A good run, Neverused. It's nice to see another druid. I've recently fallen in love with the class myself. Haven't played an avenger but I'll definitely need to give it a try. I'll just have to add it to the list of non-fighter types I've yet to play... which is becoming a rather long list the more I read this thread. After reading your playthrough I might even have an inkling of how to use an Avenger, too.
The story of forum no-reloaders aka the Monty Python crew
Hear! Hear! It has finally started!
@bengoshi, @GemHound and @Tresset (yes, he joined at the last moment) decided to "test" the multiplayer but it quickly progressed into the full game.
Meet the wanna-be-heroes:
While in the Candlekeep, we still were getting used to the game. But as soon as we left it the serious part started. The Ogre. Or should we call it "the wonderful backstab"
A few close calls:
And then the first death.
Did you think it was bad? It became worse in a moment:
We had to retreat to the temple, spend nearly all our money on the resurrection and then return.
So far, the party is still of the 1st level. We reached Nashkel and managed to get a dream.
The funniest in-game moment: When the Tresset's character was killed, a hobgoblin spawned right on us with another hobgoblin archer chasing from behind.
The most valuable character: Gowrek (by Tresset) - too many decisive backstabs
The most valuable spell - Sleep by LLolnae - what would we do without it?
The funniest thing about the run: The dialogues between the participants. It's so fun!
Tomorrow we will be joined by @Meyahi and @Neverused so that the party could breathe a bit because without them and with the SCS there're no many options where to go.
This run is a unique experience for me, as I have never tried SCS before now. I must say that so far it is a little frustrating since I am told that everyone who casts spells is too hard for our group to handle. I suppose I will get used to it eventually. Scouting around with stealth and landing the first hit with a fine backstab is lots of fun, but, due to a lack of communication, both Gowrek and LLolnae went pure stealth for their first level thief skill point allocation. We decided fairly early on that LLolnae would change and focus her time on security (locks and traps) while Gowrek kept up with the stealth. I think my favorite funny moment was when I casually asked "Mind if I goof off?" while we were discussing what to buy at Winthrop's inn and then, right after someone (I forgot who) said "I wonder what Tresset means by that." I activated a timestop on my character with an eval command. XD This is why you see me saying "I can actually make anyone have a timestop." in Bengoshi's 4th screenshot. Of course I was only doing this to goof around and would never cheat this way (unlike someone who used Ctrl-r to escape being Shanked... (to be fair though, at that point we were still in the "lets test this MP thing to make sure it works" phase and not in the "the run has officially started now" phase)).
A good run, Neverused. It's nice to see another druid. I've recently fallen in love with the class myself. Haven't played an avenger but I'll definitely need to give it a try. I'll just have to add it to the list of non-fighter types I've yet to play... which is becoming a rather long list the more I read this thread. After reading your playthrough I might even have an inkling of how to use an Avenger, too.
Very informative and enjoyable.
Haha, informative? I thought I was posting the very, very barebones of what I was doing with little to no explanation. I'll give a bit more in-depth here, though. The very early game is played as a standard druid until level 2 spells are available, so easy experience like Shoal (5k), Marl (900), Firebead Elvenhair's book (300), and so on. Anything without any ranged capabilities is fair game here, really. Level 3 you get to play with Webs, and things are low enough level that outside of immunities and minor globes of invulnerability that two Webs can almost always guarantee a successful Hold and thus free hits. All level 2 slots should go to Web for awhile; by the end of BG1, Milan had something like 6 Webs and 1 Resist Fire/Cold, and that wasn't even used. Make sure that even if you're not proficient with it to carry a sling for this, since Dart range sometimes doesn't allow you to hit the target without getting hit yourself. Level 3 Druid spells are pretty standard; Miscast Magic, Summon Insects, Call Lightning are all decent options for shutting down casters if Web hasn't already done it already. At level 7, two important benchmarks: first, you gain your shape shifts; I have SCS installed with improved Shapeshifting, so my experience is probably significantly different than someone playing without mods. Sword Spider is probably the craziest one at this point at this level, since most things still can't save consistently vs a Web and the Sword Spider is immune. So 1d4 + 1 damage 4 times a round, perma-hitting, with a chance to poison every hit. Also note that you have Hasted speed, which allows the Avenger to easily be the best kit for kiting tactics. (Maybe not the best kiting damage, but you really can't be caught if you're kiting in Spider form.) Also note that this has the best AC value; with something setting DEX to 18, and a +1 Ring or Cloak, and a regular buckler, and you have -6 AC. Fire Salamander's good for the Fire Shield, also has the Haste effect, and is 100% immune to fire. Useful for some things, useless in others. Baby Wyvern I can't find a use for. Note the Bear forms, if only because it has the highest STR scores and might be useful in busting a few locks and doors. Second important benchmark: Level 4 grants both Call Woodland Beings and Improved Invisibility. The former, positioned correctly, ends mundane encounters and Improved Invisibility can help end caster encounters. There's not too much improvement from here, though Iron Skins certainly helps and Chaotic Commands as well (why I never remembered to cast this is a mystery).
Important equipment: Wand of the Heavens, since an Avenger still doesn't have THAT much blasting power. I like Gauntlets of Dexterity to improve the Spider form's DEX, though that later got replaced by the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (Bandit camp) and eventually the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, turning the Spider form into a monster hitting for 4 - 9 with 4 hits per round, plus poison on a failed save vs death. Silly? A little bit. Painful? Very much so.
I just started a new run. This time, the entire party is composed of unkitted fighters.
The idea is to see what you can do with no spellcasting or thieving abilities. Our Charname is... once again, Snowy Tae, a halfling fighter specializing in clubs and slings.
All stats min-maxed, because. She's a halfling because it gives us the best saving throws and AC, and therefore is the best defensive build. Next up is Sala Tora, a half-orc specializing in flails.
Then our dwarf, Marilyn Blueapple. All of these are recurring names. He specializes in hammers.
Fobie, our gnome, specializing in spears and axes.
The weapon proficiencies took a fair amount of thought. I wanted a broad variety of weapons with on-hit effects, and ranged as well as melee options, that wouldn't require much management (no shields for bow users). Our human is Horun Fallows, who specializes in crossbows and halberds
For the sake of variety, I made them all different races. We're only missing a half-elf. Our elf is Poppy, who specializes in short bows and two-handed swords.
She'll be equipping a pair of wearable wings I found in Near Infinity, since her portait has little butterfly wings.
We plow right through the Duergar, using Marilyn and Sala Tora as our tanks because of their 19 CON. I use Marilyn, our dwarf, to tank Mephits because of his saving throws, but it's no guarantee of success.
I'm going to rest only once in this dungeon, which means I want to make the most of the one I've got. As usual, I tank as many traps as I possibly can before resting.
But since we have lots of Potions of Healing and have a good HP pool remaining, I decide to continue onto the Mephit Portals and bring them down. Only in Frennedan's room do we finally reach our breaking point.
We camp out with the nymphs for about a week to heal up.
We use the hallways as a chokepoint against Ilyich's gang. The head dwarf goes down remarkably fast. Having six fighters in the group makes these things go really quick.
For some reason, the djinni sometimes spawns inside the dungeon instead of in the Air Elemental Plane.
This lets us avoid fighting the big pile of Mephits guarding the actual bottle. We cut our way through the rest of the dungeon with little resistance.
Circus. Ring of Air Control. Gaelan. Copper Coronet. The usual.
I really shouldn't fuss with Amalas, but I'm willing to waste an Oil of Speed to help shut him up without getting killed in the process.
Notice she has 20 Potions of Extra Healing. I gave her the party's whole supply, in case Amalas proved tougher than I thought.
Standard procedure from here. Lilarcor. Rescue Viconia and Jan. Umar Hills. Killer Mimic.
We can't move on to the Temple Ruins, though. We've got almost no magic weapons. It's time to go get the Flail of Ages.
BP appears to add some weird lines into the game. Trolls are awfully chatty.
We don't get far into the De'Arnise Hold. We get ambushed by two Spirit Trolls at once, and decide to leave after they go down. Spirit Trolls are immune to nonmagical weapons, which is exactly why we didn't go to the Temple Ruins. We take a +1 Flail of Ages and head to Trademeet and on to the Druid Grove.
We still run into Spirit Trolls, much to my aggravation. We have to use Bolts of Lightning to bring them down, due to the lack of magical weapons. We only have so much magical ammunition, and I want to save it for big fights.
The spiders aren't as much trouble, though they could have been. The smallest spider in the game, just named Spider, has the deadliest poison in the game, though they have poor APR and THAC0.
It does 5 poison damage per second for 30 seconds, or a guaranteed death for any mid-level character. Marilyn would have died without Slow Poison.
How are we finishing off the Trolls, anyway? Our Flail of Ages only does crushing and cold damage. Well, we have a store of Arrows of Fire on Poppy, but those offer a save for some reason, unlike Arrows of Ice or Acid Arrows, so they're not reliable. If we need a guaranteed kill, we can use an Arrow of Acid, though those are much more rare and pricy.
One of the big reasons I came was to get the Spear of the Unicorn for Fobie. But there are too many Trolls in the Troll Mound for us to handle. So I send in Snowy Tae alone and have her turn invisible once she's inside.
From there, she can grab an item and immediately turn invisible to escape.
We lose both of our Potions of Invisibility in the process, however.
We get in trouble with the fight before Kyland Lind. The Mage's Horror spell apparently affects us despite her not being hostile.
This is a problem.
Why? Because Marilyn Blueapple is perfectly capable of carelessly meandering right into a much bigger and deadlier fight.
Such things do not go unpunished. Kyland Lind and the Shadow Druids turn hostile.
But Marilyn runs out of their line of sight, which buys us some time. Back at the previous fight, the party is already struggling. We manage to hurt some of the enemy fighters, but we've still got two unfriendly spellcasters at full health and protected by Ironskin and Stoneskin.
We only have three ways of breaking through Stoneskin and Ironskin: Bolts of Lightning, Arrows of Fire, and Acid Arrows.
But Bolts of Lightning have poor APR, and Arrows of Fire offer a save, and Acid Arrows are in very short supply. And those spells are coming in fact. How do I stop them?
I grab one of the fallen enemy fighters' bows and hand it to Fobie. He has no proficiency in bows, but he should still be able to get in a few hits against the mage.
He rolls an 18 and misses. I don't think that mage has legal AC vs. missiles. Either way, we can't hit it reliably, so he ditches the bow and grabs his spear.
But it isn't long after that some hostile bears appear on the screen and tear Fobie to shreds. He has to flee, leaving Poppy and Horun to deal with the mages on their own.
Between Horun's Bolts of Lightning and Poppy's Acid Arrows, we put a stop to the enemy's spellcasting and wear them down, but it takes time and lots of potions.
Marilyn finally recovers from Horror, but he re-entered Kyland Lind recently, triggering Kyland Lind's pre-buffs.
Poppy is slowed and injured, and Fobie is running across the map to avoid getting mauled by a couple of bears (he actually ran out of potions in the process). We manage to finish off the druid, but how is Marilyn going to deal with an entire pack of hostile druids?
See the little icon on Marilyn's portrait? He's using the Ring of Human Influence.
The head druid is ours. But his spell selection is very limited. I have him switch to Fire Salamander form and turn on his buddies, while Marilyn retreats just long enough for the druids to target Kyland Lind. Marilyn then enters the fray, but the druids are hesitant to use their big spells on their leader. They use them on Marilyn instead.
The rest of the party is making good progress to the west, but Marilyn is in trouble. He can't stop their spells; there are too many druids for him to hit. One of them layers on an Insect Plague spell. Another tends to his fellows.
I had hoped to at least bring down Kyland Lind, but soon I see it will come at the cost of Marilyn's life.
Now all I can do is pray that he doesn't provoke the massive Myconid fight to the east.
He doesn't. But the druids mob him. He stood no chance.
I send out Horun to probe the area and hopefully pick off the druids one by one, but he can't land enough hits to stop an Enchantment spell coming his way. I have him unequip all his weapons right before the spell hits, in case he fails his save. I don't want him turning those weapons against us.
I start bringing Fobie back. Meanwhile, the druids decide that their leader has to be put down.
Up north, the party waits until Horun has recovered, then marches forward and runs over the druid that charmed him.
I send Horun out further to probe again, and once more he gets charmed. The party hangs back. It's better to fight when he's under our control.
We keep pushing forward. Eventually our last foe collapses.
We use the quick loot feature to grab Marilyn's gear without getting close to the Myconids. We raise him back at Trademeet for 800 gold, which is pretty expensive this early in the game. We return to Trademeet with Marilyn beside us.
Now we have to fight the Myconids. With almost no potions left.
Poppy has Lilarcor and is therefore immune to confusion, so she goes to the front, equipped with the Girdle of Bluntness to ward off the Myconids' physical attacks. Snowy Tae, Horun, and Sala Tora, armed with a sling, a crossbow, and darts, respectively, pitch in from the back, while Marilyn and Fobie fight right next to Poppy.
We make strong progress at first, but eventually the herd of Myconids puts a stop to our advancement.
The Spore Colonies to the east built up a wall while we were fighting on the west end of the bridge, and now we have to fight through it. But we're low on potions, and the Myconids have better THAC0 than I thought. The Myconids overwhelm us. We have strong saves and AC, but the Myconids have a huge advantage in numbers, and can put tremendous pressure on us. Fobie can't handle it. His black and white portrait goes gray.
Only very slowly does the herd of Myconids thin out, and at great cost to our resources. Fobie's death will cost us another 800 gold, and we're almost completely out of potions.
This reminds me of an old myth that Might and Magic 6 cannot be completed with a party consisting of all 4 knights. Now when you're trying to beat BG2 with a party of all fighters, it's very interesting. I haven't seen that before.
Also, about your portraits at the left side of the UI, it looks differently when the portraits have black frames around them.
On a way to the Xvart Village we had the first level-up. Nobody guessed the HPs Loki got:
Later then everybody got a new level. With 5 party members neither the Xvart horde nor the cave bear weren't a problem:
The party decided to head to the Gnoll Fortress for the DEX gaulents for our pally.
Even while Loki didn't want to approach a polar bear, our fearless fighters decided otherwise and luckly succeded:
The funniest in-game moment: The voting on the HP gains for characters.
The most valuable character: Gowrek (by Tresset) (again) - too many decisive backstabs (again)
The most valuable spell - Sleep by Llolnae (again) - it helped against the xvarts?
The thing about the run: Today we got sevral disconnections and it influenced a gameplay, of course. Let's hope it will be otherwise the next time. But anyway, I've liked the session and hope others think the same.
I mismanaged this fight right from the start. Celebrian got held and I didn't want to use my only dispel to free her, so I tried to fight on without her. Gudrun couldn't do it with potions alone, so I tried to bug out using Invisibility 10'. Gudrun died before the spell was cast and then Darien fired an arrow just after and broke his invisibilty. The lizard men chunked him in two hits. I was actually able to get the other two out, mainly because the lizards didn't follow them.
I can't see any hope of winning this with only three characters and no thief.
I don't think I'm ready for a four person party yet. When I try again, it will be with a full 6 characters. I'm thinking of a fighter heavy party next time, with only a bard for arcane casting.
This was my first no-reload run in any game, so it was quite a learning experience.
Edit Really weird thing too, in the mad scramble to pick up all the stuff from the ground, I ended up with two copies of the bag of holding and the ammo belt. They're pointing to the same store file, because if I take something out of one of them, it's gone from the other also.
@BillyYank: I had that happen to me in a no-reload IWD thread, getting a character chunked in single-player mode. I permitted myself to create a level 1 character to replace them, even though that's only possible in multiplayer mode (I moved the save file temporarily from "save" to "mpsave"). I figured the rest of the game would be unpleasant if I continued like I was.
It actually happened twice, I think. A third of my party got chunked. I had a similar thing happen in a BG2 run, in which I think four characters in total got chunked.
The Excellent Adventures of Epona: Chapter 3 (Epona's Bogus Journey)
Narrator: Good news, good folk of the audience. Epona found her deathray.
Epona: When it rains it pours.
Narrator: It would seem. Not only did we find our Disintegrate schematic, we found 2 more. Turns out it's on the second, not the first, group of Shadow Thieves being approached by vampires at night in Athkatla. A journey to the Crooked Crane in the city gates yielded another when Epona scared an extortioner away from a heavy-set merchant. The third turned up from a Fence at the North Gate to Trademeet (a new find).
Epona: Also, Ungerhill Dark doesn't like us.
Narrator: Ya... not sure why that is.
Narrator: Pffft. No idea about this one... But this is where Chapter 3 starts, in the Copper Coronet. From there we head to Gaelan Bayle, throw down a whack of gold and see Aran Linvail. We meet Missy.
Epona: Can we take her home with us? I so want to put her in my pocket! She's so cute!
Narrator: The game is full of these characters. I hadn't seen Missy in a very long time, probably not since my first playthrough. Too bad she isn't recruitable. I'm sure the baddest coatcheck around would make a mean backstabber, too.
You could probably play this game for years and still come across random people you'd never known were there, or hadn't seen in eons.
Epona: I also got a bunny.
Narrator: Ya... what does one do with a familiar, anyway? After conversing with it a number of times, I've been given the impression that it's more or less utterly useless. Maybe I can find stats for it somewhere and see what it actually does. These games really like to hold their cards close when it comes to information the player needs.
I also do not know why I only remembered to cast 'Familiar' on a rickety catwalk in the Thieves Guild, in Chapter 3.
