Spellhold dungeon went without troubles, I discovered how cloudkill was good against umber hulks, and only Valygar fell to an hungry mind flayer.
Sahuagin City was easy, siding with the king for the gauntlets in prevision of doing Rasaad's quest later.
In the underdark, since I can now heal fast thanks to the ring of regeneration, I replaced call woodland beings by deathward in Radagast's memorized spells, and with Anomen and Aerie as backup, I could memorize many chaotic command too.
So I first killed the two mindflayers to the north of the starting point, then freed Vithal and helped him doing his quest, bargaining rewards but not upsetting him.
The Balor in the gnomes village wasn't a threat between protection from evil, deathward, chaotic command and remove fear.
Next I did the kuo ta lair, using the corrupted little ones to weaken the prince.
I decided to fight the demon knights, since I was still fully buffed. I just summoned some aerial servants and fire elementals for some support.
I also decided to not try my luck in the beholders and mindflayers's lair, since the loots were not essential to my team. I would just missed the Silver Sword, for Minsc or Sarevok if I need again to replace a frontliner...
I also pondered killing Adalon for her blood since the human flesh armor is the best armor for an avenger, but with Keldorn, Imoen and Aerie in the party, I choose to be a good guy.
In Ust Natha, I was forced to kill Quilue for her brain (she was the one responsible of my shapeshifter's death in a previous run), so this time I let her no chance : many summons, some dispel magic from Keldorn, and it was over.
The main quests were done easily, with the usual long duration buffs.
I somehow found myself needing to fight Deirex, and combined forces of Daystar, ImoD, Azure Edge and Keldorn were enough.
I did some shopping and free the slaves before leaving the city. I didn't try my luck with House Jaelat, Water Edge is not worth the trouble.
I talked to Adalon fully buffed, and help her killing the drow guards.
Back to Amn, I had a good surprise, even without going to mindflayers's lair, I was ambushed by Githyanki for the silver sword, and they weren't expecting insect plague and nature beauty...
Now Keldorn have a new shiny one.
I began Maevar's quest, and entered to Planar Sphere. The most annoying foes were the golems, but the staff anti golem and Flail of the Ages really helped there. Tolgerias was backstabbed, but not to death, and had time to launch an AHW before Keldorn dispelled his protections and the party cut him down. The demons were all killed.
I just freed Haer Dalis, and will soon enter the planar prison. I was also annoyed by the clones ambush, since I had forgotten they weren't evil (so Aerie's Holy smite did nothing) and also magic didn't work on them. So they managed to kill Imoen with a barrage of magic missiles and chromatic orbs before I killed them.
Radagast is now clearly lagging behind the others, and is mainly a support character with many protective spells. He now uses the boomerang fire dagger from Ust Natha, but I'm thinking to buy Arundel's staff for more high level spells to memorize. He's now at 2,600,000 XP, so the level 15 with all the bells and whistles is approaching fast.
I also had a little panic when I found out Keldorn lost the Balduran's shield, but I recovered it near Renal Bloodscap (quest items taking the place of other items is really annoying).
Trio 51 Update 3
Corecleric XX, Halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Swazi, elven mage (Grond0)
Betson, Human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Corecleric checked his spells and saw he had some skeletons. So they went to pirate's cave area and engaged the female mage here - we didn't give her chance by using silence on her. We summoned two skeletons and then engaging at range. But our Thac0 is poor, so we weren't killing the sirines fast. The skeleetons ended up dying and now the party was being targeted by biting arrows. Both Swazi and Betson gets poisoned, and Swazi nearly dies but doesn't thanks to a bug. For the next batch Corecleric just used his greenstone amulet and that worked out fine.
With potion of absorption, Corecleric tanked the golems. However, his comrades were badly hurt by the sirines earlier, and also didn't have magical ranged attacks. This ended up being fatal as a golem one-shotted Betson. So the party gathered up the things and went to resurrect their comrade. But Betson lost his scimitar and sling. Doh! And then when we came back, Betson was impatient and triggered the charm trap, despite the fact that Corecleric would be immune. So the party had to wait until the charm would wear off. Finally the last golem was killed. Whew!
We then took on the next batch of sirines in the other area and the ogres there. This time Betston didn't cause any trouble and we had victory.
Corecleric then noticed with CHA tome would give Swazi 16 CHA, so it was worth it to travel to the Gnoll fortress and also to get the girdle of bluntness. This went smoothly. Killing the bear and getting the boots from the nobleman was done as well.
Next target was Melium. He saved vs everything, so Corecleric decided to do DUHM and charge into melee - this works! We finally realized that we still hadn't unlocked the Bandit camp, so we took down Tranzig. We then headed to the bandit camp with Corecleric tanking as usual. Fighting Khosann was dicey, but we didn't manage to blind him and killed him. For Tazok's tent the party went invisible and a Coercleric used silience, which should have made it simple, but his party members got poisoned so they had to leave the tent. But victory still was achieved.
Finally, we headed to Cloakwood Forest. Swazi offered to go invisible and set off the traps, and then Corecleric offered to put free action on Swazi and was told he was spoiling Swazi. Some buffed skeletons were great distractions. We then proceeded to Cloakwood area 4. As is his practice, Corecleric enagaged the dryad since he was immune to her charm. Betson's impatience once again got the better of him and the Dryad managed to charm him. While she was killed, Mirazi was careless and triggered 4 guards, one guard was on Betson, while Mirazi was running the other 3 guards were chasing him. Corecleric had to rescue his friends! He used hold person on both the guard on Betson (which worked) and managed to hold one guard who was chasing Mirazi. This gave Mirazi some space to blind a guard. Corecleric then enagaged the guard on Betson, and the guard was downed. Then Betson was free and together he and Corecleric saved MIrazi.
Finally we made it to Drassus. Silence, stinking cloud and buffed skeletons were too much for Drassus and gang.
The party then made it to level 2. Betson was spotted by a guard, but this did not trigger Heirashan. The party was all invisible so they went to area 3. Then next group of enemies was slow going and the party took damage but we did make to the end of level.
Davaeorn is next but out of time! So he will be next session.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 237, Core rules + unmodded part 5 (links to earlier episodes: 123+4)
Sorrarm the sorcerer and Laughalot the Jester
With almost a month since their last outing we struggled to remember what was next. Todays clue was we were on the 4th floor of the Iron Throne HQ. A quick inventory check confirmed we were on our way down after dealing with Zhalimar Cloudewulfe and his cronies.
Sorrarm took several visual images but eventually decided not to share them today. We wouldn't want it known for example that Laughalot ran several enemies around with his ranged weapons equipped since his sword slowed his movement. Nor that a brace of doppelgangers underneath Candlekeep both landed hits, 1 critical and one not but between them enough for 37 damage and a dirt nap.
Sorrarm scooped up what gear he could and left the rest, turned himself invisible and departed unseen. After a temple restoration we cracked on at the expense of Slythe (webbed and mobbed by wand summons). The coronation saw one duke killed after mere moments while Belt moved away from invisibility 10' to remain in danger. Our spells (malison, chaos) on top of hasted wand summons kept him alive though.
Down into the thieves maze where we made a meal of the two battle horrors - scorching each other slightly but getting through. Rahvin and gang got a couple of shots in as we took turns to overstep into their visual range but again we pulled through.
Sarevok was malisoned and blinded, while Semaj had wand summons bothering him. A second set of summons were sharing the pain with Sarevok while we cast our fearsome magic missiles and down he went.
Sorrarm was ready to head to Amn but instead we find ourselves in a dusty crypt looking ahead to Dragonspear.
I took Arkion a corpse which pleased him, however he got angry when an attempted pickpocket failed so I was forced to kill him.
I took his amulet to Nemphre which pleased her, but she too got angry when I attempted to pickpocket her! Two fewer evil mages in Baldur's Gate has got to be a good result!
Killing a basilisk made the Gate a bit safer, as did killing Razimith.
I then helped the halflings in Gullykin by killing their enemies.
Back at the Gate I killed Cyrdemac and Marek.
We were asked to head north to sort out some problems there. (NToSC)
In the process I sorted out the problems at the Citadel.
I was then asked to get Shandalar's Cloak from Ice Island. Due to having Gorion's belt, that proved to be trivial as I was immune to any damage that the winter wolves and snow golems might otherwise have done.
Back in Athkatla, we forged some items at Cromwell's and entered the graveyard to get the vampire ambush out of the way - enter and drink five invisibility potions:
A deva and turn undead takes down the vampires, making the graveyard safe to enter again - which is important, because this is my most common place to rest in Athkatla.
We started clearing out some liches, mostly using traps if possible. The city gate lich battle shows the power of our buffs - a remove magic can only affect Hans, who has enrage - everyone else is immune. He uses an entire timestop just to cast gate and greater malison, both of which will do nothing against this party:
With that done, his PFMW runs out and he dies. I don't have screenshots for Kangaxx, but this one was easy enough - traps for his lich form, sunrays for his demi-lich form. For the guarded compound, I had prepared traps downstairs and a 3*ADHW CC, which did some great work - however, the traps turned out to be useless - seems like you can't leave the upstairs area during combat in SCS:
So, why is Sion knocked out here? Well, this is actually quite funny - his own summoned djinni used stinking cloud and he failed his saving throw, see here:
This, of course, made the battle rather easy.
