For me the whole run changed to stealth-shooting @histamiini. Legacy of Thelynn´ss opens new (or old) options like charming (say hello again Basilisk-XP-Loop) or Necklace burning. On the other hand it leaves - at least non spellcasters - a bit more open to attacks. And it rules out Vhailors Helm. And Wand of Wonders. And Robe of Vecna. And Baldurans Shield. But is this enough - especially for Mages? Thats why i banished spells from scrolls too. No more 1000+ precast Skull Traps. Have i said earlier that i dont like Mages?
Brakko has started strong kiting Shoal (39 Arrows) and doing lot of easy-going-quests hitting level 4/4. With Drizzt´s Scimitars and one-handed-spec he is a monster in close combat (70 damage with his first backstab!) while Shield Amulet boosts his AC to -4 at the moment. Not bad. Next stop will be Mutamins Garden. Maybe its time for a small XP-loop. Maybe not. However: Playing with one of my favourite classes again after a long break feels somehow refreshing.
P.S. So far no Bandit Archers along the streets - phew!
Mines, with invisibility to the last level. Dire Charmed the guard (2), and lured one Battle Horror on to me and I smacked it down, putting the guard to another room away so when he woke up he didn't attack me. Rested, same procedure (1) for the second Battle Horror and I eliminated it.
Dire Charmed (5) the guard again, invisibility and made him attack Davaeorn, his weapon broke just at the end, but luckily he knuckled Davaeorn out before coming back to his senses. I then wasted him easily and looted the place.
Charming again and that went fairly smoothly. Next up Baldur's Gate.
EDIT: might have found the most annoying enemy ever, Resar. Buffed up with protections, and tried to charm him to no avail. After Minor expired I went invisibile and waited his Mirror Image out. Then I attacked and he started casting spells which I dodged with level skipping. Then when he was out I thought it's over, nope. He stunned me with a wand and started hitting, got pretty low health before it expired, but goblet to the rescue. Tried to melee him, but again he stunned me, the same procedure again, and again, and it was going nowhere, I wasn't doing enough damage. Tried Mustard Jelly, no damage, after that again stunned, and I used Goblet when it ran out. I had nothing on neverending -4 stun. Had to level skip and hit couple times before I saw "uses wand", dodged couple Sunfires and eventually, thank everything that is holy I got him. Damn was that annoying endavour for a little spell scroll.
Bought Robe of Good Archmagi and got the Helmet, but with Blur saves vs. wands is still 6, F/M is no Dwarven Defender. Ragefast level skipped, with haste I could easily escape even his wand. Ramazith, invisibility, haste, meleed and dodged spells by level skipping. Does mage really have nothing on Stun other than saves and mr?
EDIT: hmm Improved Invisibility gives +4 to all, instead of Spirit Armors +3 vs Spells.
@myrag I've never made it that far playing with Ascension, but I've seen references to a bug producing extra demon spawns at the Throne. Take a look at this post and make your own mind up if that's your problem and you want to fix it.
Vent the berserker used far more melee than Frere the wizard slayer while getting up to level 7 (not only rage, but the availability of belts making a huge difference to his defenses).
As a mage he had plenty of options, but still concentrated primarily on using his own resources - sling + blindness, webs, magic missiles, skull traps etc. However, I did use a bit of wand power to speed things up with a couple of battle horrors.
He's just got his final BG1 level, recovering his fighting abilities in the process and should be traipsing through the Nashkel Mine shortly.
Edit: or perhaps not. I thought I'd left him in a safe position near the northern edge of the ankheg map after killing the nearby ankhegs. However, I assume I'd not paused the game and when I opened it again after doing a couple of hours work found that Vent was dead. I've noticed on quite a few occasions that during extended battles creatures are treated as having rested, e.g. recovering HPs and spell abilities and I presume that the same applies to random spawns - one of the ankheg spawning points would have been within range of him ...
On the plus side his HPs were horrible - below the theoretical average, which is very unusual for the EE. Maybe the next version will do better .
@Myrag You mean the Mariliths? I don't think it's a bug, they spawned for my Cavalier too. What I think was a bug was their neverending PfMW, which meant I could only kill them with Wand of Wonder petrify.
@Myrag You mean the Mariliths? I don't think it's a bug, they spawned for my Cavalier too. What I think was a bug was their neverending PfMW, which meant I could only kill them with Wand of Wonder petrify.
@histamiini Thanks. Overall I know they spawn in the throne but I checked several YT videos for Ascension and none of those had spawns at first stage of battle with Irenicus/Bodhi/Imoen so I wondered if this is the bug.
@Grond0 Thanks! I will check if this fixes it. But it seems that's the case from the fix description.
