Doom is a hostile spell, so that counts as an attack. Which doesn't mean anything if Fuller was already an enemy.
Fuller has two different creature files in the prologue and chapter 6. Plus the doppelganger in his form later in chapter 6 as a third CRE. So no, it'll be as if it never happened when you come back.
Doom is a hostile spell, so that counts as an attack. Which doesn't mean anything if Fuller was already an enemy.
Fuller has two different creature files in the prologue and chapter 6. Plus the doppelganger in his form later in chapter 6 as a third CRE. So no, it'll be as if it never happened when you come back.
No doubt a poweerful cleric restored him to life!
I did wonder if the doom spell might make it easier to charm him.
Whilst investigating, I discovered that in the event of failure, it was possible to sleep at the inn and try again, so definitely an option for those who like playing evil parties. The armour is a definite plus for a mage/cleric or mage/illusionist.
We enlisted Safana and looted the cave, went to the basilisk area and killed everything in sight, and then met up with Dorn, did his quest and bade him farewell.
We then visited Durlag's Tower, clearing all the upper part except for the basilisks - not enough gold to buy potions of mirrored eyes.
We completed two of the warder's quests but didn't feel that the party was up to fighting the doppelgangers. ( Learned from experience)
We then recruited Dynaheir and filled up her spell book at High Hedge. She has learned the important spells, ( Only failed on those that she doesn't tend to use in my games.)
We went ankheg hunting to level her up and buy the robe of the good archmage for her.
We also bought her a lot of scrolls, though she failed in memorising quite a few. Hopefully things will change at the Gate.
As we returned to Durlag's Tower, we were ambushed by a basilisk. Bertha quickly consumed a potion of mirrored eyes and moved in to kill it whilst the rest of us used missiles.
At the Tower the two remaining potions were sufficient to kill the rest of the basilisks.
We returned to Kirinhale and after getting the experience we all attacked simultaneously to get more experience and a spear.
Upon returning to Riggilo he attacked us and as a result he too was slain.
It was then the turn of the doppelgangers. Safana wounded them all badly but was herself reduced to two health points. after the rest of the doppelgangers was killed we made the gong, used it and left the tower leaving the rest of the tower to a time when we are better equipped.
Gullykin was next. There we killed more assassins amd after that we were attacked by another basilisk in transit. With no method of protection, we fled to the Carnival.
We saved Miner Beldin next, and then returned Miner Kylee's dagger.
After Mulahey was killed, Xan joined our party.
In Nashkel Xan charmed Oublek to help us fight an assassin and I protected him frrom fear. Oublek died a hero.
Rasaad killed the assassin.
At High Hedge we filled up the spell books of Xan and Dynaheir as much as possible and bought an archmage robe for Xan. However, I am now regretting that as I am thinking that Xan will not be the best addition to the party.
I will however keep his robe as it could well be useful later on.
We have killed Deke et al as well as Tranzig. Now back at the bandit camp!
While posting my recent shapeshifter run, I also started a single-class thief called Lia with a custom party of 3 (2 berserkers - one intended to dual to wizard, one to cleric):
This is a typical example of how a failed run looks for me these days - I take most of my risks very early on to skip past some of the early game (and because restarting doesn't hurt as much), but sometimes, I take things too far - or, in this case, don't rest often enough.
Tarnesh falls to 2 enraged berserkers:
And after travelling to Beregost, I should've rested before attempting any more spellcaster encounters to get the rages back - they are crucial to gain immunity against many dangerous early game spells for such a small party. However, I don't like resting more often than feels natural, which resulted in me trying to rescue Neera without rages, and Neera took this opportunity to sabotage her saviors by casting color spray, hitting both of my fighters, making them easy targets for our foes. Lia managed to barely pull together a victory, but I had to go to the temple and resurrect two both of her allies already:
I finally rested again and used more rages to take down Silke:
Also some non-spellcaster encounters, but these were easy enough with such powerful fighters and the ability to just kite with Lia if needed.
From there, it was a quick road to the basilisks. Easy enough with a green scroll and Korax at my side. We cleared them all, gained a bunch of levels, also took down the gnome using our rages. Now, here's a very bad idea I somehow often have: While I'm here, why not obtain the golden girdle by taking down the adventuring party in the center? A terrible plan with a party of 3 with no spellcasters at my side. Especially terrible, though, with no rages when facing a cleric who spams crowd control spells...
Well, we get hit by rigid thinking, try to flee, but still, hold person flies towards us:
Of course, the saving throw fails, and while Lia attempts to save her allies, the cleric moves into spellcasting range again and manages to hit a second hold person. Run over - should've just retreated with all the nice experience and returned at a later date.
You are not alone in risking too much at the beginning! It is most certainly because it doesn't hurt too much. At that stage I am even willing to abandon a run simply because I am not enjoying it, a very good reason indeed!
Journal of Harald the Helmite
The bandit camp and beginning of Cloakwood have gone well. Centeol was killed as were five wyvern and a few younger ones. At the mine we killed Drasus and his cohorts before leaving to sell the wyvern tails.
As we scouted around we came across a drow claiming to be Drizzt. Naturally we didn't believe him and killed him. For some reason that reduced our reputation by 10 even though nobody saw us. It did provide Bertha and Ingvild good weaponry though Ingvild isn't skilled in using it. Bertha couldn't use one of them and so has a +2 scimitar and a +3 scimitar.
The mines were next. Davaeorn was easily killed with summoned monsters.
We left the mines unflooded so as to be able to recruit Dorn.
Simmeon was killed and Dorn dismissed.
Now back to the mines for the experience and reputation boost.
We may even meet more wyverns.
EDIT
Before setting off I increased my dexterity by one and Safana pick-pocketted a ring from Nemphre and an amulet from Arkion with a little help from potions. Kicking myself for not getting Arkion's quest before kicking out Dorn.
Trio56 part 5a (Link to part 1/234)
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We were parked at the edge of the Undercity, not much of a chance for one of us to die but we'd give it our best shot.
Rahvin and his crew fell to webbed arrows of detonation (and a skulltrap I think)
Sarevok managed to evade two arrows of dispelling and chase Dubbel down. Still not quite a fair fight but we'll take it - Semaj almost dying to snares and arrows were too much for him, while Angelo and Tazok joined in - occuping CoreRanger.
It became clear short moments later that we'd forgotten to buff Slite and Grond0 hadn't piped up. We tried arrows of dispelling on him but the line of sight was terrible meaning by the time we got into a suitable position she was almost dead and the arrow dispelled a bit too effectively.
Sarevok was proving a tough nut to crack, until he misjudged the shadows.
With most of our session remaining we headed into Amn
Trio56 part 5b (Link to part 1/2345a)
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We wasted no time making our escape from the dungeon, with little to fear and few mistakes made. Dubbel got himself into a tricky scenario but with two companions to cover his mishap nothing came of it.
We continued my typical method of play once into the city meaning vampires were a bit of an issue. CoreRanger took a healthy draining from Hareishan, and once she was dealt with Slite and Dubbel defeated the ruffian captain as a juvenatedly drained CoreRanger struggled to vanquish everybody else.
CoreRanger promptly spent far too much coin getting himself undrained (Dubbel had planned to visit Watchers Keep for a much reduced rate), saying we had plenty of cash to splurge and better safe than sorry. He's right but oh spending dough rankles.
