I have just rolled this character in a highly modded game. An excellent roll, but have I used the roll to the best advantage?
Chose to have Charisma of 12 so as to have charisma 18 using Friends.
I think that I have the maximum number of Health Points. Confirmation of that would be appreciated.
Maximised Intelligence and Wisdom. Would have liked better strength but you can't have everything.
Found a knock spell and memorised it. Can now manage without a thief after levelling up.
I left Imoen outside Feldpost's after she had opened several doors and chests for me.
I then headed south to Nashkel using Sanctuary to make the journey safer.
When I challenged Greywolf I lured him to the mines where he was badly injured by the guards.
My passage was blocked my neutral creatures from time to time with the result that twice I was reduced to 1hp. (i was still at level 1) I led him away from the guards and blinded him. Killing him was then easy.
Upon going to the FAI I was able to help Joia, kill Sonner and take the bowl to Tenya. I killed the lone ankheg near Tenya with great difficulty. I nevertheless survived and am now a hero.
I didn't last long as a hero. I waited a bit too long before castng sanctuary.
Azuredge in hand, Sorsha was keen to explore Athkatla's Graveyard District.
If you put aside dead boys' ghosts that got robbed of their stuffed animals…
the undead lurking behind the door to every tomb…
dead men rising from their graves to settle old family grievances…
or people buried alive by other people for profit, then one might agree with Arenthis that sometimes, just sometimes, Faerun can be a kind place.
Apart from the minor tasks, Sorsha defeated the Crypt King to retrieve Namarra, running Resist Fear (via her hood), RoAC II and regular combat buffs on top of the flind form.
Note: I'll make a small pause here to comment on Sorsha's hood, her personal item created in NearInfinity that grants +1 luck and casts Resist Fear once per day. The rationale was to emulate the effects of the bard song for the purposes of solo play, as explained in the introductory post. During the fight with the Crypt King, I've noticed Sorsha making a saving throw roll against his opening Horror in the log, which was weird. I decided to do a bit of testing and found out that for some reason the fear immunity ability was not properly implemented. My skills at "modding" (can you even call that modding, lol?) are virtually non-existent and after spending some time to figure out the issue I was still unable to make it work. At the time, I was also supposed to finalize my preparations for a two week camping trip in Iceland and, because of the timing constraints, decided to work around the issue by changing the design of the item to make the fear immunity permanent. Originally, I had been thinking to slightly scale the item's power along the lines of the bard song progression, but now I decided that this will be the only improvement until the rest of the game. That's why from now on you'll see the Remove Fear icon on Sorsha's portrait at all times (when wearing the hood).
Back to our run. Even though Sorsha is not a healing potion addict, we still got a bit disappointed to find out that Staff of Curing cannot be used by Bards. Never mind, that's more inventory space for us.
The Suna Seni ambush happened on our way to the Bridge District.
Arriving invisible, Sorsha moved to the edge of the area and deployed a full set of buffs, including Shield, Strength, PfNM, MSD, Polymorph: Self (flind), Blur, ProEvil, Fireshield: Red, MIs, Haste and RoAC II.
Was that an overkill? Probably yes. Was it necessary to quaff that Potion of Firebreath? Probably not.
But I had learned the hard way not to underestimate Suna's entourage and I like to play it safe here. The mage likes to cast Slow and, with our buffed saves vs. spell of 2, we were still in the danger zone. Silence via Namarra could have been the budget option here, but Firebreath was the fast track.
Tick! Tick! Three down.
Tick! Four down.
Tick! Five down.
Smack! Six down.
We collected Arbane (good to see you old friend) and finally headed to the Bridge District to sell the remaining loot. Without a potion case, Sorsha's inventory capacity was already quite stretched, but she still managed to squeeze in one Potion of Stone From from Mrs Cragmoon.
Oh and Shank got the title this time.
Sorsha did solve the Skinner case, however with the view of keeping our XP progression in check, only reported her findings to Mr Aegisfield and did not follow up on his progress any further (sorry).
Finally, after a side trip to the Watcher's Keep to resolve her inventory crisis by purchasing the potion case, Sorsha's back at the Copper Coronet, ready to put some more slavers out of business.
I decided to do a bit of testing and found out that for some reason the fear immunity ability was not properly implemented.
If you look at it, the fear immunity package has a lot of effects. Were you saving against the panic effect, or the portrait icon, or the thingy that goes over your head, or the "Panic" string? Hard to tell, really.
The ways to do things reasonably easily here:
- For continuous fear immunity, find another item with equipped fear immunity such as Kiel's Helmet (HELM14, exists in BG2EE) and copy all of the effects that look relevant - in that case, everything after the "set color" effects.
- For the 1/day "cast a spell" model, give your item a "Magical" ability, then have that item's sole effect be an opcode 146 "Cast Spell" effect. Actually cast that standard Resist Fear spell. Target "Preset Target" if you want to be able to aim at an ally, target "Self" if you want it to just be centered on the wearer.
Copper Coronet sewers provided Sorsha with ample opportunities to test her arsenal. She approached invisible, collected the severed hand (with Stoneskin absorbing the trap damage) and bypassed the first hobgoblin party only to blast their smelly hides with a Fireball shortly thereafter.
She then separated the captain from the two remaining shamans, targeting him with Chromatic Orb.
Strange, despite the death animation and the log not showing any saving throw roll, he was still standing. Oh well, we'll just have to thin out his hefty hitpoints with our weapons instead. With the shamans joining the fray, Sorsha went into kiting mode, switching in between her staff and Tuigan, while keeping her aura clear (and Arbane at the ready) at all times.
For the kobolds, we used Haste and Polymorph: Self, starting in the jelly form and then shifting into the spider.
To counter the petrification trap on the impromptu bridge, Sorsha changed back into her human form and activated MSD. I could have used the jelly form, however I'm slightly paranoid when it comes to relying on its magic resistance when triggering traps, probably because it does not seem to work against those green blob traps for instance.
The second hobgoblin crew was massacred in the flind form.
Sorsha then collected the carrion crawler blood, obtained Lilarcor, activated RoAC II and rested.
Thinking about the battle plan against Captain Haegan and his thugs, we wanted to do something a bit more special. The decision was made and Sorsha equipped her Girdle of Bluntness and prepared with Shield, Strength, Polymorph: Self, Blur, ProEvil, Fireshield: Red, MIs and Haste (Stoneskins were retained from before). To make our arrival as dramatic as possible, we entered the boat as a jelly… Oh, just how I'd love to see the slavers' faces.
We're not cattle, Haegan, we're just a blob. A blob that can still activate it's Namarra, to be precise.
And a blob that knows that some of you will be just the right level for insta-death by our Cloudkill wand.
Let's see if you're stupid enough to hang around in the cloud if we activate our RoAC II.
You were saying something about cattle, Haegan?
Ok, I admit that was a bit cheesy. We're actually glad to see that some of the slavers have been quaffing enough extra-healing potions to at least get a fighting chance. Once the cloud dispersed Sorsha activated DuHM and shifted into the flind form.
With only Haegan left, we switched to the human form and Tuigan to leverage our missile AC advantage provided by the Claw + Girdle of Piercing.
Bad to-hit rolls made the going slow, even more so when our Haste expired. At the time, Sorsha's spellbook still contained Charm and Dire Charm. We thought about using Haegan as a meat shield against the trolls (for which Sorsha would still have to pickpocket him for the door key), but unfortunately neither of the spells landed home.
Once again in her flind form, Sorsha managed to put some more pressure on him in melee upon which his morale failed.
The fact that enemies cannot trigger non-PC traps totally makes sense, but if anyone in the game universe deserves to be chunked by that green goo then it's *Captain* Haegan running for his life. Nice try, but I'm not following you there.
Welcome back, sir! Fancy an MM scroll?
Refreshing her DuHM, Sorsha the flind was able to dispatch the two trolls with ease and thus save the day. Hooray!
It would have been a shame to report back to Hendak with an undepleted spellbook, as if we were not trying hard enough. And the otyugh made the perfect target for our Chromatic Orb.
With this, we're now more or less up to speed with Sorsha's current progress. Here's her inventory and character sheet for the record.
Strange, despite the death animation and the log not showing any saving throw roll, he was still standing.
Two things going on here, I think.
- It looks like you had a pause there at exactly the wrong time, and it decoupled the saves on the various effects from each other. That hobgoblin captain saved against the instant death effect, but not the associated animation.
- There's a minor cosmetic bug when a spell allows a save at a bonus; if the save succeeds only due to that bonus, it doesn't show up in the log.
Leaving the Slums, Sorsha's next steps led her to the Governmental District where she procured the spellcasting license. She also had a brief chat with Jan - helping him got us to level 13, which meant access to L5 spells and improved saving throws.
When it comes to saving throws, being a human rogue is not easy - our current unbuffed saves of 10/8/9/13/9 are definitely not something to write home about. Still, the Claw and RoP +1 push our saves vs. spell down to 5 and, with easy access to II (II, Shadow Door, RoAC) and Blur, Sorsha can regularly achieve the zeros, albeit dispellable. Speaking of dispel, at level 13 we're already starting to get a meaningful advantage over the mages we'd typically encounter at this stage, which reduces the need to rely on SI: Abjuration to counter their Remove Magic casts.
Angry mobs eager to burn people (drow or not) at the stake is not something that Sorsha appreciates and therefore helping Viconia was a no-brainer. Speaking of burning people alive…
We sure like our new license by the Cowled Wizards. Should be called the license to kill. We feel like 007.
Afterwards, Sorsha took a detour to the Promenade for some scroll shopping - we got PfNW, Breach, Lower Resistance, Spell Shield and Wizard Eye and scribed all our available spells while sipping a Genius potion at bar in the Den of the Seven Dales. At night, we triggered the second guild war encounter and ended up fighting the dominated Shadow Thieves alongside the city guard. The loot contained a Find Familiar scroll, which was much appreciated as Sorsha had not scribed the first scroll obtained in Nashkel from Nimbul.
Upon leaving the Promenade, we ran into Renfeld.
Travelling invisible, as is her custom, Sorsha had plenty of time to prepare her buffs including MGoI. She opened by smacking the mage's head with her staff after which she immediately cast Shadow Door.
To break her invisibility, she landed another hit, this time targeting one of the fighter types as the mage was already running his MIs.
We moved back a bit to give ourselves more space for some AoE action. First, the Teleport Field.
Sorsha followed up with a Fireball, killing the mage.
Note: Looking at the screenshots in retrospect, I don't recall losing the MIs, as I was probably preoccupied with the action, however I am fairly positive that it should not be due to the incoming APR. Even though some of the enemies were hasted, the Telefield prevented them from landing too many hits against Sorsha's buffed AC. Still, it's clear they were gone in a single round and the only explanation that comes to my mind is that the enemy rogue was using Detect Illusion. I haven't noticed this behaviour before, but maybe it's because that most of the enemy rouges do not have high enough Detect Illusion skill for it to make a difference. Does anyone have any insight into this?
By the way, using Vampiric Touch in a Telefield is strangely satisfactory. The rogue was gone.
Chromatic Orb and a second Fireball finished the fighter.
Tuigan then cleared the rest of the battlefield.
With Renfeld on our back (in our bag?), we proceeded to the Docks where we stumbled into the Priest of Cyric. This guy is hilarious! Arbane in one hand and Namarra in the other, Sorsha stood her ground.
Once we got him silenced, an epic shaolin battle with staves ensued.
Bruised and beaten, the cleric ran. I was inclined to let him go but Sorsha was all like: "Me axe be bloody ready!"
Well, so much for a calm evening in Athkatla. We finally got Renfeld to the Harpers only to end up running more errands for them because of Xzar.
Before heading into Prebek's house, Sorsha first rested at the Sea's Bounty and afterwards prepared with MGoI, II and other standard buffs. Upon entering, she revealed herself to allow Prebek and Sanasha to fire up their prebuffs.
