@Wise_Grimwald you know if pick-pocketing is what you are after then Garrick would be best for that being a bard and all -that's what bards are good at. That's mostly what I use Garrick for, if I ever use him.
@Wise_Grimwald you know if pick-pocketing is what you are after then Garrick would be best for that being a bard and all -that's what bards are good at. That's mostly what I use Garrick for, if I ever use him.
Thanks for the info. I might do that and use other thieves for the dungeons.
@Wise_Grimwald you know if pick-pocketing is what you are after then Garrick would be best for that being a bard and all -that's what bards are good at. That's mostly what I use Garrick for, if I ever use him.
I recruited Garrick and his pickpocket skill is only 65. Both Safana and Montaron can have over 100. If I kept Garrick he would probably fail in doing the required pickpocketting at Ulgoth's. Far better to choose either Safana or Montaron to do the pickpocketting and switch to the other for dungeon crawling. Both are good for that, Montaron having the advantage of being more robust when not dealing with traps as he can wear plate. Also he can use all bows/ crossbows.
Garrick did acquire Algernon's Cloak, but that was risky. He won't do it in future games. I had the same problem with other bards when I had a modded game.
Tara Update - reached level 7. Intending to buy expensive items before recruiting Viconia and perhaps Baeloth.
@Enuhal Several caster kits I see, nice (Diviner and Invoker are both very playable). Looking forward to it.
My Conjurer is still sitting in mid-SoD... I'll get the time to play at some point.
Though maybe for future runs I'll skip SoD entirely: Even if there are some potential run-enders here, starting SoA with 500k experience just wrecks the early-game challenge (IMO).
@aldain Caster kits make up a large percentage of missing kits in the Hall of Heroes (due to their sheer numbers) - aside from Invoker and Diviner, we still need an Abjurer, a Conjurer and a Necromancer in the Hall.
Triple Run for the Hall, Update 1
Our planned road (remember, all groups are obliged to do all of the same encounters for each session): East to FAI, South to Beregost, do sidequests in the village, south to Nashkel, do some sidequests here and at the carnival, buy the PfP scroll and move to the basilisks for an early experience boost.
Spearkensai party: Sleep and command are most of the early action we have - the party is quite weak in terms of defenses, and the damage output is reliant on decent +hit rolls on our kensai. Thank god for level 1 protection:
I have multiple spears with me in case of breakage, and I take a few risks in order to progress quickly:
This works out well against Tarnesh, who falls to a Kai'd spear attack:
We make our way to Beregost and start doing sidequests to get some experience. Sleep helps us with the spiders:
However, we run into trouble when dealing with Silke. A string of unlucky rolls, and we are unable to interrupt her spellcasting - she gets to cast lightning bolt as we get zero hits or successful spells - twice - and the run is over. That was quick. Doing Silke at level 1 with a party of 3 is, of course, a risk, but I like taking a few risks in the very early game for a faster start (which is why most of my deaths are in early BG1). We're down to 2 groups.
Anti-Magic party:
On a simliar path, the anti-magic party just rolls through the early game, carried by two strong longbow-users and true sight/dispel magic for early wizard encounters - Tarnesh gets shot down:
Silke stands not much of a chance against 3 fighter-types and dies before finishing a spell, and the Beregost sidequests are quickly completed. We make our way down to Nashkel, buy a green PfP scroll at the carnival and move east from the temple area towards the basilisks. With a few levels under our belt, access to stalker backstabs and inquisitor dispel makes me feel powerful enough to take down the nearby aventuring party:
Acid&Ice party:
This party doesn't contain quite as many powerful fighters, and with six people, experience gains are a bit lower, so our start isn't as fast. Just like the spearkensai party, we suffer a similiar reliance on level 1 protection during an early wolf encounter:
Tarnesh dies to a backstab thanks to our fighter/thief:
We enter Beregost, and with access to a spirit wolf and at least chromatic orb as a relatively safe interrupt, Silke doesn't prevail here. The sidequests are quickly done, but on the road to Nashkel, still at level 1, we face the dreaded bandit ambush - very scary for a level 1 single-class wizard. We pause the game, cast shield and move Firl, our Bhaalspawn, to the east, while the others try to engage the bandits in melee combat so they stop using their bows, and a spirit wolf is used at the western end of the map as a distraction. Firl gets hit, but only once - we survive:
Our chromatic orb interrupts Neira once we make it to Nashkel:
However, we almost suffer another setback at the carinval as Zordral is able to finish his horror spell uninterrupted. Luckily, Xerane is a berserker and protected by rage, and she gets a lucky hit:
We make it to the basilisk area, where we can use Corax to our advantage:
Corax and Xerane do the frontline work to allow us to get the golden girdle as well:
Okay! 2 of our 3 parties have made it past the early game. They should be quite safe with their experience advantage for the nearby future, and our acid&ice party will be able to actually start using some of their favored damage types.
The road ahead: All western wilderness areas except for the two sword coast areas. Additionally, the Nashkel Mines.
Anti-Magic party:
Stalkers can be a lot of fun and have quite the strong early game - we don't even need our inquisitor powers to take out most mages around here:
This party has the advantage of basically never needing to rest. Most enemies are just easily shot down at range - having three specialized fighter-types with the basilisk levels makes things fairly easy and quick - we move at a very fast pace, clearing area after area. Our inquisitor immunities to charm and hold (which includes paralyze) allow us to easily take down even the vampire wolf group at the eastern part of the temple map without much concern for our safety:
The mines are mostly academic - our bounty hunter disarms a few traps, our wizard slayer serves as a tank if needed, our ranged weapons do the job and Mulahey is easily defeated. We move outside and take down the amazons at range, making sure to interrupt their spells:
Acid&Ice party:
At a slower pace, we have to carry a few weaker characters, such as a dark moon monk (the blinding ability is nice, but that's it at this point). Our shaman isn't especially strong at this point either, and the totemic druid is mostly only good for their spirit animal for now. These weaknesses are notable whenever I try to move our monk into melee combat:
We do, however, obtain our first powerful cold damage weapon when killing Greywolf:
And, when facing opposing adventuring/bandit parties, we get to use some of our acid&ice (mostly ice) tricks - the spirit wolf is immune to frost damage, so writhing fog doesn't hurt it at all. Now, writhing fog doesn't to significant damage, but it does interrupt spellcasting fairly reliably. The slow effect, though, is extremely rare and can even be saved against - not reliable in any way. Still, we make progress using this strategy:
Firl learns a few spells after obtaining some gold. No acid arrow yet, but we have glitterdust at level 2 - a chance to shoot ice bullets, acid arrows and the like at the aforementioned vampire wolf group from a safe distance:
If there's any type of enemy writhing fog can actually kill without too much trouble, it has got to be big groups of kobolds:
So, the mines are easy enough to clear out. Mulahey is able to cast an entangle spell before Xerane takes him down:
And, once again, on our way out, the amazon party runs into some trouble - to be exact, Xerane and a spirit wolf with their innate/enraged immunities, writhing fog to interrupt and the others at a safe distance, assisting with their ranged weapons:
Trio 53 part 9 (lLinks to part 1+2345678)
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
Heave ho off we go. First order was Windspear Hills which took about 45 minutes to complete and had Stoic mention that he'd expect either the archer or dwarven defender to take fire damage but not the dragon disciple. Crispin had protected both of them from fire but relied on his innate 75% resistance.