After visiting Watchers Keep for the potion case we returned and spent 5000 gold on a magic licence - Dubbel may have long pockets and short arms but bitter experience taught him that a licenceless caster in Amn is confirming you know the price of a licence and not the value of it.
We opened up a few traps, and stepped into one or two (the one before the stairs up to the berserk warrior horn - Dubbel had healed himself somewhat but misjudged where the trap was and found it with his feet.
Officer Dirth's armour was recruited for rangerly duty and a few other tasks were started before we ran out of time, earning ourselves a 2 week rest.
Greetings fellow no-reloaders. Good to see the hardcore crew keeping this thread alive! I don't have much more to contribute than a short hey there, hi there! But that may change. It's been close to two years according to my post history (April '22) since my last playthrough, but the astonishing developments in AI had me play around a bit, trying to create Baldur's Gate portraits some weeks ago and that brought back the itch for a new run. Some of you don't care about portraits at all, but I've always found it an important part of my characters.
I've rolled up a 100-point female Elven Stalker, Dorah, to go with what I consider a quality portrait. (The slanted Elven eyes especially are not easy to get right.)
100 is such an amazing roll that I didn't hesitate to compromise on the exceptional strength. I haven't changed my install: version 2.5 of the game (because of a bug in 2.6 with LoB saves) with my usual mods like SCS, Ascension, CDTweaks, aTweaks, Rogue Rebalancing, some banter stuff, and a few newer quest mods: AC Quest and Shades of the Coast).
Since I went straight for LoB again, progress has been and will be slow. Dorah finished off Drizzt after he'd been knocked out by a gnoll, and then farmed every bit of XP that didn't involve fighting (other than stabbing Tenya in the back). The only remaining non-violent quest that I know of was having Noober looked after by Joseph's wife, a little BGQE mod quest. Here's Dorah's solo track record:
– Candlekeep 633
– Wounded Hobgoblin 200
– Drizzt 12,000 (rep -5)
→ Donations (rep +4)
– Marl 900
– Drunk near Beregost temple 100
– Roughneck Ruffians 600
– Family heirloom 500
– Frightened widow 300
– Zee (Kobold’s Dream Too) 900
– Tenya 2500 (stealth attack while she was casting a detection spell)
– Brun 1500
→ Donation (rep +1)
– Alanna's Neighbor in Trouble 500 (rep -1)
– Dynaheir 800
– Neville 100
– Pregnant Wolf 40
– Albert and his Dog 1000
– A Man and His Hatchet 150 (+1 rep)
– Beetles, Dreams and an Old Man 550
→ Donation (rep +1)
– A Book for Firebead 300 (+1 rep)
– The Quest for Jumper 300
– Roomokum 0
– Colquetle 250
– Ulcaster's Ghost 1000
– A Magic Barrel 80
– The Midnight dog 1400
– Arcand the mad 300
– Drienne’s Cat 200 (+1 rep)
→ Ambush Skeletons (6 dmg)
– Samuel the Deserter 500
– Corianna 100
– Tamah Rescued 300 (+1 rep)
– Noober 400
– Babysitting in Nashkel 300 (+1 rep)
– Oublek
– Into the Womanhood 100
– The Tale of Captain Brage 1000 (+1 rep)
– Returned Kylee’s Dagger 200
– Joseph’s Greenstone Ring 800
– New best friend for Ugh 450
– Amber Flower 750
There's almost a Greater Basilisk worth of quest XP, about 6 or 6.5k XP, that vanilla players wouldn't be able to accumulate peacefully.
At 32k XP Dorah formed a war party with Coran (1st Cloakwood available before Chapter 4, courtesy of CDTweaks), Dynaheir, Minsc, Edwin, and Branwen respectively. First order of business was getting the party's reputation up to 20, as it was still only 18. With SCS decreased reputation gains, it took three more reputation quests:
- Prism & Greywolf, who was Held by Branwen (+1 rep),
- Joia (no rep increase), and
- Krumm & Caldo (another Hold Person cast while the aspiring lumberjacks were busy fighting two fallen warriors animated by Branwen (+1 rep).
With reputation at 20, the Tome of Leadership and Influence already consumed by Dorah, and Algernon's Cloak as well as the Blooming Club +2 (which also gives +2 CHA), prices were at their lowest. Dorah cleared the way at the High Hedge, taking out two Flesh Golems with stealth attacks, so that Dynaheir and Edwin could get scrolls of Invisibility. They both learned the spell without needing INT potions, so the party could travel invisibly to buy goods in Beregost, at the High Hedge, in Ulgoth's Beard, and at different temples, and sell them in Nashkel. 60 points in Pick Pockets boosted by a +1 DEX Ioun Stone, the Luck spell cast by Edwin, and a potion of perception as well as one of master thievery, allowed Coran to steal everything back at the Nashkel Carnival.
Below are character records and inventory screens of the party. I even have AI-generated character portraits for the NPCs I'm using.
Dorah:
Minsc true to game and setting lore (dark hair and features, hirsute):
Are there any rules on difficulty or mod selections in this run? I keep doing insane difficulty with no mods.
Most play it on core difficulty, no mods. However some play on other difficulties with loads of mods. I at least list my mods from time to time when using them.
We tend to be up-front about what we are doing.
Some play on ToB difficulty. It's up to you.
Meanwhile Harald is back to Reputation 20 in Baldur's Gate City.
A quick question. My paladin has ** in bastard swords. No proficiency in Scimitars.
A +1 bastard sword (Kondar against non-shapeshifters), with specialization, as a warrior:
- +2 to hit, 8+STR average damage, +0.5 APR.
Twinkle, with no proficiency, as a warrior:
- +1 to hit, 7.5+STR average damage, +2 AC.
So going for Twinkle gets you two points of AC ... at the cost of 1 to hit, 0.5 to damage, and an attack every two rounds. I wouldn't do it. Killing enemies faster is the best defense.
@jmerry Thanks. I only killed Drizzt for the benefit of my soon to be-druid.
He can only use one of Drizzt's scimitars. His other is Rashad's Talon.
My Paladin will therefore just use Albruin and Kondor.
My Berserker/soon to be-druid Icingdeath and Rashad's Talon.
Cleric of Helm Ashideena.
Thief (Safana): Rashad's Talon and scimiar +1, but mainly Army Scythe Crossbow
Mage (Dynaheir): Aule's staff plus daggers/sling. Mainly magic missile.
It seems to be an awesome combination.
After doing the Marek quest I now have two pairs of boots of speed.
We went to the Iron Throne and Safana saw what was happening up at the top floor.
I therefore put several Glyphs of Warding around one set of stairs and several buffed skeleton warriors at the other.
Bertha, my berserker then went upstairs and as soon as spells started coming her way, descended even more quickly. She was followed by two enemy who were quickly disposed of with the aid of the skeletons. Meanwhile other enemy/enemies were obliterated by the glyphs.
Bertha went back upstairs and another enemy followed only to be terminated.
The party then went upstairs together to finished off the remnants of the enemy.
I was the only one to be hurt and so healed myself before going onto the roof for a quick nap.
After being sent back to Candlekeep we ended up in the chambers beneath.
