It sounds dangerous so he tells Korgan and Haer'Dalis to sort it out.
It might be safer in Ust Natha so we obtain a disguise from Adalon the silver dragon. There are a few quests we have to complete to fool the drow and retrieve the dragon eggs.
Once we have retrieved the eggs we leave, and as Michio can now cast level 9 spells he tries a Freedom spell. This releases a mage called Vithal who we help, and although we extract a larger reward than he anticipated we don't push our luck so depart on reasonable terms with him.
Our exit from the Underdark is nigh, and as we are invisible we can sneak past Drizzt without him bothering us. We go back to the Promenade only to find a gith wild mage called Kruin is waiting for us.
We'd like to see him do his worst. We really would.
He doesn't seem to have anything that bad, however two of his supporting cast hit us with lightning bolts and Haer'Dalis is badly wounded. With the first one he remains in combat but as the second hits he turns to distance himself from combat.
Kruin may not be able to do much but his Anti-Paladin takes the opportunity to strike at Haer'Dalis as he runs and land a critical blow. Michio closes his eyes as our party Blade is chunked - his equipment flying everywhere.
Now Michio has to think about how to refill slot 6.
@Neverused Congratulations, and well done! Awesome to finally see a successful shaman run I imagine that I would share your conclusions about the class if I were to play it a bit more - sounds very much like I would've expected a successful full party Shaman run to play out.
This morning's session caught me out early on when I was attempting to reduce the level of dwarven competition in Athkatla. After killing one of his cronies I pulled Tarnor outside for a missile contest, only to find some of the locals were not amused.
The prophet had apparently failed to review his own immediate future there when following me back into the sewers ...
I was still thinking about that when taking a bag full of goodies to sell - and ended up getting 1 gold piece each for them after clicking on the sale screen thinking I was identifying them - luckily money is not an issue for me this run. Once Gaius' immunity to weapons expired, he was of course toast and the others were quickly picked off as well.
With one dwarven gang removed, I went after another. Several of them were dealt with individually before Brennan managed to land a backstab, but a GWW with the FoA sorted him out before he could even consider the wisdom of trying to run for it - and a follow-up WW saw the end of the contest.
Another level there gained me a second GWW for dealing with slightly longer fights.
Moving on to Umar I did a few tasks around the village. I tend to hang on to Ilbratha in most runs, though I almost never use that in practice - this time, with fewer options and poorer physical defenses I might do so rather more than usual. I also kept the Shield of the Lost, in case I want to top up with 5% MR at some point.
At the old temple area I pulled together some shadows to form a good target before diving inside.
The iMod claimed most of the victims there. However, the liches were dealt with by briefly showing myself to trigger their buffs before retreating. Coming back in a few rounds once the liches were vulnerable, Azuredge at 10 APR gave them no chance.
I got a 23rd level there for returning some gnawed bones.
Downstairs, a larger foe lurked. Thaxy was tempted into using his death spell on Ras before I rested. An opening GWW then badly wounded him before he buffed with PfMW - but I stuck to my guns and continued the attack on the principle that something that big must have a glass chin.
Unfortunately, Thaxy cheated as his wing buffet continued to fire while he was unconscious - taking me dangerously low on HPs and forcing me to retreat out of sight before I could finish him off. That allowed Thaxy to blind me and heal himself before I ran upstairs.
After resting up, I tried again. This time I produced Ras early on and a bit of fancy footwork got Thaxy fixated on it for about a couple of rounds. That was long enough for the FoA to wear through his stoneskins and most of his dragon hide before Thaxy started attacking me - and this time he had no little tricks remaining when at near death.
The Shade Lord would have had to be exceptionally lucky not to be destroyed by a GWW - and in fact failed to survive the first blow.
The thanks of a grateful town got me to the threshold of another level and that was achieved when some rangers decided to pick a fight.
I stuffed Valygar's body into my backpack. However, rather than go straight to the Planar Sphere, I thought I should do the Planar Prison next to boost my walking speed. Normally I enter there invisible to be able to attack the mage bounty hunter while it's trying to cast true sight. With no way to do that though, I buffed up with mirror image for the first time and launched a frontal assault. The mage was too slow to react and the others were totally foiled by mirrors in the short time they had left.
Time was just about up there though and I saved the game before tackling the yuan-ti mages found to the east.
Wizard Slayer L24, 163 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 776 kills (+677 in BG1)
The list is quite long but filtering by alignment, conflict, availability and meh narrows it down to two candidates. Namely Jaheira and Anomen. Only one of them turns up for the interview though so after an exhaustive interview (see screencaps) "You've got the job" said Michio "for the time being".
Michio can't quite shake off a nagging feeling though. His new joiner seems to think the iMoD should play music or something. Perhaps he should try pulling the other one.
Corearcher VI the gnomish fighter
***** Long bow
** Two-hand sword
* Crossbow
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo, Anomen, (Viconia)
CHUNKED: Viconia
The party has made tremendous progress since the last update. And yes, we still are getting plenty of deaths, mostly inflicted by the Harpers. So when we rest, we get a note from "Terminsel" that Jaheira turned herself in to the Harper's Hold. We go and rescue her. However, only Jaheira and Corarcher VI survive!
We also had to battle Dermin's party. For once, the party actually got the upper hand on this one and no one died.
We get another visit from "Terminsel" and we think the fighting with Harpers is over. So finally we do other things.
* D'Arnise Keep was cleared of Trolls and Yuan-Tis. By now the party equipment is pretty decent (a lot of Harper equipment!), and the party does quite well here.
* Trademeet - for once, we decided to "help" the genies rather than kill them directly, though this was partly as we have no immunity to petrification in that we have no arcane party members. Fighting the enemies in the grove was pretty straight-forward. We used buffs when appropriate, as well as things like silence and/or insect plague as appropriate. Jaheira bested Faldhorn in a duel. Trademeet was happy for our service.
* Umar Hills - the quests in Immesvale, as well as clearing out the undead in the old Temple all went pretty well. Considering mere mortals were easily killing us, we decided we surely are not strong enough to take on a dragon (yet), so passed on messing with Thaxxy for now.
* Lilacor quest completed. Minsc likes the new sword very much
* Slavers cleared out of moored ship - the party does good melee/ranged damage, and combined with the party summons, silences, holds and plague of insects, and Yoshimo's trap removal, the battles here went well.
* Lich at Gate District defeated with protection from undead. On our exit from the Inn, a vampire ambush CHUNKS Viconia! Her equipment also vanishes. Most of her equipment was so-so, but her shield of harmony will be sorely missed. But the quest must go on! What's insane is I told the vampires I worked for the shadow thieves, but realized after the fight I actually didn't!!! So I lost Viconia for nothing! Doh!
* Anomen replaces Viconia. We then finish up dock quests. Maevar was exposed and defeated. Traps and summons made short work of Maevar and his goons. We finally report to Linvail and "help" Mook.
* To get Anomen some armor, we battled Tarnor's Gang. Summons, silences, plague of insects, entangle and powerful ranged fire destroyed these enemies. Anomen welcomed the armor upgrade.
* I realized that Korgan would love the DEX gauntlets. So we duly bought the shield of balduran and worked our way in exposing/defeating the Unseeing Eye. This went well and no deaths. Even defeating Gaal went well, as a Nymph got a nice hold in, making the battle with Gaal decisive.
* Lich at Gate District defeated with protection from undead. On our exit from the Inn, a vampire ambush CHUNKS Viconia! Her equipment also vanishes. Most of her equipment was so-so, but her shield of harmony will be sorely missed. But the quest must go on! What's insane is I told the vampires I worked for the shadow thieves, but realized after the fight I actually didn't!!!
