Swashbuckler's No-Reload (or few reloads) attempt
Aasim
Member Posts: 591
Why this? I should probably test some stuff I made out, given it's available as a public download for SR-SCS users. Given my install; I don't feel as if No-Reload is very viable - hence I made this thread for my run. It will be played as a no-reload for all accounts bar my PC's death, should it come to that.
Install consists of Item/Spell/Kit Revisions, Refinements, Ascension, SCS (all hardest options bar "hardest spawns" and "more annoying trolls"), some tweaks of my own, nerfed XP table, and some Rogue Rebalancing items (mostly for Critical hit protection in BG1 - I won't be using RR bows, darts or similar - just some hood RR puts in Ulgoth's Beard and a +1 club from Beregost).
Anyhow, this is the protagonist - a human swashbuckler with godly stats.
As you can see from his WIS score, the intention is to dual him to a cleric. It will be a late dual however, since I use my own swashbuckler kit revision
From this - the best level to dual is actually 14 or 15. The caveat is that he shares the same XP table as everyone else (1,7 x thieves' base progression), so level 14 comes at 1,500,000 XP (contrary to 880 000 in vanilla). That's a long way for that fantastic +1 Luck bonus - but it's worth it.
Since most of the bonuses this kit gets are activated in melee combat, he will be played strictly as a melee character, and will be using clubs. Clubs are low-damage (1d4 base) weapons with Item Revisions, but they have a decent speed factor, won't break in BG1 and have few versions with fantastic on hit effects. Also I need a break from my regular flails pick.
Progress so far- I soloed quite a bit to get some XP under the belt before I assemble my party. Ofc, one must choose battles carefuly - gnolls in particular are awful since they crit for massive damage. Spiders aren't fun either with bad death saves on this character.
I bought Mirrored Eyes potions from Thalantyr and went basilisk hunting - avoided Mutamin for now since he's a death sentence for a solo character.
I tried to cheese Mutamin a bit with Korax, but it didn't work. Korax is immune to petrification, but SR changes petrification into a permanent hold-like effect. The poor ghoul isn't immune to that (maybe I should change it..) and dies, while I run to Duralg's.
Using the poor stealth skills (I invested into Open Locks, few points in Find Traps, few in pickpocket) I manage to sneak past the Battle Horrors and kill the basilisks on top, gaining level 7. With that done, it was time to gather my troops. First, Edwin. I love Edwin, he's incredibly powerful with his imba amulet. My main gripe with him is that his BG2 quest is quite hard with SCS if you want to get him quickly. Be that as it may - he levels up on joining so starts with level 3 spells - and knows Haste. SR reworks haste into a single-target spell, but this causes some little AI problems. I tweaked it myself - now it adds +6 to movement speed and + 1/2 apr, lasts two turns, has AoE and is followed by fatigue (-2 THAC0, movement, AC when expires). Imp.Haste is better on all accounts: AoE, +2 AC, +2 breath save, +1 apr, immunity to slow and no fatigue afterwards. It's still much nerfed compared to vanilla Imp.haste (Kit revisions' Whirwind HLA actually works as vanilla Imp.Haste, albeit for only two rounds). None of SR Haste spells doubles the rate of regeneration (or poison).
Now I had enough money to buy the hood with critical hit protection, coupled with Pro Acid scroll I clear the Ankheg farm (mostly for Fire wand) and go to kill Dynaheir; removing all obstacles on the way.
Bad things happened on the way to gnoll fortress - this one being the worst. A lone Ogre-mage charmed my protagonist instantly. This would have been a reload should Edwin fail his save....
Alas, he didn't, and Ogre had no more spells bar two Chromatic orbs. Edwin killed him with Acid Arrows (on a sidenote, I use my own specialist mage revisions, which leads to Edwin loosing both Divination AND Evocation - means no Fireball, Magic Missile and similar. He doesn't really get any bonuses instead, in PnP conjurer gets some but they're utterly nonsensical so.....bleh. I wanted to buff his summon capabilities but it's not as straightforward since I want AI to have the same benefits as my own. Evocation loss isn't so bad with SR anyway.).
After killing Dynaheir, I return to Durlags. This time I don't need stealth, since Edwin is more than capable of killing the Horrors.
I clear out the guardian's floor up to those two slimes; they're a bit too tricky to tackle for now. Dopes are as well, but fireballs cut through mirror images....
Next, Beregost (spiders), FAI (get Jaheira & Khalid. Yes, Khalid. He's a fighter-mage on my install), talk with Dorn.
Up to Ulgoths, pickpocket Dushai. Twice.
Get some quick levels for them...
Note the Ogre Bersekers here. I tweaked the berserker class from Kit Revisions a bit. (this applies to both PC and enemy berserkers).
Once a berserker takes damage, he has a chance (rather high, 50%) to go into Frenzy for 12 seconds. What this does is give him a massive melee damage bonus (+8), a small measure of physical resistance (10%), he takes less spell damage (1 point per die), looses 4 AC points, has +4 to save vs spells and -10 penatly to any breath save he needs to make.
