My current run with a F/M is nearing the end of BGEE (with SCS). The F/M will be overleved (due to soloing for a while and playing completionist) to something like 300k XP - joined now with full party (Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia, Neera) of normal XP level (~150k) chars.
*** Q.: In this first, blind no-reload run of SoD, what difficulty should I play at?
I was thinking to start with INSANE and hope that the overleveling (prior as well as in SoD, due to extra monsters) would give me space enough for safety. Or is SoD hard enough that I should stick to CORE RULES? (Given that SoD lacks SCS, I'm not sure if it creates much of a challenge.)
[EDIT: I use the option of "no damage bonus for increased difficulty"]
@Ygramul I've only played the relatively early stages of it, but I would suggest you stick to core rules to start with. The large number of opponents in some fights and much tougher AI settings will provide significantly more challenge than BG1, even before you factor in the lack of meta-game knowledge (both relating to plot and knowing what special abilities some new monsters have).
Incidentally I don't know if you will benefit from overlevelling. In the latest update of BG2EE my imported characters now only get the level cap XP from BG1 despite earning far more than that.
Incidentally I don't know if you will benefit from overlevelling. In the latest update of BG2EE my imported characters now only get the level cap XP from BG1 despite earning far more than that.
Hmmm... I'm not above EEkeepering back my hard earned XP in BG2EE.
By the way, does the AI on SoD at higher difficulties actually act *smarter* (as the description claims it does)? Or just gives you more enemies?
Speculatively (not having played it yet), I imagine that beyond a certain point increasing the number of enemies does not significantly increase challenge, though gives greater rewards. (Especially, if you have casters with Crowd-Control + Area-Damage capabilities.) But this is just speculation, of course....
The dungeon is one of the most dangerous parts of a wild mage run and, unlike last time, I adjusted to that by minimising the number of spells cast - meaning I bypassed large chunks of it. There were no surges during that, with the only nasty moment when mirrors failed to protect against a spike trap.
Emerging from the dungeon got me to level 10 and I immediately bought the ring of air control. Using that prior to using other buffing and summoning spells significantly reduces the chance of a fatal surge - I didn't bother with that last run, but am taking a more cautious approach this time with the aim to actually dethrone Mel. Another change is that this time I summoned another familiar in BG2. I didn't do that last time as the bonus HPs from BG1 persist when the character is imported - but the bonus HPs are higher in BG2, so this time I resummoned the familiar and then used EEKeeper to reduce HPs back to where they should be. The fairy dragon familiar also now has the ability to cast invisibility 10' - that's unlikely to be used, but is a possible last resort.
At the Circus a single skull trap saw Kalah running and a MMM made sure he didn't get far.
A bit of a specialty of mine is forgetting about the need for a magic license and I did that twice in quick succession when casting friends - resulting in the need to quickly nip into a building before making an invisible getaway .
At the Copper Coronet a group of summons didn't last quite long enough to kill the Beastmaster. I tried to finish him off with the wand of lightning from the dungeon, but the blast from that missed him (I'm not sure whether it's a bug or an intentional feature, but I've noticed in the EE recently that lightning wands quite often fail to hit targets). A sling shot finished him off before I needed to try a different wand.
After resting, some more skeletons quickly dealt with the remaining guards and Lehtinan - getting up to level 11 in the process (and a helpful reduction in spell saving throw). With my winnings I bought the Sling of Seeking and then went to the Government District to buy a license.
Arriving untroubled at the Docks I prepared to draw the pirates out of their hiding place - picking up the first surge of the run to date in the process.
After checking in with Mae'Var I set off for the Temple District, arriving there after a brief delay to deal with Suna Seni.
Rather than resting to get fresh summons I helped out Roger there by burning up the wand of fire from the dungeon.
Back at the Docks I worked up through Rayic's house and hid in a corner while sending summons to drain his spells before joining in to finish him off.
A couple more tasks and it was time to invade Mae'Var's guild - that was rendered pretty much risk free by quaffing some genius potions and learning a few spells (including stoneskin).
Reporting their demise got me to level 12. A bit more invisible travelling tempted Renfeld's kidnappers out of hiding and they didn't last long against skeletons. Prebek then fell in a similar fashion to Rayic Gethras - summons being created out of sight - allowing me to loot the harpers.
Moving on to Watcher's Keep I picked up a potion case to manage my inventory before working through enemies. I installed a bunch of skull traps in case there were vampiric wraiths hiding behind the main door - but there weren't.
It was also a good job I'd ensured my saving throw was sufficient to fend off the FoD trap!
After killing the first 2 statues a bunch of hasted skeletons were just enough to finish off the archer statue from the rest (which is the only significantly dangerous one).
The others were then shot down by dart (I would normally prefer sling for run & shoot tactics, but the Sling of Seeking in EE is now ridiculously slow to fire and it's often not possible to get a shot in even starting at maximum range and in a fresh attack round).
Returning to Athkatla I put some of the money earned into donations at the Temple before going to the Bridge District for the first time. I got spell immunity from the Cutpurse (as well as improved haste and protection from magic weapons). Learning those got me to level 13 and enabled me to get the berserker horn. The Rune Assassins and their support crew were drawn upstairs into summons and comfortably defeated allowing me to get a bit more reputation from Lt Aegisfield.
Going head-hunting in Neb's house pushed it up further
and going through the sewers to sort out Captain Haegan and the slavers got it up to maximum.
All the vampire ambushes have taken place a while ago, so I'll probably go and pay my dues to Gaelan Bayle next.
By the way, does the AI on SoD at higher difficulties actually act *smarter* (as the description claims it does)? Or just gives you more enemies?
Speculatively (not having played it yet), I imagine that beyond a certain point increasing the number of enemies does not significantly increase challenge, though gives greater rewards. (Especially, if you have casters with Crowd-Control + Area-Damage capabilities.) But this is just speculation, of course....
