Aglaia looked around the corner of the stables at Tazok's tent. In the middle of the night, the camp was relatively quiet, with just a few guards on duty.
"So what's the plan?" Asked Imoen.
"You stay here," replied Aglaia. "I sneak in and see if I can find any correspondence that might shed some light on why Tazok is hunting us."
"And why should I stay here? I can sneak at least as well as you."
"I need you to cover our escape in case someone notices and sounds the alarm."
"Right then."
====
Imoen watched Aglaia slip inside the tent. Barely five minutes later, Imoen began to smell smoke. Flames started to crawl up the walls of the tent. Men began screaming.
"Not again," sighed Imoen.
====
Aglaia stepped out of the tent, coughing uncontrollably.
"What goes on here," shouted the leader of the Black Talons, as he stumbled out of a tent, strapping on his armor. He caught sight of Aglaia and his eyes widened.
Aglaia used everything she had ever learned about evasion and stealth, but there were just too many bandits to escape. With arrows whistling past her head, she tossed a potion at her pursuers. The shock wave knocked her flat on her back.
Imoen tried to stay out of sight, picking off bandits from the trees, until Aglaia was able to finally break from her pursuers.
"Nice plan," Imoen said. "Next time I'm doing the sneaking."
Imoen rubbed her eyes and slid out of bed, covered in morning sunlight filtering through the window of their room at the Jovial Juggler. She reached over and shook Aglaia awake. The half-orc groaned, rolled over and pulled the covers over her head.
"Come on," Imoen said. "Get up."
"I'm staying right here," Aglaia said. "Let the assassins come to me."
"That's what they are already doing. In groups of four, in case you haven't noticed."
"I've noticed. I've got the bruises to show for it. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."
"Well, we've bested every group that's come for us so far. Maybe that will make the next group think twice."
"Or ask for twice as much gold. And I think Tazok can afford it, what with that army of bandits he's got pillaging the trade roads."
Aglaia crept down the stairs into the bottom of the mine, encircled by an anti-magic sphere.
"Careful," Imoen said. "We have no idea what we're getting into here."
"Just keep your bow at the ready," said Aglaia. "And remember -- we go for them now, or they come for us later. The only way out is through."
"Right." Imoen shivered.
===
Aglaia crept up behind a lone guard at the bottom of the stairs and knocked him senseless with one swipe of her staff. Feeling around, she found a secret door that led into a library of sorts.
"Ok, Imoen... hide in the corner here. I'll shout for you if there's trouble."
"Be careful."
===
Davaeorn looked up in surprise as a giant half-orc pushed open the door to the mines. Then he recognized her and grinned.
"Aglaia, I presume?" he slurred. "How convenient, to find you here at my fingertips. So much easier to do the job myself, rather than send more incompetent fools after you."
"Why do you want to kill me so badly," Aglaia said. "I've done nothing to you."
"Oh, but you have," Davaeorn replied. "The disruption you caused in Nashkel was quite unfortunate."
"I don't care about whatever you're doing with the iron trade," Aglaia said. "I just want to live in peace."
Davaeorn raised an eyebrow. "Sweet words, coming from a murdering half-orc."
"Tell me what you want in return for calling off the bounty," Aglaia said firmly.
"You think I am the one who put the price on your head?" Davaeorn laughed. "No, your death has been called for by those far above my lowly station. I don't care what you've done, or haven't done. I don't care if you'd rather walk away and let my little mining operation continue unmolested... I cannot let you free -- even if I wanted to."
Aglaia growled. "If not you, than who is behind all this? Who wants my life so badly, and why?"
"Perhaps you'll find your answers in the grave," said Davaeorn. And then he disappeared.
"Oh crap," Imoen whispered quietly as the mage materialized in front of her. She crept deeper into the corner.
"I know you're here, little girl," slurred Davaeorn, turning his eyes straight toward her.
Imoen fired a poisoned arrow, cutting into his robe. The mage coughed once and spit bile.
"You'll pay for that, my sweet." He began chanting.
===
Aglaia found herself standing in a smoke-filled hallway, struggling to see past the edges of her anti-magic sphere. Two ghostly apparitions with flaming swords stepped toward her, silently raising their blades.
She prepared to face their attack, only to hear Imoen scream.
Whirling, she found Davaeorn and dozens of guards charging at her from the room where she had left Imoen... Imoen. Not family, but someone she'd grown closer to than anyone in her life thus far. Someone she'd spent the last three months living with, struggling with, striving with, surviving with. She snarled and charged Davaeorn, swinging her staff with every fiber of her muscles.
===
Davaeorn disappeared again. Aglaia ignored the guards and the ghostly apparitions and began searching the antechambers of the library.
===
Davaeorn coughed up blood. He fumbled in a pouch for a healing potion, uncorking it with shaking hands, and downed its contents. The orc hits hard, he thought.
===
Aglaia marched into a side chamber, bumping into something invisible, but solid. She took a swipe with her staff, feeling it connect and hearing a grunt of pain. "That's for Imoen," she said.
===
Davaeorn shouted for help. Dozens of guards came rushing around the corner, crowding the small room, squeezing inbetween Davaeorn and Aglaia, pinning her against a bookshelf with their combined weight.
===
Aglaia struggled to break free, killing several guards with well-placed strikes of her staff. But there were so many of them. She began throwing explosive potions, filling the library with flame. Guards screamed as they burned. The smell of burning books filled the room. Davaeorn screamed and fled.
===
Aglaia pulled her last explosive from her belt and threw it. The explosion shook the entire mine. But a dozen guards had managed to keep their feet, plus one of the apparitions. Several of them pinned her again against a burning bookshelf. And then the ghostly apparition slid its flaming blade inbetween the plates of her armor.
She drew a sharp breath, and then slumped to the floor, her eyes open and still.
Seluna and party wiped out more assassins at Gullykin. They were helped somewhat by one of the assassins putting their party out of action with Stinking Cloud.
They then wiped out the Thay wizards with no problems. Web plus area spells did the trick. (Holy smite and fireball)
Then they wiped out Nicarian's party by charming Aoln and sending him in to absorb their spells, confusion being the most dangerous. Sadly he died, but his sacrifice meant that the party didn't even get wounded.
They then went to the bandit camp and used web to hold the bandits. Imoen determined the position of Tazok using stealth, whereupon Starlight used Holy Smite, Imoen used Fireball and Xan used wand of fire.
Presumably it was the death of Tazok that caused the game to crash.
Now that really IS cheating by the devs. Things like this cause me to seriously consider reverting back to Tutu.
Running off with the ball because you were losing was frowned upon in my day.
