We also did some Arena-Battles with the Spirit Summons who fought 1vs1 each other.
While the Wolves are pretty powerful thanks to paralyzation and leveldrain they suffer badly against enemies who are either immune or roll saves all the time. When it comes to raw damage and stamina things turn around:
Lion > Bear > Snake > Wolf
The stronger one was beating the weaker ones 5:0 even though the Lion had some close calls against the Bear.
Here the complete LoB data of Spirit Summons - which differs to the numbers in the Adventurers Guide:
Spirit Bear (10 HD)
Level: 22 Attacks per Round: 4 THAC0: 3 Damage: 5-14 Armor Class: 2 Hit Points: 212 Saving Throws vs. Death: 9 vs. Wand : 11 vs. Polymorph: 10 vs. Breath: 10 vs. Spell: 12 Cold Resistance: 100% Electricity Resistance: 100% Poison Resistance: 100% Magic Cold Resistance: 100 % Immunities: fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold, slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste, charm, leveldrain, normal weapons Special Attack: Target must save vs Death +3 or panicked for 30 seconds
Spirit Lion(10 HD)
Level: 22 Attacks per Round: 4 THAC0: 2 Damage: 10-17 Armor Class: -3 Hit Points: 164 Saving Throws vs. Death: 9 vs. Wand : 11 vs. Polymorph: 10 vs. Breath: 10 vs. Spell: 12 Cold Resistance: 100% Electricity Resistance: 100% Poison Resistance: 100% Magic Cold Resistance: 100 % Immunities: fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold, slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste, charm, leveldrain, normal weapons
Spirit Snake(10 HD)
Level: 22 Attacks per Round: 3 THAC0: 4 Damage: 3-12 Armor Class: -5 Hit Points: 110 Saving Throws vs. Death: 8 vs. Wand : 10 vs. Polymorph: 9 vs. Breath: 10 vs. Spell: 11 Cold Resistance: 100% Electricity Resistance: 100% Poison Resistance: 100% Magic Cold Resistance: 100 % Immunities: fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold, slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste, charm, leveldrain, normal weapons Special Attack: Target must save vs Poison or suffer 2 damage for 6 seconds
Spirit Wolf(10 HD)
Level: 22 Attacks per Round: 4 THAC0: 5 Damage: 2-5 +1d6 cold Armor Class: -4 Hit Points: 132 Saving Throws vs. Death: 8 vs. Wand : 10 vs. Polymorph: 9 vs. Breath: 10 vs. Spell: 11 Cold Resistance: 100% Electricity Resistance: 100% Poison Resistance: 100% Magic Cold Resistance: 100 % Immunities: fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold, slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste, charm, leveldrain, normal weapons Special Attack: Target must save vs Death +1 or be paralyzed for 7 seconds Target must save vs Death +5 or be drained of one level
Bah, Droolit is not a cat person, she wants obedience so dogees rule all.
On that note Droolit cleared most of Coastway Crossing outside and will move into the cave for the dwarves next. Am I to understand the lich is best recruited and not killed? Can i still get the anti lich gem and maybe use it later?
Okay, Eklun the Totemic Druid has finally beaten Sarevok!
The usual strat worked pretty fine: - Lured everyone except for Angelo into the SE-Corner and went invisible - Summoned two Spirit Lions that took care of Angelo (he cant even touch them!) - Waited for Protections to expire and burned Semaj, Tazok + Diarmid (38 charges) - Got lucky this time and dispelled Sarevoks Haste which easened the kiting a lot - With a 50% Hit Chance Eklun had to fire 134 Sling shots before Sarevok went down
Beforehand he had grabbed Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet after luring away all other Wardens to bite down Love alone with two Spirit Lions - the poor one dropped down like a sack of potatoes. With some more Spirit Lions and kiting the Dopplegangers below went down one after another clearing the way to the precious Goblet - Cheers!
We will hopefully start SoD soon - this time with Violet Potion in the pockets!
Wand of Heavens is amazing vs unhastened Sarevok (as a Druid), idk if it's broken as there doesn't seem to be save for half, but he takes around 20 dmg per hit and it considerably shortens the kiting time. (I used less than 80 darts on him).