With that done we pressed on to the temple district sewers to wrap up the illithid down there. We had a couple of hiccups where Stoic's mighty intellect saw him take two hits in rapid succession and down he went. CoreArcher was immediately targeted and dominated. Crispin tried to use mass invisibility on him but that is party members only and a charmed person does not count.
In hindsight Crispin could have used improved invisibility but opted to repeat mass invisibility when the domination wore off. This he duly did but the illithid straws were quicker to the slurp and for the first time in Amn Crispin found himself friendless.
Two rod of resurrection charges sorted that out, and some looting of equipment allowed us to have a second bite of the illithid cherry proving ultimately successful.
We sold anything that moved to Roger and headed down to deal with the Unseeing Eye. That went fine, a lich there succumbing to Improved Haste and the Improved Mace of Disruption before the Unseeing Eye blinked it's last.
Crispin prepped for a sea journey to Brynnlaw but wanted to stop off for a lesson at the Guarded Compound. We ended up calling it a draw, with the enemies ultimately vanquished but not before CoreArcher acid blobbed himself out of existence on a trap. With three enemies remaining we decided to conclude matters. One of the enemies saw off Stoic (Maferan probably) but took three cloudkills and a wilting to leave Crispin the remaining occupant of the building.
With CoreArcher chunked, Crispin retired from the challenge and divined that our next party would be along soon.
(postscript: I think CoreArcher was confused at the time so Corey was a hapless passenger - not certain as I was the other side of the room in a show of solidarity!)
Entering DT Labyrinth lvl3 now... Minsc managed to run across the first room and avoid that fireball. I carefully position Safana on the edge of the AoE and she... drops dead, 54 damage in one shot! And she was wearing Batalista's Passport (40% fire resistance). Avoided chunking by only 2 HP...
I do not know what hit her, was that a trap she failed to detect? Cannot be that fireball surely...
No, it was that fireball. That particular fireball deals 20d6 damage - an average of 70 before resistances, if you fail the save for half. Twice as powerful as a fully powered conventional mage fireball. It's a monster.
You do have a full round between blasts. I tend to give whoever's running the boots of speed, and run one at a time across the room starting immediately after the blast. Also, if I have enough fire resistance gear to get people over 100%, I use the fireball room as a source of unlimited healing.
I use the same tactics as jmerry to get through that room. If you do that, it is fairly straightforward. When your first character has crossed it is possible to throw the boots to the next character if you place the characters correctly.
Journal of Tara
I recruited Safana who did a great job of pickpocketting. I dropped her and picked up Viconia, Baeloth, Montaron.
We killed all the sirine on the coast, helped Charleston Nib and Brage before rescuing Dynaheir. Rested at the carnival and stocked up on ammo and a protection scroll.
It was then time for the Basilisks. A green scroll together with the help of my party members was sufficient to deal with them, Mutamin and a party of adventurers. We went to the FAI to rest.
I need to lose some reputation but not too much. Before doing so, I must get more gold to pay for scrolls for Dynaheir.
EDIT
I bought all the scrolls available for Dynaheir.
We did Dorn's quest and dismissed him.
We finished the mines and left Xan outside.
The bandit camp was a walkover and we are now at the Cloakwood Mine having killed Drasus et al.
The party is plenty strong enough without Dynaheir but I would like to strengthn her prior to SoD
I was thinking of starting another game with one of the specialist mages, but decided to stick with this run at the moment.
One of the mages confused Viconia but too late for the spell to cause major problems.
We defeated Davaeorn easily with skeletons.
I was amazed that allowing the slaves to be drowned only cost two in reputation, whereas actually killing an innocent is something like eight. Reputation now 16 so my party members shouldn't leave so long as I am not TOO righteous in the Gate which is where the party is now located.
I'll have to miss out some quests or do them in a way that doesn't raise rep.
I have never had to worry about having too high a reputation before since I usually play with a good party.
A confusion spell in the Iron Throne took all but one of the party out.
As a result Baeloth was chunked.
Montaron now level 6 fighter level 6 thief. Soon to become level 7 thief. Tara has reached the 161000 level cap. Rep 13.
We decided to replace Baeloth with Quayle. At least we have a good stock of scrolls. The scroll case is full and overflowing.
EDIT
We recruited Coran and took the wyvern's tails to the temple.
After that we returned to High Hedge to fill up Quayle's spell book only to discover that none of the scrolls there were needed.
The road ahead: Bandit Camp and the remaining wilderness areas.
Anti-Magic party:
We enter the bandit camp, shoot the bandits from range, enter the tent, true sight the mirror images, shoot down the wizard and clear up:
Time for the Sword Coast areas. Droth can't capitalize on Shoal's kiss:
And our inquisitor's charm immunity allows us to easily take down the sirens:
Off to the eastern areas, where we equip some arrows of biting for the red wizards:
The Gullykin party is, however, able to survive our first round of arrows/backstabs, so we need to use a greenstone amulet charge to avoid crowd control on our bhaalspawn:
No such problems in the firewine dungeon though - arrows of biting do the job:
We also clear out Ulcaster School and move to Durlag's Tower. A strength potion for the battle horrors outside to improve thac0, and we rest inside, using true sight and magical ammo to defeat the ghost. Easy enough:
Only Cloakwood remains.
Acid&Ice party:
Bandit camp, for this party, involved a few writhing fogs:
And a nice chromatic orb stun on Taugosz:
Firl almost got in some trouble when spawning into the gnoll cave right at the front, getting crit immediately before he could move away - a second hit could've killed him, but he was able to move out of danger in time:
Clearing the tent was easy enough, though, and we moved on to Droth - he failed to save against chromatic orb stun:
We do have the protection from cold spell available on Firl, allowing Xerena a bit of an easier time walking into writhing fogs:
Sirens fall to enrage, Lendarn joins Droth in his failure to resist chromatic orb:
A strangely high success rate, though being an invoker is bound to have some advantages. While traveling around, we get into a basilisk ambush - luckily, I'm carrying mirrored eyes potions for just such an occasion:
At Durlag's, the wand of frost does some serious damage. The ghost is able to finish his confusion spell this time around, but only hits spirit wolves, as Xerane is enraged. Surprisingly, this guy isn't immune to cold damage:
No trouble in the remaining wildnerness areas, so this party is ready to move to Cloakwood as well.
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way through Cloakwood was easy enough, especially with a few protection from poison scrolls at our disposal and inquisitor charm immunity for the hamadryad. We decided to approach Drasus from range, with a little bit of careful hit and run:
Inside the mine, true sight greatly helped in taking down Hareishan:
I tried my hand at a backstab against Davaeorn, which didn't proved the results we needed, so our bounty hunter had to protect against magic via potion. However, a frontal assault from three fighter-types was easily enough thanks to true sight:
Acid&Ice party:
Our summons allowed us to go more aggressive when dealing with Drasus - two spirit wolves in a writhing fog, and three forest beings at the back. A very powerful combination:
Our success streak with chromatic orbs continued against Hareishan:
And even Natasha:
Davaeorn was especially easy to deal with, because he failed to save against mental domination via forest being right away. We wasted some of his spells and got him in a good position to backstab him with our fighter/thief:
Having done all the quests in the Gate that I wish to do, We are back at Candlekeep with a rep of 16.
If I had returned a book it would have been 17, but that's a bit high for my liking.
Before entering, I discovered that I had missed some slings in the Gate so I returned for them. In transit was ambushed by bandits. After killing them I sold the scalps and returned to Candlekeep.
