Magic Missile sequencers are another good way of giving the War Hulk some short term bonuses. A War Hulk dual classed to thief could build it up for some crazy backstabs, and dualing to cleric with SCS v32 installed would let the War Hulk become immune to the berserk effect, almost negating the disadvantages of the rage bonuses.
Again we stash our equipment in Dragonspear Castle before moving on to BG2. The Alhoon overpowered the We Hate Magic group with brain-drain, but we'll see how he responds when we return stronger than they ever were. Skipping Chateau Irenicus and re-outfitted with our equipment, we take out the named goons in the northern outskirts of Dragonspear Castle who are still there, left over from the duel with Ashatiel. We sell the stuff in our loot bag in Beregost because BG1 merchants will buy for higher than BG2 merchants. Now we have well over 200k gold. Mencar Pebblecrusher's party is next, but Brendan escapes.
We already have the required components for Cromwell to combine Boots of Speed with the Boots of Grounding, so we make those. Our first target is the Druid Grove so we can make the Amulet of Ilmater, which requires the Periapt of Proof Against Poison which is dropped by Ihtafeer. In the fight against Kyland Lind, Krieg spirals out of control due to Insect Plague and crits him so hard that his wife and kids could feel it.
Itafeer and the rest of the druids are dealt with and we gain level 13 from turning in the quests at Trademeet, making sure to EEKeeper extra half attacks onto everyone since they won't be given automatically for some reason.
We have Cromwell forge the Amulet of Ilmater, with the Amulet of Spell Warding found from Kryll on Dorn's quest, who we took in temporarily just to get this item. Thalantyr also makes a second Girdle of Bravery from the Golden Girdle on Simmeon, Kalah's Girdle of Piercing, and the Girdle of Bluntness found in the ruins of Irenicus' dungeon. From the Gnasher club found on the druids guarding the entrance to Faldorn's grove and from Blackblood +3 for sale at the Trademeet market, Cromwell forges Pitchwife +5: the perfect weapon for Slashy Mc'Blenderson since it causes additional damage ticks over time.
Slashy could use the Ring of Gaxx for high regeneration speed. We head over to the temple district and take out the sewer party. The Shade Lich follows before it can put up any protections. I'm glad that doing this doesn't cause the game to crash anymore, because we also take on the Guarded Compound by sneaking up the stairs while invisible and kill Sion and his minions. I noticed that Slashy can't use Celestial Fury +3 or the +5 version for some reason...
The Elemental Lich is next. I noticed last time that it neglects its defenses after its initial PfMW and Time Stop, preferring to nuke the party with elemental damage spells, so Slashy takes advantage to cause it spell failure through constant hits from Pitchwife.
Now for Kangaxx. He survives our initial assault before he can put up protections, so he fires his prebuffs and gates in a Cornugon, who is killed before it can even get out of the gate. But Slashy has applied many damage ticks over time, which interrupts his spells for another round or two.
Kangaxx winds up for a Time Stop but gets hit with the Secret Revealed which lets us destroy his first form. Once he transforms, we all use a PfU scroll on ourselves, then Krieg and Drugar stay out of the fight.
Demigaxx seems to be able to partially ignore PfU since he can attack Slashy with Energy Blades and continues to cast spells. He tries to stop time but Slashy interrupts his casting. Annoyed, he throws up PfMW and summons a planetar, who we beat down quickly before it can heal since it wastes its aura by casting Fire Storm first thing.
After his PfMW wears off, he falls to Pitchwife's acid.
I notice we're rather close to a level, so I do the Harper Hold for level 14 then visit the City Gates lich for Daystar.
The Umar Hills are done before we get high enough level to get lich spawns. Thaxll is trashed and even though he level drains us, we respond with Restoration scrolls. Turning in this quest results in level 15. Krieg is now doing double damage and Drugar learns Perfect Offense.
PERFECT OFFENSE: The Kensai will no longer automatically miss on a nat1.
I think I should do the de'Arnise Keep so I have a stronghold. It is quickly cleared thanks to Pitchwife's acid. The cleric-spell casting Spirit Trolls are interesting but don't contribute much to the difficulty.
Planar Prison is next to obtain Adjatha the Drinker. The prison is pretty easy but the Warden is troublesome because he has at least three castings of PfMW and has great THAC0, so we run away from him for most of the time. Slashy overcomes this by using a normal weapon against him. Everyone levels up from completing the quest.
The Trials of the Luremaster expansion is next.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 16
Drugar - Kensai 16
Krieg III - War Hulk 16
@Flashburn Sword Dancers can't use katanas because they share Shapeshifter item restrictions to forbid armor but still allow shields, unlike Kensais. Apparently the game flags katanas as unusable for Shapeshifters despite them already being forbidden for druids, so Sword Dancers get locked out. This is a bug, so it would be fine to manually remove the usability flag to permit katanas.
I can fix it in a future update, but I think the fix I have in mind would make Sword Dancer/Thieves unable to wear armor even with UAI.
@Flashburn Sword Dancers can't use katanas because they share Shapeshifter item restrictions to forbid armor but still allow shields, unlike Kensais. Apparently the game flags katanas as unusable for Shapeshifters despite them already being forbidden for druids, so Sword Dancers get locked out. This is a bug, so it would be fine to manually remove the usability flag to permit katanas.
I can fix it in a future update, but I think the fix I have in mind would make Sword Dancer/Thieves unable to wear armor even with UAI.
Forget usability flag and use Opcode 319 instead - will give you an item by item agency.
DoF has tons of examples of how to restrict weapons, armors and shields - this can be expanded even to helmets.
We go back to Cromwell and forge Water's Talon +4, which is another excellent weapon for a Sword Dancer because it will also let him gain +2 max HP with every hit, allowing Slashy to rival and even surpass Krieg's massive HP pool. The Trials of the Luremaster expansion normally has some gamebreaking IWD loot but I installed the toned-down version that gives duplicates of existing BG2 items instead. Off to the Anauroch.
We settle a war between harpies and wyverns by killing both sides. The Harpy Queen drops the Helm of Brilliance.
A hostile party consisting of a priest, mage, fighter, and a genie all drop incredible loot! Their AI wasn't very smart, though. We can make duplicates of certain Item Upgrade/Thalantyr Item Upgrade equipment from this stuff. This potion was inside the priest's bag of holding. You can also sell stuff to Hobart for as much as Nazramu in SoD, gaining us more than 800k from all our previous loot!
We pull the levers inside each of the four towers which each allow access to a door leading down some stairs in each tower. Each of these challenges are worth 50k XP and reward us with scrolls about four knights who defeated a blue dragon, which we'll need later. Everyone gains a level from the first challenge.
With all four challenges completed, we are allowed entry into the main castle. These Spectral Guards are tough and strong opponents (and are unfortunately immune to criticals). Even with our great damage output, it still takes us a while to beat them all. Everyone levels up from killing them.
Upstairs on the left side of the castle interior, a second CHA tome is discovered. Lord Maladurek is nearby and killed quickly, dropping another copy of Adjatha the Drinker. Now we can make a second copy of Water's Talon +4 using the Water's Edge scimitar from the Underdark.
We take the key from Maladurek's inner chamber and use it to open the dungeon in the main castle. Past the dungeon lies a cavern full of Jackalweres. We level up from dealing with a stray group of phase spiders.
To escape, we have to find four flawed gems, put them in a chest to transform them into flawless gems, and then find the flawless gems on altars scatter across the caverns and put them in their proper places in a portal. The fight for one of those gems was especially intense, as Krieg was swarmed with jackals and Greater Jackalweres. He lost control despite drinking a Potion of Invulnerability and racked up incredible rage bonuses, landing a crit on a jackal that most likely obliterated its entire family tree.
Slashy was quick to help out Krieg because it was clear he couldn't hold on for much longer while that heavily enraged. Drugar had trouble holding his own as well and had to kite some of the jackals until their numbers could be thinned. The Stone Nuisances cast Magic Missile at caster level 9 and are killed by poisoning them to death since they're immune to physical damage.
With the four flawless gems gathered and put in their respective places on the portal, all we had to do was beat some spectral heroes and kill the Luremaster himself. The Luremaster is annoying. While it doesn't attack on its own, it has a Fireshield up and teleports around the arena every time it is attacked. Slashy makes it teleport many times from hitting it, but it eventually goes down.
With the Luremaster defeated, we take the tarnished ring from the throne and use it, which teleports us back to the Umar Hills inn. I'd give TotLm a 6.5/10. I like the atmosphere and the puzzles but most of it is just brainless melee fights in really big dungeons with laughably weak traps (if there's any traps at all). That's Icewind Dale for you, I guess.
Planar Sphere is next for the demon heart to make Celestial Fury +5. It wasn't until I forged it later that I discovered that Slashy can't use that version either. Lavok's Fallen Planetar gives us a level upon its death, wasting its aura with Fire Storm instead of saving it to heal. Lavok himself just needs to be hit with normal weapons to bypass PfMW. Now Krieg can regenerate relatively quickly.
Tolgerias gets killed by Krieg and Slashy when they attack him from invisibility. Tolgerias somehow didn't die from being hit by Krieg so Slashy finished him.