I cast lightning Protection on myself before facing up to Prat.
He wasn't hurt by his lightning bolt and neither was I. My team were in a place of safety so the only ones hurt were his cohorts.
True sight was helpful at that point. Wand of the Heavens killed Prat and after that Glyphs of Warding, Skull traps and Wands of fire cleared that party with ease.
We left the area and slept. I am now trying to decide what next. Ice Island? Durlag's? a return to the Gate? Ankheg Shell collection to get more gold? As I only had 2000gp that seemed sensible. However, even after getting paid for the shells of quite a few ankheg, I still didn't have enough gold for everything that I want to buy, everything that i need for the moment true, so the other things can wait. Ice island was next. We didn't get anything of value on the island other than stoneskin, experience and a few winter wolf skins. (I like the improved ice island mod).
We finished Durlag's Tower except for the last room.
Ingvild was killed in the chess room due to carelessness. She could be invaluable so we left to get her raised.
I thought that recruiting Kivan might be a good idea. All the current party are at the experience cap of 161,000
We sold our wyvern tails and winter wolf pelts in order to replenish supplies. After doing so, we had 42gp left.
We defeated the demonknight without too much trouble. We hid the dagger where hopefully it will never be found.
Before returning to the gate we MUST acquire more gold
I want Dynaheir's spell book to be as full as possible before taking on Sarevok.
Gold is available and I suppose that Coran could be useful in the Final Battle. He however is not exactly a vital element in my plans.
We gave Dynaheir all the spells available at the Gate and also bought many potions. However we couldn't buy all that we wanted. Perhaps I am a little too greedy.
We finished off some minor quests and then went to the Ducal Palace. It was a close run thing! The duchess was killed and Belt was near death. I only just healed him in time! What is more, Coran got chunked! Not as straightforward as I would have liked!
have about 7000 gp and I want to buy as many arrows of dispelling as possible before following Sarevok!
EDIT
We earned more gold and bought most of the equipment that we wanted. Now have the grand total of 5gp. Ilmater would be proud of us!
I got a bit of the case of real life issues but I expect to resume the noreload dice rolls later this week.
I was looking forward to a holiday of gaming but that dream died pretty soon
I got a bit of the case of real life issues but I expect to resume the noreload dice rolls later this week.
I was looking forward to a holiday of gaming but that dream died pretty soon
That's sad!
Journal of Harald Continued into SoD
Realised too late that I should have ensured that I had gold to pay the healer at the start of SoD. After buying just one scroll I am left with 26gp.
Gold is far more plantiful in BG1 than SoD! The healer won't buy anything!!
It could be awkward.
End of BG1: ...
The prologue of SoD was straightforward apart from the time when a number of the party was put to sleep.
I was quite concerned that Safana might get killed!
Korlasz was killed easily.
The four of us arrived in the Ducal Palace safely, but Imoen has now gone to investigate some strange sounds.
Currently whilst I have abundant possessions, I have no gold.
Some of my possessions appear to have gone missing. I did have a Wand of the Heavens with 100 charges but now I can't find it and other things in my containers.
I'll have to look for it again when I am not so tired. I'm thinking that SoD doesn't recognise some items. Looks like I spent my gold in BG1 on the wrong items.
Dynaheir and Minsc have joined the party.
We have just left Baldur's Gate heading for Caelar.
Trio56 part 6 (Link to part 1/2345a5b 6)
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We start another 2 hours of fun, with Coreranger unable to remember his class after a 2 week break. We started off with the Rune Assassins where Rejiek Hidesman duplicated himself. Afer the first of him departed we 'lost' the second by going invisible near the waterfront and went inside to deal with his ghasts and assassin.
We got past the rune assassins easily enough, as only one of them turned up (maybe the other was pretending to be Rejiek). We set about Mae'Var's quest and whizzed along.
Coreranger was nicely tanking thieves in their guild so Dubbel retreated back to the body of the bartender to hide but failed. He came back to shoot and took two backstabs from thieves who had followed him. No doubt they were the reason he failed to hide.
OK, only 35 minutes of fun then. Still that leaves another hour and a bit for trio 57 (the baked beans run?)
No fighters in this group, so melee power pretty weak and slow, especially as everyone is using slings. We do however, have many tools, with arcane, cleric x2 and thief abilities, so we will get powerful in BG 2, assuming we survive BG 1. Candlekeep chores done without incident.
We almost came undone at the first area, as Cordan picked a fight with Xzar but nearly died, I think possibly his level 1 protection saved him. Fortunately a blue potion or 2 plus his friends coming to help carried the day. Poor Shoal was commanded so she couldn't survive.
Cordan wanted the +1 ring (in the area south of FAI), so while the party was at it we also got the wizard's ring for Nappa. This enabled quite a few sleeps which was helpful in many encounters. While Cordan can dual to thief himself, he decides he would be more help to the party as a cleric, as Saki won't use full plate as she wants to have her thief abilities available. We proceeded to make our way to Nashkel, mostly to pick up the Ankheg armor for Cordan. Cordan also wanted the +1 medium shield so that he can tank better in basilisks' area. He also wanted to return a spider body and other Landarin items.
Once that was done, the party made their way to Basilisk area, well they tried to but Gate70 went the wrong way and aggroed some hobgoblins. While his party was trying to re-unite, Cordan ran into a bear. He used his Priest of Tempus abilities plus Saki managed a command which made the fight easier, though blue potions were needed.
The basilisk area went slow and needed more rests than usual but went smooth all the same. A silence made Mutamutin simple. As for Kirian's party, we had lots of hold persons/silences/commands plus skeletons - end result all enemies got held and silenced, clean victory.
We made our way to the kid and his dog area. Saki got pretty close to Vax and Vax kept resisting commands/hold persons, so Saki needed to run Vax around while we slinged him to death. Cordan had used his Tempus ability to increase his strength which gave him a nice critical to speed up the kill. Poor Zal saw some skeletons and tried to use darts on them - while suitably distracted the party then unloaded on him - success!
We ran out of time here so made it to Caldo and Krumm area and saved here.
So, it’s been a minute, but I finally got around to rolling up a dwarf bounty hunter.
I’m in chapter 2 of BG2 now, so I think I have a shot since I I have done anything stupid to get myself killed in BG1 LOL.
I think my goal party is:
Knuckles the bounty hunter
Jahiera
Anomen
Haer’Dalis
Edwin
Korgan
I’m kinda trying to get some easy XP right now in Chapter 2 so I can begin recruiting my team at a higher XP, which will be 1.25 million.
I wasn’t sure which dialogue to pick to get Jahiera out of the starting dungeon so that I could pick her up at 1.25 million, so her and I have been fighting our way to that point ourselves.
Well, the dice rolling certainly isn't a boring way to play. I continued with Ambrosia and Silvanus on several attempts by now and the outcomes are as following.
The documented run ended in the second session already with Neera's encounter where the protagonist gets transported to the front of the party, and with only a diviner and bard that meant game over very quickly.
Attempts 2, 3, and 4 all ended a several stages along the way. 2nd at the ogre because Ambrosia switched to melee when my attention was off. 3rd at the friendly arm inn when horror reached further than I anticipated (a classic, haha). 4th at Landrin's house which I would normally not go into at level 1 with a mage and a darter.
