It's been a hot minute, but I'll throw my hat back into the ring. I'll be playing a poverty run without mods with slightly different poverty restrictions to ease the early-game - I'll still be disallowed from using non-magically-created items (for example, Goodberries or Fireseeds are still usable) or picking up non-quest related items, but I'll allow myself to purchase Raise Deads from the gold garnered from quest rewards. This is to make me not tear my hair out restarting from deaths from random ambushes or critical arrows on my squishies.
More or less standard poverty party, with the exception of the Dark Moon Monk instead of the 3rd sorcerer - it gives more lethal damage early at the expense for more spells. This might give me problems around Belhifet, but I'm going to try a cheeky Enchanted Weapon on Carsa. As if 4th level spells for Sorcerers weren't contested enough.
We've just been going around the countryside doing the safer high experience quests, using Sleep, Command, and Blind to keep ourselves safe from the weaker mobs. We got lucky with Melicamp, slept a couple of spiders before Carsa beat them up, then sent Carsa and Korax around to sweep up a bunch of basilisks. Korax dies while fighting Mutamin, so Carsa disengages, we rest up and send another Special Trap from Bruggo towards Mutamin's last known position. Carsa finishes him and the rest of the basilisks.
Our priests now have access to level 2 spells, and our sorcerers are still stuck at 1st level spells. We kill Lord Foreshadow to nuke our reputation to give LMD on the way to Nashkel. With access to Silence 10' and Hold Person means I can now safely do some of the spellcaster fights. Therius silences Neira, Holds Greywolf, and then we go on a tour around the mines. We try the Amazon fight, but screw up against Darts of Wounding and Carsa is killed while running away. Oops. One Raise Dead later (our funds are down to 300 or so) and we return again, this time luring the Amazons into a progression of traps. We have no way of dealing with Mustard Jellies at the moment, so we leave again.
Back up north, we clear Tarnesh with a trap, Silence Basillus, and find, silence, trap, and kill the second mercenary assassin party. Therius managed a 4-man Hold Person against Melkar and company and cleared the fight with ease. Destra is almost level 5 with access to Call Lightning, so we're still trying to finish a few more major fights/experience locations. Tenya's worth 2500 experience, and Ankhegs are... safe-ish with Sleep. Except when they aren't and almost one-shot Carsa with a crit. We manage to escape safely though, help Tenya, kill 20 or so zombies, and finally get Destra to level 5. Next up are the first few levels of Durlag's tower, and with two Animate Deads and one Spirit Animal we should be able to through the mines without too many annoyances.
Meanwhile Ham finished the mines, picked up Xan and is now at Beregost.
Xan ruined the scrap with Nimbul by throwing a dagger at Oublek and killing him. Now reputation down at 10.
Oublek was in the process of attacking Nimbul when the charm spell wore off.
At least I left a few quests half-finished so it will be easy to boost reputation fairly easily. However, I'll do that AFTER I have finished the bandit camp. A horror spell could be useful.
I'll just have to be careful that I don't drop the reputation any lower.
Left Xan outside Thunderhammer Smithy.
After looting the bandit camp we killed Deke et al and then Tranzig.
It could be a few days before I post again.
I usually post at TavernRPG these days, but since the thread here is lagging a touch in the new year, I thought I'd crosspost my current run in solidarity. And so, without further ado, meet Ale'san, eleven mage/thief.
Proficiencies: Quarterstaves, Shortbows
Mods: SCS 34.3, Ascension, G3 Fixpack- Free Action Protects Against Stun, EE Tweaks 50% Nerf to kill XP (BG2 only)
Difficulty: Insane
Gaming Notes: Ale'san's run will be a lightly RPed tactically oriented adventure. The eleven M/T has always been a personal fav. The plan here is to just have fun with the tactical cornucopia that is the M/T 🙃
It saddens me to say that I did not record Ale'san's earliest of early adventures. I did not screenshot the ceremonial punking of the first ogrillion. Nor did I commemorate the assuaging of Marl's grief with a barstool selfie. You, dear reader, will just have to accept that these things happened, in a sound of a tree falling in a forest kind of way. If that troubles you, then let me ask you this. If an ogre backstabs a squirrel in the forest, and no one is there to see it, does it actually happen? Good question. I'm not sure. Why don't we ask the squirrel?
With that out of the way, we begin our adventure here, in Thalantyr's abode. Chickety, check it, y'all: that's a successful anti-chickenator. Good vibes all around.
(For the record, we hit the FAI first, collecting the rings along the way. Mirrianne and Firebead were aided, too. We checked in on John Cougar after that.)
With her first level up secured, Ale'san moved to the next item on her to do list. Kill people with nice things. These hobgoblins had boots.
These knobgoblins had a belt.
The undead area was next because Drienne gave us a scroll, and it seemed a shame not to use it.
What are these clowns doing with Gauntlets of Dexterity? For reals: How did they get them? They're just not on that level, you know? Standard kiting mission here.
As of my last run, Aurora's run, I had sworn off basilisks hunting. Yes, the XP is excessive and egregious. Yes, it distorts the early game. Yes, the basilisk hunt should be skipped. I agree with all that. But, you know, there's a dumb fun, monster truck show kind of joy in a successful basilisk hunt, and this time I decided to roll with it. Don't like it? Fine. Objection noted. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some important business to attend to...
Once again Korax was the hero, paralyzing Mutamin. If there really, truly is a heaven, I don't want to be greeted at the gates by St. Peter, or whoever. I want it to be Korax. "Wait! Remember me? Me Korax! Me friend! Me show you around!" Then I'd take his hand, and we'd walk in, and I'd know eternity will be good. Amen.
With the benefit of experience, we were ready kill people with nice things again. Sendai was separated from her archers with a Stinking Cloud, but she tagged Ale'san with her first major boo-boo. Kudos to her for making those early rolls against Blindness.
I've long had an aversion to stationary AoE spells. It goes all the way back to the early days of BG, when off screen Wand of Cloudkill spamming was a thing. Ale'san, however, like those L2 stationary AoE so I'll need to keep my distaste in abeyance. It's her run, after all.
With the Whistling Sword in hand, we were one step closer to that all important Ulgoth's Beard shopping trip. Now at L5, we can grab the gem bag.
Sleep and Blindness secure the Bracers of Archery.
Blindness, Varscona.
Looting the anklet lair got us to the finish line. We can now afford the Greenstone Amulet, the Cloak of Displacement, Aule's and a stack stunning darts.
We put those stunning darts to immediate use, securing out last pre-Mulahey item goal, Legacy of the Masters.
What is that first item in your backpack? I haven't seen it before. An item from a mod?
Also, I see that you got 2000 experience for completing the Melicamp quest. That is what used to happen in my game. It doesn't anymore! No experience, no reputation upgrade!
What is that first item in your backpack? I haven't seen it before. An item from a mod?
Good eyes! That's Hanna, Hanna the ferret.
About 8 months ago I ran a beastmaster named Aurora. I gave her a ferret familiar as an homage to Andre Norton's beast-master. I named the ferret Hanna after Kathleen Hanna, composer and performer of Aurora's theme song, Rebel Girl. It was all very cute.
Ale'san ended up with Hanna because she is chaotic good, the same alignment as Aurora. I probably should have reverted to the standard fairy dragon at the beginning of Ale'san's game. It's all purely cosmetic, though: gameplay wise, Hanna is identical to the standard chaotic good fairy dragon.
I just ran a conjurer and berserker duo, Jyoti the conjurer having reached level 5.
Everything was going swimmingly until we went to fight Greywolf. Jyoti was killed by a horde of hobgoblin archers in transit.
It's no wonder that pure mages haven't completed the Trilogy in No Reload
I've just dipped into The Candlekeep Annex on Tavern RPG it looks interesting. I'll look into it more fully later. The ethos looks good.
Back to the Ham the Helmite run where Tranzig has just been killed. Cleared a spiders nest and went to the FAI.
There I met Panver who sold me an expensive tome that turned Dynaheir into a conjurer. She was able to memorise four more spells.
[This is from my only mod, Kittomes]
Returned Landrin's possessions and then went to the bandit camp.
Dynaheir single handedly defeated Taurgosz with web and skull traps.
Batard defeated those inside using a single potion.
The buffed skeletons waiting outside were not needed.
Horror Bhaalpower acquired. Subsequently spent gold to get reputation up to 15.
I think that I will now seek out minor quests to boost reputation further.
First of these was 'Drienne's cat. This was followed by the Charlestonian Nib quest. I completed it but the game didn't recognise the fact. I think that was because Safana kissed one of the workers, so when Dynaheir's skull trap was cast, it didn't count as a death of one of Charlestonian's workers! He won't talk to me!!
