@GreenWarlock unfortunately I don't think it's possible to do a pacifist run without any use of charm. If you want to justify it, I wouldn't have thought it unreasonable for a character that's been shunned by others all their life to resort to artificial means to get followers.
The best way to use charm on the dopplegangers at the palace is to charm them while they're noblemen in order to split the fight into easier bits. It's also worthwhile charming lots of the guards and nobles there - to give the dopplegangers more targets even if you're not attacking with them.
Almost any character can use wands of sleep, so that's another option (that has a 25% chance of affecting any particular doppleganger, so the chances are good of affecting something; rigid thinking only has a 15% chance of affecting one doppleganger and may not make any difference even if successful). For cleric spells chant should be useful (for the negatives it gives the dopplegangers rather than the usual positives for your party) and then there's healing spells for Belt of course.
Thanks - I probably won't have time to pick up this run for a few weeks yet, but I'll report back here how I get on. Hmm, suddenly wondering if there are useful cleric scrolls I can pick up and equip in advance? Perhaps a deep supply of curing for a duke may be enough to get me through?
@GreenWarlock there are very few clerical scrolls in BGEE (unlike SoD). The only ones that come immediately to mind are protection from lightning, mental domination and defensive harmony at Ulgoth's Beard.
@GreenWarlock there are very few clerical scrolls in BGEE (unlike SoD). The only ones that come immediately to mind are protection from lightning, mental domination and defensive harmony at Ulgoth's Beard.
And there are some in Durlags tower. Most notable are the ones by the 3 sparring dummies in the second level of the basement (as I recall). But the scrolls are mostly (exclusively?) buffing spells.
Thanks @StummvonBordwehr but there is a big problem with Durlag's tower - which is getting past the 4 aspects guarding the entrance in the basement. As I must kill them to proceed, that puts the lower levels of Durlag's out of bounds
Thanks @StummvonBordwehr but there is a big problem with Durlag's tower - which is getting past the 4 aspects guarding the entrance in the basement. As I must kill them to proceed, that puts the lower levels of Durlag's out of bounds
@GreenWarlock That is very true. I only go down to the second level for the goblet and kiels helmet.
The first level is manageble with complete fire and electricity protection, a huge stack of healing potions, the sand thief ring, greenstone amulet, potions of heroism and some potions of cloud giant strenght... I have next to no healing potions after the encounter (30-40 potions used in that level is not selvom).
But the goblet is worth it in my eyes, but then again I only play fighter types (who can wear helmers and have more than 1 apr each round..).
Assassin Still no joy for a long time, though there have been a couple of promising runs recently ended by bugs of one sort or another. Despite (or perhaps because of) the lack of success, I decided it was time to create some more starting characters. A first attempt with an assassin didn't get too far. I was up at level 6 when arriving in Nashkel for the first time. I'd noted reputation was at 4, which is high enough to avoid bounty hunters spawning, but had forgotten that the soldiers that patrol the area might go hostile. As I wasn't expecting trouble I didn't react instantly when they started shooting on my arrival - that proved costly when a critical hit exactly took my remaining 16 HPs just as I was running out of range.
Another indication of the need for a break when I had a 2nd go at an assassin a couple of months later. I got up to level 7 without much problem, but when following Korax round the basilisks I didn't check he was as close as possible before attacking one of those - that resulted in the basilisk turning to gaze at me when I attempted a backstab ...
A couple of more months and a 3rd attempt failed at the palace. A solo assassin there is going to struggle if he doesn't use cheesy tactics and he's unlucky - I didn't and I was. None of the 6 dopplegangers were scared by horror and all of them attacked the dukes instead of me - giving them no real chance.
A couple more months again and once more the palace proved my downfall. I was pretty unlucky once more and Belt died simultaneously with the last doppleganger attacking him.
Eight months later and I started another run. I think that was too soon after a long run with a shadowdancer though and I didn't feel like playing safe. I attempted to backstab Mulahey without using any spell protection and missed. I saved against a rigid thinking in response and successfully hit and poisoned him with a further attack. However, he ignored both the poison and a LMD while completing the casting of a hold person ...
Another 2 months and a 6th attempt failed before even getting to the Nashkel Mine. As usual I'd been taking a few risks, though nothing too extreme and everything had gone well up to just before reaching level 9. Attacking one of Narcillicus's mustard jellies I took another of those marginal risks - being aware that I was too far from the edge of the map, or somewhere to hide, to guarantee avoiding being attacked if I tried to break off combat. The jelly was badly wounded by a backstab, but its second attack was a critical hit for 32 damage that also slowed me. I ran for some rocks, but didn't quite make it before another attack came in - which was another critical attack for 28 damage (3 more than I had available).
An immediate follow-up to the previous run has at least got past Sarevok this time - for the first time I see, reviewing my previous entries on the assassin. Unfortunately I didn't get much further. For the Neothelid I carefully protected against charm with a potion of clarity and against hold with a ring of free action - but didn't protect against stun ...
Starting an 8th attempt shortly after the previous one didn't break my current poor run. I didn't move away quickly enough when stealth broke as I lined up a backstab on a golem in the pirate cave and a single critical hit was too much for me.
A month later and (after a couple of weeks not playing BG at all) I've started a 9th attempt. I still couldn't bring myself to stick to the safest options, but at least this time I've made it past Sarevok.
After a smooth run through SoD, Belhifet put up a better fight than usual and I had to use up 15 of my 20 restoration scrolls on Caelar to keep her going.
And another one fails very early in BG2. I was doing my usual thing of playing little games by aiming to complete all the encounters in the Promenade before leaving it. Unfortunately, while trying to set Brennan up for a backstab he went invisible and followed me downstairs and hit with a decent damage critical backstab. That did a total of 72 damage - and I only had 71 .
After completing a sorcerer I started a 10th run as an assassin thinking I should be taking particular care in order to try and get 2 successful runs in a row. That idea didn't last long though as I quickly slipped back into my normal routine. I was almost at the XP cap when going into the pirate cave and wasn't paying much attention - with the result that I tried walking through the hold person trap near one of the golems without wearing the ring of free action ...
A year later and I've been on a pretty awful run, with multiple character deaths early on over the last couple of weeks. This attempt with an assassin was no different. There was no problem getting to level 5, but I then tried to poison Greywolf with throwing daggers. Their relatively slow weapon speed means keeping enough distance can be a problem if you have poor initiative and Greywolf duly got an attack in - one-shotting my 36 HPs with a critical for 38.
Another five months and this class came up again for the 12th time. As usual I did more work than needed and took the odd risk, but managed to muddle through BGEE. At the palace I was a bit concerned when Liia died and several dopplegangers attacked Belt. To deal with them quicker I used a firebreath potion, but that ended up annoying the Flaming Fist. Not to worry though as, although the Fist get annoyed if you damage them the dukes don't. In fact with the dopplegangers dead, Belt set to work on the Fist.
Death arrived in SoD as a result of one of those small risks that I continued to take. On Boareskyr Bridge I successfully killed the mage without taking any damage. The 4 remaining guards were no threat - until I decided to take them on in melee. Two guards were killed at the cost of one hit on me, but the other two were both at near death and things seemed under control - and then I died. They had hit with simultaneous criticals and done just enough damage to finish me off ...
After a couple of months just playing a few wizard slayer runs, I successfully completed a cleric dualled to ranger this morning. Deciding to strike while the iron was hot I rolled for a random selection to start a new run immediately - but rolled a wizard slayer . I not only didn't fancy that, but also wanted to give myself a decent chance of 2 successes in a row - and the wizard slayer is one of the tougher propositions. Rolling again I got an assassin, nearly a year since the last attempt with this class, and have just completed BGEE. I was playing somewhat more safely than usual, though there were still a couple of nasty moments - like a movement error allowing a ghoul to get an attack in on me - but I survived. I played fair with Sarevok & co in the final battle this time, with potions of perception boosting my stealth capability to help land backstabs. Will that be the launch for a lucky 13th attempt with this class?
Still concentrating hard, I've managed to get through SoD safely. The final fight with Belhifet is always a bit nervy with a thief when trying to keep Caelar alive. The fatigue from using restoration scrolls means there's no fallback option if Caelar does die and the fight can take a fair while - as I'm not controlling Caelar she spends quite a bit of time fighting Belhifet's infinite summons. However, everything went to plan this time, so it's on to SoA.
But not on to ToB, thanks to more stupidity. I had done most of the chapter 2 and 3 work and was nearing the level cap, which meant decent HPs, critical hit protection and good saving throws. At that stage it's really only a bad mistake that would be likely to kill me and that came against Tolgerias. I was mucking about with him a bit anyway rather than just quickly killing him and saw him come up to try a maze. I could have run away or gone invisible to avoid that, but chose to attack him to disrupt the spell. The thinking behind that was that I could always use a PfM scroll to dispel the maze if necessary. However, I'd forgotten that I'd put those into store when my scroll case got filled and was left with no way back when Tolgerias ignored the damage to finish his spell.
Sorcerer Deciding to generate another character rather than restart the assassin, I rolled up a sorcerer. I've had lots of experience of those in BG1 and progress was pretty easy despite using almost no consumables. I did a lot more content than needed and, as a result, am not far off the SoD cap after seeing off Sarevok.
Edit: posting this reminds me I never got around to summoning a familiar for the HP boost - I must have absent-mindedly sold the scroll recovered from Nimbul. That will be an early thing to rectify in SoD. I successfully made it through SoD as well. The intention to try and hold Belhifet never got off the ground though. Two lower resistances took effect early on, but big B still resisted a malison. After that he used improved invisibility and I never managed to dispel that for long enough to try a hold. Annoyingly, Belhifet constantly ignored me in favor of attacking Caelar - meaning I didn't get the expected value from fire shield. However, scrolls of restoration kept Caelar going long enough to get the victory.
I got a decent distance through BG2 - up to level 21 having pretty much cleaned out Athkatla. I'd chosen to make virtually no use of summons though, which meant I was always a bit exposed in combat (particularly as a result of Kangaxx proving immortal and hanging onto his ring). Eventually a spot of carelessness caught up with me when invading the vampire guild, where I allowed a greater ghoul to get too close and was paralyzed.
Starting a 2nd attempt quickly I've gone past Sarevok. One slight change is that I missed having mirror image last time, so have taken that instead of Acid Arrow this time. Drat, another failure at the Coalition Camp and once more I'm not quite sure what happened. While I was fighting the third group of priests I was told the line had been breached. That might have been as a result of a confused or scared enemy though I didn't see who. I then used scorchers and potions of firebreath to kill all the attackers, but even with none of them left the camp still exploded.
After a while of doing other things I tried a quick 3rd attempt and succeeded - at being quick. Just a few minutes in I failed to initially target a carrion crawler with blind as it was coming towards me and then tried to do that when it was a bit too close without running back - it saved and an instant later got a paralyzing blow in as I tried to run.
Starting again the next day, I have at least completed BG1 despite the usual odd risk being taken. I didn't though make it through SoD. In the final invasion wave at the Coalition Camp the game over screen came up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if that was because enemies got through to the explosives or that I got hit by a couple of criticals at the same time.
Four months later I started another sorcerer run after taking one too many risks with a mage. The same sort of thing happened though - I tried running through a web without using free action or other buffing and without having stoneskin in place. I failed my save and a pursuing doom guard didn't ...
Straight after that death I started a 6th run, with the intention of seeing how far I could get without being injured. I got up to level 8, but then got stuck in a web again - although this time it was just a misjudgment of how far that extended.
Just over a year later I picked this up again, once more trying to avoid damage. I think I was only up to level 7 this time when I misjudged how quickly an ankheg would break free of a web and got spat at. Annoyed by that it wasn't much longer before I got too close to a carrion crawler ...
A follow-up attempt died almost immediately in a travel ambush. I really must try next time to stick to known safe tactics ...
A 9th run was getting close to finishing BG1 with no damage with work on an initial visit to the City almost complete. The last item of business was at the Iron Throne and I thought I'd killed everyone there before going onto the roof to rest in order to be able to identify the loot. After coming back down I got a rude shock in finding that I'd blinded Aasim in the earlier combat, but not actually finished him off.
I did at least survive though and went on to deal with Sarevok - sticking him in malisoned webs and then stunning him with some darts to ensure that he couldn't break free. A lack of concentration resulted in another dismal failure in SoD. I know perfectly well that the Neothelid has not just the ability to hold, but also stun - and with a save against death that arcane characters are much more susceptible to. However, I still just put on the ring of free action ...
I started a 10th run straight away and this time finally managed to get through without any damage taken. It wasn't the cleanest run, but a decent result is still nice. Let's see if I can build on that for the rest of the games.
I'm safely through SoD, though I didn't manage to avoid damage there. I've not tried a no damage run in SoD before, so didn't really expect to succeed in that. I'd been worried about traps, but remembered the correct protection against all of those. However, I'd forgotten about the random fire balls launched at the Coalition Camp prior to the invasion starting there . Still, I think that was a decent attempt.
Irenicus has been dispatched to the nether regions to only leave ToB. That should be easy enough, but there's always time for one more mistake ... There were mistakes, but none proved costly this time. ToB felt harder than I expected and the final battle with Mel took quite a while, but she went down in the end/.
Afterthoughts I think the sorcerer has a potential claim as the easiest character to solo. With no need to memorize specific spells, the extra spells they have compared to mages can really be made to count. At lower levels blind and web can deal with almost anything and skull traps finish things off quickly. In early BG2 webs are still very useful, while few enemies are able to deal with cloudkills. At higher levels arcane summons become very strong, culminating in planetars that are all you need against most enemies.
