Swishy's made a bit more progress this evening. That started with charming sirines at the lighthouse before using stealth attacks to take down the golems - getting to level 8 there. For a harder challenge he then took on the Doomsayer - again using stealth attacks inside the mine site. However, his THAC0 wasn't really up to the job and it took about 250 attacks (requiring something like 8 hours of game time as the Doomsayer had a nasty habit of running round when Swishy disappeared rather than staying still). The length of time was particularly annoying when what I thought was going to be a killing blow was landed, only to find that the Doomsayer had recovered 100 HPs for the equivalent of a rest.
After it was finally finished off Swishy went to Firewine Bridge to get Meilum's bracers to boost his attack a bit.
One last test confirmed my plan for Melissan will work, though the game may crash on a successful kill. I was using Called Shot on Sendai while catching Melissan in the area of effect. Sendai died after we drained her 14 STR, knocking Melissan unconscious via Feedback, and a fraction of a second afterward, Melissan received multiple hits of the 10 magic damage that indicates a successful STR drain kill (the Better Stat Drain mod reduces HP to 1 and then deals 10 non-resistable magic damage when a critter dips below 1 STR). The game crashed, I assume because Sendai's death screwed with the kill on Melissan somehow.
Since the Simulacrum bug means that Frisk's clone will vanish the moment Frisk takes any damage, even if it's resisted, Frisk will probably have to use Called Shot themself instead of relying on a clone. We can probably avoid that crash by using a planetar as a target instead of Sendai or another low-STR member of the Five, but if it persists, I'll count it as a victory. As long as Melissan is dead, the game is won; I don't care if the game crashes.
Even so, I'd still reload and kill Melissan without STR drain, just because I want to see the credits roll.
Swishy died this morning as a result of taking one of my standard risks - I'll often accept the possibility of dying as a result of 2 enemies hitting simultaneously with criticals. Swishy was working his way through a series of xvarts on the way to the charisma tome with the help of Hairtooth. Just 2 of the last group remained, but Hairtooth was virtually dead so Swishy was doing the tanking. His 33 HPs weren't sufficiently low to cause me to back away and rest as, even if he was hit with simultaneous criticals, the chances of the damage killing him was less than 30%. On this occasion though his number in the lottery of life came up ...
We still had a bug, but it wasn't the crash I was expecting. Melissan survived the STR drain kill due to a scripting issue: the Better Stat Drain mod rigs stat drain so it works like a Harm spell, but apparently this screws with Ascension Melissan's scripting somehow. While the fight up until then had operated just like it was supposed to in Ascension, Melissan reacted to the simulated death effect by... acting as if it was the vanilla Throne of Bhaal fight. Here's Melissan getting a whole bunch of instant death effects all at once (that's what the 10 magic damage hits are) and responding with a vanilla dialogue line. I tried to kill her conventionally, but when the Fallen Solars kept spamming Mordenkainen's Disjunction and removing all of my defenses (bypassing Spell Shield and removing both Spell Trap and SI: Abjuration), I decided to just hit her with CTRL-Y; the stat drain was supposed to kill her anyway. The funny thing is that not only did she deliver a vanilla dialogue line, she actually had to be killed three times to trigger the Solar's entry, just like in vanilla!
It's not exactly the victory I was hoping for, but bugs or no, we got the kill we wanted. This is how it came together:
Before the fight, I took some Ibuprofen to keep my eyes from hurting and ate a little before perusing my notes. When all the relevant facts were in my head and I had no distractions, I started up the game and created a whole bunch of spare scrolls that I never ended up using, as well as two Perfect Clay Golems and a Greater Mithril Golem--which might have proved very important, but not for the reasons I expected.
We buffed with basically everything and used a Time Stop scroll on the first round of combat to avoid disruption while holding the Shield of Reflection to avoid getting debuffed. Frisk then switched out the Shield of Reflection for Belm and cast Black Blade of Disaster, chain-casting Time Stop via scrolls and spells to take down both Fallen Solars as well as bring Bodhi to Near Death and use a Protection from Magic scroll on Irenicus. Fun fact: CTRL-M can tell the difference between a clone and the original spellcaster. We had to briefly let time resume, though, so a planetar could use True Seeing to remove a Fallen Solar's Improved Invisibility spell, which prevented Frisk from attacking it during Time Stop.
Like in every Ascension install I can remember, Balthazar spontaneously canceled every order that we gave him, and never attacked on his own. Has anyone else noticed that Balthazar never actually contributes to the fight?