Rescued a boy at the lighthouse. I am now a hero again!
Rescued Arabelle and also got a +1 two-handed sword. In both cases web helped a lot.
Reputation now 18.
Helped Aldeth and then tried unsuccessfully to return Gurke's Cloak.
South of beregost we came across some boots of stealth for Safana.
Trio 60 Update 2
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
So the party had a few housekeeping chores to do:
1) returned Perdue's sword
2) Wiping out Landarin's spiders and returning her things
3) Returning ankheg shells we were all carrying.
Then we worked on taking down Sirines. With greenstone amulet and Corefighter's X saves, the sirines were pretty simple. With the help of potion of absorption, Corefighter X tanked the flesh golems quite well.
Next up was Durlag's Tower - battle horrors were taken down pretty easily - Steel mentioned even a non-magical sword can hurt these things - yep they can! With two two hand sword users, we went through the horrors pretty fast. Rather than deal with the doom guards right away, we went inside and dealt with basilisks. Steel put PfP on Corefighter X and the party quickly worked their way through the basilisks. We all got a level, then the doom guards were a bit easier to mop up.
We still hadn't picked up Samuel or the fire resistance ring so we did that. (Corefighter X noticed this when he had to trip a fireball trap as no one had fire resistance and he had the most HP to risk). On the way we also deal with Greywolf. With two level 6 fighter types plus arcane support he wasn't going to last long and he didn't.
Type for Mulahey - we worked our way down to him, having to walk through a few traps on the way. A stinking cloud plus range weapons took down Mulahey without him even being able to call for help. His ring was useless to this party though. It's good money which does help as our cash is pretty low at this point. Amazons were the next target and two stinking clouds and missile weapons once again carried the day.
Nimbul was the next target and naturally he wasn't going be able to do much to the fear immune Gloriana. We then went to Beregost to pick off Tranzig who also didn't last long. We then made our way to the Bandit Camp. Corefighter was using his bow but maybe shouldn't have as this meant Gloriana had to tank. Though she did have the boots of avoidance so maybe it was fine. She took a few hits though - Khosahnn got blinded and while Steel and Gloriana deal with bandits, Corefighter used acid arrows to take down Khosahnn.
Time for Tazok's tent. A simple strategy of greenstone amulet and Corefighter charging with potion of firebreath carried the day quite well. Corefighter tripped the trap on the chest since had the boots of grounding, though that did kill a bystander who was standing far too close to that trap...
We then worked our way through the Cloakwood. As is our usual policy, we usually skip everthing unless it happens to be on our way OR we need something. In this case, with two two-hand sword users, we definitely wanted the Spider's Bane. We had used invisibility on Corefighter who tripped the traps on the way to Centeol's nest, then the party fought their way there. Corefighter tried to pull a few enemies but got quite a few (6). However, he had used a heroism potion and Gloriana managed to save vs poison a number of times so all was well in the end. Gloriana got the Spider's Bane and Corefighter will use the +1 two-hand sword. This is a good fight as he thought he might as well use the boots of speed which isn't too far away.
We continue on to drassus taking down a dryad on the way. She somehow got cut up in the middle of a teleport so that was a neat trick by Gloriana. Time for Drassus. A few stinking clouds including one from scoll plus missile weapons again carried the day. To speed up kills Gloriana seemed to be using fire arrows and Corefighter was using acid arrows - quick and clean victory.
As for the Cloakwood Mine itself, as usual we tried to bee-line to Davaoern. The only tricky part on the way is the 2nd level where Corefighter bashed a door then Steel went invisible and with the rest of the party close to exit but out of sight in a room, Steel then triggered the area transition. In no time we are at Davaeorn's area.
While the battle horrors hurt Gloriana a little bit, otherwise they went down easy enough. Corefighter then gulped a potion of magic blocking and charged Davaeorn. His friends then ranged attacked also to try to speed up the kill. Just to be safe, Corefighter used magic missile wand at the end of Davaoern's teleporting and Corefighter thought he saw Steel's magic missiles also connecting with Daveorn - success! We killed the mustard jelly, looted up a bit and saved our session here.
P.S. - no screenshot this time as I have a new keyboard and didn't know until afterwards how to get a screenshot (have to use the function key on this keyboard plus another key).
Can only post text, can't make the bold icon work or the icon for importing screenshots, or the one for editting!!
Tried leaving the site and re-entering, but that doesn't work either.
Ham dealt with Centeol, wyverns in transit, and those in the cave. Now reached the mines.
Will give fuller details when the site is working properly.
Yay!! Everything working again!!
Journal of Ham the Cleric of Helm
At Centeol's lair I set an ambush of buffed skeletons outside and lured spiders and ettercaps into the ambush.
Wyverns were defeated in transit. My tactics worked to perfection. I was concerned that Hal's freedom of action spell wouldn't be completed by the time Dynaheir's web spell was cast. Safana had to do some running around so that the party only had to fight one wyvern at a time.
Buffed skeletons outside the wyvern lair also worked well.
Webs, skull traps and skeletons also worked well against the party of Drasus.
Not all the skeletons were held by web and those that were not were highly effective against the held Genthorn, the one who was not badly hurt by the skull traps.
Upon descending to Hereishan I sent three buffed skeletons into the room and shut the door. They defeated Hereishan and her minions without any help from us!
I couldn't believe how easily Davaeorrn fell. Two buffed skeletons didn't even break into a sweat. (Probably because skeletons don't sweat!)
Returned to Lathander's Temple for the reward regarding the wyvern tail.
Then went to the basilisk area, wiped out a party of adventurers who attacked, and after that we wiped out the basilisks before taking on Mutamin.
Mutamin cast a horror spell which coincided with his death.
After that I ran into a party of gnolls.
Fortunately at that very time the horror spell wore off.
I then led the gnolls towards my party. We were victorious and returned to the FAI.
We intended recuiting Dorn but our reputation was too high.
We therefore recruited Baeloth and swapped him for Dorn.
We then finished off Dorn's quest.
I forgot to protect the party from fear with the result that the result was in doubt.
Nevertheless we prevailed and slept. Dorn reached level 3.
We did a lot of fetch and carry quests in Baldur's Gate and have now arrived at Durlag's Tower where I intend to restrict myself to the easier tasks. I am currently level 8.
We used brute force and ignorance as we approached the tower.
The upper levels of the tower were straightforward and we used overwhelming power against Kirinhale.
After Kirinhale, we killed Riggilo and cleared all the lower floor apart from Love. Put the wine in a nearby barrel.
As someone once said: "I'll be back."
We then returned to Baldur’s Gate where we did numerous minor quests before facing up to the Maulers of the Underdark.
Trio 60 Update 3
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
WIth two very tough fighters leading the way and with arcane support, the party is making very good progress. First we looted a little bit in Davaeorn's area and then flooded the Cloakwood Mines.
After that was time for a few miscellaneous tasks. First, Corefighter got a staff so he can deal with jellies and also got the shield amulet.
Then we headed to the City of Baldur's Gate. The party made remarkable progress here:
1) The necromancers on the 2nd floor of Sorcerous Sundries were shot to death.
2) Ogre Mage in sewers wasn't able to do much to Gloriana protected by Spider's Bane and Corefighter protected by greenstone amulet (which poofed as it was used up).
3) Nemphre and Arkion helped then killed. This time Nemphre didn't win the fight (she got us recently).
4) Basilisk defeated with potion of mirror eyes, which is funny as Corefighter asked Steel to memorize a pfp spell.
5) Deserta and friend were killed quickly with two two-hand swords beating on them.
6) Poison quest completed. We had used monster summons to trap the first thief then Marek was defeated easily enough. Before that Larze put down a beating on both Corefighter and Gloriana so he needed to be shot to death with missiles.
7) Razamith's tower cleared and Razamith quickly died, not sure to what, missiles maybe?
8) Jardak and his butler were defeated, though Corefighter took a beating again. The butler had trouble because Gloriana is immune to fear.
9) Nestor's dagger returned. We also got the helm of Balduran while were here. We also defeated Degrodel's minions. The party did well.
10) Forgot to mention we had cleared out the water queen's temple and returned a boy's body to his father. Our reward was a shield nobody is going to use. We obtained a wisdom tome which is only of marginal use to this party.
11) We cleared out the Seven Suns without issue. There was also a nearby mage who the party took on but Steel was suprised as this time the mage summoned friends. But Corefighter arrived just in time to help win the fight.
