Update (before I rack for the night): I decided that I don't want to play a fighter on this next attempt, so Hrin will be paused for a time (I'll keep him prepped for that eventuality). It would feel too same ole, same ole for me. On Sunday night, I rolled up a cleric of Lathander, but am assembling his backstory (which I'll finish tomorrow). I spent entirely too much time on music threads this evening, instead of doing that. Hopefully, he lasts. More tomorrow.
And here is Galigar Valist, half-elven Priest of Lathander.
Game Play Guidelines: Core Rules, Minimal Reload, Canon Party, Max HP. Reloads on Imoen/Dynaheir chunk or PC death. Anyone else and we're trudging back to a temple or PC raises them from the dead. One TPK indicates a dream sequence for CHARNAME. Additional TPK in the same area that has already been reloaded, and it's curtains for CHARNAME, indicated that he failed to follow the foreshadowing of the dream.
Update: Galigar is at the Friendly Arm Inn, about to embark, along with Khalid and Jaheira. Jaheira sought Silvanus' guidance on the intent of personnel within the Friendly Arm Inn, and pointed out to Galigar that Zxar and Montaron were of an evil bent. Galigar, who up to this point only knew that Zxar was a mage and Montaron a thief who helped slay the bounty hunter who accosted them, parted company with the pair immediately before departing out of the Inn.
Observation: Command has never been an overrated spell, but's nice when Tarnesh decides to take a nap nap leading to the dirt nap, before he can even begin his first spell on the staircase.
Sigh. I did a stupid thing and got myself killed. I decided to go up against Greywolf to try to get his sword for Ajantis. I knew it was a risk, and I went and tried it anyway. I could have sworn that Greywolf attacked the character that talked to him. But now, there are shenanigans where he walks around your whole formation and insists on attacking Charname first. I tried to do some repositioning and kiting, and I managed to get him to switch targets to Minsc briefly, but he hit Minsc, almost killing him, and I was running in the same direction Minsc needed to go, blocking his way. While I was trying to save both myself and Minsc, Greywolf managed to get a swipe in at me, and that was all she wrote.
I like @EnialusMeliamne 's idea of allowing the first death to an encounter to be a prophetic dream. So, I decided NOT to try this a second time. We'll come back when we're a higher level.
The rest of tonight's play session was spent rescuing Dynaheir. We took the southern route through the wilderness on the way, encountering Vax, Alfred and Rufie, the Nymph and her Tree, and the Little Girl's Cat.
Vax was the most interesting battle. We had horrible luck, and they managed to kill Branwen despite our best efforts, and her wearing ankheg plate and having AC -2.
You can barely see it in the trees in the second screen shot here, but my two spirit animals I managed to summon, a snake and a wolf, saved us here, by drawing all Vax and his friend's aggro away from our struggling party. What I am finding about the shaman's spirit animals is that they do low damage, but they are very, very hard to kill for the enemies so far, and, they seem to be very, very good at drawing aggro once they're out on the board. (It takes a long time to summon them, though, and the shaman has slow level progression, sharing an xp table with mages.)
After rescuing Dynaheir, we decided to explore the area north of the gnoll stronghold before heading back east to safer territory. We killed a polar bear and an ogre berserker by kiting. I decided this area was too dangerous, and we should head back east before finishing up our exploration of the area. (No-reload metaknowledge - we were not in any way prepared to deal with the ogre berserkers and hobgoblin poisoned arrows on the north bridge. We would have surely died there at this point.)
Against the ogre berserker, I was having a hard time keeping his aggro where I wanted it, until I managed to summon two spirit snakes, and then, he obligingly stayed on the snakes, which he couldn't hit often or damage very much. I'm finding these spirit animals to be terrible DPS, but most excellent tanks. Also, I made level two, and I now have *eight* Cure Light Wounds spells, freeing Branwen to memorize Command, Remove Fear, and Sanctuary instead of worrying about healing.
Next up: To High Hedge for Potions of Genius, so Dynaheir can scribe some scrolls, especially Identify, then more western wilderness, and the Nashkel Mines.
I'm reminded why I tend to like fighter-type characters for my CHARNAMES and equally reminded why micro-management of AI is so essential in the new patched game. When your cleric uses Command on a kobold instead of on Mulahey, that can be quite frustrating, especially if Mulahey's next trick is to cast hold person on two of your front liners (Khalid and Jaheira). A TPK later, I ensured Galigar had his Command used on the appropriate damn target next time. Funny how a key spell can change the whole course of a battle. Like the Amazonian fight, where a TPK also took place! Glyphs of warding do a number on mages with 7 HP, and already weakened party members. Dead Xan = no Sleep spell. No sleep spell = the rogues in that fight are going to pepper you with poison, if your other characters are all targeting the clerics in that group. The second time through, no casualties. Rasaad was already dead meat in the mines, and had yet to be raised. I love picking up Rasaad at level one. You know, when his AC is crap, he can't hit the broad side of a barn and has two melee proficiencies, but NONE in ranged. He's expensive to keep in the party, and doesn't really bring a lot to the fight at this stage. I'm keeping him for his story only, then Minsc and Dynaheir will come in.
The party has cleared the Nashkel mines, and several low level quests in and around Beregost and Nashkel. Next stop, Tranzig.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians.
Raised Dead: Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler) Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf Xan-1 at High Hedge skeletons
This happened today. The party was returning Melicamp to Thalantyr today, and the antichickenator failed once again, only to get a reprieve because my last quick save before getting zapped by lightning to death was right before then. Rasaad was the focus of skeletal knives, which cost him his life, but the remainder of the party slayed the skeletons and were on their way back to the temple when *Zap*. Dreamscape land spares our cleric and his group, as well as Melicamp his own death (Antichickentor worked on the reload).
The zoomed in shot shows the lightning killing him. Insult to injury...my cleric has the Talos boots on.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Raised Dead: Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler) Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf Xan-1 at High Hedge skeletons
@EnialusMeliamne , I keep the "show weather" box unchecked in Options to prevent death by natural lightning, as I consider it a very unfair death in a no-reload or minimal reload. Real life chances of being struck by natural lightning are on the order of 1 in millions, and it happens far, far more often than that in the game. Also, every rain, even the gentlest of showers, is a lightning storm, and it happens on almost every map, dozens and dozens of times during just a few in-game weeks. I call shenanigans on that. So it stays turned off in my game.
