The party took the side trip to bypass most the castle fighting and I managed to defeat Ashatiel by calling her a chicken… now I’m not claiming she actually laid an egg but there was a definite look of surprise on her beak as the clubs of my peons descended.
The tenses moment (for me) came as we approached the gates of hell… that’s the ninth hell by the way, anyway the red mist descended on my vision and suddenly I knew that my so-call allies had betrayed me!
The next thing I remember is a musky smell fulling my nostrils and my good friend Sarah asking if I knew who she was?... “of course, you still owe me 10 gold from the poker game by the way” … it’s good to have friends.
The big boss is all fear and fire so you’d expect ice to be his nemesis which it is but lightning also helps and having the shining lady wail away at his ass instead of ours is a no brainer tactic.
My 2 cents on what to do with the BG 1 and BG 2 threads from the BioWare forums if a program is found (which I believe there is one) that can compile them into something that can be be then pasted into a topic:
I think making a topic, calling it say "BioWare BG 2 No-Reload Thread Archive" and "BioWare BG 1 No-Reload Thread Archive" topic, and then putting links to said archives in the first post of this thread. That way this thread can continue more or less as normal, but all that great content is easily accessible by the links that should then be put in the 1st post of this thread. All active runs should of course be in this thread.
anyone that has images/ mods etc stored on the old server is safe for at least two more years and there is little risk the new server won't become a 500 page bandwitdh eating monster like its dady... six years without a days outage is a good service.
A new start, The bad news is SCS still isn't ready and whilst LoB breaks 'Turn' that’s sad of course but I can't play vanilla and we do have to keep going so… I’m re-entering the challenge with the lossers club; · Ormaline is an Half-Elf Lawful Evil Mage-Thief · Puk Darkstar a Half-Orc Lawful Neutral Priest of Tyr · Sarah Darknight a half-elf Neutral Good Sharman · katarina Twoblades... a Chaotic Neutral Wild-Witch (Elf Fighter-Mage). · Imoen is just Imoen, a human thief included for plot reasons
So far its been an easy torture and exciting lets leave now sort of day
Mods: this run has no mods, I’m only playing on LoB with extra damage turned off.
I'm Enuhal from the currently closing Bioware forums (and the forums before that), joining these forums to share my no-reload adventures with old and new members of the community.
Some information about me: English isn't my first language, which is why I don't do any roleplaying in my posts - it's easier to just describe events and tactics. I've been no-reloading the Baldur's Gate series since 2008/2009. Also, I really like druids.
My runs are generally triology runs, and I play with the BG2 Fixpack and BGT, sometimes installing other mods like SCS, Item Randomizer or Hard Times (though for this run, it's only the Fixpack and BGT). I will usually play ahead quite a bit before posting.
So, what I am doing for my first triology no-reload attempt in this forum is the randomly generated party challenge, which is something I've been trying for about a dozen times now (some attempts are documented in the bioware forums, some are not) - so far, I've succeeded in the SoA+ToB-only variant, got two groups through BG1+TotSC, but never no-reloaded all parts of the series together with the same party. A recent undocumented attempt was my most successful one so far, getting me all the way to ToB, where the bhaalspawn died during the second pocket plane challenge.
The rules are simple: I play with a full party of six, and I do a completionist run (otherwise, I would propably skip places like Durlag's Tower). Upon creation, every party member's race, class, stats, proficiencies, spell selections etc. are completely randomized (within the rules of the game and step by step), with the exception of thief ability points (too much work to randomize them). The names are also random names from mythology (via http://www.behindthename.com/random/).
I play on core rules, and without maximum hp per level.
These randomized groups usually have atrocious thac0, hp and armor class scores early on, making the early parts of BG1 relatively hard.
Here's the party I rolled up:
The Bhaalspawn:
Goibniu, a lawful good human paladin, with the following stats: 13/11/14/11/13/17 *Spears, *Halberds, *Short Sword, *Two-Handed Weapon Style
A very average character, though as a paladin, he does make a decent party leader thanks to his charisma score. Sadly, no strength, constitution or dexterity bonuses, and not enough strength for a full plate, but at least enough to use halberds. Still, there's no way this bhaalspawn would survive the frontlines (that's true for most randomly generated characters), so he'll mostly have to use ranged weapons early on, where he sadly has no proficiencies at all. He'll propably learn how to use longbows.
Anapa, a lawful neutral half-orc kensai, with the following stats: 18,22/10/13/10/13/12 *Spears, *Dagger, *Scimitars, *Long Swords
Kensais are generally really bad when their stats are randomized, because low dexterity and constitution scores make them even more fragile. This one does have a good strength score, and longswords are a good weapon type. At least he'll be a good damage dealer, though only if the enemy is either disabled or distracted - because Anapa won't survive getting attacked for long.
Helios, a neutral evil human thief, with the following stats: 15/11/15/12/12/10 *Long Swords, *Shortbows
Really good weapon proficiencies! That's lucky, because otherwise, this character will mostly just open locks and disarm traps. The name is quite ironic for a thief; Well, with his constitution he gets a small hp bonus, which is certainly nice to have.
Luna, a chaotic evil half-orc priestess of talos, with the following stats: 11/14/13/9/15/13 *Quarterstaffs, *Single Weapon Style
An average cleric, but it's always good to have a divine spellcaster. 15 Wisdom is nice. Bless and chant, command and hold person are all excellent spells early on, especially consindering the weak fighting abilites of a randomized party. The weapon proficiencies aren't great, though the chance to randomly get the point in slings (which are certainly going to be this characters main weapons) is very low anyway.
Owain, a chaotic neutral gnome illusionist, with the following stats: 15/16/14/13/7/11 *Quarterstaffs Spells: Sleep, the other ones don't really matter.
An excellent character, for multiple reasons: I rarely get an arcane spellcaster for my randomly generated parties, due to the way my randomization process works. Also, starting with sleep will make the early game much, much easier. As an illusionist, his dexterity is automatically decent, and as a gnome, he'll have good saving throws. Of course, the stats could be better, and he'll still be extremely squishy, but I'm happy to have an illusionist at all. Sadly, he got the only possible weapon proficiency without a ranged component.
Donar, a chaotic good halfling fighter/thief, with the following stats: 12/12/14/12/13/13 *Spears, *War Hammers, *Katanas, *Slings
Very, very average stats, and I don't really need a second thief (he'll be learning how to stealth, I guess). The point in slings is nice, especially for a halfling - he'll certainly be moving more towards this direction. Again, decent saves. Generally just a worse fighter, though.
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Overall, this is quite a good party, mainly because it's very balanced - it has fighters, thieves, a divine and an arcane spellcaster, so I'll be able to use a broader set of tactics compared to usual randomized groups. Negatives are the lack of standout frontliners (without the massive use of potions, that is): No one can use full plate, no one has good dexterity and constitution scores, or even constitution scores by themselves, since there are gauntlets for dexterity. There will be a lot of running involved in the early game, and if Luna can learn how to summon skeletons, those will certainly be extremely helpful. Also, the ranged weapon capabilites across the party aren't very strong yet, though this will hopefully change.
A first very short update for today:
After creating the party, I completed the Candlekeep sidequests and talked to Gorion. The party made their way to the FAI, avoiding all encounters along the way, but taking a diamond and a ring of wizardry with them (double the sleep spells for Owain). There, Luna cast remove fear and bless; Everyone (even the Kensai, who can use throwing daggers) equipped ranged weapons and attacked Tarnesh, who, thanks to some lucky hits, died before being able to do anything.
Best of luck, @Enuhal ! I'm sure I'll try a randomized party again, one of these days. Most my random parties die in BG 1, but one of them made it to ToB...
My 2 cents on what to do with the BG 1 and BG 2 threads from the BioWare forums if a program is found (which I believe there is one) that can compile them into something that can be be then pasted into a topic:
I think making a topic, calling it say "BioWare BG 2 No-Reload Thread Archive" and "BioWare BG 1 No-Reload Thread Archive" topic, and then putting links to said archives in the first post of this thread. That way this thread can continue more or less as normal, but all that great content is easily accessible by the links that should then be put in the 1st post of this thread. All active runs should of course be in this thread.
This is a solid idea. Along with other, similar suggestions already proposed, a consensus will surely be reached in the intervening months.
I am sure all the previous posters in this thread are equally excited about the stream of experienced contributors from Bioware forums carrying on with their future adventures here as well.
My 2 cents on what to do with the BG 1 and BG 2 threads from the BioWare forums if a program is found (which I believe there is one) that can compile them into something that can be be then pasted into a topic.
I'm currently trying the HTTrack to save both our threads from Bioware. Will see how it goes and how much space the result will take and then report here.
The party rested at the FAI and killed some hobgoblins to return Joia's ring before travelling south. There, an ogre was disabled and killed thanks to Owain's sleep spell - the Girdle of Piercing will be invaluable against nasty things like bandit ambushes and hobgoblin elites, since most of my party has terrible ac scores.
In Beregost, Karlat couldn't deal with being commanded by Luna two times in a row. Marl was talked down, and Firebead got his book. Goibniu decided to save Silke for later - no way to disrupt her spellcasting reliably yet.
Anyway, the paladin took it upon himself to lure the Spiders out of Landrin's house. Out there, the party had enough room to run, in case Owain's sleep spells failed - indeed, it took him multiple tries to disable all of the spiders, so the party had to fall back several times.
After resting, the party travelled further down the Lion's Way. South of Beregost, two Ogrillons carrying Mirianne's letter were shot to death with ranged weapons and some kiting. The party moved to the west, with Owain sleeping some hobgoblins, who were carrying Zhurlong's boots (though, for now, I've given them to Donar). Goibniu also found a couple of very useful potions in a nearby cave.
North of Nashkell, the hobgoblin encampment was responsible for the first death in the party: When Owain apporached to sleep the ranged hobgoblins, he was shot at the same time, and with his 4 hit points, one hit was enough to kill him (though his sleep spell did end up working):
The party made it to Nashkell, where the gnome illusionist was resurrected at the temple. Still somewhat wounded, the party entered the inn, where Neira approached - but like the previous would-be assassin, Karlat, she was commanded twice by Luna and killed via ranged weapons.
After resting and learning how to cure light wounds as his first bhaalspawn power, Goibniu found an ankheg armor in the fields west of Nashkell. Now, I though about next steps: This is the part were randomized parties are really weak - no additional weapon proficiencies yet, overall terrible when it comes to straight-up fighting. I decided to go for Melicamp (and Perdue's short sword) in hopes of getting some easy xp, but sadly, he didn't survive:
Northwest of Nashkell, the party had better luck: After helping Drizzt, Luna's remove fear and bless spells helped to defeat Teyngan's party. Owain used sleep on Bjornin's half ogres, allowing the party to turn in some quests in Beregost (all but Gurke's cloak, which will have to wait). Thanks to the resulting level ups, I felt a little bit safer.
While back in Beregost, I bought some +1 ranged weapons from Thunderhammer. The party also finally killed Silke, with the help of a bless spell and their now slightly improved thac0s.
When travelling back to the FAI, to also turn in Landrin's quest, the group encountered the dreaded bandit ambush:
I instantly switched the Girlde of Piercing to Owain, the most vulnerable party member. The party ran as fast as they could, and it was really close, but in the end, while Donar, Helios and Owain almost died, to my surprise, everyone made it - I was lucky the bandits didn't decide to focus a specific party member.
Hi folks, I'm an old, (although largely unskilled) veteran of the No-Reload Challenge over on the soon-to-be-defunct Bioware forums. Is this the place where the challenge is continuing? If so, are we posting our journeys through the whole trilogy here, or splitting it up between BG1 / 2 ?
Looking forward to continuing (in my case) the largely hopeless adventure
I understand some people are trying to push for the Bioware forums to stay open, but we have been seeing Bioware folks migrating over here. I think this will be our common no-reload thread.
We don't have a split thread for BG1 or BG2. This thread is for all no-reload runs of the Infinity Engine games, including Icewind Dale.
Hi folks, I'm an old, (although largely unskilled) veteran of the No-Reload Challenge over on the soon-to-be-defunct Bioware forums. Is this the place where the challenge is continuing? If so, are we posting our journeys through the whole trilogy here, or splitting it up between BG1 / 2 ?
Looking forward to continuing (in my case) the largely hopeless adventure
You are very welcome to post a trilogy run or individual BG1 or BG2 runs as you see fit, both are welcome in this one thread (just identify for clarity please). No hard rules, just the spirit of the no-reload.
I have started a no-reload run of Icewind Dale 2! We haven't had a run of IWD2 yet in this thread.
My original idea was to play through every IE game with a single party, so I could use Lance of Disruption in BG or Slayer form in IWD. For now, I'm just focusing on the current IWD2 run--I may or may not proceed to BG1 if I complete this one.
I actually did a no-reload of IWD2 before, with a duergar druid and a deep gnome monk of some sort, but I used a lot of exploits in that run, which I won't be using now. No import/export tricks, no song stacking with Lingering Song in important battles, and also no Improved Invisibility. Improved Invisibility isn't a bug, but it does trivialize much of the game.
The party is optimized for IWD2 but should be strong in future games as well. Our first character is Snowy Tae!
It's a classic svirfneblin monk build. Deep gnomes are by far the strongest tanks in IWD2, with innate spell resistance, +2 to saves, +4 to AC, Mirror Image and Blur as innate spells, and an extra +2 to DEX and WIS, both of which can improve AC on a monk. They're basically the only character that can achieve the mythical 72 AC that is the gold standard for Heart of Fury mode (which I won't be messing with).
