Athena - Half-Orc Cavalier (solo LoB SCS) first update
I'm also been playing yet another solo Cavalier char, my version of @Grond0 life-long run. My favorite class and kit, and although I did complete Blackguard as solo Paladin, I've lost track how many Cavaliers I've lost, in solo or dual runs. Cavaliers got silently nerfed last couple years, as they can't get (even with cheese) the evil outcomes from Hell anymore without falling. So no more 25 STR, AC cap nor Soul Reaver. To balance this I'm using couple things. First Revised Hell trials from Quest Pack. While this doesn't allow evil choices, we can get one neutral one without falling and that should be pretty good. I'm also using IWD version of Paladin spell progression from Tweaks Anthology which gives 555531 spell slots instead of 3333. Big one here is one Harm spell per rest, but I'm mostly spicing the run to the usual. Also using LoB, SCS and Ascension for difficulty. Autorolled Athena.
weidu.log
/ ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
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~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
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~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3015 // Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
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~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4250 // Make spell sequencers and contingencies into innate abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
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~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
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~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
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~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7150 // Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: 35.21
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #0 // EEex: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #1 // Experimental - Use LuaJIT (can help stuttering): v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #2 // Enable effect menu module - LShift-on-hover to view spells affecting creature: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #3 // Enable empty container module - Highlight empty containers in gray instead of cyan: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #4 // Enable hotkey module - Edit override/B3Hotkey.lua to create advanced spell hotkeys: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #5 // Enable scale module - Customizable UI scaling factor: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #6 // Enable time step module - Advance 1 game tick on keypress: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #7 // Enable timer module - Visual indicators for modal actions, contingencies, and spell/item cooldowns: v0.11.0-alpha
Intro - Chapter 3
250xp Intro
Killed Imoen for her potions and WoM, which then ranged Xzar and Montaron for their potions
Killed Neera for the Gem Bag, then Algernon for the his cloak
900xp Marl
Our 19 strength got 2x Invis potions from Beregost and Nashkel manors
400xp Noober
From the Carnival potion tent we got Fire Giant, which then got us 3rd Invis potion
900xp Hentold's dagger, 4th Invis potion, lv2
1000xp Albert
Charmed Jemby stops Drizzt attacking Gnolls, and we got his Scimitars
Potion case from Thalantyr
2035xp Tenya Bowl lv3
750gold to get rep to 11, then killed Dushai for his Free-action ring first luring him with WoM
Invis potion to Mulahey, Charmed with Algernon cloak and killed by Kobbos, escaped with Speed potion
800xp Joseph's ring
Charmed Minsc tried to kill Nimbul, but lightning stole our xp
975xp Charmed Marl ko'd Tranzig
Raiken escorted us to Bandit Camp where Charmed Taurgosz was killed by Black Bear for Full Plate
1250gold to get rep to 12
Reputation run Firebead 13 300xp, Oublek 14, Mulahey symbol 15 1000xp, Drienne Cat 16 200xp lv4, Samuel 17 500xp, Charmed Hobgoblin for Joia's ring 18 400xp, Brage 19 1000xp
Forked 14k gold for Sandthief ring, picked Brun's son with Oil of Speed, 20rep 1500xp.
Used one Absorption, Sandthief charge and Invis potion to pick up the papers from Bandit camp. Still almost died. We risked getting the Magic Blocking and Venkt cast Glitterdust before we got Invis on, which revealed us. But we managed to escape the camp with 25hp left.
Chapter 4
Used single Sandthief charge in Cloakwood 2 to right click pick up the Scimitar and Tiber's brother. Upon reaching Cloakwood 4 we returned to 2 to give up the brother for 800xp. Using one Sandthief charge 2000 gold pop is no brainer with over 6k loot. Molkar waylay happened and we used two Sandthief charges, and managed to Charm Molkar with Algernon's Cloak. Molkar killed Halacan as the other two were separated by Athena. Then he managed to kill Dakar. Morvin was too tough for Molkar and we got his Heroism potion. We still managed to kill Morvin by ourselves 650xp. There was also one Absorption and 4,5k worth of loot so even this was cost effective.
Used last two Sandthief charges to pick up CON-tome. Lamalha waylay happened and we had to also waste our second last Invis potion. Charm attempt for her Potion of Power didn't work. Forked 13750 gold to recharge the ring. 2 Sandthief charges to reach Davaeorn's guard, and then had to spend 3 charges more to Charm him. Another Santhief to park the Battle Horrors away, then the Guard sliced Davaeorn 6000xp lv5.
Chapter 5
After escaping the mine we used our last Sandthief charge to pass Drasus party. But before leaving we tried our Charm attempt and got Drasus. He was killed by his guards. This wasn't really necessary as you can get another set of Speed Boots soon after from Lothander. Another 13750 gold to recharge the Sandthief. With Speed boots we could pick up the CHA-tome without Invis and with 20/20 economy single Invisibility costs 1735 gold through Sandthief ring. Tremain's son 5000xp. Bought Greenstone amulet and it helped us to defeat Ragefast no problem 4000xp. Ramazith was Charmed with Nymph cloak and after he spent his spells, his summons killed him 4000xp lv6. Sandthief charge and Frost Giant potion to loot the tower. Lothander Charmed, stopped leaving and killed 5500xp. Two Charmed Gamesmen KO'd Marek which took 45 minutes 10650xp. Seven Suns 7100xp. At Iron Throne we used Sandthief to Charm Naaman for PfU, didn't bother with rest and escaped with another Charge.
