Having ghouls attack in the middle of the fight with Droth made it interesting. Thankfully only Edwin got held and even he survived the conflict, but only just.
@Wise_Grimwald indeed it was an interesting session. @Grond0 doesn't feel we "truly" adventured unless there's at least one party death in the session. In this case, though he got two deaths and they were himself! What more could he want?
@Wise_Grimwald indeed it was an interesting session. @Grond0 doesn't feel we "truly" adventured unless there's at least one party death in the session. In this case, though he got two deaths and they were himself! What more could he want?
Journal of Brutus.
Indeed Shoal was not a problem. Neither were the carrion crawlers or the sirine.
We visited Charlestonian Nib and killed both him and Galtor before killing the Doomsayer. We then helped Brage.
Lindin and his fellow party members were the next to fall. We had used many of our spells so we returned to Beregost where we gave Perdue his sword.
Upon returning Dorn used a scroll to protect him from petrification. Whilst killing the basilisks both Safana and I levelled up.
Lastly Mutamin was killed despite him saving against web.
Continuation of no-reload run with Halfling CG Cleric Buck Greenteeth (started p.485 of this thread).
Party of 4 with:
Safana
Minsc
Dynaheir
I finally completed Durlag's Tower, for the first time! what a great dungeon...
We cautiously progressed past that fireball chamber at the beginning of lower level 3. Did not run into any major difficulty, other than Safana getting bacskatbbed and killed by an Ashirukuru (causing us to head back to the Beregost temple). Later, we fireballed the chess board and this one went fine.
The funal dungeon encounter with the demon knight was also smooth, summons tanked him at the center of the room whilst the party kited from a distance.
The sequence of fights back in Ulgoth's Beard however, were rough. I was surprised to be ambushed right when entering the map, quickly an AoE disabling spell (was it chaos? can't remember) hit Buck and Safana. I was lucky that the former ran out of ennemies' range, Safana however fell again. Minsc and Dynaheir on their own turned the battle around, but it was a close (and fun) brawl.
In the cultists' house, this time it was Dynaheir who fell to a backstab. I finally disposed of the crew, went downstairs protected by potions of mirrored eyes... drew Aec'Letec upstairs, killed him... but then as I went down the stairs again, saw him respawn !! that was another surprise...
I buffed one more time against his gaze, killed all remaining cultists and then brought him down a second time. Aec'Letec was finally defeated !
We then rushed to finish BG1. That group of 4 proved very solid and balanced.
Traps continue to be the number one danger of any no-reload run, and in spite of Safana scouting ahead Minsc fell twice to lightning, once in the Candlekeep catacombs, once in the maze under BG city.
The coronation and final Sarevok fights went smoothly and that was the conclusion of that successful BG1 no-reload run.
- Buck was our tank, summoner and buffer. The greenstone amulet kept him safe from nasty spells. He was the leader and anchor of our party's combat tactics.
- Safana scouted for traps, opened locks and kited with a shortbow and that was about it, except using wand of sleep through the first chapters. She was killed 4 times (twice traps, twice backstabs).
- Minsc was our main damage dealer, at range with his longbow first and then closing in wielding his two-handed blade for the finish. He fell twice to traps and was always brave in battle, getting 40% of the kills.
- Dynaheir grew, like any mage, to become more powerful towards the end of BG1. From a backline caster launching fireballs or magic missiles, I gradually used her as frontline impact. Wearing boots of speed and protected by stoneskin, she would often lead the way with fire scorchers from her wand of fire, softening ennemies ranks before Buck and Minsc charged in melee. She died twice (backstab and autokill by Angelo).
The same party then went on to Siege of Dragonspear...
This was only my third run through (and first completion of) Siege of Dragonspear.
I really, really enjoyed the smarter AI (similar to SCS as I understand). The large battles are something new to the series, very flavourful. Several of the dungeons are nice (dwarven dig site, temple of Bhaal, caverns under the castle). Story a bit linear and some awkward choices at times, damaging a bit the rolepay immersion.
The idea was to continue with exact same party as BG1 (nice to keep same equipment, including all those potions and recharged wands) :
- cleared dwarven dig site and repository of undeath. This is such a cool side quest, hordes of undead, first lich... fire was used a lot, Dynaheir carried us with her wand. It was a close call when facing Gurn Coldheart, had to run fast to destroy its phylactery before he would wipe us out with his spells.
- there was a difficult fight in a spiders' lair, Minsc got held by web (I forgot to switch swords to Spider's Bane) and killed. The other three party members retreated to a side room, healed up and called summons for help.
- Morentherene was killed in style (full buffs, summons, dispel and then charge in, Minsc got the kill), our first dragon! prevailed without too much scary moments in the Temple of Bhaal underneath.
- ambush in the no-magic zone (cool idea! can't remember if this one is before or after Boareskyr). Dynaheir could not stoneskin and got backstabbed to death. We won the fight but the backstabber escaped!...
The battles this team led at Bridgefort and Boareskyr bridge deserve a specific tale !
Buck & co used the wardstone retrieved in the Temple of Bhaal to teleport inside the fort. After having scouted the besieging crusader forces, Buck convinced Khalid to open the gates and charge in without waiting for allied reinforcements camped nearby.
This proved to be somewhat of a maverick move. The plan was to let the fort soldiers tank, whilst Buck and Dynaheir would spam AoE disablers, Minsc and Safana pelting arrows. This is where Dynaheir being an Invoker, thus not having access to the Enchantment school AoE spells, was felt. She used wand of Fear but not her offensive AoE magic such as fireball, for fear of collateral damage; Buck cast Silence, Hold Person, Dispel Magic...
Towards the back of the crusaders' camp, several arcane casters were out of reach and they successfully weakened allied ranks with Chaos, confusion and the likes... essentially we were being dominated in the AoE magic battle. After several turns of brawl and a lot of casualties on both sides, a group of around ten crusaders were left standing including a mage, whilst Minsc had been slain in melee combat and Safana disabled by a spell and killed.
Retreat was the only option for Buck and Dynaheir, they went invisible (potion and sanctuary) and regrouped at the back end of the fort... only to find Khalid hiding there !! Some things will never change... Time for healing, buff and summoning a couple skeletons and Gnolls from the wand of monster summoning... they (as in: without Khalid) charged in and victory was ours !! (although almost everyone perished in the process).
This had been a very tough fight and our heroes now had to secure the bridge...
At this point, Minsc and Safana were dead; Buck and Dynaheir, although now fully healed, had exhausted their spells.
For role-playing reasons, resting was not an option. Raising our fallen comrades neither, since the coalition camp cleric Mizhena was not part of the Flaming Fist troops that had rushed to Bridgefort after hearing about the battle.
