@Wise_Grimwald not sure if you are aware, but web has a penalty of -2 to saves vs being webbed. This means if you don't have free action, or -1 to spell save, you can be webbed. Cloakwood Area 2 can be quite dangerous, as you no doubt know. A technique I often use if have a single character gulp a potion of freedom (you can get from Thalantyr) and go invisible, either by potion or spell. Then, with AI off, go through all areas in area 2 and set off the traps. After setting off traps, return to the party and then you can clear out the spiders/ettercaps here in relative safety.
It was pure carelessness. I had a potion of freedom. I meant to trigger the trap and move away immediately. Clearly didn't do it correctly. I probably shouldn't have been playing when I was so tired.
We started in the Copper Coronet sewers, where a few myconids had taken shelter. Taking those on led to Fini and Corepally both being confused. They briefly faced off against each other, but chose to both turn away - with Plinker soon available to sit in the middle, after finishing off the myconids, and ensure no fatal squabble ensued.
Lilarcor provided a sword upgrade for Plinker before we took over the slaver ship without trouble.
Corepally was keen to ensure he wouldn't get confused again, so we went to Trademeet in search of the Shield of Harmony. Fini remained outside the genies' tent, to be certain there would be no nasty accidents, until flesh to stone spells had been used up.
Rather than continue on to the Druid Grove, we diverted to the de'Arnise Hold in search of the FoA. That was forged before taking on TorGal and Corepally made sure of getting him as a victim after being starved of most kills there thanks to his lack of fire or acid damage. TorGal's guards could have just been meleed, but slow and Kitthix's web added a bit of insult to injury.
One encounter not completed to plan there though, was with Glaicus. Plinker had planned to take his full plate, but Corepally found his proposed victim unusually sympathetic to his paladin ideals and he left peaceably.
An alternative source for armor was found in the Promenade with Mencar. His companions were all trapped in webs and died of fireballs and cloudkills, but he managed to burst free and chase Fini downstairs - not that that did him much good.
That XP took Fini to L12 as an illusionist and she decided to dual to thief - so she won't be able to fireball her companions for a while now (boo ).
The Rune Assassins offered some quick XP for traps and locks, as well as a high quest reward. Corepally took a few nasty stabs there and indulged in a couple of healing potions to keep safe, though he was never particularly low on HPs.
More traps and locks kept the XP going, though Fini was a bit quick to open a container in the Talos Temple and got hit by a lightning bolt - fortunately she was alert enough to move out of the way before being caught in the rebound.
The Fallen Paladins offered a bit more pretty quick XP. By this stage Fini had maximised her find traps and open locks skills and was working on setting traps - and got her first trap damage here to make things a bit easier for the not-fallen paladins.
The final action of the session saw us running through Mae'Var's tasks. Having 3 separate people controlling speeds up the end of those considerably - with one doing jobs in the inn, one talking to Edwin and one to Mae'Var. First though we had to spend a bit more time dealing with Rayic Gethras. He has some nasty spells, but those were used up on 3 summons sent in separately from the shadows at the end of his room - the mage then found it hard to cast anything further under assault from Plinker's blackguard poison.
Illusionist - L12 / thief L9, 83 HPs (7 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 121 kills (+115 in BGEE)
Undead hunter - L10, 123 HPs (10 from bracers), 134 kills (+174 in BGEE), 1 death
Blackguard - L10, 108 HPs (5 from helm), 180 kills (+241 in BGEE), 4 deaths
The halfling assassin and half-elf druid stand up and flex their limbs, ready to take on Cloakwood Mine. There is a hamadryad on the way, Polgara confirming it is immune to lightning but not our weapons. We then outrun some guards and a pair of wolves before reaching the mine exterior.
Lowbar proves his thiefly might by appearing in sight of Drasus - who promtly attacks with Genthore at his side. They are a strong combination but Polgara is able to battle with them and Lowbar makes up for his poor start by landing a few backstabs. Kysus and Rezdan are sitting ducks without their companions.
We bludgeon and backstab our way into the mine and the final guard is trying to get to grips with Polgara when a hefty backstab stops him.
Polgara wants to face the two Battle Horrors for plentiful XP but Lowbar can't resist fiddling with traps and instead we have to settle for very low XP from that. We appear to have caught Davaeorn unprepared but after a short while he manages to successfully hold Polgara and summon a pair of ettercaps.
Polgara is trying to tell Lowbar to back away but he gulps a potion of fire breath and goes for the ettercaps - following it up with poisoned arrows +1 (in hindsight he had a couple of better choices of arrows).
One ettercap is killed but Davaeorn and the other one kill Polgara.
Lowbar could continue the fight but he's aiming to keep party XP close so ducks into the shadows and after storing Polgara's gear he grabs her boots of Drasus-speed and races to a temple.
With Polgara raised we sell off some loot and return to Davaeorn. Lowbar fluffs his hiding again and we are forced to fight some hobgoblins. Lowbar tanks as Polgara has no equipment other than her staff that he carried back for her. Polgara goes all bear-form though and the hobgoblins have no chance.
Davaeorn also gets bear-clawed as he is out of spells. We flood the mine and head towards the city. After doing a bunch of tasks there we decide to clear a basilisk out of a warehouse using the tried and tested (by Grond0) method of nymph confusion > nymph hold monster. Both nymphs are petrified but the basilisk is held and we can't help but kill it.
Polgara has an entanglement planned for Lothander, allowing us to acquire a second pair of speedy-boots.
Several more tasks around the city are completed before Polgara starts talking to a skull in her backpack. A quick check of our journal confirms we haven't helped Melicamp so we try our best but he dies. We've also keenly observed that Barnard Castle Durlag's Tower is unvisited so a trip there is added in. Polgara wants to know how we will deal with the four basilisks there - and is handed a potion of magic shielding which gives her three turns of guaranteed success with saving throws. The basilisks last less than a minute.
On our way back to the city Lowbar splurges out on the Shadow Thief armour and we deal with Degrodel to learn of and obtain the cloak of Balduran. A few arrows of dispelling are purchased and we've done everything we wanted to do in the city so head over to Duke Eltan.
He tells us to check the Iron Throne HQ and we don't need telling twice. Maybe we do as Scar already told us. OK, we're on it.
Polgara tells Lowbar to hold fire with his arrows, then changes her mind and tells him to make it snappy as she has mis-timed her insect plague. Lowbar steps to it but a couple of enemies are still neutral so the insects only do a partial job.
We 're in control, sort of. Our nymphs are all killed but most of the enemies are dead. Polgara is badly wounded and chased downstairs by Gardush. Lowbar finishes off Zhalimar Cloudewulfe but is making hard work of the doppelganger so goes to help Polgara.
With Gardush eliminated we gang up on the doppelganger but it survives several rounds and both of us comment on how much better it is faring than we would normally expect. Anyway, down it goes after a few rounds more.
We report back to Duke Eltan and get ourselves arrested in Candlekeep before finishing the session hidden away in the secret library.
I tried another run with an Inquisitor. This one beat Greywolf and was at level 4, but Zordral panicked him despite him being protected from evil and having true sight. Then it was just a matter of time. I was hoping that the panic attack would wear off so that he could gulp a potion, but it was not to be.
I'll perhaps try a different character next.
EDIT
Next character was a priest of Tempus who was killed by Tarnesh
I then headed South of Nashkel where I killed Greywolf, picking up the Colquetle Amulet and Ankheg armour on the way. The guards helped me kill Greywolf.
EDIT
I then deliveredf Bentha from Zordral before going back to Beregost where I gave Mirianne some good news and the Colquetle family some bad news.
Heading Northwards once more I killed an ogre before returning Joia's ring to her.
I am now a fully accredited hero!
Heading further North still I went hunting ankhegs and found that I could take on two and still win.
I then had the sad job of telling Farmer Brun about the death of his son.
Killing more ankheg brought me to level 6.
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Heading back south I helped Albert before taking on Vax and Zal and in transit I took on a winter wolf. Gorion's belt came in very useful.
I then helped a dryad. This raised my reputation to 18.
Killing Ingot supplied me with some good weapons. However I am not familiar with them so will probably sell them.
In transit I killed a brown bear and another winter wolf whilst at the gnoll stronghold I raided a cave.
I headed north and killed a polar bear and to my disgust the nobleman that I saved was VERY stingy.
Killing Neville meant that I now have a magical sword for each of my hands.
Further North I picked up Brage and took him to the temple of Helm.
Calling into the Inn for a rest, I was attacked by Neira who I killed.
After picking up supplies in the Carnival I headed for the basilisk area.
There I killed Peter, Kirian et al followed by basilisks and finally Mutamin.
EDIT
Killed Centeol and reached the level cap (161,000)
Went to Durlag's for the tome. Used potion of clarity for that and some nearby chests.
Went into the basement and upon opening the chest with grapes in was killed.
What protections are needed for that chest? (No need to answer. I was dire charmed.
I normally have a thief for opening chests. The first time that I have tried Durlag's without one.
I clearly should have either ignored the rest of Durlag's or waited until I had the green amulet. If you don't try you don't learn I suppose.
Typical! The first time that I replayed it to discover what went wrong, I saved against the spell. Tried it again and got the message.
@Wise_Grimwald as for myself, if I am solo, I never open a chest unless 1) I know whether it is trapped or not 2) and if do remember its trapped, I won't open it unless I remember what kind of trap it is, and also only if I have the needed protection.
Charname is (was) a human WS13 -> Thief. Perished in SoA in the Underdark. Third attempt, first in SoA.
Traveled with Jaheira, Anomen, Korgan, and Mazzy. Permadeaths: Shar Teel, Yoshi.
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Unfortunately, Qilue of all people ended charname's run (or that is, her mages did). At some point early in the fight, Anomen was killed with a 3x fireball sequencer. The fight wasn't going that poorly, just chaotically as the ~ half dozen level 15ish mages cast a lot of teleport fields and I at some point carelessly let Jaheira get confused. Eventually, charname took a lot of evocation damage in a brief period of time and died before I could heal.
I think throwing the resurrection wand to someone else would have saved him, or just taking the fight more carefully in about 10 other ways.
Oops! This was a fight that the party could easily win most times, and win with moderate difficulty the others - I just wasn't paying attention.
