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

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  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    'Long-life challenge' - wild mage {28} (update 5)
    Previous updates:
    At the Coalition Camp I used the Spectacles to summon the genie vendor. After a few purchases I went to collect the Bwoosh and poison before leaving. I went through Dead Mans Pass invisibly before stopping off briefly at Dragonspear to rescue Skie using webs. Webs also held the cyclops at the Underground River while I collected its Seal.
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    I went underground invisibly and didn't bother with side-quests there, but just placed the Bwoosh. I placed a firebreath potion in the firepit to get inside rather than boosting charisma to convince the guard on the door. The priest there has 5 more greater restoration scrolls, among other things. I poisoned the food and water invisibly, but had to show myself to get the lift re-opened.
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    Invisible once more I just ran out.

    Back at the Coalition Camp an invasion was imminent. A couple of webs helped archers secure victory over a group of orcs and trolls. A pair of cloudkills then helped the wizard slayers shut down a group of mages. Another couple of webs using minor sequencer held the cavalier group for the battle mages and wand scorchers. Dosia then refreshed my spells to allow more webs against the final group.
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    Once more at Dragonspear Castle, the Bwoosh detonated to force a way through the outer defences. I didn't let the battle there rage very long though, seeking out Ashatiel for some single combat. The second stunning dart thrown at him decided that contest.
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    Inside the castle I used a PfM scroll to loot some magic items and scrolls before following Caelar into the abyss. I didn't bother with the first area there, but just moved on through. The first group of devils died to sling shots before Thrix summoned some more. Stunning darts and a few summons helped out there.
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    Thrix gave me a +3 staff, though that's really no better than my existing one.

    Possible scenarios against Belhifet included use of lower resistance to make him vulnerable to status effects and blue fireshield to make him damage himself while attacking. However, I decided to stick to keeping Caelar going. She's an exception to my normal rule of not allowing any NPCs to be recruited as I think she should be willing to fight against Belhifet without joining your party (and she will do that if there is no space for her). I thus mimic that behavior by allowing her to join, but not giving her any orders. With protection against fire, electricity and poison as well as boosted saving throws, I took the hellevator. Water elementals allowed me to use a sling there to benefit from the strength boost from the violet potion. Use of restoration scrolls soon meant I required criticals to hit Belhifet as a result of fatigue, but I got a couple of those and still had 8 of my original 20 scrolls left when Belhifet breathed his last.
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    I ran through the epilogue without problems and managed to remember to take the pantaloons out of my bag of holding so that they would transfer to BG2EE. I lost 3 HPs in the transition there, but summoning a new familiar more than restored those.

    Wild mage L11, 65 HPs (incl. 12 from familiar), 0 kills (+436 in BGEE/SoD)
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    lroumen wrote: »
    How strange. I think I do not even have SoD installed right now, or alternatively I have no clue on how to start it anymore. I do not find any button to click to swap to SoD and the final battle with Sarevok did not take me into the start of SoD either, so I guess it is not there.
    Importing the same party into a SoD reinstall will not work due to mods, so maybe I will import only my final save character, or just recreate Reynaert if I decide to do SoD in parallel to BG2.

    So for now I will just plan BG2 right away (after some install session of the mods I want).
    mystery solved. I now remember I uninstalled SoD because I could not get mod merge to work on steam.... And I forgot about that.

    Anyway, my bg2 install now seems to function. Let's goooooo

  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited January 2023
    Journal of Marin the Mace

    After doing some ankheg hunting Temya, Ajantis and Alora agreed to help me and I dual-xlassed to become a cleric. After killing more ankheg, we went in searrch of Lethe and Tenya learnt how to use her bowl. After this at the gnoll stronghold Dynaheir joined the party. I then deemed it time to enter the mines at Nashkel.
  • Gate70Gate70 Member, Developer Posts: 3,870
    Trio 50 ([Links to earlier sessions 1 2)
    Betsof - human male dark moon monk Gate70
    DIsco - elf female diviner @Grond0
    CoreThief XXXI - dwarf male Fighter / Thief @Corey_Russell

    Our third session started with us exploring Cloakwood from the second area. This didn't take us long, and we soon had Kysus and Rezdan both blinded but a minor misjudgement saw Drasus observe us. Without his mage support he wasn't able to out-damage CoreThief in melee while being pelted with bullets from Betsof and Disco, who added a few spells to hasten matters.

