The next crucial fight is the cyclops fight just outside the underground river. I buffed for hours for the fight, and brought out a stone golem (the stone ally figurine).
In my recent runs, I've always avoided that fight by killing Malden Col (or pickpocketing him if the option is available), the traitor in the coalition camp, he carries one of Caelar's Seals.
Well done on the whole SoD though, that's quite a feat with a solo warrior class !
Barb found himself locked in a dungeon, but was busted out by Imoen. Thanks Immy. She still doesn’t have what it takes to be a part of the team, but luckily Minsc had turned out for the better - and without Dynaheir. Everything is coming up roses.
I used to love playing with Minsc, but I find him trailing behind other NPC’s. But he can wield a bow well enough, and he is versatile (sort off). He can open the trapped containers so Barb can cast slow poison on him - that is versatile enough for now. Barb is still chaotic..
Outside the dungeon the odd couple did some minor quests. Mostly for money and gear - still like rappers I guess. Reckoning that the party would have a thief later, the odd party just wanted healing potions and money for temple service. The xp rewards that where given to all party members where saved for later - when the 2 becomes 4.
The plan was for a early visit to WK. As a scimitar proficient kind of guy, Barb wanted a +4 upgrade to his non magical version. The keep served the pair some memphits as a welcoming comity - luckily no worse. As usual Minsc did the de-trapping. He is such a hero, and didn’t mind dying one bit. Sister Garlena helped us out.
Barb and Minsc buffed for fight against the statues, and killed them.... eventually. Well they did need frequent healing from sister Garlena. A full heal costs 450 GP, and the pair tried to take full advantage of the low prices. Too much at times, one time leaving only 11 hp between the two of them. A too close call - even for me. In the end we killed the statues and got the scimitar. It was hard earned, but that’s the price of a +4 weapon I guess.
Back in the city the pair bought some protection from undead & magic scrolls and a scroll of simulcarum, and killed some liches. We where ready for Kangaxx... we just needed a mage to cast the simulcarum scroll - to save on the protection from magic scroll. So enter Nalia (the chaotic good). A decent enough thief and an amazing mage. Well she fits the bill and that’s amazing enough for me - arcane magic isn’t my favourite.
We did Nalias quest whilst Barb put proficiency points in flails. We took everything that wasn’t bolted to the floor and killed all the monsters. A domination spell was wasted against Nalias servant which caught the party flat-footed. We prevailed with some kiting... and healing.
In the cellar Barb was confused when he forgot to rage against the umber hulks. Nalia had cast cloud kill before placing the dog stew, but the umber hulks saved against death and Barb got impatient and wanted to sort out the business. Barb failed his save and got confused - in the midst of some umber hulks and eventually another poisonous cloud. The poison damage where luckily very minute against Barb (2-3 times only 1 damage per round for Barb and death for the umber hulks - had it been otherwise the run may have ended there). A brief and nerve wrecking scare.
Torgal was shown no quarter, and the stronghold quest was accepted. Back in the city we rushed for Kangaxx, the ring of Gaxx was in sight. The plan was to gain the ring early and then use an exploit when Nalia gets abducted. Her abduction should force a script that leaves you with 2 rings of Gaxx if the ring was in her inventory - well according to an exploit picked up on this site.
Kangaxx met his doom as another obstacle in this excellent plan. Now we just have to wait for the abduction - which takes place after the funeral. We have some time to pass
Since we had a thief, we did the Maevars guild quest. The tasks where cleared without to much hassle, and when we had secured the evidence and where ready to give it to Renal, we took full advantage of Nalias thieving. We boosted her pick pocket to 280 and made 300.000 gp by stealing/selling wands - reckoning that an angry shopkeeper wouldn’t be the worst, since the shop keeper was bound for execution. We did some serious shopping after that..
Time to pick the last wheel of the foursome: Valygar (or what’s his name - he doesn’t really stand out does he?). We wanted to do the planar sphere early for Valygars sake - and for the excitement of making things more difficult than they aught to be. A party of four has a better chance of doing the quest early on, since the maze spells don’t warrant eternal doom and reloading for a party - but only a slight delay. A nice ring for Nalia and some mittens for Valygar/Minsc was the main prize after the sphere landed in the city.
As time goes by, the Nalia abduction was nigh. We had not imported the claw of Klazgorath bacause the exploit with the double rings leaves the claw unwanted. The plan was executed but didn’t yield the coveted extra ring. I know it’s only an exploit and Barb will do fine without it. But I was severely upset and down about it. A major setback for me, because careful planning is my only/major asset in my playbook . And exploit that actually works on the iOS is so much fun. But I guess I have to roll with the punches - even when they are crippling and devastating.
The next quests where done in a haze (I readily admit that I don’t get along with set backs). I plainly love the best gear, and 2 rings of Gaxx just suit me so well. But I managed to do the Druid grove, the “city gangs” and the planarprison without dying - even though my playing was erratic. My (smallish) silver lining was finding a way to boost the saves of Barb and putting the ranger spells to some use: stacking bark skin spells and adding a spirit armour spell on top of that. That actually eased my mind a bit - even though spells doesn’t suit me as well as a permanent buff that can’t be dispelled. Did I mention that I didn’t get 2 rings of Gaxx?
Siding with the shadow thieves eventually gave Minsc a neat mace, which goes well with his favoured enemy and the shield of harmony. Minsc approves!! The vampires where easily bested after that.
Before going to spellhold the party did the unseeing eye quest - no worries. We only left the 3 quests involving dragons and the mind flayers. The party will do these in chapter 6. These quests deserve respect - even in the unmodded game.
In Brynlaw I tried some backstabbing for the first time with Valygar. He opened his account with a 97 critical, which was a kind of an eye opener. I have to do that more to the unbuffed mages. Perth was taken to badly damaged and poisoned by Valygar as well - spelling the formers doom.
The route to spellhold now lay open. Barb is coming along nicely and his party members are actually to some use. Chaos walks with us.
I crashed during this fight twice and was finally able to make a quicksave on the third try, just before the final wave. I start the third try by summoning a pair of skeletons who go down very quickly, so I use Summon Shadow instead. Then I cast Shar's Blessing to gain 10 attacks/round for a while. Once the shadows start getting low on health, I summon the Nightwalker and cast Merciless Blizzard and Nightfall to thin the horde.
Despite using the Staff of the Magi to dispel and kill the drow mages quickly, they do manage to take down Shadow Screen, but they still have to get through Entropy Shield and Impervious Sanctity of Mind. When my shadow minions fall, I use a second casting of Summon Shadow. The Nightwalker and the shadows are immune to cold, so they're also immune to Merciless Blizzard. The blizzard also bypasses MR, making it the best AoE damage cloud spell at my disposal, so it's no wonder why I want to fight inside of it. The Nightwalker and I make mincemeat out of the drow army even as more flood into the room.
This goes on for a few minutes. By now I'm out of Stoneskins, Dark Mirages, and Shadow Screens. I still have a Shar's Blessing, Annulment, Entropy Shield, a Nightwalker, and Relentless Assault remaining, so I still have plenty of fight left in me despite having used both of my Blizzards already. Matron Mother Ellaviir then appears. She manages to stick around for a while due to Divine Protection but it's her forces that collapse under the pressure of the Nightwalker and myself.
She dies and I can make a quicksave in case I crash, which I do, so I restart from here.
Then Matron Mother Fenadryl shows up and so does a horde of Balors, Nabassus, Glabrezus, drow mages, and their golems. The demons gate in other demons, so the Nightwalker and I have our work cut out for us. We brute force our way through with True Sight, Shar's Blessing, Annulment, and the Staff of the Magi. A balor vorpals the seemingly-invincible Nightwalker, but there's only two left so I stick it out for just a bit longer. The battle is over when the last one falls.
I still had tons of spells left and sequencers in reserve so I could've continued fighting if there were any remaining to challenge me. Adalon is killed just by Shatter Magic, pounding away at her, and then finishing her with Nightsinger's Tithe. Dragon #6 is dead.
Time for Bodhi. Some shadows and a Nightwalker are summoned. I avoid using Merciless Blizzard so Arkanis doesn't go hostile, even though it would be brutally effective on Bodhi's minions. I pour the holy water into the blood pools.
The two vampire mages have PfMW and Spell Shield up so it's not just a simple matter of breaching them, so I use Relentless Assault to shatter the Spell Shields and disable their casting ability with Black Ray. I throw on a few more buffs including PfWfW so I don't get all my blood sucked out. False Dawn kills one of the mages. Bodhi is hiding out in the upper-left room, away from the action.
But the Nightwalker and I beat the crap out of her.
Cyric's Chosen. I start with a Spell Trigger of Divine Protection + Shadow Screen + Shar's Blessing. Venduris tries backstabbing me to no avail due to the Divine Protection, so he falls first.
I start beating up Grok when the first round is nearly over. I decide to wait until Grok is dead before casting Relentless Assault. But Selina takes advantage of this and casts Power Word Silence on me in the middle of my casting! I have no way to counter silence so I'm restricted to using items and fighter HLAs, as apparently sequencers cannot be used while silenced. (I later learn I still had the Amulet of Power in my bag of holding... duhhhhrr) Z'aeron keeps backstabbing me under Mislead, but I'm not in too much danger because I've got a bit of damage resistance from the Defender of Easthaven. I kill Bodak Hangthorn. My Chain Contingency fires when I reach 50% HP and throws out Annulment, Merciless Blizzard, and Heal. Now they've really screwed up.
Once I figure out I can't use sequencers, I use Hardiness instead and stay within the blizzard. Z'aeron foolishly decides to keep trying to attack me and gets killed by the blizzard as a result. Selina enters the cloud too but then wisely keeps her distance. Only Kerith and Selina are left, but they're staying invisible, waiting for the blizzard to die down. But my silence wears off so I summon the Nightwalker who can see through invisibility and direct it to attack Kerith. Kerith tries to flee but gets frozen solid.
I cast True Sight to reveal Selina then use the Soulflare Candle's Breaching Dark charge, resulting in an easy kill. This group sure is tricky - I was sure I wouldn't take any damage during this fight.
Before leaving for Suldanessellar, I go back up to the Friendly Arm Inn. I always wanted to know what happens if you attack Kryn Darkflame, so I make a test save. Turns out he just teleports away. But that's not good enough for me. I cast Harm and hit him with it, then follow up with Nightsinger's Tithe. Check out this bastard sword he had!
I can't even put proficiency points into bastard swords but I'm totally using this with Critical Strike. I go to Suldanessellar and kill Nizi with it. 10d10 unresistable fire damage (save for half) x 8 attacks per round with Critical Strike + Shar's Blessing = dead dragon #7. He even started panicking for a little while after failing a save.
Johnny is next. When he attempts a Time Stop, I fire back with a Black Ray to take down his Spell Shield as well. His casting ability is also disabled throughout nearly the whole Time Stop. A Breaching Dark takes him down. I love EEex's Spell Inspection mode!
Was reluctant to share my last attempt, since I didn'¨t get far and nothing new under the sun, so I figured it wouldn't be interesting. So I will only summarise very briefly and say I got trough the mines and all of cloak wood, got to Baldur's Gate, then had a trip back to the woods near the bandit camp where I met a very small group of black talon elites of 3. I was level 6 with the main char with over 60 hp (crappy hp rolls on level up) and thought I could easily kill them with my super high ac and full party, but then I was hit by 3 critical hits simultaneously which instantly killed my main character with full health (no chance to save him with potions or anything at all). Pretty brutal. The reason why just 3 simultaneous hits by black talon elites were able to 'one-shot' me is because I played on insane difficulty with double damage for the enemies.
So that was that short update. I will try a new run at some point with SCS, ascension (if I get to bg2 tob), with tactical encounters installed, smarter mages and priests and with insane difficulty without double damage, where I will write about the attempt in much more detail...
Here is the screenshot with the somewhat crazy triple critical hit kill by black talons
I guess these scenarios really do exist where you are dead no matter what you do, just bad luck.
... Her abduction should force a script that leaves you with 2 rings of Gaxx if the ring was in her inventory - well according to an exploit picked up on this site.
As the one who posted the exploit in question, I'm pretty sure it only works with Rasaad's quest. Nalia's abduction is scripted properly to avoid the issue.
As for the claw of Kazgaroth - death saves are important too. Really, that piece is only worth it for a character that has poor spell saves and good death saves, who won't lose hit points to the Con penalty. Of the default BG2 companions, that's pretty much just Aerie, Cernd, and Dorn.
... Her abduction should force a script that leaves you with 2 rings of Gaxx if the ring was in her inventory - well according to an exploit picked up on this site.
As the one who posted the exploit in question, I'm pretty sure it only works with Rasaad's quest. Nalia's abduction is scripted properly to avoid the issue.
