I meant the wand of magic missiles she has at the start of the game.
Did some minor quests including a successful melicamp (does having full reaction thru 18 IN and WIS give you 100% success here?) and am now at level 3/2/3. The F/M/C's versatility at low level is pretty insane, because you start with really high hp (32 with familiar), Sanctuary is level 1 and ofc you can pick up all free wands including the super op monster summoning and paralyzation and use them with armor on.
Druid Grove at lv23. Grinded my way through to the Shadow Druids, absolutely wasted them. With one rest pause was able to clear the Spore Colonnies. Cernd soloed Faldron with Insect Swarm and Summon Animals. Killed the Dao to get the Efreeti Bottle.
Thaxll'ssillyia went down first try, as did Shadelord, although he offered slightly more resistance. This one Lich really liked fire.
The last Stronghold quest was the Beholder dungeon. Undead are funnily easy with this level of Turn Undead. Killed Death Tyrants with Simul wielding Shield of Balduran. Waited the Unseeing Eye drop his defenses, summoned Efreeti, which was able to do surprisingly lot of damage. Then I finished the Beholder boss and cleared rest of the area. Hit already lv26.
My solo party consists now 7 party members.
Sir Vanderley Sir Vanderley II Kitthix Deva Efreeti Berseker Ras, the Dancing Blade
Is this the strongest party I can get, as Djinni is probably unobtainable when I sided with the Shadow Thiefs?
What's people's views if I should waste one HLA to power attack and get couple Critical Strikes? Also how many Hardiness should I take, as one Hardiness will only last 1,7 Turns. Boss fights in mind?
(70-180)+60ce dmg per round +30 MR and ability to strike through Absolute Immunity
So they do similar damage difference being 20 DR to 30 MR and better strikes. Of course there's also the guestion which to upgrade, Carsomyr or Purifier. Choices, choices...
What's people's views if I should waste one HLA to power attack and get couple Critical Strikes? Also how many Hardiness should I take, as one Hardiness will only last 1,7 Turns. Boss fights in mind?
Critical Strike is only good on LoB if you cqan combine it with instakill stuff like Harm, otherwise GWW will give you more especially on 2h weapons. I always take 2 Hardiness just in case.
So they do similar damage difference being 20 DR to 30 MR and better strikes. Of course there's also the guestion which to upgrade, Carsomyr or Purifier. Choices, choices...
I personally prefer Purifier, but it depends on your build really, but if I factor in you being a paladin with GWW (I often use Purifier with weird thief combos, which are mostly EE-keeper test builds) Carsomyr might be the better option. Keep in mind if you use Equalizer in Offhand the boni against evil creatures also apply to your mainhand so Carsomyr's main advantage is not the damage but the dispel on hit.
That offhand to mainhand bonus is something to consider also. Why I'm considering putting in couple critical strikes is because that way I can get 88 DR with dual wielding DoEH, Helmet of Dumathoin, AoF, Hardiness and still deal good damage. Which effectively means I can take 1825 dmg before dying, and every Superior Healing potion will give 333 hp.
That offhand to mainhand bonus is something to consider also. Why I'm considering putting in couple critical strikes is because that way I can get 88 DR with dual wielding DoEH, Helmet of Dumathoin, AoF, Hardiness and still deal good damage. Which effectively means I can take 1825 dmg before dying, and every Superior Healing potion will give 333 hp.
You will definitely need survivability in ToB it is a totally different story from SoA (early SoA even has plenty of fights that are easier than some BG1 fights, let alone SoD) so if you can get it thru dwing, go for it (damage should still be ok).
Also don't forget rod of resurrection for full heals, since you can recharge at vendors.
Also don't forget rod of resurrection for full heals, since you can recharge at vendors.
Wait what? Never had considered this, it's basically Durlag's Goblet? So effectively I can take 36k dmg with 88 DR and 2 Rod of Resurrections before dying.
@histamiini: Yup. The Rod of Resurrection is a spectacular option for any solo character aside from a Wizard Slayer.
I personally prefer Hardiness and Power Attack to GWW, since Hardiness is such a fabulous defensive option and Power Attack is much better at disrupting mages and pinning down tough critters (a level 20 mage has 10 Stoneskins, so even GWW won't get you through all of them in a single round). Power Attack is also a prerequisite for Smite, which you can only take once but lasts 2 rounds and has a guaranteed stun effect on hit with no saving throw for 2 rounds. Smite can stun-lock anything that's not immune to stun for about 4 whole rounds.