Kudos to you for accepting a reload on it, though. I for one don't mind if you want to uncheck the "show weather" box to prevent a repeat of the issue, but it's your choice, of course.
That, sir, is a gem of a suggestion. Thank you! I'll be doing that very thing the next time I'm in game. I fully concur with your assessment. I'll keep it as a reload, but this will be that 1 in a million that NEVER happens again.
In my games I'm amazed at how often the lightning seems to hit Jaheira. It's like: "Hey, 'nature's servant', I think nature is trying to tell you something."
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Dryads and Dead Cats
Just a quick update, not much to tell. Killed the yahoos and saved the tree, retrieved the dead cat and killed the gnolls who demanded tribute.
There was one interesting thing about the encounter with the gnoll Ingot. Back when I first played the vanilla game, I remember being amused that Ingot gave his little speech about wanting to eat the prisoner at the gnoll fortress and then walked off, even though Dynaheir was right there in the party. Now he yells "The witch has escaped!" and immediately attacks. So a nice little detail from Beamdog. (Assuming my creaky old memory is correct.)
I had to turn off Use Special Abilities in Minsc's script. He insists on using it to charm dying wolves. Now I just have to remember to use it myself.
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
Okay, I decided to let Greywolf be the death of Todaurus, because I've decided I don't want to play a shaman. This is because of a few reasons:
-Slow level progression. Using the sorcerer's xp table and spells table is supposed to be a good thing, but, from levels one to about eight or so, a druid with 18 wisdom is not only going to get exactly the same number of spells per level, but is going to get them all sooner, using druid fast level progression. Plus, the shaman needs an extra character level per spell level, that is, what spell level a druid gets at level 3, a shaman needs level 4 to get, etc. Combined with slow character level progression, this is really, really bad.
-The spirit animal summoning is too slow to be useful. By the time my shaman could summon anything, my party had already finished the battle, most of the time. I can only see this getting worse and worse as the game progresses. So, the summonses aren't really worth much. If one wants to be a summoning druid, a totemic druid is leaps and bounds better than a shaman.
So then, I thought about returning to Brother Todd's run, but, I've got that whole "Dynaheir is chunked" thing going on in that run, plus, Jaheira and Khalid took all my good tanking equipment, including the Gauntlets of Dexterity. That is really, really bad.
So, I decided to start a new character. This one will be a skald.
Meet Nicholas Todd. His first name is a tribute to Saint Nicholas, i.e., Santa Claus. I love the lore of Christmas, and so, I very often name my bards, mages, druids, and clerics after Saint Nicholas.
I have started playing with the "advanced AI" during inconsequential battles. I find that setting "attack enemy", plus either "prefer melee" or "prefer ranged", on most characters works very well. It is interesting to try to play my own character while letting the AI handle the others, as though they were real people playing their characters while I only control my own actions.
Do NOT let the AI handle spell casting or special abilities unless you want to waste every spell and ability in your party's collective repertoire on the first kobold troop you meet after resting. It appears that it's still impossible to get the Infinity Engine AI to assess threat level vis a vis party abilities, despite Beamdog's best efforts.
I have discovered that the AI for PC bards is bugged, as far as checking only "Sing Bard Song" in the PC's "advanced AI" options. As it turns out, the AI will *never* have a PC bard sing, under any circumstances. I don't know if the setting works for NPC bards. It definitely does not for PC bards. So, I have to manually start singing with my skald when I want to do that, which is 99% of the time.
Beamdog has severely nerfed the range of bard song. I have to be standing practically right behind any party member to give them the benefits of my skald song. If they get any more than about 10 feet away from me, they lose my buffing. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, it makes things much harder to play a skald appropriately. On the other hand, it makes playing a skald feel much less passive, as I have to move around in combat constantly to try to keep my buffing on all party members, especially on my front line.
My party for this character will be the canon party. I spent the better part of my play session tonight gathering them. My skald was begun with 17 charisma, but he will soon read the tome to raise that to an 18.
I love reading about other people's playthroughs I'll get cracking on my own later tonight. Freshly updated from 1.3 to the latest patch. Spent most of last night reinstalling my mods and getting out of Candlekeep.
Good luck with your Skald, MTH! Fun class, that I really wish I had the fortitude to finish a run with.
What you shared about the spirits summoning was similar to my experience as well. M'khin is a lot of fun though, so if you need a Shaman fix, maybe she can provide it.
Wanted to join the fun, created a Skald, Poots The Zauberer. Running around, completing prologue quests. The first assassin in Candlekeep crits me 3 times in a row while I roll a critical miss. Poots dies. Maybe some other day.
@toolarg , Too bad you didn't want to keep playing and sharing. "The Zauberer" is a great name for a bard or skald. "The Magician" in German, right?
(If the bad luck death bothers you to count in your reload total, you're close enough to the beginning to just start over, which is what I would have done. But I get the feeling you weren't serious about the run.)
We've been grinding levels, and still have our no-reload status. Since the last update, we've been mostly doing quests in the southwest Cloudpeaks, and we still haven't done the Nashkel Mines. Nicholas Todd is now 4th level, as is Imoen, and the rest of the party is at level 3.
There has been more and more trouble with Ajantis' and Minsc's weapons breaking, so I am currently prioritizing obtaining a magic two-handed sword for Minsc (which I just now got for him on the xvart/cow map before I logged out), and a magic long sword for Ajantis, which means I will attempt to get Greywolf's sword early in my play session tomorrow, before doing the mines.
I have decided to replace Jaheira and Khalid with Ajantis and Branwen, by the way. Clerical Remove Fear and Hold Person spells are just plain TOO good to do without a cleric in this phase of the game.
Branwen is now using Ashideena. Ajantis will use Greywolf's sword, and Minsc will eventually use Spider's Bane.
I am finding my team synergy with my skald song to be very fun and pretty darn awesome. I do wish my song hadn't been nerfed by 2.1, but at least, it's the return of an old challenge for me to play the skald class appropriately under the old short range vanilla bard song mechanics.
In battles against vastly inferior enemies, of which we are encountering more and more, I like to switch from singing to throwing daggers and darts for two and three APR. I also have crossbow proficiency so I can use sweet bolts of lightning and poison as needed. The longer I play D&D, the more the bard becomes my favorite class, even more than my other historical favorite classes of cleric, druid, paladin, and mage.
