The group returned to Beregost and decided to clear the High Hedge area. 4 gnolls blinded = 4 gnolls dead.
The next fight was against skeletons, the dreaded creatures on the LoB difficulty. Blindness worked on them, but although the spirit was constantly being healed, it didn’t last long. The figher/illusionist then equipped a two-handed sword, and could safely melee blind skeletons. Finally, all four of them were dead, and it felt as an achievement on LoB.
Now, the interesting part. In the Nashkel Barracks the party found a magic short sword, so the fighter/thief was requested to kill flesh golems. Backstabs didn’t work on them, but yet attacking from the shadows, retreating and repeating these attacks did. She used a potion of Hill Giant Strength to make the process faster and successfully hit the golems even getting 2 during her attack rolls. The C/M got a new level (3 HPs), as one golem gave 2k XP – a huge amount if compared to xvarts
The second golem followed.
After exploring the rest of the High Hedge area, the group returned to Beregost and brought Perdue his short sword. There was only one encounter in the town left. Silke. @Enuhal took her down on the 1st level, but in my case this was SCS-enhanced Silke. Basically, I didn’t have anything additional (to what a level 1 party can have) in my bag, but I had a safe strategy in mind. The completionist nature of this run required not to postpone finishing all Beregost quests any longer. First of all, the group spent 1100 gp and bought 20 arrows of biting, so each of the party’s bow users had 10 of them. The fight started as usual, Silke was blinded just a moment after she hasted herself.
Silke had to use Minor Sequencer (with Invisibility) as soon as the party hit through her Mirror Image and Stoneskin.
To track blind invisible Silke was too dangerous – what if it was the main character who would happen to pass next to her? So the group rested for 24 hours.
The figher/thief, hidden in shadows, and the spririt snake started to explore the town. After Silke was found, the group again blinded her. At least she didn’t have Minor Sequencer this time.
After the party again hit through all her protections, she went invisible, this time using a potion. All good, it happened according to the plan. The 24-hour rest followed.
Again, the figher/thief and the spririt went hunting the bard. Again, she was first found and then blinded.
And then again she used a potion of invisibility. So the next meeting happened 24 hours later.
This time she didn’t have any Minor Sequencers and potions left. The group blinded and simply finished her off. And her Chromatic Orb. which caused a death animation on the spirit, reminded how dangerous she could be if the group approached her without a plan.
Now the group could leave Beregost, and chose to travel to the Lonely Peaks. Remember how this report started? 4 gnolls half ogres blinded = 4 gnolls half ogres dead. Adding here a dead ettercap, and three party members got new levels: 4 HPs for the fighter/illusionist, 4 HPs for the fighter/thief and 8 HPs (from 9) for the totemic druid.
The group got an access to level 3 spirit animals, and those summons have immunity to petrification Moreover, everyone in the party got a new level (at least), thus THAC0 for the fighters improved at 5%. This is quite a progress after the Prologue.
Here’re the current standings: Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 2, 8 HPs, 7 kills (5% in the group) Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 2/1, 13 HPs, 28 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 2/2, 18 HPs, 28 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths Cochrane, archer, lvl 2, 20 HPs, 53 kills (39% in the group), 0 deaths Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 3, 24 HPs, 9 kills (6% in the group), 0 deaths Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 2/1, 9 HPs, 9 kills (6% in the group), 0 deaths
The WIP went through the Cloud Peaks doing major encounters. A group of ogre berserkers there found themselves unable to strike at distance,
but Borda did manage to get a couple of spells off - nearly killing Melody with a chromatic orb after holding Artemis.
After pickpocketing Dushai's ring they were able to deal with the Revenant along with the other inhabitants of the Valley of the Tombs.
The first party death came in unfortunate circumstances at Gullykin. Having concluded that killing Jenkal in the time before he's scripted to disappear was not realistic for this group I just wanted him to go. However, not attacking him appeared to result in him just staying there forever. He was also not able to be found by Whistle's 70% dispel illusion ability and in the end I had Perky show herself to him - that didn't end well (I should really have produced a summons from behind invisible blockers, but couldn't be bothered as I wasn't intending to fight anyway).
Jenkal still showed no signs of disappearing so it must be a damage trigger rather than timed. After trapping him with invisible blockers and shooting him up for a while he did indeed piss off and the party went to find the halfling healer.
A second death wasn't too long in coming when the WIP tried their luck against Kahrk again. A series of summons used up quite a few spells, but eventually Kahrk used detect invisibility to trace who was directing the summons. A flame arrow then proved too much for Perky despite her using a potion of fire resistance.
However, that was the last of his direct damage spells and Kahrk was unable to get at the archers that nibbled him to death behind an invisible blocker.
Being a sucker for punishment I decided to go back to Firewine and do the ruins after raising Perky. There are limits to all things though so I left the hordes of kobold commandos alone while disarming the traps invisibly. Invisible blockers cordoned off the area around the undead knight while some summons dealt with him.
A couple more wand charges and 3 skeleton warriors then forced their way down the final corridor to deal with Lendarn.
The next sucker trap I fell into was the Ulcaster ruins. Again the WIP sneaked invisibly into there and standard summons cleared the way to the wolf. I wasn't sure whether silence would prevent its howl effects, but it didn't. However, its opening horror bounced off resist fear while it was slowed by a few pre-laid traps.
Tawny and Whistle set themselves up as invisible blockers against the wolf reinforcements while the others gave wands a workout. The wolf was showing as injured after a couple of rounds - and responded by teleporting in some ghouls to help it.
Almost immediately it launched a dispel as well, but the invisible blockers were not quite in the area of effect for that, while some of the attacking summons (that couldn't damage the Wolf anyway) were quickly redeployed to manage the ghouls. With the Wolf down from its original 680 HPs to just 201 it let fly with a malison
just as I realised that Perky had not memorised a second resist fear as intended - making the party rather vulnerable if the Wolf used another horror. It did indeed launch a horror, but only 3 of the party were in range and only 1 succumbed
and the Wolf didn't last long enough to try again (it was a good job though that I had bothered to disarm the trap near the Wolf or Misty would have run straight through it in panic).
After sneaking back outside Tawny got another level for talking to the ghost - giving her the ability to produce another type of summons.
I didn't think it was worth trying to protect everyone against lightning to take on Icharyd, so just finished the session by clearing the wolf pack from the Beregost Temple and sorting out Bassilus.
It will probably be time for the Nashkel Mines next.
After killing that snobby Paladin (the one with bowel trouble north of the FFI) I thought I would go get that wand of fire. But I'm still level one so no invisibility - but I use the potion that I got from someone (I think Khalid and Jaheira ...whom I robbed and then kicked back out). So I go into the lair and soon as I click on the hole to get the stuff - my invisibility went bye bye (I didn't know it would do that). I immediately drank a magic resist pot and one shot almost killed me (took me down to one hp) and I quaffed a speed pot that I stole from Imoen and was hauling ass for the exit and this godforsaken ankeg spit was right on my ass man, and I'm almost there and right before I get to the exit it catches me and THE HAND CUTSCENE - that damn hand that reaches up when your character dies. It might as well have been shooting me the finger. FML.
After the dual I visitied Shoal. Kited her and slinged her. Killed Karlat (he is not that hard on a non-modded setup) and gave Perdue his sword back.
I picked up the shield amulet and killed that mage at FAI - in an unmodded game. He just casts horror/spook and magic missile. With plenty of HP and immunity to MM its just his staff that you need to worry about... even if I had failed a save against horror he would not catch me nor hit me with his staff. I made the save and killed him shortly after..
After regaining my mage levels and the pip in slings back I went after Greywolf..
He is not that fast, and fell to my sling.
Next up was basilisk hunting. Korax did the dirty work whilst I used the green scroll (they last longer than the blue). The hunting group was killed easily
Sorry meant cheesily. Baerin failed his save the first time against Algernons cloak, making the fight really easy
Otherwise I did some quests - but mostly just ran...no reason to fight Xvarts...
Next up the sirines - after picking up the greenstone amulet and the girdle of Bluntness. Nature decided to help me a bit. Lighning struck the sirenes 4 times - whilst the guy wielding a metal sword and helmet wasnt struck... had Nature operated the usual way, it should have ended my run instead of helping it. Btw having a -18 ac against chrushing attacks protected me against some bruises... but I picked up the tome of con and giving me free regen combined with buckleys buckler. Nice
After reaching level 7 (two pips in slings, longsword and 3 in 2 weapon fighting), I went to the mines in Nashkell - Mulahey didnt make the save against wands and was quickley dealt with. Mage F95 is now out of the mines, and about to take on the amazones - wands will come in handy..
You know what? I am thinking about importing Bhaaltchyzzadek into the Black Pits - it's the underworld after all. I'll just say he died and went to hell and now he has to fight his way out. And then once he conquers hell I'll import him into a fresh game and make that part of his biography - and he should be stronger for an easier time of it. But if he dies during the Black Pits - that's the "second death" which means he's eternally lost. It also provides a bit of awesomeness to the character seeing as how he's "died" before. Like he's some kind of god.
