It's okay with me either way, but when this thread started, I think the idea was brought up by some old-timers like @Alesia_BH and @Gate70 that nobody from this forum had ever successfully completed and documented a full no-reload trilogy run. I thought that was why @Ygramul named the thread "Maybe This Time".
So, it seems like it confuses the issue to mix minimal reloads with no-reloads. I know that on the old Bioware boards, where many of the veteran no-reloaders are still posting runs, their community rules are rather draconian, not because they try to force it, but because they just don't reload, ever. I've seen them end runs because of bugs and computer crashes. It's how they play, a socially accepted fact of life for them. The people from the Big Leagues (i.e., the Bioware Boards) won't consider a no-reload trilogy run successful unless it's exactly what it says on the tin.
I'll let some other people chime in with their opinions before I post any minimal reloading in here.
Question, @Ygramul , and @everybody . Are we going to post both no-reloads and minimal reloads in this thread now? Because if so, there's not really a point in my posting into a second thread after I lose my no-reload status.
I don't have a staunch religious perspective on what should be posted here as long as the spirit of the thread is kept intact.
This thread started with just my OCD attempts at BGEE/BG2EE with SCS (with various other restrictions as listed in the original post), but later became home also to IWDEE runs, for example.
Some people play with no mods and report role play-heavy runs, some play Insane difficulty with SCS. Some continue after minor glitches resulting death, some don't. Some meta-game, some don't.
Basically, all is welcome. You should not feel ostracized because of an artificial expectation and just feel free declare your own game balance. (Example: My Dragon Disciple died to Irenicus at end of BG2 to what I regarded as a SCS-induced glitch. I decided to continue the run into ToB instead of restarting.)
All I ask, in the spirit of the no-reload concept, is narrative honesty: as long as one declares how they play, what happens, and their decision to incorporate it to their game, all is fine.
That being said, Death is a worthy outcome of a no-reload run. Our collective experience grows with every Death, including matters of luck. (... which is why the best no-reloaders leave little room for luck.)
Alright so I started a new run this morning with Alexander, a Human Berserker using Bastards Swords and Shields. His stats were (yes, were) 18/63, 15, 17, 16, 9, 12 and he reached Nashkel alongside Imoen, Jaheira, Khalid, Xzar and Montaron at first.
After cleaning the mines, Jaheira, Khalid, Monty and Xzar left and he picked up Xan instead. Everything was going well until he explored an old yuan-ti temple (from Unfinished Business I think) and triggered a Fireball trap in insane difficulty, pulverizing him.
It was very fun nonetheless and I'm creating a new character as I write this.
Well. My run will be a noreload starting from sod. The minimal reload from bgee I did not post in the thread because I thought it inappropriate.
I would somewhat agree with the sentiment that a run where normal (e.g. non-glitch; non-bug) deaths are regularly ignored and continued over would indeed break the sentiment of a no-reload run. Basically, it is up to the player to decide where they draw the line.
@BelgarathMTH 's thread serves an important purpose by giving people the option to post minimal-reload runs just like that.
(My own personal OCD usually implies that immediately delete a savegame when I die, even through the frustration of mistakes and bad luck, to make sure that the Tanarri doesn't tempt me to reload.)
I think I'll keep posting my current minimal reload here, since it's already mostly through and I've only had to deal with one reload so far. But in the future, I guess I'll move any future minimal reload runs, whether they began as such, or are simply failed no-reload runs, over to @BelgarathMTH's thread.
Alright, made it to Nashkell once again so I guess this run is a go. The run started with a bad omen as I failed to learn Armor from the very first scroll I found despite having a 95% chance of success. Not good. Only casualty so far is Khalid who lost his life in a bar brawl at Beregost. I honestly thought Marl could only knock people out, not outright gore them. Well, RIP Khalid. Mods are BG1NPC, BG1UB, Chatty Imoen, TA: Icon Improvements and AT: Instant casting time for Bhaal powers and warrior innates. Difficulty is Core Rules. The character:
So far all his spells have done absolutely nothing.
I barely remember the Coiled Cabal fight now since it's been so long, but I'll reconstruct the battle anyway.
I begin with an assault by the Efreet brigade. Laosha monitors the situation from afar.
Wary of being attacked, I cast Teleport Field in case the Yuan-ti spot the party. But I fail to prepare for a more important threat.
Our defenses vanish. Sil hides the party while the Efreet keep the Coiled Cabal busy. Unfortunately, they haven't fared well against the Yuan-ti's disablers, and I have control over none of them.
I restore some of our buffs, and a WoL Limited Wish brings back all our level 1-4 spells. I also grant the party Minor Globes of Invulnerability.
But that was a very poor choice. MGOI blocks Remove Paralysis, our only cure for one of the nastiest disablers in the game.
And MGOI does not block any of the enemy's lower-level disablers.
Poppy struggles to knock out the enemy. She fails, and the enemy keeps making progress on breaking us down. I draw the party away to the east, to the extent that I can actually give them any orders.
Running out of options, I bring out the Horn of Valhalla. Looks like the horn, unlike the Efreeti Bottle, can't bypass the summoning cap using the Wand of Lightning.
The berserkers are weak and they're beyond my control, but I don't have much else to throw out. Confusion has crippled our party, and Fobie slays Espellier without dealing a single point of damage.
He has Called Shot active, but I've tested it and he's not high enough level to deal STR drain. STR drain could explain Espellier's sudden death at full health with Stoneskins, but Fobie shouldn't have been able to pull it off in the first place, unless LoB's level bonuses on enemies can somehow get applied to confused party members.
Our berserker summons go up in smoke, but Sil holds off the next spell coming our way.
Sil has long since run out of BoL spells, and has basically no damage output to speak of.
Laosha recovers from Chaos, only to fail his save against another Chaos spell. To the east, Sil chases around a Yuan-ti Mage with the Flail of Ages, but can't do anything with it. Poppy, however, has a Wand of Frost, and with Sil blocked by a Protection from Cold spell that we recovered using a WoL Limited Wish, Poppy can safely use the WoL Wand of Frost on the Yuan-ti Mage without worrying about destroying Sil.
Things to the west aren't looking so good.
The enemy targets Fobie with the same attack, but somehow Fobie only gets hit by a quarter of the full blast.
Some weird stuff going on. Fobie kills Espellier with inexplicable STR drain and then explicably escapes most of a Flame Arrow, with no spell protections or even Stoneskin to shield him. But I prefer to roll with bugs unless they render the game unplayable.
Whatever. I raise everyone with a WoL Rod of Resurrection.
Then Laosha dies instantly. Fobie hides the party from further murdalization and the party weathers an Emotion spell that could easily have proven fatal.
We bring out some summons despite the enemy's objections and finally break through the Yuan-ti Mage's Stoneskins.
More enemies await to the west. Sil brings back her Animate Dead spells with a WoL Wondrous Recall and the party prepares for the next fight.
How are we going to kill those Yuan-ti with neither Sil's WoL BoL or the Efreet brigade? Espellier marches forth.
The enemies no longer have MGOI to defend them. We stretch our remaining resources and attack them directly. Without their spell protections, the Coiled Cabal is not nearly as dangerous.
Done. As tough as they are, the Coiled Cabal only lasts as long as their spell protections. And since the WoL empowers Wondrous Recall and Limited Wish, we can restore our weaker resources in moments, even if our best stuff--Spell Immunity, Improved Haste, Boon of Lathander, Divine Favor, Sunfire, and the Efreeti Bottle--is gone. The WoL also stretches out the Rod of Resurrection. It makes our party quite sturdy.
I notice a Thrall on the way out, still petrified from a previous trap. Now that the Warden is dead and the orb thingy is destroyed, what happens if I un-petrify her?
Not sure what that's about, but at least she's free.
So much stuff to post. First, we kill off one more enemy before Spellhold. Normally rakshasas are a nightmare for caster-heavy parties due to their spell level immunities and extremely low AC, but there's pretty much nothing that Laosha can't hit with a WoL Divine Favor active.
Finally, to Brynnlaw. How do we deal with Perth the Adept? Sunfire to disrupt his spells, then debuffers and Breach to bring him down, with Sil using the Sling of Everard for its toggle-able +5 enchantment.
Now we can try out an old trick of mine. The Wand of Lightning can also be used to duplicate the Book of Daily Spell, provided you drop the extra copies every time you perform the duplication. Combining the two creates six copies of the book, all on the same page. This means you have a 10% chance of ending up with 6 volumes of Burning Hands you can no longer duplicate, but if you get anything else, you can continue duplicating them indefinitely.
I don't get Burning Hands on the first try. This means I can produce as many as I like. I drop so many on the ground that the game starts to slow down a little.
Try as I might, I can't get a copy of the book with Farsight. I settle for multiple copies of everything else: Spell Turning, Protection from Evil, Stinking Cloud, Wyvern Call, Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, and Fireball. I can create the Death Ray Zorcher at will, but I don't see a need quite yet.
I get stumped fighting Bhaal in the dream sequence, since I left the Efreeti Bottle and a bunch of other goodies in the hands of my party members, where Poppy can't use them. Then I realize I can just duplicate one of the copies of the Book of Daily Spell Poppy still has in her inventory, and carry them into the library with DUHM (otherwise Poppy's STR is too low). We attack Bhaal with a horde of Wyverns.
In Spellhold we learn that Beholders are vulnerable to Feeblemind. Called Shot is a big help here.
We have to fight a lich, but a WoL Protection from Undead scroll keeps the whole party invisible, and SI: Abjuration prevents the lich from dispelling the scroll with a blind Remove Magic. Then we just debuff him and smack him with the upgraded Mace of Disruption.