We were badly injured fighting the Elminster Doppelganger et al but we did survive.
Fighting Prat's party however Dynaheir was confused or similar and as a result was killed.
We raised her at the FAI. There were a few spiders that we didn't hunt in Candlekeep.
Anti-Magic party:
At Sorcerous Sundries, we got into our first spot of potential trouble, lacking remove fear against multiple horror casts - we were able to interrupt some, but on of them went through. Luckily, once the cast hit, only one of the necromancers was left alive, and he didn't have the spellslots left to kill one of our characters at this point:
I propably should have had my inquisitor use a greenstone amulet charge here, allowing her to dispel the others.
Not much trouble during the whole host of minor sidequests here. After most of them were done, we dealt with Marek&Lothander, obtaining another pair of boots of speed in the process:
Degrodel's house was cleared with via strength, heroism, invulnerability/defense potions to buff our fighters. They're pretty damn powerful in a straight-up fight:
Finally, we entered the Iron Throne HQ and fought the party upstairs. Remember, no fireballs allowed in this run - instead, we went for a bit of backstabbing with both bounty hunter and stalker, hit&run using the stairs and a fairly straightforward victory in the end:
Acid&Ice party:
In contrast, when this party gets hit by a crow control effect, we have access to useful spells such as spiritual clarity:
Adding haste to our buffs greatly increases our damage output, as the ogre magi were soon to learn:
However, Firl is a lot more vulnerable, taking some damage from an invisible stalker at Degrodel's. No access to Stoneskin until SoA, as we don't do Neera's quest or the Ice Island. We're forced to drink an invisibility potion:
Our second rough spot for Firl after the gnolls in the bandit camp. If we get to SoA, however, he will be much safer against physical damage. The battle is much closer over all for our acid&ice party, but we emerge with a victory:
Level 7 is immiment, and we get access to ice storm - finally, a cold damage spell with actual significant damage - tested right away at the sewers:
Sadly, it doesn't scale with our character level, so it's now as strong as it will ever be. Best to make good use of it: At the Iron Throne HQ, we go for a brute force approach - Xeran, with protection from cold and enrage, charges, the others stay back and use writhing fog, ice storm, spirit wolf summons, DMM blindness, ranged attacks... I do miss a hold person spell near the end of the battle, but the victory is an overwhelming one as our ice spells do their job interruping and damaging the hostile party:
The road ahead: Return to Candlekeep and back to Baldur's Gate.
Anti-Magic party:
At this point, there isn't a lot of game left and we have a bunch of potions, so we can use strength potions even for casual encounters. We fight our way through the Candlekeep catacombs; Backstab and true sight prove enough to easily take down Prat's party:
Back at the gate - our two free action rings allow for a safe approach against the flaming fist HQ clerics, and we have no trouble at the Iron Throne or with the assassins:
Now, the ducal palace is propably the first serious challenge for this party, as we have to use pure physical power to take down the doppelgangers in time - we buff up with oils of speed, strength and heroism. It's a race against time - Liia dies, but we are able to save Belt and achieve victory:
Acid&Ice party:
Similiar to the anti-magic party, we're able to overwhelm Prat with a few buffs and direct attacks. We're starting to get to a point where our dark moon monk, Koschmara, is going to get fairly useful, especially when buffed with spirit armor and her frozen fists:
Back in the city: Some more fun with forest beings.
And while we don't have true sight, detect invisibility still does much of the same thing at this point:
Sadly, we can't unleash our ice spells at the ducal palace, but with 6 party members and 5 summons, we can cover that much more ground and save both dukes:
Trio 54 Update 1
Theen: gnomish cleric/thief (Corey_Russell)
Dayglow: human cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb: human cavalier (Gate70)
So somewhat unusual for our Trio, we have two characters with the same race and class. But this is an advantage, as in many cases the cavaliers made short work of the enemies. For harder encounters, Theen could throw in commands and later holds and silences. Theen can even do the traps in the pirate's cave, so this is a very flexible and potent group. Hopefully they will go far.
* Candlekeep chores done without incident, though Dayglow made looting the sapphire more dangerous by putting an unconscious noble near where he had to loot the sapphire.
* Shoal shot dead like usual, we couldn't quite yet do Mad Arcand, not quite enough CHA.
* Ankheg armor in Nashkel picked up for your tank, Drubb
* The party wanted weapons. So Greywolf was shot up for his sword, a free +2 dagger picked in the three tombs area, and we got a club for Theen from Krumm. While we were at at, headed to Gnoll Fortress to get the CHA tome, now party has 18 CHA character.
* Next up was Basilisks, the only issue was Drubb accidentally triggered Mutamutin. However, with the cavaliers immune to fear, it wasn't very likely the mage was going to last long and he didn't. Kirian's party silenced and 1/2 the party held so they didn't survive, though they put a good beating on the party before they went down.
* Since the party was immune to poison and charm, naturally the sirines made a tempting target. They were all defeated in the two areas without incident. Nobody even got subjected to feeblemind. The flesh golems put down a beating they didn't manage to kill anybody. Dayglow and Drubb were reminded we have a thief to deal with the traps (we often don't have a thief).
* Melicamp successfully restored, the hobgoblins with the +2 sword were taken out, and poor Bassilus got held so he didn't do much better.
* The party by this point had some cash, so some major purchases were made: 1) shadow thief armor for Theen 2) dagger of venom for Gron0 3) full plate for Drubb - this meant he could hand his ankheg armor to Dayglow. All of this meant the party is now well armed and armored.
* Some miscellaneious tasks completed, Karlat taken out, spiders in Beregost cleared, piercing belt for Theen from an ogre, dealing with Tarnesh with skeletons, returning Joai's ring and turning in Landarin's stuff.
* We rested then saved our session in the Ankegs farm area - the Ankhegs will be our target next session.
I discovered that the problem was that I had failed to talk to Tamoko.
Everything now OK.
Now can't decide whether to go for the final battle or to do other quests.
I have maximum experience though my party doesn't.
I decided that raiding Durlag's would have some long term benefits. Love however can continue to live.
EDIT
The Duralag's Tower Raid was highly successful.
We sold our non-magical weapons and with the gold bought as many potions from sorcerous sundries as we could afford.
Now going after Saverok.
EDIT
Montaron failed to find a trap and as a result he died and my health was reduced to four. That was too close for comfort!!
We only had 34gp so had to sell our jade Rings to raise him.
Montaron didn't need potions next time.
Traps killed Semaj.
Saverok killed Montaron
The party killed Saverok
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way through the labyrinth, we use fire protection scrolls/potions for the undercity party to avoid detonation arrow damage and go for a little bit of hit&run:
We use all ouf our remaining potions and scrolls to buff up for Sarevok and a quick dispelling arrow to pull him towards the party and remove his haste:
Semaj teleports in and uses a MM&GM sequencer. We counter with true sight and some quick attacks:
Semaj is about to follow up with chaos, which is pretty much expected. Magic shielding potions are ready (though our wizard slayer can't use them), but not needed, as he dies before he can finish the spell:
A little bit of kiting and shooting, and victory is ours:
Acid&Ice party:
The undercity party falls to a more aggressive approach: Some fire protection, cold protection for Xerane, forest beings + spirit wolves, and we go for ice storms and writhing fogs. Ice storm has the advantage of getting past MGOI, which is fairly useful in the early game:
Tamoko gets an uninterruptable spell here, a flamestrike aimed at Firl, but our fire resistance is high enough to avoid any danger:
We rest and buff up for Sarevok. However, the big guy doesn't follow us immediately after we shoot him with an arrow - Semaj still teleports in. He starts, once again, with an instant greater malison, following up with a domination attempt:
Without true sight, mirror images offer him some protection. As Semaj seems to get an uninterruptable spell (enchantment school), we drink our potions of magic shielding - we can't afford getting hit by the malison + chaos combo. This way, we are able to defeat the wizard and return to Sarevok, who is, by now, joined by Angelo:
We shoot down Angelo. The party is immune to fire damage, so he only damages some of our summons - with Sarevok de-hasted and Tazok joining the fight, some kiting is in order:
The road ahead: Out of the dungeon, non-stronghold sidequests.