Chapter 6
Ogre Waylay escaped with Invis potion. Iron Throne Charmed with Nymph cloak and killed. 2x Sandthief, Cloud Giant and DuHM to loot Catacomps. Last Sandthief charge to escape.
Chapter 7
Charmed Meilum killed Kahrk then died by Kobbos 3500xp. With SCS installed Karhk has Magi Katana +2 which improves casting time by 1, and which Paladin's can use too making some castings instant. Kirinhale 4000xp. Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost 3750xp, and was killed by Ghasts, used one Sandthief. Bought 2 OGL's, third from Nadine 1400xp lv7. With the three OGL's we bombed Denak's party out of sight for Ring of Energy. Fear and Love followed us to Fireball trap, where we kited them and Fear was soon dead by Fire. But then Avarice found us, we lured him upstairs. Then we kited Love around the table with Ring of Energy and Greenstone Amulet. Next level we got first Champion Strength and Durlag's Goblet.
With Greenstone amulet we finally beat Tarnesh and got Golden Pantaloons. Charmed Larze and Quenash, Slythe killed Quenash and Larze killed Slythe. Recharged Sandthief yet again. Charmed Lesser Basilisk with one Sandthief charge, and used two Green PfP scrolls on us. Then we cleared the level, including Kirian's party lv8.
Palace Ambush. We Charmed the Mage and Shaman and attacked the rest. Rest of the Dobbelgangers were easily wiped, us needing to refresh from the Goblet twice. Next we waited Mage to appear, and it was killed after Liia Dispelled it. Shaman didn't fare any better, as Liias Chromatic Orb killed it. Small things. Delorna was Charmed and killed by her own summons for 4th OGL, which we recharged. Level skipped Sunin's spells for second Ring of Wizardy. Then two Sandthiefs to reach Sarevok.
Athena v Sarevok
Started bombing out of sight with OGL. It took only 12 hits to kill Semaj. Once Skeleton Warrior started wandering we used PfU. Tazok took 19 Fireballs, Angelo 32 and Diarmid 41, because he heals during the attack. We then bombed Sarevok with 48 OGL's, leaving 7 for Korlasz, 7 Potions of Explosions and 5 Oil of Fiery Burnings. Then we drank Oil of Speed and started kiting Sarevok with Ring of Energy. And after 3 hits, Sarevok was dead.
Invisbility to Porios, two Invisibilities and PfU to Korlasz, and 6 Fireball + Invisibility combos made her surrender. In Baldur's Gate we sold enough of our loot to buy everything interesting in SS.
Chapter 8
Teleria nor her Golem agro if not talked to. Lv9 doing Menhir's quest which meant we could cast Sanctuary now. Listened Dwarves getting killed by undead, then used PfU to reach Coldheart and enlisted his help for the crusader attacks. Hid behind the tent for parlay.
Chapter 9
Looted Troll cave with Sanctuary. Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned afar. Neothelid took no less than 12 Durlag's Goblets and almost 2 hours because he wasn't appearing enough. Akanna Charmed second hit and killed by her Aerial servants. Surrendered the fort, and Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy.
Chapter 10
152k gold selling my hoard to the Genie. Quests for items, also Protector of Unworthy from Orog Chieftain who was charmed for the BBB, or Best Belt v Bel. Crusader Attacks. After Charming all the companions we found that Edwin had WoMS and because he wasn't in party it avoided the casting limit. It made the first attack a lot easier and didn't even need a refresh from the Goblet, although it still took over 40 rounds.
In the Mage wave we were confused a while, because we only drank one Invulnerability, but first time ever Stysich Dispel came clutch and helped us. The Mage wave is easy enough if you survive spells, as I think Wizards Slayers will almost always outlive them. Used Goblet once. Had to do prebuffs again and drank Heroism to 300hp for Paladin wave.
The last two waves were pretty uneventful with 300hp buffs. It's important to concentrate on Rhayla until she's dead, as she can Dispel the buffs. The two waves took only 4 Goblets.
Ashatiel couldn't land a hit on us before dropping dead, and Trix was double talked to open the door immediatelly.
Athena v Belhifet
3xPfF, 3xPfC, 3xPfE, 3xPfA, 8xMind Focus, Violet, Fortitude, Defense, Speed, Invul, Power. The lift took around 20 rounds drinking Heroism potions every round. Left Green Abishai alive to buff. 500hp, 11xChampion Strenghts, 1xSpeed, 2xInvul and Storm. We arrived Bel with -41 Thac0, escaped his Dispel and started hacking. Bel was already at near death once our Champion Strengths started faiding. And soon after he was dead, only needed 3 Goblets for the fight.
We are currently sitting at Irenicus dungeon with 691k xp and getting to lv10.
The don't-believe-in-plate-mail-gang Update 3
Corearcher XII the elven archer, protagonist (corey_russell)
Junker, dwarven bounty hunter (Gate70)
Duplo, dwarven kensai (Grond0)
While this party stinks at tanking, it nevertheless has a lot of damage potential with the Kensai damage bonuses, bounty hunter backstabs and traps and Corearcher's powerful ranged fire. We got a lot done:
1) We cleared the Bandit Camp (Surface). While successful, Diplo took a ton of damage, but he believed Corearcher would kill Khosahnn in time (Corearcher did). We do a lot of rests to heal up Diplo since he doesn't use heal potions, but he has 20 CON so he regenerates which saves us some time. For Tazok's Tent, Diplo used a potion of magic blocking and once Venkt had cast horror, the rest of the party moved in and mopped up.