I finally create an auto-buffing spell, one which takes into account our ability to combine Limited Wish-resting and Wondrous Recall with the Wand of Lightning. This means we can cover the entire party with Protection from Fire, Protection from Lightning, Death Ward, Free Action, Remove Fear, Protection from Evil 10' Radius, Shield, Blur, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, and Chaotic Commands. Poppy isn't supposed to be able to cast Shield and Valos isn't supposed to be able to cast Blur or Mirror Image due to their specializations, but instead of giving them alternate versions of the buffing spell, I just grant them an inherent immunity to those spells. I also make Sil and Laosha immune to Free Action so they can benefit from Improved Haste (which I may have to remove later on).
The spell takes less than a round to apply all the buffs and looks and sounds very pretty.
We fail to convince Lonk the Sane to release the prisoners on the first try, so I send forward a different character. This time, he changes his mind. Irenicus awaits.
But Irenicus is buffed by Improved Mantle instead of Absolute Immunity or PFMW+Protection from Normal Missiles. This means Fobie and Sil can equip nonmagical darts and bullets and break through his Stoneskins in a single round, disrupting him without even using any of our debuffers.
We debuff him anyway to maintain the pressure. Dradeel helps out.
For some reason the clones never spawn in. I didn't want to fight them anyway. Irenicus gets disabled by PW: Stun and we have to wait a few rounds before he wakes up and delivers his fleeing dialogue.
I take out almost everyone in City Sushi using the instant kill sword. I just don't want to fight them. I don't use it on the royalty, though. I blast them with disablers instead.
Ethos the FMT has solved a murder mystery in the bridge district, while there a captain Dennis was really eager to pick a fight, he got what he wished for and now Ethos is the proud owner of the Boomerang dagger, taking his damage range from 8-11 to 11-17. The casters of that Group failed their saves vs web but strangely enough our good mr Dennis managed to run free despite double web and greater malison, I have huge respect for RNG...
Same scenario in waukeens promenade, also a lot of bad rolls for Ethos and his crew resulting in quite a few spells wasted and the thief getting away, although to be fair he seemed like a decent sort. Fair play to him.
A few errands later I will try to get Hexxats bag of holding Before my second rest. I do have my trusted boomerang dagger, and hopefully that plus chaotic commands is enough for Ethos to solo Dragomir. I might risk a dangerous encounter in the sewers too, but the rakshasa is such a pain and that mage that hangs around in the northern part Always manages to surprise me in some way. Might want to save that one for a full spellbook. Once he saved vs web x 2 for 2-3 rounds straight, slow and chaos in the same fight, hilarously falling to a holy smite if i remember correctly.
We enter the Underdark. Nothing too exciting happens in the main area, with one exception: the Balor. How do I deal with a magic-resistant tank with lots of immunities and an attack that I'm pretty sure inflicts a vorpal strike?
I start by lowering his MR...
...but that was a complete waste of time. By the time his MR is down to zero, Fobie has struck him four times with WoL Called Shot, imposing a -24 save penalty, capped at a save vs. spell of 20 for the Balor. This means the Balor has a guaranteed failed save against a Dart of Stunning.
How can a Dart of Stunning affect a Balor? Well, it can't, because Balors require +3 weapons to hit.
Except Enchanted Weapon makes a Dart of Stunning strike as a +3 weapon. The Balor is stunned for 7 rounds. Sil and Laosha destroy the Balor with WoL BoL and WoL Divine Favor before the duration expires.
But we're not done yet. I'm going hunting for Beholders, which I never, ever do in my no-reload runs unless I'm using a clone with the Shield of Balduran. And I don't have the SoB. The solution?
Invisibility 10' Radius. And a Planetar!
Yes, that Planetar is locked by Paralyze. Even at 75 MR and excellent saving throws, a Planetar simply can't resist pressure from two measly Beholders. I bring out the Efreeti brigade and pulverize one of the Beholders with Laosha and Sil.
What about the other Beholders? Farsight and WoL Wand of Cloudkill spells from a separate room. The Beholders never even see us.
Unfortunately, the Hive Mother is highly magic-resistant, and eventually wanders out of the area of effect.
We threw out that Fire Storm because we weren't sure if the Hive Mother was going to track us down. The Fire Storm was there to give us an advance warning of its approach.
We have to tackle the Hive Mother directly. Our Planetar will still be our tank, given the Hive Mother's awful powers. Some other Beholders show up, which Espellier torches with Fireballs from the Book of Daily Spell.
While Espellier bombs the lesser Beholders, Sil pelts the Hive Mother with the Sling of Everard. When Sil gets hit by a second Anti-Magic Ray (her Spell Shield absorbed the first), Laosha jumps in to finish the job.
The Hive Mother wasn't the end of it, though. More clusters of elite Beholders appear in the southwest. We bombard them with more Cloudkill and Fireball spells while they fuss with our Planetar.
We get debuffed and run low on resources, and eventually are forced to bring out the Efreeti brigade to finish off the Beholders we no longer have the buffs to face directly.
The Beholder hive goes down. I haven't done that in a long time.
Next is the Kuo-toa lair. Since all they have are some low-level spells and stunning bolts that our party-wide Chaotic Commands buff can block, Espellier roasts them directly with Sunfire instead of launching Fireballs from afar, while Laosha and Sil deal with the prince.
We're also taking on the demon knights, just because I want that Girdle of Frost Giant Strength. Isn't my auto-buffing spell pretty?
How did we survive their nasty level draining attacks? We just prepped the battleground with Teleport Field and used missile weapons while our Planetar chased them around.
One last fight before we leave: the drow guarding the Underdark exit. Our Planetar takes most of the enemy's pressure, but Laosha does get blasted by a Holy Smite spell that could have almost killed him.
We're making strong progress when our Planetar suffers from some very, very bad luck.
How do we rescue it? In 2.1, victims of Greater Command don't wake up when struck. Luckily, clerics of Tyr can cast Acclamation, which cures most of the status effects that normal spells cannot, including sleep. To actually reach the Planetar, however, Laosha has to get past several enemies that are blocking his path, another problem we may solve with a simple Teleport Field spell.
Teleport Field scatters enemies without a saving throw and bypasses magic resistance. It's excellent for resolving tricky situations like this, and completely fustigates the enemy's melee power.
On the way, Laosha gets hit by Harm, which in my install does 150 damage for both enemies and player characters. But that damage comes in the form of crushing damage, which is easily blocked by Stoneskin, unlike other Cause Wounds spells. Laosha struts over to wake up the Planetar, and we are back in business.
The rest of the fight is uneventful, though we do see one cool thing. It seems that 2.1 still has a variant of the Blade Barrier/Globe of Blades bug, in which those two spells can strike infinitely while the game is paused if auto-pause is enabled. I don't know if that still works, but apparently Time Stop can trigger it. One of the drow casts Time Stop, and when it expires, his cleric buddy explodes.
We're on a roll. But I'm not stupid enough to jeopardize it by trying to tackle the Mind Flayer city. Even the WoL trick and Potions of Genius won't be enough to survive the place, I think, not when my SCS install forbids resting. We only have at most 8 castings of Chaotic Commands per day, and Free Action doesn't last as long. More importantly, most of our damage output against magic-resistant foes like Mind Flayers comes from the Efreeti brigade (which would quickly die to Psionic Blasts), the Planetar (which would die to Psionic Blasts, too), and Sil and Laosha, whose damage output only lasts for so many rounds. We can't handle a marathon like the Mind Flayer city.
Instead, we move on to Ust Natha. I always dread this place, because if I screw up the attack on the Egg Guards and fail to kill them within a few seconds, the whole city turns hostile, and the only way to escape is to kill Matron Mother Ardulace, an epic-level cleric with low AC and high MR. I only go to Ust Natha because the XP rewards are so high.
We still have to fight some Mind Flayers. Before we can begin the Ust Natha questline, we need to rescue Phaere from a trio of the things. Teleport Field is instrumental here. Laosha rescues our Planetar when it gets stunned.
I already have the Elder Orb stalk and the Kuo-toa Prince blood, so much of the work for Ust Natha is already done. I try my hand against the pit fights in the tavern, but Sil gets her defenses removed multiple times in the second fight by Remove Magic and the Nabassu's claws. It was very aggravating, but only cost us a few potions while Sil kited the thing until she could buff herself up with a new WoL BoL.
A common problem for me is Taso Kala, the drow lady that sends you off to fight the ooze priests. If you don't kill those guys and then get to Phaere within the hour, the city turns hostile, but you can sneak past Taso Kala.
Or just CTRL-Y her and save yourself the trouble. I've snuck past her enough times to get mighty tired of it.
What about those Egg Guards? With Drow Full Plate +5 and MR in the 60s or 70s, they will be really hard to kill before they sound the alarm (SCS makes them much better at turning the rest of the city hostile). But I have an ace up my sleeve.
Limited Wish gives you one casting of Shapechange. After you do it once, you can't ever do it again, until you learn the actual Shapechange spell. With WoL Divine Favor, Laosha will have almost automatic hits in Mind Flayer. Then, inside the place, I notice a troubling message.
Polymorph Self is a standard part of my auto-buffing spell, and Polymorph Self and Shapechange are mutually exclusive due to engine limitations. Laosha can't turn into a Mind Flayer.
I figure that I wouldn't have cast Polymorph Self had I not had that auto-buffing spell, so I decide to hit the guards four times in spider form and then CTRL-Y them, which would imitate having Mind Flayer form (either way, Laosha has a 95% hit chance, 8 APR, and we get no XP for the kill). But it turns out the Limited Wish Shapechange was completely unnecessary, as Laosha destroys each of the drow in four hits by sheer damage alone.