The difficulty is more to do with the AI than the number of enemies. AI is definitely 'smarter', even to the point of being arguably unfair. As an example you might choose to use crowd control tactics by skull trapping a chasing group. Several of them fall, but others come on and you retreat slightly and go invisible thinking they will stop where you were ready for you to throw in another skull trap. If you are not ready for it the fact that, once they have first seen you, they use a 'follow-me' script to track you down and surround you anywhere in the area can be quite hard to deal with (though I've only tried SoD playing solo and I guess the AI changes will make less difference to party play).
The difficulty is more to do with the AI than the number of enemies. AI is definitely 'smarter', even to the point of being arguably unfair. ....
Awesome!
If true, I hope Beamdog makes more CRPGs. (Perhaps an expert will comment on AI development: @JuliusBorisov ?)
I was miffed about how low quality some of the first EE content were (Neera's questline, e.g., is poorly written and unchallenging in both BG1 and BG2). If they finally figured out to do both the plot and the AI well in SoD, then Beamdog have finally arrived and we can look forward to more games!
Difficulty settings in SoD affect a larger variety of things than just enemy damage. Some examples include enemy combat tactics (how intelligently they pick their targets), enemy numbers (3 enemies on Normal, 5 on Core Rules and 6 on Hard, 7 on Insane), enemy group composition (3 melee opponents on Normal, 2 additional archers on Core Rules, an extra healer on Hard and an opponent with special abilities on Insane) as well as enemy spell / item use.
As for the quality of SoD, explore it, @Ygramul, and share your opinions. I'll be happy to find out your thoughts regarding the content and the AI in SoD.
I have installed Song of Silence, but the only kit that I have added is Adventurer.
I was quite shocked when I realised that I was only given 100 gold pieces for three party members. In vanilla the amount of gold at the start went up with the number of party members, and also according to the type of member. (Fighters got more than thieves because their equipment is more expensive.
100gp is fine for a solo character but a bit stingy for a larger party.
Difficulty settings in SoD affect a larger variety of things than just enemy damage. Some examples include enemy combat tactics (how intelligently they pick their targets), enemy numbers (3 enemies on Normal, 5 on Core Rules and 6 on Hard, 7 on Insane), enemy group composition (3 melee opponents on Normal, 2 additional archers on Core Rules, an extra healer on Hard and an opponent with special abilities on Insane) as well as enemy spell / item use.
As for the quality of SoD, explore it, @Ygramul, and share your opinions. I'll be happy to find out your thoughts regarding the content and the AI in SoD.
Wow. Really looking forward to this. Thanks. And this is really the right direction regarding the difficulty (i.e., AI + opponent variety instead of bullet sponges).
I hope Beamdog stays in the game to craft a few more titles, if such a direction is maintained.
Would you consider updating the IWDEE (and maybe even the original BGEE/BG2EE) with the new AI + opponent variety updates?
This is the kind of thing I would gladly pay up in a $20 DLC for. No new content other than AI + gameplay.
(After all, BG/BG2 became classics --along with SCS-- exactly for this reason. It would be money well-spent for several hundred hours of new challenging gameplay.)
Blind no-reload is a step up from the typical challenge...
It really is, and I must say I enjoyed it immensly. Especially the first SoD dungeon - it really felt like playing an old-school rpg - you stealth, explore slowly ahead, search for traps - none of these really are a thing for most of us in BG(1 or 2) since everybody here knows exact trap location, trap effect and how low your saves must be to avoid it.
Blind no-reload is a step up from the typical challenge...
It really is, and I must say I enjoyed it immensly. Especially the first SoD dungeon - it really felt like playing an old-school rpg - you stealth, explore slowly ahead, search for traps - none of these really are a thing for most of us in BG(1 or 2) since everybody here knows exact trap location, trap effect and how low your saves must be to avoid it.
I have made a point of trying not to remember trap effects. I can't forget where they are.
However I have no idea what my saves have to be. That is a matter of choice.
@Ygramul, I'm glad to see your run nearing SoD, and I'm glad to see that you're running it blind...
For what it is worth, I moved from SCS on core in BG1 to just core in SoD, also running blind. If I would have been on insane, I think my run would have ended by now. There are a few surprises.
I've been playing as carefully as I know how. That means scouting and looking for ways around fights; and buffing, then buffing my buffs, then buffing those buffs, then equipping everything I can get my hands on that adds yet more buffs. And sometimes buffing just to go scouting. My characters are glowing lots of weird swirly patterns all the time.
I'm maybe halfway through SoD right now... not totally sure. It's gripping, even if I'm spending most of my time on potion acquisition and buffing.
I have installed Song of Silence, but the only kit that I have added is Adventurer.
I was quite shocked when I realised that I was only given 100 gold pieces for three party members. In vanilla the amount of gold at the start went up with the number of party members, and also according to the type of member. (Fighters got more than thieves because their equipment is more expensive.
100gp is fine for a solo character but a bit stingy for a larger party.
Wise - I think it is in part random, because I have gotten wide variety of gold amounts, even for similar characters/classes. If you start with 3 party members, then you have maybe easy solution - make sure at least one character is max locks (if thief), or one character is barbarian (Kai can open it), then get the sapphire at Winthrop's Inn. : ) Then you got plenty gold for your equipment.
A new party emerges in Candlekeep. I have installed Song of Silence, but the only kit that I have added is Adventurer.
I was quite shocked when I realised that I was only given 100 gold pieces for three party members. In vanilla the amount of gold at the start went up with the number of party members, and also according to the type of member. (Fighters got more than thieves because their equipment is more expensive.
100gp is fine for a solo character but a bit stingy for a larger party.
Wise - I think it is in part random, because I have gotten wide variety of gold amounts, even for similar characters/classes. If you start with 3 party members, then you have maybe easy solution - make sure at least one character is max locks (if thief), or one character is barbarian (Kai can open it), then get the sapphire at Winthrop's Inn. : ) Then you got plenty gold for your equipment.
And don't forget to "Noober" Firebeard for some extra cash.
With prices now looking more attractive I bought the Sling of Everard. Apart from hitting anything in the game that has the advantage that it fires quickly (unlike the Sling of Seeking), making it easy to use while running round. I also bought the Robe of Vecna along with a few potions and scrolls.
