So, I’m terrible about updating my stories. I’ve beaten BG1EE multiple times without reloading.
Today, I beat the game on core difficulty, no mods, with my “minimum stat” team.
The team is led by an elven dragon disciple. She has brought along two friends: a gnome cleric/thief, and a dwarven defender.
As you can imagine, minimum stats means I dragged the stats as low as they could go.
Now, I did make things a little bit easier because dragon disciples and dwarven defenders minimums aren’t *that* debilitating, but they’re not good either. It’s not like I used an elven ranger or half elf cleric/ranger.
If I do get that far, I’m really wondering how I’ll handle mind flayers in BG2.
So, I’m terrible about updating my stories. I’ve beaten BG1EE multiple times without reloading.
Today, I beat the game on core difficulty, no mods, with my “minimum stat” team.
The team is led by an elven dragon disciple. She has brought along two friends: a gnome cleric/thief, and a dwarven defender.
As you can imagine, minimum stats means I dragged the stats as low as they could go.
Now, I did make things a little bit easier because dragon disciples and dwarven defenders minimums aren’t *that* debilitating, but they’re not good either. It’s not like I used an elven ranger or half elf cleric/ranger.
If I do get that far, I’m really wondering how I’ll handle mind flayers in BG2.
Great work. For mind flayers, I'd recommend potions of genius en masse
The Avatars 2023: Candlekeep to the Nashkel Mines (Or We Had Fun and No One Died, Part 1)
Two weeks ago I fired up Baldur’s Gate for the first time in ages. I was astonished by how little I remembered. I went 0 for 3 on Phlydia’s book, Nessa’s antidote and Hull’s sword, botching the locations of each. Worse still, when Imoen joined me on the Coastway post midnight ambush, I was struck with a devastating sinking feeling: I had no clue what to do next.
Despite my fears, I kept playing. Things started to come back. I made progress. One thing was clear, however: I am not -not- the player I once was- not at all. And so as I share my first public run in what feels like an eternity, the challenge before me is clear.
Yes, my fellow adventurers: I gotta get that groove back.
In my early sessions with the Avatars groove proved elusive. But we had fun and no one died, and in no reload play -as in life- that should be judged a success. I have no complaints. To the action.
After relieving Imoen of her worldly possessions, we dipped down to High Hedge and then across to Beregost, seeking early experience and additional gear. We assuaged Marl’s grief, and made our way south at the behest of Mirianne.
In our first quest battle no groove was found. Note the superfluous and 100% groove free Entangle cast.
After collecting our praises and prizes from Mirianne, and granting the ring to Corey, we got back on our way to the Friendly Arm Inn. Montaron and Xzar were murdered on general principle. The gallant Corey Russell led the way through the gibberlings as we proffered our second Ring of Protection.
That second RoP went to myself. Some may think it would serve the party better on Grond0. Maybe. But you must understand, darlings, I’m the protagonist: I deserve to wear the finest clothes. Now be a dove and fetch me my drink: Grey Goose martini with a touch of Chambord.
Glad that’s settled. Let’s talk about Tarnesh.
Tarnesh was straight up murdered by Grond0 under Rage, supported by Commands from Grim Face and range fire from the peanut gallery. Perhaps there is a touch of groove here? You be the judge. Evermemory went to Grim Face because he’s a specialist mage and I’m a thief.
South to Nashkel we go! The belt ogre was Commanded and walloped en route.
We gave Enuhal’s spirit lions a test drive against the hobgoblins. Totemic druids are awesome, as it turns out. Who knew?
The anhkeg plate went to Corey because he’s a rock n’ roll star. Grim Face snagged us the +1 halberd under sanctuary. Drienne’s cat was retrieved, and the Protection from Undead scroll was tucked away for later use. Gnarl and Hairtooth met a gnarly death, thanks to Grim Face’s Commands.
We sold the Tome of Leadership and Influence to Thalantyr with the intent of buying it back later. 2500 gold early beats 3350 gold post bandit camp. The Gauntlets of Dexterity went to myself because of the whole protagonist thing (And yes: I’m ready for my second martini now. Thank you, darling.).
Shortly thereafter we rescued John Cougar Melicamp. Is there a joy in this world that surpasses a successful Anti-Chickenator? I ask you.
Corey and Grond0 leveled up courtesy of John Cougar and Thalantyr's golems. I picked up my first level and my preferred sword by way of Zargal. This fight was super un-groovilicious. No reason for Grond0 and Enuhal to get hurt here.
We gave Drienne’s Pro Undead scroll to Corey and he paid us back with free experience and a skifty wand.
With a bit of gold on hand, the shop in Ulgoth’s Beard called. We took a detour into the anhkeg lair because we like easy experience. Enuhal and myself waited outside until that first anhkeg was Commanded. We joined the rest of the crew for the finish.
Once we were out of Commands, we let Corey lead the way armed with the Wand of Sleep. We’re all at level 3 now, or thereabouts.
Okay! I’m going to take a lunch break now. I’ll return with part 2 in a jiff. Toodle-doodles!
Just a quick word from a (mostly) silent member of this community: it is such a delight to read about this "all-star" Avatar run. What a treat, thanks.
@Alesia_BH , some of your runs either here or in the previous Bioware forums have been inspirational. So many innovative tactics and new take on how to approach certain classes.
On my side I have just finished my first ever entirely solo no-reload run of BG1 (playing EE on core, no mods), after a hiatus of around 6 years.
Another first was that my character was female: Bree Appledrum, a CG Halfling Cleric.
Early game was cruised relying on Sanctuary, Command, Hold Person, Silence and a sling +1. Plus 3 essential pieces of equipment : wand of sleep, the One Gift Lost and greenstone amulet.
From level 5 onwards, Animate Dead becomes the centre piece, with Bless, Chant, Strength of One, Protection from Evil 10', Defensive Harmony as usual pre-buffs.
I have also experimented, with decent results, dual-wielding in melee with Spiritual Hammer in main hand and the Stupefier in the off-hand (at no penalty); after having pre-buffed Bree with Holy Power, or Strength of One, sometimes with DUHM on top. Those 2APR at ~10 THACO and ~15dmg each were nice, even if only for 8 to 10 rounds depending on the pre-buff.
I had no real scary moment, although one of the dukes died at the palace. Avoided werewolf island and Durlag's lower levels.
Now in Chapter 8 of SoD and already had two very near death !! Onward...
Just a quick word from a (mostly) silent member of this community: it is such a delight to read about this "all-star" Avatar run. What a treat, thanks.
@Alesia_BH , some of your runs either here or in the previous Bioware forums have been inspirational. So many innovative tactics and new take on how to approach certain classes.
Aww! Thanks, @Ignatius . I’m so glad to hear that. I’m sure the others are too!
On my side I have just finished my first ever entirely solo no-reload run of BG1 (playing EE on core, no mods), after a hiatus of around 6 years.
Another first was that my character was female: Bree Appledrum, a CG Halfling Cleric.
Congrats! And now I get to take inspiration from you. Reaching new heights after a 6 year break? That's my dream right now, lol. And can I just say that I love the character: a CG Halfling Cleric named Bree Appledrum? More of that please!
Best of luck in SoD! And please do feel free to share a run sometime in the future
Having recently sabotaged the Iron Throne's operations in Cloakwood, we move on to Baldur's Gate to take a look at their opulent corporate headquarters. Our first stop there was the Thieves' Guild [for some reason I always imagine my protagonist's pronunciation of "Fafhrd" carrying the same dramatic expression as Gandalf's "mellon" ] and the DEX tome. This was followed by a shopping spree in Sorcerous Sundries, where we stock up on potions (Oils of Speed, Firebreath, PoIs, Stone Form and 2x Magic Shielding) and various situational spells scrolls supplementing Daelat's spellbook (most notably multiple copies of Spirit Armor and Chaos). We also buy the Wand of Monster Summoning, which we had not collected from the tombs when finishing with Nashkel mines.
Afterwards, we ran into Marek and Lothander, which eventually had the fortunate side effect of us being able to obtain the Tome of Wisdom and rescue Varci's friend from the Water Queen's House.
