@semiticgod, which one enthuses you most? I tend toward the Bard but would be interested to see either transformation take effect. @Ygramul, thanks, doing my best I understand RL interfering, happens to all of us. Hope to your FMC in action again soon.
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (5th update)
You find yourself sat at a table in a nondescript shop, engaged in quiet conversation with the owner, the only other person around. You're not one to put trust in strangers - how could you, what with all the people hunting after you? - but since she told you about her former career as a cat burglar, her basic knowledge of divine and arcane spells (even though she's no caster), and her past collisions with both the Thieves Guild and the authorities in Baldur's Gate, you decide to get some of your worries off your chest. The woman is all ears as you relate your recent experiences in the Cloakwood. You leave out details you find irrelevant, like your entering a spiders' den under the cover of Sanctuary to find Spiders' Bane and a dead kid, or your hard-fought defeat of a Shadow Archdruid. (Even though that was quite a spectacular encounter. You recall how you pretty much emptied your entire spellbook on him and it still wasn't enough. Some of his summons you waited out for them to disappear, others nearly killed you.
You eventually finished him with oils of fiery burning, your trusty club and Wand of Magic Missiles charges.)
There are other details that you decide to withhold not because they're inconsequential but because they seem too sensitive to share, such as your fight to the death with a member of the influential Sashenstar family following his admission that he had killed an innocent.
You're more open about your dealings with the Iron Throne at their Cloakwood Mine, showing the woman letters implicating them in the iron crisis and the bandit plague. You relate your battle against a group of four skilled and well-equipped Iron Throne guards, two warriors and two wizards.
"I wanted to sneak past them invisibly but one of the mages casts Oracle and dispels my invisibility," you tell her.
"Interestingly, when I retreated and cast another Invisibility, it was only that same mage that came looking for me. I made him pay for his insolence using a wand of paralyzation, twice, because the first time his Mirror Images somehow kept triggering.
The wizard's death caused the others to come after me. I had to quaff an oil of speed because one of them, a ferocious warrior, was hasted as well. We ran around a lot, with me Blinding another pursuer and fruitlessly using the same wand of paralyzation on the hasted warrior. Eventually I managed to Spook him, and I used the time that spell bought me to Animate Dead. When he got his bearings again, he dispatched the Skeletons in the blink of an eye, so strong he was. I guess I was lucky really. With a successful Hold Person just when he downed the last Skeleton, I sealed his fate.
I managed to finish the second wizard when he got stuck in a Web I'd thrown at him, albeit only after he made me quaff my only potion of magic shielding when he cast a Chaos at me."
You leave out the part where you traveled all the way back to Beregost to get Thalantyr to produce for you the inconspicuous Mage Robe of Practical Protection (+2 AC bonus, +1 saves, +20% Fire/Cold/Electricty Resistance) and the Improved Shield Amulet (AC 4, +1 saves), mainly because you don't want to flaunt your wealth. Note: I prefer the (+2) AC bonus and the elemental protections of the Mage Robe of Practical Protection + Improved Shield Amulet over the extra lvl 2 spell and the 5% MR of the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi + Metaspell Influence Amulet. You also omit your violent encounter with an evil Bard named Silke, whose death furnished the necessary potions for Thalantyr to do his work.
"I later dealt with the last warrior by Blinding him and pelting him with sling bullets. Inside the mines I remained invisible
until I found the local Iron Throne executive, a wizard named Davaeorn. I approached him invisibly, protected only by two potions of magic protection (for 100 MR). I triggered plenty of traps, some of which injured me. Just when he was about to cast Oracle, a splinter from a Skull Trap hit him, interfering with his casting.
It allowed me to find a quiet spot to heal and buff with an MSD and an Improved Invisibility. My buffs were nothing compared to Davaeron's though.
He also cast different crowd control spells: Stinking Cloud, Web, and Teleport Field. I hoped against my better judgment that those spells would affect his two bodyguards, two fearsome Battle Horrors. They didn't. Davaeorn Removed my buffs, forcing me to re-establish my MSD, but then he did something stupid. He kept trying to hurt me with elemental damage, first with fire and lightning, which did little or nothing to affect me, but later with Cones of Cold. Those cones ended up injuring his own guards.
It enabled me to finish off the Battle Horrors that I would have otherwise considered too hard to deal with.
Davaeorn forced me to quaff a potion of magic blocking when my MSD expired, but that proved unnecessary really. I Blinded him, and slew him with three Skeletons I summoned."
You don't mention the fact that you left the mines with quite a lot of good loot, again preferring to keep a low financial profile.
"I'm very impressed with your account," the woman says after a short pause, "but I believe you, how can I not, with those letters you showed me. You're a brave woman to stand up against such a powerful institution as the Iron Throne. They're making quite a name for themselves here in the city, with their lofty new Sword Coast headquarters in the Docks District. Anyway, you have my support girl. People call me Silence, and that's what you'll get from me. Your secrets are safe with me. Silence, and free lodgings whenever you need a place to lay low. Ah, before I forget, have a look at my wares if you like. They're mainly potions and a few leftovers from my adventuring life. Maybe there's something you have use for."
You thank Silence, rest for a bit, and get out to do some exploration of the great city that has only recently reopened its gates. Apparently you didn't rest enough because when you decide to buy a new wand of paralyzation at the famous Sorcerous Sundries and sell your old one with only one charge left, you end up selling not the old but the new wand, at only a fraction of the price you bought it for. The dour shop owner, Halbazzer Drin, refuses to acknowledge the obvious mix-up, so you end up rebuying the wand at its full price, leaving you near penniless after you purchase a number of potions spell scrolls. You understand you'll have to look for jobs in the coming days.
The city of Baldur's Gate is full of opportunities for one such as yourself. There are many people who ask you for help, but given your interest in dismantling the Iron Throne, you limit yourself to some of the more urgent and lucrative quests available to you. You retrieve a little boy's corpse from Tenya at the Temple of Umberlee for resurrection by his father, deal with Aldeth Sashenstar's brother Dabron, convince the mage Ragefast to release the Nymph he had captured, much to the scorn of his rival Ramazith (whom you slay in self-defense using the wand of paralyzation), steal a telescope from the High Hall of Wonders for a fellow Gnome you befriend, and you find the cure to a poison an Iron Throne associate had inflicted you with. This Iron Throne lackey, a lad named Marek, doesn't surrender the antidote lightly. His backstabs and Magic Missiles almost kill you.
But once the effect of his potion of freedom wears off, you paralyze him with your wand, and finish him off without remorse.
Note the level-up symbol in Kathlen's portrait. She reached level 7 as a Cleric and as a Mage in Cloakwood. I'm respecting the BG1 level cap, but will level her up in SoA (one level in each class), should she make it there.
For the Flaming Fist you slay four or five Doppelgangers who had taken over the Seven Suns trading house, and an Ogre Mage that had been robbing and killing innocents and feeding their corpses to Ettercaps in the sewers. You render the Ogre helpless with your Wand of Paralyzation and quaff a potion of freedom to be immune to the Carrion Crawlers' paralyzing attacks.
The Fist also asks you to investigate the Iron Throne's possible involvement with Doppelgangers in the city and with the rising tensions with Amn. The Throne proves heavily guarded. You enter the top floor invisibly sneaking past six elite guards, and have a word with a man named Thaldorn. He tells you the Iron Throne management are at Candlekeep at the moment. When you move to leave the premises, the elite guards don't believe a ruse you come up with, that you're a merchant from Sembia. They attack. Using Invisibility and the stairs you manage to shake off some of them. You finish off one isolated opponent (Diyab), using the wand of paralyzation.
One floor down, you find a priest (Aasim) and two wizards (Alai, Naaman) waiting for you. With an Emotion: Hopelessness you affect one of them (Alai, Kathlen's main target); the others are temporarily taken out of the equation with your wand of paralyzation.
It buys you just enough time to deal with Alai (and acquire his Minor Sequencer scroll) before the other two can end your life.
Heavily injured you flee to the Elfsong tavern where Lake Poet Willy lowers your reputation (to 9) with a false tale of your purported misdeeds you committed.
Thus the fifth and sixth Bhaalpowers would be Divine Wrath (deals damage and pushes enemies away) instead of DUHM.
Duke Eltan, commander of the Flaming Fist, sends you to Candlekeep to meet the Iron Throne leaders and hopefully learn more about their plans and motives. You're only welcome for a little while in your old home, because the Gatewarden accuses you of murdering the Iron Throne management before you've even met them. You surrender but deny the allegation. Tethtoril trusts you and after some deliberation you come to the conclusion that the real perpetrator must have been Sarevok (or Koveras as he called himself when you met him), a member of Iron Throne you'd seen mentioned in a number of letters, and who now seems to have turned on his employer. Tethtoril teleports you to the catacombs below the Keep where you rely on potions of fire protection, absorption, and magic blocking, and on Knock (a spell you recently scribed) and MSD to access and loot three heavily trapped chests.
You escape the catacombs and caves invisibly, and decide to head south to lay low for a while. Ah and one more thing, you also have this letter, from Gorion, saying you're a child of the dead God of Murder, Bhaal! You try to assimilate this knowledge, you even believe it's true, but it just impossible for you to give it a place. Maybe it doesn't mean anything? Are you another person because of it? Hopefully, when this whole business with Sarevok is over, you can leave the matter of your heritage behind you.
In Beregost you spend about 5000 GP to raise your reputation to near heroic levels at the Temple of Lathandern hoping that will help you with the Flaming Fist in Baldur's Gate. You also inform Bjornin about the Half-Ogres you felled a tenday or two before, ask Officer Vai to put in a good word for you in Baldur's Gate, and return a Cloak of Non-Detection to a Dwarf who had lost it in Cloakwood (only to see the Dwarf refuse to receive the item). After that you head further south to Nashkel, where you aren't wanted and people still like you. At the Carnival a merchant sells you two potions that, for the duration of 24 hours, give the consumer supernatural strength and intelligence respectively. West of Nashkel you explore the Cloudpeaks. You enjoy the area a lot: mountainous, full of lush vegetation, and with various streams and even a cascade. You protect a Dryad against two knuckleheads who want to cut her tree, and you return a dead cat to a young girl that's sobbing over the animal. Further west you come upon what appears to be a Gnoll and Xvart stronghold. You loot their caves but find little treasure of note except for a tome that increases your Charisma when you read it.
After a tenday or so, you decide to return to Baldur's Gate. Relying on Invisibility and Sanctuary you're quite successful at keeping a low profile. You buy several scrolls at the Sorcerous Sundries, and in the quietude of Silence's shop, you quaff the intelligence-raising potion you had bought at the Nahskel Carnival and take about a day to drastically increase the number of spells in your spellbook. Amongst the most notable new spells are: Blur, Vocalize, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Haste, Melf's Minute Meteors, Remove Magic, Slow, Confusion, Dimension Door, Fireshield: Red, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Minor Sequencer, Oliluke's Resilient Sphere, Polymorph Self & Other, Secret Word, Spider Spawn, Stoneskin, Wizard Eye, Chaos, Cloudkill, Summon Lesser Air/Earth/Fire Elemental, and Shadow Door.