Not sure whether I'd do a wizslayer -> thief again, but if I do I will certainly NOT dual at 13. Either 9 or 10 I think. Would have to decide whether to stay Good and once more go for Carsomyr and ~80 mr or change to Neutral or Evil and use purifier / human leather for 100 mr.
Wizslayer was a pretty fun class that plays quite differently due to all the item restrictions. The spell fail mechanic was a little finicky but pretty strong when it did work. The toughest restriction imo is actually the potion restriction, particularly loss of invisibility. Means charname doesn't have the ability to get out of trouble nearly as easily as other classes.
I'm not sure this party was capable of taking on kangaxx or the twisted rune.
I THINK kangaxx could be beaten by just tanking his lich form and then getting fast sunrays off (daystar, brilliance helm, anomen's cleric book) on his demilich form to kill him. I don't believe he pre-casts protection from magical energy even in insane SCS.
The twisted rune would have been tougher. It would have been very hard to deal with the lich, Layene, and the beholder all at once - all three of which are dangerous and very difficult or impossible for this party to disable or debuff.
This is where dualing at level 13 turned out to be such a mistake. I was thinking that the only downtime that mattered was until WS levels were regained at thief 14 and forgetting that what really mattered was the delay to UAI at 3mm thief xp. So a dual at 9 can pretty easily hit 3.3m xp and have UAI for the toughest SoA fights. A dual at 10 is tougher but possibly achievable with the extra xp from having only 5 party members. A dual at 13 doesn't get UAI until 4.4mm somewhere in mid ToB...
Anyway, that all said, I did really like the all fighter team, which forced the usage of a lot of different tactics. Mazzy has some cool unique buffs that I had never used before and was pretty effective. Korgan is a character I didn't use for ~20 years (having played the game as a kid when it came out) but has really grown on me. He's just immensely strong in SoA and this party in particular leaned on his undispellable berserk ability repeatedly.
Edit: The other thing I would do on a repeat run is use Yoshi better (and not get him killed by Torgal, ideally). I built him as a 2ws longsworder with varscona and the flaming earth, which looked cool but didn't really add much value next to 5 other fighters. Particularly because there wasn't enough full plate to go around and he tended to get targeted a lot despite his 18 dex and spend most of the fights drinking healing potions.
What I would instead do is go for a grandmaster crossbow build and use the army scythe or possibly firetooth. That gives reasonable dps/utility (particularly with lightning/biting bolts) and doesn't waste him as yet-another-frontline-swordswinger.
The esteemed druid Adorar has made a fair amount of progress since a Balor with a chainsaw made mincemeat of his party in the Underdark. My motivation was in an uncertain place at that point so I decided to try the Trials of the Luremaster, which I’ve never played before. That was an interesting experience, a bit too much grinding through various parts but the atmosphere was sometimes interesting, especially in the castle when the Spectres are going about their business. Sadly Aran got disintegrated by a beholder in a corridor- seriously, who leaves a beholder in a corridor? - but the other 5 made it through the rest.
From there it was not especially difficult to chop up Bodhi and her brother, although the avatar of Rillifane had some difficulties with his signal and the game crashed once or twice until he finally cleared the city. Tyris came on board to help, giving much needed magical backup, while Keldorn retired to be with his family and Haldamir stayed in the elven city. They were replaced by Sarevok and Mazzy, an odd couple if ever there was one.
The new team has made good progress through Throne of Bhaal, and have taken down Gromnir, Yaga Shura, Sendai, and Draconis. The most alarming moment was in Sendai’s lair when a bit of careless equipment juggling allowed Adorar to be vulnerable to getting stunned by an Ulitharid. Apart from that everything *seems* fine but we’ll see if that continues...
@Wise_Grimwald as for myself, if I am solo, I never open a chest unless 1) I know whether it is trapped or not 2) and if do remember its trapped, I won't open it unless I remember what kind of trap it is, and also only if I have the needed protection.
@Wise_Grimwald as for myself, if I am solo, I never open a chest unless 1) I know whether it is trapped or not 2) and if do remember its trapped, I won't open it unless I remember what kind of trap it is, and also only if I have the needed protection.
Problem is that you only find out what kind of trap it is when you fail. Obviously I have never failed with that trap before due to having a decent thief. I am learning a lot more about them now that I am playing solo. I knew all about the chests that charm you upstairs and so was prepared. I also knew about the ones with electrical damage upstairs. Character was tough enough to survive all the traps that did damage, but not insta-kill. Apparently being enraged I should have been immune to this trap too. I will investigate that in another game. Currently playing an Inquisitor again. Traps which charm hold no fear for an Inquisitor.
EDIT
I have learned a lot from my last two solo games and am now playing another solo Inquisitor who reached the experience cap before entering Nashkel Mines. That's a first!
As a result the rest of the game before Baldur's Gate was a walkover.
One tactic that I have never tried before with a paladin is using the domination scroll at Ulgoth's to charm Algernon against Tranzig. I've used mages to do it, but never a paladin. Usually I have a party and I get Montaron to do the dirty.
Here are the details.
Journal of Guy the Good, Inquisitor
At the FAI, I did all the hard work against Tarnesh, but a guard got the experience.
However, I did get the experience for helping Mellicamp
North of Beregost I took om and beat an ogre, albeit with difficulty.
I then pleased Tenya by getting her bowl back, and after heading south killed Zordral.
I then took on Greywolf. As he was winning the fight, I took him to the mines where the guards helped me. I then led him to a secluded spot to kill him.
I then reunited Alfie and Rufie before killing Vax and Zal.
Krumm however proved to be a bit harder.
Killing Krumm proved to be difficult, but Ingot was easier.
Heading west I killed some ogres.
After raiding a cave, I took on a polar bear north of the gnoll citadel.
I bumped into a wolf in transit and then killed Zargal.
I'll finish posting it up when I have had a break tomorrow.
Going in search of Mutamin I met up with Peter, Lindin et al first.
I then went basilisk hunting.
Until we finally caught up with Mutamin.
I then went sirine hunting using protection from evil a lot.
In a cave I was accosted by flesh golems and was badly hurt.
I've had three characteristic Blackraven fails in one week, due to rust, role-playing scruples, and good old stupidity.
First my Fighter/Thief Stil, that I posted about last week, fell against a bunch of shrooms in Siege of Dragonspear.
He drank an invisibility potion in response to a "pacifier" spore attack. That was the wrong potion, as the confusion effect caused Still to fight against impossible odds. I must have imagined that SoD's pacifier spore attacks created a temporary feeblemind effect (much like Sirines' melee attacks), instead of the normal confusing attacks that fungi are known for. What's so pacifying about confusing folk anyway?
Next there was my role-played Cleric of Helm Eyulf, who saw a grievously injured Imoen permanently slain by a vicious fireball from the Demon Knight.
This run hasn't necessarily ended, but I do find it a bit lame to have Imoen return from eternal death in Siege of Dragonspear and SoA.
Third in line was a newly rolled Fighter/Thief Aztryd. She was out there farming XP, made it to Durlag's Tower, where she intended to finish off four basilisks on three potions of mirrored eyes. To optimize her efficient use of said potions, she went for a backstab on a greater basilisk that was to be followed immediately by a potion swig. Somehow I forgot to do that, with predictable results.
Marhild, NG female Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Stubborn as a mule, I rolled yet another Fighter/Thief, but to keep things fresh I decided to go for a highly melee-oriented character: ** staff, * two-handed weapon style, * flail. She should become skilled at both wielding different types of twohanders and (in BG2) dual wielding at least flails, while using ranged weapons very sparingly. Meet Marhild Shadowstaff:
Marhild didn't really need ranged weapons as her staff served as a good backwhack weapon and her good attack speed also allowed her to strike faster than her foes. She worked her way to 20 rep and I allowed her to use Lord Foreshadow's charisma ring and to nick Algernon's cloak, which she managed with difficulty,
to buy Aule's Staff, the Cloak of Displacement, a Greenstone Amulet, and the Sandthief's Ring from Ulgoth's Beard, as well as the Shadow Armor from the Thunderhammer Smithy. (Her predecessor Aztryd had taken Drizzt's armor but I didn't want that for this run.) The ring of wizardry, ankheg armor, some loot from the ankheg nest were the main sources of income for all those expenses.
Brun and Tenya followed by Mutamin and his pets provided a first massive XP boost. This time Korax managed to paralyze Mutamin. Marhild came close to her first 100+ strike with one of the basilisks.
I tried to look for a way to justify attacking Kirian, being somewhat assertive, but the last dialogue option really leaves no room for interpretation, so no Golden Girdle to match with her Golden Pantaloons (an item I sometimes forget to pick up).
Meilum helped Marhild to a pair of gauntlets. He has four pips in katana, but that made him still one short against Marhild, who just struck faster. The Wand of Sleep helped Marhild clear the akheg-ridden lands north of the FAI, while sneak attacks provided more XP from the Battle Horrors at Durlag's. Three potions of mirrored eyes sufficed against the tower's basilisks. In the Lighthouse Area, Marhild indulged in an oil of speed. Paired with two charges of her amulet, it allowed her to deal swiftly and safely with the Sirines and Golems there. Sil was the first to suffer a triple digit blow at Marhild's hands.
Three more Sirines and the wolves east of the Beregost temple made Marhild reach fighter level 7 before she returned to Durlag's Tower for further exploration.
Lower level 1 saw Marhild engage in lots of backstabbing.
Fear and Pride were felled by repeating floor traps, while Love was backsmacked to death.
On the 2nd level Greater Doppelgangers were backstabbed and a group of Ghasts slain with attack and retreat tactics. Marhild picked up Kiel's stuff and proceeded to level 3. There she called on the help of some statues against Greater Wyverns, mainly because she desired Tarnor's full plate. By buffing for the chessboard before entering the elemental rooms, she had little difficulty with the opposition in those rooms.
On the chessboard, Marhild opened with a non-proficient arrow of detonation. She intended to fire a second one, which would have killed off several of the pieces, but she moved away too fast.
The Queen started an Abjuration spell, i.e. a Remove Magic, so Marhild moved off the chessboard in case her buffs would be dispelled. They weren't. She launched an arrow of dispelling at the hasted king, and went invisible. The King cast Detect Invisibity just in time to turn a critical backstab into a regular crit.
Two potions of invisibility and two backstabs later, the King was dead.
The 4th level is relatively easy in terms of traps and foes. Marhild ignored all the spiders and Ettercaps, and all undead except Grael. She looted the area thoroughly. The biggest prize for her was of course the Staff of Striking +3, which should give her a lot of joy in the remainder of BG1 and in SoD.