Surprisingly, they each survived our opening Sunfire.
The same cannot be said about our subsequent Fireball, although we have to admit that casting Remove Magic at us while Sorsha was busy finishing her evocation incantation was not a bad move at all, if only the timing had been better and the chances (25% due to the level difference) higher.
I'm sure you know how the rest of the quest went - we fetched the bird and Xzar died. Anyway, Staff Spear +2 has been a welcome addition to our weapon collection.
Infiltrating Mae'Var's guild was an easy task for Sorsha - she played her act flawlessly, although eventually she still had to perform some chores to prove trustworthy. While retrieving the amulet from the Temple District, we decided to pay a visit to our new potion dealer - Roger. Our shopping list included 1x Clarity, 3x Firebreath, 1x Magic Shielding, 1x Absorption and 2x Oil of Fiery Burning. In order to get a small refund, Sorhsa also agreed to take care of Roger's sea troll problem.
While exploring the sewers, we unintentionally triggered contact with the central kobold party. Making sure that the rakshasha is not joining the fray, we dispatched the entire party by switching between our jelly (range attack, magic and piercing/missile immunities) and spider forms (melee finish).
Out next task involved Rayic. Protected by MGoI, Sorsha first took care of the mephits in the lobby, which brought her to level 14.
Unfortunately, we also triggered the level drain trap at the bookshelf and had to pay for a restore at the Temple of Oghma before returning to the quest at hand.
Avoiding the golems on the second floor, Sorsha then proceeded straight to Rayic. Our battle plan was really simple - buff with Haste, MGoI and II (on top of our standard buff routine), keep clear aura (to allow for defensive potion quaff or morphing into the jelly form) and press on the offensive with Tuigan.
Lucky spell interruptions (although hasted 4APR of Tuigan with acid arrows can shutdown spellcasters that do not have their MIs or PfMW/Mantles up very quickly) allowed Sorsha to use her aura offensively as well. First, silence via Namarra.
We followed with Sunfire, while Rayic was busy trying to getting himself vocalized.
Speaking of Namarra silence, that -5 spell penalty and the fact that it's party friendly (which I had not been previously aware of) really make it shine early on. Still, it's usefulness against arcane casters is somewhat limited when playing solo, given that you essentially trade off one action (silence) for another (vocalize).
At that point, Rayic was no longer able to turn the game around.
I'll spare you the boring details of the remaining fetch quests and fast forward to the battle with Mae'Var. Sorsha entered the guild cellar from the waterfront and prepared with Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Polymorph: Self, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Haste and II (and later added DuHM).
She opened with Vampiric Touch, targeting the priest.
Mae'Var applied PfMW and rallied his assassins.
Sorsha responded with PfNW, which admittedly feels almost too efficient in this particular fight (despite all his bravado, Mae'Var not even in possession of a magical weapon).
Mae'Var went for Haste, which would normally be a decent move given their strength in numbers, but for now we're safe behind our buffs. Remove Magic could come at any time now, however the chances of getting our bard spell levels dispelled by a dual-classer are going to be rather low.
Eventually, we're the first to land Remove Magic, with limited success (but at least removing Haste).
Subsequent Cone of Cold from Mae'Var did more harm than good, at least if seen from their team's perspective.
Sensing a window of opportunity, Sorsha activated Namarra.
As expected, Mae'Var countered with Vocalize and pressed on.
We entered brief offensive by shifting into the flind form, but then our buffs started to expire.
With II gone, we're now susceptible to single target spells. Putting some distance between her and Mae'Var, Sorsha awaited his next move. Enchantment incantation indicated charm of confusion type of spell. There we go - Domination.
Sorsha countered the spell by morphing into the jelly form.
That would have been a clear move, were it not for the summoned ogre. In retrospect, we should have shifted into the human form and equip Lilarcor instead. Nevertheless, we're at least safe from all the attacks apart from the ogre and the jelly's MR ate two additional spells.
With Mae'Var spellbook getting fairly dry, Sorsha shifted back into her human form and countered the incoming Hold Person by equipping Arbane.
Activating Arbane's Haste helped us to finish the last surviving assassin. Mae'Var's last spell (MAA) was just a minor inconvenience.
We finished in melee with our Stoneskins still intact.
Not eager to face any more rogues that day, we left through the back door and reported back to Renal. To celebrate our success, we decided to spend the entire reward at the Adventurer's Mart, purchasing the Harp of Pandemonium (it's first time I've actually bought the item) and the Victor.
Despite having a good time in Athkatla so far, we're now eager to move on beyond the city limits.
I am scrapping my current Hobgoblin run because I have realised that I inadvertently made him too powerful.
Instead, I have rolled a Half-Orc Fighter-thief who has proficiencies in daggers and single weapon wielding. I used an edited screen-shot for the portraits.
Being raised in Candlekeep it is hardly surprising that I am a follower of Oghma. Consequently when Firebead gave me far more gold than I needed for equipment I wisely passed it on to the temple which raised my reputation a little.
Back in the Bridge District, there were several tasks on our agenda to take care of. First, Sorsha enhanced her potion collection by observing the battle between the fallen paladins and the smugglers, scoring 9 (!} PoIs and 2x Potion of Invulnerability (to be kept for later when we get UAI). Speaking of UAI, we've been keeping the majority of items that can become useful at the later stage by storing these in the Five Flagons Inn.
Secondly, we rescued Lady Elega from Reti and Camitis, using our standard set of defensive and offensive buffs and the Harp of Pandemonium.
With that, we earned our first pair of magical boots (Boots of Avoidance) and reached level 15 at 1,100,000 exp.
At the time, Sorsha was getting a bit concerned about Aegisfield, to whom she had previously reported her findings regarding the skinner murders, and decided to check out the tanner's house to see if she could find any clues. We confronted Rejiek (how do you even pronounce that by the way?), triggered the traps in the jelly form, recovered Aegisfield's body and proceeded to the cellar.
In addition to Polymorph: Self, Sorsha's buffs were Stoneskin, Shield, Strength, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Fireshield: Red, Haste and Shadow Door. Our opening Sunfire eliminated the two ghasts.
Sorsha retreated upstairs, followed by the bone golem and one of the Rune Assassins.
Note: I'm not sure why, but some SCS enemies that are supposed to quaff Oils of Speed based on their script (and actually carry these in the inventory) open with Potion of Freedom, as was the case with the Rune Assassin here.
With the intention of separating the two, Sorsha returned to the ground floor - seeing that only the bone golem followed through, she switched to her blunt weapon (+2 quarterstaff) and kited it in melee.
Afterwards, we took on the two assassins under DuHM.
After the battle, we retrieved the Gesen shaft, countering the Ice Storm and Fireball traps by morphing into the jelly form (even though it's a bit clumsy when it comes to opening containers), and reported the sad news to inspector Brega.
From the Governmental District, we returned to the Slums once again to conclude some unfinished business with the slavers. First, there were Cohrvale and Bregg.
The slaver guard patrolling the entrance to the boat was next. Sorsha: PfNW -> ogre form -> Arbane haste* -> "I will crush!"
*Note: For sake of clarification, in BG2EE the activated abilities from equipped weapons (such as Arbane's haste of Namarra's silence) can still be used while polymorphed. To the contrary, the equipped abilities (such as Arbane's hold immunity) only apply for off-hand weapons - thus the Free Action icon on Sorsha's portrait indicates that she's been holding Arbane in the off-hand prior to morphing into the ogre form.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 4
Previous update found here
Next update found here
So, unfortunately I've very little time to play lately, but figured I might as well update with the scant amount of progress made in the last month and a halfish.
Aldain and Amarande successfully imported into SoD (Full SCS 34.3, insane difficulty with no difficulty-based damage increase): I had to add 6 HP to Aldain, since his familiar bonus disappeared for some reason even though the familiar remained. Both Aldain and Amarande got to keep their excellent gear, but I cleared their inventories and (nearly all) consumables, allowing them each 2 healing/invisibility potions and a wand with 5 charges.
Apparently, when importing more than one character, there's either some kind of moderately intelligent script at work determining which classes you're lacking, or you just randomly displace some of the initial NPC's, because we got a starting party of Khalid, Jaheira, Dynaheir and Safana, which was a pretty good fit (I was worried we'd get no NPC's at all for the tomb... might've been a bit difficult). With three (well, two and 1/3) arcane casters, we went with bombardment as our preferred tactic against undead hordes, but even so, the first group on the second level cause problems.
They're spread out, and line of sight is problematic: The Skeletal Mage gets his Stinking Cloud off, intermittently incapacitating us, but we muddle through. Other than this, though, things go smoothly: We have enough bombarding power left to shatter Korlasz's party before it does anything, though she herself survives long enough to surrender and withdraw. Before leaving the tomb, we spend the 4556 gold we aquired therein on some potions and scrolls from the Flaming Fist Healer (I avoid spending the 30k you start with, for the same reason I cleared our inventories).
Once back in the city, we pick up Minsc, Dynaheir and Safana. Minor quests are completed, and we spend nearly all our gold on the containers only available in the city, as well as two Gauntlets of Weapon Skill: Money eventually won't be a problem at all, but +1 THAC0 for two characters may be helpful early on. We leave the city, replace Safana with Glint and pick up Corwin, and that's it: Barring chunkings, this will be our party for the remainder of SoD. Since Glint has high enough Open Locks/Find Traps, especially with his belt, to handle everything, we sink his points into Detect Illusions (Amarande still has almost nothing but Pick Pockets, but is starting to branch out into Set Traps).
With this many arcanists, we can always keep a Spell Thrust or two memorized, so Teleria falls quickly, as does the vampire (whose name escapes me.. Tsolak?). Having cleared the outdoor encounters, we turn our attention to the mines slash bin-o'-undead.
Web and Fireball are eminently effective as always, though I mess up slightly: Corwin is momentarily held, resulting in an invisible Wraith level draining her once. Rather than retreat, we just press on, as Corwin still has perfectly fine THAC0. I try a slightly different tack for the room to the north with the throne: We just send a hapless Minsc in to draw out the undead, resulting in a much cleaner engagement, as said undead willingly bunch up at the door. Beyond Aldain having to tank for a bit, everything goes well.
What goes less well is our inadvertently tripping a relatively nasty Fireball trap near the room with the portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Aldain took a good lick, but would've needed very poor luck to die. Though from then on out, I made sure he was always at max HP.
Finally, we engage the big group (including Skeleton Warriors) using Improved Invisible and otherwise fully buffed Minsc + Amarande to lead the charge; turns out the Skeleton Warriors just can't overcome II reliably. We watch Coldhearth transform, pick up the Secret Revealed, give him his comeuppance, and toss his soul into the fire. The dwarves agree to join us at the coalition camp, and that's the Repository cleared!
Again applying full buffs, we charge the Crusaders at the bridge, wiping them all out with several rounds to spare before Caelar appears. Oh, and you can steal from Herod's shop: We snag any and all potions that seem useful, as well as Mosela's Cudgel for Glint. I'm not allowing myself to steal and then sell to fences, but any gear we will actually use, as well as consumables (scrolls/potions) are fair game. We also take a moment to scribe some scrolls for Dynaheir, greatly expanding her selection (of course utilizing Potions of Genius we picked up in Baldur's Gate).
OK, Troll Claw Woods. Not much to report when clearing the outdoors around the camp, although the Trolls here are vulnerable (as is almost everything... very vulnerable) to Cloudkill. The actual Troll Cave is easily done using some basic buffs, and we're off to the fort. Clearing the outside (and the woefully outclassed Goblin tribe inside their little hidey-hole), we move on towards the old Temple of Bhaal. We nip into the Spider nest and wipe them out: They're remarkably stupid, in that they seem very predisposed to fire their Web Tangle at whoever is closest (the fire damage is Minsc activating the Sunfire on the shield you get off Isabella).