At the Graveyard mislead allowed an easy tomb clearance programme before downstairs I watched invisibly as some skeletons hacked Pai'Na down. I also was amused when Kitthix was given a first outing and managed to web a sword spider - and then followed up moments later by doing the same to a phase spider!
I didn't bother with the Southern Tombs and didn't quite make it to level 14. However, back in the Temple sewers an encounter with the rakshasa got me even closer
before Mekrath provided the final push.
I celebrated by using my first cloudkill of the run on Tarnor's mob.
After selling Tarnor's equipment it seemed like a good time to go and pay Gaelan Bayle. Doing Aran's tasks Lassal avoided being webbed, but the Guild Contact didn't (making sure he couldn't drink any of my potions).
While in the inn I decided to do the Planar Prison and went round there very smoothly - the Warden dying in the initial hasted attack on him before he could get PfMW up.
I also did the kidnappers and collected the pantaloons. The reputation penalty for that was partly offset by delivering the news of the slavers' demise to Hendak - the reward for that also got me to level 15.
While resting in an inn I thought I might as well sort Mencar out. His mage support evaporated in a couple of skull traps and he had carelessly failed to bring a weapon that could hurt the first appearance of the air elemental from my new staff.
Looking to top reputation up again I went to Trademeet. There was fast progress through there with a couple of servings of skeletons finished off by the Cernd one-dog show. Even with reputation back to 20 though I did quickly help Tiris and clear the tomb. The final action of the session was at Umar Hills. I've done the tasks around town and arrived at the ruined temple - to find that killing a few shadows on the way had provided just enough XP for level 16.
That's useful because it reduces my standard unbuffed spell saving throw to 1 - providing automatic protection against a petrification surge without the need to bother pre-casting improved invisibility using the RoAC (I have been pretty disciplined about doing that so far, but was feeling the strain ).
At Umar I had just finished clearing all the undead when the game crashed. Restarting, I decided I couldn't be bothered to do them all again and would just bypass them with the use of a scroll of PfU. That meant that Amuana's companions didn't open a conversation, but they were still happy to help when I talked to them. Thaxy was fixated by a mordy sword and held still for several blasts from a lightning wand.
I'd rested prior to that though and decided not to renew my PfU. Instead I did a rare use of multiple buffs for the Shade Lord and shot him down with MMMs.
Back in Athkatla I decided it was time for a witch lich hunt. After thinking I had prepared my spells I attacked the first lich - only to realise that I hadn't rested first. I killed three liches - getting up to level 17 in the process,
but then rested for Kangaxx and used a second PfU scroll, (costly, but probably still a fair swap for the Ring of Gaxx)! This time getting that wasn't quite so easy as a result of summoning a demon with my 5th cast of MMM.
Kangaxx quickly killed that,
but the lost time meant he'd regenerated a bit. The second of six scrolls of MMM also resulted in a failed cast and being slowed and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to beat the demi-lich regeneration like that. However, after hanging on at near death for a good while Kangaxx eventually accepted his doom with 1 scroll remaining.
Nearing the end of my time in Athkatla for the moment I decided to return to Umar and pick up Valygar's body. That was followed by a quick tour of the Planar Sphere, following various summons guides around - Tolgerias was probably the encounter I took the most active part in and that resulted in getting to level 18 and the availability of a planetar.
Taking my stronghold I once more told the apprentices to have a go at the Staff of Power - and once more they were successful. That's 2 in a row in what I think are the only occasions I've tried to get that staff in EE. That seems a bit suspicious to me as the success rate in BGT is pretty low - so possibly the chances of success have been altered in EE.
With a planetar at hand the Twisted Rune offered no terrors. Shangalar was as usual foiled by PfU and shot down before the planetar appeared to make short work of the others.
Withe my inventory overflowing with staffs (Magi, Power, Air, Fire, Rhynn) I decided it was time to head to Spellhold to get a bag of holding. First though there were a few vampires to deal with in the Graveyard. That didn't take long and I got up to level 19 in the process.
I've just arrived in Brynnlaw and picked up a wardstone from Perth (also a book of True Seeing).
Would you consider updating the IWDEE (and maybe even the original BGEE/BG2EE) with the new AI + opponent variety updates? This is the kind of thing I would gladly pay up in a $20 DLC for. No new content other than AI + gameplay.
I can't comment on future projects, so I can't answer your question.
Would you consider updating the IWDEE (and maybe even the original BGEE/BG2EE) with the new AI + opponent variety updates? This is the kind of thing I would gladly pay up in a $20 DLC for. No new content other than AI + gameplay.
I can't comment on future projects, so I can't answer your question.
I can well understand why you can't. It would be very financially sensitive information. You might or might not want to do it, but unless the people with rights in the original products IWDEE, and those who have written the AI, are willing to let you work on it at a sensible price, it will be a non-starter, and I would imagine that there are a lot of people with a stake in it, though I could be wrong. Sir Giles and party were able to equip themselves due largely to the benevolance of Fuller who gave us a valuable knife and Perky's lack of honesty. She broke into a number of chests in both Candlekeep and Beregost. Upon arriving at the Friendly Arms Inn, they were able to defeat Tarnesh, though missed out on the experience as the guards dealt the final blow. Inside Sir Giles Made Lina say:
I will leave the rest to your imagination. He returned Joia's ring and helped a widow in the ankheg area. They agreed to help Sonner and fought Tanya who pleaded for help. We agreed, but a fraction of a second later, Ham's command spell landed and she became hostile again. They got the bowl for her and used a a cloak that Perky had pick-pocketed to charm her. Upon talking to her, they couldn't get her to accept the bowl though she was friendly enough.
A nice clean session today started with clearing underneath the Graveyard tombs. Ozzy regularly skull traps Toriac (particularly now that he has regeneration from the Ring of Gaxx), but doesn't normally do that to himself. However, seeing several of Pai'Na's spiders homing in on him a slight adjustment to targeting seemed appropriate.
Moving on to Trademeet Ozzy put spirit armour and improved invisibility on Toriac to give him an automatic save against petrification - allowing the genies to be quickly cut down. After picking up the Shield of Harmony they travelled on to the Druid Grove and smoothly moved through there. We didn't rest and Ozzy ran out of MMMs before all the trolls were dead, so got a bit of use out of his wand of fire. After finishing off the last of the druids Cernd was given his head against Faldorn.
Tiris was helped and the tomb cleared before heading for Umar Hills. The tasks in the village were soon done on the way to the ruined temple. The duo are still relatively low level and there were no liches in the temple and Toriac was comfortable taking on undead in a group - particularly after softening them up in a sunray.
The only encounter that didn't feel totally under control was against Thaxy. His PfMW meant early attacks did little damage and he successfully resisted most magic attacks (Ozzy hasn't learnt lower resistance yet). However, Toriac's decent AC and mirrors (using Ilbratha) allowed him to tank Thaxy for a fair time, while Ozzy also took his turn using mirrors and stoneskins. Thaxy hung on for a while at near death, but eventually a lightning blast got past his MR and finished him off.
The Shade Lord failed to mount the same quality of defence - a sunray being topped up with MMMs before he had a chance to buff.
The session ended with picking up Valygar's cold, dead body before reporting in to the Mayor.
Ozzy, fighter 10 / mage 11, 81 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 227 kills (232 in BG1) Toriac, undead hunter 12, 142 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm, 10 from bracers), 202 kills (172 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 in BG1)
With most of Baldur's Gate done, I decided to do all the NPC quests I had thus far ignored, and begin ToTSC.
Neera's quest nearly got us killed with a cone of cold. Quite pissed off that this whiny mage's expedition had nearly killed him, and didn't even garner any coin for the Guild, Cedvar sent her packing. In their eternal quest to gain treasure and influence for the guild, they tried a recluse monk next. This too nearly ended in his death after getting stunned by Gamaz. Again, Rasaad is sent packing, but his well written lines about humour and opening up remind me why he was my favorite of the new characters.
Dorn's quest was uneventful, with no close calls to be had. Simple, straightforward murder. Ditching him for Kivan, we moved onto Ulgoth's beard, and in the Frozen Isle...
Man I hate confusion. Nearly wiped our party, Cedvar fighting alone to backstab the first three mages at one point. With our mage down right at the start of the Dungeon, this doesn't bode well. Kivan managed to construct a makeshift stretcher with winter wolf skins, and on they drag a barely alive Imoen throughout the dungeon. We'll see if they get out alive.
Things that might have killed Cavan in SoD, but somehow haven't yet:
1) The team scouted a crusader fort in the woods. While thinking of a way to persuade the defenders that we were part of the crusade ourselves, two druids unleashed a horde of mountain lions and spiders to attack. Soon we were all brawling. Viconia temporarily succumbed to poison arrows. Cavan took a hard blow to the head from an ettin's club. The team was pretty shaken, but no one got chunked... After that, there was no hope of entering quietly, so we basically killed everyone in the camp behind the walls. A bloody mess is what it was.
2) In the caverns underground, we managed to persuade the crusaders that the noise outside was just a squirrel. (Apparently that is what really high paladin charisma is for.) In the caverns we tangled with a lot of myconids and twisted tree-like shambling things. Mostly these battles were not noteworthy -- except one, where we backed into a ___spectral dragon___. It was guarding a gate of some kind, and laughed as our most vulnerable team members fled a silly little myconid by running into its lair. Ooops. (I sensed a possible party wipe coming, but fortunately it was inclined to talk.) Cavan decided that angering an incorporeal dragon with unknown abilities would be extraordinarily stupid. He told it to relax. It laughed at us while we scuttled out of there (and afterward the Myconid problems seemed not so big). Here's to hoping there's nothing behind that gate that we'll need to come back for.
3) We purified a great tree that a dark druid had tainted. Viconia left us in disgust after one too many good deeds and went back to the Siege Camp alone. Cavan followed her a few hours later and managed to persuade her not to over-react. She rejoined.
4) Now we are trying to decide what to do with the barrel of explosive we brought... unfortunately, the path to a likely location to BWOOSH was blocked by a spectral ettin. By the time we were able to talk it out of fighting, a crusader patrol came upon us and attacked the ettin straight away. Not smart. Now the ettin is angry and massacring the crusaders guarding the gate.... This could prove helpful?? Or totally inconvenient. In earlier battles with the crusaders, they were able to hurt me just fine, but they can't do much to the ghostly ettin. If we have to engage it, we might have problems. It can see through invisibility, so passing it might not work that well. Plan A will be to lure it out of the way using a character with the boots of speed. If that doesn't work, we'll see if we can send its spirit on to the next world... Hopefully we don't need to talk to any of the now-smashed crusader guards.
In sum, the rules are now: if it is already dead and still talking, leave it alone. If it will get out of the way and allow us to continue on towards Dragonspear Castle unmolested, leave it alone. If it has giant wings and a tail, or two spectral heads, leave it well alone.
We'll see what happens when Cavan and team try to avoid certain death... next on Days of our SoD Lives....
The Trio was unable to play today because I was at a chess tournament in Bend today (it's about 4 hours away from my home). However, it was not in vain as I went 3-0 and won $30.00.
We picked off all the mages while dragging poor Imoen from the caves. We finally came across two fearsome snow golems, and the last mage. We -could- have backstabbed and fought him in a long whinded risky battle with more confusion spells. Or.
"Prepare for the Nuclear Option" is our new battlecry. We got out, and after starting the werewolf isle, Cedvar got his best backstab yet. 98.
Back home, we came across a bug. Two of one of the greater werewolves had double spawned ontop of eachother, and we had to do some shady backstab work to seperate and kill two of the same NPC. weird stuff, but I felt it justified and moved on with the no reloads run. With Khalid and Cedvar double teaming with Baldur's sword and the dagger, we cleaned house.
Inside Spellhold I this time gave up a point of intelligence in the dream (keeping the spare point of dexterity to give up in the Hell Trials). Solving a set of riddles got me to level 20 and I made quick progress through the first level - the planetar sorting out the lich for me.