Being the good-aligned Dwarf that she is, and out of respect for Durlag and his clan, Marhild decided to take on the Demon Knight. His second Remove Magic dispelled loads of protections, protections that she could not replicate in a second potion buffing session. Still with 2x heroism, fire giant str, defense, fire resistance, speed, regeneration and Greenstone charges to counter her foe's PW Stuns, she managed to stay safe while striking and retreating.
There were a few dicey moments along the way despite being at the level cap.
The first was when fighting the ogre mage that is allied with the carrion crawlers. I didn't use the insta-kill arrow, a mistake that I will not repeat! I got confused and panicked. Fortunately I ran out of sight of the ogre mage and only had a single carrion crawler to deal with. Eventually the spells wore off and I was able to buff before killing the ogre/mage.
The second was in the ducal palace. I ended up panicked at one end of the room with Belt at the other end. Eventually I killed the last doppelganger, healed and buffed myself and went in search of Belt. His health was low, so I was glad that he couldn't see Sarevok. He therefore didn't get involved when Sarevok went hostile. Neither did I. I used archery.
The final battle was much better managed. I was in control throughout the battle.
On the way to the Final Battle I had to return to an inn three times as i wanted to hang on to my meagre stock of healing potions.
It is as well that I did as I needed a lot of potions in the SoD prologue. Again it was confusion and the like that caused problems, and almost my death in the battle against Korlasz.
While I was panicking and in conflict with one mercenary, Korlasz was fighting my allies and died. That's a first for me. She has always surrendered in the past. I presume that this was because I wasn't there to surrender to.
Now back in the palace. I have decided not to continue as a solo character. I don't know SoD well enough to have even a slight chance of survival. Guy is at level 8.
Currently ** in long swords, ** in long bows, and ** in dual wielding. Images will follow, but it is now bed time just glad to have reached a safe haven in Baldur's Gate.
I certainly missed having a mage and a thief in SoD.
Back on the surface, we go on a huge forging spree from Item Upgrades:
Daystar +4, Amulet of Ilmater, Ring & Staff of Elemental Mastery, Shield of Harmony +3, Water's Talon +4, Quietus +4, and the human flesh armor. I doubt Bodhi is going to be an issue - she isn't, although Cactank has to cast Mass Raise Dead to save Stabby from being bitten to death by bats after getting hit with Chill of the Grave.
Venduris' group is next. All of us have a way to protect ourselves from physical attacks:
-Blaggy and Cactank use Divine Protection
-Stabby disappears with Cloak of Shadows (which Venduris foils anyway with his Detect Illusions, somehow)
-Debuff and Yin use spell triggers to cast Shadeskin and Shadow Screen to prevent Arrows of Dispelling from Bodak from working and it protects them from Grok and Zaeron T'ane using normal weapons to counter PfWfW
-Spaz uses Dark Foresight to give himself immunity to backstab, +20% damage resistance, +10 AC, and +5 saves.
Grok rockets forward using his Boots of Speed+Oil of Speed combo and chases down Yin to no effect due to Shadeskin. Spaz's Hideous Blow: Binding Blast stuns Grok which lets Cactank and Stabby wail on him. Blaggy fearlessly moves forward since Divine Protection will also block the traps the rogues have set near the gate. Our Clay Golem defuses most of the traps since it's immune to missile damage. Spaz devours the magic of the priest and the mage. Yin winds up a Relentless Assault and the rogues are doomed once he casts it, as Debuff's song and Blaggy's aura causes Kerith, Bodak, and Selina to lose their morale.
The rogues are being obliterated but not all of the traps were defused by Blaggy and the Clay Golem, which causes Spaz's death as he runs into two of them. He is quickly brought back with Mass Raise Dead from Cactank. Venduris is stunned by Binding Blast which spells the group's defeat.
At Suldanessellar, Yin tries out Invoke Reflection for the first time. Neat! Too bad Nizi's reflection had no claws equipped, only bare fists that do nonlethal damage.
Invoke Reflection: 8th level Shadow Weave spell.
Creates a simulacrum of the targeted enemy, who can save vs. spell at -3 to negate the effect. Allies can also be targeted but it is automatically successful for them.
Irenicus is easily killed at the Tree of Life thanks to Spaz's high level Devour Magic.
In Hell, I kill the genie for Blackrazor but I redeem the Tear that gives +10% MR five times. Spaz uses a scroll of Maze on Blaggy and opens the doors himself, negating all the penalties normally incurred for taking the good path on the Selfishness trial.
Time to fight the Slayer. Our fighters, properly buffed with Death Ward and Avoid Death, take out the Balors as fast as they can to prevent any vorpal tomfoolery. Yin attempts a Darkbolt while Debuff tries casting Breaching Dark on the Slayer. Darkbolt is like Spellstrike but with extra effects, but it strangely does nothing, even though the Slayer did not have a Spell Shield active. The Slayer stops time before Debuff can finish his Breaching Dark, but Yin's Staff of the Magi gives him immunity to Time Stop. He casts Shatter Weave and Breaching Dark on the Slayer while time is stopped and gives a whack to a Glabrezu. This works, which takes out the Slayer's PfMW and causes it spell failure for 2 rounds. Enraged, it rushes down Yin who casts PfWfW in response, causing it to switch targets to Blaggy. Yin casts Shadowplague on a nearby Glabrezu so it spreads to the Slayer, causing additional spell failure for longer. Debuff is Improved Hasted and hitting the Slayer with Water's Talon +4, poisoning it for massive damage. It's only a matter of time before Blaggy takes back his soul.
The session started with an assault on Mae'Var's guildhouse. The thieves there have surprisingly poor THAC0 and made little impression on the paladins. Downstairs, Mae'Var himself did no better.
I think it was at that moment someone (possibly a prophet of some sort ) suggested that it might be worth getting the rod of resurrection from Mekrath - his protection from normal weapons offered no protection from abnormal attackers.
Far riskier than the enemies though, was looting the area. Fini disarmed traps on the first 2 chests she came across, before vaguely noticing that someone else had set off another trap. Wrongly thinking that was the third chest (it was actually the altar with the portal gem), Fini opened that to check the contents - and got a bit of a shock. At the point I paused she was in serious danger of death if struck again, but she had no potions that would help much, so just unpaused to see what would happen - and fortunately the lightning decided it had done enough damage.
After acquiring the Shield of Balduran, the Unseeing Eye quest looked easy enough, though Corepally thought it would be safer to use a scroll of PfU to get through the initial area. Fini told him there would be no need for that - thinking in terms of dragging the undead away in ones and twos with maybe the odd trap set. Determined to prove her wrong, Corepally strode into the attack - and fell victim to greater mummy disease.
After making use of the rod, Corepally was able to pick up the bracers of dexterity to boost his AC by 4. With the shield in hand he was soon cutting through various beholders.
The blind priests were potentially more of a challenge, but after a couple of silences from Namarra, it looked like they were going to be nerfed. However, silence didn't prevent the priests' buffs from erupting when they were attacked - and those included a cloak of fear that sent Fini running after she tried a backstab. Several priests hit her immediately, but fortunately she then found an opening and managed to stay out of trouble until she recovered.
Rather than risk being targeted by the Eye, Fini waited a couple of seconds for it to target the other two before setting off her Device.
That outing provided quite a bit of XP to help Fini's push to regain her illusionist levels and paying Gaelan Bayle and doing the first couple of tasks for Aran Linvail kept the XP pouring in. At the point we'd just paid Gaelan the vampires tried a final ambush, but Corepally lit the touchpaper on Daystar and the vampires retired.
The clock was ticking down in the session, but there was still time for a visit to Umar Hills. We spread out to do a few quick tasks in the village and Fini found herself glued into position while Corepally faced off against a mimic.
Moving on to the temple, it didn't take long to fight through a bunch of shadows and enter the ruins. We weren't high enough level to be greeted by liches there, but the combination of bone golems and greater mummies provided a strong melee obstacle. The first group of those was almost taken down, but Plinker couldn't quite outlast them and joined the casualty list.
Now knowing the clear danger, we were obviously much more careful against the second group - or possibly not .
Normal time was up as we prepared for an assault on Thaxy. However, at the start of the session Gate70 had predicted Fini would get her illusionist levels back before the end - and it was of course nothing to do with that that prompted him to suggest we could just finish off the dragon anyway. As that was only ever going to be a short fight, with 7 poisonous traps laid around her, I agreed to a couple of minutes of overtime.
Illusionist/thief - L12 / L13, 78 HPs (12 from familiar), 146 kills (+115 in BGEE)
Undead hunter - L12, 119 HPs, 223 kills (+174 in BGEE), 2 deaths
Blackguard - L12, 114 HPs (5 from helm), 255 kills (+241 in BGEE), 6 deaths
I was confused in the cave where the umber hulks are just as Dynaheir cast death fog. I'm not sure whether it was the hulks, the carrion crawlers or the fog that killed me. Being confused there was nothing that I could do.
I don't really know SoD well enough to play no reload.
I had forgotten all about them being there.
I think that next time that I enter Dragonspear I need to do a refresher run prior to doing no reload just to remind myself of the basics.
Because I wasn't expecting to use a party, I neglected to pick up the staff +3 and archmage robe, not that it mattered.
Well, that's that. Adorar headed on through Abazzy's lair, chopping up various dragons and guardians as he made progress. There was one blood freezing moment when we accidentally wandered into the three elder orb room despite subcontracting Bondari but fortunately we were able to back out again: "sorry, wrong room". The main man himself didn't give us too much trouble. Balthazar topped himself due to our magnificence and then we had the fight in the glade of heads (from Wheels of Prophecy), which was the usual swirling mess until we pinned down the Fallen Solar. It's so hard to even click on things on a tablet in that mess!
Then, with the challenges quickly disposed of it was time to visit the Throne... which went fairly well. Haerry got to drop off lots of traps collected throughout the game, and SCS Melissan got off a few timestop whirlwinds (usually I disable this option as I don't timestop melee myself but she did it anyway) but Adorar - who was immune to cold, had a resistance score of at least 50%, stoneskin etc., and over 150 hp- was evidently not a tempting target. Her second incarnation actually managed to kill Sarevok and Haer but the various summons and golems kept her busy enough that they could be resurrected and her other incarnations were dealt with without too much trouble. Adorar went on to try to find his niche in the crowded pantheon of nature gods, while Tyris, Sarevok, Haer, Kelsey, and Mazzy went on their way. The extra companions Afaaq and Hrun the animal companion also played a significant part along with Tyris' golems, a veritable posse!
All in all it was a quite interesting run, which I'm slightly surprised that Adorar survived given my up and down levels of attention. I shall try again sometime, probably in a foreign language for study purposes, with a greatly reduced modload, and probably greatly reduced quest rewards - I shall see if my usual mod choices have had a big effect on the difficulty level. Usually I played at SCS tactical level with various creatures like dragons & beholders being set to a higher level.
Thank you for your attention and good luck gentlefolk .
Man, I hate ToB. All the bosses or any enemy significantly badass enough to present a challenge have all kinds of immunities, meaning that straight-up slugfests are the main way to solve these fights. Gromnir is up first. Karun the Black wisely pre-buffs with SI: Abjuration which means Spaz can't just devour his magic and be done with it. Yin fires up Relentless Assault, but as he's debuffing everyone around him, Karun stops time, which means Yin can't refresh the assault by killing something. But Black Ray and Shadowplague get him to shut up after the time stop and the Nightwalker helps Blaggy kill Gromnir as he was tanking him with Divine Protection.
Stabby breaks his backstab damage record again on the way to get Yaga-Shura's heart. The game does not have any strings for backstab multipliers beyond x9, so it displays a blank string. (Stabby has a x7 backstab normally, x8 from the Assassin's Blade HLA, x9 from Quietus +4, x10 from the Short Sword of Backstabbing +5 wielded in the off-hand.)
Yin levels up from killing some fire giants and chooses Nightsinger's Tithe as a new 9th level spell. So we go around Athkatla and Saradush reaping the souls of 50 commoners to gain Nightsinger's Boon. The 50% chance of getting +1 max HP per kill made with the spell also helps boost Yin's declining health, as the HLAs that let him cast spells more often require a max HP sacrifice. Yin's casting speed is now boosted by 7 (+4 Vecna, +2 Shadovar Amulet, +1 Boon).
Then I remember that I've left Watcher's Keep 5 undone. None of the seal guardians prove to be very challenging. Azamantes manages to resist Spaz's Devour Magic, so Yin has to use Annulment to strip him of almost all of his buffs. He is promptly destroyed by Blaggy's Fallen Deva.
Annulment: 8th level Shadow Weave spell.
30 ft. AoE, not party-friendly. Anyone in its radius suffers an automatically successful Dispel Magic and then it strips one spell protection of any level. Victims' MR is also negated for 5 rounds and they cannot cast spells for 1 round.
Now for Demogorgon. Demogorgon targets Spaz during his Time Stop, which kills him. Big D then starts attacking Blaggy, who takes several hits before I can get him away. It seems to take ages for Blaggy to drink an Elixir of Health to cure the disease and he ends up taking massive poison damage. Cactank helps by casting Mass Raise Dead which also brings Spaz back into the fight.
The worst is yet to come. The Abyssal Host is gated in and Demogorgon takes control of the Nightwalker! It is classified as a Tanar'ri, so I expect Melissan should be able to do the same thing with her Control Demon ability, but at least Blaggy will be able to counter that with his own. The Nightwalker focuses on Cactank but it has trouble hitting him even while buffed with Shar's Blessing. Spaz uses a scroll of Enchanted Weapon on Cactank, who pulls out the Martyr's Morningstar and activates Critical Strike to cut the beast's HP down to size. Yin is quick to cast Oblivion Pull on the balor that was gated in to prevent any vorpal strikes. Demogorgon spams Stoneskin, so rather than having Spaz counter with Devour Magic every round, Yin casts Relentless Assault and just spams Nightshade at Demorgorgon, who goes down after about three or four castings. Good thing percentage-based damage bypasses damage resistance.
We destroy the remainder of the demons and put down the Nightwalker after Demogorgon is killed.
The fire giant temple is next but we make it through thanks to lots of fire resistance. Yaga-Shura and his army are destroyed, although it takes a while due to triple HP. Sigil of Mortality helps speed up the process on Yaga-Shura. Yin invokes Yaga's reflection but it's just a big distraction because it can't equip his hammer, so it's stuck with nonlethal fists just like Nizi the black dragon. It also spends most of the fight stunned because Spaz's Eldritch Chain also targets summons/charmed enemies. I should probably start copying party members instead.
EDIT: Only 3 screenshots isn't worth making a new post, so here's Sendai, Abazigal, and the Ravager. Sendai gets wrecked by a backstab from Stabby; Abazigal and the Ravager die from a Nightshade+Phantom Arrow combo from Yin. The berserker lizard men in Abazigal's domain nearly ended the run as they do obscene damage very quickly and have Greater Whirlwinds.
Upon being ambushed, at Gorion’s command, we fled only to return when it was safe to do so. We buried his body after reclaiming his useful possessions which included a belt and a bag of holding. I vowed vengeance on his killers. Those who attack my friends attack me!
We headed south where we were attacked by gnolls who perished as a result.
Further south we met Mellicamp who we were able to help.
We then went to Beregost to rest and buy supplies before complying with Gorion’s suggestion to go to the Friendly Arms Inn. There we were attacked by an assassin mage called Tarnesh. We therefore deemed it unsafe to enter and continued North hoping to find shelter in Baldur’s Gate since we had no idea what friends he might have had inside. True sight and command had made him easy prey.
We killed hobgoblins and Sonner on the way to Baldur’s Gate where we were denied entry. Tenya promised us recompense in the future for killing Sonner and returning her bowl.
We then killed an ankheg that attacked us.
Upon returning to Beregost we calmed Marl down and delivered a tome to Firebead
Nearby we killed some ogrillon and delivered a letter which had been in their possession.
We proceeded on to Nashkel, killing hobgoblin and picking up the Colquetle amulet on the way.
In Nashkel I found some decent armour, talked to Noober and turned down gold from Oublek. That turned out to be a good decision as it raised my reputation.
At the Carnival we used true sight and command to defeat a mage who attacked us. As a result Mog now has a mage robe.
Greywolf attacked us south of Nashkel and died as a result.
We returned to Beregost to deliver the Colquetle amulet, and while there we were attacked by Silke and Karlat.
We then reunited Perdue with his sword.
Near Beregost we were attacked by the Flaming Fist who were easily defeated. As a result Helmus now has plate armour.
To the north of Beregost we were attacked by an ogre with a belt fetish. One of the belts will be quite useful.
Congrats @Mantis3, well done with an Avenger druid no less!
Much less epic is the tale of my fighter/thief Marhild. Her run came to an end in the Ducal Palace. She breezed through the game after having completed Durlag's Tower. In the Ducal Palace she was doing fine too until a Chaos from the Doppelganger Mage affected some of the Flaming Fist fighters. One of them attacked Sarevok, which led to a scripted death for Marhild. Must remember to not waste any time in attacking the mage (Marhild allowed the assassin to distract her for a few rounds.)
The party was doing really well. Twinaxe was level 6 and we had just killed the last sirine using true sight and Berserker rage. I checked to ensure that I still had comfortably more than 15 hp. Fine! Then lightning struck. End of game! The gods clearly did not like what I was doing.
A chaotic evil berserker with a rep of 20!
The first time that I have had death by lightning!
Fun With Saving Throws II: Electric Boogaloo:
The Morale Failening: Revengeance
Ascension fight - start!
At the beginning, Bodhi shoots her cloud of bats at Debuff, so I have him run off to the side and use a scroll of Spell Turning. Since Insect Plague has been nerfed in v33 compared to v32, this was unnecessary because his Shadeskin protected him. Yin casts Relentless Assault and fires a Black Ray at Irenicus followed by a Breaching Dark, but he stops time before the Breaching Dark can take effect. Instead, Yin casts a series of spells at the nearest solar (the other one lost morale) so that they will resolve in the correct order once time resumes: Sigil of Misfortune -> Shatter Weave -> Nightshade -> Phantom Arrow -> Negastorm, then uses the Wand of Lightning trick combined with a wand of Nightshade on the solar. Jon's Time Stop proves fruitless since Black Ray shut him up.
When time resumes, the solar dies instantly from taking percentage-based damage in excess of its massive 532 HP. I hate these damn things. They regenerate 14 HP/sec, move really fast, cause Breach on hit, and can teleport around the battlefield - so I show it no mercy.
Breaching Dark hits Johnny, which is Stabby's cue to backstab him. I select Smite by accident instead of Critical Strike and also fail to get behind him enough, resulting in a failstab that pushes Johnny away, stunning him. Everyone takes this opportunity to beat him down anyway.
I have the Nightwalker and our perfect mithril and adamantite golems keep Bodhi occupied while the rest of us chase down the other Fallen Solar who has lost morale. We eventually box it in and kill it. Bodhi is killed by the Nightwalker, as expected.
The pool fights are nothing special. Time for the Six. Spaz uses a scroll of Protection from Magic on Abazigal to keep him from casting Time Stop. I'm not sure if he still opens with it like the old BP Ascension, but shutting down a mage is always a good thing. Debuff's song causes more than half of the Six to lose morale, which makes things a whole lot easier. Yin revs up Relentless Assault while Stabby uses an invis potion and keeps his options open, waiting for the best time to strike, stacking up damage bonuses while doing so. Cactank charges Yaga-Shura after activating Hardiness. With his equipment, he has 100% melee resistance. Blaggy goes after Abazigal with The Answerer +4. Our golems and the nightwalker attack Balthazar.
Yin shuts down Sendai with Black Ray and continues to strip her defenses. Stabby is poised for a backstab after a Breaching Dark on her, but her invisibility detection means she'll face Stabby to prevent backstabs if she can help it, so he backs off and keeps waiting. Balthazar dies first from the Nightwalker's strength drain.
This makes Melissan come down to play. The first thing she does is activate Divine Spell Shield, teleport away, and then stop time. I've been playing the whole fight using EEex's frame-advance feature, so as soon as I heard her speak the Transmutation incantations, I activated Focus on Blaggy. Spaz uses a scroll of PfMW, Debuff casts PfWfW, and Stabby already used his aura on Critical Strike as Sendai lost morale and was ready to be backstabbed.
Melissan summons two Fallen Solars but I ain't havin' that. Blaggy attacks one of them and Yin uses the Wand of Lightning+Wand of Nightshade on it. Near the end of the time stop, Blaggy gets hit a couple of times by Melissan who activated Greater Whirlwind, so I have him run away. Time resumes and the solar dies instantly. We repeat this on the other solar, who has lost morale from Debuff's song. Debuff, the Nightwalker, Stabby, Spaz, and the Fallen Deva box in Sendai and kill her.
Sarevok and Abazigal follow shortly afterward.
Yaga-Shura is next. He receives the beatdown of his life after Spaz stuns him with Hideous Blow: Binding Blast and Yin helps with Sigil of Mortality, setting his physical damage resistance to -20%.
I use the Nightwalker's invisibility detection to keep Debuff in range of Illasera so she'll keep panicking and run out the duration on her Etherealness. She goes down in short order since we had already been beating on her before Melissan stopped time.
When Melissan is alone, she teleports up to the northeast side of the throne and gates in a ton of demons, causing them to bunch up next to her. But Yin excels at debuffing crowds and killing tough single targets. He revs up another Relentless Assault and casts: Sigil of Misfortune -> Shatter Weave (Melissan) -> Malefic Bomb (Melissan, to maximize damage potential) -> Nightfall -> Negastorm -> Oblivion Pull (Balor) -> Nightshade (Melissan) -> Phantom Arrow (Melissan). Melissan takes an incredible amount of damage as Nightshade, Phantom Arrow, and Negastorm all do damage based on the target's max HP. Incidentally, if she failed her save against all of those respective spells (which is extremely likely, if not guaranteed, given all the save penalties accrued from various sources), she would take 132% of her HP in unresistable damage. Only Phantom Arrow and Nightshade are needed to do 100% of her max HP in damage. Thus, Melissan is defeated because of this.
I believe Yin inflicted a -15 save penalty to Melissan from just his spell assault alone with the Dread Black Ring, in addition to Debuff's song for -5 more and Blaggy's aura for another -4, totaling a penalty of -24: more than enough to guarantee failure. Truly, this is fun with saving throws.
Blaggy takes the power of Bhaal that he had sought since he first discovered his lineage.
Then lightning struck. End of game! The gods clearly did not like what I was doing.
A chaotic evil berserker with a rep of 20!
The first time that I have had death by lightning!
As funny as it can be, there's a reason my weather is turned off...
Then lightning struck. End of game! The gods clearly did not like what I was doing.
A chaotic evil berserker with a rep of 20!
The first time that I have had death by lightning!
As funny as it can be, there's a reason my weather is turned off...
Whilst a bit annoying, I am pleased that I had the weather switched on. It stops the game being too predictable. Extremely powerful people get killed in storms, earthquakes, forest fires and the like in RL.
Importing my last Blackguard but this time named Blight to avoid confusion with last run. Starting stats plus inventory upon finishing Candlekeep below.
After the ambush, after picking up Gorion's possessions which included a bag of holding (My only modification) I headed eastwards picking up a diamond and a ring of protection on the way. I fought wolves and an ogre before heading to Beregost for a rest in an inn there.
At the inn I calmed down Marl and bought a tome which I gave to Firebead.
I accidentally got into a fight with Silke. The fight ended badly for everybody involved but me due to Silke aiming a lightning bolt at me which I evaded by dashing into the inn.
As a result, there was a lot of loot for me to pick up.
Upon heading west to find Perdue's sword, I killed the gnolls that had stolen it.
I had an unexpected boost to my reputation by getting Mellicamp back into shape.
A number of people asked me to help them to the south and as a result I fought some ogrillon who were carrying a letter for Mirianne.
I picked up the Colquetle Amulet near the road and a decent suit of armour in Nashkel before bumping into Alfie who I helped find Rufie. He gave me a suitable reward.
Nearby Vax and Zal picked a fight with me. They didn't live to regret it!
Greywolf was the next one to try and fail to kill me. The guards at the mine helped, but it was I who killed him.
I returned to the Carnival for a rest but almost immediately afterwards got into more conflict.
More conflict awaited me to the west when I had a confrontation with Caldo and Krumm.
Returning 'Drienne's cat boosted my reputation yet more and nearby killing Ingot supplied me with an impressive halberd.
Further to the west Gnarl and Hairtooth met their doom.
After looting a cave I headed north where I killed a polar bear and was suitably rewarded.
Further north I acquired a decent sword for my left hand when I killed Neville the bandit.
To the north I helped Charleston Nib and Brage.
This resulted in me reaching level 5.
After stopping off at Beregost to deliver a letter and an amulet, I headed north again in the hope of entering Baldur's Gate. In this I was unsuccessful, but due to killing Sonner for his magical weapon I was able to help the priestess Tenya who promised me a reward in the future.
Nearby I fought and killed an ankheg before heading south where I put an end to a plague of them.
Farmer Brun, needless to say, wasn't pleased, but taking him the news was enough to take me to level 6.
Being that bit stronger helped me to kill two of them at a time.
I went to Beregost to sell the shells. Before going to that area, the sum total of my gold was 0gp as I had bought some expensive items at the carnival. I am now moderately wealthy.
At the temple I was asked to kill Basilus which I did remarkably easily.
In transit a band of bandits attacked and none of them survived.
In Beregost I killed some spiders.
Karlat attacked me but because of a scroll that I had purchased, I was able to get the help of Algernon. Sadly he died and more hapily, so did Karlat.
Having bought protection from basilisks, I went hunting them and ended up fighting some "adventurers whilst there."
I tried taking on Droth and ended up fleeing to the Friendly Arms to recuperate.
However, upon returning, I was able to prevail against both him and Shoal.
I found Arcand's ring and killed some sirine.
I then went to Durlag's Tower.
And left when I deemed it too unsafe.
I was able to collect some decent armour before I did so.
Trio 25, Core rules, unmodded (8th and final update) Fini - female, human illusionist dualled to thief (Grond0)
Corepally - male, human undead hunter (Corey_Russell)
Plinker - male, human blackguard (Gate70)
Previous updates:
After regaining her illusionist abilities at the end of the previous session, Fini had less reason to skulk around the battlefield - which meant more opportunities to get caught out. That eventually led to her finally living up to her name.
The first action in the session was promising, with the Shade Lord dying in a Daystar sunray. After reporting back to the mayor we went to finish another bit of work started previously at Trademeet. There was one glitch there when Plinker got stuck in the middle of a fight and couldn't take the strain.
However, everything else went smoothly enough.
Remembering that we hadn't called on Valygar, Fini led the way back to Umar Hills and soon had a body in her backpack. However, as ever greedy for a bit more XP, she went in search of the nearby group of rangers. Her attempted fireball there was interrupted by an arrow and she took several more of those before running back out of range. Unfortunately she didn't manage to hide once out of sight and the druid had already lined her up for a flame strike ...
Comments
It was pure carelessness. I had a potion of freedom. I meant to trigger the trap and move away immediately. Clearly didn't do it correctly. I probably shouldn't have been playing when I was so tired.
Fini - female, human illusionist (Grond0)
Corepally - male, human undead hunter (Corey_Russell)
Plinker - male, human blackguard (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1135353/#Comment_1135353
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1136173/#Comment_1136173
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137023/#Comment_1137023
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137713/#Comment_1137713
We started in the Copper Coronet sewers, where a few myconids had taken shelter. Taking those on led to Fini and Corepally both being confused. They briefly faced off against each other, but chose to both turn away - with Plinker soon available to sit in the middle, after finishing off the myconids, and ensure no fatal squabble ensued.
Corepally was keen to ensure he wouldn't get confused again, so we went to Trademeet in search of the Shield of Harmony. Fini remained outside the genies' tent, to be certain there would be no nasty accidents, until flesh to stone spells had been used up.
Rather than continue on to the Druid Grove, we diverted to the de'Arnise Hold in search of the FoA. That was forged before taking on TorGal and Corepally made sure of getting him as a victim after being starved of most kills there thanks to his lack of fire or acid damage. TorGal's guards could have just been meleed, but slow and Kitthix's web added a bit of insult to injury.
An alternative source for armor was found in the Promenade with Mencar. His companions were all trapped in webs and died of fireballs and cloudkills, but he managed to burst free and chase Fini downstairs - not that that did him much good.
The Rune Assassins offered some quick XP for traps and locks, as well as a high quest reward. Corepally took a few nasty stabs there and indulged in a couple of healing potions to keep safe, though he was never particularly low on HPs.
More traps and locks kept the XP going, though Fini was a bit quick to open a container in the Talos Temple and got hit by a lightning bolt - fortunately she was alert enough to move out of the way before being caught in the rebound.
The Fallen Paladins offered a bit more pretty quick XP. By this stage Fini had maximised her find traps and open locks skills and was working on setting traps - and got her first trap damage here to make things a bit easier for the not-fallen paladins.
The final action of the session saw us running through Mae'Var's tasks. Having 3 separate people controlling speeds up the end of those considerably - with one doing jobs in the inn, one talking to Edwin and one to Mae'Var. First though we had to spend a bit more time dealing with Rayic Gethras. He has some nasty spells, but those were used up on 3 summons sent in separately from the shadows at the end of his room - the mage then found it hard to cast anything further under assault from Plinker's blackguard poison.
Illusionist - L12 / thief L9, 83 HPs (7 from ioun stone, 12 from familiar), 121 kills (+115 in BGEE)
Undead hunter - L10, 123 HPs (10 from bracers), 134 kills (+174 in BGEE), 1 death
Blackguard - L10, 108 HPs (5 from helm), 180 kills (+241 in BGEE), 4 deaths
Lowbar (male assassin, Gate70); Polgara (female druid, Grond0)
The halfling assassin and half-elf druid stand up and flex their limbs, ready to take on Cloakwood Mine. There is a hamadryad on the way, Polgara confirming it is immune to lightning but not our weapons. We then outrun some guards and a pair of wolves before reaching the mine exterior.
Lowbar proves his thiefly might by appearing in sight of Drasus - who promtly attacks with Genthore at his side. They are a strong combination but Polgara is able to battle with them and Lowbar makes up for his poor start by landing a few backstabs. Kysus and Rezdan are sitting ducks without their companions.
We bludgeon and backstab our way into the mine and the final guard is trying to get to grips with Polgara when a hefty backstab stops him.
Polgara is trying to tell Lowbar to back away but he gulps a potion of fire breath and goes for the ettercaps - following it up with poisoned arrows +1 (in hindsight he had a couple of better choices of arrows).
One ettercap is killed but Davaeorn and the other one kill Polgara.
With Polgara raised we sell off some loot and return to Davaeorn. Lowbar fluffs his hiding again and we are forced to fight some hobgoblins. Lowbar tanks as Polgara has no equipment other than her staff that he carried back for her. Polgara goes all bear-form though and the hobgoblins have no chance.
On our way back to the city Lowbar splurges out on the Shadow Thief armour and we deal with Degrodel to learn of and obtain the cloak of Balduran. A few arrows of dispelling are purchased and we've done everything we wanted to do in the city so head over to Duke Eltan.
He tells us to check the Iron Throne HQ and we don't need telling twice. Maybe we do as Scar already told us. OK, we're on it.
Polgara tells Lowbar to hold fire with his arrows, then changes her mind and tells him to make it snappy as she has mis-timed her insect plague. Lowbar steps to it but a couple of enemies are still neutral so the insects only do a partial job.
With Gardush eliminated we gang up on the doppelganger but it survives several rounds and both of us comment on how much better it is faring than we would normally expect. Anyway, down it goes after a few rounds more.
We report back to Duke Eltan and get ourselves arrested in Candlekeep before finishing the session hidden away in the secret library.
I'll perhaps try a different character next.
EDIT
Next character was a priest of Tempus who was killed by Tarnesh
An in joke there for the UK audience. If others are interested, try googling Barnard Castle Cummings ...
EDIT
I then deliveredf Bentha from Zordral before going back to Beregost where I gave Mirianne some good news and the Colquetle family some bad news.
Heading back south I helped Albert before taking on Vax and Zal and in transit I took on a winter wolf. Gorion's belt came in very useful.
I headed north and killed a polar bear and to my disgust the nobleman that I saved was VERY stingy.
Calling into the Inn for a rest, I was attacked by Neira who I killed.
There I killed Peter, Kirian et al followed by basilisks and finally Mutamin.
EDIT
Killed Centeol and reached the level cap (161,000)
Went to Durlag's for the tome. Used potion of clarity for that and some nearby chests.
Went into the basement and upon opening the chest with grapes in was killed.
What protections are needed for that chest? (No need to answer. I was dire charmed.
I normally have a thief for opening chests. The first time that I have tried Durlag's without one.
I clearly should have either ignored the rest of Durlag's or waited until I had the green amulet. If you don't try you don't learn I suppose.
Typical! The first time that I replayed it to discover what went wrong, I saved against the spell. Tried it again and got the message.
Charname is (was) a human WS13 -> Thief. Perished in SoA in the Underdark. Third attempt, first in SoA.
Traveled with Jaheira, Anomen, Korgan, and Mazzy. Permadeaths: Shar Teel, Yoshi.
---
Unfortunately, Qilue of all people ended charname's run (or that is, her mages did). At some point early in the fight, Anomen was killed with a 3x fireball sequencer. The fight wasn't going that poorly, just chaotically as the ~ half dozen level 15ish mages cast a lot of teleport fields and I at some point carelessly let Jaheira get confused. Eventually, charname took a lot of evocation damage in a brief period of time and died before I could heal.
I think throwing the resurrection wand to someone else would have saved him, or just taking the fight more carefully in about 10 other ways.
Oops! This was a fight that the party could easily win most times, and win with moderate difficulty the others - I just wasn't paying attention.
Not sure whether I'd do a wizslayer -> thief again, but if I do I will certainly NOT dual at 13. Either 9 or 10 I think. Would have to decide whether to stay Good and once more go for Carsomyr and ~80 mr or change to Neutral or Evil and use purifier / human leather for 100 mr.
Wizslayer was a pretty fun class that plays quite differently due to all the item restrictions. The spell fail mechanic was a little finicky but pretty strong when it did work. The toughest restriction imo is actually the potion restriction, particularly loss of invisibility. Means charname doesn't have the ability to get out of trouble nearly as easily as other classes.
I'm not sure this party was capable of taking on kangaxx or the twisted rune.
I THINK kangaxx could be beaten by just tanking his lich form and then getting fast sunrays off (daystar, brilliance helm, anomen's cleric book) on his demilich form to kill him. I don't believe he pre-casts protection from magical energy even in insane SCS.
The twisted rune would have been tougher. It would have been very hard to deal with the lich, Layene, and the beholder all at once - all three of which are dangerous and very difficult or impossible for this party to disable or debuff.
This is where dualing at level 13 turned out to be such a mistake. I was thinking that the only downtime that mattered was until WS levels were regained at thief 14 and forgetting that what really mattered was the delay to UAI at 3mm thief xp. So a dual at 9 can pretty easily hit 3.3m xp and have UAI for the toughest SoA fights. A dual at 10 is tougher but possibly achievable with the extra xp from having only 5 party members. A dual at 13 doesn't get UAI until 4.4mm somewhere in mid ToB...
Anyway, that all said, I did really like the all fighter team, which forced the usage of a lot of different tactics. Mazzy has some cool unique buffs that I had never used before and was pretty effective. Korgan is a character I didn't use for ~20 years (having played the game as a kid when it came out) but has really grown on me. He's just immensely strong in SoA and this party in particular leaned on his undispellable berserk ability repeatedly.
Edit: The other thing I would do on a repeat run is use Yoshi better (and not get him killed by Torgal, ideally). I built him as a 2ws longsworder with varscona and the flaming earth, which looked cool but didn't really add much value next to 5 other fighters. Particularly because there wasn't enough full plate to go around and he tended to get targeted a lot despite his 18 dex and spend most of the fights drinking healing potions.
What I would instead do is go for a grandmaster crossbow build and use the army scythe or possibly firetooth. That gives reasonable dps/utility (particularly with lightning/biting bolts) and doesn't waste him as yet-another-frontline-swordswinger.
From there it was not especially difficult to chop up Bodhi and her brother, although the avatar of Rillifane had some difficulties with his signal and the game crashed once or twice until he finally cleared the city. Tyris came on board to help, giving much needed magical backup, while Keldorn retired to be with his family and Haldamir stayed in the elven city. They were replaced by Sarevok and Mazzy, an odd couple if ever there was one.
The new team has made good progress through Throne of Bhaal, and have taken down Gromnir, Yaga Shura, Sendai, and Draconis. The most alarming moment was in Sendai’s lair when a bit of careless equipment juggling allowed Adorar to be vulnerable to getting stunned by an Ulitharid. Apart from that everything *seems* fine but we’ll see if that continues...
Problem is that you only find out what kind of trap it is when you fail. Obviously I have never failed with that trap before due to having a decent thief. I am learning a lot more about them now that I am playing solo. I knew all about the chests that charm you upstairs and so was prepared. I also knew about the ones with electrical damage upstairs. Character was tough enough to survive all the traps that did damage, but not insta-kill. Apparently being enraged I should have been immune to this trap too. I will investigate that in another game. Currently playing an Inquisitor again. Traps which charm hold no fear for an Inquisitor.
EDIT
I have learned a lot from my last two solo games and am now playing another solo Inquisitor who reached the experience cap before entering Nashkel Mines. That's a first!
As a result the rest of the game before Baldur's Gate was a walkover.
One tactic that I have never tried before with a paladin is using the domination scroll at Ulgoth's to charm Algernon against Tranzig. I've used mages to do it, but never a paladin. Usually I have a party and I get Montaron to do the dirty.
Here are the details.
Journal of Guy the Good, Inquisitor
I then reunited Alfie and Rufie before killing Vax and Zal.
Killing Krumm proved to be difficult, but Ingot was easier.
Heading west I killed some ogres.
I bumped into a wolf in transit and then killed Zargal.
I'll finish posting it up when I have had a break tomorrow.
Going in search of Mutamin I met up with Peter, Lindin et al first.
Nice solo work @Wise_Grimwald
I've had three characteristic Blackraven fails in one week, due to rust, role-playing scruples, and good old stupidity.
First my Fighter/Thief Stil, that I posted about last week, fell against a bunch of shrooms in Siege of Dragonspear.
Next there was my role-played Cleric of Helm Eyulf, who saw a grievously injured Imoen permanently slain by a vicious fireball from the Demon Knight.
Third in line was a newly rolled Fighter/Thief Aztryd. She was out there farming XP, made it to Durlag's Tower, where she intended to finish off four basilisks on three potions of mirrored eyes. To optimize her efficient use of said potions, she went for a backstab on a greater basilisk that was to be followed immediately by a potion swig. Somehow I forgot to do that, with predictable results.
Marhild, NG female Dwarf Fighter/Thief
Stubborn as a mule, I rolled yet another Fighter/Thief, but to keep things fresh I decided to go for a highly melee-oriented character: ** staff, * two-handed weapon style, * flail. She should become skilled at both wielding different types of twohanders and (in BG2) dual wielding at least flails, while using ranged weapons very sparingly. Meet Marhild Shadowstaff:
Marhild didn't really need ranged weapons as her staff served as a good backwhack weapon and her good attack speed also allowed her to strike faster than her foes. She worked her way to 20 rep and I allowed her to use Lord Foreshadow's charisma ring and to nick Algernon's cloak, which she managed with difficulty,
Brun and Tenya followed by Mutamin and his pets provided a first massive XP boost. This time Korax managed to paralyze Mutamin. Marhild came close to her first 100+ strike with one of the basilisks.
Meilum helped Marhild to a pair of gauntlets. He has four pips in katana, but that made him still one short against Marhild, who just struck faster. The Wand of Sleep helped Marhild clear the akheg-ridden lands north of the FAI, while sneak attacks provided more XP from the Battle Horrors at Durlag's. Three potions of mirrored eyes sufficed against the tower's basilisks. In the Lighthouse Area, Marhild indulged in an oil of speed. Paired with two charges of her amulet, it allowed her to deal swiftly and safely with the Sirines and Golems there. Sil was the first to suffer a triple digit blow at Marhild's hands.
Lower level 1 saw Marhild engage in lots of backstabbing.
Being the good-aligned Dwarf that she is, and out of respect for Durlag and his clan, Marhild decided to take on the Demon Knight. His second Remove Magic dispelled loads of protections, protections that she could not replicate in a second potion buffing session. Still with 2x heroism, fire giant str, defense, fire resistance, speed, regeneration and Greenstone charges to counter her foe's PW Stuns, she managed to stay safe while striking and retreating.