In the Infinity Engine games in particular, the mechanics and game play style of the bard fit my preferred play style perfectly, i.e., staying out of direct combat and concentrating on buffing my companions, along with all the other perks like Lore/Identify, and wand use. I honestly can't stand giving up that role to an NPC bard, which is why I don't like using Severn in the IWD NPC Project when I want to be the bard, and I don't want to use Garrick or Voghlin in BG. Every time I play something else and take an NPC bard into my party for the role, I get jealous and start wanting to restart as being the party bard myself. If I can't be the bard, then no one can be!
And oh gods, the idea of owning my own playhouse as a refuge of leisure, joy, and the arts in the horrible, violent world of Faerun, appeals to me so much, I have a *really* hard time not being a bard in BG2, just for the mere idea of the bard stronghold.
Life... is glorious!
My love of bards has been amplified in recent years by the story arc involving Elan and Tarkin in "The Order of the Stick". I think my friend @jackjack might know what I'm talking about here.
Here's my current quest journal showing what I've finished so far:
My love of bards has been amplified in recent years by the story arc involving Elan and Tarkin in "The Order of the Stick". I think my friend @jackjack might know what I'm talking about here.
The "Elan, I am your father." scene is one of my all time favorite scenes in any media.
If anyone reading this thread has never read Order of the Stick, what the heck are you waiting for? Start with comic #1, and spend a day or two reading the entire 1000 plus comics. You won't regret it. No true D&D fan should have not read Oots. http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots.html
Minor update, as I haven't played a whole lot the last few days. I did get a little bit of Galigar in, plus some Multiplayer. No role play journal update this time, as my mind really wasn't feeling it TBH.
Rasaad finally has some ranged capability...darts. He should stay alive a little easier now.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Raised Dead: Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler) Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf Xan-2 at High Hedge skeletons
Another day with minimal play of the game, but Galigar and party did manage to free Brage from his berserker state, bringing him to the Temple in Nashkel. They now are widely respected (20 rep) in the small towns and other populated areas south of the Friendly Arm Inn. They're currently situated in Beregost, and will most likely stay there for a little bit.
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Dynaheir's Revenge
Our heroes left Nashkel on their way to the gnoll fortress.
Looks like they haven't fixed the multiple Rasaad problem yet. This was reported in 1.3 also.
Michael decided to clear the lower paths before returning to the fortress proper. After reading @BelgarathMTH 's accounts of Minsc's berserk ability I realized I'd never tried it before. So this time I sent Minsc alone into the carrion crawler cave, and told him to bite his tongue.
That was fun.
I gave the charisma tome to Imoen, she's the only one in the party who would get any benefit from it.
Back up on the fortress, our heroes went through the surviving gnolls and xvarts like buzzsaw.
So everyone loaded up with as many halberds and short swords as they could carry and the party made their way towa---
We were waylaid by a WHAT?
Ok. He went down faster than I thought he would. Let's just pick up his loot and get back to Nash--
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp, charisma raised to 17 Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
Still be careful with that Minsc berserk. I found out later after using it several times that he can still be dangerous to other party members. It's usually okay if you can keep him isolated, as you did. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it any more. It's not as good as I first thought when I made that thread.
Galigar and Co. have cleared much of the Sword Coast, and are now making the push into bandit territory. Rasaad and Xan have departed the party, as has Safana after a short excursion within the group.
Current Party Roster Galigar - PoL Lvl 5 wields Ashideena, Sling + 1, Khalid - Ftr lvl 5 wields Varscona, Harrower, Longbow Jaheira - Ftr 4, Dru 4 wields Club + 1, Sling Imoen - Thief 5 wields The Whistling Sword, Shortbow +1 Minsc - Ranger 4 wields Two-handed sword, The Stupefier w/shield Dynaheir - Invoker 4 wields Sling
Former Party Members Now Departed: Rasaad - Since departed the party along the sword coast, currently in Nashkel Xan - Since departed the party in Beregost Safana - Since departed the party in Nashkel
Raised Dead: Garrick - Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler) Imoen - 1 at Dwarf Assassin Rasaad - 1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf Xan - 2 at High Hedge skeletons, 1 Sirens Safana - Sirens
Galigar and Co. cleared out the bandits, and are ready for the push into Cloakwood. No real drama to report in the areas just south of the camp. Viconia was set free, as was Baeloth, but were sent on their way.
At one point, one of the bandits in the camp area took Galigar down to 3 HP via arrows, but the party made it into a hut fast enough that death was avoided. The bandit, who followed the party in by himself, went down quick since everyone was around him when he walked in (sigh...). That was the only really drama in the bandit camp. A random Command spell here, a timely Remove Fear there (before the mage can get his fear off), and Minsc tanking the hobgoblin archer in Tarok's tent equals a very easy fight.
I'm starting to remember why I liked that Cleric run a while back.
Current Party Roster Galigar - PoL Lvl 5 wields Ashideena, Sling + 1, Khalid - Ftr lvl 5 wields Varscona, Harrower, Longbow Jaheira - Ftr 4, Dru 5 wields Club + 1, Sling Imoen - Thief 6 wields The Whistling Sword, Shortbow +1 Minsc - Ranger 5 wields Two-handed sword, The Stupefier w/shield Dynaheir - Invoker 5 wields Sling
Former Party Members Now Departed: Rasaad - Since departed the party along the sword coast, currently in Nashkel Xan - Since departed the party in Beregost Safana - Since departed the party in Nashkel
Raised Dead: Garrick - Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler) Imoen - 1 at Dwarf Assassin Rasaad - 1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf Xan - 2 at High Hedge skeletons, 1 Sirens Safana - Sirens
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Whelp, I lost my no reload to a greater wolfwere bug on Werewolf Island. I explained it in that thread, if anyone wants to read about it in more detail.
So, the last thing I accomplished tonight before the bug, was to clear out the west coast of sirens. I used Branwen's FOUR skeleton warriors, (Yay, pure classed clerics!) combined with an Invisible Dynaheir leading them, to make this easier and safer than I've ever found it before.
I always feel a bit guilty using skellie armies, though. It feels like giving in to the Dark Side. ("You don't know the POWER of the Dark Side!") Hey, wouldn't it be cool if the Imperial March started playing every time you summon an army of stormtroopers, um, I mean, skeleton warriors?
I can kind of sort of rationalize it for neutral clerics as summoning the spirits of dead heroes, sort of like in the last LotR movies. But, I dunno. I had Ajantis do a Detect Evil on them, and weirdly, two of them pinged as evil, but the other two didn't. I'm pretty sure the game considers skeletons to be neutral, as they are not affected by Holy Smite (Or at least some of them aren't.)
