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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of ONE MILLION visions"

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  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    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...

    Maybe now is the time that I should install it, or perhaps I should wait until the inevitable bugs surface.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    @Balrog99
    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?

    I forgot to mention that there is a level 1 spell to protect from petrification. I used it in my current run (Not SCS) and it worked perfectly. Of course I needed to have it memorised several times as the duration isn't great.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited April 2021
    Journal of Silky Last Entry

    We have visited the upper areas of Durlag's. Gave Kirinhale's hair to Riggilo and then killed him to save him being trapped there.
    Killed the basilisks using the spell to protect rather than potions. Worked well. :)
    Used Viconia to pick up the tome of understanding.

    We picked up Viconia before entering the mines and then recruited Xan at the bottom.

    Mulahey and then the Amazons were killed before we looted the three caves near the exit. In one of them we killed a Revenant.
    The ghasts caused Dynaheir some problems but weren't able to kill her.

    At the Carnival we bought a necklace of missiles and some ammo with the result that our gold is down to one piece. One of our wands of fire is down to one charge so we will need to do something about that.

    Elminster indicated where we might find the bandit camp but we'll need that wand recharging first.

    Gold needed. A good time for buying as I am still a hero.

    Left Xan in Beregost and after hunting ankhegs and doing shopping, we safely arrived in the bandit camp which was straightforward.

    The rest of Cloakwood wasn't too bad until we met Hareishan who saved against web and whose lightning bolt chunked Dynaheir first, badly injured the rest of us before killing me and herself.

    :'(

    Game over.
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 1,046
    edited April 2021
    Wise_Grimwald wrote: »
    Journal of Silky Last Entry



    The rest of Cloakwood wasn't too bad until we met Hareishan who saved against web and whose lightning bolt chunked Dynaheir first, badly injured the rest of us before killing me and herself.

    :'(

    Game over.

    Yeah, Heirashan's spells are nasty down there - not the least of which she has 2 lightning bolts. So what I do is have a solo character protected by potion of absorption - if possible I position the character on the far side, so that her bolt will actually wipe our her own men. Then it's much safer. She does fire spells too, so the solo character will want some protection from fire as well. Greenstone amulet charge too, just to be safe. Once she is dead, then the rest of the party can move in to mop up.

    If you have a potion of firebreath, that could be a huge help against her and her men.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,881
    Jabberwock wrote: »
    Jon 1 wasn't too bad. At some point he seems to have gotten 100 poison immunity, so he can no longer be trivially bullied with cloudkill. He also seemed to resist dispel from the SoM - not sure what was going on there.

    For the poison immunity - minimum HP items all grant it. If the creature has something to say before they can die, they have one of those items and they're immune to poison. Irenicus on the tree is one such case.

    As for resisting the dispel ... he's level 30. 50% chance.

    Then again, I usually just set some traps for that encounter - he's such an obvious target. Did you use up your daily traps on earlier encounters in Suldanesselar?

    Also, Carsomyr still dispels at level 30 on every hit. Did you install some mod that specifically nerfs it?
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,866
    edited April 2021
    Journal of Jerubbaal

    Using a green scroll meant that the basilisk area was straighforward. :)

    ivkpmfiyipr6.jpg

    We then paid Zargal et al a visit before carrying on westward to deal with the sirines.

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    We cleared the cave of golems and looted it.

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    After Xzar and Montaron joined us I looked the other way while Montaron was picking Pockets. I left him in Zordral's tent while I picked up Neera before heading for Firewine where I killed Meilum.

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    We completed Neera's quest and left her at the FAI.

    South of Nashkel Dorn joined us, we left Xzar with Joseph's widow and went to kill Krill.

    We then headed north of the FAI where we killed bandits and ankheg.

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    South of Nashkel we reunited Rufie with Albert before killing Vax and Zal.

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    Upon heading westwards we helped a dryad before looting a cave.

    We then tried to rest in order to be ready for any future conflict.

    However we were attcked by a horde of gnolls and fled even further westward to the gnoll stronghold.

    Upon resting we were indeed ready for further conflict.

    We killed Gnarl and Hairtooth before looting a cave. A tome raised my charisma.

    We then headed north where we killed a polar bear before returning to the carnival where we rested.
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Megaera the Lawful Evil Elven Sorceress - Part 4 (Mega Update)
    Icewind Dale: EE 2.6
    Difficulty: Heart of Fury Solo, No reload, Level 1 Start, Difficulty base damage enabled.

    Phase 10 - Severed Hand Tedium
    With Yxunomei dead, we loot everything by re-rolling Wish to get the one which sets abilities all to 25 for 4 rounds, grinding out a few wands and potions in the process. This gets us a copy of Wand of Paralyzation, Cursing and Lightning, plus things to sell obviously. Wish is such a good spell.

