I don't have the patience to spend many hours endlessly kiting.
Well, Legacy of Bhaal is not for everyone. This mode is for those who want exactly what it brings. There's no "right" level of difficulty, each player can decide on his own. And besides, this mode offers much more than "kite everything", as the following chapter shows. Those who don't want to play in LoB mode, can at least read about my experience of trying it
Dealing with Mulahey
After clearing their way to the final chamber of the Nashkel Mines, the party finally rested (for the first time since Branwen joined) and was ready to deal with Mulahey.
Invisible Kivan went close to the half-orc and spoke to him out of nowhere. So that the cleric didn't move from his starting place. After Mulahey said to look in his chest, Phillip commanded everyone to prepare. Kagain, who used a potion of stone giant (the party had only one but it was well worth it, 16 STR -> 20 STR is a big increase), stood right in front of the half-orc. Montaron hid in shadows and prepared his Varscona for a backstab. Branwen summoned 2 skeletons and put them at the room's entrance. Phillip gulped a potion of speed (just in case).
Everything was ready for opening the chest.
After Branwen opened the chest Mulahey began the fight. An immediate backstab by Montaron followed. 39 damage was only enough to "barely injure" the half-orc.
Then Kivan hit Mulahey and interrupted his casting. Branwen was busy with casting Chant to lower saving throws of the enemy and improve the party's potential. Phillip was singing. Two summoned skeletons blocked the way for kobolds and enemy skeletons to the room.
Kagain interrupted a new casting by Mulahey, while Branwen switched to casting Hold Person. The summmoned skeletons still blocked the entrance.
And then Mulahey failed his saving throw against Hold Person.
Everyone could start to quickly attack him. Montaron took the second sword, Phillip started firing arrows. It had to be done quickly before the summoned skeletons are not defeated. Xzar horrored several kobolds.
Soon Mulahey was dead, not returning from his Hold status. Phillip took everything from the half-orc's corpse. The party needed to kill one or two enemy skeletons to be able to leave the chamber. The summoned skeletons were killed, but Kagain had a lot of HPs and walking Branwen took the attention of several enemies.
After the way our was relatively open, the party left the room.
Success!
As you can see, old tricks work on the LoB mode. Lowering the saving throws, using holding spells, using available potions - it all "clicked" this time and let to finish this fight. Overall, this fight (and the Mines in general) proved to be a good alternative to the SCS version of the Mines, when you kill hordes of kobolds everytime using 1 charge of the necklace of fireballs and finishing Mulahey in 5-10 seconds thanks to aggregate attack of all party members.
That was cool to read. I recall my 3-4 lvl party on LoB had to use everything in their disposal to win that fight, and it was really refreshing in the way... ... ... Despite the fact that LoB difficulty is challenging in very cheap way, of course.
So, after hearing this and understanding they couldn't let any more Reputation increases due to having evil characters in the group (and the Nashkel' mayor was going to increase their reputation), Phillip the Jester commanded to act in not a "goody two-shoes" way:
A man from the note found in the Mulahey's chest, Tranzig, had his own debt to Branwen. Being petrified is not something that could be forgiven. This is why he didn't get any mercy from Phillip.
From Tranzig, the party found out where the bandit camp was located. After arriving there, Phillip and Co slowly went through bandits who guarded the main tent.
Kivan, under the effects of potions of Agility and Heroism, tried his best in hitting an armoured captain, Taurgosz, from the shadows. But even 2 hours (while the potions were active) weren't enough to fihish him.
Then Branwen summoned 3 skeletons and the joint effort of everyone meant the party now got the full plate and shield +2.
Summons are stronger with the LoB mode but (so far) not stronger than enemies. The skellies could help against several bandits but in the end all of them were defeated.
Soon afterwards, the party had its first deaths. Kagain, Xzar and Kivan - they all fell.
The game's time showed Day 41, Hour 17. Travelling to the FAI would take 16 hours, so the 7-day limit (from the time Montaron was hired) would be reached.
It meant Phillip couldn't resurrect his fallen comrades and had only one way - to continue.
The group rested and then with the help of 3 skeletons defeated the rest of bandits who were in this part of the camp.
Now the entrance to the main tent was open. Many containers around were available to the party as well. It was time for Montaron - his final hours in the group had to be the most useful.
He hid in the shadows and found that the main tent was full of warriors, good-trained from the look of them. No way Phillip, Branwen and Monty could kill them now.
So Montaron disarmed a trap on the tent's main chest, looted it, chatted with Ender Sai and left the tent invisibly.
From the papers found in the chest it was obvious the next destination had to be a hidden bandit base in Cloakwood. Taking everything they could bring, the party returned to the FAI, where Phillip said goodbye to Branwen and Montaron, thanking them for their contribution. Now, he had a task of gathering a new party which could help him in Cloakwood.
Phillip had about 4000 gp, so he decided to buy spell scrolls he hadn't found (at the High Hedge), as well as buy 3 potions of Genius (at the FAI temple) to get a 100% scribing chance (base 13 INT + (4*3 INT from the potions)).
After that, Phillip no longer travelled on his own - a dragon familiar became a constant friend of his. Also, learned spells let Phillip such things as invisible travelling (to be safe from being waylaid by enemies) and carrying heavy things (due to the Strength spell), like the body of Samuel.
