Krell did it... holy cow... SoA has been finished... only ToB left!
Krell went the good path all the time - nothing special. Most funny thing: Sarevok could not touch the Spirit Summons nor Krell transformed into a Greater Fire Elemental. This left open only one more...
The start of this last battle was crucial and forced several reloads. At the end Krell placed three Nymphs and two Earth Elementals around the spawning area of the demons so Krell could escape without anyone following him (only soaking up Remove Magics). Haste effect from Energy Blades proved to be very helpful too.
Once Krell got out of vision he watched the scene thanks to Far Sight (have i mentioned before how great this spell is). Irenicus wasted Time Stop and Planetar on the summons so Krell recasted one more Earth Elemental that played decoy once Irenicus (and only Irenicus) started to search for him.
Krell used another Earth Elemental for retreat to let Irenicus waste his spells. Once all Earth Elementals were down he switched to Fire Elementals while combining them with Elemental Summoning. He got lucky this time and the Fire Elemental Prince appeared who gave the Slayer some good beating. Once the first Fire Elementals went down he replaced them with Spirit Lions and - finally - with another Fire Elemental Prince saving the Deva for the last man standing.
At least this was the plan but the three remaining Spirit Lions and Zaaman Rul proved to be enough taking away the last Hitpoints from Irenicus...
Too bad the screenshots were not saved... can it be that there is a limit of 500 pics in the screenshot folder? Damn it...
Anyway: ToB will be next and at least the start should be some chilling again. Hopefully!
Yeah, the poverty run so far was really funny even though its more of a summons vs everything - at least most of the time. But on the other hand it gave me some nice insight on whats possible and where the limitations are. The latter one will stop this run most probably against Abazigal or Sendai so i am already thinking about some reconfigurations before doing all of this in a no-reload-poverty-challenge "once more".
I was "always" aware that Totemic Druids have great potential but Krells run has shown that in most cases only the sky is the limit. Or the number of summons. I dont think there are many - if any - classes that can compete here with Totemic Druids. Avengers and Shapeshifters might get through too but will suffer a bit more against the bosses. Maybe Sorcerers are the only ones who have any realistic chance even though Sarevok and especially Big B might be a bag of neverending trouble. But thats something i leave open to you @Grond0!
Invisibility got me to the Gauths in Unseeing Lair, and I started the massacre. At the beginning it took about 60s to kill one Gauth with Belm +2, Shield of Balduran and Duhm. This halved to 30s when I discovered that you can swap the Shield to FoA +3 when they stop their rays. When I got to lv19 it only took about 20s with 4,5 apr and 24 str Duhm. But then I started to getting Gww's after which it only took about 15s per Gauth. Eventually Seven ascended to lv40 and discovered his final form.
Seven, lv40 Dwarven Defender
246 hp (19) 0 Base Thac0 2 Base APR 0,0,4,4,1 Base Saves (-2 with Defensive Stance) 20/20/20/20 Base DR
11 Defensive Stance (50 DR for 1 Turn) 3 Hardiness (40 DR for 2 Turns) 1 Power Attack 1 Critical Strike 1 Smite 1 Whirlwind 14 Greater Whirlwind
Used PfU on the Lich in City Gates district and smacked him down, got another Ring of Invisibility and Daystar. Time to test Sevens mettle. Invisibility, Duhm, Hardiness, Gww and smacked the mage of the Temple Sewer gang down, invisibility. Rested and came back, the same procedure and got Gallchobhair, Zorl and Tarnor down. Another rest and was able to wipe the last two with ease. With this allmighty loot I was able to purchase Vailor's Helm and the two PfM scrolls. The two weaker Liches where Sim PfU'd. Sim then casted PfM on me, and then on Kangaxx Lich form, and I Gww'd him with the Elven Court Bow. After he changed to Demi Lich I wasted one PfU on him and Daystar sliced him down. Got the Ring of Gaxx. Now starts the money grind to 60k fee.
@histamiini Seriously, the way you're stomping that game - no-reload I might add -, I wonder if you still have a challenge ahead of you.
Maybe you could try the Revisions mod ? They nerf a bunch of overly powerful items (PfU, Carsomyr, Arrows od Dispelling, etc...). I think that's pretty much the only way you'll have to "work" again.
Frisk is in the Underdark now and has just hit level 19, gaining access to Energy Blades and Summon Planetar. Mage HLAs are level 9 spells in my install instead of innate spells, which is good in the long run but leaves us a bit weaker at the moment.
We skipped the Yuan-ti Mages and encountered no lich, so we used the Protection from Undead scroll to kill Dace.
Irenicus in Spellhold was not difficult. We couldn't stop his Improved Alacrity from coming out, but the other inmates apply so many magic attacks that all we had to do was use a single Breach scroll and fire a bunch of nonmagical arrows at him when his PFMW Contingency came out.
I don't like fighting drow even outside of LoB mode, so rather than micromanage my planetar and have Frisk fuss over their defenses while they watched and waited, I just blasted the hell out of the drow with some Arrows of Detonation via Simulacrum.
We still haven't tackled the Kuo-toa Prince, but he shouldn't be too challenging. The other kuo-toa will give us grief because of their numerical superiority and ability to see through invisibility, but the Kuo-toa Prince has 0 AC and 20 STR, so Called Shot on some Minute Meteors should kill him pretty fast.
The Balor is too tough for us for land a STR drain kill, so it's probably just going to be a really long slog. I might cook up a few PFMW, Improved Haste, and Mordenkainen's Sword scrolls just to speed things up.
The rest of the Underdark should be a cakewalk. I might tackle the mind flayer city if the Teleport spell lets me hop in and out at will, but I won't really need the Control Circlets until ToB.
@histamiini: If you're going no-reload, I think the critical threats to your character are Maze and stat drain, because your resistances and saving throws should block almost everything else (Dwarven Defenders are awesome). If you have SCS vampires with CON drain, hold onto those Protection from Undead scrolls or Potions of Absorption, and don't fight any mind flayers you don't absolutely have to. Bear in mind that the Ring of Spell Turning only casts Minor Spell Turning, so it won't block Maze; your only defense is Potions of Magic Protection. Also note that Implosion doesn't offer a save, though that won't matter unless you let Defensive Stance drop for some reason.
Even a Dwarven Defender can die against Ascension Melissan, so you should know it back to front if you're going to tackle her without reloading.
The Underdark was no problem--as it happens, we managed to take down not just the Kuo-toa Prince with STR drain, but also the Balor. I thought it wasn't reliable, but then I realized I could hit him with Lower Resistance and then Ray of Enfeeblement. I needed fewer hits to guaranteed a failed save vs. spell than to drain all of its STR without Ray of Enfeeblement.
I created a mod today that allows you to get XP from stat drain kills and also lets stat drain work on plot-immune critters. It's worked perfectly so far.
I used a planetar to deal with most of the necessary fights in the Underdark, avoiding the imprisonment sphere as well as the mind flayer city, beholder hive, and Death Knights. Frisk nearly died against the Kuo-toa, though, because apparently they use nonmagical spears; PFMW was no defense against them. Unwilling to trust a Stoneskin spell or a conventional potion, I used Durlag's Goblet with Kiel's Helmet instead (EET is so convenient). Based on the damage we took afterwards, Durlag's Goblet wasn't necessary, but it's always a good idea to play it safe.
We talked our way out of killing Qilue and chose the least dangerous options in Ust Natha. As always, I talk-blocked Taso Kala and snuck past her using invisibility. The Egg Guards went down with Improved Haste, Simulacrum, some good arrows, and a planetar, but I also toyed with the idea of using a Limited Wish scroll to cast Time Stop to make absolute sure we got in the hits we needed. The Egg Guards have about 100 HP in LoB mode, so they're not quite as easy to bump off as they are in a normal run.
I let Adalon fight the drow guarding the exit and Frisk is now at level 20, about to tackle Bodhi's lair. I think we can deal with the first level by dual-wielding Belm with either the Mace of Disruption or the Black Blade of Disaster while hiding behind a Protection from Undead scroll, and maybe burning another scroll on Drizzt so he doesn't die of level drain. As for Bodhi, she won't give us too much trouble. Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster with Improved Haste should be enough to take her down. Minute Meteors with Enchanted Weapon and Called Shot during Time Stop would also work just fine. Hazzerbazzer and Manasseh are no threat at all during Time Stop.
We'll kill Nizidramanii'yt with Called Shot and Time Stop and let Rillifane take down everything else. Then we can kite Jon-bon and wait out the Slayer's PFMW spells until we can pounce on it with Time Stop and Called Shot.
Then comes ToB. Gromnir will be very nasty unless I use a Time Stop scroll on him, and we'll probably also kill Yaga-Shura the same way. Once we get the Bronze Pantalettes and therefore the Scorcher Ammunition, even Abazigal and the Ravager will fall to STR drain. Then we just tank the Five, use Protection from Magic scrolls on Sendai and Abazigal, kite everyone until somebody dies, PFMW for Melissan, and finally Called Shot with the Scorcher Ammunition to kill Melissan.
It's kind of bizarre... I always knew I was better at BG2 than BG1 or SoD, but now that I've finally gotten back to BG2 and am actually playing it, the difference is crazy. Suddenly I can run circles around the enemy. I barely even need to think anymore; I already know the playbook by heart.
