Dorian II, half-elven lawful neutral bard, twentyeighth update
A bunch of sunrays made quick work of the master wraith and other undead at the temple:
Travelling to marching mountains, long-lasting fire resistance buffs allowed us to quickly clear the place. I went for a very aggressive aproach and cleared the first level in one quick go, with the fire lich as one of my last targets:
Rebuffing after going upstairs, I quickly made sure to target Berenn, who had no powerful physical protections and was quickly taking down - his dragon companion soon followed:
I also equipped The Wave for our first an only time in order to take down the prince of fire in one hit:
At the army camp, it took quite a long time for Yaga-Shura to show up after being wounded, resulting in me having to rebuff improved haste on my fighters, but eventually, he got there (in front of his lieutenants, which allowed me to mostly ignore them initially):
However, it takes quite a while for SCS Yaga-Shura to take significant damage - while I was using critical strikes every round, this gave the lieutenants time to arrive, which made me throw down a few high-level AoE spells to interrupt spellcasting and thin out the hordes:
Things became dangerous when, suddenly and unexpectedly, Aerie's stoneskins went down without me noticing and her getting backstabbed right at the same time by the lieutenant thief:
Now, I was in a bit of a race against time to get Yaga-Shura down before his allies would deal more damage to my party, as Anomen was quickly losing health - however, we finally got enough damage through his damage resistance and ended the fight in our favor:
After resting up, we made our way through the Oasis with the help of massive HLA usage and quick item-based improved hastes:
After making it through Amkethran, I teleported to the pocket plane for the second challenge - I decided to let Semaj be Semaj, as my protections were well-established and hard to dispel, instead taking down everyone else first - only Tamoko was alive when the wizard used his timestop:
After that, I threw a triple secret word sequencer at him, breached and killed Semaj and returned to Amkethran. All the sidequests here were done easily, with Vongoethe actually being killed before his prebuffs fired up, getting me an easy Cloak of Mirroring:
Before entering Candlekeep I decided to continue some of the unfinished quests. This led to me runnning into people looking for the Stone of Askavar and also finding a strength increasing manual. It's getting to the point where enhancing items are no longer needed.
That's was the last of the talismans, now just that stone needed.
Most of the enemy followed me outside where buffed skeletons awaited.
We retrieved the stone without having to fight the remaining Teldorn, but we fought them anyway.
I'd forgotten that SoA was installed. I've completed that now. It made a change from my usual runs.
Now left Candlekeep.
Went to Ulgoth's Beard next and hence to the extended Ice Island which was very easy due to the belt of antipode.
@Wise_Grimwald Thanks. We're getting close to the end, one way or the other.
Dorian II, half-elven lawful neutral bard, twentyninth update
We're getting into the true lategame, with Sendai's Enclave and Watcher's Keep 3-5 on the table today. First, we deal with the outside area ambushes:
We made full use of our buffs, not resting until after right before the illithid ambushes - fighting our way through the tunnels and into Odamaron's lair. The lich has two apprentices, one vampire mage and another lich - both of his allies didn't have enough protections going to withstand us for long, and his timestop + IA combo could've been scary, but his fallen planetar died to our attacks within a round, and his other spells only got rid of a very low number of our buffs - instead, a lovely storm of vengeance interrupted future spellcasting attempts - even with SCS, enemy mages will often have some kind of hole in their defenses, and with storm of vengeance having so many damage types, something will often get through just for the interrupt:
Ogremoch was really annoying, because I had no more spell-based improved hastes left and lacked APR + damage to get through his renewing stoneskins. In the end, to buy myself the time, I resorted to some damage resistance stacking on Anomen with AoF, Defender of Easthaven and Roranach's Horn, with the others in melee combat being protected arcane spellcasters and Valygar/Mazzy weaving in and out and drinking potions:
It was a bit ambitious to take down Diaytha with almost no buffs and spells left, but with the help of a deva, luring enemies outside and some aggressive smite play against the hive mother, we got the job done:
Finally, Dorian kited around the captain with an oil of speed while throwing axes at him:
We got to rest and returned to take down the illithids with a new round of reduced buffs:
One last rest and a full round of buffs for Sendai. I've taken to prepare sequencers and spell triggers with 3*secret word and 3*pierce magic to help with quickly dispelling high level wizards. Sendai's statues activate rather fast with SCS, though her wizard form didn't do as much as you'd think - with our party immune or highly resistant to most of her damaging spells and very hard to dispel, she wasted a full timestop casting shadow door and true sight:
It took a little bit of time to make the first mage vulnerable, but we took out cleric, fighter, thief-statues and dealt with many of the adds in the meantime:
I used one of my spell triggers to instantly dispel and breach the next mage clone while also renewing improved hastes in case they'd run out mid-battle, which would be bad against the final version of Sendai:
Well, the real Sendai didn't even get to trigger her pre-buffs before already dying:
Now, we went to finish Watcher's Keep. First on the agenda: The teleport maze, randomized by SCS. This is always a mix of innovation and frustration - the fact that you could land in a no magic zone at any point in time makes prebuffing kind of pointless, which saves a lot of time. This, however turns many otherwise relatively simple encounters into huge challenges - though what really, really helps here is the improved bard song, granting us multiple automatic immunities which are undispellable, affect the entire party and also work in no-magic or wild magic zones. See: The tiefling party. We were able to use item-based improved haste on Mazzy to rush down the wizard before she was able to pre-buff. The thief ended up getting one backstab on Nalia, but that was basically all the damage we took:
I always make a hand-drawn map for the randomized maze. This time, actually clearing the maze went really fast, the thing that took really long was fiding the exit (it ended up being literally the last portal I hadn't explored yet, so after finishing the place in about 20 minutes, it took another 20 minutes just travelling around).
The first no-magic zone can be rather difficult due to a potential lack of item-based fear immunity, but is easy with the bard song:
The hardest encounter in the teleport maze with SCS is the glabrezu room, where we have to face mass PFMW, constant summoning, constant cloud spells and the like. Luckily, when you enter this room, you will not be in combat right away - and if you recognize the pillar and know that it's this one, you can teleport to the pocket plane and buff - which is exactly what I did this time (I didn't realize that I was in this room early enough in my last SCS run). With a few well-placed breaches, this was propably the easiest time I ever had with this room (though it still was a bit of a challenge):
The other no-magic zone features a balor - he is, at first, busy with these demons, so an aggressive approach is required - once he turns to the party, he might just vorpal hit someone:
We encountered the first scepter gem demon earlier on, made a deal, finding the other one a bit later. Entering unbuffed, our opening mostly consisted of improved hastes to turn our fighters into killing machines, making sure the bard song stayed active, some fighter HLAs and, later on, stoneskins and other protections to ensure survival:
The demon wraith was one of the last foes I encountered, again without buffs. He can obivously be rather dangerous in these circumstances, but I actually had a pretty good time with this one - mostly because, after his first spell, our foe decided to walk up to the party, which allowed us to get to him without walking through traps. We also made aggressive use of our spell triggers, getting rid of his spell protections right away, with Anomen's opening sunray actually hitting him:
Nalia got rid of most traps, Aerie finished her breach, and the demon wraith died to improved hasted critical strike using fighters:
After I won the spectral brand in my last run, this time, I was back to my old luck and lost all games when I finally found the cambion. Now, level 4 - mind flayers are no threat by now, and the githyanki didn't do better:
Now, things get interesting - the WK spellcasting demilich. Our clerics and mages can just protect themselves against imprisonment. Since Trap the Soul has a saving throw (though a very hard one), I used some potions of magic shielding I had saved for a long time on Valygar and Mazzy, and I was ready to renew them in case they'd get dispelled. 6th level spells and higher (plus breach) work in terms of anti-magic, so our 3* pierce magic spell triggers were really useful:
This fight was a little bit more involved, as the demi-lich actually did some things to counter our approach, including a shadow door which blocked our first breach, followed by a spell trap, which forced us to ruby ray (though I used ruby ray via the wand from Amkethran to speed things up, as I didn't want to give my opponent more time) - all these things only worked as a delay, though, not as a real threat.
We used the very same buffs to take down the dragon next door:
Venturing down to level 5 after taking down the minotaurs! A frost protection spell + white dragon armor for safety with the ice golems and their deadly CoC:
The orc horde is annoying in some way, because their wizards are many and will eventually start to dispel all of your buffs. I didn't want to rest, though, so I faced the green dragon with very little left in terms of protections. His one breath weapon actually dealt reasonable damage (mainly because I have no relevant resistances/immunities here), but in the end, our fighters took him down before he could do anything else:
After the orb "riddle", we summoned the first group of guardians and took down the aurumach rilmani:
Azamantes got to meet our spike traps, gaining us the Robe of Vecna. The final group of guardians got their succubus removed via spike traps as well, as the heavily buffed party took them down one by one, using two breaches and not much else:
In the end, we read the scroll and returned upstairs, making our way to Draconis, who will be our next foe. Things are looking good, I've definitely improved when it comes to lategame SCS combat, though the constant buffing is once again getting quite annoying.