Using a Strength scroll, Daelat broke into Ragefast's home and convinced him to release the captive nymph. Upon reporting these events to Ramazith he went full aggro - predictable as that was, Daelat already had his protections ready, including Shield, ProEvil, Resist Fear, MIs and Improved Invisibility. We were also running an Oil of Speed, which had been used to speed up our back-and-forth running when completing the previous errands around the town. Ramazith opened the fight with an enchantment incantation - we decided to take no risks and countered with one of our Potions of Magic Shielding.
With Ramazith's Chaos bouncing off our negative saves, we managed to succesfuly dispel his buffs (including MSD) with Remove Magic and quickly shot him down with MMMs (this guy could use a serious HP boost!).
We collected RoP +2, Amulet of Metaspell Influence and the INT tome and rented a room in the Blushing Mermaid. Conveniently, our next target - Marek - was enjoying his stay in the same establishment. Marek is like Nimbul on steroids and not to be underestimated. Daelat prepared with his standard set of buffs, including II. We did skip MMMs though (expending the ones we had left from the previous day at the begining), given that this was a battle to be decided by darts - the setting for that was perfect, I mean just look at the surroundings and decor. And with Vax, the alleged "fastest dart thrower to ever walk the Sword Coast", pushing up daisies, the championship title was free for taking.
Marek fired off his contingency pre-buffs with Invisibility, MIs, Shield, Stoneskin and MSD. Not a bad start from him against a sorcerer at all, knowing that we'll be hesitant to unleash any AoE damage in such a crowded place. We wait for his next action, keeping our aura clear. Marek -> Emotion: Hopelessness. Daelat -> Potion of Stone Form (resulting in negative save vs. spell -3*).
*Small explanatory note: I often seem to overlook certain (either documented or undocumented but known) bonuses or penalties when assessing whether or not my characters can get a guaranteed saving throw, which in certain instances also ended my runs. The usual suspects here can be (i) not double-checking whether or not a particular spell is saved against with a penalty/bonus in case I'm not 100% sure, (ii) ignoring the specialist mage bonus/penalty, (iii) erroneously applying the ProEvil bonus against non-evil sources, (iv) the issue around the "schoolless" spells and abilities penalty and (v) enemy abilities that resemble arcane / divine spells, but are coded as a standalone ability with a certain penalty/bonus (can't think of an example right now, but I suspect there are such cases). To be on the safe side, I at least try to ignore the ProEvil bonus (where possible or practicable) and, resources permitting, I generally aim to have a buffer of at least 1-2 points to err on the side of caution and mitigate the margin for miscalculation. In this particular instance, Daelat's effective save vs. spells before quaffing the Potion of Stone Form had been 0. Emotion: Hopelessness grants no bonuses nor penalties. Marek is mage/thief (no specialist penalty from him) and neutral evil (he gets penalized by casting against ProEvil). Overall, we should be safe here, though for the above reasons we still took the potion as a counter.
Unsure what to do next, Marek goes invisible again, knowing that any attempts at backstabbing us would be foiled by our MIs and Stoneskin. Daelat dispels his invisibility with Remove Magic.
The same sequence of events is repeated in the following round, although this time our Dart of Stunning hits the spot.
Darts of Wounding for finish.
With that our time in Baldur's Gate was almost done. We sneak in and out the Iron Throne under invisibility and report our findings to Eltan, whom dispatches us to Candlekeep. Daelat uses Potion of Magic Blocking to counter the ogre mage ambush at the gates and rushes through the library once inside the campus. Following Tethoril's timely rescue, we avoid all the enemies in the catacombs and the caverns under invisibility, only stopping to pick up the STR tome and the WIS tome by using the Violet Potion to break into the vaults (running Shield, Potion of Insulation + Boots of Grounding, Potion of Fire Resistance + Ring of Fire Resistance and Potion of Freedom to counter the traps).
Coming up next are Slythe and Kristyn. But first, we perform couple of bad deeds in Beregost, like trying to steal stuff and taunt or bribe the local Flaming Fist officers (by the way the arrest warrant on us has seemingly not yet reached from their Baldur's Gate HQ all the way down here, so maybe they should improve their database sharing policies), with the aim of managing our reputation ahead of getting the final two Bhaalspawn powers in the form of Vampiric Touch rather than DuHM.
So, I’m terrible about updating my stories. I’ve beaten BG1EE multiple times without reloading.
Today, I beat the game on core difficulty, no mods, with my “minimum stat” team.
The team is led by an elven dragon disciple. She has brought along two friends: a gnome cleric/thief, and a dwarven defender.
As you can imagine, minimum stats means I dragged the stats as low as they could go.
Now, I did make things a little bit easier because dragon disciples and dwarven defenders minimums aren’t *that* debilitating, but they’re not good either. It’s not like I used an elven ranger or half elf cleric/ranger.
If I do get that far, I’m really wondering how I’ll handle mind flayers in BG2.
Great work. For mind flayers, I'd recommend potions of genius en masse
Don't forget chaotic commands to be immune to stun - if that's not available, if anyone has good enough saves potion of invulnerability can also do in a pinch.
Is there a joy in this world that surpasses a successful Anti-Chickenator? I ask you.
True enough, although Carbos defeating Shank in the duel of the fates of the Bridge District comes very close in my book. And yes, I'm a proud member of team Carbos - not even thousand deaths can redeem Shank from having had imposed upon me the traumatic experience of loosing my very first character.
But speaking of Melicamp, I admit that rather than exposing myself to the inexorable pressure of cosmic probabilities I sometimes just trade him with Thalantyr for a scroll or something. I like to think of him as Schrödinger's chicken that way, ever trapped in the quantum superposition, being and not being alive at the same time.
The Avatars 2023: Candlekeep to the Nashkel Mines (Or We Had Fun and No One Died, Part 2)
So, where were we? That’s right: Ulgoth’s Beard.
Our objectives in Ulgoth’s Beard were two fold: we wanted to buy our 4th and 5th Potions of Mirrored Eyes so we could safely make the transition to the basilisk area. We also wanted to unlock Durlag’s Tower to gain access to Erdane’s Potions of Master Thievery, and thus Corey’s bastard sword.
Before we setoff, though, it was time for Serg and I to have an epic cram session. Here’s me getting ready to memorize a whole bunch of spells. Also me on Adderall back in graduate school.
Off to Lizardville. We readied our five very expensive Potions of Mirrored Eyes and did not get the basilisk ambush. I feel like I’m the only BG player who always -always- buys potions for this ambush. I’m also the only BG player who never -never- actually gets said ambush. It’s happened once in my entire BG career. Once. Do the ambush gods know what’s in my inventory? Seriously. What’s up?
Once we got to Lizardville we bananaed around Korax and headed to the southern basilisk group. We wanted to be sure we’d have plenty of happy ghoul time for Mutamin. Enuhal’s Spirit Snake led the way.
Once the southern basilisks were toast, we cleared out the gnolls and joined Korax. Korax was guided to Mutamin by yours truly under stealth. This battle typically goes one of two ways: either Korax lands a paralytic touch and Mutamin goes quietly, or he doesn’t and he costs us a Greenstone Amulet charge. In this case Korax failed, leaving me to finish Mutamin off with the Wand of Frost under Greenstone. A Wand of Monster Summoning charge was used, too. Why? I don’t know. The monsters were supposed to run distraction, I guess. Ultimately they served only to drop the groove quotient of the fight: they were totally pointless.
(Ok, not totally pointless. Check out the strange menagerie we had by the time we finished the area: snakes, ghouls, gnolls, hobgoblins. Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1369.)
Greywolf followed. I don’t know if Greywolf is evil, but I do know that Pro Evil looks skifty in the moonlight. Shall we dance?
(Command ended Greywolf unexpectedly quick, thanks to a critical from Corey. Enuhal and Grim Face’s follow up Doom + Blindness combo wasn’t even needed)
The EXP hunt continued, starting with the sirenes. After scouting under stealth, I ultimately decided to let Corey handle this one. He has a bow. He’s immune to charm, and he has True Sight. What purpose would the rest of us serve? We went and played Yahtzee with Safana while Corey did his thing.
Next, we took down the flesh golems. Corey served as bodyguard while I disarmed the traps. A virtual cookie to whomever spots the nauseating example of groove-lessness in this pic.
At this point Enuhal basically took over. Okay. Not quite. But he did start dominating the screenshots. Who among us it going to top that?
Or that?
Or that?