We're close to another level, so we do Mae'var's questline since it's also nighttime. We level up most of the way through it. Mae'var himself is trashed by using Algernon's Cloak to waste his buff spells.
I think we're strong enough to kill Firkraag and escape without serious injury. The Ruhk Transmuter has been beefed up since it can cast Improved Alacrity, but it still falls when we wait out its PfMW and then rush it down. Wait a second, isn't Transmutation's prohibited school Abjuration? Why can it still cast PfMW???
The huge group of vampires and undead are killed by Drugar under a PfU scroll. Samia's ambush is foiled. The group of Greater Wolfweres disguised as adventurers provide level 23. Krieg is now doing +200% damage.
Time to fight Firkraag. Last time I forgot I could use the rat form of the Cloak of the Sewers to tank the dragon, which resulted in Joe having to chug from Durlag's Goblet. This time I didn't forget and used it in tandem with the Defender of Easthaven for 100% damage immunity. Slashy tags Firkraag with Water's Talon a few times and lets the poison do the dirty work. That's what you get for being hasted, idiot.
Next update, we get revenge on the Alhoon before dying horribly.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 23
Drugar - Kensai 23
Krieg III - War Hulk 23
Melee Combat Specialists
With the Trials of the Luremaster finished, I decide it's time to finish up all the sidequests in Athkatla before continuing on. The zombie town and beholder nest are cleared by charging straight ahead. We gain a level from killing a pack of gauths and beholders.
The Unseeing Eye is taken out without the aid of the rod thanks to Water's Talon. It didn't summon its Death Tyrants like it usually does, either.
It's time to deliver some payback to the Alhoon. Before confronting it, we use scrolls of PfU and tactically retreat to the previous room to deal with the illithids and umber hulks. Krieg and Drugar are able to kill the Mordy Swords by using a Greater Deathblow critical and a Devastating Critical.
The Alhoon then dies in one hit from Krieg. Take that!
The Twisted Rune is the last area in Athkatla we haven't done. I haven't been here in SCS v32 before. Still protected by PfU from the Alhoon, we run in there and kill Shangalar, causing his buddies to be summoned. Slashy misses his chance to tag Layenne with Water's Talon, so we kill Shyressa first thing. Shangalar drops book of demon summoning. Wonder what that's all about.
Layenne has summoned a djinni and Vaxall is summoning Mordy Swords. Layenne stops time and swamps us with Invisible Stalkers, Earth Elementals, and a Fallen Planetar! She really likes using summoning spells now. Because of our positions when time was stopped, we are all boxed in by the summons. The Fallen Planetar has Slashy on the ropes and one more hit would kill him, but Krieg comes in with a clutch Heal from the Amulet of Ilmater. I'm so glad I made it.
The planetar is killed, so we carve our way out of more summons so we can extricate ourselves. Revanek and Vaxall are killed next.
Layenne is still summoning things. She gates in a Cornugon and a Pit Fiend but they're both easily killed. Finally, she runs out of anti-weapon spells so we can kill her.
Everyone levels up from turning in the Unseeing Eye quest to the temple of Helm. Since it's nighttime, I do Aron Linvale's quests and beat Bodhi by attacking her while she was still neutral.
Time for Watcher's Keep. I'm certain that we're strong enough to get through level 3. Level 1 is easy enough and so is level 2.
I'm a bit worried upon entering Tahazzar's room because I know demons are stronger than devils, and balors have a no-save vorpal that occurs 15% of the time on hit. The balor goes hostile because Slashy is good-aligned. A succubus charms Drugar, who fails a saving throw vs. spell at -8. His save vs. spell was -5 so I didn't think anything bad was going to happen, but I underestimated the save penalty of succubi.
Actually, the first mistake we made was not killing Tahazzar first. I was going to save him for last and try not to let him get into melee range. I have Krieg try to hit him and possibly take him out solo, but Tahazzar scores a vorpal hit on him, blasting him into chunks. My heart sinks when I hear his death scream of "Dhaarrrraahhllllauuughghhugh!!" We are so boned without him that I considered just stopping the run right then.
Slashy's AC is somewhat poor compared to Krieg's and Drugar's, so the demons are able to hit him consistently. Slashy manages to kill Tahazzar but not before he gates in a fellow balor. A glabrezu catches Slashy at low health with Power Word Stun. With nobody to trade Rings of Free Action +2 with, Slashy Mc'Blenderson is swiftly killed.
This is why being good-aligned never pays off in the long run and is why my CHARNAMEs are usually neutral or evil. There are only three fights that I will back down from in the entire series unless I can win by having an overwhelming advantage:
1) The huge crusader fight in Dragonspear's basement.
2) Tahazzar's group.
3) The demon wraith further in on level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 26 (RIP)
Drugar - Kensai 26 (assumedly RIP)
Krieg III - War Hulk 26 (very RIP)
ATweaks is truly vicious, @Flashburn. It's sad to see such a huge setback to a promising run from something as unreasonable as a no-save vorpal effect. If you plan on continuing, best of luck operating without your War Hulk tank.
How balanced or unbalanced have you found the three kits thus far?
ATweaks is truly vicious, @Flashburn. It's sad to see such a huge setback to a promising run from something as unreasonable as a no-save vorpal effect. If you plan on continuing, best of luck operating without your War Hulk tank.
I retried the fight by entering the room and having everyone quaff a Potion of Clarity, then went straight for Tahazzar who died in 2 seconds. The rest was just simple cleanup.
How balanced or unbalanced have you found the three kits thus far?
The Sword Dancer gets surprisingly strong when it uses certain weapons. I preferred to use weapons that did extra damage over time like Pitchwife +5 and Water's Talon +4, but it could easily perform disabling functions by equipping other things that have on-hit effects. The Sword Dancer is not especially hard to hit nor is it tough, but it can escape from combat easily to heal.
The new War Hulk that does percentage-based damage is fine. I didn't really notice much of a difference from the version that does flat damage bonuses, but I think it's capable of doing more damage at high levels and high rage. I hope the bug with Unstoppable was fixed, though I think the War Hulk was also responsible for not adding extra half-attacks at levels 7 and 13. It's the only thing I can think of that could cause it, kit-wise. If it isn't, then I have no idea.
The Kensai is fun as long as the enemy isn't immune to criticals. If they are, it's almost pointless not to activate Defensive Fighting. It reminds me of playing a very lightly armored Weapon Master from Neverwinter Nights because their crit rate eventually gets to the point where half their attacks are criticals. Ki Focus is also a great trump card because it guarantees hits. The Kensai's AC is pretty bad but it can be fixed with the right items and Perfect Defense can turn them into super AC-tanks.
@Flashburn: I tweaked the Unstoppable spell but am unsure if it works as intended now. I don't think the War Hulk kit could be preventing APR gains from levels 7 and 13 on other characters, since that APR gain is due to a single entry in one 2da file, and WeiDU patches entries separately when creating and editing kits.
decided to start a new run with a thief (still undecided on whether to go Assassin or Bounty Hunter) and have been reading a lot of reports from you guys on your runs.
I am however lacking knowledge regarding which items to get/prioritise. I've gathered from a lot of the stuff I've read here some items which become staples, but I'm pretty sure that I've missed others. And there's also the question if a particular item would be good or not for a given class.
Is there some place where this sort of info is centralised? I'dd find it very useful as I believe others who want to attempt this would.
Well for sure you want the stealth boots as an assassin. You didn't say if solo or not. If you have a party it kind of doesn't matter on priorities, but if solo, a very good investment for thieves is the sleep wand from Thalantyr. It's usable by almost any class, as long as you are smart enough. If solo, shield amulet is also a good investment for a thief, as using that allows using leather and a protection ring. Since thieves have Thac0 issues, getting magical melee/ranged weapons definitely help, and magical ammo could be quite useful as well.
I am however lacking knowledge regarding which items to get/prioritise. I've gathered from a lot of the stuff I've read here some items which become staples, but I'm pretty sure that I've missed others. And there's also the question if a particular item would be good or not for a given class.
There's two that you might want to prioritise that are not related to any class in particular. The Ring of Free Action and the Greenstone Amulet. If you have SCS installed, pickpocketing other Thieves will worth you very useful Invisibility Potions. Killing them also works but they might use it.
In vanilla BG1, stuff like the Whistling Sword or the Heart of the Golem are a must for Thieves, particularly because of how easy it is to get them, but, to be honest, your first priority as a Thief should be levelling up.
For BG2, you want the Ring of Air Control, and a good magical weapon ASAP. Luckily for you, Suni Sena will give you one arguably of the best short swords in the entire game, so you don't exactly need to worry much about that.
My current installation has SCS (most recent version with difficulty tuned to max except for mage/priest instant buffing outside party LOS), Rogue Rebalancing (fix to two-weapon fighting and more items only, no kit revisions), Song and Silence, and G3TweakPack.
This thief run will be solo, his stats are 18-17-19-14-8-16.
Ended up going for a LE dwarven Bounty Hunter (highly inspired by one of BlackRaven's tales of Norgath; is he still around btw?) as dwarf is my favourite race, Bounty Hunter as I wanted to give traps a try, and Lawful Evil mostly for the Human Skin but because I also like to do some questionable things at times.