At later levels, he also regenerates rather quickly in this state. This makes Ogre Berserker something you want to stay as far away as possible. Exploiting their poor Breath saves, we kill them at range. This all makes sense only with Spell Revisions (breath save penalty is *bad*).
With that said and done, it was time to visit Nashkel and adopt Dorn. I don't value his kit much, so I use my own version of it
this time.
He keeps his Fear immunity & poison weapon while loosing NPP, he looses the Aura (which is a *spell* in vanilla EE anyway, not an aura) and gets a proper aura (reworked) later on; + he gains some innate spells to boot. It's the first kit I ever made so I'm fond of it.
I've also swapped his stats - DEX is reduced to 14, while CON is increased to 16. Due to him being a paladin kit, he retains his spellcasting (I didn't plan on this when making the kit, it's a fighter kit on old engine) but that's fine. He ends up quite being quite powerful I guess...
With him on board, I kill Bassiluss and Greywolf, and get back to finish what I've started with Mutamin. This went horrible, tbh. I had one single Mirrored Eyes potions here. It lasts 5 turns with revisions, but I made all potion buffs dispellable. Poor Khalid gets all his buffs removed asap.
This is bad. Khalid runs back to the party; and all of Muta's basilisks follow him. Crap.
Edwin summons some archers; while Dorn gets petrified asap.
I get rid of one basilisk, while Edwin summons more fodder.
Things get progressively worse as Jaheira gets charmed and poor Khalid succumbs to Sleep and gets petrfied.
Following that, Edwin manages to nail the basilisk with Acid Arrows, while protagonist kills the now out-of-spells Mutamin.
I have a habit on buying Stone to Flesh scrolls with SR - and now I put them to use. Note that characters which are petrfied aren't really "dead" - even PC can be petrified and reverted back provided you have the means to do so.
This has a side effect of not breaking loot or bugging out romances.
With that done, I clear the spider wood north, and return to main plot by killing Mulahey, amazons and Tranzig.
Install consists of Item/Spell/Kit Revisions, Refinements, Ascension, SCS (all hardest options bar "hardest spawns" and "more annoying trolls"), some tweaks of my own, nerfed XP table, and some Rogue Rebalancing items (mostly for Critical hit protection in BG1 - I won't be using RR bows, darts or similar - just some hood RR puts in Ulgoth's Beard and a +1 club from Beregost).
Anyhow, this is the protagonist - a human swashbuckler with godly stats.
As you can see from his WIS score, the intention is to dual him to a cleric. It will be a late dual however, since I use my own swashbuckler kit revision
- is considered ambidexterous (+2 off-hand THAC0)
- starts with +2 bonus to Armor class, which increases by one every 4 levels, up to +6 at level 17
- gains +1 bonus to his Breath saves at levels 2, 10 and 19
- from level 4, Swashbucklers gain "Swift parry" ability. Each of their melee hits has a 20% chance to grant the swashbuckler an immediate extra attack and a +2 AC bonus vs melee. This ability improves at levels 12 and 19, granting the swashbuckler +1 luck and +2 to his melee damage for the next round.
- at level 14, gains a permanent +1 Luck bonus.
- at level 15, can use "Evasion" HLA 1x/day
Disadvantages:
- cannot backstab nor benefit from backstab multiplier increasing items.
- cannot set traps.
- starts with +2 bonus to Armor class, which increases by one every 4 levels, up to +6 at level 17
- gains +1 bonus to his Breath saves at levels 2, 10 and 19
- from level 4, Swashbucklers gain "Swift parry" ability. Each of their melee hits has a 20% chance to grant the swashbuckler an immediate extra attack and a +2 AC bonus vs melee. This ability improves at levels 12 and 19, granting the swashbuckler +1 luck and +2 to his melee damage for the next round.
- at level 14, gains a permanent +1 Luck bonus.
- at level 15, can use "Evasion" HLA 1x/day
Disadvantages:
- cannot backstab nor benefit from backstab multiplier increasing items.
- cannot set traps.
From this - the best level to dual is actually 14 or 15. The caveat is that he shares the same XP table as everyone else (1,7 x thieves' base progression), so level 14 comes at 1,500,000 XP (contrary to 880 000 in vanilla). That's a long way for that fantastic +1 Luck bonus - but it's worth it.
Since most of the bonuses this kit gets are activated in melee combat, he will be played strictly as a melee character, and will be using clubs. Clubs are low-damage (1d4 base) weapons with Item Revisions, but they have a decent speed factor, won't break in BG1 and have few versions with fantastic on hit effects. Also I need a break from my regular flails pick.
Progress so far- I soloed quite a bit to get some XP under the belt before I assemble my party. Ofc, one must choose battles carefuly - gnolls in particular are awful since they crit for massive damage. Spiders aren't fun either with bad death saves on this character.
I bought Mirrored Eyes potions from Thalantyr and went basilisk hunting - avoided Mutamin for now since he's a death sentence for a solo character.
I tried to cheese Mutamin a bit with Korax, but it didn't work. Korax is immune to petrification, but SR changes petrification into a permanent hold-like effect. The poor ghoul isn't immune to that (maybe I should change it..) and dies, while I run to Duralg's.