@histamiini And don't forget that Ascension Amelyssan is immune to pretty much everything, except stun, making Smite all the more valuable.
Also, the Rod of Resurection is definitively good, but it might get you stuck in a stalemate if you plan on depending on it in the Ascension final fight. Since you can only use it once a round, it's possible that you could be forced to use the RoR and waste your only action every round on it. Amelyssan has over 1000hp, 90 DR and she keeps summoning demons while fighting you. It's entirely possible to be overwhelmed during that fight even with massive DR, MR and crazy low saving throws. That's what happened to @Harpagornis with his barbarian.
For a fighter type, I think the key to winning that fight is to stunlock her one way or another. And bad news : she's immune to the Staff of the Ram knockback effect.
@histamiini: PFMW will block Carsomyr, and PFMW becomes increasingly common later in the game, especially with SCS.
You can find Melissan's stats at the Throne of Bhaal by checking her .cre file, whose code is FINMEL.cre. (CTRL-F will let you search for a critter by name, which in this case is Melissan rather than Amelyssan).
As for LoB stats: yes, Near Infinity does not list LoB stats because those stats aren't stored in .cre files; they're calculated via formulas. Just add +1 to APR, +5 to saving throws and THAC0, +12 to all levels, and multiply HP by 3 and add 80, and you'll have any critter's LoB stats.
@semiticgod Thanks. According that file she has "only" 75 DR.
Also I've noticed that Plate of Balduran and Pride of Legion both claim to have -5/-4/-4 modifiers, but stats window shows -4/-3/-3 for both. And this isn't helped for the fact that wikia claims the -5/-4/-4 for Pride of Legion and -4/-3/-3 for Plate of Balduran. So how in earth can one know which is supposed to be correct without asking a developer?
@histamiini: Stats window tells the truth, along with Near Infinity; they're the real numbers. Don't trust descriptions if you want to know the exact numbers of everything; they're just strings written by fallible humans, about those numbers.
Plate mail only has -3 to AC vs. slashing, but for all suits of full plate mail, -4/-3/-3 vs. missile/piercing/slashing should be standard.
@semiticgod So it's actually a (description) bug in the game.
Anyway I've finally moved to Brynnlaw after doing every possible quest in CH3, clearing lv1 of Watchers Keep and getting to lv26. Here I come Bag of... ehm Imoen!
Did some calculations against Amelyssan, possibly forgetting and missing something.
Cavalier Carsomyr output against Amelyssan
Paladin lv34 0 Thac0 base Specialized -1 +2 Strenght 25 -8 +16 Carsomyr +6 -14 1d12+28 Gauntlets -15 1d12+30 Belt Of Skillful Blade -15 1d12+30 +10% Aid -16 1d12+31 +10% Bless -17 1d12+32 +10% Gww 10 apr Average dmg per round 466
Cavalier Dual Wield output against Amelyssan
Paladin lv34 0 Thac0 base Specialized -1 +2 Strenght 25 -8 +16 Purifier +5 -13 2d4+26 Equalizer +3 -13/-9 2d4+32/1d8 Gauntlets -14/-9 2d4+34/1d8 Belt Of Skillful Blade -14/-9 2d4+34/1d8 +10% Aid -15/-10 2d4+35/1d8 +10% Bless -16/-11 2d4+36/1d8 +10% Improved Haste 6/2 apr Critical Strike double damage per round Average dmg per round 551
Amelyssan 1580 hp, 75 DR
Carsomyr Time 1580/0.25/466 = 14 rounds Dual Wield Time 1580/0.25/551 = 11 rounds
Chant also makes it faster.
I think I'll go with,
Whirlwind 1 Greater Whirlwind 5 Power Attack 1 Critical Strike 5 Smite 1 Deva 1 Hardiness 3
Which gives me some flexibility, 12 rounds of damage and 1 hour of 40 DR.
After one day break Vicci the F/M/C has made a little bit of progress and just killed Mulahey. Level is 6/6/6 (oops) and 1 level before the BG1 cap. Among other things killed Greywolf, Bassilus, Battle Horrors and Baslisks at Durlags (and ofc on the basilisk map). 2 skellies were instrumental for tanking stuff like Bassilus and Greywolf, making the kills much faster than kiting because of having time for doom + chant + blind (one recast on greywolf because save) and then just wailing away with sling +1.
I've got to say tho the difference of using Algernon's cloak with a mage class (non specialist because 3 mc) seems huge, Mulahey saved countless times and always high 20 saves, before he finally succumbed to it, while in my previous runs with fighters and druids he always failed the save 1st or 2nd try. Idk if I will even try charming Davaeorn, since as a mage I can use wand of fire instead of OGL which always does full damage without allowing a save due to buggy wands.