    We return to the big 'ol tree and kill some Neo-orogs who have invaded in Kuldahar, meet Bel for the first time, and go on an identifying spree. In hindsight, grease is not an essential spell, so could have taken Identify instead, saving thousands of gold, though there is nothing good to buy in this game... Presio's Necromancer's robe is a small upgrade, as is the random draw from level 4 of Dragon's Eye - 'ol Withery, a +2 dagger with a useless 3%(!) chance of finger of death on hit.... with a save vs spell on top... lmao. I also remember that because we are Lawful Megaera can't use the Holy Chaos! Deck, which is a blow for summon buffing, but it does not worry me, we're on out way to becoming a true Sorceress-Goddess, whats a little deck of magic cards?

    We move on to to Severed Hand. I wanted Reliance, the only +4 dagger in the game before the expansions, for my melee focused-simulacrum idea but its far too expensive so we make do with 'ol Withery mainhand and Presio's Dagger offhand - the idea being that while using BBoD the offhand may poison too (save vs death) it does, sometimes and its nice.

    There's not much more fighting we need to do before we have maxed XP and can get to skipping most fights, but for now I'm planning on grinding up the tower through hordes of shadow-orcs and shadow-goblins. Hooray.

    We try out a couple of new strategies: Protection from Magical Energy then Spell trigger 3x skull trap at our feet, which can do up to 300 damage, bust usually around 150 - and Spell Trigger 3x fire elemental, even the toughest hordes can be halted in their tracks with 3 chunky elementals spawned at the same time with 0 cast time. This made me start to reconsider 9th level picks and plum for chain contingency for 4th Level 9 spell since 3x Fire Elemental on enemy sighted, combined with a 3x fire elemental spell trigger should be enough to hold Behlefiet up for a while and get an endless MI/Simacrulum time stop, wish, BBoD cycle-thingy going. Simulacrum at level 29+ will have 3x level 9 spells. ;)

    We mess around throwing skull traps and sell the contents of out various bags to Leihand on floor 4, who if iirc gives a better price than anyone else. We sell up for a cool 100,000GP. We are approaching the pinnacle of sorceress-supremacy, just need a few more items and Megaera's apotheosis will be at hand.

    We Reach level 25 and, despite Chain Contingency being the more useful spell, Megaera did not get this far with half measures, we take Gate. Plus i've always wanted to do a demon summoning "thing," but the penalties never seem worth it, until now. Considering the number of enemies that only have normal weapons in IWD, this is our "trump card" a 33 round buffer of a demon with 320HP, immunity to normal weapons, fire and poison, 5 attacks per round - its not very useful for dealing damage to hordes but I am hoping for some sort of use that will not make me regret this. It also doesn't give us any XP for kills but considering the level cap of 30 soon that's not going to be an issue.

    As for gameplay - its a grind, but a grind that makes you feel powerful. Actual gameplay has not changed all that much since the Vale of Shadows - its still fire elementals, but their damage output is much less important now, instead they sit in pools of fire keeping the sub-zero intelligence enemies tied into the incendiary cloud stacks. These don't seem to be capped so at this point they are doing 25d4 per round (save vs spell for half) - Incendiary Cloud over Horrid Wilting every time. Meg also rests a lot, since there's a free safe rest point on Level 4. We do this after pretty much every encounter despite not needing to so we can feel like a boss every time we encounter anything.

    Our random draws in the Hand are terrible - though some of them are worth a lot (16,000 plate mail +3 for instance); for example you can draw an amulet that gives -2 to thac0, instead we draw the amulet that gives... infravision. I'm screaming. No matter, true power comes from within or something.

    Not much more to say as we grind up levels, 27 gives our simulacrum access to level 8 spells finally, so more incendiary clouds. I have noticed a bug too, that if you have pause-on-spell-cast on, cast simulacrum and select the simulacrum when it pauses, the simulacrum has access to your whole spell-book for one spell only, so can for instance cast timestop, or, even better, Black Blade of Disaster, for that melee simulacrum excellence. If I had noticed this earlier things would have gone a tiny bit differently. If you could believe it I almost didn't take Simmy, but being able to summon a copy of yourself with access to most of your spell book, thats good, but to be able to do it 6 times in a row and still move around.... thats Sorceress-tier solo.

    Once we reach level 28, Megaera, who now resembles her namesake more and more, proceeds to prat around with the feeblemind-gun, launching spell triggers stacked with 3x feeblemind, while the simulacrum also casts feebleminds for no particular reason except its fun. Even with the HoF save bonus being fixed in 2.6 everyone else in the tower risks being turned into an idiot. Playing Meg now kind of feels like playing an utterly mad chaotic-evil goddess with far too many toys for her own good. We dueled the wizards fair and square just to prove we could, no summons, no clones just good old fashioned pre-buffing with PfE, PfA, PfF, PfC, PfME, 7 eyes, Spell turning, Improved Invisibility, Mind Blank, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, SI:Abjuration, timestop and lots of feebleminded and skulltrapped wizards. She finally assembles the Astrolabe and gets the hell out of this tedious dungeon.

