On Garren. You’re welcome to view it however you like of course, Corey. And I suppose it’s possible that the lawful good paladin, Garren Windspear, has befriended one of the evil aligned raiders in his neighborhood, or that this particular orc is somehow different. Again, you’re welcome to view it however you like.
I was suggesting that you may feel at liberty to seek a console remedy if you wish to, not that you should or must.
On Taar and Iltha. Interesting. I’d never seen that dialogue tree, since I’ve never played a male paladin. I did play a female paladin once, long ago, but I probably zipped through the dialogue options. I don’t recall seeing an analogous interaction with Taar. It's probably there though.
In any case, best of luck with the rest of your run! Glad you’re still in action!
Taar/Iltha isn't the only case like that. There's also Durlyle/Delainey in TotSC's werewolf island. And in both cases, it's about assumed attraction.
As for Garren going hostile, he has the GENSHT01 script, with this section in it:
IF
Heard([ANYONE],89)
Allegiance(Myself,NEUTRAL)
!Class(Myself,INNOCENT)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
Enemy()
MoveToObject(LastHeardBy(Myself))
END
IF
Heard([ANYONE],89)
Allegiance(Myself,NEUTRAL)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
Enemy()
END
IF
Heard([ANYONE],89)
!Class(Myself,INNOCENT)
!See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
THEN
RESPONSE #100
MoveToObject(LastHeardBy(Myself))
Continue()
END
Basically, if anyone shouts for help, he goes hostile. Orcs also have this script, which has the following section relevant for them:
IF
HitBy([GOODCUTOFF],CRUSHING)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
Shout(89)
Continue()
END
IF
OR(5)
AttackedBy([PC],DEFAULT)
AttackedBy([FAMILIAR],DEFAULT)
AttackedBy([ALLY],DEFAULT)
AttackedBy([CONTROLLED],DEFAULT)
AttackedBy([CHARMED],DEFAULT)
Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY)
ActionListEmpty()
THEN
RESPONSE #100
Shout(89)
Continue()
END
Attack the orc, even if it's already hostile, and it shouts for help. Garren hears, and decides he should take the orc's side. Oops.
There are several shout scripts. Should Garren have one of them? Maybe; his kids don't, and have custom scripts instead. But it shouldn't be this one.
@jmerry very interesting! I agree with your conclusion. Garren shouldn't instinctively be an ally of orcs, the very ones holding his daughter... @Alesia_BH Thanks for your support!
Corey's Avatars Run - Firkraag's Lair, Bodhi
Permanently dead: Grond0 (vampire level drain chunking), Alesia (chunked by Firkraag)
Well the party made it past and to Firkraag without much trouble. But the EE Firkraag is very dangerous. However, Corey wanted the Carsomyr, so battle was joined after snares, buffs and summons. The battle wasn't going well, we were failing to disable him and we weren't doing enough damage. Grim Face and Alesia were killed. Corey and Enuhal managed to get out sight, Enuhal summoned some spirit creatures and mid-battle I resurrected Alesia (with no clothes) and she tried to blind Firkraag. However, Fikraag apparently didn't like that (the blind failed) and our beloved Alesia was CHUNKED! Enuhal also died it was just Corey, Corey ran. Corey then used RoR to bring back Enual and Grim Face who were naked but did have their spells. We re-engage once more and finally we get a break, Grim Face manages to enfeeble Firkraag so Firkraag's thac0 was really bad and Corey's Foebane could collect the kill. Alesia has been avenged! And Garren's daughter's was rescued, even if he won't acknowledge it.
I decided we'll recruit and keep Imoen to take Alesia's place, though Alesia could never be replaced. We need the female company. But first we recruited Yoshimo for traps for Bodhi, and of course Imoen will take his spot at Spellhold which is our next stop. The only equipment we gave Yoshimo was the Crimson Dart, which we will take back before we get rid of him. Bodhi instantly died to traps, so Brynlaw will be our next destination.
@Grond0 defeated Melissan with a solo Wild Mage. Granted, that wasn't Ascension but I wonder if his tactics might work here. I think one of his key combos was sequencer/skull traps then somehow he got free rests - wish scrolls maybe? not sure if his tactics work in the context of Ascension - hopefully he'll see your question and comment.
@Corey_Russell it's a different sort of fight unfortunately, not offering the same opportunity to pause between combats to get wish rests. That type of tactic might still be technically possible, but would be much more difficult to implement in the middle of fights. PfMW sounds like a better option.
I see my avatar continues to have problems across various people's runs - must be a more accurate representation of me than I originally thought ...
It is possible to annihilate the 5 with Skull Traps using Wish rest looping after the final demon battle, but it's mega cheesy. And in any case, Semiticgoddess's character is an Illusionist, so no Skull Traps.
Delayed Blast Fireball's would be any option, but that would leave you with an uninjured Yaga Shura with Mel on the field, which is problematic. Pre-EE that would be workable, assuming you brought Haer'Daelis's Chaos Blade, but in EE that's a pass, imo.
@Grond0 I think the issue with your character is a Barbarian with its speed and relatively weak AC (splint mail) is best used in hit and run tactics. But the issue in the context of the avatars is that with 3 casters in the party, the party really needed the Grond0 character in melee to assist Corey and try to keep the pressure of the vulnerable casters. But when the Grond0 character finds itself in melee with powerful melee enemies like vampires...maybe I should have given the IMoD to Grond0 and have Corey use the AoP since the casters are rarely in melee anyways....