Balancing these outrageously overpowered abilities is a crippling -3 level adjustment, which means a deep gnome is always 3 levels behind a normal character. IWD2 spellcasters have a strong exponential growth curve, which means a deep gnome like Snowy Tae has basically no offensive power. Deep gnomes are very useful, but they're not too much fun, since all they do is soak up attacks.
It's going to be hard to discuss the gameplay of IWD2, since it's so very different from the other IE games. Huge enemy hordes, unbuffed but sturdy enemy spellcasters, concentration checks, 3E save bonuses and penalties, an entirely different set of opcodes, powerful foes with almost zero AI and no targeting ability, highly exponential spellcaster growth, wildly unbalanced classes and spells but well-balanced items, a 100% linear plot, and tactics that depend more on numbers and dice rolls than immunities and wizard chess. In many ways it's the polar opposite of BG2.
Anyway, next is Bloody Howard. All of these characters are old names and faces to me.
Clerics are one of the two conventionally powerful classes of IWD2, not counting bards (who I will get to in a moment). Cleric buffs and healing spells in IWD2 actually make them better damage dealers and tanks than fighters, rangers, paladins, and barbarians. Bloody Howard will be using axes, one of the weapons that deals triple damage on critical hits in IWD2 instead of double damage (in other games, double damage is universal). This is important because we will have luck bonuses in this run. Unlike other games, IWD2 luck increases the chance of a critical hit, and no enemies in the game are immune to critical hits.
Then we have Fobie, who has the most exploitable class in the game. He is a bard.
The Lingering Song feat makes bard songs last for 2 rounds after the bard stops singing, but because of how IWD2 implemented it, you can trigger it while the game is paused. This means you can turn the bard song on and off during a pause and stack the effects of a single bard song almost infinitely. There's no short way to describe how overpowered it is; no other IE game has a tactic as strong as the Lingering Song trick.
I won't be stacking bard songs, though. Except maybe to explode some minor enemies, for fun. Fobie will still be a powerful asset, since IWD2 songs are already quite strong.
Next we have Laosha, our druid.
Druids have a lot of valuable and interesting spells in IWD2, unlike in the BG saga. Aside from Entangle, a strong low-level disabler, and various damage spells, druids have Barkskin, which in IWD2 adds a "generic" armor bonus.
"Generic" AC is the only kind of AC in IWD2 that stacks. Getting high AC is hard without it, and in a game like IWD2 with lots of hard-hitting enemies, AC is incredibly important.
Finally, we have our sorcerers, Poppy and Espellier. Their stats are identical.
I made them halflings so they would have CON-based save bonuses if I moved them into BG (in IWD2, they only get a flat +1 to all saves).
Poppy specializes in enchantment spells; Espellier in invocation. Some of IWD2's best feats are the Spell Focus feats. Put two ranks in Spell Focus: Enchantment, and all of your enchantment spells will have a +4 save penalty attached to them.
Sorcerers are some of the strongest characters in IWD2 and are very simple to play. They have more spell slots and a better casting stat than wizards, and since so few enemies in IWD2 have immunities, they can disable or disintegrate practically anything, if they get their Charisma high enough. Chromatic Orb is especially devastating, as we will see later in this run.
The prologue's fights are fairly simple. You have a bunch of goblins to deal with, and each goblin has -4 luck, meaning they can't land critical hits on you. I don't know if all the goblins suffer this penalty, so I use Bloody Howard's Sunscorch spell (a special spell courtesy of his Lathander kit) to weaken Rukwurm before he can get close.
Notice the many goblins asleep on the ground. Poppy's Sleep spell has a save DC of 17--very high for this stage of the game--but in IWD2, enemies always wake up from sleep on hit. This means we have to be careful about our targeting if we want to stay safe.
Most quests in the prologue are nonviolent, but Phaen of the Rags is a potential stumbling block. He knocks out our cleric and bard both, but Snowy Tae, our invincible monk, stays conscious thanks to her spell resistance.
We nail Phaen right before he breaks out Mirror Image. Missile weapons are very important in a party with Strength scores as low as ours.
Crossbows are one of the few missile weapons that mages can handle effectively. Unfortunately, they only deal double damage on a critical hit, which means they'll be weaker when Fobie hits level 5 and can sing Tymora's Melody, boosting our critical hit chances.
We have a big battle coming up at the end of the prologue. IWD2 gives you a little more than 1000 XP per party member in Targos, but that's only enough to level up characters without level adjustments.
Snowy Tae is still a long way away from her next level. With 12 HP, a lucky hit or two could quickly spell her doom.
The prologue tends to be kind of tedious after multiple playthroughs, but the writing is actually fun, and there are special dialog options depending on your character's race, class, and stats. Among other things, certain races can translate a dead goblin's ravings.
Once you're out of the prologue, though, IWD2 is all hack-and-slash.
Finally, we run out of things to do. We purchase an Oil of Fiery Burning for 500 gold (a huge expense at this point in the game) and report to Shawford Crale. The goblin horde attacks Targos once again.
The first enemy group is Vghotan, a worg rider, and some hounds and goblins. The Targos soldiers can only hold off the enemy for a precious few seconds; we need to move quickly before we get overwhelmed. Snowy Tae can hold off the enemy goblins due to their -4 luck, but Vghotan is another story. Laosha, with his high Wisdom score and Spell Focus: Transmutation feat, can immobilize the whole enemy group with Entangle, allowing us to take down the enemy using ranged weapons.
Without Vghotan, the primary threat is gone, and the rest of the enemy crumples. The next enemy group spawns in: Ghotrag, a melee grunt, and yet more goblins. This fight is a little bigger, but we get help from the mercenaries from the Salty Dog tavern. I want to save our last Entangle spell for the final fight, so I have Laosha hold back. Instead, I knock out the enemy's with Poppy's Sleep spell. Our other sorcerer, Espellier, can't do much to help, as she specializes in evocation magic.
Later on, Chromatic Orb will be our deadliest spell, but Espellier's magic will have little impact until then. We finish off Ghotrag with missile weapons and clean up the snoozing gobbos.
The last batch of goblins is also the hardest. Caballus is a mage, many levels higher than us. He can crush us if we let him.
Our Oil of Fiery Burning can torch him--it's a 5d6 Fireball, in effect--but it won't bypass Mirror Image, and I don't want to use up such a precious resource if we can save it for later. We begin with Sleep and Entangle to slow down the enemy's approach.
If Caballus gets entangled, every spell will require a concentration check. Unfortunately, he's making good saves. Chromatic Orb can't touch him, either.
Unlike BG, a Chromatic Orb in IWD2 only does damage on a failed save. A saving throw negates both the damage and the secondary effect, though CO in IWD2 offers no +6 save bonus like BG does.
Our spells are failing. But with four crossbows and 18 DEX each, our spellcasters in the back can apply very heavy pressure to Caballus.
Even with that critical hit, though, it's not quite enough. Caballus nails Bloody Howard with a level 5 Chromatic Orb spell. Bloody Howard, with his 13 Dexterity and lousy Reflex save, gets stunned just as two goblins engage him in melee combat.
The goblins will have three rounds of automatic hits--more than enough to butcher our main healer. Poppy tries to knock out the goblins before they can axe him, but the spell doesn't hit the goblins it needs to.
Despite Bloody Howard's situation, I don't turn our attention away from Caballus, who could still wipe out the entire party with a couple spells. It's better to kill Caballus and save the party than kill the goblin fighters and save Bloody Howard alone.
A lucky hit from Fobie finishes off the mage.
Laosha uses his last spell to heal Bloody Howard, while the rest of the party tears down the goblins attacking him.
We report to Shawford Crale with no deaths and collect our reward. We count it up and find 1776 coins in all.
The day I flew out of China, I bought some food at the airport and got $17.76 in change. It prompted a long conversation with a Japanese-American guy across the table. Good times.
After a few failed attempts at a BG1 no reload, I decided to go with something that seemed the safest; a supporting character with lots of protection, along with fun adventuring skillz. The gnome Cleric/Thief in all its diminutive glory.
I play on core rules, BG1EE without mods. I just used EEKeeper to change the appearance to that of Halfling thief. This is a role-playing run and I try to act reasonably. However, in a few cases my cleric thief will just happen to have prophetic dreams about certain nearby treasures.
I put all skill points in open locks for now, then I will increase find traps Proficiencies: mace (for the Stupefier) and slings Equipped with studded leather and buckler.
The character is an opportunist with a certain courage, but who’s rather more comfortable getting others to fight for him. Party composition will be flexible, according to whatever seems pleasant and convenient. The only one I am sure not to recruit is Neera because of wild surges.
Highlights: I started with Xzar/Montaron and Khalid/Jaheira. Such a happy team all working toward a common goal. We went directly to Beregost and Nashkel, doing all the petty adventuring available along the way to collect boots of stealth, ring +1 and so on. We cleaned out the mines alright, except that Khalid was laid low by a kobold on the 3rd level. For Mulahey, Jaheira and Montaron took potions of speed, Dweyng used command and within a few second the Nashkel mines were saved. After dispatching the minions I decided I didn’t really like Xzar and Monty, so we buried them alongside Mulahey. We recruited Xan, who is a lot more congenial.
We recruited Minsc and went to to Gnoll stronghold. Helped a dryad on the way and Jaheira got a magic club. After rescuing Dynaheir, we parted ways with Minsc. On our way back to Beregost, Xan was killed by brigands. We eventually stumbled upon Bassilus and against our better judgement we decided to fight him without wizard backup and no priest spells left. Bassilus held Jaheira and killed her, but we finally took him down with projectiles and some fine swordplay by Khalid.
Back in Beregost we collected the reward and raised the brave fallen companions then we paid a visit to Tranzig, but decided not to go to the camp until we were better equipped. A bit of burglary in the local mansion produced a nice wand of lightning.
We checked out that Ulcaster dungeon. The vampiric wolf could have been a challenge, since Khalid had no magic sword and Imoen no magic arrow. Xan won the party-member-of-the-day award by bringing it to Near Death with a well-aimed lightning bolt (that only slightly damaged Jaheira), before striking the killing blow with his moon blade. As a treat we took him to the High Hedge and bought him all the 2nd level scrolls he fancied.
Lastly, Dweyng had a holy dream vision that a pair of emeralds could be found not far from the Nashkel mines so we went back and explored that area further. We had a business disagreement with a bounty hunter, but Dweyng successfully cast hold on him so it was not much of a fight.
This looks like it will be my permanent party, barring any unfortunate events.
Dweyng (lvl 3/3) is still alive and that’s all that he really cares about. Jaheira (lvl 3/3) is becoming quite the tank, with full plate, brawling hands, ring +1 and large shield +1. Khalid (lvl3) now has mastery and +2 longsword. Imoen (lvl 4) has a +2 short sword, +1 short bow and is getting pretty good at stealth. Xan (lvl 3) has wands of lighting and fire and a good selection of 2nd level spells.
We will probably go to the Firewine Bridge next. I want to wait until I have a lvl 5 before heading to the bandit camp so I can get Baeloth on the way.
You make me feel nostalgia: IWD2 is arguably the best dungeon crawl there ever was. For me it is missing just two things:
1. SCS. 2. an EE uplift of interface.
It seems I am now spoiled with both and it takes a big barrier to overcome to play without either.
Every year or two, I attempt an IWD2 run, even handicap my party by avoiding minmaxing, but past a certain point, without SCS, the campaign becomes unloosable. All of it on no-reload, of course.
In some of the best runs I had, I forbid myself to use a Sorcerer or even a full time mage and forbid all undead summoning. Shengard Bridge was a nail-biter. Good times. (Still, the "attack the first char I see" AI is... disappointing.)
Good luck with your runs, Francois and semiticgod!
Goibniu, human paladin, update 2
Goibniu and his randomly generated party travelled to the Carnival, where they killed Oopah and Vitiare. Zordral proved to be much tougher: Without any offensive spells or wands to reliably disrupt spellcasting yet, and all of Luna's save or else-spells failing, the party simply couldn't disrupt his final few LMD's, even after they got rid of his mirror images and despite being buffed with bless - he killed Donar:
A few seconds later, Luna finally managed to kill the mage:
At least Owain has a useful robe now, and the next temple wasn't far away.
Now, Anapa clearly needed a better weapon (his normal longsword already had to be replaced twice thanks to the iron crisis), so near the mines, Greywolf was commanded and killed. No problems here - Goibniu also obtained another healing potion in a house in the northern part of the area.
Further east, in the next area, Goibniu discovered a Ring of Fire Resistance, was gifted a scroll of protection from magic and promised to take Samuel to the FAI, which he did. After some resting and travelling back south, the party entered the Xvart village. Some sleep spells helped with the horde of enemies, and the two bears were kited and killed with ranged weapons. I decided to leave Borda alone, since he can be quite deadly.
To the west, killing a mountain bear got me the Boots of the North. The rest of this map is a little bit too dangerous for my party right now, so instead, I went to the gnoll fortress, where sleep spells were enough to obtain the charisma tome for Goibniu and rescue Dynaheir - the more important thing, though are the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which Goibniu will use for now. With these and the Ankheg armor, his ac is good enough to tank some of the less hard-hitting enemies. Instead of travelling back to Nashkell by themselves, the party sought out Brage and used the peaceful option to get to the city.
All this adventuring provided me with some much needed level ups - mostly useful for proficiency points right now: Another point in longswords for Anapa, the first one in longbows for Goibniu, Donar specialized in slings, Helios learned how to use Quarterstaffs (for backstabbing later on). When Luna reaches level 4, she'll take a point in slings.
