@Grond0 It is always my policy (regardless of how big my party is - whether 6 party members or 1 like you) to always ignore her minions and go straight for her. This is in part due to her big heal she can do as well as she can replenish her minions ad infinitum I think. I suppose a possible exception might be vanilla Balors, as those Balors have 15% chance of a vorpal kill with no save offered - best they are dead before going for Mel. Maximum defense (high AC, with potions of mind focusing for example) is definitely desirable. Minion distractions can help too, if you can summon some.
Mel uses dispel magic an awful lot and death tyrants use anti-magic rays, so I think for a solo it's rarely worth taking potions and clouding your aura. Many of her summons could not hurt me at all, so I was trying to kill those that could in order to be able to fight from behind a screen of the others (preventing her from coming into melee). That worked pretty well with the first couple of incarnations, but the missile damage done by the 3rd version during timestop was far higher. If I had been willing to use healing (potions / rod of resurrection) that basic strategy might still work, but without healing I agree Mel needs to be targeted more intensely right from the start.
I never get to ToB much anymore so I remember it sparsely, but is there the option to increase the distance between you and melissan when she casts the time stop... Like more than one screen. Then it takes some time to get to you thus less hits...?
I was pretty much as far away as possible when her deadly timestop started, but that's not very far at the Throne and it only took her a second or two to get into missile range. I was hoping that with being that far away she would default to other actions, like casting summoning spells or Clouds of Vengeance, but that clearly wasn't the case.
I've never fought Ascension Melissan as a solo character, but I remember @Alesia_BH saying that aura control was especially important for solo critters tackling Melissan. Melissan doesn't just use Greater Whirlwind Attack during Time Stop--she actually uses Teleport Without Error if she can't walk over to you, which means no amount of distance can ever save you; she'll always close in on you.
Alesia said that there were only three reliable ways to avoid getting killed during Time Stop: Protection from Magical Weapons, Hardiness (or another source of high damage resistance), and Focus, the Ascension-exclusive ability that grants immunity to Time Stop for 5 rounds, but can only be cast every 10 rounds. You only have 6 seconds from the time Melissan begins casting Time Stop to save yourself, so you have to conserve your aura and listen for the transmutation casting incantation.
Spectacular work, @Grond0. I never thought to try a lot of the tactics in your run; I learned a lot about monks.
@Grond0 your run inspired me to try a Monk next run. The question though is whether to use Sun Soul, Dark Moon, or standard Monk...Maybe a duo, DMM with Rasaad? Kind of a Yin-Yang thing
I'm gonna feel like a monster when I don't take Imoen after Spellhold.....
Thanks everyone. The good news is that the last time this character failed at the same stage I didn't have a plan for how to do better next time. After this failure, however, I think the correct use of the Big Metal Rod offers a good chance for the future.
I've never fought Ascension Melissan as a solo character, but I remember @Alesia_BH saying that aura control was especially important for solo critters tackling Melissan.
That's good advice from Alesia, but relates to the Ascension mod. I do play on modded setups, but the challenge to complete the game solo with every possible character class uses an unmodded EE setup.
@Grond0 It is always my policy (regardless of how big my party is - whether 6 party members or 1 like you) to always ignore her minions and go straight for her. This is in part due to her big heal she can do as well as she can replenish her minions ad infinitum I think. I suppose a possible exception might be vanilla Balors, as those Balors have 15% chance of a vorpal kill with no save offered - best they are dead before going for Mel. Maximum defense (high AC, with potions of mind focusing for example) is definitely desirable. Minion distractions can help too, if you can summon some.
Mel uses dispel magic an awful lot and death tyrants use anti-magic rays, so I think for a solo it's rarely worth taking potions and clouding your aura. Many of her summons could not hurt me at all, so I was trying to kill those that could in order to be able to fight from behind a screen of the others (preventing her from coming into melee). That worked pretty well with the first couple of incarnations, but the missile damage done by the 3rd version during timestop was far higher. If I had been willing to use healing (potions / rod of resurrection) that basic strategy might still work, but without healing I agree Mel needs to be targeted more intensely right from the start.
I never get to ToB much anymore so I remember it sparsely, but is there the option to increase the distance between you and melissan when she casts the time stop... Like more than one screen. Then it takes some time to get to you thus less hits...?
I was pretty much as far away as possible when her deadly timestop started, but that's not very far at the Throne and it only took her a second or two to get into missile range. I was hoping that with being that far away she would default to other actions, like casting summoning spells or Clouds of Vengeance, but that clearly wasn't the case.
Grond0, if I remember correctly it's not dispel magic but rather her darts that dispel on hit. This is why the Reflection Shield is so useful against her, as it totally negates her darts. If you are an arcane character, then PfMW would be what to use (physical mirror for divine). Finally, if none of those, then maximum resistance to missile weapons would help.
Grond0, if I remember correctly it's not dispel magic but rather her darts that dispel on hit. This is why the Reflection Shield is so useful against her, as it totally negates her darts. If you are an arcane character, then PfMW would be what to use (physical mirror for divine). Finally, if none of those, then maximum resistance to missile weapons would help.
I agree that's the case in vanilla, but the EE has significantly changed the encounters at the Throne. Mel's incarnations now spam various spells - so for instance I think her first incarnation was throwing out dispel magic spells every 2 or 3 rounds. Her darts now also bypass the reflection shield, so that defense is out. She needed a critical to hit with her darts in normal time against the monk, but that wasn't much help during timestops ...
Grond0, if I remember correctly it's not dispel magic but rather her darts that dispel on hit. This is why the Reflection Shield is so useful against her, as it totally negates her darts. If you are an arcane character, then PfMW would be what to use (physical mirror for divine). Finally, if none of those, then maximum resistance to missile weapons would help.
I agree that's the case in vanilla, but the EE has significantly changed the encounters at the Throne. Mel's incarnations now spam various spells - so for instance I think her first incarnation was throwing out dispel magic spells every 2 or 3 rounds. Her darts now also bypass the reflection shield, so that defense is out. She needed a critical to hit with her darts in normal time against the monk, but that wasn't much help during timestops ...
We play as an archer, and we go with longbow and short bow in the first game and if we make it past here, which I doubt, we will take some lessons in crossbow handling.
We pick up Tiax, Jaheira, Khalid, Viconia, Imoen, dump Khalid and Jahiera and pick up Edwin. We scout some forest to kill some minor monster. We visit Nashkel and pick up that green shiny armor that we just randomly stumbled upon, lucky us, eh? We return back north. We pick up the boots of stealth and heads west towards the cemetery.
We attempt to kill Bassiluss but shit hits the fan and Edwin dies. We retreat, rest and go back for immediate retaliation. He was dumb enough to Dimension door in the middle of our spell caster party so we quickly cast command on him, introduce him to our lovely and absolutely not in any way cheesy ghast who stuns him and kills him.
Long update made short, quite tired today, been struggling a lot with modern technique today.
Grond0, if I remember correctly it's not dispel magic but rather her darts that dispel on hit. This is why the Reflection Shield is so useful against her, as it totally negates her darts. If you are an arcane character, then PfMW would be what to use (physical mirror for divine). Finally, if none of those, then maximum resistance to missile weapons would help.
I agree that's the case in vanilla, but the EE has significantly changed the encounters at the Throne. Mel's incarnations now spam various spells - so for instance I think her first incarnation was throwing out dispel magic spells every 2 or 3 rounds. Her darts now also bypass the reflection shield, so that defense is out. She needed a critical to hit with her darts in normal time against the monk, but that wasn't much help during timestops ...
It looks like they don't want you to win.
A player can definitely win with a party, even with these new tactics by Mel. But it does look like a solo Trilogy in EE is much, much harder than vanilla. Btw thanks @Grond0 for the explanations about EE and the final battles - didn't know that. Guess I need to just observe when players do EE runs, since I don't know EE yet.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 7 Previous update found here Next update found here
So! We were contemplating how best to handle Drasus and his party. There really are only two options: Cheese it, or duke it out fairly. Cheesing essentially boils down to sending a lone character to trigger Drasus' conversation and then immediately fall back when he and his party turns hostile (or not... you can just attack them while blue-circled), and then spamming Web and Fireball from out of their sight range until they all keel over. Effective, reliable. And damn boring. So, we're gonna duke it out, baby!
Lowish level we may be, but absent resources we are not. Careful spell selection is in order! I won't bore you with the extreme details, but suffice to say Xan loads up on everything nasty the Enchantment school has to offer (Greater Malison and Confusion being key picks) and Haste, Aldain memorizes MGoI, Minor Spell Deflection and Emotion. Branwen goes with her usual complement of buffs (Remove Fear/Chant/DUHM/PfE10'R... yep, she's L7 so we've got L4 cleric spells!) and 3x Raise Dead, augmented by 1x Animal Summoning 1. Jaheira has less options but picks 1x Call Lightning, 1x Summon Insects, Bless, AoF etc. I guess I did bore you with details. Apologies! But now we are ready.
Having summoned 4 critters (we only got 1 Dire Wolf from AS1), we carefully apply every buff in the optimal order. Some potions are also consumed: Heroism, Giant Strength, Agility... nothing too fancy or powerful, though. We give the summons a 1 second head start towards Drasus, then the rest of the party follows. Cue empty threats, and the game is afoot.
Our summons cluster around Drasus, which is actually good for us, as he will, against all sense and reason, turn out to be the most serious threat in the group. Kysus and Rezdan, thanks to our cunning ploy of sending the summons slightly ahead of the party, target our Skeletons with a Dispel Magic and Melf's Acid Arrow, of all things. Aldain removes Kysus' MGoI, while Xan Malisons the entire group. Jaheira engages Genthore to keep him from doing anything dangerous, Imoen pelts away at Rezdan with Darts of Wounding, our summons are keeping Drasus busy, and everyone else focuses on Kysus. He does manage to get a spell off (Confusion aimed at Xan), but we see it coming and move Xan away so he's the only one affected. Kysus falls shortly thereafter (I don't think he precast Mirror Image, which explains why he died so quickly).
You'll notice Imoen is running off to the stables. That's because Rezdan got a Dire Charm (or maybe even Domination, I'm unsure) off! Imoen does fail her save, but we allowed ourselves the modicum of cheese that is unequipping her weapons as we saw the charm incoming. So she goes after confused Xan with her bare fists... even Xan can stand up to that. The funny part is that Rezdan's glory is very short-lived. He keels over literally two seconds later, Stoneskin still active, but the constant poisoning due to Imoen's flurry of Darts of Wounding having nibbled away at his health until there's nothing left.