Eklun killed Korlasz and will have some free time in Baldurs Gate again!
We sneak-talked to Porios while PfU and Invisibility made sure to avoid any opposition before meeting Korlasz herself.
For Korlasz we prepared: - Charmed the Assassin near the door mechanism on first try - Stealthed through to Korlasz triggering the Dispel Trap - Casted Iron Skin and summoned two Doggies as well as three Nymphs - Positioned the Assassin and Wolves near Korlasz - Casted Insect Swarm out of her vision on Spirit Wolf - Stepped up to Korlasz with Insect Swarm nearing impact to trigger talking - Started attacking Korlasz (Eklun with Sling) while Nymphs casted Hold Monsters - Paralayzed Korlasz while the ticking DoT removed her protections quite quickly - Brought down Korlasz to injured before any ally went down - This time the surrender talking triggered even with Korlaz being paralyzed - Hailed the power of Spirits!
Totemic Druids are much more fun than F/T - until now!
Nice job @Harpagornis !! Doing great as usual. It's good to see you rocking a Totemic Druid, but, if you ever get there, let say that, hum, the Throne fight *might* prove to be quite a big hurdle. Ask @JuliusBorisov about that, he knows first hand !
Because of you guys - and I insist to say it's all your fault, I have nothing to do with it - I decided to jump in the no-reload train. I'm not retiring Caligula, he's just on a break. I'll probably play him between failed no-reload attempt.
So, I decided to continue with a fighter type, but with a much more powerful kit than pure class : say hello to Arvar Dw'Girn, the Dwarven Defender.
Since it's my first LoB no-reload, I decided to go with something beefy, and boy, them Dwarven Defender are. Defensive Stance is a double-edged ability though, because the reduced movement speed can mean failure... For example, I foolishly tried to melee Meilum. After he hitted with three times for solid damage while none of my hit got through, I decided it was time to get the hell out. Even though that fight is at the edge of the map, Meilum managed to hit twice more while I was running, because I was just too slow to avoid him. When I got out, I had less than 30hp left, which is something quite uncomfortable. Lesson : Defensive Stance will be mainly useful against regular toons, and probably casters, for the saving throws benefit.
I had a first attempt yesterday, but bad execution against Mutamin meant Remove Magic and petrification. So, after plenty of lil' questing around the Sword Coast (Shoal, Brage, Joia, Sirines, etc, you know the drill), his second iteration avenged his first one.
Concerning the main quest, he just killed Mulahey (charmed and sliced down by his own kobolds) and Tranzig with good ol' up-&-down the stairs. He's sitting pretty a level 7, trying to gather enough money to buy the Sandthief Ring to go in and out the Bandit Tent. So, here he is :
@Arctodus Awesome to see you with DD, they are so much fun.
As to the Throne fight that should only be a problem with a pure class Totemic, idk about @Harpagornis plans, but Droolit will dual into fighter and critical strike HlA means guaranteed Harm hits aka cheese with no limits.
Aaah @Arctodus!!! Going for No-Reload? Cool!! As i really like sturdy Dwarves i wish him all the best! He will be tough to take down in most cases - if not Mutamin uses dirty tricks!
Eklun is still in Baldurs Gate but will move on soon. There are so many more options to gather stuff that its not hard to push Gold above 50k if you dont bother to assassinate neutral critters:
- The Party NPC´s have already been mentioned thanks to their really high qualitly equipment - You can also kill all Sailors in the Three Kegs Inn (6x 750 XP, Two Magic Weapons for 1250 Gold each) - No one will bother if you take down the Household Guards in the Elfson Tavern (2x 900 XP, ~2,2k Gold each) - The people who got your Gold from Ophyllis and the Nobles in Three Kegs Inn (3x 100 XP, 3x 120 XP, ~1k Gold) - Jospil at the Dukes Palace (1400 XP, ~500 Gold)
Just make sure to do the Quests of Jospil, the Gold Grabbers & Nobles first before taking them out (more XP and Gold!). Yeah, thats quite an evil way but its really strange that the surrounding Guards or normal people do not react to these kinds of murder.