I didn't fancy continuing with the Crew at the moment, so decided to start another run in my long-life challenge. Inspired by @neverused I thought I would have another go at the shaman. As this is the 38th attempt at this class I do now have a reasonable level of experience with it. It's an interesting class with a lot of abilities, but as a solo class it suffers from a couple of weaknesses. Saving throws are very poor and need careful use of summons or more regular buffing than I normally use to compensate for that - but that's not too difficult to deal with in principle. The class is also a bit lacking in high level disablers and is less easy to put out very high levels of damage than most classes - that may require some thinking about tactics in ToB if I can get that far.
There's plenty of work required before that becomes an issue though and I was soon leaving Candlekeep. My shot at Xzar at the Crossroads missed, but stepping back and dancing up a spirit allowed that to soak up LMD.
I don't use the early spirits much for killing things as the amount of damage they do is small, but they are good against Shoal because she lacks a melee weapon.
HPs got off to a good start there with 17 from those 2 levels.
In Beregost, Algernon was shot for his cloak and Neera for her bag. A scroll case though was obtained without bloodshed - though I did do a Noober on Firebead until he paid me 300 gold to leave him alone.
Shooting an ogre on the way to the FAI got me my preferred belt - I would rarely expect to be in melee, so won't bother keeping others to swap around. Further north I shot some fishermen and returned a bowl to Tenya. The ankheg near her was dodged around the house to open up a route to Ulgoth's Beard. Spirits got another run out there to take advantage of Dushai's lack of weapons.
Back at Beregost I took advantage of @jessejmc's suggestion of killing the sirines using Kelddath's skeleton warrior - providing a significant time saving compared to pulling them out of the temple. That also gave me a level and another 10 HPs.
A wolf pack offered some more fairly quick XP and a 5th level kept the good news going with 9 more HPs.
To the east I found Korax and tempted him down to the bottom of the area before recruiting him. Korax has a good chance of killing all the basilisks, though occasionally he won't make it - if he's in danger of dying suddenly you might want to support him with missiles rather than melee. This time Korax was only hit once and dealing with all the basilisks except Mutamin's pet greater one got me to level 6 - a first disappointment with just the 5 HPs though.
Korax also paralyzed Mutamin before I decided he'd completed his usefulness and shot him down.
After resting, I made use of Writhing Fog on Kirian's party. The majority of enemies don't react to that and just gently freeze to death, but Baerin is a potential exception. When he came out to chase, however, he found I now had access to a far more powerful set of spirit summons. The remainder duly died in Fogs.
With an inventory full of potions, I went to High Hedge in search of a container. First though I pulled the golems outside and set spirits on them.
One of those golems tried to bring a couple of skeletons into the fight and I decided to use the skull to restore Melicamp - getting up to level 7 as a result and getting back on form with 9 more HPs.
Making my way down to Nashkel for the first time, I rested to get Bhaal LMD. Then it was off to Firewine to get Meilum to kill Bentan for me before I finished him off.
I thought I should probably refer to moving while spirit summons are active as not everyone may know how to do that. In Beregost I decided to use spirits to kill Karlat and danced until a couple of those arrived. If you move while dancing, spirits will disappear - but that's not the case if you click to stop dancing before moving. You then have until the next check (done once per round) to move and activate the dance again. That allowed me to get Karlat to come and talk to me, going hostile in the process, before being confronted with spirits.
At Durlag's Tower a couple of battle horrors froze while guarding the path.
A third was unable to get down off a wall and was a sucker for call lightning.
Completing the easy XP on the wall, a doom guard was another Fog victim. Inside the Tower I didn't bother with most of the ghasts, but did make use of the PfP scroll from the Carnival to take out the basilisks on the roof. That included an impressively quick destruction of the lesser basilisk before a couple of the greater variety took me to level 8 with 7 more HPs. I wanted to finish the last one off with lightning for a better style finish - it disrupted the first 2 attempts at that, but the third struck home.
Riggilo then got some of Kirinhale's hair, before being taken on by pre-summoned spirits.
I used Bentan's scroll to get the wisdom tome and deal with the ghost safely.
Heading once more to the coast, a first outing for nymphs saw a concerted attempt to confuse some sirines. The nymphs then soaked up charms and poison arrows and the last of them just survived to the end.
Sil's companions were easier due to them starting off neutral and mainly died of shock before Sil herself suffered some nasty wounds from the sirines.
Spirits then killed the golems in the cave.
Looking for some more quick XP, I went to find the Doomsayer. He's pretty good in melee and killing him just with spirits can be tricky - but he has no defense against a good Fogging, other than some partial resistance to cold. That just allowed him to survive long enough to be finished off with Spirit Fire.
A quick trip through the Cloud Peaks to get the charisma tome also allowed me to take my final BG1 level, with 8 more HPs.
After a nice smooth start, I'll be off to the Nashkel Mine next.
In the Section HQ I was under improved invisibility and yet was attacked and couldn't retreat in time.
I will use my usual tactics in future.
Three Holy Redeemer Dwarves
My intention is only to have NPCs in the party to do their quests. They will then be removed until they are needed for their other quests. Thus Jaheira and Khalid would be included to take them to Nashkel... removed and then included again for Cloakwood. Not the best for Metagaming, but the best for an interesting game ie getting extra quests etc. Of course, since I don't know all of these extra quests, I could miss some and I might miss out some due to the quests not being what a good character would do.
For doing the Drizzt Saga I will only have room for three of the Drizzt Saga NPCs
I can't imagine anyone's waiting with baited breath, but still thought I should nip in and let you folks know that, unfortunately, Benedict the Conjurer's epic rampage throughout the Forgotten Realms has ground to a halt on account of his save files being lost when I upgraded to Windows 10.
Looks like I'll have some time to play again soon, however, so I'll probably be rejoining the challenge with a new specialist mage. Either another Diviner or an Invoker, methinks...
Comments
Corearcher - gnomish fighter, level 8
**** long bow
** two-hand sword
Traveling with: Khalid, Viconia, Imoen
I hadn't posted on this run, been doing it past several days. The run went real smooth, only death was Imoen died in a house in Baldur's Gate. Generally, on any hard fight, Imoen would throw in web, Viconia, sileneces and hold persons, and combined with Corearcher's impressive ranged power, that always carried the day. When we were in the Cloakwood Forest, we recruited Coran. And then when we got out of Candlekeep, we recruited another archer, Kivan.
Unsurprisingly, this made Duchal Palace a snap. In addition, Sarevok fell very fast, within 3 rounds I think. On to Amn! Here are a few screenshots of the adventure:
I'll post a character sheet in my first BG 2 post. Here are his stats at the end of BG 1:
Corearcher VI
chaotic good
gnomish fighter
STR 19 DEX 19 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 3 CHA 9
I agree darts are a reasonable choice and I've gone with them before. In this run though I've got grand mastery with shortbows - which gives the same 5 APR as darts in BG2 when using Tuigan. However, I've still made a decent amount of use of non-proficient stunning darts for a number of encounters. If you are using a bow, don't forget about arrows of piercing - you have plenty of money as a WS and for tougher enemies they may be able to do more damage than acid arrows (and help guarantee shutting down mages quickly).
With most characters I tend to maximise proficiency in melee weapons, rather than missiles - but the relative weakness defensively of the WS means missiles are relatively a bit better than usual. In BG1 I put a couple of pips into scimitars in order to take advantage of Twinkle when melee was required. In BG2 I was thinking of long swords, flails and 2-handed swords (with their high MR, use of Soul Reaver by a WS is especially difficult for enemies to deal with).
You might have noticed I've used horror quite a bit and that gives some variety to game play. It's undoubtedly true though that you are more limited as a WS in the things that you can do - I quite like exploring how to work within those sort of tight limits though.
Other things you can do for a bit of variety in BG2 are using summons (Ras, elemental staffs) and Vhailor's Helm for simmy (I don't normally allow that in SoA, but it's available). At higher levels you also have HLAs to play with of course.
@Gate70, great update! Loved the Twisted Rune action.