Nowadays bandit ambushes are no problem. Now an easy source of gold and experience.
We decided to deal with the Iron Throne first. We rescued the Duke, killed the assassins and went to the Ducal Palace.
Freedom of action, as many summons as the game allowed, all buffed with chant and bless.
They surrounded the dukes and once we were attacked web was cast by Dynaheir and sleep by Tenya.
The rest was easy. We possibly used overkill, but better that than have the Dukes die.
We then decided to visit Durlag's at long last.
Realised that it was currently inaccessible so went via the basilisk area.
We ran into a minor sub-quest that I had forgotten about.
We killed the slavers and Xan got enough experience to reach the same level as Dynaheir.
We left the area by going south, so we can now go to the Tower directly from the FAI, which is where we ended up due to the quest.
Upon arrival at the tower we made our way upwards, killing a thief and Kirinhale in the process. This gave Tanya the experience that she needed to be able to raise the dead, a most valuable asset when far from home.
Dorian II, half-elven lawful neutral bard, thirtieth update
Draconis - we included acid protection in our buffs and equipped Valygar and Mazzy with some acid resistance armor. A quick secret word sequencer and breach was attempted, but Draconis was able to timestop before the breach finished and dodged it with shadow door. A dark planetar summoning failed as the celestial was immediately taken down, and I was able to breach again via wand and take down the human form:
A spell trigger to take down his new spell protections in dragon form:
He used PFMW after that, which we immediately breached - after that, the dragon was quickly defeated:
The lizardman shaman duo are among the more dangerous opponents in here. However, they protected themselves with PFMW and aren't immune to normal weapons naturally, so while our spellcasters started to secret word/breach them, the fighters already dealt some damage with nonmagical weapons:
The yellow dragon was the easiest one yet:
After taking down the prince of water, we got the rope form Amkethran, but not before laying down a bunch of spike traps in order to turn the quadruple dragon ambush into a triple dragon ambush:
The three dragons didn't do much in terms of magical defenses, though the green breath weapon did hurt - I countered the damage with Dorian's bhaalspawn mass heal power granted to us via Ascension - Carnifex had less of a chance, as we were immune to fire:
I went for a rather aggressive approach against the death tyrants/tyrant golems, hoping my buffs would survive for a time and protecting our only dispelled party member (Mazzy) with a potion of magic shielding:
Now, Abazigal - preparing with protection from electricity, of course. We went for the smaller dragons first, leaving Abazigal in human form, where he dealt relatively managable damage to Valygar, protected with Hardiness and AoF:
Our attempts to take down all of the adds was made much easier when, in addition to Nalia unleashing a second 3*ADHW CC mid combat, Tamah used her breath weapon on her own allies - weird:
A quick secret word + breach, and she was soon gone as well:
As we took down Abazigal's human form, Anomen got stuck in his selection circle when he turned into a dragon. I hate this. Luckily, this was the perfect guy to be in this position, as he used AoF + Defender of Easthaven for decent damage resistance and bought the others time to use their fighter HLAs, secret words and breaches to achieve victory:
We returned to Amkethran and buffed up again for the fight before Balthazar:
A quick wisdom elixir and a cast of friends to ensure that we could talk Balthazar into becoming our future companion. Next up, the favored of cyric (using gargoyle boots and thief hood for additional stoneskins and backstab immunity):
An interesting thing happened next: As I walked Dorian to the Ravager's room in order to plant spike traps, the encounter triggered right away. This hasn't always happened in the past. Dorian had no additional speed boost such as haste or oil of speed, so maybe the only way to avoid this trigger is by walking super fast and skipping past it? In any case, that meant Ravager without traps and with a medium number of buffs. Luckily, it seems like the Ravager isn't really boosted in SCS (I've always done him with traps before in SCS runs), so the fight was, in the end, fairly straightforward, with only Aerie losing her stoneskins and the fighter HLAs with improved haste dealing the required damage:
I bought some spellscrolls in Amkethran (mostly additional defenses, plus all the timestops - I also had two limited wishes left with a plan to use specific one-time wishes), prepared new sequencers/contingencies and am now awaiting the Ascension battle.
Dorian II, half-elven lawful neutral bard, final update
All right. Ascension. I've never felt as confident in an Ascension battle before, but as always seems to be the case (unless I play with both the vanilla game and with full spike trap availability), Amelyssan always manages to disrupt my seemingly pretty safe plan. There are just so many factors in this battle, so many things that can go wrong and that can almost instantly kill someone - just some tiny factors can lead to pretty bad outcomes.
Things start out well enough - the Jon+Bodhi+Imoen/Slayer+Fallen Solar battle is incredibly clean - while Anomen and Valygar grab iMoD + Runehammer to go after Bodhi, Mazzy takes down the fallen Solar and Nalia/Aerie start using their abilities such as ruby ray and sequencers to dispel Jon:
He is quickly breached and killed as well:
We have lost none of our buffs (which include storm giant strength, heroism and inverulnability as additions), so we start taking down the demons. At the first pool, one succubus manages to level drain Valygar, but we have restoration plus unending endurance for that. Our fire immunity serves us well, and we still have death wards for the balor. At the second pool, I don't notice that Aerie's stoneskins seem to be gone - a Babau gets a backstab on her, though her contingency triggers and renews stoneskin:
Since I don't know much about Balthazars abilities and don't want to read the readme in detail, I have him on his automatic script, which sometimes includes some friendly fire damage, though our fire protection helps with that. We renew some buffs for the third pool, mostly improved hastes, recitation/prayer and the emotions:
Since I'm not looking into the readme again for this battle, I don't remember that I actually get free rest effects here on tactical when using the pools - Nalia has 4 wish spells, and the first one already lets us wish for a rest, which does the job as well:
We prepare a lot for the final battle. We renew all our buffs, even the super long lasting ones, just for safety, take all potions anew, and lay down 6 time traps which is one of my go-to strategy to get an early advantage in the ascension battle. In order to take advantage of this, we make sure to put improved haste and strong dual wielding weapons on Dorian and buff him up to the max:
This would have been great, I'm sure. We even manage to wish for hardiness right before the battle starts. However, there are two problems: First, we forget that Balthazar isn't automatically immune to timestop in this version of Ascension and don't activate the stance (whatever it's called) that grants him this immunity. Second, and this one is a much bigger deal: Our six time traps don't work as intended and stack up their duration, as they did in all my previous ascension battles - instead, we only get the duration of a single time trap, which is only enough to throw our two PFM scrolls on Sendai and Abazigal. Damn it, there goes the plan of putting most of The Five to near death before they can even move.