EDIT: Yeah, we also have the idea dualing to Fighter later on. If we survive. But maybe we will not. The journey is the reward. No?
@Harpagornis: It seems like the Totemic Druid is really well-suited to BG1 and SoD in LoB mode, and I assume most of SoA as well. You've really shown us the potential of this class--I think it's a very important candidate for a no-reload run.
However, based on @JuliusBorisov's experience with the Throne of Bhaal fight, I don't think a single-classed Totemic Druid would suffice for Ascension LoB without reloads. Those Fallen Solars are really dangerous with their arrows, and the only way for a Totemic Druid to use the Shield of Reflection to block those arrows is to dual-class into a fighter; druids can't equip the shield. @Alesia_B_H has also shown convincingly that the shield, combined with a good sling, is extremely useful for kiting Melissan in the final stages of the battle.
Ascension Melissan is usually not very kind to classes without sustainable offensive output, and aura management is extremely important due to constant enemy pressure on your defenses. Replacing fallen summons will distract from healing and renewing your defenses. A Totemic Druid->Fighter will be much less dependent on finite, dispellable defenses.
Best of luck @Arctodus - I can clearly see that you just had no choice about joining the no-reload train .
Looking at my save games earlier today I saw I generated a berserker some time ago, though I'm not sure if I ever started it. Caesar had a long sword proficiency though and I decided to reroll and give him scimitars. He duly made his way down to Drizzt - and I realised I'd made him neutral so he couldn't use Twinkle .
A further reroll later and Caesar retraced his route and this time Twinkle consented to be handled. He continued on doing most tasks as normal, though he did add in charming and pulling away the sirines in the Beregost temple to my normal routine (hacking them down before rage expired). As usual I've been fairly aggressive in encounters and almost died just now after being hit by an acid arrow from Narcillicus - that took Caesar down to 2 HPs, with its final tick (he had no magical protection available).
He's done the hard work to get through the Nashkel Mine and will be off to the Bandit Camp fairly shortly. Caesar has longbow proficiency, so I'm tempted to fight there in order to get Hakt's bow ...
Great to see you on the run again @Grond0 fueling the Fighter-Hype-Train! Maybe i should throw in one more? Blackguard? Barbarian? Ranger? Nah! Eklun is still waiting - maybe later!
At the Bandit Camp the plan was to charm and lead external troops away to their death in order to clear the area before tackling the leaders in Tazok's tent. That worked well for the first 7 or 8 of the more dangerous enemies, but progress was rather slow and I must have let a hobgoblin elite stay too close to the main area as Venkt & co suddenly piled out of the tent and attacked - Caesar had to rapidly run away.
He spent a while running to and fro on the map and killed half a dozen enemies, but I was getting a bit impatient and tried to take down Venkt himself. Using arrows of biting he was hit quite a few times and poisoned 3 times. Despite that though he managed to release a chromatic orb and, although Caesar's save was just good enough to avoid a chance of instant death, he still took 32 damage. If the poison on Venkt had been allowed to run its course it might have killed him, so Caesar didn't run away when he had the chance despite being low on HPs. Venkt did briefly retreat himself, but he was hasted and swooped back in just as Caesar left the map edge in order to get round a tree - leaving him no way to escape a spread of magic missiles.
If you tell me how to grow up a L1 Fighter in LoB SoA "easily" @semiticgod this is the way to go!
Dualing at level 12 should do the job (or not?) even though level 15 would be "ideal"... hmmmm...
The typical strategy would be to finish some hard fights while you're still a druid, but only complete the quests until after you had dual-classed to fighter. So, kill the Unseeing Eye/Shade Lord/Conster/whatever, dual-class to fighter, and then report your success to High Watcher Oisig/Minister Lloyd/Garren Windspear/whoever. Then pay the 15,000 gold for Spellhold and do the first three tasks for Aran Linvail or Bodhi.
I'd recommend Aran Linvail, though I normally prefer siding with Bodhi. You have Protection from Undead scrolls if not the Mace of Disruption or Azuredge to deal with vampires, but a fighter has no real defense against LoB backstabs.
Those first few level gains, based entirely on quest XP, would let you tackle some low-difficulty encounters and get some combat XP as well. You should be able to get all the way through to Chapter 6 as a mid-level fighter, though you might need to use a Protection from Magic scroll on Irenicus to survive Spellhold.
