Whenever I post an update, I e-mail a link to Forrest to that post - this way he can see how his character and Misty are doing in the adventure. We talk about my runs sometimes. And I don't have any other family in the area I live, so seemed to make sense to have him and Misty take up spots #5 and #6.
Björn headed south, bought a necklace of missiles and headed west where he helped Rufie, a dryad and a cat in a waterfall. He then killed Gnarl, Hairtooth, some assassins, some gnoll and picked up a useful tome. Heading north he killed more gnoll, a polar bear, Neville, some hobgoblins, and an ogre before heading north where he helped the archaeologist and Brage. Reputation now 20. I believe that it is now time to pick up some companions. Experience currently 28800.
Quick update on Corewild and his band of wild mages (and Joshua of course):
Party is clearing the Cloakwood very well. We stand our ground in ambushes, and our wands have been a big help in those encounters. Area 4 has just been cleared, Cloakwood Mine will be our target next session. No deaths.
Only incident of note is against Amarande - the grand druid held Joshua (who didn't bother to enrage) and then attacked with his staff. Joshua's wild mages friends weren't going to stand for that, and unloaded with damage spells immediately - Amarande didn't even survive a round, and thus failed to hurt Joshua.
Mages are now level 8, Joshua 7, and Corewild 6 fighter/7 thief. By the way our spell gap problem is fixed - we got some spells we needed by pick-pocketing Shandalar. We failed to pick-pocket Dushai's ring so had to kill her, but Shandalar is apparently easier target as he failed to notice all contents in his pockets being emptied.
Corewild the fighter/thief, his berserker tank, and group of wild mages update: Corewild=gnomish fighter(6)/thief(7) Joshua=gnomish berserker(7) Misty, Forrest, Hanna, Paja = human wild mages(8)
SETUP: EasyTutu TotSC Core rules at all times no mods
Wild Surges of note (since the START of the run): (click Spoiler to see details)
1) party slowed when casting armor when entering sirines area (not in combat) 2) Forrest polymorphed into wolf when trying to skull trap the kobold commandos guarding the entrance to level 4 of the Nashkel Mines 3) Paja got held by a wild surge during an ogrillion ambush. However, with direct damage spells, the ogrillions were not able to take advantage of that. 4) During a cave bear ambush got a particularly helpful surge - entire party was mirror imaged! Needless to say easy to win that ambush... 5) Misty gets a wild surge while casting magic missiles at at an ankheg - bit more than 11000 gold goes poof. 6) Lots of squirrels summoned in Ankheg ambush (had no combat effect that time) by a surge 7) Misty gets a surge that holds an ettercap that is attacking one of our mages 8) Party is slowed by a wild surge while fighting a skeletal warrior in Durlag's Tower.
The party cleared out the Cloakwood Mine without any trouble. For all mages in the mine, a buffed up fighter would engage them, with the rest of the party hanging back - this worked out well.
For Drassus and pals, we fought them fair (that is, no offensive spell cast until both sides can see each other) - we did buff a little bit before actually engaging - the party unsurprisingly did quite well - with stinking cloud, fireballs, skull traps, emotion, and our single target direct damage spells, the result was hardly in doubt. Properly buffed, Joshua could have soloed these enemies, but the mages were having none of that - Joshua has a large lead in kills, and the mages don't to be that far back.
We intentionally spawned the battle horrors for the experience - with all our wands and magic missiles, the battle horrors didn't last long. We found some spells we were missing on Davaeorn's level. We got our final armor upgrades for the mages (for BG 1 anyways) - Davaeorn's robe goes to Paja, and Hanna will use the AC 6 bracers.
By this point, we have MASSIVE number of items we can sell if needed in our "bank" (the barrel close to Jovial Juggler) - a surge that destroys our gold is no problem. We will get items to sell in Baldur's Gate itself, so there's that too.
In any case, we finally get to the City of Baldur's Gate. The DEX tome went to Corewild, with him being part thief and all. Resist fear made sure the mages at the top level of Sorcerous Sundries were going down (which they did, albeit hurting Joshua and Corewild with melf's acid arrows before they went down).
We bought a ton of spells we were missing - level 9 will be great, as most of the party knows chaos.
There's also Grond0's "One Day Challenge", which is going from Candlekeep to Melissan and winning in 24 hours or less - this is based on a vanilla (more or less) install. Aasim mentioned this one fairly recently - in his attempt, he got mazed by Abazigal.
I supposed the link I put is exactly this Grond0's "One Day Challenge".
Hmm - yes it does appear to be that. Except when I actually look at the thread, it doesn't mention anything about Ascension (Grond0 mentions BGT) - so not sure why the link is "Ascension in a day" - oh wait now I remember - Grond0 doesn't mean the mod Ascension, but the verb (Ascending to Godhood when Melissan defeated). Got it.
Björn joined up with Khalid and Jaheira before visiting Shoal. They killed Droth First, Jaheira falling for a second time in one battle. They rested and got revenge by killing Shoal. They cleared the southern area of sirene which boosted experience.
They then joined up with Xzar and Montarin, Montarin putting all his proficiency in pickpocketing. This caused Björn to think that they were not evil as pickpocketing is a relatively benign attribute.
