On to the fight with the Yuan-ti Mages in Mekrath's lair. I hate these guys. I knew this fight would be awful, and it was.
It's 21 screenshots long and I won't spend a half hour describing it in intricate detail like I normally would want to. All 21 screenshots are at the bottom of this post, but basically the Yuan-ti Mages removed my precious SI: Abjuration spells with Spell Thrusts, our Efreeti suffered too much from Chaos to defeat the enemy on their own, Espellier failed to burn the Coiled Cabal to death with Sunfire spells because their Fire Shield: Blue spells nearly killed her, we got hit by Slow spells and PW: Stun until eventually Espellier was strong enough to re-cast Sunfire and burn away most of the mages, while Laosha slew the last survivor in spider form using a WoL Divine Favor buff.
Oh, and Mekrath?
Enchanters are pretty tough in EE. Those save penalties are enough to make disablers reliable even in a no-reload run.
@semiticgod do you have a list of spells the Wand of Lightning trick works with? Or maybe a list of spells you know that it doesn't work with would be easier.
I stopped by the Copper Coronet to consider buying the Sling of Everard, the only +5 weapon a cleric can use at this point, and noticed that Amalas was still there. I decided to try taking him on, and once he eventually failed a save against Emotion, I had Poppy devour him in spider form.
When I saw Lehtinan at the front, I realized that I still hadn't completed the slaver quest. I had stopped short because I needed to go fetch Jan to disarm that Prismatic Spray trap, and forgot to go back. I wipe out the Beastmaster using disablers.
Sil finally hits level 12. She can now cast Boon of Lathander with a Wand of Lightning and therefore gain +6 to hit, damage, saves, and APR (still capped at 5 APR without IH). She equips the Sleeper, which she can use to strike 10 times per round for over 20 damage per hit. Although the Sleeper offers a +4 save bonus to its sleep effect, it lasts 3 rounds, and Sil can force many saves using it.
Boon of Lathander marks a huge change in our strategy. If she uses ogre form with Righteous Magic, DUHM, a WoL-boosted BoL, and Improved Haste, she can deal 420 crushing damage per round, and strike with a +3 weapon if she uses Enchanted Weapon as well. Similar damage to a maxed-out Kensai with Greater Whirlwind Attack, and she can do it for over 20 rounds per day, with mage buffs to protect her.
But when I do the math, I find that Sil and Laosha cannot take down SCS Firkraag in LoB mode, as he has 552 base HP, 1736 HP in LoB mode, and an effective HP of 2500 given his physical damage resistances of 30%, not counting his Stoneskins. Sil and Laosha can't do that much damage.
I can, however, hit him with Feeblemind. One of the nice things about the tweaks mod is that it lets you scribe scrolls for any spell you can cast, though it costs gold. I don't have the mod installed because I'm afraid of messing with my install, so I'm using EEKeeper to add the scrolls and remove the gold. Not all spells can be used with the WoL trick, but all scrolls can be. They might not stack (multiple Blur spells won't give extra AC or saves in EE), but they will get cast multiple times. Plus, in EE, casting speed bonuses apply to scrolls.
This means we can: 1. Have three characters cast Lower Resistance at level 12, bringing Firkraag's MR to 0. 2. Cast Chant via Minor Sequencer for the instant casting time, bumping Firkraag's save vs. spell to 7. 3. Cast Doom via sequencer, bumping Firkraag's save to 8. 4. Cast Greater Malison. Save at 12. 5. Cast Feeblemind with its -2 save penalty on top of Poppy's base -2 penalty for all enchantment spells, forcing a save at 16, six times at once. ...all in one round. The chance of Firkraag making every save is well below 1%.
But we have other big plans to deal with. For one, I'm replacing Jan, our only thief, with an Archer I will dual-class to mage. We'll be using Knock and spell protections to deal with locks and traps.
Fobie specializes in darts so he can use the +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars (note that the WoL trick can let us have 108 such darts at a time instead of 18) and shortbows so he can use the Tuigan Bow (which can strike as +3 with nonmagical ammo if we use Enchanted Weapon).
I don't have the Tactics mod installed, or its Generic Archer component that adds an Archer duplicate as a fighter kit to permit dual-classing, so I just use EEKeeper to add in the relevant abilities. Called Shot works with the WoL trick, and no enemies in the game, even with SCS and Ascension, have immunity to STR drain. I don't remember why I didn't do this before, but I think the reason is because I wanted to try to force failed saves without relying on Called Shot. But I've never really used Called Shot with the WoL much, so why not now?
The scroll scribing also lets me give Spell Immunity to all characters, finally solving our Remove Magic problem (at least until those SCS spellcasters hit us with Spell Thrust).
How much money does this cost? I don't know how much the mod normally charges for each scroll, so I'm using the scrolls' base values for each spell level (note that some scrolls are cheaper or more expensive than those of the same level, which I will ignore): Level 1: 100 Level 2: 200 Level 3: 300 Level 4: 500 Level 5: 1000 Level 6: 2000 Level 7: 3000 Level 8: 5000 Level 9: 10000
Unfortunately, a Minor Spell Turning scroll won't do much with the scorcher loop, unlike a Spell Turning scroll, so if we want to bring out the Death Ray Zorcher, we'd have to shell out 6000 gold per casting.
Anyway, back to the gameplay. Sil tries out her new abilities on the cannibal halflings.
She has two WoL Boon of Lathander spells active but no DUHM, hence the 45 damage (normally she'd have 42 when properly buffed but without using both castings of BoL). She will only get more devastating when she can use Iron Golem form, so I think I finally have a name for this run.
1. Wand of Lightning 2. Legacy of Bhaal 3. Boon of Lathander 1->WoL 2->LoB 3->BoL
This is the WOLOBOR run. Or better yet, the Wobbler run.
The WoL+BoL trick isn't so effective against enemies with Stoneskins, but that's what disablers are for.
And when Sil gets unexpectedly debuffed by Spell Thrust and Remove Magic, destroying all of her buffs besides Polymorph Self (which is undispellable) at once, and nearly dies in seconds...
The rest of the party can bail her out while she's running around drinking WoL Potions of Healing.
And once we get out Archer/Mage to level 15, we can deal 6 STR damage per hit with Darts +5 at 9 APR and THAC0 below zero. And once we get our Cleric of Tyr/Mage to level 18, we can deal 5 INT damage per hit in Mind Flayer form at 8 APR at THAC0 below -10.
I am really, really not holding back in this run. Because screw LoB mode. I have Wands of Lightning.
@semiticgod , What a great run. Your knowledge of all the mechanics and math behind the game, and your ability to find and use every possible trick, are amazing.
Oh boy. Things went really, really, badly tonight. But, through perseverance and heroic refusal to give up, we prevailed, and we survived.
First, I, perhaps foolishly, decided to confront Rieltar at the top floor of the Candlekeep Library. Despite calling me out on my foolishness, he was willing to let us go, but threatened us that we'd be arrested as soon as we walked out of the library. I don't know what it was, perhaps greed for gold and xp, or perhaps foolish pride and the rememberance of Yeslick, but I ordered the party to attack.
Minsc succumbed quickly to either Rigid Thinking or Confusion (not sure), and then there were two Lightning Bolts. Minsc fell. The rest of us managed to defeat Rieltar's evil party, but, there was no chance to raise Minsc before being arrested and sent out through the catacombs by Tethtoril. We gathered as much equipment as we could carry without our fallen strongest party member.
Sigh. Then, things went very badly again at the bottom of the catacombs. Ajanits fell to concentrated physical and acid attacks before I realized he was in trouble. Both warriors were down! I really did not know what we were going to do.
The four non-warriors were left standing. I had Branwen drink a Potion of Strength, so she could drag our two fallen warriors behind us (i.e. carry their heavier equipment). I had Imoen drink a Potion of Invisibility to scout out the caves and find us a way out. We were all fatigued from two Haste spells from Dynaheir that had gotten us through greater doppelgangers and the enemy adventuring party sent by Sarevok.
I was beginning to lose hope that we would survive.
Imoen found our way out - but it was guarded by two basilisks!
I had Dynaheir cast one of her emergency Protection from Petrification spells on Branwen, who had to kill both basilisks with her one attack per round.
Brave, brave Lady Branwen! Lady Branwen led the way!
In fear of Protection from Petrification wearing off suddenly, I had Lady Dynaheir risk her life by running up and finishing off the last basilisk with Magic Missiles.
Brave, brave, Lady Dynaheir! Lady Dynaheir saved the day!
We made it out of the catacombs, still fatigued by Haste spells, and dragging the bodies of our two warriors, in full plate mail, behind us. We thought we might die from fatigue. But, we made it to the Temple of Lathander in Beregost! Praise be!
Here we stand safe, though falsely accused of murder. I'm not sure what we'll do next.
Tonight's session reminded me again why we do no-reload games. Coming back against such overwhelming odds is very thrilling. Continuing to press on in the game with your party, no matter what happens (except for Charname's death, and I kind of wish that weren't a thing, as it isn't in IWD), can be very, very rewarding, and also leaves one feeling true to the spirit of D&D.
Alright! h-here I go! Meet Poots The Mendicant, cleric of... Garl Glittergold I guess?, professional hobo and amateur murderhobo (adventurer for those with a more refined vocabulary).
Wont report constantly on him since Im not much of a writter, but if anything interesting happens I'll post it. I SUCK at spellcasting classes so this run will be basically me learning how to use a cleric.
I didn't want to jinx it sharing my newest try too soon because I've never played a pure thief before, but I'm doing all right. With Alano, the half-orc bounty hunter, everything has been easier than expected. To have a couple of deadly traps makes a HUGE difference in the most dangerous encounters. I'm trying not to meta-play, so I scout a lot but I admit that I trapped the heck out of the mage in the FAI. I know that a half-orc is not the best choice for a thief, but I put a 19 to strength and it is very satisfying being able to actually kill stuff with my thief. Dice rolls were decent, so I also put a 19 to CON, just for the convenience of healing while traveling as soon as I get the tome. My weapon of choice this time is the staff because... c'mon literally everybody in Candlekeep uses a staff.
