1st dungeon is cleared. Imoen apperantly doesn't want to travel with us, and got replaced by Safana. Safana got killed on a narrow bridge (my "helpers" convinently blocked the retreat path), and I dropped her. I don't like her. Killed the main bad girl there. I may play a paladin, but..
Anyhow, took Glint & Corvin. I only need a mage now and I'm set. I have no idea where Neera is, Edwin doesn't like Minsc so he's out, and i've yet to find where Dorn resides. I found a cave with some undead, and a dwarf want me to go in. Great, what can go wrong? Many things apperantly. Cought with my pants down, resulted in this:
No NPP, but good AC works here (kind of). Corvin gets held, so does Minsc. They both die, my protagonist gets drained to level *4*. FFS. I had one option, drink an invis potion. But they're all on Glint. F**king s**t, cornered. Can't get there. Fight, brave son of Bhaal. Make room to run.
RUUUUUN!
I quaff the potion asap. Drained to level 2. Bats follow anyway, I run out of the area to get some clerical aid. I also raise all dead, but have no money to heal left. I'm afraid to rest since equipment they had might disspear. Back in, charge. Glint & Minsc die immidiately, but I pull us through.
I go back, sell some potentially useful stuff, raise the dead, rest, and we're back in that cave. Now I request some spoilers please - I'm in a room with pillars and a locked door that says something about pillars (doors are locked and can't be opened). Every time I click on a pillar some Mephits spawn. How many Mephits are there? I've killed three batches of Fire Mephits, one batch of others, doors won't budge. Am I missing something?
@Aasim living on the edge in the undead cave! That's pretty rough treatment there from the locals.
If you want spoilers about the pillar room:
If you click on the pillars out of order you get mephits. The clue to the proper order is in one of the books you may have gotten in the first library room as you entered this floor. If you do it right, you get a little flash at the top of the pillar, but no mephits. So click them one at a time and if you get the order right, after the 4th one, the door will open.
If you do it wrong, you'll be fighting mephits forever.
Cavan suffered a lot near those stupid pillars before he realized there must be a better way.
Thanks; I'll return there later since I'm inpatient to get my party assembled and I don't want them to waste XP. And given my experience with level draining in SoD, Dorn will be useful in that cave I guess - if I can just find him.
Exited the cave for now, I want Dorn with me there since Glint has but one level 4 spell slot and I have better ways to use it than NPP. Did much of the wilderness stuff, killed the vampire (no level drain! hooray.) I don't know if this is SCS modifiying the vamp, but a lot of wolves spawned and they chewed through the mage there.
Killed a lot of spiders. Oddly enough, in my previous run (swashbuckler) I met some giant beetles in this area I think who wanted to eat the eggs. I killed them last time, this time they weren't there. Doesn't matter anyway.
Ofc, there was TEH DRAGON there also. Knowing he does poison damage I use green scrolls on Corwin & Gares, Minsc has Spider's Bane (immunity to Web & Poison with IR) and Glint will gtfo anyway. I can't just let a dragon sleep, so I buff - Potion of Defence, Cavalier's own Shield of Faith, Barkskin, Aid, Armor of Faith - let's see what happens now.
Can't touch this..
He falls rather quickly - I doubt SCS modifies his HP pool. Only damage he did was to Buffets.
Now I have scales and no idea who makes armor (hint appreciated!).
We explored the cave further. I must say it kinda reminded me of Icewind Dale for some reason. Also, the new items found seem to be heavilly inspired by Item Revisions mod @Demivrgvs ? Not that I mind, just that they kinda "stand out" from usual BG loot. Also, new animations are AWESOME. That tentacle monster is just *wow*. We still killed everything however, regardless of how it looks.
The final "boss" seems to be a Mind Flayer. I used up a Clarity vs him, and ended up having more trouble vs the archer & mage there then him. That's some accuracy he's got.
I released the prisoners, gained access to the camp, used a portal, found Neera, got everyone level drained to some hidden force (radiation ftw!), and assaulted the camp. Confusion+Detonation arrows+Wand of Fire+Ice storm kinda did them.
The army helped as well. Found Dorn, yea! He doesn't have *any* equipment. I gave him that anti-troll sword for now. He rolled miserably for HP and I'll likely disband him. Now we have some new quests to do, like finding Skie. Always getting into trouble...I should have killed her in BG1. But that's for later, now I'm off to mephit portals.
@Aasim: On many occasions I've lost all but one party member and was forced to run away and raise the dead, and I too avoided resting for fear I'd lose my equipment. In fact, in my run of SoD (it's buried somewhere in this thread), I lost all five NPCs in that same area.
I accidentally turned the dwarven clerics hostile, which meant I didn't have the anti-lich item when the lich attacked me for snooping around.
I'm still trying to avoid SoD spoilers so didn't read most of the recent posts, but did note Aasim having trouble in the cave that ended my last couple of solo attempts - without even getting to the main enemy there ...
