Some good work going on here! Congrats on finishing Durlag's Tower and Sarevok, Enuhal! And Gate70 / Grond0, I'm glad to see your new duo in action! And Corey, glad to see you at it again; and in a trio!
I'm also sad to report that Sogar, my half-orc shadowdancer, fell to her doom while forgetting about a lightning trap in the Cloakwood mines... the shadowdancer kit is ridiculously OP with instant invisibility, but not invulnerable, I guess. Still working out some kinks.
Introducing Freyr Dreamslayer, lawful evil human monk.
Mods: SCS w/ all options, item randomizer, BG1 NPC project, a few ease of use tweaks. I am playing random characters. I've never rolled a monk before, so this should be interesting. She may go solo or may recruit allies, if they can help her get ahead.
....
Freyr woke up for the last time in her bed in Candlekeep. She thought, "None of these people can take care of themselves, much less me. It is time to seek fortune and strength. It is time to leave."
I grabbed a nice fireball book for Puk on the way and laid 6 traps before talking to Imoen... Gave up a point of wisdom because I'm a romantic at heart then got started on the maze.
Used 'cloudkill' to lure the snakes into the trap, let Hexxat fight the vampire boss to avoid dominations and Puk grabbed the paintings under sanctuary to avoid the death trap.
I laid a dozen traps outside the main hall then changed my spell sets around before releasing the loons... He still managed to kill Imoen but Sarah got her back up before we teleported into battle against Irenicus
Tactics; magic missile, acid arrow and insect plague to keep him locked while fire elemental | flame strike eats away at his health... Horror and adds try to keep my idds at bay but Irenicus is the key.
Imoen used her summon critter inside a contingency (fire on enemy seen) trick to speed cast some adds, Sarah open with insect plague (targeting Kat) then fire elemental and retreat... As my healer she is more value to me alive. Puk opened with flame strike then popped some party buffs before going to guard duty, katarina fired the odd magic missile but mostly used her +1 fire sword, Hexxat only had her bow but she helped block melee attackers getting in and I tossed out magic misslies | acid arrows until Irenicus gave up then drank an invisible potion to avoid backstabs.
After action report; I cheated! Laying traps both downstairs and upstairs not that the downstairs did jack for the Irenicus battle but I also know he hardly ever puts up fire defences and I got lucky... Easily one of the hardest battles but now that I know its winnable I can't bring myself to play at a lower challenge level next time.
This is a post by Draco Incognito in the Bioware Forum. I tried to answer it there, but couldn't as I think no new posts can now be written. .
Yay! I figured it out! It turns out that for some reason, Siege of Dragonspear does not like new kits in the game(Might have something to do with the tlk). So I will be playing a baldur's gate ee solo run with bgtweaks and the warlock mod from my first post.
Draco
You can actually play the EE game with kits, then open the final save in another unmodded installation for Dragonspear to complete just Dragonspear. Any modded items will disappear such as items from DSoSC, Dark Horizons and the Drizzt Saga, though you can copy the itm files from one installation to the other. In that case you will keep the items. However the item descriptions will be crazy.
You will keep any standard items which are included in mods.
I had a mod which allowed half-orc inquisitors in EE. In Dragonsprear this worked fine as it is a standard kit with a non-standard race..
Let's hope that Draco reads this post along with anyone else to whom this information is useful.
The session started with a trip down to find Davaeorn. The battle horrors died more easily than expected, but Dorral was badly injured triggering the traps. However, after a successful rest a couple of nymphs helped heal him before soaking up Davaeorn's main spells - leaving him an easy victim.
Arriving in the City the first objective was to complete the poison quest. A main aim of doing that was to grab Lothander's boots of speed - but this time he managed to wriggle out of the cage set for him.
Marek, however, was less fortunate.
Ramazith was encountered at the top of his tower. I always kill him downstairs in single player and Pole briefly showed himself upstairs before rapidly retreating - leaving the field open for Dorral to one-shot the mage with, err, one shot.
After picking up the Cloak of Balduran we decided we had enough equipment and went to sort out the Iron Throne. By the time they realised they were under assault the group was plagued and mainly confused and unable to put up a real fight.
At Candlekeep Dorral used a storm giant strength potion to loot the tombs before brushing aside Prat's challenge with the help of some more insects. Back in the City Slythe failed to make an impression on Pole's new ironskins.
At the palace some totemic summons and nymphs (who pre-cast domination to avoid attacks on the dukes by 'friendly' creatures) helped sort out the dopplegangers. I made a mistake in allowing Pole to be caught next to Belt as the last doppleganger died, but fortunately Sarevok attacked Pole not Belt - and his ironskins allowed him to soak up the punishment.
After working through the maze and using PfU to kill some skeleton warriors Pole successful confused Carston to make the Undercity party easier. In the temple Dorral pulled Sarevok out with a dispelling arrow and had another of those handy to ensure Semaj's teleport trip didn't end well. Sarevok then didn't last much longer under a hail of missiles and attacks from summons.
Moving on to Athkatla the dungeon offered no threats, even though a radiant mephit did manage to put both Dorral and Pole out of action with a couple of color sprays.
The circus was quickly put to rights and the Copper Coronet given some new management before tempting Suna Seni into a fatal encounter with some insects.
At the Docks Rayic's golems looked like they might be a threat given we only had Arbane between us as a +2 weapon. However, they were unable to hit Pole's new fire elemental.
Rayic then fell victim to an insect assault (cast on Dorral to avoid it being turned).
Soon afterwards Mae'Var's guild was over-run.
While doing that lot we had also saved Renfeld and looted the harpers, as well as doing a bit of work in the temple sewers to get Pole a new cloak. The money earned from those adventures is more than enough to pay Gaelan Bayle next time.
Pole, totemic druid 12, 81 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 18 kills (81 in BG1) Dorral, archer 9, 94 HPs, 173 kills (249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning) The bulk of encounters are settled by Dorral shooting down enemies chasing Pole, with summons and spells being reserved for the more dangerous enemies.
I started a BG:EE solo monk run with Carthus a few days back, giving the Blackguard a break.
A typical start with some high value kills (Shoal, Basilisks), sale (e.g. Ring of Wizardry) and easy reputation (Oublek, Captain Brage, etc.) combined with high hit point rolls for levels.
The two groups of sirines at the Lighthouse area required a Greenstone amulet charge each, a potion of Stone Giant strength combining with Girdle of Piercing to make short work of them. The Flesh Golem cave saw use of the Varscona longsword, Carthus taking a few hits despite a Girdle of Bluntness and potion of Absorbtion. His hits with Varscona were a bit of a surprise though, with several criticals into the 30's for damage and one for 38.
Once Carthus had a few levels, decent equipment and a reputation of 20 he put Nashkel Mine to rights, dealt with Nimbul and Tranzig before heading into the Bandit Camp to show Taugosz Khosann his Dagger of Venom.
Many lesser bandits succumbed to Venom, as did those inside the main tent.
Cloakwood Mine was stealthed through until Davaeorn saw a potion of Magic Blocking combine with stealth and Venom attacks using the Boots of Speed. Once the mine was flooded, Carthus was free to head into Baldur's Gate where presumably he did a few tasks (no notes but dexterity and intelligence tomes have been consumed) before heading back to Candlekeep. He's stood outside at this point.
(my key concern remains: Liia and Belt could be in for a rough ride at the Coronation even if Carthus fully potions up)
Oh, and hit points. 69 out of a possible 80 at level 8 so exceeding expectations.
Buffs for Slythe were 2 x Mind Focusing, Cloud Giant strength, Heroism and Defence. Carthus opened strongly with cat and mouse tactics but Slythe still got around an AC of -9 at one point.
Carthus used a potion of Regeneration and topped up buffs with a potion of Power and DUHM before unleashing his fists at the Coronation. Belt went down like a sack of potatoes though.
Liia soon followed.
In hindsight, forgot to use Stunning Blow but not convinced that would have saved the Dukes.
The palace (at least in the EE) is certainly a dangerous fight for solo characters - especially those without summons. Ensuring you pick up horror rather than slow poison (which is useless for solo) as a Bhaal ability will considerably improve the odds though.
@semiticgod , Gratz on discovering an IWD2 mechanic that I bet few people ever knew about. That's a very helpful contribution to general knowledge about the Infinity Engine games.
edit: I wonder if that same trick would work with the Raise Dead scroll problem in SoD?
Trio no reload (Gate70, Grond0, Corey_Russell attempt 3, session 8)
Today's two hour session covered the rest of de'Arnise Keep, Umar and the nearby temple ruins. There were two party deaths but nothing permanent.
A Yuan-ti mage could hardly complain about being put to the sword, as insects and magic missiles were both en-route.
Glaicas puts up more of a fight than Coretank would like, and more of a fight than Pins would like either. Both are badly wounded before Pins loses patience and turns up the heat with a wand blast.
Golems and Umber Hulks are next, Unyo reaching level 13 and picking up his improved lycanthrope form.
Tor'Gal is battered to the ground but resists Pins' flame arrows and a last-minute flame blade from Unyo. He is battered to the ground a second time and treated to a fireball instead. Job done, so on to Umar.
Unyo is held by a mimic but it is attacking Coretank who is still mobile. Pins is also mobile so no danger and the party move on to the temple ruins.
Unyo releases Anath (a kindred spirit), then Coretank is encumbered while fighting shadows. He's still able to swat anything too close though and the temple interior can be explored.
Pins is held and killed while playing with fire.
Thaxll'ssillyia kills Coretank, but a Rod of Resurrection charge allows him to see Pins return the favour. (n.b. screenshot shows Thaxxy taking advantage of Multiplayer mode to administer two hits and kill Coretank while paused)
The Shade Lord takes a hefty whack from Coretank, after Unyo used a looted sling to shut the Shade Altar down with a Sunstone bullet.
With the battle over, Coretank peers inside his potion case and realises he's drunk the lot. Sister Garlena at Watchers Keep still has a few healing potions so he purchases them.
On return to the city, a few doors are eased off their hinges as the party prepare a search for the Ring of Gaxx. So long as they remember this is the objective when next they meet... distractions such as the freshly rolled-in-dirt body of Valygar might tempt them elsewhere.
Two predecessors were killed in Candlekeep due to a mod that I wrote that gave Shank, Carbos and Mendas the assassins poisoned daggers and better armour. However this time my admitedly ultra-powerful Defender survived.
Diary of Strongarm the Defender
I killed three assassins in Candlekeep, two of whom fell quickly. The third injured me badly and poisoned me as well with the result that two healing potions had to be used.
Upon leaving another assassin attacked and killed Gorion. Clearly they knew Gorion's plans so I did not follow his advice but went in the opposite direction to Beregost.
I calmed down Marl and took a tome to Firebead, increasing my reputation by 1.
I went further south and killed two ogrillon who wounded me badly. They however came of the worst.
After resting in Beregost and getting a reward from Mirianne, I once more headed southwards where officious Flaming Fist mercenaries attacked me. They did not survive the encounter. I was badly hurt and had to consume two healing potions, but on the plus side I gained three excellent suits of armour. Also they will be attacking no more inocent travellers.
After resting once more I ventured a short distance northwards where I encountered an ogre who was quickly despatched.
Going southwards once more I killed a number of hobgoblins and found a necklace.
In Nashkel I met Noober and corrected the misapprehension that Oublek had about me. This meant that my reputation increased once more. I then slept at the carnival.
At this point I edited my large portrait.
Near the mines Zargos Flintblade, another assassin attacked but was made to pay for his folly.
This caused me to reach level 3, and gave me *** in axes.
After resting at the Carnival, with the help of Isra, we took on Greywolf and prevailed. I was badly hurt and afterwards rested again at the Carnival before claiming the reward from Oublek.
I then reunited Rufie with its owner and reached level 4, helped the dryad of the Cloudpeaks and rescued Drienne's cat which made me a fully authenticated hero.
I the took on Gnarl and Hairtooth before returning to Beregost for a well earned rest.
In doing so, I acquired some gauntlets that raised my dexterity to 18 which increased my ability to use armour.
As a result of our endeavours, Mellicamp is no longer chicken, perdue has recovered his sword, and we got Alanna's neoghbour back into shape. We deliveried a letter to Dawn Priest Blaze and helped the frightened widow just north of th FAI.
I reached level 5 after dealing with a couple of ankheg.
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] ~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Drizzt Saga for BGEE/Tutu/BGT -> Default version: areas connected by travel triggers: v3.00 ~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #2 // Raise the XP cap: v3.00 ~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #3 // Delayed start: Drizzt joins after Durlag's Tower: v3.00 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Slime Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Beregost Family Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Installing the Babysitting Quest, including the Carnival Encounter...: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Nashkel Monster Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Fallen Paladin Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Undying Love Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Orcish Lover Encounter: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Unexpected Help Quest: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #8 // "Many Little Paws": v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Drunk near Beregost Temple: v12 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #10 // A Warm Place for Noober: v12 ~SETUP-BGEEAR.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Armors for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.05 ~SETUP-BGEEW.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Weapons Pack for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.04 ~SIRINESCALL/SETUP-SIRINESCALL.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Lure of the Sirine's Call: v13 ~SETUP-DARKHORIZONSBGEE.TP2~ #0 #0 // "Dark Horizons" Mod for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition: BG:EE v213 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Amount of -ahem- details and BG-style vs. description text!: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Bardolan's Briefing, by berelinde: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Scar's Spare Time, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Kim's Preoccupation, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Extension of Bjornin Encounter (Personal Wound Treatment), by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #5 // No Starch in the Maypole: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Duke Eltan's Spare Minute, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Husam's Personal Preparation, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Laurel's Post-Hunting, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Bartus' Seduction, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #10 // Lina's Massage, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #11 // First Night with Quentin, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #12 // Chatting Niklos Up, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #13 // Slythe and Krystin, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #14 // No Regrets: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Purchased Love, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #16 // Hull: Heavy Duty, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #17 // Late Night with Jaheira, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Sil's Blessing, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #19 // Melicamp: The Poultry Boy, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reading with Rinnie, by Western Paladin: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #21 // Molly the Husband-Grabber, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #22 // The Mourning of Centeol, the Spider Lady, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #23 // The Essential End, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #24 // The Harvestmen Lair, by Lava (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #25 // The Great Zudini, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #26 // The Messenger, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #27 // Ender Sai, the Hero's Reward, by Thimblerig (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #28 // The Novelists, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #29 // The Honest Lies of Two Riversides, By Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #30 // Necromancer's Trouble, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #31 // Dinner with Thalantyr, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #32 // Girdle of Gender Reactions, by Thimblerig, Kulyok, Domi, Lava, Lastknightleft, Twani, Jastey, Daisy Ninja Girl: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #33 // The Surgeon's Dream, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #34 // All That Left Was, by Lava and Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #35 // A Childhood Friend, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #36 // Arlene the Working Girl, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #37 // Della May from Thay, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #38 // A Dirty Guard in Candlekeep, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #39 // Phoenix Flame, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #40 // Mikala the Monk, by Twani: v1.3 ~INDINPC/SETUP-INDINPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Indira NPC: v12.0 BETA 2 ~FINCHNPC/FINCHNPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Finch NPC: v4.0 BETA 7 ~THALAN/THALAN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Thalantyr - Item Upgrade: v4.2 ~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Gavin NPC for Tutu, BGT, and BG:EE: v9 ~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #1 // Gavin: Romance (mature content): v9 ~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #2 // Gavin: Flirts (adult content): v9 ~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #10 // Gavin: Alternate Portraits -> Blue cloak, by kiwidoc: v9 ~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #13 // Gavin: Player Initiated Dialogue: v9 ~ISRA/SETUP-ISRA.TP2~ #0 #0 // Isra NPC Mod for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu ~ISRA/SETUP-ISRA.TP2~ #0 #2 // Install Gavin/Isra crossmod banter? ~AJANTISBG1/SETUP-AJANTISBG1.TP2~ #0 #0 // Installs Ajantis BG1 Expansion Modification: 10 ~SETUP-CRUSADE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Champion of Torm ~SETUP-CRUSADE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Adventurer ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project: Required Modifications: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #1 // The BG1 NPC Project: Banters, Quests, and Interjections: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #9 // The BG1 NPC Project: Ajantis Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #10 // The BG1 NPC Project: Branwen's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #11 // The BG1 NPC Project: Coran's Romance Core (adult content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #12 // The BG1 NPC Project: Dynaheir's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #13 // The BG1 NPC Project: Shar-Teel Relationship Core (adult content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #14 // The BG1 NPC Project: Xan's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #15 // The BG1 NPC Project: Female Romance Challenges, Ajantis vs Xan vs Coran: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #16 // The BG1 NPC Project: NPCs can be sent to wait in an inn: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #18 // The BG1 NPC Project: Alora's Starting Location -> Alora Starts in Gullykin: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #20 // The BG1 NPC Project: Eldoth's Starting Location -> Eldoth Starts on the Coast Way: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #22 // The BG1 NPC Project: Quayle's Starting Location -> Quayle Starts at the Nashkel Carnival: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #24 // The BG1 NPC Project: Tiax's Starting Location -> Tiax Starts in Beregost: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #26 // BGEE Banter Timing Tweak: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #30 // The BG1 NPC Project: Cloakwood areas availability in Chapter One -> Open four Cloakwood areas (everything but the Mines): v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #31 // The BG1 NPC Project: Sarevok's Diary Adjustments -> SixofSpades Extended Sarevok's Diary: v22_20150614 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #200 // The BG1 NPC Project: Player-Initiated Dialogues: v22_20150614 ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: v16 ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1090 // Exotic Item Pack: v16 ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Reveal City Maps When Entering Area: v16 ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1120 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: 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 #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 #2339 // Remove Summoning Cap for Regular Summons: 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 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): 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 #3190 // Rest Anywhere (Japheth): v16 ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // ToB-Style NPCs: 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 #4080 // Make Khalid a Fighter-Mage (Domi): v16 ~CROSSMODBG2/SETUP-CROSSMODBG2.TP2~ #0 #0 // Crossmod Banter Pack for Shadows of Amn: v15 ~CROSSMODBG2/SETUP-CROSSMODBG2.TP2~ #0 #2 // Crossmod Romance Conflicts: v15 ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #102 // Choose a class for Imoen -> Make Imoen a multiclass mage/thief ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #141 // Choose a class for Khalid -> Make Khalid a ranger/cleric ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #161 // Choose a class for Minsc -> Make Minsc a fighter ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #242 // Choose a class for Branwen -> Make Branwen a multiclass fighter/cleric ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #302 // Choose a class for Xzar -> Make Xzar a necromancer/cleric ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #321 // Choose a class for Montaron -> Make Montaron a thief ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #483 // Choose a class for Xan -> Make Xan a fighter/mage ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #583 // Choose a class for Viconia -> Make Viconia a cleric/thief ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #2000 // NPC kit choices ~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #3000 // multiclass kit choice ~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Improved Multi-Player Kick-out Dialogues: v16 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Changes to trueclass bards and thieves, and unmodded game kits (required for other components): v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Add new bardic store and thief items: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Install Acrobat bard kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Install Chorister bard kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Install Dirgesinger bard kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Install Gypsy bard kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Install Adventurer thief kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Install Burglar thief kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Install Soulknife thief kit: v6 ~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Install Sharpshooter thief kit: v6
Another update on Dice the FMT, now at fighter level 9 with 2 pips in katanas and itching to make use of it.