I have cleared most of the wilderness areas with a party of four (Imoen, Khalid & Jaheira). I recruited Minsk only to rescue Dynaheir but I couldn't resist the temptation of giving him Brage's cursed sword. He died against Sendai and co. (actually Alexander got him) but seeing him double-berserkering was just too good to miss. I raised him because I want him in Baldurs Gate 2, but after that Alano didn't want him in the party, so they offered to get Dynaheir for him (and so they did).
The gods rewarded me with a bolt of polyforming! That gibberling must have had an awesome backstory, I'm sure. This is twice as awesome because my charname uses crossbow. I MUST turn Sarevok into a squirrel. Or at least one of his lackeys with name.
After that, they recruited Branwen to go to the bandit camp. I will keep a party of 5 until I get Yeslick in the mines. I always feel bad telling him to go away after rescuing him, so I will roams the Realms with three healers to take care of me. Since charname is pure thief, I dualed Imoen very early, so I have all the arcane magic that I need.
My charname has very rarely been in real danger, which confirms my idea that the best way to keep away from harm is not fighting at all . Even when he is out of traps, he is a beast backstabbing, as the hobgobling in Tazok's tent learned.
Even though I feel more confident this time, I am going to wait a little before heading to the cloackwood. I will probably do Ulcaster and Firewine next.
Well, Poots made it safely to Nashkell. He still hasnt leveled up which is driving me crazy, Im never picking multiclass again. In the past I've played good and evil runs, this time little Poots is CN so I've decided to recruit NPCs that have a neutral component in their alignment. So I picked Neera.... ehh. I guess she can use a sling. And I kinda like her colors. Just dropped Imoen so I can pick Minsc (NG) and help him rescue Dynaheir only to drop them both once I find out Dynaheir is LG, disgusting zealots (shhhh! no metagaming!). Everything is going well.
Dear forum friends, how are Nightmare mode's extra XP gains supposed to make this game easier? I really haven't cracked the code yet lol.
Anyway here's no less than three reports on three different runs! Maybe you guys could tell me which one you think is the most interesting for you to follow. Restartitis has me in its grasp again, so your input is welcome!
Maeve, NE Human Kensai, 2nd BG1 report
Maeve befriended Kagain, Edwin (who succesfully Horrored Tarnesh, providing the party access to the FAI and Dorn), Viconia (with the party successfully disrupting and kiting the Flaming Fist cleric), and Shar-Teel - in that order. Killing Algernon for his cloak and recruiting Vicky had lowered the party's reputation so much that the Fist and Bounty Hunters were now after them. When they arrived in Nashkel, a number of hostile Amnian Soldiers awaited them. The companions prevailed with the help of non-hostile soldiers who picked Maeve's side, but killing those soldiers reduced their rep to 1. Bounty hunters spawned, and Nashkel basically became inaccessible. South of Nashkel the party successfully handled Dorn's rivals, thanks in large part to the fact that most of them focused their aggression on Dorn, who was not yet killable. Dorn joined and the party traveled to the Mine. They killed Greywolf with some kiting, and were then reminded by Edwin of their promise to seek out and slay Dynaheir. So, off to the Cloudpeaks they went. They defeated Sendai with a Hold Person by Viconia, but avoided Delgod and Alexander. Vax gave them more trouble. Although it had become clear to me that the adage 'Ranged is king in BG1' applies a fortiori in Nightmare mode, and although the Gauntlets of Dexterity were still two maps away, Kagain had to tank Vax in a pinch, due to movement space issues. The Dwarf panicked when he got hit once or twice. His morale is so low he really needs a Bard or Remove Fear to keep him focused. Dorn didn't do much better, though at least he didn't panic.
The party minus Kagain tried to keep Vax busy while the Dwarf was panicked, but Kagain's panic lasted very, very long. It looked like he was going to survive after all when his companions managed to kill the Xvarts he had alerted with his running around, but a Cave Bear was less forgiving.
The party traveled back to Nashkel or Beregost to raise Kagain. Edwin disapproved and buggered off with the Ring of Wizardry still on his finger. I've never been a fan of Edwin: shitty personality, not that funny (sarcasm has never been my type of humor). Maeve however was incensed. She swore she'd kill the Thayan next time she'd see him. The companions decided they'd try and find this Dynaheir anyway, but changed their mind when Zal almost one-shotted Viconia. They went Basilisk hunting instead. Maeve used a green PfPetrification scroll, and with her throwing daggers, she did a fine job kiling the lizards but she wouldn't be able to finish that job. Mutamin found her and Slowed her. Maeve went invisible right after that. But the Gnome cast Detect Invisibility, and Horrored Maeve before she could quaff another invisibility potion. Thankfully Viconia arrived soon enough to remove the fear effect. When the Slow effect had expired, Maeve went looking for remaining Basilisks, but Mutamin saw her first, and removed her PfPetrification with a Remove Magic. Maeve went invisible again, and Mutamin found the Kensai's companions in a remote corner of the area.
Dorn poisoned the Gnome and VIcky Held him, so that fight went well. Back in Beregost there were Flaming Fist Enforcers, including a Battle Mage, a (sneak-attacking) Scout, and two Archers. Kagain was hit by the Archers, and panicked again, complicating a swift escape. He was dismissed, and so was Shar-Teel at Near Death status. Viconia was killed by the Scout, and raised at the Temple of Lathander, where Maeve left her for a while, in order to go looking for the Elf's equipment (Ankheg plate among other things). She found the equipment, but the companions ran into Neera, and although they told her they weren't interested in protecting her, and told her pursuers that they might have her, the Thayans went hostile anyway. (Is this supposed to happen?) The Thayan then one-shotted Dorn with a Flame Arrow, so Maeve ran off to raise him too. She left him with Vicky at the Temple, so now she's only 'disliked'. However the Enforcers (with a collective pool of about 850 HPs) are still in Beregost waiting for Maeve to show up again. In sum, the Kensai has about 2k GP, almost no resources in terms of potions, items, and throwing daggers, and no easy way of boosting her rep as apparently reputation boosts at Temples are more expensive in either v.2.1 or Nighmare mode. I honestly don't know where to go with her, and I consider abandoning this run, and maybe giving her another chance from scratch.
Shade, CG Human Archer and custom party, 1st BG1 report
My experiences with Maeve only made me want to succeed more. I rolled a custom party that might be fun and hopefully effective. The party is led by Shade, a female Human Archer specializing in darts. (Other starting profs: * Flails/Morningstars, * S&S-style)
Not the most powerful protagonist one might imagine, not even the most powerful Archer, with her being Human rather than Elven, and a Dart thrower. However I hope she can make it to level 8 and dual into Cleric. I enabled all Druid spells for Ranger/Clerics, so she should become an excellent divine spell-caster. She'll have two daily Called Shot uses, meaning that with Improved Haste she'll be able to lower enemy Saves by 4 per round during twenty seconds with a sling. She'll lose her ability to use darts once she duals into Cleric, but her specialization remains somewhat relevant, namely for using Fire Seeds and Energy Blades. Btw one reason I restored full Druid spell progression for Cleric/Rangers is that the Shaman class doesn't work in my install, probably a conflict with SCS. The Shaman I rolled made way for Shade, who became the protagonist. Shade's companions are: Alaam, a Human Wizard Slayer (** in axes and ** in two-handed swords), who should dual into Thief come level 7;
Gizi, an Elven Archer (** longbows, * long swords and * war hammers);
Aine, Half-Elf Sorcerer, with Enchantment as specialization (the only substantive change I made using EEKeeper, not sure how well this works) and with Charm Person and Blindness as his starting spells;
Guennean, with my second triple digit stat roll ever and the first I didn't click past, Human Priestess of Tyr (* maces, * slings), to dual into Mage at level 11;
and finally Dwaim, Dwarven Bounty Hunter (* short swords, * crossbows), a tough call compared to Fighter/Thief but those sweet, sweet Maze traps can really help in battles with multiple enemies.
I think this party has good potential when it comes to disabling. Alaam's attacks impose a spell failure penalty, Shade's and Gizi's Called Shot will lower saving throws vs spells, so that Aine, Guennean and Shade will be able to hold, charm, stun, etc the enemy. This is pretty much the same plan as I had for my Enchantress Eirian and her companions, but that wasn't a Nightmare run while this run is. Enemies have ridiculous amounts of HPs, more APR and they hit hard, so straight melee does not seem a viable approach. There is no fast killing in Nightmare mode I think. Still I would have liked another single or multi-class warrior.
The crew did not fight Shank or Carbos, as there was no oil of speed from Deder. But they were very diligent in the first two areas, patiently taking down all the Gibberlings they could find as well as a rogue Ogre. Hobgoblins and Ogrillons south of Beregost met the same fate. Poor Aine served as bait every time, as the others were the superior marksmen. Landrin's Spiders were dealt with by Gizi and Shade alone. The companions pulled into Nashkel where Shade enjoyed a considerable armor upgrade (Ankheg), and Noober and the Great Gazib provided some cheap XP. Further south, Greywolf came a bit too early for the party. They had to retreat when Kobolds joined him, got waylaid by Hobgoblin archers who killed Aine, returned to see if Greywolf could be approached anew without any Kobold intervention, but had to retreat again. Pathfinding issues on the way out (one of the party cutting him short) then saw Dwaim succumb to a single blow by Greywolf.
The party had not much gold, a mid-range reputation and no charismatic leader, so they exchanged most of their gold for a scroll of PfPetrification. Archer Gizi was appointed Basilisk huntress, and she was doing fine with the group of four, when I somehow (stupidly) had Shade move in (unaware she was selected rather than Gizi). I didn't realize it immediately but Shade drew the attention of several Gnolls, which basically meant the party had to leave the area, and that the investment in the green scroll had been a big waste. On the positive side, Shade did not run into a Basilisk. And it may be for the best that the Basilisks are faced later on, when Shade and/or Alaam are in the process of dualing into Cleric and Thief respectively. The companions returned to the Nashkel Mines Area, where they lured a bunch of Kobolds toward the mine entrance, where Amnian soldiers helped fight them, and where Aine Blinded two of them. The companions prevailed, and could now try once more to defeat Greywolf. They did when Guennean Held the bounty hunter just before he could close the gap with the party.
