Killed by Zordral. Fought him too soon. Was shielded AND enraged.
Rage abilities (like from the berserker and barbarian) protect against horror. However, when you lose control from berserking (like Minsc's rage or use of Brage's sword) that doesn't protect against horror, so you need some other source of protection if you want to avoid the risk of a mage using you for target practice.
Killed by Zordral. Fought him too soon. Was shielded AND enraged.
Rage abilities (like from the berserker and barbarian) protect against horror. However, when you lose control from berserking (like Minsc's rage or use of Brage's sword) that doesn't protect against horror, so you need some other source of protection if you want to avoid the risk of a mage using you for target practice.
Yet another reason for Dan to have Tenya with him. The way that they counteract each others weaknesses is amazing.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender
I more or less singlehandedly killed vampyric wolves, Teddy the Doomsayer and Torqion.
Now level 7.
Tenya cast remove curse afterwards.
I enlisted Xzar and Montaron and made a diversion to Beregost and Ulgoth's Beard where Montaron picked up several useful items. We then enlisted Khalid and Jaheira and took them to Nashkel. Khalid and jaheira left the party and we headed south where Dorn joined us.
After killing Kryll we returned to Nashkel where Dorn left us.
We killed many basilisks, one being in transit, and also Mutamin and some Medusae.
We headed south to Gullykin where we retrieved Smeaggol's ring and killed some more adventurers.
We finally found Lethe and when she attacked, killed her.
When we went to the gnoll stronghold we all but ran out of charges for the necklace of missiles, so after collecting the tome we returned to Aerie. She bough and sold the necklace and identified our equipment. We are now low on gold.
We have met up with Aerie and had quite a battle: the first time that I have seen that Nabassu probably because my own summons have stopped that summons spell.
I have kept Neera in the party and am now at Adoy's enclave after killing a few ogres elsewhere.
Then time for the mine since I have proved that I can deal with at least one demon.
So the party made it to Drassus and pals. Silences and skeletons were highly effective. We made good progress in the Cloakwood mines. We did run into one problem. Lunie got spotted and the mage got close! Luckily the party's ranged fire quickly took down the mage. Rest of the mine went pretty smooth. Davaeorn was attacked by Coreranger protected by potion of magic blocking.
We then did the baldur's gate quests. The basic quests that we do all went pretty well. Larze got commaded for example.
We took down the dopplegangers in the Seven Suns. Time for the main event! We went to the 5th floor of the Iron Throne.
We tried a bunch of silences but one mage managed to save against them all. This was a big problem, but was also a big problem was 6 of the 7 enemies saved vs hold person. In hindsight, we would have better off if Coreranger maxed his defense equipment, used PfM scroll and offense potions and getting into the mix. But Coreranger was wearing leather and our skeletons didn't last long since only one enemy was held. This ended up as a disaster as DemeQ got chunked. Lunie died shortly thereafter. It doesn't matter much now, but Coreranger got confused which spelled the end.
Trio 46 - update 1 Brighteyes - human sun soul monk (Grond0)
Yeroc XXVI - human cavalier (Corey_Russell)
Lowlite - gnome illusionist/thief (Gate70)
Previous run
We didn't have much time left in the session after the end of the previous run, but did manage a bit of action. After the Candlekeep chores we typically head to the coast to get some easy XP from Shoal, but Brighteyes fancied a change this time and travelled north towards the FAI. On the way we tackled the belt ogre, but none of us were in good form with missiles and the ogre managed to reach out further than expected with its club to one-shot Yeroc.
It took quite a while to finish off the ogre and Lowlite took a hit from it as well (but level 1 protection saved him), while Brighteyes suffered his own bit of damage from a wandering xvart before continued shots finally told.
At the FAI we shot Tarnesh before picking up a couple of rings in the area. Brighteyes suggested that Yeroc might fancy having a go at the ankhegs next time, but his reaction suggested that could be a bit of a hard sell .
@Corey_Russell Hard luck. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
@Grond0 Once I've picked up the +1 ring, I usually head straight for the FAI.
When I've killed Sonner, returned the bowl to Tenya and killed the ankheg near Tenya, I might return south. The zombies are obviously easy experience. Helping Melicamp is also pretty safe with the possibility of 2000 experience and a reputation boost.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender last post.
After freeing Aaron and Dynaheir, I forgot to level up Dynaheir. As a result, she was killed, but because she was only level 1, raising her was very cheap. We gave Aaron his +1 ring and headed back to Nashkel where I was asked to give it to Marina which I will do as soon as I have more +1 rings than I need. Dynaheir is now level 5. She wanted us to find her journal which we did. We left her in Nashkel and are now in the the mines. We returned Kylee's dagger and as a result I reached level 8. In the mine we were attacked by assassins one of whom put me to sleep so I was completely unaware when the end came.
I am wondering if Dynaheir's Journal has any further use. Does anybody know.
I recently came across some images on the web that shouted paladin and sorcerer to me. They might not have the resistances of dwarves, but I think that they could give an interesting run. The Cleric of Helm image was found a long time ago.
Journal of Carla the Orcish Cavalier
Something has gone wrong with my weapon slots. I have tried going back to previous saves but something is seriously wrong. I cannot access my main weapon slots.
I am trying to sort it out.
Perhaps rebooting he computer will help.
EDIT
It worked!! Realised too late that I should have recorded what went wrong with screenshots. It's never happened to me before. The weapon slots just disappeared!
I will re-run from Candlekeep, but to retain interest will do it after a run with an evil trio of orcs.
I particularly like the Blackguard image made by merging four different images from the web. What I like is that it could have been made from one image. From my point of view it is seamless though an expert in photoshopping could probably see the joins. The knight, the castle, the pavings and the eyes are the four elements.
The Priest of Helm comes from my own backgrounds and a Paladin. I'm not so happy with my background but prefer it to the others available. I trimmed the sword so that he could be a Cleric of Helm. He has at least six variations on the web. I think the original is from the D&D players handbook.
The sorceress image was just trimmed to size.
Journal of Brutus
A lot of the inhabitants of Candlekeep mistake us for being good aligned characters simply because we do exactly the same as a good person would. The difference is in our motivation. For example, it didn't cost us anything to help Linda and Sir Trun and yet we gained reputation. That reputation was all-important when it came to finding funds to buy a katana.
We scrimped and saved for the rest of the equipment. I have splint mail, a Katana and a Wakizashi
and Helmut chain mail, a mace and a war hammer. We also have a couple of slings.
We will go shopping as soon as possible.
We were able tto furnish Imoen before we left her under the watchful eyes of the guards at the FAI. If she were to die as well as Gorion, I would be devastated.
We returned Joia's ring, killed Tarnesh, got Melicamp back into shape and found Perdue's sword before arriving in Beregost.
In Beregost we took on Silke which resulted in a lot of deaths.
We raised Saucy who helped us in a battle against two ogrillon.
We made our way to Nashkel and upon reaching the mines were attacked once again.
We rescued Bentha from Zordra and then killed Greywolf.
We then returned Samuel to the FAI after which we killed Sonner for his weapon, joined up with Tenya, and then killed enough ankhegs to pay for one of them being made into armour. We then killed a lot more before heading south and helping Albert and others.