Missy and the Familiar had a knock on effect: re-uniting with distant acquaintances and discovering a new companion stoked our curiosity. Emboldened by the thrill of of it all, Epona tried her hand at robbing Aran Linvail just see what he had on him... in the interest of exploration, of course.
Epona: I like to live dangerously.
Narrator: It could have ended badly, but it didn't. Aran didn't have anything the average thief didn't have, aside from some pricey gems, so there were no cool gizmos for Epona's arsenal. I should probably mention here that, although our spells have to be trap or gnomish-invention themed, any useable items are fair game. Wands are fine, as is something like the Horn of Valhalla, even though summoning spells are verboten.
Epona: Can't have everything!
Narrator: Epona then commenced with Aran's Tasks to receive the shadow thieves' help. Her new Disintegration Death Ray saw its first use.
Narrator: I knew Lassal was not killable, but I thought at least that Disintegrate would reduce him to near death, assuming he had some kind of min HP item. In reality, he failed his save, disintegrated, then emerged from the shower of dust uninjured.
Epona: Boourns.
Narrator: We both felt as though we'd been cheated. However, it is duly noted. Enemies scripted 'not to die' cannot be harmed by Disintegrate, it would seem.
A trap malfunction turned the fight into an episode of Epona Gone Wild.
Epona: Next slides!
Narrator: The POV gun and chromatic orbs prove enough to complete the next task, in which Epona uncovers the location of Bodhi's secret rebel base.
Epona: The location of which I already knew, and which I could have simply told Aran if he'd bothered to ask. I mean %&$#ing hell....
Narrator: Please excuse Epona, good folk of the audience. She has struggled with dialogue options as of late. She's... sensitive about the matter. This will all become clear in time.
Narrator: Yoshimo and Epona wagered on the outcome of the duel between Caehan and Jaylos. Caehan, and therefore Epona, won.
Epona: I get to pick Yoshimo's new colours! Hehehehe.
Narrator: Now that the Vampire's Guild is just in front of us, Epona decides to follow another lead, hoping it will help the team gain experience, find cool gadgets and prepare for the nasty vampires and their level drain (against which no-one has protection). We buy some Protection from Undead Scrolls and head to the wild forest.
Epona: The instructions/benefits on these scrolls are very non-specific. [turns them upside down]
Narrator: As a habitual non-buffer, I've never actually used a protection from undead scroll, despite making it through the games twice. Hopefully the protection is comprehensive.
In the Wild Forest we meet Electro-Girl, a woman of similar class to Epona with Pink frazzled hair, perhaps due to the shocks induced by her electro-guns and freezerays. Neera, as her name is, is the arch enemies of some Red Wizards. Epona is sold on the idea of combining arms with the Wild Scientist and kicking some magic butt.
Neera brings all manner of electricity based traps, weapons and protections to the team, as well as an experimental freeze ray. Or Ice Cube gun, if you will.
After reaching the Hidden Refuge, Epona meets her soulmate.
Epona: Who says there aren't decent romantic options for women in Faerun? When all this is over, I'm going to marry him and we'll explore planespace together. No need for the spaceship. Totallyyyyyyyy...
Narrator: Epona and Co. also play fetch for a while. Epona discovers that she hates cats. She also finally comes upon an actually appropriate time to use the EE content's 'Sarcastic Jerkoff' response, more commonly known as #2. You'll find it between #1 Smarmy Sycophant and #3 Action-Film One-Liner That Leads to Violence.
Epona: The one time that kind of flippant remark is appropriate, and he doesn't even notice! Cheesus, these new quests were so Bogus. I mean, they showed sophistication at times, but never ever had I experienced so much trouble expressing myself.
Narrator: You and me both, sister. Seeing as my characters--that would be you, Epona--are really just me in disguise, I think we both felt that. Entire conversations would pass without a single available response feeling appropriate, something not often encountered in the vanilla games.
I really really really don't want to pile onto the already well known criticisms of the EE content, but I cannot keep silent. For me, personally, it was that the standard 'finesse' and 'subtlety' options were almost completely gone from the presented dialogues.
I will not fault the writing for being different. It was done years after the original games, so one cannot expect it to have the same flavour. And aside from that, it's every writer's god-given right to make their writings their own. That's not the issue for me. The issue, for me, will become apparent as we progress further through this current chapter of the playthrough: Epona's Bogus Journey.
Epona: Ya, well, for me the issue was that these quests seemed designed to intentionally get me killed. Horribly and repeatedly. And if they weren't trying to kill me, they were trying to make me lose. And not in the fair 'enemies you meet are trying to stop you' kind of way.
Narrator: So it seemed. Anyway, Epona and Co., after performing some tasks for the Hidden Refuge, go to Trademeet for something or other...
Epona: Try to restrain your enthusiasm. [/snarky]
Narrator: I see you're getting comfortable with your new 'Snarky Jerkoff' attitude.
Epona: Shaizer! The EE content, it's spreading. I've been infected.
Narrator: In Trademeet we meet Rasaad. Now, I like Rasaad. I used him in one of Epona's past lives as a druid named Illyria. The dude absolutely refused to die and rocked everything with his bare hands. I've heard a lot of criticism about Rasaad and Monks in general, but I've never bought into much of it. Monks are good; Rasaad is good. Rasaad has his flaws, but overall he is a decent, loyal, poewrful if somewhat self-absorbed party mate. The problem is that during his quest in BG2 he goes from overall good to downright and irredeemably stupid. He's not even Rasaad anymore.
Epona: They turned him into a #$%@ing tool in BG2. Such a waste...
Narrator: Admit it, Epona, the only reason we did Rasaad's quest while we were in layover in Trademeet was because you wanted some nookie.
So we hook up with Rasaad (though, unfortunately, Epona doesn't get to hook up) and go to the abandoned Amphitheatre, where the reception is decidedly warmer than we were expecting from these alleged heretics.
Epona: The Hummus and Falafel buffet was especially nice. These heretics know how to run a meeting! The food was vegan, too, an fine blend of enlightened sanctimoniousness and religious heresy.
Narrator: Rasaad has made a point of stressing that his sole objective in all of this is to infiltrate the heretics and discover the true identity of Collus Darathon. I looked up 'infiltrate' in the dictionary. It's definition does not include this:
Image: Epona displays a Homerian-Epic level of restraint to keep from slapping Rasaad up the backside of his head. Not even resisting the slayer is as hard as this.
Epona: They should have given me a medal.
Narrator: In spite of the new-content-writer's efforts to actively sabotage the player's efforts, the party manages to win the heretics over and are given the location of the Heretic Temple. The invisible hand of the programmers and writers, who in the vanilla games had exercised subtlety, is in the EE quests a very heavy handed influence. I'm not saying that Rasaad shouldn't have quams about feigning heresy, but at the very least he could have employed a little more finesse and not been such of a...
Epona: Dumbass.
Narrator: A blunt way of putting it, but yes.
On the way to the Heretic Temple the party is ambushed by the Tears of Selune.
Epona: The 'alleged' Tears of Selune.
Narrator: That's right. Neither I or Epona have ever been here before. This is the first experience with BG2 Rasaad and his quest for both of us.
Epona had been told that she would be tested by the heretical monks, and the accusations of murder laid against Rasaad seemed wholly unfounded and completely out of the blue (no mention of anything related to the accusations had at all appeared in the game). The Tears of Selune also felt remarkably similar to the Harper's of Jaheira's quest in terms of tone; they appeared to be gunning for someone's head without any concern for truth, reasoned argument or justice. One of them even said they were here to kill Rasaad, not hear his side.
Epona: If the Tears of Selune were really the reasonable people Rasaad was insisting they should be, then I didn't see it in this encounter. I decided that these must be illusions, dopplegangers or facsimiles of another sort. I guessed that perhaps this was the test to see if Rasaad--and the rest of us--had truly forsaken the Sun Soul sect. What better demonstration than to kill the Tears of Selune?
Narrator: Epona stood by Rasaad under the vague impression that such loyalty might later translate into a closer relationship. She resisted Rasaad's attempts to spill the beans regarding the deception, lest the Heretical Monks were watching to see what he did when faced by illusions of his former comrades.
The party made short work of them, using Stinking Cloud and a charge from a Cloudkill Wand to keep the hostile monks at bay, but still within reach of skull traps, polymorph cannons and chromatic orbs. With the monks hesitant to enter the kill zone they were forced to try and get around it, but the truncated environment restricted their movements.
Narrator: Skull trap is an odd spell. From the spellbook it can be fired to the extent of visual range (30ft, I think). It says 60ft on the spell description, but cannot be extended by any means of enhancing line of sight.
From a scroll it fires to 15 or 20ft.
Anyway, we kill the Tears of Selune and nothing happens. Maybe it wasn't the test after all.
Epona: Whoops... [sheepish]
Narrator: At the Heretic Temple we come across Sun Soul Monks being exposed to the sun.
Narrator: When Rasaad--who up to this point had been stressing repeatedly that his sole desire was to infiltrate the temple and find Algoroth--sees this, he attempts to rush forth and yet again tell every heretic he meets that he is not really a heretic but actually trying to destroy the Heretic Temple.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigggghhhhhhhhh................
Epona: That &%$# was getting really old by that point.
Narrator: Since Epona was evidently the only one who understood the concept of 'Infiltration', we explored the Heretic Temple Grounds fully to see if there was more than one option for getting inside. Something other than the front door.
Narrator: Attempts to revisit the exposed Monks (bound by rope) proved fruitless in attaining the equipment needed to repel down into the temple like badass superheroes or SWAT officers. We never found out if there was indeed a use for this skylight.
This really really bugged me, and it bugged me in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with the skylight. I was truly hesitant to enter the building through the front door--even though it was the obvious way--for fear of being caught in some kind of ridiculous scripted trap. No, not the kind like in BG1 where you get caught by Angelo. I mean the kind that intentionally tries to undo the player's efforts and get people killed just for the fun of it.
During Rasaad's quest, I could never shake the feeling that the game designers and writers were just outright fucking with me. Between the silly dialogue choices (the worst ones coming during Hammerhelm's speech at the amphitheatre, where the only means of allowing Hammerhelm to continue without interruption was to become a stereotypical Gospel Church Attendant) and the contradictory behaviour of Rasaad (Let's infiltrate the Heretic Temple but tell every heretic we see that we are not indeed true converts and want to destroy Collus) I was left certain that I was completely at the mercy of whoever designed this quest, and that what mercy they possessed was very little. At every turn I felt as though I was trying to avoid a 'gotcha!' trigger left there by the writers/designers.
The Baldur's Gate series of games have their flaws, there is no doubt about this. Some of them are rather serious, but many are merely flaws/limitations of the genre. I've not much experience with RPGs and need to get used to them, so I forgive much. But some of the flaws in Rasaad's/Neera's quest are unique in that they are almost wholly unnecessary, and in some cases feel intentionally induced by the developers (particularly one seriously eye-roll inducing event in Neera's quest). I don't mean to come down on the EE content too hard, but evidently these game makers never got the memo about the invisible hand.
It's the game designer's role to guide the player; this is the Invisible Hand. The Invisible Hand moves things along, advances the plot, encourages the player to do certain things and visit certain places, and above all does this in a manner both subtle and not always detectable. It does this without significantly reducing the player's freedom to play the game their own way, in their own time. In Neera's and Rasaad's content, this 'guidance' all to often becomes outright control. The player loses control over the camera, charname, the party and their location more times in these two quests than in the entire vanilla trilogy.
Okay, so I haven't counted. It's an estimation, but I'm making it. If I'm wrong about this, then it at least serves as an indication as to where my mind was at during this quest. All the contradictions and inconsistencies were making me paranoid.
I realize that this is a small nitpick. Frankly I still wonder if reading these forums has not spoiled me on this issue; before I'd even had a chance to explore the EE content I was stumbling upon comment after negative comment about it on this very forum. My own fault, I guess, for not heeding spoiler warnings. Still, I cannot help feeling that I went into these new quests 'primed' to dislike them.
This IS a small nitpick. Maybe it's just a small thing that became inflamed due to being poked so many damn times, is all.
But I ramble. Sheesh... all this over a skylight? Where is my head at?
With the more stylish and dramatic entrance out of the question, Epona tries the front door.
Epona: Well, that was a freebie. Maybe you were overthinking all of this.
Narrator: Okay... okay.
We explored the temple, yet again put down another attempt by Rasaad to spill the beans and literally get the entire party killed, then found Algoroth's bedroom.
The guy is definitely living it up.
Epona: I liked the colours.
Narrator: Epona and I have this thing. It's kind of weird...
We like to sleep in people's bedrooms. I don't know why, but whenever I get to a bedroom I just stop and think 'This would be a good place to rest'. And we do. It beats sleeping in the grime of some sewer or on the dirt. Sadly, the Heretic temple was a no-rest zone, so Epona and I had to be satisfied with taking decorating tips and making note of colours to use in future projects.
Epona, intent on carrying on the deception, completed the Heretic Tests and became a member of the Heretic Club. Once again, response number 2 (Snarky Jerkoff) finds an apropos moment.
Narrator: Morale was waning at this point. For Epona, the darkest moment came when she was being beaten to a pulp by four monks and reconsidering just how far she would go to find a decent male romance option. Was sex really worth all of this? She came close to deciding 'no', but she rallied: there are plenty of creatures in the animal kingdom, after all, who literally die for sex. Why not her?
Epona: I decided to risk it.
Narrator: It barely paid off.
Epona: I did get a crappy helmet out of it, at least.
Narrator: But it was all for naught. The Dark Moon Monks descended on the temple in force, and Epona's gang was forced to reveal their treachery. The supposed 'evil' heretics again proved more reasonable than described, and Epona joined the defence.
Once again, the Invisible Hand became something visible. Via script, the party is thrust out into harms way outside the temple, within melee range against a group of hard-hitting super ninjas. In what universe would I or Epona ever have just strolled up to the enemy for a casual talk? The answer: NONE.
Epona and the Heretics were victorious nonetheless, but it was painful.
Image: the attacking Dark Monk forces are considerable, and the fight starts quickly and at close range. The allied Heretic Monks focus their strikes on a few charging enemies, leaving the flank open. Epona and Electro-girl attempt to close the gap, taking advantage of the enemy's tight groupings with skulltraps and chain lightning.
Notice that no-one in the party has any defences up. This was one of those times where I was feeling rushed and shoved along by the game desires. In the urgency of the situation I was fixating on dealing as much damage as I could.
Image: Casualties mount suddenly and unexpectedly as cloaked assassins appear. Electro-girl and Rasaad are killed almost instantly. Yoshimo is out of traps and remains cloaked. Epona is hit by poison, but shrugs it off with healing potions and joins with Jan at hurling Holy Hand Grenades at the Dark Moon's spellcasting team.
The team has not rested since the amphitheatre, and equipment/spells were limited. A Web/Stinking cloud combo would have been nice, but between the need to keep dealing damage every round and half-empty spell books, it was not an option we could afford.
The party is really not suited for frontline battle, and this battle made it painfully clear that Epona and Co. lacked poison protection. No-one had any antidotes. Epona's 'slow poison' abilities were used up very quickly.
Image: But the decision to forgoe defences in favour of offensive traps and grenades pays off. The Dark Moon Monks hardly ever get a spell off, allowing the Heretics to overwhelm the attacking melee forces. The rest are mopped up with chromatic orbs and magic missiles. Pew Pew!
Literally nothing happened after that. The Heretics left, Rasaad was dead and so, for once, was silent. With no closure and no forthcoming discussion re: the quests conclusion, Epona was left to wonder what decisions had led her to be at that point, at that time, in that place.
The moment had gone. There would be no romance here. Epona even had a moment of guilt at relishing the fact that Rasaad couldn't open his damn mouth for once... because he was DEAD. She nonetheless revived him and Electro-girl with two charges of the wand of resurrection that she long ago salvaged from Mekrath's.
Epona: Ah, Mekrath. A man after my own heart. Now there's a man with a bitchin' man-cave.
Narrator: Epona and I reminisced momentarily about Mekrath. We have a soft spot for that guy, for the same reason we both have a burning hatred of Haer'Dalis. Epona doesn't know this, but I once killed Mekrath and saved HaerDalis. When HaerDalis admitted to lying to me, with a jocular chuckle, the immediate seriousness of it escaped me. It was not until Throne of Bhaal, at a completely random time like that when I had Epona summon her familiar, that it occured to me. 'Dude, I killed that guy. HaerDalis truly had been a thief, and I'd killed someone who was merely exercising his right to defend his home.
I departed mid-battle to the pocket plane, summoned HaerDalis using the fates and executed him on the spot. I have never, and WILL NEVER, use HaerDalis in my party.
I think it's better that Epona not know this about me. Nobody tell her.
Anyway, Epona and gang healed up then left the Heretic Temple for Trademeet.
Something wonderful happened.
Epona: Insta-Hired!
Narrator: The party's efforts were not entirely fruitless after all. Wilson serves as a great pack-mule, which is desperately needed for the odd 346lbs of potions the party now had, most from battlefield salvage.
Actually, I don't know how much the potions weigh, but the potion pack is full and I count at least 78 Potions of Extra Healing, 16 Potions of Healing, 34 Potions of Invisibility, and a lot of various other potions of some kind or another. I have no idea what to do with my inventory at this point. Everything is a dis-organized mess. Epona and I desperately need to get to Trademeet and buy/sell a metric tonne of crap.
Problem was, Trademeet was closed.
Epona snapped.