    Playing "fair":
    30u49r2.png

    We return to Kuldahar and trade in the Mythal theory book for a ring Megaera can’t even use... thanks for nothing (I supress my utter contempt for Orrick, there's a BBoD + Timestop with his name on it). We wish our charisma up to 25 and buy Reliance +4 from the smith, which still costs 30,000GP. At this point there is not much for sale of any use. Orrick’s spell and item selection is terrible (A ring that does shocking grasp… I mean come ON).

    Phase 11 - Upper Dorns Deep vs the Goddess of Jealous Fury
    In the Deep there are some nasty myconids, some Ettins that hit like trucks then a whole host of Drow. I am still unhappy with Megaera's saves since we did not draw either a RoP +1 or Glimglam's cloak, and can't use Shimmering Sash.

    Not a problem though. Megaera wipes out most enemies with Simulacrum whil watching through the eyes of Pooky her Imp familiar. At level 29 the Simulacrum now has 3x Level 9 spell casts too, without abusing bugs, so, apart from the lower spell level it is almost comparable to Megaera Prime. This means Clone use of Black Blade of Disaster, WIsh and Timestop – without need for Project Image.

    We kill the Ettins for the Razorvine extract and the myconids for XP to get to level 30 and proceed to skip almost all other content. Fiddling around I find out that 1: Wish resting does not restore simulacrum spells, probably a good thing. And 2: the wish Genie counts as a summon for some reason so you cannot use Wish if you have 6 creatures summoned already – this feels like an oversight/bug. For our very last spell we take Tenser’s Transformation. I know there is a scroll, but I have a vision of a Melee Simulacrum and its beautiful. We test it out on an Ettin.

    Stoneskin, MI, IH, II, Fireshield(blue), Black Blade of Disaster, then either 2x time stops or Tenser's transformation, or chaining PfMW. It Is Glorious.

    Now I just need some stacks of useful scrolls for the Tensered-up Simulacrum. That’s 23 odd rounds of savagery after buff time, much of it with BBoD, while Megaera Prime chills, and Megaera Image spams Fire elementals, Incendiary Clouds, or Wish.

    We blitz through the drow and the Orogs, mostly using fire elementals, and fire in general to get badge 1 in the caves. Nothing much to say here. I do a lot of Timestop + BBoD simalcrum stuff too to trivialise everything.

    Massacre Reported in Upper Dorns Deep:
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    For the first instance of the Lich, Megaera Prime actually went into battle herself chaining Timestops with BBoD while hasted. It took 4 time stops to take it down, which does not look promising for Bel. We did not get the strength ring drop in Severed Hand (I'm not mad... honest) so are stuck at 18 strength, rather than 19 so damage is about 6 points lower per hit than it would be with the Ring of Strength equipped and thac0 is likewise much lower, making Timestop or Tenser's essential for hitting anything quickly, rather than counting out PfMWs. For Lich appearance 2 we just run past to grab the Phylactery and destroy it, which destroys the remaining undead. Or it should have. Maybe. Anyway, we get ourselves into a bit of a muddle with a bunch of greater mummies who didn't blow up, and no more fire elemental casts left and so Gate in a pit fiend to bail us out.

    The Bronze Sentries prove something of a problem since they can see through invisibility and strike with non-magical weapons. If I was re-doing this run I would definitely try and take protection from normal weapons with its 1round/level duration that would be 18 rounds of immunity for the simulacrum. As it is, Simulacrum Meg buffs up and has them kill themselves on her fireshield (blue) while re-casting Mirror Image each round. With the extra attack everything gets in HoF this is a very effective way to do things. I have a scroll of fireshield (red) which the simulacrum can stack with blue too for fireshield (incandescent lilac). Enemies can do >60 damage per round to themselves with this method. We killed a few Drow this way with PfMW earlier.


    Phase 12 - Glacier, Frost Giants and a whole lot of Crashes
    We use invisibility to bypass much of the museum, doing the chat so we can repair the bridge. Or so we think, instead we aggro an Ettin and accidentally drag it into the Museum, causing the whole place to go aggressive and about 40 frost-salamanders, Ettins, wolves, ice trolls, the whole works descend on us, chasing us around invisible or not inside this stupid museum. We run outside then time stop, Spell trigger 3x Fire Elemental, then Incendiary Clouds to try and thin them out. No dice, we flee to the crossroads map to the NE and rest >24 Hours to try and reset everything before attempting round 2. Quite a few of the enemies have followed us into the tiny crossroads zone linking the Glacier with Lower Dorns. Better prepared Project Image Megaera and Simulacrum Megaera do duos Fire Elemental + Incendiary Cloud spam to clear out the horde which chased us.