In the original Ascension version of the first fight at the Throne of the Bhaal, you must fight two Fallen Solars. As of SCS v25, the Smarter Celesitals Component causes both of these Fallen Solars to additionally spawn with two Mariliths, a Succubus, and an Alu-fiend. While it has not been officially confirmed, there is significant evidence to suggest that these extra demons are unintentional. This component removes them
The Legacy of Thelynn´s with F/T is so easy that its getting boring - damn it. To make things more fluid i am thinking about a challenge where its up to the player which items he is able to use. Therefore i created the following table:
Crusaders of Blades & Stars
This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are the rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons & Shields – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use five stars in total that will determine your destiny - chose wisely!
* Amulets & Boots * Armor * Cloak * Girdles & Gauntlets * Helmet ** Potions * Left Ring * Right Ring * Scrolls (Arcane) * Scrolls (Protection) * Wands
Mages will have to put one point for spellcasting to reduce their power a bit while i think that putting Amulets & Boots as well as Girdles & Gauntlets together seems okay as there arent many of these and the OP items are found in other categories. Potions are so various that two points (at minumm) seem to be essential.
Could this be the basis for an interesting challenge? Ideas for changing stars or other categories?
Natural did the couple guests for Scar, Ogre Mage got an arrow to the head and I kited the Carrions on the streets. Bought 20 Chaos and Greater Malison scrolls for a cool 20k. Iron Throne, Alai and Naaman had couple of my scrolls, so, invisibility and got behind of the mob, so that if my spells failed they didn't all agro, success, Alai Dire Charmed and made him attack Naaman, invisibility. Alai got quickly minced, and I got my Minor Sequencer.
Tried Chaos on the mob from the stairs, but although it was a success, none of them got killed, and when I tried the second one the assassin and Gardush was onto me. So I left and slept outside the walls to get 4 invisibilities. Back, and tried to lure Gardush and the assassin to below, but they didn't follow. Went other side and got Diyab to follow me. Level skipped his spells, but at some point he just vanished all together. Went up and got Naaman to follow me, level skipped all his spells, and smacked him down, and got my fifth PfU. Didn't bother with the rest but just took the scrolls.
I remembered that before being distracted by various other things I'd intended to do a wild mage run. Therefore, leaving Vent in storage for now I generated a new character, rolling for quite a while to get a nice set of stats for her. Her intelligence is unusually low for a mage, but Frye won't be doing much spell casting in her early stages and will just be using potions to binge-learn spells on 2 or 3 occasions in BG1.
Shoal provided the usual early boost before reputation took a hit with the death of Algernon and Dushai (after 72 attempts to charm her). The trusty pseudo-dragon nibbled all the basilisks to death to take Frye up to level 6 and she's just emptied the sirines from the Beregost Temple for a bit more quick XP. She's not yet been south of Beregost and will continue to try and limit travel to safer routes until her missile protection is rather better than it is at the moment (to avoid the danger of surges if she tries to travel invisibly).
Okay, i think i might give Crusaders of Blades and Stars [CoBaS] a chance - the options look indeed interesting!
But first some words about the minor changes:
Blades now grant you access to all weapons while Stars give you Protection Scrolls for free but still allowing to distribute five stars into the different categories.
As all characters will pick Protection Srcolls anyway (PfU and PfM are just too good to pass) this leaves open a bit more freedom for all classes. A Mage character can for instance go: Potions + Scrolls (Arcane) + Wands + Armor which gives them still a lot of special magic powers. Thanks to the mandatory point in Scrolls (Arcane) each non-Mage gets a bonus point which they can spent on other stuff.
Here is the up-to-date table:
* Amulets & Boots * Armor * Cloak * Girdles & Gauntlets * Helmet ** Potions * Left Ring * Right Ring * Scrolls (Arcane) * Shields * Wands
Are you also assuming divine scrolls are free? That's not of much importance in BG1, but is a potential issue in SoD.
As potions are far less benefit for a mage you could argue they shouldn't cost 2 stars - on the other hand you could just say that's a good reason for a mage to choose something else .
Do the restrictions apply to any item in the category, or only magic items? Armor for instance wouldn't be worth that much to a fighter if he could wear non-magic armor, but would be critical if he couldn't.
Eltan teleported Natural to Candlekeep, luckily Ogre Mages only had time to cast Mirror Images. Didn't bother fighting anybody in there, except the Spiders with PfP, also looted the place. Tamoko->invis-> Tamoko->invis->Eltan->invis->Harmor Master->Elfsong to rest. Got Str, Dex, Con and Int all to 19.
Spirit Armor, Blur, PfE, Duhm and dispelled Slythe with an arrow. Lured him to the sewers, tanking all his mighty backstabs with the goblet, got him to the second last bar, but Krystin also showed up there, so I ended fighting Slythe on the streets. And after 9th zip from the goblet, down he went. Left Krystin to rot in the sewers.