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way out of the dungeon is easy enough:
Traps and backstabs give us a huge advantage if we have the opportunity to prepare for combat, as Mencar soon learned:
However, even ambushers stand little chance at this point - thanks to inquisitor powers. Since we don't really have buffs of our own, there's no penalty for aggressively throwing around inquisitor dispels:
Some early weapons to aim for: Daystar, Lirlarcor, The Sleeper (until we get FoA) - the slavers soon feel our wrath:
We go on with minor sidequests - here's a fun double backstab at Prebek's:
And a quick visit to the crypts at the graveyard. We randomly found a detonation arrow:
The bridge district party can be quite dangerous early on - but not with our backstabs:
However, Karon can still be a little bit vulnerable. Rune assassins, who aren't fooled by stealth or invisibility, his most common defenses, do some serious damge to him:
With most minor sidequests done, we take on the sewer party - a double backstab opening takes out their wizard. However, these guys have some tough fighters amongst their numbers, and we're feeling our lack of any spells here, with no buffs to give us an advantage, summons to take a few hits, crowd control to take some of them out or nukes to take down the most dangerous ones - a fairly close battle:
The final thing we do before we start with stronghold quests is a visit to WKI (without the statues) - not too troubling, though Karon gets into a dangerous situation when a shadow fiend holds him - the others do enough damage to easily prevent a death, though:
Acid&Ice party:
Ice Storm and Cone of Cold, which we can now add to our arsenal, are at their strongest in early SoA - however, CoC is not easy to aim:
Our forest beings, though, can still win most battles here. Oh, and with no level 3 acid&ice spells available, we can take some great utility such as slow, which greatly helped in this slaver battle:
Now, this is the perfect room to spam icestorm&writhing fog:
And cone of cold does work fairly well against ambushes, especially these low HP wizards - though it is quite hard to actually hit multiple opponents as they rush into melee combat.
We buy the quite expensive Joril's Dagger (a two-handed sword, despite the name) early on as an important frost damage weapon. I had no idea this thing even did frost damage until planning for this run. Usually, I'd just use Lirlarcor:
More fun with CoC:
This is the one frost damage spell that actually fully scales with our level and is helped by our invoker specialization. It should be the most powerful weapon in our nuking arsenal later on, especially when put in a spell trigger or made instant via Robe of Vecna.
In the crypts, we do some friendly fire damage via icestorm to instantly take down the spiders.
And yes, this party can backstab as well - we do have a fighter/thief with a 4* multiplier:
When we get to the sewer party, the growing power difference between our parties starts to show - with spirit wolves and forest beings, some cold protection spells and CoC spam, this battle is over rather quickly, with minimal damage taken, compared to the rough all-out fight the anti-magic party had to face:
I also made sure not to make the same mistake against the shadow fiends this time around. These guys are immune to cold damage, so I'm allowed to use alternate damage sources - in this case, Daystar:
Both parties prepared to enter their first Stronghold - De'Arnise Keep is the obvious choice, with Frostreaver being the ultimate acid&ice weapon and the FoA being the perfect weapon for our wizard slayer in the anti-magic party. The acid&ice party sadly isn't allowed to use the FoA, because it also deals fire damage, which we generally aren't allowed to do.
After defeating Sarevok we managed to reach Baldur's Gate but on the way both Dynaheir and Quayle were killed. Quayle was chunked but Dymaheir was raised. I am currently alone, Imoen investigating some sounds.
Due to Viconia leaving, I am now a hero again.
Due to not having mods this time, the game is totally different. Viconia and Montaron left taking their equipment with them.
Montaron did at least give me warning that he was leaving, but Coran left without warning. They all took important equipment with them !
I'll know better next time.
It was actually a blessing thst Quayle was killed. Otherwise I would have lost his equipment too.
Minsc has joined me and has equipment that I shouldn't have. I didn't reach Kiel's Helmet in Durlag's Tower this time.
The road ahead: De'Arnise Keep, Temple Ruins, Druid Grove and a quick excursion for our acid&ice group.
Anti-Magic party:
Not much use for our anti-magic abilites at De'Arnise keep, but trolls are easy enough to fight in a direct battle - we use fire arrows to finish them. The yuan-ti mage is backstabbed:
We already have decent enough weapons to hit an iron golem, and we use some of the potions we have in our inventory:
With our potions still going and some traps to assist, Tor'Gal is easily taken down:
Temple Ruins are next, mostly because the acid&ice party wants Duskblade. Still good to get the +5 leather armor for our stalker, though. The battles are super easy for this party, as we have both Daystar and Azuredge at our disposal, which just melts any undead we face - all we have to do is kill the shade lord before it does anything dangerous:
We quickly complete the ranger stronghold quests.
The druid grove should be easy enough. Our weapons and other equipment are top notch for this point in the game. However, when fighting the first group of druids here, we do get hit by an unexpected horror spell, and our scared characters run into the next group:
This could've been prevented with Cerberus and his moon dog howl - luckily, the horror effect doesn't last too long, and the druids are unable to actually kill one of our characters before we can recover:
Ihtafeer is quickly disposed off:
Cernd wins the battle against Faldorn for us, we do the remaining Tradmeet sidequests and move back the Athkatla.
Acid&Ice party:
Obviously we have quite a few acid arrows with us, so finishing off trolls is no trouble. Spirit wolves do very well here as well, and our buffs (plus some potions) allow for an easy victory both against the iron golem and Tor'Gal:
Some cone of cold fun against Valygar's guardians:
A rare use of acid arrow against the shade lord for potential interrupts, and a sunstone bullet against the shadow altar (which I'm allowing as a exception to damage type restrictions because of RP reasons) - the Shade Lord doesn't survive for long, he just isn't well protected in the vanilla game:
Guess what? Our chromatic orb is up to a petrification effect and finally actually deals acid damage:
We get into a potential spot of trouble when fighting some myconid colonies, as Firl gets confused and his stoneskins removed by the attacking mushrooms:
Luckily, the others are able to save him from taking any more hits by quickly taking out the remaining foes, and our shaman uses spiritual clarity to remove the crowd control effect. We move on to take down the final group of druids, with the wounded Firl left at a safe distance:
We do have a totemic druid, so Cernd is not needed - spirit wolves do the job:
And now, for the aforementioned excursion - we now have Frostreaver, Duskblade and Blackblood in addition to Joril's Dagger. Firl himself won't get an acid or frost damage weapon (would've had to play SoD to get one, but is spells are enough), but now everyone but our Monk is taken care off. For her, we need the Gauntlets of Aln Zekk:
And to get these, we need to do Rasaad's entire SoA questline - which means we will also get the nice mirror image ring in the process:
Quest 2 - invisible stalkers you say?