Hmm, I think I'll try starting a topic about this issue.
Anyway, here are two screenshots of my party with skellie warrior army decimating Sil and her siren army:
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Arrow meet gibberling... gibberling MEET ARROW!
I could have sworn heading East from the mines brought you to amazon tombs instead of gibberling mountains. Oh well, Michael doesn't know the difference.
Our heroes decided to continue their exploration of the border area near Nashkel. In a mountainous East of the mines, they encountered a large pack of gibberlings.
I've mentioned before that I'm leaving party AI on for this run through. Partly this is nostalgia. My first time playing BG with Michael, I left it on until the Flaming Fist went hostile in the late game. Partly it's to see how well it works all these years later. Playing without party AI, I've always set auto-pause on target destroyed. When I was starting the gnoll fortress, I realized I didn't need it anymore. It makes the trash-mob fights so much faster, but it really looked awesome against the gibberling pack. I marched the party right up to about half bowshot so the whole group would advance at once. It looked like a wave washing up on the beach, losing volume as it came closer.
The group agreed to help a sick man get back to the Friendly Arm and so lost a couple days of exploration before making it back to the mountains. They met a member of the Flaming Fist who said the sick man was a wanted deserter, but Michael said nothing. Odd that we don't get a chance to rat the poor boy out. Later they met a gnome who claimed to be prescient, and gave Michael a protection scroll. A fight with a pair of dire wolves gained Michael his fourth fighter level.
Party Status:
Michael: Level 4 fighter - 34 hp Shortbow, Varscona, Ankheg plate, Medium shield, RoP +1, Ring of fire resistance, Brawling hands Reloads: 1 - Cave bear
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp, charisma raised to 17 Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
I actually find the AI improvements from 2.0+ to be quite useful. My party members will now use spells and items of their own accord. Could it be improved? Sure, but it's a big step up from the base scripts I had before.
I got a second reload in the grand dukes' palace! Darn. I haven't failed here in ages. I'm not even sure what went wrong. We had an army of summons, all hasted. I think my mistake may have been holding all the party members but Minsc and the summons back in the corners, trying to use ranged weapons, instead of getting most of the party mixed up in the middle of things, to body block the doppelgangers. At least a couple of them were greater doppelgangers.
Here is a screen shot from the second time when we succeeded, barely. The last duke is down to two hit point bubbles, and the remaining doppelgangers were concentrating attacks on him, as all of the others had. In this battle, I started finding the new health bar feature to be especially useful, for keeping a close eye on Duke Belt's hp. The lady duke always goes down within one or two rounds, no matter what I do.
So now, next play session, we will go under the Thieves' Guild, into the maze, and the lead up to the final battle of BG1.
We have defeated Sarevok in glorious, honorable combat!
Our basic strategy was to consume every potion we had been hoarding for the whole game. Climactic battles like this one are why potion hoarding players exist. The battle where "we're going to need these potions later" is this one. Both warriors drank potions of Storm Giant Strength, Invulnerability, and Heroism. Everybody in the party drank an Oil of Speed, and a Potion of Fire Resistance, so we could throw Fireballs, Arrows of Detonation, Flaming Potions, and Flame Strikes willy nilly all over the place with all six party members. Everybody except Branwen (I only had five and had to prioritize) drank Potions of Magic Blocking and Shielding. I took our only Potion of Clarity we'd been saving. There may have been a few other potions in there I'm forgetting. Basically we consumed an entire apothecary's shop worth of potions.
Once inside, Branwen summoned all of her skeleton warriors, and Dynaheir summoned an orc archer and a wolf for good measure. Then Branwen cast Remove Fear, Protection from Evil 10', and Dynaheir cast Haste on the summons.
Turned out, Dynaheir's summons had such short duration they disappeared by the time Imoen could get some of the battle horror traps disarmed. Minsc charmed a bat to try to help with scouting, and Dynaheir cast Invisibility on Minsc so he could try to throw the first Fireball from out of sight. I didn't risk bringing the whole party up close to the altar, because, "I had a bad feeling about this."
Despite all this, it was a very, very close call, and we all almost died.
The summoned skeletons went down almost instantly in all the Fireballs. I think they managed to delay Sarevok's onslaught for about a round. Tazok and Angelo were nowhere to be seen - I think they got so wounded by Minsc's first Flaming Potion and then Arrow of Detonation at Sarevok that they just stayed cowering in one of the corners. I never saw them.
Sarevok and Semaj were plenty to "handle" us, though, if Oghma hadn't been protecting us.
Somehow one battle horror came out, despite Imoen's having disarmed all the side traps we could find.
Things look very dire in this screen shot. Branwen is confused (because I didn't have enough potions to cover her), but luckily she kept slinging at Semaj. Sarevok and the battle horror have almost killed Minsc, whom I finally sent into melee, in two rounds.
Victory! Fittingly, I get the final blow with my last Magic Missile spell. The mighty Sarevok, brought down by a lowly bard and a first level spell. People really should take us bards more seriously, you know. We are masters of the story itself.
Now we are ready to begin SoD, after apparently some time has passed, but Sarevok has remaining followers threatening the city that we must "clean up" in order to stabilize Baldur's Gate.
There was a glitch in the transition to SoD where Minsc came up naked, and Dynaheir gave her "Oh, no, Minsc, you died" line. I think it must have been that he somehow took another hit during the round after Sarevok died. I did not accept that, especially not the loss of the Gloves of Dexterity. I went back to my "Final Save", and did nothing but let it end again. When it went through the transition process that time, Minsc came up in SoD fully equipped. I have no idea what really happened with that. I am not counting it as a reload.
Branwen and Ajantis are still present, but have indicated they will leave soon. Does "soon" mean after we leave the dungeon and go up into BG City, or will they leave during the dungeon? I am not a fan of having to worry about who is going to walk off with my best equipment, and when are they going to do it. Jaheira and Khalid gave me no warning at all when they took half of my best stuff that I'd worked so hard to obtain.
I know that BG2 pretty much starts you all over with equipment, and justifies that in the story. I am not liking this half-arsed approach of "You have your stuff at the beginning of SoD, but most party members are going to walk away with it, guess when, and who, ha ha. Two or three of them will stay with you and let you keep whatever is on them if you make a lucky guess."