    CoreThief took the boots of speed as Betsof was naturally rapid. We made our way to the base of Cloakwood Mine and Betsof grew tired of trying to find two battle horrors so barged through a series of traps while in the shadows. By the time he'd used his two cure light wound abilities Davaeorn and his battle horrors were looking worse for skulltrap wear. Betsof decided to sneak in for some punchy punch but Disco had found a wand of frost by that time. CoreThief had been looting near the entrance so may not even have got into sight of Davaeorn.
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    We arrived at the city of Baldur's Gate and made our way around a series of minor quests until we became the entertainment of the Blushing Mermaid. Betsof ran Larze the ogre around initially until Disco took over. She promptly got her feet entwined with those of a sitting local and allowed Larze the chance to flatten her. Not chunked though so we made off to a temple.
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    Rather more minor quests were completed before we encountered the Iron Throne mercenaries. Alai saved against blindness and we expected he would save against web so we tried to finish him off first but Gardush made a timely save and some attention was wasted on him.

    We retreated a bit, finished off one enemy and cornered a second but Disco had taken significant injury and was separated from her companions.
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    We tried to make haste and get to her while she was safe but she decided to do or die. It proved difficult to cast a spell before Alai and this ended up becoming another die. Once more the temple beckoned followed by a slow clap picking up of the many dropped items.
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    We decided to safely make our way around Candlekeep catacombs but a combination of web (ours) and haste (theirs) together with a misclick, a failed save (ours) and we once more had a dead diviner on our hands.
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    This means session 4 will start with CoreThief and Betsof trying to complete the escape from Candlekeep while lugging Disco and her equipment around. Sounds like a plan.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited January 2023
    Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 236, Core rules + unmodded (4th and final update)
    Janus (male half-elf blade, Grond0); Voka (female human invoker, Gate70)
    Previous updates Some dodgy play by me yesterday resulted in 3 deaths in the Trio - but the run continued as I wasn't the protagonist. There was no such escape available today though ...

    We were in the middle of the poison quest and soon finished that off thanks to Marek being baffled by improved invisibility. Things were about to go rapidly downhill though when we arrived at Ramazith's Tower and decided to fight our way up rather than sneak up invisibly. A first assault on the mustard jellies was aborted when Voka was poisoned and we ran away and rested outside the city to heal up. Back again an inadvertent use of the stairs brought ghasts into the fight with the mustard jellies. With the ghasts coming downstairs, Janus gave them a scorcher and then went up himself. None of the remaining ghasts immediately followed him, so it was a surprise when one of them suddenly appeared behind him and got a paralysing blow in.
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    Things looked bleak there, but the ghast disappeared back downstairs as mysteriously as it had come up to give Janus time to recover. That made things more difficult for Voka though, as she couldn't risk enemies running upstairs and a mustard jelly was apparently blocking the way down - and she was also poisoned and went down briefly to single figure HPs B).
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    Her prospects looked very bleak, but she managed to kill the last of the ghasts with her sling and the mustard jellies were not proving too accurate, so that healing potions were keeping pace with her poison. She then tried to go downstairs and found that she was able to get close enough to the exit to trigger it.
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    Another rest and healing session followed before we came back to try the mustard jellies for the 3rd time - and this time we were successful, though both of us were injured. Further progress was still not straightforward though when we tackled the hobgoblins. Some poor communication meant that when Janus opened proceedings there with a scorcher, Voka followed him up just in time to feel the burn herself.
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    In trying to avoid hitting her again, Janus also got a bit more exposed than he otherwise would have been to the remaining hobgoblins and took a couple of doses of poison from their arrows. Voka suggested running away again to heal, but Janus felt confident the poison would stop in time. As his HPs leaked away his confidence was starting to drop, but the poison did eventually stop when he still had 9 HPs in hand.
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    A couple of Bhaal healings were deemed sufficient to carry straight on to the kobold commandos - and they were downed without trouble. However, after all that action Janus had forgotten that we hadn't killed Ramazith at the bottom of the tower :s - he had teleported upstairs as a result of us already having had a fatal encounter with Ragefast in our previous session. As a result Janus didn't check his surroundings, but just went straight to pick up the intelligence tome and identify that in his inventory. When he finally became aware of his surroundings he found that Ramazith had already used improved invisibility and was in the process of casting a lightning bolt.
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    Janus immediately ran for the stairs, but the lightning was too quick for him. The game was paused after he was hit once - taking him down to 2 HPs - and with a lightning bounce in mid-air looking likely to hit him again.
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    The stairs were clearly out of reach, but he thought he might have time to take an absorption potion to prevent further lightning damage. However, though use of potions is quick it's not quite instant and the death screen triggered as soon as the game was unpaused.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    @Grond0 A sad ending. :(
  • RaygaRayga Member Posts: 50
    First time Im seeing such an adventure in Ramazith tower :D

    Now I feel kinda guilty that I stab him in the back before he can do anything.
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited January 2023
    Rayga wrote: »
    First time Im seeing such an adventure in Ramazith tower :D

    Now I feel kinda guilty that I stab him in the back before he can do anything.

