We took on ther bandit camp and were surprised at how easy it was. We definitely overprepared. Taugoz was webbed and so outside the tent was really easy. Sorry, no image.
(Being used to the modded game where this encounter can be tough. In my usual set up all the camp join the fray outside the tent)
Jaheira got poisoned by Hakt and also webbed. Dynaheir slowed the poison though. She was the only one who could have done that, but now Leyholm has that ability too.
The second part of Torosar's adventure began at the carnival, where we enjoyed the attractions including the amazing Amazing Oopah but also did some haggling with the local vendors (we bought Necklace of Missiles, Shield Amulet, green ProPetrification scroll and the Violet Potion).
Upon hitting level 8, I decided to further postpone the main plotline until Torosar gets access to Pixie Dust in order to avoid all the kobold hordes in the Nashkel mines (without having to spend PoIs to do so). This required 30k XP and the easiest way to get rolling was by clearing the greater basilisks from Durlag's rooftop under the green ProPetrification scroll.
Prism and Greywolf were next on our list. The latter had a really bad day having to face Torosar's Spirit Bear, Poison (divine L4 spell), Summon Insects and Call Lightning (via nymph).
Similar fate awaited the parties of Sendai and Zal in the area south of Nashkel. Watching charmed Clado splash his brother Krumm's brains with a club gave us a strange sense of satisfaction.
Completing all those combat challenges resulted in Torosar reaching level 9 and getting access to L5 druid spells. This is the point where single class druids really outshine single class clerics in BG1 (who cannot get above L4), especially with all those excellent druid-only spells at L5.
Finally, we could venture into the mines. Under Pixie Dust (by the way, that rare illusion spell incantation of divine casters always gives me goosebumps - it actually makes me ponder on how timeless the entire concept of incantation is and how it really delivers this immersive gaming experience), Torosar makes an undetected approach into Mulahey's cavern. He calls upon his Spirit Snake and one nymph and then buffs with Chaotic Commands (while I make an internal note to always have this crucial buff active later on in BG2), green ProUndead scroll, Strength of One and Bless. We're ready.
Torosar kept his aura clear during the first round for a Potion of Freedom quaff, should Mulahey decide to open with Hold Person. However, as soon as our nymph's Hold Monster landed, Torosar switched on the offensive via Summon Insects.
With Mulahey out of the game, it was mostly about taking care of his minions. Confusion cast by the nymph gave us the necessary breathing space, while Torosar and the snake pounded the foes one by one.
The mines were clear and we could return with the good news to the mayor. Nimbul got in our way at some point, but his MIs, Stoneskin and MSD pre-buffs could not protect him from Hold Monster (nor MGoI for that matter, though he did not have it on this time around) and, failing his save, he was doomed (at first even literally ).
Back in Beregost, Silke succumbed to a single Dart of Stunning.
Speaking of darts, I realize that I did not mention Torosar's acquired weapon proficiencies, so here's the full list: darts, staves, slings, two-handed weapons.
Other than collecting information regarding the bandits' whereabouts, there was one more task to be completed before heading to the camp itself and that was retrieving the Manual of Bodily Health from the Pirates' Cove. Torosar avoided the sirines with Pixie Dust (both ways), used a Greenstone Amulet charge to trigger the floor traps inside the cave and shot down the flesh golems with +1 sling bullets.
Since the Nashkel Mines, Torosar had been travelling exclusively under the Pixie Dust invisibility and therefore Molkar's ambush crew did not catch him unawares when returning to High Hedge. We decided to avoid these guys altogether to save resources. By selling the loot from the cove to Thalantyr we raised enough funds for the Claw of Kazgaroth, which then replaced our Ring of Protection +1 (the other slot being occupied for the time being by the Ring of Holiness).
Bandit camp's next. And I can tell you, there was trouble.
@Adam_en_tium Thanks, I like it as well - kind of Dragon Age-y, right? I suppose I should give some credit to the artist, though unfortunately I have no recollection whatsoever of where on the internet I had stolen it .
After finding ourselves in the secret library at Candlekeep, a quick check confirmed that we'd already emptied the tombs and could head for the exit. On the way of course we left no stone unturned and no Prat unharmed.
Vince did get a rare bit of use out of his slow poison Bhaal ability while finishing off the last of the spiders.
Back in the City, we went to find Slythe. He was hit by a dispelling arrow immediately after talking and didn't survive long thereafter.
Soygib then persuaded Krystin to kill herself by the deceptively simple tactic of standing next to her .
The Palace fight can be tricky - but not this time. A bit of trap damage helped out to start with, while hasted attacks saw the dopplegangers withering under fire. By the time Vince finished his malison + emotion combination the fight was pretty much over anyway.
After cruising through the maze, we decided to grab a bit more XP in the Undercity to get our final BG1 levels. Vince threw in a chaos at Rahvin's mob - persuading him to soften up his friends nicely with a couple of exploding arrows.
A PfU scroll then allowed Corethief to quickly deal with a group of skeleton warriors.
Inside the palace, Sarevok was initially pulled out with Semaj teleporting out in support. He did well to survive some initial attacks and a couple of lots of mirror images allowed him to survive at near death for an annoyingly long time. In fact, long enough that Corethief couldn't handle his repeated lightning bolts - though neither could Semaj himself .
One potential issue with this fight is that if Semaj does last a while he will teleport back into sight of the dais - potentially bringing Angelo and Tazok into the fight. During the combat I thought that had probably happened, but I only noticed when posting this screenshot that Tazok had also been caught in the crossfire.
When Angelo made himself known, Vince and Soygib used invisibility potions to disappear and think of a new plan.
That involved catching Sarevok and Angelo in a malisoned web, but before too much damage could be done to them Tazok revealed himself with a nasty one-two on Vince before he could react.
Soygib did a tour of the building, discovering several battle horrors to add to the fun we were having. When shot by Angelo he should have disappeared with another potion, but you know what they say: "miscommunication costs lives". After Vince proposed the plan, he passed an invisibility potion to Soygib who responded with an "OK". What wasn't clear at the time was that meant: "I agree to the plan", not "I've taken the potion" - and Soygib died a moment after I unpaused the game . To go with the sorrow, there was a bit of amusement as Angelo continued firing to blast the battle horrors.
With Sarevok at the other end of the temple, Vince had a bit of space to run around in and used a few scrolls from his bag to soften him up. However, kiting is more difficult in MP, so he eventually decided to take the easy route and just summon a few groups of monsters until Sarevok had had enough.
On starting BG2, Vince found himself still lumbered with a couple of dead bodies. There was a bit of discussion about getting Jaheira to restore them, but she was not high enough level and Vince eventually used PW:console on the assumption that he'd found a temple on the way to Athkatla.
There was enough time left in the session to do most of Jon's dungeon. There wasn't too much in the way of danger there, though Soygib and Corethief both took a nap at one point while destroying some mephit portals.
A bit further on, Corethief could have been in trouble when stunned by a salt mephit with a horde of goblins attacking - but they suffered from their own bout of narcolepsy.
Enchanter - L9, 53 HPs, 32 kills (+95 in BG1)
Thief/illusionist - L8/8, 43 HPs, 18 kills (+144 in BG1), 1 death
Fighter/thief - L7/8, 79 HPs, 32 kills (+228 in BG1), 1 death
Garish, Diviner(Gate70)
Visor, Dark Moon Monk(Grond0)
Our sixth session of the run has us almost ready to face the coronation. Once inside Garish mumbles about having a poor spell choice and Visor says we can always go outside and change them. We do that, and on our return some eight hours later the coronation is getting into it's stride.
Visor drinks a few potions and unleashes his limbs while Garish starts with an almost pre-emptive malison that lands a moment or two after the doppelgangers reveal their true forms. Garish adds a spell sequencer to land a Magic Missile on one of the doppelgangers and spread Horror amongst them. From there it is a matter of tidying them up and grabbing the entirely surplus loot on the floor before leaving.
We head down into the Thieves Maze where matters conspire against us as we reach the pair of skeleton warriors. Garish hands Visor a Protection from Undead scroll and the monk promptly starts bashing away at the skeletons - only to realise he has sprung two traps on the way and dies to them.
No matter thinks Garish, heading to a temple, getting Visor raised and healed, and returning. He hands Visor a second scroll and then we make our mistake - each of us reaching into our inventories. The skeleton warriors react with glee - the inventory check allowing them to detect Visor.
The monk runs but it turns our he can't outrun an arrow. No matter thinks Garish, heading to a temple, getting Visor raised and healed, and returning. He hands Visor a third (and our last) scroll and the skeleton warriors finally fall. Garish celebrates by triggering a lightning trap himself and failing to save. His cloak's magic resistance protects against a second strike and the gulped potion of invulnerability wasn't required as there was no third strike.
That's over then. Or maybe not as Visor triggers all three Magic Missile traps and waits at the exit. Garish nearly reaches him before a real-life power-cut occurs.
Once power is restored we load the last save and do the entire Thieves Maze without incident and Garish then uses Shield to breeze through the Magic Missile traps.
Rahvin and his mercenaries are waiting for us in the middle of a webbed malison cloudkill skulltrap killzone. Visor notes that Haseo and Gorf are still alive only for them to perish too.
Inside the temple of Bhaal Garish suggests he cast Dispel Magic on Sarevok to start combat and does that, with Visor being spoken to presumably while in the shadows. As we retreat we see a web and a stinking cloud following us, oh and Semaj.
Garish manages to struggle free but Visor fails and is then dominated. After a couple of seconds we realise a Cloudkill will kill him so Garish uses his remaining Dispel Magic - it shows both Garish and Semaj dispelled but neither react so looks to be ineffective. Garish can't do anything else and Visor dies.
Garish adds a pair of webs of his own and a malison before moving in to deal with Semaj. He mis-steps and gets caught for a round before breaking free again and stepping back. Visor's echoing advice suggests equipping Visor's ring of free action so he does that and attacks Semaj with a fireball wand, Magic Missiles and Melf's Minute Meteors.
Semaj hangs on grimly and teleports back and is beside Angelo now. It doesn't save him and he dies out of sight but Garish can't relax as Tazok has just appeared next to him.
Garish does a quick circle near the exit and feels he has matters under control as he hits Tazok with a first wand scorcher. Pity he's misjudged where the lightning trap to the left of the room is.
Sarevok kicks the body of Semaj out of his way as he orders Tazok and Angelo to loot the corpses of Garish and Visor.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 200 (update 1) Reck (male dwarf Priest of Lathander, Grond0); Fhryng (male half-elf jester, Gate70) Previous run
As usual, after a quick round of muted sobs, we randomly generated a couple of new character classes and soon had a new run under way. That saw a typical start with Shoal providing an early level each.
