Ah, the importance of scouting. If you know where they are and the Blacktalons don't see you, you can easily set up and crush them. If they see you first, you're in for some pain.
Heading toward them as a thief isn't always a bad idea; as archers, they're very susceptible to backstabs. Then once you're in their midst, they either switch to melee or try to make some distance, and you get a break from the arrows. But that only works if you're in stealth, and you back it up with the party before they can regroup.
That's a good point @jmerry - I think I used to have the highest AC tank scout, then the party moved to assist once they found something. Need to go back to that. And in my case got attacked by the side. And my stealth wasn't good enough yet to reliably hide.
According to that in BG2 freedom of action is supposed to protect from stun (It doesn't in SoD, preumably the reason for fix included in the G3 fixpack) . Potion of magical blocking should give protection as should chaotic command.
Chaotic Command scrolls are available in SoD even if the spell is not yet available to clerics. Potions of magical blocking are also available, so having spiders with stun is reasonable, though it does mean that you have to power game against the spiders.
I'll test these out in my current game as Haller has just reached Baldur's Gate in SoD.
As Haller has a high constitution, I'll have to use Safana, Baeloth or Edwin to test the scroll and the potion.
@Wise_Grimwald chaotic commands and Mazzy's sword protect from stun in vanilla.
Helpful for SoA. Not so helpful for SoD as Clerics don't have chaotic commands in their spellbook. However scrolls are available.
@Wise_Grimwald If I want to be protected from stun in BG 1, I would use either potion of magic shielding, potion of magic blocking or protection from magic scrolls. There's a good number of these potions and scrolls in BG 1.
Cordan the halfling fighter - update 1
Traveling with:
Sarah - dwarven berserker
April - gnomish berserker
Paja - human fighter
Yeroc - half-orc kensai
Khalid - half-elf fighter
The new party is making rapid progress. In most cases enemies are mowed down rather quickly. At level 7, Paja will dual to a thief, that way we'll have a thief for BG 2. This group is all fighters, though may allow a non-fighter to join if there are no fighters to recruit due to chunkings.
Our first death was against Drassus. Paja and Yeroc foolishly charged into melee, forgetting their poor saves. Sure enough they got confused and Paja killed Yeroc. Doh! We did win the battle though...
Can somebody tell me what protects from stun. I thought freedom of action did but apparently not.
Free action cures stun when initially cast. It doesn't prevent stun from being applied once it's active. Weird, but that's the way it is, in both BGEE and BG2EE.
In addition to Chaotic Commands, polymorphing into jelly form will protect against stun. Also troll form in BG2, with the Cloak of the Sewers.
According to that in BG2 freedom of action is supposed to protect from stun (It doesn't in SoD, preumably the reason for fix included in the G3 fixpack) .
Only from stun from Power Word : Stun and Symbol : Stun.
@jmerry That IS weird. Thanks for the information.
In SoD the situation doesn't arise too often and it can be prepared against.
Journal of Haller
The burglers in sorcerous sundries wiped the floor with us.
In the past I have always had a mage to cast web. This time I didn't. It makes ALL the difference,
I'll know for the future.
Journal of Bruce and Bros
When Gorion took us under his wing I believe that his aim was to mould us into a force for righteousness. He was partially successful in that all of us are lawful and two of us Righteous. One however whilst lawful is self-centred which is a shame. All three of us serve Helm which helps as it enables us to get on despite our differences.
The strange thing is that Brendan, whilst being self-centred, is the most law abiding of the three of us, I for one being a bit too pragmatic when it comes to the test.
In Candlekeep I was caught as I aquired a potion of healing from a chest. It's as well that Brendan didn't see me or I would never have heard the last of it, saying things like, "I thought that you were supposed to be a paladin!"
After the death of Gorion I met Imoen and exchanged leather armour etc. for some useful items that she was carrying.
We then helped Mellicamp.
And carried on to the Friendly Arms Inn where we returned Joia's ring before heading northwards where we killed some evil fishermen before returning a bowl to Tenya.
On our way back to Beregost we killed an ogre with a belt fetish.
We headed for Nashkel where I found some good armour and was able to kill Greywolf.
I am now a bone fide hero.
We took on Droth who put all three of us to sleep.
He then cast a lightning bolt which terminated my life.
Cordan II the halfling fighter - update 2
Traveling with:
April - gnomish berserker
Yeroc - half-orc kensai
Paja - level 7 fighter/level 7 thief (dual)
Khalid - half-elf fighter
Shar-Teel - human fighter
Permanently dead: Sarah (berserker) - petrified and chunked by a basilisk
Well as expected my party breezed through Sarevok and we are on to Amn. We did run into a bit of a problem though. In the warehouse where there's the basilisk, the basilisk unexpectedly moved backwards after being attacked and SWITCHED TARGETS - result being Sarah gets petrified and chunked! We lost a lot of good equipment - haste boots, greenstone amulet, fire resistance ring.
But actually, the worst thing was Lothander's geas scroll was lost forever - can I get unpoisoned? When I talked to Lothander, I said I couldn't get the scroll, and he gave me the antidote anyways, so dodged a bullet there...
We lose everything going to Amn anyways, so guess it doesn't change much. But it did mean we needed another fighter, so we killed the "lich" peasant in the Beregost Temple area (to drop our reputation - we were at 20) and recruited Shar-Teel.
Everything else went smoothly - Semaj died quickly to our power, and Sarevok got a bit unlucky and got caught in his own web. Unsurprisingly, our team was vicious to him and quickly chewed through his HP - success! Didn't get a screenshot in time as we were so fast...
So we have two slots in Amn- thinking Korgan and Anomen. Will probably replace Anomen once we can get Mazzy.
After fleeing from the assassins I was able to help Melicamp.
After calming marl and taking a tome to Firebead, I headed south where I killed a couple of ogrillon.
I then headed north where I killed a few hobgoblins, Sonner and his cohorts.
The bowl was then taken to Tenya before I headed south once more.
Upon reaching Nashkel I turned down an undeservced reward from Oublek, chatted to Noober and agreed to take Samuel to the FAI. After doing so I returned Joia's ring and the Colquetle Amulet.
I am now a hero. You don't have to do much nowadays to be thought a hero.
I decided to go with Yoshimo instead of Anomen for my fighter party. What I did was IMMEDIATELY dualed Yoshimo to fighter. This enabled me to build him from the ground up. I am making him an axe user, since that's what Sarah was before she got chunked. Yoshimo can't use Azuredge (he's True Neutral), but can't have everything I guess.
And yes, while I realize Korgan is an axe user, he has a hard quest to do early, and for a long time is a lousy character to dual-wield, unless you want him gulping potions like there's no tomorrow. And yes, while I know of the gauntlets of dexterity which does help Korgan quite a bit, this too is dangerous quest early, not to mention the shield of balduran costs quite a bit of change we don't have.