A woman you met at the entrance of the Sorcerous Sundries, and later by the Flaming Fist compund, recommends you to seek out two assassins in the Undercellars, Slythe and Krystin, for more information regarding Sarevok's plans. This is next on your agenda.
You find Slythe and Krystin in the Undercellars below the Blushing Mermaid. The former is a hasted backstabber, the latter an arcane caster. When you see Krystin dismiss your Skeletons with a single (Death) spell, you scare a bit. Fortunately you have two wands of monster summoning. You decide to try to avoid fighting your foes, hoping that the continuous influx of summoned monsters will eventually be too much for them. Gnolls, Ogres and Dire Wolves melee Slythe; Krystin disappears after she Greater Malisons you.
You contribute with a series of Magic Missiles you had prepared for the assassin. Eventually it's one of your Ogres that deals the killing blow.
You pick up an enchanted blade he'd been using, and some correspondence implicating Sarevok in a plan to overthrow (and kill) the Dukes of Baldur's Gate, as well as an invitation to the coronation of Sarevok himself as the new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate. Since your Ogres and Wolves are still around, and you also have a couple of charges of your wand of monster summoning left, you decide to see if Krystin could be made to join her partner. She unleashes elemental magics upon your summons, and dispels your Sanctuary much to your astonishment (and indignation),
but you retalliate with a Blindness.
Eventually you manage to club her down after she's run out of spells (though not scrolls).
(Curiously she kept attacking with her sling rather than her enchanted Dagger +2 Longtooth. It made her an easy target.
With the invitation and the incriminating evidence against Sarevok you head to the Ducal Palace. The ceremony is about to begin. Already many people have gathered. But... As a Gnome you have a knack for recognizing illusions; the guests you see aren't humans, they're Doppelgangers! You prepare for battle in a way you have never done before. First there's a series of potions you swig: violet, fortitude, agility, mind focusing x2, magic protection x2, speed, power. Then you summon three Skeletons and with your wand, three Gnoll Elites (which makes 6 summons even though you're only supposed to be allowed five). You Protect them from Evil, cast Strength of One on them (which in hindsight must have temporarily lowered your strength again), and finally you Haste them. The summons take their positions around Dukes Belt and Liia, and then battle breaks out. The Greater Doppelgangers open with Hastes, Confusions and Horrors. You counter the latter spell with Remove Fear. You also Slow two of the Greater Doppelgangers.
Liia Janneth falls before any of the Greater Doppelgangers have been felled, but while you heal Duke Belt, you see one of your Skeletons kill the first of your foes.
You slay a second one with a critical hit.
Another one panicks as it suffers a hit from Belt; it falls soon after.
You squeeze in a Defensive Harmony (from scroll), to give your summons a bit more staying power. One by one the remaining three Greater Doppelgangers fall as well. Belt slays the last one.
You pick up a Mislead scroll from Liia's body, lure Belt to one of the antechambers, and show him the evidence. Sarevok enrages, suffers a hit from a well-placed bullet from your sling, and then teleports away with a companion.
Belt thanks you and teleports you to the entrance of a maze below the Thieves Guild. You're aware that the roles have changed between Sarevok and you: you've become the hunter, he the prey. Still largely buffed, you're about to enter the maze.
.... Belt thanks you and teleports you to the entrance of a maze below the Thieves Guild. You're aware that the roles have changed between Sarevok and you: you've become the hunter, he the prey. Still largely buffed, you're about to enter the maze.
Many thanks @semiticgod for your involvement, and you too @Ygramul! Here's the denouement:
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (8th update)
With many of your buffs still active you don't want to waste any time. You cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability (from scroll) and Invisibility to rush through the maze unmolested by any monsters or snares that might await you. Monsters abound, Jellies and Undead, but you trigger no traps. Interestingly by hugging the walls opposite those containing the green markings that indicate the presence of traps, Kathlen prevented their triggering - something to remember.
The maze leads into the undercity, the remnants of an ancient city below the current city of Baldur's Gate. Still invisible you run past a war party whose members you don't know, and you find Tamoko, the mysterious Kara-Turan woman that helped you before with finding clues of Sarevok's plans, standing in front of a dark temple. You do not make your presence known to her, because you still don't know whether you can trust her. You sneak past her and slip inside the temple that you immediately identify as a Temple of Bhaal, Sarevok's dead father and yours.
This is a screenshot of Kathlen shortly before entering Sarevok's sanctum.
Extra HPs are a courtesy of a potion of power. In spite of Kathlen's combined Boots and Oil of Speed I was surprised that her CHA boost due to Friends was still up and running. Might have affected the outcome of a chat with Tamoko, had Kathlen bothered.
Nothwithstanding your Invisibility and the fact that you've barely set foot inside the temple, Sarevok knows you're there. He applauds you for your determination and your survival skills, but your not so serious question what would happen if you tried to take the Throne of Bhaal, provokes his wrath. He explains to you that he isn't alone. Four of his acolytes are there too and he, their master, is untouchable so long as they aren't slain. You quickly summon a bunch of Hobgoblins using the wand of monster summoning. (You would have preferred to summon your Skeletons but you hadn't rested since you cast Animate Dead at the Ducal Palace.) Suddenly a ring of fire appears on the dais in front of you. You cast a Dispel Magic (from a scroll) at it, and see its energy spread out in various directions, but you're unsure if any magical protections are actually dispelled. The ring of fire is still there for example.
I didn't expect much, but I thought it worth a try. A Confusion and a Sunfire cast from somewhere you can't see destroy the summoned Hobgoblins. A moment later two of the acolyes appear in front of you. An archer protected from magic, and a wizard. The archer fails to hit you thanks to your outstanding protection against missile attacks; you in turn fail to paralyze the wizard with your wand.
Check out Semaj's saving throw there, and also Diarmid's miss on a 19 roll. The following screenshot of her inventory explains Diarmid's miss.
You on the other hand hurt the archer badly with your bullets (damage in the 20-24 range on a regular hit). The wizard attempts to cast a spell at you, but you foil that plan with a Flamestrike (from wand),
causing him to hastily retreat. You focus on the archer again and lament the fact that you fail to finish him off before he runs out of ammo (at near death status), because when he fights you in melee you suffer a number of painful blows that make you grab a potion of invisibility to heal yourself. But then he retreats for no obvious reason.
That proves to be his downfall. You heal and return for him, making optimal use of the distance to dispatch him with your bullets.
A Skeleton Warrior that rises from the archer's corpse suffers the same fate.
The wizard is nowhere to be seen, but another mage makes his entrance. You summon a pack of Dire Wolves to distract him, and quaff a potion of magic shielding, of which you have plenty, to protect yourself against his spells. The wizard dispatches the Dire Wolves with a Chaos, soon followed by a Sunfire, and then he comes for you. Annoyingly, he's protected by a Fireshield: Blue, in addition to various other buffs. You keep him busy with more summons, while you wait for his fireshield to expire. Once this happens the two of you duel. Initially your abnormal strength makes you the better fighter, but neither of you suffer any serious injuries due to Stoneskins and Mirror Images. He has more of those than you do though, and when you run out of protections, the hasted battle mage begins to injure you. You resort to Flamestrikes and ranged attacks, to good effect. One of your bullets breaks his skull.
The first mage now returns you. (Very considerate of him to wait until you were done with his colleague.) He Horrors three Ogres you had summoned before you finish him off with one of many Flamestrikes.
This event coincides with the wandering (panicked) Ogres' catching the attention of Sarevok and resurrected Tazok. The latter has no answer to your pace, and your Flamestrikes and the sling bullets you hurl at him.
Sarevok, finally vulnerable, gets treated to a Greater Malison, and numerous WoF-scorchers and sling bullets,
until he falls, laughing hysterically as an expression of his disbelief of what has just transpired.
You wonder what you're supposed to feel at this moment. You were never out to 'avenge' Gorion. You dismiss the whole notion of vengeance. Gorion will never be back no matter what. You do feel relief. The Sword Coast is probably a safer place now for its inhabitants and for you of course. The insecurity, the bounty hunters and assassins; it should all be over now. Unless... unless there are more megalomanical siblings out there who want you dead. Not a heartening thought, but you decide not to dwell on it.
At the Ducal Palace you report back to Duke Belt to tell him that Sarevok has fallen. He has a request for you: to travel to Athkatla in Amn to personally offer Amn peace, on behalf of the Dukes of Baldur's Gate. You accept to perform this task.
I'm aware this update is a bit longer than necessary perhaps. That's probably because I mostly play warrior and thief types. I felt this final encounter was going to be different from what I'm used to. In the end it wasn't all that different because Kathlen operated pretty much as a ranged warrior most of the time, with wands for extra firepower (literally). The reason for this was that her spellbook was half-empty and that magic seemed futile against most foes anyway due to their protections, be they innate, equipped, or potion/spell effects that Kathlen couldn't dispel. I think only Tazok was relatvely vulnerable, at least to magic damage. On a related note, I considered luring Sarevok out from the beginning, but without the means to dispel his haste, it would only have prolonged the battle since Kathlen, doubly hasted as per boots and oils of speed, would have spent a lot of time staying out of melee range from Sarevok. I couldn't be bothered with that.
Bravo! Well done, @Blackraven! It's good to see Kathlen succeed. Very nice work.
If you're taking her into BG2, I'll be with you on the way (though you always seem to progress so much faster than me). I just finished creating a backstabbing werewolf wizard slayer monk and four other equally peculiar critters to tag along, all with god-awful stats and crazy abilities. We're in Chateau Irenicus, chunking Duergar from the shadows.
Thank you @semiticgod! I'm definitely taking her into BG2. She should arrive in Amn soon...
It's funny you say I'm fast because I tend to be impressed with your pace. It's good to know you'll be around with your new mind boggling creation (all those people complaining about engine limitations that prevent them from building their dream characters clearly have no idea what they're talking about haha). It's good to know that you'll be around for another reason as well. Kathlen might need your tactical advice once in a while. You're much more adept at making the most out of your casters than I am.
Meanwhile enjoy the Duergar-chunking (I love backstabbing), and good luck!
And Kathlen has joined Durak in an adventure to Amn. You win was with a certain flavour, @Blackraven , "just like old time, except for a torture and all". Only 8 updates for BG1 - I wonder how much it will take for BG2:)
Thanks @kcwise, I hope the gane will have a lot of fun stuff in store for her.
@bengoshi: She hasn't just joined Durak there, but also a certain kickass Totemic Druid As to the flavor of her victory, quite fiery I'd say hehe. We'll see how many updates she'll require in BG2. If she's successful, then probably quite a few more than 8.
Thank you @Ygramul! Beating Irenicus with a pure caster would be a great, unprecedented success for me personally. What about you? Still little time for your FMC?