Buck & Dynaheir respectively grabbed their club and sling and rushed towards Boareskyr bridge. Summoned gnolls tanked the small crusader group but their mage did manage to open a portal through which several beings were summoned seeking to blow up the bridge ! Ensued a long and slow melee brawl between a hasted Buck and several fire salamanders, mephits and lesser fire elementals. Dynaheir was alternating between sling and wand of ice.
At some point two fire beams (from mephits I think) briefly connected with the barrels on the bridge, but the creatures were quickly disposed of and the explosion did not ignite. Very close call.
At long last, Buck killed the last elemental and the bridge was salvaged and now under the control of the coalition forces !!
My team is still working its way through Durag's. We pickpocketted Kirinhale before killing her. We only needed one potion of mirrored eyes to kill the basilisks. Now heading downwards. Killed Riggilo on the way thus regaining the gold that we gave him. Ghouls and ghasts that appeared when we tried to sleep gave us quite a problem but we survived and the experience that the ghasts provided caused Baeloth to level up.
We raised Durlag's Sword and used the gong, but then Dorn was killed by the skeleton warrior! It was quite a battle!
With difficulty we got Durlag's Plate and other nearby treasure. We then solved the riddle of the Fear and Pride Warders.
We'll be back!
However Dorn needs raising first.
We may delay our return somewhat as Nashkel mine needs to be dealt with.
At some point two fire beams (from mephits I think) briefly connected with the barrels on the bridge, but the creatures were quickly disposed of and the explosion did not ignite. Very close call.
At long last, Buck killed the last elemental and the bridge was salvaged and now under the control of the coalition forces !!
@Ignatius sounds like you came out on the right side of an exciting battle - keep it going!
Dorn is now raised and at the temple reputation was raised from 8 to 12. Rather foolishly we did shopping at Durlag's before raising reputation. We are now poor again. However, now I am wearing Durlag's Plate I feel a bit safer.
Baeloth and Edwin now feel a bit safer now that they have stoneskin.
We went to Ice Island and whilst we killed most of the mages near the entrance, one teleported into our midst and used a fireball spell that killed Dorn and seriously injured the rest of us.
Then came a stupendous bit of luck.
The game crashed! Upon reloading all the mages were killed with few injuries for us.
We were able to heal ourselves completely before sleeping to memorise spells.
The other mages did us harm but we returned to Ulgoth's safely where we rested.
@Wise_Grimwald : DT before Nashkel Mines, that is quite... ambitious!
When playing a solo thief it is worthwhile going to Durlag's at level 2!
You have great opportunities to level up quickly when taking on ghasts. Use Imoen's oil of speed. Backstab, retreat up the stairs, hide and repeat. With dangerous enemies, just hide and avoid them. Plenty of potions available for free for thieves.
I have never played a Shadow Dancer so may try this one for my next game. Actually I have only played thieves in the Tutu version of the game.
The mistake that I made was taking on the skeleton warrior rather than get Safana to sneak past it for the goodies!
However the trip was still worthwhile even with Dorn's death.
Divine Power - FINAL update
Theen - gnome cleric/thief, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Dayglow - cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb - cavalier (Gate70)
The party did well during the Unseeing Eye quest. We also cleared out the entire lair of Firkraag's. We also defeated Conster.
We tried some summons and traps (3) against Firkraag and some buffs. Problem? Grond0 got held (and killed). Drubb eventually succumbed. Firkraag was near death, can Theen avenge his friends? Uh, no a 145 damage fire ball one shotted Theen. He did resist 58 of the damage but that wasn't enough. RIP Theen.
Our failed interview with Firkraag had left plenty of time for new misadventures, so we were soon underway again in Candlekeep. We successfully escaped from there, but didn't get much further . At the coast, Lothar successfully commanded Shoal a couple of times to put her near death. She then started chasing Jeanluc, who retreated far enough to activate a wolf before Shoal keeled over under the weight of missiles stuck in her body - at which point I took a screenshot to mark the first level gained by a member of the party.
The difficulty with doing that was that I've fairly recently got a new computer which uses Windows 11. By default, taking a screenshot in that opens a snipping tool - minimising the game. I've now finally got around to changing that setting, but that meant I was out of the game for a couple of seconds and came back to find that the wolf was next to Lothar and Jeanluc. On the screen it looked as though it was attacking Jeanluc and my instant assessment of the situation failed to notice that Lothar had in fact already been wounded. As a result, the moment available to me to act was taken up in replacing Lothar's sling with a quarterstaff rather than running away - and that proved fatal an instant later ...
We killed Mulahey and Lalamha's Party with no difficulty. Killing the Revenant boosted experience as well as giving us a +2 dagger.
We then killed Narcillicus Harwilliger Neen and the ghasts in the nearby cave before going to the Carnival to rest. The loot in the cave will be most useful.
We were rewarded in Nashkel and in Beregost gave scalps to Officer Vai.
We raided the bandit camp without getting into conflict and then killed Tranzig.
We arranged for Nimbul to kill Oublek and then killed an innocent before finishing off the bandit camp. The party now has a reputation of 8.
As a result I was able to cast horror when I slept at the FAI.
Now in Cloakwood.
We found Gurke's Cloak and helped Aldeth, then in transit Safana was held when fighting one of eight ettercaps. (We got out of position) They killed her. We killed them. Quite a lot of experience Cost to raise her 800gp. Trivial at this stage.
We killed Centeol and then the wyverns.
Drasus et al were dealt with using web and fireballs as were the first two mages. The ogre mage was dealt with using brute force and ignorance.
I sent in two skeletons to fight Davaeorn. They absorbed many of Davaeorn's spells. Then cast animal summoning which was enough to deal with Davaeorn's summons. Finished Davaeorn off using brute force and ignorance.
We didn't boost reputation by handing over the key. That can wait until I need extra reputation.
In transit killed 2 more wyvern.
After resting I received a second innate horror spell.
I then went to Baldur's Gate to deal with Simmeon.
The fight was straightforward, yet again web being of great use, as were magic missiles.
I had an interesting chat with Elminster. (Very different this time)
I was most surprised by this conversation!! I am neutral evil with a reputation of 8!! Hardly good!!
EDIT
It seems weird, but Dorn, also neutral evil gets the quest, but my Fighter/Cleric doesn't. To me that is illogical. However no problem.
Back with another run. As usual, I've started this one quite a few weeks ago, and it's another unmodded core rules run in line with my mission to get the missing kits into the Hall of Heroes. Shapeshifter is one of them, and one I've already attempted twice. One died very early on, because the kit tends to lead to very aggressive play in early BG1 - the damage output is fantastic from the get go, and one wants to make use of it before the better scaling of other classes makes the shapeshifter seem much worse. However, the mostly static armor class and relatively low healthpool make such aggressive play very risky until ironskins are acquired.