The party also explored the cloudpeak mountains (both areas) - no problems here: First we kited Caldo and Krumm, used sleep spells against Ludrug's group and returned Drienne's cat, next we returned Rufie to Albert. Winter Wolves were killed with the help of command spells - otherwise, they are quite threatening to my party, though the Boots of the North really help a lot. For the two more interesting encounters here, Luna had her new hold person spells ready: Vax was held while the party killed Zal, and Sendai suffered the same fate - with the party having to use some healing potions to survive against her archers. Helios has a new armor and new bracers now, and Goibniu a magical halberd. The Girdle of Bluntness will also be quite useful.
Sadly, I forgot to take screenshots during this entire trip.
A curious encounter to finish this post: On the way back to Nashkell, Goibniu was ambushed by an ogre mage - I wasn't really prepared for the invisible spellcaster, so he managed to capture all of the party within his first spell, a stinking cloud. This could have been devastating - however, things didn't go as planned for the would-be ambusher: He managed to fail the saving throw himself, while two of my party, Donar and Helios, succeeded:
The two thieves quickly ran out of the spell's radius and killed the unconscious ogre mage with their ranged weapons.
@Ygramul: Have you tried IWD2's Tactics mod? I don't have it installed (maybe later) but it makes the game substantially harder. It's not SCS, but it spruces up a bunch of fights. Caballus bombs you, you get flanked at Shaengarne, and the Fields of Slaughter lich is nearly impossible to disrupt.
The difficulty in IWD2 does decrease after Trugnuk, but I wouldn't have thought IWD2 was unloseable at any point in the game (well, maybe the ice temple) without a min-maxed party, given how dice-dependent the gameplay is. IWD2 has critical failures on saving throws; there's always a chance of failing a crucial save.
Good luck with your runs, Francois and semiticgod!
Thanks! Good luck to you too.
Dweyng, gnome Cleric/Thief, Highlights 2
Dweyng visited Gullykin for some friendly burglary and discovered Jenkal’s treachery. The ogre mage was dispatched very quickly and Xan cast Horror down the hallway. The silly wizard was running around miscasting spells while we practiced archery on him. We explored part of the dungeon and exited by the bridge. On the way back to Gullykin, we met a group of suspicious-looking people just south of the village. We surrounded them before initiating dialog, but violent action ensued. Entangle + wand of fireball + hold + fire arrows from Imoen and Khalid = easy victory. Molkar survived long enough to escape the entaglements and engage Jaheira in a very short melee. While resting in Gullykin I decided to switch gears between Khalid and Jaheira to make Khalid my primary tank. Another mystical dream suggested some treasure trove near a lighthouse.
Once there, we recruited Safana and scouting revealed some hobgoblins and sirens. We were originally planning to rest before going further, but decided to get rid of the hobgoblins first. One thing led to another and the sirens joined the fray. Khalid took the potion of mind shielding (stolen from Candlekeep). I didn’t play it as safe as I should and Imoen got charmed and Safana killed. Still we continued on to the cave, sendind Khalid in the vanguard while the potion’s effect lasted. Xan softened the 3 sirens by the cave with wand of fire and lighting, while Khalid charged them. Inside the cave, Khalid took a potion of giant strength and killed the golems with ballistic support from Imoen. Dweyng used his newly improved trap disabling skills while overseeing the fight.
Returning to civilization we met Ba’Ruk and his commandos who were all put to sleep by Xan. We hired as security for the archeologists and fought a Doomsayer. Not really difficult at this level. We returned Brage peacefuly to Nashkel, resurrected Safana and dropped her at the Inn.
We now have enough money to buy the shadow armor for Imoen. Dweyng has Con 20 (thanks to the tome and Buckley’s buckler previously purchased at the friendly arm inn), making him an honorary Dwarf.
Being a half-orc, as you might expect, I had great difficulty in gaining the training necessary to become an Inquisitor. If it hadn't been for the example of Drizzt, I am certain that, even pulling strings, Gorion would never have succeeded in getting me the rquisite training.
I do have one fault and that is the propensity towards picking up items which do not belong to me. In Candlekeep this meant that I had to pay a fine of all my gold when caught breaking open a chest.
I was able to kill all three assassins sent to kill me. [In the two previous runs Mendas killed me with his poisoned weapon!] This time I ensured that Canderous blessed me and protected me from evil whilst I consumed Deder's oil of speed.
Upon coming across Mendas, I ran and shot him with my bow before he closed in on me. I had to use two healing potions, but I survived.
After being ambushed on the way to the FAI Gorion was killed and, upon his instructions, I fled.
I continued to follow his instructions by making for the Friendly Arms Inn. There I was asked to recover Joia's flamedance ring. This I did, and in the process helped Tania against the fishermen, thankfully without bloodshed.
Heading southwards I found a useful girdle upon the body of the ogre that I had just killed.
Heading southwards, I was able to help Alanna's neighbour, kill Karlat, calm down Marl and get a book for Firebead.
I continued southwards, killing ogrillon and hobgoblins gaining a ring of protection and boots of strength in the process.
In Nashkel I found some ankheg armour, chatted to Noober and did some babysitting. I turned down some gold that Oublek was offering thinking that I was Greywolf. To the south-east I found a ring of fire protection before agreeing to take Samuel to the Friendly Arms Inn.
After doing that, I saved Melicamp's life and helped him back to his human form.
Back in the south, I helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat before heading west.
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There I took on some unpleasant guys who were trying to extort payment for crossing a bridge.
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Some assassins got in on the act, but necklace of missiles killed all but one.
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He was a mage and he successfully cast confusion.
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That didn't stop me killing him with my bow. I then had to wait until the spell wore off until I could proceed. The necklace once more proved invaluable as I killed some more assassins. The necklace is now in need of recharging.
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In a cave I found some useful nick-nacks.
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I killed some powerful gnoll before returning to the carnival to recharge the necklace.
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To the south I killed another assassin, (see above) before deciding that some ankheg hunting was in order.
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After killing all of them that I could find I reached level 6. My proficiencies are now: ** in two-handed swords; ** in two-handed weapons; and ** in long bows. Reputation is now 20, so I did some shopping in the carnival.
I decided to visit Durlag's Tower and had quite a profitble time there gaining wisdom, excellent armour many scrolls and potions, but most useful of all, experience.
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I then went to the lighthouse area, killed some sirene,
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but when the oportunity afforded itself, I peacefully went past Sil to get the treasure in the cave. The tome that I found in there means that I now rarely need healing potions.
I then killed Bassilus,
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Zargal et al
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before going to deal with Mutamin, the basilisks and medusae.
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This took me past the level cap, but from now on I won't level up.
I then worked my way through the Nashkel mines, killing both assassins
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and Mulahey with no problems.
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Once outside I killed some assassins:
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the undead in the caves and a stupid mage.
I fought Tazok, but like the bullying coward that he is, he stopped the fight.
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I got the letters from the chest by stealth and proceeded to Cloakwood, killing some more assassins on the way:
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There I helped some hunters and had various contretemps with druids. They always came out the worse for wear.
I also killed a dragon and several wyvern:
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The Cloakwood mines did not appear when I expected, so I had to return to the bandit camp. This time my sword was exceedingly bloody when I left.
I fought Drasus and prevailed. However, I had to return to recharge my necklace of missiles.
In the mines Hareishan was totally outsmarted despite using sneaky tactics. I Used the necklace of muissiles centred on myself. This virtually wiped them out. However, I was scarcely hurt due to my protections.
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I then fought my way through to Davaeorn and he finally fell.
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There were some summoned monsters left, so Stephen was charmed with Algernon's Cloak to deal with them.
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There were some chests that even I was not able to force open even with 22 strength.
On the way out I was attacked by Wendall who used rigid thinking to no avail:
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Onwards to Baldur's Gate.
I have entered Baldur's Gate, killing more assassins on the way in.
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I have used the dexterity, wisdom and intelligence increasing scrolls.
I have acquired considerable experience fetching and carrying. After getting into a brawl, sadly Gorpal Hind was killed. I was sad and felt a bit guilty about that.
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I sold a lot of +1 armour and weapons and now have well over 50,000 gold pieces.
Experience now over 350,000 but have not levelled up since reaching 150,000.
Candlekeep was without serious incident Experience just over 500.000.
Have rescued Duke Eltan.
Killed Cythandria, Kristen and Slythe.
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Now wanting to get some ale after going to the Ducal Palace and defeating the assassins.
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I have rescued the dukes and killed Silke:
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Killed more assassins:
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followed by Sarevok's cohorts:
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Sarevok has fallen.
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He was killed after an arrow of dispelling, an arrow of freezing and then his trusty sword. True sight was a real boon against his cohorts.
Final experience 687,963, though I did not level up after reaching 161000.
Grond0, Corey_Russell and I have been playing multiplayer for a while now, on a BGT install, WeiDU log:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods // The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod // ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version] ~BG2FIXPACK/SETUP-BG2FIXPACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // BG2 Fixpack - Core Fixes: v10 ~SETUP-BGT.TP2~ #0 #0 // Baldur's Gate Trilogy - Core: 1.18 (28 Apr 13) ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v28 ~GENERALIZED_BIFFING/GENERALIZED_BIFFING.TP2~ #0 #0 // Generalized Biffing: v2.2 ~WIDESCREEN/WIDESCREEN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Widescreen Mod -> for the original Infinity Engine (CHOOSE THIS!): Widescreen Mod v3.07
This is our third trio attempt since our previous quad party reduced in size, and the fifth session in that attempt. We rolled characters without conferring, and sessions are 2 hours in length.
The session starts in the fine city of Baldur's Gate, standing next to Duke Eltan. Unyo immediately assumes the party are ready to return to Candlekeep but soon realises the Iron Throne HQ needs investigation first.
Coretank uses the left staircase to draw enemy fire under a Protection from Magic scroll. Pins is buffed against fire in case the casters on the right spot him first. Unyo is not buffed and arrives before Pins. He takes a Flamestrike while summoning a nymph and runs downstairs but a second Flamestrike crashes through the ceiling and takes him to 1hp.
Coretank, Pins and the nymph have all but finished the battle by the time Unyo returns.
A store run sees a pile of loot sold and a couple of strength potions purchased. Duke Eltan duly sends the trio to Candlekeep where they refuse to attack Rieltar but are locked up anyway. Coretank uses another Protection from Magic scroll then a Potion of Storm Giant strength to prize a couple of tomes out of the crypts.
Prat and his gang are killed without incident. Pins is happily looting their corpses and learning spells, while Coretank is hunting down spiders. Not the best of ideas and Unyo twice alerts Pins of the danger as spiders teleport away from the heavily armed and armoured Undead Hunter and attempt to dine on succulent Blade flesh instead.
A pair of basilisks are countered with a Protection from Petrification scroll looted from the Iron Throne.
Slythe is outfought, but Krystin halves party reputation from 20 to 10 by getting dominated as she casts Cloudkill into the Undercellar and wipes out a few bystanders.
The Coronation sees hasted wand summons help deal with Greater Doppelgangers and the Thieves Maze is tackled with a Protection from Undead scroll as well as druidic protection from fire and lightning.
Rahvin and his gang are waiting in the Undercity.
Coretank whips around the southern edge. For once he ignores the various undead, and they ignore him due to his scroll.
Pins goes invisible and walks straight past them.
Unyo has a 'moment', realising he can't follow Coretank and can't go invisible. He plans to drop a nymph near Rahvin but realises too late that Pins has carried on moving instead of scouting Rahvin out. Unyo blunders into the party and they attack.
Unyo succeeds with his spell and runs. Most of Rahvin's gang have followed but Carston has been charmed by the nymph and Unyo escapes in the ensuing confusion. Right into the skeletons though, so back he comes only to realise the skeletons are a safer bet. Back he goes.
Meanwhile Coretank has set about the remnants of Rahvin's party. Unyo's lost track of what Pins is doing but a minute or two later the trio meet up again at the entrance to the Temple of Bhaal.
Once inside, it is left to Pins to greet Sarevok with an Arrow of Dispelling. She misses at the first attempt but it doesn't take long for him to get the point.
Unyo dooms Sarevok and sends in some insects. Coretank and Pins are attacking too and the big man doesn't last long.
With Sarevok dead, the party return to Belt and are sent on an errand. On to SoA...
As is often the case, the trio split up to cover ground more quickly.
Once the initial area of the chateau has been left behind, Unyo suggests shutting down the Mephit Portals before the session closes.
Unyo has reached level 10, and on 151 kills. Pins has also reached level 10, and on 112 kills. Coretank is level 8, and on 259 kills.
@Wise_Grimwald: There's a post by semiticgod somewhere on page 77 of this thread explaining how images work in this forum - it's actually surprisingly simple, you don't even have to upload them to another site anymore.
Dweyng, gnome Cleric/Thief, Highlights 3 Onward to the bandit camp for carefully calculated carnage. On the road to Larswood, we met a ghoul and went for some basilisk hunting. This gave Dweyng his long-awaited lvl 5, so we’re off to meet the sorcerer.
We were welcomed in the bandit camp posing as a flamboyant drow elf sorcerer and his band of ragtag minions (Tazok would never imagine that our heroic heroes would travel with this creature of pure darkness and deceit.) After resting we went to ‘’guard’’ the tent. Killing the group inside was quick and dirty, but wiping out the guys outside was not as straightforward as expected. Xan dire charmed Taurgosz, but he seemed to become hostile whenever we attacked someone else. Anyway, we cleared the camp but Jaheira was killed once again; such is the life of a frontliner. We patched her up at the FA Inn and traveled to Beregost to sell the scalps.