Lightning strikes crushing battle horrors? Snakes eating ogres? Lions devouring electrocuted bandits? How can any of us compete? We can’t. Totemic druids rule. There: I said it. They may not be the most powerful blokes, but they do have style. And as Amanda from Another Roadside Attraction said:
"The most important thing in life is style. That is the style of one's existence, the characteristic mode of one’s actions is ultimately what matters. For if man defines himself by doing then style is doubly definitive because style describes the doing… It is style that gives content the capacity to absorb us, to move us: it is style that makes us care."
Long live the king; long live the Totemic Druid; long live Enuhal.
By now we were all at L5 or so. We were ready for the mines.
Since I’m still running on an empty groove tank, we didn’t have a Resist Fear memorized for the Kobold Shaman. Enuhal summoned some fear immune bears for us. We kept those to the side while we mowed down the fodder kobolds with Sleep and bows.
I don’t have any shots of the kobold shaman fight, but the bears led the way nicely.
Before taking on Mulahey, we nixed the gray oozes and took a nap over there. We then regrouped, entering the chamber buffed.
The plan had been to send a Greenstoned assassin team, consisting of Grim Face and myself, after Mulahey, while the rest of the party remained at the entrance to intercept the minions. We’d then execute a pincer movement on the remaining kobolds. This worked. Sort of. One thing went flooey but it wasn’t entirely my fault.
The assassination of Mulahey wasn’t perfect. I was suppose to open with a backstab and follow with a Wand of Frost charge. Grim Face was then to add a Scorcher from the Wand of Fire.
My backstab landed. Decent start.
And the party quickly dispatched the minions with a Necklace of Missiles charge. Hooray for that.
But did you notice the damage on Serg? That was friendly fire. Our Wand of Fire reverted back to Fireball mode for some reason. (After the battle I tried to switch it to Scorcher mode over and over again. No dice. If anyone knows what’s going on there, let me know in the Lounge.)
Aside from that, the fight went smoothly. Mulahey only needed a nudge after our opening, and the kobolds were easily cleaned up. Victory was ours, but I'm giving us a B- on execution. Definitely could have been smoother, lol.
Okay, so, we're on to the next chapter!
For those of you lamenting the lack of details on routing, equipment, proficiency choices and the like: I'm with you, lol. Unfortunately note taking is one of the skills that is in desperate need of re-groovification. In my next post I'll share our current inventories and proficiencies to get everyone caught up. Going forward from there I'll try to take better notes. Sorry, everyone! Getting back up to speed is a process and I'm still in the early stages!
I can't remember if we have ever had this much activity in this thread. Amazing. So many promising runs! I can't really respond to everything, and I've got a big update to type up, but we've got a ton of cool things going on here. Genuinely haven't had so much fun playing BG no-reload in a long time, having an active community sharing their experiences really adds a lot!
@Alesia_BH You caught me. Joining this challenge was merely an elaborate ruse to get everyone to play a totemic druid.
Seems like you're doing great so far!
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update VI
The party is doing well again. We've been quite successful in the eastern wildneress areas.
Back from Cloakwood, we sold what we didn't need and bought the robe of the good archmagi for Alesia. Next, we visited the digsite again to take down the doomsayer with a few wand charges, icelances and magic missles, though an alicorn lance got the last hit in:
Using our freshly acquired magical weapons, we make our way to the Nashkel mine exit area. Some magic missles assist us in taking down the revenant:
We prepare to fight Narcillicus - however, most of the preparation was not needed, as Alesia got an awesome opening backstab on the wizard, killing him in one hit:
While she did get hit by a mustard jelly in return, Enuhal was able to cure the poison effect and the forest being healed her back up to full, as our fighters, supported by strength of one, took down the jellies:
Corey uses Spider's Bane to tank the ghasts in the eastern tomb, and we get our hands on a wand of monster summoning.
Next up, we made our way back to Durlag's Tower - I've only killed the battle horrors outside and on the walls, so many ghasts, greater basilisks and the wisdom tome still remained. Alesia now has the thieving skills to disarm all the traps here, and we have both Spider's Bane and barbarian rage to deal with the ghasts:
The strength effect on Corey here is not the spell, but an actual potion of hill giant strength. It turned out to last exactly long enough for our expedition back into this place. Grim Face once again buffed the party with PfP for the basilisks on the ramparts:
Also, Enuhal accidentally summoned the wrong spirit animal here - spirit lions won't be immune to petrification until level 10. Grim Face gains a level. We move further up, leaving the ghost alone for now - he's one of the most dangerous enemies in the entire game with my settings. The party makes a deal with the succubus, and we kill the looter with the help of Corey's true sight. Enuhal gets to use the wisdom tome.
On our way to the Beard to sell and buy, we get ambushed by the amazons - finally! We immediately drop two items to remove encumberance from Corey and Grond0 (carrying capacity is still a problem and propably will be until we reach the big city and get the ogre strength gloves). True sight neutralizes most of the threat here, and the fact that Grond0's first arrow of biting poisons one of the clerics certainly helps:
We follow up with an icelance on each cleric, the non-poisoned cleric gets stunned. Enuhal summons a forest being, one of the rogues even gets charmed by our summon. Over all, a fairly convincing victory.
We sell quite a few things and buy the wand of frost, greenstone amulet and sandthief ring - aside from potions and green scrolls for later, we now have everything useful money can buy outside of Baldur's Gate. We move on to the red wizard area, quickly resolve the wisdom scroll quest and let an invisible Alesia disarm all the web traps. We summon and buff with prayer and bless, letting spirit lions take the lead to absorb the first few web tangles. A phase spider teleports in, but is commanded and killed, while our forest being confuses the sword spider:
Magic missles, alicorn lance and sunscorch are used to deal with the wraith spider, and the remaining few giant spiders quickly fall. As all of our summons are still alive, I decide to send them against the red wizards as well. We throw in a few webs to assist, but Denak, their leader, is able to freely move around in his MGOI. However, this also gets him to separate from his allies, moving to the south. As he takes down my summons rather quickly (with the party out of sight, testing his strength) I think about leaving the area outright to rest, but as I see him getting into my line of sight, with MGOI having run out and only minor spell deflection remaining (which only absorbs 4 spell levels total), I decide I can take him on by brute-forcing through his MSD with wands - meanwhile, he casts remove magic on Corey and Grond0, which doesn't really hurt us that much at this point and doesn't even take all of their buffs. With his spell protection gone, neither his shield nor his stoneskins can stop Alesia from interrupting his next spell with a quick LMD, which I like to have memorized as an almost instant cast spell without noticeable travel time that doesn't get blocked by shield:
As we throw icelances at him (he makes his saving throw), he is able to cast a sunfire, which deals some damage to some of the party, but not too much - we finally break his stoneskins and take him down:
We are out of combat - seems like his allies gave up on him when he ran that far south, so we can rest and re-summon. The other wizards have no stoneskins, and with Alesia's invisible direction and Corey's far-away true sight, they're no match for the spirit lions:
To the victor go the spoils - in that case, also The Victor, which I'm going to put to good use soon. We travel to Gullykin and enter the firewine dungeon. Corey drinks a stone giant strength potion - he will have to do a lot of work here, as his armor class, especially with his long shield +1, is required to stand against the masses of kobold commandos. Of course, Grim Face's sleep helps a lot as well:
Alesia is back to her invisible trap-disarming, and while the others hold off kobolds coming from the east and the north, Corey goes on a solo mission to deal with the undead knight. He takes quite a lot of damage, but emerges victorious with the armor, which we turn in - Grond0 levels up! The party has saved their summons for Lendarn and the ogre mage. Alesia, still invisible, sends them in. However, both mages unleash a veritable firework of powerful AoE spells on our poor summoned helpers, with only the spirit lions surviving for a few rounds because they don't take damage from the devastating lightning bolt. However, this bolt also kills some of Lendarn's allies. The remaining ones are mostly grouped up, going after the near-death lions - the perfect opportunity to move in for Corey, Grond0 and Alesia. Corey needs to get in position for his true sight to work, but as Lendarn starts to cast again, his only option for an interrupt is The Victor, which bypasses any and all spell protections. Meanwhile, Grond0 blasts the bunched up enemies with a necklace of missles charge - Lendarn's MGOI protects him, but the others, including the ogre mage, take heavy damage:
Alesia adds a wand of fire charge into the mix, killing all of the random minions in sight. Despite another tick from The Victor still coming in, Lendarn is able to cast slow, though Grond0 resists. Corey is still quick enough with his boots of speed. He uses a second charge of our newly-acquired ring, which takes down the ogre mage:
Alesia moves away - she is vulnerable anyway, doubly so being slowed. Corey tries to finish the job with a third charge, but gets hit by Mordenkainen's force missles and a few arrows from kobolds, who are coming out of every corner once again to join the fight:
He moves away, Grond0 charges back in - as they pass each other, Corey throws the ring to Grond0, who finally unleashes the third charge to end this fight:
Despite all the damage we've been taking here, I feel good about our victory, because the firewine dungeon, with its incredibly tight spaces and dangerous double spellcaster combo, is never an easy to place to fight in.