The second attempt was my "critical path only" run, which failed when fighting Sarevok. This time, the kit was mainly chosen for a very quick early game, as I didn't want to spend too much time in BG1. These are Kybele's starting stats: 8/18/18/10/18/18. Werewolf form gets an extra APR in BG1 EE when putting any weapon in the offhand - this does NOT work in BG2 EE for some reason (though you can still get at least 1 bonus attack via Belm). You can also initiate conversations with NPCs as a werewolf in BG1 EE, but NOT in BG2 EE, which feels really awful, especially while you're stuck with only 1 greater werewolf transformation. Going to BG2 suddenly turns your character from pretty good and a lot of fun to quite awful until you get another power spike with the greater werewolf form (until fighters once again outscale you at some point in late SoA). Some consistency between games would be very much appreciated here (same goes for the totemic druid, where things are quite the opposite: In BG1 EE, summoning spirit animals clouds your area, in BG2 EE it doesn't, so you can summon a whole bunch of them pretty much instantly).
More on that later. Kybele started off solo, with the plan to get 32k XP before adding any companions in order to save a lot of time that would be spend leveling up with a larger party. This was done via basilisks and a few minor sidequests, with no trouble over all. We got close to death 2-3 times very early on, when a werewolf can really only take 2 hits, but restarting at this point wouldn't have been a huge deal. Since Imoen is stuck at level 1 and doesn't get boosted to 32k XP upon rejoining, she's out in terms of party selection. Instead, we invited Ajantis, Khalid&Jaheira and Branwen, bought some magical arrows/bullets, and travelled to meet Safana - we had to clear out the sirens (with the help of Branwen's skeletons) and the flesh golem cavern (with the magical ammo) in order to get her to stay long-term. After that, some wilderness exploration. It seems like I didn't take any early screenshots - the earliest being a return to the basilisk area, taking out the adventuring group with the power of 2 druids using "call lightning":
This spell is so much fun - too bad you barely get opportunities to use it in the lategame or in BG2:
If I remember correctly, I cleared out the Nashkel mines soon after that, returning to some of the eastern wilderness areas after that - for which I once again have some screenshots:
Also, the upper levels of Durlag's Tower:
Though I won't do any other TotSC content, as per usual in these speedy unmodded runs.
Well, the party is supremely powerful at this point, with access to 4th level divine spells such as forest beings, who could clear out entire encounters by themselves. The bandit camp is soon to fall:
We enter Cloakwood, and Drasus makes the mistake of running headfirst into a few casting forest beings:
His allies soon followed:
And there goes Davaeorn. I really wanted to backstab him with Safana, but he died to skeleton warriors before she got into a good position:
The big city and BG1 endgame will follow tomorrow.
Back with another run. As usual, I've started this one quite a few weeks ago, and it's another unmodded core rules run in line with my mission to get the missing kits into the Hall of Heroes.
What other kits are left to do? I might try. Of course I'd have to play a lot safer than I usually do.
I am wondering if anyone has done a Berserker dualled to Cleric as in my current run which is going very well.
If so, I could perhaps switch to a Dwarven Cleric of Helm. (Lawful Evil) that I have already rolled. Stats below. I quite like the class. I also quite lke the portrait that I have knocked together from two sources on the web. He actually looks evil!! Of course in RL some of the most evil people don't look it. That's how they are able to get away with it. A friend of mine was a juror as a teenager and was completely taken in by a baby-faced criminal. Fortunately the other jurors were not taken in. He had quite a record!!
EDIT
In the end I decided to go with this Priest of Helm who is fairly nifty with staves.
Nope, the list is almost up to date - the only one who has made it in since is Invoker - so a priest of helm, for examplre, would indeed be very welcome
Lots of sidequests and gear to gain in the city. Kybele is often the only frontliner, given that her ranged abilities are vastly inferior to her werewolf form - for everything else, we have skeletons and forest beings:
Her survivability increases massively once she reaches level 9, right as we clear out the ogre mage bounty hunter house:
Now she has ironskins, and since we're stacking all the good AC gear on her, they don't really fall of at all, as the Helm&Cloak party or Degrodel's Minions were about to find out:
We did use a bunch of potions here to improve the other characters fighting abilities. Now, up to the Iron Throne, where we lure some of our foes downstairs to split them up and take them down:
Getting through Candlekeep is easy enough. Safana handles all of the traps, we move back to the city and go on our hunt for Sarevok. Our damage output and summoned help is powerful enough to save both dukes at the palace (didn't take any screenshots for a while here, it seems), and we chase down the big guy into the Undercity. Using a ton of potions, we prepare for battle as Khalid approaches with an arrow of dispelling on hand to disrupt Sareok's haste - soon after, Semaj teleports in:
The party splits up in different corners to avoid a massive remove magic, the one thing (aside from a chaos spell that we don't notice and don't counter with potions) that can really spoil this battle. While skeletons distract Sarevok, we apply insect plague, remove a few buffs with more dispelling arrows, have to take a greater malison but, in the end, kill Semaj before he's able to do anything dangerous:
None of the other foes make an appearance this time, so all we have to do is shoot down Sarevok, who is helpless without his haste:
I am surprised a bounty hunter has never made it. I do remember a player named @Harpagornis who did a run a few years back but do not remember if he got to Melissan and it may have been on the LoB thread.
Of course many of us also remember @Blackraven and his runs but he never made it all the way with his dwarven bounty hunter.
We rolled up another three characters last week and rested outside Candlekeep, picking up this week. Shoal the nereid soon lay dead before us, and on heading north to seek a crevice-nook-wizardry ring a wolf or two took bites out of Coreranger. Undeterred, we cut our way through hobgoblins and grabbed Joia's flamedance ring. By now Coreranger was looking worse for wear and upon being asked if he was ready for ankhegs; He Was Not.
Instead we foisted buried ankheg armour and the Whistling Shortsword onto him. Still he was unhappy, asking if we knew of any magical daggers so we got one for him - woe betide if the Revenant comes looking for it later.
Dubbel Dagnamit lived up to his name, repeating the question and duly ignoring the plaintiff "I haven't got a shield". Indeedy so we headed down into the ankheg nest for Coreranger to demonstrate his heroic potion-guzzling. He was up to this job.
Flush with our success we wandered around picking up many acts to boost our reputation including defeating the Doomsayer, then purchased some fine apparel at Ulgoth's Beard. With our reputation being unimpeachably perfect (barring accidents) we could focus on gathering up other people's equipment before venturing forth.