Hey, the player is his own DM... I can do as I please, thank you kindly. :P It's still hardcore...just hardcore RP
1) Copy the address of the post you want to link to by right-clicking on the time stamp. 2) Highlight the text you want to use as the link and then click on the handcuffs symbol next to the emojis. Paste in the address on the post. So this would be a link to the post you've just done (you can see the form that takes by quoting this post).
@Grond0 You are a madman. Killing SCS Kahrk and completing Firewine + Ulcaster this early in your playthrough? Crazy. Can't believe you actually pulled that off.
All right, we have a lot to do now that we're back on the surface again. Let's go!
We started with the newly available forest areas. There are some high level mages there. The first one failed to have any divination spells to deal with our mass invisibility - while the party took him down with the help of a breach spell, Arbogast used insect plague to disrupt the cleric's spellcasting:
The wyvern cultists in the next area had a similiar encounter with mass invisibility + breach:
Saving Coran is actually quite easy when he has LoB hp:
Time for our first dragon: Thaxll'ssillya. We made him waste his death spell on a single summon before buffing up and getting ready for a full attack - 5 hasted skeleton warriors deal a ton of damage, and Mazzy with 10 apr + Aikar with 8 apr aren't too bad either. The LoB extra-hp were really not felt at all. Now, the dragon used remove magic, but only on the skeletons plus Nahema, and even Nahema's buffs all stayed active. He never got to use wing buffet or his breath weapon (I had my party spread out a bit just in case) - his only notable defense apart from stoneskins, PFMW, was quickly breached:
And shortly after that, he was dead.
Next up, we went lich hunting. The city gates lich isn't worth mentioning, as he didn't have access to his prebuffs thanks to us sneaking in his home to steal daystar early on in SoA. The elemental lich had an instant death spell ready to kill a lone skeleton warrior - but couldn't deal at all with four more of those, only managing to kill a single one:
When fighting the shade lich, I encountered a very interesting bug (note also: the harlot from earlier is still there!): Remember all those traps I had Yoshimo plant there earlier on? Well, now the game claims that these are in fact Imoen's traps, and not only that, they deal the damage that traps created by Imoen would deal - Yoshimo's traps would've been far more powerful at this point.
Anyway, the shade lich was killed in a duel with a deva:
Next on our list: The secret illithid base. Are elemental princes immune to int drain? Seems that way - at least this one was blocking the tunnel for his entire summoning duration, allowing us to shoot all of our foes with ranged weapons without any risk:
We only had to rush in to kill the Alhoon:
Our next battle, the guarded compound, was supposed to be the easiest one for this session. However, it turned out to be the most difficult - due to me underestimating our foes, I placed my party in critical danger, and this could've easily meant the end of our run. We went upstairs fully buffed, also protected by mass invisibility. For some reason, Sion wasn't casting a divination spell, so I disarmed the traps and thought to myself: "Why not bring Nahema in good tanking position while Arbogast casts nature's beauty? I didn't have a great opportunity to use this spell yet, and if everyone is blinded, this battle will be over right away." What I didn't expect was that Sion DID in fact use true sight, but for some reason, he didn't have to cast it - he just activated it instantly without any visible casting time, animation or incantation. And right after that, we got hit by remove magic. Most of our buffs were gone, including a) haste, crippling our movement and b) all stone/ironskins, making us insanely vulnerable to any backstab by Ketta. The worst thing: We couldn't flee downstairs, where we had our summons waiting, because Nahema and Arbogast had moved close to the enemy to initiate combat, and going back to the party would mean getting close to Ketta. The other thing: I had already started casting my nature's beauty and a mirror image spell this round (which also got removed, and NB got interrupted, as no ironskins made it easy to hit Arbogast), so both Nahema's and Arbogast's auras were muddled - so they started moving away from the invisble Ketta, who, according to the combat log, was after Nahema:
Now, what to do when the round ends - how to protect my characters? True sight was active, so no invisibility potions. I decided to put a summon between me and my foes: Spirit animals are quickly spawned in, I hoped this would distract the AI. Meanwhile, everyone else used an oil of speed (thank god I saved all of those) and I switched a pair of boots of speed to Arbogast. Nahema still didn't have her aura back to provide us with an instant haste spell. Overall, this was propably not the best decision - Arbogast should've been the first to drink an oil of speed, and I should've used Nahema's flesh golem as fodder instead. If Ketta would've decided to attack Arbogast at this point, she very well could've ended our run. However, she did end up going for the spirit lion! Still, I had another problem: A confusion spell was still flying in, centered on Arbogast. In combat (where I can't equip Aegar's Hide), I have no way to make him immune to confusion. Anomen's aura wasn't clear because of the oil of speed he drank, so no quick protection via cc. Arbogast's aura was muddled for the same reason, so I couldn't drink a potion of clarity. I ended up equipping him with as many save-boosting items as possible, but I couldn't bring his saves to a safe number, and he failed his roll:
I was lucky - the confused Arbogast didn't make any dumb moves (only attacking Anomen for a bit), and confusion only lasts for a very short time. Meanwhile, the spirit lion had bought me enough time to a) get stoneskins up for my mages and b) get summons ready to deal with our foes. A deva was quickly called, and with some addition skeletons, and, once I got Arbogast back, an elemental prince, we finally won this battle:
To be fair, none of this propably would've happened if not for the strange way Sion "cast" true sight, but still, my play during this battle was pretty reckless and stupid.
Next up was Firkraag. 5 fire elementals and fire protection for everyone! Now, last time I fought this guy, he dispelled all my fire protections and roasted the party of my shadowdancer with his breath weapon. This time, I was very carefully watching the combat log for any remove magic - I saw it, going for a fire elemental, so Nahema, the only one in melee combat, was the only one at risk - she didn't manage to run away in time, so for a second there, she was exposed - if Firkaag had used this opportunity to breathe on her, she could very well have been chunked, but he didn't:
I quickly moved Nahema out of range, and the remaining party killed Firkraag without any further trouble:
I forgot to kill Kangaxx earlier on, so his time had come: Protection from magic + iMoD +2. A skeleton warrior helped our with the lich form to speed things up:
Now, the Twisted Rune: With liches being immune to breach in the vanilla game, I thought this encounter could be tricky - no way to kill Shangalar right away, and a beholder to possibly get rid of our defensive buffs? That's a dangerous combination. And indeed, this is what happened: Aikar got hit with the anti-magic ray before Shangalar's time stop hit. Not good. I expected him to at least get disabled for the remainder of the fight. However, Shangalar did nothing, he didn't cast any spells. At first I thought he might be bugged somehow, but then I realized - he hadn't removed our mass invisibility! He simply couldn't target anyone and wasn't smart enough to use aoe spells! Is there no true sight in his spellbook? Very strange:
That said, Aikar was still in danger as the beholder was doing quite a bit of damage. However, my party managed to take it down before anything too dangerous happened. Shangalar still couldn't do anything. After his PFMW ended, I simply attacked him with ranged weapons until he was dead - and while mass invisibility eventually ended, I was able to disrupt any further spellcasting attempts:
Finally, I sent in a couple of summons to kill Layene:
One last thing to do before we can move on with Bodhi: WK level 2. I had to kill the statues in level 1 first, though:
My first battle with fire giants turned out okay - Sunnis was perfectly capable of tanking their damage:
We had another close call with death (for Mazzy, not for Arbogast) when a couple of vampiric wraiths spawned during Imoen's exploration of the ice lab. She had to flee back to the party - I had no summons ready, so Nahema tried to tank. However, not only can those things deal magical damage through stoneskins, lowering Nahema's hp at an alarming rate, they also randomly decide to attack other party members - and when they went for Mazzy, she was almost killed right away. I only managed to save her with a RoR charge:
Meanwhile, I had managed to summons a deva, and Nahema's Sword of Mask entangled one of our foes (invisble in the screenshot). Imoen had also buffed Aikar wih improved haste, giving us a serious source of damage - all this provided me with enough power to kill the vampiric wraiths before they could endanger anyone else. Now, time for the Air Room. We rested to get 6 protection from electricity castings ready and entered with aerial servants (who are not actually immune to lightning damage - but they survived either way). While my party was getting thrown around and I managed to get most of our foes to attack our summons, Arbogast was able to cast nature's beauty, affecting everyone (except for the guardian of air, who must be immune to blindness or something - there was nothing in the combat log, despite him being next to Arbogast). This made it easy to pick off our foes with ranged weapons and win this fight:
Our aerial servants proved to be durable enough to even stay with us for the Slime Room, allowing us to snipe the snake and clean up the remaining foes:
For the ice room, I summoned a deva for additional help:
And finally, we used elemental prince + deva again to take out another fire giant:
I had very harmful intentions towards the chromatic demon - meaning, both Arbogast and Anomen memorized only harm spells, as I didn't want this fight to take forever. I only had to hit the guy. Well, turns out Anomen started combat with a natural 20!
Finally, our last thing to do: Surviving Bodhi's ambush. To that end, I had 4 helms of charm protection, the Equalizer and Adjatha to give everyone charm immunity. I also used a couple of sunrays and summoned a deva to end this battle quickly:
Next time, Bodhi herself will have to face us. I'm looking forward to see if our allies will get their LoB bonuses and how they will do with them.