Just as I posted that, Vicci died under the most unfortunate circumstances.
After feeding Nimbul to some skellies and soldiers, we traveled to the Gnoll Stronghold to obtain the CH tome. On the way back to Bereghost we got waylaid by Molkar and friends. Usually I always flee these ambushes, but looking up Molkar in the wiki found out he carries a potion of heroism, which is helpful vs Big B so instead I went invisible with the intention of braving the encounter. I went to a far of area on the map with the intention of summoning 4 skellies, but forgot the AI will always follow an invisible char until you stand still for the first time. Molkar cast unholy blight and I made the mistake of drinking an invis potion, I should have drunk Oil of speed to escape the AoE, but I did not expect it toneshot my 80 HP but it hit my twice for exactly 40 damage.
I might go plain M/C in my next attempt which would have the advantage of 1 more spellevel for both classes, but also disadvantage of having a lot less Thac0 for Big B. Maybe I should go dwarven F/C instead for a lot of HP ur dual Fighter into Cleric for max Thac0.
@Victor_Creed_SFV I don't think you need to risk for a Heroism Potion. In SoD alone there's at least 31 for sale by Belegarm, Bellowgulp, Crusader Priest Polvi, Sorcerous Sundries and Thirrim.
@Victor_Creed_SFV I don't think you need to risk for a Heroism Potion. In SoD alone there's at least 31 for sale by Belegarm, Bellowgulp, Crusader Priest Polvi, Sorcerous Sundries and Thirrim.
Aw, good to know I'll not risk again then, still haven't decided what class I'll restart with.
@Victor_Creed_SFV Have you tried Blade? Currently thinking starting no-reload simultaneously with Sir Vanderley.
I've tried Blade when SoD and LoB came out, since I still had my save from years back where I played all the way thru SCS Insane until ToB with a blade.
Wasn't impressed at all by the blades performance on LoB, because defensive spin is pretty useless now and with the changes to bard's song I think that Skald is just much better than blade, since you can self buff with bard song now.
Specifically for the Big B fight Blade might be better because of offensive Spin and having more than 1 pip in Two Weapon style (+2 Thac0). But generally I felt having +2 Thac0 and damage from Skalds Song which has unlimited uses and having +1 each from the skalds kit to be the better trade. I have to admit tho that I always played Blade for def spin, which lost it's viability due to LoB for the most part. (Fights last too long for the limited uses one has in it and enemies Thac0 and APR are higher, crits still hurt, especially since bards have no helmet.
Having no helmet is a killer on LoB for any class, one of the main reasons I don't like Sorcerer in BG1 LoB.
I just tried out the skald and the skald song takes way too long to actually apply to the skald, for kiting it would be alright, but for close quarter fights like Big B you can't use it at all.
After weighing all ups and downs of different classes I created a R/C for the very first time ever:
Not being able to kill innocents will be a problem because of Algernon's cloak, but hopefully even tho this will be another no reload attempt we will prevail.
This isn't my day for no reload runs. After doing various small quests, ogre, Spooders, Flamedance Ring, Brage, Dorn Ambush, Samuel, getting Ankheg Plate, Brun, I was level 3/3, when I decided to do Tenya. Somehow I tried to interrupt her skeleton summon too early (or it bugged) and the super long cast did not get interrupted despite using MM wand for guaranteed interrupt. Because of this I had to run from the door which I usually use for interrupting her Hold Person and when she fired a Hold I tried to run out of sight, was too slow and got held, after that it was only a matter of time for her to catch up and club Robin to death.
Since it wasn't too much progress I might just resart Robins Prologue Start save tomorrow and get Greenstone before I attempt Tenya.
Comments
Did some minor quests including a successful melicamp (does having full reaction thru 18 IN and WIS give you 100% success here?) and am now at level 3/2/3.
The F/M/C's versatility at low level is pretty insane, because you start with really high hp (32 with familiar), Sanctuary is level 1 and ofc you can pick up all free wands including the super op monster summoning and paralyzation and use them with armor on.
Thaxll'ssillyia went down first try, as did Shadelord, although he offered slightly more resistance. This one Lich really liked fire.
The last Stronghold quest was the Beholder dungeon. Undead are funnily easy with this level of Turn Undead. Killed Death Tyrants with Simul wielding Shield of Balduran. Waited the Unseeing Eye drop his defenses, summoned Efreeti, which was able to do surprisingly lot of damage. Then I finished the Beholder boss and cleared rest of the area. Hit already lv26.