12) We took on the thieve's guild in the SE corner of the City of Baldur's Gate. Apparently it has been years since Gate70 had done this bit and ended up dying. But fortunately not chunked so a nearby temple brought him back then we got back to the action.
13) We reported our success about dealing with the ogre mage in the sewers and Seven Suns to Scar. He asked to investigate the Iron Throne HQ so we did so. We did a pretty common tactic - a fighter (Corefighter in this case) protected himself with magic and put on a number of fighter potions as well. With him as a distraction, the party then assisted with ranged weapons and spells including web - success!
Time to go to Candlekeep. Steel tripped most of the traps using globe of invulnerability. Since Gloriana had spider's bane, Corefighter gave him a potion of absorption for the lightning bolt trap and also poison immunity via green scroll. While one spider did try to take on Corefighter and Steel, the fight was a success. We had a little bit of chaos next area as Corefighter was dealing with skeletons and the party was trying to take on the dopplegangers and also got attacked by skeletons - but the party prevailed.
Next up was Prat - a web and some summons with Gloriana leading the way went mostly well, except when trying to use his bow Corefighter got stuck in the web. However, his party quickly killed the survivors of Prat's gang before they could take advantage of that.
We ran out of time and saved our session here - the spiders and basilisks will be next.
Did all the same quests as Corey above, sold a large number of ankheg shells and spent the gold on wands. Not much left. We went to the Iron Fist after returning Nester's dagger. Killed the leaders of the Iron Throne there by taking them on about two at a time.
EDIT
Now back at Candlekeep. When I met Prat the battle was easier than usual.Dynaheir used improved invisibility to get past them, then she cast web followed by two skull traps which killed two of Prat's party and alerted Prat to our presence. He had a short conversation with Dynaheir before being held by the web spell. Dynaheir had already cast a Melf's Minute Meteors spell and with the meteor's killed Prat. She then went back to the party. Safana used stealth to locate the remnants of Part's group. Dynaheir killed them with her last skull trap. The party cleared the reest of the cave with ease.
After my last run with a thief failed quite early on, I'm back with a very safe and more traditional approach for another missing class in the hall of heroes, the ranger - rarely played as the base class due to mostly just being an inferior fighter. Once again, this run is played mostly while listening to podcasts, so it has to be easy to execute and devoid of new and unusual challenges for me, otherwise I'd not be able to focus on listening and would fail to multitask. So - core rules, no mods, no expansion content (except for the outside and upper levels of Durlag's Tower) and, in this case, a custom party of 4 so I don't have to worry about group composition and can keep the same party members for the entire game, unless someone gets chunked.
Mandara actually got the rare 18/00 roll for strength, I think the first time I've had that one on a main character: 18'00/19/17/10/14/8 - female elven ranger, **long sword and ** long bow.
She is joined by: Ayla, human female Inquisitor, **two-handed sword, **crossbow (18'46/18/18/11/13/17).
Marnax, male dwarven fighter/cleric, **flail, **sling (18'95/17/19/11/18/1).
Himgi, male gnomish illusionist/thief, *quarterstaff, *shortbow (18/18/18/19/8/3).
This party should have the versatility and power to deal with all challenges throughout the game and is small enough that the two multiclasses will get their important spells at a reasonable time despite us skipping some content such as SoD and most of TotSC - that's the idea at least. Some of this was played some time ago and I don't really have too many notes or screenshots, so the reports won't be very detailed.
Since we don't want to repeat our previous failure, we don't rush for any shortcuts to fast experience this time around and take it slow, doing the easier sidequests around Beregost first, clearing up the early wilderness areas and gathering some gear and levels before finally turning towards the basilisks - here, we take vengeance upon the nearby adventuring party:
As per usual, we mostly use powerful ranged options in BG1, with Marnax sometimes doing some tanking if needed, plus some divine and arcane buffs or crowd control spells. Investing in some early potions, including mirrored eyes in case of the rare basilisk ambush, turns out to be worthwhile:
We clear out the Nashkel mines with ease (having many sleep spells at our disposal), explore the remaining wilderness areas (Kahrk is skipped, though) and deal with the bandit camp, where we cast hold person on key opponents. Soon, we're through Cloakwood and at the entrance to the iron mines - bless, chant, remove fear, inquisitor true sight plus some skeletons and ranged attacks do the job:
We carefully shoot our way through the mines. Having an inquisitor with us means that most wizard defenses here just don't stand for very long:
Of course, the successful backstab against Davaeorn didn't hurt either.
We enter Baldur's Gate and start doing all the sidequests, gather up some gear and learn all available spellscrolls. Our only slight setback is a confusion effect hitting Ayla during the ogre mage battle at the docks:
Otherwise, we don't really struggle with even the more difficult battles - with haste, PfE 10' radius and a bunch of magical ammunition added into the mix, the Iron Throne party falls:
After speeding through Candlekeep, we use malison + slow/emotion to our advantage upon our return to the city:
We've picked up way too many potions by now, so we can use them in basically every battle:
I have no screenshots for the ducal palace, but some skeletons, malison + chaos and some oils of speed on my fighters were enough to save both dukes. Meanwhile, the undercity party dies (with everyone in my group being protected from fire):
We lure in Sarevok, Semaj teleports in but is revealed by true sight and hit with some arrows of dispelling. He still gets to use his remove magic, but Mandara is able to move away from the party to stop the effect from spreading - and it fails to do the job anyway:
Semaj dies a second later, and Sarevok is only able to kill a single skeleton before we successfully shoot him down:
I was about to go to take on Sarevok when I remembered a previous game when a party member was killed and I didn't have the gold to raise him. The cleric in SoD prologue wouldn't buy my spare equipment to enable me to resurrect the party member. I am therefore going in search of gold so that doesn't happen again. A few thousand gp should be more than adequate.
EDIT
I actually got enough to recharge my wand of the heavens with 8000+ gp left over more than sufficient I think. Now entering the maze.
Journal of Hal the Helmite
Despite looking for traps, Safana was killed by the lightning from one. We killed the nearby skeletons to enable the retrieval of her equipment. We will now go and raise her. {And also pick up a fortune of jewels that we forgot. }
EDIT
Didn't notice straight away. Safana was chunked! We will need another thief. Coran, Tiax and Alora were the possibilities, Alora being the best choice I think. We picked up some jewels, rested, and returned to the maze. Alora is probably not good enough to take on Sarevok, so I'll just use her as a trap disabler and enemy spotter. She is level 6.
We fight our way out of the SoA opening dungeon. In Athkatla, we start out by dealing with Mencar, helped by skeletons, spider spawn and some buffs:
After clearing the circus tent, we help Hendak with the slavers to obtain Lirlarcor, which Ayla can keep until she gets Carsomyr. Mandara has an easy path for her early and midgame weapon, as we simply steal Daystar from its chest at the gates, and to properly arm our fighter/cleric we need the FoA, so we move on to De'Arnise keep right away without further sidequesting in the city. The yuan-ti mage is dealt with via backstab:
Lirlarcor helps with the iron golem and umber hulk confusion, so we let Ayla do a lot of the heavy lifting. Tor'Gal stands no chance against our summons and buffs, we get our flail (and the money to buy the Defender of Easthaven), and our equipment is now suitable to deal with any chapter 2/3 challenges. However, I forgot to buy a magic license when I meant to do so, and when casting stoneskins before leaving the promenade again, I realize that this is my second infraction. I'm able to leave the map before the cowled enforcer talks to me and summons in his reinforcements, but since I will need to return here lots of times, I decide to buff up at the graveyard and return, hoping to defeat the first cowled wizard party. We have chaotic commands and death ward on Mandara for safety, and, of course, true sight and inquisitor dispel. The party does fairly well, though we get hit with one horrid wilting due to our lack of breach - since I noticed the cast in time and suspected that this would be the spell, I was able to separate the group:
A chaos spell surprisingly works against the final enforcer, avoiding any further dangerous spellcasting:
After that, we make sure to actually buy the magic license to avoid any more surprises.
Time for the remaining non-stronghold sidequests and minor battles - most of these are easy at this point, some highlights are the bridge district party and the sewer party:
We also undertake an early visit to WKI, which almost turns out to be a fatal mistake - some bad luck against vampiric wraiths takes us the closest to death we've been in this run, but we end up victorious in the end:
We start with our very own stronghold at Imnesvale. Now, this might look a bit risky, but is simply the result of never resting and getting hit by a bone golem or two and some random lava damage while clearing the area - no real chance of the shade lord killing anyone here in an unmodded run:
Mandara does the ranger questline to get our moon dog statue:
We follow up with the druid grove and Mae'var's guild, as they are super easy for this party by now. Vecna's Robe and breach are available, so most spellcasters aren't much of a problem combined with our inquisitor powers, as Conster soon learns when we move towards the Windspear Hills:
Once again I decide not to rest in the entire area, so the fight against Samia is fought on extremely low resources, but our fighter-types are strong enough to handle most things on their own by now, especially if some buffs are still available.
We rush down the warden at the planar prison while he's still battling slaves:
Azuredge helps gainst the undead during the Unseeing Eye quest, as does the Shield of Balduran against beholders. The eye falls to rift device + attacks:
We breach and kill Tolgerias (after doing some initial damage with a backstab):
Luckily, Himgi is fairly good at tanking golems, and Marnax with the Defender of Easthaven + Armor of Faith does an okay job as well, and we have chaotic commands to deal with the demons outside. Stronghold quests: Done. Now we only have to clear Bodhi's Lair. Considering that we have Daystar and Azuredge plus the Amulet of Power at our disposal, this isn't much of a problem. Onwards to Brynnlaw!
Next time: Brynnlaw, Spellhold, the City of Caverns and the Underdark.
Trio 60 Update 4
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
So our party found ourselves after just defeating Prat's gang last session. With protection from poison x2 and two sources of free action (ring, and Spider's Bane) the fighters make short work of the spiders. The basilisks didn't do any better and even the enemy at the end of the crypt was also shot up.
As usual we sell get some items from Sorcerous Sundries and head straight to Slythe. After being dispelled by a dispelling arrow he didn't last too long. Then Duchal Palace was up. A few summons and a few buffs and we were successful here as well.
We worked our way through the thieve's maze. The first set of 4 traps Steel tripped those protected by globe of invulnerability, then Corefighter X took on the skeleton warriors protected by protection from undead which was a good thing too as he was 1/2 life from the stray lightning bolts. Corefighter used shield amulet to trip the magic missile traps.
After resting then Steel used some buffs like web then a fireball then chaos. The chaos was pretty effective though Gloriana tried to press her luck by attacking Gorf with a bow equipped and took some big hits but Corefighter's acid arrows and Steel's magic missiles took Gorf down. Rested up to heal and time for the main fight.
Gloriana, protected by potion of magic shielding dispelled Sarevok who didn't come right away. Semaj appeared and was killed quickly -however not quite quick enough as Gloriana got dispelled then charmed. As Sarevok failed to show himself, Corefighter just led Gloriana around in circles though she was taking a little damage from the nearby cloudkill. Sarevok shows up and Gloriana regains her senses just in time but is hurt and Sarevok chases. Corefighter engages with his +2 halberd at point blank range and is putting very big hits on Sarevok - the fiend goes down!
In Irenicus' dungeon Steel immediately dualed to thief. This was very handy and she and the party gained extra experience from all the traps and locks down here. But it did mean Corefighter and Gloriana had to do most the work. We had some definite issues down here:
1) The duegars put a huge beat down on Corefighter and he had to run. Gloriana then stepped in figured she had everything under control since she was using heal potions - problem though? She let herself get to one HP.
2) We had another scare when Steel was trying to sneak past the mephits in the air plane and said, "A frontal assault would be very dangerous" when referencing the mephits with the stun - she then proceeded to aggro the whole lot. Corefighter backed off as he knew how danagers the stunning mephit was (the steam mephit I think) but Gloriana wasn't so lucky and got held. Not to give up on his friend, Corefighter used a haste potion and tried to burn down the mephits as soon as he could. Gloriana took huge damage but she recovered with a sliver of health left, with two mephits left. She didn't run far enough away though as she got nearly killed by a cone of cold attack but survive she did.
3) One more scare in the dungeon and that was Gloriana got stunned again by a mephit in the hallway leading up to the bridge. Fortunately no enemies in sight so she escaped.
4) Steel was horrored by the mage fighting Ulvaryl but no enemies could take advantage of her situation. While she was running around and getting her exercise, Corefighter and Gloriana cleared out the last of the enemies and the party made their escape.
Once out of the dungeon there wasn't a lot of time though solving the circus was easy enough for the party. Corvahle and Bregg once again met their doom. Officer Dirth got defeated as well as well for his full plate. His armor was working quite well for him it was a potent demonstration. Corefighter on the other hand was taking a big beating with his splint mail. Since we were in the area, Corefighter ordered Steel to de-trap and loot the chests in the thieve's guild (that were easily accessible) and Maevar's Guild.
Most of this task went smoothly except one part - Steel failed to de-trap a chest by Bloodscalp and got herself charmed. Gloriana moved down to be Steel's target. Steel's shoting wasn't impressive she barely got a hit in, though Gloriana did mention she wants her belt back (belt of piercing which went to Steel). Then Steel proceeded to trip the trip AGAIN and got herself charmed. Gloriana dutifully stood still and took the hail of arrows from Gloriana. Finally the trap gets de-trapped and chest looted.
We had just finished looting Edwin's area and saved our session here.
We were progressing steadily when suddenly a horde of shadows appeared from nowhere. At the time Alora was near the front of our party and got killed. We managed to defeat our foe and returned to Imoen and the party with her. Their cleric immediately raised Alora and administered some healing.
[Being a new member to our group, Alora is still rather vulnerable being nowhere near the experience cap.]
We finished the rest of the prologue without major incidents. Arrived at the Ducal Palace with no gold at all. That wasn't too much of a loss as we had spent all but 43gp on potions from the healer. Both Batard and I are level 8.
We met up with Safana who joined us at level 10.
That came as a surprise as Safana was chunked!!!
Since Alora isn't with us that was a pleasant surprise.
Minsc and Dynaheir joined the party. We foiled a plot and after doing some minor deeds have reached a eputation of 20.
@Enuhal You are certainly doing your run a lot faster than I would.
Well, most of this run was played quite a while ago over the course of many weeks. The pace of the updates doesn't reflect the pace of the actual run
Mandara, elven ranger, update 4
In Brynnlaw, we quickly complete the sidequests, backstab Perth and move on to Spellhold. The asylum holds our first lich battle, but it's a quick one as Ayla gets in an Azuredge hit before the lich can protect himself, and the saving throw fails:
We fight our way through to Irenicus and take him down while he casts his clone spell:
Our lack of buffs here is due to me mistakenly fighting instead of bribing Lonk the Sane, which resulted in him dispelling our buffs before we were able to take him out. Luckily, there were no consequences for this mistake.
Way down in the City of Caverns, we collect the Cloak of Mirroring before moving down to the Underdark. I apparently didn't take a single screenshot down here, which is indicative of an uneventfull visit withour any significant difficulties. I do remember that I still hadn't 4 fifth level cleric spells available for Marnax here, but at this point we needed full coverage with chaotic commands, death ward and remove fear for our party at all times, so I used my sixth level slots for wondrous recall in order to cast more chaotic commands. With everyone having at least 11 int and good AC, I had little trouble with mind flayers. I first did the sidequests and cleared the three nearby cave systems before turning towards Ust'Natha - a quick path through the drow questline followed, with the remaining sidequests inbetween. Since I never lost my buffs (except when fighting beholders, but there's a shield for that - Deirex, who could've dispelled them as well, failed an immediate save either against Azuredge or the iMoD +2 as far as I can recall), I never encountered any serious trouble and soon returned to the surface in what was one of the quicker visits to the Underdark I've ever had.
Next time: Loose ends, the elven city and Irenicus.
