It's funny, @semiticgod - I too always forget which door lead to a lich and which to the Twisted Rune.
Also, I've been playing a run recently (not documented here) and only yesterday fought Kangaxx with the party, very similar to your experience, with the only difference I had no Planetars (it's a restriction from my part). Am I right in understanding that if I can't kill Kangaxx before his protections are activated, the best strategy will be to wait till all of them wear off, without trying to take them down instead? Because it worked in your case and worked in my case as well.
@lurith Have a pity for your loss in SoD! Overall, it was a very fun run, and I'm sure you'll remember it quite well - as nothing can beat a feeling when you're playing new BG content for the first time ever without reloads.
@JuliusBorisov: Not exactly. In retrospect I think I didn't really wait out Kangaxx's buffs, at least in his lich form, considering I never had to fight a Fallen Planetar.
I think the two things that made that possible were Holy Word and our Pierce Shield+Khelben's Warding Whip+Pierce Shield Chain Contingency. The former, cast by Aerie and our Planetar, bypasses all of Kangaxx's spell protections and stops half his spells, or all of them if you use two castings. Holy Word is crippling to any mage or lich, much like a Wizard Slayer's Fire Seeds. The latter, triggered by Project Image (the "Helpless" condition in Chain Contingency), would remove Spell Shield, Spell Trap, and Spell Turning on the first round, and SI: Divination or SI: Abjuration the next round or two, enabling a Breach on the second or third round even with only one mage in the party.
In a nutshell, we used Holy Word to shut down Kangaxx for the first few rounds while we debuffed him using Chain Contingency and a subsequent Breach.
It was only in his demilich form that we really waited out his buffs, as we no longer had those Chain Contingencies to do so. We tried to debuff him, but we ended up running out of magic attacks before we ever had a chance to Breach him. Had Edwin used the same Chain Contingency that Imoen did, with Pierce Shield+Khelben's Warding Whip+Pierce Shield on Helpless, we might have been able to Breach Kangaxx early.
It should have been possible to slay Kangaxx's demilich form in a single round if I had prepared properly, even without the Red Soul kit. SCS only disables quick slot items, not an item's special abilities, which means we could have used the Ring of the Ram multiple times in the same round: one from Poppy or Laosha, one from a Vhailor's Helm clone, one from Edwin's Project Image clone, one from Imoen's Project Image clone, and maybe another two from Edwin's and Imoen's Simulacrum clone. Each hit does 5d6 base damage, or 17.5 on average, which means a reliable kill would require five uses at once.
This could be done at a relatively low level, since there are multiple Simulacrum scrolls in the game as well as Vhailor's Helm. A level 14 party should be able to take down Kangaxx's lich form with Holy Word, Pierce Magic, Ruby Ray of Reversal, and Breach, and take down his demilich form with Ring of the Ram from multiple clones.
Yeah, I asked about the demilich form only - the lich form is not a big problem while you still have all those spells to take down protections. So, in a nutshell, for the demilich form, an alternative to waiting for all the buffs to wear off, would be using Ring of the Ram from multiple in the first round?
@JuliusBorisov: Pretty much. The most realistic course of action depends on party makeup. A mage-heavy party could pull off the Ring of the Ram trick, while a fighter-based party might need to simply wait. As a Barbarian, Poppy could have actually soloed the fight fairly easily. Her halfling saving throws would hold off Kangaxx's disablers even without Barbarian Rage active, as well as prevent vorpal strikes from a Fallen Planetar. The Belt of Inertial Barrier, Rings of Fire Resistance and Fire Control, Dragonscale Helm and Shield, Boots of Grounding and Boots of the North, to say nothing of the Cloak of Mirroring, would be enough to resist basically any spell damage, rendering Poppy or any halfling or dwarven Barbarian more or less indestructible.
Halfling Barbarians are one of the single most resilient characters I've ever used. Their save bonuses, immunities, and high HP pools make them about as hard to kill as a properly-buffed Cleric/Mage, Shadowdancer, Shadowdancer/Mage, or Shadowdancer/Cleric.
I'm thinking about a run with a purpose of not letting any party member to die and in the same time taking on the Ust Natha army (I've failed at that in my not documented run). And one member of the custom team for that will certainly be a dwarf warrior (a dwarfen defender) exactly for the reasons you've described - saving throw bonuses and in the same time a single class (i.e. a faster progression, a shorter time to reach negative saving throws if compared to dwarven fighter/cleric multiclass), just as your barbarian.
Almost done with SoA. I try to go get some silver dragon blood, but we're not in luck.
Apparently she doesn't stick around if you save her eggs. No Human Flesh armor for Laosha.
HLAs make the last of our chores far easier.
I went so long without getting the Gauntlets of Dexterity for Keldorn because of the lich that was guarding it.
Now we need the Staff of the Magi. We finally enter the Twisted Rune. Shangalar survives the first round of traps, naturally. Poppy sticks to the front to keep Vaxall occupied.
Not that Vaxall is such a big threat at this point.
Shangalar prepares to roast us while we struggle to get rid of his clones.
Aerie brings out Holy Word to frustrate his spellcasting, while Imoen brings out a Planetar to add another Holy Word later on.
Then Laosha's Charm takes effect, making Holy Word a moot point. We use Shangalar's Improved Alacrity to waste many spells at once, allowing our Planetar to use its Holy Word on Layenne instead.
But Layenne didn't have PFMW active. The Planetar bypasses all of her defenses at once.
We heal Poppy and turn our attention to Shangalar, who turns hostile once more. He refreshes his defenses, but a single magic attack takes down Spell Shield, and Spellstrike takes down all the others, opening him to a Breach. He doesn't last long after that.
The Staff of the Magi is ours, though at this point we have basically no need of it. We are done with all the SoA side quests save the stronghold quest, which I won't waste time pursuing due to the lack of unique loot. After buying up every last thing I could possibly ever need, I head to the Tree of Life.
Irenicus starts off very strong. Moments after combat begins, he establishes a strong position.
Notice the blue square on the screen. I like to highlight triggers with CTRL-4 so I know exactly where they are.
As strong as Irenicus' defenses are, Chain Contingency strikes too hard and too fast for his buffs to survive for long.
Irenicus' lengthy Time Stop ate into Edwin's spell durations, however, and Edwin has to spend his aura on renewing his most important defense.
Edwin therefore cannot cast Breach. But with a lucky failed save from Irenicus, Carsomyr does just fine on its own.
SCS mages use a unique contingency that players cannot use: they can trigger Stoneskin or PFMW to fire immediately after their old buffs wear down or get dispelled, rather than triggering on hit or at 50% HP.
It doesn't matter. With his spell protections down, Irenicus can't stop Breach.
Seconds later, he crumples. We enter the Nine Hells.
We try out Poppy's latest HLA on Sarevok, Power Attack. The effect is crushing.
Power Attack lasts 2 rounds and stuns enemies on hit for 2 rounds as well. It offers a save vs. death at -4, which means almost any enemy is guaranteed to get stun-locked for the next 4 rounds, more than enough time to slay anything that's actually vulnerable to stun.
I finally see one of my favorite lines in the game.
It's quite true. Humans even in our world have control over powers we're just beginning to understand, in the sense that only a fraction of humankind understands any given technology. Kudos to world leaders since 1945 that have failed to use nuclear weapons against their enemies.
I pick the Hell rewards that give us the best bonuses, though it shifts Poppy from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil.
This is actually a meaningful sacrifice from a powergaming perspective: being evil-aligned means that Aerie can't use Holy Smite, one of her best spells, as freely as before.
I agonize over our spell picks, set 7 traps, bring out some Skeleton Warriors, and open the door. Then something truly surprising happens.
I intended for Edwin's triple Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency to eat away at Irenicus' minions, but it seems that Irenicus is hostile during the opening cutscene, which triggered that contingency early. Irenicus is already at Near Death. In fact, he easily hit 1 HP.
But it wasn't enough to trigger the ending cutscene. Also, Irenicus regenerates very quickly, and his defenses are very impressive. He will likely recover all of the HP he lost before we have a chance to harm him.
Poppy has been debuffed. I restore her Improved Haste so we can get rid of those pesky demon friends of Jon-bon's.
Then we get some spectacularly bad luck.
Also, Irenicus gets Time Stop off the ground, as we expected. With Poppy buffed with Hardiness and wielding the Defender of Easthaven, she can survive the Slayer's attacks, but the Slayer doesn't fuss with her at all. It cuts through some of Edwin's Stoneskins instead, and hauls out some high-powered spells instead.
Why Remove Magic? Well, Aerie's SI: Abjuration ran out during Time Stop. Red Souls really do have terrible, terrible defenses. She loses everything but Spell Shield.
Then, good news: Jon-bon's Fallen Planetar runs into more traps than it can handle.
And then, even better news: Laosha's Domination has taken effect.