... I feel so dirty we defended the camp and I won the dual despite her blatant cheating by feeding her a trap I realized I've been greedy with my robes and so I shared them with Neera to double our firepower (actually works well) but that had the side effect of drawing Thrix into the next battle which surprised me however we managed to kick his teeth in for him.
I was convinced that I'd lost the final battle at one point with Puk and Neera both dead, Jaheira charmed into attacking Viconia and that gave J's opponent free space to smack me with poison down to a single hit... as I gussied my last "Elixer of Health" the boss turned towards me and 'dispel'ed ... this was a huge mistake on his part that saved me because it gave us time to drink heal potions and allowed Minsc to step between my attackers.
on to bg2 party; Viconia, (+ 3 wisdom + 1 Dexterity... she losses these in bg2) Jaheira, Minsc and Neera
In the Nashkel Mine I was intending to go through pretty much invisible. However, the kobold shaman managed to produce an oracle at the worst possible time, resulting in the need for a fighting retreat. By the time the shaman was not only confused but dominated by a nymph as well, the battle was pretty much won. Left on their own again a mixture of invisibility and stealth allowed them to get into Mulahey's cave and rest. Mulahey then went quietly to his death.
Nimbul was another to recognise the truth in the saying "silence is your grave". Tranzig was already near death by the time he ran for the door and failed to survive the traps waiting outside.
Raiken offered a lift to the Bandit Camp and the WIP took the opportunity to charm the more dangerous external enemies and take them on expeditions to the local ruins - I counted them all out, but I didn't count them all back. Perky took the full plate to upgrade her ankheg armor. After setting some traps inside the tent WIP they tried to go inside and produce summons prior to webbing the area - but were immediately spotted.
Deciding to cut their losses rather than fight a doomed battle they quickly transferred all missile defences to Tawny and she survived to get outside. Only Raemon followed and a spirit lion and insects ate him up without the others getting involved.
Back inside, both Hakt and Venkt had been badly damaged by the initial traps, so I decided it was worth continuing the attack. As the best protected, Perky and Tawny tried to finish off Venkt - and did so, though Perky was hit a couple of times in the process.
Artemis gave Perky a couple of CLW before the group went back in. Tawny and Perky started producing summons and a nymph had just appeared when Britik's halberd proved to be longer than I expected, swinging over the invisible blockers and taking Perky's head clean off.
The others did finish off the fight before beginning the long trek back to Candlekeep.
I was contemplating how to deal with the sirenes. My familiar was HiS, when it broke stealth. I acted quickly and used my wand of fire from the ankheg nest. They send a glyph of warding (I think) my way - nearly killing ny ferret! I send another blast their way killed them all..
I was really lucky. My familar could easily have died, and had their opening spell been hold person it would have ended my run. I will have to be more carefull.
The tombs where cleared with a prot from undead scroll
The price was a wand of monster summoning. The wand won me the fight against the assasins in Nashkell
BTW. I have to agree with @semiticgod: wands er op in bg1. My build was a fighter who coulis use wands and scrolls - which has served med well so far.
Next up was Tranzig who fell easily, and from there it was the bandit camp.
The bandits where sniped with the sling, the chill kited and slinged to death.
My full plate was easily obtained with a wand of paralyzation..
The tent was cleared with the help of the wand of fire and monster summoning..
Dushai was finally charmed and pickpocketed by my familar
I had tried pickpocketing algernon which ended fatal - for him. I am really roleplaying my LN character there - pickpocketing and killing innocents for their gear . Perhaps CN would have been a better fit.
But with gear in order cloakwood is next. Plan is to avoid all the spiders by running - dushais ring will come in handy (I could allways return it to her if RP becomes a priority... )
I didn't expect Bodhi and her vampires to be much trouble, and, luckily, I was correct. As it turns out, our allies do get full LoB bonuses (which also means that Drizzt can't attack due to his APR going over 10 (which the game engine can't handle), as is well known to anyone who has met him in BG1 on LoB), and as we have chaotic commands, a deva and Anomen with the iMoD +2, we are both well-protected and able to quickly kill vampires.
We made our way to Drizzt, and I accidentally managed to set up a great chokepoint for the big group of vampires in the eastern room - they could only ever attack my skeleton warriors, while my party used their ranged weapons and the deva attacked with her own MoD:
The only spellcaster here, simply known as "Guard", could've forced me into a prolonged summoning battle. However, as I walked up to him, I thought to myself - "wouldn't it be funny if our deva destroyed him with her first hit?" Yes, it was:
Now, after Nahema got us some new gloves for Arbogast, we went downstairs to face Bodhi - I only summoned a couple of skeleton warriors for this battle, ready to add an elemental prince if needed. We got into a very good position, with the skeletons distracting the bulk of our opponents and our allies dealing with the rest (though in Drizzt's case, he just stood there) - meanwhile, Anomen with improved haste and the iMoD +2 started taking out vampires:
Soon enough, only Bodhi was left:
Arbogast actually managed to get in the final hit with his crimson dart
The only other thing I did in this session was go on a big shopping tour - I've never spend so much money in SoA - I think my bad financial situation is due to me not selling any equipment with defensive bonuses and keeping most of my potions + ammunition; I mostly bought spellscrolls for Imoen and potions for the party, plus some green scrolls. I didn't have enough to buy all of the oils of speed, potions of heroism and potions of power I wanted. Oh well. At least I've got a nice collection of defensive potions now.
The elven city is next, but it will have to wait for a while: I propably won't have any more time to play this week.
@Grond0 Are you sure you want to finish a party run if a member is chunked? You can always take an NPC. You put so much effort into your runs, and your main character still continues.
@StummvonBordwehr Glad that you're feeling fun. Still giggling at the name of your character.
@Stormvessel The road of any no-reload player is far from being straight, and a lot of setbacks happen. Don't let them hamper your mood! You're becoming more experienced with each failure.
Before setting off for the Mutamin's Garden, the group had to finish clearing out the Lonely Peaks. Ioin Gallchobhair, Billy and Dribben were all cautiously blinded.
Dealing with the Sarhedra's Ogres was tricky. The party managed to kill 2 ogres first, separately from the whole gang. But then hobgoblins elite kept saving against Blindness, plus an ogre Berserker had to be kited (as he was still under Berserk). This forced the group to retreat through the whole map, only to find a pack of newly spawned kobolds (2 of them commandos). The group had no option but to travel back to the Carnival.
And guess what! They were ambushed by more kobolds. The C/M was the archers’ target and didn’t survive (it couldn’t be prevented in such an ambush, sorry, @Grond0 , the death count is moving), but the rest of the party successfully reached the area’s border.
The C/M was raised in the Nashkel’s temple and the group returned to the Lonely Peaks. There they quickly found the hobgoblins and blinded them.
Everything was alright till the moment the kobolds came searching for the group (so the AI remembered I retreated from the kobolds, and made them start searching for the group as soon as I returned). The presence of 2 kobold commandos meant sacrifices had to be made – while the main character was out of their reach, the C/M and the F/I tried to blind them. It worked, but the C/M still was shot (sorry again .
The party waited till the Berserk wore off and blinded the only chasing enemy left, the ogre berserker. The task was easy after that, and the archer reached the 3rd level (rolling 7 HPs).
One travel to Naskel later, the party (now fully healed) returned and helped to save Arabelle from xvarts – each of them was blinded first. The main character reached the 3rd level as well (getting maximum 5 HPs). Hulrik’s reward brought new levels for the F/I and the F/T.
On the way to the Mutamin's Garden the group explored the Temple surroundings near Beregost. A big wolf pack was left untouched (the F/T left them frightenedly after spotting vampire wolves), but other opponents were dispatched. The C/M got a new level.
Finally, the Mutamin's Garden. The group didn’t neglect Korax the Ghoul and ordered him to attack the fist lesser basilisk. The better calls for help component made Mutamin (who actually was not close to that basilisk) react with Magic Missiles, so Korax “hurried” to the wizard. Insivible F/T saw how Mutamin failed his saving throw against death.
The rest of the area’s basilisks weren’t a threat after that, with Korax helping against all but one basilisk.
For the final basilisk the archer used a green scroll of PfP.
As a result of this XP hunt, the sorcerer became able to cast Web. The group also found a Web scroll on a random flind. While the F/I wasn’t ready to scribe it yet (not having potions of genius for a better scribing chance), the sorcerer was more than ready to try his Web against Kirian and Co.
I checked in the NI first, and while Kirian herself is Chaotic Neutral, 2 members of her group are evil (Peter and Lindin). This made me choose a fight against them (the characters are of good alignment, so I’m sensible about such choices).
The group stated with Web and Silence, while the spirit snake was already there, next to Kirian. Web held 3 opponents in the first round, and another Web followed. It helped to continue holding three enemies while the group kept trying to blind Peter.
Lindin was blinded next, while Kirian’s health reached 0 thanks to poison and missile attacks. Shortly, only Baerin (who escaped from Web to the north) was left.
The group rested and finished Baerin off. The group then rested again, making sure they didn’t travel at night, and reached the FAI without problems. Now the F/I and the C/M will scribe a few spells, so that Invisibility and Detect Invisibility are always ready.