The cloakwood was fairly uneventful but Dweyng was almost killed by lightning strike when defending the hunters from the druids. The group bypassed most of the spider area, but made sure to visit the druids to get the mighty oak +2, then killed a bunch of wyverns.
The attack on the mine went mostly well, except on the second floor, when we attacked the guards in the central room. Baeloth miscalculated his Web so Imoen got held while sneaking and was killed by archers in the next round. Baeloth and Xan killed all the enemies with fireballs, miraculously leaving alive the woman in the pantry.
Nothing of note until the last level with Davaeorn. This was the worst fiasco so far. Jaheira got charmed. Khalid got killed by a fireball. Baeloth got held and Xan killed himself with his wand of lightning. Thankfuly Baeloth and Jaheira were not in the same room. Dweyng cast sanctuary to wait for Davaeorn to run out of spells and for Jaheira’s charm to expire. We managed to kill Davaeorn, but it was a bitter victory, with only half the team alive to carry all the stuff back to town. We flooded the mine along with all the loot we couldn’t carry.
The party finished cleaning up the dungeon guards when I noticed Puk couldn't cast his priest spells, … the import bug.
For those that haven't played DS with a priest of Tyr yet there is a bug in Beamdogs code that converts the class into a broken cross between cleric and fighter.
The work around;
Instead of importing the save normally you can pick "single player" (assumed) then select "new game" then press the "create party" button.
Import the other group members from the "final save" one at a time as per normal... This collects their gear | experience and is very important to establish which member is the bhaul spurn... The fact that you wake up virtually naked still tells the game what items to offer you when you start to explore.
Now the work around part is to create your priest of tyr character from scratch instead of importing him from a character file or save.
The draw back is that this tyr priest will only have the basic 7th levels of experience that a character whom hasn't completed dragionspear gets... Feel free to shadowkeeper it if thats a stress but i'm playing on legacy of bhaul and turn undead is broken for that level anyway
@Wise_Grimwald , the syntax for posting pictures from external sites like Photobucket on this forum is:
< img src=http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/yourlink > , except without the spaces between < > . Also, you have to get rid of those [ img ] [ /img ] tags from Photobucket's link.
Alternatively, and I think easier, you can directly upload photos from your computer using the drop down menu above your posting window, fourth over from the right. (Looks like a page with the corner turned down). There's also a box in there where you can copy/paste a URL. (Again, no [ img ] [/img ] tags.)
Thanks BelgarathMTH. Once you know, that's much easier than the Bioware forum.
Scythia had few problems with the slaver quest other than the fact that he had to rest occasionally to recuperate. He has now agreed to go with Nalia to free her land. He has bought Azuredge. Should soon have ** in axes.
@Francois. If you are losing a lot of loot, it can be worthwhile not flooding the mine immediately but going back for it and then flooding the mine. Your choice though.
This will be a messy post. Lots of things went wrong for Goibniu and his party in the next two areas.
Everything started out fine: I decided to track down Bassilus; First, the group encountered Zargal and his two buddies - they were easy to defeat:
Bassilus himself, however, was another story: After the right dialogue choices, only some of his undead were destroyed, and the cleric himself resisted my attempts to interrupt his spellcasting, despite some hits. He also saved against Luna's attempts to control him with hold person and command spells - in the end, he managed to affect Anapa with rigid thinking, and the skeleton crossbowmen got some good hits in, thanks to my party's low ac scores:
Now, I did have a potion of clarity, but decided to save it in case the main character himself was threatened by a mind affecting spell. Thanks to some bad hp rolls when leveling up and the skeletons getting quite lucky, two hits were enough to kill the Kensai, and even with the bless spell, the rest of the party didn't manage to take down Bassilus before his skeletons also killed Donar with two more lucky shots:
However, I did manage to prevent any additional spellcasting; Bassilus eventually fell, though Luna, Helios and Owain had to retreat - they were too weak to challenge the remaining undead. Goibniu himself has a decent ac score, so it was his job to destroy the skeletons and zombies. He had to use another healing potion to do it, though.
Anapa and Donar were resurrected - at least the Bassilus quest provided me with enough gold for any further resurrections, and a new weapon for Donar (who has a proficiency point in warhammers).
The party travelled to the area northeast of Nashkell - Sleep spells helped with defeating Arghain, saving Hulrik's cow and clearing out the ogre camp. However, when Goibniu encountered the bandits Ioin, Billy and Dribben, things took a turn for the worse:
It was Donar's task to pull the bandits towards the waiting party - I planned to have Luna cast hold person spells while the bandits were following my fighter/thief. Donar's low hp pool and bad ac score struck again, and while running away, Billy and Dribben took two shots at him - both were hits, and a total of 15 points of damage was enough to kill Donar - again:
Even worse: All of Luna's attempts to hold our enemies failed completely - she had really bad luck with opposing saving throws. While trying to buy the cleric some time for her last spell, Anapa was killed despite drinking healing potions (damage was coming in faster than he could drink) - the party was down to 4. Time to retreat!
After resurrecting the fallen in Nashkell, we had two party members without equipment - trying to save it before retreating would have been suicidal. The group returned to the previous area, hoping for more luck with their spells. Success: This time, Luna managed to hold both Dribben and Billy, while Owain used sleep to protect the party from a random monster spawn:
Ioin himself didn't join the fight, he was waiting to the north. Alone and isolated, he was killed, while Anapa and Donar reclaimed their equipment.
A tough set of fights for the very weak party - Right now, I don't have a lot of options during fights, since Owain still hasn't learned new spells (with his low int, he needs (expensive) potions of genius to have a realistic chance of not just wasting scrolls), and Luna can't cast level 3 spells yet. Some wands would also really be helpful.
At this point, I wasn't really optimistic about the party's chances. I decided to go for the Nashkell Mines as a test - a make or break moment. I'd continue if I made it through the mines without another character death.
While getting to Mulahey was no problem with Owain's sleep spells, the final fight of chapter 2 was tough - again, mostly thanks to the party's limited options in combat. Buffed with chant and bless, plus protection from evil and a potion of heroism for Goibniu himself, the party entered Mulahey's lair. Owain used sleep against the first group of kobolds - this helped blocking the skeleton's path to the party somewhat, but also almost blocked the party's path to Mulahey, making it tough for multiple ranged attacker to focus the cleric. Thus, the party failed to interrupt his first spell, which was targeted on Goibniu - this was the time to drink the potion of clarity I'd been saving:
The rigid thinking spell was blocked by the potion, and Goibniu managed to deal some damage to Mulahey. With reinforcements arriving, I had to split my party up: Anapa and Goibniu continued to attack the cleric, the others fought the kobolds and skeletons. Mulahey, already heavily wounded, managed to cast another uninterrupted spell - hold person. Of course, it hit both Goibniu and Anapa, who failed their saving throws:
If Mulahey started attacking a held Goibniu, this would mean the end of the run - I somehow had to stop him. Helios was the character with the best ranged thac0 - taking another shot would mean staying exposed to more skeleton attacks, but I had no choice. The thief succeeded right away: One shot, and Mulahey was in panic mode, trying to flee. Helios followed him, while Luna rushed in to protect the held characters, and Donar used his new warhammer to great effect, attacking the remaining skeletons and protecting Owain:
Helios managed to eventually kill Mulahey, and the party won the battle. The Ring of Holiness will be quite useful for Luna. While returning to rest in Nashkell, Nimbul, in stark contrast to previous opponents, provided no challenge at all: Goibniu, buffed with remove fear, bless and chant, killed him with a powerful critical hit.
Comments
p.s, looks like this forum has no underline code so is it a problem if we use it?
Los1 -ds6,
Don't call me chicken;
Hear text as mp3,
The party took the side trip to bypass most the castle fighting and I managed to defeat Ashatiel by calling her a chicken… now I’m not claiming she actually laid an egg but there was a definite look of surprise on her beak as the clubs of my peons descended.
The tenses moment (for me) came as we approached the gates of hell… that’s the ninth hell by the way, anyway the red mist descended on my vision and suddenly I knew that my so-call allies had betrayed me!
The next thing I remember is a musky smell fulling my nostrils and my good friend Sarah asking if I knew who she was?... “of course, you still owe me 10 gold from the poker game by the way” … it’s good to have friends.
The big boss is all fear and fire so you’d expect ice to be his nemesis which it is but lightning also helps and having the shining lady wail away at his ass instead of ours is a no brainer tactic.
I think making a topic, calling it say "BioWare BG 2 No-Reload Thread Archive" and "BioWare BG 1 No-Reload Thread Archive" topic, and then putting links to said archives in the first post of this thread. That way this thread can continue more or less as normal, but all that great content is easily accessible by the links that should then be put in the 1st post of this thread. All active runs should of course be in this thread.
and with the move to this forum I'm opening a new domain at http://ormaline.businesscatalyst.com/
anyone that has images/ mods etc stored on the old server is safe for at least two more years and there is little risk the new server won't become a 500 page bandwitdh eating monster like its dady... six years without a days outage is a good service.
A new start,
The bad news is SCS still isn't ready and whilst LoB breaks 'Turn' that’s sad of course but I can't play vanilla and we do have to keep going so… I’m re-entering the challenge with the lossers club;
· Ormaline is an Half-Elf Lawful Evil Mage-Thief
· Puk Darkstar a Half-Orc Lawful Neutral Priest of Tyr
· Sarah Darknight a half-elf Neutral Good Sharman
· katarina Twoblades... a Chaotic Neutral Wild-Witch (Elf Fighter-Mage).
· Imoen is just Imoen, a human thief included for plot reasons
So far its been an easy torture and exciting lets leave now sort of day
Mods: this run has no mods, I’m only playing on LoB with extra damage turned off.
I'm Enuhal from the currently closing Bioware forums (and the forums before that), joining these forums to share my no-reload adventures with old and new members of the community.
Some information about me: English isn't my first language, which is why I don't do any roleplaying in my posts - it's easier to just describe events and tactics. I've been no-reloading the Baldur's Gate series since 2008/2009. Also, I really like druids.
My runs are generally triology runs, and I play with the BG2 Fixpack and BGT, sometimes installing other mods like SCS, Item Randomizer or Hard Times (though for this run, it's only the Fixpack and BGT). I will usually play ahead quite a bit before posting.
So, what I am doing for my first triology no-reload attempt in this forum is the randomly generated party challenge, which is something I've been trying for about a dozen times now (some attempts are documented in the bioware forums, some are not) - so far, I've succeeded in the SoA+ToB-only variant, got two groups through BG1+TotSC, but never no-reloaded all parts of the series together with the same party. A recent undocumented attempt was my most successful one so far, getting me all the way to ToB, where the bhaalspawn died during the second pocket plane challenge.
The rules are simple: I play with a full party of six, and I do a completionist run (otherwise, I would propably skip places like Durlag's Tower). Upon creation, every party member's race, class, stats, proficiencies, spell selections etc. are completely randomized (within the rules of the game and step by step), with the exception of thief ability points (too much work to randomize them). The names are also random names from mythology (via http://www.behindthename.com/random/).
I play on core rules, and without maximum hp per level.
These randomized groups usually have atrocious thac0, hp and armor class scores early on, making the early parts of BG1 relatively hard.
Here's the party I rolled up:
The Bhaalspawn:
Goibniu, a lawful good human paladin, with the following stats:
13/11/14/11/13/17
*Spears, *Halberds, *Short Sword, *Two-Handed Weapon Style
A very average character, though as a paladin, he does make a decent party leader thanks to his charisma score. Sadly, no strength, constitution or dexterity bonuses, and not enough strength for a full plate, but at least enough to use halberds. Still, there's no way this bhaalspawn would survive the frontlines (that's true for most randomly generated characters), so he'll mostly have to use ranged weapons early on, where he sadly has no proficiencies at all. He'll propably learn how to use longbows.
Anapa, a lawful neutral half-orc kensai, with the following stats:
18,22/10/13/10/13/12
*Spears, *Dagger, *Scimitars, *Long Swords
Kensais are generally really bad when their stats are randomized, because low dexterity and constitution scores make them even more fragile. This one does have a good strength score, and longswords are a good weapon type. At least he'll be a good damage dealer, though only if the enemy is either disabled or distracted - because Anapa won't survive getting attacked for long.
Helios, a neutral evil human thief, with the following stats:
15/11/15/12/12/10
*Long Swords, *Shortbows
Really good weapon proficiencies! That's lucky, because otherwise, this character will mostly just open locks and disarm traps. The name is quite ironic for a thief; Well, with his constitution he gets a small hp bonus, which is certainly nice to have.
Luna, a chaotic evil half-orc priestess of talos, with the following stats:
11/14/13/9/15/13
*Quarterstaffs, *Single Weapon Style
An average cleric, but it's always good to have a divine spellcaster. 15 Wisdom is nice. Bless and chant, command and hold person are all excellent spells early on, especially consindering the weak fighting abilites of a randomized party. The weapon proficiencies aren't great, though the chance to randomly get the point in slings (which are certainly going to be this characters main weapons) is very low anyway.
Owain, a chaotic neutral gnome illusionist, with the following stats:
15/16/14/13/7/11
*Quarterstaffs
Spells: Sleep, the other ones don't really matter.
An excellent character, for multiple reasons: I rarely get an arcane spellcaster for my randomly generated parties, due to the way my randomization process works. Also, starting with sleep will make the early game much, much easier. As an illusionist, his dexterity is automatically decent, and as a gnome, he'll have good saving throws. Of course, the stats could be better, and he'll still be extremely squishy, but I'm happy to have an illusionist at all. Sadly, he got the only possible weapon proficiency without a ranged component.