I don't know the exact XP values, but I normally end up with over 2 million XP for 6 party members when I get out of the Underdark, without touching Watcher's Keep or any Chapter 2 liches or dragons. A Totemic Druid(15)->Fighter needs 5.4 million XP total to recover their druid levels, so if you dual-class at level 15 and do only half of the available quests, it should be possible to recover those levels by the Tree of Life fight.
As to dualing a druid into fighter, it is a lot easier than other classes. I already played a SoA Totemic before as some of you might remember and waited till level 15 for not only a huge amount more level 7 spells but also the fire elemental transformation. This not only makes you immune to +1 and normal weapons but unlike the summoned fire elemental you also get most of your item boni and even the fighter apr bonus! (and ofc you can drink potion of speed) So you're not forced to rely on quests where there's no fighting but can also keep quests open where the enemies don't have +2 or higher weapons which is quite a few in SoA. Btw Shade Lord can be done with PfU, so it is advised to not even touch Umar Hills before you're a fighter (all the other quests are ezpz as well). I'm even considering to dual Droolit at 16, since it is only slightly more xp but you can get a deva too. (which is sadly not available as fighter before regaining druid levels, since it counts as level 7 druid spell, but still very useful for later)
Last I tried, the Shade Lord area automatically removes Protection from Undead. It might have been another mod, but I'm pretty sure it's a recent SCS update.
I'd definitely pick the Earth Elemental form over the Fire Elemental form. The former gets 50% physical damage resistance, which stacks with Hardiness for 90% total for 10 rounds per casting of Hardiness. The Earth Elemental form is also immune to +1 weapons and below, and though it doesn't get fire resistance, undispellable fire resistance is already pretty easy to get late-game.
I recommend the Improved Shapeshifting component of SCS for convenience's sake, but the Earth Elemental Token has an erroneous 100% damage resistance instead of 50%, so you'd have to tweak it in Near Infinity if you want to maintain the challenge.
I wasn't really giving the berserker a fair chance yesterday, so thought I should have another go with that. The idea of a late dual from totemic druid is interesting though so perhaps I'll earmark that idea for my next failure after Caesar has crashed and burned ...
When remembering how much reloads i needed with Su´kka the Barbarian in SoA before she was big enough to stomp most opposition easily i have my doughts going for level 15 in a no-reload scenario. Any thoughts about this one @Arctodus after playing a pure Fighter through SoA?
But before planning everything in and out we have to beat SoD with Big B waiting at the end...
@JasperRaith mentioned in another thread that you retain the Elemental Form even after dualing to Fighter - is this confirmed @Victor_Creed_SFV? Would be awesome!
@semiticgod As Arctodus said it 100% works (PfU) and must be another mod you use. Very interesting about the 50% phys resistance of the earth elemental tho my adventurer's Guide didn't mention this, so I naturally went with fire for the huge damage output you get with 3 apr.
@Harpagornis Every HlA that is not originally a mage or priest spell will be retained after dualing this goes even for UAI and I already tested it with elemental form. Sadly it doesn't work with stuff like planetar/deva or anything else that in the vanilla game requires level 7/10 spellslots. Even if you use SCS to make the HLAs innate abilities you still won't be able to use those after dualing into a class that can't cast the spells and will have to regain your caster first.
I think we got an easy way for the dualed Fighter to push up levels in SoA beside Quest XP: Killing Gauths in the Unseeing Eye dungeon! As two of them will attack on rest ambush its 2x9k = 18k XP on every round. If you click on the rest button like crazy you might also spawn four or even six of them over and over again. As Shield of Balduran will cancel their magic power its supersafe so you can slingshot them down without retaliation. I did this before with Su´kka and it worked quite well.
@JuliusBorisov Idk about SCS and slings tho, doesn't that component only work if you're in melee distance? Either way, you just have to kill one Gauth to pick the shield back up and those guys have no hp. Also with belt from trademeet they only do 17 dmg. Also transforming to elemental and back heals you to full.
I made a testchar to test the earth elemental form and it didnt show any phys res, do you need improved shapeshifting even for the 50%?