So far, I think the only safe NPC's to allow to carry or use anything but the most basic of equipment that you want to hang on to are Minsc, Safana, and Dynaheir. Putting anything valuable on anyone else is done at your own risk, and will likely be lost for most or all of the game.
I think this time, if any plot critical characters get chunked (Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira when I have them), I will take a reload.
Comments
Game Play Guidelines: Core Rules, Minimal Reload, Canon Party, Max HP. Reloads on Imoen/Dynaheir chunk or PC death. Anyone else and we're trudging back to a temple or PC raises them from the dead. One TPK indicates a dream sequence for CHARNAME. Additional TPK in the same area that has already been reloaded, and it's curtains for CHARNAME, indicated that he failed to follow the foreshadowing of the dream.
Update: Galigar is at the Friendly Arm Inn, about to embark, along with Khalid and Jaheira. Jaheira sought Silvanus' guidance on the intent of personnel within the Friendly Arm Inn, and pointed out to Galigar that Zxar and Montaron were of an evil bent. Galigar, who up to this point only knew that Zxar was a mage and Montaron a thief who helped slay the bounty hunter who accosted them, parted company with the pair immediately before departing out of the Inn.
Observation: Command has never been an overrated spell, but's nice when Tarnesh decides to take a nap nap leading to the dirt nap, before he can even begin his first spell on the staircase.
MTF.
Sigh. I did a stupid thing and got myself killed. I decided to go up against Greywolf to try to get his sword for Ajantis. I knew it was a risk, and I went and tried it anyway. I could have sworn that Greywolf attacked the character that talked to him. But now, there are shenanigans where he walks around your whole formation and insists on attacking Charname first. I tried to do some repositioning and kiting, and I managed to get him to switch targets to Minsc briefly, but he hit Minsc, almost killing him, and I was running in the same direction Minsc needed to go, blocking his way. While I was trying to save both myself and Minsc, Greywolf managed to get a swipe in at me, and that was all she wrote.
I like @EnialusMeliamne 's idea of allowing the first death to an encounter to be a prophetic dream. So, I decided NOT to try this a second time. We'll come back when we're a higher level.
The rest of tonight's play session was spent rescuing Dynaheir. We took the southern route through the wilderness on the way, encountering Vax, Alfred and Rufie, the Nymph and her Tree, and the Little Girl's Cat.
Vax was the most interesting battle. We had horrible luck, and they managed to kill Branwen despite our best efforts, and her wearing ankheg plate and having AC -2.
You can barely see it in the trees in the second screen shot here, but my two spirit animals I managed to summon, a snake and a wolf, saved us here, by drawing all Vax and his friend's aggro away from our struggling party. What I am finding about the shaman's spirit animals is that they do low damage, but they are very, very hard to kill for the enemies so far, and, they seem to be very, very good at drawing aggro once they're out on the board. (It takes a long time to summon them, though, and the shaman has slow level progression, sharing an xp table with mages.)
After rescuing Dynaheir, we decided to explore the area north of the gnoll stronghold before heading back east to safer territory. We killed a polar bear and an ogre berserker by kiting. I decided this area was too dangerous, and we should head back east before finishing up our exploration of the area. (No-reload metaknowledge - we were not in any way prepared to deal with the ogre berserkers and hobgoblin poisoned arrows on the north bridge. We would have surely died there at this point.)
Against the ogre berserker, I was having a hard time keeping his aggro where I wanted it, until I managed to summon two spirit snakes, and then, he obligingly stayed on the snakes, which he couldn't hit often or damage very much. I'm finding these spirit animals to be terrible DPS, but most excellent tanks. Also, I made level two, and I now have *eight* Cure Light Wounds spells, freeing Branwen to memorize Command, Remove Fear, and Sanctuary instead of worrying about healing.
Next up: To High Hedge for Potions of Genius, so Dynaheir can scribe some scrolls, especially Identify, then more western wilderness, and the Nashkel Mines.
Reloads: 1 - Greywolf
Like the Amazonian fight, where a TPK also took place! Glyphs of warding do a number on mages with 7 HP, and already weakened party members. Dead Xan = no Sleep spell. No sleep spell = the rogues in that fight are going to pepper you with poison, if your other characters are all targeting the clerics in that group. The second time through, no casualties. Rasaad was already dead meat in the mines, and had yet to be raised.
I love picking up Rasaad at level one. You know, when his AC is crap, he can't hit the broad side of a barn and has two melee proficiencies, but NONE in ranged. He's expensive to keep in the party, and doesn't really bring a lot to the fight at this stage. I'm keeping him for his story only, then Minsc and Dynaheir will come in.
The party has cleared the Nashkel mines, and several low level quests in and around Beregost and Nashkel. Next stop, Tranzig.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians.
Raised Dead:
Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler)
Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin
Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf
Xan-1 at High Hedge skeletons
The zoomed in shot shows the lightning killing him. Insult to injury...my cleric has the Talos boots on.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Raised Dead:
Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler)
Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin
Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf
Xan-1 at High Hedge skeletons
Kudos to you for accepting a reload on it, though. I for one don't mind if you want to uncheck the "show weather" box to prevent a repeat of the issue, but it's your choice, of course.
Bhaalspawn Battlemage
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Dryads and Dead Cats
Just a quick update, not much to tell. Killed the yahoos and saved the tree, retrieved the dead cat and killed the gnolls who demanded tribute.There was one interesting thing about the encounter with the gnoll Ingot. Back when I first played the vanilla game, I remember being amused that Ingot gave his little speech about wanting to eat the prisoner at the gnoll fortress and then walked off, even though Dynaheir was right there in the party. Now he yells "The witch has escaped!" and immediately attacks. So a nice little detail from Beamdog. (Assuming my creaky old memory is correct.)
I had to turn off Use Special Abilities in Minsc's script. He insists on using it to charm dying wolves. Now I just have to remember to use it myself.
Party Status:
Shortbow, Varscona, Ankheg plate, Medium shield, RoP +1, Brawling hands
Reloads: 1 - Cave bear
Minsc: Level 3 ranger - 33 hp
2h sword, Composite longbow, Dual maces, Plate mail, RoP +1, Dale's protector
Deaths: 1 - Mulahey
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp
Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp
Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web
Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp
Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal
Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
Khalid: Level 3 fighter - 39 hp
Longbow, Longsword +1, Battle axe, Throwing axes, Splint mail, Medium shield, RoP +1
Deaths: 2 - Neira, Mulahey
Next - Dynaheir's revenge...