In any case, happy with Yoshimo for now. He also has the added advantage is he can be swapped out for Imoen. While Imoen isn't a fighter, I always dislike leaving her behind on RP grounds. So what I would do is boot her once she's free from the Underdark. I would probably replace her spot with Sarevok anyways in ToB.
South of Beregost a hobgoblin followed me inside a cave. Fighting one on one I defeated him easily and was rewarded with some nifty boots.
Just north of the Carnival sleep enabled me to rescue Annabelle from some xvarts.
Then, to the south I was attacked by Greywolf. Things did NOT go according to plan!
I lured him to the mine intending to use my wand of missiles to finish him off when the guards had weakened him somewhat. One of the guards had a lucky shot which meant that I missed out on the experience.
I did however get experience when I returned to Prism and even more upon giving the emeralds to Oublek.
I was able to reunite Albert and Rufie before killing Vax and Zal.
I tried resting but was attacked so fled to the west where I could rest in peace.
Colour Spray provedd to be highly effective against Caldo and Krumm with the result that my reputation has soared to 20.
After killing a dire wolf I was in dire need of sleep which a Flind interrupted. I tried fighting but he proved to be too adept a fighter so I fled tail between my legs to the carnival where I rested in peace.
I met a polar bear in transit and we mutally decided not to fight.
Upon my return I was instrumental in the restoration of Drienne's cat.
Madic missile followed by colour spray enabled me to kill Ingot and the same tactic worked against Gnarl and Hairtooth though I had to fight them one at a time fleeing to recuperate between the two battles.
The xvarts and gnolls were a major problem and I ended up fleeing for my life after looting a cave.
When ambushed in transit I simply fled until eventually I arrived at the Carnival once more where I had a prolonged rest.
I had intended heading north from the gnoll stronghold but it turned out not to be feasable.
@Wise_Grimwald if you are a squishy solo character, I strongly advise use of the sleep wand (from Thalantyr). It's usable by any character (assuming their INT is at least 9) and helps a lot against masses of gnolls and xvarts. It's not too expensive to recharge if needed too.
Voxil the shapeshifter continues from here with the party of Khalid (tank), Imoen, Jaheira, Neera and Garrick. A few screenshots are taken but then deleted (thinking I had posted to the end of BG:EE which was not the case).
Aec'Letec found our buffs a little spoiling, some of us having guaranteed saves while others of us had doubled up on potions of magic resistance and someone had a potion of mirrored eyes. We unloaded exploding potions onto the sevral followers and once they were down we quickly killed off Aec'Letec.
That left Sarevok, and no mistakes were made there. We immediately left BG:EE and proceeded on to SoD.
Imoen refused to play though, and proffered up what she considered to be a suitable substitution. Voxil was not convinced and a bit of carelessness on his part left us without a thief.
There wasn't a lot left to do in Korlasz's family crypt though, and only one trapped chest had to be left (Voxil didn't check if Garrick or Neera knew Knock).
Everybody went their separate ways shortly afterwards. Voxil headed to the Ducal Palace only to find Imoen still declined to travel with him. A quick check around town found nobody to work with (Safana had been un-chunked but it's a NO from Voxil) so after doing a few odds and ends he declared himself ready to set off for Dragonspear.
The first stop was at Coast Ways Crossing, where Glint and Corwin were both recruited. After helping a vampire (intention to receive a ioun stone reward) a few tasks were done before going to try and wrest the bridge out of the Crusaders hands.
At a later point Voxil realised he was missing a returning acid-tipped dart - and having collected all three items for the innkeeper he had decided not to hand them in. The mirror was useful, the cloak not at all useful and the shield might be useful - but the dart would be sorely missed.
A bit further on Jaheira and Voghiln were recruited. By the looks of it a party was starting to form. Voxil wanted to get inside the Bridgefort fort so headed to a temple of Cyric in search of a wardstone.
Voxil shows his lack of thief patience inside the temple but fortunately for Glint it's only a Hold trap (which we knew full well was there but click click click before engaging brain results in this sort of setback).
Press on, says Voxil. The half-dragon is held by one of our nymphs which means our determined plans with insects and commands are not required. A pair of keys on her body allow us to open a few prisoner cells and then we can think about the Neothelid in the next room . Voxil adds some buffs but enters in full knowledge that they are by no means fully comprehensive. They will do the job though - with Corwin protected by Chaotic Command so she doesn't turn on the rest of the party and pincushion us to bits.
We could speak to Akanna and leave but Voxil wants to pick up a fractal blade shortsword - easily done. He also wants to deal with a mindflayer because it is there (and for some gear it's party has). We try to stand back and unload from a distance while using summons as a shield. That plan works and once the flayer is down their archer is targeted followed by their spellcaster.
Our way out is complicated by the huge green dragon which is no longer sleeping - we thought we'd been careful but how can you forget that Voghiln was singing and that was enough to interrupt slumber.
We've buffed before returning though and Glint successfully manages to stay alive by running and gulping. Corwin is able to pin the dragon down and once it is dead the wyverns are easier to deal with.
Finally we can get into Bridgefort to recruit Neera. She immediately grabs a potion declared to be hers, and a Planetar feather. Then we set off for a spare leg of a seven-legged spider. Voxil almost perishes here, being held by a Gargantuan Spider and attacked by a Sword Spider which resists Sleep. Several other spiders are gently snoozing and Voxil is down to minimal hit points by the time Glint can Command it (would have been death if it resisted that too). Jaheira had cast a curative spell too but the spider attack would have been too fast for that.
By this time Voxil has decided to recruit Dorn saying farewell to Jaheira, and in doing so he finally realises we are missing some items such as the Helm of Balduran and our original Ring of Protection +2. Think hard Voxil. Yes, that's it - Khalid still has his gear.
So we briefly recruit Khalid and strip him of everything except his armour, and then re-recruit Neera. Then we realise that recruiting Khalid has led to the Bridgefortians attacking the Crusaders. We try to help out and kill the Barghest and about a dozen Crusaders but their casters are targeting us and we're pinned into a tiny area. Corwin is held just as Voxil decides to retreat into the fort, so Glint casts Remove Paralysis. By the time it is cast we've had Neera and Voghiln killed by explosions so only four of us make it inside.
Voxil uses the wardstone exit to head back to camp and raise our dead. On the way we have an ambush area (spores) and on our return we have another ambush area so complete both of those.
Then we attack the Crusaders through the main entrance and successfully conclude combat. A mage on the bridge fails to summon fire elementals, which means we are free to think about what to do next.
>> Some time later >>>
Voxil and his gang have fought their way through several ambushes, into the Coalition camp, subterfuged their way into the Crusader camp at Dragonspear, and done everything on the way to the Underground River.
Having been very careful (*) Voxil is caught out fighting the summoners at Kanaglym, when the larger group of mages come to investigate and the guardian dragon outside attacks from the rear.
* The party wonder what is meant by careful, Dorn and Glint have died at least three times each.