The friends traveled to the North Coast to see if Shoal could provide them some longed for XP, but three Dread Wolved awaited them there, which basically meant they had to go back. Melicamp was rescued from a wolf, but finding a skull was going to be too dangerous for the time being, as the Skellies at the High Hedge worked in groups.
Again I'm not sure how to proceed. Of course, having all her companions and not being harassed by Flaming Fist Enforcers and bounty hunters means that Shade is in a much better situation then Maeve, even though the latter is more experienced. So far the combination of SCS and Nightmare has made BGEE almost a new game to me. I have to think every step, as I haven't found a safe and sure way to comfort yet. For the moment the party are unfit to deal with hordes, with ranged attackers, and with (most) Mages. This leaves only individual, melee targets. There aren't many of those. One Mage the companions did take on was Tarnesh. Aine had picked Web as his first level 2 spell and cast a few of those at the wizard while out of sight. The others then finished the mage with ranged attacks. It was only later that I realized that Aine isn't supposed to cast Web spells, as I 'kitted' him as an Enchanter. When leveling up, he can still pick Evocation spells. I considered removing the Enchantment specialization school or the Web spell, but Aine has been an Enchanter Sorecer the entire time, and the Web spell has already been used, so I will keep Web as an idiosyncrasy like the special abilities that some of the game's NPCs have.
Saoni, 4th BG1 report
I've also made some progress with Saoni, whose run I keep abandoning and returning to. This is BGEE v1.3, so no Nightmare mode, 'only' insane, but more role-played. It's actually quite a fun run with a fun party, and banter. This one has the BG1 NPC Project for funny banter and a beautiful romance with Xan. As I mentioned in my previous post, the companions were all noncommital adventurers, and fond travelers, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they've seen quite a lot of the Sword Coast since the last time I reported on them. One destination was Adoy's hideout, where the companions had to fight several Thayans before they could learn from Adoy how they could control Neera's wild magic. There were two fighters, an Ogre and two wizards, including their leader Ekandor. Saoni was buffed with Shield, PfE, MI (and possibly Blur) and opened with a wand Fireball. Garrick stunned Ekandor with his wand of paralyzation, and with Safana he focused on the guards. Xan slew paralyzed Ekandor. Saoni proceeded with wand Scorchers to injure several enemies at a time. Unfortunately AI was on (I think it's on by default once the game is started, because I never want it to be on), so Neera - who had been invisible - also joined the fray. She caught the Ogre's eye, and in fleeing from the monster got herself killed in Saoni's scorcher.
During the party's subsequent adventures, Neera became a different person: shy, quiet, aloof. The companions attributed this change to her death experience and her missed opportunity to confer with Adoy. Little did they know that it was actually a bug caused by her death that kept her quest and friendship from progressing. She was there when the party saved a nobleman from a mountain bear, Skull Trapped Neville to death, slew a pack of Gnolls with Drizzt, the Half-Ogres that had injured Bjornin, and the party of Teyngan with more Skull Traps. She witnessed Xan loot three vaults in the Valley of the Tombs and saw him nearly bested by Mustard Jellies.
She also saw how Saoni quaffed a potion of magic blocking when Narcillicus cast a Skull Trap at her, and how the Dragon Disciple, Xan and Safana made the Conjurer pay for his insolence.
She was also present when Garrick scribed several spells into his spellbook, but showed no signs of envy. Not even their adventure in the Firewine Ruins brought back the spark in Neera. Garrick cast a Stinking Cloud at Lendarn, but the wizard's MGoI insta-triggered and rendered the cloud ineffective, and a nasty Minor Sequencer of Blindness and Ray of Enfeeblement disabled the Bard. Saoni hastily cast Invisibility on her friend to keep him out of harm's way. When Lendarn's MGoI had worn off, two Skull Traps were more than the wizard could handle. An Ogre Mage awaited the party next. Xan buffed, and dual-wielding the Dagger of Venom with his Moonblade, he managed to repeatedly poison the monster. (Jenkal normally escapes, but was stunned this time by Saoni's Chromatic Orb.) It was after these adventures that the companions decided that it was in everyone's best interests if Neera left the party to leave and do some soul searching. The party safely navigated the Ulcaster School, relying on Invisibility and on Xan (PfFear and potion of free action) to deal with the Wolf of Ulcaster. The also cleared the Firewine Plains without incident, and the Wood of Sharp Teeth (Teven & Co were slain, Raiken was joined to infilitrate the bandit camp). All of the above is from a week or two ago. All I did today with this party was visit the bandit camp. I was a bit nervous before the battle in the tent, what with my having become used to Nightmare mode creatures kicking major ass, and with previous solo wizards having difficulty in the tent. Nevertheless, Saoni handled the tent solo. The others were invisible. Saoni buffed with potions (magic protection, defense, fire protection, regeneration, speed, free action) and spells (PfE, Blur, MI). Garrick did cast a Web but after that it was just Saoni running around wand-scorching the opposition until they were all dead. There was one incident, Safana started to attack (once more forgot to switch off AI), but repaired that mistake with a Sandthief Ring charge.
On the way out a still hasted Saoni managed to kill Taugosz for his armor, using more scorchers and Magic Missiles. They got ambushed by Giant Spiders on the road to the FAI. Saoni was not invisible (no more level 2 spells), and had a turbid aura due to having quaffed a healing potion before leaving the area, but the Spiders failed to web her. (And even if they had succeeded, both Xan and Garrick would have been able to cast Invisibility on her.) The party is currently in Cloakwood. Somehow this playthrough fails to grab my attention for long periods, but I'm aware that this is the run I'm most likely to make it into SoD with, which would be a blind adventure, an exciting prospect.
One day I might attempt a LoB/Nightmare run. But for the time being I'm enjoying my Insane playthrough(s) with SCS.
I've been bringing up a Cavalier through BG1 over the last week or so, playing a bit here and there. I've just done so much already that I'm like "Where do I start reporting?"
I really enjoy reading about everyone's games. But it has also been nice to be able to play and not worry about recording it all.
Welp, we lost our no-reload to a bugged-out greater wolfwere on Werewolf Island. I've never seen this bug before, and I never listened before to all the people who have made complaints about it in the past. This wasn't even Karoug (meaning the only melee weapon we had that could scratch it, and I do mean SCRATCH it, was the Aldeth's bastard sword.)
The first screen shot here was taken after I got surprised by the presence of a greater wolfwere outside the main ship. The second screenshot was taken dozens of rounds later, after expending dozens of Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb spells, and dozens of charges off our wands of Magic Missile, Lightning, Cold, and Flame Strikes.
It was the same every round. Our spells, wands, and maybe one hit from the bastard sword would get him down to half his hit points. Next round, he was back at full hit points.
Now I see that there is clearly a bug here. At least I know to never, ever go to Werewolf Island again in the EE's.
What a shame. I was really enjoying this. Even though the EE is causing this, it also gave me a quicksave (The fourth and last slot, glad it happened now!) to revert back to before going to Werewolf Island, so I guess it's a wash.
I have a bitter, bitter taste in my mouth, but I'll probably continue my run in the minimal reload thread, since I was having some fun with my skald before this.
Condolences, @BelgarathMTH. How frustrating to get beaten by a bug. I was considering skipping the werewolf island and I think now I am convinced (if I make it that far).
Dear forum friends, how are Nightmare mode's extra XP gains supposed to make this game easier? I really haven't cracked the code yet lol.
They don't. Not even remotely close.
People often say that the extra XP is worth the cost, but LoB's disadvantages are (1) double damage from enemies with (2) an extra 1 APR, (3) about four times the staying power, and (4) an extra 12 levels. That's making the game more than ten times as difficult, and tripling your XP doesn't make you ten times as strong... or even twice as strong. I'd cut my party's XP down to a quarter if it gave me the bonuses that LoB enemies get, even if it meant I never got any HLAs, ever.
Also, you don't really get triple XP (double base XP +1000) in LoB mode, because half of your party's XP in a normal game comes from quest rewards, not enemies.
And LoB's XP bonuses will completely vanish once you hit the XP cap, in the middle of SoA. Then the enemies just get stronger and stronger while you remain stagnant. You probably start LoB mode thinking about how quickly you'll get HLAs... but not so much about the very agonizing period before then, or the time when your enemies start using HLAs as well, and LoB enemies once again reassert their total superiority.
Also, @Blackraven, bear in mind that Called Shot won't lower enemy saves until level 8. The first casting you get at level 4 should only penalize enemy THAC0.
So I was inspired by an idea suggested in my "You choose my next character" thread. Thus was born Sir Castus, a noble Cavalier who may or may not be having a crisis of faith down the road
The plan for now is to use dual Long Swords, and add in Bastard Swords as I level. I'm already a good way in, so this is going to be a speedy update rather than highly detailed.
************************************************************************************************************* Rules: Insane (no bonus damage, just extra enemies). For NPC deaths, I'm playing by "three strikes and you're out." Mods: I've attached my Weidu log and a picture if you're interested. Notable mods include SCS, Tweaks Anthology, BG1 NPC, BG1 Unfinished Business, Rogue Rebalancing, Item Revisions and Spell Revisions
Things went rather poorly for my companions when we stumbled across this raided caravan...
I needed money to raise my new friends from the dead, and the solo XP would help me level every so slightly sooner. Between random spawns in the wild and (maybe?) an ambush on the way to the FAI, I gained a level. Poor Tarnesh never saw me coming...
We picked up Khalid and Jaheira and slowly made our way south towards Nashkel. I didn't think to capture a picture of it, but both Monty and Xzar were cut down by those Flaming Fist guys south of the FAI. Monty probably shouldn't have insulted them like that...though in his defense they were acting pretty hostile to begin with. I decided not to go back to the temple and raise them again (for now).