After playing solo for a while I thought I'd have yet another go with an old party favourite
Phantasmic 6 {59} - monks party (update 1)
Using a BGT + SCS & Ascension setup my initial aim is to fully explore all maps and undertake all encounters in BG1 with the exception of Durlag's Tower. A significant added difficulty with this challenge is that no party deaths are allowed.
It's so far, so good for them with everyone surviving up to level 5. HPs are somewhat below average (and feel even more so given that I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side), but I've been pretty successful so far in avoiding damage to them (by using missiles and stealth attacks) and will be aiming to continue that ...
@Blind_Visionary Re Dorn - thanks, you're being extra helpful. He didn't have anything special on him, but Displacement Cloak isn't too shabby and Sword of Chaos is also decent enough.
@semiticgod Well, I'll definitely look for your run of SoD after I'm done with it (I hope I won't die this time, at least not prior to final battle; I feel as if I've missed a lot of SoD stuff for some reason. I don't want to read too many spoilers about it so if I need help I prefer to ask here for a specific hint rather than googling for a walkthrough)
@Grond0 I'll notify you if I get to Amn. Btw, you said "I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side". Is it changed?
ROFLMAO. I'm level 10 ffs! On a more serious note - Gares downs a Magic Shielding potion asap. I'm reluctant to use those, but situation is most dire it seems. My party can't help me since there's a Web blocking the path.
Gares downs few potions while taking spells from the dwarf. Web expires, Corwin joins in, Lich dispels here (just a sidenote - IR potions are undispellable by default. I make them dispellable for my game - they end up being a bit too expensive but cest la vie). Corvin manages to cause spell failure on him. This shouldn't have happened. I have that "concentration tweak" enabled and moreover, Lich took no damage from her attacks.
It dies.
I raise Minsc before venturing further, and we're back. I open the door, and what a surprise. Round two I guess. PW:Kill; PW:Stun, Time Stop, PfMW. Neera's line kinda sums it up.
I kinda had an idea about where the box should be destroyed, so I send Dorn to take care of it. It takes a while for him to get there, but he succeeds. Minsc dies during Dorn's long walk.
Some time later, dwarf lich is dead as well.
Now, where is the treasure? I found *1* single diamond on his remains. FFS...
@Blind_Visionary @Grond0 I'll notify you if I get to Amn. Btw, you said "I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side". Is it changed?
@Aasim I don't think it's been changed intentionally, but I'm personally convinced something is not 'right'. From first playing EE I noted that HPs tended to be higher than in BGT games, but since the last update that tendency seems to have increased substantially. I guess I've had something like 60 characters in v2.3 at high enough levels to make a judgement and I don't remember a single one having HPs below the expected average based on their rolls. I have seen a discussion of this on the Forum a while ago, which included someone running a test to confirm the random number generator was working properly and I think that's correct. To me it feels like there's some underlying bias been introduced specific to HPs - similar in concept to the higher HPs given in NWN, though not identical to that.
I understand all the arguments about sample size, perceptual bias etc and don't really want to rehash those - I'm comfortable just making my own judgement on this . Incidentally, the vast majority of my characters have been solo, so while I'm sure that something is going on with PC HPs, I don't know whether that's the case with NPCs as well.
Re the armour, you will have to wait until you get to Bridgefort where Jegg will make the armour or shield. The armour/shield is free, and there is a choice between armour and a shield. Since my PC was a barbarian, I opted for the shield as he couldn't wear the armour.
After playing solo for a while I thought I'd have yet another go with an old party favourite Phantasmic 6 {59} - monks party (update 1) Using a BGT + SCS & Ascension setup my initial aim is to fully explore all maps and undertake all encounters in BG1 with the exception of Durlag's Tower. A significant added difficulty with this challenge is that no party deaths are allowed.
Why miss out Durlag's Tower? Yes you will already have hit the experience cap if you have one. Yes, you lose the equipment upon entering Amn, but it is fun. I play it every once in a while just for variety
@Blind_Visionary @Grond0 I'll notify you if I get to Amn. Btw, you said "I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side". Is it changed?
@Aasim I don't think it's been changed intentionally, but I'm personally convinced something is not 'right'. From first playing EE I noted that HPs tended to be higher than in BGT games, but since the last update that tendency seems to have increased substantially. I guess I've had something like 60 characters in v2.3 at high enough levels to make a judgement and I don't remember a single one having HPs below the expected average based on their rolls. I have seen a discussion of this on the Forum a while ago, which included someone running a test to confirm the random number generator was working properly and I think that's correct. To me it feels like there's some underlying bias been introduced specific to HPs - similar in concept to the higher HPs given in NWN, though not identical to that.
I understand all the arguments about sample size, perceptual bias etc and don't really want to rehash those - I'm comfortable just making my own judgement on this . Incidentally, the vast majority of my characters have been solo, so while I'm sure that something is going on with PC HPs, I don't know whether that's the case with NPCs as well.