Using the poor stealth skills (I invested into Open Locks, few points in Find Traps, few in pickpocket) I manage to sneak past the Battle Horrors and kill the basilisks on top, gaining level 7. With that done, it was time to gather my troops. First, Edwin. I love Edwin, he's incredibly powerful with his imba amulet. My main gripe with him is that his BG2 quest is quite hard with SCS if you want to get him quickly. Be that as it may - he levels up on joining so starts with level 3 spells - and knows Haste. SR reworks haste into a single-target spell, but this causes some little AI problems. I tweaked it myself - now it adds +6 to movement speed and + 1/2 apr, lasts two turns, has AoE and is followed by fatigue (-2 THAC0, movement, AC when expires). Imp.Haste is better on all accounts: AoE, +2 AC, +2 breath save, +1 apr, immunity to slow and no fatigue afterwards. It's still much nerfed compared to vanilla Imp.haste (Kit revisions' Whirwind HLA actually works as vanilla Imp.Haste, albeit for only two rounds). None of SR Haste spells doubles the rate of regeneration (or poison).
Now I had enough money to buy the hood with critical hit protection, coupled with Pro Acid scroll I clear the Ankheg farm (mostly for Fire wand) and go to kill Dynaheir; removing all obstacles on the way.
Bad things happened on the way to gnoll fortress - this one being the worst. A lone Ogre-mage charmed my protagonist instantly. This would have been a reload should Edwin fail his save....
Alas, he didn't, and Ogre had no more spells bar two Chromatic orbs. Edwin killed him with Acid Arrows (on a sidenote, I use my own specialist mage revisions, which leads to Edwin loosing both Divination AND Evocation - means no Fireball, Magic Missile and similar. He doesn't really get any bonuses instead, in PnP conjurer gets some but they're utterly nonsensical so.....bleh. I wanted to buff his summon capabilities but it's not as straightforward since I want AI to have the same benefits as my own. Evocation loss isn't so bad with SR anyway.).
After killing Dynaheir, I return to Durlags. This time I don't need stealth, since Edwin is more than capable of killing the Horrors.
I clear out the guardian's floor up to those two slimes; they're a bit too tricky to tackle for now. Dopes are as well, but fireballs cut through mirror images....
Next, Beregost (spiders), FAI (get Jaheira & Khalid. Yes, Khalid. He's a fighter-mage on my install), talk with Dorn.
Up to Ulgoths, pickpocket Dushai. Twice.
Get some quick levels for them...
Note the Ogre Bersekers here. I tweaked the berserker class from Kit Revisions a bit. (this applies to both PC and enemy berserkers).
Once a berserker takes damage, he has a chance (rather high, 50%) to go into Frenzy for 12 seconds. What this does is give him a massive melee damage bonus (+8), a small measure of physical resistance (10%), he takes less spell damage (1 point per die), looses 4 AC points, has +4 to save vs spells and -10 penatly to any breath save he needs to make.
At later levels, he also regenerates rather quickly in this state. This makes Ogre Berserker something you want to stay as far away as possible. Exploiting their poor Breath saves, we kill them at range. This all makes sense only with Spell Revisions (breath save penalty is *bad*).
With that said and done, it was time to visit Nashkel and adopt Dorn. I don't value his kit much, so I use my own version of it
this time.
He keeps his Fear immunity & poison weapon while loosing NPP, he looses the Aura (which is a *spell* in vanilla EE anyway, not an aura) and gets a proper aura (reworked) later on; + he gains some innate spells to boot. It's the first kit I ever made so I'm fond of it.
I've also swapped his stats - DEX is reduced to 14, while CON is increased to 16. Due to him being a paladin kit, he retains his spellcasting (I didn't plan on this when making the kit, it's a fighter kit on old engine) but that's fine. He ends up quite being quite powerful I guess...
With him on board, I kill Bassiluss and Greywolf, and get back to finish what I've started with Mutamin. This went horrible, tbh. I had one single Mirrored Eyes potions here. It lasts 5 turns with revisions, but I made all potion buffs dispellable. Poor Khalid gets all his buffs removed asap.
This is bad. Khalid runs back to the party; and all of Muta's basilisks follow him. Crap.
Edwin summons some archers; while Dorn gets petrified asap.
I get rid of one basilisk, while Edwin summons more fodder.
Things get progressively worse as Jaheira gets charmed and poor Khalid succumbs to Sleep and gets petrfied.
Following that, Edwin manages to nail the basilisk with Acid Arrows, while protagonist kills the now out-of-spells Mutamin.
I have a habit on buying Stone to Flesh scrolls with SR - and now I put them to use. Note that characters which are petrfied aren't really "dead" - even PC can be petrified and reverted back provided you have the means to do so.
This has a side effect of not breaking loot or bugging out romances.
With that done, I clear the spider wood north, and return to main plot by killing Mulahey, amazons and Tranzig.
11
Comments
Anyhow, 2nd update
With the demise of Tranzig, way to Bandit camp lay open. Unfortunately, Edwin used up all Wand of Fire charges so I had to rely on flaming jars (Potion of Explosion) to kill the enemies. Khalid was to shoot arrows, Jaheira throw darts/debuffs; Edwin also is focused mainly on AoE slowing spells such as Grease.