We manage to kill off most of the mages so the dragon switches sides and Voxil lowers his guard just as another mage moves into sight and fireballs towards the party.
Voxil's chances of peering into the Fugue plane are still present but several party members are singed from the fireball while Neera has chunked from the fireball. Voxil gives up in disgust with himself.
(& I later load to continue with the remaining party and realise I hadn't saved after combat so the save was from entry to Kanaglym and Neera was still present - well that's the end of the run)
I didn't bother to summon any help for the fight against the Sahuagin king. Turns out he has pretty good DPS between his +10 damage spear and whirlwind. Anyway, charname critical missed his backstab at a key moment and Mazzy got chunked. That was unfortunate as the killing blow to Mazzy was only 23 damage, and I think physical chunking in EE (or SCS EE) happens at -20.
Then, fighting the underdark Balor, the demon teleported to Anomen, who was standing against the wall. This trapped Anomen, leaving him unable to move. He was hit down to 4 hp, then got hit for 24 and chunked. Literally the next hit from Korgan killed the balor. Ugh.
I think both of these characters could have been saved by a heal from the rod of resurrection, so this was just misplaying on my part.
Anyway, we are down to charname, Jaheira and Korgan. I'm fairly sure the run is still salvageable, but losing Anomen in particular was a big loss. We do have divine spells via Jaheira, but no cleric spells, which means no fear resistance, no skeletons, no holy word, less availability of DW / CC, etc.
On the positive side, we will be getting nearly twice as much combat XP.
Change in strategy is: leave the difficult underdark fights for later (mind flayers packs too dangerous imo with only three party members; don't have skeletons for the beholders; don't have skeletons for the demon knights). But, we can come back later with HLAs and should be able to clear those areas at 3mm XP.
We did just kill the Fish Prince, so we just need to be careful during the Ust Natha quests and not be too clumsy.
I'm a little uncertain about the slime mage fight; I know it is skip-able if I hurry to finish Ust Natha quests, and I am uncertain whether it is worth avoiding. Liches will be avoided. The fight by the exit to the surface is also a bit uncertain. It's a dangerous fight without Adalon as the enemies are fairly strong. But it's a dangerous fight *with* Adalon as she teleports you right into the middle of them and still takes a round or two or three to clear the dangerous enemies.
On the plus side, since the party needs to murder Valygar to enter the planar sphere, that action is now less alignment-suspect with Mazzy and Anomen out of the party for good...
If we can get to ToB, I will dual Sarevok to a mage, which will help a lot. I had originally planned on keeping him a fighter or dualing to thief to maintain the "no arcane classes" vibe, but with the reduction in party size, I think we will need all the help we can get. He should also get his fighter levels back at a somewhat more reasonable pace due to the increased effective combat XP.
Sounds rough @Jabberwock - chunkings in the Underdark are rough to deal with since there's no NPCs to recruit down there. Good luck!
As to my own run (which is all fighters) it's still going. But we clearly are very vulnerable to mages, as you can see from this screenshot after my "successful" fight with Rayic Gethras.
Rayic did an impressive coup - he made FIVE party members run in fear - only the berserker with enrage was able to resist. One by one Rayic cut the party members to shreds. Yeroc and Cordan II (the survivors of the fight) drank a good amount of potions in an effort to stay in one piece. Eventually the mage powerhouse goes down. Glad I wasn't playing SCS, this fight was clearly hard enough for my party as it was.
In any case, I got my party members resurrected, healed and we are back at it.
EDIT: One surprising thing did happen - Rayic fired off a disintegrate against Paja (a human) - I thought for sure she was done for but she saved!! A human saving vs spells is almost an oxymoron. Dodged a big bullet there, as she is a fighter/thief and there wouldn't be any more of those to recruit.
While at the Carnival I saved Bentha before returning to the FAI where I killed Tarnesh.
Heading north I was able to kill an ankheg.
Upon heading south I was JUST able to save Dorn.
However he was not so lucky when we had to fight TWO ankhegs.
I did have enough gold to raise him and after selling ankheg shells I had suficient to buy him a decent bow and pay for some more ankheg armour. I forgot to cast friends at the inn so couldn't afford decent arrows for Dorn.
We have killed the wolves east of the temple of Lathander and intend to seek out basilisks next.
After only a couple of minutes Daiyn and Jack worked out who was hosting and which game we were in. A quick glance at our surroundings confirmed we were in a family crypt having just killed Sarevok. Imoen was stood nearby trying to suggest to the Flaming Fist that she was with us. Madam, you are not.
The opening area is dealt with rapidly, Jack using his panache to convince the two main groups of guards to lay down their weapons and so we could descend into the second level of the crypt.
Whereupon we fished around our scroll case and decided we had used all our protection from undead scrolls in our earlier travels. Trying to multiplayer the next groups of undead without a scroll has previously proved challenging but this pair took matters in their stride.
Jack used web to great effect - just don't pay any attention to the several times he then got himself webbed. Daiyn stopped counting at the third occasion.
We made it to Korlasz with no deaths, and Jack thought she died far quicker than he expected even with his cluster of skeletons swarming over her stoneskins. Daiyn had thrown a brace of bounty hunter snares in before combat started so maybe that was enough to ensure the rapidity was quicker than Jack could blink.
We loot most of the crypt on our way out (there is a broken staff and a secret room with a two-handed sword undiscovered left if you wish to hunt for scraps) and put down assassins at the ducal palace. We stop a burglary at Sorcerous Sundries and acquire some spectacles before giving a rousing speech as we depart the city.
Coastways Crossing is our first encampment. We take leave of the camp and side with a vampire, then lose our way returning to camp and end up in the midst of orcs and trolls. After slaying them (more web, more webbed Jack) we prepare ourselves to spelunk into an infravision-revealed sub-aqua cave.
Daiyn check Jack is ready for what is to follow and OK we add on 100% fire resistance so a dozen or so arrows of detonation are used to kill trolls and carrion crawlers before we secure the area from jellies.
We eventually make our way back to camp and trade three partially useful items (shield, cloak, mirror) for a useless-to-us returning dart. Then we head to the next encampment and sneak past a horde of hobgoblins waiting on the path for us. Instead we sneak-loot a few items from under the nose of a hill giant and his wolf companions, then Jack melees wyverns as Daiyn throws bounty hunter snares in from a distance, and race through a dragon's cave.
Jack is looking forward to fighting bugbears, and voices his disappointment about the first shaman not helping his companions. This shaman.
A bit further on, past a disarmed trap, we start to dismantle more bugbears but a second shaman is shuffling around and Daiyn is having to focus on a suitable backstab. On delivery, it becomes clear that backstabbing with a bow is sub-optimal and instead a hold-person is returned.
Daiyn has run a long way but at least one bugbear has followed. As Daiyn is held she tries to squeak about the danger she is in but Jack is well aware already and is making his way to deal. It's quite a long way though.
Jack has made it in plenty of time.