My solo party consists now 7 party members.
Sir Vanderley
Sir Vanderley II
Kitthix
Deva
Efreeti
Berseker
Ras, the Dancing Blade
Is this the strongest party I can get, as Djinni is probably unobtainable when I sided with the Shadow Thiefs?
What's people's views if I should waste one HLA to power attack and get couple Critical Strikes? Also how many Hardiness should I take, as one Hardiness will only last 1,7 Turns. Boss fights in mind?
DoEH +3 1d6+4
Carsomyr +6 1d12+6+6ce
Dual Wield Purifier +4, DoEH, Improved Haste, Critical Strike
(92-184)+48ce dmg per round +20 DR
Carsonmyr +6, Gww
(70-180)+60ce dmg per round +30 MR and ability to strike through Absolute Immunity
So they do similar damage difference being 20 DR to 30 MR and better strikes. Of course there's also the guestion which to upgrade, Carsomyr or Purifier. Choices, choices...
I always take 2 Hardiness just in case. I personally prefer Purifier, but it depends on your build really, but if I factor in you being a paladin with GWW (I often use Purifier with weird thief combos, which are mostly EE-keeper test builds) Carsomyr might be the better option.
Keep in mind if you use Equalizer in Offhand the boni against evil creatures also apply to your mainhand so Carsomyr's main advantage is not the damage but the dispel on hit.
That offhand to mainhand bonus is something to consider also. Why I'm considering putting in couple critical strikes is because that way I can get 88 DR with dual wielding DoEH, Helmet of Dumathoin, AoF, Hardiness and still deal good damage. Which effectively means I can take 1825 dmg before dying, and every Superior Healing potion will give 333 hp.
Also don't forget rod of resurrection for full heals, since you can recharge at vendors.
I personally prefer Hardiness and Power Attack to GWW, since Hardiness is such a fabulous defensive option and Power Attack is much better at disrupting mages and pinning down tough critters (a level 20 mage has 10 Stoneskins, so even GWW won't get you through all of them in a single round). Power Attack is also a prerequisite for Smite, which you can only take once but lasts 2 rounds and has a guaranteed stun effect on hit with no saving throw for 2 rounds. Smite can stun-lock anything that's not immune to stun for about 4 whole rounds.
Also, the Rod of Resurection is definitively good, but it might get you stuck in a stalemate if you plan on depending on it in the Ascension final fight. Since you can only use it once a round, it's possible that you could be forced to use the RoR and waste your only action every round on it. Amelyssan has over 1000hp, 90 DR and she keeps summoning demons while fighting you. It's entirely possible to be overwhelmed during that fight even with massive DR, MR and crazy low saving throws. That's what happened to @Harpagornis with his barbarian.
For a fighter type, I think the key to winning that fight is to stunlock her one way or another. And bad news : she's immune to the Staff of the Ram knockback effect.
Food for thoughts for you...
@Arctodus That's good info thanks. Btw where can I find Amelyssans stats?
You can find Melissan's stats at the Throne of Bhaal by checking her .cre file, whose code is FINMEL.cre. (CTRL-F will let you search for a critter by name, which in this case is Melissan rather than Amelyssan).
As for LoB stats: yes, Near Infinity does not list LoB stats because those stats aren't stored in .cre files; they're calculated via formulas. Just add +1 to APR, +5 to saving throws and THAC0, +12 to all levels, and multiply HP by 3 and add 80, and you'll have any critter's LoB stats.
Also I've noticed that Plate of Balduran and Pride of Legion both claim to have -5/-4/-4 modifiers, but stats window shows -4/-3/-3 for both. And this isn't helped for the fact that wikia claims the -5/-4/-4 for Pride of Legion and -4/-3/-3 for Plate of Balduran. So how in earth can one know which is supposed to be correct without asking a developer?
Plate mail only has -3 to AC vs. slashing, but for all suits of full plate mail, -4/-3/-3 vs. missile/piercing/slashing should be standard.
Anyway I've finally moved to Brynnlaw after doing every possible quest in CH3, clearing lv1 of Watchers Keep and getting to lv26. Here I come Bag of... ehm Imoen!
Did some calculations against Amelyssan, possibly forgetting and missing something.