Montarin used his skill to the utmost, picking up Algernon's cloak in Beregost and many a scroll at Ulgoth's Beard. However the comment made by Khalid that they were Zhent, caused Björn to realise that they were evil, and so they were dropped. That means that the party is once more without a mage. Björn is a fighter/cleric and Khalid is a cleric/ranger, so the party has enough clerics and tanks. (Thorin, a dwarven Defender, joined them at Ulgoth's Beard.) They killed numerous ankhegs north of the Friendly Arms Inn, and they will soon go looking for a mage and someone to disable traps.
(Rockin' a new account since I lost track of my original login.)
(Some of you may doubt it's really me, but those of you who know me will surely recognize the combination of loopy diction and semi-insightful commentary before long. Yuppers, indeedy!)
Anyhoo. I'm just stopping by to say hey, and to let everyone know that I'm glad to see the challenge alive and well. I don't expect to play anytime soon, but who knows: I am getting semi-interested in the game again. We'll see.
Nice to see ya around again, Alesia! We missed you...
If you are at least semi-interested in the game again, I would suggest for you to think about trying Spell/Item Revisions mods. I'm running the former now and quite happy with it. Lots of new experience and much to learn about new spells/old spells behaviours. I think, you'll find them interesting to say the least
(Rockin' a new account since I lost track of my original login.)
(Some of you may doubt it's really me, but those of you who know me will surely recognize the combination of loopy diction and semi-insightful commentary before long. Yuppers, indeedy!)
Anyhoo. I'm just stopping by to say hey, and to let everyone know that I'm glad to see the challenge alive and well. I don't expect to play anytime soon, but who knows: I am getting semi-interested in the game again. We'll see.
Björn has picked up Dynaheir followed by Safana. At the lighthouse area Summoned skeletons were sufficient to agbsorb the dire charm spels and the first sirenes were wiped out. Sil however was talked out of attacking and gave a cloak that gives 100% protection to cold - ideal for fighting winter wolves. The party entered the cave and fought flesh golems. Whilst the golems died, they also dished out a lot of damage and it was necessary to rest. Rest was interrupted by a siren who was killed. This happened after another flesh golem was killed too. The party then went to Beregost where ankheg shells were sold and spiders were killed. They then bought a helm of charm protection and some decent armour. The three tanks are now well armoured. Some of the loot from the spiders improved experience slightly. The body however is being kept in order to improve spider's bane later. Björn's experience is now nearly 50,000.
Corewild the fighter/thief and his band of wild mages (and Joshua) Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(7) Joshua = gnomish berserker(8) Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(8)
Corewild got past chapter 5 without any real difficulties. We did not get any surges of note, but that was in part because the party did not have to cast many spells. Iron Throne 5th floor was destroyed, mostly by slow, emotion and skull traps. We would have almost been undamaged, except a Forrest skull trap badly hurt Hanna (but she lived). We will be headed to Candlekeep next session. Here are some screenies:
Corewild the fighter/thief and his band of wild mages (and Joshua) Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(8) Joshua = gnomish berserker(8) Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(9)
The party has made it past Chapter 6. The party also got to their level caps.
1) Shistal killed (4000 exp is 4000 exp right?) 2) We did NOT kill the Iron Throne leaders 3) We found some spells we didn't know, but most of the party decided to flub scribing them, so the free spells weren't that helpful after all... 4) Corewild of course did the trap/lock duties down here in the crypts - he's at 100% at both so no problems in that respect
5) Only one battle was dicey - phase spiders guarding strength tome. Corewild and Joshua were way advanced - I thought a single phase spider would be no problem for the mages (which it wasn't) - but the 2nd one came when the mages auras were clouded! Uh, oh! As soon as their aura is clear tried magic missiles but too late! Misty is poisoned!
As fast as I can am clicking her antidote, hoping her aura clears before she dies - she did gulp an antidote in time - left her with 4 HP! Close one...
6) For the next area, Corewild went invisible and tried to de-trap as many traps as he could (with AI off). Skeletons were then cleared, then the dopplegangers on the sides and finally "Elminister" and his buddies. This fight got the mages to level 9.
7) We had lots of ways to deal with Prat. But decided I had a lot of items I'll probably never use - so buffed up Joshua with bunch of stuff, and he went to town and destroyed Prat and his party. The key step was to turn off AI and get Joshua deep into the enemy party, so that lightning bolts are fired AWAY from the party - this worked and success!
8) Corewild had nothing better to do, so he took advantage of his free action ring and protection from poison and cleared most of the spiders down here.
9) Basilisks got Corewild his last level, which in turn put all characters at their level cap.
We sold our junk at the FAI, did the free rest at Wyrm's Crossing, and will return to Baldur's Gate next session.
After helping Drizzt, Björn went in search of and found Dynaheir's Journal. This is the first time in my experience that this has worked. Clearly the bug causing the problem with getting the quest to start has been fixed. Björn paid for Jaheira to be raised and immediately left her with Bardolan. Perhaps with her skills she will be able to ease his tension. In her place Minsc, a mighty if somewhat strange fighter joined the party. Dynaheir seemed to be more bothered by his idiosyncrasies than Björn.
EDIT
The jornal Quest is from BG1 NPC Project. Only loot of note from it was a Maze Scroll plus 2000 exp.