As for the claw of Kazgaroth - death saves are important too. Really, that piece is only worth it for a character that has poor spell saves and good death saves, who won't lose hit points to the Con penalty. Of the default BG2 companions, that's pretty much just Aerie, Cernd, and Dorn.
Thanks for the clarification @jmerry
I read your post again, and you are right that you wrote only the Rasaad script was bugged. I read the post with my wishful thinking goggles..
I am running a warrior type, who typically can afford the trade between save vs. death and save vs. spell. Especially the shorty types.
The con loss is huge, and definitely not to my liking. But as a barbarian I can use rage to mitigate the con loss without too much ado. I do the same with characters who can Duhm as well (besides the Bhaal powers).
In hell, I take 3x Good Wrath tears (25 WIS and CHA for +50% shadow weave spell duration and maxed saves/elemental resists) and 2x Good Selfishness tears (+20% MR; -1 DEX, -2 max HP, -75k XP). I summon my shadows and a Nightwalker before starting the fight. At the start, I use Critical Strike and convert the balor and glabrezu to the left of Johnny into Devil Shades using Dreadflame +5. The Nightwalker is already finished killing the demons on his other side!
Black Ray of Destruction gets rid of his Spell Shield but he is still able to cast. Maybe it didn't work. During the Time Stop I cast Black Ray again and whack him with the Staff of the Magi after his PfMW wears off. Time resumes and he responds with a PfMW contingency, so I breach him. The Nightwalker and the devil shades utterly lay into him, spelling his defeat since he can't cast anymore. Time for ToB.
Illasera is super easy.
The fight with Gromnir lets Skaarj show off more of his power than usual. I begin by disabling Karun the Black with Power Word Stun.
After this, I cast Relentless Assault and pile on most of my AoE effects: Storm of Vengeance, Merciless Blizzard, Sigil of Misfortune, Prayer, Recitation, Earthquake, and Nightfall. I call up my Nightwalker and also summon a Shadow Gate, which summons shadows, shadow fiends, wraiths, devil shades, or possibly another Nightwalker.
Almost everyone in its AoE was knocked out by Earthquake, since they were saving against it at up to -14! Karun recovers from his stun right about now and winds up for Time Stop. But his PfMW has worn off so I book it over there and whack him with my staff, dispelling his buffs and interrupting him. He uses a PfMW contingency but I shut it down with Breaching Dark and kill him. I use Dreadflame +5 on anyone still standing and then finish off K.O.'d opponents, which included Gromnir.
Dragon #8 at Yaga-Shura's temple falls from brute force combined with Blackfire Fury spam.
I turn the Master Wraith and tell it to polymorph itself into a squirrel and he actually did it, the absolute madman.
Further in, the skeleton mage is convinced to summon its planetar for me, then it breaches and silences itself.
Nyalee is no trouble. It's Yaga-Shura's turn. The nightwalker, perfect mithril golem, and I have no trouble with his men. When the giant returns after being injured, it's his lieutenant mage that annoys me. She casts Time Stop and summons a dark planetar which I beat down with the staff while time is stopped. At the end of her time stop, she casts Improved Alacrity.
I counter with Relentless Assault and throw out nearly all of my AoE spells like I did against Gromnir. What a lightshow!
I've had enough of this irksome mage so I cast Black Ray and Breaching Dark on her, finishing her off with Nightsinger's Tithe.
By now, the second wind of Relentless Assault has triggered due to the death of an enemy, refreshing its duration. Since Yaga-Shura has a big HP pool, I use shadow magic that does damage according to the target's max HP: Shadow Dragon Breath, Cone of Bitter Cold, and Nightshade. This brings the giant down to low HP and he dies when my mithril golem takes a swing at him. Don't let the combat log fool you.
Sendai's enclave. Nothing that can't be solved by brute force, Greater Deathblow, and Merciless Blizzard - although I underestimate the Derro dwarves and their berserk. The Artisan's Kitpack changes berserk so that high-level berserkers gain a high movement speed bonus and a huge (+10) crit rate bonus, so they shred my Shadeskins. But I counter with PfWfW and Shar's mantle which makes them no threat.
Meanwhile, lich killing is so routine by now.
At Sendai's boss room, her cleric/mage statue stays alive longer than any of her other forms. For some reason, I cannot penetrate her spell shield with Black Ray, Shatter Weave, or even charges from wands of spell striking. So I wait her out (although I could've used Expunge Magic instead to bypass it) and when her PfMW/Absolute Immunity wears off, she gets whacked with the staff and it's on to her final form...which lasts all of 1 round.
Abazigal is next. Either I never noticed before or Draconis has a new ability that slays summons when he transforms. That's okay because I have more Nightwalkers where that first one came from. Draco is not much trouble.
The lizard men in the first hot spring pool take me aback. Although I was surprised by their toughness, I was still more prepared. Both shamans cast Time Stop but I already have my staff in hand upon hearing incantations for alteration. The first one gates in a dead planetar.
The second one finishes his casting of Time Stop right after the first. The 2nd shaman's PfMW wears off during the Time Stop, so once I kill him, there's no one to contest me when I kill the other one while time is still stopped.
Dragon #9 falls from brute force, even though I didn't have to kill it. It's scales make an AC -2 studded leather.
On the way back from getting the rope at Amkethran's inn, dragons #10 and #11 go down from brute force and Merciless Blizzard. #12 and #13 follow suit.
Fll'yissitat is the only dragon I've spared so far or she would be #14. At Abazigal's lair, Merciless Blizzard obviously doesn't work on the ice salamanders but it forces Abby to transform earlier than I wanted him to, resulting in another double dragon fight. Tamah has stunned my perfect mithril golem with Psionic Blast... Damn things are still vulnerable to stun despite their other construct immunities.
I break it out of its stun using a casting of Free Action, but the damage has already been done. Abazigal kills it, causing it to split into two normal mithril golems. I try casting Relentless Assault to get some debuffs and another Merciless Blizzard off, but the corpses of the ice salamanders are still radiating their frost aura, interrupting me even though I have over 100% cold resistance. That was my only casting. So my Nightwalker and I start beating the crap out of Tamah just so we can focus on Abby and she dies from Negative Energy Burst. Dragon #14 down.
Abby finally kills my Nightwalker and both mithril golems but he's low on health, so I cast PfWfW and then Nightshade to do a high amount of burst damage to put an end to the fight. That makes 15 dead dragons.
Despite my alignment of Chaotic Evil and reputation of 5, I convince Balthazar to join me at the throne.
I build another perfect mithril golem, though it will be the last since I can't get any more mithril by casting (Limited) Wish. The Ravager is beaten through more application of brute force and some saving throw lowering spells. Cone of Bitter Cold sees him off after his cold resistance was lowered by Shadowblast.
I've taken all the evil challenge rewards except for Yaga-Shura's in which I chose to be good. I check my save with EEKeeper and see that I've only killed 39 enemies with Nightsinger's Tithe. I guess I should've been a bit more liberal with it. So I start summoning nighthaunts so I can farm them for Nightsinger's Boon, which is achieved at 50 Nightsinger's Tithe kills.
I'm as powered up as I can be. I return to Watcher's Keep and build two Magic Golems in the tieflings' wild magic zone. Now it's time to take the fight to Melissan. Here's how I look when I use about half of my available buffs. I haven't been to the throne since Ascension was updated to 2.0, but I have great confidence in Skaarj's ability to defeat Melissan.
I must have crashed about 5 or 6 times during the fight with The Five+Melissan before I figured out that opening the spell menu after taking a screenshot with the Spell Inspection list open causes a crash.
Anyway, Irenicus, Bodhi, and their Fallen Solars are first. Jon casts Time Stop after prebuffing which lets Balthazar and me kill the solars. This will be much easier now. Bodhi goes down next.
Irenicus dies after I take down his Spell Shield and PfMW with Black Ray and Breaching Dark.
I convinced Sarevok to give up on trying to be a bad guy in the pocket plane so I wouldn't have to fight him, so he joins us instead.
Here is where I restarted many times because of crashing. This time it was Gromnir who fell first through brute force, followed shortly by Illasera. Entropy Shield kept me safe from her dispelling arrows.
I raise hell with Relentless Assault. After restarting this fight I'd had enough and didn't care what happened to Balthazar or Sarevok anymore and just started unleashing almost everything to put down Melissan to end the fight forthwith.
On Melissan: Black Ray (kills Divine Mantle and shuts off her spellcasting) -> Shatter Weave (nullifies MR for 3 rounds).
On everyone: Prayer, Recitation, Sigil of Misfortune, Nightfall, Negastorm, Shadowblast, Cone of Bitter Cold, Storm of Vengeance, Earthquake, Shadow Plague. Then Nightshade on Melissan to do massive damage.
Yaga-Shura dies from this massive onslaught, followed by Abazigal after I breach him. Relentless Assault's duration is refreshed from this so I use Black Ray and Breaching Dark to kill Sendai. Before I can kill Sendai, Melissan is already reduced to 1 HP and has to draw more power from the throne.
When she finishes powering up, she gates in a bunch of demons and I cast Merciless Blizzard to hopefully slow them down and soften them up for proceeding blizzard damage procs. Melissan teleports away and tries to cast Time Stop, but is shut down by Shadow Plague's spell failure and a punch from Balthazar.
I just want this fight to be over. For the first time in a while, I summon my shadow clone and have it cast Negastorm. Melissan's saves are still lowered by all those debuff spells I cast earlier and hasn't used Divine Cleansing yet since Black Ray and Shadow Plague were preventing it. The resulting storm does 17% of her max HP in damage which finally ends the fight.
Skaarj chooses to remain mortal. He doesn't need something like divine blood to keep himself alive when he's as strong as he is. He'll do it with shadow magic, as he's always done.
Trio 22 Update Corebard - human bard, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Ubil - human cavalier (Gate70)
Highway - dwarven kensai (Grond0)
So the party had just paid Galen Bayle. We we were on our way to get our goodies, but Corey_Russell remembered that you can't do the Maevar quest once you talk to Linvail. So instead we get the Maevar quest and were on our way to the Temple District when Renfeld ambush popped up. So we headed back to Docks to take care of him. While we were at it, also did the "task" for the Harpers. Our strategy was for Highway to lure out the chaos, since he is immune thanks to Lilacor. Once that was drawn out, the rest of the party moved in and that was that for Sansha and Prebek.
We then looted the Harper Hold. We tried to avenge Xzar, but failed. Finally we were on our way to the Temple District. Corebard's pickpocketing was a natural 110% - this turned out to be enough to get the Weathermistress' amulet. We then returned to Maevar, then worked on dealing with Rayic's minions, who were no match. Highway was protected by improved invisibility (spell), so he did well against Rayic, although it was Corebard who got the kill shot with MMM. Ubil was demonstrating his fondness for fire by triggering the repeating fireball trap twice.
We then quickly get the evidence on Maevar, as we spread out. We then return and deal with the thieves. Then we do straight attack on Maevar. Corebard threw in a fireball, and that was enough to soften them up for victory.
We decided it might be nice to get level drain protection, so we finish up Sir Sarles with the fake illithium, then head to Bridge District. While here, we solved the skinner murders, though Highway got pretty close to death thanks to a big backstab on him.
Taking out Neb though was no problem. Knock was used on the door to get in. Was time to work on the main quest - Mook and the two thief traitors were easy to deal with. We fight our way to get the mace of disruption. While here decided to get the ioun stone from P'naii. Corebard threw in a fireball to whittle down the little spiders. We also did the undead on the surface.
We were about out of time, had just enough to forge the IMoD and save our session.
First of all congratulations Flashburn! That is epic! Solo run...
Also that golem construction mod sounds interesting and shadow magic also.
Now a few questions:
The ghost upstairs in Durlag's Tower (level 12 invoker) made me a little confused.
Just trying to find out exactly how the various encounters operate before attempting another no reload run, some monsters I have not faced in ages, so can't remember.
I have SCS installed at the moment, latest version, insane difficulty, tactical encounters, smarter mages, priests and all.
He is prebuffed with mirror image, shadow door, mgoi, minor spell turning, protection from normal missiles, shield and stoneskin and then he casts pfmw.
I tried hitting him with bare hands (non-magical weapons) but the combat log displayed "weapon ineffective". I take it he is innately immune to normal weapons?
Wand of frost's charged ability should count as a level 8 spell (in bg1) and thereby just precisely ignoring minor spell deflection (and ofc also mgoi), but when I use it multiple times on him it says "spell ineffective" every time (not just once, which would not make sense either in any way). Ehm, why?
Wand of heavens should count as a level 5 spell, but multiple times the combat log displayed "spell ineffective". Of course it should be blocked once by spell deflection, but it said spell ineffective many times, without a recast of minor spell deflection?
Only once did I see in the combat log that he was immune to the damage from wand of heavens, so I guess he is innately immune to fire damage?