Things are indeed looking up! Aldain finishes casting Emotion, Genthore fails his save (not Drasus, owing to the magic protection potion he gulped down at the start of the fight). Jaheira is tasked with bludgeoning Genthore before he wakes up, and everyone else turns on Drasus, just about at the same time as he finishes off the last Skeleton and turns his tender mercies against Khalid. I'm not sure what Drasus drank here, but I think it was a potion of Cloud Giant Strength. Which explains why he proceeds to absolutely demolish Khalid, despite the latter having a respectable AC of -7 against crushing. Thankfully, Jaheira finishes off Genthore and takes Khalid's place. No spells will land on Drasus owing again to his protection potion, but damage spells still have an effect, if diminished. Thus we finally fell the dread Drasus with a Scorcher from our most cherished wand, and the fight is over. Huzzah!
Yeah, as you can see, Drasus did a number on Branwen too, having caught up to her for a round. Nevertheless, victory is ours! In hindsight, this was probably not entirely optimal. We got lucky in that we managed to bring down both mages very quickly, and even so, Drasus did a good job beating all our frontliners silly. We were never in REAL danger from him though (we have a few Wands of Summoning if everything goes to hell in a handbasket), but still. An epic battle!
We clear out the few remaining guards outside the mine, retreat back to the Wyvern Cave map (it's almost impossible to rest outside the mine owing to constant interruptions by guards), heal up, and return to descend into the depths.
This time, we're less picky about tactics. Room o' guards and inconsequential but oddly high-level Hareishan get to feel the full force of Grease + Web + Entangle + Fireball, Fireball, Fireball... Fireball. They're red so they're fair game for all sorts of nastiness. We actually try to save the cook by Charming her and moving her out via the tunnel, but an absolutely heartless guard spots her and shoots her dead.
The third level has a few interesting moments, one of which is Xan having a near death experience with a common hobgoblin...
It's easy to forget having full HP means very little when you only have 25 of them. Anyway, he lived, so all's well. The Ogre Mage goes down rather easily (he only has a single 3rd level Mage slot and used it to precast Ghost Armor). All that's left before heading downstairs is Natasha.
Natasha. Honestly. I hate her. Sunfire. Cone of Cold. Multiple Lightning Bolts. There's no redeeming features to her at all. Ugh. This is why we always bring summons. Aldain conjures up a few monsters (we got Summon Monster II from Durlag's Tower), Branwen calls forth her usual skeletons, and they go to work. It works surprisingly well; it looked like I was going to have to use every single one of my Potions of Absorption (Natasha fired off a Lightning Bolt towards a Dire Wolf, and it should have rebounded straight into the entire party which was hiding around the corner), but somehow the Lightning Bolt just fizzled out. Finally, Imoen (our skeletons having sucked up every spell Natasha could muster) makes her way through multiple casts of Stoneskin, and Natasha falls.
We nip downstairs only long enough to take care of the guard and loot two chests, then back up and retreat to the Wyvern Cave map again. Here the party can be found still, silently contemplating how on earth to (safely) dispose of Davaeorn.
Much text, but not a great deal of progress. Aldain is still a Level 7 Human Conjurer.
Icewind Gate 2: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara in BG2 (first post here) Back to Athkatla! We tackle Mencar Pennypincher just for the extra loot. We shrug off the effects of Sorcerous Amos' Remove Magic thanks to our relatively high-ish levels, ensuring our damage output stays high and our saves remain low.
Remove Magic and Dispel Magic always say "Dispel Effects," even if nothing got dispelled. To make sure Brennan Risling can't run away with the Sandthief Ring, Frisk paralyzes him with a Chromatic Orb. Even Mencar fails his save against the spell. Spell Focus: Evocation is really effective.
I don't bother using it on the other characters; I assume Smelly Porkslicer is immune and the mages have MGOI. Chromatic Orb was a good choice; Brennan drops a Potion of Magic Shielding her otherwise would have drank. But we have bad news: another Remove Magic came our way, and this time we weren't so lucky.
Frisk turns invisible instantly thanks to the Robe of Vecna. Chara switches to Will o' Wisp form to attain magic immunity, Asriel buffs them with Stoneskin, and Frisk launches a Web after restoring their buffs. The enemy's MGOI has worn off, leaving them helpless to the Web.
We trigger the Suna Seni ambush to get Arbane's Sword in case Frisk needs to shield themself against Hold Person. Asriel bashes Suna Seni with Gnasher (replacing the Mauler's Arm since we now have the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength) while Frisk takes down Eldarin with another Chromatic Orb.
Without Eldarin, the enemy can no longer cut through our Stoneskins, rendering the enemy thief helpless and neutralizing the biggest threats in the fight.
The Renfeld ambush, as always, is much less interesting, though we do discover something curious: Chara got hit by an Acid Arrow and continued taking damage even after switching to Will o' Wisp form, which grants them immunity to acid damage.
We start up the Mae'Var questline on the way to Rylock and start up the Unseeing Eye questline on the way to stealing the Talos amulet for Mavis. For some reason, Oisig will not show up. I console him in instead.
But for some reason, I can't speak with him when he gets back to the Temple of Helm. I click him and no dialog begins.
Not sure what the deal is. I go into the sewers to see if I can proceed without talking to him, but it seems you need him (or the Lathander or Talos guys) to open the way.
Weird thing is, I can talk to him with Chara and Asriel. But you need to use Charname to actually get the quest.
I'll come back later and see if anything has changed.
We report to Mavis, then to Edwin, then stop by Cousin Ray-Ray's house. In IWD2, Cone of Cold bypasses magic resistance, which means Frisk can chunk most golems with cold damage.
Chara's MR in Will o' Wisp form won't block the damage, but their elemental resistances will.
IWD2 druids can cast Snakebite, which lets you attack twice per round and deal poison damage on a failed save vs. death. It's pretty weak in IWD2 because the Fortitude save doesn't scale with levels, but it's still quite nice in BG2. Ray-Ray suffers badly.
He survives the poison and manages to get Mantle off the ground, blocking further attacks with Snakebite, but he ends up in very bad condition. Chara switches to Will o' Wisp for safety's sake and Frisk attacks from afar with Ball Lightning. It seems concentration checks are implemented in the latest version of EE; Ray-Ray only sometimes suffers casting failure from damage.
We take away his Mirror Images, and a Static Charge finishes him off.
The last fight of the Mae'Var questline is with the guildmaster himself. He's pretty tough in SCS, and there are lots of backstabbers in this fight, who can be a big problem if Mavis removes your Stoneskins.
We lead with an Efreeti, followed by some Webs to hold off the Assassins, though Mavis himself escapes the Webs with MGOI. Asriel gets too close and Mavis Breaches him. Asriel is a lot weaker, but Frisk keeps him safe from any backstabs with Stoneskin.
Mavis hits Asriel with Chain Lightning, Flame Arrow, and Chromatic Orb. Since I still haven't given Asriel and Chara their full HP yet, even successful saves don't keep Asriel out of the red.
He heals himself with Cure Medium Wounds, which casts rather quickly thanks to the Improved Initiative feat. Static Charge and Chromatic Orb obliterate the Assassins, and without his allies to distract us, Mavis cannot hold up his defenses for long.
We overwhelm the Crypt King with raw damage output--a specialty of an IWD2-style party in BG2--then torch Pai'Na's spiders with the Wand of Fire and tank some traps with Chara's Will o' Wisp form.
I decide to start the next chapter. I really want some fast XP, as I'm concerned we might fall behind.
Icewind Gate 2: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara in BG2 (first post here)
We side with Bodhi, as I always do. Thieves are always easier to deal with than vampires--especially since IWD2's Sunray spell doesn't kill undead automatically on a failed save, if we could even cast the spell to begin with. Thieves are much easier to deal with--largely because BG2 thieves don't get Evasion like in IWD and IWD2.
Chara gets two new shapeshifts: Treant form, which has demilich-grade physical damage resistances if not much else, and Wyvern form, which has both high physical damage resistances and rather high MR.
We accidentally volunteer for the hero's task rather than the villain's task, the latter of which is easier to blow off. This means we have to fight a bunch of Shadow Thief mages, who use Mantle spells we can't easily break through. Chara survives a long time in Will o' Wisp form thanks to its 100 MR and low AC, and Frisk escapes combat with Improved Invisibility, but Asriel gets destroyed by spell damage.
With the mages' Mantle spells gone, Chara can slay them with the Will o' Wisp attack, while Frisk Webs the thieves.
We resurrect Asriel, hurry back without resting to finish rescuing the little hostage guy, and receive an alarming reminder that we have no defense against Breach.
Frisk turns invisible and lets Asriel and Chara do the heavy lifting with Gnasher and electrical damage.
Only Aran Linvail's lair remains. Chara solos a troublesome fight using Static Charge and Will o' Wisp form.
The Will o' Wisp attack bypasses PFMW, but SCS mages use Improved Mantle just as often, so it's mostly luck whether or not Chara can strike them. But the most important thing is that Chara's MR is undispellable, so enemy debuffers are nearly useless against them.
Will o' Wisp form works great against Aran Linvail and his mage girlfriend, and we resist the first Remove Magic spell that comes out way. But then another one comes around and puts Asriel in danger. Asriel, unlike Chara, is very dependent on buffs to protect him from spells and swords.
Aran follows up with PW: Stun, and Asriel has no defense against it.
Remove Magic was actually irrelevant here; Free Action and Chaotic Commands don't block stun effects in IWD2. Asriel should have been immune, however, because he should have 40 more HP, as he's supposed to be a cleric.
An Aerial Servant nearly destroys Asriel before Frisk bails him out.
Frisk paralyzes the Aerial Servant with a Chromatic Orb. Eventually Asriel recovers and heals himself. He joins Chara in the fight with Aran Linvail, using wyvern form for its poison and acid damage.
The Shadow Thieves are broken. But I'm not done with Chapter 3 just yet. I want to squeeze more XP out of Athkatla before I try to tackle Irenicus and the Underdark. We're a ways away from being able to tackle the Fallen Planetar we'll probably see in Spellhold.
I managed to escape the starting area but all my gear is gone for good. Puk and Sarah said goodbye to the nut case and we need to enter the goverment area next.
The archer died as well and I am a little sick of having to bring you some sad new every 2nd day. Every time I go up against a group of named guys, always two or more other factions joins in and they target my weak ones. I am always overwhelmed by this.
The archer died as well and I am a little sick of having to bring you some sad new every 2nd day. Every time I go up against a group of named guys, always two or more other factions joins in and they target my weak ones. I am always overwhelmed by this.
I would try and eliminate the others before going in against the named guys. You need to have a cleared area to retreat to. This doesn't always work as sometimes, as in my current game, enemies spawn in an area that you have cleared. However, it is always good practice as that is not the norm.
Journal of Spugnor
We cleared all the ankheg and then went to Durlag's Tower. Imoen entered using stealth and was quite successful, however she couldn't carry out the loot. We therefore left the area and memorised invisibility spells before returning. I then went in for the Wisdom Tome which I read immediately. I identified some nice equipment and after casting another invisibility spell carried it out.
We then went to the lighthouse area. Web was used against the sirene and Ajantis went up to level 6.
We killed the flesh golems but needed to rest between each one as Ajantis got quite badly hurt. Whilst resting we were attacked by more sirene but they were unsuccessful. On one occasion Imoen was charmed so Ajantis and I went inside the cave until she was no longer hostile.
I read the tome which improved my constitution and then we travelled to see Shoal. Imoen was killed by her but then resurrected. We killed both her and her mate and then headed south killing a number of ogres and the like. The Surgeon healed Imoen and then Ajantis took on a number of sirene. He was charmed twice, but Imoen and I were out of sight so we just had to wait. Ajantis was able to take them on one at a time which was helpful.
We then went to the basilisk area and killed a hostile group of adventurers. Web and wand of fire killed all but one and he was killed with arrows very quickly. Something very strange then happened Ajantis levelled up to level 6 once more. ????? I don't understand how his experience was stolen.
/baldursgate.vanillaforums.com/editor/vo/wwck4wd8f09f.jpg" alt="" /> Imoen has now reached level 7. The Nashkel Mines were not the challenge that I feared. There was not a single demon, only kobolds and a half-orc who was leading them. Because of web, he wasn't a problem at all.
Neither were a band of assassins led by Lamalha. Once again web was king.
We went to Nashkel where I said goodbye to Xan. To be honest I was just using him as a packhorse. We then went to see Joseph's widow and gave her his ring. At that I became a level 6 fighter/level 5 illusionist. We then told the mayor of our exploits. I must get my wand of fire recharged as I only have one charge left.
@RelSundan you're doing great. I can't count how many times my characters got massacred before I learned enough about how to keep them safe! (In BG1 anyway... Those stupid bandit ambushes at level 1 in particular still get me though!)
Every time you lose a fight, you learn something valuable. Come back stronger!
@RelSundan you're doing great. I can't count how many times my characters got massacred before I learned enough about how to keep them safe! (In BG1 anyway... Those stupid bandit ambushes at level 1 in particular still get me though!)
Every time you lose a fight, you learn something valuable. Come back stronger!
Funny enough I always get away from those ambushes. But yeah. I've learn a couple of things: Don't mess with mages Clear surroundings when preparing to assault enemy group. Always run when things get out of hand
Hopefully my custom party will get me further, quite a tough band.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 8 Previous update found here Next update found here
We had more close calls (2) this update than during the entire run so far.
Preparing to tackle Davaeorn (henceforth referred to as D since it's an annoying name to keep spelling), the choice was made to just all-out charge him, hoping to power through his defenses before the endless hordes of guards overwhelmed us. You can bombard him, but he has really good saves and some kind of innate resistance to all damage magical... not sure where it comes from. Anyway, we go with standard picks (Emotion/Greater Malison/Confusion being key picks, as they'll go straight through D's MGoI in case we fail to remove it, as he might well interrupt our casting of Spell Thrust), along with a bundle of Invisibility to allow us to sneak past and attack from the rear (it'll take longer for any spawning guards to reach us that way).
The entire party sneaks past D and his 2 Battle Horrors, and clear out the lone Mustard Jelly guarding his chests. By some minor miracle, D does not react to his Battle Horrors being engaged, and thus we easily defeat them using a few Scorcher (they should be fire immune, but aren't). As always, we now bring up 3x Skeleton Warriors. My hope was to have D waste his most potent spells (Sunfire, Cone of Cold) on our gaggle of bonies so that we'd be in less danger when rushing in (hasted, of course) after a few rounds, but D has something else in mind. As soon as our skeletons rush up to him, he (I'm fairly certain) sniffs disdainfully, activates a trove of defensive spells, and Dimension Doors straight into our party. Well, guess the choice whether to engage full hilt or not was made for us. Aldain immediately strips D's MGoI, Xan lands a Greater Malison, and D, for some reason, decides to lead with a Web. Which only really entraps Khalid, leaving the rest of the party free to engage.
Alright, seconds count. MGoI removed, D is vulnerable, but still has excellent saves. Aldain fires Emotion, Xan fires Confusion, and D retaliates with... Sunfire. This was our first close call. Aldain takes 26(!) damage but thankfully makes his save, and so survives. Xan is less (yet still pretty fortunate, as I'll explain momentarily) fortunate. He fails his save, but still only takes the first "brunt" of 27 damage from Sunfire, since his maximal HP is, as we know by now, 25. Dead Xan. Not good. Jaheira gets singed as well, but to my great joy, Xan retaliates from beyond the grave. His confusion (which with his Enchanter bonus and Greater Malison forces D to save at -8 vs spell) sticks! Hooray! Pictured: The moment before we got incredibly lucky.
So, why were we incredibly lucky, and why was Xan fortunate to die? Well, had Xan suffered, say 3 damage less, he would have survived the first blast. And then gotten irrevocably burnt to a crisp by the second. So, Xan is down but can still be raised. And, Aldain MADE his save, whereas he'd probably have died if he failed it. Finally, D is now confused, and so pretty much done for. We hit him with everything we have, and just as the guards really start pouring in to threaten our rear, D's Stoneskin gives out, and D himself lasts no more than a second longer.
I'll admit that was a bit too close for comfort. Though to be fair, this fight is always touch and go. The most reliable way I've found to do it is to turn everyone but 1-2 people invisible, have your Davaeorn-killers use PfM scroll or Potions of Magic Blocking, and hope they can end him before you get 25-30 guards joining in. This can backfire though, as D tends to toss his area-effect spells willy-nilly (or indeed, cast Detect Invisibility and happily blast your unprotected party members who are now visible to pieces), and since 2/3 of your party is invisible (and therefore not helping) those 2 Battle Horrors become more of a threat. Anyway, I'm truly happy it went as well as it did. We gather up every scrap of loot as well as Xan's equipment, and finish flooding the mines, afterwards escaping without incident (just a small Ettercap ambush) back to the FAI and a much-deserved raising for Xan.
Next up, Baldur's Gate. Or well, not quite. We do go to the Sorcerous Sundries and clear the mages upstairs (not wanting another near-death experience, they get the usual treatment: Web/Entangle/Grease/Fireball/Skulltrap) for their absolutely lovely Spider Spawn scroll, but then we nip back outside. Why? We haven't cleared the Red Wizard area yet!
I usually leave this area to late as well, given that you face so many mages at once (two of which are fairly high level). But we should be able to hack it now. We begin by clearing the area, for no good reason really... it's an area, it's there, so we clear it. There's a big spawn of a Sword Spider, Wraith Spider and Phase Spider. We engage them. They call for help from 2 ettercaps. OK, we can still manage this. The 2 ettercaps call for help from 3 Giant Spiders. Giant Spiders that can Web people. We can still do this! And here comes the second close call, probably the worst one we've had this run.
Since there's now a serious concentration of enemies bearing down on us (I in my overconfidence not having bothered with Fireballing them while they were approaching), and the bloody Giant Spiders successfully webbed both Jaheira and Branwen, Xan fires a Scorcher from his wand at the Sword Spider. Unfortunately, I misjudge the angle slightly, leading to Aldain's hair catching fire. And his cloak. And his boots. And I think even the hair on his arms.
Well, that was just brilliant. We were a few seconds (the followup burn would've killed Aldain) from ending our run by our own hand. Hmph. Say, those spiders are doing a real number on our webbed frontliners. Oh no, Branwen is poisoned! Aldain, save her!
Yeah OK... great. Aaaaah crap, Khalid is poisoned too! Aldain, save Kha-
... just go stand at the back while Xan and Imoen handle this.
We did survive, but that was a real good reminder of what over-confidence will do to you. I especially liked the part where I scorchered myself.
Somehow we have just enough inventory slots to haul everything back with us (though we are forced to use Strength potions to be able to carry everything), and we do manage to raise Khalid and Branwen, and return. No problems cleansing the rest of the area this time. We assault the mage cabal with everything we have, even succeeding in Dominating one (yay Branwen), and Khalid manages a very impressive critical (this was with a Stone Giant Strength potion, of course).
Surprisingly, the Red Wizards weren't that dangerous this time around. The highest level one (Denak) got poisoned by Imoen darting him, and spent most of his time summoning fairly helpless fodder. The other ones got stuck trying to deal with our Skeleton Warriors. All's well that ends well. We pick up their Remove Magic scroll and damage-dealing ring, and scurry on down to Beregost.
We now do a definitive shopping spree of every shop outside Baldur's Gate. Protection scrolls, potions, even Bullets of Fire +1... we buy anything that might be helpful. Returning to Baldur's Gate, Aldain and Xan are treated to the finest scrolls the Sorcerous Sundries have to offer, and we part with several prized Intelligence boosting potions to ensure they are all scribed flawlessly.
The party can now be found in the Elfsong tavern, planning out intrepid new tactics made possible by their now greatly expanded arcane spell selection. Aldain remains a Level 7 Human Conjurer, though probably not for long (experience will rack up swiftly in Baldur's Gate).
Steinarr is having a hard time finding honest work, and a really hard time staying out of trouble.
Although the odds of a reward were small, he decided to help a woman who was in deep debt to a moneylender. The bastard loan shark took one of the woman's children hostage to force payment.