Easy enough to aim CoC if you aren't allowed to have party members in the room.
And the final battle - a great opportunity for CoC and Icestorm, as there is a single narrow bridge to defend:
Our acid&ice weapon arsenal is ready. We will use most of these weapons for the rest of the game. The only further available weapon upgrades are The Wave +4, Ice Star +4, and, though only if we get lucky, the Spectral Brand.
The road ahead: Mae'Var's Guild, the Unseeing Eye and Windspear Hills.
Anti-Magic party:
Killing Rayic? Easy enough with inquisitor dispel at our disposal:
Mae'var himself is a pushover, and we move on into the old tunnels. Balduran's Shield is available for the beholders here - the undead, however - to be precise, the greater mummies - turned out to be very troublesome. I forgot, for some reason, that I had Azuredge available, and got hit by their powerful diseases. While we tried to dance around at the area exit, Dominga got paralyzed - the others escaped, regrouped and took down the undead, but Dominga had to be resurrected via the RoR - our first character death in this run.
Luckily, the Unseeing Eye was easy enough to defeat:
With this quick reminder on how we should fight powerful undead, the vampires at the Windspear dungeon suffered death at the hand of an axe-throwing inquisitor:
Meanwhile, Conster was unable to resist inquisitor dispel:
Acid&Ice party:
The other party lured Rayic downstairs, breached & killed him.
Some fun with icestorm and forest beings to take down Mae'var:
The fact that I'm playing the anti-magic party first does make it easier to adapt to potential problems when I'm playing this one. As such, the undead in Ghoul Town stood no chance against us here. Unseeing Eye: Done.
As usual, Daystar sunray is allowed against undead because of their cold damage immunity. We need that against the vampires at Windspear Hills:
A little bit of traps and summons greatly help with Samia:
Forest beings hold Tazok, and we see our blue and green numbers light up:
The road ahead: Planar prison & planar sphere plus wizard stronghold questline.
Anti-Magic party:
We start off in the planar prison, with our bounty hunter + stalker going invisible for a quick double backstab on the spellcasters in the opening group:
With no good protection against his paralyze effect, the master of thralls poses some challenge. Our damage is good enough to take him out fast enough to prevent anything bad from happening:
After destroying the orb, it's all about rushing down the warder before he finishes killing all of the slaves:
Didn't even need our inquisitor abilities. On to the planar prison - this one's easy enough when it comes to the halflings and Tolgerias' crew, as inquisitor dispel makes short work of them. Golems, however, are quite a bit tougher - the slow spell and heavy physical damage is a dangerous combination, and we don't have the ability to stoneskin-tank them. Some careful play, using our simulacrum and drinking a few potions are required:
Lavok is simply backstabbed:
Acid&Ice party:
I'm including Mekrath here, because his death is rather funny - we attack him with Koschmara and our spirit wolves, and they deal so much passive frost damage through his stoneskins that only the very last spirit wolf hit actually breaks them.
Our opening in the planar sphere: Backstab and a well-placed cone of cold:
This party has chaotic commands. In fact, by this point, we have enough for everyone - so the master of thralls is no trouble at all. The warden is quickly taken down before he can do anything too fancy:
We have access to death fog by now - our final acid damage spell. I looked for ways to use it, though the damage is low and we rarely face dangerous summons. In the planar sphere, I tried it against Tolgerias and his friend, though this mostly only served to lure them towards us:
Still, it was easy enough to breach and kill both of them:
The golems are rather tough for this party as well (mostly because I was almost out of spells when facing them), but I decided to take a page out of Grond0's book and used 2 invisible blockers to make the final group much easier to defeat:
Lavok was simply breached and defeated.
Time for the wizard stronghold quests - easy enough to finish this rather short questline (if you're willing to rest a lot):
Anti-Magic party:
We return to Watcher's Keep and take down the statues before moving downstairs for the second level. It's easy enough to clear the libraries and use a few protective potions and scrolls to clear the respective rooms. For the chromatic demon, our bounty hunter is at the level where she gets fire damage added to normal traps, so we lay them down, wait for ice golem form, free it and have to only add a little damage via firetooth:
Luckily, both our stalker and our inquisitor can wear the amulet of power, so we're fully equipped to deal with Bodhi's lair (and we still have Azuredge and Daystar). A quick inquisitor dispel helps with Tanova:
I didn't take a screenshot for Bodhi, because she didn't make it past a round.
Acid&Ice party:
Well, we didn't rest after the statue battle and went into the libraries guns blazing, and I didn't really expect Xerane, who had lost some hitpoints, to suddendly die to a kuo-toa cleric's flamestrike:
That's awkward. Our first character death for this run, though a quick RoR charge and we're all good. Lightning resistance for the air room, chaotic commands against the snake's stun for the slime room - perfectly synchronized level ups here:
Frost resistance spells for our 3 fighters for the ice room:
The fire giant is easily kited, and for the very first time, I chose to summon the chromatic demon in its fire form to make use of our frost damage:
We spam cones of cold, icestorm, use our cold damage weapons & frozen fists - ironically, it's 2 points of random slashing damage that ends up killing it in the end:
To Bodhi's lair - our chromatic orbs now kill on a failed saving throw:
True sight + breach for Tanova:
And, once again, no screenshots for Bodhi. On to Brynnlaw!
The road ahead: Brynnlaw, Spellhold, City of Caverns.
Anti-Magic party:
We backstab Perth to make our way into spellhold:
There is only one major challenge in the asylum for a party on this level - the lich added to the random undead spawn. Luckily, this one turns out to be a non-issue thanks to a very lucky Azuredge hit before he got his protections up:
Jon, on the other hand, always wants to finish casting his clone spell before even attempting to use protections, so I don't even have to try very hard to get him to near death before he can do anything else, causing him to flee directly after:
Before entering the Underdark, we quickly fight our way through the City of Caverns, which is easy enough:
Acid&Ice party:
Sadly, I didn't take any screenshots for these three areas with this party. However, things went very, very smoothly, so there's nothing exciting to report - notably, since we are at a lower level with a full party of 6 instead of just 4, we didn't get the lich spawn, only some relatively easy to defeat greater mummies. The true challenge awaits in the Underdark.
Trio 54 Update 2
Theen - gnomish cleric/thief, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dayglow - human cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb - human cavalier (Gate70)
We find our selves in the ankheg farm and do some beat downs on some ankhegs. This went fairly well, with the cavaliers usually making short work of the ankhegs. Theen barely got time to loot and maybe throw in a bullet or two. The ankhegs did some good damage, but not enough to kill anyone. Farmer Brun was consoled with the body of his son. The party got separated and Dayglow and Drubb took a drubbing, while Theen found himself under attack by two ankhegs at close range. Theen brought out some commands which helped give him time for his party to come to his aid. Success.
We did a brief bit of shopping at Ulgoth's Beard, then we did Samuel's area. Theen forgot some of his party was still carrying ankheg shells, so after returning Samuel we did that. We also noted that Silke had yet to be killed - a simple silence made short work of her.
Theen decided we should work on the main quest, so to Naskhel Mines the party went. The enemies were easily defeated here, even Mulahey got silenced - the ring of power was a nice upgrade for Theen. The amazons outside didn't do well with buffed skeletons distracting them, the party giving them a beat down and also some silences and holds from Theen.