Third rest is taken at a royal room at the five flagons inn, where we watched a play only Minsc was impressed by. This after 17 Days of traveling all over Amn thanks to Neeras and Rasaads tedious errands. Before resting Nalia hits level 12 for our very first level 6 arcane slot, Aerie is at 9 Cleric / 11 Mage, Minsc is closing in on level 11 ranger which will give him pretty much nothing and Jaheira is stuck at her druid levels but with 2 level 5 and 2 level 6 spell slots we really can't complain.
A boatload of gold (30k) were spent on the thieves Guild and I am now the proud owner of the amulet of Power and a +2 ring.
When traveling through the temple district we run into the last of the slavers at the guarded compound!
I pre-buff with a few spells but mostly haste and invis for all > go up to scout > somehow trigger a trap and we're all visible > flee back downstairs as fast as we can!
Only the mage follows me downstairs, invisible but I can see his buffs (not a very smart mage that one), detect illusions and maybe 3 breaches and 2 secret Words later the biggest threat is removed!
I once again buff up a little and this time I summon a fire elemental and 2 nymphs to help out realizing I am quite badly outclassed by this party > go up to try to pull some of them > everyone follows me downstairs.
Only Dice has chaotic commands to protect against stun and even though his AC is at -11 vs evil (due to the dispelling of impr invis and blur) and has stoneskin up he is reduced to below 30 Health in about two rounds > those rounds were used to cast 2 x holy blight, slow (1 failed the save) and chaos (nobody failed the save) > good news is Minsc managed to kill the cleric, bad news is nobody but Dice can tank that crazy kensai > I retreat to use a few potions and rearrange the battlefield leaving the summons alone with the bad guys and they pretty much die the instant I fall back > Dice lands a 40 damage backstab on the insanely dangerous kensai and he is down > after that it is pretty routine tank and spank.
The fight was very messy and with a bit of bad luck the run could have ended, I was lucky that the thief used her backstabs on my stoneskin and that the kensai didn't keep targeting not protected party members.
Even though casters are way more powerful than everything else fights can turn ugly pretty fast if your opponents consists of better fighters (who makes use of potions) and somehow keep making their saves vs spells.
Normally, I don't do No-Reload runs, but I'd figure I'd try it. Oh, and the fact that I have a 1920x1080 monitor now.
Rules as per OP: 1. Obviously No-Reloading. 2. I don't use SCS. 3. I'll semi-follow this. a. I get the weirdest OCD to try to make the stats fit my characters, so can't follow this one. b. I rarely use my meta-game knowledge, so I can obey this one. c. I'll only use EEKeeper if something goes horribly buggy or something like that. d. This one I can also follow, seeing as I really don't use Sequencers in the first place. 4. I usually do a full party of six people, and I do try to Roleplay.
Now, Character: Name: Kythran Race: Elf Class: Ranger Kit: Stalker Alignment: Chaotic Good Stats: I rolled 101...hence why they're all so high. Racial Enemy: Demonic/Fell Proficiency: ++ Long Sword, ++ Longbow, and because I'm a ranger special, ++ Dual-wield Style
Mods:
// 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] ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Slime Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Beregost Family Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Installing the Babysitting Quest, including the Carnival Encounter...: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Nashkel Monster Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Fallen Paladin Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Undying Love Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Orcish Lover Encounter: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Unexpected Help Quest: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #8 // "Many Little Paws": v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Drunk near Beregost Temple: v13 ~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #10 // A Warm Place for Noober: v13 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project: Required Modifications: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #1 // The BG1 NPC Project: Banters, Quests, and Interjections: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #7 // The BG1 NPC Project: Kivan's "Kivan and Deheriana Companions" portrait: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #8 // The BG1 NPC Project: Add Non-Joinable NPC portraits to quests and dialogues: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #9 // The BG1 NPC Project: Ajantis Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #10 // The BG1 NPC Project: Branwen's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #11 // The BG1 NPC Project: Coran's Romance Core (adult content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #12 // The BG1 NPC Project: Dynaheir's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #13 // The BG1 NPC Project: Shar-Teel Relationship Core (adult content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #14 // The BG1 NPC Project: Xan's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #15 // The BG1 NPC Project: Female Romance Challenges, Ajantis vs Xan vs Coran: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #16 // The BG1 NPC Project: NPCs can be sent to wait in an inn: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #26 // BGEE Banter Timing Tweak: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #28 // The BG1 NPC Project: Bardic Reputation Adjustment: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #31 // The BG1 NPC Project: Sarevok's Diary Adjustments -> SixofSpades Extended Sarevok's Diary: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #200 // The BG1 NPC Project: Player-Initiated Dialogues: v22.3_20160403 ~BG1NPCMUSIC/SETUP-BG1NPCMUSIC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project Music Pack -> Install All Audio: v6 ~AJANTISBG1/SETUP-AJANTISBG1.TP2~ #0 #0 // Installs Ajantis BG1 Expansion Modification: 10 ~CORANBGFRIEND/CORANBGFRIEND.TP2~ #0 #0 // Coran's Extended BG Friendship Talks: v4 ~XANBG1FRIEND/SETUP-XANBG1FRIEND.TP2~ #0 #0 // Xan's friendship path for BG1: v9bgee ~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Chatty Imoen: Expanded Character Sounds: v1.0-20160406 ~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #1 // Chatty Imoen: Add NPC Interactions: v1.0-20160406 ~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #3 // Chatty Imoen: Imoen Portrait Replacements -> Give Imoen her SoD Portrait: v1.0-20160406 ~JAHEIRARECAST/SETUP-JAHEIRARECAST.TP2~ #0 #1 // Jaheira Recast: Character Sounds -> Use BG1+BG2 Character Sounds: v1.2 ~JAHEIRARECAST/SETUP-JAHEIRARECAST.TP2~ #0 #2 // Jaheira Recast: Dialog Voiceover: v1.2 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Amount of -ahem- details and BG-style vs. description text!: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Bardolan's Briefing, by berelinde: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Scar's Spare Time, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Kim's Preoccupation, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Extension of Bjornin Encounter (Personal Wound Treatment), by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #5 // No Starch in the Maypole: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Duke Eltan's Spare Minute, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Husam's Personal Preparation, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Laurel's Post-Hunting, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Bartus' Seduction, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #10 // Lina's Massage, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #11 // First Night with Quentin, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #12 // Chatting Niklos Up, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #13 // Slythe and Krystin, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #14 // No Regrets: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Purchased Love, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #16 // Hull: Heavy Duty, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #17 // Late Night with Jaheira, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Sil's Blessing, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #19 // Melicamp: The Poultry Boy, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reading with Rinnie, by Western Paladin: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #21 // Molly the Husband-Grabber, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #22 // The Mourning of Centeol, the Spider Lady, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #23 // The Essential End, by Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #24 // The Harvestmen Lair, by Lava (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #25 // The Great Zudini, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #26 // The Messenger, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #27 // Ender Sai, the Hero's Reward, by Thimblerig (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #28 // The Novelists, by Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #29 // The Honest Lies of Two Riversides, By Lava: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #30 // Necromancer's Trouble, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #31 // Dinner with Thalantyr, by jastey: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #32 // Girdle of Gender Reactions, by Thimblerig, Kulyok, Domi, Lava, Lastknightleft, Twani, Jastey, Daisy Ninja Girl: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #33 // The Surgeon's Dream, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #34 // All That Left Was, by Lava and Thimblerig: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #35 // A Childhood Friend, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #36 // Arlene the Working Girl, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #37 // Della May from Thay, by Kulyok: v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #38 // A Dirty Guard in Candlekeep, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #39 // Phoenix Flame, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3 ~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #40 // Mikala the Monk, by Twani: v1.3 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #0 // Ice Island Level Two Restoration: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Mysterious Vial: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #10 // Place Entar Silvershield in His Home: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #11 // Scar and the Sashenstar's Daughter: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #12 // Quoningar, the Cleric: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #13 // Shilo Chen and the Ogre-Magi: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #14 // Edie, the Merchant League Applicant: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #16 // Creature Corrections: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #17 // Creature Restorations: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #18 // Creature Name Restorations: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #19 // Minor Dialogue Restorations: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #21 // Store, Tavern and Inn Fixes and Restorations: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #22 // Item Corrections and Restorations: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #28 // Prism and the Emeralds Tweak: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #29 // Duke Eltan in the Harbor Master's Building: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #30 // Nim Furlwing Encounter: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #32 // Svlast, the Fallen Paladin Encounter: v14.0 ~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #33 // Mal-Kalen, the Ulcaster Ghost: v14.0 ~SPELLS/SETUP-SPELLS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Spells: 0.84 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #60 // Weapon Animation Tweaks: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #70 // Icewind Dale Casting Graphics (Andyr): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Icon Improvements: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #140 // Fix Boo's Squeak: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #182 // Unique Containers -> Unique icons and names: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1010 // More Interjections: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1036 // Make Cloakwood Areas Available Before Completing the Bandit Camp -> All of Cloakwood Except the Mines: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1060 // Breakable Iron Nonmagical Shields, Helms, and Armor: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1090 // Exotic Item Pack: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Reveal City Maps When Entering Area: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Alter Weapon Proficiency System -> Rebalanced Weapon Proficiencies: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2192 // Limit Ability of Storekeepers to Identify Items -> Hybrid of Both Methods: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2200 // Multi-Class Grandmastery (Weimer): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2210 // Change Grandmastery Bonuses -> True Grandmastery (Baldurdash): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2220 // Change Magically Created Weapons to Zero Weight: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2240 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2250 // Un-Nerfed Sorcerer Spell Progression Table: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2260 // Alter Mage Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2270 // Alter Bard Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2280 // Alter Cleric Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2290 // Alter Druid Spell and Level Progression Tables -> No Level Progression Changes, Un-Nerfed Druid Spell Table Only (Blucher): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2339 // Remove Summoning Cap for Regular Summons: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single Classes: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables (grogerson): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables (grogerson): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2410 // Druids Use 3E Alignment Restrictions: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3050 // Remove fatigue from restoration spells: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove "You Must Gather Your Party..." Sound (Weimer): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3070 // Change Effect of Reputation on Store Prices -> Low Reputation Store Discount (Sabre): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3083 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3093 // Increase Gem and Jewelry Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3103 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3113 // Increase Scroll Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3125 // Neutral Characters Make Happy Comments at Mid-Range Reputation: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3190 // Rest Anywhere (Japheth): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3205 // Stores Purchase All Item Types: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3220 // Sensible Entrance Points: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3230 // Taerom Makes Additional Ankheg Armor (Icendoan/grogerson): Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3265 // Recoverable ammunition -> 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3275 // Recoverable throwing weapons -> 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Adjust Evil joinable NPC reaction rolls: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4050 // Change Jaheira to Neutral Good: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4 ~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2052 // Standardize Edwin's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Standardize Imoen's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2252 // Standardize Jahiera's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2352 // Standardize Minsc's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2450 // Standardize Safana's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2550 // Standardize Viconia's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Convenient Alora: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Convenient Baeloth: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3120 // Convenient Coran: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3130 // Convenient Dorn: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3140 // Convenient Eldoth: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3170 // Convenient Neera: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3180 // Convenient Quayle: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3200 // Convenient Safana: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3210 // Convenient Shar-Teel: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3220 // Convenient Tiax: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3230 // Convenient Viconia: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Add Priest of Tempus kit: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Dual Class Friendly Stats for Branwen, Dynaheir, Safana and Xzar: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Make Branwen a Priest of Tempus: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Make Faldorn an Avenger: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6400 // Make Kagain a Dwarven Defender: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Make Khalid a Fighter/Mage: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6600 // Make Kivan an Archer: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6700 // Make Safana a Swashbuckler: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6801 // Shar-Teel's Class -> Make Shar-Teel a Berserker: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6900 // Make Skie a Shadowdancer: 1.0 ~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Make Xan a Blade: 1.0 ~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // Sentrizeal's Wizard 4 Missing Animation Fix: v1.1 ~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #1 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Female): v1.1 ~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #2 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Male): v1.1 ~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #3 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Weapon Fix: v1.1 ~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #4 // Sentrizeal's Human Gladiator Avatar (Female): v1.1 ~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Portraits Portraits Everywhere (PPE) - core component: 0.91 ~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #100 // Category Portraits (Recommended) -> Sequenced: 0.91 ~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #1 // Install SoD GUI Overhaul Core Component: v2.14 ~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #2 // Add Transparent Tooltip Background: v2.14 ~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #3 // Update several strings in Dialog.tlk: v2.14 ~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #4 // Select Number of Quicksave Slots -> 1: v2.14 ~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #10 // Update portrait Picker: v2.14
I next went to the gnoll Stronghold intending to boost my Charisma with a tome that I had heard lay in a cave there. However I nearly exhausted my necklace of missiles defeating some powerul assassins there and this diverted me somewhat.
I did get some useful boots after killing a dangerous polar bear and then I returned to Beregost and then the Friendly Arms Inn where I spent the night with a VERY friendly young lady.
Xzar and Montaron joined me for a while, but Montaron seemed bent upon pick-pocketting everyone in sight. I therefore took them, together with Khaled and jaheira to their desired destination which was Nashkel. If Montaron gets caught whilst I am not with them, that would suit me just fine.
I dropped them off there. If they want to join forces to deal with the demons there, that is fine by me.
I am not prepared enough to fight demons.
I have bought a helm that proved to be of great help against sirenes in the lighthouse area.
I then visited the basilisk area where I came into conflict with Peter et al.
I then killed all the basilisks and medusae that I met and reached level 7 in the process.
Imoen who is now a thief/conjurer has now joined me. However she doesn't have her thief abilities at the moment.
The Adventure of Kythran: Part One - Leaving Candlekeep, and finding friends.
Kythran had done all of his tasks in Candlekeep. He had bought himself two long swords, and some studded leather armor for the journey that he and Gorion would face. He said his goodbyes to some friends, such as Alec and Imoen. Even did some tasks for some of the inhabitants.
Then, when Father and foster son left Candlekeep, and night hit, some trouble was found in the form of a Giant Armored Figure. By the end of that battle, Gorion was slain.
Morning came, and Imoen had snuck out of Candlekeep to go join Kythran. So, they went north, and buried Gorion's body. Then, they headed east, and found two travelers on the road by the name of Montaron and Xzar. Kythran didn't want their help, but alas, turning them down seemed to be an insult. So, on the way to the Friendly Arm Inn they went.
On the way to the Friendly Arm Inn, they found a red robed man that had asked Kythran about his mental state. To be honest, Kythran was a fair bit desperate.
Some more traveling on the road and then they found the Friendly Arm Inn, and...was met with some trouble. To which, Xzar just waved his hand, a spell came out, and the man that wanted to kill Kythran was dead.
The group went inside, and Kythran met Khalid and Jaheira, letting them join the party, and now the group was to make their way to Nashkel.
Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form wrecks everything in the next area, even the Efreet with their awful Fire Shields.
If you don't have fire resistances, using melee attacks on these guys is a great way to get killed.
Thorasskus, the Yuan-ti in charge of this operation, poses as a small boy with an eerie color palette. A couple dialogues are enough to reveal him.
I don't know how my characters know this. I never understood what was going on here--even back when I still read every word of dialog.
He spawns in some more snake people. Frisk stuns them, but Thorasskus is immune.
Chara killed everyone in this fight. Enough said.
Now we enter everyone's favorite part of Icewind Dale 2: Lord Pyros' domain!
Asriel decides to name this place "New Hotland," because he is terrible at naming things.
By far the worst part of IWD2, this is a slow, expensive, and confusing quest about a warped timeline caused by a faulty Temporal Stasis spell. It has nothing to do with the rest of the plot, drags on for ages even when you're first experiencing it, prevents you from resting... and there is virtually nothing interesting to do or see here. Also, you get very little experience and mediocre loot for your trouble.
On top of that, if you fail the quest, you get an incredibly depressing game over screen saying you're trapped in this hellhole forever, because time paradoxes.
Another idiotic design decision is the rope bridge here, which you need to fix with multiple copies of the Hemp Rope item. What if you didn't collect every single copy the developers hid from you?
You have to hike all the way back to Kuldahar just to buy the rest. Pathetic.
Our reward for fixing the bridge is to see a creepy white-haired man deliver a lousy line of dialog and kill himself by jumping into the lava.
His name is Venomin because snake people have venom. Get it? Huh? Get it?
This questline is just talking to people in a special order until you get to leave. And to get from place to place, you have to spend a ludicrous amount of money, over and over and over again, for no reason. The first time each day, you can trick him into letting you across for free (which, when you think about it, does not actually make any sense in the context of the time paradox thingy).