I should begin by pointing out that, much to my surprise, Kathlen started out like this:
Apparently BGT lets only a few hours pass between Charname's reporting to Belt and their being released by Imoen. My guess is eight or twelve hours. Kathlen's violet potion was still in force, the other buffs weren't. As a result she had minimal CON / low HPs and terrible Dex (and thus AC). And she was virtually without any spells to compensate for her vulnerability. (I would have tried with the few spells she had if the violet potion hadn't been in effect, relying on two Sanctuaries and a few other spells, specifically Spider Spawn and Web.) Either way I made her rest in her cell right at the start of game so as to cause the violet potion's effects to wear off. The consequence was that Kathlen would have to survive Irenicus' dungeon without any more rests (due to SCS allowing only a single rest in the dungeon). However, I considered this unfair and the issue with the violet potion illogical from a roleplaying point of view, so I allowed myself an 'artificial rest' at the beginning of the 2nd level of the dungeon. I saved my game, opened it in Shadowkeeper, saved the unedited file, and continued the game with the SK-save, with Kathlen at full health and all her spells refreshed as if she had rested. I assume this doesn't go against any Bioware No-Reload Challenge rules, since these allow players to skip Irenicus' dungeon altogether with a mod like Dungeon-Be-Gone, grabbing the XP and loot for free. Btw in the screenshot you can see that Kathlen has pips in Clubs, Slings and TWF. I'm playing with the 'Weapon Styles For All' component which allows her to place two or three pips in TWF. At the beginning of the game a second pip went toward TWF when Kathlen reached level 8 as a Cleric (and 9 as a Mage, thanks to having just over 270k XP)
You tell Imoen, Jaheira, and a fellow named Minsc to follow you from a distance while you carefully attempt your escape from the sinister dungeon you find yourself in for reasons unbeknownst to you. Nippy appears from behind a trapped painting on the wall of a small chamber next to your cell. You cast Sanctuary on yourself in order to get as far as possible without any guards being able to stop you, but you have to break your Sanctuary (which wasn't going to last for ages anyway) to give a magical stone to a Golem in order for it to open a number of unforcibly locked doors. Several Duergar who had been following you while you were Sanctuaried, attack. You fail to shake them off, so you go Invisible in one of the smaller rooms. As the Duergar block your way out of the room you dispatch them with a Cloudkill.
Another Sanctuary allows you to grab a club from a table right in front of another band of Duergar, including a mage. (I normally allow my characters to find some of the goods that BGT Tweaks imports from BG1 and places on that table. This time I did so too, initially, but later I had a change of heart and dropped the items on the floor, except for the Fallorain's Plate which in my setup is found on that table rather than on Ilych.) The doors opened by the Golem lead to a large room with an Otyugh. You summon Skeletons to battle it, and finish it off yourself with your sling.
In two nicely decorated adjacent rooms you suffer some nasty trap damage as you open various chests and cabinets.
The spoils are pretty sweet though: you find your Helm of Balduran, Claw of Kazgaroth, and Metaspell Influence Amulet, as well as a key that allows you to travel through a portal to another level of the dungeon. You're saluted by a Kara-Turan rogue who introduces himself as Yoshimo. He wants to join you, but you ask him to fall back, like the others in your wake. He then warns you of the perils that await you in the next room: four Mephit Portals that continuously spawn new Mephits. You've had dealing with a few of those nasty creatures on the first level and decide to rest to be ready for the encounter with the Mephits. When you get up, you cast Ghost Armor, summon three Skeletons and a Phase Spider, Protect them and yourself from Evil (10' Radius), Haste them and yourself, and cast Free Action and MSD on yourself. The Mephits seem to be more interested in you than in your summons, but that only helps your summons deal with the Portals.
The Skeletons also help you against hostile rogues before you reach a trapped hall. You have the keys that disarm some of those traps (lightning, monster summoning, cloudkill). With a Cloudkill you make short work of a group of Thieves and a Vampire that are fighting each other. A Sanctuary expires just when you're looting some chests containing a Girdle of Bluntness among other things, in front of a number of Duergar. You zigzag past them, manage to go invisble and find your way out of the dungeon.
On the surface you find your captor, Jon Irenicus, battling Shadow Thieves. Imoen casts a Magic Missile at Irenicus. Soon after Cowled Wizards come teleporting in. It seems they want to arrest him for casting spells inside the city. Irenicus simply keeps on killing them, until he tires of the activity. He accepts his arrest but insists that Imoen be arrested as well. The Cowled Wizards take Irenicus and Imoen with them. Where to, you have no idea. What you do know is that you'll have to be careful in this new city with your spell casting...
The city you find yourself in, turns out to be Athkatla. You recall that that was to be the destination of your mission for Belt, but you haven't got his letters anymore. When you ask a bystander, she tells you that relations between Baldur's Gate and Amn have been warmer since the past few tendays. That's one less thing to worry about for you. The question what this Irenicus fellow wanted with you, and the matter of Imoen's arrest is enough to worry about anyway.
With difficulty, a Cloudkill being much less effective against your foes than you hope, you restore a Circus Tent and its visitors to their former selves after an unhappy Gnome had turned it into his own house of horrors.
In the nearby slums a rogue named Gaelan Bayle tells you he know where Imoen and Irenicus are, and he offers you help in finding them. That help comes at a price though: no less than 20k GP, a sum you can't afford... You'll have to work for your gold, like you've always done ever since you left Candlekeep. Gaelan's nephew Brus escorts you to the Copper Coronet, a sketchy inn where roughnecks gather, and where you discover highly immoral acts take place. You're not one to take offense easily, but slavery is out of bounds for you. You decide to try and release the slaves, much to the ire of a number of guards. Two battle mages especially, give you a hard time. They're quite effective against your summons, and you have to use most of your offensive spells (Magic Missile, Divine Wrath innate) to prevail. Two Cloudkills account for the death of a number of highly aggressive wild animals you would have preferred to spare, but not the Beast Master guarding them. Hasted, you finish him off in melee combat after you run out of sling bullets.
With a key you find on the Beast Master you release the slaves, and together you dispatch the guards and the evil innkeeper, Lethinan.
Here are unbuffed Kathlen's character record and her inventory screen at the present stage of the game:
One of the most evil character I ever played. He definitely intends to burn the entire Sword Coast.
I give you Anselm, the Human Blackguard. He is going to play with a full party, which is going to be quite difficult for me.
He has ** in Bastard Swords and Longbows, some incredible legit stats (my best roll ever, actually) and already murdered some people in Candlekeep before escaping with his foster father.
-Mod list :
Dark Horizons T'was a slow boat from Kara Tur 8 differents NPC mods Wand Case Saradas Magic Weapons and Armors packs from TeamBG BG2Tweaks APR on Spec BG1NPC Project BG1 Sounds Unfinished Business Rogue Rebalancing IWDification Spontaneous Casting ID Spell progress Unlimited BG1 SCS v30 (with prebuff for casters and every improved encounters) Wizard Slayer Rebalancing aTweaks Item Randomizer
-Rules :
Core difficulty at all times. Must destroy pretty much everything. Some smalls house rules for a more balanced game.
Congrats Blackraven! I especially liked reading about your fight with Daevorn. I enjoy reading your playthroughs, as you always manage to inject that sense of danger and excitement into encounters which I've done a dozen times before.
And Gotural, that looks like it will be interesting. Also, amazing roll you got there for his stats!
Btw, a fun twist on a blackguard murder spree is based off Trias from planescape torment.
All evil must be destroyed. Anyone who does anything that could even remotely thought of as evil has to die. You can lie, cheat, steal, murder...the end always justifies the means. And anyone who stands in your way must die as well. It leaves an impressive body count behind you.
Imber has fallen in BG2, but she lives on through another avatar, named Zey, after another character of the same book. This party is also randomized, with messed up ability scores, resistances, AC, movement rate, THAC0, damage bonuses, kits, casting time and speed factors, and some other kooky effects on top.
Our Charname this time, Zey, is a Monk with the Shapeshifter, Stalker, Wizard Slayer, and Swashbuckler kits.
I love that portrait. I forget which website I got it from... some woman who makes very elaborate and pretty masks.
As a Wizard Slayer and as a Monk, Zey is basically incapable of equipping any items, ever. She will spend virtually the entire game in werewolf form. She has awful physical damage resistances, and terrible saves despite her being a halfling, but she has an MR boost on top of her Wizard Slayer levels and has a fantastic +5 to hit and damage, not counting her Swashbuckler bonuses. And as a Stalker, she starts out the game with a 3x backstab multiplier. She won't be very safe in melee, though. Right now, unbuffed, there's not a single character in this entire party that has HP over 60.
Along with Zey, we have Fobie, a recurring character in my games, usually a goofy bard. He's still a bard here, but now he comes with the Assassin and Cleric of Helm kits.
His AC and THAC0 are god-awful, and in general he's a very messed up character, who fills in no particularly useful role. But he has a ridiculous ability along with a crippling disability.
Fobie, through amazing luck, has Improved Alacrity, just like Imber did. And unlike Imber, he has a -3 bonus to casting time, synergizing perfectly with his aura cleansing. But there are two things stopping him from hurling out tons of damage spells at once.
First, he has major penalties to his 1st- and 2nd-level spells, getting only one slot for Mirror Image and nothing else. Second, he has 2 INT (supposed to be 1, but it doesn't matter). And since Item Revisions removes Potions of Genius and Potions of Mind Focusing, he will NEVER learn a new spell. He is forever stuck with the ones he has at the beginning of the game, and he cannot even cast spells from scrolls. If I ever turn the difficulty back down to Normal, however, he should be able to learn some new spells.
Basically, he can cast a bunch of 3rd-level spells (he has some extra slots there) and that's as much as he's good for. But since he can throw out four Flame Arrows, which in Spell Revisions are spread across multiple targets, in a single round, he will be indispensable in the early game.
Next, we have Marilyn Blueapple, an old hand from my IWD runs, a warm-hearted dwarf, who in this run will be a Paladin/Mage/Thief.
Marilyn has the Stalker kit, like Zey, as well as the Wizard Slayer kit, but in a cruel twist, he is also cursed with the Wild Mage kit... one of the worst, indeed, you can pick for a no-reload run. I'm not even sure I'll keep him around, since his wild surges are such a huge risk. As a triple-class, his levels will be rather low, and that only increases the likelihood of a bad roll on a surge.
He has a lightning fast casting speed, with a -3 bonus, and can therefore cause all kinds of mischief if we abuse Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, which casts as if under the effects of Improved Alacrity. The Wild Mage kit will also allow him to cast 9th level spells, which no one else in the party can ever do. If we're desperate, he might just be able to change our luck, but otherwise he's just there to disarm traps and unlock chests.
His combat stats are miserable, too, despite his high STR, and a combination of poor AC, low HP, and bad resistances mean he's very, very easy to kill. He does have a marvelous save vs. spell, but that's about it. His strengths and weaknesses combine to form a very ineffective character overall (for a no-reload run, anyway), but the sad thing is that I didn't have many better options to pick from, since I only generated 10 characters from which I picked my party.
On a lighter note, we have Snowy Tae, another descendant of my IWD runs, a motherly gnomish cleric/thief. She has a penalty to casting time, but she's our only source of high-level divine spells, which we sorely lacked in Imber's run.
She has the Inquisitor and Bounty Hunter kits, which mitigate her low stats. Her average ability score is a six, and she can't even swing a short sword without a spell to help her out. But she does have two spectacular bonuses to her combat stats: her THAC0 is set to -6, and she has a damage bonus of +5. This would work better on a fighter, but in my install, clerics are able to use bladed weapons, which means she'll be able to use darts and speed weapons.