There are a wide range of potential tactics available for sorcerers. In addition to ranged attacks, through most of the game I was using disabling spells, area damage and summons, but ignored lots of the options available at higher levels - such as use of sequencers, images, PfMW, wish, shapechange and timestops. I did though have a major shift in tactics against Mel, who makes short work of any summons. For her I made use of simulacra for the first time - those used PfMW to hold off the hordes while engaging Mel in a missile duel with the Big Metal Rod. Spells were recovered between battles using wish-rests.
@StummvonBordwehr I could just leave big B for Caelar to chop up, but I have taken lower resistance and hold monster as my 2 5th level picks, so it would seem a shame not to try those out on him ...
As for levelling up, the screenshot was immediately on entry to SoD - prior to that I couldn't level up due to the BG1 cap. In fact though I didn't actually get around to taking the levels until the end of the dungeon prologue (by which time I had hit the SoD XP cap).
Kensai After working hard trying to make progress with a wild mage I fancied trying something easy and rolled up a kensai. Though the restrictions on armor and helmets for them do pose certain challenges a fighting style based on movement plays to my strengths and the combat bonuses allow pretty quick progress even with virtually no buffing.
I made a significant mistake pretty early on in the run when I rested at the wrong point after the Nashkel Mine and picked up a second LMD rather than the intended CLW. That doesn't make a lot of difference in gameplay terms, but is a bit irritating as my rule against using any form of healing item means the Unseeing Eye quest can't be completed in BG2. Sarevok is down, but before anything in BG2 becomes an issue I need to get through SoD ... A quick trip through SoD saw the end of Belhifet.
Typically in that fight Caelar does the bulk of the damage, while I keep her going with restoration scrolls, but this time I just let her die and used hit and run tactics - that didn't take long using a hard-hitting kensai. During the epilogue I noticed though that I apparently didn't pick the pantaloons up in BG1. That lack will make the fight against Melissan significantly harder, but there's a long way still to go before that ... The quick running continued through SoA where Irenicus got his just desserts. Once saving throws get to -3 the occasional maze is the only real concern - unless you try and melee groups of enemies high level kensais will normally beat down opponents well before their own HPs run out. Melissan should be the only real challenge in ToB, but there's always an opportunity for mistakes ... There was continued quick progress in ToB, but regrettably not quick enough. Fighting Abazigal, I went for all-out attack on his dragon form with the aim of killing him before he tried a maze - I had not buffed against that. He would only have lasted a few seconds more as he was badly injured and without a stoneskin, but still managed to create an earthquake. My unbuffed saving throw was -4, which meant there was a 5% chance of falling unconscious for 4 rounds - and I did. I still had about 150 HPs at that point, but they don't last long with a dragon attacking - particularly given I hadn't even got around to using hardiness .
A second attempt failed to get through BG1. Fighting Prat's gang I saw a dart of stunning coming my way and tried to use a potion of invulnerability to give a guaranteed save, but I think my aura was still clouded from an earlier kai ...
A couple of months later and I tried again, but once more failed to get through BG1 as a result of being extremely unlucky against Zhalimar at the Iron Throne. I'd dragged him downstairs and scared him with Bhaal horror and had him at near death, but missed my next 3 attacks allowing him to recover. He hit me in return taking me down to 38 HPs, but I thought I could afford to try one more attack. However, he got another attack in first - and this one was a critical for 40 HPs.
Another month and I tried again. I'd totally forgotten the previous attempt, so it feels rather spooky to report I again died to Zhalimar. Again I was a bit unlucky there with a combination of me missing and him getting a critical enabling him to take me to near death (he was already there). I decided to break off the combat and ran away for a bit before stopping on the stairs to see if he was still following. After several seconds I had just started to relax when he appeared from a slightly unexpected direction. The slight delay that caused meant that I failed to run away in time to avoid yet another critical ...
A few weeks later and my current poor performances continued when I was petrified by a basilisk which retreated from Korax's attack and decided to refocus on me.
Six months later and another dismal failure when I forgot to check the time before travelling at level 3 and my 43 HPs disappeared very rapidly under a bandit assault.
Another month and at least this time I've got past Sarevok - he suffered the indignity of dying to a LMD.
Belhifet is down as well after a quick trip through SoD. SoA will take rather longer, so I'll have to concentrate harder to avoid making mistakes ... I took some risks early on and several times could have been in trouble if enemies had got criticals at the wrong time. However, with higher HPs and sub-zero saving throws the later stages of SoA were straightforward. Let's see if the same is true in ToB ... Well, ToB did seem pretty straightforward and I was making very rapid progress through there - but it only takes one mistake and I eventually got caught out by one of those. Against Balthazar I forgot about his no-save stun and attacked in melee without using protection (like the Greenstone Amulet). I was immediately stunned and never recovered while my 258 HPs were whittled away despite 60% physical resistance.
A couple of months later and an 8th attempt was speeding through BGEE, but came to a sudden halt at the Bandit Camp. As so often I was trying to avoid buffing and was picking off Venkt's companions, leaving him to last. With the other 2 dead, I thought I'd attacked Raemon without Venkt seeing me, only to be surprised when a horror spell appeared out of the blackness. While I would probably have survived that against only Venkt, my poor AC gave me no chance against Raemon's arrows.
Another month and it was time to hit the road again. In my previous two runs (with other classes) I've failed to protect the dukes at the palace and this time it was touch and go - but Belt survived with a handful of HPs left. No chances were taken with Sarevok though.
One mistake was that I rested at the wrong point and got two LMDs as Bhaal powers, meaning I have no healing ability, but that's not too crucial. SoD was fairly straight-forward. I allowed Caelar to join against Belhifet, but didn't try to keep her alive - a kensai can kill Belhifet much quicker than she can anyway. As it happened though, she was still clinging on at the end.
Irenicus is down as well, leaving only ToB to go. One significant downside is that Kangaxx bugged out, meaning I couldn't get the Ring of Gaxx. As I don't use any healing, regeneration is normally important to me. I also make quite a lot of use of invisibility and having that integrated in a ring makes it less likely I skimp on that. Finally and most important, the loss of the saving throw bonus left my standard spell save at only -1 so that I was vulnerable to a number of spells. That nearly proved costly on one occasion when I only just got out of sight range of a lich before being affected by a symbol stun spell. The lack of the Ring of Gaxx did indeed prove costly after making my may through to Mel. Her first incarnation was disposed of, despite taking painful poison damage from her darts (a few potions of power helped keep HPs up). However, the second spams both uninterruptible remove magic and earthquakes. The former means buffs are virtually useless, while the latter forces a save vs spell at -6. I was wearing the amulet of spell warding to push my save to -3, but I needed -5 to be safe. I got Mel to injured status, but then fell down unconscious and that was that. In retrospect I probably would have been better trying a frontal assault with Soul Reaver to nerf her attack rolls, though that has other dangers. Maybe next time ...
Feeling a bit hard done by in the previous run, I started a 10th attempt playing very focused and risk free. As so often though that attitude eventually started to break down and after arriving in Baldur's Gate I unnecessarily went to tackle the ogre mage. He was scared and ran far enough to sight a phase spider. Rather than retreat from that I attacked and didn't notice I'd been poisoned until the second instance. With HPs disappearing at a rate of about 10 a second that was big trouble. I took an immediate potion of power (I don't allow healing potions or antidotes and hadn't yet got around to purchasing a protection from poison scroll) and ran out of the sewers, heading for the map edge as travelling would stop the poison. I got very close to that, but realized I would die just before I got there. I felt it was probably still too early to take another potion, but attempted to use a potion of heroism to provide that extra second - but it was indeed too early ...
Five months later I just failed against Mel's final incarnation with a cleric dualled to mage. Wanting something a bit more straightforward I was glad that a random choice picked up the kensai once more. As usual I was taking a few risks and got taken down to a single HP in the Iron Throne. However, I survived to see off Sarevok.
Another disappointing ending though. At the Crusader Camp I was down to the last few members of the 3rd wave when one of them ran away towards the fire and triggered the final wave early. I'd lost buffs to dispel magic and didn't have time to replace them with the enemies pouring forward. I did heavy damage to them with a couple of firebreath potions, but took a surprisingly nasty backstab in return. That meant HPs were less of a protection than I expected and 3 missile hits in quick succession finished me off.
A few weeks later and I was at a loose end for the afternoon. I didn't really fancy playing and took pretty severe risks, including not just being regularly low on HPs but saving against status effects several times. However, I somehow survived BGEE and finished by demonstrating to Sarevok that he should really get a faster weapon.
The following day I was much more methodical and got through SoD without problems.
On starting BG2 though I found I didn't have the pantaloons. I remember opening the bag of holding with the specific intention of getting them out, but must have got distracted by taking out the Horn of Kazgaroth . I was back to pushing the boundaries again in BG2 and eventually the inevitable happened and I pushed them too far. I was fighting Captain Dennis to get his dagger and chose to try and finish the opponents off in one go. Captain Dennis was at near death, but I was also critically injured with only 16 HPs left - and when DUHM ended I would lose 18. I tried to lose him on the stairs and successfully cast Bhaal healing on myself to momentarily make me safe. However, he followed and arrived in a spot where I had to run round him - taking a hit in the process to make me vulnerable again. He's such a good shot that he was almost bound to hit me (as usual I was unbuffed), but just enough time had expired to allow me to take an invisibility potion. DUHM would have been next, giving me plenty of time to reach the temple just across the way - but at that point the earlier DUHM ran out ...
I've had a diviner run on the go for a while, but haven't felt much like playing a mage character recently. I had time to play available today, so, six months after the last kensai attempt, I decided to give that another go. As usual I took some risks and had to resort to potions of various sorts on a couple of occasions to keep me alive. Eventually though I made it through to Sarevok and took no chances there.
More carelessness resulted in me not even getting out of the starting SoD dungeon. I'd killed all but two of the penultimate group of enemies and briefly retreated out of range of an archer before returning after the Flaming Fist moved up to engage them. I attacked an ogre berserker there and didn't pay attention to the combat log as it appeared to still be attacking one of the Fist. It was therefore a shock when I noticed my HPs were down to 18 - the result of an earlier unnoticed hit, followed by a critical for 40 damage. I tried to retreat at that point, but was hit again before I could get out of range ...
Ten months later I'd just thrown a dark moon monk run away by attacking Thaxy without level drain protection and decided I wanted to stick with a melee character. Hence, rather than my standard random selection I chose to have another go at this. I've just gone past Sarevok, though very nearly died against him as a result of being stubborn in not using magical protection against the threat of the scripted traps in the temple. Those didn't fire for quite a while, but eventually the web trap appeared with everyone but Sarevok dead. I didn't see it coming in time and was held, still with my missile weapon equipped. With HPs rapidly disappearing I had to save at the first opportunity and did so, just before Sarevok could finish me off. A potion of regeneration put me back together before completing the job on Sarevok.
I didn't take advantage of that reprieve though. In SoD, I quickly moved through to find the old temple and prepared to take on the Neothelid. His abilities are dangerous, so you need immunities or good saving throws. I topped up my saves (or thought I did) with a potion of stone form, only to get held anyway. Checking my inventory, the potion was still there, so I must have moved before that got quaffed ...
Three months later I've got runs on hold with a cleric/mage and a priest of Talos, but fancied something without spells so had a go at this. I wasn't really in the mood to be careful though and died at Durlag's Tower when trying to kill all the basilisks with a single potion of mirrored eyes - is there anything you can say that's quite as sad as "I nearly made it".
Shadowdancer
Seeing a few posts about shadowdancers I thought I would generate one of those. I've hardly played with them before as I've always felt the hide out of shadows effect rather undermined the basic concept of stealth - and that still seems a conceptual problem to me. I could claim that dis-satisfaction was the reason for getting too close to a sirine and being feebleminded when close to the XP cap, but I have to admit taking that sort of risk is pretty typical with any character .
Six months later and I've restarted this character. I still feel uncomfortable with the concept of the character, but that doesn't mean it's not strong (as long as you're patient enough). This time I've at least completed BG1 - and testing out strategies on lots of unnecessary encounters meant I transferred into SoD at the 500k level cap for that. One nice touch was getting hold of Lothander's gear. Without any spells to use on him I thought the only chance was getting a backstab as he ran past - I don't think there was actually much chance of that succeeding, but I got lucky this time.
I made it through SoD as well, but had a nasty shock at the end. I looked in my bag of holding with the intention of taking out the pantaloons (so they would transfer into BG2) - only to find they were not there. Lacking the normal thief ability to use traps, the loss of the Big Metal Rod is likely to make Melissan significantly harder - if I can make it that far of course.
And in fact I couldn't get that far. The low damage output of the shadowdancer and the pause enforced before restealthing in the EE means progress is pretty slow, so it took me much longer than usual to get to the Underdark. I was trying various tactics on Adalon there, with a view to seeing how effective they might be in ToB. I was particularly disappointed to find that even after using Tenser's and a potion of power a clone couldn't hit the dragon. As I could rest there, killing Adalon would have been easy in itself, but I got a bit bored waiting and followed too closely after a clone without using any cold protection - that resulted in me getting caught in the fringes of a dragon breath before getting into sight range ...
Another 5 months and a 3rd attempt bombed very early on. The route to find Shoal at the coast has a chance of an ambush including a single kobold archer. If you pause instantly you can usually move out of range before the kobold gets a shot off, but on this occasion I was a fraction of a second late moving - and paid the price.
Six months later and another failed attempt reflects I don't really like the character. I attempted to backstab an ettercap too far from the map edge for safety and without any PfP green scrolls - and paid the price.