@Grond0 Tbh, I have that feeling also. I use slightly modified HP tables (1d10 for fighters is 2d5) but I also notice the difference from BGT. Especially Dorn, who doesn't get high CON bonus, still consistently rolls above average. Protagonist's worst roll was 8, other than that he rolls mostly >10. In my first run with a swashbuckler, I also witnessed fairly high rolls on both Jaheira and Viconia. Glad to know I'm not being paranoid or something.
Why miss out Durlag's Tower? Yes you will already have hit the experience cap if you have one. Yes, you lose the equipment upon entering Amn, but it is fun. I play it every once in a while just for variety
For the reason why not see the rest of my post - in particular that any monk dying ends the run. Relative to other fighting classes in BG1 monks have very low HPs, poor AC and are susceptible to criticals - that all means that avoiding any deaths during a run involving thousands of enemy casualties is not easy (particularly given the SCS tendency to target and finish off wounded enemies) . I have tested the monks in Durlags and it is possible to make progress there, but it's a long way from guaranteed. My requirement that all encounters must be undertaken means in particular that the backstabs from the Ashirukurus have a significant chance of killing someone. Maybe if I ever complete the challenge without Durlags I'll add the Tower in on a future occasion ...
@Grond0 That makes a lot of sense. SCS changesn things a lot. Don't have it currently because of incompatibility with Dragonspear.
@Aasim,. Putting spoiler tags in is wise as even those of us who have completed SoD haven't completed it in its entireity, unlike BG1 and BG2 where most readers will know it pretty thoroughly otherwise we wouldn't be trying no reloads. In the Bioware no reloads forum there was a consensus that warnings would be given regarding SoD content. Glad that that consensus is being carried on here. In a year or two, attitudes to that will probably change.
An easier way of inserting spoiler tags is to select the part of the post that you want hidden, click the format button, and select "spoiler".
Y'all are brave, or crazy, or both! I took a significantly more timid approach to these encounters.
@Aasim, I am amazed that you didn't see your party wiped there. @semiticgod, I'm having a lot of fun reading your posts from a few months ago. I'm even more shocked that you pulled through that battle. Impressive is an understatement!!
Further down the weasel hole we go. Met a dragon, rather underwhelming this time. Breath attack forces a death save seems to do nothing if save is succesfull. I have a feeling that this "hammer" approach I'm taking in SoD may not be the only or the best way to solve quests. We're pretty much killing everyone we meet. Dialogue? What's that?
The area behind the dragon led to an utterly horrible battle. Mages + Undead. Plus, they came from behind. AND, the dragon was there again.
Kill it, before it lays eggs!
One by one, my comrades die. Neera, in desperation, slams Fireballs from wand on charmed Dorn. Fire galore, but even with my protagonist's outstanding AC, criticals+spells hurt immensly.
I ended up wasting one more Magic Shielding potion and a bunch of big healing potions, depleting the wand of fire almost completely - but we're ALIVE. Incredible, Neera survived the onslaught.
Ok, back to camp, raise dead, go back in. Met water elementals and a mage. Let's kill it. Turns out, this might have been a disaster. With SR, Shadow Door spell has a Maze effect on nearby targets. It allows a save, but both Minsc & my PC have poor spells save - and they vanish. Given their INT scores, they'd be lost there for a while. Crap...
If Gares didn't come out of the maze this could have easilly been a game-ending battle. With him tanking and Minsc showing up moments later, we'd be gone. This battle actually lasted quite a while - enough for Dorn, neera and the gnome to die.
Deeper in the castle - Neera does some magic of hers and gets level drained. Great. And ofc, there is a battle there. Again, enemies come from all sides, with casters, golems and all kind of crap.
We bombard the area with fireballs and detonation arrows, we get caught in the blast but I have no choice - the sheer number of enemies is incredible. As a SoD standard for me - Dorn, Minsc and Glint die. Archeress is always dead. Protagonist gets str-drained from undead. Neera takes heavy punishment, gets confused and wonders off (Important!).
My protagonist fights like a beast, and prevails. Every round is a healing potion, one Magic Shielding used as well.
Belly of the beast?! I AM THE BEAST!
Moments later, I go scouting the area, and trigger a maze trap. If Neera was dead, it would be all over. This, this is love...her 2 HP left saved my a**.
With nothing more to do I pick up a fantastic armor set that puts Red Dragon plate to shame and return to camp; which we defended rather easilly. We're now en route to Dragonspear (finally!)
I'll be quick about it, even if battle was all *but* quick. I'm surprised I had no lag there. I let my allies go in first, cleaned up the first wave with little AoE spells I had. Ice Storm+Flame jars+one Fireball - not much left; no Detonation arrows either.
Then, an angle-type creature says it's enough and challenges me to a duel. Great, I tought. If Gares can tank dragons he might as well tank this creep. However, the moment "duel" started, my enemy leaves the area, battle resumes, half of my party is dead and we're surrounded. Not cool. So not cool.