@monico, thank you for your informative reply. I'm not too interested in a summons-oriented run, though I'm not going as far as to outright ban them, as you saw in my first BG2 post. The other two approaches do appeal. I think I'll want at least four physical damage dealers and no more than two utility characters (CC, thieving etc). Now I think I'm going to sleep on the exact names.
Thank you, for your kind words and for the info!
I had to get used to party play as well. But unlike you I've often been sloppy with my main chars, trying too hard to keep everyone alive and losing the focus on Charname. I'm glad you're smarter than that
As for Corwin, regular studded leather provides better AC than hide armor against both slashing and missile weapons (because of AC modifiers), something to keep in mind perhaps. Just like should keep in mind that Corwin indeed has skeletal undead as her favored enemy. Just checked it in my game... I wonder if it's always been so.
The latter - the rod would work, but I don't allow it. I expect I would at least consider bending my rules if I thought the game was at fault. I've done that for instance by allowing Caelar to join me in the fight against Belhifet, as it seems to me by far the most likely option that she would fight him independently given the chance (that's a possibility if you have a full party or are playing MP, but not if you have an available space in SP). Hence I allow her to join, but leave her totally controlled by her own AI as the nearest equivalent of what I think should happen.
In this case the game is not at fault. I have the option to use Bhaal healing to do the quest, but just cocked it up - mea culpa.
I agree, summons is boring. I just put it there because it is effective, after all.
I might be wrong but to me, the best damage dealers would be Haer’Dalis, Valygar, Mazzy, and Korgan (not especially in that order off course). And the first three can be used both in melee or ranged, depending on the encounter and preferences (Haer’Dalis with MMM’s and Offensive Spin = win)
EDIT: I forgot Anomen. With righteous magic, he is quite the damage dealer. But I hate his personality and tend to forget he exists
***** long bow
** two-hand sword
Traveling with: Korgan, Viconia, Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo
Well, somehow, Corearcher VI is still alive. However, his party has suffered an incredible amount of deaths in the early going. And TWICE, after two encounters, Corearcher VI was the only survivor!!! More on that in a bit...
* We freed Hendak - this was pretty by much by the numbers
* Korgan was complaining, so we had to help him with his quest. One reason I rarely recruit him is I find his quest very difficult in the early going, and this run proved no exception. In the opening mass of undead, I forgot about the vampire and Korgan got charmed - he had a berserk available (oops). Korgan duly went about and slaughtered Minsc and did massive damage to the party before his charm wore off. We very carefully pressed in, being mindful to disarm traps which went well. But then on our exit, Yoshimo died to a FoD trap - hey Yoshi, you missed one!
So we go resurrect our fallen and do the next two parts of Korgan's quest.
We then tried to deal with Prebek and Sansha. I should have had Korgan go in first and only after the confusions get cast, sent in the rest of the party. But I gave them a fair fight. We took massive damage, mostly from the enemies ourselves (party confused).
Perhaps in hindsight a mistake I did the Harper Quest. The reason why is because Jaheira does not romance a gmome, the quest was hyper accelerated - that is, I had to go to Harper Hold early. Usually insect plague comes through for me, but I forgot that you can't get that off, if you don't also have true seeing running. This mean Jaheira's plague of insects failed to land. Worse, no one but Minsc could hurt the earth elemental, but Minsc died early (our equipment is still pretty bad). Eventually there were 4 enemies and only Corearcher the survivor. I was tempted to die, but said, no must run and did, and barely escaped.
So I had to pay to resurrect Viconia, she resurrected Jaheira, and then the 2 of them brought back the rest of the party. I could not save all the equipment, but did get most of the important stuff. After healing up and changing our spells, I entered with PIXIE DUST We then went to far side (out of sight) and brought up some summons. With summons we avenged our previous deaths.
Korgan went on about checking out Valygar (I got the quest from Tolgerias) - I went to Valygar's house, but chose the wrong dialog option. Result? - entire party wiped out by Cowled Enforcers, except Corarcher VI who ran away!!!
Once again he went to Waukeen's Promenade, raised Viconia, who raised Jaheira and then the two girls brought every one back. Although, actually before, that, I rested one night (to make the enforcers disappear) and only Viconia and Corearcher VI went back to get all our stuff, so we didn't lose anything and got the note about Valygar's cabin.
Finally we get to Immesvale. We battle our way to Valygar, but then it dawned on me - I can't kill him, or Minsc will go hostile! Oops...so I let Valygar go, can't do Tolgerias quest...
While working on the quests in Umar Hills, I rested and who shows up? Revianne! She manages to confuse most of the party, except Korgan and Corearcher VI (his gnomish saves have really saved his bacon this run). Eventually Corearcher VI does win, but ONLY Corearcher VI and Minsc survive! We're not going to have the money for Imoen if we keep having to pay for resurrections...
We need some easier quests, so started the Lilacor quest at the end of the session. Here is Corearcher VI by the way:
After Isra joined me, we went to the Carnival where we saved Bentha from Zordral.
We picked up Tenya and returned to find that further ankhegs had hatched.
This caused Korax to join with us in fighting our enemies.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113080/#Comment_1113080
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113152/#Comment_1113152
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113258/#Comment_1113258
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113399/#Comment_1113399
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113530/#Comment_1113530
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113711/#Comment_1113711
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113897/#Comment_1113897
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113958/#Comment_1113958
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114111/#Comment_1114111
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114216/#Comment_1114216
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114325/#Comment_1114325
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114497/#Comment_1114497
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114617/#Comment_1114617
With tolerable saving throws and good equipment, progress continues to seem easy at the moment (reading through my draft suggests I need to keep reminding myself that getting this far is not easy and I should really try and take advantage
Although I refused to take ship just yet, talking to Aran still gained me enough experience to learn WW as a first HLA.
Doing some tasks for Mae'Var included taking on Rayic Gethras. I tried to use a dispelling arrow to get rid of PfMW (by having that launched before his buffs fired and hit afterwards), but was just too early with the shot. Oh well - a WW with fists is less elegant, but just as effective from a WS.
With only a few minutes left I just had time to go and sort out Captain Dennis. That fight was effectively over in the 4 round duration for Ras thanks to a GWW and WW.
Wizard Slayer L21, 154 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 532 kills (+677 in BG1)
Insect Plague can be cast at a neutral or friendly character, or item on the ground, etc. In multiplayer Grond0 often casts it on me as I move in before a party turns hostile so the spell arrives earlier than it would otherwise and his aura is mostly clear for the next spell when combat actually starts. In the situation you describe you could have cast at Korgan or Minsc and the insects would bounce off them and settle on the invisible enemies.
Last night Michio reported in to Aran Linvail and set sail for Brynnlaw (part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15)
Our inventory is getting a bit messy (it's not that bad but I like to keep on top of this rather than have everybody full of junk and selectively looting items I'd normally take or discarding items as higher-worth stuff appears). In this case we have picked up a sewer key somewhere in Windspear. Hah, just one tiny key but let's open the sewers up to get rid of it. So while we're there we pick up the Hammer of Thunderbolts and our inventory gets a little more cluttered. Edwin uses Death spells to remove any umber hulks while Korgan and Haer'Dalis melee the illithid with ranged support.
Michio has slightly mis-targeted a Cloudkill so we're fighting in the wake of that. Viconia gets targeted by Koshi and runs. Koshi follows her but Korgan and Magic Missiles get to him first and the threat of Celestial Fury boom-stun effects is removed.
Next we target Sion, and Haer'Dalis has a perfectly-timed attack as a de-buff lands. With no suitable defences left their mage succumbs to the strike and we are left fighting a mostly-confused remnant.
Ketta also goes for Viconia and it is fortunate that extra healing potions have been consumed. We counter and kill her before she can disappear.
Stalman, Maferan and Olaf Rassmusem are lambs to the slaughter by this point.
The Fallen Paladins fall to Greater Command (and malison, hold monster, glitterdust).