The party found out that Genies were starving the town. The Dao Jinn's were looking for a fugitive... and apparently it is entirely okay to threaten the future of an entire town--and all within it--on the basis of a hunch that 'they know something'.
Neither I or Epona were in the mood to play into their game by searching for Itafheer. By all rights they should do it themselves, as anyone else would be expected to do, and not feel entitled to destroy an entire community as a means of extorting others into doing it for them.
Epona: New rule! You're not allowed to offer your departure--something you're supposed to do in the first place--as a reward for making someone else do your dirty work. Who the mother-loving crikey #$@& demands a first-place ribbon or a 'favour' as payment for something that constitutes the bare minimum standard of what any decent sentient should do to begin with? Do ordinary citizens demand cookies or medals as a reward for simply being law-abiding? Answer: NO. Do people get rewarded for not being douchebags? Answer: NO. You're just supposed to be that way.
Narrator: Ya, Epona got mad. Things happened. Maybe she has a touch of the Lawful Neutral, in her.
Narrator: Then again, maybe not. Summary executions probably fit on the non-lawful evil spectrum somewhere. Then again, Epona is like anyone else. She has good moments and bad, moments of mercy and moments of ruthlessness. She's True Neutral only because, when you average all her various moments and their corresponding alignments out, that's probably what they average to.
The effectiveness of the teams weapons against the genies was also rather shocking.
Epona: I love my Chromatic Orbs.
Narrator: They are awesome. At this point the party is in considerable flux. Epona is no longer in the mood for romance, so Rasaad is fired. She gives him a fake telephone number and he goes off on his way.
We keep Wilson, but Electro-Girl struggles with empty spellbook slots as she tries to figure out just how she fits into a trap-casting party setup.
However... Things are about to get better, Dear Readers. The party is shortly to enter a kind of renaissance. Let's call it the Chromatic Orb Age, where we learn that the 6+ modifier to saves is decidedly not bad or under-powered. With Chromatic Orbs, Deathrays, Polymorph Other, Cone of Cold and other instant Murder-Death-Kill weapons in the arsenal, Epona and Co. are all set to tear the Red Wizards a new one.
Then we can all get back on task to destroying Bodhi's guild before travelling to spellhold, where the beloved Imoen still languishes.
On another note, we found a trap from over a week ago.
Epona: I thought it was interesting. Anyone else?
Narrator: Yoshimo also upheld his end of the bet made on the Caehan/Jaylos fight, in which Epona's horse (Caehan) was victorious. He let Epona choose his new colours.
Yoshimo: I respect your victory, Epona, but do you really think anyone will take the famous Yoshimo seriously if he appears on the battlefield wearing these colours?
Epona: Who?
Yoshimo: Yoshimo. You know, Yoshimo?
Epona: Not... ringing a bell, no.
Yoshimo: Yoshimo! Think harder, woman.
Epona: Who are you talking about, Immy?
Yoshimo: Uhhh, Epona... it's me Yoshimo.
Epona: Do not make me get out the girdle of Femininity.
Yoshimo: Heya, it's me, Imoen! [/girlyvoice]
Narrator: Epona's experience with Rasaad has traumatized her, it seems. She's truly feeling the loss of the best traveling companion she's ever had, and the need for good party mates is now more important than ever.
@BillyYank: I had that happen to me in a no-reload IWD thread, getting a character chunked in single-player mode. I permitted myself to create a level 1 character to replace them, even though that's only possible in multiplayer mode (I moved the save file temporarily from "save" to "mpsave"). I figured the rest of the game would be unpleasant if I continued like I was.
It actually happened twice, I think. A third of my party got chunked. I had a similar thing happen in a BG2 run, in which I think four characters in total got chunked.
I actually thought about bringing in a new character, but it didn't seem right somehow. I've had this other party in mind for a long time anyhow, so I think I'll just see how that plays out. I still have the saves, so I may just come back to it someday.
We hit a snag near Cernd when a Myconid confuses Marilyn. I turn Cernd invisible with the Ring of Air Control so Marilyn can't attack him and break the questline.
I'm worried about Dalok, who has lots of summons--namely, Nymphs and Fire Elementals, which together could wreck us. I use the Ring of Air Control to scout him out, then, after resting, use the Ring of Human Influence on Dalok himself, followed by the RoAC to let us escape. In this case, it's necessary, as Dalok makes his save.
We slip away, and Dalok fortifies his position.
He's too strong to attack unless I wait out his summons' duration. We retreat and rest. When we get back, Sala Tora tries to charm Dalok again, with the Ring of Air Control to keep off the enemy's disablers and Call Lightning spells. It fails, and soon Sala Tora is running for her life, with lots of enemies in pursuit.
Unfortunately, Dalok comes with a Physical Mirror pre-buff. This means we can make precisely zero progress with Darts of Wounding. And despite Physical Mirror lasting 7 rounds, and Improved Invisibility lasting 10 rounds, somehow his pre-buff outlasts ours.
This strikes me as unfair. Sala Tora can buy time, but nothing else. The enemies overwhelm her. Sala Tora collapses.
Meanwhile, to the east, the rest of the party gangs up on one of Dalok's wandersome goons. A Shadow Druid joins the fight, but Poppy keeps his spells at bay.
I turn off "Rest Until Fully Healed" and rest once. This will let me use the RoAC again without making Sala Tora's equipment all vanish. Marilyn goes to grab her stuff while invisible.
We raise her back at Trademeet. We could go back and fight Dalok again, but I have a better idea.
I want to trigger Dalok's buffs and then attack him later without getting one of my characters killed. I could do this with a Potion of Invisibility, but I don't have any left. I could also just run up and smack Dalok in the face, but I decided not to do that, because I didn't realize at the time that Dalok's friends were both dead and Dalok would have had to face us alone this time. Instead, I decided to grab the Efreeti Bottle.
I leave the other genies alone; I don't have to fight them just yet. We return to the Druid Grove, summon our Efreeti, have it turn Sala Tora invisible, and Sala Tora leads the Efreeti to Dalok.
The Efreeti has a wide variety of instant-casting damage spells, which makes it great at disrupting clerics and druids. The Efreeti wins the battle single-handedly.
Cernd completes the quest. Yay!
We have two genies left--or rather, just one, since Faafirah vanishes if Khan Zahraa dies. I discover that the Efreeti Bottle can actually turn the entire party invisible.
This is because the Efreeti can cast Invisibility 3 times per day, and each casting lasts 24 hours. So you summon it once, turn half the party invisible, rest, summon it again, turn the rest of the party invisible, rest, and then you're good to go. It'll vanish midway through long trips, and it's a bit of a hassle to do, though. It's a poor man's Invisibility 10' Radius.
Inside the tent, Sala Tora ensures her immunity to Flesh to Stone.
She then brings out the Efreeti and starts work on Khan Zahraa.
Genies in SCS cast spells instantly, so the poison won't disrupt any spells, but it's still a good way to deal damage. Khan Zahraa falls in short order, and the Trademeet questline is complete. We get the Shield of Harmony and a big lump of gold.
Modded with: More Style for Mages Rogue Rebalancing Houserules for IWD BG2 Tweaks ATweaks Minor NPC Portraits Awesome Soundsets 1-4 (I installed IWD-NPC, but I'm not using any of the characters for this run.)
I didn't install everything from the tweak packs, only the ones I found appealing. Notably, I didn't install any of the extra kits. I also didn't install anything that I thought sounded too "cheaty".
Gettin' back on this horse. Fighter heavy party with only a bard for arcane casting. Also a tribute to one of my favorite '80s TV shows. Ability rolls were the same as last time, best of 11 with one swap.
The Party
A band of freedom fighters (or bandits? Depends on who you ask.) on the run ends up in Easthaven. They're running low on funds and they're not above a bit of mercenary work, especially if they'd be helping people in need.
My last party was the upper left corner of the alignment chart, this party is the upper right. Still an OK bunch of guys, but a bit more rough around the edges.
Robin The leader, the Hooded Man, the glue that keeps the band together. Favorite Weapon: Longbow Backup Weapon: Longsword
Total: 88 Swap: None
John Robin's best friend. Loyal and stalwart, but sometimes gets caught up in the fighting for its own sake. The party's offensive tank. Favorite Weapon: Quarterstaff Missile Weapon: Longbow
Total: 82 Swap: CON - CHA
Will Former soldier. A very angry man, he only feels right when he's fighting. Favorite Weapon: Longsword Missile Weapon: Longbow
Total: 85 Swap: STR - CHA
Nasir Assassin sent to kill Robin under a geas. Robin freed him, earning Nasir's gratitude and loyalty. Favorite Weapon: Dual shortswords Missile Weapon: Shortbow
Total: 80 Swap: DEX - CON
Tuck A village priest who's taken up with the Merries as their spiritual guide. He'd much rather be at the in with a full plate and flagon. Favorite Weapon: Club Missile Weapon: Sling
Total: 79 Swap: DEX - WIS
Alan An accomplished and popular bard. Robin helped him out of some trouble, so he tags along bolstering morale and chronicling the band's adventures. Favorite Weapon: Shortsword Missile Weapon: Shortbow
Total: 86 Swap: None
So Robin and the Merries set out on their adventure. And nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.
Back at the De'Arnise Hold, we get hurt pretty badly by a gang of Trolls, but come out on top thanks to a much better selection of weapons and armor.
The Yuan-ti Mage decides to run away right after we engage it. I've not seen this behavior before.
We leave it alone. It doesn't carry any important loot, and the XP is minimal. Plus, I don't like Yuan-ti Mages.
SCS Spirit Trolls can, against game balance and logic, turn invisible even after getting knocked out. But one of the nice things about Gnasher is that, against game balance and logic, it can deal damage to unconscious Trolls if the Troll is hit shortly before it falls down. This damage somehow bypasses the Troll's immunities.
I unwisely decide to fight some golems without using the Efreeti as a tank. Marilyn gets cursed.
I don't like this change, but I understand in PnP clay golems can prevent their victims from healing themselves until somebody casts Remove Curse on them. For an all-fighter party, this means a long, long trip back to Trademeet so Marilyn can get healed without resting for a month.
Instead of walking around the west hallway, I go to the east, entering the path to Glaicas' room via the locked door near the stairs leading to the first level, where we came from. This lets us avoid several groups of Trolls in the northwest. Marilyn bashes the lock to Glaicas' room and shrugs off most of the damage from the Lightning Bolt trap on the door.
Glaicas comes with allies in my install, I think because of BP rather than SCS. First is Gorvin, who decides he can handle us on his own. He can't.
The next enemy arrives, and this one actually scares us.
The next spell is going to be Chaos. You know it's going to be Chaos, because it's the most dangerous spell he could throw out at this point. We retreat and have him follow us until we can send out Horun Fallows to absorb the spell.
Yup. Chaos. We send in the rest of the party to apply pressure to the mage. Now we're all within range. Guess what his next spell is?
Apparently he had another casting. We get battered a little, but eventually the mage goes down. Even SCS mages run out of Stoneskins eventually, and a party of fighters is very good at removing them.
We press on to face Glaicas, who has to fight us alone. Realizing he's hopelessly outmatched, Glaicas tells us he was only acting under a domination spell. We don't believe him for a second.
But he gave us the flail head, which is the main thing we came for. We forge the Flail of Ages +3 and go downstairs to fight TorGal.
Our Efreeti pesters him with an offscreen Fireball. TorGal's reaction is quite realistic.
He starts hurling boulders at us from the doorway. We can't lure him away from that doorway, which means we can't get every character attacking him simultaneously--we can't surround him--so we rush forward and get everyone as close as they can to him. But Snowy Tae gets hurt and slowed and has to back off.
TorGal's allies, a pair of Giant Trolls, come to help him. We stay focused on TorGal himself. Meanwhile, Snowy Tae recovers to the south.
TorGal's greatest defense is his regeneration. A fighter-heavy party has no trouble overcoming this.
TorGal and his goons go down. Oddly enough, we can loot boulders from TorGal's corpse. We only get four of them, but they're really strong.
They weigh tens of pounds each, so only Sala Tora, our half-orc with a Verbeeg's STR score, can carry them out. After taking over the De'Arnise Hold, we sell the boulders to Elence Fielding so we can buy them back later. They're worth a single gold piece, which is pretty expensive for a rock.
With the Flail of Ages fully forged, we can now go after the Temple Ruins.
Wow. I am overwhelmed at the stream of excellent posts!
I try to give prominent 'Subject Line' exposure to every run. Having so many fascinating events happen all at once means that I will be rotating the titles between runs.
Thank you all. Particularly, @bengoshi@semiticgod@sluckers@BillyYank for fantastic adventures -- with extra kudos to Epona Rae for the hillarious narrative.
Also, particularly looking forward to more of the Multiplayer run.
We don't have too much to worry about at the Temple Ruins. Shadows can't hit us reliably, the Shield of Harmony and our AC will ward off Shadow Fiend paralyzation, and with our high APR and damage output, there's nothing in the dungeon we can't take down quickly.
The Shade Lord is another matter.
Even though we have absolutely no defense against level drain, and the Shade Lord drains one level per round, area effect, and the level drain takes 10 rounds to wear off, I think we're equipped to handle the absurdly powerful SCS version of the Shade Lord.
And we never bought any scrolls of Protection from Undead, which aren't supposed to be usable in this fight anyway. So what do we do?
First, we turn the whole party invisible using the Efreeti Bottle and enter the Shade Lord's lair. We sneak to the south, then send Sala Tora and Snowy Tae a few steps north. Sala Tora summons the Efreeti where the enemy will target it, while Snowy Tae takes out the altar with a Sunstone Bullet.
Only Shadow Patrick and the Shade Lord remain. We barrage Shadow Patrick with missile weapons, while the Efreeti pesters the Shade Lord. The Darkling Aura comes out. As I've noticed earlier but never mentioned, the Efreeti loses all of its spells if it loses even a single level.
When the Shade Lord's PFMW spell runs out, I send Sala Tora up north to whomp him with the Flail of Ages. But when I notice that Sala Tora makes a save vs. death when the Shade Lord hits her for a surprising amount of damage, I remember that the Shade Lord is wielding a Black Blade of Disaster, which can slay its target on failed save vs. death at +4.
Sala Tora moves away, while Marilyn Blueapple draws the Shade Lord's attention with the Dwarven Thrower. He tries to run out of range of the Darkling Aura.
It doesn't work. The Shade Lord follows up with a nasty spell.
I manage to toss a potion across multiple characters so Marilyn can drink it in time. He would have died without it.
The Shade Lord grows weary of fighting our Efreeti and decides to dispose of it.
Now the Shade Lord's going to come for us. It's time to make our move. Poppy equips some Arrows of Piercing so she can attack without getting level drained; Horun Fallows uses Firetooth. Snowy Tae hangs back entirely for safety's sake, while everyone else equips a melee weapon and moves in for the kill.
We could have had a lot more trouble if Sala Tora hadn't made those saves against Black Blade of Disaster, but it wouldn't have saved the Shade Lord. A party of fighters might not have many buffs, but their offensive output is extraordinary. We put down the Shade Lord.
The Ruhk Transmuter in Firkraag's lair can be tough, like any rakshasa. We provoke its pre-buffs with the Efreeti Bottle.
It teleports over to us when it realizes we're there, but we dodge its evocation spells.
We keep the melee fighters out of the way and focus ranged fire on the rakshasa to get through its Stoneskins and Mirror Images without getting torn up by Fire Shield. It gets some spells off the ground despite our efforts, but once its Stoneskins are gone, it only has so much time left.
Deeper into the dungeon, we find a very unpleasant surprise while scouting under the effects of Invisibility.
We're about level 10 at this point; the spawns here shouldn't be this high-level. We walk past to the Greater Wraith room and grab the key to Samia. We prompt her attack dialogue when she speaks to us, and the others materialize.
Akae is a major threat to a fighter-heavy party, but I go for Legdoril first. Without Stoneskins, it's not hard.
Notice that we shut the door behind us, in case any of the vampires nearby started wandering around. Akae is next, since he's been tearing apart Sala Tora.
Kaol's defenses were too strong, so we didn't bother with him, instead concentrating on bringing down the rest of the enemies. This gives him lots of time to disable the party. Only two party members escape Chaos, and Snowy Tae, our Bhaalspawn, isn't one of them.
But Kaol is alone, and thankfully our confused party members target him instead of each other.
We muscle our way through the rest of the dungeon. Brute force is very productive in this area. Now we have to deal with Carston.
We visit Firkraag while invisible, which lets us avoid getting attacked by Carston right after we see him. Everyone but Marilyn Blueapple scurries into the nearby hall. Marilyn has great saves, and he might need them, since he's about to break his invisibility.
He uses the Nymph Cloak. It's the only charm effect in the game that requires a save vs. breath, making it excellent against mages. It can be blocked by spell protections, however, as it strikes as a level 8 spell. It works.
Now Carston is under our power for the next 12 hours. We have him waste his spells on thin air, then turn his remaining offensive spells on himself. This turns charmed enemies hostile.
But he doesn't have any spells to use to defend himself. All his power is spent.
We need more summoning items. We tough it out through some traps to the Horn of Valhalla in an empty home in the Bridge District, then head to the Graveyard to deal with Pai'Na. Ranged weapons disable Pai'Na.
The Efreeti removes the spiders.
We go further into the crypts. Sala Tora gets level drained by the Wights, but I remove the faraway Vampyre with the Efreeti, using an invisible Snowy Tae to keep the fog of war clear.