But most importantly, new spells let Phillip take on basilisks that were still left in the Mutamin's garden. Now, Phillip had to release his familiar (whom he called Trent), cast Protection from Petrification on himself and then cast Web on a basilisk to increase the number of successful hits.
After that, Phillip rested and repeated the procedure. Finally, he reached the next level, bringing him 2 HPs and the 3rd spell level.
The 3rd spell level meant an availability of Minor Spell Deflection. Now, he could take on the mad gnome himself.
Shield - Resist Fear - Minor Spell Deflection (and Mirror Image as a backup for the case MSD wears off)
Mutamin casted Horror - to no effect. Then he casted Melf's Acid Arrow 2 times, again to no effect.
The effect of MSD went away, Phillip immediately casted Mirror Image. One of Mutamin's Melf's Acid Arrows went through Mirror Image, so Phillip had to cure light wounds with the special abilities. Larloch's Minor Drain by Mutamin was useless due to Images.
Then Mutamin ran out of spells.
It was time for Phillip to release Trent (I reiterate, his dragon familiar). All resemblance purely coincidental.
The familiar let Phillip patiently kill Mutamin with arrows.
Now, with spells, Phillip no longer was a one-trick pony and let's hope it was only the beginning of his tale.
Phillip travelled to the Ulgoth's Beard. Due to being a bard and not getting any pickpocket penalties, Phillip succeeded in stealing the ring of free action (what's the point of being a bard if you don't try to pickpocket people):
Now, with this ring, Phillip could use his 2 Web spells (Phillip had only 2 second level spell slots) to the fullest. He started with Bassilus. As soon as the evil cleric ended his speech, Phillip retreeted and then casted Web, waiting till Bassilus failed his saving throw.
After that Phillip attacked the unprotected enemy with arrows of biting. It helped greatly to reduce LoB HPs quicker. When the effect of second Web ended, Bassilus was Near Death. Trent helped our jester a bit, drawing attention of the cleric while Phillip was firing arrows.
On the same area Phillip met a talking chicken. Before they could continue their dialogue, Phillip had to protect the chicken from a wolf. Phillip casted Spook, and so the wolf stopped chasing him. Then Phillip casted Web. The wolf failed his saving throw, while our jester was immune to Web because of Free Action. Again, at the moment the effect of second Web ended, the enemy was Near Death, so it required only several rounds of Trent flying around to finish the wolf.
The same tactic was used agains a skeleton on the next map, with additional Hold Undead on top of 2 Webs.
The talking chicken, Melicamp, survived Antichickenator, and returned to this human form. Probably due to not having any saving throw penalties, unlike our jester.
A reward of 5000 gp for killing Bassilus was spent on buying 100 arrows of biting.
After that, Phillip travelled to the Gnoll Stronghold and there used his favourite combination of Spook - Web - Hold Person - Web on two ogrillions protecting the Gauntlets of Dexterity.
Now, Phillip could choose between Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (against held monsters) and Gauntlets of Dexterity (when using a bow against those who are not held) when attacking enemies.
Thanks to an availability of 2 Invisibility spells per rest Phillip could loot containers without fighting. Invisible, he opened the container, quickly took everything he needed, and casted new Invisibility. This way, Phillip got 2 tomes, increasing his CHA and CON. An increase of CON was more or less useless for Phillip (from 10 to 11), but an increase of CHA came handy, and with the Algernon's cloak he now had 20 CHA, offering him the best prices without any need to cast Friends.
In the Golem cave, Phillip chose the way to the right, protected with a Potion of Absorbtion and Shiield against 2 traps on that way.
Phillip decided to improve his melee weapon, so he travelled to the Dryad Tree and punished two nature haters there. Nothing is better than seeing two enemies fighting each other while you're singing and looking at the beautiful tree.
Seriously though, Web and/or Hold Person + Poison helps greatly on the LoB difficulty when enemies have plenty of HPs.
Now Philip could dualwield Club+1 and ordinary Club against held enemies. It looked like he was ready for Cloakwood.
I still have to clear my current run through of all the games, but I'm very tempted to do an intimidating LoB run next time though, since these posts make it seem less and less intimidating and more and more interesting!
It means that if Phillip decides to use companions for any fight, they're stuck at 32k XP (or more, if during the 7 days they'll get XP). It'll make things even more interesting.
@bengoshi , Have you thought about how you're going to save the grand dukes in this run? Some of the enemies (or all of them?) will be hasted greater doppelgangers.
A lucky Slow spell and then your jester's song might get most of them, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that getting all of them in time. Maybe a Web? But that would leave the grand dukes helpless against any doppelganger that made all its saves.
If the doppelgangers have LoB damage output, any one of them might one shot a grand duke. It would seem a little more possible to win if the two vulnerable grand dukes have LoB upgrades. If they don't, I don't see how winning is possible with a solo character. Even with a party, saving those two dukes would be a major accomplishment.
Grand Dukes this, Grand Dukes that! Give me a full party and 5 skeleton warriors, all hasted, protected from evil, add wands of paralyze, 15 scrolls of Chaos (from the Sorcerous Sundries) and I'll kick the doppelgangers' asses.
For Cloakwood Phillip decided to gather a new party. Viconia joined at Day 75, Hour 21. The Flaming Fist officer who hunted her failed his saving throw first against the Phillip's singing, then against the Hold Person spell.
With the help of skeletons Viconia could summon Phillip defeated several spiders not to miss on Rashad's Talon. Ettercaps turned out to be decent fighters on the LoB mode and there was little sense in fighting them, resting and losing time and thus risking not keeping withing the 7-day limit for Viconia.