Donar, a chaotic good halfling fighter/thief, with the following stats:
12/12/14/12/13/13
*Spears, *War Hammers, *Katanas, *Slings
Very, very average stats, and I don't really need a second thief (he'll be learning how to stealth, I guess). The point in slings is nice, especially for a halfling - he'll certainly be moving more towards this direction. Again, decent saves. Generally just a worse fighter, though.
_________________________________________
Overall, this is quite a good party, mainly because it's very balanced - it has fighters, thieves, a divine and an arcane spellcaster, so I'll be able to use a broader set of tactics compared to usual randomized groups. Negatives are the lack of standout frontliners (without the massive use of potions, that is): No one can use full plate, no one has good dexterity and constitution scores, or even constitution scores by themselves, since there are gauntlets for dexterity. There will be a lot of running involved in the early game, and if Luna can learn how to summon skeletons, those will certainly be extremely helpful. Also, the ranged weapon capabilites across the party aren't very strong yet, though this will hopefully change.
A first very short update for today:
After creating the party, I completed the Candlekeep sidequests and talked to Gorion. The party made their way to the FAI, avoiding all encounters along the way, but taking a diamond and a ring of wizardry with them (double the sleep spells for Owain). There, Luna cast remove fear and bless; Everyone (even the Kensai, who can use throwing daggers) equipped ranged weapons and attacked Tarnesh, who, thanks to some lucky hits, died before being able to do anything.
Enuhal
Looking forward to seeing your adventures along with other newcomers like @ussnorway whose posts I enjoyed on the Bioware forums for a long time.
Along with other, similar suggestions already proposed, a consensus will surely be reached in the intervening months.
I am sure all the previous posters in this thread are equally excited about the stream of experienced contributors from Bioware forums carrying on with their future adventures here as well.
The party rested at the FAI and killed some hobgoblins to return Joia's ring before travelling south. There, an ogre was disabled and killed thanks to Owain's sleep spell - the Girdle of Piercing will be invaluable against nasty things like bandit ambushes and hobgoblin elites, since most of my party has terrible ac scores.
In Beregost, Karlat couldn't deal with being commanded by Luna two times in a row. Marl was talked down, and Firebead got his book. Goibniu decided to save Silke for later - no way to disrupt her spellcasting reliably yet.
Anyway, the paladin took it upon himself to lure the Spiders out of Landrin's house. Out there, the party had enough room to run, in case Owain's sleep spells failed - indeed, it took him multiple tries to disable all of the spiders, so the party had to fall back several times.
After resting, the party travelled further down the Lion's Way. South of Beregost, two Ogrillons carrying Mirianne's letter were shot to death with ranged weapons and some kiting. The party moved to the west, with Owain sleeping some hobgoblins, who were carrying Zhurlong's boots (though, for now, I've given them to Donar). Goibniu also found a couple of very useful potions in a nearby cave.
North of Nashkell, the hobgoblin encampment was responsible for the first death in the party: When Owain apporached to sleep the ranged hobgoblins, he was shot at the same time, and with his 4 hit points, one hit was enough to kill him (though his sleep spell did end up working):
The party made it to Nashkell, where the gnome illusionist was resurrected at the temple. Still somewhat wounded, the party entered the inn, where Neira approached - but like the previous would-be assassin, Karlat, she was commanded twice by Luna and killed via ranged weapons.
After resting and learning how to cure light wounds as his first bhaalspawn power, Goibniu found an ankheg armor in the fields west of Nashkell. Now, I though about next steps: This is the part were randomized parties are really weak - no additional weapon proficiencies yet, overall terrible when it comes to straight-up fighting. I decided to go for Melicamp (and Perdue's short sword) in hopes of getting some easy xp, but sadly, he didn't survive:
Northwest of Nashkell, the party had better luck: After helping Drizzt, Luna's remove fear and bless spells helped to defeat Teyngan's party. Owain used sleep on Bjornin's half ogres, allowing the party to turn in some quests in Beregost (all but Gurke's cloak, which will have to wait). Thanks to the resulting level ups, I felt a little bit safer.
While back in Beregost, I bought some +1 ranged weapons from Thunderhammer. The party also finally killed Silke, with the help of a bless spell and their now slightly improved thac0s.
When travelling back to the FAI, to also turn in Landrin's quest, the group encountered the dreaded bandit ambush:
I instantly switched the Girlde of Piercing to Owain, the most vulnerable party member. The party ran as fast as they could, and it was really close, but in the end, while Donar, Helios and Owain almost died, to my surprise, everyone made it - I was lucky the bandits didn't decide to focus a specific party member.
The party's hp after the ambush.
That's it for now; Good luck to everyone!
Enuhal
Looking forward to continuing (in my case) the largely hopeless adventure
I understand some people are trying to push for the Bioware forums to stay open, but we have been seeing Bioware folks migrating over here. I think this will be our common no-reload thread.
We don't have a split thread for BG1 or BG2. This thread is for all no-reload runs of the Infinity Engine games, including Icewind Dale.
You are very welcome to post a trilogy run or individual BG1 or BG2 runs as you see fit, both are welcome in this one thread (just identify for clarity please). No hard rules, just the spirit of the no-reload.
Good luck!
My original idea was to play through every IE game with a single party, so I could use Lance of Disruption in BG or Slayer form in IWD. For now, I'm just focusing on the current IWD2 run--I may or may not proceed to BG1 if I complete this one.
I actually did a no-reload of IWD2 before, with a duergar druid and a deep gnome monk of some sort, but I used a lot of exploits in that run, which I won't be using now. No import/export tricks, no song stacking with Lingering Song in important battles, and also no Improved Invisibility. Improved Invisibility isn't a bug, but it does trivialize much of the game.
The party is optimized for IWD2 but should be strong in future games as well. Our first character is Snowy Tae!
It's a classic svirfneblin monk build. Deep gnomes are by far the strongest tanks in IWD2, with innate spell resistance, +2 to saves, +4 to AC, Mirror Image and Blur as innate spells, and an extra +2 to DEX and WIS, both of which can improve AC on a monk. They're basically the only character that can achieve the mythical 72 AC that is the gold standard for Heart of Fury mode (which I won't be messing with).
Balancing these outrageously overpowered abilities is a crippling -3 level adjustment, which means a deep gnome is always 3 levels behind a normal character. IWD2 spellcasters have a strong exponential growth curve, which means a deep gnome like Snowy Tae has basically no offensive power. Deep gnomes are very useful, but they're not too much fun, since all they do is soak up attacks.
It's going to be hard to discuss the gameplay of IWD2, since it's so very different from the other IE games. Huge enemy hordes, unbuffed but sturdy enemy spellcasters, concentration checks, 3E save bonuses and penalties, an entirely different set of opcodes, powerful foes with almost zero AI and no targeting ability, highly exponential spellcaster growth, wildly unbalanced classes and spells but well-balanced items, a 100% linear plot, and tactics that depend more on numbers and dice rolls than immunities and wizard chess. In many ways it's the polar opposite of BG2.
Anyway, next is Bloody Howard. All of these characters are old names and faces to me.
Clerics are one of the two conventionally powerful classes of IWD2, not counting bards (who I will get to in a moment). Cleric buffs and healing spells in IWD2 actually make them better damage dealers and tanks than fighters, rangers, paladins, and barbarians. Bloody Howard will be using axes, one of the weapons that deals triple damage on critical hits in IWD2 instead of double damage (in other games, double damage is universal). This is important because we will have luck bonuses in this run. Unlike other games, IWD2 luck increases the chance of a critical hit, and no enemies in the game are immune to critical hits.
Then we have Fobie, who has the most exploitable class in the game. He is a bard.
The Lingering Song feat makes bard songs last for 2 rounds after the bard stops singing, but because of how IWD2 implemented it, you can trigger it while the game is paused. This means you can turn the bard song on and off during a pause and stack the effects of a single bard song almost infinitely. There's no short way to describe how overpowered it is; no other IE game has a tactic as strong as the Lingering Song trick.
I won't be stacking bard songs, though. Except maybe to explode some minor enemies, for fun. Fobie will still be a powerful asset, since IWD2 songs are already quite strong.
Next we have Laosha, our druid.
Druids have a lot of valuable and interesting spells in IWD2, unlike in the BG saga. Aside from Entangle, a strong low-level disabler, and various damage spells, druids have Barkskin, which in IWD2 adds a "generic" armor bonus.
"Generic" AC is the only kind of AC in IWD2 that stacks. Getting high AC is hard without it, and in a game like IWD2 with lots of hard-hitting enemies, AC is incredibly important.
Finally, we have our sorcerers, Poppy and Espellier. Their stats are identical.
I made them halflings so they would have CON-based save bonuses if I moved them into BG (in IWD2, they only get a flat +1 to all saves).
Poppy specializes in enchantment spells; Espellier in invocation. Some of IWD2's best feats are the Spell Focus feats. Put two ranks in Spell Focus: Enchantment, and all of your enchantment spells will have a +4 save penalty attached to them.
Sorcerers are some of the strongest characters in IWD2 and are very simple to play. They have more spell slots and a better casting stat than wizards, and since so few enemies in IWD2 have immunities, they can disable or disintegrate practically anything, if they get their Charisma high enough. Chromatic Orb is especially devastating, as we will see later in this run.
The prologue's fights are fairly simple. You have a bunch of goblins to deal with, and each goblin has -4 luck, meaning they can't land critical hits on you. I don't know if all the goblins suffer this penalty, so I use Bloody Howard's Sunscorch spell (a special spell courtesy of his Lathander kit) to weaken Rukwurm before he can get close.
Notice the many goblins asleep on the ground. Poppy's Sleep spell has a save DC of 17--very high for this stage of the game--but in IWD2, enemies always wake up from sleep on hit. This means we have to be careful about our targeting if we want to stay safe.
Most quests in the prologue are nonviolent, but Phaen of the Rags is a potential stumbling block. He knocks out our cleric and bard both, but Snowy Tae, our invincible monk, stays conscious thanks to her spell resistance.
We nail Phaen right before he breaks out Mirror Image. Missile weapons are very important in a party with Strength scores as low as ours.
Crossbows are one of the few missile weapons that mages can handle effectively. Unfortunately, they only deal double damage on a critical hit, which means they'll be weaker when Fobie hits level 5 and can sing Tymora's Melody, boosting our critical hit chances.
We have a big battle coming up at the end of the prologue. IWD2 gives you a little more than 1000 XP per party member in Targos, but that's only enough to level up characters without level adjustments.
Snowy Tae is still a long way away from her next level. With 12 HP, a lucky hit or two could quickly spell her doom.
The prologue tends to be kind of tedious after multiple playthroughs, but the writing is actually fun, and there are special dialog options depending on your character's race, class, and stats. Among other things, certain races can translate a dead goblin's ravings.
Once you're out of the prologue, though, IWD2 is all hack-and-slash.
Finally, we run out of things to do. We purchase an Oil of Fiery Burning for 500 gold (a huge expense at this point in the game) and report to Shawford Crale. The goblin horde attacks Targos once again.
The first enemy group is Vghotan, a worg rider, and some hounds and goblins. The Targos soldiers can only hold off the enemy for a precious few seconds; we need to move quickly before we get overwhelmed. Snowy Tae can hold off the enemy goblins due to their -4 luck, but Vghotan is another story. Laosha, with his high Wisdom score and Spell Focus: Transmutation feat, can immobilize the whole enemy group with Entangle, allowing us to take down the enemy using ranged weapons.
Without Vghotan, the primary threat is gone, and the rest of the enemy crumples. The next enemy group spawns in: Ghotrag, a melee grunt, and yet more goblins. This fight is a little bigger, but we get help from the mercenaries from the Salty Dog tavern. I want to save our last Entangle spell for the final fight, so I have Laosha hold back. Instead, I knock out the enemy's with Poppy's Sleep spell. Our other sorcerer, Espellier, can't do much to help, as she specializes in evocation magic.
Later on, Chromatic Orb will be our deadliest spell, but Espellier's magic will have little impact until then. We finish off Ghotrag with missile weapons and clean up the snoozing gobbos.
The last batch of goblins is also the hardest. Caballus is a mage, many levels higher than us. He can crush us if we let him.
Our Oil of Fiery Burning can torch him--it's a 5d6 Fireball, in effect--but it won't bypass Mirror Image, and I don't want to use up such a precious resource if we can save it for later. We begin with Sleep and Entangle to slow down the enemy's approach.
If Caballus gets entangled, every spell will require a concentration check. Unfortunately, he's making good saves. Chromatic Orb can't touch him, either.
Unlike BG, a Chromatic Orb in IWD2 only does damage on a failed save. A saving throw negates both the damage and the secondary effect, though CO in IWD2 offers no +6 save bonus like BG does.
Our spells are failing. But with four crossbows and 18 DEX each, our spellcasters in the back can apply very heavy pressure to Caballus.
Even with that critical hit, though, it's not quite enough. Caballus nails Bloody Howard with a level 5 Chromatic Orb spell. Bloody Howard, with his 13 Dexterity and lousy Reflex save, gets stunned just as two goblins engage him in melee combat.
The goblins will have three rounds of automatic hits--more than enough to butcher our main healer. Poppy tries to knock out the goblins before they can axe him, but the spell doesn't hit the goblins it needs to.
Despite Bloody Howard's situation, I don't turn our attention away from Caballus, who could still wipe out the entire party with a couple spells. It's better to kill Caballus and save the party than kill the goblin fighters and save Bloody Howard alone.
A lucky hit from Fobie finishes off the mage.
Laosha uses his last spell to heal Bloody Howard, while the rest of the party tears down the goblins attacking him.
We report to Shawford Crale with no deaths and collect our reward. We count it up and find 1776 coins in all.