Finally, we have Sala Tora, a temperamental human bard with a rather ill-fitting Jester kit.
She also has the Cavalier, Kensai, and Assassin kits. A bard with the Kensai kit is normally a powerhouse, but Sala Tora has big penalties to hit and damage, which she won't overcome until much later in the game, making her crazy STR more useful for her carrying capacity than dealing damage. On top of that, she has the slowest movement speed in the party, limiting her ability to get around. The only reason she's useful is her physical damage resistances: she will be immune to weapon damage just as soon as she gets the Cloak of the Sewers. But until then, she doesn't stand a chance in melee combat: with major penalties to her 2nd- and 4th-level spell slots, high AC due to her 2 DEX, a hit point total of 27, and little ability to run away from her attackers, she cannot hope to survive getting targeted by the enemy.
Aside from Zey, whose abilities complement each other quite nicely, the whole party is a collection of dysfunctional powers, incapable of serving a standard role. They will require a lot more management than Imber and her group, but Fobie will greatly simplify the early game with his ability to spam Fireball and Flame Arrow.
@Demivrgvs: By the way... the Stalker version of Haste appears to remain area-effect, even as the wizard version is single-target. It does have the SR stats, though, with the bonuses to save vs. breath, THAC0, and the altered "fatigue" penalties.
Zey suffers from a peculiar condition: she has a permanent Hold I effect active. Snowy Tae can dispel it with Remove Paralysis, but Snowy Tae has a condition that kills her and replaces her with a non-talkative version of Irenicus, which I decided not to make part of the party for balance reasons (I was considering interpreting that effect to mean I got a copy of Irenicus in my party, but this copy would be level 30 at the beginning of the game).
I assumed this effect merely kills the character, and progressed all the way through Chateau Irenicus and halfway through the slaver quest before I realized that... no, apparently this effect removes the character from the party as well. Snowy Tae should never have entered the party.
Which means no one could have un-paralyzed Zei, and she should have been stuck at the beginning of the game with no one to help her. This run should have failed, had I continued it with the parameters I originally outlined... I continued without noticing that it was Snowy Tae, and not some other character, that had the "Replace Creature" effect.
So Zei should actually be paralyzed and stuck in Chateau Irenicus. And both Fobie and Snowy Tae should be gone from the party. This run should have failed.
I'm going to try this again. It'll take a while, but I can just generate a new set of characters, which hopefully won't be as dead or doomed as the current ones.
@semiticgod yeah sorry. Kit Revisions gives the Stalker a different set of kit-specific spells (Swift Invisibility, Swift Haste, Non-detection and Improved Invisibility) and I forgot about vanilla's stalker-only spells. I'll fix the inconsistency thanks.
Well. I generated 10 new randomized characters and picked out a few for my next run. I transplanted the new characters onto an old save file for Zey in Chateau Irenicus.
We've got something really interesting here. And stupidly game-breaking if I don't do something to limit it.
I should start with the less crazy characters.
Snowy Tae!
Snowy Tae, no longer dead and chunked, has switched from Cleric/Thief to Cleric, and has gained... the Archer, Inquisitor, Talos, and Cavalier kits. Always with the Inquisitor kits. Technically, she shouldn't be able to cast spells, since the Inquisitor kit disables the spellcasting icon, but it doesn't disable the quick spell icon, which means Snowy Tae is still perfectly capable of casting spells. Like everyone else in the party, her stats are actually pretty bad. Her ability scores took a tremendous boost, but I don't have anybody with godlike MR or physical damage resistances. Not like with Zey and Sala Tora.
Fobie!
Fobie is no longer a bard! He is now a Druid with the Kensai kit (only one kit!), with a bonus to casting time and a whole bunch of extra spell slots. He's got big penalties to hit and damage, and has 4 base STR, so the Kensai kit won't really make much of any difference. Oh, and he's immune to nonmagical weapons. Very nice.
Sala Tora! Well, actually Azama.
Sala Tora has become a half-orc Sorcerer/Mage, named Azama. Azama is cursed with Deafness, which Snowy Tae is perfectly capable of removing with Cure Disease. Azama has all three cleric kits plus the Avenger and Assassin kits. No synergy there. But with mage spell slots stacked on top of sorceror spell slots, and some more slot bonuses from her randomized stats, she has... too many spells.
And Charname.
The real issue here is Poppy, who has replaced Zey. Poppy is a halfling Ranger... Stalker, Archer, Wizard Slayer (always with the Wizard Slayers, too), Totemic Druid, and Cleric of Lathander kits. She also backstabs on every hit and is permanently invisible. The invisibility doesn't work perfectly, though. She's not targetable by any spells, including her friends' buffs, but she's always visible to new enemies, since she broke the invisibility at the beginning of the game. But the backstab every hit works fine.
Oh, and she summons nymphs.
One nymph per second.
Forever.
It's one of the randomized effects I give my characters (they get five, which can do basically anything the character). The effect doesn't work if I use SK or an item, so I had to use a workaround. Instead of automatically summoning a nymph every second, which would get irritating... and require a summoning cap... and might prevent me from saving the game or resting... Poppy is allowed to summon a nymph at will.
I replaced Detect Evil with a 0-casting time version of Call Woodland Beings with the vanilla nymph substituted for the SR variant (the effect I got from randomization specified the summon, and it was the vanilla nymph), and added an extra effect that refreshed one 1st-level priest slot. I then gave Poppy aura cleansing and the new Detect Evil spell, which I mapped to a hotkey for easier access.
The nymphs are as squishy as ever (interpret that however you want), but they still have gobs of enchantment spells: Hold Monster, Hold Person, Confusion, and Mental Domination, not to mention a now-indoor Call Lightning (thanks to SR), Barkskin, Mass Cure, and Cause Serious Wounds. And they have their own script, so I don't need to give them orders for them to start casting their spells.
The nymphs can't beat everything in the game, but summoning spellcasters at will is pretty ridiculous. Still, I like the concept. Poppy has always had a druid-like theme in my mind, and calling in nymphs to flood the area with mind-bending magic is exactly the sort of thing she would delight in.
Poppy the Nymph and her many sisters have begun their quest.
After fixing up everybody's abilities and removing Marilyn Blueapple from the party with CTRL-Y, we headed out to chat with Aataqah. For the first time in my no-reload runs, I decide to take on the Ogre/Mage, bolstered by a small harem of nymphs.
The Hold Monster and Mental Domination spells go right through the Ogre/Mage's MGOI spell. He can only get hit by so many spells before failing a save. The nymphs chew him to pieces, assisted by Poppy and her pathetic 4 damage backstabs. Triple backstab multipliers don't mean much if you've got penalties to your damage rolls.
The Duergar crumple in the face of the nymphs. I don't even bother abusing Fobie's immunity to normal weapons; I don't need him at all. The nymphs can even go toe-to-toe with the golems and come out on top.
That's just silly. To be fair, though, the golems did chunk a fair number of nymphs before they went down.
The harem carves a path through the dungeon, and even Ilyich proves vulnerable to their spells, once his Enrage ability wears off.
Poppy remains hidden most of the time. It's really not fair.
You know those Cause Wounds cleric spells you never used? Well, Spell Revisions buffed them up. Check it out.
No, that's not a typo.
Notice the many Dimension Doors. The nymphs use those a lot, sometimes to close in for a Cause Serious Wounds attack, and sometimes to pay a visit to Poppy. When the nymphs don't have somebody to fight, they follow Poppy wherever she goes, automatically, and if there are too many, Poppy can actually get boxed in by her own harem. A lot of nymphs died to CTRL-Y before I got the hang of handling the crowd.
The only dangerous part of the dungeon was a mage I underestimated. The Shadow Thief mage that fights with Hareishan on the second level apparently has some very big damage spells at her disposal, and though Poppy is invisible and cannot be targeted, she can still be hit by area-effect damage directed at her nymphs. She drops down to half HP when she gets hit by a Fireball, and might have died had she not vacated the area and sent in her nymphs from outside the room.
Eventually, we tanked out the mage's MGOI and invisibility. The nymphs hit her with Hold Person and Poppy ended the mage's life with a backstab to the face.
Poppy backstabs every hit, no matter which direction the enemy is facing. It's the same as the Assassination effect. So a backstab to the face is indeed possible.
After the battle, the nymphs rush in for victory hugs. It's a little unnerving when they all cast Cause Serious Wounds and then start closing in on Poppy.
Never give anyone a hug when your hands are buzzing with negative energy.
Out of curiosity, I decided to take on Mencar Pebblecrusher... the first time I've ever done so for a no-reload run. This time, though, I couldn't just rely on the nymphs. I had to make sure the rest of the party was buffed and actively contributing to the effort. I saw in the previous mage battle that a single Fireball can clear out a roomful of nymphs.
First, I flooded the area with Sphere of Chaos. Yes, the nymphs can cast that now. I then snuck in while hidden and ordered some of the nymphs to cast Call Lightning on Sorcerous Amon of the Purple Brotherhood. The battle begins.
Sphere of Chaos forces the enemy to make a whole lot of saves. Amon makes a lot of them.
Still, as low as his save vs. spell may be, he can't hold out forever, and his MGOI is useless against a level 7 spell. It knocks him out, while Fobie's Insect Plague nibbles away at him.
Once the enemy is properly disabled, I move in the party and start attacking directly. Azama uses Flame Arrow to avoid harming the Nymphs, while Fobie uses some SR damage spells (Sunscorch and Fire Trap, namely) to finish off the wounded. Snowy Tae doesn't have much to do besides whomp on people with her flail.
The battle ends in a decisive victory. I'm really going to have to do something about these nymphs. They're stupidly overpowered, but the party is horribly fragile without them. Everyone has low HP and nobody has good resistances or saving throws or AC. If I limit their use too much, the party is going to struggle or die. But if I use them too freely, I'm going to experience a very hard landing when I start coming up against enemies immune to disablers.
@Blackraven: No, they won't scale. Unfortunately, the effect is not casting a spell, but using using an .eff file, in this NYMPHSU, which only summons a nymph, no leveling or anything. If it was a spell file, then you could have a leveled summons, or more than one effect, but those nymphs are all they'll ever be.
I could still replace the relevant .cre file, if I wanted. But I don't see that being necessary anytime soon.
I don't know if my setup is responsible for this or if I am very lucky (some would say unlucky) but I encountered some Dire and Dread Wolves on the ambush map, combined with some Black Bears, Anselm left the first map with no less than 1,800 xp ! He was level 2 before he headed for the Friendly Arm Inn, very good start.
I cleared the first maps without troubles, doing some minor quests in Beregost, I was already level 4 before I started to pick up some party members.
I chose Kagain, with a Dwarven Defender kit, Vynd, a Drow Assassin from a mod and Viconia, which is a level 3 Fighter dualled into Cleric in my setup.
The squad already slew hundreds of foes, including dozens of skeletons, bandits, gibberlings and wolves. They dispatched Silke, Bassilus, and some strong mercenaries from Dark Horizons. However, their reputation is already at a very low number (3), and they will probably face the Flaming Fist earlier than I expected, we shall see how it goes !