I presume that a reload is permissable in this situation. Or do I give the characters the experience and items that they should have received using EE_Keeper? When I used to kill him as a matter of course using a variety of methods, he dropped plate armour, gauntlets of weapons expertise and a few minor bits and pieces. It was only the gauntlets which were of great value as by then plate armour is commonplace.
@Wise_Grimwald: I normally roll with bugs and glitches, whether or not they're in my favor, no matter how extreme they are--up until they completely break the game. If it produces a crash, kills a plot-relevant critter, or in some other way prevents the game from being completed, I always reload or use the console to correct the problem.
So, I'll reload or use the console if: 1. TorGal is immortal and only his death can open the way out 2. The Archon in IWD2 is retroactively hostile from a spell in the future due to a technical oversight 3. IWD2 spontaneously crashes on the inventory screen.
I won't reload or use the console if: 1. TorGal deals double damage due to a bug 2. I accidentally kill a plot-critical NPC like Suoma 3. I can resolve a game-breaking bug by using a glitch, like using shapeshifting collision checks to teleport past an impassable door
We can't expect no-reloaders to anticipate every possible bug. Even professional computer programmers can't do that. I do not consider game-ending bugs to be disqualifying for a no-reload run, because they do not reflect the player's skill, knowledge, or the strength of their planning.
@semiticgod I agree to a point, but there wasn't a problem when we played either vanilla or tutu, so why is there a problem now? Isn't the game supposed to be basically the same with tweaks where there were problems with the original. There weren't problems with the original.
I made complaints when the spells that allowed you to kill the dragonknight at the top of Durlag's Tower were changed quite deliberately to stop people doing that. The spells after that change no longer followed the description of them. (The spells were to stop him teleporting away) Klorox used one spell and I used another with much the same effect.
That gave me the impression that somebody was peeved, not that they wanted to correct the game. I may be wrong, but I don't think so.
@Wise_Grimwald: I'm not really clear on the reason. I've never heard of this happening before. I assume it's an oversight of Beamdog's.
Try killing him again and see if the crash happens again. If it does, I would either (1) Keeper in the rewards and hit Tazok with CTRL-Y at the final battle to replicate having killed him already, or (2) just proceed as if the fight had not happened. Mostly because I'm too impatient to track down and fix the actual bug that's causing it.
You might stop by the Troubleshooting forum in search of the cause.
The Adventures of Kythran: Part 5 - Return to Gnoll Stronghold.
Adventuring through the wilderness again, and a gnoll bandit named Rugdug attacked us for not giving him money, or humoring him with a fight. So, Jaheira cast bless, and Dynaheir used her magic missile.
The next thing was that the group had found a little girl out in the woods. Her cat had fallen...into the waterfall, which Kythran knew, without a shadow of a doubt that the cat was dead.
While clearing out the Gnoll Stronghold, properly this time, Kythran found a book that raised his charisma to 15!
Then, the party moved onto the next wilderness area, found a polar bear that was blocking the bridge, and Minsc took a hit, but Jaheira healed him. However, it appeared that someone else wanted the way cleared.
I presume that a reload is permissable in this situation. Or do I give the characters the experience and items that they should have received using EE_Keeper? When I used to kill him as a matter of course using a variety of methods, he dropped plate armour, gauntlets of weapons expertise and a few minor bits and pieces. It was only the gauntlets which were of great value as by then plate armour is commonplace.
I presumed that Beamdog intended to make him unkillable to avoid the odd situation where there's apparently no-one left to resurrect him, but he appears at the final battle anyway. The gauntlets he had are now found in the main tent anyway, so there shouldn't be a great benefit from killing him.
I suppose that it's just me wanting to be able to do so. I don't think that there should be ANYONE unkillable. In a land where resurrection is commonplace if expensive, there is no need for it for plot reasons.
I just like to be able to do things that the original developers didn't think possible. Killing Firebead at Candlekeep for instance. Instead of Gorion killing the PC, he could have just said "Stop that you silly boy, I have resurrected "Firebead, them or whatever" and gone straight to the cutscene to leave Candlekeep, Even that is unnecessary. You don't need to be told who raised a character. The battle against Firebead as a level 1 character was very challenging and I used to enjoy the challenge.
Freya{23&24} - LoB sorcerer (1st and final updates)
A 23rd attempt didn't last too long. It actually started very well and with Freya up to level 4 she set off for the FAI to get the ring of wizardry, but stopped off on the way to tackle the belt ogre. His script makes him wander around even when blinded so concentration is required, which isn't always my strong point. On this occasion though I didn't think I was in danger with my hand poised ready to pause the game if the ogre's wanderings moved it to within attack range. They did - and I did, but too late! The ogre attacked incredibly quickly - apparently with an attack speed of 0, even though ogres don't have a fast attack. That sort of thing occasionally happens to me when a slow attacker like a gnoll begins an attack round and I dodge them, but come back into range too quickly before their personal attack round has reset - arriving in range just in time to be hit immediately by a halberd. My assumption with the ogre though was that blinded creatures would not begin attack rounds unless something came into their visual range. However, it would seem that's not the case and that the game had been continuing to process attack rounds even when the ogre was not actually able to attack - and I unluckily encountered it at a point in the round that allowed an immediate attack.
One point of interest on the screenshot is that it shows HPs as at -10 rather than 0 - possibly reflecting that the character would have been chunked. I seem to remember from playing PnP years ago that -10 indicated death (prior to that the character was unconscious, but could be cured by spells or stabilised to prevent death by quick action from someone with a healing kit).
For the 24th attempt I rerolled Freya to slightly tweak her stats and starting spells to optimise her for BG2 rather than BG1 - though her general game play approach remained the same. However, she came to grief due to a lack of concentration against Tranzig. Rather than try to avoid an acid arrow spell from him I accepted the damage thinking that wouldn't be too bad. However, while I had taken account of the double damage I hadn't allowed for the fact that in LoB mode Tranzig's casting level would be vastly higher and the damage went on and on. Having assumed it would be stopping I wasn't paying proper attention to HPs and only focused in when Freya was about to die. At the point of the screenshot I could actually have saved her - there was time left for either a potion of magic blocking or a protection from magic scroll to have done the job - but I didn't take the time to think and the next round of damage duly killed her.
25 seems like a nice round number, so I'll make one more start in this series to see if I can get back into BG2 and make some decent progress ...
The Adventures of Kythran: Part 6 - Of Bandits and Cursed Items.
Kythran did some more exploring. He found a bandit, and Dynaheir used her magic missiles, and ironically, the Bandit's armor seemed to disintegrate. Perhaps this was because of the Iron shortage.
Then the group found Laurel, and helped her dispose of a horde of gibberlings. Laurel had almost died because Kythran didn't notice where she went.
