After the rest of the expedition to Kuldahar fell because of the avalanche, Hypnos and his friends had to carefully move through hordes of goblins. Hades worked as a scout, so that Styx could cast 1-2 Sleep spells in front of packs of enemies, after that the whole party attacked sleeping enemies.
Simultaneous casting of Sleep by Styx and Hypnos put to sleep the pack of orcs in the old mill:
The party reached Kuldahar, where they reported to the Archdruid about the avalanche and a strange ogre, whom them met at the Kuldahar pass. Arundel, the Archdruid, gave them a recipe for that headache. Also, the party investigated the death of the previous inn keeper, and made the new one confess about circumstances in which he had got the inn.
Before setting out for the Vale of Shadows, the group cleared a northern area at the Kuldahar pass. A lot of Sleep and Command Spells, as well as timely using of healing potions, helped not to lose anyone despite the high number of enemies:
In a small cave the party found 4 beetles - the beetles didn't leave the cave when Hades retreated after each backstab.
In the Vale of Shadows the party found several crypts full of undead. It was were the Hachiman's Turn Undead skill helped greatly. Party members had to run from undead creatures, undead creatures ran from Hachiman, unlucky hits here and there, but in the end all the crypts were cleared.
As for groups of Yeti, it was easier to kite outdoors, so that everyone could fire melee-critters from a distance.
A scroll of Strength spell (which lasts 1 hour/level of caster in IWDEE) was found in one of the crypts. Before entering the Yeti cave Styx went through a scribing session, so that she could seriously buff Raijin for future fights (increasing his STR and DEX). She used one Potion of Mind Focusing, while Hypnos successfully subscribed Chromatic Orb (which is much better in this game).
With new spell, the party cleared the Yeti cave.
The final undead dungeon awaited next.
Hypnos, a bard, 5 lvl, 24 HPs Raijin, a FMC, 2/2/2 lvl, 25 HPs - 1 death Hades, a FMT, 2/2/3 lvl, 11 HPs Amaterasu, a druid, 4 lvl, 36 HPs Styx, a conjurer, 3 lvl, 12 HPs Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 3/3 lvl, 19 HPs
Inside the Kresselack's Tomb Raijin proved to be a good tank - thanks to Cat's Grace and Strength his otherwise not optimal stats were fixed (and thanks to DUHM could be even improved further), while Chant, Bless and Protection from Evil, coupled with Armour of Faith, improved his surving and fighting skills drastically. If all these buffs (still with a short duration, but nothing stopped the party from resting when needed) were missing, hard-hitting enemies, like a mummy, would have killed the party in no time.
Raijin has only 9 INT, so while in the Vale of Shadows and the Kresselack's Tomb the party found 4 potions of Genius, in order to use them wisely they had to gather first as many spells, useful for a FMC, as possible. This is why in this dungeon Raijin had only Shield among his magic spells - but even this one spell was a great use against Imbued Wights who attacked with Magic Missiles on sight - a deadly weapon on the Insane difficulty.
I've known about an undisarmable trap in the Kresselack's Tomb, so I had to choose whom to sacrifice on that trap, and went with the druid.
Amaterasu activated the trap and soon was killed while unconcious. The party won the fight without any other casualties and got the Haste spell scroll - probably a future most important spell as soon as Styx could reach the 5th level.
On the second level of the Kresselack's Tomb Hades shot a Skeleton mage from invisibility, while Raijin tanked all other enemies, including Imbued Wights.
The reward was the Black Wolf Talisman, which not only improved AC with a +1 bonus, but gave +10 Max HPs. Now, with 39 (42 with DUM) HPs, Raijin could feel himself a lot safer when fighing in melee.
For the third level opening fight Styx casted several Grease spells, which coupled with the Hachiman's Turn Undead ability and Amaterasu's Spike Growth helped against a big amount of enemies. Everyone in the party, except for Raijin and Hades, tried to kite.
Both Raijin and Hades reached the 3rd mage levels on that level, thanks to several Mummies and Imbued Wights.
In the final chamber the party found Kresselack, a dead knight, an evil, but not the kind of evil they were trying to find. Kresselack explained that he knew about reasons of Kuldahar's problems but in order to reveal them he asked to search and destroy an Auril priestess.
This priestess was found in the Yeti cave. Hypnos tried his chromatic orbs on Yeti - it worked quite fine and 2 animals were stunned, while Raijin fought others, and Hades attacked the Aurilite one on one.
The priestess managed to kill Hades in one hit (he had only 16 HPs), which required immediate reaction - Hypnos stunned the Aurilite, and the battle was basically won.
Kresselack was happy to know the Aurilite was dead but didn't keep his promise of telling about the source of Kuldahar's problems. The party returned to Arundel and was told that maybe a Heartstone gem could reveal the truth. One problem, though - this gem was needed to be found first.
Huge XP rewards after completing the quest meant, among other things, that Styx got an access to 3rd level spells, while Hypnos reached the 7th level, and his PP score with the Tymora's Melody and the Cat's Grace spell went as high as 105. I decided to install the @elminster 's https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36405/thieving-mod-for-iwdee, and stealing in Kuldahar brought me several powerful items, such as the Amulet of Metaspell Influence.
Raijin gulped 2 potions of genius and with 17 INT managed to scribe Mirror Image and Blur - the only spells I actually needed for him to scribe. Styx scribed Haste, while Hypnos learned Invisibility - now the party could search for traps without any fear to be revealed.
Hades, though, had to wait for his scribing session longer - with his 13 INT I couldn't waste precious potions when basically didn't have needed spells.
I didn't like the fact Hades had only 16 HPs, which lead to his death in the fight agains Lysan, so I decided to give the Black Wolf Talisman to him, and Raijin instead equipped the new amulet - this way he could get 2 Mirror Images - more than a good way to stay alive.
Hypnos, a bard, 7 lvl, 28 HPs Raijin, a FMC, 3/3/4 lvl, 35 HPs - 1 death Hades, a FMT, 3/3/4 lvl, 16 HPs - 1 death Amaterasu, a druid, 6 lvl, 47 HPs - 1 death Styx, a conjurer, 5 lvl, 16 HPs Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 4/5 lvl, 29 HPs
I would like to note that up until now the fact that both my fighters were triple classes didn't bring any advantage - if Raijin was a F/C, and Hades was a F/T, they both would have more levels and thus HPs. But thanks to the buffs from others - a bard, a druid, a cleric and a single class mage, the party still managed to survive during these low levels, with minimal number of deaths. Now, when my tank finally can Mirror Image himself (which adds to all other buffs), it should become better, and the third class should start to contribute. For a FMT, though, some more time is needed, as simply there're no spell scrolls to make him stronger and to let him melee. Maybe I should have chosen another scholl for my mage, because so far the only Conjuration spells I found were Grease and Armour, so no big advantage in terms of penalties to saving throws, but in the same time with a conjurer I have only one school prohibited - Invocation/Evocation, and my bard could compensate here greatly, which he has already been doing, with his Chromatic orbs working as a 50/50 stun and now paralyze for 13 rounds. From my specialist mage the spells I needed the most - Protection from Evil, Cat's Grace and Strength, - I got. And now there's Haste. My cleric/thief already maxed pick locks and detect traps (thanks to Cat's Grace and Tymora's melody, and now the girdle improved by Oswald Fiddlebender) so he could start improving invisibility, plus I now have the Invisibility spell in the party as well. I'm enjoying this playthrough because everything feels far from being easy and it's interesting to use only the spells that the game provides.
I hope Chaen by @Otherguy , Xyrwenys by @GemHound , Bardin by @Blackraven (in ToB!), Jurs by @Musigny , Valos by @semiticgod , Scarlett by @Pteran , Yami by @Gotural (a nightmare mode + Tactics!) and of course The Merrie Men of Easthaven by @BillyYank are still somewhere there, fighting the bad guys and helping the good ones!
Alright. From Candlekeep to Sarevok in one post. I have the fluff of Benoni's run here: I wrote it on the Bioware forums awhile back, and finally decided to consolidate it and restart Benoni following the exact path I wrote down. The only difference from the past is that instead of a F/T, Benoni is F/M/T, a rather crucial difference that has 100% saved this run. However, since in my mind Benoni is still mostly a F/T, I have limited him to using no red spells, or anything that directly affects an opponent. I'll break this for beholders, because BEHOLDERS.
The wonderful portrait is from Iara-art from Deviantart. Since the story's already written, I'll leave myself to crunch: nothing wrong happens early-game, besides not managing to backstab Tarnesh successfully, which is dealt with by going in the temple and stealthing again. I'm still maxing Move Silently, and backstabs are going to be the motif of this triple-class for this game. Ogre and spiders and Shoal are all killed via bow.
Mutamin ends up paralyzed by Korax, and since I know I'll have wands to abuse later, I use charges of the One Gift Lost to neutralize Peter and co. Basillus is backstabbed, his spells interrupted by waiting until it's night, playing ring-around-the-henge and those split seconds where Benoni has cover to hide. It probably helped that his level 6 spell went to Heal to deal with the critical opening backstab rather than something like an invisible stalker, but them's the breaks. Greywolf is backstabbed numerous times: the rock outcropping that Prism is making his tribute to Ellisime on provides sufficient cover in multiple places. Varscona is mine for now until the very end.