He has a pip in short swords and shortbows and I intend to level up his dual-wielding.
Started off with all starting points invested in traps.
As to my previous post, I took your suggestions to heart and ventured forth into the dangerous wilds after Gorion had been murdered while protecting me.
Went about the usual *safe* quests which seem to be standard at this point in many of the runs I read here, doing the Beregost and FAI quests, picking up the hidden diamond, ring of the princes and ring of wizardry along the way. Got the protection from petrification scroll at the Carnival which let me deal with Mutamin and his medusa minions with the help of my trusty (temporary) dog Korax. Helped Brage; lady at the lighthouse; farmer looking for his son who went ankegh hunting; Shoal (killed her); Melicamp was successfully restored to a nimwit human; Mad Arcand; Tenya (killed all the fishermen and delivered the bowl); Prism the Sculptor.
Most noteworthy items I picked up with the intent of selling: Varscona, Ankegh Armor; Ring of Wizardry (this part I could also use some help with as I really am struggling with gold).
The items I picked up for myself were: short sword +2 from Zargal after he stepped on some traps and bit some arrows; boots of HiS/MS from green hobgoblin; Algernon's Cloak; Bracers of Weapon expertise from Meilum; Tome of Constitution and Charisma; Potion of Master Thievery from the thief in the Carnival Tent; Ring of Free Action was pickpocketed from the lady in Ulgoth's Beard thanks to the potion.
Items bought: The Greenstone Amulet; *RR* Deep Red Ioun Stone (+1 DEX); *RR* The Sound Defense (Short Sword +2, +1AC, +1Save vs Death); *RR* Masterbelt (+10% Locks and Traps); *RR* Composite Shortbow +2; Shadow Armor; Wand of Sleep; 3 potions of freedom. Am currently trying to get some gold for the amulet of missiles.
- A big question I have here is regarding the Claw of Kazgaroth. It seems like many people pick this up, but on other places I've seem people argue that it is not worth it for characters with high CON. I for one feel a bit apprehensive about picking this up as the 20 CON passive heal when resting/travelling feels really nice. Do you guys think it is worth it?
Things I learned: Modding the game so reputation doesn't increase so fast is perfect for my party playthroughs, not so much for solo... Found myself having to do all the goody quests and donate to the temple a couple of times so I could offset the murder of Algernon and actually have manageable store prices. Kahrk seems to be immune to my traps, had to leave him alone.
My plan at the moment is to get the Amulet of Missiles and then head off to the Nashkel Mines. Curently at level 8.
Can't remember perfectly what my thief skill values look like, but I went for something like 60 detect traps; 75 MS; 50 HiS; 75 Set Traps (all these values are without any items on top).
I would welcome any suggestions for things to do, items to pick up for myself or for selling and overall feedback to my decisions so far.
@coredumped It seems you're off to a great start with your run. Have fun and good luck going forwards!
As for the Claw, I'd agree that this is a very individual choice. Personally I'm using it in 9/10 of my runs, as I tend to prefer its saving throws' bonuses over the incurred penalties. It's also the item I'm exporting to Amn in lieu of Helm of Balduran, even with warrior classes.
In BG 1, saves vs. death are mostly relevant against poison, which can be easily mitigated by green Pro Poison scrolls for instance. Depending on your install, there would be parts of SoA and ToB where it may make perfect sense to remove the Claw to maximaze saves vs. death.
That said, being a dwarven BH, I'd absolutely go for the Claw. You'll not be loosing actual HP and also, as far as I recall, the CON penalty does not affect the shorty saving throw bonus (which uses the base CON value at each level up). It should allow you reach the save v. spell "safe zone" quite easily (Potion of Stone Form is your friend), which is extremely helpful in a no-reload.
Wand of Sleep (makes everyone's life easier until approx. Cloakwood, at which point it becomes mostly obsolete)
Darts of Stunning (because there's never enough tactical tools to be had)
Arrows of Cold/Acid (for Stoneskins/Ironskins)
Arrows of Dispelling (obviously)
Cloak of Displacement + Boots of Avoidance (turing many a ranged fight into "crit-only" battle, especially while wearing the Claw as well)
Aule's Staff (with its reach and 0 speed factor it's arguably the most versatile BG 1 weapon and an interesting choice for backstabbers)
Potions, Potions, Potions (notwithstanding wands, potion case is where "power" resides in BG 1 in my opinion)
@coredumped Great start! I would definitely pick up the Claw as a single-class thief.
As for item suggestions: Most good things have been mentioned already, but I would add necklaces of missles (with one being available at the carnival right away), which will be super useful especially for SoD. Of course, you will have arrows of detonation, but you might want to save most of these for the attack on the coalition camp + siege of dragonspear castle.
If you feel comfortable doing the red wizards encounter, the Ring of Energy is great because it gets through any and all magic protections, making it a useful tool to interrupt protected spellcasters (might require a PfM scroll or a very careful and patient approach with tons of traps to get it). I'd also pick up the fire resistance ring in the Samuel area and the three AC-improving belts (the last three only if you decide to console in a bag of holding, otherwise they might take up too much inventory space).
Potions are kind of obvious, but I would make especially sure to get any and all potions of magic blocking + magic shielding you can get your hands on, as these will allow you to counter any potential mistakes that would end up getting you targeted by a dangerous spell. Also, once you make it to the city, the Temple of Gond will have a ton of oils of speed for sale, in case you haven't read about this yet. Buy them all and you will never be short on these.
@Borgo@Enuhal Thanks!
Given your suggestions I will give the claw a try. It is now on the list, along with the cloak of displacement and amulet of missiles (not quite sure how I will manage the gold to get these, will have to find a way). Would also love to have the ring of invisibility, but again, I doubt I will be able to afford it.
Regarding the red wizards, I'm a bit afraid as I remember that fight can go poorly very easily. I still have a potion of invisibility however, so I might give it a go.
I was not aware of the oils of speed in the Temple of Gond, it's nice to know, thanks!
Let sleeping Dragons Die! Dorn was happy to see me after I busted up the camp... he pretended not to recognise me to save face in front of the others but I could tell
we agreed to grab a 7 legged sider (don't ask) and the Dragon was near by so we got a two-for
Yvralline and co. finished Jan's, Keldorn's and Cernd's quest after an arduous fight against the Spirit Trolls. Then we solved the Tanner murderer quest and travelled to Trademeet to receive our reward for the Druid Grove quest (the item and XP rewards are given to you when you speak to different people. So I had already gotten the items but did not get the XP and gold until I had a full party).
There we realised we could steal stuff from a Fletcher in Trademeet, and stole all of his inventory. We need the gold since we also dropped 50k on a Magic License (I hope this one doesn't expire. Just kidding) and need 120k to pay for our holidays on a crazy tropical Pirate-themed island resort. We had about 15k because of the Trademeet quest reward and selling some stuff, but after stealing everything the Fletcher and the Smithy in Trademeet had we hit 30k together with Jan's guild's income for the weeks we spent dumbing around.
After completing the Trademeet families' quest and giving Logan the mantle, we also solved Mazzy's personal quest and completed the Stone Golem and Madulf quests in Umar, as well as receiving the reward for dealing with the Shade Lord. To this day, I still have no idea how the Umar Witch quest is supposed to be solved or if it even exists or what it is even. Anyway, our next stop is Firkraag's lawn. While I don't really want to deal with him, there's a lot of fat XP creatures before him. And I'm certain we can cheese the wizard with traps, so only killing the dragon would be left for later.
We had no trouble dealing with anything outside nor in the first level of the Windspear Hills, not even with this guy casting Time Stop over here:
The Elementals kept him entertained for a while, and when that wasn't enough we had him put on a dancing show over some traps Jan put there. The bleeding effect from the RR Thief traps got him, but everyone contributed a little before that kick in. Anyway, good job Jan.
Cernd took care of the Hobgoblins, Otyugh, second group of Orcs etc. The entire party melee'd down the Golems, and the Orcish Archers in the first room were dealt with AoE and then hunted down in melee. At this point, Cernd is probably the strongest member in our party. Insane amount of both protective and very good offensive spells combined with his Greater Werewolf form (particularly, the fact that it's an equipable token) make him a walking machine of utter annihilation.
To deal with the Elder and Ancient Vampires we summoned a bunch of Fire Elementals and left them a room full of Fire Traps. The result? The elementals getting wrecked and the vampires chasing after us. We picked them one by one, and I got a lot more confident about our group's vampire-slaying abilities. Arrows of Piercing seem to be incredibly effective against them. Mazzy and Keldorn are superb archers (Mazzy has 5* on short bows while Keldorn has zero in long bows, but he still deals good damage when nobody else can), and the Greater Werewolf paws seem to not be hitting as +3? Or maybe you need +4 to hit Ancient Vampires and Arrows of Piercing hit as +4 like the do in vanilla?