How goes your run, @Graf_Wasili?
-Slow level progression. Using the sorcerer's xp table and spells table is supposed to be a good thing, but, from levels one to about eight or so, a druid with 18 wisdom is not only going to get exactly the same number of spells per level, but is going to get them all sooner, using druid fast level progression. Plus, the shaman needs an extra character level per spell level, that is, what spell level a druid gets at level 3, a shaman needs level 4 to get, etc. Combined with slow character level progression, this is really, really bad.
-The spirit animal summoning is too slow to be useful. By the time my shaman could summon anything, my party had already finished the battle, most of the time. I can only see this getting worse and worse as the game progresses. So, the summonses aren't really worth much. If one wants to be a summoning druid, a totemic druid is leaps and bounds better than a shaman.
So then, I thought about returning to Brother Todd's run, but, I've got that whole "Dynaheir is chunked" thing going on in that run, plus, Jaheira and Khalid took all my good tanking equipment, including the Gauntlets of Dexterity. That is really, really bad.
So, I decided to start a new character. This one will be a skald.
Meet Nicholas Todd. His first name is a tribute to Saint Nicholas, i.e., Santa Claus. I love the lore of Christmas, and so, I very often name my bards, mages, druids, and clerics after Saint Nicholas.
I have started playing with the "advanced AI" during inconsequential battles. I find that setting "attack enemy", plus either "prefer melee" or "prefer ranged", on most characters works very well. It is interesting to try to play my own character while letting the AI handle the others, as though they were real people playing their characters while I only control my own actions.
Do NOT let the AI handle spell casting or special abilities unless you want to waste every spell and ability in your party's collective repertoire on the first kobold troop you meet after resting. It appears that it's still impossible to get the Infinity Engine AI to assess threat level vis a vis party abilities, despite Beamdog's best efforts.
I have discovered that the AI for PC bards is bugged, as far as checking only "Sing Bard Song" in the PC's "advanced AI" options. As it turns out, the AI will *never* have a PC bard sing, under any circumstances. I don't know if the setting works for NPC bards. It definitely does not for PC bards. So, I have to manually start singing with my skald when I want to do that, which is 99% of the time.
Beamdog has severely nerfed the range of bard song. I have to be standing practically right behind any party member to give them the benefits of my skald song. If they get any more than about 10 feet away from me, they lose my buffing. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, it makes things much harder to play a skald appropriately. On the other hand, it makes playing a skald feel much less passive, as I have to move around in combat constantly to try to keep my buffing on all party members, especially on my front line.
My party for this character will be the canon party. I spent the better part of my play session tonight gathering them. My skald was begun with 17 charisma, but he will soon read the tome to raise that to an 18.
Here is our first rainbow pose of this run:
Reloads: 0
What you shared about the spirits summoning was similar to my experience as well. M'khin is a lot of fun though, so if you need a Shaman fix, maybe she can provide it.
(If the bad luck death bothers you to count in your reload total, you're close enough to the beginning to just start over, which is what I would have done. But I get the feeling you weren't serious about the run.)
We've been grinding levels, and still have our no-reload status. Since the last update, we've been mostly doing quests in the southwest Cloudpeaks, and we still haven't done the Nashkel Mines. Nicholas Todd is now 4th level, as is Imoen, and the rest of the party is at level 3.
There has been more and more trouble with Ajantis' and Minsc's weapons breaking, so I am currently prioritizing obtaining a magic two-handed sword for Minsc (which I just now got for him on the xvart/cow map before I logged out), and a magic long sword for Ajantis, which means I will attempt to get Greywolf's sword early in my play session tomorrow, before doing the mines.
I have decided to replace Jaheira and Khalid with Ajantis and Branwen, by the way. Clerical Remove Fear and Hold Person spells are just plain TOO good to do without a cleric in this phase of the game.
Branwen is now using Ashideena. Ajantis will use Greywolf's sword, and Minsc will eventually use Spider's Bane.
I am finding my team synergy with my skald song to be very fun and pretty darn awesome. I do wish my song hadn't been nerfed by 2.1, but at least, it's the return of an old challenge for me to play the skald class appropriately under the old short range vanilla bard song mechanics.
In battles against vastly inferior enemies, of which we are encountering more and more, I like to switch from singing to throwing daggers and darts for two and three APR. I also have crossbow proficiency so I can use sweet bolts of lightning and poison as needed. The longer I play D&D, the more the bard becomes my favorite class, even more than my other historical favorite classes of cleric, druid, paladin, and mage.
In the Infinity Engine games in particular, the mechanics and game play style of the bard fit my preferred play style perfectly, i.e., staying out of direct combat and concentrating on buffing my companions, along with all the other perks like Lore/Identify, and wand use. I honestly can't stand giving up that role to an NPC bard, which is why I don't like using Severn in the IWD NPC Project when I want to be the bard, and I don't want to use Garrick or Voghlin in BG. Every time I play something else and take an NPC bard into my party for the role, I get jealous and start wanting to restart as being the party bard myself. If I can't be the bard, then no one can be!
And oh gods, the idea of owning my own playhouse as a refuge of leisure, joy, and the arts in the horrible, violent world of Faerun, appeals to me so much, I have a *really* hard time not being a bard in BG2, just for the mere idea of the bard stronghold.
Life... is glorious!
My love of bards has been amplified in recent years by the story arc involving Elan and Tarkin in "The Order of the Stick". I think my friend @jackjack might know what I'm talking about here.
Here's my current quest journal showing what I've finished so far:
reloads: 0
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0723.html
If anyone reading this thread has never read Order of the Stick, what the heck are you waiting for? Start with comic #1, and spend a day or two reading the entire 1000 plus comics. You won't regret it. No true D&D fan should have not read Oots.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots.html
Rasaad finally has some ranged capability...darts. He should stay alive a little easier now.
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Raised Dead:
Garrick- Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler)
Imoen-1 at Dwarf Assassin
Rasaad-1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf
Xan-2 at High Hedge skeletons
I think I am going to move this run temporarily to @Ygramul 's no-reload thread. I hope I don't jinx it.
I have a feeling I'll be back here with my tail between my legs quite soon.
Another day with minimal play of the game, but Galigar and party did manage to free Brage from his berserker state, bringing him to the Temple in Nashkel. They now are widely respected (20 rep) in the small towns and other populated areas south of the Friendly Arm Inn. They're currently situated in Beregost, and will most likely stay there for a little bit.