That was surprisingly easy. Turns out the Egg Guards still have low HP, and LoB mode only bumps it up so far. Sil nabs the eggs while under the effects of Sanctuary to avoid attracting the golems' attention and we cruise through the rest of the questline and up to the surface. All the required fights are already taken care of.
@semiticgod would you mind explaining exactly how the WoL trick works with spells? I've given it a whirl once or twice in BG with items (use the three charges on the wand, then swap items), but I don't seem to be doing it correctly with spells. Either that or I've just happened to select spells that it doesn't work with.
Before we tackle Bodhi's lair, I want to get a hold of Sunray, which works with the Wand of Lightning. Because I'm too stupid to just buy the Helm of Brilliance from the Adventurer Mart while I was shopping for level 9 spell scrolls, I decide to get Sunray from Daystar instead. Now I have to fight the Crooked Crane Lich, the enemy that is still the only reason this is a minimal reload run instead of a no-reload run (I only made this a minimal reload run because I wanted to try to fight that lich, and that lich caused the only death I've had so far).
I have a better strategy than using Daystar against it, though, as it comes pre-buffed with Protection from Magical Energy. We have gobs of debuffers, including a triple Pierce Magic Chain Contingency on Valos.
Who is taking the cold damage in that image? In SCS, magic attacks are cast using invisible summoned critters, which can produce some oddities in gameplay. For one thing, if an enemy is moving around while it's getting targeted by a magic attack, it will slow down the spell by a fraction of a second, as the invisible critter has to re-cast the spell using the same projectile. For another thing, apparently that invisible critter suffers the effects of backlash spells like Fire Shield. Not that it matters here; Valos and the rest of the party are already immune to cold damage thanks to our Protection from Cold pre-buff.
Anyhoo, we fail to prevent the lich from casting Time Stop. Too bad.
The lich, though, can't do much with the extra time, and unwisely chooses not to cast Summon Fallen Planetar, which could have caused us some trouble. Instead, the lich removed Poppy's Spell Shield with a Spell Thrust, without following up with any other debuffers that could have put Poppy in danger.
Of course, even if it had, Poppy would still have plenty of time to defend herself, as she was already in the process of casting Time Stop herself.
Poppy doesn't do much with her Time Stop, either. In fact, the only reason I cast it was to run out the lich's PFMW spell!
Notice the poison damage. That's from a Cloudkill spell the lich threw out earlier.
Valos' Breach spell finally hits, and the lich is now vulnerable. Another PFMW pops up due to a unique SCS Contingency (SCS mages can set PFMW contingencies to trigger on the expiration of their normal PFMW spells, which the player can never do), but since the lich is already shorn of its spell protections, another Breach spell dispels it within the round. Fobie and Sil start whomping on the lich.
That disrupted spell was Valos' Control Undead, which I hoped could hit the lich once Fobie had imposed some save penalties via Called Shot.
Then the lich suddenly dies despite not being at Near Death, and gives us no XP.
For a moment I'm confused, and then I realize that Fobie killed the thing with STR drain. Whatever.
Valos now has Wail of the Banshee, which works with the Wand of Lightning. I try it out on some enemies in the Guarded Compound, which I neglected to tackle in Chapter 3 due to forgetting about the Wand of Paralyzation I wanted.
Turns out that unlocks a special achievement.
Quite fitting.
Anyhoo, we proceed upstairs and abruptly lose our illusion buffs due to having no way of disarming traps. We spit out a Planetar, who in turns spits out a Holy Word.
Holy Word doesn't bypass MR, but it does strike as a level 7 spell and offers no save. Plus, Planetars cast it instantly in SCS. This imposes a 50% spell failure penalty via the deafness opcode against all evil critters, including Sion, and is stackable (although two Holy Word spells cast within the same second won't stack on undead critters).
Fobie kills Koshi and costs us a lot of XP thanks to STR drain.
What danger is a Kensai when you have Teleport Field active, anyway?
Poppy stops time and smacks Stalman in the face with a stick. I don't know if that disrupted his spell or if it was the Planetar's Holy Word, but either way, it worked.
EE 2.1 appears to have concentration checks, as I've seen enemies (and I think also player characters) cast spells despite taking damage.
Valos slays Ketta with Wail of the Banshee. It might offer a save, but WoL forces the enemy to make six saves, and as a necromancer Valos imposes a -2 penalty on saves against his WotB spells.
Notice Ketta teleported at the same time she died, which is why her leather armor on the ground isn't beneath her falling body.
Right afterwards, Valos kills Maferan, too.
I finally realize that Sion is protected by PFMW and not Improved Mantle, so I switch Sil over to nonmagical bullets and quickly kill the poor guy, who already is harmless thanks to a second Holy Word that bumped his spell failure up to 100%.
Finally, we move on to Bodhi's lair. I'm only partway through, but the process so far is easy to summarize.
@Pteran: The Wand of Lightning trick does not work in BG1 at all, as the BG1 Wand of Lightning only has a single target. If you have three lightning bolts in your wand, you must have Item Revisions installed, which I suppose might have also changed the BG1 WoL (I'm not really sure). Without IR, though, the WoL trick should be impossible in BG1. I'm pretty sure this applies to both BG:EE and BGTutu, but BGT may be a different story.
If you're trying it in BG2, however, there are only a set number of spells that work with the WoL trick, which could explain your experience. The spells that work are all self-only spells--that is, their base target is always the caster. This can include area-effect spells, but only those that are cast on-self. Other spells that can be cast on other targets do not work with the WoL trick, even if you click on yourself. For example, Sunfire works with the WoL trick because it's on-self by default, but Fireball does not, even if you target yourself. Likewise, Mordenkainen's Sword works with the WoL trick because it can only ever be cast on the caster, while Animate Dead does not, because you can also target other places.
This only applies to spells, however. Scrolls of any spell can work with the WoL trick, even those that aren't on-self, though not all of them are very useful with it. Casting Armor multiple times does nothing; casting Shield multiple times does little (only the bonus to missile AC will stack); casting Horrid Wilting multiple times does a lot. The same applies to any item you can put in a quick item slot, including other wands. Unfortunately, you can't switch out multiple Wands of Lightning to duplicate stuff even further, which would be awesome. Also note that using the Wand of Paralyzation on a single target with the WoL trick won't necessarily force 6 saving throws. In my experience, all six stun effects struck as one. The Wand of Paralyzation can, however, paralyze multiple targets when combined with the WoL.
Finally, some other items, like swords, can work with the WoL trick, but only if they are on-self by default. For instance, the Sunray effect of Daystar will work with the WoL trick, because it's on-self only, but the charm effect of the Nymph Cloak will not, as it can target anything.
The Wobbler run is coming to a close, and I think I might not even finish it. LoB mode just isn't that great.
This run started out incredibly difficult for obvious reasons, and now it's much easier since I have HLAs and stuff. But I know the game is only going to get more difficult and less fun from here on out, because eventually my characters are going to reach the XP cap while the enemies get stronger and stronger. As single- and dual-classed mages, my party members have already peaked, and even letting them reach level 50 won't do much to improve them. The sweet spot for Legacy of Bhaal mode is probably an hour in the Underdark, after you stop being pathetically weak in early game SoA, but before you become pathetically weak in ToB. Everything else is a slog.
Also, LoB mode does not guarantee you HLAs in Chapter 2. I did all Chapter 2 quests except for the Twisted Rune, Kangaxx, and the Guarded Compound, plus a bit of Watcher's Keep, and I only had a little over 2 million XP per character in Brynnlaw. I didn't get HLAs until after I had to deal with Irenicus in Spellhold.
LoB mode in BG2 gives you double the XP at best, because so much of BG2's XP comes from quest rewards, which LoB does not modify. This might be different in BG1 and ToB, where more of the XP comes from killing monsters, but it won't make much difference even then, since you don't get HLAs in BG1 and you already have HLAs in ToB. And having two extra levels simply does not compensate for the incredible buffs that enemies get in LoB mode.
In fact, one of the things I most want to do now is to do a reverse LoB mode run. Your characters would only 50% of their normal XP (or maybe 33% or 25%; why not?), but gain LoB-style bonuses for themselves: +5 to saves, +1 to APR, +12 to caster level, double damage, and triple HP plus 80 on top. Your level 1 BG sorcerer would be dealing 35 damage per Magic Missile; your level 10 mid-game BG2 fighter would have 467 HP. Then we'd see if that XP is really more important.
Or maybe a different kind of reverse LoB mode, where I give myself double XP in normal mode, but cut my HP to a quarter, lose a half attack per round, deal half damage, and cast spells at half my level.
I think I've tapped the potential of the WoL trick anyway, and that's the real reason I started this run. I didn't use the Wand of Lightning trick so I could survive Legacy of Bhaal mode; I used Legacy of Bhaal mode so the enemy could survive the Wand of Lightning!
I do have Item Revisions installed, which explains why I can do the WoL trick in BG1. Also that explains why it wasn't working with spells. I think I tried it with Magic Missile or something, I don't recall anymore.
I did use it once with the Wand of Paralyzation to great effect. We were pretty banged up and our rest was disturbed by three Ogre Berserkers...
Hey everyone, I have some progress (or rather lack thereof) in BG1 to report, but before that I'd like to compliment @semiticgod for getting as fas as he has. I haven't read all of your recent posts as you're a rather prolific poster while I'm a lazy reader with limited time. Besides, I must say that though I very much respect and even admire your inventiveness I'm not a big fan of runs centered around 'exploits'. Still, I've read enough to see you've pulled off another fine run.