Doing that also has the major advantage that things like spell turning don't work against the spread, even though they would defeat a spell coming directly at the intended target.
We dealt with Zargal before going to Gullykin where we helped Smeagol.
Jaheira got badly hurt by lightning.
In Nashkel a charmed Oublek helped us to fight a baby wyvern. Sadly he died, but at least this unlikely fellow managed to die a hero's death.
We then rescued some elven slaves. This boosted xan's experience with the result that he levelled up.
However we decided to leave him in the safety of the Friendly Arms Inn.
Upon leaving the mines we killed a Revenant, other undead and finally a mage and some mustard jellys.
The latter proved to be deadly, killing Jaheira who was unable to recover from poison in time. Being short of gold, we had to sell a jewel in order to raise her from death.
In Cloakwood we killed numerous spiders, Centeol, a dragon and some druids.
Tens (male half-elf cleric/ranger, Grond0); Nearv (male dwarf assassin, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1110591/#Comment_1110591
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1110957/#Comment_1110957
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1111665/#Comment_1111665
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1111826/#Comment_1111826
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1112026/#Comment_1112026
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1112129/#Comment_1112129
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113016/#Comment_1113016
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113095/#Comment_1113095
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113891/#Comment_1113891
As someone else noted recently, it's easy to fall victim to a lack of concentration at the start of a session - and that happened to us today. Nearv did set traps for Illasera, which killed her as she appeared - while her Black Reavers sensibly stayed neutral and were able to wander away.
In the Pocket Plane the first challenge awaited. Tens was ready to rush in where angels fear to tread, but Nearv clearly had a premonition something might go wrong and suggested producing some summons - so 5 skeleton warriors took the brunt of the early fighting while Nearv prepared a couple of traps near the entrance.
Everything went smoothly until Sarevok, Bodhi and Jon joined the fun. Attacking them in the crowd wasn't easy, but Tens did use his smite ability to stun first Sarevok and then Bodhi. Crucially, however, he didn't follow that up with a GWW on either of them and their fighting abilities were undiminished. I'd warned Gate70 I was feeling dozy and demonstrated that by leaving the Amulet of Seldarine in place when fighting Bodhi and being slow to react when I was both drained and taken low on HPs.
Tens tried to lead Bodhi into the traps, but she appeared to stop after being spiked by the first of those and one of Jon's summons triggered the others. After a bit more running round, Nearv had successfully got the attention of Bodhi and Sarevok and aimed to keep them chasing him while Tens used a sling and gently regenerated. However, as soon as he reached his intended position, Tens tried to target Sarevok - but failed to register a click on him. We tend not to use pause that much in MP, but in that situation I should have made sure a target was selected. Failure to do so sent Tens hurtling towards the action - just as Bodhi came by while chasing Nearv. A claw reached out for Tens, who was particularly vulnerable as a result of still having his sling equipped, and that was the end of that ...
Those kind of battles are common to me.
Neera did not see Nalia fall. The battle was so confusing, and she was trying to keep magic going downrange. Somewhere in there, one of the Sendai Statues got to Nalia and inflicted a critical wound. When the battle was over, it was clear that there would be nothing Dispenser could do to bring her back. She and Nalia had not been overly close, but they were not adversaries either. They had both traveled with Dispenser, but it wasn't until he summoned her with the Fate Spirit, that they both accompanied him. Neera was suddenly (secretly) nervous at the prospect of being the only mage in Dispensers entourage. Nalia had always been the First Mage but now it was going to be her. Nalia also had so many more spells, especially those Dispenser coveted most – anti-mage spells. She did the math. Nalia had also handled Dispensers rogue responsibilities. With her gone, Dispenser would need someone else, and the chances of getting another Mage-Thief, she thought, would be slim.
Dispenser wanted to assault Sendai’s Enclave next. Sendai was one of the five Bhaalspawn that Melissan had warned Dispenser about. He had already defeated the Fire Giant Yaga-Shura and Sendai’s Enclave was closest to Amkethran. Before they departed, Dispenser confronted a Graveyard Lich, Vangoethe at the request of a man named Marlowe. Marlowe told Dispenser the lich had taken his daughter's soul and he desperately begged for help in saving her. It turns out that the story Marlowe gave was a lie, but the lich met his end and the young girl, Nalla, is fine. Dispenser gave her 5000gp to help her get started with a new life, as her father Marlowe was not so lucky.
Sendai’s Enclave was not overly difficult, but before she got there, Neera had been the recipient of Dispensers’ Wand of Resurrection twice as they were clearing out the cave the Graveyard Lich had haunted – once to an Ice Golem, once to a Greater Fire Elemental. Neera had always charged in, preferring melee to spell-casting but now, after seeing Nalia fall, she wondered if she could restrain that urge to be a fighter. She wished she could get back to Waukeen’s Promenade and go spell shopping.
In Sendai’s Enclave, Dispenser destroyed Ogremoch, the Prince of Evil Earth; Odamaron, another Lich (Yasraena destroyed Odamoron with one-hit from Runehammer +5); Thelynn’ss, a Drow Kensai, Diatha, a Drow Cleric, and two Hive-Mothers. The battle between Dispenser and Sendai’s guard captain, Captain Egeisag, a Drow Kensai, was underwhelming as Dispenser received nary a scratch – Energy Blades ended the fight before the Drow could get near Dispenser. It did lead to some comic relief when Dispenser and the Spectator (yeah, the same one from Ust Natha) had a light-hearted exchange before the Spectator moved on. He may be the first evil creature that Dispenser has ever allowed to live, but he made Dispenser laugh. “Besides,” said Dispenser, “He will just re-form and come back again somewhere else." Dispenser was also ready to get back to the Pocket Plane to Cespenar because he had secured the Poison Head, and final head, to the Flail of the Ages +5. “He loves that flail,” Neera thought.
YASRAENA ONE-HITS THE LICH ODAMARON WITH RUNEHAMMER +5
KELDORN DESTROYS A HIVE-MOTHER
DISPENSER'S NEW FRIEND
Sendai was next, and it was a grueling, exhausting, and costly battle. Sendai had used the time her slaves had given her to prepare. She had six statues of herself up on six separate platforms around a 30x30’ throne room. Dispenser had to destroy all six of them, two Fallen Planetars, and about a dozen Drow. When he finally killed the last statue, the real Sendai appeared, but it was over by then. Nalia was dead, granted, but Yasraena, the Paladins, and Dispenser closed on her and cornered her. She escaped through a Shadow Door a couple of times, but the four of them reacted quickly and were pressing her again instantly. She died, as they all have, cursing Dispenser to their last breath.
SENDAI EVERYWHERE
AND A FALLEN PLANETAR OR TWO
SENDAI'S NIGHTMARE
BITTERSWEET VICTORY
They were back in the inn in Amkethran now. Dispenser had visited the Fate Spirits and made the difficult decision to bring his little sister, Imoen, into his journey of destiny. There would be no way he could do this without a rogue’s skills, and none of the other options the Fate’s gave him were sufficient. Dispenser worried because Imoen does not have the experience the rest of his retinue does - since he dismissed her as soon as he could after rescuing her from Spellhold. Imoen had been spending her time gambling - and winning - at the Copper Coronet these past months. Dispenser equipped Imoen with many items Nalia had worn: Amulet of the Master Harper, Dusty Rune Ioun Stone, Boots of Elvenkind, Cloak of Elvenkind, Bracers of Defence AC3.
Neera looked over at Dispenser lying on his bedroll on the floor. She wished he was lying next to her at least, but Keldorn and Imoen were between them (there were only two beds available that night – they cast lots and Isra and Yasraena won). Neera wished she could comfort her lover now, but it was awkward, and suddenly she felt a little jealous of Imoen. She was not ashamed; neither was he, but they were not intimate often and sometimes that worried her. Dispenser was intense, and he rarely relaxed enough to come to her – the last time had been here the night they first arrived. She wondered when this was all over if that will change.