    In the Frost Giant Caves – Frostbite and the White Wyrms are deadly, even on vanilla - My solo no-reload berserker almost wiped here. Fortunately they start non-hostile so we can summon six Beefcake Fire Elementals and then start the fight with an incendiary cloud right on their scaly heads. Then all die quickly but not before chewing up a few Elementals. The Frost Giants on the other hand fall easily to Elementals and a series of BBoD + tensered up Simulacrums. I love this thing so much but its a pain of buffing to set up. Persio’s dagger works well once BBoD wears off because it stacks a lot of 1HP/second poisons meaning an extra >20HP poison damage per round. Or nothing, depending on the enemy - Reliance is the more...uh...reliable... weapon.

    Melee-Simulacrum-Slayer-Mode:
    k7TzTDL.png

    We claim badge #2, Big Boss Frostgiant cut down by a Simulacrum.

    There is this funny Yeti-ambush room which demonstrates "typical tactics" for grinding things out. I had to redo this room 3(3!) times due to bugs and crashes:
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    We almost die to Kontik though - twice. And gather a whole host of Bugs. First because Meg prime didn’t have PfME up and caught what I think was a skull trap - making her save but still, with double damage it almost took her out; then, to make matters worse I found out that if your Simulacrum has Fireshield up and it takes damage from a Incendiary Cloud you cast it will damage the caster of the incendiary cloud - in this case Megaera Prime… Nice bug almost killed us before I noticed she was in the red and twigged what was happening, yanking the simulacrum back. I had actually noticed something similar on a previous run to my advantage: a Sun Soul monk doing damage to ranged attackers via their pseudo-fire shield ability, but now a bit more proof. We run away to rest invisible outside.


    ...this corrupts the save and we can’t re-enter the caves without crashing the game every time. No problem, reload an older one. This time we will skip all the trash and just cut Kontik down with BBoD during timestop. We buff every protection we have, we go in under timestop and start cutting. Nope, that crashes the game – rips you right out of timestop then hangs forever. Jfc game – perhaps the real “Heart of Fury” mode is the fury in your heart at all the bugs you encounter along the way. Ok, third time. Nope, eat a lightning bolt for 80 damage because I cast every protection except PfE for some reason. Rest again. Ok, this time no messing: cast all 5 damage type protections + mind blank and 7 eyes. 6 Fire Elementals are a go. This time we just drop Incendiary Clouds everywhere to kill everything. No messing around. I'm fed up of crashes and soft-locks and hard-locks and almost dying because of mistakes and oversight, and will be very glad to gtfo of these ice caves.

    Breathing a highly distressed sign of relief we collect our loot and I pour a very large glass of wine before triggering chapter 6 by entering Lower Dorns deep then go to Kuldahar for some shopping before the Final Act.

    Final Spell Picks by level:
    23: Fireshield (blue), Spell Trigger
    24: n/a
    25: Gate(!)
    26: n/a
    27: n/a
    28: Feeblemind
    29: n/a
    30: Tenser’s Transformation.
    Post edited by alice_ashpool on
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Been analyzing my spell picks and trying to optimize them for a future run:

    This is what I took:
    1:Find Familiar, Chromatic Orb
    3: Grease
    4: Web
    5: Shield, Invisibility
    6: Haste
    7: Protection from Evil, Mirror Image, Slow
    8: Spider Spawn
    9: Blindness Protection from Fire, Stoneskin
    10: Summon Fire Elemental
    11: Resist Fear, Protection from Cold, Improved Invisibility, Protection from Acid
    12: Death Fog
    13: Dimension Door, Protection From Electricity, Improved Haste
    14: Project Image
    15: Spell Immunity, Protection from Magical Energy, Seven Eyes
    16: Incendiary Cloud
    17: Spell Turning, Mind Blank
    18: Time Stop
    19: Simulacrum, Black Blade of Disaster
    20: Wish
    21: Protection from Magical Weapons
    22: Skull trap, Mass Invisibility
    23: Fireshield (blue), Spell Trigger
    24: n/a
    25: Gate(!)
    26: n/a
    27: n/a
    28: Feeblemind
    29: n/a
    30: Tenser’s Transformation.

    By spell level:
    1: Chromatic Orb, Find Familiar, Grease, Shield, Protection from Evil
    2: Web, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Blindness, Resist Fear
    3: Haste, Slow, Protection from Fire, Protection From Cold, Skulltrap
    4: Spider Spawn, Stoneskin, Improved Invisibility, Dimension Door, Fireshield(Blue)
    5: Summon Fire Elemental, Protection from Acid, Protection from Lightning, Spell Immunity, Feeblemind
    6: Death Fog, , Improved Haste, Protection from Magical Energy, Protection from Magical Weapons, Tenser's Transformation
    7: Project Image, 7 Eyes, Spell Turning, Mass Invisibility
    8: Incendiary Cloud, Mind Blank, Simulacrum, Spell Trigger
    9: Time Stop, Wish, Black Blade of Disaster, Gate


    The ones which so far have seemed unnecessary are:
    Grease - unnecessary even at low levels
    Resist Fear - Mind Shield deals with this
    Blindness - A level 2 spell (not 1 like BG). Has had little use so far.
    Mass Invisibility - In theory a nice -4AC buff for summons, but never bother casting
    Feeblemind - So far... Factors in favor: potential future cheese? Factors against: Saves saves and more saves. It is at -2 though rather than Chromatic orbs flat save vs spell which swayed me to take it in the first place. That and its my favorite spell after polymorph other.
    Gate: Welp, if this isn't useful for Bel I will concede that either Shapechange or Chain Contingency was the better choice. Demon summoning can't never get a break.

