In the end I was right. It took only single hit, for the jelly that is. 104 dmg crit ended my poor shadowdancer
104 damage? How is that even possible?
The standard mustard jelly weapon deals 5d4 damage. If you get extremely (1 in 20,000) bad luck and the jelly rolls the maximum on all six dice, that's a 40 damage crit. Increase that to 80 if you're playing on Insane with the double damage enabled.
Can that be increased? The weapon allows for strength bonuses to damage, but the jelly's strength is just average. The jelly's weapon is also ranged, so no bonus damage if you're wielding a ranged weapon - and you deal bonus damage to it on your melee hits.
Which leaves mods. It looks like something in your mod setup altered mustard jellies in a way that makes them more dangerous than they already are. Because that 104 (instant) damage is flat out impossible in an unmodded game, or one that does the bare minimum with EET.
In the end I was right. It took only single hit, for the jelly that is. 104 dmg crit ended my poor shadowdancer
104 damage? How is that even possible?
The standard mustard jelly weapon deals 5d4 damage. If you get extremely (1 in 20,000) bad luck and the jelly rolls the maximum on all six dice, that's a 40 damage crit. Increase that to 80 if you're playing on Insane with the double damage enabled.
Can that be increased? The weapon allows for strength bonuses to damage, but the jelly's strength is just average. The jelly's weapon is also ranged, so no bonus damage if you're wielding a ranged weapon - and you deal bonus damage to it on your melee hits.
Which leaves mods. It looks like something in your mod setup altered mustard jellies in a way that makes them more dangerous than they already are. Because that 104 (instant) damage is flat out impossible in an unmodded game, or one that does the bare minimum with EET.
I have no idea... I wish I had made screenshot but I was so stunned. And then I ragequit
But Im sure it wasn't flat 104 dmg. That number was after summing the dmg.
On the other hand I do have some mods. I have just installed Shades of the sword coast, northern tales of the sword coast, unfinished buisness, some more Tweaks
Or its a visual/language bug in my bugged BGEET. I was wondering how is it possible that Shadowdancer has physical damage resistance. I remembe him having it in NWN but that was 3.5E. Its my first time trying him in BG so Im pretty clueless.
In both screens jelly did more dmg than maximum 5d4. "odparto obrażeń: 15" translates to "15 damage resisted".
Multiple hits makes more sense, and a 56-point crit (roll 14, double to 28 because it's a crit, double again because of the Insane multiplier) is within the standard rules and numbers. Definitely should have played things more cautiously, and you absolutely had chances to retreat.
Testing the English-language version (with a freshly created BG2 character)...
"testy: takes 4 slashing damage from Smoke Mephit (2 damage bonus)" (Insane difficulty, extra damage on)
"testy: takes 1 slashing damage from Smoke Mephit (1 damage resisted)" (Easy difficulty)
The difficulty bonus/penalty shows up in the log as if it's damage resistance; negative resistance for high difficulties, positive resistance for low difficulties. But it should use different words for the two sides of this - English uses "bonus" and "resisted" to indicate the sign here. If your language (Polish?) isn't doing that, that's a bad translation in the game text.
These multiple hits are from chapter game save I just loaded to test the damage. In my original run I was oneshotted.
And on those screens the damage is higher than maximum according to you. On the first its normal hit 32 dmg PLUS 16 damage which was resisted by me. Meaning it was normal hit for 48 dmg. On the second I got critted for 84 dmg. 28 dmg was resisted by my Shadowdancer out of this critical strike. Its insane with double damage. Message about (5 damage resisted) doesnt mean easy difficulty but physical damage resistance. Like the one you get from DoE or Hardiness. Shadowdancer had this physical resistance in 3.5E.
It has to be visual/text bug. I just tested poison and it was hitting me for 2 dmg each tick while still showing message that 1 dmg was resisted. Never seen poisong hitting for 3dmg each tick.
And it would explain why I thought it was 104 dmg. I had 72HP so high crit for 77+ would be enough to oneshot me while 30% of resistance would falsily show 25+ dmg resisted.
It makes sense buffing yourself constantly, drinking potions, scouting and travelling on invisibility, resting before big fights.
You need all the advantages when death is permanent. Quite realistic.
I'm far more used to no reload in BGEE and SoD, and luckily you don't need to over buff at low level. Protection from evil 10 radius, stoneskin, ironskin, remove fear are what I mostly cast, and I add potions, haste, shield for big fights.
I now use scouting constantly, whereas in classic runs I would not bother with it. Particularly, I really like being able to be stealthed with my mainchar, it so useful in case of bad encounters like the circle of bandits...
Also, now I always rest when my characters are tired, even if they are fully healed and have all their spells.
And of course I no longer store consumables like wands, I use them liberally in order to win and not die.
No reload really changed my way of playing.
In Korlasz's tomb, I cleared the humanoid groups with mass fireballs, and the undead groups with Gardi, using a PfU scroll, fire giant strength, heroism and speed (with a skeleton summon helping to reveal the invisible wraith). Korlasz herself survived the initial fireballs thanks to her fire resistance, but she was unable to deal with our fully buffed party for more than a round:
It took a while to sell and sort through all our gear in Baldur's Gate, though the various sidequest were quickly completed. I learned all available spellscrolls on Illuminata, and since this update is quite short, here's an update on our sorcerer spell picks for Andi:
Level 1: Blindness, Shield, Magic Missle, Protection from Petrification, Larloch's Minor Drain
Level 2: Web, Mirror Image, Blur, Resist Fear
Level 3: Haste, Spell Thrust, Protection from Fire
Level 4: Stoneskin, Secret Word
Level 5: Breach
...
And on those screens the damage is higher than maximum according to you. On the first its normal hit 32 dmg PLUS 16 damage which was resisted by me. Meaning it was normal hit for 48 dmg.
No, it was not. It was a normal hit for 16 damage, increased by 16 to a total of 32 by the difficulty modifier. The text is misleading you. You don't have any sort of damage resistance.
Searching through things ... looks like this is a pair of string entries. In BGEE and BG2EE, that's strings 1254 and 1255. English text for them:
"Takes <AMOUNT> <TYPE> damage from <DAMAGER> (<RESISTED> damage resisted)"
"Takes <AMOUNT> <TYPE> damage from <DAMAGER> (<RESISTED> damage bonus)"
They're referenced from ENGINEST.2DA, as STRREF_GUI_ATTACK_TEXT_RESISTED and STRREF_GUI_ATTACK_TEXT_VULNERABLE.
@jmerry Yeah like I said in the later part of post and after poison test its just some bug. For a moment I started to believe Shadowdancer was so boosted.
Durlag's Tower is tough for low-leveled chars. Long time ago, I somehow finished it from scratch, going there directly from the Candlekeep (with tons of reloads). ⚔️
On the other hand a thief can boost his/her levels very quickly. I've had a thief enter at level 2 and exit at level 5 quite easily. Just avoided the dangerous enemies using stealth. Kirinhale gives a lot of experience at no risk. Ghasts can be killed in safety if you have plenty of room to flee.
I'm doing the run again and so far things are great though my HP were reduced to 1 when an ankheg saved against sleep. Will post it later when I have more time. I have noticed that whilst most ankheg can be put to sleep easilly, there are some that seem resistant. I'll have to take note which they are as ankheg kills are a great source of both experience and gold.
Journal of Nighthawk the Knife
When I was talking to Gorion I complained about my low charisma. "If it hadn't been for that, I could have been a paladin," I said. He laughed and said, "Not with your lack of respect for the law, you couldn't. However you can still make the world a better place."
I suppose he was right. This is how I started out in Candlekeep. Whilst there I killed three assassins and purloined a +1 dagger. Upon doing so I acceded that perhaps Gorion was right about my suitability for life as a paladin!
Outside Candlekeep we were ambushed and I fled. Upon returning to the site of ambush I found his bag of holding which sadly was empty. Heading south I was able to help Mellicamp.
In Beregost I purloined Algernon's Cloak and gained possessions and experience by investigating chests there. I also took a tome to Firebead.
To the south I killed a couple of ogrillon and as a result gained a ring of protection.
I returned Jumper the Rabbit to a little girl and using sleep killed a party of hobgoblins.In doing so, I gained Boots of Stealth.
I continued to Nashkel Carnival where I rescued Bentha from Zordral by backstabbing Zordral repeatedly.
At the Coast Way Crossing, five fireballs cleared the bridge and Teleria was dealt with via a quick secret word + wand of the heavens combo:
After taking out the vampire with Hansi's berserk at the Coast Way Forest, we entered the repository of undeath - we still had 3 PfU scrolls, so Gardi used one to clear out basically the entire area, with quick help from Hansi for the construct. Coldhearth was dispelled via "The Secret Revealed" and killed:
I had to play the repository two times, because my game crashed right before leaving it the first time when looking at the pool visions, and I had made no quicksaves. Too bad. I'm getting quite a few crashes in SoD, and I don't know why.
I also quickly cleared the Troll Claw Woods - not much to report here. next up: The Forest of Wyrms.
Good ole Illasera to start with. If buffed fully fight should be easy. Prepared most of my spell armor before clicking on stone faces. Summoned simulacrum, planetar and added few buffs like black blade or SI:A after talking with spirits of the grove. Illasera's entire team can be ignored. She doesnt have much HP and even with her resistances she can be brute forced quickly.
There is only one real danger. Her arrows/attacks which are both dispelling and miscast magic inducing. PfMW easily takes care of that but fight with her is one of encounters where we shouldn't really count on contingency:PfMW. Sometimes she can land arrow on us before contingency fires up and we end without any combat protections, with low AC in mage robe and miscast magic. She didnt do it to my mage/thief so I kinda forgot about that and received one such arrow from her right at the start before my contingency:PfMW fired up. I could say she cheesed me, attacking before contingencies and all
Similar situation can occur during Gromnir fight. One of his bodyguards have this ability, or miscast magic effect alone which is still quite harmful. Still we came prepared. This and Gromnir fights are exact reasons why I have picked Hardiness and why there has been Shield of Reflection in my bag gathering dust whole SoA.
Back to the fight, I put on shield of reflection, cloak of protection +2, ring of freedom, Defender of Easthaven and used Hardiness. At the same time changed position to avoid rest of Illasera's group and observe how situation unfolds for a moment. Simulacrum uses GWW and together with planetar starts slashing Illasera.
One or two arrows got reflected and dispelled her even. Once it is clear nobody was focusing me and there was no rogue waiting to backstab me, courtesy of planetars true seeing, wI had used GWW with Reflecting Shield and finished Illasera.
Its important to pick entire loot. I will be trying to get as much money as possible. Even longsword +1 is going to be helpful. Thats why I will also pick every sword from elven warriors in first pocket plane evil trial.
After that I got few upgrades from Cespenar (improved cloak of protection is very helpful in solo run), and move to Saradush. Once more I rushed through city hasted. No need for investigation, I have slain guy who stole spellbook and returned it getting access to spell scroll heaven. This shop is the reason I will need so much money. Try to buy as much as I can of buff scrolls, 9th lvl scrolls and spell dmg scrolls. Will return to buy rest later.
Did quest with Countness and Kiser really fast for loot alone. Obliterated everybody and pillaged everything in Kiser's house. Blackmailed priestess for key to prison. Buffed up and slayed every vampire and gromnir's guards in next levels. Returned to prison to pick up Ioun stone required for circlet of netheril.
Buffed up fully for Gromnir. Time to finally use some potions before they all go to waste. Invulnerability, focus, power, heroism, regeneration, magic protection; I have gathered enough of them to be able to use that set on each and every of major ToB fights. Scrolls shall be kept for final fight. Contingency:True Sight and Chain spell: Simulacrum + Greater Malison + Remove Magic. Casted PfMWs at the start manually and attacked general boldly, simulacrum summons planetar at the same time and goes for Gromnir as well. Just before general I managed to down one of his two mages.
Gromnir should be down in few second but just to be sure once his mage used Alacrity, I countered him with Time Stop. Finished Gromnir in few hits and with Critical Strikes murdered almost everybody in the room. Throw in comet and dragons breath if need to be sure.
Mages PfMWs ended pretty soon and he probably died to level drain from black blade + blackrazor combo. After that its time to sell the loot in Beregost and finish Watchers Keep.
Prepared for the fight with stone statues as usual. Me, my clone and planetar vs rest of the keep. There isnt really much strategy other than plain blunt force and focusing two mages.
Simulacrum drops Dragons Breath, runs to the centre, starts beating enemy priest and gains focus of most non-caster enemies around. Planetar should use Insects whenever she can. I focus on Ruby Raying and Breaching mages. Enemy Fallen planetar is just a shield meat at this stage of the game.
If one of them uses Alacrity I will counter with Time Stop. I could use Alacrity as well but I like hitting people between casts. After mages death its just cleanup and walk towards next level. With most of buffs still active I just ran around entire level finishing elemental labs in my record time.
Rest, summon and fully rebuff for elemental demon.
Poor lad started with his Ice form first... Because of that he was gifted with 2x Dragons Breath, 2x Comet and 2x Flamestrike resulting in my record time there as well.
3rd level is a bit more tricky. Hardiness is priceless here as well as contingency spells.
Shield of Reflection may help a bit as well though there arent many ranged enemies. Dead and magic zone portals could get messy. I dont have "randomise watchers keep maze" components installed. I had to fully prepare for each and every portal anyway so it doesnt offer any additional challenge and would only serve to annoy the hell out of me.
The room with demons could be a fight with miscast magic still on me so I choose to help them for less risky fight with other group.
It was a bit spicy in Red+Blue Glabrezu room. I forgot they are improved and there were tons of them. Each of them started summoning tons of more shit while being safe under their own PfMW. In a moment I was swarmed and surrounded .
I always get hot under collar when they catch me like that. Maintaining PfMWs/Improved Mantle and SI:A is the key to success in moments like this. After throwing Dragons Breath and hacking apart some of the crowd I went for safe option and Time Stopped.
When things started moving there was only one Glabrezu and 2-3 elementals around. Tiefling room was rather easy once I killed their mage before anyone could react.
Demon wraith was done as any other mage. Ruby ray + sequencer: 3x secret word + breach and hack down. He actually died to Vorpal Strike from planetar.
With CS and Black Blade planetars die extremely fast nowadays. For the two zones with funky magic Ive prepared contingencies and equipped properly. Shield of Reflection, belt against slashing attacks for demons, DoE, Ring of Freedom, Nymphs Cloak (just to be sure), full plate armor +2, Hardiness + GWW. Simulacrum has to be in chain spell for maximum safety. Simulacrum starts fight with GWW and rushes first to get aggro and starts hacking down first target. In a room with demons priority was Balor.
Together we took him down before he could do anything. Got damaged pretty badly by his flaming death aura and had to retreat with 50 HP while simulacrum finished Balor.
I think he casted one implosion only? Ring of freedom protects me from any helpless effect. Cornugons did some heavy dmg with their lightning bolts forcing me to equip lightning reflection cloak.
Fiend required for heart quest was slain quickly on full buffs. He and cornugons died fast to black blade, finished rest of the group as easily.
I decided to gamble with cambion a bit. Won scroll of Wish which may help at final fight and lost spectral brand. I gambled my experience but after my loss nothing happened. I lost the way out also but I wasnt going to let cambion leave with MY stuff. Attacked them, casted sequencer:3x remove magic between them and slashed everyone apart starting with cambion and their wizard.
Walked down to Machine of Mad Lum level. There buffed to full, used few potions and rushed into illithid base.
Rampaged through corridors and killed most of enemies in 2-3 swings. Cleared it in record time and rushed to githyanki base.
Once inside casted PfMW to protect myself from anti-paladins and killed everybody. Their leader summoned deva but celestial also fell in few criticals from black blade.
Rested and rebuffed to full for both demilich and Saladrex. Undead was welcomed with chain spell: 3x khelbens warding whip + breach. Two rounds with black blade and hes dead.
Saladrex was tougher opponent. Not only has he like abazigal absolute tons of HP but also is a competent caster with many PfMW and other spell protections. Had to use many breaches because of his recasting.
In the end he fell to two Time Stops in a row after wasting most of his defensive spells and killing my 2 planetars and simulacrums.
After that I have confronted the minotaurs and slain them with critical strikes. Boosted my stats thanks to machine and went to another level.
Trials for the keys were rather boring. Dragon was easily dispatched. Avoided tougher fights on orb machine because there was no need for beholder fight or double lich one.
Done with my usual preparations I activated the hardest seal. Somehow my simulacrum bugged itself and got unresponsive and invisible to me for the whole fight...
Anyway I have positioned myself and planetar near beholder spawn. As soon as he spawns he is met with flurry of blades and falls down before anything starts.
Then planetar casts insect plague on nearest targets and attacks Marillith while I go for that red succubus chick and kill her in few seconds with black blade, at the same time throwing breach on marillith.
As soon as I killed my target I moved to help planetar with Y'tossi and we got her down quickly. With only cleric and huntress left it was over.
Azamantes wasnt a tough fight. As soon as he started casting alacrity/time stop I started with my own Time Stop which countered his alacrity. He still had PfMW so I picked few flaming skulls before moving back to him.
What surprised me the most was the seal with halberd fighters and mage. Either I have completely forgotten how this encounter works or something changed. I have almost died not expecting each warrior being immune to time stop and ganking on frozen me. How this mage used Time Stop was surprising too. Thankfully I have survived first time stop and just maintained PfMW/Improved Mantle after that.
Demogorgon requires full preparation. Spells memorised, sequencers, summons, buffs, potions. Strategy same as with Abazigal or Balthazar - ignore pests and focus the big guy.
My chain spell sends Pierce Shield, Pierce Magic and Greater Malison towards him while I throw breach. Prince of Demons stops time and smashes my planetar to dust.
He tries to do the same to my clone but simulacrums buffs hold. As soon as time stop drops both me and simulacrum use Critical Strike and we pummel Demogorgon.
Few moments with preventive PfMW + SI:A recast and Demogorgon dies to 17APR + CS. With some of his minions loitering around I decided to Time Stop and clear the place for good measure.
I made my way through the Forest of Wyrms, and, once I made it to the dragon lair, realized that I hadn't packed any throwing knives, so a regular dragon fight was my best option, as I didn't want to turn around. Since I planned to rest before facing Ziatar, I opted not to use green scrolls of poison protection. I just buffed up with my typical combat buffs and protections and attacked, tanking one poison breath in the process:
After that, I fought my way through the bugbear caves, entered the temple and had two fire elementals clear out the adjecent rooms before resting and using my poison protection scrolls to take down Ziatar:
Destroying the Neothelid was easy enough, but I made the mistake of not putting up any short duration combat buffs when facing Darkshelin and his group, hoping that 5 fireballs would do the job. The initial fireball barrage still left the enemy wizard, Darkshelin himself, an archer and the dwarven berserker alive, which put me in a tough spot, because a psionic blast stunned Pietro and Andi while a slow spell affected Hans and Gardi, greatly reducing their fighting prowess. As Darkshelin started to attack the helpless Pietro, draining his intelligence, a lucky crit by Illuminata, the only one unaffected by enemy crowd control, helped us to barely save our totemic druid by killing Darkshelin just in time:
At this point, a teleport field landed and greatly messed up our positioning. I was able to kill the archer via wand charge, but Illuminata got caught in a bad spot with the berserker: She was unable to move at all from this position, as there is some kind of object or invisible wall here that blocks her movement - the berserker got through her stoneskins and brought her very low in hitpoints, while the wizard and Hansi started a duel (Hansi trying to get through his stoneskins while surviving his damaging spells and drinking healing potions in order to do so) and Gardi tried to help Illuminata by killing the berserker via wand of the heavens:
Luckily, Illuminata was able to not get hit in the next round, allowing her to cast invisibility on herself. This saved her life, and shortly after that, Gardi was able to kill the dwarf. Finally, Hansi als won his duel, and the group was defeated - this was much harder than it should've been. Quite a few mistakes here, especially allowing ourselves to get hit by the initial psionic blast + slow combo (and I'm very happy that I had chaotic commands running on Gardi):
I opted not to rest, because tactical SCS uses core rules for the purposes of SoD difficulty, so the Shadow Aspect isn't as deadly and doesn't use the mislead + backstab combo - so I just killed him with 3 spirit lions and 2 fire elementals:
I made my way to the fort and picked up Edwin for his robe sidequest before preparing for a direct assault with the Flaming Fist:
This battle was actually rather easy, as we killed both mages quickly via spell thrust and a few wand charges. At the bridge, Illuminata missed the wizard (who I always try to interrupt to stop him from summoning fire plane portals) with arrows of dispelling twice, so I went for "The Victor" instead, which goes through any spell protections:
I spent quite a lot of time doing sidequests at the camp after buffing up my charisma via all the charisma boosting items, potions of persuasion and the friends spell you get to cast via the staff from the first SoD chapter (required since SoD only counts the charisma of your main character, not your party leader, for some terrible reason, and quite a few quests in the camp are somewhat charisma-gated). After that, I entered the Bloodbark Grove and used potions of clarity to make killing this vampire a little bit easier:
Dead Man's Pass was next, and since I had too many potions left, I started using giant strength potions on Gardi and heroism on both of my fighters from this point onwards. Potions of Freedom greatly helped with the otherwise quite dangerous mimic cave:
I actually ran into a bit of trouble in the north because I missed a charm spell by a nymph, which affected Gardi, and Hans got rooted in place by shambling mounds, but I was able to get out of this with a few healing potions and wand of frost charges. After that, I entered the outer underground river area to obtain the Seal of Caelar. This allowed me to do the dragonspear courtyard sidequests as well, which I did after buffing up my charisma once again. Finally, I entered the underground river and cleared the northern part - i.e. the albino wyrmlings (using protection from acid scrolls to weaken their breath weapon), shadows, the ettin and the water elemental summoner. However, in the ghost cave, I either chose a wrong conversation option or lacked charisma - in any case, the group of humanoid ghosts attacked me, and a barrage of 5 fireballs barely killed any of them. Luckily, I was still buffed up from the albino wyrmling fight, so my saves were quite good and only Pietro got hit by a barrage of crow control spells. With a few quick wand charges and concentrated attacks, I was able to win this unexpected battle:
Now, I am close to 500k xp, which means that it is time to stop playing until I have the time to complete the remainder of the game in a single session (due to how experience overflow is affected by saving and quitting the game), so the next update will be propably on wednesday or thursday.
Another break from ToB in the form of new BG1 run. This time tho I did two things that I havent done in veeery long time.
I will be playing with full team. That didnt happen since before EE came out.
Also I have picked up some mods for this gameplay. I have always avoided mods adding content because of how XP rich they often are and this in my opinion makes the game less chalenging when you can farm XP even easier than in normal game. Magical items coming from them dont help the challenge either.
Still reading @Wise_Grimwald posts I really took liking to some of them and I have to finally try them.
Usual maxed scs, standard tweaks like unlimited ammo stacking, max HP for everybody. To this I add NPC project, unfinished buisness, SoTSC, NToTSC.
I would like to try it solo but being new to them I would probably die stupidly. Full team should overpower my lack of knowledge about the mods.
For better survivability I have chosen Barbarian and unfortunately had to pick half-orc instead of dwarf because npc project.
Barbarian 2h spec
Jaheira->Kagain
Shaar-Teel as archer (idk if I spelled it right)
Viconia
Xar->Dynaheir
Imoen dualed to mage at 4 lvl Thief
After soloing for so long, playing with a team feels a bit too easy tbh. Encounters where I had to run around and kite to save myself are getting curbstomped by a team.
I gave bows to fighters and darts to casters. Having two mages feels divine. In early stages I have used mainly Blind, Horror, Web. Ring of freedom on barbarian and greenstone amulet on Kagain.
Poor Khalid....
Later I played decoy with a fighter for most of the fights while dynaheir and imoen exploded everybody with fireball+skull trap combo. Can be aided by fighters with necklace of missiles.
I wanted to avoid farming 32k XP on main and recruiting easy companions. Yet I got brain freeze and went on auto-pilot to slaughter Shoal as a first thing resulting in my entire team being jacked up from the start. Also max HP for a solo game is fine. For a team its way too much.
I have tried avoiding new encounters untill I levelled up to avoid dying like idiot. Still I risked with few of them like Mimic.
Almost all deaths so far belong to casters. Imoen and Dynaheir each have at least three deaths to ranged attacks. Kobolds or bandits liked to oneshot them. Only permanent death was Xar but I was going to switch him for Dynaheir anyway.
My MC was close to death against Elite Black Talons twice. They all focused me effectively and I had to drink invi pot. Another near death was after tanking mighty punch from damaged golem but It was under control and everything was ready for tank switch. Fireball trap in ulcaster left me with 10hp.
Xar is just too stronk.
Imoen oneshotted.
Im done with most of SoTSC and maybe half of NToTSC. So far Im enojying it greatly. Fantastic mods. Added content blends in with original without any problem. Some zones have become a lot more lively. SoTSC really add darker stuff which works great in forgotten realms. Even magical items added arent too OP and dont break the game. The only super OP items so far are imo amulet +4 arcane caster levels and 19 str belt.
Horror perfectly countered by Remove Fear casted 0.2s later.
Nimbul countered by Barbarians Rage.
Web+ Ring of Freedom.
Molkar's ambush.
I was a bit overzealous with Bassilus and almost died for it.
Little amazons ambushing me were dealt with 2x Skull Trap and Purge Invisibility.
Bandit camp was absolutely epic.
Kirian and Co. gets blasted.
Tytus
Two nasty mage ladies.
Huge problem is still a flood of XP. Some quests give even 18000xp as a reward! Killing golem gave me 13k alone. Thats way too much. It should be fixable by reducing xp rate. On solo run I will definitely cut XP in half.
Lothander and Larze both died instantly.
NPC project gets 10/10 from me. Another fantastic mod which is going to be permanent for me even for solo games lol.
Whoeve wrote this mod deserves some respect. Truly well written characters. Kagain, Imoen, Viconia have awesome banter.
Dynaheir romance another 10/10. Im not sure if I have even brought any romance to the end in BG2. Never had patience for them when I was still playing with team. Here on the other hand I really enjoy history talks with Hathran. I havent finished it yet but already enjoy this relationship way more than whiny BG2 elfs.
There were few surprising encounters like vampires in Firewine Bridge dungeon. I had to waste 3 invi potions to get my team out and allow Barb to wreck them on rage.
Sadly no-reload ended. Team was not enough to save me from unknown encounter. I have cleared most of sword coast and was about to return to candlekeep. Before that I did a sweep to try and find any places I have missed.
That brought me jovial juggler where 6 sister witches are doing summoning rituals.
I knew there was a big fight with demon awaiting me. I did some preparations like drinking potion of invulnerability, casting remove fear. My spell saves were at 0. Overall I should be okay against demons. I wasnt ready for the sisters though. I completely forgot that as a fighter in BG1 Im below HD9... So no chance against this. Death Ward is the only option here?
I will probably continue this run to learn rest of these mods before trying solo no-reload. I recommend each mod. Tons of well written fun.
I used potions of clarity to counter confusion and charm effects in the southern underground river and cleared the necromancers, for once without fireballs (since they already had a few MGOIs), using a few breaches and insect plague instead:
With the final spectacle charge and The Secret Revealed, we took out a nearby lich:
Now, we made our way inside of the dragonspear dungeons. Full buffs, detect illusions, secret words/spell thrust, breaches and insect plague allowed us to take the battle to Hephernaan:
The camp defense was solved via mass fireballs and detonation arrows:
Now, for the castle assault, I buffed up for a while before joining my troops. Detonation arrows helped in clearing up the enemy army while the buffed up fighters, using heroism, inverulnerability, speed and cloud giant strength, did the remaining work. Gardi, still fully buffed, easily won a duel against Ashatiel by just attacking and using wand of the heavens charges once our foe had used sanctuary. We buffed with invisbility 10' radius in order to free Mizhena's father, which allowed us to get the jump on the enemy spellcasters:
Finally, we entered the castle, memorized an instance of enchant weapon, entered the portal to Avernus and buffed the group, including with chaotic commands for everyone via a bunch of scrolls - after fighting our way to Belhifet, we rested and buffed again with basically anything and everything helpful. Caelar joined us for this battle, though it was very short and uneventful - detect illusions had to be used once to reveal an invisible Belhifet, and the others used this opportunity to take down two gated demons and Hephernaan:
Belhifet was already almost dead at this point, and a few more hits ended this part of the game in our favor:
The entirety of the opening dungeon was cleared by two fire elementals, with a first round of buffs for the air elemental plane. I saved my remaining spells for the second level, as I wanted to do the dungeon restless, and I still had a ton left for the last few enemies:
After the circus tent, I immediately took down Mencar's group with an invisible opener on both mages and the power of spirit animals + fire elementals:
Next up was the Copper Coronet slavers. I accidentally lured one of the wizards to the opening room (or, rather, he was lured there via better calls for help), but he was easy to breach and kill:
On the way to the government district, our party (travelling under invisibility 10' radius as we usually do in early SoA when playing with SCS) got their first ambush, travelled north, summoned and buffed up and destroyed Suna Seni and her party:
After a quick visit to the government district we bought a magic license (for 10k in this installation) and went to the bridge, solved the murders and used detect invisibility / detect illusions to deal with the rune assassins:
I decided to take on the bridge party as well, entering invisibly to take out the wizard:
A visit to the graveyard afforded me the opportunity to clear all the crypts, using fire elementals for the big southern one. Insect plague helped with the small spiders, and we also did the mini quests here, helped Tidir and eventually travelled to the docks. Breach and some improved hasted attacks from Hans helped to take down Xzar's disciples:
With the next ambush happening while travelling to the temple, we returned to the docks in order to deal with the harpers. The Sir Sarles quest and its followup + the fallen paladins (via fire elementals, who don't take any damage in this fight) were quickly done. I got a bit lazy with the invisibility while travelling, but silence helped with the next big ambush:
Finally, we entered the sewers and took down the group of bandits there, using an opening backstab and a bunch of summons to ensure an easy victory:
The Rakshasa fell soon to Hans and Gardi + our summons, we dealt with the sea troll and finally, we were done with non-stronghold quests in Athkatla.
The first 4 stronghold quests: Since we had a consistent source of fire and acid damage with Stonefire and Biter, access to protection from fire and chaotic commands to protect Gardi against SCS spirit trolls and a need for some druidic weaponry, the druid grove was our first stop. Of course, I didn't have CC for everyone, so the first few battles were rough. Pietro only survived here due to his ironskins and Hansi's great damage:
We soon got used to the challenges, though, and with some casts of improved haste, we cleared the troll mound with a few combat buffs and the first few shadow druids with a stealthy attack:
With enchant weapon, still in our spellbook from SoD days, we were able to hit the Rakshasa trio with both of our fighters, and improved haste helped with the damage. After killing the first one, I just had to dance outside and inside the hut a few times to dodge remove magic spells:
Clearing the remaining grove (entirely restless) was easy enough with some spells still left, including another invisibility 10' radius for the final druid trio. Cernd killed Faldorn, and we got some great new gear.
Next, the Umar Hills, our future ranger stronghold. Here, I was quite surprised that the three wizards spawned when attacking the twisted runed guy. I'm used to be able to just murder him without anything happening. I was unbuffed for these, but got super lucky when all of them were affected by a single chaos spell, otherwise this might've turned out rather badly:
In the temple ruins, clearing out the undead was easy. I could've just let fire elementals solo everything, only helping with the bone golems (nothing else in there is capable of hurting a fire elemental, as we didn't have enough XP yet to get lich spawns), but decided to speed things up by fighting with the entire party. Before challenging the Shade Lord, I prepared protection from level drain spells on both divine spellcasters to protect the entire party, neutralizing his SCS aura for the short time this battle would take. Secret Word + Breach, and victory was ours:
Next, I did the ranger stronghold quests. I wasn't sure how strong Umar might be with SCS, but since she died with a single backstab, I wasn't able to figure it out:
Cerberus proved his worth during the next ambush, using his howl here against the orcs:
De'Arnise Keep. We have a second sixth level sorcerer spell by now, that being death spell, so non-spirit trolls can instantly be killed. After the druid grove, this one wasn't much of a challenge. A backstab for the first yuan-ti mage:
Tor'Gal is lured to our party by Gardi and dies within two rounds, though two hits from him actually deal quite a bit of damage to our bhaalspawn:
I expected to face multiple yuan-ti mages here, but we only had to deal with one of them. He didn't have anything to protect against breach, strangely enough:
Now, we quickly finished the Mae'Var's guild questchain. No screenshots here, but nothing of note happened - Rayic died before getting to prepare his pre-buffs. Now, Joluv spawned into the game, so we now have a really strong weapon setup on both of our fighters, with Hans using both +3 elemental axes and Gardi using FoA + DoE. Next, I might travel to the Windspear Hills, though I don't have the greatest tools to kill vampires yet.
We didn't look to fight the windspear dungeon vampires right out of the gate, but were forced to do so by mummies spawning right outside of this door and pulling them in via better calls for help. I buffed up as quickly as possible with only Hans being protected against level drain. It was crucial that I'd be able to kill the vampires before a devastating number of level drains, so Hans used our only storm giant strength potion, combined with improved haste, to annihilate them faster:
Only Andi and Pietro ended up getting level drained, and we felt comfortable to move forward. I ended up splitting my party, taking down an adamantite golem from range with some while others defeated Tazok:
Illuminata's traps and one arrow hit were enough to kill Conster:
A protection from fire spell allowed Hans to clear Samia's guardians, and while we had very few spells left and some low HP party members, I kept the vulnerable ones safe while the others took down Samia and her allies with an invisible opener:
Doing the entire dungeon restless and level drained was a bit risky, but since I hate re-buffing, I felt like taking that risk.
Next up, I went for a very short visit to Hexxat's first quest in order to gain her bag of holding, as I was starting to get inventory management problems. For the same reason, I made it to Watcher's Keep level 1 and cleared out most of that level, leaving the statues for later. Vampiric mists were taken down by a berserking Hans. Now, we went back to the sewers, having Illuminata backstab Mekrath:
We didn't get the yuan-ti mage spawn here, so clearing the remaining area was easy enough. The planar prison was done as I usually do it, entirely within one go, opening up invisibly (though this time, I used mass invisibility in order to confound enemy spellcasters as well):
With enrage and chaotic commands, I wasn't too scared of the demon here, and Gardi killed him very quickly due to this being her ranger enemy type. I re-buffed improved haste and mass invisibility before rushing towards the warden, hitting him quickly with secret words while our fighters swapped to normal weapons, as he had PFMW up. Pietro managed to blind him with Nature's Beauty, greatly increasing our odds of victory:
And before we were even able to finish our breach spell, the normal weapons did their job:
Next up, I paid Gaelan and used enrage with the other ones staying invisible to defeat Lassal:
In Bodhi's crypt, Illuminata stole the mace of disruption via invisibility:
However, since a vampire randomly walked into my party while they waited outside, I decided to clear the entire crypt now instead, having only enrage as a level drain protection - which ended up being enough. Tanova was a bit tricky, with a triple ice storm sequencer and a constant barrage of abjuration spells to dispel our buffs and renew hers, but with detect illusions, a ruby ray + spell thrust combo and a quick breach, taking her down was eventually possible:
I ended up resting before Bodhi for the safety of fresh buffs, though my 6 traps and a few attacks from Hans were enough to take her down:
I wonder if people here could provide some advice on no-reload runs and appolgies if this has been discussed here before but I could not bringt myself to scan through a 450 page thread.
I have not done a no-reload gameplay but have been thinking of doing it for BG1 with my brother. The way we tend to play BG1 these days is by sticking to the main plot and not bothering too much with all the extra maps and side-quests (have done them to death and just can't be bothered anymore). If this is not-advisable from a xp and item progression point of view though then we're not sure a no-reload game will be right for us. We tend to give ourselfves 2500 extra XP at the start of the game as we dislike the gimpiness of lvl 1 chars and are intending to do the same for a no-reload but that's the only "cheat" we are considering and otherwise make no use of console commands or keeper.
The next point is that we don't bring companions along for the ride. Just us. Cleric types for me and he plays mages. We have dabbled in minor varriations of this but we are fairly set in our ways. If this setup is not recommended then we are unlikely to enjoy a no-reload. We have played on insane difficulty ever since but I guess for a no-reload that might not be advisable, any tipps on this would be cool. We tend to have a fairly relaxed and cautious playstyle and we communciate pretty well during the game if that is of any help.
Finally, it seems to me that most seem to fail in getting to the finish line with no-reload games. Does anyone have a sense of what the chances are? We know BG1 and BG2 pretty well, completed probably half a dozen runs since it was released back in the day + countless runs that we didn't see through. I'm currently also playing my first BG2 SCS solo. So given our setup with zero no-reload experience how hard will it be getting to the end of BG1 and then maybe BG2. BG2 seems very daunting for a no-reload, feels like it would be orders of magnitudes harder than BG1.
It's not so much about the chances. The core of no-reload play is preparation - knowing what's a threat and how to plan your strategies accordingly. Skipping sidequests? Not a problem, especially in a smaller party - you'll hit the XP caps anyways. If there's a particularly useful item, like the hammer Bassilus carries for your cleric, go after them. If not, like a monk facing the shadow dragon Thaxll'ssilyia (see the end of page 453 and the beginning of page 454), feel free to ignore that optional fight.
And if you fail ... try again. There are several long-running series here, like the Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer duo runs, up to #237 at last count. Just remember what killed you last time, and plan better for it this time.
@MasterGimli it's your choice of course, but there's plenty of XP out there for a duo without the need for adding it. The typical start that Gate70 and I have is to head for Shoal after leaving Candlekeep - shooting her down is simple and worth the 5,000XP you like to get you going.
A cleric and mage combination is fine for making progress, but any combination can succeed if you plan and play carefully. The occasional death may be attributed to the particular perils of MP (like increased lag), but the vast majority are down to taking risks. For long time players, giving the game the odd chance can increase the fun, but even taking slight risks does tend to result in failures sooner or later . If you're not used to playing no-reload though, you should find it much easier to plan and stick to risk-free strategies ...
Trio 51 - Update 2
Corecleric XX - halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Swazi - Mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
So the Trio found themselves at basilisk's area. Corecleric XX used the green PfP scroll to tank the enemies. This worked fine, but it was slow with the 1 APR of the mage and cleric of the group. For Mutamutin, Corecleric XX did his MM wand to interrupt Mutamutin's mirror image. We were also protected by resist fear, so we won the battle. As for Kirian and friends, skeletons, stinking cloud, blindness, and silence were way too much for them.
We then took down 4 ogrillions to get a shield for Corecleric from Bjornin. We then cleared out the ankheg nest. Corecleric tanked well. We then went to Bassilus area and took him down. Since he was targeting our skeletons, he didn't have much of a chance. Torgal was also taken down while we were here.
We then worked through Nashel Mines. Though we did a quick defeat of Greywolf, who was blinded and held which was a bit much for him.
Betson was taking chances with the first ghoul on the 3rd level but we got them. However, he got held by the ghoul close to Mulahey. So we had to resurrect him and make out way back. But Mulahey was easy thanks to a silence. Then stinking cloud, skeletons and silence were too much for the amazons.
We couldn't return the greenstone ring as we couldn't open the door to turn it in. We did have a good battle with Nimbul and he did some damage to us, but he eventually got held and finished.
So we didn't have a lot of time, we thought we would get a scimitar for Betson. Wand of Heavens was a key tool against the strong enemies on the surface, such as the battle horors. Once inside, skeletons were carefully used against the baslisks. With a protection from fire spell, Corecleric got the scimitar +2 for Betson. While here, we "helped" the succubus then held Riggilio - poor thief things just weren't going his way.
We had just a little bit of time left, so we got the cloak +1 from zombie farm. Betson used a strength potion to bash the chest and also quickly trashed the zombies which pumped his kill count even further. Unsurprisingly, Betson has a big lead over the casters, and that seems unlikely to change. Interestingly, the casters killed exactly 50 enemies each.
When I took on Bassilus he saved against all my spells and I ednded up having to flee leaving all those swords and crossbows to rot.
After recuperating I headed to Durlag's tower using stealth to avoid enemies.
There I bought some potions to aid my thieving abilities.
From there I headed to Ulgoth's Beard where using the potions I acquired a good hammer which I cannot use and several scrolls.
Many of them I cannot yet use, but the web scroll was memorised and as a result opon returning to Bassilus I prevailed.
I used web against an ogre as well.
After selling the hammers I I now have an abundance of gold.
The question is, do I use it on an expensive robe or on upgrading the belt to increase my strength. I cannot afford both.
EDIT
In the end I chose the robe and then killed more assassins south of Beregost. I got a dagger of returning from the bodies which means that I no longer have to hunt skeletons to keep my stock of throwing daggers high. I sold their armour and shield and now have almost enough gold to upgrade my belt.
I considered buying a poisonous dagger straight away but decided against it.
@jmerry and @Grond0 thank you for your advice and encouragement. Do you have any insight on the issue of which difficulty setting to pick, given that were are generally experienced players who usually play on insane and I'm now playing maxed out SCS.
Mass invisibility turned out to be quite helpful when facing the halfling wizards in the planar sphere - they were almost helpless, seemingly with no divination spells at the ready for some strange reason. I finally ended up getting dispelled by the second wizarding duo, but at that point, the fight was basically already over:
I'm not sure if Tolgerias has some kind of item-based immunity to getting one-shot via backstabs, but he always end up barely surviving the initial attack in my games. Since I have experienced this multiple times, I added a nearby Magic Missle, sped up via Amulet of Power, to complete the attack and finish him before he was able to use his pre-buffs:
My plan to face Lavok with skeletons after baiting out death spell failed when the wizard started wandering around and using his own skeletons to keep mine busy. I had prepared with mass invisibility once again, so when Lavok went for a timestop, he actually spend most of it putting up some more protections and casting true sight - which also left us mostly fully buffed, uninjured and ready for a quick counterattack after his improved mantle was gone:
Clearing out the golems was easy enough with our stone/ironskins, and the demons could do little against our protection spells.
Our final stronghold quest was the Unseeing Eye - downstairs, we made use of skeleton warriors, summoned by Andi, to face our first group of beholders - Gardi isn't close to level 15 yet, due to her multiclass.
At the ghoul city, we didn't encounter a lich, to my surprise - two bone golems were quickly dealt with, anything else was killed by Hans via PfU scroll. Back in the beholder lair, skeleton warriors took care of everything, mass invisibility + haste helped with the sightless priests (they tried to counter with two divination spells, which I interrupted during my charge). The Unseeing Eye got hit with the rod and died to skeleton attacks:
Not too much left in Chapters 2+3 - I'm now going to recruit a bunch of companions to do their personal side quests for some extra experience and items.
Mass invisibility turned out to be quite helpful when facing the halfling wizards in the planar sphere - they were almost helpless, seemingly with no divination spells at the ready for some strange reason.
The named halflings in the planar sphere (the others are all mook fighters):
So there's only one mage in that first group. Who likely rolled conjurer in your installation, and thus couldn't take divination spells. The cleric has True Seeing in vanilla, but SCS clerics never memorize that spell. They get a block that casts a free (no memorization required) Invisibility Purge if invisible PCs are skulking around and they don't see anyone, but that's it. If you're in that semi-visible state where you've revealed yourself from improved invisibility, there's nothing the cleric can do about it.
I'm not sure if Tolgerias has some kind of item-based immunity to getting one-shot via backstabs, but he always end up barely surviving the initial attack in my games.
No special immunity. He just has way more hit points than you'd expect from a pure mage - 96, to be precise.
At the ghoul city, we didn't encounter a lich, to my surprise
If you're only playing on Tactical difficulty, I'm not sure you can get the lich spawn at all. 2 million protagonist XP will get you to the highest-level groups that can spawn, and that might be one short of the lich on that difficulty.
@jmerry and @Grond0 thank you for your advice and encouragement. Do you have any insight on the issue of which difficulty setting to pick, given that were are generally experienced players who usually play on insane and I'm now playing maxed out SCS.
It sounds like you've already got enough experience to decide for yourself what you want to play . Common choices seem to be tactical (as the nearest equivalent to original rules) and insane (to get the maximum possible amount of gameplay). I don't currently play with SCS, though I've used it extensively in the past. That partly reflects that I normally play solo and that often means the best option to deal with SCS buffing is to out-wait it. That can be a bit tedious, so I would normally play tactical difficulty where buffing is less extreme. With both mage and clerical options available, you might feel differently about your options, but insane difficulty will mean that level-dependent opponents are very challenging early on in the games - that's particularly an issue in BG2EE where liches will pose you a problem.
Comments
104 damage? How is that even possible?
The standard mustard jelly weapon deals 5d4 damage. If you get extremely (1 in 20,000) bad luck and the jelly rolls the maximum on all six dice, that's a 40 damage crit. Increase that to 80 if you're playing on Insane with the double damage enabled.
Can that be increased? The weapon allows for strength bonuses to damage, but the jelly's strength is just average. The jelly's weapon is also ranged, so no bonus damage if you're wielding a ranged weapon - and you deal bonus damage to it on your melee hits.
Which leaves mods. It looks like something in your mod setup altered mustard jellies in a way that makes them more dangerous than they already are. Because that 104 (instant) damage is flat out impossible in an unmodded game, or one that does the bare minimum with EET.
I have no idea... I wish I had made screenshot but I was so stunned. And then I ragequit
But Im sure it wasn't flat 104 dmg. That number was after summing the dmg.
On the other hand I do have some mods. I have just installed Shades of the sword coast, northern tales of the sword coast, unfinished buisness, some more Tweaks
Or its a visual/language bug in my bugged BGEET. I was wondering how is it possible that Shadowdancer has physical damage resistance. I remembe him having it in NWN but that was 3.5E. Its my first time trying him in BG so Im pretty clueless.
In both screens jelly did more dmg than maximum 5d4. "odparto obrażeń: 15" translates to "15 damage resisted".
Testing the English-language version (with a freshly created BG2 character)...
"testy: takes 4 slashing damage from Smoke Mephit (2 damage bonus)" (Insane difficulty, extra damage on)
"testy: takes 1 slashing damage from Smoke Mephit (1 damage resisted)" (Easy difficulty)
The difficulty bonus/penalty shows up in the log as if it's damage resistance; negative resistance for high difficulties, positive resistance for low difficulties. But it should use different words for the two sides of this - English uses "bonus" and "resisted" to indicate the sign here. If your language (Polish?) isn't doing that, that's a bad translation in the game text.
These multiple hits are from chapter game save I just loaded to test the damage. In my original run I was oneshotted.
And on those screens the damage is higher than maximum according to you. On the first its normal hit 32 dmg PLUS 16 damage which was resisted by me. Meaning it was normal hit for 48 dmg. On the second I got critted for 84 dmg. 28 dmg was resisted by my Shadowdancer out of this critical strike. Its insane with double damage. Message about (5 damage resisted) doesnt mean easy difficulty but physical damage resistance. Like the one you get from DoE or Hardiness. Shadowdancer had this physical resistance in 3.5E.
It has to be visual/text bug. I just tested poison and it was hitting me for 2 dmg each tick while still showing message that 1 dmg was resisted. Never seen poisong hitting for 3dmg each tick.
And it would explain why I thought it was 104 dmg. I had 72HP so high crit for 77+ would be enough to oneshot me while 30% of resistance would falsily show 25+ dmg resisted.
I now use scouting constantly, whereas in classic runs I would not bother with it. Particularly, I really like being able to be stealthed with my mainchar, it so useful in case of bad encounters like the circle of bandits...
Also, now I always rest when my characters are tired, even if they are fully healed and have all their spells.
And of course I no longer store consumables like wands, I use them liberally in order to win and not die.
No reload really changed my way of playing.
In Korlasz's tomb, I cleared the humanoid groups with mass fireballs, and the undead groups with Gardi, using a PfU scroll, fire giant strength, heroism and speed (with a skeleton summon helping to reveal the invisible wraith). Korlasz herself survived the initial fireballs thanks to her fire resistance, but she was unable to deal with our fully buffed party for more than a round:
Level 1: Blindness, Shield, Magic Missle, Protection from Petrification, Larloch's Minor Drain
Level 2: Web, Mirror Image, Blur, Resist Fear
Level 3: Haste, Spell Thrust, Protection from Fire
Level 4: Stoneskin, Secret Word
Level 5: Breach
Searching through things ... looks like this is a pair of string entries. In BGEE and BG2EE, that's strings 1254 and 1255. English text for them:
"Takes <AMOUNT> <TYPE> damage from <DAMAGER> (<RESISTED> damage resisted)"
"Takes <AMOUNT> <TYPE> damage from <DAMAGER> (<RESISTED> damage bonus)"
They're referenced from ENGINEST.2DA, as STRREF_GUI_ATTACK_TEXT_RESISTED and STRREF_GUI_ATTACK_TEXT_VULNERABLE.
Reported to the EE fixpack.
On the other hand a thief can boost his/her levels very quickly. I've had a thief enter at level 2 and exit at level 5 quite easily. Just avoided the dangerous enemies using stealth. Kirinhale gives a lot of experience at no risk. Ghasts can be killed in safety if you have plenty of room to flee.
I'm doing the run again and so far things are great though my HP were reduced to 1 when an ankheg saved against sleep. Will post it later when I have more time. I have noticed that whilst most ankheg can be put to sleep easilly, there are some that seem resistant. I'll have to take note which they are as ankheg kills are a great source of both experience and gold.
Journal of Nighthawk the Knife
When I was talking to Gorion I complained about my low charisma. "If it hadn't been for that, I could have been a paladin," I said. He laughed and said, "Not with your lack of respect for the law, you couldn't. However you can still make the world a better place."
I suppose he was right. This is how I started out in Candlekeep. Whilst there I killed three assassins and purloined a +1 dagger. Upon doing so I acceded that perhaps Gorion was right about my suitability for life as a paladin!
Outside Candlekeep we were ambushed and I fled. Upon returning to the site of ambush I found his bag of holding which sadly was empty. Heading south I was able to help Mellicamp.
In Beregost I purloined Algernon's Cloak and gained possessions and experience by investigating chests there. I also took a tome to Firebead.
To the south I killed a couple of ogrillon and as a result gained a ring of protection.
I returned Jumper the Rabbit to a little girl and using sleep killed a party of hobgoblins.In doing so, I gained Boots of Stealth.
I continued to Nashkel Carnival where I rescued Bentha from Zordral by backstabbing Zordral repeatedly.
I headed north and returned Joia's ring before killing three evil fishermen.
After helping Tania I killed a nearby ankheg.
I then helped Leila.
I then went ankheg hunting. At first everything went well until one turned up which kept saving against sleep with predictable results.
However that didn't stop[ me!
At the Friendly Arms Inn Tarnesh was defeated by the use of the blindness spell.
At the Coast Way Crossing, five fireballs cleared the bridge and Teleria was dealt with via a quick secret word + wand of the heavens combo:
I also quickly cleared the Troll Claw Woods - not much to report here. next up: The Forest of Wyrms.
Good ole Illasera to start with. If buffed fully fight should be easy. Prepared most of my spell armor before clicking on stone faces. Summoned simulacrum, planetar and added few buffs like black blade or SI:A after talking with spirits of the grove. Illasera's entire team can be ignored. She doesnt have much HP and even with her resistances she can be brute forced quickly.
There is only one real danger. Her arrows/attacks which are both dispelling and miscast magic inducing. PfMW easily takes care of that but fight with her is one of encounters where we shouldn't really count on contingency:PfMW. Sometimes she can land arrow on us before contingency fires up and we end without any combat protections, with low AC in mage robe and miscast magic. She didnt do it to my mage/thief so I kinda forgot about that and received one such arrow from her right at the start before my contingency:PfMW fired up. I could say she cheesed me, attacking before contingencies and all
Similar situation can occur during Gromnir fight. One of his bodyguards have this ability, or miscast magic effect alone which is still quite harmful. Still we came prepared. This and Gromnir fights are exact reasons why I have picked Hardiness and why there has been Shield of Reflection in my bag gathering dust whole SoA.
Back to the fight, I put on shield of reflection, cloak of protection +2, ring of freedom, Defender of Easthaven and used Hardiness. At the same time changed position to avoid rest of Illasera's group and observe how situation unfolds for a moment. Simulacrum uses GWW and together with planetar starts slashing Illasera.
One or two arrows got reflected and dispelled her even. Once it is clear nobody was focusing me and there was no rogue waiting to backstab me, courtesy of planetars true seeing, wI had used GWW with Reflecting Shield and finished Illasera.
Its important to pick entire loot. I will be trying to get as much money as possible. Even longsword +1 is going to be helpful. Thats why I will also pick every sword from elven warriors in first pocket plane evil trial.
After that I got few upgrades from Cespenar (improved cloak of protection is very helpful in solo run), and move to Saradush. Once more I rushed through city hasted. No need for investigation, I have slain guy who stole spellbook and returned it getting access to spell scroll heaven. This shop is the reason I will need so much money. Try to buy as much as I can of buff scrolls, 9th lvl scrolls and spell dmg scrolls. Will return to buy rest later.
Did quest with Countness and Kiser really fast for loot alone. Obliterated everybody and pillaged everything in Kiser's house. Blackmailed priestess for key to prison. Buffed up and slayed every vampire and gromnir's guards in next levels. Returned to prison to pick up Ioun stone required for circlet of netheril.
Buffed up fully for Gromnir. Time to finally use some potions before they all go to waste. Invulnerability, focus, power, heroism, regeneration, magic protection; I have gathered enough of them to be able to use that set on each and every of major ToB fights. Scrolls shall be kept for final fight. Contingency:True Sight and Chain spell: Simulacrum + Greater Malison + Remove Magic. Casted PfMWs at the start manually and attacked general boldly, simulacrum summons planetar at the same time and goes for Gromnir as well. Just before general I managed to down one of his two mages.
Gromnir should be down in few second but just to be sure once his mage used Alacrity, I countered him with Time Stop. Finished Gromnir in few hits and with Critical Strikes murdered almost everybody in the room. Throw in comet and dragons breath if need to be sure.
Mages PfMWs ended pretty soon and he probably died to level drain from black blade + blackrazor combo. After that its time to sell the loot in Beregost and finish Watchers Keep.
Prepared for the fight with stone statues as usual. Me, my clone and planetar vs rest of the keep. There isnt really much strategy other than plain blunt force and focusing two mages.
Simulacrum drops Dragons Breath, runs to the centre, starts beating enemy priest and gains focus of most non-caster enemies around. Planetar should use Insects whenever she can. I focus on Ruby Raying and Breaching mages. Enemy Fallen planetar is just a shield meat at this stage of the game.
If one of them uses Alacrity I will counter with Time Stop. I could use Alacrity as well but I like hitting people between casts. After mages death its just cleanup and walk towards next level. With most of buffs still active I just ran around entire level finishing elemental labs in my record time.
Rest, summon and fully rebuff for elemental demon.
Poor lad started with his Ice form first... Because of that he was gifted with 2x Dragons Breath, 2x Comet and 2x Flamestrike resulting in my record time there as well.
3rd level is a bit more tricky. Hardiness is priceless here as well as contingency spells.
Shield of Reflection may help a bit as well though there arent many ranged enemies. Dead and magic zone portals could get messy. I dont have "randomise watchers keep maze" components installed. I had to fully prepare for each and every portal anyway so it doesnt offer any additional challenge and would only serve to annoy the hell out of me.
The room with demons could be a fight with miscast magic still on me so I choose to help them for less risky fight with other group.
It was a bit spicy in Red+Blue Glabrezu room. I forgot they are improved and there were tons of them. Each of them started summoning tons of more shit while being safe under their own PfMW. In a moment I was swarmed and surrounded .
I always get hot under collar when they catch me like that. Maintaining PfMWs/Improved Mantle and SI:A is the key to success in moments like this. After throwing Dragons Breath and hacking apart some of the crowd I went for safe option and Time Stopped.
When things started moving there was only one Glabrezu and 2-3 elementals around. Tiefling room was rather easy once I killed their mage before anyone could react.
Demon wraith was done as any other mage. Ruby ray + sequencer: 3x secret word + breach and hack down. He actually died to Vorpal Strike from planetar.
With CS and Black Blade planetars die extremely fast nowadays. For the two zones with funky magic Ive prepared contingencies and equipped properly. Shield of Reflection, belt against slashing attacks for demons, DoE, Ring of Freedom, Nymphs Cloak (just to be sure), full plate armor +2, Hardiness + GWW. Simulacrum has to be in chain spell for maximum safety. Simulacrum starts fight with GWW and rushes first to get aggro and starts hacking down first target. In a room with demons priority was Balor.
Together we took him down before he could do anything. Got damaged pretty badly by his flaming death aura and had to retreat with 50 HP while simulacrum finished Balor.
I think he casted one implosion only? Ring of freedom protects me from any helpless effect. Cornugons did some heavy dmg with their lightning bolts forcing me to equip lightning reflection cloak.
Fiend required for heart quest was slain quickly on full buffs. He and cornugons died fast to black blade, finished rest of the group as easily.
I decided to gamble with cambion a bit. Won scroll of Wish which may help at final fight and lost spectral brand. I gambled my experience but after my loss nothing happened. I lost the way out also but I wasnt going to let cambion leave with MY stuff. Attacked them, casted sequencer:3x remove magic between them and slashed everyone apart starting with cambion and their wizard.
Walked down to Machine of Mad Lum level. There buffed to full, used few potions and rushed into illithid base.
Rampaged through corridors and killed most of enemies in 2-3 swings. Cleared it in record time and rushed to githyanki base.
Once inside casted PfMW to protect myself from anti-paladins and killed everybody. Their leader summoned deva but celestial also fell in few criticals from black blade.
Rested and rebuffed to full for both demilich and Saladrex. Undead was welcomed with chain spell: 3x khelbens warding whip + breach. Two rounds with black blade and hes dead.
Saladrex was tougher opponent. Not only has he like abazigal absolute tons of HP but also is a competent caster with many PfMW and other spell protections. Had to use many breaches because of his recasting.
In the end he fell to two Time Stops in a row after wasting most of his defensive spells and killing my 2 planetars and simulacrums.
After that I have confronted the minotaurs and slain them with critical strikes. Boosted my stats thanks to machine and went to another level.
Trials for the keys were rather boring. Dragon was easily dispatched. Avoided tougher fights on orb machine because there was no need for beholder fight or double lich one.
Done with my usual preparations I activated the hardest seal. Somehow my simulacrum bugged itself and got unresponsive and invisible to me for the whole fight...
Anyway I have positioned myself and planetar near beholder spawn. As soon as he spawns he is met with flurry of blades and falls down before anything starts.
Then planetar casts insect plague on nearest targets and attacks Marillith while I go for that red succubus chick and kill her in few seconds with black blade, at the same time throwing breach on marillith.
As soon as I killed my target I moved to help planetar with Y'tossi and we got her down quickly. With only cleric and huntress left it was over.
Azamantes wasnt a tough fight. As soon as he started casting alacrity/time stop I started with my own Time Stop which countered his alacrity. He still had PfMW so I picked few flaming skulls before moving back to him.
What surprised me the most was the seal with halberd fighters and mage. Either I have completely forgotten how this encounter works or something changed. I have almost died not expecting each warrior being immune to time stop and ganking on frozen me. How this mage used Time Stop was surprising too. Thankfully I have survived first time stop and just maintained PfMW/Improved Mantle after that.
Demogorgon requires full preparation. Spells memorised, sequencers, summons, buffs, potions. Strategy same as with Abazigal or Balthazar - ignore pests and focus the big guy.
My chain spell sends Pierce Shield, Pierce Magic and Greater Malison towards him while I throw breach. Prince of Demons stops time and smashes my planetar to dust.
He tries to do the same to my clone but simulacrums buffs hold. As soon as time stop drops both me and simulacrum use Critical Strike and we pummel Demogorgon.
Few moments with preventive PfMW + SI:A recast and Demogorgon dies to 17APR + CS. With some of his minions loitering around I decided to Time Stop and clear the place for good measure.
I made my way through the Forest of Wyrms, and, once I made it to the dragon lair, realized that I hadn't packed any throwing knives, so a regular dragon fight was my best option, as I didn't want to turn around. Since I planned to rest before facing Ziatar, I opted not to use green scrolls of poison protection. I just buffed up with my typical combat buffs and protections and attacked, tanking one poison breath in the process:
I spent quite a lot of time doing sidequests at the camp after buffing up my charisma via all the charisma boosting items, potions of persuasion and the friends spell you get to cast via the staff from the first SoD chapter (required since SoD only counts the charisma of your main character, not your party leader, for some terrible reason, and quite a few quests in the camp are somewhat charisma-gated). After that, I entered the Bloodbark Grove and used potions of clarity to make killing this vampire a little bit easier:
Another break from ToB in the form of new BG1 run. This time tho I did two things that I havent done in veeery long time.
I will be playing with full team. That didnt happen since before EE came out.
Also I have picked up some mods for this gameplay. I have always avoided mods adding content because of how XP rich they often are and this in my opinion makes the game less chalenging when you can farm XP even easier than in normal game. Magical items coming from them dont help the challenge either.
Still reading @Wise_Grimwald posts I really took liking to some of them and I have to finally try them.
Usual maxed scs, standard tweaks like unlimited ammo stacking, max HP for everybody. To this I add NPC project, unfinished buisness, SoTSC, NToTSC.
I would like to try it solo but being new to them I would probably die stupidly. Full team should overpower my lack of knowledge about the mods.
For better survivability I have chosen Barbarian and unfortunately had to pick half-orc instead of dwarf because npc project.
Barbarian 2h spec
Jaheira->Kagain
Shaar-Teel as archer (idk if I spelled it right)
Viconia
Xar->Dynaheir
Imoen dualed to mage at 4 lvl Thief
After soloing for so long, playing with a team feels a bit too easy tbh. Encounters where I had to run around and kite to save myself are getting curbstomped by a team.
I gave bows to fighters and darts to casters. Having two mages feels divine. In early stages I have used mainly Blind, Horror, Web. Ring of freedom on barbarian and greenstone amulet on Kagain.
Poor Khalid....
Later I played decoy with a fighter for most of the fights while dynaheir and imoen exploded everybody with fireball+skull trap combo. Can be aided by fighters with necklace of missiles.
I wanted to avoid farming 32k XP on main and recruiting easy companions. Yet I got brain freeze and went on auto-pilot to slaughter Shoal as a first thing resulting in my entire team being jacked up from the start. Also max HP for a solo game is fine. For a team its way too much.
I have tried avoiding new encounters untill I levelled up to avoid dying like idiot. Still I risked with few of them like Mimic.
Almost all deaths so far belong to casters. Imoen and Dynaheir each have at least three deaths to ranged attacks. Kobolds or bandits liked to oneshot them. Only permanent death was Xar but I was going to switch him for Dynaheir anyway.
My MC was close to death against Elite Black Talons twice. They all focused me effectively and I had to drink invi pot. Another near death was after tanking mighty punch from damaged golem but It was under control and everything was ready for tank switch. Fireball trap in ulcaster left me with 10hp.
Xar is just too stronk.
Imoen oneshotted.
Im done with most of SoTSC and maybe half of NToTSC. So far Im enojying it greatly. Fantastic mods. Added content blends in with original without any problem. Some zones have become a lot more lively. SoTSC really add darker stuff which works great in forgotten realms. Even magical items added arent too OP and dont break the game. The only super OP items so far are imo amulet +4 arcane caster levels and 19 str belt.
Horror perfectly countered by Remove Fear casted 0.2s later.
Nimbul countered by Barbarians Rage.
Web+ Ring of Freedom.
Molkar's ambush.
I was a bit overzealous with Bassilus and almost died for it.
Little amazons ambushing me were dealt with 2x Skull Trap and Purge Invisibility.
Bandit camp was absolutely epic.
Kirian and Co. gets blasted.
Tytus
Two nasty mage ladies.
Huge problem is still a flood of XP. Some quests give even 18000xp as a reward! Killing golem gave me 13k alone. Thats way too much. It should be fixable by reducing xp rate. On solo run I will definitely cut XP in half.
Lothander and Larze both died instantly.
NPC project gets 10/10 from me. Another fantastic mod which is going to be permanent for me even for solo games lol.
Whoeve wrote this mod deserves some respect. Truly well written characters. Kagain, Imoen, Viconia have awesome banter.
Dynaheir romance another 10/10. Im not sure if I have even brought any romance to the end in BG2. Never had patience for them when I was still playing with team. Here on the other hand I really enjoy history talks with Hathran. I havent finished it yet but already enjoy this relationship way more than whiny BG2 elfs.
There were few surprising encounters like vampires in Firewine Bridge dungeon. I had to waste 3 invi potions to get my team out and allow Barb to wreck them on rage.
Sadly no-reload ended. Team was not enough to save me from unknown encounter. I have cleared most of sword coast and was about to return to candlekeep. Before that I did a sweep to try and find any places I have missed.
That brought me jovial juggler where 6 sister witches are doing summoning rituals.
I knew there was a big fight with demon awaiting me. I did some preparations like drinking potion of invulnerability, casting remove fear. My spell saves were at 0. Overall I should be okay against demons. I wasnt ready for the sisters though. I completely forgot that as a fighter in BG1 Im below HD9... So no chance against this. Death Ward is the only option here?
I will probably continue this run to learn rest of these mods before trying solo no-reload. I recommend each mod. Tons of well written fun.
Funny thing, we are almost at the same point in our playthrough, my avenger just finished SoD and began Irenicus's dungeon.
I will post an update tonight.
I used potions of clarity to counter confusion and charm effects in the southern underground river and cleared the necromancers, for once without fireballs (since they already had a few MGOIs), using a few breaches and insect plague instead:
Next up, SoA.
The entirety of the opening dungeon was cleared by two fire elementals, with a first round of buffs for the air elemental plane. I saved my remaining spells for the second level, as I wanted to do the dungeon restless, and I still had a ton left for the last few enemies:
The first 4 stronghold quests: Since we had a consistent source of fire and acid damage with Stonefire and Biter, access to protection from fire and chaotic commands to protect Gardi against SCS spirit trolls and a need for some druidic weaponry, the druid grove was our first stop. Of course, I didn't have CC for everyone, so the first few battles were rough. Pietro only survived here due to his ironskins and Hansi's great damage:
Next, the Umar Hills, our future ranger stronghold. Here, I was quite surprised that the three wizards spawned when attacking the twisted runed guy. I'm used to be able to just murder him without anything happening. I was unbuffed for these, but got super lucky when all of them were affected by a single chaos spell, otherwise this might've turned out rather badly:
De'Arnise Keep. We have a second sixth level sorcerer spell by now, that being death spell, so non-spirit trolls can instantly be killed. After the druid grove, this one wasn't much of a challenge. A backstab for the first yuan-ti mage:
Now, we quickly finished the Mae'Var's guild questchain. No screenshots here, but nothing of note happened - Rayic died before getting to prepare his pre-buffs. Now, Joluv spawned into the game, so we now have a really strong weapon setup on both of our fighters, with Hans using both +3 elemental axes and Gardi using FoA + DoE. Next, I might travel to the Windspear Hills, though I don't have the greatest tools to kill vampires yet.
We didn't look to fight the windspear dungeon vampires right out of the gate, but were forced to do so by mummies spawning right outside of this door and pulling them in via better calls for help. I buffed up as quickly as possible with only Hans being protected against level drain. It was crucial that I'd be able to kill the vampires before a devastating number of level drains, so Hans used our only storm giant strength potion, combined with improved haste, to annihilate them faster:
Next up, I went for a very short visit to Hexxat's first quest in order to gain her bag of holding, as I was starting to get inventory management problems. For the same reason, I made it to Watcher's Keep level 1 and cleared out most of that level, leaving the statues for later. Vampiric mists were taken down by a berserking Hans. Now, we went back to the sewers, having Illuminata backstab Mekrath:
I have not done a no-reload gameplay but have been thinking of doing it for BG1 with my brother. The way we tend to play BG1 these days is by sticking to the main plot and not bothering too much with all the extra maps and side-quests (have done them to death and just can't be bothered anymore). If this is not-advisable from a xp and item progression point of view though then we're not sure a no-reload game will be right for us. We tend to give ourselfves 2500 extra XP at the start of the game as we dislike the gimpiness of lvl 1 chars and are intending to do the same for a no-reload but that's the only "cheat" we are considering and otherwise make no use of console commands or keeper.
The next point is that we don't bring companions along for the ride. Just us. Cleric types for me and he plays mages. We have dabbled in minor varriations of this but we are fairly set in our ways. If this setup is not recommended then we are unlikely to enjoy a no-reload. We have played on insane difficulty ever since but I guess for a no-reload that might not be advisable, any tipps on this would be cool. We tend to have a fairly relaxed and cautious playstyle and we communciate pretty well during the game if that is of any help.
Finally, it seems to me that most seem to fail in getting to the finish line with no-reload games. Does anyone have a sense of what the chances are? We know BG1 and BG2 pretty well, completed probably half a dozen runs since it was released back in the day + countless runs that we didn't see through. I'm currently also playing my first BG2 SCS solo. So given our setup with zero no-reload experience how hard will it be getting to the end of BG1 and then maybe BG2. BG2 seems very daunting for a no-reload, feels like it would be orders of magnitudes harder than BG1.
And if you fail ... try again. There are several long-running series here, like the Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer duo runs, up to #237 at last count. Just remember what killed you last time, and plan better for it this time.
A cleric and mage combination is fine for making progress, but any combination can succeed if you plan and play carefully. The occasional death may be attributed to the particular perils of MP (like increased lag), but the vast majority are down to taking risks. For long time players, giving the game the odd chance can increase the fun, but even taking slight risks does tend to result in failures sooner or later
Best of luck and enjoy the ride
Corecleric XX - halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Swazi - Mage (Grond0)
Betson - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
So the Trio found themselves at basilisk's area. Corecleric XX used the green PfP scroll to tank the enemies. This worked fine, but it was slow with the 1 APR of the mage and cleric of the group. For Mutamutin, Corecleric XX did his MM wand to interrupt Mutamutin's mirror image. We were also protected by resist fear, so we won the battle. As for Kirian and friends, skeletons, stinking cloud, blindness, and silence were way too much for them.
We then took down 4 ogrillions to get a shield for Corecleric from Bjornin. We then cleared out the ankheg nest. Corecleric tanked well. We then went to Bassilus area and took him down. Since he was targeting our skeletons, he didn't have much of a chance. Torgal was also taken down while we were here.
We then worked through Nashel Mines. Though we did a quick defeat of Greywolf, who was blinded and held which was a bit much for him.
Betson was taking chances with the first ghoul on the 3rd level but we got them. However, he got held by the ghoul close to Mulahey. So we had to resurrect him and make out way back. But Mulahey was easy thanks to a silence. Then stinking cloud, skeletons and silence were too much for the amazons.
We couldn't return the greenstone ring as we couldn't open the door to turn it in. We did have a good battle with Nimbul and he did some damage to us, but he eventually got held and finished.
So we didn't have a lot of time, we thought we would get a scimitar for Betson. Wand of Heavens was a key tool against the strong enemies on the surface, such as the battle horors. Once inside, skeletons were carefully used against the baslisks. With a protection from fire spell, Corecleric got the scimitar +2 for Betson. While here, we "helped" the succubus then held Riggilio - poor thief things just weren't going his way.
We had just a little bit of time left, so we got the cloak +1 from zombie farm. Betson used a strength potion to bash the chest and also quickly trashed the zombies which pumped his kill count even further. Unsurprisingly, Betson has a big lead over the casters, and that seems unlikely to change. Interestingly, the casters killed exactly 50 enemies each.
When I took on Bassilus he saved against all my spells and I ednded up having to flee leaving all those swords and crossbows to rot.
After recuperating I headed to Durlag's tower using stealth to avoid enemies.
There I bought some potions to aid my thieving abilities.
From there I headed to Ulgoth's Beard where using the potions I acquired a good hammer which I cannot use and several scrolls.
Many of them I cannot yet use, but the web scroll was memorised and as a result opon returning to Bassilus I prevailed.
I used web against an ogre as well.
After selling the hammers I I now have an abundance of gold.
The question is, do I use it on an expensive robe or on upgrading the belt to increase my strength. I cannot afford both.
EDIT
In the end I chose the robe and then killed more assassins south of Beregost. I got a dagger of returning from the bodies which means that I no longer have to hunt skeletons to keep my stock of throwing daggers high. I sold their armour and shield and now have almost enough gold to upgrade my belt.
I considered buying a poisonous dagger straight away but decided against it.
Mass invisibility turned out to be quite helpful when facing the halfling wizards in the planar sphere - they were almost helpless, seemingly with no divination spells at the ready for some strange reason. I finally ended up getting dispelled by the second wizarding duo, but at that point, the fight was basically already over:
Our final stronghold quest was the Unseeing Eye - downstairs, we made use of skeleton warriors, summoned by Andi, to face our first group of beholders - Gardi isn't close to level 15 yet, due to her multiclass.
The named halflings in the planar sphere (the others are all mook fighters):
Entu - fighter with psionic abilities
Togan - fighter
Kayardi - mage
Mogadish - cleric
Necre - mage
Taibela - mage
So there's only one mage in that first group. Who likely rolled conjurer in your installation, and thus couldn't take divination spells. The cleric has True Seeing in vanilla, but SCS clerics never memorize that spell. They get a block that casts a free (no memorization required) Invisibility Purge if invisible PCs are skulking around and they don't see anyone, but that's it. If you're in that semi-visible state where you've revealed yourself from improved invisibility, there's nothing the cleric can do about it.
No special immunity. He just has way more hit points than you'd expect from a pure mage - 96, to be precise.
If you're only playing on Tactical difficulty, I'm not sure you can get the lich spawn at all. 2 million protagonist XP will get you to the highest-level groups that can spawn, and that might be one short of the lich on that difficulty.