With @Grond0 doing incredibly well in many encounters I've gotten into huge trouble in (such as Seniyad, Aramande and the ankhegs), I decided to redeem myself by going for the only encounter that has given him trouble so far - Icharyd. I changed my spellbook for that one, having enough experience with the SCS version to know that for phase 2, time will progress, all buffs will be gone, lightning will be flying around - so we need two instances of strength of one, ghost armor, prayer, chant, bless, anti-undead weapon spells for Enuhal (moonblade and star metal cudgel) etc. I also have Enuhal learn storm shell and protection from lightning, both mages get MIs and quite a few protection from evil spells. Grond0 has his magical morning star, which, as a blunt weapon, will be quite helpful here.
With our buffs active, we cast chant as the final one (because it slows movement speed in my installation, I rarely use it at all, and if I do, only after I've moved into position already) - strength of one turns everyone into a capable melee fighter, and Grond0 starts trading hits with Icharyd:
The barbarian is at 22 strength using his rage, so he quickly pushes Icharyd into phase 2. All buffs disappear, the thunderstorm starts, Icharyd gets buffed. Both fighters immediately drink potions of absorption. Grim Face starts casting strength of one, our most important buff, but gets hit by lightning, luckily making his saving throw. However, Enuhal has another one of these spells as wel and is able to complete the job. Grim Face follows up with prayer:
Alesia tries her luck in melee combat after casting shield, but has to retreat after a single hit from Icharyd. Meanwhile, Grond0 takes the next lightning hit, but his potion protects him. He starts to rage, dealing huge damage to the skeleton warrior now and absorbing the third lightning strike, as Enuhal prepares star metal cudgel and Grim Face casts chant:
However, these spells aren't needed - a second later, Icharyd dies, and it's daytime again:
We change our spellbook back to normal and rest before entering the ruins. With a strength spell on Corey, fighting the jellies, wolfs and spiders here is fairly easy work at this point. Remove fear is critical as we prepare our summons and buffs for the wolf of ulcaster. Strength of one as we go, with the fighters going for the target right away. The others start blastings wands - since the wolf has no loot, wands of frost are absolutely fair game:
Our spirit lions stick around - as ghouls and dire wolves come in, they protect the party. They can't hurt the wolf yet, as their claws will only start being a magical weapon at level 10. A few magic missles and another wand of frost charge, and victory is ours:
Ending today's play, we quickly return to the ankheg caves to remove the remaining pests here as revenge for Corey's early deaths. While I don't like repeatedly killing randomly spawning enemies for experience, the ankhegs inside the cave are fixed non-random encounters, so I have no issues here. Still, we don't get any other level ups. While we're not doing full exploration for this run, all named encounters and quests in the wilderness areas are dealt with (except for TOTSC content and Kahrk), so we can only move back to the iron mine now.
I can't remember if we have ever had this much activity in this thread. Amazing. So many promising runs! I can't really respond to everything, and I've got a big update to type up, but we've got a ton of cool things going on here. Genuinely haven't had so much fun playing BG no-reload in a long time, having an active community sharing their experiences really adds a lot!
Agreed! All we need now is some Bree Appledrum. Change the lyrics of this song slightly and that's how I feel, lol.
Ok, everyone. Here's a quick update on where my characters stand. Records and inventories are in the spoiler tags.
Alesia
Notes: My Alesia is a rogue who enhances her roguery through magic, not a mage who happens to pick locks. Her starting proficiencies were short bows and short swords. I added a pip in crossbows simply because I thought LCoS + Bolt of Lightning and Bolts of Biting was getting too little love in our runs. Usually my thieves allocate that first pip to darts. Alesia's skill points have emphasized trap detection because Knock and Invisibility make open locks and stealth somewhat less important for mage thieves. Set traps will become a priority going forward.
Corey
Notes: Corey is our primary tank. He's handled that role capably. His starting proficiencies were bastard swords x 2 and long bows x 2. I gave him a pip in long swords and I kind of regret that. His Gauntlets of Dexterity are shared with Alesia, who uses them to enhance her thieving skills.
Enuhal
Notes: Enuhal's kill stats are unremarkable, but he has more than carried his weight. His spirit animals are a major tactical asset. His starting proficiencies were quarterstaves and slings. More recently he's become our primary dart tosser. He wears the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise because they pair well with high APR weapons.
Grim Face
Notes: Grim Face is our spell slinger extraordinaire. As a specialist mage wearing Evermemory, his mage skills vastly surpass Alesia's. His low level cleric spells add a lot of value too, especially Command and Hold Person. Grim Face's starting proficiencies were hammers and slings. He's taken a pip in maces and now wields the Stupefier.
Grond0
Notes: While barbarians aren't known for their versatility, Grond0 is the most flexible member of our group. He serves as a kite, a tank, an off tank and an archer. Despite often being an after thought in my tactical plans he leads the team in kills, rivaled only by Corey. His starting proficiencies were two handed swords x2 and long bows x 2. I gave him a pip in two handed weapon style in honor of his character portrait. More recently he received a pip in flails, with Ages and the Defender in mind.
I hope that helps everyone follow the run. Our next update is coming up soon
The Avatars 2023: Early SCS Assassins (Or You're Gonna Have a Bad Time)
If you're an SCS assassin coming for an Avatar crew.
And even though I have about as much groove as a bingo night in Wisconsin, the assassins hounding my crew have been no exception.
The solo assassin, Nimbul, was insanely overmatched. He caught Doom + Hold Person from Enuhal and Grim Face. He failed his save and was then jacked by a Called Lightning while Corey True Sighted his MIs and a pair of lions ate through his Stoneskins. That´s a bad day at the office.
The next assassins came in force, but they didn't fare any better. Since we now have 5 L2s, we travel invisible. That allowed us to meet Lamalha and friends on our terms. We snuck down to the corner, buffed and summoned our spirit animals, choosing one snake and one lion. We sent the spirit animals after Lamalha and weren't entirely pleased when they killed her before she turned hostile. It was effective, obviously, but I would have preferred if it hadn't happened.
With the leader down, the question became how should we break invisibility. Alesia broke with a backstab on Maneira. That worked.
Grim Face broke with Blindness on Zeela. That worked too. She was dropped with arrows soon after.
Telka, who was already getting devoured by a snake and a lion, fell to Called Lightning, just like Nimbul. All they managed to do was cast an Unholy Blight at the spirit animals. Saynora, sleezebags.
I try to grab a few hours sleep and the thread explodes - it feels like the politics thread from a few years ago .
Everyone seems to be doing well and having fun, so life is good for the moment. Nice to hear from you @Ignatius and best of luck continuing with your cleric. I've never been particularly fond of them as a class, but they are extremely capable in BG1 and you obviously know the tricks of the trade.
Most of the encounters in the City are pretty easy for a party. Some of those with a bit more risk include:
- the ogre mage and carrion crawlers in the sewers. Handled by going down invisibly and using area attacks.
- phase spiders in the sewers. Careful control of movement to avoid being attacked was sufficient there.
- I hadn't expected to put Jalantha Mistmyr on this list as sole casters in BGEE can't normally withstand the pressure of party attacks. However, I hadn't appreciated she wasn't a sole caster . We attacked without preparation and got surprised when all the acolytes used unholy blights - that was sufficient to kill Alesia (leaving Grim Face the only supporting party member yet to die).
- the Mountain Maulers are a handful for an unprepared party, but against buffed opponents with summons up the couple of enemies that Grond0 stunned with darts were really an overkill.
- the daughters of Shandalar could be a problem in tight quarters, particularly given the difficulties groups sometimes have in making area transitions. In this case though the two nearest were shot before they could take any action and Delorna followed us downstairs where she was dispelled and finished off - her use of an invisibility potion being too late to save her from a missile already en route. The Halruuan mage we reported to nearly caused a problem though when he successfully resisted being dispelled allowing him to target Grim Face before we switched to more aggressive attacks. Grim Face shrugged off a Shroud of Flame though as the mage died.
- Degrodel's guards are strong in close-quarters melee, but easy enough if pulled outside and disabled by spells or mobbed.
- Sunin was another where I didn't use strong attacks and nearly paid a price for that when he also resisted a dispel and got a sunfire off - taking both Grim Face and Enuhal down to single figure HPs. Alesia was happy there though to receive her own Ring of Wizardry. She also got the XP for a level there, but this time it's Corey who will be holding everyone else up from taking their next level.
An early target in the City was Ramazith's Tower, to get his ring and amulet. I decided to give Alesia the intelligence tome, to increase the number of spells she could learn without resorting to potion boosters.
For the poison quest I couldn't remember if Lothander teleported away instantly. He didn't - and became Alesia's first backstab victim of the run.
Marek got his buffs up, including MSD to protect him from direct spells. However, he failed to save against horror and didn't get far - Alesia was pleased to finally be able to upgrade her mundane short bow.
Another equipment upgrade came with the ogre gauntlets after Desreta was blinded while neutral. Corey took that and Alesia added cat's grace as a standard spell selection to cast on him to replace the lost dexterity from his previous bracers.
Enuhal got a more minor upgrade with the Helm of Glory after Jardak was stunned by a dart. A more impressive acquisition was the Cloak of Balduran - that went to Corey to further enhance his defenses.
One slight glitch is I found I had sold Euric's amulet and had to buy that back before he would talk to me (I also did the same with not just one, but two, sphene gems ).
At the Iron Throne I had vague memories of what to expect, but wasn't sure if I was remembering SCS or other mods. However, we arrived invisibly and Corey used true sight (Grim Face re-establishing invisibility on him after casting) to show up where Shennara and Kaalos were.
A pattern of webs was followed up by area damage and an attack by spirit lions and nymphs. Alai is immune to web of course, but was paralysed by a lance of disruption from Grim Face and the end came soon after.
Dopplegangers were cleared from both the Seven Suns and the Merchants League - the latter earning Corey a marginal upgrade for his bastard sword.
We'll be reporting for duty back at Candlekeep in the next session.
Lol. I'm sorry, Borco. That's not it. We weren't fighting yet, so we had no need to have magical ammo equipped. Care to try again?
Well, in that case:
I also probably see what one could label a wasted Potion of Master Thievery - it's not like you were going to pickpocket the golems or pick any locks on the pond .
At first I thought those two luck icons are granted by Luck (spell), as if one for the actual luck effect and the other representing the remaining bonuses, but that's clearly not the case (I checked). So it has to be a combination of two out of these three - Luck (spell), Potion of Master Thievery and Potion of Perception.
Speaking of Luck, everyone who'd like to see some Luck + Chant backstabs performed by our Avatar crews' raise your hands! Me!
Lol. I'm sorry, Borco. That's not it. We weren't fighting yet, so we had no need to have magical ammo equipped. Care to try again?
Well, in that case:
I also probably see what one could label a wasted Potion of Master Thievery - it's not like you were going to pickpocket the golems or pick any locks on the pond .
At first I thought those two luck icons are granted by Luck (spell), as if one for the actual luck effect and the other representing the remaining bonuses, but that's clearly not the case (I checked). So it has to be a combination of two out of these three - Luck (spell), Potion of Master Thievery and Potion of Perception.
Speaking of Luck, everyone who'd like to see some Luck + Chant backstabs performed by our Avatar crews' raise your hands! Me!
It's only a guess, but when I looked at that I thought it was possible that Alesia used a potion of master thievery to top up her trap detection skills there - and then realised she needed a potion of perception for that purpose ...
Both Grim Face and Alesia did actually have luck learned at one point in my run, but the former has had that removed to make room for other spells. I was thinking of doing the same for Alesia, but perhaps I'll let her keep that for the future (her lack of stealth and the ability to do so much damage by a party anyway has meant I've made almost no use of backstabs to date). For those running with SCS, prayer is another spell that can help with backstabs - and bless of course can contribute towards maximising damage.
@Alesia_BH : that song Bonita Applebum, my my... made me laugh. Our Bree Appledrum is nothing like Bonita, clad in her tight Ankheg armor...
I am playing on PS4 so no screenshot... but alright will report snapshots of SoD. So far I am having a torrid time, I find it is a step-up in difficulty from BG1. Smarter AI, enemies coming in huge swarms, many traps...
@Borco : I recall reading a while back a great run you had with a solo priest, can't remember the name of the character and where it ended (somewhere in BG2 I think). So far so good with your Sorcerer !
@Grond0 : I have this strange appeal to the cleric class, somehow always going back to it. I find it very versatile and not too difficult in BG1 for a casual player like myself. The first three spell levels are extremely solid. There is also a strong RP feel to the class given the upbringing of Bhaalspawn in Candlekeep. Just curious, what don't you enjoy when you play one?
@Grond0 : I have this strange appeal to the cleric class, somehow always going back to it. I find it very versatile and not too difficult in BG1 for a casual player like myself. The first three spell levels are extremely solid. There is also a strong RP feel to the class given the upbringing of Bhaalspawn in Candlekeep. Just curious, what don't you enjoy when you play one?
I generally prefer a more active game play style - using movement, stealth and physical attacks. The cleric's biggest advantages come from spell use and I tend to find getting lazy with using those catches me out eventually - I've never completed a full trilogy run with a solo sole-class cleric. I don't have any doubts that can be done though and dare say I'll get around to it eventually .
@Alesia_BH Thank you for the kind words. And note that I'm enjoying your run to the fullest and might actually need to stock up on popcorn.
@Enuhal@Grond0 Once again you both deliver! You make all those potentially scary encounters look trivial to the point it almost feels like you're showing off , haha . We want more, please!
@Ignatius Not that I'd ever call it "great", but you're correct, I did two unsuccesful solo runs with my most beloved character - Anomandra (halfling Priest of Talos) - in 2022 and in 2019, respectively. Tamika, my other cleric (Priest of Helm), perished during the Unseeing Eye quest last January.
@Grond0 : well eventually you will have to make it with a cleric as part of your life-long challenge I have distant memories from old Bioware runs some of your main characters charging head-on wielding Spider Bane against a pack of Cloakwood spiders... in a no-reload attempt
@Borco : yes, Anomandra and Tamika, I remember those names, great stories those were !
It's only a guess, but when I looked at that I thought it was possible that Alesia used a potion of master thievery to top up her trap detection skills there - and then realised she needed a potion of perception for that purpose ...
@Enuhal : impressive fight in Firewine dungeon, so well executed. SCS looks and feels almost like a different game when I read you guys' stories. What is an alicorn lance btw?
Comments
Today, I beat the game on core difficulty, no mods, with my “minimum stat” team.
The team is led by an elven dragon disciple. She has brought along two friends: a gnome cleric/thief, and a dwarven defender.
As you can imagine, minimum stats means I dragged the stats as low as they could go.
Now, I did make things a little bit easier because dragon disciples and dwarven defenders minimums aren’t *that* debilitating, but they’re not good either. It’s not like I used an elven ranger or half elf cleric/ranger.
If I do get that far, I’m really wondering how I’ll handle mind flayers in BG2.
Great work. For mind flayers, I'd recommend potions of genius en masse
Two weeks ago I fired up Baldur’s Gate for the first time in ages. I was astonished by how little I remembered. I went 0 for 3 on Phlydia’s book, Nessa’s antidote and Hull’s sword, botching the locations of each. Worse still, when Imoen joined me on the Coastway post midnight ambush, I was struck with a devastating sinking feeling: I had no clue what to do next.
Despite my fears, I kept playing. Things started to come back. I made progress. One thing was clear, however: I am not -not- the player I once was- not at all. And so as I share my first public run in what feels like an eternity, the challenge before me is clear.
Yes, my fellow adventurers: I gotta get that groove back.