    Spells I wish I had:
    Protection from Normal Weapons.

    It would have been possible to swap Mass Invisibility for Mantle, Not a popular spell, but would make level 7 potentially useful for Simulacrums. The other thing I have not tested is the interaction between simulacrums and limited wish one time wishes.
    Post edited by alice_ashpool on
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    Megaera the Lawful Evil Elven Sorceress - Part 5
    Icewind Dale: EE 2.6
    Difficulty: Heart of Fury Solo, No reload, Level 1 Start, Difficulty base damage enabled.

    Phase 13 - Hell In Lower Dorn's Deep, or: the Redemption of our new Greatest of All Time spell: Gate

    When we get back to Kudahar we find more bugs. Orrick’s inventory has not updated as it should. Great. I load up another character's save and check the prices and what is actually there.

    Returning to Megaera we buy Mirror Image, Minor Sequencer and Lance of Disruption then EEKeeper in the additional 1x Mirror Image, 1x Stoneskin, 1x Shadow Monsters, 1x Demi-shadow Monsters, 1x Fireshield (red) and Ogi-Luc’s Robes which he should have which I wanted to buy. We subtract 27,000 Gold from our inventory via EEkeeper. Bugs have been 100% the theme of this run. I don’t know if this is Patch 2.6 related, but I don’t remember all these issues from 2.5…

    Ogi-Lucs robe doesn’t list Sorcerer as “Usable by” but they can still wear it apparently. It does list it as usable by Barbarians, something I noticed in 2.5 as well. Checking with a barbarian this is not actually the case, they cannot wear it. We do now have 18/99 Strength. Which isn’t 19, or even 18/00, but it does boost thac0 by 1 and damage by 3. It will have to be enough. The down side is that Ogi-Luc's robe looks goofy as hell with big blue shoulder pads. The price of power indeed.

    We drop down into Lower Dorn’s Deep and the Tarnished Sentries can see through Invisibility again. Great. Everything goes badly and in trying to find a spot to get casting Meg aggros every enemy on the floor. She barely managed to get off a Timestop then dimension door away from the box she had trapped herself in to flee as fast as she can out of the deep to rest and rethink.. We try again, nope. All this stuff is immune to Incendiary Cloud. And so we try again – a new strategy: Timestop + Gate. Yes, this is working. The Pit Fiend is the "Ultimate Tank". But its not enough damage, the 33 rounds expire and we are forced to run yet again. And the Voice of Whatsit was attacking Meg Prime all the time while Meg Simulacrum chipped away with BBoD and Tenser's. All too Slow. We need to Try Again. Fortunately nothing chases us out of the Lower Deep ever.

    An unscuccesful attempt that almost ended in disaster:
    dKGEgfj.png

    Finally, we have found a strategy that works. With the work done previously the Voice is now Near Death, so enter Invisible, buffed and protected. Then Timestop, Gate, and then a new idea, a spell trigger with 3x webs. The Fire Salamanders are susceptible even if the Tarnished Sentries aren’t. This glues stuff up enough to summon the simulacrum, protect it from evil and then blanket the area in death fog and cunningly aimed Skull Traps from both Megaera Prime and Megaera Simulacrum. We breath a serious sigh of relief and go to chill out with something else to calm down.

    One of the most "epic" HoF battles yet:
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    Returning we enter the Archer Tower of Piercing Arrow equipped Death Dealers with 3x Fire Elemental Spell Trigger, BBoD and Timestop. We take a big risk and after a few timestops go for a PfMW then Tensers to get through the remainder with about 2 rounds of worry as PfMW expires and Kelly eats through all of Meg’s Mirror Images and started working on the Stoneskins. But it was enough. We claim out safe rest-spot.
    VC0ehFa.png

    Next sneak past all enemies into the Palace to collect the food for the Deep Gnomes and go Umber Hunk Hunting, unlocking the Deep Gnome Village. I have my eyes on the Acid Storm Scroll that is for sale here. The Umber Hulks themselves are not dangerous due to Mind Blank and Fire Elementals.

    We by scrolls of Acid Storm and Sphere of Chaos, and The Silver Bracers of Kedl, aka bracers of defense AC to 2… That's almost as good as Full Plate. In what feels like an unfortunate oversight the merchants here can’t buy half your inventory so if you want to sell the loot you pick up in Lower Dorns you need to track all the way back to Kuldahar… welp.