Corewild the fighter/thief and his band of wild mages (and Joshua) Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(8) Joshua = gnomish berserker(8) Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(9)
The party defeats Slythe with dispelling arrows and magic missiles. With haste, summons and slow available, we were pretty sure we'd have victory at the Duchal (we were right - both dukes survived even).
We used invisibility to skip all enemies in maze and also Undercity Party. When we arrived at Sarevok's hide-out, we realize have almost no potions or scrolls. Well we are mages right? That shouldn't stop us. So we press on.
The initial battle was going OK. Our plan of huge network of webs, on the other hand, wasn't very effective. So we just unloaded lots of DD spells into Sarevok. One by one the party falls, until it's just Corewild! Corewild went invisible then check on Sarevok's health - near death! Corewild goes in for a backstab - 46 damage and Sarevok falls!
As this is a MP party, everyone moving forward to Amn. No surges of note occurred.
Quick note about Corewild and his band of wild mages and his berserker tank: They have made it out of Irenicus' dungeon - will keep at it - at a chess tourney right now, so won't be able to play that much...
After the bugs the party wandered around Athkatla causing trouble for awhile. We did half of the Unseeing Eye quest (I don't really want to face the beholders for now), Sarles, and almost got ourselves into trouble when the Expanded Thief Stronghold offered us the opportunity to bust one of my minions out of jail. Before I knew where I was Afaaq the berserker genie had attacked an Amnish Legionary and we were running for the exit of the Government district trying to survive some seriously beefed up Centurions and not turn any quest givers against us. Happily we managed to spring the thief and deal with some other quests (Water Gardens stuff from BG1 in SoA) & lich bashing for long enough that the district became safe for us later... We've just done WIndspear and Whitworth is in two minds as to whether to leave Firkraag for later and heed Edwin's cowardly advice (and Aran's too to be fair) or to push on and finish the Limited Wish quest, maybe try the smaller Shadow Dragon, and help a Troll forge a ring of troll fingers for his beloved- a human woman in Trademeet.... Since I know that fighting Firkraag will lose me Edwin if roleplayed I think I'll roll a die on it...but I don't know how to do that on this forum so I'll do it myself I guess.
One or two glitches have continued to occur however, Kivan didn't cut out Tazok's heart which isn't like how he usually reacts.... or possibly he's so inured to violence now that Tazok isn't that much of a bother for him anymore...
Vishnaera finally dealt with Mutamin, whose failed save vs Chaos meant death by A Certain Sword Spider™. The group of adventurers was dealt with with Web and more spider action. One of them had an Oil of Fiery Burning (I already had one, 2 total now) and a Potion of Explosions, besides the Paws of the Cheetah, Batalista's Passport and an Amulet of Protection. Nice loot.
I also remembered Thalantyr has Potions of Explotions! Now we have 3 Identified Potion of Explotions, one unidentified and two oils of Fiery Burning (thanks to a particular BG Tweaks component that restricts item identification at stores, and to another component of the same mod that marks all the Potions/Gems as Unidentified). I believe I'm ready to take on the Bandit Camp now, but since I'm sleepy and rather attached to this character, I'm going to do it tomorrow. I think that after the Bandit Camp until Davaeron I won't have any problems.
On his way to fight the bandits, Björn was attacked by Necardian and his cohorts. Due to web, they themselves did no damage, but a confusion spell was far more dangerous as Minsc attacked Khalid which brought him to the brink of death.
Fortunately the spell expired before Khalid did and they all went to the FAI area for R & R. I realised afterwards that some summoned skeletons would have avoided the danger.
Now for those bandits. Tazok has agreed to Björn and his party joing them. However in the same area were some more assassins who did not pose much of a problem,
The party then rested as they deemed that full spell books were a necessity.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 4
Finally got around to posting the next section. This is a very long fight, and there's lots of stuff to discuss.
The party is in a solid position, but I don't know what's coming up next. I've never tried this fight before this run, and though I got a little ways into the fight before, a game-ending bug prevented me from seeing any more of it.
We keep fortifying our position, knowing that things are going to get worse before long.
There's an enemy mage on the map that's too well-defended for us to handle right now, but Edwin's spell protections keep him safe for now.
Suddenly, drow spawn in the northwest room that I've been using as a sanctuary for Carl, our sorcerer Charname. We throw out Dragon's Breath while the enemy takes down our Dispelling Screen. Dispelling Screen grants party-wide immunity to dispelling magic in Spell Revisions, but can be taken down with a single Dispel Magic spell.
Flowey uses Domination, the Seducer's area-effect charm spell. It only lasts 2 rounds, takes 2 rounds to take effect, is extremely unreliable (especially in Legacy of Bhaal mode with the enemy's +5 to saving throws), and imposes even worse combat penalties than Charm. But Flowey isn't here to deal damage, and the crowd control has a big impact over time.
Viconia holds strong. Although she doesn't have any armor due to being Wish-resurrected earlier, some erroneously stacking Wish Hardiness spells keep her safe enough to get an Implosion off the ground.
I want to get Carl to safety. I have him cast Improved Alacrity and use it to chain-cast Dimension Jump, the level 1 SR spell, to a safe corner where he can turn invisible.