Palace ambush, wasted the only Animate Dead scroll (Belegram has more) to summon a Skeli and used three Animal II Summon scrolls, hasted everybody, Spirit Armor, Blur, PfE, made Liia invisible and activated the battle. First tried to PfM the mage, but he buggered off, so I PfM'd the Shaman. Soon I found the mage and PfM'd him too.
After dispelling everybody with dispel arrows, I joined the smacking. And after 12 goblets later all but the Ogre mage was dead.
Hunted him with acid arrows, Sarevok activated and then I kited him with acid arrows a while.
All left to do is to make some money, and pick up the last PfM. Oh and there's still the bloke called Sarevok possibly to hunt.
Divine Scrolls are okay and in my opinion as my intention was only to tone down Mages just a little bit @Grond0. Armor is Armor so: Yes that applies to ALL items of a category. Choose wisely your stars - as well as your class!
Have you tested your F/M just for fun with an old char using Bane setup against Big B @histamiini? Sure my Ranger run was fun but getting near to Big B only to see that there is (nearly) zero chance for this class was at the end somehow frustrating. Druids can do the trick with Harm for sure but i would most likely go for pure Poverty rather than playing Bane again. The Strenght of One trick somehow seems to work for @Vynn and with Barkskin casted from Nymphs too you can push save vs wands to -1 giving you really good protection against fear aura. But first lets give Crusaders of Stars and Blades a chance!
This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are our house rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however bless you with free access to Protection Scrolls – but thats not all: They also give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use five stars in total that will determine your destiny - chose wisely:
* Amulets & Belts * Armor * Boots & Gauntlets * Cloak * Helmet ** Potions * Left Ring * Right Ring * Mage Scrolls * Shields * Wands
Additional Rule: Simulacrum cannot use any quick items! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Using Version 1.1 i reanimated Brakko the Half-Orc Fighter/Thief just to see how difficult things might grow.
His personal Stars are: * Amulets & Boots * Helmet ** Potions * Shields
My intention is that F/T has to be fast and furious. Shield Amulet will boost AC, Necklace of Missiles will allow Fireballs while Boots of Speed will make backstabbing a lot easier. Helmets to avoid deadly criticals while Shields were more or less picked for SoA and ToB reasons. Potions for their insane utility seem to be a no-brainer. All in all the whole setup feels more or less consistent. Too bad the Basilisk-XP-loop wont be available...
@Loldrup: Charmed enemies will follow you into buildings if you force them to attack the main character. Just slip in or out of the building and your new friend will follow you. This can make some tough encounters really trivial...
@Loldrup you do still need to be careful when making charmed creatures follow you as that sometimes affects their AI - making it difficult to stop them attacking once inside . When that happens you may be able to reset their AI by evading them inside (using stealth or invisibility to prevent them following you), then going out and back in.
The trick when casting spells with nymphs is to synchronize them. That's easy if everyone is casting the same spell (like call lightning), but if you're using something like a doom and hold combination the spells may be totally wasted if done in the wrong order so judging the timing is crucial. As the spells cast against Riggilo I was proud of timing it so exactly - even though he still managed to negate the hold with his invisibility potion .
Frye killed the golems at High Hedge by pulling them outside for slinging, but failed to revive Melicamp. A bit more work on the way to find Brage still got her quite close to level 7, however.
Targets were still being chosen without very high damage potential, so that the familiar could tank them reasonably safely while Frye chipped in with her sling. For more powerful enemies Algernon's Cloak could charm them, allowing them to be worn down against other opponents. Doing that got Frye to level 7, though she still only knew her original level 1 spells (including identify, which is the only spell that can be used without the chance of a surge).
Doing so much tanking always carries a slight risk when the odds turn against you, however, and that happened to Frye with a vengeance in the Cloudpeaks. She'd found and returned Rufie before recruiting Delgod with the aim of wearing him down against some nearby enemies and a couple of skeletons seemed to fit the bill. The first problem was that Delgod quickly broke his weapon, hugely increasing the damage he took and he had to retreat before the first skeleton was quite dead (so that Frye could eventually kill him to get the XP). The familiar cast blur and took over tanking duties, which most of the time it would do without problem as the skeletons would struggle to hit it. However, these skeletons use halberds which can do painful damage and the near death skeleton immediately found two high-value criticals in a row to send the familiar flapping away in terror at near death itself. As the other skeleton was shooting at it (and its death would kill Frye) she immediately ran at the uninjured skeleton while Delgod attacked the near death one. Delgod died quickly, but his intervention had allowed Frye to collect the other skeleton and bring both of them together - both trying to hit her in melee. Keeping them in that condition when their AI is constantly seeking to retreat and switch to ranged attacks isn't simple, but Frye did a good job of that and was still uninjured herself some rounds later when the familiar recovered its senses.