    Anyways, At this point there are only 7 or so “challenge fights” left. In my preferred order:


    Challenge Fight 1: Hordes of undead and The Idol

    Easy Peasy. Invisibility and Improved Haste then BBoD and 4 chained Timestops. The key is that all the undead die when the Idol dies. This also means no more annoying resurrecting Voice skeleton which will make everything else easier.
    94sdl84.png

    Challenge Fight 2: The Black Unicorn Maiden and her Fire Giants

    First we clear out the whole of the upper area, which is stuffed full of elementals, with Pit Fiends and Incendiary Clouds and Simulacrums. Its slow going but the main danger in this region is the no safe space issue when you first enter. We went Timestop from invisible -> pit fiend -> invisible then went from there.
    We notice that the Pit Fiend drops down to Badly Injured then back to Injured so either it has some sort of innate regeneration, or sitting in fire heals it perhaps. I make a note to test this which I promptly forget.

    Next, after resting, we engage The Black Unicorn Maiden and her giants + priests with our Simulacrum. what a battle. Endless Summons and Clouds of Acid, We get off an Improved Alacrity Wish and Blow the whole battlefield up with a 5x Level 30 Skull Trap Bomb - 150d6 damage before saves... Simulacrum Meg expires and Megaera Prime eventually runs out of spells trying to get off a Wish Rest but the job is done and the Maiden is dead. We pop an invisibility and bug out with her badge, back to our Archer Tower Stronghold, leaving a remnant of Fire Giants behind.
    Oo3Rqta.png

    Challenge Fight 3: Marketh

    I am hoping that with an Int boosting Potion or 5 we can use the Drow Wizard’s Iron Golems against him. For that we need to get rid of this guy. And more dangerously his army of Backstabbing Thieves and Kraken Society Mages who will Kill Maegaera very quickly with all their elemental damage if we are not prepared. Yes, you can actually just talk to him and get his badge but where’s the challenge in that? Naturally we don’t clear out the ground floor either, because those bros are going to charge up here too. Good.

    First we prep a 3x Fire Elemental Spell Trigger, rest and use Mind Blank + Stoneskin. We then have a PI buff us with the suite of 5 Protections and Improved Invisibility. The PI then gets off a Wish-Rest and kills itself with Skull Traps. Off we go.

    Outside Marketh’s Room we buff with everything else: MI, Spell Turning, 7 Eyes, Protection from Evil, Improved Haste, Spell Immunity: Abjuration and activate the convo. Immediately going for a timestop. and Gate in a Pit Fiend, deposit an Incendiary Cloud on it and go invisible again. We count 4x Kraken Society Mages.
    AroTzgh.png

    onf3Wnf.png

    The Pit Fiend’s Remove magic ability rinses the Magical protections of the ones who get too close. Perfect. Time for the Pain. While the Incendiary Clou is disolving the melee contingent around the Pit Fiend we go timestop, Simulacrum, BBoD, hitting debuffed Mages, then the simulacrum does the old buff routine too. Making sure to go with PfME since these guys love force missiles. SimmyMeg goes to work but gets confused so is hacking around with BBoD erratically but still deadly...ly. Forgot 7 eyes, whoops. There’s not all that much left now but the Pit Fiend is gone and we are running a bit thin. We unleash the 3 elementals in our spell trigger and drop some Incendiary Clouds, having used most of our Big Guns, this enough to carry the day.
    0y6ZF9n.png

    kbZczVr.png

    We claim our prize.

    Remaining battles: Malavon, Poquelin, Pomab, Big B

  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Megaera the Lawful Evil Elven Sorceress - Part 5
    Icewind Dale: EE 2.6
    Difficulty: Heart of Fury Solo, No reload, Level 1 Start, Difficulty base damage enabled.

    Phase: Megaera's Apotheosis

    We sell all out loot in Kuldahar for just under 200,000GP and return to Nym, buying all his summoning spells just in case. Always good to have a stack of one-time HoF HP summons in an emergency.

    Challenge Fight 4: Malavon

    For Malavon the usual buffs +3 Potions of Genius to turn his Golems against him. While they fight the Hulks our Simulacrum summons 6 Fire Elementals and does some BBoD killing before Malovon Proper shows up. Its chaos after that, despite deliberately avoiding AoE damage something still aggros the Blind Deep Gnomes and our summons targeting is shot to pieces. Despite that, with all the friendlies milling around to clog up his invisible stalkers its basically a given at this point. The second Improved Haste + BBoD + Tensers simulacrum takes him down. The final Badge is ours.
    ZEJk1wD.png

    nrPU29p.png

    We also finally get some decent scrolls – Absolute Immunity, Simulacrum, and, crucially, the only Chain contingency scroll in the game that I know of.