Nimbul was defeated easily, as we Neera who fell prey to a Theen hold person. Tranzig was next and he failed to make an impression on Drubb. Next was the Bandit Camp, the cavaliers made short work of the bandits outside, with the only real threat Khosahnn, but a Theen hold person once again was decisive. We talked about what to do about Tazok's Tent, but Theen said since the cavs are immune to fear, just charge in? Yep that worked fine. Yet another Theen hold person was decisive, though the end result was never in doubt. He found a great bow that no one can use...
Drubb mentioned why don't we get the other set of gauntlets, so sure enough Melium was defeated for his gauntlets. Since we were close, we also dealt with Molkar's gang. Skeletons, silences and holds were once again too much, with the cavs melee quickly burning the enemies down.
Theen decided to pay a visit to Durlag's Tower. The battle horrors outside were dealt with OK. Theen's magic missile wand was quite handy. Inside Rigilio got a "gift" of hair then killed. Drubb used a mirror eyes potion for the first basilisk. Then Theen had skeletons for distractions for the other basilisks - this worked well, not a single skeleton died. Theen looted the tower a bit and then we tried to escape.
Uh, oh, trouble! A basilisk ambush! Drubb was petrified immediately. The rest of the party made their escape, purchased some mirror eyes potions and stone to flesh scolls. We managed to trigger the ambush area first attempt and there wasn't a basilisk either, just some gibberlings. After area cleared we unpetrified Drubb, recruited him and he's back in business, after some Temple healings and to get a wisdom tome identified for Theen.
Seemed it was time to kill Brage and his sister and that god that appears when you take the idol from the gravesite. No problems with that.
Time for main quest, traveled to Cloakwood. Theen did the traps for area 2 and we helped the boy who said his brother went to fight the spiders. We destroyed the spiders, as expected with the cavaliers poison immunity. We had just enough time to make it to end of area 3 of Cloakwood and saved our progress here.
Comments
Thanks for the info. I might do that and use other thieves for the dungeons.
I recruited Garrick and his pickpocket skill is only 65. Both Safana and Montaron can have over 100. If I kept Garrick he would probably fail in doing the required pickpocketting at Ulgoth's. Far better to choose either Safana or Montaron to do the pickpocketting and switch to the other for dungeon crawling. Both are good for that, Montaron having the advantage of being more robust when not dealing with traps as he can wear plate. Also he can use all bows/ crossbows.
Garrick did acquire Algernon's Cloak, but that was risky. He won't do it in future games. I had the same problem with other bards when I had a modded game.
Tara Update - reached level 7. Intending to buy expensive items before recruiting Viconia and perhaps Baeloth.
My Conjurer is still sitting in mid-SoD... I'll get the time to play at some point.
Though maybe for future runs I'll skip SoD entirely: Even if there are some potential run-enders here, starting SoA with 500k experience just wrecks the early-game challenge (IMO).
Triple Run for the Hall, Update 1
Our planned road (remember, all groups are obliged to do all of the same encounters for each session): East to FAI, South to Beregost, do sidequests in the village, south to Nashkel, do some sidequests here and at the carnival, buy the PfP scroll and move to the basilisks for an early experience boost.
Spearkensai party: Sleep and command are most of the early action we have - the party is quite weak in terms of defenses, and the damage output is reliant on decent +hit rolls on our kensai. Thank god for level 1 protection:
Anti-Magic party:
On a simliar path, the anti-magic party just rolls through the early game, carried by two strong longbow-users and true sight/dispel magic for early wizard encounters - Tarnesh gets shot down:
Acid&Ice party:
This party doesn't contain quite as many powerful fighters, and with six people, experience gains are a bit lower, so our start isn't as fast. Just like the spearkensai party, we suffer a similiar reliance on level 1 protection during an early wolf encounter:
Okay! 2 of our 3 parties have made it past the early game. They should be quite safe with their experience advantage for the nearby future, and our acid&ice party will be able to actually start using some of their favored damage types.
The road ahead: All western wilderness areas except for the two sword coast areas. Additionally, the Nashkel Mines.
Anti-Magic party:
Stalkers can be a lot of fun and have quite the strong early game - we don't even need our inquisitor powers to take out most mages around here:
Acid&Ice party:
At a slower pace, we have to carry a few weaker characters, such as a dark moon monk (the blinding ability is nice, but that's it at this point). Our shaman isn't especially strong at this point either, and the totemic druid is mostly only good for their spirit animal for now. These weaknesses are notable whenever I try to move our monk into melee combat:
Crispin - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
CoreArcher XII - elven archer (Corey_Russell)
Stoic - dwarven defender (Grond0)
Heave ho off we go. First order was Windspear Hills which took about 45 minutes to complete and had Stoic mention that he'd expect either the archer or dwarven defender to take fire damage but not the dragon disciple. Crispin had protected both of them from fire but relied on his innate 75% resistance.
With that done we pressed on to the temple district sewers to wrap up the illithid down there. We had a couple of hiccups where Stoic's mighty intellect saw him take two hits in rapid succession and down he went. CoreArcher was immediately targeted and dominated. Crispin tried to use mass invisibility on him but that is party members only and a charmed person does not count.
In hindsight Crispin could have used improved invisibility but opted to repeat mass invisibility when the domination wore off. This he duly did but the illithid straws were quicker to the slurp and for the first time in Amn Crispin found himself friendless.
Two rod of resurrection charges sorted that out, and some looting of equipment allowed us to have a second bite of the illithid cherry proving ultimately successful.
We sold anything that moved to Roger and headed down to deal with the Unseeing Eye. That went fine, a lich there succumbing to Improved Haste and the Improved Mace of Disruption before the Unseeing Eye blinked it's last.
Crispin prepped for a sea journey to Brynnlaw but wanted to stop off for a lesson at the Guarded Compound. We ended up calling it a draw, with the enemies ultimately vanquished but not before CoreArcher acid blobbed himself out of existence on a trap. With three enemies remaining we decided to conclude matters. One of the enemies saw off Stoic (Maferan probably) but took three cloudkills and a wilting to leave Crispin the remaining occupant of the building.
(postscript: I think CoreArcher was confused at the time so Corey was a hapless passenger - not certain as I was the other side of the room in a show of solidarity!)
No, it was that fireball. That particular fireball deals 20d6 damage - an average of 70 before resistances, if you fail the save for half. Twice as powerful as a fully powered conventional mage fireball. It's a monster.
You do have a full round between blasts. I tend to give whoever's running the boots of speed, and run one at a time across the room starting immediately after the blast. Also, if I have enough fire resistance gear to get people over 100%, I use the fireball room as a source of unlimited healing.
Journal of Tara
I recruited Safana who did a great job of pickpocketting. I dropped her and picked up Viconia, Baeloth, Montaron.
We killed all the sirine on the coast, helped Charleston Nib and Brage before rescuing Dynaheir. Rested at the carnival and stocked up on ammo and a protection scroll.
It was then time for the Basilisks. A green scroll together with the help of my party members was sufficient to deal with them, Mutamin and a party of adventurers. We went to the FAI to rest.
I need to lose some reputation but not too much. Before doing so, I must get more gold to pay for scrolls for Dynaheir.
EDIT
I bought all the scrolls available for Dynaheir.
We did Dorn's quest and dismissed him.
We finished the mines and left Xan outside.