For a bit of variety I didn't rest for the second level and just used wand attacks and abused the staff of magi invisibility to finish off the enemies there (along with leaving a mislead to be locked outside the clay golem room).
Opening up the exit got me to level 21 and I took energy blades as a special ability.
I rested on exiting the level, triggering the slayer change safely, before sending some skeletons to beat up Lonk. As last time a few energy blades cut Irenicus up
before I retreated to the door and waited for him to give up after Wanev's time stop - allowing me plenty of time to run away before the Murderers arrived. Taking ship with Saemon I arrived at the City-of-Caverns and did my best to improve the racial stock of the sahuagin.
In the Underdark learning a few spells got me to level 22. I helped out the svirfneblin and cleared the giant soul gem before emptying the Western Tunnels with the help of a planetar - getting to level 23. I then tried to help Vithal, but carelessly summoned skeletons too close to him and he was annoyed by a wild surge fireball
- then dimension dooring away after battling with summons.
Summons killed the elder orb in the beholder hive
before I grabbed the Greenstone Amulet and left. I did a spot of shopping in Ust Natha before bypassing the drow tasks by attacking Adalon. I set up a number of skull traps away from her and successfully dragged her into those after using 3 lower resistance spells on her. That took her to near death and a couple more freshly cast skull traps finished her off.
Back in Athkatla I picked up a few bits of stored equipment and bought some scrolls. I still wanted to purchase a few more though so decided to go and ransack the de'Arnise Hold to raise funds. I didn't bother maximising XP gained there, but still got up to level 24 before finishing off TorGal and his companions with a sequencer skull trap.
Back in Athkatla a planetar made short work of the vampires upstairs (gaining my last HLA for level 25) and Bodhi fared no better downstairs.
Returning to Elhan I entered into Suldanesselar and went through there with minimal conflict (though still enough to get up to level 26). Just for fun I set up another skull trap surprise for Nizi. However, in trying to lead him into that I was entangled by a wild surge and had no farsight to pinpoint the location - and settled for tying him down with summons while casting direct damage spells.
On the Tree I didn't muck about, but just left a skeleton behind for Jon to play with after killing the parasites before sending in the planetar to finish him off.
In Hell I took the same benefits as last time from the Trials, but this time remembered to rest and set up summons before confronting Jon. That made the battle pretty easy.
The adventure of Sir Giles and party came to an unexpected premature end at the hands of the ogrillon south of Beregost. Sir Giles was killed by one blow of the ogrillon. I thought that was not possible at level one. (Perhaps a change made in EE. ?)
@Corey_Russell You said: Wise - I think it is in part random, because I have gotten wide variety of gold amounts, even for similar characters/classes. If you start with 3 party members, then you have maybe easy solution - make sure at least one character is max locks (if thief), or one character is barbarian (Kai can open it), then get the sapphire at Winthrop's Inn. : ) Then you got plenty gold for your equipment.
I didn't have any problems with it myself. On this occasion my Paladin had Cha 18 and so gained the knife +1 without trying. I have recieved 100 gp in every single game.
In my previous game my barbarian opened the chest with the 1000gp gem in it.
I also know that a thief can pickpocket the knife.
You used to be able to kill Fuller or Hull to get their weaponry. Is that option still open? I know that killing Firebead or Phlydia is no longer an option. That wasn't an option with a paladin leading the party, but if the leader was a Blackguard...!
However the prologue is supposed to be relatively easy even for newcomers to the game.
I modded my game by giving the assassins better equipment to make it more of a challenge. The side-effect of that is that my thief had quite good equipment after killing them. I actually had to nerf my original modification as the equipment was so good that it unbalanced the later game and party thieves became uber-powerful.
A new party emerges in Candlekeep. I have installed Song of Silence, but the only kit that I have added is Adventurer.
I was quite shocked when I realised that I was only given 100 gold pieces for three party members. In vanilla the amount of gold at the start went up with the number of party members, and also according to the type of member. (Fighters got more than thieves because their equipment is more expensive.
100gp is fine for a solo character but a bit stingy for a larger party.
Wise - I think it is in part random, because I have gotten wide variety of gold amounts, even for similar characters/classes. If you start with 3 party members, then you have maybe easy solution - make sure at least one character is max locks (if thief), or one character is barbarian (Kai can open it), then get the sapphire at Winthrop's Inn. : ) Then you got plenty gold for your equipment.
And don't forget to "Noober" Firebeard for some extra cash.
I'm not sure what you mean. I used to kill him, but can't now as you die if you kill him. I presume that you mean pickpocket him. Is that right?
A new solo attempt, this time with a barbarian dwarf called Mastaeg.
Barbarian rage proved to be too much for both the ogre and Tarnesh. Lina gave a very satisfying "massage" at the FAI. Afterwards he headed northwards and helped Joia, a woman being pestered by an undead husband, and finally helping Tenya in her struggle against some evil fishermen. This brought him to level 3 with proficiencies ** in axes and *** in dual wielding.
Comments
My current run with a F/M is nearing the end of BGEE (with SCS). The F/M will be overleved (due to soloing for a while and playing completionist) to something like 300k XP - joined now with full party (Minsc, Jaheira, Imoen, Viconia, Neera) of normal XP level (~150k) chars.
*** Q.: In this first, blind no-reload run of SoD, what difficulty should I play at?
I was thinking to start with INSANE and hope that the overleveling (prior as well as in SoD, due to extra monsters) would give me space enough for safety. Or is SoD hard enough that I should stick to CORE RULES? (Given that SoD lacks SCS, I'm not sure if it creates much of a challenge.)
[EDIT: I use the option of "no damage bonus for increased difficulty"]
Incidentally I don't know if you will benefit from overlevelling. In the latest update of BG2EE my imported characters now only get the level cap XP from BG1 despite earning far more than that.
By the way, does the AI on SoD at higher difficulties actually act *smarter* (as the description claims it does)? Or just gives you more enemies?
Speculatively (not having played it yet), I imagine that beyond a certain point increasing the number of enemies does not significantly increase challenge, though gives greater rewards. (Especially, if you have casters with Crowd-Control + Area-Damage capabilities.) But this is just speculation, of course....