Similarly, there's no issue clearing the Beetles that arrive after. I'd almost call them bugged (hehe): They should at least all turn hostile once you attack one of them, I think. Anyway, Morentherene gets a throwing dagger to the heart, after which we simply brute-force our way through the Bugbears. The Cultists in the Temple proper aren't a problem: The only slightly troublesome group is the one right before Ziatar, but a bundle of Wand summons and Detect Illusions does them in right quick. Ziatar's accompanying mages get off a Teleport Field, slowing her demise somewhat, but the outcome is never in doubt.
The Neothelid is even more helpless than usual, since it surfaces very quickly (and fails to survive a single round of brute force trauma). Akanna and her Aerial Servants also present no real issue; we dispel their initial Invisibility, then simply lead the Aerial Servants around the room while Corwin takes them out.
Darskhelin gets to fight a fully buffed party, including Greenstone Amulet on frontliners. With his backup hopelessly webbed, there's nothing he can do beyond int-draining Amarande once.
Finally, since we now actually have someone (Amarande) making good use of Short Swords, we engage the Shadow Aspect. Fastest kill yet, I have to say: 7 HD Skeleton Warriors make very short work of her. That's a second, the first being the Short Sword of Backstabbing, +3 weapon for Amarande for later use. Good stuff.
On the way back to camp, we save a Young Green Dragon. Making our way into Bridgefort, it turns out you can actually steal from Thirrim (the alchemist on the walls). You can steal EVERYTHING. And Amarande does. That's a LOT of potions (I probably should've curtailed my larcenous tendencies a bit). We do fail in making the Boots of Speed, but since we already brought two pairs from BG1, it's not a big deal.
We of course opt to engage the Crusaders alongside the Fort, with Flaming Fist attacking from the west. A fair number of Fort inhabitants die, owing mostly to their propensity to walk straight into our area-of-effect spells, but victory is soon ours!
Finally, we apply our second Haste spell for the day and rush the enemy mage on the bridge. Detect Illusions and Spell Thrust spell her demise.
On our way to the Coalition Camp, our final adventure this time around is clearing (yet another) Troll Cave. Eh, it's a decent sling and a Sunfire scroll, I'll take it.
And that's it! The party is about the enter the Coalition Camp. No major setbacks so far, and we're about to be able to sell all the loot we've been hoarding in order to attain some nice gear upgrades. Should be even faster going from here (hopefully).
Aldain is now a level 10 Human Conjurer, whilst Amarande is a level 7/8/9 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief (I haven't yet decided exactly how to distribute his latest Thief skill points, hence why he hasn't leveled up yet).
Our journey from Athkatla was rather uneventful until it got interrupted by some slavers that apparently were still in business. Sorsha quaffed a PoI, prepared her buffs and opened with the Harp of Pandemonium (for sake of clarity, the item's effect is essentially a combination of Confusion and Wing Buffet, affecting multiple targets in a broad straight line) followed by Sunfire.
Silence via Namarra, Tuigan with acid arrows, the mustard jelly form and Remove Magic then allowed us to safely take down the surviving wizard.
Finally in Trademeet, Sorsha first purchased some supplies from the dao (2x Oil of Speed, 1x Potion of Absorption, 40 acid arrows) before eliminating them with the help of Fireshield: Red, Haste, SI: Alteration, Namarra and Pandemonium among others.
As Sorsha is not best suited for killing vast numbers of trolls, we navigated though the most of the Druid Grove under invisibility, only stopping to remove the Shambling Mounds at the bridge with our newly acquired Belm (while wearing the Girdle of Bluntness and running our standard set of defensive and offensive buffs).
The grizzly bears followed suit.
At that point, we rested and prepared for Dalok's druids with Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Haste, II, MGoI and PfNW. Sorsha revealed herself, allowing the druids to fire their pre-buffs, and opened with Web.
As soon as the first enemy summons showed up, Sorsha released Sunfire.
Emotion: Hopelessness.
Skull Trap.
And another one.
And finish under DuHM.
With the path clear, we enrolled Cernd and led him in front of Faldorn. Benefiting from our arcane buffs (and some borrowed items that Sorsha managed to sneak in), he had an easy time facing her in the arena.
Back in town, we reported Sorsha's success and used the generous reward to fund our purchase of the Cloak of Displacement, BoIB and Ras from the local merchants. We cannot yet use the Shield of Harmony, but it's definitely staying with us until we get UAI. By dealing with skin dancers and returning the mantle to the High Merchant, Sorsha confirmed her status as the hero of Trademeet.
Sorsha's now at level 16 and has access to L6 spells, albeit with a somewhat limited collection of memorized spells, and has also earned a new weapon proficiency in short swords (in addition to staves, short bows, axes, two-handed weapon style and scimitars).
All things considered, Imnesvale is a pleasant place. After all, you can get Ilbratha here. Does Sorsha need it? Not necessarily, however her +1 luck bonus modifier (via her personal item) make MIs extremely relevant. Of course, we can rely on Sorsha's spellbook, though with the Amulet of Power expected to squeeze out the Metaspell Influence in the near future, our total number of L2 spells per day is going to be 4 (at least until level 22), which is just enough for Strength, MI, Blur and Invisibility. We do carry couple of additional MI scrolls for emergency purposes, but an unlimited resource is always welcome.
Here's Sorsha dealing with the killer mimic and Jermien's stone golem.
Fast forward to the Ruined Temple, where Azuredge was definitely the MVP.
We encountered shade wolves…
skeleton warriors…
shadow fiends and shadows…
halflings (by the way thank you for the Arvoreen, Mazzy)…
greater mummies…
bone golems…
more bone golems…
and even more of everything!
Both of our summons - Ras and the efeeti - had joined the action. In terms of consumables, the total bill for clearing the temple interior was one Oil of Speed, Ghost Armor and Mirror Image scrolls (we had to store Ilbratha back in Imnesvale due to inventory management) and Wand of Monster Summoning charge.
The rewards on the other hand were rather plentiful - PfMW and Pierce Magic scrolls in addition to sellable loot and two (!) XP levels bringing Sorsha to level 18 at 1,760,000 exp. Level 17 marks the last saving throws' reduction (9/6/8/12/7) before the final adjustment at level 21, while with level 18 we've gained our second L6 spell slot.
We rested and prepared for the Shade Lord. For sake of clarification, I'm not using the improved Shade Lord SCS component. Speaking of my BG2 install, I'll edit the first SoA entry to include the full details.
Before even starting her buff routine, Sorsha equipped her BoIB with its +5 save vs. breath bonus to protect against the Shade Lord's level drain ability. Her buffs were Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Spell Shield, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, II, Fireshield: Red, Haste, SI: Conjuration and DuHM.
Sorsha charged to top of the temple and immediately destroyed Shadow Patrick with her opening Azuredge throw.
As anticipated, we got blinded (no save), but our -4 save vs. breath kept us in the safe zone against the level drain. Sorsha activated PfMW and started working on the Shadow Altar with Belm.
Once the altar was gone, she managed to get through several hits at the Shade Lord before his Chain Contingency got triggered (that was a bit weird, as I recall this usually occurring at the beginning of the battle).
Nevertheless, neither MIs, nor Spell Turning nor Mislead could protect him from our finishing Sunfire.
We say our farewells to Merella, collect the loot and report to Lloyd only to earn what has to be the most underwhelming monetary reward in the history of adventuring. I mean, 100 gold, seriously? Even that beer and swords for the youngsters had cost us more than that. Never mind, that's just me, Sorsha was pretty content with the outcome.
Despite this last complaint we still managed to raise enough cash to pay Gaelan and collect RoP +2 and the Amulet of Power from Aran.
I'm thinking to allow Sorsha to complete one more stronghold quest before forcing her to proceed with the main plotline. And given that she's a bard, she's already on her way to the Five Flagons' cellar.
Sorsha, human bard: Part 20As anticipated, we got blinded (no save), but our -4 save vs. breath kept us in the safe zone against the level drain. Sorsha activated PfMW and started working on the Shadow Altar with Belm.
The Altar is no real threat anyway, but you might get an additional style point for using a single hit from one of the Sunstone bullets found in the temple to destroy it .
Am enjoying your run @Borco and you are inspiring me to do a bard run myself. I used to play them occasionally back in my pen and paper days, but have never played an un-kitted bard in BG. Thanks for the inspiration!
Trio 52 - 6th and final update Stellar - half-elf druid (Grond0)
Corethief XXXVI - human berserker dualled to thief in BG2EE (Corey_Russell)
Betsdown - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Previous updates
A poor start saw the beginning of the session also become the end of the run. Finding ourselves outside Watcher's Keep, Stellar decided to pick off the statues on the top floor before returning to Athkatla. The first pair went down without trouble and we rested before taking on the others. I hadn't though properly reviewed Stellar's current capabilities yet and forgot he could have put on ironskins. That shouldn't have been too much of a problem as an initial assault with the help of summons took down the archer statue, meaning that the others could be shot down if necessary. Stellar did take a bit of damage just after that though, when some sort of movement glitch left him exposed to attack by one of the statues for a couple of seconds.
Once he was on the run again, he targeted the golem-type statue - using the crimson dart as that statue needs +3 to hit. However, that statue also moves slightly faster than the others and that makes it potentially dangerous - particularly with the small variations in speeds and positioning of characters you can get in MP and the inability to easily pause. To counter that I had thought that I should perhaps use an oil of speed to ensure I could keep out of reach while running round - but failed to actually do that. The result was all too predictable as the golem stretched out a long arm and a crushing fist doing 52 damage was too much for Stellar to handle .
The Altar is no real threat anyway, but you might get an additional style point for using a single hit from one of the Sunstone bullets found in the temple to destroy it .
Cool idea, although Sorsha's slinging skills are quite underwhelming
Am enjoying your run @Borco and you are inspiring me to do a bard run myself. I used to play them occasionally back in my pen and paper days, but have never played an un-kitted bard in BG. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks @Aerakar, I'm really glad that you're considering that - BG bards are interesting and fun characters, with much more to offer apart from signing and Offensive Spins
I looked up the Shadow Altat's stats for how easy it is to hit ... AC 2 with 17 DEX, for an effective AC of -1. Why, oh why, does this inanimate object have a DEX bonus?
Assuming you use the +3 sling you found in that area with no proficiency and 18 DEX, that's a net +3 to hit over your base THAC0. Level 18 for a rogue is base THAC0 12, so that's 10 you need to hit the altar with a bullet. Or less, if you have any attack-boosting accessories. Since you only need one hit, that's probably faster than burning through the 100 HP with melee attacks - but equipping the sling makes you more vulnerable to the enemy melee attacks.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 240, Core rules + unmodded (update 1)
Ash (male dwarf priest of Lathander, Grond0); Whurr (male human undead hunter, Gate70)
Previous run
This run was actually started a few weeks ago, immediately after the conclusion of the previous one. However, we'd only killed Shoal and travelled south of Beregost and I didn't write it up at the time. That did mean wasting a couple of minutes at the start of the session wondering if we had a saved game at all, but eventually we got underway.
Whurr had long sword proficiency, so the first port of call was on Greywolf. He successfully resisted 3 attempts to command him and proved difficult to hit - partly due to Whurr at that time having just picked up a non-proficient short bow to shoot arrows with. Eventually though we got enough hits to finish him off.
While in the south we picked up Samuel and set off to the FAI to deliver him to safety. A few chores in Beregost were done on the way and, by the time we shot down the belt ogre, Ash had forgotten the need for speed and rested. Whurr gently pointed out that Samuel's body had a limited lifespan and we hurried on to the FAI before that expired.
We were now each at level 4 and decided to risk the ankhegs. Whurr got hit several times, but kept going with the help of a few healing potions to clear the cave.
We pushed further north to open up Ulgoth's Beard, but didn't go there yet - waiting for reputation to by maximised.