Journal of Guy the Good, Inquisitor
I finally ended up in the Korlasz Family Crypt.
There were a few dicey moments along the way despite being at the level cap.
The first was when fighting the ogre mage that is allied with the carrion crawlers. I didn't use the insta-kill arrow, a mistake that I will not repeat! I got confused and panicked. Fortunately I ran out of sight of the ogre mage and only had a single carrion crawler to deal with. Eventually the spells wore off and I was able to buff before killing the ogre/mage.
The second was in the ducal palace. I ended up panicked at one end of the room with Belt at the other end. Eventually I killed the last doppelganger, healed and buffed myself and went in search of Belt. His health was low, so I was glad that he couldn't see Sarevok. He therefore didn't get involved when Sarevok went hostile. Neither did I. I used archery.
The final battle was much better managed. I was in control throughout the battle.
On the way to the Final Battle I had to return to an inn three times as i wanted to hang on to my meagre stock of healing potions.
It is as well that I did as I needed a lot of potions in the SoD prologue. Again it was confusion and the like that caused problems, and almost my death in the battle against Korlasz.
While I was panicking and in conflict with one mercenary, Korlasz was fighting my allies and died. That's a first for me. She has always surrendered in the past. I presume that this was because I wasn't there to surrender to.
Now back in the palace. I have decided not to continue as a solo character. I don't know SoD well enough to have even a slight chance of survival. Guy is at level 8.
Currently ** in long swords, ** in long bows, and ** in dual wielding. Images will follow, but it is now bed time just glad to have reached a safe haven in Baldur's Gate.
I certainly missed having a mage and a thief in SoD.
Back on the surface, we go on a huge forging spree from Item Upgrades:
Daystar +4, Amulet of Ilmater, Ring & Staff of Elemental Mastery, Shield of Harmony +3, Water's Talon +4, Quietus +4, and the human flesh armor. I doubt Bodhi is going to be an issue - she isn't, although Cactank has to cast Mass Raise Dead to save Stabby from being bitten to death by bats after getting hit with Chill of the Grave.
Venduris' group is next. All of us have a way to protect ourselves from physical attacks:
-Blaggy and Cactank use Divine Protection
-Stabby disappears with Cloak of Shadows (which Venduris foils anyway with his Detect Illusions, somehow)
-Debuff and Yin use spell triggers to cast Shadeskin and Shadow Screen to prevent Arrows of Dispelling from Bodak from working and it protects them from Grok and Zaeron T'ane using normal weapons to counter PfWfW
-Spaz uses Dark Foresight to give himself immunity to backstab, +20% damage resistance, +10 AC, and +5 saves.
Grok rockets forward using his Boots of Speed+Oil of Speed combo and chases down Yin to no effect due to Shadeskin. Spaz's Hideous Blow: Binding Blast stuns Grok which lets Cactank and Stabby wail on him. Blaggy fearlessly moves forward since Divine Protection will also block the traps the rogues have set near the gate. Our Clay Golem defuses most of the traps since it's immune to missile damage. Spaz devours the magic of the priest and the mage. Yin winds up a Relentless Assault and the rogues are doomed once he casts it, as Debuff's song and Blaggy's aura causes Kerith, Bodak, and Selina to lose their morale.
At Suldanessellar, Yin tries out Invoke Reflection for the first time. Neat! Too bad Nizi's reflection had no claws equipped, only bare fists that do nonlethal damage.
Creates a simulacrum of the targeted enemy, who can save vs. spell at -3 to negate the effect. Allies can also be targeted but it is automatically successful for them.
Irenicus is easily killed at the Tree of Life thanks to Spaz's high level Devour Magic.
Time to fight the Slayer. Our fighters, properly buffed with Death Ward and Avoid Death, take out the Balors as fast as they can to prevent any vorpal tomfoolery. Yin attempts a Darkbolt while Debuff tries casting Breaching Dark on the Slayer. Darkbolt is like Spellstrike but with extra effects, but it strangely does nothing, even though the Slayer did not have a Spell Shield active. The Slayer stops time before Debuff can finish his Breaching Dark, but Yin's Staff of the Magi gives him immunity to Time Stop. He casts Shatter Weave and Breaching Dark on the Slayer while time is stopped and gives a whack to a Glabrezu. This works, which takes out the Slayer's PfMW and causes it spell failure for 2 rounds. Enraged, it rushes down Yin who casts PfWfW in response, causing it to switch targets to Blaggy. Yin casts Shadowplague on a nearby Glabrezu so it spreads to the Slayer, causing additional spell failure for longer. Debuff is Improved Hasted and hitting the Slayer with Water's Talon +4, poisoning it for massive damage. It's only a matter of time before Blaggy takes back his soul.
Blaggy - Blackguard 26
Cactank - Dwarven Defender 18/Cleric 19
Stabby - Fighter 18/Assassin 22
Spaz V - Warlock 34
Debuff - Nightsinger 34
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 24
Fini - female, human illusionist (Grond0)
Corepally - male, human undead hunter (Corey_Russell)
Plinker - male, human blackguard (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1135353/#Comment_1135353
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1136173/#Comment_1136173
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137023/#Comment_1137023
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137713/#Comment_1137713
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1138560/#Comment_1138560
The session started with an assault on Mae'Var's guildhouse. The thieves there have surprisingly poor THAC0 and made little impression on the paladins. Downstairs, Mae'Var himself did no better.
I think it was at that moment someone (possibly a prophet of some sort
After acquiring the Shield of Balduran, the Unseeing Eye quest looked easy enough, though Corepally thought it would be safer to use a scroll of PfU to get through the initial area. Fini told him there would be no need for that - thinking in terms of dragging the undead away in ones and twos with maybe the odd trap set. Determined to prove her wrong, Corepally strode into the attack - and fell victim to greater mummy disease.
After making use of the rod, Corepally was able to pick up the bracers of dexterity to boost his AC by 4. With the shield in hand he was soon cutting through various beholders.
That outing provided quite a bit of XP to help Fini's push to regain her illusionist levels and paying Gaelan Bayle and doing the first couple of tasks for Aran Linvail kept the XP pouring in. At the point we'd just paid Gaelan the vampires tried a final ambush, but Corepally lit the touchpaper on Daystar and the vampires retired.
The clock was ticking down in the session, but there was still time for a visit to Umar Hills. We spread out to do a few quick tasks in the village and Fini found herself glued into position while Corepally faced off against a mimic.
Normal time was up as we prepared for an assault on Thaxy. However, at the start of the session Gate70 had predicted Fini would get her illusionist levels back before the end - and it was of course nothing to do with that that prompted him to suggest we could just finish off the dragon anyway. As that was only ever going to be a short fight, with 7 poisonous traps laid around her, I agreed to a couple of minutes of overtime.
Illusionist/thief - L12 / L13, 78 HPs (12 from familiar), 146 kills (+115 in BGEE)
Undead hunter - L12, 119 HPs, 223 kills (+174 in BGEE), 2 deaths
Blackguard - L12, 114 HPs (5 from helm), 255 kills (+241 in BGEE), 6 deaths
I was confused in the cave where the umber hulks are just as Dynaheir cast death fog. I'm not sure whether it was the hulks, the carrion crawlers or the fog that killed me. Being confused there was nothing that I could do.
I don't really know SoD well enough to play no reload.
I had forgotten all about them being there.
I think that next time that I enter Dragonspear I need to do a refresher run prior to doing no reload just to remind myself of the basics.
Because I wasn't expecting to use a party, I neglected to pick up the staff +3 and archmage robe, not that it mattered.
Then, with the challenges quickly disposed of it was time to visit the Throne... which went fairly well. Haerry got to drop off lots of traps collected throughout the game, and SCS Melissan got off a few timestop whirlwinds (usually I disable this option as I don't timestop melee myself but she did it anyway) but Adorar - who was immune to cold, had a resistance score of at least 50%, stoneskin etc., and over 150 hp- was evidently not a tempting target. Her second incarnation actually managed to kill Sarevok and Haer but the various summons and golems kept her busy enough that they could be resurrected and her other incarnations were dealt with without too much trouble. Adorar went on to try to find his niche in the crowded pantheon of nature gods, while Tyris, Sarevok, Haer, Kelsey, and Mazzy went on their way. The extra companions Afaaq and Hrun the animal companion also played a significant part along with Tyris' golems, a veritable posse!
All in all it was a quite interesting run, which I'm slightly surprised that Adorar survived given my up and down levels of attention. I shall try again sometime, probably in a foreign language for study purposes, with a greatly reduced modload, and probably greatly reduced quest rewards - I shall see if my usual mod choices have had a big effect on the difficulty level. Usually I played at SCS tactical level with various creatures like dragons & beholders being set to a higher level.
Thank you for your attention and good luck gentlefolk
Man, I hate ToB. All the bosses or any enemy significantly badass enough to present a challenge have all kinds of immunities, meaning that straight-up slugfests are the main way to solve these fights. Gromnir is up first. Karun the Black wisely pre-buffs with SI: Abjuration which means Spaz can't just devour his magic and be done with it. Yin fires up Relentless Assault, but as he's debuffing everyone around him, Karun stops time, which means Yin can't refresh the assault by killing something. But Black Ray and Shadowplague get him to shut up after the time stop and the Nightwalker helps Blaggy kill Gromnir as he was tanking him with Divine Protection.
Stabby breaks his backstab damage record again on the way to get Yaga-Shura's heart. The game does not have any strings for backstab multipliers beyond x9, so it displays a blank string. (Stabby has a x7 backstab normally, x8 from the Assassin's Blade HLA, x9 from Quietus +4, x10 from the Short Sword of Backstabbing +5 wielded in the off-hand.)
Yin levels up from killing some fire giants and chooses Nightsinger's Tithe as a new 9th level spell. So we go around Athkatla and Saradush reaping the souls of 50 commoners to gain Nightsinger's Boon. The 50% chance of getting +1 max HP per kill made with the spell also helps boost Yin's declining health, as the HLAs that let him cast spells more often require a max HP sacrifice. Yin's casting speed is now boosted by 7 (+4 Vecna, +2 Shadovar Amulet, +1 Boon).