Back in Athkatla, we start taking care of the foes we left for later in chapters 2/3, starting with the Alhoon - I did forge the Silver Blade (though it would only be used for a few fights until gaining Carsomyr), and it turned out to be quite valuable here as Ayla got the kill on her very first hit:
We continued in the temple district with the shade lich and guarded compound, went to the city gates for another lich and to the bridge for the elemental lich. Both liches, incidentally, died to one of the "undead destroyed" effects of Azuredge/iMoD. They really don't have the best luck with their saving throws in this run. PfM was used for Kangaxx and we challenged the shadow dragon, who died before being able to use his breath weapon. Same for Firkraag, who barely got to cast remove magic (which only hit after his death):
Next up, we entered WK level 2, taking down the elemental rooms with approriate protection spells and using fire damage for the chromatic demon (I had to wait forever for him to finally turn into his ice golem form):
The Twisted Rune remained - we rushed down the beholder in order to prevent an anti magic ray and had a deva deal with with mage - the battle was a quick one:
Azuredge, iMoD, Daystar and AoP got their chance to shine again when dealing with Bodhi. The party does really well against the undead:
With nothing else to do, we buy a few extra potions and enter Suldanessalar. A quick trip around the city to take down golems, demons, rakshasa and the like - the dragon is potentially dangerous, but his remove magic only hit at the moment of his death (and Himgi had SI:A running, so at least he would've been able to tank the dragon while the others renewed buffs):
We rush down Irenicus at the tree, he isn't even able to activate his defenses:
All hell trials are completed in the good way. We prepare for Irenicus again, take down the demons right away and throw true sight + breach spells at our foe - it doesn't take very long to take him down:
After dealing with Ilasera and the first pocket plane challenge, we enter Saradush. Sidequests are quickly done, we rest only once. A quick assault on Gromnir: We take out one of the wizards before his buffs fire up, the second one is breached immediately and killed, and Gromnir is taken down within one round with fighter HLAs:
The party travels towards the temple and once again uses their anti-undead prowess against the greater wraith:
We make sure to keep protection from fire on all party members upon entering the Marching Mountains. Mass invisibility to move past the big group of fire giants at the entrance allows us to set up magical swords to absorb any hits while we take down the giants at range:
The same thing (minus the invisibility) is done upstairs:
Clearing the siderooms is easy enough, and we rest before taking on Berenn, mostly for fresh improved haste casts:
Now, we only have to return the hearts and hunt down Yaga-Shura himself. I take out all of his lieutenants first (true sight + breach for the wizard) and fighter HLAs are enough to quickly achieve victory.
Next up:
Amkethran, Sendai's Enclave and Watcher's Keep.
We fight our way through the oasis and start sidequesting in Amkethran. Vongoethe is the big one, but he immediately falls to one of our anti-undead weapons:
We enter Sendai's Enclave - a bit of a resource battle since I want to avoid resting as much as possible, because rebuffing takes a lot of time. While fighting for the key to the tunnels, Himgi's stoneskins disappear and he almost dies before I'm able to get him to safety:
We deal with the spiders and a deva kills the nearby lich for us. Ogremoch is kept busy by a magical sword for a while, though he gets some good hits in before falling - we're low on resources at this point:
Some enemies in Diaytha's room are lured outside before we quickly rush down the hive mother:
Easy enough for Mandara to win the duel, and the ilithids aren't much trouble at this point. We rest for Sendai and prepare our summons. With breach and true sight we are able to stop both potential timestops when the wizard statues activate. The original Sendai doesn't survive for long:
Time for WKIII. The teleporter maze isn't too much trouble for us, we also have enough item-based immunities available in our bag of holding to survive no-magic zones. A risky direct assault on the demon wraith achieves success:
Down at Lum's machine, we first take down the ilithids before moving on to the gith. Saladrex falls before being able to dispel us:
The second PfM scroll is used for another demi-lich. We free Lum and move further down. The dragon here is the first to actually hit with his remove magic before dying, but he fails to actually dispel anything:
We use the safest possible path in the spirit warrior maze and move on to the guardians. By now I know where each enemy spawns, so we can take out the aurumach rilmani with a direct assault:
Azamantes faces the same trouble as most previous liches:
For the final guardians, our planetar gets a lucky vorpal attack against the hive mother - we do get hit by insect plague, but over all, there's little danger with the hive mother gone:
We read Helm's scroll to finish up the dungeon.
Next time: Abazigal's Lair, Balthazar and the Ravager.
We prepare for Draconis with acid resistance items and buffs. As per usual, we split up shortly before he transforms. Marnax is the target of his remove magic - he still has the gorgon plate, and the resistance helps him to survive the coming acid breath (everyone else still has immunity via the arcane protection spell):
Now we only have to time our true sight, breaches and fighter HLAs, and the dragon is done for.
Fighting through the lair without SCS is generally easy enough, and we make it to Abazigal, were we prepare lightning resistance buffs (also ice, for the salamanders around there). I am unable to completely dodge the remove magic in time when he transforms. Both Ayla and Mandara are affected, I have them drink potions of absorption while Himgi (who is trapped in Abazigal's hitbox - the bug is still around. Usually Abazigal kicks away everyone upon transformation, but Himgi didn't fly away. Luckily, he has his arcane defenses and can survive for a while) and Marnax continue to deal damage:
Ayla activates GWW, Marnax goes for critical strike, and they are able to deal enough damage to the breached Abazigal in order to remove the potential danger for the somewhat exposed Mandara:
We enter Amkethran, buff up and face Balthazar. I have no screenshots here, it's just 2 rounds of fighter HLAs and attacking. The Ravager is our final obstacle before facing Melissan. However, he is luckily unable to dispel any of us, and he doesn't last too long against fully buffed fighters spamming their HLAs either:
We buff up with everything we've got, including a bunch of potions we have in our bags since early SoA.
For a while now I haven't used traps against Mel, so we have to fight every battle the honest way. With all of our buffs still going, she has to flee pretty much right away during the first fight:
We clear pool 1 and try again. This time, Mel successfully casts dispel magic on the party, and only Himgi, who has SI:A running, stays buffed. The others are in potential trouble:
Luckily, Mel has to flee again before she or her summons can do anything dangerous:
Crisis averted, we get to re-buff. We have lots of extra spellslots filled with crucial buffs just for that occasion, and wondrous recall helps to have even more ready. The next pool is cleared, and we prepare for the third Mel fight, the hardest one in the vanilla game - to avoid getting swarmed by slayer shadows, there's an easy trick: Before activating the pool, we place magical swords on the left and right side on the room and keep them there. Once Mel appears, the party immediately runs north, towards the point Mel will teleport to. The slayer shadows spawn in, but when going after the party they will run into the magical swords, and their AI isn't good enough to avoid them - they will spend all their time pointlessly trying to kill them:
Since discovering that technique 2 runs ago, I've never been too scared of vanilla Mel anymore. She has to flee again after some fighter HLA usage, and Himgi prepares his timestops scrolls/spells to take out the fallen solar:
We activate the final pool and go all in on our HLAs. Mel doesn't last for long, and victory is ours:
A very straightforward run, with a strong party of four at our disposal. Happy to get the ranger into the hall, as the class is pretty much never played without a kit. Also, I think this is my first party-based run without a single character death (even Shoal didn't get a kill, because she bugged out and didn't trigger her dialogue, forcing me to kill her)!
Comments
We've just been going around the countryside doing the safer high experience quests, using Sleep, Command, and Blind to keep ourselves safe from the weaker mobs. We got lucky with Melicamp, slept a couple of spiders before Carsa beat them up, then sent Carsa and Korax around to sweep up a bunch of basilisks. Korax dies while fighting Mutamin, so Carsa disengages, we rest up and send another Special Trap from Bruggo towards Mutamin's last known position. Carsa finishes him and the rest of the basilisks.
Our priests now have access to level 2 spells, and our sorcerers are still stuck at 1st level spells. We kill Lord Foreshadow to nuke our reputation to give LMD on the way to Nashkel. With access to Silence 10' and Hold Person means I can now safely do some of the spellcaster fights. Therius silences Neira, Holds Greywolf, and then we go on a tour around the mines. We try the Amazon fight, but screw up against Darts of Wounding and Carsa is killed while running away. Oops. One Raise Dead later (our funds are down to 300 or so) and we return again, this time luring the Amazons into a progression of traps. We have no way of dealing with Mustard Jellies at the moment, so we leave again.
Back up north, we clear Tarnesh with a trap, Silence Basillus, and find, silence, trap, and kill the second mercenary assassin party. Therius managed a 4-man Hold Person against Melkar and company and cleared the fight with ease. Destra is almost level 5 with access to Call Lightning, so we're still trying to finish a few more major fights/experience locations. Tenya's worth 2500 experience, and Ankhegs are... safe-ish with Sleep. Except when they aren't and almost one-shot Carsa with a crit. We manage to escape safely though, help Tenya, kill 20 or so zombies, and finally get Destra to level 5. Next up are the first few levels of Durlag's tower, and with two Animate Deads and one Spirit Animal we should be able to through the mines without too many annoyances.
I’m glad y’all haven’t moved on to BG3. If it isn’t the Infinity Engine it isn’t Baldur’s Gate amirite, lol?
I’m in the early stages of planning a run. I hope to see others active! Games are more fun when the adventure is shared.
Cheers,
A.
Xan ruined the scrap with Nimbul by throwing a dagger at Oublek and killing him. Now reputation down at 10.
Oublek was in the process of attacking Nimbul when the charm spell wore off.
At least I left a few quests half-finished so it will be easy to boost reputation fairly easily. However, I'll do that AFTER I have finished the bandit camp. A horror spell could be useful.