With this area cleared we move on and decide to end our session in the temple of Cyric. Party gear:
@Corey_Russell I'm sticking to only fighters, so our next opportunity is Sarevok in ToB .
I did get through the underdark, albeit skipping almost all the fights. I did not do Qilue or the slime mage.
We also cleared the planar sphere. Tolgerias was a little tough as he got a bunch of summons off, but eventually ran out of physical combat protections.
The party really has no way to get rid of enemy combat protections of nearly any sort. We can't cast anti-magic spells (including breach) and Jaheira casts dispel at level 13, which is generally not enough.
So fights against high level mages tend to be throwing a few summons at them while Korgan keeps an eye on the situation and waits for all the Pfmw to run out. So far this has gone OK, and the handful of liches (and Lavok) that we fought did not summon balors or anything too tough. Once they run out of Pfmw, they go down pretty quickly.
Planar sphere was a little interesting as we had no way to clear clay golem curse (prevents healing) from the golem packs. We used Jaheira's fire elementals as well as the efreeti lamp, plus Korgan trying to sneak in hits with the flail of ages. Korgan eventually got cursed on the final golem pack by the heart, but relied on trollish regen from the sewer cloak so it wasn't too bad.
Unfortunately, on return to the underdark, the scripted fight on the surface with a drow party started. I had forgotten that there is semi-bug here that can kill the player, wherein friendly elves get confused and then if they attack each other the party gets blamed for it. Blame = instakill.
Anyway, I will probably continue the run but it costs me about an hour of progress and does mar it somewhat.
Well I finally decided to add SCS to my mods. I'm using that along with Tweaks as my only mods. I created a custom party for a no-reload and that is progressing satisfactorily. I decided to play on the 'tactical' setting for SCS so it's not too over the top. The new enemy tactics are interesting, but with a full party it's still pretty easy.
Now that I'm more familiar with what to expect, I switched to an elf M/T solo run instead. I Keepered him to a Bounty Hunter/Mage and decided to keep the bonus proficiencies, hit points and extra thief skills I got from the switch. I am a God child after all! I also got a lucky 97 roll for my stats which will help immensely. Seeing that all of my previous attempts at a solo noreload have met with abject failure, I'm allowing looting joinable NPC's and using traps to kill Elminster multiple times for the survivability boost. Here's my main man:
I put all of his initial thief points in Open Lock and the bonus 25 in Set Traps. Proficiency in longsword, shortbow, dagger and 2-weapon fighting.
So far I'm progressing nicely. I cleared out Candlekeep easily and after doing a few of the early quests, I managed to level up and get my Set Traps up to 60. I almost died once from a critical hit from a gibberling of all things but I got more cautious after that and managed to live long enough to kill Elminster the first time. I'm now level 5/6 and am optimistic I can at least get through the BG portion of my epic adventure. Any advice from veterans would be really helpful to me at this point. Specifically any potentially fatal encounters I should avoid. I haven't done the basilisk area, Durlag's Tower, Balduran's Isle, any of the Chapter fights or difficult fights (Khark, flesh golem cave, Drizzt, ankheg area, bounty Hunter ambushes, Shangalar's Island, etc.) yet. Any pitfalls I should be aware of?
@Balrog99 Basilisks is one of the biggest pitfalls. However if you protect the character fighting them from gaze attacks, they are not a problem at all. The green scroll is a no-brainer for the basilisk area. Web and fireballs for the adventurers there.
Don't use your whole party for fighting basilisks, just the one who is protected. Use potions of mirrored eyes against those in Durlag's Tower and have another potion ready for when that one runs out. Before fighting the first one there, you could use a spell rather than a potion. Because of the vast amounts of experience that you get from basilisks, they are a VERY worthwhile target.
Balduran's Isle is difficult and not worth the effort IMO.
I would avoid fulfilling all the warders' quests in Durlag's until you can put plenty of traps where they arrive. Any type of trap will do, thieves' skull traps, or glyph's of warding. One of them is adept at hiding and if you can take him out before he can hide, so much the better.
Flesh golems need magical weapons to hurt them and they are resistant to magic. You don't HAVE to fight them. You can go past them with stealth (If it is good enough) and have a potion of invisibility handy for when you have finished looting. I'd have two potions in case things go wrong. There ARE pretty nasty traps in there! I avoid Khark but he can be beaten particularly if you have true sight.
Anything that can go invisible can be lethal for a mage/thief. Thus the lower areas of Durlag's is dangerous.
Since you have high set traps ability it means that your stealth will probably be poor. Invisibility spells are therefore your friend. Potions of perception and master thievery will be useful for traps as you won't be able to spot traps eassily. That is particularly important in Durlag's.
If you have a cleric then find traps is useful. With traps it can take some time before you spot them so don't move too quickly.
For Shangalar's Island use invisibility to position yourself well, then when just out of sight use web followed by area effect spells plus area effect potions. (Oil of fiery burning, potions of explosion and of cause wand of fire.)
@Wise_Grimwald@Balrog99 The one thing I would add about basilisks is its also possible to use cleric skeletons to fight them. You keep the skeletons at range so the basislisks waste their range attacks against an immune character then the party ranges and kills the pesky critters. It does take a lot of micromanagement to keep the skeletons out of melee but it does work. Wise's suggestions are safer though, if you can pull them off. If you do use a solo character to kill all the basilisks its often worth it to give them a strength potion so they can do it faster.
EDIT: One should also remember that greater basilisks also poison, so if you get in melee you'll want an antidote handy, just in case.
Trio 34, Core rules, unmodded (update 1) Bunty - female, human undead hunter (Grond0)
Reelan - male, dwarf berserker (Corey_Russell)
Dib - male, human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Previous run
The last session ended with a death, so the first order of business was to generate some new characters. After a recent glut of casters and thieves in our parties, this time saw all of us with martial classes, which means progress should be pretty quick in this run.
The first session did indeed see a decent amount completed. Dib's turn to the dark side does give him a few spell-like abilities and he took advantage of that by blinding Shoal to ensure she kept to the regulations about social distancing.
Working our way down to Nashkel, Reelan picked up some ankheg armor to help his tanking abilities. Bunty was more interested in a proficient melee weapon, so led the way to find Arghain. Dib successfully blinded him as well, but still couldn't resist trying to sneak in for a bit of clobbering - just surviving the retaliation there.
Reelan used the green PfP scroll to lead the way through a bunch of basilisks. He enraged to tackle Mutamin, which protected him against the latter's horror. The mage did manage to get off one acid arrow, but died before he could complete a second.
After a rest, another enrage ended just a second or two before the last of Kirian's party fell.
A trip through the Cloud Peaks ended with Dib sneaking past a horde of xvarts to grab a tome - before running back across the map with a couple of short swords sticking in him. Helping Bjornin find a bit of revenge then gained an improved shield for Reelan to top up the bracers of dexterity found at the Gnoll Stronghold. He also bought a magical axe, having had to resort to using throwing axes in melee after his standard stocks all broke.