The version of Yaga-Shura you face in the Five battle isn't actually immune to fire. Instead, he's highly resistant to everything (initially 99%), and those resistances decay over time. So unless you place down a truly absurd number of trap effects, you're only going to do minor damage to him when the battle starts.
Well, OK, I think he's vulnerable to cold. But that's not easy to exploit.
Sendai also takes a lot less damage than you might think from the big trap effects, because she has a natural +4 luck bonus. A 20d6 Spike Trap deals about 23 average damage, instead of the 90 you'd get against a typical enemy. So again, you'd need a lot of traps to bring her down.
With these facts in play ... if you're not doing cheesy loop tricks, and have some limited number of traps to place, put them on the right side.
The version of Yaga-Shura you face in the Five battle isn't actually immune to fire. Instead, he's highly resistant to everything (initially 99%), and those resistances decay over time. So unless you place down a truly absurd number of trap effects, you're only going to do minor damage to him when the battle starts.
Yes. It's done with an absolutely ludicrous number of Skull Traps. Hundreds of them. That's why I called it mega cheesy.
I'll note, though, that I was not under the impression that the throne version of Yaga Shura is vulnerable to fire. I was aware of the 99% resistances as well as the vulnerability to cold, of course. If he is in fact vulnerable to fire, that could make the approach potentially viable for an Illusionist, actually, if still mega cheesy.
EDIT: I just did a test in Ascension v2 and Yaga is vulnerable to fire. That seems contrary to my experience in v1.4. He used to cast Fire Storm on himself when he reached near death, as in this case from my F/M Arcadia's run. It's possible that had been dubious scripting, but I believe it healed him. If he did used to have +100% resistance to fire, like other fire giants, I wonder if the v2 behavior is a bug.
Corey's Avatar Run - FINAL Update
Permanently dead: Grond0 (vampire chunking), Alesia (chunked by Firkraag), Grim Face (chunked by a death knight)
So the party made it out of spellhold and into the Underdark. But one very serious problem - hardly any heal potions. In vanilla, I could use RoR heals but that isn't an option in EE. In any case, we ran into trouble with the death knights, Imoen and Enuhal gets killed. Corey hasted with potion and spell, used ilbratha for mirror image and tried to finish off the death knight with Carsomyr. Problem though? No heal potions so Corey couldn't get to full health - Corey was probably at around 15%. While this was going on Grim Face gets chunked by the death knight. I thought Corey was still going to kill the death knight as it was near death and Corey had many mirrors still up. However, the death knight got lucky and found the right image and killed Corey - RiP Corey.
Hopefully some kind adventurer will avenge Corey and raise Enuhal, who is the only character and can be raised and carry on the avatar tradition.
Final Note: This avatar run was fun, thanks all for letting me participate. Sorry for getting my forumites killed. EDIT: hmm, I think I could have used the troll form of the sewer cloak to get to full health before engaging the death knight. Whoops!
@Alesia_BH thanks for the well wishes! I appear to have a no-reload still going on Russell XXX the paladin so am getting back to that. They are in the Underdark, but this party did much better than the Avatars against the death knights. I had a disadvantage with the avatars with the party being so caster heavy and not sure how to best use Grond0 (his class I mean). Barbarians are a great solo class, not so sure about a party member though.
Russell XXX the inquisitor - Thaxxy, Firkraag, The "Hidden", Watcher's Keep
Traveling with: Korgan, Mazzy, Cernd, Aerie, Imoen
So I was able to get the Foebane - but half the party dies in process. An insect plague was just vicious....Thaxxy and Firkraag both die pretty fast. Thaxxy failed its save vs an Imoen finger of death. The "hidden" base was really hard as Mazzy got trapped behind a door which caused 2/3 of the party to die. Fortunately a ctrl+J got Mazzy back in the action, though only near the end of the fight, as I was wondering why wasn't she hellping me - in any case, she and Russell were able to mop up and resurrect their friends.
The party has tremendous melee power with Korgan, Mazzy and Russell all dual-wielding with powerful weapons. Suldenssalar is our next target.
Russell XXX the inquisitor - Irenicus fights (Tree of life, Hell)
Traveling with: Korgan, Mazzy, Cernd, Aerie (girlfriend), Imoen
The party has made it to ToB. Tree of life fight was interesting. Mazzy and Korgan get mazed, rest of party dies, and Russell has to defeat Irenicus with his Carsomyr. Fortunately that does work...
As for hell, the good routes of course were done with Russell being a paladin. The actual fight with Irenicus went incredibly fast, Russell's true sight was a big problem and of course his dispel on hit with Carsomyr wasn't helping Irenicus either. I think Irenicus may have given up with just 12 seconds of fighting...this may well be my fastest victory.
Russell equipped reflection shield combined with true seeing Illsaera had no chance. We'll venture into Saradush next...
@Alesia_BH Thanks! My parties usually make it to ToB. So many of my failed runs have been either Draconis, Ravager or Melissan. The RoR no longer being a full heal and also the dispelling arrows being made ineffective against Melissan have really hurt my success rate. These strategies were crucial and are how I had so many no-reload successes in vanilla Baldur's Gate on the BioWare forum.
This implies then I need a new strategy for EE. Unfortunately, the successes I see other forum members do is usually their mastery of magic. I can read spell descriptions but that doesn't tell me how to use these spells to defeat Melissan, especially since both she and her minions tend to have so many immunities. And generally, I prefer melee parties but due to the above changes, they are much harder for me to be successful.