Since we're in a low-pressure position, we need to use these precious rounds to secure our position and plan ahead. Stan, our Totemic Druid, casts Farsight to make sure we retain visibility even if we need to scatter, Edwin restores our Dispelling Screen, and Carl keeps casting Wish.
More enemies spawn in Carl's former sanctuary room, which has now become the primary battleground. Flowey's Domination converts a chunk of the enemy horde, easing the pressure.
Carl notices an enemy in the hallway to the egg chamber. It seems more reinforcements are on the way. His Wishes arrive just in time:
I've seen Matron Mother Ellaviir before, and I know she's a tough cookie. Carl uses Dimension Jump to re-position himself and spends his HLAs on the new enemies.
He also re-casts Wish, regaining his HLAs.
The next few rounds are a confusing blur. I think Carl uses a workaround to get Wish Breach to function properly, but I don't think it has any effect. Carl also restores Hardiness on the party (which unfortunately does not stack on Carl himself), and Viconia gets disrupted by physical damage despite having 100% damage resistance.
Most importantly, a new wave of enemies rushes in, including multiple enemy mages. Dispelling Screen doesn't block Breach in my install, which means Stan has no way of keeping his defenses safe.
We keep applying pressure with our various HLAs, but the situation looks dire. All these enemies arrived in a quick surge. We are (erroneously) able to summon multiple celestials without the aid of Project Image (and Simulacrum clones, but not Project Image clones, are erroneously able to use mage HLAs), but Item Revisions makes the enemy drow much tougher by strengthening their equipment. And because our party is evil, most of our celestials have very weak healing spells due to Spell Revisions' changes to Devas and Planetars.
Without Protection from Magical Energy, Stan is extremely vulnerable to Magic Missile, and my attempts to block the spell using the Cloak of the Shield fail completely.
Despite Stan's weakness and our crumpling celestials, Edwin can still make a huge dent in the enemy's HP with Dragon's Breath.
We'd be in much better shape if Comet wasn't bugged to be party-unfriendly, but I generally prefer to roll with bugs, even if they're not in my favor, as long as they're not game-breaking.
(I know I'm repeating myself from my older posts, but it's been a while since Part 3 of this fight came out)
Carl uses Improved Alacrity to teleport across the map once more, and we see a disturbing sight: an epic-level mage is on the way.
Improved Alacrity would give us a good chance to debuff that mage and take him down, but I'm not sure I want Carl to run out of aura cleansing this far away from the rest of the party. Instead, I have him teleport down to the exit so he can turn himself invisible again.
Things are looking ugly to the northwest. Edwin has lost his spell deflection (which blocks area-effect spells in SR) and is no vulnerable to Waves of Fatigue, the SR version of Chaos which imposes -2 to casting speed among other penalties for 5 rounds without saves.
If Edwin gets in trouble and needs to cast PFWM, Stoneskin, or Moment of Prescience (the SR version of Improved Mantle, which grants undispellable but Breachable +20 to AC and saving throws), then he'll have to do it with a casting time of 2 or 3, since he can't equip the Amulet of Metaspell Influence (+1 casting time and immunity to silence in Item Revisions) due to having his own unremovable amulet.
Carl gets a Wish Time Stop and uses it to regain control of the situation.
Now everyone on the map has -12 luck due to having 100 intoxication--except for those with MGOI or spell deflection. That'll do horrible things to the enemy's melee output and make Edwin's Dragon's Breath spells do maximum damage (!), but that -12 luck could kill us if we don't cure it. In vanilla, Elixirs of Health can cure intoxication (I think Neutralize Poison can, too), but with IR and SR installed, only Heal can cure it, and having SR means that only Viconia and Carl's Planetar can cast Heal. Stan and most of our celestials cannot do it.
Edwin casts True Seeing via the Book of Daily Spell so he can nail the enemy mages with Pierce Shield, which in SR is a devastating Ruby Ray of Reversal+Breach spell that basically always works against SCS mages. But Edwin loses his Mirror Images and I'm not sure if his Stoneskins will hold.
Carl lands another Wish Time Stop. I notice that he somehow managed to stack two Hardiness spells, but only 2. He's also inches away from level 35. Once he levels up, his Simulacrum clones will be able to cast Wish!
Flowey is an incredibly important asset due to his Domination and 100% physical damage resistance (mostly due to IR's drow full plate's 30% resistance, 10% from IR Fortress Shield, and 50% resistance from SCS' Earth Elemental Token borrowed from Stan), but that -12 luck could prove fatal if the enemy hits him with magic damage before we can Heal him. I have him use one of our precious Potions of Magic Shielding.
Notice him using the Wand of Lightning trick, which IR nerfs by reducing the target count from 6 to 3. That actually won't help him; IR makes potions non-stackable. I've been using it, however, to get more Wishes (later I'll delve into how to handle this fight without such exploits).
Edwin has lost his spell protections and is surrounded. I've been spending too many of his rounds playing offensively, and now that is taking its toll. Edwin gets hit by Breach and doesn't have the space to keep himself safe. And because he is not wearing the right robe and we have IR installed, he gets no defense against critical hits.
Without Edwin, Carl's continued spellcasting is in jeopardy. We were using the Bigby's Crushing Hand trick to buy Carl some more level 9 spell slots just in case, but without Edwin, we can't do that anymore. And even if we bring him back, we'll need to secure a stronger position before we could do the trick again, as it's very round-intensive and leaves both casters vulnerable.
Carl teleports around with Improved Alacrity to search for a safe spot. But there are no safe spots left, and he stumbles upon a group of demons in the process.
We've gotten a lot of mileage out of various spells and tricks, but our extremely sub-standard party composition is hobbling the party. In LoB, the Siege of Ust Natha requires sustainable and low-maintenance defenses and crowd control, plus easily renewable/unremovable immunity to Dispel Magic and Breach. Our party is really not built to handle this challenge.
The fight goes on. But not we have a Balor and Glabrezus to deal with, and they have uninterruptible Remove Magic spells, and even level 35 Carl has no guarantee of resisting the attack.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 5
We get lucky with some new Wishes: we manage to resurrect Edwin, rest the party, and stop time.
Carl prepares to unleash some HLAs. The enemy horde, unfortunately, is very healthy and very scattered.
I shut the door on the demons during Time Stop in the hopes that it will hold them back a moment longer, and prep with True Seeing so I can debuff some mages with Pierce Shield.
Carl casts Wish a few more times and picks a lot of stronger options.
Now, I made a mistake earlier on when posting on this fight. In one of my previous posts, I said that I had discovered 2 bugs: first, that Wish genies could talk-block each other, and second, that Wish Breach was bugged. But I was wrong.
Before this fight, I knew about Wish talk-blocking. But it wasn't until right now...
...that I realized that Wish Breach was bugged, and that this was the reason Carl got stuck casting an endless Breach spell for no reason.
Another bug and another reload. It's especially frustrating because this is an extremely long battle, and you lose a lot of time by starting over.
I'm not sure if I posted on this, but if my memory is correct, the game also flat-out crashed once (or maybe even twice). I don't remember how many times I had to fight this battle, but it took hours before the siege was over.
For the sake of suspense, however, I can't say yet whether it ended in success or failure. This run ended a long time ago, but I like to write things in the present tense.
Unsure what to do about Edwin's cowardice I rolled a d6. 1-3 heed his advice, 4 heed advice but switch him out for rank cowardice... 5-6 Fight Firkraag...and got a 4. This led to an amusing dance as we cycled in Valygar and killed the Shadow Dragon. Foundling only to tire of his needs and lack of magical power. Jan only for him to get distracted by an old girlfriend Lissa (who we subsequently met shopping for shoes at Aurora's, a shocking parental attitude...). Nalia who required us to attend a funeral and who proved ineffective when a Marilith showed up in the Bridge District. Finally Kelsey who we reluctantly decided not to sell off only for him to make overighteous and troublesome comments about Whitworth, who is well above the station of a mere merchant doncha know. I think we will deal with Firkraag and grab Edwin back pronto after putting up with all these jokers for awhile...a bit of dragon phobia isn't that bad...
Comments
Heading north he killed more gnoll, a polar bear, Neville, some hobgoblins, and an ogre before heading north where he helped the archaeologist and Brage. Reputation now 20.
I believe that it is now time to pick up some companions. Experience currently 28800.
Party is clearing the Cloakwood very well. We stand our ground in ambushes, and our wands have been a big help in those encounters. Area 4 has just been cleared, Cloakwood Mine will be our target next session. No deaths.
Only incident of note is against Amarande - the grand druid held Joshua (who didn't bother to enrage) and then attacked with his staff. Joshua's wild mages friends weren't going to stand for that, and unloaded with damage spells immediately - Amarande didn't even survive a round, and thus failed to hurt Joshua.
Mages are now level 8, Joshua 7, and Corewild 6 fighter/7 thief. By the way our spell gap problem is fixed - we got some spells we needed by pick-pocketing Shandalar. We failed to pick-pocket Dushai's ring so had to kill her, but Shandalar is apparently easier target as he failed to notice all contents in his pockets being emptied.
Will keep at it.
Corewild=gnomish fighter(6)/thief(7)
Joshua=gnomish berserker(7)
Misty, Forrest, Hanna, Paja = human wild mages(8)
Last update
SETUP:
EasyTutu
TotSC
Core rules at all times
no mods
Wild Surges of note (since the START of the run): (click Spoiler to see details)
1) party slowed when casting armor when entering sirines area (not in combat)
2) Forrest polymorphed into wolf when trying to skull trap the kobold commandos guarding the entrance to level 4 of the Nashkel Mines
3) Paja got held by a wild surge during an ogrillion ambush. However, with direct damage spells, the ogrillions were not able to take advantage of that.
4) During a cave bear ambush got a particularly helpful surge - entire party was mirror imaged! Needless to say easy to win that ambush...
5) Misty gets a wild surge while casting magic missiles at at an ankheg - bit more than 11000 gold goes poof.
6) Lots of squirrels summoned in Ankheg ambush (had no combat effect that time) by a surge
7) Misty gets a surge that holds an ettercap that is attacking one of our mages
8) Party is slowed by a wild surge while fighting a skeletal warrior in Durlag's Tower.
The party cleared out the Cloakwood Mine without any trouble. For all mages in the mine, a buffed up fighter would engage them, with the rest of the party hanging back - this worked out well.
For Drassus and pals, we fought them fair (that is, no offensive spell cast until both sides can see each other) - we did buff a little bit before actually engaging - the party unsurprisingly did quite well - with stinking cloud, fireballs, skull traps, emotion, and our single target direct damage spells, the result was hardly in doubt. Properly buffed, Joshua could have soloed these enemies, but the mages were having none of that - Joshua has a large lead in kills, and the mages don't to be that far back.
We intentionally spawned the battle horrors for the experience - with all our wands and magic missiles, the battle horrors didn't last long. We found some spells we were missing on Davaeorn's level. We got our final armor upgrades for the mages (for BG 1 anyways) - Davaeorn's robe goes to Paja, and Hanna will use the AC 6 bracers.
By this point, we have MASSIVE number of items we can sell if needed in our "bank" (the barrel close to Jovial Juggler) - a surge that destroys our gold is no problem. We will get items to sell in Baldur's Gate itself, so there's that too.
In any case, we finally get to the City of Baldur's Gate. The DEX tome went to Corewild, with him being part thief and all. Resist fear made sure the mages at the top level of Sorcerous Sundries were going down (which they did, albeit hurting Joshua and Corewild with melf's acid arrows before they went down).
We bought a ton of spells we were missing - level 9 will be great, as most of the party knows chaos.
They then joined up with Xzar and Montarin, Montarin putting all his proficiency in pickpocketing. This caused Björn to think that they were not evil as pickpocketing is a relatively benign attribute.
Montarin used his skill to the utmost, picking up Algernon's cloak in Beregost and many a scroll at Ulgoth's Beard. However the comment made by Khalid that they were Zhent, caused Björn to realise that they were evil, and so they were dropped. That means that the party is once more without a mage. Björn is a fighter/cleric and Khalid is a cleric/ranger, so the party has enough clerics and tanks. (Thorin, a dwarven Defender, joined them at Ulgoth's Beard.) They killed numerous ankhegs north of the Friendly Arms Inn, and they will soon go looking for a mage and someone to disable traps.
(Rockin' a new account since I lost track of my original login.)
(Some of you may doubt it's really me, but those of you who know me will surely recognize the combination of loopy diction and semi-insightful commentary before long. Yuppers, indeedy!)
Anyhoo. I'm just stopping by to say hey, and to let everyone know that I'm glad to see the challenge alive and well. I don't expect to play anytime soon, but who knows: I am getting semi-interested in the game again. We'll see.
Good hunting, everyone!
Best,
A.
If you are at least semi-interested in the game again, I would suggest for you to think about trying Spell/Item Revisions mods. I'm running the former now and quite happy with it. Lots of new experience and much to learn about new spells/old spells behaviours. I think, you'll find them interesting to say the least
Looking forward to the adventures and the commentary.
Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(7)
Joshua = gnomish berserker(8)
Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(8)
Corewild got past chapter 5 without any real difficulties. We did not get any surges of note, but that was in part because the party did not have to cast many spells. Iron Throne 5th floor was destroyed, mostly by slow, emotion and skull traps. We would have almost been undamaged, except a Forrest skull trap badly hurt Hanna (but she lived). We will be headed to Candlekeep next session. Here are some screenies:
Will keep at it.
Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(8)
Joshua = gnomish berserker(8)
Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(9)
The party has made it past Chapter 6. The party also got to their level caps.
1) Shistal killed (4000 exp is 4000 exp right?)
2) We did NOT kill the Iron Throne leaders
3) We found some spells we didn't know, but most of the party decided to flub scribing them, so the free spells weren't that helpful after all...
4) Corewild of course did the trap/lock duties down here in the crypts - he's at 100% at both so no problems in that respect
5) Only one battle was dicey - phase spiders guarding strength tome. Corewild and Joshua were way advanced - I thought a single phase spider would be no problem for the mages (which it wasn't) - but the 2nd one came when the mages auras were clouded! Uh, oh! As soon as their aura is clear tried magic missiles but too late! Misty is poisoned!
As fast as I can am clicking her antidote, hoping her aura clears before she dies - she did gulp an antidote in time - left her with 4 HP! Close one...
6) For the next area, Corewild went invisible and tried to de-trap as many traps as he could (with AI off). Skeletons were then cleared, then the dopplegangers on the sides and finally "Elminister" and his buddies. This fight got the mages to level 9.
7) We had lots of ways to deal with Prat. But decided I had a lot of items I'll probably never use - so buffed up Joshua with bunch of stuff, and he went to town and destroyed Prat and his party. The key step was to turn off AI and get Joshua deep into the enemy party, so that lightning bolts are fired AWAY from the party - this worked and success!
8) Corewild had nothing better to do, so he took advantage of his free action ring and protection from poison and cleared most of the spiders down here.
9) Basilisks got Corewild his last level, which in turn put all characters at their level cap.
We sold our junk at the FAI, did the free rest at Wyrm's Crossing, and will return to Baldur's Gate next session.
EDIT
The jornal Quest is from BG1 NPC Project. Only loot of note from it was a Maze Scroll plus 2000 exp.Corewild = gnomish fighter(7)/thief(8)
Joshua = gnomish berserker(8)
Hanna, Paja, Misty, Forrest = human wild mages(9)
The party defeats Slythe with dispelling arrows and magic missiles. With haste, summons and slow available, we were pretty sure we'd have victory at the Duchal (we were right - both dukes survived even).