A year later and seeing another post about the difficulty with the character tempted me into a 5th run with this character. Progress was easy enough until I didn't bother hiding while using arrows of explosion on the first group of sirines at the lighthouse. I think that would have been safe if I'd also used an oil of speed, but as it was one of them survived long enough to charm me.
Moving straight on to a 6th attempt I concentrated well initially and only took my first damage when a mustard jelly in Ramazith's Tower reacted quicker to my attack than I expected.
I took a number of hits after that, but never any significant damage and duly defeated Sarevok.
I made it through SoD as well without too many problems. A shadowdancer is not very well equipped to deal with Belhifet, so I relied mainly on keeping Caelar alive there.
I did plenty of work in SoA, but that was all wasted on the final encounter prior to leaving for Spellhold. I was at level 39 and was dealing with the hidden illithid in the sewers. They'd been whittled them down to the last 2 and didn't seem much of a danger any more. I hadn't noticed it, but I guess I must have been already affected by intelligence drain as I died unexpectedly just after making a backstab - so I've still failed to make it into ToB.
Well over 2 years later I tried a 7th attempt. I found it difficult to concentrate though and eventually died against Nemphre when my stealth broke quicker than expected when lining up a backstab and she had time to cast a lightning bolt - which bounced and killed both of us.
Cavalier
I've been on a bad run recently with these attempts, with none of them going very far. I decided to generate yet another new random class and see if that helped my concentration. The result was a cavalier, which should be one of the easiest options I think. I can't say I had a particularly clean run through BG1 today, with one particular mistake being misidentifying a hold person by Davaeorn for an attempted charm. I got lucky with a successful save there though and have duly finished off Sarevok.
As I don't use healing items I generally aim to get the regeneration ioun stone from Tsolak as the first priority after heading after the crusaders in SoD. However, Tsolak wrongly assumed that, as a paladin, I wouldn't be interested in dealing with him and I had to kill him. After that though there were no significant hiccups and Belhifet didn't last long against attacks boosted by Champion's Strength. Just after writing this up though I realized I forgot to take the pantaloons out of the bag of holding, so they won't transfer to BG2EE which will make ToB a bit harder if I get that far ...
OK, I'm now into ToB, though once more SoA wasn't as clean a run as it might have been. The greatest problem was when I didn't realize that casting chant would dispel sanctuary prior to attacking Perth. Rather than run away or go invisible immediately I pressed the attack and Perth responded by using maze - a scroll of PfM kicked in just in time to dispel that, leaving just one of those to combat later challenges.
The mistakes finally caught up with me, though I came agonizingly close to victory. Mel's first 3 incarnations went down without too much trouble and the final one looked likely to follow, but a couple of unlucky attack rolls allowed her to heal herself. By that time I was out of GWWs and the constant debuffing by death tyrants meant it took a long time to gradually work her down to near death again. With her death in sight I decided to try and save time and gain some extra style points by finishing her off in melee. I did actually still have smite available which could have made sure of her, but thought that wouldn't be necessary. However, I'd forgotten that her melee weapon could paralyze and, with her down to 3 HPs, I froze in place .
Seven months later, I've started a second attempt. I had a success with a sorcerer the run before last and regretted a bit not taking more care with the follow-up assassin and missing out on the chance to get 2 successes in a row. That perhaps prompted me to be a bit more careful on the way to seeing Sarevok off.
I whipped quickly through SoD to get to Belhifet. With most characters Caelar does the bulk of the damage in that encounter, but I decided this time to fight against her for a change. It took longer than I expected to kill her thanks to her use of invisibility and numerous healing potions. However, once she eventually went down Belhifet didn't last long at all - the use of 5 Champion's Strength scrolls allowing me to get the killing blow with a die roll of 2 for an off-hand attack.
I continued playing not very safely and that eventually proved costly when attacking Captain Dennis and his men. The mage was down to a single HP, so I produced a skeleton with the aim of using that as a distraction for Dennis while LMD finished off the mage. LMD was slow to cast though and the mage finished a lightning bolt spell just as he died - and that bounced repeatedly in close quarters killing both me and Dennis.
Another six months and I rolled the dice to choose which character to play next - and came up with the cavalier. Fittingly, I had a very cavalier attitude to the run in BGEE, exposing myself several times to unnecessary danger - but luck has provided a substitute for intelligence so far. For a change I decided to kill all of Sarevok's companions. That led to taking quite a bit of damage, so Sarevok was finished off with ranged daggers rather than giving him the chance for another attack.
SoD is much quicker, but there were at least a couple of occasions where I exposed myself to save or die effects - once more though I got away with it. Against Belhifet I did fully buff up and cavalier bonuses on top of Champion's Strength scrolls destroyed the devil in about 5 rounds.
Having got this far, I'll see if I can manage to be a bit more cautious in BG2.
I was slightly more cautious in SoA, but probably only to the extent of not actively seeking out risks - I still could have done more to avoid them. However, luck remained with me and Irenicus has fallen.
With just ToB to go, a full quota of equipment and already at the level cap there should now be a pretty decent chance of success.
However, lack of care will normally catch up with you eventually and on this occasion did so. Outside the entrance to Sendai's Enclave I killed the woodcutter to open the entrance. There was no benefit to doing so, but I attacked the guards outside that anyway - and one of them proved to have smite as a special ability and landed a hit on me. The game actually crashed with me still stunned and on 28 HPs with a couple of drow attacking and another running in. It's possible I could have survived there as the 1 round duration of the stun must have been nearly up - I could make a reasonable argument that I've died a number of times as a result of redoing completed areas as a result of a crash and so should be able to benefit from the reverse. It wouldn't feel right though, so I'll end the run here.
A further 6 months and the cavalier came up again. I've been on a really bad run in the last couple of weeks, but it's early morning Christmas Day and I've given myself a present by concentrating a bit better than recently to at least get through BGEE.
Still just before breakfast and I've completed SoD as well. There was one error in there when I forgot to protect against a web tangle from a gargantuan spider, but got away with the saving throw and went on to smack down Belhifet.
I didn't get too far in BG2EE though. Fighting Dracandros and his party I had killed all but the mage, but chose to just attack him rather than avoid his spells. A contingency stoneskin saved him once, but I thought I was going to finish him off just before I'd had it. I'd forgotten though that I had DUHM active and when that ended the lost HPs killed me ...
It's been nearly another 3 years, but the cavalier finally came up for a 5th attempt as part of a random group of 5 characters making runs in tandem. An early death for the skald led to me not playing for a couple of months, but I chose to restart the skald and that and the swashbuckler are through to SoD, with a cleric/mage and wizard slayer still in BGEE. The cavalier has just made it past Sarevok, helped marginally by the big man getting stuck in his own web trap.
@Aasim I've tried a few times, though not in the last couple of years - see here. I would expect to have another go at some point, but it's rare to have that amount of time available without other commitments, so I'm not quite sure when the next attempt will be. The last attempt, which got beaten up by Melissan after 15 hours, didn't include SoD and I would expect to add that in next time.
Bounty hunter
I eventually got around to finishing the previous run with a cavalier. That wasn't a particularly clean run, but still took Mel's final incarnation down to 3 HPs before my luck ran out .
Generating another random class, I got a bounty hunter. Like the cavalier that should really be a pretty easy class and I maintained concentration for a smooth run through BG1 this morning to see off Sarevok.
I was a bit less secure going through SoD and had to make at least one saving throw against the Neothelid when my potion buffs had run out. However, luck was on my side and with a little (well OK, a lot) of help from Caelar, Belhifet is down.
Regrettably, a slight lack of caution coupled with some bad luck proved fatal in the Planar Prison. I was at level 28 at the time with plenty of options to proceed safely, but chose to attack the Master of Thralls openly. My initial click to attack didn't seem to 'take', which resulted in over a round being wasted while he attacked me. As a result the demon was still just alive as I was taken down to 53 HPs, which did feel a bit uncomfortable with 2 air elementals attacking at the same time - but with Greater Evasion active the elementals were struggling to hit and I decided to risk staying there for a few more seconds. However, the removal of critical hit protection from ioun stones proved fatal as one elemental hit for 40 damage and the other for 14 simultaneously ...
A year later I've started another run. I've had several promising runs lately, but no successes. As Mel is the greatest obstacle and thieves have such an easy time against her, this should offer decent odds for success. I've completed BGEE and will have to try and remember to keep buffs up now in SoD.
Another silly mistake proved costly against Belhifet. Near the start of that combat I noticed that Caelar was just standing doing nothing. At first I thought that must be some sort of status effect and hit her with a dispelling arrow, but that didn't help. It was only after using greater restoration on her a number of times I realized that I must have accidentally clicked the AI button off - I normally never use NPCs or scripts, so am not used to checking that. That meant I was going to be a bit tight on the number of restoration scrolls I had. With Belhifet down to 70 HPs or so and 4 of those left I should have been OK, but was cutting things a bit tight when a cornugon hit Caelar with a nasty lightning bolt just as I was in the middle of casting restoration. With so much fatigue on me I then stood no chance of finishing off the devil.
Another year and a bit has gone by. I've not played much for a while and my latest attempt with a cleric/ranger was spread over several months. That was ended by Melissan's 3rd incarnation this morning and I decided to start another run almost immediately in search of revenge. The random choice for a class turned up a bounty hunter, which should be a pretty good prospect to get that revenge. It's so far, so good with Sarevok out of the way. Traps have been used extensively in the run so far and it felt only fitting to give them the job of finishing the big man off.
Well I played poorly in SoD, with multiple mistakes including allowing one of the first wave in the Coalition Camp invasion to get through and getting affected by fear in the final battle with Belhifet. However, my luck held and it's on to SoA.
SoA is done as well and was rather cleaner than the earlier play. Thieves generally have a relatively easy time in ToB, so I really just need to avoid mistakes!
And ... I couldn't avoid those mistakes. I had forgotten to pick up the Amulet of the Master Harper from the Fire Temple and went back later after killing Yaga-Shura, but wasn't paying full attention on the way back out and triggered the maze trap. It is possible to forestall maze by using a PfM scroll to dispel it before it takes effect - but that requires that you're paying attention ...
I've only played 2 or 3 games in the last few months, so it was a bit surprising to see the bounty hunter come up again as a random choice less than 3 months since the last time. BGEE was done in a single session with few problems. I still did plenty of unnecessary encounters though - including killing 3 of Elminster's incarnations. It would have been easy to kill Sarevok with backstabs, but I thought traps were more suitable for a bounty hunter. I transferred to SoD not far short of the XP cap there.
A single session was also enough for SoD, though I did have to reload an autosave when the game hung during the final cutscene with Skie. That meant I had to fight Belhifet for a second time - that's always more dangerous, but he duly went down once more to my sling despite my enormous fatigue penalty from keeping Caelar going.
I'd made good progress early on in BG2EE before coming to a sudden end in Mae'Var's HQ at level 17. I'd used a trap round a corner to damage a couple of thieves. Even though they hadn't seen me, one of them must have decided to go invisible and investigate and I couldn't quite survive the resulting backstab.
Generating yet another new class, I got an illusionist/thief. That class provides so many options you're rather spoilt for choice. In BG1 I played it more as a backstabbing thief, with use being made of spells in more dangerous encounters and just resorting to consumables on a handful of occasions. In the final battle Semaj was killed with stealth shots and Sarevok dispelled by an arrow before being backstabbed to death.
It didn't take long to get through SoD, though there was a near death there when I only buffed enough to get my spell saving throw safe against some myconids - forgetting they forced a save vs death instead. Fortunately I'd also included shield in buffs, which meant they struggled to hit me after I was feebleminded and stoneskins lasted long enough for me to recover.
I'd acquired a bit over 4m XP, nearly all in Athkatla - that meant I was vastly overpowered for the challenges there. However, the problem with no-reload is less about the technical challenges and more about eliminating risks and mistakes over such a long period. In this case I was in the vampire stronghold and attempted to backstab a greater ghoul. I was well aware of the possibility of getting held by a retaliation, but decided to take that tiny risk - I had a good chance of killing it outright, it had a poor chance of hitting me and if I were hit I had a 90% chance of saving. In a full run though, those tiny chances add up ...
After a bit of carelessness saw a shadowdancer attempt frozen by Adalon I looked at my starting characters to think what to try next. I had rolled up a cleric a long time ago, but never actually started it and decided to give that a go. That required first of all exporting the character and re-importing to a new save (to avoid potential problems in transitioning to SoD associated with saves from earlier versions of BGEE). Although I'm not particularly fond of clerics they are a very strong class in BGEE and progress was easy up to arriving at the coronation. When an initial horror seemed to have been unusually lucky in affecting 3 of the dopplegangers the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion and I didn't pay attention to the battle for the next few seconds. That proved fatal when I suddenly realized that 2 of the scared dopplegangers were still attacking the dukes and they'd been lucky with their hits. Although my 5 buffed skeleton warriors were chopping rapidly through the dopplegangers, I switched back on to see that Liia was dead and Belt was at near death. At that point there were still 2 dopplegangers attacking, together with the genuinely scared one running round. One of the attackers died with the help of a blast from the Wand of Heavens, but the other got a fatal blow in on Belt ...
Priest of Talos
Continuing with the clerical theme, I rolled up a new variety with a dwarven Priest of Talos and he's just gone through BGEE and SoD. Clerics are perhaps the easiest class to make progress with in the early game and SoA should also offer no problems in principle - though that is a rather longer haul. I've never completed ToB with a divine caster though, so that could pose a new question or two if I get that far ...
OK, SoA is complete as well. I made a few of the usual mistakes - like for instance mistakenly walking through the petrification trap on the lich hideout in the Bridge District, thinking that was the inn next door. However, overall it was pretty straight-forward. Let's see how far that applies to ToB ...
Well the first half of ToB seemed easy enough, but I got caught out against Sendai's statues. The backstabber got one attack in while I was fighting the drow spawned by killing the previous attacker. That left me vulnerable to a further backstab, so when the statue went invisible again, so did I. I was out of sight range of the mage drow at that time, so didn't really think he would cast true sight. However, I was just wondering about changing my boots to protect against backstabs anyway when true sight did cast from off screen - and an instant backstab gave me no chance to react.
14 months later another run is underway. Clerics are strong in BG1 and I didn't have any particular problems there - and got a nice bonus as HPs are only 5 below the possible maximum. Sarevok was too much to take down in melee, so I resorted to shooting him to finish him off.
As so often, a bit of messing about proved costly. I'd made easy progress through to Boareskyr Bridge, but mucked about there with the mage. It would have been easy to finish him off earlier, but I'd killed all the guards first and not used any buffs. I did actually kill the mage as well, but not before he released a lightning bolt - which ricocheted throughout the camp, killing chickens and guards, before returning all the way back and hitting one of the barrels on the bridge and setting off an explosion that destroyed that .
A bit over 2 years later and I rolled a dark moon monk as the next class to try. In order to give myself a better chance of maintaining concentration with that I'm restricting play to a maximum of 1 hour a day. However, I sometimes want to play more than that, so have also started another Priest of Talos run. That's gone through BG1 without major problems, though I realized too late that I'd forgotten to pick up the wisdom tome from the Candlekeep tombs. Probably partly because I have another run at the same time I did less unnecessary work than usual and used items slightly more - for instance in the final battle with Sarevok I mixed in sling shots with the use of the magic missile wand to speed things up.
Well, it took me over 2 months, but I eventually got around to continuing with this run. SoD was generally easy enough, though my lack of firepower was a bit exposed against Belhifet and Caelar was killed before I finally finished him off.
SoA is also complete, with a deva helping to finish off Jon. One problem though is that a bug prevented me from exiting Spellhold in my normal way. I was able to take the alternative exit straight to the Underdark though, so didn't reload (I normally only allow a reload for bugs if the effects are game-breaking) - but that means I don't have the Cloak of Mirroring. That could be costly in ToB, but we'll see.
In the end the lack of that Cloak was less of an issue than I'd feared, but I still failed. Things were looking promising when Melissan's first two incarnations went down without too much trouble. I felt I should have managed her 3rd as well, but made a small (but critical) movement error - I overlooked that one of the 4 spurs pointing into the centre is impassable and hence got caught against it and surrounded. Melissan took advantage of that to come into melee and, though I lasted some time longer, I was never likely to survive unless she broke off the attack ...
Barbarian
I'm not really fond of either buffing or using summons - which is probably why clerics have never been my favorites. After spending a while on those though I decided to try something more to my taste and rolled up a barbarian (I hadn't thought about it before writing this, but possibly the immunity to backstab was also an unconscious response to the way the last run ended ). He had a pretty comfortable journey through BGEE before finishing Sarevok off with a series of punishing blows.
I noticed on transitioning to SoD that I had forgotten not only the pantaloons (not that unusual), but even the Helm of Balduran - that is unusual and was the result of deciding not to get it at the point I normally do in order to not muck around swapping out the Helm of Glory while shopping. The latter was no problem (and will appear in BG2 anyway), but lacking the pantaloons will make a potential fight with Mel a bit more difficult. SoD was quickly completed without trouble and Belhifet was another unable to stand up to a melee assault. Typically in that fight I use missile weapons while keeping Caelar going with greater restoration scrolls. This time I took the precaution of using more potions than usual, but found tanking Belhifet surprisingly easy - as always I didn't control Caelar and she did a bit of damage to Belhifet, but the bulk of the hurt was imposed by Drizzt's swords.
SoA is complete as well, though I had one little and one big scare in that. The little was early on when I let HPs get too low when taking on Capt Dennis and had to run - rather less under control than the normal strategic withdrawals. The big scare was when clearing the vampire HQ and I got surprised by a maze from Tanova. I thought that was the end of the run before realizing that I actually had rage active (coincidentally, rather than intending that as protection).
Jon also tried maze in his slayer form, but that time there was no danger and shortly after that he had had enough.
Failing to pick up the pantaloons eventually proved costly in the fight against Mel. Her first incarnation went down without too much trouble, but a long fight ensued against the second. I was trying to avoid using a second hardiness and the constant remove magics made it hard to keep HPs up while maintaining pressure on her. I did get her down to single figure HPs at one point - having already successfully interrupted an attempt to heal herself when she was badly wounded. However, without a weapon that did damage through her stoneskins her second attempt to heal was successful. Twice more I got her fairly low on HPs (and on one of those interrupted 2 attempts to heal before she got the third), before I eventually decided to try and come into melee after using Blackrazor to heal up. I think she threw in a malison to make my saving throws a bit more vulnerable there and before I could get through her latest set of stoneskins she stunned me - my 240+ HPs then quickly melted away before I could recover.
Restarting almost immediately the barbarian has quickly hacked through BGEE and SoD. HPs are rather lower this run, but that makes very little difference in the long run - and I have remembered the pantaloons this time .
I found going through SoA with the same character so soon a bit tedious and only played at odd moments in the last couple of weeks. However, Jon had finally fallen to open the way to ToB. I think I have all the appropriate equipment this time, so if I can avoid mistakes (and I know that's a big if) chances of success should be pretty good.
Well there was the odd mistake, including having to use up a PfM scroll when I let the Hive Mother next to Diaytha into maze range. Things were looking pretty promising though with Mel onto her 3rd incarnation and at badly wounded. However, I'd overlooked one tiny fact. Earlier in the combat I'd seen a balor appear and had shot it down to avoid the danger of a vorpal blow. I'd not noticed another one being summoned, but obviously wasn't paying attention as the death screen suddenly appeared. Often the text explaining the reason for that has already scrolled too far to be seen, but this time the reason was clear ...
Normally I choose the next class to play with randomly, but I was feeling I'd had enough of caster types for a while, so picked up this character again nearly a year after its creation. Most of BGEE was pretty straightforward, but there were a couple of occasions when my HPs (which are very good this time) got low. The first was going through the maze when I was hit several times by a bouncing lightning bolt from a trap. The 97 HPs taken would have been fatal for many characters, but not this one. The second was when I partially buffed up to melee Sarevok one on one. He put up a good struggle, but I always had the option that time to withdraw if necessary.
SoD generally felt easy enough, but there was a much harder fight against Belhifet than I had expected. I'd let Caelar die at the start of the fight, thinking that I could win a straight melee battle with Belhifet. However, I had very poor die rolls and had to resort to some running round, as well as using multiple potions of power to boost my HPs.
Oh what a pain. In Suldanesselar I put the items in the container to summon Rillifane and then tried to move away a bit to prevent being attacked during the subsequent cutscene. I must have mis-clicked though and ended up outside before Rillifane appeared. Unfortunately I've done this before and it breaks the plot - the items still disappear, but Rillifane does not appear and killing the enemies does not help ...
Eight months later and I attempted to give myself an early birthday treat by dedicating time for a speed run akin to the one done last year for the berserker. Three fairly rapid failures in BGEE were disappointing, but the 4th in the sequence looked promising until I failed to realize that the snake on the second floor of Watcher's Keep would be able to poison me despite a saving throw of -2. Those runs were reported on the no-reload thread.
Eighteen months later an 8th attempt looked promising thanks to an extremely healthy 127 HPs. That was ruined though by a mistake when I attacked Prat's party. I saw Bor targeting me with darts of stunning and used the ring of free action to protect against that - forgetting that it doesn't protect against stun in vanilla ...
Another 18 months and I decided to have another go at this, even though I've got several other unfinished runs going. No particular problems so far in getting past Sarevok. I took level 9 on arrival in the SoD dungeon and again have good HPs with 139 (incl. 5 from Helm).
I took advantage of it being my birthday to continue straight on with SoD. There was a quick run through that, with again no real problems. I levelled up immediately on entry to SoA, though lost 13 HPs from the rerolling in the transfer process.
Well it took nearly 4 months, but SoA is finally completed. The delay was essentially due to me starting new games, but with 8 or 9 of those currently in progress I decided I should try and clear the decks and resolve them one way or another. I only remember one dodgy moment when Kayardi cast maze on me despite never apparently getting close enough to do that - my aura was clear though and a PfM scroll dispelled the maze before it could take effect.
There were no particular alarms in ToB and this time there was no escape for Mel.
Afterthoughts
I think the barbarian is one of the easiest characters to complete this challenge with, so taking 9 attempts to do that is actually pretty poor. In BGEE its poor AC does mean a bit more care is required, but fast movement and ability to use rage to foil save or else spells still makes it relatively easy. The high damage resistance, high HPs, good saving throws (at least assuming you use a shorty) and immunity to backstabs makes BG2EE (and particularly ToB) much more forgiving than usual.
Cleric dualled to ranger
A random selection for a new class something over a year ago produced a cleric due to dual to ranger. I generated the character at the time, but I'd played a fair amount with clerical types around then and decided not to actually play with it. The starting class is a Priest of Helm and I've just got around to completing BG1 with that.
The combination of 4 APR, using the seeking sword with dual wielding, along with clerical buffs makes this class about the most vicious solo melee class for burst damage in BG1 - before you even factor in those sweet skeletons. I'm pretty sure I won't dual in SoD - instead I'll wait at least until 6th level spells are available in order to allow some future fun with Harm.
Groan. In my last challenge run I died to the Neothelid after using specific protection against charm and hold, but not protecting against stun. This time I decided to make use of a potion of magic shielding to provide automatic saves against any of those effects. Normally I take single potions from within the inventory screen, but for some reason this time I put the potion into a quick slot. That resulted in me not taking it - and once more getting stunned ...
Starting again a few months later I've had a reasonably smooth run through BGEE. One significant problem though is that I forgot to get the violet potion before returning to Candlekeep - meaning I lost out on both the strength and wisdom tomes there.
After a couple of weeks of not playing, I had a quick trip through SoD on the way to find Belhifet. Unfortunately I was careless there and didn't prepare properly for the fight. The lack of potions of power used meant my HPs were fairly vulnerable and 4 successful hits in a row by Belhifet was just too much - beating my restoration spell by a fraction of a second.
I've only been playing as a wizard slayer in the last few months, but decided it was time to try something else and this came up as the random selection just over a year on from the last attempt. Clerics have a pretty easy time in BGEE and I duly got through to Sarevok where buffs and seeking sword beat him up in a straight melee fight - let's see if I can manage to get through SoD this time and actually dual the character in BG2EE.
After the difficulties of taking a wizard slayer through SoD, a cleric seems very simple and I managed that without too many alarms. I probably should have finished off Belhifet with the seeking sword, but bullets were doing the job quickly anyway - my first lot of 5 Champion's Strength scrolls were still active when he went down. One minor issue is I forgot to pick up a wisdom tome in BGEE, but that doesn't make much difference in BG2 anyway, where I'll probably hang on to level 15 to dual - to get top ranked skeleton warriors.
Well I managed to get through SoA, though I did have to make a couple of saves and was taken down to 1 HP at one point when slowed by a stone golem. I also accidentally took the evil route in one of the hell trials, but it appears that does not cause a dual-classed ranger to fall, so I thanked my luck there before dispatching Jon for the final time with the help of my trusty doggy companion.
And I've finally got another success, just over a year since the last one with a true class mage. ToB wasn't exactly easy, but there were no really close calls there on the way to dealing with Melissan.
That keeps up my record of roughly one success a year since I started this challenge, but I'm obviously going to have to improve hugely on that in order to complete it.
Afterthoughts
Clerics have an easy time of it in BGEE and SoD, so not dualling until after that made those stages simple enough. However, in SoA that means there's quite a bit of work required for a ranger with low HPs and very poor saving throws (thanks to his humanity). As a result of that I relied much more than usual on the available summons, like the berserk warrior, Kitthix and the efreeti, in order to reduce exposure to status effects. The fact I haven't played much for a couple of months also probably helped me in maintaining concentration doing that.
In ToB saving throws are rather better and clerical summons are back. Also there's access to the fighter HLAs and, with a few clerical buffs, that made this class pretty formidable as an aggressive attacker - though there was still a need to keep an eye on the relatively low HP pool by fighter standards.
Overall I don't think this was a particularly easy class for this challenge, so it's good to get it complete. Let's see if I can build on that with a few more quick successes ...
Undead Hunter
After actually ticking off one class not too long ago, I decided to add another one to the list of trial and errors. The random selection provided an undead hunter, which should be a pretty strong class. He made decent progress initially, but was eventually found out in the Underdark by the paladin's weakness against spell saves (and my lack of care). The run was fully documented on the no-reload thread.
Eighteen months later this class came up again. I haven't played much for a while, but still couldn't quite bring myself to avoid any risks. Against the amazons I was confused and poison darts put me low on HPs. With 2 opponents dead and the others close to it I was still in with a decent chance, but couldn't avoid the criticals long enough.
Two and a half years later I decided to have another multiple attempt with 5 parallel runs at once. The previous time I tried that with 7 characters was quite successful, but so far this attempt has been poor. A jester was the first to go, but I thought the undead hunter would be the first one through BGEE. However, on the way through the maze to find Sarevok I remembered that I hadn't got the Cloak of Balduran yet. I went to Degrodel, but mis-clicked on his conversation, causing him to go hostile - and I didn't protect against the horror he cast. With plenty of HPs and a good AC I thought I still had a chance, but I was trapped in his room by the doom guards Degrodel had summoned and died before I recovered from the horror.
The latest random class to be selected was a mage to be dualled to fighter. There was some discussion recently on the Forum about the virtues of using a low level dual for that combination in order to play essentially just as a fighter, but with the ability to use mage items. However, I decided to try a more traditional approach with the aim of eventually providing substantial spell support for the fighter - and am intending to delay dualling until I've reached mage level 12 (which should be early in SoA).
I managed to complete BGEE without using any consumables (except when learning spells). My inventory is stuffed with those now though and I won't be trying to avoid using those in SoD. For the final battle Semaj teleported out and finished off a skeleton warrior with a fireball, but expired himself in a cloudkill. Sarevok then found himself in a sticky situation and took most of his damage during a couple of periods stuck in webs, before being finished off with a couple of magic missiles. Here's his end, together with my character record after transferring to SoD.
OK, SoD is out of the way as well. For once I fought Hephernaan at Dragonspear with the intention of using Lower Resistance on Belhifet in the final fight. However, I failed to learn the spell and ultimately relied on Caelar to do the bulk of the damage in that.
I've got just enough XP to take level 12 at the start of the dungeon, but I don't really fancy doing that with a level 1 fighter, so will wait to dual until just before I escape ...
I did indeed dual at that point, but annoyingly died in the first encounter after that. At the Copper Coronet I killed the first mage guard and, when the second was caught by Bhaal horror he should really have been toast. However, horror is bugged in BG2 and it didn't stop him using mirrors which kept him barely alive until he recovered. When he started casting hold person I tried to run behind a door, but didn't quite make it. I still felt there was a decent chance of survival though against the damage he could do - and in fact it took 12 hits to kill me, so either he was an exceptionally high level mage or he had more than 1 APR .
A couple of weeks later and the invoker is on the road again and has made it past Sarevok. The closest escape in BGEE was just before that when I decided to use a scroll of PfU to kill the 4 skeleton warriors near the old temple. I didn't though use any other buffs and, without proficiency in the quarterstaff I was using, it was a slow business wearing them down. I was aware that the scroll was in danger of running out, so was keeping half an eye on the action - fortunately that gave me just enough opportunity to gulp a potion of invisibility when the 2 remaining skeleton warriors suddenly struck fierce blows, taking me down to single figure HPs ...
Belhifet has also fallen, though he put up a better fight than usual - I only had 3 restoration scrolls left for Caelar at the end. Let's see if I can get a bit further in BG2EE this time - despite being put off by the cost, I think I'm going to have to buy the ring of air control this time ...
Well, I did buy the ring and did get somewhat further. However, I was still making it difficult for myself by not identifying anything and not using any consumables - and eventually paid the penalty for that at the de'Arnise Hold. I realized Tor'Gal would be a potential danger, but took him on anyway and without using an oil of speed. That meant keeping away from him wasn't easy and with so few HPs I was unlikely to win a stand-up fight. After being hit twice I did try running, but failed to shake him off going up and down stairs. I could have used an oil of speed or potion of invisibility to get away, but thought I would be able to take one more hit - I couldn't ...
Ranger
After a couple of recent unlucky finishes to runs, I decided to console myself by generating a new challenger. The random class selection threw up a ranger and I've just completed BGEE with that. The character record on transfer to SoD shows a boosted charisma and that reflects that I forgot to pick up the Cloak of Balduran. However, saving throws are so poor anyway that there's no way the ranger should be exposed to magic attacks without total protection, so that shouldn't really make any real difference in SoD - though shouldn't of course is not the same as won't ...
A quick trip through SoD was pretty easy. There are huge quantities of potions in SoD, so it's easy to keep solo characters safe if you make use of those.
As is often the case though, the longer journey involved in SoA induced a fatal mistake. I'd just got my first HLA and was clearing out the planar prison. The warden was down, but his 3 yuan-ti mages were still going. Rather than attempting a frontal assault on those I tried to pick one off from range. When it responded with a chaos I switched to a melee weapon, but without checking that I had the Shield of Harmony equipped in the off-hand. In fact I had Belm there and was duly confused. That was still not a hopeless cause and I killed one of the mages without taking any damage. However, my spell save of 1 was not quite good enough to guarantee saving against a hold person ...
Eight months later a random selection threw up a ranger for a second attempt. I took Drizzt's armor and made heavy use of stealthing in that during BGEE. For Sarevok though, the speed advantage I had with him dispelled made it easier to just run round shooting him until he was nearly dead and I sneaked in for a final attack.
As usual these days I just did the minimum in SoD and the use of Champion's Strength scrolls saw me do plenty of damage to Belhifet even using non-proficient scimitars.
The need to be careful about poor saving throws caught up to me in SoA. I'd put off dealing with Watcher's Keep early on when seeing vampiric wraiths there, but at level 15 returned there while wearing the AoP. That enabled me to kill the wraiths with Azuredge - and that's normally the hard bit. However, I then attempted to melee the remaining enemies and was stunned by a wandering horror ...
Another six months and the ranger came up again as a random selection. This attempt didn't last long, though I lost my notes and can't remember what ended it.
Rolling again for a new character, I came up with another mage dual - this time to thief. In principle that's better suited to dualling late (because thief XP jumps from 6.4m at level 39 to 8.0m at level 40, you can go all the way up to mage level 14 without losing out on any eventual thief levels). However, as I've recently taken an invoker through to BG2 before dualling, I thought I would dual earlier this time - doing that at mage level 7, in order to regain mage abilities while still in BGEE. Most of the run through BGEE was smooth, but I did nearly die against Sarevok. I decided to not make use of the lightning trap this time and nearly paid for that when accidentally triggering a trap while running Sarevok round using magic missiles.
SoD is also complete, though once again the final battle wasn't as clean as it could have been. I started off using Caelar to do damage, but decided to do a bit of practice using fire shield against Belhifet as well. I got caught out there though as I thought I would use mirror images, in conjunction with the belt giving +1 luck (positive lucks means only mirror images will be targeted) to avoid damage. I overlooked though that I'd already used restoration a couple of times on Caelar and the fatigue from that was giving me negative luck - I had to quickly change that approach after a blow from Belhifet took over half my HPs (a critical would probably have been fatal).
Unfortunately there was a fairly typical end in SoA when I wasn't concentrating quite hard enough. The early stages had gone reasonably smoothly and I wasn't far off a first HLA when I went to the Graveyard for the first time. I tried killing the shadow fiends in one of the tombs using stealth attacks, but was a fraction late running away after one of those ...
After a couple of months I started this again. I needed 4k to get to level 7 and dual to thief, so went to Durlag's Tower in search of a battle horror. One of those was duly blinded and I left the game running while I attacked with a staff from outside its reduced sight range. I checked on progress once, but on going back the second time found I was dead. I don't think I was anywhere near the end of the blindness, so something must have happened to change things. I have noticed that before, though relatively rarely. I think the battle horror being struck by lightning is a definite possibility. It could possibly have even been something like a chipmunk moving past us ...
A bit over 2 years later and a third attempt was short, but not sweet. I was attempting to kill the golems at High Hedge when one of them disappeared into the wall. Moving towards where it was, I got too close and it hit me as it reappeared. I was close to the exit and ran through that, only for the golem to appear beyond me - leaving me nowhere to run before it struck a second and fatal blow.
I haven't been playing so much recently. Part of the reason for that is that I've been having a few problems with arthritis - I imagine that's likely to get worse over time, so this challenge is suddenly looking even more difficult . To have a realistic chance of success I'd have to focus much better on staying safe rather than just playing generically, but I don't find that easy over a long period ...
However, my latest random choice of class produced a Priest of Helm. Though I haven't played that as a sole class in this challenge before, as it happens the last attempt I did was using one of those with the intention of dualling to ranger - if I hadn't got careless against Belhifet. Even with my memory therefore gameplay strategies were familiar. I did make the usual handful of mistakes: those included reacting slowly to a basilisk ambush (and having to save against a gaze attack) and forgetting to pick up the wisdom tome from Candlekeep. However, I made it through in the end and have moved on to SoD.
SoD was done without any particular problem. With good saving throws and high-quality summons SoA should be relatively easy. I've never completed ToB with a divine character, so that could be more challenging, though I'm pretty sure clerics are capable of that - let's see if I can put it to the test ...
No test yet, I'm afraid as another run ends from carelessness / experimentation. I was at level 23 and wondered if I could destroy liches yet. The standard lich on the way to the Unseeing Eye was no trouble, but I could only turn and not destroy the Shade Lich. I'd done that a couple of times and started to damage it on the second occasion - but it recovered very quickly that time. Trying to turn it for a third time I obviously let it get a bit too close to me and, though I had a couple of spells memorized that could have stopped maze, I had cast neither and had not yet got around to buying anything other than containers - so could not use a scroll of PfM to dispel the maze.
Five months later I've started another run. Sarevok took a couple of big chunks out of me before skeletons finished him off, but there was no real danger there. The only slightly worrying moment in the run so far was at the palace when the last doppleganger, which had run from Bhaal horror earlier, got very lucky to kill Belt. However, skeletons finished it off before it could move to attack Liia - who was already badly wounded.
As usual I did pretty much the minimum in SoD and didn't have much trouble. For the fight against Belhifet I used 5 Champions Strength scrolls at the top of the lift so that I could hit him easily even using the Root of the Problem club non-proficiently. Those scrolls had just started to run out at the end of the fight (I had another 5 though), but enough bonus remained to get a killing hit in.
SoA was also pretty easy. The only worrying moment was when I got cornered by a couple of illithid. After buffing up invisibly it only took 2 or 3 seconds to kill one of those, but with intelligence of 9 they would only have needed 2 criticals to kill me. I'll see if I can make it through ToB at least as far as Mel this time.
Grrr. ToB was a bit trickier than I expected, including being taken down to 1 HP by Sendai's Harm and struggling for quite a while to kill Abazigal. However, I got through to Mel and, with the main combination of Reflection Shield and Big Metal Rod, killed her first 2 incarnations. For the 3rd I split initial summons between the top and bottom of the area to try and keep her distracted for a bit while killing the Slayer Shadows. Unfortunately that didn't delay her more than a second or two and she immediately came haring back down and managed to trap me against the Slayer Shadows. Those can't be turned, but I can think of several ways to avoid that situation occurring, so I'm pretty confident that I will eventually be able to complete a cleric (something I've never done in any installation before - mainly because I don't particularly like the game play with them).
Still not playing much, but I have now got around to taking a newly generated character through BGEE. As usual I randomly chose the character, but that once more had a clerical flavor - this time though a multi-class fighter/cleric. That made progress pretty easy and I've not become aware (yet at least) of any mistakes on the way to see off Sarevok.
There were no problems either going through SoD. With the use of Champion's Strength scrolls I could hit Belhifet easily, so wasn't too bothered about Caelar surviving - and Belhifet finished her off an instant before going down himself.
The length of SoA tends to induce mistakes and I did succumb to temptation at one point when deliberately leaving myself exposed to a FoD with a 5% chance of death. Other than that though I played it generally pretty safe. I did mis-click in the dream sequence and lose a point of wisdom, which was slightly annoying. However, at higher levels I don't think the number of spells makes any real difference, so I should be well set for tackling ToB.
That was a shame. I'd had no trouble in ToB on the way to Mel, but lasted only about 10 seconds against her . I struggle to remember what her different incarnations do and had thought that she would only cast timestop a little way into the battle. However, she did that almost immediately I appeared and proceeded to cut me down mercilessly ...
A second attempt 18 months later ended rather stupidly. In the catacombs I used the violet potion to loot the tombs, while adding a potion of fortitude to get HPs back up. However, I didn't heal before trying to rest and the trap damage taken left me just low enough on HPs that the loss of the constitution HPs killed me.
After the last run was contemptuously dismissed by Melissan, I randomly chose a new class - a dragon disciple. It's not that long since I succeeded with a sorcerer, so should have a reasonable chance with this one. I started off very cautiously, aiming to avoid taking any damage in BGEE. That record was spoilt in the Bandit Camp when I absent-mindedly used Spirit Armor and caused myself some damage. I was a bit less careful after that, but still took no more damage. There was minimal use of items, with a single lot of summoned monsters at the Palace, along with a scroll of chaos there. I also used a minor sequencer scroll and put that to good use to finish off Sarevok.
A quick trip through SoD proved to be too quick. I was relying on Caelar to kill Belhifet, but let the battle go on too long without renewing my saving throw protection and was scared by Belhifet's aura - meaning Caelar was quickly cut down. I hadn't acquired lower resistance or Fire Shield (Blue), which are the only ways that would have given me a chance of outpacing Belhifet's regeneration and so abandoned the battle.
Eighteen months later I tried a new run. Initially, I was aiming to complete BGEE without taking any damage. That was managed as far as the Cloakwood Mine before a took a self-inflicted injury. A skull trap intended for a ghast there landed a bit too far away and, once the ghast was dead, I decided to protect against it rather than take another route. I attempted that with a potion of magic blocking, but that seems to function in the same way as magic resistance, i.e. it doesn't protect against your own damage .
That was rather dispiriting and I left the run on hold there for a month. On resuming, I was no longer worrying about taking damage and zipped through the remaining content. It seemed appropriate to finish Sarevok off with my breath weapon and successfully wore him down to a single HP, so that even his 90% resistance was insufficient to save him.