LoB mode in BG2 gives you double the XP at best, because so much of BG2's XP comes from quest rewards, which LoB does not modify.
In the LUA file there's two XP adjustment options, which are inactive by default:
SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','Nightmare Bonus XP','0') SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','No Difficulty Based XP Bonus','1')
I haven't tested this in BG2EE, only in BG1EE, but I assume it works the same. Activating the first one doubles XP and adds another 1000 XP for each kill. This is the setting I've used in my run with my Archer Shade. With a ranged party, this setting allowed me to farm a lot of XP from normally weak critters like Gibberlings, Xvarts, and Gnolls. The second setting doubles all XP, so including XP for completing quests. At least that's my experience in my latest, still infant BG1EE run, which I may journal later. This may be the preferable setting in BG2EE where quest rewards are such a major source of XP. What I do not know is whether quest XP, which is a full XP reward given to each individual party member rather than a lump sum divided over the party, is doubled as well. Such XP does not exist in BG1.
Finally, I'd like to contribute to the general discussion on whether minimal reload runs should be posted here or in the minimal reload thread recently created by @BelgarathMTH, by saying that my preference would be the latter. While I think this thread should be inclusive and thus open to different approaches to and interpretations of the challenge of no-reload, I also advocate agreement on the basics of the challenge. This should guarantee that we're all doing more of less the same thing here namely trying to take Charname on a long journey to occupy or reject the Throne of Bhaal, without dying, and accepting all the setbacks they might suffer along the way. If a player were free to reload after an undesired event (such as Charname's death) that was not caused by an unequivocal bug or glitch, we might as well stop calling this thread a no-reload thread. I propose that no-reloaders start posting their progress here, and move to the minimal reload thread after a reload (that is not 'justified' by a bug or glitch) if they want to continue sharing their adventures.
Shade, CG Human Archer, 3rd BG1 report
I've very little to report, except one event that might mean the end of this run. Shade & Co tried to take on Bassilus, a dangerous mission in LoB + SCS. Just think of the havoc a summoned Aerial Servant would wreak. The idea was to use invisible wall cheese, with everyone but Archer Gizi surrounding Bassilus. The priest justly punished us for that when he animated a Skeleton Warrior near Gizi. The summon, too much for probably the entire party combined to handle, would follow Gizi wherever she went, even though her movement speed advantage allowed her to get way out of the undead's sight. (She couldn't hide because she was wearing ankheg armor and not allowed to take it off.) While I was busy trying to make Gizi rid herself of the Skeleton Warrior, Bassilus detected the invisible companions, and managed to Hold Shade.
Aine saved the day by casting Invisibility 15'Radius on everyone (including Bassilus), except Gizi. My business with Shade and the others kept me distracted long enough from Gizi to allow a pack of Dread Wolves to surround the Elf. The only way not to get her killed was to remoe her from the party, I thought. Again, my decision to apply cheese was punished. The Skeleton Warrior continued hitting Gizi, and killed her.
What with her being removed from the party, there's no way to resurrect our main Archer, an integral member of this archery and disabling oriented party.
Shade got rid of the Dread Wolves (six) behind an invisible wall of companions, and picked up Gizi's belongings. The party of five then rested, and had Alaam (who had now 100 Detect Illusions) reveal Bassilus. Aine tried to hold Bassilus with Webs and Guennean attempted to Silence the priest and to freeze him with Hold Persons, to little avail. Bassilus got stuck a few times in the Webs but not enough for the companions to kill him before he'd leave the spell's AoE. Aine Blinded Bassilus (and a Dread Wolf that was also around), but the priest canceled his ailment with a Cure Disease.
Luckily Aine had lots of Blindnesses, so after several failed attempts the Sorcerer succeeded once more. A barrage of ranged attacks prevented the priest from casting further spells,
until he fell.
I'm not sure what to do now. Abandon yet another run, continue the run with the five current members and optionally an NPC, or create a new custom Archer so I actually get to experiment with Called Shot spell save lowering.
Alano is in Candlekeep catacombs right now and so far so good. I will post a proper update later today.
In the meantime, I wanted to ask a (noob) question: How do you guys add a second (or third, or fourth) custom character in a single player game? The only way I know is creating a multigame and assigning the characters to myself, but there must be other ways.
@lurith: Other than switching briefly to multiplayer, the only way to add anything to your party is to nab an NPC or CTRL-Q an existing critter. You need multiplayer to create your own character besides the main character.
Didn't even think of switching from multiplayer to single player. I thought I would have to play the whole game as MP. Now I know how to do it. Thanks @semiticgod
Here is my update:
Alano the hunter
Last time I told about Alano and friends, I said that they walked away from an evil mage with the helm and cloak of Balduran. I forgot to mention a little problem I ran into when getting the cloak.
I haven't played the game that many times (not until chapter 7, anyway) and I refuse to read guides while playing. Long story short, I messed up the conversation with the prostitute in the sewers, and she started walking away with the Cloak of Balduran.
Alano is not proud of it (neither am I) but he killed Quenash before she could get away with the cloak. Huge hit to my reputation, and not in line with Alano's personality (he is a neutral, selfish thief; not a cold-bloded killer), but frustration got the best of him (us) and I really wanted the cloak. Sorry, Quenash, I will found a temple in your name with the piles of gold that I already have no use for.
Alano and party infiltrated the Iron Throne building entering through the sewers (sneaky him) and investigated a bit. Which amounts to kicking the butts of yet more evil bounty hunters. He doesn't know, but Alano is doing to bounty hunters the same that Sarevok does to bhaalspawn. I will be the last!
All done in the city, or almost, but Alano can't wait to face the leaders of the Iron Throne. Plus, coming back to Candlekeep sounds good. Alano is a sensation in the keep, everyone is happy to see him, but he ends up in jail anyway. All he can think of, however, is the letters found in the library, suggesting that he shares blood with a god.
Now I am in the catacombs. Just tripped a trap and decided to give it a rest and share the story so far in case this tomb becomes HIS tomb.
@lurith You only need to switch to MP and back if you want to add a character after the game has started. When you're starting a new game in single player, you just use this button:
@Blackraven: Too much of my LoB run has boiled down to the Wand of Lightning trick. I'm happy with how it's played out, though, since I've learned a lot more about the trick, partly thanks to @sluckers' insight about the targeting. It's the only reason I played LoB mode, really: I wanted to test the limits of the WoL trick, and so I needed tougher critters.
I'll probably never use the WoL trick ever again after this run. Not unless it's really funny, anyway. Once I've exhausted the possibilities of a given tactic, I tend to drop it in favor of exploring a different puzzle. I don't think I'll see many Clerics of Lathander or Tyr or Archers in my future runs, either.
The more meaningful work done in this run was probably related to saving throws. The other reason I started this run, and used the characters I did, was to test out EE specialization save penalties. Turns out that disablers can be effective even in LoB mode with its +5 bonuses to enemy saves. Even in a no-reload run, where reliability is key. And even without using Called Shot to further stack save penalties. Stacking specialization bonuses, Greater Malison, Doom, and Chant gives a -9 penalty to a given spell's save. That's a -3 to the save to survive a Chromatic Orb, a -9 to withstand an Emotion spell, a -11 to block Feeblemind, and a stupendous -15 save penalty to resist Spook.
We actually knocked out mages with Emotion. That's not normal.
Another interesting finding was that the tweak mod's scroll scribing ability could grant the entire party access to some very rare scrolls. If you find a single copy of Spell Trigger, you can duplicate it so everyone can use it. Don't have enough PFMW or Spell Immunity scrolls to go around? Just scribe a spare one so your other mages can use it.
But I would say the most important discovery in this run was that Legacy of Bhaal mode just isn't that interesting after you've tried it once. It would certainly be different had I enabled the bonus quest XP as well (I'd have gotten HLAs a lot earlier), but the lengthy, drawn-out battles of LoB mode just aren't as fulfilling as the shorter, more intense battles of normal mode. Legacy of Bhaal mode is better suited to shamelessly power-gamey runs like mine, where the overpowering smell of cheese makes you forget how much of your precious lifespan you're pouring into killing a hobgoblin.
Long story short, I don't think I'd bother doing this again, but the WoL BoL LoB run did give me some excellent excuses to blow stuff up.
Right now I'm trying out a reverse Legacy of Bhaal run, in which my characters receive the opposite of the LoB bonuses and penalties. Now they get only a third of their XP, and so will never earn HLAs ever, but they deal double damage, have quadruple HP, get an extra attack per round, +5 to saving throws, and cast spells as if they were 12 levels higher, just like enemy LoB bonuses. I started this new run to see which was really more impactful: the bonuses that LoB mode gives to the enemy, or the extra XP that it gives to the player.
Turns out the enemy gets the better end of the deal. My party casts spells at level 20. Fully buffed, Aerie and Viconia have 3 APR at -8 THAC0 with Spiritual Weapon and deal 40 damage per hit, for 20 rounds per day, and it's basically undispellable. Jan stun-locks everything with his high-APR flashers. Mazzy is impossible to kill with her 300+ HP. My sorcerer hurls out 50-damage Fireballs. And the whole party is practically immune to disablers as well as Remove Magic. I've never, ever played any run that was this easy before. We're level 8 now.
Cernd, meanwhile, has the opposite bonuses. He suffers -1 to APR, -5 to saves, -12 to caster level, has a quarter of his normal HP, and deals half damage, but gets triple the normal XP growth. If I bother to continue this run, then Cernd will get hordes of high-level elemental summons in Chapter 2, compensating for his relative weakness. Too bad he's basically guaranteed to fail all of his saves forever, and guaranteed to have all his buffs dispelled forever, and will die after suffering less than 20 damage. Level progression doesn't look so exponentially powerful when a goblin sneeze is enough to knock you out.