I can't say if this is a bug, a trick, or I've done something wrong in that duel (I drank a potion asap, if that matters). I lost all my firepower in one single round, bar Minsc. He died just few rounds after that - enemy mages are proving to be rather annoying, and neera doesn't have Dispel memorized. She's only level 9 anyway so I doubt it would work often. And she was already dead.
Now I had Glint & Gares to work with. I can't do much - enemies are too numerous to handle. I run back, and lead them to my allies (I tought everyone was dead! Lovely surprise seeing blue-circled people here) With their help, I had no more problems dealing with enemy groups, and apperantly we won the battle. What awaits us now, I don't know.
P.S. I've never, ever played a No-Reload with so many deaths on my side. SoD is turning into a bloodbath.
I just don't like to discuss my matters with dragons. To Nine Hells with them all; that's what I say. On a more serious note - let's just say I'm fairly confident about my PC's ability to handle such creatures. The one thing Gares is vulnerable to is level drain. Other than that, I fear nothing. I had a lich throw ADHW at me, I've witnessed people dying to PW:Kill. What's a dragon gonna do, fart at us? And to be perfectly honest - even if Gares died here, I wouln't be awfully regreting it. I regret having Neera and not Edwin. I regret taking Dorn. Those were the mistakes I made, and I won't be repeating them any time soon. If I had the chance, I'd swap Dorn for Jaheira and Neera for Edwin. I'd even kick out Minsc for Edwin but I've invested too much in him (I even gave him DEX and INT tomes) to let him go.
Final SoD update on Gares Bog.
As it turned out, the battle outside the castle was harder then what was left to face. The hardest thing was finding a cleric to raise my dead. After that done, we travel in the castle, go to Hell itself, and succeed in making a devil angry. How cool is that?
I'm happy to show them my skill and expertise.
I buff downstairs. Everyone but Glint gets Pro Fire Scroll (tnx @Blind_Visionary ). Chaotic Commands for Gares, Clarities & Freedom potions for the rest. Def Harmony/Chant/Pro Fear, Haste on Gares & Minsc, Dispelling Screen to cover us and we're off.
Indeed, we don't know what we're heading into.
I have a discussion with the Shining lady there. I didn't really like the whole reason behind the crusade etc. Kinda lame. Even worse, I took her help. Now looking back at it, I should have killed her and the devil and whatever else was there. Bleh.
Was it fear? Roleplaying? I don't know. As I am writing this, I question my decision. She should have been chopped where she stood. Be that as it may (she'll die next time I play), there was still the issue of the demon. We can't really hurt him - I've found a +3 Hammer (worthless since it can cast Earthquake on self - the spell is *very* dangerous with SR), a +3 spear (no one has pips in it) but I have Piercing arrows (+3 with IR) and some generic +3 arrows & bolts. It should be enough, provided Corwin stays alive. Minsc goes for the transforming mage-whatever that is, Gares tanks Belhifet, Caelar also attacks melee, Corwin takes distance and blasts away. Dorn tries to shoot but some devils are onto him so switches to melee.
Sure enough, Balhifet targets Glint with his fire attack, but it's kinda weak - Glint just walks out of it with his 50% Fire Res (potion). Meanwhile, Minsc downs the mage-transformed to demon thing. Hahaa! Feel the burning stare of my hamster!
Devil tries to hide, but there's no hiding now....
He opens a Gate, and dies.
Overall, very easy battle. Too easy. I found some random encounters during SoD much more challenging than this. Hell, even fungus was more challenging. I wonder if having Shining lady as an enemy would make matters more exciting...
Well, off to BG2.
Here's Gares, entering his BG2 No-Reload challenge.
Here's where things should get interesting. I'll use DBGone to exit the damn dungeon, as always. Neera will be disbanded for good, I've no patience for her nonsense. Dorn I'll see if I can get given he wants paladins slain, Minsc stays with me, Nalia will be onboard, I'll need another mage (probably Aerie) and the rest I'll think about later.
Some final toughts on SoD, given this is the first time I played through it.