I'm not exactly sure of what's going on here, but I'm thankful it worked out for us, although not without trouble. I had to raise Jan twice (and Cernd once), cast Restoration close to a dozen times on multiple people and retreat from battles that we were on the edge of winning because I didn't want to risk loosing. In the end we prevailed and this particular group of Vampires is no more. I really, really hope I find some items to deal with them more easily because they're really dangerous and I know I'll have to go against a good number of them later on.
Edit: So, I found out that the Greater Werewolf Token was what had an enchantment of two instead of three, and fixed that, then took down the Adamantine Golem, used traps to kill the Air Elemental that spawns when you operate the well and dispatched all the other Stone and Juggernaut Golems in melee together with the Orogs. We found Blackwood+2 (enchantment lowered by IR) in there, and gave it to Aerie as an upgrade to her Mace+1.
Valerie stared into up at the ceiling, completely exhausted but unable to sleep. She needed sleep for her innate spells to return but there was a bard tonight & some of the regulars from the Belching Dragon were making way too much noise. They were all tired tonight – had straggled in late in the afternoon from the Gnoll Stronghold. After handling the usual business of selling what bounty they had gathered, they had all gathered in their usual rooms in the Nashkel Inn after a light bite and some wine & mead. They had arrived from Candlekeep on 25 Elient after escaping its caves & catacombs. Dispenser, all of them, were accused of murdering the Iron Throne leaders, including Rieltar, who they had left quite alive after a brief encounter in the library there. She normally didn’t think this way, but it seemed unjust (and it was) that they’d been framed for murder. All of them, especially Dispenser, understood that you cannot take the law into your own hands & believed that justice would come for those who upheld it.
She thought about the new spell that had come to her since leaving Candlekeep. She had yet to use her Remove Magic spell, but she was keen to see how it would work against enemy spellcasters. She was also throwing a dart now to augment her sling and she looked forward to trying out the oomph available in some of the darts she had seen .
Then her mind drifted to the last score of days or so. Since Candlekeep, Dispenser had made Nashkel his base of operations. They had tried to take a day of leisure at the Nashkel Carnival outside the village, but even there they battled an enemy mage. It occurred to her that she did not have the new spell during that encounter. They had also freed a female priestess that had been petrified & had saved a deserter from the FF – ironic since it was the FF Dispenser had to avoid now. They’d had three skirmishes, one with four amazon warriors in the Valley of the Tombs, a second with a couple of overmatched oafs in the Fire Leaf Forest and another against two goons who were trying to cut down an Oak, hundreds of years old, near Dryad Falls. Secretly she had hoped they would have headed back then but Dispenser is a taskmaster & after hearing from a Gnoll that a prisoner was being tortured in a fortress nearby, he insisted on pushing on to the Gnoll Stronghold which overlooked the Sea of Swords at the end of the western Cloudpeaks. Having cleared out some Xvarts living in caves below the fortress, Dispenser had run through nearly 50 Gnolls of various type before finally releasing the prisoner, who turned out to be a mage. She had been rebuffed uncharacteristically when she offered to travel with them – a indicator of how worn everyone was. They had travelled hard for over 20 days at that point and, even in this group, folks get irritable.
DAMNED THIEVES AND THEIR BACKSTABBING
She started to drift and realized the noise had died down to some low conversations and the occasional mug settling on one of the tables. She hoped Dispenser was planning on more than one day before going back out but he seemed to be on a mission to clear all the evil no matter how small – from the Cloudpeaks in Amn to Baldur’s Gate before going back to his rendezvous with destiny – a destiny named Sarevok.
Party info
Order of March: Khalid (Recon), Sirine & Isra (shock troops), Despenser (leader), Imoen (Traps) & Valerie (Arcane support) (Rear guard)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating & resupplying @ Nashkel
NEXT STEPS: Xvart Village, Fisherman’s Lake, North Nashkel Road area, Lonely Peaks, Firewine Bridge
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 20 - Heroic)
Dispenser: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/6 (HP 43) Mail of the Dead +2, Shield of the Stars +1 w/Girdle of Bluntness & Ring of Free Action; L/Sword +2/+1* & Warhammer +2/ (+1)* (SWS*) & Wand of the Heavens; Spells: Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Holy Smite, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command, Doom, Protection from Evil; Remove Fear; Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Strength of One; Divine Might; (None) (1)
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr of Ilmater)/6 (HP 50) Full Plate & Amulet/Protection +1; 2H/Sword +1** (Flail**, THWS**) & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise; Abilities: Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Lay on Hands (3), D/Evil (8); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/6 (HP 54) Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** & Morning Star +1** w/ Gauntlet’s of Weapon Skill, (THWS**, Mc/MS*), ), Abilities: Remove Fear (6), Prot/Evil (6), Lay Hands, D/Evil (9), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Khalid: Ranger (Archer)/6 (HP 55) St/Leather +2 , Boots of Speed & Cloak/Non-Detection; Longbow of Marksmanship +3**** w/Bracers of Archery & B/Sword +1* (TWS**, Axe*); Abilities; Called Shot; Skills: MS 48, HS 62; (Fighter Ranged) (4)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//7 (HP 41) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1; S/bow +1* & Dagger of Venom* (Short Sword/Ninja-to*); Skills: OL 85, PP 40, FT 75, MS 60, HS 55, DI 25, ST 30, w/Master Belt; (Thief Ranged) (6)
Valerie: Sorcerer/6 (HP 18) Robe of the Good Arch-Magi & Ring/Protection +1; Ring Energy, Necklace of Missiles, Sling +1* (Dart*); Spells: Remove Magic (3), Melf’s Acid Arrow (6), Ray of Enfeeblement (5), Magic Missile (5), Chromatic Orb (#), Spook (5),Sleep (5), (Advanced AI) (5)
Another fantastic write up, @CharlestonianTemplar. Just wanted to point out you've still got "Silas" as character name in the party summary list at the end, not sure if it's an error, but I thought his name was Dispenser.
Melee Combat Specialists
This is why being good-aligned never pays off in the long run and is why my CHARNAMEs are usually neutral or evil. There are only three fights that I will back down from in the entire series unless I can win by having an overwhelming advantage:
1) The huge crusader fight in Dragonspear's basement.
2) Tahazzar's group.
3) The demon wraith further in on level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
Sorry can you explain better this part? Both why charname has to be evil, and why you think these three encounters are really bad for a no-reload.
Melee Combat Specialists
This is why being good-aligned never pays off in the long run and is why my CHARNAMEs are usually neutral or evil. There are only three fights that I will back down from in the entire series unless I can win by having an overwhelming advantage:
1) The huge crusader fight in Dragonspear's basement.
2) Tahazzar's group.
3) The demon wraith further in on level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
Sorry can you explain better this part? Both why charname has to be evil, and why you think these three encounters are really bad for a no-reload.
Another fantastic write up, @CharlestonianTemplar. Just wanted to point out you've still got "Silas" as character name in the party summary list at the end, not sure if it's an error, but I thought his name was Dispenser.
Ha! Thank you. I've looked at that for weeks and not seen it.
I'm writing a thesis for seminary write now, and it's so frustrating when I overlook something simple like that - the eyes fill in what they know should be there. Ugh. Thanks again.
Sorry for taking a while to write another update for this run. I was busy playing the HoMM3:SoD campaigns, which took quite a while, mostly because they are pretty difficult and I'm bad at the game.
Now, here's SoD. Not much to write here. As usual, most battles were won via firebombing with necklace of missles & wand of fire charges, the others with summoned fire elementals/skeleton warriors/spirit animals plus full party buffs.
The first strategy works against every group of enemies without spell protections or fire immunity:
The second one will quickly overwhelm everything else, mostly high-level spellcasters. True Sight, Breach or even dispelling arrows (removed from stores in my installation, but I found 25 or 26 of them throughout the world) can be added to overwhelm defenses for additional safety:
To spice things up a bit, I completed some encounters I usually skip or chose unusual approaches. For example, I decided to trigger the Greater Feyr battle at Bridgefort (pretty easy with remove fear and true sight):
I also decided to free Bridgefort in an unusual way, by starting the battle from the inside without calling in any flaming fists. This ended up getting my party blocked off by NPCs at the drawbridge most of the time, but some fireballs, an enraged and fire immune Graun plus fire elementals still allowed for an easy victory (and the fight was actually shorter compared to the eastern approach, because all enemies were gathered in one spot):
A nice side effect: Khalid is apparently immortal if you go for this approach (despite getting bombarded by tons of fireballs, he survived). He usually dies whenever I attack the camp from the east with the flaming fist.
I also fought the Shadowy Figure during the final ambush instead of just running away, but wasn't able to get a kill (though I didn't really try all that hard):
For the siege, my approach was some solo action by Schilling, using an oil of speed plus detonation arrows to get Ashatiel to appear:
Divine spellcasters can easily win this duel via PfM scroll + spamming Wand of the Heavens charges:
I also made my way to the north to complete the second one of the new Mizhena quests:
Here's the reward, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet:
I usually skip the battles on the first Avernus level, but ended up buffing with chaotic commands via scrolls and fighting the devils right away this time around:
Here's Graun with his pre-Belhifet buffs:
The final battle was quick and easy, with only one summon being added into the mix by big B before he fell:
No deaths, and only some losses of control for non-Constantia characters due to confusion effects when fighting myconids, which I was always able to counter with Exaltation right away. I only made one major mistake when overlooking a potentially dangerous trap, but ended up not getting punished.
As for IWD spells, except for the emotion buffs, I didn't use a lot of these during SoD. Entropy Shield will be useful in the future, but wasn't needed just yet. I tested the few new ones I got access too, but wasn't too impressed.
I also started playing some SoA, with the newest SCS version (32.4). Encountered a strange bug: My druid isn't able to learn more than 4 first level spells, despite having 8 spellslots available. Very puzzling. In any case, getting out of the dungeon was easy (with zero rests this time around). The tactical difficulty adds a very managable amount of prebuffs, and in the early game, it seems like you can just brute force your way through most of them. I will definitely put the SCS difficulty slider to the max for my next run (late SoA + ToB might still be quite challening for me with my current settings, but BG1 wasn't what I was hoping for).
Here's the circus tent:
The Mencar battle (which I did right away, because a totemic druid will turn this one into free loot and experience):
The Amalas duel, which Constantia won by waiting out his oil of speed via Sandthief Ring, summoning in some help after that and buffing up with DUHM and other spells from time to time:
As usual, I went for the slaver quest early on, splitting up the party + summons for one big battle, while the summons by themselves took out the remaining two mages later on:
I got my hand on Kitthix next (using insect swarm to great effect) and buffed up before traveling again, expecting my first ambush (I was expecting it earlier on and traveled under invisibility 10' radius previously, just in case). Slow to reduce any physical threats, breach and true sight to deal with the mage:
For the next one, the party was invisible, so I was able to add summons into the mix:
After dealing with the harper quest, I was surprised by a third ambush - this time, I wasn't expecting another one in quick succession, so no preparation. I started with a greater malison + slow + insect plague combo while my fighters killed the non-mage spellcasters and Constantia took the opportunity to try out the new Spiritual Wrath spell:
I was able to kite around the enemy melee fighters while using a second round of spells to summon in spirit animals and silence the mage, which would end up granting me victory:
I used my first bit of money to buy a magic license (a bit more expensive in this installation) and get some temple reputation (to counter the slower reputation gain). Now, I'm planning to do some city quests and exploration.
We started off outside High Hedge, and spent a couple of minutes retrieving a dagger +2 which was meant for a revenant. Nebal was happy with this until Footloose mentioned the dagger was 1d4 +2 rather than 1d6 +2 - time to reach a store and confirm. With that done, Nebal shrugged and was ready to move on but Footloose suggested we should spend some of our cash on the dagger of venom. OK.
Next we picked up a long sword +1 for Footloose. Well, the gauntlets for Nebal really but since Footloose was proficient with a sword he might as well have it.
After that we sneaked down into an ankheg nest and grabbed some loot. Only, Footloose didn't bother sneaking down and was busy clobbering the first ankheg. Nebal used the hidey-hole to the west of the loot to hide and raced back to help. Footloose had failed in his plan to stun the ankheg but didn't need much help even when it arrived.
We picked on another ankheg outside, retrieving a dagger from it.
Then it was time to pick up a better longsword for Footloose. Stun and poison will be fine thank you.
A brief detour to pick up some mirrored eye potions allowed us to venture onto the roof of Durlag's Tower. Footloose led the way and Nebal started each attack with his dagger before switching to fists. The greater basilisks didn't get much of a chance.
The blatant disregard for basilisks continued as we outran an ambush without resorting to another mirrored eyes potion.
What next, wondered Nebal. Footloose suggested Nashkel Mine and we raced through there unseen (apart from the murderous frenzy which Footloose unleashed on a series of kobolds).
Mulahey saved against a stunning blow and a venomous strike but a second dagger attack caught him and down he went - Footloose having saved against rigid thinking and the dagger disrupting a hold person.
After fighting our way out of the mine we ran into the amazons. Nebal failed to blind Zeela and ran after attacking her with his dagger. He failed to hide a couple of times and when he eventually decided to return found Footloose had mostly finished the job. Tranzig died horribly, poison licking away at him while he begged for mercy. No chance.
At the bandit camp we pushed our luck, Footloose beating a couple of efforts to die. Taurghoz Khosann was a victim to blindness (and fists), while a bit of tag-team saw Nebal frontline so Footloose could get out of arrow range and switch to his sling.
=Venkt remained inside his tent to die. Hakt and Raemon put up a good fight outside but monkly speed and stealth were always going to end their days. Britik thought he was going to finally defeat Footloose but Nebal returned to spice things up with venom.
Comments
Previous updates:
BG1 part 2 and SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1083982#Comment_1083982
Again we stash our equipment in Dragonspear Castle before moving on to BG2. The Alhoon overpowered the We Hate Magic group with brain-drain, but we'll see how he responds when we return stronger than they ever were. Skipping Chateau Irenicus and re-outfitted with our equipment, we take out the named goons in the northern outskirts of Dragonspear Castle who are still there, left over from the duel with Ashatiel. We sell the stuff in our loot bag in Beregost because BG1 merchants will buy for higher than BG2 merchants. Now we have well over 200k gold. Mencar Pebblecrusher's party is next, but Brendan escapes.
We already have the required components for Cromwell to combine Boots of Speed with the Boots of Grounding, so we make those. Our first target is the Druid Grove so we can make the Amulet of Ilmater, which requires the Periapt of Proof Against Poison which is dropped by Ihtafeer. In the fight against Kyland Lind, Krieg spirals out of control due to Insect Plague and crits him so hard that his wife and kids could feel it.
We have Cromwell forge the Amulet of Ilmater, with the Amulet of Spell Warding found from Kryll on Dorn's quest, who we took in temporarily just to get this item. Thalantyr also makes a second Girdle of Bravery from the Golden Girdle on Simmeon, Kalah's Girdle of Piercing, and the Girdle of Bluntness found in the ruins of Irenicus' dungeon. From the Gnasher club found on the druids guarding the entrance to Faldorn's grove and from Blackblood +3 for sale at the Trademeet market, Cromwell forges Pitchwife +5: the perfect weapon for Slashy Mc'Blenderson since it causes additional damage ticks over time.
Slashy could use the Ring of Gaxx for high regeneration speed. We head over to the temple district and take out the sewer party. The Shade Lich follows before it can put up any protections. I'm glad that doing this doesn't cause the game to crash anymore, because we also take on the Guarded Compound by sneaking up the stairs while invisible and kill Sion and his minions. I noticed that Slashy can't use Celestial Fury +3 or the +5 version for some reason...
The Elemental Lich is next. I noticed last time that it neglects its defenses after its initial PfMW and Time Stop, preferring to nuke the party with elemental damage spells, so Slashy takes advantage to cause it spell failure through constant hits from Pitchwife.
Now for Kangaxx. He survives our initial assault before he can put up protections, so he fires his prebuffs and gates in a Cornugon, who is killed before it can even get out of the gate. But Slashy has applied many damage ticks over time, which interrupts his spells for another round or two.
I notice we're rather close to a level, so I do the Harper Hold for level 14 then visit the City Gates lich for Daystar.
The Umar Hills are done before we get high enough level to get lich spawns. Thaxll is trashed and even though he level drains us, we respond with Restoration scrolls. Turning in this quest results in level 15. Krieg is now doing double damage and Drugar learns Perfect Offense.
I think I should do the de'Arnise Keep so I have a stronghold. It is quickly cleared thanks to Pitchwife's acid. The cleric-spell casting Spirit Trolls are interesting but don't contribute much to the difficulty.
Planar Prison is next to obtain Adjatha the Drinker. The prison is pretty easy but the Warden is troublesome because he has at least three castings of PfMW and has great THAC0, so we run away from him for most of the time. Slashy overcomes this by using a normal weapon against him. Everyone levels up from completing the quest.
The Trials of the Luremaster expansion is next.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 16
Drugar - Kensai 16
Krieg III - War Hulk 16
I wiped out the last of my brother's peons then headed out to find a river to cross... collected another Drow and killed both a goblin & a Lich
I can fix it in a future update, but I think the fix I have in mind would make Sword Dancer/Thieves unable to wear armor even with UAI.
Forget usability flag and use Opcode 319 instead - will give you an item by item agency.
DoF has tons of examples of how to restrict weapons, armors and shields - this can be expanded even to helmets.
That's a helluva question. I think so, but I need to test.
Edit: I've read the opposite.
Previous updates:
BG1 part 2 and SoD: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1083982#Comment_1083982
BG2: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1084155#Comment_1084155
We go back to Cromwell and forge Water's Talon +4, which is another excellent weapon for a Sword Dancer because it will also let him gain +2 max HP with every hit, allowing Slashy to rival and even surpass Krieg's massive HP pool. The Trials of the Luremaster expansion normally has some gamebreaking IWD loot but I installed the toned-down version that gives duplicates of existing BG2 items instead. Off to the Anauroch.
We settle a war between harpies and wyverns by killing both sides. The Harpy Queen drops the Helm of Brilliance.
A hostile party consisting of a priest, mage, fighter, and a genie all drop incredible loot! Their AI wasn't very smart, though. We can make duplicates of certain Item Upgrade/Thalantyr Item Upgrade equipment from this stuff. This potion was inside the priest's bag of holding. You can also sell stuff to Hobart for as much as Nazramu in SoD, gaining us more than 800k from all our previous loot!
We pull the levers inside each of the four towers which each allow access to a door leading down some stairs in each tower. Each of these challenges are worth 50k XP and reward us with scrolls about four knights who defeated a blue dragon, which we'll need later. Everyone gains a level from the first challenge.
We take the key from Maladurek's inner chamber and use it to open the dungeon in the main castle. Past the dungeon lies a cavern full of Jackalweres. We level up from dealing with a stray group of phase spiders.
To escape, we have to find four flawed gems, put them in a chest to transform them into flawless gems, and then find the flawless gems on altars scatter across the caverns and put them in their proper places in a portal. The fight for one of those gems was especially intense, as Krieg was swarmed with jackals and Greater Jackalweres. He lost control despite drinking a Potion of Invulnerability and racked up incredible rage bonuses, landing a crit on a jackal that most likely obliterated its entire family tree.
With the four flawless gems gathered and put in their respective places on the portal, all we had to do was beat some spectral heroes and kill the Luremaster himself. The Luremaster is annoying. While it doesn't attack on its own, it has a Fireshield up and teleports around the arena every time it is attacked. Slashy makes it teleport many times from hitting it, but it eventually goes down.
With the Luremaster defeated, we take the tarnished ring from the throne and use it, which teleports us back to the Umar Hills inn. I'd give TotLm a 6.5/10. I like the atmosphere and the puzzles but most of it is just brainless melee fights in really big dungeons with laughably weak traps (if there's any traps at all). That's Icewind Dale for you, I guess.
Planar Sphere is next for the demon heart to make Celestial Fury +5. It wasn't until I forged it later that I discovered that Slashy can't use that version either. Lavok's Fallen Planetar gives us a level upon its death, wasting its aura with Fire Storm instead of saving it to heal. Lavok himself just needs to be hit with normal weapons to bypass PfMW. Now Krieg can regenerate relatively quickly.
We're close to another level, so we do Mae'var's questline since it's also nighttime. We level up most of the way through it. Mae'var himself is trashed by using Algernon's Cloak to waste his buff spells.
I think we're strong enough to kill Firkraag and escape without serious injury. The Ruhk Transmuter has been beefed up since it can cast Improved Alacrity, but it still falls when we wait out its PfMW and then rush it down. Wait a second, isn't Transmutation's prohibited school Abjuration? Why can it still cast PfMW???
Time to fight Firkraag. Last time I forgot I could use the rat form of the Cloak of the Sewers to tank the dragon, which resulted in Joe having to chug from Durlag's Goblet. This time I didn't forget and used it in tandem with the Defender of Easthaven for 100% damage immunity. Slashy tags Firkraag with Water's Talon a few times and lets the poison do the dirty work. That's what you get for being hasted, idiot.
Next update, we get revenge on the Alhoon before dying horribly.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 23
Drugar - Kensai 23
Krieg III - War Hulk 23
With the Trials of the Luremaster finished, I decide it's time to finish up all the sidequests in Athkatla before continuing on. The zombie town and beholder nest are cleared by charging straight ahead. We gain a level from killing a pack of gauths and beholders.
It's time to deliver some payback to the Alhoon. Before confronting it, we use scrolls of PfU and tactically retreat to the previous room to deal with the illithids and umber hulks. Krieg and Drugar are able to kill the Mordy Swords by using a Greater Deathblow critical and a Devastating Critical.
The Twisted Rune is the last area in Athkatla we haven't done. I haven't been here in SCS v32 before. Still protected by PfU from the Alhoon, we run in there and kill Shangalar, causing his buddies to be summoned. Slashy misses his chance to tag Layenne with Water's Talon, so we kill Shyressa first thing. Shangalar drops book of demon summoning. Wonder what that's all about.
Everyone levels up from turning in the Unseeing Eye quest to the temple of Helm. Since it's nighttime, I do Aron Linvale's quests and beat Bodhi by attacking her while she was still neutral.
Time for Watcher's Keep. I'm certain that we're strong enough to get through level 3. Level 1 is easy enough and so is level 2.
I'm a bit worried upon entering Tahazzar's room because I know demons are stronger than devils, and balors have a no-save vorpal that occurs 15% of the time on hit. The balor goes hostile because Slashy is good-aligned. A succubus charms Drugar, who fails a saving throw vs. spell at -8. His save vs. spell was -5 so I didn't think anything bad was going to happen, but I underestimated the save penalty of succubi.
This is why being good-aligned never pays off in the long run and is why my CHARNAMEs are usually neutral or evil. There are only three fights that I will back down from in the entire series unless I can win by having an overwhelming advantage:
1) The huge crusader fight in Dragonspear's basement.
2) Tahazzar's group.
3) The demon wraith further in on level 3 of Watcher's Keep.
Slashy Mc'Blenderson - Sword Dancer 26 (RIP)
Drugar - Kensai 26 (assumedly RIP)
Krieg III - War Hulk 26 (very RIP)
How balanced or unbalanced have you found the three kits thus far?
The Sword Dancer gets surprisingly strong when it uses certain weapons. I preferred to use weapons that did extra damage over time like Pitchwife +5 and Water's Talon +4, but it could easily perform disabling functions by equipping other things that have on-hit effects. The Sword Dancer is not especially hard to hit nor is it tough, but it can escape from combat easily to heal.
The new War Hulk that does percentage-based damage is fine. I didn't really notice much of a difference from the version that does flat damage bonuses, but I think it's capable of doing more damage at high levels and high rage. I hope the bug with Unstoppable was fixed, though I think the War Hulk was also responsible for not adding extra half-attacks at levels 7 and 13. It's the only thing I can think of that could cause it, kit-wise. If it isn't, then I have no idea.
The Kensai is fun as long as the enemy isn't immune to criticals. If they are, it's almost pointless not to activate Defensive Fighting. It reminds me of playing a very lightly armored Weapon Master from Neverwinter Nights because their crit rate eventually gets to the point where half their attacks are criticals. Ki Focus is also a great trump card because it guarantees hits. The Kensai's AC is pretty bad but it can be fixed with the right items and Perfect Defense can turn them into super AC-tanks.
decided to start a new run with a thief (still undecided on whether to go Assassin or Bounty Hunter) and have been reading a lot of reports from you guys on your runs.
I am however lacking knowledge regarding which items to get/prioritise. I've gathered from a lot of the stuff I've read here some items which become staples, but I'm pretty sure that I've missed others. And there's also the question if a particular item would be good or not for a given class.
Is there some place where this sort of info is centralised? I'dd find it very useful as I believe others who want to attempt this would.
Well for sure you want the stealth boots as an assassin. You didn't say if solo or not. If you have a party it kind of doesn't matter on priorities, but if solo, a very good investment for thieves is the sleep wand from Thalantyr. It's usable by almost any class, as long as you are smart enough. If solo, shield amulet is also a good investment for a thief, as using that allows using leather and a protection ring. Since thieves have Thac0 issues, getting magical melee/ranged weapons definitely help, and magical ammo could be quite useful as well.
In vanilla BG1, stuff like the Whistling Sword or the Heart of the Golem are a must for Thieves, particularly because of how easy it is to get them, but, to be honest, your first priority as a Thief should be levelling up.
For BG2, you want the Ring of Air Control, and a good magical weapon ASAP. Luckily for you, Suni Sena will give you one arguably of the best short swords in the entire game, so you don't exactly need to worry much about that.
This thief run will be solo, his stats are 18-17-19-14-8-16.
Ended up going for a LE dwarven Bounty Hunter (highly inspired by one of BlackRaven's tales of Norgath; is he still around btw?) as dwarf is my favourite race, Bounty Hunter as I wanted to give traps a try, and Lawful Evil mostly for the Human Skin but because I also like to do some questionable things at times.
He has a pip in short swords and shortbows and I intend to level up his dual-wielding.
Started off with all starting points invested in traps.
As to my previous post, I took your suggestions to heart and ventured forth into the dangerous wilds after Gorion had been murdered while protecting me.
Went about the usual *safe* quests which seem to be standard at this point in many of the runs I read here, doing the Beregost and FAI quests, picking up the hidden diamond, ring of the princes and ring of wizardry along the way. Got the protection from petrification scroll at the Carnival which let me deal with Mutamin and his medusa minions with the help of my trusty (temporary) dog Korax. Helped Brage; lady at the lighthouse; farmer looking for his son who went ankegh hunting; Shoal (killed her); Melicamp was successfully restored to a nimwit human; Mad Arcand; Tenya (killed all the fishermen and delivered the bowl); Prism the Sculptor.
Most noteworthy items I picked up with the intent of selling: Varscona, Ankegh Armor; Ring of Wizardry (this part I could also use some help with as I really am struggling with gold).
The items I picked up for myself were: short sword +2 from Zargal after he stepped on some traps and bit some arrows; boots of HiS/MS from green hobgoblin; Algernon's Cloak; Bracers of Weapon expertise from Meilum; Tome of Constitution and Charisma; Potion of Master Thievery from the thief in the Carnival Tent; Ring of Free Action was pickpocketed from the lady in Ulgoth's Beard thanks to the potion.
Items bought: The Greenstone Amulet; *RR* Deep Red Ioun Stone (+1 DEX); *RR* The Sound Defense (Short Sword +2, +1AC, +1Save vs Death); *RR* Masterbelt (+10% Locks and Traps); *RR* Composite Shortbow +2; Shadow Armor; Wand of Sleep; 3 potions of freedom. Am currently trying to get some gold for the amulet of missiles.
- A big question I have here is regarding the Claw of Kazgaroth. It seems like many people pick this up, but on other places I've seem people argue that it is not worth it for characters with high CON. I for one feel a bit apprehensive about picking this up as the 20 CON passive heal when resting/travelling feels really nice. Do you guys think it is worth it?
Things I learned: Modding the game so reputation doesn't increase so fast is perfect for my party playthroughs, not so much for solo... Found myself having to do all the goody quests and donate to the temple a couple of times so I could offset the murder of Algernon and actually have manageable store prices. Kahrk seems to be immune to my traps, had to leave him alone.
My plan at the moment is to get the Amulet of Missiles and then head off to the Nashkel Mines. Curently at level 8.
Can't remember perfectly what my thief skill values look like, but I went for something like 60 detect traps; 75 MS; 50 HiS; 75 Set Traps (all these values are without any items on top).
I would welcome any suggestions for things to do, items to pick up for myself or for selling and overall feedback to my decisions so far.
As for the Claw, I'd agree that this is a very individual choice. Personally I'm using it in 9/10 of my runs, as I tend to prefer its saving throws' bonuses over the incurred penalties. It's also the item I'm exporting to Amn in lieu of Helm of Balduran, even with warrior classes.
In BG 1, saves vs. death are mostly relevant against poison, which can be easily mitigated by green Pro Poison scrolls for instance. Depending on your install, there would be parts of SoA and ToB where it may make perfect sense to remove the Claw to maximaze saves vs. death.
That said, being a dwarven BH, I'd absolutely go for the Claw. You'll not be loosing actual HP and also, as far as I recall, the CON penalty does not affect the shorty saving throw bonus (which uses the base CON value at each level up). It should allow you reach the save v. spell "safe zone" quite easily (Potion of Stone Form is your friend), which is extremely helpful in a no-reload.
Regards,
B.
Darts of Stunning (because there's never enough tactical tools to be had)
Arrows of Cold/Acid (for Stoneskins/Ironskins)
Arrows of Dispelling (obviously)
Cloak of Displacement + Boots of Avoidance (turing many a ranged fight into "crit-only" battle, especially while wearing the Claw as well)
Aule's Staff (with its reach and 0 speed factor it's arguably the most versatile BG 1 weapon and an interesting choice for backstabbers)
Potions, Potions, Potions (notwithstanding wands, potion case is where "power" resides in BG 1 in my opinion)
As for item suggestions: Most good things have been mentioned already, but I would add necklaces of missles (with one being available at the carnival right away), which will be super useful especially for SoD. Of course, you will have arrows of detonation, but you might want to save most of these for the attack on the coalition camp + siege of dragonspear castle.
If you feel comfortable doing the red wizards encounter, the Ring of Energy is great because it gets through any and all magic protections, making it a useful tool to interrupt protected spellcasters (might require a PfM scroll or a very careful and patient approach with tons of traps to get it). I'd also pick up the fire resistance ring in the Samuel area and the three AC-improving belts (the last three only if you decide to console in a bag of holding, otherwise they might take up too much inventory space).
Potions are kind of obvious, but I would make especially sure to get any and all potions of magic blocking + magic shielding you can get your hands on, as these will allow you to counter any potential mistakes that would end up getting you targeted by a dangerous spell. Also, once you make it to the city, the Temple of Gond will have a ton of oils of speed for sale, in case you haven't read about this yet. Buy them all and you will never be short on these.
Given your suggestions I will give the claw a try. It is now on the list, along with the cloak of displacement and amulet of missiles (not quite sure how I will manage the gold to get these, will have to find a way). Would also love to have the ring of invisibility, but again, I doubt I will be able to afford it.
Regarding the red wizards, I'm a bit afraid as I remember that fight can go poorly very easily. I still have a potion of invisibility however, so I might give it a go.
I was not aware of the oils of speed in the Temple of Gond, it's nice to know, thanks!
Dorn was happy to see me after I busted up the camp... he pretended not to recognise me to save face in front of the others but I could tell
we agreed to grab a 7 legged sider (don't ask) and the Dragon was near by so we got a two-for
There we realised we could steal stuff from a Fletcher in Trademeet, and stole all of his inventory. We need the gold since we also dropped 50k on a Magic License (I hope this one doesn't expire. Just kidding) and need 120k to pay for our holidays on a crazy tropical Pirate-themed island resort. We had about 15k because of the Trademeet quest reward and selling some stuff, but after stealing everything the Fletcher and the Smithy in Trademeet had we hit 30k together with Jan's guild's income for the weeks we spent dumbing around.
After completing the Trademeet families' quest and giving Logan the mantle, we also solved Mazzy's personal quest and completed the Stone Golem and Madulf quests in Umar, as well as receiving the reward for dealing with the Shade Lord. To this day, I still have no idea how the Umar Witch quest is supposed to be solved or if it even exists or what it is even. Anyway, our next stop is Firkraag's lawn. While I don't really want to deal with him, there's a lot of fat XP creatures before him. And I'm certain we can cheese the wizard with traps, so only killing the dragon would be left for later.
We had no trouble dealing with anything outside nor in the first level of the Windspear Hills, not even with this guy casting Time Stop over here:
The Elementals kept him entertained for a while, and when that wasn't enough we had him put on a dancing show over some traps Jan put there. The bleeding effect from the RR Thief traps got him, but everyone contributed a little before that kick in. Anyway, good job Jan.
Cernd took care of the Hobgoblins, Otyugh, second group of Orcs etc. The entire party melee'd down the Golems, and the Orcish Archers in the first room were dealt with AoE and then hunted down in melee. At this point, Cernd is probably the strongest member in our party. Insane amount of both protective and very good offensive spells combined with his Greater Werewolf form (particularly, the fact that it's an equipable token) make him a walking machine of utter annihilation.
To deal with the Elder and Ancient Vampires we summoned a bunch of Fire Elementals and left them a room full of Fire Traps. The result? The elementals getting wrecked and the vampires chasing after us. We picked them one by one, and I got a lot more confident about our group's vampire-slaying abilities. Arrows of Piercing seem to be incredibly effective against them. Mazzy and Keldorn are superb archers (Mazzy has 5* on short bows while Keldorn has zero in long bows, but he still deals good damage when nobody else can), and the Greater Werewolf paws seem to not be hitting as +3? Or maybe you need +4 to hit Ancient Vampires and Arrows of Piercing hit as +4 like the do in vanilla?
I'm not exactly sure of what's going on here, but I'm thankful it worked out for us, although not without trouble. I had to raise Jan twice (and Cernd once), cast Restoration close to a dozen times on multiple people and retreat from battles that we were on the edge of winning because I didn't want to risk loosing. In the end we prevailed and this particular group of Vampires is no more. I really, really hope I find some items to deal with them more easily because they're really dangerous and I know I'll have to go against a good number of them later on.
Edit: So, I found out that the Greater Werewolf Token was what had an enchantment of two instead of three, and fixed that, then took down the Adamantine Golem, used traps to kill the Air Elemental that spawns when you operate the well and dispatched all the other Stone and Juggernaut Golems in melee together with the Orogs. We found Blackwood+2 (enchantment lowered by IR) in there, and gave it to Aerie as an upgrade to her Mace+1.
She thought about the new spell that had come to her since leaving Candlekeep. She had yet to use her Remove Magic spell, but she was keen to see how it would work against enemy spellcasters. She was also throwing a dart now to augment her sling and she looked forward to trying out the oomph available in some of the darts she had seen .
Then her mind drifted to the last score of days or so. Since Candlekeep, Dispenser had made Nashkel his base of operations. They had tried to take a day of leisure at the Nashkel Carnival outside the village, but even there they battled an enemy mage. It occurred to her that she did not have the new spell during that encounter. They had also freed a female priestess that had been petrified & had saved a deserter from the FF – ironic since it was the FF Dispenser had to avoid now. They’d had three skirmishes, one with four amazon warriors in the Valley of the Tombs, a second with a couple of overmatched oafs in the Fire Leaf Forest and another against two goons who were trying to cut down an Oak, hundreds of years old, near Dryad Falls. Secretly she had hoped they would have headed back then but Dispenser is a taskmaster & after hearing from a Gnoll that a prisoner was being tortured in a fortress nearby, he insisted on pushing on to the Gnoll Stronghold which overlooked the Sea of Swords at the end of the western Cloudpeaks. Having cleared out some Xvarts living in caves below the fortress, Dispenser had run through nearly 50 Gnolls of various type before finally releasing the prisoner, who turned out to be a mage. She had been rebuffed uncharacteristically when she offered to travel with them – a indicator of how worn everyone was. They had travelled hard for over 20 days at that point and, even in this group, folks get irritable.
DAMNED THIEVES AND THEIR BACKSTABBING
She started to drift and realized the noise had died down to some low conversations and the occasional mug settling on one of the tables. She hoped Dispenser was planning on more than one day before going back out but he seemed to be on a mission to clear all the evil no matter how small – from the Cloudpeaks in Amn to Baldur’s Gate before going back to his rendezvous with destiny – a destiny named Sarevok.
Order of March: Khalid (Recon), Sirine & Isra (shock troops), Despenser (leader), Imoen (Traps) & Valerie (Arcane support) (Rear guard)
MONSTERS DEFEATED: Revenant (VotT), Lamalha (Cleric/5 - VotT), Ankhegs (2 - VotT), Winter Wolves (2/6 – FLF/DF), Zeela (Cleric/6 - VotT), Zordral (Mage, Conjurer/6 - NC), Maneira (Fighter/Thief 4/4 - VotT), Telka (Fighter/Thief 4/4 - VotT), Ogre Berserkers (3 – VotT), Zal (Fighter/6 - FLF), Zal (Fighter/6 - FLF), Ingot (Gnoll), Caldo (Fighter/3), Ogrillons (4/2 – VotT, GS [Gnarl, Hairtooth]), Krumm (Fighter/3), Dire Wolves (2 - DF), Flinds (5/10 – HH, XV), Gnoll Chieftain (GS), Gnoll Elites (8 - GS), Gnoll Slashers (1/8 HH/GS), Gnoll Veterans (9 – GS), Green Slimes (4 – VotT), Skeletons (6/36) (HH, FLF), Gibberlings (24 - GM), Gnolls (1/2/9/20 [incls Ludrug] HH/XV/DF/GS), Xvarts (7/6/31 – FLF/DF,GS), Kobolds (17/1 – NC/FLF)
Legend: DF (Dryad Falls), GM (Gibberling Mountains), HH (High Hedge), NC (Nashkel Carnival), VotT (Valley of the Tombs), WM (Wandering Monster), XV (Xvart Village), Gnoll Stronghold
CASUALTIES: None
LEVEL UP: Valerie, Sorcerer/6,
NOTEWORTHY TREASURE GAINED: (Gold = ~1292 gp)
Armor & weapons: Dagger +2, Short bow +2, Chain Mail +1, Battle Axe +1, Bracers of Defense AC8 (2)
Gems/jewelry: Pearl Necklace, Mithral Ring, Sphene Gems (2), Pearl
Potions: Frost Giant Strength, Extra Healing
Scrolls:
Wands: Monster Summoning
Misc & Artifacts:
Best Kill:
1) Isra, Greater Basilisk (7000 exp)
2) Khalid, Jalantha Mislmyr (6000 exp ea)
3) Sirene, Zhalimar Cloudwulfe (3000 exp)
4) Valerie & Dispenser: (Sword Spiders) (2000 exp ea)
5) Imoen, Wyvern (1400 exp)
CURRENT DISPOSITION: Resting, recuperating & resupplying @ Nashkel
NEXT STEPS: Xvart Village, Fisherman’s Lake, North Nashkel Road area, Lonely Peaks, Firewine Bridge
PARTY MAKEUP: (Reputation: 20 - Heroic)
Dispenser: Cleric (Holy Justice of Tyr)/6 (HP 43) Mail of the Dead +2, Shield of the Stars +1 w/Girdle of Bluntness & Ring of Free Action; L/Sword +2/+1* & Warhammer +2/ (+1)* (SWS*) & Wand of the Heavens; Spells: Animate Dead, Dispel Magic, Holy Smite, Chant, Draw/Holy Might, Hold Person, Silence 15’, Slow Poison, Bless, Command, Doom, Protection from Evil; Remove Fear; Abilities: Cure Affliction (2), Healing Touch (2), Hold person, Strength of One; Divine Might; (None) (1)
Sirine: Paladin of Ilmatar (Martyr of Ilmater)/6 (HP 50) Full Plate & Amulet/Protection +1; 2H/Sword +1** (Flail**, THWS**) & Gauntlets of Weapons Expertise; Abilities: Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Lay on Hands (3), D/Evil (8); (Advanced AI) (2)
Isra: Paladin (Cavalier of Sune)/6 (HP 54) Fallorain’s Plate Mail +1 w/2H/Sword +2 (Spiders Bane)** & Morning Star +1** w/ Gauntlet’s of Weapon Skill, (THWS**, Mc/MS*), ), Abilities: Remove Fear (6), Prot/Evil (6), Lay Hands, D/Evil (9), Cure Disease; (Advanced AI) (3)
Khalid: Ranger (Archer)/6 (HP 55) St/Leather +2 , Boots of Speed & Cloak/Non-Detection; Longbow of Marksmanship +3**** w/Bracers of Archery & B/Sword +1* (TWS**, Axe*); Abilities; Called Shot; Skills: MS 48, HS 62; (Fighter Ranged) (4)
Imoen: Thief/Adventurer//7 (HP 41) Leather w/Ring/Prot +1; S/bow +1* & Dagger of Venom* (Short Sword/Ninja-to*); Skills: OL 85, PP 40, FT 75, MS 60, HS 55, DI 25, ST 30, w/Master Belt; (Thief Ranged) (6)
Valerie: Sorcerer/6 (HP 18) Robe of the Good Arch-Magi & Ring/Protection +1; Ring Energy, Necklace of Missiles, Sling +1* (Dart*); Spells: Remove Magic (3), Melf’s Acid Arrow (6), Ray of Enfeeblement (5), Magic Missile (5), Chromatic Orb (#), Spook (5),Sleep (5), (Advanced AI) (5)
MOD USED: BG NPC v23.3, BG NPC Music v6, Plane Touched Races _v0,0, Indira v12, Isra v2.3, Finch v4.0, Gavin v14, Drake, Sirene v2.5, Verr’sza v5.2, BG UB v16, Tweaks Anthology Beta 4, Song & Silence v9, Deities of Faerun, Rogue Rebalancing v491, Level 1 NPCs, SCS v31, aTweaks, Item Randomizer v7
(Current AI) (Chain of Command rank)
Sorry can you explain better this part? Both why charname has to be evil, and why you think these three encounters are really bad for a no-reload.
Sorry can you explain better this part? Both why charname has to be evil, and why you think these three encounters are really bad for a no-reload.
Ha! Thank you. I've looked at that for weeks and not seen it.
I'm writing a thesis for seminary write now, and it's so frustrating when I overlook something simple like that - the eyes fill in what they know should be there. Ugh. Thanks again.
Previous update:
Sorry for taking a while to write another update for this run. I was busy playing the HoMM3:SoD campaigns, which took quite a while, mostly because they are pretty difficult and I'm bad at the game.
Now, here's SoD. Not much to write here. As usual, most battles were won via firebombing with necklace of missles & wand of fire charges, the others with summoned fire elementals/skeleton warriors/spirit animals plus full party buffs.
The first strategy works against every group of enemies without spell protections or fire immunity:
I also fought the Shadowy Figure during the final ambush instead of just running away, but wasn't able to get a kill (though I didn't really try all that hard):
As for IWD spells, except for the emotion buffs, I didn't use a lot of these during SoD. Entropy Shield will be useful in the future, but wasn't needed just yet. I tested the few new ones I got access too, but wasn't too impressed.
I also started playing some SoA, with the newest SCS version (32.4). Encountered a strange bug: My druid isn't able to learn more than 4 first level spells, despite having 8 spellslots available. Very puzzling. In any case, getting out of the dungeon was easy (with zero rests this time around). The tactical difficulty adds a very managable amount of prebuffs, and in the early game, it seems like you can just brute force your way through most of them. I will definitely put the SCS difficulty slider to the max for my next run (late SoA + ToB might still be quite challening for me with my current settings, but BG1 wasn't what I was hoping for).
Here's the circus tent:
Nebal (male dark moon monk, Gate70); Footloose (male monk, Grond0)
We started off outside High Hedge, and spent a couple of minutes retrieving a dagger +2 which was meant for a revenant. Nebal was happy with this until Footloose mentioned the dagger was 1d4 +2 rather than 1d6 +2 - time to reach a store and confirm. With that done, Nebal shrugged and was ready to move on but Footloose suggested we should spend some of our cash on the dagger of venom. OK.
Next we picked up a long sword +1 for Footloose. Well, the gauntlets for Nebal really but since Footloose was proficient with a sword he might as well have it.
We picked on another ankheg outside, retrieving a dagger from it.
Mulahey saved against a stunning blow and a venomous strike but a second dagger attack caught him and down he went - Footloose having saved against rigid thinking and the dagger disrupting a hold person.
At the bandit camp we pushed our luck, Footloose beating a couple of efforts to die. Taurghoz Khosann was a victim to blindness (and fists), while a bit of tag-team saw Nebal frontline so Footloose could get out of arrow range and switch to his sling.