Russell XXX the inquisitor - Nyalee's area, Yaga's Temple
Traveling with: Sarevok, Mazzy, Cernd, Imoen, Aerie (girlfriend)
Permanently dead: Korgan
The party made it past the undead in Nyalee's area pretty easily. Two sunrays helped that out quite a bit. We made it past the surface area of Yaga's Temple, though we got a bad scare as Russell XXX got hit to a sliver of life but he managed to run to safety. The initial giants when you first enter the temple, I find so hard to protect my party members, as even a single giant hits pretty hard much less quite a few of them. I find them pretty hard to disable as well as hard to kill fast. A lot of party members were running for their lives, however, the stalwart Korgan failed to avoid being chunked - RiP Korgan.
The run must continue, however, so Sarevok was added. Sarevok's a hard hitter, but now Russell XXX needs to be in the front - we'll see if that causes any issues...
With apologies for the longer hiatus, but otherwise without further ado, I'd like to continue Sorsha's story where we left it the last time - in Cloakwood.
We collected the Cloak of Non-Detection and used Invisibility and Ring of Free Action to secure safe passage through the Spider Forest. Lamalha's ambush came next.
Sorsha first buffed with Strength, Shield, MIs and MSD and broke her invisibility with a Skull Trap.
Unable to interrupt Zeela's Unholy Blight, we suffered minor damage early on, but otherwise things were looking good. The rogues were of little concern at range (with Sorsha wearing the Claw, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of Avoidance and Girdle of Piercing) and we had MSD to counter Rigid Thinking / Command and Ring of Free Action at hand to eliminate Hold Person threat from the clerics.
One down.
Interestingly, you can see Zeela casting a conjuration spell - that's Chant and she started the incantation while dominated via Captive Audience. Despite the fact that the effect has rather randomly worn off in the middle of the casting (as it sometimes happens with charm-type spells), we still got the full upside of the spell once it was finished.
Zeela-> Hold Person. Sorsha-> equip RoFA.
More damage coming our way.
Time to hit back. Two down.
With our MIs gone, we decided to finish the battle with Wand of Fire for efficiency purposes.
Not much has happened until we reached the mines and Drasus' crew. We had a plan for him - buff heavily (Shield, Resist Fear via personal item, Potion of Absorption, Strength, MSD, Potion of Power, MIs, Greenstone Amulet), equip Girdle of Bluntness, summon cannon fodder via Wand of Monster Summoning, approach invisible, pickpocket his Potion of Magic Shielding, retreat behind our summons and bring him down as fast as possible with our offensive spells/wands and Aule's.
It was a bad plan, as we found out very shortly after trying to execute it.
For starters, we pickpocketed Drasus' Potion of Frost Giant Strength instead of Magic Shielding. But that's not the worst thing which could happen - that would be a quick Remove Magic/Chaos opening combo from the mages. And yes, that's precisely what Kysus and Rezdan had in store for us.
Keeping her Potion of Magic Blocking at the ready, Sorsha first swallowed the dispel projectile. Maybe it was because moving out of Rezdan's range, but his Chaos projectile never came out.
With our buffs and all possible advantage gone, we had no options left but to equip Cloak of Non-Detection and quaff a PoI while watching our summons get massacred. There was a bitter taste in her mouth, but Sorsha knew the value of living to fight another day.
She waited out the telefield, rested under Invisibility and proceeded to the mines. After securing Ril's help, she almost got into trouble when some of the guards started to investigate the noises and one of them blocked the door.
Staying invisible (and wearing Cloak of Non-Detection), Sorsha had to retrace her steps through the secret corridor back to the main lobby, where she equipped her Boots of Grounding and quaffed a Potion of Insulation to counter the lightning trap, and carefully navigated her way through the numerous guards to finally reach the third floor and, eventually, Davaeorn's quarters.
She took out the bodyguard with Skull Trap + Aule and prepared for the battle with green ProMagic scroll, Potion of Strength, Potion of Defense, Potion of Mind Focusing and Oil of Speed.
Here's the equipment used for the battle (with the Greenstone Amulet being further replaced with Necklace of Missiles).
When Davaeorn resisted our initial Wand of Paralyzation attempt thanks to his robe's MR, we knew we're in for a long fight.
We focused on the mage with our acid arrows to penetrate his Stoneskins, blasting Necklace of Missiles/Wand of Fire fireballs whenever possible. Sorsha also quaffed a Potion of Regeneration after suffering some initial damage from the fast striking Battle Horrors.
Davaeorn helped us to get rid of them in his signature Sunfire style.
Once the guards started to pour in, Sorsha used Captive Audience to get some more breathing space.
With Davaeorn's Stoneskin down, the day was won.
We collected the valuables and rushed to the surface to take advantage of our current buffs - it was payback time for Drasus and his friends. But first, Sorsha quaffed her second Potion of Absorption of the session and re-equipped her Girdle of Bluntness.
Since the mages posed little threat, we focused on the two fighter types first. Sorsha quickly decided it's best if Genthore joined our ranks.
Now it was mainly down to Drasus only.
Despite his movement speed, we tried to use our own haste and fast long-range weapon to avoid as much incoming APR as possible. It was hit and run all the way.
Finally, once his Enrage worn off, he fell unconscious and became an easy victim.