Instead, Phillip casted Invisibility on Viconia and himself and they proceeded to the next map.
Eldoth and Faldorn joined at Day 79, Hour 9.
Travelling in Cloakwood takes a lot of hours, so the party couldn't risk any side adventures - Viconia's spells had to help against more dangerous foes than spiders or wyverns.
At Day 80, Hour 14 Phillip arrived at the area with the hidden iron mine.
Viconia summoned 3 skeletons, while Faldorn called her Dread Wolf (unlike general summoned animals, this Faldorn's pet was available for 2 hours after summoning). With the help of these 4 summons the party defeated 2 guards.
The way to the mines was blocked by bandit mercenaries. Their leader, Drasus, immediately attacked Phillip. The summons blocked his way, though. Drasus hit hard, killing one skeleton before Viconia finished casting Doom. After Viconia doomed Drasus, everyone tried their luck in immobilizing spells.
Drasus failed his saving throw against Rigid Thinking and against the wand of Paralysis used by Phillip.
After Drasus was down, Phillip draw attention of Genthore. All skeletons were dead, only the Dread Wolf was left. Lucky Hold Person followed Doom. Success?
As the following moments showed, not yet. One enemy mage, Kysus, followed Genthore and casted Confusion on the Dread Wolf. Nobody saw this mage (he stood out of the line of sight), but Confusion had a radius... Phillip and Faldorn fell under its effect.
Eldoth and Viconia still tried to damage Genthore while Hold Person was in effect, but Kysus killed the wolf with Fireball and proceeded further. His next Fireball killed Eldoth (chunking him) and Faldorn. Phillip, who failed his saving throw against Confusion earlier, luckly escaped the radius of this fireball.
Magic Resistance of Viconia saved her from: 1) Fireball 2) Melf's Acid Arrow 3) Annagazar Scorcher (twice)
Moreover, Viconia hit the mage with her mace every time he tried to start casting spells (3 times, no less). There was enough time for Phillip to recover himself from Confusion.
Only after that Kysus managed to hit Viconia with his magic. Genthore became active again, and again was paralyzed by Phillip.
Finally, Kysus and Genthore were finished.
So, in order to get Boots of Speed and proceed further Phillip sacrificed Eldoth and Faldorn. Their deeds wouldn't be forgotten.
Phillip decided not to kill the 4th mercenary here, instead preferring to retreat to the previous area and rest there, so that he and Viconia, both of them invisible, could enter the Mines.
Invisible, the Jester and the Drow Priestess went down till the last level of the Mines.
There, Viconia summoned her 3 skeletons, which attacked a lonely guard of the chamber. The guard was doomed, then held and quickly killed.
For Davaeorn, Phillip casted Protection from Magic on himself and kited the mage and his two Battle Horrors till Davaeorn ran out of spells.
Then the time for the skeletons and Viconia to intervene came. Phillip still was busy with drawing attention of the Battle Horrors, while the drow and her undead helpers attacked the mage. It took not much time to finish him.
Each of the Battle Horrors was worth of good XP, so Phillip didn't want to leave them alive. But first, he and Viconia retreated to the previous level in order to rest. Phillip still had 2 potions of Invisibility in case they were ambushed while resting. Luckly, it wasn't needed.
When visiting the Davaeorn's level again, Phillip found two Battle Horrors separated from each other. It made his task easier.
While the Battle Horror fought with summoned skeletons, Viconia doomed him. After that Phillip tried to Blind the enemy. It worked! With the 2.0 update, blind enemies no longer wander around and just stay where they are.
The party attacked the Battle Horror till no skeletons were left. After that Phillip used his Wand of Frost (with Davaeorn defeated, an access to the Baldur's Gate city was open, with all its wands and potions, so it was the best time to use those wands and potions Phillip had gathered up until that time).
The second Battle Horror was doomed and failed his saving throw against Blindness as well (in this case, Viconia with the Boots of Speed kited him a little bit).
Phillip then used 3 charges of his wand of Frost (1 charge was left for a future sell), gulped a potion of Absorption and used several charges of another wand - the wand of Lightning. A potion of Fire Breath finished the work.
The game showed Day 81, Hour 19 - the 7-day limit was not broken. Viconia surved a great deal to Phillip and now could be released from her duties.
Now, Phillip was able to enter Baldur's Gate, sell his stuff, buy potions and scrolls, recharge his wands and think about next steps.
True ironman run means any damage=death. You get a cut, your dead, you get poisoned, your dead. People are very fragile meat bags in the real world, and no restarts ever. You die once that's it and you delete the game forever. That's charnames story, to die as one of the nameless bhaalspawn we never see, end of story.
I don't have the patience to spend many hours endlessly kiting.
Same, I lose interest/patience after a few mins with that first ogre if imoen/me cant hit it /kill it fast enough. Iron man challenges are more of a patience test, especially when your forced to run around for an hour kiting a boss while cheese ranging from a distance.
Serious question here: Why not a mage? 4 health is even more masochistic than jester...at least jester can wear armor at the start....If the points to make it as hard as possible why any items at all or spells?
Try gimping yourself even more with cursed items and lowered stats for added "fun".
If you had read the first post you would know that this was a challenge. Jester was specified. The character's names is Phillip Daigle which now includes -1 to all saves. Also the third roll was specified and it was worse the the first two rolls. Companions can't be kept for more than 7 days.