ORDER OF MARCH: Yasraena, Isra, & Keldorn (Shock), Dispenser (leader), Neera (Arcane Support), Imoen (Recon & Traps),
MONSTERS DEFEATED (ordered alphabetically by value): * Hive Mother (2 @ 50k @ SL); Ogremoch, Prince of Evil Earth (28k @ SL); Demon, Baylor/Type VI Demon (26k @ SL); Vongoethe, Lich (25k @ AK); Odamaron, Lich (22k @ SL); Captain Egeisag, Drow Fighter/Mage//25/1); Fallen Deva (2 @ 20k @ SL); Fallen Planetar (20k @ PP); Mithykyl, Mind Flayer (19k @ SL); Ulitharid (3 @ 19k @ SL); Lashar’ra, Spider (18.7k @ SL); Sendai (18k @ SL); Umber Hulk Elders (13 @ 18k @ SL); Demon, Tanar’ri (16k @ SL); Sendai (2 @ 16k @ SL); Thelynn’ss, Drow Kensai/25 (15k @ SL); Diatha, Drow Cleric/20 (14k @ SL); Earth Elementals (2 @ 14k @ SL); Sendai (14k @ SL); Ice Golems (2 @ 13k @ AK); Angelo (12k @ PP); Derro (8 @ 12k @ SL); Derro Berserker (13 @ 12k @ SL); Drow (12k @ SL); Ancient Vampire (12k @ SL); Greater Air Elemental (4 @ 11k @ AK); Greater Fire Elemental (4 @ 10k @ AK); Aerial Servant (2 @ 9k @ SL); Gauths (2 @ 9k @ SL); Invisible Stalker (9k @ SL); Mind Flayers (4 @ 9k @ DS); Mutated Spiders (19 @ 9k @ SL); Slave Master (9k @ SL); Drow Warrior (7.5k @ SL); Drow Warriors (7 @ 6k @ SL); Drow Wizard (6k @ SL); Sendai (6k @ SL); Drow (27/12 @ 5k @ SL/DS); Drow (1/4 @ 4.5k @ SL/DS); Drow Priestess (4.5k @ SL); Banshees (2 @ 4k @ AK); Drow (4k @ SL); Skeleton Warriors (3 @ 4k @ AK); Umber Hulks (16 @ 4k @ SL); Mercenary (3k @ AK); Vortex Spiders (2 @ 2.7k @ SL); Mercenaries (2 @ 2k @ AK); Sword Spiders (12/1 @ 2k @ SL/PP); Phase Spiders (2 @ 1.4k @ SL); Wraith Spider (1.4k @ SL); Myconid Kind (1.2k @ SL); Orogs (19 @ 1.2k @ SL); Mercenary (1k @ AK); Skeleton Archers (4 @ 750 @ AK); Dread Wolves (2 @ 650 @ SL); Skeleton Archers (13 @ 500 @ AK); Myconid (12 @ 420 @ SL); Spore Colonies (3 @ 420 @ SL); Fission Slimes (12 @ 65 @ AK)
* Legend: Amkethran = Ak; Bhaal Trials = BT; DS = Disturb Sleep; PP = Pocket Plane; RE = Random Encounter; SL = Sendai’s Lair
LEVEL UP: Dispenser, Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/29-31; Yasraena, Fighter/26; Neera, Wild Mage/18; Isra, Cavalier of Sune/23-24; Nalia, Mage/Thief//21/4; Keldorn, Inquisitor/21
CASUALTIES: Neera (Ice Golem, Greater Fire Elemental), Nalia (Drow Warrior), Yasraena (Ulitharid), Nalia
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE: (Gold earned = ~ 1233)
Armor & Weapons: Poison Head/Flail of the Ages +5; Shield +4 (Darksteel); Halberd +4 (Ravager); Chain Mail +3 (4); Battle Axe +3 (2); Heavy Crossbow +3 (24); Long Sword +3 (3), Short Bow +3
Gems/jewelry: Laeral’s Tear Necklace
Potions: Superior Healing (36), Extra Healing (23), Invulnerability (3)
Scrolls:
Wands: Spellstriking
Misc & Artifacts:
BEST KILL:
1) Yasraena, Bodhi (91k exp)
2) Keldorn, Chromatic Demon & Isra, Demilich (55k exp ea)
3) Neera, Umber Hulk Elder (18k exp)
4) Imoen,
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Inn at Amkethra
NEXT STEPS: Abazigal’s Lair
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 18 – Heroic)
Dispenser: LG Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/31 (HP 104) Shield +4 (Darksteel), Helm of the Noble +1, Holy Symbol of Tyr, Gauntlets of Dexterity, Cloak of Balduran, Girdle of Fire Giant Strength, Rings of Fire Resistance & Regeneration & Boots of Etherealness w/ Flail of the Ages +5 (Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison) & Longsword +4 (The Answerer) (Bastard Sword*, Flail*, Long Sword*, Mace/Morning Star*, Warhammer*, SSS*, SWS*, TWS**); Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Detect Invisibility, Divine Might (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Holy Word, Strength of One, Slayer Change, Pocket Plane, Mass Healing; High-Level Abilities: Aura of Flaming Death, Earthquake, Elemental Summoning, Energy Blades, Mass Raise Dead, Implosion, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Deva; Skills: None; Spells: Aura of Flaming Death, Earthquake, Elemental Summoning, Energy Blades, Fire Storm, Implosion, Mass Raise Dead, Storm of Vengeance, Summon Deva, Aerial Servant, Animal Summoning III, Blade Barrier, Bolt of Glory (2), False Dawn, Harm, Heal, Sol’s Searing Orb, Wondrous Recall, Cause Critical Wounds, Chaotic Commands, Cure Critical Wounds, Flame Strike, Greater Command, Mass Cure, Raise Dead, Righteous Magic, Slay Living, True Seeing, Cause Serious Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds, Death Ward, Defensive Harmony, Farsight, Free Action, Restoration, Negative Plane Protection, Free Action, Neutralize Poison, Poison, Protection from Evil 10’ (2), Animate Dead, Cure Disease, Cure Medium Wounds, Dispel Magic, Holy Smite, Invisibility Purge, Prayer, Remove Curse, Rigid Thinking, Zone of Sweet Air, Aid, Chant (3), Draw on Holy Might (2), Hold Person (2), Resist Fire & Cold, Silence 15’ (2), Slow Poison (2), Armor of Faith (2), Bless (2), Command (2), Cure Light Wounds, Doom, Faerie Fire (2), Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Sanctuary; (Adv AI) (1)
Isra: LG Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/24 (HP 135), Red Dragon Scale Plate, Ghadir Family Ring, Painbearer’s Amulet, Pale Green Ioun Stone, Cloak of the Shield, Boots of Hastened Departure w/ Two-Handed Sword +5 (Carsomyr), Mace +5 (Storm Star), Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise, Girdle of Hill Giant Strength, (Axe**, Bastard Sword**, Mace/Morning Star**, Two-Handed Sword**, Warhammer*, THWS**); Abilities: Cure Disease, Detect Evil (26), Lay on Hands, Protection from Evil (23), Remove Fear (23); High-Level Abilities: Critical Strike, Death Blow, Greater Deathblow, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Power Attack, Resist Magic, Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None: Spells: Defensive Harmony, Free Action, Neutralize Poison, Cure Disease, Holy Smite, Zone of Sweet Air, Chant, Draw on Holy Might, Armor of Faith, Bless, Command; (Adv AI) (2)
Yasraena: CG Fighter//27 (HP 159), Shuruppak’s Plate, Wong Fei’s Ioun Stone, Girdle of Frost Giant Strength, Boots of Speed w/ Short Sword +5 (Ironkiss), Short Sword +5 (Fireflower) & Warhammer +5 (Runehammer), (Short Sword/Nija-to*****, Two-Weapon Style***, Warhammer**), w/ Gauntlet’s of Extraordinary Specialization, (Sword Sword*****, Warhammer*****, 2WS***) w/ Rings of Regeneration & Anti-venom; Abilities: None; High-Level Abilities: Critical Strike, Death Blow, Greater Death Blow, Power Attack, Resist Magic, Smite, Whirlwind Attack, Greater Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None: Spells: None; (Adv AI) (nil)