Dorn took a hefty beating right from the start. I was late with Explosion potions and a number of arrows struck him quickly. He retreats to heal up with potions, while Azariel and Edwin's summons take the front line.
Last explosive potion did a number of the enemies, but that's just the first wave - the main enemies haven't even arrived yet.
Their mage shows up, and dispels all buffs from Azariel. He still has his Deflection on (Dorn't quest amulet can cast this 1xday)
He lacks any protections bar Mirror image/Shield however. Edwin casts Grease at him. This spell is *amazing* with Spell Revisions. Not only does it slow, it can knock people down as well - which is what happened to the unfortunate mage. Jaheira covers the area with Spike Growth (sorta beefed up Entangle, druid only, does minor piercing damage and slows).
We start piercing him with arrows; Dorn also recuperates now and Blights them.
Unfortunately, we still lack AoE damage to kill them quickly, this and the fact that Jaheira is still dressed in non-enchanted leather armor meant she's easy target for enemies- leading to her demise.
Revenge is sweet however, as our summoned hobgoblin pierces Venkt with a devestating critical.
And that was kind of it. We mop up the remaing troops easilly.
There are two major items gained here. One, Edwin gets Spell Thrust scroll to scribe down. Two, Khalid gets a bow he'll use for the rest of his life.
We went through Cloakwood areas smoothly. I had to retrun to Duralg's there to finish what was left to do on guardians floor (haven't fought them yet however); sold a lot of stuff and bought some items from Ulgoth's (most importantly Greenstone amulet for Dorn).
Dorn also gets Spider's Bane.
I needed one more fire wand, thus Ulcaster was also cleared. An oddity here is that on EE install, his (wolf of Ulcaster) Dispel seems to work much more often than in my old BGT install. Azariel and Jaheira both suffered panick attacks, but Dorn is immune to fear effects and blows up the beast with a 50 damage crit.
Back to Cloakwood. First major battle here is Kysus and his company. One of the two fighters is a berserker. They're fairly easy to deal with due to poor breath save, but this one uses Potion of Magic Shielding as well, making all saves automatic success. Hence, care must be taken. I summon skeletons (Dorn) and animals - dogs (Jaheira). These dog summons are very cool - they can "smell" invisible creatures for you. It doesn't remove improved invisibility to allow for casting against them, but thieves will be snuffed out.
Khalid opens the battle with two detonation arrows found at Durlag's then retreats. Jaheira casts Spike Growth where mages are (it won't affect them due to Minor Globe - but I ain't casting this against them but against their summons); while the two fighters rush to meet us.
Kysus (the berserker) dies quickly. He may have auto-saves on all disables, but his AC is total trash. Few of my summons died to his bashing but the rest close in on enemies. Both Edwin and an enemy mage start some Abjuration spells - Edwin's being Spell Thrust.
Note that both Azariel and Dorn stay away from them.
Spell Thrust with SR has a small AoE and (unlike any other spell protection removal) target the ground, thus allowing removal of spell protections from imp.invisible enemies. SCS has an option to make all spell removals work that way (they do in case of AI) but I think SR is way ahead of SCS here. Both enemy mages are affected, and loose their Globes. Time for pain!
They don't just sit still - Edwin's buffs are also removed, including his Globe (it's dispellable with SR).
Dorn now joins the frey. Their summoned Ogres must be eliminated quickly, a lucky critical from them can chunk people instantly. Enemies fire of a Dispel at him, he looses his buffs. Azariel kills one of the Ogres, while Dorn smacks the other fighter with Jaheira's help.
Khalid kills the 2nd one while enemies scatter.
Azariel now uses his Deflection - mages will try to cast against it, but they lack high level spells to break it quickly (Azariel ate a Flame Arrow beforehand; hence decided it's a good time to use it).
Some time later, they're both dead.
Down below, I lost Dorn and had to go back to temple for ressurection. Bleh - despite his Full Plate, he's such an arrow magnet for some reason.
Khalid with his bow + Skull Trap and Jaheira (Fire Trap; similar to Glyph of Warding, fire damage) dealt with the rest of the guards while Azariel killed Hareishan.
Not that it's a bad thing anyway.
Imo, this bow is better than all available in SoD. I might do something about it (you can read my ideas/toughts about SoD items here) but more on that later; in BG1 this bow is outstanding. It's not as damaging as composite specimens, but those crits hurt - especially if you have an archer to make use of that 10% chance for double damage. I used it with Corwin last time I played SoD (Cavalier protagonist) and never regretted it...
All in all, wasn't too bad. In my previous install, he had a number of Cone of cold spells. The thing is, every time you re-install SCS spell choices are randomized - so with a fresh install you never know what you'll be up against. This time, he had no CoC spells. We start by killing off Horrors and summoning some fodder to keep the guards at bay while we kill the mage. Azariel disarms the traps and triggers the fight - Horrors follow while Daveorn hides away. Both Horrors die quickly.
Azariel now tracks down the mage, who blasts him with a lighting bolt. Azariel has Boots of Grounding (always on protagonist) and avoids half the damage, then mage tps to the rest of the group.