    I usually attack him OUTSIDE the tower. >:) After all we do know that he is evil!
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 996
    Rayga wrote: »
    First time Im seeing such an adventure in Ramazith tower :D

    Now I feel kinda guilty that I stab him in the back before he can do anything.

    I usually attack him OUTSIDE the tower. >:) After all we do know that he is evil!

    Yes. In my single player games I talk to him before dealing with Ragefast, say I am not interested in helping him then he just stands there, ready for me to ambush him in the open. :smile:
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    I also normally just kill him immediately in single player - that's probably partly why I forgot he was still around o:).
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited January 2023
    'Long-life challenge' - wild mage {28} (6th and final update)
    Previous updates:
    After recent poor performances in both multiplayer games I play in, I suppose it might be expected that the next time I played single player things wouldn't go well.

    I made it through Jon's dungeon, though I wasn't really restricting spell casting at all and the warning signs were there when I got polymorphed into a wolf. I used most of the funds gained to date in buying 5 points of reputation at the temple. A safer option would have been to buy the Ring of Air Control to improve saving throws before casting, but I didn't bother with that - a decision that ultimately proved costly. I still had enough cash though to purchase a ticket to the circus. MMMs did most of the damage while working through there.

    After checking in with Gaelan Bayle I went to the Copper Coronet to oversee a change in the management there, getting to level 12 in the process.

    Suna Seni made the mistake of trying to ambush an invisible mage and died in webs as a result. Almost immediately after that the Renfeld ambush triggered, overloading my carrying capacity. I dropped Renfeld off and made a swift end of Prebek and Sanasha to loot the harpers. I also got a bonus by successfully trapping Lucette in a web before she could escape. That was possible without drawing down the wrath of the Cowled Wizards as I had just previously cast invisibility and moved out of sight range before the wizard teleported in and the encounter trigger had not yet reset.

    Then it was off to Watcher's Keep, to improve my inventory management by picking up the potion case. Inside, a surge fireball hit the archivist but fortunately he didn't seem to object to that - given his desire for warmth, perhaps he should actually have been grateful! Another surge in there saw me lose more gold. I had thought before going there that the sensible thing to have done would have been to pay Gaelan Bayle, but I didn't progress from thought to action ;). Farsight showed that vampiric wraiths were waiting in the main room and I decided to leave them be for the time being.

    I tend not to buy equipment until reputation is up to 20, so decided to get on with that to use up spare money. The first task was the skinner quest. The ambushers there were led upstairs into a counter-ambush. Then it was on to Trademeet to sort things out there. The first action was against the genies and I intended to help a couple of pre-placed skeletons out there by hasting them, but only produced another fireball - I still won the battle easily enough though. Skeletons and MMM did most of the work going through the Grove and I got another level there, but while preparing to finish off the last of the trolls in the troll mound, this happened.
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    My saving throw then was 4, so if I had been taking the precaution of using the ring of air control before casting I would have had an automatic save. While the odds of dying when using any single spell at that stage were minute, I'd been casting a lot and had had numerous surges in BG2 even at this pretty early point - and eventually my luck ran out ...
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited January 2023
    @Grond0 That WAS unlucky, but you know what a certain mage says...

    Marin et al have found Chelak's brother. :'(

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    Sadly one of the sword spiders homed in on Dynaheir and refused to be diverted. :(

    We could have used a raise dead but decided to save it in case we had really dire circumstances later.

    We therefore returned to the FAI where she was raised, after which she was healed by the clerics in the party.
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
  • Corey_RussellCorey_Russell Member Posts: 996
    @Grond0 Sorry about that unlucky surge. But at least your character demonstrated some foresight. You can see in your sceenshot your character says "This will not take long." And his prediction was spot on! Just not in the way you hoped...
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    :smiley:
    It happens to the best of us. Literally
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited February 2023
    @Grond0 That WAS unlucky, but you know what a certain mage says...

    Only too well - I suppose I should really pay more attention o:).

    The amount of spell use in that run was always likely to cause trouble in the end. As a reaction to that, I thought I would try another run with a wild mage, but this time forbidding any spells at all that could cause a surge - those include Bhaal powers, though auto-casting of healing during sleep does not check for a surge. Of mage spells, only identify is allowable in this run. In BGEE there are plenty of resources that can compensate for lack of spells, though without knock or holy might I had slightly less cash than usual. Most enemies though were just taken down with missiles anyway.

    The only battle which really concerned me was the palace. I did seriously consider using a bit of extra cheese there by charming 2 or 3 of the nobles that will become dopplegangers in order to allow them to be taken down in smaller groups. In the end though I played it reasonably fair - and nearly paid for that. I had to resort to the risk of using a scorcher in the crowded environment when there were 3 remaining dopplegangers with all my summons dead and Belt standing alone. That worked, but it was still touch and go and I had a sigh of relief when the last doppleganger was stunned with Belt clinging on at near death.
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    The battle with Sarevok just needed a modicum of care while I ran him round until he was finally weighed down by the number of sling bullets he'd collected.
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    I don't remember doing SoD using a spell-less mage before, but that game is even more stuffed with resources than BGEE and I don't think there should be any insuperable difficulties in that. If I do manage to get through to BG2EE though the starting dungeon might well be a major problem without a familiar, summons or spells ...
  • RaygaRayga Member Posts: 50
    edited February 2023
    Gnome Fighter/Illusionist Shadows of Amn part 2

    Back to deadly Athkatla current level is 11/11. Most of the fights are still too risky to attempt, mages especially are deadly at this moment without full spell armor and saves not high enough. Maximum HP for everybody seriously boosted enemies and made it much more interesting. So far I have avoided fights from Tactics Remix. I have to say there is not many of them though. Main goal for now are both getting 10000 more gp for Robes of Vecna and getting 1.5m total XP to get access to 6th level spells.

    To my usual spell armor I have added protection from cold, minor spell turning, fire shield and soon will add protection from magical energies. I would addo protection from lightning already but for now I bought boots 50% lightning resistance from temple district to save one more Sunfire cast. Next weapon proficiency Im going for are Flails.

    The session started with quick visit to circus which resulted in level up and followed by usual city ambush.
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    Feeling bold and strong I decided to enter first level of Watchers Keep for both easy XP and golem summoning book. Most of the floor is canon fodder. All but Vampiric Wraiths. They were always tough but with maximum HP they got heavy boost. Combined with their vampiric healing they completely kicked my ass and forced me to retreat.
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    After this sound defeat I ventured to grave district in search of more experience. Sunfire once again is MVP against most of undeads and spiders. Arabane protected me from paralysis and web.
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    Check this out. Two ghasts from the same pack dropped two scrolls both from 6th level and both most important spells for me and ones I would buy asap after levelup. Tymora smiles down upon my gnome.
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    Had quite a shock because one of spiders managed to land that single target web on me! It almost ended my run if it wasnt such a short duration and I had most of buffs on me. I was always sure that Arabane's sword protected from hold? Or is that classified as stunning entangle or just a stun?
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    After that near fiasco I moved to Bridge District to get all available XP from there. Started with fallen paladins. Sunfire still MVP.
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    Grabbed Horn of Valhalla.
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    Murdered shadow thieves traitors and their new contact.
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    Reijek's quest was next.
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    Ambushed Falahar's party and completely flattened them with Sunfire.
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    Snuck invisible on Neb resulting in him tanking few swings of Belm before fight started. When he tried to escape on invisibility I had only to counter with signle Oracle and finish the little turd.
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    Approachin 1.5m XP I decided it was time for round 2 against Vampirit Wraiths. I should probably wait for 12 lvl of mage and access to Improved Haste which would trivialise the fight but I wanted to avoid that because of Poison Badge encounter. Im not sure at what level this encounter started. If I remember it was something like 1.5m-2m xp per party member? Or it counted only on MC? Before going there I purchased Robes of Vecna and few scrolls.

    Not ready at all for Poison Badge I decided to avoid that and went there just before 1.5m total XP.

    Round 2
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    I managed to slay one before being once again forced to retreat. It could be considered a success tho

    Round 3
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    Worthy reward in a form of level up!

