Getting to Balthazar is easy enough - we use mass invisibility to visit Saemon and have the triple ADHW and triple Telekinetic Storm CCs to instantly take down the group in front of the monestary, except for the initially neutral monk:
Now we face the final bhaalspawn - who isn't improved too much without Ascension present, just like Abazigal, so this battle is super quick - aside from our buffs, the only thing we do is call a planetar, cast dragon's breath and activate critical strike. Before the first round of combat is over, the monk falls:
I have a simple plan for The Ravager: Lower his magic resistance before our powerful chain contingencies hit the boss, as they are always on a slight delay - since we already have two triple pierce magic spell triggers, we just use these, and, once again, 3*ADHW, 3*Telekinetic Storm impact our foe. This does the trick:
For the Throne, in addition to the usual buffs, we add full protection against all elements except for acid. We also add PFME, heroism, invulnerability and cloud giant strength, plus some minor misc buffs. Our plan for the first encounter with Amelyssan, the only one we won't be able to solve with our massive amount of available spike traps (courtesy of having Jan and Haer'Dalis, who really have barely anything else useful to spend all their HLA points onto for most of the game until Jan gets level 9 wizard spells), is simple enough - the same plan we went with for the Ravager.
I actually manage to pause before dialogue starts, so we throw two 3*pierce magic spell triggers at Mel, and Haer'Dalis can even place a single spike trap. The others just get attack commands, and Mel actually retreats before our chain contingencies even fire at her:
The first pool has vampiric wraiths, so we leave Jan and Orima, both without any items to gain level drain immunity, behind. The others rush in and clear out the air creatures:
We place 4 spike traps and Nalia's single normal trap (for good luck), activate the pool, and Amelyssan immediately has to retreat:
As our protections against ice damage are still active, we rush to the second pool, take down the golem and his allies without taking a single point of damage (having everyone with active stoneskins thanks to gargoyle boots certainly helps) and place 5 more spike traps. Once again, Mel appears and immediately retreats.
Now Haer'Dalis gets to have his moment - he (having already drunk a potion of insight) uses limited wish for timestop and moves to the fallen solar:
Periodically, Haer'Dalis calls in more timestops from the total of 4 scrolls we have gathered over the course of the game, taking down everything except for the two marilith's who already have PFMW going:
The party moves in, using wands of spellstriking to breach the PFMWs:
Anomen casts zone of sweet air and we heal up, placing our remaining 5 spike traps and 2 normal traps. Just to make sure (though I know Mel always dies to 4 spike traps) we call in a planetar and have Nalia cast a few wish spells, getting us new improved hastes and a free rest:
However, as expected, as soon as we activate the pool, our traps take down Amelyssan once and for all:
Orima stays mortal, and we've finally gotten a stalker into the hall of heroes.
The list of missing kits now looks like this, with only 4 of them left:
Priest of Helm
Conjurer
Diviner
Necromancer
Also, a first for me - a successful SCS run with only official companions. I'm not sure when I will start my next run - there might be an extended break, or might be back in 1-2 weeks. In any case, good luck to everyone else!
Agreed, good show @Enuhal
Next step up is official companions without the SCS component for NPC customization, where you're stuck with initial proficiencies (hello Jaheira with single pips in EVERYTHING apart from Clubs...)
Corepally and his band of paladins - FINAL Update!
Corepally and his band of paladins made it out of the Underdark. Problem though? The githyanki at Waukeen's Promenade killed Corepally not sure how he died quick - RIP Corepally. Back to the drawing board....
So the party found themselves at the entrance to the Iron Throne. Coreranger asked if we needed anything and Impish suggested we might want to kill the 5th floor baddies for the Free Action Ring (which we did end up using in the CC crypts). So Coreranger buffed with protection from magic and a few buffs then attacked. Party then assisted and it was a slaughter. The enemies could only slightly damage Coreranger in all of that. Next up was Degrodel's minions and Degrodel - no problem.
Then we headed to Candlekeep but Solstice complained about inventory so party waited until Solstice finished selling. But then later Solstice talked to the Warden instead of letting Coreranger talk to the Warden and the game crashed so we had to do Candlekeep again. Apparently the game caused Soltice to be thrown outside so he could cause no more trouble and finally we were sent to the crypts. Coreranger used a protection from magic for traps and Solstice used knock for containers. No problem looting the tomes or making it to Prat. With insect plague and summons and web enemies couldn't do much. Since Coreranger was protected by free action ring and protection from poison he cleared out the spiders while his companions were getting themselves stuck in webs though no one died. Finally protection from petrification allowed taking down basilisks.