Imoen is rewarded for her patience, and Noober lives to see another day (though just barely):
As we were passing through Nashkel, we stopped in at the local pub. We heard stories from the villagers about some of the local troubles. Apparently their guard captain went completely nuts and killed his family! Also a local artist by the name of Prism absconded with a very valuable pair of emeralds and ventured off into the wilderness.
We finally made it down to the Nashkel Mines, and lo and behold we found Prism! He was love struck by some elf chick he met a while back, and had stolen the gems to finish his tribute to her. He seemed not quite right in the head, so Castus let his little fantasy play out before retrieving the emeralds. Right as the man finished the job, a bounty hunter named Greywolf appeared. He was quite an abrasive fellow, and thought that we were there to steal his bounty.
After a tough fight we triumphed, and Sir Castus earned himself a shiny new sword!
Now armed with a much better weapon, Cas was feeling more confident about tackling the suped up Kobolds in the mines. We didn't have too much difficulty with them until the final portion when we ran into mass amounts of Commandos and a few Shamans. Jaheira was struck down by a Lightning Bolt cast by one of the Shamans.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish the final battle without Jaheira, so we made the long trek back to town to raise her. Once we patched up our wounds and felt refreshed, we went back down into the mines. The battle was actually not too bad, although we did get swarmed by skeletons. After looting the chest and discovering more about the plot going on, we freed a rather depressed mage named Xan. He's a despondent little fellow, but I'm taking him under my wing for the time being.
With the mines cleared, we headed back into town to deliver the good news and unload our loot. While recuperating at the local tavern, we meet up with a foreigner named Minsc. He's a little funny in the head and talks to his pet hamster like it's a person...but he's in need of aid so we're gonna give it to him! A friend of his was taken captive by a band of gnolls, holed up far to the southwest of town. Now that I've got two more party members to replace them, I gave Monty and Xzar a proper burial.
We restocked on supplies and marched off into the mountains. With Xan slinging the occasional spell and Minsc charging into battle with his two-handed sword, we had little trouble clearing out the areas between town and the Gnoll Stronghold. We were almost there when we stumbled across a pack of gnolls guarding the area. Their leader challenged our "champion," aka the first person he talked to, to a battle. He picked our fiesty, pink-haired little sister, and she kicked his ass! She didn't even get a scratch on her.
After a long march through the mountains, we were getting a little tired. Unfortunately our rest was cut short when Minsc was taunted by another gnoll we met. The creature had recently fled the Stronghold, having been sent away because he was a little too evil for their liking. His plans to "roast Dynaheir and eat her flesh" were cut short by Minsc.
We made short work of the Gnoll Stronghold, picking up the Charisma tome and Gauntlets of Dexterity along the way. Cas now has a natural 18 Charisma With Dynaheir rescued, we had to let Xan go. We had some friendly chats during our travels, so hopefully he's got a slightly more optimistic outlook on life...
Spell Revisions does wonders for a lot of spells. Here's Dynaheir flexing her muscles and casting Sound Burst on a group of Hobgoblins:
This summary turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. But I kept progressing and not writing down his story...now that I'm relatively caught up (I've done a bit more traveling since that last picture) I can better stay on top of it!
Alano solved the mystery of the kobolds in the halfing village and returned richer and wiser, but there were a few close calls. To my surprise, Kahrk the ogre mage was not a problem with a few traps well placed and Branwen's heroism. She waited out the ogre's multiple image with sanctuary and lured him to the traps, plus she gave the killing blow.
Things didn't go as well inside the dungeon. First, Alano was almost killed by a trap.
The battle with the ogre mage behind the kobold attacks was tricky without traps of his own. Sure, Alano made short work of the second mage that was ready to ambush the group near the exit of the dungeon.
The ogre mage was harder. Imoen risked going front line to hold the ogre and a kobold commando with a web, and so she did, but not before he confused Khalid and Alano himself. My two main damage-dealers were trying to kill each other, and Imoen was severely injured by an ogrillon and a couple of kobolds that flanked her. Branwen and Jaheira bravely held the flanks while Imoen got out of danger. After killing the ogrillon and the kobolds, druid and cleric stoned the ogre to death. Great job, ladies! The dudes, meanwhile, were still confused and trying to kill each other. Fortunately, they were using ranged weapons and I guess they had better reflexes than aim. Even though they were at point blank range...
Eventually, Khalid and Alano recovered their senses and the dungeon was secured (not thanks to them).
The day was far from being done, though. After giving the good news to the halfling major, the party stumbled upon another group of bounty hunters. Maybe Khalid and Alano were trying to make up for the embarrassing final battle with the ogre mage, because they went recklessly close to the attackers. The plan was to lure them to a trap that Imoen had set a little before (Alano frequently forgets how much Imoen has learned about trap-making from him). Before one can say "Portalbendarwinder", Alano had been frozen by a hold person spell and Khalid was injured trying to defend the helpless half-orc. Seeing the dire situation, Jaheira threw a potion of explosions to the mercenaries, and Imoen used a wand of terror that we had bought from Thalantyr. Sadly, Khalid was too close to the action and was KOd by the fireball. Oh no! That, and another web from Imoen, and the bounty hunters were done, but the group paid a high price. Now I better revive Khalid or I will taste Jaheira's club.
@Blackraven You write so well and have so many good ideas that it's hard to choose. I think the main factor is your own feelings.
Currently, I'm very interested in everything related to the LoB mode, and you combine it with the SCS (which I'm only thinking about for the future), so the story of Shade, CG Human Archer and her custom party, gets my vote.
@BelgarathMTH I haven't read about that bug before. I dare summon here @Gate70 (a dedicated bug fixer and a no-reload fan by the way) to have a look at this bug (as BelgarathMTH previously mentioned he didn't intend to create bug reports on the redmine):
The first screen shot here was taken after I got surprised by the presence of a greater wolfwere outside the main ship. The second screenshot was taken dozens of rounds later, after expending dozens of Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb spells, and dozens of charges off our wands of Magic Missile, Lightning, Cold, and Flame Strikes.
It was the same every round. Our spells, wands, and maybe one hit from the bastard sword would get him down to half his hit points. Next round, he was back at full hit points.
@BelgarathMTH do you have a save to hand, I'd like to check what greater wolfwere this is - been a while since I've gone through the Island and can't remember any Greater ones outside the ship so wondering if it was a rest ambush or something else. Thanks (& could you namedrop me as I'll forget to check back otherwise...)
I'm really happy with what has become this thread, we have a lot of people sharing their runs at the same time in both BG1 and BG2.
In this page only, we have semiticgod, Pteran, Belgarath, Blackraven, lurith, toolarg and bengoshi (playing his Jester in the other thread) that's 7 players and even more runs!
I remember when this thread was created, we were wondering if we would ever manage to reach 50 pages and this is the 65th as of right now.
So congratulations everyone, keep being awesome!
I don't play the game at lot anymore since I can't play our multi-player run with bengoshi and Tresset, but I wanted to continue my Insane Nightmare playthrough with Yami, my F/M/T.
Last time I played him I was trying to enter Watcher's Keep but two level draining Wandering Horrors were blocking my path.
When I gave up and wanted to go back to Athkatla, I have been teleported to the Tactics Poison encounter which triggers if you have more than 3,000,000 XP which I got a lot earlier than usual since I was playing solo with Nightmare mode.
Needless to say, I have been demolished by these guys. They all see through invisibility, can poison you from range and level drain you in melee.
@semiticgod, glad to see I'm not the only one to think this way about LoB/Nightmare. I did use BG2Tweaks to remove XP caps in both my BG1 and BG2 installs. Since there is a hard cap (level 50 I believe), the XP levels gap should eventually be less of an issue. I also installed p&p spell and thac0 progression tables, meaning more spells for all casters and better thac0 for non-warriors, but that affects both the party and enemies. The extra damage, HPs and attacks do make a difference. @lurith nice to see your Bounty Hunter surprise you. I like him, keep it up. @bengoshi, I need to check out your Jester Thanks for your opinion. I'm also eager to acquaint myself with the mechanics of LoB, so I'm going to continue with Shade. (Will probably go ahead with all three Charnames anyway.) @Gotural, I'm surprised the poison encounter enemies could see through invisibility. The one time I played it, with Bardin, there was only one character that saw through invisibility. Bardin defeated it with ranged attacks and used the SotM to go invisible before the other enemies after each attack. Looking forward to your next run! @Pteran, best of luck with your Cavalier. I wonder if he will be swayed to join the dark side of the force.
@Blackraven My mistake, I wrote something wrong. They indeed don't all see through invisibility.
As far as my memory goes, at least 3 of them saw through invisibility and with the Nightmare mode HP, it was enough to prevent me to quickly dispatch them before I was overwhelmed by level drain.
It took place shortly after escaping Irenicus's dungeon, so I had very few items.
Maybe it could have been better if my simulacrums didn't fade after suffering a single point of damage (v1.3 bug).
Anyway I have started a Kensai, an Assassin and a Priest of Talos. Maybe I will report their progress soon but I won't be able to post any screenshots.
@Gate70 , I've never uploaded a file before, so I hope that worked. The file is showing at the bottom of my post on my screen, so I hope it's available for download to others.
This save file is for BG:EE 2.1 with SoD
I've saved it just before the greater wolfwere, who is named Palin. After loading the save game, move the party due north, and you should run straight into Palin, who will force conversation and ask you to follow him a bit to the east. As soon as you get there, he will spawn four regular werewolves, and equip a bow. On the next round, he will morph into his greater wolfwere form.
The "bug" isn't the presence of a second greater wolfwere on the island per se (although I don't consider that good design, since you haven't gotten to the ship yet to get the two Baldur's weapons), but rather the extreme regeneration rate - he regenerates about half his hit points every round.
There is some mention of a "stacking bug" with Karoug's regeneration in old threads, and some mention of there being a BG2 version of the greater wolfwere that has way more hit points and regeneration than the original BG1 version from TotSC. But, nobody seems to know for sure what is going on. When newer players of the EE's complain about the regeneration, all the veterans just assume that the player doesn't know how to fight him.
So, it might not be a bug, but rather some kind of design mistake, intentional or not.
If it is intentional, my problem with Palin being a second greater wolfwere is that this encounter is outside, where you can't use tricks like lighting ricochet, and, as I said, you do not have the two weapons of Baldur. What I do know is that I have never had any trouble at all beating Werewolf Island in 18 years of playing, before now.
I'd like to challenge anyone in the thread to see if they can beat Palin. My skald has a Slow spell that might help if it sticks, Dynaheir has two Haste ready, and we have an inventory full of wands that both my skald and Dynaheir can use. Imoen can chip away at him with a Wand of Missiles. We have some Arrows of Piercing. Would those work? Branwen has some Hold Person. No Dooms, but she could get some.
Also, can you beat him without expending so many resources that there is nothing left for the fight with Karoug? And also, if there's one extra greater wolfwere, there could be others.
My solution is that I'm just not going here in the EE's again, but I would enjoy hearing about somebody else being able to beat it from where this save is made.
EDIT: Just took a quick shot at it. I tried double Fireballs (Dynaheir's and my wands), and hit him with the +3 bastard sword. Also lots of disablers (none of which stuck - he made one save on a roll of 6, resisted the others). He has high magic resistance, *and* magic damage resistance. After being hit with two fireballs, and another two the next round, plus some hits with the sword, he was still at full hit points, while his four werewolf friends were smoking piles of ashes on the ground.
EDIT 2: Oh yes, my difficulty is on Core Rules. It's important that you have your game set on the same if you try the save file.
@BelgarathMTH: Did you try Wand of Paralyzation on Greater Wolfwere? I don't have an experience with EE edition but in EasyTuTu it works perfectly vs them and Wand of Heavens blast them quite reliably.
@Serg_BlackStrider , This is only a problem in the EE's. I never had the problem in EasyTuTu. The Wand of the Heavens does a small amount of damage, which he regenerates on the next round. Two Wands of Fireballs and The Wand of the Heavens together barely hurt him, because he resists most of the damage and then regenerates what damage does get through. Also, this is not Karoug, inside the ship. It's Palin, in the outdoors, who didn't used to be a greater wolfwere.
EDIT: Tried it, Wand of Paralyzation doesn't work. It says "Wand not effective" or something.
After my usual break, several weeks without playing anything at all. Got patch 2.0 to work with scs, didn't get 2.1 to work but will save LoB for later.
Usual settings, core, scs with all installations except no items in spellhold, moderately harder spawns.
I started a NG Archer named Pathos, he cruised through prison and got himself the fantastic tuigan bow. Was going for Jan and figured me Minsc and Jaheira would have no trouble freeing Viconia to set her free. The cleric took three arrows to the face while casting but managed to cast charm person on mainchar even so, Pathos failed his save, I fled to the guards, the guards proceeded to kill Pathos and end my run.
Worst. Run. Ever.
Now for my favorite class the FMT, going for 2 dw, 2 katana, 2 dagger, half-elven. Named Ethos.
Yay, I just tried one more time, and I did beat him finally. The key was to have Ajantis (my bastard sword wielder) drink a potion of Storm Giant Strength and a potion of Fire Resistance, and to put on the Ring of Fire Resistance, so he could stand in the fire and hold off Palin. The party was Hasted.
Over two rounds, we blasted him with four Fireballs and two Flame Strikes, with Ajantis standing right in the middle of it.
The second round of Fire hit him just the split second before he would have regenerated all the damage from the first round, so timing is key.
I'm not sure this same strategy would work with Karoug, because of the close quarters. Maybe we could get enough fire resistance spread around. We're holding more potions.
Thing is, I need these resources to fight Sarevok and the very hard dungeon in SoD that follows him. If I play the Island through like this, I might not have anything left.
If this is all intentional, it might be a good thing for anyone who wants a huge SCS style challenge. If I ever do it again in a no-reload, I'll know what to do on this one encounter. I still think it's kind of crazy, though.
It's definitely cost me my place here in this thread. I'm going to take one reload and continue my run in the minimal reload thread, without doing Werewolf Island.
I'd love to hear from a no-reload veteran that they've done the whole Werewolf Island scenario with this new difficulty. I apologize for calling it a bug if it was intentional. I'm still not sure I agree with it or like it, but, oh well, I know some people have been asking for a more SCS-like experience in the unmodded game.
I can only say that during our MP run in the 1.3 version with the SCS installed we didn't encounter this problem with Palin, or any other werewolf on the Island.
@BelgarathMTH is your game modded at all - screen capture attached, I didn't see him transform and I'm not sure I can remember that happening in vanilla. I tried it several times with the same result. Thanks
Comments
It's 21 screenshots long and I won't spend a half hour describing it in intricate detail like I normally would want to. All 21 screenshots are at the bottom of this post, but basically the Yuan-ti Mages removed my precious SI: Abjuration spells with Spell Thrusts, our Efreeti suffered too much from Chaos to defeat the enemy on their own, Espellier failed to burn the Coiled Cabal to death with Sunfire spells because their Fire Shield: Blue spells nearly killed her, we got hit by Slow spells and PW: Stun until eventually Espellier was strong enough to re-cast Sunfire and burn away most of the mages, while Laosha slew the last survivor in spider form using a WoL Divine Favor buff.
Oh, and Mekrath?
Enchanters are pretty tough in EE. Those save penalties are enough to make disablers reliable even in a no-reload run.
When I saw Lehtinan at the front, I realized that I still hadn't completed the slaver quest. I had stopped short because I needed to go fetch Jan to disarm that Prismatic Spray trap, and forgot to go back. I wipe out the Beastmaster using disablers.
Sil finally hits level 12. She can now cast Boon of Lathander with a Wand of Lightning and therefore gain +6 to hit, damage, saves, and APR (still capped at 5 APR without IH). She equips the Sleeper, which she can use to strike 10 times per round for over 20 damage per hit. Although the Sleeper offers a +4 save bonus to its sleep effect, it lasts 3 rounds, and Sil can force many saves using it.
Boon of Lathander marks a huge change in our strategy. If she uses ogre form with Righteous Magic, DUHM, a WoL-boosted BoL, and Improved Haste, she can deal 420 crushing damage per round, and strike with a +3 weapon if she uses Enchanted Weapon as well. Similar damage to a maxed-out Kensai with Greater Whirlwind Attack, and she can do it for over 20 rounds per day, with mage buffs to protect her.
But when I do the math, I find that Sil and Laosha cannot take down SCS Firkraag in LoB mode, as he has 552 base HP, 1736 HP in LoB mode, and an effective HP of 2500 given his physical damage resistances of 30%, not counting his Stoneskins. Sil and Laosha can't do that much damage.
I can, however, hit him with Feeblemind. One of the nice things about the tweaks mod is that it lets you scribe scrolls for any spell you can cast, though it costs gold. I don't have the mod installed because I'm afraid of messing with my install, so I'm using EEKeeper to add the scrolls and remove the gold. Not all spells can be used with the WoL trick, but all scrolls can be. They might not stack (multiple Blur spells won't give extra AC or saves in EE), but they will get cast multiple times. Plus, in EE, casting speed bonuses apply to scrolls.
This means we can:
1. Have three characters cast Lower Resistance at level 12, bringing Firkraag's MR to 0.
2. Cast Chant via Minor Sequencer for the instant casting time, bumping Firkraag's save vs. spell to 7.
3. Cast Doom via sequencer, bumping Firkraag's save to 8.
4. Cast Greater Malison. Save at 12.
5. Cast Feeblemind with its -2 save penalty on top of Poppy's base -2 penalty for all enchantment spells, forcing a save at 16, six times at once.
...all in one round. The chance of Firkraag making every save is well below 1%.
But we have other big plans to deal with. For one, I'm replacing Jan, our only thief, with an Archer I will dual-class to mage. We'll be using Knock and spell protections to deal with locks and traps.
Fobie specializes in darts so he can use the +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars (note that the WoL trick can let us have 108 such darts at a time instead of 18) and shortbows so he can use the Tuigan Bow (which can strike as +3 with nonmagical ammo if we use Enchanted Weapon).
I don't have the Tactics mod installed, or its Generic Archer component that adds an Archer duplicate as a fighter kit to permit dual-classing, so I just use EEKeeper to add in the relevant abilities. Called Shot works with the WoL trick, and no enemies in the game, even with SCS and Ascension, have immunity to STR drain. I don't remember why I didn't do this before, but I think the reason is because I wanted to try to force failed saves without relying on Called Shot. But I've never really used Called Shot with the WoL much, so why not now?
The scroll scribing also lets me give Spell Immunity to all characters, finally solving our Remove Magic problem (at least until those SCS spellcasters hit us with Spell Thrust).
How much money does this cost? I don't know how much the mod normally charges for each scroll, so I'm using the scrolls' base values for each spell level (note that some scrolls are cheaper or more expensive than those of the same level, which I will ignore):
Level 1: 100
Level 2: 200
Level 3: 300
Level 4: 500
Level 5: 1000
Level 6: 2000
Level 7: 3000
Level 8: 5000
Level 9: 10000
Unfortunately, a Minor Spell Turning scroll won't do much with the scorcher loop, unlike a Spell Turning scroll, so if we want to bring out the Death Ray Zorcher, we'd have to shell out 6000 gold per casting.
Anyway, back to the gameplay. Sil tries out her new abilities on the cannibal halflings.
She has two WoL Boon of Lathander spells active but no DUHM, hence the 45 damage (normally she'd have 42 when properly buffed but without using both castings of BoL). She will only get more devastating when she can use Iron Golem form, so I think I finally have a name for this run.
1. Wand of Lightning
2. Legacy of Bhaal
3. Boon of Lathander
1->WoL
2->LoB
3->BoL
This is the WOLOBOR run. Or better yet, the Wobbler run.
The WoL+BoL trick isn't so effective against enemies with Stoneskins, but that's what disablers are for.
And when Sil gets unexpectedly debuffed by Spell Thrust and Remove Magic, destroying all of her buffs besides Polymorph Self (which is undispellable) at once, and nearly dies in seconds...
The rest of the party can bail her out while she's running around drinking WoL Potions of Healing.