Then, the group moved to a different a different area, and had found Brage, or rather, Brage's cousin. Kythran solved the riddle, and gave Brage to Priest Nalin of Helm. It turns out that Brage had a very cursed sword, it was powerful, but not worth keeping. So Kythran sold it for 500gp.
A Hobgoblin by the named of Ba'ruk requested that Kythran get off of his land, and Kythran said he would, but Ba'ruk didn't believe him, so Ba'ruk lost his life. Another life turned into a giant pin-cushion for archers.
Lastly, Kythran helped out an excavation. Of course, the excavation was a dud, for there was a cursed Idol of Kozah in the ruins. Kythran was also asked to betray Charleston Nib, but did not. Thank Goodness for that.
Hard luck Grond0, or should I wish you intelligence for your next game. Intelligence however doesn't seem to be your weak point. Staying focussed throughout a campaign is far harder.
Seluna and her party had no problems at the bandit camp. No SCS makes it straightforward. In the same area there was a party of assassins which Imoen spotted whilst invisible. She moved away, used web and then once they were held she used fireballs whilst Starlight used Smite evil. That wasn't quite enough so Xan used his wand of fire three times. They slept and Imoen investigated further. She found two more assassins and te same tactics were used. This time however the wand was not needed.
Some bandits north of Beregost were then killed and after that Tranzig.
They then went back to the camp to sift through all the chests there for useful items and discovered that they need to go to Cloakwood.
Once there they found a cloak and helped some hunters. They then ventured into the lair of centeol where Xan's prophecies of doom were fulfilled. He was poisoned by the spiders there.
They went to the temple to ressurrect him and then called in at Firebead's house where they killed Firebead on a whim.
They then went to the west and helped Viconia before going to sleep. Whilst asleep Seluna gained the ability to cast horror. Viconia then left them, though she is willing to rejoin.
They then went to the Friendly Arms Inn where a party of good adventurers attacked. They were defeated too.
Since they had killed so many Good folk they decided to help people once more.
They therefore returned Chelak's body to his brother.
After that they fulfilled the request of some druids to kill a dragon that was an afront to nature in their opinion.
Once they had completed that task, they showed their chaotic neutral nature by killing the druids.
On the way to the next area, they killed two wyvern, but both Xan and Imoen had to use slow poison potions in order to survive.
In the process Imoen reached level 8.
Xan meanwhile has declared his love for Seluna though that love is of course doomed.
They then killed a crazy dryad who attacked them.
Laskal then gave them a potion due to their opposition to the Iron Throne.
They talked their way out of conflict with Ifezia before killing yet another wyvern.
They then killed Peter and his pet baby wyverns after which Teodor, a delivery man gave them a spider's egg.
On the way to the next area they were again accosted by wyvern. They learnt from their previous experience and kept Xan and Imoen out of range. That battle went much smoother.
Kieran then offered to sell them equipment, but with a reputation of just 10, they decided not to buy anything at the moment.
In a battle against a cave-full of wyvern, Rasaad got killed again and Xan levelled up.
They went to Lathander's temple, raised Rasaad and received a reward for killing the wyvern before going to the mines and killing Drasus and party. The battle against Hareishan did not go according to plan as Imoen cast web a little too late with the result that Hareishan was able to cast a lightning bolt. The party was however able to heal themselves without using potions and slept undisturbed . The battle against Natasha on the other hand did go according to plan as she wasn't able to cast a single offensive spell.
Upon reaching the bottom of the mine, Seluna was given additional fire protection by Starlight whereupon she made a frontal attack, the attack being backed up by a fireball from Imoen. Morghan et al then scored an own goal by centring there own fireballs upon her. She was virtually unhurt whereas the enemy was totally wiped out in one or two seconds.
Davaeorn fell just as easilly having been webbed and then blasted with fireballs and smite evil.
Imoen cast invisibility on Seluna who was already enraged. One blow an Davaeorn was dead.
They then went to join up with Viconia again and rested. Seluna gained another horror spell whereupon Viconia left the party again leaving them with a reputation of 10.
I tried one more attempt at this (for now anyway), but it was probably always a very long shot.
Issues with concentration included: - several times only realising that Freya had run out of darts at the last moment when she was about to make a suicidal melee attack on blinded enemies. - I was playing around with Tranzig to test his saving throws and picked up another acid arrow from him. This time though I knew what was coming and a couple of Bhaal heals allowed Freya time to get to the temple before the continuing damage (based on Tranzig being a 20th level caster) killed her - I don't allow healing potions, but temple healing is acceptable.
- not being invisible when attempting to rest and reacting slowly when some skeleton archers ambushed Freya.
I suppose then it was no great surprise when I was travelling through the Cloakwood and didn't immediately realise that invisibility had expired when some wyverns sprang an ambush. When Freya was poisoned I didn't initially think that would be too dangerous as I expected to be able to run off the map, which would cure the poison. I had the 'bright' idea of taking a potion of speed to get there quicker - I can never remember how haste and improved haste interact with poison, but I think taking the potion just doubled the speed of the poison tick and she was only just over half-way to the edge of the map when she died.
The virulence of the poison was so great that I think in fact she was virtually doomed from the moment she was poisoned. Ignoring pauses, it can't have been more than a couple of seconds for her to die and I think it would have been touch and go whether her green protection from poison scroll would have taken effect in time. Even if it had though she would have had to survive at least 4 more attacks from 2 greater wyverns in the meantime, which would have been pretty unlikely ...
After delivering the key to the floodgates, the mine was flooded and Seluna's reputation rose to 12. Upon leaving, Wendell attacked because we had killed his consort, Miranda. All he achieved was his own death.
Seluna then went to the ankheg region and gave away 100 gold pieces thus gaining another reputation point. she then went to help the Archaeologist and Brage gaining 2 more reputation points to make it 15.
Helping a Dyad and a cat pushed reputation to 17.
Helping Annabelle and Samuel upped it to 19.
Seluna is now the hero that she said that she wanted to be when in Candlekeep.
They went south from the Friendly Arms Inn where they were accosted by Davenport et al. After killing Davenport Starlight increased in level to level 8.
After dealing with more assassins at the bridge into Baldur's gate, Seluna returned to Beregost for her reward for bandit scalps. To her surprise she was able to sell some useless items there for a high price, not only wyvern heads at 1000 gp each, but some clubs that can only be used by druids.
@Blind_Visionary - just wanted to let you know I've enjoyed your narrative write-up. Best of luck should you make another attempt.
Thank you Corey. I surely will try again! In fact, I'm already running an Inquisitor, Cavan (chosen randomly, I've never played one before). So far in a pair with Branwen. If I get past Davaeorn (my SCS no-reload PR), I'll put some effort into telling his tale, however it might look. I'm not sure how well it will go, but so far Cavan seems to have some pretty useful abilities and may be able to survive where more squishy attempts have failed... But odds are admittedly slim.
I'm excited to see how your multiplayer runs progress!
@Blind_Visionary I actually have the single multi-player run going right now (the Trio with Coretank (me), Pins (Grond0), and Unyo (Gate70, also the protagonist).) The Duo was only a duo because it was a Trio but Grond0's character got chunked. Then Gate70's character got chunked, then a trash mob drow warrior did GWW and burned down Axer quick.
I have a single player EE run going too (Corey the dwarven fighter), although his party was created using MP function. Should get to that, just so many RL distractions...
The party entered the sewers, planning to find and free Haer'Dalis. First, there was the sewer party to take care of - Luna summoned aerial servants, and with the help of some buffs, most importantly haste and invisibilty 10' radius, Helios, followed by his friends, backstabbed Gaius:
The cleric was surrounded and killed, and the remaining fighters stood no chance. A quick rest, and the party entered Mekrath's lair.
The mage himself was... interesting. I actually didn't intend to fight him, but I think I made a mistake while picking dialogue options. After he killed some of Luna's skeletons, he actually managed to cast finger of death, targetting Goibniu - I was able to pause the game before the spell hit:
Luckily, I had a single potion of invulnerabilty in my inventory, allowing Goibniu to achieve negative saves and easily survive. The party quickly killed Mekrath for his attempt to end my run:
Luna and Owain summoned aerial servants and invisible stalkers (my go-to summons for now, until I get skeleton warriors) to deal with the other hostile group down there:
With Haer'Dalis free for now, the party returned to the bridge district. The planar prison was next - the party once again entered buffed and invisible, allowing for a quick backstab and the death of both enemy mages before they managed to get their protections up:
While haste was still active, the party made their way to the east. The spell ran out, and Luna summoned skeletons, who, assisted by multiple backstabs, cleared the southeastern group:
For the Master of Thralls, skeletons distracted the demon while the party used magical ranged weapons to quickly kill him - staying far away made it easier to avoid getting the party members stunned.
Now, the Warden remained - a quick rest, and Owain and Luna started spamming summoning spells, sending summons towards the final opponent:
Eventually, all of his dangerous spells were gone, allowing the party to charge and kill the foe.
This combination continued to make pretty easy work of BG2 in a short session today.
Things started with our usual discussion wondering what we were supposed to be doing and after a bit of abortive work (and a couple of crashes) we managed to upgrade the Mace of Disruption after sorting out Neb.
There were then a few more bits and pieces like picking up the berserker horn, handing in Neb's head, recovering the Dawn Ring and picking up another pair of pantaloons before we ventured to the de'Arnise Hold. Most of the time there Pole just tanked and let Dorral shoot up the opposition, but a few standard druidic summons were used, e.g. on the iron golem.
A couple of totemic spirits were used for the first time in the session to help put TorGal down.
There was just time to travel to Umar Hills and do a few tasks around the village. I'll note (in case we read this prior to our next session) that we need to help the mage with a golem problem before going to the ruined temple
Pole, totemic druid 13, 83 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 39 kills (+81 in BG1) Dorral, archer 12, 103 HPs, 256 kills (+249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning)
Selûna helped Scar to start with and did a few other minor quests before Rasaad needed our help.
He sadly had to kill his own brother and was feeling so bad about it that Selûna gave him some time to recover both emotionally and physically. He will be available in Nashkel if he is ever needed again. Reputation now 20. Now Neera has joined and as she SAYS that she is also a follower of Selûne, Selûna feels obliged to help her barring evidence to the contrary. She has already had to pay 200 gold pieces which Neera had stolen previously.
In the Gate Selûne has just killed some mages who were vying over the locks from a sirene. She followed this by doing countless trivial tasks as far as dealing with THE problem in Baldur's Gate. If it had been possible for her reputation to continue to rise, it would now be in the thirties.
It is however still 20.
We helped Neera against the wizards of Thay that were after her and then asked her to leave in favour of Coran. She was more than a bit narked about that!
Much to his shock he is now a father, but whilst he fought for his child, he wouldn't sacrifice his "freedom" to look after it. Selûna however thought that with his new responsibilities he should not be part of the group any more, and that even if he wasn't a great father, he was likely to be a better one if he lived in Baldur's Gate rather than "no fixed address." Meanwhile Selûna and Xan have agreed to get married when circumstances permit.
Selûna then gave Nester's dagger to Quinn.
They then wiped out the maulers of the underdark without injury followed by an assault on the monsters in a nearby house, helmed horrors, invisible stalkers and the like. Xan then reached level 7 as a fighter.
Thorin has asked to join the party. He looks like he will be a valuable addition to the party. Selûna decided to go to the Friendly Arms Inn to equip him and whilst there Neera made such a heart-felt plea to rejoin that Selûna didn't have the heart to refuse her.
They decided to help Mendas at Ulgoth's Beard. Fighting the final battle upon Balduran's boat was touch and go.
After failing to kill the last Greater Wolfwere who had the baby, they fled, rested and regrouped and had another try.
It was tough and they had to use a lot of wand charges, but eventually they prevailed.
The toughest battle so far. Upon returning to Ulgoth's Beard, the battle there was relatively easy.
This is the first time that I have played with Rasaad and Neera in the party. This is because I don't like monks , druids and wild mages. I am glad that I played them once, but will not continue to do so. It is the concept that I don't like. One thing I don't like about druids is the "Striving for balance as if it is a good thing. My party is basically chaotic neutral. That I can understand. A lot of people's morality is inconsistant as most people's character contains some flaw, (Coran's lack of fidelity for instance) and that is how I am playing this game.
Having Neera in the party is definitely for role playing reasons. She won't be much help at all, or so I believe. She is taking experience away from those who WOULD benefit the party.
Another of my long-running challenges is with a full party of monks using a SCS/Ascension BGT setup. Most of the time the objective for them is to try and fully explore all areas and undertake all encounters (though normally I exempt the lower areas of Durlags Tower from that). In addition to the normal restriction of not allowing healing potions or antidotes the monks are also not allowed to suffer any casualties, i.e. any monk dying ends the run. While all individual encounters are not too difficult the large number of those makes this a tough challenge and I've not been successful yet (though this party has been to Athkatla a number of times when restrictions have been relaxed).
Thus far the monks have cleared a number of areas in the south prior to doing the Nashkel Mine (stunning Mulahey there before he could talk). They then got a lift with Teven to the Bandit Camp with the aim of killing Tazok and picking up his bracers. Tazok managed to get a couple of big hits in with the help of his potion of speed, before attempting to run away. When the monks successfully englobed him I expected him to die quickly, but regrettably he teleported away before they could quite finish him off.
That was probably because I normally leave the Camp until the monks have at least one more level and I decided to go and get them a bit more experience before facing being chased by the hordes of SCS bandits - particularly given how vulnerable Wraith is to a one-shot kill.
Stats: Chimera - L5, 46 HPs, 69 kills Spectre - L5, 33 HPs, 137 kills, 0 deaths Phantom - L5, 41 HPs, 59 kills, 0 deaths Wraith - L5, 24 HPs, 47 kills, 0 deaths Spook - L5, 34 HPs, 56 kills, 0 deaths Spirit - L5, 42 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths Overall the monks are marginally above their average expected HPs of 36. The BGT setup is not skewed to give high HPs like BGEE, so that represents a good outcome. However, Wraith's HPs are horrible (with 2 die rolls of 1 and 2 rolls of 2), leaving her still very vulnerable at this stage to critical hits.
Comments
Aglaia looked around the corner of the stables at Tazok's tent. In the middle of the night, the camp was relatively quiet, with just a few guards on duty.
"So what's the plan?" Asked Imoen.
"You stay here," replied Aglaia. "I sneak in and see if I can find any correspondence that might shed some light on why Tazok is hunting us."
"And why should I stay here? I can sneak at least as well as you."
"I need you to cover our escape in case someone notices and sounds the alarm."
"Right then."
====
Imoen watched Aglaia slip inside the tent. Barely five minutes later, Imoen began to smell smoke. Flames started to crawl up the walls of the tent. Men began screaming.
"Not again," sighed Imoen.
====
Aglaia stepped out of the tent, coughing uncontrollably.
"What goes on here," shouted the leader of the Black Talons, as he stumbled out of a tent, strapping on his armor. He caught sight of Aglaia and his eyes widened.
Brigands flooded the area.
Aglaia used everything she had ever learned about evasion and stealth, but there were just too many bandits to escape. With arrows whistling past her head, she tossed a potion at her pursuers. The shock wave knocked her flat on her back.
Imoen tried to stay out of sight, picking off bandits from the trees, until Aglaia was able to finally break from her pursuers.
"Nice plan," Imoen said. "Next time I'm doing the sneaking."
Imoen rubbed her eyes and slid out of bed, covered in morning sunlight filtering through the window of their room at the Jovial Juggler. She reached over and shook Aglaia awake. The half-orc groaned, rolled over and pulled the covers over her head.
"Come on," Imoen said. "Get up."
"I'm staying right here," Aglaia said. "Let the assassins come to me."
"That's what they are already doing. In groups of four, in case you haven't noticed."
"I've noticed. I've got the bruises to show for it. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."
"Well, we've bested every group that's come for us so far. Maybe that will make the next group think twice."
"Or ask for twice as much gold. And I think Tazok can afford it, what with that army of bandits he's got pillaging the trade roads."
"Why are we going into this mine, again?" Imoen asked.
"Whoever is sending the assassins is down there," Aglaia replied. "Wasn't it you who said, just a few days ago, that 'the only way out is through?"
"Yeah, but this place gives me the creeps."
"If it makes you feel any better, you can do the sneaking. I'll follow you."
Aglaia crept down the stairs into the bottom of the mine, encircled by an anti-magic sphere.
"Careful," Imoen said. "We have no idea what we're getting into here."
"Just keep your bow at the ready," said Aglaia. "And remember -- we go for them now, or they come for us later. The only way out is through."
"Right." Imoen shivered.
===
Aglaia crept up behind a lone guard at the bottom of the stairs and knocked him senseless with one swipe of her staff. Feeling around, she found a secret door that led into a library of sorts.
"Ok, Imoen... hide in the corner here. I'll shout for you if there's trouble."
"Be careful."
===
Davaeorn looked up in surprise as a giant half-orc pushed open the door to the mines. Then he recognized her and grinned.
"Aglaia, I presume?" he slurred. "How convenient, to find you here at my fingertips. So much easier to do the job myself, rather than send more incompetent fools after you."
"Why do you want to kill me so badly," Aglaia said. "I've done nothing to you."
"Oh, but you have," Davaeorn replied. "The disruption you caused in Nashkel was quite unfortunate."
"I don't care about whatever you're doing with the iron trade," Aglaia said. "I just want to live in peace."
Davaeorn raised an eyebrow. "Sweet words, coming from a murdering half-orc."
"Tell me what you want in return for calling off the bounty," Aglaia said firmly.
"You think I am the one who put the price on your head?" Davaeorn laughed. "No, your death has been called for by those far above my lowly station. I don't care what you've done, or haven't done. I don't care if you'd rather walk away and let my little mining operation continue unmolested... I cannot let you free -- even if I wanted to."
Aglaia growled. "If not you, than who is behind all this? Who wants my life so badly, and why?"
"Perhaps you'll find your answers in the grave," said Davaeorn. And then he disappeared.
"Oh crap," Imoen whispered quietly as the mage materialized in front of her. She crept deeper into the corner.
"I know you're here, little girl," slurred Davaeorn, turning his eyes straight toward her.
Imoen fired a poisoned arrow, cutting into his robe. The mage coughed once and spit bile.
"You'll pay for that, my sweet." He began chanting.
===
Aglaia found herself standing in a smoke-filled hallway, struggling to see past the edges of her anti-magic sphere. Two ghostly apparitions with flaming swords stepped toward her, silently raising their blades.
She prepared to face their attack, only to hear Imoen scream.
Whirling, she found Davaeorn and dozens of guards charging at her from the room where she had left Imoen... Imoen. Not family, but someone she'd grown closer to than anyone in her life thus far. Someone she'd spent the last three months living with, struggling with, striving with, surviving with. She snarled and charged Davaeorn, swinging her staff with every fiber of her muscles.
===
Davaeorn disappeared again. Aglaia ignored the guards and the ghostly apparitions and began searching the antechambers of the library.
===
Davaeorn coughed up blood. He fumbled in a pouch for a healing potion, uncorking it with shaking hands, and downed its contents. The orc hits hard, he thought.
===
Aglaia marched into a side chamber, bumping into something invisible, but solid. She took a swipe with her staff, feeling it connect and hearing a grunt of pain. "That's for Imoen," she said.
===
Davaeorn shouted for help. Dozens of guards came rushing around the corner, crowding the small room, squeezing inbetween Davaeorn and Aglaia, pinning her against a bookshelf with their combined weight.
===
Aglaia struggled to break free, killing several guards with well-placed strikes of her staff. But there were so many of them. She began throwing explosive potions, filling the library with flame. Guards screamed as they burned. The smell of burning books filled the room. Davaeorn screamed and fled.
===
Aglaia pulled her last explosive from her belt and threw it. The explosion shook the entire mine. But a dozen guards had managed to keep their feet, plus one of the apparitions. Several of them pinned her again against a burning bookshelf. And then the ghostly apparition slid its flaming blade inbetween the plates of her armor.
She drew a sharp breath, and then slumped to the floor, her eyes open and still.
@Blind_Visionary So sad.
Seluna and party wiped out more assassins at Gullykin. They were helped somewhat by one of the assassins putting their party out of action with Stinking Cloud.
They then wiped out the Thay wizards with no problems. Web plus area spells did the trick. (Holy smite and fireball)
Then they wiped out Nicarian's party by charming Aoln and sending him in to absorb their spells, confusion being the most dangerous. Sadly he died, but his sacrifice meant that the party didn't even get wounded.
They then went to the bandit camp and used web to hold the bandits. Imoen determined the position of Tazok using stealth, whereupon Starlight used Holy Smite, Imoen used Fireball and Xan used wand of fire.
Presumably it was the death of Tazok that caused the game to crash.
Now that really IS cheating by the devs.
Running off with the ball because you were losing was frowned upon in my day.
I presume that a reload is permissable in this situation. Or do I give the characters the experience and items that they should have received using EE_Keeper? When I used to kill him as a matter of course using a variety of methods, he dropped plate armour, gauntlets of weapons expertise and a few minor bits and pieces. It was only the gauntlets which were of great value as by then plate armour is commonplace.
So, I'll reload or use the console if:
1. TorGal is immortal and only his death can open the way out
2. The Archon in IWD2 is retroactively hostile from a spell in the future due to a technical oversight
3. IWD2 spontaneously crashes on the inventory screen.
I won't reload or use the console if:
1. TorGal deals double damage due to a bug
2. I accidentally kill a plot-critical NPC like Suoma
3. I can resolve a game-breaking bug by using a glitch, like using shapeshifting collision checks to teleport past an impassable door
We can't expect no-reloaders to anticipate every possible bug. Even professional computer programmers can't do that. I do not consider game-ending bugs to be disqualifying for a no-reload run, because they do not reflect the player's skill, knowledge, or the strength of their planning.
I made complaints when the spells that allowed you to kill the dragonknight at the top of Durlag's Tower were changed quite deliberately to stop people doing that. The spells after that change no longer followed the description of them. (The spells were to stop him teleporting away) Klorox used one spell and I used another with much the same effect.
That gave me the impression that somebody was peeved, not that they wanted to correct the game. I may be wrong, but I don't think so.
Try killing him again and see if the crash happens again. If it does, I would either (1) Keeper in the rewards and hit Tazok with CTRL-Y at the final battle to replicate having killed him already, or (2) just proceed as if the fight had not happened. Mostly because I'm too impatient to track down and fix the actual bug that's causing it.
You might stop by the Troubleshooting forum in search of the cause.
Adventuring through the wilderness again, and a gnoll bandit named Rugdug attacked us for not giving him money, or humoring him with a fight. So, Jaheira cast bless, and Dynaheir used her magic missile.
The next thing was that the group had found a little girl out in the woods. Her cat had fallen...into the waterfall, which Kythran knew, without a shadow of a doubt that the cat was dead.
While clearing out the Gnoll Stronghold, properly this time, Kythran found a book that raised his charisma to 15!
Then, the party moved onto the next wilderness area, found a polar bear that was blocking the bridge, and Minsc took a hit, but Jaheira healed him. However, it appeared that someone else wanted the way cleared.
Party:
Kythran: Stalker - 2
Imoen: Thief - 3
Jaheira: Fighter/Druid - 2/2
Khalid: Fighter/Mage - 1/1
Minsc: Ranger - 2
Dynaheir: Invoker - 2
Note: I might dual class Dynaheir to Cleric at around...Third Level, or Fourth because I feel I might need a more designated healer than Jaheira.
In a land where resurrection is commonplace if expensive, there is no need for it for plot reasons.
I just like to be able to do things that the original developers didn't think possible. Killing Firebead at Candlekeep for instance. Instead of Gorion killing the PC, he could have just said "Stop that you silly boy, I have resurrected "Firebead, them or whatever" and gone straight to the cutscene to leave Candlekeep, Even that is unnecessary. You don't need to be told who raised a character. The battle against Firebead as a level 1 character was very challenging and I used to enjoy the challenge.
A 23rd attempt didn't last too long. It actually started very well and with Freya up to level 4 she set off for the FAI to get the ring of wizardry, but stopped off on the way to tackle the belt ogre. His script makes him wander around even when blinded so concentration is required, which isn't always my strong point. On this occasion though I didn't think I was in danger with my hand poised ready to pause the game if the ogre's wanderings moved it to within attack range. They did - and I did, but too late! The ogre attacked incredibly quickly - apparently with an attack speed of 0, even though ogres don't have a fast attack. That sort of thing occasionally happens to me when a slow attacker like a gnoll begins an attack round and I dodge them, but come back into range too quickly before their personal attack round has reset - arriving in range just in time to be hit immediately by a halberd. My assumption with the ogre though was that blinded creatures would not begin attack rounds unless something came into their visual range. However, it would seem that's not the case and that the game had been continuing to process attack rounds even when the ogre was not actually able to attack - and I unluckily encountered it at a point in the round that allowed an immediate attack.
One point of interest on the screenshot is that it shows HPs as at -10 rather than 0 - possibly reflecting that the character would have been chunked. I seem to remember from playing PnP years ago that -10 indicated death (prior to that the character was unconscious, but could be cured by spells or stabilised to prevent death by quick action from someone with a healing kit).
For the 24th attempt I rerolled Freya to slightly tweak her stats and starting spells to optimise her for BG2 rather than BG1 - though her general game play approach remained the same. However, she came to grief due to a lack of concentration against Tranzig. Rather than try to avoid an acid arrow spell from him I accepted the damage thinking that wouldn't be too bad. However, while I had taken account of the double damage I hadn't allowed for the fact that in LoB mode Tranzig's casting level would be vastly higher and the damage went on and on. Having assumed it would be stopping I wasn't paying proper attention to HPs and only focused in when Freya was about to die. At the point of the screenshot I could actually have saved her - there was time left for either a potion of magic blocking or a protection from magic scroll to have done the job - but I didn't take the time to think and the next round of damage duly killed her.
25 seems like a nice round number, so I'll make one more start in this series to see if I can get back into BG2 and make some decent progress ...
Kythran did some more exploring. He found a bandit, and Dynaheir used her magic missiles, and ironically, the Bandit's armor seemed to disintegrate. Perhaps this was because of the Iron shortage.
Then the group found Laurel, and helped her dispose of a horde of gibberlings. Laurel had almost died because Kythran didn't notice where she went.
Then, the group moved to a different a different area, and had found Brage, or rather, Brage's cousin. Kythran solved the riddle, and gave Brage to Priest Nalin of Helm. It turns out that Brage had a very cursed sword, it was powerful, but not worth keeping. So Kythran sold it for 500gp.
A Hobgoblin by the named of Ba'ruk requested that Kythran get off of his land, and Kythran said he would, but Ba'ruk didn't believe him, so Ba'ruk lost his life. Another life turned into a giant pin-cushion for archers.
Lastly, Kythran helped out an excavation. Of course, the excavation was a dud, for there was a cursed Idol of Kozah in the ruins. Kythran was also asked to betray Charleston Nib, but did not. Thank Goodness for that.
Party:
Kythran: Stalker - 3
Imoen: Thief - 4
Jaheira: Fighter/Druid - 3/3
Khalid: Fighter/Mage - 2/1
Minsc: Ranger - 3
Dynaheir: Invoker - 3
Note: Last update until the weekend. Perhaps, Kythran might want to solve this Iron mystery then. Hah.
Intelligence however doesn't seem to be your weak point.
Staying focussed throughout a campaign is far harder.
Some bandits north of Beregost were then killed and after that Tranzig.
They then went back to the camp to sift through all the chests there for useful items and discovered that they need to go to Cloakwood.
Once there they found a cloak and helped some hunters. They then ventured into the lair of centeol where Xan's prophecies of doom were fulfilled. He was poisoned by the spiders there.
They went to the temple to ressurrect him and then called in at Firebead's house where they killed Firebead on a whim.
They then went to the west and helped Viconia before going to sleep. Whilst asleep Seluna gained the ability to cast horror. Viconia then left them, though she is willing to rejoin.
They then went to the Friendly Arms Inn where a party of good adventurers attacked. They were defeated too.
Since they had killed so many Good folk they decided to help people once more.
They therefore returned Chelak's body to his brother.
After that they fulfilled the request of some druids to kill a dragon that was an afront to nature in their opinion.
Once they had completed that task, they showed their chaotic neutral nature by killing the druids.
On the way to the next area, they killed two wyvern, but both Xan and Imoen had to use slow poison potions in order to survive.
In the process Imoen reached level 8.
Xan meanwhile has declared his love for Seluna though that love is of course doomed.
They then killed a crazy dryad who attacked them.
Laskal then gave them a potion due to their opposition to the Iron Throne.
They talked their way out of conflict with Ifezia before killing yet another wyvern.
They then killed Peter and his pet baby wyverns after which Teodor, a delivery man gave them a spider's egg.
On the way to the next area they were again accosted by wyvern. They learnt from their previous experience and kept Xan and Imoen out of range. That battle went much smoother.
Kieran then offered to sell them equipment, but with a reputation of just 10, they decided not to buy anything at the moment.
In a battle against a cave-full of wyvern, Rasaad got killed again and Xan levelled up.
They went to Lathander's temple, raised Rasaad and received a reward for killing the wyvern before going to the mines and killing Drasus and party.
The battle against Hareishan did not go according to plan as Imoen cast web a little too late with the result that Hareishan was able to cast a lightning bolt. The party was however able to heal themselves without using potions and slept undisturbed
The battle against Natasha on the other hand did go according to plan as she wasn't able to cast a single offensive spell.
Upon reaching the bottom of the mine, Seluna was given additional fire protection by Starlight whereupon she made a frontal attack, the attack being backed up by a fireball from Imoen. Morghan et al then scored an own goal by centring there own fireballs upon her. She was virtually unhurt whereas the enemy was totally wiped out in one or two seconds.
Davaeorn fell just as easilly having been webbed and then blasted with fireballs and smite evil.
Imoen cast invisibility on Seluna who was already enraged. One blow an Davaeorn was dead.
They then went to join up with Viconia again and rested. Seluna gained another horror spell whereupon Viconia left the party again leaving them with a reputation of 10.
I tried one more attempt at this (for now anyway), but it was probably always a very long shot.
Issues with concentration included:
- several times only realising that Freya had run out of darts at the last moment when she was about to make a suicidal melee attack on blinded enemies.
- I was playing around with Tranzig to test his saving throws and picked up another acid arrow from him. This time though I knew what was coming and a couple of Bhaal heals allowed Freya time to get to the temple before the continuing damage (based on Tranzig being a 20th level caster) killed her - I don't allow healing potions, but temple healing is acceptable.
- not being invisible when attempting to rest and reacting slowly when some skeleton archers ambushed Freya.
I suppose then it was no great surprise when I was travelling through the Cloakwood and didn't immediately realise that invisibility had expired when some wyverns sprang an ambush. When Freya was poisoned I didn't initially think that would be too dangerous as I expected to be able to run off the map, which would cure the poison. I had the 'bright' idea of taking a potion of speed to get there quicker - I can never remember how haste and improved haste interact with poison, but I think taking the potion just doubled the speed of the poison tick and she was only just over half-way to the edge of the map when she died.
The virulence of the poison was so great that I think in fact she was virtually doomed from the moment she was poisoned. Ignoring pauses, it can't have been more than a couple of seconds for her to die and I think it would have been touch and go whether her green protection from poison scroll would have taken effect in time. Even if it had though she would have had to survive at least 4 more attacks from 2 greater wyverns in the meantime, which would have been pretty unlikely ...
EDITED
After delivering the key to the floodgates, the mine was flooded and Seluna's reputation rose to 12.
Upon leaving, Wendell attacked because we had killed his consort, Miranda.
All he achieved was his own death.
Seluna then went to the ankheg region and gave away 100 gold pieces thus gaining another reputation point. she then went to help the Archaeologist and Brage gaining 2 more reputation points to make it 15.
Helping a Dyad and a cat pushed reputation to 17.
Helping Annabelle and Samuel upped it to 19.
Seluna is now the hero that she said that she wanted to be when in Candlekeep.
They went south from the Friendly Arms Inn where they were accosted by Davenport et al.
After killing Davenport Starlight increased in level to level 8.
After dealing with more assassins at the bridge into Baldur's gate, Seluna returned to Beregost for her reward for bandit scalps. To her surprise she was able to sell some useless items there for a high price, not only wyvern heads at 1000 gp each, but some clubs that can only be used by druids.
I'm excited to see how your multiplayer runs progress!
I have a single player EE run going too (Corey the dwarven fighter), although his party was created using MP function. Should get to that, just so many RL distractions...
The bard stronghold quest:
The party entered the sewers, planning to find and free Haer'Dalis. First, there was the sewer party to take care of - Luna summoned aerial servants, and with the help of some buffs, most importantly haste and invisibilty 10' radius, Helios, followed by his friends, backstabbed Gaius:
The cleric was surrounded and killed, and the remaining fighters stood no chance. A quick rest, and the party entered Mekrath's lair.
The mage himself was... interesting. I actually didn't intend to fight him, but I think I made a mistake while picking dialogue options. After he killed some of Luna's skeletons, he actually managed to cast finger of death, targetting Goibniu - I was able to pause the game before the spell hit:
Luckily, I had a single potion of invulnerabilty in my inventory, allowing Goibniu to achieve negative saves and easily survive. The party quickly killed Mekrath for his attempt to end my run:
Luna and Owain summoned aerial servants and invisible stalkers (my go-to summons for now, until I get skeleton warriors) to deal with the other hostile group down there:
With Haer'Dalis free for now, the party returned to the bridge district. The planar prison was next - the party once again entered buffed and invisible, allowing for a quick backstab and the death of both enemy mages before they managed to get their protections up:
While haste was still active, the party made their way to the east. The spell ran out, and Luna summoned skeletons, who, assisted by multiple backstabs, cleared the southeastern group:
For the Master of Thralls, skeletons distracted the demon while the party used magical ranged weapons to quickly kill him - staying far away made it easier to avoid getting the party members stunned.
Now, the Warden remained - a quick rest, and Owain and Luna started spamming summoning spells, sending summons towards the final opponent:
Eventually, all of his dangerous spells were gone, allowing the party to charge and kill the foe.
The Unseeing Eye will be next!
Enuhal
Pole, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Dorral, elven archer (Gate70)
This combination continued to make pretty easy work of BG2 in a short session today.
Things started with our usual discussion wondering what we were supposed to be doing and after a bit of abortive work (and a couple of crashes) we managed to upgrade the Mace of Disruption after sorting out Neb.
There were then a few more bits and pieces like picking up the berserker horn, handing in Neb's head, recovering the Dawn Ring and picking up another pair of pantaloons before we ventured to the de'Arnise Hold. Most of the time there Pole just tanked and let Dorral shoot up the opposition, but a few standard druidic summons were used, e.g. on the iron golem.
There was just time to travel to Umar Hills and do a few tasks around the village. I'll note (in case we read this prior to our next session) that we need to help the mage with a golem problem before going to the ruined temple
Pole, totemic druid 13, 83 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 39 kills (+81 in BG1)
Dorral, archer 12, 103 HPs, 256 kills (+249 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 stoning)
He sadly had to kill his own brother and was feeling so bad about it that Selûna gave him some time to recover both emotionally and physically. He will be available in Nashkel if he is ever needed again. Reputation now 20.
Now Neera has joined and as she SAYS that she is also a follower of Selûne, Selûna feels obliged to help her barring evidence to the contrary. She has already had to pay 200 gold pieces which Neera had stolen previously.
In the Gate Selûne has just killed some mages who were vying over the locks from a sirene.
She followed this by doing countless trivial tasks as far as dealing with THE problem in Baldur's Gate.
If it had been possible for her reputation to continue to rise, it would now be in the thirties.
It is however still 20.
We helped Neera against the wizards of Thay that were after her and then asked her to leave in favour of Coran. She was more than a bit narked about that!
Much to his shock he is now a father, but whilst he fought for his child, he wouldn't sacrifice his "freedom" to look after it.
Selûna then gave Nester's dagger to Quinn.
They then wiped out the maulers of the underdark without injury followed by an assault on the monsters in a nearby house, helmed horrors, invisible stalkers and the like. Xan then reached level 7 as a fighter.
Thorin has asked to join the party. He looks like he will be a valuable addition to the party.
Selûna decided to go to the Friendly Arms Inn to equip him and whilst there Neera made such a heart-felt plea to rejoin that Selûna didn't have the heart to refuse her.
They decided to help Mendas at Ulgoth's Beard. Fighting the final battle upon Balduran's boat was touch and go.
After failing to kill the last Greater Wolfwere who had the baby, they fled, rested and regrouped and had another try.
It was tough and they had to use a lot of wand charges, but eventually they prevailed.
The toughest battle so far. Upon returning to Ulgoth's Beard, the battle there was relatively easy.
This is the first time that I have played with Rasaad and Neera in the party. This is because I don't like monks , druids and wild mages. I am glad that I played them once, but will not continue to do so. It is the concept that I don't like. One thing I don't like about druids is the "Striving for balance as if it is a good thing. My party is basically chaotic neutral. That I can understand. A lot of people's morality is inconsistant as most people's character contains some flaw, (Coran's lack of fidelity for instance) and that is how I am playing this game.
Having Neera in the party is definitely for role playing reasons. She won't be much help at all, or so I believe.
She is taking experience away from those who WOULD benefit the party.
Another of my long-running challenges is with a full party of monks using a SCS/Ascension BGT setup. Most of the time the objective for them is to try and fully explore all areas and undertake all encounters (though normally I exempt the lower areas of Durlags Tower from that). In addition to the normal restriction of not allowing healing potions or antidotes the monks are also not allowed to suffer any casualties, i.e. any monk dying ends the run. While all individual encounters are not too difficult the large number of those makes this a tough challenge and I've not been successful yet (though this party has been to Athkatla a number of times when restrictions have been relaxed).
Thus far the monks have cleared a number of areas in the south prior to doing the Nashkel Mine (stunning Mulahey there before he could talk). They then got a lift with Teven to the Bandit Camp with the aim of killing Tazok and picking up his bracers. Tazok managed to get a couple of big hits in with the help of his potion of speed, before attempting to run away. When the monks successfully englobed him I expected him to die quickly, but regrettably he teleported away before they could quite finish him off.
Stats:
Chimera - L5, 46 HPs, 69 kills
Spectre - L5, 33 HPs, 137 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L5, 41 HPs, 59 kills, 0 deaths
Wraith - L5, 24 HPs, 47 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L5, 34 HPs, 56 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L5, 42 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths
Overall the monks are marginally above their average expected HPs of 36. The BGT setup is not skewed to give high HPs like BGEE, so that represents a good outcome. However, Wraith's HPs are horrible (with 2 die rolls of 1 and 2 rolls of 2), leaving her still very vulnerable at this stage to critical hits.
I won't wish you luck as luck runs out.