In my early sessions with the Avatars groove proved elusive. But we had fun and no one died, and in no reload play -as in life- that should be judged a success. I have no complaints. To the action.
After relieving Imoen of her worldly possessions, we dipped down to High Hedge and then across to Beregost, seeking early experience and additional gear. We assuaged Marl’s grief, and made our way south at the behest of Mirianne.
In our first quest battle no groove was found. Note the superfluous and 100% groove free Entangle cast.
After collecting our praises and prizes from Mirianne, and granting the ring to Corey, we got back on our way to the Friendly Arm Inn. Montaron and Xzar were murdered on general principle. The gallant Corey Russell led the way through the gibberlings as we proffered our second Ring of Protection.
That second RoP went to myself. Some may think it would serve the party better on Grond0. Maybe. But you must understand, darlings, I’m the protagonist: I deserve to wear the finest clothes. Now be a dove and fetch me my drink: Grey Goose martini with a touch of Chambord.
Glad that’s settled. Let’s talk about Tarnesh.
Tarnesh was straight up murdered by Grond0 under Rage, supported by Commands from Grim Face and range fire from the peanut gallery. Perhaps there is a touch of groove here? You be the judge. Evermemory went to Grim Face because he’s a specialist mage and I’m a thief.
South to Nashkel we go! The belt ogre was Commanded and walloped en route.
We gave Enuhal’s spirit lions a test drive against the hobgoblins. Totemic druids are awesome, as it turns out. Who knew?
The anhkeg plate went to Corey because he’s a rock n’ roll star. Grim Face snagged us the +1 halberd under sanctuary. Drienne’s cat was retrieved, and the Protection from Undead scroll was tucked away for later use. Gnarl and Hairtooth met a gnarly death, thanks to Grim Face’s Commands.
We sold the Tome of Leadership and Influence to Thalantyr with the intent of buying it back later. 2500 gold early beats 3350 gold post bandit camp. The Gauntlets of Dexterity went to myself because of the whole protagonist thing (And yes: I’m ready for my second martini now. Thank you, darling.).
Shortly thereafter we rescued John Cougar Melicamp. Is there a joy in this world that surpasses a successful Anti-Chickenator? I ask you.
Corey and Grond0 leveled up courtesy of John Cougar and Thalantyr's golems. I picked up my first level and my preferred sword by way of Zargal. This fight was super un-groovilicious. No reason for Grond0 and Enuhal to get hurt here.
We gave Drienne’s Pro Undead scroll to Corey and he paid us back with free experience and a skifty wand.
With a bit of gold on hand, the shop in Ulgoth’s Beard called. We took a detour into the anhkeg lair because we like easy experience. Enuhal and myself waited outside until that first anhkeg was Commanded. We joined the rest of the crew for the finish.
Once we were out of Commands, we let Corey lead the way armed with the Wand of Sleep. We’re all at level 3 now, or thereabouts.
Okay! I’m going to take a lunch break now. I’ll return with part 2 in a jiff. Toodle-doodles!
Best,
A.
@Alesia_BH , some of your runs either here or in the previous Bioware forums have been inspirational. So many innovative tactics and new take on how to approach certain classes.
Another first was that my character was female: Bree Appledrum, a CG Halfling Cleric.
Early game was cruised relying on Sanctuary, Command, Hold Person, Silence and a sling +1. Plus 3 essential pieces of equipment : wand of sleep, the One Gift Lost and greenstone amulet.
From level 5 onwards, Animate Dead becomes the centre piece, with Bless, Chant, Strength of One, Protection from Evil 10', Defensive Harmony as usual pre-buffs.
I have also experimented, with decent results, dual-wielding in melee with Spiritual Hammer in main hand and the Stupefier in the off-hand (at no penalty); after having pre-buffed Bree with Holy Power, or Strength of One, sometimes with DUHM on top. Those 2APR at ~10 THACO and ~15dmg each were nice, even if only for 8 to 10 rounds depending on the pre-buff.
I had no real scary moment, although one of the dukes died at the palace. Avoided werewolf island and Durlag's lower levels.
Now in Chapter 8 of SoD and already had two very near death !! Onward...
Aww! Thanks, @Ignatius . I’m so glad to hear that. I’m sure the others are too!
Congrats! And now I get to take inspiration from you. Reaching new heights after a 6 year break? That's my dream right now, lol. And can I just say that I love the character: a CG Halfling Cleric named Bree Appledrum? More of that please!
Best of luck in SoD! And please do feel free to share a run sometime in the future
Cheers,
A.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4
Having recently sabotaged the Iron Throne's operations in Cloakwood, we move on to Baldur's Gate to take a look at their opulent corporate headquarters. Our first stop there was the Thieves' Guild [for some reason I always imagine my protagonist's pronunciation of "Fafhrd" carrying the same dramatic expression as Gandalf's "mellon"
Afterwards, we ran into Marek and Lothander, which eventually had the fortunate side effect of us being able to obtain the Tome of Wisdom and rescue Varci's friend from the Water Queen's House.
Using a Strength scroll, Daelat broke into Ragefast's home and convinced him to release the captive nymph. Upon reporting these events to Ramazith he went full aggro - predictable as that was, Daelat already had his protections ready, including Shield, ProEvil, Resist Fear, MIs and Improved Invisibility. We were also running an Oil of Speed, which had been used to speed up our back-and-forth running when completing the previous errands around the town. Ramazith opened the fight with an enchantment incantation - we decided to take no risks and countered with one of our Potions of Magic Shielding.
With Ramazith's Chaos bouncing off our negative saves, we managed to succesfuly dispel his buffs (including MSD) with Remove Magic and quickly shot him down with MMMs (this guy could use a serious HP boost!).
We collected RoP +2, Amulet of Metaspell Influence and the INT tome and rented a room in the Blushing Mermaid. Conveniently, our next target - Marek - was enjoying his stay in the same establishment. Marek is like Nimbul on steroids and not to be underestimated. Daelat prepared with his standard set of buffs, including II. We did skip MMMs though (expending the ones we had left from the previous day at the begining), given that this was a battle to be decided by darts - the setting for that was perfect, I mean just look at the surroundings and decor. And with Vax, the alleged "fastest dart thrower to ever walk the Sword Coast", pushing up daisies, the championship title was free for taking.
Marek fired off his contingency pre-buffs with Invisibility, MIs, Shield, Stoneskin and MSD. Not a bad start from him against a sorcerer at all, knowing that we'll be hesitant to unleash any AoE damage in such a crowded place. We wait for his next action, keeping our aura clear. Marek -> Emotion: Hopelessness. Daelat -> Potion of Stone Form (resulting in negative save vs. spell -3*).
*Small explanatory note: I often seem to overlook certain (either documented or undocumented but known) bonuses or penalties when assessing whether or not my characters can get a guaranteed saving throw, which in certain instances also ended my runs. The usual suspects here can be (i) not double-checking whether or not a particular spell is saved against with a penalty/bonus in case I'm not 100% sure, (ii) ignoring the specialist mage bonus/penalty, (iii) erroneously applying the ProEvil bonus against non-evil sources, (iv) the issue around the "schoolless" spells and abilities penalty and (v) enemy abilities that resemble arcane / divine spells, but are coded as a standalone ability with a certain penalty/bonus (can't think of an example right now, but I suspect there are such cases). To be on the safe side, I at least try to ignore the ProEvil bonus (where possible or practicable) and, resources permitting, I generally aim to have a buffer of at least 1-2 points to err on the side of caution and mitigate the margin for miscalculation. In this particular instance, Daelat's effective save vs. spells before quaffing the Potion of Stone Form had been 0. Emotion: Hopelessness grants no bonuses nor penalties. Marek is mage/thief (no specialist penalty from him) and neutral evil (he gets penalized by casting against ProEvil). Overall, we should be safe here, though for the above reasons we still took the potion as a counter.
Unsure what to do next, Marek goes invisible again, knowing that any attempts at backstabbing us would be foiled by our MIs and Stoneskin. Daelat dispels his invisibility with Remove Magic.
The same sequence of events is repeated in the following round, although this time our Dart of Stunning hits the spot.
Darts of Wounding for finish.
With that our time in Baldur's Gate was almost done. We sneak in and out the Iron Throne under invisibility and report our findings to Eltan, whom dispatches us to Candlekeep. Daelat uses Potion of Magic Blocking to counter the ogre mage ambush at the gates and rushes through the library once inside the campus. Following Tethoril's timely rescue, we avoid all the enemies in the catacombs and the caverns under invisibility, only stopping to pick up the STR tome and the WIS tome by using the Violet Potion to break into the vaults (running Shield, Potion of Insulation + Boots of Grounding, Potion of Fire Resistance + Ring of Fire Resistance and Potion of Freedom to counter the traps).
Coming up next are Slythe and Kristyn. But first, we perform couple of bad deeds in Beregost, like trying to steal stuff and taunt or bribe the local Flaming Fist officers (by the way the arrest warrant on us has seemingly not yet reached from their Baldur's Gate HQ all the way down here, so maybe they should improve their database sharing policies), with the aim of managing our reputation ahead of getting the final two Bhaalspawn powers in the form of Vampiric Touch rather than DuHM.
Regards,
B.
***
Spellbook (level 9):
L1 - Blindness, Shield, Magic Missile, ProEvil, Chromatic Orb
L2 - Invisibility, MIs, Resist Fear, MAA
L3 - Skull Trap, MMMs, Remove Magic
L4 - II, Stoneskin
Don't forget chaotic commands to be immune to stun - if that's not available, if anyone has good enough saves potion of invulnerability can also do in a pinch.
True enough, although Carbos defeating Shank in the duel of the fates of the Bridge District comes very close in my book. And yes, I'm a proud member of team Carbos - not even thousand deaths can redeem Shank from having had imposed upon me the traumatic experience of loosing my very first character.
But speaking of Melicamp, I admit that rather than exposing myself to the inexorable pressure of cosmic probabilities I sometimes just trade him with Thalantyr for a scroll or something. I like to think of him as Schrödinger's chicken that way, ever trapped in the quantum superposition, being and not being alive at the same time.
@Klorox Congratulations! Sounds like a fine feat you've managed there!
So, where were we? That’s right: Ulgoth’s Beard.
Our objectives in Ulgoth’s Beard were two fold: we wanted to buy our 4th and 5th Potions of Mirrored Eyes so we could safely make the transition to the basilisk area. We also wanted to unlock Durlag’s Tower to gain access to Erdane’s Potions of Master Thievery, and thus Corey’s bastard sword.
Before we setoff, though, it was time for Serg and I to have an epic cram session. Here’s me getting ready to memorize a whole bunch of spells. Also me on Adderall back in graduate school.
Off to Lizardville. We readied our five very expensive Potions of Mirrored Eyes and did not get the basilisk ambush. I feel like I’m the only BG player who always -always- buys potions for this ambush. I’m also the only BG player who never -never- actually gets said ambush. It’s happened once in my entire BG career. Once. Do the ambush gods know what’s in my inventory? Seriously. What’s up?
Once we got to Lizardville we bananaed around Korax and headed to the southern basilisk group. We wanted to be sure we’d have plenty of happy ghoul time for Mutamin. Enuhal’s Spirit Snake led the way.
Once the southern basilisks were toast, we cleared out the gnolls and joined Korax. Korax was guided to Mutamin by yours truly under stealth. This battle typically goes one of two ways: either Korax lands a paralytic touch and Mutamin goes quietly, or he doesn’t and he costs us a Greenstone Amulet charge. In this case Korax failed, leaving me to finish Mutamin off with the Wand of Frost under Greenstone. A Wand of Monster Summoning charge was used, too. Why? I don’t know. The monsters were supposed to run distraction, I guess. Ultimately they served only to drop the groove quotient of the fight: they were totally pointless.
(Ok, not totally pointless. Check out the strange menagerie we had by the time we finished the area: snakes, ghouls, gnolls, hobgoblins. Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1369.)
Greywolf followed. I don’t know if Greywolf is evil, but I do know that Pro Evil looks skifty in the moonlight. Shall we dance?
(Command ended Greywolf unexpectedly quick, thanks to a critical from Corey. Enuhal and Grim Face’s follow up Doom + Blindness combo wasn’t even needed)
The EXP hunt continued, starting with the sirenes. After scouting under stealth, I ultimately decided to let Corey handle this one. He has a bow. He’s immune to charm, and he has True Sight. What purpose would the rest of us serve? We went and played Yahtzee with Safana while Corey did his thing.
Next, we took down the flesh golems. Corey served as bodyguard while I disarmed the traps. A virtual cookie to whomever spots the nauseating example of groove-lessness in this pic.
At this point Enuhal basically took over. Okay. Not quite. But he did start dominating the screenshots. Who among us it going to top that?
Or that?
Or that?
Lightning strikes crushing battle horrors? Snakes eating ogres? Lions devouring electrocuted bandits? How can any of us compete? We can’t. Totemic druids rule. There: I said it. They may not be the most powerful blokes, but they do have style. And as Amanda from Another Roadside Attraction said:
"The most important thing in life is style. That is the style of one's existence, the characteristic mode of one’s actions is ultimately what matters. For if man defines himself by doing then style is doubly definitive because style describes the doing… It is style that gives content the capacity to absorb us, to move us: it is style that makes us care."
Long live the king; long live the Totemic Druid; long live Enuhal.
By now we were all at L5 or so. We were ready for the mines.
Since I’m still running on an empty groove tank, we didn’t have a Resist Fear memorized for the Kobold Shaman. Enuhal summoned some fear immune bears for us. We kept those to the side while we mowed down the fodder kobolds with Sleep and bows.
I don’t have any shots of the kobold shaman fight, but the bears led the way nicely.
Before taking on Mulahey, we nixed the gray oozes and took a nap over there. We then regrouped, entering the chamber buffed.
The plan had been to send a Greenstoned assassin team, consisting of Grim Face and myself, after Mulahey, while the rest of the party remained at the entrance to intercept the minions. We’d then execute a pincer movement on the remaining kobolds. This worked. Sort of. One thing went flooey but it wasn’t entirely my fault.
The assassination of Mulahey wasn’t perfect. I was suppose to open with a backstab and follow with a Wand of Frost charge. Grim Face was then to add a Scorcher from the Wand of Fire.
My backstab landed. Decent start.
And the party quickly dispatched the minions with a Necklace of Missiles charge. Hooray for that.
But did you notice the damage on Serg? That was friendly fire. Our Wand of Fire reverted back to Fireball mode for some reason. (After the battle I tried to switch it to Scorcher mode over and over again. No dice. If anyone knows what’s going on there, let me know in the Lounge.)
Aside from that, the fight went smoothly. Mulahey only needed a nudge after our opening, and the kobolds were easily cleaned up. Victory was ours, but I'm giving us a B- on execution. Definitely could have been smoother, lol.
Okay, so, we're on to the next chapter!
For those of you lamenting the lack of details on routing, equipment, proficiency choices and the like: I'm with you, lol. Unfortunately note taking is one of the skills that is in desperate need of re-groovification. In my next post I'll share our current inventories and proficiencies to get everyone caught up. Going forward from there I'll try to take better notes. Sorry, everyone! Getting back up to speed is a process and I'm still in the early stages!
Best,
A.
Me, me, me!
I love it, lol.
I also love your run: great work, really truly. Keep it up
Lol. I'm sorry, Borco. That's not it. We weren't fighting yet, so we had no need to have magical ammo equipped. Care to try again?
@Alesia_BH You caught me. Joining this challenge was merely an elaborate ruse to get everyone to play a totemic druid.
Seems like you're doing great so far!
The Avatars (Enuhal's version) - Update VI
The party is doing well again. We've been quite successful in the eastern wildneress areas.