Steinarr tried to find the child and rescue her. Stop one was the sewers, where he was assaulted by a hatchetman and then a beholder (!). Summons took the brunt of the punishment and the team took little damage. No kid though.
Stop two was the sewers under the Copper Coronet. No kid.
Steinarr was worried that he was running out of time, and that the bastards would kill the kid. So he just gave in and handed over the cash. The extortionate thugs let the kid go, but they abandoned her in the graveyard instead of bringing her home to her mom.
Steinarr decided to let the kid find her way home on her own. There's vampires and ghouls in graveyards! Good luck, kid.
Next, Steinarr rescued a poor sick man named Renfield and brought him to the Harper compound in the docks. On the way out, he told Xzar to get lost.
Steinarr heard about a problem in Trademeet, and thought that sounded like a nice place to go. Unfortunately, slaver assassins heard about his plans and ambushed the team. Twice.
Orogs and a slaver mage dropped out of the trees, right into the middle of the party.
Aerie opened with a silence + horror sequencer, but mis-targeted and ended up silencing herself and Jaheira. Moreover, Aerie didn't have her stoneskins or images up. That was a recipe for a quick death. Hearing his new witch fall, Minsc went berserk and started cleaving orogs.
The mage took Yoshimo out of the fight with horror. But luckily, the spell didn't reach the rest of the party.
Steinarr got worried and drank an oil of speed, switching to run and gun tactics. Minsc and Jaheria went after the mage, but got a Sunfire in the face for their trouble.
Steinarr slung down the last of the enemies. Berserk Minsc couldn't tell that the fight was over, however, and he took a big hunk out of Jaheira's side with his greatsword. Ouch. That's going to take some stitches.
After going back to the temple to raise the dead and heal, the party tried to go to Trademeet again. This time, it was a full party of slaver mages, clerics and fighters that interrupted the trip. High-level ones. We weren't traveling invisibly. And once again, Aerie had forgotten to put on her stoneskins that morning. The battle got tough, quickly.
Aerie fell to a chaos and two massive backstabs.
Minsc would have gone berserk again, but one of the clerics had already knocked him unconscious. He slept in the middle of the battlefield, ignored.
Jaheira managed to summon a fire elemental before succumbing to a hold person. That turned out to be bad for her health.
Yoshimo couldn't handle the action, so he went invisible and hid in a corner. He tossed his boots of speed to Steinarr, who wrangled them on.
Steinarr was getting hit a lot going toe-to-toe with the fighters. So he decided to sling them from a distance while the fire elemental bashed them down. The mage was a problem, though. He ended up having to drink his only potion of magic protection, followed by an invisibility potion and then a brace of extra healing potions.
Meanwhile, the fighters decided to stab Minsc through the heart. He died in his sleep.
Steinarr cast DUHM and then raged. Emerging from invsibility, he whirled his sling with ferocious intensity. He let fly, and the bullets stung the slavers. They weren't fast enough to catch him with their swords, and he was adequately resistant to spells. Soon the slavers were all dust.
Now its back to the Temple to raise and heal. At this rate, Steinarr isn't going to raise enough money to hire help with finding Imoen...
Next in Barbarian News: Trademeet or bust (round 3)
(These SCS ambushes are no joke! Reminder to myself to always travel invisibly & never forget those long-lasting buffs...)
We entered the mines and cleared the first two levels in one run. I must say, as everyone already knows, ranged weapons are OP in BG1. Quayle got killed again while we were fighting the Kobold Shaman from a Kobold Commando arrow.
I thought it was aiming for Ajantis but apparently it wasn't. Another 200gp down the drain to raise Quayle. We used this break to rest for around a week and hunting a bunch of Kobolds in the outside of the mine.
We continued our journey through the Mines, Eilwa used Stealth to get to Xan and we made use of one of my favourite exploits:
[spoiler]Yes, you CAN rest like this. Very practical if you ask me.
The fight against Mulahey was pretty easy, only Garrick got really low (1hp from a Skeleton's critical hit with a halberd). I used Xan's sleep over the Kobolds, and later Xan used Melf's Acid Arrow while Kivan and Eilwa bombarded the Half-Orc priest with arrows. Quayle used Magic Missile to interrupt one of his spells, but Hold Person (Kivan saved against it and it didn't get anyone else) and Unholy Smite (?) got through (he first tried to cast a defensive one I think, but I thought he was going for a direct Unholy/Hold). [spoiler]
Now, I believe I'm going to get some XP (Basilisks/Sirines I have no idea), kill Tranzig and the rest of the Bandits outside the camps, study and finish my homework. Wait, that, but in reverse order!
Edit: Quayle got a level up in the middle of the fight against Mulahey and now he can cast level 2 Priest spells. Yay!
Icewind Gate 2: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara in BG2 (first post here)
We stop by Watcher's Keep, overwhelming those pesky Vampiric Wraiths with brute force and using our long-duration Negative Plane Protection spells to hold off their level drain attacks. When Chara couldn't finish off the Spectral Trolls with the wyvern form's nonmagical weapon, we used the Burning Earth instead. And since we have no thief, we had to use Asriel's IWD2 STR-boosting spells and Chara's Will o' Wisp form to deal with locks and traps.
We activated the first four Statues, but I forgot to switch Chara over to Will o' Wisp form. The oversight was fatal.
Frisk tries to pin down the Statues with Chromatic Orb, but the clerics are buffed with Free Action and can cure paralysis on the fighters.
Cone of Cold bypasses the enemy's magic resistance, but it's still not strong enough to do much damage.
Asriel breaks down the fighter Statues, relying on his powerful attacks and incredibly low AC. But the enemy's THAC0 is superb, and his Stoneskins run out far faster than I expected.
Still haven't corrected Asriel's HP.
I go over my options. Frisk is fairly tough in their own right, and we do have a Rod of Resurrection to keep up the fight. But considering the progress so far and the minimal rewards for victory, I decide to play it safe, and flee the area.
We return under invisibility to collect our equipment and start the fight back up again.
This time, we throw out some Web spells to hold down the enemy fighters, since the clerics' Remove Paralysis spells would only work for 6 seconds. The enemy has high MR, but multiple Web spells can net them, and our Free Action buffs grant total immunity.
But the fighters aren't the only offensive threat. Asriel has no immunity to fire.
He recovers with a potion and we keep up the pressure. Web gives us automatic attacks, and when the enemy grows weak, Frisk pounces with Cone of Cold.
With the fighters down, the clerics are helpless. Cleric spells have long casting times, and they have no Stoneskins or Mantles to avoid disruption. The last Statues crumble.
On to the Windspear Hills! Our IWD2 Stoneskins don't last overnight, so we wake up to Plath Rededge's ambush completely unbuffed. Frisk turns the party invisible...
...but then Plath Rededge launches a Symbol of Death. Frisk has less than 60 HP.
With a save vs. death of 8, their chances of survival were not very high. We got lucky.
We crush Plath with minor pressure and move on to Firkraag's bachelor pad. The Vampiric Mists here can be annoying, but we have some instant death options against them.
The Ruhk Transmuter here is a nightmare, with AC far below zero, spell level immunities we can't break until level 15, and a bunch of nasty evocation spells.
But we have a trump card. Chara's Will o' Wisp form will block all of the rakshasa's spells, and the rakshasa needs strong attack rolls to land a hit with its saber.
Chara can't hurt the rakshasa due to the Will o' Wisp weapon being nonmagical; their only purpose is to wear the rakshasa down.
When the rakshasa holds off on its spells, Chara baits them out with summons.
After that, it's just a long dance before the rakshasa is vulnerable, and a long, boring slog to land hits on the rakshasa's low AC.
Asriel's IWD2-style cleric buffs are even stronger than normal BG2 cleric buffs, and he can deal spectacular damage if he doesn't get dispelled.
Samia et al can be very dangerous without proper preparation, but the fight was easy for us. Frisk spammed Web while Chara and Asriel broke the enemy with electrical and crushing damage.
Like Cone of Cold, IWD2's Chain Lightning spell bypasses magic resistance. Chara gets a bonus 20% damage thanks to the Scion of Storms feat, while Frisk has a -4 save penalty thanks to Spell Focus: Evocation, so both can deal a lot of damage with the spell.
I don't like fighting the Guardians. It's repetitive and bothersome. Chromatic Orb keeps things simple.
We plow through the rest of the dungeon with ease. IWD2 spells are very damage-oriented, so melee grunts are no trouble for us.
Mages are another story. I keep Frisk well away from Conster, who Breaches Asriel's defenses early on.
But as long as Frisk stays out of sight, Chara can handle most mages on their own. Conster isn't strong enough to summon a Fallen Planetar, and he fails to summon a demon instead, so Chara's Will o' Wisp form weathers his spells and pierces his PFMW spells until his Mirror Images are gone and a Static Charge finishes him off.
Now that we're level 11, we're ready to take on the De'Arnise Hold. IWD2 mages, clerics, and druids get level 6 spells at level 11 instead of 12, so Asriel can now cast Dismissal.
Dismissal only affects summoned critters, but since it's basically the IWD2 version of the Death Spell, I decide to just let Asriel use the normal Death Spell. This means we can take down Trolls without a lot of tedious buffing, or worrying about Spirit Trolls and their irritating STR drain.
With all my single player updates recently I've not been getting around to documenting this run since the duo got to Athkatla. And of course the longer you leave it to make a post the more challenging it seems to make sense of a set of scrappy notes ...
'Fortunately' that problem resolved itself yesterday when this run ended having done most of the Chapter 2 & 3 quests in Ahtkatla. We'd cleared Windspear Hills with the exception of the boss-man and went to try and tackle him. Summons led the way in an initial attack, while Gryph put in a pierce magic to try and give Janus' Nature's Beauty spell a better chance of success. The spell cast successfully and there was no mention of magic resistance in the battle text, but Firkraag was not blinded. Possibly that was immunity, but I suspect it's due to the nature of the dragon icons - those are large, but don't accurately reflect the underlying position of the dragon (so spells won't necessarily take effect if targeted on just the outer portion of them).
Firkraag proceeded to buffet the summons away and dispelled Gryph's buffs before chasing him into a corner. The elf tried to use an oil of speed to give him more of a chance to run away, but Firkraag gave him no time to attempt that.
At that stage the dragon's hits were well down and with 2 insect plagues active on him I had hopes that he would be nibbled to death - a slightly cheesy-feeling heal (innate ability rather than spell, so not disrupted by the insects) put paid to that.
Reluctant to abandon the fight I decided to see if some nymphs would get lucky with hold monster. Three of those were lined up ready before a wolf was sent in as a distraction while I prepared to doom Firkraag. Unfortunately Janus hadn't even got into sight of the dragon when Firkraag buffeted the wolf back towards him and followed up with a searing breath. I hadn't got around to putting any fire protection on Janus and the breath damage on him exactly equalled his available HPs ...
Ok, so after several unsuccessful attempts, it seems like this assassin finally might get a bit further, so I will start posting (and likely jinx her).
Run rules: EE vanilla, core rules, max HP, iPad
I present you Morrigan (seems like a fitting name for the new Goddess of Murder, given the irish goddess is a goddess of fate, foretelling doom and death in battle) a neutral roguish type of character who, for some strange reason, is a naturally talented assassin. Go figure. The idea is
At the beginning, she is still influenced by Gorion , trying to do good. However, as she continues her murderous journey, the Bhaal influence will show more and more (evil dreams), she will start enjoying murder and power until she fails the Hell trials and becomes evil. Then, she will take the Throne. Will also romance Anomen and make him fail the test. The idea is to solo most of BG1 (to level up fast) and run a three man party (with CN Anomen and Edwin) for BG2. I kind of see this as my head cannon Evil run, so even if she dies (and given my incompetence it will happen a lot), I will continue trying until repeating BG1 becomes too boring:-)
I will divide the posts in Story (with small extracts of things that happen) and Behind the scenes (where I update on the run progress in terms of challenges and what has been covered)
Story
I met her the day my mistress dropped dead. She tried to cheat her and was killed instead. Silke was evil and rotten to the core! she had it coming, that heartless mean wh... Thespian extraordinaire.
Morry back then was a young, comely lass. Though already scary to make her a pass. She told me of Gorion and of Candlekeep Of all those assassins she slaughtered like sheep.
She wanted to hide. For her life she feared! I thus let her join me towards Ulgorth Beard. [...]
Beginning of "Of Gods and Bards" by Garrick
-----
"Did we realise that pretty young lady would kill all the bhaalspawn and become Goddess of Murder? No, she seemed so nice, helping with our problems: basilisks, Bassilus... Hmm. In retrospective, she always seemed to be good at killing things starting with "B"."
Kelddath Ormlyr at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
Behind the scenes
Started with the famous Basilisk & Korgax Run (lv6). Then, just questing around FAI, Beregost and now the coast (AR2700, 2800, 3500, 3700, 3800, 4200, 4300, 4600, 4700 more or less done. Still deciding whether to kill drizzt).
Running solo for the most part. Garrick tags along but I usually boot him when i enter a map to optimize XP. He is there to steal stuff, write about me and the occasional web spam
Got the green amulet, algernons cloak (failed the pickpocket but talked to him before he got angry. Another trick I just learned!), dagger of venom, shadow armor, wand of sleep and ring of free action, so only lacking the boots of speed to be unstoppable, i'd think. Still have had several "almost dead" moments: - Neera's initial encounter: the red wizard killed Neera and almost got me after several missed poisoned arrows. - Landrin spiders surrounded me outside the house. Had to drink my only potion of defense and was lucky none of them had a critical hit. I think it is the first time I use that potion. One of the great thing about no reloads is having to use your inventory :-) - Passing through the Anghkeg area to get the ring of free action, i picked Ajantis as a meat shield and he got killed by two quick crits. Lucky I picked him, I guess. - Those half ogres from the paladin quest refused to sleep. Had to run away after my health dropped to scary levels. Quite unfitting for the next Goddess of Murder. - Neville (AR4600) almost killed me (2hp) after i kited him away from his men and went on a 1 on 1 fight against him. I really need to forget my usual point and click tactics. A lv6 rogue is still weak and that venom save for the dagger seems easy, given the success rate.
All bounty hunters, silke and Bassilus were no problem at all. Assassin poison did them all.
Next steps are Gnoll fortress, Brague and then the Nashkell Mines. I welcome advices for a solo assassin :-)
@Grond0: I don't know about blindness, but dragons are immune to Hold Monster and nearly all other disablers for some reason. The only disablers I know will work against dragons are Feeblemind and Maze.
Comments
I was pretty much as far away as possible when her deadly timestop started, but that's not very far at the Throne and it only took her a second or two to get into missile range. I was hoping that with being that far away she would default to other actions, like casting summoning spells or Clouds of Vengeance, but that clearly wasn't the case.
Alesia said that there were only three reliable ways to avoid getting killed during Time Stop: Protection from Magical Weapons, Hardiness (or another source of high damage resistance), and Focus, the Ascension-exclusive ability that grants immunity to Time Stop for 5 rounds, but can only be cast every 10 rounds. You only have 6 seconds from the time Melissan begins casting Time Stop to save yourself, so you have to conserve your aura and listen for the transmutation casting incantation.
Spectacular work, @Grond0. I never thought to try a lot of the tactics in your run; I learned a lot about monks.
I'm gonna feel like a monster when I don't take Imoen after Spellhold.....
What did your mod setup look like?
Ralof the Archer
New play through blabla, same rules, same mods.We play as an archer, and we go with longbow and short bow in the first game and if we make it past here, which I doubt, we will take some lessons in crossbow handling.
We pick up Tiax, Jaheira, Khalid, Viconia, Imoen, dump Khalid and Jahiera and pick up Edwin. We scout some forest to kill some minor monster. We visit Nashkel and pick up that green shiny armor that we just randomly stumbled upon, lucky us, eh? We return back north. We pick up the boots of stealth and heads west towards the cemetery.
We attempt to kill Bassiluss but shit hits the fan and Edwin dies. We retreat, rest and go back for immediate retaliation. He was dumb enough to Dimension door in the middle of our spell caster party so we quickly cast command on him, introduce him to our lovely and absolutely not in any way cheesy ghast who stuns him and kills him.
Long update made short, quite tired today, been struggling a lot with modern technique today.
End of update 1
VideoPrevious update found here
Next update found here
So! We were contemplating how best to handle Drasus and his party. There really are only two options: Cheese it, or duke it out fairly. Cheesing essentially boils down to sending a lone character to trigger Drasus' conversation and then immediately fall back when he and his party turns hostile (or not... you can just attack them while blue-circled), and then spamming Web and Fireball from out of their sight range until they all keel over. Effective, reliable. And damn boring. So, we're gonna duke it out, baby!
Lowish level we may be, but absent resources we are not. Careful spell selection is in order! I won't bore you with the extreme details, but suffice to say Xan loads up on everything nasty the Enchantment school has to offer (Greater Malison and Confusion being key picks) and Haste, Aldain memorizes MGoI, Minor Spell Deflection and Emotion. Branwen goes with her usual complement of buffs (Remove Fear/Chant/DUHM/PfE10'R... yep, she's L7 so we've got L4 cleric spells!) and 3x Raise Dead, augmented by 1x Animal Summoning 1. Jaheira has less options but picks 1x Call Lightning, 1x Summon Insects, Bless, AoF etc.
I guess I did bore you with details. Apologies! But now we are ready.
Having summoned 4 critters (we only got 1 Dire Wolf from AS1), we carefully apply every buff in the optimal order. Some potions are also consumed: Heroism, Giant Strength, Agility... nothing too fancy or powerful, though. We give the summons a 1 second head start towards Drasus, then the rest of the party follows. Cue empty threats, and the game is afoot.
Our summons cluster around Drasus, which is actually good for us, as he will, against all sense and reason, turn out to be the most serious threat in the group. Kysus and Rezdan, thanks to our cunning ploy of sending the summons slightly ahead of the party, target our Skeletons with a Dispel Magic and Melf's Acid Arrow, of all things. Aldain removes Kysus' MGoI, while Xan Malisons the entire group. Jaheira engages Genthore to keep him from doing anything dangerous, Imoen pelts away at Rezdan with Darts of Wounding, our summons are keeping Drasus busy, and everyone else focuses on Kysus. He does manage to get a spell off (Confusion aimed at Xan), but we see it coming and move Xan away so he's the only one affected. Kysus falls shortly thereafter (I don't think he precast Mirror Image, which explains why he died so quickly).
You'll notice Imoen is running off to the stables. That's because Rezdan got a Dire Charm (or maybe even Domination, I'm unsure) off! Imoen does fail her save, but we allowed ourselves the modicum of cheese that is unequipping her weapons as we saw the charm incoming. So she goes after confused Xan with her bare fists... even Xan can stand up to that.
The funny part is that Rezdan's glory is very short-lived. He keels over literally two seconds later, Stoneskin still active, but the constant poisoning due to Imoen's flurry of Darts of Wounding having nibbled away at his health until there's nothing left.
Things are indeed looking up! Aldain finishes casting Emotion, Genthore fails his save (not Drasus, owing to the magic protection potion he gulped down at the start of the fight). Jaheira is tasked with bludgeoning Genthore before he wakes up, and everyone else turns on Drasus, just about at the same time as he finishes off the last Skeleton and turns his tender mercies against Khalid. I'm not sure what Drasus drank here, but I think it was a potion of Cloud Giant Strength. Which explains why he proceeds to absolutely demolish Khalid, despite the latter having a respectable AC of -7 against crushing.
Thankfully, Jaheira finishes off Genthore and takes Khalid's place. No spells will land on Drasus owing again to his protection potion, but damage spells still have an effect, if diminished. Thus we finally fell the dread Drasus with a Scorcher from our most cherished wand, and the fight is over. Huzzah!
Yeah, as you can see, Drasus did a number on Branwen too, having caught up to her for a round. Nevertheless, victory is ours! In hindsight, this was probably not entirely optimal. We got lucky in that we managed to bring down both mages very quickly, and even so, Drasus did a good job beating all our frontliners silly. We were never in REAL danger from him though (we have a few Wands of Summoning if everything goes to hell in a handbasket), but still. An epic battle!
We clear out the few remaining guards outside the mine, retreat back to the Wyvern Cave map (it's almost impossible to rest outside the mine owing to constant interruptions by guards), heal up, and return to descend into the depths.