I found out two interesting things tho: Even with fighter level 1 the earth elemental has 2 apr and it has 2d10 fists, so a crit does 56 dmg Also a very cheesy "exploit" is that you can equip the gloves of dexterity to raise your dex from 14 to 18 which gets you -15 ac if you have Helm of Balduran, Ring of Gaxx and Ring +2.
It even works with SCS @JuliusBorisov - not only vs Gauth but also vs Beholders!
You can trick Beholders by approaching them without Shield so they will fire their magic. When the rays are mid-air you switch to Shield to redirect their magic back to them. This will confuse them so much that they will stop attacking - just make sure to unequip the Shield immediately once the first rays are returning to avoid their telekinesis grabbing (they will still not attack for whatever reason). For Gauths you dont have to do anything like that. Equip Shield and they are helpless. I think i put the Beholders on the second hardest setting which only makes PfM viable otherwise. The main thing is the timing cause if you blow it the Shield might be gone but at the end its not really hard!
EDIT: Very cool stuff regarding the Elemental Form @Victor_Creed_SFV - time to rush through SoD!
Eklun rushed through Coastway Crossing and still the Spirit Summons and Fire Elementals are rocking everything into the ground. All Eklun has to do is watch the party from safe distance (or out of invisibility) until the enemies are gone. Only exception: The Dwarven Mines. Here he fell back to PfU and sided with the Coldhearth Lich after he had supported Tsolak the Vampire earlier. Looks like Eklun has a preference for Undead creatures! *whistle*
He already reached level 12 so he can summon up three Spirits and two Fire Elementals at the same time. Will this be enough for the upcoming battles in the Fallen Temple of Bhaal? We will see!
Comments
While the Wolves are pretty powerful thanks to paralyzation and leveldrain they suffer badly against enemies who are either immune or roll saves all the time. When it comes to raw damage and stamina things turn around:
Lion > Bear > Snake > Wolf
The stronger one was beating the weaker ones 5:0 even though the Lion had some close calls against the Bear.
Here the complete LoB data of Spirit Summons - which differs to the numbers in the Adventurers Guide:
Spirit Bear (10 HD)
Level: 22
Attacks per Round: 4
THAC0: 3
Damage: 5-14
Armor Class: 2
Hit Points: 212
Saving Throws
vs. Death: 9
vs. Wand : 11
vs. Polymorph: 10
vs. Breath: 10
vs. Spell: 12
Cold Resistance: 100%
Electricity Resistance: 100%
Poison Resistance: 100%
Magic Cold Resistance: 100 %
Immunities:
fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold,
slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste,
charm, leveldrain, normal weapons
Special Attack:
Target must save vs Death +3 or panicked for 30 seconds
Spirit Lion(10 HD)
Level: 22
Attacks per Round: 4
THAC0: 2
Damage: 10-17
Armor Class: -3
Hit Points: 164
Saving Throws
vs. Death: 9
vs. Wand : 11
vs. Polymorph: 10
vs. Breath: 10
vs. Spell: 12
Cold Resistance: 100%
Electricity Resistance: 100%
Poison Resistance: 100%
Magic Cold Resistance: 100 %
Immunities:
fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold,
slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste,
charm, leveldrain, normal weapons
Spirit Snake(10 HD)
Level: 22
Attacks per Round: 3
THAC0: 4
Damage: 3-12
Armor Class: -5
Hit Points: 110
Saving Throws
vs. Death: 8
vs. Wand : 10
vs. Polymorph: 9
vs. Breath: 10
vs. Spell: 11
Cold Resistance: 100%
Electricity Resistance: 100%
Poison Resistance: 100%
Magic Cold Resistance: 100 %
Immunities:
fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold,
slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste,
charm, leveldrain, normal weapons
Special Attack:
Target must save vs Poison or suffer 2 damage for 6 seconds
Spirit Wolf(10 HD)
Level: 22
Attacks per Round: 4
THAC0: 5
Damage: 2-5 +1d6 cold
Armor Class: -4
Hit Points: 132
Saving Throws
vs. Death: 8
vs. Wand : 10
vs. Polymorph: 9
vs. Breath: 10
vs. Spell: 11
Cold Resistance: 100%
Electricity Resistance: 100%
Poison Resistance: 100%
Magic Cold Resistance: 100 %
Immunities:
fear, polymorph, sleep, paralysis, web, entangle, hold,
slow, grease, feeblemind, confusion, petrification, haste,
charm, leveldrain, normal weapons
Special Attack:
Target must save vs Death +1 or be paralyzed for 7 seconds
Target must save vs Death +5 or be drained of one level
On that note Droolit cleared most of Coastway Crossing outside and will move into the cave for the dwarves next.