It reminds me of when I was studying in China. We got around via bike, and eventually I got a flat tire. I didn't actually realize it at the time, but I did know that it was getting harder and harder to keep up with my friend Ma Di--it got to the point where getting around was just a struggle, and I wasn't sure if I was even saving energy by riding a bike.
Then, finally, I got the thing repaired on campus at Beida. When I got back on, everything was so incredibly easy--riding a bike felt like riding over water or flying across a cloud. It was so easy and so smooth, and I could go so much faster. I lost Ma Di in seconds--I lost everyone; the world was too slow, and going fast was too easy.
The Egg Guards went down with Improved Haste, Simulacrum, some good arrows, and a planetar, but I also toyed with the idea of using a Limited Wish scroll to cast Time Stop to make absolute sure we got in the hits we needed. The Egg Guards have about 100 HP in LoB mode, so they're not quite as easy to bump off as they are in a normal run.
There's no particular advantage to killing the guards - you can just go invisible as soon as you've grabbed the eggs.
@Arctodus Well lets not get ahead of ourselves, there's still the hardest battles ahead. I've played the game like 10 times in a short period, so it's pretty straight forward atm, but ToB I've done only once with LoB SCS Ascension. Making the game also harder would only come into question after finishing the game, if Six or Seven beats Melissan, then sure probably.
@semiticgod Yeah no-reload only since Sir Vanderley beat Melissan. Maze is probably the biggest threat, because I think some lesser opponents can Maze you so I might not be expecting it. Imprisonment and stat drains are still in memory from my Cavalier run, Sim PfM against Imprisonment and PfU against Bodhi, who can kill you in almost a round with that Con drain. There's also the Book of Infinite Spells which offers Spell Turning, which I used against Abazigal successfully, but Sim PfM offers better protection. End battle also has Thac0 and item thieves, aka bastards.
Seven can have 17 turn undispellable 100 DR in the end battle, and Cloak of Mirroring should keep spell damage out, so there should be a good chance, although I still would bet all the money I've ever seen, that Six (F/M/C) will fair better in it. Moot point if neither gets there...
Once the Nymphs joined the party everything got a lot easier as they either hold the enemies and/or burn them into the ground with Call Lightning. The main questline however should be much more challenging than with Totemic Druid - despite the items. Scimitars are very powerful so far - even more with the newly aquired Grand Mastery. Lets have some more fun - time to reach level 9!
EDIT: My good old mate @Vynn started with Wizard Slayer/Druid as well to double our chances. This should get funny!
Zyxx farmed Ankhegs with three Nymphs until he hit level 9 - which took an hour. Sirenes might have been better XP wise but i did not want to risk anything. After that the rest was easy: Get PfP scroll and blow through the Battle Horrors with Call Lightning while smacking down the Basilisks and some more Ghasts in Durlags Tower. Even better: With his new Tome and level 10 Zyxx can now call in five Nymphs for maximum fun.
He used them to good effect after sneaking down to Mulahey using Pixie Dust and placed all five of them around the evil Cleric. Then he let them have some fun holding and dominating Mulahey several times while soaking away his HP without any danger. As Mulahey was now unable to call in his guards Zyxx moved in to get in some final blows. Quite cheesy but very effective!
Killed Bodhi during Time Stop with a scroll and Black Blade of Disaster, but the Time Stop scroll was unnecessary. With a Protection from Undead scroll on both Frisk and Drizzt (we force-talked her to start the fight), Bodhi could not react at all, and killing her was just a matter of time.
We ran past everything in Suldannessellar and used Called Shot during Time Stop to kill Nizidramanii'yt (since all the hits from Called Shot will land at the same time, the STR drain isn't spread out, so you can drain 20 STR with a single casting of Called Shot). The Better Stat Drain mod even gave me the XP for it (I'm quite happy about that; stat drain kills always felt like such a waste). We used invisibility to collect the quest items from the city and summoned Rillifane to kill all the golems and such.
I wasn't sure if I could handle Ascension's first Pocket Plane trial, so I went to the trouble of fighting the Twisted Rune. I used True Sight to reveal Layenne (both the planetar and Frisk pre-cast it, with a third casting mid-combat) and then used Called Shot during Time Stop to take her down. It took a few seconds, though, oddly enough, and I got no XP from it--I think either Stoneskin or Time Stop prevented the mod from working normally. Frisk had a spare Time Stop, so we also killed Vaxall with STR drain, at which point we used Layenne's Staff of the Magi to outlast the rest of the enemies.
At the Tree of Life, Frisk's clone stun-locked all the elementals using Darts of Stunning and I used the Staff of the Magi to outlast Irenicus' buffs. He never managed to summon a planetar, so I didn't even have to run away from him.
In Hell, I put Frisk in a bad position by accidentally sending them into the fray, but PFMW, the Staff of the Magi, and a Teleport Field Spell Sequencer got them out of trouble. Basically, I baited the Slayer's spells using Mordenkainen's Sword spells and a clone, until finally its last PFMW ran out. When that happened, Frisk cast Time Stop and moved in for the kill with Called Shot and some +2 arrows.
@histamiini: One of the Balors used Implosion on my clone, and I suspect the other can do so as well. You might want to equip the Ring of Free Action when you face Irenicus in Hell, at least for the first few rounds, and make sure that Defensive Stance is active if you remove the ring.
Same strategy worked on Illasera. The Archer/Mage can kill practically anything during Time Stop, but it's actually weaker than a multi-classed Fighter/Mage in some cases: a normal Fighter/Mage could deal over 500 damage in a single Time Stop (or almost 1,000 with a pre-cast Black Blade of Disaster) and could repeat the process numerous times. The Archer/Mage can take down even stronger critters during Time Stop (no amount of HP can stop STR drain), but it can only take down one or two critters per day depending on base STR values due to the limitations of Called Shot. At very high levels, though, our clones can do the process on their own, and Wish-resting could also let Frisk cast Called Shot more than twice per day.
A bug crashed the game during the first Pocket Plane challenge (by the way, Irenicus, Bodhi, and Sarevok can see through invisibility, making the Staff of the Magi largely pointless), which was lucky because the fight was going poorly in the early rounds. To my amazement, my Magical Sword turned Frisk's clone hostile by attacking it in retaliation for the clone's firing Arrows of Detonation at the sword. I've never seen a clone go hostile before. It killed itself with its own Arrows of Detonation. I'll need to try again. Hopefully the game won't crash again.
I'm still around, just been dealing with some life issues. Tried to get my first attempt going earlier today at last...and died to the first assassin in candlekeep lol.
I didn't want to use a Protection from Magic scroll on Jon-bon in the Pocket Plane, so I created a couple of new Time Stop scrolls and basically just spammed Time Stop, allowing me to kill Sarevok, debuff Jon-bon with an Arrow of Dispelling (because the Staff of the Magi dispels at level 30 and therefore isn't reliable in LoB mode), and take down him as well, leaving Bodhi, who was helpless against Protection from Undead.
I don't like using the scroll scribing mod this much. The Time Stop scrolls cost 5,000 gold, and while I'm bankrupt now in Saradush, I'll be able create lots of Time Stop scrolls very soon if I'm willing to collect all the treasure available in ToB. I might avoid using the scroll scribing mod for level 9 spells, or limit myself to one scroll of each type per fight (so no chain-cast Time Stop spells forever).
Time Stop will still be the basis of gameplay for most of ToB, though. Until we get the Scorcher Ammunition, it's essentially the only way I can guarantee that Called Shot will net us the kills we need--I don't want to let a string of critical misses undo the run.
On the plus side, it seems that Frisk, now at level 8/22, can summon a level 8/15 Simulacrum, which is high enough level to deal STR drain on Called Shot. Apparently, when the game calculates the average of your levels for the purposes of determining innate spell caster level, it rounds up at .5. The clone can't cast Time Stop (Frisk would need to be level 30 for that, 3 million XP into the future), but it should allow us to land more kills per day.
I'll probably end up skipping a lot of fights. The Archer/Mage excels at taking down really big critters (hence the 2-round death for Melissan I'm predicting), but when it comes to groups of enemies, it's not much better than a single-classed mage. Sustainable damage output is beyond its power.
Zyxx moved on to the Bandit Camp after obliterating Tranzig without problems.
Before going in for real i tested my old Berserker/Druid if going in and out would be reliable enough. After ten tries the result was clear: Buffed up with Armor of Faith, Protection from Lightning, Iron Skin, Resist Cold/Fire, Magic Resistance and Defensive Harmony the rest was easy. Sneak in with Pixie Dust, grab the documents and rush out in Bear Form.
The only danger was Venkt casting Horror as the Elite Archers either started shooting too late or hit him only once (twice one time). But Venkt always proved to be too slow so Zyxx rushed out of the camp while the Nymphs outside played decoys as intended.
That was much easier than exptected - Cloakwood Mines will be next...
EDIT: Luck was still on Zyxx side after he sneaked down to Davaeorn who got dominated by four Nymphs and smacked down by his own guards. Would have been some work otherwise...
Drasus were treated in the same way: Dominated and send against his own friends which proved to be quite harmful for him when failing his saving throw against a Chromatic Orb from Kysus...
I'm still around, just been dealing with some life issues. Tried to get my first attempt going earlier today at last...and died to the first assassin in candlekeep lol.
Yeah I remember that when I first played LoB, also don't bother with the rats.
Herein beings the tale of Brix the Cleric/Mage [NR]...
In general, the strategy I had in mind was: The Imp was impervious to elemental damage, has -2 AC, and a bucket of hit points. It can also polymorph self. So it will act like a tank for me, drawing the enemy attention while I pelt away at it with spells and sling bullets. I figured this would work until getting to higher levels when I was able to put up more buffs and such. The Imp also has regeneration so unless it gets really thrashed I don't need to worry about healing it.
Things started well, I called up my Imp familiar and started making the rounds of Candlekeep. The first assassin I let my familiar tank it while I pelted away at it with sling stones.
The second assassin I did the same thing but let my Imp polymorph into a Flynn. Damn those things move fast around the map. It made short work of the second assassin while I made sure to keep the fireplace between me and the assassin.
Once we left Candlekeep with Gorion I started scouting around the maps while heading to the Friendly Arms and we ran into a gibberling. I had forgotten to rest so my familiar couldn't use polymorph again, but it seemed fine tanking it along with me hitting with with sling bullets.
That's when I started getting a little cocky about this. The Imp had succeeded against 2 assassins and a gibberling, sure he can take on another gibberling without worrying about us resting!
...except my Imp missed the first 10 rounds and the little bugger he was fighting didn't. My familiar dropped on the next round. I figured what the heck, I've got full health and shiny new flail that is thirsty for blood. Besides the gibber was almost dead, it should be a sure win right?
Apparently not. I died about 4 rounds later lol. Didn't get a screenshot of my corpse on the ground, but you get the idea.
I'm going to try a different approach next. I really like the idea of a Cleric/Mage but I also really like specialist mages and the other classes so I'm going to play around a bit to decide which to try and run through next and hopefully not die before getting to the Friendly Arms Inn
The familiar in this difficulty setting is stupidly powerful at level 1. I want to try and keep that in on the next run.
Where refreshing stuff @canadianchris even though with a bad end. For now. Next run will get better for sure!
Zyxx is doing some stuff in the city and thinking if he should try to get Durlags Goblet or not. With Fear always around Love the risk of getting stunned seems too dangerous. I tried @histamiini´s approach of hitting him once to make him wander alone but its not working in my installation. Fear is always keeping a close eye on his friend and he refuses even to be lured away from Love by just running back if he gets too far away from him. Thats something he never has done in the past (half a year ago) so i dont know why he is doing it now. Will have to test this more...
@Harpagornis Have you tried hitting with ranged attack out of sight of others when they are in the wander mode? With couple of times you can lure Love pretty far from the rest at least with my install.
The problem is that Fear is nearly instantly walking to Love after they transformed and when Love starts to wander around Fear is following him constantly @histamiini - damn it...
But maybe Durlags Goblet wont be needed anyway. In most cases the summons or later on harm should do the job. Without potion buffing or hiding Big B cannot be tanked or killed via hit & run so again Harm seems to be the only option. Fear protection we can get from the Commanders Mail too.
I was also thinking about using Kiels Helm to negate Horrors from the Ogre Mages but tests have shown thats its not needed. With Chaotic Commands and by running just to the map border Zyxx escaped without any problem. Thanks to Pixie Dust he sneaked through after returning and jumped right into the catacombs. Too bad that he was unable to open the chest with the last Wisdom Tome - DoHM was not enough...
However: The limitations of the Wizard Slayer are no problem as i got used to poverty in the last time. Wielding a weapon and wearing some armor makes me feel incredibly powerful at the moment but when planning a viable strategy against Sarevok i completly forgot that in the end i can just sling him down. Funny. However Slythe and even more the Palace Ambush will be challenging and at the moment i am still thinking which Mage around the Palace i should dominate. Razamith for Skeleton Warrior or better Ithyl for casting Invisibility on Liia?
Zyxx also got two scrolls of Mental Domination from Ulghots Beard and Durlags Tower which could be helpful later on...
Zyxx finally was able to face Love 1vs1 - without anyone following him. After sacrificing five Nymphs Love started to wonder around so Zyxx - who had recasted Pixie Dust after talking - could lure the little beast to the stairs to play hit & run with him. Abusing the exit was the only safe way to avoid charming (no Chaotic Commands up) or slowing. But even then Zyxx had to use several healing potions before getting in the final blow:
Getting Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet was now no big deal anymore...
EDIT: Just for fun i tested the fight again and this time Love did not wander. 10 tries and nothing even though i used the same setting.
EDIT2: Easiest way seems to be attacking him out of invisibility with only Love seeing Zyxx so he starts hunting him. For whatever reason Fear does not follow even though i tried the same tactic with other chars...
Frisk is at Abazigal's lair now. We mostly snuck past the enemies in Saradush, dodging the vampires, slipping past the humans and orcs, and killing the mage before Gromnir during Time Stop while letting the planetars deal with the other enemies.
For Gromnir, Frisk entered under Improved Invisibility and a whole bunch of other buffs and cast Time Stop. Two uses of Called Shot were enough to instantly kill Gromnir when all the arrows hit. We didn't bother fighting anyone else; we just ran away.
On the way to the fire giant lair, we discovered that Simulacrum clones of Project Image clones have the same spell slots as Frisk does--which means we can cast a whole bunch of level 9 spells if we wanted to. But since I do NOT trust Project Image in combat situations at all because it leaves Charname completely vulnerable (I once lost a no-reload run to a mind flayer who saw right through Project Image), there's only one spell I'd really bother using: Summon Planetar, strictly before any combat begins. I forgot that my install lets me summon multiple planetars, though I'm still working with a summoning cap of 5 critters.
Outside the fire giant lair, we encountered a Burning Man, who reminded us that Banefire dispels all dispellable buffs in addition to all spell protections and completely bypasses all defenses, including SI: Abjuration and Spell Shield. So, it takes down all your defenses, no matter what they are. Plus, they can see through invisibility.
Don't rely on any defensive spells when fighting a Burning Man; only fight them from afar or during Time Stop.
In the fire giant lair itself, I used planetars and Time Stop to kill the fire giants safely. When I realized I could teleport past the barriers using Dimension Door, I did so, which saved me the trouble of kiting the Fire Lich. When my planetars couldn't deal with the Clay Golem, I used the Rod of Smiting I bought in Ust Natha. For the first time in forever, the Fire Trolls were not immortal and could be killed with Acid Arrows instead of using CTRL-Q to get rid of them. Upstairs, we used planetars to distract the fire giants and killed Brimstone with Called Shot during Time Stop. I didn't fight Imix; I just grabbed the two hearts and ran.
The Demon Wraith was no problem, but the Skeleton Mage and Skeleton Cleric gave us trouble. The mage cast Shadow Door right before my Time Stop, preventing us from taking him down early, and the cleric's position on the pedestal meant that we couldn't reach him with melee weapons (or at least the Firetooth dagger). Worse, the cleric's high levels made it impossible to land a successful dispel with the Staff of the Magi. Worse still, when I tried firing arrows at the cleric, the arrows bounce back even though I saw the Physical Mirror pre-buff expire in the dialogue box, forcing me to equip the Shield of Reflection. Worse yet, the arrows kept bouncing between us even after well over 9 rounds had passed, which would have run out even a second Physical Mirror spell--Frisk had to keep the Shield of Reflection on hand until the cleric died, lest their own arrows hit them. That's not how Physical Mirror is supposed to work. Even worse, the enemy planetar kept landing vorpal strikes on our summons.
But with a lot of running around, we eventually just waited out the planetar's duration. With all of Frisk's buffs and their high movement rate, the enemy couldn't box them in or deal any damage to them. Nyalee fell to melee attacks during Time Stop, because I was afraid that missile attacks would bounce back at me again.
I used a Project Image clone to summon a few planetars to distract the enemies at the Siege Camp while Frisk ran out to shoot an arrow at Yaga-Shura. When he came back just a few rounds later, Frisk cast Time Stop and applied STR drain via Called Shot.
But Yaga-Shura has 23 STR, and due to the low casting time of Time Stop thanks to the Robe of Vecna, we actually weren't able to land enough hits on Yaga-Shura to kill him during Time Stop: since I can't use Called Shot until my aura clears, the Robe of Vecna adds a short delay in between the start of Time Stop and the first casting of Called Shot, allowing us to land only 20 hits instead of the 27 that would normally be possible with Energy Blades (20 maximum) and arrows (7 APR with a longbow, same as what we'd get from darts).
Then Frisk missed one or two shots just after Time Stop ended, and as Yaga-Shura approached, I realized that we might have lost our opportunity to kill him using Called Shot. But Arrows of Detonation require no attack rolls to hit successfully, so I just fired a single Arrow of Detonation at point-blank range and killed him.
One of my mods lets you talk your way past Jamis Tombelthen at the Oasis. With 20 reputation and 20 Charisma, Frisk was able to talk him down by name-dropping Drizzt. It costs us a lot of loot and a lot of XP, but we don't really need the extra boost.
Frisk hit level 26 by killing the drow outside Sendai's lair, which means our clones can now cast a single level 9 spell. If we prepare adequately, we can burn a single level 8 spell slot to land a STR drain kill on anything with 20 STR or lower. Ray of Enfeeblement could also take down higher-STR critters, but it strikes as a level 2 spell and doesn't bypass MR, so it's not a guaranteed kill against everyone.
We sent out three planetars to hassle Draconis, shutting down his spellcasting using Holy Word. Eventually, his PFMW ran out and he transformed, killing all of our planetars but sparing our new Simulacrum clone. We then summoned a few more planetars to distract him. Unfortunately, Draconis went invisible just as Frisk began casting their first Time Stop spell, making it impossible to land a STR drain kill on him without relying on successful attack rolls. And then he did it again, costing us our second and final Time Stop spell. Incredibly, incredibly bad luck.
The clone died and Draconis' buffs ran out around the same time. When Simulacrum finally expired, Frisk summoned a third clone, only to see it die to Draconis' breath weapon despite only taking 76 damage, when it should have had twice that much HP. I think this is that old bug where Simulacrum clones die when the original caster takes any damage, which is supposed to apply only to Project Image clones.
Frisk's buffs were running out, and a Greater Malison forced us to drink a Potion of Invulnerability. Frisk began preparing for a STR drain kill without Time Stop, casting Lower Resistance via some spare scrolls. A Secret Word took down our Spell Shield, once again forcing us to restore our defenses by using a Spell Trigger. When Draconis was at 0 MR, Frisk used Called Shot on Energy Blades to drain his STR, and after landing a bunch of hits, Frisk hit him with a Ray of Enfeeblement. One final hit with an Arrow of Fire brought him to 0 STR and killed Draconis.
But on entering Abazigal's lair, I've realized a problem: I can't actually reach the Bronze Pantalettes and therefore get the Scorcher Ammunition until after I've fought the quadruple dragon ambush. I think we can take down the first two or three with planetars and finish off the last one or two dragons using STR drain, but the third dragon, Ithy'nassendra, could kill us instantly: she uses the same poison breath weapon that Morentherene and Ziatar did in SoD, and our HP is only marginally better than it was in SoD (173 to 141; not enough to guarantee survival). I don't see the Purification Stone in my inventory from SoD, and the Periapt of Proof Against Poison does not grant 100% poison resistance like I remembered. Plus, since this is accidentally a v2.3 install instead of v2.5, Protection from Poison scrolls won't give me the immunity I'm supposed to have.
The Ring of Anti-Venom should work, but I can only get it by fighting Vongoethe in Amkethran, and I haven't fought him in years. I'm not going to risk this run by doing something I don't know exactly how to do.
This means we have to use the Teleport spell (which cannot be used to bypass the quadruple dragon ambush; I checked) to go all the way back to Athkatla and kill Kangaxx, since the Ring of Gaxx is the only remaining item that will give us immunity to poison.
It shouldn't be hard. A single Protection from Undead scroll, used on Kangaxx instead of Frisk, will let us bring his lich form to Near Death; an Arrow of Dispelling will let him transform properly; and a second Protection from Undead scroll will break his script once again, allowing us to cast Time Stop and score a STR drain kill using Energy Blades.
Then we have to do the heavy work of killing four dragons without rest... although I suppose I could flee to Amkethran or use the Teleport spell to escape and come back fully rested; I've never tried it before.
I've seen Bondari and his friends vanish before, and I think it's because some area-effect spell shattered them. I'm willing to treat that as a bug if it happens and console them back to life, but I'd rather not let it happen in the first place. This means I'll probably just chain-cast Time Stop to wipe out the nearby golems and eyeballs and make sure that no spells are going off that might shatter Bondari.
Then we get the Scorcher Ammunition, and our APR will jump to 20 with Improved Haste. And unlike the 10 APR we could achieve with Minute Meteors or Energy Blades (having 7 fighter levels bumps Energy Blades base APR from 4.5 to 5, and effective APR from 9 to 10), the Scorcher Ammunition never runs out and can be unequipped at will.
With 20 effective APR, we will no longer need to worry about the duration of Time Stop. A single Called Shot will translate into a guaranteed kill on anything, provided we land the hits.
I anticipate success in this run, and it's very important to me that I do. I've been suffering from burnout on these games for a long time and I wanted this run to be my swan song. Across all the times I've attempted this one particular run, I've got thousands of screenshots and so much to say. This might be the last run I ever post.
I don't know what will happen if I die in ToB. I don't know if I'll be able to recover. I don't have words for how much I've invested in this run, or how much it's going to hurt if I don't make it. But if I do, I'll post on the whole giant thing in the no-reload thread, screenshots and all.
Anyone who's been reading this thread will know what the outcome was, but I'll probably tell the story in present tense to add some drama for those who don't already know the ending.
The liches of Athkatla went down in short order. A Protection from Undead scroll broke the scripts of the first two liches as well as Kangaxx's lich form, an Arrow of Dispelling allowed Kangaxx to transform, and then a fourth and final Protection from Undead scroll broke Kangaxx's script. Frisk killed him with STR drain during Time Stop and collected the Ring of Gaxx.
I forgot about Anadramatis and got caught off-guard, especially by her instant-casting Wish Breach that bypassed Spell Shield. Anadramatis' spells and round-by-round events prevented Frisk from using Called Shot during Time Stop to land a quick kill, but with a string of Pierce Shield spells I had memorized for the upcoming quadruple dragon ambush, we were able to take down Anadramatis' defenses and apply Greater Malison and a lot of STR drain. We didn't have enough attacks under Called Shot to kill her, so we needed to apply Ray of Enfeeblement as well. Then Anadramatis instantly cast Spell trap for the second time in a row, and I thought we'd have to fight her the long way. But the electricity from Energy Blades strikes as a level 9 spell in my install, which means we cut through her Spell Trap at the same time we were applying our final Called Shot. Ray of Enfeeblement made contact and the last Energy Blade took her down to 1 HP.
The Kuo-toa had no special tricks to play; I just used planetars to take them down. I ran past the Pit Fiends and Cornugons on the way out, and was considering fighting the quadruple dragon ambush, but I decided to leave it tomorrow. It's very late, and I don't want to fight all those dragons when I'm not 100% alert.
Just one more risky fight and the Scorcher Ammunition is ours. It's an extremely important milestone, and as much as I've been enjoying the STR drain kills during Time Stop, we could really, really use the extra help. Right now, it takes two castings of Time Stop and two casting of Called Shot to guarantee a STR drain kill on a critter with 25 STR, but once we get the Scorcher Ammunition, we'll only need one casting of each, and all our Simulacrum clones will be able to land it successfully.
So much hinges on those two castings of Called Shot. If I ever waste one of them, I might end up crippling Frisk until the next rest.
Quadruple dragon ambush. We used Project Image to summon four planetars and buff them with Improved Haste, who were enough to take down the first two dragons, Olinissimous and Zirimanat'ryl, both black dragons with acid breath. The planetars vanished mere seconds after the dragons died, which meant we were left with no summons to use against the green dragon Ithy'nassendra aside from the single Simulacrum clone I had summoned shortly beforehand.
Fortunately, Ithy'nassendra was off-screen and did not approach, so I took the time to use Project Image to summon some more planetars just to keep her busy (Magical Swords would have worked as well). With the Ring of Gaxx on hand, we were immune to her poison breath, so we could approach safely.
Due to the fact that EE spellbooks are organized alphabetically and my Simulacrum clones only had one level 9 spell slot, Simulacrum could not give us an extra casting of Time Stop unless we memorized no other level 9 spells. Instead, we memorized a single casting of Energy Blades so that our Simulacrum clone could attempt a STR drain kill without Time Stop.
Our clone was equipped with the Medal of Valor from SoD, the Helm of Balduran, and the Bracers of Archery (I usually went with the Amulet of Protection +2, Crown of Lies, and Gauntlets of Specialization) to boost its THAC0. But since the most STR the clone could drain would be 27, that meant we could only afford to miss two hits, so we had to use Ray of Enfeeblement to land the kill. To make that possible, we needed to apply Pierce Shield and Lower Resistance along with Greater Malison (just for safety's sake), plus a Secret Word scroll when Ithy'nassendra cast Spell Deflection. A couple of PFMW spells for Frisk and their clone kept Ithy'nassendra at a safe distance while the clone applied Called Shot. The dragon failed her save against Ray of Enfeeblement, and one last hit took her down.
This required a lot of micromanagement. For some reason, Simulacrum clones in my install are extremely resistant to following any orders; they'll spontaneous cancel their attacks and refuse to cast their spells. The only way to fix the behavior is to order them to walk somewhere, cancel that, and then give them the next order. That was the only way to get the clone to throw all of its Energy Blades.
The last dragon is the red dragon Carnifex, who has the most HP of the four dragons. I summoned another clone when the previous one's duration ran out, but the Simulacrum bug destroyed it when Carnifex hit Frisk with his breath weapon. Rather than rely on planetars or wait another 15-20 rounds until we could re-cast Simulacrum, I had Frisk summon some Energy Blades and cast Improved Haste and Time Stop. This time, I handled the process better: rather than casting Called Shot twice in a single Time Stop, which only gave me 20 guaranteed hits and expended all my Energy Blades, leaving me with 6 seconds to land 5 out of 7 hits before Called Shot ran out, I spread the two castings of Called Shot out across two Time Stop, giving me a little over 30 guaranteed hits.
But apparently, the damage alone was enough to kill the wounded dragon. We didn't see the 10 magic damage that normally displays when a critter dies of stat drain in the Better Stat Drain mod.
That left only the Death Tyrants and Tyrant Golems before we could rescue Bondari the Reloader. We killed the Death Tyrants using two Time Stops and dual-wielding the Firetooth dagger with Belm, but the Tyrant Golems have 90% physical damage resistance magic immunity for no real reason (and despite ostensibly being golems, they're not coded as such, so the Rod of Smiting is useless against them), so we fled the area under invisibility and returned after resting. Fun fact: the Death Tyrants stole our Shield of Balduran during Time Stop!
Planetars proved insufficient; their excellent saves and 75% MR did not guarantee they wouldn't be paralyzed, and the fight took long enough that there were too many rays for them to resist. But our Simulacrum clone landed a kill with Called Shot and Energy Blades, at which point I realized that Tyrant Golems only had 10 STR. After fleeing and returning once more, we killed the last two Tyrant Golems with Called Shot STR during Time Stop.
Bondari and company never got shattered, so we didn't have to use the console to summon them. We collected the Bronze Pantalettes, forged the Big Metal Unit, and got the ever-important Scorcher Ammunition that I've been looking forward to having since I created my first Archer/Mage in Candlekeep.
A single Called Shot can now kill almost anything with the Scorcher Ammunition as long as we're buffed with Improved Haste. It strikes as a +1 weapon, but we can fix that with Enchanted Weapon. As for enemies that are immune to +3 weapons, we need to target another critter with the Scorcher Ammunition and bring the target into the area of effect (which may require more than one extra critter, if the real target's STR is higher than the secondary target). For Abazigal, this will involve attacking Tamah while his PFMW is active; for Sendai, this will involve attacking the nearby drow; for the Ravager, we'll target the Bone Blades; and for Melissan, we'll target Yaga-Shura.
Frisk is almost at their absolute peak strength. This is what they look like now.
Got time to smack again. Seven smacked Mekrath for Rod of Resurrection. Did some guests, Sir Sarles, Ring of Lathander. Druid Grove, invisibility, smacked the three Druids, got Cernd and got him invisible and he challenged Faldorn, Insect Plaque + Summons + Greater Werewolf. Smacked the Djinnis in Trademeet for Bottle of Efreeti, smacked Treya for her Cloak. After these lucrative guests I had 43k gold, but still not enough.
Summoned Efreeti and smacked Prebek down, looted Harper Hold, smacked Rayic down, 56k gold. Smacked the Pirates and turned the evidence for Mae'var. Freed Hendak, Sword in the Sewers and freed rest of the slaves, which made Seven 20/20. Also made enough money for Shadow Thieves and Defender of Easthaven, and Seven now boasts 2 hours of undispellable 90 DR.
Comments
Krell went the good path all the time - nothing special. Most funny thing: Sarevok could not touch the Spirit Summons nor Krell transformed into a Greater Fire Elemental. This left open only one more...
The start of this last battle was crucial and forced several reloads. At the end Krell placed three Nymphs and two Earth Elementals around the spawning area of the demons so Krell could escape without anyone following him (only soaking up Remove Magics). Haste effect from Energy Blades proved to be very helpful too.
Once Krell got out of vision he watched the scene thanks to Far Sight (have i mentioned before how great this spell is). Irenicus wasted Time Stop and Planetar on the summons so Krell recasted one more Earth Elemental that played decoy once Irenicus (and only Irenicus) started to search for him.
Krell used another Earth Elemental for retreat to let Irenicus waste his spells. Once all Earth Elementals were down he switched to Fire Elementals while combining them with Elemental Summoning. He got lucky this time and the Fire Elemental Prince appeared who gave the Slayer some good beating. Once the first Fire Elementals went down he replaced them with Spirit Lions and - finally - with another Fire Elemental Prince saving the Deva for the last man standing.
At least this was the plan but the three remaining Spirit Lions and Zaaman Rul proved to be enough taking away the last Hitpoints from Irenicus...
Too bad the screenshots were not saved... can it be that there is a limit of 500 pics in the screenshot folder? Damn it...
Anyway: ToB will be next and at least the start should be some chilling again. Hopefully!
P.S. Blackrazor wont work against Mel @histamiini
I was "always" aware that Totemic Druids have great potential but Krells run has shown that in most cases only the sky is the limit. Or the number of summons. I dont think there are many - if any - classes that can compete here with Totemic Druids. Avengers and Shapeshifters might get through too but will suffer a bit more against the bosses. Maybe Sorcerers are the only ones who have any realistic chance even though Sarevok and especially Big B might be a bag of neverending trouble. But thats something i leave open to you @Grond0!
Seven, lv40 Dwarven Defender
246 hp (19)
0 Base Thac0
2 Base APR
0,0,4,4,1 Base Saves (-2 with Defensive Stance)
20/20/20/20 Base DR
Axe **
Two-Handed Sword *
Scimitar **
War Hammer ***
Halberd *
Flail **
Long Bow **
Two-Handed Weapon Style *
Two-Weapon Style ***
11 Defensive Stance (50 DR for 1 Turn)
3 Hardiness (40 DR for 2 Turns)
1 Power Attack
1 Critical Strike
1 Smite
1 Whirlwind
14 Greater Whirlwind
Used PfU on the Lich in City Gates district and smacked him down, got another Ring of Invisibility and Daystar. Time to test Sevens mettle. Invisibility, Duhm, Hardiness, Gww and smacked the mage of the Temple Sewer gang down, invisibility. Rested and came back, the same procedure and got Gallchobhair, Zorl and Tarnor down. Another rest and was able to wipe the last two with ease. With this allmighty loot I was able to purchase Vailor's Helm and the two PfM scrolls. The two weaker Liches where Sim PfU'd. Sim then casted PfM on me, and then on Kangaxx Lich form, and I Gww'd him with the Elven Court Bow. After he changed to Demi Lich I wasted one PfU on him and Daystar sliced him down. Got the Ring of Gaxx. Now starts the money grind to 60k fee.
Maybe you could try the Revisions mod ? They nerf a bunch of overly powerful items (PfU, Carsomyr, Arrows od Dispelling, etc...). I think that's pretty much the only way you'll have to "work" again.
We skipped the Yuan-ti Mages and encountered no lich, so we used the Protection from Undead scroll to kill Dace.
Irenicus in Spellhold was not difficult. We couldn't stop his Improved Alacrity from coming out, but the other inmates apply so many magic attacks that all we had to do was use a single Breach scroll and fire a bunch of nonmagical arrows at him when his PFMW Contingency came out.
I don't like fighting drow even outside of LoB mode, so rather than micromanage my planetar and have Frisk fuss over their defenses while they watched and waited, I just blasted the hell out of the drow with some Arrows of Detonation via Simulacrum.
We still haven't tackled the Kuo-toa Prince, but he shouldn't be too challenging. The other kuo-toa will give us grief because of their numerical superiority and ability to see through invisibility, but the Kuo-toa Prince has 0 AC and 20 STR, so Called Shot on some Minute Meteors should kill him pretty fast.
The Balor is too tough for us for land a STR drain kill, so it's probably just going to be a really long slog. I might cook up a few PFMW, Improved Haste, and Mordenkainen's Sword scrolls just to speed things up.
The rest of the Underdark should be a cakewalk. I might tackle the mind flayer city if the Teleport spell lets me hop in and out at will, but I won't really need the Control Circlets until ToB.
Even a Dwarven Defender can die against Ascension Melissan, so you should know it back to front if you're going to tackle her without reloading.
I created a mod today that allows you to get XP from stat drain kills and also lets stat drain work on plot-immune critters. It's worked perfectly so far.
I used a planetar to deal with most of the necessary fights in the Underdark, avoiding the imprisonment sphere as well as the mind flayer city, beholder hive, and Death Knights. Frisk nearly died against the Kuo-toa, though, because apparently they use nonmagical spears; PFMW was no defense against them. Unwilling to trust a Stoneskin spell or a conventional potion, I used Durlag's Goblet with Kiel's Helmet instead (EET is so convenient). Based on the damage we took afterwards, Durlag's Goblet wasn't necessary, but it's always a good idea to play it safe.
We talked our way out of killing Qilue and chose the least dangerous options in Ust Natha. As always, I talk-blocked Taso Kala and snuck past her using invisibility. The Egg Guards went down with Improved Haste, Simulacrum, some good arrows, and a planetar, but I also toyed with the idea of using a Limited Wish scroll to cast Time Stop to make absolute sure we got in the hits we needed. The Egg Guards have about 100 HP in LoB mode, so they're not quite as easy to bump off as they are in a normal run.
I let Adalon fight the drow guarding the exit and Frisk is now at level 20, about to tackle Bodhi's lair. I think we can deal with the first level by dual-wielding Belm with either the Mace of Disruption or the Black Blade of Disaster while hiding behind a Protection from Undead scroll, and maybe burning another scroll on Drizzt so he doesn't die of level drain. As for Bodhi, she won't give us too much trouble. Time Stop and Black Blade of Disaster with Improved Haste should be enough to take her down. Minute Meteors with Enchanted Weapon and Called Shot during Time Stop would also work just fine. Hazzerbazzer and Manasseh are no threat at all during Time Stop.
We'll kill Nizidramanii'yt with Called Shot and Time Stop and let Rillifane take down everything else. Then we can kite Jon-bon and wait out the Slayer's PFMW spells until we can pounce on it with Time Stop and Called Shot.
Then comes ToB. Gromnir will be very nasty unless I use a Time Stop scroll on him, and we'll probably also kill Yaga-Shura the same way. Once we get the Bronze Pantalettes and therefore the Scorcher Ammunition, even Abazigal and the Ravager will fall to STR drain. Then we just tank the Five, use Protection from Magic scrolls on Sendai and Abazigal, kite everyone until somebody dies, PFMW for Melissan, and finally Called Shot with the Scorcher Ammunition to kill Melissan.
It reminds me of when I was studying in China. We got around via bike, and eventually I got a flat tire. I didn't actually realize it at the time, but I did know that it was getting harder and harder to keep up with my friend Ma Di--it got to the point where getting around was just a struggle, and I wasn't sure if I was even saving energy by riding a bike.
Then, finally, I got the thing repaired on campus at Beida. When I got back on, everything was so incredibly easy--riding a bike felt like riding over water or flying across a cloud. It was so easy and so smooth, and I could go so much faster. I lost Ma Di in seconds--I lost everyone; the world was too slow, and going fast was too easy.
But damn, did I work hard to get there.
@semiticgod Yeah no-reload only since Sir Vanderley beat Melissan. Maze is probably the biggest threat, because I think some lesser opponents can Maze you so I might not be expecting it. Imprisonment and stat drains are still in memory from my Cavalier run, Sim PfM against Imprisonment and PfU against Bodhi, who can kill you in almost a round with that Con drain. There's also the Book of Infinite Spells which offers Spell Turning, which I used against Abazigal successfully, but Sim PfM offers better protection. End battle also has Thac0 and item thieves, aka bastards.
Seven can have 17 turn undispellable 100 DR in the end battle, and Cloak of Mirroring should keep spell damage out, so there should be a good chance, although I still would bet all the money I've ever seen, that Six (F/M/C) will fair better in it.
Zyxx is doing fairly good so far - here is the log:
Candlekeep 290
Sonner 35
Tenya 2500
Marl 900
Firebead 300
Level 3 reached – dual classed to Druid
Shoal 5000 (38) → Level 3
Charmed Tiax (17) -> Ghast
Spiders 4x 270
Silke 900
Mutamins Garden 8x 1400 + 2x 7000 + 1x 1200 (Korax + Doom + Slinging) → Level 6
Hobgoblin 200
Grabbed Drizzts items
Brage 1000
Noober 400 → Level 7
Ankheg Armor
Greywolf and Prism 2400 (Hold!)
Albert& Rufie 1000
Revenant 900
Samuel 500
Tarnesh 120
Landrin 800
Hobgoblins 3x 35
Joia 400
Brun 1500
Ankhegs 8x 975 (Hold Monsters + Call Lightning)
Wolf 120
Skeletons 2x 65
Melicamp 2000 (Yeah!)
Dryad 850
Drienne 200
Ardrouine 860
Half Ogres 4x 270 (Died like flies)
Bjornin 400
Colquetle 250
Ogrillons 2x 175
Mirianne 300
Gnolls 2x 65 + 35
Karlat 270
Perdue 500
Hobgoblins 3x 35
Zhurlong 300
Zombie Hunting 20x 65 + 800 (Call Lightning!) → Level 8
Once the Nymphs joined the party everything got a lot easier as they either hold the enemies and/or burn them into the ground with Call Lightning. The main questline however should be much more challenging than with Totemic Druid - despite the items. Scimitars are very powerful so far - even more with the newly aquired Grand Mastery. Lets have some more fun - time to reach level 9!
EDIT: My good old mate @Vynn started with Wizard Slayer/Druid as well to double our chances. This should get funny!
Zyxx farmed Ankhegs with three Nymphs until he hit level 9 - which took an hour. Sirenes might have been better XP wise but i did not want to risk anything. After that the rest was easy: Get PfP scroll and blow through the Battle Horrors with Call Lightning while smacking down the Basilisks and some more Ghasts in Durlags Tower. Even better: With his new Tome and level 10 Zyxx can now call in five Nymphs for maximum fun.
He used them to good effect after sneaking down to Mulahey using Pixie Dust and placed all five of them around the evil Cleric. Then he let them have some fun holding and dominating Mulahey several times while soaking away his HP without any danger. As Mulahey was now unable to call in his guards Zyxx moved in to get in some final blows. Quite cheesy but very effective!
The Bandit Camp might be more troublesome...
We ran past everything in Suldannessellar and used Called Shot during Time Stop to kill Nizidramanii'yt (since all the hits from Called Shot will land at the same time, the STR drain isn't spread out, so you can drain 20 STR with a single casting of Called Shot). The Better Stat Drain mod even gave me the XP for it (I'm quite happy about that; stat drain kills always felt like such a waste). We used invisibility to collect the quest items from the city and summoned Rillifane to kill all the golems and such.
I wasn't sure if I could handle Ascension's first Pocket Plane trial, so I went to the trouble of fighting the Twisted Rune. I used True Sight to reveal Layenne (both the planetar and Frisk pre-cast it, with a third casting mid-combat) and then used Called Shot during Time Stop to take her down. It took a few seconds, though, oddly enough, and I got no XP from it--I think either Stoneskin or Time Stop prevented the mod from working normally. Frisk had a spare Time Stop, so we also killed Vaxall with STR drain, at which point we used Layenne's Staff of the Magi to outlast the rest of the enemies.
At the Tree of Life, Frisk's clone stun-locked all the elementals using Darts of Stunning and I used the Staff of the Magi to outlast Irenicus' buffs. He never managed to summon a planetar, so I didn't even have to run away from him.
In Hell, I put Frisk in a bad position by accidentally sending them into the fray, but PFMW, the Staff of the Magi, and a Teleport Field Spell Sequencer got them out of trouble. Basically, I baited the Slayer's spells using Mordenkainen's Sword spells and a clone, until finally its last PFMW ran out. When that happened, Frisk cast Time Stop and moved in for the kill with Called Shot and some +2 arrows.
@histamiini: One of the Balors used Implosion on my clone, and I suspect the other can do so as well. You might want to equip the Ring of Free Action when you face Irenicus in Hell, at least for the first few rounds, and make sure that Defensive Stance is active if you remove the ring.
Same strategy worked on Illasera. The Archer/Mage can kill practically anything during Time Stop, but it's actually weaker than a multi-classed Fighter/Mage in some cases: a normal Fighter/Mage could deal over 500 damage in a single Time Stop (or almost 1,000 with a pre-cast Black Blade of Disaster) and could repeat the process numerous times. The Archer/Mage can take down even stronger critters during Time Stop (no amount of HP can stop STR drain), but it can only take down one or two critters per day depending on base STR values due to the limitations of Called Shot. At very high levels, though, our clones can do the process on their own, and Wish-resting could also let Frisk cast Called Shot more than twice per day.
A bug crashed the game during the first Pocket Plane challenge (by the way, Irenicus, Bodhi, and Sarevok can see through invisibility, making the Staff of the Magi largely pointless), which was lucky because the fight was going poorly in the early rounds. To my amazement, my Magical Sword turned Frisk's clone hostile by attacking it in retaliation for the clone's firing Arrows of Detonation at the sword. I've never seen a clone go hostile before. It killed itself with its own Arrows of Detonation. I'll need to try again. Hopefully the game won't crash again.
I don't like using the scroll scribing mod this much. The Time Stop scrolls cost 5,000 gold, and while I'm bankrupt now in Saradush, I'll be able create lots of Time Stop scrolls very soon if I'm willing to collect all the treasure available in ToB. I might avoid using the scroll scribing mod for level 9 spells, or limit myself to one scroll of each type per fight (so no chain-cast Time Stop spells forever).
Time Stop will still be the basis of gameplay for most of ToB, though. Until we get the Scorcher Ammunition, it's essentially the only way I can guarantee that Called Shot will net us the kills we need--I don't want to let a string of critical misses undo the run.
On the plus side, it seems that Frisk, now at level 8/22, can summon a level 8/15 Simulacrum, which is high enough level to deal STR drain on Called Shot. Apparently, when the game calculates the average of your levels for the purposes of determining innate spell caster level, it rounds up at .5. The clone can't cast Time Stop (Frisk would need to be level 30 for that, 3 million XP into the future), but it should allow us to land more kills per day.
I'll probably end up skipping a lot of fights. The Archer/Mage excels at taking down really big critters (hence the 2-round death for Melissan I'm predicting), but when it comes to groups of enemies, it's not much better than a single-classed mage. Sustainable damage output is beyond its power.
Before going in for real i tested my old Berserker/Druid if going in and out would be reliable enough. After ten tries the result was clear: Buffed up with Armor of Faith, Protection from Lightning, Iron Skin, Resist Cold/Fire, Magic Resistance and Defensive Harmony the rest was easy. Sneak in with Pixie Dust, grab the documents and rush out in Bear Form.
The only danger was Venkt casting Horror as the Elite Archers either started shooting too late or hit him only once (twice one time). But Venkt always proved to be too slow so Zyxx rushed out of the camp while the Nymphs outside played decoys as intended.
That was much easier than exptected - Cloakwood Mines will be next...
EDIT: Luck was still on Zyxx side after he sneaked down to Davaeorn who got dominated by four Nymphs and smacked down by his own guards. Would have been some work otherwise...
Drasus were treated in the same way: Dominated and send against his own friends which proved to be quite harmful for him when failing his saving throw against a Chromatic Orb from Kysus...
In general, the strategy I had in mind was: The Imp was impervious to elemental damage, has -2 AC, and a bucket of hit points. It can also polymorph self. So it will act like a tank for me, drawing the enemy attention while I pelt away at it with spells and sling bullets. I figured this would work until getting to higher levels when I was able to put up more buffs and such. The Imp also has regeneration so unless it gets really thrashed I don't need to worry about healing it.
Things started well, I called up my Imp familiar and started making the rounds of Candlekeep. The first assassin I let my familiar tank it while I pelted away at it with sling stones.
The second assassin I did the same thing but let my Imp polymorph into a Flynn. Damn those things move fast around the map. It made short work of the second assassin while I made sure to keep the fireplace between me and the assassin.
Once we left Candlekeep with Gorion I started scouting around the maps while heading to the Friendly Arms and we ran into a gibberling. I had forgotten to rest so my familiar couldn't use polymorph again, but it seemed fine tanking it along with me hitting with with sling bullets.
That's when I started getting a little cocky about this. The Imp had succeeded against 2 assassins and a gibberling, sure he can take on another gibberling without worrying about us resting!
...except my Imp missed the first 10 rounds and the little bugger he was fighting didn't. My familiar dropped on the next round. I figured what the heck, I've got full health and shiny new flail that is thirsty for blood. Besides the gibber was almost dead, it should be a sure win right?
Apparently not. I died about 4 rounds later lol. Didn't get a screenshot of my corpse on the ground, but you get the idea.
I'm going to try a different approach next. I really like the idea of a Cleric/Mage but I also really like specialist mages and the other classes so I'm going to play around a bit to decide which to try and run through next and hopefully not die before getting to the Friendly Arms Inn
The familiar in this difficulty setting is stupidly powerful at level 1. I want to try and keep that in on the next run.
Zyxx is doing some stuff in the city and thinking if he should try to get Durlags Goblet or not. With Fear always around Love the risk of getting stunned seems too dangerous. I tried @histamiini´s approach of hitting him once to make him wander alone but its not working in my installation. Fear is always keeping a close eye on his friend and he refuses even to be lured away from Love by just running back if he gets too far away from him. Thats something he never has done in the past (half a year ago) so i dont know why he is doing it now. Will have to test this more...
But maybe Durlags Goblet wont be needed anyway. In most cases the summons or later on harm should do the job. Without potion buffing or hiding Big B cannot be tanked or killed via hit & run so again Harm seems to be the only option. Fear protection we can get from the Commanders Mail too.
I was also thinking about using Kiels Helm to negate Horrors from the Ogre Mages but tests have shown thats its not needed. With Chaotic Commands and by running just to the map border Zyxx escaped without any problem. Thanks to Pixie Dust he sneaked through after returning and jumped right into the catacombs. Too bad that he was unable to open the chest with the last Wisdom Tome - DoHM was not enough...
However: The limitations of the Wizard Slayer are no problem as i got used to poverty in the last time. Wielding a weapon and wearing some armor makes me feel incredibly powerful at the moment but when planning a viable strategy against Sarevok i completly forgot that in the end i can just sling him down. Funny. However Slythe and even more the Palace Ambush will be challenging and at the moment i am still thinking which Mage around the Palace i should dominate. Razamith for Skeleton Warrior or better Ithyl for casting Invisibility on Liia?
Zyxx also got two scrolls of Mental Domination from Ulghots Beard and Durlags Tower which could be helpful later on...
Getting Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet was now no big deal anymore...
EDIT: Just for fun i tested the fight again and this time Love did not wander. 10 tries and nothing even though i used the same setting.
EDIT2: Easiest way seems to be attacking him out of invisibility with only Love seeing Zyxx so he starts hunting him. For whatever reason Fear does not follow even though i tried the same tactic with other chars...
For Gromnir, Frisk entered under Improved Invisibility and a whole bunch of other buffs and cast Time Stop. Two uses of Called Shot were enough to instantly kill Gromnir when all the arrows hit. We didn't bother fighting anyone else; we just ran away.
On the way to the fire giant lair, we discovered that Simulacrum clones of Project Image clones have the same spell slots as Frisk does--which means we can cast a whole bunch of level 9 spells if we wanted to. But since I do NOT trust Project Image in combat situations at all because it leaves Charname completely vulnerable (I once lost a no-reload run to a mind flayer who saw right through Project Image), there's only one spell I'd really bother using: Summon Planetar, strictly before any combat begins. I forgot that my install lets me summon multiple planetars, though I'm still working with a summoning cap of 5 critters.
Outside the fire giant lair, we encountered a Burning Man, who reminded us that Banefire dispels all dispellable buffs in addition to all spell protections and completely bypasses all defenses, including SI: Abjuration and Spell Shield. So, it takes down all your defenses, no matter what they are. Plus, they can see through invisibility.
Don't rely on any defensive spells when fighting a Burning Man; only fight them from afar or during Time Stop.
In the fire giant lair itself, I used planetars and Time Stop to kill the fire giants safely. When I realized I could teleport past the barriers using Dimension Door, I did so, which saved me the trouble of kiting the Fire Lich. When my planetars couldn't deal with the Clay Golem, I used the Rod of Smiting I bought in Ust Natha. For the first time in forever, the Fire Trolls were not immortal and could be killed with Acid Arrows instead of using CTRL-Q to get rid of them. Upstairs, we used planetars to distract the fire giants and killed Brimstone with Called Shot during Time Stop. I didn't fight Imix; I just grabbed the two hearts and ran.
The Demon Wraith was no problem, but the Skeleton Mage and Skeleton Cleric gave us trouble. The mage cast Shadow Door right before my Time Stop, preventing us from taking him down early, and the cleric's position on the pedestal meant that we couldn't reach him with melee weapons (or at least the Firetooth dagger). Worse, the cleric's high levels made it impossible to land a successful dispel with the Staff of the Magi. Worse still, when I tried firing arrows at the cleric, the arrows bounce back even though I saw the Physical Mirror pre-buff expire in the dialogue box, forcing me to equip the Shield of Reflection. Worse yet, the arrows kept bouncing between us even after well over 9 rounds had passed, which would have run out even a second Physical Mirror spell--Frisk had to keep the Shield of Reflection on hand until the cleric died, lest their own arrows hit them. That's not how Physical Mirror is supposed to work. Even worse, the enemy planetar kept landing vorpal strikes on our summons.
But with a lot of running around, we eventually just waited out the planetar's duration. With all of Frisk's buffs and their high movement rate, the enemy couldn't box them in or deal any damage to them. Nyalee fell to melee attacks during Time Stop, because I was afraid that missile attacks would bounce back at me again.
I used a Project Image clone to summon a few planetars to distract the enemies at the Siege Camp while Frisk ran out to shoot an arrow at Yaga-Shura. When he came back just a few rounds later, Frisk cast Time Stop and applied STR drain via Called Shot.
But Yaga-Shura has 23 STR, and due to the low casting time of Time Stop thanks to the Robe of Vecna, we actually weren't able to land enough hits on Yaga-Shura to kill him during Time Stop: since I can't use Called Shot until my aura clears, the Robe of Vecna adds a short delay in between the start of Time Stop and the first casting of Called Shot, allowing us to land only 20 hits instead of the 27 that would normally be possible with Energy Blades (20 maximum) and arrows (7 APR with a longbow, same as what we'd get from darts).
Then Frisk missed one or two shots just after Time Stop ended, and as Yaga-Shura approached, I realized that we might have lost our opportunity to kill him using Called Shot. But Arrows of Detonation require no attack rolls to hit successfully, so I just fired a single Arrow of Detonation at point-blank range and killed him.
One of my mods lets you talk your way past Jamis Tombelthen at the Oasis. With 20 reputation and 20 Charisma, Frisk was able to talk him down by name-dropping Drizzt. It costs us a lot of loot and a lot of XP, but we don't really need the extra boost.
Frisk hit level 26 by killing the drow outside Sendai's lair, which means our clones can now cast a single level 9 spell. If we prepare adequately, we can burn a single level 8 spell slot to land a STR drain kill on anything with 20 STR or lower. Ray of Enfeeblement could also take down higher-STR critters, but it strikes as a level 2 spell and doesn't bypass MR, so it's not a guaranteed kill against everyone.
We sent out three planetars to hassle Draconis, shutting down his spellcasting using Holy Word. Eventually, his PFMW ran out and he transformed, killing all of our planetars but sparing our new Simulacrum clone. We then summoned a few more planetars to distract him. Unfortunately, Draconis went invisible just as Frisk began casting their first Time Stop spell, making it impossible to land a STR drain kill on him without relying on successful attack rolls. And then he did it again, costing us our second and final Time Stop spell. Incredibly, incredibly bad luck.
The clone died and Draconis' buffs ran out around the same time. When Simulacrum finally expired, Frisk summoned a third clone, only to see it die to Draconis' breath weapon despite only taking 76 damage, when it should have had twice that much HP. I think this is that old bug where Simulacrum clones die when the original caster takes any damage, which is supposed to apply only to Project Image clones.
Frisk's buffs were running out, and a Greater Malison forced us to drink a Potion of Invulnerability. Frisk began preparing for a STR drain kill without Time Stop, casting Lower Resistance via some spare scrolls. A Secret Word took down our Spell Shield, once again forcing us to restore our defenses by using a Spell Trigger. When Draconis was at 0 MR, Frisk used Called Shot on Energy Blades to drain his STR, and after landing a bunch of hits, Frisk hit him with a Ray of Enfeeblement. One final hit with an Arrow of Fire brought him to 0 STR and killed Draconis.
But on entering Abazigal's lair, I've realized a problem: I can't actually reach the Bronze Pantalettes and therefore get the Scorcher Ammunition until after I've fought the quadruple dragon ambush. I think we can take down the first two or three with planetars and finish off the last one or two dragons using STR drain, but the third dragon, Ithy'nassendra, could kill us instantly: she uses the same poison breath weapon that Morentherene and Ziatar did in SoD, and our HP is only marginally better than it was in SoD (173 to 141; not enough to guarantee survival). I don't see the Purification Stone in my inventory from SoD, and the Periapt of Proof Against Poison does not grant 100% poison resistance like I remembered. Plus, since this is accidentally a v2.3 install instead of v2.5, Protection from Poison scrolls won't give me the immunity I'm supposed to have.
The Ring of Anti-Venom should work, but I can only get it by fighting Vongoethe in Amkethran, and I haven't fought him in years. I'm not going to risk this run by doing something I don't know exactly how to do.
This means we have to use the Teleport spell (which cannot be used to bypass the quadruple dragon ambush; I checked) to go all the way back to Athkatla and kill Kangaxx, since the Ring of Gaxx is the only remaining item that will give us immunity to poison.
It shouldn't be hard. A single Protection from Undead scroll, used on Kangaxx instead of Frisk, will let us bring his lich form to Near Death; an Arrow of Dispelling will let him transform properly; and a second Protection from Undead scroll will break his script once again, allowing us to cast Time Stop and score a STR drain kill using Energy Blades.
Then we have to do the heavy work of killing four dragons without rest... although I suppose I could flee to Amkethran or use the Teleport spell to escape and come back fully rested; I've never tried it before.
I've seen Bondari and his friends vanish before, and I think it's because some area-effect spell shattered them. I'm willing to treat that as a bug if it happens and console them back to life, but I'd rather not let it happen in the first place. This means I'll probably just chain-cast Time Stop to wipe out the nearby golems and eyeballs and make sure that no spells are going off that might shatter Bondari.
Then we get the Scorcher Ammunition, and our APR will jump to 20 with Improved Haste. And unlike the 10 APR we could achieve with Minute Meteors or Energy Blades (having 7 fighter levels bumps Energy Blades base APR from 4.5 to 5, and effective APR from 9 to 10), the Scorcher Ammunition never runs out and can be unequipped at will.
With 20 effective APR, we will no longer need to worry about the duration of Time Stop. A single Called Shot will translate into a guaranteed kill on anything, provided we land the hits.
I don't know what will happen if I die in ToB. I don't know if I'll be able to recover. I don't have words for how much I've invested in this run, or how much it's going to hurt if I don't make it. But if I do, I'll post on the whole giant thing in the no-reload thread, screenshots and all.
Anyone who's been reading this thread will know what the outcome was, but I'll probably tell the story in present tense to add some drama for those who don't already know the ending.
I forgot about Anadramatis and got caught off-guard, especially by her instant-casting Wish Breach that bypassed Spell Shield. Anadramatis' spells and round-by-round events prevented Frisk from using Called Shot during Time Stop to land a quick kill, but with a string of Pierce Shield spells I had memorized for the upcoming quadruple dragon ambush, we were able to take down Anadramatis' defenses and apply Greater Malison and a lot of STR drain. We didn't have enough attacks under Called Shot to kill her, so we needed to apply Ray of Enfeeblement as well. Then Anadramatis instantly cast Spell trap for the second time in a row, and I thought we'd have to fight her the long way. But the electricity from Energy Blades strikes as a level 9 spell in my install, which means we cut through her Spell Trap at the same time we were applying our final Called Shot. Ray of Enfeeblement made contact and the last Energy Blade took her down to 1 HP.
The Kuo-toa had no special tricks to play; I just used planetars to take them down. I ran past the Pit Fiends and Cornugons on the way out, and was considering fighting the quadruple dragon ambush, but I decided to leave it tomorrow. It's very late, and I don't want to fight all those dragons when I'm not 100% alert.
Just one more risky fight and the Scorcher Ammunition is ours. It's an extremely important milestone, and as much as I've been enjoying the STR drain kills during Time Stop, we could really, really use the extra help. Right now, it takes two castings of Time Stop and two casting of Called Shot to guarantee a STR drain kill on a critter with 25 STR, but once we get the Scorcher Ammunition, we'll only need one casting of each, and all our Simulacrum clones will be able to land it successfully.
So much hinges on those two castings of Called Shot. If I ever waste one of them, I might end up crippling Frisk until the next rest.
Fortunately, Ithy'nassendra was off-screen and did not approach, so I took the time to use Project Image to summon some more planetars just to keep her busy (Magical Swords would have worked as well). With the Ring of Gaxx on hand, we were immune to her poison breath, so we could approach safely.
Due to the fact that EE spellbooks are organized alphabetically and my Simulacrum clones only had one level 9 spell slot, Simulacrum could not give us an extra casting of Time Stop unless we memorized no other level 9 spells. Instead, we memorized a single casting of Energy Blades so that our Simulacrum clone could attempt a STR drain kill without Time Stop.
Our clone was equipped with the Medal of Valor from SoD, the Helm of Balduran, and the Bracers of Archery (I usually went with the Amulet of Protection +2, Crown of Lies, and Gauntlets of Specialization) to boost its THAC0. But since the most STR the clone could drain would be 27, that meant we could only afford to miss two hits, so we had to use Ray of Enfeeblement to land the kill. To make that possible, we needed to apply Pierce Shield and Lower Resistance along with Greater Malison (just for safety's sake), plus a Secret Word scroll when Ithy'nassendra cast Spell Deflection. A couple of PFMW spells for Frisk and their clone kept Ithy'nassendra at a safe distance while the clone applied Called Shot. The dragon failed her save against Ray of Enfeeblement, and one last hit took her down.
This required a lot of micromanagement. For some reason, Simulacrum clones in my install are extremely resistant to following any orders; they'll spontaneous cancel their attacks and refuse to cast their spells. The only way to fix the behavior is to order them to walk somewhere, cancel that, and then give them the next order. That was the only way to get the clone to throw all of its Energy Blades.
The last dragon is the red dragon Carnifex, who has the most HP of the four dragons. I summoned another clone when the previous one's duration ran out, but the Simulacrum bug destroyed it when Carnifex hit Frisk with his breath weapon. Rather than rely on planetars or wait another 15-20 rounds until we could re-cast Simulacrum, I had Frisk summon some Energy Blades and cast Improved Haste and Time Stop. This time, I handled the process better: rather than casting Called Shot twice in a single Time Stop, which only gave me 20 guaranteed hits and expended all my Energy Blades, leaving me with 6 seconds to land 5 out of 7 hits before Called Shot ran out, I spread the two castings of Called Shot out across two Time Stop, giving me a little over 30 guaranteed hits.
But apparently, the damage alone was enough to kill the wounded dragon. We didn't see the 10 magic damage that normally displays when a critter dies of stat drain in the Better Stat Drain mod.
That left only the Death Tyrants and Tyrant Golems before we could rescue Bondari the Reloader. We killed the Death Tyrants using two Time Stops and dual-wielding the Firetooth dagger with Belm, but the Tyrant Golems have 90% physical damage resistance magic immunity for no real reason (and despite ostensibly being golems, they're not coded as such, so the Rod of Smiting is useless against them), so we fled the area under invisibility and returned after resting. Fun fact: the Death Tyrants stole our Shield of Balduran during Time Stop!
Planetars proved insufficient; their excellent saves and 75% MR did not guarantee they wouldn't be paralyzed, and the fight took long enough that there were too many rays for them to resist. But our Simulacrum clone landed a kill with Called Shot and Energy Blades, at which point I realized that Tyrant Golems only had 10 STR. After fleeing and returning once more, we killed the last two Tyrant Golems with Called Shot STR during Time Stop.
Bondari and company never got shattered, so we didn't have to use the console to summon them. We collected the Bronze Pantalettes, forged the Big Metal Unit, and got the ever-important Scorcher Ammunition that I've been looking forward to having since I created my first Archer/Mage in Candlekeep.
A single Called Shot can now kill almost anything with the Scorcher Ammunition as long as we're buffed with Improved Haste. It strikes as a +1 weapon, but we can fix that with Enchanted Weapon. As for enemies that are immune to +3 weapons, we need to target another critter with the Scorcher Ammunition and bring the target into the area of effect (which may require more than one extra critter, if the real target's STR is higher than the secondary target). For Abazigal, this will involve attacking Tamah while his PFMW is active; for Sendai, this will involve attacking the nearby drow; for the Ravager, we'll target the Bone Blades; and for Melissan, we'll target Yaga-Shura.
Frisk is almost at their absolute peak strength. This is what they look like now.
Summoned Efreeti and smacked Prebek down, looted Harper Hold, smacked Rayic down, 56k gold. Smacked the Pirates and turned the evidence for Mae'var. Freed Hendak, Sword in the Sewers and freed rest of the slaves, which made Seven 20/20. Also made enough money for Shadow Thieves and Defender of Easthaven, and Seven now boasts 2 hours of undispellable 90 DR.