Here’re the current standings: Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 4, 16 HPs, 14 kills (6% in the group) Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 3/3, 23 HPs, 46 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 3/4, 30 HPs, 55 kills (24% in the group), 0 deaths Cochrane, archer, lvl 4, 32 HPs, 84 kills (37% in the group), 0 deaths Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 4, 33 HPs, 13 kills (5% in the group), 0 deaths Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 3/3, 15 HPs, 13 kills (5% in the group), 2 deaths (both by a kobold commando)
@Grond0 Are you sure you want to finish a party run if a member is chunked?
I admire those who continue to fight the good fight in the face of adversity and in past years I would have done so myself. However, these days I normally have a clear idea of how I want my characters to play and don't tend to feel motivated to continue if changes are needed.
Sorry to see death is among us in your party. That first scenario where you're retreating from one group, hit a new spawn and then go into a travel ambush is a difficult one to avoid (if you use autopause: enemy in sight in that situation though it allows your casters to put on their plate armor at the start of the ambush). I'm trying again to see how far I can manage to do so, however ...
Still searching for perfection (or do I mean petrification) - or perhaps just feeling that none of their deaths have been sufficiently glorious - the WIP began their journey once more from Candlekeep. This time I've got a specific aim of trying to avoid any party deaths for as long as possible (achieving that would of course avoid any chunkings ).
In the early stages Melody failed with her first attempt to pickpocket Algernon's Cloak, but was able to succeed at the second attempt before he went hostile.
Various golems, sirines, ankhegs, more sirines and more golems later and the WIP had the ability to protect all of themselves from petrification and sorted out the basilisk area. Their reputation is still not quite up to 20 so they'll probably upgrade that in the process of clearing the southern areas next.
The WIP explored the Cloud Peaks, taking on the worthwhile encounters (which didn't include the Gnoll Stronghold for them). The most dangerous moment was when Borda managed to get off a chromatic orb - Misty responding by using a potion of invulnerability to ensure she saved against the death effect.
With reputation up to 20 they went to Ulgoth's Beard to buy a few things and pickpocket Dushai's ring.
I mentioned the disappearing portrait bug in an earlier post. The WIP were on the way to Firewine Ruins and just killing off the last of the xvarts attacking Arabelle when that hit.
As this seems to be a relatively common bug for me (so making it difficult to complete a full run without triggering), and I don't know of any pattern associated with it or way to avoid it, I do allow a reload.
At Firewine, Meilum's bracers were bagged after working through plenty of kobolds and I then couldn't resist having another go at Kahrk. The basic plan was again to keep one person invisible working summons, but Kahrk couldn't resist cheating - Perky lucky to survive a double chromatic orb sequencer fired at him while in sanctuary.
After Kahrk killed the first skeleton I waited for his buffs to subside before sending in another one - which regrettably didn't last long after getting hung up on a rock outcrop (the problem being the need to keep it well away from the invisible scout to prevent a stray fireball wiping her out). Next into the mincing machine was a spirit lion. That absorbed a number of charm spells, but Kahrk seemed disinclined to use anything more on it so I allowed it to die. Artemis then showed herself and managed to get rid of another spell by moving back out of sight and restealthing. She did that again successfully - and then again for a third time (and that one looked like the flame arrow that proved deadly last time, but was Kahrk's last shot).
Kahrk indeed then tried to melee, but couldn't reach anyone and he eventually fell to defeat without the need to even use any potions (I had invisibility and magic blocking ready).
I didn't fancy trying the Firewine Ruins yet this time, so went to loot Gullykin instead. After the fiasco with Jenkal last time I thought he deserved to die and spent a bit of time setting up an attempt with backstabs - but after inflicting about 100 damage in the opening round he disappeared. At least that means the exit from the Ruins is safe for later.
I was in two minds what to do about Shoal, but eventually decided that no deaths was not central enough to the run to just kill her (and I felt I was on a roll with ogre magi ). Retreating as soon as Shoal gave in got the WIP out of sight of Droth before he arrived and they summoned a pair each of spirit snakes and skeleton warriors - and they finished the combat without any help.
I've delayed going to Durlag's a bit this time in order that Melody will be high enough level to fully loot the upper tower. She will now be ready to do that so the Tower will be the next target.
Little time to play or, let alone, write these days.... but Khael the Aegis, the Cavalier, has successfully made it out of Spellhold alive.
(Full party: Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, and Jan; SCS with only AI enhancements but no enhanced encounters. Learning the ropes of BG2, as it were. Err... and Imoen is, as per head cannon, a Sorcerer.)
Can you tell I am fond of the Gnomes in this series...
Okay, so I just hit level 6 with a Dragon Disciple and my health is 42. That's 42 out of 48.
Either I've gotten really lucky rolls or it's much easier to get high HP rolls than in past games. My Orc Berserker is at level 5 and has 73 Health - that's 73 out of 75.
I'm playing on core rules - I don't know if it has to be a higher difficulty for the rolls to be truly random or not. It just really seems rigged in the player's favor. I remember vanilla BG having to save and reload again and again because really crappy rolls were almost a given. It was especially hard with multiclass characters for some reason.
But this game is the exact opposite. Did Beamdog fool around with the mechanics of leveling up? I have no problem with it if they did, believe me. Maybe this is anecdotal and others haven't had this experience.
Personally, in PnP (AD&D), I prefer:
1D2 (coin flip) +2 + con bonus 1D4 +2 + con bonus 1D6 +2 + con bonus 1D6 +4 + con bonus 1D6 +6 + con bonus
By the way, what is the consensus on Cloak of Mirroring?
It seems way overpowered and I am inclined to dump it (same as Shield of Balduran).
If it only protected from targeted damage (e.g. Magic Missile) but not AoE (e.g. Skull Trap) it would have been an okay balance. But as it currently is, it seems unusably powerful.
(Perhaps, Item Revisions rebalances this, but in my IR install I am not that far into the game yet, so I don't know...)
No consensus: some people play with it, others move it to ToB. The thing is, while it's good, it's only protecting one person, either your tank or CHARNAME. It's still incredibly useful vs Liches and stuff, but generally that ADHW they're launching hits someone else as well.
Also, this is the point in SoA where disables and failed saves are a lot more dangerous than spell damage. The Kuo Tao bolts are a heck of a lot more threatening than a Fireball would be at this point. So all in all, I say it's useful but not impossibly OP for this stage of the game.
In Item Revisions it gives a permanent mirror image I think, so opponents usually have a 50% chance to miss. In my present install as it just stops spell damage I don't think I even have it on my main character in favour of other items. Hmmm, maybe I should change that! If you don't like it maybe just EE in a different cloak?
Cutting & pasting...
Hi everyone, no pics for now I'm afraid as there not working after display driver update.
When I last left off with Cromarty he was in Sendai's lair, and he cut his way through the spider way without too much difficulty. Odamaron was defeated with a piercing chain contingency followed by Azuredge to the head before he could even ask who was at the door. An axe to the head is what you get for asking / An axe to the head is what you get for not asking... Ogremoch and the variety mix assortment mob we had plenty of summons to distract while the fighters cut them down.
Cromarty had held back a little here but he willingly stepped up and cut down Captain Eggy, and then the mind flayers were similarly trampled. Sendai's statues and minions were mired in spell fields and the lady herself was spellstruck and then swordstruck.
I regret taking Spellstrike however as it's overkill for non-SCS mages and we now need an extra level or two if Kelsey is to have a chance of wish-resting us at the throne. Given this, and Sarevok's need for a +5 sword we descended into Watcher's Keep.
Of the Elemental level there's little to tell, the Chromatic Demon was vorpalised about 5 seconds in on this occasion. Level 3 we are making incautious progress through. We stumbled unbuffed into the main baatezu room but Kelsey's ability to stop time, buff the party and damage opponents was battle changing. I'm a little worried about him or another party member getting chunked though, it would make things massively more difficult if I continue fishing with a golden hook like this... but in any case they are admiring the decor of the maze for now.
I never actually saw the Cloak of Mirroring to be of much use. I never made a strategy out of it; I just threw it on Charname so I wouldn't have to cast Protection from Magic Energy on them in the event of a Horrid Wilting spell. A better use would probably be to throw it on the party's tank and bomb them with Skull Traps, but I never saw much interest in that.
When you think about it, a cloak that grants immunity to damage spells is not that much more powerful than a cloak that gives your mage a few extra spell slots. The only difference is that the former is not dispellable (a pretty big deal in a no-reload context, granted) and requires less maintenance.
I decided to abandon it. My charname (Cavalier with every imaginably defensive stacking) is already nearly unkillable by magic damage if micromanaged. The Cloak would have been unbalanced, I think.
Currently packing a Cloak of Prot +2 and Claw Kazgaroth from BG1: most saves are nicely negative already, especially when buffed with Imp Invisibility as per standard operating procedure. (Wasn't stunned even once with the Paralytic Bolts, though Jan was.)
--
At this point (Underdark just started), the run seems too easy. Charname seems strong enough to solo most challenges almost but never does:
A few moments ago, I encountered my first Drow patrol (I think I did enhance the Drow in my SCS install). Scouted by Jan, invisible. Then Viconia unloaded on them with Fire Storm (bypasses MR). The stragglers (including an SCS Drow Mage!) were picked by an Aerial Servant and Fire Elemental.
After many years, I am now remembering the pace of BG2. Barring a major surprise, my current mild install (SCS, mostly just the AI, no insta-buff mages) seems a bit easy at this stage.
Will attempt to finish as is rather than succumbing to restartitis with what is my furthest Cavalier run into BG2.
At this point (Underdark just started), the run seems too easy.
GOOD
KEEP IT THAT WAY
Of course, what has ALWAYS happened in the past is that whenever Charname feels that confident, he manages to die in a very creative unforeseen way. (I am my biggest enemy.)
Which is why I am actively trying to avoid keeping the charname from the front line alone. (Usually have a few summons and Minsc next to charname, with party always nearby, with AWACS services provided beforehand by Jan. I have no metagame memory beyond this point.)
Comments
@ussnorway @Enuhal and @Neverused Nice progress!
@Stormvessel and @StummvonBordwehr Happy to see you here, have fun!
Party LoB + SCS run – First Real Challenges
Prologue
First Steps
First Level Ups
The group returned to Beregost and decided to clear the High Hedge area. 4 gnolls blinded = 4 gnolls dead.
The next fight was against skeletons, the dreaded creatures on the LoB difficulty. Blindness worked on them, but although the spirit was constantly being healed, it didn’t last long. The figher/illusionist then equipped a two-handed sword, and could safely melee blind skeletons. Finally, all four of them were dead, and it felt as an achievement on LoB.
Now, the interesting part. In the Nashkel Barracks the party found a magic short sword, so the fighter/thief was requested to kill flesh golems. Backstabs didn’t work on them, but yet attacking from the shadows, retreating and repeating these attacks did. She used a potion of Hill Giant Strength to make the process faster and successfully hit the golems even getting 2 during her attack rolls. The C/M got a new level (3 HPs), as one golem gave 2k XP – a huge amount if compared to xvarts
The second golem followed.
After exploring the rest of the High Hedge area, the group returned to Beregost and brought Perdue his short sword. There was only one encounter in the town left. Silke. @Enuhal took her down on the 1st level, but in my case this was SCS-enhanced Silke. Basically, I didn’t have anything additional (to what a level 1 party can have) in my bag, but I had a safe strategy in mind. The completionist nature of this run required not to postpone finishing all Beregost quests any longer. First of all, the group spent 1100 gp and bought 20 arrows of biting, so each of the party’s bow users had 10 of them. The fight started as usual, Silke was blinded just a moment after she hasted herself.
Silke had to use Minor Sequencer (with Invisibility) as soon as the party hit through her Mirror Image and Stoneskin.
To track blind invisible Silke was too dangerous – what if it was the main character who would happen to pass next to her? So the group rested for 24 hours.
The figher/thief, hidden in shadows, and the spririt snake started to explore the town. After Silke was found, the group again blinded her. At least she didn’t have Minor Sequencer this time.
After the party again hit through all her protections, she went invisible, this time using a potion. All good, it happened according to the plan. The 24-hour rest followed.
Again, the figher/thief and the spririt went hunting the bard. Again, she was first found and then blinded.
And then again she used a potion of invisibility. So the next meeting happened 24 hours later.
This time she didn’t have any Minor Sequencers and potions left. The group blinded and simply finished her off. And her Chromatic Orb. which caused a death animation on the spirit, reminded how dangerous she could be if the group approached her without a plan.
Now the group could leave Beregost, and chose to travel to the Lonely Peaks. Remember how this report started? 4
gnollshalf ogres blinded = 4gnollshalf ogres dead. Adding here a dead ettercap, and three party members got new levels: 4 HPs for the fighter/illusionist, 4 HPs for the fighter/thief and 8 HPs (from 9) for the totemic druid.The group got an access to level 3 spirit animals, and those summons have immunity to petrification
Here’re the current standings:
Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 2, 8 HPs, 7 kills (5% in the group)
Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 2/1, 13 HPs, 28 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths
Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 2/2, 18 HPs, 28 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths
Cochrane, archer, lvl 2, 20 HPs, 53 kills (39% in the group), 0 deaths
Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 3, 24 HPs, 9 kills (6% in the group), 0 deaths
Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 2/1, 9 HPs, 9 kills (6% in the group), 0 deaths
WIP{5} (SCS / LoB) - update 2
Previous updates
The WIP went through the Cloud Peaks doing major encounters. A group of ogre berserkers there found themselves unable to strike at distance,
The first party death came in unfortunate circumstances at Gullykin. Having concluded that killing Jenkal in the time before he's scripted to disappear was not realistic for this group I just wanted him to go. However, not attacking him appeared to result in him just staying there forever. He was also not able to be found by Whistle's 70% dispel illusion ability and in the end I had Perky show herself to him - that didn't end well (I should really have produced a summons from behind invisible blockers, but couldn't be bothered as I wasn't intending to fight anyway).
A second death wasn't too long in coming when the WIP tried their luck against Kahrk again. A series of summons used up quite a few spells, but eventually Kahrk used detect invisibility to trace who was directing the summons. A flame arrow then proved too much for Perky despite her using a potion of fire resistance.
Being a sucker for punishment I decided to go back to Firewine and do the ruins after raising Perky. There are limits to all things though so I left the hordes of kobold commandos alone while disarming the traps invisibly. Invisible blockers cordoned off the area around the undead knight while some summons dealt with him.
The next sucker trap I fell into was the Ulcaster ruins. Again the WIP sneaked invisibly into there and standard summons cleared the way to the wolf. I wasn't sure whether silence would prevent its howl effects, but it didn't. However, its opening horror bounced off resist fear while it was slowed by a few pre-laid traps.
I didn't think it was worth trying to protect everyone against lightning to take on Icharyd, so just finished the session by clearing the wolf pack from the Beregost Temple and sorting out Bassilus.
Perky - Priest of Tyr L6, 48 HPs, 23 kills, 2 deaths
Misty - Fighter / illusionist L5/4, 45 HPs, 107 kills, 0 deaths
Melody - Fighter / mage / thief L4/4/5, 37 HPs, 81 kills, 0 deaths
Artemis - Archer L6, 74 HPs, 138 kills
Tawny - Totemic Druid L7, 57 HPs, 18 kills, 0 deaths
Whistle - Bounty Hunter L6, 42 HPs, 45 kills, 0 deaths
After killing that snobby Paladin (the one with bowel trouble north of the FFI) I thought I would go get that wand of fire. But I'm still level one so no invisibility - but I use the potion that I got from someone (I think Khalid and Jaheira ...whom I robbed and then kicked back out). So I go into the lair and soon as I click on the hole to get the stuff - my invisibility went bye bye (I didn't know it would do that). I immediately drank a magic resist pot and one shot almost killed me (took me down to one hp) and I quaffed a speed pot that I stole from Imoen and was hauling ass for the exit and this godforsaken ankeg spit was right on my ass man, and I'm almost there and right before I get to the exit it catches me and THE HAND CUTSCENE - that damn hand that reaches up when your character dies. It might as well have been shooting me the finger. FML.
Thank you. I am having fun so far...
Part two (how do you link to previous post?)
After the dual I visitied Shoal. Kited her and slinged her. Killed Karlat (he is not that hard on a non-modded setup) and gave Perdue his sword back.
I picked up the shield amulet and killed that mage at FAI - in an unmodded game. He just casts horror/spook and magic missile. With plenty of HP and immunity to MM its just his staff that you need to worry about... even if I had failed a save against horror he would not catch me nor hit me with his staff. I made the save and killed him shortly after..
After regaining my mage levels and the pip in slings back I went after Greywolf..
He is not that fast, and fell to my sling.
Next up was basilisk hunting. Korax did the dirty work whilst I used the green scroll (they last longer than the blue). The hunting group was killed easily
Sorry meant cheesily. Baerin failed his save the first time against Algernons cloak, making the fight really easy
Otherwise I did some quests - but mostly just ran...no reason to fight Xvarts...
Next up the sirines - after picking up the greenstone amulet and the girdle of Bluntness.
Nature decided to help me a bit. Lighning struck the sirenes 4 times - whilst the guy wielding a metal sword and helmet wasnt struck... had Nature operated the usual way, it should have ended my run instead of helping it.
Btw having a -18 ac against chrushing attacks protected me against some bruises... but I picked up the tome of con and giving me free regen combined with buckleys buckler. Nice
After reaching level 7 (two pips in slings, longsword and 3 in 2 weapon fighting), I went to the mines in Nashkell - Mulahey didnt make the save against wands and was quickley dealt with. Mage F95 is now out of the mines, and about to take on the amazones - wands will come in handy..
to be continued - I hope...
Hey, the player is his own DM... I can do as I please, thank you kindly. :P It's still hardcore...just hardcore RP
Edit: meh I'll just reroll
2) Highlight the text you want to use as the link and then click on the handcuffs symbol next to the emojis. Paste in the address on the post. So this would be a link to the post you've just done (you can see the form that takes by quoting this post).
link to first post
link to second post
link to third post
etc.
This ensures that all of the links of a single run are in one place, but don't clutter the thread.
Previous posts:
BG1 end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904835/#Comment_904835
SoD start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904866/#Comment_904866
SoD end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906579/#Comment_906579
BG2 start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906698/#Comment_906698
Part XXVI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906798/#Comment_906798
Part XXVII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907259/#Comment_907259
Part XXVIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907527/#Comment_907527
Part XXIX: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907875/#Comment_907875
Part XXX: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907944/#Comment_907944
Part XXXI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908048/#Comment_908048
Part XXXII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908166/#Comment_908166
Part XXXIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908261/#Comment_908261
Part XXXIV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908347/#Comment_908347
All right, we have a lot to do now that we're back on the surface again. Let's go!
We started with the newly available forest areas. There are some high level mages there. The first one failed to have any divination spells to deal with our mass invisibility - while the party took him down with the help of a breach spell, Arbogast used insect plague to disrupt the cleric's spellcasting:
The wyvern cultists in the next area had a similiar encounter with mass invisibility + breach:
Saving Coran is actually quite easy when he has LoB hp:
Time for our first dragon: Thaxll'ssillya. We made him waste his death spell on a single summon before buffing up and getting ready for a full attack - 5 hasted skeleton warriors deal a ton of damage, and Mazzy with 10 apr + Aikar with 8 apr aren't too bad either. The LoB extra-hp were really not felt at all. Now, the dragon used remove magic, but only on the skeletons plus Nahema, and even Nahema's buffs all stayed active. He never got to use wing buffet or his breath weapon (I had my party spread out a bit just in case) - his only notable defense apart from stoneskins, PFMW, was quickly breached:
And shortly after that, he was dead.
Next up, we went lich hunting. The city gates lich isn't worth mentioning, as he didn't have access to his prebuffs thanks to us sneaking in his home to steal daystar early on in SoA. The elemental lich had an instant death spell ready to kill a lone skeleton warrior - but couldn't deal at all with four more of those, only managing to kill a single one:
When fighting the shade lich, I encountered a very interesting bug (note also: the harlot from earlier is still there!): Remember all those traps I had Yoshimo plant there earlier on? Well, now the game claims that these are in fact Imoen's traps, and not only that, they deal the damage that traps created by Imoen would deal - Yoshimo's traps would've been far more powerful at this point.
Anyway, the shade lich was killed in a duel with a deva:
Next on our list: The secret illithid base. Are elemental princes immune to int drain? Seems that way - at least this one was blocking the tunnel for his entire summoning duration, allowing us to shoot all of our foes with ranged weapons without any risk:
We only had to rush in to kill the Alhoon:
Our next battle, the guarded compound, was supposed to be the easiest one for this session. However, it turned out to be the most difficult - due to me underestimating our foes, I placed my party in critical danger, and this could've easily meant the end of our run.
We went upstairs fully buffed, also protected by mass invisibility. For some reason, Sion wasn't casting a divination spell, so I disarmed the traps and thought to myself: "Why not bring Nahema in good tanking position while Arbogast casts nature's beauty? I didn't have a great opportunity to use this spell yet, and if everyone is blinded, this battle will be over right away."
What I didn't expect was that Sion DID in fact use true sight, but for some reason, he didn't have to cast it - he just activated it instantly without any visible casting time, animation or incantation. And right after that, we got hit by remove magic. Most of our buffs were gone, including a) haste, crippling our movement and b) all stone/ironskins, making us insanely vulnerable to any backstab by Ketta. The worst thing: We couldn't flee downstairs, where we had our summons waiting, because Nahema and Arbogast had moved close to the enemy to initiate combat, and going back to the party would mean getting close to Ketta. The other thing: I had already started casting my nature's beauty and a mirror image spell this round (which also got removed, and NB got interrupted, as no ironskins made it easy to hit Arbogast), so both Nahema's and Arbogast's auras were muddled - so they started moving away from the invisble Ketta, who, according to the combat log, was after Nahema:
Now, what to do when the round ends - how to protect my characters? True sight was active, so no invisibility potions. I decided to put a summon between me and my foes: Spirit animals are quickly spawned in, I hoped this would distract the AI. Meanwhile, everyone else used an oil of speed (thank god I saved all of those) and I switched a pair of boots of speed to Arbogast. Nahema still didn't have her aura back to provide us with an instant haste spell. Overall, this was propably not the best decision - Arbogast should've been the first to drink an oil of speed, and I should've used Nahema's flesh golem as fodder instead. If Ketta would've decided to attack Arbogast at this point, she very well could've ended our run. However, she did end up going for the spirit lion!
Still, I had another problem: A confusion spell was still flying in, centered on Arbogast. In combat (where I can't equip Aegar's Hide), I have no way to make him immune to confusion. Anomen's aura wasn't clear because of the oil of speed he drank, so no quick protection via cc. Arbogast's aura was muddled for the same reason, so I couldn't drink a potion of clarity. I ended up equipping him with as many save-boosting items as possible, but I couldn't bring his saves to a safe number, and he failed his roll:
I was lucky - the confused Arbogast didn't make any dumb moves (only attacking Anomen for a bit), and confusion only lasts for a very short time. Meanwhile, the spirit lion had bought me enough time to a) get stoneskins up for my mages and b) get summons ready to deal with our foes. A deva was quickly called, and with some addition skeletons, and, once I got Arbogast back, an elemental prince, we finally won this battle:
To be fair, none of this propably would've happened if not for the strange way Sion "cast" true sight, but still, my play during this battle was pretty reckless and stupid.
Next up was Firkraag. 5 fire elementals and fire protection for everyone! Now, last time I fought this guy, he dispelled all my fire protections and roasted the party of my shadowdancer with his breath weapon. This time, I was very carefully watching the combat log for any remove magic - I saw it, going for a fire elemental, so Nahema, the only one in melee combat, was the only one at risk - she didn't manage to run away in time, so for a second there, she was exposed - if Firkaag had used this opportunity to breathe on her, she could very well have been chunked, but he didn't:
I quickly moved Nahema out of range, and the remaining party killed Firkraag without any further trouble:
I forgot to kill Kangaxx earlier on, so his time had come: Protection from magic + iMoD +2. A skeleton warrior helped our with the lich form to speed things up:
Now, the Twisted Rune: With liches being immune to breach in the vanilla game, I thought this encounter could be tricky - no way to kill Shangalar right away, and a beholder to possibly get rid of our defensive buffs? That's a dangerous combination. And indeed, this is what happened: Aikar got hit with the anti-magic ray before Shangalar's time stop hit. Not good. I expected him to at least get disabled for the remainder of the fight. However, Shangalar did nothing, he didn't cast any spells. At first I thought he might be bugged somehow, but then I realized - he hadn't removed our mass invisibility! He simply couldn't target anyone and wasn't smart enough to use aoe spells! Is there no true sight in his spellbook? Very strange:
That said, Aikar was still in danger as the beholder was doing quite a bit of damage. However, my party managed to take it down before anything too dangerous happened. Shangalar still couldn't do anything. After his PFMW ended, I simply attacked him with ranged weapons until he was dead - and while mass invisibility eventually ended, I was able to disrupt any further spellcasting attempts:
Finally, I sent in a couple of summons to kill Layene:
One last thing to do before we can move on with Bodhi: WK level 2. I had to kill the statues in level 1 first, though:
My first battle with fire giants turned out okay - Sunnis was perfectly capable of tanking their damage:
We had another close call with death (for Mazzy, not for Arbogast) when a couple of vampiric wraiths spawned during Imoen's exploration of the ice lab. She had to flee back to the party - I had no summons ready, so Nahema tried to tank. However, not only can those things deal magical damage through stoneskins, lowering Nahema's hp at an alarming rate, they also randomly decide to attack other party members - and when they went for Mazzy, she was almost killed right away. I only managed to save her with a RoR charge:
Meanwhile, I had managed to summons a deva, and Nahema's Sword of Mask entangled one of our foes (invisble in the screenshot). Imoen had also buffed Aikar wih improved haste, giving us a serious source of damage - all this provided me with enough power to kill the vampiric wraiths before they could endanger anyone else.
Now, time for the Air Room. We rested to get 6 protection from electricity castings ready and entered with aerial servants (who are not actually immune to lightning damage - but they survived either way). While my party was getting thrown around and I managed to get most of our foes to attack our summons, Arbogast was able to cast nature's beauty, affecting everyone (except for the guardian of air, who must be immune to blindness or something - there was nothing in the combat log, despite him being next to Arbogast). This made it easy to pick off our foes with ranged weapons and win this fight:
Our aerial servants proved to be durable enough to even stay with us for the Slime Room, allowing us to snipe the snake and clean up the remaining foes:
For the ice room, I summoned a deva for additional help:
And finally, we used elemental prince + deva again to take out another fire giant:
I had very harmful intentions towards the chromatic demon - meaning, both Arbogast and Anomen memorized only harm spells, as I didn't want this fight to take forever. I only had to hit the guy. Well, turns out Anomen started combat with a natural 20!
Finally, our last thing to do: Surviving Bodhi's ambush. To that end, I had 4 helms of charm protection, the Equalizer and Adjatha to give everyone charm immunity. I also used a couple of sunrays and summoned a deva to end this battle quickly:
Next time, Bodhi herself will have to face us. I'm looking forward to see if our allies will get their LoB bonuses and how they will do with them.
Enuhal
SP-5,
Underhanded tactics,... I feel so dirty
we defended the camp and I won the dual despite her blatant cheating by feeding her a trap
I realized I've been greedy with my robes and so I shared them with Neera to double our firepower (actually works well) but that had the side effect of drawing Thrix into the next battle which surprised me however we managed to kick his teeth in for him.
I was convinced that I'd lost the final battle at one point with Puk and Neera both dead, Jaheira charmed into attacking Viconia and that gave J's opponent free space to smack me with poison down to a single hit... as I gussied my last "Elixer of Health" the boss turned towards me and 'dispel'ed ... this was a huge mistake on his part that saved me because it gave us time to drink heal potions and allowed Minsc to step between my attackers.
on to bg2
party;
Viconia, (+ 3 wisdom + 1 Dexterity... she losses these in bg2)
Jaheira, Minsc and Neera
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908456/#Comment_908456
In the Nashkel Mine I was intending to go through pretty much invisible. However, the kobold shaman managed to produce an oracle at the worst possible time, resulting in the need for a fighting retreat. By the time the shaman was not only confused but dominated by a nymph as well, the battle was pretty much won. Left on their own again a mixture of invisibility and stealth allowed them to get into Mulahey's cave and rest. Mulahey then went quietly to his death.
Nimbul was another to recognise the truth in the saying "silence is your grave". Tranzig was already near death by the time he ran for the door and failed to survive the traps waiting outside.
Raiken offered a lift to the Bandit Camp and the WIP took the opportunity to charm the more dangerous external enemies and take them on expeditions to the local ruins - I counted them all out, but I didn't count them all back. Perky took the full plate to upgrade her ankheg armor. After setting some traps inside the tent WIP they tried to go inside and produce summons prior to webbing the area - but were immediately spotted.
Artemis gave Perky a couple of CLW before the group went back in. Tawny and Perky started producing summons and a nymph had just appeared when Britik's halberd proved to be longer than I expected, swinging over the invisible blockers and taking Perky's head clean off.
The others did finish off the fight before beginning the long trek back to Candlekeep.
Previously
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908470/#Comment_908470
@semiticgod & @Grond0 thanks for the tips - I hope I Got it right.
I was contemplating how to deal with the sirenes. My familiar was HiS, when it broke stealth. I acted quickly and used my wand of fire from the ankheg nest. They send a glyph of warding (I think) my way - nearly killing ny ferret! I send another blast their way killed them all..
I was really lucky. My familar could easily have died, and had their opening spell been hold person it would have ended my run. I will have to be more carefull.
The tombs where cleared with a prot from undead scroll
The price was a wand of monster summoning. The wand won me the fight against the assasins in Nashkell
BTW. I have to agree with @semiticgod: wands er op in bg1. My build was a fighter who coulis use wands and scrolls - which has served med well so far.
Next up was Tranzig who fell easily, and from there it was the bandit camp.
The bandits where sniped with the sling, the chill kited and slinged to death.
My full plate was easily obtained with a wand of paralyzation..
The tent was cleared with the help of the wand of fire and monster summoning..
Dushai was finally charmed and pickpocketed by my familar
I had tried pickpocketing algernon which ended fatal - for him. I am really roleplaying my LN character there - pickpocketing and killing innocents for their gear
But with gear in order cloakwood is next. Plan is to avoid all the spiders by running - dushais ring will come in handy (I could allways return it to her if RP becomes a priority...
Previous posts:
BG1 end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904835/#Comment_904835
SoD start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/904866/#Comment_904866
SoD end: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906579/#Comment_906579
BG2 start: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906698/#Comment_906698
Part XXVI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/906798/#Comment_906798
Part XXVII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907259/#Comment_907259
Part XXVIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907527/#Comment_907527
Part XXIX: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907875/#Comment_907875
Part XXX: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/907944/#Comment_907944
Part XXXI: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908048/#Comment_908048
Part XXXII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908166/#Comment_908166
Part XXXIII: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908261/#Comment_908261
Part XXXIV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908347/#Comment_908347
Part XXXV: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908579/#Comment_908579
I didn't expect Bodhi and her vampires to be much trouble, and, luckily, I was correct. As it turns out, our allies do get full LoB bonuses (which also means that Drizzt can't attack due to his APR going over 10 (which the game engine can't handle), as is well known to anyone who has met him in BG1 on LoB), and as we have chaotic commands, a deva and Anomen with the iMoD +2, we are both well-protected and able to quickly kill vampires.
We made our way to Drizzt, and I accidentally managed to set up a great chokepoint for the big group of vampires in the eastern room - they could only ever attack my skeleton warriors, while my party used their ranged weapons and the deva attacked with her own MoD:
The only spellcaster here, simply known as "Guard", could've forced me into a prolonged summoning battle. However, as I walked up to him, I thought to myself - "wouldn't it be funny if our deva destroyed him with her first hit?"
Yes, it was:
Now, after Nahema got us some new gloves for Arbogast, we went downstairs to face Bodhi - I only summoned a couple of skeleton warriors for this battle, ready to add an elemental prince if needed. We got into a very good position, with the skeletons distracting the bulk of our opponents and our allies dealing with the rest (though in Drizzt's case, he just stood there) - meanwhile, Anomen with improved haste and the iMoD +2 started taking out vampires:
Soon enough, only Bodhi was left:
Arbogast actually managed to get in the final hit with his crimson dart
The only other thing I did in this session was go on a big shopping tour - I've never spend so much money in SoA - I think my bad financial situation is due to me not selling any equipment with defensive bonuses and keeping most of my potions + ammunition; I mostly bought spellscrolls for Imoen and potions for the party, plus some green scrolls. I didn't have enough to buy all of the oils of speed, potions of heroism and potions of power I wanted. Oh well. At least I've got a nice collection of defensive potions now.
The elven city is next, but it will have to wait for a while: I propably won't have any more time to play this week.
Enuhal
@ussnorway Congratulations on beating SoD!
@Enuhal A steady progress, as usual!
@StummvonBordwehr Glad that you're feeling fun. Still giggling at the name of your character.
@Stormvessel The road of any no-reload player is far from being straight, and a lot of setbacks happen. Don't let them hamper your mood! You're becoming more experienced with each failure.
Party LoB + SCS run – First Casualties
Prologue
First Steps
First Level Ups
First Real Challenges
Before setting off for the Mutamin's Garden, the group had to finish clearing out the Lonely Peaks. Ioin Gallchobhair, Billy and Dribben were all cautiously blinded.
Dealing with the Sarhedra's Ogres was tricky. The party managed to kill 2 ogres first, separately from the whole gang. But then hobgoblins elite kept saving against Blindness, plus an ogre Berserker had to be kited (as he was still under Berserk). This forced the group to retreat through the whole map, only to find a pack of newly spawned kobolds (2 of them commandos). The group had no option but to travel back to the Carnival.
And guess what! They were ambushed by more kobolds. The C/M was the archers’ target and didn’t survive (it couldn’t be prevented in such an ambush, sorry, @Grond0 , the death count is moving), but the rest of the party successfully reached the area’s border.
The C/M was raised in the Nashkel’s temple and the group returned to the Lonely Peaks. There they quickly found the hobgoblins and blinded them.
Everything was alright till the moment the kobolds came searching for the group (so the AI remembered I retreated from the kobolds, and made them start searching for the group as soon as I returned). The presence of 2 kobold commandos meant sacrifices had to be made – while the main character was out of their reach, the C/M and the F/I tried to blind them. It worked, but the C/M still was shot (sorry again
The party waited till the Berserk wore off and blinded the only chasing enemy left, the ogre berserker. The task was easy after that, and the archer reached the 3rd level (rolling 7 HPs).
One travel to Naskel later, the party (now fully healed) returned and helped to save Arabelle from xvarts – each of them was blinded first. The main character reached the 3rd level as well (getting maximum 5 HPs). Hulrik’s reward brought new levels for the F/I and the F/T.
On the way to the Mutamin's Garden the group explored the Temple surroundings near Beregost. A big wolf pack was left untouched (the F/T left them frightenedly after spotting vampire wolves), but other opponents were dispatched. The C/M got a new level.
Finally, the Mutamin's Garden. The group didn’t neglect Korax the Ghoul and ordered him to attack the fist lesser basilisk. The better calls for help component made Mutamin (who actually was not close to that basilisk) react with Magic Missiles, so Korax “hurried” to the wizard. Insivible F/T saw how Mutamin failed his saving throw against death.
The rest of the area’s basilisks weren’t a threat after that, with Korax helping against all but one basilisk.
For the final basilisk the archer used a green scroll of PfP.
As a result of this XP hunt, the sorcerer became able to cast Web. The group also found a Web scroll on a random flind. While the F/I wasn’t ready to scribe it yet (not having potions of genius for a better scribing chance), the sorcerer was more than ready to try his Web against Kirian and Co.
I checked in the NI first, and while Kirian herself is Chaotic Neutral, 2 members of her group are evil (Peter and Lindin). This made me choose a fight against them (the characters are of good alignment, so I’m sensible about such choices).
The group stated with Web and Silence, while the spirit snake was already there, next to Kirian. Web held 3 opponents in the first round, and another Web followed. It helped to continue holding three enemies while the group kept trying to blind Peter.
Lindin was blinded next, while Kirian’s health reached 0 thanks to poison and missile attacks. Shortly, only Baerin (who escaped from Web to the north) was left.
The group rested and finished Baerin off. The group then rested again, making sure they didn’t travel at night, and reached the FAI without problems. Now the F/I and the C/M will scribe a few spells, so that Invisibility and Detect Invisibility are always ready.
Here’re the current standings:
Jagen, sorcerer, lvl 4, 16 HPs, 14 kills (6% in the group)
Glod, fighter/illusionist, lvl 3/3, 23 HPs, 46 kills (20% in the group), 0 deaths
Uzume, fighter/thief, lvl 3/4, 30 HPs, 55 kills (24% in the group), 0 deaths
Cochrane, archer, lvl 4, 32 HPs, 84 kills (37% in the group), 0 deaths
Sigyn, totemic druid, lvl 4, 33 HPs, 13 kills (5% in the group), 0 deaths
Dazbog, cleric/mage, lvl 3/3, 15 HPs, 13 kills (5% in the group), 2 deaths (both by a kobold commando)
Sorry to see death is among us in your party. That first scenario where you're retreating from one group, hit a new spawn and then go into a travel ambush is a difficult one to avoid
WIP{6} (SCS / LoB) - update 1
Previous run
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/908629/#Comment_908629
Still searching for perfection (or do I mean petrification) - or perhaps just feeling that none of their deaths have been sufficiently glorious - the WIP began their journey once more from Candlekeep. This time I've got a specific aim of trying to avoid any party deaths for as long as possible (achieving that would of course avoid any chunkings
In the early stages Melody failed with her first attempt to pickpocket Algernon's Cloak, but was able to succeed at the second attempt before he went hostile.
Various golems, sirines, ankhegs, more sirines and more golems later and the WIP had the ability to protect all of themselves from petrification and sorted out the basilisk area. Their reputation is still not quite up to 20 so they'll probably upgrade that in the process of clearing the southern areas next.
Perky - Priest of Tyr L5, 40 HPs, 103 kills, 0 deaths
Misty - Fighter / illusionist L3/3, 26 HPs, 36 kills, 0 deaths
Melody - Fighter / mage / thief L3/3/4, 30 HPs, 47 kills, 0 deaths
Artemis - Archer L4, 49 HPs, 47 kills
Tawny - Totemic Druid L4, 40 HPs, 8 kills, 0 deaths
Whistle - Bounty Hunter L4, 32 HPs, 21 kills, 0 deaths
Previous updates
The WIP explored the Cloud Peaks, taking on the worthwhile encounters (which didn't include the Gnoll Stronghold for them). The most dangerous moment was when Borda managed to get off a chromatic orb - Misty responding by using a potion of invulnerability to ensure she saved against the death effect.
With reputation up to 20 they went to Ulgoth's Beard to buy a few things and pickpocket Dushai's ring.
I mentioned the disappearing portrait bug in an earlier post. The WIP were on the way to Firewine Ruins and just killing off the last of the xvarts attacking Arabelle when that hit.
At Firewine, Meilum's bracers were bagged after working through plenty of kobolds and I then couldn't resist having another go at Kahrk. The basic plan was again to keep one person invisible working summons, but Kahrk couldn't resist cheating - Perky lucky to survive a double chromatic orb sequencer fired at him while in sanctuary.
I didn't fancy trying the Firewine Ruins yet this time, so went to loot Gullykin instead. After the fiasco with Jenkal last time I thought he deserved to die and spent a bit of time setting up an attempt with backstabs - but after inflicting about 100 damage in the opening round he disappeared. At least that means the exit from the Ruins is safe for later.
I was in two minds what to do about Shoal, but eventually decided that no deaths was not central enough to the run to just kill her (and I felt I was on a roll with ogre magi
I've delayed going to Durlag's a bit this time in order that Melody will be high enough level to fully loot the upper tower. She will now be ready to do that so the Tower will be the next target.
Perky - Priest of Tyr L5, 40 HPs, 23 kills, 0 deaths
Misty - Fighter / illusionist L4/4, 35 HPs, 71 kills, 0 deaths
Melody - Fighter / mage / thief L4/3/4, 34 HPs, 86 kills, 0 deaths
Artemis - Archer L5, 57 HPs, 105 kills
Tawny - Totemic Druid L6, 45 HPs, 13 kills, 1 death (Shoal)
Whistle - Bounty Hunter L6, 40 HPs, 38 kills, 0 deaths
(Full party: Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, Viconia, and Jan; SCS with only AI enhancements but no enhanced encounters. Learning the ropes of BG2, as it were. Err... and Imoen is, as per head cannon, a Sorcerer.)
Can you tell I am fond of the Gnomes in this series...
Either I've gotten really lucky rolls or it's much easier to get high HP rolls than in past games. My Orc Berserker is at level 5 and has 73 Health - that's 73 out of 75.
I'm playing on core rules - I don't know if it has to be a higher difficulty for the rolls to be truly random or not. It just really seems rigged in the player's favor. I remember vanilla BG having to save and reload again and again because really crappy rolls were almost a given. It was especially hard with multiclass characters for some reason.
But this game is the exact opposite. Did Beamdog fool around with the mechanics of leveling up? I have no problem with it if they did, believe me. Maybe this is anecdotal and others haven't had this experience.
Personally, in PnP (AD&D), I prefer:
1D2 (coin flip) +2 + con bonus
1D4 +2 + con bonus
1D6 +2 + con bonus
1D6 +4 + con bonus
1D6 +6 + con bonus
Did Beamdog do something like this?
By the way, what is the consensus on Cloak of Mirroring?
It seems way overpowered and I am inclined to dump it (same as Shield of Balduran).
If it only protected from targeted damage (e.g. Magic Missile) but not AoE (e.g. Skull Trap) it would have been an okay balance. But as it currently is, it seems unusably powerful.
(Perhaps, Item Revisions rebalances this, but in my IR install I am not that far into the game yet, so I don't know...)
Also, this is the point in SoA where disables and failed saves are a lot more dangerous than spell damage. The Kuo Tao bolts are a heck of a lot more threatening than a Fireball would be at this point. So all in all, I say it's useful but not impossibly OP for this stage of the game.
Cutting & pasting...
Hi everyone, no pics for now I'm afraid as there not working after display driver update.
When I last left off with Cromarty he was in Sendai's lair, and he cut his way through the spider way without too much difficulty. Odamaron was defeated with a piercing chain contingency followed by Azuredge to the head before he could even ask who was at the door. An axe to the head is what you get for asking / An axe to the head is what you get for not asking... Ogremoch and the variety mix assortment mob we had plenty of summons to distract while the fighters cut them down.
Cromarty had held back a little here but he willingly stepped up and cut down Captain Eggy, and then the mind flayers were similarly trampled. Sendai's statues and minions were mired in spell fields and the lady herself was spellstruck and then swordstruck.
I regret taking Spellstrike however as it's overkill for non-SCS mages and we now need an extra level or two if Kelsey is to have a chance of wish-resting us at the throne. Given this, and Sarevok's need for a +5 sword we descended into Watcher's Keep.
Of the Elemental level there's little to tell, the Chromatic Demon was vorpalised about 5 seconds in on this occasion. Level 3 we are making incautious progress through. We stumbled unbuffed into the main baatezu room but Kelsey's ability to stop time, buff the party and damage opponents was battle changing. I'm a little worried about him or another party member getting chunked though, it would make things massively more difficult if I continue fishing with a golden hook like this... but in any case they are admiring the decor of the maze for now.
When you think about it, a cloak that grants immunity to damage spells is not that much more powerful than a cloak that gives your mage a few extra spell slots. The only difference is that the former is not dispellable (a pretty big deal in a no-reload context, granted) and requires less maintenance.
Including an actual Fireball spell.
I decided to abandon it. My charname (Cavalier with every imaginably defensive stacking) is already nearly unkillable by magic damage if micromanaged. The Cloak would have been unbalanced, I think.
Currently packing a Cloak of Prot +2 and Claw Kazgaroth from BG1: most saves are nicely negative already, especially when buffed with Imp Invisibility as per standard operating procedure. (Wasn't stunned even once with the Paralytic Bolts, though Jan was.)
--
At this point (Underdark just started), the run seems too easy. Charname seems strong enough to solo most challenges almost but never does:
A few moments ago, I encountered my first Drow patrol (I think I did enhance the Drow in my SCS install). Scouted by Jan, invisible. Then Viconia unloaded on them with Fire Storm (bypasses MR). The stragglers (including an SCS Drow Mage!) were picked by an Aerial Servant and Fire Elemental.
After many years, I am now remembering the pace of BG2. Barring a major surprise, my current mild install (SCS, mostly just the AI, no insta-buff mages) seems a bit easy at this stage.
Will attempt to finish as is rather than succumbing to restartitis with what is my furthest Cavalier run into BG2.
KEEP IT THAT WAY
Which is why I am actively trying to avoid keeping the charname from the front line alone. (Usually have a few summons and Minsc next to charname, with party always nearby, with AWACS services provided beforehand by Jan. I have no metagame memory beyond this point.)
We'll see if luck will hold....