The dungeon is one of the most dangerous parts of a wild mage run and, unlike last time, I adjusted to that by minimising the number of spells cast - meaning I bypassed large chunks of it. There were no surges during that, with the only nasty moment when mirrors failed to protect against a spike trap.
Emerging from the dungeon got me to level 10 and I immediately bought the ring of air control. Using that prior to using other buffing and summoning spells significantly reduces the chance of a fatal surge - I didn't bother with that last run, but am taking a more cautious approach this time with the aim to actually dethrone Mel. Another change is that this time I summoned another familiar in BG2. I didn't do that last time as the bonus HPs from BG1 persist when the character is imported - but the bonus HPs are higher in BG2, so this time I resummoned the familiar and then used EEKeeper to reduce HPs back to where they should be. The fairy dragon familiar also now has the ability to cast invisibility 10' - that's unlikely to be used, but is a possible last resort.
At the Circus a single skull trap saw Kalah running and a MMM made sure he didn't get far.
At the Copper Coronet a group of summons didn't last quite long enough to kill the Beastmaster. I tried to finish him off with the wand of lightning from the dungeon, but the blast from that missed him (I'm not sure whether it's a bug or an intentional feature, but I've noticed in the EE recently that lightning wands quite often fail to hit targets). A sling shot finished him off before I needed to try a different wand.
Arriving untroubled at the Docks I prepared to draw the pirates out of their hiding place - picking up the first surge of the run to date in the process.
After checking in with Mae'Var I set off for the Temple District, arriving there after a brief delay to deal with Suna Seni.
Back at the Docks I worked up through Rayic's house and hid in a corner while sending summons to drain his spells before joining in to finish him off.
A bit more invisible travelling tempted Renfeld's kidnappers out of hiding and they didn't last long against skeletons. Prebek then fell in a similar fashion to Rayic Gethras - summons being created out of sight - allowing me to loot the harpers.
Moving on to Watcher's Keep I picked up a potion case to manage my inventory before working through enemies. I installed a bunch of skull traps in case there were vampiric wraiths hiding behind the main door - but there weren't.
Returning to Athkatla I put some of the money earned into donations at the Temple before going to the Bridge District for the first time. I got spell immunity from the Cutpurse (as well as improved haste and protection from magic weapons). Learning those got me to level 13 and enabled me to get the berserker horn. The Rune Assassins and their support crew were drawn upstairs into summons and comfortably defeated allowing me to get a bit more reputation from Lt Aegisfield.
All the vampire ambushes have taken place a while ago, so I'll probably go and pay my dues to Gaelan Bayle next.
If true, I hope Beamdog makes more CRPGs.
(Perhaps an expert will comment on AI development: @JuliusBorisov ?)
I was miffed about how low quality some of the first EE content were (Neera's questline, e.g., is poorly written and unchallenging in both BG1 and BG2). If they finally figured out to do both the plot and the AI well in SoD, then Beamdog have finally arrived and we can look forward to more games!
I can only hope.
Difficulty settings in SoD affect a larger variety of things than just enemy damage. Some examples include enemy combat tactics (how intelligently they pick their targets), enemy numbers (3 enemies on Normal, 5 on Core Rules and 6 on Hard, 7 on Insane), enemy group composition (3 melee opponents on Normal, 2 additional archers on Core Rules, an extra healer on Hard and an opponent with special abilities on Insane) as well as enemy spell / item use.
As for the quality of SoD, explore it, @Ygramul, and share your opinions. I'll be happy to find out your thoughts regarding the content and the AI in SoD.
I was quite shocked when I realised that I was only given 100 gold pieces for three party members.
In vanilla the amount of gold at the start went up with the number of party members, and also according to the type of member. (Fighters got more than thieves because their equipment is more expensive.
100gp is fine for a solo character but a bit stingy for a larger party.
And this is really the right direction regarding the difficulty (i.e., AI + opponent variety instead of bullet sponges).
I hope Beamdog stays in the game to craft a few more titles, if such a direction is maintained.
a follow-up question, if I may:
Would you consider updating the IWDEE (and maybe even the original BGEE/BG2EE) with the new AI + opponent variety updates?
This is the kind of thing I would gladly pay up in a $20 DLC for. No new content other than AI + gameplay.
(After all, BG/BG2 became classics --along with SCS-- exactly for this reason. It would be money well-spent for several hundred hours of new challenging gameplay.)
However I have no idea what my saves have to be. That is a matter of choice.
For what it is worth, I moved from SCS on core in BG1 to just core in SoD, also running blind. If I would have been on insane, I think my run would have ended by now. There are a few surprises.
I've been playing as carefully as I know how. That means scouting and looking for ways around fights; and buffing, then buffing my buffs, then buffing those buffs, then equipping everything I can get my hands on that adds yet more buffs. And sometimes buffing just to go scouting. My characters are glowing lots of weird swirly patterns all the time.
I'm maybe halfway through SoD right now... not totally sure. It's gripping, even if I'm spending most of my time on potion acquisition and buffing.
Stay safe
With prices now looking more attractive I bought the Sling of Everard. Apart from hitting anything in the game that has the advantage that it fires quickly (unlike the Sling of Seeking), making it easy to use while running round. I also bought the Robe of Vecna along with a few potions and scrolls.
At the Graveyard mislead allowed an easy tomb clearance programme before downstairs I watched invisibly as some skeletons hacked Pai'Na down. I also was amused when Kitthix was given a first outing and managed to web a sword spider - and then followed up moments later by doing the same to a phase spider!
After selling Tarnor's equipment it seemed like a good time to go and pay Gaelan Bayle. Doing Aran's tasks Lassal avoided being webbed, but the Guild Contact didn't (making sure he couldn't drink any of my potions).
While resting in an inn I thought I might as well sort Mencar out. His mage support evaporated in a couple of skull traps and he had carelessly failed to bring a weapon that could hurt the first appearance of the air elemental from my new staff.