This time, we're less picky about tactics. Room o' guards and inconsequential but oddly high-level Hareishan get to feel the full force of Grease + Web + Entangle + Fireball, Fireball, Fireball... Fireball. They're red so they're fair game for all sorts of nastiness. We actually try to save the cook by Charming her and moving her out via the tunnel, but an absolutely heartless guard spots her and shoots her dead.
The third level has a few interesting moments, one of which is Xan having a near death experience with a common hobgoblin...
It's easy to forget having full HP means very little when you only have 25 of them. Anyway, he lived, so all's well. The Ogre Mage goes down rather easily (he only has a single 3rd level Mage slot and used it to precast Ghost Armor). All that's left before heading downstairs is Natasha.
Natasha. Honestly. I hate her. Sunfire. Cone of Cold. Multiple Lightning Bolts. There's no redeeming features to her at all. Ugh. This is why we always bring summons. Aldain conjures up a few monsters (we got Summon Monster II from Durlag's Tower), Branwen calls forth her usual skeletons, and they go to work. It works surprisingly well; it looked like I was going to have to use every single one of my Potions of Absorption (Natasha fired off a Lightning Bolt towards a Dire Wolf, and it should have rebounded straight into the entire party which was hiding around the corner), but somehow the Lightning Bolt just fizzled out. Finally, Imoen (our skeletons having sucked up every spell Natasha could muster) makes her way through multiple casts of Stoneskin, and Natasha falls.
We nip downstairs only long enough to take care of the guard and loot two chests, then back up and retreat to the Wyvern Cave map again. Here the party can be found still, silently contemplating how on earth to (safely) dispose of Davaeorn.
Much text, but not a great deal of progress. Aldain is still a Level 7 Human Conjurer.
(first post here)
Back to Athkatla! We tackle Mencar Pennypincher just for the extra loot. We shrug off the effects of Sorcerous Amos' Remove Magic thanks to our relatively high-ish levels, ensuring our damage output stays high and our saves remain low.
Remove Magic and Dispel Magic always say "Dispel Effects," even if nothing got dispelled. To make sure Brennan Risling can't run away with the Sandthief Ring, Frisk paralyzes him with a Chromatic Orb. Even Mencar fails his save against the spell. Spell Focus: Evocation is really effective.
I don't bother using it on the other characters; I assume Smelly Porkslicer is immune and the mages have MGOI. Chromatic Orb was a good choice; Brennan drops a Potion of Magic Shielding her otherwise would have drank. But we have bad news: another Remove Magic came our way, and this time we weren't so lucky.
Frisk turns invisible instantly thanks to the Robe of Vecna. Chara switches to Will o' Wisp form to attain magic immunity, Asriel buffs them with Stoneskin, and Frisk launches a Web after restoring their buffs. The enemy's MGOI has worn off, leaving them helpless to the Web.
We trigger the Suna Seni ambush to get Arbane's Sword in case Frisk needs to shield themself against Hold Person. Asriel bashes Suna Seni with Gnasher (replacing the Mauler's Arm since we now have the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength) while Frisk takes down Eldarin with another Chromatic Orb.
Without Eldarin, the enemy can no longer cut through our Stoneskins, rendering the enemy thief helpless and neutralizing the biggest threats in the fight.
The Renfeld ambush, as always, is much less interesting, though we do discover something curious: Chara got hit by an Acid Arrow and continued taking damage even after switching to Will o' Wisp form, which grants them immunity to acid damage.
We start up the Mae'Var questline on the way to Rylock and start up the Unseeing Eye questline on the way to stealing the Talos amulet for Mavis. For some reason, Oisig will not show up. I console him in instead.
But for some reason, I can't speak with him when he gets back to the Temple of Helm. I click him and no dialog begins.
Not sure what the deal is. I go into the sewers to see if I can proceed without talking to him, but it seems you need him (or the Lathander or Talos guys) to open the way.
Weird thing is, I can talk to him with Chara and Asriel. But you need to use Charname to actually get the quest.
I'll come back later and see if anything has changed.
We report to Mavis, then to Edwin, then stop by Cousin Ray-Ray's house. In IWD2, Cone of Cold bypasses magic resistance, which means Frisk can chunk most golems with cold damage.
Chara's MR in Will o' Wisp form won't block the damage, but their elemental resistances will.
IWD2 druids can cast Snakebite, which lets you attack twice per round and deal poison damage on a failed save vs. death. It's pretty weak in IWD2 because the Fortitude save doesn't scale with levels, but it's still quite nice in BG2. Ray-Ray suffers badly.
He survives the poison and manages to get Mantle off the ground, blocking further attacks with Snakebite, but he ends up in very bad condition. Chara switches to Will o' Wisp for safety's sake and Frisk attacks from afar with Ball Lightning. It seems concentration checks are implemented in the latest version of EE; Ray-Ray only sometimes suffers casting failure from damage.
We take away his Mirror Images, and a Static Charge finishes him off.
The last fight of the Mae'Var questline is with the guildmaster himself. He's pretty tough in SCS, and there are lots of backstabbers in this fight, who can be a big problem if Mavis removes your Stoneskins.
We lead with an Efreeti, followed by some Webs to hold off the Assassins, though Mavis himself escapes the Webs with MGOI. Asriel gets too close and Mavis Breaches him. Asriel is a lot weaker, but Frisk keeps him safe from any backstabs with Stoneskin.
Mavis hits Asriel with Chain Lightning, Flame Arrow, and Chromatic Orb. Since I still haven't given Asriel and Chara their full HP yet, even successful saves don't keep Asriel out of the red.
He heals himself with Cure Medium Wounds, which casts rather quickly thanks to the Improved Initiative feat. Static Charge and Chromatic Orb obliterate the Assassins, and without his allies to distract us, Mavis cannot hold up his defenses for long.
We overwhelm the Crypt King with raw damage output--a specialty of an IWD2-style party in BG2--then torch Pai'Na's spiders with the Wand of Fire and tank some traps with Chara's Will o' Wisp form.
I decide to start the next chapter. I really want some fast XP, as I'm concerned we might fall behind.
(first post here)
We side with Bodhi, as I always do. Thieves are always easier to deal with than vampires--especially since IWD2's Sunray spell doesn't kill undead automatically on a failed save, if we could even cast the spell to begin with. Thieves are much easier to deal with--largely because BG2 thieves don't get Evasion like in IWD and IWD2.
Chara gets two new shapeshifts: Treant form, which has demilich-grade physical damage resistances if not much else, and Wyvern form, which has both high physical damage resistances and rather high MR.
We accidentally volunteer for the hero's task rather than the villain's task, the latter of which is easier to blow off. This means we have to fight a bunch of Shadow Thief mages, who use Mantle spells we can't easily break through. Chara survives a long time in Will o' Wisp form thanks to its 100 MR and low AC, and Frisk escapes combat with Improved Invisibility, but Asriel gets destroyed by spell damage.
With the mages' Mantle spells gone, Chara can slay them with the Will o' Wisp attack, while Frisk Webs the thieves.
We resurrect Asriel, hurry back without resting to finish rescuing the little hostage guy, and receive an alarming reminder that we have no defense against Breach.
Frisk turns invisible and lets Asriel and Chara do the heavy lifting with Gnasher and electrical damage.
Only Aran Linvail's lair remains. Chara solos a troublesome fight using Static Charge and Will o' Wisp form.
The Will o' Wisp attack bypasses PFMW, but SCS mages use Improved Mantle just as often, so it's mostly luck whether or not Chara can strike them. But the most important thing is that Chara's MR is undispellable, so enemy debuffers are nearly useless against them.
Will o' Wisp form works great against Aran Linvail and his mage girlfriend, and we resist the first Remove Magic spell that comes out way. But then another one comes around and puts Asriel in danger. Asriel, unlike Chara, is very dependent on buffs to protect him from spells and swords.
Aran follows up with PW: Stun, and Asriel has no defense against it.
Remove Magic was actually irrelevant here; Free Action and Chaotic Commands don't block stun effects in IWD2. Asriel should have been immune, however, because he should have 40 more HP, as he's supposed to be a cleric.
An Aerial Servant nearly destroys Asriel before Frisk bails him out.
Frisk paralyzes the Aerial Servant with a Chromatic Orb. Eventually Asriel recovers and heals himself. He joins Chara in the fight with Aran Linvail, using wyvern form for its poison and acid damage.
The Shadow Thieves are broken. But I'm not done with Chapter 3 just yet. I want to squeeze more XP out of Athkatla before I try to tackle Irenicus and the Underdark. We're a ways away from being able to tackle the Fallen Planetar we'll probably see in Spellhold.
Sister where art thou,
I managed to escape the starting area but all my gear is gone for good. Puk and Sarah said goodbye to the nut case and we need to enter the goverment area next.
Journal of Spugnor
We cleared all the ankheg and then went to Durlag's Tower. Imoen entered using stealth and was quite successful, however she couldn't carry out the loot. We therefore left the area and memorised invisibility spells before returning. I then went in for the Wisdom Tome which I read immediately. I identified some nice equipment and after casting another invisibility spell carried it out.We then went to the lighthouse area. Web was used against the sirene and Ajantis went up to level 6.
We killed the flesh golems but needed to rest between each one as Ajantis got quite badly hurt. Whilst resting we were attacked by more sirene but they were unsuccessful. On one occasion Imoen was charmed so Ajantis and I went inside the cave until she was no longer hostile.
I read the tome which improved my constitution and then we travelled to see Shoal. Imoen was killed by her but then resurrected. We killed both her and her mate and then headed south killing a number of ogres and the like. The Surgeon healed Imoen and then Ajantis took on a number of sirene. He was charmed twice, but Imoen and I were out of sight so we just had to wait. Ajantis was able to take them on one at a time which was helpful.
We then went to the basilisk area and killed a hostile group of adventurers. Web and wand of fire killed all but one and he was killed with arrows very quickly. Something very strange then happened Ajantis levelled up to level 6 once more. ????? I don't understand how his experience was stolen.
Imoen has now reached level 7.
The Nashkel Mines were not the challenge that I feared. There was not a single demon, only kobolds and a half-orc who was leading them. Because of web, he wasn't a problem at all.
Neither were a band of assassins led by Lamalha. Once again web was king.
We went to Nashkel where I said goodbye to Xan. To be honest I was just using him as a packhorse.