To add to @mf2112 - everyone have a right to play exactly how they want. The difficulty slider in the game is exactly for that - to tune your game as you wish. As are possible mods.
Personally I don't see this run as being dull - it's like an exploration to me. It was amazing to feel something new about the BG game after all these years.
And when you add the concept of Phillip, with all its consequencies, like the companions limit, an exploration turns into RP.
Charname is a bard thus he can't inflict a lot of damage or summon a horde to distract enemies. Thus he desperately needs companions for hard fights, as all the posts above show. But the fact any companion can only stay for 7 days means that these companions are destined to have no more than the 6th level in BG1, there's next to no chance to develop them. It means less HPs, worse THAC0, no access to higher level spells, even no sense in learning spells for them.
Also, as travelling in BG1 takes a lot of time, there can only be precise moves, of when to go where and with whom. For example, the Davaeorn and Drasus fights needed summoned skeletons, so it was very important not to lose time while travelling with Viconia - a second cleric already.
Moreover, there're no options to retreat to a temple for a resurrection as it will eat any time left.
Speaking about "meat shields", Phillip can't let any returning SoD companion be chunked for good in BG1, as it will be remembered by the game.
LoB battles require more time, and more rests, which in turn shortens the duration of any character's stay in the group.
In later game, the fact that these companions don't progress will become even more severe. There's a very big difference between facing the Sarevok group with characters sitting at 161k XP, developed precisely as you wanted them to be in terms of spells, and and facing the same group with 32k underdogs.
At last, the number of companions is not infinite. Each of them has an own class, so there come thoughts about when to use this or that particular NPCs.
@doggy Let's hope Phillip will first get there. My view on it is that each game sets its own limits, so going into SoD will mean another 7 days for Viconia.
The city of Baldur's Gate offers plenty of small quests, often completely non-hostile. Phillip decided to help folks living in this city first to get more XP under his belt before starting anything else.
Phillip helped Noralee and found her lost Gauntlets.
Then Phillip with the help of Trent killed the escaped Basilisk.
A sphene gem found on the basilisk was required by G'axir the Seer.
Then Phillip brought "The History of the Unicorn Run" to Rinnie, the fellow bard.
He helped Petrine, so that the little girl could again play with her can, Angel.
At last, Phillip removed Ghorak's curse by bringing the skull of Kereph to the followers of Tymora.
Phillip reached the 8th level, now having 3 second level spell slots. Feeling some power, Phillip started to investigate the building of Seven Suns guild. During this investigatigation dopplegangers that had infested the guild revealed themselves.
Blindness stopped any moving by dopplegangers, so Phillip could calmly Web them one by one and kill in melee while they were held.
The help Phillip gave Jhasso and his guild was greately rewarded by Scar, the Flaming First officer. Phillip now had some money to spend.
With new money Phillip bought 1 arrow of slaying, a wand of paralysis and a wand of monster summoning, each having 20 charges. He also had an old wand of paralysis with 6 charges.
At the 8th level Phillip chose darts for a new proficiency. He tried his new weapons in the sewers against carrion crawlers, blinded in advance. Each carrion crawler required about 60 darts to be killed.
At those times when a carrion crawler saved against Blindness (Phillip had three 1st level spell slots), the jester used the wand of paralysis on it. In order to kill the paralyzed enemy Phillip shapeshifted into a wolf using his cloak, Relair's Mistake.
This items gives an additional APR and ups the STR of the user. Phillip, dual-wielding the Night Club and Ashideena, got 3 APR with solid damage in the wolf form. Also, this items lets the user attack with the weapon equipped in the off-hand, - the attack from this weapon is added to attacks by the main hand (claws of the wolf):
Also, the character speed is higher in the wolf form and it doesn't stop you from using items, including wands.
The ogre-mage which was the master of now dead carrion crawlers, failed his save against the second use of the wand of paralysis. Phillip was protected with Shield and Greenstone Amulet in case the ogre casted something nasty.
After that Phillip shapeshifted into his human form, took a bow and finished the ogre-mage in one hit. All the extra enemy LoB hitpoints didn't matter at all.
With the reward from Scar for solving the sewers problem, Phillip had enough money to sell and then buy back from Thalantyr his old wand of paralysis. Now he had a new wand with 100 charges.
@bengoshi , Interesting. I never found a use for that cloak before. I didn't realize the wolf form was that good, at least for a bard type. Is it the same as the druid wolf form?
I think wolf and bear forms are bad for druids because they cut off spell-casting. I didn't know about the item use, though. Can you drink potions, and can a druid? I think a druid-fighter like Jaheira is way better off fighting in human form, but the wolf and bear forms might be useful for a regular druid if they can still use the Wand of the Heavens and drink potions.
It sounds like the Cloak of the Wolf could be situationally useful for mages and bards, especially bards, as you're showing.
This is crazy. The idea of a fight taking several ingame hours is just...damn. I get it that this is much harder, but couldn't there have been a less time consuming way?
ie:
Legacy of Bhaal
* 'Realistic Combat' - Swords hurt! All attacks critical hit on a 17-20 instead of a 20. All characters get the minimum amount of HPs when leveling up. * 'Miscasting Magic' - Magic can go wrong. All spells have the chance to miscast as per a wild mage. Wild mages have an increased chance to miscast. * Nobody Is Safe - No matter the source of the attack, or immunities, there is always a 10% chance that you will take damage. * 'It's NOT just a flesh wound' - When anyone takes damage, their casting time increases and weapon speed becomes slower. Getting stabbed with a sword tends to slow people down!