Then I remember that I've left Watcher's Keep 5 undone. None of the seal guardians prove to be very challenging. Azamantes manages to resist Spaz's Devour Magic, so Yin has to use Annulment to strip him of almost all of his buffs. He is promptly destroyed by Blaggy's Fallen Deva.
30 ft. AoE, not party-friendly. Anyone in its radius suffers an automatically successful Dispel Magic and then it strips one spell protection of any level. Victims' MR is also negated for 5 rounds and they cannot cast spells for 1 round.
The worst is yet to come. The Abyssal Host is gated in and Demogorgon takes control of the Nightwalker! It is classified as a Tanar'ri, so I expect Melissan should be able to do the same thing with her Control Demon ability, but at least Blaggy will be able to counter that with his own. The Nightwalker focuses on Cactank but it has trouble hitting him even while buffed with Shar's Blessing. Spaz uses a scroll of Enchanted Weapon on Cactank, who pulls out the Martyr's Morningstar and activates Critical Strike to cut the beast's HP down to size. Yin is quick to cast Oblivion Pull on the balor that was gated in to prevent any vorpal strikes. Demogorgon spams Stoneskin, so rather than having Spaz counter with Devour Magic every round, Yin casts Relentless Assault and just spams Nightshade at Demorgorgon, who goes down after about three or four castings. Good thing percentage-based damage bypasses damage resistance.
The fire giant temple is next but we make it through thanks to lots of fire resistance. Yaga-Shura and his army are destroyed, although it takes a while due to triple HP. Sigil of Mortality helps speed up the process on Yaga-Shura. Yin invokes Yaga's reflection but it's just a big distraction because it can't equip his hammer, so it's stuck with nonlethal fists just like Nizi the black dragon. It also spends most of the fight stunned because Spaz's Eldritch Chain also targets summons/charmed enemies. I should probably start copying party members instead.
Blaggy - Blackguard 30
Cactank - Dwarven Defender 21/Cleric 22
Stabby - Fighter 21/Assassin 25
Spaz V - Warlock 39
Debuff - Nightsinger 40
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 27
EDIT: Only 3 screenshots isn't worth making a new post, so here's Sendai, Abazigal, and the Ravager. Sendai gets wrecked by a backstab from Stabby; Abazigal and the Ravager die from a Nightshade+Phantom Arrow combo from Yin. The berserker lizard men in Abazigal's domain nearly ended the run as they do obscene damage very quickly and have Greater Whirlwinds.
Upon being ambushed, at Gorion’s command, we fled only to return when it was safe to do so. We buried his body after reclaiming his useful possessions which included a belt and a bag of holding. I vowed vengeance on his killers. Those who attack my friends attack me!
We headed south where we were attacked by gnolls who perished as a result.
Further south we met Mellicamp who we were able to help.
We killed hobgoblins and Sonner on the way to Baldur’s Gate where we were denied entry. Tenya promised us recompense in the future for killing Sonner and returning her bowl.
We then killed an ankheg that attacked us.
Upon returning to Beregost we calmed Marl down and delivered a tome to Firebead
Nearby we killed some ogrillon and delivered a letter which had been in their possession.
We proceeded on to Nashkel, killing hobgoblin and picking up the Colquetle amulet on the way.
In Nashkel I found some decent armour, talked to Noober and turned down gold from Oublek. That turned out to be a good decision as it raised my reputation.
At the Carnival we used true sight and command to defeat a mage who attacked us. As a result Mog now has a mage robe.
Greywolf attacked us south of Nashkel and died as a result.
We returned to Beregost to deliver the Colquetle amulet, and while there we were attacked by Silke and Karlat.
We then reunited Perdue with his sword.
Near Beregost we were attacked by the Flaming Fist who were easily defeated. As a result Helmus now has plate armour.
To the north of Beregost we were attacked by an ogre with a belt fetish. One of the belts will be quite useful.
Much less epic is the tale of my fighter/thief Marhild. Her run came to an end in the Ducal Palace. She breezed through the game after having completed Durlag's Tower. In the Ducal Palace she was doing fine too until a Chaos from the Doppelganger Mage affected some of the Flaming Fist fighters. One of them attacked Sarevok, which led to a scripted death for Marhild. Must remember to not waste any time in attacking the mage (Marhild allowed the assassin to distract her for a few rounds.)
I was just about to post an update.
The party was doing really well. Twinaxe was level 6 and we had just killed the last sirine using true sight and Berserker rage. I checked to ensure that I still had comfortably more than 15 hp. Fine! Then lightning struck. End of game! The gods clearly did not like what I was doing.
A chaotic evil berserker with a rep of 20!
The first time that I have had death by lightning!
The Morale Failening: Revengeance
Ascension fight - start!
At the beginning, Bodhi shoots her cloud of bats at Debuff, so I have him run off to the side and use a scroll of Spell Turning. Since Insect Plague has been nerfed in v33 compared to v32, this was unnecessary because his Shadeskin protected him. Yin casts Relentless Assault and fires a Black Ray at Irenicus followed by a Breaching Dark, but he stops time before the Breaching Dark can take effect. Instead, Yin casts a series of spells at the nearest solar (the other one lost morale) so that they will resolve in the correct order once time resumes: Sigil of Misfortune -> Shatter Weave -> Nightshade -> Phantom Arrow -> Negastorm, then uses the Wand of Lightning trick combined with a wand of Nightshade on the solar. Jon's Time Stop proves fruitless since Black Ray shut him up.
The pool fights are nothing special. Time for the Six. Spaz uses a scroll of Protection from Magic on Abazigal to keep him from casting Time Stop. I'm not sure if he still opens with it like the old BP Ascension, but shutting down a mage is always a good thing. Debuff's song causes more than half of the Six to lose morale, which makes things a whole lot easier. Yin revs up Relentless Assault while Stabby uses an invis potion and keeps his options open, waiting for the best time to strike, stacking up damage bonuses while doing so. Cactank charges Yaga-Shura after activating Hardiness. With his equipment, he has 100% melee resistance. Blaggy goes after Abazigal with The Answerer +4. Our golems and the nightwalker attack Balthazar.
When Melissan is alone, she teleports up to the northeast side of the throne and gates in a ton of demons, causing them to bunch up next to her. But Yin excels at debuffing crowds and killing tough single targets. He revs up another Relentless Assault and casts: Sigil of Misfortune -> Shatter Weave (Melissan) -> Malefic Bomb (Melissan, to maximize damage potential) -> Nightfall -> Negastorm -> Oblivion Pull (Balor) -> Nightshade (Melissan) -> Phantom Arrow (Melissan). Melissan takes an incredible amount of damage as Nightshade, Phantom Arrow, and Negastorm all do damage based on the target's max HP. Incidentally, if she failed her save against all of those respective spells (which is extremely likely, if not guaranteed, given all the save penalties accrued from various sources), she would take 132% of her HP in unresistable damage. Only Phantom Arrow and Nightshade are needed to do 100% of her max HP in damage. Thus, Melissan is defeated because of this.
I believe Yin inflicted a -15 save penalty to Melissan from just his spell assault alone with the Dread Black Ring, in addition to Debuff's song for -5 more and Blaggy's aura for another -4, totaling a penalty of -24: more than enough to guarantee failure. Truly, this is fun with saving throws.
Blaggy takes the power of Bhaal that he had sought since he first discovered his lineage.
Blaggy - Artisan's Kitpack Blackguard 33
Cactank - Dwarven Defender 22/Cleric 24
Stabby - Fighter 23/Artisan's Kitpack Assassin 27
Spaz V - Warlock 43
Debuff - Nightsinger 43
Yin II - Shadow Disciple 29
Blaggy the Artisan's Kitpack Blackguard: @Flashburn
Notable mods: EET, Level Adder; Artisan's Kitpack v1.7, Shadow Magic 2.21, Warlock 1.61, SCS v33.1, Ascension v2.0.12, Better Stat Drain, Tweaks Anthology v9, aTweaks, Skip Chateau Irenicus, Trials of the Luremaster, Golem Construction 5.4, Item Upgrade v44, Thalantyr Item Upgrade
Difficulty: Insane (SCS Legacy of Bhaal settings)
Special: All creatures have triple HP; kill and quest XP in BG1 is doubled
Start
Finish
Parts 1-9:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1135460#Comment_1135460
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1136770#Comment_1136770
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137455#Comment_1137455
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137683#Comment_1137683
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1138393#Comment_1138393
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1139271#Comment_1139271
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1139603#Comment_1139603
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1139817#Comment_1139817
As funny as it can be, there's a reason my weather is turned off...
Whilst a bit annoying, I am pleased that I had the weather switched on. It stops the game being too predictable. Extremely powerful people get killed in storms, earthquakes, forest fires and the like in RL.
After the ambush, after picking up Gorion's possessions which included a bag of holding (My only modification) I headed eastwards picking up a diamond and a ring of protection on the way. I fought wolves and an ogre before heading to Beregost for a rest in an inn there.
I accidentally got into a fight with Silke. The fight ended badly for everybody involved but me due to Silke aiming a lightning bolt at me which I evaded by dashing into the inn.
Upon heading west to find Perdue's sword, I killed the gnolls that had stolen it.
Being that bit stronger helped me to kill two of them at a time.
At the temple I was asked to kill Basilus which I did remarkably easily.
I was able to collect some decent armour before I did so.
Fini - female, human illusionist dualled to thief (Grond0)
Corepally - male, human undead hunter (Corey_Russell)
Plinker - male, human blackguard (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1135353/#Comment_1135353
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1136173/#Comment_1136173
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137023/#Comment_1137023
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1137713/#Comment_1137713
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1138560/#Comment_1138560
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1139367/#Comment_1139367
After regaining her illusionist abilities at the end of the previous session, Fini had less reason to skulk around the battlefield - which meant more opportunities to get caught out. That eventually led to her finally living up to her name.
The first action in the session was promising, with the Shade Lord dying in a Daystar sunray. After reporting back to the mayor we went to finish another bit of work started previously at Trademeet. There was one glitch there when Plinker got stuck in the middle of a fight and couldn't take the strain.
Remembering that we hadn't called on Valygar, Fini led the way back to Umar Hills and soon had a body in her backpack. However, as ever greedy for a bit more XP, she went in search of the nearby group of rangers. Her attempted fireball there was interrupted by an arrow and she took several more of those before running back out of range. Unfortunately she didn't manage to hide once out of sight and the druid had already lined her up for a flame strike ...