2) We skipped Cloakwood area 1. We did some fighting in Area 2 but only enough to get to area 3 of the Cloakwood. We skipped this area as well and then went to Area 4 of the Cloakwood. We mostly skipped this area too, except Corearcher shot up the dryad in the area.
3) For Drassus and gang, Junker managed to lay 3 traps -- these traps killed the mages and Drassus and Genthore didn't last very long against the party's ranged fire. The haste boots not terribly useful for the party but Corearcher will use them.
4) Most of the Cloakwood mine was skipped with the party only killing people in the way of getting to the bottom level. For Davaeorn's level, Junker couldn't get all the traps but he did de-trap the battle horrors so that was good enough. Junker laid a bunch of traps at a future spawn point for Davaeorn (some serious meta-gaming with that) but that did in fact kill Daveorn. Somehow Daveorn's mirrors weren't up and he even had to suffer a backstab.
5) The city quests went well. No trouble. Almost all battles were either backstabs, traps, or ranged fire and these tactics carried the day. Corearcher didn't fancy taking on Degrodel's minions with no tanks in the party though we had a ton of traps for the Mountain Maulers. Corearcher also didn't fancy taking on the 5th floor Iron Throne baddies either so he just stealthed to get to the letters and talk to Thaldorn to update the quest.
6) We ran out of time in the session just as we were reporting to Scar our success. Candlekeep Crypts will be next session.
We started doing all the non-stronghold quests around the city, starting with the slavers - access to invisibility 10' radius means that we get to pick our battles from advantageous positions:
As you can see, we're already using the Spear of Kuldahar - we got the money very quickly, and there's just no reason to go with inferior weapons. Our next upgrade will be The Impaler +3, much later in the game.
Meanwhile, we also finally got our first character death - in Saerk's estate, I foolishly triggered a lightning bolt trap which bounced around and killed Intercessor - luckily, there's a temple nearby:
By now, Ferrum is pretty well protected, with chaotic commands and death ward being nearly always active, and various kinds of elemental immunites possible if needed. With a +3 weapon, we can hit everything we encounter, and even higher level enemies such as the sewer party aren't safe:
To cap things off for now, we pay Gaelan and clear Watcher's Keep level 1, including the statues. Infiltrator gets access to 6th level spells, we've made sure to buy scrolls of breach and improved haste to unlock the most important spells on these levels for us right now. Ferrum is doing quite well:
Nice-looking stats. Not sure which stronghold quest we will start with now, but the druid grove seems like a decent option and would get us the possibility of some item-based immunities via spear (which I don't think we will generally need except for some very rare circumstances, but it will be nice to have).
Mostly, the druid grove was easy to clear out, except for the eastern group of druids - we got hit by an insect plague and a call lightning spell there after inititially doing quite well, but everyone survived:
However, things took a rather awkward turn near the end - the myconids confused Intercessor, and as a result, he ended up attacking Cernd, turning him hostile:
I was able to charm Cern, but was unable to start any dialogue - The only other option to finish the quest seemed to be recruiting Jaheira, which we did - however, she immediately disappeared to Harper Hold upon recruitment, forcing us into the first part of her personal quest (and her curse quest, because I forgot that entering Sea's Bounty triggers that). Eventually, we managed to get her to fight Faldorn - she was unverleveled, of course, but forest beings were able to charm Faldorn, and I used the shadow druid's own spellbook against her, getting out more summons and healing up Jaheira, who did initially get hit by insect plague:
We did get the win thanks to the additional summons, but the ending dialogue for the quest ended up not fully triggering, because Cernd is part of that as well - and he spawned in hostile:
So, it seems like we're missing out on some of the experience reward and the staff you usually get here. Luckily, I was still able to turn in the overall quest in Trademeet. After some sidequesting, we next went to De'Arnise Keep. This one was rather uneventful, we can easily stand up to some trolls and yuan-ti at this point. Ferrum is missing out on some kills as he can't finish trolls, but still doing quite well. Also, since we are a fighter kit, we completed the various keep quests with some forced resting.
There have been more long gaps in play and the overall results have been pretty poor to date. However, I have at length got the remaining 7 characters past Sarevok.
Summary points of interest for each class Cleric/mage - with so much spell power available this character has the capability to make everything easy. However, there were two close shaves in his final session. The first was at the coronation, where I nearly paid the price for not buffing fully - Liia died and Belt was taken to near death before the last of the dopplegangers fell. The other was at the final battle. I had triggered the stinking cloud and web traps in the old temple early, while invisible, and then finished off Sarevok's companions. While running him round though the web trap triggered once again. Caught by surprise, I failed to take any precautions against that, but fortunately saved and was able to finish Sarevok off without further alarm.
Stalker - the stalker was another where I was giving the game a bit of a chance. The closest escape was when stealth failed unexpectedly in sight of Bor. He immediately attacked with stunning darts and rolled a hit, but I just had time to pause the game and take a potion of magic shielding before it arrived.
Dragon Disciple - I didn't bother trying to avoid damage with this character this session. However, apart from traps he only took damage once. That was in the final battle and was also the only worrying moment. I'd used invisibility to try and draw out the web and stinking cloud traps in the temple and activated Sarevok in the process. Despite the many hundreds of times I've done that sort of thing though I overlooked that would result in Semaj teleporting out and he hit me with his tattoo of power, disrupting an intended spell. With my aura clouded that could have been nasty, but fortunately I was able to break contact behind a pillar to avoid any follow-up spells and the rest of the battle was easy enough. I wore Sarevoks HPs down in order to have the satisfaction of killing him with my breath weapon - despite his 90% resistance .