Edit: Thanks @Grum, doing my best to keep it interesting
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, 2nd BG2 update
You proceed the to explore the city, or at least the southern districts, to look for work. In the Bridge District you see a mage taken in by the Cowled Wizards for casting a spell without a license.
It's a good reminder for you not to cast within the city borders. Lieutenant Aegisfield tells you a murderer who flays his victims. Several clues lead to the local tanner, Riejek Hidesman. When confronted in his shop with the evidence (tannin and elephant hide), he outright confesses and flees downstairs. You follow but halt when you encounter several corpses on the ground. You ask Nippy to look for snares; and indeed your familiar detects several. Unfortunately he's unable to find (and disarm) all of them.
You resolve to start memorizing Find Traps, one of the powers Baravar Cloakshadow has vested in you. On the bottom floor Hidesman escapes with an accomplice via a small boat below the bridge, leaving two Ghasts, two Rune Assassins and a Bone Golem for you to deal with. That's a bit much to your taste, so you retreat. They follow you upstairs, but not outside. You report your findings to Lieutenenant Aegisfield, who thanks you for your effort.
Back in the Slums District you return to the Copper Coronet. The slave leader you freed, Hendak had asked you to deal the Slaver Organization a final blow and advises you to seek entrance via the sewers. Down there you face Hobgoblins, Jellies and an Otyugh, all working together to kill you. You take no half measures to deal with the opposition: Animate Dead, Chaos and Cloudkill.
As you proceed, you have to cross a door serving as a bridge over a narrow waste channel. Nippy disarms the trap on it for you. A band of Kobolds is Cloudkilled, another trap disarmed, before you save an old man from a Carrion Crawler preying on him. He mutters something about a treasure, to be found in an adjacent room with the 'keys' placed in the correct order. You soon figure what these keys are and which order to pñace them in, to find yourself rewarded with Lilarcor, a highly enchanted greatsword you'll never use. Since you're already low on spells, you decide to postpone your confrontation with the slavers and to sell some loot. After you've sold pretty much everything of value you don't have immediate use for to Raoul in the Bridge District, and after you've cast Friends in the Adventurer Mart, you spoil yourself with the Robe of Vecna.
In the south-east part of the city you enter the Graveyard District, where you descend a stairway leading to several underground mausoleums and an enormous spiders' den. Outside the den you soon find yourself overwhelmed by all kinds of Spiders. You take advantage of their habit to follow you closely while Sanctuaried, to fumigate as many of them as possible with your Cloudkills.
Two surviving Spiders (a poison-immune Wraith variant and a Sword Spider), fall with the help of your Skeletons.
Inside the Spiders' den you agree to retrieve Spiders' Bane from the sewers below the Temple District for Pai'Na the Hivemaster Druid (who's clearly unaware of the mass grave outside). On your way to the Temple District you run from an ambush.
Invisibility and Sanctuary enable you to bypass scary monsters and super creeps that inhabit the sewers,
and to convince two sewers cleaners to part with the blade (or what remains of it) for a mere 50 GP. Pai'Na rewards you very handsomely with scrolls of Spell Immunity and Spider Spawn, a Pale Green Ioun Stone, a Black Spider Figurine (Kitthix), and a Web Sack wand. You store the SI scroll, hesitant to scribe it into your spellbook without any intelligence boosters. The Pale Green Ioun Stone you sell, allowing you the purpose of a Reflection Shield.
Night has fallen as you resurface in the Graveyard District. You retrieve a teddy bear from the Copper Coronet for a restless child spirit, and you dig up a man named Tirdir who had been buried alive. A talk with him and with a graveyard keeper leads you to the Bridge District in search of the perpetrators. The Reflex helps you against a band of thugs. You disptach them with the assistance of summoned Skeletons.
The same Skeletons are much less effective against Tirdir's buriers, a Human and a Dwarf. In the heat of the moment you find yourself unsuccessfully casting a Charm on one of your foes, earning you a warning from the Cowled Wizards.
They do not stay to help you against the evildoers. Eventually your Divine Wrath kills the Human, whose Boots of Avoidance now keep your feet warm. The Dwarf eludes you though.
Bruised and tired you return to the Copper Coronet to rest, and to finally seek out the Slavers. When you locate their secret entrance you prepare yourself with Stoneskin, MSD and II. You enter the compound, cast a Web, and summon Kitthix as well as a Phase Spider. They (and a Chaos) help you make short work of several Slaver guards, including a Priest of Cyric, and their captain.
From the captain's body you take a key with which you release more imprisoned slaves, albeit it with great difficulty considering the fact that one of two Trolls resists a Melf's Acid Arrow at near death status, and that a large party of slaver guards almost lock you up in one of their spacious prisons.
You decide not to bother with the remaining slavers, which proves to be ok with Hendak.
The rewards he gives you are of little use to you, so you decide to convert them into coin, and to see if you can get yourself a spellcasting license in teh Government District.
In front of the inn an Amnish guard helps you defeat two brigands backed by a ruffian or two.
On your way to the Gov District you 're ambushed by a group of bandits that have poisoned a man. You slay their Mage, take his scrolls, and the poisoned man with you.
You purchase a casters license in the Council of Six Building for no less than 5000 GP, bringing your funds down to almost zero. One of the Cowled Wizard asks you to track down a murderer for you, someone named Valygar.
A Mad Cleric in the Docks District makes you (and your Skeletons) pay for underestimating him; he hits like a Frost Giant.
However, with your hot of the press casters license you summon a Phase Spider that promptly poisons, and thus kills the priest.
A man named Rylock thanks you for bringing his poisoned friend to him.
A bit of a hesitant start. Kathlen hasn't faced any bosses yet, mostly mobs, and that's been challenging enough as it is. I think with a few more levels, and some nice summons such as Aerial Servant, mobs should become more manageable. She has yet to explore polymorphing as a way to dish out damage. She should probably also do a scroll buying and scribing sessions once she has the gold for that.
As soon as the party entered Nashkel, every guards were pointing their bows toward them.
But what could a group composed of a murderer, a wanted Dwarf, and two Drows expect ? They expected a fight, and they were bloody prepared for it. Vynd was hurling daggers and Anselm was firing his bow while Kagain and Viconia held the frontline. The guards were no match for them. A bunch of bounty hunters joined the fight only to meet their demise.
Soon enough, the entire village of Nashkel was under the evil domination of Anselm and his party. Many innocents were killed during the process.
Afterward, the squad recruted their last members : Dorn, another Blackguard, and Edwin, a powerful Conjurer. They started to roam the south of the Sword Coast to seek glory and magical items. They fought some adventurers and many monsters during their trip.
They even killed a powerful Tanar'ri with more than a hundred hit points, which was hitting like a truck (30+ per hit) but nothing they coudn't handle.
They were now heading for the Gnoll Fortress as Edwin asked. They encountered a powerful groups of Ogres lead by an Ogre-Mage who took them by surprise with a Sleep spell. Hopefully, they splitted the party so that only Dorn and Kagain were hit. The first fell to the spell, the second however drank a Potion of Invulnerability before it was too late and made his save.
The triumphant group thought they were invincible, and they were proven wrong when they entered the fortress. They were ambushed by a very powerful group of mercenaries including multiples backstabbers, who were drinking Potions of Invisibility after every attack to eliminate Edwin and Viconia as fast as possible. But thanks to their Aura of Despair, the Blackguards diminished the damage from the backstabs low enough so that they were able to drink healing potions between the strikes.
But the true threat was definitely Allister, as he was a beast in melee, forcing Kagain to drink a lot of Superior Healing Potions. But he was also a very powerful spellcaster, especially when he used a Confusion scroll which affected Anselm, Vynd and Edwin. The party, without ranged support, thought they were in a bad situation. But it was even worse after he decided to cast a decimating Sunfire spell, which instantly took Edwin and Dorn's lives.
Kagain had no choice but to hold this long enough for his allies to wake up from Confusion, and that's exactly what he did ! Thanks to many Healing Potions and his second Defensive Stance, he bought enough time for Anselm and Vynd to recover.
Together, they managed to slain Allister in what proved to be a very difficult battle.
Then they raised Edwin with a scroll they bought earlier in a temple and explored the fortress, killing dozens of Gnolls in the process, including their Clan Leaders, and they eliminated Dynaheir, as Edwin wanted.
They decided to go back to the Friendly Arm Inn to make some shopping, but were arrested by a group of Flaming Fist Enforcers. Needless to say, they slaughtered them after throwing a Horror and a Hold Person spell.
And now they are resting in the inn, preparing their next campaign ...
Comments
@Ygramul, thanks, doing my best
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (5th update)
You find yourself sat at a table in a nondescript shop, engaged in quiet conversation with the owner, the only other person around. You're not one to put trust in strangers - how could you, what with all the people hunting after you? - but since she told you about her former career as a cat burglar, her basic knowledge of divine and arcane spells (even though she's no caster), and her past collisions with both the Thieves Guild and the authorities in Baldur's Gate, you decide to get some of your worries off your chest. The woman is all ears as you relate your recent experiences in the Cloakwood. You leave out details you find irrelevant, like your entering a spiders' den under the cover of Sanctuary to find Spiders' Bane and a dead kid, or your hard-fought defeat of a Shadow Archdruid. (Even though that was quite a spectacular encounter. You recall how you pretty much emptied your entire spellbook on him and it still wasn't enough. Some of his summons you waited out for them to disappear, others nearly killed you.
"I wanted to sneak past them invisibly but one of the mages casts Oracle and dispels my invisibility," you tell her.
Note: I prefer the (+2) AC bonus and the elemental protections of the Mage Robe of Practical Protection + Improved Shield Amulet over the extra lvl 2 spell and the 5% MR of the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi + Metaspell Influence Amulet.
You also omit your violent encounter with an evil Bard named Silke, whose death furnished the necessary potions for Thalantyr to do his work.
"I later dealt with the last warrior by Blinding him and pelting him with sling bullets. Inside the mines I remained invisible
"I'm very impressed with your account," the woman says after a short pause, "but I believe you, how can I not, with those letters you showed me. You're a brave woman to stand up against such a powerful institution as the Iron Throne. They're making quite a name for themselves here in the city, with their lofty new Sword Coast headquarters in the Docks District. Anyway, you have my support girl. People call me Silence, and that's what you'll get from me. Your secrets are safe with me. Silence, and free lodgings whenever you need a place to lay low. Ah, before I forget, have a look at my wares if you like. They're mainly potions and a few leftovers from my adventuring life. Maybe there's something you have use for."
You thank Silence, rest for a bit, and get out to do some exploration of the great city that has only recently reopened its gates. Apparently you didn't rest enough because when you decide to buy a new wand of paralyzation at the famous Sorcerous Sundries and sell your old one with only one charge left, you end up selling not the old but the new wand, at only a fraction of the price you bought it for. The dour shop owner, Halbazzer Drin, refuses to acknowledge the obvious mix-up, so you end up rebuying the wand at its full price, leaving you near penniless after you purchase a number of potions spell scrolls. You understand you'll have to look for jobs in the coming days.
