We'll be going live in 15 minutes! As much as it sucks to restart, I also feel like I've learned a lot about what to do...and also how to kill that blasted Elder Brain. Next time: SI: Abjuration.
Well, I got completely surrounded by trolls in Tor'Gal's lair. It looked like I was about to fight my way out, but my Stoneskin couldn't be cast in time.
Despite my earlier comments, there won't be a stream tomorrow - I didn't realize what day it was and as such I didn't realize my mom's surgery was tomorrow. As such, we'll all be there at the hospital (thankfully it's nothing serious or life-threatening), so the next session will be on May 17th at noon PST.
We'll be going live in 15 minutes! Hope to see everybody there - yesterday was the first time in a few weeks I haven't streamed, so it's nice to get back into the groove, heh.
We'll be going live in 20 minutes. I didn't post an update earlier because I'm still kind of upset over how I died (Ruhk dispelled my buffs and used a Spell Sequencer with 3 Flame Arrows on me, I died despite having 140 hp of health). But it's all a learning experience - that's what I get for forgetting to cast Spell Shield beforehand.
Woohoo, I didn't die for once! I'm doing quests in a different order; I'm tackling the de'Arnise Keep later than normal, opting to do some quests in Athkatla first. I've hit level 14 in both classes (HLA!), and I'm thinking I'll do the Unseeing Eye quest for the first time. I'll be able to clear it out fairly easily with the Shield of Balduran, I hope.
We'll be going live in 20 minutes! I'm hoping to make it to Spellhold today, maybe even the Underdark...again. I know what to do for the Illithids this time around, so hopefully I won't die this time.
Well, things went smoothly - save for the Beholders stealing and permanently destroying my Shield of Balduran (thanks SCS). What led me to conclude today's stream was Bhaal's refusal to enter Candlekeep during the dream in Spellhold. I spent twenty whole minutes of back and forth trying to get him to enter, even reloading my save (I don't count it as a reload since there was no game over or re-doing things, and it was to resolve an issue with the game itself). Nothing worked - and this is in a game where hostile enemies from across the map randomly enter the building you are fleeing to. I never had this issue in vanilla BG2, but I'm not sure if it's an issue with EE or with SCS. I will try to look for a solution, even if it means consoling him in.
I'll have a writeup of the session up in a bit. The next stream will be at noon PST tomorrow on May 20th.
Ahh, the churches. With the faithful wielding far more than just scriptures and political influence, Athkatla can't really afford to maintain a separation of church and state - priests with money and Flame Strikes are a lot more influential than priests with just money. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't get in on a bit of it myself. I decide to take on the Unseeing Eye quest, since the worst I'll be facing really is just a bunch of beholders, who will fall very easily to the Shield of Balduran. I pick it up for a cool 11,600 gold (19 rep + 24 charisma), and I am on my merry way.
The first part of the dungeon is not difficult. I avoid the lich guarding Kangaxx's remains (this will come later), and the dungeon below is easily dealt with - just shades and mummies, really. I eat the traps that are set out and cast SI: Alteration to deal with the Flesh to Stone one that sits in front of Amauntor's temple. No sign of the beholders yet. I grab Ashideena from the side of the quizzical building before heading out to the depths of the Pit of the Faithless.
Again, just undead. I make sure my Shield of Harmony is equipped, and I hack through them easily. The "mayor" of the town is of special interest to me, as his armor sells for a nice sum of cash. I don't even bother trying to kill the lich - I'm not ready to take them on. I head into the beholder's lair, wary that SCS has likely nerfed the Shield of Balduran in some way. As it turns out, they did - not all of the rays are deflected, and I can't take on a big group before having to run away. Things get a bit awry here.
The "Smarter Beholders" component of SCS gives them a telekinesis power that allows them to remove the Shield of Balduran from you forcibly. While fighting a large group of beholders, I had to run away at one point from the onslaught of their rays, and my shield was taken after getting hit from a few rays, including an Anti-Magic ray. I had to rest before taking them on with Mislead + SI: Divination...and it was gone. So much for that 11,600 gold. As I flee out of the warrens, the beholders and a group of hostile priests follow me out. Fortunately, the two aforementioned spells are more than capable of dealing with them, even if the manner is not as satisfying as I would like. for some reason, the Gauth was still hitting me with occasional rays even while I was completely invisible. Better him and the fully grown beholders.
The Unseeing Eye fell as easily as anybody else - the rod annihilated his defenses, leaving him with but a speck of health. I race to Gaal and take out most of his guards with a Greater Deathblow. Gaal himself falls easily with a True Sight + Breach combo. His other guard is of no consequence, and I grab all my loot before heading out. I decide to do the two additional quests offered by the temples - they are somewhat time consuming for the experience you get, but they are not difficult. I'm getting ready to wrap up Chapter Three anyways, and I want to have as much experience as I can safely manage.
Before heading off to Spellhold, I make sure to do a few small quests here and there - returning Wellyn's bear, a few introductory quests in Umar Hills, and most importantly, getting the Silver Pantaloons from Welther. I forgot these last time, and although I could have gotten them in Chapter 6 knowing me I would have likely forgotten. Whew. The vampires were an easy bunch to take out, as most fell to Greater Deathblow quite handily. Bodhi is a pushover as usual, and I pay little attention to her as I run to Aran and conclude my business in Athkatla forthwith.
Spellhold is a quick affair - I free Ginia and Ason (more as a matter of conscience as I don't finish Galvena's festhall completely), and I wipe out Perth the Adept with Invisibility and Improved Haste. He's too high a level for me to want to bother with him. I head off to Spellhold and quickly succumb to Irenicus's spell. I had to basically end my session here, because Bhaal refuses to enter the Candlekeep room that he needs to be in. I spent twenty freaking minutes trying to get him in, with no luck. I'll likely have to console him in, which sucks because I hate doing that. Either way, I have to press on.
And that's everything that happened! I will be streaming tomorrow at noon PST, May 20th. Hope to see everybody there!
We'll be going live in just over 10 minutes. I think I found the code for summoning Bhaal, so I'll probably go with that given that he won't enter Candlekeep normally.
Just kidding! I did it this time - the Elder Brain fell quickly to my onslaught of attacks, and the beholders could not pierce my invisibility...well mostly. Actually they got the drop on me at one point and a Benny Hill type chase sequence ensued as I tried to flee them...I almost died, but I didn't, thank god. I killed Adalon to make a quick escape out of the Underdark, and I have successfully conquered the Underdark and initiated Chapter 6, thus establishing a new high-water mark for this challenge thus yet. A write-up will be composed later today.
The next stream will be at noon PST tomorrow (May 21st).
So I had to console in Bhaal. It's not too big a deal, finding the code for it didn't take more than two minutes of searching. The scripted event went without a hitch, and off I went. Now I enter Spellhold, one of my absolute favorite levels in the BG trilogy. My first order of business (after dumping Imoen) is to get the long-awaited Bag of Holding. I have been away for too long. I dump some of my items into it and move to quickly kill the Yuan-tis in the south room. I make a quick grab of the three portal stones and kill what comes out. None serve to be an issue, even the Pit Fiend.
The next stage wasn't any more difficult. The Umber Hulks were easy, as were all the summoned creatures from the yellowed scroll as well as the room with the kobolds. As expected, the lich proved to be somewhat challenging. I drew the other undead out with a Simulacrum (I'm not high enough level yet for it to be really useful) and killed them quickly, since the Greater Mummies have an SCS-ified nausea that can kill you in seconds. I waited for the lich to expend his spells against some of my summoned minions before moving in for the kill. Dace Sontan proved to be a lot more...annoying. He felt it necessary to continuously retreat into bat form when he reached "Injured", something that took repeated rests to eventually overcome. Unlike other vampires, True Sight did not dispel it.
The level below proved to be easier, with the Noble Djinni being the only enemy giving me a bit of trouble on account of his unlimited invisibilities. It was in this level that I got my second must-have item: the Boots of Speed. Coupled with Haste, getting anywhere across a map is of no consequence now, and I can outrun nearly every enemy I face (this will be an important detail later). Bodhi is, one again, easily dealt with, and I rush downstairs to face Irenicus. I pay off Lonk the Sane to avoid a harsh mage battle, and I rally the inmates to do battle. Irenicus doesn't put up much of a fight, as I immediately used a Spell Trigger containing two Secret Words and a Spell Thrust on him followed by a Breach, forcing his contigencies to activate early. I quickly kill off my mirrored clone and start putting pressure on Irenicus, making sure to stay out of his direct line of sight. When his PfMW wears out, I wail on him with Whirlwind Attack, bring the battle to a swift end. I decide to go to the Sahuagin city, since the Cloak of Mirroring is there.
The battle on the ship worried me, because the githyanki get new SCS-ified psionic abilities that can end your game - a good example is Psionic Maze. Fortunately, it can be blocked with SI: Conjuration like the vanilla Maze spell. The Githyanki fall easily to my blades, and the Sahuagin drag me under the sea to use me as a pawn in whatever scheme they can't execute themselves. I clear out the city and make a beeline for the Cloak of Mirroring, which is my raison d'être for doing the Sahuagin city quest in the first place. The Drow City section makes me really nervous - it's filled with game-ending traps, especially in the area with the chests and the Spectator Beholder. I cast Spell Turning and SI to both Conjuration and Alteration (to guard against the multi-trigger Maze and Disintegrate traps). I quickly do the tests for some quick XP before my spells run out, then I speak to the beholder, getting through his dialogue as quickly as possible. I haul ass out of there and speak to the rebel leader, thankful that my spells didn't wear off beforehand (in hindsight: not a smart quest to do).
I agree to kill the king since it means having to kill fewer enemies. The king nearly kills me, though: my Stoneskin wore off mid-battle and he hit me for massive amounts of damage: one hit does 70 freaking points of damage, courtesy of his Impaler +3. Even on Insane that's ridiculous; a dragon's attack doesn't even do that much. But I survive and throw up defensive spells as I kite him around the city, eventually he gets felled by some guards. I happily take my rewards and plunge into the Underdark, perhaps the most treacherous part of the game.
My first point is to clear out the soul-trapping machine; I cast SI: divination and Mislead to wipe out the drow war party on the way there. My first trigger is the lich - I face him the same way I face other liches. I run off screen and summon minions to absorb his spells, taking care to kill his gated Glabrezu before he kills off my other minions. When his weapon-shielding spells wear off, I run in to finish him off, taking care that Protection from fire and Cold are active. He cannot cast any spells due to the elemental damage of the Flail of Ages piercing his stoneskins, and he falls shortly. The other summoned enemies were a breeze to deal with.
Next, clearing out the elemental portals. Both forms of Deathblow prove to be exceedingly deadly against the elementals, although using it seems to cause fewer than normal to appear. Perhaps it is because they die so quickly? No matter, I'm already at a very high level. I use Freedom to free the imprisoned mage and head to the Svirfneblin camp to get his spellbook and the Light Gem. The Balor is a pushover; I cast Remove Fear, Protection from Fire, SI: Abjuration and SI: Conjuration, completely neutering his repository of SCS spells and abilities. He has high damage resistance, but he still falls quickly to my 7 APR.
Now to do the three boss areas. I begin with the Illithids (actually I thought I was doing the beholders first): it is where my game ended previously, but I now know what to do to avoid dying at the Elder Brain. The Illithids are a worrisome bunch, as their psionics have no obvious counter given my lack of Chaotic Commands and the Greenstone Amulet. My two saving graces are my insane saves (my Save v. Spell was -3 with buffs) and Spell Turning, which manages to stop a few psionic "spells" before wearing off. I still summon in minions (including a Celestial, which I am now a high enough level to cast) to draw their fire and/or kill them should I be stunned.
I don't have any issues. Greater Deathblow will one-shot Mind Flayers (but not Ulitharids), and I save against all of their psionic attacks. I witness successful saves as low as 0 - thank Helm for being a gnome! I push my AC down to -13 to avoid getting hit too much - I can only withstand three hits before having my brain sucked out entirely. I make ample use of WW and Improved Haste, especially since Illithids can now teleport to wherever you are. The Elder Brain falls easily this time around: SI: Abjuration and the brine potions render all of its abilities useless. The other enemies are but a pushover by comparison, although I constantly check my Intelligence score.
The beholders...boy, that proved to be a bit more difficult. Hive Mothers can see through invisibility, but none of the others can. As such, I summon minions to deal with her at range while I sneak up behind the other group of beholders next to her. All standard beholders (i.e not Death Tyrants, Elder Orbs, etc) die from Deathblow, which I gleefully make use of. It goes smoothly...until I miscalculate the duration of my Mislead spell, and I get exposed to two beholders who promptly blast away all my buffs, and worse yet, steal my Cloak of Mirroring! I run near the exit, trying to sleep and put up more buffs. No good - they catch me before I can cast. I run outside, trying to rest there...and they follow me. I get blasted with an Anti-Magic Ray before I cast Mislead - faced with an onslaught of beholder rays, I run like hell across the Underdark, while respawned Kuo-Toas join in on the chase! I drink an Oil of Speed and haul ass to the Svirfneblin camp, and only there can I rest and throw up my invisibility. I kill the beholders and take what is rightfully mine. Disaster averted.
Next, the Kuo-Toa shrine. This proves to be easier - Mislead + SI: divination make it easy to kill the drow and beholders, and the Sahuagin Price is a pushover. I experienced quite the internal dilemma regarding the summoning of the four Demon Knights. Nasty enough on vanilla, on SCS they are even worse. But guess what: with a bunch of buffs (including SI: Conjuration), they wound up being a lot easier than I expected. Between my layers of defenses, 7 APR and summoned minions, they fall easily. I cannot open the door to the surface just yet, so I head to Adalon's lair. I enter the beginning of Ust Natha to pick up some spell scrolls and sell off gear. I'm really stressed out at this point dealing with so many near-death encounters, so I just kill Adalon (she's as easy as Firkraag) and run up to the Drow exit. Picking off who remained did not prove to be a challenge, and I ascend the stairs, happy that my ordeal in the Underdark is at an end...hopefully, this time for good. I get the dialogue and questioning out of the way, and I save my game, where my session ended for the day.
I've hit a new high-water mark for this game - Chapter 6 is a new personal best for me. I do not know what to expect going forward, so hopefully there aren't too many nasty surprises. I'll finally be able to flesh out my level 9 spell slots, so hopefully I'll be armed with everything I need to succeed. The next session will be at noon PST (GMT -8) tomorrow, on May 21st. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of people there, as I intend to complete SoA or die trying!
We'll be going live in 15 minutes! This is it: I will push through to the very end of SoA. I reeeeeally hope I don't die...but if I do, at least it'll be a learning experience to carry with me.
It has finally been done. After more than a dozen attempts, Irenicus has finally fallen...nothing he threw up could stop my determination to reclaim my soul. But like the battle with Sarevok, my streaming software decided to have issues during the stream; this time dropping huge numbers of frames. I'll likely re-record it as I did before so you can see how it was done.
I'll be starting ToB from here on out. Tomorrow's stream will begin on noon PST, May 22nd (tomorrow).
Emerging victorious from the Underdark, my normally pervasive sense of paranoia began to creep into my psyche as I reach uncharted waters: I have never made it this far into the trilogy on SCS. I do not know what to expect going into the final leg of SoA, so I maintain my wall of buffs and immunities for every major encounter, hopeful that I will survive what is to come.
With my task to retrieve the Rhynn Lantern at hand, I make a major pit stop prior to killing Bodhi for good. In addition to cleaning out Ribald of his high-level spell scrolls, I decide that I am ready to face Kangaxx and acquire his magnificently powerful Ring of Gaxx. Liches are especially nasty on SCS: they are fond of casting Mislead and SI to both Divination and Abjuration, rendering them immune to any attempts to dispel their buffs. I decide to kill the lich in the Bridge Distract first (the Elemental Lich). He is far worse than the Shade Lich, since in addition to his normal buffs, he begins to gate in one fiend after the other.
Killing him safely involves my standing across the room and throwing out a Planetar and other summoned minions to absorb the brunt of his spell-infused wrath. My job largely consists of killing off the Cornugons, Bone Fiends and Pit Fiends he summons while he continues to cast his worst spells at the Planetar. He continuously attempts to dispel my buffs, but I keep three Spell Shields memorized specifically for this very scenario. Once his SIs wear off, I begin to remove his spell protections with Secret Words, followed by a Breach. This is simpler said than done: his spell onslaught doesn't end so easily, and I run around the room like a chicken with its head lopped off until he expends the last of his weapon-shielding buffs. Taking him down after that was easy enough.
The shade Lich proved to be easier: for some reason he didn't make himself invisible, enabling me to greatly expedite the process of peeling back his layers of spell protections. Killing him went a *lot* faster than the Elemental Lich, but I knew that Kangaxx would prove to be a fearsome foe. I bought three Protection from Undead scrolls (in case SCS gave him some stupid ability to remove it somehow) and steeled myself for the match ahead.
The first phase of the match played out much like how the Elemental Lich's did. I focused on removing his numerous summoned Fiends while the Planetar took the brunt of his spell onslaught. I did get ensnared in his Time Stop while he was in range, but most of his spells involved trying to dispel my buffs, which he couldn't do as my layers of protections were still very much active, including my Spell Shield. At one point, he is given an automatic double length Time Stop and Improved Alacrity via Wish, but he casts all the offensive spells at the Planetar. Eventually, I got him down to 1 hp, upon which he transformed into his SCS-ified Demilich form. Now I will say this: I approved the component that allowed him to cast spells. I used my Protection from Undead scroll, and sure enough he ignored me. Instead, he instantly casts PfMW and starts summoning fiend, after fiend, after fiend... Figures. I start killing them off, but he summons them in faster than I can kill them. Thinking that SCS will make it so that he has unlimited castings of Summon Fiend and its variants, I run upstairs to give myself some brief respite. What do you know, he follows me upstairs, but his demons don't. Gotcha. I cast Black Blade of Disaster and unleash every WW I have on him. He crumbles remarkably quickly. The Ring of Gaxx is mine.
Now for Bodhi. I enlisted the help of Drizzt, making sure to smooth things over after the whole killing-him-for-his-scimitars in BG1 (see Part 2 of the stream). Naturally, SCS puts in a bunch of more powerful vampires into the chamber, including those annoying elder and Ancient Vampires from Firkraag's lair. It doesn't go so badly, since the lesser ones get insta-killed with Greater Deathblow, and the stronger ones fall quickly on account of Improved Haste. The room with the pool of blood proves to be annoying, as the vampires are quite strong and actually kill several of Drizzt's companions. I get surrounded by them, but my AC is -15 with the Shield of Harmony on - they can't touch me. I remove them piece by piece, making sure to grab the Gauntlets of Weapon Specialization before making my way downstairs. Bodhi proves to be a complete piece of cake - one WW and she already fled to her coffin. I stake her and take the Lantern. I sell what I have and make my way to Suldanesselar.
I get really anxious here. Even if the enemies aren't too much of a challenge, Irenicus will be. I make my way around the city in roughly a clockwise pattern, making sure to save the temple for last. The Rakshasa are easy to take down with a True Sight, and the golems prove to be equally easy. The black dragon outside of the main part of the city is similar: fighting him is a lot like fighting Firkraag and Adalon, and a Breach quickly renders him vulnerable. My THAC0 is -9/-7, which means that he goes down in seconds. It's very anticlimactic, really. The mage inside Rillifane's temple worries me the most: he was nasty on vanilla and I imagine he will be worse on SCS. Therefore, I go inside invisible and start hitting him, and I manage to kill him right as his pre-cast buffs trigger. His little pals don't stand a chance.
Now for Irenicus. As it turns out, he plays a lot like the Elemental Lich: lots of buffs and triggers/contingencies, plenty of fiend summons, and plenty of debuffs. I stay behind and make my Planetar take the worst of it, while I attempt to try and remove Irenicus's buffs from a distance. He throws out several sundering spells and almost removes my buffs entirely at one point, a quickly thrown-up SI: Abjuration saved me. Eventually, Irenicus runs out his worst high-level spells, and I move in for the kill. He attempts to conjure more demons, but he can't get in a spell with my Flail of Ages hitting him for so much elemental damage. I am happy, but I know that the final battle is yet to come.
Normally I always do the good paths in Hell. This time, I am only concerned with what benefits my character the most. In this instance, doing every trial except for Pride as evil gives my character better bonuses: the good ones included such things as +1 WIS and CHA or +2 to saves, useless for my character. Only the Pride trial is done good (where you can slay the dragon): I prefer the 20% elemental resistances over 200K XP, which is worthless anyways given that my character hit the XP cap some time ago.
I steel myself for the final battle. My immediate concern is taking down his four demons. Not wanting to use up my one cast of True Sight right away, I have my Planetar cast it instead to remove the mirror images from the Glabrezus. Using her to draw Irenicus's focus for just a few rounds, I maneuver to take out all the demons quickly with Improved Haste. Irenicus proves to be quite the foe: my most worrisome moment was when he summons a Fallen Planetar. Shit. They get a chance to insta-kill with a vorpal sword, something I am intensely wary of. But with no other choice but to take her out, I throw up WWs to kill her as fast as possible, praying that my -15 AC blocks most of her blows. I don't die, much to my relief, and I don't see another one get summoned for the rest of the match.
As the slayer, Irenicus ports around the map at will (?) and get a lot of sundering spells. I use up my three Spell Shields trying to avoid his effects and attempting to remove his own buffs. I continue to run around, hoping to avoid his line of sight long enough to ear down his buffs. It starts to look bad as my last Spell Shield is broken, and he looks like he is going to go for a full dispel, something that would prove fatal. But guess what: he has run out of spells that make himself immune to my weapons. Checkmate. I wail on him so fast that he can't cast any spells, and while he hits me a lot even with my AC as low as it is, the slow of the FoA coupled with my PfMW and Stoneskins means that he cannot muster up an effective counterattack. Inevitably, he falls...and the game is won.
Now begins the hardest leg of the trilogy. The Hell bonuses pushed me up to 185 base HP, a respectable number even on Insane. I'd like to see how far I can go before things start to get really hard. I imagine Yaga-Shura will be extremely difficult, to say nothing of the final battle. I opted to give certain enemies HLAs to add a challenge - lets hope that wasn't a mistake the way the Improved Bodhi mod was.
I will stream again tomorrow at noon PST (GMT -8, May 22nd).
We'll be going live in 15 minutes! I'm feeling pretty invigorated, knowing that I won't have to repeat any of SoA anymore. ToB will prove to be an epic-level challenge, but one I intend to finish. We'll see how far I get into my first session.
Ehh, guess the stream isn't happening today. The Twitch servers seem to be having some sort of issue, because I'm dropping over 50% of my frames when normally I drop very, very few. I'll try again at the same time tomorrow (May 23rd), hopefully it will be resolved then.
1000th view! Congrats, @Bynary_Fission. You're a celebrity now!
I noticed! I'm glad to see that I've made it as far as I have, hopefully more people will take notice. I've noticed a steady uptick of viewers in my stream, and while it generally stabilizes between 2-3 I do have a few regular viewers, and occasionally I have 5-6 viewers all tuning in - a good number for a 16 year old game! Getting more steady viewers definitely gives me the drive to continue, even when I have to restart from near the end of the game.
I certainly appreciate that you've followed me along the whole way too.
Great session! I think I found a fix to my issue - I'm still having about 4% of the frames dropped, but it's not nearly as bad as it was before (>30% of frames dropped). I made it all the way to Abazigal's lair. Funny enough, the only death I had was at Illasera. The others were pleasantly easy, especially Yaga-Shura. I'll compose a write up later today.
We'll be going live in 20 minutes. I realize I forgot to write a write-up for the last session...so I'll just merge it with this one; I should remember most of the details haha.
Hah. I died....by typing a response to somebody's question when some off-screen enemies attacked me. I thought I was paused too. Hmph. No big deal - I've managed to make up all my lost progress, and I'll just write up what happened during this session - I killed Abazigal and I'm at the start of Sendai's lair, who I recall being a far worse foe. I'd hate to imagine what she's like on SCS, and I didn't even install the "improved" mod for her.
Why did I give this section that title? Because out of a dragon, a fire giant and a puny human sorcerer, guess which one ends up being the most difficult? Illasera's Black Blade of Disaster is counterable for certain, but coupled with the other mage who is also shielded by spell protections, invisible and covered by SI: Divination (along with her), and you just wind up having a bad time. Double points for getting dispelled because you don't have enough spell shields to counter two high-level mages. Illasera moved blindingly fast with both Haste and the Boots of Speed, and her speed factor is next to nothing with the sword, and I don't have enough defensive spells to keep throwing up. Beating her meant throwing up everything I had and waiting for her spells to slowly wear off. I was pushed down to <40hp before her Haste wore off and I was finally able to start getting hits in.
In Saradush, I skipped doing most of the side quests, save for returning Lazarus's spellbook as he possesses a copy of every spell scroll in the BG trilogy. The Vampires did not offer any real challenge, as Deathblow was able to one-shot most of them. Time Stop and the Planetar serve as staples for fighting high-level groups such as the fighters in the Saradush underground and Gromnir's palace. Fighting Gromnir mostly involved staying away from the two mages. I summoned a Planetar to serve as a meat shield while I take down the mano-a-mano fighter types on the right side of the room. Staying out of their line of stops during their multiple Time Stops, eventually I cast my own and I eviscerate all but Gromnir himself. Making sure that my layers of spell defenses were still active, I WW Gromnir to oblivion and hightail it out of there, leaving the two mages to themselves. Fighting them isn't really worth it.
Next step: Yaga-Shura. The battle worried me a lot, since I imagine SCS would make the already infinitely summoning warriors even worse. But that was in the future. I head to the Marching Mountains and immediately head to the internal chamber - I won't bother with the other Bhaalspawn in the corner (although fighting a chinchilla is a tempting proposition). So SCS decided Burning Men weren't annoying enough. They decided that they needed to have a dispel that never failed and couldn't be blocked by anything. Lovely. That means I need to take them out before anybody else, although in encountering the ones outside the dungeon I did get hit, albeit after killing the fire giants. Little matter - my saves prevent me from getting hit with their fear anyhow.
Killing the giants in the main room is a simple order of business. With Protection from Fire active at all times, I cast Time Stop and WW several of them down before it wears off. I make sure that Stoneskin is active, and I cast an additional Hardness to insulate against my character should it end suddenly. Approaching the top rooms didn't take much effort at all. The lower two proved to be slightly trickier, if only because of the Fire Lich (who had to be first engaged offscreen) and the Burning Man, who had to be quickly killed before his auto-dispel kicked in. I activate the center console and move to the second floor.
SCS puts a red fire dragon in the main room, although he isn't any more difficult than Firkraag. Because there are so many scripts going off at once, the game really chugs when there are a lot of on-screen enemies. Therefore, I throw up a Time Stop at the border of the main chamber and quickly eliminate several giants. When Time Stop ends, I make sure that SI: abjuration is active. Berenn, being a priest, has no way to counteract my debuffing spells. A Breach renders him helpless and he falls very quickly. The dragon takes a bit more time as I have expended many of my defensive spells clearing out the room, but my last PfMW gives me just enough time to finish him. I grab the two hearts and head out - I'm not going to bother with Imix, as I'm sure SCS gave him some stupid OP ability.
The Master Wraith is an example of an enemy that used to give me a lot of trouble - largely on account of his fast wraiths. Ahh, how young and naive I used to be. I always keep a Planetar up as a distraction, but she isn't really needed as Improved Haste makes taking them out a cinch. The skeletons guarding the temple seem easy at first, but mid-combat my combat buffs all get dispelled by that mage, whom I cannot target with spells. I only notice when I begin taking large amounts of damage. Damn. I retreat and cast Time Stop, killing most of the warriors. I have to wait for the mage's buffs to wear off before I can kill her. Nyalee is a completely pushover (duh, she's a priest). One Breach and she's toast. I ignore the Shambling Horrors and hightail it out of there.
Yaga-Shura. I *was* worried about him, but I found out on my first playthrough that he really isn't that hard. It's getting overwhelmed that worries me. When I approach him in the battlefield, I begin by removing who I can with Deathblow, which is largely restricted to his weaker fighters. No matter - I keep as much free space as I can while I want for him to return. When he does, I throw a Breach on him and wail on him as fast as I can. I notice that I'm quickly getting surrounded - I use WW and hope that I don't get so swarmed that I can't reach him anymore, because if that happens it's game over. Thankfully, he dies before that happens, and everybody disperses.
The Oasis battle is a total pushover, since all the enemies except Jamis die to Deathblow. I spend little time in Amkethran, save for doing a few tiny side quests. I will assemble the Big Metal Unit as soon as Abazigal's lair is finished, but everything else is of little interest, since there are no items I really need here. Abazigal's lair has the final FoA head as well as the Bronze Panties, making it of intense interest to me. Plus, I imagine Abazigal isn't as bad as Sendai.
First step: Draconis. Okay, don't judge me, I was ten when this happened. But I was very nearly brought to tears as a kid trying to kill him. No matter how many times I reloaded, I could not beat him. I was stuck for <i>months trying to beat him (I didn't have internet on my computer so I had no guide). There is no relief like the feeling you get when you make long-overdue progress on your favorite game. Of course, on vanilla he's as easy as can be now. On SCS, I found that his dragon form is actually easier than his human form. As a human, he's a mage of no small power who seals himself under un-dispellable invisibility, summons plenty of Morty's Swords and a whole sequence of weapon-protection spells. As a dragon, he only has a few defensive buffs and the same easily-blocked Remove Magic as the others.
Inside Abazigal's lair, I methodically make my way through each layer of the dungeon, keeping a safe distance when needed and using my Planetar as a second teammate. The room with the eyeballs proved to be more annoying than difficult, but they're pretty easy experience, really. I don't touch the elder Orbs, instead unloading it on the three kids who are petrified for some reason. I always loved the really meta reference to the nature of the game when he "reloads" after dying. I get the needed orb eye as well as the Bronze Panties, and make my way to Abazigal.
I avoid killing the stuck-up dragon because I don't think she's worth wasting time on. I focus my buffs and energy on Abazigal, saving SI: Abjuration and Protection from Energy for the dragon form. I begin by killing the salamanders lining the edge of the room and simultaneously avoiding his WWs. I let him expend his HLAs while I remove the salamanders, and when he is finished I conjure my Planetar to serve as a distraction. I activate my HLAs and wail on him until he changes into a dragon, upon which I throw up the remainder of my buffs. It seems like he is given some ability that allows him to remove certain defensive buffs - my stoneskins and PfMW disappeared suddenly in the beginning of the battle. No matter. I use a Spell Trigger containing those two spells and resume my assault. With a Breach spell following, he didn't stand a chance.
Right before ending the session, I made a detour to Watcher's Keep to grab the poison FoA head. Getting to it proved to be a snap, as the statues weren't as difficult or hardy as I thought they would be. I grabbed the head and headed out, and that will be the least time I enter Watcher's Keep. Getting Free Action on the FoA is rather unwanted as it negates haste, but I can remove it before casting Improved Haste to still get the extra attacks. Having a +5 weapon with all that elemental damage is worth the downside IMO.
I will stream tomorrow at noon PST (May 25th). I could complete the game by tomorrow...we'll see!
We'll be going live in 20 minutes! This could be my final session...if I manage to survive Sendai, Amelissan and the Ravager (I remember him being really hard, let's see what SCS did to him).
Using the Big Metal Unit in the final battle is a complete mistake. Aside from disabling spellcasting, it makes your character so large that you unable to target enemies while blind, something that happens when the Demon Knights she spawns in use PW: Blind against you. I couldn't kill the Death Tyrant, got dispelled, and rolled a critical failure against a Symbol: Fear (my save v spell was -4). I re-played the battle without it and did vastly better. *sigh*
The Big Metal Unit is the most disappointing thing in the saga for me. It gives amazing AC (it's basically Full Plate Mail +11), but it's very inconvenient considering when you get it--there aren't much of any areas left where you can move freely as an Iron Golem.
Plus, none of the components have any use until you forge the whole thing--the benefit is only at the end of the game. What would you think of Carsomyr if it was unusable until the +6 upgrade?
The Big Metal Unit is the most disappointing thing in the saga for me. It gives amazing AC (it's basically Full Plate Mail +11), but it's very inconvenient considering when you get it--there aren't much of any areas left where you can move freely as an Iron Golem.
Plus, none of the components have any use until you forge the whole thing--the benefit is only at the end of the game. What would you think of Carsomyr if it was unusable until the +6 upgrade?
This, pretty much. I was hoping that the AC would outweigh the lack of spellcasting, but it doesn't. Furthermore, spells are actually what got me killed (infinite fireballs from demon knights). The excessive size wound up being far more a hindrance than I anticipated; it's not worth having to wait until near the end of the trilogy for it, unless you are a pure melee class.
We'll be going live in under 15 minutes! ToB isn't proving to be the insurmountable challenge I thought it would be - hell, I think it'll take less time than BG1 from start to finish. I'll try to kill at least three of the Five, we'll see how far I actually get!
Wel, I got overwhelmed by Yaga-Shura. I had at Near Dead, and a mage cast a Time Stop right as I used a WW. I was relying on PfMW to keep me alive long enough to kill him, but my progidious talent for rolling 1s meant that he was still alive. It wore off while time was stopped, but I couldn't cast it as soon as it ended (I think I should have been able to). I died almost right away *sigh*
Since nobody had tuned into the stream, I decided to end it there. I'll stream tomorrow at noon PST (May 27th).
Comments
The next stream will be at noon PST on May 19th.
I'll have a writeup of the session up in a bit. The next stream will be at noon PST tomorrow on May 20th.
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Ahh, the churches. With the faithful wielding far more than just scriptures and political influence, Athkatla can't really afford to maintain a separation of church and state - priests with money and Flame Strikes are a lot more influential than priests with just money. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't get in on a bit of it myself. I decide to take on the Unseeing Eye quest, since the worst I'll be facing really is just a bunch of beholders, who will fall very easily to the Shield of Balduran. I pick it up for a cool 11,600 gold (19 rep + 24 charisma), and I am on my merry way.
The first part of the dungeon is not difficult. I avoid the lich guarding Kangaxx's remains (this will come later), and the dungeon below is easily dealt with - just shades and mummies, really. I eat the traps that are set out and cast SI: Alteration to deal with the Flesh to Stone one that sits in front of Amauntor's temple. No sign of the beholders yet. I grab Ashideena from the side of the quizzical building before heading out to the depths of the Pit of the Faithless.
Again, just undead. I make sure my Shield of Harmony is equipped, and I hack through them easily. The "mayor" of the town is of special interest to me, as his armor sells for a nice sum of cash. I don't even bother trying to kill the lich - I'm not ready to take them on. I head into the beholder's lair, wary that SCS has likely nerfed the Shield of Balduran in some way. As it turns out, they did - not all of the rays are deflected, and I can't take on a big group before having to run away. Things get a bit awry here.
The "Smarter Beholders" component of SCS gives them a telekinesis power that allows them to remove the Shield of Balduran from you forcibly. While fighting a large group of beholders, I had to run away at one point from the onslaught of their rays, and my shield was taken after getting hit from a few rays, including an Anti-Magic ray. I had to rest before taking them on with Mislead + SI: Divination...and it was gone. So much for that 11,600 gold. As I flee out of the warrens, the beholders and a group of hostile priests follow me out. Fortunately, the two aforementioned spells are more than capable of dealing with them, even if the manner is not as satisfying as I would like. for some reason, the Gauth was still hitting me with occasional rays even while I was completely invisible. Better him and the fully grown beholders.
The Unseeing Eye fell as easily as anybody else - the rod annihilated his defenses, leaving him with but a speck of health. I race to Gaal and take out most of his guards with a Greater Deathblow. Gaal himself falls easily with a True Sight + Breach combo. His other guard is of no consequence, and I grab all my loot before heading out. I decide to do the two additional quests offered by the temples - they are somewhat time consuming for the experience you get, but they are not difficult. I'm getting ready to wrap up Chapter Three anyways, and I want to have as much experience as I can safely manage.
Before heading off to Spellhold, I make sure to do a few small quests here and there - returning Wellyn's bear, a few introductory quests in Umar Hills, and most importantly, getting the Silver Pantaloons from Welther. I forgot these last time, and although I could have gotten them in Chapter 6 knowing me I would have likely forgotten. Whew. The vampires were an easy bunch to take out, as most fell to Greater Deathblow quite handily. Bodhi is a pushover as usual, and I pay little attention to her as I run to Aran and conclude my business in Athkatla forthwith.
Spellhold is a quick affair - I free Ginia and Ason (more as a matter of conscience as I don't finish Galvena's festhall completely), and I wipe out Perth the Adept with Invisibility and Improved Haste. He's too high a level for me to want to bother with him. I head off to Spellhold and quickly succumb to Irenicus's spell. I had to basically end my session here, because Bhaal refuses to enter the Candlekeep room that he needs to be in. I spent twenty freaking minutes trying to get him in, with no luck. I'll likely have to console him in, which sucks because I hate doing that. Either way, I have to press on.
And that's everything that happened! I will be streaming tomorrow at noon PST, May 20th. Hope to see everybody there!
Just kidding! I did it this time - the Elder Brain fell quickly to my onslaught of attacks, and the beholders could not pierce my invisibility...well mostly. Actually they got the drop on me at one point and a Benny Hill type chase sequence ensued as I tried to flee them...I almost died, but I didn't, thank god. I killed Adalon to make a quick escape out of the Underdark, and I have successfully conquered the Underdark and initiated Chapter 6, thus establishing a new high-water mark for this challenge thus yet. A write-up will be composed later today.
The next stream will be at noon PST tomorrow (May 21st).
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So I had to console in Bhaal. It's not too big a deal, finding the code for it didn't take more than two minutes of searching. The scripted event went without a hitch, and off I went. Now I enter Spellhold, one of my absolute favorite levels in the BG trilogy. My first order of business (after dumping Imoen) is to get the long-awaited Bag of Holding. I have been away for too long. I dump some of my items into it and move to quickly kill the Yuan-tis in the south room. I make a quick grab of the three portal stones and kill what comes out. None serve to be an issue, even the Pit Fiend.
The next stage wasn't any more difficult. The Umber Hulks were easy, as were all the summoned creatures from the yellowed scroll as well as the room with the kobolds. As expected, the lich proved to be somewhat challenging. I drew the other undead out with a Simulacrum (I'm not high enough level yet for it to be really useful) and killed them quickly, since the Greater Mummies have an SCS-ified nausea that can kill you in seconds. I waited for the lich to expend his spells against some of my summoned minions before moving in for the kill. Dace Sontan proved to be a lot more...annoying. He felt it necessary to continuously retreat into bat form when he reached "Injured", something that took repeated rests to eventually overcome. Unlike other vampires, True Sight did not dispel it.
The level below proved to be easier, with the Noble Djinni being the only enemy giving me a bit of trouble on account of his unlimited invisibilities. It was in this level that I got my second must-have item: the Boots of Speed. Coupled with Haste, getting anywhere across a map is of no consequence now, and I can outrun nearly every enemy I face (this will be an important detail later). Bodhi is, one again, easily dealt with, and I rush downstairs to face Irenicus. I pay off Lonk the Sane to avoid a harsh mage battle, and I rally the inmates to do battle. Irenicus doesn't put up much of a fight, as I immediately used a Spell Trigger containing two Secret Words and a Spell Thrust on him followed by a Breach, forcing his contigencies to activate early. I quickly kill off my mirrored clone and start putting pressure on Irenicus, making sure to stay out of his direct line of sight. When his PfMW wears out, I wail on him with Whirlwind Attack, bring the battle to a swift end. I decide to go to the Sahuagin city, since the Cloak of Mirroring is there.
The battle on the ship worried me, because the githyanki get new SCS-ified psionic abilities that can end your game - a good example is Psionic Maze. Fortunately, it can be blocked with SI: Conjuration like the vanilla Maze spell. The Githyanki fall easily to my blades, and the Sahuagin drag me under the sea to use me as a pawn in whatever scheme they can't execute themselves. I clear out the city and make a beeline for the Cloak of Mirroring, which is my raison d'être for doing the Sahuagin city quest in the first place. The Drow City section makes me really nervous - it's filled with game-ending traps, especially in the area with the chests and the Spectator Beholder. I cast Spell Turning and SI to both Conjuration and Alteration (to guard against the multi-trigger Maze and Disintegrate traps). I quickly do the tests for some quick XP before my spells run out, then I speak to the beholder, getting through his dialogue as quickly as possible. I haul ass out of there and speak to the rebel leader, thankful that my spells didn't wear off beforehand (in hindsight: not a smart quest to do).
I agree to kill the king since it means having to kill fewer enemies. The king nearly kills me, though: my Stoneskin wore off mid-battle and he hit me for massive amounts of damage: one hit does 70 freaking points of damage, courtesy of his Impaler +3. Even on Insane that's ridiculous; a dragon's attack doesn't even do that much. But I survive and throw up defensive spells as I kite him around the city, eventually he gets felled by some guards. I happily take my rewards and plunge into the Underdark, perhaps the most treacherous part of the game.
My first point is to clear out the soul-trapping machine; I cast SI: divination and Mislead to wipe out the drow war party on the way there. My first trigger is the lich - I face him the same way I face other liches. I run off screen and summon minions to absorb his spells, taking care to kill his gated Glabrezu before he kills off my other minions. When his weapon-shielding spells wear off, I run in to finish him off, taking care that Protection from fire and Cold are active. He cannot cast any spells due to the elemental damage of the Flail of Ages piercing his stoneskins, and he falls shortly. The other summoned enemies were a breeze to deal with.
Next, clearing out the elemental portals. Both forms of Deathblow prove to be exceedingly deadly against the elementals, although using it seems to cause fewer than normal to appear. Perhaps it is because they die so quickly? No matter, I'm already at a very high level. I use Freedom to free the imprisoned mage and head to the Svirfneblin camp to get his spellbook and the Light Gem. The Balor is a pushover; I cast Remove Fear, Protection from Fire, SI: Abjuration and SI: Conjuration, completely neutering his repository of SCS spells and abilities. He has high damage resistance, but he still falls quickly to my 7 APR.
Now to do the three boss areas. I begin with the Illithids (actually I thought I was doing the beholders first): it is where my game ended previously, but I now know what to do to avoid dying at the Elder Brain. The Illithids are a worrisome bunch, as their psionics have no obvious counter given my lack of Chaotic Commands and the Greenstone Amulet. My two saving graces are my insane saves (my Save v. Spell was -3 with buffs) and Spell Turning, which manages to stop a few psionic "spells" before wearing off. I still summon in minions (including a Celestial, which I am now a high enough level to cast) to draw their fire and/or kill them should I be stunned.
I don't have any issues. Greater Deathblow will one-shot Mind Flayers (but not Ulitharids), and I save against all of their psionic attacks. I witness successful saves as low as 0 - thank Helm for being a gnome! I push my AC down to -13 to avoid getting hit too much - I can only withstand three hits before having my brain sucked out entirely. I make ample use of WW and Improved Haste, especially since Illithids can now teleport to wherever you are. The Elder Brain falls easily this time around: SI: Abjuration and the brine potions render all of its abilities useless. The other enemies are but a pushover by comparison, although I constantly check my Intelligence score.
The beholders...boy, that proved to be a bit more difficult. Hive Mothers can see through invisibility, but none of the others can. As such, I summon minions to deal with her at range while I sneak up behind the other group of beholders next to her. All standard beholders (i.e not Death Tyrants, Elder Orbs, etc) die from Deathblow, which I gleefully make use of. It goes smoothly...until I miscalculate the duration of my Mislead spell, and I get exposed to two beholders who promptly blast away all my buffs, and worse yet, steal my Cloak of Mirroring! I run near the exit, trying to sleep and put up more buffs. No good - they catch me before I can cast. I run outside, trying to rest there...and they follow me. I get blasted with an Anti-Magic Ray before I cast Mislead - faced with an onslaught of beholder rays, I run like hell across the Underdark, while respawned Kuo-Toas join in on the chase! I drink an Oil of Speed and haul ass to the Svirfneblin camp, and only there can I rest and throw up my invisibility. I kill the beholders and take what is rightfully mine. Disaster averted.
Next, the Kuo-Toa shrine. This proves to be easier - Mislead + SI: divination make it easy to kill the drow and beholders, and the Sahuagin Price is a pushover. I experienced quite the internal dilemma regarding the summoning of the four Demon Knights. Nasty enough on vanilla, on SCS they are even worse. But guess what: with a bunch of buffs (including SI: Conjuration), they wound up being a lot easier than I expected. Between my layers of defenses, 7 APR and summoned minions, they fall easily. I cannot open the door to the surface just yet, so I head to Adalon's lair. I enter the beginning of Ust Natha to pick up some spell scrolls and sell off gear. I'm really stressed out at this point dealing with so many near-death encounters, so I just kill Adalon (she's as easy as Firkraag) and run up to the Drow exit. Picking off who remained did not prove to be a challenge, and I ascend the stairs, happy that my ordeal in the Underdark is at an end...hopefully, this time for good. I get the dialogue and questioning out of the way, and I save my game, where my session ended for the day.
I've hit a new high-water mark for this game - Chapter 6 is a new personal best for me. I do not know what to expect going forward, so hopefully there aren't too many nasty surprises. I'll finally be able to flesh out my level 9 spell slots, so hopefully I'll be armed with everything I need to succeed. The next session will be at noon PST (GMT -8) tomorrow, on May 21st. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of people there, as I intend to complete SoA or die trying!
It has finally been done. After more than a dozen attempts, Irenicus has finally fallen...nothing he threw up could stop my determination to reclaim my soul. But like the battle with Sarevok, my streaming software decided to have issues during the stream; this time dropping huge numbers of frames. I'll likely re-record it as I did before so you can see how it was done.
I'll be starting ToB from here on out. Tomorrow's stream will begin on noon PST, May 22nd (tomorrow).
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Emerging victorious from the Underdark, my normally pervasive sense of paranoia began to creep into my psyche as I reach uncharted waters: I have never made it this far into the trilogy on SCS. I do not know what to expect going into the final leg of SoA, so I maintain my wall of buffs and immunities for every major encounter, hopeful that I will survive what is to come.
With my task to retrieve the Rhynn Lantern at hand, I make a major pit stop prior to killing Bodhi for good. In addition to cleaning out Ribald of his high-level spell scrolls, I decide that I am ready to face Kangaxx and acquire his magnificently powerful Ring of Gaxx. Liches are especially nasty on SCS: they are fond of casting Mislead and SI to both Divination and Abjuration, rendering them immune to any attempts to dispel their buffs. I decide to kill the lich in the Bridge Distract first (the Elemental Lich). He is far worse than the Shade Lich, since in addition to his normal buffs, he begins to gate in one fiend after the other.
Killing him safely involves my standing across the room and throwing out a Planetar and other summoned minions to absorb the brunt of his spell-infused wrath. My job largely consists of killing off the Cornugons, Bone Fiends and Pit Fiends he summons while he continues to cast his worst spells at the Planetar. He continuously attempts to dispel my buffs, but I keep three Spell Shields memorized specifically for this very scenario. Once his SIs wear off, I begin to remove his spell protections with Secret Words, followed by a Breach. This is simpler said than done: his spell onslaught doesn't end so easily, and I run around the room like a chicken with its head lopped off until he expends the last of his weapon-shielding buffs. Taking him down after that was easy enough.
The shade Lich proved to be easier: for some reason he didn't make himself invisible, enabling me to greatly expedite the process of peeling back his layers of spell protections. Killing him went a *lot* faster than the Elemental Lich, but I knew that Kangaxx would prove to be a fearsome foe. I bought three Protection from Undead scrolls (in case SCS gave him some stupid ability to remove it somehow) and steeled myself for the match ahead.
The first phase of the match played out much like how the Elemental Lich's did. I focused on removing his numerous summoned Fiends while the Planetar took the brunt of his spell onslaught. I did get ensnared in his Time Stop while he was in range, but most of his spells involved trying to dispel my buffs, which he couldn't do as my layers of protections were still very much active, including my Spell Shield. At one point, he is given an automatic double length Time Stop and Improved Alacrity via Wish, but he casts all the offensive spells at the Planetar. Eventually, I got him down to 1 hp, upon which he transformed into his SCS-ified Demilich form. Now I will say this: I approved the component that allowed him to cast spells. I used my Protection from Undead scroll, and sure enough he ignored me. Instead, he instantly casts PfMW and starts summoning fiend, after fiend, after fiend... Figures. I start killing them off, but he summons them in faster than I can kill them. Thinking that SCS will make it so that he has unlimited castings of Summon Fiend and its variants, I run upstairs to give myself some brief respite. What do you know, he follows me upstairs, but his demons don't. Gotcha. I cast Black Blade of Disaster and unleash every WW I have on him. He crumbles remarkably quickly. The Ring of Gaxx is mine.
Now for Bodhi. I enlisted the help of Drizzt, making sure to smooth things over after the whole killing-him-for-his-scimitars in BG1 (see Part 2 of the stream). Naturally, SCS puts in a bunch of more powerful vampires into the chamber, including those annoying elder and Ancient Vampires from Firkraag's lair. It doesn't go so badly, since the lesser ones get insta-killed with Greater Deathblow, and the stronger ones fall quickly on account of Improved Haste. The room with the pool of blood proves to be annoying, as the vampires are quite strong and actually kill several of Drizzt's companions. I get surrounded by them, but my AC is -15 with the Shield of Harmony on - they can't touch me. I remove them piece by piece, making sure to grab the Gauntlets of Weapon Specialization before making my way downstairs. Bodhi proves to be a complete piece of cake - one WW and she already fled to her coffin. I stake her and take the Lantern. I sell what I have and make my way to Suldanesselar.
I get really anxious here. Even if the enemies aren't too much of a challenge, Irenicus will be. I make my way around the city in roughly a clockwise pattern, making sure to save the temple for last. The Rakshasa are easy to take down with a True Sight, and the golems prove to be equally easy. The black dragon outside of the main part of the city is similar: fighting him is a lot like fighting Firkraag and Adalon, and a Breach quickly renders him vulnerable. My THAC0 is -9/-7, which means that he goes down in seconds. It's very anticlimactic, really. The mage inside Rillifane's temple worries me the most: he was nasty on vanilla and I imagine he will be worse on SCS. Therefore, I go inside invisible and start hitting him, and I manage to kill him right as his pre-cast buffs trigger. His little pals don't stand a chance.
Now for Irenicus. As it turns out, he plays a lot like the Elemental Lich: lots of buffs and triggers/contingencies, plenty of fiend summons, and plenty of debuffs. I stay behind and make my Planetar take the worst of it, while I attempt to try and remove Irenicus's buffs from a distance. He throws out several sundering spells and almost removes my buffs entirely at one point, a quickly thrown-up SI: Abjuration saved me. Eventually, Irenicus runs out his worst high-level spells, and I move in for the kill. He attempts to conjure more demons, but he can't get in a spell with my Flail of Ages hitting him for so much elemental damage. I am happy, but I know that the final battle is yet to come.
Normally I always do the good paths in Hell. This time, I am only concerned with what benefits my character the most. In this instance, doing every trial except for Pride as evil gives my character better bonuses: the good ones included such things as +1 WIS and CHA or +2 to saves, useless for my character. Only the Pride trial is done good (where you can slay the dragon): I prefer the 20% elemental resistances over 200K XP, which is worthless anyways given that my character hit the XP cap some time ago.
I steel myself for the final battle. My immediate concern is taking down his four demons. Not wanting to use up my one cast of True Sight right away, I have my Planetar cast it instead to remove the mirror images from the Glabrezus. Using her to draw Irenicus's focus for just a few rounds, I maneuver to take out all the demons quickly with Improved Haste. Irenicus proves to be quite the foe: my most worrisome moment was when he summons a Fallen Planetar. Shit. They get a chance to insta-kill with a vorpal sword, something I am intensely wary of. But with no other choice but to take her out, I throw up WWs to kill her as fast as possible, praying that my -15 AC blocks most of her blows. I don't die, much to my relief, and I don't see another one get summoned for the rest of the match.
As the slayer, Irenicus ports around the map at will (?) and get a lot of sundering spells. I use up my three Spell Shields trying to avoid his effects and attempting to remove his own buffs. I continue to run around, hoping to avoid his line of sight long enough to ear down his buffs. It starts to look bad as my last Spell Shield is broken, and he looks like he is going to go for a full dispel, something that would prove fatal. But guess what: he has run out of spells that make himself immune to my weapons. Checkmate. I wail on him so fast that he can't cast any spells, and while he hits me a lot even with my AC as low as it is, the slow of the FoA coupled with my PfMW and Stoneskins means that he cannot muster up an effective counterattack. Inevitably, he falls...and the game is won.
Now begins the hardest leg of the trilogy. The Hell bonuses pushed me up to 185 base HP, a respectable number even on Insane. I'd like to see how far I can go before things start to get really hard. I imagine Yaga-Shura will be extremely difficult, to say nothing of the final battle. I opted to give certain enemies HLAs to add a challenge - lets hope that wasn't a mistake the way the Improved Bodhi mod was.
I will stream again tomorrow at noon PST (GMT -8, May 22nd).
I certainly appreciate that you've followed me along the whole way too.
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Why did I give this section that title? Because out of a dragon, a fire giant and a puny human sorcerer, guess which one ends up being the most difficult? Illasera's Black Blade of Disaster is counterable for certain, but coupled with the other mage who is also shielded by spell protections, invisible and covered by SI: Divination (along with her), and you just wind up having a bad time. Double points for getting dispelled because you don't have enough spell shields to counter two high-level mages. Illasera moved blindingly fast with both Haste and the Boots of Speed, and her speed factor is next to nothing with the sword, and I don't have enough defensive spells to keep throwing up. Beating her meant throwing up everything I had and waiting for her spells to slowly wear off. I was pushed down to <40hp before her Haste wore off and I was finally able to start getting hits in.
In Saradush, I skipped doing most of the side quests, save for returning Lazarus's spellbook as he possesses a copy of every spell scroll in the BG trilogy. The Vampires did not offer any real challenge, as Deathblow was able to one-shot most of them. Time Stop and the Planetar serve as staples for fighting high-level groups such as the fighters in the Saradush underground and Gromnir's palace. Fighting Gromnir mostly involved staying away from the two mages. I summoned a Planetar to serve as a meat shield while I take down the mano-a-mano fighter types on the right side of the room. Staying out of their line of stops during their multiple Time Stops, eventually I cast my own and I eviscerate all but Gromnir himself. Making sure that my layers of spell defenses were still active, I WW Gromnir to oblivion and hightail it out of there, leaving the two mages to themselves. Fighting them isn't really worth it.
Next step: Yaga-Shura. The battle worried me a lot, since I imagine SCS would make the already infinitely summoning warriors even worse. But that was in the future. I head to the Marching Mountains and immediately head to the internal chamber - I won't bother with the other Bhaalspawn in the corner (although fighting a chinchilla is a tempting proposition). So SCS decided Burning Men weren't annoying enough. They decided that they needed to have a dispel that never failed and couldn't be blocked by anything. Lovely. That means I need to take them out before anybody else, although in encountering the ones outside the dungeon I did get hit, albeit after killing the fire giants. Little matter - my saves prevent me from getting hit with their fear anyhow.
Killing the giants in the main room is a simple order of business. With Protection from Fire active at all times, I cast Time Stop and WW several of them down before it wears off. I make sure that Stoneskin is active, and I cast an additional Hardness to insulate against my character should it end suddenly. Approaching the top rooms didn't take much effort at all. The lower two proved to be slightly trickier, if only because of the Fire Lich (who had to be first engaged offscreen) and the Burning Man, who had to be quickly killed before his auto-dispel kicked in. I activate the center console and move to the second floor.
SCS puts a red fire dragon in the main room, although he isn't any more difficult than Firkraag. Because there are so many scripts going off at once, the game really chugs when there are a lot of on-screen enemies. Therefore, I throw up a Time Stop at the border of the main chamber and quickly eliminate several giants. When Time Stop ends, I make sure that SI: abjuration is active. Berenn, being a priest, has no way to counteract my debuffing spells. A Breach renders him helpless and he falls very quickly. The dragon takes a bit more time as I have expended many of my defensive spells clearing out the room, but my last PfMW gives me just enough time to finish him. I grab the two hearts and head out - I'm not going to bother with Imix, as I'm sure SCS gave him some stupid OP ability.
The Master Wraith is an example of an enemy that used to give me a lot of trouble - largely on account of his fast wraiths. Ahh, how young and naive I used to be. I always keep a Planetar up as a distraction, but she isn't really needed as Improved Haste makes taking them out a cinch. The skeletons guarding the temple seem easy at first, but mid-combat my combat buffs all get dispelled by that mage, whom I cannot target with spells. I only notice when I begin taking large amounts of damage. Damn. I retreat and cast Time Stop, killing most of the warriors. I have to wait for the mage's buffs to wear off before I can kill her. Nyalee is a completely pushover (duh, she's a priest). One Breach and she's toast. I ignore the Shambling Horrors and hightail it out of there.
Yaga-Shura. I *was* worried about him, but I found out on my first playthrough that he really isn't that hard. It's getting overwhelmed that worries me. When I approach him in the battlefield, I begin by removing who I can with Deathblow, which is largely restricted to his weaker fighters. No matter - I keep as much free space as I can while I want for him to return. When he does, I throw a Breach on him and wail on him as fast as I can. I notice that I'm quickly getting surrounded - I use WW and hope that I don't get so swarmed that I can't reach him anymore, because if that happens it's game over. Thankfully, he dies before that happens, and everybody disperses.
The Oasis battle is a total pushover, since all the enemies except Jamis die to Deathblow. I spend little time in Amkethran, save for doing a few tiny side quests. I will assemble the Big Metal Unit as soon as Abazigal's lair is finished, but everything else is of little interest, since there are no items I really need here. Abazigal's lair has the final FoA head as well as the Bronze Panties, making it of intense interest to me. Plus, I imagine Abazigal isn't as bad as Sendai.
First step: Draconis. Okay, don't judge me, I was ten when this happened. But I was very nearly brought to tears as a kid trying to kill him. No matter how many times I reloaded, I could not beat him. I was stuck for <i>months trying to beat him (I didn't have internet on my computer so I had no guide). There is no relief like the feeling you get when you make long-overdue progress on your favorite game. Of course, on vanilla he's as easy as can be now. On SCS, I found that his dragon form is actually easier than his human form. As a human, he's a mage of no small power who seals himself under un-dispellable invisibility, summons plenty of Morty's Swords and a whole sequence of weapon-protection spells. As a dragon, he only has a few defensive buffs and the same easily-blocked Remove Magic as the others.
Inside Abazigal's lair, I methodically make my way through each layer of the dungeon, keeping a safe distance when needed and using my Planetar as a second teammate. The room with the eyeballs proved to be more annoying than difficult, but they're pretty easy experience, really. I don't touch the elder Orbs, instead unloading it on the three kids who are petrified for some reason. I always loved the really meta reference to the nature of the game when he "reloads" after dying. I get the needed orb eye as well as the Bronze Panties, and make my way to Abazigal.
I avoid killing the stuck-up dragon because I don't think she's worth wasting time on. I focus my buffs and energy on Abazigal, saving SI: Abjuration and Protection from Energy for the dragon form. I begin by killing the salamanders lining the edge of the room and simultaneously avoiding his WWs. I let him expend his HLAs while I remove the salamanders, and when he is finished I conjure my Planetar to serve as a distraction. I activate my HLAs and wail on him until he changes into a dragon, upon which I throw up the remainder of my buffs. It seems like he is given some ability that allows him to remove certain defensive buffs - my stoneskins and PfMW disappeared suddenly in the beginning of the battle. No matter. I use a Spell Trigger containing those two spells and resume my assault. With a Breach spell following, he didn't stand a chance.
Right before ending the session, I made a detour to Watcher's Keep to grab the poison FoA head. Getting to it proved to be a snap, as the statues weren't as difficult or hardy as I thought they would be. I grabbed the head and headed out, and that will be the least time I enter Watcher's Keep. Getting Free Action on the FoA is rather unwanted as it negates haste, but I can remove it before casting Improved Haste to still get the extra attacks. Having a +5 weapon with all that elemental damage is worth the downside IMO.
I will stream tomorrow at noon PST (May 25th). I could complete the game by tomorrow...we'll see!
Using the Big Metal Unit in the final battle is a complete mistake. Aside from disabling spellcasting, it makes your character so large that you unable to target enemies while blind, something that happens when the Demon Knights she spawns in use PW: Blind against you. I couldn't kill the Death Tyrant, got dispelled, and rolled a critical failure against a Symbol: Fear (my save v spell was -4). I re-played the battle without it and did vastly better. *sigh*
I'll stream tomorrow at noon PST (May 26th).
Plus, none of the components have any use until you forge the whole thing--the benefit is only at the end of the game. What would you think of Carsomyr if it was unusable until the +6 upgrade?
Since nobody had tuned into the stream, I decided to end it there. I'll stream tomorrow at noon PST (May 27th).