He's Imp.invisible, but that won't stop Spell Thrust.
Daveorn tries a Dispel - but it fails to work. Sheer luck, given his level.
Having a 6-second pause between spells, we try to use that time to gang on him. He re-casts his stoneskins however. The summons backup pretty much collapsed.
...and now Daveorn starts his work. I cannot really disrupt him - he's imp.invisible preventing any single-target spells and with concentration tweak I use low damage instances such as poison don't disrupt his concentration. He blasts away, killing his own troops and my summons in the process.
That's two...
...and three. The bastard hid behind a wall out of our line of sight while nature-loving pair was trying to chase him - and bam!
Good thing is that he has no more level 5 slots.
Our (or better said, Edwin's) reward for this kill - scroll of Stoneskin and Edwin's robe for the rest of the game (or WK level 4, whichever comes first).
In BG city, things didn't really go as planned. First, Marek avoids paralysis wand. This leads to a boring quest (not all is bad, apperantly you get 10K XP for finishing it; but I'd rather if I could avoid it) of poison antidote...
bleh.
Having falied to hold Marek I had to do things relatively slowly; I actually explored much of the city and killed a lot of mages.
There was one (Sunin) which nearly claimed my scalp however. Usually I avoid him, regardless of his uber-ring. However, since this party will be going to SoD will all equipment purchased in BG1, I need those 9K.
All hell broke loose quickly. First he mazes (Shadow Door) both Dorn & Azariel. Now I was left with piss-poor armored troops. Great; I summon some trash monsters to keep the mage at bay. Sunin next delivers a fireball which nearly kills poor Khalid (he has a robe with +10 HP, that helped), and finishes all of the summons bar few dogs.
Next he starts disables - Waves of Fatigue, Malison. We recuperate a but, Azariel is out of the maze - and then Sunin starts his filthy summoning. Ogres enter the area. Edwin hits them with Grease to slow them down. Sunin summons two more - making this into 5 vs 5 encounter.
And this is the first time I had to use invis potion to keep somebody's a** safe. Notably, Khalid's. To crowded, can't move, high chunking risk with ogres around. Sunin also summoned spiders near him, poor fellow.
This much summoning reveals his kit however - he's a Conjurer. This means no illusion dispellers; a big relief for Khalid. (frankly, I could easilly replace him with Corwin in SoD should he be chunked but I'd rather have an extra backup mage than an archer. And I kind of like him as a fighter/mage with bows).
The rampage continues. One Ogre follows Edwin around, him and Jaheira kill it after a while.
Dorn gets greased and falls down, summons are trying to get to Azariel but the entire area is a total mess; most of the pathways are blocked by summons, grease and Khalid who went to sleep.
Slowly, Azariel starts working through the summons and uses his Deflection - he was the only viable target for spells with others being disabled or out of LoS so Sunin hit him with Flame Arrow. Khalid wakes up, gets slowed - dangerous condition which he counters asap; slow not only limits movement speed but also penalizes AC and breath saves.
Ofc, he gets charmed instantly. Hmpf. We down the last ogre.
Edwin restores Khalid's sanity, and Sunin is getting very low on spells. Time for final attack.
Done. His ring is mine to sell and buy some Detonation arrows.
Before rushing the Throne flunkies, we finish the poison quest (didn't notice any bugs with it - you get a report you're cured from poison and 10K XP...not too shabby.) Dorn also gets a shortbow he will use. Crossbows would be more fitting....BUT - one thing that is better than a character shooting Detonation arrows in BG1 are two characters shooting Detonation arrows in BG1. So, shortbows it is for Dorn. These should also be very useful in SoD battles anyway, so it's a no-brainer.
Much of the city I rushed, including my fav skull trapping of the inn. Not cool but...
I won't be using that anymore.
In the same inn, Khalid gets a new helmet. It's noting like it's vanilla counterpart however.
I finish of the stalkers/doom guards with buffing Azariel with SD and casting Skull Traps on him. Deflection stops even AoE spells, so he can absorb three skull traps w/o taking damage. Stalkers can't however.
As for Detonation arrows vs the Throne, invisble Khalid and Dorn do this alone:
Dorn now gets Free Action ring as well, also this weapon:
It's not very good for anyone bar Kit Revisions barbarian however.
With that done, it's back to Candlekeep. Party is currently down below in catacombs, having just killed some Phase spiders. Resting and gazing at this marvel Sarevok so kindly gave to us:
So far, no reloads - hope it stays that way.
@Pteran
Tnx. Hope it continues to be a success. BG2 will be much more interesting and harder than this however, ToB yet more so.
Your run really makes me want to start BG1 again. But first I need to complete my current BG2 game with the Imoen romance mod first. I've only seen it all the way through under the older, much darker version. I'm excited to try the newest version!
We cleared Candlekeep dungeon w/o any issues. Prat and the gang got 4 Detonation arrows which killed everyone bar Prat and Tam. One gets the arrow, the other gets the club.
Phase spiders in the area were as annoying as always, teleporting around to people they don't see etc. I hate those things, doubly so since poison goes through stoneskins in EE. Meh.