Thanks @BillyYank I honestly didn't know that! Maybe a recent update? I'm thinking of starting a second playthrough now that Alano is so close to finish BG1, and maybe finish it before continuing the challenge with Alano in SoD. Two games at the same time will be another first, but a tanky main character in early game will be a nice complement to Alano.
Alano the hunter
Out of the catacombs, at last. Not without defeating some more (guess what) bounty hunters!
Once outside, the first thing Alano does is leaving three tomes of understanding at the Friendly Arm Inn.
But well protected against thiefs like himself.
I am usually the guy that would use all the tomes on his main character, even if all it does is improving a barbarian half-orc charisma from 3 to 4.
This time I am thinking big picture. There is no point on getting from 10 to 13 Wisdom with my thief. BUT Branwen and Yeslick are not in BG2 (and I hate Jaheira), so I will wait and see if one of the new companions in SoD deserves it. Or I'll just give them to someone in BG2 (through EEkeeper).
Cas and the gang have been roaming up and down the Sword Coast performing good deeds and following up on rumors they've heard at various inns.
We were exploring the western coast, and came upon the cave with the Constitution tome inside. Item Revisions removes the Critical Hit protection from all helmets, and instead only grants it to certain pieces of gear. Instead, they all provide an AC bonus at the very least. This means that not every roustabout you run across is going to be immune to critical hits, but it also leaves your party members exposed. Minsc found this out the hard way.
As a side note, I'd like to point out how extremely helpful the Cavalier's immunity to charms is. We were fighting the group of sirines outside the cave, and they charmed EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. This would've ended my no reload status had Cas not been immune...poor guy had to finish off the sirines by himself, while being targeted by his friends. The smart thing to do would probably have been to run away, but I wanted to finish the job first. As soon as the last one fell, I bolted towards the trees to escape from my party. It took a few more rounds of running but all of the charms finally wore off.
And then Cas got smacked with a critical shortly thereafter...I must've had the wrong helmet equipped, because I thought his protected against criticals =/
Thus ends my no reload, and this becomes a minimal reload. I'll post the rest of the update in the thread by @BelgarathMTH but I wanted to give a brief update here first.
On the plus side, I've now got a Helm of Charm Protection! Jaheira is still vulnerable to critical hits wearing it, but at least she can't be charmed anymore. That's 2/6 immune now haha!
@BelgarathMTH This is my late answer on your question (as I was away from my computer) - I think this thread should aim for no-reload runs only and when any run stops by the charname's death, it could continue in your thread.
But people are free to post their reports wherever they want - after all, it doesn't break any site rules.
@semiticgod It's always so insightful to read about your tricks. Although I don't plan to use them, it's still better to know and have them "as a last resort".
@Blackraven Too sorry to see the Shade's run ended. But maybe you can continue in the minimal reload run. Because it's interesting to check your experience with the LoB mode. Of course, it's up to you to decide.
@lurith Congrats on your success so far. Too pity you hate Jaheira, these 3 tomes would help her.
@Pteran it's always sad when the run ends because of this or that mod's specific. But in the same time you get a new knowledge. Anyway, your writing is excellent and it will be interesting to continue read your Cas reports.
Comments
So, it seems like it confuses the issue to mix minimal reloads with no-reloads. I know that on the old Bioware boards, where many of the veteran no-reloaders are still posting runs, their community rules are rather draconian, not because they try to force it, but because they just don't reload, ever. I've seen them end runs because of bugs and computer crashes. It's how they play, a socially accepted fact of life for them. The people from the Big Leagues (i.e., the Bioware Boards) won't consider a no-reload trilogy run successful unless it's exactly what it says on the tin.
I'll let some other people chime in with their opinions before I post any minimal reloading in here.
This thread started with just my OCD attempts at BGEE/BG2EE with SCS (with various other restrictions as listed in the original post), but later became home also to IWDEE runs, for example.
Some people play with no mods and report role play-heavy runs, some play Insane difficulty with SCS. Some continue after minor glitches resulting death, some don't. Some meta-game, some don't.
Basically, all is welcome. You should not feel ostracized because of an artificial expectation and just feel free declare your own game balance. (Example: My Dragon Disciple died to Irenicus at end of BG2 to what I regarded as a SCS-induced glitch. I decided to continue the run into ToB instead of restarting.)
All I ask, in the spirit of the no-reload concept, is narrative honesty: as long as one declares how they play, what happens, and their decision to incorporate it to their game, all is fine.
That being said, Death is a worthy outcome of a no-reload run. Our collective experience grows with every Death, including matters of luck. (... which is why the best no-reloaders leave little room for luck.)
After cleaning the mines, Jaheira, Khalid, Monty and Xzar left and he picked up Xan instead. Everything was going well until he explored an old yuan-ti temple (from Unfinished Business I think) and triggered a Fireball trap in insane difficulty, pulverizing him.
It was very fun nonetheless and I'm creating a new character as I write this.
@BelgarathMTH 's thread serves an important purpose by giving people the option to post minimal-reload runs just like that.
(My own personal OCD usually implies that immediately delete a savegame when I die, even through the frustration of mistakes and bad luck, to make sure that the Tanarri doesn't tempt me to reload.)
So far all his spells have done absolutely nothing.
I begin with an assault by the Efreet brigade. Laosha monitors the situation from afar.
Wary of being attacked, I cast Teleport Field in case the Yuan-ti spot the party. But I fail to prepare for a more important threat.
Our defenses vanish. Sil hides the party while the Efreet keep the Coiled Cabal busy. Unfortunately, they haven't fared well against the Yuan-ti's disablers, and I have control over none of them.
I restore some of our buffs, and a WoL Limited Wish brings back all our level 1-4 spells. I also grant the party Minor Globes of Invulnerability.
But that was a very poor choice. MGOI blocks Remove Paralysis, our only cure for one of the nastiest disablers in the game.
And MGOI does not block any of the enemy's lower-level disablers.
Poppy struggles to knock out the enemy. She fails, and the enemy keeps making progress on breaking us down. I draw the party away to the east, to the extent that I can actually give them any orders.
Running out of options, I bring out the Horn of Valhalla. Looks like the horn, unlike the Efreeti Bottle, can't bypass the summoning cap using the Wand of Lightning.
The berserkers are weak and they're beyond my control, but I don't have much else to throw out. Confusion has crippled our party, and Fobie slays Espellier without dealing a single point of damage.
He has Called Shot active, but I've tested it and he's not high enough level to deal STR drain. STR drain could explain Espellier's sudden death at full health with Stoneskins, but Fobie shouldn't have been able to pull it off in the first place, unless LoB's level bonuses on enemies can somehow get applied to confused party members.
Our berserker summons go up in smoke, but Sil holds off the next spell coming our way.
Sil has long since run out of BoL spells, and has basically no damage output to speak of.
Laosha recovers from Chaos, only to fail his save against another Chaos spell. To the east, Sil chases around a Yuan-ti Mage with the Flail of Ages, but can't do anything with it. Poppy, however, has a Wand of Frost, and with Sil blocked by a Protection from Cold spell that we recovered using a WoL Limited Wish, Poppy can safely use the WoL Wand of Frost on the Yuan-ti Mage without worrying about destroying Sil.
Things to the west aren't looking so good.
The enemy targets Fobie with the same attack, but somehow Fobie only gets hit by a quarter of the full blast.
Some weird stuff going on. Fobie kills Espellier with inexplicable STR drain and then explicably escapes most of a Flame Arrow, with no spell protections or even Stoneskin to shield him. But I prefer to roll with bugs unless they render the game unplayable.
Whatever. I raise everyone with a WoL Rod of Resurrection.
Then Laosha dies instantly. Fobie hides the party from further murdalization and the party weathers an Emotion spell that could easily have proven fatal.
We bring out some summons despite the enemy's objections and finally break through the Yuan-ti Mage's Stoneskins.
More enemies await to the west. Sil brings back her Animate Dead spells with a WoL Wondrous Recall and the party prepares for the next fight.
How are we going to kill those Yuan-ti with neither Sil's WoL BoL or the Efreet brigade? Espellier marches forth.
The enemies no longer have MGOI to defend them. We stretch our remaining resources and attack them directly. Without their spell protections, the Coiled Cabal is not nearly as dangerous.
Done. As tough as they are, the Coiled Cabal only lasts as long as their spell protections. And since the WoL empowers Wondrous Recall and Limited Wish, we can restore our weaker resources in moments, even if our best stuff--Spell Immunity, Improved Haste, Boon of Lathander, Divine Favor, Sunfire, and the Efreeti Bottle--is gone. The WoL also stretches out the Rod of Resurrection. It makes our party quite sturdy.
I notice a Thrall on the way out, still petrified from a previous trap. Now that the Warden is dead and the orb thingy is destroyed, what happens if I un-petrify her?
Not sure what that's about, but at least she's free.
Finally, to Brynnlaw. How do we deal with Perth the Adept? Sunfire to disrupt his spells, then debuffers and Breach to bring him down, with Sil using the Sling of Everard for its toggle-able +5 enchantment.
Now we can try out an old trick of mine. The Wand of Lightning can also be used to duplicate the Book of Daily Spell, provided you drop the extra copies every time you perform the duplication. Combining the two creates six copies of the book, all on the same page. This means you have a 10% chance of ending up with 6 volumes of Burning Hands you can no longer duplicate, but if you get anything else, you can continue duplicating them indefinitely.
I don't get Burning Hands on the first try. This means I can produce as many as I like. I drop so many on the ground that the game starts to slow down a little.