The bandit camp was a walkover and we are now at the Cloakwood Mine having killed Drasus et al.
The party is plenty strong enough without Dynaheir but I would like to strengthn her prior to SoD
I was thinking of starting another game with one of the specialist mages, but decided to stick with this run at the moment.
One of the mages confused Viconia but too late for the spell to cause major problems.
We defeated Davaeorn easily with skeletons.
I was amazed that allowing the slaves to be drowned only cost two in reputation, whereas actually killing an innocent is something like eight. Reputation now 16 so my party members shouldn't leave so long as I am not TOO righteous in the Gate which is where the party is now located.
I'll have to miss out some quests or do them in a way that doesn't raise rep.
I have never had to worry about having too high a reputation before since I usually play with a good party.
A confusion spell in the Iron Throne took all but one of the party out.
As a result Baeloth was chunked.
Montaron now level 6 fighter level 6 thief. Soon to become level 7 thief. Tara has reached the 161000 level cap. Rep 13.
We decided to replace Baeloth with Quayle. At least we have a good stock of scrolls. The scroll case is full and overflowing.
EDIT
We recruited Coran and took the wyvern's tails to the temple.
After that we returned to High Hedge to fill up Quayle's spell book only to discover that none of the scrolls there were needed.
The road ahead: Bandit Camp and the remaining wilderness areas.
Anti-Magic party:
We enter the bandit camp, shoot the bandits from range, enter the tent, true sight the mirror images, shoot down the wizard and clear up:
Acid&Ice party:
Bandit camp, for this party, involved a few writhing fogs:
The road ahead: Cloakwood and the Iron Mine.
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way through Cloakwood was easy enough, especially with a few protection from poison scrolls at our disposal and inquisitor charm immunity for the hamadryad. We decided to approach Drasus from range, with a little bit of careful hit and run:
Acid&Ice party:
Our summons allowed us to go more aggressive when dealing with Drasus - two spirit wolves in a writhing fog, and three forest beings at the back. A very powerful combination:
Next up: The City of Baldur's Gate.
Having done all the quests in the Gate that I wish to do, We are back at Candlekeep with a rep of 16.
If I had returned a book it would have been 17, but that's a bit high for my liking.
Before entering, I discovered that I had missed some slings in the Gate so I returned for them. In transit was ambushed by bandits. After killing them I sold the scalps and returned to Candlekeep.
We were badly injured fighting the Elminster Doppelganger et al but we did survive.
Fighting Prat's party however Dynaheir was confused or similar and as a result was killed.
We raised her at the FAI. There were a few spiders that we didn't hunt in Candlekeep.
The road ahead: The City of Baldur's Gate.
Anti-Magic party:
At Sorcerous Sundries, we got into our first spot of potential trouble, lacking remove fear against multiple horror casts - we were able to interrupt some, but on of them went through. Luckily, once the cast hit, only one of the necromancers was left alive, and he didn't have the spellslots left to kill one of our characters at this point:
Not much trouble during the whole host of minor sidequests here. After most of them were done, we dealt with Marek&Lothander, obtaining another pair of boots of speed in the process:
Acid&Ice party:
In contrast, when this party gets hit by a crow control effect, we have access to useful spells such as spiritual clarity:
Time to return to Candlekeep!
I have run into a bug at the Duke's Palace.
The doppelgangers have been killed.
Saverok has said that the only way to stop him is to kill him.
However Winski has not teleported him away.
I left the palace and slept thinking that it might solve the probleem, but Saverok is still there. I cannot injure either him or Winski.
Is there anything that I can do?
The road ahead: Return to Candlekeep and back to Baldur's Gate.
Anti-Magic party:
At this point, there isn't a lot of game left and we have a bunch of potions, so we can use strength potions even for casual encounters. We fight our way through the Candlekeep catacombs; Backstab and true sight prove enough to easily take down Prat's party:
Acid&Ice party:
Similiar to the anti-magic party, we're able to overwhelm Prat with a few buffs and direct attacks. We're starting to get to a point where our dark moon monk, Koschmara, is going to get fairly useful, especially when buffed with spirit armor and her frozen fists:
Sarevok awaits!
Theen: gnomish cleric/thief (Corey_Russell)
Dayglow: human cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb: human cavalier (Gate70)
So somewhat unusual for our Trio, we have two characters with the same race and class. But this is an advantage, as in many cases the cavaliers made short work of the enemies. For harder encounters, Theen could throw in commands and later holds and silences. Theen can even do the traps in the pirate's cave, so this is a very flexible and potent group. Hopefully they will go far.
* Candlekeep chores done without incident, though Dayglow made looting the sapphire more dangerous by putting an unconscious noble near where he had to loot the sapphire.
* Shoal shot dead like usual, we couldn't quite yet do Mad Arcand, not quite enough CHA.
* Ankheg armor in Nashkel picked up for your tank, Drubb
* The party wanted weapons. So Greywolf was shot up for his sword, a free +2 dagger picked in the three tombs area, and we got a club for Theen from Krumm. While we were at at, headed to Gnoll Fortress to get the CHA tome, now party has 18 CHA character.
* Next up was Basilisks, the only issue was Drubb accidentally triggered Mutamutin. However, with the cavaliers immune to fear, it wasn't very likely the mage was going to last long and he didn't. Kirian's party silenced and 1/2 the party held so they didn't survive, though they put a good beating on the party before they went down.
* Since the party was immune to poison and charm, naturally the sirines made a tempting target. They were all defeated in the two areas without incident. Nobody even got subjected to feeblemind. The flesh golems put down a beating they didn't manage to kill anybody. Dayglow and Drubb were reminded we have a thief to deal with the traps (we often don't have a thief).
* Melicamp successfully restored, the hobgoblins with the +2 sword were taken out, and poor Bassilus got held so he didn't do much better.
* The party by this point had some cash, so some major purchases were made: 1) shadow thief armor for Theen 2) dagger of venom for Gron0 3) full plate for Drubb - this meant he could hand his ankheg armor to Dayglow. All of this meant the party is now well armed and armored.
* Some miscellaneious tasks completed, Karlat taken out, spiders in Beregost cleared, piercing belt for Theen from an ogre, dealing with Tarnesh with skeletons, returning Joai's ring and turning in Landarin's stuff.
* We rested then saved our session in the Ankegs farm area - the Ankhegs will be our target next session.
I discovered that the problem was that I had failed to talk to Tamoko.
Everything now OK.
Now can't decide whether to go for the final battle or to do other quests.
I have maximum experience though my party doesn't.
I decided that raiding Durlag's would have some long term benefits. Love however can continue to live.
EDIT
The Duralag's Tower Raid was highly successful.
We sold our non-magical weapons and with the gold bought as many potions from sorcerous sundries as we could afford.
Now going after Saverok.
EDIT
Montaron failed to find a trap and as a result he died and my health was reduced to four.
That was too close for comfort!!
We only had 34gp so had to sell our jade Rings to raise him.
Montaron didn't need potions next time.
Traps killed Semaj.
Saverok killed Montaron
The party killed Saverok
Just started SoD. Time for bed.
The road ahead: The Undercity and Sarevok
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way through the labyrinth, we use fire protection scrolls/potions for the undercity party to avoid detonation arrow damage and go for a little bit of hit&run:
Acid&Ice party:
The undercity party falls to a more aggressive approach: Some fire protection, cold protection for Xerane, forest beings + spirit wolves, and we go for ice storms and writhing fogs. Ice storm has the advantage of getting past MGOI, which is fairly useful in the early game:
On to SoA!
