No-reload melee sorcerer run
Grond0
Member Posts: 7,457
Biff {7} - melee sorcerer (update 1)
@Bengoshi suggested that I do the odd post on these Forums for a change rather than adding to my 6,000+ posts on the Bioware Forums! Here then is a record of a melee sorcerer run. This is the 7th time I've tried this with Biff using BGEE and there have been other attempts previously in a BGT setup - none of those have got out of BG1, so the chances of success are slim. It's definitely possible, but requires a high degree of concentration and avoiding mistakes - which is a problem for me!
The BGEE installation is unmodded and played at core difficulty (though at 60 fps). The hard bit comes from the restrictions applied to the run. These are as follows:
standard restrictions (applying to nearly all my runs) - no-reload, no item based healing, no antidotes, no recruiting NPCs
special for this run - Biff can use any type of attacks he wants, but can never be awarded XP for killing enemies except where this is directly caused by a melee attack (that makes some typical mage tactics difficult to use, e.g. area damage and the use of summons).
After emerging from Candlekeep Biff was keen to get Imoen's equipment. As he couldn't recruit her, a LMD to turn her hostile, then a chase to pin her against the edge of the map did the trick.
Xzar and Montaron were next on the list. Monty was blinded before Biff swapped a couple of LMDs with Xzar. He had to make sure Xzar fired first in doing that as I was caught out in an earlier attempt at this in BGEE when Xzar died to a single LMD (he has considerably more HPs in BGT). Xzar managed to do 2 damage with his dagger before dying, but that was repaired by using Xzar's LMD scroll on Montaron.
When he finally caught up with the blinded assassin he also used the chill touch scroll and a single attack finished the job.
Moving on to find Shoal he threw darts (best weapon for this purpose because the low damage means killing things with criticals is not quite such a danger) to get her to near death. A LMD pushed her closer to the edge before the second of his blind attempts worked - a single attack then did for her as well.
That got Biff 2 additional levels and he got a welcome maximum 12 HPs from those.
The good HPs came in handy against the first of Mirianne's ogrillons. Blind and at near death the ogrillon still managed to hit twice - the second a critical - but Biff tipped him over the edge before he had the opportunity to attack again.
After resting, the second ogrillon was in the same condition and also got a critical (hope that's not going to keep happening) - but also still died.
Biff hopped over to High Hedge to kill a few gnolls (they are easy to attack and retreat before any possible retaliation due to their slow weapon speed). With Perdue's sword in hand he blinded Karlat and wore him down with darts before landing a killing blow.
To the south some hobgoblins are also slow swingers and he recovered some boots there to hand in for another reward. Back in town he pulled some spiders out of their house (as they move faster in BGEE than BGT you need to get out quickly to prevent them emerging beyond you to block you in)
and ran them round wearing them down with LMDs before killing one of them
and running away to rest and try again. Biff was poisoned once during that process, but cured it by just travelling to High Hedge and back.
It might be worth mentioning here the ability to get attacks in first even against enemies with faster weapon speed (such as spiders). That can be done by letting the enemy in close and waiting an instant or two for it to start its personal attack round (text reports it’s attacking). If you immediately retreat slightly that means it can’t actually attack you, but is still in its attack round. If you attack it, say halfway through the round, it’s missed its opportunity to attack in that round and you have a free attack (this is far more difficult to do against opponents with multiple attacks). Note if you are doing this you need to retreat further after each attack to ensure that when you close again the enemy is starting a fresh personal attack round – otherwise you might catch it partway into a round and allow it an instant attack. You'll see a lot of pausing on my screenshots - that's the result of double-tapping the space bar to be able to keep track of time passing in the game.
Still needing a bit more XP to get to level 4 Biff went to the Temple area and killed a bunch of hobgoblins - finishing off with a blinded Cattack (after chasing him for ages).
Now with the ability to cast invisibility Biff can travel safely and get attacks in on enemies without the danger of retaliation. He should therefore have a chance of making significant further progress.
Sorcerer L4, 22 HPs, 33 kills
With each update I'll post a summary of the spells proposed for each level, with a brief description of why they've been chosen for this run.
Level 1 spells
Blind
Makes it less likely that opponents will retaliate when briefly attacked and reduces their chances to hit if they do (on the downside blinded enemies run all over the place in BGEE).
LMD
Despite being bugged in BGEE this can still provide a HP top-up against damage as well as helping nudge opponents nearer to death at range.
Identify
Keeps the bank balance healthy!
PfE
The AC improvement can help a bit, particularly in large-scale combat.
Chill touch
This is nerfed in BGEE compared to vanilla, but does allow dual-wielding without the normal to-hit penalties.
@Bengoshi suggested that I do the odd post on these Forums for a change rather than adding to my 6,000+ posts on the Bioware Forums! Here then is a record of a melee sorcerer run. This is the 7th time I've tried this with Biff using BGEE and there have been other attempts previously in a BGT setup - none of those have got out of BG1, so the chances of success are slim. It's definitely possible, but requires a high degree of concentration and avoiding mistakes - which is a problem for me!
The BGEE installation is unmodded and played at core difficulty (though at 60 fps). The hard bit comes from the restrictions applied to the run. These are as follows:
standard restrictions (applying to nearly all my runs) - no-reload, no item based healing, no antidotes, no recruiting NPCs
special for this run - Biff can use any type of attacks he wants, but can never be awarded XP for killing enemies except where this is directly caused by a melee attack (that makes some typical mage tactics difficult to use, e.g. area damage and the use of summons).
After emerging from Candlekeep Biff was keen to get Imoen's equipment. As he couldn't recruit her, a LMD to turn her hostile, then a chase to pin her against the edge of the map did the trick.
Xzar and Montaron were next on the list. Monty was blinded before Biff swapped a couple of LMDs with Xzar. He had to make sure Xzar fired first in doing that as I was caught out in an earlier attempt at this in BGEE when Xzar died to a single LMD (he has considerably more HPs in BGT). Xzar managed to do 2 damage with his dagger before dying, but that was repaired by using Xzar's LMD scroll on Montaron.
When he finally caught up with the blinded assassin he also used the chill touch scroll and a single attack finished the job.
Moving on to find Shoal he threw darts (best weapon for this purpose because the low damage means killing things with criticals is not quite such a danger) to get her to near death. A LMD pushed her closer to the edge before the second of his blind attempts worked - a single attack then did for her as well.
That got Biff 2 additional levels and he got a welcome maximum 12 HPs from those.
The good HPs came in handy against the first of Mirianne's ogrillons. Blind and at near death the ogrillon still managed to hit twice - the second a critical - but Biff tipped him over the edge before he had the opportunity to attack again.
After resting, the second ogrillon was in the same condition and also got a critical (hope that's not going to keep happening) - but also still died.
Biff hopped over to High Hedge to kill a few gnolls (they are easy to attack and retreat before any possible retaliation due to their slow weapon speed). With Perdue's sword in hand he blinded Karlat and wore him down with darts before landing a killing blow.
To the south some hobgoblins are also slow swingers and he recovered some boots there to hand in for another reward. Back in town he pulled some spiders out of their house (as they move faster in BGEE than BGT you need to get out quickly to prevent them emerging beyond you to block you in)
and ran them round wearing them down with LMDs before killing one of them
and running away to rest and try again. Biff was poisoned once during that process, but cured it by just travelling to High Hedge and back.
It might be worth mentioning here the ability to get attacks in first even against enemies with faster weapon speed (such as spiders). That can be done by letting the enemy in close and waiting an instant or two for it to start its personal attack round (text reports it’s attacking). If you immediately retreat slightly that means it can’t actually attack you, but is still in its attack round. If you attack it, say halfway through the round, it’s missed its opportunity to attack in that round and you have a free attack (this is far more difficult to do against opponents with multiple attacks). Note if you are doing this you need to retreat further after each attack to ensure that when you close again the enemy is starting a fresh personal attack round – otherwise you might catch it partway into a round and allow it an instant attack. You'll see a lot of pausing on my screenshots - that's the result of double-tapping the space bar to be able to keep track of time passing in the game.
Still needing a bit more XP to get to level 4 Biff went to the Temple area and killed a bunch of hobgoblins - finishing off with a blinded Cattack (after chasing him for ages).
Now with the ability to cast invisibility Biff can travel safely and get attacks in on enemies without the danger of retaliation. He should therefore have a chance of making significant further progress.
Sorcerer L4, 22 HPs, 33 kills
With each update I'll post a summary of the spells proposed for each level, with a brief description of why they've been chosen for this run.
Level 1 spells
Blind
Makes it less likely that opponents will retaliate when briefly attacked and reduces their chances to hit if they do (on the downside blinded enemies run all over the place in BGEE).
LMD
Despite being bugged in BGEE this can still provide a HP top-up against damage as well as helping nudge opponents nearer to death at range.
Identify
Keeps the bank balance healthy!
PfE
The AC improvement can help a bit, particularly in large-scale combat.
Chill touch
This is nerfed in BGEE compared to vanilla, but does allow dual-wielding without the normal to-hit penalties.
Post edited by Grond0 on
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Comments
After travelling invisibly down to the Carnival Biff used invisibility to get the final hits in against Oopah and Vitiare. He then bought the green scroll of protection from petrification and went to the basilisk area to try that out. He was handicapped there by being non-proficient in darts and switched to moving in and out of melee with his staff. His low damage potential was still a major problem though and I was conscious that time was short as he got the last basilisk to badly wounded. In fact time was even shorter than I thought.
I think the timer on the green scroll may be dubious. Biff used it towards the end of hour 3 and I'd checked that it was still hour 8 only just before he died. I presume therefore that rather than 6 full hours it provides protection up to the start of the 6th hour ...
Biff {9} - melee sorcerer (update 1)
In run 8 Biff got to Beregost. He was fighting the last of the spiders there and was hit by a critical - prompting him to run away and rest. On coming back he threw a LMD at the spider without checking its status and was dismayed to see that the rest had not cured the spider and it had died as a result of the previous damage taken.
Starting once more he followed essentially the same path as #7 down to Nashkel. Rather than go straight to the basilisks though he stopped off at Firewine Bridge to see if Meilum no longer needed his bracers. 160 darts and 6 LMDs wore him down to the point that Biff tried to finish the job with 3 invisible attacks, but all of them missed. After resting, Meilum (unlike the spider above) was back to full health and I couldn't be bothered to start all over again with darts (non-proficiency meant Biff needed a critical with those), so he went to get the wand of frost from the Nashkel mine area. A blast from that plus LMDs soon had her try invisible attacks again. This time the first one hit - but minimum damage was not enough for the kill. He failed with another attack without invisibility (relying on the extra HPs from LMD to offset Meilum's damage) before trying another invisible attack - and this time minimum damage was sufficient.
Biff is now back in the basilisk area and, with the extra firepower of the bracers, I don't anticipate any problems in killing the basilisks quickly enough this time.
Sorcerer L4, 21 HPs, 37 kills
The basilisks were duly disposed of this time. There was still a need for plenty of running away when the basilisks switched to melee, but even so the last of them died at the start of hour 9 after using the green scroll in hour 4. Mutamin and Kirian were left for now though.
Switching to reputation tasks, Biff went to find Greywolf. Two more frost charges were used to speed up wearing him down before an invisible attack finish. Samuel then got an invisible lift to the FAI (where Biff also helped Joia and picked up the Ring of Wizardry). I wasn't sure how many HPs Tarnesh had so left him for the guards to work on before attacking - but waited too long and they killed him.
He used mirrors for the first time when killing a wolf (though it got a bite in anyway) and followed that up with another use to get a skeleton's skull. That effort proved of little use though when the fragile Melicamp failed his transformation check. Biff's 12 available LMDs were all put to use wearing down Bjornin's half-ogres to get another reputation point and the last of them also got him to level 6. While in Beregost reporting to Bjornin he also blinded Silke and wore her down with LMDs before an invisible attack finish. The faster speed factor of her staff will help a bit.
Biff's new slow ability was used for the first time against Caldo & Krumm. A slight movement error let Krumm get an attack back on him there, so to be safe he went invisible again for the killing blow. After returning a cat for resurrection he went on to the Gnoll Stronghold and picked up the charisma tome. He then swung north to get some fur-lined boots before leaving the mountains.
With reputation at 19 he went to the ankheg area and used invisibility to rob their nest and get his final reputation upgrade. That allowed a spot of cut-price shopping at Ulgoth's Beard with the help of a charisma scroll.
The run came to an unfortunate end though at Durlag's Tower. Biff used his wand of frost a couple of times before switching to LMDs to get the first battle horror close to death. He should have been able to use 3 LMDs to do that, but the second of them produced this result.
I've been very wary about killing named characters because their HPs are often very different in BGEE compared to BGT. However, I hadn't expected that battle horrors would have been adjusted (and by a sufficiently small amount - from 64 to 58 - that I couldn't tell from the injury status that the change had been made).
Oh well, back to the Candlekeep drawing board ...
Having been caught out in attempt 9 by a difference between HPs in BGT and BGEE I went through EEKeeper before restarting looking for any other potential similar pitfalls.
In attempt 10 as usual Biff went straight to Shoal after killing Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Shoal took longer than expected as, after using darts to get her to near death, she took shelter behind a dread wolf and Biff had to run for it. Coming back he had to wear her down all over again before finally getting a killing blow. In Beregost he then tried to do Silke early in order to benefit from her staff. He got her to near death while blinded and had a whack at her while she was casting improved invisibility, but missed. He did run some way away, but obviously not far enough as Silke appeared next to him and blasted him with a lightning bolt before he could move away.
In attempt 11 he was killed by what must have been a critical from a blinded Montaron after he had killed Xzar and he went one worse in attempt 12 by not even managing to kill Xzar (a lack of concentration there)!
In attempt 13 he rested after killing Xzar in order to be able to use a couple of LMDs on Montaron, but he also then micro-managed the attack to prevent Montaron getting a retaliation in anyway (retreating and re-engaging as described in my original post). Shoal was no problem and this time on reaching Beregost Biff got up to level 4 as described in previous posts before tackling Silke. When she used improved invisibility he countered with invisibility of his own before running away. After waiting a while he finally tracked Silke down again and this time inherited her staff.
With that opening sequence successfully done, let's see if this lucky thirteenth run can make some decent further progress.
Sorcerer L4, 19 HPs, 34 kills
In order to make some space in his inventory Biff went to the FAI to return Landrin's goods. He failed twice to kill Tarnesh with invisible attacks there and the second time was only just in time casting invisibility before he ran away scared - resulting in a guard once more getting the XP for Tarnesh.
Back in Beregost Biff wanted to improve his inventory management a bit more - which was not good news for Neera. She had summoned up a Thayan wizard before she died, but he was quickly blinded, worn down and finished with an invisible attack (disappointingly he hadn't brought any equipment with him though).
A blast from the wand of frost helped set up Meilum for a quick finish before Biff moved on to the basilisk area. With a magic staff added to the bracers he was easily able to finish off the monsters before the green scroll expired this time - though once again he left Mutamin and Kirian's party alone for now.
His reputation quests started with a critical bang to finish off Greywolf and he carried on through the Cloud Peaks to get the charisma tome. He failed the reaction check and didn't get reputation from Drienne, but there were plenty more opportunities so that wouldn't have been a problem.
What was a problem, however, was the polar bear scaring the merchant. Biff wore him down to near death as normal before closing for the intended kill. The bear was slowed, so he didn't bother using invisibility or any protections. However, the bear got the first hit in. His HPs were boosted by LMDs though, so there seemed no danger and he kept attacking - only to find the bear got the next attack in as well before he could respond. That put him in potential danger, but I thought Biff must get the next attack in before the bear - but he didn't.
It's a bit hard to see how the game mechanics can justify that. The only thing I can think of is:
1) the bear commences its personal attack round while slow and thus is not scheduled to get an attack in until later in the round.
2) the slow effect ends mid-way through its personal attack round and the game immediately switches to allowing it its full 3 APR in the same round. As it was already mid-way through the round that meant all 3 attacks being compressed into a short period.
The risk could of course have been avoided entirely using invisibility, or substantially reduced using mirror image. So that failure is another to be chalked up to my inability to maintain caution over a long period - always a problem in no-reload runs!
Biff has gone once more unto the breach dear friends. Following the same route as last time he again waited until he was at level 4 before killing Silke - this time though that precaution was unnecessary as she died before completing her improved invisibility spell.
He also killed Neera, but this time he attacked from invisible and she had no time to summon her Thayan rival.
One other item of interest in Beregost was seeing Karlat ensure there would be no resting in his favourite inn after he had no further use for it!
After picking up the Ring of Wizardry Biff went to Nashkel to get the anti-basilisk scroll before moving on to Firewine. Lots of LMDs and darts wore Meilum down, but Biff then missed with 3 invisible attacks. After running away to rest he then had to do everything all over again - I was getting worried after 2 more melee misses, but the last of his 3 invisible attacks finally hit this time round.
There were no problems killing all the basilisks, though again he left Mutamin and Kirian alone for now.
At the Nashkel Mine he picked up the Wand of Frost and used that once to help wear Greywolf down ready for the kill. He then took Samuel back to the FAI (getting to level 6 there) before moving through the Cloud Peak Mountains. He again failed to get reputation from Drienne (and I also realised seeing a winter wolf there that he never picked up Gorion's equipment), but after recovering the charisma tome he this time took no chances against the polar bear to the north!
Success with Melicamp this time and Bjornin's half-ogres added to Ardrouine's worgs got reputation to 19 and led Biff north to loot the ankheg nest. Then it was on to Ulgoth's Beard to do some shopping there with the aid of a charisma scroll.
He's just arrived at Durlag's Tower, which equals the furthest he's got to in this series of runs. I would hope he can still progress much farther though ...
Sorcerer L6, 32 HPs, 90 kills
At Durlag's Tower Biff went battle horror hunting. They were worn down with the wand of frost and LMDs before being slowed and attacked invisibly - the combined +8 to hit from that made them relatively easy to hit - the first couple of those got him to level 7.
Unfortunately I was still thinking about whether I'd picked the best spells for that level and not concentrating properly on the doppleganger Biff came across next. That was slowed and had darts thrown at it. I had counted it as having taken 22 damage and it was shown at badly wounded. I intended to throw one more dart, which in itself was a mistake as I hadn't checked their HPs and had thought dopplegangers had more than their actual 31 HPs (a critical with the dart and bracers could do 10 damage). However, the problem wasn't a critical, but that I didn't pause quickly enough to limit Biff to one more dart - both darts thrown hit removing exactly the 9 HPs the doppleganger had left.
Travelling down an increasingly well-worn road Biff made his way to Beregost. Neera managed to get close enough to talk there, but Biff successfully blinded the Thayan mage at the first attempt to make dealing with him easy.
At the FAI Biff managed to get the final blow on Tarnesh ahead of the guards (for the first time in this sequence of runs).
On arrival at the basilisk area I remembered just in time that Biff didn't yet have Meilum's bracers and that was soon remedied - a single invisible attack finishing the job this time. The basilisks then went very smoothly, with not too much running away out of sight required to get them to switch back to ranged from melee attacks.
Biff made his way through the Cloud Peak Mountains to get the charisma tome and added a few more reputation quests. While doing those he attempted to kill the Doomsayer, but missed 3 times after wearing it down (missing with a roll of 12 despite the bonuses from invisibility and slow) and decided to leave it for a bit. Instead he went north to rob the ankhegs before shopping at Ulgoth's Beard.
Returning south he had another go at the Doomsayer and this time, now with the benefit of a +3 staff, he was successful with his first invisible attempt at the kill.
He's just arrived at Durlag's Tower. Having had 2 attempts fail there I'm hoping this is 3rd time lucky (or intelligent).
Sorcerer L6, 29 HPs, 98 kills
At Durlag's Tower Biff's first battle horror kill got him to level 7 and he soon finished off the other 2, along with the doom guard. Unlike my monks he left most of the ghasts alone as he ventured onto the roof, using a mage scroll to protect against petrification while wands and LMD got the basilisks ready for the kill. He used a number of LMDs on the last one to build his HPs up before triggering the trap - and a good thing too as the fireball damage both avoided his mirrors and was nasty.
He used his new minor spell deflection ability to be able to get the tome safely.
Pleased to have got out of Durlag's I obviously relaxed too much as Biff sought some more quick XP at the Lighthouse. Deciding to start by helping Ardrouine he was wearing down a worg prior to meleeing it. I was thinking they had 31 HPs and after it had taken 22 damage from darts (while slowed) I decided to add an LMD before switching to staff to kill it with one blow (as the staff provides minimum damage of 6). Unfortunately, however, worgs only have 26 HPs and the LMD killed it.
Sigh - back to Candlekeep ...
Attempt 16 quickly ended in a skeleton archer ambush at level 1. Attempt 17 didn't start too promisingly when Biff almost died against Carbos and he had another narrow escape against Montaron when only a previous LMD saved him from a critical - his efforts were wasted though when Shoal was allowed to get too close and insist on a kiss. That poor performance is an indication that it's about time to take a rest from this series of runs, but I still wanted to get one decent run if possible. Run 18 started well, but as Biff was working through Cattack's hobgoblins to reach level 4 he accidentally killed one - once more a case of having injured one before resting and not checking before using LMD whether the targeted enemy was uninjured (in BGEE enemies don't seem to heal during resting if they are both specifically placed in the area - not a random spawn - and you don't leave the area while resting).
Thinking that 20 attempts seemed a nice round number to aim for, Biff was sent out into the wide world once more at the dawn of a new day in the age of ... (actually well before dawn, so plenty of time to get a good session in). In attempt 19 he as usual put in the hard yards to get up to level 4 in Beregost before killing Silke and Neera. He recovered the Ring of Wizardry, but this time failed to beat the guards to kill Tarnesh. Moving down to Nashkel he had just got Vitiare ready for the kill when he was surprised to find a commoner had knocked him unconscious with his fists - don't remember seeing that happen before.
Patience (and life) ran out though against Meilum. He was ready for a single blow kill, but 3 invisible attacks all missed. Biff tried to run away from him to get enough of a lead to rest (in the area, thus not resetting his HPs) and managed to attempt that once, but a zombie interrupted. Rather than sticking to a safe route he attempted to run past the spawning point which had been empty when he originally arrived invisible - but that was now occupied by a kobold commando and 2 rapid shots were too much for Biff.
OK, one more try - and this time I'll see if I can stick to safe tactics ...
The intention was for this run to be the last in the current series of attempts (I expect I'll come back to the idea later though). To that end I was trying to minimise Biff's exposure to risk and he had a smooth passage up to achieving level 4. I fell back into bad habits though against Tarnesh and paid the penalty.
The idea there was to ensure Biff got the XP for killing him, so he lured Tarnesh over to the FAI door with a LMD. He then had an invisible attack, which hit - but for minimum damage and failed to kill Tarnesh. A second invisible attack (which would have been a certain kill if it hit) missed and Tarnesh responded by using mirror images. Biff rested near him (to avoid him healing) and tried a third invisible attack - but missed. He was also nearly caught out there as one of the factors in BGEE is how quickly enemies can react and make area transitions - thus even double-tapping the space bar when attacking and immediately going back into the inn after the attack Tarnesh arrived in the inn at the same time as Biff. Both cast simultaneously and Biff started running in terror - but was invisible so not attacked.
Once he recovered he tried a fourth invisible attack. His chance of a successful hit was good - but he missed again. By this stage I wasn't reacting very well and Biff was hit by a set of magic missiles. They couldn't actually kill him, but did badly wound him. The sensible thing would have been to go away and rest to heal up, but I thought he couldn't possibly miss again with a 5th invisible attack. Regrettably he could and an area transition didn't disrupt another set of magic missiles (which did disrupt Biff)
As that was such a poor finish I'll react in the great tradition of gaming and have just one more go ...
The 21st attempt failed when Biff was ambushed by skeleton archers in his very first area transition - not much I could do about that, so just once more I'll say just one more go
Right, this will be the last run in the current series of attempts (I expect I'll come back to the idea later though).
After leaving Candlekeep Biff killed Imoen (turning her hostile with a LMD so she didn't try and join the party) and then struck down Xzar while he was neutral (if the blow had missed Biff would just have run). A number of attempts at blinding Montaron failed and Biff eventually ran away rather than take the risk of meleeing him.
As usual Shoal was next (getting up to level 4 to get invisibility is a priority in order to avoid the risk of archer ambushes during travel) and she was soon worn down with darts before being blinded and finished off (for some reason she no longer seems to want to kiss you if she's nearly dead ...).
Biff survived a skeleton archer ambush on the way back to High Hedge where some slow-swinging gnolls provided a bit of easy XP. Moving on to Beregost, Biff started with the spiders - using LMD on them to ensure he had enough HPs to survive being hit and resting after each spider (also had to run a couple of times to cure poison). Marl and Firebead offered some easy XP before he used more LMDs to protect against criticals from Mirianne's ogrillons. The hobgoblins with Zhurlong's boots were too slow to be a real threat. The blinded Karlat was also fairly slow, though he did manage a simultaneous hit against Biff as he was being finished off.
Cattack's hobgoblins provided the last bit of XP needed to get up to level 4 and Biff went up to FAI to get the Ring of Wizardry. While there he dealt with Tarnesh safely this time - showing himself from a distance to ensure that horror would not cause a problem before finally getting a killing blow with his 3rd invisible attack. Back in Beregost he used blind and invisibility to kill Silke and Neera. After a bit of work in Nashkel he got conclusive revenge on Meilum when his first invisible attack was a critical.
The basilisks were again no problem, finishing off with Mutamin's pet (Biff showed himself at distance to Mutamin in order to turn it hostile before immediately running away before Mutamin could react).
However, once again Biff found a way to die while going through the Cloud Peaks. Taking on Sendai he intended to blind and kill the archers first, but after blinding Alexander he accidentally activated Sendai while chasing him - that turned Delgod hostile. I didn't expect that to be a problem, but was surprised when Biff failed in an attempt to blind Delgod from extreme range. I didn't expect the archer to be blinded before firing, but was pretty disgusted to see he was able to react to Biff's appearance, fire and have the missile reach him and disrupt his spell all before Biff could finish a casting time 2 spell. After resting he tried again and once again Delgod was able to beat him to the draw. What was worse though was that the arrow this time was a critical hit and killed him outright! I hadn't thought of that as being a danger for Biff at level 6, but I think that's the effect of BGEE. In BGT the maximum damage would have been 6 from the arrow + 5 from grand mastery, doubled for a critical for a maximum of 22 (and Biff even with a poor total of 23 HPs would have been safe). However, I think BGEE gives bonus damage for +1 arrows meaning it was just possible for Biff to die. Anyway whether that was the cause or something else I've forgotten he did die, so I'll put him back in the box for a while ...
Picking up another old favourite challenge of mine, here's Biff again. Looking at the notes on my computer it looks like he had another couple of attempts some months ago after the last one recorded on this thread. A 25th attempt this afternoon then ended unexpectedly against the Thayan wizard when I didn't realise that I was playing on insane difficulty (as a result of doing a LoB run) and died to some magic missiles.
Starting again, the early stages of the run have gone smoothly. Imoen, Xzar and Montaron were soon blinded and killed (attacking from outside their sight range) to get their equipment. Shoal was also blinded, getting Biff to level 3 and the usual tasks around Beregost didn't take long - I've taken sleep this time as a third L1 spell to make some of those simple, though it was back to blind to kill Karlat and get to level 4.
The ogre fell asleep on the way to the FAI to pick up the Ring of Wizardry. Resting there gave me 12 chances to blind Tarnesh, but only 1 was needed.
Invisibility was used to rob the ankheg nest and get a reputation point from Farmer Brun. A tour of further reputation quests using blindness and sleep soon pushed that up to 20. During that process Biff also got to level 5 by clubbing down a blinded Doomsayer.
Biff put his new staff to use by clubbing down a blinded Meilum. His new bracers are something of a two-edged sword due to the increased chance of killing enemies accidentally with a dart, but will be helpful in dealing with the basilisks next - Biff should be able to pick up another couple of levels there.
Sorcerer L5, 28 HPs, 88 kills
Level 1 spells
Blind
Makes it less likely that opponents will retaliate when briefly attacked and reduces their chances to hit if they do. The latest version of BGEE reverts to vanilla behaviour with blind meaning most enemies stay still - making it a great spell for this challenge.
LMD
This can provide a HP top-up against damage as well as helping nudge opponents nearer to death at range - and the latest update to BGEE seems to have fixed the previous bug that removed all bonus HPs at once from multiple castings of LMD.
Sleep
Makes the early stages of a run easier, saving concentration for later!
PfE
The AC improvement should help a bit in large-scale combat.
Chill touch
This is nerfed in BGEE compared to vanilla, but does allow dual-wielding without the normal to-hit penalties.
There were no problems with the basilisks. The green scroll was used for protection while the lesser ones were just meleed and the greater ones blinded first. That took Biff to level 7 before a slowed Mutamin's horror was dodged using invisibility, while his other spells were soaked up with LMD restoring HPs to Biff.
Korax was recruited to take on Kirian's party, but a gnoll appearing on an encounter spot near Korax after Biff had passed by ruined the intended surprise attack. Not to worry though as, with his new web spell, Biff was able to blind all the party and should then have been able to finish them off on his own without difficulty.
In a 27th attempt I was trying to deal with the xvarts attacking Arabelle without using sleep. Trying to draw one of them back towards me I used a wand magic missile on it to make it attack. However, before it got to me it went back towards the cow. I tried another magic missile, even though I did realise that a maximum damage one would kill it - and the risk didn't pay off.
For the 28th, after killing Shoal Biff also blinded and killed (resting lots of times in between) everything else in the area except the sirines. Using sleep would have been much more efficient, but I decided to replace that with magic missile this time. The extra XP from that was just enough to take Biff to level 4 without having to risk any more area transitions.
At High Hedge Biff used most of his hard-earned funds to buy a Wand of Sleep - that made a few tasks around Beregost a bit quicker. Going up to the FAI I mis-clicked on Joia's conversation and missed the chance to help her, but killing some fishermen for Tenya got Biff to level 5.
There was another slight mistake while doing reputation quests when I talked to Brage with a full inventory - I don't think the things dropped and lost were too important though. Other encounters went pretty smoothly, including a first use of web to set Bassilus up for being blinded. Biff got to L6 shortly after that for turning in Bassilus' symbol.
Continuing his travels Biff picked up the Wand of Monster Summoning at the Valley of the Tombs. He also used the web + blindness combination to set up the Amazons for disposal.
After finally going to get Meilum's bracers (he saved against 3 slow spells and 8 blinds before finally shutting his eyes) Biff turned to the basilisks. There were no problems there killing all except Mutamin's pet greater one. Biff then successfully showed himself for an instant to Mutamin (to turn the basilisk hostile) before running away. The basilisk followed and should therefore have been an easy victim. Unfortunately I started thinking about tactics for Mutamin (slow to nerf her saving throw, followed by web and blind) while throwing darts at the greater basilisk and realised too late how low on HPs it had got - GRR
I normally attack the greater basilisk while it's neutral as well - but in this challenge I need to come into sight of Mutamin at some point in order to be able to finish it off in melee. I think the tactic I used was fine, it was just the execution that was lacking
I've never done as well as I should have at this challenge, but I'll give it another go and try and change that - I think I'm about due for a spot of success ...
This time, after killing Shoal, Biff again cleared the area. However, in addition to enemies Mad Arcand got his comeuppance - that proving costly in reputation, but getting Biff up to level 4.
While doing a few tasks to restore his reputation Biff got up to level 5 at the minesite.
Again not using sleep, I once more failed to rescue Arabelle, but all the other reputation gains were done successfully to get rep up to 20 (using a Friends scroll to ensure success with Drienne). During the course of that, beating up Meilum got Biff to level 6 (I've been sparing with the use of his bracers though).
At the basilisk area the monsters were soon cleared, taking Biff to level 7. This time Mutamin's pet was properly killed in melee, while the mage himself was slowed, webbed and blinded.
At the Lighthouse area two of the first group of sirines were successfully blinded in a web. The charms from the third were foiled by MSD, but it successfully poisoned Biff with an arrow of biting and he had to retreat and hastily use a green scroll. The sirine saved against several more blind attempts and got lucky with further attacks, forcing Biff into using a regeneration potion as well before he wore it down with darts and finished it off with an invisible attack
Looking for some more quick XP Biff went to Durlag's Tower. The battle horrors there were worn down with magic missiles before a combination of slow and invisible attacks made them pretty easy to hit.
Needing a couple of thousand more XP for another level Biff returned to the ankheg area. Showing himself to a monster there and then casting invisibility immediately left the ankheg above ground - allowing the normal web + blind tactics to be used.
Sorcerer L9, 49 HPs, 147 kills
Level 1 spells
Blind
Makes it less likely that opponents will retaliate when briefly attacked and reduces their chances to hit if they do. The latest version of BGEE reverts to vanilla behaviour with blind meaning most enemies stay still - making it a great spell for this challenge.
LMD
This can provide a HP top-up against damage as well as helping nudge opponents nearer to death at range - and the latest update to BGEE seems to have fixed the previous bug that removed all bonus HPs at once from multiple castings of LMD.
Magic Missile
Quickly reduces HPs of tougher opponents.
PfE
The AC improvement should help a bit in large-scale combat.
Chill touch
This is nerfed in BGEE compared to vanilla, but does allow dual-wielding without the normal to-hit penalties.
On the way to Nashkel Mine Biff stopped off to sort out Zordral at the Carnival. With all his buffs running the mage was no danger and was quickly clubbed down.
After passing invisibly through the mine Biff webbed and blinded Mulahey. I expected him to trigger his conversation as soon as he broke free, but this time he didn't do so - possibly due to failing consistently to save against the web.
Emerging from the back door, Biff blinded and killed the amazons. After selling their equipment he went back and cleared the tombs. That included accidentally using chill touch rather than LMD against the Revenant - resulting in Biff clubbing it unconscious and having to wait for the spell to end to complete the job
Nimbul was hacked down, leaving behind a familiar for Biff, while Tranzig fared no better. Biff took the opportunity in Beregost to buy the Dagger of Venom. While the staff is normally a better option, as so many opponents are blinded and attacked from outside their sight range, dual-wielded daggers do a lot more damage if opponents are immobilised and time is an issue.
At the Bandit Camp the basic bandits were no threat (needing a critical to hit against stoneskins), but Taugosz was webbed and blinded. Inside the tent the enemies got lucky against blind, with only Hakt and Venkt put out of action from the 12 attempts. However, the others soon went down to a buffed assault anyway.
After going invisibly through the Cloakwood, Biff blinded Rezdan at the second attempt. It took 9 more to get Kysus as well, but Genthore was bagged as well with his final attempt. Drasus got one wand scorcher to soften him up, but the combination of blur, mirror image, stoneskins, haste and slow made short work of him anyway, leaving the others helpless.
After more invisible travel through the mine Biff pulled the battle horrors away separately to be disposed of. A series of fireballs hurt Davaeorn and got rid of most of his mirrors before a hasted assault finished him off just before he could complete his first spell.
Sorcerer L9, 55 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 215 kills
Level 2 spells
Invisibility
Allows both safe travel and a free hit on most opponents - meaning they can be nearly killed while blinded at range and then finished off without risk.
Web
Helps to control battlefields (particularly in combination with malison) and offers the opportunity to disable opponents from out of sight (and then blind them).
Mirror image
In addition to making larger scale battles safer, this will help against some types of traps.
Blur
Both the AC bonus and the adjustment to saving throws are useful.
Ghoul touch
Provides multiple opportunities for save or else attacks.
In the City the main target was the tomes. Jalantha Mistmyr and Ramazith were blinded, while Marek had 3 attempted spells disrupted as he was being attacked.
At Candlekeep knock scrolls were used to rob the tombs, rather than fiddling around with the violet potion. All enemies were just avoided except for the original doppleganger and the final basilisks, so there was no need for any resting (apart from initially to get DUHM).
Back in the City Slythe failed against a second paralysation wand blast and was quickly taken down by dual-wielded daggers at 3 APR (plus poison).
At the palace Biff summoned some monsters and buffed up before opening the battle by using an improved invisibility scroll on Belt. Liia died at the end of the first round, but a chaos scroll was successful in distracting most of the attackers immediately after that.
Hasted attacks (and slow for the doom guards) + PfU for the skeleton warriors allowed Biff to make quick progress through the maze, though he went invisibly past the Undercity party.
At the temple Biff took a potion of magic shielding and set up some summons before sending a wand magic missile at Sarevok from extreme range and withdrawing immediately. Going back invisibly prompted Sarevok's dialogue
Sorcerer L9, 49 HPs, 239 kills
Level 3 spells
Slow
Makes it much easier to attack enemies trying to run away, gives a better chance to hit and normally guarantees that they won't be able to retaliate. Also tends to slow down spell responses, though I don't think you can rely on that against things like triggers and sequencers.
Minor spell deflection
Protects against single target spells (and similar traps such as FoD).
Haste
While improved haste would do the job, that's some way off. In the meantime the additional attack and the initiative bonus are both helpful.
Remove magic
Will be the main means to remove buffs.
Melf's minute meteors
Helpful for softening opponents up, disrupting spells and beating down spell turning.
The surplus XP earned in BG1 allowed Biff to take an instant 10th level on arrival in Jon's dungeon. I used EEKeeper to delete the HPs from Biff's familiar in BG1 before proceeding through the dungeon. That was pretty simple given that the use of spirit armour, blur and shadow door (along with the Claw of Kazgaroth) could give him a negative saving throw vs spells, so moving around in webs became safe.
After emerging from the dungeon (getting to level 11 in the process) Biff spent some money on 3 reputation points at the temple. Reputation got a further boost after a visit to put things in order at the circus.
I tend not to pay for a license, but decided that this challenge was hard enough without that complication so the first port of call after checking in with Gaelan Bayle was coughing up 5,000. Then Biff went back to the Slums to oversee a transfer of control at the Copper Coronet.
Biff was travelling to Watcher's Keep when the Suna Seni ambush triggered - a bit of buffing followed by web and chaos set them up for the kill.
Back in Athkatla Biff went to solve the skinner murders - pulling the Rune Assassins upstairs as usual. They proved to be immune to paralysation despite the text here,
Going back to the Promenade Biff came across Salia and a couple of thieves. One of those dropped a find familiar scroll that he gratefully used to get some extra HPs. Mencar's group was next in the inn - web and ghoul touch ensuring that Brennan wouldn't be running away.
Sorcerer L12, 68 HPs (incl. 12 from familiar), 170 kills (+239 in BG1)
Level 4 spells
Stoneskin
Removes the threat of the big critical in BG1.
Spirit armour
Provides both an AC improvement and better save vs spells.
Greater malison
Improves prospects for disabling opponents both in and out of combat.
Fireshield (Red)
Offers some protection against spell attacks and the opportunity for enemies to kill themselves.
Fireshield (Blue)
Offers some protection against spell attacks and more opportunity for enemies to kill themselves!