Am I to understand the lich is best recruited and not killed?
Can i still get the anti lich gem and maybe use it later?
There is a Lich later on when using Spectacles where you can put out the Gem once more but its optional - i usually skip it!
P.S. Cats are not to be taken easy - ask our dogs!
The usual strat worked pretty fine:
- Lured everyone except for Angelo into the SE-Corner and went invisible
- Summoned two Spirit Lions that took care of Angelo (he cant even touch them!)
- Waited for Protections to expire and burned Semaj, Tazok + Diarmid (38 charges)
- Got lucky this time and dispelled Sarevoks Haste which easened the kiting a lot
- With a 50% Hit Chance Eklun had to fire 134 Sling shots before Sarevok went down
Beforehand he had grabbed Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet after luring away all other Wardens to bite down Love alone with two Spirit Lions - the poor one dropped down like a sack of potatoes. With some more Spirit Lions and kiting the Dopplegangers below went down one after another clearing the way to the precious Goblet - Cheers!
We will hopefully start SoD soon - this time with Violet Potion in the pockets!
We totally denied Wands - like we skipped "normal" Healing Potions allowing only Regeneration Potions. We like @Grond0 - style!
We sneak-talked to Porios while PfU and Invisibility made sure to avoid any opposition before meeting Korlasz herself.
For Korlasz we prepared:
- Charmed the Assassin near the door mechanism on first try
- Stealthed through to Korlasz triggering the Dispel Trap
- Casted Iron Skin and summoned two Doggies as well as three Nymphs
- Positioned the Assassin and Wolves near Korlasz
- Casted Insect Swarm out of her vision on Spirit Wolf
- Stepped up to Korlasz with Insect Swarm nearing impact to trigger talking
- Started attacking Korlasz (Eklun with Sling) while Nymphs casted Hold Monsters
- Paralayzed Korlasz while the ticking DoT removed her protections quite quickly
- Brought down Korlasz to injured before any ally went down
- This time the surrender talking triggered even with Korlaz being paralyzed
- Hailed the power of Spirits!
Totemic Druids are much more fun than F/T - until now!
Because of you guys - and I insist to say it's all your fault, I have nothing to do with it
So, I decided to continue with a fighter type, but with a much more powerful kit than pure class : say hello to Arvar Dw'Girn, the Dwarven Defender.
Since it's my first LoB no-reload, I decided to go with something beefy, and boy, them Dwarven Defender are. Defensive Stance is a double-edged ability though, because the reduced movement speed can mean failure... For example, I foolishly tried to melee Meilum. After he hitted with three times for solid damage while none of my hit got through, I decided it was time to get the hell out. Even though that fight is at the edge of the map, Meilum managed to hit twice more while I was running, because I was just too slow to avoid him. When I got out, I had less than 30hp left, which is something quite uncomfortable. Lesson : Defensive Stance will be mainly useful against regular toons, and probably casters, for the saving throws benefit.
I had a first attempt yesterday, but bad execution against Mutamin meant Remove Magic and petrification. So, after plenty of lil' questing around the Sword Coast (Shoal, Brage, Joia, Sirines, etc, you know the drill), his second iteration avenged his first one.
Concerning the main quest, he just killed Mulahey (charmed and sliced down by his own kobolds) and Tranzig with good ol' up-&-down the stairs. He's sitting pretty a level 7, trying to gather enough money to buy the Sandthief Ring to go in and out the Bandit Tent. So, here he is :
So, wish him luck ! He's gonna need it...
Awesome to see you with DD, they are so much fun.