I'll just have to be careful that I don't drop the reputation any lower.
Left Xan outside Thunderhammer Smithy.
After looting the bandit camp we killed Deke et al and then Tranzig.
It could be a few days before I post again.
Hey there, hi there, everyone! Long time no see!
I usually post at TavernRPG these days, but since the thread here is lagging a touch in the new year, I thought I'd crosspost my current run in solidarity. And so, without further ado, meet Ale'san, eleven mage/thief.
Proficiencies: Quarterstaves, Shortbows
Mods: SCS 34.3, Ascension, G3 Fixpack- Free Action Protects Against Stun, EE Tweaks 50% Nerf to kill XP (BG2 only)
Difficulty: Insane
Gaming Notes: Ale'san's run will be a lightly RPed tactically oriented adventure. The eleven M/T has always been a personal fav. The plan here is to just have fun with the tactical cornucopia that is the M/T 🙃
Theme Song: Alakazam by Justice
It saddens me to say that I did not record Ale'san's earliest of early adventures. I did not screenshot the ceremonial punking of the first ogrillion. Nor did I commemorate the assuaging of Marl's grief with a barstool selfie. You, dear reader, will just have to accept that these things happened, in a sound of a tree falling in a forest kind of way. If that troubles you, then let me ask you this. If an ogre backstabs a squirrel in the forest, and no one is there to see it, does it actually happen? Good question. I'm not sure. Why don't we ask the squirrel?
With that out of the way, we begin our adventure here, in Thalantyr's abode. Chickety, check it, y'all: that's a successful anti-chickenator. Good vibes all around.
With her first level up secured, Ale'san moved to the next item on her to do list. Kill people with nice things. These hobgoblins had boots.
Best,
A.
Also, I see that you got 2000 experience for completing the Melicamp quest. That is what used to happen in my game. It doesn't anymore!
Good eyes! That's Hanna, Hanna the ferret.
About 8 months ago I ran a beastmaster named Aurora. I gave her a ferret familiar as an homage to Andre Norton's beast-master. I named the ferret Hanna after Kathleen Hanna, composer and performer of Aurora's theme song, Rebel Girl. It was all very cute.
Ale'san ended up with Hanna because she is chaotic good, the same alignment as Aurora. I probably should have reverted to the standard fairy dragon at the beginning of Ale'san's game. It's all purely cosmetic, though: gameplay wise, Hanna is identical to the standard chaotic good fairy dragon.
Everything was going swimmingly until we went to fight Greywolf. Jyoti was killed by a horde of hobgoblin archers in transit.
It's no wonder that pure mages haven't completed the Trilogy in No Reload
I've just dipped into The Candlekeep Annex on Tavern RPG it looks interesting. I'll look into it more fully later. The ethos looks good.
Back to the Ham the Helmite run where Tranzig has just been killed. Cleared a spiders nest and went to the FAI.
There I met Panver who sold me an expensive tome that turned Dynaheir into a conjurer. She was able to memorise four more spells.
[This is from my only mod, Kittomes]
Returned Landrin's possessions and then went to the bandit camp.
Dynaheir single handedly defeated Taurgosz with web and skull traps.
Batard defeated those inside using a single potion.
The buffed skeletons waiting outside were not needed.
Horror Bhaalpower acquired. Subsequently spent gold to get reputation up to 15.
I think that I will now seek out minor quests to boost reputation further.
First of these was 'Drienne's cat. This was followed by the Charlestonian Nib quest. I completed it but the game didn't recognise the fact. I think that was because Safana kissed one of the workers, so when Dynaheir's skull trap was cast, it didn't count as a death of one of Charlestonian's workers! He won't talk to me!!
Rescued a boy at the lighthouse. I am now a hero again!
Rescued Arabelle and also got a +1 two-handed sword. In both cases web helped a lot.
Reputation now 18.
Helped Aldeth and then tried unsuccessfully to return Gurke's Cloak.
South of beregost we came across some boots of stealth for Safana.
Now off to Cloakwood again.
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
So the party had a few housekeeping chores to do:
1) returned Perdue's sword
2) Wiping out Landarin's spiders and returning her things
3) Returning ankheg shells we were all carrying.
Then we worked on taking down Sirines. With greenstone amulet and Corefighter's X saves, the sirines were pretty simple. With the help of potion of absorption, Corefighter X tanked the flesh golems quite well.
Next up was Durlag's Tower - battle horrors were taken down pretty easily - Steel mentioned even a non-magical sword can hurt these things - yep they can! With two two hand sword users, we went through the horrors pretty fast. Rather than deal with the doom guards right away, we went inside and dealt with basilisks. Steel put PfP on Corefighter X and the party quickly worked their way through the basilisks. We all got a level, then the doom guards were a bit easier to mop up.
We still hadn't picked up Samuel or the fire resistance ring so we did that. (Corefighter X noticed this when he had to trip a fireball trap as no one had fire resistance and he had the most HP to risk). On the way we also deal with Greywolf. With two level 6 fighter types plus arcane support he wasn't going to last long and he didn't.
Type for Mulahey - we worked our way down to him, having to walk through a few traps on the way. A stinking cloud plus range weapons took down Mulahey without him even being able to call for help. His ring was useless to this party though. It's good money which does help as our cash is pretty low at this point. Amazons were the next target and two stinking clouds and missile weapons once again carried the day.
Nimbul was the next target and naturally he wasn't going be able to do much to the fear immune Gloriana. We then went to Beregost to pick off Tranzig who also didn't last long. We then made our way to the Bandit Camp. Corefighter was using his bow but maybe shouldn't have as this meant Gloriana had to tank. Though she did have the boots of avoidance so maybe it was fine. She took a few hits though - Khosahnn got blinded and while Steel and Gloriana deal with bandits, Corefighter used acid arrows to take down Khosahnn.
Time for Tazok's tent. A simple strategy of greenstone amulet and Corefighter charging with potion of firebreath carried the day quite well. Corefighter tripped the trap on the chest since had the boots of grounding, though that did kill a bystander who was standing far too close to that trap...
We then worked our way through the Cloakwood. As is our usual policy, we usually skip everthing unless it happens to be on our way OR we need something. In this case, with two two-hand sword users, we definitely wanted the Spider's Bane. We had used invisibility on Corefighter who tripped the traps on the way to Centeol's nest, then the party fought their way there. Corefighter tried to pull a few enemies but got quite a few (6). However, he had used a heroism potion and Gloriana managed to save vs poison a number of times so all was well in the end. Gloriana got the Spider's Bane and Corefighter will use the +1 two-hand sword. This is a good fight as he thought he might as well use the boots of speed which isn't too far away.
We continue on to drassus taking down a dryad on the way. She somehow got cut up in the middle of a teleport so that was a neat trick by Gloriana. Time for Drassus. A few stinking clouds including one from scoll plus missile weapons again carried the day. To speed up kills Gloriana seemed to be using fire arrows and Corefighter was using acid arrows - quick and clean victory.
As for the Cloakwood Mine itself, as usual we tried to bee-line to Davaoern. The only tricky part on the way is the 2nd level where Corefighter bashed a door then Steel went invisible and with the rest of the party close to exit but out of sight in a room, Steel then triggered the area transition. In no time we are at Davaeorn's area.
While the battle horrors hurt Gloriana a little bit, otherwise they went down easy enough. Corefighter then gulped a potion of magic blocking and charged Davaeorn. His friends then ranged attacked also to try to speed up the kill. Just to be safe, Corefighter used magic missile wand at the end of Davaoern's teleporting and Corefighter thought he saw Steel's magic missiles also connecting with Daveorn - success! We killed the mustard jelly, looted up a bit and saved our session here.
P.S. - no screenshot this time as I have a new keyboard and didn't know until afterwards how to get a screenshot (have to use the function key on this keyboard plus another key).
Tried leaving the site and re-entering, but that doesn't work either.
Ham dealt with Centeol, wyverns in transit, and those in the cave. Now reached the mines.
Will give fuller details when the site is working properly.
Yay!! Everything working again!!
Journal of Ham the Cleric of Helm
At Centeol's lair I set an ambush of buffed skeletons outside and lured spiders and ettercaps into the ambush.
Wyverns were defeated in transit. My tactics worked to perfection. I was concerned that Hal's freedom of action spell wouldn't be completed by the time Dynaheir's web spell was cast. Safana had to do some running around so that the party only had to fight one wyvern at a time.
Buffed skeletons outside the wyvern lair also worked well.
Webs, skull traps and skeletons also worked well against the party of Drasus.