Looking to top reputation up again I went to Trademeet. There was fast progress through there with a couple of servings of skeletons finished off by the Cernd one-dog show. Even with reputation back to 20 though I did quickly help Tiris and clear the tomb. The final action of the session was at Umar Hills. I've done the tasks around town and arrived at the ruined temple - to find that killing a few shadows on the way had provided just enough XP for level 16.
At Umar I had just finished clearing all the undead when the game crashed. Restarting, I decided I couldn't be bothered to do them all again and would just bypass them with the use of a scroll of PfU. That meant that Amuana's companions didn't open a conversation, but they were still happy to help when I talked to them. Thaxy was fixated by a mordy sword and held still for several blasts from a lightning wand.
Back in Athkatla I decided it was time for a witch lich hunt. After thinking I had prepared my spells I attacked the first lich - only to realise that I hadn't rested first. I killed three liches - getting up to level 17 in the process,
Nearing the end of my time in Athkatla for the moment I decided to return to Umar and pick up Valygar's body. That was followed by a quick tour of the Planar Sphere, following various summons guides around - Tolgerias was probably the encounter I took the most active part in and that resulted in getting to level 18 and the availability of a planetar.
With a planetar at hand the Twisted Rune offered no terrors. Shangalar was as usual foiled by PfU and shot down before the planetar appeared to make short work of the others.
Withe my inventory overflowing with staffs (Magi, Power, Air, Fire, Rhynn) I decided it was time to head to Spellhold to get a bag of holding. First though there were a few vampires to deal with in the Graveyard. That didn't take long and I got up to level 19 in the process.
You might or might not want to do it, but unless the people with rights in the original products IWDEE, and those who have written the AI, are willing to let you work on it at a sensible price, it will be a non-starter, and I would imagine that there are a lot of people with a stake in it, though I could be wrong.
Sir Giles and party were able to equip themselves due largely to the benevolance of Fuller who gave us a valuable knife and Perky's lack of honesty. She broke into a number of chests in both Candlekeep and Beregost.
Upon arriving at the Friendly Arms Inn, they were able to defeat Tarnesh, though missed out on the experience as the guards dealt the final blow.
He returned Joia's ring and helped a widow in the ankheg area. They agreed to help Sonner and fought Tanya who pleaded for help. We agreed, but a fraction of a second later, Ham's command spell landed and she became hostile again. They got the bowl for her and used a a cloak that Perky had pick-pocketed to charm her. Upon talking to her, they couldn't get her to accept the bowl though she was friendly enough.
They may have to sell it.
Ozzy, elf fighter/mage (Grond0) & Toriac, human undead hunter (Gate70)
A nice clean session today started with clearing underneath the Graveyard tombs. Ozzy regularly skull traps Toriac (particularly now that he has regeneration from the Ring of Gaxx), but doesn't normally do that to himself. However, seeing several of Pai'Na's spiders homing in on him a slight adjustment to targeting seemed appropriate.
Moving on to Trademeet Ozzy put spirit armour and improved invisibility on Toriac to give him an automatic save against petrification - allowing the genies to be quickly cut down. After picking up the Shield of Harmony they travelled on to the Druid Grove and smoothly moved through there. We didn't rest and Ozzy ran out of MMMs before all the trolls were dead, so got a bit of use out of his wand of fire. After finishing off the last of the druids Cernd was given his head against Faldorn.
Tiris was helped and the tomb cleared before heading for Umar Hills. The tasks in the village were soon done on the way to the ruined temple. The duo are still relatively low level and there were no liches in the temple and Toriac was comfortable taking on undead in a group - particularly after softening them up in a sunray.
The only encounter that didn't feel totally under control was against Thaxy. His PfMW meant early attacks did little damage and he successfully resisted most magic attacks (Ozzy hasn't learnt lower resistance yet). However, Toriac's decent AC and mirrors (using Ilbratha) allowed him to tank Thaxy for a fair time, while Ozzy also took his turn using mirrors and stoneskins. Thaxy hung on for a while at near death, but eventually a lightning blast got past his MR and finished him off.
The session ended with picking up Valygar's cold, dead body before reporting in to the Mayor.
Ozzy, fighter 10 / mage 11, 81 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 227 kills (232 in BG1)
Toriac, undead hunter 12, 142 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm, 10 from bracers), 202 kills (172 in BG1), 0 deaths (1 in BG1)
With most of Baldur's Gate done, I decided to do all the NPC quests I had thus far ignored, and begin ToTSC.
Neera's quest nearly got us killed with a cone of cold. Quite pissed off that this whiny mage's expedition had nearly killed him, and didn't even garner any coin for the Guild, Cedvar sent her packing. In their eternal quest to gain treasure and influence for the guild, they tried a recluse monk next. This too nearly ended in his death after getting stunned by Gamaz. Again, Rasaad is sent packing, but his well written lines about humour and opening up remind me why he was my favorite of the new characters.
Dorn's quest was uneventful, with no close calls to be had. Simple, straightforward murder. Ditching him for Kivan, we moved onto Ulgoth's beard, and in the Frozen Isle...
Man I hate confusion. Nearly wiped our party, Cedvar fighting alone to backstab the first three mages at one point. With our mage down right at the start of the Dungeon, this doesn't bode well. Kivan managed to construct a makeshift stretcher with winter wolf skins, and on they drag a barely alive Imoen throughout the dungeon. We'll see if they get out alive.
Cedvar: Level 8 Thief
Imoen: Level 7 Thief/ Level 5 Mage (dead as a doorknob)
Khalid: Level 7 Fighter
Jahiera: Level 6 Fighter/Level 7 Druid
Coran: Level 6 Fighter/ Level 6 Thief
Dorn, Neera, Rasaad: Level 5ish
1) The team scouted a crusader fort in the woods. While thinking of a way to persuade the defenders that we were part of the crusade ourselves, two druids unleashed a horde of mountain lions and spiders to attack. Soon we were all brawling. Viconia temporarily succumbed to poison arrows. Cavan took a hard blow to the head from an ettin's club. The team was pretty shaken, but no one got chunked... After that, there was no hope of entering quietly, so we basically killed everyone in the camp behind the walls. A bloody mess is what it was.