While Dorian tries to mind control Sarevok via an illithid circlet, Ilasera shoots at Nalia, completely dispelling everything she has going on. Nalia can't equip the Reflex (I tried saving her with an invisbility potion, but that didn't work) - the only party member with that problem. Too bad. I decide to take full advantage of playing on tactical and kill Ilasera right away to prevent this from happening again (Melissan won't appear yet after the first death on this difficulty):
Nalia tries to rescast stoneskin, drink a wisdom potion and start using wishes again. You will see later that this plan fails. Also, dominating Sarevok fails as well, propably because of the insect plague our planetar had cast on him - Sarevok just turns hostile again once it ticks. Meanwhile, the fighters go after Gromnir - I didn't intend to kill him, only to bring him to near death, but he dies so damn fast:
Okay, so obviously Melissan appears, earlier than we wanted. I need to weaken and stun her to provent her from taking down our party - Sarevok is certainly the easiest to kill amongst our remaining foes, so he goes next while Nalia runs away from Yaga-Shura (she also equipped a fire resistance ring in addition to her family ring because he used his fire grenade on her):
I don't quite get how Abazigal and Sendai work - apparently, PfM doesn't really dispel them like it does with player characters. I think they can only use sequencers, but they have a few of those. In any case, they STILL seem to be immune to magical weapons, but luckily, nonmagical ones work on them, which I only realize after trying to get rid of PfM with spellstrike in order to dispel them the normal way, so this takes quite some time - and Amelyssan is active, which allows her to take down our one weakened party member, Nalia, with a quick PW:Death:
We're starting to lose some of our buffs, I make sure that we can atleast renew improved hastes. Sendai dies, which is good - we use the RoR on Nalia and Aerie recasts ihaste on Valygar:
Sendai had previously used some kind of remove magic sequencer on Mazzy, which is why some of the other buffs are uneven. We get Nalia back, but due to being in combat from now on, the potential power of the Robe of Vecna is gone:
Yaga-Shura dies next while Nalia dismisses the genie previously summoned via Wish (she hasn't used a wisdom potion yet, so it's not safe) - she casts IA in order to quickly renew a bunch of buffs:
Abazigal is the final one of the five to die. We want to use the fact the Amelyssan can't do anything for a short time to heal the party via bhaalspawn mass heal and also get IA on Aerie to help with renewing buffs quickly:
At this point, everything looks like it's going to be fine and easy, but Mel is up faster than expected - I don't see her using her spellcasting animation as she activates a timestop, so I don't have focus. However, Dorian (alongside with Aerie) still has all of his buffs and doesn't look like a soft target, so Mel luckily doesn't go after him - she also doesn't use GWW right away because she first wants to activate divine cleanse. Still, during the timestop, she easily kills Valygar and deals some damage to Anomen:
This timestop is kind of a disaster - because it completely robs Nalia and Aerie of their improved alacrity, which runs out during the timestop while they have only cast one spell each. We need some time to breathe but also can't leave Mel to her own devices - luckily, Dorian is able to use the control demon ability on the balor Mel had gated in, Mazzy uses her Helm of Vhailor to call in reinforcements, we renew SI:A on the two casters who still have all their buffs. Nalia and Aerie also work on dispelling Mel, but just as we finally have gotten rid of her buffs, she teleports away:
As we finally turn the balor to our side, Nalia gets knocked down and Mel renews her buffs, so we're back to square one - we have lost one party member, Mel has lost one demon:
Finally, we use the RoR to get back Valygar, though he's without buffs and armor. We make sure to get improved hastes back up, plus hardiness, to have some basic fighting power. After a bunch of wand of spellstriking charges, as we dispel Mel again, she teleports once more before we can deal any damage - this time, however, she had just very recently re-upped her buffs, so we should have some time to damage her before she can do so again. Still, survival is a priority, so Anomen casts heal on himself while Dorian casts focus to prevent a potential timestop (I just guessed that the time limit for the next one might be over at this point, and she often uses it after a teleport):
Mel picks our weakest party member, the vulnerable Nalia, to go after - Nalia kites her for a bit and eventually is able to use PFMW via scroll while the others FINALLY get to deal some serious damage to our foe:
Once we actually get to hit her, we activate critical strikes every single round. PFMW on Nalia runs out, she gets chased again, I let her drink an oil of speed, so she runs away while Aerie deals more damage with energy blades to a near death Amelyssan:
Mel realizes: This isn't going to do it. She teleports again and starts casting something, I think it's an abjuration spell. The fighters, however, can't reach her in time - Balthazar is the only one close to her new position, he gets a hit in, so does Aerie with her energy blades. Dorian equips the Ring of the Ram and literally deals the final point of damage by activating it, so we never get to see what spell Mel would've activated:
That was intense. Once again, I lost two characters and more buffs than I ever expected to lose during this battle, and I got hit by a timestop when I didn't have focus up - could've easily gone the other way, despite all the preparation and relatively decent play in the ToB endgame otherwise. When Mel renewed her buffs after the teleport to the north-east, I thought that I seriously might lose this battle, with no Valygar up, Anomen heavily wounded, buffs running out left and right, very little damage left. Still, we did it - a bard is obviously a very safe protagonist if played as a support class, and I'm happy to finally to get the final bard kit into the hall (or the base class in this case).
I don't expect to return to BG for a while, as I'm spending some time on WoW:WotlK classic in the near future - good luck to everyone else!
@Arvia Another one for the Hall (though It's going to be the final one for a while) - and the unkitted bard can be removed from the classes/kits missing from the hall of heroes
It only took us 15 minutes to reach Prat and his gang. Dendy raced in with the intention of a backstab but Prat had other ideas. He cast a lightning bolt at Willaim (despite a brace of arrows piercing his defences) and Willaim paused briefly before deciding t'was a mere flesh wound and unpaused.
Dendy was almost there, but before he could raise his quarterstaff the lightning bolt had bounced off the cave wall and killed Prat. Right after that it killed Dendy (who had been through this thought process of game paused > lightning bolt > coming back at us > move) but not reached the last and somewhat important part of applying a final movement click.
Down went Dendy for the first and last time, and the path to Trio 45 was cleared.
After the quick defeat of Trio 44, we rolled new lambs to the slaughter. We made it out of Candlekeep Ok. We did our standard technique of taking out Shoal. No levels here. We don't have much CHA so passed on Arcand the Mad for now. Lunie's command insured we could recover Neera's gem bag without incident. DemeQ decided to loot the Smithy while we were here as well.
We then proceeded south. Ogrillions were no match for our ranged fire, and neither were some hobgoblins, which resulted in stealth boots for DemeQ since he does backstabs sometimes. We made it to Nashkel with some Ankheg armor for Coreranger since the other characters want to wear leather so they can stealth a lot.
Coreranger decided to take on an Xvart village to get a magical flail in a cave. Stealth was used to pick up the flail without fighting the dangerous bear. The other bear summoned by the xvarts was shot to pieces. Coreranger XX wisely decided to pass on Borda, and surprisingly Lunie agreed with the discretion.
Coreranger then decided to take on some ogrillions to get a magical shield for DemeQ - Coreranger often dual wields or uses his shortbow so shield isn't a big priority for Coreranger, though he will use sometimes like when engaging Ankhegs. The ogrillions were shot to pieces and commanded. We reported to Bjornin the success. We took on some spiders and Karlat while here and we succeeded with that.
After having Tarnesh get backstabbed, we reported to Landarin that her house was free of spiders. We then went to Carnival to get a PfP scroll. Coreranger engaged Zordral, but his attacks were ineffective and was hit with horror and ran in fear. Later DemeQ lamented he could have protected the party from horror if Coreranger had bothered to rest. Coreranger's groupmates bravely engaged Zordral taking bunch of damage. Then when they tried to get some distance Coreranger was taking a beating from spells. But his HP were holding up (fighter HP) well. Everntually Coreranger shook off the horror, fired an arrow and blast from his wand of magic missiles and Zordral finally goes down.
Next target was Greywold. We didn't need the sword, just the experience. He didn't last very long, as Coreranger got several critical hits this fight. Samuel was nearby so we recovered him and the fire resistance ring. We headed to FAI to return Samuel. Finally we head to Basilisk's area - but uh oh! We get the dreaded basilisk ambush! Lunie was targeted but we had no potions of mirror eyes or invisibility. But wait! Seems the basilisk wanted to melee - run! Whew close one...
The basilisks were taken down pretty smoothly, though despite his full plate and shield Coreranger was getting hit a crazy amount of times. Fortunately groupmates used commands to help which saved him. Mutamutin got triggered before we meant to, but we were protected with resist fear this time and he went down to missile fire easily enough. The last basilisk was killed then rest to set our spells - on to Kirian! An initial silence saw 3/4 of the enemies silenced - attack! The enemies charged, then Lunie and DemeQ managed to hold 2 enemies each! All according to plan....
We decided to get a hammer from Bassilus. He got held and hence his quick doom. Lunie appreciated the upgrade. Some nearby hobgoblins got silenced. They then just stood there while being peppered by missiles. How nice of them! We returned Melicamp, went to Ankheg Farm area and will resume our adventures here next session.
@Corey_Russell Well you survived. The things going wrong are just like my runs!
Journal of Cavalo
Upon taking on the Demonknight I discovered that magical attacks such as fireballs etc. were of little use. Buffed skeleton warriors were a different story!! Since we had used most of our spells, we slept immediately after the battle.
As we left we were ambushed. We sent a volley of missiles which killed one of them before retreating. Those who followed us found that they had themselves been ambushed.
After returning there was only one who had not followed us and she was swiftly killed.
Drizzt wants us to go to Icewind dale. We therefore left three party members to guard the Soultaker dagger which we left outside the Friendly Arms Inn.
I have kept Tenya and Dynaheir in the party. Tenya for raising any casualties, and Dynaheir for her casting ability.
We have ended up in the nine hells together with Drizzt and Wulfgar. Time will tell whether joining them was a good idea or not.
Experience tells me that oportunities to rest are few and far between in this area.
Between them Wulfgar and Drizzt dealt with some Demonknights, but when a Greater Tanari turned up, Drizzt relied upon his stealth.
I already knew about a +5 sword that dealt out poison, so Drizzt used this to at least protect him from the poison. It didn't work.
He used the throwing axe found nearby to separate the lesser demonknights from Eltab, the one they were protecting, then it was a case of stabbing in the back, run, hide, repeat.
When they reached Marilith, they were wise enough to summon some skeletons before entering.
When Marilith cast her spells, they immediately fled hoping that she would follow into the prepared ambush. She didn't. She wasn't that stupid.
The party slept to recharge their spells and re-entered. Tenya summoned a skeleton, and to the party's relief, Marilith attacked it. It didn't last long, but long enough for the party to flee out of sight to the other end of the room.
There they summoned the most powerful monsters that they could and then buffed the party.
When Marilith attacked she was no match for us and fell quickly. I used Eltab's Sword of course.
I noticed that Belhifet had changed his name to Eltab. I presume that this is becuse he is fought again later in the Trilogy
Unfortunately we didn't have the option of selling loot and buying potions before continuing. Potions of invisibility are very few in our packs, and other potions would also have been bought as we now have a lot of sought-after armour and swords which are not required.
Now in Icewind Dale. Our three tanks are fairly well protected from the cold.
Drizzt and I have 100% protection and Wulfgar 95%.
Of course wearing those items means that other protections are lower, but in Icewind Dale we are assuming that protection from cold is a priority.