Bhaalspawn Battlemage
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Dynaheir's Revenge
Our heroes left Nashkel on their way to the gnoll fortress.Michael decided to clear the lower paths before returning to the fortress proper. After reading @BelgarathMTH 's accounts of Minsc's berserk ability I realized I'd never tried it before. So this time I sent Minsc alone into the carrion crawler cave, and told him to bite his tongue.
That was fun.
I gave the charisma tome to Imoen, she's the only one in the party who would get any benefit from it.
Back up on the fortress, our heroes went through the surviving gnolls and xvarts like buzzsaw.
So everyone loaded up with as many halberds and short swords as they could carry and the party made their way towa---
We were waylaid by a WHAT?
Ok. He went down faster than I thought he would.
Let's just pick up his loot and get back to Nash--
We were waylaid by a WHAT?
So, maybe that waylaying paid off.
Party Status:
Shortbow, Varscona, Ankheg plate, Medium shield, RoP +1, Brawling hands
Reloads: 1 - Cave bear
Minsc: Level 3 ranger - 33 hp
2h sword, Composite longbow, Dual maces, Plate mail, RoP +1, Dale's protector
Deaths: 1 - Mulahey
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp, charisma raised to 17
Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp
Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web
Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp
Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal
Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
Khalid: Level 3 fighter - 39 hp
Longbow, Longsword +1, Battle axe, Throwing axes, Splint mail, Medium shield, RoP +1
Deaths: 2 - Neira, Mulahey
Next - Amazons and oozels, are very confusels...
Current Party Roster
Galigar - PoL Lvl 5 wields Ashideena, Sling + 1,
Khalid - Ftr lvl 5 wields Varscona, Harrower, Longbow
Jaheira - Ftr 4, Dru 4 wields Club + 1, Sling
Imoen - Thief 5 wields The Whistling Sword, Shortbow +1
Minsc - Ranger 4 wields Two-handed sword, The Stupefier w/shield
Dynaheir - Invoker 4 wields Sling
Former Party Members Now Departed:
Rasaad - Since departed the party along the sword coast, currently in Nashkel
Xan - Since departed the party in Beregost
Safana - Since departed the party in Nashkel
Raised Dead:
Garrick - Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler)
Imoen - 1 at Dwarf Assassin
Rasaad - 1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf
Xan - 2 at High Hedge skeletons, 1 Sirens
Safana - Sirens
At one point, one of the bandits in the camp area took Galigar down to 3 HP via arrows, but the party made it into a hut fast enough that death was avoided. The bandit, who followed the party in by himself, went down quick since everyone was around him when he walked in (sigh...). That was the only really drama in the bandit camp. A random Command spell here, a timely Remove Fear there (before the mage can get his fear off), and Minsc tanking the hobgoblin archer in Tarok's tent equals a very easy fight.
I'm starting to remember why I liked that Cleric run a while back.
Current Party Roster
Galigar - PoL Lvl 5 wields Ashideena, Sling + 1,
Khalid - Ftr lvl 5 wields Varscona, Harrower, Longbow
Jaheira - Ftr 4, Dru 5 wields Club + 1, Sling
Imoen - Thief 6 wields The Whistling Sword, Shortbow +1
Minsc - Ranger 5 wields Two-handed sword, The Stupefier w/shield
Dynaheir - Invoker 5 wields Sling
Former Party Members Now Departed:
Rasaad - Since departed the party along the sword coast, currently in Nashkel
Xan - Since departed the party in Beregost
Safana - Since departed the party in Nashkel
Raised Dead:
Garrick - Red Wizards (Since departed the party at the Jovial Juggler)
Imoen - 1 at Dwarf Assassin
Rasaad - 1 at Dwarf Assassin, 1 at 2nd lvl of mines, 1 at High Hedge Skeletons, 1 at Greywolf
Xan - 2 at High Hedge skeletons, 1 Sirens
Safana - Sirens
RELOADS: 1 at Mulahey, 1 at Amazonians, 1 lightning strike at High Hedge.
Whelp, I lost my no reload to a greater wolfwere bug on Werewolf Island. I explained it in that thread, if anyone wants to read about it in more detail.
So, the last thing I accomplished tonight before the bug, was to clear out the west coast of sirens. I used Branwen's FOUR skeleton warriors, (Yay, pure classed clerics!) combined with an Invisible Dynaheir leading them, to make this easier and safer than I've ever found it before.
I always feel a bit guilty using skellie armies, though. It feels like giving in to the Dark Side. ("You don't know the POWER of the Dark Side!") Hey, wouldn't it be cool if the Imperial March started playing every time you summon an army of stormtroopers, um, I mean, skeleton warriors?
I can kind of sort of rationalize it for neutral clerics as summoning the spirits of dead heroes, sort of like in the last LotR movies. But, I dunno. I had Ajantis do a Detect Evil on them, and weirdly, two of them pinged as evil, but the other two didn't. I'm pretty sure the game considers skeletons to be neutral, as they are not affected by Holy Smite (Or at least some of them aren't.)
Hmm, I think I'll try starting a topic about this issue.
Anyway, here are two screenshots of my party with skellie warrior army decimating Sil and her siren army:
Reloads 1: Greater Wolfwere
Bhaalspawn Battlemage
A minimal reload run of Baldur's Gate - Siege of Dragonspear - Baldur's Gate II - TOB
Arrow meet gibberling... gibberling MEET ARROW!
I could have sworn heading East from the mines brought you to amazon tombs instead of gibberling mountains. Oh well, Michael doesn't know the difference.Our heroes decided to continue their exploration of the border area near Nashkel. In a mountainous East of the mines, they encountered a large pack of gibberlings.
I've mentioned before that I'm leaving party AI on for this run through. Partly this is nostalgia. My first time playing BG with Michael, I left it on until the Flaming Fist went hostile in the late game. Partly it's to see how well it works all these years later. Playing without party AI, I've always set auto-pause on target destroyed. When I was starting the gnoll fortress, I realized I didn't need it anymore. It makes the trash-mob fights so much faster, but it really looked awesome against the gibberling pack. I marched the party right up to about half bowshot so the whole group would advance at once. It looked like a wave washing up on the beach, losing volume as it came closer.