We then went to see Joseph's widow and gave her his ring. At that I became a level 6 fighter/level 5 illusionist.
We then told the mayor of our exploits.
I must get my wand of fire recharged as I only have one charge left.
Every time you lose a fight, you learn something valuable. Come back stronger!
Don't mess with mages
Clear surroundings when preparing to assault enemy group.
Always run when things get out of hand
Hopefully my custom party will get me further, quite a tough band.
Previous update found here
Next update found here
We had more close calls (2) this update than during the entire run so far.
Preparing to tackle Davaeorn (henceforth referred to as D since it's an annoying name to keep spelling), the choice was made to just all-out charge him, hoping to power through his defenses before the endless hordes of guards overwhelmed us. You can bombard him, but he has really good saves and some kind of innate resistance to all damage magical... not sure where it comes from.
Anyway, we go with standard picks (Emotion/Greater Malison/Confusion being key picks, as they'll go straight through D's MGoI in case we fail to remove it, as he might well interrupt our casting of Spell Thrust), along with a bundle of Invisibility to allow us to sneak past and attack from the rear (it'll take longer for any spawning guards to reach us that way).
The entire party sneaks past D and his 2 Battle Horrors, and clear out the lone Mustard Jelly guarding his chests. By some minor miracle, D does not react to his Battle Horrors being engaged, and thus we easily defeat them using a few Scorcher (they should be fire immune, but aren't).
As always, we now bring up 3x Skeleton Warriors. My hope was to have D waste his most potent spells (Sunfire, Cone of Cold) on our gaggle of bonies so that we'd be in less danger when rushing in (hasted, of course) after a few rounds, but D has something else in mind. As soon as our skeletons rush up to him, he (I'm fairly certain) sniffs disdainfully, activates a trove of defensive spells, and Dimension Doors straight into our party. Well, guess the choice whether to engage full hilt or not was made for us. Aldain immediately strips D's MGoI, Xan lands a Greater Malison, and D, for some reason, decides to lead with a Web. Which only really entraps Khalid, leaving the rest of the party free to engage.
Alright, seconds count. MGoI removed, D is vulnerable, but still has excellent saves. Aldain fires Emotion, Xan fires Confusion, and D retaliates with... Sunfire. This was our first close call. Aldain takes 26(!) damage but thankfully makes his save, and so survives. Xan is less (yet still pretty fortunate, as I'll explain momentarily) fortunate. He fails his save, but still only takes the first "brunt" of 27 damage from Sunfire, since his maximal HP is, as we know by now, 25. Dead Xan. Not good. Jaheira gets singed as well, but to my great joy, Xan retaliates from beyond the grave. His confusion (which with his Enchanter bonus and Greater Malison forces D to save at -8 vs spell) sticks! Hooray!
Pictured: The moment before we got incredibly lucky.
So, why were we incredibly lucky, and why was Xan fortunate to die? Well, had Xan suffered, say 3 damage less, he would have survived the first blast. And then gotten irrevocably burnt to a crisp by the second. So, Xan is down but can still be raised. And, Aldain MADE his save, whereas he'd probably have died if he failed it. Finally, D is now confused, and so pretty much done for. We hit him with everything we have, and just as the guards really start pouring in to threaten our rear, D's Stoneskin gives out, and D himself lasts no more than a second longer.
I'll admit that was a bit too close for comfort. Though to be fair, this fight is always touch and go. The most reliable way I've found to do it is to turn everyone but 1-2 people invisible, have your Davaeorn-killers use PfM scroll or Potions of Magic Blocking, and hope they can end him before you get 25-30 guards joining in.
This can backfire though, as D tends to toss his area-effect spells willy-nilly (or indeed, cast Detect Invisibility and happily blast your unprotected party members who are now visible to pieces), and since 2/3 of your party is invisible (and therefore not helping) those 2 Battle Horrors become more of a threat. Anyway, I'm truly happy it went as well as it did. We gather up every scrap of loot as well as Xan's equipment, and finish flooding the mines, afterwards escaping without incident (just a small Ettercap ambush) back to the FAI and a much-deserved raising for Xan.
Next up, Baldur's Gate. Or well, not quite. We do go to the Sorcerous Sundries and clear the mages upstairs (not wanting another near-death experience, they get the usual treatment: Web/Entangle/Grease/Fireball/Skulltrap) for their absolutely lovely Spider Spawn scroll, but then we nip back outside. Why? We haven't cleared the Red Wizard area yet!
I usually leave this area to late as well, given that you face so many mages at once (two of which are fairly high level). But we should be able to hack it now. We begin by clearing the area, for no good reason really... it's an area, it's there, so we clear it. There's a big spawn of a Sword Spider, Wraith Spider and Phase Spider.
We engage them. They call for help from 2 ettercaps. OK, we can still manage this. The 2 ettercaps call for help from 3 Giant Spiders. Giant Spiders that can Web people. We can still do this! And here comes the second close call, probably the worst one we've had this run.
Since there's now a serious concentration of enemies bearing down on us (I in my overconfidence not having bothered with Fireballing them while they were approaching), and the bloody Giant Spiders successfully webbed both Jaheira and Branwen, Xan fires a Scorcher from his wand at the Sword Spider. Unfortunately, I misjudge the angle slightly, leading to Aldain's hair catching fire. And his cloak. And his boots. And I think even the hair on his arms.
Well, that was just brilliant. We were a few seconds (the followup burn would've killed Aldain) from ending our run by our own hand. Hmph. Say, those spiders are doing a real number on our webbed frontliners. Oh no, Branwen is poisoned! Aldain, save her!
Yeah OK... great. Aaaaah crap, Khalid is poisoned too! Aldain, save Kha-
... just go stand at the back while Xan and Imoen handle this.
We did survive, but that was a real good reminder of what over-confidence will do to you. I especially liked the part where I scorchered myself.
Somehow we have just enough inventory slots to haul everything back with us (though we are forced to use Strength potions to be able to carry everything), and we do manage to raise Khalid and Branwen, and return. No problems cleansing the rest of the area this time. We assault the mage cabal with everything we have, even succeeding in Dominating one (yay Branwen), and Khalid manages a very impressive critical (this was with a Stone Giant Strength potion, of course).
Surprisingly, the Red Wizards weren't that dangerous this time around. The highest level one (Denak) got poisoned by Imoen darting him, and spent most of his time summoning fairly helpless fodder. The other ones got stuck trying to deal with our Skeleton Warriors. All's well that ends well. We pick up their Remove Magic scroll and damage-dealing ring, and scurry on down to Beregost.
We now do a definitive shopping spree of every shop outside Baldur's Gate. Protection scrolls, potions, even Bullets of Fire +1... we buy anything that might be helpful. Returning to Baldur's Gate, Aldain and Xan are treated to the finest scrolls the Sorcerous Sundries have to offer, and we part with several prized Intelligence boosting potions to ensure they are all scribed flawlessly.
The party can now be found in the Elfsong tavern, planning out intrepid new tactics made possible by their now greatly expanded arcane spell selection. Aldain remains a Level 7 Human Conjurer, though probably not for long (experience will rack up swiftly in Baldur's Gate).
Leaving Candlekeep
Striking down Sarevok
Cleaning up after the Shining Lady
Most recent post
Steinarr is having a hard time finding honest work, and a really hard time staying out of trouble.
Although the odds of a reward were small, he decided to help a woman who was in deep debt to a moneylender. The bastard loan shark took one of the woman's children hostage to force payment.
Steinarr tried to find the child and rescue her. Stop one was the sewers, where he was assaulted by a hatchetman and then a beholder (!). Summons took the brunt of the punishment and the team took little damage. No kid though.
Stop two was the sewers under the Copper Coronet. No kid.
Steinarr was worried that he was running out of time, and that the bastards would kill the kid. So he just gave in and handed over the cash. The extortionate thugs let the kid go, but they abandoned her in the graveyard instead of bringing her home to her mom.
Steinarr decided to let the kid find her way home on her own. There's vampires and ghouls in graveyards! Good luck, kid.
Next, Steinarr rescued a poor sick man named Renfield and brought him to the Harper compound in the docks. On the way out, he told Xzar to get lost.
Steinarr heard about a problem in Trademeet, and thought that sounded like a nice place to go. Unfortunately, slaver assassins heard about his plans and ambushed the team. Twice.
Orogs and a slaver mage dropped out of the trees, right into the middle of the party.
Aerie opened with a silence + horror sequencer, but mis-targeted and ended up silencing herself and Jaheira. Moreover, Aerie didn't have her stoneskins or images up. That was a recipe for a quick death. Hearing his new witch fall, Minsc went berserk and started cleaving orogs.
The mage took Yoshimo out of the fight with horror. But luckily, the spell didn't reach the rest of the party.
Steinarr got worried and drank an oil of speed, switching to run and gun tactics. Minsc and Jaheria went after the mage, but got a Sunfire in the face for their trouble.
Steinarr slung down the last of the enemies. Berserk Minsc couldn't tell that the fight was over, however, and he took a big hunk out of Jaheira's side with his greatsword. Ouch. That's going to take some stitches.
After going back to the temple to raise the dead and heal, the party tried to go to Trademeet again. This time, it was a full party of slaver mages, clerics and fighters that interrupted the trip. High-level ones. We weren't traveling invisibly. And once again, Aerie had forgotten to put on her stoneskins that morning. The battle got tough, quickly.
Aerie fell to a chaos and two massive backstabs.
Minsc would have gone berserk again, but one of the clerics had already knocked him unconscious. He slept in the middle of the battlefield, ignored.
Jaheira managed to summon a fire elemental before succumbing to a hold person. That turned out to be bad for her health.
Yoshimo couldn't handle the action, so he went invisible and hid in a corner. He tossed his boots of speed to Steinarr, who wrangled them on.
Steinarr was getting hit a lot going toe-to-toe with the fighters. So he decided to sling them from a distance while the fire elemental bashed them down. The mage was a problem, though. He ended up having to drink his only potion of magic protection, followed by an invisibility potion and then a brace of extra healing potions.
Meanwhile, the fighters decided to stab Minsc through the heart. He died in his sleep.
Steinarr cast DUHM and then raged. Emerging from invsibility, he whirled his sling with ferocious intensity. He let fly, and the bullets stung the slavers. They weren't fast enough to catch him with their swords, and he was adequately resistant to spells. Soon the slavers were all dust.