Irenicus is under our power now, if only for a moment. I start him casting Time Stop and space out the rest of the party to restore our defenses, but Edwin's SI: Abjuration runs out. The Red Soul kit strikes again.
Irenicus gets Time Stop off the ground; his allies didn't even try to stop him. He tears them to pieces.
Aerie and Edwin are still in bad shape. Edwin and Aerie both cast Stoneskin, but I've been keeping them running instead of renewing SI: Abjuration. The result? They lose Stoneskin once again.
Poppy and Irenicus team up to take down the demons. Meanwhile, Laosha, Imoen, and Edwin stay out of the way, as their defenses are too low for them to survive a round with a demon.
Imoen's Green Soul kit left her SI: Abjuration very much intact, however, and so she has had no problem with her defenses. She is free to cast slow-casting spells without either the Robe of Vecna or the Amulet of Power to speed things up.
The Green Soul kit also means that her Time Stop will last for 6 rounds instead of 3. She could empty all of her high-level spell slots, but that's not what she's planning.
She has better plans for her Time Stop.
She has Kundane and Belm equipped to increase her APR, since THAC0 is a non-issue during Time Stop. But we hit a snag.
I check the combat log. Turns out Jon-bon had PFMW from a contingency. She could use Breach, but the projectile wouldn't hit Irenicus until after Time Stop ended.
We have to wait it out. To make the most of the time we have left, Imoen turns her attention to the last surviving demon, breaking through its Stoneskins and stabbing it to death.
She renews Poppy's Improved Haste and hurries back to Irenicus. She savages him.
The Balor explodes, slightly damaging Edwin, some previous debuffers finally strike Irenicus, and Irenicus restores his PFMW.
But he's suffered so many magic attacks that he no longer has any defense against Breach. His PFMW, Stoneskin, and his magic resistance all go down. We apply pressure to his already-wounded body.
He should have died by now, but I don't even care how long it's taking. Irenicus' allies are dead. His defenses are down. His HP is depleted. And our only casualty is Keldorn and some of Aerie and Edwin's buffs.
Irenicus makes one last attempt to save himself.
But it's hopeless. We Breach him.
Finally, Irenicus gives in. Shadows of Amn has come to a close.
And now for our traditional retrospective post reflecting on the run as a whole.
This has been a remarkably entertaining run, and like my last successful no-reload run of BG2, with Viora the Shadowdancer/Cleric, it was also surprisingly easy overall. Poppy proved to be a stellar tank throughout the game, barely ever approaching death and barely ever getting disabled, while Aerie and Edwin, both using the Red Soul kit, were spectacular bombers. Perhaps the most fun part of this run was simply seeing those ludicrously high damage values. I have long played parties that were high on defense and low on damage output, and my mages have always focused on disablers rather than spell damage. The Red Soul kit was a welcome break from this trend.
The Phase Spider kit: This kit did not play out like I thought it would. I finally got its power level under control, coming up with a way to keep its Improved Alacrity effect balanced: using spells would increase the spider's casting speed, slowing down repeated spellcasting. But I also gave it only 1d6 HP per level, which cost Blueberry 36 HP overall. Phase Spiders cannot wear rings or armor heavier than studded leather, which made Blueberry's AC fairly weak. Although Lightning Reflexes gave her a lovely +2 bonus to AC and saves, as well as an extra 10 MR, it wasn't nearly enough to compensate for her poor AC and HP. By the time she got strong benefits from Lightning Reflexes, she was already nearly dead. I need to give the Phase Spider more HP or some AC progression so its Lightning Reflexes can actually rescue it from harm.
Also, without backstabs, I basically never used Blueberry's Dimension Door ability, since I knew it would slow down any future spells she might need to cast quickly. I think I will give the Phase Spider a single backstab bonus to incentivize stealth, and speed up casting speed to incentivize spellcasting.
The Seducer kit: Laosha, our Seducer played out much as I expected. Sometimes he dominated the environment, taking control of powerful enemies and neutralizing them while our party recovered from their injuries and built up their defenses. Other times, his psionics did absolutely nothing, and he was left disabled by his spellcasting, unable to help at all. His low thieving skills, lack of HLA traps, and the brief pause when using Charm, also meant that he was seldom helpful without using of his psionics. Throughout the game, he was alternately the most powerful and most useless party member. Just the way I wanted it to be.
The Red Soul kit: Surprisingly, this incredibly simple kit proved rather well-balanced. By granting the caster double damage on all offensive damage spells, it made the mage into a spectacular bomber. But by cutting all spell durations in half, it made the mage into a classic class cannon, as it was unable to hold up its buffs. Most importantly, SI: Abjuration ran out in the middle of combat, exposing the mage to Remove Magic before I could notice they were in trouble. It also crippled all kinds of other spells such as Project Image, Spook, Greater Malison, and Slow. A Red Soul fights fast battles: either it obliterates its opponents in moments or it loses its buffs and get annihilated.
Edwin was clearly overpowered with the Red Soul kit. But then, he's already overpowered to begin with.
The Green Soul kit: I didn't get to see much of this kit, but it was demonstrably better than the Red Soul kit. By cutting spell damage in half and doubling spell durations, it bolstered a mage's best assets: disablers, buffs, and utility spells. Long-duration Improved Haste, Project Image, SI: Abjuration, and Mass Invisibility spells benefited greatly from the Green Soul kit, not to mention Imoen's game-changing Time Stop in the fight with Irenicus. If Imoen hadn't been so underleveled, she would have made an excellent tank with 8-round Protection from Magical Weapons spells.
However, these kits were not the reason for the success of this run.
Laosha could turn the tide of battle in moments, but as a single-classed thief (Seducers can't dual-class) with poor stealth, he got pulverized repeatedly due to his poor AC and HP and lack of spell defenses. Blueberry could do horrible things to enemies with her poison, but when she came up against a tough enemy, Lightning Reflexes could not save her. Aerie and Edwin could blast things to pieces, but died many times due to short-lived defensive spells. SCS enemies always notice when you've lost your SI: Abjuration spell.
Poppy was the only reason this party stayed alive. Her halfling saving throw bonuses, combined with the Barbarian kit's bonuses and immunities, made her extremely difficult to kill. She absorbed the attacks that the rest of the party could not handle, and kept the group safe. As much as the Red Soul kit impressed me, the old wisdom held true: in a no-reload run, defenses are always the top priority. It was only due to Poppy's tanking ability that Edwin and Aerie were able to make use of the Red Soul kit. The most powerful kit I used here was ultimately a vanilla kit, not one of my own.
In fact, this is probably the most important takeaway I've found in this run. Whatever the makeup of a party in a no-reload run, the choice of which character should be Charname and which should be an NPC should not be based on stat tomes or Hell bonuses or Bhaalspawn abilities or the Slayer form. Charname should be the one character that is most difficult to kill. This held for my last two successful runs as well. Sil the Cleric of Lathander/Mage had a suite of buffs and immunities; Viora the Shadowdancer/Cleric had invisibility at will on top of cleric immunities; and Poppy the Barbarian had strong, undispellable defenses in the form of halfling save bonuses, item-based resistances, Barbarian Rage immunities, and a massive HP pool that cushioned the impact of unlucky blows.
I have already taken Poppy into ToB. But I have changed the party. Edwin is gone. I knew that a Red Soul with Dragon's Breath would ultimately just steamroll over every enemy in the game that wasn't immune to fire, trivializing many encounters while being terribly unhelpful for others. It would simplify gameplay and make things too reductive and boring. I also ditched Keldorn, as he was too underleveled by the time we got him, and entering ToB only granted him one extra level.
Instead, I have taken on Sarevok so I can use the Unholy Reaver, which Item Upgrades can later combine with Carsomyr, without investing two proficiency points in two-handed swords with Poppy, who really should stick with flails. I have also brought Blueberry back into the party as a ToB-generated character, at a much higher level than Keldorn.
So far, Poppy is still carrying the team. She's the only one who can handle the melee pressure that ToB throws at you.
@Iroumen: Beats me. @Blackraven would know. My game is broken, so he sent me his override folder and dialog.tlk file, allowing me to transplant his install onto mine. I still don't know exactly what I have installed, but his SCS install preferences are basically identical to mine. Those timers were a neat revelation for me; I never had them before either.
How can you play this game so fast btw. I'm happy if I can get an hour in the evenings.... o.O Not to mention having to be careful with prepping and scouting due to the noreload part as well as doing an actual blind run in SoD, progress is slow.
@Iroumen: The apparent speed is a relic of my posting pattern, not the actual gameplay. I did these fights over a period of time, but only posted on them much later, putting many days' progress into a few posts very close together. If I posted on my runs as I was playing them, as I used to, then I'd be flooding the thread with runs that ended in Chateau Irenicus.
Your no-reload runs are the highlight of these forums; I almost prefer reading them to playing myself. I learn a ton, and they are really entertaining.