A few more weeks and I eventually got around to tackling SoD - but messed up the fight against Belhifet. I allowed Caelar to get killed, but only after using greater restoration on him. The fatigue effect from that reduces luck, meaning mirror images provided no protection against Belhifet's attacks. That meant in turn that stoneskins provided too little protection to wear him down using fire shield: blue ...
Comments
The best way to use charm on the dopplegangers at the palace is to charm them while they're noblemen in order to split the fight into easier bits. It's also worthwhile charming lots of the guards and nobles there - to give the dopplegangers more targets even if you're not attacking with them.
Almost any character can use wands of sleep, so that's another option (that has a 25% chance of affecting any particular doppleganger, so the chances are good of affecting something; rigid thinking only has a 15% chance of affecting one doppleganger and may not make any difference even if successful). For cleric spells chant should be useful (for the negatives it gives the dopplegangers rather than the usual positives for your party) and then there's healing spells for Belt of course.
That is very true. I only go down to the second level for the goblet and kiels helmet.
The first level is manageble with complete fire and electricity protection, a huge stack of healing potions, the sand thief ring, greenstone amulet, potions of heroism and some potions of cloud giant strenght... I have next to no healing potions after the encounter (30-40 potions used in that level is not selvom).
But the goblet is worth it in my eyes, but then again I only play fighter types (who can wear helmers and have more than 1 apr each round..).
Ps. Best of luck to you both.
Still no joy for a long time, though there have been a couple of promising runs recently ended by bugs of one sort or another. Despite (or perhaps because of) the lack of success, I decided it was time to create some more starting characters. A first attempt with an assassin didn't get too far. I was up at level 6 when arriving in Nashkel for the first time. I'd noted reputation was at 4, which is high enough to avoid bounty hunters spawning, but had forgotten that the soldiers that patrol the area might go hostile. As I wasn't expecting trouble I didn't react instantly when they started shooting on my arrival - that proved costly when a critical hit exactly took my remaining 16 HPs just as I was running out of range.
Another indication of the need for a break when I had a 2nd go at an assassin a couple of months later. I got up to level 7 without much problem, but when following Korax round the basilisks I didn't check he was as close as possible before attacking one of those - that resulted in the basilisk turning to gaze at me when I attempted a backstab ...
A couple of more months and a 3rd attempt failed at the palace. A solo assassin there is going to struggle if he doesn't use cheesy tactics and he's unlucky - I didn't and I was. None of the 6 dopplegangers were scared by horror and all of them attacked the dukes instead of me - giving them no real chance.
A couple more months again and once more the palace proved my downfall. I was pretty unlucky once more and Belt died simultaneously with the last doppleganger attacking him.
Eight months later and I started another run. I think that was too soon after a long run with a shadowdancer though and I didn't feel like playing safe. I attempted to backstab Mulahey without using any spell protection and missed. I saved against a rigid thinking in response and successfully hit and poisoned him with a further attack. However, he ignored both the poison and a LMD while completing the casting of a hold person ...
Another 2 months and a 6th attempt failed before even getting to the Nashkel Mine. As usual I'd been taking a few risks, though nothing too extreme and everything had gone well up to just before reaching level 9. Attacking one of Narcillicus's mustard jellies I took another of those marginal risks - being aware that I was too far from the edge of the map, or somewhere to hide, to guarantee avoiding being attacked if I tried to break off combat. The jelly was badly wounded by a backstab, but its second attack was a critical hit for 32 damage that also slowed me. I ran for some rocks, but didn't quite make it before another attack came in - which was another critical attack for 28 damage (3 more than I had available).
An immediate follow-up to the previous run has at least got past Sarevok this time - for the first time I see, reviewing my previous entries on the assassin.
Unfortunately I didn't get much further. For the Neothelid I carefully protected against charm with a potion of clarity and against hold with a ring of free action - but didn't protect against stun ...
Starting an 8th attempt shortly after the previous one didn't break my current poor run. I didn't move away quickly enough when stealth broke as I lined up a backstab on a golem in the pirate cave and a single critical hit was too much for me.
A month later and (after a couple of weeks not playing BG at all) I've started a 9th attempt. I still couldn't bring myself to stick to the safest options, but at least this time I've made it past Sarevok.
After completing a sorcerer I started a 10th run as an assassin thinking I should be taking particular care in order to try and get 2 successful runs in a row. That idea didn't last long though as I quickly slipped back into my normal routine. I was almost at the XP cap when going into the pirate cave and wasn't paying much attention - with the result that I tried walking through the hold person trap near one of the golems without wearing the ring of free action ...
A year later and I've been on a pretty awful run, with multiple character deaths early on over the last couple of weeks. This attempt with an assassin was no different. There was no problem getting to level 5, but I then tried to poison Greywolf with throwing daggers. Their relatively slow weapon speed means keeping enough distance can be a problem if you have poor initiative and Greywolf duly got an attack in - one-shotting my 36 HPs with a critical for 38.
Another five months and this class came up again for the 12th time. As usual I did more work than needed and took the odd risk, but managed to muddle through BGEE. At the palace I was a bit concerned when Liia died and several dopplegangers attacked Belt. To deal with them quicker I used a firebreath potion, but that ended up annoying the Flaming Fist. Not to worry though as, although the Fist get annoyed if you damage them the dukes don't. In fact with the dopplegangers dead, Belt set to work on the Fist.
After a couple of months just playing a few wizard slayer runs, I successfully completed a cleric dualled to ranger this morning. Deciding to strike while the iron was hot I rolled for a random selection to start a new run immediately - but rolled a wizard slayer
Deciding to generate another character rather than restart the assassin, I rolled up a sorcerer. I've had lots of experience of those in BG1 and progress was pretty easy despite using almost no consumables. I did a lot more content than needed and, as a result, am not far off the SoD cap after seeing off Sarevok.
I successfully made it through SoD as well. The intention to try and hold Belhifet never got off the ground though. Two lower resistances took effect early on, but big B still resisted a malison. After that he used improved invisibility and I never managed to dispel that for long enough to try a hold. Annoyingly, Belhifet constantly ignored me in favor of attacking Caelar - meaning I didn't get the expected value from fire shield. However, scrolls of restoration kept Caelar going long enough to get the victory.
Starting a 2nd attempt quickly I've gone past Sarevok. One slight change is that I missed having mirror image last time, so have taken that instead of Acid Arrow this time.
Drat, another failure at the Coalition Camp and once more I'm not quite sure what happened. While I was fighting the third group of priests I was told the line had been breached. That might have been as a result of a confused or scared enemy though I didn't see who. I then used scorchers and potions of firebreath to kill all the attackers, but even with none of them left the camp still exploded.
After a while of doing other things I tried a quick 3rd attempt and succeeded - at being quick. Just a few minutes in I failed to initially target a carrion crawler with blind as it was coming towards me and then tried to do that when it was a bit too close without running back - it saved and an instant later got a paralyzing blow in as I tried to run.
Starting again the next day, I have at least completed BG1 despite the usual odd risk being taken. I didn't though make it through SoD. In the final invasion wave at the Coalition Camp the game over screen came up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if that was because enemies got through to the explosives or that I got hit by a couple of criticals at the same time.
Four months later I started another sorcerer run after taking one too many risks with a mage. The same sort of thing happened though - I tried running through a web without using free action or other buffing and without having stoneskin in place. I failed my save and a pursuing doom guard didn't ...
Straight after that death I started a 6th run, with the intention of seeing how far I could get without being injured. I got up to level 8, but then got stuck in a web again - although this time it was just a misjudgment of how far that extended.
Just over a year later I picked this up again, once more trying to avoid damage. I think I was only up to level 7 this time when I misjudged how quickly an ankheg would break free of a web and got spat at. Annoyed by that it wasn't much longer before I got too close to a carrion crawler ...
A follow-up attempt died almost immediately in a travel ambush. I really must try next time to stick to known safe tactics ...
A 9th run was getting close to finishing BG1 with no damage with work on an initial visit to the City almost complete. The last item of business was at the Iron Throne and I thought I'd killed everyone there before going onto the roof to rest in order to be able to identify the loot. After coming back down I got a rude shock in finding that I'd blinded Aasim in the earlier combat, but not actually finished him off.
A lack of concentration resulted in another dismal failure in SoD. I know perfectly well that the Neothelid has not just the ability to hold, but also stun - and with a save against death that arcane characters are much more susceptible to. However, I still just put on the ring of free action ...
I started a 10th run straight away and this time finally managed to get through without any damage taken. It wasn't the cleanest run, but a decent result is still nice. Let's see if I can build on that for the rest of the games.
There were mistakes, but none proved costly this time. ToB felt harder than I expected and the final battle with Mel took quite a while, but she went down in the end/.
Afterthoughts
I think the sorcerer has a potential claim as the easiest character to solo. With no need to memorize specific spells, the extra spells they have compared to mages can really be made to count. At lower levels blind and web can deal with almost anything and skull traps finish things off quickly. In early BG2 webs are still very useful, while few enemies are able to deal with cloudkills. At higher levels arcane summons become very strong, culminating in planetars that are all you need against most enemies.
There are a wide range of potential tactics available for sorcerers. In addition to ranged attacks, through most of the game I was using disabling spells, area damage and summons, but ignored lots of the options available at higher levels - such as use of sequencers, images, PfMW, wish, shapechange and timestops. I did though have a major shift in tactics against Mel, who makes short work of any summons. For her I made use of simulacra for the first time - those used PfMW to hold off the hordes while engaging Mel in a missile duel with the Big Metal Rod. Spells were recovered between battles using wish-rests.
Nice to see some progress on the sorceror. Will look forward to seing how big B will be dealt with...
Btw: why not levelling up?
As for levelling up, the screenshot was immediately on entry to SoD - prior to that I couldn't level up due to the BG1 cap. In fact though I didn't actually get around to taking the levels until the end of the dungeon prologue (by which time I had hit the SoD XP cap).
After working hard trying to make progress with a wild mage I fancied trying something easy and rolled up a kensai. Though the restrictions on armor and helmets for them do pose certain challenges a fighting style based on movement plays to my strengths and the combat bonuses allow pretty quick progress even with virtually no buffing.
I made a significant mistake pretty early on in the run when I rested at the wrong point after the Nashkel Mine and picked up a second LMD rather than the intended CLW. That doesn't make a lot of difference in gameplay terms, but is a bit irritating as my rule against using any form of healing item means the Unseeing Eye quest can't be completed in BG2. Sarevok is down, but before anything in BG2 becomes an issue I need to get through SoD ...
A quick trip through SoD saw the end of Belhifet.
The quick running continued through SoA where Irenicus got his just desserts. Once saving throws get to -3 the occasional maze is the only real concern - unless you try and melee groups of enemies high level kensais will normally beat down opponents well before their own HPs run out. Melissan should be the only real challenge in ToB, but there's always an opportunity for mistakes ...
There was continued quick progress in ToB, but regrettably not quick enough. Fighting Abazigal, I went for all-out attack on his dragon form with the aim of killing him before he tried a maze - I had not buffed against that. He would only have lasted a few seconds more as he was badly injured and without a stoneskin, but still managed to create an earthquake. My unbuffed saving throw was -4, which meant there was a 5% chance of falling unconscious for 4 rounds - and I did. I still had about 150 HPs at that point, but they don't last long with a dragon attacking - particularly given I hadn't even got around to using hardiness
A second attempt failed to get through BG1. Fighting Prat's gang I saw a dart of stunning coming my way and tried to use a potion of invulnerability to give a guaranteed save, but I think my aura was still clouded from an earlier kai ...
A couple of months later and I tried again, but once more failed to get through BG1 as a result of being extremely unlucky against Zhalimar at the Iron Throne. I'd dragged him downstairs and scared him with Bhaal horror and had him at near death, but missed my next 3 attacks allowing him to recover. He hit me in return taking me down to 38 HPs, but I thought I could afford to try one more attack. However, he got another attack in first - and this one was a critical for 40 HPs.
Another month and I tried again. I'd totally forgotten the previous attempt, so it feels rather spooky to report I again died to Zhalimar. Again I was a bit unlucky there with a combination of me missing and him getting a critical enabling him to take me to near death (he was already there). I decided to break off the combat and ran away for a bit before stopping on the stairs to see if he was still following. After several seconds I had just started to relax when he appeared from a slightly unexpected direction. The slight delay that caused meant that I failed to run away in time to avoid yet another critical ...
A few weeks later and my current poor performances continued when I was petrified by a basilisk which retreated from Korax's attack and decided to refocus on me.
Six months later and another dismal failure when I forgot to check the time before travelling at level 3 and my 43 HPs disappeared very rapidly under a bandit assault.
Another month and at least this time I've got past Sarevok - he suffered the indignity of dying to a LMD.
I took some risks early on and several times could have been in trouble if enemies had got criticals at the wrong time. However, with higher HPs and sub-zero saving throws the later stages of SoA were straightforward. Let's see if the same is true in ToB ...
Well, ToB did seem pretty straightforward and I was making very rapid progress through there - but it only takes one mistake and I eventually got caught out by one of those. Against Balthazar I forgot about his no-save stun and attacked in melee without using protection (like the Greenstone Amulet). I was immediately stunned and never recovered while my 258 HPs were whittled away despite 60% physical resistance.
A couple of months later and an 8th attempt was speeding through BGEE, but came to a sudden halt at the Bandit Camp. As so often I was trying to avoid buffing and was picking off Venkt's companions, leaving him to last. With the other 2 dead, I thought I'd attacked Raemon without Venkt seeing me, only to be surprised when a horror spell appeared out of the blackness. While I would probably have survived that against only Venkt, my poor AC gave me no chance against Raemon's arrows.
Another month and it was time to hit the road again. In my previous two runs (with other classes) I've failed to protect the dukes at the palace and this time it was touch and go - but Belt survived with a handful of HPs left. No chances were taken with Sarevok though.
SoD was fairly straight-forward. I allowed Caelar to join against Belhifet, but didn't try to keep her alive - a kensai can kill Belhifet much quicker than she can anyway. As it happened though, she was still clinging on at the end.
The lack of the Ring of Gaxx did indeed prove costly after making my may through to Mel. Her first incarnation was disposed of, despite taking painful poison damage from her darts (a few potions of power helped keep HPs up). However, the second spams both uninterruptible remove magic and earthquakes. The former means buffs are virtually useless, while the latter forces a save vs spell at -6. I was wearing the amulet of spell warding to push my save to -3, but I needed -5 to be safe. I got Mel to injured status, but then fell down unconscious and that was that. In retrospect I probably would have been better trying a frontal assault with Soul Reaver to nerf her attack rolls, though that has other dangers. Maybe next time ...
Feeling a bit hard done by in the previous run, I started a 10th attempt playing very focused and risk free. As so often though that attitude eventually started to break down and after arriving in Baldur's Gate I unnecessarily went to tackle the ogre mage. He was scared and ran far enough to sight a phase spider. Rather than retreat from that I attacked and didn't notice I'd been poisoned until the second instance. With HPs disappearing at a rate of about 10 a second that was big trouble. I took an immediate potion of power (I don't allow healing potions or antidotes and hadn't yet got around to purchasing a protection from poison scroll) and ran out of the sewers, heading for the map edge as travelling would stop the poison. I got very close to that, but realized I would die just before I got there. I felt it was probably still too early to take another potion, but attempted to use a potion of heroism to provide that extra second - but it was indeed too early ...
Five months later I just failed against Mel's final incarnation with a cleric dualled to mage. Wanting something a bit more straightforward I was glad that a random choice picked up the kensai once more. As usual I was taking a few risks and got taken down to a single HP in the Iron Throne. However, I survived to see off Sarevok.
A few weeks later and I was at a loose end for the afternoon. I didn't really fancy playing and took pretty severe risks, including not just being regularly low on HPs but saving against status effects several times. However, I somehow survived BGEE and finished by demonstrating to Sarevok that he should really get a faster weapon.
I was back to pushing the boundaries again in BG2 and eventually the inevitable happened and I pushed them too far. I was fighting Captain Dennis to get his dagger and chose to try and finish the opponents off in one go. Captain Dennis was at near death, but I was also critically injured with only 16 HPs left - and when DUHM ended I would lose 18. I tried to lose him on the stairs and successfully cast Bhaal healing on myself to momentarily make me safe. However, he followed and arrived in a spot where I had to run round him - taking a hit in the process to make me vulnerable again. He's such a good shot that he was almost bound to hit me (as usual I was unbuffed), but just enough time had expired to allow me to take an invisibility potion. DUHM would have been next, giving me plenty of time to reach the temple just across the way - but at that point the earlier DUHM ran out ...
I've had a diviner run on the go for a while, but haven't felt much like playing a mage character recently. I had time to play available today, so, six months after the last kensai attempt, I decided to give that another go. As usual I took some risks and had to resort to potions of various sorts on a couple of occasions to keep me alive. Eventually though I made it through to Sarevok and took no chances there.
Ten months later I'd just thrown a dark moon monk run away by attacking Thaxy without level drain protection and decided I wanted to stick with a melee character. Hence, rather than my standard random selection I chose to have another go at this. I've just gone past Sarevok, though very nearly died against him as a result of being stubborn in not using magical protection against the threat of the scripted traps in the temple. Those didn't fire for quite a while, but eventually the web trap appeared with everyone but Sarevok dead. I didn't see it coming in time and was held, still with my missile weapon equipped. With HPs rapidly disappearing I had to save at the first opportunity and did so, just before Sarevok could finish me off. A potion of regeneration put me back together before completing the job on Sarevok.
Three months later I've got runs on hold with a cleric/mage and a priest of Talos, but fancied something without spells so had a go at this. I wasn't really in the mood to be careful though and died at Durlag's Tower when trying to kill all the basilisks with a single potion of mirrored eyes - is there anything you can say that's quite as sad as "I nearly made it".
Seeing a few posts about shadowdancers I thought I would generate one of those. I've hardly played with them before as I've always felt the hide out of shadows effect rather undermined the basic concept of stealth - and that still seems a conceptual problem to me. I could claim that dis-satisfaction was the reason for getting too close to a sirine and being feebleminded when close to the XP cap, but I have to admit taking that sort of risk is pretty typical with any character
Six months later and I've restarted this character. I still feel uncomfortable with the concept of the character, but that doesn't mean it's not strong (as long as you're patient enough). This time I've at least completed BG1 - and testing out strategies on lots of unnecessary encounters meant I transferred into SoD at the 500k level cap for that. One nice touch was getting hold of Lothander's gear. Without any spells to use on him I thought the only chance was getting a backstab as he ran past - I don't think there was actually much chance of that succeeding, but I got lucky this time.
And in fact I couldn't get that far. The low damage output of the shadowdancer and the pause enforced before restealthing in the EE means progress is pretty slow, so it took me much longer than usual to get to the Underdark. I was trying various tactics on Adalon there, with a view to seeing how effective they might be in ToB. I was particularly disappointed to find that even after using Tenser's and a potion of power a clone couldn't hit the dragon. As I could rest there, killing Adalon would have been easy in itself, but I got a bit bored waiting and followed too closely after a clone without using any cold protection - that resulted in me getting caught in the fringes of a dragon breath before getting into sight range ...
Another 5 months and a 3rd attempt bombed very early on. The route to find Shoal at the coast has a chance of an ambush including a single kobold archer. If you pause instantly you can usually move out of range before the kobold gets a shot off, but on this occasion I was a fraction of a second late moving - and paid the price.
Six months later and another failed attempt reflects I don't really like the character. I attempted to backstab an ettercap too far from the map edge for safety and without any PfP green scrolls - and paid the price.
A year later and seeing another post about the difficulty with the character tempted me into a 5th run with this character. Progress was easy enough until I didn't bother hiding while using arrows of explosion on the first group of sirines at the lighthouse. I think that would have been safe if I'd also used an oil of speed, but as it was one of them survived long enough to charm me.
Moving straight on to a 6th attempt I concentrated well initially and only took my first damage when a mustard jelly in Ramazith's Tower reacted quicker to my attack than I expected.
I made it through SoD as well without too many problems. A shadowdancer is not very well equipped to deal with Belhifet, so I relied mainly on keeping Caelar alive there.
Well over 2 years later I tried a 7th attempt. I found it difficult to concentrate though and eventually died against Nemphre when my stealth broke quicker than expected when lining up a backstab and she had time to cast a lightning bolt - which bounced and killed both of us.
I've been on a bad run recently with these attempts, with none of them going very far. I decided to generate yet another new random class and see if that helped my concentration. The result was a cavalier, which should be one of the easiest options I think. I can't say I had a particularly clean run through BG1 today, with one particular mistake being misidentifying a hold person by Davaeorn for an attempted charm. I got lucky with a successful save there though and have duly finished off Sarevok.
As I don't use healing items I generally aim to get the regeneration ioun stone from Tsolak as the first priority after heading after the crusaders in SoD. However, Tsolak wrongly assumed that, as a paladin, I wouldn't be interested in dealing with him and I had to kill him. After that though there were no significant hiccups and Belhifet didn't last long against attacks boosted by Champion's Strength. Just after writing this up though I realized I forgot to take the pantaloons out of the bag of holding, so they won't transfer to BG2EE which will make ToB a bit harder if I get that far ...
OK, I'm now into ToB, though once more SoA wasn't as clean a run as it might have been. The greatest problem was when I didn't realize that casting chant would dispel sanctuary prior to attacking Perth. Rather than run away or go invisible immediately I pressed the attack and Perth responded by using maze - a scroll of PfM kicked in just in time to dispel that, leaving just one of those to combat later challenges.
The mistakes finally caught up with me, though I came agonizingly close to victory. Mel's first 3 incarnations went down without too much trouble and the final one looked likely to follow, but a couple of unlucky attack rolls allowed her to heal herself. By that time I was out of GWWs and the constant debuffing by death tyrants meant it took a long time to gradually work her down to near death again. With her death in sight I decided to try and save time and gain some extra style points by finishing her off in melee. I did actually still have smite available which could have made sure of her, but thought that wouldn't be necessary. However, I'd forgotten that her melee weapon could paralyze and, with her down to 3 HPs, I froze in place
Seven months later, I've started a second attempt. I had a success with a sorcerer the run before last and regretted a bit not taking more care with the follow-up assassin and missing out on the chance to get 2 successes in a row. That perhaps prompted me to be a bit more careful on the way to seeing Sarevok off.
Another six months and I rolled the dice to choose which character to play next - and came up with the cavalier. Fittingly, I had a very cavalier attitude to the run in BGEE, exposing myself several times to unnecessary danger - but luck has provided a substitute for intelligence so far. For a change I decided to kill all of Sarevok's companions. That led to taking quite a bit of damage, so Sarevok was finished off with ranged daggers rather than giving him the chance for another attack.
I was slightly more cautious in SoA, but probably only to the extent of not actively seeking out risks - I still could have done more to avoid them. However, luck remained with me and Irenicus has fallen.
However, lack of care will normally catch up with you eventually and on this occasion did so. Outside the entrance to Sendai's Enclave I killed the woodcutter to open the entrance. There was no benefit to doing so, but I attacked the guards outside that anyway - and one of them proved to have smite as a special ability and landed a hit on me. The game actually crashed with me still stunned and on 28 HPs with a couple of drow attacking and another running in. It's possible I could have survived there as the 1 round duration of the stun must have been nearly up - I could make a reasonable argument that I've died a number of times as a result of redoing completed areas as a result of a crash and so should be able to benefit from the reverse. It wouldn't feel right though, so I'll end the run here.
A further 6 months and the cavalier came up again. I've been on a really bad run in the last couple of weeks, but it's early morning Christmas Day and I've given myself a present by concentrating a bit better than recently to at least get through BGEE.
It's been nearly another 3 years, but the cavalier finally came up for a 5th attempt as part of a random group of 5 characters making runs in tandem. An early death for the skald led to me not playing for a couple of months, but I chose to restart the skald and that and the swashbuckler are through to SoD, with a cleric/mage and wizard slayer still in BGEE. The cavalier has just made it past Sarevok, helped marginally by the big man getting stuck in his own web trap.
Fancy a 24h challenge?
I eventually got around to finishing the previous run with a cavalier. That wasn't a particularly clean run, but still took Mel's final incarnation down to 3 HPs before my luck ran out
Generating another random class, I got a bounty hunter. Like the cavalier that should really be a pretty easy class and I maintained concentration for a smooth run through BG1 this morning to see off Sarevok.
A year later I've started another run. I've had several promising runs lately, but no successes. As Mel is the greatest obstacle and thieves have such an easy time against her, this should offer decent odds for success. I've completed BGEE and will have to try and remember to keep buffs up now in SoD.
Another year and a bit has gone by. I've not played much for a while and my latest attempt with a cleric/ranger was spread over several months. That was ended by Melissan's 3rd incarnation this morning and I decided to start another run almost immediately in search of revenge. The random choice for a class turned up a bounty hunter, which should be a pretty good prospect to get that revenge. It's so far, so good with Sarevok out of the way. Traps have been used extensively in the run so far and it felt only fitting to give them the job of finishing the big man off.
I've only played 2 or 3 games in the last few months, so it was a bit surprising to see the bounty hunter come up again as a random choice less than 3 months since the last time. BGEE was done in a single session with few problems. I still did plenty of unnecessary encounters though - including killing 3 of Elminster's incarnations. It would have been easy to kill Sarevok with backstabs, but I thought traps were more suitable for a bounty hunter. I transferred to SoD not far short of the XP cap there.
Continuing with the clerical theme, I rolled up a new variety with a dwarven Priest of Talos and he's just gone through BGEE and SoD. Clerics are perhaps the easiest class to make progress with in the early game and SoA should also offer no problems in principle - though that is a rather longer haul. I've never completed ToB with a divine caster though, so that could pose a new question or two if I get that far ...
OK, SoA is complete as well. I made a few of the usual mistakes - like for instance mistakenly walking through the petrification trap on the lich hideout in the Bridge District, thinking that was the inn next door. However, overall it was pretty straight-forward. Let's see how far that applies to ToB ...
Well the first half of ToB seemed easy enough, but I got caught out against Sendai's statues. The backstabber got one attack in while I was fighting the drow spawned by killing the previous attacker. That left me vulnerable to a further backstab, so when the statue went invisible again, so did I. I was out of sight range of the mage drow at that time, so didn't really think he would cast true sight. However, I was just wondering about changing my boots to protect against backstabs anyway when true sight did cast from off screen - and an instant backstab gave me no chance to react.
14 months later another run is underway. Clerics are strong in BG1 and I didn't have any particular problems there - and got a nice bonus as HPs are only 5 below the possible maximum. Sarevok was too much to take down in melee, so I resorted to shooting him to finish him off.