Regeneration had pushed the familiar back up into merely badly wounded territory, but that still meant that a single hit could easily kill it - so it didn't try to come back into the battle. That meant that Frye had to disengage from the skeletons, giving them a final opportunity to shoot at her. The odds were hugely in her favor though, so I wasn't worried about that. However, the undamaged skeleton provided a reminder of how vulnerable low level mages are to criticals with a maximum damage shot of 32 as she moved out of its range. I just had time for thoughts to cross my mind about how to write a note pointing up critical vulnerabilities, still thinking that Frye was going to escape. The near-death skeleton though had released one final arrow while she was still in sight and it was yet another critical. Even with that there was only a 33% chance of a kill, but luck had totally abandoned her in this sequence ...
- Level skipped Sunin for Ring of Wizardy - Charmed Bentan and fed him to Kobbos for the last PfM - Haste, invisibility and charmed Hakt for the Long Bow +2, Venkt charmed for Spellstrike which I've never used, but because it was easy to get them killed with Boots of Speed and Haste, why not - Ice Island, level skipped the mages there and hacked them down, got the Stoneskin - Charmed Carston and he got murdered, Gorf smacked Rahvin because his AoE damage arrows agroed Gorf, I kited Gorf and Haseo with acid arrows, then interrupted and killed Wudei with arrows, didn't bother with Shaldrissa - Monster Summons, haste and hit Tamoko with acid arrows, got Plate of the Dark which funnily becomes useful in Bane challenge because there's no rings, cloaks or amulets - Invested all my gold to various scrolls and jewels
Time to face Sarevok, invisibility and went in, waited couple hours of Diarmid PfM to end, then went to look up where they were and Diarmid was conviniently placed, so I started spamming him with Detonators
Diarmid tried to answer with his own arrows to no avail, once Semaj got killed I used PfU and soon Tazok and Diarmid were dead too. Angelo agroed, and I waited him to appeared, I dispelled him with arrows and after he dispelled me I hit Mirror Image/ Blur sequencer. And then we had a simple smacking competition which only had one result because of the goblet.
Sarevok dispelled and kited with acid arrows, once my last haste was over and he was on his last legs I jumped on him, and he got killed when I had 7 goblets left.
Alerted the mob, invisibility and made Potros surrender, invisibility and PfU got me to Korlasz. PfE, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Haste, Invisibility and hit Korlasz with Dispel arrow, then I changed to Detonators, second Dispel and couple Detonars and she surrendered well inside two rounds, I wasn't even hit. Got to level 8/8. Looted the whole place. Didn't remember how much loot there's in this place, in one container there's 20 Ruby Rings, which nets a fortune when you sell them to the Djinni at the Coalition Camp.
Inventory, 4 PfU, 4 PfM, 31 Detonators (you can buy 30 more in Sod) and 50 Dispel arrows which should be enough for the rest of SoD.
This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are our house rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however bless you with free access to Protection Scrolls – but thats not all: They also give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use the following numbers of stars to determine your destiny: Esquire ---------- 9 Stars Man-at-Arms ----- 7 Stars Knight ----------- 5 Stars Crusader --------- 3 Stars Chosen One ------- 1 Star
Chose wisely esteemed adventurerer:
* Amulets & Belts * Armor * Boots & Gauntlets * Cloak * Helmet * Potions * Left Ring * Right Ring * Mage Scrolls * Shields * Wands
The new destiny-levels increases the options to play in the way you like and opens up the challenge for lesser experienced players as well while also keeping Hardcore gamers in mind. Will anyone try out the "Chosen One" using no-reload? Thats maybe something for @histamiini - no? My Totemic Druids also come to mind... should i... hmmmm. At least its "much" easier than Poverty!
I thought the Crusader challenge was just about increasing options for those craving that little extra something. As such it seems to fit well in this thread, but don't let me stop you setting a new one up if that's what you fancy .
I think it's about time for a little break for me. Before I leave the game though I was thinking it would be nice to get one of these LoB characters at least into SoD. I was trying Frere the wizard slayer again this afternoon with a view to doing that and was almost up to level 7 in the Lighthouse area when Odin fired a fatal lightning bolt from the sky. There's probably a message in that, but I was never much good at reading messages and I'm intending to have just one more try - though I'm not sure what with .
Natural did all the mundane quests in Baldur's Gate, sold my jewels and loot for 80k, and bought scrolls with 30k. Chapter 8, bought even more scrolls from Belegarm with the last 50k. Dwarves cave, summoned couple skelis and animals, Duhm, Haste and attacked the undead with acid arrows. I saw that I was being overrun, so I used one PfU on Deepvein to keep him alive, and continued shooting arrows, one other dwarf survived with one health bar left.