Something like that. So instead of having a fight take several minutes to fight, it instead goes even faster? Where your fighters now need to worry about a sword to the face, because god damn it, those hurt! Where you can't just throw up stoneskin and call it a day because there is only a 90% chance that it will work. Afraid of enemy mages? Well even a scroll of protection from magic only has a 90% chance. Think you can just sorceror it out? Well, your spells might miscast (the same goes for the enemy though).
Here, everything is more dangerous...for everyone. Yourself and NPCs included. More planning, positioning, doubling up on ways of avoiding damage all become necessary. Because your low HP, crit fearing arse doesn't want to die...right?
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Dealing with Mulahey
After clearing their way to the final chamber of the Nashkel Mines, the party finally rested (for the first time since Branwen joined) and was ready to deal with Mulahey.
Invisible Kivan went close to the half-orc and spoke to him out of nowhere. So that the cleric didn't move from his starting place. After Mulahey said to look in his chest, Phillip commanded everyone to prepare. Kagain, who used a potion of stone giant (the party had only one but it was well worth it, 16 STR -> 20 STR is a big increase), stood right in front of the half-orc. Montaron hid in shadows and prepared his Varscona for a backstab. Branwen summoned 2 skeletons and put them at the room's entrance. Phillip gulped a potion of speed (just in case).
Everything was ready for opening the chest.
After Branwen opened the chest Mulahey began the fight. An immediate backstab by Montaron followed. 39 damage was only enough to "barely injure" the half-orc.
Then Kivan hit Mulahey and interrupted his casting. Branwen was busy with casting Chant to lower saving throws of the enemy and improve the party's potential. Phillip was singing. Two summoned skeletons blocked the way for kobolds and enemy skeletons to the room.
Kagain interrupted a new casting by Mulahey, while Branwen switched to casting Hold Person. The summmoned skeletons still blocked the entrance.
And then Mulahey failed his saving throw against Hold Person.
Everyone could start to quickly attack him. Montaron took the second sword, Phillip started firing arrows. It had to be done quickly before the summoned skeletons are not defeated. Xzar horrored several kobolds.
Soon Mulahey was dead, not returning from his Hold status. Phillip took everything from the half-orc's corpse. The party needed to kill one or two enemy skeletons to be able to leave the chamber. The summoned skeletons were killed, but Kagain had a lot of HPs and walking Branwen took the attention of several enemies.
After the way our was relatively open, the party left the room.
Success!
As you can see, old tricks work on the LoB mode. Lowering the saving throws, using holding spells, using available potions - it all "clicked" this time and let to finish this fight. Overall, this fight (and the Mines in general) proved to be a good alternative to the SCS version of the Mines, when you kill hordes of kobolds everytime using 1 charge of the necklace of fireballs and finishing Mulahey in 5-10 seconds thanks to aggregate attack of all party members.
...
...
Despite the fact that LoB difficulty is challenging in very cheap way, of course.
So, after hearing this and understanding they couldn't let any more Reputation increases due to having evil characters in the group (and the Nashkel' mayor was going to increase their reputation), Phillip the Jester commanded to act in not a "goody two-shoes" way:
A man from the note found in the Mulahey's chest, Tranzig, had his own debt to Branwen. Being petrified is not something that could be forgiven. This is why he didn't get any mercy from Phillip.
From Tranzig, the party found out where the bandit camp was located. After arriving there, Phillip and Co slowly went through bandits who guarded the main tent.
Kivan, under the effects of potions of Agility and Heroism, tried his best in hitting an armoured captain, Taurgosz, from the shadows. But even 2 hours (while the potions were active) weren't enough to fihish him.
Then Branwen summoned 3 skeletons and the joint effort of everyone meant the party now got the full plate and shield +2.
Summons are stronger with the LoB mode but (so far) not stronger than enemies. The skellies could help against several bandits but in the end all of them were defeated.
Soon afterwards, the party had its first deaths. Kagain, Xzar and Kivan - they all fell.
The game's time showed Day 41, Hour 17. Travelling to the FAI would take 16 hours, so the 7-day limit (from the time Montaron was hired) would be reached.
It meant Phillip couldn't resurrect his fallen comrades and had only one way - to continue.
The group rested and then with the help of 3 skeletons defeated the rest of bandits who were in this part of the camp.
Now the entrance to the main tent was open. Many containers around were available to the party as well. It was time for Montaron - his final hours in the group had to be the most useful.
He hid in the shadows and found that the main tent was full of warriors, good-trained from the look of them. No way Phillip, Branwen and Monty could kill them now.
So Montaron disarmed a trap on the tent's main chest, looted it, chatted with Ender Sai and left the tent invisibly.
From the papers found in the chest it was obvious the next destination had to be a hidden bandit base in Cloakwood. Taking everything they could bring, the party returned to the FAI, where Phillip said goodbye to Branwen and Montaron, thanking them for their contribution. Now, he had a task of gathering a new party which could help him in Cloakwood.
Phillip had about 4000 gp, so he decided to buy spell scrolls he hadn't found (at the High Hedge), as well as buy 3 potions of Genius (at the FAI temple) to get a 100% scribing chance (base 13 INT + (4*3 INT from the potions)).