Cleric dualling to thief - once more this character had a pretty easy passage. That's probably at least partly because he is human and thus has much poorer saving throws - and I compensate for that by taking fewer risks ...
Diviner - the diviner had a pretty easy road for almost all the remainder of BGEE. Unfortunately though he fell in the final battle. Semaj was dead and Sarevok drawn away from the dais before I moved into extreme range of that and used malison and chaos. The latter affected Angelo, but not Tazok. Although both were invisible I thought that Angelo might use exploding arrows to kill bats and annoy Tazok, so was concentrating on seeing if that happened. A number of rounds later several bats were dead, but not apparently from exploding arrows and I was just considering what to do next when the death screen popped up. Even though I would have been out of sight range of him, I guess Tazok had got a trace on me from the malison. That was some time earlier, but I'd also used web in there and that might have delayed him coming after me. In any case it was definitely his attacks that killed me - and though that required more than one hit I hadn't noticed his earlier attacks ...
Kensai - I moved on to the kensai immediately after the diviner snuffed it against Sarevok. The period immediately after a death tends to be dangerous and I did take a pretty aggressive approach to game play with the kensai. I didn't actually have any particularly close shaves, but was probably lucky in avoiding those.
Blade - the blade was the only character yet to take damage up to this point. I started playing it carefully, but a moment's loss of concentration proved costly when I ran out of MMM's against Larze and the auto-attack that followed took me too close to the ogre before starting my retreat. I took plenty of damage after that without ever really feeling threatened.
Cleric - the cleric was the last to try his luck. Skeletons generally made fights easy, though the cleric was taken down to single figure HPs by the big-hitting Larze. The only other time I was significantly hurt was in the final battle with Sarevok. After running the big man round until he was nearly dead, I tried to finish him off in melee. However, despite significant clerical buffing Sarevok hit and I missed and I had to retreat and settle for finishing him off with a LMD.
Collage of Sarevok's woes (and ignoring his triumphs ):
After his last recorded failure, Biff decided to chance his arm by relying on level 1 protection to melee the gnolls at High Hedge without nipping in and out. That didn't go well as the first time Biff was hit was for exactly his 6 HPs - resulting in death.
Next time around things were going well until the game hung for a few seconds just as Biff made an invisible attack on the belt ogre. When the game restarted the ogre retaliated before I could give any new commands and a critical hit was too much for poor Biff.
Once more into the fray and this time Biff decided to risk himself against Shoal for the sake of an early boost. Her kiss proved to be the non-killing variety introduced by the EE and Biff survived with 1 HP. He avoided Ogre Droth's attempts to talk (which would have turned him hostile) and duly finished Shoal off to get a quick couple of levels. Taking friends as a new spell allowed him to gain a touch more XP from helping out Mad Arcand. He gained another level before taking liberties with an Ettercap and dying (not for the first time) to poison.
_____________________________________________
With the long-life recurrent runs all in the SoD dungeon I thought perhaps it might be an appropriate time to try again and see if I could maintain the necessary patience to make decent progress …
After leaving Candlekeep, Biff went to High Hedge - dodging some ambushing wild dogs on the way. Some gnolls were given no chance to attack and Biff grabbed Perdue's sword and duly ran past Karlat to return that. Marl, Firebead and Zhurlong offered more risk-free XP and provided Biff a first level up with an additional 5 HPs.
A spot of day-time travel to Nashkel (to avoid the bandits) allowed Biff to collect Mr Colquetle's amulet and get some more free XP from Noober. To the north of Beregost Biff picked up a couple of useful free rings before returning another variety to Joia. As Biff knew shield he was able to take on Tarnesh without any real risk - just dodging into the temple to avoid horror before taking down the mage.
Biff also knew a safe travel route to get to Brage and the XP for escorting him back to Nashkel provided Biff with level 3 and a welcome 6 additional HPs. That gave him enough to be able to take on the spiders in Beregost - ensuring only 1 could attack him at once and that he could always travel away to cure any poison. In the event though Biff was never hit anyway and went to return Landrin's goods and pick up the pantaloons.
Up to this point I'd avoided any chance of an archer ambush, but with options for XP becoming more limited I decided to take a slight risk. First was heading to the Valley of the Tombs to get the free +2 dagger from Hentold, then on to the Cloud Peak Mountains. There were no ambushes on those transitions and Biff was able to pick up some easy XP for finding Rufie. In the neighbouring area friends allowed him the best reward for getting a cat resurrected. On the way back to Nashkel, Biff was ambushed by a winter wolf. I'd been rather hoping that would happen as Biff had carefully hung on to Gorion's belt - meaning the wolf had no way to hurt him .
With just a few hundred more XP needed for a level, Biff went in search of some gnolls and hobgoblins. South of Beregost he headed for the remainder of the group he'd got Zhurlong's boots from. However, I'd forgotten I'd killed one of the others as well as the one with the boots. As a result, Biff came into sight of the one with a bow - a critical hit immediately followed, causing Biff his first damage so far. Quickly retreating he found some less dangerous hobgoblins and duly picked up level 4, with just the 4 extra HPs but the ability to cast invisibility.
The golems at High Hedge were swiftly disposed of and Biff got a nice bonus for successfully reviving Melicamp. After buying the potion case he completed his container collection by an invisible attack on Neera. Meilum was rather more difficult to hit, but a few rests later and he was persuaded to hand over his bracers. Greywolf met his end in the same fashion, taking Biff close to another level. Rescuing Samuel was then enough to get to level 5. Again just the 4 extra HPs, but Biff will now be able to use ghoul touch.
We start with Mae'Var's guild next, which is uneventful and easy enough to clear out. A visit to the Umar Hills brings with it what I think is a new crit record:
Improved haste is now being added to Ferrums regular buffs from time to time, greatly increasing his damage output - none of the enemies in the Temple Ruins stand a chance:
Next, we go for the planar prison, where the group opens up under invisibility 10' radius for a quick double kill on the spellcasters and a 66 damage critical hit:
Ferrum is basically at the peak of his powers, I don't think he will become much stronger in relation to our enemies - he has all the buffs he would need, and he's destroying whatver he comes across:
The boots of speed help even more with that. However, the Unseeing Eye does bring beholders with it, and he has no reliable tools against those - Intercessor gets to work with the Shield of Balduran:
The eye tyrant dies quickly:
We have enough cash to buy everything else we could need for the party right now. Still, Windspear Hills and the Planar Sphere remain, so we're sticking around in Athkatla for a little while longer.
Comments
I'm also been playing yet another solo Cavalier char, my version of @Grond0 life-long run. My favorite class and kit, and although I did complete Blackguard as solo Paladin, I've lost track how many Cavaliers I've lost, in solo or dual runs. Cavaliers got silently nerfed last couple years, as they can't get (even with cheese) the evil outcomes from Hell anymore without falling. So no more 25 STR, AC cap nor Soul Reaver. To balance this I'm using couple things. First Revised Hell trials from Quest Pack. While this doesn't allow evil choices, we can get one neutral one without falling and that should be pretty good. I'm also using IWD version of Paladin spell progression from Tweaks Anthology which gives 555531 spell slots instead of 3333. Big one here is one Harm spell per rest, but I'm mostly spicing the run to the usual. Also using LoB, SCS and Ascension for difficulty. Autorolled Athena.
weidu.log
~EEUITWEAKS/EEUITWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Faydark's Abilities Auto-Roller/GrimLefourbe's BG2 UI: 4.0.6
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited ammo stacking: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited potion stacking: v17
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1520 // Include bard songs from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // Core Stratagems spell-system changes (installed by default by any AI component): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Add 9 new arcane spells: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2510 // Add 6 new divine spells (some borrowed from Divine Remix): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3015 // Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // More realistic wolves and wild dogs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4250 // Make spell sequencers and contingencies into innate abilities: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly smarter carrion crawlers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7030 // Improved kobolds: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity assassins: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7150 // Improved Carsa/Kahrk interaction: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: 35.21
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: 35.21
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single-Classes: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2371 // Alter Dual-Class Restrictions -> Allow non-humans to dual-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2350 // Alter Multi-Class Restrictions -> Allow humans to multi-class: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Alter Paladin Spell Progression Table -> Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Alter Ranger Spell Progression Table -> Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables [grogerson]: v17
~EXPANDEDCLASSES/EXPANDEDCLASSES.TP2~ #0 #32 // Kuo-toa Disciple Kit for Bards: v2.0
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #0 // EEex: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #1 // Experimental - Use LuaJIT (can help stuttering): v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #2 // Enable effect menu module - LShift-on-hover to view spells affecting creature: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #3 // Enable empty container module - Highlight empty containers in gray instead of cyan: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #4 // Enable hotkey module - Edit override/B3Hotkey.lua to create advanced spell hotkeys: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #5 // Enable scale module - Customizable UI scaling factor: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #6 // Enable time step module - Advance 1 game tick on keypress: v0.11.0-alpha
~EEEX/EEEX.TP2~ #0 #7 // Enable timer module - Visual indicators for modal actions, contingencies, and spell/item cooldowns: v0.11.0-alpha
Intro - Chapter 3
Killed Imoen for her potions and WoM, which then ranged Xzar and Montaron for their potions
Killed Neera for the Gem Bag, then Algernon for the his cloak
900xp Marl
Our 19 strength got 2x Invis potions from Beregost and Nashkel manors
400xp Noober
From the Carnival potion tent we got Fire Giant, which then got us 3rd Invis potion
900xp Hentold's dagger, 4th Invis potion, lv2
1000xp Albert
Charmed Jemby stops Drizzt attacking Gnolls, and we got his Scimitars
Potion case from Thalantyr
2035xp Tenya Bowl lv3
750gold to get rep to 11, then killed Dushai for his Free-action ring first luring him with WoM
Invis potion to Mulahey, Charmed with Algernon cloak and killed by Kobbos, escaped with Speed potion
800xp Joseph's ring
Charmed Minsc tried to kill Nimbul, but lightning stole our xp
975xp Charmed Marl ko'd Tranzig
Raiken escorted us to Bandit Camp where Charmed Taurgosz was killed by Black Bear for Full Plate
1250gold to get rep to 12
Reputation run Firebead 13 300xp, Oublek 14, Mulahey symbol 15 1000xp, Drienne Cat 16 200xp lv4, Samuel 17 500xp, Charmed Hobgoblin for Joia's ring 18 400xp, Brage 19 1000xp
Forked 14k gold for Sandthief ring, picked Brun's son with Oil of Speed, 20rep 1500xp.
Used one Absorption, Sandthief charge and Invis potion to pick up the papers from Bandit camp. Still almost died. We risked getting the Magic Blocking and Venkt cast Glitterdust before we got Invis on, which revealed us. But we managed to escape the camp with 25hp left.
Chapter 4
Used single Sandthief charge in Cloakwood 2 to right click pick up the Scimitar and Tiber's brother. Upon reaching Cloakwood 4 we returned to 2 to give up the brother for 800xp. Using one Sandthief charge 2000 gold pop is no brainer with over 6k loot. Molkar waylay happened and we used two Sandthief charges, and managed to Charm Molkar with Algernon's Cloak. Molkar killed Halacan as the other two were separated by Athena. Then he managed to kill Dakar. Morvin was too tough for Molkar and we got his Heroism potion. We still managed to kill Morvin by ourselves 650xp. There was also one Absorption and 4,5k worth of loot so even this was cost effective.
Used last two Sandthief charges to pick up CON-tome. Lamalha waylay happened and we had to also waste our second last Invis potion. Charm attempt for her Potion of Power didn't work. Forked 13750 gold to recharge the ring. 2 Sandthief charges to reach Davaeorn's guard, and then had to spend 3 charges more to Charm him. Another Santhief to park the Battle Horrors away, then the Guard sliced Davaeorn 6000xp lv5.
Chapter 5
After escaping the mine we used our last Sandthief charge to pass Drasus party. But before leaving we tried our Charm attempt and got Drasus. He was killed by his guards. This wasn't really necessary as you can get another set of Speed Boots soon after from Lothander. Another 13750 gold to recharge the Sandthief. With Speed boots we could pick up the CHA-tome without Invis and with 20/20 economy single Invisibility costs 1735 gold through Sandthief ring. Tremain's son 5000xp. Bought Greenstone amulet and it helped us to defeat Ragefast no problem 4000xp. Ramazith was Charmed with Nymph cloak and after he spent his spells, his summons killed him 4000xp lv6. Sandthief charge and Frost Giant potion to loot the tower. Lothander Charmed, stopped leaving and killed 5500xp. Two Charmed Gamesmen KO'd Marek which took 45 minutes 10650xp. Seven Suns 7100xp. At Iron Throne we used Sandthief to Charm Naaman for PfU, didn't bother with rest and escaped with another Charge.
Chapter 6
Ogre Waylay escaped with Invis potion. Iron Throne Charmed with Nymph cloak and killed. 2x Sandthief, Cloud Giant and DuHM to loot Catacomps. Last Sandthief charge to escape.
Chapter 7
Charmed Meilum killed Kahrk then died by Kobbos 3500xp. With SCS installed Karhk has Magi Katana +2 which improves casting time by 1, and which Paladin's can use too making some castings instant. Kirinhale 4000xp. Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost 3750xp, and was killed by Ghasts, used one Sandthief. Bought 2 OGL's, third from Nadine 1400xp lv7. With the three OGL's we bombed Denak's party out of sight for Ring of Energy. Fear and Love followed us to Fireball trap, where we kited them and Fear was soon dead by Fire. But then Avarice found us, we lured him upstairs. Then we kited Love around the table with Ring of Energy and Greenstone Amulet. Next level we got first Champion Strength and Durlag's Goblet.
With Greenstone amulet we finally beat Tarnesh and got Golden Pantaloons. Charmed Larze and Quenash, Slythe killed Quenash and Larze killed Slythe. Recharged Sandthief yet again. Charmed Lesser Basilisk with one Sandthief charge, and used two Green PfP scrolls on us. Then we cleared the level, including Kirian's party lv8.
Palace Ambush. We Charmed the Mage and Shaman and attacked the rest. Rest of the Dobbelgangers were easily wiped, us needing to refresh from the Goblet twice. Next we waited Mage to appear, and it was killed after Liia Dispelled it. Shaman didn't fare any better, as Liias Chromatic Orb killed it. Small things. Delorna was Charmed and killed by her own summons for 4th OGL, which we recharged. Level skipped Sunin's spells for second Ring of Wizardy. Then two Sandthiefs to reach Sarevok.
Athena v Sarevok
Started bombing out of sight with OGL. It took only 12 hits to kill Semaj. Once Skeleton Warrior started wandering we used PfU. Tazok took 19 Fireballs, Angelo 32 and Diarmid 41, because he heals during the attack. We then bombed Sarevok with 48 OGL's, leaving 7 for Korlasz, 7 Potions of Explosions and 5 Oil of Fiery Burnings. Then we drank Oil of Speed and started kiting Sarevok with Ring of Energy. And after 3 hits, Sarevok was dead.
Invisbility to Porios, two Invisibilities and PfU to Korlasz, and 6 Fireball + Invisibility combos made her surrender. In Baldur's Gate we sold enough of our loot to buy everything interesting in SS.
Chapter 8
Teleria nor her Golem agro if not talked to. Lv9 doing Menhir's quest which meant we could cast Sanctuary now. Listened Dwarves getting killed by undead, then used PfU to reach Coldheart and enlisted his help for the crusader attacks. Hid behind the tent for parlay.
Chapter 9
Looted Troll cave with Sanctuary. Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned afar. Neothelid took no less than 12 Durlag's Goblets and almost 2 hours because he wasn't appearing enough. Akanna Charmed second hit and killed by her Aerial servants. Surrendered the fort, and Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy.
Chapter 10
152k gold selling my hoard to the Genie. Quests for items, also Protector of Unworthy from Orog Chieftain who was charmed for the BBB, or Best Belt v Bel. Crusader Attacks. After Charming all the companions we found that Edwin had WoMS and because he wasn't in party it avoided the casting limit. It made the first attack a lot easier and didn't even need a refresh from the Goblet, although it still took over 40 rounds.
In the Mage wave we were confused a while, because we only drank one Invulnerability, but first time ever Stysich Dispel came clutch and helped us. The Mage wave is easy enough if you survive spells, as I think Wizards Slayers will almost always outlive them. Used Goblet once. Had to do prebuffs again and drank Heroism to 300hp for Paladin wave.
The last two waves were pretty uneventful with 300hp buffs. It's important to concentrate on Rhayla until she's dead, as she can Dispel the buffs. The two waves took only 4 Goblets.
Ashatiel couldn't land a hit on us before dropping dead, and Trix was double talked to open the door immediatelly.
Athena v Belhifet
3xPfF, 3xPfC, 3xPfE, 3xPfA, 8xMind Focus, Violet, Fortitude, Defense, Speed, Invul, Power. The lift took around 20 rounds drinking Heroism potions every round. Left Green Abishai alive to buff. 500hp, 11xChampion Strenghts, 1xSpeed, 2xInvul and Storm. We arrived Bel with -41 Thac0, escaped his Dispel and started hacking. Bel was already at near death once our Champion Strengths started faiding. And soon after he was dead, only needed 3 Goblets for the fight.
We are currently sitting at Irenicus dungeon with 691k xp and getting to lv10.
Corearcher XII the elven archer, protagonist (corey_russell)
Junker, dwarven bounty hunter (Gate70)
Duplo, dwarven kensai (Grond0)
While this party stinks at tanking, it nevertheless has a lot of damage potential with the Kensai damage bonuses, bounty hunter backstabs and traps and Corearcher's powerful ranged fire. We got a lot done:
1) We cleared the Bandit Camp (Surface). While successful, Diplo took a ton of damage, but he believed Corearcher would kill Khosahnn in time (Corearcher did). We do a lot of rests to heal up Diplo since he doesn't use heal potions, but he has 20 CON so he regenerates which saves us some time. For Tazok's Tent, Diplo used a potion of magic blocking and once Venkt had cast horror, the rest of the party moved in and mopped up.
2) We skipped Cloakwood area 1. We did some fighting in Area 2 but only enough to get to area 3 of the Cloakwood. We skipped this area as well and then went to Area 4 of the Cloakwood. We mostly skipped this area too, except Corearcher shot up the dryad in the area.
3) For Drassus and gang, Junker managed to lay 3 traps -- these traps killed the mages and Drassus and Genthore didn't last very long against the party's ranged fire. The haste boots not terribly useful for the party but Corearcher will use them.
4) Most of the Cloakwood mine was skipped with the party only killing people in the way of getting to the bottom level. For Davaeorn's level, Junker couldn't get all the traps but he did de-trap the battle horrors so that was good enough. Junker laid a bunch of traps at a future spawn point for Davaeorn (some serious meta-gaming with that) but that did in fact kill Daveorn. Somehow Daveorn's mirrors weren't up and he even had to suffer a backstab.
5) The city quests went well. No trouble. Almost all battles were either backstabs, traps, or ranged fire and these tactics carried the day. Corearcher didn't fancy taking on Degrodel's minions with no tanks in the party though we had a ton of traps for the Mountain Maulers. Corearcher also didn't fancy taking on the 5th floor Iron Throne baddies either so he just stealthed to get to the letters and talk to Thaldorn to update the quest.
6) We ran out of time in the session just as we were reporting to Scar our success. Candlekeep Crypts will be next session.
We started doing all the non-stronghold quests around the city, starting with the slavers - access to invisibility 10' radius means that we get to pick our battles from advantageous positions:
Meanwhile, we also finally got our first character death - in Saerk's estate, I foolishly triggered a lightning bolt trap which bounced around and killed Intercessor - luckily, there's a temple nearby:
Mostly, the druid grove was easy to clear out, except for the eastern group of druids - we got hit by an insect plague and a call lightning spell there after inititially doing quite well, but everyone survived:
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1220894/#Comment_1220894
Summary points of interest for each class
Cleric/mage - with so much spell power available this character has the capability to make everything easy. However, there were two close shaves in his final session. The first was at the coronation, where I nearly paid the price for not buffing fully - Liia died and Belt was taken to near death before the last of the dopplegangers fell. The other was at the final battle. I had triggered the stinking cloud and web traps in the old temple early, while invisible, and then finished off Sarevok's companions. While running him round though the web trap triggered once again. Caught by surprise, I failed to take any precautions against that, but fortunately saved and was able to finish Sarevok off without further alarm.
Stalker - the stalker was another where I was giving the game a bit of a chance. The closest escape was when stealth failed unexpectedly in sight of Bor. He immediately attacked with stunning darts and rolled a hit, but I just had time to pause the game and take a potion of magic shielding before it arrived.
Dragon Disciple - I didn't bother trying to avoid damage with this character this session. However, apart from traps he only took damage once. That was in the final battle and was also the only worrying moment. I'd used invisibility to try and draw out the web and stinking cloud traps in the temple and activated Sarevok in the process. Despite the many hundreds of times I've done that sort of thing though I overlooked that would result in Semaj teleporting out and he hit me with his tattoo of power, disrupting an intended spell. With my aura clouded that could have been nasty, but fortunately I was able to break contact behind a pillar to avoid any follow-up spells and the rest of the battle was easy enough. I wore Sarevoks HPs down in order to have the satisfaction of killing him with my breath weapon - despite his 90% resistance
Cleric dualling to thief - once more this character had a pretty easy passage. That's probably at least partly because he is human and thus has much poorer saving throws - and I compensate for that by taking fewer risks ...