The lava is there to indicate the breakdown of this area due to volcanic disruptions, but I can't think of any reason to make the player engage in the same repetitive dialog and pay exorbitant amounts of money to reach across gaps that are clearly short enough to just jump across.
The exit is guarded by a Beholder, also for no reason. He's just there to get in your way.
I retreat to buff myself before combat, only to find most of my buffs instantly removed.
As I would later learn, that Dispel Magic trap triggers multiple times over the course of the fight and offers no saving throw. Only characters just out of range will avoid it, as Chara has.
Because this place apparently isn't annoying enough, you also get hit by Mephits incessantly, and spellcasting is impossible.
Oh, and the Beholder is too far to reach with melee weapons, and is resistant to missile weapons. Just to slow you down.
Then, I see the worst news by far.
Zil-t'yor uses instant death effects right after removing all of your defenses, and a failed save can not only kill but CHUNK your party members. Plus, the spellcasting failure means that even if you use a Stone to Flesh scroll on a petrified character, you can't heal them back from 1 HP.
But wait! There's ANOTHER annoying thing about this fight. If you try to get too close to Zil-t'yor to attack him with a two-handed weapon, he'll use Telekinesis to throw you back south.
Which can get you stuck behind the invading enemies on that narrow bridge to the exit to the north. What really mystifies me is why Zil-t'yor doesn't just use his telekinesis to throw us into the lava instead.
Sure enough, Chara gets boxed in, and when Frisk tries to help out, they get mobbed and have to escape, since that trap took away all of their defenses.
I can always just import a new character if somebody gets chunked--I made that decision after the Chara jump scare--but I don't want to have to deal with that if I don't have to. Instead of having Asriel try to fight Zil-t'yor, I summon some critters to absorb Zilly Billy's eye lasers.
Chara attacks from afar with Big Black Flying Death, a powerful two-handed throwing axe. Aside from high base damage, it also has a triple critical damage multiplier due to being an axe, benefits from the Rapid Shot feat (like bows, throwing axes can get an extra 1 APR with the right feat, at a -2 attack penalty), and, since it's a two-handed weapon, it also gets the standard 1.5x Strength damage bonus. It's actually one of the strongest items in the game, but Chara doesn't have high base Strength (a druid doesn't really need it, especially with improved shapeshifting) and the axe doesn't even scratch Zilly Billy.
Asriel lands a critical hit and we finally see the extent of the Beholder's damage resistances.
Honestly this crosses a line for me. The game already removes your buffs and imposes spell failure, which means it's almost impossible to touch the Beholder with spells. He can throw you fifty feet away if you get close, which means it's almost impossible to touch him with melee weapons. And he has 25- resistance to missile damage, which means it's almost impossible to touch him with ranged weapons.
Of course, the spell failure wears off, so you can still throw some spells at him, right?
No!
Because screw you!
I keep plucking away with missile weapons. More nonsense ensues.
Why would Death Ray use a Reflex save instead of a Fortitude save? Shouldn't a fighter be better at resisting that sort of attack than a thief?
This is getting more and more tiresome every round. I get a new idea: I'm going to take advantage of Zilly Billy's refusal to move, throwing out a new summons and an Acid Fog spell.
He'll never try to flee that area, even if he's suffering damage, because the fight would be hopeless if he could fly away--the exit only opens up when the Beholder dies (for some reason), and if he left, you'd have to chase him around the most difficult-to-navigate environment in IWD2.
Why Acid Fog? Because it bypasses magic resistance. Chara adds a Fiery Cloud to the mix (I think both spells are unavailable to druids in an unmodded game). I wait it out, and finally the Beholder expires.
It's a stupid, unsatisfying fight in a stupid, unsatisfying quest. I love IWD2, but this one place is bad in every way.
We exit the area and get teleported back to where we started, but this time, we arrive 24 hours earlier. To keep the player from running low on spells for the big fight at the end, the game forces us to rest--you can't rest normally because it wouldn't make sense given the time paradox thing.
We're not done with New Hotland just yet.
Frisk puts 29 hotdogs on Chara's head when they're not looking. We are filled with determination.
Our second day in New Hotland, we run into a game-breaking bug.
We need the Archon to travel from place to place. If the Archon is hostile, travel is impossible, and the quest is broken. I can always use CTRL-J to get around, but I'm concerned that red circle will cause other problems I won't be able to fix by teleporting around.
Eventually, I realize our Holy Word spell in the previous fight must have turned the Archon hostile. Going back to a previous save and casting Holy Word again confirms this theory.
Still, there's no reason the Archon's hostility should persist after the first fight, since we traveled 24 hours back in time. The Archon can't be angry at us for an event that hasn't happened yet. Retroactive hostility has to be an oversight.
I reload to correct the bug and fight Zil-t'yor again (I hate typing that name; it's so clumsy). Notable changes include discovering Zilly Billy's petrification ray has a surprisingly low save DC...
Summoning a Gelugon via Gate so it will teleport over to Zil-t'yor (in IWD2, you actually get XP from summoned demons' kills)...
...Using a Rhinocerous Beetle from Chara to distract Zilly Billy, and shielding it with a Resilient Sphere from Frisk (which didn't take; I think Tactics enemies know better than to fuss with critters under ORS)...
...But in the end, Fiery Cloud did most of the work.
It works! The Archon is no longer hostile when we proceed to the next area.
In retrospect, we might have been able to get through this area by abusing collision physics. If we surrounded Chara with summoned critters and then had Chara switch to Remorhaz form, Chara would teleport to the nearest available spot. That teleporting effect doesn't reach very far, but it might be able to get us over the small gaps in this area.
This next day is just talking to people and triggering events. Unfortunately, the cut scenes in this quest are pretty weak.
I believe this is a reference to Polonius' idiot line "Oh! I am slain!" in Hamlet.
More cut scenes! Watch King Lothar gracefully stomp across the lava! First he's here...
...and then suddenly he's way over here!
Wow!
That scene actually uses a screen shake effect to disguise the fact that Lothar is just teleporting (it's supposed to look like Lothar is jumping across). The Infinity Engine can't make Lothar walk over the lava, and for some reason the developers chose to highlight that engine limitation by showing Lothar walking across the map, a process which showed nothing and could have easily been omitted.
Worse yet, the cut scene stops halfway. You have to travel all the way across the map just to see the next part, in which Lothar summons some Efreet and tells them to kill Thorasskus.
There aren't even any clues on how to progress in this quest--you just have to wander around doing random crap until the Fields of Slaughter exit opens up. Wandering around isn't particularly interesting; the locals aren't much for chitchat.
I still think the Shakespeare quote sounds dumber. At least this one is vivid.
We travel back in time once more. Now we have to fight more Yuan-ti for some reason.
IWD2's writing is pretty strong overall, but the plot points don't always fully connect, and it's usually not clear what's happening or why. This quest exemplifies that trend. And since there's usually only one way to progress through IWD2, and that way is almost always a fight, the game actually teaches the player to ignore the events and focus on the fights, furthering the confusion about what's going on.
The worst quest trigger in New Hotland is this one.
Can't see it? Neither could I; I had to look it up in a walkthrough before my wanderings risked bankrupting me (those visits to the Archon really add up). To active the next trigger, you have to walk to the edge of a broken bridge, at which point it instantly reforms itself. Somehow.
And this is in an area where you've already spent a long time learning that the Archon is the only way to get from place to place--and the only way to get new options from the Archon is to talk to people. Experience says that walking to the end of a bridge here is pointless; it's a dead end. Not only is there no clue pointing you in the right direction; the game actually points you in the wrong direction.
Anyway, this triggers the next cutscene, where Lord Pyros tells King Lothar not to be such a raging jerkface to Izbelah, the Yuan-ti who caused the time disruption thingy.
King Lothar sneaks up to Izbelah's cage, looks to see if anybody's watching, and then murders her in full view of everybody.
After more aimless wandering, we learn from an online walkthrough that we have to go back to Lothar's place and loiter around to trigger the next dialog. Lothar says he killed Izbelah, and gets angry when he realizes we were listening.
Lothar really isn't good at this stealth and secrecy thing.
Anyway, this opens up the exit to the Fields of Slaughter, because you have to understand the plot before you can progress. Another 24 hours back in time, we get to see Izbelah's trial.
The locals are pretty bummed out about it.
Another dumb line. I don't know why IWD2's otherwise strong writers put in stuff like this, but I think they were just kind of screwing around. Not every line of dialog has to be serious.
After looting a small island that's only available on the last two days, we head through the Fields of Slaughter exit, on to the final day. To avoid being stuck in an endless time loop, we have to stop Izbelah from casting Temporal Stasis, the spell that messed up the timeline in the first place.
If we don't stop her in time, the game is over.
We try to reason with Izbelah first.
Izbelah says no. There's no way to avoid this fight. This is the only game in which Diplomacy is a skill, but diplomacy is almost never the solution in IWD2.
I have a scroll of Protection from Magic that I can use on Izbelah if things go south, but it turns out not to be necessary. This highly difficult, high-stakes battle can be summarized in one image.
Fun fact: all four damage types of Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form strike separately, which means Chara removes five Mirror Images with each hit instead of one.
New Hotland begins to break apart. We head through the Fields of Slaughter exit one last time.
Charging through the plot with no idea what's going on fills us with determination.
@semiticgod - I really hate that part of IWD2. I've had it break on me each and every time I even try it. So I usually teleport straight to the Fields of Slaughter.
The Adventures of Kythran: Part 2 - Assassins Everywhere!
The Road to Beregost was rather uneventful with only a couple of Gibberlings to deal with. Thank the gods.
However, as soon as the group gets to Beregost, the first Inn we go to, called Feldepost's Inn, Montaron had to start a barfight with one of the regulars! Imoen had taken a hit, so she immediately fell back, and when she did, Marl fell and then his friend did, resulting in a hit to Kythran's reputation. Kythran cursed Montaron under his breath.
Then, the next Inn that Kythran's group went to...had an assassin it. So, Jaheira took a heavy hit, and healed herself with Light Cure Wounds. Imoen used her wand of Magic Missile, and Xzar used a Larloch's Minor Drain. Once that was done, the party rested at that Inn, for they didn't want to try another one in case of another assassin.
The next day came and it was a rather uneventful trip to Nashkel, aside from Orgrillions, which were easily dispatched, same with Hobgoblins and Bandits on the road.
Once in Nashkel, there was quite a welcoming party of Amnish guards. Kythran had said he didn't mean any trouble, and that he was there to help. After that, they went to another inn, where they were attacked by another assassin! She was dealt with easily, mostly due to Imoen's wand of Magic Missile. Jaheira became stronger as well.
After that, the party rested, regaining what spells were lost. Kythran agreed to help out at the Nashkel mines, and turned down a bounty that wasn't his. He even met a ranger named Minsc! Kythran was going to help Minsc find his Dynaheir! However, Xzar and Montaron weren't going to help out, so they went to the Belching Dragon Tavern in Nashkel.
Upon reaching Cloakwood, the party of Mortuus decided to help Aldeth and his merchant friends in their feud with druids. Karasu and Woden interrupted dangerous castings by Seniyad, while the rest of the group focused on lesser druids. Yahiko summoned his own nymph and and she succeeded in holding Seniyad.
Mortuus, Xan and Karasu all levelled up, getting 4 hps each. Karasu now had 75 in Open Locks and 60 in Find Traps - him being an assassin makes me search for a compromise between different thieving skills.
For the Centeol fight, Woden equipped the belt against Cold and alone entered the chamber. Only after all the spiders and Centeol with her Wand of Frost concentrated on the dwarven defender, the rest of the party joined the fight.
Now, Amarande the archdruid. I'm playing with Improved shapeshifting and full pre-buffing components from the SCS, so this was going to be quite a battle, especially since I decided not to use switching areas tactics. The party's pre-buffing included only Resist Fear, Chant and Mirror Images for Mortuus and Xan. Everyone had more than 40k XP, so I decided to play this fight fairly, to see how they show themselves against a powerful spellcaster.
Mortuus used his newly acquired Remove Magic spell, so the druids lost their buffs, except for Amarande's Improved Invisibility.
The group survived Chain Lightning by Amarande, while Woden, Karasu with arrows of biting and Mortuus (between casting) with darts of wounding tried to take stop his further casting. Uzume and Yahiko were busy with lesser druids.
But he still managed to cast Chaos, and Uzume followed with her Priest of Tyr special ability to remove Confusion from Xan. Then Amarande casted Insect Plague.
The group was ready for that and everyone had Resist Fear. But after that nobody could cast and had to gulp potions from time to time. We continued to attack Amarande with all poison we had. It helped to interrupt some of his spells.
Xan, cured from his confusion, kept using the wand of fire to scorch the druid. It worked each time Amarande was not in his Fire Salamander form.
Finally, the effect of Insect Plague ended, and Yahiko could summon a nymph to heal everyone. Not long after that Amarande, who had used several healing potions during this fight, fell.
This way, the group survived in one of the hardest battles for me in BG1 with SCS.
Diary of Strongarm Imoen got killed by Shoal and when I attacked Shoal she died rather than yield. I later felt in need of a rest and was ambushed by "TEN" sirene. Nevertheless, I was not too worried as I had charm protection and reckoned that even if I was confused I would survive even if badly hurt.
If I had just been confused, I would have been right. However I was alo feebleminded!
Being a dwarven defender and fairly well armoured I was not too concerned as I thought that I would survive until the spells wore off.
Although it took a VERY long time to lose my life, the spells did NOT wear off and eventually time ran out for me.
I did reach level 8 during the battle.
This is the first time that they have cast feeblemind in my experience. If Imoen had still been alive, she could have moved away and killed them off with ranged weapons as she would have had plenty of time to do so.
Hard luck Wise. The feeblemind is not a cast spell, but an effect of their attack in the EE - so spell protections don't work (though a potion of clarity or Greenstone Amulet do). The multiple sirines attacking during resting was a bug - fixed in the latest EE update.
Following the nth (must be > 100 attempts, if not it certainly feels like it) failure of a Carthus monk incarnation, Blaggerd is pressed into action once more.
This time the Blackguard recruits Xzar and Montaron, followed by Viconia and eventually Shar Teel. A Flaming Fist mercenary searching for Samuel is spoken to harshly and attacks. Party reputation plummets to 5 but Blaggerd isn't too fussed as he picks up some free armour.
Xzar is light on spells and equipment so Blaggerd opens up vacancies for wannabe posturing red robed freaks.
Morvin, Molkar, Halacan and the other dead body don't get to waste words.
Shar Teel uses a potion of Clarity to melee sirines before Blaggerd uses potions of Absorbtion and Heroism to melee flesh golems. Shar Teel provides support and takes one hit, while Montaron has worked out how to hold a shortbow and unleashes 7 Arrows of Biting in between clearing traps.
Bassilus is no great threat, other than holding Blaggerd. Shar Teel is suffering from Rigid Mind and wanders past so the remaining skeletons re-target onto Blaggerd. He's down to 2hp briefly but Monty has switched to melee and gains the attention of skellies one by one as Viconia administers first-aid and Xzar gamely uses up his six remaining Larloch's Minor Drain spells to remove any stragglers.
After moving on to the basilisks, Mutamin is cut down before Kirian and her gang are silently disposed of.
Slots 1-3 are occupied by Blaggerd (darts), Shar Teel (Varscona, Heart of the Golem) and Monty (sling +1).
Viconia (sling but mainly Command or Silence) and Xzar (Daggers and LMD) are safely ensconced at the back.
Hard luck Wise. The feeblemind is not a cast spell, but an effect of their attack in the EE - so spell protections don't work (though a potion of clarity or Greenstone Amulet do). The multiple sirines attacking during resting was a bug - fixed in the latest EE update.
The multiple sirenes would actually have been a boon if Strongarm had not been effectively solo at the time.
20000 experience in one battle!! He did actually kill four of them solo!
Would I have to re-install all my mods if I acquired the latest patch?
That is the only major bug that I have found so far.
Hard luck Wise. The feeblemind is not a cast spell, but an effect of their attack in the EE - so spell protections don't work (though a potion of clarity or Greenstone Amulet do). The multiple sirines attacking during resting was a bug - fixed in the latest EE update.
Would I have to re-install all my mods if I acquired the latest patch?
Afraid so - patching will delete all the existing EE mods.
In the bridge district, the party solved the murders; For the battle at the tanner shop, Anapa (protected with cc) used sunray to deal with the undead while the rest of the party killed the assassin.
Goibniu also returned to the Copper Coronet to get the Tuigan bow for Helios. A quick fight against the beastmaster with the help of some skeletons also allowed the party to free the slaves:
Above the Copper Coronet, there was also Borinall to deal with:
Now, most of the quests with really easy fights are done. To prepare for tougher battles, Owain finally learned all of the spellscrolls the party had obtained so far, thus making him a formidable force and a great tank, if neccessary.
At Waukeen's Promenade, Goibniu challenged Mencar's party.
The plan was simple: Lure the opposing group downstairs, where Helios prepared some traps and the buffed party and skeletons were waiting:
A successful plan, though the last opponent to go downstairs, Brennan Risling, almost killed Anapa before being defeated:
Goibniu also killed the Crypt King:
And Neb (with a little help from a true sight spell):
I used a similiar tactic to the one against Mencar when fighting the bridge party - Helios placed traps outside, skeletons were summoned, the party waited for the enemies to move out so they could shoot them with ranged weapons. Anapa lured most of the party to their deaths:
The mage didn't want to go outside (a smart choice), so the party charged:
Next, I decided to go to the sewers under the Copper Coronet. Some relatively simple battles lead the party to the slaver's ship, where Captain Haegan was defeated. Everyone quickly moved forward to battle the slaver group with the 2 mages. Luring the enemies around the corner, I used Donar (whose ac is quite good thanks to the Fortress Shield and some more ac improving items) as a tank:
With the slaves freed, Goibniu entered the crypts below the graveyard and fought to gain Kitthix, with Owain casting a fireball:
For a final battle before leaving the city for a first time, I chose the sewer Rakshasa. Some summons by Luna and Owain helped with the kobolds, and Anapa claimed the useful cloak:
Some decent progress today, though Pole came under real threat for the first time in the run.