After that, Phillip no longer travelled on his own - a dragon familiar became a constant friend of his. Also, learned spells let Phillip such things as invisible travelling (to be safe from being waylaid by enemies) and carrying heavy things (due to the Strength spell), like the body of Samuel.
But most importantly, new spells let Phillip take on basilisks that were still left in the Mutamin's garden. Now, Phillip had to release his familiar (whom he called Trent), cast Protection from Petrification on himself and then cast Web on a basilisk to increase the number of successful hits.
After that, Phillip rested and repeated the procedure. Finally, he reached the next level, bringing him 2 HPs and the 3rd spell level.
The 3rd spell level meant an availability of Minor Spell Deflection. Now, he could take on the mad gnome himself.
Shield - Resist Fear - Minor Spell Deflection (and Mirror Image as a backup for the case MSD wears off)
Mutamin casted Horror - to no effect. Then he casted Melf's Acid Arrow 2 times, again to no effect.
The effect of MSD went away, Phillip immediately casted Mirror Image. One of Mutamin's Melf's Acid Arrows went through Mirror Image, so Phillip had to cure light wounds with the special abilities. Larloch's Minor Drain by Mutamin was useless due to Images.
Then Mutamin ran out of spells.
It was time for Phillip to release Trent (I reiterate, his dragon familiar). All resemblance purely coincidental.
The familiar let Phillip patiently kill Mutamin with arrows.
Now, with spells, Phillip no longer was a one-trick pony and let's hope it was only the beginning of his tale.
Phillip travelled to the Ulgoth's Beard. Due to being a bard and not getting any pickpocket penalties, Phillip succeeded in stealing the ring of free action (what's the point of being a bard if you don't try to pickpocket people):
Now, with this ring, Phillip could use his 2 Web spells (Phillip had only 2 second level spell slots) to the fullest. He started with Bassilus. As soon as the evil cleric ended his speech, Phillip retreeted and then casted Web, waiting till Bassilus failed his saving throw.
After that Phillip attacked the unprotected enemy with arrows of biting. It helped greatly to reduce LoB HPs quicker. When the effect of second Web ended, Bassilus was Near Death. Trent helped our jester a bit, drawing attention of the cleric while Phillip was firing arrows.
On the same area Phillip met a talking chicken. Before they could continue their dialogue, Phillip had to protect the chicken from a wolf. Phillip casted Spook, and so the wolf stopped chasing him. Then Phillip casted Web. The wolf failed his saving throw, while our jester was immune to Web because of Free Action. Again, at the moment the effect of second Web ended, the enemy was Near Death, so it required only several rounds of Trent flying around to finish the wolf.
The same tactic was used agains a skeleton on the next map, with additional Hold Undead on top of 2 Webs.
The talking chicken, Melicamp, survived Antichickenator, and returned to this human form. Probably due to not having any saving throw penalties, unlike our jester.
A reward of 5000 gp for killing Bassilus was spent on buying 100 arrows of biting.
After that, Phillip travelled to the Gnoll Stronghold and there used his favourite combination of Spook - Web - Hold Person - Web on two ogrillions protecting the Gauntlets of Dexterity.
Now, Phillip could choose between Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise (against held monsters) and Gauntlets of Dexterity (when using a bow against those who are not held) when attacking enemies.
Thanks to an availability of 2 Invisibility spells per rest Phillip could loot containers without fighting. Invisible, he opened the container, quickly took everything he needed, and casted new Invisibility. This way, Phillip got 2 tomes, increasing his CHA and CON. An increase of CON was more or less useless for Phillip (from 10 to 11), but an increase of CHA came handy, and with the Algernon's cloak he now had 20 CHA, offering him the best prices without any need to cast Friends.
In the Golem cave, Phillip chose the way to the right, protected with a Potion of Absorbtion and Shiield against 2 traps on that way.
Phillip decided to improve his melee weapon, so he travelled to the Dryad Tree and punished two nature haters there. Nothing is better than seeing two enemies fighting each other while you're singing and looking at the beautiful tree.
Seriously though, Web and/or Hold Person + Poison helps greatly on the LoB difficulty when enemies have plenty of HPs.
Now Philip could dualwield Club+1 and ordinary Club against held enemies. It looked like he was ready for Cloakwood.
It means that if Phillip decides to use companions for any fight, they're stuck at 32k XP (or more, if during the 7 days they'll get XP). It'll make things even more interesting.
A lucky Slow spell and then your jester's song might get most of them, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that getting all of them in time. Maybe a Web? But that would leave the grand dukes helpless against any doppelganger that made all its saves.
If the doppelgangers have LoB damage output, any one of them might one shot a grand duke. It would seem a little more possible to win if the two vulnerable grand dukes have LoB upgrades. If they don't, I don't see how winning is possible with a solo character. Even with a party, saving those two dukes would be a major accomplishment.
For Cloakwood Phillip decided to gather a new party. Viconia joined at Day 75, Hour 21. The Flaming Fist officer who hunted her failed his saving throw first against the Phillip's singing, then against the Hold Person spell.
With the help of skeletons Viconia could summon Phillip defeated several spiders not to miss on Rashad's Talon. Ettercaps turned out to be decent fighters on the LoB mode and there was little sense in fighting them, resting and losing time and thus risking not keeping withing the 7-day limit for Viconia.
Instead, Phillip casted Invisibility on Viconia and himself and they proceeded to the next map.