The day I flew out of China, I bought some food at the airport and got $17.76 in change. It prompted a long conversation with a Japanese-American guy across the table. Good times.
I play on core rules, BG1EE without mods. I just used EEKeeper to change the appearance to that of Halfling thief. This is a role-playing run and I try to act reasonably. However, in a few cases my cleric thief will just happen to have prophetic dreams about certain nearby treasures.
Dweyng, True Neutral, gnome, male, Cleric/Thief
11/18/18/12/17/13
I put all skill points in open locks for now, then I will increase find traps
Proficiencies: mace (for the Stupefier) and slings
Equipped with studded leather and buckler.
The character is an opportunist with a certain courage, but who’s rather more comfortable getting others to fight for him. Party composition will be flexible, according to whatever seems pleasant and convenient. The only one I am sure not to recruit is Neera because of wild surges.
Highlights:
I started with Xzar/Montaron and Khalid/Jaheira. Such a happy team all working toward a common goal. We went directly to Beregost and Nashkel, doing all the petty adventuring available along the way to collect boots of stealth, ring +1 and so on. We cleaned out the mines alright, except that Khalid was laid low by a kobold on the 3rd level. For Mulahey, Jaheira and Montaron took potions of speed, Dweyng used command and within a few second the Nashkel mines were saved. After dispatching the minions I decided I didn’t really like Xzar and Monty, so we buried them alongside Mulahey. We recruited Xan, who is a lot more congenial.
We recruited Minsc and went to to Gnoll stronghold. Helped a dryad on the way and Jaheira got a magic club. After rescuing Dynaheir, we parted ways with Minsc. On our way back to Beregost, Xan was killed by brigands. We eventually stumbled upon Bassilus and against our better judgement we decided to fight him without wizard backup and no priest spells left. Bassilus held Jaheira and killed her, but we finally took him down with projectiles and some fine swordplay by Khalid.
Back in Beregost we collected the reward and raised the brave fallen companions then we paid a visit to Tranzig, but decided not to go to the camp until we were better equipped. A bit of burglary in the local mansion produced a nice wand of lightning.
We checked out that Ulcaster dungeon. The vampiric wolf could have been a challenge, since Khalid had no magic sword and Imoen no magic arrow. Xan won the party-member-of-the-day award by bringing it to Near Death with a well-aimed lightning bolt (that only slightly damaged Jaheira), before striking the killing blow with his moon blade. As a treat we took him to the High Hedge and bought him all the 2nd level scrolls he fancied.
Lastly, Dweyng had a holy dream vision that a pair of emeralds could be found not far from the Nashkel mines so we went back and explored that area further. We had a business disagreement with a bounty hunter, but Dweyng successfully cast hold on him so it was not much of a fight.
This looks like it will be my permanent party, barring any unfortunate events.
Dweyng (lvl 3/3) is still alive and that’s all that he really cares about.
Jaheira (lvl 3/3) is becoming quite the tank, with full plate, brawling hands, ring +1 and large shield +1.
Khalid (lvl3) now has mastery and +2 longsword.
Imoen (lvl 4) has a +2 short sword, +1 short bow and is getting pretty good at stealth.
Xan (lvl 3) has wands of lighting and fire and a good selection of 2nd level spells.
We will probably go to the Firewine Bridge next. I want to wait until I have a lvl 5 before heading to the bandit camp so I can get Baeloth on the way.
You make me feel nostalgia:
IWD2 is arguably the best dungeon crawl there ever was. For me it is missing just two things:
1. SCS.
2. an EE uplift of interface.
It seems I am now spoiled with both and it takes a big barrier to overcome to play without either.
Every year or two, I attempt an IWD2 run, even handicap my party by avoiding minmaxing, but past a certain point, without SCS, the campaign becomes unloosable. All of it on no-reload, of course.
In some of the best runs I had, I forbid myself to use a Sorcerer or even a full time mage and forbid all undead summoning. Shengard Bridge was a nail-biter.
Good times.
(Still, the "attack the first char I see" AI is... disappointing.)
Goibniu, human paladin, update 2
Goibniu and his randomly generated party travelled to the Carnival, where they killed Oopah and Vitiare. Zordral proved to be much tougher: Without any offensive spells or wands to reliably disrupt spellcasting yet, and all of Luna's save or else-spells failing, the party simply couldn't disrupt his final few LMD's, even after they got rid of his mirror images and despite being buffed with bless - he killed Donar:
A few seconds later, Luna finally managed to kill the mage:
At least Owain has a useful robe now, and the next temple wasn't far away.
Now, Anapa clearly needed a better weapon (his normal longsword already had to be replaced twice thanks to the iron crisis), so near the mines, Greywolf was commanded and killed. No problems here - Goibniu also obtained another healing potion in a house in the northern part of the area.
Further east, in the next area, Goibniu discovered a Ring of Fire Resistance, was gifted a scroll of protection from magic and promised to take Samuel to the FAI, which he did. After some resting and travelling back south, the party entered the Xvart village. Some sleep spells helped with the horde of enemies, and the two bears were kited and killed with ranged weapons. I decided to leave Borda alone, since he can be quite deadly.
To the west, killing a mountain bear got me the Boots of the North. The rest of this map is a little bit too dangerous for my party right now, so instead, I went to the gnoll fortress, where sleep spells were enough to obtain the charisma tome for Goibniu and rescue Dynaheir - the more important thing, though are the Gauntlets of Dexterity, which Goibniu will use for now. With these and the Ankheg armor, his ac is good enough to tank some of the less hard-hitting enemies.
Instead of travelling back to Nashkell by themselves, the party sought out Brage and used the peaceful option to get to the city.
All this adventuring provided me with some much needed level ups - mostly useful for proficiency points right now: Another point in longswords for Anapa, the first one in longbows for Goibniu, Donar specialized in slings, Helios learned how to use Quarterstaffs (for backstabbing later on). When Luna reaches level 4, she'll take a point in slings.
The party also explored the cloudpeak mountains (both areas) - no problems here: First we kited Caldo and Krumm, used sleep spells against Ludrug's group and returned Drienne's cat, next we returned Rufie to Albert. Winter Wolves were killed with the help of command spells - otherwise, they are quite threatening to my party, though the Boots of the North really help a lot. For the two more interesting encounters here, Luna had her new hold person spells ready: Vax was held while the party killed Zal, and Sendai suffered the same fate - with the party having to use some healing potions to survive against her archers. Helios has a new armor and new bracers now, and Goibniu a magical halberd. The Girdle of Bluntness will also be quite useful.
Sadly, I forgot to take screenshots during this entire trip.
A curious encounter to finish this post: On the way back to Nashkell, Goibniu was ambushed by an ogre mage - I wasn't really prepared for the invisible spellcaster, so he managed to capture all of the party within his first spell, a stinking cloud. This could have been devastating - however, things didn't go as planned for the would-be ambusher: He managed to fail the saving throw himself, while two of my party, Donar and Helios, succeeded:
The two thieves quickly ran out of the spell's radius and killed the unconscious ogre mage with their ranged weapons.
Enuhal
The difficulty in IWD2 does decrease after Trugnuk, but I wouldn't have thought IWD2 was unloseable at any point in the game (well, maybe the ice temple) without a min-maxed party, given how dice-dependent the gameplay is. IWD2 has critical failures on saving throws; there's always a chance of failing a crucial save.
What kind of characters and tactics did you use?
Dweyng, gnome Cleric/Thief, Highlights 2
Dweyng visited Gullykin for some friendly burglary and discovered Jenkal’s treachery. The ogre mage was dispatched very quickly and Xan cast Horror down the hallway. The silly wizard was running around miscasting spells while we practiced archery on him. We explored part of the dungeon and exited by the bridge. On the way back to Gullykin, we met a group of suspicious-looking people just south of the village. We surrounded them before initiating dialog, but violent action ensued. Entangle + wand of fireball + hold + fire arrows from Imoen and Khalid = easy victory. Molkar survived long enough to escape the entaglements and engage Jaheira in a very short melee. While resting in Gullykin I decided to switch gears between Khalid and Jaheira to make Khalid my primary tank. Another mystical dream suggested some treasure trove near a lighthouse.
Once there, we recruited Safana and scouting revealed some hobgoblins and sirens. We were originally planning to rest before going further, but decided to get rid of the hobgoblins first. One thing led to another and the sirens joined the fray. Khalid took the potion of mind shielding (stolen from Candlekeep). I didn’t play it as safe as I should and Imoen got charmed and Safana killed. Still we continued on to the cave, sendind Khalid in the vanguard while the potion’s effect lasted. Xan softened the 3 sirens by the cave with wand of fire and lighting, while Khalid charged them. Inside the cave, Khalid took a potion of giant strength and killed the golems with ballistic support from Imoen. Dweyng used his newly improved trap disabling skills while overseeing the fight.
Returning to civilization we met Ba’Ruk and his commandos who were all put to sleep by Xan. We hired as security for the archeologists and fought a Doomsayer. Not really difficult at this level. We returned Brage peacefuly to Nashkel, resurrected Safana and dropped her at the Inn.
We now have enough money to buy the shadow armor for Imoen. Dweyng has Con 20 (thanks to the tome and Buckley’s buckler previously purchased at the friendly arm inn), making him an honorary Dwarf.
I hope that it works:
Since not all the images came across, if you want to look here for the original:
https://forum.bioware.com/topic/124374-baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge/page-655
The saga of Scythia Strongarm in Baldur's Gate
The spoilers aren't acually spoilers, but just enable you to just read if you want, or see the images if you want.
Diary of Scythia Strongarm
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h416/grimwaldthewise/Baldurs Gate 2/Scythia Strongarm/Baldr028.jpg
http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h416/grimwaldthewise/Baldurs Gate 2/Scythia Strongarm/Baldr029.jpg
Being a half-orc, as you might expect, I had great difficulty in gaining the training necessary to become an Inquisitor. If it hadn't been for the example of Drizzt, I am certain that, even pulling strings, Gorion would never have succeeded in getting me the rquisite training.
I do have one fault and that is the propensity towards picking up items which do not belong to me. In Candlekeep this meant that I had to pay a fine of all my gold when caught breaking open a chest.
I was able to kill all three assassins sent to kill me. [In the two previous runs Mendas killed me with his poisoned weapon!] This time I ensured that Canderous blessed me and protected me from evil whilst I consumed Deder's oil of speed.
Upon coming across Mendas, I ran and shot him with my bow before he closed in on me. I had to use two healing potions, but I survived.
[img]http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h416/grimwaldthewise/Baldurs Gate 2/Scythia Strongarm/Baldr030.jpg[/IMG]
After being ambushed on the way to the FAI Gorion was killed and, upon his instructions, I fled.
I continued to follow his instructions by making for the Friendly Arms Inn. There I was asked to recover Joia's flamedance ring. This I did, and in the process helped Tania against the fishermen, thankfully without bloodshed.
Heading southwards I found a useful girdle upon the body of the ogre that I had just killed.
Heading southwards, I was able to help Alanna's neighbour, kill Karlat, calm down Marl and get a book for Firebead.
[img]http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h416/grimwaldthewise/Baldurs Gate 2/Scythia Strongarm/Baldr032.jpg[/IMG]
I continued southwards, killing ogrillon and hobgoblins gaining a ring of protection and boots of strength in the process.
In Nashkel I found some ankheg armour, chatted to Noober and did some babysitting. I turned down some gold that Oublek was offering thinking that I was Greywolf. To the south-east I found a ring of fire protection before agreeing to take Samuel to the Friendly Arms Inn.
After doing that, I saved Melicamp's life and helped him back to his human form.
Back in the south, I helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat before heading west.
Baldr034.jpg
There I took on some unpleasant guys who were trying to extort payment for crossing a bridge.
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Some assassins got in on the act, but necklace of missiles killed all but one.
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He was a mage and he successfully cast confusion.
Baldr038.jpg
That didn't stop me killing him with my bow. I then had to wait until the spell wore off until I could proceed. The necklace once more proved invaluable as I killed some more assassins. The necklace is now in need of recharging.
In a cave I found some useful nick-nacks.
I killed some powerful gnoll before returning to the carnival to recharge the necklace.
Baldr033.jpg
To the south I killed another assassin, (see above) before deciding that some ankheg hunting was in order.
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After killing all of them that I could find I reached level 6. My proficiencies are now: ** in two-handed swords; ** in two-handed weapons; and ** in long bows. Reputation is now 20, so I did some shopping in the carnival.
I decided to visit Durlag's Tower and had quite a profitble time there gaining wisdom, excellent armour many scrolls and potions, but most useful of all, experience.
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I then went to the lighthouse area, killed some sirene,
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but when the oportunity afforded itself, I peacefully went past Sil to get the treasure in the cave. The tome that I found in there means that I now rarely need healing potions.
I then killed Bassilus,
Zargal et al
before going to deal with Mutamin, the basilisks and medusae.
Baldr051.jpg
Baldr052.jpg
This took me past the level cap, but from now on I won't level up.
I then worked my way through the Nashkel mines, killing both assassins
Baldr053.jpg
and Mulahey with no problems.
Baldr054.jpg
Once outside I killed some assassins:
Baldr055.jpg
the undead in the caves and a stupid mage.
I fought Tazok, but like the bullying coward that he is, he stopped the fight.
I got the letters from the chest by stealth and proceeded to Cloakwood, killing some more assassins on the way:
There I helped some hunters and had various contretemps with druids. They always came out the worse for wear.
I also killed a dragon and several wyvern:
Baldr060.jpg
Baldr061.jpg
The Cloakwood mines did not appear when I expected, so I had to return to the bandit camp. This time my sword was exceedingly bloody when I left.