And once we get out Archer/Mage to level 15, we can deal 6 STR damage per hit with Darts +5 at 9 APR and THAC0 below zero. And once we get our Cleric of Tyr/Mage to level 18, we can deal 5 INT damage per hit in Mind Flayer form at 8 APR at THAC0 below -10.
I am really, really not holding back in this run. Because screw LoB mode. I have Wands of Lightning.
Oh boy. Things went really, really, badly tonight. But, through perseverance and heroic refusal to give up, we prevailed, and we survived.
First, I, perhaps foolishly, decided to confront Rieltar at the top floor of the Candlekeep Library. Despite calling me out on my foolishness, he was willing to let us go, but threatened us that we'd be arrested as soon as we walked out of the library. I don't know what it was, perhaps greed for gold and xp, or perhaps foolish pride and the rememberance of Yeslick, but I ordered the party to attack.
Minsc succumbed quickly to either Rigid Thinking or Confusion (not sure), and then there were two Lightning Bolts. Minsc fell. The rest of us managed to defeat Rieltar's evil party, but, there was no chance to raise Minsc before being arrested and sent out through the catacombs by Tethtoril. We gathered as much equipment as we could carry without our fallen strongest party member.
Sigh. Then, things went very badly again at the bottom of the catacombs. Ajanits fell to concentrated physical and acid attacks before I realized he was in trouble. Both warriors were down! I really did not know what we were going to do.
The four non-warriors were left standing. I had Branwen drink a Potion of Strength, so she could drag our two fallen warriors behind us (i.e. carry their heavier equipment). I had Imoen drink a Potion of Invisibility to scout out the caves and find us a way out. We were all fatigued from two Haste spells from Dynaheir that had gotten us through greater doppelgangers and the enemy adventuring party sent by Sarevok.
I was beginning to lose hope that we would survive.
Imoen found our way out - but it was guarded by two basilisks!
I had Dynaheir cast one of her emergency Protection from Petrification spells on Branwen, who had to kill both basilisks with her one attack per round.
Brave, brave Lady Branwen! Lady Branwen led the way!
In fear of Protection from Petrification wearing off suddenly, I had Lady Dynaheir risk her life by running up and finishing off the last basilisk with Magic Missiles.
Brave, brave, Lady Dynaheir! Lady Dynaheir saved the day!
We made it out of the catacombs, still fatigued by Haste spells, and dragging the bodies of our two warriors, in full plate mail, behind us. We thought we might die from fatigue. But, we made it to the Temple of Lathander in Beregost! Praise be!
Here we stand safe, though falsely accused of murder. I'm not sure what we'll do next.
Tonight's session reminded me again why we do no-reload games. Coming back against such overwhelming odds is very thrilling. Continuing to press on in the game with your party, no matter what happens (except for Charname's death, and I kind of wish that weren't a thing, as it isn't in IWD), can be very, very rewarding, and also leaves one feeling true to the spirit of D&D.
"It's not over 'til the last party member falls!"
Meet Poots The Mendicant, cleric of... Garl Glittergold I guess?, professional hobo and amateur murderhobo (adventurer for those with a more refined vocabulary).
Wont report constantly on him since Im not much of a writter, but if anything interesting happens I'll post it. I SUCK at spellcasting classes so this run will be basically me learning how to use a cleric.
I didn't want to jinx it sharing my newest try too soon because I've never played a pure thief before, but I'm doing all right. With Alano, the half-orc bounty hunter, everything has been easier than expected. To have a couple of deadly traps makes a HUGE difference in the most dangerous encounters. I'm trying not to meta-play, so I scout a lot but I admit that I trapped the heck out of the mage in the FAI. I know that a half-orc is not the best choice for a thief, but I put a 19 to strength and it is very satisfying being able to actually kill stuff with my thief. Dice rolls were decent, so I also put a 19 to CON, just for the convenience of healing while traveling as soon as I get the tome. My weapon of choice this time is the staff because... c'mon literally everybody in Candlekeep uses a staff.
I have cleared most of the wilderness areas with a party of four (Imoen, Khalid & Jaheira). I recruited Minsk only to rescue Dynaheir but I couldn't resist the temptation of giving him Brage's cursed sword. He died against Sendai and co. (actually Alexander got him) but seeing him double-berserkering was just too good to miss. I raised him because I want him in Baldurs Gate 2, but after that Alano didn't want him in the party, so they offered to get Dynaheir for him (and so they did).
The gods rewarded me with a bolt of polyforming! That gibberling must have had an awesome backstory, I'm sure. This is twice as awesome because my charname uses crossbow. I MUST turn Sarevok into a squirrel. Or at least one of his lackeys with name.
After that, they recruited Branwen to go to the bandit camp. I will keep a party of 5 until I get Yeslick in the mines. I always feel bad telling him to go away after rescuing him, so I will roams the Realms with three healers to take care of me. Since charname is pure thief, I dualed Imoen very early, so I have all the arcane magic that I need.
My charname has very rarely been in real danger, which confirms my idea that the best way to keep away from harm is not fighting at all
Even though I feel more confident this time, I am going to wait a little before heading to the cloackwood. I will probably do Ulcaster and Firewine next.
Everything is going well.
Anyway here's no less than three reports on three different runs! Maybe you guys could tell me which one you think is the most interesting for you to follow. Restartitis has me in its grasp again, so your input is welcome!
Maeve, NE Human Kensai, 2nd BG1 report
Maeve befriended Kagain, Edwin (who succesfully Horrored Tarnesh, providing the party access to the FAI and Dorn), Viconia (with the party successfully disrupting and kiting the Flaming Fist cleric), and Shar-Teel - in that order. Killing Algernon for his cloak and recruiting Vicky had lowered the party's reputation so much that the Fist and Bounty Hunters were now after them. When they arrived in Nashkel, a number of hostile Amnian Soldiers awaited them. The companions prevailed with the help of non-hostile soldiers who picked Maeve's side, but killing those soldiers reduced their rep to 1. Bounty hunters spawned, and Nashkel basically became inaccessible.
South of Nashkel the party successfully handled Dorn's rivals, thanks in large part to the fact that most of them focused their aggression on Dorn, who was not yet killable. Dorn joined and the party traveled to the Mine. They killed Greywolf with some kiting, and were then reminded by Edwin of their promise to seek out and slay Dynaheir. So, off to the Cloudpeaks they went. They defeated Sendai with a Hold Person by Viconia, but avoided Delgod and Alexander. Vax gave them more trouble. Although it had become clear to me that the adage 'Ranged is king in BG1' applies a fortiori in Nightmare mode, and although the Gauntlets of Dexterity were still two maps away, Kagain had to tank Vax in a pinch, due to movement space issues. The Dwarf panicked when he got hit once or twice. His morale is so low he really needs a Bard or Remove Fear to keep him focused. Dorn didn't do much better, though at least he didn't panic.
The companions decided they'd try and find this Dynaheir anyway, but changed their mind when Zal almost one-shotted Viconia. They went Basilisk hunting instead. Maeve used a green PfPetrification scroll, and with her throwing daggers, she did a fine job kiling the lizards but she wouldn't be able to finish that job. Mutamin found her and Slowed her. Maeve went invisible right after that. But the Gnome cast Detect Invisibility, and Horrored Maeve before she could quaff another invisibility potion. Thankfully Viconia arrived soon enough to remove the fear effect. When the Slow effect had expired, Maeve went looking for remaining Basilisks, but Mutamin saw her first, and removed her PfPetrification with a Remove Magic. Maeve went invisible again, and Mutamin found the Kensai's companions in a remote corner of the area.
Back in Beregost there were Flaming Fist Enforcers, including a Battle Mage, a (sneak-attacking) Scout, and two Archers. Kagain was hit by the Archers, and panicked again, complicating a swift escape. He was dismissed, and so was Shar-Teel at Near Death status. Viconia was killed by the Scout, and raised at the Temple of Lathander, where Maeve left her for a while, in order to go looking for the Elf's equipment (Ankheg plate among other things). She found the equipment, but the companions ran into Neera, and although they told her they weren't interested in protecting her, and told her pursuers that they might have her, the Thayans went hostile anyway. (Is this supposed to happen?) The Thayan then one-shotted Dorn with a Flame Arrow, so Maeve ran off to raise him too. She left him with Vicky at the Temple, so now she's only 'disliked'. However the Enforcers (with a collective pool of about 850 HPs) are still in Beregost waiting for Maeve to show up again.
In sum, the Kensai has about 2k GP, almost no resources in terms of potions, items, and throwing daggers, and no easy way of boosting her rep as apparently reputation boosts at Temples are more expensive in either v.2.1 or Nighmare mode. I honestly don't know where to go with her, and I consider abandoning this run, and maybe giving her another chance from scratch.
Shade, CG Human Archer and custom party, 1st BG1 report
My experiences with Maeve only made me want to succeed more. I rolled a custom party that might be fun and hopefully effective. The party is led by Shade, a female Human Archer specializing in darts. (Other starting profs: * Flails/Morningstars, * S&S-style)
Btw one reason I restored full Druid spell progression for Cleric/Rangers is that the Shaman class doesn't work in my install, probably a conflict with SCS. The Shaman I rolled made way for Shade, who became the protagonist.
Shade's companions are: Alaam, a Human Wizard Slayer (** in axes and ** in two-handed swords), who should dual into Thief come level 7;
I think this party has good potential when it comes to disabling. Alaam's attacks impose a spell failure penalty, Shade's and Gizi's Called Shot will lower saving throws vs spells, so that Aine, Guennean and Shade will be able to hold, charm, stun, etc the enemy. This is pretty much the same plan as I had for my Enchantress Eirian and her companions, but that wasn't a Nightmare run while this run is. Enemies have ridiculous amounts of HPs, more APR and they hit hard, so straight melee does not seem a viable approach. There is no fast killing in Nightmare mode I think. Still I would have liked another single or multi-class warrior.
The crew did not fight Shank or Carbos, as there was no oil of speed from Deder. But they were very diligent in the first two areas, patiently taking down all the Gibberlings they could find as well as a rogue Ogre. Hobgoblins and Ogrillons south of Beregost met the same fate. Poor Aine served as bait every time, as the others were the superior marksmen. Landrin's Spiders were dealt with by Gizi and Shade alone.
The companions pulled into Nashkel where Shade enjoyed a considerable armor upgrade (Ankheg), and Noober and the Great Gazib provided some cheap XP.
Further south, Greywolf came a bit too early for the party. They had to retreat when Kobolds joined him, got waylaid by Hobgoblin archers who killed Aine, returned to see if Greywolf could be approached anew without any Kobold intervention, but had to retreat again. Pathfinding issues on the way out (one of the party cutting him short) then saw Dwaim succumb to a single blow by Greywolf.
The companions returned to the Nashkel Mines Area, where they lured a bunch of Kobolds toward the mine entrance, where Amnian soldiers helped fight them, and where Aine Blinded two of them. The companions prevailed, and could now try once more to defeat Greywolf. They did when Guennean Held the bounty hunter just before he could close the gap with the party.
Again I'm not sure how to proceed. Of course, having all her companions and not being harassed by Flaming Fist Enforcers and bounty hunters means that Shade is in a much better situation then Maeve, even though the latter is more experienced.
So far the combination of SCS and Nightmare has made BGEE almost a new game to me. I have to think every step, as I haven't found a safe and sure way to comfort yet. For the moment the party are unfit to deal with hordes, with ranged attackers, and with (most) Mages. This leaves only individual, melee targets. There aren't many of those. One Mage the companions did take on was Tarnesh. Aine had picked Web as his first level 2 spell and cast a few of those at the wizard while out of sight. The others then finished the mage with ranged attacks.
It was only later that I realized that Aine isn't supposed to cast Web spells, as I 'kitted' him as an Enchanter. When leveling up, he can still pick Evocation spells. I considered removing the Enchantment specialization school or the Web spell, but Aine has been an Enchanter Sorecer the entire time, and the Web spell has already been used, so I will keep Web as an idiosyncrasy like the special abilities that some of the game's NPCs have.
Saoni, 4th BG1 report
I've also made some progress with Saoni, whose run I keep abandoning and returning to. This is BGEE v1.3, so no Nightmare mode, 'only' insane, but more role-played. It's actually quite a fun run with a fun party, and banter. This one has the BG1 NPC Project for funny banter and a beautiful romance with Xan. As I mentioned in my previous post, the companions were all noncommital adventurers, and fond travelers, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they've seen quite a lot of the Sword Coast since the last time I reported on them. One destination was Adoy's hideout, where the companions had to fight several Thayans before they could learn from Adoy how they could control Neera's wild magic. There were two fighters, an Ogre and two wizards, including their leader Ekandor. Saoni was buffed with Shield, PfE, MI (and possibly Blur) and opened with a wand Fireball. Garrick stunned Ekandor with his wand of paralyzation, and with Safana he focused on the guards. Xan slew paralyzed Ekandor. Saoni proceeded with wand Scorchers to injure several enemies at a time. Unfortunately AI was on (I think it's on by default once the game is started, because I never want it to be on), so Neera - who had been invisible - also joined the fray. She caught the Ogre's eye, and in fleeing from the monster got herself killed in Saoni's scorcher.
She was there when the party saved a nobleman from a mountain bear, Skull Trapped Neville to death, slew a pack of Gnolls with Drizzt, the Half-Ogres that had injured Bjornin, and the party of Teyngan with more Skull Traps. She witnessed Xan loot three vaults in the Valley of the Tombs and saw him nearly bested by Mustard Jellies.
It was after these adventures that the companions decided that it was in everyone's best interests if Neera left the party to leave and do some soul searching.
The party safely navigated the Ulcaster School, relying on Invisibility and on Xan (PfFear and potion of free action) to deal with the Wolf of Ulcaster. The also cleared the Firewine Plains without incident, and the Wood of Sharp Teeth (Teven & Co were slain, Raiken was joined to infilitrate the bandit camp).
All of the above is from a week or two ago. All I did today with this party was visit the bandit camp. I was a bit nervous before the battle in the tent, what with my having become used to Nightmare mode creatures kicking major ass, and with previous solo wizards having difficulty in the tent. Nevertheless, Saoni handled the tent solo. The others were invisible. Saoni buffed with potions (magic protection, defense, fire protection, regeneration, speed, free action) and spells (PfE, Blur, MI). Garrick did cast a Web but after that it was just Saoni running around wand-scorching the opposition until they were all dead. There was one incident, Safana started to attack (once more forgot to switch off AI), but repaired that mistake with a Sandthief Ring charge.
The party is currently in Cloakwood. Somehow this playthrough fails to grab my attention for long periods, but I'm aware that this is the run I'm most likely to make it into SoD with, which would be a blind adventure, an exciting prospect.
I've been bringing up a Cavalier through BG1 over the last week or so, playing a bit here and there. I've just done so much already that I'm like "Where do I start reporting?"
I really enjoy reading about everyone's games. But it has also been nice to be able to play and not worry about recording it all.
Welp, we lost our no-reload to a bugged-out greater wolfwere on Werewolf Island. I've never seen this bug before, and I never listened before to all the people who have made complaints about it in the past. This wasn't even Karoug (meaning the only melee weapon we had that could scratch it, and I do mean SCRATCH it, was the Aldeth's bastard sword.)
The first screen shot here was taken after I got surprised by the presence of a greater wolfwere outside the main ship. The second screenshot was taken dozens of rounds later, after expending dozens of Magic Missile and Chromatic Orb spells, and dozens of charges off our wands of Magic Missile, Lightning, Cold, and Flame Strikes.
It was the same every round. Our spells, wands, and maybe one hit from the bastard sword would get him down to half his hit points. Next round, he was back at full hit points.
Now I see that there is clearly a bug here. At least I know to never, ever go to Werewolf Island again in the EE's.
What a shame. I was really enjoying this. Even though the EE is causing this, it also gave me a quicksave (The fourth and last slot, glad it happened now!) to revert back to before going to Werewolf Island, so I guess it's a wash.
I have a bitter, bitter taste in my mouth, but I'll probably continue my run in the minimal reload thread, since I was having some fun with my skald before this.
Keep having fun with Nicholas Todd.
People often say that the extra XP is worth the cost, but LoB's disadvantages are (1) double damage from enemies with (2) an extra 1 APR, (3) about four times the staying power, and (4) an extra 12 levels. That's making the game more than ten times as difficult, and tripling your XP doesn't make you ten times as strong... or even twice as strong. I'd cut my party's XP down to a quarter if it gave me the bonuses that LoB enemies get, even if it meant I never got any HLAs, ever.
Also, you don't really get triple XP (double base XP +1000) in LoB mode, because half of your party's XP in a normal game comes from quest rewards, not enemies.
And LoB's XP bonuses will completely vanish once you hit the XP cap, in the middle of SoA. Then the enemies just get stronger and stronger while you remain stagnant. You probably start LoB mode thinking about how quickly you'll get HLAs... but not so much about the very agonizing period before then, or the time when your enemies start using HLAs as well, and LoB enemies once again reassert their total superiority.
Also, @Blackraven, bear in mind that Called Shot won't lower enemy saves until level 8. The first casting you get at level 4 should only penalize enemy THAC0.
The plan for now is to use dual Long Swords, and add in Bastard Swords as I level. I'm already a good way in, so this is going to be a speedy update rather than highly detailed.
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Rules: Insane (no bonus damage, just extra enemies). For NPC deaths, I'm playing by "three strikes and you're out."
Mods: I've attached my Weidu log and a picture if you're interested. Notable mods include SCS, Tweaks Anthology, BG1 NPC, BG1 Unfinished Business, Rogue Rebalancing, Item Revisions and Spell Revisions
Things went rather poorly for my companions when we stumbled across this raided caravan...
I needed money to raise my new friends from the dead, and the solo XP would help me level every so slightly sooner. Between random spawns in the wild and (maybe?) an ambush on the way to the FAI, I gained a level. Poor Tarnesh never saw me coming...
We picked up Khalid and Jaheira and slowly made our way south towards Nashkel. I didn't think to capture a picture of it, but both Monty and Xzar were cut down by those Flaming Fist guys south of the FAI. Monty probably shouldn't have insulted them like that...though in his defense they were acting pretty hostile to begin with. I decided not to go back to the temple and raise them again (for now).
Imoen is rewarded for her patience, and Noober lives to see another day (though just barely):
As we were passing through Nashkel, we stopped in at the local pub. We heard stories from the villagers about some of the local troubles. Apparently their guard captain went completely nuts and killed his family! Also a local artist by the name of Prism absconded with a very valuable pair of emeralds and ventured off into the wilderness.
We finally made it down to the Nashkel Mines, and lo and behold we found Prism! He was love struck by some elf chick he met a while back, and had stolen the gems to finish his tribute to her. He seemed not quite right in the head, so Castus let his little fantasy play out before retrieving the emeralds. Right as the man finished the job, a bounty hunter named Greywolf appeared. He was quite an abrasive fellow, and thought that we were there to steal his bounty.
After a tough fight we triumphed, and Sir Castus earned himself a shiny new sword!
Now armed with a much better weapon, Cas was feeling more confident about tackling the suped up Kobolds in the mines. We didn't have too much difficulty with them until the final portion when we ran into mass amounts of Commandos and a few Shamans. Jaheira was struck down by a Lightning Bolt cast by one of the Shamans.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish the final battle without Jaheira, so we made the long trek back to town to raise her. Once we patched up our wounds and felt refreshed, we went back down into the mines. The battle was actually not too bad, although we did get swarmed by skeletons. After looting the chest and discovering more about the plot going on, we freed a rather depressed mage named Xan. He's a despondent little fellow, but I'm taking him under my wing for the time being.
With the mines cleared, we headed back into town to deliver the good news and unload our loot. While recuperating at the local tavern, we meet up with a foreigner named Minsc. He's a little funny in the head and talks to his pet hamster like it's a person...but he's in need of aid so we're gonna give it to him! A friend of his was taken captive by a band of gnolls, holed up far to the southwest of town. Now that I've got two more party members to replace them, I gave Monty and Xzar a proper burial.
We restocked on supplies and marched off into the mountains. With Xan slinging the occasional spell and Minsc charging into battle with his two-handed sword, we had little trouble clearing out the areas between town and the Gnoll Stronghold. We were almost there when we stumbled across a pack of gnolls guarding the area. Their leader challenged our "champion," aka the first person he talked to, to a battle. He picked our fiesty, pink-haired little sister, and she kicked his ass! She didn't even get a scratch on her.
After a long march through the mountains, we were getting a little tired. Unfortunately our rest was cut short when Minsc was taunted by another gnoll we met. The creature had recently fled the Stronghold, having been sent away because he was a little too evil for their liking. His plans to "roast Dynaheir and eat her flesh" were cut short by Minsc.
We made short work of the Gnoll Stronghold, picking up the Charisma tome and Gauntlets of Dexterity along the way. Cas now has a natural 18 Charisma
Spell Revisions does wonders for a lot of spells. Here's Dynaheir flexing her muscles and casting Sound Burst on a group of Hobgoblins:
This summary turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. But I kept progressing and not writing down his story...now that I'm relatively caught up (I've done a bit more traveling since that last picture) I can better stay on top of it!
Alano, the hunter
Alano solved the mystery of the kobolds in the halfing village and returned richer and wiser, but there were a few close calls. To my surprise, Kahrk the ogre mage was not a problem with a few traps well placed and Branwen's heroism. She waited out the ogre's multiple image with sanctuary and lured him to the traps, plus she gave the killing blow.Things didn't go as well inside the dungeon. First, Alano was almost killed by a trap.
The battle with the ogre mage behind the kobold attacks was tricky without traps of his own. Sure, Alano made short work of the second mage that was ready to ambush the group near the exit of the dungeon.
The ogre mage was harder. Imoen risked going front line to hold the ogre and a kobold commando with a web, and so she did, but not before he confused Khalid and Alano himself. My two main damage-dealers were trying to kill each other, and Imoen was severely injured by an ogrillon and a couple of kobolds that flanked her. Branwen and Jaheira bravely held the flanks while Imoen got out of danger. After killing the ogrillon and the kobolds, druid and cleric stoned the ogre to death. Great job, ladies! The dudes, meanwhile, were still confused and trying to kill each other. Fortunately, they were using ranged weapons and I guess they had better reflexes than aim. Even though they were at point blank range...
Eventually, Khalid and Alano recovered their senses and the dungeon was secured (not thanks to them).
The day was far from being done, though. After giving the good news to the halfling major, the party stumbled upon another group of bounty hunters. Maybe Khalid and Alano were trying to make up for the embarrassing final battle with the ogre mage, because they went recklessly close to the attackers. The plan was to lure them to a trap that Imoen had set a little before (Alano frequently forgets how much Imoen has learned about trap-making from him). Before one can say "Portalbendarwinder", Alano had been frozen by a hold person spell and Khalid was injured trying to defend the helpless half-orc. Seeing the dire situation, Jaheira threw a potion of explosions to the mercenaries, and Imoen used a wand of terror that we had bought from Thalantyr. Sadly, Khalid was too close to the action and was KOd by the fireball. Oh no! That, and another web from Imoen, and the bounty hunters were done, but the group paid a high price. Now I better revive Khalid or I will taste Jaheira's club.
Currently, I'm very interested in everything related to the LoB mode, and you combine it with the SCS (which I'm only thinking about for the future), so the story of Shade, CG Human Archer and her custom party, gets my vote.
@BelgarathMTH I haven't read about that bug before. I dare summon here @Gate70 (a dedicated bug fixer and a no-reload fan by the way) to have a look at this bug (as BelgarathMTH previously mentioned he didn't intend to create bug reports on the redmine):
Thanks
(& could you namedrop me as I'll forget to check back otherwise...)
In this page only, we have semiticgod, Pteran, Belgarath, Blackraven, lurith, toolarg and bengoshi (playing his Jester in the other thread) that's 7 players and even more runs!
I remember when this thread was created, we were wondering if we would ever manage to reach 50 pages and this is the 65th as of right now.
So congratulations everyone, keep being awesome!
I don't play the game at lot anymore since I can't play our multi-player run with bengoshi and Tresset, but I wanted to continue my Insane Nightmare playthrough with Yami, my F/M/T.
Last time I played him I was trying to enter Watcher's Keep but two level draining Wandering Horrors were blocking my path.
When I gave up and wanted to go back to Athkatla, I have been teleported to the Tactics Poison encounter which triggers if you have more than 3,000,000 XP which I got a lot earlier than usual since I was playing solo with Nightmare mode.
Needless to say, I have been demolished by these guys. They all see through invisibility, can poison you from range and level drain you in melee.
Back to Candlekeep!
The extra damage, HPs and attacks do make a difference.
@lurith nice to see your Bounty Hunter surprise you. I like him, keep it up.
@bengoshi, I need to check out your Jester
@Gotural, I'm surprised the poison encounter enemies could see through invisibility. The one time I played it, with Bardin, there was only one character that saw through invisibility. Bardin defeated it with ranged attacks and used the SotM to go invisible before the other enemies after each attack. Looking forward to your next run!
@Pteran, best of luck with your Cavalier. I wonder if he will be swayed to join the dark side of the force.
As far as my memory goes, at least 3 of them saw through invisibility and with the Nightmare mode HP, it was enough to prevent me to quickly dispatch them before I was overwhelmed by level drain.
It took place shortly after escaping Irenicus's dungeon, so I had very few items.
Maybe it could have been better if my simulacrums didn't fade after suffering a single point of damage (v1.3 bug).
Anyway I have started a Kensai, an Assassin and a Priest of Talos. Maybe I will report their progress soon but I won't be able to post any screenshots.
This save file is for BG:EE 2.1 with SoD
I've saved it just before the greater wolfwere, who is named Palin. After loading the save game, move the party due north, and you should run straight into Palin, who will force conversation and ask you to follow him a bit to the east. As soon as you get there, he will spawn four regular werewolves, and equip a bow. On the next round, he will morph into his greater wolfwere form.
The "bug" isn't the presence of a second greater wolfwere on the island per se (although I don't consider that good design, since you haven't gotten to the ship yet to get the two Baldur's weapons), but rather the extreme regeneration rate - he regenerates about half his hit points every round.
There is some mention of a "stacking bug" with Karoug's regeneration in old threads, and some mention of there being a BG2 version of the greater wolfwere that has way more hit points and regeneration than the original BG1 version from TotSC. But, nobody seems to know for sure what is going on. When newer players of the EE's complain about the regeneration, all the veterans just assume that the player doesn't know how to fight him.
So, it might not be a bug, but rather some kind of design mistake, intentional or not.
If it is intentional, my problem with Palin being a second greater wolfwere is that this encounter is outside, where you can't use tricks like lighting ricochet, and, as I said, you do not have the two weapons of Baldur. What I do know is that I have never had any trouble at all beating Werewolf Island in 18 years of playing, before now.
I'd like to challenge anyone in the thread to see if they can beat Palin. My skald has a Slow spell that might help if it sticks, Dynaheir has two Haste ready, and we have an inventory full of wands that both my skald and Dynaheir can use. Imoen can chip away at him with a Wand of Missiles. We have some Arrows of Piercing. Would those work? Branwen has some Hold Person. No Dooms, but she could get some.
Also, can you beat him without expending so many resources that there is nothing left for the fight with Karoug? And also, if there's one extra greater wolfwere, there could be others.
My solution is that I'm just not going here in the EE's again, but I would enjoy hearing about somebody else being able to beat it from where this save is made.
EDIT: Just took a quick shot at it. I tried double Fireballs (Dynaheir's and my wands), and hit him with the +3 bastard sword. Also lots of disablers (none of which stuck - he made one save on a roll of 6, resisted the others). He has high magic resistance, *and* magic damage resistance. After being hit with two fireballs, and another two the next round, plus some hits with the sword, he was still at full hit points, while his four werewolf friends were smoking piles of ashes on the ground.
EDIT 2: Oh yes, my difficulty is on Core Rules. It's important that you have your game set on the same if you try the save file.
EDIT: Tried it, Wand of Paralyzation doesn't work. It says "Wand not effective" or something.
Usual settings, core, scs with all installations except no items in spellhold, moderately harder spawns.
I started a NG Archer named Pathos, he cruised through prison and got himself the fantastic tuigan bow. Was going for Jan and figured me Minsc and Jaheira would have no trouble freeing Viconia to set her free. The cleric took three arrows to the face while casting but managed to cast charm person on mainchar even so, Pathos failed his save, I fled to the guards, the guards proceeded to kill Pathos and end my run.
Worst. Run. Ever.
Now for my favorite class the FMT, going for 2 dw, 2 katana, 2 dagger, half-elven. Named Ethos.
Over two rounds, we blasted him with four Fireballs and two Flame Strikes, with Ajantis standing right in the middle of it.
The second round of Fire hit him just the split second before he would have regenerated all the damage from the first round, so timing is key.
I'm not sure this same strategy would work with Karoug, because of the close quarters. Maybe we could get enough fire resistance spread around. We're holding more potions.
Thing is, I need these resources to fight Sarevok and the very hard dungeon in SoD that follows him. If I play the Island through like this, I might not have anything left.
If this is all intentional, it might be a good thing for anyone who wants a huge SCS style challenge. If I ever do it again in a no-reload, I'll know what to do on this one encounter. I still think it's kind of crazy, though.
It's definitely cost me my place here in this thread. I'm going to take one reload and continue my run in the minimal reload thread, without doing Werewolf Island.
I'd love to hear from a no-reload veteran that they've done the whole Werewolf Island scenario with this new difficulty. I apologize for calling it a bug if it was intentional. I'm still not sure I agree with it or like it, but, oh well, I know some people have been asking for a more SCS-like experience in the unmodded game.
Thanks
I have no mods.
What your video tells us is that this is an SoD thing specifically.