2) In the caverns underground, we managed to persuade the crusaders that the noise outside was just a squirrel. (Apparently that is what really high paladin charisma is for.) In the caverns we tangled with a lot of myconids and twisted tree-like shambling things. Mostly these battles were not noteworthy -- except one, where we backed into a ___spectral dragon___. It was guarding a gate of some kind, and laughed as our most vulnerable team members fled a silly little myconid by running into its lair. Ooops. (I sensed a possible party wipe coming, but fortunately it was inclined to talk.) Cavan decided that angering an incorporeal dragon with unknown abilities would be extraordinarily stupid. He told it to relax. It laughed at us while we scuttled out of there (and afterward the Myconid problems seemed not so big). Here's to hoping there's nothing behind that gate that we'll need to come back for.
3) We purified a great tree that a dark druid had tainted. Viconia left us in disgust after one too many good deeds and went back to the Siege Camp alone. Cavan followed her a few hours later and managed to persuade her not to over-react. She rejoined.
4) Now we are trying to decide what to do with the barrel of explosive we brought... unfortunately, the path to a likely location to BWOOSH was blocked by a spectral ettin. By the time we were able to talk it out of fighting, a crusader patrol came upon us and attacked the ettin straight away. Not smart. Now the ettin is angry and massacring the crusaders guarding the gate.... This could prove helpful?? Or totally inconvenient. In earlier battles with the crusaders, they were able to hurt me just fine, but they can't do much to the ghostly ettin. If we have to engage it, we might have problems. It can see through invisibility, so passing it might not work that well. Plan A will be to lure it out of the way using a character with the boots of speed. If that doesn't work, we'll see if we can send its spirit on to the next world... Hopefully we don't need to talk to any of the now-smashed crusader guards.
In sum, the rules are now: if it is already dead and still talking, leave it alone. If it will get out of the way and allow us to continue on towards Dragonspear Castle unmolested, leave it alone. If it has giant wings and a tail, or two spectral heads, leave it well alone.
We'll see what happens when Cavan and team try to avoid certain death... next on Days of our SoD Lives....
We picked off all the mages while dragging poor Imoen from the caves. We finally came across two fearsome snow golems, and the last mage. We -could- have backstabbed and fought him in a long whinded risky battle with more confusion spells. Or.
"Prepare for the Nuclear Option" is our new battlecry. We got out, and after starting the werewolf isle, Cedvar got his best backstab yet. 98.
Back home, we came across a bug. Two of one of the greater werewolves had double spawned ontop of eachother, and we had to do some shady backstab work to seperate and kill two of the same NPC. weird stuff, but I felt it justified and moved on with the no reloads run. With Khalid and Cedvar double teaming with Baldur's sword and the dagger, we cleaned house.
Next up, Durlag's Tower.
Cedvar: Level 9 Thief
Imoen: Level 7 Thief/ Level 7 Mage
Khalid: Level 7 Fighter
Jahiera: Level 7 Fighter/Level 8 Druid
Coran: Level 6 Fighter/ Level 7 Thief
Kivan: Level 6 Ranger
Inside Spellhold I this time gave up a point of intelligence in the dream (keeping the spare point of dexterity to give up in the Hell Trials). Solving a set of riddles got me to level 20 and I made quick progress through the first level - the planetar sorting out the lich for me.
I rested on exiting the level, triggering the slayer change safely, before sending some skeletons to beat up Lonk. As last time a few energy blades cut Irenicus up
In the Underdark learning a few spells got me to level 22. I helped out the svirfneblin and cleared the giant soul gem before emptying the Western Tunnels with the help of a planetar - getting to level 23. I then tried to help Vithal, but carelessly summoned skeletons too close to him and he was annoyed by a wild surge fireball
Summons killed the elder orb in the beholder hive
Back in Athkatla I picked up a few bits of stored equipment and bought some scrolls. I still wanted to purchase a few more though so decided to go and ransack the de'Arnise Hold to raise funds. I didn't bother maximising XP gained there, but still got up to level 24 before finishing off TorGal and his companions with a sequencer skull trap.
Returning to Elhan I entered into Suldanesselar and went through there with minimal conflict (though still enough to get up to level 26). Just for fun I set up another skull trap surprise for Nizi. However, in trying to lead him into that I was entangled by a wild surge and had no farsight to pinpoint the location - and settled for tying him down with summons while casting direct damage spells.
On the Tree I didn't muck about, but just left a skeleton behind for Jon to play with after killing the parasites before sending in the planetar to finish him off.
In Hell I took the same benefits as last time from the Trials, but this time remembered to rest and set up summons before confronting Jon. That made the battle pretty easy.
@Corey_Russell You said: Wise - I think it is in part random, because I have gotten wide variety of gold amounts, even for similar characters/classes. If you start with 3 party members, then you have maybe easy solution - make sure at least one character is max locks (if thief), or one character is barbarian (Kai can open it), then get the sapphire at Winthrop's Inn. : ) Then you got plenty gold for your equipment.
I didn't have any problems with it myself. On this occasion my Paladin had Cha 18 and so gained the knife +1 without trying. I have recieved 100 gp in every single game.
In my previous game my barbarian opened the chest with the 1000gp gem in it.
I also know that a thief can pickpocket the knife.
You used to be able to kill Fuller or Hull to get their weaponry. Is that option still open? I know that killing Firebead or Phlydia is no longer an option.
However the prologue is supposed to be relatively easy even for newcomers to the game.
I modded my game by giving the assassins better equipment to make it more of a challenge. The side-effect of that is that my thief had quite good equipment after killing them. I actually had to nerf my original modification as the equipment was so good that it unbalanced the later game and party thieves became uber-powerful.
I presume that you mean pickpocket him. Is that right?
Lina gave a very satisfying "massage" at the FAI.
Afterwards he headed northwards and helped Joia, a woman being pestered by an undead husband, and finally helping Tenya in her struggle against some evil fishermen. This brought him to level 3 with proficiencies ** in axes and *** in dual wielding.