The city of Baldur's Gate is full of opportunities for one such as yourself. There are many people who ask you for help, but given your interest in dismantling the Iron Throne, you limit yourself to some of the more urgent and lucrative quests available to you. You retrieve a little boy's corpse from Tenya at the Temple of Umberlee for resurrection by his father, deal with Aldeth Sashenstar's brother Dabron, convince the mage Ragefast to release the Nymph he had captured, much to the scorn of his rival Ramazith (whom you slay in self-defense using the wand of paralyzation), steal a telescope from the High Hall of Wonders for a fellow Gnome you befriend, and you find the cure to a poison an Iron Throne associate had inflicted you with. This Iron Throne lackey, a lad named Marek, doesn't surrender the antidote lightly. His backstabs and Magic Missiles almost kill you.
For the Flaming Fist you slay four or five Doppelgangers who had taken over the Seven Suns trading house, and an Ogre Mage that had been robbing and killing innocents and feeding their corpses to Ettercaps in the sewers. You render the Ogre helpless with your Wand of Paralyzation and quaff a potion of freedom to be immune to the Carrion Crawlers' paralyzing attacks.
The Throne proves heavily guarded. You enter the top floor invisibly sneaking past six elite guards, and have a word with a man named Thaldorn. He tells you the Iron Throne management are at Candlekeep at the moment. When you move to leave the premises, the elite guards don't believe a ruse you come up with, that you're a merchant from Sembia. They attack. Using Invisibility and the stairs you manage to shake off some of them. You finish off one isolated opponent (Diyab), using the wand of paralyzation.
Duke Eltan, commander of the Flaming Fist, sends you to Candlekeep to meet the Iron Throne leaders and hopefully learn more about their plans and motives. You're only welcome for a little while in your old home, because the Gatewarden accuses you of murdering the Iron Throne management before you've even met them. You surrender but deny the allegation. Tethtoril trusts you and after some deliberation you come to the conclusion that the real perpetrator must have been Sarevok (or Koveras as he called himself when you met him), a member of Iron Throne you'd seen mentioned in a number of letters, and who now seems to have turned on his employer. Tethtoril teleports you to the catacombs below the Keep where you rely on potions of fire protection, absorption, and magic blocking, and on Knock (a spell you recently scribed) and MSD to access and loot three heavily trapped chests.
Ah and one more thing, you also have this letter, from Gorion, saying you're a child of the dead God of Murder, Bhaal! You try to assimilate this knowledge, you even believe it's true, but it just impossible for you to give it a place. Maybe it doesn't mean anything? Are you another person because of it? Hopefully, when this whole business with Sarevok is over, you can leave the matter of your heritage behind you.
In Beregost you spend about 5000 GP to raise your reputation to near heroic levels at the Temple of Lathandern hoping that will help you with the Flaming Fist in Baldur's Gate. You also inform Bjornin about the Half-Ogres you felled a tenday or two before, ask Officer Vai to put in a good word for you in Baldur's Gate, and return a Cloak of Non-Detection to a Dwarf who had lost it in Cloakwood (only to see the Dwarf refuse to receive the item). After that you head further south to Nashkel, where you aren't wanted and people still like you. At the Carnival a merchant sells you two potions that, for the duration of 24 hours, give the consumer supernatural strength and intelligence respectively. West of Nashkel you explore the Cloudpeaks. You enjoy the area a lot: mountainous, full of lush vegetation, and with various streams and even a cascade. You protect a Dryad against two knuckleheads who want to cut her tree, and you return a dead cat to a young girl that's sobbing over the animal. Further west you come upon what appears to be a Gnoll and Xvart stronghold. You loot their caves but find little treasure of note except for a tome that increases your Charisma when you read it.
After a tenday or so, you decide to return to Baldur's Gate. Relying on Invisibility and Sanctuary you're quite successful at keeping a low profile. You buy several scrolls at the Sorcerous Sundries, and in the quietude of Silence's shop, you quaff the intelligence-raising potion you had bought at the Nahskel Carnival and take about a day to drastically increase the number of spells in your spellbook. Amongst the most notable new spells are: Blur, Vocalize, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Haste, Melf's Minute Meteors, Remove Magic, Slow, Confusion, Dimension Door, Fireshield: Red, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Minor Sequencer, Oliluke's Resilient Sphere, Polymorph Self & Other, Secret Word, Spider Spawn, Stoneskin, Wizard Eye, Chaos, Cloudkill, Summon Lesser Air/Earth/Fire Elemental, and Shadow Door.
A woman you met at the entrance of the Sorcerous Sundries, and later by the Flaming Fist compund, recommends you to seek out two assassins in the Undercellars, Slythe and Krystin, for more information regarding Sarevok's plans. This is next on your agenda.
You find Slythe and Krystin in the Undercellars below the Blushing Mermaid. The former is a hasted backstabber, the latter an arcane caster. When you see Krystin dismiss your Skeletons with a single (Death) spell, you scare a bit. Fortunately you have two wands of monster summoning. You decide to try to avoid fighting your foes, hoping that the continuous influx of summoned monsters will eventually be too much for them. Gnolls, Ogres and Dire Wolves melee Slythe; Krystin disappears after she Greater Malisons you.
Since your Ogres and Wolves are still around, and you also have a couple of charges of your wand of monster summoning left, you decide to see if Krystin could be made to join her partner. She unleashes elemental magics upon your summons, and dispels your Sanctuary much to your astonishment (and indignation),
With the invitation and the incriminating evidence against Sarevok you head to the Ducal Palace. The ceremony is about to begin. Already many people have gathered. But... As a Gnome you have a knack for recognizing illusions; the guests you see aren't humans, they're Doppelgangers! You prepare for battle in a way you have never done before. First there's a series of potions you swig: violet, fortitude, agility, mind focusing x2, magic protection x2, speed, power. Then you summon three Skeletons and with your wand, three Gnoll Elites (which makes 6 summons even though you're only supposed to be allowed five). You Protect them from Evil, cast Strength of One on them (which in hindsight must have temporarily lowered your strength again), and finally you Haste them. The summons take their positions around Dukes Belt and Liia, and then battle breaks out. The Greater Doppelgangers open with Hastes, Confusions and Horrors. You counter the latter spell with Remove Fear. You also Slow two of the Greater Doppelgangers.
*cue 'Battle of Endor' soundtrack*
... also...
'It's a Trap!'
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (8th update)
With many of your buffs still active you don't want to waste any time. You cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability (from scroll) and Invisibility to rush through the maze unmolested by any monsters or snares that might await you. Monsters abound, Jellies and Undead, but you trigger no traps.
Interestingly by hugging the walls opposite those containing the green markings that indicate the presence of traps, Kathlen prevented their triggering - something to remember.
The maze leads into the undercity, the remnants of an ancient city below the current city of Baldur's Gate. Still invisible you run past a war party whose members you don't know, and you find Tamoko, the mysterious Kara-Turan woman that helped you before with finding clues of Sarevok's plans, standing in front of a dark temple. You do not make your presence known to her, because you still don't know whether you can trust her. You sneak past her and slip inside the temple that you immediately identify as a Temple of Bhaal, Sarevok's dead father and yours.
This is a screenshot of Kathlen shortly before entering Sarevok's sanctum.
Nothwithstanding your Invisibility and the fact that you've barely set foot inside the temple, Sarevok knows you're there. He applauds you for your determination and your survival skills, but your not so serious question what would happen if you tried to take the Throne of Bhaal, provokes his wrath. He explains to you that he isn't alone. Four of his acolytes are there too and he, their master, is untouchable so long as they aren't slain. You quickly summon a bunch of Hobgoblins using the wand of monster summoning. (You would have preferred to summon your Skeletons but you hadn't rested since you cast Animate Dead at the Ducal Palace.) Suddenly a ring of fire appears on the dais in front of you. You cast a Dispel Magic (from a scroll) at it, and see its energy spread out in various directions, but you're unsure if any magical protections are actually dispelled. The ring of fire is still there for example.
A Confusion and a Sunfire cast from somewhere you can't see destroy the summoned Hobgoblins. A moment later two of the acolyes appear in front of you. An archer protected from magic, and a wizard. The archer fails to hit you thanks to your outstanding protection against missile attacks; you in turn fail to paralyze the wizard with your wand.
You focus on the archer again and lament the fact that you fail to finish him off before he runs out of ammo (at near death status), because when he fights you in melee you suffer a number of painful blows that make you grab a potion of invisibility to heal yourself. But then he retreats for no obvious reason.
The wizard is nowhere to be seen, but another mage makes his entrance. You summon a pack of Dire Wolves to distract him, and quaff a potion of magic shielding, of which you have plenty, to protect yourself against his spells. The wizard dispatches the Dire Wolves with a Chaos, soon followed by a Sunfire, and then he comes for you. Annoyingly, he's protected by a Fireshield: Blue, in addition to various other buffs. You keep him busy with more summons, while you wait for his fireshield to expire. Once this happens the two of you duel. Initially your abnormal strength makes you the better fighter, but neither of you suffer any serious injuries due to Stoneskins and Mirror Images. He has more of those than you do though, and when you run out of protections, the hasted battle mage begins to injure you. You resort to Flamestrikes and ranged attacks, to good effect. One of your bullets breaks his skull.
You wonder what you're supposed to feel at this moment. You were never out to 'avenge' Gorion. You dismiss the whole notion of vengeance. Gorion will never be back no matter what. You do feel relief. The Sword Coast is probably a safer place now for its inhabitants and for you of course. The insecurity, the bounty hunters and assassins; it should all be over now. Unless... unless there are more megalomanical siblings out there who want you dead. Not a heartening thought, but you decide not to dwell on it.
At the Ducal Palace you report back to Duke Belt to tell him that Sarevok has fallen. He has a request for you: to travel to Athkatla in Amn to personally offer Amn peace, on behalf of the Dukes of Baldur's Gate. You accept to perform this task.
I'm aware this update is a bit longer than necessary perhaps. That's probably because I mostly play warrior and thief types. I felt this final encounter was going to be different from what I'm used to. In the end it wasn't all that different because Kathlen operated pretty much as a ranged warrior most of the time, with wands for extra firepower (literally). The reason for this was that her spellbook was half-empty and that magic seemed futile against most foes anyway due to their protections, be they innate, equipped, or potion/spell effects that Kathlen couldn't dispel. I think only Tazok was relatvely vulnerable, at least to magic damage.
On a related note, I considered luring Sarevok out from the beginning, but without the means to dispel his haste, it would only have prolonged the battle since Kathlen, doubly hasted as per boots and oils of speed, would have spent a lot of time staying out of melee range from Sarevok. I couldn't be bothered with that.
If you're taking her into BG2, I'll be with you on the way (though you always seem to progress so much faster than me). I just finished creating a backstabbing werewolf wizard slayer monk and four other equally peculiar critters to tag along, all with god-awful stats and crazy abilities. We're in Chateau Irenicus, chunking Duergar from the shadows.
I'm definitely taking her into BG2. She should arrive in Amn soon...
It's funny you say I'm fast because I tend to be impressed with your pace. It's good to know you'll be around with your new mind boggling creation (all those people complaining about engine limitations that prevent them from building their dream characters clearly have no idea what they're talking about haha).
It's good to know that you'll be around for another reason as well. Kathlen might need your tactical advice once in a while. You're much more adept at making the most out of your casters than I am.
Meanwhile enjoy the Duergar-chunking (I love backstabbing), and good luck!