We nab the Halcyon spear from the coffin in a hallway to the south. It's only a +1 weapon, but it deals 1 electricity damage on hit. Finally Fobie has a reliable way of dealing damage through Stoneskin.
Next, the Mae'Var questline, so we can move on to siding with Bodhi without losing the gold and XP from Mae'Var. I don't know what I did to fight Rayic Gethras, but apparently it worked.
No PFMW spell, it seems.
When we've exposed Mae'Var's documents to Renal Bloodscalp, we start clearing out Mae'Var's guild house. We weather the backstabs with our high HP and low AC, then proceed to the bottom floor. Mae'Var hits us with Chaos, but we avoid most of the spell by keeping our distance in the early part of the fight.
But like the mage in the De'Arnise Hold, he has two castings of Chaos. To make sure Snowy Tae is safe, I take Lilarcor from Poppy and hand it to Snowy Tae, to give her immunity to confusion when the spell hits.
After that, however, Mae'Var doesn't do much else to us. The enemy doesn't have the combat stats to hurt a party of well-armored fighters, and Mae'Var doesn't have many damage spells, it seems. We recover from Chaos and mob him. We have multiple weapons that deal damage through Stoneskin, so Mae'Var doesn't get any more spells off the ground after we surround him.
We go through the illithium questline far enough to grab the illithium and have Cromwell upgrade the Mace of Disruption. Now that we have one form of immunity to level drain, we can deal with the Vampiric Wraiths at Watcher's Keep. We get ambushed on the way over, though, and a disabler prevents us from escaping.
Even so, the enemy isn't strong enough to actually bring us down. We overpower them and keep moving.
The Vampiric Wraiths still do magic damage and have crazy regeneration, but they can't drain our levels. The remaining enemies aren't a big problem. We do struggle to open locks and loot the place, however.
Snowy Tae is bashing the lack with 23 STR. We might need a Potion of Fire Giant Strength for 25 STR to get the Crimson Dart.
I underestimate the traps here as well.
We lose a thousand gold on that death, like we do with any character death.
Finally we sell off all our excess junk and go shopping back in Athkatla. We get Azuredge for Fobie, since he specializes in axes, but it turns out he can't use it. He's Chaotic Neutral.
I still have more items I want. Most of our party is decked out in plate mail, and we're much better off with full plate. Time to visit Mencar Pebblecrusher.
Sorcerous Amon and Pooky lack PFMW, so I figure this fight shouldn't be too hard. But I grievously underestimate the power of their disablers, and the strength of Mencar and Smelly's blows.
It may have been wise to focus on Amon or Pooky instead of Brennan Risling in the first few rounds.
Things get worse.
Smelly Porkslicer's berserk makes him very unpredictable. Normally, enemies don't attack charmed party members, but Smelly is out of control.
Poppy fails a save. Snowy Tae gets overwhelmed. The party is in very bad shape. Snowy Tae, in lieu of drinking a healing potion, decides to turn invisible instead. This will give her more time to heal herself.
But we've been making strong progress, and overall our position is stronger, relatively speaking. We hit harder than the enemy. Mencar begs Pooky to save him before we deal the final blow.
Now we have a new set of full plate mail, plus some other assorted goodies.
For some reason, I decide this party is ready to take on Gaius and the sewer dwellers beneath the Temple District. We bait their pre-buffs with a couple of summons, which promptly get crushed.
The enemy comes for us, but not before Gaius' PFMW spell runs out. Sala Tora pulls out the Darts of Wounding.
We now have 20 seconds to act without Gaius casting any spells. His Stoneskins vanish.
We turn our attention to the remaining spellcasters, who don't even have Stoneskin to protect them.
After Zorl and Rengaard fall, the remaining enemies are all fighter types. We have no trouble dispatching fighters.
I open the door to Mekrath's lair. There's a Rod of Resurrection in there that we could use.
The big problem here are the Yuan-ti Mages to the east. Yuan-ti Mages in SCS use tons of disablers, and they're pretty good at following up with damage, especially when bolstered by Yuan-ti fighter types. I provoke their pre-buffs with the Berserk Warrior from the Horn of Valhalla and keep Snowy Tae covered by invisibility.
I had hoped to wait out their initial weapon immunity buffs, but this is a very small area with little room in which to move. One of the mages comes out and throws out a familiar spell.
I've already moved the Shield of Harmony from Sala Tora to Snowy Tae, so our Charname should be safe. But only Poppy makes her save. She switches to Arrows of Ice to halt further spellcasting.
I really should have started out with one of those. But it's not enough--more Yuan-ti start pouring in from the east. I hide Snowy Tae in the library to the west and have her drink a Potion of Invisibility in case things go badly. Now Poppy has two mages to disrupt, and we've got a pair of hasted Yuan-ti fighters to deal with as well.
More Yuan-ti enter the room, and one of the mages casts Sphere of Chaos--a very risky spell for no-reload runs. We recover from our Chaos, but I decide not to leave the room. I figure we can weather the Sphere of Chaos. Besides, moving to another area would get us terribly cramped, and we'll need plenty of room if we're to avoid getting destroyed by those Fire Shields.
Then, Marilyn Blueapple vanishes.
Sphere of Chaos has a disintegrate effect, although it only has a 10% chance of triggering, and still offers a save.
Unbelievably enough, the disintegration effect triggers again. This time, it's Sala Tora.
I'm pretty sure this run is over. That's a big XP loss even if I re-create the characters. Also--though I did not appreciate this at the time--we lost many unique items that could never be adequately replaced.
But I want to see how this plays out.
Poppy vanishes as well. Horun is next to fall, but not due to disintegration. He just couldn't handle all the pressure he was receiving. Snowy Tae is still in hiding. We're down to three party members, two of which are still alive.
Finally, Fobie gets disintegrated. And for some reason, the screen moves to the previous area.
The menu at the bottom is still present, but it has no items. I'm not sure what exactly is selected. I press "2" to re-select Snowy Tae and get back to the current area.
I try pressing "0." Then I click on Snowy Tae's portrait. I can access her inventory screen by right-clicking, but I can't get back to the area before. I'm stuck.
I had four characters get disintegrated in a row, and then a game-breaking bug got me stuck. Snowy Tae didn't even die.
But I would have quit anyway. Fighters are nothing without equipment, and a disintegrated fighter is not something that could really be replaced.
Several things could have probably fixed the situation had I thought a little more. Bringing out Ice Arrows and Darts of Wounding earlier on, and maybe some other melee weapons like the Flail of Ages and Halcyon, would have prevented the first Chaos spell, allowing us to coordinate our attacks and shut down the other mages' spellcasting as well, though it would have been costly in terms of ammunition.
Potions also could have kept us safe from the disablers, either Potions of Clarity to block them, Potions of Invulnerability (an expensive and less effective option in this case), or even Potions of Invisibility to sneak away and wait out some enemy buffs. It's another costly option, but it likely would have helped us come out ahead.
Most importantly, I should have avoided the Sphere of Chaos. Even a dwarven fighter won't make all of his or her saves without adequate support. I did the math and the odds of getting hit by a disintegration effect during Sphere of Chaos is surprisingly high. It's a 10% chance each time, but Sphere of Chaos strikes 10 times over 10 rounds. The odds of a character never getting hit by a disintegrate effect are equal to 0.9^10, or about 35%. That doesn't account for saving throws, which can negate the effect regardless. But it's pretty high for a no-reload run.
The party of fighters was fairly strong. Its high HP and low AC let it weather heavy melee and ranged pressure. Even though they routinely failed saves against confusion effects, they tended to come out okay, since they didn't get too injured by the time the confusion wore off. Enemy fighters and thieves went down very quickly.
Mages, once we waited out their PFMW spells, also offered little resistance. The party's high APR let it cut through Stoneskins quickly while disrupting spells in the meantime. But this was largely due to weapon selection: I made a point of having each character attain grandmastery (for the APR) in a weapon which dealt elemental damage on hit. The sole exception was Poppy, who used Lilarcor with grandmastery but had the Tuigan Bow (specialization) with elemental arrows on hand as well. For the others, this included:
Borok's Fist or Ashideena for Marilyn (though I accidentally sold the hammer I got from Mencar) Halcyon for Fobie (Frostreaver as backup) Flail of Ages for Sala Tora (Darts of Wounding as backup) Blackblood for Snowy Tae Firetooth for Horun Fallows (Duskblade as backup)
Different weapon selections would have made the party much less effective. I chose weapons not based on damage, but on their versatility, which fighters normally lack. Without those on-hit effects, raw damage alone would not have let us do as well as we did.
The playstyle also had a major impact on their success. Had I chosen the quests in a different order--for example, trying to take on the De'Arnise Hold before I had gathered the right weapons from the right places--we would have struggled. The Druid Grove was a good example of unpreparedness costing us lots of resources, draining almost all of our potions. And the Efreeti, with its invisibility spells and instant-casting damage spell, let us pull off some things that a fighter could not.
Fighters can do more than just deal damage, but their options are much more constrained. Magic items have a major impact on a fighter's versatility, and resource conservation is a high priority.
Ranged weapons played an instrumental role in this run. A party of Kensais would not have done nearly as well. Fire Shields rendered melee weapons counterproductive at multiple points, but more importantly, the extra range of missile weapons allowed us to act much faster to disrupt spells. To disrupt a mage's spell with a flail, you need to run up to make an attack roll. With a flail, you can do it much quicker. That extra second or two can make the difference between the enemy losing a Stoneskin and taking a point of damage, or half your party getting disabled by a Chaos spell. Also, melee weapons with poison effects are extremely rare, but poisoned ranged weapons are abundant: Bolts of Biting and Darts of Wounding can be found in great numbers. Poison is crippling to enemy mages, as they have poor saves vs. death and low HP.
The party's saving throws were fairly solid overall, but there were times when a large section of the party was rendered almost useless because of disablers. Unkitted fighters have little in the way of immunities, so this party was relatively reliant on luck to succeed. A single cleric would have rounded out this weakness.
Overall, this party excelled at handling enemy fighters, thieves, and clerics. It was much less effective against mages, however, and succeeded mostly just because we used the Efreeti to help wait out PFMW spells. This tactic requires plenty of space and time, plus the advantage of surprise. It struggled against enemies with disablers.
Going forward through the game, it would have gradually fallen behind the enemy, as Liches cannot be so easily baited, nor could they be poisoned or hit with nonmagical weapons. Beholders and Mind Flayers would also have been difficult, as their spells cannot be disrupted. The same problem exists with demons, who in SCS cannot have their spells disrupted. Any enemy with a vorpal effect or a slay effect on hit would be very dangerous to this party, and SCS vampires nearly impossible without scrolls of Protection from Undead. We would have had only one time before ToB that blocked level drain, and SCS vampires know better than to target a character immune to level drain.
If @bengoshi will allow me, I'd like to report on today's multiplayer session. Here's hoping my memory doesn't fail me--I only took so many screenshots. Correct me if I make any mistakes.
This is the first time I've ever played an online game. Poppy the cleric/illusionist entered the game at the Gnoll Fortress. Since I know very little about BG1, I had a lot of questions.
I was soon informed that Llolnae was the drow thief/mage. Eventually I learned that the drow thief/mage in question was the dark-skinned, white-haired elf right in front of me... Llolnae our party member. But at the time, I thought it was our next enemy--one of the bounty hunters out for Loki's blood, and I was terrified of fighting a drow mage so early in the game.
I came with no weapons and we had to travel to Beregost to equip Poppy (who got some XP via the console to catch up with the party). Cue my first fight online.
I wasn't really prepared for that. But I scurried away just long enough for the rest of the party to take care of the scary gnolls. The exact same thing when we got ambushed by bandits directly afterward.
After we got more properly equipped, and noticed a peculiar item duplication bug which apparently allows bandit scalps to reproduce, the party quizzes me a bit on what I know about BG1.
"You know xxx, right?" "Who?" "What about Tarnesh? Do you remember Tarnesh?" "I remember getting killed by an Acid Arrow spell."
We go for Tarnesh. Moros activates Enrage and tanks Tarnesh. He slays the mage with minimal support. We bask in his glory for a moment and then spent the next ten or twelve hours dealing with inexplicable crashes inside the Friend Arm Inn. Finally we can rest without crashing. I am treated to the BG:EE resting cutscene for the first time.
It's so pretty! Though some disagree.
We ponder our options next. We need XP, but who should we fight?
"What about the Larswood?" "Larswood is dangerous." "High Hedge?" "High Hedge is dangerous, too." "Everything is dangerous at this level." We visit High Hedge and slay a few Skeletons. We also purchase some stuff from Thalantyr, and lose another few hours to asking whether we should buy a Spook scroll or not
Outside Thalantyr's house, we get attacked by a bear. After proving useless in the last several encounters, and having heard praise for the Grease spell, I decide it's time for Poppy to prove her worth. I cast Grease to slow down the bear.
I miss the bear completely and slow down our party, exposing our front line to some very dangerous bear claws. There are suggestions that I not cast Grease again.
Back to Beregost! We discuss whether or not to fight Silke. "Her Chromatic Orb can petrify." "She uses Invisibility and Mirror Image." "No, she doesn't have Invisibility." "What if she casts Horror? Should I memorize Remove Fear?" "She doesn't have Horror." I suggest that Poppy, our 12 HP gnome, has the saves to tank a Lightning Bolt from Silke. Somebody asks how much I really remember about BG1. I withdraw my suggestion.
We put it to a vote. Do we fight Silke or do we not? I'm the final vote, and I waffle on the decision just long enough for the rest of the party to agree to go ahead and fight her. We agree that Moros should tank her, as his various Berserker immunities and temporary 15 HP will protect him.
I have a good feeling about Blindness. If I hit Silke with Blindness, we can just run circles around her and kill her with missile fire. Then nobody would yell at Poppy for hurting the party more than the enemy!
Moros takes on Silke. She has Stoneskin already active, to our disbelief. We disabled prebuffing in our install. But that only prevents short-term buffs.
The rest of the party hangs back to let Moros handle her, but I linger near the fight. I cast Blindness. Silke fails her save! We win!
Not yet, though. Silke runs away. She's hasted, so she's hard to catch. We chase her for several rounds, unable to reach her. Apparently SCS AI makes blinded characters wander. I reassure everyone that at least the blindness will let us wait out her Mirror Image and Haste buffs.
We follow her to the south end of the map. Then Silke catches us by surprise--one of us gets close enough for her to see. She fires off an Emotion spell. Half the party fails its save. "Don't worry; they'll wake up as soon as Silke hits them. They won't be asleep forever." "Not in BG:EE!" "Really? Crap." "Sleep is OP in BG:EE." Then she turns invisible and runs away. We're not too happy about this. "So we've got a hostile mage running around Beregost invisible." "Blindness will wear off in two hours. Then she'll attack us and we can finish her off." "Two hours? Seriously?" We consider resting and going after her later.
Meanwhile, I begin to question whether Poppy was meant to a mage.
"So we attacked Silke. How do we feel?" "Fine." "Okay." "All right." "Bad."
We find a safe spot to rest and do so thrice, to make sure Silke doesn't have her invisibility when we go looking for her.
We tromp around town until eventually we find her. The party hurries over, but keeps its distance before engaging the bard. Moros tanks her again. I cast Command, hoping I don't get us killed in the process.
Silke fails her save. Moros slashes through her Mirror Images and the rest of the party joins in. She falls to Moros!
Bengoshi reassures Poppy that she actually did something right this time. Yay!
Elsewhere in the wilderness--a more experienced player might know where it was and what to call it--we encounter a three-person enemy party: a hobgoblin, a fighter, and a mage. Loki talks about Web. Why don't we start the fight with Web?
Nah. Instead, Gowrek goes for a backstab. The mage goes down! We're happy about it. "What mage?" Now we just have to kill the hobgoblin and the fighter. Unfortunately, there's some lag.
Gowrek suddenly dies in two hits. The lag prevented any rescue. "What half-orc?" We consider a CLTR-R resurrection because of the lag.
Loki rushes in with Web to try and control the situation. Everybody fails their save--including both enemies. Our spellcasters, out of the area of effect, attack with ranged weapons. Soon, the enemies go down. Gowrek climbs to his feet, deciding he wasn't dead anymore.
Loki scolds us for not waiting for him to open with Web. Things might have been easier that way. By the way, did you know Berserker rage doesn't protect the Berserker from Web? That was a pretty scary realization.
My mouse stops responding again and I have to back out, where the session ends. I feel good about how we did. Poppy might have made some mistakes, but nobody got hurt, besides other people.
Comments
Very informative and enjoyable.
Hear! Hear! It has finally started!
@bengoshi, @GemHound and @Tresset (yes, he joined at the last moment) decided to "test" the multiplayer but it quickly progressed into the full game.
Meet the wanna-be-heroes:
While in the Candlekeep, we still were getting used to the game. But as soon as we left it the serious part started. The Ogre. Or should we call it "the wonderful backstab"
A few close calls:
And then the first death.
Did you think it was bad? It became worse in a moment:
We had to retreat to the temple, spend nearly all our money on the resurrection and then return.
So far, the party is still of the 1st level. We reached Nashkel and managed to get a dream.
The funniest in-game moment: When the Tresset's character was killed, a hobgoblin spawned right on us with another hobgoblin archer chasing from behind.
The most valuable character: Gowrek (by Tresset) - too many decisive backstabs
The most valuable spell - Sleep by LLolnae - what would we do without it?
The funniest thing about the run: The dialogues between the participants. It's so fun!
Tomorrow we will be joined by @Meyahi and @Neverused so that the party could breathe a bit because without them and with the SCS there're no many options where to go.