I am now at the 5th attempt, but I am leaving the dice rolls out of it and instead turn to some role playing instead.
Interestingly the party is the same (because I reload the exported characters from regeneration) and I replayed the same road from Candlekeep to Beregost from the first run.
That means we are picking up the run again where we left it last post, although with slightly different XP from kobold or gibberling along the roads. I am now standing in Beregost with the intent of going through town to see the sights and then help Pontag in the evening with his beetle vision.
@lroumen your quick runs remind me of my early runs. It quickly became apparent I needed to avoid encounters early on, or do things which radically increase the odds. For example, if you use the shield amulet and resist fear, then Nimbul becomes quite a bit easier. Recruiting Montaron and Xzar solely so they can keep Tarnesh occupied increases your odds of survival, etc.
But if you are having fun, well that's the main thing. Good luck!
@Klorox said, "I wasn’t sure which dialogue to pick to get Jahiera out of the starting dungeon so that I could pick her up at 1.25 million,"
You need to refuse to let her in the group, and tell her to make her own way. She'll give you the guilt trip for that, and also you can't do romance either. But I believe you can get her with higher experience. From a RP point of view I feel bad leaving her behind so unless I play a solo character I always prefer to let her join and just kick her out once she's safely out of the dungeon if I'm not going to use her. But really, druid summons and insect plague is just so useful...
Indeed Corey, I am normally more careful but I was trying a run using random draw. Let's say I learned my lesson not to do that no matter how well I could normally anticipate challenges.
I will instead use randomisation in the role play aspect.
@Klorox said, "I wasn’t sure which dialogue to pick to get Jahiera out of the starting dungeon so that I could pick her up at 1.25 million,"
You need to refuse to let her in the group, and tell her to make her own way. She'll give you the guilt trip for that, and also you can't do romance either. But I believe you can get her with higher experience. From a RP point of view I feel bad leaving her behind so unless I play a solo character I always prefer to let her join and just kick her out once she's safely out of the dungeon if I'm not going to use her. But really, druid summons and insect plague is just so useful...
I loaded up the starting save and rushed the dungeon, and this didn’t work. IDK.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 5
Previous update found here
Well, it's only been... 6 months, but there's been minor progress!
As a refresher: Beyond his NPC allies (Dynaheir/Minsc/Glint/Corwin), Aldain is accompanied by Amarande, an Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief. The pair were at levels 10 and 7/8/9 respectively when last we saw them, and were about to enter the coalition camp in SoD.
We started by selling off gargantuan amounts of loot to Nazramu, and bought a few useful items. Dead Man's Pass was next on the agenda, and it turns out you can actually steal from Horst! He doesn't really have anything useful, though.
We cleared out the local trash, only stumbling a bit in the Spider Cave to the north: Aldain and Amarande were entirely safe owing to Rings of Freedom of Action, but Dynaheir was not so fortunate (the glue from the Killer Mimic automatically targets all party members regardless of relative position to the Mimic).
A quick Raise Dead later, we were back on the road, and promptly got the Goblins/Myconid Caverns ambush. The Myconids can be a bit dangerous unless you're willing to splurge on a few Potions of Clarity (we weren't willing, of course), but we still came through alright.
Around here motivation typically plummets for me. I find SoD before the Coalition Camp a pretty fun experience, but the Camp proper, the Underground River segment, questing in the Dragonspear courtyard.. it drags on and on, and there's enormous amounts of pretty pointless loot which I nonetheless feel compelled to pick up, organize and sell/save.
So we very, very slowly (think 10-15 minutes once a week or so) made our way through the whole thing. Flitting back and forth, I actually managed to kill the Shadowy Figure during his ambush this time (Potion of Explosion x6 did the trick), to no real benefit whatsoever.
Oh, and you can also steal from Onoroth, the grumpy druid (I guess?) in Bloodbark Grove. We duly stole some unnecessary scrolls and even more unnecessary Ankheg Plate from him, then cleared the area. Amarande with a Strength potion is a sight to behold, by the by: Even with Short Swords, critical hits in the mid-40's aren't uncommon.
With most areas cleared, we descend into the Underground River area. Dark Magicians have no defense against Potion of Explosion spam (they don't typically protect themselves from fire damage, and the potions aren't blocked by MGoI): I can certainly tackle them the "proper" way if necessary, but this is just much faster and easier. And besides, not like there's much else use for the 30+ PoE we've amassed.
We take down Zhadroth the Lich on our way out, earning a by now completely defunct Ring of Regeneration. Oh, that Ankheg Druid (I forget the name) gets his comeuppance as well: Everyone quaffed a Potion of Freedom before engaging, which allowed for a few Minor Sequencers loaded with Web to just obliterate most of the encounter (and also protected against the Shambling Mounds locking someone down with their Entange-on-hit). Dynaheir attracted some undue Ankheg attention, but eh.
The rest of the River is cleared: Albino Wyrmlings have no response to tanks under Freedom potions, and even a swarm of Shadows/Wraiths fall to Web easily enough. Delving deeper, we actually find someone we can steal from that has something remotely worthwhile: Crusader Priest Polvi! I must have misclicked somehow though (I expect I selected Glint at some point, who with his measly Pick Pockets just failed instantly), since Polvi goes hostile after we've only stolen about 40 scrolls and assorted potions from him. Was afraid he'd drag the entire area down on us, but his shout for help only agroed 4 nearby crusaders.
And that's about it for the Underground River. We eavesdrop on Hephernan (after placing the barrel of Bwoosh), send him running while also killing his two flunky mages, then quickly loot the room, go invisible and leg it: Some Skeleton Warriors held off the enemy reinforcements just long enough for us to escape safely.
Finally, the end is nigh. Almost. We buy anything and everything that might be useful from the quartermaster (and of course end up using next to none of it), then firebomb a Troll wave, firebomb a Mage wave, web a Paladin wave, and firebomb Grimgor. Yep, we're out of patience by now: Just kill it with fire, I don't care.
We assault the Dragonspear Courtyard, firebomb some Crusaders, then murderize Ashatiel with a few Skeleton Warriors conjured by Aldain. For once she doesn't complain about us breaking any rules, though she herself of course Sanctuaries several times to heal up.
We follow Caelar into Hell, swiftly making our way to the Hellevator: Potions of Clarity and Freedom are sufficient to make you completely immune to anything the Devils here can do against you. We rest up, apply enormous amounts of protection scrolls and potions (why not, there's only one real fight left), and ascend. This time I actually get the timing right for Spell Immunity: Abjuration on Aldain: I cast it right after the wave containing a Bone Fiend, which turned out to be the last one. As a result, Belhifet's initial Dispel Magic (which he always targets on the protagonist) does absolutely nothing. The party spreads out a bit: We sweet-talked Caelar into acting as a meat shield, and Glint keeps casting Greater Restoration on her from scrolls (the Beer Stein helmet keeping him from going fatigued), whilst the rest of the party clears the reinforcing devils.
Once alone, Belhifet can't do anything. He goes Improved Invisible a few times, which we counter with Oracle/Detect Invisibility, and spends the rest of his time completely pointlessly cutting up Caelar. Under the combined pressure of three slingers with +3 bullets, one archer with +3 arrows, and two melee fighters with +3 swords (swords for everyone!), Belhifet caves before he can even use Infernal Conveyance.