It's not much like BG1 or BG2, but it's good. Dialogues & voicing is nice. Battles are exciting, maybe the sheer number of enemies is too big. The fact you loose your party after 1st dungeon isn't something I like, but I can live with it. New items are (bar the Full plate with fire resistance) fairly balanced and feel fresh in BG world. In my travels I haven't found the goblin NPC - may be due to the fact that I have Autopause-enemy sighted and in the begining Corwin kinda blasted a lot of stuff with Detonation arrows, so the goblin might have died. I don't know. Cavalier protagonist (Kit Rev version) was fantastic. Sporting an un-buffed AC of -8 (extra vs all weapon types due to Bluntness Girdle), RoFA and Lawgiver (Confusion immunity), his inborn Charm and Fear (pricesless) immunity, he was unstoppable. Minsc (always a barbarian in my games) decent, but relatively bad AC had him dying a bit too often. I expect that to change in BG2 however. Late-game barbarian is a sight to behold. Dorn was a big let-down. He comes to late to be of any real use; only advantage he has is Fear immunity- but bad AC and bad HP make him a sub-par character in my book. I usually didn't even have time to use Poison or Aura, he died so quickly in battles. Glint is great. I found a way to bypass that nonsensical "thieving button under special abilities" thingie (just bind "thieving" to a hotkey, "T" in my case) so he wasn't that heavy on micro, decent stats, decent personality. Overall my favourite NPC I guess, I'd take him in BG2 as well. Corwin - she's good. I gave her Long Bow of Marksmanship (extra 10% crit chance with IR) and she was as deadly as it gets. There's also a lot of archer equipment available so she ended up with 18 dex. Neera - useless in No-Reloads. I had two surges, one Sex change, one I can't remember (some nonsense anyhow). I was afraid to cast spells with her. She died so often she barely hit level 10 in Hell. Won't be using her anymore. Edwin is twice the mage she is anyhow. Her quest seems complicated and she's always talking nonsense; one Jan is enough for BG world. Other NPCs I haven't tried. Rashad has a kit I haven't modified (and KR modifies only vanilla monks) so I skipped him, albeit I might to something about Sun Soul monks myself so I can play him. I didn't like the ending. Feels hastily done, the "big cahuna of hell" is a pathetic nemesis, Shining Lady's final lines about the Crusade and her reasoning behind it stroke me as very unconvincing for some reason. And that Skie....ffs. I *knew* I had to kill her in BG1. Always gets in trouble. New graphics are fantastic, I can't wait for modders to begin to take advantage of the new creature animations.
A good game. Reccomended. May not be BG (for good or bad), but it's good. Overall, I'd rate it 8.0 - 8.5/10.
Comments
1st dungeon is cleared. Imoen apperantly doesn't want to travel with us, and got replaced by Safana. Safana got killed on a narrow bridge (my "helpers" convinently blocked the retreat path), and I dropped her. I don't like her.
Killed the main bad girl there. I may play a paladin, but..
Anyhow, took Glint & Corvin. I only need a mage now and I'm set. I have no idea where Neera is, Edwin doesn't like Minsc so he's out, and i've yet to find where Dorn resides.
I found a cave with some undead, and a dwarf want me to go in. Great, what can go wrong? Many things apperantly.
Cought with my pants down, resulted in this:
No NPP, but good AC works here (kind of). Corvin gets held, so does Minsc. They both die, my protagonist gets drained to level *4*. FFS. I had one option, drink an invis potion. But they're all on Glint. F**king s**t, cornered. Can't get there.
Fight, brave son of Bhaal. Make room to run.
RUUUUUN!
I quaff the potion asap. Drained to level 2. Bats follow anyway, I run out of the area to get some clerical aid. I also raise all dead, but have no money to heal left.
I'm afraid to rest since equipment they had might disspear.
Back in, charge.
Glint & Minsc die immidiately, but I pull us through.
I go back, sell some potentially useful stuff, raise the dead, rest, and we're back in that cave.
Now I request some spoilers please - I'm in a room with pillars and a locked door that says something about pillars (doors are locked and can't be opened). Every time I click on a pillar some Mephits spawn. How many Mephits are there? I've killed three batches of Fire Mephits, one batch of others, doors won't budge. Am I missing something?
If you want spoilers about the pillar room:
If you click on the pillars out of order you get mephits. The clue to the proper order is in one of the books you may have gotten in the first library room as you entered this floor. If you do it right, you get a little flash at the top of the pillar, but no mephits. So click them one at a time and if you get the order right, after the 4th one, the door will open.
If you do it wrong, you'll be fighting mephits forever.
Cavan suffered a lot near those stupid pillars before he realized there must be a better way.
Exited the cave for now, I want Dorn with me there since Glint has but one level 4 spell slot and I have better ways to use it than NPP.
Did much of the wilderness stuff, killed the vampire (no level drain! hooray.) I don't know if this is SCS modifiying the vamp, but a lot of wolves spawned and they chewed through the mage there.
Killed a lot of spiders. Oddly enough, in my previous run (swashbuckler) I met some giant beetles in this area I think who wanted to eat the eggs. I killed them last time, this time they weren't there. Doesn't matter anyway.
Ofc, there was TEH DRAGON there also. Knowing he does poison damage I use green scrolls on Corwin & Gares, Minsc has Spider's Bane (immunity to Web & Poison with IR) and Glint will gtfo anyway.
I can't just let a dragon sleep, so I buff - Potion of Defence, Cavalier's own Shield of Faith, Barkskin, Aid, Armor of Faith - let's see what happens now.
Can't touch this..
He falls rather quickly - I doubt SCS modifies his HP pool. Only damage he did was to Buffets.
Now I have scales and no idea who makes armor (hint appreciated!).
We explored the cave further. I must say it kinda reminded me of Icewind Dale for some reason. Also, the new items found seem to be heavilly inspired by Item Revisions mod @Demivrgvs ? Not that I mind, just that they kinda "stand out" from usual BG loot.
Also, new animations are AWESOME. That tentacle monster is just *wow*. We still killed everything however, regardless of how it looks.
The final "boss" seems to be a Mind Flayer. I used up a Clarity vs him, and ended up having more trouble vs the archer & mage there then him. That's some accuracy he's got.
I released the prisoners, gained access to the camp, used a portal, found Neera, got everyone level drained to some hidden force (radiation ftw!), and assaulted the camp. Confusion+Detonation arrows+Wand of Fire+Ice storm kinda did them.
The army helped as well. Found Dorn, yea! He doesn't have *any* equipment. I gave him that anti-troll sword for now. He rolled miserably for HP and I'll likely disband him. Now we have some new quests to do, like finding Skie. Always getting into trouble...I should have killed her in BG1. But that's for later, now I'm off to mephit portals.
Re: Dorn's equipment if you care to know:
Don't forget to search all the containers near the cage he was locked up in.
I accidentally turned the dwarven clerics hostile, which meant I didn't have the anti-lich item when the lich attacked me for snooping around.
After playing solo for a while I thought I'd have yet another go with an old party favourite
Phantasmic 6 {59} - monks party (update 1)
Using a BGT + SCS & Ascension setup my initial aim is to fully explore all maps and undertake all encounters in BG1 with the exception of Durlag's Tower. A significant added difficulty with this challenge is that no party deaths are allowed.
It's so far, so good for them with everyone surviving up to level 5. HPs are somewhat below average (and feel even more so given that I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side), but I've been pretty successful so far in avoiding damage to them (by using missiles and stealth attacks) and will be aiming to continue that ...
Chimera - L5, 29 HPs, 54 kills
Spectre - L5, 41 HPs, 61 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L5, 31 HPs, 45 kills, 0 deaths
Wraith - L5, 29 HPs, 56 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L5, 38 HPs, 41 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L5, 37 HPs, 38 kills, 0 deaths
Re Dorn - thanks, you're being extra helpful. He didn't have anything special on him, but Displacement Cloak isn't too shabby and Sword of Chaos is also decent enough.
@semiticgod
Well, I'll definitely look for your run of SoD after I'm done with it (I hope I won't die this time, at least not prior to final battle; I feel as if I've missed a lot of SoD stuff for some reason. I don't want to read too many spoilers about it so if I need help I prefer to ask here for a specific hint rather than googling for a walkthrough)
@Grond0
I'll notify you if I get to Amn. Btw, you said "I've been playing so much with the EE where HPs are always on the high side". Is it changed?
P.S.
GL with your monks.
Umm..cute.
ROFLMAO. I'm level 10 ffs!
On a more serious note - Gares downs a Magic Shielding potion asap. I'm reluctant to use those, but situation is most dire it seems. My party can't help me since there's a Web blocking the path.
Gares downs few potions while taking spells from the dwarf. Web expires, Corwin joins in, Lich dispels here (just a sidenote - IR potions are undispellable by default. I make them dispellable for my game - they end up being a bit too expensive but cest la vie).
Corvin manages to cause spell failure on him. This shouldn't have happened. I have that "concentration tweak" enabled and moreover, Lich took no damage from her attacks.
It dies.
I raise Minsc before venturing further, and we're back. I open the door, and what a surprise. Round two I guess.
PW:Kill; PW:Stun, Time Stop, PfMW. Neera's line kinda sums it up.
I kinda had an idea about where the box should be destroyed, so I send Dorn to take care of it. It takes a while for him to get there, but he succeeds. Minsc dies during Dorn's long walk.
Some time later, dwarf lich is dead as well.
Now, where is the treasure? I found *1* single diamond on his remains. FFS...
I understand all the arguments about sample size, perceptual bias etc and don't really want to rehash those - I'm comfortable just making my own judgement on this
Tbh, I have that feeling also. I use slightly modified HP tables (1d10 for fighters is 2d5) but I also notice the difference from BGT. Especially Dorn, who doesn't get high CON bonus, still consistently rolls above average. Protagonist's worst roll was 8, other than that he rolls mostly >10.
In my first run with a swashbuckler, I also witnessed fairly high rolls on both Jaheira and Viconia.
Glad to know I'm not being paranoid or something.
Rather short, I've met some Bowmasters. My my...those Sword&shield pips really payed off here.
Minsc and Corvin died before I could blink.
You can add them [ spoiler] here goes the spoiler [ /spoiler] - delete spaces after [
@Aasim,. Putting spoiler tags in is wise as even those of us who have completed SoD haven't completed it in its entireity, unlike BG1 and BG2 where most readers will know it pretty thoroughly otherwise we wouldn't be trying no reloads. In the Bioware no reloads forum there was a consensus that warnings would be given regarding SoD content. Glad that that consensus is being carried on here. In a year or two, attitudes to that will probably change.
An easier way of inserting spoiler tags is to select the part of the post that you want hidden, click the format button, and select "spoiler".