We used invisibility to skip all enemies in maze and also Undercity Party. When we arrived at Sarevok's hide-out, we realize have almost no potions or scrolls. Well we are mages right? That shouldn't stop us. So we press on.
The initial battle was going OK. Our plan of huge network of webs, on the other hand, wasn't very effective. So we just unloaded lots of DD spells into Sarevok. One by one the party falls, until it's just Corewild! Corewild went invisible then check on Sarevok's health - near death! Corewild goes in for a backstab - 46 damage and Sarevok falls!
As this is a MP party, everyone moving forward to Amn. No surges of note occurred.
One or two glitches have continued to occur however, Kivan didn't cut out Tazok's heart which isn't like how he usually reacts.... or possibly he's so inured to violence now that Tazok isn't that much of a bother for him anymore...
I also remembered Thalantyr has Potions of Explotions! Now we have 3 Identified Potion of Explotions, one unidentified and two oils of Fiery Burning (thanks to a particular BG Tweaks component that restricts item identification at stores, and to another component of the same mod that marks all the Potions/Gems as Unidentified). I believe I'm ready to take on the Bandit Camp now, but since I'm sleepy and rather attached to this character, I'm going to do it tomorrow. I think that after the Bandit Camp until Davaeron I won't have any problems.
Edit:
Fortunately the spell expired before Khalid did and they all went to the FAI area for R & R. I realised afterwards that some summoned skeletons would have avoided the danger.
Now for those bandits.
Tazok has agreed to Björn and his party joing them.
However in the same area were some more assassins who did not pose much of a problem,
The party then rested as they deemed that full spell books were a necessity.
(first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 4
Finally got around to posting the next section. This is a very long fight, and there's lots of stuff to discuss.
The party is in a solid position, but I don't know what's coming up next. I've never tried this fight before this run, and though I got a little ways into the fight before, a game-ending bug prevented me from seeing any more of it.
We keep fortifying our position, knowing that things are going to get worse before long.
There's an enemy mage on the map that's too well-defended for us to handle right now, but Edwin's spell protections keep him safe for now.
Suddenly, drow spawn in the northwest room that I've been using as a sanctuary for Carl, our sorcerer Charname. We throw out Dragon's Breath while the enemy takes down our Dispelling Screen. Dispelling Screen grants party-wide immunity to dispelling magic in Spell Revisions, but can be taken down with a single Dispel Magic spell.
Flowey uses Domination, the Seducer's area-effect charm spell. It only lasts 2 rounds, takes 2 rounds to take effect, is extremely unreliable (especially in Legacy of Bhaal mode with the enemy's +5 to saving throws), and imposes even worse combat penalties than Charm. But Flowey isn't here to deal damage, and the crowd control has a big impact over time.
Viconia holds strong. Although she doesn't have any armor due to being Wish-resurrected earlier, some erroneously stacking Wish Hardiness spells keep her safe enough to get an Implosion off the ground.
I want to get Carl to safety. I have him cast Improved Alacrity and use it to chain-cast Dimension Jump, the level 1 SR spell, to a safe corner where he can turn invisible.
Since we're in a low-pressure position, we need to use these precious rounds to secure our position and plan ahead. Stan, our Totemic Druid, casts Farsight to make sure we retain visibility even if we need to scatter, Edwin restores our Dispelling Screen, and Carl keeps casting Wish.
More enemies spawn in Carl's former sanctuary room, which has now become the primary battleground. Flowey's Domination converts a chunk of the enemy horde, easing the pressure.
Carl notices an enemy in the hallway to the egg chamber. It seems more reinforcements are on the way. His Wishes arrive just in time:
I've seen Matron Mother Ellaviir before, and I know she's a tough cookie. Carl uses Dimension Jump to re-position himself and spends his HLAs on the new enemies.
He also re-casts Wish, regaining his HLAs.
The next few rounds are a confusing blur. I think Carl uses a workaround to get Wish Breach to function properly, but I don't think it has any effect. Carl also restores Hardiness on the party (which unfortunately does not stack on Carl himself), and Viconia gets disrupted by physical damage despite having 100% damage resistance.
Most importantly, a new wave of enemies rushes in, including multiple enemy mages. Dispelling Screen doesn't block Breach in my install, which means Stan has no way of keeping his defenses safe.
We keep applying pressure with our various HLAs, but the situation looks dire. All these enemies arrived in a quick surge. We are (erroneously) able to summon multiple celestials without the aid of Project Image (and Simulacrum clones, but not Project Image clones, are erroneously able to use mage HLAs), but Item Revisions makes the enemy drow much tougher by strengthening their equipment. And because our party is evil, most of our celestials have very weak healing spells due to Spell Revisions' changes to Devas and Planetars.
Without Protection from Magical Energy, Stan is extremely vulnerable to Magic Missile, and my attempts to block the spell using the Cloak of the Shield fail completely.
Despite Stan's weakness and our crumpling celestials, Edwin can still make a huge dent in the enemy's HP with Dragon's Breath.
We'd be in much better shape if Comet wasn't bugged to be party-unfriendly, but I generally prefer to roll with bugs, even if they're not in my favor, as long as they're not game-breaking.
(I know I'm repeating myself from my older posts, but it's been a while since Part 3 of this fight came out)
Carl uses Improved Alacrity to teleport across the map once more, and we see a disturbing sight: an epic-level mage is on the way.
Improved Alacrity would give us a good chance to debuff that mage and take him down, but I'm not sure I want Carl to run out of aura cleansing this far away from the rest of the party. Instead, I have him teleport down to the exit so he can turn himself invisible again.
Things are looking ugly to the northwest. Edwin has lost his spell deflection (which blocks area-effect spells in SR) and is no vulnerable to Waves of Fatigue, the SR version of Chaos which imposes -2 to casting speed among other penalties for 5 rounds without saves.
If Edwin gets in trouble and needs to cast PFWM, Stoneskin, or Moment of Prescience (the SR version of Improved Mantle, which grants undispellable but Breachable +20 to AC and saving throws), then he'll have to do it with a casting time of 2 or 3, since he can't equip the Amulet of Metaspell Influence (+1 casting time and immunity to silence in Item Revisions) due to having his own unremovable amulet.
Carl gets a Wish Time Stop and uses it to regain control of the situation.
Now everyone on the map has -12 luck due to having 100 intoxication--except for those with MGOI or spell deflection. That'll do horrible things to the enemy's melee output and make Edwin's Dragon's Breath spells do maximum damage (!), but that -12 luck could kill us if we don't cure it. In vanilla, Elixirs of Health can cure intoxication (I think Neutralize Poison can, too), but with IR and SR installed, only Heal can cure it, and having SR means that only Viconia and Carl's Planetar can cast Heal. Stan and most of our celestials cannot do it.
Edwin casts True Seeing via the Book of Daily Spell so he can nail the enemy mages with Pierce Shield, which in SR is a devastating Ruby Ray of Reversal+Breach spell that basically always works against SCS mages. But Edwin loses his Mirror Images and I'm not sure if his Stoneskins will hold.
Carl lands another Wish Time Stop. I notice that he somehow managed to stack two Hardiness spells, but only 2. He's also inches away from level 35. Once he levels up, his Simulacrum clones will be able to cast Wish!
Flowey is an incredibly important asset due to his Domination and 100% physical damage resistance (mostly due to IR's drow full plate's 30% resistance, 10% from IR Fortress Shield, and 50% resistance from SCS' Earth Elemental Token borrowed from Stan), but that -12 luck could prove fatal if the enemy hits him with magic damage before we can Heal him. I have him use one of our precious Potions of Magic Shielding.
Notice him using the Wand of Lightning trick, which IR nerfs by reducing the target count from 6 to 3. That actually won't help him; IR makes potions non-stackable. I've been using it, however, to get more Wishes (later I'll delve into how to handle this fight without such exploits).
Edwin has lost his spell protections and is surrounded. I've been spending too many of his rounds playing offensively, and now that is taking its toll. Edwin gets hit by Breach and doesn't have the space to keep himself safe. And because he is not wearing the right robe and we have IR installed, he gets no defense against critical hits.
Without Edwin, Carl's continued spellcasting is in jeopardy. We were using the Bigby's Crushing Hand trick to buy Carl some more level 9 spell slots just in case, but without Edwin, we can't do that anymore. And even if we bring him back, we'll need to secure a stronger position before we could do the trick again, as it's very round-intensive and leaves both casters vulnerable.
Carl teleports around with Improved Alacrity to search for a safe spot. But there are no safe spots left, and he stumbles upon a group of demons in the process.
We've gotten a lot of mileage out of various spells and tricks, but our extremely sub-standard party composition is hobbling the party. In LoB, the Siege of Ust Natha requires sustainable and low-maintenance defenses and crowd control, plus easily renewable/unremovable immunity to Dispel Magic and Breach. Our party is really not built to handle this challenge.
The fight goes on. But not we have a Balor and Glabrezus to deal with, and they have uninterruptible Remove Magic spells, and even level 35 Carl has no guarantee of resisting the attack.
I don't know why Comet gets bugged like this. The problem is in it's .pro file for some reason, just flag it to affect only enemies.
(first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 5
We get lucky with some new Wishes: we manage to resurrect Edwin, rest the party, and stop time.
Carl prepares to unleash some HLAs. The enemy horde, unfortunately, is very healthy and very scattered.
I shut the door on the demons during Time Stop in the hopes that it will hold them back a moment longer, and prep with True Seeing so I can debuff some mages with Pierce Shield.
Carl casts Wish a few more times and picks a lot of stronger options.
Now, I made a mistake earlier on when posting on this fight. In one of my previous posts, I said that I had discovered 2 bugs: first, that Wish genies could talk-block each other, and second, that Wish Breach was bugged. But I was wrong.
Before this fight, I knew about Wish talk-blocking. But it wasn't until right now...
...that I realized that Wish Breach was bugged, and that this was the reason Carl got stuck casting an endless Breach spell for no reason.
Another bug and another reload. It's especially frustrating because this is an extremely long battle, and you lose a lot of time by starting over.
I'm not sure if I posted on this, but if my memory is correct, the game also flat-out crashed once (or maybe even twice). I don't remember how many times I had to fight this battle, but it took hours before the siege was over.
For the sake of suspense, however, I can't say yet whether it ended in success or failure. This run ended a long time ago, but I like to write things in the present tense.