And that's that. We play through the epilogue, escape uneventfully, and are duly captured.
Man, what a slog. Might skip SoD entirely next time I do a run. Anyway, it's over now. I'll give a rundown of levels, stats and proficiencies for Aldain and Amarande in the starting post for the BG2EE part of the run.
In retrospect, much like BG1EE, there's really not much point to Pickpocket in SoD. There are few stores you can steal from, and the ones you CAN steal from typically have nothing better than some scrolls and potions (and there are massive amounts of these available anyway). Should be very powerful in BG2EE though, to the point it might very well break the game even though I do not intend to allow for stealing and re-selling items.
I turned down the help of Jaheira and Voghlin and instead sent them to join the coalition.
The spiders have been a problem, but are now dead.
Morentherene was an even bigger problem. Using a throwing dagger didn't work.
At this point I thought that the end was nigh!
However, seconds later I breathed a sigh of relief!
After some rest we are hunky dory.
We went deeper into the cave and more by good luck than good management, as well as bugbears that were visible, we also killed ones that were hiding as Dynaheir cast Icestorm and cloudkill. Those spells were perfect and only used because others weren't available.
EDIT
Got killed fighting the mind flayer. Should have ensured that Harald never got seen by the flayer! Until that happened the battle was going well!
In this game I have installed a mod - kit-tomes. It allows the giving of kits to those who are usually not able to have them by using tomes which are expensive.
I have also modded the game with my own mod which makes the assassins in candlekeep a little more dangerous by giving them slightly better armour and weapons. It gives that part of the game a bit more of a challenge.
The game states that Chaotic Neutral characters tend to be crazy and have no morals. Looking to see how that works.
The two characters are quite happy in getting the Candlekeeep Watchers etc. to fight and kill each other just so long as they don't lose reputation by doing the killing themselves. They end up with a lot of plate mail.
We killed Sonner, took the bowl to Tenya and the ring to Joia before going to Beregost.
We delivered a letter to Mirianne before taking on three heavily armoured Flaming Fist without any injuries, but then a gibberling attacked and killed Myst with a single blow! We hadn't thought it worth disabling him with Command!
At least, it only cost 100gp to raise him.
Made our way to Nashkel.
I have decided not to continue with this run for the moment. but instead make use of an excellent roll for a berserker who will in due course become a druid. Not a class that I have much experience with, so I am not expecting great things from him.
As well as the roll, I found a good image that I liked for the portraits.
Comments
Fuller has two different creature files in the prologue and chapter 6. Plus the doppelganger in his form later in chapter 6 as a third CRE. So no, it'll be as if it never happened when you come back.
No doubt a poweerful cleric restored him to life!
I did wonder if the doom spell might make it easier to charm him.
Whilst investigating, I discovered that in the event of failure, it was possible to sleep at the inn and try again, so definitely an option for those who like playing evil parties. The armour is a definite plus for a mage/cleric or mage/illusionist.
We enlisted Safana and looted the cave, went to the basilisk area and killed everything in sight, and then met up with Dorn, did his quest and bade him farewell.
We then visited Durlag's Tower, clearing all the upper part except for the basilisks - not enough gold to buy potions of mirrored eyes.
We completed two of the warder's quests but didn't feel that the party was up to fighting the doppelgangers. ( Learned from experience)
We then recruited Dynaheir and filled up her spell book at High Hedge. She has learned the important spells, ( Only failed on those that she doesn't tend to use in my games.)
We went ankheg hunting to level her up and buy the robe of the good archmage for her.
We also bought her a lot of scrolls, though she failed in memorising quite a few. Hopefully things will change at the Gate.
As we returned to Durlag's Tower, we were ambushed by a basilisk. Bertha quickly consumed a potion of mirrored eyes and moved in to kill it whilst the rest of us used missiles.
At the Tower the two remaining potions were sufficient to kill the rest of the basilisks.
We returned to Kirinhale and after getting the experience we all attacked simultaneously to get more experience and a spear.
Upon returning to Riggilo he attacked us and as a result he too was slain.
It was then the turn of the doppelgangers. Safana wounded them all badly but was herself reduced to two health points. after the rest of the doppelgangers was killed we made the gong, used it and left the tower leaving the rest of the tower to a time when we are better equipped.
Gullykin was next. There we killed more assassins amd after that we were attacked by another basilisk in transit. With no method of protection, we fled to the Carnival.
We saved Miner Beldin next, and then returned Miner Kylee's dagger.
After Mulahey was killed, Xan joined our party.
In Nashkel Xan charmed Oublek to help us fight an assassin and I protected him frrom fear. Oublek died a hero.
Rasaad killed the assassin.
At High Hedge we filled up the spell books of Xan and Dynaheir as much as possible and bought an archmage robe for Xan. However, I am now regretting that as I am thinking that Xan will not be the best addition to the party.
I will however keep his robe as it could well be useful later on.
We have killed Deke et al as well as Tranzig. Now back at the bandit camp!
While posting my recent shapeshifter run, I also started a single-class thief called Lia with a custom party of 3 (2 berserkers - one intended to dual to wizard, one to cleric):
This is a typical example of how a failed run looks for me these days - I take most of my risks very early on to skip past some of the early game (and because restarting doesn't hurt as much), but sometimes, I take things too far - or, in this case, don't rest often enough.
Tarnesh falls to 2 enraged berserkers:
From there, it was a quick road to the basilisks. Easy enough with a green scroll and Korax at my side. We cleared them all, gained a bunch of levels, also took down the gnome using our rages. Now, here's a very bad idea I somehow often have: While I'm here, why not obtain the golden girdle by taking down the adventuring party in the center? A terrible plan with a party of 3 with no spellcasters at my side. Especially terrible, though, with no rages when facing a cleric who spams crowd control spells...
Well, we get hit by rigid thinking, try to flee, but still, hold person flies towards us:
Journal of Harald the Helmite
The bandit camp and beginning of Cloakwood have gone well. Centeol was killed as were five wyvern and a few younger ones. At the mine we killed Drasus and his cohorts before leaving to sell the wyvern tails.
As we scouted around we came across a drow claiming to be Drizzt. Naturally we didn't believe him and killed him. For some reason that reduced our reputation by 10 even though nobody saw us. It did provide Bertha and Ingvild good weaponry though Ingvild isn't skilled in using it. Bertha couldn't use one of them and so has a +2 scimitar and a +3 scimitar.
The mines were next. Davaeorn was easily killed with summoned monsters.
We left the mines unflooded so as to be able to recruit Dorn.
Simmeon was killed and Dorn dismissed.
Now back to the mines for the experience and reputation boost.
We may even meet more wyverns.
EDIT
Before setting off I increased my dexterity by one and Safana pick-pocketted a ring from Nemphre and an amulet from Arkion with a little help from potions. Kicking myself for not getting Arkion's quest before kicking out Dorn.
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We were parked at the edge of the Undercity, not much of a chance for one of us to die but we'd give it our best shot.
Rahvin and his crew fell to webbed arrows of detonation (and a skulltrap I think)
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We wasted no time making our escape from the dungeon, with little to fear and few mistakes made. Dubbel got himself into a tricky scenario but with two companions to cover his mishap nothing came of it.