Slythe didn't do well and with summons and haste Duchal Palace went well. Thieves' Maze went well, protections enabled Coreranger to trip traps and trash the skeleton warriors with his dual-wielding. For the Iron Throne party Coreranger scouted then massive webs and insect plague guaranteed the enemies were not going to be able to do much though they did get a few arrow shows on Coreranger.
Coreranger pulled Sarevok. Semaj came but was dispelled (by arrows) then quickly killed. Sarevok attacked summons and was malisoned and stuck in massive number of webs. Impish was proud of his insects but Coreranger's acid arrows got the kill shot on Sarevok.
On to Irenicus Dungeon. While we didn't have a thief, we did have access to knock, stone skins and cure poison so we were able to loot here without trouble. The party defeated the enemies in the dungeons pretty well. We stopped and saved our session and will battle Ulvaryl next time.
I had rolled Corecleric XVII a dwarven fighter/cleric and he had made it to Amn, but got killed by Captain Dennis trying to do Neera's quest. Will roll up a solo fighter/illusionist.
The party made it out of dungeon without problem. The circus was easy enough as well. We then worked on freeing Hendak -- once again divide and conquer carried the day. We ran into a problem as Impish attacked Hendak and made him hostile. So Impish charmed Hendak and we worked on the Lilacor quest. With plenty of summons, this quest worked out well. Then we headed into the moored ship -- we were invisible so we were able to set up our attacks. The casters kept getting their spells interrupted but Coreranger's dual-wielding steadily wore the enemies down.
With summons moving in, we were able to defeat the wizards and buddies. We then headed back to the Copper Coronet, charmed Hendak and got our reward for dealing with the slavers. We finally obtained the potion bag from Watcher's Keep.
There were a number of miscellaneous tasks done:
1) Sir Sarles quest was started though not finished.
2) Reijek was exposed and we got a very easy Rune Assassins spawns, only one assassin for some reason and no bone golem.
2) Ankheg shell obtained from a warehouse and ankheg armork forged for Impish. While we were spending money (which we had a lot of) we also got the magic license to make sure that didn't end our run. Since we still had lots of money, Solstice suggested paying off Galen Bayle but Coreranger declined as he's heard many adventurers in the past have died to the vampires.
3) Maevar's quests started and we had just killed Rayic Gethras and saved our session here.
I have decided to do a run where in general, my party consists of despised races. Explanation below.
We have progressed as far as the Cloakwoon mines where Timor was killed by Sirene a Tiefling Inquisitor who is a member of my party. Natasha had confused both Sirene and Timor so there was little that I could do. Sirene was unable to remove magic and my arcane users were unable to cast the spell.
We returned to the FAI to raise her and after doing so have only 13gp left!
The mine was then completed with ease, Davaeorn having his spells neutralised by a single skeleton.
We exchanged Sirine for Dorn and completed Dorn's quest. Afterwards we bade Dorn farewell.
We arrived safely in Baldur's Gate after which we picked up Sirene again.
Comments
Getting to Balthazar is easy enough - we use mass invisibility to visit Saemon and have the triple ADHW and triple Telekinetic Storm CCs to instantly take down the group in front of the monestary, except for the initially neutral monk:
For the Throne, in addition to the usual buffs, we add full protection against all elements except for acid. We also add PFME, heroism, invulnerability and cloud giant strength, plus some minor misc buffs. Our plan for the first encounter with Amelyssan, the only one we won't be able to solve with our massive amount of available spike traps (courtesy of having Jan and Haer'Dalis, who really have barely anything else useful to spend all their HLA points onto for most of the game until Jan gets level 9 wizard spells), is simple enough - the same plan we went with for the Ravager.
I actually manage to pause before dialogue starts, so we throw two 3*pierce magic spell triggers at Mel, and Haer'Dalis can even place a single spike trap. The others just get attack commands, and Mel actually retreats before our chain contingencies even fire at her:
Now Haer'Dalis gets to have his moment - he (having already drunk a potion of insight) uses limited wish for timestop and moves to the fallen solar:
The list of missing kits now looks like this, with only 4 of them left:
Priest of Helm
Conjurer
Diviner
Necromancer
Also, a first for me - a successful SCS run with only official companions. I'm not sure when I will start my next run - there might be an extended break, or might be back in 1-2 weeks. In any case, good luck to everyone else!