With the improved armor class and weapons, Reelan was happy to take on the ankheg nest and managed to clear that out having been hit only once. That provided a false sense of security though and taking on a couple of the beasts at once resulted in Dib and Reelan both resorting to healing potions as their HPs melted away under an acidic assault.
With reputation now at 20, some further purchases were made. We haven't yet bought full plate, but that will probably be done next time given there are 2 potential wearers in the party. The improved equipment got a try out in the Nashkel Mine as we cruised through to find Mulahey. He discovered the bitter knowledge that his spells were ill-suited for use against an enraged opponent, while the others cleaned up the supporting acts.
Outside the mine the amazons resisted a blinding attempt. That didn't do them too much good, though it did mean Lamalha lasted just long enough to throw out a glyph.
Back in Beregost, Dib and Bunty attacked a blinded Silke, while Reelan went straight after Tranzig. The mage talked big, but was already running scared when Bunty arrived to claim the kill.
Rather than go straight on to the Bandit Camp though, we decided to spend the last few minutes of the session at the seaside. Rage meant the sirines had no chance and Reelan added an absorption potion to his defences to counter the golem threat.
On the downside Ardrouine is unable to believe that there are no more worgs nearby - or indeed that her son ran home quite some time ago .
Any advice from veterans would be really helpful to me at this point. Specifically any potentially fatal encounters I should avoid. I haven't done the basilisk area, Durlag's Tower, Balduran's Isle, any of the Chapter fights or difficult fights (Khark, flesh golem cave, Drizzt, ankheg area, bounty Hunter ambushes, Shangalar's Island, etc.) yet. Any pitfalls I should be aware of?
Avoid Wolf of Ulcaster if you installed its SCS optional component. It's really more deadly than the vanilla one.
Beware of stun effect from Sirenes.
Always have a potion of invisibility ready for unexpected encounters (SCS Bounty Hunters are random encounter).
Don't travel at night, you could fall in a bandits ambush.
If you can use a bow, buy the Slayer Arrow before meeting Khark.
Of course! I finally decided to try SCS and there's a major update just a few days later. Oh well, at least I didn't get too far. I'm going to download the patch and hope SCS doesn't need a complete overhaul or something...
Comments
That's a good point @jmerry - I think I used to have the highest AC tank scout, then the party moved to assist once they found something. Need to go back to that. And in my case got attacked by the side. And my stealth wasn't good enough yet to reliably hide.
Journal Of Xan Last Entry
My strivings were all futile as a spider stunned me so there was no way of recovery.
Clearly I need both intelligence and luck too.
So continuing Blackguard from p 417
Can somebody tell me what protects from stun. I thought freedom of action did but apparently not.
I used Google and found that the G3 fixpack causes freedom of action to protect from stun.
Now playing unmodded so it doesn't.
My Blackguard however has enough hp to save against the spiders' stun so not a problem in this game.
EDIT
Haller has just reached the Ducal Palace having completed the prologue.
She is all alone with a reputation of 11
I found this guide really helpful.
Helpful for SoA.
According to that in BG2 freedom of action is supposed to protect from stun (It doesn't in SoD, preumably the reason for fix included in the G3 fixpack) . Potion of magical blocking should give protection as should chaotic command.
Chaotic Command scrolls are available in SoD even if the spell is not yet available to clerics. Potions of magical blocking are also available, so having spiders with stun is reasonable, though it does mean that you have to power game against the spiders.
I'll test these out in my current game as Haller has just reached Baldur's Gate in SoD.
As Haller has a high constitution, I'll have to use Safana, Baeloth or Edwin to test the scroll and the potion.
@Wise_Grimwald If I want to be protected from stun in BG 1, I would use either potion of magic shielding, potion of magic blocking or protection from magic scrolls. There's a good number of these potions and scrolls in BG 1.
Traveling with:
Sarah - dwarven berserker
April - gnomish berserker
Paja - human fighter
Yeroc - half-orc kensai
Khalid - half-elf fighter
The new party is making rapid progress. In most cases enemies are mowed down rather quickly. At level 7, Paja will dual to a thief, that way we'll have a thief for BG 2. This group is all fighters, though may allow a non-fighter to join if there are no fighters to recruit due to chunkings.
Our first death was against Drassus. Paja and Yeroc foolishly charged into melee, forgetting their poor saves. Sure enough they got confused and Paja killed Yeroc. Doh! We did win the battle though...
Will keep at it!
In addition to Chaotic Commands, polymorphing into jelly form will protect against stun. Also troll form in BG2, with the Cloak of the Sewers.
In SoD the situation doesn't arise too often and it can be prepared against.
Journal of Haller
The burglers in sorcerous sundries wiped the floor with us.
In the past I have always had a mage to cast web. This time I didn't. It makes ALL the difference,
I'll know for the future.
Journal of Bruce and Bros
When Gorion took us under his wing I believe that his aim was to mould us into a force for righteousness. He was partially successful in that all of us are lawful and two of us Righteous. One however whilst lawful is self-centred which is a shame. All three of us serve Helm which helps as it enables us to get on despite our differences.
The strange thing is that Brendan, whilst being self-centred, is the most law abiding of the three of us, I for one being a bit too pragmatic when it comes to the test.
In Candlekeep I was caught as I aquired a potion of healing from a chest. It's as well that Brendan didn't see me or I would never have heard the last of it, saying things like, "I thought that you were supposed to be a paladin!"
After the death of Gorion I met Imoen and exchanged leather armour etc. for some useful items that she was carrying.
We then helped Mellicamp.
And carried on to the Friendly Arms Inn where we returned Joia's ring before heading northwards where we killed some evil fishermen before returning a bowl to Tenya.
On our way back to Beregost we killed an ogre with a belt fetish.
We headed for Nashkel where I found some good armour and was able to kill Greywolf.
I am now a bone fide hero.
We took on Droth who put all three of us to sleep.
He then cast a lightning bolt which terminated my life.
Traveling with:
April - gnomish berserker
Yeroc - half-orc kensai
Paja - level 7 fighter/level 7 thief (dual)
Khalid - half-elf fighter
Shar-Teel - human fighter
Permanently dead: Sarah (berserker) - petrified and chunked by a basilisk
Well as expected my party breezed through Sarevok and we are on to Amn. We did run into a bit of a problem though. In the warehouse where there's the basilisk, the basilisk unexpectedly moved backwards after being attacked and SWITCHED TARGETS - result being Sarah gets petrified and chunked! We lost a lot of good equipment - haste boots, greenstone amulet, fire resistance ring.
But actually, the worst thing was Lothander's geas scroll was lost forever - can I get unpoisoned? When I talked to Lothander, I said I couldn't get the scroll, and he gave me the antidote anyways, so dodged a bullet there...
We lose everything going to Amn anyways, so guess it doesn't change much. But it did mean we needed another fighter, so we killed the "lich" peasant in the Beregost Temple area (to drop our reputation - we were at 20) and recruited Shar-Teel.
Everything else went smoothly - Semaj died quickly to our power, and Sarevok got a bit unlucky and got caught in his own web. Unsurprisingly, our team was vicious to him and quickly chewed through his HP - success! Didn't get a screenshot in time as we were so fast...
So we have two slots in Amn- thinking Korgan and Anomen. Will probably replace Anomen once we can get Mazzy.
Journal of Silky
After fleeing from the assassins I was able to help Melicamp.
After calming marl and taking a tome to Firebead, I headed south where I killed a couple of ogrillon.
I then headed north where I killed a few hobgoblins, Sonner and his cohorts.
The bowl was then taken to Tenya before I headed south once more.
Upon reaching Nashkel I turned down an undeservced reward from Oublek, chatted to Noober and agreed to take Samuel to the FAI. After doing so I returned Joia's ring and the Colquetle Amulet.
I am now a hero. You don't have to do much nowadays to be thought a hero.
I decided to go with Yoshimo instead of Anomen for my fighter party. What I did was IMMEDIATELY dualed Yoshimo to fighter. This enabled me to build him from the ground up. I am making him an axe user, since that's what Sarah was before she got chunked. Yoshimo can't use Azuredge (he's True Neutral), but can't have everything I guess.
And yes, while I realize Korgan is an axe user, he has a hard quest to do early, and for a long time is a lousy character to dual-wield, unless you want him gulping potions like there's no tomorrow. And yes, while I know of the gauntlets of dexterity which does help Korgan quite a bit, this too is dangerous quest early, not to mention the shield of balduran costs quite a bit of change we don't have.
In any case, happy with Yoshimo for now. He also has the added advantage is he can be swapped out for Imoen. While Imoen isn't a fighter, I always dislike leaving her behind on RP grounds. So what I would do is boot her once she's free from the Underdark. I would probably replace her spot with Sarevok anyways in ToB.
South of Beregost a hobgoblin followed me inside a cave. Fighting one on one I defeated him easily and was rewarded with some nifty boots.
Just north of the Carnival sleep enabled me to rescue Annabelle from some xvarts.
Then, to the south I was attacked by Greywolf. Things did NOT go according to plan!
I lured him to the mine intending to use my wand of missiles to finish him off when the guards had weakened him somewhat. One of the guards had a lucky shot which meant that I missed out on the experience.
I did however get experience when I returned to Prism and even more upon giving the emeralds to Oublek.
I was able to reunite Albert and Rufie before killing Vax and Zal.
I tried resting but was attacked so fled to the west where I could rest in peace.
Colour Spray provedd to be highly effective against Caldo and Krumm with the result that my reputation has soared to 20.
After killing a dire wolf I was in dire need of sleep which a Flind interrupted. I tried fighting but he proved to be too adept a fighter so I fled tail between my legs to the carnival where I rested in peace.
I met a polar bear in transit and we mutally decided not to fight.
Upon my return I was instrumental in the restoration of Drienne's cat.
Madic missile followed by colour spray enabled me to kill Ingot and the same tactic worked against Gnarl and Hairtooth though I had to fight them one at a time fleeing to recuperate between the two battles.
The xvarts and gnolls were a major problem and I ended up fleeing for my life after looting a cave.
When ambushed in transit I simply fled until eventually I arrived at the Carnival once more where I had a prolonged rest.
I had intended heading north from the gnoll stronghold but it turned out not to be feasable.
Aec'Letec found our buffs a little spoiling, some of us having guaranteed saves while others of us had doubled up on potions of magic resistance and someone had a potion of mirrored eyes. We unloaded exploding potions onto the sevral followers and once they were down we quickly killed off Aec'Letec.
That left Sarevok, and no mistakes were made there. We immediately left BG:EE and proceeded on to SoD.
Imoen refused to play though, and proffered up what she considered to be a suitable substitution. Voxil was not convinced and a bit of carelessness on his part left us without a thief.
Everybody went their separate ways shortly afterwards. Voxil headed to the Ducal Palace only to find Imoen still declined to travel with him. A quick check around town found nobody to work with (Safana had been un-chunked but it's a NO from Voxil) so after doing a few odds and ends he declared himself ready to set off for Dragonspear.
The first stop was at Coast Ways Crossing, where Glint and Corwin were both recruited. After helping a vampire (intention to receive a ioun stone reward) a few tasks were done before going to try and wrest the bridge out of the Crusaders hands.
At a later point Voxil realised he was missing a returning acid-tipped dart - and having collected all three items for the innkeeper he had decided not to hand them in. The mirror was useful, the cloak not at all useful and the shield might be useful - but the dart would be sorely missed.
A bit further on Jaheira and Voghiln were recruited. By the looks of it a party was starting to form. Voxil wanted to get inside the Bridgefort fort so headed to a temple of Cyric in search of a wardstone.
Voxil shows his lack of thief patience inside the temple but fortunately for Glint it's only a Hold trap (which we knew full well was there but click click click before engaging brain results in this sort of setback).
We've buffed before returning though and Glint successfully manages to stay alive by running and gulping. Corwin is able to pin the dragon down and once it is dead the wyverns are easier to deal with.
So we briefly recruit Khalid and strip him of everything except his armour, and then re-recruit Neera. Then we realise that recruiting Khalid has led to the Bridgefortians attacking the Crusaders. We try to help out and kill the Barghest and about a dozen Crusaders but their casters are targeting us and we're pinned into a tiny area. Corwin is held just as Voxil decides to retreat into the fort, so Glint casts Remove Paralysis. By the time it is cast we've had Neera and Voghiln killed by explosions so only four of us make it inside.
Voxil uses the wardstone exit to head back to camp and raise our dead. On the way we have an ambush area (spores) and on our return we have another ambush area so complete both of those.
Then we attack the Crusaders through the main entrance and successfully conclude combat. A mage on the bridge fails to summon fire elementals, which means we are free to think about what to do next.
>> Some time later >>>
Voxil and his gang have fought their way through several ambushes, into the Coalition camp, subterfuged their way into the Crusader camp at Dragonspear, and done everything on the way to the Underground River.
Having been very careful (*) Voxil is caught out fighting the summoners at Kanaglym, when the larger group of mages come to investigate and the guardian dragon outside attacks from the rear.
* The party wonder what is meant by careful, Dorn and Glint have died at least three times each.
We manage to kill off most of the mages so the dragon switches sides and Voxil lowers his guard just as another mage moves into sight and fireballs towards the party.
Voxil's chances of peering into the Fugue plane are still present but several party members are singed from the fireball while Neera has chunked from the fireball. Voxil gives up in disgust with himself.
(& I later load to continue with the remaining party and realise I hadn't saved after combat so the save was from entry to Kanaglym and Neera was still present - well that's the end of the run)
Had a few rough turns post-spellhold.
I didn't bother to summon any help for the fight against the Sahuagin king. Turns out he has pretty good DPS between his +10 damage spear and whirlwind. Anyway, charname critical missed his backstab at a key moment and Mazzy got chunked. That was unfortunate as the killing blow to Mazzy was only 23 damage, and I think physical chunking in EE (or SCS EE) happens at -20.
Then, fighting the underdark Balor, the demon teleported to Anomen, who was standing against the wall. This trapped Anomen, leaving him unable to move. He was hit down to 4 hp, then got hit for 24 and chunked. Literally the next hit from Korgan killed the balor. Ugh.
I think both of these characters could have been saved by a heal from the rod of resurrection, so this was just misplaying on my part.
Anyway, we are down to charname, Jaheira and Korgan. I'm fairly sure the run is still salvageable, but losing Anomen in particular was a big loss. We do have divine spells via Jaheira, but no cleric spells, which means no fear resistance, no skeletons, no holy word, less availability of DW / CC, etc.
On the positive side, we will be getting nearly twice as much combat XP.
Change in strategy is: leave the difficult underdark fights for later (mind flayers packs too dangerous imo with only three party members; don't have skeletons for the beholders; don't have skeletons for the demon knights). But, we can come back later with HLAs and should be able to clear those areas at 3mm XP.
We did just kill the Fish Prince, so we just need to be careful during the Ust Natha quests and not be too clumsy.
I'm a little uncertain about the slime mage fight; I know it is skip-able if I hurry to finish Ust Natha quests, and I am uncertain whether it is worth avoiding. Liches will be avoided. The fight by the exit to the surface is also a bit uncertain. It's a dangerous fight without Adalon as the enemies are fairly strong. But it's a dangerous fight *with* Adalon as she teleports you right into the middle of them and still takes a round or two or three to clear the dangerous enemies.
On the plus side, since the party needs to murder Valygar to enter the planar sphere, that action is now less alignment-suspect with Mazzy and Anomen out of the party for good...
If we can get to ToB, I will dual Sarevok to a mage, which will help a lot. I had originally planned on keeping him a fighter or dualing to thief to maintain the "no arcane classes" vibe, but with the reduction in party size, I think we will need all the help we can get. He should also get his fighter levels back at a somewhat more reasonable pace due to the increased effective combat XP.
As to my own run (which is all fighters) it's still going. But we clearly are very vulnerable to mages, as you can see from this screenshot after my "successful" fight with Rayic Gethras.
Rayic did an impressive coup - he made FIVE party members run in fear - only the berserker with enrage was able to resist. One by one Rayic cut the party members to shreds. Yeroc and Cordan II (the survivors of the fight) drank a good amount of potions in an effort to stay in one piece. Eventually the mage powerhouse goes down. Glad I wasn't playing SCS, this fight was clearly hard enough for my party as it was.
In any case, I got my party members resurrected, healed and we are back at it.
EDIT: One surprising thing did happen - Rayic fired off a disintegrate against Paja (a human) - I thought for sure she was done for but she saved!! A human saving vs spells is almost an oxymoron. Dodged a big bullet there, as she is a fighter/thief and there wouldn't be any more of those to recruit.
While at the Carnival I saved Bentha before returning to the FAI where I killed Tarnesh.
Heading north I was able to kill an ankheg.
Upon heading south I was JUST able to save Dorn.
However he was not so lucky when we had to fight TWO ankhegs.
I did have enough gold to raise him and after selling ankheg shells I had suficient to buy him a decent bow and pay for some more ankheg armour. I forgot to cast friends at the inn so couldn't afford decent arrows for Dorn.
We have killed the wolves east of the temple of Lathander and intend to seek out basilisks next.
Daiyn (female dwarf bounty hunter, Gate70); Jack (male half elf fighter / mage / cleric, Grond0)
After only a couple of minutes Daiyn and Jack worked out who was hosting and which game we were in. A quick glance at our surroundings confirmed we were in a family crypt having just killed Sarevok. Imoen was stood nearby trying to suggest to the Flaming Fist that she was with us. Madam, you are not.
The opening area is dealt with rapidly, Jack using his panache to convince the two main groups of guards to lay down their weapons and so we could descend into the second level of the crypt.
Whereupon we fished around our scroll case and decided we had used all our protection from undead scrolls in our earlier travels. Trying to multiplayer the next groups of undead without a scroll has previously proved challenging but this pair took matters in their stride.
Jack used web to great effect - just don't pay any attention to the several times he then got himself webbed. Daiyn stopped counting at the third occasion.
Coastways Crossing is our first encampment. We take leave of the camp and side with a vampire, then lose our way returning to camp and end up in the midst of orcs and trolls. After slaying them (more web, more webbed Jack) we prepare ourselves to spelunk into an infravision-revealed sub-aqua cave.
We eventually make our way back to camp and trade three partially useful items (shield, cloak, mirror) for a useless-to-us returning dart. Then we head to the next encampment and sneak past a horde of hobgoblins waiting on the path for us. Instead we sneak-loot a few items from under the nose of a hill giant and his wolf companions, then Jack melees wyverns as Daiyn throws bounty hunter snares in from a distance, and race through a dragon's cave.
Jack is looking forward to fighting bugbears, and voices his disappointment about the first shaman not helping his companions. This shaman.
Daiyn has run a long way but at least one bugbear has followed. As Daiyn is held she tries to squeak about the danger she is in but Jack is well aware already and is making his way to deal. It's quite a long way though.
I did get through the underdark, albeit skipping almost all the fights. I did not do Qilue or the slime mage.
We also cleared the planar sphere. Tolgerias was a little tough as he got a bunch of summons off, but eventually ran out of physical combat protections.
The party really has no way to get rid of enemy combat protections of nearly any sort. We can't cast anti-magic spells (including breach) and Jaheira casts dispel at level 13, which is generally not enough.
So fights against high level mages tend to be throwing a few summons at them while Korgan keeps an eye on the situation and waits for all the Pfmw to run out. So far this has gone OK, and the handful of liches (and Lavok) that we fought did not summon balors or anything too tough. Once they run out of Pfmw, they go down pretty quickly.
Planar sphere was a little interesting as we had no way to clear clay golem curse (prevents healing) from the golem packs. We used Jaheira's fire elementals as well as the efreeti lamp, plus Korgan trying to sneak in hits with the flail of ages. Korgan eventually got cursed on the final golem pack by the heart, but relied on trollish regen from the sewer cloak so it wasn't too bad.
Unfortunately, on return to the underdark, the scripted fight on the surface with a drow party started. I had forgotten that there is semi-bug here that can kill the player, wherein friendly elves get confused and then if they attack each other the party gets blamed for it. Blame = instakill.
Anyway, I will probably continue the run but it costs me about an hour of progress and does mar it somewhat.