I'll give a bit more in-depth here, though. The very early game is played as a standard druid until level 2 spells are available, so easy experience like Shoal (5k), Marl (900), Firebead Elvenhair's book (300), and so on. Anything without any ranged capabilities is fair game here, really. Level 3 you get to play with Webs, and things are low enough level that outside of immunities and minor globes of invulnerability that two Webs can almost always guarantee a successful Hold and thus free hits. All level 2 slots should go to Web for awhile; by the end of BG1, Milan had something like 6 Webs and 1 Resist Fire/Cold, and that wasn't even used. Make sure that even if you're not proficient with it to carry a sling for this, since Dart range sometimes doesn't allow you to hit the target without getting hit yourself.
Level 3 Druid spells are pretty standard; Miscast Magic, Summon Insects, Call Lightning are all decent options for shutting down casters if Web hasn't already done it already.
At level 7, two important benchmarks: first, you gain your shape shifts; I have SCS installed with improved Shapeshifting, so my experience is probably significantly different than someone playing without mods.
Sword Spider is probably the craziest one at this point at this level, since most things still can't save consistently vs a Web and the Sword Spider is immune. So 1d4 + 1 damage 4 times a round, perma-hitting, with a chance to poison every hit. Also note that you have Hasted speed, which allows the Avenger to easily be the best kit for kiting tactics. (Maybe not the best kiting damage, but you really can't be caught if you're kiting in Spider form.) Also note that this has the best AC value; with something setting DEX to 18, and a +1 Ring or Cloak, and a regular buckler, and you have -6 AC.
Fire Salamander's good for the Fire Shield, also has the Haste effect, and is 100% immune to fire. Useful for some things, useless in others.
Baby Wyvern I can't find a use for.
Note the Bear forms, if only because it has the highest STR scores and might be useful in busting a few locks and doors.
Second important benchmark: Level 4 grants both Call Woodland Beings and Improved Invisibility. The former, positioned correctly, ends mundane encounters and Improved Invisibility can help end caster encounters.
There's not too much improvement from here, though Iron Skins certainly helps and Chaotic Commands as well (why I never remembered to cast this is a mystery).
Important equipment: Wand of the Heavens, since an Avenger still doesn't have THAT much blasting power.
I like Gauntlets of Dexterity to improve the Spider form's DEX, though that later got replaced by the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (Bandit camp) and eventually the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, turning the Spider form into a monster hitting for 4 - 9 with 4 hits per round, plus poison on a failed save vs death. Silly? A little bit. Painful? Very much so.
The idea is to see what you can do with no spellcasting or thieving abilities. Our Charname is... once again, Snowy Tae, a halfling fighter specializing in clubs and slings.
All stats min-maxed, because. She's a halfling because it gives us the best saving throws and AC, and therefore is the best defensive build. Next up is Sala Tora, a half-orc specializing in flails.
Then our dwarf, Marilyn Blueapple. All of these are recurring names. He specializes in hammers.
Fobie, our gnome, specializing in spears and axes.
The weapon proficiencies took a fair amount of thought. I wanted a broad variety of weapons with on-hit effects, and ranged as well as melee options, that wouldn't require much management (no shields for bow users). Our human is Horun Fallows, who specializes in crossbows and halberds
For the sake of variety, I made them all different races. We're only missing a half-elf. Our elf is Poppy, who specializes in short bows and two-handed swords.
She'll be equipping a pair of wearable wings I found in Near Infinity, since her portait has little butterfly wings.
We plow right through the Duergar, using Marilyn and Sala Tora as our tanks because of their 19 CON. I use Marilyn, our dwarf, to tank Mephits because of his saving throws, but it's no guarantee of success.
I'm going to rest only once in this dungeon, which means I want to make the most of the one I've got. As usual, I tank as many traps as I possibly can before resting.
But since we have lots of Potions of Healing and have a good HP pool remaining, I decide to continue onto the Mephit Portals and bring them down. Only in Frennedan's room do we finally reach our breaking point.
We camp out with the nymphs for about a week to heal up.
We use the hallways as a chokepoint against Ilyich's gang. The head dwarf goes down remarkably fast. Having six fighters in the group makes these things go really quick.
For some reason, the djinni sometimes spawns inside the dungeon instead of in the Air Elemental Plane.
This lets us avoid fighting the big pile of Mephits guarding the actual bottle. We cut our way through the rest of the dungeon with little resistance.
Circus. Ring of Air Control. Gaelan. Copper Coronet. The usual.
I really shouldn't fuss with Amalas, but I'm willing to waste an Oil of Speed to help shut him up without getting killed in the process.
Notice she has 20 Potions of Extra Healing. I gave her the party's whole supply, in case Amalas proved tougher than I thought.
Standard procedure from here. Lilarcor. Rescue Viconia and Jan. Umar Hills. Killer Mimic.
We can't move on to the Temple Ruins, though. We've got almost no magic weapons. It's time to go get the Flail of Ages.
We don't get far into the De'Arnise Hold. We get ambushed by two Spirit Trolls at once, and decide to leave after they go down. Spirit Trolls are immune to nonmagical weapons, which is exactly why we didn't go to the Temple Ruins. We take a +1 Flail of Ages and head to Trademeet and on to the Druid Grove.
We still run into Spirit Trolls, much to my aggravation. We have to use Bolts of Lightning to bring them down, due to the lack of magical weapons. We only have so much magical ammunition, and I want to save it for big fights.
The spiders aren't as much trouble, though they could have been. The smallest spider in the game, just named Spider, has the deadliest poison in the game, though they have poor APR and THAC0.
It does 5 poison damage per second for 30 seconds, or a guaranteed death for any mid-level character. Marilyn would have died without Slow Poison.
How are we finishing off the Trolls, anyway? Our Flail of Ages only does crushing and cold damage. Well, we have a store of Arrows of Fire on Poppy, but those offer a save for some reason, unlike Arrows of Ice or Acid Arrows, so they're not reliable. If we need a guaranteed kill, we can use an Arrow of Acid, though those are much more rare and pricy.
One of the big reasons I came was to get the Spear of the Unicorn for Fobie. But there are too many Trolls in the Troll Mound for us to handle. So I send in Snowy Tae alone and have her turn invisible once she's inside.
From there, she can grab an item and immediately turn invisible to escape.
We lose both of our Potions of Invisibility in the process, however.
We get in trouble with the fight before Kyland Lind. The Mage's Horror spell apparently affects us despite her not being hostile.
This is a problem.
Why? Because Marilyn Blueapple is perfectly capable of carelessly meandering right into a much bigger and deadlier fight.
Such things do not go unpunished. Kyland Lind and the Shadow Druids turn hostile.
But Marilyn runs out of their line of sight, which buys us some time. Back at the previous fight, the party is already struggling. We manage to hurt some of the enemy fighters, but we've still got two unfriendly spellcasters at full health and protected by Ironskin and Stoneskin.
We only have three ways of breaking through Stoneskin and Ironskin: Bolts of Lightning, Arrows of Fire, and Acid Arrows.
But Bolts of Lightning have poor APR, and Arrows of Fire offer a save, and Acid Arrows are in very short supply. And those spells are coming in fact. How do I stop them?
I grab one of the fallen enemy fighters' bows and hand it to Fobie. He has no proficiency in bows, but he should still be able to get in a few hits against the mage.
He rolls an 18 and misses. I don't think that mage has legal AC vs. missiles. Either way, we can't hit it reliably, so he ditches the bow and grabs his spear.
But it isn't long after that some hostile bears appear on the screen and tear Fobie to shreds. He has to flee, leaving Poppy and Horun to deal with the mages on their own.
Between Horun's Bolts of Lightning and Poppy's Acid Arrows, we put a stop to the enemy's spellcasting and wear them down, but it takes time and lots of potions.
Marilyn finally recovers from Horror, but he re-entered Kyland Lind recently, triggering Kyland Lind's pre-buffs.
Poppy is slowed and injured, and Fobie is running across the map to avoid getting mauled by a couple of bears (he actually ran out of potions in the process). We manage to finish off the druid, but how is Marilyn going to deal with an entire pack of hostile druids?
See the little icon on Marilyn's portrait? He's using the Ring of Human Influence.
The head druid is ours. But his spell selection is very limited. I have him switch to Fire Salamander form and turn on his buddies, while Marilyn retreats just long enough for the druids to target Kyland Lind. Marilyn then enters the fray, but the druids are hesitant to use their big spells on their leader. They use them on Marilyn instead.
The rest of the party is making good progress to the west, but Marilyn is in trouble. He can't stop their spells; there are too many druids for him to hit. One of them layers on an Insect Plague spell. Another tends to his fellows.
I had hoped to at least bring down Kyland Lind, but soon I see it will come at the cost of Marilyn's life.
Now all I can do is pray that he doesn't provoke the massive Myconid fight to the east.
He doesn't. But the druids mob him. He stood no chance.
I send out Horun to probe the area and hopefully pick off the druids one by one, but he can't land enough hits to stop an Enchantment spell coming his way. I have him unequip all his weapons right before the spell hits, in case he fails his save. I don't want him turning those weapons against us.
I start bringing Fobie back. Meanwhile, the druids decide that their leader has to be put down.
Up north, the party waits until Horun has recovered, then marches forward and runs over the druid that charmed him.
I send Horun out further to probe again, and once more he gets charmed. The party hangs back. It's better to fight when he's under our control.
We keep pushing forward. Eventually our last foe collapses.
We use the quick loot feature to grab Marilyn's gear without getting close to the Myconids. We raise him back at Trademeet for 800 gold, which is pretty expensive this early in the game. We return to Trademeet with Marilyn beside us.
Now we have to fight the Myconids. With almost no potions left.
We make strong progress at first, but eventually the herd of Myconids puts a stop to our advancement.
The Spore Colonies to the east built up a wall while we were fighting on the west end of the bridge, and now we have to fight through it. But we're low on potions, and the Myconids have better THAC0 than I thought. The Myconids overwhelm us. We have strong saves and AC, but the Myconids have a huge advantage in numbers, and can put tremendous pressure on us. Fobie can't handle it. His black and white portrait goes gray.
Only very slowly does the herd of Myconids thin out, and at great cost to our resources. Fobie's death will cost us another 800 gold, and we're almost completely out of potions.
I will post on the fight with Dalok later.
Also, about your portraits at the left side of the UI, it looks differently when the portraits have black frames around them.
This time, we had @Meyahi and @Neverused joining the crew:
On a way to the Xvart Village we had the first level-up. Nobody guessed the HPs Loki got:
Later then everybody got a new level. With 5 party members neither the Xvart horde nor the cave bear weren't a problem:
The party decided to head to the Gnoll Fortress for the DEX gaulents for our pally.
Even while Loki didn't want to approach a polar bear, our fearless fighters decided otherwise and luckly succeded:
The funniest in-game moment: The voting on the HP gains for characters.
The most valuable character: Gowrek (by Tresset) (again) - too many decisive backstabs (again)
The most valuable spell - Sleep by Llolnae (again) - it helped against the xvarts?
The thing about the run: Today we got sevral disconnections and it influenced a gameplay, of course. Let's hope it will be otherwise the next time. But anyway, I've liked the session and hope others think the same.
The Alliance
A no-reload 4-character modded IWD run
The End
Rest in Peace good Darien, for we will miss you.I mismanaged this fight right from the start. Celebrian got held and I didn't want to use my only dispel to free her, so I tried to fight on without her. Gudrun couldn't do it with potions alone, so I tried to bug out using Invisibility 10'. Gudrun died before the spell was cast and then Darien fired an arrow just after and broke his invisibilty. The lizard men chunked him in two hits. I was actually able to get the other two out, mainly because the lizards didn't follow them.
I can't see any hope of winning this with only three characters and no thief.
I don't think I'm ready for a four person party yet. When I try again, it will be with a full 6 characters. I'm thinking of a fighter heavy party next time, with only a bard for arcane casting.
This was my first no-reload run in any game, so it was quite a learning experience.
Edit
Really weird thing too, in the mad scramble to pick up all the stuff from the ground, I ended up with two copies of the bag of holding and the ammo belt. They're pointing to the same store file, because if I take something out of one of them, it's gone from the other also.
It actually happened twice, I think. A third of my party got chunked. I had a similar thing happen in a BG2 run, in which I think four characters in total got chunked.
Narrator: Good news, good folk of the audience. Epona found her deathray.
Epona: When it rains it pours.
Narrator: It would seem. Not only did we find our Disintegrate schematic, we found 2 more. Turns out it's on the second, not the first, group of Shadow Thieves being approached by vampires at night in Athkatla. A journey to the Crooked Crane in the city gates yielded another when Epona scared an extortioner away from a heavy-set merchant. The third turned up from a Fence at the North Gate to Trademeet (a new find).
Epona: Also, Ungerhill Dark doesn't like us.
Narrator: Ya... not sure why that is.
Narrator: Pffft. No idea about this one... But this is where Chapter 3 starts, in the Copper Coronet. From there we head to Gaelan Bayle, throw down a whack of gold and see Aran Linvail. We meet Missy.
Epona: Can we take her home with us? I so want to put her in my pocket! She's so cute!
Narrator: The game is full of these characters. I hadn't seen Missy in a very long time, probably not since my first playthrough. Too bad she isn't recruitable. I'm sure the baddest coatcheck around would make a mean backstabber, too.
You could probably play this game for years and still come across random people you'd never known were there, or hadn't seen in eons.
Epona: I also got a bunny.
Narrator: Ya... what does one do with a familiar, anyway? After conversing with it a number of times, I've been given the impression that it's more or less utterly useless. Maybe I can find stats for it somewhere and see what it actually does. These games really like to hold their cards close when it comes to information the player needs.
I also do not know why I only remembered to cast 'Familiar' on a rickety catwalk in the Thieves Guild, in Chapter 3.
Missy and the Familiar had a knock on effect: re-uniting with distant acquaintances and discovering a new companion stoked our curiosity. Emboldened by the thrill of of it all, Epona tried her hand at robbing Aran Linvail just see what he had on him... in the interest of exploration, of course.
Epona: I like to live dangerously.
Narrator: It could have ended badly, but it didn't. Aran didn't have anything the average thief didn't have, aside from some pricey gems, so there were no cool gizmos for Epona's arsenal. I should probably mention here that, although our spells have to be trap or gnomish-invention themed, any useable items are fair game. Wands are fine, as is something like the Horn of Valhalla, even though summoning spells are verboten.
Epona: Can't have everything!
Narrator: Epona then commenced with Aran's Tasks to receive the shadow thieves' help. Her new Disintegration Death Ray saw its first use.
Narrator: I knew Lassal was not killable, but I thought at least that Disintegrate would reduce him to near death, assuming he had some kind of min HP item. In reality, he failed his save, disintegrated, then emerged from the shower of dust uninjured.
Epona: Boourns.
Narrator: We both felt as though we'd been cheated. However, it is duly noted. Enemies scripted 'not to die' cannot be harmed by Disintegrate, it would seem.
A trap malfunction turned the fight into an episode of Epona Gone Wild.
Epona: Next slides!
Narrator: The POV gun and chromatic orbs prove enough to complete the next task, in which Epona uncovers the location of Bodhi's secret rebel base.
Epona: The location of which I already knew, and which I could have simply told Aran if he'd bothered to ask. I mean %&$#ing hell....
Narrator: Please excuse Epona, good folk of the audience. She has struggled with dialogue options as of late. She's... sensitive about the matter. This will all become clear in time.
Narrator: Yoshimo and Epona wagered on the outcome of the duel between Caehan and Jaylos. Caehan, and therefore Epona, won.
Epona: I get to pick Yoshimo's new colours! Hehehehe.
Narrator: Now that the Vampire's Guild is just in front of us, Epona decides to follow another lead, hoping it will help the team gain experience, find cool gadgets and prepare for the nasty vampires and their level drain (against which no-one has protection). We buy some Protection from Undead Scrolls and head to the wild forest.
Epona: The instructions/benefits on these scrolls are very non-specific. [turns them upside down]
Narrator: As a habitual non-buffer, I've never actually used a protection from undead scroll, despite making it through the games twice. Hopefully the protection is comprehensive.
In the Wild Forest we meet Electro-Girl, a woman of similar class to Epona with Pink frazzled hair, perhaps due to the shocks induced by her electro-guns and freezerays. Neera, as her name is, is the arch enemies of some Red Wizards. Epona is sold on the idea of combining arms with the Wild Scientist and kicking some magic butt.
Neera brings all manner of electricity based traps, weapons and protections to the team, as well as an experimental freeze ray. Or Ice Cube gun, if you will.
After reaching the Hidden Refuge, Epona meets her soulmate.
Epona: Who says there aren't decent romantic options for women in Faerun? When all this is over, I'm going to marry him and we'll explore planespace together. No need for the spaceship. Totallyyyyyyyy...
Narrator: Epona and Co. also play fetch for a while. Epona discovers that she hates cats. She also finally comes upon an actually appropriate time to use the EE content's 'Sarcastic Jerkoff' response, more commonly known as #2. You'll find it between #1 Smarmy Sycophant and #3 Action-Film One-Liner That Leads to Violence.
Epona: The one time that kind of flippant remark is appropriate, and he doesn't even notice! Cheesus, these new quests were so Bogus. I mean, they showed sophistication at times, but never ever had I experienced so much trouble expressing myself.
Narrator: You and me both, sister. Seeing as my characters--that would be you, Epona--are really just me in disguise, I think we both felt that. Entire conversations would pass without a single available response feeling appropriate, something not often encountered in the vanilla games.