Eldoth and Faldorn joined at Day 79, Hour 9.
Travelling in Cloakwood takes a lot of hours, so the party couldn't risk any side adventures - Viconia's spells had to help against more dangerous foes than spiders or wyverns.
At Day 80, Hour 14 Phillip arrived at the area with the hidden iron mine.
Viconia summoned 3 skeletons, while Faldorn called her Dread Wolf (unlike general summoned animals, this Faldorn's pet was available for 2 hours after summoning). With the help of these 4 summons the party defeated 2 guards.
The way to the mines was blocked by bandit mercenaries. Their leader, Drasus, immediately attacked Phillip. The summons blocked his way, though. Drasus hit hard, killing one skeleton before Viconia finished casting Doom. After Viconia doomed Drasus, everyone tried their luck in immobilizing spells.
Drasus failed his saving throw against Rigid Thinking and against the wand of Paralysis used by Phillip.
After Drasus was down, Phillip draw attention of Genthore. All skeletons were dead, only the Dread Wolf was left. Lucky Hold Person followed Doom. Success?
As the following moments showed, not yet. One enemy mage, Kysus, followed Genthore and casted Confusion on the Dread Wolf. Nobody saw this mage (he stood out of the line of sight), but Confusion had a radius... Phillip and Faldorn fell under its effect.
Eldoth and Viconia still tried to damage Genthore while Hold Person was in effect, but Kysus killed the wolf with Fireball and proceeded further. His next Fireball killed Eldoth (chunking him) and Faldorn. Phillip, who failed his saving throw against Confusion earlier, luckly escaped the radius of this fireball.
Magic Resistance of Viconia saved her from:
1) Fireball
2) Melf's Acid Arrow
3) Annagazar Scorcher (twice)
Moreover, Viconia hit the mage with her mace every time he tried to start casting spells (3 times, no less). There was enough time for Phillip to recover himself from Confusion.
Only after that Kysus managed to hit Viconia with his magic. Genthore became active again, and again was paralyzed by Phillip.
Finally, Kysus and Genthore were finished.
So, in order to get Boots of Speed and proceed further Phillip sacrificed Eldoth and Faldorn. Their deeds wouldn't be forgotten.
Phillip decided not to kill the 4th mercenary here, instead preferring to retreat to the previous area and rest there, so that he and Viconia, both of them invisible, could enter the Mines.
Invisible, the Jester and the Drow Priestess went down till the last level of the Mines.
There, Viconia summoned her 3 skeletons, which attacked a lonely guard of the chamber. The guard was doomed, then held and quickly killed.
For Davaeorn, Phillip casted Protection from Magic on himself and kited the mage and his two Battle Horrors till Davaeorn ran out of spells.
Then the time for the skeletons and Viconia to intervene came. Phillip still was busy with drawing attention of the Battle Horrors, while the drow and her undead helpers attacked the mage. It took not much time to finish him.
Each of the Battle Horrors was worth of good XP, so Phillip didn't want to leave them alive. But first, he and Viconia retreated to the previous level in order to rest. Phillip still had 2 potions of Invisibility in case they were ambushed while resting. Luckly, it wasn't needed.
When visiting the Davaeorn's level again, Phillip found two Battle Horrors separated from each other. It made his task easier.
While the Battle Horror fought with summoned skeletons, Viconia doomed him. After that Phillip tried to Blind the enemy. It worked! With the 2.0 update, blind enemies no longer wander around and just stay where they are.
The party attacked the Battle Horror till no skeletons were left. After that Phillip used his Wand of Frost (with Davaeorn defeated, an access to the Baldur's Gate city was open, with all its wands and potions, so it was the best time to use those wands and potions Phillip had gathered up until that time).
The second Battle Horror was doomed and failed his saving throw against Blindness as well (in this case, Viconia with the Boots of Speed kited him a little bit).
Phillip then used 3 charges of his wand of Frost (1 charge was left for a future sell), gulped a potion of Absorption and used several charges of another wand - the wand of Lightning. A potion of Fire Breath finished the work.
The game showed Day 81, Hour 19 - the 7-day limit was not broken. Viconia surved a great deal to Phillip and now could be released from her duties.
Now, Phillip was able to enter Baldur's Gate, sell his stuff, buy potions and scrolls, recharge his wands and think about next steps.
True ironman run means any damage=death. You get a cut, your dead, you get poisoned, your dead. People are very fragile meat bags in the real world, and no restarts ever. You die once that's it and you delete the game forever. That's charnames story, to die as one of the nameless bhaalspawn we never see, end of story. Same, I lose interest/patience after a few mins with that first ogre if imoen/me cant hit it /kill it fast enough. Iron man challenges are more of a patience test, especially when your forced to run around for an hour kiting a boss while cheese ranging from a distance.
Try gimping yourself even more with cursed items and lowered stats for added "fun".
Personally I don't see this run as being dull - it's like an exploration to me. It was amazing to feel something new about the BG game after all these years.
And when you add the concept of Phillip, with all its consequencies, like the companions limit, an exploration turns into RP.
Is Phillip allowed to team up with the recurring NPC's in sod, soa and tob? Or is it one time only?
No problem when the majority will be used as fireball meat shields anyways.
Let me tell you that it's really a big deal.