I fought Drasus and prevailed. However, I had to return to recharge my necklace of missiles.
In the mines Hareishan was totally outsmarted despite using sneaky tactics. I Used the necklace of muissiles centred on myself. This virtually wiped them out. However, I was scarcely hurt due to my protections.
Baldr062.jpg
Baldr063.jpg
I then fought my way through to Davaeorn and he finally fell.
There were some summoned monsters left, so Stephen was charmed with Algernon's Cloak to deal with them.
There were some chests that even I was not able to force open even with 22 strength.
On the way out I was attacked by Wendall who used rigid thinking to no avail:
Baldr066.jpg
Onwards to Baldur's Gate.
I have entered Baldur's Gate, killing more assassins on the way in.
I have used the dexterity, wisdom and intelligence increasing scrolls.
I have acquired considerable experience fetching and carrying. After getting into a brawl, sadly Gorpal Hind was killed. I was sad and felt a bit guilty about that.
Baldr072.jpg
I sold a lot of +1 armour and weapons and now have well over 50,000 gold pieces.
Experience now over 350,000 but have not levelled up since reaching 150,000.
Candlekeep was without serious incident Experience just over 500.000.
Have rescued Duke Eltan.
Killed Cythandria, Kristen and Slythe.
Now wanting to get some ale after going to the Ducal Palace and defeating the assassins.
I have rescued the dukes and killed Silke:
Killed more assassins:
followed by Sarevok's cohorts:
Baldr078.jpg
Sarevok has fallen.
Baldr079.jpg
He was killed after an arrow of dispelling, an arrow of freezing and then his trusty sword. True sight was a real boon against his cohorts.
Final experience 687,963, though I did not level up after reaching 161000.
It hasn't worked perfectly as the images aren't there.
https://forum.bioware.com/topic/124374-baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge/page-655
Weidu log below:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~TOTDG/SETUP-TOTDG.TP2~ #0 #0 // Colours of Infinity: Tales of the Deep Gardens
~TOTDG/SETUP-TOTDG.TP2~ #0 #1 // NPC Reactions (Aerie, Viconia, Jaheira, Anomen, Haer'Dalis, Keldorn)
~DC/SETUP-DC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Crawl: v9
~BACKBRYNNLAW/SETUP-BACKBRYNNLAW.TP2~ #0 #0 // Back to Brynnlaw mod for Baldur's Gate II: v5
~SELLSWORDS/SETUP-SELLSWORDS.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Sellswords mod for Baldur's Gate II: v5
~SETUP-COM_ENCOUNTERS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Chosen of Mystra's Encounters (Requires Throne of Bhaal)
~SETUP-COM_ENCOUNTERS.TP2~ #0 #1 // Would you like to install improved druid encounters?
~SETUP-COM_ENCOUNTERS.TP2~ #0 #2 // Would you like to install improved Shagbag encounters?
~SETUP-AMBER.TP2~ #0 #0 // Amber the NPC MOD for BGII:SoA: v4
~SETUP-AMBER.TP2~ #0 #1 // Multiplayer-friendly flirting for Amber: v4
~TASHIA/SETUP-TASHIA.TP2~ #0 #0 // Tashia NPC Mod -> Full version (ToB required): v1.3
~TASHIA/SETUP-TASHIA.TP2~ #0 #3 // Tashia Add-on Pack by Bri and Lord Ernie (English only, Tashia ToB Required) -> Baldurized Dialogues: v1.3
~TASHIA/SETUP-TASHIA.TP2~ #0 #5 // Alternate portrait for Tashia. -> Tashia's Alternate Portrait 2.: v1.3
~XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Xan NPC MOD for Baldur's Gate II: v15
~XAN/SETUP-XAN.TP2~ #0 #1 // Install alternate class for Xan? -> Change Xan's class to Fighter/Mage: v15
~YASRAENA/SETUP-YASRAENA.TP2~ #0 #0 // Yasraena (BG2:SoA & TOB NPC) created by nethrin & Sillara of the Tamari: v16
~SETUP-ALORA.TP2~ #0 #0 // Chosen of Mystra's Alora NPC Mod: 1.5
~SAERILETH/SETUP-SAERILETH.TP2~ #0 #0 // Saerileth Romance Mod (BG2:SoA & TOB NPC) created by nethrin and Sillara: v18
~DEARNISE/SETUP-DEARNISE.TP2~ #0 #0 // de'Arnise Romance for Baldur's Gate II: v4
~SETUP-BANTERPACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // Pocket Plane Banter Pack for BG2: Shadows of Amn: V14
~SETUP-BANTERPACK.TP2~ #0 #1 // Install SOA Banter Accelerator script? (Increases the frequency of interparty banter): V14
~SETUP-BANTERPACK.TP2~ #0 #2 // Pocket Plane Banter Pack for BG2: Throne of Bhaal: V14
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Extended NPC-NPC Interaction SoA: V4.2
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #1 // Extended Minsc/Aerie Interaction ToB: V4.2
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #2 // Imoen "Retrospection" dialogue for BGII: ToB: V4.2
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #3 // Wake-Up dialogue for Anomen Romance (By David Gaider with additions from Kulyok): V4.2
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #4 // NPC Conflict Revisions: V4.2
~IEPBANTERS/SETUP-IEPBANTERS.TP2~ #0 #5 // Restored Aerie/Jaheira/Anomen interjection in Underdark: V4.2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Suna Seni/Valygar Relationship: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #2 // Kalah and What He Was Promised: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #3 // "Cat and Mouse" (Bodhi hunts you in Spellhold) by Ghreyfain: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #4 // Gorje Hilldark and the Extended Illithium Quest: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #5 // The Pai'Na/Spider's Bane Quest: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #6 // Restored Crooked Crane Inn: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #7 // Restored Encounters: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #8 // Artemis Entreri in Bodhi's Lair: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #9 // Corrected "Xzar's Creations": v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #10 // Restored Hell Minions, by SimDing0: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #11 // Gorf the Squisher Fix, by Gebhard Blucher: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #12 // Item Restorations: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #13 // Yoshimo's Original Portrait: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #14 // Anomen's Original Portrait: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #15 // NPC Portrait Restorations: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #16 // Corrected BAMs and Scripts: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #17 // Corrected Character Names and Biographies: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #18 // Restored Minor Dialogs: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #19 // Restored Bhaalspawn Powers, by David Gaider: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #20 // Extended ToB Item Descriptions: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #21 // Throne of Bhaal Minor Restorations: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #24 // Sarevok's Remorse: v26beta2
~UB/SETUP-UB.TP2~ #0 #25 // The Murder of Acton Balthis, by Kulyok: v26beta2
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #0 // Restored Locations: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #1 // Restored Characters and Dialogs: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #2 // Restored Sounds: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #3 // Restored Items: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #4 // Restored Wish Options: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #5 // Restored XP for Minor Things: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #6 // Lich Deril: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #7 // Restored Random Encounters: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #8 // Minor Restorations: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #11 // Restored Final Slayer Dream: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #12 // Alternate Slayer Change: v8.2.6
~ARESTORATIONP/SETUP-ARESTORATIONP.TP2~ #1 #13 // Restored Waukeen's Promenade Cutscene: v8.2.6
~SETUP-DUNGEONBEGONE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Dungeon Be Gone V1.6
~KELSEY.TP2~ #0 #0 // Kelsey: V4
~KELSEY.TP2~ #0 #21 // Alternate portraits -> Install Alternate Kelsey portrait set #3, by Indi: V4
~SETUP-KETO.TP2~ #0 #0 // Keto-SOA NPC V2
~SETUP-KETO.TP2~ #0 #1 // Keto/Kelsey Interaction (Requires Kelsey-SOA)
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #0 // Aerie Flirt Pack For SOA: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #1 // Aerie/Solaufein Romance Conflict For SOA (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #2 // Aerie Flirt Pack For TOB: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #3 // Aerie/Solaufein Romance Conflict For TOB (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #4 // Jaheira Flirt Pack for SOA: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #5 // Jaheira/Solaufein Romance Conflict For SOA (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #6 // Jaheira Flirt Pack for TOB: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #7 // Jaheira/Solaufein Romance Conflict For TOB (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #8 // Viconia Flirt Pack for SOA: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #9 // Viconia/Solaufein Romance Conflict For SOA (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #10 // Viconia Flirt Pack for TOB: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #11 // Viconia/Solaufein Romance Conflict For TOB (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #12 // Anomen Flirt Pack for SOA: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #13 // Anomen/Solaufein Romance Conflict For SOA (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #14 // Anomen Flirt Pack for TOB: v1.03
~SETUP-NPCFLIRT.TP2~ #0 #15 // Anomen/Solaufein Romance Conflict For TOB (Solaufein V60 or greater recommended): v1.03
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // General AI Improvements: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #2 // Creature & Area Improvements -> All Creature Improvements: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #4 // Miscellaneous Enhancements -> With Additional Random Encounters: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #5 // Additional Shadow Thieves Content: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #6 // Alternative Harper/Xzar Plot: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #7 // Extended Reynald Sequence: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #8 // Intrigue In The Copper Coronet: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #9 // Rahul Kanakia's Potion Quest: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #10 // Revised Hell Trials: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #12 // Improved Oasis II -> IO2 Dialogue Enhancement Only: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #13 // Saving Sanik In Brynnlaw: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #14 // Burglary Of The Bookkeeper: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #15 // New Fate For The Dryads' Acorns: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #16 // The Tragedy Of Besamen: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #17 // Further Slaver Involvement: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #18 // Sending The Solamnic Knights Home: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #19 // Nazariel The Lich: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reward Negotiation: v3.2
~SETUP-D0QUESTPACK.TP2~ #0 #21 // Infernal Thievery: v3.2
~SETUP-BG2EEW.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Weapons Pack for BG2:EE Version 1.01
~REUNION/SETUP-REUNION.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Reunion mod for Baldur's Gate II: v1
~TOD/SETUP-TOD.TP2~ #0 #0 // Tower Of Deception Mod (Requires Throne Of Bhaal)
~TOD/SETUP-TOD.TP2~ #0 #1 // Improved Astral Shard Guardian
~TOD/SETUP-TOD.TP2~ #0 #2 // Encounter with Ustrain
~SETUP-VAMPIRETALES.TP2~ #0 #0 // Vampire Tales (Requires Throne of Bhaal)
~SETUP-VAMPIRETALES.TP2~ #0 #1 // Improved Cult of the Unseeing Eye
~SETUP-VAMPIRETALES.TP2~ #0 #2 // Improved Harper Fight
~SETUP-VAMPIRETALES.TP2~ #0 #3 // CoM Store 1
~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Shadows Of Amn Item Upgrades -> Original list version: v40
~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Throne Of Bhaal Item Upgrades -> Original list version: v40
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1030 // Reveal Wilderness Areas Before Chapter Six: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1040 // Improved Athkatlan City Guard: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Improved Multi-Player Kick-out Dialogues: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1120 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1160 // Multiple Strongholds (Baldurdash) -> No Restrictions (Baldurdash): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1170 // Bonus Merchants (Baldurdash): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1180 // Female Edwina: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1220 // Allow Cromwell to Upgrade Watcher's Keep Items: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1230 // Allow Cespenar to Use Cromwell Recipes: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2040 // Universal Clubs: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2060 // Weapon Styles for All: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Change Experience Point Cap -> Remove Experience Cap: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Expanded Dual-Class Options: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2151 // Wear Multiple Protection Items -> No Restrictions: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2200 // Multi-Class Grandmastery (Weimer): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2210 // True Grandmastery (Baldurdash): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2300 // Triple-Class HLA Tables: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2352 // Alter Multiclass Restrictions -> Install both of the above options: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single Classes: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2372 // Alter Dual-class Restrictions -> Install both of the above options: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2380 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Kits: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3000 // Higher HP on Level Up -> Maximum: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3010 // Maximum HP for NPCs (the bigg) -> For All Creatures in Game: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3031 // Easy Spell Learning -> 100% Learn Spells and No Maximum Cap: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3050 // Remove fatigue from restoration spells: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Unlimited Ammo Stacking: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3090 // Unlimited Gem and Jewelry Stacking: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Unlimited Potion Stacking: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Unlimited Scroll Stacking: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3120 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Are Never Angry About Reputation: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3123 // NPCs Don't Fight: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3125 // Neutral Characters Make Happy Comments at Mid-Range Reputation: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3160 // Keep Drizzt's Loot, Disable Malchor Harpell: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3183 // Romance Cheats: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3190 // Rest Anywhere (Japheth): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Improved Fate Spirit Summoning: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Change Korgan to Neutral Evil: v16
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4040 // Make party members less likely to die irreversibly: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6020 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal get HLAs: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6034 // Smarter Mages -> Mages cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat on difficulty settings of Hard or higher: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6044 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat on difficulty settings of Hard or higher: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies are recoverable: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6511 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have normal hit points: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6530 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6541 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have normal hit points: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8040 // Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Mildly increased difficulty: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8061 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Enhanced spirit trolls (as in Tactics): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8081 // Improved Bodhi (Tactics Remix) -> Original Tactics Improved Bodhi with SCSII scripting: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v30
~SETUP-WMART.TP2~ #0 #0 // Deidre and Joluv in BG:EE
~SETUP-BGEEW.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Weapons Pack for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.04
~SETUP-BGEEAR.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Armors for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.05
~RECOLOREDBUTTONS/SETUP-RECOLOREDBUTTONS.TP2~ #0 #2 // Recolored character's toolbar buttons (BG2:EE): v4.1
~SETUP-UNDERREP.TP2~ #0 #0 // Underrepresented Items From Icewind Dale 2
~AURORA/SETUP-AURORA.TP2~ #0 #500 // PnP Helmed and Battle Horrors: v5
~AURORA/SETUP-AURORA.TP2~ #0 #520 // Realistic Kobold Commandos: v5
~AURORA/SETUP-AURORA.TP2~ #0 #9000 // Fix area creature references: v5
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Victor's Improved Races: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #1 // Victor's Wizards Know Better(have more Lore): v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #2 // Faithful Rogue Kit for BGII: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #3 // Lich Slayer Scimitar: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #4 // The Djin Merchant: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #5 // Burning Man kit for BG2(by Victor): v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #6 // Romance Friendly Imprisonment(by Galactygon): v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #7 // Lydia's scroll: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #8 // Weapons for all: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #9 // Victor's Special Encounters: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #10 // Improved Bard Song: v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #11 // Improved Irenicus Dungeon(Not as difficult as Improved Ilyich): v2.0
~VIC.TP2~ #0 #12 // Grandpa's Shield quest: v2.0
~NPCKIT/NPCKIT.TP2~ #0 #1400 // Give Imoen Adventurer Kit: v4
~NPCKIT/NPCKIT.TP2~ #0 #1411 // Give Imoen a Mage Kit -> Conjurer: v4
~NPCKIT/NPCKIT.TP2~ #0 #2300 // Change Minsc's Title to Rashemaar Ranger: v4
~NPCKIT/NPCKIT.TP2~ #0 #2500 // Give Nalia Adventurer Kit: v4
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~BG2FIXPACK/SETUP-BG2FIXPACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // BG2 Fixpack - Core Fixes: v10
~SETUP-BGT.TP2~ #0 #0 // Baldur's Gate Trilogy - Core: 1.18 (28 Apr 13)
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v28
~GENERALIZED_BIFFING/GENERALIZED_BIFFING.TP2~ #0 #0 // Generalized Biffing: v2.2
~WIDESCREEN/WIDESCREEN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Widescreen Mod -> for the original Infinity Engine (CHOOSE THIS!): Widescreen Mod v3.07
This is our third trio attempt since our previous quad party reduced in size, and the fifth session in that attempt. We rolled characters without conferring, and sessions are 2 hours in length.
Unyo (Gate70), protagonist. Shapeshifter. Tomes: 21 Wisdom.
Pins (Grond0). Blade. Tome: 19 Intelligence.
Coretank (Corey_Russell). Undead Hunter. Tome: 19 Strength.
The session starts in the fine city of Baldur's Gate, standing next to Duke Eltan. Unyo immediately assumes the party are ready to return to Candlekeep but soon realises the Iron Throne HQ needs investigation first.
Coretank uses the left staircase to draw enemy fire under a Protection from Magic scroll.
Pins is buffed against fire in case the casters on the right spot him first.
Unyo is not buffed and arrives before Pins. He takes a Flamestrike while summoning a nymph and runs downstairs but a second Flamestrike crashes through the ceiling and takes him to 1hp.
Coretank, Pins and the nymph have all but finished the battle by the time Unyo returns.
A store run sees a pile of loot sold and a couple of strength potions purchased.
Duke Eltan duly sends the trio to Candlekeep where they refuse to attack Rieltar but are locked up anyway.
Coretank uses another Protection from Magic scroll then a Potion of Storm Giant strength to prize a couple of tomes out of the crypts.
Prat and his gang are killed without incident.
Pins is happily looting their corpses and learning spells, while Coretank is hunting down spiders. Not the best of ideas and Unyo twice alerts Pins of the danger as spiders teleport away from the heavily armed and armoured Undead Hunter and attempt to dine on succulent Blade flesh instead.
A pair of basilisks are countered with a Protection from Petrification scroll looted from the Iron Throne.
Slythe is outfought, but Krystin halves party reputation from 20 to 10 by getting dominated as she casts Cloudkill into the Undercellar and wipes out a few bystanders.
The Coronation sees hasted wand summons help deal with Greater Doppelgangers and the Thieves Maze is tackled with a Protection from Undead scroll as well as druidic protection from fire and lightning.
Rahvin and his gang are waiting in the Undercity.
- Coretank whips around the southern edge. For once he ignores the various undead, and they ignore him due to his scroll.
- Pins goes invisible and walks straight past them.
- Unyo has a 'moment', realising he can't follow Coretank and can't go invisible. He plans to drop a nymph near Rahvin but realises too late that Pins has carried on moving instead of scouting Rahvin out. Unyo blunders into the party and they attack.
Unyo succeeds with his spell and runs. Most of Rahvin's gang have followed but Carston has been charmed by the nymph and Unyo escapes in the ensuing confusion. Right into the skeletons though, so back he comes only to realise the skeletons are a safer bet. Back he goes.Meanwhile Coretank has set about the remnants of Rahvin's party. Unyo's lost track of what Pins is doing but a minute or two later the trio meet up again at the entrance to the Temple of Bhaal.
Once inside, it is left to Pins to greet Sarevok with an Arrow of Dispelling. She misses at the first attempt but it doesn't take long for him to get the point.
Unyo dooms Sarevok and sends in some insects. Coretank and Pins are attacking too and the big man doesn't last long.
With Sarevok dead, the party return to Belt and are sent on an errand. On to SoA...
As is often the case, the trio split up to cover ground more quickly.
Once the initial area of the chateau has been left behind, Unyo suggests shutting down the Mephit Portals before the session closes.
Unyo has reached level 10, and on 151 kills.
Pins has also reached level 10, and on 112 kills.
Coretank is level 8, and on 259 kills.
Onward to the bandit camp for carefully calculated carnage. On the road to Larswood, we met a ghoul and went for some basilisk hunting. This gave Dweyng his long-awaited lvl 5, so we’re off to meet the sorcerer.
We were welcomed in the bandit camp posing as a flamboyant drow elf sorcerer and his band of ragtag minions (Tazok would never imagine that our heroic heroes would travel with this creature of pure darkness and deceit.) After resting we went to ‘’guard’’ the tent. Killing the group inside was quick and dirty, but wiping out the guys outside was not as straightforward as expected. Xan dire charmed Taurgosz, but he seemed to become hostile whenever we attacked someone else. Anyway, we cleared the camp but Jaheira was killed once again; such is the life of a frontliner. We patched her up at the FA Inn and traveled to Beregost to sell the scalps.
The cloakwood was fairly uneventful but Dweyng was almost killed by lightning strike when defending the hunters from the druids. The group bypassed most of the spider area, but made sure to visit the druids to get the mighty oak +2, then killed a bunch of wyverns.
The attack on the mine went mostly well, except on the second floor, when we attacked the guards in the central room. Baeloth miscalculated his Web so Imoen got held while sneaking and was killed by archers in the next round. Baeloth and Xan killed all the enemies with fireballs, miraculously leaving alive the woman in the pantry.
Nothing of note until the last level with Davaeorn. This was the worst fiasco so far. Jaheira got charmed. Khalid got killed by a fireball. Baeloth got held and Xan killed himself with his wand of lightning. Thankfuly Baeloth and Jaheira were not in the same room. Dweyng cast sanctuary to wait for Davaeorn to run out of spells and for Jaheira’s charm to expire. We managed to kill Davaeorn, but it was a bitter victory, with only half the team alive to carry all the stuff back to town. We flooded the mine along with all the loot we couldn’t carry.
hold up;
The party finished cleaning up the dungeon guards when I noticed Puk couldn't cast his priest spells, … the import bug.
For those that haven't played DS with a priest of Tyr yet there is a bug in Beamdogs code that converts the class into a broken cross between cleric and fighter.
The work around;
Instead of importing the save normally you can pick "single player" (assumed) then select "new game" then press the "create party" button.
Import the other group members from the "final save" one at a time as per normal... This collects their gear | experience and is very important to establish which member is the bhaul spurn... The fact that you wake up virtually naked still tells the game what items to offer you when you start to explore.
Now the work around part is to create your priest of tyr character from scratch instead of importing him from a character file or save.
The draw back is that this tyr priest will only have the basic 7th levels of experience that a character whom hasn't completed dragionspear gets... Feel free to shadowkeeper it if thats a stress but i'm playing on legacy of bhaul and turn undead is broken for that level anyway
< img src=http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/yourlink > , except without the spaces between < > . Also, you have to get rid of those [ img ] [ /img ] tags from Photobucket's link.
Alternatively, and I think easier, you can directly upload photos from your computer using the drop down menu above your posting window, fourth over from the right. (Looks like a page with the corner turned down). There's also a box in there where you can copy/paste a URL. (Again, no [ img ] [/img ] tags.)
Scythia had few problems with the slaver quest other than the fact that he had to rest occasionally to recuperate. He has now agreed to go with Nalia to free her land. He has bought Azuredge.
Also for roleplaying it makes more sense to flood it now in case they send reinforcement to take it back.
This will be a messy post. Lots of things went wrong for Goibniu and his party in the next two areas.
Everything started out fine: I decided to track down Bassilus; First, the group encountered Zargal and his two buddies - they were easy to defeat:
Bassilus himself, however, was another story: After the right dialogue choices, only some of his undead were destroyed, and the cleric himself resisted my attempts to interrupt his spellcasting, despite some hits. He also saved against Luna's attempts to control him with hold person and command spells - in the end, he managed to affect Anapa with rigid thinking, and the skeleton crossbowmen got some good hits in, thanks to my party's low ac scores:
Now, I did have a potion of clarity, but decided to save it in case the main character himself was threatened by a mind affecting spell. Thanks to some bad hp rolls when leveling up and the skeletons getting quite lucky, two hits were enough to kill the Kensai, and even with the bless spell, the rest of the party didn't manage to take down Bassilus before his skeletons also killed Donar with two more lucky shots:
However, I did manage to prevent any additional spellcasting; Bassilus eventually fell, though Luna, Helios and Owain had to retreat - they were too weak to challenge the remaining undead. Goibniu himself has a decent ac score, so it was his job to destroy the skeletons and zombies. He had to use another healing potion to do it, though.
Anapa and Donar were resurrected - at least the Bassilus quest provided me with enough gold for any further resurrections, and a new weapon for Donar (who has a proficiency point in warhammers).
The party travelled to the area northeast of Nashkell - Sleep spells helped with defeating Arghain, saving Hulrik's cow and clearing out the ogre camp. However, when Goibniu encountered the bandits Ioin, Billy and Dribben, things took a turn for the worse:
It was Donar's task to pull the bandits towards the waiting party - I planned to have Luna cast hold person spells while the bandits were following my fighter/thief. Donar's low hp pool and bad ac score struck again, and while running away, Billy and Dribben took two shots at him - both were hits, and a total of 15 points of damage was enough to kill Donar - again:
Even worse: All of Luna's attempts to hold our enemies failed completely - she had really bad luck with opposing saving throws. While trying to buy the cleric some time for her last spell, Anapa was killed despite drinking healing potions (damage was coming in faster than he could drink) - the party was down to 4. Time to retreat!
After resurrecting the fallen in Nashkell, we had two party members without equipment - trying to save it before retreating would have been suicidal. The group returned to the previous area, hoping for more luck with their spells. Success: This time, Luna managed to hold both Dribben and Billy, while Owain used sleep to protect the party from a random monster spawn:
Ioin himself didn't join the fight, he was waiting to the north. Alone and isolated, he was killed, while Anapa and Donar reclaimed their equipment.
A tough set of fights for the very weak party - Right now, I don't have a lot of options during fights, since Owain still hasn't learned new spells (with his low int, he needs (expensive) potions of genius to have a realistic chance of not just wasting scrolls), and Luna can't cast level 3 spells yet. Some wands would also really be helpful.
At this point, I wasn't really optimistic about the party's chances. I decided to go for the Nashkell Mines as a test - a make or break moment. I'd continue if I made it through the mines without another character death.
While getting to Mulahey was no problem with Owain's sleep spells, the final fight of chapter 2 was tough - again, mostly thanks to the party's limited options in combat. Buffed with chant and bless, plus protection from evil and a potion of heroism for Goibniu himself, the party entered Mulahey's lair. Owain used sleep against the first group of kobolds - this helped blocking the skeleton's path to the party somewhat, but also almost blocked the party's path to Mulahey, making it tough for multiple ranged attacker to focus the cleric. Thus, the party failed to interrupt his first spell, which was targeted on Goibniu - this was the time to drink the potion of clarity I'd been saving:
The rigid thinking spell was blocked by the potion, and Goibniu managed to deal some damage to Mulahey. With reinforcements arriving, I had to split my party up: Anapa and Goibniu continued to attack the cleric, the others fought the kobolds and skeletons. Mulahey, already heavily wounded, managed to cast another uninterrupted spell - hold person. Of course, it hit both Goibniu and Anapa, who failed their saving throws:
If Mulahey started attacking a held Goibniu, this would mean the end of the run - I somehow had to stop him. Helios was the character with the best ranged thac0 - taking another shot would mean staying exposed to more skeleton attacks, but I had no choice. The thief succeeded right away: One shot, and Mulahey was in panic mode, trying to flee. Helios followed him, while Luna rushed in to protect the held characters, and Donar used his new warhammer to great effect, attacking the remaining skeletons and protecting Owain:
Helios managed to eventually kill Mulahey, and the party won the battle. The Ring of Holiness will be quite useful for Luna. While returning to rest in Nashkell, Nimbul, in stark contrast to previous opponents, provided no challenge at all: Goibniu, buffed with remove fear, bless and chant, killed him with a powerful critical hit.
And so my run continues.
Enuhal