The rest was mainly clean up, although the way how SCS mages still manage to put up a reasonable fight against ProMagic with the use of summons (including earth and fire elementals in this particular instance), telefields, MMMs and invisibility is definitely admirable.
I'll conclude the post with what I believe is probably the most dangerous ambush in SCS BG1. I always keep at least one Potion of Freedom exclusively for this situation, although this time around Sorsha had the benefit of RoFA.
Great post! One note though: PoI invisibility is flagged illusionary, so the CND should not protect it from Divination.
Cheers,
A.
EDIT: On second thought, maybe you know about the PoI/CND interaction, but have concluded that the SCS mages are scripted to withhold Divination if a solo character is wearing the CND.
To be clear, I have no reason to believe that SCS mages withold Divination when facing a solo character wearing the CND, especially when the character is running illusionary invisibility. I was just speculating as to what your logic might have been.
And in case the operation of the CND is unclear, it will only protect against Divination when paired with a form of invisibility that is not classified as illusionary. This includes HiS, the SotM and the Dagger of the Star. It does not include spells, potions or other item generated invisibility states, like those from Sandthief or the RoAC.
Party managed to get through Yaga's temple without any further trouble. Nyalee was also utterly destroyed. We made sure the party was well protected from charm. Yaga and his minions were destroyed. I am finding with summons, bless, chant and haste, the enemies take a tremendous amount of damage from the party. Yaga and his buddies did some good damage and killed Cernd too (but no chunked). Using the previously mentioned strategy also won me a quick victory in Pocket Challenge #2. We did similar strategy at the Oasis and hardly took any damage.
Russell XXX the inquisitor - FINAL Update!
Traveling with: Sarevok, Mazzy, Imoen, Aerie, Cernd
Permanently dead: Korgan
Well the party had made some really good progress. We had nearly defeated all Diaytha's minions, only the Hive Mother was left. I had sent literally couple dozen summons to try to soften her up and she was near death. To be safe, I should have equipped the shield of Balduran, but I thought my save vs spell of 0 would be good enough - well it wasn't and some insta-kill killed me from full heatlh - RiP Russell XXX.
It's too bad, this party was really powerful. Back to the drawing board!
@Corey_Russell Sorry about your loss. It's frustrating when you are defeated when you could havee won.
I am starting a run with a Blackguard Dward: Allowable with my set-up, any race can play any class. The drawback is that gnome multiclasses aren't illusionists. I got quite a good roll and also quite a lot of gold to start - 160gp. The portents are good. I added the shield and the fiery eyes to an excellent portrait. Those finishing touches add a little character IMO.
In Candlekeep I had to pay 3gp as a fine for doing what comes naturally for a blackguard of Cyric, breaking into a chest. The loot that we later took from that chest helped towards buying a katana which was used to good effect against the improved assassins there, all of whom succumbed when I defended myself.
I told my friend Alec that I wished to be a villain. Perhaps that desire is the reason that Cyric chose me as what he thought would be a minion of his. I have other thoughts on the matter!!
After the death of Gorion, I tried to re-enter Candlekeep but was denied entry by the guard who did however give me 100gp.
Upon leaving, I was again ambushed, this time by bandits. Not wishing to die, once more I fled.
I picked up two useful looking rings on the way to the FAI where yet another assassin attacked me. My immunity to fear helped there and once again I prevailed though not without injury.
I proceeded to High Hedge as I certainly did not wish to meet more assassins at the inn!
I was able to help Mellicamp at little inconvenience to myself and upon returning a letter to Mirrianne was given a ring of protection. Pretending to be of good will brings rewards it seems. Helping her removed the need of killing her for the ring.
I took Little Ugh from Ugh's home to Kessy and eventually ended up at the Carnival where I killed Zordral. That turned out to be extremely beneficial as Aerie now identifies items for free.
To the south I killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. Both had decent weapons, but I will probably sell the +1 axe that Zargos carried as I have no skill in axes despite being a dwarf.
To the east I found what appears to be another magical ring, Hafiz gave me a scroll, and I picked up the wounded Samuel and took him to the FAI.
Further north I killed Sonner for his weapon and killed several ankheg. That proved tedious as several rests were required. However my experience was improved considerably, and they carried useful loot.
Returning the body of Farmer Brun's son turned out to be beneficial.
In Beregost I returned the Colquetle amulet which made me into a hero.
It doesn't take much to become a hero on the sword coast!!
I was amazed at how much I was paid for the ankheg shells: so much that I decided to hunt for some more!! I used some of the gold to buy a better bow and a helmet of charm ptotection.
On the way to the FAI I killed an ogre.
I found ankheg in abundance!!
I came across Wilton for the first time. He gave me a cloak of protection +1
My wounds then caused me to leave the ankheg behind. At the FAI I bought some excellent gauntlets with the gold.
I'm wondering if Wilton comes from EE or from a mod. [I once did a survey at Wilton. ]
I am abandoning this game since I am going to have to do a re-install.
I rolled a new party. It's a MP party of 4 fighters (two dwarven berserkers, Kensai and myself a plain fighter. My character's specialty will be grandmastery in slings, though he doesn't have that yet.). The idea is in BG 2 will have a romantic interest and a thief, and my MP guys will make up the rest. Early BG 1 is usually by the numbers for me, so probably will post again once I am in Chapter 7.