@bengoshi: She hasn't just joined Durak there, but also a certain kickass Totemic Druid
As to the flavor of her victory, quite fiery I'd say hehe.
We'll see how many updates she'll require in BG2. If she's successful, then probably quite a few more than 8.
Thank you @Ygramul!
Beating Irenicus with a pure caster would be a great, unprecedented success for me personally.
What about you? Still little time for your FMC?
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist (1st BG2 update)
I should begin by pointing out that, much to my surprise, Kathlen started out like this:
Btw in the screenshot you can see that Kathlen has pips in Clubs, Slings and TWF. I'm playing with the 'Weapon Styles For All' component which allows her to place two or three pips in TWF. At the beginning of the game a second pip went toward TWF when Kathlen reached level 8 as a Cleric (and 9 as a Mage, thanks to having just over 270k XP)
You tell Imoen, Jaheira, and a fellow named Minsc to follow you from a distance while you carefully attempt your escape from the sinister dungeon you find yourself in for reasons unbeknownst to you. Nippy appears from behind a trapped painting on the wall of a small chamber next to your cell. You cast Sanctuary on yourself in order to get as far as possible without any guards being able to stop you, but you have to break your Sanctuary (which wasn't going to last for ages anyway) to give a magical stone to a Golem in order for it to open a number of unforcibly locked doors. Several Duergar who had been following you while you were Sanctuaried, attack. You fail to shake them off, so you go Invisible in one of the smaller rooms. As the Duergar block your way out of the room you dispatch them with a Cloudkill.
The doors opened by the Golem lead to a large room with an Otyugh. You summon Skeletons to battle it, and finish it off yourself with your sling.
When you get up, you cast Ghost Armor, summon three Skeletons and a Phase Spider, Protect them and yourself from Evil (10' Radius), Haste them and yourself, and cast Free Action and MSD on yourself. The Mephits seem to be more interested in you than in your summons, but that only helps your summons deal with the Portals.
On the surface you find your captor, Jon Irenicus, battling Shadow Thieves. Imoen casts a Magic Missile at Irenicus. Soon after Cowled Wizards come teleporting in. It seems they want to arrest him for casting spells inside the city. Irenicus simply keeps on killing them, until he tires of the activity. He accepts his arrest but insists that Imoen be arrested as well. The Cowled Wizards take Irenicus and Imoen with them. Where to, you have no idea. What you do know is that you'll have to be careful in this new city with your spell casting...
The city you find yourself in, turns out to be Athkatla. You recall that that was to be the destination of your mission for Belt, but you haven't got his letters anymore. When you ask a bystander, she tells you that relations between Baldur's Gate and Amn have been warmer since the past few tendays. That's one less thing to worry about for you. The question what this Irenicus fellow wanted with you, and the matter of Imoen's arrest is enough to worry about anyway.
With difficulty, a Cloudkill being much less effective against your foes than you hope, you restore a Circus Tent and its visitors to their former selves after an unhappy Gnome had turned it into his own house of horrors.
Gaelan's nephew Brus escorts you to the Copper Coronet, a sketchy inn where roughnecks gather, and where you discover highly immoral acts take place. You're not one to take offense easily, but slavery is out of bounds for you. You decide to try and release the slaves, much to the ire of a number of guards. Two battle mages especially, give you a hard time. They're quite effective against your summons, and you have to use most of your offensive spells (Magic Missile, Divine Wrath innate) to prevail. Two Cloudkills account for the death of a number of highly aggressive wild animals you would have preferred to spare, but not the Beast Master guarding them. Hasted, you finish him off in melee combat after you run out of sling bullets.
One of the most evil character I ever played. He definitely intends to burn the entire Sword Coast.
I give you Anselm, the Human Blackguard. He is going to play with a full party, which is going to be quite difficult for me.
He has ** in Bastard Swords and Longbows, some incredible legit stats (my best roll ever, actually) and already murdered some people in Candlekeep before escaping with his foster father.
-Mod list :
Dark Horizons
T'was a slow boat from Kara Tur
8 differents NPC mods
Wand Case
Saradas Magic
Weapons and Armors packs from TeamBG
BG2Tweaks
APR on Spec
BG1NPC Project
BG1 Sounds
Unfinished Business
Rogue Rebalancing
IWDification
Spontaneous Casting
ID Spell progress
Unlimited BG1
SCS v30 (with prebuff for casters and every improved encounters)
Wizard Slayer Rebalancing
aTweaks
Item Randomizer
-Rules :
Core difficulty at all times.
Must destroy pretty much everything.
Some smalls house rules for a more balanced game.
Welcome, Anselm. May your bloody heritage ring across the Sword Coast.
And Gotural, that looks like it will be interesting. Also, amazing roll you got there for his stats!
Btw, a fun twist on a blackguard murder spree is based off Trias from planescape torment.
All evil must be destroyed. Anyone who does anything that could even remotely thought of as evil has to die. You can lie, cheat, steal, murder...the end always justifies the means. And anyone who stands in your way must die as well. It leaves an impressive body count behind you.
Imber has fallen in BG2, but she lives on through another avatar, named Zey, after another character of the same book. This party is also randomized, with messed up ability scores, resistances, AC, movement rate, THAC0, damage bonuses, kits, casting time and speed factors, and some other kooky effects on top.
Our Charname this time, Zey, is a Monk with the Shapeshifter, Stalker, Wizard Slayer, and Swashbuckler kits.
I love that portrait. I forget which website I got it from... some woman who makes very elaborate and pretty masks.
As a Wizard Slayer and as a Monk, Zey is basically incapable of equipping any items, ever. She will spend virtually the entire game in werewolf form. She has awful physical damage resistances, and terrible saves despite her being a halfling, but she has an MR boost on top of her Wizard Slayer levels and has a fantastic +5 to hit and damage, not counting her Swashbuckler bonuses. And as a Stalker, she starts out the game with a 3x backstab multiplier. She won't be very safe in melee, though. Right now, unbuffed, there's not a single character in this entire party that has HP over 60.
Along with Zey, we have Fobie, a recurring character in my games, usually a goofy bard. He's still a bard here, but now he comes with the Assassin and Cleric of Helm kits.
His AC and THAC0 are god-awful, and in general he's a very messed up character, who fills in no particularly useful role. But he has a ridiculous ability along with a crippling disability.
Fobie, through amazing luck, has Improved Alacrity, just like Imber did. And unlike Imber, he has a -3 bonus to casting time, synergizing perfectly with his aura cleansing. But there are two things stopping him from hurling out tons of damage spells at once.
First, he has major penalties to his 1st- and 2nd-level spells, getting only one slot for Mirror Image and nothing else. Second, he has 2 INT (supposed to be 1, but it doesn't matter). And since Item Revisions removes Potions of Genius and Potions of Mind Focusing, he will NEVER learn a new spell. He is forever stuck with the ones he has at the beginning of the game, and he cannot even cast spells from scrolls. If I ever turn the difficulty back down to Normal, however, he should be able to learn some new spells.
Basically, he can cast a bunch of 3rd-level spells (he has some extra slots there) and that's as much as he's good for. But since he can throw out four Flame Arrows, which in Spell Revisions are spread across multiple targets, in a single round, he will be indispensable in the early game.
Next, we have Marilyn Blueapple, an old hand from my IWD runs, a warm-hearted dwarf, who in this run will be a Paladin/Mage/Thief.
Marilyn has the Stalker kit, like Zey, as well as the Wizard Slayer kit, but in a cruel twist, he is also cursed with the Wild Mage kit... one of the worst, indeed, you can pick for a no-reload run. I'm not even sure I'll keep him around, since his wild surges are such a huge risk. As a triple-class, his levels will be rather low, and that only increases the likelihood of a bad roll on a surge.
He has a lightning fast casting speed, with a -3 bonus, and can therefore cause all kinds of mischief if we abuse Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, which casts as if under the effects of Improved Alacrity. The Wild Mage kit will also allow him to cast 9th level spells, which no one else in the party can ever do. If we're desperate, he might just be able to change our luck, but otherwise he's just there to disarm traps and unlock chests.
His combat stats are miserable, too, despite his high STR, and a combination of poor AC, low HP, and bad resistances mean he's very, very easy to kill. He does have a marvelous save vs. spell, but that's about it. His strengths and weaknesses combine to form a very ineffective character overall (for a no-reload run, anyway), but the sad thing is that I didn't have many better options to pick from, since I only generated 10 characters from which I picked my party.
On a lighter note, we have Snowy Tae, another descendant of my IWD runs, a motherly gnomish cleric/thief. She has a penalty to casting time, but she's our only source of high-level divine spells, which we sorely lacked in Imber's run.
She has the Inquisitor and Bounty Hunter kits, which mitigate her low stats. Her average ability score is a six, and she can't even swing a short sword without a spell to help her out. But she does have two spectacular bonuses to her combat stats: her THAC0 is set to -6, and she has a damage bonus of +5. This would work better on a fighter, but in my install, clerics are able to use bladed weapons, which means she'll be able to use darts and speed weapons.
Finally, we have Sala Tora, a temperamental human bard with a rather ill-fitting Jester kit.
She also has the Cavalier, Kensai, and Assassin kits. A bard with the Kensai kit is normally a powerhouse, but Sala Tora has big penalties to hit and damage, which she won't overcome until much later in the game, making her crazy STR more useful for her carrying capacity than dealing damage. On top of that, she has the slowest movement speed in the party, limiting her ability to get around.
The only reason she's useful is her physical damage resistances: she will be immune to weapon damage just as soon as she gets the Cloak of the Sewers. But until then, she doesn't stand a chance in melee combat: with major penalties to her 2nd- and 4th-level spell slots, high AC due to her 2 DEX, a hit point total of 27, and little ability to run away from her attackers, she cannot hope to survive getting targeted by the enemy.
Aside from Zey, whose abilities complement each other quite nicely, the whole party is a collection of dysfunctional powers, incapable of serving a standard role. They will require a lot more management than Imber and her group, but Fobie will greatly simplify the early game with his ability to spam Fireball and Flame Arrow.
I assumed this effect merely kills the character, and progressed all the way through Chateau Irenicus and halfway through the slaver quest before I realized that... no, apparently this effect removes the character from the party as well. Snowy Tae should never have entered the party.
Which means no one could have un-paralyzed Zei, and she should have been stuck at the beginning of the game with no one to help her. This run should have failed, had I continued it with the parameters I originally outlined... I continued without noticing that it was Snowy Tae, and not some other character, that had the "Replace Creature" effect.
So Zei should actually be paralyzed and stuck in Chateau Irenicus. And both Fobie and Snowy Tae should be gone from the party. This run should have failed.
I'm going to try this again. It'll take a while, but I can just generate a new set of characters, which hopefully won't be as dead or doomed as the current ones.
We've got something really interesting here. And stupidly game-breaking if I don't do something to limit it.
I should start with the less crazy characters.
Snowy Tae!
Fobie!
Sala Tora! Well, actually Azama.
And Charname.