    We also draw the first piece of actually good random loot and it’s an absolute stinker: Ring of Reckless Action: AC penalty of 2 and +1 attack per round. *thumbs up* That means dual wielding with Improved Haste + Tensers gives 8 attacks per round. Things are looking very up. Melee-Sorceress takes a long time to get viable in these Infinity Engine games, but when it does it really really really does. It takes less than 2 rounds to bring down one of our own fire elementals like this – a creature with 248HP. I would say that Bel’s chances just went right down ;)

    Melee-Sorc Build in action:
    m7Oisf9.png

    We test it out against one of Malavon’s friendly Iron Golems – 12 Hits for one, 13 for the other, which is only 1.5 rounds.

    We test it out on a pack of Fire Salamanders I had been avoiding. Carnage. The Simulacrum carves through them in about 1 round per enemy. I double check to see if Heart of Fury is still on :/ This is our Apotheosis moment. Megaera – personification of Jealous Rage prepares to bring destruction to a Devil from the Nine Hells themselves.

    We do some final prep and buy 30 Elixirs of Health from Oswald, as well as his supply of Mind Focusing, Invisibility, and Speed potions.

    Challenge Fight 5: Poquelin

    Back in Lower Dorn’s we do some ,more last minute prep, including an emergency minor sequencer from scroll with Protection From Evil and Mirror Image. Other prep is the same as for previous battles.

    After initiating the conversation with Poq we start with a timestop-gate combo, then get up a simulacrum and Project image. He brings in hordes of HoF summons but they do eventually stop and we work to group them around the Pit Feind while Incendiary Cloud and Death Fog do their magic. We chain a full book of PI timestops then get an improved Alacrity-Timestop Wish, unloading 5x chromatic orb, 6x skull trap and 3x blindness, and 3x feeblemind at Poq, most of which he either saves against or his magic resistance negates. Except he does take 400 magical Damage, bringing him down to badly injured. And, it seems, a Feeblemind… I know right. He just stood there for the rest of the battle.


    At this point it’s just a matter of waiting for the Acid to dissolve him. Only… it turns out that satisfying as it is, you are not allowed to Feeblemind him since it breaks the game. Nice. Due to having the Intelligence of a clam he is unable to initiate the next chunk of dialogue and take you to Easthaven. Look like I have won the game, the Devil is defeated…

    He has an item that prevents dropping below 1HP I guess since you can’t actually kill him, he just hangs forever. I count that as a win in this battle, but looks like we have to reload. For a “no-reload” run this sure has resulted in a lot of reloading. Feeblemind what have you done.

    How to Feeblemind Essential Enemies and Break Infinity Engine Games:
    hu4ctGt.png

    SR4Eaci.png

    xuiI3Z2.png

    We do it again and this time it starts well but ends far less elegantly as the Simulacrum aggros the Pit Fiend due to forgetting PfEvil and 8 casts of wish fail to get that Rest Wish one. A lot of faffing around and suboptimal play but a barrage of skull traps does take Poq down triggering the teleportation to Easthaven.
    19hopuz.png

    Challenge Fight 6: Pomab

    We free the villagers and rest in the Tavern Basement. For Pomab we do all the buffing, especially Lightning. Then drop the 3x Fire Elemental Spell Trigger, time stop, simulacrum and buff it with PfL and PfE. Simulacrum them gos timestop -> IH, Stoneskin, -> timestop -> BBoD, Tensers and chases down the “real Pomab” while Megaera prome tanks. I really really wish I had Mantle or Protection from Normal Weapons here since PfMW doesn’t seem to do anything for these “Cryshal” Sentries. Nice spelling error perhaps. Its cute.

    It is made particularly easy because the Simulacrum can just be told to attack the real Pomab – identified through the feedback text as “Pomab” rather than “False Pomab” then will chase it all around homing in to his new teleport location until an image disappears, then re-identify and repeat. Once he is ead the “Cryshal” Sentries Collapse.
    7rzvhRY.png

    That leaves only the Big Guy himself.
    Post edited by alice_ashpool on
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Would it be possible for the following to please go in the "Hall of Heroes of Icewind Dale"?
    IWD
    Megaera the Elven Sorceress: @alice_ashpool
    Special: Solo
    Difficulty: Heart of Fury
    Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1168286/#Comment_1168286
    Finish: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1168467/#Comment_1168467

    o:)
  • ArviaArvia Member Posts: 2,101
    alice_ashpool wrote: »
    Would it be possible for the following to please go in the "Hall of Heroes of Icewind Dale"?
    IWD
    Megaera the Elven Sorceress: @alice_ashpool
    Special: Solo
    Difficulty: Heart of Fury
    Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1168286/#Comment_1168286
    Finish: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1168467/#Comment_1168467

    o:)

    Added! Congratulations!
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Tisiphone the Elven Sorceress - Part 2
    BG:EE 2.6
    Difficulty: Unmodded Core

    Chapter 2 Continued
    We're beginning to feel powerful now. Completely over-leveled for the content. The only meta-power-gaming thing I have not done are the Rep dropping things: Dushai's Ring of Free Action and Algernon's cloak.