Coldheart, with no area effect fire to waste and bad Thac0 I decided not to fight the undead. PfU, opened the way to fire pit by smacking couple skelis, kited the Sentry with acid arrows, picked up the key and activated the door. Left and picked up the Secret Revealed from Deepvein. Hit Coldheart with it and he could do nothing. And just when I was leaving and thought that's it, the undead had somehow managed to block the way out.
Started smacking the blockade, but the Shadowed Souls healed them at the same rate I was smacking them. Lich spawned again, and I had to waste one PfM on him, saved the battle there. Used another PfU, then shot the Shadowed Souls, then smacked the blockade and then finally I was free. Shot Coldheart from distance with arrows, and ran to the fire pit and destroyed the phylactery. Phew. Hid behind the tent the parlay and got to chapter 9.
Okay lets hope @histamiini will die soon cause i have deleted the Bane-Challenge!
Okay, lets stop the joking! I have massivly revised the OP putting in the Crusader rules while banishing every other sub-challenge as well as most parts of the Hall of Fame - except for the New Lords of Murders who have beaten the whole challenge. I will still update this one so feel free to stomp Melissan with your F/C/M and/or DD.
I dont know if this new challenge rule setting will get the attention i hope for but maybe @JuliusBorisov can help us here.
I think that i will start my very first Crusader-Run in the next days as i am lacking time. Beside planning the challenge i havent really played the game anymore. Too bad. However: I think that for i will go straight into the abyys picking up the "Chosen One" with something i havent tried until today.
Character: Krell the Human Kensai
Destiny: Chosen One
Stars: * Potions
This will get very painful - at least in the beginning. Once he got dualed to Druid things should get easier. But for how long?
P.S. If there is anyone who has "overplayed" this game its you @Grond0. So give us your best shot at the end. Okay? I know you can do that! Maybe you will come back again. I am sure you will. No?
Comments
Brakko has started strong kiting Shoal (39 Arrows) and doing lot of easy-going-quests hitting level 4/4. With Drizzt´s Scimitars and one-handed-spec he is a monster in close combat (70 damage with his first backstab!) while Shield Amulet boosts his AC to -4 at the moment. Not bad. Next stop will be Mutamins Garden. Maybe its time for a small XP-loop. Maybe not. However: Playing with one of my favourite classes again after a long break feels somehow refreshing.
P.S. So far no Bandit Archers along the streets - phew!
Dire Charmed (5) the guard again, invisibility and made him attack Davaeorn, his weapon broke just at the end, but luckily he knuckled Davaeorn out before coming back to his senses. I then wasted him easily and looted the place.
Charming again and that went fairly smoothly. Next up Baldur's Gate.
EDIT: might have found the most annoying enemy ever, Resar. Buffed up with protections, and tried to charm him to no avail. After Minor expired I went invisibile and waited his Mirror Image out. Then I attacked and he started casting spells which I dodged with level skipping. Then when he was out I thought it's over, nope. He stunned me with a wand and started hitting, got pretty low health before it expired, but goblet to the rescue. Tried to melee him, but again he stunned me, the same procedure again, and again, and it was going nowhere, I wasn't doing enough damage. Tried Mustard Jelly, no damage, after that again stunned, and I used Goblet when it ran out. I had nothing on neverending -4 stun. Had to level skip and hit couple times before I saw "uses wand", dodged couple Sunfires and eventually, thank everything that is holy I got him. Damn was that annoying endavour for a little spell scroll.
Bought Robe of Good Archmagi and got the Helmet, but with Blur saves vs. wands is still 6, F/M is no Dwarven Defender. Ragefast level skipped, with haste I could easily escape even his wand. Ramazith, invisibility, haste, meleed and dodged spells by level skipping. Does mage really have nothing on Stun other than saves and mr?
EDIT: hmm Improved Invisibility gives +4 to all, instead of Spirit Armors +3 vs Spells.
Is my Ascension demon spawns a bug? I do manage to beat this in full party but its hell of a drag.
Sorry for hijacking the topic briefly but I think it was here were I saw someone mention this.
As a mage he had plenty of options, but still concentrated primarily on using his own resources - sling + blindness, webs, magic missiles, skull traps etc. However, I did use a bit of wand power to speed things up with a couple of battle horrors.
He's just got his final BG1 level, recovering his fighting abilities in the process and should be traipsing through the Nashkel Mine shortly.
Edit: or perhaps not. I thought I'd left him in a safe position near the northern edge of the ankheg map after killing the nearby ankhegs. However, I assume I'd not paused the game and when I opened it again after doing a couple of hours work found that Vent was dead. I've noticed on quite a few occasions that during extended battles creatures are treated as having rested, e.g. recovering HPs and spell abilities and I presume that the same applies to random spawns - one of the ankheg spawning points would have been within range of him ...
On the plus side his HPs were horrible - below the theoretical average, which is very unusual for the EE. Maybe the next version will do better
@Grond0 Thanks! I will check if this fixes it. But it seems that's the case from the fix description.