@Aasim, I am amazed that you didn't see your party wiped there. @semiticgod, I'm having a lot of fun reading your posts from a few months ago. I'm even more shocked that you pulled through that battle. Impressive is an understatement!!
Further down the weasel hole we go. Met a dragon, rather underwhelming this time. Breath attack forces a death save seems to do nothing if save is succesfull. I have a feeling that this "hammer" approach I'm taking in SoD may not be the only or the best way to solve quests. We're pretty much killing everyone we meet.
Dialogue? What's that?
The area behind the dragon led to an utterly horrible battle. Mages + Undead. Plus, they came from behind.
AND, the dragon was there again.
Kill it, before it lays eggs!
One by one, my comrades die. Neera, in desperation, slams Fireballs from wand on charmed Dorn. Fire galore, but even with my protagonist's outstanding AC, criticals+spells hurt immensly.
I ended up wasting one more Magic Shielding potion and a bunch of big healing potions, depleting the wand of fire almost completely - but we're ALIVE. Incredible, Neera survived the onslaught.
Ok, back to camp, raise dead, go back in. Met water elementals and a mage. Let's kill it. Turns out, this might have been a disaster. With SR, Shadow Door spell has a Maze effect on nearby targets. It allows a save, but both Minsc & my PC have poor spells save - and they vanish. Given their INT scores, they'd be lost there for a while. Crap...
Here we go again....
If Gares didn't come out of the maze this could have easilly been a game-ending battle. With him tanking and Minsc showing up moments later, we'd be gone. This battle actually lasted quite a while - enough for Dorn, neera and the gnome to die.
Deeper in the castle - Neera does some magic of hers and gets level drained. Great. And ofc, there is a battle there. Again, enemies come from all sides, with casters, golems and all kind of crap.
We bombard the area with fireballs and detonation arrows, we get caught in the blast but I have no choice - the sheer number of enemies is incredible.
As a SoD standard for me - Dorn, Minsc and Glint die. Archeress is always dead. Protagonist gets str-drained from undead. Neera takes heavy punishment, gets confused and wonders off (Important!).
My protagonist fights like a beast, and prevails. Every round is a healing potion, one Magic Shielding used as well.
Belly of the beast?! I AM THE BEAST!
Moments later, I go scouting the area, and trigger a maze trap. If Neera was dead, it would be all over.
This, this is love...her 2 HP left saved my a**.
With nothing more to do I pick up a fantastic armor set that puts Red Dragon plate to shame and return to camp; which we defended rather easilly. We're now en route to Dragonspear (finally!)
I'll be quick about it, even if battle was all *but* quick. I'm surprised I had no lag there. I let my allies go in first, cleaned up the first wave with little AoE spells I had. Ice Storm+Flame jars+one Fireball - not much left; no Detonation arrows either.
Then, an angle-type creature says it's enough and challenges me to a duel. Great, I tought. If Gares can tank dragons he might as well tank this creep. However, the moment "duel" started, my enemy leaves the area, battle resumes, half of my party is dead and we're surrounded.
Not cool. So not cool.
I can't say if this is a bug, a trick, or I've done something wrong in that duel (I drank a potion asap, if that matters).
I lost all my firepower in one single round, bar Minsc.
He died just few rounds after that - enemy mages are proving to be rather annoying, and neera doesn't have Dispel memorized. She's only level 9 anyway so I doubt it would work often. And she was already dead.
Now I had Glint & Gares to work with. I can't do much - enemies are too numerous to handle. I run back, and lead them to my allies (I tought everyone was dead! Lovely surprise seeing blue-circled people here)
With their help, I had no more problems dealing with enemy groups, and apperantly we won the battle. What awaits us now, I don't know.
P.S.
I've never, ever played a No-Reload with so many deaths on my side. SoD is turning into a bloodbath.
Attacked the spectral dragon.
That is such an insane thing to do in a blind no-reload!
Here's to Gares Bog's continued survival, even as he walks the razor's edge!
I just don't like to discuss my matters with dragons. To Nine Hells with them all; that's what I say. On a more serious note - let's just say I'm fairly confident about my PC's ability to handle such creatures. The one thing Gares is vulnerable to is level drain. Other than that, I fear nothing. I had a lich throw ADHW at me, I've witnessed people dying to PW:Kill. What's a dragon gonna do, fart at us?
And to be perfectly honest - even if Gares died here, I wouln't be awfully regreting it. I regret having Neera and not Edwin. I regret taking Dorn. Those were the mistakes I made, and I won't be repeating them any time soon. If I had the chance, I'd swap Dorn for Jaheira and Neera for Edwin. I'd even kick out Minsc for Edwin but I've invested too much in him (I even gave him DEX and INT tomes) to let him go.
Final SoD update on Gares Bog.
As it turned out, the battle outside the castle was harder then what was left to face. The hardest thing was finding a cleric to raise my dead. After that done, we travel in the castle, go to Hell itself, and succeed in making a devil angry. How cool is that?