The Dark Side Kobolds are 100% ignored with stealth until Mulahey. We have to drink a potion of freedom, but besides that, we end up fine. Now I dread the next part, since I know exactly what has to happen story-wise: I have to get myself ambushed by Nimbul and Neira without resting first, and Benoni's already fatigued and out of useful spells. The SCS script actually probably made Nimbul easier to deal with, since he's now geared to survive with triggers for invisibility and such. It'd be terrifying if he had a backstab weapon... But he's wielding an axe, and the fight there is one-sided. Neira requires my last Potion of Freedom to stay safe from the incoming Hold Person, but she, too, ends to Varscona. Tranzig quickly follows suit with another backstab to break morale, and a few arrows to finish the fleeing mage.
Thoughts this far: due to having no offensive mage spells allowed, the mage aspect has been relegated to Shield, Armor, Identify, and Invisibility, as I didn't have Mirror Image yet. While useful, I'm not too impressed with the Mage part at this point and I'm kind of wishing I had a slightly higher thief level because my HP sucks, and Benoni's failing stealth rolls far more than I'd like.
Path now is Ankhegs -> Ulgoth's Beard -> Sirenes -> Flesh Golems -> Bandit camp. Ankhegs require a couple potions as they keep getting critical hits and Benoni didn't splurge on Pro. Acid at the carnival. Now the Mage part is becoming important: even without offensive SPELLS, I never intended to cut off myself from offensive wands. Scorcher and Fireball are now online, for what it's worth. A thief and mage level are gained here, Find Traps and 3rd level spells are on now. The Mage aspect is starting to be somewhat important now, with Strength allowing better fighting and backstabs, Invisibility for when stealth doesn't cut it, and now Ghost Armor for being able to hide and cast in basically plate armor. Sirenes die to Varscona and a potion of Clarity, and the Flesh Golems are stealth-attacked to take only one hit throughout the cave. The 5 HP from the CON tome help, a bit.
Bandit camp. The only threat, really, with Ghost Armor, the Senses of the Cat, the Cloak of Displacement, and Shield is the mage Venkt. I can ignore the archers. Fortunately, this is where Thief excels, especially with the Fighter allowing strength potions:
The archers' demise was sped up by a casting of Scorcher from wand.
Spiders in Cloakwood are fought for the sole purpose of getting Spider's Bane: not much to write home about, though Centeol was also killed by a single backstab, and everything else was just a straight slugfest. The battle at the mines...
Well, this was kind of weird. I had to reload, and this one was actually justified. Benoni somehow got himself 100% stuck in a crevice behind the stables, no way in or out. Drasus, being almost on top of him, couldn't attack with a short weapon, and Benoni freely cut him to pieces with a 2H sword before having no way out himself. Not having debug mode on, I couldn't get Benoni out either, so PW: Reload is used to redo the battle, this time specifically staying away from the stables. Fireballs are used to kill one mage and split the other 3 apart, and they're stealth-killed one by one. I enabled debug-mode after this fight.
Benoni stealthed through the entire mine, his only stop to free Rill before sneaking to Davaeorn. Pro. from Magic, a strength potion, and ankheg armor lets me take him on as a fighter, and Davaeorn's minions couldn't save him from the inevitable.
Baldur's Gate: Backstabbing doppels and Ogre mages, and wizards on top of towers. Top of Iron Throne is reported invisibly, and Benoni gets to Candlekeep. A Potion of Magic Blocking keeps him safe until the gate. He loots another potion of clarity from the chest in Winthrop's inn: it resets, apparently. Scrolls and spells of Knock allow the STR and WIS tomes to be taken after not fighting Rieltar and co., and Pratt and his villains are ignored, instead killing the basilisks for no other reason than 100% safety and 8k experience.
I failed this part with a F/T, and I still don't know how you're supposed to survive SCS Slythe without having either spells or a ton of health. But as a F/M/T, Mirror Image keeps Benoni's chances of death via backstab relatively low, and the Wand of Summoning completes the other safety measure. Onto the Ducal Palace.
The run would've failed here for certain as a F/T. The gameplan I had was relatively simple, buff up, sneak up invisibly, and start casting Invisibility on Liia instantly to make her invisible before the Doppels can change. And it worked, kinda. Until the Doppel mage managed to cast a Dispel Magic into the fray, removing all of Benoni's buffs (!), and the invisibility on Liia. (!!!!) Panic time. I now have no armor, no buffs, and not a single Doppel has been killed yet. Belt's badly wounded, Liia's visible and targetable. I had one contingent for this, which I try now: Scroll of Invisibility on Liia.
I thought I broke the spell before it finished, as Benoni took something like 70% of his health in the next two seconds and I fled the main room to the entrance, thinking that the run was over. I see in the text Belt dying, and I'm waiting for Sarevok's gloat. Nothing. I pause, scroll up the console, and see that wonderful phrase: Benoni had successfully cast it! The rest of the battle is somewhat split up, a backstab finally landing on the Doppel Shaman, a potion of Magic Blocking taking care of the mage, except for... one mishap. The mage was at near-death, I was impatient, I used a Scorcher charge to make sure no more contingencies would be used. A random noblewoman decided to wander in the second round into the beam... -10 reputation.
I used a Wand charge of summoning to distract the final Greater Doppel, and... Another mistake... There had been a Charmed guard, which the wolves proceeded to kill. -6 Reputation. But Ben was alive, Liia survived, Sarevok fled an almost empty ducal palace. To say that we were strapped for cash after this, though, would be the understatement of a lifetime. Even after raiding the Doppel's bodies, instead of the several thousand excess I'm used to, I'm under 100 gold with the 4 Reputation. I guess everyone really DOES think Benoni's the villain in this situation, even if he was just trying to stop Sarevok.
Temple: Only near-death experience was, again, a Remove Magic destroying Benoni's defenses. Diarmid took a handsome chunk of Benoni's health via arrows after his AC collapsed; only a Potion of Invisibility saved the game here. After healing and restoring buffs, between the Pro. Magic, 14 Arrows of Dispelling, a Potion of Storm Giant Strength, a boosted Detect Illusions score to flush out the mages, and two potions of speed, everything was simply run around the temple and backstabbed whenever Benoni was able.
Thoughts: OK, the F/M/T is a powerhouse, not necessarily because of any one... But because they're so adaptable to situations. Need a STR potion or to fight under a Pro. from Magic, or fight off Sword spiders or Ankhegs? Fighter lets you do it. Need to end a mage-fight before it begins or break line of sight of spells or remove invisibility? Thief can do it. Need to survive a Thief's backstab or have decent armor after a backstab or keeping Liia completely invulnerable or summoning cannon fodder? Mage lets you do it! This, I think, marks my first SCS win in BGEE, even if it's not with full prebuffs. I'll head into Amn at some point for the "party" run of Benoni + Aerie + whoever's quest it is as the time
Edit: I just realized that despite having to rest for Mage spells, and the added complexity of throwing in Tactical encounters in SCS, this only took 8 more in-game days from my original. I'm... kind of shocked, actually.
@bengoshi: I'll be honest. Valos' run has ended due to disinterest. I forget the original reason exactly, but I've started and stopped two or three runs since then. I can't get myself fixed onto a new idea. I have Item Revisions and Spell Revisions installed and I want my next run to include them, but I haven't decided on the basic plan yet. I've pondered various solo runs and trying out Nightmare mode, but the main sticking point is what classes to pick.
Most of my long-term runs are based on wacky tricks or some alternate, unusual means of doing something. The Party of Spiders was based on using shapeshifting and Boon of Lathander to turn spellcasters into fighters; the Fire Seed party was based on shutting down enemy mages in one round without using debuffers.
I have a lot of ideas for an SR/IR run based on manipulating saving throws, but I can't decide how to structure it. Do I use Called Shot? Do I use the nerfed IR Wand of Lightning? Or do I wait until UAI so we can use the IR version of Entropy, which also penalizes saves vs. spell? And if I do use Called Shot or Entropy with WoL or BoL, do I really need to use mage kits to impose additional save penalties?
@bengoshi Yes Scarlett is still alive and kicking. Real life and fiddling around with other class combos has put her on the back burner for far too long. I've got a Spartan race here in Phoenix on Saturday, and suit shopping for my wedding to do on Sunday, but I'll get back to her soon.
@Neverused that's quite the story! Benoni sounds like a fun character to play with. I've never tried the triple class options, mostly because I like playing with NPCs too much. The XP progression would be horrendous lol!
Like @semiticgod , my run ended mostly due to disinterest. Yami was immortal already and get so powerful so quickly because of the Nightmare Mode that it became boring. As someone else pointed it out before, enemies take longer to kill but give more than twice as much XP so in the end it's easier.
But what really prevented me from continuing was when my F/M/T got imprisonned by the Lich in the Docks despite being under the effect of Enrage (my character is kitted Berserker). This really killed my desire to play, even if it was a bug or a scripted spell and I should probably reload.
So right now I'm trying to figure out what I want to play next, which is a hard question...
Chaen is alive and kicking. After obtaining Daystar him and Aerie went to sleep after some celebration. Upon waking Jaheira comes back wanting us to go talk to some harpers. Easy fight but I did prebuff with more than stoneskin and PfE so feels a little bit dirty, although to be fair those harpers werent really the trustworthy kind. That ring though, just lovely.