Try as I might, I can't get a copy of the book with Farsight. I settle for multiple copies of everything else: Spell Turning, Protection from Evil, Stinking Cloud, Wyvern Call, Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, and Fireball. I can create the Death Ray Zorcher at will, but I don't see a need quite yet.
I get stumped fighting Bhaal in the dream sequence, since I left the Efreeti Bottle and a bunch of other goodies in the hands of my party members, where Poppy can't use them. Then I realize I can just duplicate one of the copies of the Book of Daily Spell Poppy still has in her inventory, and carry them into the library with DUHM (otherwise Poppy's STR is too low). We attack Bhaal with a horde of Wyverns.
In Spellhold we learn that Beholders are vulnerable to Feeblemind. Called Shot is a big help here.
We have to fight a lich, but a WoL Protection from Undead scroll keeps the whole party invisible, and SI: Abjuration prevents the lich from dispelling the scroll with a blind Remove Magic. Then we just debuff him and smack him with the upgraded Mace of Disruption.
I finally create an auto-buffing spell, one which takes into account our ability to combine Limited Wish-resting and Wondrous Recall with the Wand of Lightning. This means we can cover the entire party with Protection from Fire, Protection from Lightning, Death Ward, Free Action, Remove Fear, Protection from Evil 10' Radius, Shield, Blur, Mirror Image, Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, and Chaotic Commands. Poppy isn't supposed to be able to cast Shield and Valos isn't supposed to be able to cast Blur or Mirror Image due to their specializations, but instead of giving them alternate versions of the buffing spell, I just grant them an inherent immunity to those spells. I also make Sil and Laosha immune to Free Action so they can benefit from Improved Haste (which I may have to remove later on).
The spell takes less than a round to apply all the buffs and looks and sounds very pretty.
We fail to convince Lonk the Sane to release the prisoners on the first try, so I send forward a different character. This time, he changes his mind. Irenicus awaits.
But Irenicus is buffed by Improved Mantle instead of Absolute Immunity or PFMW+Protection from Normal Missiles. This means Fobie and Sil can equip nonmagical darts and bullets and break through his Stoneskins in a single round, disrupting him without even using any of our debuffers.
We debuff him anyway to maintain the pressure. Dradeel helps out.
For some reason the clones never spawn in. I didn't want to fight them anyway. Irenicus gets disabled by PW: Stun and we have to wait a few rounds before he wakes up and delivers his fleeing dialogue.
I take out almost everyone in City Sushi using the instant kill sword. I just don't want to fight them. I don't use it on the royalty, though. I blast them with disablers instead.
To the Underdark!
Same scenario in waukeens promenade, also a lot of bad rolls for Ethos and his crew resulting in quite a few spells wasted and the thief getting away, although to be fair he seemed like a decent sort. Fair play to him.
A few errands later I will try to get Hexxats bag of holding Before my second rest. I do have my trusted boomerang dagger, and hopefully that plus chaotic commands is enough for Ethos to solo Dragomir. I might risk a dangerous encounter in the sewers too, but the rakshasa is such a pain and that mage that hangs around in the northern part Always manages to surprise me in some way. Might want to save that one for a full spellbook. Once he saved vs web x 2 for 2-3 rounds straight, slow and chaos in the same fight, hilarously falling to a holy smite if i remember correctly.
Some fools killed Korax, so i avanged the ghoul. They saw each blow coming in them faces.
I spent some day on wolf hunting. Lightning rosted even the biggest ones.
Now i can wake the dead. The walking bones helped me crush things like annoying witches,
oversized bugs,
and suicid trouble-makers.
I can taste the blood of the old firebed. Sweet it was, but i long for more magic-blood. They say there's one magic man near here.
Madman mistook me his dad. Now he is dead.
I start by lowering his MR...
...but that was a complete waste of time. By the time his MR is down to zero, Fobie has struck him four times with WoL Called Shot, imposing a -24 save penalty, capped at a save vs. spell of 20 for the Balor. This means the Balor has a guaranteed failed save against a Dart of Stunning.
How can a Dart of Stunning affect a Balor? Well, it can't, because Balors require +3 weapons to hit.
Except Enchanted Weapon makes a Dart of Stunning strike as a +3 weapon. The Balor is stunned for 7 rounds. Sil and Laosha destroy the Balor with WoL BoL and WoL Divine Favor before the duration expires.
But we're not done yet. I'm going hunting for Beholders, which I never, ever do in my no-reload runs unless I'm using a clone with the Shield of Balduran. And I don't have the SoB. The solution?
Invisibility 10' Radius. And a Planetar!
Yes, that Planetar is locked by Paralyze. Even at 75 MR and excellent saving throws, a Planetar simply can't resist pressure from two measly Beholders. I bring out the Efreeti brigade and pulverize one of the Beholders with Laosha and Sil.
What about the other Beholders? Farsight and WoL Wand of Cloudkill spells from a separate room. The Beholders never even see us.
Unfortunately, the Hive Mother is highly magic-resistant, and eventually wanders out of the area of effect.
We threw out that Fire Storm because we weren't sure if the Hive Mother was going to track us down. The Fire Storm was there to give us an advance warning of its approach.
We have to tackle the Hive Mother directly. Our Planetar will still be our tank, given the Hive Mother's awful powers. Some other Beholders show up, which Espellier torches with Fireballs from the Book of Daily Spell.
While Espellier bombs the lesser Beholders, Sil pelts the Hive Mother with the Sling of Everard. When Sil gets hit by a second Anti-Magic Ray (her Spell Shield absorbed the first), Laosha jumps in to finish the job.
The Hive Mother wasn't the end of it, though. More clusters of elite Beholders appear in the southwest. We bombard them with more Cloudkill and Fireball spells while they fuss with our Planetar.
We get debuffed and run low on resources, and eventually are forced to bring out the Efreeti brigade to finish off the Beholders we no longer have the buffs to face directly.
The Beholder hive goes down. I haven't done that in a long time.
Next is the Kuo-toa lair. Since all they have are some low-level spells and stunning bolts that our party-wide Chaotic Commands buff can block, Espellier roasts them directly with Sunfire instead of launching Fireballs from afar, while Laosha and Sil deal with the prince.
We're also taking on the demon knights, just because I want that Girdle of Frost Giant Strength. Isn't my auto-buffing spell pretty?
How did we survive their nasty level draining attacks? We just prepped the battleground with Teleport Field and used missile weapons while our Planetar chased them around.
One last fight before we leave: the drow guarding the Underdark exit. Our Planetar takes most of the enemy's pressure, but Laosha does get blasted by a Holy Smite spell that could have almost killed him.
We're making strong progress when our Planetar suffers from some very, very bad luck.
How do we rescue it? In 2.1, victims of Greater Command don't wake up when struck. Luckily, clerics of Tyr can cast Acclamation, which cures most of the status effects that normal spells cannot, including sleep. To actually reach the Planetar, however, Laosha has to get past several enemies that are blocking his path, another problem we may solve with a simple Teleport Field spell.
Teleport Field scatters enemies without a saving throw and bypasses magic resistance. It's excellent for resolving tricky situations like this, and completely fustigates the enemy's melee power.
On the way, Laosha gets hit by Harm, which in my install does 150 damage for both enemies and player characters. But that damage comes in the form of crushing damage, which is easily blocked by Stoneskin, unlike other Cause Wounds spells. Laosha struts over to wake up the Planetar, and we are back in business.
The rest of the fight is uneventful, though we do see one cool thing. It seems that 2.1 still has a variant of the Blade Barrier/Globe of Blades bug, in which those two spells can strike infinitely while the game is paused if auto-pause is enabled. I don't know if that still works, but apparently Time Stop can trigger it. One of the drow casts Time Stop, and when it expires, his cleric buddy explodes.
We're on a roll. But I'm not stupid enough to jeopardize it by trying to tackle the Mind Flayer city. Even the WoL trick and Potions of Genius won't be enough to survive the place, I think, not when my SCS install forbids resting. We only have at most 8 castings of Chaotic Commands per day, and Free Action doesn't last as long. More importantly, most of our damage output against magic-resistant foes like Mind Flayers comes from the Efreeti brigade (which would quickly die to Psionic Blasts), the Planetar (which would die to Psionic Blasts, too), and Sil and Laosha, whose damage output only lasts for so many rounds. We can't handle a marathon like the Mind Flayer city.
Instead, we move on to Ust Natha. I always dread this place, because if I screw up the attack on the Egg Guards and fail to kill them within a few seconds, the whole city turns hostile, and the only way to escape is to kill Matron Mother Ardulace, an epic-level cleric with low AC and high MR. I only go to Ust Natha because the XP rewards are so high.
I already have the Elder Orb stalk and the Kuo-toa Prince blood, so much of the work for Ust Natha is already done. I try my hand against the pit fights in the tavern, but Sil gets her defenses removed multiple times in the second fight by Remove Magic and the Nabassu's claws. It was very aggravating, but only cost us a few potions while Sil kited the thing until she could buff herself up with a new WoL BoL.
A common problem for me is Taso Kala, the drow lady that sends you off to fight the ooze priests. If you don't kill those guys and then get to Phaere within the hour, the city turns hostile, but you can sneak past Taso Kala.
Or just CTRL-Y her and save yourself the trouble. I've snuck past her enough times to get mighty tired of it.
What about those Egg Guards? With Drow Full Plate +5 and MR in the 60s or 70s, they will be really hard to kill before they sound the alarm (SCS makes them much better at turning the rest of the city hostile). But I have an ace up my sleeve.