Now its back to the Temple to raise and heal. At this rate, Steinarr isn't going to raise enough money to hire help with finding Imoen...
Next in Barbarian News: Trademeet or bust (round 3)
(These SCS ambushes are no joke! Reminder to myself to always travel invisibly & never forget those long-lasting buffs...)
Eilwa's journey
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part 4
We entered the mines and cleared the first two levels in one run. I must say, as everyone already knows, ranged weapons are OP in BG1. Quayle got killed again while we were fighting the Kobold Shaman from a Kobold Commando arrow.
We continued our journey through the Mines, Eilwa used Stealth to get to Xan and we made use of one of my favourite exploits:
The fight against Mulahey was pretty easy, only Garrick got really low (1hp from a Skeleton's critical hit with a halberd). I used Xan's sleep over the Kobolds, and later Xan used Melf's Acid Arrow while Kivan and Eilwa bombarded the Half-Orc priest with arrows. Quayle used Magic Missile to interrupt one of his spells, but Hold Person (Kivan saved against it and it didn't get anyone else) and Unholy Smite (?) got through (he first tried to cast a defensive one I think, but I thought he was going for a direct Unholy/Hold).
[spoiler]
Edit: Quayle got a level up in the middle of the fight against Mulahey and now he can cast level 2 Priest spells. Yay!
(first post here)
We stop by Watcher's Keep, overwhelming those pesky Vampiric Wraiths with brute force and using our long-duration Negative Plane Protection spells to hold off their level drain attacks. When Chara couldn't finish off the Spectral Trolls with the wyvern form's nonmagical weapon, we used the Burning Earth instead. And since we have no thief, we had to use Asriel's IWD2 STR-boosting spells and Chara's Will o' Wisp form to deal with locks and traps.
We activated the first four Statues, but I forgot to switch Chara over to Will o' Wisp form. The oversight was fatal.
Frisk tries to pin down the Statues with Chromatic Orb, but the clerics are buffed with Free Action and can cure paralysis on the fighters.
Cone of Cold bypasses the enemy's magic resistance, but it's still not strong enough to do much damage.
Asriel breaks down the fighter Statues, relying on his powerful attacks and incredibly low AC. But the enemy's THAC0 is superb, and his Stoneskins run out far faster than I expected.
Still haven't corrected Asriel's HP.
I go over my options. Frisk is fairly tough in their own right, and we do have a Rod of Resurrection to keep up the fight. But considering the progress so far and the minimal rewards for victory, I decide to play it safe, and flee the area.
We return under invisibility to collect our equipment and start the fight back up again.
This time, we throw out some Web spells to hold down the enemy fighters, since the clerics' Remove Paralysis spells would only work for 6 seconds. The enemy has high MR, but multiple Web spells can net them, and our Free Action buffs grant total immunity.
But the fighters aren't the only offensive threat. Asriel has no immunity to fire.
He recovers with a potion and we keep up the pressure. Web gives us automatic attacks, and when the enemy grows weak, Frisk pounces with Cone of Cold.
With the fighters down, the clerics are helpless. Cleric spells have long casting times, and they have no Stoneskins or Mantles to avoid disruption. The last Statues crumble.
On to the Windspear Hills! Our IWD2 Stoneskins don't last overnight, so we wake up to Plath Rededge's ambush completely unbuffed. Frisk turns the party invisible...
...but then Plath Rededge launches a Symbol of Death. Frisk has less than 60 HP.
With a save vs. death of 8, their chances of survival were not very high. We got lucky.
We crush Plath with minor pressure and move on to Firkraag's bachelor pad. The Vampiric Mists here can be annoying, but we have some instant death options against them.
The Ruhk Transmuter here is a nightmare, with AC far below zero, spell level immunities we can't break until level 15, and a bunch of nasty evocation spells.
But we have a trump card. Chara's Will o' Wisp form will block all of the rakshasa's spells, and the rakshasa needs strong attack rolls to land a hit with its saber.
Chara can't hurt the rakshasa due to the Will o' Wisp weapon being nonmagical; their only purpose is to wear the rakshasa down.
When the rakshasa holds off on its spells, Chara baits them out with summons.
After that, it's just a long dance before the rakshasa is vulnerable, and a long, boring slog to land hits on the rakshasa's low AC.
Asriel's IWD2-style cleric buffs are even stronger than normal BG2 cleric buffs, and he can deal spectacular damage if he doesn't get dispelled.
Samia et al can be very dangerous without proper preparation, but the fight was easy for us. Frisk spammed Web while Chara and Asriel broke the enemy with electrical and crushing damage.
Like Cone of Cold, IWD2's Chain Lightning spell bypasses magic resistance. Chara gets a bonus 20% damage thanks to the Scion of Storms feat, while Frisk has a -4 save penalty thanks to Spell Focus: Evocation, so both can deal a lot of damage with the spell.
I don't like fighting the Guardians. It's repetitive and bothersome. Chromatic Orb keeps things simple.
We plow through the rest of the dungeon with ease. IWD2 spells are very damage-oriented, so melee grunts are no trouble for us.
Mages are another story. I keep Frisk well away from Conster, who Breaches Asriel's defenses early on.
But as long as Frisk stays out of sight, Chara can handle most mages on their own. Conster isn't strong enough to summon a Fallen Planetar, and he fails to summon a demon instead, so Chara's Will o' Wisp form weathers his spells and pierces his PFMW spells until his Mirror Images are gone and a Static Charge finishes him off.
Now that we're level 11, we're ready to take on the De'Arnise Hold. IWD2 mages, clerics, and druids get level 6 spells at level 11 instead of 12, so Asriel can now cast Dismissal.
Dismissal only affects summoned critters, but since it's basically the IWD2 version of the Death Spell, I decide to just let Asriel use the normal Death Spell. This means we can take down Trolls without a lot of tedious buffing, or worrying about Spirit Trolls and their irritating STR drain.
Janus, human totemic druid (Grond0) & Gryph, elf fighter/mage (Gate70)
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/817932/#Comment_817932
With all my single player updates recently I've not been getting around to documenting this run since the duo got to Athkatla. And of course the longer you leave it to make a post the more challenging it seems to make sense of a set of scrappy notes ...
'Fortunately' that problem resolved itself yesterday when this run ended having done most of the Chapter 2 & 3 quests in Ahtkatla. We'd cleared Windspear Hills with the exception of the boss-man and went to try and tackle him. Summons led the way in an initial attack, while Gryph put in a pierce magic to try and give Janus' Nature's Beauty spell a better chance of success. The spell cast successfully and there was no mention of magic resistance in the battle text, but Firkraag was not blinded. Possibly that was immunity, but I suspect it's due to the nature of the dragon icons - those are large, but don't accurately reflect the underlying position of the dragon (so spells won't necessarily take effect if targeted on just the outer portion of them).
Firkraag proceeded to buffet the summons away and dispelled Gryph's buffs before chasing him into a corner. The elf tried to use an oil of speed to give him more of a chance to run away, but Firkraag gave him no time to attempt that.
At that stage the dragon's hits were well down and with 2 insect plagues active on him I had hopes that he would be nibbled to death - a slightly cheesy-feeling heal (innate ability rather than spell, so not disrupted by the insects) put paid to that.
Reluctant to abandon the fight I decided to see if some nymphs would get lucky with hold monster. Three of those were lined up ready before a wolf was sent in as a distraction while I prepared to doom Firkraag. Unfortunately Janus hadn't even got into sight of the dragon when Firkraag buffeted the wolf back towards him and followed up with a searing breath. I hadn't got around to putting any fire protection on Janus and the breath damage on him exactly equalled his available HPs ...
Run rules: EE vanilla, core rules, max HP, iPad
I present you Morrigan (seems like a fitting name for the new Goddess of Murder, given the irish goddess is a goddess of fate, foretelling doom and death in battle) a neutral roguish type of character who, for some strange reason, is a naturally talented assassin. Go figure. The idea is
I will divide the posts in Story (with small extracts of things that happen) and Behind the scenes (where I update on the run progress in terms of challenges and what has been covered)
Story
She tried to cheat her and was killed instead.
Silke was evil and rotten to the core!
she had it coming, that heartless mean wh... Thespian extraordinaire.
Morry back then was a young, comely lass.
Though already scary to make her a pass.
She told me of Gorion and of Candlekeep
Of all those assassins she slaughtered like sheep.
She wanted to hide. For her life she feared!
I thus let her join me towards Ulgorth Beard. [...]
Beginning of "Of Gods and Bards" by Garrick
-----
"Did we realise that pretty young lady would kill all the bhaalspawn and become Goddess of Murder? No, she seemed so nice, helping with our problems: basilisks, Bassilus... Hmm. In retrospective, she always seemed to be good at killing things starting with "B"."
Kelddath Ormlyr at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
Behind the scenes
Running solo for the most part. Garrick tags along but I usually boot him when i enter a map to optimize XP. He is there to steal stuff, write about me and the occasional web spam
Got the green amulet, algernons cloak (failed the pickpocket but talked to him before he got angry. Another trick I just learned!), dagger of venom, shadow armor, wand of sleep and ring of free action, so only lacking the boots of speed to be unstoppable, i'd think. Still have had several "almost dead" moments:
- Neera's initial encounter: the red wizard killed Neera and almost got me after several missed poisoned arrows.
- Landrin spiders surrounded me outside the house. Had to drink my only potion of defense and was lucky none of them had a critical hit. I think it is the first time I use that potion. One of the great thing about no reloads is having to use your inventory :-)
- Passing through the Anghkeg area to get the ring of free action, i picked Ajantis as a meat shield and he got killed by two quick crits. Lucky I picked him, I guess.
- Those half ogres from the paladin quest refused to sleep. Had to run away after my health dropped to scary levels. Quite unfitting for the next Goddess of Murder.
- Neville (AR4600) almost killed me (2hp) after i kited him away from his men and went on a 1 on 1 fight against him. I really need to forget my usual point and click tactics. A lv6 rogue is still weak and that venom save for the dagger seems easy, given the success rate.
All bounty hunters, silke and Bassilus were no problem at all. Assassin poison did them all.
Next steps are Gnoll fortress, Brague and then the Nashkell Mines. I welcome advices for a solo assassin :-)
Another promising run down...