Last part of Neeras quest was actually quite fun, getting the mercenaries to fight the wizards is a fun plot twist and there was a fun drawn out fight there at the end. Jaheira managing to hit exactly one mage with her swarm, I didnt even know that was possible.
A few errands later I'm about to run through De'Arnise keep, bigger stronger bossfight had me postponing a bit since last time I met him he just would not die, still not sure how it will go since I don't have impr haste and damage output of my team is kind of meh. We will see though.
Congratulations, @Neverused, on beating BGEE! A FMT is a very versatile and a fun character.
An update from the MP run.
In Candlekeep we didn't have troubles. Now when all three of us could get an immunity to web and hold, our mage Meshanis began to rule each fight. It was decided the tome of STR will go to my character, because the inquisitor already had 18/00.
We took on Slythe and Krystine. Our inquisitor dispelled the Krystine's buffs and my character managed to paralyze her with a single use of the wand. Now when the mage was harmless, we concentrated our efforts on Slythe. This assassin can indeed be deadly, both Neverused and I when playing with monks saw it. This time, we relied on the Inquisitor's True Sight. But the thing is when a thief uses potions, he can backstab during each of True Sight's checks. It all lead to losing our Mister L&T because of chunking. We should be very careful in BG2 (if we reach it) with thieves - it was good that Slythe attacked our thief, not the Bhaalspawn.
Tresset created a new thief, actually, a relative to now dead Mister L&T. Meet Old Captain Traps!
Now when my character had a short sword +3, we sailed to the Balduran island. There, our first big fight happened against Karoug. Gotural intended to squirrel him to death. We went in and concentrated on general wolfweres first. Then Meshanis casted Teleport Field. After that, an attempt to squirreltize the Greater Wolfwere. And a magic missile. A mission accomplished.
Before leaving the island, we had to give an epic fight to hordes of wolfweres. According to Gotural, there should have been 40-50 of them, and they should have stopped coming even if Loup Garou hasn't been killed yet. I had some serious doubt about it but we definitely didn't want to miss XP.
So, the plan was to leave Loup Garou on the ship, while we finish all wolfweres. We had 100% fire resistance and all possible buffs - high STR, Regeneration, Heroism, Haste. The wand of fire and two necklaces of missile blasts were ready.
Patiently, we went through wolfweres to the place of their spawn.
Shari got a level up in the process, and with the potion of Heroism had 99 HP now. When I spent 18 charges of the Necklace of missiles (I guess Tresset spent the same), when my hour-long buffs wore off, but the fight didn't look like it was even 1% close to finish, we began to wonder, if these wolfweres ever stopped coming? We had to adress the Loup Garou, before it was too late.
After that I crashed. And could only read the comments without seeing the battlefield.
I: So, how is it going? Gotural: Shari is in godmode. And I'm trying my luck to squirrel the loup garou ... Gotural: Your F/M/T paralyzed her I: really? Gotural: at this exact moment... And now I squirreled her
Just look at this massacre! There were about 120-150 (!) dead wolfweres on the battlefield. Indisputably the biggest fight in BG1, maybe only the drow Ust-Natha could be an alternative to the scope.
Before we went to the Balduran island my character had 39k XP in each class, after coming back - 52k. And this is with 5 party members. This is nearly 200 000 XP, an amazing amount for BG1.
Like @semiticgod , my run ended mostly due to disinterest. Yami was immortal already and get so powerful so quickly because of the Nightmare Mode that it became boring. As someone else pointed it out before, enemies take longer to kill but give more than twice as much XP so in the end it's easier.
But what really prevented me from continuing was when my F/M/T got imprisonned by the Lich in the Docks despite being under the effect of Enrage (my character is kitted Berserker). This really killed my desire to play, even if it was a bug or a scripted spell and I should probably reload.
So right now I'm trying to figure out what I want to play next, which is a hard question...
The Merrie Men are still around, I just haven't been able to work up the enthusiasm to post their story. I think I'm going to just play up to Dragon's Eye, post a quick synopsis and continue from there. I finally realized that my ennui is caused by my dislike of repeating myself and I just went through all this with Gudrun. I need to get to the point where what I'm posting is new.
@Tresset I owe you a like for the Grateful Dead reference.
Chaen is dead. Or he is not dead. But Aerie was chunked so I quit. Torgal was too much, I had a feeling my damage would be too low and no access to lvl 6 spells sure didn't help. The fight just dragged on and on and on and Jaheiras swarm refused to catch one of the mages, so eventually he dispelled Aerie and then slowed her. Apparantly Torgal sees invis now too. Good to know. Next try will be something involving more single class characters, improved haste really is the game changer of game changers. Playing without it is just horrible.
@Tresset I owe you a like for the Grateful Dead reference.
@BillyYank I am not sure what you are talking about... If I made such a reference it was purely by accident, I assure you.
I can only assume you mean the character I made "Son of L&T: Old Captain Traps!". That was mostly just me being silly... Mister L&T's function in our run was purely as a lock and trap handler and anything else he could do for us was a bonus. I made him because I didn't want anyone to feel pressured to pick a thief just so we could handle locks and traps during our run. This was borne out by the fact that for a large portion of our run his only kill in the game was one of the Candlekeep warehouse rats. Being a swashbuckler he did later on become strong enough to help out a bit in combat but was still mostly just there for support. I didn't really care much about him either so I was not overly remorseful when he got chunked. We still needed a locks and traps handler, however, so I had to make Old Captain Traps. I could have simply made a clone of Mister L&T, but instead I decided to change it up a bit. Because he is not a clone I started with the name "Son of L&T" Then I picked a different portrait and thought it funny that the son of Mister L&T was older than L&T himself so I added the title "Old Captain Traps!". "Old" Because I wanted to emphasize the silly paradox of him being older than his father, "Traps" because he is a bounty hunter and that is his specialty, and the "Captain" was just a neat sounding addition to his title. The only reference in his name was the "Son of L&T" part. This actually comes from a vintage game show that I like to watch (I really like game shows) called "Match Game" where contestants try to match the answers given by a panel of celebrities to silly fill-in-the-blank questions. One of the celebrity panelists, Richard Dawson, would often say "Son of 'X'" when he gave an answer that was already given by another panelist.
Anyway, that is a bit of a long and rambling explanation, but I hope at least someone enjoys it.
I just died to mummy rot. I've checked the files and it appears that it's impossible to cure.
Aside from a very lengthy disease that progresses over a long period of time, it apparently kills you via opcode 13, the same effect used in vorpal strikes, after 7200 seconds have passed. Remove Curse and Cure Disease have no effect on it. Heal and Greater Restoration also cannot cure it.
There is no saving throw, it has a 100% chance of taking effect on hit, it bypasses magic resistance, and it bypasses spell protections. And unlike PnP, Remove Curse and Cure Disease will not stop it, regardless of in which order you cast it (conceivably, SR might be responsible, since the mummy rot comes from a different mod). Also, it inflicts spell failure and prevents healing spells from working, just because. Only Death Ward, cast beforehand, can block the vorpal strike at the end, and only Cure Disease can prevent you from dying even earlier due to stat drain (it reduces STR and CON by 6 and CHA by 12 by the end).
I'm going to permit a reload, and tweak that mummy rot to be curable. I'm not willing to accept an unnamed, non-unique enemy dealing one-hit kills in Chapter 2 because of an inaccurate implementation of a PnP effect.
@semiticgod which mod is responsible for that rot? Is it SCS or aTweak? SR's Break Enchantment still removes curses, thus if the rot is applied via "apply curse EFF" opcode it should be curable. Can you check via NI the "secondary type" of that mummy rot spl, if it has any?
Now I have a question to the audience here: taking into account one of party members was permakilled, and there are no NPCs in IWDEE, how would you act?
1) Continue regardles, in this case without a cleric/thief 2) Create a new character to add to the party: 2.1. Create completely another character, with another class/kit 2.2. Create a character with new stats, but of the same class/kit 3) Something else
If I should create a new character should I give XP to him/her so that he/she had the same amout of XP as my other party members, or should I leave him/her at lvl 1?
@Demivrgvs: It should be ATweaks. It's not applied as a curse. The secondary type is a mod-specific one, FL#DISEASE, which suggests that Remove Curse was supposed to remove that secondary type, but SR overwrote it.
@Demivrgvs: It should be ATweaks. It's not applied as a curse. The secondary type is a mod-specific one, FL#DISEASE, which suggests that Remove Curse was supposed to remove that secondary type, but SR overwrote it.
Too bad it isn't applied as a curse considering there's a specific opcode to do it (custom sec type is an unnecessary complication in this case imo). That being said, aTweak should be installed after Revisions to avoid similar issues.
P.S I hope you installed SCS after Spell Revisions because the former takes many SR changes into account and uses more spells if it detects SR.
@bengoshi If you do create another character, I think it's good idea to give him XP to match the party. That's how we always used to do it in PnP, so I've never seen anything wrong with it in a computer game.
@bengoshi: I normally re-create the character as they were, but keep them at the starting level and XP. This makes the death meaningful in the sense that it weakens the party, but keeps it from being emotionally frustrating because you get to keep the character. That's what I did for my last no-reload run, and after repeated chunkings throughout the game, the party game out significantly weaker because of it.