I have discovered that protection from cold is not the only protection needed. There are dragons thhat deal out fire and poison damage and there are undead that have energy drain. It's not dispellable by lesser restoration. The only cure for it appears to be scrolls of protection from magic. If I had known that, I would have ensured that I had bought up more of them before joining Drizzt. I only have three!! I am hoping that will be sufficient.
Perhaps I should have left Drizzt in Bruenor's Cabin and carried on with Bruenor.
However it is too late for that now.
Drizzt is the one affected.
Perhaps it will get sorted if he levels up, or perhaps there will be more scrolls on sale.
One thing is certain. I will stock up on those scrolls in future games, and use summons as buffers between the party and the vampires!!
I have noticed that my key ring with the keys has gone AWOL. I therefore just went head to head after Sarevok and decided to forget about the NToSC quests.
The Drizzt Characters have come with me to SoD, at least to the intro.
I picked up a couple of Protection from Magic scrolls before taking on Saverok. Drizzt no longer drained.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt, Core rules + unmodded (Link to session 1) Pleg (male dwarf priest of Talos, Gate70); Fines (female halfling thief, Grond0)
Our second outing with this pair started off smoothly and we rapidly convinced Nimbul to lay down his weapons life.
After a bit of fiddling around doing odd jobs we headed for Tranzig who was firmly of the opinion that lightning could and indeed should strike more than twice. Fines died from Melf's Acid Arrows (multiplayer beating both his attempt to retreat down the stairs and my attempt to pause). Pleg was worse for wear at this point but felt reasonably confident - if only he could budge Tranzig from the door.
At this point Tranzig felt obliged to demonstrate his lightning theories and Pleg took some damage. Tranzig added more lightning and left Pleg with 1 hit point remaining - so Pleg dutifully switched from boots of avoidance to grounding. If you're going to die with your boots on they might as well be the correct boots for the occasion. Fines was twisting in her grave (well, on the floorboards or stairs anyway) in certain knowledge that boots plus 1hp still meant certain death on another lightning strike.
The rebound duly arrived and down went Pleg, completing a shocking weekend on my trio / duo protagonists.
Still, at least Tranzig also died which means a Sword Coast CSI team will have to piece together evidence of what happened.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 232, Core rules + unmodded (update 1) Kiel (male dwarf fighter, Grond0); Gevis (male half-orc priest of Talos, Gate70)
Previous run
Another of our quick finishes left plenty of time to generate new random classes and make some significant progress. Kiel did take one nasty whack from a Candlekeep guard remonstrating about his thieving habits, but avoided further trouble while completing quests there. At the Crossroads it was Gevis' turn to take damage when he found that the 1d6 damage from his 1st level lightning bolt only annoyed Xzar and Montaron, but a bit of running round saw them off. There was then a rather more rewarding encounter with Shoal to provide our first levels.
After a few chores in Beregost we headed on down to Nashkel where Kiel replaced his looted leather armor with some rather sturdier ankheg plate. In the mood for more upgrades, he sought out Arghain to replace the non-proficient staff he'd been wielding with a magical 2-handed blade.
Next it was on to Firewine Ruins to shoot down Meilum for his bracers.
A few more tasks in Beregost included silencing Silke to ensure that Gate70 would not suffer further problems with lightning.
Karlat was also summarily dispatched when he lost his head to a single stroke from Kiel.
The next target was the FAI where Kiel went to collect Joia's ring from some hobgoblins while Gevis sorted out Tarnesh on his own.
By this stage Kiel was up to level 4 and had only dropped 1 HP in his level-ups to date. That seemed sufficient to take on the ankhegs and the first 3 of those all died easily, but the 4th put up a tough fight.
A couple of CLWs provided enough healing to persuade Kiel to continue and in the event none of the remaining ankhegs did any further damage.
Consoling a local farmer got Gevis to level 5, making skeletons available and a pair of them took the lead while working through a bunch of basilisks. Mutamin saved against a couple of silences and used acid arrows to kill one of the skeletons, but his LMDs were useless against the remaining one.
After resting, 3 skeletons attacked Kirian. Her team were all silenced, so did pretty well to kill the skeletons, but that was their lot.
Gevis had been patient up to that point in not asking for a decent melee weapon for himself, but Kiel thought it was only fair to address that deficiency by calling on Bassilus on the way to the coast.
More skeletons are now in position to assault the sirines at the lighthouse area next time.
@Arvia Another one for the Hall (though It's going to be the final one for a while) - and the unkitted bard can be removed from the classes/kits missing from the hall of heroes
After starting SoD Imoen disappeared. I have finished the prologue, got Imoen's books and now cannot exit to the palace.
I do have a save from the start of SoD. Should I just rerun the Prologue and hope that the bug doesn't reoccur, perhaps check the dialogue.
I don't think that I talked to the Cleric after Imoen. Perhaps that's the problem.
Yes, that's the problem. If you don't speak to the Cleric, Imoen's Party disappears and the game cannot be finished. If you do, her party goes with you. I don't know if this is a problem in the unmodded game, but it's a major problem in my set-up.
As it's a bug, I assume that it is OK to go back to the start of SoD and replay it?
A bank-holiday bonus session started with skeletons leading the assault against sirines - the latter stood no chance.
Inside the pirate cave we didn't bother with support while meleeing and shooting the golems.
Kiel took the tome to activate constitution regeneration.
Bjornin's half-ogres provided a shield upgrade and a reputation boost before we headed south to do a few tasks in the Cloud Peaks - pushing reputation up to the maximum 20, as well as picking up the charisma tome.
The Nashkel mine posed no problems at our levels and Mulahey went silently to his grave.
Outside the mine, the amazons were also silenced, which left them over matched even before skeletons and hold person added injury to insult.
Nimbul and Tranzig also highlighted how vicious silence is in BGEE.
Before heading to the Bandit Camp we purchased some full plate in Beregost and the Cloak of Displacement from Ulgoth's Beard. That left the archers at the Camp little chance to hit and Taurgosz failed to rally them after being held.
Gevis had a cunning plan for the enemies inside the tent, summarising that as "let's go in and kill them" (he did though use remove fear outside to ensure our attacks were not rudely interrupted).
Kiel was about to ask Gevis for a loan of his boots of lightning when Gevis showed he was a step ahead by using Storm Shield to negate the lightning trap.
In the Cloakwood, Kiel did a bit more work than usual by recovering Spider's Bane to make use of his 2-handed sword expertise.
Then it was on to the mine where the plan was probably to produce a few supporting skeletons. Gevis was spotted prematurely to make that difficult, but still showed his prowess by first silencing both mages and then holding Drasus to allow an easy victory.
On the way through the mine Gevis found a group of co-operative guards when instructing them to "gather round my friend and smile for the camera".
On the bottom level the battle horrors were dragged back and meleed before Gevis summoned a few skeletons to join in the assault on Davaeorn. In the event though they were not really needed, when silence came up trumps once more.
Yeah, that's definitely a gamebreaking bug, I think replaying this part would be absolutely acceptable
I thought as much.
Replaying the prologue went like a dream. The only thing that changed was that Korlasz was killed rather than allowed to surrender. What changed was that she was webbed so the surrender dialogue didn't start before her death.
In the Ducal Palace Dynaheir has disappeared to talk to her sisters as I expected. The Drizzt characters are still with me as is Tenya.
I came across Dynaheir again and she has accompanied me to the Coast Way Crossing. We have a reputation of 20 which is most gratifying.
The quests on the Coast Way Crossing have been successfully concluded.
Two points of note, upon returning from killing the vampire, we went into the troll cave and were quite successful, however upon going down the steps I had forgotten that Dynaheir needed a rest to get her web spells reset. Fortunately she had some web scrolls and after using one of them we were successful there too.
We went to the place where Baeloth is usually found. Because he was killed in BG1 he wasn't there.
What I didn't realise was that M'Khiin wasn't available either.
The dialogue with Baeloth is needed to trigger the dialogue with M'Khiin.
My opinion is that Biff the Understudy should have made an appearance!!
The Bridge is down, but I have remembered that I have some unfinished business, that is: seeing the visions. The problem is that I have only seen two of them and cannot find any more of the white potion.
Now in Forest of Wyrms. All battles so far haven't stretched the party in the slightest, though Tenya's healing was needed from time to time.
Morentherene fell to being struck by a throwing dagger.
Have beaten the Cyricists who took over the Temple of Baal.
The illithids which always gave problems in the past were beaten relatively easily with buffed summoned skeletons.
We have taken ale to the irregulars entered Bridgefort and have proceeded to the Coalition Camp.
@Wise_Grimwald Do not temples have Greater Restoration option? Shouldn't that fix Drizzt?
They do by the time I get to SoD. Not before. What's more, during the Drizzt Saga there are no temples. (Since playing this I have discover that with this set-up I can exit and re-enter the Saga. Last time I played Drizzt in Tutu, that wasn't an option)
EDIT
End of the road for Cavalo. I discovered the identity of Malden Col the spy and after her confession I killed her. I was then attacked and died.
The Trio found themselves at the Ankheg farm. The Ankheg nest was cleared out pretty fast. Coreranger used a shield to minimize getting hit, and only the last Ankheg managed to hit him. We bought some goodies at Ulgoth's beard, notably the martial staff for DemeQ.
Coreranger felt we had enough levels to take on the Nashkel mines. The kobolds were no problems, though surprisingly we got hit a few times with traps. Mulahey was a silence victim. We also defeated the Amazons, who were also treated to the silence and commands.
While here Coreranger took out the undead and Narcillicus and his jellies. Coreranger got poisoned twice from the jellies and we didn't have any antidotes....hmm...well he lived anyways thanks to party heals and heal potions.
We now had skeletons so we decided to pay Durlag's tower a visit. As is our custom, were cleared the surface area, as those doom guards are worth a lot of experience. DemeQ tried to detrap the stun trap before the basilisks but stunned himself in the process. Therefore, Lunie and Coreranger played with some ghasts as well as as freed the succubus upstairs and also killed the thief. Finally DemeQ healed himself and then did DUHM and then they coudl get rid of the stun trap.
The party then stealthed to the basilisks and skeletons were distractions while we killed the basilisks from range. This worked well. Also since we had skeletons we took on the sirines. We tried to help the woman and her child but she didn't acknowledge that we had helped her. Coreranger forgot where the trap in the golem caves were and nearly killed Lunie - whoops! But the golems were taken down pretty easily. Coreranger had used a potion of absorption to make sure he could tank the golems well.
While we were at it, we defeated all the ogre types and some more sirines in the Surgeon area. It went well except a lightning bolt from the storm badly hurt DemeQ.
We decided to take on the bandit camp. The party did well here. Despite Khossahn resisting commands and hold persons he still went down. Tazok's tent had no chance as the party stealthed in and did such things as skeletons, silence etc. Belatedly Corerange reealized no one had any bracers so we sought Melium and Zax and Val. Once those enemies were killed, then we all had bracers.
We decided we might as well as get the CHA tome and girdle of bluntness, so we headed west to get those things. Not much trouble doing that.
Almost out of time, party ventured into the Cloakwood Forest. We skip most stuff here. We fought our way past the ettercaps and spiders to get to the exit in area 2. Coreranger accidentally tripped a trap but luckily no enmies around. We saved here.
On the plus side, we didn't die early in this session, but I'm not quite sure how much of a silver lining that is.
The clearance of Baldur's Gate saw an ogre mage and his crawler friends unable to outlast Gevis' free action spell. There was a moment of concern against the Mountain Maulers when Gevis was in a corner when he appeared (to me) to be targeted by a lightning bolt. However, that didn't bounce and Gate70 didn't see it, so perhaps I was imagining things ...
Most of the remaining tasks in the City were completed without trouble before Gevis noted he wasn't quite as wise as he should have been at this stage. A quick map review confirmed we hadn't yet been to Durlag's Tower and we duly proceeded there. We didn't have any protection against petrification, but clerics can use sanctuary and skeletons to make the basilisks on the roof simple anyway.
Back in the City we headed for the Iron Throne. Pre-summoned skeletons, silenced casters and hold made that an easy victory and we celebrated with a holiday at Candlekeep. On arrival there Gevis inquired whether we'd done any shopping for potions to get the strength tome. Kiel hadn't thought about that, but fortunately the cloud giant strength potion from Durlag's was good enough in conjunction with DUHM. Gevis could have memorized protection from lightning, but didn't do so and had used his Storm Shield protection against lightning in the earlier tombs. That raised the possibility of a nasty end when he tripped the lightning trap in the corridor - he managed to avoid being fried by bounces of that though. Prat and his gang met the typical grisly end after being silenced (Gevis having memorised 3 of those and getting Prat with the last one) and faced with skeletons.
On the way to find Slythe and Kristen we used some stone to flesh scrolls acquired from Degrodel earlier to get some easy XP from a bunch of statues. That meant we had the option of getting the Cloak of Balduran through discussion rather than encouraging Kristen to cast a cloudkill near Quenash. Kiel tried to nip in to see her without Slythe reacting and thought he'd done that successfully. That meant it was a bit of a surprise when Slythe appeared, but Kiel had an impressive 118 HPs at this stage (out of a possible total of 125), so had plenty of time to react. In true dwarven fighter style he tried to win the argument with his sword, but found that was far from a sure thing. With both of them at near death Kiel attempted to flee and did successfully create what would have been a safe distance between them if playing single player. However, the greater difficulty of movement in MP means that running away is not a very safe option and a potion of invisibility would have been a better choice. As it was Slythe was able to get back close to Kiel and slid his sword through his ribs for a final time.
Ruby the Righteous also fell, being level 4 at the time. She underestimated the power of Teddy the Doomsayer on the way to trying to improve charisma to 18.
Summons and buffs should have been there at the start of the battle. It might still have been tough but not too tough.
Next game is a burial defender, quite a strong fighter kit but with the distinct disadvantage in no reloads that, a bit like Minsc, when enraged he could attack anyone! Let's see how it works out. Never played one before.
@Wise_Grimwald if you are going to play solo then you could make it real interesting and use two hand sword proficiency. Then you can use the berserking sword from Brage. You could really go to town! You would probably have massive Thac0 (think the cursed sword something like +5 to hit and +3 to damage). Just get full plate to maximize defense.
@Wise_Grimwald if you are going to play solo then you could make it real interesting and use two hand sword proficiency. Then you can use the berserking sword from Brage. You could really go to town! You would probably have massive Thac0 (think the cursed sword something like +5 to hit and +3 to damage). Just get full plate to maximize defense.
A good idea. I'll roll again and try that. With the added strength from Ancient Wrath that could be something special. Probably something will go wrong as he won't be controllable, but it's worth a shot to see how far I get. I think what I will do is just do the NPCs quests and other than that do it solo. The quests do make the game more interesting. When I come to the Drizzt Saga, that will definitely be in a party, mainly beacause that is how it is intended to be played.
I got a slightly better roll this time.
One of the initial benefits is that he can get 1000gp in Candlekeep due to being able to open chests easily.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender First and last entry
I picked Imoen up and left her in the safety of the Friendly Arms Inn courtyard. I gave her studded leather armour and a long sword to help her defend herself.
I afterwards fought Tarnesh and was so badly wounded that it took 3 days and 16 hours to recover. However, recover I did.
After returning Joia's ring I went to Beregost, calmed Marl, and took a tome to Firebead. Also bought a spare two-handed sword, just in case it is needed. Perhaps I should have had one pip in bows or missiles since so much of the fighting is at range.
Killed by Zordral. Fought him too soon. Was shielded AND enraged.
@Wise_Grimwald for a solo player that doesn't have true sight then a potion of magic blocking is the safest way to deal with Zordral. Thalantyr has a number of those potions for sale.
@Wise_Grimwald for a solo player that doesn't have true sight then a potion of magic blocking is the safest way to deal with Zordral. Thalantyr has a number of those potions for sale.
Thanks. I'll try that. I'll also make sure that I have a magical weapon before trying to help the werewolf near High Hedge, just in case the guril berries don't work. It's weird. They seemed to work in every game, but recently they seem to fail in every game.
I have decided on a modification on Corey's idea, namely to have a party of two, Dan and Tenya. Having Tenya means that Dan can have Bless and Chant cast on him prior to combat and in combat the spells, Command, Hold and Silence can be invaluable.
Also, it is quite easy to keep two characters apart if Dan is uncontrolable, not so much with ba large party.
Second run
Journal of Dan
After Imoen joined me, we went to the FAI where I left her along with enough weapons and armour to keep her safe.
I returned Joia's ring to her before heading to High Hedge where I helped Melicamp.
I then headed to Nashkel, returning Mirianne's letter in the process.
I found some ankheg armour and turned down an undeserved reward from Oublek.
I killed Vax and Zal and then helped a dryad against Krumm and Caldo.
After proceeding west, I killed Ingot.
I then killed Greywolf and Zargos Flintblade.
I claimed the reward for the emeralds before returning to Beregost.
There I used Ancient Wrath againnst Silke which made fighting her a formality. However I became possessed and killed everyone in the vicinity, fortunately none of them was innocent.
I then entered the inn and killed a dwarven assassin before speaking to Tulbor. With his help I aided Eltolth.
At High Hedge the guril berries were made into a potion which sadly didn't work.
However I was handsomely rewarded for the werewolf pelt with a second magical longsword.
East of the temple I found a cave that had some undead wolves, spiders and the like in it.
I found a charisma increasing tome and charisma increasing armour, basically full plate with some useful protections. Not only that: It was free!
I discovered that it wasn't difficult to avoid Teddy the Doomsayer. It might be dealt with later. [It brought a previous run to an end]
Afterwards I killed Tarnesh and Bassilus, then lured Zargal away from his cohorts before killing him. When I have Ancient Wrath he is NOT the strongest one there is!!
I then helped Charleston Nib and Brage before returning to Aerie who identified my items.
After that I killed Sonner et al and recruited Tenya. Her remove curse spell will be most useful if things go wrong when under my wrath spell. Her command spell was great against ankheg and silence will be helpful against magic users. The synergy between us is quite impressive.
At the lighthouse area I dealt with the sirenes and raided the cave after which I went to see Shoal.
I discovered that she wouldn't interact with Tenya so Shoal badly injured me.
Tenya did a little healing on me before fighting her. When I stopped sleeping I took healing potions while Tenya cast command on Droth and moved away. I then used ancient wrath and also the berserking sword. This caused me to attack Shoal while Droth was invisible. When both were dead Tenya removed the curse on me. We attempted sleep three times but were unable so we went to see a very wertly man. There we could sleep and we ended up with a piece of ivory and a potion.
We then cleared the area of sirine.
Afterwards I realised that i had been lucky. If I had been poisoned I would have been unable to take an antidote potion and Tenya had not memorised slow poison.
That's another spell that needs to be ready at all times
Now gone shopping in preparation for the basilisks. Tenya now level 6.
Comments
A bunch of sunrays made quick work of the master wraith and other undead at the temple:
Journal of Cavalo
Before entering Candlekeep I decided to continue some of the unfinished quests. This led to me runnning into people looking for the Stone of Askavar and also finding a strength increasing manual. It's getting to the point where enhancing items are no longer needed.
That's was the last of the talismans, now just that stone needed.
Most of the enemy followed me outside where buffed skeletons awaited.
We retrieved the stone without having to fight the remaining Teldorn, but we fought them anyway.
I'd forgotten that SoA was installed. I've completed that now. It made a change from my usual runs.
Now left Candlekeep.
Went to Ulgoth's Beard next and hence to the extended Ice Island which was very easy due to the belt of antipode.
Dorian II, half-elven lawful neutral bard, twentyninth update
We're getting into the true lategame, with Sendai's Enclave and Watcher's Keep 3-5 on the table today. First, we deal with the outside area ambushes:
Now, we went to finish Watcher's Keep. First on the agenda: The teleport maze, randomized by SCS. This is always a mix of innovation and frustration - the fact that you could land in a no magic zone at any point in time makes prebuffing kind of pointless, which saves a lot of time. This, however turns many otherwise relatively simple encounters into huge challenges - though what really, really helps here is the improved bard song, granting us multiple automatic immunities which are undispellable, affect the entire party and also work in no-magic or wild magic zones. See: The tiefling party. We were able to use item-based improved haste on Mazzy to rush down the wizard before she was able to pre-buff. The thief ended up getting one backstab on Nalia, but that was basically all the damage we took:
The first no-magic zone can be rather difficult due to a potential lack of item-based fear immunity, but is easy with the bard song:
We used the very same buffs to take down the dragon next door:
Nowadays bandit ambushes are no problem. Now an easy source of gold and experience.
We decided to deal with the Iron Throne first. We rescued the Duke, killed the assassins and went to the Ducal Palace.
Freedom of action, as many summons as the game allowed, all buffed with chant and bless.
They surrounded the dukes and once we were attacked web was cast by Dynaheir and sleep by Tenya.
The rest was easy. We possibly used overkill, but better that than have the Dukes die.
We then decided to visit Durlag's at long last.
Realised that it was currently inaccessible so went via the basilisk area.
We ran into a minor sub-quest that I had forgotten about.
We killed the slavers and Xan got enough experience to reach the same level as Dynaheir.
We left the area by going south, so we can now go to the Tower directly from the FAI, which is where we ended up due to the quest.
Upon arrival at the tower we made our way upwards, killing a thief and Kirinhale in the process. This gave Tanya the experience that she needed to be able to raise the dead, a most valuable asset when far from home.
Draconis - we included acid protection in our buffs and equipped Valygar and Mazzy with some acid resistance armor. A quick secret word sequencer and breach was attempted, but Draconis was able to timestop before the breach finished and dodged it with shadow door. A dark planetar summoning failed as the celestial was immediately taken down, and I was able to breach again via wand and take down the human form:
All right. Ascension. I've never felt as confident in an Ascension battle before, but as always seems to be the case (unless I play with both the vanilla game and with full spike trap availability), Amelyssan always manages to disrupt my seemingly pretty safe plan. There are just so many factors in this battle, so many things that can go wrong and that can almost instantly kill someone - just some tiny factors can lead to pretty bad outcomes.
Things start out well enough - the Jon+Bodhi+Imoen/Slayer+Fallen Solar battle is incredibly clean - while Anomen and Valygar grab iMoD + Runehammer to go after Bodhi, Mazzy takes down the fallen Solar and Nalia/Aerie start using their abilities such as ruby ray and sequencers to dispel Jon:
I don't expect to return to BG for a while, as I'm spending some time on WoW:WotlK classic in the near future - good luck to everyone else!
Dorian II, the Bard: @Enuhal
Notable mods: SCS + Ascension
Difficulty: Core rules, tactical difficulty
Start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1188082/#Comment_1188082
Finish: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1189314/#Comment_1189314
Congratulations. It certainly looked asif you were going to make it.
Journal of Cavalo
Progressing nicely through Durlag's. In the Phoenix area, Coran used backstab to great effect.
I protected myself against Cold against the bear and winter wolves. No problem!
On the Chess Board web, silence, skull traps, ice storm, and fireballs proved to be irresistable.
Summoned a skeleton to eliminate traps that were still set.
Dendy - asssassin (Gate70) halfling
Metran - thief (Corey_Russell) halfling
Willaim - archer (Grond0) elf
It only took us 15 minutes to reach Prat and his gang. Dendy raced in with the intention of a backstab but Prat had other ideas. He cast a lightning bolt at Willaim (despite a brace of arrows piercing his defences) and Willaim paused briefly before deciding t'was a mere flesh wound and unpaused.
Dendy was almost there, but before he could raise his quarterstaff the lightning bolt had bounced off the cave wall and killed Prat. Right after that it killed Dendy (who had been through this thought process of game paused > lightning bolt > coming back at us > move) but not reached the last and somewhat important part of applying a final movement click.
Down went Dendy for the first and last time, and the path to Trio 45 was cleared.
Coreranger XX - ranger, protagonist (corey_russell) half-elf
DemeQ - cleric/thief (@gate70) half-orc
Lunie - cleric/ranger (@grond0) half-elf
After the quick defeat of Trio 44, we rolled new lambs to the slaughter. We made it out of Candlekeep Ok. We did our standard technique of taking out Shoal. No levels here. We don't have much CHA so passed on Arcand the Mad for now. Lunie's command insured we could recover Neera's gem bag without incident. DemeQ decided to loot the Smithy while we were here as well.
We then proceeded south. Ogrillions were no match for our ranged fire, and neither were some hobgoblins, which resulted in stealth boots for DemeQ since he does backstabs sometimes. We made it to Nashkel with some Ankheg armor for Coreranger since the other characters want to wear leather so they can stealth a lot.
Coreranger decided to take on an Xvart village to get a magical flail in a cave. Stealth was used to pick up the flail without fighting the dangerous bear. The other bear summoned by the xvarts was shot to pieces. Coreranger XX wisely decided to pass on Borda, and surprisingly Lunie agreed with the discretion.
Coreranger then decided to take on some ogrillions to get a magical shield for DemeQ - Coreranger often dual wields or uses his shortbow so shield isn't a big priority for Coreranger, though he will use sometimes like when engaging Ankhegs. The ogrillions were shot to pieces and commanded. We reported to Bjornin the success. We took on some spiders and Karlat while here and we succeeded with that.
After having Tarnesh get backstabbed, we reported to Landarin that her house was free of spiders. We then went to Carnival to get a PfP scroll. Coreranger engaged Zordral, but his attacks were ineffective and was hit with horror and ran in fear. Later DemeQ lamented he could have protected the party from horror if Coreranger had bothered to rest. Coreranger's groupmates bravely engaged Zordral taking bunch of damage. Then when they tried to get some distance Coreranger was taking a beating from spells. But his HP were holding up (fighter HP) well. Everntually Coreranger shook off the horror, fired an arrow and blast from his wand of magic missiles and Zordral finally goes down.
Next target was Greywold. We didn't need the sword, just the experience. He didn't last very long, as Coreranger got several critical hits this fight. Samuel was nearby so we recovered him and the fire resistance ring. We headed to FAI to return Samuel. Finally we head to Basilisk's area - but uh oh! We get the dreaded basilisk ambush! Lunie was targeted but we had no potions of mirror eyes or invisibility. But wait! Seems the basilisk wanted to melee - run! Whew close one...
The basilisks were taken down pretty smoothly, though despite his full plate and shield Coreranger was getting hit a crazy amount of times. Fortunately groupmates used commands to help which saved him. Mutamutin got triggered before we meant to, but we were protected with resist fear this time and he went down to missile fire easily enough. The last basilisk was killed then rest to set our spells - on to Kirian! An initial silence saw 3/4 of the enemies silenced - attack! The enemies charged, then Lunie and DemeQ managed to hold 2 enemies each! All according to plan....
We decided to get a hammer from Bassilus. He got held and hence his quick doom. Lunie appreciated the upgrade. Some nearby hobgoblins got silenced. They then just stood there while being peppered by missiles. How nice of them! We returned Melicamp, went to Ankheg Farm area and will resume our adventures here next session.
Journal of Cavalo
Upon taking on the Demonknight I discovered that magical attacks such as fireballs etc. were of little use. Buffed skeleton warriors were a different story!! Since we had used most of our spells, we slept immediately after the battle.
As we left we were ambushed. We sent a volley of missiles which killed one of them before retreating. Those who followed us found that they had themselves been ambushed.
After returning there was only one who had not followed us and she was swiftly killed.
Drizzt wants us to go to Icewind dale. We therefore left three party members to guard the Soultaker dagger which we left outside the Friendly Arms Inn.
I have kept Tenya and Dynaheir in the party. Tenya for raising any casualties, and Dynaheir for her casting ability.
We have ended up in the nine hells together with Drizzt and Wulfgar. Time will tell whether joining them was a good idea or not.
Experience tells me that oportunities to rest are few and far between in this area.
Between them Wulfgar and Drizzt dealt with some Demonknights, but when a Greater Tanari turned up, Drizzt relied upon his stealth.
I already knew about a +5 sword that dealt out poison, so Drizzt used this to at least protect him from the poison. It didn't work.
He used the throwing axe found nearby to separate the lesser demonknights from Eltab, the one they were protecting, then it was a case of stabbing in the back, run, hide, repeat.
When they reached Marilith, they were wise enough to summon some skeletons before entering.
When Marilith cast her spells, they immediately fled hoping that she would follow into the prepared ambush. She didn't. She wasn't that stupid.
The party slept to recharge their spells and re-entered. Tenya summoned a skeleton, and to the party's relief, Marilith attacked it. It didn't last long, but long enough for the party to flee out of sight to the other end of the room.
There they summoned the most powerful monsters that they could and then buffed the party.
When Marilith attacked she was no match for us and fell quickly. I used Eltab's Sword of course.
I noticed that Belhifet had changed his name to Eltab. I presume that this is becuse he is fought again later in the Trilogy
Unfortunately we didn't have the option of selling loot and buying potions before continuing. Potions of invisibility are very few in our packs, and other potions would also have been bought as we now have a lot of sought-after armour and swords which are not required.
Now in Icewind Dale. Our three tanks are fairly well protected from the cold.
Drizzt and I have 100% protection and Wulfgar 95%.
Of course wearing those items means that other protections are lower, but in Icewind Dale we are assuming that protection from cold is a priority.
I have discovered that protection from cold is not the only protection needed. There are dragons thhat deal out fire and poison damage and there are undead that have energy drain. It's not dispellable by lesser restoration. The only cure for it appears to be scrolls of protection from magic. If I had known that, I would have ensured that I had bought up more of them before joining Drizzt. I only have three!!
Perhaps I should have left Drizzt in Bruenor's Cabin and carried on with Bruenor.
However it is too late for that now.
Drizzt is the one affected.
Perhaps it will get sorted if he levels up, or perhaps there will be more scrolls on sale.
One thing is certain. I will stock up on those scrolls in future games, and use summons as buffers between the party and the vampires!!
I have noticed that my key ring with the keys has gone AWOL. I therefore just went head to head after Sarevok and decided to forget about the NToSC quests.
The Drizzt Characters have come with me to SoD, at least to the intro.
I picked up a couple of Protection from Magic scrolls before taking on Saverok. Drizzt no longer drained.
Pleg (male dwarf priest of Talos, Gate70); Fines (female halfling thief, Grond0)
Our second outing with this pair started off smoothly and we rapidly convinced Nimbul to lay down his weapons life.
At this point Tranzig felt obliged to demonstrate his lightning theories and Pleg took some damage. Tranzig added more lightning and left Pleg with 1 hit point remaining - so Pleg dutifully switched from boots of avoidance to grounding. If you're going to die with your boots on they might as well be the correct boots for the occasion. Fines was twisting in her grave (well, on the floorboards or stairs anyway) in certain knowledge that boots plus 1hp still meant certain death on another lightning strike.
The rebound duly arrived and down went Pleg, completing a shocking weekend on my trio / duo protagonists.
Still, at least Tranzig also died which means a Sword Coast CSI team will have to piece together evidence of what happened.
Kiel (male dwarf fighter, Grond0); Gevis (male half-orc priest of Talos, Gate70)
Previous run
Another of our quick finishes left plenty of time to generate new random classes and make some significant progress. Kiel did take one nasty whack from a Candlekeep guard remonstrating about his thieving habits, but avoided further trouble while completing quests there. At the Crossroads it was Gevis' turn to take damage when he found that the 1d6 damage from his 1st level lightning bolt only annoyed Xzar and Montaron, but a bit of running round saw them off. There was then a rather more rewarding encounter with Shoal to provide our first levels.
A few more tasks in Beregost included silencing Silke to ensure that Gate70 would not suffer further problems with lightning.
Fighter 5, 74 HPs, 72 kills
Priest of Talos 6, 52 HPs, 24 kills, 0 deaths
Yay for bards! It's added, congrats!
I've found a major bug in my installation.
After starting SoD Imoen disappeared. I have finished the prologue, got Imoen's books and now cannot exit to the palace.
I do have a save from the start of SoD. Should I just rerun the Prologue and hope that the bug doesn't reoccur, perhaps check the dialogue.
I don't think that I talked to the Cleric after Imoen. Perhaps that's the problem.
Yes, that's the problem. If you don't speak to the Cleric, Imoen's Party disappears and the game cannot be finished. If you do, her party goes with you. I don't know if this is a problem in the unmodded game, but it's a major problem in my set-up.
As it's a bug, I assume that it is OK to go back to the start of SoD and replay it?
Kiel (male dwarf fighter, Grond0); Gevis (male half-orc priest of Talos, Gate70)
Previous updates
Bjornin's half-ogres provided a shield upgrade and a reputation boost before we headed south to do a few tasks in the Cloud Peaks - pushing reputation up to the maximum 20, as well as picking up the charisma tome.
The Nashkel mine posed no problems at our levels and Mulahey went silently to his grave.
Before heading to the Bandit Camp we purchased some full plate in Beregost and the Cloak of Displacement from Ulgoth's Beard. That left the archers at the Camp little chance to hit and Taurgosz failed to rally them after being held.
In the Cloakwood, Kiel did a bit more work than usual by recovering Spider's Bane to make use of his 2-handed sword expertise.
Priest of Talos 7, 61 HPs, 74 kills, 0 deaths
I thought as much.
Replaying the prologue went like a dream. The only thing that changed was that Korlasz was killed rather than allowed to surrender. What changed was that she was webbed so the surrender dialogue didn't start before her death.
In the Ducal Palace Dynaheir has disappeared to talk to her sisters as I expected. The Drizzt characters are still with me as is Tenya.
I came across Dynaheir again and she has accompanied me to the Coast Way Crossing. We have a reputation of 20 which is most gratifying.
The quests on the Coast Way Crossing have been successfully concluded.
Two points of note, upon returning from killing the vampire, we went into the troll cave and were quite successful, however upon going down the steps I had forgotten that Dynaheir needed a rest to get her web spells reset. Fortunately she had some web scrolls and after using one of them we were successful there too.
We went to the place where Baeloth is usually found. Because he was killed in BG1 he wasn't there.
What I didn't realise was that M'Khiin wasn't available either.
The dialogue with Baeloth is needed to trigger the dialogue with M'Khiin.
My opinion is that Biff the Understudy should have made an appearance!!
The Bridge is down, but I have remembered that I have some unfinished business, that is: seeing the visions. The problem is that I have only seen two of them and cannot find any more of the white potion.
Now in Forest of Wyrms. All battles so far haven't stretched the party in the slightest, though Tenya's healing was needed from time to time.
Morentherene fell to being struck by a throwing dagger.
Have beaten the Cyricists who took over the Temple of Baal.
The illithids which always gave problems in the past were beaten relatively easily with buffed summoned skeletons.
We have taken ale to the irregulars entered Bridgefort and have proceeded to the Coalition Camp.
They do by the time I get to SoD. Not before. What's more, during the Drizzt Saga there are no temples. (Since playing this I have discover that with this set-up I can exit and re-enter the Saga. Last time I played Drizzt in Tutu, that wasn't an option)
EDIT
End of the road for Cavalo. I discovered the identity of Malden Col the spy and after her confession I killed her. I was then attacked and died.
Coreranger XX - ranger, protagonist (corey_russell) half-elf
DemeQ - cleric/thief (@gate70) half-orc
Lunie - cleric/ranger (@grond0) half-elf
The Trio found themselves at the Ankheg farm. The Ankheg nest was cleared out pretty fast. Coreranger used a shield to minimize getting hit, and only the last Ankheg managed to hit him. We bought some goodies at Ulgoth's beard, notably the martial staff for DemeQ.
Coreranger felt we had enough levels to take on the Nashkel mines. The kobolds were no problems, though surprisingly we got hit a few times with traps. Mulahey was a silence victim. We also defeated the Amazons, who were also treated to the silence and commands.
While here Coreranger took out the undead and Narcillicus and his jellies. Coreranger got poisoned twice from the jellies and we didn't have any antidotes....hmm...well he lived anyways thanks to party heals and heal potions.
We now had skeletons so we decided to pay Durlag's tower a visit. As is our custom, were cleared the surface area, as those doom guards are worth a lot of experience. DemeQ tried to detrap the stun trap before the basilisks but stunned himself in the process. Therefore, Lunie and Coreranger played with some ghasts as well as as freed the succubus upstairs and also killed the thief. Finally DemeQ healed himself and then did DUHM and then they coudl get rid of the stun trap.
The party then stealthed to the basilisks and skeletons were distractions while we killed the basilisks from range. This worked well. Also since we had skeletons we took on the sirines. We tried to help the woman and her child but she didn't acknowledge that we had helped her. Coreranger forgot where the trap in the golem caves were and nearly killed Lunie - whoops! But the golems were taken down pretty easily. Coreranger had used a potion of absorption to make sure he could tank the golems well.
While we were at it, we defeated all the ogre types and some more sirines in the Surgeon area. It went well except a lightning bolt from the storm badly hurt DemeQ.
We decided to take on the bandit camp. The party did well here. Despite Khossahn resisting commands and hold persons he still went down. Tazok's tent had no chance as the party stealthed in and did such things as skeletons, silence etc. Belatedly Corerange reealized no one had any bracers so we sought Melium and Zax and Val. Once those enemies were killed, then we all had bracers.
We decided we might as well as get the CHA tome and girdle of bluntness, so we headed west to get those things. Not much trouble doing that.
Almost out of time, party ventured into the Cloakwood Forest. We skip most stuff here. We fought our way past the ettercaps and spiders to get to the exit in area 2. Coreranger accidentally tripped a trap but luckily no enmies around. We saved here.
Journal of Ruby the Righteous
When Gorion told me that I had to leave Candlekeep and that we had to take my sister with us I was more than a little surprised.
What he asked me next was hardly credible. "I want you to try and turn her back from the dark side," he said.
As if I hadn't been trying to do that ever since a demon had lured her with promises of power.
The demon hadn't been completely honest with her however as the power given was only that available to all Blackguards.
However, as a seer he told me that the time would come when there would be a possibility of her changing, a fact that gave me some hope for her.
Despite what she had done, we still cared for one another and that in itself gave me some hope for her.
Kiel (male dwarf fighter, Grond0); Gevis (male half-orc priest of Talos, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1189369/#Comment_1189369
On the plus side, we didn't die early in this session, but I'm not quite sure how much of a silver lining that is.
The clearance of Baldur's Gate saw an ogre mage and his crawler friends unable to outlast Gevis' free action spell. There was a moment of concern against the Mountain Maulers when Gevis was in a corner when he appeared (to me) to be targeted by a lightning bolt. However, that didn't bounce and Gate70 didn't see it, so perhaps I was imagining things ...
Most of the remaining tasks in the City were completed without trouble before Gevis noted he wasn't quite as wise as he should have been at this stage. A quick map review confirmed we hadn't yet been to Durlag's Tower and we duly proceeded there. We didn't have any protection against petrification, but clerics can use sanctuary and skeletons to make the basilisks on the roof simple anyway.
Back in the City we headed for the Iron Throne. Pre-summoned skeletons, silenced casters and hold made that an easy victory and we celebrated with a holiday at Candlekeep. On arrival there Gevis inquired whether we'd done any shopping for potions to get the strength tome. Kiel hadn't thought about that, but fortunately the cloud giant strength potion from Durlag's was good enough in conjunction with DUHM. Gevis could have memorized protection from lightning, but didn't do so and had used his Storm Shield protection against lightning in the earlier tombs. That raised the possibility of a nasty end when he tripped the lightning trap in the corridor - he managed to avoid being fried by bounces of that though. Prat and his gang met the typical grisly end after being silenced (Gevis having memorised 3 of those and getting Prat with the last one) and faced with skeletons.
On the way to find Slythe and Kristen we used some stone to flesh scrolls acquired from Degrodel earlier to get some easy XP from a bunch of statues. That meant we had the option of getting the Cloak of Balduran through discussion rather than encouraging Kristen to cast a cloudkill near Quenash. Kiel tried to nip in to see her without Slythe reacting and thought he'd done that successfully. That meant it was a bit of a surprise when Slythe appeared, but Kiel had an impressive 118 HPs at this stage (out of a possible total of 125), so had plenty of time to react. In true dwarven fighter style he tried to win the argument with his sword, but found that was far from a sure thing.
Sorry about your loss.
Ruby the Righteous also fell, being level 4 at the time. She underestimated the power of Teddy the Doomsayer on the way to trying to improve charisma to 18.
Summons and buffs should have been there at the start of the battle. It might still have been tough but not too tough.
Next game is a burial defender, quite a strong fighter kit but with the distinct disadvantage in no reloads that, a bit like Minsc, when enraged he could attack anyone! Let's see how it works out.
A good idea. I'll roll again and try that. With the added strength from Ancient Wrath that could be something special. Probably something will go wrong as he won't be controllable, but it's worth a shot to see how far I get. I think what I will do is just do the NPCs quests and other than that do it solo. The quests do make the game more interesting. When I come to the Drizzt Saga, that will definitely be in a party, mainly beacause that is how it is intended to be played.
I got a slightly better roll this time.
One of the initial benefits is that he can get 1000gp in Candlekeep due to being able to open chests easily.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender First and last entry
I picked Imoen up and left her in the safety of the Friendly Arms Inn courtyard. I gave her studded leather armour and a long sword to help her defend herself.
I afterwards fought Tarnesh and was so badly wounded that it took 3 days and 16 hours to recover. However, recover I did.
After returning Joia's ring I went to Beregost, calmed Marl, and took a tome to Firebead. Also bought a spare two-handed sword, just in case it is needed. Perhaps I should have had one pip in bows or missiles since so much of the fighting is at range.
Killed by Zordral. Fought him too soon. Was shielded AND enraged.
Thanks. I'll try that. I'll also make sure that I have a magical weapon before trying to help the werewolf near High Hedge, just in case the guril berries don't work. It's weird. They seemed to work in every game, but recently they seem to fail in every game.
I have decided on a modification on Corey's idea, namely to have a party of two, Dan and Tenya. Having Tenya means that Dan can have Bless and Chant cast on him prior to combat and in combat the spells, Command, Hold and Silence can be invaluable.
Also, it is quite easy to keep two characters apart if Dan is uncontrolable, not so much with ba large party.
Second run
Journal of Dan
After Imoen joined me, we went to the FAI where I left her along with enough weapons and armour to keep her safe.
I returned Joia's ring to her before heading to High Hedge where I helped Melicamp.
I then headed to Nashkel, returning Mirianne's letter in the process.
I found some ankheg armour and turned down an undeserved reward from Oublek.
I killed Vax and Zal and then helped a dryad against Krumm and Caldo.
After proceeding west, I killed Ingot.
I then killed Greywolf and Zargos Flintblade.
I claimed the reward for the emeralds before returning to Beregost.
There I used Ancient Wrath againnst Silke which made fighting her a formality. However I became possessed and killed everyone in the vicinity, fortunately none of them was innocent.
I then entered the inn and killed a dwarven assassin before speaking to Tulbor. With his help I aided Eltolth.
At High Hedge the guril berries were made into a potion which sadly didn't work.
However I was handsomely rewarded for the werewolf pelt with a second magical longsword.
East of the temple I found a cave that had some undead wolves, spiders and the like in it.
I found a charisma increasing tome and charisma increasing armour, basically full plate with some useful protections. Not only that: It was free!
I discovered that it wasn't difficult to avoid Teddy the Doomsayer. It might be dealt with later.
[It brought a previous run to an end]
Afterwards I killed Tarnesh and Bassilus, then lured Zargal away from his cohorts before killing him. When I have Ancient Wrath he is NOT the strongest one there is!!
I then helped Charleston Nib and Brage before returning to Aerie who identified my items.
After that I killed Sonner et al and recruited Tenya. Her remove curse spell will be most useful if things go wrong when under my wrath spell. Her command spell was great against ankheg and silence will be helpful against magic users. The synergy between us is quite impressive.
At the lighthouse area I dealt with the sirenes and raided the cave after which I went to see Shoal.
I discovered that she wouldn't interact with Tenya so Shoal badly injured me.
Tenya did a little healing on me before fighting her. When I stopped sleeping I took healing potions while Tenya cast command on Droth and moved away. I then used ancient wrath and also the berserking sword. This caused me to attack Shoal while Droth was invisible. When both were dead Tenya removed the curse on me. We attempted sleep three times but were unable so we went to see a very wertly man. There we could sleep and we ended up with a piece of ivory and a potion.
We then cleared the area of sirine.
Afterwards I realised that i had been lucky. If I had been poisoned I would have been unable to take an antidote potion and Tenya had not memorised slow poison.
That's another spell that needs to be ready at all times
Now gone shopping in preparation for the basilisks. Tenya now level 6.