Underdark predicament
lunar
Member Posts: 3,460
It has been two years since I last played Underdark so I was a bit rusty. Failed to notice the mind flayer ambush and well...I play minimal reloads so this was extremely hazardous!
Mind flayers slaughtered my archer mp created companion, plus Jaheira and Minsc. They stunned Imoen as well, but she had just erected a protection from magical weapons spell so she was safe, for the moment. Rasaad was already dead by the drow, and my pc, a wild mage by trade, was out of useful spells. And frankly, spells are of little use against mindflayers.
Seeing all of his companions skulls broken opened by the mind flayers, and Imoen in trouble, he gave in to the taint and turned into Slayer, and as I expected, Slayer made short work of the mind flayers in no time.
Now, with only Imoen, I retreated to Svirfneblin village, hoping for a temple service. No luck. I have misplaced my rod of resurrection as well. I need to at least revive Jaheira so she can raise others with Harper's Call.
What are my options, now, I can not survive Underdark with just Imoen. My wild mage is fresh lvl 17, and can't get enough xp to summon a Planetar, which could have solved all of my problems. Imoen is middling lvl 14 mage.
I can take on the Balor, with sequencered 3xtriple lower resistance, plus slew of protection and summoning spells. I think. Then Adalon will grant me passage to drow city. Here are my questions:
-Is there a temple service in the drow city? I need that desperately!
-When Adalon casts his grand illusion, will my dead party members be affected as well? Otherwise, if I raise them in the drow city, they will not look like drow at all and this will not end well!
Any suggestion or idea is welcomed. Wow, Underdark sure does not joke around. I was not expecting this! This feels really scary and I feel sorry for my charname and Imoen, suddenly finding themselves all alone in the dark. It makes for a great roleplaying experience, though.
Mind flayers slaughtered my archer mp created companion, plus Jaheira and Minsc. They stunned Imoen as well, but she had just erected a protection from magical weapons spell so she was safe, for the moment. Rasaad was already dead by the drow, and my pc, a wild mage by trade, was out of useful spells. And frankly, spells are of little use against mindflayers.
Seeing all of his companions skulls broken opened by the mind flayers, and Imoen in trouble, he gave in to the taint and turned into Slayer, and as I expected, Slayer made short work of the mind flayers in no time.
Now, with only Imoen, I retreated to Svirfneblin village, hoping for a temple service. No luck. I have misplaced my rod of resurrection as well. I need to at least revive Jaheira so she can raise others with Harper's Call.
What are my options, now, I can not survive Underdark with just Imoen. My wild mage is fresh lvl 17, and can't get enough xp to summon a Planetar, which could have solved all of my problems. Imoen is middling lvl 14 mage.
I can take on the Balor, with sequencered 3xtriple lower resistance, plus slew of protection and summoning spells. I think. Then Adalon will grant me passage to drow city. Here are my questions:
-Is there a temple service in the drow city? I need that desperately!
-When Adalon casts his grand illusion, will my dead party members be affected as well? Otherwise, if I raise them in the drow city, they will not look like drow at all and this will not end well!
Any suggestion or idea is welcomed. Wow, Underdark sure does not joke around. I was not expecting this! This feels really scary and I feel sorry for my charname and Imoen, suddenly finding themselves all alone in the dark. It makes for a great roleplaying experience, though.
2
Comments
As for Adalon, I'm not 100% sure but I think that the drow illusion is just a global variable, which once triggered will count as the disguise being in effect for the entire party regardless of changing members (until you do something to break it, story-wise). I would not worry about dead members coming to life as non-drow, afaik the avatar change is only cosmetic and not actually functional (as the function is, as mentioned, done via a global variable).
I just tried killing Nalia, having Adalon cast her illusion, then resurrecting Nalia. She doesn't look like a drow, but no one in the Ust Natha seems to notice.
Scraping together enough experience for a Planetar seems like your best bet. Have you already learned all the spells sold by Underdark merchants?
@joluv wow that would have been super-immersion breaking! And I love the drow avatars on my party, as buggy as they are.
Seems like I am going to try and squeeze every xp from the scrolls and such. Luckily I have some gold and genius potions. Will kick Imoen out temporarily, I need to reach 3m xp asap! I am curious if I can succeed.
I deleted and re-memorised spells for quick 100k xp, was going to purchase more, I prepared my sequencer in the mean time and casted a protection from evil spell on myself...and everything went black as I heard the stiffening of my character's flesh into stone. Yup. With a save of, I don't know, 2 or 3 I still managed to die. All alone, seperated from his loved companions, petrified forever in the Underdark. I just hope the sivirfneblin used my statue as a decoration, at least.
Maybe this was a sign. I need to give up and start all over. I have reloaded 3 times up to this point and maybe this was his last chance. A very, very unlucky occurence. I am sad.
Your lesson is that you can't take chances on saving throws if you're playing with no / min reloads. If the saving throw will be checked, then 2 or 3 is not good enough, it needs to be around -4 in case of spells that have penalties to save. In hindsight I'm sure you could have done more...Protection from Evil, Blur, Spirit Armour etc would have kept you safe. Or at least have Spell Deflection in place.
Your solution was correct, get to HLAs and get a planetar but I guess your execution wasn't right. It should be do-able given the right experience playing solo and sounds like a really interesting challenge. Why don't you have another go? This time take all precautions at all times, there's tons of XP available in the Underdark...I think you can do it!
Now I managed it! Spent all of my money, had to sell robe of the good arch magi even, deleted/scribed/deleted/scribed tons of scrolls, destroyed the elementals and the Balor with my kid sis Imoen, and I heard the wonderful 'dring!' Of level up.
Chose Planetar immediately and the angel I summoned was able to fix my party up quickly.
That was really cool, rp wise, it was as if everything was lost, and my character was lost and hapless in the grim darkness, in a foreign, alien place. Yet, he persevered with Imoen's help, and found within himself a power he did not know before:despite his tainted blood, he was able to call down the aid of the heavens and raise his fallen friends from the dead!
Only thing is my rep is disliked at 7, thanks to me having to go Slayer a lot of times to survive! Never in my playthroughs I had such an abysmal reputation! Rasaad lectured me on decency as soon as he was raised. Helloooo? My blood, sweat and tears gated in a frickin angel from the heavens to resurrect your stiff bodies. And you think I am evil?
So..much...fun!
Worry not though, I saved Vithal, did his quest, battled the three elemental gates, and with scs, each had an elder elemental with spell like abilities. I also destroyed the Balor with summons+magic and so I think I deserved the level.
Also, rod of resurrection:never leave Athkatla without one! I wonder where did I put mine, probably forgot in the inventory of some npc I kicked out.
Oh no. I have left Hexxat in the Asylum when I had to take Imoen. She is lost forever now, right?
As for good news, I found Aeger's Hide and Tugian bow for my archer, and the staff of magi for my wild mage in the underdark, in quo toa tunnels and demon knights. I have item randomiser mod so this was very good. Aeger's hide is one of the best for kits with leather fetish, offers useful resistances and the immunity to nastiest disabler ever. You don't want an improved hasted archer becoming confused in battle! Tugian bow is awesome sauce for that extra attack, an archer is already a beast Thac0 and damage wise, so low hit&damage bonuses do not matter. I also found Gessen's shaft but have no idea where the string is. I have avoided a lot of areas so I may have lost the item for good.
Omitted assaulting House Jellat because with only four people remaining I was a bit scared. Fleed their darkrealm as fast as I could.
Hexxat was back in Copper Coronet, so I took her in. Rescued Viconia as well, she started out at lvl 13 as I haven't met her yet, which is good. I have a new appreciation for clerics! Maybe will swap her for Sarevok in ToB, or for Neera to do her quests.
Hexxat's quest triggered, and I have played the temple with monk ghosts before. In that playthrough I talked with them, did their quests etc. I was mighty pissed so I just improved hasted my archer, with tugian bow and grand mastery, he had 10 attacks/round that did 20 damage on avarage each. I never talked to the monks or ghosts, just shot everything I saw to death without mercy. They couldn't even move, each time they were hit, they suffered hit recovery from the arrow and died soon after. That was VERY satisfactory! Yay for being chaotic good! (Emphasis on chaotic here)
Killed Firkraag with time stop and chain contingency, though he dropped Viconia to exactly 1 hp with his breath. Close call there, she could have been chunked. Killed the Shadow dragon as well, when an innocent magic missile turned into flesh to stone and insta killed the dragon. I lost the whatever random loot İt had. I already have the scroll for cf, btw. Maybe I lost the string for Gessen? Not good.
Viconia started hitting on me after killing Bodhi. We simply don't have the time left in SoA for the romance, if I don't finish her romance in SoA will it continue in ToB and do I get a chance to redeem her?