Limited Wish gives you one casting of Shapechange. After you do it once, you can't ever do it again, until you learn the actual Shapechange spell. With WoL Divine Favor, Laosha will have almost automatic hits in Mind Flayer. Then, inside the place, I notice a troubling message.
Polymorph Self is a standard part of my auto-buffing spell, and Polymorph Self and Shapechange are mutually exclusive due to engine limitations. Laosha can't turn into a Mind Flayer.
I figure that I wouldn't have cast Polymorph Self had I not had that auto-buffing spell, so I decide to hit the guards four times in spider form and then CTRL-Y them, which would imitate having Mind Flayer form (either way, Laosha has a 95% hit chance, 8 APR, and we get no XP for the kill). But it turns out the Limited Wish Shapechange was completely unnecessary, as Laosha destroys each of the drow in four hits by sheer damage alone.
That was surprisingly easy. Turns out the Egg Guards still have low HP, and LoB mode only bumps it up so far. Sil nabs the eggs while under the effects of Sanctuary to avoid attracting the golems' attention and we cruise through the rest of the questline and up to the surface. All the required fights are already taken care of.
Bodhi awaits.
I have a better strategy than using Daystar against it, though, as it comes pre-buffed with Protection from Magical Energy. We have gobs of debuffers, including a triple Pierce Magic Chain Contingency on Valos.
Who is taking the cold damage in that image? In SCS, magic attacks are cast using invisible summoned critters, which can produce some oddities in gameplay. For one thing, if an enemy is moving around while it's getting targeted by a magic attack, it will slow down the spell by a fraction of a second, as the invisible critter has to re-cast the spell using the same projectile. For another thing, apparently that invisible critter suffers the effects of backlash spells like Fire Shield. Not that it matters here; Valos and the rest of the party are already immune to cold damage thanks to our Protection from Cold pre-buff.
Anyhoo, we fail to prevent the lich from casting Time Stop. Too bad.
The lich, though, can't do much with the extra time, and unwisely chooses not to cast Summon Fallen Planetar, which could have caused us some trouble. Instead, the lich removed Poppy's Spell Shield with a Spell Thrust, without following up with any other debuffers that could have put Poppy in danger.
Of course, even if it had, Poppy would still have plenty of time to defend herself, as she was already in the process of casting Time Stop herself.
Poppy doesn't do much with her Time Stop, either. In fact, the only reason I cast it was to run out the lich's PFMW spell!
Notice the poison damage. That's from a Cloudkill spell the lich threw out earlier.
Valos' Breach spell finally hits, and the lich is now vulnerable. Another PFMW pops up due to a unique SCS Contingency (SCS mages can set PFMW contingencies to trigger on the expiration of their normal PFMW spells, which the player can never do), but since the lich is already shorn of its spell protections, another Breach spell dispels it within the round. Fobie and Sil start whomping on the lich.
That disrupted spell was Valos' Control Undead, which I hoped could hit the lich once Fobie had imposed some save penalties via Called Shot.
Then the lich suddenly dies despite not being at Near Death, and gives us no XP.
For a moment I'm confused, and then I realize that Fobie killed the thing with STR drain. Whatever.
Valos now has Wail of the Banshee, which works with the Wand of Lightning. I try it out on some enemies in the Guarded Compound, which I neglected to tackle in Chapter 3 due to forgetting about the Wand of Paralyzation I wanted.
Turns out that unlocks a special achievement.
Quite fitting.
Anyhoo, we proceed upstairs and abruptly lose our illusion buffs due to having no way of disarming traps. We spit out a Planetar, who in turns spits out a Holy Word.
Holy Word doesn't bypass MR, but it does strike as a level 7 spell and offers no save. Plus, Planetars cast it instantly in SCS. This imposes a 50% spell failure penalty via the deafness opcode against all evil critters, including Sion, and is stackable (although two Holy Word spells cast within the same second won't stack on undead critters).
Fobie kills Koshi and costs us a lot of XP thanks to STR drain.
What danger is a Kensai when you have Teleport Field active, anyway?
Poppy stops time and smacks Stalman in the face with a stick. I don't know if that disrupted his spell or if it was the Planetar's Holy Word, but either way, it worked.
EE 2.1 appears to have concentration checks, as I've seen enemies (and I think also player characters) cast spells despite taking damage.
Valos slays Ketta with Wail of the Banshee. It might offer a save, but WoL forces the enemy to make six saves, and as a necromancer Valos imposes a -2 penalty on saves against his WotB spells.
Notice Ketta teleported at the same time she died, which is why her leather armor on the ground isn't beneath her falling body.
Right afterwards, Valos kills Maferan, too.
I finally realize that Sion is protected by PFMW and not Improved Mantle, so I switch Sil over to nonmagical bullets and quickly kill the poor guy, who already is harmless thanks to a second Holy Word that bumped his spell failure up to 100%.
Finally, we move on to Bodhi's lair. I'm only partway through, but the process so far is easy to summarize.
Basically just that, a zillion times over.
If you're trying it in BG2, however, there are only a set number of spells that work with the WoL trick, which could explain your experience. The spells that work are all self-only spells--that is, their base target is always the caster. This can include area-effect spells, but only those that are cast on-self. Other spells that can be cast on other targets do not work with the WoL trick, even if you click on yourself. For example, Sunfire works with the WoL trick because it's on-self by default, but Fireball does not, even if you target yourself. Likewise, Mordenkainen's Sword works with the WoL trick because it can only ever be cast on the caster, while Animate Dead does not, because you can also target other places.
This only applies to spells, however. Scrolls of any spell can work with the WoL trick, even those that aren't on-self, though not all of them are very useful with it. Casting Armor multiple times does nothing; casting Shield multiple times does little (only the bonus to missile AC will stack); casting Horrid Wilting multiple times does a lot. The same applies to any item you can put in a quick item slot, including other wands. Unfortunately, you can't switch out multiple Wands of Lightning to duplicate stuff even further, which would be awesome. Also note that using the Wand of Paralyzation on a single target with the WoL trick won't necessarily force 6 saving throws. In my experience, all six stun effects struck as one. The Wand of Paralyzation can, however, paralyze multiple targets when combined with the WoL.
Finally, some other items, like swords, can work with the WoL trick, but only if they are on-self by default. For instance, the Sunray effect of Daystar will work with the WoL trick, because it's on-self only, but the charm effect of the Nymph Cloak will not, as it can target anything.
The full list of spells is found midway down the page on the "Did you know?" thread:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/29289/did-you-know/p52
What spells have you been trying to duplicate?
This run started out incredibly difficult for obvious reasons, and now it's much easier since I have HLAs and stuff. But I know the game is only going to get more difficult and less fun from here on out, because eventually my characters are going to reach the XP cap while the enemies get stronger and stronger. As single- and dual-classed mages, my party members have already peaked, and even letting them reach level 50 won't do much to improve them. The sweet spot for Legacy of Bhaal mode is probably an hour in the Underdark, after you stop being pathetically weak in early game SoA, but before you become pathetically weak in ToB. Everything else is a slog.
Also, LoB mode does not guarantee you HLAs in Chapter 2. I did all Chapter 2 quests except for the Twisted Rune, Kangaxx, and the Guarded Compound, plus a bit of Watcher's Keep, and I only had a little over 2 million XP per character in Brynnlaw. I didn't get HLAs until after I had to deal with Irenicus in Spellhold.
LoB mode in BG2 gives you double the XP at best, because so much of BG2's XP comes from quest rewards, which LoB does not modify. This might be different in BG1 and ToB, where more of the XP comes from killing monsters, but it won't make much difference even then, since you don't get HLAs in BG1 and you already have HLAs in ToB. And having two extra levels simply does not compensate for the incredible buffs that enemies get in LoB mode.
In fact, one of the things I most want to do now is to do a reverse LoB mode run. Your characters would only 50% of their normal XP (or maybe 33% or 25%; why not?), but gain LoB-style bonuses for themselves: +5 to saves, +1 to APR, +12 to caster level, double damage, and triple HP plus 80 on top. Your level 1 BG sorcerer would be dealing 35 damage per Magic Missile; your level 10 mid-game BG2 fighter would have 467 HP. Then we'd see if that XP is really more important.
Or maybe a different kind of reverse LoB mode, where I give myself double XP in normal mode, but cut my HP to a quarter, lose a half attack per round, deal half damage, and cast spells at half my level.
I think I've tapped the potential of the WoL trick anyway, and that's the real reason I started this run. I didn't use the Wand of Lightning trick so I could survive Legacy of Bhaal mode; I used Legacy of Bhaal mode so the enemy could survive the Wand of Lightning!
I did use it once with the Wand of Paralyzation to great effect. We were pretty banged up and our rest was disturbed by three Ogre Berserkers...
SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','Nightmare Bonus XP','0')
SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','No Difficulty Based XP Bonus','1')
I haven't tested this in BG2EE, only in BG1EE, but I assume it works the same.
Activating the first one doubles XP and adds another 1000 XP for each kill. This is the setting I've used in my run with my Archer Shade. With a ranged party, this setting allowed me to farm a lot of XP from normally weak critters like Gibberlings, Xvarts, and Gnolls.
The second setting doubles all XP, so including XP for completing quests. At least that's my experience in my latest, still infant BG1EE run, which I may journal later. This may be the preferable setting in BG2EE where quest rewards are such a major source of XP. What I do not know is whether quest XP, which is a full XP reward given to each individual party member rather than a lump sum divided over the party, is doubled as well. Such XP does not exist in BG1.
Finally, I'd like to contribute to the general discussion on whether minimal reload runs should be posted here or in the minimal reload thread recently created by @BelgarathMTH, by saying that my preference would be the latter. While I think this thread should be inclusive and thus open to different approaches to and interpretations of the challenge of no-reload, I also advocate agreement on the basics of the challenge. This should guarantee that we're all doing more of less the same thing here namely trying to take Charname on a long journey to occupy or reject the Throne of Bhaal, without dying, and accepting all the setbacks they might suffer along the way. If a player were free to reload after an undesired event (such as Charname's death) that was not caused by an unequivocal bug or glitch, we might as well stop calling this thread a no-reload thread.
I propose that no-reloaders start posting their progress here, and move to the minimal reload thread after a reload (that is not 'justified' by a bug or glitch) if they want to continue sharing their adventures.
Shade, CG Human Archer, 3rd BG1 report
I've very little to report, except one event that might mean the end of this run. Shade & Co tried to take on Bassilus, a dangerous mission in LoB + SCS. Just think of the havoc a summoned Aerial Servant would wreak. The idea was to use invisible wall cheese, with everyone but Archer Gizi surrounding Bassilus. The priest justly punished us for that when he animated a Skeleton Warrior near Gizi. The summon, too much for probably the entire party combined to handle, would follow Gizi wherever she went, even though her movement speed advantage allowed her to get way out of the undead's sight. (She couldn't hide because she was wearing ankheg armor and not allowed to take it off.) While I was busy trying to make Gizi rid herself of the Skeleton Warrior, Bassilus detected the invisible companions, and managed to Hold Shade.
Shade got rid of the Dread Wolves (six) behind an invisible wall of companions, and picked up Gizi's belongings. The party of five then rested, and had Alaam (who had now 100 Detect Illusions) reveal Bassilus. Aine tried to hold Bassilus with Webs and Guennean attempted to Silence the priest and to freeze him with Hold Persons, to little avail. Bassilus got stuck a few times in the Webs but not enough for the companions to kill him before he'd leave the spell's AoE. Aine Blinded Bassilus (and a Dread Wolf that was also around), but the priest canceled his ailment with a Cure Disease.
I'm not sure what to do now. Abandon yet another run, continue the run with the five current members and optionally an NPC, or create a new custom Archer so I actually get to experiment with Called Shot spell save lowering.
Alano is in Candlekeep catacombs right now and so far so good. I will post a proper update later today.
In the meantime, I wanted to ask a (noob) question: How do you guys add a second (or third, or fourth) custom character in a single player game? The only way I know is creating a multigame and assigning the characters to myself, but there must be other ways.
Here is my update:
Alano the hunter
Last time I told about Alano and friends, I said that they walked away from an evil mage with the helm and cloak of Balduran. I forgot to mention a little problem I ran into when getting the cloak.I haven't played the game that many times (not until chapter 7, anyway) and I refuse to read guides while playing. Long story short, I messed up the conversation with the prostitute in the sewers, and she started walking away with the Cloak of Balduran.
Alano is not proud of it (neither am I) but he killed Quenash before she could get away with the cloak. Huge hit to my reputation, and not in line with Alano's personality (he is a neutral, selfish thief; not a cold-bloded killer), but frustration got the best of him (us) and I really wanted the cloak. Sorry, Quenash, I will found a temple in your name with the piles of gold that I already have no use for.
Alano and party infiltrated the Iron Throne building entering through the sewers (sneaky him) and investigated a bit. Which amounts to kicking the butts of yet more evil bounty hunters. He doesn't know, but Alano is doing to bounty hunters the same that Sarevok does to bhaalspawn. I will be the last!
All done in the city, or almost, but Alano can't wait to face the leaders of the Iron Throne. Plus, coming back to Candlekeep sounds good. Alano is a sensation in the keep, everyone is happy to see him, but he ends up in jail anyway. All he can think of, however, is the letters found in the library, suggesting that he shares blood with a god.
Now I am in the catacombs. Just tripped a trap and decided to give it a rest and share the story so far in case this tomb becomes HIS tomb.
I'll probably never use the WoL trick ever again after this run. Not unless it's really funny, anyway. Once I've exhausted the possibilities of a given tactic, I tend to drop it in favor of exploring a different puzzle. I don't think I'll see many Clerics of Lathander or Tyr or Archers in my future runs, either.
The more meaningful work done in this run was probably related to saving throws. The other reason I started this run, and used the characters I did, was to test out EE specialization save penalties. Turns out that disablers can be effective even in LoB mode with its +5 bonuses to enemy saves. Even in a no-reload run, where reliability is key. And even without using Called Shot to further stack save penalties. Stacking specialization bonuses, Greater Malison, Doom, and Chant gives a -9 penalty to a given spell's save. That's a -3 to the save to survive a Chromatic Orb, a -9 to withstand an Emotion spell, a -11 to block Feeblemind, and a stupendous -15 save penalty to resist Spook.
We actually knocked out mages with Emotion. That's not normal.
Another interesting finding was that the tweak mod's scroll scribing ability could grant the entire party access to some very rare scrolls. If you find a single copy of Spell Trigger, you can duplicate it so everyone can use it. Don't have enough PFMW or Spell Immunity scrolls to go around? Just scribe a spare one so your other mages can use it.
But I would say the most important discovery in this run was that Legacy of Bhaal mode just isn't that interesting after you've tried it once. It would certainly be different had I enabled the bonus quest XP as well (I'd have gotten HLAs a lot earlier), but the lengthy, drawn-out battles of LoB mode just aren't as fulfilling as the shorter, more intense battles of normal mode. Legacy of Bhaal mode is better suited to shamelessly power-gamey runs like mine, where the overpowering smell of cheese makes you forget how much of your precious lifespan you're pouring into killing a hobgoblin.
Long story short, I don't think I'd bother doing this again, but the WoL BoL LoB run did give me some excellent excuses to blow stuff up.
Turns out the enemy gets the better end of the deal. My party casts spells at level 20. Fully buffed, Aerie and Viconia have 3 APR at -8 THAC0 with Spiritual Weapon and deal 40 damage per hit, for 20 rounds per day, and it's basically undispellable. Jan stun-locks everything with his high-APR flashers. Mazzy is impossible to kill with her 300+ HP. My sorcerer hurls out 50-damage Fireballs. And the whole party is practically immune to disablers as well as Remove Magic. I've never, ever played any run that was this easy before. We're level 8 now.
Cernd, meanwhile, has the opposite bonuses. He suffers -1 to APR, -5 to saves, -12 to caster level, has a quarter of his normal HP, and deals half damage, but gets triple the normal XP growth. If I bother to continue this run, then Cernd will get hordes of high-level elemental summons in Chapter 2, compensating for his relative weakness. Too bad he's basically guaranteed to fail all of his saves forever, and guaranteed to have all his buffs dispelled forever, and will die after suffering less than 20 damage. Level progression doesn't look so exponentially powerful when a goblin sneeze is enough to knock you out.
Alano the hunter
Out of the catacombs, at last. Not without defeating some more (guess what) bounty hunters!Once outside, the first thing Alano does is leaving three tomes of understanding at the Friendly Arm Inn.
But well protected against thiefs like himself.
I am usually the guy that would use all the tomes on his main character, even if all it does is improving a barbarian half-orc charisma from 3 to 4.
This time I am thinking big picture. There is no point on getting from 10 to 13 Wisdom with my thief. BUT Branwen and Yeslick are not in BG2 (and I hate Jaheira), so I will wait and see if one of the new companions in SoD deserves it. Or I'll just give them to someone in BG2 (through EEkeeper).
Cas and the gang have been roaming up and down the Sword Coast performing good deeds and following up on rumors they've heard at various inns.
We were exploring the western coast, and came upon the cave with the Constitution tome inside. Item Revisions removes the Critical Hit protection from all helmets, and instead only grants it to certain pieces of gear. Instead, they all provide an AC bonus at the very least. This means that not every roustabout you run across is going to be immune to critical hits, but it also leaves your party members exposed. Minsc found this out the hard way.
As a side note, I'd like to point out how extremely helpful the Cavalier's immunity to charms is. We were fighting the group of sirines outside the cave, and they charmed EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. This would've ended my no reload status had Cas not been immune...poor guy had to finish off the sirines by himself, while being targeted by his friends. The smart thing to do would probably have been to run away, but I wanted to finish the job first. As soon as the last one fell, I bolted towards the trees to escape from my party. It took a few more rounds of running but all of the charms finally wore off.
And then Cas got smacked with a critical shortly thereafter...I must've had the wrong helmet equipped, because I thought his protected against criticals =/
Thus ends my no reload, and this becomes a minimal reload. I'll post the rest of the update in the thread by @BelgarathMTH but I wanted to give a brief update here first.
On the plus side, I've now got a Helm of Charm Protection! Jaheira is still vulnerable to critical hits wearing it, but at least she can't be charmed anymore. That's 2/6 immune now haha!
But people are free to post their reports wherever they want - after all, it doesn't break any site rules.
@semiticgod It's always so insightful to read about your tricks. Although I don't plan to use them, it's still better to know and have them "as a last resort".
@Blackraven Too sorry to see the Shade's run ended. But maybe you can continue in the minimal reload run. Because it's interesting to check your experience with the LoB mode. Of course, it's up to you to decide.
@lurith Congrats on your success so far. Too pity you hate Jaheira, these 3 tomes would help her.
@Pteran it's always sad when the run ends because of this or that mod's specific. But in the same time you get a new knowledge. Anyway, your writing is excellent and it will be interesting to continue read your Cas reports.
@lroumen Good luck in SoD!
@Gotural The King is dead. Long live the King! It's always like that.
@lolien That was excellent, dear sir! What a fun idea!
Tl;Dr. A lot of stuff going on in this thread, it's very pleasant to come back here and read all these tales.