Rather than head in search of more quick XP though, I decided to accumulate a bit more gently this run. Still, it didn't take long to cruise through Beregost and on down to Nashkel to get Reck some decent armor. Looking to boost his attacks as well, we moved on towards Firewine - leaving Arabelle clinging on to life in a xvart-free zone on the way.
Meilum tried a few fancy moves with his sword, only to freeze in astonishment as Fhryng demonstrated his sword dancing abilities.
A further potential attacking boost for Reck depended on persuading Bassilus to hand over his hammer. Reck suggested that Fhryng show himself to Bassilus, expecting him to do so only briefly. In fact Fhryng went right into combat and it was probably just as well that Bassilus got his tongue caught between his teeth.
Nearby, Zargal was another silenced victim - meaning he sat out a combat with his pals until it was his own turn.
Fhryng was determined not to wear any armor, but managed to survive several archer ambushes anyway, while we ranged widely across the map, in search of reputation. That hit 20 in the Cloudpeaks, where Fhryng also discovered a tome to boost his already stellar charisma. The session was due anyway to end on return from there, but that return was a bit more somber than expected when Fhryng tried kiting with his bow still equipped once too often and a bear's paw tore him apart.
Priest of Lathander 5, 42 HPs, 36 kills
Jester 5, 29 HPs, 37 kills, 1 death
We headed through Cloakwood defeating Centeol and several other enemies.
In the cave we killed a number of wyvern, but in transit Dynaheir was poisoned and ultimately killed by them before we killed them. We therefore returned to a temple to raise her before heading for the Cloakwood Mines.
Down there, the both of the first mages that we met launched lightning bolts. The first killed Khaled as well as badly hurting herself, us, and her allies. We were able to kill her easily as a result of her action and then returned to the temple to raise Khalid.
The lightning bolt of the second mage killed one of her cohorts just after we killed her!
Much the same happened when fighting Davaeorn.
The lightning bolt badly hurt me, then turned through a right angle and killed everyone but Jaheira and me. It then returned and killed him!
After cacheing the loot we returned to the surface where we rested until fully healed. We then returned to a temple in order to raise our fallen.
On the way a couple of wyvern attacked and almost killed me. However, it was the wyverns that died.
We then bought an archmage's robe for Dynaheir and recharged the wand of fire which was down to one charge.
We will now return to the mines and discover what is in the chests that we were unable to open.
EDIT
Upon arriving in Baldur's Gate things were quite straightforward until we visited Degrodel's home. We were buffed, so at first things went fine, but then Sunami was badly injured so he went outside to heal himself. Meanwhile inside the enemy was being whittled down until our protections began to fail. That resulted in the death of Dynaheir. Also outside Sunami had been followed by an invisible stalker and he was killed. Nevertheless we defeated them, and met up with Degrodel who gave us a quest.
On the positive side, several of us levelled up. Now to raise the dead and acquire a cloak.
Going through the Korlasz catacombs has been a chore. Even though Imoen has chosen to learn from Duke Jannath rather than from her loving brother... Who already was a powerful Shadow Mage… I never understood her…
Someone recruited Safana to help me… what for? Viconia is my best trap spotter and lock opener
Thankfully with the help of multiple Wands of fire and a couple Webs we managed to reach Korlasz. She didn’t surrender at first… so I didn’t give her a second chance… Better safe than sorry!
Having a couple of weeks to relax in the mansion and being admired by the masses really did wonders for my complexion. I’ve even started wondering if Shadow Magic was a good choice…
After an absurd attack that I’ve managed to stop with the help of my powerful magic and my trusty familiar (a Shadow Wolf) we once again got involved with some save-the-world bulls***... Even though I wanted to say that I didn't care I couldn’t find the proper words… Maybe this was this strange man in robe… I absolutely don’t know who he is!!
I see more dead people i know!
Fun fact - I was informed that the witch I’ve killed (Dyna or something) is actually alive. Thankfully I was invisible during her meeting so she didn’t recognize me!
Looked a bit for Kagain ar Shar-Teel (my two most valuable meetbags) but they left for good… maybe it’s because I didn’t trust them with the equipment but camon - It was mine!!! They only bleed for it… and a loss of blood never killed anyone!
Met Viconia just before moving out to somewhere (didn’t pay attention on the meeting)... Gods! She’s so sexy! I can’t stop thinking about her <non PG-13 content> and <non PG-13 content> ! Last night I dreamt that we <non PG-13 content> with <non PG-13 content> and <non PG-13 content>. She actually did this thing <non PG-13 content>! Wow!
Dear diary, I’ve just given the best speech ever! Maybe I could consider getting involved in politics? “Duke Dante” sounds good… Mhm… Okay - that is my motivation!
I’ve gathered a new party (why is everyone calling it like this?). Minsc is insane, Dyna is up tight, Corvin is up tight, Safana is sexy, Viccy is sexy… maybe not the worst but I wanted to get some more meatbags and everytime I try to recruit someone I have the urge to get rid of another one... Need to talk with my cleric about this.
Couple of boring days later we made camp… I was so bored that I started signing to some Menhirs…
...and even wanted to help find some missing people ...but thankfully this turned out well as I’ve managed to buy a beautiful golem!
...boring, boring, boring… I’ve decided to go ahead through the bridge but of course some dim wit blew it up… If all of Caelar people are like this it will be a cake walk…
Waiting until the army gathers all equipment I’ve decided to visit the mine that is near. From my experience miners have massive amounts of money and magical items/scrolls so it will be worth it!
Got so excited! There is a dwarf that managed to turn to lich… maybe I could learn a lot from him. I wonder what he will want from me.
Scratch that - the undead moron attacked me once I’ve told him that I have a couple of amulets that he requested. I think he wasn’t all there… He thought I wanted to screw him over! How dare he?! Well… I wanted to do it but not like this!
Dear diary… I had the strangest experience. I can recall Baeloth blowing up into a million pieces and now he is all okay and doesn’t remember his death… The trickster most likely had some contingency that misfired and this is because he doesn’t remember me… or I’m going crazy… Couldn’t let him join me… I still remember finding Baeloth in the folds of my robe for weeks…
I see troll people!
Boooooooooooooring!!! I’ve reached some troll wood. My meetbags killed most of them but a couple of times I needed to throw a spell or two… So incopetent.
Met Jaheira and some strangely talking bard. If I understand correctly he is a northern version of Volo.
Jaheira is a lot more useful then the crazy hamster guy so I asked her to join me… Dyna left as well so I recruited Volo. He said he knows some spells so maybe he’ll be useful…
I want to see more dead people!
Arrived at the crusade camp… Those morons didn’t recognize me… Their intel is so bad… no wonder they suck at everything!
Found the strange cave complex…
First I managed to kill the big dragon… the fight was a bit underwhelming… with all the protections my team ended with only scratches… I’m that good! :c
Killed a couple of bugbears on my way to the temple… to be honest why did they make a temple there… no windows, a lot of moisture… not good. My temple will be somewhere nice, with a good view!
Killed the patrol in their cages - less enemies…
Killed the dragon's sister… Actually she was kinda hot… what a waste!
Killed the strange monster, killed the Mind Flyer, killed anything else and got the cool short sword…I’m truly a Child of God! Nothing can stop me!
Got back to Bridgefort and teleported inside. Seriously who develops something like that?
Save the people by getting a poorly secured scroll and gathering the Coalition to attack from both sides! This will be a cake walk!
Changed Corwin to Khalid (an Archer) and buffed the team to absurd levels - no mistakes!
…
…
Mistakes were made
Lost Viconia…
Lost Jaheira…
Lost my wolf familiar...
...okay - need to save the bridge! Me, Volo, Edwin and Khalid can do it!
Oh f***!!! We can’t do it! Fire elementals?! All I need to do is to drag those two from the barricade and use the help of other troops!
Dear Diary, there were 3 elementals...
I dream of dead people!
Dante woke up screaming! Covered in sweat he laughed to himself. Thank the gods, his Bhaalspawn powers allow him to turn back in time and try another time... Too bad it takes him back so far...
He should go back to sleep, he has a long life to live... maybe this time he'll try to focus more on his physical abilities...
-Where is Francis?! - he blurred falling asleep...
Our performance in the bandit camp was a jeopardy. In fact, I almost got Torosar killed were it not for a lucky save vs. spell roll at one point. I was dead-tired and I should have been doing something completely different but I still decided to play BG. Well, I suppose that is how you learn your lessons. Here's how it went:
We approached the camp under cover together with Raiken, rested and buffed in front of the main tent. Our buffs were meagre - only Pixie Dust (cast pre-rest, as Torosar still only has one L5 slot), Chaotic Commands and Protection from Electricity. That is where our problems began.
Invisible, Torosar entered the main tent. Raemon is the only one that can discover your cover and alarm the other bandits. So if you position your party in the back of the main tent where he cannot see you, you can make unhindered preparations for the battle. It may be slighlty problematic to justify this trick from a roleplaying perspective, but there's at least some degree of autheniticy to it. Torosar prepares with Call Woodland Beings, Spirt Snake, Entagle and attacks.
Despite his ridiculous AC vs. missile (Cloak of Displacement + Claw of Kazgaroth + Boots of Avoidance + Girdle of Piercing), Torosar quickly becomes poisoned by one of the hobgoblin elites and has to quaff an Elixir of Health. Our nymph pulls off Confusion into the fray but Britik still manages to give Torosar a good pounding.
Torosar lands Summon Insects on Hakt and is in turn targeted with Venkt's MAA.
We used the time in between the acid damage ticks of MAA to cast another Summon Insects, this time already on Venkt. The nymph wandered into the vines and was immediately shot down. The biggest problem, however, was that Venkt just began an enchantment incantation and I instantly realized that a Hold Person was coming. There was no way that Torosar could manage to quaff a Potion of Freedom because his of clouded aura. I was certain that this will be the end and I was angry at myself because of that. I unpaused the game and let the dice of fate roll - amazingly, Torosar made his save vs. spell.
We were not out of this mess yet. With our Spirit Snake dead, and both Entangle and Confusion gone, we knew we would soon be overwhelmed. Even though the casting speed of Summon Spirit Animal is like 1 or 2 max, our attempt to summon the Spirit Lion came to a halt after another critical from one of the archers. Cornered, bruised and alone, Torosar hits the emergency button by quaffing a PoI.
Healed up and buffed, he was determined to get out of this tent alive. One down.
Torosar then charmed one of the surviving Blacktalons and also hit Venkt with Poison.
Almost there.
Phew!
We quaff another PoI to avoid the enemies outside the tent are we're outta there.
Well, so much for an elegant battle. I am glad that the run goes on, but it is a sobering remined of how fast can the things go wrong with careless play. Next time I would definitely take Iron Skins instead of Chaotic Commands (and use Greenstone Amulet to compensate for that) together with 100% cold protection to minimize the risk of spell interruption and damage taken. On top of that, I shouldn't be such a skimp and should use an Oil of Speed. All that should provide sufficient headroom to be able to manage aura for counters, such as Potion of Freedom.
Holidays allowed a rare weekday session and that quickly proved costly for us. The first action was to head for the seaside in search of some sirines. Reck was now able to produce a couple of skeletons and they were helpful not only in tanking directly, but in providing a handy targeting point for Fhryng's scorchers.
Inside the pirate cave a new pair of skeletons took the pressure off Reck as he bludgeoned a couple of golems. For the last of those, there was only 1 skeleton left and I considered resting first - but decided to go ahead anyway . The skeleton didn't last long and, after Reck was hit for 21 of his 42 HPs, he started running round - while Fhryng took up his bow and started firing some of the sirines' arrows. In the close confines of the cave it was hard for Reck to keep out of range of the golem's fists though and he took a further 21 damage, just as Fhryng exclaimed in triumph as the golem slumped to the floor.
The randomator threw out a pair of arcane casters for us to try harder with. We each chose Blindness as our primary spell, with Grond0 opting for Identify and I chose Protection from Petrification.
In Candlekeep both Shank and Carbos stumbled about in the dark, rubbing their eyes in disbelief as missiles pinged in to kill them. This was all the encouragement we needed to leave, and instead of our usual path we went north to pick up the ring of Wizardry - Startle equipping it.
A rash of blindness took hold of the local hobgoblins.
Then we set off on a familiar route, blinding and killing Shoal the nereid before returning a ring to Mad Arcand. Our journey led us into Beregost and south to Nashkel. Startle was caught out by Greywolf to the south of Nashkel Mine and after Urchin blinded him a temple visit was arranged so we could wreak our revenge in a slow drawn-out affair (many bullets and darts now litter his corpse).
Urchin fancied his chances against the basilisks and we easily killed off the lower group before resting and moving on to the upper group. Our strategy was to blind them and pelt them with missiles.
Urchin didn't feel like mentioning to Startle that she was swinging her quarterstaff in the wrong direction - it would connect anyway and he dismissed it as a temporal multiplayer anomoly.
The penultimate basilisk (2nd closest to Mutamin) was duly blinded and attacked but after half a minute or so Startle noticed Urchin had stopped. Casting a glance over her shoulder she saw her companion had been petrified. So our protection from petrification had worn off and the basilisk must have saved against blindness even though we both saw the blue orb indicating it. Next time we should pay more attention to the combat log to make sure blind really means blind.
Find a spellbook!
we took our time looking for a spellbook to reopen the magic shop and give us some powerful scrolls... the boss was a cakewalk with these new spells
Wild mage rubble
I'm not sure what happened here but I clearly didn't have the correct counter ready
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 202 (update 1) Skant (female halfling bounty hunter, Grond0); Rott (male human monk, Gate70)
Previous run
A new day saw a new run starting with hope in our hearts (and fear everywhere else ). After recent losses though a more cautious approach early on saw travel timings monitored to avoid any bandits while taking a route from Shoal, to Beregost, to Nashkel and up to find some basilisks. One item of interest on the way was a first use of traps on Mirianne's ogrillons. I tried to lead the pair of them into the trap together, so both would be hit, but was disappointed only 1 was targeted.
The extra levels gained from the basilisks soon made HPs feel a bit more comfortable - particularly for Skant, who has only dropped a single possible HP so far from her 6 levels.
Mutamin (very briefly) slowed down from the impact of one trap, before a second completed a demolition job on him.
Traps were also laid for Kirian's mob, but Lindin went hostile slightly before the others and was the only one to die. Baerin chased us as we ran away and died when we disappeared into stealth before ganging up on him. Then it was back to traps to do most of the damage required for Kirian and Peter.
Skant was getting a fair number of kills from throwing her traps ahead towards where weaker enemies were laying in wait - saving Arabelle for instance was the work of but a moment.
On the way to Firewine Bridge, a basilisk attempted to get revenge for the death of it's friends - but was too slow to attack as Skant turned on her heels and hurried off.
On arrival, Meilum survived a couple of traps, before being shot down the old-fashioned way.
After the blunder we had made in the bandit camp, I was determined to proceed in a more diligent manner. We rested at FAI, resupplied our potion case with Potions of Extra Healing and Mind Focusing from the local temple and set our course for Cloakwood Forest.
As anticipated, Torosar got ambushed by Lamalha's amazons on his way there. He did not have his Pixie Dust invisibility on by that time and was left with basically only two sensible courses of action for his first move - quaffing a PoI or activating Greenstone Amulet. He went for the Greenstone Amulet, retreated a bit and was able to bring his Spirit Bear onto the stage just in time before the two rogues could strike from the shadows. With his second spirit animal joining the fray in the third round, the odds were already largely in our favor, despite Torosar getting silenced by Zeela.
Cloakwood areas were rushed with the exception of the spider forest - there is sufficient XP to be had and I sometimes like to spend some time in there so as to collect that final level-up in BG1 with solo characters. The spiders are not to be underestimated and green ProPoison scroll and Potion of Freedom (in particular for the SCS giant spiders' web ability) are usually a good choice, while Torosar also added Iron Skin on top of that. For offense, we mostly used a combination of spirit summons, nymphs and - the true reason why druids like outdoors - Call Lightning.
Drasus and his party awaited us at the mines. A certain military commander had once said that the key to a successful warfare strategy is the superiority in numbers. True to that advice, Torosar came prepared with an army. After the initial face-off with with Drasus, Torosar returned to the bridge to make his stand. And he was not alone.
While enraged Drasus was busy with our summoned fodder, Genthore got held by our nymph. The mages were just finishing their buff routine out of sight and were ready to join.
Trying to maximize the damage output in a short period of time, Torosar goes Call Lightning -> Wand of Heavens. Even with Drasus' Magic Shielding potion this was still sufficient to bring him down. Here's a rare picture of a flaming lightning striking from above.
We summon another nymph to Mass Cure our spirit animals and assist us with the mages - Rezdan was bringing his own summons into play, starting with Lesser Fire Elemental.
Poor mages should have known better than to face a druid while relying on their MGoIs only. Insect Plague: Rezdan.
And that was it - the entrance was clear.
Torosar rested a bit to refresh his spells and proceeded into the mine. He used Pixie Dust to avoid the guards, spoke with Rill, refreshed his Pixie Dust once more and approached the fourth level. Remaining invisible, he rested once again.
For Davaeorn, we decided to try to set up an ambush and go for a quick kill. Torosar prepared with Iron Skin, Shield Amulet and summoned a Spirit Wolf, a Spirit Lion and one nymph. Using Pixie Dust, we were able to sneak past the trapped corridor undetected. We waited while the nymph mass cured the trap damage and saw the Battle Horrors leaving their positions and heading for the entrance. This was our chance to strike.
Torosar casted True Sight and we approached Davaeorn. When in position, the entire party attacked as one. Even though Davaeorn made all his saves against our Darts of Stunning, he was unable to Dimension Door away in time.
Our immediate tasks in Baldur's Gate involved obtaining the three tomes (DEX, WIS, INT). The first one was easy - it was just about guessing the right password. For the second one, we had to deal with Marek.
To get the third book we paid a visit to Ramazith. I love how authentically "necro" this guy is - Animate Dead, Spirit Armor, Skull Traps, Horror, it's all there. Horror is a potential issue since druids do not have access to Resist Fear. We could go for either Potion of Magic Shielding or Potion of Clarity to counter that, but the first is too precious and the latter we forgot to buy . Anyway, we had our spirit animals that are unaffected by fear so this was not really an issue.
Torosar approached the top floor of the tower under Pixie Dust and hid behind the bookcases.
We buffed with Chaotic Commands, Iron Skin, Protection from Fire, Strength of One and Defensive Harmony and started to call in our summons. As expected, Ramazith cast his Horror, affecting Torosar and his nymph, but the spirit lion stood its ground and finished him off.
Torosar replaced his Ring of Holiness with Ring of Protection +2 and, with his checklist cleared, he proceeded to the Iron Thorne HQ to retrieve the evidence for the Flaming Fist officials (using Pixie Dust to avoid contact with any enemies).
The detour to Candlekeep was not that eventful. We used Potion of Magic Protection to escape the ogre mage assassins and the Violet Potion, Shield Amulet, ProFire and ProElectricity to access the trapped tombs in the catacombs to get the STR and WIS tomes. Under Pixie Dust, Torosar then trailed off back to Baldur's Gate.
The great finale began with Marek and Krystin-honey. And I mean, how cool is that for a BG1 foe?
Nevertheless, we did not underestimate our preparations. Torosar went for Iron Skin, Oil of Speed, Chaotic Commands, ProFire and True Seeing. He had his spirit animals ready and waiting, supported by two nymphs.
Slythe opened with an OK backstab, which the nymphs started to heal immediately.
He then avoided Poison by quaffing a PoI, though his invisibility was quickly dispelled and he fell just in time when Torosar's Iron Skins were breached by Krystin.
With her Fireshield kicking-in, I decided that Krystin was not worth the trouble and we picked up the documents and ran away.
Today's session started with a visit to Greywolf. He was both badly hurt and slowed by pre-laid traps and became an easy victim for Rott.
A few more traps were used in encounters, but Rott was also making his special ability count - for instance against Tarnesh.
Seeking more of a challenge, Skant led the way to the Lighthouse area. The wandering sirines there are harder to trap and the bulk of the work hunting them down was done using stealth attacks. Inside the pirate cave, stealth was mainly used as a blocking device while Skant shot down the golems.
Not content with spending quite a bit of time stealth attacking sirines, Skant next went in search of the Doomsayer. He was far too tough for us in melee, but in principle should have been relatively easily taken down with stealth attacks around his garden wall. However, a large group of tasloi nearby complicated that and when Skant did get backstabs to connect, his unenchanted staff produced underwhelming results - such as a triple damage backtab for a total of 4 damage. Eventually, Skant tired of the game and resorted to a single magic missile to finish the job .
Returning to Nashkel in company with Brage pushed reputation to 20 and prompted a trip to Ulgoth's Beard. On the way, Rott stopped off at the ankheg nest and successfully robbed that using stealth. His decision to avoid combat in there looked wise after a certain amount of trouble with the single ankheg in the next area.
Checking his inventory, Skant found several quest items to deal with, including Perdue's sword. Karlat was keen to prevent any interlopers in his favorite pub and, even with his new +3 staff, Skant had no luck there with backstabs - but a handy pillar let him lay traps under Karlat's feet.
In search of another tome, the next destination was the Cloudpeaks. By this time Rott had purchased the Dagger of Venom and was soon showing that off to all-comers - turning most of them green with envy.
The final action was in the Nashkel Mine. A couple of traps were thrown under Mulahey's feet before Skant introduced himself with a backstab. He made sure to provoke Mulahey in the ensuing conversation - with fatal results to the cleric.