    We duel Tranzig noob style, both just hurling direct damage spells at each other. Shield OP. I try out Spook, takes forever to proc against a spellcasters good save vs spell. And then, hooray, 3 rounds of panic. I never know what to pick for 5th level 1 spell pick. Spook, Identify and Friends all compete.

    Anyway, our fair duel ends in poisoning him with Darts of Wounding.

    Playing "fair":
    erxRqnZ.png

    P2H2tHj.png

    Using one of his own friends spells for Cha17 we buy everything good from Thalantyr: Wand of Sleep, Every green protection scroll, Claw of Kaz, misc scrolls and potions. Tisiphone then "saves" Neera and steals her Gem Bag.

    Sorry Neera...
    dVKBbQx.png

    Time for Bandits. Tisiphone indulges in her love of melee combat, knifing Hobgoblins at 1attck/round with her MI and -4AC vs Evil. But in the end goes with Skulltrap, Blind and Darts of Wounding to kill Raiken's Gang.

    The power of the Skull:
    hVRHWHx.png

    Usually I just sneak into the tent and steal the letter with Potion of Absorption, but since this is Vanilla core Tisiphone attacks the whole camp solo head on, no biggie.

    With so many toys at her disposal, Tisiphone wades through the camp, stabbing away. Dual daggers, one of them Dagger of Venom (after a quick trip back to Beregost) make short work of all the sleeping and paralysed, while throwing daggers take care of the blind and webbed.

    Once upon a time I found this game hard, before i became infected with meta-knowledge:
    o0euoqB.png


    Inside the tent, Slow, Blindness and Skulltrap deal with everything, including Tisiphone hitting herself with the skulltrap... forget what the range of this thing is. Anyway, chapter 2 done.

    I have been spoiled by SCS:
    vWFMcUj.png

    Before moving on to Cloakwood we show that Denak can't handle the Web+Skulltrap treatment, and kill a Shoal. Getting Level 8, the Victor and a nice Remove Magic scroll.

    If you can believe it this requires something like 23 shots from One Gift Lost to do on Legacy of Bhaal Difficulty:
    Mt0DTSu.png

    It is interesting to contrast Vanilla BG with vanilla IWD, which, due to its linearity and encounter design is much harder to metagame.

    ---

    Spell picks by Level:
    8: Stoneskin
    Post edited by alice_ashpool on
  • alice_ashpoolalice_ashpool Member Posts: 261
    edited May 2021
    Tisiphone the Elven Sorceress - Part 3
    BG:EE 2.6
    Difficulty: Unmodded Core

    Chapter 4
    Drasus and squad can't handle a little web + skull trap. Tisiphone takes boots of speed.

    Unfortunately no opportunities for melee here:
    syhprD1.png

    After a poorly thought out rest attempt on Level 3, Tisiphone resorts to carving her way through a mass of sleeping enemies.

    What do you mean sorcerers shouldn't dual-wield due to thac0 penalties?:
    dFPu8tP.png

    Daveorn's battle Horrors die to Skulls, then we roll out the remove magic scroll and stab him. Greenstone Amulet OP.

    All good magical battles are settled with a poison dagger:
    QVQWsNb.png

    Chapter done. Loot and pull the plug.

    Chapter 5
    Enter Baldur's Gate -> Dex tome -> Docks Basilisk -> Desreta and Vay-ya

    Poor Desreta, humiliating to be bested in melee by a Sorceress:
    F9alZ3B.png


    Vay-ya is actually quite powerful - Shadow Door, Flame Arrow, Confusion and three attacks per round. A fighter/mage it turns out. Nothing that Mirror Image, Stoneskin and Greenstone amulet can't deal with. We "prove" that sorceresses are better melee people than fighter mages... just. Shame we can't wear the Gauntlets of Ogre power, 18/00 Str would make things much more fun for Tisiphone. In their defense the fight does gives an absurd wand of fire with 22 charges though. ^_^

    The dopplegangers in the Sun Compound fall to the might of the poisoned dagger... and a little bit of wand of paralysis. Completing this gets us to the level cap, if not the XP cap. Time to skip almost all the rest of the content, but first, agonise over the final spell picks - Level 4 is super hard.

    stabby stabby:
    Kl6RSuE.png

    ---

    Spell picks by level for BG1:EE in full:
    1: Shield, Blindness
    2: n/a
    3: Magic Missile
    4: Invisibility
    5: Protection from Evil, Web
    6: Skull Trap
    7: Spook, Mirror Image, Slow
    8: Stoneskin
    9: Blur, Remove Magic, Improved Invisibility
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 1,046
    Coreranger X the human ranger entering the challenge...Rangers or Bust!
    Traveling with:
    Sarah - half-elf ranger
    April - half-elf ranger
    Alena - half-elf archer
    Paja- half-elf archer

    My all fighter game appears to be lost into the ether space when my computer got reconfigured. So rolled a new MP party of rangers - ONLY rangers or ranger multi/duals are allowed. Rangers or bust! We'll see how it goes...
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