On the hunt for proficient weapons, Ash went next to find Bassilus. A well-timed silence shut him up immediately after his opening conversation and commands cut short the remaining battle.
In the same area Whurr cut down Zhurgal and his crew to obtain a composite long bow - that he was specialized in.
Now up to level 5, Ash had access to skeletons and made use of those in clearing a couple of groups of sirines in the lighthouse area. Skeletons also fended off a few attacks from golems in the pirate cave, allowing Whurr to get a tome to improve his constitution.
Skeletons were also crucial at the basilisk area to soak up gaze attacks. Mutamin was silenced there, as were Kirian and her crew - who then gathered together allowing a single hold person to incapacitate the lot of them .
Next we cleared the Nashkel mine - Mulahey proving to be helpless after being silenced there.
The amazons and Nimbul were also silenced, while Tranzig managed to save against silence but was rapidly cut down anyway.
At the Bandit Camp, Whurr took plenty of damage from the archers and was glad when he was able to put on Taurgosz's armor.
Ash didn't bother with skeletons inside Tazok's tent, after he sneaked inside under sanctuary and silenced both Venkt and Raemon.
Trio 53 (link to conclusion of attempt 52)
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII XXXVI - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
This was started last week but a few minutes in I had a power cut so our adventures were cut short ready to continue this week
The 53 picked up a brief piece of deja-vu along with Colquetle's amulet and then we were onto pastures new which contained ankheg plate for Stoic and Noober's arrow-riddled corpse. Then quickly past Nashkel Mine to pick up Samuel, stopping via Beregost to mail a letter and return the amulet before proceeding on to the Friendly Arm Inn dropping off Samuel and a spider body in exchange for golden pantaloons.
Tarnesh got his assassination (brutalising Stoic) before CoreArcher finally got his eye in and killed our foe. Crispin took two steps back into the temple and paid 200gp to raise Stoic and we continued on our way. This was to Ulgoths Beard, dealing with one ankheg on the way and returning a plate to the priestess' daughter on the way.
Back down south we dealt with Zal, Vax, Caldo, Krumm, Gnarl, Hairtooth, a polar bear, an ogre mage ambush, Ingot the gnoll, Teyngan's party, Bjornin's ogres and gnolls being slaughtered by Drizzt. Then on to Bassilus who succumbed after being blinded.
The girdle ogre was next, Perdue's gnolls, and after levelling up Crispin could cast Protection from Petrification so we cleared Mutamin and his basilisks. CoreArcher had wanted magical arrows to shoot at flesh golems so we picked 40 up from Baerin at the expense of his life and his party. We returned to the north, cleared out the ankheg nest and picked up some equipment at Ulgoth's Beard.
Time for the flesh golems - having easily cleared out six sirines we found the golems almost pulped Stoic, and the last one got a decent whack at CoreArcher too. Not good enough to stop us though and after a brief discussion made Stoic read the magical tome for regenerative constitution of 20 since Crispin could not bear to spend several rests casting his one Cure Light Wounds at the dwarf.
CoreArcher had Greywolf's sword some time earlier (before Caldo and Krumm I believe) and mentioned requiring a second magical long sword if we encountered one. Stoic said he should have asked earlier, having just sold two or three and Crispin reflected that perhaps he had passed identified items to the wrong party members a few minutes earlier.
Anyway it was easy to make amends as we simply cleared out Nashkel Mine (Mulahey was no danger but his minions swarmed CoreArcher and almost killed him). having survived that we rested until healed and picked up the Harrower longsword for CoreArcher.
Our two hour time was running out so we just found chance to obliviate Nimbul, Tranzig, and Karlat. The session has taken us from frail travellers to seasoned adventurers plus we got the near-obligatory party member death to keep Grond0 happy.
Inventory at session end:
We wrapped up by our usual comparison of kill counts. Suffice to say one of us had 2 more kills than the other two combined, as a consequence I may have been heard to mutter bl**dy Corey as we terminated our voice chat!
After completing the Bandit Camp last time, today's session started with a trip through the Cloakwood. It also almost finished there when Whurr misjudged where a trap near the ettercaps was and got stuck in the ensuing web. Ash hastily sent 3 skeletons into the web to try and cause a distraction, but without any great hope of success. However, Whurr did well to save against all but one of their poisonous attacks and was able to move again with 8 HPs still remaining.
Ash had a sigh of relief, which turned into a gasp of dismay as Whurr once more got stuck in the web just before exiting it - though he had taken a green potion to end the poison by that time. With the skeletons stuck in the web and about to be finished off, Ash felt unable to just stand and watch his brave companion be cut down - and charged into the web himself . That left him stuck and, though at his full 37 HPs, those wouldn't last long against automatic hits.
Whurr then saved at the first attempt to escape from the web and shot down one of the 3 remaining ettercaps as those tore the last skeleton to pieces and moved forward to administer the coup de grace. I paused the game with Ash down to 6 HPs, but with a flicker of hope as I thought I'd seen a saving throw in the battle text . Yes, there it was a little while back - so that even though there is a noticeable delay between saving against a web and being released, Ash should be able to escape imminently. That indeed proved to be the case with movement restored straight after unpausing and Ash managed to run away before the next attack landed - phew.
The remainder of the Cloakwood was uneventful and we had an easy battle at the mine when the mages failed against silence (and thus could only attack in melee), while Drasus also failed (and thus did not attack at all). It took a while to kill Genthore though, so Ash took the precaution of silencing Drasus once more to keep him pacified.
There was no difficulty in making our way through the mine and, after the battle horrors were chopped up, Davaeorn was yet another silent victim.
Moving on to Baldur's Gate we did a fair number of the encounters there. The fight with the ogre mage in the sewers was notable in that Ash for once used silence fairly there, to shut the ogre mage up during the contest - Whurr, with his immunity to hold could then finish things off with no trouble.
Ash did have a momentary qualm when, while consulting an oracle, he noted that Whurr had been bitten by a rabid chicken. However, that produced no obvious change in his companion's demeanour.
The poison quest gave Ash the chance to get some boots of speed.
We also picked up the Cloak of Balduran, though had to backtrack there when forgetting to interrogate some statues - taking our annoyance out on those by getting the generous XP rewards available for enemies with 1 HP each.
Before completing our work in the City, we had a quick check of maps and inventory to see what had been left undone elsewhere on the Sword Coast. One obvious gap was Durlag's Tower and Ash was soon picking up his last level there courtesy of some battle horrors.
He'd run out of sling bullets at that point, which made participating in fighting basilisks a little dodgy - but his skeletons successfully kept the monsters' attention there.
Back in Baldur's Gate Whurr led the way to engage Jardak. Ash joined in, but managed to get in too close and found himself under attack - and had to run for it to prevent that being fatal.
Surprisingly, the assault on the Iron Throne was much smoother. Skeletons kept the attention of most of the enemies and silence shut up most of the spell-casters, allowing both Ash and Whurr to emerge unscathed.
After reporting for duty back at Candlekeep, Whurr picked up his final BGEE level by unmasking a doppleganger.
While looting the tombs, some spiders lost out to skeletons, though one of them amusingly "sleep-jumped" to us while unconscious from a command.
A few more dopplegangers led us to Prat's gang. He managed to save against a couple of attempts to silence him, but failed to complete any spells under assault from Whurr and we managed that encounter unscathed once more.
Returning to Baldur's Gate, we sought out Slythe who stood little chance in a fight after being hit by a dispelling arrow from Whurr.
At the palace some buffed skeletons made defeating the dopplegangers pretty easy and both dukes survived with a bit in hand.
Our buffs were still active in the maze, which made progress through there no problem. However, Ash was a bit careless in moving after circling round Rahvin's group in the Undercity and came into his sight. That prompted Whurr to unleash hell in the form of exploding arrows he'd just bought and those killed Rahvin before he could fire either of the ones he had.
The final battle in the old temple was more troublesome than expected. Whurr went forward to try and dispel Sarevok, only to be trapped by the MP delay you sometimes get when a client character is in dialogue. That allowed Sarevok to hit him a couple of times before he could move again, while Angelo and Tazok were also activated, as well as the expected Semaj.
Whurr was unable to immediately break contact and only survived at that point when Ash threw him an invisibility potion to preserve his last 10 HPs. A regeneration potion should have given him the chance to heal up. However, when Whurr and Ash tried to attack Semaj, Angelo quickly came to investigate before Whurr had regained much health. From the positioning on the screen I expected Angleo to attack Ash - but instead he went for Whurr and this time the exploding arrows were on the other foot as Whurr collapsed in a corner.
Ash wouldn't have lasted long against those himself, so pulled his own disappearing act - prompting Tazok and Semaj to make a strong point to Angelo about the need to be careful of your allies when using exploding ammunition.
Left on his own, Ash used an oil of speed to allow him to shoot Sarevok while running round, while a potion of power gave him a reasonable chance to hit - and in due course Sarevok gave up the chase.
Priest of Lathander 8, 59 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 91 kills
Undead hunter 8, 102 HPs, 289 kills, 1 death
After a while making progress with my long-life challenge, I've been trying my poverty run again. Although I've used various set ups and rules for this, all have shared the strict requirement to not use or equip any items and not pay for any equipment or services (quests can be paid for directly, though items required for quests cannot be bought). This is an unmodded run.
I have been requiring for a while that no characters take any damage and have restarted quite a few runs because of that. That's a fairly punitive restriction though, with some instances being difficult to avoid - here for instance Washout was targeted by a kobold outside his sight range.
I therefore decided in my previous attempt I would only need to get everyone to level 4 undamaged (giving access to invisibility to make things much easier). I was nearly there when I got caught out by a skeleton at the Lake area - that appeared to have been close enough to investigate when I was dealing with Bjornin's half-ogres.
This time though I have (just) managed to get far enough in the run to continue ...
From Candlekeep, the Opera went south to High Hedge and used magically created weapons to kill the golems, while those were concentrating on spirits.
At Beregost they calmed down Marl, stole a book to give to Firebead and slept some spiders. Slike and Karlat were blinded and commanded before Perdue got his sword back (I forgot that initially and was lucky it was still there when I went back to High Hedge). By this time, some of the Opera had the XP to take a level, but as usual I'm not allowing any character to level up unless all of them can do so.
To the south, sleep and command dealt with Mirianne's ogrillons and Zhurlong's hobgoblins. After travelling down to Nashkel during the day, Neira was blinded then commanded. Noober provided a bit more XP before Oopah was blinded and Vitiare magic-missiled.
At Firewine Bridge they killed Bentan in order to reduce reputation and allow Beggar to learn LMD. Washout then scouted ahead for kobolds before Meilum was blinded and worn down.
On the way to the FAI, a sleeping ogre provided a belt for Unshey. Tarnesh was poisoned by a spirit snake and Landrin got his goods back - that was just sufficient to allow everyone to level up.
Washout now had 100% in set traps and demonstrated his new proficiency in the Lake area on Bjornin's half-ogres, Teyngan's group and then Drizzt.
After reporting back to Bjornin, a few hobgoblins at the Beregost temple area allowed everyone to level up again.
Washout then led the way to get another major XP boost, courtesy of Elminster. Turning him hostile with this group is not always simple as he shrugs off spell attacks and will open conversation if he sees a party member approaching. However, a spirit lion managed to get an attack in en passant this time to net a cool 26k XP.
Skint had by now learnt protection from petrification and that was used in an assault on the basilisk area. Blinding the basilisks made them vulnerable to attack by a totemic snake and it wasn't long before everyone could level up once more - giving the sorcerers access to invisibility.
Having achieved my target for no damage, I guess I relaxed a bit. As a result, when ambushed by a second group of flinds when trying to rest, I didn't monitor one that had been commanded closely enough and it got an attack in on Aspire as it stood up again.