Paladin lv34 0 Thac0 base
Specialized -1 +2
Strenght 25 -8 +16
Carsomyr +6 -14 1d12+28
Gauntlets -15 1d12+30
Belt Of Skillful Blade -15 1d12+30 +10%
Aid -16 1d12+31 +10%
Bless -17 1d12+32 +10%
Gww 10 apr
Average dmg per round 466
Cavalier Dual Wield output against Amelyssan
Paladin lv34 0 Thac0 base
Specialized -1 +2
Strenght 25 -8 +16
Purifier +5 -13 2d4+26
Equalizer +3 -13/-9 2d4+32/1d8
Gauntlets -14/-9 2d4+34/1d8
Belt Of Skillful Blade -14/-9 2d4+34/1d8 +10%
Aid -15/-10 2d4+35/1d8 +10%
Bless -16/-11 2d4+36/1d8 +10%
Improved Haste 6/2 apr
Critical Strike double damage per round
Average dmg per round 551
Amelyssan 1580 hp, 75 DR
Carsomyr Time 1580/0.25/466 = 14 rounds
Dual Wield Time 1580/0.25/551 = 11 rounds
Chant also makes it faster.
I think I'll go with,
Whirlwind 1
Greater Whirlwind 5
Power Attack 1
Critical Strike 5
Smite 1
Deva 1
Hardiness 3
Which gives me some flexibility, 12 rounds of damage and 1 hour of 40 DR.
Level is 6/6/6 (oops) and 1 level before the BG1 cap.
Among other things killed Greywolf, Bassilus, Battle Horrors and Baslisks at Durlags (and ofc on the basilisk map).
2 skellies were instrumental for tanking stuff like Bassilus and Greywolf, making the kills much faster than kiting because of having time for doom + chant + blind (one recast on greywolf because save) and then just wailing away with sling +1.
I've got to say tho the difference of using Algernon's cloak with a mage class (non specialist because 3 mc) seems huge, Mulahey saved countless times and always high 20 saves, before he finally succumbed to it, while in my previous runs with fighters and druids he always failed the save 1st or 2nd try.
Idk if I will even try charming Davaeorn, since as a mage I can use wand of fire instead of OGL which always does full damage without allowing a save due to buggy wands.
After feeding Nimbul to some skellies and soldiers, we traveled to the Gnoll Stronghold to obtain the CH tome.
On the way back to Bereghost we got waylaid by Molkar and friends.
Usually I always flee these ambushes, but looking up Molkar in the wiki found out he carries a potion of heroism, which is helpful vs Big B so instead I went invisible with the intention of braving the encounter.
I went to a far of area on the map with the intention of summoning 4 skellies, but forgot the AI will always follow an invisible char until you stand still for the first time.
Molkar cast unholy blight and I made the mistake of drinking an invis potion, I should have drunk Oil of speed to escape the AoE, but I did not expect it toneshot my 80 HP but it hit my twice for exactly 40 damage.
I might go plain M/C in my next attempt which would have the advantage of 1 more spellevel for both classes, but also disadvantage of having a lot less Thac0 for Big B.
Maybe I should go dwarven F/C instead for a lot of HP ur dual Fighter into Cleric for max Thac0.
Wasn't impressed at all by the blades performance on LoB, because defensive spin is pretty useless now and with the changes to bard's song I think that Skald is just much better than blade, since you can self buff with bard song now.
But generally I felt having +2 Thac0 and damage from Skalds Song which has unlimited uses and having +1 each from the skalds kit to be the better trade.
I have to admit tho that I always played Blade for def spin, which lost it's viability due to LoB for the most part. (Fights last too long for the limited uses one has in it and enemies Thac0 and APR are higher, crits still hurt, especially since bards have no helmet.
Having no helmet is a killer on LoB for any class, one of the main reasons I don't like Sorcerer in BG1 LoB.
Not being able to kill innocents will be a problem because of Algernon's cloak, but hopefully even tho this will be another no reload attempt we will prevail.
After doing various small quests, ogre, Spooders, Flamedance Ring, Brage, Dorn Ambush, Samuel, getting Ankheg Plate, Brun,
I was level 3/3, when I decided to do Tenya.
Somehow I tried to interrupt her skeleton summon too early (or it bugged) and the super long cast did not get interrupted despite using MM wand for guaranteed interrupt.
Because of this I had to run from the door which I usually use for interrupting her Hold Person and when she fired a Hold I tried to run out of sight, was too slow and got held, after that it was only a matter of time for her to catch up and club Robin to death.
Since it wasn't too much progress I might just resart Robins Prologue Start save tomorrow and get Greenstone before I attempt Tenya.