At that point the game crashed and I reloaded it after the session with the intention of properly saving the autosave so we could start off by killing Mulahey again next time. However, the chapter change had triggered just before the crash, so Mulahey might consider himself lucky that we won't have to slaughter him again .
Since the coronation was scheduled for the following day, Torosar got the chance to take some time off in his favorite watering hole in town - the Blade and Stars Inn.
In the morning, he left for the palace. Expecting trouble, Torosar prepared with care - his buffs included Oil of Speed, Iron Skin, Chaotic Commands, Shield Amulet, 100% fire protection (spell and potion), Strength of One, DuHM and True Seeing. He was accompanied by his two spirit animals and two nymphs. Things escalated quickly and he soon found himself in the middle of a frenzied battle. We opened with mass Defensive Harmony and a double Confusion cast by the two nymphs.
Belt was starting to take heavy damage, but otherwise things looked to be under control.
We knew that sooner or later the doppelganger mage would go for a remove.
Using his extra speed, Torosar retreated a bit to avoid a mass dispel on his allies. His own buffs stayed intact as well, which is always a sign of good fortune.
Our nymphs then applied Mass Cure to heal up the whole group.
With only the mage remaining standing it was a quick work from there. He did not even manage to pull off his Chaos. And as for Sarevok...we'll find him don't you worry.
Finally, the anticipated climax of our Sword Coast adventure. Torosar rushed to the Undercity straight from the ducal palace. Invisible, he passed both the maze and the Iron Throne mercenaries and reached the Temple of Bhaal. Here's a snapshot of Torosar's inventory before the battle for the record (kudos if you can spot the mistake I made here).
When thinking about the strategy for the battle, I realized that our summons (on which we had been so heavily relying) would be of little use here. Instead, Torosar would have to focus on material resources - his sling, his potion case (including Potions of Firebreath) and Wands of Heaven. His spellbook was also not that relevant, maybe with the exception of Iron Skin and True Seeing.
Our intial buffs consisted only of Iron Skin and Oil of Speed. The beginning of the actual fight was rather strange. Somehow, Diarmid blocked Sarevok and his other goons from joining the action and just stood there near the throne with his ProMagic, showering Torosar with arrows. Torosar, on the other hand, returned the favor by flinging sling bullets at Diarmid.
In this set-up, we were comfortable with using Torosar's aura for gradually improving our buffs with Potion of Mind Focusing, ProAcid, Potion of Power and DuHM. Then suddenly, everything accelerated and the other enemies started popping up.
Semaj's first move was Chaos. Torosar: Potion of Magic Shielding.
Our protections did not hold for long as immediately in the next round Torosar got dispelled by Semaj's Remove Magic (+1 for the Sarevok team).
At first, I was confident that we could rebuff on the run and quaffed an Oil of Speed instead of PoI. Semaj and Angelo used the opportunity to strike with MMs and MMAs. Torosar tried to counter the damage with Potion of Regeneration but our HPs were quickly diminishing. We decided it was time to go invisible and heal, but Semaj was anticipating that. He pulled off a well timed Confusion and Torosar had to counter with another Potion of Magic Shielding.
Now we knew that we either quaff a PoI in the next round or die. We chose the first option.
Patched up and with our protections back on, we're once again ready to kick ass.
However, we do not live in an ideal world. Cementing his position as the most annoying figure of the entire run, Semaj decided to give us another remove. I was furious! At the same time, I was really really pleased with the SCS scripting here for putting up such a fight!
Okay, so here we go again. Oil of Speed -> Potion of Magic Shielding (the last one we had) -> Potion of Regeneration. The positive thing was that we got our first man down.
We needed a time-out to put the Iron Skin back on and so Torosar quaffed another PoI. We also added True Seeing to prepare for what was about to come.
Hello there! It's good to finally see you Tazok.
Time for our secret tricks - Potion of Firebreath and Wand of Heaven. One.
Two.
Three.
And - after a looong period of kiting and relentless barrage - four!
We did prepare Torosar's spellbook for Irenicus' dungeon and also removed the Helm of Baludran just before Sarevok died. SoD is not on our list so see you in Amn.
'Long-life challenge' - druid dualling to fighter (update 1)
After more recent disappointments, including failing against Mel's final incarnation, I thought I'd briefly document another run. Randomly choosing a class got me a druid to be dualled to fighter. I was quite attracted by the idea of starting as an avenger, but decided the loss of strength and constitution was too great for a fighter. Similarly, I didn't want to fight naked as a fighter, so left the shapeshifter kit alone. However, the totemic druid had no disadvantages compared to a standard druid - and considerable advantages. To get the best out of spirit summons I would need to go to at least level 10 to get their best incarnation - and level 11 to get a third summons then looks very attractive. Given that I expect to go through BGEE and SoD as a druid before dualling early in BG2EE.
Without a true dump stat, this is a hard class to get an ideal roll for and I compromised by lowering wisdom after failing to get better than a 92 total in 45 minutes of rolling.
Aiming to be more focused than usual I started off with the easy XP from Shoal. Korax sorted out the basilisks to provide several more levels, meaning two spirit summons were available for Kirian & co.
Meilum's bracers made darts more effective before a trip north to kill Dushai for her ring. That also reduced reputation, so that I got LMD on arriving in Nashkel - after having picked up Drizzt's equipment, courtesy of some gnolls, on the way.
In the Nashkel Mine, Mulahey was eaten by lions and I picked up a further LMD.
The amazons could probably also have been handled by those alone, but nymphs provided an even more shocking experience.
For a bit of variety, snakes killed Nimbul and Tranzig. Moving on to the Bandit Camp a pair of lions and a couple of nymphs cleared the exterior. After resting, the same combination waited outside the tent for enemies to chase me outside.
I then rested to get Bhaal horror.
Using free action, I ran through the Cloakwood to get to the mine. An opening lightning blast there was timed with an immediate confusion follow-up - and if that looked bad for Drasus and his friends, the impact of hold monsters looked worse ...
Bhaal horror helped clear a way to find Davaeorn.
His guard there was charmed and soaked up some punishment from the battle horrors while lions nibbled at them. The second of those was actually killed by a cause wounds spell from a nymph - it seems a bit odd that Beamdog chose to change LMD so that now has no effect on battle horrors (and many other things), but cause wounds spells were not changed.
The lions then quickly chased Davaeorn down.
I wasted a minute or so having to return downstairs after having forgotten to pick up the key, but then flooded the mine.
A quick round of reputation quests pushed that to 20 and I avoided doing my usual routine of encounters when going to the Gnoll Stronghold to pick up the tome there. With reputation at 16, prices were rather worse than I usually aim for, but to compensate I didn't bother buying most of the potions I typically purchase (but don't actually use). I also realised while doing a shopping tour that I'd got the XP for level 9 - making it even easier to avoid combats while travelling using Pixie Dust. Next up will be Baldur's Gate.
In the City the search for tomes saw Jalantha held by nymphs, while snakes were too quick for Marek.
Drinking his antidote got me to level 10 and top-level summons. Snakes also dealt quickly with Ramazith, but I just sneaked upstairs to get the tome, rather than clear the tower as usual. Reading that means I can now make use of scrolls and wands.
A tidying-up tour saw a trip to Durlag's Tower, where I sneaked in to get the tome using chaotic commands for protection. I picked up the Ring of Energy from the Red Wizards.
I had to be alert when being ambushed by a basilisk on the way back from there.
At the Lighthouse area I bypassed the sirines, but a pair of spirit lions made short work of some golems to provide me with a constitution boost.
Finally, I went to the FAI to grab some pantaloons and buy Buckley's Buckler to activate regeneration (at least I intended to - a later review showed I'd forgotten to buy that).
Back in Baldur's Gate, I grabbed the Helm of Balduran. I just sneaked in to see Degrodel on the way to getting its companion cloak. With the roster of equipment complete, I headed for the Iron Throne. After sneaking in invisibly, the spirit lions attacked to turn everyone on the top floor hostile as 3 confusions and a first use of insect plague were on the way.
A few seconds later and the slaughter was complete.
At Candlekeep I used the violet potion to loot the tombs. I avoided the dopplegangers, but did deal with Prat's gang in the same way as at the Iron Throne.
After resting to get a final Bhaal power, Slythe was eaten alive by lions while he stood helpless.
At the palace, insect plague and confusion once more made a nonsense of the opposition and Belt and Liia were both only slightly injured.
After a couple of unfortunate recent experiences I used buffs to ensure there were no problems with the traps in the maze. I left the Undercity party and went straight to the old temple. I threw in 5 dispel magics at the dais there to try and dispel Sarevok's haste before resting. Sarevok was then activated with a magic missile from range and tempted forwards a bit when I went back towards him invisibly. Semaj teleported out in support, but was held by nymphs before he could do more than cast a single lightning bolt.
Unfortunately though, that bounced all the way back to hit both Angelo and Tazok - bringing them into a fight they would otherwise have ignored. To be safe I used a potion of invisibility to avoid being targeted while Angelo used exploding arrows to kill the summons.
I responded with a necklace of missile blast from out of sight to finish off Semaj. Sarevok followed me (and his speed had not been dispelled), but was dumped with another potion of invisibility. I finished Angelo off before running Sarevok round for a while using darts to wear him down.
When those ran out I switched to a magic missile wand before deciding that I should also be finishing off Tazok - who had disappeared again. Dumping Sarevok in a corner I stood still for long enough for Tazok to attack, then used doom and darts of stunning to make him helpless.
Then it was time to finish things. I decided it would be appropriate to use a druid spell to get the kill, so took advantage of ironskins to cast insect plague on Sarevok.
Even though I missed out more content than usual, I still transferred to SoD with 287k and hence was able to immediately level up there.
Here's Torosar character sheet at the beginning of Irenicus' dungeon.
We teamed up with Imoen to make our escape as smooth as possible. Because our spirit animals were already immune to normal weapons among others, we did not really expect much trouble. Torosar's spellbook had been optimized during the fight with Sarevok and therefore we didn't have any Call Lightnings and other irrelevant spells taking up precious spell slots. Beacause we leveled up on start, Fire Elementals would have to wait until the first rest.
Our Spirit Lion was basically able to clear the entire floor of all the duegars, mephits and even the lesser clay golems on its own.
For the otyugh and the Cambion we used Doom, Summon Insects and Imoen's arcane spells.
Imoen used MGoI to tank the mephits in the Elemental Plane and we completed quests for both the djinni and the dryads.
In terms of equipment we collected Staff Spear +2 and retrieved our the Claw of Kazgaroth. We then passed through the portal, had a chat with Yoshimo a rested.
For the mephit portal room we prepared with Fire Elemental, Spirit Lion, Chaotic Commands (Torosar), Ironskin / Stoneskin, Haste, Armor (Imoen), MGoI (Imoen) and Bless. I was really looking forward to see our Fire Elemental in action for the first time. Anticlimactically, it fell asleep to a radiant mephit's Color Spray...
We sliced through the remaining enemies on the second floor, only stopping to collect the RoP +1 from the statute. The assassins got their backstabs foiled by True Seeing though they would have a hard time trying to find someone in our group that they could harm.
@Grond0 Though I'm sure that Torosar could make a star appearance on an Indian wedding with these, it's not really it
@Wise_Grimwald I'd be curious to hear which ones you have in mind as I may be missing something all the time (I'll note Helm of Defense was not available as we never faced Shoal's ogre mage).
@Grond0 Though I'm sure that Torosar could make a star appearance on an Indian wedding with these, it's not really it
A small hint maybe?
Well that suggests we're into the realm of personal preference and what works in given situations. However, I would guess you're referring to the +2 ring of protection. The Cloak of Balduran is another item that I would normally prefer to the cloak you have, but different people have different views on that .
Nimbul died to a backstab and Tranzig was poisoned by Rott's dagger before we headed for the Bandit Camp. Even with stealth, the staggered position of the bandits is designed to allow them to fire arrows at any attacker and our relatively poor AC meant some of those shots hit - the very laggy gameplay didn't help. Taurgosz lost most of his HPs to traps before being shot down, but I took stock at the point where there were 3 bandits left near Tazok's tent, while we both had HPs in the low 20s. I did consider resting to heal up, but the odds of completing the clearance operation before resting seemed good .
As Skant stealthily approached 2 bandits (one of them already badly wounded), he felt reasonably in control. However, as he was positioning for a backstab, both of them annoyingly decided to move at the same time. Skant followed one of them, but his stealth failed before he could attack - and then he died. I don't seem to have taken a screenshot of that, but the bandit with a bow shot him for 8 damage and the one he was following critically slashed him with a sword for 16 damage.
In the SoD prologue, Porios was persuaded to surrender without a fight. I used invisibility to sneak through all the enemies to find Korlasz. She managed to break out of a summoned cage, but was already near death and a blast from the Ring of Energy finished her off.
Various mercenaries were then unable to damage the fire elemental.
In Baldur's Gate I killed a few NPCs to add their equipment to the items carried across from BGEE in my bags. I also took my final SoD level before leaving. Rather than doing the Coast Way Forest I went straight to investigate the bridge - invisibly to make sure that no combat occurred before Caelar arrived for a parley.
There was nothing worth having in Troll Claw Woods, so I skipped through there. On the way to the Forest of Wyrms I found more trolls in a cave - invisibility and a ring of infravision let me pick up the Firefly sling there, though that probably won't be used.
At the Forest I sneaked into the old temple, where Ziatar was fire-bombed from out of sight.
The Neothelid has a dangerous list of abilities, including poison, charm, stun and hold. However, a scroll of PFP and a potion of magic shielding sorted those out and, once the creature decided to surface, it was no match in melee for my summons.
Akanna and her aerial servants fared no better and I rested before leaving the temple - stopping on the way out to throw a single well-aimed dagger into a green dragon's heart.
A young green dragon asked for help on the way to Boareskyr Bridge (it wouldn't have been so friendly if I'd already converted its relative into a shield or armor).
Typically I use a firebreath potion to kill Vichand before he can alert the crusaders, but with hard-hitting summons that wasn't necessary this time.
Inside the fort, I talked to Hillcarver and handed Vichand's scroll over to Hess before making some voidstone shards into bullets. Thirrim provided a few more potions before I surrendered the fort. That's all pretty easy, but the fight with the mage on the bridge can be tricky. The most reliable method I've found is to use the Ring of Energy to disrupt his spells - preventing him from opening a fire portal.
With the help of a bit of snake poison he died more quickly than usual and the guards were helpless on their own.
At the Coalition Camp, I wasted a charge from the Spectacles of Spectacle when discovering there was a rat next to Nazramu . However, as he was the only target I was interested in anyway, that wasn't costly. After collecting the Bwoosh and poison I hit the road again, skipping through Dead Man's Pass to go to Dragonspear and rescue Skie. Then it was on to the Underground River area where summons made short work of some myconids and spiders on the way to find the cyclops. It saved against a stunning dart, but still died within a couple of seconds.
That allowed me plenty of time to go invisible and go to find the underground entrance before the defending mages teleported in with their detection spells.
After placing the Bwoosh, I convinced Turin that knowledge was a dangerous thing and gained access to the Warrens. The cleric there sells greater restoration scrolls that I find useful for many characters, though they're less of an issue for a druid that can use Champion's Strength scrolls. After resting, I used the lift invisibly to go and poison the food and water. I had to be visible to reopen the lift, but that's not a problem as no-one follows through the lift anyway.
Leaving the area invisibly, I returned to the Camp to await a crusader invasion. The first group of ogres and trolls found a fire elemental sitting in their midst, while I ran round breathing firebreath on them - the elemental took only minor damage there. Cure spells healed that and the elemental went to wait for the mages to arrive. They got a single firebreath before I retreated with the aim of avoiding buffs being dispelled while the wizard slayers and summons did the bulk of the work. That didn't turn out too well though and I had to come back in to finish the last of the mages off - losing some buffs in the process. Dosia though was willing to endure the pain of giving me my ironskin and elemental spells back. A new elemental provided a good focus for the third group of enemies to gather round and be killed by firebreath and mage spells. For the final group the elemental went on ahead before I supported with more firebreath - 3 of those didn't leave much opposition left.
Back at the Castle I swallowed a few potions before going to find Ashatiel. A second stunning dart at him took effect and his death opened the route inside the castle.
Following Caelar, I skipped through the first devilish area before summons quickly disposed of the enemies in the second.
Thrix handed over a +3 staff, though that was in fact no use to me. Really I should have picked up a club earlier that could also be used to hit Belhifet while dual-wielding, but a single weapon will do the job.
Before taking the lift I buffed up. On the lift I used myconids to help deal with the enemies quickly before using 6 Champions Strength scrolls after the last group was all killed. That meant I could hit Belhifet almost automatically myself. However, I still decided to keep Caelar alive as well using restoration scrolls - druids can wear helmets, so the battle tankard prevented the fatigue from doing that from affecting combat.
I duly went through the epilogue before saving and transferring to BG2EE.
Skant followed one of them, but his stealth failed before he could attack - and then he died. I don't seem to have taken a screenshot of that, but the bandit with a bow shot him for 8 damage and the one he was following critically slashed him with a sword for 16 damage.
Phew at least we don't have any record of it. Or do we...
Which leads us to attempt 203 and another random pairing
Tappa - Elf female Enchanter
Krypto - Human male Blackguard (@Grond0)
We managed to learn about Firebeads scroll despite the aforementioned multiplayer lag and then Grond0 dropped from the game. Having used much of our allotted time we decided not to risk things and saved the game. Tappa is all geared up with her staff, sling bullets, 20 spare crossbow bolts and Firebead's scroll of identification. Krypto has foregone such niceties and only has his quarterstaff, a flamedance ring, a potion of clarity and a scared nobleman nearby who received a punch or two.
(If Krypto purchased anything from the store that was within the cooldown-window where the host sees him dropped from the game but the client continues for another 60 seconds or so before exiting)
Comments
We took on ther bandit camp and were surprised at how easy it was. We definitely overprepared. Taugoz was webbed and so outside the tent was really easy. Sorry, no image.
(Being used to the modded game where this encounter can be tough. In my usual set up all the camp join the fray outside the tent)
Jaheira got poisoned by Hakt and also webbed. Dynaheir slowed the poison though. She was the only one who could have done that, but now Leyholm has that ability too.
Previous posts: 1
Upon hitting level 8, I decided to further postpone the main plotline until Torosar gets access to Pixie Dust in order to avoid all the kobold hordes in the Nashkel mines (without having to spend PoIs to do so). This required 30k XP and the easiest way to get rolling was by clearing the greater basilisks from Durlag's rooftop under the green ProPetrification scroll.
Prism and Greywolf were next on our list. The latter had a really bad day having to face Torosar's Spirit Bear, Poison (divine L4 spell), Summon Insects and Call Lightning (via nymph).
Similar fate awaited the parties of Sendai and Zal in the area south of Nashkel. Watching charmed Clado splash his brother Krumm's brains with a club gave us a strange sense of satisfaction.
Completing all those combat challenges resulted in Torosar reaching level 9 and getting access to L5 druid spells. This is the point where single class druids really outshine single class clerics in BG1 (who cannot get above L4), especially with all those excellent druid-only spells at L5.
Finally, we could venture into the mines. Under Pixie Dust (by the way, that rare illusion spell incantation of divine casters always gives me goosebumps - it actually makes me ponder on how timeless the entire concept of incantation is and how it really delivers this immersive gaming experience), Torosar makes an undetected approach into Mulahey's cavern. He calls upon his Spirit Snake and one nymph and then buffs with Chaotic Commands (while I make an internal note to always have this crucial buff active later on in BG2), green ProUndead scroll, Strength of One and Bless. We're ready.
Torosar kept his aura clear during the first round for a Potion of Freedom quaff, should Mulahey decide to open with Hold Person. However, as soon as our nymph's Hold Monster landed, Torosar switched on the offensive via Summon Insects.
With Mulahey out of the game, it was mostly about taking care of his minions. Confusion cast by the nymph gave us the necessary breathing space, while Torosar and the snake pounded the foes one by one.
The mines were clear and we could return with the good news to the mayor. Nimbul got in our way at some point, but his MIs, Stoneskin and MSD pre-buffs could not protect him from Hold Monster (nor MGoI for that matter, though he did not have it on this time around) and, failing his save, he was doomed (at first even literally
Back in Beregost, Silke succumbed to a single Dart of Stunning.
Speaking of darts, I realize that I did not mention Torosar's acquired weapon proficiencies, so here's the full list: darts, staves, slings, two-handed weapons.
Other than collecting information regarding the bandits' whereabouts, there was one more task to be completed before heading to the camp itself and that was retrieving the Manual of Bodily Health from the Pirates' Cove. Torosar avoided the sirines with Pixie Dust (both ways), used a Greenstone Amulet charge to trigger the floor traps inside the cave and shot down the flesh golems with +1 sling bullets.
Since the Nashkel Mines, Torosar had been travelling exclusively under the Pixie Dust invisibility and therefore Molkar's ambush crew did not catch him unawares when returning to High Hedge. We decided to avoid these guys altogether to save resources. By selling the loot from the cove to Thalantyr we raised enough funds for the Claw of Kazgaroth, which then replaced our Ring of Protection +1 (the other slot being occupied for the time being by the Ring of Holiness).
Bandit camp's next. And I can tell you, there was trouble.
Regards,
B.
Vince - enchanter (Grond0)
Soygib - thief/illusionist (Gate70)
Corethief XXIII - fighter/thief (Corey_Russell)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1129171/#Comment_1129171
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1129433/#Comment_1129433
After finding ourselves in the secret library at Candlekeep, a quick check confirmed that we'd already emptied the tombs and could head for the exit. On the way of course we left no stone unturned and no Prat unharmed.
Back in the City, we went to find Slythe. He was hit by a dispelling arrow immediately after talking and didn't survive long thereafter.
The Palace fight can be tricky - but not this time. A bit of trap damage helped out to start with, while hasted attacks saw the dopplegangers withering under fire. By the time Vince finished his malison + emotion combination the fight was pretty much over anyway.
After cruising through the maze, we decided to grab a bit more XP in the Undercity to get our final BG1 levels. Vince threw in a chaos at Rahvin's mob - persuading him to soften up his friends nicely with a couple of exploding arrows.
Inside the palace, Sarevok was initially pulled out with Semaj teleporting out in support. He did well to survive some initial attacks and a couple of lots of mirror images allowed him to survive at near death for an annoyingly long time. In fact, long enough that Corethief couldn't handle his repeated lightning bolts - though neither could Semaj himself
When Angelo made himself known, Vince and Soygib used invisibility potions to disappear and think of a new plan.
Soygib did a tour of the building, discovering several battle horrors to add to the fun we were having. When shot by Angelo he should have disappeared with another potion, but you know what they say: "miscommunication costs lives". After Vince proposed the plan, he passed an invisibility potion to Soygib who responded with an "OK". What wasn't clear at the time was that meant: "I agree to the plan", not "I've taken the potion" - and Soygib died a moment after I unpaused the game
With Sarevok at the other end of the temple, Vince had a bit of space to run around in and used a few scrolls from his bag to soften him up. However, kiting is more difficult in MP, so he eventually decided to take the easy route and just summon a few groups of monsters until Sarevok had had enough.
On starting BG2, Vince found himself still lumbered with a couple of dead bodies. There was a bit of discussion about getting Jaheira to restore them, but she was not high enough level and Vince eventually used PW:console on the assumption that he'd found a temple on the way to Athkatla.
There was enough time left in the session to do most of Jon's dungeon. There wasn't too much in the way of danger there, though Soygib and Corethief both took a nap at one point while destroying some mephit portals.
Enchanter - L9, 53 HPs, 32 kills (+95 in BG1)
Thief/illusionist - L8/8, 43 HPs, 18 kills (+144 in BG1), 1 death
Fighter/thief - L7/8, 79 HPs, 32 kills (+228 in BG1), 1 death
Visor, Dark Moon Monk(Grond0)
Our sixth session of the run has us almost ready to face the coronation. Once inside Garish mumbles about having a poor spell choice and Visor says we can always go outside and change them. We do that, and on our return some eight hours later the coronation is getting into it's stride.
Visor drinks a few potions and unleashes his limbs while Garish starts with an almost pre-emptive malison that lands a moment or two after the doppelgangers reveal their true forms. Garish adds a spell sequencer to land a Magic Missile on one of the doppelgangers and spread Horror amongst them. From there it is a matter of tidying them up and grabbing the entirely surplus loot on the floor before leaving.
The monk runs but it turns our he can't outrun an arrow. No matter thinks Garish, heading to a temple, getting Visor raised and healed, and returning. He hands Visor a third (and our last) scroll and the skeleton warriors finally fall. Garish celebrates by triggering a lightning trap himself and failing to save. His cloak's magic resistance protects against a second strike and the gulped potion of invulnerability wasn't required as there was no third strike.
Once power is restored we load the last save and do the entire Thieves Maze without incident and Garish then uses Shield to breeze through the Magic Missile traps.
Rahvin and his mercenaries are waiting for us in the middle of a webbed malison cloudkill skulltrap killzone. Visor notes that Haseo and Gorf are still alive only for them to perish too.
Semaj hangs on grimly and teleports back and is beside Angelo now. It doesn't save him and he dies out of sight but Garish can't relax as Tazok has just appeared next to him.
Sarevok kicks the body of Semaj out of his way as he orders Tazok and Angelo to loot the corpses of Garish and Visor.
Reck (male dwarf Priest of Lathander, Grond0); Fhryng (male half-elf jester, Gate70)
Previous run
As usual, after a quick round of muted sobs, we randomly generated a couple of new character classes and soon had a new run under way. That saw a typical start with Shoal providing an early level each.
Rather than head in search of more quick XP though, I decided to accumulate a bit more gently this run. Still, it didn't take long to cruise through Beregost and on down to Nashkel to get Reck some decent armor. Looking to boost his attacks as well, we moved on towards Firewine - leaving Arabelle clinging on to life in a xvart-free zone on the way.
A further potential attacking boost for Reck depended on persuading Bassilus to hand over his hammer. Reck suggested that Fhryng show himself to Bassilus, expecting him to do so only briefly. In fact Fhryng went right into combat and it was probably just as well that Bassilus got his tongue caught between his teeth.
Fhryng was determined not to wear any armor, but managed to survive several archer ambushes anyway, while we ranged widely across the map, in search of reputation. That hit 20 in the Cloudpeaks, where Fhryng also discovered a tome to boost his already stellar charisma. The session was due anyway to end on return from there, but that return was a bit more somber than expected when Fhryng tried kiting with his bow still equipped once too often and a bear's paw tore him apart.
Priest of Lathander 5, 42 HPs, 36 kills
Jester 5, 29 HPs, 37 kills, 1 death
We headed through Cloakwood defeating Centeol and several other enemies.
In the cave we killed a number of wyvern, but in transit Dynaheir was poisoned and ultimately killed by them before we killed them. We therefore returned to a temple to raise her before heading for the Cloakwood Mines.
Down there, the both of the first mages that we met launched lightning bolts. The first killed Khaled as well as badly hurting herself, us, and her allies. We were able to kill her easily as a result of her action and then returned to the temple to raise Khalid.
The lightning bolt of the second mage killed one of her cohorts just after we killed her!
Much the same happened when fighting Davaeorn.
The lightning bolt badly hurt me, then turned through a right angle and killed everyone but Jaheira and me. It then returned and killed him!
After cacheing the loot we returned to the surface where we rested until fully healed. We then returned to a temple in order to raise our fallen.
On the way a couple of wyvern attacked and almost killed me. However, it was the wyverns that died.
We then bought an archmage's robe for Dynaheir and recharged the wand of fire which was down to one charge.
We will now return to the mines and discover what is in the chests that we were unable to open.
EDIT
Upon arriving in Baldur's Gate things were quite straightforward until we visited Degrodel's home. We were buffed, so at first things went fine, but then Sunami was badly injured so he went outside to heal himself. Meanwhile inside the enemy was being whittled down until our protections began to fail. That resulted in the death of Dynaheir. Also outside Sunami had been followed by an invisible stalker and he was killed. Nevertheless we defeated them, and met up with Degrodel who gave us a quest.
On the positive side, several of us levelled up. Now to raise the dead and acquire a cloak.
I see dead people!
I see more dead people i know!
I see troll people!
I want to see more dead people!
I dream of dead people!
Dante woke up screaming! Covered in sweat he laughed to himself. Thank the gods, his Bhaalspawn powers allow him to turn back in time and try another time... Too bad it takes him back so far...
He should go back to sleep, he has a long life to live... maybe this time he'll try to focus more on his physical abilities...
-Where is Francis?! - he blurred falling asleep...
...5th roll...
...and proof no cheats were used
Previous posts: 1, 2
We approached the camp under cover together with Raiken, rested and buffed in front of the main tent. Our buffs were meagre - only Pixie Dust (cast pre-rest, as Torosar still only has one L5 slot), Chaotic Commands and Protection from Electricity. That is where our problems began.
Invisible, Torosar entered the main tent. Raemon is the only one that can discover your cover and alarm the other bandits. So if you position your party in the back of the main tent where he cannot see you, you can make unhindered preparations for the battle. It may be slighlty problematic to justify this trick from a roleplaying perspective, but there's at least some degree of autheniticy to it. Torosar prepares with Call Woodland Beings, Spirt Snake, Entagle and attacks.
Despite his ridiculous AC vs. missile (Cloak of Displacement + Claw of Kazgaroth + Boots of Avoidance + Girdle of Piercing), Torosar quickly becomes poisoned by one of the hobgoblin elites and has to quaff an Elixir of Health. Our nymph pulls off Confusion into the fray but Britik still manages to give Torosar a good pounding.
Torosar lands Summon Insects on Hakt and is in turn targeted with Venkt's MAA.
We used the time in between the acid damage ticks of MAA to cast another Summon Insects, this time already on Venkt. The nymph wandered into the vines and was immediately shot down. The biggest problem, however, was that Venkt just began an enchantment incantation and I instantly realized that a Hold Person was coming. There was no way that Torosar could manage to quaff a Potion of Freedom because his of clouded aura. I was certain that this will be the end and I was angry at myself because of that. I unpaused the game and let the dice of fate roll - amazingly, Torosar made his save vs. spell.
We were not out of this mess yet. With our Spirit Snake dead, and both Entangle and Confusion gone, we knew we would soon be overwhelmed. Even though the casting speed of Summon Spirit Animal is like 1 or 2 max, our attempt to summon the Spirit Lion came to a halt after another critical from one of the archers. Cornered, bruised and alone, Torosar hits the emergency button by quaffing a PoI.
Healed up and buffed, he was determined to get out of this tent alive. One down.
Torosar then charmed one of the surviving Blacktalons and also hit Venkt with Poison.
Almost there.
Phew!
We quaff another PoI to avoid the enemies outside the tent are we're outta there.
Well, so much for an elegant battle. I am glad that the run goes on, but it is a sobering remined of how fast can the things go wrong with careless play. Next time I would definitely take Iron Skins instead of Chaotic Commands (and use Greenstone Amulet to compensate for that) together with 100% cold protection to minimize the risk of spell interruption and damage taken. On top of that, I shouldn't be such a skimp and should use an Oil of Speed. All that should provide sufficient headroom to be able to manage aura for counters, such as Potion of Freedom.
Regards,
B.
Reck (male dwarf Priest of Lathander, Grond0); Fhryng (male half-elf jester, Gate70)
Previous updates
Holidays allowed a rare weekday session and that quickly proved costly for us. The first action was to head for the seaside in search of some sirines. Reck was now able to produce a couple of skeletons and they were helpful not only in tanking directly, but in providing a handy targeting point for Fhryng's scorchers.
Inside the pirate cave a new pair of skeletons took the pressure off Reck as he bludgeoned a couple of golems. For the last of those, there was only 1 skeleton left and I considered resting first - but decided to go ahead anyway
Startle, Dragon Disciple (Grond0)
The randomator threw out a pair of arcane casters for us to try harder with. We each chose Blindness as our primary spell, with Grond0 opting for Identify and I chose Protection from Petrification.
In Candlekeep both Shank and Carbos stumbled about in the dark, rubbing their eyes in disbelief as missiles pinged in to kill them. This was all the encouragement we needed to leave, and instead of our usual path we went north to pick up the ring of Wizardry - Startle equipping it.
A rash of blindness took hold of the local hobgoblins.
Urchin didn't feel like mentioning to Startle that she was swinging her quarterstaff in the wrong direction - it would connect anyway and he dismissed it as a temporal multiplayer anomoly.
we took our time looking for a spellbook to reopen the magic shop and give us some powerful scrolls... the boss was a cakewalk with these new spells
Wild mage rubble
I'm not sure what happened here but I clearly didn't have the correct counter ready
[%$#@&*] back to caddlekeep
Skant (female halfling bounty hunter, Grond0); Rott (male human monk, Gate70)
Previous run
A new day saw a new run starting with hope in our hearts (and fear everywhere else
The extra levels gained from the basilisks soon made HPs feel a bit more comfortable - particularly for Skant, who has only dropped a single possible HP so far from her 6 levels.
Skant was getting a fair number of kills from throwing her traps ahead towards where weaker enemies were laying in wait - saving Arabelle for instance was the work of but a moment.
On the way to Firewine Bridge, a basilisk attempted to get revenge for the death of it's friends - but was too slow to attack as Skant turned on her heels and hurried off.
Bounty hunter 6, 47 HPs, 54 kills
Monk 5, 41 HPs, 27 kills, 0 deaths
Previous posts: 1, 2, 3
As anticipated, Torosar got ambushed by Lamalha's amazons on his way there. He did not have his Pixie Dust invisibility on by that time and was left with basically only two sensible courses of action for his first move - quaffing a PoI or activating Greenstone Amulet. He went for the Greenstone Amulet, retreated a bit and was able to bring his Spirit Bear onto the stage just in time before the two rogues could strike from the shadows. With his second spirit animal joining the fray in the third round, the odds were already largely in our favor, despite Torosar getting silenced by Zeela.
Cloakwood areas were rushed with the exception of the spider forest - there is sufficient XP to be had and I sometimes like to spend some time in there so as to collect that final level-up in BG1 with solo characters. The spiders are not to be underestimated and green ProPoison scroll and Potion of Freedom (in particular for the SCS giant spiders' web ability) are usually a good choice, while Torosar also added Iron Skin on top of that. For offense, we mostly used a combination of spirit summons, nymphs and - the true reason why druids like outdoors - Call Lightning.
Drasus and his party awaited us at the mines. A certain military commander had once said that the key to a successful warfare strategy is the superiority in numbers. True to that advice, Torosar came prepared with an army. After the initial face-off with with Drasus, Torosar returned to the bridge to make his stand. And he was not alone.
While enraged Drasus was busy with our summoned fodder, Genthore got held by our nymph. The mages were just finishing their buff routine out of sight and were ready to join.
Trying to maximize the damage output in a short period of time, Torosar goes Call Lightning -> Wand of Heavens. Even with Drasus' Magic Shielding potion this was still sufficient to bring him down. Here's a rare picture of a flaming lightning striking from above.
We summon another nymph to Mass Cure our spirit animals and assist us with the mages - Rezdan was bringing his own summons into play, starting with Lesser Fire Elemental.
Poor mages should have known better than to face a druid while relying on their MGoIs only. Insect Plague: Rezdan.
And that was it - the entrance was clear.
Torosar rested a bit to refresh his spells and proceeded into the mine. He used Pixie Dust to avoid the guards, spoke with Rill, refreshed his Pixie Dust once more and approached the fourth level. Remaining invisible, he rested once again.
For Davaeorn, we decided to try to set up an ambush and go for a quick kill. Torosar prepared with Iron Skin, Shield Amulet and summoned a Spirit Wolf, a Spirit Lion and one nymph. Using Pixie Dust, we were able to sneak past the trapped corridor undetected. We waited while the nymph mass cured the trap damage and saw the Battle Horrors leaving their positions and heading for the entrance. This was our chance to strike.
Torosar casted True Sight and we approached Davaeorn. When in position, the entire party attacked as one. Even though Davaeorn made all his saves against our Darts of Stunning, he was unable to Dimension Door away in time.
Onto Baldur's Gate!
Regards,
B.
Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4
To get the third book we paid a visit to Ramazith. I love how authentically "necro" this guy is - Animate Dead, Spirit Armor, Skull Traps, Horror, it's all there. Horror is a potential issue since druids do not have access to Resist Fear. We could go for either Potion of Magic Shielding or Potion of Clarity to counter that, but the first is too precious and the latter we forgot to buy
Torosar approached the top floor of the tower under Pixie Dust and hid behind the bookcases.
We buffed with Chaotic Commands, Iron Skin, Protection from Fire, Strength of One and Defensive Harmony and started to call in our summons. As expected, Ramazith cast his Horror, affecting Torosar and his nymph, but the spirit lion stood its ground and finished him off.
Torosar replaced his Ring of Holiness with Ring of Protection +2 and, with his checklist cleared, he proceeded to the Iron Thorne HQ to retrieve the evidence for the Flaming Fist officials (using Pixie Dust to avoid contact with any enemies).
The detour to Candlekeep was not that eventful. We used Potion of Magic Protection to escape the ogre mage assassins and the Violet Potion, Shield Amulet, ProFire and ProElectricity to access the trapped tombs in the catacombs to get the STR and WIS tomes. Under Pixie Dust, Torosar then trailed off back to Baldur's Gate.
The great finale began with Marek and Krystin-honey. And I mean, how cool is that for a BG1 foe?
Nevertheless, we did not underestimate our preparations. Torosar went for Iron Skin, Oil of Speed, Chaotic Commands, ProFire and True Seeing. He had his spirit animals ready and waiting, supported by two nymphs.
Slythe opened with an OK backstab, which the nymphs started to heal immediately.
He then avoided Poison by quaffing a PoI, though his invisibility was quickly dispelled and he fell just in time when Torosar's Iron Skins were breached by Krystin.
With her Fireshield kicking-in, I decided that Krystin was not worth the trouble and we picked up the documents and ran away.
Ducal palace next!
Regards,
B.
Skant (female halfling bounty hunter, Grond0); Rott (male human monk, Gate70)
Previous updates
Today's session started with a visit to Greywolf. He was both badly hurt and slowed by pre-laid traps and became an easy victim for Rott.
A few more traps were used in encounters, but Rott was also making his special ability count - for instance against Tarnesh.
Seeking more of a challenge, Skant led the way to the Lighthouse area. The wandering sirines there are harder to trap and the bulk of the work hunting them down was done using stealth attacks. Inside the pirate cave, stealth was mainly used as a blocking device while Skant shot down the golems.
Not content with spending quite a bit of time stealth attacking sirines, Skant next went in search of the Doomsayer. He was far too tough for us in melee, but in principle should have been relatively easily taken down with stealth attacks around his garden wall. However, a large group of tasloi nearby complicated that and when Skant did get backstabs to connect, his unenchanted staff produced underwhelming results - such as a triple damage backtab for a total of 4 damage. Eventually, Skant tired of the game and resorted to a single magic missile to finish the job
Returning to Nashkel in company with Brage pushed reputation to 20 and prompted a trip to Ulgoth's Beard. On the way, Rott stopped off at the ankheg nest and successfully robbed that using stealth. His decision to avoid combat in there looked wise after a certain amount of trouble with the single ankheg in the next area.
Checking his inventory, Skant found several quest items to deal with, including Perdue's sword. Karlat was keen to prevent any interlopers in his favorite pub and, even with his new +3 staff, Skant had no luck there with backstabs - but a handy pillar let him lay traps under Karlat's feet.
In search of another tome, the next destination was the Cloudpeaks. By this time Rott had purchased the Dagger of Venom and was soon showing that off to all-comers - turning most of them green with envy.
The final action was in the Nashkel Mine. A couple of traps were thrown under Mulahey's feet before Skant introduced himself with a backstab. He made sure to provoke Mulahey in the ensuing conversation - with fatal results to the cleric.
Bounty hunter 7, 55 HPs, 115 kills
Monk 6, 51 HPs, 95 kills, 0 deaths
Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Since the coronation was scheduled for the following day, Torosar got the chance to take some time off in his favorite watering hole in town - the Blade and Stars Inn.
In the morning, he left for the palace. Expecting trouble, Torosar prepared with care - his buffs included Oil of Speed, Iron Skin, Chaotic Commands, Shield Amulet, 100% fire protection (spell and potion), Strength of One, DuHM and True Seeing. He was accompanied by his two spirit animals and two nymphs. Things escalated quickly and he soon found himself in the middle of a frenzied battle. We opened with mass Defensive Harmony and a double Confusion cast by the two nymphs.
Belt was starting to take heavy damage, but otherwise things looked to be under control.
We knew that sooner or later the doppelganger mage would go for a remove.
Using his extra speed, Torosar retreated a bit to avoid a mass dispel on his allies. His own buffs stayed intact as well, which is always a sign of good fortune.
Our nymphs then applied Mass Cure to heal up the whole group.
With only the mage remaining standing it was a quick work from there. He did not even manage to pull off his Chaos. And as for Sarevok...we'll find him don't you worry.
Regards,
B.
Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Finally, the anticipated climax of our Sword Coast adventure. Torosar rushed to the Undercity straight from the ducal palace. Invisible, he passed both the maze and the Iron Throne mercenaries and reached the Temple of Bhaal. Here's a snapshot of Torosar's inventory before the battle for the record (kudos if you can spot the mistake I made here).
When thinking about the strategy for the battle, I realized that our summons (on which we had been so heavily relying) would be of little use here. Instead, Torosar would have to focus on material resources - his sling, his potion case (including Potions of Firebreath) and Wands of Heaven. His spellbook was also not that relevant, maybe with the exception of Iron Skin and True Seeing.
Our intial buffs consisted only of Iron Skin and Oil of Speed. The beginning of the actual fight was rather strange. Somehow, Diarmid blocked Sarevok and his other goons from joining the action and just stood there near the throne with his ProMagic, showering Torosar with arrows. Torosar, on the other hand, returned the favor by flinging sling bullets at Diarmid.
In this set-up, we were comfortable with using Torosar's aura for gradually improving our buffs with Potion of Mind Focusing, ProAcid, Potion of Power and DuHM. Then suddenly, everything accelerated and the other enemies started popping up.
Semaj's first move was Chaos. Torosar: Potion of Magic Shielding.
Our protections did not hold for long as immediately in the next round Torosar got dispelled by Semaj's Remove Magic (+1 for the Sarevok team).
At first, I was confident that we could rebuff on the run and quaffed an Oil of Speed instead of PoI. Semaj and Angelo used the opportunity to strike with MMs and MMAs. Torosar tried to counter the damage with Potion of Regeneration but our HPs were quickly diminishing. We decided it was time to go invisible and heal, but Semaj was anticipating that. He pulled off a well timed Confusion and Torosar had to counter with another Potion of Magic Shielding.
Now we knew that we either quaff a PoI in the next round or die. We chose the first option.
Patched up and with our protections back on, we're once again ready to kick ass.
However, we do not live in an ideal world. Cementing his position as the most annoying figure of the entire run, Semaj decided to give us another remove. I was furious! At the same time, I was really really pleased with the SCS scripting here for putting up such a fight!
Okay, so here we go again. Oil of Speed -> Potion of Magic Shielding (the last one we had) -> Potion of Regeneration. The positive thing was that we got our first man down.
We needed a time-out to put the Iron Skin back on and so Torosar quaffed another PoI. We also added True Seeing to prepare for what was about to come.
Hello there! It's good to finally see you Tazok.
Time for our secret tricks - Potion of Firebreath and Wand of Heaven. One.
Two.
Three.
And - after a looong period of kiting and relentless barrage - four!
We did prepare Torosar's spellbook for Irenicus' dungeon and also removed the Helm of Baludran just before Sarevok died. SoD is not on our list so see you in Amn.
Regards,
B.
You're looking a bit light on pantaloons ...
After more recent disappointments, including failing against Mel's final incarnation, I thought I'd briefly document another run. Randomly choosing a class got me a druid to be dualled to fighter. I was quite attracted by the idea of starting as an avenger, but decided the loss of strength and constitution was too great for a fighter. Similarly, I didn't want to fight naked as a fighter, so left the shapeshifter kit alone. However, the totemic druid had no disadvantages compared to a standard druid - and considerable advantages. To get the best out of spirit summons I would need to go to at least level 10 to get their best incarnation - and level 11 to get a third summons then looks very attractive. Given that I expect to go through BGEE and SoD as a druid before dualling early in BG2EE.
Without a true dump stat, this is a hard class to get an ideal roll for and I compromised by lowering wisdom after failing to get better than a 92 total in 45 minutes of rolling.
Aiming to be more focused than usual I started off with the easy XP from Shoal. Korax sorted out the basilisks to provide several more levels, meaning two spirit summons were available for Kirian & co.
In the Nashkel Mine, Mulahey was eaten by lions and I picked up a further LMD.
For a bit of variety, snakes killed Nimbul and Tranzig. Moving on to the Bandit Camp a pair of lions and a couple of nymphs cleared the exterior. After resting, the same combination waited outside the tent for enemies to chase me outside.
Using free action, I ran through the Cloakwood to get to the mine. An opening lightning blast there was timed with an immediate confusion follow-up - and if that looked bad for Drasus and his friends, the impact of hold monsters looked worse ...
Bhaal horror helped clear a way to find Davaeorn.
A quick round of reputation quests pushed that to 20 and I avoided doing my usual routine of encounters when going to the Gnoll Stronghold to pick up the tome there. With reputation at 16, prices were rather worse than I usually aim for, but to compensate I didn't bother buying most of the potions I typically purchase (but don't actually use). I also realised while doing a shopping tour that I'd got the XP for level 9 - making it even easier to avoid combats while travelling using Pixie Dust. Next up will be Baldur's Gate.
Druid 9, 64 HPs, 100 kills
Previous updates at:
In the City the search for tomes saw Jalantha held by nymphs, while snakes were too quick for Marek.
A tidying-up tour saw a trip to Durlag's Tower, where I sneaked in to get the tome using chaotic commands for protection. I picked up the Ring of Energy from the Red Wizards.
Back in Baldur's Gate, I grabbed the Helm of Balduran. I just sneaked in to see Degrodel on the way to getting its companion cloak. With the roster of equipment complete, I headed for the Iron Throne. After sneaking in invisibly, the spirit lions attacked to turn everyone on the top floor hostile as 3 confusions and a first use of insect plague were on the way.
At Candlekeep I used the violet potion to loot the tombs. I avoided the dopplegangers, but did deal with Prat's gang in the same way as at the Iron Throne.
After resting to get a final Bhaal power, Slythe was eaten alive by lions while he stood helpless.
After a couple of unfortunate recent experiences I used buffs to ensure there were no problems with the traps in the maze. I left the Undercity party and went straight to the old temple. I threw in 5 dispel magics at the dais there to try and dispel Sarevok's haste before resting. Sarevok was then activated with a magic missile from range and tempted forwards a bit when I went back towards him invisibly. Semaj teleported out in support, but was held by nymphs before he could do more than cast a single lightning bolt.
Even though I missed out more content than usual, I still transferred to SoD with 287k and hence was able to immediately level up there.
Druid 10, 71 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 128 kills
And Helms.
Previous posts (BG1): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
We teamed up with Imoen to make our escape as smooth as possible. Because our spirit animals were already immune to normal weapons among others, we did not really expect much trouble. Torosar's spellbook had been optimized during the fight with Sarevok and therefore we didn't have any Call Lightnings and other irrelevant spells taking up precious spell slots. Beacause we leveled up on start, Fire Elementals would have to wait until the first rest.
Our Spirit Lion was basically able to clear the entire floor of all the duegars, mephits and even the lesser clay golems on its own.
For the otyugh and the Cambion we used Doom, Summon Insects and Imoen's arcane spells.
Imoen used MGoI to tank the mephits in the Elemental Plane and we completed quests for both the djinni and the dryads.
In terms of equipment we collected Staff Spear +2 and retrieved our the Claw of Kazgaroth. We then passed through the portal, had a chat with Yoshimo a rested.
For the mephit portal room we prepared with Fire Elemental, Spirit Lion, Chaotic Commands (Torosar), Ironskin / Stoneskin, Haste, Armor (Imoen), MGoI (Imoen) and Bless. I was really looking forward to see our Fire Elemental in action for the first time. Anticlimactically, it fell asleep to a radiant mephit's Color Spray...
We sliced through the remaining enemies on the second floor, only stopping to collect the RoP +1 from the statute. The assassins got their backstabs foiled by True Seeing though they would have a hard time trying to find someone in our group that they could harm.
Freedom awaits!
Regards,
B.
@Wise_Grimwald I'd be curious to hear which ones you have in mind as I may be missing something all the time
A small hint maybe?
Well that suggests we're into the realm of personal preference and what works in given situations. However, I would guess you're referring to the +2 ring of protection. The Cloak of Balduran is another item that I would normally prefer to the cloak you have, but different people have different views on that
Skant (female halfling bounty hunter, Grond0); Rott (male human monk, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1130921/#Comment_1130921
And another one goes ...
Nimbul died to a backstab and Tranzig was poisoned by Rott's dagger before we headed for the Bandit Camp. Even with stealth, the staggered position of the bandits is designed to allow them to fire arrows at any attacker and our relatively poor AC meant some of those shots hit - the very laggy gameplay didn't help. Taurgosz lost most of his HPs to traps before being shot down, but I took stock at the point where there were 3 bandits left near Tazok's tent, while we both had HPs in the low 20s. I did consider resting to heal up, but the odds of completing the clearance operation before resting seemed good
As Skant stealthily approached 2 bandits (one of them already badly wounded), he felt reasonably in control. However, as he was positioning for a backstab, both of them annoyingly decided to move at the same time. Skant followed one of them, but his stealth failed before he could attack - and then he died. I don't seem to have taken a screenshot of that, but the bandit with a bow shot him for 8 damage and the one he was following critically slashed him with a sword for 16 damage.
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1131059/#Comment_1131059
In the SoD prologue, Porios was persuaded to surrender without a fight. I used invisibility to sneak through all the enemies to find Korlasz. She managed to break out of a summoned cage, but was already near death and a blast from the Ring of Energy finished her off.
In Baldur's Gate I killed a few NPCs to add their equipment to the items carried across from BGEE in my bags. I also took my final SoD level before leaving. Rather than doing the Coast Way Forest I went straight to investigate the bridge - invisibly to make sure that no combat occurred before Caelar arrived for a parley.
There was nothing worth having in Troll Claw Woods, so I skipped through there. On the way to the Forest of Wyrms I found more trolls in a cave - invisibility and a ring of infravision let me pick up the Firefly sling there, though that probably won't be used.
At the Forest I sneaked into the old temple, where Ziatar was fire-bombed from out of sight.
A young green dragon asked for help on the way to Boareskyr Bridge (it wouldn't have been so friendly if I'd already converted its relative into a shield or armor).
At the Coalition Camp, I wasted a charge from the Spectacles of Spectacle when discovering there was a rat next to Nazramu
After placing the Bwoosh, I convinced Turin that knowledge was a dangerous thing and gained access to the Warrens. The cleric there sells greater restoration scrolls that I find useful for many characters, though they're less of an issue for a druid that can use Champion's Strength scrolls. After resting, I used the lift invisibly to go and poison the food and water. I had to be visible to reopen the lift, but that's not a problem as no-one follows through the lift anyway.
Leaving the area invisibly, I returned to the Camp to await a crusader invasion. The first group of ogres and trolls found a fire elemental sitting in their midst, while I ran round breathing firebreath on them - the elemental took only minor damage there. Cure spells healed that and the elemental went to wait for the mages to arrive. They got a single firebreath before I retreated with the aim of avoiding buffs being dispelled while the wizard slayers and summons did the bulk of the work. That didn't turn out too well though and I had to come back in to finish the last of the mages off - losing some buffs in the process. Dosia though was willing to endure the pain of giving me my ironskin and elemental spells back. A new elemental provided a good focus for the third group of enemies to gather round and be killed by firebreath and mage spells. For the final group the elemental went on ahead before I supported with more firebreath - 3 of those didn't leave much opposition left.
Back at the Castle I swallowed a few potions before going to find Ashatiel. A second stunning dart at him took effect and his death opened the route inside the castle.
Before taking the lift I buffed up. On the lift I used myconids to help deal with the enemies quickly before using 6 Champions Strength scrolls after the last group was all killed. That meant I could hit Belhifet almost automatically myself. However, I still decided to keep Caelar alive as well using restoration scrolls - druids can wear helmets, so the battle tankard prevented the fatigue from doing that from affecting combat.
I duly went through the epilogue before saving and transferring to BG2EE.
Druid 12, 70 HPs, 193 kills
Which leads us to attempt 203 and another random pairing
Tappa - Elf female Enchanter
Krypto - Human male Blackguard (@Grond0)
We managed to learn about Firebeads scroll despite the aforementioned multiplayer lag and then Grond0 dropped from the game. Having used much of our allotted time we decided not to risk things and saved the game. Tappa is all geared up with her staff, sling bullets, 20 spare crossbow bolts and Firebead's scroll of identification. Krypto has foregone such niceties and only has his quarterstaff, a flamedance ring, a potion of clarity and a scared nobleman nearby who received a punch or two.
(If Krypto purchased anything from the store that was within the cooldown-window where the host sees him dropped from the game but the client continues for another 60 seconds or so before exiting)