After resting they killed the remaining basilisks, with a thrown trap helping out against Mutamin.
More traps were then set to destroy Kirian's party.
Now that they could negate the threat of ranged ambushers, the Opera made their way through the Cloud Peak mountains. I was less careful by this stage though and took damage a number of times. There's not a lot of XP on offer there, but every little helps and only a tiny bit of XP was needed by the end of that for their next level - clearing the remainder of the Carnival area provided that.
Working through the remainder of the southern areas saw Narcillicus killed by a first use of call lightning, while the amazons were trapped by a first use of web. Spirit lions (with free action) were a deadly combination with web as far as the Doomsayer was concerned. The same tactic sorted out sirines at the Lighthouse area, but a bit of carelessness proved costly against the golems in the pirate cave. The first of those approached before I'd got any summons up and I ran for the cave entrance. Although I had a fair lead there, the golem appeared far enough out to get an attack in and the lack of melee weapons proved costly there as the golem did enough damage to exactly kill Aspire.
Without the ability to pay for raise dead, my only option to get Aspire back within BGEE was to hope that Shoal killed someone with a kiss - then cast raise dead on the party. Hardup had only a 30% chance to save, but got 'lucky' and I ended the run there.
Trio 53 (lLinks to part 1+2)
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII XXXVI - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
Crispin felt things would go smoothly, due to a stocky companion to cower behind and a slight companion to shoot anything that moved or failed to move. How would it all play out?
We started off by questioning where we'd previously been, CoreArcher broke first and suggested we hunt down the remaining sirines. What could go wrong, other than Stoic being charmed twice and Crispin being charmed once. That's right, nothing.
Crispin then used his amazing insight to realise the bandit camp was on the map and unexplored so we wasted no time in making our presence known. Crispin using his knock, loot, categorise and containerise abilities with a side order of scalps while the deadly duo killed off all the bandits outside. They were mopping up Taurghosz while low on hit points by the time Crispin caught up so he swung his quarterstaff at our enemy and missed twice but so did the hardened fighter. Stoic and CoreArcher did not miss.
Inside the bandit tent CoreArcher thought he had successfully sneaked in but Raemon determined otherwise. Crispin and Stoic mounted a rescue mission and having previously been hasted CoreArcher could focus on removing poison and making good his escape. By the time he returned we'd whittled away and Britik collapsed to end the encounter.
Cloakwood is rarely explored in multiplayer but Crispin made an exception to visit a wyvern cave thanks to Stoic's excellent (we hoped) defences. Our plan did not intend for Crispin and CoreArcher to arrive and draw the wyverns attention. Crispin broke contact with minor wounds but CoreArcher was trapped. We convinced him to switch to melee and cut down a wyvern so CoreArcher could move and then easily mopped up. A bit of healing later and we looked almost fresh. Or maybe not.
Our way to Baldur's Gate was almost clear, but one deadly enemy had to be snuffed out.
Plenty of quests were done in the city involving poison, undead guards, and other stuff. More remains for next time though.
I have started a run with a half-orc Berserker. My usual mod set-up which includes allowing all races to either multi-class or dual-class.
She travelled up and down the road between Nashkel and Ulgoth's Beard going off the road to kill Bassilus and to help Mellicamp.
Upon reaching level 7 she dualled to thief.
Tenya then joined her whereupon we went hunting for Basilisks, Medusae and Mutamin.
In that area a rescued petrified woman walked into a trap that I had set for Mutamin - the only major problem so far as it lowered my rep to 10.
Earlier on I had done the Dorn quest before bidding him farewell. Montaron had helped with pickpocketting.
Tenya reached level 8 in the gnoll stronghold and we have returned to the Carnival.
edit
We went to the coast and bumped our reputation to 20.
With items charisma is 22. Charisma will not increase until we reach Baldur's Gate.
My Berserker class is again active.
Time to go shopping for mage equipment.
We recruited Dynaheir and she is fairly well equipped though she is in need of more wands.
We cleared the high experience enemies to the west - sirines, carrion crawlers, flesh golems and the like, the result being that Dynaheir reached level 6. We are still short of wands, but they are largely not needed.
However after selling off surplus equipment we did buy Tenya a couple of wands and bought Dynaheir some spells.
Our latest session saw us making progress through SoD, after a near-death experience.
First up was the opening dungeon where PfU scrolls and skeletons helped force a path through to Korlasz - she was silenced and quickly cut down.
The Coast Way Forest nearly saw an early end to the session when we took on Ikros and Isabella. Attacking without buffing or use of summons meant we were vulnerable to status effects and Whurr was almost immediately rendered helpless by an emotion spell. Ash attempted to save him with a newly learnt greater command spell and that successfully put Isabella on the floor. When Ash followed that up by successfully silencing Ikros the prospects looked good, but enemies in SoD are less likely to be entirely disabled by silence . Ikros was able to bludgen Whurr to death before using a wand of paralyzation to freeze Ash in place. When Ikros successfully stunned the vampire attacking him, things looked bleak - but his relatively low melee damage meant he could not finish that off until Isabella recovered her senses. That delay was long enough to allow Ash to recover soon after the attack on him commenced and he quickly went into sanctuary and produced some skeletons to deal with his opponents. A raise dead scroll purchased from the flaming fist cleric in the dungeon then brought back Whurr.
On the way back to the Coast Way Crossing we ran into an ambush by orcs and trolls. The first group of trolls were defeated with the help of some skeletons, but that tactic wasn't possible against the group underground. Whurr bravely ran them round though, while Ash used his new Firefly sling to kill the stragglers.
Without easy access to invisibility, we chose to fight a bit at the Coast Way Crossing bridge. Whurr had picked up a single arrow of explosion from one of the previous fights and used that at the start of the fight to disrupt opponent's spells. That allowed us to survive without alarms until Caelar came to parlay and we didn't try and renew the fight after that.
After fighting our way through some hobgoblins blocking the road, we travelled on to the Forest of Wyrms. A bit more fighting has cleared the route into the old temple and we'll enter that next time.
Comments
Chose to have Charisma of 12 so as to have charisma 18 using Friends.
I think that I have the maximum number of Health Points. Confirmation of that would be appreciated.
Maximised Intelligence and Wisdom. Would have liked better strength but you can't have everything.
Found a knock spell and memorised it. Can now manage without a thief after levelling up.
I left Imoen outside Feldpost's after she had opened several doors and chests for me.
I then headed south to Nashkel using Sanctuary to make the journey safer.
When I challenged Greywolf I lured him to the mines where he was badly injured by the guards.
My passage was blocked my neutral creatures from time to time with the result that twice I was reduced to 1hp. (i was still at level 1) I led him away from the guards and blinded him. Killing him was then easy.
Upon going to the FAI I was able to help Joia, kill Sonner and take the bowl to Tenya. I killed the lone ankheg near Tenya with great difficulty. I nevertheless survived and am now a hero.
I didn't last long as a hero. I waited a bit too long before castng sanctuary.
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13
Azuredge in hand, Sorsha was keen to explore Athkatla's Graveyard District.
If you put aside dead boys' ghosts that got robbed of their stuffed animals…
the undead lurking behind the door to every tomb…
dead men rising from their graves to settle old family grievances…
or people buried alive by other people for profit, then one might agree with Arenthis that sometimes, just sometimes, Faerun can be a kind place.
Apart from the minor tasks, Sorsha defeated the Crypt King to retrieve Namarra, running Resist Fear (via her hood), RoAC II and regular combat buffs on top of the flind form.
Note: I'll make a small pause here to comment on Sorsha's hood, her personal item created in NearInfinity that grants +1 luck and casts Resist Fear once per day. The rationale was to emulate the effects of the bard song for the purposes of solo play, as explained in the introductory post. During the fight with the Crypt King, I've noticed Sorsha making a saving throw roll against his opening Horror in the log, which was weird. I decided to do a bit of testing and found out that for some reason the fear immunity ability was not properly implemented. My skills at "modding" (can you even call that modding, lol?) are virtually non-existent and after spending some time to figure out the issue I was still unable to make it work. At the time, I was also supposed to finalize my preparations for a two week camping trip in Iceland and, because of the timing constraints, decided to work around the issue by changing the design of the item to make the fear immunity permanent. Originally, I had been thinking to slightly scale the item's power along the lines of the bard song progression, but now I decided that this will be the only improvement until the rest of the game. That's why from now on you'll see the Remove Fear icon on Sorsha's portrait at all times (when wearing the hood).
Back to our run. Even though Sorsha is not a healing potion addict, we still got a bit disappointed to find out that Staff of Curing cannot be used by Bards. Never mind, that's more inventory space for us.
The Suna Seni ambush happened on our way to the Bridge District.
Arriving invisible, Sorsha moved to the edge of the area and deployed a full set of buffs, including Shield, Strength, PfNM, MSD, Polymorph: Self (flind), Blur, ProEvil, Fireshield: Red, MIs, Haste and RoAC II.
Was that an overkill? Probably yes. Was it necessary to quaff that Potion of Firebreath? Probably not.
But I had learned the hard way not to underestimate Suna's entourage and I like to play it safe here. The mage likes to cast Slow and, with our buffed saves vs. spell of 2, we were still in the danger zone. Silence via Namarra could have been the budget option here, but Firebreath was the fast track.
Tick! Tick! Three down.
Tick! Four down.
Tick! Five down.
Smack! Six down.
We collected Arbane (good to see you old friend) and finally headed to the Bridge District to sell the remaining loot. Without a potion case, Sorsha's inventory capacity was already quite stretched, but she still managed to squeeze in one Potion of Stone From from Mrs Cragmoon.
Oh and Shank got the title this time.
Sorsha did solve the Skinner case, however with the view of keeping our XP progression in check, only reported her findings to Mr Aegisfield and did not follow up on his progress any further (sorry).
Finally, after a side trip to the Watcher's Keep to resolve her inventory crisis by purchasing the potion case, Sorsha's back at the Copper Coronet, ready to put some more slavers out of business.
Regards,
B.
The ways to do things reasonably easily here:
- For continuous fear immunity, find another item with equipped fear immunity such as Kiel's Helmet (HELM14, exists in BG2EE) and copy all of the effects that look relevant - in that case, everything after the "set color" effects.
- For the 1/day "cast a spell" model, give your item a "Magical" ability, then have that item's sole effect be an opcode 146 "Cast Spell" effect. Actually cast that standard Resist Fear spell. Target "Preset Target" if you want to be able to aim at an ally, target "Self" if you want it to just be centered on the wearer.
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14
Copper Coronet sewers provided Sorsha with ample opportunities to test her arsenal. She approached invisible, collected the severed hand (with Stoneskin absorbing the trap damage) and bypassed the first hobgoblin party only to blast their smelly hides with a Fireball shortly thereafter.
She then separated the captain from the two remaining shamans, targeting him with Chromatic Orb.
Strange, despite the death animation and the log not showing any saving throw roll, he was still standing. Oh well, we'll just have to thin out his hefty hitpoints with our weapons instead. With the shamans joining the fray, Sorsha went into kiting mode, switching in between her staff and Tuigan, while keeping her aura clear (and Arbane at the ready) at all times.
For the kobolds, we used Haste and Polymorph: Self, starting in the jelly form and then shifting into the spider.
To counter the petrification trap on the impromptu bridge, Sorsha changed back into her human form and activated MSD. I could have used the jelly form, however I'm slightly paranoid when it comes to relying on its magic resistance when triggering traps, probably because it does not seem to work against those green blob traps for instance.
The second hobgoblin crew was massacred in the flind form.
Sorsha then collected the carrion crawler blood, obtained Lilarcor, activated RoAC II and rested.
Thinking about the battle plan against Captain Haegan and his thugs, we wanted to do something a bit more special. The decision was made and Sorsha equipped her Girdle of Bluntness and prepared with Shield, Strength, Polymorph: Self, Blur, ProEvil, Fireshield: Red, MIs and Haste (Stoneskins were retained from before). To make our arrival as dramatic as possible, we entered the boat as a jelly… Oh, just how I'd love to see the slavers' faces.