Triple Double Run for the Hall, Update 8
The road ahead: Out of the dungeon, non-stronghold sidequests.
Anti-Magic party:
Fighting our way out of the dungeon is easy enough:
Acid&Ice party:
Ice Storm and Cone of Cold, which we can now add to our arsenal, are at their strongest in early SoA - however, CoC is not easy to aim:
In the crypts, we do some friendly fire damage via icestorm to instantly take down the spiders.
Both parties prepared to enter their first Stronghold - De'Arnise Keep is the obvious choice, with Frostreaver being the ultimate acid&ice weapon and the FoA being the perfect weapon for our wizard slayer in the anti-magic party. The acid&ice party sadly isn't allowed to use the FoA, because it also deals fire damage, which we generally aren't allowed to do.
After defeating Sarevok we managed to reach Baldur's Gate but on the way both Dynaheir and Quayle were killed. Quayle was chunked but Dymaheir was raised. I am currently alone, Imoen investigating some sounds.
Due to Viconia leaving, I am now a hero again.
Due to not having mods this time, the game is totally different. Viconia and Montaron left taking their equipment with them.
Montaron did at least give me warning that he was leaving, but Coran left without warning. They all took important equipment with them !
I'll know better next time.
It was actually a blessing thst Quayle was killed. Otherwise I would have lost his equipment too.
Minsc has joined me and has equipment that I shouldn't have. I didn't reach Kiel's Helmet in Durlag's Tower this time.
I do have gold galore.
EDIT
RL is interrupting my run for a while.
The road ahead: De'Arnise Keep, Temple Ruins, Druid Grove and a quick excursion for our acid&ice group.
Anti-Magic party:
Not much use for our anti-magic abilites at De'Arnise keep, but trolls are easy enough to fight in a direct battle - we use fire arrows to finish them. The yuan-ti mage is backstabbed:
The druid grove should be easy enough. Our weapons and other equipment are top notch for this point in the game. However, when fighting the first group of druids here, we do get hit by an unexpected horror spell, and our scared characters run into the next group:
Acid&Ice party:
Obviously we have quite a few acid arrows with us, so finishing off trolls is no trouble. Spirit wolves do very well here as well, and our buffs (plus some potions) allow for an easy victory both against the iron golem and Tor'Gal:
And the final battle - a great opportunity for CoC and Icestorm, as there is a single narrow bridge to defend:
The road ahead: Mae'Var's Guild, the Unseeing Eye and Windspear Hills.
Anti-Magic party:
Killing Rayic? Easy enough with inquisitor dispel at our disposal:
Acid&Ice party:
The other party lured Rayic downstairs, breached & killed him.
Two strongholds remain.
The road ahead: Planar prison & planar sphere plus wizard stronghold questline.
Anti-Magic party:
We start off in the planar prison, with our bounty hunter + stalker going invisible for a quick double backstab on the spellcasters in the opening group:
Acid&Ice party:
I'm including Mekrath here, because his death is rather funny - we attack him with Koschmara and our spirit wolves, and they deal so much passive frost damage through his stoneskins that only the very last spirit wolf hit actually breaks them.
Time for the wizard stronghold quests - easy enough to finish this rather short questline (if you're willing to rest a lot):
The road ahead: WKII and Bodhi's Lair.
Anti-Magic party:
We return to Watcher's Keep and take down the statues before moving downstairs for the second level. It's easy enough to clear the libraries and use a few protective potions and scrolls to clear the respective rooms. For the chromatic demon, our bounty hunter is at the level where she gets fire damage added to normal traps, so we lay them down, wait for ice golem form, free it and have to only add a little damage via firetooth:
Acid&Ice party:
Well, we didn't rest after the statue battle and went into the libraries guns blazing, and I didn't really expect Xerane, who had lost some hitpoints, to suddendly die to a kuo-toa cleric's flamestrike:
The road ahead: Brynnlaw, Spellhold, City of Caverns.
Anti-Magic party:
We backstab Perth to make our way into spellhold:
Acid&Ice party:
Sadly, I didn't take any screenshots for these three areas with this party. However, things went very, very smoothly, so there's nothing exciting to report - notably, since we are at a lower level with a full party of 6 instead of just 4, we didn't get the lich spawn, only some relatively easy to defeat greater mummies. The true challenge awaits in the Underdark.
Theen - gnomish cleric/thief, protagonist (corey_russell)
Dayglow - human cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb - human cavalier (Gate70)
We find our selves in the ankheg farm and do some beat downs on some ankhegs. This went fairly well, with the cavaliers usually making short work of the ankhegs. Theen barely got time to loot and maybe throw in a bullet or two. The ankhegs did some good damage, but not enough to kill anyone. Farmer Brun was consoled with the body of his son. The party got separated and Dayglow and Drubb took a drubbing, while Theen found himself under attack by two ankhegs at close range. Theen brought out some commands which helped give him time for his party to come to his aid. Success.
We did a brief bit of shopping at Ulgoth's Beard, then we did Samuel's area. Theen forgot some of his party was still carrying ankheg shells, so after returning Samuel we did that. We also noted that Silke had yet to be killed - a simple silence made short work of her.
Theen decided we should work on the main quest, so to Naskhel Mines the party went. The enemies were easily defeated here, even Mulahey got silenced - the ring of power was a nice upgrade for Theen. The amazons outside didn't do well with buffed skeletons distracting them, the party giving them a beat down and also some silences and holds from Theen.
Nimbul was defeated easily, as we Neera who fell prey to a Theen hold person. Tranzig was next and he failed to make an impression on Drubb. Next was the Bandit Camp, the cavaliers made short work of the bandits outside, with the only real threat Khosahnn, but a Theen hold person once again was decisive. We talked about what to do about Tazok's Tent, but Theen said since the cavs are immune to fear, just charge in? Yep that worked fine. Yet another Theen hold person was decisive, though the end result was never in doubt. He found a great bow that no one can use...
Drubb mentioned why don't we get the other set of gauntlets, so sure enough Melium was defeated for his gauntlets. Since we were close, we also dealt with Molkar's gang. Skeletons, silences and holds were once again too much, with the cavs melee quickly burning the enemies down.
Theen decided to pay a visit to Durlag's Tower. The battle horrors outside were dealt with OK. Theen's magic missile wand was quite handy. Inside Rigilio got a "gift" of hair then killed. Drubb used a mirror eyes potion for the first basilisk. Then Theen had skeletons for distractions for the other basilisks - this worked well, not a single skeleton died. Theen looted the tower a bit and then we tried to escape.
Uh, oh, trouble! A basilisk ambush! Drubb was petrified immediately. The rest of the party made their escape, purchased some mirror eyes potions and stone to flesh scolls. We managed to trigger the ambush area first attempt and there wasn't a basilisk either, just some gibberlings. After area cleared we unpetrified Drubb, recruited him and he's back in business, after some Temple healings and to get a wisdom tome identified for Theen.
Seemed it was time to kill Brage and his sister and that god that appears when you take the idol from the gravesite. No problems with that.
Time for main quest, traveled to Cloakwood. Theen did the traps for area 2 and we helped the boy who said his brother went to fight the spiders. We destroyed the spiders, as expected with the cavaliers poison immunity. We had just enough time to make it to end of area 3 of Cloakwood and saved our progress here.