Having fumbled the charisma tome away (multiplayer glitch when passing between party members) we had more success with the constitution tome. All in all a relatively clean session and none of us died.
Slite and Dubbel Dagnamit played our usual game of you have the ring of protection +1 no you have it, culminating in Dubbel Dagnamit saying he would not be in melee so the mage could keep it. Ok, a bit of melee won't hurt. It's just a flesh wound.
We think we'll go hunt basilisks next time. Slite is somewhat colour-sensitive, and in addition to blue/green potion aversion, can't use protection from petrification scrolls unless they are green so we'll be picking one of those up from the carnival rather than the blue variety stocked at High Hedge.
I’ll start a bounty hunter tonight. I love that class.
Besides, I’ve been trying insane difficulty because a sorcerer and a dwarf defender aren’t challenging without bumping the difficulty, but the bounty hunter is a bit more frail.
Candlekeep was no problem so we headed off to the FAI where we returned Joia's Ring. To the north we killed Sonner's Party and gave the bowl to Tenya. Wise choice of spells enabled me to defeat a nearby ankheg.
I went to High Hedge where I helped Melicamp. then to Beregost where I calmed Marl thus attaining level 3.
I took a tome to Firebead which increased reputation to 15.
Bjornin wants me to head south to deal with half-ogres. I will comply with his wishes.
Killed Bassilus at the temple's request.
At Beregost I bought a better sling before heading south where I was unjustifyably attacked by three flaming fist. I was forced to flee and rest at Beregost.
I avoided them when I next headed south and battled numerous hobgoblins. Against them I prevailed with some difficulty, but after finding the Colquetle Amulet I finally arrived in Nashkel where I found some decent armour.
To the south-east I found a ring of protection from fire, was given a scroll from a gnome, and was asked to take Samuel to the FAI which I did.
Upon taking the amulet to Mr. Colquetle, I became a hero before heading to the Carnival for equipment.
I then headed for the mines and fought Greywolf. The mine guards brought him to near death after which I lured him to some nearby buildings. I cast Sanctuary, went behind the buildings, healed myself, buffed up, held him, and killed him.
Rufie and Albert were reunited and a dryad was helped bringing my reputation to 20 and my level to 5.
Then returned to the FAI for R&R and afterwards took on some ankheg. I had to rest after each one as my spells quickly wore off. So far killed 8. I took to Farmer Brun the body of his son, sold the ankheg shells and bought a +3 staff at Ulog's Beard. That made killing further ankhegs much easier.
That brought me up to level 6.
So far, so good.
It was time to enlist some help. Montaron for acquiring a cloak for instance, and Xzar to greet Shoal. No big deal if he gets killed permanently. The coast will after all be better off without them!
Xzar and Montaron joined me with 32,000 experience each. Montaron became a good pickpocket, but not much use for anything else. He has some skill in picking locks though. Xzar memorised a couple of my scrolls, identify being the most useful. Whilst resting to memorise his spells, we were ambushed by a ghast and fortunately was able to summon a skeleton as freedom of action potions are in short supply. The ghast was killed which gave us useful experience.
At Beregost Montaron purloined Algernon's Cloak and the contents of a few chests. There were several that he was unable to open. At Ulgoth's Beard three inhabitants suffered loss at his hands. We told Shandalar that we needed time to prepare for a quest that he had for us. Little did he know that our preparation included stealing some of his potions and scrolls.
The battle against Droth and Shoal went well. We rested afterwards. Montaron was reduced to 1hp due to Shoal's attack, but he wasn't killed largely due to a skeleton warrior attacking Droth. I cast sanctuary upon myself until Droth was focussed on the skeleton.
The magical resistance of the skeletons was also useful against the sirines though I did have to heal them otherwise they would have died and I might have been vulnerable to charm.
Now in Beregost to recuperate.
We killed Silke and Karlat easily and then Montaron pick-pocketted those whose lives we had saved. Afterwards one of them gave us yet another potion of defence. That's four of them that we got from them in total. Xzar cast luck on Montaron beforehand to ensure success.
I think that it is now time to bid them farewell before their unlawful behaviour causes problems.
Khaled and Jaheira were escorted to Nashkel where they left.
It is ironic that I invited Dorn to stay with the party after I was ambushed south of Nashkel.
He stayed until the death of Kryll
Even then he didn't leave until he and Dynaheir reached level 6 fighting ankhegs.
Minsc was then delighted to join us. He is not far from being level 6.
@Klorox Great to hear - glad to see another bounty hunter attempt. Propably the kit that's been the closest to actually getting there the most but still isn't in. @Wise_Grimwald Looking good so far
Kybele, half-elven Shapeshifter, Update II
Early SoA is a bit miserable for Kybele because of the nerfs to the kit once BG2 is reached - no more extra attack from dual wielding, no more ability to talk to NPCs as a werewolf. Luckily, this is also the time where a druid can easily solo most content with 2 fire elementals, 3 forest beings and an insect plague cast while protected by ironskins, death ward and chaotic commands, so we spend quite a bit of time outside of werewolf form, mostly to summon and cast insect plague (due to the lack of other powerful aggressive spells we still usually transform after that).
First, after making it out of the dungeon, we have to pick up a suitable party again. Since I'm once again banning myself from using some powerful strategies that would allow me to skip endgame encounters (such das PfU scrolls and all kinds of traps), I take Nalia along (might have to leave a few containers unopened, though important difficult ones can be done via potions or knock). Anomen as a cleric with good fighting abilities, Keldorn as he's great in unmodded games, and to fill up the party, I decide on the Valygar + Mazzy duo, since they're decent fighters and both available via an early trip to the Umar Hills - after stealing Daystar, this is where we start our adventure - fire elementals can take care of any and all shadows and skeleton warriors, they only need a little bit of help to deal with bone golems. For the shade lord, we've saved our Daystar sunray:
In order to keep Nalia around, we have to move on to De'Arnise keep rather quickly. Luckily, Keldorn can easily counter the yuan-ti mage with his inquisitor abilities, and insect plague shuts him down entirely:
To actually wound an iron golem, we have to pick up some weapons the party isn't actually very proficient with, but with a few powerful combat buffs and, more importantly, the help of our fire elementals (which do poorly against trolls, so we've saved them for this encounter), we can take this foe out:
A final round of buffs, and Tor'Gal is gone:
We've picked up some levels and some gold. Now, things get much easier. Ambushes and minor encounters are quickly dealt with via holy smite or quick breach-kills on spellcasters:
Back in Athkatla, we can finally turn our attention towards all the minor sidequests that I usually do first, but have neglected this time in order to complete my party as soon as possible. Mencar's wizard (or his familiar) actually hits a chaos on us, but Kybele is protected via chaotic commands, and of the others, only Valygar is affected (which means Keldorn can dispel the confusion effect as needed):
However, I decide not to linger in Athkatla too long - Kybele just feels too weak in werewolf form, so I want to obtain Belm and make my way to Trademeet & the Druid Grove. The rakshasa trio is potentially dangerous, so we prepare with a decent amount of buffs:
And Faldorn is held by a forest being:
We start the stronghold questline:
And return back to Athkatla, where we deal with the remaining minor encounters and sidequests, such as the bridge district party or the sewer party:
Sadly, we also have to face our first death in BG2 when Nalia fails to disarm this slime trap in Neb's house - her mirror images didn't protect her:
Luckily, there's a temple right next door. Since some time has passed, we complete the druid stronghold quest:
And finally, we deal with Mae'Vars guild, though I have no screenshots for that one.