Anyhow, with that done, I don't go back to BG just yet. Instead, we travel to Ice Island. I was happy to use a Pro Magic scroll on Dorn here, with it he makes short work of mages there and travels through traps unmolested.
Jaheira was the only visible character (bar Dorn); I forgot about that which made us all take a skull trap - but nothing too serious.
Back to business as usual...
I return the cloak, Khalid gets stoneskin now as well (he's not yet level 7 as a mage, but he's getting there) and we leave for Baldur's gate to kill Krystin & Slythe.
Unlike on my BGT install, Slythe fails to use Magic Shielding potion here. Proves costly as he gets posioned by Dorn and dies.
Krystin herself was apperantly a Necromancer - she almost exclusively used Necromancy stuff. Namely, Skull Traps, Enfeeblement and Shadow summoning. Ugly for Dorn, but he lived through the onslaught.
These summoned Wraiths are very annoying to deal with. They can level drain you, albeit a save (vs death) is allowed. They're also immune to much disables, and have 50% physical damage resistance. It takes a while to kill them. Having expended her stuff, Krystin tries shooting some magic missiles, but since she's banned from Enchantment Khalid has no fear to get in close and kill her.
Dopes started badly. They get a Def.Harmony of, and summon skeletons.
Edwin goes for Slow - all save vs it. Incredible...
With that failed, I return to basics of combat. Khalid and Jaheira go after the mage who runs off. That's good since I don't want confusion castings here. Rest of the group protect Belt. Edwin can shoot Magic missiles, but LMD is quite good as well.
Belt also seems to be doing a good job.
And that was it for the danger of dying. Only mage left and he's cornered by Khalid/Jaheira duo.
...and done.
Belt teleports us to thieves' hideout, but we waste no time there - instead we go to Duralg's once again.
Grond0 suggested that this battle can be won by buffing a single character with magic immunity (or fire/electric); and running over repeating traps just south of them. I have a few doubts about that; namely they move very quikly and can get a hit in, some have MR, and the cursed thief backstabs. The mage buffs with Globe and is immune to those traps, but he would probably be the least of my worries there. Also, that way would give me no XP (I'm XP-harvesting right now, since for my protagonist to reactivate his swashbuckler class after dualing will take a total of over 3, 000, 000 XP - that may be well end of SoA part.
Hence, I fight them. Only summons worthwile here are those which have poison immunity, namely skeletons which Dorn summons to where the thief will spawn. I was very tempted to set 10+ Skull Traps there, but decided against in on grounds of fair play. We buff with all we've got, and give Love the wine.
It doesn't take long for the enemies to kill of the summons; and killing Love is hard and tedious work.
Finally he dies. Thief is still nowhere to be seen.
I have Jaheira summon some animals to sniff him out. Then something fairly odd happens - Fear goes to near-death state and becomes immune to physical damage. Wtf? I don't know how or why this happened, is this EE-specific or what. Not only that, they all seem to regenerate for some reason.
We attack for a while, but nothing happens - he's immune to damage. Another Cloudkill is released, killing Khalid instantly.
As Fear regenerates, he becomes vulnerable to damage once again. FFS.
...only to become invurnerable once again. Incredible, but true. Jaheira comes too close to the poison cloud and dies, joining Khalid on the other side of life.
We focus on Pride instead, thief is constantly going invisible so Pride is the only viable target. He dies.
I get Fear to near-death again. Out of desperation, Edwin uses his wand of fire - it works!
And finally, Avarice.
Well, that wasn't fun at all. Next time I'll set skull traps; this isn't right imo. Be that as it is, I raise the dead, and go back - deeper levels await us now, with many riches to take.
You got to love Durlag's tower...:)
It always seemed to me that Pride/Love battle is the hardest, the rest of the dungeon can't compete with the warders (and in this runthrough, cheese) placed there. Anyhow, we ventured deeper into the weasel hole. Jaheira gets a shield for herself there. In my game, druids (and fighter/druids) are limited when it comes to armor and shields. Only armor allowed is non-metal or natural; while only shields allowed are bucklers. We got a fine specimen there; Jaheira will enjoy this.
Unfortunately, latest SCS still has a bug preventing the player from reaching lower levels. It's fixable with CLUA command (dmwwwfissionburn or similar); I type it in after killing of four elemetal guardians
..and we're off to Detonation arrows galore. I didn't have enough spells/potions/scrolls to enjoy electrical immunity here, so we stand our ground. Edwin uses MS wand; Jaheira casts Ice Storm (druids also have this spell); Azariel is to melee those who get through.
Works like a charm...
I tought the King died to bombardment; alas - he didn't. Edwin summons some Shadows to keep him at bay while Dorn executes him.
The sword he leaves behind (World's Edge) is unchanged by Item Revisons; only it's base damage is changed from 1d10 to 2d6 (this applies to all two handed swords anyhow).
Next level of Durlag's is my favourite, lots of XP, very little chance of dying. Jaheira gets (finally!) a magical armor set; and a decent one to boot.
Next is the big bad demon.