For the pool fights, we positioned our celestials around the pool, cast PFMW, activated the pool, and then Frisk pulled back to the main platform to attack the demons using the Scorcher Ammunition. We were more cautious than I thought was really necessary, but it turns out the Alu-Fiends use Secret Word, so if you don't have Globe of Invulnerability active, you might find your SI: Abjuration spells removed and your buffs shortly dispelled by the other demons. Still, we had enough PFMW spells to stay safe until the enemy broke down.
I had to time my buffs very carefully. I wanted my planetars to last long enough to see Melissan and hopefully persist for at least few rounds after she appeared, but I wanted my clone to vanish only a few rounds into the final phase. This is because I wanted the celestials to form a barrier and distract the enemy, while the clone's purpose was to land a Called Shot kill on Melissan if possible and then vanish so I could re-cast Simulacrum and give it another shot, sparing Frisk the need to burn their own Called Shot spells.
If I failed to kill Melissan with Called Shot, I'd have to resort to Wish spells to try to get Called Shot back, a lengthy process that was extremely unreliable.
So, I summoned my clone well in advance of summoning the planetars, hoping that the former would live to see Melissan, but not much longer after that. This is what Frisk looked like when fully buffed:
Notice the equipment smuggled in from SoD. Mod items aren't allowed in this run, but item smuggling is. It's nothing game-changing; it basically just means we get +2 luck and +1 to saving throws at the cost of 10% MR and some AC bonuses from a better belt.
We opened with a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal, preventing him from casting the Time Stop that would otherwise mandate a PFMW spell from Frisk on round 1. Frisk held onto the Shield of Reflection until they could cast PFMW on the second round, but Illasera never bothered attacking them anyway; she focused on the planetars. On round 3, we used a Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai.
We killed Sendai's Fallen Deva and then Illasera, since I deemed her arrows a major threat, triggering Melissan's arrival. Frisk's clone had since vanished, so I needed to re-cast Simulacrum, but then Frisk got knocked out by some unknown effect (their saving throws were deep into the negatives; the attack either offered no save or had a massive save penalty) and our planetars started vanishing at the very moment we needed them the most.
Frisk kept attacking Gromnir and Abazigal with the Scorcher Ammunition, too concerned with maintaining PFMW to spend an aura creating a new clone. To the west, our golems proved completely incapable of holding off the Fallen Solars: while the Perfect Clay Golems were immune to all physical damage save crushing damage, the Fallen Solars dealt magic damage with their arrows, and thanks to EET, my golems didn't get LoB bonuses, which meant they had less than 100 HP to cut through.
Frisk summoned a new planetar, but our summons were rapidly disintegrating. Finally, Gromnir went down and Melissan got hit by Feedback. We had 10 PFMW scrolls on hand, enough for up to 40 rounds of invincibility and the opportunity to deal over 10,000 area-effect damage with the Scorcher Ammunition, which should have been enough to kill Melissan two times over.
But I sensed that everyone on the map was soon going to converge on Frisk, and I did not trust Frisk to be able to stand up under that degree of pressure even with all of their mage buffs. Instead, I took a gamble and activated Called Shot, hoping to bring Melissan's STR down to 0 within 3 rounds.
If we failed, then we'd have to use our PFMW scrolls to spam Wish until we got a Wish-rest, which was by no means guaranteed. But I saw few ways that Called Shot could go wrong, since Frisk had so many possible targets they could use to catch Melissan in the Scorcher Ammunition's line of fire.
I chose a Nabassu just south of Melissan as our first target, but due to the need to keep Melissan in the stream of fire, I had to adjust our position a few times in the first round. I counted out the number of attack rolls we made, but due to the positioning issues, Frisk didn't have enough time to land the full 10 attacks they could have made in one round. They landed 6 hits before activated Called Shot for the second time.
The Nabassu crumpled, and while the Nabassu had the same amount of STR as Melissan, 19, I'm not sure if the projectile triggers twice when the target is dead. I targeted Sendai instead, the only other critter on the other side of Melissan, and I saw the magic damage showing the STR drain was a success. Then came the bugs, which kind of ruined the feel.
The golems didn't do any damage and they didn't last very long. But they did keep at least one Fallen Solar busy, and if the post-death rounds were any indication, there's a decent chance that Frisk could have been killed by a Mordenkainen's Disjunction spell while they were trying to kill Melissan. They weren't the invincible tanks I thought they would be, but they provided a barrier at what might well have been a very critical time.
I should have played without the Better Stat Drain mod. I'm proud of creating the mod, but the only reason I used it in this install is so I could land a STR drain kill on Abazigal without breaking the script. But we didn't actually need Called Shot to kill him; we overwhelmed him with pure damage. If I had fought Melissan without the mod, she'd have just died on the spot.
So it's not as satisfying as I had hoped. But it's finally over, and as I've groused about it to you guys before, this run has been extremely stressful. I've been feeling burnt out for a long time, and I wanted this run to be my swan song or last hurrah or something like that. I wanted my last no-reload run to be a big one.
Not that this is going to be my last no-reload run, necessarily. But I've been considering dropping the challenge and moving on for various reasons, mostly the burnout. I just didn't feel like I could be "okay" with moving on unless I managed to complete this run.
I have over 4,500 screenshots of this run, and all the times I've had to restart when things went wrong in BG1 and SoD. I will start posting on it in the no-reload thread, but I'd like to keep the ending a surprise for those who haven't read this thread, and already know how it ended.
I'm worried about those Mordenkainen's Disjunction spells. Does anyone know how to block them? Because if Spell Shield and SI: Abjuration can't block it in my install, I don't know what could.
@semiticgod Well, I'll raise my glass (of coffee, it's morning here after all ) to a fitting farewell run ! One more barrier down : solo LoB with SCS and Acension, everyone !! Congrats !!
@semiticgod Nicely done! I hope to follow not so distant future.
North Forest, smacked the first mob down, skipped everything else with invisibility. Forest of Mir, PfU and smacked everything down. Marching Mountains, skipped everything with invisibility. Yaga-Shura stronghold lv1, picked everything up with 5 invisibility potions and skipped all enemies.
Lv2, smacked the first 5 Fire Giants down, Elite versions really pack a punch with their fire damage, that goes through 120 fire resistance somehow. Had to use RoR 15 times in this level. Brimstone was lured to the door, which blocked him, and I just blasted him with arrows. Now this was painfully slow, and there was a much faster option,
although it still took 23 rounds. Brenn smacked for Balor Claw, and Imix for the Ravager +4, picked both hearts. Nyalee was PfM'd before activating, and then I just smacked everything down.
Yaga-Shura, smacked the first guards in the bridge, invisibility and lured Yaga-Shura away from the rest. Started smacking and he quickly left and spawned back with additional help. I was being overrun, so I went invisible and ran to the other side of the bridge, Planetar on my heels, Yaga-Shura also followed. Kited the Planetar away, Hardiness and just casually smacked Yaga-Shura dead, he could do nothing.
I was just calculating damage resistances with all the items and abilities in Baldur's Gate saga.
Slashing/Piercing/Crushing/Missile
20/20/20/20 Dwarven Defender (or Barbarian) innate bonus 45/45/45/45 Ascension evil bonus from last pocket plane challenge 65/65/65/45 Defender of Easthaven 65/65/65/70 Belt of Inertial Barrier 65/100/65/100 Yellow Dragon Scale (Ascension) 65/100/100/100 Roranach's Horn
or
68/100/68/100 Helmet of Dumathoin
Of course I don't really need the Horn, Helmet or the Scale if I'm using Hardiness (40) or Defensive Stance (50) which gives 100 DR across the board even without them. 68 is the maximum item based slashing resistance achieved with BG2 + Ascension items, 100 for others.
Now what's interesting is that if I was using all the items (EET) I could actually achieve item based 100 slashing resistance.
20/20/20/20 Dwarven Defender (or Barbarian) innate bonus 45/45/45/45 Ascension evil bonus from last pocket plane challenge 65/65/65/45 Defender of Easthaven 65/65/65/70 Belt of Inertial Barrier 70/70/70/75 Cloak of the Gargoyle (SoD) 75/70/70/75 Kendra's Chain (SoD) 85/70/70/75 Stalwart Scales (SoD) 100/85/70/90 The Guardian Devil (SoD)
So basically Dwarven Defender could swap items based on enemy to get 100 item based damage resistance, the same applies to Barbarian. I can't do it now because I didn't pick some of those items up, but for someone who plans doing EET item run, that's something to think of.
Thats stuff for legends which will be extolled by the most famous Bards throughout Faerun @semiticgod!
As @histamiini will follow soon for sure the next level of this challenge will be definetely Bane of the Wizard Slayer. Big B will then became even more of a bottleneck and with all the restrictions smacking at your face this will need some time to break it down - at least on no-reload-runs!
But on the other hand i can already see level-1-Noober-runs approaching on the horizon. I have started planning it in the background for some time now and if i can ever find a viable way to beat Big B without reloads this game will get burned to the ground. At least up to ToB late game. With other words: I can still see a lot of fun ahead.
You are right @histamiini. Even the Ranger with Racial Enemy Demonic/Fell with not get above 50% hit chance (with Imp. Invisibility up its even worse) so Fractal Blade (50% dispel per hit) will be an absolute must have. My tests so far have shown that with summons (Myconids) and close combat at the beginning while switching to shoot & run afterwards it should be possible as long as luck is on your side. Thanks to my very first tries against Big B i am used to the everporting demons and with good micro you can outsmart them. It still would be a lot of work and time in this case (without invisibility) is indeed running against you...
To give more Warrior classes any chance here we might put in an exceptional rule...
Maybe something like this: Warrior classes are allowed to use +hit items (no potions) against Big B only!
Even though i am low at time Xandra managed to reach level 7 after clearing Mutamins Garden with Korax and smacking every basilisk down who got paralyzed. Together they moved through opposition like a breeze especially after Mutamin himself got stunlocked. With PfP she smacked down all basilisks at Durlags Tower while stabbing down Battle Horrors with nearly endless out-of-stealth attacks.
Some more quests like Tenya and Melicamp followed before Xandra reached level 7 to get another 1/2 APR. But before going for Mutamin she bought the Composite Longbow +1 and hacked down some hobgoblins to get Worn Whispers for better sneaking. Together with Drizzts equipment it was now time to go for Mulahey!
Getting down was no problem but the Cleric himself was much more work than usual as charming or burning them down was no option thanks to the Bane of the Wizard Slayer. She first cleared the kobold group in the north before attacking Mulahey and waiting until his troops had gathered around him. Now it was all about hide & shoot until he went down "hours" later. Xandra quickly grabbed his loot and moved out again. Tranzig and the Bandit Camp is calling. Especially the last one could bring another swift end if stealth fails...
Okay, i have thought about the Fighter vs Big B to-hit-problem regarding Bane of the Wizard Slayer. As i really hate to put in exceptions which would trick the curse i think its best to play it the other way round. As Wizard Slayer are allowed to put up to five points into each Weapon Proficiency it might be a good idea that each Warrior Class (Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Monks & Swashbucklers) should be able to reach Grand Mastery too using Mods or EE-Keeper. Sounds like a compromise even though it wont fix the problem completly. On the other hand: No one has said that this challenge will be easy!
What do you think guys? Is this fair enough? Or making it worse?
However: I have forgot which mod allowed all Fighter types to reach GM - maybe someone can give me a link?
Ah, okay - thanks @Arctodus! Looks like the mod wont help us here which leaves open only EE-Keeper. Hhmmmm, feels not right - but what else to soften the Warrior problem a bit? My most creative servant of death @Grond0 - whats your opinion on this one? Any ideas that might help?
Personally I wouldn't do anything. The other classes all have their own advantages to offset the WS grand mastery - not necessarily making Belhifet himself as easy, but certainly making it easier for them to get there (I'm thinking though of no-reload of course).
If you did want to soften the blow a bit a couple of things you could do apart from weapon proficiencies would be: - allow all classes to get hold of all the tomes. 19 strength for monks and swashbucklers for instance would be a big help. - allow the use of items that improve fighting abilities even if not usable by WS, e.g. bracers of weapon expertise.
AI smacked everybody in the Oasis, I just wanted to see how much this level was worth, and 144k gold was the answer, probably more than any other level in the saga. Quickly ran through Amkethran doing all but the one guest.
Night of the Long Fangs. PfM'd Draconis and smacked him silly, after he changed I digged Soul Reaver out to test it, and after a Gww, he wasn't hitting me anymore. Poor thing.
Smacked the Lizard Men and the Greater Wyvern. Anadramatis was funny because he doesn't have +2 weapon so he couldn't hit me. I remember my Cavalier running his haste away a long time for nothing, luckily I started tanking right away and noticed that immidiatelly. Got the Amulet of Wing Buffet, Yellow Dragon Scales and popped by Cespenar to make it to an armor. I now have 40/90/90/95 item based damage resistance.
Kuo-Toa couldn't hit me either, man the +1 weapon resistance is good. Picked up the rope and rested before returning for the quadruble Dragon ambush.
Casually smacked the first two.
Sim PfM onself and then on the third Dragon, smacked down.
Carnifex roasted me once, but after I switched to Fire Resistance rings, he had no chance. Invisibility and ran through the Eye Ball area activating the cutscene, picking up the pantaloons and the scroll. You definitely don't want to fight the creatures here. Quickly visited in Amkethran to build the BMU.
Smacked Fll'Yissetas rather than helping him because the 12 hour Improved Invisibility ring, she's pretty weak.
Abazigals Lair, tanked the four named Wyrms, Wave +4 slayed the Salamanders and then I tanked Tamah down.
Rested in Pocket Plane, Sim PfM and smacked Abazigals human form out. After he changed, Sim got PfM on him too. Dragon form blasted me with like 150 electric damage, before I remembered that you need Reflection Cloak against him, which I put on. After that he could do nothing than dispel, even though he spams spells like every second. Slowly grinded him, until I noticed the fear in his eyes, then I spammed quick four Gww's in a row, and down he went. You should always look for the fear in this battle.
Thanks for the input. I agree with @Grond0 that Bane of the Wizard Slayer should remain in its pure form.
I think if we allow Violet Potion - like @histamiini voted - its up to the player if he grabs the Strength Tome for 19 Strength or use it against Big B only. Which would significantly boosts hit chance while also pushing the risk of dying thanks to Con and Dex drain. @Grond0 should like that!
Second Pocket Plane challenge. Summon door trick, lured Tamoko away and smacked her down, used Sim to charm Cespenar with Control Circlet and with him lured my evil twin out, smacked down. Then I sent Cespenar to deplete the spells of the two mages, and that he did.
After Planetars were unsummoned I stepped in to wipe the floor with the mages. Good thing this Cespenar, very handy in a tight spot, because he's unkillable. Only down side is that now I have to charm him always when I want to talk to him. Third challenge was casual smacking of the Slayer. Next up the Maze.
Maze, interestingly it was exactly the same layout as with Six so my old map was fine. SCS randomizes it at install? Succubus carried me to Aesgareth, Sim PfM both Aesgareth and the mage and used SoC to charm rest of the gang, and then we jumped on Aesgareth.
But it didn't go as planned, as they almost immediatelly got uncharmed. Why is that, because dispel? Nevertheless juggernaut dwarf had no problem wasting the whole party with single go. What about Deck of Many things?
Maze is easier being evil, well everything is easier being evil apparently, as I could get friendly welcome by either Ka'rashur or Tahazzar. I accepted Ka'rashurs plan, and ended it by Sim PfM and smacking him down, and then making a hasty escape.
PfM carried with me to Tahazzar and I smacked him down. But I was still smothered and slow from the Defensive Stance so I had to fight my way out by killing five or so other enemies.
So Seven achieved something that Six didn't have nerve to do... yet.
Comments
After it was finally finished off Swishy went to Firewine Bridge to get Meilum's bracers to boost his attack a bit.
Since the Simulacrum bug means that Frisk's clone will vanish the moment Frisk takes any damage, even if it's resisted, Frisk will probably have to use Called Shot themself instead of relying on a clone. We can probably avoid that crash by using a planetar as a target instead of Sendai or another low-STR member of the Five, but if it persists, I'll count it as a victory. As long as Melissan is dead, the game is won; I don't care if the game crashes.
Even so, I'd still reload and kill Melissan without STR drain, just because I want to see the credits roll.
We still had a bug, but it wasn't the crash I was expecting. Melissan survived the STR drain kill due to a scripting issue: the Better Stat Drain mod rigs stat drain so it works like a Harm spell, but apparently this screws with Ascension Melissan's scripting somehow. While the fight up until then had operated just like it was supposed to in Ascension, Melissan reacted to the simulated death effect by... acting as if it was the vanilla Throne of Bhaal fight. Here's Melissan getting a whole bunch of instant death effects all at once (that's what the 10 magic damage hits are) and responding with a vanilla dialogue line.
I tried to kill her conventionally, but when the Fallen Solars kept spamming Mordenkainen's Disjunction and removing all of my defenses (bypassing Spell Shield and removing both Spell Trap and SI: Abjuration), I decided to just hit her with CTRL-Y; the stat drain was supposed to kill her anyway. The funny thing is that not only did she deliver a vanilla dialogue line, she actually had to be killed three times to trigger the Solar's entry, just like in vanilla!
It's not exactly the victory I was hoping for, but bugs or no, we got the kill we wanted. This is how it came together:
Before the fight, I took some Ibuprofen to keep my eyes from hurting and ate a little before perusing my notes. When all the relevant facts were in my head and I had no distractions, I started up the game and created a whole bunch of spare scrolls that I never ended up using, as well as two Perfect Clay Golems and a Greater Mithril Golem--which might have proved very important, but not for the reasons I expected.
We buffed with basically everything and used a Time Stop scroll on the first round of combat to avoid disruption while holding the Shield of Reflection to avoid getting debuffed. Frisk then switched out the Shield of Reflection for Belm and cast Black Blade of Disaster, chain-casting Time Stop via scrolls and spells to take down both Fallen Solars as well as bring Bodhi to Near Death and use a Protection from Magic scroll on Irenicus. Fun fact: CTRL-M can tell the difference between a clone and the original spellcaster. We had to briefly let time resume, though, so a planetar could use True Seeing to remove a Fallen Solar's Improved Invisibility spell, which prevented Frisk from attacking it during Time Stop.
Like in every Ascension install I can remember, Balthazar spontaneously canceled every order that we gave him, and never attacked on his own. Has anyone else noticed that Balthazar never actually contributes to the fight?
For the pool fights, we positioned our celestials around the pool, cast PFMW, activated the pool, and then Frisk pulled back to the main platform to attack the demons using the Scorcher Ammunition. We were more cautious than I thought was really necessary, but it turns out the Alu-Fiends use Secret Word, so if you don't have Globe of Invulnerability active, you might find your SI: Abjuration spells removed and your buffs shortly dispelled by the other demons. Still, we had enough PFMW spells to stay safe until the enemy broke down.
I had to time my buffs very carefully. I wanted my planetars to last long enough to see Melissan and hopefully persist for at least few rounds after she appeared, but I wanted my clone to vanish only a few rounds into the final phase. This is because I wanted the celestials to form a barrier and distract the enemy, while the clone's purpose was to land a Called Shot kill on Melissan if possible and then vanish so I could re-cast Simulacrum and give it another shot, sparing Frisk the need to burn their own Called Shot spells.
If I failed to kill Melissan with Called Shot, I'd have to resort to Wish spells to try to get Called Shot back, a lengthy process that was extremely unreliable.
So, I summoned my clone well in advance of summoning the planetars, hoping that the former would live to see Melissan, but not much longer after that. This is what Frisk looked like when fully buffed:
Notice the equipment smuggled in from SoD. Mod items aren't allowed in this run, but item smuggling is. It's nothing game-changing; it basically just means we get +2 luck and +1 to saving throws at the cost of 10% MR and some AC bonuses from a better belt.
We opened with a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal, preventing him from casting the Time Stop that would otherwise mandate a PFMW spell from Frisk on round 1. Frisk held onto the Shield of Reflection until they could cast PFMW on the second round, but Illasera never bothered attacking them anyway; she focused on the planetars. On round 3, we used a Protection from Magic scroll on Sendai.
We killed Sendai's Fallen Deva and then Illasera, since I deemed her arrows a major threat, triggering Melissan's arrival. Frisk's clone had since vanished, so I needed to re-cast Simulacrum, but then Frisk got knocked out by some unknown effect (their saving throws were deep into the negatives; the attack either offered no save or had a massive save penalty) and our planetars started vanishing at the very moment we needed them the most.
Frisk kept attacking Gromnir and Abazigal with the Scorcher Ammunition, too concerned with maintaining PFMW to spend an aura creating a new clone. To the west, our golems proved completely incapable of holding off the Fallen Solars: while the Perfect Clay Golems were immune to all physical damage save crushing damage, the Fallen Solars dealt magic damage with their arrows, and thanks to EET, my golems didn't get LoB bonuses, which meant they had less than 100 HP to cut through.
Frisk summoned a new planetar, but our summons were rapidly disintegrating. Finally, Gromnir went down and Melissan got hit by Feedback. We had 10 PFMW scrolls on hand, enough for up to 40 rounds of invincibility and the opportunity to deal over 10,000 area-effect damage with the Scorcher Ammunition, which should have been enough to kill Melissan two times over.
But I sensed that everyone on the map was soon going to converge on Frisk, and I did not trust Frisk to be able to stand up under that degree of pressure even with all of their mage buffs. Instead, I took a gamble and activated Called Shot, hoping to bring Melissan's STR down to 0 within 3 rounds.
If we failed, then we'd have to use our PFMW scrolls to spam Wish until we got a Wish-rest, which was by no means guaranteed. But I saw few ways that Called Shot could go wrong, since Frisk had so many possible targets they could use to catch Melissan in the Scorcher Ammunition's line of fire.
I chose a Nabassu just south of Melissan as our first target, but due to the need to keep Melissan in the stream of fire, I had to adjust our position a few times in the first round. I counted out the number of attack rolls we made, but due to the positioning issues, Frisk didn't have enough time to land the full 10 attacks they could have made in one round. They landed 6 hits before activated Called Shot for the second time.
The Nabassu crumpled, and while the Nabassu had the same amount of STR as Melissan, 19, I'm not sure if the projectile triggers twice when the target is dead. I targeted Sendai instead, the only other critter on the other side of Melissan, and I saw the magic damage showing the STR drain was a success. Then came the bugs, which kind of ruined the feel.
The golems didn't do any damage and they didn't last very long. But they did keep at least one Fallen Solar busy, and if the post-death rounds were any indication, there's a decent chance that Frisk could have been killed by a Mordenkainen's Disjunction spell while they were trying to kill Melissan. They weren't the invincible tanks I thought they would be, but they provided a barrier at what might well have been a very critical time.
I should have played without the Better Stat Drain mod. I'm proud of creating the mod, but the only reason I used it in this install is so I could land a STR drain kill on Abazigal without breaking the script. But we didn't actually need Called Shot to kill him; we overwhelmed him with pure damage. If I had fought Melissan without the mod, she'd have just died on the spot.
So it's not as satisfying as I had hoped. But it's finally over, and as I've groused about it to you guys before, this run has been extremely stressful. I've been feeling burnt out for a long time, and I wanted this run to be my swan song or last hurrah or something like that. I wanted my last no-reload run to be a big one.
Not that this is going to be my last no-reload run, necessarily. But I've been considering dropping the challenge and moving on for various reasons, mostly the burnout. I just didn't feel like I could be "okay" with moving on unless I managed to complete this run.
I have over 4,500 screenshots of this run, and all the times I've had to restart when things went wrong in BG1 and SoD. I will start posting on it in the no-reload thread, but I'd like to keep the ending a surprise for those who haven't read this thread, and already know how it ended.
It's going to be a very long and detailed story.
North Forest, smacked the first mob down, skipped everything else with invisibility. Forest of Mir, PfU and smacked everything down. Marching Mountains, skipped everything with invisibility. Yaga-Shura stronghold lv1, picked everything up with 5 invisibility potions and skipped all enemies.
Lv2, smacked the first 5 Fire Giants down, Elite versions really pack a punch with their fire damage, that goes through 120 fire resistance somehow. Had to use RoR 15 times in this level. Brimstone was lured to the door, which blocked him, and I just blasted him with arrows. Now this was painfully slow, and there was a much faster option,
although it still took 23 rounds. Brenn smacked for Balor Claw, and Imix for the Ravager +4, picked both hearts. Nyalee was PfM'd before activating, and then I just smacked everything down.
Yaga-Shura, smacked the first guards in the bridge, invisibility and lured Yaga-Shura away from the rest. Started smacking and he quickly left and spawned back with additional help. I was being overrun, so I went invisible and ran to the other side of the bridge, Planetar on my heels, Yaga-Shura also followed. Kited the Planetar away, Hardiness and just casually smacked Yaga-Shura dead, he could do nothing.
It would be sad if it missed the 2.5 update round...
Slashing/Piercing/Crushing/Missile
20/20/20/20 Dwarven Defender (or Barbarian) innate bonus
45/45/45/45 Ascension evil bonus from last pocket plane challenge
65/65/65/45 Defender of Easthaven
65/65/65/70 Belt of Inertial Barrier
65/100/65/100 Yellow Dragon Scale (Ascension)
65/100/100/100 Roranach's Horn
or
68/100/68/100 Helmet of Dumathoin
Of course I don't really need the Horn, Helmet or the Scale if I'm using Hardiness (40) or Defensive Stance (50) which gives 100 DR across the board even without them. 68 is the maximum item based slashing resistance achieved with BG2 + Ascension items, 100 for others.
Now what's interesting is that if I was using all the items (EET) I could actually achieve item based 100 slashing resistance.
20/20/20/20 Dwarven Defender (or Barbarian) innate bonus
45/45/45/45 Ascension evil bonus from last pocket plane challenge
65/65/65/45 Defender of Easthaven
65/65/65/70 Belt of Inertial Barrier
70/70/70/75 Cloak of the Gargoyle (SoD)
75/70/70/75 Kendra's Chain (SoD)
85/70/70/75 Stalwart Scales (SoD)
100/85/70/90 The Guardian Devil (SoD)
So basically Dwarven Defender could swap items based on enemy to get 100 item based damage resistance, the same applies to Barbarian. I can't do it now because I didn't pick some of those items up, but for someone who plans doing EET item run, that's something to think of.
As @histamiini will follow soon for sure the next level of this challenge will be definetely Bane of the Wizard Slayer. Big B will then became even more of a bottleneck and with all the restrictions smacking at your face this will need some time to break it down - at least on no-reload-runs!
But on the other hand i can already see level-1-Noober-runs approaching on the horizon. I have started planning it in the background for some time now and if i can ever find a viable way to beat Big B without reloads this game will get burned to the ground. At least up to ToB late game. With other words: I can still see a lot of fun ahead.
Keep smacking!
To give more Warrior classes any chance here we might put in an exceptional rule...
Maybe something like this: Warrior classes are allowed to use +hit items (no potions) against Big B only!
Some more quests like Tenya and Melicamp followed before Xandra reached level 7 to get another 1/2 APR. But before going for Mutamin she bought the Composite Longbow +1 and hacked down some hobgoblins to get Worn Whispers for better sneaking. Together with Drizzts equipment it was now time to go for Mulahey!
Getting down was no problem but the Cleric himself was much more work than usual as charming or burning them down was no option thanks to the Bane of the Wizard Slayer. She first cleared the kobold group in the north before attacking Mulahey and waiting until his troops had gathered around him. Now it was all about hide & shoot until he went down "hours" later. Xandra quickly grabbed his loot and moved out again. Tranzig and the Bandit Camp is calling. Especially the last one could bring another swift end if stealth fails...
What do you think guys? Is this fair enough? Or making it worse?
However: I have forgot which mod allowed all Fighter types to reach GM - maybe someone can give me a link?
P.S. : Sorry, misread your post. I know nothing but EEKeeper for paladins and such.
If you did want to soften the blow a bit a couple of things you could do apart from weapon proficiencies would be:
- allow all classes to get hold of all the tomes. 19 strength for monks and swashbucklers for instance would be a big help.
- allow the use of items that improve fighting abilities even if not usable by WS, e.g. bracers of weapon expertise.
Night of the Long Fangs. PfM'd Draconis and smacked him silly, after he changed I digged Soul Reaver out to test it, and after a Gww, he wasn't hitting me anymore. Poor thing.
Smacked the Lizard Men and the Greater Wyvern. Anadramatis was funny because he doesn't have +2 weapon so he couldn't hit me. I remember my Cavalier running his haste away a long time for nothing, luckily I started tanking right away and noticed that immidiatelly. Got the Amulet of Wing Buffet, Yellow Dragon Scales and popped by Cespenar to make it to an armor. I now have 40/90/90/95 item based damage resistance.
Kuo-Toa couldn't hit me either, man the +1 weapon resistance is good. Picked up the rope and rested before returning for the quadruble Dragon ambush.
Casually smacked the first two.
Sim PfM onself and then on the third Dragon, smacked down.
Carnifex roasted me once, but after I switched to Fire Resistance rings, he had no chance. Invisibility and ran through the Eye Ball area activating the cutscene, picking up the pantaloons and the scroll. You definitely don't want to fight the creatures here.
Smacked Fll'Yissetas rather than helping him because the 12 hour Improved Invisibility ring, she's pretty weak.
Abazigals Lair, tanked the four named Wyrms, Wave +4 slayed the Salamanders and then I tanked Tamah down.
Rested in Pocket Plane, Sim PfM and smacked Abazigals human form out. After he changed, Sim got PfM on him too. Dragon form blasted me with like 150 electric damage, before I remembered that you need Reflection Cloak against him, which I put on. After that he could do nothing than dispel, even though he spams spells like every second. Slowly grinded him, until I noticed the fear in his eyes, then I spammed quick four Gww's in a row, and down he went. You should always look for the fear in this battle.
Next up either Sendai, or Watchers Keep maze...
To be perfectly honest, it was kind of bothering me that one of the top players in the community was going around with a blank face.
I think if we allow Violet Potion - like @histamiini voted - its up to the player if he grabs the Strength Tome for 19 Strength or use it against Big B only. Which would significantly boosts hit chance while also pushing the risk of dying thanks to Con and Dex drain. @Grond0 should like that!
After Planetars were unsummoned I stepped in to wipe the floor with the mages. Good thing this Cespenar, very handy in a tight spot, because he's unkillable.
But it didn't go as planned, as they almost immediatelly got uncharmed. Why is that, because dispel? Nevertheless juggernaut dwarf had no problem wasting the whole party with single go. What about Deck of Many things?
Maze is easier being evil, well everything is easier being evil apparently, as I could get friendly welcome by either Ka'rashur or Tahazzar. I accepted Ka'rashurs plan, and ended it by Sim PfM and smacking him down, and then making a hasty escape.
PfM carried with me to Tahazzar and I smacked him down. But I was still smothered and slow from the Defensive Stance so I had to fight my way out by killing five or so other enemies.
So Seven achieved something that Six didn't have nerve to do... yet.