As to the Throne fight that should only be a problem with a pure class Totemic, idk about @Harpagornis plans, but Droolit will dual into fighter and critical strike HlA means guaranteed Harm hits aka cheese with no limits.
Eklun is still in Baldurs Gate but will move on soon. There are so many more options to gather stuff that its not hard to push Gold above 50k if you dont bother to assassinate neutral critters:
- The Party NPC´s have already been mentioned thanks to their really high qualitly equipment
- You can also kill all Sailors in the Three Kegs Inn (6x 750 XP, Two Magic Weapons for 1250 Gold each)
- No one will bother if you take down the Household Guards in the Elfson Tavern (2x 900 XP, ~2,2k Gold each)
- The people who got your Gold from Ophyllis and the Nobles in Three Kegs Inn (3x 100 XP, 3x 120 XP, ~1k Gold)
- Jospil at the Dukes Palace (1400 XP, ~500 Gold)
Just make sure to do the Quests of Jospil, the Gold Grabbers & Nobles first before taking them out (more XP and Gold!). Yeah, thats quite an evil way but its really strange that the surrounding Guards or normal people do not react to these kinds of murder.
EDIT: Yeah, we also have the idea dualing to Fighter later on. If we survive. But maybe we will not. The journey is the reward. No?
However, based on @JuliusBorisov's experience with the Throne of Bhaal fight, I don't think a single-classed Totemic Druid would suffice for Ascension LoB without reloads. Those Fallen Solars are really dangerous with their arrows, and the only way for a Totemic Druid to use the Shield of Reflection to block those arrows is to dual-class into a fighter; druids can't equip the shield. @Alesia_B_H has also shown convincingly that the shield, combined with a good sling, is extremely useful for kiting Melissan in the final stages of the battle.
Ascension Melissan is usually not very kind to classes without sustainable offensive output, and aura management is extremely important due to constant enemy pressure on your defenses. Replacing fallen summons will distract from healing and renewing your defenses. A Totemic Druid->Fighter will be much less dependent on finite, dispellable defenses.
Dualing at level 12 should do the job (or not?) even though level 15 would be "ideal"... hmmmm...
Looking at my save games earlier today I saw I generated a berserker some time ago, though I'm not sure if I ever started it. Caesar had a long sword proficiency though and I decided to reroll and give him scimitars. He duly made his way down to Drizzt - and I realised I'd made him neutral so he couldn't use Twinkle
A further reroll later and Caesar retraced his route and this time Twinkle consented to be handled. He continued on doing most tasks as normal, though he did add in charming and pulling away the sirines in the Beregost temple to my normal routine (hacking them down before rage expired). As usual I've been fairly aggressive in encounters and almost died just now after being hit by an acid arrow from Narcillicus - that took Caesar down to 2 HPs, with its final tick (he had no magical protection available).
He's done the hard work to get through the Nashkel Mine and will be off to the Bandit Camp fairly shortly. Caesar has longbow proficiency, so I'm tempted to fight there in order to get Hakt's bow ...
Anyway: Good luck!
He spent a while running to and fro on the map and killed half a dozen enemies, but I was getting a bit impatient and tried to take down Venkt himself. Using arrows of biting he was hit quite a few times and poisoned 3 times. Despite that though he managed to release a chromatic orb and, although Caesar's save was just good enough to avoid a chance of instant death, he still took 32 damage. If the poison on Venkt had been allowed to run its course it might have killed him, so Caesar didn't run away when he had the chance despite being low on HPs. Venkt did briefly retreat himself, but he was hasted and swooped back in just as Caesar left the map edge in order to get round a tree - leaving him no way to escape a spread of magic missiles.
I'd recommend Aran Linvail, though I normally prefer siding with Bodhi. You have Protection from Undead scrolls if not the Mace of Disruption or Azuredge to deal with vampires, but a fighter has no real defense against LoB backstabs.
Those first few level gains, based entirely on quest XP, would let you tackle some low-difficulty encounters and get some combat XP as well. You should be able to get all the way through to Chapter 6 as a mid-level fighter, though you might need to use a Protection from Magic scroll on Irenicus to survive Spellhold.