All things considered; it went pretty good. I bring out the heavy artillery for this one - Edwin's Dispelling Screen will prevent his Dispel from working, and hopefully we would be able to kill it before he does much harm. Mirror is not to be touched.
He dispels as his first move. I think he's on a timer with that, given his demonic heritage, but haven't really bothered checking. (and it would be cheesy to see the scripts anyway).
We attack in melee, Edwin and Khalid are a bit too vulnerable and Khalid acts as a backup tank here.
Demon blinds Dorn.
And; quite quickly, 2nd Dispel. Our buffs are all off. Craaaaaaap....
I quickly respond to this with two Fire Res potions. I know he's got a deadly fireball, I don't know just how deadly it is.
Interesting - it seems to do both fire and magical damage. Magic Shielding potion would be better it seems.
And there goes Dorn. This is kinda luck here - he could use PW:Kill on any of us.
We scatter. Tanking this beast isn't an option anymore. Edwin summons Shadows, these last a while, and get summoned just before Edwin gets stunned....this will last a while.
Khalid shoots arrows at the demon until he gets rid of the shadows, then goes melee. Brave half-elf has but one stoneskin and mirror image, but even a round here is good.
I keep my protagonist away; the cursed dungeon ate more than it's share of healing potions already - and Jaheira gets the final blow in.
I don't take the dagger from his body. The battle in Ulgoth's Beard is too tricky and chance to loose someone permanently is too big. I go to thieves' maze in BG to finish BG1 instead - I was thinking about trip to Werewolf island, but decided against it. It's not due to difficutly, I'm just eager to get to SoD again (it's only my 2nd run through it; and I feel as if I missed a lot of things with my Cavalier).
So, Sarevok is next.
Given I play this with a relaxed mindset, I've decided to try something I haven't in a while (probably two years, and even then only one with Revisions installed). With SCS (and w/o, but that's another issue) this battle is kind of bugged. Unlike 99% of enemies, Sarevok and his goons are very cheesable. You can toss a Cloudkill onto them, they'll never walk out of it. Off-screen fireballs work. Anything works; which kind of blows for a final battle. I'm kind of positive this is a bug, and I think I know where it may be; so I might actually fix it sometime.
One thing I use liberally here (and will now deprive myself of doing this time) is Wand of Paralyzation. I'm not sure how this works in vanilla, with IR is save at -4. Very powerful, I used it in one instance alone (Marek) in this run and will be sold now.
Second, Invisibility potions. Neat, but given that enemies sometimes don't use divinations- none will be used. Also, none of the enemies here uses them so - same rules apply. (only for this battle; I'm interested in how hard this can get w/o some well-tried tactics)
Finally, Detonation arrows. While these have merit, they + invisibility potions can also make this battle seem to easy for a finale.
So, we will fight this as an open battle; may Bhaal be on our side. Live by the sword, die by magic.
We buff extensivly - I spare nothing. It's do or die; and SoD will offer plenty of potions anyway. Potions of Defense, Power, Heroism, Free Action, Clarities, Magic Shielding for protagonist, Edwin calls in three Shadows and covers us in Dispelling Screen, Dorn summons his skeletons, Bless, Haste, Barkskin - and off we go.
Since Sarevok is too quick for any of his goons to follow him immidiately (and they buff for one round) this is the tactic:
All of the summons will be on him. This should buy us enough time to kill Diramid, he's easy prey despite his Full Plate and does big damage if unchecked. After that, we'll see what happens.
Diramid is in our sights. Charge!
Things happen quikly here. Tazok shows up and locks Khalid in melee combat. That's fine, Khalid has images and stoneskin so is safe for a while. Our Dispelling screen is gone; Diramid can't shoot his bow since Azariel and Dorn are on him. Jaheira throws stunning darts at him (they don't stun for 7 rounds with IR, only 1 round - but it's helpful anyway).
More debuffs fly, Sarevok is still occupied with summons. Angelo and Semaj are left to their shenanigans, I can't touch them.
Diramid dies as our summons get confused (this is a good thing, since they scatter and Sarevok follows them around). Edwin must run for his life from Angelo (he's eating paralyzation wand next time I play. So annoying..)
Edwin dies to melf's meteors.:( That's bad - now Khalid is the only one who can use MS Wand.
I take my vengeance on Tazok with Lighting wand. Eye for an eye, human for an ogre, genius for a moron.
Jaheira starts to summon more meatshields.
Leopards enter the frey. They're very a very offensive summon with a kind of leap attack. Sarevok kills them both in one round however.
Angelo now kills the one which I need the most - Khalid.
I tought I was done for here.
Finally, Jaheira stuns him with a dart. Sigh of relief...
But it only lasts for 6 seconds, and he goes to Shadow door, taking Azariel with him. FFFSSSSS....
I lead Sarevok away with a summoned dog - that should keep him occupied a bit. Azariel gets out of the maze quickly, and the battle continues. Tides are turning now however; the longer the battle lasts the weaker the mages get.
Angelo dies! Smacked with a club!
I clear off skeletons and poor Semaj - he had no more spells left to cast at all! Sarevok wondered off following the dog.
I tried to tank him. Not gonna work, even with splendid AC on Azariel this guy hits like a train. I resort to arrows for a while, occasionaly healing and hitting him in melee; never staying near him for more than one hit.