I really really really don't want to pile onto the already well known criticisms of the EE content, but I cannot keep silent. For me, personally, it was that the standard 'finesse' and 'subtlety' options were almost completely gone from the presented dialogues.
I will not fault the writing for being different. It was done years after the original games, so one cannot expect it to have the same flavour. And aside from that, it's every writer's god-given right to make their writings their own. That's not the issue for me. The issue, for me, will become apparent as we progress further through this current chapter of the playthrough: Epona's Bogus Journey.
Epona: Ya, well, for me the issue was that these quests seemed designed to intentionally get me killed. Horribly and repeatedly. And if they weren't trying to kill me, they were trying to make me lose. And not in the fair 'enemies you meet are trying to stop you' kind of way.
Narrator: So it seemed. Anyway, Epona and Co., after performing some tasks for the Hidden Refuge, go to Trademeet for something or other...
Epona: Try to restrain your enthusiasm. [/snarky]
Narrator: I see you're getting comfortable with your new 'Snarky Jerkoff' attitude.
Epona: Shaizer! The EE content, it's spreading. I've been infected.
Narrator: In Trademeet we meet Rasaad. Now, I like Rasaad. I used him in one of Epona's past lives as a druid named Illyria. The dude absolutely refused to die and rocked everything with his bare hands. I've heard a lot of criticism about Rasaad and Monks in general, but I've never bought into much of it. Monks are good; Rasaad is good. Rasaad has his flaws, but overall he is a decent, loyal, poewrful if somewhat self-absorbed party mate. The problem is that during his quest in BG2 he goes from overall good to downright and irredeemably stupid. He's not even Rasaad anymore.
Epona: They turned him into a #$%@ing tool in BG2. Such a waste...
Narrator: Admit it, Epona, the only reason we did Rasaad's quest while we were in layover in Trademeet was because you wanted some nookie.
So we hook up with Rasaad (though, unfortunately, Epona doesn't get to hook up) and go to the abandoned Amphitheatre, where the reception is decidedly warmer than we were expecting from these alleged heretics.
Epona: The Hummus and Falafel buffet was especially nice. These heretics know how to run a meeting! The food was vegan, too, an fine blend of enlightened sanctimoniousness and religious heresy.
Narrator: Rasaad has made a point of stressing that his sole objective in all of this is to infiltrate the heretics and discover the true identity of Collus Darathon. I looked up 'infiltrate' in the dictionary. It's definition does not include this:
Image: Epona displays a Homerian-Epic level of restraint to keep from slapping Rasaad up the backside of his head. Not even resisting the slayer is as hard as this.
Epona: They should have given me a medal.
Narrator: In spite of the new-content-writer's efforts to actively sabotage the player's efforts, the party manages to win the heretics over and are given the location of the Heretic Temple. The invisible hand of the programmers and writers, who in the vanilla games had exercised subtlety, is in the EE quests a very heavy handed influence. I'm not saying that Rasaad shouldn't have quams about feigning heresy, but at the very least he could have employed a little more finesse and not been such of a...
Epona: Dumbass.
Narrator: A blunt way of putting it, but yes.
On the way to the Heretic Temple the party is ambushed by the Tears of Selune.
Epona: The 'alleged' Tears of Selune.
Narrator: That's right. Neither I or Epona have ever been here before. This is the first experience with BG2 Rasaad and his quest for both of us.
Epona had been told that she would be tested by the heretical monks, and the accusations of murder laid against Rasaad seemed wholly unfounded and completely out of the blue (no mention of anything related to the accusations had at all appeared in the game). The Tears of Selune also felt remarkably similar to the Harper's of Jaheira's quest in terms of tone; they appeared to be gunning for someone's head without any concern for truth, reasoned argument or justice. One of them even said they were here to kill Rasaad, not hear his side.
Epona: If the Tears of Selune were really the reasonable people Rasaad was insisting they should be, then I didn't see it in this encounter. I decided that these must be illusions, dopplegangers or facsimiles of another sort. I guessed that perhaps this was the test to see if Rasaad--and the rest of us--had truly forsaken the Sun Soul sect. What better demonstration than to kill the Tears of Selune?
Narrator: Epona stood by Rasaad under the vague impression that such loyalty might later translate into a closer relationship. She resisted Rasaad's attempts to spill the beans regarding the deception, lest the Heretical Monks were watching to see what he did when faced by illusions of his former comrades.
The party made short work of them, using Stinking Cloud and a charge from a Cloudkill Wand to keep the hostile monks at bay, but still within reach of skull traps, polymorph cannons and chromatic orbs. With the monks hesitant to enter the kill zone they were forced to try and get around it, but the truncated environment restricted their movements.
Narrator: Skull trap is an odd spell. From the spellbook it can be fired to the extent of visual range (30ft, I think). It says 60ft on the spell description, but cannot be extended by any means of enhancing line of sight.
From a scroll it fires to 15 or 20ft.
Anyway, we kill the Tears of Selune and nothing happens. Maybe it wasn't the test after all.
Epona: Whoops... [sheepish]
Narrator: At the Heretic Temple we come across Sun Soul Monks being exposed to the sun.
Narrator: When Rasaad--who up to this point had been stressing repeatedly that his sole desire was to infiltrate the temple and find Algoroth--sees this, he attempts to rush forth and yet again tell every heretic he meets that he is not really a heretic but actually trying to destroy the Heretic Temple.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigggghhhhhhhhh................
Epona: That &%$# was getting really old by that point.
Narrator: Since Epona was evidently the only one who understood the concept of 'Infiltration', we explored the Heretic Temple Grounds fully to see if there was more than one option for getting inside. Something other than the front door.
Narrator: Attempts to revisit the exposed Monks (bound by rope) proved fruitless in attaining the equipment needed to repel down into the temple like badass superheroes or SWAT officers. We never found out if there was indeed a use for this skylight.
This really really bugged me, and it bugged me in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with the skylight. I was truly hesitant to enter the building through the front door--even though it was the obvious way--for fear of being caught in some kind of ridiculous scripted trap. No, not the kind like in BG1 where you get caught by Angelo. I mean the kind that intentionally tries to undo the player's efforts and get people killed just for the fun of it.
During Rasaad's quest, I could never shake the feeling that the game designers and writers were just outright fucking with me. Between the silly dialogue choices (the worst ones coming during Hammerhelm's speech at the amphitheatre, where the only means of allowing Hammerhelm to continue without interruption was to become a stereotypical Gospel Church Attendant) and the contradictory behaviour of Rasaad (Let's infiltrate the Heretic Temple but tell every heretic we see that we are not indeed true converts and want to destroy Collus) I was left certain that I was completely at the mercy of whoever designed this quest, and that what mercy they possessed was very little. At every turn I felt as though I was trying to avoid a 'gotcha!' trigger left there by the writers/designers.
The Baldur's Gate series of games have their flaws, there is no doubt about this. Some of them are rather serious, but many are merely flaws/limitations of the genre. I've not much experience with RPGs and need to get used to them, so I forgive much. But some of the flaws in Rasaad's/Neera's quest are unique in that they are almost wholly unnecessary, and in some cases feel intentionally induced by the developers (particularly one seriously eye-roll inducing event in Neera's quest). I don't mean to come down on the EE content too hard, but evidently these game makers never got the memo about the invisible hand.
It's the game designer's role to guide the player; this is the Invisible Hand. The Invisible Hand moves things along, advances the plot, encourages the player to do certain things and visit certain places, and above all does this in a manner both subtle and not always detectable. It does this without significantly reducing the player's freedom to play the game their own way, in their own time. In Neera's and Rasaad's content, this 'guidance' all to often becomes outright control. The player loses control over the camera, charname, the party and their location more times in these two quests than in the entire vanilla trilogy.
Okay, so I haven't counted. It's an estimation, but I'm making it. If I'm wrong about this, then it at least serves as an indication as to where my mind was at during this quest. All the contradictions and inconsistencies were making me paranoid.
I realize that this is a small nitpick. Frankly I still wonder if reading these forums has not spoiled me on this issue; before I'd even had a chance to explore the EE content I was stumbling upon comment after negative comment about it on this very forum. My own fault, I guess, for not heeding spoiler warnings. Still, I cannot help feeling that I went into these new quests 'primed' to dislike them.
This IS a small nitpick. Maybe it's just a small thing that became inflamed due to being poked so many damn times, is all.
But I ramble. Sheesh... all this over a skylight? Where is my head at?
With the more stylish and dramatic entrance out of the question, Epona tries the front door.
Epona: Well, that was a freebie. Maybe you were overthinking all of this.
Narrator: Okay... okay.
We explored the temple, yet again put down another attempt by Rasaad to spill the beans and literally get the entire party killed, then found Algoroth's bedroom.
The guy is definitely living it up.
Epona: I liked the colours.
Narrator: Epona and I have this thing. It's kind of weird...
We like to sleep in people's bedrooms. I don't know why, but whenever I get to a bedroom I just stop and think 'This would be a good place to rest'. And we do. It beats sleeping in the grime of some sewer or on the dirt. Sadly, the Heretic temple was a no-rest zone, so Epona and I had to be satisfied with taking decorating tips and making note of colours to use in future projects.
Epona, intent on carrying on the deception, completed the Heretic Tests and became a member of the Heretic Club. Once again, response number 2 (Snarky Jerkoff) finds an apropos moment.
Narrator: Morale was waning at this point. For Epona, the darkest moment came when she was being beaten to a pulp by four monks and reconsidering just how far she would go to find a decent male romance option. Was sex really worth all of this? She came close to deciding 'no', but she rallied: there are plenty of creatures in the animal kingdom, after all, who literally die for sex. Why not her?
Epona: I decided to risk it.
Narrator: It barely paid off.
Epona: I did get a crappy helmet out of it, at least.
Narrator: But it was all for naught. The Dark Moon Monks descended on the temple in force, and Epona's gang was forced to reveal their treachery. The supposed 'evil' heretics again proved more reasonable than described, and Epona joined the defence.
Once again, the Invisible Hand became something visible. Via script, the party is thrust out into harms way outside the temple, within melee range against a group of hard-hitting super ninjas. In what universe would I or Epona ever have just strolled up to the enemy for a casual talk? The answer: NONE.
Epona and the Heretics were victorious nonetheless, but it was painful.
Image: the attacking Dark Monk forces are considerable, and the fight starts quickly and at close range. The allied Heretic Monks focus their strikes on a few charging enemies, leaving the flank open. Epona and Electro-girl attempt to close the gap, taking advantage of the enemy's tight groupings with skulltraps and chain lightning.
Notice that no-one in the party has any defences up. This was one of those times where I was feeling rushed and shoved along by the game desires. In the urgency of the situation I was fixating on dealing as much damage as I could.
Image: Casualties mount suddenly and unexpectedly as cloaked assassins appear. Electro-girl and Rasaad are killed almost instantly. Yoshimo is out of traps and remains cloaked. Epona is hit by poison, but shrugs it off with healing potions and joins with Jan at hurling Holy Hand Grenades at the Dark Moon's spellcasting team.
The team has not rested since the amphitheatre, and equipment/spells were limited. A Web/Stinking cloud combo would have been nice, but between the need to keep dealing damage every round and half-empty spell books, it was not an option we could afford.
The party is really not suited for frontline battle, and this battle made it painfully clear that Epona and Co. lacked poison protection. No-one had any antidotes. Epona's 'slow poison' abilities were used up very quickly.
Image: But the decision to forgoe defences in favour of offensive traps and grenades pays off. The Dark Moon Monks hardly ever get a spell off, allowing the Heretics to overwhelm the attacking melee forces. The rest are mopped up with chromatic orbs and magic missiles. Pew Pew!
Literally nothing happened after that. The Heretics left, Rasaad was dead and so, for once, was silent. With no closure and no forthcoming discussion re: the quests conclusion, Epona was left to wonder what decisions had led her to be at that point, at that time, in that place.
The moment had gone. There would be no romance here. Epona even had a moment of guilt at relishing the fact that Rasaad couldn't open his damn mouth for once... because he was DEAD. She nonetheless revived him and Electro-girl with two charges of the wand of resurrection that she long ago salvaged from Mekrath's.
Epona: Ah, Mekrath. A man after my own heart. Now there's a man with a bitchin' man-cave.
Narrator: Epona and I reminisced momentarily about Mekrath. We have a soft spot for that guy, for the same reason we both have a burning hatred of Haer'Dalis. Epona doesn't know this, but I once killed Mekrath and saved HaerDalis. When HaerDalis admitted to lying to me, with a jocular chuckle, the immediate seriousness of it escaped me. It was not until Throne of Bhaal, at a completely random time like that when I had Epona summon her familiar, that it occured to me. 'Dude, I killed that guy. HaerDalis truly had been a thief, and I'd killed someone who was merely exercising his right to defend his home.
I departed mid-battle to the pocket plane, summoned HaerDalis using the fates and executed him on the spot. I have never, and WILL NEVER, use HaerDalis in my party.
I think it's better that Epona not know this about me. Nobody tell her.
Anyway, Epona and gang healed up then left the Heretic Temple for Trademeet.
Something wonderful happened.
Epona: Insta-Hired!
Narrator: The party's efforts were not entirely fruitless after all. Wilson serves as a great pack-mule, which is desperately needed for the odd 346lbs of potions the party now had, most from battlefield salvage.
Actually, I don't know how much the potions weigh, but the potion pack is full and I count at least 78 Potions of Extra Healing, 16 Potions of Healing, 34 Potions of Invisibility, and a lot of various other potions of some kind or another. I have no idea what to do with my inventory at this point. Everything is a dis-organized mess. Epona and I desperately need to get to Trademeet and buy/sell a metric tonne of crap.
Problem was, Trademeet was closed.
Epona snapped.
The party found out that Genies were starving the town. The Dao Jinn's were looking for a fugitive... and apparently it is entirely okay to threaten the future of an entire town--and all within it--on the basis of a hunch that 'they know something'.
Neither I or Epona were in the mood to play into their game by searching for Itafheer. By all rights they should do it themselves, as anyone else would be expected to do, and not feel entitled to destroy an entire community as a means of extorting others into doing it for them.
Epona: New rule! You're not allowed to offer your departure--something you're supposed to do in the first place--as a reward for making someone else do your dirty work. Who the mother-loving crikey #$@& demands a first-place ribbon or a 'favour' as payment for something that constitutes the bare minimum standard of what any decent sentient should do to begin with? Do ordinary citizens demand cookies or medals as a reward for simply being law-abiding? Answer: NO. Do people get rewarded for not being douchebags? Answer: NO. You're just supposed to be that way.
Narrator: Ya, Epona got mad. Things happened. Maybe she has a touch of the Lawful Neutral, in her.
Narrator: Then again, maybe not. Summary executions probably fit on the non-lawful evil spectrum somewhere. Then again, Epona is like anyone else. She has good moments and bad, moments of mercy and moments of ruthlessness. She's True Neutral only because, when you average all her various moments and their corresponding alignments out, that's probably what they average to.
The effectiveness of the teams weapons against the genies was also rather shocking.
Epona: I love my Chromatic Orbs.
Narrator: They are awesome. At this point the party is in considerable flux. Epona is no longer in the mood for romance, so Rasaad is fired. She gives him a fake telephone number and he goes off on his way.
We keep Wilson, but Electro-Girl struggles with empty spellbook slots as she tries to figure out just how she fits into a trap-casting party setup.
However... Things are about to get better, Dear Readers. The party is shortly to enter a kind of renaissance. Let's call it the Chromatic Orb Age, where we learn that the 6+ modifier to saves is decidedly not bad or under-powered. With Chromatic Orbs, Deathrays, Polymorph Other, Cone of Cold and other instant Murder-Death-Kill weapons in the arsenal, Epona and Co. are all set to tear the Red Wizards a new one.
Then we can all get back on task to destroying Bodhi's guild before travelling to spellhold, where the beloved Imoen still languishes.
On another note, we found a trap from over a week ago.
Epona: I thought it was interesting. Anyone else?
Narrator: Yoshimo also upheld his end of the bet made on the Caehan/Jaylos fight, in which Epona's horse (Caehan) was victorious. He let Epona choose his new colours.
Yoshimo: I respect your victory, Epona, but do you really think anyone will take the famous Yoshimo seriously if he appears on the battlefield wearing these colours?
Epona: Who?
Yoshimo: Yoshimo. You know, Yoshimo?
Epona: Not... ringing a bell, no.
Yoshimo: Yoshimo! Think harder, woman.
Epona: Who are you talking about, Immy?
Yoshimo: Uhhh, Epona... it's me Yoshimo.
Epona: Do not make me get out the girdle of Femininity.
Yoshimo: Heya, it's me, Imoen! [/girlyvoice]
Narrator: Epona's experience with Rasaad has traumatized her, it seems. She's truly feeling the loss of the best traveling companion she's ever had, and the need for good party mates is now more important than ever.
We'd best get to Spellhold fast.
I'm worried about Dalok, who has lots of summons--namely, Nymphs and Fire Elementals, which together could wreck us. I use the Ring of Air Control to scout him out, then, after resting, use the Ring of Human Influence on Dalok himself, followed by the RoAC to let us escape. In this case, it's necessary, as Dalok makes his save.
We slip away, and Dalok fortifies his position.
He's too strong to attack unless I wait out his summons' duration. We retreat and rest. When we get back, Sala Tora tries to charm Dalok again, with the Ring of Air Control to keep off the enemy's disablers and Call Lightning spells. It fails, and soon Sala Tora is running for her life, with lots of enemies in pursuit.