The real issue here is Poppy, who has replaced Zey. Poppy is a halfling Ranger... Stalker, Archer, Wizard Slayer (always with the Wizard Slayers, too), Totemic Druid, and Cleric of Lathander kits. She also backstabs on every hit and is permanently invisible. The invisibility doesn't work perfectly, though. She's not targetable by any spells, including her friends' buffs, but she's always visible to new enemies, since she broke the invisibility at the beginning of the game. But the backstab every hit works fine.
Oh, and she summons nymphs.
One nymph per second.
Forever.
It's one of the randomized effects I give my characters (they get five, which can do basically anything the character). The effect doesn't work if I use SK or an item, so I had to use a workaround. Instead of automatically summoning a nymph every second, which would get irritating... and require a summoning cap... and might prevent me from saving the game or resting... Poppy is allowed to summon a nymph at will.
I replaced Detect Evil with a 0-casting time version of Call Woodland Beings with the vanilla nymph substituted for the SR variant (the effect I got from randomization specified the summon, and it was the vanilla nymph), and added an extra effect that refreshed one 1st-level priest slot. I then gave Poppy aura cleansing and the new Detect Evil spell, which I mapped to a hotkey for easier access.
The nymphs are as squishy as ever (interpret that however you want), but they still have gobs of enchantment spells: Hold Monster, Hold Person, Confusion, and Mental Domination, not to mention a now-indoor Call Lightning (thanks to SR), Barkskin, Mass Cure, and Cause Serious Wounds. And they have their own script, so I don't need to give them orders for them to start casting their spells.
The nymphs can't beat everything in the game, but summoning spellcasters at will is pretty ridiculous. Still, I like the concept. Poppy has always had a druid-like theme in my mind, and calling in nymphs to flood the area with mind-bending magic is exactly the sort of thing she would delight in.
Poppy the Nymph and her many sisters have begun their quest.
The Hold Monster and Mental Domination spells go right through the Ogre/Mage's MGOI spell. He can only get hit by so many spells before failing a save. The nymphs chew him to pieces, assisted by Poppy and her pathetic 4 damage backstabs. Triple backstab multipliers don't mean much if you've got penalties to your damage rolls.
The Duergar crumple in the face of the nymphs. I don't even bother abusing Fobie's immunity to normal weapons; I don't need him at all. The nymphs can even go toe-to-toe with the golems and come out on top.
That's just silly. To be fair, though, the golems did chunk a fair number of nymphs before they went down.
The harem carves a path through the dungeon, and even Ilyich proves vulnerable to their spells, once his Enrage ability wears off.
Poppy remains hidden most of the time. It's really not fair.
You know those Cause Wounds cleric spells you never used? Well, Spell Revisions buffed them up. Check it out.
No, that's not a typo.
Notice the many Dimension Doors. The nymphs use those a lot, sometimes to close in for a Cause Serious Wounds attack, and sometimes to pay a visit to Poppy. When the nymphs don't have somebody to fight, they follow Poppy wherever she goes, automatically, and if there are too many, Poppy can actually get boxed in by her own harem. A lot of nymphs died to CTRL-Y before I got the hang of handling the crowd.
The only dangerous part of the dungeon was a mage I underestimated. The Shadow Thief mage that fights with Hareishan on the second level apparently has some very big damage spells at her disposal, and though Poppy is invisible and cannot be targeted, she can still be hit by area-effect damage directed at her nymphs. She drops down to half HP when she gets hit by a Fireball, and might have died had she not vacated the area and sent in her nymphs from outside the room.
Eventually, we tanked out the mage's MGOI and invisibility. The nymphs hit her with Hold Person and Poppy ended the mage's life with a backstab to the face.
Poppy backstabs every hit, no matter which direction the enemy is facing. It's the same as the Assassination effect. So a backstab to the face is indeed possible.
After the battle, the nymphs rush in for victory hugs. It's a little unnerving when they all cast Cause Serious Wounds and then start closing in on Poppy.
Never give anyone a hug when your hands are buzzing with negative energy.
Out of curiosity, I decided to take on Mencar Pebblecrusher... the first time I've ever done so for a no-reload run. This time, though, I couldn't just rely on the nymphs. I had to make sure the rest of the party was buffed and actively contributing to the effort. I saw in the previous mage battle that a single Fireball can clear out a roomful of nymphs.
First, I flooded the area with Sphere of Chaos. Yes, the nymphs can cast that now. I then snuck in while hidden and ordered some of the nymphs to cast Call Lightning on Sorcerous Amon of the Purple Brotherhood. The battle begins.
Sphere of Chaos forces the enemy to make a whole lot of saves. Amon makes a lot of them.
Still, as low as his save vs. spell may be, he can't hold out forever, and his MGOI is useless against a level 7 spell. It knocks him out, while Fobie's Insect Plague nibbles away at him.
Once the enemy is properly disabled, I move in the party and start attacking directly. Azama uses Flame Arrow to avoid harming the Nymphs, while Fobie uses some SR damage spells (Sunscorch and Fire Trap, namely) to finish off the wounded. Snowy Tae doesn't have much to do besides whomp on people with her flail.
The battle ends in a decisive victory. I'm really going to have to do something about these nymphs. They're stupidly overpowered, but the party is horribly fragile without them. Everyone has low HP and nobody has good resistances or saving throws or AC. If I limit their use too much, the party is going to struggle or die. But if I use them too freely, I'm going to experience a very hard landing when I start coming up against enemies immune to disablers.
I could still replace the relevant .cre file, if I wanted. But I don't see that being necessary anytime soon.
I don't know if my setup is responsible for this or if I am very lucky (some would say unlucky) but I encountered some Dire and Dread Wolves on the ambush map, combined with some Black Bears, Anselm left the first map with no less than 1,800 xp ! He was level 2 before he headed for the Friendly Arm Inn, very good start.
I cleared the first maps without troubles, doing some minor quests in Beregost, I was already level 4 before I started to pick up some party members.
I chose Kagain, with a Dwarven Defender kit, Vynd, a Drow Assassin from a mod and Viconia, which is a level 3 Fighter dualled into Cleric in my setup.
The squad already slew hundreds of foes, including dozens of skeletons, bandits, gibberlings and wolves. They dispatched Silke, Bassilus, and some strong mercenaries from Dark Horizons. However, their reputation is already at a very low number (3), and they will probably face the Flaming Fist earlier than I expected, we shall see how it goes !
Now they are heading for Nashkel.
Kathlen, Gnome Cleric/Illusionist, 2nd BG2 update
You proceed the to explore the city, or at least the southern districts, to look for work. In the Bridge District you see a mage taken in by the Cowled Wizards for casting a spell without a license.
On the bottom floor Hidesman escapes with an accomplice via a small boat below the bridge, leaving two Ghasts, two Rune Assassins and a Bone Golem for you to deal with. That's a bit much to your taste, so you retreat. They follow you upstairs, but not outside. You report your findings to Lieutenenant Aegisfield, who thanks you for your effort.
Back in the Slums District you return to the Copper Coronet. The slave leader you freed, Hendak had asked you to deal the Slaver Organization a final blow and advises you to seek entrance via the sewers. Down there you face Hobgoblins, Jellies and an Otyugh, all working together to kill you. You take no half measures to deal with the opposition: Animate Dead, Chaos and Cloudkill.
In the south-east part of the city you enter the Graveyard District, where you descend a stairway leading to several underground mausoleums and an enormous spiders' den. Outside the den you soon find yourself overwhelmed by all kinds of Spiders. You take advantage of their habit to follow you closely while Sanctuaried, to fumigate as many of them as possible with your Cloudkills.
Night has fallen as you resurface in the Graveyard District. You retrieve a teddy bear from the Copper Coronet for a restless child spirit, and you dig up a man named Tirdir who had been buried alive. A talk with him and with a graveyard keeper leads you to the Bridge District in search of the perpetrators. The Reflex helps you against a band of thugs. You disptach them with the assistance of summoned Skeletons.
When you locate their secret entrance you prepare yourself with Stoneskin, MSD and II. You enter the compound, cast a Web, and summon Kitthix as well as a Phase Spider. They (and a Chaos) help you make short work of several Slaver guards, including a Priest of Cyric, and their captain.
In front of the inn an Amnish guard helps you defeat two brigands backed by a ruffian or two.
A Mad Cleric in the Docks District makes you (and your Skeletons) pay for underestimating him; he hits like a Frost Giant.
A bit of a hesitant start. Kathlen hasn't faced any bosses yet, mostly mobs, and that's been challenging enough as it is. I think with a few more levels, and some nice summons such as Aerial Servant, mobs should become more manageable. She has yet to explore polymorphing as a way to dish out damage. She should probably also do a scroll buying and scribing sessions once she has the gold for that.
As soon as the party entered Nashkel, every guards were pointing their bows toward them.
But what could a group composed of a murderer, a wanted Dwarf, and two Drows expect ? They expected a fight, and they were bloody prepared for it. Vynd was hurling daggers and Anselm was firing his bow while Kagain and Viconia held the frontline. The guards were no match for them. A bunch of bounty hunters joined the fight only to meet their demise.
Soon enough, the entire village of Nashkel was under the evil domination of Anselm and his party. Many innocents were killed during the process.
Afterward, the squad recruted their last members : Dorn, another Blackguard, and Edwin, a powerful Conjurer. They started to roam the south of the Sword Coast to seek glory and magical items.
They fought some adventurers and many monsters during their trip.
They even killed a powerful Tanar'ri with more than a hundred hit points, which was hitting like a truck (30+ per hit) but nothing they coudn't handle.
They were now heading for the Gnoll Fortress as Edwin asked. They encountered a powerful groups of Ogres lead by an Ogre-Mage who took them by surprise with a Sleep spell. Hopefully, they splitted the party so that only Dorn and Kagain were hit. The first fell to the spell, the second however drank a Potion of Invulnerability before it was too late and made his save.
The triumphant group thought they were invincible, and they were proven wrong when they entered the fortress.
They were ambushed by a very powerful group of mercenaries including multiples backstabbers, who were drinking Potions of Invisibility after every attack to eliminate Edwin and Viconia as fast as possible.
But thanks to their Aura of Despair, the Blackguards diminished the damage from the backstabs low enough so that they were able to drink healing potions between the strikes.
But the true threat was definitely Allister, as he was a beast in melee, forcing Kagain to drink a lot of Superior Healing Potions. But he was also a very powerful spellcaster, especially when he used a Confusion scroll which affected Anselm, Vynd and Edwin.
The party, without ranged support, thought they were in a bad situation. But it was even worse after he decided to cast a decimating Sunfire spell, which instantly took Edwin and Dorn's lives.
Kagain had no choice but to hold this long enough for his allies to wake up from Confusion, and that's exactly what he did ! Thanks to many Healing Potions and his second Defensive Stance, he bought enough time for Anselm and Vynd to recover.
Together, they managed to slain Allister in what proved to be a very difficult battle.
Then they raised Edwin with a scroll they bought earlier in a temple and explored the fortress, killing dozens of Gnolls in the process, including their Clan Leaders, and they eliminated Dynaheir, as Edwin wanted.
They decided to go back to the Friendly Arm Inn to make some shopping, but were arrested by a group of Flaming Fist Enforcers. Needless to say, they slaughtered them after throwing a Horror and a Hold Person spell.
And now they are resting in the inn, preparing their next campaign ...