Next step up is official companions without the SCS component for NPC customization, where you're stuck with initial proficiencies (hello Jaheira with single pips in EVERYTHING apart from Clubs...)
Corepally and his band of paladins made it out of the Underdark. Problem though? The githyanki at Waukeen's Promenade killed Corepally not sure how he died quick - RIP Corepally. Back to the drawing board....
Coreranger XXV - half-elf ranger (Corey_Russell)
Impish- elven totemic druid (Grond0)
Solstice - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
So the party found themselves at the entrance to the Iron Throne. Coreranger asked if we needed anything and Impish suggested we might want to kill the 5th floor baddies for the Free Action Ring (which we did end up using in the CC crypts). So Coreranger buffed with protection from magic and a few buffs then attacked. Party then assisted and it was a slaughter. The enemies could only slightly damage Coreranger in all of that. Next up was Degrodel's minions and Degrodel - no problem.
Then we headed to Candlekeep but Solstice complained about inventory so party waited until Solstice finished selling. But then later Solstice talked to the Warden instead of letting Coreranger talk to the Warden and the game crashed so we had to do Candlekeep again. Apparently the game caused Soltice to be thrown outside so he could cause no more trouble and finally we were sent to the crypts. Coreranger used a protection from magic for traps and Solstice used knock for containers. No problem looting the tomes or making it to Prat. With insect plague and summons and web enemies couldn't do much. Since Coreranger was protected by free action ring and protection from poison he cleared out the spiders while his companions were getting themselves stuck in webs though no one died. Finally protection from petrification allowed taking down basilisks.
Slythe didn't do well and with summons and haste Duchal Palace went well. Thieves' Maze went well, protections enabled Coreranger to trip traps and trash the skeleton warriors with his dual-wielding. For the Iron Throne party Coreranger scouted then massive webs and insect plague guaranteed the enemies were not going to be able to do much though they did get a few arrow shows on Coreranger.
Coreranger pulled Sarevok. Semaj came but was dispelled (by arrows) then quickly killed. Sarevok attacked summons and was malisoned and stuck in massive number of webs. Impish was proud of his insects but Coreranger's acid arrows got the kill shot on Sarevok.
On to Irenicus Dungeon. While we didn't have a thief, we did have access to knock, stone skins and cure poison so we were able to loot here without trouble. The party defeated the enemies in the dungeons pretty well. We stopped and saved our session and will battle Ulvaryl next time.
Coreranger XXV - half-elf ranger (Corey_Russell)
Impish- elven totemic druid (Grond0)
Solstice - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
The party made it out of dungeon without problem. The circus was easy enough as well. We then worked on freeing Hendak -- once again divide and conquer carried the day. We ran into a problem as Impish attacked Hendak and made him hostile. So Impish charmed Hendak and we worked on the Lilacor quest. With plenty of summons, this quest worked out well. Then we headed into the moored ship -- we were invisible so we were able to set up our attacks. The casters kept getting their spells interrupted but Coreranger's dual-wielding steadily wore the enemies down.
With summons moving in, we were able to defeat the wizards and buddies. We then headed back to the Copper Coronet, charmed Hendak and got our reward for dealing with the slavers. We finally obtained the potion bag from Watcher's Keep.
There were a number of miscellaneous tasks done:
1) Sir Sarles quest was started though not finished.
2) Reijek was exposed and we got a very easy Rune Assassins spawns, only one assassin for some reason and no bone golem.
2) Ankheg shell obtained from a warehouse and ankheg armork forged for Impish. While we were spending money (which we had a lot of) we also got the magic license to make sure that didn't end our run. Since we still had lots of money, Solstice suggested paying off Galen Bayle but Coreranger declined as he's heard many adventurers in the past have died to the vampires.
3) Maevar's quests started and we had just killed Rayic Gethras and saved our session here.
We have progressed as far as the Cloakwoon mines where Timor was killed by Sirene a Tiefling Inquisitor who is a member of my party. Natasha had confused both Sirene and Timor so there was little that I could do. Sirene was unable to remove magic and my arcane users were unable to cast the spell.
We returned to the FAI to raise her and after doing so have only 13gp left!
The mine was then completed with ease, Davaeorn having his spells neutralised by a single skeleton.
We exchanged Sirine for Dorn and completed Dorn's quest. Afterwards we bade Dorn farewell.
We arrived safely in Baldur's Gate after which we picked up Sirene again.