Back from Cloakwood, we sold what we didn't need and bought the robe of the good archmagi for Alesia. Next, we visited the digsite again to take down the doomsayer with a few wand charges, icelances and magic missles, though an alicorn lance got the last hit in:
Next up, we made our way back to Durlag's Tower - I've only killed the battle horrors outside and on the walls, so many ghasts, greater basilisks and the wisdom tome still remained. Alesia now has the thieving skills to disarm all the traps here, and we have both Spider's Bane and barbarian rage to deal with the ghasts:
On our way to the Beard to sell and buy, we get ambushed by the amazons - finally! We immediately drop two items to remove encumberance from Corey and Grond0 (carrying capacity is still a problem and propably will be until we reach the big city and get the ogre strength gloves). True sight neutralizes most of the threat here, and the fact that Grond0's first arrow of biting poisons one of the clerics certainly helps:
With @Grond0 doing incredibly well in many encounters I've gotten into huge trouble in (such as Seniyad, Aramande and the ankhegs), I decided to redeem myself by going for the only encounter that has given him trouble so far - Icharyd. I changed my spellbook for that one, having enough experience with the SCS version to know that for phase 2, time will progress, all buffs will be gone, lightning will be flying around - so we need two instances of strength of one, ghost armor, prayer, chant, bless, anti-undead weapon spells for Enuhal (moonblade and star metal cudgel) etc. I also have Enuhal learn storm shell and protection from lightning, both mages get MIs and quite a few protection from evil spells. Grond0 has his magical morning star, which, as a blunt weapon, will be quite helpful here.
With our buffs active, we cast chant as the final one (because it slows movement speed in my installation, I rarely use it at all, and if I do, only after I've moved into position already) - strength of one turns everyone into a capable melee fighter, and Grond0 starts trading hits with Icharyd:
Agreed! All we need now is some Bree Appledrum. Change the lyrics of this song slightly and that's how I feel, lol.
(Just kidding, @Ignatius no pressure, lol.)
Ok, everyone. Here's a quick update on where my characters stand. Records and inventories are in the spoiler tags.
Alesia
Notes: My Alesia is a rogue who enhances her roguery through magic, not a mage who happens to pick locks. Her starting proficiencies were short bows and short swords. I added a pip in crossbows simply because I thought LCoS + Bolt of Lightning and Bolts of Biting was getting too little love in our runs. Usually my thieves allocate that first pip to darts. Alesia's skill points have emphasized trap detection because Knock and Invisibility make open locks and stealth somewhat less important for mage thieves. Set traps will become a priority going forward.
Corey
Notes: Corey is our primary tank. He's handled that role capably. His starting proficiencies were bastard swords x 2 and long bows x 2. I gave him a pip in long swords and I kind of regret that. His Gauntlets of Dexterity are shared with Alesia, who uses them to enhance her thieving skills.
Enuhal
Notes: Enuhal's kill stats are unremarkable, but he has more than carried his weight. His spirit animals are a major tactical asset. His starting proficiencies were quarterstaves and slings. More recently he's become our primary dart tosser. He wears the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise because they pair well with high APR weapons.
Grim Face
Notes: Grim Face is our spell slinger extraordinaire. As a specialist mage wearing Evermemory, his mage skills vastly surpass Alesia's. His low level cleric spells add a lot of value too, especially Command and Hold Person. Grim Face's starting proficiencies were hammers and slings. He's taken a pip in maces and now wields the Stupefier.
Grond0
Notes: While barbarians aren't known for their versatility, Grond0 is the most flexible member of our group. He serves as a kite, a tank, an off tank and an archer. Despite often being an after thought in my tactical plans he leads the team in kills, rivaled only by Corey. His starting proficiencies were two handed swords x2 and long bows x 2. I gave him a pip in two handed weapon style in honor of his character portrait. More recently he received a pip in flails, with Ages and the Defender in mind.
I hope that helps everyone follow the run. Our next update is coming up soon
Best,
A.
If you're an SCS assassin coming for an Avatar crew.
And even though I have about as much groove as a bingo night in Wisconsin, the assassins hounding my crew have been no exception.
The solo assassin, Nimbul, was insanely overmatched. He caught Doom + Hold Person from Enuhal and Grim Face. He failed his save and was then jacked by a Called Lightning while Corey True Sighted his MIs and a pair of lions ate through his Stoneskins. That´s a bad day at the office.
The next assassins came in force, but they didn't fare any better. Since we now have 5 L2s, we travel invisible. That allowed us to meet Lamalha and friends on our terms. We snuck down to the corner, buffed and summoned our spirit animals, choosing one snake and one lion. We sent the spirit animals after Lamalha and weren't entirely pleased when they killed her before she turned hostile. It was effective, obviously, but I would have preferred if it hadn't happened.
With the leader down, the question became how should we break invisibility. Alesia broke with a backstab on Maneira. That worked.
Grim Face broke with Blindness on Zeela. That worked too. She was dropped with arrows soon after.
Telka, who was already getting devoured by a snake and a lion, fell to Called Lightning, just like Nimbul. All they managed to do was cast an Unholy Blight at the spirit animals. Saynora, sleezebags.
The bandit camp is next.
Best,
A.
Everyone seems to be doing well and having fun, so life is good for the moment. Nice to hear from you @Ignatius and best of luck continuing with your cleric. I've never been particularly fond of them as a class, but they are extremely capable in BG1 and you obviously know the tricks of the trade.
most SCS options installed; playing on hardcore
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194919/#Comment_1194919
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194948/#Comment_1194948
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1194981/#Comment_1194981
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1195006/#Comment_1195006
- the ogre mage and carrion crawlers in the sewers. Handled by going down invisibly and using area attacks.
- phase spiders in the sewers. Careful control of movement to avoid being attacked was sufficient there.
- I hadn't expected to put Jalantha Mistmyr on this list as sole casters in BGEE can't normally withstand the pressure of party attacks. However, I hadn't appreciated she wasn't a sole caster
For the poison quest I couldn't remember if Lothander teleported away instantly. He didn't - and became Alesia's first backstab victim of the run.
One slight glitch is I found I had sold Euric's amulet and had to buy that back before he would talk to me (I also did the same with not just one, but two, sphene gems
At the Iron Throne I had vague memories of what to expect, but wasn't sure if I was remembering SCS or other mods. However, we arrived invisibly and Corey used true sight (Grim Face re-establishing invisibility on him after casting) to show up where Shennara and Kaalos were.
Grond0 - barbarian L7, 75 HPs, 599 kills
Corey - inquisitor L7, 75 HPs, 406 kills, 1 death
Grim Face - cleric/illusionist L6/6, 39 HPs, 135 kills, 0 deaths
Alesia - mage/thief L6/7, 38 HPs, 136 kills, 1 death
Enuhal - totemic druid L8, 46 HPs, 164 kills, 1 death
Well, in that case:
At first I thought those two luck icons are granted by Luck (spell), as if one for the actual luck effect and the other representing the remaining bonuses, but that's clearly not the case (I checked). So it has to be a combination of two out of these three - Luck (spell), Potion of Master Thievery and Potion of Perception.
Speaking of Luck, everyone who'd like to see some Luck + Chant backstabs performed by our Avatar crews' raise your hands! Me!
It's only a guess, but when I looked at that I thought it was possible that Alesia used a potion of master thievery to top up her trap detection skills there - and then realised she needed a potion of perception for that purpose ...
Both Grim Face and Alesia did actually have luck learned at one point in my run, but the former has had that removed to make room for other spells. I was thinking of doing the same for Alesia, but perhaps I'll let her keep that for the future (her lack of stealth and the ability to do so much damage by a party anyway has meant I've made almost no use of backstabs to date). For those running with SCS, prayer is another spell that can help with backstabs - and bless of course can contribute towards maximising damage.
I am playing on PS4 so no screenshot... but alright will report snapshots of SoD. So far I am having a torrid time, I find it is a step-up in difficulty from BG1. Smarter AI, enemies coming in huge swarms, many traps...
@Borco : I recall reading a while back a great run you had with a solo priest, can't remember the name of the character and where it ended (somewhere in BG2 I think). So far so good with your Sorcerer !
@Grond0 : I have this strange appeal to the cleric class, somehow always going back to it. I find it very versatile and not too difficult in BG1 for a casual player like myself. The first three spell levels are extremely solid. There is also a strong RP feel to the class given the upbringing of Bhaalspawn in Candlekeep. Just curious, what don't you enjoy when you play one?
@Enuhal @Grond0 Once again you both deliver! You make all those potentially scary encounters look trivial to the point it almost feels like you're showing off , haha
@Ignatius Not that I'd ever call it "great", but you're correct, I did two unsuccesful solo runs with my most beloved character - Anomandra (halfling Priest of Talos) - in 2022 and in 2019, respectively. Tamika, my other cleric (Priest of Helm), perished during the Unseeing Eye quest last January.
@Borco : yes, Anomandra and Tamika, I remember those names, great stories those were !
For the moment?
That was ominous. I'm terrified now