Crusaders of Blades & Stars
This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are the rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons & Shields – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use five stars in total that will determine your destiny - chose wisely!
* Amulets & Boots
* Armor
* Cloak
* Girdles & Gauntlets
* Helmet
** Potions
* Left Ring
* Right Ring
* Scrolls (Arcane)
* Scrolls (Protection)
* Wands
Mages will have to put one point for spellcasting to reduce their power a bit while i think that putting Amulets & Boots as well as Girdles & Gauntlets together seems okay as there arent many of these and the OP items are found in other categories. Potions are so various that two points (at minumm) seem to be essential.
Could this be the basis for an interesting challenge? Ideas for changing stars or other categories?
Tried Chaos on the mob from the stairs, but although it was a success, none of them got killed, and when I tried the second one the assassin and Gardush was onto me. So I left and slept outside the walls to get 4 invisibilities. Back, and tried to lure Gardush and the assassin to below, but they didn't follow. Went other side and got Diyab to follow me. Level skipped his spells, but at some point he just vanished all together. Went up and got Naaman to follow me, level skipped all his spells, and smacked him down, and got my fifth PfU. Didn't bother with the rest but just took the scrolls.
Let see if I can escape the Ogre ambush.
Shoal provided the usual early boost before reputation took a hit with the death of Algernon and Dushai (after 72 attempts to charm her). The trusty pseudo-dragon nibbled all the basilisks to death to take Frye up to level 6 and she's just emptied the sirines from the Beregost Temple for a bit more quick XP. She's not yet been south of Beregost and will continue to try and limit travel to safer routes until her missile protection is rather better than it is at the moment (to avoid the danger of surges if she tries to travel invisibly).
But first some words about the minor changes:
Blades now grant you access to all weapons while Stars give you Protection Scrolls for free but still allowing to distribute five stars into the different categories.
As all characters will pick Protection Srcolls anyway (PfU and PfM are just too good to pass) this leaves open a bit more freedom for all classes. A Mage character can for instance go: Potions + Scrolls (Arcane) + Wands + Armor which gives them still a lot of special magic powers. Thanks to the mandatory point in Scrolls (Arcane) each non-Mage gets a bonus point which they can spent on other stuff.
Here is the up-to-date table:
* Amulets & Boots
* Armor
* Cloak
* Girdles & Gauntlets
* Helmet
** Potions
* Left Ring
* Right Ring
* Scrolls (Arcane)
* Shields
* Wands
So many options...
As potions are far less benefit for a mage you could argue they shouldn't cost 2 stars - on the other hand you could just say that's a good reason for a mage to choose something else
Do the restrictions apply to any item in the category, or only magic items? Armor for instance wouldn't be worth that much to a fighter if he could wear non-magic armor, but would be critical if he couldn't.
Spirit Armor, Blur, PfE, Duhm and dispelled Slythe with an arrow. Lured him to the sewers, tanking all his mighty backstabs with the goblet, got him to the second last bar, but Krystin also showed up there, so I ended fighting Slythe on the streets. And after 9th zip from the goblet, down he went. Left Krystin to rot in the sewers.
Palace ambush, wasted the only Animate Dead scroll (Belegram has more) to summon a Skeli and used three Animal II Summon scrolls, hasted everybody, Spirit Armor, Blur, PfE, made Liia invisible and activated the battle. First tried to PfM the mage, but he buggered off, so I PfM'd the Shaman. Soon I found the mage and PfM'd him too.
After dispelling everybody with dispel arrows, I joined the smacking. And after 12 goblets later all but the Ogre mage was dead.
Hunted him with acid arrows, Sarevok activated and then I kited him with acid arrows a while.
All left to do is to make some money, and pick up the last PfM. Oh and there's still the bloke called Sarevok possibly to hunt.
Have you tested your F/M just for fun with an old char using Bane setup against Big B @histamiini? Sure my Ranger run was fun but getting near to Big B only to see that there is (nearly) zero chance for this class was at the end somehow frustrating. Druids can do the trick with Harm for sure but i would most likely go for pure Poverty rather than playing Bane again. The Strenght of One trick somehow seems to work for @Vynn and with Barkskin casted from Nymphs too you can push save vs wands to -1 giving you really good protection against fear aura. But first lets give Crusaders of Stars and Blades a chance!
Crusaders of Blades & Stars [CoBaS]
Version 1.1This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are our house rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however bless you with free access to Protection Scrolls – but thats not all: They also give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use five stars in total that will determine your destiny - chose wisely:
* Amulets & Belts
* Armor
* Boots & Gauntlets
* Cloak
* Helmet
** Potions
* Left Ring
* Right Ring
* Mage Scrolls
* Shields
* Wands
Additional Rule: Simulacrum cannot use any quick items!
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Using Version 1.1 i reanimated Brakko the Half-Orc Fighter/Thief just to see how difficult things might grow.
His personal Stars are:
* Amulets & Boots
* Helmet
** Potions
* Shields
My intention is that F/T has to be fast and furious. Shield Amulet will boost AC, Necklace of Missiles will allow Fireballs while Boots of Speed will make backstabbing a lot easier. Helmets to avoid deadly criticals while Shields were more or less picked for SoA and ToB reasons. Potions for their insane utility seem to be a no-brainer. All in all the whole setup feels more or less consistent. Too bad the Basilisk-XP-loop wont be available...
Doom -> MC
Hold Monsters -> Nymphs
Thats how @Grond0 made it work!
P.S. As i dont have time today so Brakko will have to wait a bit more...
The trick when casting spells with nymphs is to synchronize them. That's easy if everyone is casting the same spell (like call lightning), but if you're using something like a doom and hold combination the spells may be totally wasted if done in the wrong order so judging the timing is crucial. As the spells cast against Riggilo I was proud of timing it so exactly - even though he still managed to negate the hold with his invisibility potion
Version 1.1:
Amulets & Boots -> Amulets & Belts -> The Better Protection Path
Girdles & Gloves -> Boots & Gauntlets -> The Offensive Power Tool
Version 1.2:
Potions decreased to 1 Star
As most players will pick them anyway two stars reduced the number of options too heavily
* Amulets & Belts
* Armor
* Boots & Gauntlets
* Cloak
* Helmet
* Potions
* Left Ring
* Right Ring
* Mage Scrolls
* Shields
* Wands
Targets were still being chosen without very high damage potential, so that the familiar could tank them reasonably safely while Frye chipped in with her sling. For more powerful enemies Algernon's Cloak could charm them, allowing them to be worn down against other opponents. Doing that got Frye to level 7, though she still only knew her original level 1 spells (including identify, which is the only spell that can be used without the chance of a surge).
Doing so much tanking always carries a slight risk when the odds turn against you, however, and that happened to Frye with a vengeance in the Cloudpeaks. She'd found and returned Rufie before recruiting Delgod with the aim of wearing him down against some nearby enemies and a couple of skeletons seemed to fit the bill. The first problem was that Delgod quickly broke his weapon, hugely increasing the damage he took and he had to retreat before the first skeleton was quite dead (so that Frye could eventually kill him to get the XP). The familiar cast blur and took over tanking duties, which most of the time it would do without problem as the skeletons would struggle to hit it. However, these skeletons use halberds which can do painful damage and the near death skeleton immediately found two high-value criticals in a row to send the familiar flapping away in terror at near death itself. As the other skeleton was shooting at it (and its death would kill Frye) she immediately ran at the uninjured skeleton while Delgod attacked the near death one. Delgod died quickly, but his intervention had allowed Frye to collect the other skeleton and bring both of them together - both trying to hit her in melee. Keeping them in that condition when their AI is constantly seeking to retreat and switch to ranged attacks isn't simple, but Frye did a good job of that and was still uninjured herself some rounds later when the familiar recovered its senses.
Regeneration had pushed the familiar back up into merely badly wounded territory, but that still meant that a single hit could easily kill it - so it didn't try to come back into the battle. That meant that Frye had to disengage from the skeletons, giving them a final opportunity to shoot at her. The odds were hugely in her favor though, so I wasn't worried about that. However, the undamaged skeleton provided a reminder of how vulnerable low level mages are to criticals with a maximum damage shot of 32 as she moved out of its range. I just had time for thoughts to cross my mind about how to write a note pointing up critical vulnerabilities, still thinking that Frye was going to escape. The near-death skeleton though had released one final arrow while she was still in sight and it was yet another critical. Even with that there was only a 33% chance of a kill, but luck had totally abandoned her in this sequence ...
- Level skipped Sunin for Ring of Wizardy
- Charmed Bentan and fed him to Kobbos for the last PfM
- Haste, invisibility and charmed Hakt for the Long Bow +2, Venkt charmed for Spellstrike which I've never used, but because it was easy to get them killed with Boots of Speed and Haste, why not
- Ice Island, level skipped the mages there and hacked them down, got the Stoneskin
- Charmed Carston and he got murdered, Gorf smacked Rahvin because his AoE damage arrows agroed Gorf, I kited Gorf and Haseo with acid arrows, then interrupted and killed Wudei with arrows, didn't bother with Shaldrissa
- Monster Summons, haste and hit Tamoko with acid arrows, got Plate of the Dark which funnily becomes useful in Bane challenge because there's no rings, cloaks or amulets
- Invested all my gold to various scrolls and jewels
Time to face Sarevok, invisibility and went in, waited couple hours of Diarmid PfM to end, then went to look up where they were and Diarmid was conviniently placed, so I started spamming him with Detonators
Diarmid tried to answer with his own arrows to no avail, once Semaj got killed I used PfU and soon Tazok and Diarmid were dead too. Angelo agroed, and I waited him to appeared, I dispelled him with arrows and after he dispelled me I hit Mirror Image/ Blur sequencer. And then we had a simple smacking competition which only had one result because of the goblet.
Sarevok dispelled and kited with acid arrows, once my last haste was over and he was on his last legs I jumped on him, and he got killed when I had 7 goblets left.
Alerted the mob, invisibility and made Potros surrender, invisibility and PfU got me to Korlasz. PfE, Blur, Improved Invisibility, Haste, Invisibility and hit Korlasz with Dispel arrow, then I changed to Detonators, second Dispel and couple Detonars and she surrendered well inside two rounds, I wasn't even hit. Got to level 8/8. Looted the whole place. Didn't remember how much loot there's in this place, in one container there's 20 Ruby Rings, which nets a fortune when you sell them to the Djinni at the Coalition Camp.
Inventory, 4 PfU, 4 PfM, 31 Detonators (you can buy 30 more in Sod) and 50 Dispel arrows which should be enough for the rest of SoD.
Crusaders of Blades & Stars [CoBaS]
Version 2.0This challenge is sponsored by the Blades & Stars Inn. Best prices, best service. Here are our house rules:
Every class is allowed to use all kinds of Weapons – thats what Blades are for. The Stars however bless you with free access to Protection Scrolls – but thats not all: They also give you the opportunity to pick your own selection of items that will be available during your travels. You can use the following numbers of stars to determine your destiny:
Esquire ---------- 9 Stars
Man-at-Arms ----- 7 Stars
Knight ----------- 5 Stars
Crusader --------- 3 Stars
Chosen One ------- 1 Star
Chose wisely esteemed adventurerer:
* Amulets & Belts
* Armor
* Boots & Gauntlets
* Cloak
* Helmet
* Potions
* Left Ring
* Right Ring
* Mage Scrolls
* Shields
* Wands
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The new destiny-levels increases the options to play in the way you like and opens up the challenge for lesser experienced players as well while also keeping Hardcore gamers in mind. Will anyone try out the "Chosen One" using no-reload? Thats maybe something for @histamiini - no? My Totemic Druids also come to mind... should i... hmmmm. At least its "much" easier than Poverty!
Should i reconfigurate this thread regarding the new rules or should this specific challenge take place in its own thread?
Whats your opinion on this one guys? And: Are the updated rules okay or is there something i might have missed?
Thanks!
I think it's about time for a little break for me. Before I leave the game though I was thinking it would be nice to get one of these LoB characters at least into SoD. I was trying Frere the wizard slayer again this afternoon with a view to doing that and was almost up to level 7 in the Lighthouse area when Odin fired a fatal lightning bolt from the sky. There's probably a message in that, but I was never much good at reading messages and I'm intending to have just one more try - though I'm not sure what with
Coldheart, with no area effect fire to waste and bad Thac0 I decided not to fight the undead. PfU, opened the way to fire pit by smacking couple skelis, kited the Sentry with acid arrows, picked up the key and activated the door. Left and picked up the Secret Revealed from Deepvein. Hit Coldheart with it and he could do nothing. And just when I was leaving and thought that's it, the undead had somehow managed to block the way out.
Started smacking the blockade, but the Shadowed Souls healed them at the same rate I was smacking them. Lich spawned again, and I had to waste one PfM on him, saved the battle there. Used another PfU, then shot the Shadowed Souls, then smacked the blockade and then finally I was free. Shot Coldheart from distance with arrows, and ran to the fire pit and destroyed the phylactery. Phew. Hid behind the tent the parlay and got to chapter 9.
Okay, lets stop the joking! I have massivly revised the OP putting in the Crusader rules while banishing every other sub-challenge as well as most parts of the Hall of Fame - except for the New Lords of Murders who have beaten the whole challenge. I will still update this one so feel free to stomp Melissan with your F/C/M and/or DD.
I dont know if this new challenge rule setting will get the attention i hope for but maybe @JuliusBorisov can help us here.
I think that i will start my very first Crusader-Run in the next days as i am lacking time. Beside planning the challenge i havent really played the game anymore. Too bad. However: I think that for i will go straight into the abyys picking up the "Chosen One" with something i havent tried until today.
Character:
Krell the Human Kensai
Destiny:
Chosen One
Stars:
* Potions
This will get very painful - at least in the beginning. Once he got dualed to Druid things should get easier. But for how long?
P.S. If there is anyone who has "overplayed" this game its you @Grond0. So give us your best shot at the end. Okay? I know you can do that! Maybe you will come back again. I am sure you will. No?