Being in IWD, however, means you lose a lot more levels, since new characters always begin at level 1.
@bengoshi: Come to think of it, I had a similar thing happen to me in an old no-reload IWD run, except it was a Yuan-ti Priest whose Static Charge continued to fire even after it died. That's when I found out you can't create new characters in a single-player run of IWD:EE, unlike the original IWD.
I believe your case is intended behavior, as one of Static Charge's unique attributes is that it doesn't require targeting and acts on its own. In fact, in IWD2, using Static Charge and Call Lightning while you're invisible is a well-known trick called the invisible bug zapper. Striking without targeting is kind of Static Charge's special thing.
Entering BG2 with Benoni, Elven F/M/T, in a more-or-less RP'd run. Fluff under spoiler.
7 of Kythorn He is dead. It is over. Sarevok will no more threaten to ascend to our father's place in the realms. I think I ought to feel satisfied, but I only feel tired. Gorion is avenged, and I have overcome possibly the most dire conspiracy in this country. But I cannot feel satisfied. He said something to me, about how not too different we were. My blade, the blade from dead ol' Greywolf, is covered in so much blood, even if it is not innocent blood. He reminded me... Oh, that this decision did not have to be made! But I fear it does.
Alaundo's prophecies must still come true. I have read too many books to the contrary to believe that prophecies can be so easily subverted. And if I stay in this country, in my beloved Candlekeep, it will come to ruin and ash, whether I intend it to or not. I will not be the Bhaalspawn that will bring destruction to this coast. Maybe it's only for selfish reasons, but I will travel south, to Amn. Perhaps there, I can find some purpose, some use for myself and my skills. Who do I have to say farewell to? Tethoril, of course, and Imoen, certainly. Scar is dead, too; perhaps I was too friendly with him. Maybe death will come just at my presence, whether I mean it to or not.
Ah. My greatest victory, and I'm still so tired. I do not even know what I want, not something I can put into words, but something inside of me yearns... I wonder if I will ever learn what it is?
//
2nd of Mirtul, 1369
I do not know what to write, but I feel like I must. The first time I have had the luxury of a splashing ink over parchment instead of fearing this psychopathic wizard's experiments in months, and I don't know what to write.
A drop of ink dripped from the quill pen as it hovered over the next line. Benoni sighed, surveying his surroundings with a wince before scribbling down more words.
It is too loud, far too loud. I haven't been thrown out yet for the color of my skin, but even the riffraff in this Copper Coronet are uneasy with my presence. Quayle was right, though, that this place would at least offer sanctuary for a short while. I have this short while to figure out my next plan. Should I chase down Jon Irenicus, and avenge my suffering? Part of me flares up in anger, and part of me dies in pointlessness. It was almost a year to the day that I swore vengeance on Sarevok, and the fulfillment of that was empty and futile. Should I-
"You see that man in the corner?" a sudden voice commented in his ear. Ink splashed across his coarse parchment as he started. Benoni swung his head around, but saw nobody. His hand flew to his sword. "No sudden movements!" the voice continued. "Talk to that man, the balding human in the corner, and ask for the entertainment at the pits." "Why should I trust someone I know nothing about or see?" Benoni replied quietly, hoping he could be heard without being overheard. "Why should an Avariel trust a Drow?" the voice countered. Her nerve seemed to break then, her voice quivering out her next sentences. "Please. Do what I ask, for now. Prove Quayle right. Prove you're better than my fears."
A few long seconds passed. Then Benoni nodded, and silently gathered his papers and rose from his seat, and headed to the corner of the Coronet. What was in the back, he wondered, that the timid elf who was so scared of his appearance in the enchanted tent he had fled into earlier would seek him out? It was better than having nothing to do but worry, at least.
//
"What now?" Benoni finally broke the silence, if there could ever be silence in the Copper Coronet. "The backrooms are cleared out, and the slavers are decimated, for now. Will you return to the circus now to Quayle, Aerie?" A long pause, another bawdy joke beginning in the background, before Aerie sighed. "I'm not sure." Benoni raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought that that was a given." She shook her head just the smallest amount. "Is there another slaver hold in the area that you know of?" Benoni pressed. Again, Aerie shook her head. His brow furrowed. "What, then?" Aerie looked down at the table, picking at the plate that still lay in front of her. The question hung in the air, unanswered, for a few more seconds before she looked back up at Benoni, a new resolve in her eyes. "What do you intend to do after today?" It was the question that he had asked in his diary a day ago, and he still had no solid idea. "That's not an answer to my question," he stalled. "Nor was that one to mine," she countered again. "My answer depends on yours. Quayle claimed you were the unsung hero that saved an entire countryside from bloodshed and war, that you freed a hundred slaves from a flooding mine, and I trusted him. I've always trusted him." Her voice wavered as it did the day previous, becoming unsteady once more. "I've always wanted to do great things, being kind and just, and merciful above all, like my uncle Quayle. But this city..." Her voice died completely, the sentence incomplete. "Then I don't know," Benoni carefully interjected. He was trying to follow Aerie's logic, the argument that these premises made sense for. He saw a possibility; he took it. The answer wasn't a lie, after all. "I have no plan, not for the long term. I'm a stranger in Athkatla and Amn, and I don't know what tyranny and injustices and oppression exist here, besides what I've read in Candlekeep. I don't know what I'll do tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month, but I intend to do whatever's right and true.” A smile creeped up his face as Benoni finished. "Is that answer enough?" "Enough," Aerie agreed. “Then I will do what I can to help you, if you wouldn’t mind, of course,” she finished, as though a question. Benoni thought about it for but a moment before nodding. He had been without a friend of any type since he left the Sword Coast, and truth be told, he was lonely. There were other arguments to be made, swirling in his head, either yea or nay, but he pushed them aside for the time. “Of course not.” The days ahead would be… interesting.
Crunch: There was only one mishap in the Chateau Irenicus: Benoni had to save against the Escaped Clone's Confusion spell, which could've ended very badly. The other weird thing is that the Cambion disappeared somewhere, but it's only the Sword of Chaos and 6k exp lost, not the biggest deal. Other than that, the corridors make hiding and backstabs quite easy. Yoshimo helped break out of the Mephit Portal room by luring the mephits while Benoni sliced the portals apart. Ulvaryl was simply observed, since the mage drops 2 Invisibility potions from my recollection.
Ben set the circus to rights very early, still without resting, using his final spell of Invisibility to get a clean backstab on Kalah, who starts running in fear. Two more arrows puts the gnome down. Aerie joins, and we head to the slums, accidentally triggering Corvale and Bregg on the way to the Coronet. An Amnian soldier killsteals Bregg with a critical.
Benoni clears the backrooms solo, using Strength and DuHM to almost 1-shot the Beastmaster in a backstab. The second hit from Varscona finishes him before he gets to unlock the animals. Hendak takes over operations, and into the sewers we go after resting. No problems here. One more rest before the Slaver Boat. Opening shot was a backstab on the Priest of Cyric, allowing the bottom half of the boat to become mundanes vs a F/M/T and a M/C. Didn't end well for the Mundanes. Only mistake: one of the Slaver Wizards manage a Dispel on Benoni, taking out his Ghost Armor and allowing archers to actually hit him. No biggie, though the first Potion of Extra Healing was drunk this run due to this. I stopped play here, resting in the Copper Coronet after reporting back to Hendak.
Rules of this run: Benoni cannot use red spells or white spells that can really affect an opponent (no Resilient Sphere, no Glitterdust, among others). I'll make an exception for beholders. 2: No resting in any inn but the Copper Coronet. 3: Story-wise, but whatever. Imoen, Minsc, and Jaheira are still in the Sword Coast. I'll come up with another story entirely, it seems...
I wanted to start a game but I'm trying to get an install to work without luck.
Something with stringrefs going wrong (item revisions, spell revisions, scs, item randomizer for bgee in this order, when I summon a familiar it has the wrong name and uses some weird string instead). I suspect one mod takes the tlg from the base and another takes it from a depth. Any experience with these four mods doing different things there is appreciated while I continue to dig
In the meantime I can only read other peoples awesomeness.....
Thanks for your thoughts, @BillyYank and @semiticgod . I understood it was not a bug nearly from the start, and was so sorrry to see one of the characters go.
But it's so fun to roll a new one. I've decided to go with a lvl 1 character, but of the same class. The fact I take rolls as they are added to an excitement. After rolling a bit, I've managed to get his beautiful shorty lass:
She has better DEX and WIS than now dead Hachiman, so let's hope this additional WIS will help her to understand that staying away from enemies with Startic Charge activated is a good thing.
And even while she's a level 1 thief, thanks to the upgraded Girdle of Gond, the Cat's Grace spell and the Tymora's Melody, Uzumi already has 80 in Open Locks an 75 in Find Traps.
Another death. My solo Archer/Enchanter/Cleric of Lathander in Nightmare mode died to a bunch of undead. Her Resist Fear spell wore off after a long fight with a Lich. The Dragon Fear drove her right into the arms of a pair of Skeleton Warriors and Greater Mummies, when her Stoneskins had already been lost.