This resulted in us reaching a reputation of 20 and it was then that I had a vision in which I was warned to reduce my reputation or I would lose my Blackguard powers.
We managed to deal with Bassilus, Zargal, Shoal and Droth relatively easily amd are now heading for the sirene there and also near the lighthouse. (Three extra appeared due to sleeping. ).
Khalid and Jaheira were escorted to Nashkel where we dropped them. To the south Dorn joined us and we then hunted down Kryll. In Nashkel we bade farewell to Dorn.
Tenya urged us to find Lethe so that she could learn to use her bowl. This we did but Lethe attacked and paid the ultimate price. Saucy also got killed which meant a trip back to the Temple of Lathander where everyone was healed.
At least Tenya has a decent halberd which she can use and Saucy has useful bracers and circlet.
We investigated the gnoll stronghold and came away with increased charisma a ring of protection +1 and Dynaheir. We are uncomfortable with her in the party so asked her to leave once Drizzt founnd her journal.
Edwin and Montaron joined us after which we sold off our surplus equipment and bought some much-needed equipment. We now have less that 100gp and could use a lot more, but can see no way of earning other than raiding the Nashkel Mines.
With Yeroc not interested in the ankhegs for now, we headed back south towards Beregost. The route took us via High Hedge where Brighteyes found trouble at the end of a gnoll's halberd - only level 1 protection saving him here.
Yeroc may not have fancied living ankhegs, but he was keen on some of their armor, so we toddled on down to Nashkel to pick a suit up. Brighteyes was still maintaining that we should avoid the XP exploits for now, so instead worked on a few more minor encounters. The one with Arabelle successfully saved the cow, but Hulrik was unconvinced and refused any reward.
Deciding that it was better to take our rewards from dead bodies we moved on to Firewine Bridge to fill Meilum full of missiles and pick up his bracers.
A few chores in Beregost included beating up some spiders, so we returned to the FAI to drop off a spider body and pick up the pantaloons. Then it was back south again to work through the Cloudpeaks on the way to get the charisma tome.
The next encounter should have seen plenty of deaths as a bunch of undead realized the futility of (un)life. However, they were shocked into action when Lowlite attacked Bassilus without talking to him first. Unsurprisingly, Lowlite did not survive for long after that ...
Yeroc could have made his escape, but hung around killing a few skeletons until Bassilus found him and unleashed a deadly hold person. Brighteyes just picked up the valuable pieces and headed for the temple.
The danger of equipment disappearing in MP is always greater with a death and the body of Melicamp evaporated on this occasion. However, reputation reached 20 soon afterwards anyway when we escorted Brage back to Nashkel. Brighteyes thought at this point it should be time for those delayed ankhegs, but Yeroc was only willing to do that if the party purchased scrolls of protection from acid to give him immunity against that. With plenty of other things to spend money on, Brighteyes didn't see that as a priority, so agreed to put off the ankhegs for now. Instead he led the party to find the Doomsayer - this time ignoring Yeroc's complaint that could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. In the event the fight was pretty easy as Lowlite successfully blinded the Doomsayer at the first attempt. Brighteyes could have kicked the Doomsayer to death from outside his sight range and Lowlite could have backstabbed him repeatedly with his staff. Yeroc had just sold his potential distance 2 weapon (Brage's cursed sword ), but the blind penalty on attacks allowed him to melee the Doomsayer anyway.
Now with one more level (and rather wary of what might happen if we didn't take on the ankhegs), Yeroc agreed to do that next. The first few of those in the nest were helped on their way by sleeps from Lowlite, but Yeroc proceeded to deal with the rest of them as well - taking only pretty light damage in response.
A bit of shopping in Ulgoth's Beard provided Lowlite with a decent weapon - and salved Brighteye's conscience for having sold Silke's staff a bit earlier .
Brighteyes finally decided the party had paid their dues and agreed to tackle the basilisks next. Lowlite provided PfP spells and rested to renew those halfway through the area. Without support, and against opponents protected against fear, Mutamin had no real chance, though he did manage to choke out an acid arrow spell just before snuffing it.
That was a better effort than Kirian made - her party were pre-blinded and then covered in webs and stinking clouds in a severe case of overkill.
The last target for the session was Durlag's Tower. The first couple of battle horrors there were both blinded and meleed down without trouble. The one on the wall saved against blind though and caused a lot more trouble.
Yeroc asked after that combat where the slashing girdle was and Brighteyes sheepishly admitted it was still sitting in his backpack after dealing with Kirian. There was just time left to deal with the basilisks on the roof. Lowlite made that easy with PfP, though he didn't have the skill to remove the trap guarding the exit to the roof and had to use a healing potion to make sure he would survive re-entry.
Let's not mess around with the details, our Diviner and Thief combo managed to fluff the Candlekeep quests and depart without doing them, fob off Imoen Montaron and Xzar before stumbling into a fatal kobold ambush - 1 arrow and dead diviner.
Well you quickly overtook me. My party has only just finished the Nashkel Mines. However mine is still alive. We dumped Montaron where he can have as much black lotus as he wants. We then brought Xan to the surface just in case he is needed.
At Nashkel, Xan was helpful in getting Oublek killed by an assassin but was himself killed. We raised him just in case he was needed in tyhe future, but headed to the bandit camp where we killed another party of assassins led by Brotus Bloodthirsty who was wearing some decent gauntlets.
There were no problems with the rest of the camp. I didn't even need to lure them out of th tent to the skeletons waiting outside. Afterwards Montaron rejoined us. A wand of fear had to be left behind as he couldn't open one of the downsides of playing with low reputation.
We were attcked by Vallius, Najara et al at the Friendly Arms Inn. Whilst they carried good equipment, little of it was useful to us due to our alignments. Killed a lot of bandits and Tranzig when we headed south. We went to Cloakwood where I have killed Centeol, some druids and a dragon. Montaron is barely good enough as a thief.
We cleared a cave full of wyvern and would have gone on to the mines, but other tasks were calling: getting the gold and experience for killing the wyverns and upgrading the sword found in Centeol's lair. Not a great improvement since I could poison it twice a day with my own spells, but worth doing just in case another party member needs it.
Whilst doing that I discovered that a ring of protection from fire could be improved. However, not enough gold in my purse. Later perhaps.
Putting on an amulet that a druid was wearing seems to have altered my attitude somewhat as well as protecting me. Various bits of equipment that I wear also seem to help my attributes.
Nowadays three of us are of neutral alignment which has certainly changed the dynamics of our party. I no longer feel uncomfortable with a reputation of 20.
The beating of Davaeorn was straightforward due to us sending in skeleton warriors that were immune to his spells. He was however able to cast a lightning bolt which did a lot of damage.
Afterwards we made our way to Durlag's Tower. We will have to see if we can find some way to reduce our reputation so that we can do Dorn's quest at Baldur's Gate.
We got as far as solving the riddles of three of the warders, but haven't made the wine yet. We have arrived at Ulgoth's Beard for the wardstones etc. While there we will identify our equipment and sell the surplus so that we can equip ourselves fully. We were short of potions for Montaron this time, so potions are definitely on our shopping list.
Have killed Love. He did me some serious damage. Just as well that the other warders were killed with traps.
When we picked up a helmet, we were attacked by powerful doppelgangers who homed in on Montaron with the result that he died. We therefore went to a temple to raise him and returned. We had enough gold to improve the ring of fire protection and did that before returning.