I also hope that Blackraven can enlighten us about where those extra feedback lines are coming from. They look really useful.
Your no-reload runs are the highlight of these forums; I almost prefer reading them to playing myself. I learn a ton, and they are really entertaining.
Agreed about @semiticgod 's playthroughs. They are very helpful for understanding the game, the workings of which can be frustratingly vague at times.
Night of the Living Redshirts: The No Reload Adventures of Redshirt Ricky
Chapter 2: Rise of the Redshirts
On three separate occasions Ricky gets disabled by chaos or hold person. He rolls a lot of bad saves, and is only saved by getting out of sight, or because of daggers, still flying through the air after he gets disabled, striking killing blows on mages. Already I am losing confidence in doing a successful no reload run.
Ricky is going to need help. Playing solo, there's just too much riding on saves. Death can come in a multitude of silly and stupid ways. While potions of invisiblity, invulnerability and the ring of air control provide useful benefits, SCS mages are all too eager to deal of one-two punch of remove magic and disablers. With the added levels they get from SCS, mages nearly always dispel.
Ricky's first stop out of Chateau Irenicus is the Circus tent. He meets a close relative of the Orion Slave girl and begins pining for some company.
Ricky reaches a profound conclusion with Kalah. Deep, man.... deeeeep.
Next, Ricky lures Noober's sister in to the backroom of the Copper. From that corner she won't be able to see him come and go in the future.
Ricky then gets heroic with the slavers at the Copper.
The guards at the Copper are very generous with their drops. I start to wonder if Ricky should run with a mage in his group. I wasn't planning on it.
At least it wasn't as bad as that time when I got 2 Spell Trigger scrolls from Galchobhair in the Temple sewers... during an attempted solo Archer run. Always when charname isn't a mage, I tell ya. That's when the enemies get really generous with their scrolls. I don't often see Death Spell before the planar prison, and death spell will be very useful for what I have planned with Ricky's potential party setup.
Next, Ricky steals a kill from Reynald.
He also discovers that throwing weapons can run out at the most inopportune of times... And that a Kensai does not want to end up facing a number of good fighters without a little boost to AC. Awkwaaaaaaard....
He makes a horrifying discovery.
And heroically confronts the murderers about it.
Of course, only after gulping the potion do I remember that Rune Assassins see through invisibility. A helpful backstab lets Ricky remember, too.
It's little mistakes like this that can lead to instant death in this game. The devil, as always, is in the details. I have a habit of not remembering little details like this... probably because their are only 624 little exceptions, provisos and important details through the length of the game.
Ricky heroically stand up for himself at the Suna Seni ambush.Aaaaagh! Doppleganger! Kill it, kill it with knives!
Rick meets a fellow redshirt in the Bridge district. ...Who comes to a predictable end.
Ricky rescues some Orion Slave Girls in the Windspear hills. They tell him, however, that they have sensed that another of their sisters in is peril. Ricky is always ready to help a green-skinned woman in peril. He hurries to the Goverment District...
He rescues the Redshirt Damsel in distress only moments before she is burned. How's her new look?
I also give her an XP boost with EEKeeper to make her match Ricky... but then I feel guilty about it. Usually I just use EEKeeper to make them match charname's unless I can get them at level 12, but trying no-reload run is for whatever reason making me feel like I'm supposed to be 'keeping it real', or some nonsense. I decide to let it go.
Viconia promptly gets shivved while on the way to their first quest together.
While I appreciate the improvements made by SCS on the muggers and ruffians, the backstabbing in Chapter1~2 is a bit overdone. You can only endure the multiple groups of them so many times before they start to get a bit... tiresome.
Viconia is revived at temple and the pair continue on their way.
Ricky heroically confronts Rayic Gethras, as the party's first real quest brings them into conflict with the cowled wizards. Redshirts cannot resist the big red button in the middle of the room. They have to press the big red button.
And another Redshirt joins the cause, attracted by the prospect of a better life as a central character in important events, rather than as an expendable cardboard cutout on the sidelines.
Edwin: Can I wear my red bathrobe? Ricky: Sorry, red shirts only. It's not just a theme, Edwin, this is about standards. Viconia: Take it off.... slowly.
Edwin enters the party at 600,000XP lower than Ricky/Viconia, yet he will soon catch up to be only one level lower. I had forgotten how fast mages level up in the beginning, before they slow down.
Edwin proves immensely helpful with Mae'var, as the party's first quest comes to completion.
I give Mae'var the old web-grease-greater malison-horror-chaos-fireball treatment. I make sure to hit Mae'var and his assassins with as many disablers at my disposal. It is total overkill, but I don't do it because the Mae'var fight is very hard.
SCS does not know the meaning of restraint. This can be turned to the players advantage. When every thief has 3 invisibility potions... that's a lot of loot. If you can get it before they drink it all, that is. I have no intention of letting the assassins drink anything.
This battle is as much about boosting our stock with a combined 15 invisibility potions as it is defeating Mae'var. That's a very nice haul.
RP-wise, this is just Ricky's way of learning from his enemies. When they use underhanded tactics against you, use the same against them. It's all fair in war.
The victory is easy and the quest completed. The party needs only to return to Renal Bloodscalp to collect the reward. Spirits are high.
Now that Ricky and his friends are the main characters, he begins to feel almost... invulnerable. Nobody kills main characters, right?
Wrong.A Hasted critical backstab from Zyntris reminds Ricky and Co. that death for a redshirt is always lurking, always watching, always waiting. Zyntris one-hit-kills Viconia from 100 percent health.
Naturally, only an event like this reminds me that there was another way out of the guildhall through the tunnel. It would have been safer than running back to the street through the assassin infested warren of the main floor. Sigh.... details, details.
Ya, this will probably end up in the minimal reload thread soon enough. But a redshirt does not give up so easily. Instead, our away team decides to re-assert themselves. And they know just who to target: everyone's favourite punching bag.
Skeletons, the next evolution in ultimately expendable troops.
So Ricky is well on his way.
The Redshirts shall rise.
I'm certainly being a lot more careful now that I'm trying to do no-reload. It does make the game more interesting. It's a red shirts only team. That means no armour, no barkskin, no stoneskins, no robe of vecna. Nothing that will interfere with the established redshirt livery. We'll see how that pans out.
What makes me most nervous is my less than expert memorization of all the game's encounters. Though it does make things more thrilling.
Until next time...
Up Next: 'Scuffle in the Sewers' and 'Knife Party at Sion's'.
RED SHIRT RICKY: "All right, all right. I'm leaving. No need to get violent." COPPER CORONET GUARD: Redshirt Ricky does 16 damage to Copper Coronet Guard COPPER CORONET GUARD: Death
Indeed I am immensely impressed by how often you get through to the end. I have managed that only a handful of times over the last 15 years, only one really finishing tob with scs (though my highlight was noreload soa with improved anvil).
With your posts I always feel dwarfed in tactical insight hehehe.
@semiticgod Which Hell bonuses do you think are the best? Which options in the Hell trials do you usually take?
Also, was it a normal SCS Irenicus battle in the end? I remember @Musigny said that he restored the Improved Irenicus fight (available in SCS 21 ver) as a part of his Tactics beta.
Hell bonuses depends on the main character and the trial itself. These are my choices unless I roleplay. - Test of pride good because the resistances are nicer than the XP. - Test of fear good for mage/bard for the immunity to normal weapons, because that stacks nicely with pfmw. For warrior classes I resolve it more often to evil for the +2 con. - Test of selfishness good for magic resist. I have done it once or twice the evil way for the AC, but then on classes/kits that truely benefit (like swashbuckler or even monk since s/he probably topped over 100% anyway). - Test of greed, 50/50. Blackrazor and HP for thieves often. +saves is really good on most characters. - Test of wrath, strength for warriors, wisdom/charisma for clerics, paladins.
@JuliusBorisov: I tweaked my normal selection a bit for Poppy. I got:
Pride: +20% resistance to the elements (XP unnecessary) Fear: +2 CON (immunity to normal weapons unnecessary) Selfishness: +10% MR (AC unnecessary given Poppy's resistances) Greed: Blackrazor and HP (saving throws unnecessary given Poppy's subzero saves) Wrath: +2 STR (no need for WIS or CHA)
Normally I get the immunity to normal weapons instead of CON, extra saving throws instead of HP, and WIS instead of STR, because I play casters. Poppy is one of the very, very, very few fighter-types I've ever played.
If @Musigny restored the original Tactics fight with Irenicus in Hell, I would very much like to try it next time around. However, using any WeiDu stuff will automatically uninstall SCS in my game (no one knows why). To get any new mods installed, I'd need a transplant from @Blackraven or whoever is willing to send me their override folder and dialog.tlk file.
Night of the Living Redshirt(s): The No Reload Adventures of Redshirt Ricky
Chapter 3: Revenge of the Redshirts (and the mummies).
Now that we've started building our away team, it's time for the redshirts to start owning this town.
Ricky and friends hear about a Cult of The Unseeing Eye in the temple district and decide to make it their next mission.
They travel to the sewers to meet new and interesting people... and kill them.
We recruit the aid of Keldorn, who at first is hesitant to join our little club. He's not thrilled by the prospect of running around in a red tunic without his armour, but Ricky convinces him.
After selling the loot, Ricky and Co. head to the guarded compound. Supposedly this is an old remnant of an unfinished bit of BG2 related to the slavers... so we just RP this as being a tip he received while aiding Hendak at the Copper.
Ricky discovers that some enemies are getting wise to his usual antics.
Oh... uh... that normally works.
Sion's summoning trap doesn't bother the team, however. When you're a redshirt, you do your fair share of dying, and after a number of visits to the afterlife you get to know some of the denizens there. One of the summoned creatures just happens to be a demon Ricky has played poker with. The demon fulfills a debt by slaying all of Sion's summoned baddies.
Sion is a relatively straightforward encounter. He has a number of configurations, and it's usually important to kill him quickly because he will cast spells like Wish and Time Stop, I believe. In my install he doesn't have HLAs, though I think if you select that option in SCS he gets those, too. Sometimes he'll come out with a strong damaging sequencer with Abi Dalzim's, but he goes for simulacrum this time.
Sion's initial spell trigger, also shows the same flawed setups that many mages have in the beginning chapters of BG2. Protection from Magical Weapons. It's a rather overrated protection, in my opinion. It's most weakest at the beginning of the game, where nothing is immune to normal weapons and where +3 and above weapons are relative rare. Mantle and Improved Mantle are more imposing obstacles, yet a lot of mages like Sion, Lavok or Tolgerias use them as 2nd or 3rd lines of defence.
Ricky is well suited to taking on mages like Sion.
The rest of Sion's cohorts fall one by one as Ricky's Redshirts use the rooms of the compound to break up their formation.
If there's one thing a Redshirt really hates, it's a Blueshirt.
We also discover that Spirit Armour is not going to be an acceptable buff for Keldorn, or anyone on the team. It interferes with the red livery.
Though Spirit armour does have a mildly interesting interaction between Keldorn and Edwin when it wears off.
Without a thief or an ability to buff strength above 23, most of the loot in the compound is not available to us. We might just come back to it later, but in truth all we really needed from this was enough gear to sell for a sizeable chunk of cash.
With everyone else coming up empty handed in the looting, Edwin gets a little superior (as he does) when he finds one of the only worthwhile items in the compound not under lock and key.
We then leave and make our way back to the sewers to sell off what we have to Roger the Fence and begin the Cult quest so we can keep Keldorn.
After cashing in on all the uneeded suits of armour and Celestial Fury (which only fetches a price of about 2900 gold, surprisingly, considering its fame), we receive our visit from Valen and Brus.
Then something monumentally stupid happens.
Ricky dies.
Ricky conquers strong mages, clerics and fighters... then falls to a lowly mummy.
I had forgotten to have Viconia memorize 'Cure Disease', and she does not yet have 'Heal'. Stupidly, I did not think to visit Mek-Rath's bachelor pad and get his mirror in exchange for the wand of resurrection, even though it was right on the way to our objective.
Mummies, though rather low level enemies, deal only between 10-15 damage a hit, but also 21 disease damage per round in 3 ticks of seven. Ricky gets hit more than once while shivving mummies who, although turned by Viconia's turn-undead ability, still strike back when cornered (though not all the time). It's not like I expected them to just cower and take the hits mind you, but I hadn't remembered the whole disease bit.
This is something I've not dealt with in some time. I usually just make undead explode with a good/neutral aligned cleric. I do not remember how vicious the mummies can be until it's already too late and Ricky has been afflicted with Ebola x10.
One moment he's at 60HP drinking healing potions to outlast the disease, and then he's instantly dead. So I'm guessing he was hit at least three times by the mummies while he was busy chunking them. It all seemed like such a mundane task that I was initially oblivious to what was happening at first, and I wasn't watching Ricky's portrait quickly turning red.
Thus Ricky fails in his bid to become the Living Redshirt.
The silly things. Those are always the ones that get you. In truth I am probably too careless a player to seriously attempt a no-reload; I haven't the discipline. Especially when I gather some momentum.
Rolling through the areas now. The enemies are not too tough, but they have a bit smarter AI than I am used to from vanilla. They actually switch targets and run into the party and such. Not stupid, but not as smart as SCS makes them.
We see a Gauth with the Spectacles of Spectacle but he attacks the party. It gives a ring of fire resistance which will make our fireball spam less annoying on healing.
Then we meet a goblin who joins our party (I booted Safana because she was useless next to Glint). Why the reputation decrease..... strange. After some play time I find the Shaman a very interesting class with some good spells. Writhing frog is just painful to any enemy.
We explore a bit and between areas we are ambushed. The fun part is that the ambush sites seem to have sub-areas to go to. Here we are fighting against trolls and carrion crawlers in a cave. I like this very much. Btw, you can still see the alteration spell in action that Melissa uses a lot. Teleportation field.
Of course she also uses other spells like Polymorph Other which in this example sticks to the Ogre Mage taking him out of the battle quite nicely. (This is troll forest already).
Also other things happen that add some fun to SoD. There is a dagger called a gemblade which upon striking has some chance to create a gem in your pocket. Here after around 15 fails, Melissa finally gets a reward for fighting in melee.
And other things happen like the usage of infravision. Wow!
We pressed on beyond the first camp site and we are now going to explore a temple of Bhaal around the second camp site just before we get to Bridgefort. But first another ambush site.... for the next time I play (which will be some time, I have to go abroad for work for a week).
Melissa is doing well. Helping out mostly by attacking stuff left and right. Burning hands is growing in power and her dagger skills when using the strength spell is improving. What I also like is I found some trollblood ioun stone which regenerates 1HP per round. With the low HP (16 currently at level 8), she regenerates to full health quite rapidly, especially with a casting of haste. I still need to worry about not dying in one hit when hit, but now the ioun stone relieves some of the pressure of optimal kiting performance and Melissa can get back into the fray quite soon. I am amazed at the leveling speed. She started with 48k at level 5 and now she has 133k already. At this speed she will max before the end of SoD and she did not even have the vanilla BG1-no-TotsC XP cap when she started SoD.
Btw how do I remove the pictures from below the post? If I delete them they are gone from the post as well. This was not the case when I posted the Cuwaert updates.
@Iroumen: All pictures will appear temporarily at the bottom of the comment once you post it. If you refresh, however, the only remaining pictures at the bottom will be those you uploaded, but did not actually insert into the post. Those are leftover pictures. If you still see them now, take note of the file names, go to "Edit," and delete only those file names. All the pictures in your post should remain, while the extra ones will vanish.
If ALL of your pictures, even the ones you did include in the text of your post, appear as tiny boxes at the bottom of the post, then I don't know how to remove the little boxes. Currently, I myself see none of them.
@Blackraven put Ascension on my install, which is excellent news, because it means we have to deal with nonsense like Illasera's arrows, which are basically Anti-Magic Rays.
Contingencies, however, are unaffected by such shenanigans. Yay.
In Ascension, Illasera comes with a diverse group of allies, including a high-level mage. Whatever happened to those guys?
Edwin happened. Dragon's Breath. He keeps going--who's going to stop him?
Immediately after entering the Pocket Plane, I do some tweaking. Edwin and Keldorn are both leaving behind. Who's replacing them?
Sarevok and Blueberry the Phase Spider!
I don't have any screenshots so you'll have to use your imagination. Sarevok is a scary black man; Blueberry is a cuddly spider.
Why these guys? Well, I got rid of Edwin because his Inquisitor abilities were redundant with our debuffers and Laosha's Detect Illusion ability. They were useful, but they weren't good enough. Sarevok will be our two-handed weapon user person instead. Mostly this is because Item Upgrades apparently lets you fuse the Unholy Reaver with Carsomyr to get a +6 greatsword with 50% MR, dispel on hit, -2 THAC0 on hit, and 1d6 magic damage on hit. SCS's tweak to grant a saving throw to Carsomyr's dispel ability does not apply to this weapon, and unlike in vanilla, the Unholy Reaver's THAC0 penalty bypasses MR, as does this weapon's THAC0 penalty.
We need the Heart of the Damned to get it, though, which requires fighting Odamaron the lich of Sendai's Enclave. Until then, Sarevok will have to use underpowered weapons like the Unholy Reaver. So sad.
But wait, why get rid of Edwin? He was carrying the entire party with Dragon's Breath!
Honestly, I didn't want to use that spell anymore. Certainly not with the Red Soul kit. I already knew that if we brought along Edwin, basically every fight would start and end with Horrid Wilting or Dragon's Breath. So I replaced him with a ToB-created (and therefore higher-level) Blueberry, to get a better idea of what the Phase Spider kit is like at high levels.
Anyway, the adventure begins. The Pocket Plane reminds me that turning Chaotic Evil has consequences.
Namely, it makes the first Pocket Plane challenge vastly easier. Instead of fighting Bodhi and Irenicus and Sarevok, you have to deal with Ellesime, Duke Eltan, and Aran Linvail. They are not tough at all. This is the only interesting screenshot.
Flame Strike bypasses GOI and Planetars don't mind Aran's invisibility.
I'd talk about the storyline and roleplaying stuff, but ToB doesn't have any. So here's Imoen tanking a charmed Sarevok.
Yes, fighters do fail saves in ToB.
Nothing interesting happens before Gromnir. We just hit people in the face until they die. At Gromnir, we discover that Berena Elkan also has Illasera's Anti-Magic Ray arrows.
Karun the Black takes advantage of Aerie's weakness. Item-based resistances keep her alive.
Then, good news: Gromnir failed his save against Domination, Laosha's area-effect charm spell.
We concentrate on Berena Elkan first. She already disabled our mages, but at least this way she won't kill them.
A lot of ToB combat revolves around weapons, unlike SoA. With more +5 weapons, and with HLAs like Summon Planetar, Improved Alacrity (for debuffing), Power Attack, and Whirlwind Attack, a lot of enemy mage defenses lose their effectiveness, as they're easier to break down or bypass. Meanwhile, enemies get higher MR, better saves, and more HP, and they come in bigger groups with higher collective APR. This makes fighter levels much more important. Planetars are overpowered demigods with Vicious Vorpal Swords of Violence, but you only get one of them, no matter how many mages are in your party.
Holy Word is another brilliant anti-mage spell that's easily available in ToB, whether from your cleric or your Planetar.
Imoen's Planetar will last 40 rounds. That's just silly.
Amazingly enough, Laosha's Domination ability turns against our favor. Looks like Gromnir doesn't have normal boss immunities.
I bring out the Ring of Earth Control and bring him back, at 1 HP.
Laosha's aura is clouded and Aerie forgot to memorize Slow Poison. But Planetars can do basically anything.
But their 75 MR isn't guaranteed to block everything. Nor, apparently, is their immunity to fire. Soon after we finish off Gromnir, our Planetar somehow dies.
No, that's not a typo. A fire-immune critter just burned to death somehow. There aren't even any Fire Giants around here to lower its fire resistance.
Karun the Black has lots of resistance, but no mage spell blocks poison damage.
Saradush is saved from the tyrant! Too bad it's gonna get destroyed anyway. We buy Boots of Speed and vamoose.
I too wonder how did the planetar's fire resistance get lower? Does Karun have the Red Soul kit? Your kit lowers enemy elemental resistances at the cost of half duration on all spells? How do you code this? Very impressive.
Comments
Also, I've been playing a run recently (not documented here) and only yesterday fought Kangaxx with the party, very similar to your experience, with the only difference I had no Planetars (it's a restriction from my part). Am I right in understanding that if I can't kill Kangaxx before his protections are activated, the best strategy will be to wait till all of them wear off, without trying to take them down instead? Because it worked in your case and worked in my case as well.
I think the two things that made that possible were Holy Word and our Pierce Shield+Khelben's Warding Whip+Pierce Shield Chain Contingency. The former, cast by Aerie and our Planetar, bypasses all of Kangaxx's spell protections and stops half his spells, or all of them if you use two castings. Holy Word is crippling to any mage or lich, much like a Wizard Slayer's Fire Seeds. The latter, triggered by Project Image (the "Helpless" condition in Chain Contingency), would remove Spell Shield, Spell Trap, and Spell Turning on the first round, and SI: Divination or SI: Abjuration the next round or two, enabling a Breach on the second or third round even with only one mage in the party.
In a nutshell, we used Holy Word to shut down Kangaxx for the first few rounds while we debuffed him using Chain Contingency and a subsequent Breach.
It was only in his demilich form that we really waited out his buffs, as we no longer had those Chain Contingencies to do so. We tried to debuff him, but we ended up running out of magic attacks before we ever had a chance to Breach him. Had Edwin used the same Chain Contingency that Imoen did, with Pierce Shield+Khelben's Warding Whip+Pierce Shield on Helpless, we might have been able to Breach Kangaxx early.
It should have been possible to slay Kangaxx's demilich form in a single round if I had prepared properly, even without the Red Soul kit. SCS only disables quick slot items, not an item's special abilities, which means we could have used the Ring of the Ram multiple times in the same round: one from Poppy or Laosha, one from a Vhailor's Helm clone, one from Edwin's Project Image clone, one from Imoen's Project Image clone, and maybe another two from Edwin's and Imoen's Simulacrum clone. Each hit does 5d6 base damage, or 17.5 on average, which means a reliable kill would require five uses at once.
This could be done at a relatively low level, since there are multiple Simulacrum scrolls in the game as well as Vhailor's Helm. A level 14 party should be able to take down Kangaxx's lich form with Holy Word, Pierce Magic, Ruby Ray of Reversal, and Breach, and take down his demilich form with Ring of the Ram from multiple clones.
Halfling Barbarians are one of the single most resilient characters I've ever used. Their save bonuses, immunities, and high HP pools make them about as hard to kill as a properly-buffed Cleric/Mage, Shadowdancer, Shadowdancer/Mage, or Shadowdancer/Cleric.
Apparently she doesn't stick around if you save her eggs. No Human Flesh armor for Laosha.
HLAs make the last of our chores far easier.
I went so long without getting the Gauntlets of Dexterity for Keldorn because of the lich that was guarding it.
Now we need the Staff of the Magi. We finally enter the Twisted Rune. Shangalar survives the first round of traps, naturally. Poppy sticks to the front to keep Vaxall occupied.
Not that Vaxall is such a big threat at this point.
Shangalar prepares to roast us while we struggle to get rid of his clones.
Aerie brings out Holy Word to frustrate his spellcasting, while Imoen brings out a Planetar to add another Holy Word later on.
Then Laosha's Charm takes effect, making Holy Word a moot point. We use Shangalar's Improved Alacrity to waste many spells at once, allowing our Planetar to use its Holy Word on Layenne instead.
But Layenne didn't have PFMW active. The Planetar bypasses all of her defenses at once.
We heal Poppy and turn our attention to Shangalar, who turns hostile once more. He refreshes his defenses, but a single magic attack takes down Spell Shield, and Spellstrike takes down all the others, opening him to a Breach. He doesn't last long after that.
The Staff of the Magi is ours, though at this point we have basically no need of it. We are done with all the SoA side quests save the stronghold quest, which I won't waste time pursuing due to the lack of unique loot. After buying up every last thing I could possibly ever need, I head to the Tree of Life.
Irenicus starts off very strong. Moments after combat begins, he establishes a strong position.
Notice the blue square on the screen. I like to highlight triggers with CTRL-4 so I know exactly where they are.
As strong as Irenicus' defenses are, Chain Contingency strikes too hard and too fast for his buffs to survive for long.
Irenicus' lengthy Time Stop ate into Edwin's spell durations, however, and Edwin has to spend his aura on renewing his most important defense.
Edwin therefore cannot cast Breach. But with a lucky failed save from Irenicus, Carsomyr does just fine on its own.
SCS mages use a unique contingency that players cannot use: they can trigger Stoneskin or PFMW to fire immediately after their old buffs wear down or get dispelled, rather than triggering on hit or at 50% HP.
It doesn't matter. With his spell protections down, Irenicus can't stop Breach.
Seconds later, he crumples. We enter the Nine Hells.
We try out Poppy's latest HLA on Sarevok, Power Attack. The effect is crushing.
Power Attack lasts 2 rounds and stuns enemies on hit for 2 rounds as well. It offers a save vs. death at -4, which means almost any enemy is guaranteed to get stun-locked for the next 4 rounds, more than enough time to slay anything that's actually vulnerable to stun.
I finally see one of my favorite lines in the game.
It's quite true. Humans even in our world have control over powers we're just beginning to understand, in the sense that only a fraction of humankind understands any given technology. Kudos to world leaders since 1945 that have failed to use nuclear weapons against their enemies.
I pick the Hell rewards that give us the best bonuses, though it shifts Poppy from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil.
This is actually a meaningful sacrifice from a powergaming perspective: being evil-aligned means that Aerie can't use Holy Smite, one of her best spells, as freely as before.
I agonize over our spell picks, set 7 traps, bring out some Skeleton Warriors, and open the door. Then something truly surprising happens.
I intended for Edwin's triple Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency to eat away at Irenicus' minions, but it seems that Irenicus is hostile during the opening cutscene, which triggered that contingency early. Irenicus is already at Near Death. In fact, he easily hit 1 HP.
But it wasn't enough to trigger the ending cutscene. Also, Irenicus regenerates very quickly, and his defenses are very impressive. He will likely recover all of the HP he lost before we have a chance to harm him.
Poppy has been debuffed. I restore her Improved Haste so we can get rid of those pesky demon friends of Jon-bon's.
Then we get some spectacularly bad luck.
Also, Irenicus gets Time Stop off the ground, as we expected. With Poppy buffed with Hardiness and wielding the Defender of Easthaven, she can survive the Slayer's attacks, but the Slayer doesn't fuss with her at all. It cuts through some of Edwin's Stoneskins instead, and hauls out some high-powered spells instead.
Why Remove Magic? Well, Aerie's SI: Abjuration ran out during Time Stop. Red Souls really do have terrible, terrible defenses. She loses everything but Spell Shield.
Then, good news: Jon-bon's Fallen Planetar runs into more traps than it can handle.
And then, even better news: Laosha's Domination has taken effect.
Irenicus is under our power now, if only for a moment. I start him casting Time Stop and space out the rest of the party to restore our defenses, but Edwin's SI: Abjuration runs out. The Red Soul kit strikes again.
Irenicus gets Time Stop off the ground; his allies didn't even try to stop him. He tears them to pieces.
Aerie and Edwin are still in bad shape. Edwin and Aerie both cast Stoneskin, but I've been keeping them running instead of renewing SI: Abjuration. The result? They lose Stoneskin once again.
Poppy and Irenicus team up to take down the demons. Meanwhile, Laosha, Imoen, and Edwin stay out of the way, as their defenses are too low for them to survive a round with a demon.
Imoen's Green Soul kit left her SI: Abjuration very much intact, however, and so she has had no problem with her defenses. She is free to cast slow-casting spells without either the Robe of Vecna or the Amulet of Power to speed things up.
The Green Soul kit also means that her Time Stop will last for 6 rounds instead of 3. She could empty all of her high-level spell slots, but that's not what she's planning.
She has better plans for her Time Stop.
She has Kundane and Belm equipped to increase her APR, since THAC0 is a non-issue during Time Stop. But we hit a snag.
I check the combat log. Turns out Jon-bon had PFMW from a contingency. She could use Breach, but the projectile wouldn't hit Irenicus until after Time Stop ended.
We have to wait it out. To make the most of the time we have left, Imoen turns her attention to the last surviving demon, breaking through its Stoneskins and stabbing it to death.
She renews Poppy's Improved Haste and hurries back to Irenicus. She savages him.
The Balor explodes, slightly damaging Edwin, some previous debuffers finally strike Irenicus, and Irenicus restores his PFMW.
But he's suffered so many magic attacks that he no longer has any defense against Breach. His PFMW, Stoneskin, and his magic resistance all go down. We apply pressure to his already-wounded body.
He should have died by now, but I don't even care how long it's taking. Irenicus' allies are dead. His defenses are down. His HP is depleted. And our only casualty is Keldorn and some of Aerie and Edwin's buffs.
Irenicus makes one last attempt to save himself.
But it's hopeless. We Breach him.
Finally, Irenicus gives in. Shadows of Amn has come to a close.
This has been a remarkably entertaining run, and like my last successful no-reload run of BG2, with Viora the Shadowdancer/Cleric, it was also surprisingly easy overall. Poppy proved to be a stellar tank throughout the game, barely ever approaching death and barely ever getting disabled, while Aerie and Edwin, both using the Red Soul kit, were spectacular bombers. Perhaps the most fun part of this run was simply seeing those ludicrously high damage values. I have long played parties that were high on defense and low on damage output, and my mages have always focused on disablers rather than spell damage. The Red Soul kit was a welcome break from this trend.
The Phase Spider kit:
This kit did not play out like I thought it would. I finally got its power level under control, coming up with a way to keep its Improved Alacrity effect balanced: using spells would increase the spider's casting speed, slowing down repeated spellcasting. But I also gave it only 1d6 HP per level, which cost Blueberry 36 HP overall. Phase Spiders cannot wear rings or armor heavier than studded leather, which made Blueberry's AC fairly weak. Although Lightning Reflexes gave her a lovely +2 bonus to AC and saves, as well as an extra 10 MR, it wasn't nearly enough to compensate for her poor AC and HP. By the time she got strong benefits from Lightning Reflexes, she was already nearly dead. I need to give the Phase Spider more HP or some AC progression so its Lightning Reflexes can actually rescue it from harm.
Also, without backstabs, I basically never used Blueberry's Dimension Door ability, since I knew it would slow down any future spells she might need to cast quickly. I think I will give the Phase Spider a single backstab bonus to incentivize stealth, and speed up casting speed to incentivize spellcasting.
The Seducer kit:
Laosha, our Seducer played out much as I expected. Sometimes he dominated the environment, taking control of powerful enemies and neutralizing them while our party recovered from their injuries and built up their defenses. Other times, his psionics did absolutely nothing, and he was left disabled by his spellcasting, unable to help at all. His low thieving skills, lack of HLA traps, and the brief pause when using Charm, also meant that he was seldom helpful without using of his psionics. Throughout the game, he was alternately the most powerful and most useless party member. Just the way I wanted it to be.
The Red Soul kit:
Surprisingly, this incredibly simple kit proved rather well-balanced. By granting the caster double damage on all offensive damage spells, it made the mage into a spectacular bomber. But by cutting all spell durations in half, it made the mage into a classic class cannon, as it was unable to hold up its buffs. Most importantly, SI: Abjuration ran out in the middle of combat, exposing the mage to Remove Magic before I could notice they were in trouble. It also crippled all kinds of other spells such as Project Image, Spook, Greater Malison, and Slow. A Red Soul fights fast battles: either it obliterates its opponents in moments or it loses its buffs and get annihilated.
Edwin was clearly overpowered with the Red Soul kit. But then, he's already overpowered to begin with.
The Green Soul kit:
I didn't get to see much of this kit, but it was demonstrably better than the Red Soul kit. By cutting spell damage in half and doubling spell durations, it bolstered a mage's best assets: disablers, buffs, and utility spells. Long-duration Improved Haste, Project Image, SI: Abjuration, and Mass Invisibility spells benefited greatly from the Green Soul kit, not to mention Imoen's game-changing Time Stop in the fight with Irenicus. If Imoen hadn't been so underleveled, she would have made an excellent tank with 8-round Protection from Magical Weapons spells.
However, these kits were not the reason for the success of this run.
Laosha could turn the tide of battle in moments, but as a single-classed thief (Seducers can't dual-class) with poor stealth, he got pulverized repeatedly due to his poor AC and HP and lack of spell defenses. Blueberry could do horrible things to enemies with her poison, but when she came up against a tough enemy, Lightning Reflexes could not save her. Aerie and Edwin could blast things to pieces, but died many times due to short-lived defensive spells. SCS enemies always notice when you've lost your SI: Abjuration spell.
Poppy was the only reason this party stayed alive. Her halfling saving throw bonuses, combined with the Barbarian kit's bonuses and immunities, made her extremely difficult to kill. She absorbed the attacks that the rest of the party could not handle, and kept the group safe. As much as the Red Soul kit impressed me, the old wisdom held true: in a no-reload run, defenses are always the top priority. It was only due to Poppy's tanking ability that Edwin and Aerie were able to make use of the Red Soul kit. The most powerful kit I used here was ultimately a vanilla kit, not one of my own.
In fact, this is probably the most important takeaway I've found in this run. Whatever the makeup of a party in a no-reload run, the choice of which character should be Charname and which should be an NPC should not be based on stat tomes or Hell bonuses or Bhaalspawn abilities or the Slayer form. Charname should be the one character that is most difficult to kill. This held for my last two successful runs as well. Sil the Cleric of Lathander/Mage had a suite of buffs and immunities; Viora the Shadowdancer/Cleric had invisibility at will on top of cleric immunities; and Poppy the Barbarian had strong, undispellable defenses in the form of halfling save bonuses, item-based resistances, Barbarian Rage immunities, and a massive HP pool that cushioned the impact of unlucky blows.
I have already taken Poppy into ToB. But I have changed the party. Edwin is gone. I knew that a Red Soul with Dragon's Breath would ultimately just steamroll over every enemy in the game that wasn't immune to fire, trivializing many encounters while being terribly unhelpful for others. It would simplify gameplay and make things too reductive and boring. I also ditched Keldorn, as he was too underleveled by the time we got him, and entering ToB only granted him one extra level.
Instead, I have taken on Sarevok so I can use the Unholy Reaver, which Item Upgrades can later combine with Carsomyr, without investing two proficiency points in two-handed swords with Poppy, who really should stick with flails. I have also brought Blueberry back into the party as a ToB-generated character, at a much higher level than Keldorn.
So far, Poppy is still carrying the team. She's the only one who can handle the melee pressure that ToB throws at you.
How can you play this game so fast btw. I'm happy if I can get an hour in the evenings.... o.O
Not to mention having to be careful with prepping and scouting due to the noreload part as well as doing an actual blind run in SoD, progress is slow.
I also hope that Blackraven can enlighten us about where those extra feedback lines are coming from. They look really useful.
Night of the Living Redshirts: The No Reload Adventures of Redshirt Ricky
On three separate occasions Ricky gets disabled by chaos or hold person. He rolls a lot of bad saves, and is only saved by getting out of sight, or because of daggers, still flying through the air after he gets disabled, striking killing blows on mages. Already I am losing confidence in doing a successful no reload run.Chapter 2: Rise of the Redshirts
Ricky is going to need help. Playing solo, there's just too much riding on saves. Death can come in a multitude of silly and stupid ways. While potions of invisiblity, invulnerability and the ring of air control provide useful benefits, SCS mages are all too eager to deal of one-two punch of remove magic and disablers. With the added levels they get from SCS, mages nearly always dispel.
At least it wasn't as bad as that time when I got 2 Spell Trigger scrolls from Galchobhair in the Temple sewers... during an attempted solo Archer run. Always when charname isn't a mage, I tell ya. That's when the enemies get really generous with their scrolls. I don't often see Death Spell before the planar prison, and death spell will be very useful for what I have planned with Ricky's potential party setup.
He also discovers that throwing weapons can run out at the most inopportune of times...
And that a Kensai does not want to end up facing a number of good fighters without a little boost to AC. Awkwaaaaaaard....
Of course, only after gulping the potion do I remember that Rune Assassins see through invisibility. A helpful backstab lets Ricky remember, too.
It's little mistakes like this that can lead to instant death in this game. The devil, as always, is in the details. I have a habit of not remembering little details like this... probably because their are only 624 little exceptions, provisos and important details through the length of the game.
How's her new look?
I also give her an XP boost with EEKeeper to make her match Ricky... but then I feel guilty about it. Usually I just use EEKeeper to make them match charname's unless I can get them at level 12, but trying no-reload run is for whatever reason making me feel like I'm supposed to be 'keeping it real', or some nonsense. I decide to let it go.
While I appreciate the improvements made by SCS on the muggers and ruffians, the backstabbing in Chapter1~2 is a bit overdone. You can only endure the multiple groups of them so many times before they start to get a bit... tiresome.
Viconia is revived at temple and the pair continue on their way.
Redshirts cannot resist the big red button in the middle of the room. They have to press the big red button.
And another Redshirt joins the cause, attracted by the prospect of a better life as a central character in important events, rather than as an expendable cardboard cutout on the sidelines.
Edwin: Can I wear my red bathrobe?
Ricky: Sorry, red shirts only. It's not just a theme, Edwin, this is about standards.
Viconia: Take it off.... slowly.
Edwin enters the party at 600,000XP lower than Ricky/Viconia, yet he will soon catch up to be only one level lower. I had forgotten how fast mages level up in the beginning, before they slow down.
Edwin proves immensely helpful with Mae'var, as the party's first quest comes to completion.
SCS does not know the meaning of restraint. This can be turned to the players advantage. When every thief has 3 invisibility potions... that's a lot of loot. If you can get it before they drink it all, that is. I have no intention of letting the assassins drink anything.
This battle is as much about boosting our stock with a combined 15 invisibility potions as it is defeating Mae'var. That's a very nice haul.
RP-wise, this is just Ricky's way of learning from his enemies. When they use underhanded tactics against you, use the same against them. It's all fair in war.
The victory is easy and the quest completed. The party needs only to return to Renal Bloodscalp to collect the reward. Spirits are high.
Now that Ricky and his friends are the main characters, he begins to feel almost... invulnerable. Nobody kills main characters, right?
Naturally, only an event like this reminds me that there was another way out of the guildhall through the tunnel. It would have been safer than running back to the street through the assassin infested warren of the main floor. Sigh.... details, details.
Ya, this will probably end up in the minimal reload thread soon enough. But a redshirt does not give up so easily. Instead, our away team decides to re-assert themselves. And they know just who to target: everyone's favourite punching bag.
So Ricky is well on his way.
The Redshirts shall rise.
I'm certainly being a lot more careful now that I'm trying to do no-reload. It does make the game more interesting. It's a red shirts only team. That means no armour, no barkskin, no stoneskins, no robe of vecna. Nothing that will interfere with the established redshirt livery. We'll see how that pans out.
What makes me most nervous is my less than expert memorization of all the game's encounters. Though it does make things more thrilling.
Until next time...
Up Next: 'Scuffle in the Sewers' and 'Knife Party at Sion's'.
RED SHIRT RICKY: "All right, all right. I'm leaving. No need to get violent."
COPPER CORONET GUARD: Redshirt Ricky does 16 damage to Copper Coronet Guard
COPPER CORONET GUARD: Death
With your posts I always feel dwarfed in tactical insight hehehe.
Also, was it a normal SCS Irenicus battle in the end? I remember @Musigny said that he restored the Improved Irenicus fight (available in SCS 21 ver) as a part of his Tactics beta.
- Test of pride good because the resistances are nicer than the XP.
- Test of fear good for mage/bard for the immunity to normal weapons, because that stacks nicely with pfmw. For warrior classes I resolve it more often to evil for the +2 con.
- Test of selfishness good for magic resist. I have done it once or twice the evil way for the AC, but then on classes/kits that truely benefit (like swashbuckler or even monk since s/he probably topped over 100% anyway).
- Test of greed, 50/50. Blackrazor and HP for thieves often. +saves is really good on most characters.
- Test of wrath, strength for warriors, wisdom/charisma for clerics, paladins.
Curious what others would pick.
Pride: +20% resistance to the elements (XP unnecessary)
Fear: +2 CON (immunity to normal weapons unnecessary)
Selfishness: +10% MR (AC unnecessary given Poppy's resistances)
Greed: Blackrazor and HP (saving throws unnecessary given Poppy's subzero saves)
Wrath: +2 STR (no need for WIS or CHA)
Normally I get the immunity to normal weapons instead of CON, extra saving throws instead of HP, and WIS instead of STR, because I play casters. Poppy is one of the very, very, very few fighter-types I've ever played.
If @Musigny restored the original Tactics fight with Irenicus in Hell, I would very much like to try it next time around. However, using any WeiDu stuff will automatically uninstall SCS in my game (no one knows why). To get any new mods installed, I'd need a transplant from @Blackraven or whoever is willing to send me their override folder and dialog.tlk file.
Night of the Living Redshirt(s): The No Reload Adventures of Redshirt Ricky
Now that we've started building our away team, it's time for the redshirts to start owning this town.Chapter 3: Revenge of the Redshirts (and the mummies).
Ricky and friends hear about a Cult of The Unseeing Eye in the temple district and decide to make it their next mission.
They travel to the sewers to meet new and interesting people... and kill them.
We recruit the aid of Keldorn, who at first is hesitant to join our little club. He's not thrilled by the prospect of running around in a red tunic without his armour, but Ricky convinces him.
After selling the loot, Ricky and Co. head to the guarded compound. Supposedly this is an old remnant of an unfinished bit of BG2 related to the slavers... so we just RP this as being a tip he received while aiding Hendak at the Copper.
Ricky discovers that some enemies are getting wise to his usual antics.
Oh... uh... that normally works.
Sion's summoning trap doesn't bother the team, however. When you're a redshirt, you do your fair share of dying, and after a number of visits to the afterlife you get to know some of the denizens there. One of the summoned creatures just happens to be a demon Ricky has played poker with. The demon fulfills a debt by slaying all of Sion's summoned baddies.
Sion is a relatively straightforward encounter. He has a number of configurations, and it's usually important to kill him quickly because he will cast spells like Wish and Time Stop, I believe. In my install he doesn't have HLAs, though I think if you select that option in SCS he gets those, too. Sometimes he'll come out with a strong damaging sequencer with Abi Dalzim's, but he goes for simulacrum this time.
Sion's initial spell trigger, also shows the same flawed setups that many mages have in the beginning chapters of BG2. Protection from Magical Weapons. It's a rather overrated protection, in my opinion. It's most weakest at the beginning of the game, where nothing is immune to normal weapons and where +3 and above weapons are relative rare. Mantle and Improved Mantle are more imposing obstacles, yet a lot of mages like Sion, Lavok or Tolgerias use them as 2nd or 3rd lines of defence.
Ricky is well suited to taking on mages like Sion.
The rest of Sion's cohorts fall one by one as Ricky's Redshirts use the rooms of the compound to break up their formation.
If there's one thing a Redshirt really hates, it's a Blueshirt.
We also discover that Spirit Armour is not going to be an acceptable buff for Keldorn, or anyone on the team. It interferes with the red livery.
Though Spirit armour does have a mildly interesting interaction between Keldorn and Edwin when it wears off.
Without a thief or an ability to buff strength above 23, most of the loot in the compound is not available to us. We might just come back to it later, but in truth all we really needed from this was enough gear to sell for a sizeable chunk of cash.
With everyone else coming up empty handed in the looting, Edwin gets a little superior (as he does) when he finds one of the only worthwhile items in the compound not under lock and key.
We then leave and make our way back to the sewers to sell off what we have to Roger the Fence and begin the Cult quest so we can keep Keldorn.
After cashing in on all the uneeded suits of armour and Celestial Fury (which only fetches a price of about 2900 gold, surprisingly, considering its fame), we receive our visit from Valen and Brus.
Then something monumentally stupid happens.
Ricky dies.
Ricky conquers strong mages, clerics and fighters... then falls to a lowly mummy.
I had forgotten to have Viconia memorize 'Cure Disease', and she does not yet have 'Heal'. Stupidly, I did not think to visit Mek-Rath's bachelor pad and get his mirror in exchange for the wand of resurrection, even though it was right on the way to our objective.
Mummies, though rather low level enemies, deal only between 10-15 damage a hit, but also 21 disease damage per round in 3 ticks of seven. Ricky gets hit more than once while shivving mummies who, although turned by Viconia's turn-undead ability, still strike back when cornered (though not all the time). It's not like I expected them to just cower and take the hits mind you, but I hadn't remembered the whole disease bit.
This is something I've not dealt with in some time. I usually just make undead explode with a good/neutral aligned cleric. I do not remember how vicious the mummies can be until it's already too late and Ricky has been afflicted with Ebola x10.
One moment he's at 60HP drinking healing potions to outlast the disease, and then he's instantly dead. So I'm guessing he was hit at least three times by the mummies while he was busy chunking them. It all seemed like such a mundane task that I was initially oblivious to what was happening at first, and I wasn't watching Ricky's portrait quickly turning red.
Thus Ricky fails in his bid to become the Living Redshirt.
The silly things. Those are always the ones that get you. In truth I am probably too careless a player to seriously attempt a no-reload; I haven't the discipline. Especially when I gather some momentum.
Ouch.
We see a Gauth with the Spectacles of Spectacle but he attacks the party. It gives a ring of fire resistance which will make our fireball spam less annoying on healing.
Then we meet a goblin who joins our party (I booted Safana because she was useless next to Glint). Why the reputation decrease..... strange. After some play time I find the Shaman a very interesting class with some good spells. Writhing frog is just painful to any enemy.
We explore a bit and between areas we are ambushed. The fun part is that the ambush sites seem to have sub-areas to go to. Here we are fighting against trolls and carrion crawlers in a cave. I like this very much.
Btw, you can still see the alteration spell in action that Melissa uses a lot. Teleportation field.
Of course she also uses other spells like Polymorph Other which in this example sticks to the Ogre Mage taking him out of the battle quite nicely. (This is troll forest already).
Also other things happen that add some fun to SoD. There is a dagger called a gemblade which upon striking has some chance to create a gem in your pocket. Here after around 15 fails, Melissa finally gets a reward for fighting in melee.
And other things happen like the usage of infravision. Wow!
We pressed on beyond the first camp site and we are now going to explore a temple of Bhaal around the second camp site just before we get to Bridgefort. But first another ambush site.... for the next time I play (which will be some time, I have to go abroad for work for a week).
Melissa is doing well. Helping out mostly by attacking stuff left and right. Burning hands is growing in power and her dagger skills when using the strength spell is improving. What I also like is I found some trollblood ioun stone which regenerates 1HP per round. With the low HP (16 currently at level 8), she regenerates to full health quite rapidly, especially with a casting of haste. I still need to worry about not dying in one hit when hit, but now the ioun stone relieves some of the pressure of optimal kiting performance and Melissa can get back into the fray quite soon.
I am amazed at the leveling speed. She started with 48k at level 5 and now she has 133k already. At this speed she will max before the end of SoD and she did not even have the vanilla BG1-no-TotsC XP cap when she started SoD.
Btw how do I remove the pictures from below the post? If I delete them they are gone from the post as well. This was not the case when I posted the Cuwaert updates.
If ALL of your pictures, even the ones you did include in the text of your post, appear as tiny boxes at the bottom of the post, then I don't know how to remove the little boxes. Currently, I myself see none of them.
@Blackraven put Ascension on my install, which is excellent news, because it means we have to deal with nonsense like Illasera's arrows, which are basically Anti-Magic Rays.
Contingencies, however, are unaffected by such shenanigans. Yay.
In Ascension, Illasera comes with a diverse group of allies, including a high-level mage. Whatever happened to those guys?
Edwin happened. Dragon's Breath. He keeps going--who's going to stop him?
Immediately after entering the Pocket Plane, I do some tweaking. Edwin and Keldorn are both leaving behind. Who's replacing them?
Sarevok and Blueberry the Phase Spider!
I don't have any screenshots so you'll have to use your imagination. Sarevok is a scary black man; Blueberry is a cuddly spider.
Why these guys? Well, I got rid of Edwin because his Inquisitor abilities were redundant with our debuffers and Laosha's Detect Illusion ability. They were useful, but they weren't good enough. Sarevok will be our two-handed weapon user person instead. Mostly this is because Item Upgrades apparently lets you fuse the Unholy Reaver with Carsomyr to get a +6 greatsword with 50% MR, dispel on hit, -2 THAC0 on hit, and 1d6 magic damage on hit. SCS's tweak to grant a saving throw to Carsomyr's dispel ability does not apply to this weapon, and unlike in vanilla, the Unholy Reaver's THAC0 penalty bypasses MR, as does this weapon's THAC0 penalty.
We need the Heart of the Damned to get it, though, which requires fighting Odamaron the lich of Sendai's Enclave. Until then, Sarevok will have to use underpowered weapons like the Unholy Reaver. So sad.
But wait, why get rid of Edwin? He was carrying the entire party with Dragon's Breath!
Honestly, I didn't want to use that spell anymore. Certainly not with the Red Soul kit. I already knew that if we brought along Edwin, basically every fight would start and end with Horrid Wilting or Dragon's Breath. So I replaced him with a ToB-created (and therefore higher-level) Blueberry, to get a better idea of what the Phase Spider kit is like at high levels.
Anyway, the adventure begins. The Pocket Plane reminds me that turning Chaotic Evil has consequences.
Namely, it makes the first Pocket Plane challenge vastly easier. Instead of fighting Bodhi and Irenicus and Sarevok, you have to deal with Ellesime, Duke Eltan, and Aran Linvail. They are not tough at all. This is the only interesting screenshot.
Flame Strike bypasses GOI and Planetars don't mind Aran's invisibility.
I'd talk about the storyline and roleplaying stuff, but ToB doesn't have any. So here's Imoen tanking a charmed Sarevok.
Yes, fighters do fail saves in ToB.
Nothing interesting happens before Gromnir. We just hit people in the face until they die. At Gromnir, we discover that Berena Elkan also has Illasera's Anti-Magic Ray arrows.
Karun the Black takes advantage of Aerie's weakness. Item-based resistances keep her alive.
Then, good news: Gromnir failed his save against Domination, Laosha's area-effect charm spell.
We concentrate on Berena Elkan first. She already disabled our mages, but at least this way she won't kill them.
A lot of ToB combat revolves around weapons, unlike SoA. With more +5 weapons, and with HLAs like Summon Planetar, Improved Alacrity (for debuffing), Power Attack, and Whirlwind Attack, a lot of enemy mage defenses lose their effectiveness, as they're easier to break down or bypass. Meanwhile, enemies get higher MR, better saves, and more HP, and they come in bigger groups with higher collective APR. This makes fighter levels much more important. Planetars are overpowered demigods with Vicious Vorpal Swords of Violence, but you only get one of them, no matter how many mages are in your party.
Holy Word is another brilliant anti-mage spell that's easily available in ToB, whether from your cleric or your Planetar.
Imoen's Planetar will last 40 rounds. That's just silly.
Amazingly enough, Laosha's Domination ability turns against our favor. Looks like Gromnir doesn't have normal boss immunities.
I bring out the Ring of Earth Control and bring him back, at 1 HP.
Laosha's aura is clouded and Aerie forgot to memorize Slow Poison. But Planetars can do basically anything.
But their 75 MR isn't guaranteed to block everything. Nor, apparently, is their immunity to fire. Soon after we finish off Gromnir, our Planetar somehow dies.
No, that's not a typo. A fire-immune critter just burned to death somehow. There aren't even any Fire Giants around here to lower its fire resistance.
Karun the Black has lots of resistance, but no mage spell blocks poison damage.
Saradush is saved from the tyrant! Too bad it's gonna get destroyed anyway. We buy Boots of Speed and vamoose.