With a lot of buffs still active, I ran down into the sewers to clear out the illithid lair. The alhoon got his buffs removed via ruby ray + spellstrike + breach:
I left the Twisted Rune for later, going for a quick dragon hunt instead - shadow dragon:
And Firkraag:
I didn't forge Crom Faeyr, opting to keep the belt instead. Now, for the Twisted Rune - I trapped the lich and went in for an aggressive approach, stunning and killing the beholder as soon as possible:
Layene was able to complete her timestop, but she lost one of her spell protections via ruby ray a bit earlier, so she wasted some time casting a useless MGOI, followed up by a gate:
Spellstrike, breach, and she was done:
Bodhi's lair was rather easy, as a fighter/cleric with the iMoD +2 can clear the place within minutes without any trouble at all. Since this is tactical, Bodhi herself isn't that threatening, and her insect plague only hit our fighters as the others waited outside. A quick implosion didn't do too much, but bodhi was soon left without allies and fell to Hans' axes:
Next up, I got another pair of boots of speed by killing Renal:
Finally, we travelled to Watcher's Keep, buffed up thoroughly and activated the statues - both of these wizards needed to be dispelled carefully with ruby ray + spellstrike + breach:
Since we aren't all that keen on directly facing fire giants, I used magical swords to block their pathway at level 2:
Clearing the other elemental libraries and rooms was easy enough - I buffed everyone with protection from frost to prevent any cone of cold deaths:
I wasn't sure which type of normal traps Illuminata had at this point (tricky with multiclasses), so in case her traps didn't deal fire damage anymore, I prepared a bunch of fire damage sequencers/spell triggers, and spells such as fire seeds, sol's searing orb, flamestrike, flame arrow, firestorm etc. - the traps still did fire damage, and only Gardi's searing orb was required to finish the fight:
Obviously, we aren't delving into a randomized maze without access to the pocket plane, so next up will be the elven city whenever I find the time to play again.
Instead of trying to finish my run Im being constantly distracted by starting new runs with new mods.
I have finally found the perfect mod to add to my gameplay. Made in Heavens encounters/quests works incredibly with other mods Im using. I have already started two runs with a team and in both I was obliterated by improved monsters new abilities. I have yet to see bigger fights improved by this mod but I can already tell I wont be disappointed. The fact that this mod upgrades SoD as well makes it even better. As soon as I learn a bit about it I will be trying solo runs.
After getting erased by well coordinated 100 dmg double acid spray from ankhegs I have returned to ToB.
Gnome Fighter/Illusionist Throne of Bhaal Part 2
Back to main storyline, I went to marching mountains first. Turning invisibible I have stolen all ward stones and unlocked next level of the keep. While on IH and with boots of speed it can be done without any combat at all. Fire lich didnt even finish his first cast before I was done and left him in the dust.
On the second level there are some enemies I would like to fight so buffed up fully, summoned my entourage and chargeed into fire. First killed Brennen quickly with brute force while dispelling Brimstone with Khelbens Warding Whip at the same time. Once fire giant cleric died I have moved to the dragon and started with Breach.
Between 18APRs and planetar they should all die quickly. Most important thing is to watch my health and fire resistance.
I forgot that they can lower FR quite fast and took surprisingly lot of damage before noticing anything.
Rebuffed fire prot and slayed Imix.
On the way back out I cant resist Bhaals blood and ended up slaughtering every fire giant I skipped moments ago. Im addicted to seeing big dmg from black blade being delivered.
Sneaked into Temple of Bhaal, skiped every undead, restored Yaga-Shuras vulnerability and ran out without wasting time.
I have moved immediately to the siege camp next, Once there I teleported to Pocket Plane for full prebuff and other preparations. Prepared sequencers and saved spells like black blade, spell immunity, true sight, improved haste for later.
Drunk set of usual potions. This run I forgot completely about that but it may be wise to prepare spell trigger with 3x cone of cold. Im not sure about current version but old ascension giant had low cold res while all others were almost max at start.
Once I have returned from pocket plane, casted simulacrum and made it summon planetar. Casted few last buffs and charged to Yaga-Shura. When the giant runs off I focused on reducing number of vermin scattered around me. Mages will cast some spell protection removals so I tend to run around them and kill other soldiers while they are offscreen.
After some time recasted few missing buffs and casted main ones like black blade or SI:A. When leader of the army returned with his elite commander party I repositioned to avoid getting swarmed and to get few mages off me.
When they were nicely stacked casted double Dragon Breath on them and hacked some fire giant fodder. Commander Mage casted Time Stop, summoned fallen planetar and dispelled some protection off me. To counter that Ive used spell trigger with spell deflection, spell shield and SI:A, while slaying fighter commander at the same time.
Key thing is to recast Improved Mantle/PfMWs at right time and to monitor spell immunity. With few commanders dead and maybe 3 rounds since appearance of commanders I used first time stop.
Yaga-Shura is still highly resistant to dmg so I have spent this time killing his commander cleric and commander mage whose PfMWs dropped midway time stop. Black blade+blackrazor's level drain worked nicely on him, had even time to slay few more mages around me. When time stop ended I reposition again and recast few things like mirror image, improved mantle and SI:A.
Hit and run on Yaga-Shura to check how is his vulnerability. Once it drops a bit I summoned planetar again and rushed him not caring about getting swarmed. Improved Mantle + Critical Strikes for two rounds then final Time Stop and another of the Five goes down.
Though Oasis ambush is laughable compared to rest of Ascension, Im not going to underestimate anyone so I had prepared fully with contingencies and sequencers.
Once there I wait only for contingency:PfMWs to launch itself and unleash alacrity upon my enemies. With that I get crucial buffs from sequencers, summon planetar, cast black blade and rampage. Gathered all the loot for scrolls.
Quick detour to sendais enclave for rune of Clangedin and we arrive at Abazigals nest.
Fight with Draconis in human form was swift.
Surprisingly or not I had another bugged dragon fights this run. It was almost exactly the same bug during Draconis fight as in my previous BG2EE Abazigal battle. In my mage/thief run Abazigal and Tamah got stuck together. This time it was ME who got stuck on/with Draconis...
I don't know who had it harder because of that. We butt our heads and slash at each other anyway so it didn't change anything. Unfortunately his claws are weaker than black blade, his breath doesnt do anything thanks to prot from all elements and his spell armor is weak and easily dispellable.
I get a nice night full of sleep after fight with Draconis and move inside. These lizards with GWW's could be dangerous if underestimated, so I will be using two Improved Mantles. After cleaning some trash Im standing once again before dragon. This time the one guarding potion of water breathing. Usual buffs+simulacrum+planetar. Another dragon, another bug. This time somehow my simulactrum couldnt attack yellow dragon... It could cast spells, move and everything else but as soon as I ordered it to attack dragon it stopped completely. Seriously last time Im playing BGEET... Back to dragon it was usual Khelbens Warding Whip + breach.
This dragon though like Saladrex was a bit better caster than others of his kind. He reacted well to my magic removals and recasted Spell Deflection, Spell Trap and PfMW. After wasting few Ruby Rays and Breaches it was all about swinging blade few times. With how tightly buffed Im dragons usually focus Planetar as the only easy thing to hit and she can just heal herself when there is a need. With potion of water breathing diving is achieved and Ive stormed through the cave right to the imprisoned monk. Kuo-Tans and water elementals can be skipped with invisibility. After quick talk, return to town for rope and come back for dragon ambush.
Got mysle a long and nice night of resting. Prepared sequencers. Summoned simulacrum + planetar. Fully buffed myself, drank few potions and started the fight. Im starting with the black dragon who gets targeted by chain:3x khelben ward whip. With protections and buffs on me they cant do much.
Between 17APR+CS and planetar they die pretty fast. When fight with green one starts, surprise surprise! We have another bug. My simulactrum leaves my team and becomes neutral NPC after cutscene! Still green one didnt buff so he gets few heavy smacks from me very fast.
After healing himself he launched chain spell with some good spell protections. Sequencer: 3x Remove Magic takes care of that and he dies quickly but not before stunning and killing planetar.
Near the end of this fight I made sure to recast mirror image and SI:A. I have resummoned my celestial before cutscene with Carnifex started. Before anything I managed one strike on his stoneskin which ended in nice four level drain from the start.
He buffed and I responded with Spell trigger: 3x Pierce Magic. Got few hits on him and he buffs again. Ruby ray + breach and we start melee again. Carnifex himself changed his focus between me and planetar. I had to watch carefully stoneskin as I hadnt recasted it or PfMW since start of the fight. After wasting few PfMW of his I waited for perfect occassion and casted Time Stop.
Right on time as he had almost lost all skins and he destroyed all MY skins and images. One time stop wasnt enough though, he had tons of HP. Lucky timing again with second Time Stop, there was maybe 0.5s of normal time before another stop and he hadnt managed to even recast anything. So I hit him till he died.
With rope secured, I dive back into caverns and decide to spare the dragon lady after sating my lust for dragon blood. Well almost sating. In the eye room I tested invisibility against Death Tyrans and Golem Tyrants.
To my surprise only one Golem Tyrant could see me. He was following and trying to bite me. Dived to mad mage lab and went to Pocket Plane for rest before coming back. With beholders I prefer to always play it safe. That means cheese for everybody and they die to offscreen double time stop+black blade+IH+CS.
After that Ive sent little adventurers party for the gauth, traded its eye for scroll and freed the dragon lady. Abazigal next.
Preparations for Abazigal went exactly like for other dragons. Added potion of magic resistance, clarity, absorption. Battle starts with me, clone and planetar charging Abazigal while ignoring the rest.
Thats ony of my favourite strategies for this class: ignore pests and focus the big bad. His humanoid form is destroyed very quickly and together with his dragon form comes the same problem. His knockback doesnt work on me and Im stuck literally on his back. I cant reach other enemies around, but they or at least Tamah can reach me.
At least simulactrum and planetar somehow survived this time. I use sequencer:3x remove magic, planetar casts insect plague and simulactrum casts dragons breath. Abazigal is till buffed and untouchable. Insect plague on the other hand managed to land on Tamah and broke her morale for a moment before she has slain my planetar.
I paid attention to observing both PfMW and SI:A to not get caught off guard, recast whenever needed. Spell trigger: 3x Pierce magic followed by Breach from wand and I get few hits in before he recasts spell deflection + PfMW again. I counter with Ruby Ray + Breach again. During this time planetar was nuked together with simulacrum.
All enemies focusd on me, so I recasted PfMW and later Breach again only to be countered with PfMW from Abazigal right after. At that moment I decided he wasted enough spells and used Alacrity.
Casted Mirror Image, Stoneskin, PfMW, True Sight, Remove Magic, Greater Malison, Hardiness, last SI:A, Ruby Ray + Breach on Abazigal, Dragons Breath, Comet, Critical Strikes and attack him again. Thats wasnt the end though.
One of his earthquakes managed to get through and smashed me into the ground , Dragons clearly werent supportive of fair play and tried all they could to eat me right there. Was scared awfully.
Thankfully my rebuff on alacrity was still fresh and PFMW together with other protectioncs were enough to get back on my feet. After getting up it took few more hits and Abazigal was dead.
Journal of Yeroc the (mostly) solo dwarven fighter/cleric - update 1
Hello. If anyone finds my journal posthumously, I am a simple dwarven cleric with some fighter skills. I am currently being taught by the Candlekeep Priest but only know simple spells. I live in Candlekeep with Gorion my foster father. The only thing special about me is I always forget to take baths, and as such never have success with girls. It's hard to make friends with males as well because of this, so actually Gorion is really the only friend I have. Also I sometimes hear a deep voice in my head which tells me to do things. Normally I follow the law but I am more afraid of the Voice.
Gorion asked me to get ready for a journey, but didn't explain why. So I did some chores to get a little bit more gold, equipped myself with a sling and flail, splint mail, and a large shield and told Gorion I was ready to go.
We were ambushed by a dangerous looking armored fiend! I wanted to fight but Gorion commanded me to run to safety. My father was cut down - I will avenge you father! Imoen finds me and I welcome her companionship. We picked up some of Gorion's things and encountered a wolf! Poor Imoen got bit but we killed it! Whew!
Some suspicious looking characters were on the road.
me: "We need take out that mage and his halfling friend - they will cause trouble for others!"
Imoen: "Really? We are just kids! You are a queer fellow!"
me: "I'm the leader of the group! Attack the mage and do as I command!"
Imoen: "Oh, all right. I've done had enough of this!"
Iomen attacks the mage with her bow and I try to help with my sling. We both miss and Imoen gets hurt bad - she charges with her dagger and finally the mage goes down. But the mage kills Imoen - well she didn't really like me that much anyways. I charge the halfling and take him down. I best get out of here.
I headed East and found a man in a red robe who suggested I go check out the Friendly Arm Inn. So I did so, and on the way found a magical ring.
I get to the Friendly Arm and am about to enter.
Voice: "Do not enter yet. Go to the right, there will be a ring in the ground, pick it up. It will help you avenge your father."
So I go right and I do find a ring - it looks like a wizard's ring, which means it probably is quite valuable! This just confirms to me I need to listen to the voice. The Voice said I should go around the FAI and I will find weak enemies to defeat. Then go North and I will find a companion, some paladin named Ajantis it seems.
We enter the FAI and returned a flamedance ring to a woman, she was quite pleased and am sure she spread a good word me. I see a man in a robe, who I have a bad feeling about, so nudge the young paladin forward. He's an assasin! We attack and the guards help. Ajantis gets hits by a spell and runs like a coward! But I am just a kid, so I run too and wait it out - the guards were able to kill this assassin (Tarnesh), - whew!
However, my new "friend" was useless so I gave him a bow (because he was missing one) I didn't need and said goodbye for now. In the FAI store I was able to buy some plate armor and a magical buckler, which gives me some regeneration. I then proceed to the High Hedge area.
Voice: "Go to the large structure in the middle of this area - you will find something you need there."
So I do as the voice commanded and ran into two gnoll veterans - one of them hit me hard and took me to a sliver of life! But I had a heal potion and kept up the attack and killed it, and his two buddies. Why is the Sword Coast so dangerous?
But I do get inside the structure and find a powerful mage named Thalantyr. The Voice told me to get the potion bag.
me: "Why do I need this bag, Voice?"
Voice: "Because you wiill be alone most of the time- remember your B.O.? This bag will help you avenge your father."
me: "Ah right ok. Now what?"
Voice: "Proceed west, you will win a great battle there."
So I proceed west and see a nymph.
Voice: "Command the nymph!"
me: "Really? Why? Most nymphs are harmless."
Voice: "You want to be able to defeat your Father's killer, don't you? Kill it and it will please your god."
So I commanded the nymph. Nymphs sometimes have special abilities so just ran and used my sling. The Voice was right! My god granted me three second level spells! I then proceeded to Beregost.
Here, I saw at a distance a pretty girl with pink hair, a mage maybe.
Voice: "Silence the pink-haired girl."
me: "Really? Why? She doesn't look dangerous."
Voice: "Obey! She has something you need, and also she's a wild mage so her magic can turn against you without warning!"
So I do silence her. My sling misses, so end up smacking her dead with her flail. But I do find a gem bag. Yes this could help. In the same area, Firebead also gave a scroll case, this will help too.
Voice: "Silence the bard by the Red Sheaf Inn."
me: "Why?"
Voice: "Killing her will make you more powerful. You need a lot of power to defeat your father's killer. You made a promise to your father! Will you let him down?"
So I do silence the bard and she falls easily. And the Voice was right! I do feel more powerful. While in the area I also purchased a magical sling.
Finally I proceed south to Nashkel - seems safer than traversing ankheg country. I encouter two ogrillions, but I call upon my god for draw upon holy might and destroyed these creatures. They appeared to have murdered a halfling who had a note about Merianne, perhaps I should visit her.
Voice: "Proceed off the road. You will see some hobgoblins - kill them and you will find some heal potions in a cave."
And the voice was right! I can't use these magical boots, but perhaps I can sell them or find their owner if they have been stolen. In the next area the Voice told me to go off the path and I found a necklace - perhaps these dead people have family who will give me a reward for the necklace? After that I make it to Nashkel without incident.
The Voice then said to go to a farm and I found some ankeg armor, which was a big upgrade from my plate. Excellent! I also encountered an annoying citizen who kept talking to me when I didn't want him too. Curiously, I felt a little bit more capable after the "talk".
The Voice then told me to use sanctuary and try to cast silence on a woman in splint mail. The silence failed and started casting something - oh she must be a cleric! Run!
I run outside and try a silence! It works, but the cleric casts hold person, which I resisted! Whew. I have trouble hitting her (not much battle experience you see) and the silence wears off and she tries to cast a spell! But command puts her to sleep then a flail to her head ends the threat. Close one!
I rest and prepare for the rest of my journey...I will avenge you Father!
I've been away from home for a while, resulting in a bit of a pause for this run. However, I picked it up again this morning by making a start in SoA. In Jon's dungeon I immediately summoned a new familiar before working my way out. I wasn't trying to avoid damage, so progress was pretty quick with the help of my skeleton army. Ulvaryl was taken down almost at once by MMMs and skeletons.
On exit I bought a few reputation points at the temple and acquired gem and scroll cases before heading for the circus to deal with Kalah. Before leaving the area a variety of clouds also put paid to Mencar's group and a number of groups of Cowled Wizards annoyed at my continual spell casting. In the last group Zallanora was affected by chaos and failed to trigger her time stop to escape. Benefits of the encounter included an 11th illusionist level and a number of new spell scrolls.
I could potentially have paid Gaelan Bayle his initial asking price of 20k gold, but chose not to do that. Instead I raised a bit more cash by helping Hendak take control of the Copper Coronet - getting to cleric level 10 in the process.
I cleared the upper graveyard before being ambushed on the way back - an action that Suna Seni soon regretted. Shortly afterwards I was attempting to go to Watcher's Keep when Renfeld called for help. Resisting the temptation to fireball the group, I used emotion to allow an easy kill. I sneaked into Prebek's house to fireball him, thus allowing me into the harper building. I rested before doing that though and found Hareishan appearing. Shadow door improved saves so that domination wasn't a threat and skeletons helped occupy her while MMMs shot her down. I then recovered the bird from the harpers and took revenge for Xzar after he was assassinated.
Eventually arriving at Watcher's Keep, I cleared the left-hand rooms. Farsight showed vampiric wraiths waiting in the main room though and I left those alone for now.
Back in Athkatla I solved the skinner murders and dragged enemies upstairs into a skeleton ambush that lasted just long enough. Reporting back to Lt Aegisfield got me a reputation bump and cleric level 11. I did a bit more in the area as well, including getting a bit more reputation for dealing with the Fallen Paladins and a 12th illusionist level for beating up Captain Dennis and his mercenaries.
I still haven't paid Gaelan Bayle, which means I could have ignored vampire encounters. However, with skeletons available I've been dealing harshly with those anyway.
Cleric 11 / Illusionist 12, 78 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar, 5 from helm), 177 kills (+237 in BGEE/SoD)
@Wise_Grimwald Nice roll! A fighter/cleric is a great solo class. I am able to make really good progress with that class as a solo character.
Your roll isn't bad either. If you have BG1 NPC Project installed, the low charisma is irrelevant. I think that this is my first Holy Redeemer. The minimum stat of 12 for charisma makes for higher rolls. Of course that also means that I can't use charisma as a dump stat! I did think of boosting Intelligence at the expense of Charisma but opted not to.
Although my mod set-up means that my cleric can use any weapon, I will self-regulate myself to only use those weapons that should only be used by clerics.