After everyone got used to a new party member, the party arrived to the Dragon's Eye caves. Right after entering the caves there was a big fight against lizardmen. Colour Spray is very useful in IWDEE, it works on enemies without a certain HD limit, and when a mage who uses it has some levels, the chances to send enemies to sleep are quite high. Add Grease (from a Conjurer, with extra penalties to saving throws) and then Spike Growth - and a big group of melee hitters is gone.
For all other lizardmen on the first level of caves I used an invisible character to block the way. The lizardmen couldn't reach the party because one character was blocking their way.
Uzumi quickly got several levels and now had 100 in Open Locks and Find Traps with 20 DEX from the Cat's Grace spell.
Bombarder Beetles, though, couldn't be blocked by invisible characters, and caused some damage to the party.
3 party members survived, though, and killed the beetles after stunning them. The downside was a loss of 2000 gp for the needed resurrections.
Another kind of enemies from the first level of the caves - spiders - in IWDEE are large creatures and thus easily get stuck in narrow passages.
The group of lizardmen with the Lizard king fell to the Colour Spray - Grease - Spike Growth combination, supported by missile attacks from the party. Colour Spray is excellent - the King was stunned.
After freeing people from Kuldahar from the lizardmen, the druid in the party reached the 4th spell level.
Hypnos, a bard, 8 lvl, 32 HPs Raijin, a FMC, 4/4/5 lvl, 44 HPs - 2 deaths Hades, a FMT, 4/4/5 lvl, 18 HPs - 2 deaths Amaterasu, a druid, 7 lvl, 56 HPs - 1 death Styx, a conjurer, 5 lvl, 16 HPs - 1 death Uzumi, a cleric/thief, 4/4 lvl, 22 HPs
Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 4/5 lvl, 29 HPs - chunked for good
The dwarven fighter/cleric Rock takes over where Chaen walked out, still distraught over Aeries death.
Rock has very good stats and 2 pips in flail, hammer, mace. Planning to but the next 3 in two weapon fighting.
I wanted to try Nalia since I've never used her past her own quest before and well, she is a single class mage which is basically what I'm looking for. Edvin is evil and kinda OP, Neera can end my playthrough at every given cast of a spell and Imoen is still in prison.
Final party should be Rock, Jaheira (tank/dps and summons), Jan (scout/trap/lock/debuffing), Nalia (overlord), Imoen (overlord). Don't know if I'll add mr ToB when I get there, the only time I played ToB I made him good aligned and that felt kinda good, so I think I am. That crew should cover all the basics, no deadwood party members (except ToB himself). I think I might be ok once I get saves low enough not to fail save or die spells.
Irenicus prison was very relaxing, so was the circus. Now up for more challenging tasks and some more easy exp/gear. Wise from Chaens failure I will wait til improved haste before killing Torgal I think.
Comments
After the rest of the expedition to Kuldahar fell because of the avalanche, Hypnos and his friends had to carefully move through hordes of goblins. Hades worked as a scout, so that Styx could cast 1-2 Sleep spells in front of packs of enemies, after that the whole party attacked sleeping enemies.
Simultaneous casting of Sleep by Styx and Hypnos put to sleep the pack of orcs in the old mill:
The party reached Kuldahar, where they reported to the Archdruid about the avalanche and a strange ogre, whom them met at the Kuldahar pass. Arundel, the Archdruid, gave them a recipe for that headache. Also, the party investigated the death of the previous inn keeper, and made the new one confess about circumstances in which he had got the inn.
Before setting out for the Vale of Shadows, the group cleared a northern area at the Kuldahar pass. A lot of Sleep and Command Spells, as well as timely using of healing potions, helped not to lose anyone despite the high number of enemies:
In a small cave the party found 4 beetles - the beetles didn't leave the cave when Hades retreated after each backstab.
In the Vale of Shadows the party found several crypts full of undead. It was were the Hachiman's Turn Undead skill helped greatly. Party members had to run from undead creatures, undead creatures ran from Hachiman, unlucky hits here and there, but in the end all the crypts were cleared.
As for groups of Yeti, it was easier to kite outdoors, so that everyone could fire melee-critters from a distance.
A scroll of Strength spell (which lasts 1 hour/level of caster in IWDEE) was found in one of the crypts. Before entering the Yeti cave Styx went through a scribing session, so that she could seriously buff Raijin for future fights (increasing his STR and DEX). She used one Potion of Mind Focusing, while Hypnos successfully subscribed Chromatic Orb (which is much better in this game).
With new spell, the party cleared the Yeti cave.
The final undead dungeon awaited next.
Hypnos, a bard, 5 lvl, 24 HPs
Raijin, a FMC, 2/2/2 lvl, 25 HPs - 1 death
Hades, a FMT, 2/2/3 lvl, 11 HPs
Amaterasu, a druid, 4 lvl, 36 HPs
Styx, a conjurer, 3 lvl, 12 HPs
Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 3/3 lvl, 19 HPs
Inside the Kresselack's Tomb Raijin proved to be a good tank - thanks to Cat's Grace and Strength his otherwise not optimal stats were fixed (and thanks to DUHM could be even improved further), while Chant, Bless and Protection from Evil, coupled with Armour of Faith, improved his surving and fighting skills drastically. If all these buffs (still with a short duration, but nothing stopped the party from resting when needed) were missing, hard-hitting enemies, like a mummy, would have killed the party in no time.
Raijin has only 9 INT, so while in the Vale of Shadows and the Kresselack's Tomb the party found 4 potions of Genius, in order to use them wisely they had to gather first as many spells, useful for a FMC, as possible. This is why in this dungeon Raijin had only Shield among his magic spells - but even this one spell was a great use against Imbued Wights who attacked with Magic Missiles on sight - a deadly weapon on the Insane difficulty.
I've known about an undisarmable trap in the Kresselack's Tomb, so I had to choose whom to sacrifice on that trap, and went with the druid.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/47716/undisarmable-trap-in-the-kresselacks-tomb-causes-the-unconcious-effect-that-doesnt-end-with-a-hit#latest
Amaterasu activated the trap and soon was killed while unconcious. The party won the fight without any other casualties and got the Haste spell scroll - probably a future most important spell as soon as Styx could reach the 5th level.
On the second level of the Kresselack's Tomb Hades shot a Skeleton mage from invisibility, while Raijin tanked all other enemies, including Imbued Wights.
The reward was the Black Wolf Talisman, which not only improved AC with a +1 bonus, but gave +10 Max HPs. Now, with 39 (42 with DUM) HPs, Raijin could feel himself a lot safer when fighing in melee.
For the third level opening fight Styx casted several Grease spells, which coupled with the Hachiman's Turn Undead ability and Amaterasu's Spike Growth helped against a big amount of enemies. Everyone in the party, except for Raijin and Hades, tried to kite.
Both Raijin and Hades reached the 3rd mage levels on that level, thanks to several Mummies and Imbued Wights.
In the final chamber the party found Kresselack, a dead knight, an evil, but not the kind of evil they were trying to find. Kresselack explained that he knew about reasons of Kuldahar's problems but in order to reveal them he asked to search and destroy an Auril priestess.
This priestess was found in the Yeti cave. Hypnos tried his chromatic orbs on Yeti - it worked quite fine and 2 animals were stunned, while Raijin fought others, and Hades attacked the Aurilite one on one.
The priestess managed to kill Hades in one hit (he had only 16 HPs), which required immediate reaction - Hypnos stunned the Aurilite, and the battle was basically won.
Kresselack was happy to know the Aurilite was dead but didn't keep his promise of telling about the source of Kuldahar's problems. The party returned to Arundel and was told that maybe a Heartstone gem could reveal the truth. One problem, though - this gem was needed to be found first.
Huge XP rewards after completing the quest meant, among other things, that Styx got an access to 3rd level spells, while Hypnos reached the 7th level, and his PP score with the Tymora's Melody and the Cat's Grace spell went as high as 105. I decided to install the @elminster 's https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36405/thieving-mod-for-iwdee, and stealing in Kuldahar brought me several powerful items, such as the Amulet of Metaspell Influence.
Raijin gulped 2 potions of genius and with 17 INT managed to scribe Mirror Image and Blur - the only spells I actually needed for him to scribe. Styx scribed Haste, while Hypnos learned Invisibility - now the party could search for traps without any fear to be revealed.
Hades, though, had to wait for his scribing session longer - with his 13 INT I couldn't waste precious potions when basically didn't have needed spells.
I didn't like the fact Hades had only 16 HPs, which lead to his death in the fight agains Lysan, so I decided to give the Black Wolf Talisman to him, and Raijin instead equipped the new amulet - this way he could get 2 Mirror Images - more than a good way to stay alive.
Hypnos, a bard, 7 lvl, 28 HPs
Raijin, a FMC, 3/3/4 lvl, 35 HPs - 1 death
Hades, a FMT, 3/3/4 lvl, 16 HPs - 1 death
Amaterasu, a druid, 6 lvl, 47 HPs - 1 death
Styx, a conjurer, 5 lvl, 16 HPs
Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 4/5 lvl, 29 HPs
I would like to note that up until now the fact that both my fighters were triple classes didn't bring any advantage - if Raijin was a F/C, and Hades was a F/T, they both would have more levels and thus HPs. But thanks to the buffs from others - a bard, a druid, a cleric and a single class mage, the party still managed to survive during these low levels, with minimal number of deaths. Now, when my tank finally can Mirror Image himself (which adds to all other buffs), it should become better, and the third class should start to contribute. For a FMT, though, some more time is needed, as simply there're no spell scrolls to make him stronger and to let him melee. Maybe I should have chosen another scholl for my mage, because so far the only Conjuration spells I found were Grease and Armour, so no big advantage in terms of penalties to saving throws, but in the same time with a conjurer I have only one school prohibited - Invocation/Evocation, and my bard could compensate here greatly, which he has already been doing, with his Chromatic orbs working as a 50/50 stun and now paralyze for 13 rounds. From my specialist mage the spells I needed the most - Protection from Evil, Cat's Grace and Strength, - I got. And now there's Haste. My cleric/thief already maxed pick locks and detect traps (thanks to Cat's Grace and Tymora's melody, and now the girdle improved by Oswald Fiddlebender) so he could start improving invisibility, plus I now have the Invisibility spell in the party as well. I'm enjoying this playthrough because everything feels far from being easy and it's interesting to use only the spells that the game provides.
I hope Chaen by @Otherguy , Xyrwenys by @GemHound , Bardin by @Blackraven (in ToB!), Jurs by @Musigny , Valos by @semiticgod , Scarlett by @Pteran , Yami by @Gotural (a nightmare mode + Tactics!) and of course The Merrie Men of Easthaven by @BillyYank are still somewhere there, fighting the bad guys and helping the good ones!
The wonderful portrait is from Iara-art from Deviantart. Since the story's already written, I'll leave myself to crunch: nothing wrong happens early-game, besides not managing to backstab Tarnesh successfully, which is dealt with by going in the temple and stealthing again. I'm still maxing Move Silently, and backstabs are going to be the motif of this triple-class for this game. Ogre and spiders and Shoal are all killed via bow.
Mutamin ends up paralyzed by Korax, and since I know I'll have wands to abuse later, I use charges of the One Gift Lost to neutralize Peter and co. Basillus is backstabbed, his spells interrupted by waiting until it's night, playing ring-around-the-henge and those split seconds where Benoni has cover to hide. It probably helped that his level 6 spell went to Heal to deal with the critical opening backstab rather than something like an invisible stalker, but them's the breaks. Greywolf is backstabbed numerous times: the rock outcropping that Prism is making his tribute to Ellisime on provides sufficient cover in multiple places. Varscona is mine for now until the very end.
The Dark Side Kobolds are 100% ignored with stealth until Mulahey. We have to drink a potion of freedom, but besides that, we end up fine. Now I dread the next part, since I know exactly what has to happen story-wise: I have to get myself ambushed by Nimbul and Neira without resting first, and Benoni's already fatigued and out of useful spells. The SCS script actually probably made Nimbul easier to deal with, since he's now geared to survive with triggers for invisibility and such. It'd be terrifying if he had a backstab weapon... But he's wielding an axe, and the fight there is one-sided. Neira requires my last Potion of Freedom to stay safe from the incoming Hold Person, but she, too, ends to Varscona. Tranzig quickly follows suit with another backstab to break morale, and a few arrows to finish the fleeing mage.
Thoughts this far: due to having no offensive mage spells allowed, the mage aspect has been relegated to Shield, Armor, Identify, and Invisibility, as I didn't have Mirror Image yet. While useful, I'm not too impressed with the Mage part at this point and I'm kind of wishing I had a slightly higher thief level because my HP sucks, and Benoni's failing stealth rolls far more than I'd like.
Path now is Ankhegs -> Ulgoth's Beard -> Sirenes -> Flesh Golems -> Bandit camp. Ankhegs require a couple potions as they keep getting critical hits and Benoni didn't splurge on Pro. Acid at the carnival. Now the Mage part is becoming important: even without offensive SPELLS, I never intended to cut off myself from offensive wands. Scorcher and Fireball are now online, for what it's worth. A thief and mage level are gained here, Find Traps and 3rd level spells are on now. The Mage aspect is starting to be somewhat important now, with Strength allowing better fighting and backstabs, Invisibility for when stealth doesn't cut it, and now Ghost Armor for being able to hide and cast in basically plate armor. Sirenes die to Varscona and a potion of Clarity, and the Flesh Golems are stealth-attacked to take only one hit throughout the cave. The 5 HP from the CON tome help, a bit.
Bandit camp. The only threat, really, with Ghost Armor, the Senses of the Cat, the Cloak of Displacement, and Shield is the mage Venkt. I can ignore the archers. Fortunately, this is where Thief excels, especially with the Fighter allowing strength potions:
Spiders in Cloakwood are fought for the sole purpose of getting Spider's Bane: not much to write home about, though Centeol was also killed by a single backstab, and everything else was just a straight slugfest. The battle at the mines...
Well, this was kind of weird. I had to reload, and this one was actually justified. Benoni somehow got himself 100% stuck in a crevice behind the stables, no way in or out. Drasus, being almost on top of him, couldn't attack with a short weapon, and Benoni freely cut him to pieces with a 2H sword before having no way out himself. Not having debug mode on, I couldn't get Benoni out either, so PW: Reload is used to redo the battle, this time specifically staying away from the stables. Fireballs are used to kill one mage and split the other 3 apart, and they're stealth-killed one by one. I enabled debug-mode after this fight.
Benoni stealthed through the entire mine, his only stop to free Rill before sneaking to Davaeorn. Pro. from Magic, a strength potion, and ankheg armor lets me take him on as a fighter, and Davaeorn's minions couldn't save him from the inevitable.
Baldur's Gate: Backstabbing doppels and Ogre mages, and wizards on top of towers. Top of Iron Throne is reported invisibly, and Benoni gets to Candlekeep. A Potion of Magic Blocking keeps him safe until the gate. He loots another potion of clarity from the chest in Winthrop's inn: it resets, apparently. Scrolls and spells of Knock allow the STR and WIS tomes to be taken after not fighting Rieltar and co., and Pratt and his villains are ignored, instead killing the basilisks for no other reason than 100% safety and 8k experience.
I failed this part with a F/T, and I still don't know how you're supposed to survive SCS Slythe without having either spells or a ton of health. But as a F/M/T, Mirror Image keeps Benoni's chances of death via backstab relatively low, and the Wand of Summoning completes the other safety measure. Onto the Ducal Palace.
The run would've failed here for certain as a F/T. The gameplan I had was relatively simple, buff up, sneak up invisibly, and start casting Invisibility on Liia instantly to make her invisible before the Doppels can change. And it worked, kinda. Until the Doppel mage managed to cast a Dispel Magic into the fray, removing all of Benoni's buffs (!), and the invisibility on Liia. (!!!!) Panic time. I now have no armor, no buffs, and not a single Doppel has been killed yet. Belt's badly wounded, Liia's visible and targetable. I had one contingent for this, which I try now: Scroll of Invisibility on Liia.
I thought I broke the spell before it finished, as Benoni took something like 70% of his health in the next two seconds and I fled the main room to the entrance, thinking that the run was over. I see in the text Belt dying, and I'm waiting for Sarevok's gloat. Nothing. I pause, scroll up the console, and see that wonderful phrase: Benoni had successfully cast it! The rest of the battle is somewhat split up, a backstab finally landing on the Doppel Shaman, a potion of Magic Blocking taking care of the mage, except for... one mishap. The mage was at near-death, I was impatient, I used a Scorcher charge to make sure no more contingencies would be used. A random noblewoman decided to wander in the second round into the beam... -10 reputation.
I used a Wand charge of summoning to distract the final Greater Doppel, and... Another mistake... There had been a Charmed guard, which the wolves proceeded to kill. -6 Reputation. But Ben was alive, Liia survived, Sarevok fled an almost empty ducal palace. To say that we were strapped for cash after this, though, would be the understatement of a lifetime. Even after raiding the Doppel's bodies, instead of the several thousand excess I'm used to, I'm under 100 gold with the 4 Reputation. I guess everyone really DOES think Benoni's the villain in this situation, even if he was just trying to stop Sarevok.
Temple: Only near-death experience was, again, a Remove Magic destroying Benoni's defenses. Diarmid took a handsome chunk of Benoni's health via arrows after his AC collapsed; only a Potion of Invisibility saved the game here. After healing and restoring buffs, between the Pro. Magic, 14 Arrows of Dispelling, a Potion of Storm Giant Strength, a boosted Detect Illusions score to flush out the mages, and two potions of speed, everything was simply run around the temple and backstabbed whenever Benoni was able.
Thoughts: OK, the F/M/T is a powerhouse, not necessarily because of any one... But because they're so adaptable to situations. Need a STR potion or to fight under a Pro. from Magic, or fight off Sword spiders or Ankhegs? Fighter lets you do it. Need to end a mage-fight before it begins or break line of sight of spells or remove invisibility? Thief can do it. Need to survive a Thief's backstab or have decent armor after a backstab or keeping Liia completely invulnerable or summoning cannon fodder? Mage lets you do it! This, I think, marks my first SCS win in BGEE, even if it's not with full prebuffs. I'll head into Amn at some point for the "party" run of Benoni + Aerie + whoever's quest it is as the time
Edit: I just realized that despite having to rest for Mage spells, and the added complexity of throwing in Tactical encounters in SCS, this only took 8 more in-game days from my original. I'm... kind of shocked, actually.
Most of my long-term runs are based on wacky tricks or some alternate, unusual means of doing something. The Party of Spiders was based on using shapeshifting and Boon of Lathander to turn spellcasters into fighters; the Fire Seed party was based on shutting down enemy mages in one round without using debuffers.
I have a lot of ideas for an SR/IR run based on manipulating saving throws, but I can't decide how to structure it. Do I use Called Shot? Do I use the nerfed IR Wand of Lightning? Or do I wait until UAI so we can use the IR version of Entropy, which also penalizes saves vs. spell? And if I do use Called Shot or Entropy with WoL or BoL, do I really need to use mage kits to impose additional save penalties?
@Neverused that's quite the story! Benoni sounds like a fun character to play with. I've never tried the triple class options, mostly because I like playing with NPCs too much. The XP progression would be horrendous lol!
But what really prevented me from continuing was when my F/M/T got imprisonned by the Lich in the Docks despite being under the effect of Enrage (my character is kitted Berserker). This really killed my desire to play, even if it was a bug or a scripted spell and I should probably reload.
So right now I'm trying to figure out what I want to play next, which is a hard question...
Last part of Neeras quest was actually quite fun, getting the mercenaries to fight the wizards is a fun plot twist and there was a fun drawn out fight there at the end. Jaheira managing to hit exactly one mage with her swarm, I didnt even know that was possible.
A few errands later I'm about to run through De'Arnise keep, bigger stronger bossfight had me postponing a bit since last time I met him he just would not die, still not sure how it will go since I don't have impr haste and damage output of my team is kind of meh. We will see though.
An update from the MP run.
In Candlekeep we didn't have troubles. Now when all three of us could get an immunity to web and hold, our mage Meshanis began to rule each fight. It was decided the tome of STR will go to my character, because the inquisitor already had 18/00.
We took on Slythe and Krystine. Our inquisitor dispelled the Krystine's buffs and my character managed to paralyze her with a single use of the wand. Now when the mage was harmless, we concentrated our efforts on Slythe. This assassin can indeed be deadly, both Neverused and I when playing with monks saw it. This time, we relied on the Inquisitor's True Sight. But the thing is when a thief uses potions, he can backstab during each of True Sight's checks. It all lead to losing our Mister L&T because of chunking. We should be very careful in BG2 (if we reach it) with thieves - it was good that Slythe attacked our thief, not the Bhaalspawn.
Tresset created a new thief, actually, a relative to now dead Mister L&T. Meet Old Captain Traps!
Now when my character had a short sword +3, we sailed to the Balduran island. There, our first big fight happened against Karoug. Gotural intended to squirrel him to death. We went in and concentrated on general wolfweres first. Then Meshanis casted Teleport Field. After that, an attempt to squirreltize the Greater Wolfwere. And a magic missile. A mission accomplished.
Before leaving the island, we had to give an epic fight to hordes of wolfweres. According to Gotural, there should have been 40-50 of them, and they should have stopped coming even if Loup Garou hasn't been killed yet. I had some serious doubt about it but we definitely didn't want to miss XP.
So, the plan was to leave Loup Garou on the ship, while we finish all wolfweres. We had 100% fire resistance and all possible buffs - high STR, Regeneration, Heroism, Haste. The wand of fire and two necklaces of missile blasts were ready.
Patiently, we went through wolfweres to the place of their spawn.
Shari got a level up in the process, and with the potion of Heroism had 99 HP now. When I spent 18 charges of the Necklace of missiles (I guess Tresset spent the same), when my hour-long buffs wore off, but the fight didn't look like it was even 1% close to finish, we began to wonder, if these wolfweres ever stopped coming? We had to adress the Loup Garou, before it was too late.
After that I crashed. And could only read the comments without seeing the battlefield.
I: So, how is it going?
Gotural: Shari is in godmode. And I'm trying my luck to squirrel the loup garou
...
Gotural: Your F/M/T paralyzed her
I: really?
Gotural: at this exact moment... And now I squirreled her
Just look at this massacre! There were about 120-150 (!) dead wolfweres on the battlefield. Indisputably the biggest fight in BG1, maybe only the drow Ust-Natha could be an alternative to the scope.
Before we went to the Balduran island my character had 39k XP in each class, after coming back - 52k. And this is with 5 party members. This is nearly 200 000 XP, an amazing amount for BG1.
@Tresset I owe you a like for the Grateful Dead reference.
I can only assume you mean the character I made "Son of L&T: Old Captain Traps!". That was mostly just me being silly... Mister L&T's function in our run was purely as a lock and trap handler and anything else he could do for us was a bonus. I made him because I didn't want anyone to feel pressured to pick a thief just so we could handle locks and traps during our run. This was borne out by the fact that for a large portion of our run his only kill in the game was one of the Candlekeep warehouse rats. Being a swashbuckler he did later on become strong enough to help out a bit in combat but was still mostly just there for support. I didn't really care much about him either so I was not overly remorseful when he got chunked. We still needed a locks and traps handler, however, so I had to make Old Captain Traps. I could have simply made a clone of Mister L&T, but instead I decided to change it up a bit. Because he is not a clone I started with the name "Son of L&T" Then I picked a different portrait and thought it funny that the son of Mister L&T was older than L&T himself so I added the title "Old Captain Traps!". "Old" Because I wanted to emphasize the silly paradox of him being older than his father, "Traps" because he is a bounty hunter and that is his specialty, and the "Captain" was just a neat sounding addition to his title. The only reference in his name was the "Son of L&T" part. This actually comes from a vintage game show that I like to watch (I really like game shows) called "Match Game" where contestants try to match the answers given by a panel of celebrities to silly fill-in-the-blank questions. One of the celebrity panelists, Richard Dawson, would often say "Son of 'X'" when he gave an answer that was already given by another panelist.
Anyway, that is a bit of a long and rambling explanation, but I hope at least someone enjoys it.
Aside from a very lengthy disease that progresses over a long period of time, it apparently kills you via opcode 13, the same effect used in vorpal strikes, after 7200 seconds have passed. Remove Curse and Cure Disease have no effect on it. Heal and Greater Restoration also cannot cure it.
There is no saving throw, it has a 100% chance of taking effect on hit, it bypasses magic resistance, and it bypasses spell protections. And unlike PnP, Remove Curse and Cure Disease will not stop it, regardless of in which order you cast it (conceivably, SR might be responsible, since the mummy rot comes from a different mod). Also, it inflicts spell failure and prevents healing spells from working, just because. Only Death Ward, cast beforehand, can block the vorpal strike at the end, and only Cure Disease can prevent you from dying even earlier due to stat drain (it reduces STR and CON by 6 and CHA by 12 by the end).
I'm going to permit a reload, and tweak that mummy rot to be curable. I'm not willing to accept an unnamed, non-unique enemy dealing one-hit kills in Chapter 2 because of an inaccurate implementation of a PnP effect.
When the party reached the Temple of Forgotten God, this happened:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/48006/discharge-of-static-electricity#latest
Now I have a question to the audience here: taking into account one of party members was permakilled, and there are no NPCs in IWDEE, how would you act?
1) Continue regardles, in this case without a cleric/thief
2) Create a new character to add to the party:
2.1. Create completely another character, with another class/kit
2.2. Create a character with new stats, but of the same class/kit
3) Something else
If I should create a new character should I give XP to him/her so that he/she had the same amout of XP as my other party members, or should I leave him/her at lvl 1?
P.S I hope you installed SCS after Spell Revisions because the former takes many SR changes into account and uses more spells if it detects SR.
Being in IWD, however, means you lose a lot more levels, since new characters always begin at level 1.
I believe your case is intended behavior, as one of Static Charge's unique attributes is that it doesn't require targeting and acts on its own. In fact, in IWD2, using Static Charge and Call Lightning while you're invisible is a well-known trick called the invisible bug zapper. Striking without targeting is kind of Static Charge's special thing.
He is dead. It is over. Sarevok will no more threaten to ascend to our father's place in the realms. I think I ought to feel satisfied, but I only feel tired. Gorion is avenged, and I have overcome possibly the most dire conspiracy in this country. But I cannot feel satisfied. He said something to me, about how not too different we were. My blade, the blade from dead ol' Greywolf, is covered in so much blood, even if it is not innocent blood. He reminded me... Oh, that this decision did not have to be made! But I fear it does.
Alaundo's prophecies must still come true. I have read too many books to the contrary to believe that prophecies can be so easily subverted. And if I stay in this country, in my beloved Candlekeep, it will come to ruin and ash, whether I intend it to or not. I will not be the Bhaalspawn that will bring destruction to this coast. Maybe it's only for selfish reasons, but I will travel south, to Amn. Perhaps there, I can find some purpose, some use for myself and my skills. Who do I have to say farewell to? Tethoril, of course, and Imoen, certainly. Scar is dead, too; perhaps I was too friendly with him. Maybe death will come just at my presence, whether I mean it to or not.
Ah. My greatest victory, and I'm still so tired. I do not even know what I want, not something I can put into words, but something inside of me yearns... I wonder if I will ever learn what it is?
//
2nd of Mirtul, 1369
I do not know what to write, but I feel like I must. The first time I have had the luxury of a splashing ink over parchment instead of fearing this psychopathic wizard's experiments in months, and I don't know what to write.