Unfortunately, Dalok comes with a Physical Mirror pre-buff. This means we can make precisely zero progress with Darts of Wounding. And despite Physical Mirror lasting 7 rounds, and Improved Invisibility lasting 10 rounds, somehow his pre-buff outlasts ours.
This strikes me as unfair. Sala Tora can buy time, but nothing else. The enemies overwhelm her. Sala Tora collapses.
Meanwhile, to the east, the rest of the party gangs up on one of Dalok's wandersome goons. A Shadow Druid joins the fight, but Poppy keeps his spells at bay.
I turn off "Rest Until Fully Healed" and rest once. This will let me use the RoAC again without making Sala Tora's equipment all vanish. Marilyn goes to grab her stuff while invisible.
We raise her back at Trademeet. We could go back and fight Dalok again, but I have a better idea.
I leave the other genies alone; I don't have to fight them just yet. We return to the Druid Grove, summon our Efreeti, have it turn Sala Tora invisible, and Sala Tora leads the Efreeti to Dalok.
The Efreeti has a wide variety of instant-casting damage spells, which makes it great at disrupting clerics and druids. The Efreeti wins the battle single-handedly.
Cernd completes the quest. Yay!
We have two genies left--or rather, just one, since Faafirah vanishes if Khan Zahraa dies. I discover that the Efreeti Bottle can actually turn the entire party invisible.
This is because the Efreeti can cast Invisibility 3 times per day, and each casting lasts 24 hours. So you summon it once, turn half the party invisible, rest, summon it again, turn the rest of the party invisible, rest, and then you're good to go. It'll vanish midway through long trips, and it's a bit of a hassle to do, though. It's a poor man's Invisibility 10' Radius.
Inside the tent, Sala Tora ensures her immunity to Flesh to Stone.
She then brings out the Efreeti and starts work on Khan Zahraa.
Genies in SCS cast spells instantly, so the poison won't disrupt any spells, but it's still a good way to deal damage. Khan Zahraa falls in short order, and the Trademeet questline is complete. We get the Shield of Harmony and a big lump of gold.
The Merrie Men of Easthaven
A no-reload full party modded IWD run
The Game
IWD-EE 1.4Same mod set up as before.
Modded with:
More Style for Mages
Rogue Rebalancing
Houserules for IWD
BG2 Tweaks
ATweaks
Minor NPC Portraits
Awesome Soundsets 1-4
(I installed IWD-NPC, but I'm not using any of the characters for this run.)
I didn't install everything from the tweak packs, only the ones I found appealing. Notably, I didn't install any of the extra kits. I also didn't install anything that I thought sounded too "cheaty".
WeiDU log
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~SETUP-WEIDU.TP2~ #0 #0 // 23800
~SETUP-BWS.TP2~ #0 #0 // 20150812 - Updated by Silent
~IWDNPC/SETUP-IWDNPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Icewind Dale NPCs: v5
~MSFM.TP2~ #0 #14 // Add Staff of Wizardry: v1.42
~MSFM.TP2~ #0 #15 // Add custom inventory animation to the Staff of Wizardry: v1.42
~MSFM.TP2~ #0 #16 // Add circlets: v1.42
~MSFM.TP2~ #0 #18 // Add robe tweaks -> Add robes with no colorsets: v1.42
~MSFM.TP2~ #0 #19 // Add Robes of Archimagi with colorsets from Mr. Pennyway's Cosmetic Changes mod: v1.42
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #1 // Thief kit revisions: v4.90b1
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #3 // Proper racial adjustments for thieving skills: v4.90b1
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #4 // Bard kit revisions: v4.90b1
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #6 // Proper spell progression for Bards: v4.90b1
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #7 // Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards: v4.90b1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reveal City Maps -> Reveal Kuldahar, Easthaven & Lonleywood: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #30 // Pomab & Conlan sell Convenient Ammunition: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Emmerich sells +1 Convenient Ammunition: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #61 // Conlan sells Magic Clubs: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #35 // Orrick Sells All His Items: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #36 // No Save for Fire Arrows: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #70 // Jiedra and Doluv Bonus Merchants: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #170 // Class HLAs: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #200 // Kit Tomes for IWDEE: 1.1
~S9HOUSERULES/SETUP-S9HOUSERULES.TP2~ #0 #201 // Panver's Merchandise -> Panver Sells 01 Tome per Kit: 1.1
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #60 // Weapon Animation Tweaks: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Icon Improvements: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #120 // Change Avatar When Wearing Robes or Armor (Galactygon): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1010 // More Interjections: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1120 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2020 // Two-Handed Bastard Swords: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Two-Handed Katanas: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2035 // Two-Handed Axes: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2040 // Universal Clubs: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Change Experience Point Cap -> Remove Experience Cap: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Allow Thieving and Stealth in Heavy Armor: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2120 // Allow Arcane Spellcasting in Heavy Armor: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Wear Multiple Protection Items -> P&P Restrictions: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2161 // Alter Weapon Proficiency System -> BG-Style Weapon Proficiencies, With Weapon Styles (the bigg): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2192 // Limit Ability of Storekeepers to Identify Items -> Hybrid of Both Methods: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2200 // Multi-Class Grandmastery (Weimer): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2210 // True Grandmastery (Baldurdash): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2240 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2250 // Un-Nerfed Sorcerer Spell Progression Table: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2260 // Alter Mage Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2281 // Alter Cleric Spell Progression Table -> PnP Table: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2291 // Alter Druid Spell and Level Progression Tables -> No Level Progression Changes, PnP Druid/Cleric Spell Table Only: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2320 // Trap Cap Removal (Ardanis/GeN1e): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2330 // Remove Delay for Magical Traps (Ardanis/GeN1e): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2339 // Remove Summoning Cap for Regular Summons: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3000 // Higher HP on Level Up -> Maximum: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3125 // Neutral Characters Make Happy Comments at Mid-Range Reputation: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3200 // Sellable Items (Icelus): v16
~A7#IMPROVEDARCHER/SETUP-A7#IMPROVEDARCHER.TP2~ #0 #100 // Add +4 arrows, bolts and two powerful bows to the game: v2.1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #102 // Change Spiritual Hammer into a ranged force weapon: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #104 // PnP Color Spray: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #105 // PnP Dimension Door: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #117 // Allow Mages to scribe memorized spells onto scrolls -> Scrolls can only be scribed at inns and strongholds: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #125 // Rangers' Animal Empathy improves with experience: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Additional racial traits for Dwarves: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #140 // Additional racial traits for Gnomes: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #185 // PnP Fey creatures: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #186 // Revised Call Woodland Beings spell: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #201 // Instant casting for warrior innates: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #204 // Prevent Mislead clones from singing Bard songs: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #205 // Prevent Project Image and Simulacrum clones from using quickslot items: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #211 // Make Death Ward protect against Vorpal Hits: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #210 // Restore the Dispel Magic vulnerability to Nishruu and Hakeashars: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #212 // Make alignment detection spells more accurate: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #213 // Expanded saving throw bonus tables for Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #261 // Altered XP rewards from locks, traps and scrolls -> Improved (lowered) XP rewards from locks, traps and scrolls: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #220 // Simple Thief script: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #239 // Simple Cleric/Paladin script: v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #500 // Slightly expanded storage capacity for containers -> Use the recommended storage capacity value (999): v4.50b1
~ATWEAKS/SETUP-ATWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #510 // Expanded temple services: v4.50b1
~MINORNPCPORTRAITSFORIWDEE/SETUP-MINORNPCPORTRAITSFORIWDEE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Minor NPC Portraits for IWDEE: 1.04
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #110 // Ajantis Ilvarstarr: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #120 // Alora: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #140 // Coran: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #170 // Eldoth Kron: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #180 // Faldorn: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #190 // Garrick: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #230 // Khalid: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #270 // Quayle: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #280 // Safana: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #290 // Shar-Teel Dosan: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #300 // Skie Silvershield: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #310 // Tiax: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #330 // Xan: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #340 // Xzar: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL1/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL1.TP2~ #0 #350 // Yeslick Orothair: 1.1
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #100 // FThief1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #110 // FThief2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #120 // F_Barb: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #130 // F_Bard: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #140 // F_Drow: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #150 // F_Fgt01: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #160 // F_Fgt02: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #170 // F_Fgt03: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #180 // F_Fgt04: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #190 // F_Fgt05: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #200 // F_HOrc1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #210 // F_HoW1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #220 // F_HoW2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #230 // F_HoW3: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #240 // F_Mage1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #250 // F_Mage2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #260 // F_Mage3: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #270 // F_Mage4: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #280 // F_Mage5: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #290 // F_Monk1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #300 // F_Sorc1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #310 // MThief1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #320 // MThief2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #330 // M_Barb: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #340 // M_Bard: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #350 // M_Drow: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #360 // M_Fgt01: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #370 // M_Fgt02: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #380 // M_Fgt03: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #390 // M_Fgt04: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #400 // M_Fgt05: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #410 // M_HOrc1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #420 // M_HoW1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #430 // M_HoW2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #440 // M_HoW3: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #450 // M_Mage1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #460 // M_Mage2: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #470 // M_Mage3: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #480 // M_Mage4: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #490 // M_Mage5: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #500 // M_Monk1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL2/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL2.TP2~ #0 #510 // M_Sorc1: 1.01
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #100 // Annah-of-the-Shadows: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #110 // Dak'kon: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #120 // Fall-From-Grace: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #130 // Ignus: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #140 // Morte: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #160 // The Nameless One: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL3/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL3.TP2~ #0 #170 // Vhailor: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #100 // Cutthroat Bill: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #110 // Elaine's Cook: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #120 // Edward Van Helgen: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #130 // Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #140 // LeChuckie: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #145 // GP LeChuck: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #150 // Mort the Gravedigger: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #160 // Murray: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #170 // Pirate #1: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #180 // Captain Rottingham: 1.00
~S9SOUNDSETSVOL4/SETUP-S9SOUNDSETSVOL4.TP2~ #0 #190 // Wally B. Feed: 1.00
The Concept
Gettin' back on this horse.Fighter heavy party with only a bard for arcane casting. Also a tribute to one of my favorite '80s TV shows.
Ability rolls were the same as last time, best of 11 with one swap.
The Party
A band of freedom fighters (or bandits? Depends on who you ask.) on the run ends up in Easthaven. They're running low on funds and they're not above a bit of mercenary work, especially if they'd be helping people in need.Robin
The leader, the Hooded Man, the glue that keeps the band together.
Favorite Weapon: Longbow
Backup Weapon: Longsword
Total: 88
Swap: None
John
Robin's best friend. Loyal and stalwart, but sometimes gets caught up in the fighting for its own sake. The party's offensive tank.
Favorite Weapon: Quarterstaff
Missile Weapon: Longbow
Total: 82
Swap: CON - CHA
Will
Former soldier. A very angry man, he only feels right when he's fighting.
Favorite Weapon: Longsword
Missile Weapon: Longbow
Total: 85
Swap: STR - CHA
Nasir
Assassin sent to kill Robin under a geas. Robin freed him, earning Nasir's gratitude and loyalty.
Favorite Weapon: Dual shortswords
Missile Weapon: Shortbow
Total: 80
Swap: DEX - CON
Tuck
A village priest who's taken up with the Merries as their spiritual guide. He'd much rather be at the in with a full plate and flagon.
Favorite Weapon: Club
Missile Weapon: Sling
Total: 79
Swap: DEX - WIS
Alan
An accomplished and popular bard. Robin helped him out of some trouble, so he tags along bolstering morale and chronicling the band's adventures.
Favorite Weapon: Shortsword
Missile Weapon: Shortbow
Total: 86
Swap: None
So Robin and the Merries set out on their adventure. And nothing is forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten.
The Yuan-ti Mage decides to run away right after we engage it. I've not seen this behavior before.
We leave it alone. It doesn't carry any important loot, and the XP is minimal. Plus, I don't like Yuan-ti Mages.
SCS Spirit Trolls can, against game balance and logic, turn invisible even after getting knocked out. But one of the nice things about Gnasher is that, against game balance and logic, it can deal damage to unconscious Trolls if the Troll is hit shortly before it falls down. This damage somehow bypasses the Troll's immunities.
I unwisely decide to fight some golems without using the Efreeti as a tank. Marilyn gets cursed.
I don't like this change, but I understand in PnP clay golems can prevent their victims from healing themselves until somebody casts Remove Curse on them. For an all-fighter party, this means a long, long trip back to Trademeet so Marilyn can get healed without resting for a month.
Instead of walking around the west hallway, I go to the east, entering the path to Glaicas' room via the locked door near the stairs leading to the first level, where we came from. This lets us avoid several groups of Trolls in the northwest. Marilyn bashes the lock to Glaicas' room and shrugs off most of the damage from the Lightning Bolt trap on the door.
Glaicas comes with allies in my install, I think because of BP rather than SCS. First is Gorvin, who decides he can handle us on his own. He can't.
The next enemy arrives, and this one actually scares us.
The next spell is going to be Chaos. You know it's going to be Chaos, because it's the most dangerous spell he could throw out at this point. We retreat and have him follow us until we can send out Horun Fallows to absorb the spell.
Yup. Chaos. We send in the rest of the party to apply pressure to the mage. Now we're all within range. Guess what his next spell is?
Apparently he had another casting. We get battered a little, but eventually the mage goes down. Even SCS mages run out of Stoneskins eventually, and a party of fighters is very good at removing them.
We press on to face Glaicas, who has to fight us alone. Realizing he's hopelessly outmatched, Glaicas tells us he was only acting under a domination spell. We don't believe him for a second.
But he gave us the flail head, which is the main thing we came for. We forge the Flail of Ages +3 and go downstairs to fight TorGal.
Our Efreeti pesters him with an offscreen Fireball. TorGal's reaction is quite realistic.
He starts hurling boulders at us from the doorway. We can't lure him away from that doorway, which means we can't get every character attacking him simultaneously--we can't surround him--so we rush forward and get everyone as close as they can to him. But Snowy Tae gets hurt and slowed and has to back off.
TorGal's allies, a pair of Giant Trolls, come to help him. We stay focused on TorGal himself. Meanwhile, Snowy Tae recovers to the south.
TorGal's greatest defense is his regeneration. A fighter-heavy party has no trouble overcoming this.
TorGal and his goons go down. Oddly enough, we can loot boulders from TorGal's corpse. We only get four of them, but they're really strong.
They weigh tens of pounds each, so only Sala Tora, our half-orc with a Verbeeg's STR score, can carry them out. After taking over the De'Arnise Hold, we sell the boulders to Elence Fielding so we can buy them back later. They're worth a single gold piece, which is pretty expensive for a rock.
With the Flail of Ages fully forged, we can now go after the Temple Ruins.
"Hii-YAA! It's me, Yoshimo..."
Sorry to see your run ended, @BillyYank! I hope your new adventure will outlast the previous one.
And excellent discovery about the Efreeti Bottle, @semiticgod .
I try to give prominent 'Subject Line' exposure to every run. Having so many fascinating events happen all at once means that I will be rotating the titles between runs.
Thank you all.
Particularly, @bengoshi @semiticgod @sluckers @BillyYank for fantastic adventures -- with extra kudos to Epona Rae for the hillarious narrative.
Also, particularly looking forward to more of the Multiplayer run.
The Shade Lord is another matter.
Even though we have absolutely no defense against level drain, and the Shade Lord drains one level per round, area effect, and the level drain takes 10 rounds to wear off, I think we're equipped to handle the absurdly powerful SCS version of the Shade Lord.
And we never bought any scrolls of Protection from Undead, which aren't supposed to be usable in this fight anyway. So what do we do?
First, we turn the whole party invisible using the Efreeti Bottle and enter the Shade Lord's lair. We sneak to the south, then send Sala Tora and Snowy Tae a few steps north. Sala Tora summons the Efreeti where the enemy will target it, while Snowy Tae takes out the altar with a Sunstone Bullet.
Only Shadow Patrick and the Shade Lord remain. We barrage Shadow Patrick with missile weapons, while the Efreeti pesters the Shade Lord. The Darkling Aura comes out. As I've noticed earlier but never mentioned, the Efreeti loses all of its spells if it loses even a single level.
When the Shade Lord's PFMW spell runs out, I send Sala Tora up north to whomp him with the Flail of Ages. But when I notice that Sala Tora makes a save vs. death when the Shade Lord hits her for a surprising amount of damage, I remember that the Shade Lord is wielding a Black Blade of Disaster, which can slay its target on failed save vs. death at +4.
Sala Tora moves away, while Marilyn Blueapple draws the Shade Lord's attention with the Dwarven Thrower. He tries to run out of range of the Darkling Aura.
It doesn't work. The Shade Lord follows up with a nasty spell.
I manage to toss a potion across multiple characters so Marilyn can drink it in time. He would have died without it.
The Shade Lord grows weary of fighting our Efreeti and decides to dispose of it.
Now the Shade Lord's going to come for us. It's time to make our move. Poppy equips some Arrows of Piercing so she can attack without getting level drained; Horun Fallows uses Firetooth. Snowy Tae hangs back entirely for safety's sake, while everyone else equips a melee weapon and moves in for the kill.
We could have had a lot more trouble if Sala Tora hadn't made those saves against Black Blade of Disaster, but it wouldn't have saved the Shade Lord. A party of fighters might not have many buffs, but their offensive output is extraordinary. We put down the Shade Lord.
Next stop: Firkraag's lair.