We entered the elven city, started clearing out some golems, using magical swords to tank them. After casting improved invisibility on Hans, he took out the drow mage and his demon:
Andi also went on a solo mission, using a planetar, a few buffs (including spell trap ) and ADHWs to take down the big rakshasa group near the temple:
The group gathered back together to take down the dragon. He didn't really put up any meaningful protections:
With that, we started the temple ritual and went after Irenicus at the tree - a few traps and a quick barrage of attacks, and his soul went straight to hell:
All hell trials were completed the good way - we used skeletons for the beholders and prepared some traps for Jon's demons. Two groups of 3 spike traps each on the sides took down the balors, and the party quickly sniped the glabrezus. Jon was alone:
He used his time stop to buff up some more and cast improved haste, but after that, we were able to dispel and kill him rather quickly while Gardi used Hardiness, DoE and AoF to tank his physical attacks:
At Ilasera's ambush site, a time trap allowed Illuminata to quickly take down the mage and almost take down Ilasera, who was then killed by Hans before being able to do anything dangerous:
We started the first pocket plane challenge with our previous buffs still active. Sarevok, Bodhi and Jon appeared. Jon had a ton of protections up, so the party first took down Bodhi with the help of an implosion while a Deva kept Sarevok busy for a short while:
Now, this version of Jon was the first enemy mage to actually use HLAs against us. He started with timestop, improved alacrity, summon fallen planetar - we took down the planetar immediately with all of our party members focused on this dangerous task. Just in time, because a dragon's breath was next, followed up by a comet - we had to dodge both, because I hadn't buffed the entire party with fire resistance. Everyone but Pietro got away from the breath, and only Hans, who was the initial target, got hit by the meteor, so we were in good shape:
At this point, Jon's primary defenses against our weapons had run out, so we just took him down with physical damage:
I also quickly entered Saradush to get the spellbook, learn all missing spells for Illuminata and forge a few items via Cespenar.
My solo cleric (Yeroc IX) is dead - he under-estimated slythe. If I had used a haste potion would have won easily as he was near death as it was. Oops. Forgot could try hold person. Silly death, my solo play is a bit rusty it seems.
At Candlekeep I was attacked by Shank who saved against Command again and again.
I fled outside hoping to get the help of the watchers but their help was not required.
Fuller gave me a +1 dagger in return for me helping him and Carbos was killed easily.
I used Sanctuary to avoid arrest at the Inn after getting loot from a locked chest.
At High Hedge I helped Mellicamp.
I calmed Marl and took a tome to Firebead after which I killed two ogrillon with the aid of Command.
I turned down a reward from Oublek and killed Zargos Flintblade with the help of Command spells.
I was able to kill Zordral by the use of the Shield Amulet, protection from fear, and casting Curse on him. I was still badly hurt, but survived.
I was able to return Perdue's sword by avoiding Karlat using Sanctuary.
Joia's ring was returned and I then killed some evil fishermen.
Now at wyvern's crossing.
"Time for bed," said Zebedee. Showing my age there, I think.
... Fuller gave me a +14 dagger in return for me helping him ...
A +14 dagger? That's quite an item. Too bad Hilde can't use it.
As you have probably worked out, it was a typo. It was +1. Now corrected. The item has now been sold along with other unusable weapons.
Additions were also made to the post.
Journal of Hilde the Holy
I killed some evil fishermen as well as a number of ankheg.
It was necassary to rest after each ankheg as I ran out of Command spells fighting each one.
To kill Silke I was fully buffed with my spells and in addition took a potion of absorbtion.
After talking to her I cast a silence spell and that did the trick.
The shells earned me a small fortune which I spent buying a good hammer and a superior shield.
I then felt confident enough to enter a cave near the Beregost Temple. The cave yielded some good armour, a tome and considerable experience together with the knowledge that the Redeem spell is HIGHLY effective against Vampyric Wolves.
This knowlege encouraged me to take on the wolves to the east of the area as well.
I also helped the petrified Corianna.
In the battle with Bassilus, we both saved against each other's spells until I started casting Command which was enough to defeat him.
Hafiz gave me a scroll and I took Samuel to the FAI
Summoned skeletons and Sanctuary combined led to the demise of Tarnesh.
I then killed several ankheg with the aid of summoned skeletons.
Greywolf was the next to die.
I then helped people on the way to the gnoll stronghold where I looted a cave.
I sold winter-wolfskins etc and bought a decent +3 morningstar before upgrading my ring of fire resistance. Gold now down to 80gp. Easy come, easy go I suppose.
When wearing my best armour my charisma is now 20 and my reputation is 20. A pity that I don't have more gold to spend.
I gained more gold by ankheg hunting until I became a level 6 fighter.
Summoned skeletons were useful when Zargall was killed and were invaluable fighting the sirines in the lighthouse area.
After looting the cave, I helped Charleston Nib and Brage. I rested at the Carnival, sold a lot of unusable equipment and recharged amulets and the like.
I at last caught up with Borda, the one who had switched Brage's sword. It was a tough battle due to the fact that I didn't know that he was resistant to magic and that he had several magic missile spells. If I had used buffs and the shield amuletr, the battle would probably have been trivial! However, due to my high constitution I healed whilst in transit.
I started the various Saradush miniquests. Improved invisibility and improved haste helped in easily clearing out the sewers and defeating Kiser and his minions. Gardi used her iMoD +2 to solo the prison. The fighters and thieves in Gromnir's basement did some decent damage to Hansi, but not enough to kill him through hardiness and his very high hit point total. I was able to kill the mage just below Gromnir before he was able to get his protections going, moved to the pocket plane, rested and buffed up for Gromnir. Somehow, when starting the Gromnir fight, our party first moved towards Gromnir in the cutscene, started their opening casts, but got teleported to the stairs next. Extremely weird, and this got me totally out of position when it came to disrupting/taking down the mages. However, I was able to throw secret word sequencers at them while the fighters took care of all the enemy minions.
While their opening timestops would allow the mages to recast their spell protections, these sequencers are kind of a timestop counter, because in my experience, at least on tactical, the AI will prioritize renewing some defenses instead of doing something devastating to the party (in fact, Karun drank a healing potion - I think he got damage by incendiary cloud, which strangely enough was cast by him or his allied wizard - used shadow door and cast true sight, making his timestop really not that dangerous):
The other wizard, who got hit a bit harder by a spell trigger, used his timestop for similiar defensive purposes, though he didn't cast true sight, renewing some spell protections instead.
While the fighters already killed Gromnir with their insane APR and damage output, Pietro took the opportunity to cast storm of vengeance before Karun's second timestop was finished - while some spellcasters, for examples liches on insane SCS, will protect against literally every element, these human wizards often lack any acid protection, allowing the storm to actually interrupt spells during a timestop:
With this third timestop over without any significant damage to the party, there had been plenty of time for these foes to lose their improved mantles/PFMWs, so we just charged and killed them:
At the Temple of Bhaal, I was a bit late with using Hans' enrage. Most foes were killed via sunray, the master wrath was dealt with via spellstrike + breach and Gardi and Hansi using their immunity against level drain to melee him down:
I entered the temple and lured some of the skeletons back. The spellcasters didn't want to move, instead casting more defenses and summoning a bunch of stuff, including a fallen planetar + deva - meanwhile, we killed the assassin:
The skeleton mage still had a bunch of powerful defenses up as we approached, and we had to move the belt of inertial barrier to illuminata and run her away from the remaining party to counter an ADHW (no PFME up this time around, didn't feel like buffing absolutely everything for this encounter):
He made the mistake of following our illusionist/thief outside, and since his improved mantle just ran out, he didn't survive that trip:
The cleric wasn't much of a threat after that. After preparing some traps for Nyalee, we entered the Marching Mountains and buffed up, not forgetting to make sure everyone was immune to fire at all times. I used a magical sword to gather the fire giants with the party entering under invisibility 10' radius. Pietro approached and cast nature's beauty, blinding the giants (one of them was out of range), and we picked them off from range:
Clearing the area wasn't too difficult with improved haste on our fighters and fire resistance on everyone. We made sure to protect our buffs against the fire lich, who actually was able to deal some damage to the party by using death fog instead of any fire spells:
We approached Berenn from the left, taking out his giants first while throwing one of our secret word sequencers + breach at him. However, Illuminata lost her final stoneskins during this battle. Luckily, she was still immune to fire and easily survived an implosion:
Berenn was already breached, so he died without any trouble. The red dragon here is lacking in terms of spellcasting and wasn't much tougher than an additional fire giant would've been.
For Imix, we equipped The Wave to get the guaranteed one hit kill:
We defeated Nyalee mostly via traps (a time trap included, letting Illuminata use her improved hasted extra APR to take out multiple foes). Yaga-Shura was attacked and we waited a long time for his return, making sure to take out the incoming wizards. With 10 APR, Hans was just fast enough with a normal axe to get through their stoneskins despite their PFMW before they could cast any additional spells. Finally, the giant showed up:
The lieutenant mage is of course the most dangerous foe here. He approached from the left and was able to finish timestop before I could do anything to him, summoning a fallen planetar, using shadow door and even going for improved alacrity - his alacrity was late, though, and only followed up by a secret word on Gardi before the timestop ended. As I had noticed that he had protected himself with PFMW instead of improved mantle, our two fighters were able to take him down with normal weapons before he did anything else:
Now, we were able to focus on the thief and Andi was able to finish his own timestop. I opted out of improved alacrity, instead going for a quick hit with the staff of the magi against the cleric, using a 3*ADHW CC after that - once time resumed, this resulted in an immediate kill:
Gardi and Hans took down the thief, the warrior was hit by PW:Blind from Illuminata and killed soon after that. Andi used remove magic on two remaining enemy wizards - after that, Yaga Shura was left without significant spellcaster support (only one random cleric) and started to take some serious damage:
And here we have it:
I also quickly finished the Oasis in order to get to Amkethran. Not much to tell here, I used dragon's breath, a deva and some improved hastes to quickly destroy everything in my path.
The first major enemy that we met was Gorken Bloodaxe who was quite easy to beat once he was alone! My necklace of missiles was adequate for his henchmen.
I then battled my way through to Mulahey and killed him.
Once outside I killed Lamalha and her cronies.
Captain Brage was found not guilty of murder.
Oublek died a hero's death fighting a baby dragon. I finished off the fight.
Summoned skeletons killed Nimbul and I killed Tristan and Isolde.
OMG this class is amazing. I’m in love. Traps are so freaking good when you know where to put them, and throwing the traps is even better.
I trapped and killed Elminster 4 times. Drizzt fell to the traps too.
I never turned my tablet off and imported into BG2EE with over 500,000 xp. Since I plan on adding some party members now, they’ll have a big bump from the start!
Entering the no reload challenge with the following characters:
Corey - human inquisitor, protagonist
Alesia - half-elf mage/thief
Grond0 - dwarven barbarian (petrified)
Grim Face - gnomish cleric/illusionist
Enuhal - human totemic druid
Well the party was doing well...but ran into a problem. We ran into the dreaded basilisk ambush and Grond0 got petrified! Because of cash flow issues, I didn't have enough gold to buy all of Thalantyr's mirror eyes potions. I did have enough for one, which Corey used and killed the basilisk.
Once we get some mirror eyes potions (which we can't just yet because of money issues) and a stone to flesh scroll we can try to recover him. But we'll have to do without Grond0 for now...
While the basilisks were killed ok and so were Mutamutin, but our attempt to blind Kirian's failed we got spotted early. We were getting smashed with Enuhal and Alesia dying. Only with the help of a haste potion could I recover all the gear. But we didn't have enough money to raise Enuhal - doh!
Time for some sidequests. First, in Amkethran. You know, I could just fight Vongoethe in a straight up battle, but that would take buffing up for 5 minutes, dispelling all of his buffs propably at least twice, propably even three times... And he's practically begging to be killed by traps:
I still buffed up for a bit just in case, and also because I still had the banshees etc. to deal with. I also used my buffs to complete the second pocket plane challenge (unintentionally, because of dialogue choices, I got the evil version here). The wizard was killed via a single spike trap, the party focused on taking down Gardi immediately:
After all that, I decided to do the EE companion sidequests. The Hexxat one is by far the easiest (and, sadly, also propably one of the most poorly designed and poorly written quests in the game). I know that the only danger here is the final lich because he likes to cast dragon's breath, so buffing with fire protection and protecting my buffs turns this one into a complete cakewalk, considering all of our super-powerful anti-undead weapons and abilities at this point:
Next, we picked up Dorn, making sure to only engage the planetar of justice when protected via death ward (everything else was done by 3*ADHW CC):
While I'm not using any items from both of these quests and the experience is only marginally useful, the Dorn quest at least will get me an extra planetar ally when fighting Sendai and Abazigal, which is nice to have. Usually, I have talked my way past most of this quest - this time, I had to fight (propably due to low charisma on Gardi):
I used traps for the two silver dragons:
Next up, Rasaad: Well, this one at least has the Cloak of the Dark Moon, which is nice to have (though by no means crucial) - getting a lot of value from Illuminata's detect illusions ability here:
The final battle in the mine here is actually quite dangerous if you underestimate these guys. Opening with dragon's breath is key to a relatively easy victory, though their fighters will easily surive and are still strong foes:
The shadow realm is the only part of these first three quests that can compare to some of the lategame SCS content in terms of challenge. Moving quick and getting rid of the shadow dragon's invisibility is crucial. I didn't buff fire protection because I forgot about the constant meteor swarms everywhere, and I didn't have a lot of negative plane protection to go around, though I didn't struggle too long with the dragon:
Getting out takes a while because Rasaad refuses to leave. In the end, I had drank quite a few healing potions and everybody at least lost some hit points - all of this, of course, wasn't helped by the constant blindness effects:
At least this poses a somewhat unique challenge - things get a bit hectic there in the end.
Now for Neera's quest. I consider this one to be the most difficult of the four, though this time around, it went rather well (due to a few lessons taken from my previous playthroughs) - first of all, traps on the right corner of the ambush site to take out all non-wizard foes (the wizards will turn hostile much later, and not be hit by initial traps/CCs:
A quick assault, remove magic, a planetar, some detect illusions to achieve victory. As you can't prebuff for this one, every spell can be really dangerous, which is why I immediately protected Gardi via deathward + cc. Neera almost died, though, to a single hit from a flaming cloud, and had to run to safety:
Now, the next problem here is getting teleported to Thay immediately before you can buff up even more (so maybe letting one enemy stay alive while you buff your party would be a good idea), but the enemies in the arena aren't too dangerous, so I just had to make sure to keep Neera safe. Now, the big prize: The Cloak of the Lich from one of the unnamed merchants here, propably the best item available from EE content in BG2 other than the gem of true seeing and the mirror image ring. Vicross' estate, however, is quite dangerous - you have to move quickly, but there are traps everywhere, especially when you least expect them, and the alarm gets called quite easily. I should have memorized the find traps spell on multiple characters here to help Illuminata out, because I lost quite a bit of time because I didn't want to charge intro traps and left enemies alive for too long - the alarm eventually got called, but luckily, while the doors were opened, no opponents from the middle came towards our position.
I also remembered the dispel magic traps on the way to the courtyard this time around - those really screwed me over in a previous playthrough:
Vicross, usually, is a real pain to fight, especially with SCS, due to her overpowered "not-quite-so-wild" surges which allow her to summon multiple Balors (which get buffed by SCS - they are no joke, especially in packs). I got really lucky here - Vicross actually died to an opening dragon's breath which somehow hit her before her buffs were able to trigger (even though this wasn't even my intention, I just wanted to push the guards away):
The guards are still not to be trifled with, Gardi and Hans took quite some damage due to GWWs. However, victory was ours and Szass Tam appeared. Now, I have always, so far, gotten him to end combat pretty much instantly, doing enough damage before his buffs triggered (sometimes via traps, I think). This time around, he still had enough hp left to keep on fighting. So, if you were wondering what Szass Tam does in a fight if he gets to actually do his thing: He gets to Timestop + IA, and... he really spams his spells here. PW:Silence on my spellcasters, all his level 1 slots worth of magic missles (on Gardi, who is wearing the Cloak of Mirroring, so this isn't exactly a great threat), TWO slow spells on the same target for some reason... and a wish for mass breach on our party, which luckily didn't screw us over because we had, as usual when fighting high level spellcasters, protected our buffs:
What a weird script considering the lore of this guy (I would expect him to use powerful necromancy spells here). However, before his timestop, we already had hit him with two spellstrikes, so while Neera couldn't finish her breach due to PW:Silence, we simply used the wand of spell striking to cast instant breach via wand, which, with a few hits, was enough to get him to give up and teleport us back. I think the dialogue bugged out here, as Neera had nothing to say to me and the quest didn't close in the log. I might be missing out on some quest experience, but it's no big deal.
Well, we're done with EE content. Next up is Watcher's Keep level 3-5.
Incidentally, a warning for people using the same setup as me and doing this Neera quest: The SCS component that makes Watcher's Keep accessible between SoA and ToB (which I have installed, despite not making use of it - I just klicked "y" and "1" on everything) puts a map marker for the Forest of Tethir (where you meet the stone heads and Ilasera) on the world map. This map marker is in exactly the same postion as the map marker for Neera's ambush site. It's REALLY hard to actually get to Neera's ambush site because they overlap, and the Forest of Tethir is the one which you will propably travel to. It took me quite a while to successfully click on the ambush site - there was a tiny little pixel in the upper left side of the marker where I could choose the correct location:
Entering the no reload challenge with the following characters:
Corey - human inquisitor, protagonist
Alesia - half-elf mage/thief
Grond0 - dwarven barbarian (petrified)
Grim Face - gnomish cleric/illusionist
Enuhal - human totemic druid
Well the party was doing well...but ran into a problem. We ran into the dreaded basilisk ambush and Grond0 got petrified! Because of cash flow issues, I didn't have enough gold to buy all of Thalantyr's mirror eyes potions. I did have enough for one, which Corey used and killed the basilisk.
Once we get some mirror eyes potions (which we can't just yet because of money issues) and a stone to flesh scroll we can try to recover him. But we'll have to do without Grond0 for now...
While the basilisks were killed ok and so were Mutamutin, but our attempt to blind Kirian's failed we got spotted early. We were getting smashed with Enuhal and Alesia dying. Only with the help of a haste potion could I recover all the gear. But we didn't have enough money to raise Enuhal - doh!
Poor Grond0 - I hope he can be recovered!
A small hint for basilisk encounters: Spirit wolves and spirit snakes are also immune to petrification starting with totemic druid level 3 (spirit bears only get this ability at level 7, lions at level 10).
@Enuhal yes well by the time we get a summon up someone is getting petrified! If I just had enough mirror eyes potions I would have been fine, but didn't have the money. We can recover Grond0 once I have the potions. The party is still very fragile, so any ambush is rough, but I will need to trigger many ambushes to eventually cause the ambush with Grond0 to appear.
Comments
Spellhold dungeon went without troubles, I discovered how cloudkill was good against umber hulks, and only Valygar fell to an hungry mind flayer.
Sahuagin City was easy, siding with the king for the gauntlets in prevision of doing Rasaad's quest later.
In the underdark, since I can now heal fast thanks to the ring of regeneration, I replaced call woodland beings by deathward in Radagast's memorized spells, and with Anomen and Aerie as backup, I could memorize many chaotic command too.
So I first killed the two mindflayers to the north of the starting point, then freed Vithal and helped him doing his quest, bargaining rewards but not upsetting him.
The Balor in the gnomes village wasn't a threat between protection from evil, deathward, chaotic command and remove fear.
I decided to fight the demon knights, since I was still fully buffed. I just summoned some aerial servants and fire elementals for some support.
I also pondered killing Adalon for her blood since the human flesh armor is the best armor for an avenger, but with Keldorn, Imoen and Aerie in the party, I choose to be a good guy.
In Ust Natha, I was forced to kill Quilue for her brain (she was the one responsible of my shapeshifter's death in a previous run), so this time I let her no chance : many summons, some dispel magic from Keldorn, and it was over.
The main quests were done easily, with the usual long duration buffs.
I somehow found myself needing to fight Deirex, and combined forces of Daystar, ImoD, Azure Edge and Keldorn were enough.
I talked to Adalon fully buffed, and help her killing the drow guards.
Back to Amn, I had a good surprise, even without going to mindflayers's lair, I was ambushed by Githyanki for the silver sword, and they weren't expecting insect plague and nature beauty...
Now Keldorn have a new shiny one.
I began Maevar's quest, and entered to Planar Sphere. The most annoying foes were the golems, but the staff anti golem and Flail of the Ages really helped there. Tolgerias was backstabbed, but not to death, and had time to launch an AHW before Keldorn dispelled his protections and the party cut him down. The demons were all killed.
I just freed Haer Dalis, and will soon enter the planar prison. I was also annoyed by the clones ambush, since I had forgotten they weren't evil (so Aerie's Holy smite did nothing) and also magic didn't work on them. So they managed to kill Imoen with a barrage of magic missiles and chromatic orbs before I killed them.
Radagast is now clearly lagging behind the others, and is mainly a support character with many protective spells. He now uses the boomerang fire dagger from Ust Natha, but I'm thinking to buy Arundel's staff for more high level spells to memorize. He's now at 2,600,000 XP, so the level 15 with all the bells and whistles is approaching fast.
I also had a little panic when I found out Keldorn lost the Balduran's shield, but I recovered it near Renal Bloodscap (quest items taking the place of other items is really annoying).
Corecleric XX, Halfling priest of Lothander, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Swazi, elven mage (Grond0)
Betson, Human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Corecleric checked his spells and saw he had some skeletons. So they went to pirate's cave area and engaged the female mage here - we didn't give her chance by using silence on her. We summoned two skeletons and then engaging at range. But our Thac0 is poor, so we weren't killing the sirines fast. The skeleetons ended up dying and now the party was being targeted by biting arrows. Both Swazi and Betson gets poisoned, and Swazi nearly dies but doesn't thanks to a bug. For the next batch Corecleric just used his greenstone amulet and that worked out fine.
With potion of absorption, Corecleric tanked the golems. However, his comrades were badly hurt by the sirines earlier, and also didn't have magical ranged attacks. This ended up being fatal as a golem one-shotted Betson. So the party gathered up the things and went to resurrect their comrade. But Betson lost his scimitar and sling. Doh! And then when we came back, Betson was impatient and triggered the charm trap, despite the fact that Corecleric would be immune. So the party had to wait until the charm would wear off. Finally the last golem was killed. Whew!
We then took on the next batch of sirines in the other area and the ogres there. This time Betston didn't cause any trouble and we had victory.
Corecleric then noticed with CHA tome would give Swazi 16 CHA, so it was worth it to travel to the Gnoll fortress and also to get the girdle of bluntness. This went smoothly. Killing the bear and getting the boots from the nobleman was done as well.
Next target was Melium. He saved vs everything, so Corecleric decided to do DUHM and charge into melee - this works! We finally realized that we still hadn't unlocked the Bandit camp, so we took down Tranzig. We then headed to the bandit camp with Corecleric tanking as usual. Fighting Khosann was dicey, but we didn't manage to blind him and killed him. For Tazok's tent the party went invisible and a Coercleric used silience, which should have made it simple, but his party members got poisoned so they had to leave the tent. But victory still was achieved.
Finally, we headed to Cloakwood Forest. Swazi offered to go invisible and set off the traps, and then Corecleric offered to put free action on Swazi and was told he was spoiling Swazi. Some buffed skeletons were great distractions. We then proceeded to Cloakwood area 4. As is his practice, Corecleric enagaged the dryad since he was immune to her charm. Betson's impatience once again got the better of him and the Dryad managed to charm him. While she was killed, Mirazi was careless and triggered 4 guards, one guard was on Betson, while Mirazi was running the other 3 guards were chasing him. Corecleric had to rescue his friends! He used hold person on both the guard on Betson (which worked) and managed to hold one guard who was chasing Mirazi. This gave Mirazi some space to blind a guard. Corecleric then enagaged the guard on Betson, and the guard was downed. Then Betson was free and together he and Corecleric saved MIrazi.
Finally we made it to Drassus. Silence, stinking cloud and buffed skeletons were too much for Drassus and gang.
The party then made it to level 2. Betson was spotted by a guard, but this did not trigger Heirashan. The party was all invisible so they went to area 3. Then next group of enemies was slow going and the party took damage but we did make to the end of level.
Davaeorn is next but out of time! So he will be next session.
Sorrarm the sorcerer and Laughalot the Jester
With almost a month since their last outing we struggled to remember what was next. Todays clue was we were on the 4th floor of the Iron Throne HQ. A quick inventory check confirmed we were on our way down after dealing with Zhalimar Cloudewulfe and his cronies.
Sorrarm took several visual images but eventually decided not to share them today. We wouldn't want it known for example that Laughalot ran several enemies around with his ranged weapons equipped since his sword slowed his movement. Nor that a brace of doppelgangers underneath Candlekeep both landed hits, 1 critical and one not but between them enough for 37 damage and a dirt nap.
Sorrarm scooped up what gear he could and left the rest, turned himself invisible and departed unseen. After a temple restoration we cracked on at the expense of Slythe (webbed and mobbed by wand summons). The coronation saw one duke killed after mere moments while Belt moved away from invisibility 10' to remain in danger. Our spells (malison, chaos) on top of hasted wand summons kept him alive though.
Down into the thieves maze where we made a meal of the two battle horrors - scorching each other slightly but getting through. Rahvin and gang got a couple of shots in as we took turns to overstep into their visual range but again we pulled through.
Sarevok was malisoned and blinded, while Semaj had wand summons bothering him. A second set of summons were sharing the pain with Sarevok while we cast our fearsome magic missiles and down he went.
Sorrarm was ready to head to Amn but instead we find ourselves in a dusty crypt looking ahead to Dragonspear.
Journal of Nighthawk
I was able to help Ghorak without any difficulty.
I took his amulet to Nemphre which pleased her, but she too got angry when I attempted to pickpocket her! Two fewer evil mages in Baldur's Gate has got to be a good result!
In the process I sorted out the problems at the Citadel.
I was then asked to get Shandalar's Cloak from Ice Island. Due to having Gorion's belt, that proved to be trivial as I was immune to any damage that the winter wolves and snow golems might otherwise have done.
Now in the Candlewick Catacombes.
Back in Athkatla, we forged some items at Cromwell's and entered the graveyard to get the vampire ambush out of the way - enter and drink five invisibility potions:
With a lot of buffs still active, I ran down into the sewers to clear out the illithid lair. The alhoon got his buffs removed via ruby ray + spellstrike + breach:
I have finally found the perfect mod to add to my gameplay. Made in Heavens encounters/quests works incredibly with other mods Im using. I have already started two runs with a team and in both I was obliterated by improved monsters new abilities. I have yet to see bigger fights improved by this mod but I can already tell I wont be disappointed. The fact that this mod upgrades SoD as well makes it even better. As soon as I learn a bit about it I will be trying solo runs.
After getting erased by well coordinated 100 dmg double acid spray from ankhegs I have returned to ToB.
Gnome Fighter/Illusionist Throne of Bhaal Part 2
Back to main storyline, I went to marching mountains first. Turning invisibible I have stolen all ward stones and unlocked next level of the keep. While on IH and with boots of speed it can be done without any combat at all. Fire lich didnt even finish his first cast before I was done and left him in the dust.
On the second level there are some enemies I would like to fight so buffed up fully, summoned my entourage and chargeed into fire. First killed Brennen quickly with brute force while dispelling Brimstone with Khelbens Warding Whip at the same time. Once fire giant cleric died I have moved to the dragon and started with Breach.
Between 18APRs and planetar they should all die quickly. Most important thing is to watch my health and fire resistance.
I forgot that they can lower FR quite fast and took surprisingly lot of damage before noticing anything.
Rebuffed fire prot and slayed Imix.
On the way back out I cant resist Bhaals blood and ended up slaughtering every fire giant I skipped moments ago. Im addicted to seeing big dmg from black blade being delivered.
Sneaked into Temple of Bhaal, skiped every undead, restored Yaga-Shuras vulnerability and ran out without wasting time.
I have moved immediately to the siege camp next, Once there I teleported to Pocket Plane for full prebuff and other preparations. Prepared sequencers and saved spells like black blade, spell immunity, true sight, improved haste for later.
Drunk set of usual potions. This run I forgot completely about that but it may be wise to prepare spell trigger with 3x cone of cold. Im not sure about current version but old ascension giant had low cold res while all others were almost max at start.
Once I have returned from pocket plane, casted simulacrum and made it summon planetar. Casted few last buffs and charged to Yaga-Shura. When the giant runs off I focused on reducing number of vermin scattered around me. Mages will cast some spell protection removals so I tend to run around them and kill other soldiers while they are offscreen.
After some time recasted few missing buffs and casted main ones like black blade or SI:A. When leader of the army returned with his elite commander party I repositioned to avoid getting swarmed and to get few mages off me.
When they were nicely stacked casted double Dragon Breath on them and hacked some fire giant fodder. Commander Mage casted Time Stop, summoned fallen planetar and dispelled some protection off me. To counter that Ive used spell trigger with spell deflection, spell shield and SI:A, while slaying fighter commander at the same time.
Key thing is to recast Improved Mantle/PfMWs at right time and to monitor spell immunity. With few commanders dead and maybe 3 rounds since appearance of commanders I used first time stop.
Yaga-Shura is still highly resistant to dmg so I have spent this time killing his commander cleric and commander mage whose PfMWs dropped midway time stop. Black blade+blackrazor's level drain worked nicely on him, had even time to slay few more mages around me. When time stop ended I reposition again and recast few things like mirror image, improved mantle and SI:A.
Hit and run on Yaga-Shura to check how is his vulnerability. Once it drops a bit I summoned planetar again and rushed him not caring about getting swarmed. Improved Mantle + Critical Strikes for two rounds then final Time Stop and another of the Five goes down.
Though Oasis ambush is laughable compared to rest of Ascension, Im not going to underestimate anyone so I had prepared fully with contingencies and sequencers.
Once there I wait only for contingency:PfMWs to launch itself and unleash alacrity upon my enemies. With that I get crucial buffs from sequencers, summon planetar, cast black blade and rampage. Gathered all the loot for scrolls.
Quick detour to sendais enclave for rune of Clangedin and we arrive at Abazigals nest.
Fight with Draconis in human form was swift.
Surprisingly or not I had another bugged dragon fights this run. It was almost exactly the same bug during Draconis fight as in my previous BG2EE Abazigal battle. In my mage/thief run Abazigal and Tamah got stuck together. This time it was ME who got stuck on/with Draconis...
I don't know who had it harder because of that. We butt our heads and slash at each other anyway so it didn't change anything. Unfortunately his claws are weaker than black blade, his breath doesnt do anything thanks to prot from all elements and his spell armor is weak and easily dispellable.
I get a nice night full of sleep after fight with Draconis and move inside. These lizards with GWW's could be dangerous if underestimated, so I will be using two Improved Mantles. After cleaning some trash Im standing once again before dragon. This time the one guarding potion of water breathing. Usual buffs+simulacrum+planetar. Another dragon, another bug. This time somehow my simulactrum couldnt attack yellow dragon... It could cast spells, move and everything else but as soon as I ordered it to attack dragon it stopped completely. Seriously last time Im playing BGEET... Back to dragon it was usual Khelbens Warding Whip + breach.
This dragon though like Saladrex was a bit better caster than others of his kind. He reacted well to my magic removals and recasted Spell Deflection, Spell Trap and PfMW. After wasting few Ruby Rays and Breaches it was all about swinging blade few times. With how tightly buffed Im dragons usually focus Planetar as the only easy thing to hit and she can just heal herself when there is a need. With potion of water breathing diving is achieved and Ive stormed through the cave right to the imprisoned monk. Kuo-Tans and water elementals can be skipped with invisibility. After quick talk, return to town for rope and come back for dragon ambush.
Got mysle a long and nice night of resting. Prepared sequencers. Summoned simulacrum + planetar. Fully buffed myself, drank few potions and started the fight. Im starting with the black dragon who gets targeted by chain:3x khelben ward whip. With protections and buffs on me they cant do much.
Between 17APR+CS and planetar they die pretty fast. When fight with green one starts, surprise surprise! We have another bug. My simulactrum leaves my team and becomes neutral NPC after cutscene! Still green one didnt buff so he gets few heavy smacks from me very fast.
After healing himself he launched chain spell with some good spell protections. Sequencer: 3x Remove Magic takes care of that and he dies quickly but not before stunning and killing planetar.
Near the end of this fight I made sure to recast mirror image and SI:A. I have resummoned my celestial before cutscene with Carnifex started. Before anything I managed one strike on his stoneskin which ended in nice four level drain from the start.
He buffed and I responded with Spell trigger: 3x Pierce Magic. Got few hits on him and he buffs again. Ruby ray + breach and we start melee again. Carnifex himself changed his focus between me and planetar. I had to watch carefully stoneskin as I hadnt recasted it or PfMW since start of the fight. After wasting few PfMW of his I waited for perfect occassion and casted Time Stop.
Right on time as he had almost lost all skins and he destroyed all MY skins and images. One time stop wasnt enough though, he had tons of HP. Lucky timing again with second Time Stop, there was maybe 0.5s of normal time before another stop and he hadnt managed to even recast anything. So I hit him till he died.
With rope secured, I dive back into caverns and decide to spare the dragon lady after sating my lust for dragon blood. Well almost sating. In the eye room I tested invisibility against Death Tyrans and Golem Tyrants.
To my surprise only one Golem Tyrant could see me. He was following and trying to bite me. Dived to mad mage lab and went to Pocket Plane for rest before coming back. With beholders I prefer to always play it safe. That means cheese for everybody and they die to offscreen double time stop+black blade+IH+CS.
After that Ive sent little adventurers party for the gauth, traded its eye for scroll and freed the dragon lady. Abazigal next.
Preparations for Abazigal went exactly like for other dragons. Added potion of magic resistance, clarity, absorption. Battle starts with me, clone and planetar charging Abazigal while ignoring the rest.
Thats ony of my favourite strategies for this class: ignore pests and focus the big bad. His humanoid form is destroyed very quickly and together with his dragon form comes the same problem. His knockback doesnt work on me and Im stuck literally on his back. I cant reach other enemies around, but they or at least Tamah can reach me.
At least simulactrum and planetar somehow survived this time. I use sequencer:3x remove magic, planetar casts insect plague and simulactrum casts dragons breath. Abazigal is till buffed and untouchable. Insect plague on the other hand managed to land on Tamah and broke her morale for a moment before she has slain my planetar.
I paid attention to observing both PfMW and SI:A to not get caught off guard, recast whenever needed. Spell trigger: 3x Pierce magic followed by Breach from wand and I get few hits in before he recasts spell deflection + PfMW again. I counter with Ruby Ray + Breach again. During this time planetar was nuked together with simulacrum.
All enemies focusd on me, so I recasted PfMW and later Breach again only to be countered with PfMW from Abazigal right after. At that moment I decided he wasted enough spells and used Alacrity.
Casted Mirror Image, Stoneskin, PfMW, True Sight, Remove Magic, Greater Malison, Hardiness, last SI:A, Ruby Ray + Breach on Abazigal, Dragons Breath, Comet, Critical Strikes and attack him again. Thats wasnt the end though.
One of his earthquakes managed to get through and smashed me into the ground , Dragons clearly werent supportive of fair play and tried all they could to eat me right there. Was scared awfully.
Thankfully my rebuff on alacrity was still fresh and PFMW together with other protectioncs were enough to get back on my feet. After getting up it took few more hits and Abazigal was dead.
A good game. I should have had some summoned monsters around at the time of my demise. No shortage of wands so 100% my own fault.
An excellent roll. She could have been a paladin!
Hello. If anyone finds my journal posthumously, I am a simple dwarven cleric with some fighter skills. I am currently being taught by the Candlekeep Priest but only know simple spells. I live in Candlekeep with Gorion my foster father. The only thing special about me is I always forget to take baths, and as such never have success with girls. It's hard to make friends with males as well because of this, so actually Gorion is really the only friend I have. Also I sometimes hear a deep voice in my head which tells me to do things. Normally I follow the law but I am more afraid of the Voice.
Gorion asked me to get ready for a journey, but didn't explain why. So I did some chores to get a little bit more gold, equipped myself with a sling and flail, splint mail, and a large shield and told Gorion I was ready to go.
We were ambushed by a dangerous looking armored fiend! I wanted to fight but Gorion commanded me to run to safety. My father was cut down - I will avenge you father! Imoen finds me and I welcome her companionship. We picked up some of Gorion's things and encountered a wolf! Poor Imoen got bit but we killed it! Whew!
Some suspicious looking characters were on the road.
me: "We need take out that mage and his halfling friend - they will cause trouble for others!"
Imoen: "Really? We are just kids! You are a queer fellow!"
me: "I'm the leader of the group! Attack the mage and do as I command!"
Imoen: "Oh, all right. I've done had enough of this!"
Iomen attacks the mage with her bow and I try to help with my sling. We both miss and Imoen gets hurt bad - she charges with her dagger and finally the mage goes down. But the mage kills Imoen - well she didn't really like me that much anyways. I charge the halfling and take him down. I best get out of here.
I headed East and found a man in a red robe who suggested I go check out the Friendly Arm Inn. So I did so, and on the way found a magical ring.
I get to the Friendly Arm and am about to enter.
Voice: "Do not enter yet. Go to the right, there will be a ring in the ground, pick it up. It will help you avenge your father."
So I go right and I do find a ring - it looks like a wizard's ring, which means it probably is quite valuable! This just confirms to me I need to listen to the voice. The Voice said I should go around the FAI and I will find weak enemies to defeat. Then go North and I will find a companion, some paladin named Ajantis it seems.
We enter the FAI and returned a flamedance ring to a woman, she was quite pleased and am sure she spread a good word me. I see a man in a robe, who I have a bad feeling about, so nudge the young paladin forward. He's an assasin! We attack and the guards help. Ajantis gets hits by a spell and runs like a coward! But I am just a kid, so I run too and wait it out - the guards were able to kill this assassin (Tarnesh), - whew!
However, my new "friend" was useless so I gave him a bow (because he was missing one) I didn't need and said goodbye for now. In the FAI store I was able to buy some plate armor and a magical buckler, which gives me some regeneration. I then proceed to the High Hedge area.
Voice: "Go to the large structure in the middle of this area - you will find something you need there."
So I do as the voice commanded and ran into two gnoll veterans - one of them hit me hard and took me to a sliver of life! But I had a heal potion and kept up the attack and killed it, and his two buddies. Why is the Sword Coast so dangerous?
But I do get inside the structure and find a powerful mage named Thalantyr. The Voice told me to get the potion bag.
me: "Why do I need this bag, Voice?"
Voice: "Because you wiill be alone most of the time- remember your B.O.? This bag will help you avenge your father."
me: "Ah right ok. Now what?"
Voice: "Proceed west, you will win a great battle there."
So I proceed west and see a nymph.
Voice: "Command the nymph!"
me: "Really? Why? Most nymphs are harmless."
Voice: "You want to be able to defeat your Father's killer, don't you? Kill it and it will please your god."
So I commanded the nymph. Nymphs sometimes have special abilities so just ran and used my sling. The Voice was right! My god granted me three second level spells! I then proceeded to Beregost.
Here, I saw at a distance a pretty girl with pink hair, a mage maybe.
Voice: "Silence the pink-haired girl."
me: "Really? Why? She doesn't look dangerous."
Voice: "Obey! She has something you need, and also she's a wild mage so her magic can turn against you without warning!"
So I do silence her. My sling misses, so end up smacking her dead with her flail. But I do find a gem bag. Yes this could help. In the same area, Firebead also gave a scroll case, this will help too.
Voice: "Silence the bard by the Red Sheaf Inn."
me: "Why?"
Voice: "Killing her will make you more powerful. You need a lot of power to defeat your father's killer. You made a promise to your father! Will you let him down?"
So I do silence the bard and she falls easily. And the Voice was right! I do feel more powerful. While in the area I also purchased a magical sling.
Finally I proceed south to Nashkel - seems safer than traversing ankheg country. I encouter two ogrillions, but I call upon my god for draw upon holy might and destroyed these creatures. They appeared to have murdered a halfling who had a note about Merianne, perhaps I should visit her.
Voice: "Proceed off the road. You will see some hobgoblins - kill them and you will find some heal potions in a cave."
And the voice was right! I can't use these magical boots, but perhaps I can sell them or find their owner if they have been stolen. In the next area the Voice told me to go off the path and I found a necklace - perhaps these dead people have family who will give me a reward for the necklace? After that I make it to Nashkel without incident.
The Voice then said to go to a farm and I found some ankeg armor, which was a big upgrade from my plate. Excellent! I also encountered an annoying citizen who kept talking to me when I didn't want him too. Curiously, I felt a little bit more capable after the "talk".
The Voice then told me to use sanctuary and try to cast silence on a woman in splint mail. The silence failed and started casting something - oh she must be a cleric! Run!
I run outside and try a silence! It works, but the cleric casts hold person, which I resisted! Whew. I have trouble hitting her (not much battle experience you see) and the silence wears off and she tries to cast a spell! But command puts her to sleep then a flail to her head ends the threat. Close one!
I rest and prepare for the rest of my journey...I will avenge you Father!
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1193875/#Comment_1193875
Your roll isn't bad either. If you have BG1 NPC Project installed, the low charisma is irrelevant. I think that this is my first Holy Redeemer. The minimum stat of 12 for charisma makes for higher rolls.
Although my mod set-up means that my cleric can use any weapon, I will self-regulate myself to only use those weapons that should only be used by clerics.
We entered the elven city, started clearing out some golems, using magical swords to tank them. After casting improved invisibility on Hans, he took out the drow mage and his demon:
Next time, we'll progress into ToB.
At Candlekeep I was attacked by Shank who saved against Command again and again.
I used Sanctuary to avoid arrest at the Inn after getting loot from a locked chest.
At High Hedge I helped Mellicamp.
Joia's ring was returned and I then killed some evil fishermen.
Now at wyvern's crossing.
"Time for bed," said Zebedee.
Additions were also made to the post.
Journal of Hilde the Holy
I killed some evil fishermen as well as a number of ankheg.
It was necassary to rest after each ankheg as I ran out of Command spells fighting each one.
To kill Silke I was fully buffed with my spells and in addition took a potion of absorbtion.
After talking to her I cast a silence spell and that did the trick.
The shells earned me a small fortune which I spent buying a good hammer and a superior shield.
I then felt confident enough to enter a cave near the Beregost Temple. The cave yielded some good armour, a tome and considerable experience together with the knowledge that the Redeem spell is HIGHLY effective against Vampyric Wolves.
This knowlege encouraged me to take on the wolves to the east of the area as well.
I also helped the petrified Corianna.
In the battle with Bassilus, we both saved against each other's spells until I started casting Command which was enough to defeat him.
Hafiz gave me a scroll and I took Samuel to the FAI
Summoned skeletons and Sanctuary combined led to the demise of Tarnesh.
I then killed several ankheg with the aid of summoned skeletons.
Greywolf was the next to die.
I then helped people on the way to the gnoll stronghold where I looted a cave.
I sold winter-wolfskins etc and bought a decent +3 morningstar before upgrading my ring of fire resistance. Gold now down to 80gp.
When wearing my best armour my charisma is now 20 and my reputation is 20. A pity that I don't have more gold to spend.
I gained more gold by ankheg hunting until I became a level 6 fighter.
Summoned skeletons were useful when Zargall was killed and were invaluable fighting the sirines in the lighthouse area.
After looting the cave, I helped Charleston Nib and Brage. I rested at the Carnival, sold a lot of unusable equipment and recharged amulets and the like.
I at last caught up with Borda, the one who had switched Brage's sword. It was a tough battle due to the fact that I didn't know that he was resistant to magic and that he had several magic missile spells. If I had used buffs and the shield amuletr, the battle would probably have been trivial! However, due to my high constitution I healed whilst in transit.
I started the various Saradush miniquests. Improved invisibility and improved haste helped in easily clearing out the sewers and defeating Kiser and his minions. Gardi used her iMoD +2 to solo the prison. The fighters and thieves in Gromnir's basement did some decent damage to Hansi, but not enough to kill him through hardiness and his very high hit point total. I was able to kill the mage just below Gromnir before he was able to get his protections going, moved to the pocket plane, rested and buffed up for Gromnir. Somehow, when starting the Gromnir fight, our party first moved towards Gromnir in the cutscene, started their opening casts, but got teleported to the stairs next. Extremely weird, and this got me totally out of position when it came to disrupting/taking down the mages. However, I was able to throw secret word sequencers at them while the fighters took care of all the enemy minions.
While their opening timestops would allow the mages to recast their spell protections, these sequencers are kind of a timestop counter, because in my experience, at least on tactical, the AI will prioritize renewing some defenses instead of doing something devastating to the party (in fact, Karun drank a healing potion - I think he got damage by incendiary cloud, which strangely enough was cast by him or his allied wizard - used shadow door and cast true sight, making his timestop really not that dangerous):
While the fighters already killed Gromnir with their insane APR and damage output, Pietro took the opportunity to cast storm of vengeance before Karun's second timestop was finished - while some spellcasters, for examples liches on insane SCS, will protect against literally every element, these human wizards often lack any acid protection, allowing the storm to actually interrupt spells during a timestop:
At the Temple of Bhaal, I was a bit late with using Hans' enrage. Most foes were killed via sunray, the master wrath was dealt with via spellstrike + breach and Gardi and Hansi using their immunity against level drain to melee him down:
The first major enemy that we met was Gorken Bloodaxe who was quite easy to beat once he was alone! My necklace of missiles was adequate for his henchmen.
I then battled my way through to Mulahey and killed him.
OMG this class is amazing. I’m in love. Traps are so freaking good when you know where to put them, and throwing the traps is even better.
I trapped and killed Elminster 4 times. Drizzt fell to the traps too.
I never turned my tablet off and imported into BG2EE with over 500,000 xp. Since I plan on adding some party members now, they’ll have a big bump from the start!
Here’s to hoping I don’t do anything stupid! LOL.
Entering the no reload challenge with the following characters:
Corey - human inquisitor, protagonist
Alesia - half-elf mage/thief
Grond0 - dwarven barbarian (petrified)
Grim Face - gnomish cleric/illusionist
Enuhal - human totemic druid
Well the party was doing well...but ran into a problem. We ran into the dreaded basilisk ambush and Grond0 got petrified! Because of cash flow issues, I didn't have enough gold to buy all of Thalantyr's mirror eyes potions. I did have enough for one, which Corey used and killed the basilisk.
Once we get some mirror eyes potions (which we can't just yet because of money issues) and a stone to flesh scroll we can try to recover him. But we'll have to do without Grond0 for now...
While the basilisks were killed ok and so were Mutamutin, but our attempt to blind Kirian's failed we got spotted early. We were getting smashed with Enuhal and Alesia dying. Only with the help of a haste potion could I recover all the gear. But we didn't have enough money to raise Enuhal - doh!
Time for some sidequests. First, in Amkethran. You know, I could just fight Vongoethe in a straight up battle, but that would take buffing up for 5 minutes, dispelling all of his buffs propably at least twice, propably even three times... And he's practically begging to be killed by traps:
Now for Neera's quest. I consider this one to be the most difficult of the four, though this time around, it went rather well (due to a few lessons taken from my previous playthroughs) - first of all, traps on the right corner of the ambush site to take out all non-wizard foes (the wizards will turn hostile much later, and not be hit by initial traps/CCs:
I also remembered the dispel magic traps on the way to the courtyard this time around - those really screwed me over in a previous playthrough:
Well, we're done with EE content. Next up is Watcher's Keep level 3-5.
Incidentally, a warning for people using the same setup as me and doing this Neera quest: The SCS component that makes Watcher's Keep accessible between SoA and ToB (which I have installed, despite not making use of it - I just klicked "y" and "1" on everything) puts a map marker for the Forest of Tethir (where you meet the stone heads and Ilasera) on the world map. This map marker is in exactly the same postion as the map marker for Neera's ambush site. It's REALLY hard to actually get to Neera's ambush site because they overlap, and the Forest of Tethir is the one which you will propably travel to. It took me quite a while to successfully click on the ambush site - there was a tiny little pixel in the upper left side of the marker where I could choose the correct location:
Poor Grond0 - I hope he can be recovered!
A small hint for basilisk encounters: Spirit wolves and spirit snakes are also immune to petrification starting with totemic druid level 3 (spirit bears only get this ability at level 7, lions at level 10).
Journal of Nighthawk
I killed the ogre with the belt fetish and afterwards returned Landrin's goods.