Charname is a bard thus he can't inflict a lot of damage or summon a horde to distract enemies. Thus he desperately needs companions for hard fights, as all the posts above show. But the fact any companion can only stay for 7 days means that these companions are destined to have no more than the 6th level in BG1, there's next to no chance to develop them. It means less HPs, worse THAC0, no access to higher level spells, even no sense in learning spells for them.
Also, as travelling in BG1 takes a lot of time, there can only be precise moves, of when to go where and with whom. For example, the Davaeorn and Drasus fights needed summoned skeletons, so it was very important not to lose time while travelling with Viconia - a second cleric already.
Moreover, there're no options to retreat to a temple for a resurrection as it will eat any time left.
Speaking about "meat shields", Phillip can't let any returning SoD companion be chunked for good in BG1, as it will be remembered by the game.
LoB battles require more time, and more rests, which in turn shortens the duration of any character's stay in the group.
In later game, the fact that these companions don't progress will become even more severe. There's a very big difference between facing the Sarevok group with characters sitting at 161k XP, developed precisely as you wanted them to be in terms of spells, and and facing the same group with 32k underdogs.
At last, the number of companions is not infinite. Each of them has an own class, so there come thoughts about when to use this or that particular NPCs.
@doggy Let's hope Phillip will first get there. My view on it is that each game sets its own limits, so going into SoD will mean another 7 days for Viconia.
The city of Baldur's Gate offers plenty of small quests, often completely non-hostile. Phillip decided to help folks living in this city first to get more XP under his belt before starting anything else.
Phillip helped Noralee and found her lost Gauntlets.
Then Phillip with the help of Trent killed the escaped Basilisk.
A sphene gem found on the basilisk was required by G'axir the Seer.
Then Phillip brought "The History of the Unicorn Run" to Rinnie, the fellow bard.
He helped Petrine, so that the little girl could again play with her can, Angel.
At last, Phillip removed Ghorak's curse by bringing the skull of Kereph to the followers of Tymora.
Phillip reached the 8th level, now having 3 second level spell slots. Feeling some power, Phillip started to investigate the building of Seven Suns guild. During this investigatigation dopplegangers that had infested the guild revealed themselves.
Blindness stopped any moving by dopplegangers, so Phillip could calmly Web them one by one and kill in melee while they were held.
The help Phillip gave Jhasso and his guild was greately rewarded by Scar, the Flaming First officer. Phillip now had some money to spend.
With new money Phillip bought 1 arrow of slaying, a wand of paralysis and a wand of monster summoning, each having 20 charges. He also had an old wand of paralysis with 6 charges.
At the 8th level Phillip chose darts for a new proficiency. He tried his new weapons in the sewers against carrion crawlers, blinded in advance. Each carrion crawler required about 60 darts to be killed.
At those times when a carrion crawler saved against Blindness (Phillip had three 1st level spell slots), the jester used the wand of paralysis on it. In order to kill the paralyzed enemy Phillip shapeshifted into a wolf using his cloak, Relair's Mistake.
This items gives an additional APR and ups the STR of the user. Phillip, dual-wielding the Night Club and Ashideena, got 3 APR with solid damage in the wolf form. Also, this items lets the user attack with the weapon equipped in the off-hand, - the attack from this weapon is added to attacks by the main hand (claws of the wolf):
Also, the character speed is higher in the wolf form and it doesn't stop you from using items, including wands.
The ogre-mage which was the master of now dead carrion crawlers, failed his save against the second use of the wand of paralysis. Phillip was protected with Shield and Greenstone Amulet in case the ogre casted something nasty.
After that Phillip shapeshifted into his human form, took a bow and finished the ogre-mage in one hit. All the extra enemy LoB hitpoints didn't matter at all.
With the reward from Scar for solving the sewers problem, Phillip had enough money to sell and then buy back from Thalantyr his old wand of paralysis. Now he had a new wand with 100 charges.
I think wolf and bear forms are bad for druids because they cut off spell-casting. I didn't know about the item use, though. Can you drink potions, and can a druid? I think a druid-fighter like Jaheira is way better off fighting in human form, but the wolf and bear forms might be useful for a regular druid if they can still use the Wand of the Heavens and drink potions.
It sounds like the Cloak of the Wolf could be situationally useful for mages and bards, especially bards, as you're showing.
ie:
Legacy of Bhaal
* 'Realistic Combat' - Swords hurt! All attacks critical hit on a 17-20 instead of a 20. All characters get the minimum amount of HPs when leveling up.
* 'Miscasting Magic' - Magic can go wrong. All spells have the chance to miscast as per a wild mage. Wild mages have an increased chance to miscast.
* Nobody Is Safe - No matter the source of the attack, or immunities, there is always a 10% chance that you will take damage.
* 'It's NOT just a flesh wound' - When anyone takes damage, their casting time increases and weapon speed becomes slower. Getting stabbed with a sword tends to slow people down!
Something like that. So instead of having a fight take several minutes to fight, it instead goes even faster? Where your fighters now need to worry about a sword to the face, because god damn it, those hurt! Where you can't just throw up stoneskin and call it a day because there is only a 90% chance that it will work. Afraid of enemy mages? Well even a scroll of protection from magic only has a 90% chance. Think you can just sorceror it out? Well, your spells might miscast (the same goes for the enemy though).
Here, everything is more dangerous...for everyone. Yourself and NPCs included. More planning, positioning, doubling up on ways of avoiding damage all become necessary. Because your low HP, crit fearing arse doesn't want to die...right?