A drop of ink dripped from the quill pen as it hovered over the next line. Benoni sighed, surveying his surroundings with a wince before scribbling down more words.
It is too loud, far too loud. I haven't been thrown out yet for the color of my skin, but even the riffraff in this Copper Coronet are uneasy with my presence. Quayle was right, though, that this place would at least offer sanctuary for a short while. I have this short while to figure out my next plan. Should I chase down Jon Irenicus, and avenge my suffering? Part of me flares up in anger, and part of me dies in pointlessness. It was almost a year to the day that I swore vengeance on Sarevok, and the fulfillment of that was empty and futile. Should I-
"You see that man in the corner?" a sudden voice commented in his ear. Ink splashed across his coarse parchment as he started. Benoni swung his head around, but saw nobody. His hand flew to his sword.
"No sudden movements!" the voice continued. "Talk to that man, the balding human in the corner, and ask for the entertainment at the pits."
"Why should I trust someone I know nothing about or see?" Benoni replied quietly, hoping he could be heard without being overheard.
"Why should an Avariel trust a Drow?" the voice countered. Her nerve seemed to break then, her voice quivering out her next sentences. "Please. Do what I ask, for now. Prove Quayle right. Prove you're better than my fears."
A few long seconds passed. Then Benoni nodded, and silently gathered his papers and rose from his seat, and headed to the corner of the Coronet. What was in the back, he wondered, that the timid elf who was so scared of his appearance in the enchanted tent he had fled into earlier would seek him out? It was better than having nothing to do but worry, at least.
//
"What now?" Benoni finally broke the silence, if there could ever be silence in the Copper Coronet. "The backrooms are cleared out, and the slavers are decimated, for now. Will you return to the circus now to Quayle, Aerie?"
A long pause, another bawdy joke beginning in the background, before Aerie sighed. "I'm not sure."
Benoni raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought that that was a given."
She shook her head just the smallest amount.
"Is there another slaver hold in the area that you know of?" Benoni pressed.
Again, Aerie shook her head.
His brow furrowed. "What, then?"
Aerie looked down at the table, picking at the plate that still lay in front of her. The question hung in the air, unanswered, for a few more seconds before she looked back up at Benoni, a new resolve in her eyes. "What do you intend to do after today?"
It was the question that he had asked in his diary a day ago, and he still had no solid idea. "That's not an answer to my question," he stalled.
"Nor was that one to mine," she countered again. "My answer depends on yours. Quayle claimed you were the unsung hero that saved an entire countryside from bloodshed and war, that you freed a hundred slaves from a flooding mine, and I trusted him. I've always trusted him." Her voice wavered as it did the day previous, becoming unsteady once more. "I've always wanted to do great things, being kind and just, and merciful above all, like my uncle Quayle. But this city..." Her voice died completely, the sentence incomplete.
"Then I don't know," Benoni carefully interjected. He was trying to follow Aerie's logic, the argument that these premises made sense for. He saw a possibility; he took it. The answer wasn't a lie, after all. "I have no plan, not for the long term. I'm a stranger in Athkatla and Amn, and I don't know what tyranny and injustices and oppression exist here, besides what I've read in Candlekeep. I don't know what I'll do tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month, but I intend to do whatever's right and true.”
A smile creeped up his face as Benoni finished. "Is that answer enough?"
"Enough," Aerie agreed. “Then I will do what I can to help you, if you wouldn’t mind, of course,” she finished, as though a question.
Benoni thought about it for but a moment before nodding. He had been without a friend of any type since he left the Sword Coast, and truth be told, he was lonely. There were other arguments to be made, swirling in his head, either yea or nay, but he pushed them aside for the time. “Of course not.”
The days ahead would be… interesting.
Crunch: There was only one mishap in the Chateau Irenicus: Benoni had to save against the Escaped Clone's Confusion spell, which could've ended very badly. The other weird thing is that the Cambion disappeared somewhere, but it's only the Sword of Chaos and 6k exp lost, not the biggest deal. Other than that, the corridors make hiding and backstabs quite easy. Yoshimo helped break out of the Mephit Portal room by luring the mephits while Benoni sliced the portals apart. Ulvaryl was simply observed, since the mage drops 2 Invisibility potions from my recollection.
Ben set the circus to rights very early, still without resting, using his final spell of Invisibility to get a clean backstab on Kalah, who starts running in fear. Two more arrows puts the gnome down. Aerie joins, and we head to the slums, accidentally triggering Corvale and Bregg on the way to the Coronet. An Amnian soldier killsteals Bregg with a critical.
Benoni clears the backrooms solo, using Strength and DuHM to almost 1-shot the Beastmaster in a backstab. The second hit from Varscona finishes him before he gets to unlock the animals. Hendak takes over operations, and into the sewers we go after resting. No problems here. One more rest before the Slaver Boat. Opening shot was a backstab on the Priest of Cyric, allowing the bottom half of the boat to become mundanes vs a F/M/T and a M/C. Didn't end well for the Mundanes.
Only mistake: one of the Slaver Wizards manage a Dispel on Benoni, taking out his Ghost Armor and allowing archers to actually hit him. No biggie, though the first Potion of Extra Healing was drunk this run due to this. I stopped play here, resting in the Copper Coronet after reporting back to Hendak.
Rules of this run: Benoni cannot use red spells or white spells that can really affect an opponent (no Resilient Sphere, no Glitterdust, among others). I'll make an exception for beholders.
2: No resting in any inn but the Copper Coronet.
3: Story-wise, but whatever. Imoen, Minsc, and Jaheira are still in the Sword Coast. I'll come up with another story entirely, it seems...
Something with stringrefs going wrong (item revisions, spell revisions, scs, item randomizer for bgee in this order, when I summon a familiar it has the wrong name and uses some weird string instead). I suspect one mod takes the tlg from the base and another takes it from a depth. Any experience with these four mods doing different things there is appreciated while I continue to dig
In the meantime I can only read other peoples awesomeness.....
But it's so fun to roll a new one. I've decided to go with a lvl 1 character, but of the same class. The fact I take rolls as they are added to an excitement. After rolling a bit, I've managed to get his beautiful shorty lass:
She has better DEX and WIS than now dead Hachiman, so let's hope this additional WIS will help her to understand that staying away from enemies with Startic Charge activated is a good thing.
And even while she's a level 1 thief, thanks to the upgraded Girdle of Gond, the Cat's Grace spell and the Tymora's Melody, Uzumi already has 80 in Open Locks an 75 in Find Traps.
After everyone got used to a new party member, the party arrived to the Dragon's Eye caves. Right after entering the caves there was a big fight against lizardmen. Colour Spray is very useful in IWDEE, it works on enemies without a certain HD limit, and when a mage who uses it has some levels, the chances to send enemies to sleep are quite high. Add Grease (from a Conjurer, with extra penalties to saving throws) and then Spike Growth - and a big group of melee hitters is gone.
For all other lizardmen on the first level of caves I used an invisible character to block the way. The lizardmen couldn't reach the party because one character was blocking their way.
Uzumi quickly got several levels and now had 100 in Open Locks and Find Traps with 20 DEX from the Cat's Grace spell.
Bombarder Beetles, though, couldn't be blocked by invisible characters, and caused some damage to the party.
3 party members survived, though, and killed the beetles after stunning them. The downside was a loss of 2000 gp for the needed resurrections.
Another kind of enemies from the first level of the caves - spiders - in IWDEE are large creatures and thus easily get stuck in narrow passages.
The group of lizardmen with the Lizard king fell to the Colour Spray - Grease - Spike Growth combination, supported by missile attacks from the party. Colour Spray is excellent - the King was stunned.
After freeing people from Kuldahar from the lizardmen, the druid in the party reached the 4th spell level.
Hypnos, a bard, 8 lvl, 32 HPs
Raijin, a FMC, 4/4/5 lvl, 44 HPs - 2 deaths
Hades, a FMT, 4/4/5 lvl, 18 HPs - 2 deaths
Amaterasu, a druid, 7 lvl, 56 HPs - 1 death
Styx, a conjurer, 5 lvl, 16 HPs - 1 death
Uzumi, a cleric/thief, 4/4 lvl, 22 HPs
Hachiman, a cleric/thief, 4/5 lvl, 29 HPs - chunked for good
Rock has very good stats and 2 pips in flail, hammer, mace. Planning to but the next 3 in two weapon fighting.
I wanted to try Nalia since I've never used her past her own quest before and well, she is a single class mage which is basically what I'm looking for. Edvin is evil and kinda OP, Neera can end my playthrough at every given cast of a spell and Imoen is still in prison.
Final party should be Rock, Jaheira (tank/dps and summons), Jan (scout/trap/lock/debuffing), Nalia (overlord), Imoen (overlord). Don't know if I'll add mr ToB when I get there, the only time I played ToB I made him good aligned and that felt kinda good, so I think I am. That crew should cover all the basics, no deadwood party members (except ToB himself). I think I might be ok once I get saves low enough not to fail save or die spells.
Irenicus prison was very relaxing, so was the circus. Now up for more challenging tasks and some more easy exp/gear. Wise from Chaens failure I will wait til improved haste before killing Torgal I think.