A bit over 2 years later and I rolled a dark moon monk as the next class to try. In order to give myself a better chance of maintaining concentration with that I'm restricting play to a maximum of 1 hour a day. However, I sometimes want to play more than that, so have also started another Priest of Talos run. That's gone through BG1 without major problems, though I realized too late that I'd forgotten to pick up the wisdom tome from the Candlekeep tombs. Probably partly because I have another run at the same time I did less unnecessary work than usual and used items slightly more - for instance in the final battle with Sarevok I mixed in sling shots with the use of the magic missile wand to speed things up.
I'm not really fond of either buffing or using summons - which is probably why clerics have never been my favorites. After spending a while on those though I decided to try something more to my taste and rolled up a barbarian (I hadn't thought about it before writing this, but possibly the immunity to backstab was also an unconscious response to the way the last run ended
Restarting almost immediately the barbarian has quickly hacked through BGEE and SoD. HPs are rather lower this run, but that makes very little difference in the long run - and I have remembered the pantaloons this time
I found going through SoA with the same character so soon a bit tedious and only played at odd moments in the last couple of weeks. However, Jon had finally fallen to open the way to ToB. I think I have all the appropriate equipment this time, so if I can avoid mistakes (and I know that's a big if) chances of success should be pretty good.
Well there was the odd mistake, including having to use up a PfM scroll when I let the Hive Mother next to Diaytha into maze range. Things were looking pretty promising though with Mel onto her 3rd incarnation and at badly wounded. However, I'd overlooked one tiny fact. Earlier in the combat I'd seen a balor appear and had shot it down to avoid the danger of a vorpal blow. I'd not noticed another one being summoned, but obviously wasn't paying attention as the death screen suddenly appeared. Often the text explaining the reason for that has already scrolled too far to be seen, but this time the reason was clear ...
Normally I choose the next class to play with randomly, but I was feeling I'd had enough of caster types for a while, so picked up this character again nearly a year after its creation. Most of BGEE was pretty straightforward, but there were a couple of occasions when my HPs (which are very good this time) got low. The first was going through the maze when I was hit several times by a bouncing lightning bolt from a trap. The 97 HPs taken would have been fatal for many characters, but not this one. The second was when I partially buffed up to melee Sarevok one on one. He put up a good struggle, but I always had the option that time to withdraw if necessary.
Eight months later and I attempted to give myself an early birthday treat by dedicating time for a speed run akin to the one done last year for the berserker. Three fairly rapid failures in BGEE were disappointing, but the 4th in the sequence looked promising until I failed to realize that the snake on the second floor of Watcher's Keep would be able to poison me despite a saving throw of -2. Those runs were reported on the no-reload thread.
Eighteen months later an 8th attempt looked promising thanks to an extremely healthy 127 HPs. That was ruined though by a mistake when I attacked Prat's party. I saw Bor targeting me with darts of stunning and used the ring of free action to protect against that - forgetting that it doesn't protect against stun in vanilla ...
Another 18 months and I decided to have another go at this, even though I've got several other unfinished runs going. No particular problems so far in getting past Sarevok. I took level 9 on arrival in the SoD dungeon and again have good HPs with 139 (incl. 5 from Helm).
Afterthoughts
I think the barbarian is one of the easiest characters to complete this challenge with, so taking 9 attempts to do that is actually pretty poor. In BGEE its poor AC does mean a bit more care is required, but fast movement and ability to use rage to foil save or else spells still makes it relatively easy. The high damage resistance, high HPs, good saving throws (at least assuming you use a shorty) and immunity to backstabs makes BG2EE (and particularly ToB) much more forgiving than usual.
A random selection for a new class something over a year ago produced a cleric due to dual to ranger. I generated the character at the time, but I'd played a fair amount with clerical types around then and decided not to actually play with it. The starting class is a Priest of Helm and I've just got around to completing BG1 with that.
Groan. In my last challenge run I died to the Neothelid after using specific protection against charm and hold, but not protecting against stun. This time I decided to make use of a potion of magic shielding to provide automatic saves against any of those effects. Normally I take single potions from within the inventory screen, but for some reason this time I put the potion into a quick slot. That resulted in me not taking it - and once more getting stunned ...
Starting again a few months later I've had a reasonably smooth run through BGEE. One significant problem though is that I forgot to get the violet potion before returning to Candlekeep - meaning I lost out on both the strength and wisdom tomes there.
After a couple of weeks of not playing, I had a quick trip through SoD on the way to find Belhifet. Unfortunately I was careless there and didn't prepare properly for the fight. The lack of potions of power used meant my HPs were fairly vulnerable and 4 successful hits in a row by Belhifet was just too much - beating my restoration spell by a fraction of a second.
I've only been playing as a wizard slayer in the last few months, but decided it was time to try something else and this came up as the random selection just over a year on from the last attempt. Clerics have a pretty easy time in BGEE and I duly got through to Sarevok where buffs and seeking sword beat him up in a straight melee fight - let's see if I can manage to get through SoD this time and actually dual the character in BG2EE.
Afterthoughts
Clerics have an easy time of it in BGEE and SoD, so not dualling until after that made those stages simple enough. However, in SoA that means there's quite a bit of work required for a ranger with low HPs and very poor saving throws (thanks to his humanity). As a result of that I relied much more than usual on the available summons, like the berserk warrior, Kitthix and the efreeti, in order to reduce exposure to status effects. The fact I haven't played much for a couple of months also probably helped me in maintaining concentration doing that.
In ToB saving throws are rather better and clerical summons are back. Also there's access to the fighter HLAs and, with a few clerical buffs, that made this class pretty formidable as an aggressive attacker - though there was still a need to keep an eye on the relatively low HP pool by fighter standards.
Overall I don't think this was a particularly easy class for this challenge, so it's good to get it complete. Let's see if I can build on that with a few more quick successes ...
After actually ticking off one class not too long ago, I decided to add another one to the list of trial and errors. The random selection provided an undead hunter, which should be a pretty strong class. He made decent progress initially, but was eventually found out in the Underdark by the paladin's weakness against spell saves (and my lack of care). The run was fully documented on the no-reload thread.
Eighteen months later this class came up again. I haven't played much for a while, but still couldn't quite bring myself to avoid any risks. Against the amazons I was confused and poison darts put me low on HPs. With 2 opponents dead and the others close to it I was still in with a decent chance, but couldn't avoid the criticals long enough.
Two and a half years later I decided to have another multiple attempt with 5 parallel runs at once. The previous time I tried that with 7 characters was quite successful, but so far this attempt has been poor. A jester was the first to go, but I thought the undead hunter would be the first one through BGEE. However, on the way through the maze to find Sarevok I remembered that I hadn't got the Cloak of Balduran yet. I went to Degrodel, but mis-clicked on his conversation, causing him to go hostile - and I didn't protect against the horror he cast. With plenty of HPs and a good AC I thought I still had a chance, but I was trapped in his room by the doom guards Degrodel had summoned and died before I recovered from the horror.
I managed to complete BGEE without using any consumables (except when learning spells). My inventory is stuffed with those now though and I won't be trying to avoid using those in SoD. For the final battle Semaj teleported out and finished off a skeleton warrior with a fireball, but expired himself in a cloudkill. Sarevok then found himself in a sticky situation and took most of his damage during a couple of periods stuck in webs, before being finished off with a couple of magic missiles. Here's his end, together with my character record after transferring to SoD.
I did indeed dual at that point, but annoyingly died in the first encounter after that. At the Copper Coronet I killed the first mage guard and, when the second was caught by Bhaal horror he should really have been toast. However, horror is bugged in BG2 and it didn't stop him using mirrors which kept him barely alive until he recovered. When he started casting hold person I tried to run behind a door, but didn't quite make it. I still felt there was a decent chance of survival though against the damage he could do - and in fact it took 12 hits to kill me, so either he was an exceptionally high level mage or he had more than 1 APR
A couple of weeks later and the invoker is on the road again and has made it past Sarevok. The closest escape in BGEE was just before that when I decided to use a scroll of PfU to kill the 4 skeleton warriors near the old temple. I didn't though use any other buffs and, without proficiency in the quarterstaff I was using, it was a slow business wearing them down. I was aware that the scroll was in danger of running out, so was keeping half an eye on the action - fortunately that gave me just enough opportunity to gulp a potion of invisibility when the 2 remaining skeleton warriors suddenly struck fierce blows, taking me down to single figure HPs ...
Belhifet has also fallen, though he put up a better fight than usual - I only had 3 restoration scrolls left for Caelar at the end. Let's see if I can get a bit further in BG2EE this time - despite being put off by the cost, I think I'm going to have to buy the ring of air control this time ...
Well, I did buy the ring and did get somewhat further. However, I was still making it difficult for myself by not identifying anything and not using any consumables - and eventually paid the penalty for that at the de'Arnise Hold. I realized Tor'Gal would be a potential danger, but took him on anyway and without using an oil of speed. That meant keeping away from him wasn't easy and with so few HPs I was unlikely to win a stand-up fight. After being hit twice I did try running, but failed to shake him off going up and down stairs. I could have used an oil of speed or potion of invisibility to get away, but thought I would be able to take one more hit - I couldn't ...
After a couple of recent unlucky finishes to runs, I decided to console myself by generating a new challenger. The random class selection threw up a ranger and I've just completed BGEE with that. The character record on transfer to SoD shows a boosted charisma and that reflects that I forgot to pick up the Cloak of Balduran. However, saving throws are so poor anyway that there's no way the ranger should be exposed to magic attacks without total protection, so that shouldn't really make any real difference in SoD - though shouldn't of course is not the same as won't ...
As is often the case though, the longer journey involved in SoA induced a fatal mistake. I'd just got my first HLA and was clearing out the planar prison. The warden was down, but his 3 yuan-ti mages were still going. Rather than attempting a frontal assault on those I tried to pick one off from range. When it responded with a chaos I switched to a melee weapon, but without checking that I had the Shield of Harmony equipped in the off-hand. In fact I had Belm there and was duly confused. That was still not a hopeless cause and I killed one of the mages without taking any damage. However, my spell save of 1 was not quite good enough to guarantee saving against a hold person ...
Eight months later a random selection threw up a ranger for a second attempt. I took Drizzt's armor and made heavy use of stealthing in that during BGEE. For Sarevok though, the speed advantage I had with him dispelled made it easier to just run round shooting him until he was nearly dead and I sneaked in for a final attack.
Another six months and the ranger came up again as a random selection. This attempt didn't last long, though I lost my notes and can't remember what ended it.
Unfortunately there was a fairly typical end in SoA when I wasn't concentrating quite hard enough. The early stages had gone reasonably smoothly and I wasn't far off a first HLA when I went to the Graveyard for the first time. I tried killing the shadow fiends in one of the tombs using stealth attacks, but was a fraction late running away after one of those ...
After a couple of months I started this again. I needed 4k to get to level 7 and dual to thief, so went to Durlag's Tower in search of a battle horror. One of those was duly blinded and I left the game running while I attacked with a staff from outside its reduced sight range. I checked on progress once, but on going back the second time found I was dead. I don't think I was anywhere near the end of the blindness, so something must have happened to change things. I have noticed that before, though relatively rarely. I think the battle horror being struck by lightning is a definite possibility. It could possibly have even been something like a chipmunk moving past us ...
A bit over 2 years later and a third attempt was short, but not sweet. I was attempting to kill the golems at High Hedge when one of them disappeared into the wall. Moving towards where it was, I got too close and it hit me as it reappeared. I was close to the exit and ran through that, only for the golem to appear beyond me - leaving me nowhere to run before it struck a second and fatal blow.
However, my latest random choice of class produced a Priest of Helm. Though I haven't played that as a sole class in this challenge before, as it happens the last attempt I did was using one of those with the intention of dualling to ranger - if I hadn't got careless against Belhifet. Even with my memory therefore gameplay strategies were familiar. I did make the usual handful of mistakes: those included reacting slowly to a basilisk ambush (and having to save against a gaze attack) and forgetting to pick up the wisdom tome from Candlekeep. However, I made it through in the end and have moved on to SoD.
SoD was done without any particular problem. With good saving throws and high-quality summons SoA should be relatively easy. I've never completed ToB with a divine character, so that could be more challenging, though I'm pretty sure clerics are capable of that - let's see if I can put it to the test ...
No test yet, I'm afraid as another run ends from carelessness / experimentation. I was at level 23 and wondered if I could destroy liches yet. The standard lich on the way to the Unseeing Eye was no trouble, but I could only turn and not destroy the Shade Lich. I'd done that a couple of times and started to damage it on the second occasion - but it recovered very quickly that time. Trying to turn it for a third time I obviously let it get a bit too close to me and, though I had a couple of spells memorized that could have stopped maze, I had cast neither and had not yet got around to buying anything other than containers - so could not use a scroll of PfM to dispel the maze.
Five months later I've started another run. Sarevok took a couple of big chunks out of me before skeletons finished him off, but there was no real danger there. The only slightly worrying moment in the run so far was at the palace when the last doppleganger, which had run from Bhaal horror earlier, got very lucky to kill Belt. However, skeletons finished it off before it could move to attack Liia - who was already badly wounded.
A second attempt 18 months later ended rather stupidly. In the catacombs I used the violet potion to loot the tombs, while adding a potion of fortitude to get HPs back up. However, I didn't heal before trying to rest and the trap damage taken left me just low enough on HPs that the loss of the constitution HPs killed me.
Eighteen months later I tried a new run. Initially, I was aiming to complete BGEE without taking any damage. That was managed as far as the Cloakwood Mine before a took a self-inflicted injury. A skull trap intended for a ghast there landed a bit too far away and, once the ghast was dead, I decided to protect against it rather than take another route. I attempted that with a potion of magic blocking, but that seems to function in the same way as magic resistance, i.e. it doesn't protect against your own damage