Wilton's creature file and dialogue are in the base game, but he's not actually present without a mod. I'm pretty sure it's Unfinished Business that adds him.
An arcane spellcaster walks into a bar in Baldur's Gate for the first time...
At this point in time we had memorized the majority of relevant L1-L4 spells with the notable exceptions of Remove Magic, Minor Spell Trigger Sequencer and Stoneskin (Sorsha was still approx. 25k XP short of level 10 and access to L4 spellcasting).
The sole aim of our short stay in the city was Ramazith's tower. Sorsha secured the release of the nymph from Ragefast and, even though she did except Ramazith to be somewhat grumpy about the outcome of the matter, she did not expect him to be so mad as to multiply.
Come on Rama - we all know you're a necromancer and you cannot conjure illusions and simulacrums, so what on earth is going on here?! Shall we pickpocket all three of you, since none of you seem to be interested in either talking to us nor teleporting upstairs as per your script?
We got the RoP and the Metaspell Influence, but we could not possibly leave these abominations walk the Faerun. Return whence you came!
And you too!
With only one Ramazith left, apparently docile and harmless, we decided to just fetch the INT tome and let him live.
Following a brief investigation of the Iron Throne HQ, we embarked on the journey to Candlekeep. Potion of Magic Blocking for the ogre mage ambush, as is customary.
Knock scrolls and elemental/spell protections for the locked and trapped tombs.
Invisibility for everything else until we're back at the Gate. Here's Sorsha's inventory after the final shopping spree at Sorcerous Sundries, with most of our funds spent on arrows, potions and scrolls.
Having enjoyed a relaxing stay at the Blade and the Stars, Sorsha now had access to all the Bhaalspawn powers (2x CMW, 2x Slow Poison, 2x DuHM) and was ready for the finals - I'll cover that in the next post.
And in case the operation of the CND is unclear, it will only protect against Divination when paired with a form of invisibility that is not classified as illusionary. This includes HiS, the SotM and the Dagger of the Star. It does not include spells, potions or other item generated invisibility states, like those from Sandthief or the RoAC.
On a mechanical level, nondetection protects against the "detect invisibility" effect but not against effects that remove illusionary protections. Detect Invisibility and Invisibility Purge won't work against you, but Oracle and True Sight/True Seeing will. Or at least, the "remove illusion" parts of those latter spells will work against you; they also have "detect invisibility" effects that will be negated.
Yes. But the Cloak of Non-Detection differs from the spell Non-Detection in this regard. If you're HiS and have cast the spell Non-Detection, True Sight or Oracle can dispel your non-detection and reveal you. However, if you're HiS while wearing the Cloak of Non-Detection, True Sight and Oracle can not dispel your non-detection effect and you will remain hidden.
Comments
I was suggesting that you may feel at liberty to seek a console remedy if you wish to, not that you should or must.
On Taar and Iltha. Interesting. I’d never seen that dialogue tree, since I’ve never played a male paladin. I did play a female paladin once, long ago, but I probably zipped through the dialogue options. I don’t recall seeing an analogous interaction with Taar. It's probably there though.
In any case, best of luck with the rest of your run! Glad you’re still in action!
As for Garren going hostile, he has the GENSHT01 script, with this section in it:
Basically, if anyone shouts for help, he goes hostile. Orcs also have this script, which has the following section relevant for them: Attack the orc, even if it's already hostile, and it shouts for help. Garren hears, and decides he should take the orc's side. Oops.
There are several shout scripts. Should Garren have one of them? Maybe; his kids don't, and have custom scripts instead. But it shouldn't be this one.
Cheers,
A.
@Alesia_BH Thanks for your support!
Corey's Avatars Run - Firkraag's Lair, Bodhi
Permanently dead: Grond0 (vampire level drain chunking), Alesia (chunked by Firkraag)
Well the party made it past and to Firkraag without much trouble. But the EE Firkraag is very dangerous. However, Corey wanted the Carsomyr, so battle was joined after snares, buffs and summons. The battle wasn't going well, we were failing to disable him and we weren't doing enough damage. Grim Face and Alesia were killed. Corey and Enuhal managed to get out sight, Enuhal summoned some spirit creatures and mid-battle I resurrected Alesia (with no clothes) and she tried to blind Firkraag. However, Fikraag apparently didn't like that (the blind failed) and our beloved Alesia was CHUNKED! Enuhal also died it was just Corey, Corey ran. Corey then used RoR to bring back Enual and Grim Face who were naked but did have their spells. We re-engage once more and finally we get a break, Grim Face manages to enfeeble Firkraag so Firkraag's thac0 was really bad and Corey's Foebane could collect the kill. Alesia has been avenged! And Garren's daughter's was rescued, even if he won't acknowledge it.
I decided we'll recruit and keep Imoen to take Alesia's place, though Alesia could never be replaced. We need the female company. But first we recruited Yoshimo for traps for Bodhi, and of course Imoen will take his spot at Spellhold which is our next stop. The only equipment we gave Yoshimo was the Crimson Dart, which we will take back before we get rid of him. Bodhi instantly died to traps, so Brynlaw will be our next destination.
@Corey_Russell it's a different sort of fight unfortunately, not offering the same opportunity to pause between combats to get wish rests. That type of tactic might still be technically possible, but would be much more difficult to implement in the middle of fights. PfMW sounds like a better option.
I see my avatar continues to have problems across various people's runs - must be a more accurate representation of me than I originally thought ...