We're not cattle, Haegan, we're just a blob. A blob that can still activate it's Namarra, to be precise.
And a blob that knows that some of you will be just the right level for insta-death by our Cloudkill wand.
Let's see if you're stupid enough to hang around in the cloud if we activate our RoAC II.
You were saying something about cattle, Haegan?
Ok, I admit that was a bit cheesy. We're actually glad to see that some of the slavers have been quaffing enough extra-healing potions to at least get a fighting chance. Once the cloud dispersed Sorsha activated DuHM and shifted into the flind form.
With only Haegan left, we switched to the human form and Tuigan to leverage our missile AC advantage provided by the Claw + Girdle of Piercing.
Bad to-hit rolls made the going slow, even more so when our Haste expired. At the time, Sorsha's spellbook still contained Charm and Dire Charm. We thought about using Haegan as a meat shield against the trolls (for which Sorsha would still have to pickpocket him for the door key), but unfortunately neither of the spells landed home.
Once again in her flind form, Sorsha managed to put some more pressure on him in melee upon which his morale failed.
The fact that enemies cannot trigger non-PC traps totally makes sense, but if anyone in the game universe deserves to be chunked by that green goo then it's *Captain* Haegan running for his life. Nice try, but I'm not following you there.
Welcome back, sir! Fancy an MM scroll?
Refreshing her DuHM, Sorsha the flind was able to dispatch the two trolls with ease and thus save the day. Hooray!
It would have been a shame to report back to Hendak with an undepleted spellbook, as if we were not trying hard enough. And the otyugh made the perfect target for our Chromatic Orb.
With this, we're now more or less up to speed with Sorsha's current progress. Here's her inventory and character sheet for the record.
Regards,
B.
- It looks like you had a pause there at exactly the wrong time, and it decoupled the saves on the various effects from each other. That hobgoblin captain saved against the instant death effect, but not the associated animation.
- There's a minor cosmetic bug when a spell allows a save at a bonus; if the save succeeds only due to that bonus, it doesn't show up in the log.
[Edit: corrected formatting]
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Leaving the Slums, Sorsha's next steps led her to the Governmental District where she procured the spellcasting license. She also had a brief chat with Jan - helping him got us to level 13, which meant access to L5 spells and improved saving throws.
When it comes to saving throws, being a human rogue is not easy - our current unbuffed saves of 10/8/9/13/9 are definitely not something to write home about. Still, the Claw and RoP +1 push our saves vs. spell down to 5 and, with easy access to II (II, Shadow Door, RoAC) and Blur, Sorsha can regularly achieve the zeros, albeit dispellable. Speaking of dispel, at level 13 we're already starting to get a meaningful advantage over the mages we'd typically encounter at this stage, which reduces the need to rely on SI: Abjuration to counter their Remove Magic casts.
Angry mobs eager to burn people (drow or not) at the stake is not something that Sorsha appreciates and therefore helping Viconia was a no-brainer. Speaking of burning people alive…
We sure like our new license by the Cowled Wizards. Should be called the license to kill. We feel like 007.
Afterwards, Sorsha took a detour to the Promenade for some scroll shopping - we got PfNW, Breach, Lower Resistance, Spell Shield and Wizard Eye and scribed all our available spells while sipping a Genius potion at bar in the Den of the Seven Dales. At night, we triggered the second guild war encounter and ended up fighting the dominated Shadow Thieves alongside the city guard. The loot contained a Find Familiar scroll, which was much appreciated as Sorsha had not scribed the first scroll obtained in Nashkel from Nimbul.
Upon leaving the Promenade, we ran into Renfeld.
Travelling invisible, as is her custom, Sorsha had plenty of time to prepare her buffs including MGoI. She opened by smacking the mage's head with her staff after which she immediately cast Shadow Door.
To break her invisibility, she landed another hit, this time targeting one of the fighter types as the mage was already running his MIs.
We moved back a bit to give ourselves more space for some AoE action. First, the Teleport Field.
Sorsha followed up with a Fireball, killing the mage.
Note: Looking at the screenshots in retrospect, I don't recall losing the MIs, as I was probably preoccupied with the action, however I am fairly positive that it should not be due to the incoming APR. Even though some of the enemies were hasted, the Telefield prevented them from landing too many hits against Sorsha's buffed AC. Still, it's clear they were gone in a single round and the only explanation that comes to my mind is that the enemy rogue was using Detect Illusion. I haven't noticed this behaviour before, but maybe it's because that most of the enemy rouges do not have high enough Detect Illusion skill for it to make a difference. Does anyone have any insight into this?
By the way, using Vampiric Touch in a Telefield is strangely satisfactory. The rogue was gone.
Chromatic Orb and a second Fireball finished the fighter.
Tuigan then cleared the rest of the battlefield.
With Renfeld on our back (in our bag?), we proceeded to the Docks where we stumbled into the Priest of Cyric. This guy is hilarious! Arbane in one hand and Namarra in the other, Sorsha stood her ground.
Once we got him silenced, an epic shaolin battle with staves ensued.
Bruised and beaten, the cleric ran. I was inclined to let him go but Sorsha was all like: "Me axe be bloody ready!"
Well, so much for a calm evening in Athkatla. We finally got Renfeld to the Harpers only to end up running more errands for them because of Xzar.
Before heading into Prebek's house, Sorsha first rested at the Sea's Bounty and afterwards prepared with MGoI, II and other standard buffs. Upon entering, she revealed herself to allow Prebek and Sanasha to fire up their prebuffs.
Surprisingly, they each survived our opening Sunfire.
The same cannot be said about our subsequent Fireball, although we have to admit that casting Remove Magic at us while Sorsha was busy finishing her evocation incantation was not a bad move at all, if only the timing had been better and the chances (25% due to the level difference) higher.
I'm sure you know how the rest of the quest went - we fetched the bird and Xzar died. Anyway, Staff Spear +2 has been a welcome addition to our weapon collection.
We're heading into MaeVar's guild next.
Regards,
B.
Images self-explanatary. I don't know whether or not there will be any bugs.
Portraits from an in-game screenshot edited in Photoshop
i lowered my initial reputation by 2 to allow for the fact that he is a hobgoblin.
It only cost 300gp to get reputation back to where it had been.
I and Imoen worked together to help Melicamp. I left Imoen at High Hedge and am now at Nashkel.
I reached Level 3 whilst on the road and now have Ankheg Armour.
This was just as well as fighting Greywolf was a tough battle despite being helped by the guards at the mine.
I gave the emeralds to Oublek before returning to the north where I killed some of my kinsmen and then Sonner et al.
Sonner's bowl was then returned to Tenya.
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Infiltrating Mae'Var's guild was an easy task for Sorsha - she played her act flawlessly, although eventually she still had to perform some chores to prove trustworthy. While retrieving the amulet from the Temple District, we decided to pay a visit to our new potion dealer - Roger. Our shopping list included 1x Clarity, 3x Firebreath, 1x Magic Shielding, 1x Absorption and 2x Oil of Fiery Burning. In order to get a small refund, Sorhsa also agreed to take care of Roger's sea troll problem.
While exploring the sewers, we unintentionally triggered contact with the central kobold party. Making sure that the rakshasha is not joining the fray, we dispatched the entire party by switching between our jelly (range attack, magic and piercing/missile immunities) and spider forms (melee finish).
Out next task involved Rayic. Protected by MGoI, Sorsha first took care of the mephits in the lobby, which brought her to level 14.
Unfortunately, we also triggered the level drain trap at the bookshelf and had to pay for a restore at the Temple of Oghma before returning to the quest at hand.
Avoiding the golems on the second floor, Sorsha then proceeded straight to Rayic. Our battle plan was really simple - buff with Haste, MGoI and II (on top of our standard buff routine), keep clear aura (to allow for defensive potion quaff or morphing into the jelly form) and press on the offensive with Tuigan.
Lucky spell interruptions (although hasted 4APR of Tuigan with acid arrows can shutdown spellcasters that do not have their MIs or PfMW/Mantles up very quickly) allowed Sorsha to use her aura offensively as well. First, silence via Namarra.
We followed with Sunfire, while Rayic was busy trying to getting himself vocalized.
Speaking of Namarra silence, that -5 spell penalty and the fact that it's party friendly (which I had not been previously aware of) really make it shine early on. Still, it's usefulness against arcane casters is somewhat limited when playing solo, given that you essentially trade off one action (silence) for another (vocalize).
At that point, Rayic was no longer able to turn the game around.
I'll spare you the boring details of the remaining fetch quests and fast forward to the battle with Mae'Var. Sorsha entered the guild cellar from the waterfront and prepared with Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Polymorph: Self, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Haste and II (and later added DuHM).
She opened with Vampiric Touch, targeting the priest.
Mae'Var applied PfMW and rallied his assassins.
Sorsha responded with PfNW, which admittedly feels almost too efficient in this particular fight (despite all his bravado, Mae'Var not even in possession of a magical weapon).
Mae'Var went for Haste, which would normally be a decent move given their strength in numbers, but for now we're safe behind our buffs. Remove Magic could come at any time now, however the chances of getting our bard spell levels dispelled by a dual-classer are going to be rather low.
Eventually, we're the first to land Remove Magic, with limited success (but at least removing Haste).
Subsequent Cone of Cold from Mae'Var did more harm than good, at least if seen from their team's perspective.
Sensing a window of opportunity, Sorsha activated Namarra.
As expected, Mae'Var countered with Vocalize and pressed on.
We entered brief offensive by shifting into the flind form, but then our buffs started to expire.
With II gone, we're now susceptible to single target spells. Putting some distance between her and Mae'Var, Sorsha awaited his next move. Enchantment incantation indicated charm of confusion type of spell. There we go - Domination.
Sorsha countered the spell by morphing into the jelly form.
That would have been a clear move, were it not for the summoned ogre. In retrospect, we should have shifted into the human form and equip Lilarcor instead. Nevertheless, we're at least safe from all the attacks apart from the ogre and the jelly's MR ate two additional spells.
With Mae'Var spellbook getting fairly dry, Sorsha shifted back into her human form and countered the incoming Hold Person by equipping Arbane.
Activating Arbane's Haste helped us to finish the last surviving assassin. Mae'Var's last spell (MAA) was just a minor inconvenience.
We finished in melee with our Stoneskins still intact.
Not eager to face any more rogues that day, we left through the back door and reported back to Renal. To celebrate our success, we decided to spend the entire reward at the Adventurer's Mart, purchasing the Harp of Pandemonium (it's first time I've actually bought the item) and the Victor.
Despite having a good time in Athkatla so far, we're now eager to move on beyond the city limits.
Regards,
B.
Instead, I have rolled a Half-Orc Fighter-thief who has proficiencies in daggers and single weapon wielding. I used an edited screen-shot for the portraits.
Being raised in Candlekeep it is hardly surprising that I am a follower of Oghma. Consequently when Firebead gave me far more gold than I needed for equipment I wisely passed it on to the temple which raised my reputation a little.
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Back in the Bridge District, there were several tasks on our agenda to take care of. First, Sorsha enhanced her potion collection by observing the battle between the fallen paladins and the smugglers, scoring 9 (!} PoIs and 2x Potion of Invulnerability (to be kept for later when we get UAI). Speaking of UAI, we've been keeping the majority of items that can become useful at the later stage by storing these in the Five Flagons Inn.
Secondly, we rescued Lady Elega from Reti and Camitis, using our standard set of defensive and offensive buffs and the Harp of Pandemonium.
With that, we earned our first pair of magical boots (Boots of Avoidance) and reached level 15 at 1,100,000 exp.
At the time, Sorsha was getting a bit concerned about Aegisfield, to whom she had previously reported her findings regarding the skinner murders, and decided to check out the tanner's house to see if she could find any clues. We confronted Rejiek (how do you even pronounce that by the way?), triggered the traps in the jelly form, recovered Aegisfield's body and proceeded to the cellar.
In addition to Polymorph: Self, Sorsha's buffs were Stoneskin, Shield, Strength, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Fireshield: Red, Haste and Shadow Door. Our opening Sunfire eliminated the two ghasts.
Sorsha retreated upstairs, followed by the bone golem and one of the Rune Assassins.
Note: I'm not sure why, but some SCS enemies that are supposed to quaff Oils of Speed based on their script (and actually carry these in the inventory) open with Potion of Freedom, as was the case with the Rune Assassin here.
With the intention of separating the two, Sorsha returned to the ground floor - seeing that only the bone golem followed through, she switched to her blunt weapon (+2 quarterstaff) and kited it in melee.
Afterwards, we took on the two assassins under DuHM.
After the battle, we retrieved the Gesen shaft, countering the Ice Storm and Fireball traps by morphing into the jelly form (even though it's a bit clumsy when it comes to opening containers), and reported the sad news to inspector Brega.
From the Governmental District, we returned to the Slums once again to conclude some unfinished business with the slavers. First, there were Cohrvale and Bregg.
The slaver guard patrolling the entrance to the boat was next. Sorsha: PfNW -> ogre form -> Arbane haste* -> "I will crush!"
*Note: For sake of clarification, in BG2EE the activated abilities from equipped weapons (such as Arbane's haste of Namarra's silence) can still be used while polymorphed. To the contrary, the equipped abilities (such as Arbane's hold immunity) only apply for off-hand weapons - thus the Free Action icon on Sorsha's portrait indicates that she's been holding Arbane in the off-hand prior to morphing into the ogre form.
Hello there!
For the main group, Sorsha employed Skull Trap…
Harp of Pandemonium…
Namarra…
and finished with Sunfire.
Here's Sorsha's inventory for the record.
We're on our way to Trademeet next.
Regards,
B.
Previous update found here
Next update found here
Aldain and Amarande successfully imported into SoD (Full SCS 34.3, insane difficulty with no difficulty-based damage increase): I had to add 6 HP to Aldain, since his familiar bonus disappeared for some reason even though the familiar remained. Both Aldain and Amarande got to keep their excellent gear, but I cleared their inventories and (nearly all) consumables, allowing them each 2 healing/invisibility potions and a wand with 5 charges.
Apparently, when importing more than one character, there's either some kind of moderately intelligent script at work determining which classes you're lacking, or you just randomly displace some of the initial NPC's, because we got a starting party of Khalid, Jaheira, Dynaheir and Safana, which was a pretty good fit (I was worried we'd get no NPC's at all for the tomb... might've been a bit difficult). With three (well, two and 1/3) arcane casters, we went with bombardment as our preferred tactic against undead hordes, but even so, the first group on the second level cause problems.
They're spread out, and line of sight is problematic: The Skeletal Mage gets his Stinking Cloud off, intermittently incapacitating us, but we muddle through. Other than this, though, things go smoothly: We have enough bombarding power left to shatter Korlasz's party before it does anything, though she herself survives long enough to surrender and withdraw. Before leaving the tomb, we spend the 4556 gold we aquired therein on some potions and scrolls from the Flaming Fist Healer (I avoid spending the 30k you start with, for the same reason I cleared our inventories).
Once back in the city, we pick up Minsc, Dynaheir and Safana. Minor quests are completed, and we spend nearly all our gold on the containers only available in the city, as well as two Gauntlets of Weapon Skill: Money eventually won't be a problem at all, but +1 THAC0 for two characters may be helpful early on. We leave the city, replace Safana with Glint and pick up Corwin, and that's it: Barring chunkings, this will be our party for the remainder of SoD. Since Glint has high enough Open Locks/Find Traps, especially with his belt, to handle everything, we sink his points into Detect Illusions (Amarande still has almost nothing but Pick Pockets, but is starting to branch out into Set Traps).
With this many arcanists, we can always keep a Spell Thrust or two memorized, so Teleria falls quickly, as does the vampire (whose name escapes me.. Tsolak?). Having cleared the outdoor encounters, we turn our attention to the mines slash bin-o'-undead.
Web and Fireball are eminently effective as always, though I mess up slightly: Corwin is momentarily held, resulting in an invisible Wraith level draining her once. Rather than retreat, we just press on, as Corwin still has perfectly fine THAC0. I try a slightly different tack for the room to the north with the throne: We just send a hapless Minsc in to draw out the undead, resulting in a much cleaner engagement, as said undead willingly bunch up at the door. Beyond Aldain having to tank for a bit, everything goes well.
What goes less well is our inadvertently tripping a relatively nasty Fireball trap near the room with the portal to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Aldain took a good lick, but would've needed very poor luck to die. Though from then on out, I made sure he was always at max HP.
Finally, we engage the big group (including Skeleton Warriors) using Improved Invisible and otherwise fully buffed Minsc + Amarande to lead the charge; turns out the Skeleton Warriors just can't overcome II reliably. We watch Coldhearth transform, pick up the Secret Revealed, give him his comeuppance, and toss his soul into the fire. The dwarves agree to join us at the coalition camp, and that's the Repository cleared!
Again applying full buffs, we charge the Crusaders at the bridge, wiping them all out with several rounds to spare before Caelar appears. Oh, and you can steal from Herod's shop: We snag any and all potions that seem useful, as well as Mosela's Cudgel for Glint. I'm not allowing myself to steal and then sell to fences, but any gear we will actually use, as well as consumables (scrolls/potions) are fair game. We also take a moment to scribe some scrolls for Dynaheir, greatly expanding her selection (of course utilizing Potions of Genius we picked up in Baldur's Gate).
OK, Troll Claw Woods. Not much to report when clearing the outdoors around the camp, although the Trolls here are vulnerable (as is almost everything... very vulnerable) to Cloudkill. The actual Troll Cave is easily done using some basic buffs, and we're off to the fort. Clearing the outside (and the woefully outclassed Goblin tribe inside their little hidey-hole), we move on towards the old Temple of Bhaal. We nip into the Spider nest and wipe them out: They're remarkably stupid, in that they seem very predisposed to fire their Web Tangle at whoever is closest (the fire damage is Minsc activating the Sunfire on the shield you get off Isabella).
Similarly, there's no issue clearing the Beetles that arrive after. I'd almost call them bugged (hehe): They should at least all turn hostile once you attack one of them, I think. Anyway, Morentherene gets a throwing dagger to the heart, after which we simply brute-force our way through the Bugbears. The Cultists in the Temple proper aren't a problem: The only slightly troublesome group is the one right before Ziatar, but a bundle of Wand summons and Detect Illusions does them in right quick. Ziatar's accompanying mages get off a Teleport Field, slowing her demise somewhat, but the outcome is never in doubt.
The Neothelid is even more helpless than usual, since it surfaces very quickly (and fails to survive a single round of brute force trauma). Akanna and her Aerial Servants also present no real issue; we dispel their initial Invisibility, then simply lead the Aerial Servants around the room while Corwin takes them out.
Darskhelin gets to fight a fully buffed party, including Greenstone Amulet on frontliners. With his backup hopelessly webbed, there's nothing he can do beyond int-draining Amarande once.
Finally, since we now actually have someone (Amarande) making good use of Short Swords, we engage the Shadow Aspect. Fastest kill yet, I have to say: 7 HD Skeleton Warriors make very short work of her. That's a second, the first being the Short Sword of Backstabbing, +3 weapon for Amarande for later use. Good stuff.
On the way back to camp, we save a Young Green Dragon. Making our way into Bridgefort, it turns out you can actually steal from Thirrim (the alchemist on the walls). You can steal EVERYTHING. And Amarande does. That's a LOT of potions (I probably should've curtailed my larcenous tendencies a bit). We do fail in making the Boots of Speed, but since we already brought two pairs from BG1, it's not a big deal.
We of course opt to engage the Crusaders alongside the Fort, with Flaming Fist attacking from the west. A fair number of Fort inhabitants die, owing mostly to their propensity to walk straight into our area-of-effect spells, but victory is soon ours!
Finally, we apply our second Haste spell for the day and rush the enemy mage on the bridge. Detect Illusions and Spell Thrust spell her demise.
On our way to the Coalition Camp, our final adventure this time around is clearing (yet another) Troll Cave. Eh, it's a decent sling and a Sunfire scroll, I'll take it.
And that's it! The party is about the enter the Coalition Camp. No major setbacks so far, and we're about to be able to sell all the loot we've been hoarding in order to attain some nice gear upgrades. Should be even faster going from here (hopefully).
Aldain is now a level 10 Human Conjurer, whilst Amarande is a level 7/8/9 Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief (I haven't yet decided exactly how to distribute his latest Thief skill points, hence why he hasn't leveled up yet).
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Our journey from Athkatla was rather uneventful until it got interrupted by some slavers that apparently were still in business. Sorsha quaffed a PoI, prepared her buffs and opened with the Harp of Pandemonium (for sake of clarity, the item's effect is essentially a combination of Confusion and Wing Buffet, affecting multiple targets in a broad straight line) followed by Sunfire.
Silence via Namarra, Tuigan with acid arrows, the mustard jelly form and Remove Magic then allowed us to safely take down the surviving wizard.
Finally in Trademeet, Sorsha first purchased some supplies from the dao (2x Oil of Speed, 1x Potion of Absorption, 40 acid arrows) before eliminating them with the help of Fireshield: Red, Haste, SI: Alteration, Namarra and Pandemonium among others.
As Sorsha is not best suited for killing vast numbers of trolls, we navigated though the most of the Druid Grove under invisibility, only stopping to remove the Shambling Mounds at the bridge with our newly acquired Belm (while wearing the Girdle of Bluntness and running our standard set of defensive and offensive buffs).
The grizzly bears followed suit.
At that point, we rested and prepared for Dalok's druids with Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, Haste, II, MGoI and PfNW. Sorsha revealed herself, allowing the druids to fire their pre-buffs, and opened with Web.
As soon as the first enemy summons showed up, Sorsha released Sunfire.
Emotion: Hopelessness.
Skull Trap.
And another one.
And finish under DuHM.
With the path clear, we enrolled Cernd and led him in front of Faldorn. Benefiting from our arcane buffs (and some borrowed items that Sorsha managed to sneak in), he had an easy time facing her in the arena.
Back in town, we reported Sorsha's success and used the generous reward to fund our purchase of the Cloak of Displacement, BoIB and Ras from the local merchants. We cannot yet use the Shield of Harmony, but it's definitely staying with us until we get UAI. By dealing with skin dancers and returning the mantle to the High Merchant, Sorsha confirmed her status as the hero of Trademeet.
Sorsha's now at level 16 and has access to L6 spells, albeit with a somewhat limited collection of memorized spells, and has also earned a new weapon proficiency in short swords (in addition to staves, short bows, axes, two-handed weapon style and scimitars).
The Shade Lord awaits.
Regards,
B.
Previous posts - BG1: Introduction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Previous posts - SoA: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
All things considered, Imnesvale is a pleasant place. After all, you can get Ilbratha here. Does Sorsha need it? Not necessarily, however her +1 luck bonus modifier (via her personal item) make MIs extremely relevant. Of course, we can rely on Sorsha's spellbook, though with the Amulet of Power expected to squeeze out the Metaspell Influence in the near future, our total number of L2 spells per day is going to be 4 (at least until level 22), which is just enough for Strength, MI, Blur and Invisibility. We do carry couple of additional MI scrolls for emergency purposes, but an unlimited resource is always welcome.
Here's Sorsha dealing with the killer mimic and Jermien's stone golem.
Fast forward to the Ruined Temple, where Azuredge was definitely the MVP.
We encountered shade wolves…
skeleton warriors…
shadow fiends and shadows…
halflings (by the way thank you for the Arvoreen, Mazzy)…
greater mummies…
bone golems…
more bone golems…
and even more of everything!
Both of our summons - Ras and the efeeti - had joined the action. In terms of consumables, the total bill for clearing the temple interior was one Oil of Speed, Ghost Armor and Mirror Image scrolls (we had to store Ilbratha back in Imnesvale due to inventory management) and Wand of Monster Summoning charge.
The rewards on the other hand were rather plentiful - PfMW and Pierce Magic scrolls in addition to sellable loot and two (!) XP levels bringing Sorsha to level 18 at 1,760,000 exp. Level 17 marks the last saving throws' reduction (9/6/8/12/7) before the final adjustment at level 21, while with level 18 we've gained our second L6 spell slot.
We rested and prepared for the Shade Lord. For sake of clarification, I'm not using the improved Shade Lord SCS component. Speaking of my BG2 install, I'll edit the first SoA entry to include the full details.
Before even starting her buff routine, Sorsha equipped her BoIB with its +5 save vs. breath bonus to protect against the Shade Lord's level drain ability. Her buffs were Stoneskin, Strength, Shield, Spell Shield, Blur, ProEvil, MIs, II, Fireshield: Red, Haste, SI: Conjuration and DuHM.
Sorsha charged to top of the temple and immediately destroyed Shadow Patrick with her opening Azuredge throw.
As anticipated, we got blinded (no save), but our -4 save vs. breath kept us in the safe zone against the level drain. Sorsha activated PfMW and started working on the Shadow Altar with Belm.
Once the altar was gone, she managed to get through several hits at the Shade Lord before his Chain Contingency got triggered (that was a bit weird, as I recall this usually occurring at the beginning of the battle).
Nevertheless, neither MIs, nor Spell Turning nor Mislead could protect him from our finishing Sunfire.
We say our farewells to Merella, collect the loot and report to Lloyd only to earn what has to be the most underwhelming monetary reward in the history of adventuring. I mean, 100 gold, seriously? Even that beer and swords for the youngsters had cost us more than that. Never mind, that's just me, Sorsha was pretty content with the outcome.
Despite this last complaint we still managed to raise enough cash to pay Gaelan and collect RoP +2 and the Amulet of Power from Aran.
I'm thinking to allow Sorsha to complete one more stronghold quest before forcing her to proceed with the main plotline. And given that she's a bard, she's already on her way to the Five Flagons' cellar.
Regards,
B.
The Altar is no real threat anyway, but you might get an additional style point for using a single hit from one of the Sunstone bullets found in the temple to destroy it
Stellar - half-elf druid (Grond0)
Corethief XXXVI - human berserker dualled to thief in BG2EE (Corey_Russell)
Betsdown - human dark moon monk (Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1198617/#Comment_1198617
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1199158/#Comment_1199158
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1199518/#Comment_1199518
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1199733/#Comment_1199733
Once he was on the run again, he targeted the golem-type statue - using the crimson dart as that statue needs +3 to hit. However, that statue also moves slightly faster than the others and that makes it potentially dangerous - particularly with the small variations in speeds and positioning of characters you can get in MP and the inability to easily pause. To counter that I had thought that I should perhaps use an oil of speed to ensure I could keep out of reach while running round - but failed to actually do that. The result was all too predictable as the golem stretched out a long arm and a crushing fist doing 52 damage was too much for Stellar to handle
Thanks @Aerakar, I'm really glad that you're considering that - BG bards are interesting and fun characters, with much more to offer apart from signing and Offensive Spins
Assuming you use the +3 sling you found in that area with no proficiency and 18 DEX, that's a net +3 to hit over your base THAC0. Level 18 for a rogue is base THAC0 12, so that's 10 you need to hit the altar with a bullet. Or less, if you have any attack-boosting accessories. Since you only need one hit, that's probably faster than burning through the 100 HP with melee attacks - but equipping the sling makes you more vulnerable to the enemy melee attacks.
Ash (male dwarf priest of Lathander, Grond0); Whurr (male human undead hunter, Gate70)
Previous run
This run was actually started a few weeks ago, immediately after the conclusion of the previous one. However, we'd only killed Shoal and travelled south of Beregost and I didn't write it up at the time. That did mean wasting a couple of minutes at the start of the session wondering if we had a saved game at all, but eventually we got underway.
Whurr had long sword proficiency, so the first port of call was on Greywolf. He successfully resisted 3 attempts to command him and proved difficult to hit - partly due to Whurr at that time having just picked up a non-proficient short bow to shoot arrows with. Eventually though we got enough hits to finish him off.
We were now each at level 4 and decided to risk the ankhegs. Whurr got hit several times, but kept going with the help of a few healing potions to clear the cave.
On the hunt for proficient weapons, Ash went next to find Bassilus. A well-timed silence shut him up immediately after his opening conversation and commands cut short the remaining battle.
Now up to level 5, Ash had access to skeletons and made use of those in clearing a couple of groups of sirines in the lighthouse area. Skeletons also fended off a few attacks from golems in the pirate cave, allowing Whurr to get a tome to improve his constitution.
Undead hunter 6, 80 HPs, 110 kills, 0 deaths
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII XXXVI - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
This was started last week but a few minutes in I had a power cut so our adventures were cut short ready to continue this week
The 53 picked up a brief piece of deja-vu along with Colquetle's amulet and then we were onto pastures new which contained ankheg plate for Stoic and Noober's arrow-riddled corpse. Then quickly past Nashkel Mine to pick up Samuel, stopping via Beregost to mail a letter and return the amulet before proceeding on to the Friendly Arm Inn dropping off Samuel and a spider body in exchange for golden pantaloons.
Tarnesh got his assassination (brutalising Stoic) before CoreArcher finally got his eye in and killed our foe. Crispin took two steps back into the temple and paid 200gp to raise Stoic and we continued on our way. This was to Ulgoths Beard, dealing with one ankheg on the way and returning a plate to the priestess' daughter on the way.
Back down south we dealt with Zal, Vax, Caldo, Krumm, Gnarl, Hairtooth, a polar bear, an ogre mage ambush, Ingot the gnoll, Teyngan's party, Bjornin's ogres and gnolls being slaughtered by Drizzt. Then on to Bassilus who succumbed after being blinded.
Anyway it was easy to make amends as we simply cleared out Nashkel Mine (Mulahey was no danger but his minions swarmed CoreArcher and almost killed him). having survived that we rested until healed and picked up the Harrower longsword for CoreArcher.
Our two hour time was running out so we just found chance to obliviate Nimbul, Tranzig, and Karlat. The session has taken us from frail travellers to seasoned adventurers plus we got the near-obligatory party member death to keep Grond0 happy.
Inventory at session end:
We wrapped up by our usual comparison of kill counts. Suffice to say one of us had 2 more kills than the other two combined, as a consequence I may have been heard to mutter bl**dy Corey as we terminated our voice chat!
Ash (male dwarf priest of Lathander, Grond0); Whurr (male human undead hunter, Gate70)
Previous updates
The final battle in the old temple was more troublesome than expected. Whurr went forward to try and dispel Sarevok, only to be trapped by the MP delay you sometimes get when a client character is in dialogue. That allowed Sarevok to hit him a couple of times before he could move again, while Angelo and Tazok were also activated, as well as the expected Semaj.
Undead hunter 8, 102 HPs, 289 kills, 1 death
After a while making progress with my long-life challenge, I've been trying my poverty run again. Although I've used various set ups and rules for this, all have shared the strict requirement to not use or equip any items and not pay for any equipment or services (quests can be paid for directly, though items required for quests cannot be bought). This is an unmodded run.
I have been requiring for a while that no characters take any damage and have restarted quite a few runs because of that. That's a fairly punitive restriction though, with some instances being difficult to avoid - here for instance Washout was targeted by a kobold outside his sight range.
From Candlekeep, the Opera went south to High Hedge and used magically created weapons to kill the golems, while those were concentrating on spirits.
To the south, sleep and command dealt with Mirianne's ogrillons and Zhurlong's hobgoblins. After travelling down to Nashkel during the day, Neira was blinded then commanded. Noober provided a bit more XP before Oopah was blinded and Vitiare magic-missiled.
At Firewine Bridge they killed Bentan in order to reduce reputation and allow Beggar to learn LMD. Washout then scouted ahead for kobolds before Meilum was blinded and worn down.
On the way to the FAI, a sleeping ogre provided a belt for Unshey. Tarnesh was poisoned by a spirit snake and Landrin got his goods back - that was just sufficient to allow everyone to level up.
Pauper, Priest of Helm - L4, 34 HPs, 27 kills, 0 deaths
Hardup, Shaman - L4, 33 HPs, 6 kills, 0 deaths
Washout, Bounty Hunter - L5, 34 HPs, 12 kills, 0 deaths
Aspire, Sorcerer - L4, 22 HPs, 6 kills, 0 deaths
Skint, Sorcerer - L4, 19 HPs, 5 kills, 0 deaths
Previous updates
Working through the remainder of the southern areas saw Narcillicus killed by a first use of call lightning, while the amazons were trapped by a first use of web. Spirit lions (with free action) were a deadly combination with web as far as the Doomsayer was concerned. The same tactic sorted out sirines at the Lighthouse area, but a bit of carelessness proved costly against the golems in the pirate cave. The first of those approached before I'd got any summons up and I ran for the cave entrance. Although I had a fair lead there, the golem appeared far enough out to get an attack in and the lack of melee weapons proved costly there as the golem did enough damage to exactly kill Aspire.
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII XXXVI - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
Crispin felt things would go smoothly, due to a stocky companion to cower behind and a slight companion to shoot anything that moved or failed to move. How would it all play out?
We started off by questioning where we'd previously been, CoreArcher broke first and suggested we hunt down the remaining sirines. What could go wrong, other than Stoic being charmed twice and Crispin being charmed once. That's right, nothing.
Inside the bandit tent CoreArcher thought he had successfully sneaked in but Raemon determined otherwise. Crispin and Stoic mounted a rescue mission and having previously been hasted CoreArcher could focus on removing poison and making good his escape. By the time he returned we'd whittled away and Britik collapsed to end the encounter.
Party at session close
I have started a run with a half-orc Berserker. My usual mod set-up which includes allowing all races to either multi-class or dual-class.
She travelled up and down the road between Nashkel and Ulgoth's Beard going off the road to kill Bassilus and to help Mellicamp.
Upon reaching level 7 she dualled to thief.
Tenya then joined her whereupon we went hunting for Basilisks, Medusae and Mutamin.
In that area a rescued petrified woman walked into a trap that I had set for Mutamin - the only major problem so far as it lowered my rep to 10.
Earlier on I had done the Dorn quest before bidding him farewell. Montaron had helped with pickpocketting.
Tenya reached level 8 in the gnoll stronghold and we have returned to the Carnival.
edit
We went to the coast and bumped our reputation to 20.
With items charisma is 22. Charisma will not increase until we reach Baldur's Gate.
My Berserker class is again active.
Time to go shopping for mage equipment.
We recruited Dynaheir and she is fairly well equipped though she is in need of more wands.
We cleared the high experience enemies to the west - sirines, carrion crawlers, flesh golems and the like, the result being that Dynaheir reached level 6. We are still short of wands, but they are largely not needed.
However after selling off surplus equipment we did buy Tenya a couple of wands and bought Dynaheir some spells.
Ash (male dwarf priest of Lathander, Grond0); Whurr (male human undead hunter, Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1200529/#Comment_1200529
First up was the opening dungeon where PfU scrolls and skeletons helped force a path through to Korlasz - she was silenced and quickly cut down.
Priest of Lathander 9, 66 HPs (incl. 5 from helm), 134 kills
Undead hunter 8, 102 HPs, 366 kills, 2 deaths