After visiting Watchers Keep for the potion case we returned and spent 5000 gold on a magic licence - Dubbel may have long pockets and short arms but bitter experience taught him that a licenceless caster in Amn is confirming you know the price of a licence and not the value of it.
We opened up a few traps, and stepped into one or two (the one before the stairs up to the berserk warrior horn - Dubbel had healed himself somewhat but misjudged where the trap was and found it with his feet.
Officer Dirth's armour was recruited for rangerly duty and a few other tasks were started before we ran out of time, earning ourselves a 2 week rest.
I've rolled up a 100-point female Elven Stalker, Dorah, to go with what I consider a quality portrait. (The slanted Elven eyes especially are not easy to get right.)
Since I went straight for LoB again, progress has been and will be slow. Dorah finished off Drizzt after he'd been knocked out by a gnoll, and then farmed every bit of XP that didn't involve fighting (other than stabbing Tenya in the back). The only remaining non-violent quest that I know of was having Noober looked after by Joseph's wife, a little BGQE mod quest. Here's Dorah's solo track record:
– Wounded Hobgoblin 200
– Drizzt 12,000 (rep -5)
→ Donations (rep +4)
– Marl 900
– Drunk near Beregost temple 100
– Roughneck Ruffians 600
– Family heirloom 500
– Frightened widow 300
– Zee (Kobold’s Dream Too) 900
– Tenya 2500 (stealth attack while she was casting a detection spell)
– Brun 1500
→ Donation (rep +1)
– Alanna's Neighbor in Trouble 500 (rep -1)
– Dynaheir 800
– Neville 100
– Pregnant Wolf 40
– Albert and his Dog 1000
– A Man and His Hatchet 150 (+1 rep)
– Beetles, Dreams and an Old Man 550
→ Donation (rep +1)
– A Book for Firebead 300 (+1 rep)
– The Quest for Jumper 300
– Roomokum 0
– Colquetle 250
– Ulcaster's Ghost 1000
– A Magic Barrel 80
– The Midnight dog 1400
– Arcand the mad 300
– Drienne’s Cat 200 (+1 rep)
→ Ambush Skeletons (6 dmg)
– Samuel the Deserter 500
– Corianna 100
– Tamah Rescued 300 (+1 rep)
– Noober 400
– Babysitting in Nashkel 300 (+1 rep)
– Oublek
– Into the Womanhood 100
– The Tale of Captain Brage 1000 (+1 rep)
– Returned Kylee’s Dagger 200
– Joseph’s Greenstone Ring 800
– New best friend for Ugh 450
– Amber Flower 750
There's almost a Greater Basilisk worth of quest XP, about 6 or 6.5k XP, that vanilla players wouldn't be able to accumulate peacefully.
At 32k XP Dorah formed a war party with Coran (1st Cloakwood available before Chapter 4, courtesy of CDTweaks), Dynaheir, Minsc, Edwin, and Branwen respectively. First order of business was getting the party's reputation up to 20, as it was still only 18. With SCS decreased reputation gains, it took three more reputation quests:
- Prism & Greywolf, who was Held by Branwen (+1 rep),
- Joia (no rep increase), and
- Krumm & Caldo (another Hold Person cast while the aspiring lumberjacks were busy fighting two fallen warriors animated by Branwen (+1 rep).
With reputation at 20, the Tome of Leadership and Influence already consumed by Dorah, and Algernon's Cloak as well as the Blooming Club +2 (which also gives +2 CHA), prices were at their lowest. Dorah cleared the way at the High Hedge, taking out two Flesh Golems with stealth attacks, so that Dynaheir and Edwin could get scrolls of Invisibility. They both learned the spell without needing INT potions, so the party could travel invisibly to buy goods in Beregost, at the High Hedge, in Ulgoth's Beard, and at different temples, and sell them in Nashkel. 60 points in Pick Pockets boosted by a +1 DEX Ioun Stone, the Luck spell cast by Edwin, and a potion of perception as well as one of master thievery, allowed Coran to steal everything back at the Nashkel Carnival.
Below are character records and inventory screens of the party. I even have AI-generated character portraits for the NPCs I'm using.
Dorah:
Minsc true to game and setting lore (dark hair and features, hirsute):
Proud, straight-talking nordic warrior priestess Branwen:
Edwin, just as he's imagining a Thay ruled by himself:
Elven f*ckboy and Dorah's suitor Coran:
Dynaheir whose sly looks suggest she knows more about Charname than she lets on:
If this leads anywhere, I'll update... Happy adventuring everyone!
Most play it on core difficulty, no mods. However some play on other difficulties with loads of mods. I at least list my mods from time to time when using them.
We tend to be up-front about what we are doing.
Some play on ToB difficulty. It's up to you.
Meanwhile Harald is back to Reputation 20 in Baldur's Gate City.
A quick question. My paladin has ** in bastard swords. No proficiency in Scimitars.
Is he best playing with Kondor or Twinkle?
- +2 to hit, 8+STR average damage, +0.5 APR.
Twinkle, with no proficiency, as a warrior:
- +1 to hit, 7.5+STR average damage, +2 AC.
So going for Twinkle gets you two points of AC ... at the cost of 1 to hit, 0.5 to damage, and an attack every two rounds. I wouldn't do it. Killing enemies faster is the best defense.
He can only use one of Drizzt's scimitars. His other is Rashad's Talon.
My Paladin will therefore just use Albruin and Kondor.
My Berserker/soon to be-druid Icingdeath and Rashad's Talon.
Cleric of Helm Ashideena.
Thief (Safana): Rashad's Talon and scimiar +1, but mainly Army Scythe Crossbow
Mage (Dynaheir): Aule's staff plus daggers/sling. Mainly magic missile.
It seems to be an awesome combination.
After doing the Marek quest I now have two pairs of boots of speed.
We went to the Iron Throne and Safana saw what was happening up at the top floor.
I therefore put several Glyphs of Warding around one set of stairs and several buffed skeleton warriors at the other.
Bertha, my berserker then went upstairs and as soon as spells started coming her way, descended even more quickly. She was followed by two enemy who were quickly disposed of with the aid of the skeletons. Meanwhile other enemy/enemies were obliterated by the glyphs.
Bertha went back upstairs and another enemy followed only to be terminated.
The party then went upstairs together to finished off the remnants of the enemy.
I was the only one to be hurt and so healed myself before going onto the roof for a quick nap.
After being sent back to Candlekeep we ended up in the chambers beneath.
I cast lightning Protection on myself before facing up to Prat.
He wasn't hurt by his lightning bolt and neither was I. My team were in a place of safety so the only ones hurt were his cohorts.
True sight was helpful at that point. Wand of the Heavens killed Prat and after that Glyphs of Warding, Skull traps and Wands of fire cleared that party with ease.
We left the area and slept. I am now trying to decide what next. Ice Island? Durlag's? a return to the Gate? Ankheg Shell collection to get more gold? As I only had 2000gp that seemed sensible. However, even after getting paid for the shells of quite a few ankheg, I still didn't have enough gold for everything that I want to buy, everything that i need for the moment true, so the other things can wait. Ice island was next. We didn't get anything of value on the island other than stoneskin, experience and a few winter wolf skins. (I like the improved ice island mod).