Next time, we'll take on the more difficult stronghold quests, starting with the planar prison.
We hunted ankheg until Minsc reached level 6, sold the shells and bought full plate for him.
Shadow armour and the army scythe was also bought.
We killed Arghain which gives Minsc an unbreakable sword. We did have a number of breakable ones, but it's nce not to have to worry.
Safana joined up with us. We gave her proficiency with crossbows and together, with some difficulty we were able to defeat the sirines. It was necessary to use slow poison potions.
Raiding the cave also proved to be challenging.
In the basilisk area we killed some adventurers, Mutamin, and some basilisks. In the process Safana reached level 7.
After resting we went to Durlag's Tower where we spent all but 60gp of our gold.
We killed the battle horrors and proceeded to the Tower.
We buff up for the Planar Prison, splitting up the party in the opening encounter to take out both spellcasters right away, coming from invisibility 10' radius:
As we move eastwards, the mage here is able to hit Valygar with a chaos spell, and I make the mistake of not having Keldorn dispel it right away (I'm always hesitant to use Keldorn'd dispel on my own party members because I don't want to dispel their buffs, but leaving someone crowd controlled is far worse). To my surprise, the wyvern here moved all the way around the western path towards the confused Valygar, and, with me being out of position, was able to poison and kill him while the others moved forward:
Luckily, we had picked up a rod of resurrection from Mekrath's place and were able to rebuff and move on. After destroying the orb, we immediately rushed down the warden with a quick breach spell before he was able to do anything dangerous:
Next stronghold on our list: Windspear Hills. Before that, we pay Gaelan Bayle because I want the amulet of power for the level drain protection - put to good use by Kybele in order to tank a few vampires hits in the dungeon while Keldorn used the Daystar sunray:
Kybele now hits her big SoA powerspike: She gets access to greater werewolf form, and Nalia gets improved haste - this makes for an easy 8 APR with great AC and elemental resistances, taking Kybele from a relatively weak frontliner to a beast, until overtaken by fighters again in late SoA/early ToB:
The fighters shoot down the adamantite golem at range, and Conster falls to inquisitor true sight and dispel:
We use our remaining spells to take down Samia on the way out:
Since we've done well against the vampires here, Bodhi's lair is next:
Now, there's the Unseeing Eye. No lich spawn here yet, as our levels aren't too high, so the undead aren't too much of a problem:
The party rests and overruns the blind priests:
Shield of Balduran for the beholders, the rift device for their big boss:
Now, the planar sphere remains as the final stronghold quest. Luckily, Kybele is great at tanking (though not killing) golems, and Keldorn helps with the various halfling spellcasters. Tolgerias suffers death via breach:
Luckily, we have enough spellslots to get everyone chaotic commands for the demon battles, so they aren't much of an issue, and we can move on to our final stop before leaving for Spellhold - Watcher's Keep (we already cleared out level I much earlier, aside from the statues). Level 2 is what I usually clear before moving on, though first, Kybele can now win the Great Druid title:
At WKII, the lightning room isn't too tricky with immunity to the damage type (thanks to the level 4 divine spell), and neither is the slime room due to stun protection (via CC):
The ice room is a lot more tricky, as I didn't bother with the protection spell. Most notably, the golem is able to get through Kybele's stoneskins, which happens very rarely, though we do end up winning in a rather close battle:
Easy enough to deal with the fire giant at range, and we prepare a bunch of fire damage for the chromatic demon in ice form:
Comments
Sounds like an interesting session!
Journal of Brutus.
Having ghouls attack in the middle of the fight with Droth made it interesting. Thankfully only Edwin got held and even he survived the conflict, but only just.
We rested. Shoal should not be a problem.
Now teatime.
Journal of Brutus.
Indeed Shoal was not a problem. Neither were the carrion crawlers or the sirine.
We visited Charlestonian Nib and killed both him and Galtor before killing the Doomsayer. We then helped Brage.
Lindin and his fellow party members were the next to fall. We had used many of our spells so we returned to Beregost where we gave Perdue his sword.
Upon returning Dorn used a scroll to protect him from petrification. Whilst killing the basilisks both Safana and I levelled up.
Lastly Mutamin was killed despite him saving against web.
Party of 4 with:
Safana
Minsc
Dynaheir
I finally completed Durlag's Tower, for the first time! what a great dungeon...
We cautiously progressed past that fireball chamber at the beginning of lower level 3. Did not run into any major difficulty, other than Safana getting bacskatbbed and killed by an Ashirukuru (causing us to head back to the Beregost temple). Later, we fireballed the chess board and this one went fine.
The funal dungeon encounter with the demon knight was also smooth, summons tanked him at the center of the room whilst the party kited from a distance.
The sequence of fights back in Ulgoth's Beard however, were rough. I was surprised to be ambushed right when entering the map, quickly an AoE disabling spell (was it chaos? can't remember) hit Buck and Safana. I was lucky that the former ran out of ennemies' range, Safana however fell again. Minsc and Dynaheir on their own turned the battle around, but it was a close (and fun) brawl.
In the cultists' house, this time it was Dynaheir who fell to a backstab. I finally disposed of the crew, went downstairs protected by potions of mirrored eyes... drew Aec'Letec upstairs, killed him... but then as I went down the stairs again, saw him respawn !! that was another surprise...
I buffed one more time against his gaze, killed all remaining cultists and then brought him down a second time. Aec'Letec was finally defeated !
Traps continue to be the number one danger of any no-reload run, and in spite of Safana scouting ahead Minsc fell twice to lightning, once in the Candlekeep catacombs, once in the maze under BG city.
The coronation and final Sarevok fights went smoothly and that was the conclusion of that successful BG1 no-reload run.
- Buck was our tank, summoner and buffer. The greenstone amulet kept him safe from nasty spells. He was the leader and anchor of our party's combat tactics.
- Safana scouted for traps, opened locks and kited with a shortbow and that was about it, except using wand of sleep through the first chapters. She was killed 4 times (twice traps, twice backstabs).
- Minsc was our main damage dealer, at range with his longbow first and then closing in wielding his two-handed blade for the finish. He fell twice to traps and was always brave in battle, getting 40% of the kills.
- Dynaheir grew, like any mage, to become more powerful towards the end of BG1. From a backline caster launching fireballs or magic missiles, I gradually used her as frontline impact. Wearing boots of speed and protected by stoneskin, she would often lead the way with fire scorchers from her wand of fire, softening ennemies ranks before Buck and Minsc charged in melee. She died twice (backstab and autokill by Angelo).
The same party then went on to Siege of Dragonspear...
I really, really enjoyed the smarter AI (similar to SCS as I understand). The large battles are something new to the series, very flavourful. Several of the dungeons are nice (dwarven dig site, temple of Bhaal, caverns under the castle). Story a bit linear and some awkward choices at times, damaging a bit the rolepay immersion.
The idea was to continue with exact same party as BG1 (nice to keep same equipment, including all those potions and recharged wands) :
Buck Greenteeth (CG Halfling Cleric)
Safana
Minsc
Dynaheir
Before Boareskyr the highlights were:
- cleared dwarven dig site and repository of undeath. This is such a cool side quest, hordes of undead, first lich... fire was used a lot, Dynaheir carried us with her wand. It was a close call when facing Gurn Coldheart, had to run fast to destroy its phylactery before he would wipe us out with his spells.
- there was a difficult fight in a spiders' lair, Minsc got held by web (I forgot to switch swords to Spider's Bane) and killed. The other three party members retreated to a side room, healed up and called summons for help.
- Morentherene was killed in style (full buffs, summons, dispel and then charge in, Minsc got the kill), our first dragon! prevailed without too much scary moments in the Temple of Bhaal underneath.
- ambush in the no-magic zone (cool idea! can't remember if this one is before or after Boareskyr). Dynaheir could not stoneskin and got backstabbed to death. We won the fight but the backstabber escaped!...
Buck & co used the wardstone retrieved in the Temple of Bhaal to teleport inside the fort. After having scouted the besieging crusader forces, Buck convinced Khalid to open the gates and charge in without waiting for allied reinforcements camped nearby.
This proved to be somewhat of a maverick move. The plan was to let the fort soldiers tank, whilst Buck and Dynaheir would spam AoE disablers, Minsc and Safana pelting arrows. This is where Dynaheir being an Invoker, thus not having access to the Enchantment school AoE spells, was felt. She used wand of Fear but not her offensive AoE magic such as fireball, for fear of collateral damage; Buck cast Silence, Hold Person, Dispel Magic...
Towards the back of the crusaders' camp, several arcane casters were out of reach and they successfully weakened allied ranks with Chaos, confusion and the likes... essentially we were being dominated in the AoE magic battle. After several turns of brawl and a lot of casualties on both sides, a group of around ten crusaders were left standing including a mage, whilst Minsc had been slain in melee combat and Safana disabled by a spell and killed.
Retreat was the only option for Buck and Dynaheir, they went invisible (potion and sanctuary) and regrouped at the back end of the fort... only to find Khalid hiding there !! Some things will never change... Time for healing, buff and summoning a couple skeletons and Gnolls from the wand of monster summoning... they (as in: without Khalid) charged in and victory was ours !! (although almost everyone perished in the process).
This had been a very tough fight and our heroes now had to secure the bridge...
For role-playing reasons, resting was not an option. Raising our fallen comrades neither, since the coalition camp cleric Mizhena was not part of the Flaming Fist troops that had rushed to Bridgefort after hearing about the battle.
Buck & Dynaheir respectively grabbed their club and sling and rushed towards Boareskyr bridge. Summoned gnolls tanked the small crusader group but their mage did manage to open a portal through which several beings were summoned seeking to blow up the bridge ! Ensued a long and slow melee brawl between a hasted Buck and several fire salamanders, mephits and lesser fire elementals. Dynaheir was alternating between sling and wand of ice.
At some point two fire beams (from mephits I think) briefly connected with the barrels on the bridge, but the creatures were quickly disposed of and the explosion did not ignite. Very close call.
At long last, Buck killed the last elemental and the bridge was salvaged and now under the control of the coalition forces !!
Success! Looking good!
Journal of Brutus
My team is still working its way through Durag's. We pickpocketted Kirinhale before killing her. We only needed one potion of mirrored eyes to kill the basilisks. Now heading downwards. Killed Riggilo on the way thus regaining the gold that we gave him.
We raised Durlag's Sword and used the gong, but then Dorn was killed by the skeleton warrior!
With difficulty we got Durlag's Plate and other nearby treasure. We then solved the riddle of the Fear and Pride Warders.
We'll be back!
However Dorn needs raising first.
We may delay our return somewhat as Nashkel mine needs to be dealt with.
@Grond0 : we will, it's a fun ride.
Dorn is now raised and at the temple reputation was raised from 8 to 12. Rather foolishly we did shopping at Durlag's before raising reputation. We are now poor again. However, now I am wearing Durlag's Plate I feel a bit safer.
Baeloth and Edwin now feel a bit safer now that they have stoneskin.
We went to Ice Island and whilst we killed most of the mages near the entrance, one teleported into our midst and used a fireball spell that killed Dorn and seriously injured the rest of us.
Then came a stupendous bit of luck.
The game crashed! Upon reloading all the mages were killed with few injuries for us.
We were able to heal ourselves completely before sleeping to memorise spells.
The other mages did us harm but we returned to Ulgoth's safely where we rested.
Time for bed.
Theen - gnome cleric/thief, protagonist (Corey_Russell)
Dayglow - cavalier (Grond0)
Drubb - cavalier (Gate70)
The party did well during the Unseeing Eye quest. We also cleared out the entire lair of Firkraag's. We also defeated Conster.
We tried some summons and traps (3) against Firkraag and some buffs. Problem? Grond0 got held (and killed). Drubb eventually succumbed. Firkraag was near death, can Theen avenge his friends? Uh, no a 145 damage fire ball one shotted Theen. He did resist 58 of the damage but that wasn't enough. RIP Theen.
Lothar - Priest of Talos (Grond0)
Dagnamit - bounty hunter (Gate70)
Jeanluc - berserker (Corey_Russell)
Our failed interview with Firkraag had left plenty of time for new misadventures, so we were soon underway again in Candlekeep. We successfully escaped from there, but didn't get much further
We killed Mulahey and Lalamha's Party with no difficulty. Killing the Revenant boosted experience as well as giving us a +2 dagger.
We then killed Narcillicus Harwilliger Neen and the ghasts in the nearby cave before going to the Carnival to rest. The loot in the cave will be most useful.
We were rewarded in Nashkel and in Beregost gave scalps to Officer Vai.
We raided the bandit camp without getting into conflict and then killed Tranzig.
We arranged for Nimbul to kill Oublek and then killed an innocent before finishing off the bandit camp. The party now has a reputation of 8.
As a result I was able to cast horror when I slept at the FAI.
Now in Cloakwood.
We found Gurke's Cloak and helped Aldeth, then in transit Safana was held when fighting one of eight ettercaps. (We got out of position) They killed her. We killed them. Quite a lot of experience
We killed Centeol and then the wyverns.
Drasus et al were dealt with using web and fireballs as were the first two mages. The ogre mage was dealt with using brute force and ignorance.
I sent in two skeletons to fight Davaeorn. They absorbed many of Davaeorn's spells. Then cast animal summoning which was enough to deal with Davaeorn's summons. Finished Davaeorn off using brute force and ignorance.
We didn't boost reputation by handing over the key. That can wait until I need extra reputation.
In transit killed 2 more wyvern.
After resting I received a second innate horror spell.
I then went to Baldur's Gate to deal with Simmeon.
The fight was straightforward, yet again web being of great use, as were magic missiles.
I had an interesting chat with Elminster. (Very different this time)
I was most surprised by this conversation!! I am neutral evil with a reputation of 8!! Hardly good!!
EDIT
It seems weird, but Dorn, also neutral evil gets the quest, but my Fighter/Cleric doesn't. To me that is illogical. However no problem.
Back with another run. As usual, I've started this one quite a few weeks ago, and it's another unmodded core rules run in line with my mission to get the missing kits into the Hall of Heroes. Shapeshifter is one of them, and one I've already attempted twice. One died very early on, because the kit tends to lead to very aggressive play in early BG1 - the damage output is fantastic from the get go, and one wants to make use of it before the better scaling of other classes makes the shapeshifter seem much worse. However, the mostly static armor class and relatively low healthpool make such aggressive play very risky until ironskins are acquired.
The second attempt was my "critical path only" run, which failed when fighting Sarevok. This time, the kit was mainly chosen for a very quick early game, as I didn't want to spend too much time in BG1. These are Kybele's starting stats: 8/18/18/10/18/18. Werewolf form gets an extra APR in BG1 EE when putting any weapon in the offhand - this does NOT work in BG2 EE for some reason (though you can still get at least 1 bonus attack via Belm). You can also initiate conversations with NPCs as a werewolf in BG1 EE, but NOT in BG2 EE, which feels really awful, especially while you're stuck with only 1 greater werewolf transformation. Going to BG2 suddenly turns your character from pretty good and a lot of fun to quite awful until you get another power spike with the greater werewolf form (until fighters once again outscale you at some point in late SoA). Some consistency between games would be very much appreciated here (same goes for the totemic druid, where things are quite the opposite: In BG1 EE, summoning spirit animals clouds your area, in BG2 EE it doesn't, so you can summon a whole bunch of them pretty much instantly).
More on that later. Kybele started off solo, with the plan to get 32k XP before adding any companions in order to save a lot of time that would be spend leveling up with a larger party. This was done via basilisks and a few minor sidequests, with no trouble over all. We got close to death 2-3 times very early on, when a werewolf can really only take 2 hits, but restarting at this point wouldn't have been a huge deal. Since Imoen is stuck at level 1 and doesn't get boosted to 32k XP upon rejoining, she's out in terms of party selection. Instead, we invited Ajantis, Khalid&Jaheira and Branwen, bought some magical arrows/bullets, and travelled to meet Safana - we had to clear out the sirens (with the help of Branwen's skeletons) and the flesh golem cavern (with the magical ammo) in order to get her to stay long-term. After that, some wilderness exploration. It seems like I didn't take any early screenshots - the earliest being a return to the basilisk area, taking out the adventuring group with the power of 2 druids using "call lightning":
Well, the party is supremely powerful at this point, with access to 4th level divine spells such as forest beings, who could clear out entire encounters by themselves. The bandit camp is soon to fall:
What other kits are left to do? I might try. Of course I'd have to play a lot safer than I usually do.
I am wondering if anyone has done a Berserker dualled to Cleric as in my current run which is going very well.
If so, I could perhaps switch to a Dwarven Cleric of Helm. (Lawful Evil) that I have already rolled. Stats below. I quite like the class. I also quite lke the portrait that I have knocked together from two sources on the web. He actually looks evil!! Of course in RL some of the most evil people don't look it. That's how they are able to get away with it. A friend of mine was a juror as a teenager and was completely taken in by a baby-faced criminal. Fortunately the other jurors were not taken in. He had quite a record!!
EDIT
In the end I decided to go with this Priest of Helm who is fairly nifty with staves.
Ranger
Stalker
Priest of Helm
Priest of Talos
Shapeshifter
Avenger
Abjurer, Conjurer, Diviner, Invoker, Necromancer
Thief
Bounty Hunter
I thought avenger, priest of Helm, bounty hunter and necromancer made it already?
Lots of sidequests and gear to gain in the city. Kybele is often the only frontliner, given that her ranged abilities are vastly inferior to her werewolf form - for everything else, we have skeletons and forest beings:
Of course many of us also remember @Blackraven and his runs but he never made it all the way with his dwarven bounty hunter.
Dubbel Dagnamit - Bounty Hunter (Gate70)
Coreranger XX- Ranger (Corey_Russell)
Slite - Transmuter (Grond0)
We rolled up another three characters last week and rested outside Candlekeep, picking up this week. Shoal the nereid soon lay dead before us, and on heading north to seek a crevice-nook-wizardry ring a wolf or two took bites out of Coreranger. Undeterred, we cut our way through hobgoblins and grabbed Joia's flamedance ring. By now Coreranger was looking worse for wear and upon being asked if he was ready for ankhegs; He Was Not.
Instead we foisted buried ankheg armour and the Whistling Shortsword onto him. Still he was unhappy, asking if we knew of any magical daggers so we got one for him - woe betide if the Revenant comes looking for it later.
Dubbel Dagnamit lived up to his name, repeating the question and duly ignoring the plaintiff "I haven't got a shield". Indeedy so we headed down into the ankheg nest for Coreranger to demonstrate his heroic potion-guzzling. He was up to this job.
Flush with our success we wandered around picking up many acts to boost our reputation including defeating the Doomsayer, then purchased some fine apparel at Ulgoth's Beard. With our reputation being unimpeachably perfect (barring accidents) we could focus on gathering up other people's equipment before venturing forth.
Having fumbled the charisma tome away (multiplayer glitch when passing between party members) we had more success with the constitution tome. All in all a relatively clean session and none of us died.
Slite and Dubbel Dagnamit played our usual game of you have the ring of protection +1 no you have it, culminating in Dubbel Dagnamit saying he would not be in melee so the mage could keep it. Ok, a bit of melee won't hurt. It's just a flesh wound.
We think we'll go hunt basilisks next time. Slite is somewhat colour-sensitive, and in addition to blue/green potion aversion, can't use protection from petrification scrolls unless they are green so we'll be picking one of those up from the carnival rather than the blue variety stocked at High Hedge.
Characters at session end
Besides, I’ve been trying insane difficulty because a sorcerer and a dwarf defender aren’t challenging without bumping the difficulty, but the bounty hunter is a bit more frail.
Candlekeep was no problem so we headed off to the FAI where we returned Joia's Ring. To the north we killed Sonner's Party and gave the bowl to Tenya. Wise choice of spells enabled me to defeat a nearby ankheg.
I went to High Hedge where I helped Melicamp.
I took a tome to Firebead which increased reputation to 15.
Bjornin wants me to head south to deal with half-ogres. I will comply with his wishes.
Killed Bassilus at the temple's request.
At Beregost I bought a better sling before heading south where I was unjustifyably attacked by three flaming fist. I was forced to flee and rest at Beregost.
I avoided them when I next headed south and battled numerous hobgoblins. Against them I prevailed with some difficulty, but after finding the Colquetle Amulet I finally arrived in Nashkel where I found some decent armour.
To the south-east I found a ring of protection from fire, was given a scroll from a gnome, and was asked to take Samuel to the FAI which I did.
Upon taking the amulet to Mr. Colquetle, I became a hero before heading to the Carnival for equipment.
I then headed for the mines and fought Greywolf. The mine guards brought him to near death after which I lured him to some nearby buildings. I cast Sanctuary, went behind the buildings, healed myself, buffed up, held him, and killed him.
Rufie and Albert were reunited and a dryad was helped bringing my reputation to 20 and my level to 5.
Then returned to the FAI for R&R and afterwards took on some ankheg. I had to rest after each one as my spells quickly wore off. So far killed 8. I took to Farmer Brun the body of his son, sold the ankheg shells and bought a +3 staff at Ulog's Beard. That made killing further ankhegs much easier.
That brought me up to level 6.
So far, so good.
It was time to enlist some help. Montaron for acquiring a cloak for instance, and Xzar to greet Shoal. No big deal if he gets killed permanently. The coast will after all be better off without them!
Xzar and Montaron joined me with 32,000 experience each. Montaron became a good pickpocket, but not much use for anything else. He has some skill in picking locks though. Xzar memorised a couple of my scrolls, identify being the most useful. Whilst resting to memorise his spells, we were ambushed by a ghast and fortunately was able to summon a skeleton as freedom of action potions are in short supply. The ghast was killed which gave us useful experience.
At Beregost Montaron purloined Algernon's Cloak and the contents of a few chests. There were several that he was unable to open. At Ulgoth's Beard three inhabitants suffered loss at his hands. We told Shandalar that we needed time to prepare for a quest that he had for us. Little did he know that our preparation included stealing some of his potions and scrolls.
The battle against Droth and Shoal went well. We rested afterwards. Montaron was reduced to 1hp due to Shoal's attack, but he wasn't killed largely due to a skeleton warrior attacking Droth. I cast sanctuary upon myself until Droth was focussed on the skeleton.
The magical resistance of the skeletons was also useful against the sirines though I did have to heal them otherwise they would have died and I might have been vulnerable to charm.
Now in Beregost to recuperate.
We killed Silke and Karlat easily and then Montaron pick-pocketted those whose lives we had saved. Afterwards one of them gave us yet another potion of defence. That's four of them that we got from them in total. Xzar cast luck on Montaron beforehand to ensure success.
I think that it is now time to bid them farewell before their unlawful behaviour causes problems.
Khaled and Jaheira were escorted to Nashkel where they left.
It is ironic that I invited Dorn to stay with the party after I was ambushed south of Nashkel.
He stayed until the death of Kryll
Even then he didn't leave until he and Dynaheir reached level 6 fighting ankhegs.
Minsc was then delighted to join us. He is not far from being level 6.
@Wise_Grimwald Looking good so far
Kybele, half-elven Shapeshifter, Update II
Early SoA is a bit miserable for Kybele because of the nerfs to the kit once BG2 is reached - no more extra attack from dual wielding, no more ability to talk to NPCs as a werewolf. Luckily, this is also the time where a druid can easily solo most content with 2 fire elementals, 3 forest beings and an insect plague cast while protected by ironskins, death ward and chaotic commands, so we spend quite a bit of time outside of werewolf form, mostly to summon and cast insect plague (due to the lack of other powerful aggressive spells we still usually transform after that).
First, after making it out of the dungeon, we have to pick up a suitable party again. Since I'm once again banning myself from using some powerful strategies that would allow me to skip endgame encounters (such das PfU scrolls and all kinds of traps), I take Nalia along (might have to leave a few containers unopened, though important difficult ones can be done via potions or knock). Anomen as a cleric with good fighting abilities, Keldorn as he's great in unmodded games, and to fill up the party, I decide on the Valygar + Mazzy duo, since they're decent fighters and both available via an early trip to the Umar Hills - after stealing Daystar, this is where we start our adventure - fire elementals can take care of any and all shadows and skeleton warriors, they only need a little bit of help to deal with bone golems. For the shade lord, we've saved our Daystar sunray:
Next time, we'll take on the more difficult stronghold quests, starting with the planar prison.
We hunted ankheg until Minsc reached level 6, sold the shells and bought full plate for him.
Shadow armour and the army scythe was also bought.
We killed Arghain which gives Minsc an unbreakable sword. We did have a number of breakable ones, but it's nce not to have to worry.
Safana joined up with us. We gave her proficiency with crossbows and together, with some difficulty we were able to defeat the sirines. It was necessary to use slow poison potions.
Raiding the cave also proved to be challenging.
In the basilisk area we killed some adventurers, Mutamin, and some basilisks. In the process Safana reached level 7.
After resting we went to Durlag's Tower where we spent all but 60gp of our gold.
We killed the battle horrors and proceeded to the Tower.
We buff up for the Planar Prison, splitting up the party in the opening encounter to take out both spellcasters right away, coming from invisibility 10' radius: