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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of TEN THOUSAND Trials"

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  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    @semiticgod: Thanks. That makes sense.
    Grond0 wrote: »
    However, in SCS there is a chance that the sirines can use invisibility by script rather than casting - you may notice for instance that when you first go into Beregost temple one or more of them are not visible.
    Good catch. Some of them were initially invisible (I thought they hadn't spawned), but I had forgotten about it.

    I think I just flubbed and didn't empty the charm spells of the sirine that got me. When I went back through, they would sometimes go invisible (instantly too, not through the casting animation), but none of them ever attempted to charm me again. When I didn't mess that portion up, placing the sirine by the shaman's spirit animals before attacking caused her to melee the spirit animals while everyone else attacked at range.
    Grond0StummvonBordwehr
  • StummvonBordwehrStummvonBordwehr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,338
    @Corey_Russell
    Well done on Core mage reaching ToB.

    About the halberd +4 missing.
    I think you meant the harbinger sword:
    alw4vb2pensr.png
    the sword that got imported into BG2 in vanilla version if you did the item import trick and had the great sword +3 in your inventory. The Harbinger sword is for sale at one of the merchants in Ust Natha.

    There are two prolific halberds +4 in the Ust Natha quest line as well:
    1) the Blackmist (trade with demon the MM summons, and
    2) the dragons breath - which I think you had in mind
    akario9oyvm1.png. Its wielded by the ogre Boz in an ambush just outside the city - the ambush happens first time you exit the city at the handmaidens request.
    Grond0Corey_RussellAerakarCrevsDaak
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Corey_Russell: Bug-induced deaths are okay for reloads, if you want to keep going. That's a pretty blatant and recent example of a bug.
    CrevsDaak
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    edited March 2019
    I really wish @TrentOster read posts with bugs like those. Maybe the strategy of completely ignore the PC support would change.
    CrevsDaak
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 995
    semiticgod wrote: »
    @Corey_Russell: Bug-induced deaths are okay for reloads, if you want to keep going. That's a pretty blatant and recent example of a bug.

    While it is a bug, it's also system wide. That is, I experienced this bug (of unable to move) throughout the entire run, both this run and others I have ran. I look it more like a feature, albeit poorly thought out one. Because I can't avoid it myself - Draconis was hasted and I couldn't get away from him. Since I will just run into the bug again on a reload, won't bother. Will try a party instead.
    RaduzielCrevsDaak
  • jessejmcjessejmc Member Posts: 141
    edited March 2019
    Grond0 wrote: »
    Thanks to commandeering Meilum's bracers, Sky is eating into Star's kills lead and it could be a close finish between those two.
    Maybe she'll get her own pair after the bandit camp...
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Shall I go ahead and add another Hall for non-BG runs to @Ygramul's starting posts? I can call it the Hall of Heroes for Non-BG Runs until we have a better name. I have some IWD and IWD2 runs to post there, plus the DWM run, but I don't remember if anyone else has any non-BG runs to add at the moment.
    Stromael
  • EnuhalEnuhal Member Posts: 920
    @semiticgod I'm a bit conflicted about this. Adding a Hall for IWD1 seems reasonable, as multiple people have been posting runs of it over the last few months, so we can certainly consider it to be an active category of no-reload runs (plus, there's an EE version and a forum for the game right here as well). On the other hand, some other games have only been attempted by one person, so it could feel a bit like putting personal pet projects rather than shared community experiences into the hall. While sharing runs of other games is entirely reasonable and a welcome addition for those interested in these games, I do think that the focus of the thread should remain on BG or at least the infinity engine games.

    That being said, thinking about it, I do realize that this sounds somewhat closed-minded and elitist, and adding a hall for other games really doesn't hurt anyone, instead giving more people an opportunity to celebrate their successes here, so there's really no good reason for me to object :smile: Feel free to add a non-BG hall!
    CrevsDaak
  • StromaelStromael Member Posts: 195
    edited March 2019
    semiticgod wrote: »
    Shall I go ahead and add another Hall for non-BG runs to @Ygramul's starting posts? I can call it the Hall of Heroes for Non-BG Runs until we have a better name. I have some IWD and IWD2 runs to post there, plus the DWM run, but I don't remember if anyone else has any non-BG runs to add at the moment.

    Definitely a nice idea. You could even split it: Non-BG IE Games, and Non-IE Games.

    I should start posting my IWD HoF NR run, though it's slow-going, and time for playing is limited, let alone writing up.

    What other games do people NR? :smile: Any rogue-likers?
    Grond0CrevsDaak
  • EnuhalEnuhal Member Posts: 920
    edited March 2019
    Dragon Age: Origins no-reload run: Valeria, elven mage, update 2

    Before we can get to Lothering, we have to rescue our Mabari war dog from a horde of darkspawn. This isn't trivial: The dog starts out basically surrounded and uncontrollable, and if it dies during the battle, you won't get it as a party member. An easy solution: Protect it with forcefield and blast the horde with a fireball:
    ehs7r17ojxyq.png
    Morrigan joins us for now (and we will keep her around until we get Wynne). Her initial build is pretty bad and without relevant defensive options - to turn her into a truly flexible mage, we will add heal and forcefield to her arsenal. She'll also be our herbalism specialist. Meanwhile, Alistair now has access to taunt, threaten and bravery (my first priorities) and will try to get shield wall, the weapon + shield passives plus any templar skills (holy smite offers a great AoE knockdown option).

    We don't do much in Lothering for now - just picking up Leliana and making our way to camp. However, we get ambushed by a huge group of hostile refugees who manage to surround and knock out morrigan - who isn't able to successfully activate her mind blast in time:
    pdcc0wckvqll.png
    Luckily, a significant number of enemies dies to Valerias fireball, and she succeeds with her own mindblast (which isn't only an AoE stun, but also an aggro reset). We make our way to camp, do some trading and return to Lothering to complete the remaining sidequests, which isn't much of a problem. Now, Valeria has hit level 7 by now, which means that she gets to pick her first specialization. While I normally like spirit healer + blood mage, for no-reload purposes, we want to go arcane warrior first - which allows us to use our magic stat to substitute strength requirements for armor. At camp, we buy the cheap blood dragon armor set. With this and rock armor at the ready, Valeria is a defensive powerhouse for now - until much later in the game, most normal-rank enemies will only deal 1 damage to her with their auto-attacks.

    Now, we need experience and equipment in order to prepare for the circle tower. The Stone Prisoner is our first option, as I know this DLC quite well. The darkspawn in the village are easily dealt with, and the emissary downstairs is distracted by the villagers, allowing us to rush him down before he can do anything too dangerous. The only significant battle is against the desire demon Kitty - we get hit by a rather unfortunate cone of cold, affecting the entire party except for Leliana - and with Alistair at low hp, things don't look great. Leliana, though, is able to use an acid bomb to instantly take out three rage demons, reducing any damage Alistair woud take:
    fnbhoc7rlq8j.png
    Valeria barely gets out of the freeze effect in time to forcefield and heal Alistair - that was close. This also pretty much spells victory for us:
    j9tmseuh6e3r.png
    Maybe I should mention my planned Leliana build at this point: She will get 34 dexterity for evasion, 20 strength to use rank 7 leather armor and everything else will be invested into cunning to boost her bard abilities and lethality. She will only use daggers and mostly take passives from the generalist rogue tree, plus lockpicking and, if we get there, dual-wield passives plus momentum as a sustained ability. Also, song of courage and later on, assassin specialization. Her skills will be stealing, combat training and survival (Zevran will handle poison-making).

    Also, regarding Leliana, while traveling, her personal quest triggers - this ambush isn't entirely harmless, as there are traps, archers and a hostile spellcaster (a witch) involved. While the witch isn't actually in line of sight at the beginning, we can use winter's grasp (which kind of ignores LoS) from both Valeria and Morrigan two times to remove most of the danger:
    [jlus2h43gmki.png
    As you can see, Valeria has access to the shatter combo by now. We follow up on Leliana's quest by travelling to Denerim, first dueling Ser Landry and then fighting Majorlaine. Not an easy fight because of enemy mages and her being boss rank - so we quickly retreat to the first room in the building and carefully lure enemies to us (having taken out travelers with fireball and coc spells earlier on):
    hzqf837vmx4f.png
    Majorlaine is now isolated - she can still do a lot of damage with her daggers, but she spends most of her time sustaining the now-useless captivating song:
    52r4ldagcbdv.png
    We're done in Denerim for now, so we return to Ostagar for another piece of DLC. This one I have less experience with. Running into a hurlock emissary I didn't know about shows us how deadly these foes can be: The party gets hit by a fireball, and we are extremely lucky that Valeria is able to resist (though she has the spellward at this point, giving her a 30% chance to do so):
    axz910s99msq.png
    Everyone else is knocked down and taking fire damage from the DoT effect, and Valeria is unable to save Morrigan. Leliana is healed up, though, and Alistair drinks a healing potion. However, having just recovered for a bit, the emissary throws down a second fireball! This time, Valeria gets hit (though Leliana isn't in range for that one) - and goes unconscious, with no one around to heal her. Luckily, Alistair and Leliana are able to take out the emissary and the final genlock archer:
    a85z6k0i85xf.png
    That was close. If Valeria didn't resist the initial fireball, this could've been the end of this run. Walking into unfamiliar territory with a relatively low level is quite dangerous, and this shows us that we really need anti-magic abilities soon. Luckily, any other spellcaster during this DLC isn't able to surprise us, as we're very careful, and Morrigan finally has a relevant amount of defensive abilities of her own. We take out the risen ogre, with a good old forcefield saving a grabbed Leliana:
    sv3amma6w2a2.png
    The genlock necromacer is also easily dealt with, and we have some nice armor that Alistair can't use yet because his strength isn't there for now. Next DLC: Soldier's Peak, the other one I don't have much experience with, especially in the early game. Turns ot that this one is pretty much a cakewalk for us: No dangerous ambush situations, no enemies with potential instant kill abilities. The final desire demon does have CoC, but only hits Alistair:
    gx1dkncznv1v.png
    Valeria does learn spell shield and anti-magic ward for now. I propably should've gone for the tower next, but I decided to finish the Denerim sidequests first. No trouble with the various bandits (they aren't high level enough to have scattershot yet, which is the only thing that would make them really dangerous), but the blood mage's hideout is an extremely dangerous area (that I should have kept around for much later, to be honest). A lot of good strategy here involves luring groups of opponents back through doors where you can destroy them with crowd control and AoE spells. Instead, feeling very powerful after having completed Soldier's Peak without any issues, I ended up rushing into a room full of enemies (and more incoming), isolating Leliana in the process:
    2qi84roekm1z.png
    You can see an enemy mage in the upper left corner here. I didn't notice him at this point for some reason - until he threw a fireball at my party while Leliana was drinking a healing potion. Morrigan didn't stay up, things were looking grim once again. Valeria barely made it out, threw a heal at Leliana and got knocked out by another spell from the still-active mage before being able to drink a healing potion. At this point, Alistair was able to stun the pesky wizard and take him out, together with Leliana, however, with no magic-users left on my side, Leliana herself fell to some arrows - Alistair was the only one left, though only one foe was left standing, and my main tank still had endurance to keep this final archer stunned - so we survived, although barely:
    ecarphoomy7i.png
    That was far too close. After using a bunch of injury kits, I vowed to only lure foes back to me in this building from now on - the next large battle looked much better: This is how you open a fight here:
    rhlgl82fs3sn.png
    Getting almost destroyed by this mage also made me finally put spell shield and anti-magic ward into action, though I still was getting used to these abilities. Spell shield drains your mana whenever you get hit by a spell (about the same amount as the mana cost of the spell hitting you), so I was a bit too careful about using it when I really should've just kept it active in any significant mage battle and used lyrium potions if needed. For the final room, we once again lured our opponents outside:
    usanrswoj9m3.png
    I activated anti-magic ward on Valeria for the final mage battle here - even if the party would've been hit by a fireball, Valeria would've been unaffected and able to heal up at least Alistair and propably Leliana - though the blood mage leader was taken out as soon as he entered our hallway, and we only had to worry about a lesser mage, who ended up not doing anything too threatening:
    ei1ybt74qixd.png
    Now, all sidequests outside of the main quest areas (Redcliffe, Circle Tower, Dalish Camp, Orzammar) are finished. Time to make our way to Lake Calenhad. May we survive the fade this time around.
    Grond0StummvonBordwehrhistamiini
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