Delayed Blast Fireball's would be any option, but that would leave you with an uninjured Yaga Shura with Mel on the field, which is problematic. Pre-EE that would be workable, assuming you brought Haer'Daelis's Chaos Blade, but in EE that's a pass, imo.
Well, OK, I think he's vulnerable to cold. But that's not easy to exploit.
Sendai also takes a lot less damage than you might think from the big trap effects, because she has a natural +4 luck bonus. A 20d6 Spike Trap deals about 23 average damage, instead of the 90 you'd get against a typical enemy. So again, you'd need a lot of traps to bring her down.
With these facts in play ... if you're not doing cheesy loop tricks, and have some limited number of traps to place, put them on the right side.
Yes. It's done with an absolutely ludicrous number of Skull Traps. Hundreds of them. That's why I called it mega cheesy.
I'll note, though, that I was not under the impression that the throne version of Yaga Shura is vulnerable to fire. I was aware of the 99% resistances as well as the vulnerability to cold, of course. If he is in fact vulnerable to fire, that could make the approach potentially viable for an Illusionist, actually, if still mega cheesy.
EDIT: I just did a test in Ascension v2 and Yaga is vulnerable to fire. That seems contrary to my experience in v1.4. He used to cast Fire Storm on himself when he reached near death, as in this case from my F/M Arcadia's run. It's possible that had been dubious scripting, but I believe it healed him. If he did used to have +100% resistance to fire, like other fire giants, I wonder if the v2 behavior is a bug.
Permanently dead: Grond0 (vampire chunking), Alesia (chunked by Firkraag), Grim Face (chunked by a death knight)
So the party made it out of spellhold and into the Underdark. But one very serious problem - hardly any heal potions. In vanilla, I could use RoR heals but that isn't an option in EE. In any case, we ran into trouble with the death knights, Imoen and Enuhal gets killed. Corey hasted with potion and spell, used ilbratha for mirror image and tried to finish off the death knight with Carsomyr. Problem though? No heal potions so Corey couldn't get to full health - Corey was probably at around 15%. While this was going on Grim Face gets chunked by the death knight. I thought Corey was still going to kill the death knight as it was near death and Corey had many mirrors still up. However, the death knight got lucky and found the right image and killed Corey - RiP Corey.
Hopefully some kind adventurer will avenge Corey and raise Enuhal, who is the only character and can be raised and carry on the avatar tradition.
Final Note: This avatar run was fun, thanks all for letting me participate. Sorry for getting my forumites killed.
In any case, thanks for being an Avatar, and thanks for being a friend
Best wishes for all your current and future runs.
A.
Traveling with: Korgan, Mazzy, Cernd, Aerie, Imoen
So I was able to get the Foebane - but half the party dies in process. An insect plague was just vicious....Thaxxy and Firkraag both die pretty fast. Thaxxy failed its save vs an Imoen finger of death. The "hidden" base was really hard as Mazzy got trapped behind a door which caused 2/3 of the party to die. Fortunately a ctrl+J got Mazzy back in the action, though only near the end of the fight, as I was wondering why wasn't she hellping me - in any case, she and Russell were able to mop up and resurrect their friends.
The party has tremendous melee power with Korgan, Mazzy and Russell all dual-wielding with powerful weapons. Suldenssalar is our next target.
Traveling with: Korgan, Mazzy, Cernd, Aerie (girlfriend), Imoen
The party has made it to ToB. Tree of life fight was interesting. Mazzy and Korgan get mazed, rest of party dies, and Russell has to defeat Irenicus with his Carsomyr. Fortunately that does work...
As for hell, the good routes of course were done with Russell being a paladin. The actual fight with Irenicus went incredibly fast, Russell's true sight was a big problem and of course his dispel on hit with Carsomyr wasn't helping Irenicus either. I think Irenicus may have given up with just 12 seconds of fighting...this may well be my fastest victory.
Russell equipped reflection shield combined with true seeing Illsaera had no chance. We'll venture into Saradush next...
This implies then I need a new strategy for EE. Unfortunately, the successes I see other forum members do is usually their mastery of magic. I can read spell descriptions but that doesn't tell me how to use these spells to defeat Melissan, especially since both she and her minions tend to have so many immunities. And generally, I prefer melee parties but due to the above changes, they are much harder for me to be successful.
Traveling with: Sarevok, Mazzy, Cernd, Imoen, Aerie (girlfriend)
Permanently dead: Korgan
The party made it past the undead in Nyalee's area pretty easily. Two sunrays helped that out quite a bit. We made it past the surface area of Yaga's Temple, though we got a bad scare as Russell XXX got hit to a sliver of life but he managed to run to safety. The initial giants when you first enter the temple, I find so hard to protect my party members, as even a single giant hits pretty hard much less quite a few of them. I find them pretty hard to disable as well as hard to kill fast. A lot of party members were running for their lives, however, the stalwart Korgan failed to avoid being chunked - RiP Korgan.
The run must continue, however, so Sarevok was added. Sarevok's a hard hitter, but now Russell XXX needs to be in the front - we'll see if that causes any issues...
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
With apologies for the longer hiatus, but otherwise without further ado, I'd like to continue Sorsha's story where we left it the last time - in Cloakwood.
We collected the Cloak of Non-Detection and used Invisibility and Ring of Free Action to secure safe passage through the Spider Forest. Lamalha's ambush came next.
Sorsha first buffed with Strength, Shield, MIs and MSD and broke her invisibility with a Skull Trap.
Unable to interrupt Zeela's Unholy Blight, we suffered minor damage early on, but otherwise things were looking good. The rogues were of little concern at range (with Sorsha wearing the Claw, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of Avoidance and Girdle of Piercing) and we had MSD to counter Rigid Thinking / Command and Ring of Free Action at hand to eliminate Hold Person threat from the clerics.
One down.
Interestingly, you can see Zeela casting a conjuration spell - that's Chant and she started the incantation while dominated via Captive Audience. Despite the fact that the effect has rather randomly worn off in the middle of the casting (as it sometimes happens with charm-type spells), we still got the full upside of the spell once it was finished.
Zeela-> Hold Person. Sorsha-> equip RoFA.
More damage coming our way.
Time to hit back. Two down.
With our MIs gone, we decided to finish the battle with Wand of Fire for efficiency purposes.
Not much has happened until we reached the mines and Drasus' crew. We had a plan for him - buff heavily (Shield, Resist Fear via personal item, Potion of Absorption, Strength, MSD, Potion of Power, MIs, Greenstone Amulet), equip Girdle of Bluntness, summon cannon fodder via Wand of Monster Summoning, approach invisible, pickpocket his Potion of Magic Shielding, retreat behind our summons and bring him down as fast as possible with our offensive spells/wands and Aule's.
It was a bad plan, as we found out very shortly after trying to execute it.
For starters, we pickpocketed Drasus' Potion of Frost Giant Strength instead of Magic Shielding. But that's not the worst thing which could happen - that would be a quick Remove Magic/Chaos opening combo from the mages. And yes, that's precisely what Kysus and Rezdan had in store for us.
Keeping her Potion of Magic Blocking at the ready, Sorsha first swallowed the dispel projectile. Maybe it was because moving out of Rezdan's range, but his Chaos projectile never came out.
With our buffs and all possible advantage gone, we had no options left but to equip Cloak of Non-Detection and quaff a PoI while watching our summons get massacred. There was a bitter taste in her mouth, but Sorsha knew the value of living to fight another day.
She waited out the telefield, rested under Invisibility and proceeded to the mines. After securing Ril's help, she almost got into trouble when some of the guards started to investigate the noises and one of them blocked the door.
Staying invisible (and wearing Cloak of Non-Detection), Sorsha had to retrace her steps through the secret corridor back to the main lobby, where she equipped her Boots of Grounding and quaffed a Potion of Insulation to counter the lightning trap, and carefully navigated her way through the numerous guards to finally reach the third floor and, eventually, Davaeorn's quarters.
She took out the bodyguard with Skull Trap + Aule and prepared for the battle with green ProMagic scroll, Potion of Strength, Potion of Defense, Potion of Mind Focusing and Oil of Speed.
Here's the equipment used for the battle (with the Greenstone Amulet being further replaced with Necklace of Missiles).
When Davaeorn resisted our initial Wand of Paralyzation attempt thanks to his robe's MR, we knew we're in for a long fight.
We focused on the mage with our acid arrows to penetrate his Stoneskins, blasting Necklace of Missiles/Wand of Fire fireballs whenever possible. Sorsha also quaffed a Potion of Regeneration after suffering some initial damage from the fast striking Battle Horrors.
Davaeorn helped us to get rid of them in his signature Sunfire style.
Once the guards started to pour in, Sorsha used Captive Audience to get some more breathing space.
With Davaeorn's Stoneskin down, the day was won.
We collected the valuables and rushed to the surface to take advantage of our current buffs - it was payback time for Drasus and his friends. But first, Sorsha quaffed her second Potion of Absorption of the session and re-equipped her Girdle of Bluntness.
Since the mages posed little threat, we focused on the two fighter types first. Sorsha quickly decided it's best if Genthore joined our ranks.
Now it was mainly down to Drasus only.
Despite his movement speed, we tried to use our own haste and fast long-range weapon to avoid as much incoming APR as possible. It was hit and run all the way.
Finally, once his Enrage worn off, he fell unconscious and became an easy victim.
The rest was mainly clean up, although the way how SCS mages still manage to put up a reasonable fight against ProMagic with the use of summons (including earth and fire elementals in this particular instance), telefields, MMMs and invisibility is definitely admirable.
I'll conclude the post with what I believe is probably the most dangerous ambush in SCS BG1. I always keep at least one Potion of Freedom exclusively for this situation, although this time around Sorsha had the benefit of RoFA.
We're off to Baldur's Gate.
Regards,
B.
Great post! One note though: PoI invisibility is flagged illusionary, so the CND should not protect it from Divination.
Cheers,
A.
EDIT: On second thought, maybe you know about the PoI/CND interaction, but have concluded that the SCS mages are scripted to withhold Divination if a solo character is wearing the CND.
To be clear, I have no reason to believe that SCS mages withold Divination when facing a solo character wearing the CND, especially when the character is running illusionary invisibility. I was just speculating as to what your logic might have been.
And in case the operation of the CND is unclear, it will only protect against Divination when paired with a form of invisibility that is not classified as illusionary. This includes HiS, the SotM and the Dagger of the Star. It does not include spells, potions or other item generated invisibility states, like those from Sandthief or the RoAC.