    Done with vampiric wraiths I summoned myself a strike team to help me clear the rest of the floor. It had to be the most pathetic strike team in history Im afraid.
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    Last two packs were cleared by swords with a little help from environment in case of spiders.
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    Done with Watchers Keep for now I returned to Docks with Mae'var as next target. Ofcourse I had to do all the little quests and before I even arrived at Rayic Getras there was suprise waiting on the streets. I always avoided most of night encounters with vampires but in this run Im in dire need of XP. As soon as Vampires spawned after talk with Sansuki I went invisible and casted few important buffs. Poor blood drinkers didnt stand a chance against Improved Haste and granted me a bit of XP.
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    Cleared mansion swiftly and started encounter with Rayic. Another fool ignoring armed and buffed adventurer in his house. Before fight started he got two stabs in his robes and two charges from Cloudkill wand were the end of him. Trapped table was also almost the end of me.

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    While in Temple District I have snatched Cloak of Sewers.
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    As for Mae'Var... Well that boi needs some serious upgrade from Morpheus.
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    Poor Mencar and his team.
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  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited February 2023
    'Long-life challenge' - Fighter / Thief {9} (update 1)

    I've had several losses in the last few days from carelessness in one form or another. It's been the best part of a year since I had a success with this challenge, so I really need to try and string a decent run together. The random selection this time threw up a 9th attempt with a fighter/thief. There's a decent argument that this is the easiest class to do the full set of games with, so I should have a pretty good chance if I can play a bit more cautiously than usual. The previous attempt with this class was last April and only failed at the Fire Temple as a result of a bug there, so I feel as though I'm perhaps due another attempt at ToB this time.

    The early stages of the run concentrated on getting levels quickly. The 5k XP from Shoal gave me an initial boost to F2/T3. Following Korax round to deal with Mutamin and the basilisks gives 27k and that moved me on to F5/T5 before I killed Kirian's party using traps laid from the shelter of a boulder. A few more minor encounters included acquiring Meilum's bracers and got me a 6th thief level. That allowed me to set a second trap per day and encouraged me to set some traps for Elminster. A full complement of normal thief traps has a decent chance of killing him, but that's not guaranteed and this time he just survived. However, I was out of his sight too quickly for him to target me and then tried out a series of stealth shots on him. The 5th of those struck home to get me another 26k XP and a 6th fighter level.
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    This character has proficiencies in scimitar and crossbow. I assume the scimitar was originally chosen to benefit from Drizzt's equipment, since acquiring that is particularly beneficial for a F/T - not only from the weapons, but the armor that allows stealth. The initial character creation was in 2018, when Drizzt was easily killable by the attacking gnolls, but the fact I started with high ability in set traps is probably an indication I was expecting to kill him myself even then. After the gnolls were all dead I set a bunch of traps and led Drizzt into those. That took him down to 11 HPs and the two more I could set for the new day were enough to finish him off despite his cure medium wounds.
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    That netted 12k, though that was not quite enough for a 7th thief level - that came from stealth attacks on Thalantyr's golems.

    I used the potion of clarity from Candlekeep to protect against Drizzt's charm, so didn't have that available for sirines. Given that, I would probably normally have tackled them using stealth shots and traps. However, following the intended low risk approach this run, I went to Ulgoth's Beard to get the Greenstone Amulet even though I typically buy virtually nothing until reputation is maximised. That allowed me to melee the sirines before more stealth attacks on the golems let me pick up the constitution tome to activate regeneration.
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    At Durlag's Tower, backstabs dealt with battle horrors before a couple of mirror eye potions were used on the basilisks, providing me my final BGEE levels at F7/T8.
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    My reputation is still down in the dumps at 6, so I'll work on restoring that next time before cracking on with the main quest.

    F7/T8, 79 HPs, 92 kills
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited February 2023
    @Grond0 Better luck this time.

    I have a peculiarity.

    Whilst rolling a fighter/cleric half-orc, I cannot put proficiency points for blunt weapons/staves, but I can put them in bows, swords, axes. That's weird! I think that I might try it out to see if I can actually use bows etc. Clearly a clash between mods.

    I may have to use keeper to rectify things.

    EDIT

    He can use all items except for some mod ones. In my game I will self-restrict myself to only use weapons that a cleric can use. It looks like I will have to use keeper to give proficiency points in staves. :(
    Post edited by Wise_Grimwald on
  • RaygaRayga Member Posts: 50
    Holy shit wasn't it impossible to kill Elminster in BG1??