The group agreed to help a sick man get back to the Friendly Arm and so lost a couple days of exploration before making it back to the mountains. They met a member of the Flaming Fist who said the sick man was a wanted deserter, but Michael said nothing. Odd that we don't get a chance to rat the poor boy out. Later they met a gnome who claimed to be prescient, and gave Michael a protection scroll. A fight with a pair of dire wolves gained Michael his fourth fighter level.
Party Status:
Shortbow, Varscona, Ankheg plate, Medium shield, RoP +1, Ring of fire resistance, Brawling hands
Reloads: 1 - Cave bear
Minsc: Level 3 ranger - 33 hp
2h sword, Composite longbow, Dual maces, Plate mail, RoP +1, Dale's protector
Deaths: 1 - Mulahey
Imoen: Level 4 thief - 29 hp, charisma raised to 17
Shortbow, Short sword +1, Studded leather +2
Dynaheir: Level 3 invoker - 18 hp
Magic missile, Chromatic orb, Web
Sling, Dagger, Knave's robe, Evermemory, One gift lost
Jaheira: Level 3 fighter / Level 3 druid - 36 hp
Cure light wounds, Bless, Charm person or mammal
Sling +1, Club +1, Splint mail, Small shield +1, Honorary ring of Sune
Khalid: Level 3 fighter - 39 hp
Longbow, Longsword +1, Battle axe, Throwing axes, Splint mail, Medium shield, RoP +1
Deaths: 2 - Neira, Mulahey
Next - Amazons and oozels, are very confusels...
I actually find the AI improvements from 2.0+ to be quite useful. My party members will now use spells and items of their own accord. Could it be improved? Sure, but it's a big step up from the base scripts I had before.
I got a second reload in the grand dukes' palace! Darn. I haven't failed here in ages. I'm not even sure what went wrong. We had an army of summons, all hasted. I think my mistake may have been holding all the party members but Minsc and the summons back in the corners, trying to use ranged weapons, instead of getting most of the party mixed up in the middle of things, to body block the doppelgangers. At least a couple of them were greater doppelgangers.
Here is a screen shot from the second time when we succeeded, barely. The last duke is down to two hit point bubbles, and the remaining doppelgangers were concentrating attacks on him, as all of the others had. In this battle, I started finding the new health bar feature to be especially useful, for keeping a close eye on Duke Belt's hp. The lady duke always goes down within one or two rounds, no matter what I do.
So now, next play session, we will go under the Thieves' Guild, into the maze, and the lead up to the final battle of BG1.
Reloads: 2 - Greater Wolfwere, Ducal Palace
We have defeated Sarevok in glorious, honorable combat!
Our basic strategy was to consume every potion we had been hoarding for the whole game. Climactic battles like this one are why potion hoarding players exist. The battle where "we're going to need these potions later" is this one. Both warriors drank potions of Storm Giant Strength, Invulnerability, and Heroism. Everybody in the party drank an Oil of Speed, and a Potion of Fire Resistance, so we could throw Fireballs, Arrows of Detonation, Flaming Potions, and Flame Strikes willy nilly all over the place with all six party members. Everybody except Branwen (I only had five and had to prioritize) drank Potions of Magic Blocking and Shielding. I took our only Potion of Clarity we'd been saving. There may have been a few other potions in there I'm forgetting. Basically we consumed an entire apothecary's shop worth of potions.
Once inside, Branwen summoned all of her skeleton warriors, and Dynaheir summoned an orc archer and a wolf for good measure. Then Branwen cast Remove Fear, Protection from Evil 10', and Dynaheir cast Haste on the summons.
Turned out, Dynaheir's summons had such short duration they disappeared by the time Imoen could get some of the battle horror traps disarmed. Minsc charmed a bat to try to help with scouting, and Dynaheir cast Invisibility on Minsc so he could try to throw the first Fireball from out of sight. I didn't risk bringing the whole party up close to the altar, because, "I had a bad feeling about this."
Despite all this, it was a very, very close call, and we all almost died.
The summoned skeletons went down almost instantly in all the Fireballs. I think they managed to delay Sarevok's onslaught for about a round. Tazok and Angelo were nowhere to be seen - I think they got so wounded by Minsc's first Flaming Potion and then Arrow of Detonation at Sarevok that they just stayed cowering in one of the corners. I never saw them.
Sarevok and Semaj were plenty to "handle" us, though, if Oghma hadn't been protecting us.
Somehow one battle horror came out, despite Imoen's having disarmed all the side traps we could find.
Things look very dire in this screen shot. Branwen is confused (because I didn't have enough potions to cover her), but luckily she kept slinging at Semaj. Sarevok and the battle horror have almost killed Minsc, whom I finally sent into melee, in two rounds.
Victory! Fittingly, I get the final blow with my last Magic Missile spell. The mighty Sarevok, brought down by a lowly bard and a first level spell. People really should take us bards more seriously, you know. We are masters of the story itself.
Now we are ready to begin SoD, after apparently some time has passed, but Sarevok has remaining followers threatening the city that we must "clean up" in order to stabilize Baldur's Gate.
There was a glitch in the transition to SoD where Minsc came up naked, and Dynaheir gave her "Oh, no, Minsc, you died" line. I think it must have been that he somehow took another hit during the round after Sarevok died. I did not accept that, especially not the loss of the Gloves of Dexterity. I went back to my "Final Save", and did nothing but let it end again. When it went through the transition process that time, Minsc came up in SoD fully equipped. I have no idea what really happened with that. I am not counting it as a reload.
Branwen and Ajantis are still present, but have indicated they will leave soon. Does "soon" mean after we leave the dungeon and go up into BG City, or will they leave during the dungeon? I am not a fan of having to worry about who is going to walk off with my best equipment, and when are they going to do it. Jaheira and Khalid gave me no warning at all when they took half of my best stuff that I'd worked so hard to obtain.
I know that BG2 pretty much starts you all over with equipment, and justifies that in the story. I am not liking this half-arsed approach of "You have your stuff at the beginning of SoD, but most party members are going to walk away with it, guess when, and who, ha ha. Two or three of them will stay with you and let you keep whatever is on them if you make a lucky guess."
So far, I think the only safe NPC's to allow to carry or use anything but the most basic of equipment that you want to hang on to are Minsc, Safana, and Dynaheir. Putting anything valuable on anyone else is done at your own risk, and will likely be lost for most or all of the game.
I think this time, if any plot critical characters get chunked (Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira when I have them), I will take a reload.
So, next up, into SoD.
Reloads 2: Greater Wolfwere, Ducal Palace