Unfortunately, I had the same bug as in my Cavalier run - he would never die.
Bummer, a real bummer. I don't know what causes this bug; I made a fresh install for this run and I completely forgot about it.
Be that as it may, it's SoD time.
We enter SoD with Azariel having about 270K XP. I kinda tought it would be a bit higher, but it wasn't. Other party members are below; approx 200K on all of them. We clear the first dungeon w/o issues; and with hope that some day someone will make a mod to skip it a'la Dungeon-Be-Gone. It was quite the first time around, but not anymore moreover since such areas lag on my laptop for some reason (any time a background which has water or anything that "flows" FPS drops significantly).
Highest number of kills in the party has Azariel (36%), followed by Dorn (29%), Khalid (14%), Jaheira (9%) and Edwin (8%).
After that, I travel with Safana a bit (she acted as a "mule" character), then take Edwin and Jaheira. Unfortunately, Jaheira doesn't start with Khalid but with a skald instead. I have very liitle love for bards - and Skald is (imo) prime example of a badly implemented kit.
To explain - he gets a nice bard song. In order for it to become better, you need to get to level 15 (!) for it to upgrade, then only 5 levels (20) for it to get even better, and when you get HLAs it gets better once again. What's the kit progression from 1-15th level? Nothing, bar some spell slots. Why the +1 damage bonus on a "nordic" bard; that applies on all weapons? Do nordic bards throw darts around?
Just an example how kit could easilly be made infinitely more better - song improves every 5 levels (1, 6, 11, 16, 21); specialization allowed in some "nordic" weapons a la axe, big swords etc.; can use medium shields, - 1 spell slot per level. This way you get a sense of "progress" while still in BG1/SoD.
I left him where I found him and I'm now *slowly* clearing out the wilderness areas. One thing I hate here (and why I much prefer making a custom party in BG1) is that now my party is lacking a proper warrior; the role Dorn had. And I can't get him quickly. Khalid is also missing, I have no idea when he can be taken in the party or where. He had nice equipment on him (icluding Eagle Bow) and that kinda sucks imo. I'll probably be taking Corwin along instead of him. If I played a custom party from the start; I'd have none of those issues, none of the inventory issues, and overall leveling and progress would be much more balanced out. And I could simply skip a lot of stuff I had to do now.
Anyway, Azariel now finally has two magical clubs in his hands, and party is kind of assembled; only Dorn is missing but I know where he is.
Turns out, Khalid was also there, thrilled to see Jaheira. Now I have my party assembled and have just agreed to posion the crusaders; Dorn seemes very happy about it. I wonder what Khalid will say after the deed is done....
In short,
We attacked Dragonspear castle immidiately. No posion, no bomb, nothing, just the five of us. Our allies don't follow us. We slowly work our way through the enemies (killing a few "named ones" on the way) but right now I'm kinda running short on ammo - I've killed probably over 100 enemies and they keep on coming.
Here I managed to save & exit my game.
Now, the question is - are the oponnents here spawned indefinitely? It sure feels that way...
I don't want to reload over that, and I definitely don't want to run away from the area (altough I'm sure that's possible).
Further in SoD,
We probably killed approx 300 of them. I hope that would make the final siege a bit easier, bu I wouldn't bet on it. It was total carnage...
SoD is quite a bit easier for me this time, having run through it once, I know what to definitely pay attention to. Bowmasters, for example - last time it was a 2-round wipe of my entire party, this time sheer Edwin/Jaheira/Khalid pawnage of greenskins.
We kill litteraly everything. Hostiles, friendlies, quest people, random guards - all die. Khalid is awfully silent about it, and our reputation doesn't drop.
As soon as we enter the river area, I talk to a worker there, he has but one line saying something like "it's boring here". Let's spice things up then...
All die. I was happy to see enemies using SR spells on me.
This battle vs drow was probably the hardest in SoD for now; but nothing too drastic.
All must die. (I'm roleplaying a Child of Bhaal here...)
Water Elementals were interesting and *much* easier than last time; mage bit the dust in seconds as did they. Oddly enough - the siren there was in a talkative mood (or I gave the "friendly" answer..) and didn't attack us like last time but actually gave us an Ioun Stone...cool. Jaheira appreciates Posion immunity. I was gonna kill the water creature but she dissapeared.
Further below, I kill he druid, go exploring some more, find some Corrupted nature creatures, kill them, find some more, and then this happens:
My protagonist had *full* HP, he took a hit for 14 damage and - died. I'm sure Treants don't have vorpal fists here.
If this was a No-Reload, I would't reload over it, but it seems a very lame way to go...
Be that as it is; no. of reloads : 1. Killed by a freakin' tree.
In relation to the Warders fight I did also make the point that you can use maximum buffing for fire and lightning to cure damage (including backstabs, although I wouldn't expect to get hit by those if using an oil of speed). The traps vary in nature and some damage is non-magical, so Globes won't be a complete protection.
I'll make a proper mod with my kit tweaks in a day or two, so if you're in no hurry wait for that ("revised swashbucker" will work however)