    I remember that he took 0 dmg always or attacks just didnt land on him.

    Only in BG2 with TimeStop + Squid Face I could do it.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited February 2023
    Rayga wrote: »
    Holy shit wasn't it impossible to kill Elminster in BG1??

    I remember that he took 0 dmg always or attacks just didnt land on him.

    Only in BG2 with TimeStop + Squid Face I could do it.

    I seem to remember it was possible even in the original, but I wouldn't trust my memory! It's definitely always been possible in the EE, though it's pretty much only thief characters I ever try it with.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    It was possible in tutu and bgt when you got the set traps ability from bg2.
    I don't think it was ever possible in vanilla
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    There are a number of characters you're not supposed to kill in BG1, with varying levels of protection. Elminster is pretty moderate on that scale, with a mere base AC of -9 and 100% magic resistance (as of current BGEE). 92 hit points, no damage resistances. He's not even as tough as Drizzt.
    He also has some protection from his script; if he's attacked, he either drops a cow on you or turns you into a chicken temporarily, and then leaves.

    BG2EE gave the creatures you're not supposed to kill immortality items instead, which are much harder to get around.
  • Gate70Gate70 Member, Developer Posts: 3,870
    Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer attempt 237, Core rules + unmodded (from 236)
    Sorrarm and Laughalot the Jester

    The next pair of randoms arrive and quickly dispose of a wolf hanging around outside Candlekeep.
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    Our run almost ends as we are ambushed leaving this area - only level 1 protection saving Sorrarm and prompting an emergency blue potion gulp.
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    Sorrarm knows Protection from Petrification so naturally we head over to play with basilisks.
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    Kirian and her three blind micelike lackeys are victimised next.
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    Sorrarm makes a note to try and remember more details of the next session, including perhaps his class. For now let's assume he's a sorcerer because I'm reasonably sure that's what he is.
  • RaygaRayga Member Posts: 50
    edited February 2023
    Gnome Fighter/Illusionist Shadows of Amn part 3

    Another adventure full of XP farming. Im still avoiding fights with high mages but with 6th lvl spells I received much needed boost and lots of fights should go smooth now. With enough gold farmed for short sword of mask +4 current goal is 3m XP to unlock both 7th lvl spells and warrior HLA.

    This session started with sewers cleanup and slaughter of slavers in slums. Sunfire still MVP no surprises.
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    For Slaver Mages I summoned few helpers and attacked invisible.
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    Next in order was helping Raelis Shai with rescuing Haer'dalis but first a group of arrogant adventures caught my eye. Summoned few helpers and snuck on them invisible. Unfortunately Efreeti revealed our position by dropping Flame Strike on some stray goblins. Still Gaius fell before the group could rally. Chaos in their midst completely neutralised them.
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    In Mekrath's dungeon Ive encountered the same problem. Somehow this Yuan-ti pack with triple yuan-ti mage is one of the most difficult encounters in the game. Its early enough that my remove magic doesnt work so well on them but theirs work good enough on me. Even with me using two charges from wand of cloudkill they somehow managed to land dispell magic on me and then bombard me with MMM. Thankfuly I was expecting it and I was in good position to line of sight them while they were stuck in cloudkill. After being reduced down to 12hp I just went invisible and blocked their exit from cloudkill room and waited.
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    Mekrath learned what it means to be ganked.
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    Close.
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    Barely crawled out of sewers and already encountered some juicy XP, I mean vampires.
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    I have learned that it is possible to redirect divine Smite from god Talos with 5th lvl spell lol.
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    Another ambush while travelling to Druid's Grove.
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    Time for some troll slaying. Probably could do it earlier but I like to have protection from magical energies for Spirit Trolls unholy blight. Sunfire pretty much carried me trough entire zone.
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    Took care of Rakshasha with help of summons.
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    Bought cloak fo displacement and belt of inferial barrier. Next cleared entire Umar and part of Ruined Temple.

    Back to slaughtering Trolls but this time in Nalia's service. Not much to tell. Just buffed up and destroyed everything with Sunfire.
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    Forging Flail of Ages rewarded me with much awaited level up. 7th lvl spells unlocked and first Critical Strikes chosen. Also ring of earth control is a great upgrade and I will probably wear it untill Ring of Gaxx. On my way back to Athkatla Ive been ambushed by ogres who dropped incredible scrolls.
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    With my Efreeti summons and spell sequencer: 3x fireball ready I went to TorGal.
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    Done with trolls I moved to Windpspear hills. There are no liches there so I should be able to clear whole place.

    My first main opponent was Ruhk Transmuter who turned out to be a high mage in my previous runs. This time tho he started casting True Sight as soon as I appeared before him. Not wasting the opening Ive used Critical Strikes for the first time in this run and took him down before he could even finish his cast.
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    Second main opponent is big group of vampires who can easily swarm and overwhelm me. To prevent that I decided on attacking them with brute force this time. Which turned out to be even more effective. Its my new favourite spell: Fireball Volley.
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    Guardians are harmless thanks to stoneskin and protection from fire. Director could be problematic but to prevent that I used Critical Strikes to erase him in one round.
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    Finishing King Strohm's quest I leveled up once again. This time its 15th lvl of Fighter which allows me to put second point intro Flails and wreak havoc with FoA.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    'Long-life challenge' - Fighter / Thief {9} (update 2)
    Previous updates: My reputation was rapidly maximised thanks to Prism, Samuel, Joia, Farmer Brun, Mr Colquetle, Melicamp, Bjornin, Tamah, Brage, Dryad of the Cloud Peaks, Drienne, Charleston Nib and Hulrik.

    A couple of desired objects not yet found were the charisma tome and the ring of energy. I was thinking of just using area damage from out of sight on the latter, but didn't have any source of that and took a minute or two longer to pepper them with stealth shots.
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    Now that prices were more realistic I did some shopping, including buying a necklace of missiles ;).

    Then it was down to the real business with a trip through the Nashkel Mine. Mulahey was backstabbed and I briefly convinced him I was from Tazok, thinking I would do another backstab. However, his morale broke anyway and I just finished him off in melee.
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    Outside the mine the amazons were dealt with individually. To avoid using the same tactic over and over again I tried backstabbing Lamalha after the others were shot down, but rolled a critical miss. I could have run, but decided to use a potion of magic blocking to finish her off.
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    There were no mistakes with backstabs on Nimbul and Tranzig though as I moved on to the Bandit Camp.
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    There was more backstabbing clearing the exterior there, including an impressive one-shot on Taurgosz.
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    Inside Tazok's tent Venkt was another to be one-shotted and I had time to hide before everyone went hostile and do the same to Raemon.
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    The others were just meleed. My detect traps skill is a pretty miserable 20, but that was still sufficient to disarm the trapped chest.

    I drew the ettercaps away from their web traps to kill them, but otherwise left the Cloakwood in peace on my way to the mine. A stunning dart disabled Rezdan there and that allowed me to safely nip in for a backstab on Kysus before cutting down the disabled mage.
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    I took advantage of my better weapon speed in a running fight with Drasus before backstabbing Genthore.
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    I sneaked through the mine to find Davaeorn and got a bit more easy XP there by backstabbing his battle horror guards using the partition wall to hide.
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    I invested a charge from the Greenstone Amulet to melee Davaeorn and successfully wore through his mirrors and interrupted his attempt to summon help before finishing him off.
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    I've just arrived in Baldur's Gate and it shouldn't take too long now to complete BGEE.

    F7/T8, 79 HPs, 242 kills
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    Running the numbers ... 1d8+5 from weapon and specialization, +5 from strength ... looks like that was a maximum-damage critical backstab on Taurgosz. Which is overkill, since he only has 56 HP; even a mediocre damage roll would have done it.

    And yeah, it doesn't take much Detect Traps to handle that chest in Tazok's tent. The requirements for that skill jump up in the Cloakwood, though; it takes 50 to see the web traps, and one of Dave's traps (a Glyph of Warding) spikes all the way to 90.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited February 2023
    'Long-life challenge' - Fighter / Thief {9} (update 3)
    Previous updates:
    I didn't do a number of the encounters I usually complete in the City, but picked up the tomes, along with Helm & Cloak of Balduran. Ramazith and Sunin were backstabbed for their rings and I couldn't resist using a stealth shot to stun the local basilisk.
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    Jalantha survived a backstab during the poison quest, but not the follow-up attack.
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    I tried using another stunning dart on Lothander as he ran away, but got a poor initiative roll and was too slow to even get an attack in. Marek suffered a similar fate to Jalantha after he regretted that the redesign of his favorite inn had included pillars perfect to hide behind.
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    The dopplegangers in the Seven Suns were put back in their box before I did a bit more shopping, including belatedly nipping back to Beregost to get the light crossbow of speed. I nearly always fight at the Iron Throne, but this time just sneaked in to find Thaldorn, in order to open up more adventures in Candlekeep.

    Purchases had included potions of perception, so I was able to disarm traps in the catacombs to get at the tomes there easily. Again I bucked my normal practice by allowing Prat and the basilisks to remain unharmed as I sneaked out.

    After resting for a second Bhaal DUHM I went back into the City and did a final review of inventory before heading to find Slythe. I wasn't bothered about Krystin's equipment, so just stealth shot Slythe with a dispelling arrow to slow him down. He then saved against 2 stunning darts and I was just about to go into melee when he failed against a final attempt.
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    At the palace I just relied on my fighting ability, boosted by potions. I considered hiding just before the fighting started in order to get a backstab in, but wanted the dopplegangers to attack me rather than the dukes if possible. One of them did so, to make the fight significantly safer, and Belt still had a comfortable number of HPs when the last doppleganger fell.
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    The continuing potion buffs let me make short work of various obstacles in the maze, but I bypassed Rahvin and his party in the Undercity and rested before the final battle. As I'd done rather less fighting than usual, I treated myself to a PfM scroll and took on Sarevok and all his cronies. He was dispelled early on, making it easy to run rings round him even without any use of potions. I think Angelo was killed by one of Semaj's spells, but Semaj himself and Tazok were killed by missile fire on the move. Sarevok then faced the headache of dealing with a stealthy character - that didn't end well for him.
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    Despite not taking a lot of the XP on offer in the later stages, I still transferred to SoD with a bit over 300k, so will be able to do an immediate level up there.

    F7/T8, 84 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 283 kills
  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    @Grond0 Congrats on reaching SoD.
  • Gate70Gate70 Member, Developer Posts: 3,870
    Trio 50 ([Links to earlier sessions 1 2 3)
    Betsof - human male dark moon monk Gate70
    Disco - elf female diviner @Grond0
    CoreThief XXXI - dwarf male Fighter / Thief @Corey_Russell

    It had been a long week, stuck underneath Candlekeep. Corethief XXXI suggested we should escape without fighting Prat or anybody else so the dead-Disco didn't lose too much XP compared to her companions. Betsof hid, then joined in as Corethief killed any doppelganger he could hunt down. True to his word he did slip past Prat unobserved but emerged to kill a pair of greater basilisks.

    We raised Disco at Beregost temple and returned to the city. With three party deaths last week we were extremely cautious for at least the first couple of minutes.

    Corethief and Disco stared in amazement as Betsof lost his way and ended up backpacking Duke Eltan. So we detoured to the docks and dropped him off the harbour. Or with the harbour master?

    Slythe fought without Krystin today, badly. Then mayhem at the coronation, plenty of deaths including another dunking for Disco.
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    Having mostly survived we sought out another temple and descended into the thieves maze. Corethief took some damage from a pair of skeleton warriors despite being protected from undead so we used our second green scroll to finish them, and this meant we had no more scrolls to farm the larger group near the temple of Bhaal.

    Rahvin and his gang looked like easy marks and so it proved until our webs expired before the man himself.
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    He took the opportunity to shoot and kill Disco alongside Carston. Corethief and Betsof retreated carrrying Disco's boots of speed so she could race back more promptly than would otherwise be the case.
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    We killed Carston first, rested so Disco rememorised her spells and then we eliminated Wudei. Next was Rahvin - who killed Disco as Betsof ran from an aggrieved Tamoko.
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    After our third temple trek of the session we made it to Sarevok. Corethief dispelled him with an arrow, Disco malisoned and webbed him as Betsof blinded him. He died before Tazok emerged to attack Corethief so that never happened.
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    Shadows of Amn

    Our escape from Chateau Irenicus remains mostly obscured, only one screenshot making it today. The three of us emerged and emptied our backpacks to end the session outside the circus tent with some cash to burn.
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    Party gear so far
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  • Wise_GrimwaldWise_Grimwald Member Posts: 3,848
    edited February 2023
    @Gate70 A bit too close for comfort!!!

    Meanwhile Marin and party returned to Cloakwood killed a dragon and several wyvern before webbing Drasus et al and wiping them out with area spells from Dynaheir, Baeloth and Tenya. There was no need to use wand charges. :)
    This time I ensured that we were fully buffed upon enteringg the mine. :) I also changed the party order so that the mages weren't killed.

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