It teleports over to us when it realizes we're there, but we dodge its evocation spells.
We keep the melee fighters out of the way and focus ranged fire on the rakshasa to get through its Stoneskins and Mirror Images without getting torn up by Fire Shield. It gets some spells off the ground despite our efforts, but once its Stoneskins are gone, it only has so much time left.
Deeper into the dungeon, we find a very unpleasant surprise while scouting under the effects of Invisibility.
We're about level 10 at this point; the spawns here shouldn't be this high-level. We walk past to the Greater Wraith room and grab the key to Samia. We prompt her attack dialogue when she speaks to us, and the others materialize.
Akae is a major threat to a fighter-heavy party, but I go for Legdoril first. Without Stoneskins, it's not hard.
Notice that we shut the door behind us, in case any of the vampires nearby started wandering around. Akae is next, since he's been tearing apart Sala Tora.
Kaol's defenses were too strong, so we didn't bother with him, instead concentrating on bringing down the rest of the enemies. This gives him lots of time to disable the party. Only two party members escape Chaos, and Snowy Tae, our Bhaalspawn, isn't one of them.
But Kaol is alone, and thankfully our confused party members target him instead of each other.
We muscle our way through the rest of the dungeon. Brute force is very productive in this area. Now we have to deal with Carston.
We visit Firkraag while invisible, which lets us avoid getting attacked by Carston right after we see him. Everyone but Marilyn Blueapple scurries into the nearby hall. Marilyn has great saves, and he might need them, since he's about to break his invisibility.
He uses the Nymph Cloak. It's the only charm effect in the game that requires a save vs. breath, making it excellent against mages. It can be blocked by spell protections, however, as it strikes as a level 8 spell. It works.
Now Carston is under our power for the next 12 hours. We have him waste his spells on thin air, then turn his remaining offensive spells on himself. This turns charmed enemies hostile.
But he doesn't have any spells to use to defend himself. All his power is spent.
Back to Athkatla.
The Efreeti removes the spiders.
We go further into the crypts. Sala Tora gets level drained by the Wights, but I remove the faraway Vampyre with the Efreeti, using an invisible Snowy Tae to keep the fog of war clear.
We nab the Halcyon spear from the coffin in a hallway to the south. It's only a +1 weapon, but it deals 1 electricity damage on hit. Finally Fobie has a reliable way of dealing damage through Stoneskin.
Next, the Mae'Var questline, so we can move on to siding with Bodhi without losing the gold and XP from Mae'Var. I don't know what I did to fight Rayic Gethras, but apparently it worked.
No PFMW spell, it seems.
When we've exposed Mae'Var's documents to Renal Bloodscalp, we start clearing out Mae'Var's guild house. We weather the backstabs with our high HP and low AC, then proceed to the bottom floor. Mae'Var hits us with Chaos, but we avoid most of the spell by keeping our distance in the early part of the fight.
But like the mage in the De'Arnise Hold, he has two castings of Chaos. To make sure Snowy Tae is safe, I take Lilarcor from Poppy and hand it to Snowy Tae, to give her immunity to confusion when the spell hits.
After that, however, Mae'Var doesn't do much else to us. The enemy doesn't have the combat stats to hurt a party of well-armored fighters, and Mae'Var doesn't have many damage spells, it seems. We recover from Chaos and mob him. We have multiple weapons that deal damage through Stoneskin, so Mae'Var doesn't get any more spells off the ground after we surround him.
We go through the illithium questline far enough to grab the illithium and have Cromwell upgrade the Mace of Disruption. Now that we have one form of immunity to level drain, we can deal with the Vampiric Wraiths at Watcher's Keep. We get ambushed on the way over, though, and a disabler prevents us from escaping.
Even so, the enemy isn't strong enough to actually bring us down. We overpower them and keep moving.
The Vampiric Wraiths still do magic damage and have crazy regeneration, but they can't drain our levels. The remaining enemies aren't a big problem. We do struggle to open locks and loot the place, however.
Snowy Tae is bashing the lack with 23 STR. We might need a Potion of Fire Giant Strength for 25 STR to get the Crimson Dart.
I underestimate the traps here as well.
We lose a thousand gold on that death, like we do with any character death.
Finally we sell off all our excess junk and go shopping back in Athkatla. We get Azuredge for Fobie, since he specializes in axes, but it turns out he can't use it. He's Chaotic Neutral.
I still have more items I want. Most of our party is decked out in plate mail, and we're much better off with full plate. Time to visit Mencar Pebblecrusher.
It may have been wise to focus on Amon or Pooky instead of Brennan Risling in the first few rounds.
Things get worse.
Smelly Porkslicer's berserk makes him very unpredictable. Normally, enemies don't attack charmed party members, but Smelly is out of control.
Poppy fails a save. Snowy Tae gets overwhelmed. The party is in very bad shape. Snowy Tae, in lieu of drinking a healing potion, decides to turn invisible instead. This will give her more time to heal herself.
But we've been making strong progress, and overall our position is stronger, relatively speaking. We hit harder than the enemy. Mencar begs Pooky to save him before we deal the final blow.
Now we have a new set of full plate mail, plus some other assorted goodies.
For some reason, I decide this party is ready to take on Gaius and the sewer dwellers beneath the Temple District. We bait their pre-buffs with a couple of summons, which promptly get crushed.
The enemy comes for us, but not before Gaius' PFMW spell runs out. Sala Tora pulls out the Darts of Wounding.
We now have 20 seconds to act without Gaius casting any spells. His Stoneskins vanish.
We turn our attention to the remaining spellcasters, who don't even have Stoneskin to protect them.
After Zorl and Rengaard fall, the remaining enemies are all fighter types. We have no trouble dispatching fighters.
I open the door to Mekrath's lair. There's a Rod of Resurrection in there that we could use.
I had hoped to wait out their initial weapon immunity buffs, but this is a very small area with little room in which to move. One of the mages comes out and throws out a familiar spell.
I've already moved the Shield of Harmony from Sala Tora to Snowy Tae, so our Charname should be safe. But only Poppy makes her save. She switches to Arrows of Ice to halt further spellcasting.
I really should have started out with one of those. But it's not enough--more Yuan-ti start pouring in from the east. I hide Snowy Tae in the library to the west and have her drink a Potion of Invisibility in case things go badly. Now Poppy has two mages to disrupt, and we've got a pair of hasted Yuan-ti fighters to deal with as well.
More Yuan-ti enter the room, and one of the mages casts Sphere of Chaos--a very risky spell for no-reload runs. We recover from our Chaos, but I decide not to leave the room. I figure we can weather the Sphere of Chaos. Besides, moving to another area would get us terribly cramped, and we'll need plenty of room if we're to avoid getting destroyed by those Fire Shields.
Then, Marilyn Blueapple vanishes.
Sphere of Chaos has a disintegrate effect, although it only has a 10% chance of triggering, and still offers a save.
Unbelievably enough, the disintegration effect triggers again. This time, it's Sala Tora.
I'm pretty sure this run is over. That's a big XP loss even if I re-create the characters. Also--though I did not appreciate this at the time--we lost many unique items that could never be adequately replaced.
But I want to see how this plays out.
Poppy vanishes as well. Horun is next to fall, but not due to disintegration. He just couldn't handle all the pressure he was receiving. Snowy Tae is still in hiding. We're down to three party members, two of which are still alive.
Finally, Fobie gets disintegrated. And for some reason, the screen moves to the previous area.
The menu at the bottom is still present, but it has no items. I'm not sure what exactly is selected. I press "2" to re-select Snowy Tae and get back to the current area.
I try pressing "0." Then I click on Snowy Tae's portrait. I can access her inventory screen by right-clicking, but I can't get back to the area before. I'm stuck.
I had four characters get disintegrated in a row, and then a game-breaking bug got me stuck. Snowy Tae didn't even die.
But I would have quit anyway. Fighters are nothing without equipment, and a disintegrated fighter is not something that could really be replaced.
Potions also could have kept us safe from the disablers, either Potions of Clarity to block them, Potions of Invulnerability (an expensive and less effective option in this case), or even Potions of Invisibility to sneak away and wait out some enemy buffs. It's another costly option, but it likely would have helped us come out ahead.
Most importantly, I should have avoided the Sphere of Chaos. Even a dwarven fighter won't make all of his or her saves without adequate support. I did the math and the odds of getting hit by a disintegration effect during Sphere of Chaos is surprisingly high. It's a 10% chance each time, but Sphere of Chaos strikes 10 times over 10 rounds. The odds of a character never getting hit by a disintegrate effect are equal to 0.9^10, or about 35%. That doesn't account for saving throws, which can negate the effect regardless. But it's pretty high for a no-reload run.
Mages, once we waited out their PFMW spells, also offered little resistance. The party's high APR let it cut through Stoneskins quickly while disrupting spells in the meantime. But this was largely due to weapon selection: I made a point of having each character attain grandmastery (for the APR) in a weapon which dealt elemental damage on hit. The sole exception was Poppy, who used Lilarcor with grandmastery but had the Tuigan Bow (specialization) with elemental arrows on hand as well. For the others, this included:
Borok's Fist or Ashideena for Marilyn (though I accidentally sold the hammer I got from Mencar)
Halcyon for Fobie (Frostreaver as backup)
Flail of Ages for Sala Tora (Darts of Wounding as backup)
Blackblood for Snowy Tae
Firetooth for Horun Fallows (Duskblade as backup)
Different weapon selections would have made the party much less effective. I chose weapons not based on damage, but on their versatility, which fighters normally lack. Without those on-hit effects, raw damage alone would not have let us do as well as we did.
The playstyle also had a major impact on their success. Had I chosen the quests in a different order--for example, trying to take on the De'Arnise Hold before I had gathered the right weapons from the right places--we would have struggled. The Druid Grove was a good example of unpreparedness costing us lots of resources, draining almost all of our potions. And the Efreeti, with its invisibility spells and instant-casting damage spell, let us pull off some things that a fighter could not.
Fighters can do more than just deal damage, but their options are much more constrained. Magic items have a major impact on a fighter's versatility, and resource conservation is a high priority.
Ranged weapons played an instrumental role in this run. A party of Kensais would not have done nearly as well. Fire Shields rendered melee weapons counterproductive at multiple points, but more importantly, the extra range of missile weapons allowed us to act much faster to disrupt spells. To disrupt a mage's spell with a flail, you need to run up to make an attack roll. With a flail, you can do it much quicker. That extra second or two can make the difference between the enemy losing a Stoneskin and taking a point of damage, or half your party getting disabled by a Chaos spell. Also, melee weapons with poison effects are extremely rare, but poisoned ranged weapons are abundant: Bolts of Biting and Darts of Wounding can be found in great numbers. Poison is crippling to enemy mages, as they have poor saves vs. death and low HP.
The party's saving throws were fairly solid overall, but there were times when a large section of the party was rendered almost useless because of disablers. Unkitted fighters have little in the way of immunities, so this party was relatively reliant on luck to succeed. A single cleric would have rounded out this weakness.
Overall, this party excelled at handling enemy fighters, thieves, and clerics. It was much less effective against mages, however, and succeeded mostly just because we used the Efreeti to help wait out PFMW spells. This tactic requires plenty of space and time, plus the advantage of surprise. It struggled against enemies with disablers.
Going forward through the game, it would have gradually fallen behind the enemy, as Liches cannot be so easily baited, nor could they be poisoned or hit with nonmagical weapons. Beholders and Mind Flayers would also have been difficult, as their spells cannot be disrupted. The same problem exists with demons, who in SCS cannot have their spells disrupted. Any enemy with a vorpal effect or a slay effect on hit would be very dangerous to this party, and SCS vampires nearly impossible without scrolls of Protection from Undead. We would have had only one time before ToB that blocked level drain, and SCS vampires know better than to target a character immune to level drain.
You have been disintegrated by enemies and must restart your game!
This is the first time I've ever played an online game. Poppy the cleric/illusionist entered the game at the Gnoll Fortress. Since I know very little about BG1, I had a lot of questions.
I was soon informed that Llolnae was the drow thief/mage. Eventually I learned that the drow thief/mage in question was the dark-skinned, white-haired elf right in front of me... Llolnae our party member. But at the time, I thought it was our next enemy--one of the bounty hunters out for Loki's blood, and I was terrified of fighting a drow mage so early in the game.
I came with no weapons and we had to travel to Beregost to equip Poppy (who got some XP via the console to catch up with the party). Cue my first fight online.
I wasn't really prepared for that. But I scurried away just long enough for the rest of the party to take care of the scary gnolls. The exact same thing when we got ambushed by bandits directly afterward.
After we got more properly equipped, and noticed a peculiar item duplication bug which apparently allows bandit scalps to reproduce, the party quizzes me a bit on what I know about BG1.
"You know xxx, right?"
"Who?"
"What about Tarnesh? Do you remember Tarnesh?"
"I remember getting killed by an Acid Arrow spell."
We go for Tarnesh. Moros activates Enrage and tanks Tarnesh. He slays the mage with minimal support. We bask in his glory for a moment and then spent the next ten or twelve hours dealing with inexplicable crashes inside the Friend Arm Inn. Finally we can rest without crashing. I am treated to the BG:EE resting cutscene for the first time.
It's so pretty! Though some disagree.
We ponder our options next. We need XP, but who should we fight?
"What about the Larswood?"
"Larswood is dangerous."
"High Hedge?"
"High Hedge is dangerous, too."
"Everything is dangerous at this level."
We visit High Hedge and slay a few Skeletons. We also purchase some stuff from Thalantyr, and lose another few hours to asking whether we should buy a Spook scroll or not
Outside Thalantyr's house, we get attacked by a bear. After proving useless in the last several encounters, and having heard praise for the Grease spell, I decide it's time for Poppy to prove her worth. I cast Grease to slow down the bear.
I miss the bear completely and slow down our party, exposing our front line to some very dangerous bear claws. There are suggestions that I not cast Grease again.
Back to Beregost! We discuss whether or not to fight Silke.
"Her Chromatic Orb can petrify."
"She uses Invisibility and Mirror Image."
"No, she doesn't have Invisibility."
"What if she casts Horror? Should I memorize Remove Fear?"
"She doesn't have Horror."
I suggest that Poppy, our 12 HP gnome, has the saves to tank a Lightning Bolt from Silke. Somebody asks how much I really remember about BG1. I withdraw my suggestion.
We put it to a vote. Do we fight Silke or do we not? I'm the final vote, and I waffle on the decision just long enough for the rest of the party to agree to go ahead and fight her. We agree that Moros should tank her, as his various Berserker immunities and temporary 15 HP will protect him.
I have a good feeling about Blindness. If I hit Silke with Blindness, we can just run circles around her and kill her with missile fire. Then nobody would yell at Poppy for hurting the party more than the enemy!
Moros takes on Silke. She has Stoneskin already active, to our disbelief. We disabled prebuffing in our install. But that only prevents short-term buffs.
The rest of the party hangs back to let Moros handle her, but I linger near the fight. I cast Blindness. Silke fails her save! We win!
Not yet, though. Silke runs away. She's hasted, so she's hard to catch. We chase her for several rounds, unable to reach her. Apparently SCS AI makes blinded characters wander. I reassure everyone that at least the blindness will let us wait out her Mirror Image and Haste buffs.
We follow her to the south end of the map. Then Silke catches us by surprise--one of us gets close enough for her to see. She fires off an Emotion spell. Half the party fails its save.
"Don't worry; they'll wake up as soon as Silke hits them. They won't be asleep forever."
"Not in BG:EE!"
"Really? Crap."
"Sleep is OP in BG:EE."
Then she turns invisible and runs away. We're not too happy about this.
"So we've got a hostile mage running around Beregost invisible."
"Blindness will wear off in two hours. Then she'll attack us and we can finish her off."
"Two hours? Seriously?"
We consider resting and going after her later.
Meanwhile, I begin to question whether Poppy was meant to a mage.
"So we attacked Silke. How do we feel?"
"Fine."
"Okay."
"All right."
"Bad."
We find a safe spot to rest and do so thrice, to make sure Silke doesn't have her invisibility when we go looking for her.
We tromp around town until eventually we find her. The party hurries over, but keeps its distance before engaging the bard. Moros tanks her again. I cast Command, hoping I don't get us killed in the process.
Silke fails her save. Moros slashes through her Mirror Images and the rest of the party joins in. She falls to Moros!
Bengoshi reassures Poppy that she actually did something right this time. Yay!
Elsewhere in the wilderness--a more experienced player might know where it was and what to call it--we encounter a three-person enemy party: a hobgoblin, a fighter, and a mage. Loki talks about Web. Why don't we start the fight with Web?
Nah. Instead, Gowrek goes for a backstab. The mage goes down! We're happy about it.
"What mage?"
Now we just have to kill the hobgoblin and the fighter. Unfortunately, there's some lag.
Gowrek suddenly dies in two hits. The lag prevented any rescue.
"What half-orc?"
We consider a CLTR-R resurrection because of the lag.
Loki rushes in with Web to try and control the situation. Everybody fails their save--including both enemies. Our spellcasters, out of the area of effect, attack with ranged weapons. Soon, the enemies go down. Gowrek climbs to his feet, deciding he wasn't dead anymore.
Loki scolds us for not waiting for him to open with Web. Things might have been easier that way. By the way, did you know Berserker rage doesn't protect the Berserker from Web? That was a pretty scary realization.
My mouse stops responding again and I have to back out, where the session ends. I feel good about how we did. Poppy might have made some mistakes, but nobody got hurt, besides other people.