The action started at Watcher's Keep, where a group of summons were prepared ready for vampiric wraiths - only to have to look for easier prey when the vampirics proved to be on holiday. Death ward allowed a container with a FoD trap to be opened safely, but some other containers were left as the highest strength we could achieve at the time was 22. The guardian golems and first 2 statues died easily enough, which probably led to a slight over-confidence when attacking the other statues. The archer was not targeted specifically by summons and survived long enough to force Dorral to use a rare couple of healing potions. The final 2 statues were then easy prey.
Back in Athkatla Roger supplied some strength potions to allow Dorral to improve his door kicking skills and he was to put those to good use in opening up access to various liches. First though Tarnor's gang were for the chop - without the magic resistance of the statues the fight for them was effectively over before they realised it had begun (by that time Gaius was dead and several of them were confused).
While on the way to the lich tomb in the Bridge District we stopped off to solve the skinner murders, though that proved nearly fatal. The plan was for Dorral to lead the ghasts away, allowing Pole to come downstairs and summon a spirit animal while ironskins fended off backstabs from the Rune Assassins. However, Dorral got blocked initially meaning one of the ghasts turned back and tried to attack Pole - he ran away, but was then trapped between the 2 Rune Assassins in a narrow space. He summoned a spirit lion to help, but was soon taken down to 27 HPs while one Assassin still had over 50% HPs. Invisibility would be no help as the Assassins see through that, but Pole did have a potion of defence in his bag and took that. Fortunately that prevented any further hits on him while Dorral and the lion finished off the damaged Assassin - allowing Pole to escape the trap and finish off the second Assassin safely.
With preliminary access to all 4 liches secured a couple of scrolls of PfU and a couple of potions of speed supplemented the storm giant strength potion. The potions of speed ran out as we arrived at Kangaxx, but Daystar made short work of the demi-lich anyway.
Next up was Aran Linvail's tasks and it wasn't long before the preliminary ones were done and we headed to the Graveyard for the first time. The Crypt King was a potential threat there and he chewed through one lot of Pole's ironskins before Dorral lost patience and unleashed the power of Greyskull Daystar for the first time.
Downstairs various spiders did no better than Pai'Na before chaotic commands allowed Pole to distract a few vampires for Dorral to shoot. Tanova was another victim of a Daystar sunray, but there was a close shave for Dorral when he decided to see whether his HPs could outlast those of a clay golem ...
After finishing off the rest of the vampires with the help of all Pole's totemic summons an assortment of oddments were set in front of Bodhi with the intention that Dorral would fill her full of holes. Unfortunately he had no missile weapon that could hurt her, resulting in him going into action with Daystar. That caused some good damage and Bodhi had had enough after only managing to drain him once.
Pole, totemic druid 13, 83 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 31 kills (81 in BG1) Dorral, archer 11, 100 HPs, 200 kills (249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning)
We can't move on to the Fields of Slaughter just yet. As part of IWD2's long-running practice of bizarre detours, Nickademus teleports us all the way back to the ice temple to fight a bunch of demons.
This fight takes forever as well; you have to kill every one, and they like to run around and hide. They're not too difficult even in a normal party, but Chara makes it a cakewalk.
An important thing to note is that each container here holds a potion. Go to the southwest vault and you'll find a Potion of Magic Resistance.
Nickademus sends us back and we head to the Fields of Slaughter.
We have some tough fights up ahead. The enemies here include magic-resistant undead drow with lots of immunities, orog priests with Heal, magic-resistant half-dragons with very high attack bonuses, and mages with standard Tactics-style defenses. Rather than charging in with Chara alone, I send out a Rhinocerous Beetle and a zombie to hold off the enemy, using Chara's damage spells to wear them down from afar.
Druids in my install get some new nature-themed spells they were missing in vanilla, so Chara has a lot of nice stuff. Acid Fog, Acid Storm, Chain Lightning, Ball Lightning, Vipergout, and more.
Chara tries out one of the vanilla druid spells, and it works wonders against mages with low Fortitude saves.
Tremor, another vanilla spell, is very strong for druids. As a level 9 Transmutation spell, Chara can cast it with a save DC of 33, knocking out enemies for 3 rounds. Frisk's Chaos spell is also very effective, with a save DC above 30.
The disablers are necessary because Asriel's high AC and Chara's resistances might not be enough to handle these new enemies, which hit much harder than the others we've been facing. We summon a Gelugon to help thin the herd, though Chara still does most of the heavy lifting when they switch to half-dragon form.
We try to bluff our way through the next encounter, but Blahg'mah is so outraged that he misspells his own name and attacks.
Blahg'mah hits awfully hard, but his defenses are weak. Asriel brings Chara back up to speed.
The game gets tired of our attempts to use nonviolent methods, and eventually just gives us a single choice for the next dialog, saving us the trouble of feigning pacifism.
The real problem on this map is M'darfein the lich.
M'darfein has a host of immunities, high spell resistance, lots of Mirror Images, Improved Invisibility, and many high-level mage spells. He's an incredibly difficult nut to crack. Frisk casts Shades and Chara casts Elemental Legion, giving us a buffer against Marfy. While the undead elves mob us, Marfy busies himself with our summons.
Asriel pre-cast Holy Aura for this fight, as it grants us +4 to saves and +25 to spell resistance, enough to grant Asriel 50 SR and become nearly immune to magic. But due to an engine quirk, it does not affect Chara's spell resistance after they shapeshift, and so Chara gets strong but unreliable SR.
Realizing the mistake, I switch Chara to Red Half-Dragon form, healing a bit of the lost HP and letting Frisk continue bombing away with Sunfire.
Marfy marches past our summons and advances on the party. Chara switches to Elemental Half-Dragon form, as its acid, fire, cold, and electrical damage on hit will take away four extra Mirror Images per hit. When Chara does strike Marfy, though, he proves immune to all of them, negating half of Chara's damage output.
Marfy easily gets past Chara's spell resistance, but their elemental immunities mean his spell picks are limited.
Although we hit very hard, Improved Invisibility makes Marfy very hard to hit, and with his high Concentration score, we can't disrupt his spells.
A simple Heal spell repairs the damage to Chara. Marfy dodges most of our attacks and shrugs off much of the damage with his resistances and high HP pool, but his spells aren't strong enough to hold us down, with Asriel being able to cast both Heal and Mass Heal.
Note that the lich has Fire Shield: Blue active, and deals cold damage to all attackers. It could have been very dangerous for us if Chara's half-dragon form wasn't immune to cold, and Asriel, as an aasimar, has an innate resistance to cold damage. Must be all that fur.
Marfy shreds our summons with Skull Trap, Frisk restores Chara's haste, and some of the lich's resistances wear off--not all his resistances, it seems, are innate.
Then Marfy almost cripples us, but poor targeting ruined his efforts. He wounds us with Horrid Wilting and follows up with Power Word: Stun... but instead of disabling Asriel while he was casting Mass Heal, Marfy targets Chara, who is immune to stun while in half-dragon form.
Marfy could have changed the tide of battle had he managed to stun Asriel through his spell resistance, as it would have left Asriel helpless while Chara was in need of healing. With enough luck, Marfy might have been able to slay one or both of them, though Frisk was always waiting to use a Protection from Magic scroll in case things got truly dire.
Marfy missed his chance, because Asriel's Spell Resistance buff and Holy Aura gave him 50 SR, enough to discourage Marfy from trying to land a hit on him. Finally, the lich's defenses collapse.
M'darfein is deadly in Tactics, but he's not nearly as bad if you have a cleric to cast Spell Resistance and Holy Aura. Since the only debuffer in IWD2 is Dispel Magic, which offers a Will save and has a low DC due to being a level 3 spell that has no Spell Focus feat, enemy mages can't take away your defenses very easily (I've actually never seen M'darfein try).
But the primary reason for our success was Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form, since its sword cuts through Mirror Images five times as fast as a normal weapon.
It's good to be out of New Hotland. Seeing the snow again fills us with determination.
The next fight is with Saablic Tan, a high-level mage bolstered by lots of tough enemy fighters, archers, clerics, and mages. It's a large-scale, intense fight against many strong enemies with diverse powers.
But because I forgot about this fight, we arrive without any buffs. Asriel and Chara activate their best defenses before they get killed. It won't be enough, but it's the best we've got for now.
Asriel and Chara leap into action while Frisk falls back to turn invisible. The enemy surrounds our two tanks, and a Slayer Knight of Xvim shows off its amazing attack bonus.
I'm not being sarcastic; that AB is huge. It only missed because of a poor attack roll.
Saablic Tan and one of his fellow mages (I believe there are two) bring up their defenses. Asriel tries to stun them the next round, but Saablic Tan is immune.
Then Chara rolls a critical failure on a save. I really, really should have buffed everyone before entering this fight.
The lack of buffs is also crippling for Asriel, who has to deal with multiple half-dragons. Even in normal mode, their attack bonuses are huge.
That's the half-dragon's fourth attack, which means its first attack is at an astronomical 41 to hit. Also notice Frisk attempting to trap an enemy cleric in a Resilient Sphere. Clerics have poor Reflex saves, but a strong roll lets this one resist ORS.
Asriel casts Remove Fear on Chara and stuns the enemy with another Holy Word. As a cleric of Ilmater, he gets an extra casting of Holy Word as a domain spell.
Then, somehow, Chara dies.
Take a closer look at that image and you can see just how bad the situation really is.
Chara got chunked--actually, really chunked this time. Their portrait is just gone.
I go through the dialog box. There's no indication of what killed them--no spell, no weapon; not even a failed save. I suspect a bug is responsible... but since it didn't crash the game, I'm going to roll with it. My standard policy is to tolerate bugs, no matter how silly it is or how much it affects difficulty, unless the bug flat-out breaks the game.
I already decided I can import Chara back, but this is still very serious. I need to recover that equipment and make my escape; fighting on without Chara would just get us killed. Asriel casts Sanctuary so we can recover Chara's equipment safely.
Unfortunately, Frisk has broken their Improved Invisibility, allowing the enemy to attack them. And I know from experience that re-applying an invisibility effect will not protect them from our foes, not after Improved Invisibility has been broken once before.
We encounter a weird collision bug which prevents you from walking over a fallen character's corpse. This actually almost broke a no-reload run of the original Icewind Dale at the final boss, but it's not so bad here. After a few seconds' delay, Asriel manages to reach Chara's gear.
More weird screenshot distortion; I don't know what caused it.
We have so much equipment in our small three-member party that it takes Asriel multiple tries to collect all of Chara's gear and organize everything so that we don't have to leave anything important behind. Meanwhile, Frisk flees the scene--if we lose both Chara and Frisk, we're not going to be able to carry back a LOT of our items.
Frisk doesn't get far.
Asriel breaks his invisibility--I forget how--and both of them get thrashed.
This is bad. We've never been this weak before, and the enemy is still at full power. We need to get away, but we might well die before we can reach the edge of the map.
Frisk recovers from Blasphemy, but they're one strike short of death, and Asriel is faltering. His AC just can't compete with a half-dragon's attack bonus. Both characters are in the red.
I consider my options. Asriel will die in two hits; Frisk will die in one. Thanks to the Improved Initiative feat (which does nothing in vanilla; you need to use a workaround mod), Asriel has an instant-casting Heal spell that could put him above 200 HP instantly.
But I'm not going to do that.
Asriel would need to spend a whole extra round to recover Frisk's equipment once they die, and I don't think Asriel can survive that round, even at full health. He will have 10 enemies attacking him, including two half-dragons, a priest who might have another Blasphemy on hand, plus Saablic Tan himself, who has Mordenkainen's Sword active (a fast, powerful ranged weapon with an attack bonus to rival a fighter's), to say nothing of his spells.
Asriel could heal himself and escape the area instead, but Frisk has some very important stuff. Namely, our scroll cases, including the Protection from Magic scrolls I may need to win the final battle!
We have no choice. Asriel has to run over to Frisk. But how are we going to do that, if a Heal spell isn't going to be enough to get them there? He doesn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand; what else could work?
I'm going to use a Sanctuary Wand instead.
Won't a wand take a couple of seconds to activate? Can Asriel even spare that much time, when he's already so close to death?
I have to make a call. Asriel tries to use the wand instead.
It works.
I actually made that decision just under two seconds before that screenshot; I thought a Heal would be insufficient. The critical decision here was resisting the urge to take the faster option--Heal--when Asriel was dying before my eyes.
Asriel scurries away to the southwest, just in case any area-effect spells are on the way. To the east, Frisk soaks up a Blasphemy spell and a single arrow.
Asriel is all alone.
Our worries aren't over. I don't think Invisibility Purge can remove Sanctuary in IWD2, but Asriel still isn't safe. I have no idea how long the Sanctuary wand lasts--a level 1 Sanctuary, after all, only lasts a single round. And if it runs out when Asriel is still wounded, he might not get a chance to use it again. We need to cast Heal.
But invisibility and Sanctuary in IWD2 don't work like they do in BG. Even spells cast on self can break them, which means Heal might well leave Asriel exposed.
Asriel hurries to find a safe spot to break invisibility. Boots of Speed and the Golden Heart of Frisk give him the boost he needs.
Right after he casts the spell, the enemies move in for the kill.
This isn't Oblivion; enemies don't give up just because you vanished. They will hunt you down.
Asriel uses the wand again before he get boxed in.
Now he's healed up and invisible. All that's left is to grab Frisk's equipment, spend a few minutes picking out what items we can leave behind, and hurry back to Kuldahar.
But on the way to Frisk's body, I notice a disturbing sign.
The east exit is blocked. And when I scroll over (still paused) to the west exit, I find that the way out is blank. The cursor doesn't turn into a wheel when I put it at the edge of the map, indicating that the west exit is also blocked.
We're stuck here until the battle is over. But Chara and Frisk are both dead, and Asriel is facing a group of enemies that even Chara couldn't handle on their own. Chara, who is far stronger than Frisk and Asriel combined.
Chara is chunked and can't be resurrected; I can only import them. But I don't want to import them in the middle of a fight; it seems weird. Instead, I'd like to resurrect Frisk, and hopefully Asriel and Frisk can figure out this puzzle together. I have some spare Resurrection scrolls for just this occasion.
But bringing back Frisk would put Asriel's life in peril. When he tries to find a safe spot, the enemy chases him all the way across the map.
They can't see his body, but they can just barely spot his shallow footprints in the packed-down snow. Asriel could use the Resurrection scroll, but it would take 9 seconds for him to restore his invisibility. In that time, the enemy could easily hack away half his HP or more, and then doom him with a Power Word: Stun spell. And with the enemy close at hand, Frisk wouldn't have enough time to buff themself--they'd just get crushed.
Asriel has to do this all on his own... But we might be able to use a shortcut. For now, we focus on getting Frisk's equipment. Asriel uses the wand again before his stealth fails him.
The enemies continues to give chase. Asriel uses the wand again.
The wand's effects last for 4 rounds, but I didn't know that at the time. I thought it would be 10 rounds, but I had to assume that it could run out at any second.
I'm going to try something else. As a high-level cleric, Asriel can summon a Gelugon, which just might bail us out here. Since it's a spell rather than a scroll and Asriel has Improved Initiative, it's just a little bit faster than trying to resurrect Frisk, and it's much more likely to help. The enemies arrive just in time to see it appear.
I actually thought of this several rounds ago--when I last retreated to the west, my main goal was to cast Protection from Evil on Asriel; not to try and resurrect Frisk.
Asriel flees and turns invisible, hoping our Gelugon can help us.
Asriel hurries off to the east to find some breathing room. The Gelugon engages the enemy, but the enemy is tougher than I thought.
I've run out of options. Asriel is trapped in a cage with some of the deadliest enemies in the game, and there is nowhere he can hide. We have to go nuclear.
I was hoping to save this for a later time, but if we don't use it now, Asriel will perish. He finds Saablic Tan's red circle on the ground and uses one of our only two Protection from Magic scrolls.
Saablic Tan is visible! It dispelled his defenses! Hopefully it will block his spells, too. Asriel decides to play it safe and use the Wand of Sanctuary rather than try to lock horns with Stabby Stan. Meanwhile, our offscreen Gelugon shows us the other mage on the map could still wipe out Asriel with a single spell.
Stabby Stanley finishes casting his spell, and we have confirmation.
Stan is helpless. Hopefully, the barrier will open when he is dead, but there's a chance that, like many other fights in IWD2, we actually have to defeat ALL of the enemies before the game lets us go. We'll just have to see.
We're still in a desperate situation, so it's worth using our most valuable resources. Asriel equips our only stack of Bolts +5 and fires away with Dragu's Hell Bolter.
Asriel could use the Wand of Sanctuary to escape, but it's slow-acting. Now that he's recovered Frisk's equipment, he has a couple Potions of Invisibility, and it's worth using up those precious potions if it keeps Asriel--our only hope at this point--just a little bit safer.
Asriel finds a new position and strikes again. Thanks to the Improved Critical feat, he deals double damage twice more.
The critical hits are a minor blessing; in the end it'll just save us three extra Bolts +5 and two charges from the Wand of Sanctuary. Stabby Stan is still in good health; he has surprisingly high HP.
But as the bolts keep coming, Stan begins to panic. He doesn't know how to get away.
Asriel hides one last time, lest the enemies close in on him...
...and fires one last bolt. Saablic Tan crumples, and his killer vanishes once more.
I check the exits.
The way is clear! We only had to kill Stabby Stan to escape!
We lose some equipment in the process, but we're finally safe. I import Chara and Asriel brings Frisk back to life.
I actually told myself I could import from any save game, and not just a character file, but I'm too lazy to load up a previous save to export a more recent version of Chara. It costs us a lot of XP, but at this point, Chara doesn't really need it--lost XP or no, they're still at druid level 21, and therefore have the Elemental Half-Dragon form.