Our latest attempt has already seen some close shaves, but we have at least survived the first session. After Candlekeep we went to kill Xzar and Montaron and took a LMD each for our pains. Farsi asked Slark if he had any healing available before attempting the area transition to the south (where our last run ended at this stage ). Slark seemed rather surprised at such a cautious approach, but did find a couple of healing spells - which were not in the event needed as there was no ambush.
Shoal was duly shot down, before we progressed via Beregost to Nashkel and then on to Firewine Bridge. On the way we attempted to help out Hulrik, but our missile capabilities were not really up to the job. That meant Meilum took a while to deal with, but his lack of distance attacks still made it easy enough.
Looking for further quick XP we moved on to the basilisk area. Slark had a feeling his snake spirit was immune to petrification and that did indeed do a good job on the opening couple of basilisks.
However, the greater basilisk to the south was keen to get into melee and made short work of a couple of spirits and we eventually left that one alone while heading north for its cousins. We soon dealt with the lesser varieties, but the greater one finished off the snake when at near death. Rather than resting again (with the likelihood of having to deal with spawning gnolls), Farsi decided to use his stealth skills to shoot up the basilisk from a distance. That took quite a few attempts, but eventually the job was done.
Mutamin fended off another spirit, but was out of his major spells in the process and soon joined his pets.
Farsi managed to remember that there were still basilisks left to the south and they were duly dispatched - with the help of Slark's new call lightning spell.
That was also used against Kirian's party, one-shotting Baerin at the start of the contest, while a snake lasted long enough for us to finish off the casters.
Further north, we tried our luck with the ankhegs. Luck was with us against the first one in the nest, when that was immediately paralyzed by a spirit wolf. After that things immediately got tough though and both of us took damage against the second, before Farsi was taken down to 2 HPs by the one guarding the treasure.
After resting up though we continued and managed to clear the nest without any further great alarms.
Buoyed by that success we headed for Durlag's Tower, where I thought the two call lightning's Slark had memorized would be sufficient to deal with a battle horror. He saved against both of those though and even the last couple of magic missiles from Imoen's wand didn't finish him off - unlike Slark who stayed in range of him a moment too long.
Reluctant to leave with the job not quite complete, Farsi decided to try and use an oil of fiery burning to finish off the battle horror. That duly did so, although Farsi was caught in the fringes of the blast and nearly killed himself as well .
The session ended with Slark being resurrected at Beregost temple, though Farsi did have to survive one more dangerous ambush on the way.
Quite a mixed party led by Hal, a Cleric of Helm. His twin brother is a sorcerer and we were joined by some human twins, one being a Cavalier and the other a Blackguard. Grimwald begged me to allow his brother to join us so that he could keep an eye on him and hopefully stopping him from falling foul of the law.
I really like the portrait of Brutus.
Greywolf slew me. Starting again!
Journal of Grimwald the Great et al.
After the ambush in which Gorion was killed we ran into another ambush, this time by skeletons. They killed Sorcio. I took more wounds when I went to pick up his equipment, but all ended well. Later we were able to help Mellicamp.
Went to Beregost, found a deccent mace, calmed Marl and took a tome to Firebead.
Just came across an image of a Dwarven, Female, Helmite, Cleric. I'll switch to her for a change.
Journal of Rowena
In Candlekeep the only assassin to cause major trouble was Mendas.
I headed to the FAI where I returned Joia's ring. On the way I found a +1 ring of protection.
It was well that I had it otherwise a wolf may have finished me off.
I tried sleeping to regain some health, but was attacked by a skeleton. I chose to flee as one knife could have killed me.
I was able to get Mellicamp back in shape before going to Beregost.
I was able to deliver a letter to Mirianne before finding the Colquetle amulet which I returned to them.
Talking to Noober caused me to level up.
Heading to the Carnival enabled me to help Bentha.
After I helped Bentha by killing Zordral, Aerie has started identifying my gear.
I then took Samuel to the FAI before proceeding north where I killed Sonner, his henchmen and several ankhegs.
That was enough to get me to level 5. I had to do a lot of sleeping to deal with the ankhegs, but eventually became strong enough.
I returned to Beregost to sell the shells and lured some spiders outside to be killed by skeletons who were immune to their poison.
I also used skeletons against Silke and with the same skeletons also killed Karlat. With that I reached level 6.
It was necessary to heal one of the skeletons as Karlat had killed one and the other was injured.
I am now fairly robust and am currently feeling quietly confident.
When I took on Bassilus I was a little concerned when he killed my skeletons and held me, but the spell wore off in time for me to cast sanctuary. This was followed by cure wounds and seeking sword. After that I was the more powerful and he quickly died.
Xzar and Montaron joined the party. Xzar left whilst in Korgan's Warehouse. Montaron stayed and pickpocketted Algernon plus numerous people in Ulgoth's Beard. I left him in the inn there.
I escorted Khalid and Jaheira to Nashkel where I left them. Upon heading south Dorn joined me.
After killing Kryll, I bade him farewell before doing some shopping in the Carnival. I am now poor again, but do have some useful items.
I then reunited a boy with his dog, killed Vax and Zal and helped a dryad.
After heading north again, Ajantis joined me. We make a good team. The sirene in the lighthouse area were nowhere near as powerful with the result that Ajantis soon reached level 6.
We then raided the cave successfully using skeletons as a shield after which we helped the archaeologist and Brage.
We visited Aerie to get our items identified before investigating the gnoll stronghold.
The necklace of missiles was almost out of charges so we left the area unfinished. However we did loot a cave with the result that my charisma is better.
Some bracers have done wonders for Ajantis's armour as they set his dexterity at 18.
The big question now is: "Do I recruit a mage and thief, or carry on with a party of two?"
A bit of carelessness (as usual) resulted in the end of our latest run.
We'd started the session half-way through Durlag's Tower and completed our work there without much trouble - Yeroc did get held by a ghast, but only one of them and he had plenty of HPs to keep him alive while the others finished off the ghast.
A quick trip through the Nashkel Mine ended up with Mulahey being webbed and shot down.
The amazons were both blinded and webbed before Nimbul felt the full force of a backstab from Lowlite. Tranzig also got backstabbed, but managed to survive that - though not the follow-up attacks.
At the Bandit Camp Taurgosz was briefly caught in a web - allowing Lowlite to blind him before he broke free. Inside Tazok's tent Venkt saved against a number of attempts to blind him, but died quickly enough anyway when the assault started.
Trouble arrived though at the second Cloakwood area. Lowlite disposed of the trap near the ettercaps, meaning that Yeroc (with him cavalier immunity to poison) would have been able to easily beat up the ettercaps on his own. Brighteyes couldn't resist trying to get in a few whacks over his shoulder though and, with the normal bumping around expected in MP he ended up closer to the ettercaps than intended and got poisoned. That led to a race to the map edge, with it being touch and go whether Brighteyes could initiate travel (which would cure the poison) before expiring.
In the event he did get the map screen to open, but died in that instant before getting the chance to travel. In retrospect, although he was sworn off healing potions and antidotes, he could have swallowed a heroism or power potion from his backpack - which would have given him the extra HPs needed to survive ...
With the sad end to trio 46 (partly caused by my character failing to hide and impatiently deciding to de-trap while visible; drawing most of the ettercaps to us), we rolled up yet another trio to push their luck.
Our first job out of Candlekeep was to get some levels from Shoal the nereid. Or no levels.
With that done we pressed on. A few minutes into our travels Coredruid announced he required a scimitar and headed into the Friendly Arm Inn. Pyre suspected there was no such weapon inside, and at the next store Coredruid glumly bought a club to replace his quarterstaff so he could at least use his shield.
Pyre felt a bit bad about this; what with spending all the Candlekeep party gold on a few throwing daggers. These had been used up against Shoal and another enemy or two so he only had melee weapons. At least Surety had a sling and bullets.
We headed to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armour. By that time Surety had blinded somebody or something and Pyre was making a crazy plan up. Surety could blind a pair of battle horrors and Pyre could use Protection from Petrification - which meant we could go pray on the roof of Durlag's Tower for a scimitar to be made available to us.
With the session rapidly coming to a close we endured an ambush only for none of us to have to option to leave (a multiplayer quirk). There was no option but to reload and repeat the journey, this time with no ambush.
We set up camp outside the tower, making it clear even to us that next time we'd try out the plan. If we're lucky we'll remember to fight the battle horrors on the way out when we have a decent weapon between the three of us.
In my first run it came to an end when Barbour was badly injured and Tiny badly hurt with Silke's lightning bolt. Silke was on the point of death so I continued fighting only to be killed by a second bolt. Starting again in Candlekeep later with the same party.
I'm pretty sure that Tiny would never have accompanied me if it hadn't been for Gorion's persuasiveness. I think that Gorion thought that having somebody like him tag along might keep me out of trouble. Not so! True, I would rather be a more pleasant individual, but you can't help the genes you were born with.
After the death of Gorion I headed for Beregost where I asked Tiny to pick-pocket Algernon who went so balistic that I was forced to kill him. That put a dent in my popularity so for quite some time I will have to watch my behaviour. Getting Mellicamp back into shape helped somewhat: as did taking a tome to Firebead; returning the Colquetle amulet; turning down a reward in Nashkel; protecting Prism; taking Samuel to the FAI etc. etc.
When I saw the mithral armour worn by a caravan guard at the FAI, the temptation was too great, so I killed him as well.
Too late I discoveredd that neither I nor Tiny could wear it. However the +2 sword he was weilding was a great addition to our equipmnt and the armour proved to be most useful when Morwen the bard joined us.
It helped a lot when attacked by Zargos Flintblade.
[I haven't had Morwen as a companion before. She appears to be quite strong] [/i]
I enjoy making them. A relevent portrait helps immersion in the game I find. Adding a background and altering the eyes can make the character really come to life. I try to use my own backgrounds which for me adds something as it adds context to the portrait.
Our latest session saw us easing in to things with a few easy quests before returning to Durlag's Tower. The battle horrors who killed Slark last time were not so good at resisting lightning this time and were quickly swept aside. We had no protection against petrification so the basilisks on the roof posed a slight problem. However, Farsi did have a single invisibility potion in his backpack and Slark used that to bypass the lesser basilisk before summoning a spirit to deal with it. Another spirit, nymphs and lightning then made short work of the greater basilisks.
The Cloudpeaks offered no problems and Bassilus did not fare well against nymphs.
At the coast, spirits did most of the work clearing sirines away.
At this level they don't yet have magical attacks so couldn't hit the golems in the pirate cave, but they still provided a useful distraction.
The Doomsayer was more of a challenge, due to its immunity to lightning and hold, allied to strong melee performance. It dealt with spirit summons and nymphs easily enough and Farsi had to resort to stealth attacks to finish it off.
By now our reputation had already hit 20 and we'd celebrated with some shopping at Ulgoth's Beard and invested in the light crossbow of speed for Farsi. Although reputation was no longer an issue, Farsi was still keen to confront Greywolf to get himself a sword upgrade. Then it was on to the Nashkel Mine to confront Mulahey - a spirit snake was already proving painful for him when a nymph put a hold on his worries.
After exiting the mine our runs typically just deal with the amazons, but this time we decided to clear the tombs as well. The Revenant is something of a cousin to the Doomsayer, but doesn't share its immunity to electricity and was thus an easy victim after being lured out of its tomb.
The final action of the session was beating up Tranzig, so the route to the Bandit Camp is open for next time.
@Grond0 An interesting run using classes that I am totally unfamiliar with. In the pirate cave I have used skeletons in much the same way. I use them to lure the golems across the traps and then do the damage with my party whilst the golems attack the skeletons which I keep alive using healing spells.
Journal of Barbour
After rescuing Bentha, Aerie has offered heal, and identify objects for me free of charge.
We headed north and tried unsuccessfully to eliminate all the ankhegs. Tenya joined the party and we are now fairly balanced. A tank and a mage/sorcerer is perhaps required. Kagain and Baeloth perhaps.
Bassilus fell easilly to my rage and the party's ranged weapons.
However, currently we have defeated Mutamin, his basilisks and his Medusae, and we have returned Smeagol's Precious.
In Gullykin we also killed more assassins. We recharged our wand of fire, sold all our surpluss equipment and bought a few small items, however not as much as we would like as our gold was insufficient. It looks like the ankhegs will need further attention particularly if I get Kagain to join the party!!
Have recruited Baelothand Neera at level 6. I will keep her until I have done her quest and then recruit Kagain.
I went to see Lethe so that Tenya can use her bowl. In the conflict both Morwen and Neera were killed.
Others were badly hurt but survived.
Skeletons should have been summoned beforehand. That mistake cost 1600gp. However no big deal.
We met up with Adoy who gave us a belt. Not of major significance. We bade Neera farewell and Kagain joined. A pity that he has a point in spiked weapons. It would have been more useful in dual-weilding.
@Wise_Grimwald they're both pretty strong classes. The swashbuckler only gets to its best later in BG2, but the totemic summons mean the druid can make a big difference to a small party from the start.
High levels in general, really. The swashbuckler bonuses keep stacking, after all. Though UAI is an important milestone.
At lower levels, it's easy to be misled by the swashbuckler's advantages and disadvantages, and attempt a play style that just doesn't work. Yes, you get attack and defense bonuses in melee. Yes, you can't backstab. But that doesn't mean you should try to play as a tank. You just don't have the durability for that, with the poor AC of light armor options, the low hit points for being a rogue, and the lack of a helmet for crit protection. You can't afford to neglect stealth tactics; even without the backstab damage boost, sneaking up on enemies while hidden is still one of the best things you can do. Sneak in, hit key targets hard, and get out when you attract too much hostile attention.
In late-game BG2, with UAI, you can put on a helmet and heavy armor for some serious AC. But that's also the stage of the game in which AC tanking just isn't enough. Warriors need Hardiness to keep up with their tanking role against late-game melee threats, and that's an ability swashbucklers don't get.
Swashbuckler's do get one warrior HLA, though - Whirlwind Attack. They get that in place of the standard thief HLA Assassination, filling the same role of delivering a burst of melee damage.
@jmerry I'm not familiar with swashbucklers, but in my present run my thief is used as an archer who can disarm traps, open chests and the like. It's working quite well. Having put proficiency points in trap removal, stealth is as yet not really good enough for backstabbing. Having a party of two instead of six would help his stealth considerably of course.
And with a build like that ... being a swashbuckler instead of a vanilla thief would make zero difference. The swashbuckler's combat bonuses are focused on melee, so you're leaving that potential behind. But at the same time, by not going into melee, you don't care about the drawback either.
You don't necessarily need a ton of stealth investment to use stealth at low levels. Time can compensate, if you have a decent baseline. And some races have that from the start. A 19 Dex halfling has 35/35 stealth with no skill investment whatsoever. Add stealth boots to that, and you're succeeding half the time when you have a shadow to work with. And most of the time when you fail a stealth check, you can just stay back and wait a round to try again.
Visited the gnoll stronghold for the tome and assassin's loot. The assassins attacked without provocation.
Now in the Lighthouse area and have killed Sil and three sets of sirine. Three arrived when I was sleeping. That certainly boosted our experience and stock of poisoned arrows. Upon entering the cave the golems hurt me badly but we survived.
Upon trying to rest we were continually being molested by carrion crawlers that we slew. With the final one I got held as my rage ran out. It took some time for the spell to wear off.
We escorted Jaheira, Khalid, Xzar and Montaron to Nashkel, dropped off Tenya temporarilly and picked up Dorn. After killing Kryll we picked up Tenya and dropped Dorn.
The attempt to help a man turned into a werewolf ended in failure.
Nearby we killed Droth and Shoal but Morwen was killed by them.
I started a game as well.
I installed Aura, Finch and Shades of the Sword Coast, since I had not done any of them before.
Enter Reynaert, the evil halforc shaman 19-18-19-13-12-9 (evil matches sooo well with the two good npcs ) and ventured forth. Axes and single weapon style, bearing normal axe and throwing axes.
I pick up Imoen, Montaron and Xzar and my first road goes to the Friendly Arm Inn as suggested by Gorion. There my intention is to put Imoen in the care of Khalid and Jaheira and leave with Montaron and Xzar for the road south. I will pick up Npcs as I go along.
I hit two reloads very quickly.
The first I failed at a bugbear in the first area. These are added by SotSC, and they are seriously tough. I will avoid them for a while and not clear area by area but fill out the fog of war and unexplored darkness after gaining some levels on the main path.
The second was the famous horror from Tarnesh.... Oh no, I felt about 20 years younger when I saw all four fail that save followed up by magic missiles to my face.
On my third attempt now.
I am seeing some minor quests appear left and right from SotSC which I really enjoy.
I cleared the area of the Friendly Arm and the ogre area south of the Inn. There were two bugbears who killed Montaron, but my shaman summons were ultimately too numerous (10 or more died to the bugbears) while Xzar drew them away from my protagonist and around the summons.
I resurrected Montaron and continued further.
Shamans sure hit hard. And I had a lucky critical with the single weapon style as well. Nice!
My current location is Beregost where I picked up Kagain, Aura (on the street) and Finch (in the Red Sheaf after that fight with Karlat). I picked half the towns chests and houses but I still have some more to go. Still all level 1. Having a blast again.
I don't remember the last time I played evil but even with the good npcs I will have to balance things. I brushed off Joia and helped Silke. I am considering to do some of the minor quests like Marianne to get some reputation boosts to keep my goodie-goodies happy enough to stay. Either that or I hate those look up tables I would need to use for the temple.
I had a fist fight with Marl in the Feldepost Inn and punched him silly. I hope he unhostiles later such that I can have a normal talk with him again and actually rest in the Inn.
Mentionable loot
- diamond from a tree
- ring of prince's from a rock
- ring of wizardry from a tree stump
- belt of missiles from the ogre
- belt of femininity and masculinity (which I put on Montaron because I was showing to my wife how fun the game is, she said you still play that game (?!), you play that every year or so. hahaha).
- mace that stuns, from one of the inns in Beregost (must be new in EE since I generally don't pick all chests).
Comments
Yet another reason for Dan to have Tenya with him.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender
I more or less singlehandedly killed vampyric wolves, Teddy the Doomsayer and Torqion.
Now level 7.
Tenya cast remove curse afterwards.
I enlisted Xzar and Montaron and made a diversion to Beregost and Ulgoth's Beard where Montaron picked up several useful items. We then enlisted Khalid and Jaheira and took them to Nashkel. Khalid and jaheira left the party and we headed south where Dorn joined us.
After killing Kryll we returned to Nashkel where Dorn left us.
We killed many basilisks, one being in transit, and also Mutamin and some Medusae.
We headed south to Gullykin where we retrieved Smeaggol's ring and killed some more adventurers.
We finally found Lethe and when she attacked, killed her.
When we went to the gnoll stronghold we all but ran out of charges for the necklace of missiles, so after collecting the tome we returned to Aerie. She bough and sold the necklace and identified our equipment. We are now low on gold.
We have met up with Aerie and had quite a battle: the first time that I have seen that Nabassu probably because my own summons have stopped that summons spell.
I have kept Neera in the party and am now at Adoy's enclave after killing a few ogres elsewhere.
Then time for the mine since I have proved that I can deal with at least one demon.
Coreranger XX - ranger, protagonist (corey_russell) half-elf
DemeQ - cleric/thief (@gate70) half-orc
Lunie - cleric/ranger (@grond0) half-elf
So the party made it to Drassus and pals. Silences and skeletons were highly effective. We made good progress in the Cloakwood mines. We did run into one problem. Lunie got spotted and the mage got close! Luckily the party's ranged fire quickly took down the mage. Rest of the mine went pretty smooth. Davaeorn was attacked by Coreranger protected by potion of magic blocking.
We then did the baldur's gate quests. The basic quests that we do all went pretty well. Larze got commaded for example.
We took down the dopplegangers in the Seven Suns. Time for the main event! We went to the 5th floor of the Iron Throne.
We tried a bunch of silences but one mage managed to save against them all. This was a big problem, but was also a big problem was 6 of the 7 enemies saved vs hold person. In hindsight, we would have better off if Coreranger maxed his defense equipment, used PfM scroll and offense potions and getting into the mix. But Coreranger was wearing leather and our skeletons didn't last long since only one enemy was held. This ended up as a disaster as DemeQ got chunked. Lunie died shortly thereafter. It doesn't matter much now, but Coreranger got confused which spelled the end.
Brighteyes - human sun soul monk (Grond0)
Yeroc XXVI - human cavalier (Corey_Russell)
Lowlite - gnome illusionist/thief (Gate70)
Previous run
We didn't have much time left in the session after the end of the previous run, but did manage a bit of action. After the Candlekeep chores we typically head to the coast to get some easy XP from Shoal, but Brighteyes fancied a change this time and travelled north towards the FAI. On the way we tackled the belt ogre, but none of us were in good form with missiles and the ogre managed to reach out further than expected with its club to one-shot Yeroc.
At the FAI we shot Tarnesh before picking up a couple of rings in the area. Brighteyes suggested that Yeroc might fancy having a go at the ankhegs next time, but his reaction suggested that could be a bit of a hard sell
Sun soul monk 1, 10 HPs, 8 kills
Cavalier 1, 14 HPs, 9 kills, 1 death
Illusionist/thief 1/1, 7 HPs, 8 kills, 0 deaths
@Grond0 Once I've picked up the +1 ring, I usually head straight for the FAI.
When I've killed Sonner, returned the bowl to Tenya and killed the ankheg near Tenya, I might return south. The zombies are obviously easy experience. Helping Melicamp is also pretty safe with the possibility of 2000 experience and a reputation boost.
Journal of Dan the Burial Defender last post.
After freeing Aaron and Dynaheir, I forgot to level up Dynaheir. As a result, she was killed, but because she was only level 1, raising her was very cheap. We gave Aaron his +1 ring and headed back to Nashkel where I was asked to give it to Marina which I will do as soon as I have more +1 rings than I need. Dynaheir is now level 5. She wanted us to find her journal which we did. We left her in Nashkel and are now in the the mines. We returned Kylee's dagger and as a result I reached level 8. In the mine we were attacked by assassins one of whom put me to sleep so I was completely unaware when the end came.
I am wondering if Dynaheir's Journal has any further use. Does anybody know.
Journal of Carla the Orcish Cavalier
Something has gone wrong with my weapon slots. I have tried going back to previous saves but something is seriously wrong. I cannot access my main weapon slots.
I am trying to sort it out.
Perhaps rebooting he computer will help.
EDIT
It worked!! Realised too late that I should have recorded what went wrong with screenshots. It's never happened to me before. The weapon slots just disappeared!
I will re-run from Candlekeep, but to retain interest will do it after a run with an evil trio of orcs.
I particularly like the Blackguard image made by merging four different images from the web. What I like is that it could have been made from one image. From my point of view it is seamless though an expert in photoshopping could probably see the joins. The knight, the castle, the pavings and the eyes are the four elements.
The Priest of Helm comes from my own backgrounds and a Paladin. I'm not so happy with my background but prefer it to the others available. I trimmed the sword so that he could be a Cleric of Helm. He has at least six variations on the web. I think the original is from the D&D players handbook.
The sorceress image was just trimmed to size.
Journal of Brutus
A lot of the inhabitants of Candlekeep mistake us for being good aligned characters simply because we do exactly the same as a good person would. The difference is in our motivation. For example, it didn't cost us anything to help Linda and Sir Trun and yet we gained reputation. That reputation was all-important when it came to finding funds to buy a katana.
We scrimped and saved for the rest of the equipment. I have splint mail, a Katana and a Wakizashi
and Helmut chain mail, a mace and a war hammer. We also have a couple of slings.
We will go shopping as soon as possible.
We were able tto furnish Imoen before we left her under the watchful eyes of the guards at the FAI. If she were to die as well as Gorion, I would be devastated.
We returned Joia's ring, killed Tarnesh, got Melicamp back into shape and found Perdue's sword before arriving in Beregost.
In Beregost we took on Silke which resulted in a lot of deaths.
We raised Saucy who helped us in a battle against two ogrillon.
We made our way to Nashkel and upon reaching the mines were attacked once again.
We rescued Bentha from Zordra and then killed Greywolf.
We then returned Samuel to the FAI after which we killed Sonner for his weapon, joined up with Tenya, and then killed enough ankhegs to pay for one of them being made into armour. We then killed a lot more before heading south and helping Albert and others.
This resulted in us reaching a reputation of 20 and it was then that I had a vision in which I was warned to reduce my reputation or I would lose my Blackguard powers.
We managed to deal with Bassilus, Zargal, Shoal and Droth relatively easily amd are now heading for the sirene there and also near the lighthouse. (Three extra appeared due to sleeping.
Khalid and Jaheira were escorted to Nashkel where we dropped them. To the south Dorn joined us and we then hunted down Kryll. In Nashkel we bade farewell to Dorn.
Tenya urged us to find Lethe so that she could learn to use her bowl. This we did but Lethe attacked and paid the ultimate price. Saucy also got killed which meant a trip back to the Temple of Lathander where everyone was healed.
At least Tenya has a decent halberd which she can use and Saucy has useful bracers and circlet.
We investigated the gnoll stronghold and came away with increased charisma a ring of protection +1 and Dynaheir. We are uncomfortable with her in the party so asked her to leave once Drizzt founnd her journal.
Edwin and Montaron joined us after which we sold off our surplus equipment and bought some much-needed equipment. We now have less that 100gp and could use a lot more, but can see no way of earning other than raiding the Nashkel Mines.
Brighteyes - human sun soul monk (Grond0)
Yeroc XXVI - human cavalier (Corey_Russell)
Lowlite - gnome illusionist/thief (Gate70)
Previous updates
A few chores in Beregost included beating up some spiders, so we returned to the FAI to drop off a spider body and pick up the pantaloons. Then it was back south again to work through the Cloudpeaks on the way to get the charisma tome.
The next encounter should have seen plenty of deaths as a bunch of undead realized the futility of (un)life. However, they were shocked into action when Lowlite attacked Bassilus without talking to him first. Unsurprisingly, Lowlite did not survive for long after that ...
The danger of equipment disappearing in MP is always greater with a death and the body of Melicamp evaporated on this occasion. However, reputation reached 20 soon afterwards anyway when we escorted Brage back to Nashkel. Brighteyes thought at this point it should be time for those delayed ankhegs, but Yeroc was only willing to do that if the party purchased scrolls of protection from acid to give him immunity against that. With plenty of other things to spend money on, Brighteyes didn't see that as a priority, so agreed to put off the ankhegs for now. Instead he led the party to find the Doomsayer - this time ignoring Yeroc's complaint that could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. In the event the fight was pretty easy as Lowlite successfully blinded the Doomsayer at the first attempt. Brighteyes could have kicked the Doomsayer to death from outside his sight range and Lowlite could have backstabbed him repeatedly with his staff. Yeroc had just sold his potential distance 2 weapon (Brage's cursed sword
Brighteyes finally decided the party had paid their dues and agreed to tackle the basilisks next. Lowlite provided PfP spells and rested to renew those halfway through the area. Without support, and against opponents protected against fear, Mutamin had no real chance, though he did manage to choke out an acid arrow spell just before snuffing it.
Cavalier 6, 76 HPs, 85 kills, 2 deaths
Illusionist/thief 4/5, 27 HPs, 17 kills, 1 death
Let's not mess around with the details, our Diviner and Thief combo managed to fluff the Candlekeep quests and depart without doing them, fob off Imoen Montaron and Xzar before stumbling into a fatal kobold ambush - 1 arrow and dead diviner.
Well you quickly overtook me. My party has only just finished the Nashkel Mines. However mine is still alive. We dumped Montaron where he can have as much black lotus as he wants. We then brought Xan to the surface just in case he is needed.
At Nashkel, Xan was helpful in getting Oublek killed by an assassin but was himself killed. We raised him just in case he was needed in tyhe future, but headed to the bandit camp where we killed another party of assassins led by Brotus Bloodthirsty who was wearing some decent gauntlets.
There were no problems with the rest of the camp. I didn't even need to lure them out of th tent to the skeletons waiting outside. Afterwards Montaron rejoined us. A wand of fear had to be left behind as he couldn't open one of the downsides of playing with low reputation.
We cleared a cave full of wyvern and would have gone on to the mines, but other tasks were calling: getting the gold and experience for killing the wyverns and upgrading the sword found in Centeol's lair. Not a great improvement since I could poison it twice a day with my own spells, but worth doing just in case another party member needs it.
Whilst doing that I discovered that a ring of protection from fire could be improved. However, not enough gold in my purse.
Putting on an amulet that a druid was wearing seems to have altered my attitude somewhat as well as protecting me. Various bits of equipment that I wear also seem to help my attributes.
Nowadays three of us are of neutral alignment which has certainly changed the dynamics of our party. I no longer feel uncomfortable with a reputation of 20.
The beating of Davaeorn was straightforward due to us sending in skeleton warriors that were immune to his spells. He was however able to cast a lightning bolt which did a lot of damage.
Afterwards we made our way to Durlag's Tower. We will have to see if we can find some way to reduce our reputation so that we can do Dorn's quest at Baldur's Gate.
We got as far as solving the riddles of three of the warders, but haven't made the wine yet. We have arrived at Ulgoth's Beard for the wardstones etc. While there we will identify our equipment and sell the surplus so that we can equip ourselves fully. We were short of potions for Montaron this time, so potions are definitely on our shopping list.
Have killed Love. He did me some serious damage. Just as well that the other warders were killed with traps.
When we picked up a helmet, we were attacked by powerful doppelgangers who homed in on Montaron with the result that he died. We therefore went to a temple to raise him and returned. We had enough gold to improve the ring of fire protection and did that before returning.
EDIT
Killed by Grael. Didn't do enough buffing.
Farsi (male dwarf swashbuckler, Grond0); Slark (male half-elf totemic druid, Gate70)
Previous run
Our latest attempt has already seen some close shaves, but we have at least survived the first session. After Candlekeep we went to kill Xzar and Montaron and took a LMD each for our pains. Farsi asked Slark if he had any healing available before attempting the area transition to the south (where our last run ended at this stage
Shoal was duly shot down, before we progressed via Beregost to Nashkel and then on to Firewine Bridge. On the way we attempted to help out Hulrik, but our missile capabilities were not really up to the job. That meant Meilum took a while to deal with, but his lack of distance attacks still made it easy enough.
Buoyed by that success we headed for Durlag's Tower, where I thought the two call lightning's Slark had memorized would be sufficient to deal with a battle horror. He saved against both of those though and even the last couple of magic missiles from Imoen's wand didn't finish him off - unlike Slark who stayed in range of him a moment too long.
Totemic druid 6, 48 HPs, 26 kills, 1 death
I really like the portrait of Brutus.
Greywolf slew me.
Journal of Grimwald the Great et al.
After the ambush in which Gorion was killed we ran into another ambush, this time by skeletons. They killed Sorcio. I took more wounds when I went to pick up his equipment, but all ended well. Later we were able to help Mellicamp.
Went to Beregost, found a deccent mace, calmed Marl and took a tome to Firebead.
Killed by Zargal.
Journal of Rowena
In Candlekeep the only assassin to cause major trouble was Mendas.
I headed to the FAI where I returned Joia's ring. On the way I found a +1 ring of protection.
It was well that I had it otherwise a wolf may have finished me off.
I tried sleeping to regain some health, but was attacked by a skeleton. I chose to flee as one knife could have killed me.
I was able to get Mellicamp back in shape before going to Beregost.
I was able to deliver a letter to Mirianne before finding the Colquetle amulet which I returned to them.
Talking to Noober caused me to level up.
Heading to the Carnival enabled me to help Bentha.
After I helped Bentha by killing Zordral, Aerie has started identifying my gear.
I then took Samuel to the FAI before proceeding north where I killed Sonner, his henchmen and several ankhegs.
That was enough to get me to level 5. I had to do a lot of sleeping to deal with the ankhegs, but eventually became strong enough.
I returned to Beregost to sell the shells and lured some spiders outside to be killed by skeletons who were immune to their poison.
I also used skeletons against Silke and with the same skeletons also killed Karlat. With that I reached level 6.
It was necessary to heal one of the skeletons as Karlat had killed one and the other was injured.
I am now fairly robust and am currently feeling quietly confident.
When I took on Bassilus I was a little concerned when he killed my skeletons and held me, but the spell wore off in time for me to cast sanctuary. This was followed by cure wounds and seeking sword. After that I was the more powerful and he quickly died.
Xzar and Montaron joined the party. Xzar left whilst in Korgan's Warehouse. Montaron stayed and pickpocketted Algernon plus numerous people in Ulgoth's Beard. I left him in the inn there.
I escorted Khalid and Jaheira to Nashkel where I left them. Upon heading south Dorn joined me.
After killing Kryll, I bade him farewell before doing some shopping in the Carnival. I am now poor again, but do have some useful items.
I then reunited a boy with his dog, killed Vax and Zal and helped a dryad.
After heading north again, Ajantis joined me. We make a good team. The sirene in the lighthouse area were nowhere near as powerful with the result that Ajantis soon reached level 6.
We then raided the cave successfully using skeletons as a shield after which we helped the archaeologist and Brage.
We visited Aerie to get our items identified before investigating the gnoll stronghold.
The necklace of missiles was almost out of charges so we left the area unfinished. However we did loot a cave with the result that my charisma is better.
Some bracers have done wonders for Ajantis's armour as they set his dexterity at 18.
The big question now is: "Do I recruit a mage and thief, or carry on with a party of two?"
Brighteyes - human sun soul monk (Grond0)
Yeroc XXVI - human cavalier (Corey_Russell)
Lowlite - gnome illusionist/thief (Gate70)
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1189843/#Comment_1189843
We'd started the session half-way through Durlag's Tower and completed our work there without much trouble - Yeroc did get held by a ghast, but only one of them and he had plenty of HPs to keep him alive while the others finished off the ghast.
A quick trip through the Nashkel Mine ended up with Mulahey being webbed and shot down.
The amazons were both blinded and webbed before Nimbul felt the full force of a backstab from Lowlite. Tranzig also got backstabbed, but managed to survive that - though not the follow-up attacks.
At the Bandit Camp Taurgosz was briefly caught in a web - allowing Lowlite to blind him before he broke free. Inside Tazok's tent Venkt saved against a number of attempts to blind him, but died quickly enough anyway when the assault started.
Trouble arrived though at the second Cloakwood area. Lowlite disposed of the trap near the ettercaps, meaning that Yeroc (with him cavalier immunity to poison) would have been able to easily beat up the ettercaps on his own. Brighteyes couldn't resist trying to get in a few whacks over his shoulder though and, with the normal bumping around expected in MP he ended up closer to the ettercaps than intended and got poisoned. That led to a race to the map edge, with it being touch and go whether Brighteyes could initiate travel (which would cure the poison) before expiring.
Pyre - human dragon disciple (Gate70)
Coredruid - half-elf fighter / druid (Corey_Russell)
Surety - elf enchanter (Grond0)
With the sad end to trio 46 (partly caused by my character failing to hide and impatiently deciding to de-trap while visible; drawing most of the ettercaps to us), we rolled up yet another trio to push their luck.
Our first job out of Candlekeep was to get some levels from Shoal the nereid. Or no levels.
Pyre felt a bit bad about this; what with spending all the Candlekeep party gold on a few throwing daggers. These had been used up against Shoal and another enemy or two so he only had melee weapons. At least Surety had a sling and bullets.
We headed to Nashkel to pick up the ankheg armour. By that time Surety had blinded somebody or something and Pyre was making a crazy plan up. Surety could blind a pair of battle horrors and Pyre could use Protection from Petrification - which meant we could go pray on the roof of Durlag's Tower for a scimitar to be made available to us.
With the session rapidly coming to a close we endured an ambush only for none of us to have to option to leave (a multiplayer quirk). There was no option but to reload and repeat the journey, this time with no ambush.
We set up camp outside the tower, making it clear even to us that next time we'd try out the plan. If we're lucky we'll remember to fight the battle horrors on the way out when we have a decent weapon between the three of us.
Inventory and Record screens
In my first run it came to an end when Barbour was badly injured and Tiny badly hurt with Silke's lightning bolt. Silke was on the point of death so I continued fighting only to be killed by a second bolt. Starting again in Candlekeep later with the same party.
I'm pretty sure that Tiny would never have accompanied me if it hadn't been for Gorion's persuasiveness. I think that Gorion thought that having somebody like him tag along might keep me out of trouble. Not so! True, I would rather be a more pleasant individual, but you can't help the genes you were born with.
After the death of Gorion I headed for Beregost where I asked Tiny to pick-pocket Algernon who went so balistic that I was forced to kill him. That put a dent in my popularity so for quite some time I will have to watch my behaviour. Getting Mellicamp back into shape helped somewhat: as did taking a tome to Firebead; returning the Colquetle amulet; turning down a reward in Nashkel; protecting Prism; taking Samuel to the FAI etc. etc.
When I saw the mithral armour worn by a caravan guard at the FAI, the temptation was too great, so I killed him as well.
Too late I discoveredd that neither I nor Tiny could wear it. However the +2 sword he was weilding was a great addition to our equipmnt and the armour proved to be most useful when Morwen the bard joined us.
It helped a lot when attacked by Zargos Flintblade.
[I haven't had Morwen as a companion before. She appears to be quite strong]
I enjoy making them.
Farsi (male dwarf swashbuckler, Grond0); Slark (male half-elf totemic druid, Gate70)
Previous updates
Swashbuckler 8, 50 HPs, 141 kills
Totemic druid 8, 65 HPs, 88 kills, 1 death
Journal of Barbour
After rescuing Bentha, Aerie has offered heal, and identify objects for me free of charge.
We headed north and tried unsuccessfully to eliminate all the ankhegs. Tenya joined the party and we are now fairly balanced. A tank and a mage/sorcerer is perhaps required. Kagain and Baeloth perhaps.
Bassilus fell easilly to my rage and the party's ranged weapons.
However, currently we have defeated Mutamin, his basilisks and his Medusae,
In Gullykin we also killed more assassins.
Have recruited Baelothand Neera at level 6. I will keep her until I have done her quest and then recruit Kagain.
I went to see Lethe so that Tenya can use her bowl. In the conflict both Morwen and Neera were killed.
Others were badly hurt but survived.
Skeletons should have been summoned beforehand. That mistake cost 1600gp.
We met up with Adoy who gave us a belt. Not of major significance. We bade Neera farewell and Kagain joined. A pity that he has a point in spiked weapons.
Presumably after he gets "Use any item"
At lower levels, it's easy to be misled by the swashbuckler's advantages and disadvantages, and attempt a play style that just doesn't work. Yes, you get attack and defense bonuses in melee. Yes, you can't backstab. But that doesn't mean you should try to play as a tank. You just don't have the durability for that, with the poor AC of light armor options, the low hit points for being a rogue, and the lack of a helmet for crit protection. You can't afford to neglect stealth tactics; even without the backstab damage boost, sneaking up on enemies while hidden is still one of the best things you can do. Sneak in, hit key targets hard, and get out when you attract too much hostile attention.
In late-game BG2, with UAI, you can put on a helmet and heavy armor for some serious AC. But that's also the stage of the game in which AC tanking just isn't enough. Warriors need Hardiness to keep up with their tanking role against late-game melee threats, and that's an ability swashbucklers don't get.
Swashbuckler's do get one warrior HLA, though - Whirlwind Attack. They get that in place of the standard thief HLA Assassination, filling the same role of delivering a burst of melee damage.
You don't necessarily need a ton of stealth investment to use stealth at low levels. Time can compensate, if you have a decent baseline. And some races have that from the start. A 19 Dex halfling has 35/35 stealth with no skill investment whatsoever. Add stealth boots to that, and you're succeeding half the time when you have a shadow to work with. And most of the time when you fail a stealth check, you can just stay back and wait a round to try again.
Visited the gnoll stronghold for the tome and assassin's loot. The assassins attacked without provocation.
Now in the Lighthouse area and have killed Sil and three sets of sirine. Three arrived when I was sleeping. That certainly boosted our experience and stock of poisoned arrows. Upon entering the cave the golems hurt me badly but we survived.
Upon trying to rest we were continually being molested by carrion crawlers that we slew. With the final one I got held as my rage ran out. It took some time for the spell to wear off.
We escorted Jaheira, Khalid, Xzar and Montaron to Nashkel, dropped off Tenya temporarilly and picked up Dorn. After killing Kryll we picked up Tenya and dropped Dorn.
The attempt to help a man turned into a werewolf ended in failure.
Nearby we killed Droth and Shoal but Morwen was killed by them.
I installed Aura, Finch and Shades of the Sword Coast, since I had not done any of them before.
I pick up Imoen, Montaron and Xzar and my first road goes to the Friendly Arm Inn as suggested by Gorion. There my intention is to put Imoen in the care of Khalid and Jaheira and leave with Montaron and Xzar for the road south. I will pick up Npcs as I go along.
I hit two reloads very quickly.
The first I failed at a bugbear in the first area. These are added by SotSC, and they are seriously tough. I will avoid them for a while and not clear area by area but fill out the fog of war and unexplored darkness after gaining some levels on the main path.
The second was the famous horror from Tarnesh.... Oh no, I felt about 20 years younger when I saw all four fail that save followed up by magic missiles to my face.
On my third attempt now.
I am seeing some minor quests appear left and right from SotSC which I really enjoy.
I cleared the area of the Friendly Arm and the ogre area south of the Inn. There were two bugbears who killed Montaron, but my shaman summons were ultimately too numerous (10 or more died to the bugbears) while Xzar drew them away from my protagonist and around the summons.
I resurrected Montaron and continued further.
I don't remember the last time I played evil but even with the good npcs I will have to balance things. I brushed off Joia and helped Silke. I am considering to do some of the minor quests like Marianne to get some reputation boosts to keep my goodie-goodies happy enough to stay. Either that or I hate those look up tables I would need to use for the temple.
I had a fist fight with Marl in the Feldepost Inn and punched him silly. I hope he unhostiles later such that I can have a normal talk with him again and actually rest in the Inn.
Mentionable loot
- diamond from a tree
- ring of prince's from a rock
- ring of wizardry from a tree stump
- belt of missiles from the ogre
- belt of femininity and masculinity (which I put on Montaron because I was showing to my wife how fun the game is, she said you still play that game (?!), you play that every year or so. hahaha).
- mace that stuns, from one of the inns in Beregost (must be new in EE since I generally don't pick all chests).