Not all the skeletons were held by web and those that were not were highly effective against the held Genthorn, the one who was not badly hurt by the skull traps.
Upon descending to Hereishan I sent three buffed skeletons into the room and shut the door. They defeated Hereishan and her minions without any help from us!
I couldn't believe how easily Davaeorrn fell. Two buffed skeletons didn't even break into a sweat. (Probably because skeletons don't sweat!)
Returned to Lathander's Temple for the reward regarding the wyvern tail.
Then went to the basilisk area, wiped out a party of adventurers who attacked, and after that we wiped out the basilisks before taking on Mutamin.
Mutamin cast a horror spell which coincided with his death.
After that I ran into a party of gnolls.
Fortunately at that very time the horror spell wore off.
I then led the gnolls towards my party. We were victorious and returned to the FAI.
We intended recuiting Dorn but our reputation was too high.
We therefore recruited Baeloth and swapped him for Dorn.
We then finished off Dorn's quest.
I forgot to protect the party from fear with the result that the result was in doubt.
Nevertheless we prevailed and slept. Dorn reached level 3.
I then bade Dorn farewell.
We did a lot of fetch and carry quests in Baldur's Gate and have now arrived at Durlag's Tower where I intend to restrict myself to the easier tasks. I am currently level 8.
We used brute force and ignorance as we approached the tower.
The upper levels of the tower were straightforward and we used overwhelming power against Kirinhale.
After Kirinhale, we killed Riggilo and cleared all the lower floor apart from Love. Put the wine in a nearby barrel.
As someone once said: "I'll be back."
We then returned to Baldur’s Gate where we did numerous minor quests before facing up to the Maulers of the Underdark.
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
WIth two very tough fighters leading the way and with arcane support, the party is making very good progress. First we looted a little bit in Davaeorn's area and then flooded the Cloakwood Mines.
After that was time for a few miscellaneous tasks. First, Corefighter got a staff so he can deal with jellies and also got the shield amulet.
Then we headed to the City of Baldur's Gate. The party made remarkable progress here:
1) The necromancers on the 2nd floor of Sorcerous Sundries were shot to death.
2) Ogre Mage in sewers wasn't able to do much to Gloriana protected by Spider's Bane and Corefighter protected by greenstone amulet (which poofed as it was used up).
3) Nemphre and Arkion helped then killed. This time Nemphre didn't win the fight (she got us recently).
4) Basilisk defeated with potion of mirror eyes, which is funny as Corefighter asked Steel to memorize a pfp spell.
5) Deserta and friend were killed quickly with two two-hand swords beating on them.
6) Poison quest completed. We had used monster summons to trap the first thief then Marek was defeated easily enough. Before that Larze put down a beating on both Corefighter and Gloriana so he needed to be shot to death with missiles.
7) Razamith's tower cleared and Razamith quickly died, not sure to what, missiles maybe?
8) Jardak and his butler were defeated, though Corefighter took a beating again. The butler had trouble because Gloriana is immune to fear.
9) Nestor's dagger returned. We also got the helm of Balduran while were here. We also defeated Degrodel's minions. The party did well.
10) Forgot to mention we had cleared out the water queen's temple and returned a boy's body to his father. Our reward was a shield nobody is going to use. We obtained a wisdom tome which is only of marginal use to this party.
11) We cleared out the Seven Suns without issue. There was also a nearby mage who the party took on but Steel was suprised as this time the mage summoned friends. But Corefighter arrived just in time to help win the fight.
12) We took on the thieve's guild in the SE corner of the City of Baldur's Gate. Apparently it has been years since Gate70 had done this bit and ended up dying. But fortunately not chunked so a nearby temple brought him back then we got back to the action.
13) We reported our success about dealing with the ogre mage in the sewers and Seven Suns to Scar. He asked to investigate the Iron Throne HQ so we did so. We did a pretty common tactic - a fighter (Corefighter in this case) protected himself with magic and put on a number of fighter potions as well. With him as a distraction, the party then assisted with ranged weapons and spells including web - success!
Time to go to Candlekeep. Steel tripped most of the traps using globe of invulnerability. Since Gloriana had spider's bane, Corefighter gave him a potion of absorption for the lightning bolt trap and also poison immunity via green scroll. While one spider did try to take on Corefighter and Steel, the fight was a success. We had a little bit of chaos next area as Corefighter was dealing with skeletons and the party was trying to take on the dopplegangers and also got attacked by skeletons - but the party prevailed.
Next up was Prat - a web and some summons with Gloriana leading the way went mostly well, except when trying to use his bow Corefighter got stuck in the web. However, his party quickly killed the survivors of Prat's gang before they could take advantage of that.
We ran out of time and saved our session here - the spiders and basilisks will be next.
Did all the same quests as Corey above, sold a large number of ankheg shells and spent the gold on wands. Not much left. We went to the Iron Fist after returning Nester's dagger. Killed the leaders of the Iron Throne there by taking them on about two at a time.
EDIT
Now back at Candlekeep. When I met Prat the battle was easier than usual.Dynaheir used improved invisibility to get past them, then she cast web followed by two skull traps which killed two of Prat's party and alerted Prat to our presence. He had a short conversation with Dynaheir before being held by the web spell. Dynaheir had already cast a Melf's Minute Meteors spell and with the meteor's killed Prat. She then went back to the party. Safana used stealth to locate the remnants of Part's group. Dynaheir killed them with her last skull trap. The party cleared the reest of the cave with ease.
The party then returned to the FAI and rested.
After my last run with a thief failed quite early on, I'm back with a very safe and more traditional approach for another missing class in the hall of heroes, the ranger - rarely played as the base class due to mostly just being an inferior fighter. Once again, this run is played mostly while listening to podcasts, so it has to be easy to execute and devoid of new and unusual challenges for me, otherwise I'd not be able to focus on listening and would fail to multitask. So - core rules, no mods, no expansion content (except for the outside and upper levels of Durlag's Tower) and, in this case, a custom party of 4 so I don't have to worry about group composition and can keep the same party members for the entire game, unless someone gets chunked.
Mandara actually got the rare 18/00 roll for strength, I think the first time I've had that one on a main character: 18'00/19/17/10/14/8 - female elven ranger, **long sword and ** long bow.
She is joined by: Ayla, human female Inquisitor, **two-handed sword, **crossbow (18'46/18/18/11/13/17).
Marnax, male dwarven fighter/cleric, **flail, **sling (18'95/17/19/11/18/1).
Himgi, male gnomish illusionist/thief, *quarterstaff, *shortbow (18/18/18/19/8/3).
This party should have the versatility and power to deal with all challenges throughout the game and is small enough that the two multiclasses will get their important spells at a reasonable time despite us skipping some content such as SoD and most of TotSC - that's the idea at least. Some of this was played some time ago and I don't really have too many notes or screenshots, so the reports won't be very detailed.
Since we don't want to repeat our previous failure, we don't rush for any shortcuts to fast experience this time around and take it slow, doing the easier sidequests around Beregost first, clearing up the early wilderness areas and gathering some gear and levels before finally turning towards the basilisks - here, we take vengeance upon the nearby adventuring party:
Next up, the second part of BG1.
We killed a few ankheg and sold their shells aand nearly all my jewelery before buying wands and potions.
Gold now 106gp. All party members now have 161,000 experience.
Have returned to the Gate and rescued Duke Eltan by stealth, giving Safana a strength potion so that she could carry him.
Killed Slythe and Krystin with the help of buffed summoned skeletons. Then rested.
The Ducal Palace was a bit more touch and go. Liia Jannath was killed despite having skeletons protect her. Belt however being a bit tougher survived.
Belt transported us to the Thieves' Guild.
Time for bed. zzzzzzzzzzz
We enter Baldur's Gate and start doing all the sidequests, gather up some gear and learn all available spellscrolls. Our only slight setback is a confusion effect hitting Ayla during the ogre mage battle at the docks:
Next time: Early SoA.
EDIT
I actually got enough to recharge my wand of the heavens with 8000+ gp left over more than sufficient I think. Now entering the maze.
Journal of Hal the Helmite
Despite looking for traps, Safana was killed by the lightning from one. We killed the nearby skeletons to enable the retrieval of her equipment. We will now go and raise her. {And also pick up a fortune of jewels that we forgot. }
EDIT
Didn't notice straight away. Safana was chunked! We will need another thief. Coran, Tiax and Alora were the possibilities, Alora being the best choice I think. We picked up some jewels, rested, and returned to the maze. Alora is probably not good enough to take on Sarevok, so I'll just use her as a trap disabler and enemy spotter. She is level 6.
We fight our way out of the SoA opening dungeon. In Athkatla, we start out by dealing with Mencar, helped by skeletons, spider spawn and some buffs:
Time for the remaining non-stronghold sidequests and minor battles - most of these are easy at this point, some highlights are the bridge district party and the sewer party:
We start with our very own stronghold at Imnesvale. Now, this might look a bit risky, but is simply the result of never resting and getting hit by a bone golem or two and some random lava damage while clearing the area - no real chance of the shade lord killing anyone here in an unmodded run:
Next time: Brynnlaw, Spellhold, the City of Caverns and the Underdark.
Corefighter X - dwarven fighter, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Gloriana - human blackguard (Gate70)
Steel - human illusionist (Grond0)
So our party found ourselves after just defeating Prat's gang last session. With protection from poison x2 and two sources of free action (ring, and Spider's Bane) the fighters make short work of the spiders. The basilisks didn't do any better and even the enemy at the end of the crypt was also shot up.
As usual we sell get some items from Sorcerous Sundries and head straight to Slythe. After being dispelled by a dispelling arrow he didn't last too long. Then Duchal Palace was up. A few summons and a few buffs and we were successful here as well.
We worked our way through the thieve's maze. The first set of 4 traps Steel tripped those protected by globe of invulnerability, then Corefighter X took on the skeleton warriors protected by protection from undead which was a good thing too as he was 1/2 life from the stray lightning bolts. Corefighter used shield amulet to trip the magic missile traps.
After resting then Steel used some buffs like web then a fireball then chaos. The chaos was pretty effective though Gloriana tried to press her luck by attacking Gorf with a bow equipped and took some big hits but Corefighter's acid arrows and Steel's magic missiles took Gorf down. Rested up to heal and time for the main fight.
Gloriana, protected by potion of magic shielding dispelled Sarevok who didn't come right away. Semaj appeared and was killed quickly -however not quite quick enough as Gloriana got dispelled then charmed. As Sarevok failed to show himself, Corefighter just led Gloriana around in circles though she was taking a little damage from the nearby cloudkill. Sarevok shows up and Gloriana regains her senses just in time but is hurt and Sarevok chases. Corefighter engages with his +2 halberd at point blank range and is putting very big hits on Sarevok - the fiend goes down!
In Irenicus' dungeon Steel immediately dualed to thief. This was very handy and she and the party gained extra experience from all the traps and locks down here. But it did mean Corefighter and Gloriana had to do most the work. We had some definite issues down here:
1) The duegars put a huge beat down on Corefighter and he had to run. Gloriana then stepped in figured she had everything under control since she was using heal potions - problem though? She let herself get to one HP.
2) We had another scare when Steel was trying to sneak past the mephits in the air plane and said, "A frontal assault would be very dangerous" when referencing the mephits with the stun - she then proceeded to aggro the whole lot. Corefighter backed off as he knew how danagers the stunning mephit was (the steam mephit I think) but Gloriana wasn't so lucky and got held. Not to give up on his friend, Corefighter used a haste potion and tried to burn down the mephits as soon as he could. Gloriana took huge damage but she recovered with a sliver of health left, with two mephits left. She didn't run far enough away though as she got nearly killed by a cone of cold attack but survive she did.
3) One more scare in the dungeon and that was Gloriana got stunned again by a mephit in the hallway leading up to the bridge. Fortunately no enemies in sight so she escaped.
4) Steel was horrored by the mage fighting Ulvaryl but no enemies could take advantage of her situation. While she was running around and getting her exercise, Corefighter and Gloriana cleared out the last of the enemies and the party made their escape.
Once out of the dungeon there wasn't a lot of time though solving the circus was easy enough for the party. Corvahle and Bregg once again met their doom. Officer Dirth got defeated as well as well for his full plate. His armor was working quite well for him it was a potent demonstration. Corefighter on the other hand was taking a big beating with his splint mail. Since we were in the area, Corefighter ordered Steel to de-trap and loot the chests in the thieve's guild (that were easily accessible) and Maevar's Guild.
Most of this task went smoothly except one part - Steel failed to de-trap a chest by Bloodscalp and got herself charmed. Gloriana moved down to be Steel's target. Steel's shoting wasn't impressive she barely got a hit in, though Gloriana did mention she wants her belt back (belt of piercing which went to Steel). Then Steel proceeded to trip the trip AGAIN and got herself charmed. Gloriana dutifully stood still and took the hail of arrows from Gloriana. Finally the trap gets de-trapped and chest looted.
We had just finished looting Edwin's area and saved our session here.
We were progressing steadily when suddenly a horde of shadows appeared from nowhere. At the time Alora was near the front of our party and got killed. We managed to defeat our foe and returned to Imoen and the party with her. Their cleric immediately raised Alora and administered some healing.
[Being a new member to our group, Alora is still rather vulnerable being nowhere near the experience cap.]
We finished the rest of the prologue without major incidents. Arrived at the Ducal Palace with no gold at all. That wasn't too much of a loss as we had spent all but 43gp on potions from the healer.
We met up with Safana who joined us at level 10.
That came as a surprise as Safana was chunked!!!
Since Alora isn't with us that was a pleasant surprise.
Minsc and Dynaheir joined the party. We foiled a plot and after doing some minor deeds have reached a eputation of 20.
We expect to leave the Gate tonight.
Well, most of this run was played quite a while ago over the course of many weeks. The pace of the updates doesn't reflect the pace of the actual run
Mandara, elven ranger, update 4
In Brynnlaw, we quickly complete the sidequests, backstab Perth and move on to Spellhold. The asylum holds our first lich battle, but it's a quick one as Ayla gets in an Azuredge hit before the lich can protect himself, and the saving throw fails:
Way down in the City of Caverns, we collect the Cloak of Mirroring before moving down to the Underdark. I apparently didn't take a single screenshot down here, which is indicative of an uneventfull visit withour any significant difficulties. I do remember that I still hadn't 4 fifth level cleric spells available for Marnax here, but at this point we needed full coverage with chaotic commands, death ward and remove fear for our party at all times, so I used my sixth level slots for wondrous recall in order to cast more chaotic commands. With everyone having at least 11 int and good AC, I had little trouble with mind flayers. I first did the sidequests and cleared the three nearby cave systems before turning towards Ust'Natha - a quick path through the drow questline followed, with the remaining sidequests inbetween. Since I never lost my buffs (except when fighting beholders, but there's a shield for that - Deirex, who could've dispelled them as well, failed an immediate save either against Azuredge or the iMoD +2 as far as I can recall), I never encountered any serious trouble and soon returned to the surface in what was one of the quicker visits to the Underdark I've ever had.
Next time: Loose ends, the elven city and Irenicus.
Back in Athkatla, we start taking care of the foes we left for later in chapters 2/3, starting with the Alhoon - I did forge the Silver Blade (though it would only be used for a few fights until gaining Carsomyr), and it turned out to be quite valuable here as Ayla got the kill on her very first hit:
Next Time: Saradush and Yaga-Shura.
After dealing with Ilasera and the first pocket plane challenge, we enter Saradush. Sidequests are quickly done, we rest only once. A quick assault on Gromnir: We take out one of the wizards before his buffs fire up, the second one is breached immediately and killed, and Gromnir is taken down within one round with fighter HLAs:
Next up:
Amkethran, Sendai's Enclave and Watcher's Keep.
We fight our way through the oasis and start sidequesting in Amkethran. Vongoethe is the big one, but he immediately falls to one of our anti-undead weapons:
Next time: Abazigal's Lair, Balthazar and the Ravager.
Journal of Hal the Helmite
Now helping the dwarves.
We prepare for Draconis with acid resistance items and buffs. As per usual, we split up shortly before he transforms. Marnax is the target of his remove magic - he still has the gorgon plate, and the resistance helps him to survive the coming acid breath (everyone else still has immunity via the arcane protection spell):
Fighting through the lair without SCS is generally easy enough, and we make it to Abazigal, were we prepare lightning resistance buffs (also ice, for the salamanders around there). I am unable to completely dodge the remove magic in time when he transforms. Both Ayla and Mandara are affected, I have them drink potions of absorption while Himgi (who is trapped in Abazigal's hitbox - the bug is still around. Usually Abazigal kicks away everyone upon transformation, but Himgi didn't fly away. Luckily, he has his arcane defenses and can survive for a while) and Marnax continue to deal damage:
Next up: The Throne.
We buff up with everything we've got, including a bunch of potions we have in our bags since early SoA.
For a while now I haven't used traps against Mel, so we have to fight every battle the honest way. With all of our buffs still going, she has to flee pretty much right away during the first fight: