Children of Fire (DISCONTINUED)
Moonheart
Member Posts: 520
I had a lengthy debate about the Dragon Disciple a few days ago on this forum, asking why people tend to underate this kit.
Naturaly, it has fewer spell per day than the regular Sorcerer, and most of its passive abilities are either:
- looking irrelevant for a spellcaster
- possible to obtain through spells
However, I still think that if you play the game without knowing the encounters you'll have to face even before facing them, and if you exploit its strength the right way, it's a great class.
Some could not agree, but I have played both a regular Sorcerer and a Dragon Disciple, and the experience have been as pleasant with the two of them.
The following playthrough thread is going to make you share my experience with the Dragon Disciple, its pro, its cons... and show how you can build a truly original party using the underated strengths of a kit.
I'm starting it over so I can refresh my mind on many things... This playthrough spoil the game content, so be warned before your read
Naturaly, it has fewer spell per day than the regular Sorcerer, and most of its passive abilities are either:
- looking irrelevant for a spellcaster
- possible to obtain through spells
However, I still think that if you play the game without knowing the encounters you'll have to face even before facing them, and if you exploit its strength the right way, it's a great class.
Some could not agree, but I have played both a regular Sorcerer and a Dragon Disciple, and the experience have been as pleasant with the two of them.
The following playthrough thread is going to make you share my experience with the Dragon Disciple, its pro, its cons... and show how you can build a truly original party using the underated strengths of a kit.
I'm starting it over so I can refresh my mind on many things... This playthrough spoil the game content, so be warned before your read
Post edited by Moonheart on
7
Comments
There are times like you would like the entire world burn. Time like when you're jailed in a cage, getting tortured by a madman for now understandable reason... yes, times like that
Straight out of the cage, the first thing to do it to reconfigure Imoen's spellbook. She needs a lot of Fireballs, and a tad more of Stoneskin ready, even if the Dragon Disciple will be the tank of the two, first because he endures well to be hit by the Fireball, and because fully buffed he has an AC of -9, which is amazing for the start of the game (Spectral Armor + Blur + Dragon Disciple AC bonus)
The Dragon Disciple being able to tank everything with such AC, the tactic is going to be quite simple: Send the main character forward of Imoen, and have then both throw Fireballs at everything that moves... The fire immunity of the DD is not perfect yet, but the Mirror Image will soak some explosion, and the other will have their damage cut to 25% due to good save and fire resistance.
Imoen has to be kept a bit backward, so she doesn't get it by the blasts.
The dungeon is a joke to do with this tactic, has nothing will survive more than 2-3 fireballs except the Dragon Disciple, except some Mephits and the two Golems.
For them, a simple bashing with the staves work, since an AC-9 + Stoneskin + Mirror Image let them no hope to deal any damage to the main character. Mephits can have their lifes shortened with Magic Missile, still the Dragon Disciple needs to pick as soon as possible Skull Trap and Lower Resistance, as the next Golems are going to be a lot thougher. Mephits will stay a joke even without.
Jaheira and Minsc are to be left in cage for a time, since they are no use: if they would step forward in a fight to do something, they would just get utterly destroyed by the Fireballs. I'll free them once the dungeon is cleared, just before I get out of it.
Yoshimo will be sent to the Copper Coronet just after we encounter him.
-----------------
Starting attributes of a Dragon Disciple are more of less the same than an Sorcerer, and you'll find plenty of guide on how to create a good Sorcerer.
The only thing I'll emphase here is to keep you Dex as high as possible at every time: The Dragon Disciple has tendancies to tank a -lot- more than a Sorcere, due to its bonus to AC, and AC have increasing returns: the lower the AC is, the more 1 addition bonus point changes things.
Starting spell choices are a bit more interesting to look at: Besides the usual Magic Missile, Mirror Image and Stoneskin, for the same reason as evoked about the Dex attribute, a Dragon Disciple make a good use of Blur and Spectral Armor (even if Stoneskin is still a priority over this one).
Also, for obvious reasons, Fireball is the key damage spell of a Dragon Disciple... just because, the Dragon Disciple will end immune to fire damage, so the Fireball become the best low-level damage spell of the game for him
Strangely enough, it felt that the Dragon Disciple had MORE spells than a Sorcerer during that first dungeon, simply because Fireball needs less casts to clear a room than anything else at this spell level. The fewer spells per days cannot be felt at all.
This dungeon is cleared very fast as we kill 3-4 ennemies at once each time, and the looting takes the major part of the time before the party get out. Don't forget to free Jaheira and Minsc before stepping outside, we could need them later
When you already feel like getting a pyromanical streak, nothing is worst than seeing the man you hate the most getting out of your reach, abducting your sister in the process... Someone has to burn for this... Several ones, to be fair... no matter who
So we got our dear sister abducted... I will never understand why we just didn't throw a fireball in those wizards, so they bring us with her and we could protect her from Irenicus, instead of stay idle and watching.
However... back to business: Jaheira and Minsc are to be sent wait somewhere else immediatly, has they won't suit the Dragon Disciple playstyle.
Since the story points us quickly to Madeen in the government district, we could go for it immediatly: it will end to obtain the mage stronghold, a great place to store items and rush romances.
Just the time to speak to everyone, grab Valygar with us, and bring him back to the Planar Sphere, and it's time to say him to wait at the entrace while the Dragon Disciple clear this other dungeon solo.
The basic tactic of the Dragon Disciple "I tank with superior AC and Stoneskin while I blast everything at point-blank range" still works well agains the Halflings Warrior, but you'll have to quickly learn the trick to synchronize your casts with the ones of the ennemies, has interrupting all of them at each round is the difference between a win or get hit by a maze and lose. (Another thing misprogrammed in BG2: Maze provoke an immediate gameover if you're running solo... why? You won't be harmed by it, and you'll be back in no time)
Golems are to be killed after casting all your Lower Resistances on them, then throwing Skull Traps and Magic Missiles at them. The Mirror Image can intercept some Skull Trap damage, so the Dragon Disciple takes more damage than with Fireballs, but the Golems are immune to Fire Damage, so it is needed to get a bit out of the way
Elementals are... a joke. Seriously, they want to compete with you AC-9, protective spells -while- doing fire damage your're resistance to? Seriously, activate the IA, and go grab a coffee while the Dragon Disciple has fun crushing their skulls with his wooden staff.
Lorvak is the opportunity to use a new spell you should probably pick: Farsight
You normaly don't care with a standard Sorcerer, but with Farsight and using the huge blast radius of the Fireball you can hit ennemies while staying out of range of their own spells, and as Lorvak won't get down the stairs, you can litteraly unload all your stock of Fireballs on hit without allowing him to do anything. After that, it takes very little more to bring his hp to 0.
Mephits are not much more a threat than fire elementals, but since them come in number, you can just throw Skull Traps at them, it make things faster... and finaly Tanaris are to be treated as Golems.
Finaly, you can use the Farsight tactic to blast the two wizards too.
If you're devious, you can even set a few Skull Traps at a small distance before them before you throw your first Fireball, so once they try to approach to aim their spell at you, they will trigger them and destroy their own lives... that's a pretty handy tactic I used a lot of time later, and it will improve with time.
I kept the Gift of Peace, Hand of Takkok and Ring of Insight... and sold the extra loot to buy the Robe of Vecna. Yup, that dungeon earns a lot. Robe of Vecna after the 2nd dungeon, not bad at all.
-----------------
This dungeon is a good sample to show that the Dragon Disciple still need for some regular Sorcerer tactics in case the bruteforce fireball tactic doesn't work.
Thinking otherwise would be stupid, the point of the Dragon Disciple is that he can scorch a lot of ennemies much more simply than a Sorcerer will do, not that he can complete BG2 only using Fireballs
However, this dungeon is not truly difficult once you use the right tactics at the right time. The fewer spells per day of the DD just need you to be more precise with your aim will skull traps, but you should be fine with all golems and Tanaris anyway
As a new spell, Sunfire is a great use for the Dragon Disciple, because I intend to play in a party, and you'll see soon enough why the Dragon Disciple make a better use of this spell than a regular Sorcerer.
To love to burn living, and even not-living, beings does not mean you appreciate others to do it. Especialy when the only reason which justify that is the way you are born... It could be related to the fact you've been judged and tracked just for being the son of an evil deity... or it could be related to the fact that siding with the one on the wooden pile give more targets to burn...
It's time for us to diversify, and for that, what can be better than a companion of a whole different class?
I didn't take Jaheira and Minsc because of the friendly fire of Fireballs and Sunfire... but there is someone that will withstand those quite well: Viconia.
As a drow, Viconia comes with some magic resistance. 65% in her case, which means that straight out of the box, she cancels the damage of 65% dealt to her by the blasts of Fireballs and Sunfires (Skull Traps too).
But 65% is not enough: Gives her the Gift of Peace looted in the Planar Sphere, make a quick jump to Umar Hills to get the Shield of Lost after a few choosen dialogs, and she's now at 70% magic resistance and 20% fire resistance.
But this is still not enough for me, so I send my Dragon Disciple speak to the lord in the Copper Coronet to get access to Whisperhills.
The two starting ambushs are laughtables as you just have to tank and throw fireballs to clear it. Same for the start of the dungeon. The goal here is to reach the Rukh Transmuter.
This one will send you kamikazes who... well explose at us doing fire damage?
lol... my main character is a fucking dragon-blooded sorcerer, find better.
The Rukh Transmuter is immute to both fire and magic damage so... well... what?
I tank him with my Dragon Disciple while Viconia just hits him from behind... mm it works but... too slow... time for a little novelty: Tenser Transformation
The Dragon Disciple has now not only an AC of -14 but also 166hp and a TACH0 of 4, which is better than what any melee character can do at this level. Bye Transmuter!
AC -14 in the third dungeon of the game is something that is almost impossible for any other class than the Dragon Disciple. It just render most melee opponents of this level powerless... Viconia pales in comparaison, but I didn't take her in for tanking anyway.
She gets the Ballista's Passport of the Transmuter's loot and now have a fire resistance of 60% and can withstand the blast a LOT better. If it's not enough, she can cast Resist Fire and Cold on herself
Now Viconia is a true Children of Fire, fightning with a smile under a constant rain of fire, time to improve her melee.
She already got the Hand of Takkok from the Planar Sphere, so now, I'm taking a bit of time to romance her (resting in the Planar Sphere then getting out for a love talk, rince, repeat until completion), which gives her a nice +3 poisonning mace.
She also need a better armor, since I had been needed to cast Spectral Armor on her from the start, and for that, I bring her to give a little help to our local wild mage: Neera
The Wild Forest would be an annoying place if Viconia was not here to tank things, summoning sometimes a Skeleton Warrior or two, but with her, there is no true problem... I even used Tenser Transformation to speed things, even if those Wild Surges make that annoying
What we are aiming for is the Thayan Enclave, which has a lot of "Knights" with shinny armors.
There is no new tactic here: Have Viconia cast Resist Fire and Cold, and Neera and the Dragon Disciple just blast everything... this tactics works so well here that I used brute force and took on a group of 12 thayans at once, without Viconia needing more and to drink one single healing potion.
Yay! A Plate of the Dark +1! Who cares?
Viccy is going to get better with the help of Neera: Once she has the Robes of Goodman Hayes, I buy her the scroll of Limited Wish at the Adventurer's Mart and have it cast it using Nahal's Reckless Deowmer (well after I asked her politely to do it a bit farther from us)
The first wish "I want to be rich" reimbursed the scroll, the second wish "I want a powerful magic item" earned a Full Plate Mail +2 for my new Child of Fire... yeepee. And goodbye Neera... for now.
I stored the Plate of the Dark +1 and also the robes of the thayan witch in my Mage Stronghold too. A good fire resistance robe could find an use...
-----------------
I have now a party of two characters highly resistant to fire blasts of all kinds.
With an AC of only -9 and lower hp (about 60 when my Dragon Disciple has 63), Viconia is not as good as a tank than my Dragon Disciple is, but with her +3 Mace, she does some damage, helps a lot to dispatch fire-immune faster and reduce the need for the main character to use melee protection buffs.
Skeleton Warriors are... almost useless outside the Wild Forest simply because they turn hostile when they don't resist the Fireballs. If I want to thin the ranks of enemies between engagement, the Farsight + Trap + Fireball works better.
Viconia has are anti-level drain buffs and healing spells, which are more useful spells by far in that playthrough. She will earn more with levels.
Burn things clear the mind. Yes, it does. And with clarity comes plans. Plans of revenges... which is supposedly better served cold....
Seriously, who is the dumbass who told something like that? Revenge is always better served very very very hot
This is now a good time to get back on the topic of our beloved sister Imoen, as the best items I could wish for at this point, to introduce the third Child of Fire into the party, are in the Chapter 4
But first, there are 3 things I want to do before I leave Akathla:
- Get some Boots of Speed, because I'm such a haste freak
- Get the Shield of Baldurian, because it will make things sooooo simplier at some points of the rescue
- Wrap up Yoshimo's quest... because, well... you know..
I decided to start with the boots, just a matter of taste, but anyway, time to pay a visit to the Five Flagons and hear Raelis request before heading to the sewer.
While I'm there, I grab the Cloak of the Sewers for Viconia, she will never have enough AC.
The thug fight is not hard at all for my Dragon Disciple, but a bit more for the little drowess, since some enemies hit hard and fast. Thus, I played prudently useing the Farsight tactic:
- Pinpoint the exact placement of the thugs with a Farsight
- Lay Skull Traps before them
- Throw a Fireball
- Finish them with Sunfires
Nice and clean, Viconia had not time to suffer any noticeable wound
Once Hear'Dalis free, back to the Five Flagons and up to the Planar prison.... oops, did I forgot to buff before jumping in?
Well... it was not even needed: as soon the ambush talk over, I spam Sunfires and everyone ends in some nice little piles of ashes. Woot. I never passed this ambush this easily, I must say.
The whole Planar Prison is not really hard, except there is a lot of hard-hitting thing, and that despite of her nice full plate, Viconia is no match to them. So my Dragon Disciple take care of the tanking... Skull Traps are needed for the Master of Thralls and the Efreeti, otherwise, the true challenge of the dunheon is the Greate Werewolf
That damn thing just regenerate too fast, and I regret to not have bring Neera with me. I had to use Viconia, freshly equipped with the Boots of Cheetah to kite it around while I layed a pack of Skull Trap, then debuff him with Lower Resistance, before luring him in.
The Warden itself was quite easy: His spells protections are useless against Fireball and Sunfire, so, once again, all is in the timing of casting, to interrupt the opponent spells.
Well, I say easy because I did play a Dragon Disciple before, and I'm used to time casts... but really the first time I had to hit on him with this class, it has been quite tricky to do, as he has some really short casts like Power word: Stun... all is in the training, really
Viconia scored not only the Boots of Cheetah, but also a Second Arm, and I used the other loot to make money and buy her a Girdle of Hill Giant Strength to replace the Hands of Takkok so she would be able to use it. It pumped her melee DPS quite nicely
Once done, I was still lacking money for the Shield of Balduran and the fee for Imoen's Rescue... so, time to get on Yoshimo's quest.
Difficulty? None.
The Wizard house is full of things we know how to deal with: mephits, golems, and a spellcaster, which at some point succeed to raise a Globe of Invulnerability, which is an annoying spell.... but you know what? The Dragon Disciple's Breath pass completly through this protection, and finished him
The rogues are just no match to the brute force method, and we scorched the whole Mae'Vir guild house from Antics to Underground with ease... that was even easier that with the Thayan Enclave, honest
The reward and loot allowed to buy the Shield of Balduran, so we only had the fee left to pay... so, why not do Edwin and Kagain quests too, since they are just behind the ones of Yoshimo?
The Tombs proved to be as simple as most dungeon, with only the Lich as a difficulty, since it appear to be immune to level 6 or less.
I was holding the level up of my Dragon Disciple since a moment, so I picked Delayed Fireball... and killed it in two well-aimed 2 casts.
We're set now. Time to pay a visit to Bodhi or Galen.
-----------------
The 7h spell level is where the true shenaningans starts with a Dragon Disicple.
It has a LOT interesting spells, that's why I was holding the level up until I could decide the first to take. The lich helped me with this.
- Delayed Fireball
It's a 15d6 Fireball that can be used to lay traps with Farsight, in place of Skull Traps against non-fire immune foes. It's a great spell for this playthrough, you can litteraly blast of a whole party of foes as soon they take a step forward.
- Spell Sequensor
It allows to start a fight with 3 immediate Fireballs, for a total of 30d6 damage in the same round once. It just kill any fight of this level which doesn't include fire or magic resistant ennemies
- Project Image
Combine it with FarSight and the Dragon Disciple can send copy of itself that will unload the whole stock of Fireballs and Sunfires it has, for free, safely, before the true Dragon Disciple enters the battleground himself. Nice to thin the ennemy ranks at 0 risk... and the only problem is that you need to wait it wears off when the projection happens to kill everything alone before you can move the party again, which is not rare.
This is the only reason why I don't use it more often when playing a DD, in fact.
I naturally intend to take them all, a Dragon Disciple never have enough shenaningans to play with fire spells.
Speaking of Shenaningans, playing a DD also quickly learn you to aim the Fireballs to the ennemies do not get hit only once with them, but twice.
That's how the lich of the Lower Tombs died in 2 casts: 4 hits at 15d6 hurts a lot when you are not immune. During that time my little Viconia lost only 10hp from those blasts... talk about an unfair fight...
For the lower spell levels, I didn't see anything vital to take anymore in the last level ups, so I picked Contingency and Remove Magic, so I can build a safety : Contringency > Helpless > Remove magic
It allows the Dragon Disciple to have a second chance if he didn't time his casts well enough and allowed the opponents to it him with a crowd control magic.
But... well... I'm so used to interrupt everything that my contingency didn't trigger once so far.
The fire is something that comes to inhabit you. It makes a house inside your guts, inside your mind. It makes you feel its urge. But as far it gets you hurried, you still have sometimes to deal with harsh, ground-level, realities.
Like money...
Seems I overrated the recent incomes in gold given by the quests, since I do not have exactly 15.000 gold yet.
I tried to fix that by doing quick milescaneous quest in the Graveyard, the Bridge and Umar hills, but those little quest definitely get to long to build a descent outcome, so I'm out for an addition dungeon.
I choosed Nalia's quest, as it will net two little improvements for Viconia: a Ring of Earth Control, and an alternative +3 weapon.
The de' Arnise keep is kinda too easy for my Children of Fire now. Viconia soloed almost everything in that dungeon, except the Iron Golem, the pack of Umber Hulks and TorGal... my Dragon Disciple only casted some Acid Arrows to finish the random trolls, but honestly, Viconia is perhaps not a great fighter, but with a AC-10 and the Handmaiden mace, trolls and yuan-ti of the keep are just no match for her.
The Iron Golem has been taking care the the usual method: Cast the physical protections, tank while you hammer it with Lower Resistance, then finish it with Skull Trap.
I didn't try to melee it with Tenser, has my weapon is not able to deal any damage to that kind of Golem.
For the Umber Hulk, I made Viconia stand in a doorway, so they couldn't hit her all at once, and blasted them to death.
TorGal tasted a bit of my "improved trap tactic": Farsight, lay 2 Delayed Fireball, lay 6 Skull Traps, pull the main target with Lower Resistance.
The traps alas triggered poorly, resulting of only a few blast truly hitting the targets, but neverless the two Giant Trolls reach instantly the "Near Dead" status, and TorGal got just Barely injuried.... Two Sunfires later, TorGal alone was left, poisoned by Viconia's weapon, and took just 3 Acid Arrow to finish
Considering how many problems this boss have caused in my previous playthrough, this is a nice result
-----------------
The Handmaiden mace made a rampage in this dungeon, proving to be even better that the freshly earned Fail of Ages +3: Simply put, if an ennemy fails it save when hit, the poison, which ticks really quickly, ravage its hp in no time, and completly shut down any attempt of spellcasting.
The Delayed Fireball make a nice addition to the trap tactic, as expected... but I'll need a bit more training to lay the traps so they do a maximum damage to several targets: the problem is they explode as soon the first target reach them, and often when the other targets are still out of their blast radius.
TorGal's fight would probably have been even shorter if I didn't put them all in front of the middle boss, but aligned them like a kind of wall: something to remember for other fights where I'll use this tactic.
The two characters earned a level, so I have a new level 7 to pick, but I'll hold the choice for later.
I'm also supposed to pick a level 5 spell, but I don't see anything looking useful anymore at this spell level...
Breach would have been an automatic pick on a regular Sorcerer, but I see no use for it in my current strategies... if anyone has suggestions, I'll be glad to hear them
Does the undead burn better? I've been sometimes wondering it... Good thing is, I'm going to have a great opportunity to run a scientifical experiment on the topic. Not that it truly need a reason to burn idiots
So, it's now the true time to strike back, and it start by going to talk with Galen.
I've chosen to side with the shadow thieves, only because vampires seems to be a funnier challenge.
Any rogue I've crossed so far was just utterly crushed by the most brutal tactics I have in my sleeve: let Viconia rush in the pack and throw Fireballs at her, without a single buff on. That's not even barely interesting at this point... I wish to experiment new things, and have a reason to pick my 2nd level 7 spell.
Viconia earned the Amulet of Power, raising her magical resistance to 75% and making her immune to level drain, which will be useful... no doubt
I could have used the anti-silence bonus on my Dragon Disciple, but once again... that's not like if my opponents often succeed to cast anything once I start to scorch the battlefield.
My Dragon Disciple took the Gard's Ring +2 for himself, since it is no use for Viccy due to her shiny Full Plate +2. Once again: thanks Neera. You won't be forgotten...
Anyway, after some random easy tasks, let's hit the Lower Tomb again. We're going to roast some bloodsuckers.
After the easiness which I burned everything in the de' Arnise Keep, I'm growing impatient to find some challenge: The bruteforce tactics works so well now with Viconia in the party that I have not even an inch of difficulty in sight until I find Bodhi
If I have hold my spells in the Keep, I'm not in the vampire lair, as I which to reach that new opponent as fast as possible.
Just before I reach her, Viconia gains a level, so I decide for a stop in order to take both hers and my Dragon Disciple's... which in fact gained two, and allowed me to pick an additionnal level 5,6,7 and 8 and finaly gives him the final 100% fire resistance
And since this little playthrough start to lack of true challenges, I step into Bodhi's dialogue without a single buff on me...
The first spell I urge to use is my first level 8 spell: I,cendiary Cloud, and this is exactly the first thing I cast at her. However, I suddently remember seeing the combat log that she is also magic resistant, so I throw a Lower Resistance just after.
Viconia is perhaps quite well equiped, she cannot hold Bodhi long, and I force her to retreat in the corridor to heal herself... which makes naturaly Bodhi turn against my Dragon Disciple since Viconia is too fast due to her Boots of the Cheetah
No problem: I took as a new level 6 spell one of the most common bread-and-butter Sorcerer spell: Protection against Magic Weapons, which buys me a few rounds, even if Bodhi drains me two levels before I succeed to cast it... I won't be able to cast my 2nd Incendiary Cloud -sigh-, but I still have enough levels to throw two more Lower Resistance at her, which makes that the first Incendiary Cloud is now draining her life nicely.
When Viconia comes back, with her full hit points, I step back just a little to make Bodhi change target, and spam my Delayed Fireballs... and Bodhi gives up and flee.
Time to return to see the Shadowmaster and wrap down the chapter 3.
There was 3 dialogues earning a given amount of xp per character during this chapter, and for each one, I grabed some extra characters since it won't slow down the growth of my two Children of Fire. That's 4 potential future Children of Fire who earned 100.000xp for free each.
I naturaly disband them after that and take a trip to the Mage Stronghold to take every stocked items that could serve me during Chapter 4: The Robe of the Invoker (20% fire resist), the Staff of Air +2, the Ring of Danger Sense (+20 detect traps and the Wooden Hors Necklace (-2 AC) for Imoen, and the Shield of Balduran just because it's funny to see the Beholders kill themselves with their own rays
And... let's grab Yoshimi (just because) before we jump on the boat prepared for us.
---------------------------
I'm going to speed up a bit the story, because I think that everyone who would have read this playthrough has now understand how I deal with 95% of the encounters: I let Viconia's IA make her rush into the fray, with no buff on any of the Children, and I spam fire spells... using sometimes a Lower Resistance or a Skull Trap to deal with specific ennemy resistances
This is what I call the "Bruteforce tactic", basically a pure offensive way to dispose of weaklings
And since it would be quite boring to always describe that kind of fight, I'll now pass on any fight that get easily won with this tactic to speak only of the interesting and challenging ones instead.
This is where I love the Dragon Disciple kit: it makes the life sooooo simple against most of basic encounters, and even some half-bosses. No buffs, no aiming, no complicated matter. Just make everything in sight burn
My new spells are:
- level 5: Breach
Well, that's just in case someone bother me too much with Protection from Elements. But honestly, so far, only two spellcasters succeeded to active it (and that was due to a contingency) and I've destroyed them utterly neverless (because even if you divide damage by 4, if you can't cast a spell without being interrupted as a mage, you're bound to end as a little pile of ashes neverless)...
So it's more for safety purposes
- level 6: Protection from Magic Weapon
No need to talk much about that one, any serious BG2 player know his value. And it proved useful against Bodhi
- level 7: Project Image
I've talked about that one, it allows some funny tactics, and I urge to find a good opportunity to use it. It was not possible with Bodhi because I was under the Incendiary Cloud which would have automaticaly dissipated the Image...
- level 8: Incendiary Cloud
This is the best attack spell for our Children of Fire party.
Seriously... 10 rounds of 16d4 damage which interrupt each round on a very large radius? That's like telling me I need only to cast once per encounter... something I'll probably do a lot as part of the bruteforce tactic from now.
I make a short break in this playthrough to thanks the people who read my little playthrough.
I was not really sure if it would interest some people when I started to write it, and the "likes" were a pleasant surprise to me.
If you want to leave me a feedback, ask some questions or suggest improvements, feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message.
May the Fire be with you!
I don't know what SCS would have changed about it, however.
Each time I hear to speak about it, it seems like the main thing it does is to improve the spell tactics of the opponents... which is pointless when you can't cast a single spell without being interrupted.
I would have certainly give it a try if I could, because most fights are indeed easy.... but there still plently of interesting content to cover anyway, so let's get to chapter 4 for now
Does Imoen feels the fire inside her like I do? Does she consume from inside for a thrist of vengeance? She always has been the kindest of the two of us. Her absence allowed the fire within me to grow, to mature. I will not walk back, but I'll take her back... my vengeance is finaly at hand, and someone is going to get a well-deserved personnal hell
Going fast forward through the pirate town, the Children of Fire reach the depts of the Asylum.
I had a little regret to not have Minsc with me, simply because the dialog where he helps us to convaince the Pirate King we're completly nuts is priceless... but he doesn't have a place in the current strategies.
Bodhi's Gauntlet is easy for the most part, but Viconia reached twice her limits as a tank within it: once against the Greater Werewolf of the pits, and the second time against a pack of undead including two Greater Mumies needing 4 rounds of fireballs to kill, and hitting our drowess for about 40 damage almost at each attack!
I had to send my Project Image tanking with all it's spell protections on while the Incendiary Clouds did the job, which make me think I delayed too much the best spell pick I could get to screw up hard-hitting monsters... I just over-estimated how long Viconia would do be able to tank things with all her pretty items... so, when my Dragon hits the level 17 soon after acquiering his slayer form, I fix this as a priority.
This makes that I'm pretty well prepared when I reach the third "hard" encounter: The named Illithid hidden the paitings of the 2nd level
I tested with Viconia to check, but as I thought, that brain-sucker just obliterated her through intelligence-draining.... so I forced her to retreat and summoned a Mordenkenain's Sword to tank him.
The Sword just destroyed him utterly and I didn't have to lower his magic resistance or cast a since fire spell at him to make him eat the ground.
I used the mithral tokens to buy a new pair of Boots of the Cheetah, which wil allow my Dragon Disciple to move as fast as Viconia. Another handy little item... not even mentioning the long-waited Bag of Holding grabbed at the 1st level of the dungeon
-----------------
The Mordenkainen's Sword is by far the best summon for our Children of Fire, for two reasons:
1- It's pretty fucking immune to any kind of damage except magical damage
This means that not only it is not going to be destroyed by our fire blasts but also that it can tank anything since it completly neutralize physical damage as well, which is a huge improvement compared to Viconia's tanking
2- It's mindless
This means it's pretty immune to all control spells and to Mind Flayer's brain sucking (since it has an intelligence of 0), but also that it never turns hostile and out of control under the pretext it was hit by a friendly AoE spell
(NB: Normaly, Skeleton Warriors are supposed to be mindless too and Fire elemental summons should not turn hostile when hit by a fireball because they are supposed to see fire damage spells like healing spells... but BG2 does not implement very well the finest lines of the D&D2 rules, so they actualy does, and thus, are unusable in my current strategies as well)
The magical sword's AI alas is still stupid enough to set its own summoner as the current attack target if he hits it with an AoE damage spell and it doesn't have an attack target already, but it stay under control, so if it happens, we just have to give it a different order.
This spell should end the difficulties with all hard-hitting monsters than can survive more than 2 rounds of scorching.
As a new level 8 spell, I picked Horrid Wilthing which is a bread and butter spell for any Sorcerer, Dragon Disciple included.
As I said earlier, not everything solves with explosions of fire, and we didn't get a replacement to kick fire-immune foes since the spell level 3 and Skull Trap, so it's more than time we update that before we land on a huge fire-immune foe and regret it.
Incendiary is still a better damage spell against everything else, but Viconia still lacks a bit of magical resistance to withstand it without an anti-fire buff, so I'm holding that spell for encounters that cannot be dealt by bruteforce, and will probably cast Horrid Wilthing instead during bruteforce fights until she gets her last items.
You should probably try SCS some time when you have a chance to. I don't like difficulty enhancements myself, and I never use them, as I don't find it fun to make the game harder, but most of the hard core no-reloaders around here base their powergaming arguments and ideas on the assumption that SCS is being used, and they won't accept non-SCS runs as proving anything.
Also, I don't think they'd deny that completing an SCS run with a dragon disciple is completely doable. I think they would just say that doing it that way is *harder* than with a pure sorcerer. But you have a good point too, that your DD way is fun for you, and can succeed just as often at an SCS no-reload as a sorcerer, given your vast metaknowledge of the game.
You seem to be having a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying reading about how to use a dragon disciple with fireballs tactic to go through the game.
AoE tactics relies on a mix of protection gear and timing to interrupt spellcasters and don't let them pester you with their own spells. It's quite simple, and efficient. And it would work with a Sorcerer too, like I'm going to explain it in the "after-thoughts" of a next sequence.
Some mages have weird ideas, that someone with more common sense would immediatly see as ridiculous... Ideas like "I've removed the soul from a psychopathic pyromaniac born of Murder itself so now there is no need to worry about him anymore".
Any peasant would ask "Will not soul make him even more dangerous?". And the answer would be naturaly "Yes. A -LOT- more."
Time to confront Irenicus in his lab.
When my auto-pause halted the game after a dialog, I wondered how to deal with this fight.. but it turned to be simplier that expected.
I wished to try to kill Irenicus without wounder the bunch of crazies I've somewhat convainced to help me, so I timed an Horrid Wilthing with Irenicus first casting round.
This interrupted his own Horrid Wilthing and killed every clone he spawned previously, as well as dealing him a good chuck of damage.
2 round of Horrid Wilthin later, he was fleeing the fight.
The only hard thing in that fight turned to be how to keep Imoen out of the little backstabbers who spawned after that, so I could blast them of with some fireball.
A little anti-climactic, but well... it's time to dive to the underdark, things are going to increase in difficulty progressively.
Anyway, time to get out of this island, and I'll leave it by boat, just because there it will allow me to get some nice little extra items in the City of Cavern.
About anyone who have played this part once knows what I seeking withing it: the Cloak of Mirroring, that will, all by itself, allow me to include a new Child of Fire, since it litteraly immunize the wearer against all spell damage.
For now, let's Imoen wear it, until we can find perhaps a better Child.
At least, our sister know to cast a few Fireballs... but there is just some people outside that will do better it better than her.
All the fights of the City, including the king's one, have been resolved the same way: let Viconia charge, use Incendiary Cloud, then Mordenkanein's Sword, send the sword tank instead of Viconia, let everyone inside the cloud die from those two nasty spells.
I had to reload in the City because the Prince stupidly walked in the Incendiary Cloud at the end of the fight.... geez... so I blocked him with the bodies of my Children after the reload and everyone ends happy happy... well... except for the ones who are dead.
-----------------
The Cloak of Mirroring is just like a cheat mode all by itself.
It is, in my eyes, the most powerful item of all BG2: Not only you don't take any damage from the AoE spell cast by others while you wear it, but you don't even get interrupted by those spells
I don't give it to Viconia because she's going to end to do the same when she'll reach 100% magic resistance: Resisted spells don't interrupt you either, but it is going to be a great item to turn another melee character into a Child of Fire... for now, it will give a bit of protection to Imoen against my Dragon Disciple's fire spell.
She just need to not hit herself with her own fireballs, and she's almost a true Child of Fire herself.
On a side note: I make Viconia prepare some Sweet Airs, so I can stop and Incendiary Clouds. It make gain some time since you can't save or rest as long a cloud effect is in activity, and the Incendiary Clouds kills way faster than they wear off.
The Underdark is quite a dark place... well... usualy... It is lot less a dark places when a bunch of crazies come and shoot fire spells at every corner.
After depleteing the 3 elementals portals and killing a bunch of Kuo-Ta, my Dragon hits finaly the level 9 spells. Time to enter the big one's field!
Also, there is no immediate challenge requiering my two new spells, as the next ennemies all fall down to the Incendiary Clouds and the Magical Sword's, even drows, despite of their magical resistance.
I also gave temporarily a Drow Full Plate +5 to Viconia, that can't hurt her, and her usual armor get stocked in my Bag of Holding.
The thee notable fights of the area are the Balor, the Lich and Vithal.
The Balor still don't requier much effort, it's a fiend, so immune to fire, so I just summon 5 swords and let them hack it into piece.
The Lich died just to usual tactics: Blast Blast Blast
Vithal on the other hand...
The problem with this mage is that he combines:
- the only protection spell that works against AoE (Mirror Image)
- Contingency to prevent me to interrupt him when he puts this spell on himself
- Time Stop which makes the the two round it buys with the images is enough for him to do 3 rounds worth of spell
- Imprisonments
That's a dreadful combination if you don't come prepared with Spell Immunity: Abjuration.
... alas, I'm trying to play it fair and never buff before a fight if my party is not supposed to know this fight is about to happen.
So no Spell Immunity, I need to find a way to break his combo while completly off-guard
I chose to ask help to Imoen which is usualy not doing much: I make her use an Oracle scroll which strip Vithal of his protection, and have my Dragon Disciple blast his face to interrupt his Time Stop.
The next rounds are a piece of cake.
That's the first time I'm forced to use a consumable (the potion of Viconia in the Thayan Enclave doesn't count: I could have win without it), and it make me think I really need someone able to cast a True Sight in the party.... but also, it gives us here a valuable lesson: A good Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple always have a handful scroll cases full of every spell he can't naturaly cast in his inventory
And my Dragon Disicple have three. Named "blue", "white" and "red" depending of the color of the scrolls they hold... which is why Vithal died today.
-----------------
I'm not using that Project Image much and regreted here to have took it instead of True Sight.
The ideal list of level 7 spells for my strategies should have been, by order of priority:
- Mordenkanein's Sword
- Delayed Fireball
- True Sight
... well a bit too late for regrets, but I'll manage as soon I get other spellcaster in the party. For now, I'm going to buy some scrolls of Freedom, just in case.
So far, I didn't use the new level 9 spells I got:
- Improved Alacrity
This is a wonderful spell, and I prefer it to Time Stop for two reasons: First, you can successfuly cast 40 spells in two rounds of time with it, if you wear the robe of Vecna and do not use level 8 spells. Second, at the difference of Time Stop, there is no ennemy immune to it.
On the other side, you can be interrupted after you cast it, so you have to be a bit more careful than with Time Stop
- Chain Contingency
Another automated safety there, I like them. It makes me able to put more anti-crowd control spells on a "Helpless" condition, so if anyone suceed to crowd control my Dragon Disciple, he's automaticaly freed.
But everything comes in time, we are still not even at half of the chapters
I do not know who is this "Adalon", but seeing how those gnomes talk of her, I better try to find an escape route before. I do not trust beings that could turn bad simply because you don't call them "lady"... There are several tunnels I need to explore before I get back to the stairs leading in her place.
The Illithid City is really nothing to be scared about. Illithids are only dangerous when you don't understand their nature: they are psionics, brain-suckers.... they are scary only if you -have- a brain.
My Magical Swords don't have any, so they are enough to clear allllll the place, with no opposition. Any mage having trouble with Mind Flayers should try this once.
In the depth of this city, we foung on the Ring of Fire Control, one of the items I wanted the most in this chapter. I give it to Imoen, and also give her the Ballista's Passeport Viconia is wearing, which, with her robe, gives her a total Fire Immunity.
This way, I can give the Cloak of Mirroring to Viconia, and none of the party members can now be harmed by our explosions
The Master Brain gives up as easily as everything, and only its Brain Golem need something else that my summons, since they are immune to their damage: Viconia kills the three together, and lose 4hp doing so.
The Beholder Den should be as much a piece of cake, since we have bring the bane of those creatures: The Shield of Balduran.
In fact, there is only one ennemy that is to be feared among beholders are Elder Eyes, which are able to cast spells, and among them, not the least, Imprisonement, which can remove the shield bearer from the fight.
Alas, one of them awaits just at the entrance. And to make things more complicated, the Beholder with him focus my Dragon Disciple with his rays, making him unable to cast any spell except the first which has to be a spell with a casting time 1.
On my previous uses of the Dragon Diciple, I was not that wanting to play it fair, and just buffed up before the fight... but as with Vithal, I now try to not cast a since buff before a fight my party is not supposed to know coming.
So... I do have a little problem: I must interrupt the Elder Eye or he'll Imprison Viconia. To do that, I must destroy his magic resistance first... and I must do that with my main char unable to cast more than one spell, that could die to a death ray, and Imoen that doesn't have the right spells prepared.
Honestly, that was the hardest fight so far.
I should have been able to clear it by casting Project Image, then have the image do the casting needed, but I discovered that in this place, having the Project Image cast Improved Alacrity, and the blast, made my game crash 100% of the time.
Not even mentionning that Project Image stupidly trigger my Contingencies (the caster is considered as helpless due to not being able to act from his own spell... another poor implementation from BG2), sending dispells everywhere, and sometimes dispelling my own image...
After a few tries, I had to give up on this tactic using precisely the spell I was counting the most to deal with such situations.
So... how to get out of this mess without buffing before the fight?
I can't even reliably use my Project Image to do a few spells without Improved Alacrity due to my Contingencies... well, I do can cancel them first... but what a waste... why do the "helpless" triggers on a Project Image? This is not supposed to work this way in D&D2 rules...
"Helpless" triggers on a Project Image... "Helpless" triggers on a Project Image... no... don't tell me that something like that exists? Such a stupidly insane combo?
I change my Contingency spells and give it a try.
My Dragon Disciple immediatly cast Project Image, which cast Improved Alacrity, and 2 Lower Resistance on the Elder Eyes... and then the helpless condition makes my Contingencies triggers:
- Contingency release a Sunburst that hits the two Beholders...
- Chain Contingency release 3 Incendiary Clouds on the room !!!
Unable to cast anything, scorched by the true hell released on the place, the Beholder turns into two piles of Ash. Woot!
The Den is truly a no match after that, since Viconia is completly immune to normal Beholders, and the Mind Flayers are dispatched with a Mordenkanein's Sword as usual.... I cannot resist to use the same Project Image + Contingency on the last Elder Eye, that's just so fun to deal such an insane amount of damage with an almost perfectly controlled trigger.
-----------------
Trying to play "fair" with the game only led me to discover a new shenaningan (that I'll refer as the "Fire Image trick" from now) for our Children of Fire, and I'm going to enjoy to use it against any encounter that requiers a strong burst.
Naturaly, people could tell me that I could simply use the "Ennemy on Sight" condition, but this is like cheating for me, because you need to know what's coming to make that condition useful. If you land on a battle with neutral/friendly NPC with such Contingencies on, you just kill them all.
Putting the "helpless" condition and using the Project Image to trigger gives us a lot more control and if we fear that in a fight with allies, someone would succeed to render your char helpless, you can always dispel your contingencies as a first action during the said fight.
Time Stop can almost do the same, but the Fire Image trick cannot be interrupted like Time Stop due to having a lot shorted cast duration, and does with a simple level 7 charge what Time Stop does in one level 9 charge + 3 level 8 charges, plus it create a clone with his own spell pool in addition. All in the same round.
If you like Time Stop so much, make the clone cast it => Double prejudice.
I'm holding a level up since the Illithid City, because I do not know which level 8 and 9 pick.
Project Image turned to have great use, but play with a Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple instead of a mage requiers to be really careful with your level ups, as you can't change a wrong spell pick once it's done
After all, we go to see this "Adalon", which is, in fact, an anoying one, as expected. More or less, that pretended "good" dragon does let us any choice but to serve her to recover the eggs she stupidly lost to Irenicus.
How something that stupidly powerful as a dragon can get her own eggs stolent like nothing? Neverless, we are not playing slaves for that dragon, and after that slaves for the drow... someone will have to pay that new bill
The drow city hold no real challenge for our Children of Fire, but some fun battles, like the egg room and its 5 golems, which are best lured in a corner with a Mordenkainen's Sword while Viconia hits them in the back, or the Je'llat House which is another battle like the Thayan Enclave were AoE spells shines
I've counted 12 Je'llat Guards and 3 uniques members of the Je'llat lineage, and lured them all with Viconia in the entrace room... just after I turned that room into a new hell using my Fire Image.
The Magical Swords then tanked the most of them while the Incendiary Clouds rampaged their health points
You don't have ofthen the opportunity to fight against 15 opponents in that game, so it war always a pleasure to do so.
I had the opportunity to wait for my illusionary appearance to wear off and kill the whole drow outpost, but honestly, the drows are not a really fun challenge for most of them, so I've gotten out in time before Adalon's spell wear off... but not without forgetting to free the slaves and buy the 10% magic resistance amulet which improved Viconia's total MR to 80% and allowed me to put the Amulet of Power on my Dragon Disciple.
Before I return her eggs to Adalon, I've decided to tackle the children of Demogorgon in the Western Tunnels.
This was a fun challenge since the Demon Knights are quite hard to tank: they hit hard, level drain, and has one of the few spells that can kill a Mordenkainen's Sword (Powerword: Kill, another thing that doesn't seems make sense to me regarding the original D&D2 rules, because you can't kill what is not alive, and a sword it surely not alive, but well)
I've decided to find a new shenaningan for them... and improvised a new strategy:
Using Farsight to see where those Demon Knights are, I cast a Project Image out of their range (wasting my Contingencies, but I can reactive them after)... this image then starts to summon sword, sending each of them as soon they appear.
When the Image gets depleted, I send it too so it gets killed, which allow me to make another Project Image, creating a new batch of Mordenkainen's Swords
The Demon Knights destroyed eleven swords before they got overwhelmed by the constant flow, and hacked into pieces.
I've decided to call this shenaningan the "Unlimited Blade Works" strategy.
Because I thought that in that situation, Imoen would protest, I renounced to bring the Dragon Eggs to the surface so I can do an omlet with them and bought them back to Adalon, even if I certainly do not need her help to get out... at least, the xp reward is nice.
-----------------
The "Unlimited Blade Works" strategy is another dreadful combo that can completly destroy the ranks of opponents providing the right circumstances which are:
- you must be able to stay out of range
- the ennemy most not be able to cast Death Spell, which is almost the only spell that can decimate the swords
Counting that those damned swords are allmost imune to anything else, it's very doubtful to encounter many opponents that can stop the flow providing you have those two conditions met
I'm still holding my levels ups (2 of them) on my Dragon Disciple due to not having a single idea yet to what to do with the next levels.... nor needing them currently...
I used Improved Alacrity only once so far...
I'm rather hurried to get on the surface to get more member into the party than picking more level 9 spells.
Viconia has also hit her "epic" levels, so I have the right to pick one HLA for her... but the Cleric HLAs are a low less powerful than the Mage ones... I have taken "Aura of Flaming Death", because if it is not more useful than the other HLA, at least, it's fitting the theme of the party.
Now I reached the Chapter 6, I have enough items to incorporate two new Childen of Fire, and even if I have my own ideas on the topic, I would like to hear the opinion of people who are reading the playthrough.
What are the companions that you would recruit at this point?
We are going to need one additionnal spellcaster, which can be anyone except Nalia, because the spellcaster is going to need to wear the Ballista's Passeport and the Ring of Fire Control to reach 100% fire resistance, and she can't remove her family ring.
We are going to need one more melee character, that will recieve the Cloak of Mirroring.
Alignement is not restricted. We could think that Viconia would protest, but there is another character with magic resistance which is now at hand: Rasaad.
So we can build either a good or an evil party.
So I'm curious... before I reveal my plans, what would you pick if you had to do a Children of Fire party?
If some arguments seems appealing enough, I could even change my plans a bit...
An afterthought passed in my mind when I was about to step out of the underdark... why exactly am I acting so nice to a fucking lezard that lied to us pretending we could not get out of the underdark without her help, when all that was needed was to pass two obvious doors, and crush a few weaklings, and thus made us lose a precious time that could cause our deaths for her own interest?
And that, in addition, would stop to keep the drows in check, letting them free to help my worst ennemy, in despite of what is supposed to be her duty?
As the anger bursted into me, I turned back, firmly decided to lose a few more minutes to make her pay her treasons.
Well, I don't know if some people keep reading the playtrhough... but let's make like if...
I had to return a bit backward in my saves, because I noticed that, unfortunatly, Adalon disappear from the game after you got her eggs back... and since I was wanting to test how far my children of fire could go, that was not something suitable to let pass what some guides describe as the "hardest dragon of BG2" !
So, let's rewind a bit and hit on that good Adalon...
I've decided to take my leftover levels for this fight, even if I'm not really sure it was needed.
The first thing to do was to turn Adalon hostile so I could use my Fire Image trick on her, AND to do so, I casted Improved Alacrity, then Magic Missile, Project Image and then Time Stop, in this order.
By the time my Dragon Disciple achieved to cast the Time Stop, the Magic Missiles reached their target, turning her red.
As soon the Time Stop became active, the contingencies triggered in their turn, even if all the spells activated by it were frozen in time. I immediatly make the image cast Improved Alacrity, and used my new Spell Trigger to chain 3 Lower Resistance on the Dragon, then I summoned 5 Mordenkanein's Sword to tank the beast.
I had still enough time to cast more spells before the end of the Time Stop rounds, so I used it to cast some Fireballs, aiming behind Adalon, so they would detonate after the Lower Resistances hit her, the time started to flow again.... and the battlefield turned into a true havoc: That's not every day you see 3 Lower Resistance, 3 Incendiary Clouds, and 5 Fireballs detonate while 5 Mordenkenain's Sword charge into the Fray
Adalon felt into "Badly Injured" almost immediatly, even in the swords seemed unable to hit her... alas, she used Wing Buffet to repulse the said swords, and by the time I managed to return them to melee range she healed herself at full hit points...
I started to answer by adding more Incendiary Clouds, renewing 2 swords that she managed to destroy I don't really know how (the spam in the combat log was just crazy at that time). She felt to the "Badly Injured" again and used Wing Buffed once more, and healed herself once more.... but not without falling to Nearly Death this time.
The Incendiary Cloud being still all active (and my poor tablet lagging so horribly due to being enable to manage so many effects at once), I casted another Improved Alacrity started to spam Delayed Fireballs to hasten the process... at the time she used her third Wing Buffet, she died to the extreme hammering of my Dragon Disciple's fire spells... I did not even had to send Viconia or call for Imoen's help.
Alas, the item I was hoping the most for didn't appear in the loot: no Silver Dragon scales for us. Only Silver Dragon Blood.
Out of curiosity I reloaded once to see if her loot would be different if I killed her in the her elven form during the short time between her teleportation to the exit, and the time she decided to teleport out after the little team of drow guarding it died... it was not... but I decided to keep this last reload as it both gave me the 78.000 xp per character for the egg quest, and the extra 54.000xp for the party her kill is worth... plus the Silver Dragon blood that could be useful later.
Still, it was almost even harder to kill her like that, because in her Elven form, as soon you attack her, she attempt to flee using her Dimensional Door, which mean you have between one or two rounds only to drop her hitpoint from 100% to 0%, which is a true test of firepower.
-----------------
More or less, cumulating my Fire Image trick and my Unlimited Blade Work strategy just crushed one of the thoughest dragon without letting him do a single point of damage to my party.
It was alas, more or less expected. A lot of strong-looking ennemies are a lot less strong once you know their weakness...
Adalon was Silver Dragon, thus, normaly immune to cold, but not to fire. Her magic resistance is easy to destroy with a simple Spell Trigger casting 3 Lower Resistance for a total of -90% magic resistance, and no matter how strong you are in melee, Mordenkainen's Swords just don't care.
Knowing the opponent resistance, and the type of attack the same opponent can do, you can almost always build a strategy leaving it no chance of victory if you can prepare yourself correctly.
Chapter 6 - part 1: The fourth Child
It is time I think I pay a visit to some old friend, as opposition keep growing. I trust my previous companions a lot more than this "Drizzt" that just offer his help out of nowhere... and I specialy trust a woman for had her beloved husband killed, and his cadaver used as an experiment plaything for willing to kill Irenicus as much as Imoen and I do.
Time for a party increase!
I had asked opinion about the next Children of Fire, but didn't recieve any, and didn't want to delay my playthrough any longer, so I'm going the way I formerly intended and go fetch everyone's prefered blonde half-elf to the docks where she have been waiting since the first chapter of the game.
Then, it's time for some gear improvements:
- Jaheira recieve the Cloak of Mirroring as a fire protection, the +3 scimitar I found in the drow city as a weapon, the Armor of the Heart +3, Helm of Balduran and Shield of Balduran for her AC, and finaly the second pair of Boots of the Cheetah because a melee make a better use of it than a spellcaster like my Dragon Disciple.
- For Imoen, I pay Crowell a visit and make him reforge the Gesen Bow, so she will have something to do in battle when I actually don't need her abilities as a second spellcaster
- For Viconia, I buy the Helm of Vailhor, give her back the Cloak of the Sewer she can wear again since Jaheira took the Cloak of Mirroring, and then make a trip to Umar Hills so I can make Fael craft the Human Flesh Armor +5 before I finaly kill this jerk. With this armore, Viconia loose a noticeabl amount of AC, but in compensation, she finaly reach the 100% magic resistance that make her immune to most spells of the game
I'm sad that Adalon doesn't drop Silver Dragon Scales, so I could have given Viconia both the 100% MR and a good AC, but I guess I'll have to wait for ToB for that. Until then, I'll program her IA so she will cast her Aura of Flamming Death for the +4AC bonus
Now, it's time to tackle Jaheira romance, so I'll have romanced every interested female character... you know, for completionism sake... and because Jaheira is truly the most interesting lover of the lot... and because the Harper Pin is one of the best amulet of the game.
The quests were rather easy at such level, but I had to pay 2100 gold to the temple to raise my reputation to 14 (16 if I temporary let Viconia in the mage Stronghold) so Elminster will finaly give the pin to Jaheira.
Darwin Awards #431: Accept to be teleported as reinforcements before a very angry Child of Fire that just finished to cast Improved Alacrity
-----------------
I have now a party of four people, my Dragon Disciple doing most of the casting.
An interesting point is that 3 of my party member are also immune to Lightning Bolts: Viconia due to magic resistance, Jaheira due to the Harper Pin, and my protagonist because of the Cloak of Reflexion.
With a bit of work, I could probably make 4 members immune to it, but I'm not hurried because anyway, there are, sadly, only a few lightning spells in this game... still it's good to have options: I can safely it ennemy with fire, magic, and lightning damage, to deal with specific immunités
So... why not go for more fire resistance items, so I could some item swapping?
I want to test how much Firekraag resist to the Children of Fire compared to Adalon
Time is running close, but I keep my urge under control: Bodhi and Irenicus already escaped my wrath twice each, and I do not want a third time.... So, before I go under that damned blood-sucker in her lair once again, there are a few bills I want to get paid... For exemple, the one of Lord Firekraag which tricked me earlier into slaughtering knights of Windspear Hills.
Is he in league with my ennemy? I don't know, but I intend to discover it, and make sure he will never mess with us again
Yup, we're going to tackle another dragon. And of the worst kind for the Children of Fire: a RED dragon.
All dragons are naturaly using a breath, and an immunity, relative to their color. Red is the color of fire. Thus, red dragons, at the difference of Adalon who was silver (cold), are immune to fire.
This means no Fireball, no Incendiary Cloud, even after their magical resistance is destroyed.
Firekraag's dungeon is rather a fun one, with however very few difficulties for my party...
Adamantine Golems are quite resistant to damage, but cannot do anything to Mordenkainen's Swords... did I mention how much this summon is powerful? Yes? I did?
Be prepared to see me say it again later, because nobody could tell it enough enough times. Well, once the golems are busy trying to kill what they can't kill, Imoen alone is enough to dispach them with her infinite lightning arrows
Imoen's daily training to archery... know your enemy, and you often can turn him to be no more a threat than an immobile target
Vampires and Werewolfs are about the same, but with a bit more of magic: send a Mordenkanein's Sword, two Incendiary Cloud, and let the fire purify all.
I canceled my usual Chain Contingency to prepare a new one with 3 Horrid Wiltings, rested and then made Imoen turn Firekraad hostile with a Magic Missile while my protagonist casted, in order: Project Image, Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, Spell Trigger (Lower Resistance x3), Greater Malison, Horrid Wilting x5, Mordenkanein's Sword x5, then Skull Traps
Viconia and Jaheira stayed back, they cannot take a dragon in melee, but as with Adalon, it was not needed anyway... even if I was worried to the less amount of damage Horrid Within does on the long run compared to Incendiary Cloud, this dragon has visibly less hitpoints and healing powers than Adalon and died almost to the first wave of spells.
If you tune down the difficulty to Core Rules, Firekraag doesn't even have the hitpoints to survive the Time Stop and the 5 basic Horrid Wiltings, and die without having the ability to attempt a single attack... that's how weaker he is compared to Adalon
Neverless, this dungeon provided me Red Dragon Scales, that Cromwell turned into a Red Dragon Armor (AC-1, 50% fire resistance) and a Dragon Shield (AC+3, 25% Fire Resistance), so I bought the Helm of Brillance (40% fire resistance) from the Adventurer Mart, and I have now a full outfit for a new melee Child of Fire in the party... which will make 5 of them
-----------------
The only problem of the Children of Fire is currently the AC scores.
Because the items are selected so they can fight on a battlefield scorched by a mad Dragon Disciple and not only based on defensive scores, Viconia sits to an AC -7, and Jaheira will have about the same if she equips the combo Red Dragon Armore + Helm of Brillance + Dragon Shield
This is a rather mid AC for this time of the game... to compare, my Dragon Disciple holds an AC -9 due to his class bonus (a regular Sorcerer would be -4, like Imoen actualy does)
Granted, when you can send Mordenkanein's Sword on the ennemies, you do not need much melee defense however... but still, I'll try to improved that a bit with time.
Now I must elect a new melee character as a Child of Fire, and the choice becomes harder because no one compare to Jaheira with her combo of Fighter extra attacks, THAC0, Iron skins, Harper Pin and overall involvement into the main story.
Let me make a little review of the possible fighter-like characters:
The very bad ones:
Cernd is just outperformed by everyone in melee, transformed or not, and if I need druid spells someday, Jaheira have them
Keldorn and Valygar just can't stand besides Viconia
Hexaat and Jan are thiefs... and Imoen does that job, and non-thief are more efficient in melee
The passable ones:
Amoen, Mazzy, Dorn and Keldorn are all good strikers that would do the job, but none are very deeply involved in the story nor have any theme-related perks ... plus, ??? outperform them all in ToB
The good one I won't take with me:
The only problem with Haer'Dalis is that he's very buff-dependant, making that the IA is unable to play it efficiently.
Micro-managed, he's one of the most powerful tank of the game combinating Defensive Spin, Stoneskin, Miror Image and some other defensive caster-only spells, but honestly, if the ennemy is hard enough to making me do a true character management, I'd rather concentrate on making my protagonist annihilate everything in sight with his offensive spells in a blink of eye. Other fights, I prefer fighters that the IA can make work at 90% of their efficiency without me having to interfere.
Too bad, because a 25% native fire resistance is interesting for our party theme...
The really good ones:
Minsc is so fun, and efficient, and deeply plot-involved... that there is no reason he couldn't become a Child of Fire
Rasaad is certainly also amazing, despite of have close to none plot-involvement: He has theme-related perks like Flaming Fist and Greater Sun, hits hard, pack a LOT of AC due to his class bonuses and come with an innate movement speed improvement that will make him able to match the speed of Viconia and Jaheira
So... basically, I feel like I have to choose between:
- A plot-involved really fun character (Minsc)
- A theme-relate power tank character (Rasaad)
As always, you are welcome to let me know what you think of them, and which you would prefer.
Ok, I wanted to the part introducing the 5th Children of Fire, Rasaad, but I cannot due to a severe bug I'm discussing here...
So, to kill time and do something useful until I can figure a solution, I sent my Children of Fire do some miscellaneous unmarked quests around... I didn't think it would contain anything worth writing about, but I was wrong: there is at least one interesting fight I came across.
This happened into the inn of the City Gates, by the secret door of the first floor... which lead to a lich that I can't remember to have fought before.
Naturaly, as always, I'm walking around without any special buff or preparation, so when that lich immediatly turned hostile, I had to improvise.
Liches are usualy dangerous ennemies, and even more scripted ones, which usualy got a special attention from the devs... so I've decided to start with the strongest strategy I have in my sleeve: the Fire Image.
I successfuly summoned the Project Image, and then a Time Stop... and here is what I saw in the combat log:
Ouch! That hurts!
In a blink, using both a Chain Contingency and a Spell Trigger, before I stopped the time, the lich raised 5 spells buffs that almost make her immune to everything I can throw at her:
- Improved Mantle will prevent my companion to deal any damage since no one is wearing a +4 weapon
- Protection from Fire + Fire Shield (red) render the lich completly immune to all my fire spells
- Globe of Invulnerability will cancel any spell that is not at least level 5, so Skull Trap and Magic Missiles won't work
- Mirror Image will probably cancel any remaining AoE, including the very last spell I have that could have damaged it: Horrid Wilthing
So... basically, in 0.1s, that lich sent a huge slap in my face, letting me wonder "Ok, how can I get out of that mess?".
This is the first enemy that I see that is able to pull out a decent defense, much more decent that anything I've seen so far.... it make me think of Vithal, we encountered in the Underdark.
And this is where this Achille's Heel of this defense resides: I've learnt from Vithal's fight.
Did you notice what is my quickslot bar? Yup, that's a scroll of True Sight.
That's a little trick I have hidden on my previous screenshot, waiting for an opportunity to show you another good side of the Project Image spell: It copies every scroll you have in your quickslot bar, allowing you to cast the spell without losing the original scroll
Yup. You've got it. I still haven't learned the True Sight spell, yet, I'm able to cast it at will through the Project Image spell, and this is why the lich is going to be spoiled of its Mirror Image, leaving a blind spot in its almost perfect defense.
During the Time Stop, I walk a few step back (so I won't be interrupted by the Incendiary Cloud my Fire Image triggered), then I cast in order: True Sight (scroll), Improved Alacrity, Spell Trigger (Lower Resistance x3... well I don't have checked this one has some magic resistance, but I don't want any bad surprise), then every Horrid Wilthin I can.... the time resume before I can send them all due to the round I lost with the True Sight scroll, but neverless, the lich cannot cast it's next spells and then die to the last casts of Horrid Wilthing
Not good enough, Lich !
-----------------
I've emphased on the topic that when you play a class like the Sorcerer and its kit, you need to always have full scroll cases in your inventory previously, but this prove again how important it is.
One of the limitation of the class is that it is limited in the number of spell it knows... however, since spells like Project Image and Simulacrum are copying scrolls of your quickslot bar (which is stupid and should not happen, but BG2 screw us on the topic of D&D rules more than often that I'm not going to complain when it advantage us), this limitation in fact doesn't truly exist.
A Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple can cast any spell he wants. There is no such limitation in BG2, just a different management.
Well, still, I'm not fond to use this trick. I'm usualy fine with my truly learned spells, I just should have taken True Sight earlier, but this is such a niche spell in my tactics, that I feel it would be a waste... especialy since I'm going to get an item who does it for free a bit later.
Also why does a lich have globe of inv as a buff, they are immune to 5th lvl spells and below anyway, and globes do not protect against dispel/remove magic.
Fantastic read, very thematic and fun!
Anyway, I don't remember my protagonist got hit by a control magic even once, so it was a truly useless pick... Don't know myself.
The 5th level immunity is a pain however, because it prevent me to use breach and remove his protections against fire.... not that it mattered much at the end. Thank you!!!
Firekraag out of the picture, I must now focus to gather as much power I can so Bodhi will fall for good this time. On the way back to Akhatla, I walked by Trademeet to witness a strange scene with some monk fightning.
Viconia seemed to know the man who won the fight, which triggered my interest...
This time I found a way to get around the bug, so it's time to recruit Rasaad for good.
I equipeed it with all good items I have that other melee won't miss:
- Rose Ioun Stone (+1AC cumulative, that others don't use because they wear helmets)
- Guard's Ring (+2AC non-cumulative, that others can't use due to their magical armors)
- Edventar's Gift (Freedom of Movement, which cancel the effect of the Boots of the Cheetah, but Rasaad don't need any, so there is no drawback on him)
- and our Cloak of Mirroring
I also give back the Hands of Takkok to Viconia, so Rasaad can have one of the belts of Giant Strength and keep his native +2 THAC0 bracers
Despite of that, the AC of Rasaad is not overwhelming straight out of the box: only -4
The reason is that Rasaad is only level 13. He would be at -9 if it was already at Viconia's level and -13 by level 30, just using dump items... this is why he is good, but requiers a bit of time to be made efficient
For now, I keep Viconia at the most forward member of our formation.
Rasaad's quest is fun when Viconia is in the part, once you worked around her bug at the amphiteather, it was worth to seek for one.
There is only one true fight in that quest, in which I couldn't use my fire spells, to avoid to kill the allies at the same time as the ennemies... a little Time Stop, a little Improved Alacrity, and then a simply spamming Horrid Wilting closed the matter
Well, it is a chapter 2 quest, after all, but we have now a 5th member
(... and also a trinket casting True Sight once per day, it could be useful)
-----------------
I have picked Rasaad finaly over Minsc, so I'm going to explain a bit why:
First, Rasaad, as you saw, can use a lot of items that other melee don't
Second, and this is the most important reason, I seriously doubt I'll find enough anti-fire items right now to gear a sixth Children of Fire.
Rasaad however, has his magical resistance which will raise with his levels. By level 30, he will have 90% native resistance, and will not need the Cloak of Mirroring anymore, so, even if it's very very very late in the game, there is a chance we could recruit a 6h that will be inexistant if I pick Minsc over him
Minsc's banters will be missed, but Viconia and Rasaad have some good line together, and as far as I know, despite of their antagonism, they will never fight each other, by respect over the main protagonist... that's good to feel you can bring peace
Now that my party is complete until ToB, it's more than time to tackle all the quest I have left to do to make everyone raise in level... and I'm going to start with some that allow me to get on an interesting challenge
Scoring more magical items I could use against those damned Irenicus and Bodhi are my priority within the time I have left before the battle. I suddently remember that a priest of Helm asked some help against reward when we have gone to the Temple District the last time...
It's time to start working on havesting some part of Kargaax's body !
And naturaly, a good start is to speak to him in his hideout, then go for the Eyeless Cult quest.
I refused that Keldorn join temporary our party for 2 reasons:
1- We need all the xp
2- He can't stand Viconia more than 5mn
We don't need him at all anyway. Most of the dungeon goes the same way than de' Arnise keep: melee are well equiped enough to storm the place, only letting the AI do, and only requiering me a few interventions... one time in the undead town, because 12 opponent at a same time is a lot, and it includes a lich, a second time against the group of blind priest withing the Eyeless' lair
The two times, throwing a few Incendiary Cloud without even Improved Alacrity was all that was needed
Naturaly, Viconia weared the Shield of Balduran do shut down every Beholder we crossed... I just like so much see ennemies kill themselves stupidly
Once the quest cleared, and before recieving the reward to the temple of Helm, we pay naturaly a visit to the Shade Lich, since it is the true reason we are here for after all...
It is a simple fight compared to the lich I've fought during the time I was seeking a solution for Viconia's bug... she doesn't use a Fire Protection, nor Mirror Image, so after using my Fire Image, all was left was to see her get slowly burned, while being unable to cast anything...
I'm going to say it one more time: A partial fire immunity will never save you against Incendiary Clouds, because if you can't cast a single spell, the only thing it does is to make your death slower
-----------------
At this point of the game, I do not truly need Imoen's casting abilities. My Dragon Disciple can do everything alone, so giving her the Gesen Bow was a really good idea.
It allows me to let the IA take care of all the "lowly peons" unworthy of my sacred fires
I made all the quest, without resting once.
I have made Viconia heal between the fights, so my Dragon Disciple only casted a few spells. Seeing how my Fire Image dealt with the Shade Lich, I could have also skipped the rest before that fight
Ok, little disclamer: LOTS of screeshots incoming, because that battle was really worth it
This is time for us to hit on Kargaax, but first, we need tor recover the last part of its body. This is not truly a surprising battle that the one of the Elemental Lich, in fact, as soon I saw her buff sequence, I felt in known ground:
Does it ring a bell? Yes, those are exactly the same buffs than the ones of the lich of the inn by the City Gates... and thus, it deserve the same treatment: During the Time Stop, use out new tinket for True Seeing and shred its Mirror Image, then spam Horrid Wilthings:
Incendiary Clouds interrupt its spells, and Horrid Wiltings ravage its health point... Two cast later, the Lich die, leaving behind the last part we need to pay a visit to the big boss.
The first step in Kargaax's fight is truly underwelming... in fact, the Elemental Lich knew better how to protect itself:
No protection from fire? You gotta kidding me... my Fire Image is going to kick your ass big time.
I add a few cast with the image to end Kargaax's unlife. And naturaly, her reborns to his demi-lich form
Demi-lichs are much more problematic opponents than Lich, because if Lichs are immune to 5th and lower level spells... Demi-licks are immune to all spells.
Which really is a problem when you attempt to solo it with a spellcaster.
Yes, because I'm going to try to solo that one. Just because it's funnier this way, and because only Immoen wear a +4 weapon anyway.
I summon another Project Image, then Time Stop, then surrend the demi-lich with 5 Mordenkanein's Swords
Everything was doing well, I draw the attention of the Lich on my image protected by Spell Immunity: Abjuration, so the swords can hack it into pieces... However, I suddently have a realy huge surprise:
I just exploded in laughter when I understood just just suceeded to terrorize a demi-lich so badly that I forced it to flee in panic !!!
... but that laughter was short, when I realized that fleeing allowed the lich to escape my swords, and regenerate. After half-an hour of battle, seriously, I did ran after that damned floating skull during almost 30mn ! Kargaax succeeded to deplete all my image, spells and summons, recovered from its moral failure, and destroyed my party.
Ok, need a break there. And find a way to prevent that demi-lich to flee me.
So, after a break, and some tactical thinking, and some shopping to the Adventurer Mart to get more scrolls of Free-doom, I'm back.
The first part of the fight doesn't change... well, why I would change something that works?
I surround the demi-lich with my swords, but that one suddently kill my image with his howling, so I have to summon another, use a Freedom scroll to liberated the sword it imprisonned, and summon two others to bring the count to 5.
It cast a second howling, which kills again 3 of tem...
No matter, I'll keep going one, making always sure my image which protected itself once more with Spell Immunity: Abjuration is the closest from it, so it soak all the Imprisonnements
The life is almost not going down, the lich regenerates almost as fast as the swords cut its health point... the time run, when I see this:
Yup, my summon outlived their duration and start to unsommon... am I in trouble?
Eh, didn't I told you earlier I did some tactical thinking?
It's time for me to remember who is fightning the lich: not a simple Sorcerer, but a Child of Fire. A Dragon Disciple
Are you seeing it coming? The time where I screw one of the most powerful opponent of this game with a largely under-rated ability that all old players say "useless" ?
Here we go:
Ah, yes my friends. I know. The Dragon Breath spell does more damage... how many times did I heard that?
But a Dragon Disciple's Breath Weapon has one good thing for a spellcaster: It is -not- a spell
Not a spell, like in a demi-lich immunity doesn't work against it
The skull melts under the fire breath and the scream of the demi-lich fades as he realizes he utterly failed despite of all it's taunting.
The Children of Fire prevailed once more...
-----------------
The original strategy I came with for this battle supposed in fact two use of the Breath Weapon.
To do that, I was planning to keep Kargaax busy with my Mordenkainen's Sword, bringing them back from Imprisonment with my Freedom scroll until they start to unsummon themselves
Mordenkanein's Swords have a duration only a little shorter than the Project Image, so that would have been the signal showing my Project Image would be about to fade, freeing my real character... so I would have been able to cast in a row one Breath Weapon from the Image, then one other from my main character
Alas, Kargaxx killed the first Image with his howling, unsynchronizing the Project Image from the Mordenkanein's Sword, and I had to restore it... it resulted that the swords chucked more of his hp than planned.
I got scared that the demilich start to panic once more and screw my effort, but it only resulted into the first cast of the Breath Weapon killing my opponent, so I didn't had the opportunity to show you the full strategy...
Anyway, that was a fun battle, and Kargaax's Ring is a wonderful item that I immediatly gave to Viconia. As a result, she got a magic resistance of 110, which allowed me to replace definitively her Shield of the Lost for the Shield of Balduran, and switch the +10% amulet from the underdark with the +5% from the Unseeing Eye quest.
She earn 3 more AC in the process, and the +10% amulet has been given to Rasaad to pump is own magic resistance a bit higher, and the old regeneration ring she had was given to Jaheira, resulting in an improvement on all my 3 front liners.
I do like Win-Win item switches
And since today I feel like I didn't clash enough of the biggest challenge of the game... why don't add the Twisted Rune to the hunting board?
It turned that the fight with that group was in fact a lot easier than the one with Kargaax, even if also a lot more messy.
I ran into their lair without any buff, any plan... and immediatly started on of my favorite strategy: Project Image (Fire image), Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, and flood the place with additionnal Incendiary Clouds.
The Beholder, the fighter and the vampire immediatly died at the end of the Time Stop. Leaving me with the two high level spellcasters Layene and Shangalar...
My Image was dispelled I don't exactly seen how, so I summoned another one, with another Time Stop, and added a few Incendiary Clouds more centered on the positions of those two...
... and then Layene sucessfuly caster Time Stop.
I thought I would run into some trouble at this point of the fight... until I saw what spells she decided to cast during her 3 free rounds:
LOL, ok miss. You're attacking the Children of Fire with a fire spell, and by summoning a fiend that usualy spend more time throwing Fireballs than charging into melee... you completly wasted your opportunity here.
Shalander died shortly after the end of Layene's Time Stop due to the Incendiary Clouds, and I counter-attacked by another Time Stop myself. However, since Layene seemed to have protected herself against fire at the start of the fight who was so confuse I didn't notice when she did it, I used that one to cast a series of Horrid Wiltings that ended her life
... which let me with her summoned fiend, which is a creature both magic resistant, and immune to fire... so, instead of losing my time waiting the Project Image to dispel itself so I could cast more Horrid Wilting after destroying his magic resistance, I decided to clear the menace with whatever spells my image had left.
Hopefuly, this included 4 level 7 spells, enough to surround the monster with Mordenkanein's Swords
A few moment after, the fiend was nothing more than a lot of little bit of sliced meat on the ground...
-----------------
This was the very first time I did that fight. In all my previous playthough, I've missed it, not knowing it was here.
I had heard so much about it that I expected more, but in fact, the AoE tactics I use most of the time are just too perfectly suited to deal with that kind of encounter... so they died at the very first try, even if my actions where totaly improvised and chaotic.
Kinda disappointing, but at the same time, I'm proud of my Children...
Sadly, I'm starting to run out of decent enemies... what is left?
Ah, yes, there is a black dragon somewhere... well let see how good he can do compared to Adalon or Firekraag
Among thing that I had left unachieved in my hurry to get my sister back, there is that weird story I heard about in Umar Hills. Not that I owe anything to this people... but where problems are, rewards are often too. So we decided to get a trip there, and see if it has something for us
Like all chapter 2 quests, most of the dungeon can be done only by letting my companion charge into the fray and kill anything in sight.
My protagonist only helped once using an Incendiary Cloud to dispatch the pack including a lich...
Once before the Shadow Dragon, I decided to not use the Fire image, only because that trick only works when the enemy is already hostile.
Instead, I started immediatly with a Time Stop, Improved Alacrity, then my new HLA "Dragon Breath", and ended how many Incendiary Clouds I could fit.
I remembered too late that I forgot to use Lower Resistance, but it didn't change the outcome:
The shadow lord after that was a simple formality, I didn't even care do use Time Stop and just casted two Incendiary Clouds while my companions cleaned the remains
I've immediatly added a trip to the sewers after that to get the Hammer of Lightning, so I could ask to Cromwell to forge the Crom Faeyer, that Viconia would use in replacement to the lost Hands of Takkok and her old weapons
-----------------
Crom Feyr is an excellent weapon for Viconia which has only one weakness: her strength score
Naturaly, a plain warrior would do more damage with it, but I don't have a pure fighter in the party, so it'll fit her like a glove.
I'm feeling however that I'm lacking interesting items to harvest in the Chapter 6 anymore... I still have one thing in mind, a little surprise about the Children of Fire that I have kept secret so far, but I'm taking suggestions about what I should do before closing this chapter...
If none are given to me, I'll probably do a bit of stuff that I will not report in this playthrough, just for the xp, and then start back to write about when I start the Chapter 7.