Keldorn: LG Paladin(Inquisitor)/21 (HP 142), Red Dragon Scale, Helm of Charm Protection, Girdle of Stone Giant Strength, Greenstone Amulet, Ring of Regeneration, Cloak of the Shield, w/ Blessed Paladin’s Bracers, Horn of Valhalla & Boots of the North w/ Two-handed Sword +5 (Graham the Sword of Grief), Crossbow +5 (Firetooth), Flail +3 (Defender of Easthaven), (Crossbow**, Flail**, Long Sword**, Two-Handed Sword**, Halberd8, THWS**); Abilities:: Detect Evil (24), Protection from Evil (21), Dispel Magic (6), True Sight (6); High-Level Abilities: Deathblow, Greater Deathblow, Greater Whirlwind Attack, Whirlwind Attack; Skills: None; Spells: None; (Adv AI) (3)
Neera: CN Wild Mage/19 (HP 49) Robe of Invocation, Bracers of Defense AC6, & Belt of Inertial Barrier, w/ Quarter Staff +2 & Throwing Darts (Dagger*, Q/staff*, Sling*); Abilities: Scribe Scrolls; Skills: None; High-Level Abilities: Energy Blades; Spells: Spellstrike, Maze, Simulacrum, Incendiary Cloud, Improved Chaos Shield, Mass Invisibility, Prismatic Spray, Project Image, Chain Lightning, Contingency, Improved Haste, Pierce Magic, Cone of Cold, Domination, Feeblemind, Lower Resistance, Minor Spell Turning, Sunfire, Confusion, Fire Shield Red, Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Stoneskin, Teleport Field, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Haste, Hold Person, Melf’s Minute Meteors, Remove Magic, Blur, Chaos Shield, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Stinking Cloud, Magic Missile (4), Chromatic Orb, Nahal’s Reckless Dweomer; (Adv AI) (nil)
Imoen: NG Thief/Adventurer//16 (HP 75) Elven Chain +1 w/ Buckler +3, Dusty Rose Ioun Stone, Amulet of the Master Harper, Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind, & Belt of Inertial Barrier w/ Short Bow of Gesen & Short Sword +3 (Dagger*, Dart*, Katana*, Q/staff*, Scimitar*, Short Bow*, Short Sword*); Abilities: Set Snare (4); Skills: OL 175, PP 40, FT 160, MS 110, HS 135, DI 30, ST 30 (w/ Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind); High-Level Abilities: None; Spells: None; (Adv AI) (nil)
Nalia: CG Mage/Thief//21/4 (HP 73), Necklace of Protection +1, Robe of the Good Arch-Magi, Dusty Rose Ioun Stone, Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Amulet of the Master Harper & Amulet of Power w/ Shortbow of Gesen, Staff of the Magi; (Club*, Crossbow*, Dagger*, Dart*, Q/staff*, Short Bow*, Short Sword/Ninja-to* ); Abilities: Set Snare, Scribe Scrolls; Skills: OL 85, PP 40, FT 105, MS 55, HS 70, DI 10, ST 10 w/ Cloak of Elvenkind, Boots of Elvenkind; High-Level Abilities: Energy Blades, Extra 6th Level Spell, Extra 7th Level Spell, Extra 8th Level Spell; Spells: (w/ Ring of Acuity & Halruuan Component Pouch), Time Stop, Freedom, Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting, Maze, Pierce Shield, Simulacrum, Spell Trigger, Khelban’s Warding Whip, Limited Wish, Mordenkainen’s Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal, Spell Sequencer, Chain Lightning, Contingency, Pierce Magic, Spell Deflection, Summon Nishru, Animate Dead, Breach, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Lower Resistance, Monster Summoning III, Fire Shield (Blue), Fire Shield (Red), Greater Malison, Improved Invisibility, Minor Sequencer, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Secret Word, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Flame Arrow, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Slow, Spell Thrust, Ghoul Touch, Invisibility, Knock, Melf’s Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Ray of Enfeeblement, Stinking Cloud, Web, Blindness, Chromatic Orb, Grease, Identify Magic Missile, Spook; (Adv AI) (nil)
MOD USED: Amber v5, Tyris Flare v8, Foundling v4.2, Pesty v3.1, Asher v1.12, Gavin v23, Sirene for BG2, Isra v3, Paina, Tashia v1.2, Vampire Tales, Ninde, Saerileth, Arath v4, Dace v5, Tsujatha, Kelsey v5, Keto v5, Sarah v5, Nathaniel v4.4, Iylos v2.6, Adrian v4.3, Naphele v2.5, Fade v5.5, Saradas Magic v1.6, de’Arnice Romance v6, Unfinished Business v26, Plane Touched Races, Wheels of Prophecy v8.3, NPC Flirt v1.06, Romantic Encounters v14, Tweaks Anthology, Deities of Faerun, Song & Silence v9, Rogue Rebalancing v4.92, Wizard Slayer Rebalancing v1.14, SCS v32.7, Atweaks v4.53, Item Randomizer
(Current AI) (Chain of Command rank)
Introduction
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Update 5
The actual threats in Sendai's Enclave are not the ones I'd imagined them to be. Odamaron does start off with a PfMW and Incendiary Cloud, but Imoen instantly gets a Planetar next to him, and Moira manages to land the shot to disrupt what I think was his Timestop, or possibly his own Fallen Planetar.
Mazzy is dealing with the Skeleton Warriors with the iMoD, and after a quick check of the log we see the Apprentice Vampire has no Spell Shield up: Spell Strike can take down absolutely everything. Imoen follows up with a Breach, and Mazzy follows up with the iMoD.
Meanwhile, Moira is still throwing Fire Seeds around at two different targets, trying to make sure neither the Lich nor Odamaron can cast. The rest of the team kind of just wait around until the PfMWs go down, or run from a Sequencer. I don't remember what hit Imoen, but whatever it was clearly wasn't enough.
There's a small mistake that could've been fatal in the Drow ambush that follows: since they're all in fog of war with a natural choke point of a bridge, every one of our spellcasters throws out their AoE spells while Nalia summons a Planetar. Now, we do manage to kill all the Drow with little to no problem... but the Planetar stays alive, and was hit by Jehu's Stone Spikes, which is enough to get it to swing at Jehu (!!!) after the fight was over. It missed and I manually moved the Planetar afterwards, but a combo of a Dispelling hit + Vorpal hit would've been enough to end the run.
Ogremoch is the next gigantic problem for us. I didn't realize this elemental prince was going to be so darn hard to kill: he hits extremely hard, can cast a Stoneskin per round, and the only time he doesn't is when he casts Earthquake. Without a WW or GWW, all my fighters together probably hit him for damage maybe once every two rounds? It takes at least 20 turns to end this fight, in which Moira dies at least once, and only ends because he finally decided to cast Earthquake instead of Stoneskin near the end.
In the next room over, there's a Hive Mother. I thought Mazzy and Moira had the saves to combat her, and they DID, so it came as a bit of a shock when Moira died to a Death Ray. I only realized later that the Ancient Vampire had hit Moira before she put the Runehammer on, nuking her saves and allowing that shot to hit. Something to remember for next time. Imoen ends the fight with an HLA.
The Drow cleric herself in the room is no threat, I can't recall what she did. For the Mind Flayers, we take a rest, throw up 6 Chaotic Commands, and then inch our way slowly through the compound. Mazzy is drained to 2 INT at one point, but she's taken out of the front line (as though that means anything with Planar Travel available), and we suffer no losses. We've used few enough resources that we decide to go for Sendai immediately.
Our plan is roughly: Jehu gets regular summons up, one of our mages gets a Planetar up, Anomen, Imoen, and Nalia sweep through the regular Drow mobs, and Moira and Mazzy zip from corner to corner and destroy the Sendai clones. None of them buff with Absolute Immunity, so Moira and Mazzy are using unenchanted weapons for the mages, but I don't think any of them last more than 2 rounds. Have a montage!
Back in the Pocket Plane, between all our items and casters, we have 4 overlapping True Seeings, and Stoneskins and Ironskins means even if they DO get a backstab, it's not likely to do anything. The Chosen of Cyric manage to drink all of one potion of Invisibility each before being unceremoniously dealt with.
Back in Amkethran, two GWWs out of the gate get Balthazar to Badly Injured. Another series of attack and we're home free to the final Pocket Plane challenge.
The Ravager is a positive nightmare to face: incredibly high damage with a chance to knock unconscious, infinite spawns of Bone Blades that aren't coded as Summons: Death Spell doesn't do anything to them, immunity to a lot of different weapons, and very high health and damage resistance. Moira is killed fairly early on by being knocked unconscious and being focused down. Jehu Mass Raise Dead's, and Moira reequips with everything save her armor. The Ravager apparently also has a ranged attack, and tried to go after Anomen, but Mazzy throws the Shield of Reflection at him, and the Ravager switches targets after hitting himself 2-3 times. All of our fighters are bleeding pretty badly by the time the Ravager throws in the towel.
We have 3 Hardiness between our Fighters: Mazzy has two, Moira has one. We prebuff in the pocket plane with standard buffs, and throw a couple extras on top of it: Jehu gets a potion of Magic Shielding, and Moira gets a Pro. from Magic scroll, and both Mazzy and Anomen get some sort of strength potion and Potion of Invulnerability.
Mazzy tanks for the first battle, and to my surprise Melissan has no PfMWs or anything like that, just a lone Stoneskin. Improved Haste and GWWs destroy it, and Mazzy's not even at half health when Melissan retreats: granted, she probably drank a healing potion at some point. She's thrown a Regeneration potion as well, since I might as well use them up.
We rush the first pool, only stopping to get a bunch of summons: I forgot this is the iteration of Melissan that knocks everything back early on. Anomen is targeted by the Death Tyrant with an Anti-Magic ray, so his spell defenses are down for the rest of the fights with no way of replenishing them. Regardless, even though Melissan does take out every single elemental, she's again nowhere close to taking out any of us.
Imoen still has fire spells for some unknown reason (OK, it's my forgetfulness), and tosses them in the direction of the ice-based second pool along with our Skeleton Warriors that Mellisan would just destroy instantly anyways. We make more summons and fight Melissan for the 3rd time. She summons Shadow Slayers this time around, and they have a level drain on-hit. Moira, Mazzy, and Jehu have item-based immunities, but Anomen is hit and level-drained. I have no way I can think of to fix this, so Anomen's saving throws are going to be low for the rest of the fights. Even though Mellisan teleports, it's not enough and Mazzy, Anomen and Moira take her down in the north of the map with a Planetar still alive.
It's going to despawn fairly soon, so I send the Planetar towards the final pool to see if it can get lucky against the Fallen Solar. It doesn't. But the Fallen Solar is now active, and roaming slowly towards us. Apparently, it recognizes the Shield of Reflection and doesn't try to fire vorpal arrows at someone with it, but that's fine by me: Anomen takes it out.
Final battle. We use our remaining buffs, Improved Invisibilities, Improved Hastes, Emotion: Courages and whatnot. Jehu uses the second to last of his 6th and 7th level spell slots to get another army of elementals, and we summon our final Planetar for good measure as well. Anomen is going to be tanking with the Defender of Easthaven, Armor of Faith, and I think he has the helm that grants damage resistance as well. Mazzy and Moira both have at least 1 GWW left each. Moira is hit by a Demon Knight and level drained, and has to retreat to heal, but even though her area is surrounded by a veritable army of dead summon, Amelyssan's plot is over.
Jehu chooses to stay mortal, and adds a Shaman to the list of classes officially completed.
Thoughts about Shaman, pt 2: I honestly don't know how much different Jehu was making by the end: Mazzy, Moira and Anomen were dominating the final bosses, and Imoen and Nalia's HLAs destroyed the crowds. Jehu was almost completely support-oriented by as early as Sendai's enclave, but he never really did anything a Druid of any stripe couldn't do (A Cleric wouldn't have worked because Fireseeds and arguably Ironskins). Maybe the gigantic armies he continually summoned helped, but that's kind of hard to know: it definitely took pressure off of my damage-dealers, but... It was helpful, though, that with all the defensive spell-choices he took, Jehu was basically invincible at times, and so any mistakes I made with the others could be fixed over time, since Jehu himself wasn't easy to kill. It seems a bit silly that Jehu survived to the end not by actually contributing too much but by living, but... them's the breaks, I guess.
Grond the randomly rolled dwarven berserker stares at Stawk. Did nobody tell him he's just a Bhaalspawn ranger and not a Bhaalspawn Stalker. Never mind.
Grond thinks we should be ideally suited to a quick sprint around the Sword Coast. The only flaw in this plan is that after escaping Candlekeep and killing Shoal the Nereid we talk to the Mad Arcand about his ring and then notice we still have it on arrival at Beregost. So we go back and hand it over when perhaps the best (for Arcand as well as us) thing to do would have been to throw it away.
Anyway, we move on and play with basilisks.
Grond is dealing with Lindin while Stawk picks on Barin, and we converge on the hapless last man standing.
We're both into the 90's so far as kills go, Grond with a slight lead. Party inventory
Canore - dwarf Shadowdancer, protagonist (Gate70)
Doubt - human dark moon monk (Grond0)
Russell X - human Undead Hunter (Corey_Russell)
We rolled this trio up in the last few minutes of our previous session and left them safely in Candlekeep. The first task today was to strip the joint bare, purchase some gear and get out of there alive.
Canore grins, he has a couple of tanky characters - one a sidekick and the other able to discern evil from a distance (both Canore and Doubt are nearby and evil so maybe they'll slip through the net. This should be fun while it lasts.
We all wait for each other to start picking on Shoal the nereid. Canore eventually asks Doubt to blind her and the Dark Moon Monk suggests there is no need, but does so anyway.
Canore is merrily panic-stricken and has run outside the courtyard while Russell X finally gets the better of Tarnesh.
Canore turns to leave but is reminded that if we return we will have no protection from petrification. So we kill the greater basilisk and nearby lesser basilisk before leaving to get another stone to flesh scroll.
We'll come back to this area later.
Zal and Vax earn our ire, costing them their equipment and lives.
Korgan uses the shield of Balduran as we enter a beholder lair. A fireball singes us, and with the initial two beholders badly wounded the rest of us weigh in. Our opening volley is conclusive.
A nearby illithid lair is too inviting to pass up. Before long we have done enough to allow Simyaz and his gith party their escape. We're a little worse for wear, or at least Haer'Dalis is feeling brain-nibbled.
We'd like to see him do his worst. We really would.
He doesn't seem to have anything that bad, however two of his supporting cast hit us with lightning bolts and Haer'Dalis is badly wounded. With the first one he remains in combat but as the second hits he turns to distance himself from combat.
Kruin may not be able to do much but his Anti-Paladin takes the opportunity to strike at Haer'Dalis as he runs and land a critical blow. Michio closes his eyes as our party Blade is chunked - his equipment flying everywhere.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113080/#Comment_1113080
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113152/#Comment_1113152
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113258/#Comment_1113258
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113399/#Comment_1113399
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113530/#Comment_1113530
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113711/#Comment_1113711
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113897/#Comment_1113897
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1113958/#Comment_1113958
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114111/#Comment_1114111
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114216/#Comment_1114216
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114325/#Comment_1114325
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114497/#Comment_1114497
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114617/#Comment_1114617
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1114730/#Comment_1114730
This morning's session caught me out early on when I was attempting to reduce the level of dwarven competition in Athkatla. After killing one of his cronies I pulled Tarnor outside for a missile contest, only to find some of the locals were not amused.
With one dwarven gang removed, I went after another. Several of them were dealt with individually before Brennan managed to land a backstab, but a GWW with the FoA sorted him out before he could even consider the wisdom of trying to run for it - and a follow-up WW saw the end of the contest.
Moving on to Umar I did a few tasks around the village. I tend to hang on to Ilbratha in most runs, though I almost never use that in practice - this time, with fewer options and poorer physical defenses I might do so rather more than usual. I also kept the Shield of the Lost, in case I want to top up with 5% MR at some point.
At the old temple area I pulled together some shadows to form a good target before diving inside.
Downstairs, a larger foe lurked. Thaxy was tempted into using his death spell on Ras before I rested. An opening GWW then badly wounded him before he buffed with PfMW - but I stuck to my guns and continued the attack on the principle that something that big must have a glass chin.
The thanks of a grateful town got me to the threshold of another level and that was achieved when some rangers decided to pick a fight.
Wizard Slayer L24, 163 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 776 kills (+677 in BG1)
The list is quite long but filtering by alignment, conflict, availability and meh narrows it down to two candidates. Namely Jaheira and Anomen. Only one of them turns up for the interview though so after an exhaustive interview (see screencaps) "You've got the job" said Michio "for the time being".
Michio can't quite shake off a nagging feeling though. His new joiner seems to think the iMoD should play music or something. Perhaps he should try pulling the other one.
***** Long bow
** Two-hand sword
* Crossbow
Traveling with: Korgan, Minsc, Jaheira, Yoshimo, Anomen, (Viconia)
CHUNKED: Viconia
The party has made tremendous progress since the last update. And yes, we still are getting plenty of deaths, mostly inflicted by the Harpers. So when we rest, we get a note from "Terminsel" that Jaheira turned herself in to the Harper's Hold. We go and rescue her. However, only Jaheira and Corarcher VI survive!
We also had to battle Dermin's party. For once, the party actually got the upper hand on this one and no one died.
We get another visit from "Terminsel" and we think the fighting with Harpers is over. So finally we do other things.
* D'Arnise Keep was cleared of Trolls and Yuan-Tis. By now the party equipment is pretty decent (a lot of Harper equipment!), and the party does quite well here.
* Trademeet - for once, we decided to "help" the genies rather than kill them directly, though this was partly as we have no immunity to petrification in that we have no arcane party members. Fighting the enemies in the grove was pretty straight-forward. We used buffs when appropriate, as well as things like silence and/or insect plague as appropriate. Jaheira bested Faldhorn in a duel. Trademeet was happy for our service.
* Umar Hills - the quests in Immesvale, as well as clearing out the undead in the old Temple all went pretty well. Considering mere mortals were easily killing us, we decided we surely are not strong enough to take on a dragon (yet), so passed on messing with Thaxxy for now.
* Lilacor quest completed. Minsc likes the new sword very much
* Slavers cleared out of moored ship - the party does good melee/ranged damage, and combined with the party summons, silences, holds and plague of insects, and Yoshimo's trap removal, the battles here went well.
* Lich at Gate District defeated with protection from undead. On our exit from the Inn, a vampire ambush CHUNKS Viconia! Her equipment also vanishes. Most of her equipment was so-so, but her shield of harmony will be sorely missed. But the quest must go on! What's insane is I told the vampires I worked for the shadow thieves, but realized after the fight I actually didn't!!! So I lost Viconia for nothing! Doh!
* Anomen replaces Viconia. We then finish up dock quests. Maevar was exposed and defeated. Traps and summons made short work of Maevar and his goons. We finally report to Linvail and "help" Mook.
* To get Anomen some armor, we battled Tarnor's Gang. Summons, silences, plague of insects, entangle and powerful ranged fire destroyed these enemies. Anomen welcomed the armor upgrade.
* I realized that Korgan would love the DEX gauntlets. So we duly bought the shield of balduran and worked our way in exposing/defeating the Unseeing Eye. This went well and no deaths. Even defeating Gaal went well, as a Nymph got a nice hold in, making the battle with Gaal decisive.
We will work on Sir Sarles quest next session.
The perils of being an agent provocateur.
I didn't fancy continuing with the Crew at the moment, so decided to start another run in my long-life challenge. Inspired by @neverused I thought I would have another go at the shaman. As this is the 38th attempt at this class I do now have a reasonable level of experience with it.
There's plenty of work required before that becomes an issue though and I was soon leaving Candlekeep. My shot at Xzar at the Crossroads missed, but stepping back and dancing up a spirit allowed that to soak up LMD.
In Beregost, Algernon was shot for his cloak and Neera for her bag. A scroll case though was obtained without bloodshed - though I did do a Noober on Firebead until he paid me 300 gold to leave him alone.
Shooting an ogre on the way to the FAI got me my preferred belt - I would rarely expect to be in melee, so won't bother keeping others to swap around. Further north I shot some fishermen and returned a bowl to Tenya. The ankheg near her was dodged around the house to open up a route to Ulgoth's Beard. Spirits got another run out there to take advantage of Dushai's lack of weapons.
Back at Beregost I took advantage of @jessejmc's suggestion of killing the sirines using Kelddath's skeleton warrior - providing a significant time saving compared to pulling them out of the temple. That also gave me a level and another 10 HPs.
To the east I found Korax and tempted him down to the bottom of the area before recruiting him. Korax has a good chance of killing all the basilisks, though occasionally he won't make it - if he's in danger of dying suddenly you might want to support him with missiles rather than melee.
With an inventory full of potions, I went to High Hedge in search of a container. First though I pulled the golems outside and set spirits on them.
Making my way down to Nashkel for the first time, I rested to get Bhaal LMD. Then it was off to Firewine to get Meilum to kill Bentan for me before I finished him off.
I thought I should probably refer to moving while spirit summons are active as not everyone may know how to do that. In Beregost I decided to use spirits to kill Karlat and danced until a couple of those arrived. If you move while dancing, spirits will disappear - but that's not the case if you click to stop dancing before moving. You then have until the next check (done once per round) to move and activate the dance again. That allowed me to get Karlat to come and talk to me, going hostile in the process, before being confronted with spirits.
At Durlag's Tower a couple of battle horrors froze while guarding the path.
Heading once more to the coast, a first outing for nymphs saw a concerted attempt to confuse some sirines. The nymphs then soaked up charms and poison arrows and the last of them just survived to the end.
Looking for some more quick XP, I went to find the Doomsayer. He's pretty good in melee and killing him just with spirits can be tricky - but he has no defense against a good Fogging, other than some partial resistance to cold. That just allowed him to survive long enough to be finished off with Spirit Fire.
A quick trip through the Cloud Peaks to get the charisma tome also allowed me to take my final BG1 level, with 8 more HPs.
Shaman 9, 75 HPs, 94 kills
In the Section HQ I was under improved invisibility and yet was attacked and couldn't retreat in time.
I will use my usual tactics in future.
Three Holy Redeemer Dwarves
My intention is only to have NPCs in the party to do their quests. They will then be removed until they are needed for their other quests. Thus Jaheira and Khalid would be included to take them to Nashkel... removed and then included again for Cloakwood. Not the best for Metagaming, but the best for an interesting game ie getting extra quests etc. Of course, since I don't know all of these extra quests, I could miss some and I might miss out some due to the quests not being what a good character would do.
For doing the Drizzt Saga I will only have room for three of the Drizzt Saga NPCs
Similarly for the NToSC NPCs.
Sadly Mellicamp died.
Looks like I'll have some time to play again soon, however, so I'll probably be rejoining the challenge with a new specialist mage. Either another Diviner or an Invoker, methinks...