I'm happy to show them my skill and expertise.
I buff downstairs. Everyone but Glint gets Pro Fire Scroll (tnx @Blind_Visionary ). Chaotic Commands for Gares, Clarities & Freedom potions for the rest. Def Harmony/Chant/Pro Fear, Haste on Gares & Minsc, Dispelling Screen to cover us and we're off.
Indeed, we don't know what we're heading into.
I have a discussion with the Shining lady there. I didn't really like the whole reason behind the crusade etc. Kinda lame. Even worse, I took her help. Now looking back at it, I should have killed her and the devil and whatever else was there. Bleh.
Was it fear? Roleplaying? I don't know. As I am writing this, I question my decision. She should have been chopped where she stood. Be that as it may (she'll die next time I play), there was still the issue of the demon.
We can't really hurt him - I've found a +3 Hammer (worthless since it can cast Earthquake on self - the spell is *very* dangerous with SR), a +3 spear (no one has pips in it) but I have Piercing arrows (+3 with IR) and some generic +3 arrows & bolts. It should be enough, provided Corwin stays alive. Minsc goes for the transforming mage-whatever that is, Gares tanks Belhifet, Caelar also attacks melee, Corwin takes distance and blasts away. Dorn tries to shoot but some devils are onto him so switches to melee.
Sure enough, Balhifet targets Glint with his fire attack, but it's kinda weak - Glint just walks out of it with his 50% Fire Res (potion).
Meanwhile, Minsc downs the mage-transformed to demon thing.
Hahaa! Feel the burning stare of my hamster!
Devil tries to hide, but there's no hiding now....
He opens a Gate, and dies.
Overall, very easy battle. Too easy. I found some random encounters during SoD much more challenging than this. Hell, even fungus was more challenging. I wonder if having Shining lady as an enemy would make matters more exciting...
Well, off to BG2.
Here's Gares, entering his BG2 No-Reload challenge.
Here's where things should get interesting. I'll use DBGone to exit the damn dungeon, as always. Neera will be disbanded for good, I've no patience for her nonsense. Dorn I'll see if I can get given he wants paladins slain, Minsc stays with me, Nalia will be onboard, I'll need another mage (probably Aerie) and the rest I'll think about later.
Some final toughts on SoD, given this is the first time I played through it.
Battles are exciting, maybe the sheer number of enemies is too big. The fact you loose your party after 1st dungeon isn't something I like, but I can live with it. New items are (bar the Full plate with fire resistance) fairly balanced and feel fresh in BG world.
In my travels I haven't found the goblin NPC - may be due to the fact that I have Autopause-enemy sighted and in the begining Corwin kinda blasted a lot of stuff with Detonation arrows, so the goblin might have died. I don't know.
Cavalier protagonist (Kit Rev version) was fantastic. Sporting an un-buffed AC of -8 (extra vs all weapon types due to Bluntness Girdle), RoFA and Lawgiver (Confusion immunity), his inborn Charm and Fear (pricesless) immunity, he was unstoppable.
Minsc (always a barbarian in my games) decent, but relatively bad AC had him dying a bit too often. I expect that to change in BG2 however. Late-game barbarian is a sight to behold.
Dorn was a big let-down. He comes to late to be of any real use; only advantage he has is Fear immunity- but bad AC and bad HP make him a sub-par character in my book. I usually didn't even have time to use Poison or Aura, he died so quickly in battles.
Glint is great. I found a way to bypass that nonsensical "thieving button under special abilities" thingie (just bind "thieving" to a hotkey, "T" in my case) so he wasn't that heavy on micro, decent stats, decent personality. Overall my favourite NPC I guess, I'd take him in BG2 as well.
Corwin - she's good. I gave her Long Bow of Marksmanship (extra 10% crit chance with IR) and she was as deadly as it gets. There's also a lot of archer equipment available so she ended up with 18 dex.
Neera - useless in No-Reloads. I had two surges, one Sex change, one I can't remember (some nonsense anyhow). I was afraid to cast spells with her. She died so often she barely hit level 10 in Hell.
Won't be using her anymore. Edwin is twice the mage she is anyhow. Her quest seems complicated and she's always talking nonsense; one Jan is enough for BG world.
Other NPCs I haven't tried. Rashad has a kit I haven't modified (and KR modifies only vanilla monks) so I skipped him, albeit I might to something about Sun Soul monks myself so I can play him.
I didn't like the ending. Feels hastily done, the "big cahuna of hell" is a pathetic nemesis, Shining Lady's final lines about the Crusade and her reasoning behind it stroke me as very unconvincing for some reason. And that Skie....ffs. I *knew* I had to kill her in BG1. Always gets in trouble.
New graphics are fantastic, I can't wait for modders to begin to take advantage of the new creature animations.
A good game. Reccomended. May not be BG (for good or bad), but it's good. Overall, I'd rate it 8.0 - 8.5/10.