I do some testing and confirm that both Finger of Death and Disintegrate can cause true chunking in IWD2.
Since there's a time delay between failing a save against Disintegrate and the actual chunking, I think Chara probably died to Disintegrate, as it matches what I saw in the fight. I did look for a failed save or a death spell earlier in the dialog box, and never found any, but Disintegrate is my best explanation for what happened.
Frisk swoons and dramatically falls into Asriel's arms. Finding every opportunity to hit on platonic friends fills us with determination.
Hard luck Wise. The feeblemind is not a cast spell, but an effect of their attack in the EE - so spell protections don't work (though a potion of clarity or Greenstone Amulet do). The multiple sirines attacking during resting was a bug - fixed in the latest EE update.
Just wondering if the hordes of Xzvart that used to appear near and in the cave in the gnoll stronghold were also a bug that has been corrected. They were quite a challenge largely because of the shamans, but I don't seem to get them now.
Comments
I'm also sad to report that Sogar, my half-orc shadowdancer, fell to her doom while forgetting about a lightning trap in the Cloakwood mines... the shadowdancer kit is ridiculously OP with instant invisibility, but not invulnerable, I guess. Still working out some kinks.
New character coming up.
Mods: SCS w/ all options, item randomizer, BG1 NPC project, a few ease of use tweaks.
I am playing random characters. I've never rolled a monk before, so this should be interesting. She may go solo or may recruit allies, if they can help her get ahead.
....
Freyr woke up for the last time in her bed in Candlekeep. She thought, "None of these people can take care of themselves, much less me. It is time to seek fortune and strength. It is time to leave."
Proving grounds,
Hear text as mp3,
I grabbed a nice fireball book for Puk on the way and laid 6 traps before talking to Imoen... Gave up a point of wisdom because I'm a romantic at heart then got started on the maze.
Used 'cloudkill' to lure the snakes into the trap, let Hexxat fight the vampire boss to avoid dominations and Puk grabbed the paintings under sanctuary to avoid the death trap.
I laid a dozen traps outside the main hall then changed my spell sets around before releasing the loons... He still managed to kill Imoen but Sarah got her back up before we teleported into battle against Irenicus
Tactics; magic missile, acid arrow and insect plague to keep him locked while fire elemental | flame strike eats away at his health... Horror and adds try to keep my idds at bay but Irenicus is the key.
Imoen used her summon critter inside a contingency (fire on enemy seen) trick to speed cast some adds, Sarah open with insect plague (targeting Kat) then fire elemental and retreat... As my healer she is more value to me alive. Puk opened with flame strike then popped some party buffs before going to guard duty, katarina fired the odd magic missile but mostly used her +1 fire sword, Hexxat only had her bow but she helped block melee attackers getting in and I tossed out magic misslies | acid arrows until Irenicus gave up then drank an invisible potion to avoid backstabs.
After action report; I cheated! Laying traps both downstairs and upstairs not that the downstairs did jack for the Irenicus battle but I also know he hardly ever puts up fire defences and I got lucky... Easily one of the hardest battles but now that I know its winnable I can't bring myself to play at a lower challenge level next time.
Yay! I figured it out! It turns out that for some reason, Siege of Dragonspear does not like new kits in the game(Might have something to do with the tlk). So I will be playing a baldur's gate ee solo run with bgtweaks and the warlock mod from my first post.
Draco
You can actually play the EE game with kits, then open the final save in another unmodded installation for Dragonspear to complete just Dragonspear. Any modded items will disappear such as items from DSoSC, Dark Horizons and the Drizzt Saga, though you can copy the itm files from one installation to the other. In that case you will keep the items.
However the item descriptions will be crazy.
You will keep any standard items which are included in mods.
I had a mod which allowed half-orc inquisitors in EE. In Dragonsprear this worked fine as it is a standard kit with a non-standard race..
Let's hope that Draco reads this post along with anyone else to whom this information is useful.
Pole, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Dorral, elven archer (Gate70)
The session started with a trip down to find Davaeorn. The battle horrors died more easily than expected, but Dorral was badly injured triggering the traps. However, after a successful rest a couple of nymphs helped heal him before soaking up Davaeorn's main spells - leaving him an easy victim.
Arriving in the City the first objective was to complete the poison quest. A main aim of doing that was to grab Lothander's boots of speed - but this time he managed to wriggle out of the cage set for him.
Marek, however, was less fortunate.
Ramazith was encountered at the top of his tower. I always kill him downstairs in single player and Pole briefly showed himself upstairs before rapidly retreating - leaving the field open for Dorral to one-shot the mage with, err, one shot.
After picking up the Cloak of Balduran we decided we had enough equipment and went to sort out the Iron Throne. By the time they realised they were under assault the group was plagued and mainly confused and unable to put up a real fight.
At Candlekeep Dorral used a storm giant strength potion to loot the tombs before brushing aside Prat's challenge with the help of some more insects. Back in the City Slythe failed to make an impression on Pole's new ironskins.
At the palace some totemic summons and nymphs (who pre-cast domination to avoid attacks on the dukes by 'friendly' creatures) helped sort out the dopplegangers. I made a mistake in allowing Pole to be caught next to Belt as the last doppleganger died, but fortunately Sarevok attacked Pole not Belt - and his ironskins allowed him to soak up the punishment.
After working through the maze and using PfU to kill some skeleton warriors Pole successful confused Carston to make the Undercity party easier. In the temple Dorral pulled Sarevok out with a dispelling arrow and had another of those handy to ensure Semaj's teleport trip didn't end well. Sarevok then didn't last much longer under a hail of missiles and attacks from summons.
Moving on to Athkatla the dungeon offered no threats, even though a radiant mephit did manage to put both Dorral and Pole out of action with a couple of color sprays.
The circus was quickly put to rights and the Copper Coronet given some new management before tempting Suna Seni into a fatal encounter with some insects.
At the Docks Rayic's golems looked like they might be a threat given we only had Arbane between us as a +2 weapon. However, they were unable to hit Pole's new fire elemental.
Rayic then fell victim to an insect assault (cast on Dorral to avoid it being turned).
Soon afterwards Mae'Var's guild was over-run.
While doing that lot we had also saved Renfeld and looted the harpers, as well as doing a bit of work in the temple sewers to get Pole a new cloak. The money earned from those adventures is more than enough to pay Gaelan Bayle next time.
Pole, totemic druid 12, 81 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 18 kills (81 in BG1)
Dorral, archer 9, 94 HPs, 173 kills (249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning)
The bulk of encounters are settled by Dorral shooting down enemies chasing Pole, with summons and spells being reserved for the more dangerous enemies.
A typical start with some high value kills (Shoal, Basilisks), sale (e.g. Ring of Wizardry) and easy reputation (Oublek, Captain Brage, etc.) combined with high hit point rolls for levels.
The two groups of sirines at the Lighthouse area required a Greenstone amulet charge each, a potion of Stone Giant strength combining with Girdle of Piercing to make short work of them. The Flesh Golem cave saw use of the Varscona longsword, Carthus taking a few hits despite a Girdle of Bluntness and potion of Absorbtion. His hits with Varscona were a bit of a surprise though, with several criticals into the 30's for damage and one for 38.
Once Carthus had a few levels, decent equipment and a reputation of 20 he put Nashkel Mine to rights, dealt with Nimbul and Tranzig before heading into the Bandit Camp to show Taugosz Khosann his Dagger of Venom.
Cloakwood Mine was stealthed through until Davaeorn saw a potion of Magic Blocking combine with stealth and Venom attacks using the Boots of Speed. Once the mine was flooded, Carthus was free to head into Baldur's Gate where presumably he did a few tasks (no notes but dexterity and intelligence tomes have been consumed) before heading back to Candlekeep. He's stood outside at this point.
(my key concern remains: Liia and Belt could be in for a rough ride at the Coronation even if Carthus fully potions up)
Oh, and hit points. 69 out of a possible 80 at level 8 so exceeding expectations.
Buffs for Slythe were 2 x Mind Focusing, Cloud Giant strength, Heroism and Defence. Carthus opened strongly with cat and mouse tactics but Slythe still got around an AC of -9 at one point.
In hindsight, forgot to use Stunning Blow but not convinced that would have saved the Dukes.
edit: I wonder if that same trick would work with the Raise Dead scroll problem in SoD?
Today's two hour session covered the rest of de'Arnise Keep, Umar and the nearby temple ruins. There were two party deaths but nothing permanent.
A Yuan-ti mage could hardly complain about being put to the sword, as insects and magic missiles were both en-route.
Tor'Gal is battered to the ground but resists Pins' flame arrows and a last-minute flame blade from Unyo. He is battered to the ground a second time and treated to a fireball instead. Job done, so on to Umar.
Unyo is held by a mimic but it is attacking Coretank who is still mobile. Pins is also mobile so no danger and the party move on to the temple ruins.
Unyo releases Anath (a kindred spirit), then Coretank is encumbered while fighting shadows. He's still able to swat anything too close though and the temple interior can be explored.
Pins is held and killed while playing with fire.
(n.b. screenshot shows Thaxxy taking advantage of Multiplayer mode to administer two hits and kill Coretank while paused)
The Shade Lord takes a hefty whack from Coretank, after Unyo used a looted sling to shut the Shade Altar down with a Sunstone bullet.
On return to the city, a few doors are eased off their hinges as the party prepare a search for the Ring of Gaxx. So long as they remember this is the objective when next they meet... distractions such as the freshly rolled-in-dirt body of Valygar might tempt them elsewhere.
Unyo (Gate70), protagonist. Shapeshifter. 212 kills (+16)
Pins (Grond0). Blade. 207 kills (+24)
Coretank (Corey_Russell). Undead Hunter. 461 kills (+57)
Diary of Strongarm the Defender
I killed three assassins in Candlekeep, two of whom fell quickly. The third injured me badly and poisoned me as well with the result that two healing potions had to be used.
Upon leaving another assassin attacked and killed Gorion. Clearly they knew Gorion's plans so I did not follow his advice but went in the opposite direction to Beregost.
I calmed down Marl and took a tome to Firebead, increasing my reputation by 1.
I went further south and killed two ogrillon who wounded me badly. They however came of the worst.
After resting in Beregost and getting a reward from Mirianne, I once more headed southwards where officious Flaming Fist mercenaries attacked me. They did not survive the encounter. I was badly hurt and had to consume two healing potions, but on the plus side I gained three excellent suits of armour. Also they will be attacking no more inocent travellers.
After resting once more I ventured a short distance northwards where I encountered an ogre who was quickly despatched.
Going southwards once more I killed a number of hobgoblins and found a necklace.
In Nashkel I met Noober and corrected the misapprehension that Oublek had about me. This meant that my reputation increased once more. I then slept at the carnival.
At this point I edited my large portrait.
Near the mines Zargos Flintblade, another assassin attacked but was made to pay for his folly.
This caused me to reach level 3, and gave me *** in axes.
After resting at the Carnival, with the help of Isra, we took on Greywolf and prevailed. I was badly hurt and afterwards rested again at the Carnival before claiming the reward from Oublek.
I then reunited Rufie with its owner and reached level 4, helped the dryad of the Cloudpeaks and rescued Drienne's cat which made me a fully authenticated hero.
I the took on Gnarl and Hairtooth before returning to Beregost for a well earned rest.
In doing so, I acquired some gauntlets that raised my dexterity to 18 which increased my ability to use armour.
As a result of our endeavours, Mellicamp is no longer chicken, perdue has recovered his sword, and we got Alanna's neoghbour back into shape. We deliveried a letter to Dawn Priest Blaze and helped the frightened widow just north of th FAI.
I reached level 5 after dealing with a couple of ankheg.
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]
~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Drizzt Saga for BGEE/Tutu/BGT -> Default version: areas connected by travel triggers: v3.00
~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #2 // Raise the XP cap: v3.00
~DRIZZTSAGA/DRIZZTSAGA.TP2~ #0 #3 // Delayed start: Drizzt joins after Durlag's Tower: v3.00
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Slime Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Beregost Family Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Installing the Babysitting Quest, including the Carnival Encounter...: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Nashkel Monster Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Fallen Paladin Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Undying Love Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Orcish Lover Encounter: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Unexpected Help Quest: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #8 // "Many Little Paws": v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Drunk near Beregost Temple: v12
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #10 // A Warm Place for Noober: v12
~SETUP-BGEEAR.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Armors for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.05
~SETUP-BGEEW.TP2~ #0 #0 // TeamBG's Weapons Pack for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu Version 1.04
~SIRINESCALL/SETUP-SIRINESCALL.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Lure of the Sirine's Call: v13
~SETUP-DARKHORIZONSBGEE.TP2~ #0 #0 // "Dark Horizons" Mod for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition: BG:EE v213
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Amount of -ahem- details and BG-style vs. description text!: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Bardolan's Briefing, by berelinde: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Scar's Spare Time, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Kim's Preoccupation, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Extension of Bjornin Encounter (Personal Wound Treatment), by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #5 // No Starch in the Maypole: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Duke Eltan's Spare Minute, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Husam's Personal Preparation, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Laurel's Post-Hunting, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Bartus' Seduction, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #10 // Lina's Massage, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #11 // First Night with Quentin, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #12 // Chatting Niklos Up, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #13 // Slythe and Krystin, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #14 // No Regrets: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Purchased Love, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #16 // Hull: Heavy Duty, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #17 // Late Night with Jaheira, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Sil's Blessing, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #19 // Melicamp: The Poultry Boy, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reading with Rinnie, by Western Paladin: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #21 // Molly the Husband-Grabber, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #22 // The Mourning of Centeol, the Spider Lady, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #23 // The Essential End, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #24 // The Harvestmen Lair, by Lava (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #25 // The Great Zudini, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #26 // The Messenger, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #27 // Ender Sai, the Hero's Reward, by Thimblerig (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #28 // The Novelists, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #29 // The Honest Lies of Two Riversides, By Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #30 // Necromancer's Trouble, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #31 // Dinner with Thalantyr, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #32 // Girdle of Gender Reactions, by Thimblerig, Kulyok, Domi, Lava, Lastknightleft, Twani, Jastey, Daisy Ninja Girl: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #33 // The Surgeon's Dream, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #34 // All That Left Was, by Lava and Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #35 // A Childhood Friend, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #36 // Arlene the Working Girl, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #37 // Della May from Thay, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #38 // A Dirty Guard in Candlekeep, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #39 // Phoenix Flame, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #40 // Mikala the Monk, by Twani: v1.3
~INDINPC/SETUP-INDINPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Indira NPC: v12.0 BETA 2
~FINCHNPC/FINCHNPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Finch NPC: v4.0 BETA 7
~THALAN/THALAN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Thalantyr - Item Upgrade: v4.2
~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Gavin NPC for Tutu, BGT, and BG:EE: v9
~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #1 // Gavin: Romance (mature content): v9
~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #2 // Gavin: Flirts (adult content): v9
~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #10 // Gavin: Alternate Portraits -> Blue cloak, by kiwidoc: v9
~GAVIN/GAVIN.TP2~ #0 #13 // Gavin: Player Initiated Dialogue: v9
~ISRA/SETUP-ISRA.TP2~ #0 #0 // Isra NPC Mod for BG:EE, BGT and TuTu
~ISRA/SETUP-ISRA.TP2~ #0 #2 // Install Gavin/Isra crossmod banter?
~AJANTISBG1/SETUP-AJANTISBG1.TP2~ #0 #0 // Installs Ajantis BG1 Expansion Modification: 10
~SETUP-CRUSADE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Champion of Torm
~SETUP-CRUSADE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Adventurer
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project: Required Modifications: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #1 // The BG1 NPC Project: Banters, Quests, and Interjections: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #9 // The BG1 NPC Project: Ajantis Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #10 // The BG1 NPC Project: Branwen's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #11 // The BG1 NPC Project: Coran's Romance Core (adult content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #12 // The BG1 NPC Project: Dynaheir's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #13 // The BG1 NPC Project: Shar-Teel Relationship Core (adult content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #14 // The BG1 NPC Project: Xan's Romance Core (teen content): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #15 // The BG1 NPC Project: Female Romance Challenges, Ajantis vs Xan vs Coran: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #16 // The BG1 NPC Project: NPCs can be sent to wait in an inn: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #18 // The BG1 NPC Project: Alora's Starting Location -> Alora Starts in Gullykin: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #20 // The BG1 NPC Project: Eldoth's Starting Location -> Eldoth Starts on the Coast Way: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #22 // The BG1 NPC Project: Quayle's Starting Location -> Quayle Starts at the Nashkel Carnival: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #24 // The BG1 NPC Project: Tiax's Starting Location -> Tiax Starts in Beregost: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #26 // BGEE Banter Timing Tweak: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #30 // The BG1 NPC Project: Cloakwood areas availability in Chapter One -> Open four Cloakwood areas (everything but the Mines): v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #31 // The BG1 NPC Project: Sarevok's Diary Adjustments -> SixofSpades Extended Sarevok's Diary: v22_20150614
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #200 // The BG1 NPC Project: Player-Initiated Dialogues: v22_20150614
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1090 // Exotic Item Pack: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Reveal City Maps When Entering Area: v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1120 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: 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 #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 #2339 // Remove Summoning Cap for Regular Summons: 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 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): 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 #3190 // Rest Anywhere (Japheth): v16
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // ToB-Style NPCs: 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 #4080 // Make Khalid a Fighter-Mage (Domi): v16
~CROSSMODBG2/SETUP-CROSSMODBG2.TP2~ #0 #0 // Crossmod Banter Pack for Shadows of Amn: v15
~CROSSMODBG2/SETUP-CROSSMODBG2.TP2~ #0 #2 // Crossmod Romance Conflicts: v15
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #102 // Choose a class for Imoen -> Make Imoen a multiclass mage/thief
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #141 // Choose a class for Khalid -> Make Khalid a ranger/cleric
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #161 // Choose a class for Minsc -> Make Minsc a fighter
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #242 // Choose a class for Branwen -> Make Branwen a multiclass fighter/cleric
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #302 // Choose a class for Xzar -> Make Xzar a necromancer/cleric
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #321 // Choose a class for Montaron -> Make Montaron a thief
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #483 // Choose a class for Xan -> Make Xan a fighter/mage
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #583 // Choose a class for Viconia -> Make Viconia a cleric/thief
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #2000 // NPC kit choices
~NPC_EE/NPC_EE.TP2~ #0 #3000 // multiclass kit choice
~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Improved Multi-Player Kick-out Dialogues: v16
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Changes to trueclass bards and thieves, and unmodded game kits (required for other components): v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Add new bardic store and thief items: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Install Acrobat bard kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Install Chorister bard kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Install Dirgesinger bard kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Install Gypsy bard kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Install Adventurer thief kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Install Burglar thief kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Install Soulknife thief kit: v6
~SONG_AND_SILENCE/SETUP-SONG_AND_SILENCE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Install Sharpshooter thief kit: v6
Third rest is taken at a royal room at the five flagons inn, where we watched a play only Minsc was impressed by. This after 17 Days of traveling all over Amn thanks to Neeras and Rasaads tedious errands. Before resting Nalia hits level 12 for our very first level 6 arcane slot, Aerie is at 9 Cleric / 11 Mage, Minsc is closing in on level 11 ranger which will give him pretty much nothing and Jaheira is stuck at her druid levels but with 2 level 5 and 2 level 6 spell slots we really can't complain.
A boatload of gold (30k) were spent on the thieves Guild and I am now the proud owner of the amulet of Power and a +2 ring.
When traveling through the temple district we run into the last of the slavers at the guarded compound!
I pre-buff with a few spells but mostly haste and invis for all > go up to scout > somehow trigger a trap and we're all visible > flee back downstairs as fast as we can!
Only the mage follows me downstairs, invisible but I can see his buffs (not a very smart mage that one), detect illusions and maybe 3 breaches and 2 secret Words later the biggest threat is removed!
I once again buff up a little and this time I summon a fire elemental and 2 nymphs to help out realizing I am quite badly outclassed by this party > go up to try to pull some of them > everyone follows me downstairs.
Only Dice has chaotic commands to protect against stun and even though his AC is at -11 vs evil (due to the dispelling of impr invis and blur) and has stoneskin up he is reduced to below 30 Health in about two rounds > those rounds were used to cast 2 x holy blight, slow (1 failed the save) and chaos (nobody failed the save) > good news is Minsc managed to kill the cleric, bad news is nobody but Dice can tank that crazy kensai > I retreat to use a few potions and rearrange the battlefield leaving the summons alone with the bad guys and they pretty much die the instant I fall back > Dice lands a 40 damage backstab on the insanely dangerous kensai and he is down > after that it is pretty routine tank and spank.
The fight was very messy and with a bit of bad luck the run could have ended, I was lucky that the thief used her backstabs on my stoneskin and that the kensai didn't keep targeting not protected party members.
Even though casters are way more powerful than everything else fights can turn ugly pretty fast if your opponents consists of better fighters (who makes use of potions) and somehow keep making their saves vs spells.
To be continued.. But now with Celestial Fury!
Rules as per OP:
1. Obviously No-Reloading.
2. I don't use SCS.
3. I'll semi-follow this.
a. I get the weirdest OCD to try to make the stats fit my characters, so can't follow this one.
b. I rarely use my meta-game knowledge, so I can obey this one.
c. I'll only use EEKeeper if something goes horribly buggy or something like that.
d. This one I can also follow, seeing as I really don't use Sequencers in the first place.
4. I usually do a full party of six people, and I do try to Roleplay.
Now, Character:
Name: Kythran
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger
Kit: Stalker
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Stats: I rolled 101...hence why they're all so high.
Racial Enemy: Demonic/Fell
Proficiency: ++ Long Sword, ++ Longbow, and
because I'm a ranger special,++ Dual-wield StyleMods:
// 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]
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Slime Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Beregost Family Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Installing the Babysitting Quest, including the Carnival Encounter...: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Nashkel Monster Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Fallen Paladin Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #5 // Undying Love Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Orcish Lover Encounter: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Unexpected Help Quest: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #8 // "Many Little Paws": v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Drunk near Beregost Temple: v13
~BGQE/SETUP-BGQE.TP2~ #0 #10 // A Warm Place for Noober: v13
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project: Required Modifications: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #1 // The BG1 NPC Project: Banters, Quests, and Interjections: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #7 // The BG1 NPC Project: Kivan's "Kivan and Deheriana Companions" portrait: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #8 // The BG1 NPC Project: Add Non-Joinable NPC portraits to quests and dialogues: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #9 // The BG1 NPC Project: Ajantis Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #10 // The BG1 NPC Project: Branwen's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #11 // The BG1 NPC Project: Coran's Romance Core (adult content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #12 // The BG1 NPC Project: Dynaheir's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #13 // The BG1 NPC Project: Shar-Teel Relationship Core (adult content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #14 // The BG1 NPC Project: Xan's Romance Core (teen content): v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #15 // The BG1 NPC Project: Female Romance Challenges, Ajantis vs Xan vs Coran: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #16 // The BG1 NPC Project: NPCs can be sent to wait in an inn: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #26 // BGEE Banter Timing Tweak: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #28 // The BG1 NPC Project: Bardic Reputation Adjustment: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #31 // The BG1 NPC Project: Sarevok's Diary Adjustments -> SixofSpades Extended Sarevok's Diary: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPC/BG1NPC.TP2~ #0 #200 // The BG1 NPC Project: Player-Initiated Dialogues: v22.3_20160403
~BG1NPCMUSIC/SETUP-BG1NPCMUSIC.TP2~ #0 #0 // The BG1 NPC Project Music Pack -> Install All Audio: v6
~AJANTISBG1/SETUP-AJANTISBG1.TP2~ #0 #0 // Installs Ajantis BG1 Expansion Modification: 10
~CORANBGFRIEND/CORANBGFRIEND.TP2~ #0 #0 // Coran's Extended BG Friendship Talks: v4
~XANBG1FRIEND/SETUP-XANBG1FRIEND.TP2~ #0 #0 // Xan's friendship path for BG1: v9bgee
~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #0 // Chatty Imoen: Expanded Character Sounds: v1.0-20160406
~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #1 // Chatty Imoen: Add NPC Interactions: v1.0-20160406
~CHATTYIMOEN/SETUP-CHATTYIMOEN.TP2~ #0 #3 // Chatty Imoen: Imoen Portrait Replacements -> Give Imoen her SoD Portrait: v1.0-20160406
~JAHEIRARECAST/SETUP-JAHEIRARECAST.TP2~ #0 #1 // Jaheira Recast: Character Sounds -> Use BG1+BG2 Character Sounds: v1.2
~JAHEIRARECAST/SETUP-JAHEIRARECAST.TP2~ #0 #2 // Jaheira Recast: Dialog Voiceover: v1.2
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Amount of -ahem- details and BG-style vs. description text!: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Bardolan's Briefing, by berelinde: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #2 // Scar's Spare Time, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #3 // Kim's Preoccupation, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #4 // Extension of Bjornin Encounter (Personal Wound Treatment), by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #5 // No Starch in the Maypole: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #6 // Duke Eltan's Spare Minute, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #7 // Husam's Personal Preparation, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #8 // Laurel's Post-Hunting, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #9 // Bartus' Seduction, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #10 // Lina's Massage, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #11 // First Night with Quentin, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #12 // Chatting Niklos Up, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #13 // Slythe and Krystin, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #14 // No Regrets: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #15 // Purchased Love, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #16 // Hull: Heavy Duty, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #17 // Late Night with Jaheira, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #18 // Sil's Blessing, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #19 // Melicamp: The Poultry Boy, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Reading with Rinnie, by Western Paladin: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #21 // Molly the Husband-Grabber, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #22 // The Mourning of Centeol, the Spider Lady, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #23 // The Essential End, by Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #24 // The Harvestmen Lair, by Lava (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #25 // The Great Zudini, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #26 // The Messenger, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #27 // Ender Sai, the Hero's Reward, by Thimblerig (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #28 // The Novelists, by Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #29 // The Honest Lies of Two Riversides, By Lava: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #30 // Necromancer's Trouble, by jastey (WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #31 // Dinner with Thalantyr, by jastey: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #32 // Girdle of Gender Reactions, by Thimblerig, Kulyok, Domi, Lava, Lastknightleft, Twani, Jastey, Daisy Ninja Girl: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #33 // The Surgeon's Dream, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #34 // All That Left Was, by Lava and Thimblerig: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #35 // A Childhood Friend, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #36 // Arlene the Working Girl, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #37 // Della May from Thay, by Kulyok: v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #38 // A Dirty Guard in Candlekeep, by Kulyok (mature content. WARNING - refer to the readme!): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #39 // Phoenix Flame, by Kulyok (mature content): v1.3
~BG1RE/SETUP-BG1RE.TP2~ #0 #40 // Mikala the Monk, by Twani: v1.3
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #0 // Ice Island Level Two Restoration: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #1 // The Mysterious Vial: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #10 // Place Entar Silvershield in His Home: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #11 // Scar and the Sashenstar's Daughter: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #12 // Quoningar, the Cleric: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #13 // Shilo Chen and the Ogre-Magi: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #14 // Edie, the Merchant League Applicant: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #16 // Creature Corrections: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #17 // Creature Restorations: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #18 // Creature Name Restorations: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #19 // Minor Dialogue Restorations: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #21 // Store, Tavern and Inn Fixes and Restorations: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #22 // Item Corrections and Restorations: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #28 // Prism and the Emeralds Tweak: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #29 // Duke Eltan in the Harbor Master's Building: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #30 // Nim Furlwing Encounter: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #32 // Svlast, the Fallen Paladin Encounter: v14.0
~BG1UB/SETUP-BG1UB.TP2~ #0 #33 // Mal-Kalen, the Ulcaster Ghost: v14.0
~SPELLS/SETUP-SPELLS.TP2~ #0 #0 // Spells: 0.84
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #60 // Weapon Animation Tweaks: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #70 // Icewind Dale Casting Graphics (Andyr): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Icon Improvements: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #140 // Fix Boo's Squeak: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #182 // Unique Containers -> Unique icons and names: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1010 // More Interjections: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1036 // Make Cloakwood Areas Available Before Completing the Bandit Camp -> All of Cloakwood Except the Mines: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1060 // Breakable Iron Nonmagical Shields, Helms, and Armor: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1090 // Exotic Item Pack: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1100 // Reveal City Maps When Entering Area: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Alter Weapon Proficiency System -> Rebalanced Weapon Proficiencies: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2192 // Limit Ability of Storekeepers to Identify Items -> Hybrid of Both Methods: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2200 // Multi-Class Grandmastery (Weimer): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2210 // Change Grandmastery Bonuses -> True Grandmastery (Baldurdash): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2220 // Change Magically Created Weapons to Zero Weight: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2240 // Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2250 // Un-Nerfed Sorcerer Spell Progression Table: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2260 // Alter Mage Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2270 // Alter Bard Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2280 // Alter Cleric Spell Progression Table -> Un-Nerfed Table (Blucher): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2290 // Alter Druid Spell and Level Progression Tables -> No Level Progression Changes, Un-Nerfed Druid Spell Table Only (Blucher): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2339 // Remove Summoning Cap for Regular Summons: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2360 // Remove Racial Restrictions for Single Classes: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2390 // Paladins Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables (grogerson): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2400 // Rangers Use Icewind Dale-Heart of Winter Spell Tables (grogerson): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2410 // Druids Use 3E Alignment Restrictions: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Make Bags of Holding Bottomless: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3050 // Remove fatigue from restoration spells: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove "You Must Gather Your Party..." Sound (Weimer): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3070 // Change Effect of Reputation on Store Prices -> Low Reputation Store Discount (Sabre): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3083 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3093 // Increase Gem and Jewelry Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3103 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3113 // Increase Scroll Stacking -> Stacks of 120: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3121 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Can Be Angry About Reputation but Never Leave (Salk): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3125 // Neutral Characters Make Happy Comments at Mid-Range Reputation: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3190 // Rest Anywhere (Japheth): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3205 // Stores Purchase All Item Types: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3220 // Sensible Entrance Points: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3230 // Taerom Makes Additional Ankheg Armor (Icendoan/grogerson): Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3265 // Recoverable ammunition -> 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3275 // Recoverable throwing weapons -> 50% chance to recover after a successful hit, vs. enemies only: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Adjust Evil joinable NPC reaction rolls: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4050 // Change Jaheira to Neutral Good: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 4
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2052 // Standardize Edwin's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Standardize Imoen's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2252 // Standardize Jahiera's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2352 // Standardize Minsc's Colors -> BG2EE colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2450 // Standardize Safana's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2550 // Standardize Viconia's Colors -> SOD colors: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Convenient Alora: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Convenient Baeloth: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3120 // Convenient Coran: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3130 // Convenient Dorn: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3140 // Convenient Eldoth: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3170 // Convenient Neera: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3180 // Convenient Quayle: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3200 // Convenient Safana: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3210 // Convenient Shar-Teel: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3220 // Convenient Tiax: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3230 // Convenient Viconia: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Add Priest of Tempus kit: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Dual Class Friendly Stats for Branwen, Dynaheir, Safana and Xzar: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Make Branwen a Priest of Tempus: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Make Faldorn an Avenger: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6400 // Make Kagain a Dwarven Defender: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Make Khalid a Fighter/Mage: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6600 // Make Kivan an Archer: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6700 // Make Safana a Swashbuckler: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6801 // Shar-Teel's Class -> Make Shar-Teel a Berserker: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #6900 // Make Skie a Shadowdancer: 1.0
~S9BGEENPCTWEAKS/S9BGEENPCTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Make Xan a Blade: 1.0
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // Sentrizeal's Wizard 4 Missing Animation Fix: v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #1 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Female): v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #2 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Male): v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #3 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Weapon Fix: v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #4 // Sentrizeal's Human Gladiator Avatar (Female): v1.1
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Portraits Portraits Everywhere (PPE) - core component: 0.91
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #100 // Category Portraits (Recommended) -> Sequenced: 0.91
~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #1 // Install SoD GUI Overhaul Core Component: v2.14
~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #2 // Add Transparent Tooltip Background: v2.14
~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #3 // Update several strings in Dialog.tlk: v2.14
~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #4 // Select Number of Quicksave Slots -> 1: v2.14
~DRAGONSPEAR_UI++/DRAGONSPEAR_UI++.TP2~ #0 #10 // Update portrait Picker: v2.14
I'll post an update when I can.
I next went to the gnoll Stronghold intending to boost my Charisma with a tome that I had heard lay in a cave there. However I nearly exhausted my necklace of missiles defeating some powerul assassins there and this diverted me somewhat.
I did get some useful boots after killing a dangerous polar bear and then I returned to Beregost and then the Friendly Arms Inn where I spent the night with a VERY friendly young lady.
Xzar and Montaron joined me for a while, but Montaron seemed bent upon pick-pocketting everyone in sight. I therefore took them, together with Khaled and jaheira to their desired destination which was Nashkel. If Montaron gets caught whilst I am not with them, that would suit me just fine.
I dropped them off there. If they want to join forces to deal with the demons there, that is fine by me.
I am not prepared enough to fight demons.
I have bought a helm that proved to be of great help against sirenes in the lighthouse area.
I then visited the basilisk area where I came into conflict with Peter et al.
I then killed all the basilisks and medusae that I met and reached level 7 in the process.
Imoen who is now a thief/conjurer has now joined me. However she doesn't have her thief abilities at the moment.
Kythran had done all of his tasks in Candlekeep. He had bought himself two long swords, and some studded leather armor for the journey that he and Gorion would face. He said his goodbyes to some friends, such as Alec and Imoen. Even did some tasks for some of the inhabitants.
Then, when Father and foster son left Candlekeep, and night hit, some trouble was found in the form of a Giant Armored Figure. By the end of that battle, Gorion was slain.
Morning came, and Imoen had snuck out of Candlekeep to go join Kythran. So, they went north, and buried Gorion's body. Then, they headed east, and found two travelers on the road by the name of Montaron and Xzar. Kythran didn't want their help, but alas, turning them down seemed to be an insult. So, on the way to the Friendly Arm Inn they went.
On the way to the Friendly Arm Inn, they found a red robed man that had asked Kythran about his mental state. To be honest, Kythran was a fair bit desperate.
Some more traveling on the road and then they found the Friendly Arm Inn, and...was met with some trouble. To which, Xzar just waved his hand, a spell came out, and the man that wanted to kill Kythran was dead.
The group went inside, and Kythran met Khalid and Jaheira, letting them join the party, and now the group was to make their way to Nashkel.
Party:
Kythran: Stalker - 1
Imoen: Thief - 1
Montaron: Fighter/Thief - 1/1
Xzar: Necromancer - 1
Khalid: Fighter/Mage - 1/1
Jaheira: Fighter/Druid - 1/1
Notes: I forgot to mention that I'm playing on Core Rules. Also, Kythran is also a character from a 5e campaign.
Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form wrecks everything in the next area, even the Efreet with their awful Fire Shields.
If you don't have fire resistances, using melee attacks on these guys is a great way to get killed.
Thorasskus, the Yuan-ti in charge of this operation, poses as a small boy with an eerie color palette. A couple dialogues are enough to reveal him.
I don't know how my characters know this. I never understood what was going on here--even back when I still read every word of dialog.
He spawns in some more snake people. Frisk stuns them, but Thorasskus is immune.
Chara killed everyone in this fight. Enough said.
Now we enter everyone's favorite part of Icewind Dale 2: Lord Pyros' domain!
Asriel decides to name this place "New Hotland," because he is terrible at naming things.
By far the worst part of IWD2, this is a slow, expensive, and confusing quest about a warped timeline caused by a faulty Temporal Stasis spell. It has nothing to do with the rest of the plot, drags on for ages even when you're first experiencing it, prevents you from resting... and there is virtually nothing interesting to do or see here. Also, you get very little experience and mediocre loot for your trouble.
On top of that, if you fail the quest, you get an incredibly depressing game over screen saying you're trapped in this hellhole forever, because time paradoxes.
Another idiotic design decision is the rope bridge here, which you need to fix with multiple copies of the Hemp Rope item. What if you didn't collect every single copy the developers hid from you?
You have to hike all the way back to Kuldahar just to buy the rest. Pathetic.
Our reward for fixing the bridge is to see a creepy white-haired man deliver a lousy line of dialog and kill himself by jumping into the lava.
His name is Venomin because snake people have venom. Get it? Huh? Get it?
This questline is just talking to people in a special order until you get to leave. And to get from place to place, you have to spend a ludicrous amount of money, over and over and over again, for no reason. The first time each day, you can trick him into letting you across for free (which, when you think about it, does not actually make any sense in the context of the time paradox thingy).
The lava is there to indicate the breakdown of this area due to volcanic disruptions, but I can't think of any reason to make the player engage in the same repetitive dialog and pay exorbitant amounts of money to reach across gaps that are clearly short enough to just jump across.
The exit is guarded by a Beholder, also for no reason. He's just there to get in your way.
I retreat to buff myself before combat, only to find most of my buffs instantly removed.
As I would later learn, that Dispel Magic trap triggers multiple times over the course of the fight and offers no saving throw. Only characters just out of range will avoid it, as Chara has.
Because this place apparently isn't annoying enough, you also get hit by Mephits incessantly, and spellcasting is impossible.
Oh, and the Beholder is too far to reach with melee weapons, and is resistant to missile weapons. Just to slow you down.
Then, I see the worst news by far.
Zil-t'yor uses instant death effects right after removing all of your defenses, and a failed save can not only kill but CHUNK your party members. Plus, the spellcasting failure means that even if you use a Stone to Flesh scroll on a petrified character, you can't heal them back from 1 HP.
But wait! There's ANOTHER annoying thing about this fight. If you try to get too close to Zil-t'yor to attack him with a two-handed weapon, he'll use Telekinesis to throw you back south.
Which can get you stuck behind the invading enemies on that narrow bridge to the exit to the north. What really mystifies me is why Zil-t'yor doesn't just use his telekinesis to throw us into the lava instead.
Sure enough, Chara gets boxed in, and when Frisk tries to help out, they get mobbed and have to escape, since that trap took away all of their defenses.
I can always just import a new character if somebody gets chunked--I made that decision after the Chara jump scare--but I don't want to have to deal with that if I don't have to. Instead of having Asriel try to fight Zil-t'yor, I summon some critters to absorb Zilly Billy's eye lasers.
Chara attacks from afar with Big Black Flying Death, a powerful two-handed throwing axe. Aside from high base damage, it also has a triple critical damage multiplier due to being an axe, benefits from the Rapid Shot feat (like bows, throwing axes can get an extra 1 APR with the right feat, at a -2 attack penalty), and, since it's a two-handed weapon, it also gets the standard 1.5x Strength damage bonus. It's actually one of the strongest items in the game, but Chara doesn't have high base Strength (a druid doesn't really need it, especially with improved shapeshifting) and the axe doesn't even scratch Zilly Billy.
Asriel lands a critical hit and we finally see the extent of the Beholder's damage resistances.
Honestly this crosses a line for me. The game already removes your buffs and imposes spell failure, which means it's almost impossible to touch the Beholder with spells. He can throw you fifty feet away if you get close, which means it's almost impossible to touch him with melee weapons. And he has 25- resistance to missile damage, which means it's almost impossible to touch him with ranged weapons.
Of course, the spell failure wears off, so you can still throw some spells at him, right?
No!
Because screw you!
I keep plucking away with missile weapons. More nonsense ensues.
Why would Death Ray use a Reflex save instead of a Fortitude save? Shouldn't a fighter be better at resisting that sort of attack than a thief?
This is getting more and more tiresome every round. I get a new idea: I'm going to take advantage of Zilly Billy's refusal to move, throwing out a new summons and an Acid Fog spell.
He'll never try to flee that area, even if he's suffering damage, because the fight would be hopeless if he could fly away--the exit only opens up when the Beholder dies (for some reason), and if he left, you'd have to chase him around the most difficult-to-navigate environment in IWD2.
Why Acid Fog? Because it bypasses magic resistance. Chara adds a Fiery Cloud to the mix (I think both spells are unavailable to druids in an unmodded game). I wait it out, and finally the Beholder expires.
It's a stupid, unsatisfying fight in a stupid, unsatisfying quest. I love IWD2, but this one place is bad in every way.
We exit the area and get teleported back to where we started, but this time, we arrive 24 hours earlier. To keep the player from running low on spells for the big fight at the end, the game forces us to rest--you can't rest normally because it wouldn't make sense given the time paradox thing.
We're not done with New Hotland just yet.
Frisk puts 29 hotdogs on Chara's head when they're not looking. We are filled with determination.
Our second day in New Hotland, we run into a game-breaking bug.
We need the Archon to travel from place to place. If the Archon is hostile, travel is impossible, and the quest is broken. I can always use CTRL-J to get around, but I'm concerned that red circle will cause other problems I won't be able to fix by teleporting around.
Eventually, I realize our Holy Word spell in the previous fight must have turned the Archon hostile. Going back to a previous save and casting Holy Word again confirms this theory.
Still, there's no reason the Archon's hostility should persist after the first fight, since we traveled 24 hours back in time. The Archon can't be angry at us for an event that hasn't happened yet. Retroactive hostility has to be an oversight.
I reload to correct the bug and fight Zil-t'yor again (I hate typing that name; it's so clumsy). Notable changes include discovering Zilly Billy's petrification ray has a surprisingly low save DC...
Summoning a Gelugon via Gate so it will teleport over to Zil-t'yor (in IWD2, you actually get XP from summoned demons' kills)...
...Using a Rhinocerous Beetle from Chara to distract Zilly Billy, and shielding it with a Resilient Sphere from Frisk (which didn't take; I think Tactics enemies know better than to fuss with critters under ORS)...
...But in the end, Fiery Cloud did most of the work.
It works! The Archon is no longer hostile when we proceed to the next area.
In retrospect, we might have been able to get through this area by abusing collision physics. If we surrounded Chara with summoned critters and then had Chara switch to Remorhaz form, Chara would teleport to the nearest available spot. That teleporting effect doesn't reach very far, but it might be able to get us over the small gaps in this area.
This next day is just talking to people and triggering events. Unfortunately, the cut scenes in this quest are pretty weak.
I believe this is a reference to Polonius' idiot line "Oh! I am slain!" in Hamlet.
More cut scenes! Watch King Lothar gracefully stomp across the lava! First he's here...
...and then suddenly he's way over here!
Wow!
That scene actually uses a screen shake effect to disguise the fact that Lothar is just teleporting (it's supposed to look like Lothar is jumping across). The Infinity Engine can't make Lothar walk over the lava, and for some reason the developers chose to highlight that engine limitation by showing Lothar walking across the map, a process which showed nothing and could have easily been omitted.
Worse yet, the cut scene stops halfway. You have to travel all the way across the map just to see the next part, in which Lothar summons some Efreet and tells them to kill Thorasskus.
There aren't even any clues on how to progress in this quest--you just have to wander around doing random crap until the Fields of Slaughter exit opens up. Wandering around isn't particularly interesting; the locals aren't much for chitchat.
I still think the Shakespeare quote sounds dumber. At least this one is vivid.
We travel back in time once more. Now we have to fight more Yuan-ti for some reason.
IWD2's writing is pretty strong overall, but the plot points don't always fully connect, and it's usually not clear what's happening or why. This quest exemplifies that trend. And since there's usually only one way to progress through IWD2, and that way is almost always a fight, the game actually teaches the player to ignore the events and focus on the fights, furthering the confusion about what's going on.
The worst quest trigger in New Hotland is this one.
Can't see it? Neither could I; I had to look it up in a walkthrough before my wanderings risked bankrupting me (those visits to the Archon really add up). To active the next trigger, you have to walk to the edge of a broken bridge, at which point it instantly reforms itself. Somehow.
And this is in an area where you've already spent a long time learning that the Archon is the only way to get from place to place--and the only way to get new options from the Archon is to talk to people. Experience says that walking to the end of a bridge here is pointless; it's a dead end. Not only is there no clue pointing you in the right direction; the game actually points you in the wrong direction.
Anyway, this triggers the next cutscene, where Lord Pyros tells King Lothar not to be such a raging jerkface to Izbelah, the Yuan-ti who caused the time disruption thingy.
King Lothar sneaks up to Izbelah's cage, looks to see if anybody's watching, and then murders her in full view of everybody.
After more aimless wandering, we learn from an online walkthrough that we have to go back to Lothar's place and loiter around to trigger the next dialog. Lothar says he killed Izbelah, and gets angry when he realizes we were listening.
Lothar really isn't good at this stealth and secrecy thing.
Anyway, this opens up the exit to the Fields of Slaughter, because you have to understand the plot before you can progress. Another 24 hours back in time, we get to see Izbelah's trial.
The locals are pretty bummed out about it.
Another dumb line. I don't know why IWD2's otherwise strong writers put in stuff like this, but I think they were just kind of screwing around. Not every line of dialog has to be serious.
After looting a small island that's only available on the last two days, we head through the Fields of Slaughter exit, on to the final day. To avoid being stuck in an endless time loop, we have to stop Izbelah from casting Temporal Stasis, the spell that messed up the timeline in the first place.
If we don't stop her in time, the game is over.
We try to reason with Izbelah first.
Izbelah says no. There's no way to avoid this fight. This is the only game in which Diplomacy is a skill, but diplomacy is almost never the solution in IWD2.
I have a scroll of Protection from Magic that I can use on Izbelah if things go south, but it turns out not to be necessary. This highly difficult, high-stakes battle can be summarized in one image.
Fun fact: all four damage types of Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form strike separately, which means Chara removes five Mirror Images with each hit instead of one.
New Hotland begins to break apart. We head through the Fields of Slaughter exit one last time.
Charging through the plot with no idea what's going on fills us with determination.
The Adventures of Kythran: Part 2 - Assassins Everywhere!
The Road to Beregost was rather uneventful with only a couple of Gibberlings to deal with. Thank the gods.
However, as soon as the group gets to Beregost, the first Inn we go to, called Feldepost's Inn, Montaron had to start a barfight with one of the regulars! Imoen had taken a hit, so she immediately fell back, and when she did, Marl fell and then his friend did, resulting in a hit to Kythran's reputation. Kythran cursed Montaron under his breath.
Then, the next Inn that Kythran's group went to...had an assassin it. So, Jaheira took a heavy hit, and healed herself with Light Cure Wounds. Imoen used her wand of Magic Missile, and Xzar used a Larloch's Minor Drain. Once that was done, the party rested at that Inn, for they didn't want to try another one in case of another assassin.
The next day came and it was a rather uneventful trip to Nashkel, aside from Orgrillions, which were easily dispatched, same with Hobgoblins and Bandits on the road.
Once in Nashkel, there was quite a welcoming party of Amnish guards. Kythran had said he didn't mean any trouble, and that he was there to help. After that, they went to another inn, where they were attacked by another assassin! She was dealt with easily, mostly due to Imoen's wand of Magic Missile. Jaheira became stronger as well.
After that, the party rested, regaining what spells were lost. Kythran agreed to help out at the Nashkel mines, and turned down a bounty that wasn't his. He even met a ranger named Minsc! Kythran was going to help Minsc find his Dynaheir! However, Xzar and Montaron weren't going to help out, so they went to the Belching Dragon Tavern in Nashkel.
Party:
Kythran: Stalker - 1
Imoen: Thief - 1
Khalid: Fighter/Mage - 1/1
Jaheira: Fighter/Druid - 1/1
Minsc: Ranger - 1
Note: Nothing too difficult, and I'll try to update this week, but seeing as Legion is coming out, I'm not sure.
Mortuus, the Elven Sorcerer (9th BG1 update)
Upon reaching Cloakwood, the party of Mortuus decided to help Aldeth and his merchant friends in their feud with druids. Karasu and Woden interrupted dangerous castings by Seniyad, while the rest of the group focused on lesser druids. Yahiko summoned his own nymph and and she succeeded in holding Seniyad.
Mortuus, Xan and Karasu all levelled up, getting 4 hps each. Karasu now had 75 in Open Locks and 60 in Find Traps - him being an assassin makes me search for a compromise between different thieving skills.
For the Centeol fight, Woden equipped the belt against Cold and alone entered the chamber. Only after all the spiders and Centeol with her Wand of Frost concentrated on the dwarven defender, the rest of the party joined the fight.
Now, Amarande the archdruid. I'm playing with Improved shapeshifting and full pre-buffing components from the SCS, so this was going to be quite a battle, especially since I decided not to use switching areas tactics. The party's pre-buffing included only Resist Fear, Chant and Mirror Images for Mortuus and Xan. Everyone had more than 40k XP, so I decided to play this fight fairly, to see how they show themselves against a powerful spellcaster.
Mortuus used his newly acquired Remove Magic spell, so the druids lost their buffs, except for Amarande's Improved Invisibility.
The group survived Chain Lightning by Amarande, while Woden, Karasu with arrows of biting and Mortuus (between casting) with darts of wounding tried to take stop his further casting. Uzume and Yahiko were busy with lesser druids.
But he still managed to cast Chaos, and Uzume followed with her Priest of Tyr special ability to remove Confusion from Xan. Then Amarande casted Insect Plague.
The group was ready for that and everyone had Resist Fear. But after that nobody could cast and had to gulp potions from time to time. We continued to attack Amarande with all poison we had. It helped to interrupt some of his spells.
Xan, cured from his confusion, kept using the wand of fire to scorch the druid. It worked each time Amarande was not in his Fire Salamander form.
Finally, the effect of Insect Plague ended, and Yahiko could summon a nymph to heal everyone. Not long after that Amarande, who had used several healing potions during this fight, fell.
This way, the group survived in one of the hardest battles for me in BG1 with SCS.
Imoen got killed by Shoal and when I attacked Shoal she died rather than yield.
I later felt in need of a rest and was ambushed by "TEN" sirene. Nevertheless, I was not too worried as I had charm protection and reckoned that even if I was confused I would survive even if badly hurt.
If I had just been confused, I would have been right. However I was alo feebleminded!
Being a dwarven defender and fairly well armoured I was not too concerned as I thought that I would survive until the spells wore off.
Although it took a VERY long time to lose my life, the spells did NOT wear off and eventually time ran out for me.
I did reach level 8 during the battle.
This is the first time that they have cast feeblemind in my experience. If Imoen had still been alive, she could have moved away and killed them off with ranged weapons as she would have had plenty of time to do so.
This time the Blackguard recruits Xzar and Montaron, followed by Viconia and eventually Shar Teel. A Flaming Fist mercenary searching for Samuel is spoken to harshly and attacks. Party reputation plummets to 5 but Blaggerd isn't too fussed as he picks up some free armour.
Xzar is light on spells and equipment so Blaggerd opens up vacancies for wannabe posturing red robed freaks.
Bassilus is no great threat, other than holding Blaggerd. Shar Teel is suffering from Rigid Mind and wanders past so the remaining skeletons re-target onto Blaggerd. He's down to 2hp briefly but Monty has switched to melee and gains the attention of skellies one by one as Viconia administers first-aid and Xzar gamely uses up his six remaining Larloch's Minor Drain spells to remove any stragglers.
20000 experience in one battle!! He did actually kill four of them solo!
Would I have to re-install all my mods if I acquired the latest patch?
That is the only major bug that I have found so far.
In the bridge district, the party solved the murders; For the battle at the tanner shop, Anapa (protected with cc) used sunray to deal with the undead while the rest of the party killed the assassin.
Goibniu also returned to the Copper Coronet to get the Tuigan bow for Helios. A quick fight against the beastmaster with the help of some skeletons also allowed the party to free the slaves:
Above the Copper Coronet, there was also Borinall to deal with:
Now, most of the quests with really easy fights are done. To prepare for tougher battles, Owain finally learned all of the spellscrolls the party had obtained so far, thus making him a formidable force and a great tank, if neccessary.
At Waukeen's Promenade, Goibniu challenged Mencar's party.
The plan was simple: Lure the opposing group downstairs, where Helios prepared some traps and the buffed party and skeletons were waiting:
A successful plan, though the last opponent to go downstairs, Brennan Risling, almost killed Anapa before being defeated:
Goibniu also killed the Crypt King:
And Neb (with a little help from a true sight spell):
I used a similiar tactic to the one against Mencar when fighting the bridge party - Helios placed traps outside, skeletons were summoned, the party waited for the enemies to move out so they could shoot them with ranged weapons. Anapa lured most of the party to their deaths:
The mage didn't want to go outside (a smart choice), so the party charged:
Next, I decided to go to the sewers under the Copper Coronet. Some relatively simple battles lead the party to the slaver's ship, where Captain Haegan was defeated. Everyone quickly moved forward to battle the slaver group with the 2 mages. Luring the enemies around the corner, I used Donar (whose ac is quite good thanks to the Fortress Shield and some more ac improving items) as a tank:
With the slaves freed, Goibniu entered the crypts below the graveyard and fought to gain Kitthix, with Owain casting a fireball:
For a final battle before leaving the city for a first time, I chose the sewer Rakshasa. Some summons by Luna and Owain helped with the kobolds, and Anapa claimed the useful cloak:
Now, the party is ready to travel to Imnesvale!
Enuhal
Pole, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Dorral, elven archer (Gate70)
Some decent progress today, though Pole came under real threat for the first time in the run.
The action started at Watcher's Keep, where a group of summons were prepared ready for vampiric wraiths - only to have to look for easier prey when the vampirics proved to be on holiday. Death ward allowed a container with a FoD trap to be opened safely, but some other containers were left as the highest strength we could achieve at the time was 22. The guardian golems and first 2 statues died easily enough, which probably led to a slight over-confidence when attacking the other statues. The archer was not targeted specifically by summons and survived long enough to force Dorral to use a rare couple of healing potions. The final 2 statues were then easy prey.
Back in Athkatla Roger supplied some strength potions to allow Dorral to improve his door kicking skills and he was to put those to good use in opening up access to various liches. First though Tarnor's gang were for the chop - without the magic resistance of the statues the fight for them was effectively over before they realised it had begun (by that time Gaius was dead and several of them were confused).
While on the way to the lich tomb in the Bridge District we stopped off to solve the skinner murders, though that proved nearly fatal. The plan was for Dorral to lead the ghasts away, allowing Pole to come downstairs and summon a spirit animal while ironskins fended off backstabs from the Rune Assassins. However, Dorral got blocked initially meaning one of the ghasts turned back and tried to attack Pole - he ran away, but was then trapped between the 2 Rune Assassins in a narrow space. He summoned a spirit lion to help, but was soon taken down to 27 HPs while one Assassin still had over 50% HPs. Invisibility would be no help as the Assassins see through that, but Pole did have a potion of defence in his bag and took that. Fortunately that prevented any further hits on him while Dorral and the lion finished off the damaged Assassin - allowing Pole to escape the trap and finish off the second Assassin safely.
With preliminary access to all 4 liches secured a couple of scrolls of PfU and a couple of potions of speed supplemented the storm giant strength potion. The potions of speed ran out as we arrived at Kangaxx, but Daystar made short work of the demi-lich anyway.
Next up was Aran Linvail's tasks and it wasn't long before the preliminary ones were done and we headed to the Graveyard for the first time. The Crypt King was a potential threat there and he chewed through one lot of Pole's ironskins before Dorral lost patience and unleashed the power of
GreyskullDaystar for the first time.Downstairs various spiders did no better than Pai'Na before chaotic commands allowed Pole to distract a few vampires for Dorral to shoot. Tanova was another victim of a Daystar sunray, but there was a close shave for Dorral when he decided to see whether his HPs could outlast those of a clay golem ...
After finishing off the rest of the vampires with the help of all Pole's totemic summons an assortment of oddments were set in front of Bodhi with the intention that Dorral would fill her full of holes. Unfortunately he had no missile weapon that could hurt her, resulting in him going into action with Daystar. That caused some good damage and Bodhi had had enough after only managing to drain him once.
Pole, totemic druid 13, 83 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 31 kills (81 in BG1)
Dorral, archer 11, 100 HPs, 200 kills (249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning)
We can't move on to the Fields of Slaughter just yet. As part of IWD2's long-running practice of bizarre detours, Nickademus teleports us all the way back to the ice temple to fight a bunch of demons.
This fight takes forever as well; you have to kill every one, and they like to run around and hide. They're not too difficult even in a normal party, but Chara makes it a cakewalk.
An important thing to note is that each container here holds a potion. Go to the southwest vault and you'll find a Potion of Magic Resistance.
Nickademus sends us back and we head to the Fields of Slaughter.
We have some tough fights up ahead. The enemies here include magic-resistant undead drow with lots of immunities, orog priests with Heal, magic-resistant half-dragons with very high attack bonuses, and mages with standard Tactics-style defenses. Rather than charging in with Chara alone, I send out a Rhinocerous Beetle and a zombie to hold off the enemy, using Chara's damage spells to wear them down from afar.
Druids in my install get some new nature-themed spells they were missing in vanilla, so Chara has a lot of nice stuff. Acid Fog, Acid Storm, Chain Lightning, Ball Lightning, Vipergout, and more.
Chara tries out one of the vanilla druid spells, and it works wonders against mages with low Fortitude saves.
Tremor, another vanilla spell, is very strong for druids. As a level 9 Transmutation spell, Chara can cast it with a save DC of 33, knocking out enemies for 3 rounds. Frisk's Chaos spell is also very effective, with a save DC above 30.
The disablers are necessary because Asriel's high AC and Chara's resistances might not be enough to handle these new enemies, which hit much harder than the others we've been facing. We summon a Gelugon to help thin the herd, though Chara still does most of the heavy lifting when they switch to half-dragon form.
We try to bluff our way through the next encounter, but Blahg'mah is so outraged that he misspells his own name and attacks.
Blahg'mah hits awfully hard, but his defenses are weak. Asriel brings Chara back up to speed.
The game gets tired of our attempts to use nonviolent methods, and eventually just gives us a single choice for the next dialog, saving us the trouble of feigning pacifism.
The real problem on this map is M'darfein the lich.
M'darfein has a host of immunities, high spell resistance, lots of Mirror Images, Improved Invisibility, and many high-level mage spells. He's an incredibly difficult nut to crack. Frisk casts Shades and Chara casts Elemental Legion, giving us a buffer against Marfy. While the undead elves mob us, Marfy busies himself with our summons.
Asriel pre-cast Holy Aura for this fight, as it grants us +4 to saves and +25 to spell resistance, enough to grant Asriel 50 SR and become nearly immune to magic. But due to an engine quirk, it does not affect Chara's spell resistance after they shapeshift, and so Chara gets strong but unreliable SR.
Realizing the mistake, I switch Chara to Red Half-Dragon form, healing a bit of the lost HP and letting Frisk continue bombing away with Sunfire.
Marfy marches past our summons and advances on the party. Chara switches to Elemental Half-Dragon form, as its acid, fire, cold, and electrical damage on hit will take away four extra Mirror Images per hit. When Chara does strike Marfy, though, he proves immune to all of them, negating half of Chara's damage output.
Marfy easily gets past Chara's spell resistance, but their elemental immunities mean his spell picks are limited.
Although we hit very hard, Improved Invisibility makes Marfy very hard to hit, and with his high Concentration score, we can't disrupt his spells.
A simple Heal spell repairs the damage to Chara. Marfy dodges most of our attacks and shrugs off much of the damage with his resistances and high HP pool, but his spells aren't strong enough to hold us down, with Asriel being able to cast both Heal and Mass Heal.
Note that the lich has Fire Shield: Blue active, and deals cold damage to all attackers. It could have been very dangerous for us if Chara's half-dragon form wasn't immune to cold, and Asriel, as an aasimar, has an innate resistance to cold damage. Must be all that fur.
Marfy shreds our summons with Skull Trap, Frisk restores Chara's haste, and some of the lich's resistances wear off--not all his resistances, it seems, are innate.
Then Marfy almost cripples us, but poor targeting ruined his efforts. He wounds us with Horrid Wilting and follows up with Power Word: Stun... but instead of disabling Asriel while he was casting Mass Heal, Marfy targets Chara, who is immune to stun while in half-dragon form.
Marfy could have changed the tide of battle had he managed to stun Asriel through his spell resistance, as it would have left Asriel helpless while Chara was in need of healing. With enough luck, Marfy might have been able to slay one or both of them, though Frisk was always waiting to use a Protection from Magic scroll in case things got truly dire.
Marfy missed his chance, because Asriel's Spell Resistance buff and Holy Aura gave him 50 SR, enough to discourage Marfy from trying to land a hit on him. Finally, the lich's defenses collapse.
M'darfein is deadly in Tactics, but he's not nearly as bad if you have a cleric to cast Spell Resistance and Holy Aura. Since the only debuffer in IWD2 is Dispel Magic, which offers a Will save and has a low DC due to being a level 3 spell that has no Spell Focus feat, enemy mages can't take away your defenses very easily (I've actually never seen M'darfein try).
But the primary reason for our success was Chara's Elemental Half-Dragon form, since its sword cuts through Mirror Images five times as fast as a normal weapon.
It's good to be out of New Hotland. Seeing the snow again fills us with determination.
The next fight is with Saablic Tan, a high-level mage bolstered by lots of tough enemy fighters, archers, clerics, and mages. It's a large-scale, intense fight against many strong enemies with diverse powers.
But because I forgot about this fight, we arrive without any buffs. Asriel and Chara activate their best defenses before they get killed. It won't be enough, but it's the best we've got for now.
Asriel and Chara leap into action while Frisk falls back to turn invisible. The enemy surrounds our two tanks, and a Slayer Knight of Xvim shows off its amazing attack bonus.
I'm not being sarcastic; that AB is huge. It only missed because of a poor attack roll.
Saablic Tan and one of his fellow mages (I believe there are two) bring up their defenses. Asriel tries to stun them the next round, but Saablic Tan is immune.
Then Chara rolls a critical failure on a save. I really, really should have buffed everyone before entering this fight.
The lack of buffs is also crippling for Asriel, who has to deal with multiple half-dragons. Even in normal mode, their attack bonuses are huge.
That's the half-dragon's fourth attack, which means its first attack is at an astronomical 41 to hit. Also notice Frisk attempting to trap an enemy cleric in a Resilient Sphere. Clerics have poor Reflex saves, but a strong roll lets this one resist ORS.
Asriel casts Remove Fear on Chara and stuns the enemy with another Holy Word. As a cleric of Ilmater, he gets an extra casting of Holy Word as a domain spell.
Then, somehow, Chara dies.
Take a closer look at that image and you can see just how bad the situation really is.
Chara got chunked--actually, really chunked this time. Their portrait is just gone.
I go through the dialog box. There's no indication of what killed them--no spell, no weapon; not even a failed save. I suspect a bug is responsible... but since it didn't crash the game, I'm going to roll with it. My standard policy is to tolerate bugs, no matter how silly it is or how much it affects difficulty, unless the bug flat-out breaks the game.
I already decided I can import Chara back, but this is still very serious. I need to recover that equipment and make my escape; fighting on without Chara would just get us killed. Asriel casts Sanctuary so we can recover Chara's equipment safely.
Unfortunately, Frisk has broken their Improved Invisibility, allowing the enemy to attack them. And I know from experience that re-applying an invisibility effect will not protect them from our foes, not after Improved Invisibility has been broken once before.
We encounter a weird collision bug which prevents you from walking over a fallen character's corpse. This actually almost broke a no-reload run of the original Icewind Dale at the final boss, but it's not so bad here. After a few seconds' delay, Asriel manages to reach Chara's gear.
More weird screenshot distortion; I don't know what caused it.
We have so much equipment in our small three-member party that it takes Asriel multiple tries to collect all of Chara's gear and organize everything so that we don't have to leave anything important behind. Meanwhile, Frisk flees the scene--if we lose both Chara and Frisk, we're not going to be able to carry back a LOT of our items.
Frisk doesn't get far.
Asriel breaks his invisibility--I forget how--and both of them get thrashed.
This is bad. We've never been this weak before, and the enemy is still at full power. We need to get away, but we might well die before we can reach the edge of the map.
Frisk recovers from Blasphemy, but they're one strike short of death, and Asriel is faltering. His AC just can't compete with a half-dragon's attack bonus. Both characters are in the red.
I consider my options. Asriel will die in two hits; Frisk will die in one. Thanks to the Improved Initiative feat (which does nothing in vanilla; you need to use a workaround mod), Asriel has an instant-casting Heal spell that could put him above 200 HP instantly.
But I'm not going to do that.
Asriel would need to spend a whole extra round to recover Frisk's equipment once they die, and I don't think Asriel can survive that round, even at full health. He will have 10 enemies attacking him, including two half-dragons, a priest who might have another Blasphemy on hand, plus Saablic Tan himself, who has Mordenkainen's Sword active (a fast, powerful ranged weapon with an attack bonus to rival a fighter's), to say nothing of his spells.
Asriel could heal himself and escape the area instead, but Frisk has some very important stuff. Namely, our scroll cases, including the Protection from Magic scrolls I may need to win the final battle!
We have no choice. Asriel has to run over to Frisk. But how are we going to do that, if a Heal spell isn't going to be enough to get them there? He doesn't have a Potion of Invisibility on hand; what else could work?
I'm going to use a Sanctuary Wand instead.
Won't a wand take a couple of seconds to activate? Can Asriel even spare that much time, when he's already so close to death?
I have to make a call. Asriel tries to use the wand instead.
It works.
I actually made that decision just under two seconds before that screenshot; I thought a Heal would be insufficient. The critical decision here was resisting the urge to take the faster option--Heal--when Asriel was dying before my eyes.
Asriel scurries away to the southwest, just in case any area-effect spells are on the way. To the east, Frisk soaks up a Blasphemy spell and a single arrow.
Asriel is all alone.
Our worries aren't over. I don't think Invisibility Purge can remove Sanctuary in IWD2, but Asriel still isn't safe. I have no idea how long the Sanctuary wand lasts--a level 1 Sanctuary, after all, only lasts a single round. And if it runs out when Asriel is still wounded, he might not get a chance to use it again. We need to cast Heal.
But invisibility and Sanctuary in IWD2 don't work like they do in BG. Even spells cast on self can break them, which means Heal might well leave Asriel exposed.
Asriel hurries to find a safe spot to break invisibility. Boots of Speed and the Golden Heart of Frisk give him the boost he needs.
Right after he casts the spell, the enemies move in for the kill.
This isn't Oblivion; enemies don't give up just because you vanished. They will hunt you down.
Asriel uses the wand again before he get boxed in.
Now he's healed up and invisible. All that's left is to grab Frisk's equipment, spend a few minutes picking out what items we can leave behind, and hurry back to Kuldahar.
But on the way to Frisk's body, I notice a disturbing sign.
The east exit is blocked. And when I scroll over (still paused) to the west exit, I find that the way out is blank. The cursor doesn't turn into a wheel when I put it at the edge of the map, indicating that the west exit is also blocked.
We're stuck here until the battle is over. But Chara and Frisk are both dead, and Asriel is facing a group of enemies that even Chara couldn't handle on their own. Chara, who is far stronger than Frisk and Asriel combined.
Chara is chunked and can't be resurrected; I can only import them. But I don't want to import them in the middle of a fight; it seems weird. Instead, I'd like to resurrect Frisk, and hopefully Asriel and Frisk can figure out this puzzle together. I have some spare Resurrection scrolls for just this occasion.
But bringing back Frisk would put Asriel's life in peril. When he tries to find a safe spot, the enemy chases him all the way across the map.
They can't see his body, but they can just barely spot his shallow footprints in the packed-down snow. Asriel could use the Resurrection scroll, but it would take 9 seconds for him to restore his invisibility. In that time, the enemy could easily hack away half his HP or more, and then doom him with a Power Word: Stun spell. And with the enemy close at hand, Frisk wouldn't have enough time to buff themself--they'd just get crushed.
Asriel has to do this all on his own... But we might be able to use a shortcut. For now, we focus on getting Frisk's equipment. Asriel uses the wand again before his stealth fails him.
The enemies continues to give chase. Asriel uses the wand again.
The wand's effects last for 4 rounds, but I didn't know that at the time. I thought it would be 10 rounds, but I had to assume that it could run out at any second.
I'm going to try something else. As a high-level cleric, Asriel can summon a Gelugon, which just might bail us out here. Since it's a spell rather than a scroll and Asriel has Improved Initiative, it's just a little bit faster than trying to resurrect Frisk, and it's much more likely to help. The enemies arrive just in time to see it appear.
I actually thought of this several rounds ago--when I last retreated to the west, my main goal was to cast Protection from Evil on Asriel; not to try and resurrect Frisk.
Asriel flees and turns invisible, hoping our Gelugon can help us.
Asriel hurries off to the east to find some breathing room. The Gelugon engages the enemy, but the enemy is tougher than I thought.
I've run out of options. Asriel is trapped in a cage with some of the deadliest enemies in the game, and there is nowhere he can hide. We have to go nuclear.
I was hoping to save this for a later time, but if we don't use it now, Asriel will perish. He finds Saablic Tan's red circle on the ground and uses one of our only two Protection from Magic scrolls.
Saablic Tan is visible! It dispelled his defenses! Hopefully it will block his spells, too. Asriel decides to play it safe and use the Wand of Sanctuary rather than try to lock horns with Stabby Stan. Meanwhile, our offscreen Gelugon shows us the other mage on the map could still wipe out Asriel with a single spell.
Stabby Stanley finishes casting his spell, and we have confirmation.
Stan is helpless. Hopefully, the barrier will open when he is dead, but there's a chance that, like many other fights in IWD2, we actually have to defeat ALL of the enemies before the game lets us go. We'll just have to see.
We're still in a desperate situation, so it's worth using our most valuable resources. Asriel equips our only stack of Bolts +5 and fires away with Dragu's Hell Bolter.
Asriel could use the Wand of Sanctuary to escape, but it's slow-acting. Now that he's recovered Frisk's equipment, he has a couple Potions of Invisibility, and it's worth using up those precious potions if it keeps Asriel--our only hope at this point--just a little bit safer.
Asriel finds a new position and strikes again. Thanks to the Improved Critical feat, he deals double damage twice more.
The critical hits are a minor blessing; in the end it'll just save us three extra Bolts +5 and two charges from the Wand of Sanctuary. Stabby Stan is still in good health; he has surprisingly high HP.
But as the bolts keep coming, Stan begins to panic. He doesn't know how to get away.
Asriel hides one last time, lest the enemies close in on him...
...and fires one last bolt. Saablic Tan crumples, and his killer vanishes once more.
I check the exits.
The way is clear! We only had to kill Stabby Stan to escape!
We lose some equipment in the process, but we're finally safe. I import Chara and Asriel brings Frisk back to life.
I actually told myself I could import from any save game, and not just a character file, but I'm too lazy to load up a previous save to export a more recent version of Chara. It costs us a lot of XP, but at this point, Chara doesn't really need it--lost XP or no, they're still at druid level 21, and therefore have the Elemental Half-Dragon form.
I do some testing and confirm that both Finger of Death and Disintegrate can cause true chunking in IWD2.
Since there's a time delay between failing a save against Disintegrate and the actual chunking, I think Chara probably died to Disintegrate, as it matches what I saw in the fight. I did look for a failed save or a death spell earlier in the dialog box, and never found any, but Disintegrate is my best explanation for what happened.
Frisk swoons and dramatically falls into Asriel's arms. Finding every opportunity to hit on platonic friends fills us with determination.