So it seems wand of heavens DID get through at some point, but it should have hit him at the second use of wand of heavens not the fourth, I really do not understand what happened here?
Wand of paralyzation seems to get through just fine and after testing again, wand of paralyzation seems to be the only 1 behaving as expected. For example I tried using wand of heavens once and thereby cancelling his minor spell deflection and then I used wand of paralyzation as the second spell attempt on him and it went right through and hit.
Daitel is 100% resistant (immune) to fire, cold, electricity, and acid in his creature file. He is equipped with the "IMMUNE1" item, which is the standard way of granting immunity to nonmagical weapons. He also has the "GHOST" item, which presumably includes standard undead immunities such as poison and necromantic drain spells. Then there's an effect on him which grants immunity to Turn Undead. If you want to take him out, that pretty much just leaves beating him down with conventional magical weapons. Of course, if he casts PfMW, you can't do that - so don't even try. Just head downstairs, wait for half a minute, and come back when he doesn't have that buff running.
I'm not sure why the wands kept displaying "Spell Ineffective", but none of the damage wands would ever have helped anyway.
Hey Jmerry,
That is great, good to know, thanks for the info.
At least he is not immune to stun.
So you can just get rid of his minor spell deflection with 1 charge from a wand of heavens and then use wand of paralyzation to take him out in the very first round (tested it)... but yea whatever walking downstairs works as well!
Adorar the druid has got off to a good start in Amn, taking down most of what’s to be done in Athkatla, and then heading out into the wilds. So far the DeArnise Keep, the Windspear Hills, the Umar Hills, Trademeet have been done. That leaves the Planar Sphere, Planar Prison, and the Unseeing Eye, none of which I am terribly keen to tackle with SCS installed.
I had a good deal of fun sorting out the party to approximate the tabletop group it’s based on, but for now Adorar travels with...
Minsc (Beastmaster with Hrun his bear companion.)
Haer’Dalis (Swashbuckler)
Sarah (Archer)
Isra (Cavalier)
Tashia (Sorceress)
Mildly confident of making progress but defences are far from perfect so he’s always one bad decision away from death. Presently pottering around and doing various minor mod added and stronghold quests. This party is far from optimised but they have proven flexible enough to deal with various threats so far. Will keep at it .
The Trap Team
I've noticed that all the successes I've had at no-reloading always have some kind of mage class in it (although Krieg the War Hulk came awfully close). That's probably because they're the easiest class to keep alive because of their scads of buffs and they can dish out punishment that no other class can hope to match. So it's time for a change of pace.
Trap Overhaul will let you recover the traps you find in the game if your skill is high enough and then you can use them yourself. Given how deadly traps often are, it should be fun to turn them back on the enemy. Meet The Trap Team:
Astolfo the Dark Hunter
and Felix the Rogue Rebalanced Fighter/Bounty Hunter.
Astolfo is pretty much a Fighter/Bounty Hunter already, minus the major thief skills. On the plus side, he is a single class and his stealth ability will progress much faster than Felix's, and he has access to Poison Weapon. Astolfo can also set traps of his own, including the deadly Manhunter Snare at level 10. He can also set recovered traps.
Felix will serve as utility and support for Astolfo, recovering traps and then turning them back against the enemy. But as a fighter/thief he can also wear full plate if he needs to tank, while Astolfo is limited to studded leather. He is no slouch in combat either due to being part fighter. Rogue Rebalancing nerfs the Bounty Hunter so that their traps can't be "thrown" anymore, and although they deal highly reduced nonlethal damage compared to normal traps, the secondary effects bypass MR as they are alchemical in nature. Felix can also poison his weapon to paralyze his target instead of dealing damage like Astolfo's ability.
First order of business is to increase our trap setting skills. Astolfo can't even use any until level 3. Marl is dealt with, Algernon is killed, and we return Tenya's bowl. It's just a little more to level 2 so we try fighting the nearby ankheg. Felix gets hit and fails a save, getting killed in one hit. Astolfo finishes it off and gains level 2.
Felix is raised at Kelddath's temple and gets Bounty Hunter 2 from giving Firebead his book.
Silke is fed to the spiders but Felix finishes her for 900 XP. Astolfo gets level 3 from killing the ogrillons that held Mirianne's letter. Felix gets Fighter 2 from return Mr. Colquetle's amulet.
Another Dark Hunter and Bounty Hunter level is gained from charming Kelddath and siccing his Aerial Servant on his sirene harem.
Fighter 3 is gained by having the Servant help kill the wolf pack.
We go up to Ulgoth's Beard, murder Dushai for her ring, and buy the Darkveil so Felix can go basilisk hunting. Astolfo gets Dark Hunter 5 while Felix gets a level for both classes, putting him at level 4/5.
Now we can set traps reliably. We fight Kirian's group but overestimate our traps' strength which gets Felix killed again, though Astolfo immediately gets revenge with a lucky hit through 3 mirror images.
It's time to start building up our equipment's strength, so we avoid Nashkel because our reputation is in the trash and I want the healing Bhaalpowers. We're trying to get to the Valley of the Tombs for a +2 dagger so we can then buy the Dagger of Venom and have Thalantyr upgrade it to +3. On the way there, Felix gets Fighter 5 from Sendai's group. We keep getting pretty beaten up when we can't take out targets with one-hit backstabs.
Astolfo gets Dark Hunter 6 from Sarhedra's ogre band while Felix gets Bounty Hunter 6 from the Battle Horrors outside Durlag's Tower, then gets Fighter 6 from killing Kirinhale with lots of traps. Our reputation is good enough that we'll start getting the healing Bhaalpowers so we go off to Nashkel to get the first one, buy the Dagger of Venom, and then upgrade it to +3 from Thalantyr.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we kill the greater basilisks on the roof back at Durlag's Tower and then descend into the 1st level of the dungeon. There's tons of traps here so now Felix can start repurposing them. The greater doppelgangers are tempted into coming out of their room with a normal thief trap, which causes them to set off a reclaimed Web trap, trapping one while the rest slip by us since we're under stealth. Felix puts down a trap behind us in case one tries to comes back, but the one caught in the web is toast.
But we still have only a limited number of normal traps that we can depend on for good damage and I don't want to waste the good ones I've collected from the dungeon so far since the 'gangers are under Mirror Image. Felix puts down a couple of Flame Strike traps which weakens one of the 'gangers. We defeat them in combat afterward which earns Astolfo Dark Hunter 7.
We can't recover all the traps here yet, so we head back out. The ghasts we slipped past on the way in are killed to get Felix Bounty Hunter 7. Obviously we go back in and recover some more traps from the 1st level dungeon and from the other areas of the tower.
Sneaking through the southern areas of the 1st level dungeon was quite fun since we definitely can't fight the skeleton warriors yet, so instead we scavenged all the tasty consumables we could get from areas that didn't require a difficult fight. Our next objectives: buy the Shadow Armor, get through the Nashkel Mines for the 2nd healing power, go sirene hunting, and trap Elminster to death each time he appears. Heeehhheheheh.
Astolfo - Dark Hunter 7
Felix - Fighter 6/Bounty Hunter 7
The Trap Team
We stealth through most of the mines to avoid wasting time fighting the worthless kobolds. Mulahey is chunked by Felix while traps eliminate his kobold reinforcements immediately as they spawn.
Another backstab offs Nimbul, then in Beregost we help an old man cross the street.
Out in the Seawatcher area, we run into trouble with Nereids and random spawns. Astolfo is blinded by a nereid's venom spit, but this means he can use the Blind Thief Trick to set traps in plain sight. To cull the herd chasing us, he sets down a fireball trap we recovered from Durlag's Tower and it finishes off all the random spawns and the nereid's Water Weird.
At the Rocky Coast, Felix levels up to Fighter 7 from killing Shoal, then to Bounty Hunter 8 from returning Gurke's cloak, which we upgrade at Thalantyr's by combining it with a cloak of protection +1.
Karkh suffers great damage from traps while Astolfo pierces his PfMW with a normal longsword.
Raiken lets us in to the bandit camp. We use a blind spot in Raemon's vision to set up some traps to weaken all but one enemy while Felix backstabs Venkt. For future reference for any thieves out there, the purple circle is where Raemon's blind spot is so that he does not initiate dialogue and turn everyone hostile.
Before entering the tent, we figured out a place to funnel all the enemies in the camp into so that they would have no choice but to enter our reduced line of sight if they wanted to attack us. This is right at the entrance to the tent, so we laid down a Cloudkill trap plus a couple more for Taurgosz. And it goes all according to plan: the entire camp enters the Cloudkill, killing them outright! For this display of ingenuity, Astolfo levels up to 8.
We put an old man to sleep and Felix takes another dirt nap.
After raising him again, I equip him with the Boots of Speed. Now he can backstab more frequently and we put it to use against Dave who dies in one hit.
We help another old man cross the street in Baldur's Gate.
After this we start killing off Kryn Darkflame's apprentices. At Ulcaster, returning the dusty book to the ghost gains Felix Bounty Hunter 9 while returning Nester's dagger later on gives him Fighter 8.
At the Iron Throne, we sneak our way in and get behind the party at the top floor. The two thieves are hostile and invisible so Felix lures them out so we don't have to fight them as well.
After this, we set up a bunch of traps out of Zhalimar's sight, including a couple of Fireballs and a Skull Trap. The resulting explosion kills everyone except Zhalimar himself, who gets put down with a backstab from Felix and gains Astolfo level 9.
At Candlekeep, we kill Tethtoril for 5000 XP. He has -20 AC but it's made easier to hit him because he's fighting unarmed (+4 to hit) and backstabs deny the target their DEX bonus to AC as well as providing another +4 to hit from stealth (Tethtoril has 16 DEX, so +2 more to hit), for a total of +10 to hit when attempting a backstab. This makes his AC a much more manageable -10; Astolfo has 4/7 THAC0 while Felix has 3/8. Traps reduce his massive 981 HP. And look! A potion of superior healing! Totally worth the 7 or so minutes spent whittling him down.
Felix gets Bounty Hunter 10 from killing a greater doppelganger in the catacombs. Paralytic Toxin and his special traps now force the target to save at -1. Later on in Durlag's Tower, he gets Bounty Hunter 11 from some greater ghouls, making his normal traps poisonous and his special snares entangle the targets.
We're in a pretty good position to take down the Demon Knight and Sarevok. We've got tons of traps at our disposal, including a nasty crushing trap that does 5d20 damage with no save.
Astolfo - Dark Hunter 9
Felix - Fighter 8/Bounty Hunter 11
The Trap Team made it into SoA with a critical backstab on Belhifet, and although Astolfo pulled a Loony Toons-tier "hide behind a thin pole to set a Manhunter Snare for the Amnish reputation police from 5 ft. away" tactic, I'm not really feeling this playthrough after all.
I think it's because I'm making the game too easy by giving myself too many options in the way of XP and gear. I'll have to think of some other gimmick again.
No internet for last three weeks. Moving house.
New Character Grack the Black - a Blackguard who has a friend who is a Darkcloak of Shar
Journal of Grack the Black
My name is actually Grachiolus, but everyone just calls me Grack the Black because I am a blackguard: not the usual type who follows Bane, Baal or some similar god; instead I worship Shar and there are reasons for that…
If it had not been for Cloak de Shar, a Nightcloak of Shar, I don’t know what I would have done when I was turned down as a paladin, the role that I had yearned for all my life. What happened is that they realised something that I had known for some time, namely that I was more interested in the glory of being a paladin than in helping others. Cloak de Shar explained that all deities were not quite so demanding and that the darkness in my soul might make me acceptable as a Champion of Shar, and that I might well be able to bask in the glory of being a champion, even if it was as a Blackguard.
Little did I imagine how it would turn out? When my mentor Gorion was killed in an ambush I was completely taken over by a darkness of spirit. I thought that it might have been better if those seeking my life in Candlekeep had succeeded. Things however did begin to improve if only a little at a time. I killed another assassin at the Friendly Arms Inn, and the thought that he might be connected in some way with the murder of Gorion lifted my spirits slightly.
Helping Mellicamp increased my reputation if by just a little and upon helping Tonder and Aiwell their appreciation did help my spirits somewhat.
I had found tomes on the bodies of the assassins in Candlekeep and upon discovering how to use them; I was able to increase my Charisma by two points and Cloak de Shar’s Wisdom by one point. (My mod which makes the assassins more powerful also adds those tomes which they had presumably stolen from the library)
That raised his wisdom to 18. My charisma is still pretty low naturally, but a ring that I was given by Lord Foreshadow raises it to 18 whenever I wear it.
In Nashkel turning down some gold which was not owed me raised my reputation still further. I am beginning to enjoy the adulation that I am being given.
I got great satisfaction in killing Zargos Flintblade, another assassin. Every time that I kill one of those assassins, I feel that I am hurting the one who killed Gorion.
My reputation was raised still further when I defended Prism from Greywolf.
Isra, a paladin helped me, but our alliance was purely a temporary one. Afterwards she didn’t want to know me.
However, by then I was quite popular with a reputation of 14. Who cares what paladins think? Well, I do, but I’m not going to let it show!
I am also gaining quite a reputation among the bounty hunters according to Oublek.
I am even beginning to become popular with the denizens of the nine hells due to helping Rufie and Albert.
Vax and Zal then met their doom.
Killing Caldo and Krumm to help the dryad improved my reputation yet more, as did helping Drienne to get her cat raised.
At the carnival, by killing Zordral, a would-be assassin of Bentha, I got on the good side of Aerie, a winged elf who currently dwells in a tent at the carnival. She helps a lot by identifying items for me.
Going north-west of Nashkel we came across some half-ogres who met their doom.
Upon returning to Beregost, Silke and then Karlat were foolish enough to attack us and paid the price.
We returned Perdue’s sword to him and then helped Eltoth get back into shape.
After killing some spiders, we returned Landrin’s boots and wine to him.
Near Lathander’s Temple we met Rudier who asked us to clear a cave of undead and the like. Doing so caused Cloak to level up twice.
Nearby we killed a mixed bag of wolves.
A bunch of “Adventurers” were then killed to the east.
This led to taking on both basilisks and Medusae in considerable numbers and eventually to the killing of Mutamin.
On the way to Nashkel, we met some orcs one of whom carried the 6th level scroll “Protection from Magical Energy,” which Cloak memorised but is as yet unable to cast. We then met Shar Teel who challenged me to a duel which I won. As a result of our wager she joined our party. Cloak then persuaded her to dual-class to become a thief.
Later on after rescuing a drow called Viconia from the flaming fist, she also joined the party. She is a Nightcloak of Shar. All four of us worship Shar which one would have thought would have led to a harmonious group. Such is not the case however. The females are continually bickering.
Journal of Grack the Black Continued
Noober had a bad cold after being dumped in the river by some local yobbos. I arranged for him to be looked after by Joseph’s wife. I hope that he doesn’t object when he comes home to find another man in the household. Many a man would!
Afterwards we returned to the area where we found Mellicamp. A little to the east we bumped into Zargal, and his cohorts whom we killed. Shar-Teel keeps levelling up, which is just as well as she wasn’t much of a thief to start with.
A combined assault on Bassilus was enough to kill him and gain the reward from the temple.
We were able to kill a basilisk whilst in transit. It was a relief when it died without petrifying anybody.
Upon arriving at Firewine Bridge, I took it upon myself to take on Meilum in single combat as a warning to the others that I was quite capable of taking them out if necessary.
We then entered the ruins and rescued Indira but opted not to keep such a goody-goody in the party.
In the lighthouse area we killed some sirine and then a couple of Nereid. Those battles were tough!! Only Shar-Teel and myself survived.
We were forced to hunt ankheg to raise sufficient funds to raise our companions.
Once we had done that, we returned to deal with the pirates, sirine and flesh golems before looting the cave.
We then headed south where we helped Charleston Nib before picking up the idol and killing the Doomsayer.
This, and helping Brage raised our reputation yet higher.
We then went to the Firewine Ruins at the request of Charleston Nib. The battle there was tough due to the vampires and the like.
Shoal and Droth were next on the agenda. Edwin was killed but we had sufficient gold to raise him.
Feeling that we now had sufficient experience and equipment, we took on the Nashkel Mines.
Journal of Grack the Black Continued
We headed for Nashkel mines but were ambushed by some bandits who were in turn ambushed by Dorn. We sided with him and slew the bandits. He offered to join us but we turned him down for the moment which didn’t please him at all.
After that Samuel was rescued with the result that our reputation continued to rise.
Heading back to the same region we killed a revenant, cleared all the caves in the area, and killed Narcillicus.
Deeming ourselves strong enough to take on the demon in the Nashkel Mines, we were pleasantly surprised to find that people had greatly exaggerated whom we would have to fight.
Xan turned down our offer of a place in the party so we decided that when we next went to the Friendly Arms Inn, we would recruit Dorn after all.
Upon returning to Nashkel, we killed Nimbul before going back to Beregost.
We took a new best friend to Ugh, killed Tristan and Isolde and returned to the Friendly Arms Inn to recruit Dorn only to discover that he wouldn't join us. Hopefully he might change his mind in the future.
I am enjoying this game as I have no idea about what the various reactions of the NPCs will be. I don't usually play evil
Why handicap myself when I can just test the limits of LoB mode instead? I'm bringing my strongest characters in for this challenge. Double damage is enabled but difficulty-based XP and LoB XP are both enabled as well, as I'm not masochistic enough to let battles drag on for ages only to get normal XP. I don't have the patience for that and playing on increased FPS just messes up my usual sense of timing.
Fun With Saving Throws: An Otherwise Untitled LoB Run
Krieg IV: War Hulk. You know why he's here. Massive HP pool, massive damage, inhuman THAC0. With improved enemy THAC0, he's more liable to suffer a fatal rage spiral, but Krieg has always proven to be rather reliable.
Brick: Artisan's Kitpack Berserker. The most normal of the bunch until he gets reduced to 50% HP or lower, in which case he'll hit harder, move faster, get improved saves, and improved crit rate. While enraged or at < 10% HP, these rage bonuses will be maximized, but similar to Krieg, his AC suffers a huge penalty as a result. Dwarven berserkers are known as Battleragers, though this is merely a cosmetic change.
Morpheus: Fighter/Shapeshifter. When he gets the Greater Werewolf form, he should be able to face-tank most things that do direct damage because of its insane regeneration rate. Also the party needs a healer.
DeBuff: Nightsinger. Uses Shadow Magic and his bard song penalizes enemy THAC0, damage, saves, and morale. By cooperating with his other spellcaster friends, he'll be able to inflict massive saving throw penalties.
Yin II: Shadow Disciple. Shadow Magic is generally stronger than Weave magic because it usually includes saving throw penalties or bypasses MR. Some shadow magic does a percentage of the enemy's max HP in damage, so this will be a big help in LoB mode as well.
Nukesalot II: Chaos Sorcerer. Returning from his successful no-reload run a long time ago. The Chaos Sorcerer becomes terrifyingly strong because it can use Chaotic Weave to cast almost any arcane spell, negating the sorcerer's limited spell selection. This is offset by the fact that Chaotic Weave causes a wild surge identical to the Wild Mage's NRD spell.
Shank and Carbos aren't as terrifying as I thought they'd be. Blinding them with Yin's Blinding Darkness and DeBuff's bard song was easy, making them free kills. I also use the Killsword on the Candlekeep rats because I am not chipping away at them for a half hour since they don't even attack. I am NOT sorry for this.
While Shank, Carbos, and the rats gave everyone their first level or two, Morpheus gets his first from a gibberling, who was also debuffed and blinded. That's going to be our strategy for most things early on since Yin, DeBuff, and Nukesalot all have blindness spells.
Now for my typical early-game routine: get Algernon's cloak (this time by pickpocket) and feed Silke to the spiders and finish her off,
charm Kelddath and have his Aerial Servant kill off his sirene harem while I watch from invisibility,
have it also kill the wolf pack to the east,
and use Korax to kill the basilisks. But Korax gets killed by direct damage from Mutamin, so I have Nukesalot try to summon something with Chaotic Weave, only to get petrified by a wild surge. Such is the nature of wild magic.
On our way to buy a Stone to Flesh scroll, we get the 10 bandit ambush which also kills Yin, who failed to cast Decoy fast enough because it was daytime. Yin and DeBuff's casting speed and caster level are 2 points worse in sunlight.
Now we have to spend even more money to bring them both back and Nukesalot wild surges 80% of my gold away afterward because I forgot one of the core rules of playing a wild magic user: only sell stuff if you want to buy something. Well, we didn't have much gold anyway because Nukesalot has the Ring of Wizardry so he can use more Chaotic Weaves.
Anyway, we leave Mutamin and his two pets alone and decide to come back later. We try out the Battle Horrors guarding the path to Durlag's Tower but they're much harder to hit than I thought they'd be. An Earth Elemental summoned through Chaotic Weave expires before it can kill one of them, so we have to choice but to kill it ourselves. We should probably stick to safer things until our gear improves.
But I just don't learn my lesson. We take on Bassilus, silencing him with a Dread Silence from DeBuff. But that causes his entire cadre of dead to go hostile. We book it out of there but Nukesalot slows them down with Grease as we make our escape. Since they're caught, I try to summon something that can take these skellies on. Chaotic Weave produces a fire elemental so we resume our attack once they all focus on it. Bassilus lands a hit that kills Brick as he was flirting with death anyway to get the maximum rage bonuses to hit and damage.
Bassilus is whittled down and the remains of his family die after he does.
Sometime later, Yin gets access to 4th level spells and learns Summon Shadow. But even those can't save Brick and Morpheus from the Blacktalons' icy arrows.
We defeat the gibberling horde and jack Baeloth's evil archmagi robe for Yin to wear. It seems we might be making some headway into fighting on our own.
When DeBuff hits 8th level, he's supposed to be able to summon a familiar to help us. But since he's not the CHARNAME of the playthrough he gets nothing. I use EEKeeper to give him the Shadow Familiar anyway, since I have More Style For Mages' "NPCs can get familiars" component installed. DeBuff still pays the 4 points of CON to summon Nyx the Shadowdancer familiar, but she will never level up beyond her base level due to her script checking for Player1's mage or rogue levels. We just need someone who can deal with traps moderately well. Anyway, Krieg gets the CON tome with help from Nyx and Yin's shadow minions.
With the most obvious places in the wilderness cleared, we move on to the Nashkel Mines. We fight our way through the 2nd level but decide to just skip level 3 under invisibility. DeBuff summons shadow fiends while Yin summons a Nighthaunt to deal with Mulahey's minions. The shadow fiends paralyze Mulahey, making him dead meat. In fact, that's been our strategy ever since either of the Shadow Magic users could summon them: let the fiends paralyze the enemy first and move in.
Nimbul is level drained to death by a Nighthaunt, aided by shadow fiend underlings who held him still.
We get Raiken to take us into the bandit camp. We go into the tent under invisibility, summon shadow fiends, cast Greater Malison, Inertia, and watch the chaos unfold. Unfortunately Brick dies during this assault because he kept getting hit by Britik the gnoll.
Everyone gets hasted from Nukesalot so cleanup is mostly easy since Venkt was held by the shadow fiends. We leave the camp under another casting of Haste and we book it out of there to raise Brick.
Cloakwood time. Once we hit Drasus' party, the three casters go invisible and get behind them while the shade magic users summon shadow fiends and a pair of Nighthaunts. I have to avoid letting the Nighthaunts hit Drasus too many times or his Boots of Speed will be destroyed. After setting them up using Nyx to scout under stealth, they all receive a casting of Haste and Yin starts the fight with a Wand of Paralysis on Kysus, which actually works.
The shadow fiends do their thing and manage to slam Drasus through the nearby door with Impose. That's for the best anyway - Artisan's Kitpack Berserkers in LoB mode might as well be bosses all on their own due to their extra HD giving them the higher level benefits of Enrage, which include high movement speed, +10 bonus to all saves, 50% damage resistance, and +10 to crit rate. Kysus and Rezdan are devoured by the fiends and so is Genthore. Once Drasus is alone, we open the door to the big shack and fight him alone, but he still gets paralyzed thanks to Nighthaunts' level drain eliminating the +10 save bonus from Enrage. Level drain is SO good.
Inside the Cloakwood Mines, we decide to skip it with invisibility again and fight Daveorn. The shades kill his Battle Horrors before we take him on. The shades and our fighters tear through his Stoneskin and Mirror Images after a few rounds of him teleporting everywhere. One casting of Breach from Nukesalot spells his end when it allows Krieg to finish him off.
His hired help scatters afterward. Onto Baldur's Gate.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 9
Brick - Battlerager 9
Morpheus - Fighter 8/Shapeshifter 8
DeBuff - Nightsinger 11
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 10
Nukesalot - Chaos Sorcerer 10
Journal of Grack the Black Continued
We were taken to the bandit camp where Tazok was not at all pleased and told te bandits to kill us. The battle was gong well but we were running out of spells so we grabbedd the loot and made a strategic withdrawal to the FAI where we rested.
Upon returning we were faced by the more powerful bandits: at least theywould have been powerful if they had been allowed to be.
Web disabled most of them and area effect spells quickly impaired their health, command being useful against spell casters who saveed against web.
We rested when they were all dead before heading south to kill Gorkan Bloodaxe and his cohorts.
We rested again in case there were still bandits around. There were some but we didn't need spells against them. EDIT
We decided to return to Beregost and see if we could find Tranzig.
On the way we ran into a party led by Necardian and fought and killed them.
Shortly afterwards we were attacked by two parties of bandits, some led by Deke and the others being caravan bandits. We used a blast from a wand to deal with them as we no longer had fireball spells memorised.
We made sure that wasn't the case when we fought Tranzig.
Officer Vai gave us 1500 gold pieces for the scalps which probably helped Viconia to come to terms with aiding the fist.
EDIT 2
We decided to let jaheira join us for a while. There was no way that her goody-goody husband could join us though. We have agreed to help her ex-lover in Cloakwood.
Just stopping by. Congratulations to @Flashburn on another wild run, which is now at home in the Hall of Heroes. If there are any other recent runs to be added to the Hall, tag me and I'll see it when I return to the forums once again (still on hiatus for the time being).
The fight for the 2nd Ring of Wizardry sees Yin's first death from a 2x acid arrow sequencer. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to keep him afloat. Looks like we'll have to invest in spell protections now.
I'm worried about the Iron Throne fight because there are two berserkers up there that could make mincemeat out of all of us. I send Yin and Nukesalot up there by themselves to draw out the invisible thieves using wraiths. It works, but it makes the rest of the group hostile when the wraiths attack Kaalos after they pushed him back into the main room.
Yin and Nukesalot escape the group's line of sight and then watch the wraiths hold up remarkably well. Zhalimar is pushed back to the front of the room from Impose so he brings out his unenchanted bow, which the wraiths are immune to, massively improving the odds in our favor. Gardush and Zhalimar basically kill themselves from Enrage, so when the number of wraiths gets thinned, I send up the rest of the party and toss out Greater Malison and Sigil of Misfortune to give the hostile party a massive -8 save penalty. When DeBuff comes upstairs to sing it climbs to -10. Wraiths make it nearly impossible to save for those who have been level drained! Brick finishes Zhalimar while the wraiths kill Gardush after he knocks himself out.
With those two out of the way, this will be much easier. Kaalos is stunned from a wand of paralyzation while the mage buffed by PfNM gets hit with Spell Thrust to take out his Minor Spell Deflection, followed by Breaching Dark and being polymorphed into a squirrel by the wand of polymorphing. Aasim is the last to fall, but our new Doll Golem commissioned by Arkion causes him to fall over laughing.
Phew. If LoB has taught me anything so far, it's that all of your characters should be doing something useful - not merely waiting for the fighters to kill everything. With the city cleared out, its on to Candlekeep. Koveras is imprisoned by Nukesalot using Chaotic Weave, as I make sure to buff with SI: Abjuration first to prevent any target swapping shenanigans. I do have some Protection from Magic scrolls if it had been retargeted onto any other character.
Morpheus dies yet again, this time to a 2x acid arrow sequencer. I underestimated its damage potential and it was just enough to kill him. It's going to be a long road to Greater Werewolf, especially since he missed out on the tasty 60k+ XP from the two greater basilisks and all the spiders left over.
Back to Durlag's Tower. We have some unfinished business with the succubus hanging out upstairs. I send in Morpheus alone because he's the only one who can make himself outright immune to charm with Chaotic Commands. Everyone else has a chance of being charmed.
Our strategy of Greater Malison+Sigil of Misfortune+Nightsinger bard song is enough to do whatever we want to any opposition throughout the dungeon. Traps and locks are handled by Nyx, sometimes boosted with a casting of Dark Fortune from Yin. I crash repeatedly during the chessboard "fight" because the game runs out of memory from all the lightning bolts that I use to kill the King. We arrive at the demon knight and summon a pair of Nighthaunts and our wraith minions. Shatter Weave negates his MR long enough to cast our save-reducing combo as DeBuff follows with Blinding Darkness. He is swiftly defeated.
We're ignoring the werewolf island because of the limited resting available and I'm playing it safe. At the coronation I don't enlist Ithtyl's help as we already have three casters. Our save-reducing combo is effective, but most of the Flaming Fist is rendered confused by the Doppelganger Mage. Brick is killed again because of his bad AC while at low health, so we scoop up his stuff and continue the fight without him. Duke Belt has also gone hostile for some reason... so we let Duke Jannath kill him. Luckily this doesn't cause a game over and it continues as normal.
I am thoroughly confident in my plan to kill Sarevok. He's died by level drain before and I'll do it again. Strong as he is with his goons powering him up, he's not totally invulnerable. An army of wraiths and Nighthaunts drain him dry before his entourage can teleport in and start fighting. GG EZ, bro.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 11
Brick - Berserker 11
Morpheus - Fighter 9/Shapeshifter 10
DeBuff - Nightsinger 14
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 12
Nukesalot II - Chaos Sorcerer 12
SoD dungeon. We send in wraiths and Nighthaunts against the first group of enemies since it's much harder to lure them away from the door to intimidate Porios. After that, we use up all the PfU scrolls I'd been saving to protect the whole party and then proceed using invisibility to bypass Korlasz' guards. A couple of Breaches and an Impose from a wraith renders her helpless and forces her surrender.
Coldhearth Crypt. Since we're out of PfU scrolls, we'll have to do this the hard way. DeBuff, Yin, and Nukesalot firebomb the undead with wands of fire with Krieg assisting with a Necklace of Missiles. But the undead are so numerous and beefy that we have to summon something to help, since wraiths and Nighthaunts are no good against them. A cleric of Dumathoin cast PfE 10' on the whole party earlier and with her increased caster level from LoB mode, I'm not worried about it ending anytime soon, so Nukesalot gates in a Balor. It's helpful but I think undead are immune to vorpal.
At the final fight before facing Coldhearth, Brick is killed by Shadowed Souls and their Drain Life ability. Krieg is heavily wounded and nearly dies but escapes with an invis potion. Brick is going to die very often.
We have to retreat out the door and regroup, lest those damn things drain us all to death. But we best them and the Coldhearth lich thanks to the Secret Revealed. At the Coast Way bridge, all opposing enemies are shut down with Greater Malison+Sigil of Misfortune+Nightsinger song+Insect Plague+Emotion: Hopelessness. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to save vs. spell at -10.
Morpheus later gains level 6 spells, and while I'm normally opposed to using these summons, I'll make an exception for LoB mode: we have Greater Bearweres. They regenerate 6 HP/sec and are rather beefy but their AC is pretty bad. Bad enough that even a band of hobgoblins can take them out no sweat, which really surprised me. Hasting them vastly improves their chances of survival because it doubles their regen rate.
We employ the same tactics we used on the Coast Way Bridge against the spider cave for massive XP gains. A devil shade inflicts fear on nearly half the cave's inhabitants using Night Terrors which greatly relieves the pressure put on us. Nukesalot puts Project Image to use and unleashes Chaotic Weave on the spiders.
Now we have no choice but to fight Morentherene because Shadow Adepts constantly and invisibly cast spells to update the bonuses derived from their mental stats, which wakes her up. Morpheus is panicked for the whole fight, which seems to be a gaping weakness in Chaotic Commands. We used Protection from Poison scrolls before fighting the dragon to avoid massive damage. Yin nullifies her MR with Shatter Weave while Nukesalot uses Greater Malison and then attempts Polymorph Other (which fails). Yin follows up with Sigil of Misfortune. DeBuff now transforms into a fighter using Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade.
DeBuff has 5 attacks/round as he is Improved Hasted and wields the Shadow Blade (which gives +1 attack/round) with Mastery (+++). His THAC0 is now even better than Brick's so he is a melee force to be reckoned with. Shadow Blade +4 properties:
+1 attack/round
+50% cold resistance
5% chance to cast Essence Drain or Shadow Binding per hit
2% chance to cast Nightshade on hit
1d8+4 slashing, +4 cold
A devil shade panics one of the young dragons and sends another flying with Impose. Nighthaunts have lured away the other dragons into a corner and are fighting them by themselves, leaving us to fight the big girl on her own. Breaching Dark softens her up for our remaining fighters. DeBuff gets the last hit and helps clean up the other dragons.
Ziatar goes down quickly because we've got a great pair of anti-mages. DeBuff hounds them after they get breached.
The Neothelid is no trouble aside from its poison breath weapon. DeBuff kills its Mordy Swords using Night Terrors. Our main 3 fighters are protected by potions of clarity.
Darskhelin's group is put down rather quickly but Brick dies yet again to Mohad Flintborn. Mohad Flintborn is also berserker and therefore is exceptionally tough and strong, but still no match for polymorphing. The mage is denatured with Black Ray of Destruction. Then it's just a matter of beating down the rest.
Siege of Bridgefort. I pray that this isn't a fight that repeatedly causes crashing. We buff up and summon wraiths/a devil shade, a pair of Nighthaunts, and Greater Bearweres. Yin and Nukesalot do their thing: lower enemy saves and use AoE crowd control spells. DeBuff throws out a Shadowblast.
The battle drags on for some time. This wall of meat just won't fall, so DeBuff enters melee mode with Shar's Blessing+Shadow Blade and Nukesalot just starts spamming Chaotic Weave under Chaos Shield's protection to see what he gets. Incendiary Cloud fails a couple of times but Horrid Wilting is successful, and it does slightly more damage thanks to the Shadowblast from earlier. An Insect Plague from Morpheus helps reduce the crusaders' DPS. Now we're making headway.
At the bridge, we quickly neutralize the mage by casting Black Ray and Breach on her. Now she can't cast spells for 2 rounds and has no physical defenses. The fighters and Debuff make mincemeat of her. The bridge is safe. And amazingly, the whole siege didn't increase RAM usage much at all, topping out at 855 MB. The game typically crashes at 1.6 GB of memory usage.
At the underground river, the albino wyrmlings kill Nukesalot and Debuff with massive acid damage. I knew I should've saved Protection from Acid scrolls.
After raising them, we free Kaladan Za'al and take care of his shadow chimera problem. But he's being ungrateful this time and doesn't want to assist in the crusade, so we fight him! This guy is insanely powerful! He throws out summons, sequencers, contingencies left and right! We're up against level-draining Devil Shades and Nighthaunts. Brick and Morpheus nearly die again and it's all they can do to stay alive. Kaladan exhausts all of his contingencies, sequencers, and whatever else before I get the bright idea to stifle him with Black Ray.
This lets us concentrate on removing his defenses and killing his level-draining summons. The shades he summoned previously while fighting the shadow chimera are on our side so they hold off the nighthaunts. Krieg and Brick try to put down the devil shade while Morpheus goes in to finish off the shadow caster. Finally, mercifully, he goes down.
These two items are why we went to so much trouble for only 10k XP.
I hadn't even considered the ring before doing this playthrough - I just wanted the cloak! - but now it's about to get so much more interesting. The ring applies its effects whenever Yin hits an enemy with a spell. Multi-hit spells such as Shadow Missile or Blackfire Arrow will reduce saves by the number of hits it performs. Now, as long as magic resistance doesn't negate the hits entirely, Yin can reduce saving throws so that enemies are guaranteed to fail their saves!
Yin has recently hit 16th level. It was a hard choice between Dark Passage or Merciless Blizzard, but I think I chose correctly in the end. Despite it being LoB mode, I can still depend on Merciless Blizzard to do excellent damage and immobilize enemies, especially now with Yin's new ring debuffing enemy saves every time it procs.
I can also combo it with Shadowblast which reduces cold resistance on anyone it hits. Now even undead are vulnerable! DeBuff uses Twin Mislead and enters melee mode to help cull the nearby horde.
Morpheus is so close to Shapeshifter 13 and getting Greater Werewolf. It can't come soon enough.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 17
Brick - Battlerager 16
Morpheus - Fighter 12/Shapeshifter 12
DeBuff - Nightsinger 20
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 16
Nukesalot II - Chaos Sorcerer 16
Quiet from a number who usually post. I hope that they haven't got Corona. I'm going for walks in the less popular parts of the countryside. 7 miles yesterday and only saw one person.
Journal of Grack the Black Continued
Took on Centeol and had to make a strategic withdrawal. (Ran away)
He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day!
I am thinking that taking on the Section HQ in Beregost might now be the best option.
Their insistance that I am evil will be quite justified this time round.
Comments
In my recent runs, I've always avoided that fight by killing Malden Col (or pickpocketing him if the option is available), the traitor in the coalition camp, he carries one of Caelar's Seals.
Well done on the whole SoD though, that's quite a feat with a solo warrior class !
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1116893/#Comment_1116893
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118440/#Comment_1118440
Barb found himself locked in a dungeon, but was busted out by Imoen. Thanks Immy. She still doesn’t have what it takes to be a part of the team, but luckily Minsc had turned out for the better - and without Dynaheir. Everything is coming up roses.
I used to love playing with Minsc, but I find him trailing behind other NPC’s. But he can wield a bow well enough, and he is versatile (sort off). He can open the trapped containers so Barb can cast slow poison on him - that is versatile enough for now. Barb is still chaotic..
Outside the dungeon the odd couple did some minor quests. Mostly for money and gear - still like rappers I guess. Reckoning that the party would have a thief later, the odd party just wanted healing potions and money for temple service. The xp rewards that where given to all party members where saved for later - when the 2 becomes 4.
The plan was for a early visit to WK. As a scimitar proficient kind of guy, Barb wanted a +4 upgrade to his non magical version. The keep served the pair some memphits as a welcoming comity - luckily no worse. As usual Minsc did the de-trapping. He is such a hero, and didn’t mind dying one bit. Sister Garlena helped us out.
Barb and Minsc buffed for fight against the statues, and killed them.... eventually. Well they did need frequent healing from sister Garlena. A full heal costs 450 GP, and the pair tried to take full advantage of the low prices. Too much at times, one time leaving only 11 hp between the two of them. A too close call - even for me. In the end we killed the statues and got the scimitar. It was hard earned, but that’s the price of a +4 weapon I guess.
Back in the city the pair bought some protection from undead & magic scrolls and a scroll of simulcarum, and killed some liches. We where ready for Kangaxx... we just needed a mage to cast the simulcarum scroll - to save on the protection from magic scroll. So enter Nalia (the chaotic good). A decent enough thief and an amazing mage. Well she fits the bill and that’s amazing enough for me - arcane magic isn’t my favourite.
We did Nalias quest whilst Barb put proficiency points in flails. We took everything that wasn’t bolted to the floor and killed all the monsters. A domination spell was wasted against Nalias servant which caught the party flat-footed. We prevailed with some kiting... and healing.
In the cellar Barb was confused when he forgot to rage against the umber hulks. Nalia had cast cloud kill before placing the dog stew, but the umber hulks saved against death and Barb got impatient and wanted to sort out the business. Barb failed his save and got confused - in the midst of some umber hulks and eventually another poisonous cloud. The poison damage where luckily very minute against Barb (2-3 times only 1 damage per round for Barb and death for the umber hulks - had it been otherwise the run may have ended there). A brief and nerve wrecking scare.
Torgal was shown no quarter, and the stronghold quest was accepted. Back in the city we rushed for Kangaxx, the ring of Gaxx was in sight. The plan was to gain the ring early and then use an exploit when Nalia gets abducted. Her abduction should force a script that leaves you with 2 rings of Gaxx if the ring was in her inventory - well according to an exploit picked up on this site.
Kangaxx met his doom as another obstacle in this excellent plan. Now we just have to wait for the abduction - which takes place after the funeral. We have some time to pass
Since we had a thief, we did the Maevars guild quest. The tasks where cleared without to much hassle, and when we had secured the evidence and where ready to give it to Renal, we took full advantage of Nalias thieving. We boosted her pick pocket to 280 and made 300.000 gp by stealing/selling wands - reckoning that an angry shopkeeper wouldn’t be the worst, since the shop keeper was bound for execution. We did some serious shopping after that..
Time to pick the last wheel of the foursome: Valygar (or what’s his name - he doesn’t really stand out does he?). We wanted to do the planar sphere early for Valygars sake - and for the excitement of making things more difficult than they aught to be. A party of four has a better chance of doing the quest early on, since the maze spells don’t warrant eternal doom and reloading for a party - but only a slight delay. A nice ring for Nalia and some mittens for Valygar/Minsc was the main prize after the sphere landed in the city.
As time goes by, the Nalia abduction was nigh. We had not imported the claw of Klazgorath bacause the exploit with the double rings leaves the claw unwanted. The plan was executed but didn’t yield the coveted extra ring. I know it’s only an exploit and Barb will do fine without it. But I was severely upset and down about it. A major setback for me, because careful planning is my only/major asset in my playbook
The next quests where done in a haze (I readily admit that I don’t get along with set backs). I plainly love the best gear, and 2 rings of Gaxx just suit me so well. But I managed to do the Druid grove, the “city gangs” and the planarprison without dying - even though my playing was erratic. My (smallish) silver lining was finding a way to boost the saves of Barb and putting the ranger spells to some use: stacking bark skin spells and adding a spirit armour spell on top of that. That actually eased my mind a bit - even though spells doesn’t suit me as well as a permanent buff that can’t be dispelled. Did I mention that I didn’t get 2 rings of Gaxx?
Siding with the shadow thieves eventually gave Minsc a neat mace, which goes well with his favoured enemy and the shield of harmony. Minsc approves!! The vampires where easily bested after that.
Before going to spellhold the party did the unseeing eye quest - no worries. We only left the 3 quests involving dragons and the mind flayers. The party will do these in chapter 6. These quests deserve respect - even in the unmodded game.
In Brynlaw I tried some backstabbing for the first time with Valygar. He opened his account with a 97 critical, which was a kind of an eye opener. I have to do that more to the unbuffed mages. Perth was taken to badly damaged and poisoned by Valygar as well - spelling the formers doom.
The route to spellhold now lay open. Barb is coming along nicely and his party members are actually to some use. Chaos walks with us.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085932#Comment_1085932
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085972#Comment_1085972
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086599#Comment_1086599
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086608#Comment_1086608
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118282#Comment_1118282
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118487#Comment_1118487
Spellhold: routine.
Underdark: routine.
Ust Natha army: mildly challenging.
I crashed during this fight twice and was finally able to make a quicksave on the third try, just before the final wave. I start the third try by summoning a pair of skeletons who go down very quickly, so I use Summon Shadow instead. Then I cast Shar's Blessing to gain 10 attacks/round for a while. Once the shadows start getting low on health, I summon the Nightwalker and cast Merciless Blizzard and Nightfall to thin the horde.
I still had tons of spells left and sequencers in reserve so I could've continued fighting if there were any remaining to challenge me. Adalon is killed just by Shatter Magic, pounding away at her, and then finishing her with Nightsinger's Tithe. Dragon #6 is dead.
Time for Bodhi. Some shadows and a Nightwalker are summoned. I avoid using Merciless Blizzard so Arkanis doesn't go hostile, even though it would be brutally effective on Bodhi's minions. I pour the holy water into the blood pools.
Cyric's Chosen. I start with a Spell Trigger of Divine Protection + Shadow Screen + Shar's Blessing. Venduris tries backstabbing me to no avail due to the Divine Protection, so he falls first.
Before leaving for Suldanessellar, I go back up to the Friendly Arm Inn. I always wanted to know what happens if you attack Kryn Darkflame, so I make a test save. Turns out he just teleports away. But that's not good enough for me. I cast Harm and hit him with it, then follow up with Nightsinger's Tithe. Check out this bastard sword he had!
I can't even put proficiency points into bastard swords but I'm totally using this with Critical Strike. I go to Suldanessellar and kill Nizi with it. 10d10 unresistable fire damage (save for half) x 8 attacks per round with Critical Strike + Shar's Blessing = dead dragon #7. He even started panicking for a little while after failing a save.
Johnny is next. When he attempts a Time Stop, I fire back with a Black Ray to take down his Spell Shield as well. His casting ability is also disabled throughout nearly the whole Time Stop. A Breaching Dark takes him down. I love EEex's Spell Inspection mode!
Hell awaits.
Skaarj Sunspire - Fighter 36/Shadow Adept 29/Cleric 40
So that was that short update. I will try a new run at some point with SCS, ascension (if I get to bg2 tob), with tactical encounters installed, smarter mages and priests and with insane difficulty without double damage, where I will write about the attempt in much more detail...
Here is the screenshot with the somewhat crazy triple critical hit kill by black talons
I guess these scenarios really do exist where you are dead no matter what you do, just bad luck.
I consider passing Davaeorn going pretty far in BG1 on solo no reload runs...
As the one who posted the exploit in question, I'm pretty sure it only works with Rasaad's quest. Nalia's abduction is scripted properly to avoid the issue.
As for the claw of Kazgaroth - death saves are important too. Really, that piece is only worth it for a character that has poor spell saves and good death saves, who won't lose hit points to the Con penalty. Of the default BG2 companions, that's pretty much just Aerie, Cernd, and Dorn.
I read your post again, and you are right that you wrote only the Rasaad script was bugged. I read the post with my wishful thinking goggles..
I am running a warrior type, who typically can afford the trade between save vs. death and save vs. spell. Especially the shorty types.
The con loss is huge, and definitely not to my liking. But as a barbarian I can use rage to mitigate the con loss without too much ado. I do the same with characters who can Duhm as well (besides the Bhaal powers).
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085932#Comment_1085932
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085972#Comment_1085972
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086599#Comment_1086599
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086608#Comment_1086608
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118282#Comment_1118282
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118487#Comment_1118487
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118602#Comment_1118602
In hell, I take 3x Good Wrath tears (25 WIS and CHA for +50% shadow weave spell duration and maxed saves/elemental resists) and 2x Good Selfishness tears (+20% MR; -1 DEX, -2 max HP, -75k XP). I summon my shadows and a Nightwalker before starting the fight. At the start, I use Critical Strike and convert the balor and glabrezu to the left of Johnny into Devil Shades using Dreadflame +5. The Nightwalker is already finished killing the demons on his other side!
Illasera is super easy.
Dragon #8 at Yaga-Shura's temple falls from brute force combined with Blackfire Fury spam.
Nyalee is no trouble. It's Yaga-Shura's turn. The nightwalker, perfect mithril golem, and I have no trouble with his men. When the giant returns after being injured, it's his lieutenant mage that annoys me. She casts Time Stop and summons a dark planetar which I beat down with the staff while time is stopped. At the end of her time stop, she casts Improved Alacrity.
Sendai and Abazigal are next.
Skaarj Sunspire - Fighter 41/Shadow Adept 32/Cleric 45
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085932#Comment_1085932
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085972#Comment_1085972
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086599#Comment_1086599
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086608#Comment_1086608
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118282#Comment_1118282
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118487#Comment_1118487
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118602#Comment_1118602
ToB: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118811#Comment_1118811
Sendai's enclave. Nothing that can't be solved by brute force, Greater Deathblow, and Merciless Blizzard - although I underestimate the Derro dwarves and their berserk. The Artisan's Kitpack changes berserk so that high-level berserkers gain a high movement speed bonus and a huge (+10) crit rate bonus, so they shred my Shadeskins. But I counter with PfWfW and Shar's mantle which makes them no threat.
Meanwhile, lich killing is so routine by now.
Abazigal is next. Either I never noticed before or Draconis has a new ability that slays summons when he transforms. That's okay because I have more Nightwalkers where that first one came from. Draco is not much trouble.
Fll'yissitat is the only dragon I've spared so far or she would be #14. At Abazigal's lair, Merciless Blizzard obviously doesn't work on the ice salamanders but it forces Abby to transform earlier than I wanted him to, resulting in another double dragon fight. Tamah has stunned my perfect mithril golem with Psionic Blast... Damn things are still vulnerable to stun despite their other construct immunities.
Despite my alignment of Chaotic Evil and reputation of 5, I convince Balthazar to join me at the throne.
I build another perfect mithril golem, though it will be the last since I can't get any more mithril by casting (Limited) Wish. The Ravager is beaten through more application of brute force and some saving throw lowering spells. Cone of Bitter Cold sees him off after his cold resistance was lowered by Shadowblast.
I've taken all the evil challenge rewards except for Yaga-Shura's in which I chose to be good. I check my save with EEKeeper and see that I've only killed 39 enemies with Nightsinger's Tithe. I guess I should've been a bit more liberal with it. So I start summoning nighthaunts so I can farm them for Nightsinger's Boon, which is achieved at 50 Nightsinger's Tithe kills.
I'm as powered up as I can be. I return to Watcher's Keep and build two Magic Golems in the tieflings' wild magic zone. Now it's time to take the fight to Melissan. Here's how I look when I use about half of my available buffs. I haven't been to the throne since Ascension was updated to 2.0, but I have great confidence in Skaarj's ability to defeat Melissan.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085483#Comment_1085483
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085622#Comment_1085622
SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085932#Comment_1085932
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085972#Comment_1085972
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086599#Comment_1086599
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1086608#Comment_1086608
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118282#Comment_1118282
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118487#Comment_1118487
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118602#Comment_1118602
ToB: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1118811#Comment_1118811
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1119413#Comment_1119413
I must have crashed about 5 or 6 times during the fight with The Five+Melissan before I figured out that opening the spell menu after taking a screenshot with the Spell Inspection list open causes a crash.
Anyway, Irenicus, Bodhi, and their Fallen Solars are first. Jon casts Time Stop after prebuffing which lets Balthazar and me kill the solars. This will be much easier now. Bodhi goes down next.
Here is where I restarted many times because of crashing. This time it was Gromnir who fell first through brute force, followed shortly by Illasera. Entropy Shield kept me safe from her dispelling arrows.