Now that I'm more familiar with what to expect, I switched to an elf M/T solo run instead. I Keepered him to a Bounty Hunter/Mage and decided to keep the bonus proficiencies, hit points and extra thief skills I got from the switch. I am a God child after all! I also got a lucky 97 roll for my stats which will help immensely. Seeing that all of my previous attempts at a solo noreload have met with abject failure, I'm allowing looting joinable NPC's and using traps to kill Elminster multiple times for the survivability boost. Here's my main man:
Dred Dergath
LN - Bounty Hunter/Mage multi-class
Strength - 18
Dexterity - 19
Constitution - 15
Intelligence - 18
Wisdom - 8
Charisma - 18
Initial spells, Sleep and Find Familiar
I put all of his initial thief points in Open Lock and the bonus 25 in Set Traps. Proficiency in longsword, shortbow, dagger and 2-weapon fighting.
So far I'm progressing nicely. I cleared out Candlekeep easily and after doing a few of the early quests, I managed to level up and get my Set Traps up to 60. I almost died once from a critical hit from a gibberling of all things but I got more cautious after that and managed to live long enough to kill Elminster the first time. I'm now level 5/6 and am optimistic I can at least get through the BG portion of my epic adventure. Any advice from veterans would be really helpful to me at this point. Specifically any potentially fatal encounters I should avoid. I haven't done the basilisk area, Durlag's Tower, Balduran's Isle, any of the Chapter fights or difficult fights (Khark, flesh golem cave, Drizzt, ankheg area, bounty Hunter ambushes, Shangalar's Island, etc.) yet. Any pitfalls I should be aware of?
Don't use your whole party for fighting basilisks, just the one who is protected. Use potions of mirrored eyes against those in Durlag's Tower and have another potion ready for when that one runs out. Before fighting the first one there, you could use a spell rather than a potion. Because of the vast amounts of experience that you get from basilisks, they are a VERY worthwhile target.
Balduran's Isle is difficult and not worth the effort IMO.
I would avoid fulfilling all the warders' quests in Durlag's until you can put plenty of traps where they arrive. Any type of trap will do, thieves' skull traps, or glyph's of warding. One of them is adept at hiding and if you can take him out before he can hide, so much the better.
Flesh golems need magical weapons to hurt them and they are resistant to magic. You don't HAVE to fight them. You can go past them with stealth (If it is good enough) and have a potion of invisibility handy for when you have finished looting. I'd have two potions in case things go wrong. There ARE pretty nasty traps in there! I avoid Khark but he can be beaten particularly if you have true sight.
Anything that can go invisible can be lethal for a mage/thief. Thus the lower areas of Durlag's is dangerous.
Since you have high set traps ability it means that your stealth will probably be poor. Invisibility spells are therefore your friend. Potions of perception and master thievery will be useful for traps as you won't be able to spot traps eassily. That is particularly important in Durlag's.
If you have a cleric then find traps is useful. With traps it can take some time before you spot them so don't move too quickly.
For Shangalar's Island use invisibility to position yourself well, then when just out of sight use web followed by area effect spells plus area effect potions. (Oil of fiery burning, potions of explosion and of cause wand of fire.)
We disposed of the adventurers using web/wand of fire combo. One who escaped the web was finished off with magic missiles but not before I was hurt.
Dorn used the green scroll and his bow in the main against the basilisks, switching to Rancor when they approached within range.
Mutamin was killed with just one blast of the wand of frost. (Lucky)
We then picked up Viconia before returning to the Gnoll Fortress where Dynaheir joined us.
We then returned to the Lighthouse area where this time we were able to defeat the sirines.
Now back at Beregost. I need to buy some more spells, and only having 1000gp I need more gold too. Perhaps Bassilus should be next on the agenda.
I have been lucky in that I have picked up a web and a knock spell already. That wouldn't have happened pre-EE.
However before going there I bought spells at High Hedge.
As Zebedee would say: It is now time for bed.
EDIT: One should also remember that greater basilisks also poison, so if you get in melee you'll want an antidote handy, just in case.
Bunty - female, human undead hunter (Grond0)
Reelan - male, dwarf berserker (Corey_Russell)
Dib - male, human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Previous run
The last session ended with a death, so the first order of business was to generate some new characters. After a recent glut of casters and thieves in our parties, this time saw all of us with martial classes, which means progress should be pretty quick in this run.
The first session did indeed see a decent amount completed. Dib's turn to the dark side does give him a few spell-like abilities and he took advantage of that by blinding Shoal to ensure she kept to the regulations about social distancing.
Working our way down to Nashkel, Reelan picked up some ankheg armor to help his tanking abilities. Bunty was more interested in a proficient melee weapon, so led the way to find Arghain. Dib successfully blinded him as well, but still couldn't resist trying to sneak in for a bit of clobbering - just surviving the retaliation there.
Reelan used the green PfP scroll to lead the way through a bunch of basilisks. He enraged to tackle Mutamin, which protected him against the latter's horror. The mage did manage to get off one acid arrow, but died before he could complete a second.
A trip through the Cloud Peaks ended with Dib sneaking past a horde of xvarts to grab a tome - before running back across the map with a couple of short swords sticking in him. Helping Bjornin find a bit of revenge then gained an improved shield for Reelan to top up the bracers of dexterity found at the Gnoll Stronghold. He also bought a magical axe, having had to resort to using throwing axes in melee after his standard stocks all broke.
With the improved armor class and weapons, Reelan was happy to take on the ankheg nest and managed to clear that out having been hit only once. That provided a false sense of security though and taking on a couple of the beasts at once resulted in Dib and Reelan both resorting to healing potions as their HPs melted away under an acidic assault.
With reputation now at 20, some further purchases were made. We haven't yet bought full plate, but that will probably be done next time given there are 2 potential wearers in the party. The improved equipment got a try out in the Nashkel Mine as we cruised through to find Mulahey. He discovered the bitter knowledge that his spells were ill-suited for use against an enraged opponent, while the others cleaned up the supporting acts.
Back in Beregost, Dib and Bunty attacked a blinded Silke, while Reelan went straight after Tranzig. The mage talked big, but was already running scared when Bunty arrived to claim the kill.
Undead Hunter - L5, 58 HPs, 91 kills
Berserker - L6, 69 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths
Dark Moon Monk - L6, 47 HPs, 44 kills, 0 deaths
After a good night's rest we killed Droth, Shoal, and the nearby sirines with the result that Dynaheir levelled up.
Returned to Beregost for a further nap since kobolds wouldn't let us rest where we initially arrived.
Bassilus was killed next.
After killing Karlat we received a reward from Perdue.
After a rest we took on Silke and killed her.
Just wondering if her name was pronounced the same as mine. Too late to ask her now.
Beware of stun effect from Sirenes.
Always have a potion of invisibility ready for unexpected encounters (SCS Bounty Hunters are random encounter).
Don't travel at night, you could fall in a bandits ambush.
If you can use a bow, buy the Slayer Arrow before meeting Khark.