I don't know the exact XP values, but I normally end up with over 2 million XP for 6 party members when I get out of the Underdark, without touching Watcher's Keep or any Chapter 2 liches or dragons. A Totemic Druid(15)->Fighter needs 5.4 million XP total to recover their druid levels, so if you dual-class at level 15 and do only half of the available quests, it should be possible to recover those levels by the Tree of Life fight.
I already played a SoA Totemic before as some of you might remember and waited till level 15 for not only a huge amount more level 7 spells but also the fire elemental transformation.
This not only makes you immune to +1 and normal weapons but unlike the summoned fire elemental you also get most of your item boni and even the fighter apr bonus! (and ofc you can drink potion of speed)
So you're not forced to rely on quests where there's no fighting but can also keep quests open where the enemies don't have +2 or higher weapons which is quite a few in SoA.
Btw Shade Lord can be done with PfU, so it is advised to not even touch Umar Hills before you're a fighter (all the other quests are ezpz as well).
I'm even considering to dual Droolit at 16, since it is only slightly more xp but you can get a deva too. (which is sadly not available as fighter before regaining druid levels, since it counts as level 7 druid spell, but still very useful for later)
I'd definitely pick the Earth Elemental form over the Fire Elemental form. The former gets 50% physical damage resistance, which stacks with Hardiness for 90% total for 10 rounds per casting of Hardiness. The Earth Elemental form is also immune to +1 weapons and below, and though it doesn't get fire resistance, undispellable fire resistance is already pretty easy to get late-game.
I recommend the Improved Shapeshifting component of SCS for convenience's sake, but the Earth Elemental Token has an erroneous 100% damage resistance instead of 50%, so you'd have to tweak it in Near Infinity if you want to maintain the challenge.
But before planning everything in and out we have to beat SoD with Big B waiting at the end...
@JasperRaith mentioned in another thread that you retain the Elemental Form even after dualing to Fighter - is this confirmed @Victor_Creed_SFV? Would be awesome!
Very interesting about the 50% phys resistance of the earth elemental tho my adventurer's Guide didn't mention this, so I naturally went with fire for the huge damage output you get with 3 apr.
@Harpagornis
Every HlA that is not originally a mage or priest spell will be retained after dualing this goes even for UAI and I already tested it with elemental form.
Sadly it doesn't work with stuff like planetar/deva or anything else that in the vanilla game requires level 7/10 spellslots.
Even if you use SCS to make the HLAs innate abilities you still won't be able to use those after dualing into a class that can't cast the spells and will have to regain your caster first.
P.S. Thanks for the confirmation @Victor_Creed_SFV!
Idk about SCS and slings tho, doesn't that component only work if you're in melee distance?
Either way, you just have to kill one Gauth to pick the shield back up and those guys have no hp.
Also with belt from trademeet they only do 17 dmg.
Also transforming to elemental and back heals you to full.
I made a testchar to test the earth elemental form and it didnt show any phys res, do you need improved shapeshifting even for the 50%?
I found out two interesting things tho:
Even with fighter level 1 the earth elemental has 2 apr and it has 2d10 fists, so a crit does 56 dmg
Also a very cheesy "exploit" is that you can equip the gloves of dexterity to raise your dex from 14 to 18 which gets you -15 ac if you have Helm of Balduran, Ring of Gaxx and Ring +2.
You can trick Beholders by approaching them without Shield so they will fire their magic. When the rays are mid-air you switch to Shield to redirect their magic back to them. This will confuse them so much that they will stop attacking - just make sure to unequip the Shield immediately once the first rays are returning to avoid their telekinesis grabbing (they will still not attack for whatever reason). For Gauths you dont have to do anything like that. Equip Shield and they are helpless. I think i put the Beholders on the second hardest setting which only makes PfM viable otherwise. The main thing is the timing cause if you blow it the Shield might be gone but at the end its not really hard!
EDIT: Very cool stuff regarding the Elemental Form @Victor_Creed_SFV - time to rush through SoD!
He already reached level 12 so he can summon up three Spirits and two Fire Elementals at the same time. Will this be enough for the upcoming battles in the Fallen Temple of Bhaal? We will see!
I already did everything else and was gonna do Lich first, cuz I have no idea about SoD.