On Melissan: Black Ray (kills Divine Mantle and shuts off her spellcasting) -> Shatter Weave (nullifies MR for 3 rounds).
On everyone: Prayer, Recitation, Sigil of Misfortune, Nightfall, Negastorm, Shadowblast, Cone of Bitter Cold, Storm of Vengeance, Earthquake, Shadow Plague. Then Nightshade on Melissan to do massive damage.
When she finishes powering up, she gates in a bunch of demons and I cast Merciless Blizzard to hopefully slow them down and soften them up for proceeding blizzard damage procs. Melissan teleports away and tries to cast Time Stop, but is shut down by Shadow Plague's spell failure and a punch from Balthazar.
Skaarj chooses to remain mortal. He doesn't need something like divine blood to keep himself alive when he's as strong as he is. He'll do it with shadow magic, as he's always done.
Skaarj Sunspire - Fighter 46/Shadow Adept 35/Cleric 50
@Ygramul
Skaarj Sunspire the Fighter/Shadow Adept/Cleric: @Flashburn
Notable mods: EET, Shadow Magic 1.98a, SCS v32.4, Ascension v2.0.7, Tweaks Anthology v9, aTweaks, More Style For Mages, Skip Chateau Irenicus, Trials of the Luremaster, Golem Construction 5.4, Item Upgrade v44, Thalantyr Item Upgrade
Difficulty: SCS Insane+ (extra damage disabled)
Special: Solo Run
Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1085190#Comment_1085190 (July 2019)
End: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1119431#Comment_1119431 (February 29, 2020)
Corebard - human bard, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Ubil - human cavalier (Gate70)
Highway - dwarven kensai (Grond0)
So the party had just paid Galen Bayle. We we were on our way to get our goodies, but Corey_Russell remembered that you can't do the Maevar quest once you talk to Linvail. So instead we get the Maevar quest and were on our way to the Temple District when Renfeld ambush popped up. So we headed back to Docks to take care of him. While we were at it, also did the "task" for the Harpers. Our strategy was for Highway to lure out the chaos, since he is immune thanks to Lilacor. Once that was drawn out, the rest of the party moved in and that was that for Sansha and Prebek.
We then looted the Harper Hold. We tried to avenge Xzar, but failed. Finally we were on our way to the Temple District. Corebard's pickpocketing was a natural 110% - this turned out to be enough to get the Weathermistress' amulet. We then returned to Maevar, then worked on dealing with Rayic's minions, who were no match. Highway was protected by improved invisibility (spell), so he did well against Rayic, although it was Corebard who got the kill shot with MMM. Ubil was demonstrating his fondness for fire by triggering the repeating fireball trap twice.
We then quickly get the evidence on Maevar, as we spread out. We then return and deal with the thieves. Then we do straight attack on Maevar. Corebard threw in a fireball, and that was enough to soften them up for victory.
We decided it might be nice to get level drain protection, so we finish up Sir Sarles with the fake illithium, then head to Bridge District. While here, we solved the skinner murders, though Highway got pretty close to death thanks to a big backstab on him.
Taking out Neb though was no problem. Knock was used on the door to get in. Was time to work on the main quest - Mook and the two thief traitors were easy to deal with. We fight our way to get the mace of disruption. While here decided to get the ioun stone from P'naii. Corebard threw in a fireball to whittle down the little spiders. We also did the undead on the surface.
We were about out of time, had just enough to forge the IMoD and save our session.
First of all congratulations Flashburn! That is epic! Solo run...
Also that golem construction mod sounds interesting and shadow magic also.
Now a few questions:
The ghost upstairs in Durlag's Tower (level 12 invoker) made me a little confused.
Just trying to find out exactly how the various encounters operate before attempting another no reload run, some monsters I have not faced in ages, so can't remember.
I have SCS installed at the moment, latest version, insane difficulty, tactical encounters, smarter mages, priests and all.
He is prebuffed with mirror image, shadow door, mgoi, minor spell turning, protection from normal missiles, shield and stoneskin and then he casts pfmw.
I tried hitting him with bare hands (non-magical weapons) but the combat log displayed "weapon ineffective". I take it he is innately immune to normal weapons?
Wand of frost's charged ability should count as a level 8 spell (in bg1) and thereby just precisely ignoring minor spell deflection (and ofc also mgoi), but when I use it multiple times on him it says "spell ineffective" every time (not just once, which would not make sense either in any way). Ehm, why?
Wand of heavens should count as a level 5 spell, but multiple times the combat log displayed "spell ineffective". Of course it should be blocked once by spell deflection, but it said spell ineffective many times, without a recast of minor spell deflection?
Only once did I see in the combat log that he was immune to the damage from wand of heavens, so I guess he is innately immune to fire damage?
So it seems wand of heavens DID get through at some point, but it should have hit him at the second use of wand of heavens not the fourth, I really do not understand what happened here?
Wand of paralyzation seems to get through just fine and after testing again, wand of paralyzation seems to be the only 1 behaving as expected. For example I tried using wand of heavens once and thereby cancelling his minor spell deflection and then I used wand of paralyzation as the second spell attempt on him and it went right through and hit.
Any of you have any clues to these questions?
Here are some screenshots if it helps at all:
I'm not sure why the wands kept displaying "Spell Ineffective", but none of the damage wands would ever have helped anyway.
That is great, good to know, thanks for the info.
At least he is not immune to stun.
So you can just get rid of his minor spell deflection with 1 charge from a wand of heavens and then use wand of paralyzation to take him out in the very first round (tested it)... but yea whatever walking downstairs works as well!
Adorar the druid has got off to a good start in Amn, taking down most of what’s to be done in Athkatla, and then heading out into the wilds. So far the DeArnise Keep, the Windspear Hills, the Umar Hills, Trademeet have been done. That leaves the Planar Sphere, Planar Prison, and the Unseeing Eye, none of which I am terribly keen to tackle with SCS installed.
I had a good deal of fun sorting out the party to approximate the tabletop group it’s based on, but for now Adorar travels with...
Minsc (Beastmaster with Hrun his bear companion.)
Haer’Dalis (Swashbuckler)
Sarah (Archer)
Isra (Cavalier)
Tashia (Sorceress)
Mildly confident of making progress but defences are far from perfect so he’s always one bad decision away from death. Presently pottering around and doing various minor mod added and stronghold quests. This party is far from optimised but they have proven flexible enough to deal with various threats so far. Will keep at it
I've noticed that all the successes I've had at no-reloading always have some kind of mage class in it (although Krieg the War Hulk came awfully close). That's probably because they're the easiest class to keep alive because of their scads of buffs and they can dish out punishment that no other class can hope to match. So it's time for a change of pace.
Trap Overhaul will let you recover the traps you find in the game if your skill is high enough and then you can use them yourself. Given how deadly traps often are, it should be fun to turn them back on the enemy. Meet The Trap Team:
Astolfo the Dark Hunter
and Felix the Rogue Rebalanced Fighter/Bounty Hunter.
Astolfo is pretty much a Fighter/Bounty Hunter already, minus the major thief skills. On the plus side, he is a single class and his stealth ability will progress much faster than Felix's, and he has access to Poison Weapon. Astolfo can also set traps of his own, including the deadly Manhunter Snare at level 10. He can also set recovered traps.
Felix will serve as utility and support for Astolfo, recovering traps and then turning them back against the enemy. But as a fighter/thief he can also wear full plate if he needs to tank, while Astolfo is limited to studded leather. He is no slouch in combat either due to being part fighter. Rogue Rebalancing nerfs the Bounty Hunter so that their traps can't be "thrown" anymore, and although they deal highly reduced nonlethal damage compared to normal traps, the secondary effects bypass MR as they are alchemical in nature. Felix can also poison his weapon to paralyze his target instead of dealing damage like Astolfo's ability.
First order of business is to increase our trap setting skills. Astolfo can't even use any until level 3. Marl is dealt with, Algernon is killed, and we return Tenya's bowl. It's just a little more to level 2 so we try fighting the nearby ankheg. Felix gets hit and fails a save, getting killed in one hit. Astolfo finishes it off and gains level 2.
Now we can set traps reliably. We fight Kirian's group but overestimate our traps' strength which gets Felix killed again, though Astolfo immediately gets revenge with a lucky hit through 3 mirror images.
It's time to start building up our equipment's strength, so we avoid Nashkel because our reputation is in the trash and I want the healing Bhaalpowers. We're trying to get to the Valley of the Tombs for a +2 dagger so we can then buy the Dagger of Venom and have Thalantyr upgrade it to +3. On the way there, Felix gets Fighter 5 from Sendai's group. We keep getting pretty beaten up when we can't take out targets with one-hit backstabs.
Astolfo gets Dark Hunter 6 from Sarhedra's ogre band while Felix gets Bounty Hunter 6 from the Battle Horrors outside Durlag's Tower, then gets Fighter 6 from killing Kirinhale with lots of traps. Our reputation is good enough that we'll start getting the healing Bhaalpowers so we go off to Nashkel to get the first one, buy the Dagger of Venom, and then upgrade it to +3 from Thalantyr.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we kill the greater basilisks on the roof back at Durlag's Tower and then descend into the 1st level of the dungeon. There's tons of traps here so now Felix can start repurposing them. The greater doppelgangers are tempted into coming out of their room with a normal thief trap, which causes them to set off a reclaimed Web trap, trapping one while the rest slip by us since we're under stealth. Felix puts down a trap behind us in case one tries to comes back, but the one caught in the web is toast.
Sneaking through the southern areas of the 1st level dungeon was quite fun since we definitely can't fight the skeleton warriors yet, so instead we scavenged all the tasty consumables we could get from areas that didn't require a difficult fight. Our next objectives: buy the Shadow Armor, get through the Nashkel Mines for the 2nd healing power, go sirene hunting, and trap Elminster to death each time he appears. Heeehhheheheh.
Astolfo - Dark Hunter 7
Felix - Fighter 6/Bounty Hunter 7
We stealth through most of the mines to avoid wasting time fighting the worthless kobolds. Mulahey is chunked by Felix while traps eliminate his kobold reinforcements immediately as they spawn.
Out in the Seawatcher area, we run into trouble with Nereids and random spawns. Astolfo is blinded by a nereid's venom spit, but this means he can use the Blind Thief Trick to set traps in plain sight. To cull the herd chasing us, he sets down a fireball trap we recovered from Durlag's Tower and it finishes off all the random spawns and the nereid's Water Weird.
Raiken lets us in to the bandit camp. We use a blind spot in Raemon's vision to set up some traps to weaken all but one enemy while Felix backstabs Venkt. For future reference for any thieves out there, the purple circle is where Raemon's blind spot is so that he does not initiate dialogue and turn everyone hostile.
We put an old man to sleep and Felix takes another dirt nap.
At the Iron Throne, we sneak our way in and get behind the party at the top floor. The two thieves are hostile and invisible so Felix lures them out so we don't have to fight them as well.
At Candlekeep, we kill Tethtoril for 5000 XP. He has -20 AC but it's made easier to hit him because he's fighting unarmed (+4 to hit) and backstabs deny the target their DEX bonus to AC as well as providing another +4 to hit from stealth (Tethtoril has 16 DEX, so +2 more to hit), for a total of +10 to hit when attempting a backstab. This makes his AC a much more manageable -10; Astolfo has 4/7 THAC0 while Felix has 3/8. Traps reduce his massive 981 HP. And look! A potion of superior healing! Totally worth the 7 or so minutes spent whittling him down.
Felix gets Bounty Hunter 10 from killing a greater doppelganger in the catacombs. Paralytic Toxin and his special traps now force the target to save at -1. Later on in Durlag's Tower, he gets Bounty Hunter 11 from some greater ghouls, making his normal traps poisonous and his special snares entangle the targets.
We're in a pretty good position to take down the Demon Knight and Sarevok. We've got tons of traps at our disposal, including a nasty crushing trap that does 5d20 damage with no save.
Astolfo - Dark Hunter 9
Felix - Fighter 8/Bounty Hunter 11
I think it's because I'm making the game too easy by giving myself too many options in the way of XP and gear. I'll have to think of some other gimmick again.
New Character Grack the Black - a Blackguard who has a friend who is a Darkcloak of Shar
Journal of Grack the Black
My name is actually Grachiolus, but everyone just calls me Grack the Black because I am a blackguard: not the usual type who follows Bane, Baal or some similar god; instead I worship Shar and there are reasons for that…
If it had not been for Cloak de Shar, a Nightcloak of Shar, I don’t know what I would have done when I was turned down as a paladin, the role that I had yearned for all my life. What happened is that they realised something that I had known for some time, namely that I was more interested in the glory of being a paladin than in helping others. Cloak de Shar explained that all deities were not quite so demanding and that the darkness in my soul might make me acceptable as a Champion of Shar, and that I might well be able to bask in the glory of being a champion, even if it was as a Blackguard.
Little did I imagine how it would turn out? When my mentor Gorion was killed in an ambush I was completely taken over by a darkness of spirit. I thought that it might have been better if those seeking my life in Candlekeep had succeeded. Things however did begin to improve if only a little at a time. I killed another assassin at the Friendly Arms Inn, and the thought that he might be connected in some way with the murder of Gorion lifted my spirits slightly.
That raised his wisdom to 18. My charisma is still pretty low naturally, but a ring that I was given by Lord Foreshadow raises it to 18 whenever I wear it.
In Nashkel turning down some gold which was not owed me raised my reputation still further. I am beginning to enjoy the adulation that I am being given.
However, by then I was quite popular with a reputation of 14. Who cares what paladins think? Well, I do, but I’m not going to let it show!
I am even beginning to become popular with the denizens of the nine hells due to helping Rufie and Albert.
Later on after rescuing a drow called Viconia from the flaming fist, she also joined the party. She is a Nightcloak of Shar. All four of us worship Shar which one would have thought would have led to a harmonious group. Such is not the case however. The females are continually bickering.
Noober had a bad cold after being dumped in the river by some local yobbos. I arranged for him to be looked after by Joseph’s wife. I hope that he doesn’t object when he comes home to find another man in the household. Many a man would!
Afterwards we returned to the area where we found Mellicamp. A little to the east we bumped into Zargal, and his cohorts whom we killed. Shar-Teel keeps levelling up, which is just as well as she wasn’t much of a thief to start with.
Feeling that we now had sufficient experience and equipment, we took on the Nashkel Mines.
We headed for Nashkel mines but were ambushed by some bandits who were in turn ambushed by Dorn. We sided with him and slew the bandits. He offered to join us but we turned him down for the moment which didn’t please him at all.
Xan turned down our offer of a place in the party so we decided that when we next went to the Friendly Arms Inn, we would recruit Dorn after all.
I am enjoying this game as I have no idea about what the various reactions of the NPCs will be. I don't usually play evil
Fun With Saving Throws: An Otherwise Untitled LoB Run
Shank and Carbos aren't as terrifying as I thought they'd be. Blinding them with Yin's Blinding Darkness and DeBuff's bard song was easy, making them free kills. I also use the Killsword on the Candlekeep rats because I am not chipping away at them for a half hour since they don't even attack. I am NOT sorry for this.
While Shank, Carbos, and the rats gave everyone their first level or two, Morpheus gets his first from a gibberling, who was also debuffed and blinded. That's going to be our strategy for most things early on since Yin, DeBuff, and Nukesalot all have blindness spells.
Now for my typical early-game routine: get Algernon's cloak (this time by pickpocket) and feed Silke to the spiders and finish her off,
On our way to buy a Stone to Flesh scroll, we get the 10 bandit ambush which also kills Yin, who failed to cast Decoy fast enough because it was daytime. Yin and DeBuff's casting speed and caster level are 2 points worse in sunlight.
Anyway, we leave Mutamin and his two pets alone and decide to come back later. We try out the Battle Horrors guarding the path to Durlag's Tower but they're much harder to hit than I thought they'd be. An Earth Elemental summoned through Chaotic Weave expires before it can kill one of them, so we have to choice but to kill it ourselves. We should probably stick to safer things until our gear improves.
But I just don't learn my lesson. We take on Bassilus, silencing him with a Dread Silence from DeBuff. But that causes his entire cadre of dead to go hostile. We book it out of there but Nukesalot slows them down with Grease as we make our escape. Since they're caught, I try to summon something that can take these skellies on. Chaotic Weave produces a fire elemental so we resume our attack once they all focus on it. Bassilus lands a hit that kills Brick as he was flirting with death anyway to get the maximum rage bonuses to hit and damage.
Sometime later, Yin gets access to 4th level spells and learns Summon Shadow. But even those can't save Brick and Morpheus from the Blacktalons' icy arrows.
When DeBuff hits 8th level, he's supposed to be able to summon a familiar to help us. But since he's not the CHARNAME of the playthrough he gets nothing. I use EEKeeper to give him the Shadow Familiar anyway, since I have More Style For Mages' "NPCs can get familiars" component installed. DeBuff still pays the 4 points of CON to summon Nyx the Shadowdancer familiar, but she will never level up beyond her base level due to her script checking for Player1's mage or rogue levels. We just need someone who can deal with traps moderately well. Anyway, Krieg gets the CON tome with help from Nyx and Yin's shadow minions.
With the most obvious places in the wilderness cleared, we move on to the Nashkel Mines. We fight our way through the 2nd level but decide to just skip level 3 under invisibility. DeBuff summons shadow fiends while Yin summons a Nighthaunt to deal with Mulahey's minions. The shadow fiends paralyze Mulahey, making him dead meat. In fact, that's been our strategy ever since either of the Shadow Magic users could summon them: let the fiends paralyze the enemy first and move in.
Cloakwood time. Once we hit Drasus' party, the three casters go invisible and get behind them while the shade magic users summon shadow fiends and a pair of Nighthaunts. I have to avoid letting the Nighthaunts hit Drasus too many times or his Boots of Speed will be destroyed. After setting them up using Nyx to scout under stealth, they all receive a casting of Haste and Yin starts the fight with a Wand of Paralysis on Kysus, which actually works.
Inside the Cloakwood Mines, we decide to skip it with invisibility again and fight Daveorn. The shades kill his Battle Horrors before we take him on. The shades and our fighters tear through his Stoneskin and Mirror Images after a few rounds of him teleporting everywhere. One casting of Breach from Nukesalot spells his end when it allows Krieg to finish him off.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 9
Brick - Battlerager 9
Morpheus - Fighter 8/Shapeshifter 8
DeBuff - Nightsinger 11
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 10
Nukesalot - Chaos Sorcerer 10
We were taken to the bandit camp where Tazok was not at all pleased and told te bandits to kill us. The battle was gong well but we were running out of spells so we grabbedd the loot and made a strategic withdrawal to the FAI where we rested.
Upon returning we were faced by the more powerful bandits: at least theywould have been powerful if they had been allowed to be.
Web disabled most of them and area effect spells quickly impaired their health, command being useful against spell casters who saveed against web.
We rested when they were all dead before heading south to kill Gorkan Bloodaxe and his cohorts.
We rested again in case there were still bandits around. There were some but we didn't need spells against them.
EDIT
We decided to return to Beregost and see if we could find Tranzig.
On the way we ran into a party led by Necardian and fought and killed them.
Shortly afterwards we were attacked by two parties of bandits, some led by Deke and the others being caravan bandits. We used a blast from a wand to deal with them as we no longer had fireball spells memorised.
We made sure that wasn't the case when we fought Tranzig.
Officer Vai gave us 1500 gold pieces for the scalps which probably helped Viconia to come to terms with aiding the fist.
EDIT 2
We decided to let jaheira join us for a while. There was no way that her goody-goody husband could join us though. We have agreed to help her ex-lover in Cloakwood.
Previous updates:
The fight for the 2nd Ring of Wizardry sees Yin's first death from a 2x acid arrow sequencer. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do to keep him afloat. Looks like we'll have to invest in spell protections now.
I'm worried about the Iron Throne fight because there are two berserkers up there that could make mincemeat out of all of us. I send Yin and Nukesalot up there by themselves to draw out the invisible thieves using wraiths. It works, but it makes the rest of the group hostile when the wraiths attack Kaalos after they pushed him back into the main room.
Phew. If LoB has taught me anything so far, it's that all of your characters should be doing something useful - not merely waiting for the fighters to kill everything. With the city cleared out, its on to Candlekeep. Koveras is imprisoned by Nukesalot using Chaotic Weave, as I make sure to buff with SI: Abjuration first to prevent any target swapping shenanigans. I do have some Protection from Magic scrolls if it had been retargeted onto any other character.
Back to Durlag's Tower. We have some unfinished business with the succubus hanging out upstairs. I send in Morpheus alone because he's the only one who can make himself outright immune to charm with Chaotic Commands. Everyone else has a chance of being charmed.
We're ignoring the werewolf island because of the limited resting available and I'm playing it safe. At the coronation I don't enlist Ithtyl's help as we already have three casters. Our save-reducing combo is effective, but most of the Flaming Fist is rendered confused by the Doppelganger Mage. Brick is killed again because of his bad AC while at low health, so we scoop up his stuff and continue the fight without him. Duke Belt has also gone hostile for some reason... so we let Duke Jannath kill him. Luckily this doesn't cause a game over and it continues as normal.
I am thoroughly confident in my plan to kill Sarevok. He's died by level drain before and I'll do it again. Strong as he is with his goons powering him up, he's not totally invulnerable. An army of wraiths and Nighthaunts drain him dry before his entourage can teleport in and start fighting. GG EZ, bro.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 11
Brick - Berserker 11
Morpheus - Fighter 9/Shapeshifter 10
DeBuff - Nightsinger 14
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 12
Nukesalot II - Chaos Sorcerer 12
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1122715#Comment_1122715
SoD dungeon. We send in wraiths and Nighthaunts against the first group of enemies since it's much harder to lure them away from the door to intimidate Porios. After that, we use up all the PfU scrolls I'd been saving to protect the whole party and then proceed using invisibility to bypass Korlasz' guards. A couple of Breaches and an Impose from a wraith renders her helpless and forces her surrender.
Coldhearth Crypt. Since we're out of PfU scrolls, we'll have to do this the hard way. DeBuff, Yin, and Nukesalot firebomb the undead with wands of fire with Krieg assisting with a Necklace of Missiles. But the undead are so numerous and beefy that we have to summon something to help, since wraiths and Nighthaunts are no good against them. A cleric of Dumathoin cast PfE 10' on the whole party earlier and with her increased caster level from LoB mode, I'm not worried about it ending anytime soon, so Nukesalot gates in a Balor. It's helpful but I think undead are immune to vorpal.
Morpheus later gains level 6 spells, and while I'm normally opposed to using these summons, I'll make an exception for LoB mode: we have Greater Bearweres. They regenerate 6 HP/sec and are rather beefy but their AC is pretty bad. Bad enough that even a band of hobgoblins can take them out no sweat, which really surprised me. Hasting them vastly improves their chances of survival because it doubles their regen rate.
We employ the same tactics we used on the Coast Way Bridge against the spider cave for massive XP gains. A devil shade inflicts fear on nearly half the cave's inhabitants using Night Terrors which greatly relieves the pressure put on us. Nukesalot puts Project Image to use and unleashes Chaotic Weave on the spiders.
Now we have no choice but to fight Morentherene because Shadow Adepts constantly and invisibly cast spells to update the bonuses derived from their mental stats, which wakes her up. Morpheus is panicked for the whole fight, which seems to be a gaping weakness in Chaotic Commands. We used Protection from Poison scrolls before fighting the dragon to avoid massive damage. Yin nullifies her MR with Shatter Weave while Nukesalot uses Greater Malison and then attempts Polymorph Other (which fails). Yin follows up with Sigil of Misfortune. DeBuff now transforms into a fighter using Shar's Blessing and Shadow Blade.
+50% cold resistance
5% chance to cast Essence Drain or Shadow Binding per hit
2% chance to cast Nightshade on hit
1d8+4 slashing, +4 cold
Ziatar goes down quickly because we've got a great pair of anti-mages. DeBuff hounds them after they get breached.
Siege of Bridgefort. I pray that this isn't a fight that repeatedly causes crashing. We buff up and summon wraiths/a devil shade, a pair of Nighthaunts, and Greater Bearweres. Yin and Nukesalot do their thing: lower enemy saves and use AoE crowd control spells. DeBuff throws out a Shadowblast.
At the underground river, the albino wyrmlings kill Nukesalot and Debuff with massive acid damage. I knew I should've saved Protection from Acid scrolls.
These two items are why we went to so much trouble for only 10k XP.
Yin has recently hit 16th level. It was a hard choice between Dark Passage or Merciless Blizzard, but I think I chose correctly in the end. Despite it being LoB mode, I can still depend on Merciless Blizzard to do excellent damage and immobilize enemies, especially now with Yin's new ring debuffing enemy saves every time it procs.
Morpheus is so close to Shapeshifter 13 and getting Greater Werewolf. It can't come soon enough.
Krieg IV - War Hulk 17
Brick - Battlerager 16
Morpheus - Fighter 12/Shapeshifter 12
DeBuff - Nightsinger 20
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 16
Nukesalot II - Chaos Sorcerer 16
Journal of Grack the Black Continued
Took on Centeol and had to make a strategic withdrawal. (Ran away)
He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day!
I am thinking that taking on the Section HQ in Beregost might now be the best option.
Their insistance that I am evil will be quite justified this time round.