Traveling with: Sarevok, Mazzy, Cernd, Imoen, Aerie (girlfriend)
Permanently dead: Korgan
Party managed to get through Yaga's temple without any further trouble. Nyalee was also utterly destroyed. We made sure the party was well protected from charm. Yaga and his minions were destroyed. I am finding with summons, bless, chant and haste, the enemies take a tremendous amount of damage from the party. Yaga and his buddies did some good damage and killed Cernd too (but no chunked). Using the previously mentioned strategy also won me a quick victory in Pocket Challenge #2. We did similar strategy at the Oasis and hardly took any damage.
Amkethran is our next target. Will keep at it.
Traveling with: Sarevok, Mazzy, Imoen, Aerie, Cernd
Permanently dead: Korgan
Well the party had made some really good progress. We had nearly defeated all Diaytha's minions, only the Hive Mother was left. I had sent literally couple dozen summons to try to soften her up and she was near death. To be safe, I should have equipped the shield of Balduran, but I thought my save vs spell of 0 would be good enough - well it wasn't and some insta-kill killed me from full heatlh - RiP Russell XXX.
It's too bad, this party was really powerful. Back to the drawing board!
I am starting a run with a Blackguard Dward: Allowable with my set-up, any race can play any class. The drawback is that gnome multiclasses aren't illusionists. I got quite a good roll and also quite a lot of gold to start - 160gp. The portents are good.
In Candlekeep I had to pay 3gp as a fine for doing what comes naturally for a blackguard of Cyric, breaking into a chest. The loot that we later took from that chest helped towards buying a katana which was used to good effect against the improved assassins there, all of whom succumbed when I defended myself.
I told my friend Alec that I wished to be a villain. Perhaps that desire is the reason that Cyric chose me as what he thought would be a minion of his. I have other thoughts on the matter!!
After the death of Gorion, I tried to re-enter Candlekeep but was denied entry by the guard who did however give me 100gp.
Upon leaving, I was again ambushed, this time by bandits. Not wishing to die, once more I fled.
I picked up two useful looking rings on the way to the FAI where yet another assassin attacked me. My immunity to fear helped there and once again I prevailed though not without injury.
I proceeded to High Hedge as I certainly did not wish to meet more assassins at the inn!
I was able to help Mellicamp at little inconvenience to myself and upon returning a letter to Mirrianne was given a ring of protection. Pretending to be of good will brings rewards it seems. Helping her removed the need of killing her for the ring.
I took Little Ugh from Ugh's home to Kessy and eventually ended up at the Carnival where I killed Zordral. That turned out to be extremely beneficial as Aerie now identifies items for free.
To the south I killed Zargos Flintblade and Greywolf. Both had decent weapons, but I will probably sell the +1 axe that Zargos carried as I have no skill in axes despite being a dwarf.
To the east I found what appears to be another magical ring, Hafiz gave me a scroll, and I picked up the wounded Samuel and took him to the FAI.
Further north I killed Sonner for his weapon and killed several ankheg. That proved tedious as several rests were required. However my experience was improved considerably, and they carried useful loot.
Returning the body of Farmer Brun's son turned out to be beneficial.
In Beregost I returned the Colquetle amulet which made me into a hero.
It doesn't take much to become a hero on the sword coast!!
I was amazed at how much I was paid for the ankheg shells: so much that I decided to hunt for some more!! I used some of the gold to buy a better bow and a helmet of charm ptotection.
On the way to the FAI I killed an ogre.
I found ankheg in abundance!!
I came across Wilton for the first time. He gave me a cloak of protection +1
My wounds then caused me to leave the ankheg behind. At the FAI I bought some excellent gauntlets with the gold.
I'm wondering if Wilton comes from EE or from a mod. [I once did a survey at Wilton. ]
I am abandoning this game since I am going to have to do a re-install.
Previous posts: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
An arcane spellcaster walks into a bar in Baldur's Gate for the first time...
At this point in time we had memorized the majority of relevant L1-L4 spells with the notable exceptions of Remove Magic, Minor Spell Trigger Sequencer and Stoneskin (Sorsha was still approx. 25k XP short of level 10 and access to L4 spellcasting).
The sole aim of our short stay in the city was Ramazith's tower. Sorsha secured the release of the nymph from Ragefast and, even though she did except Ramazith to be somewhat grumpy about the outcome of the matter, she did not expect him to be so mad as to multiply.
Come on Rama - we all know you're a necromancer and you cannot conjure illusions and simulacrums, so what on earth is going on here?! Shall we pickpocket all three of you, since none of you seem to be interested in either talking to us nor teleporting upstairs as per your script?
We got the RoP and the Metaspell Influence, but we could not possibly leave these abominations walk the Faerun. Return whence you came!
And you too!
With only one Ramazith left, apparently docile and harmless, we decided to just fetch the INT tome and let him live.
Following a brief investigation of the Iron Throne HQ, we embarked on the journey to Candlekeep. Potion of Magic Blocking for the ogre mage ambush, as is customary.
Knock scrolls and elemental/spell protections for the locked and trapped tombs.
Invisibility for everything else until we're back at the Gate. Here's Sorsha's inventory after the final shopping spree at Sorcerous Sundries, with most of our funds spent on arrows, potions and scrolls.
Having enjoyed a relaxing stay at the Blade and the Stars, Sorsha now had access to all the Bhaalspawn powers (2x CMW, 2x Slow Poison, 2x DuHM) and was ready for the finals - I'll cover that in the next post.
Regards,
B.
This is super helpful to know, thank you!