We finished Durlag's Tower except for the last room.
Ingvild was killed in the chess room due to carelessness. She could be invaluable so we left to get her raised.
I thought that recruiting Kivan might be a good idea. All the current party are at the experience cap of 161,000
We sold our wyvern tails and winter wolf pelts in order to replenish supplies. After doing so, we had 42gp left.
We defeated the demonknight without too much trouble. We hid the dagger where hopefully it will never be found.
Before returning to the gate we MUST acquire more gold
I want Dynaheir's spell book to be as full as possible before taking on Sarevok.
Gold is available and I suppose that Coran could be useful in the Final Battle. He however is not exactly a vital element in my plans.
We gave Dynaheir all the spells available at the Gate and also bought many potions. However we couldn't buy all that we wanted. Perhaps I am a little too greedy.
We finished off some minor quests and then went to the Ducal Palace. It was a close run thing! The duchess was killed and Belt was near death. I only just healed him in time! What is more, Coran got chunked! Not as straightforward as I would have liked!
have about 7000 gp and I want to buy as many arrows of dispelling as possible before following Sarevok!
EDIT
We earned more gold and bought most of the equipment that we wanted. Now have the grand total of 5gp. Ilmater would be proud of us!
Now following Sarevok.
I was looking forward to a holiday of gaming but that dream died pretty soon
That's sad!
Journal of Harald Continued into SoD
Realised too late that I should have ensured that I had gold to pay the healer at the start of SoD. After buying just one scroll I am left with 26gp.
Gold is far more plantiful in BG1 than SoD! The healer won't buy anything!!
It could be awkward.
End of BG1: ...
The prologue of SoD was straightforward apart from the time when a number of the party was put to sleep.
I was quite concerned that Safana might get killed!
Korlasz was killed easily.
The four of us arrived in the Ducal Palace safely, but Imoen has now gone to investigate some strange sounds.
Currently whilst I have abundant possessions, I have no gold.
Some of my possessions appear to have gone missing.
I'll have to look for it again when I am not so tired. I'm thinking that SoD doesn't recognise some items.
Dynaheir and Minsc have joined the party.
We have just left Baldur's Gate heading for Caelar.
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We start another 2 hours of fun, with Coreranger unable to remember his class after a 2 week break. We started off with the Rune Assassins where Rejiek Hidesman duplicated himself. Afer the first of him departed we 'lost' the second by going invisible near the waterfront and went inside to deal with his ghasts and assassin.
Cordan - human priest of tempus, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Nappa - half-elf dragon disciple (Gate70)
Saki - gnomish cleric/thief (Grond0)
No fighters in this group, so melee power pretty weak and slow, especially as everyone is using slings. We do however, have many tools, with arcane, cleric x2 and thief abilities, so we will get powerful in BG 2, assuming we survive BG 1. Candlekeep chores done without incident.
We almost came undone at the first area, as Cordan picked a fight with Xzar but nearly died, I think possibly his level 1 protection saved him. Fortunately a blue potion or 2 plus his friends coming to help carried the day. Poor Shoal was commanded so she couldn't survive.
Cordan wanted the +1 ring (in the area south of FAI), so while the party was at it we also got the wizard's ring for Nappa. This enabled quite a few sleeps which was helpful in many encounters. While Cordan can dual to thief himself, he decides he would be more help to the party as a cleric, as Saki won't use full plate as she wants to have her thief abilities available. We proceeded to make our way to Nashkel, mostly to pick up the Ankheg armor for Cordan. Cordan also wanted the +1 medium shield so that he can tank better in basilisks' area. He also wanted to return a spider body and other Landarin items.
Once that was done, the party made their way to Basilisk area, well they tried to but Gate70 went the wrong way and aggroed some hobgoblins. While his party was trying to re-unite, Cordan ran into a bear. He used his Priest of Tempus abilities plus Saki managed a command which made the fight easier, though blue potions were needed.
The basilisk area went slow and needed more rests than usual but went smooth all the same. A silence made Mutamutin simple. As for Kirian's party, we had lots of hold persons/silences/commands plus skeletons - end result all enemies got held and silenced, clean victory.
We made our way to the kid and his dog area. Saki got pretty close to Vax and Vax kept resisting commands/hold persons, so Saki needed to run Vax around while we slinged him to death. Cordan had used his Tempus ability to increase his strength which gave him a nice critical to speed up the kill. Poor Zal saw some skeletons and tried to use darts on them - while suitably distracted the party then unloaded on him - success!
We ran out of time here so made it to Caldo and Krumm area and saved here.
I’m in chapter 2 of BG2 now, so I think I have a shot since I I have done anything stupid to get myself killed in BG1 LOL.
I think my goal party is:
Knuckles the bounty hunter
Jahiera
Anomen
Haer’Dalis
Edwin
Korgan
I’m kinda trying to get some easy XP right now in Chapter 2 so I can begin recruiting my team at a higher XP, which will be 1.25 million.
I wasn’t sure which dialogue to pick to get Jahiera out of the starting dungeon so that I could pick her up at 1.25 million, so her and I have been fighting our way to that point ourselves.
Wish me luck!
The documented run ended in the second session already with Neera's encounter where the protagonist gets transported to the front of the party, and with only a diviner and bard that meant game over very quickly.
Attempts 2, 3, and 4 all ended a several stages along the way. 2nd at the ogre because Ambrosia switched to melee when my attention was off. 3rd at the friendly arm inn when horror reached further than I anticipated (a classic, haha). 4th at Landrin's house which I would normally not go into at level 1 with a mage and a darter.
I am now at the 5th attempt, but I am leaving the dice rolls out of it and instead turn to some role playing instead.
Interestingly the party is the same (because I reload the exported characters from regeneration) and I replayed the same road from Candlekeep to Beregost from the first run.
That means we are picking up the run again where we left it last post, although with slightly different XP from kobold or gibberling along the roads. I am now standing in Beregost with the intent of going through town to see the sights and then help Pontag in the evening with his beetle vision.
But if you are having fun, well that's the main thing. Good luck!
You need to refuse to let her in the group, and tell her to make her own way. She'll give you the guilt trip for that, and also you can't do romance either. But I believe you can get her with higher experience. From a RP point of view I feel bad leaving her behind so unless I play a solo character I always prefer to let her join and just kick her out once she's safely out of the dungeon if I'm not going to use her. But really, druid summons and insect plague is just so useful...
The battles against the undead in the cave were challenging!
I saw Coldhearth transformed into a lich, slew him permanently, with great difficulty, Dynaheir being killed in the process from a single spell.
However we raised her at the camp.
When the bridge was destroyed Ingvild was killed and it took another 800gp to raise her.
[That was due to lack of preparation. I've never had problems there before! ]
I will instead use randomisation in the role play aspect.
I loaded up the starting save and rushed the dungeon, and this didn’t work. IDK.
Previous update found here
As a refresher: Beyond his NPC allies (Dynaheir/Minsc/Glint/Corwin), Aldain is accompanied by Amarande, an Elven Fighter/Mage/Thief. The pair were at levels 10 and 7/8/9 respectively when last we saw them, and were about to enter the coalition camp in SoD.
We started by selling off gargantuan amounts of loot to Nazramu, and bought a few useful items. Dead Man's Pass was next on the agenda, and it turns out you can actually steal from Horst! He doesn't really have anything useful, though.
We cleared out the local trash, only stumbling a bit in the Spider Cave to the north: Aldain and Amarande were entirely safe owing to Rings of Freedom of Action, but Dynaheir was not so fortunate (the glue from the Killer Mimic automatically targets all party members regardless of relative position to the Mimic).
A quick Raise Dead later, we were back on the road, and promptly got the Goblins/Myconid Caverns ambush. The Myconids can be a bit dangerous unless you're willing to splurge on a few Potions of Clarity (we weren't willing, of course), but we still came through alright.
Around here motivation typically plummets for me. I find SoD before the Coalition Camp a pretty fun experience, but the Camp proper, the Underground River segment, questing in the Dragonspear courtyard.. it drags on and on, and there's enormous amounts of pretty pointless loot which I nonetheless feel compelled to pick up, organize and sell/save.
So we very, very slowly (think 10-15 minutes once a week or so) made our way through the whole thing. Flitting back and forth, I actually managed to kill the Shadowy Figure during his ambush this time (Potion of Explosion x6 did the trick), to no real benefit whatsoever.
Oh, and you can also steal from Onoroth, the grumpy druid (I guess?) in Bloodbark Grove. We duly stole some unnecessary scrolls and even more unnecessary Ankheg Plate from him, then cleared the area. Amarande with a Strength potion is a sight to behold, by the by: Even with Short Swords, critical hits in the mid-40's aren't uncommon.
With most areas cleared, we descend into the Underground River area. Dark Magicians have no defense against Potion of Explosion spam (they don't typically protect themselves from fire damage, and the potions aren't blocked by MGoI): I can certainly tackle them the "proper" way if necessary, but this is just much faster and easier. And besides, not like there's much else use for the 30+ PoE we've amassed.
We take down Zhadroth the Lich on our way out, earning a by now completely defunct Ring of Regeneration. Oh, that Ankheg Druid (I forget the name) gets his comeuppance as well: Everyone quaffed a Potion of Freedom before engaging, which allowed for a few Minor Sequencers loaded with Web to just obliterate most of the encounter (and also protected against the Shambling Mounds locking someone down with their Entange-on-hit). Dynaheir attracted some undue Ankheg attention, but eh.
The rest of the River is cleared: Albino Wyrmlings have no response to tanks under Freedom potions, and even a swarm of Shadows/Wraiths fall to Web easily enough. Delving deeper, we actually find someone we can steal from that has something remotely worthwhile: Crusader Priest Polvi! I must have misclicked somehow though (I expect I selected Glint at some point, who with his measly Pick Pockets just failed instantly), since Polvi goes hostile after we've only stolen about 40 scrolls and assorted potions from him. Was afraid he'd drag the entire area down on us, but his shout for help only agroed 4 nearby crusaders.
And that's about it for the Underground River. We eavesdrop on Hephernan (after placing the barrel of Bwoosh), send him running while also killing his two flunky mages, then quickly loot the room, go invisible and leg it: Some Skeleton Warriors held off the enemy reinforcements just long enough for us to escape safely.
Finally, the end is nigh. Almost. We buy anything and everything that might be useful from the quartermaster (and of course end up using next to none of it), then firebomb a Troll wave, firebomb a Mage wave, web a Paladin wave, and firebomb Grimgor. Yep, we're out of patience by now: Just kill it with fire, I don't care.
We assault the Dragonspear Courtyard, firebomb some Crusaders, then murderize Ashatiel with a few Skeleton Warriors conjured by Aldain. For once she doesn't complain about us breaking any rules, though she herself of course Sanctuaries several times to heal up.
We follow Caelar into Hell, swiftly making our way to the Hellevator: Potions of Clarity and Freedom are sufficient to make you completely immune to anything the Devils here can do against you. We rest up, apply enormous amounts of protection scrolls and potions (why not, there's only one real fight left), and ascend. This time I actually get the timing right for Spell Immunity: Abjuration on Aldain: I cast it right after the wave containing a Bone Fiend, which turned out to be the last one. As a result, Belhifet's initial Dispel Magic (which he always targets on the protagonist) does absolutely nothing. The party spreads out a bit: We sweet-talked Caelar into acting as a meat shield, and Glint keeps casting Greater Restoration on her from scrolls (the Beer Stein helmet keeping him from going fatigued), whilst the rest of the party clears the reinforcing devils.
Once alone, Belhifet can't do anything. He goes Improved Invisible a few times, which we counter with Oracle/Detect Invisibility, and spends the rest of his time completely pointlessly cutting up Caelar. Under the combined pressure of three slingers with +3 bullets, one archer with +3 arrows, and two melee fighters with +3 swords (swords for everyone!), Belhifet caves before he can even use Infernal Conveyance.
And that's that. We play through the epilogue, escape uneventfully, and are duly captured.
Man, what a slog. Might skip SoD entirely next time I do a run. Anyway, it's over now. I'll give a rundown of levels, stats and proficiencies for Aldain and Amarande in the starting post for the BG2EE part of the run.
In retrospect, much like BG1EE, there's really not much point to Pickpocket in SoD. There are few stores you can steal from, and the ones you CAN steal from typically have nothing better than some scrolls and potions (and there are massive amounts of these available anyway). Should be very powerful in BG2EE though, to the point it might very well break the game even though I do not intend to allow for stealing and re-selling items.
Just made my way through Troll Claw Woods.
I turned down the help of Jaheira and Voghlin and instead sent them to join the coalition.
The spiders have been a problem, but are now dead.
Morentherene was an even bigger problem. Using a throwing dagger didn't work.
At this point I thought that the end was nigh!
However, seconds later I breathed a sigh of relief!
After some rest we are hunky dory.
We went deeper into the cave and more by good luck than good management, as well as bugbears that were visible, we also killed ones that were hiding as Dynaheir cast Icestorm and cloudkill. Those spells were perfect and only used because others weren't available.
EDIT
Got killed fighting the mind flayer.
In this game I have installed a mod - kit-tomes. It allows the giving of kits to those who are usually not able to have them by using tomes which are expensive.
I have also modded the game with my own mod which makes the assassins in candlekeep a little more dangerous by giving them slightly better armour and weapons. It gives that part of the game a bit more of a challenge.
The game states that Chaotic Neutral characters tend to be crazy and have no morals. Looking to see how that works.
The two characters are quite happy in getting the Candlekeeep Watchers etc. to fight and kill each other just so long as they don't lose reputation by doing the killing themselves. They end up with a lot of plate mail.
We killed Sonner, took the bowl to Tenya and the ring to Joia before going to Beregost.
We delivered a letter to Mirianne before taking on three heavily armoured Flaming Fist without any injuries, but then a gibberling attacked and killed Myst with a single blow! We hadn't thought it worth disabling him with Command!
At least, it only cost 100gp to raise him.
Made our way to Nashkel.
I have decided not to continue with this run for the moment. but instead make use of an excellent roll for a berserker who will in due course become a druid. Not a class that I have much experience with, so I am not expecting great things from him.
As well as the roll, I found a good image that I liked for the portraits.
Due to the fact that this class hasn't been completed yet.
I will try the one mentioned above later