Diviner - the diviner had a pretty easy road for almost all the remainder of BGEE. Unfortunately though he fell in the final battle. Semaj was dead and Sarevok drawn away from the dais before I moved into extreme range of that and used malison and chaos. The latter affected Angelo, but not Tazok. Although both were invisible I thought that Angelo might use exploding arrows to kill bats and annoy Tazok, so was concentrating on seeing if that happened. A number of rounds later several bats were dead, but not apparently from exploding arrows and I was just considering what to do next when the death screen popped up. Even though I would have been out of sight range of him, I guess Tazok had got a trace on me from the malison. That was some time earlier, but I'd also used web in there and that might have delayed him coming after me. In any case it was definitely his attacks that killed me - and though that required more than one hit I hadn't noticed his earlier attacks ...
Kensai - I moved on to the kensai immediately after the diviner snuffed it against Sarevok. The period immediately after a death tends to be dangerous and I did take a pretty aggressive approach to game play with the kensai. I didn't actually have any particularly close shaves, but was probably lucky in avoiding those.
Blade - the blade was the only character yet to take damage up to this point. I started playing it carefully, but a moment's loss of concentration proved costly when I ran out of MMM's against Larze and the auto-attack that followed took me too close to the ogre before starting my retreat. I took plenty of damage after that without ever really feeling threatened.
Cleric - the cleric was the last to try his luck. Skeletons generally made fights easy, though the cleric was taken down to single figure HPs by the big-hitting Larze. The only other time I was significantly hurt was in the final battle with Sarevok. After running the big man round until he was nearly dead, I tried to finish him off in melee. However, despite significant clerical buffing Sarevok hit and I missed and I had to retreat and settle for finishing him off with a LMD.
Collage of Sarevok's woes (and ignoring his triumphs
Previous recorded run
After his last recorded failure, Biff decided to chance his arm by relying on level 1 protection to melee the gnolls at High Hedge without nipping in and out. That didn't go well as the first time Biff was hit was for exactly his 6 HPs - resulting in death.
Next time around things were going well until the game hung for a few seconds just as Biff made an invisible attack on the belt ogre. When the game restarted the ogre retaliated before I could give any new commands and a critical hit was too much for poor Biff.
Once more into the fray and this time Biff decided to risk himself against Shoal for the sake of an early boost. Her kiss proved to be the non-killing variety introduced by the EE and Biff survived with 1 HP. He avoided Ogre Droth's attempts to talk (which would have turned him hostile) and duly finished Shoal off to get a quick couple of levels. Taking friends as a new spell allowed him to gain a touch more XP from helping out Mad Arcand. He gained another level before taking liberties with an Ettercap and dying (not for the first time) to poison.
_____________________________________________
With the long-life recurrent runs all in the SoD dungeon I thought perhaps it might be an appropriate time to try again and see if I could maintain the necessary patience to make decent progress …
After leaving Candlekeep, Biff went to High Hedge - dodging some ambushing wild dogs on the way. Some gnolls were given no chance to attack and Biff grabbed Perdue's sword and duly ran past Karlat to return that. Marl, Firebead and Zhurlong offered more risk-free XP and provided Biff a first level up with an additional 5 HPs.
A spot of day-time travel to Nashkel (to avoid the bandits) allowed Biff to collect Mr Colquetle's amulet and get some more free XP from Noober. To the north of Beregost Biff picked up a couple of useful free rings before returning another variety to Joia. As Biff knew shield he was able to take on Tarnesh without any real risk - just dodging into the temple to avoid horror before taking down the mage.
Biff also knew a safe travel route to get to Brage and the XP for escorting him back to Nashkel provided Biff with level 3 and a welcome 6 additional HPs. That gave him enough to be able to take on the spiders in Beregost - ensuring only 1 could attack him at once and that he could always travel away to cure any poison. In the event though Biff was never hit anyway and went to return Landrin's goods and pick up the pantaloons.
Up to this point I'd avoided any chance of an archer ambush, but with options for XP becoming more limited I decided to take a slight risk. First was heading to the Valley of the Tombs to get the free +2 dagger from Hentold, then on to the Cloud Peak Mountains. There were no ambushes on those transitions and Biff was able to pick up some easy XP for finding Rufie. In the neighbouring area friends allowed him the best reward for getting a cat resurrected. On the way back to Nashkel, Biff was ambushed by a winter wolf. I'd been rather hoping that would happen as Biff had carefully hung on to Gorion's belt - meaning the wolf had no way to hurt him
With just a few hundred more XP needed for a level, Biff went in search of some gnolls and hobgoblins. South of Beregost he headed for the remainder of the group he'd got Zhurlong's boots from. However, I'd forgotten I'd killed one of the others as well as the one with the boots. As a result, Biff came into sight of the one with a bow - a critical hit immediately followed, causing Biff his first damage so far. Quickly retreating he found some less dangerous hobgoblins and duly picked up level 4, with just the 4 extra HPs but the ability to cast invisibility.
The golems at High Hedge were swiftly disposed of and Biff got a nice bonus for successfully reviving Melicamp. After buying the potion case he completed his container collection by an invisible attack on Neera. Meilum was rather more difficult to hit, but a few rests later and he was persuaded to hand over his bracers. Greywolf met his end in the same fashion, taking Biff close to another level. Rescuing Samuel was then enough to get to level 5. Again just the 4 extra HPs, but Biff will now be able to use ghoul touch.
Sorcerer L5, 25 HPs, 50 kills
We start with Mae'Var's guild next, which is uneventful and easy enough to clear out. A visit to the Umar Hills brings with it what I think is a new crit record: