Thorgrim is jumping from ups to downs at the moment...
On the good side he cleared all Sirenes at the Beregost Temple (Charmed and kited after they wasted all spells and arrows) to gather easy 8k XP. Next stop was the Lighthouse. Thanks to some @Grond0 maneuver he triggered the hold trap without any protection and barely managed to run out of sight before failing his save. Some minutes of trembling followed without any Golem appearing -phew!
Sil was charmed on sixth try but thanks to good positioning the Sirenes blocked the cave entrance. A quick Potion of Clarity negated all charms while Sil was feebleminded by her own friends - too funny. With 6k XP more in the pocket he then played hit & run with the Flesh Golems critting a lot thanks to one-handed-spec. Another 6k XP plus the CON Tome - not bad.
Then Thorgrim thought to be clever smacking the Flesh Golem Guards of Thalantyr. Thanks to stealth they never got the chance to hit him. Hah, and another easy 4k XP - no? What i completly forgot was that Thalantyr went hostile in the meantime so no more buying here. At least the PfU and PfM scroll were already in the backpack. As i never liked his arrogance Thorgrim tried to charm the mage again and again. Try number 13 worked and Thalantyr was lured outside to get a good smacking by the nearby Gnolls. Once he had wasted most spells on them and was close to death Thorgrim shot him down with a single arrow for 3k XP. Easy!
Firebead however stomped the Ghast into the ground this time... slowed... blinded... hacked apart. Not bad!
With Fighter level 7 not far away its maybe time to finally visit Baldurs Gate once more. Lets see what else can go wrong...
Magic Items at the moment: - Boots of Speed - Algernons Cloak - Legacy of the Masters - Flail +1 - Ring of Free Action - 7x Invisibility Potions - 1x Potion of Absorbtion - 2x PfU - 1x PfM
EDIT: So much easy quest XP in the city - level 7/8 was reached in no time! Inv. Potions up to 20 - great! Candlekeep is calling soon!!
Finally rolled Trabb, a Half-Elf Cleric/Mage, which I've wanted to do some time now. After a while got practical max roll of 96 which allows max str, ac and hp bonus, 9th level spells, max Wisdom and 20 cha for best prices after getting the tomes in BG1. In addition to normal rules, she also has ability to summon one Deva and one Planetar at the same time.
Trabb did the usual fetching stuff, LoB Familiar and Sanctuary are nice from the get go. Familiar got my starting hp to 29 and Sanctuary got me safe travels and Neera's Gem Bag. Ferret was able to steal Algernon's Cloak, so he survived first time in a while, and he doesn't even know how priviledged he is. Charming Dushai took about 100 times, but got his Ring of Freeaction and Web. Drizzt netted the 15k after which I got my rep to 12 in a temple, bought 17 Stone to Flesh scrolls and a Protection from Petrification scroll. Went to Mutamin garden and did the xp-loop for all the scrolls, which got me nicely just to the max level of 7/7, meaning 4th level mage and priest spells, also took * in Sling. After getting Invisibility I fetched the Cha and Con tomes, for max 20 Cha with Friends and Algernon's Cloak, and max base hp of glorious 78. That was pretty quick and painless.
Mulahey fed to the Kobbos, picked up WoMS which I put in good use immediatelly against Bassilus. Did all the rep guests for 20/20 prices. Noticed that C/M can't use Strength or Heroism potions, which makes my eventual tank against Belhifet more interesting, have to hoard every Power Potion I can, luckily Violet Potion still works. Bought bunch of scrolls, Greenstone Amulet and Blur Cloak. Purified the population from the filth, Tarnesh 4 Skelis, Nimbul 4 Skelis, Neira 4 Skelis, Karlat WoMS and Tranzig 4 Skelis, recharced the WoMS. Bandit camp, charmed Taurgoz and led him to the woods to die, which also emptied the tent which I quickly looted. On way out I picked up Taurgoz Full Plate, rested, and came back to charm Venkt for his scroll. Sold all the loot and I'm now sitting on 20k gold. Next to the mines we go.
Vent made his way to the Lighthouse. He'd sold the potion of clarity and girdle of piercing, but rage still gave him the ability to kill the sirines fairly quickly. However, I misjudged the length of rage at one point and didn't retreat while it was still active - that required him to use a PfM scroll to stay safe from a dire charm. A quiver of +1 arrows was then more than enough for the 3 golems and the remainder were dropped in order to be able to loot more of the pirate treasure.
The tome took Vent's constitution to 19, but he couldn't justify finding a space in his inventory for Buckley's Buckler to allow regeneration. He also found a potion of absorption in the horde. He didn't want to hang onto that semi-permanently, so put it to use in tanking the Revenant. With that dead he tried moving on to one of Narcillicus's mustard jellies, but was hit by a critical almost at once and poisoned - requiring a quick retreat. He came back and tried numerous times to kill one of them, but they only needed an 18 to hit him while enraged and got that too regularly. Eventually Vent bought a +1 shield - improving AC by 1 (he has 1 pip in single weapon proficiency). Even with that it took a while longer, but eventually both mustard jellies were dead - Narcillicus though was left alone.
That took Vent nearly to level 7 and a few encounters progressing through the Cloud Peaks got him another 15 HPs to keep his sensational total going (101 out of a maximum possible of 105). Dualling at this level would certainly be a viable option, but Vent pressed onwards as a berserker.
After picking up the charisma tome, Vent went to the basilisk area. The green PfP scroll allowed him to smack down most of the monsters before Korax helped out with Mutamin. Kirian's friends were charmed, while she lost out to a charmed Flind and Shar-Teel (who makes a good tank as she can't be killed by standard damage).
The slashing girdle made tackling battle horrors realistic as they needed a critical to hit, while Vent had a 50% chance of a hit of his own - and he killed the first one of those at Durlag's Tower at the first attempt. The second one he got to within one hit of death, but was never looking comfortable in the fight and eventually ran for it himself. Coming back again, things initially appeared rosy when his first rage took the battle horror well into the badly injured state, while Vent had only taken one relatively light hit himself. That seduced me into not running when Vent had a poor run of attacks before the battle horror hit three times in quick succession. That left Vent in a dangerous state with rage running out and HPs low - but once more he only needed one more hit to kill the battle horror, so the odds were strongly in his favor. Of course "strongly in your favor" is just not good enough in no-reload and the battle horror was the first to get a hit in. There probably was just enough time to run at that point, but I still didn't do so and a moment later rage ran out and Vent (who had been taken down to 12 HPs by that last blow) collapsed unconscious ...
You should really play with the Noble restrictions @histamiini otherwise i cant see how the C/M will challenge you!
Sure for a scroll hoarding Mage this might be a bit painful but on the other hand it forces you to plan accordingly with your limited space. So far i really like this concept as i normally tend to mindlessly grab everything i can get.
Thorgrim in the meanwhile rushed through Candlekeep tricking the Ogres with stealth and the traps with potions. Thanks to Open Locks 85 the Strength Tome was easily taken while not bothering with any Dopplegangers around.
Oh, something for you @Grond0: PfM works against the Ogres if you immediately pause after they spawned. The protection bubble will be up right before the first spells hit you - really thrilling!
After all essential Tomes were aquired it will soon be time for Durlags Tower before facing Slythe. With regard to the Palace Ambush i will better charm the Mage at Three Old Keggs to put invisibility on Liia. But first some resting!
You should really play with the Noble restrictions @histamiini otherwise i cant see how the C/M will challenge you!
I must admit I found those restrictions rather irritating. Playing with more severe restrictions is fine as I can easily then reconcile myself to not doing any looting. The Noble restrictions though still leave money with some value (particularly if you're contemplating life as a mage) so my OCD cut in and I wanted to grab all the loot I'd earned - but was constantly up against the 10 magic items restriction. That either resulted in annoyance because I was leaving perfectly good loot behind or annoyance due to making 3 or 4 trips back and forth to a shop rather than 1.
I think I'll try out a dwarven defender next just using my standard rules .
@Harpagornis Yeah I was thinking about it, but I don't know it feels slightly too complex restriction needing much care all the time, and decided it isn't for C/M at least, because it's my first non fighter playthrough. Yeah C/M will probably crush through BG1, I see only Palace Ambush and Crusade Attacks as potential death traps, but I just want to see the tank vs. Bel, and some of that Deva, Planetar action in BG2.
It certainly wasn't a walk in the park for me. Belhifet was painful, and I had to start over like five or six times due to the deaths at Belhifet, the Coalition Camp invasion, BG1 bandits, and basilisks.
Nah, the 10-magic-item-rule is pretty simple - it isnt?
As gold isnt a problem you can easily skip most items. I like that Mages will be in more trouble here thanks to scrolls and wands. And yes: You have to plan which items you are aiming for at the end but that shouldnt be a big problem for the hardcore gamers around here. I am still waiting for @Arctodus to join the Noble challenge proving that its nearly as simple as a walk in the park.
Okay, here comes the most "funny" death for quite some time...
Thorgrim was deep in Durlags Tower and had successfully lured Love upstairs to play hit & hide with him. Nothing special so far. Then the phone was ringing and i immediately paused the game. Still everything is fine. During the talking with my parents my wife "sneaked" in to get a look at my character. You know whats coming? Yeah, she accidentally (or was it on purpose?) hit space bar and must have attacked Love so stealth was broken. Some seconds later she was yelling "Look what the little ghost is casting". I hoped that it was only slow and moved very quickly (!) back to the computer only to see the death screen. No slow this time... just a little charm... and a failed save. My wife fled as fast as she could and i still think i saw a devilish smile on her face...
Thats what you get when you play too much... at least in the eyes of a woman!
Okay, i maybe could reload cause of a "bugged death" but no... i cant... dead is dead... even if its all my wifes fault... no?
Hmm - suggesting that your wife could be categorized as a bug! May I prescribe a series of second, third or fourth thoughts until you come up with an answer more compatible with peace and harmony in the Harpagornis household .
Will I ever learn (no need to answer that )? In my previous run Vent the berserker died while going for one final hit. Fred the dwarven defender tried the same sort of thing with a flesh golem when down to 40 HPs - and got away with it when hit for 38 (then switching to arrows to finish it off). A bit later and Fred had finished off the battle horrors at Durlag's, but struggled against the doom guard (which has a rather better THAC0). After a number of failed attempts while at level 7 he went to collect the last few XP needed to get his final level and then came back to have another go.
This time he invested a potion of regeneration and for nearly all the fight he was on course to win. The doom guard was down to 16 HPs, which meant a single hit would kill it with anything other than a minimum damage roll, while Fred had 30 HPs. The doom guard needed an 18 to hit compared to 13 for Fred, but the doom guard was the first to land a blow - taking Fred down to 18 HPs. Even with defensive stance active that put him in the danger zone, although most hits would not do that much damage. Nevertheless, continuing the fight was not a risk worth taking - as was demonstrated when the doom guard hit for 18 damage a few seconds later ...
Well, well, i always wanted to post something but everytime something stopped me. However: Unlike @Grond0´s Warriors Gaia used stealth to good use so far after doing the basilisk xp loop and the usual reputation run. Even a Bandit Archer ambush could not stop her (only one hit!) nor an ogre mage who thought one magic missile would do the trick - it didnt.
As this is no Noble challenge but just a "normal" no-reload-run things are feeling "quite easy" as Gaia can hoard all of the precious stuff around. With Legacy of Master and the Longsword +2 she already is down to THAC0 8 thanks to the elven and swashbuckler bonus - cool.
Most of the time however she avoids direct confrontations and seduced poor Mulahey, while Tranzig was beaten down by Marl. In the bandit camp she managed to get in and out of the tent without any invisibility potion thanks to good stealth timing (160 MS +60 HiS). Taurgosz was charmed and feeded afterwards for some more gold.
Cloakwood was mostly skipped except for Whispers of Silence (always handy) until the Mines were reached. This time Drasus was charmed on the very first time and easily feeded to the guards. With Boots of Speed it took only a few minutes until Davaeorn was reached. And again: The guard was charmed on the first try while all traps got disarmed before Gaia lured the Battle Horrors to the stairs. Back in stealth she got a snapshot on Davaeorn so the guard could do its duty once more - perfect!
After looting all chests she quickly got out again charming and feeding the rest of Drasus friends - nice. So even with many quests still open gold is already above 50k for the big shopping later on. The big city is calling again - lets see what she can get there!
If you have played the rather restricting Noble-Challenge before the "normal" no-reload is going to feel easy @semiticgod - pure subjectively!
I hope that i will find some time for Gaia after she rushed through the city stealth-smacking or charming a lot of foes. Candlekeep again. Here she failed her stealth check and had to drink the very first invisbility potion to get safe passage.
Trying to get more potions Kestor broke his charm in the middle of the fight but - for whatever reason - was friendly again after Gaia had used the stairs several times. I tested this afterwards and it worked again even though it sometimes took a bit of stairclimbing before hostiliy was resetted. Note: This did not work with Taurgosz so far when entering/leaving a tent.
The rest of Candlekeep was pretty straightforward again. Negate the traps and collect the Tomes while sneaking through any opposition. So the real danger now lurks mostly from any instakilling enemies like Mages or backstabbing Thieves. Next stop will be Durlags Tower to get his precious little Goblet...
The v2.5 update could really change things. The new Oil of Speed with its double APR instead of +1 APR makes Improved Haste and therefore mage levels far less important than normal. I've considered the possibility of a single-classed Archer run and a reliable source of double APR would be a huge boon in BG2 and ToB. Without it, an Archer's Called Shot only gets a reliable STR drain kill after using an Improved Haste effect from the Improved Cloak of Protection +2, Bracers of Blinding Strike, or the Amulet of Cheetah Speed--only three uses per rest period.
A single-classed Archer would be considerably more difficult than an Archer/Mage in many cases, but it would also be much faster. And while it may not have PFMW, it would still have Armor of Faith for 85% damage resistance with Hardiness and the DoE.
I started up a single-classed Archer run, this time with the vanilla ranger kit, and I'm currently at level 7 thanks to the basilisk XP loop. In my new install, Thalantyr finally has Invisibility, but I'm still a little worried about ambushes. Once I break invisibility, I can't travel safely until I get back to Thalantyr, and I've found that even traveling during the day isn't enough to ensure that you won't get the 10-bandit ambush. If I ever do run into that one, the odds of death are pretty high, and yet Potions of Invisibility are very scarce in BG1.
If I kite the ogre with the Girdle of Piercing, I'll be able to take down ankhegs due to having subzero AC vs. missile weapons. Algernon's Cloak and ranger stealth will get me through the Nashkel mines, the bandit camp (I might use an Oil of Speed to escape the camp instead of a Potion of Invisibility, and maybe try to use stealth after grabbing the documents), the Cloakwood mines, Davaeorn, and the Iron Throne headquarters, and a Potion of Clarity will save me from the Ogre Magi at Candlekeep.
But I still have concerns. How am I going to deal with the Phase Spiders in the catacombs? I can't loot all of the containers without disposing of them. What do I miss out on if I leave them alone?
How am I going to deal with Slythe and Kristin? Slythe's backstabs will deal 66-116 HP assuming he has no potion of giant strength active. At level 8, with 18 CON from the tome and the Helm of Balduran, my Archer will have 117 HP. He can bring me down to 1 HP and then finish me off with one more attack roll. His THAC0 will be -5 for the backstab and -1 for a regular attack. My only shot at Slythe is to lure him out with charmed critters, apply Called Shot, possibly with an Oil of Speed, and then try to land some Darts of Stunning on him. One failed save and he's dead. But it's dicey, because his save vs. spell is 1 in LoB mode. I might have to charm a lot of people to do that, and if he ever targets my Archer, I have to flee.
Also, how many Darts of Stunning can I find in BG1?
Then there's the Ducal Palace. I don't have room to kite, and the Nymph Cloak is still a once-per-day item in my install, so I can only bring up to 4 guests to the party (and getting all 4 possible allies would require landing 4 charms in a row, which would be immensely time-consuming). The assassin can one-shot me at full HP, and all of the doppelgangers have very high APR. I have very little wiggle room, and zero access to disablers aside from Ithtyl and some Darts of Stunning.
As for Sarevok, I can bring Angelo down with a couple Arrows of Dispelling and some help from Haseo and Gorf. And there's always the Necklace of Missiles for the rest of the gang. But there are a lot of Skeleton Warriors to fight, and each one has an effective 600 HP considering their 240 base HP and 60% missile damage resistance. If Gorf or Haseo dies at any point, it could get very sticky. Sarevok's haste is still undispellable in my install, but an Oil of Speed and the Boots of Speed should let me kite him.
How do I get Durlag's Goblet as a solo Archer? It seems like the traps run the risk of obliterating me, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with Love. Love chain-casts Physical Mirror last I saw, so I'd be very lucky if I got in an Arrow of Dispelling. And the other enemies have very high movement rates and the area is very tight, so kiting would be difficult.
SoD looks just fine, but I see two major problems. I can use a Protection from Undead scroll to reach the lich, but I've always gotten boxed in when I tried to run out, and I'm worried that trying to hack my way out would attract even more undead to join the wall.
Second and more worrisome is the third wave at the Coalition Camp. I can't pre-cast Skull Traps or Web as a single-classed Archer. Would it be possible to go invisible, let the enemy attack the Coalition Warmages, and then bomb them with Arrows of Detonation? The mages would have 10 Stoneskins, so I'd be able to fire off maybe 10 Arrows of Detonation before the mages lost their Stoneskins and die soon after. That could buy me over 200 damage on the enemy, especially with Called Shot, but those Mass Cure spells could still leave me with a lot of enemies to deal with, and if I was to take them down, I'd need to stack Potions of Heroism/Power in order to survive.
Even then, is it possible to hold off the enemy all on your own? Or will some of them ignore you and approach the barrels?
In order to get to BG2, I need lots of Potions of Invisibility and probably no small number of Darts of Stunning. Where do I get that stuff?
I started up a single-classed Archer run, this time with the vanilla ranger kit, and I'm currently at level 7 thanks to the basilisk XP loop. In my new install, Thalantyr finally has Invisibility, but I'm still a little worried about ambushes. Once I break invisibility, I can't travel safely until I get back to Thalantyr, and I've found that even traveling during the day isn't enough to ensure that you won't get the 10-bandit ambush. If I ever do run into that one, the odds of death are pretty high, and yet Potions of Invisibility are very scarce in BG1. I think there are only a couple of area transitions in the game where a bandit ambush is possible if you're careful about travelling at the right time (it's the time you arrive at the ambush spot rather than the time you leave or arrive that's important).
But I still have concerns. How am I going to deal with the Phase Spiders in the catacombs? I can't loot all of the containers without disposing of them. What do I miss out on if I leave them alone? You have stealth, so shouldn't need to tackle the phase spiders at all. Not looting costs you tomes of strength and wisdom, ring of fire resistance and scroll of PfM among other things.
How am I going to deal with Slythe and Kristin? Slythe's backstabs will deal 66-116 HP assuming he has no potion of giant strength active. At level 8, with 18 CON from the tome and the Helm of Balduran, my Archer will have 117 HP. He can bring me down to 1 HP and then finish me off with one more attack roll. His THAC0 will be -5 for the backstab and -1 for a regular attack. My only shot at Slythe is to lure him out with charmed critters, apply Called Shot, possibly with an Oil of Speed, and then try to land some Darts of Stunning on him. One failed save and he's dead. But it's dicey, because his save vs. spell is 1 in LoB mode. I might have to charm a lot of people to do that, and if he ever targets my Archer, I have to flee. You can drag him over to an exit and then attack him from stealth.
Also, how many Darts of Stunning can I find in BG1? I can't remember if there are infinite numbers at Sorcerous Sundries, but there are certainly a lot.
Then there's the Ducal Palace. I don't have room to kite, and the Nymph Cloak is still a once-per-day item in my install, so I can only bring up to 4 guests to the party (and getting all 4 possible allies would require landing 4 charms in a row, which would be immensely time-consuming). The assassin can one-shot me at full HP, and all of the doppelgangers have very high APR. I have very little wiggle room, and zero access to disablers aside from Ithtyl and some Darts of Stunning. Invisibility for Liia and targeting the mage and cleric to prevent them dispelling that is probably your best shot.
As for Sarevok, I can bring Angelo down with a couple Arrows of Dispelling and some help from Haseo and Gorf. And there's always the Necklace of Missiles for the rest of the gang. But there are a lot of Skeleton Warriors to fight, and each one has an effective 600 HP considering their 240 base HP and 60% missile damage resistance. If Gorf or Haseo dies at any point, it could get very sticky. Sarevok's haste is still undispellable in my install, but an Oil of Speed and the Boots of Speed should let me kite him. With stealth attacks round the pillars both the skeleton warriors and Sarevok should die quickly.
How do I get Durlag's Goblet as a solo Archer? It seems like the traps run the risk of obliterating me, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with Love. Love chain-casts Physical Mirror last I saw, so I'd be very lucky if I got in an Arrow of Dispelling. And the other enemies have very high movement rates and the area is very tight, so kiting would be difficult. Harpagornis would be a better bet to answer this given I never use the goblet. In principle though I would have thought you should be able to drag Love over to the stairs and then use stealth attacks on him.
SoD looks just fine, but I see two major problems. I can use a Protection from Undead scroll to reach the lich, but I've always gotten boxed in when I tried to run out, and I'm worried that trying to hack my way out would attract even more undead to join the wall. That seems strange. Are you using invisibility as well?
Second and more worrisome is the third wave at the Coalition Camp. I can't pre-cast Skull Traps or Web as a single-classed Archer. Would it be possible to go invisible, let the enemy attack the Coalition Warmages, and then bomb them with Arrows of Detonation? The mages would have 10 Stoneskins, so I'd be able to fire off maybe 10 Arrows of Detonation before the mages lost their Stoneskins and die soon after. That could buy me over 200 damage on the enemy, especially with Called Shot, but those Mass Cure spells could still leave me with a lot of enemies to deal with, and if I was to take them down, I'd need to stack Potions of Heroism/Power in order to survive.
Even then, is it possible to hold off the enemy all on your own? Or will some of them ignore you and approach the barrels?
In order to get to BG2, I need lots of Potions of Invisibility and probably no small number of Darts of Stunning. Where do I get that stuff? Again this is outside my area of expertise . I would have thought though you should be able to fire quite a lot of arrows before the Warmages get mixed into melee combat. There's a lot of invisibility potions for sale from various vendors (don't forget to kill the NPCs in Baldur's Gate in order to shop for what you want there) and you will find others on battlefields - one potential reason for not going to Ashatiel too quickly).
Trabb continued his travels, only thing bothered in Cloakwood was the Taslois, 4 skelis killed them for the Cloak. Drasus charmed, fed to guards, Kysus charmed, fed to guards, Rezdan charmed, fed to guards, Genthorn charmed, pwned the guards, fed to 4 skelis. Hareishan charmed for scroll of Haste. Davaeorn, charmed the guard, summoned 4 skelis, lured the Battle horrors to the killing zone, and then the guard killed Davaeorn. Guard and Mustard Jelly WoMS'd, looted the place.
Baldur's Gate, Dex tome for max AC bonus, Resa charmed and fed to 4 skelis for his scroll. Bought and learnt all the spells. Iron Throne, invisibility, back room, charmed Diyab and fed him to 4 hasted skelis. Thought I found the perfect tactic, but apparently Diyab getting killed agroed rest of them. Skelis still managed to kill Aasim. Rest, lured Naaman downstairs, 4 hasted skelis killed him, got his PfU. Alai lured to the same killing zone. Double Shennaras double WoMS'd. Zhalimar and Gardus fought bravely against neverending WoMS but after 15 or so summons they succumbed. Thaldorn WoMS'd.
Ogre Magi waylay dealt with Invisibility potion, Kestor charmed for 3 more potions, looted the place. 4 hasted skelis dealt the Phase Spiders and I looted the Catacombs, didn't bother with anything else. 4 hasted skelis pwned Slythe, and then additional WoMS killed Krystin. Charmed Quenash and fed her to the guards, for her Cloak. Next up the Palace Ambush which is the first danger in this run really, but with careful planning it should be no problem.
EDIT: btw the Candlekeep ambush is easily dealt with pausing right after the chapter cutscene, drink invisibility, and then after the next transition just go to the guard, Ogre Mages should've no time to do anything.
Before tackling the Palace Ambush I wanted 5 skelis so I picked up 21 Wis. Charmed the Assassin, rested, charmed the Mage, 5 hasted skelis and made Liia invisible activating the ambush. First targeted the Shaman and then the rest of Doppelgangers. They went down pretty quickly with no casualties. Waited the Assassing to spawn, and the skelis killed him too. Then waited Mage to appear, didn't want to waste PfM so I just let WoMS and the guards do him. Sarevok WoMS'd. Probably my best result to date.
5 hasted skelis cleared everybody in the Durlag's Tower so that I could loot the place and activate Wardens. Invisibility, Fireball, invisibility, Greenstone Amulet and lured Love with sling to the entrance level. Invisibility, summoned 5 hasted skelis, who didn't have any problems wasting Love.
Couple minor things to do before tackling Sarevok.
With double APR from Oil of Speed the Archer should crush anything in BG1 and SoD @semiticgod!
Stealth attacks will make things so much easier that there wont be many opponents who can survive this.
Slythe should be no big deal with Arrows of Dispelling and some charmed dummies. With max HP and Durlags Goblet you should always be on the safe side even if he somehow manages to land a backstab. Just make sure to never ever lose vision on him as he will immediately restealth.
Palace Ambush with Invisbility on Liia and the Mage charmed and parked next by should be a no-brainer for the Archer. Just make sure to wait until the Assassin has used his backstab before breaking stealth or invisbility. Then Arrows of Dispelling and Acid Arrows - with double APR they should die like flies.
Buff up and lure Love upstairs to take him down with stealth attacks - he cant do anything against this.
If you have trouble with Angelo charm Wudei and let the Skeleton Warrior take him out as he cant touch it.
Strange, i (nearly) never get boxed in by the Coldhearth undead. Maybe thats cause i just lure the Warden into the big room nearby, close the door and then rush to the exit to break his follow-script - otherwise he would just open the door again. Without the script most of the time only some undead will wander around...
The third Crusader Wave should be a walk in the park for a double-APR-Archer with Detonation Arrows. Just make sure to throw in summons in between to slow the enemies down. The Warmages can hold the line for quite some time too.
Big B with Racial Enemy and invisibility potions will be all about getting the hit & run routine. Maybe @histamiini will give you some tanking tips!
Stealth attacks? Does that mean firing an arrow from invisibility, then immediately falling back and attempting to hide? Will the enemy not follow you if you hit them? I know that you can do that safely with Algernon's Cloak, but I hadn't considered that it might be safe with missile weapons. I thought only Shadowdancers could do that.
@Harpagornis: What summons could I use as a level 10 Archer?
Temple of Bhaal, invisibility, in, Semaj took 22, Tazok 32 and Diarmid 35 hits from WoF, Skeleton Warriors WoMS'd, Angelo and his Skeleton Warrior WoMS'd. Softened Sarevok with 50 hits from WoF before introducing 5 hasted skelis, who were able to kill him from injured state. Got all 6/6 important scrolls to SoD.
And one PfU was put to use immediatelly allowing safe passage to Korlasz. 5 hasted skelis, invisibility and positioned everybody around Korlasz and just started smacking. It took about 5 seconds to make Korlasz surrender. Hit level 8/8.
Stealth attacks work best if you park enemies and/or yourself near exits @semiticgod as in this case you can attack and immediately vanish again so the AI wont get any time to react. Yes, this is quite cheesy but on the other hand its very safe. Its the bread-and-butter-tactic for superchickens like me who dont have the power to tank everything down like @histamiini.
Summons for Crusader Attacks? Ankhegs, Myconids, Mephits, Golem - thats more than enough!
The Oil of Speed change will now make Potions of Power stacking, Durlag's Goblet, and Potions of Invisibility unnecessary when fighting Belhifet, or at least much less necessary. Any basic fighter dual-wielding +3 weapons with only two proficiency points in each weapon will be able to deal about 140 damage per round, or over 400 for every 3 rounds, provided they have all the normal buffs and items. Belhifet summons 384 HP of demons per 3 rounds, so it will be possible to simply kill the demons faster than Belhifet summons them.
Any warrior can now win a war with attrition with Belhifet. It would drag out the fight, though, since a normal fighter would probably only be able to fight Belhifet for one out of every 4 rounds. Killing Belhifet's allies before fighting him would take about 70+ rounds for a normal fighter; killing Belhifet alone would only take about 20 if you were using Durlag's Goblet and/or Potions of Power.
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On the good side he cleared all Sirenes at the Beregost Temple (Charmed and kited after they wasted all spells and arrows) to gather easy 8k XP. Next stop was the Lighthouse. Thanks to some @Grond0 maneuver he triggered the hold trap without any protection and barely managed to run out of sight before failing his save. Some minutes of trembling followed without any Golem appearing -phew!
Sil was charmed on sixth try but thanks to good positioning the Sirenes blocked the cave entrance. A quick Potion of Clarity negated all charms while Sil was feebleminded by her own friends - too funny. With 6k XP more in the pocket he then played hit & run with the Flesh Golems critting a lot thanks to one-handed-spec. Another 6k XP plus the CON Tome - not bad.
Then Thorgrim thought to be clever smacking the Flesh Golem Guards of Thalantyr. Thanks to stealth they never got the chance to hit him. Hah, and another easy 4k XP - no? What i completly forgot was that Thalantyr went hostile in the meantime so no more buying here. At least the PfU and PfM scroll were already in the backpack. As i never liked his arrogance Thorgrim tried to charm the mage again and again. Try number 13 worked and Thalantyr was lured outside to get a good smacking by the nearby Gnolls. Once he had wasted most spells on them and was close to death Thorgrim shot him down with a single arrow for 3k XP. Easy!
Firebead however stomped the Ghast into the ground this time... slowed... blinded... hacked apart. Not bad!
With Fighter level 7 not far away its maybe time to finally visit Baldurs Gate once more. Lets see what else can go wrong...
Magic Items at the moment:
- Boots of Speed
- Algernons Cloak
- Legacy of the Masters
- Flail +1
- Ring of Free Action
- 7x Invisibility Potions
- 1x Potion of Absorbtion
- 2x PfU
- 1x PfM
EDIT: So much easy quest XP in the city - level 7/8 was reached in no time! Inv. Potions up to 20 - great! Candlekeep is calling soon!!
* War Hammer
* Single Weapon Style
Fighter/Mage/Thief
Fighter/Mage/Cleric
Fighter/Mage
Fighter/Illusionist
Illusionist/Thief
Cleric/Mage
The tome took Vent's constitution to 19, but he couldn't justify finding a space in his inventory for Buckley's Buckler to allow regeneration. He also found a potion of absorption in the horde. He didn't want to hang onto that semi-permanently, so put it to use in tanking the Revenant. With that dead he tried moving on to one of Narcillicus's mustard jellies, but was hit by a critical almost at once and poisoned - requiring a quick retreat. He came back and tried numerous times to kill one of them, but they only needed an 18 to hit him while enraged and got that too regularly. Eventually Vent bought a +1 shield - improving AC by 1 (he has 1 pip in single weapon proficiency). Even with that it took a while longer, but eventually both mustard jellies were dead - Narcillicus though was left alone.
That took Vent nearly to level 7 and a few encounters progressing through the Cloud Peaks got him another 15 HPs to keep his sensational total going (101 out of a maximum possible of 105). Dualling at this level would certainly be a viable option, but Vent pressed onwards as a berserker.
After picking up the charisma tome, Vent went to the basilisk area. The green PfP scroll allowed him to smack down most of the monsters before Korax helped out with Mutamin. Kirian's friends were charmed, while she lost out to a charmed Flind and Shar-Teel (who makes a good tank as she can't be killed by standard damage).
The slashing girdle made tackling battle horrors realistic as they needed a critical to hit, while Vent had a 50% chance of a hit of his own - and he killed the first one of those at Durlag's Tower at the first attempt. The second one he got to within one hit of death, but was never looking comfortable in the fight and eventually ran for it himself. Coming back again, things initially appeared rosy when his first rage took the battle horror well into the badly injured state, while Vent had only taken one relatively light hit himself. That seduced me into not running when Vent had a poor run of attacks before the battle horror hit three times in quick succession. That left Vent in a dangerous state with rage running out and HPs low - but once more he only needed one more hit to kill the battle horror, so the odds were strongly in his favor. Of course "strongly in your favor" is just not good enough in no-reload and the battle horror was the first to get a hit in. There probably was just enough time to run at that point, but I still didn't do so and a moment later rage ran out and Vent (who had been taken down to 12 HPs by that last blow) collapsed unconscious ...
Sure for a scroll hoarding Mage this might be a bit painful but on the other hand it forces you to plan accordingly with your limited space. So far i really like this concept as i normally tend to mindlessly grab everything i can get.
Thorgrim in the meanwhile rushed through Candlekeep tricking the Ogres with stealth and the traps with potions. Thanks to Open Locks 85 the Strength Tome was easily taken while not bothering with any Dopplegangers around.
Oh, something for you @Grond0: PfM works against the Ogres if you immediately pause after they spawned. The protection bubble will be up right before the first spells hit you - really thrilling!
After all essential Tomes were aquired it will soon be time for Durlags Tower before facing Slythe. With regard to the Palace Ambush i will better charm the Mage at Three Old Keggs to put invisibility on Liia. But first some resting!
I think I'll try out a dwarven defender next just using my standard rules
As gold isnt a problem you can easily skip most items. I like that Mages will be in more trouble here thanks to scrolls and wands. And yes: You have to plan which items you are aiming for at the end but that shouldnt be a big problem for the hardcore gamers around here. I am still waiting for @Arctodus to join the Noble challenge proving that its nearly as simple as a walk in the park.
Thorgrim was deep in Durlags Tower and had successfully lured Love upstairs to play hit & hide with him. Nothing special so far. Then the phone was ringing and i immediately paused the game. Still everything is fine. During the talking with my parents my wife "sneaked" in to get a look at my character. You know whats coming? Yeah, she accidentally (or was it on purpose?) hit space bar and must have attacked Love so stealth was broken. Some seconds later she was yelling "Look what the little ghost is casting". I hoped that it was only slow and moved very quickly (!) back to the computer only to see the death screen. No slow this time... just a little charm... and a failed save. My wife fled as fast as she could and i still think i saw a devilish smile on her face...
Thats what you get when you play too much... at least in the eyes of a woman!
Okay, i maybe could reload cause of a "bugged death" but no... i cant... dead is dead... even if its all my wifes fault... no?
Therefore i created a new character that uses a familiar portrait as well as her nickname - may she suffer!
Here comes the most sneaky and most deadly creature around Fearun: Gaia the Elven Swashbuckler!!
I am quite sure that her warcry will even paralyze big bad Mel...
She already seduced a wolf who took down Shoal. Next she will gaze down a whole bunch of basilisks. Poor beasts...
This time he invested a potion of regeneration and for nearly all the fight he was on course to win. The doom guard was down to 16 HPs, which meant a single hit would kill it with anything other than a minimum damage roll, while Fred had 30 HPs. The doom guard needed an 18 to hit compared to 13 for Fred, but the doom guard was the first to land a blow - taking Fred down to 18 HPs. Even with defensive stance active that put him in the danger zone, although most hits would not do that much damage. Nevertheless, continuing the fight was not a risk worth taking - as was demonstrated when the doom guard hit for 18 damage a few seconds later ...
As this is no Noble challenge but just a "normal" no-reload-run things are feeling "quite easy" as Gaia can hoard all of the precious stuff around. With Legacy of Master and the Longsword +2 she already is down to THAC0 8 thanks to the elven and swashbuckler bonus - cool.
Most of the time however she avoids direct confrontations and seduced poor Mulahey, while Tranzig was beaten down by Marl. In the bandit camp she managed to get in and out of the tent without any invisibility potion thanks to good stealth timing (160 MS +60 HiS). Taurgosz was charmed and feeded afterwards for some more gold.
Cloakwood was mostly skipped except for Whispers of Silence (always handy) until the Mines were reached. This time Drasus was charmed on the very first time and easily feeded to the guards. With Boots of Speed it took only a few minutes until Davaeorn was reached. And again: The guard was charmed on the first try while all traps got disarmed before Gaia lured the Battle Horrors to the stairs. Back in stealth she got a snapshot on Davaeorn so the guard could do its duty once more - perfect!
After looting all chests she quickly got out again charming and feeding the rest of Drasus friends - nice. So even with many quests still open gold is already above 50k for the big shopping later on. The big city is calling again - lets see what she can get there!
I hope that i will find some time for Gaia after she rushed through the city stealth-smacking or charming a lot of foes. Candlekeep again. Here she failed her stealth check and had to drink the very first invisbility potion to get safe passage.
Trying to get more potions Kestor broke his charm in the middle of the fight but - for whatever reason - was friendly again after Gaia had used the stairs several times. I tested this afterwards and it worked again even though it sometimes took a bit of stairclimbing before hostiliy was resetted. Note: This did not work with Taurgosz so far when entering/leaving a tent.
The rest of Candlekeep was pretty straightforward again. Negate the traps and collect the Tomes while sneaking through any opposition. So the real danger now lurks mostly from any instakilling enemies like Mages or backstabbing Thieves. Next stop will be Durlags Tower to get his precious little Goblet...
A single-classed Archer would be considerably more difficult than an Archer/Mage in many cases, but it would also be much faster. And while it may not have PFMW, it would still have Armor of Faith for 85% damage resistance with Hardiness and the DoE.
If I kite the ogre with the Girdle of Piercing, I'll be able to take down ankhegs due to having subzero AC vs. missile weapons. Algernon's Cloak and ranger stealth will get me through the Nashkel mines, the bandit camp (I might use an Oil of Speed to escape the camp instead of a Potion of Invisibility, and maybe try to use stealth after grabbing the documents), the Cloakwood mines, Davaeorn, and the Iron Throne headquarters, and a Potion of Clarity will save me from the Ogre Magi at Candlekeep.
But I still have concerns. How am I going to deal with the Phase Spiders in the catacombs? I can't loot all of the containers without disposing of them. What do I miss out on if I leave them alone?
How am I going to deal with Slythe and Kristin? Slythe's backstabs will deal 66-116 HP assuming he has no potion of giant strength active. At level 8, with 18 CON from the tome and the Helm of Balduran, my Archer will have 117 HP. He can bring me down to 1 HP and then finish me off with one more attack roll. His THAC0 will be -5 for the backstab and -1 for a regular attack. My only shot at Slythe is to lure him out with charmed critters, apply Called Shot, possibly with an Oil of Speed, and then try to land some Darts of Stunning on him. One failed save and he's dead. But it's dicey, because his save vs. spell is 1 in LoB mode. I might have to charm a lot of people to do that, and if he ever targets my Archer, I have to flee.
Also, how many Darts of Stunning can I find in BG1?
Then there's the Ducal Palace. I don't have room to kite, and the Nymph Cloak is still a once-per-day item in my install, so I can only bring up to 4 guests to the party (and getting all 4 possible allies would require landing 4 charms in a row, which would be immensely time-consuming). The assassin can one-shot me at full HP, and all of the doppelgangers have very high APR. I have very little wiggle room, and zero access to disablers aside from Ithtyl and some Darts of Stunning.
As for Sarevok, I can bring Angelo down with a couple Arrows of Dispelling and some help from Haseo and Gorf. And there's always the Necklace of Missiles for the rest of the gang. But there are a lot of Skeleton Warriors to fight, and each one has an effective 600 HP considering their 240 base HP and 60% missile damage resistance. If Gorf or Haseo dies at any point, it could get very sticky. Sarevok's haste is still undispellable in my install, but an Oil of Speed and the Boots of Speed should let me kite him.
How do I get Durlag's Goblet as a solo Archer? It seems like the traps run the risk of obliterating me, and I don't know how I'm going to deal with Love. Love chain-casts Physical Mirror last I saw, so I'd be very lucky if I got in an Arrow of Dispelling. And the other enemies have very high movement rates and the area is very tight, so kiting would be difficult.
SoD looks just fine, but I see two major problems. I can use a Protection from Undead scroll to reach the lich, but I've always gotten boxed in when I tried to run out, and I'm worried that trying to hack my way out would attract even more undead to join the wall.
Second and more worrisome is the third wave at the Coalition Camp. I can't pre-cast Skull Traps or Web as a single-classed Archer. Would it be possible to go invisible, let the enemy attack the Coalition Warmages, and then bomb them with Arrows of Detonation? The mages would have 10 Stoneskins, so I'd be able to fire off maybe 10 Arrows of Detonation before the mages lost their Stoneskins and die soon after. That could buy me over 200 damage on the enemy, especially with Called Shot, but those Mass Cure spells could still leave me with a lot of enemies to deal with, and if I was to take them down, I'd need to stack Potions of Heroism/Power in order to survive.
Even then, is it possible to hold off the enemy all on your own? Or will some of them ignore you and approach the barrels?
In order to get to BG2, I need lots of Potions of Invisibility and probably no small number of Darts of Stunning. Where do I get that stuff?
Baldur's Gate, Dex tome for max AC bonus, Resa charmed and fed to 4 skelis for his scroll. Bought and learnt all the spells. Iron Throne, invisibility, back room, charmed Diyab and fed him to 4 hasted skelis. Thought I found the perfect tactic, but apparently Diyab getting killed agroed rest of them. Skelis still managed to kill Aasim. Rest, lured Naaman downstairs, 4 hasted skelis killed him, got his PfU. Alai lured to the same killing zone. Double Shennaras double WoMS'd. Zhalimar and Gardus fought bravely against neverending WoMS but after 15 or so summons they succumbed. Thaldorn WoMS'd.
Ogre Magi waylay dealt with Invisibility potion, Kestor charmed for 3 more potions, looted the place. 4 hasted skelis dealt the Phase Spiders and I looted the Catacombs, didn't bother with anything else. 4 hasted skelis pwned Slythe, and then additional WoMS killed Krystin. Charmed Quenash and fed her to the guards, for her Cloak. Next up the Palace Ambush which is the first danger in this run really, but with careful planning it should be no problem.
EDIT: btw the Candlekeep ambush is easily dealt with pausing right after the chapter cutscene, drink invisibility, and then after the next transition just go to the guard, Ogre Mages should've no time to do anything.
5 hasted skelis cleared everybody in the Durlag's Tower so that I could loot the place and activate Wardens. Invisibility, Fireball, invisibility, Greenstone Amulet and lured Love with sling to the entrance level. Invisibility, summoned 5 hasted skelis, who didn't have any problems wasting Love.
Couple minor things to do before tackling Sarevok.
Stealth attacks will make things so much easier that there wont be many opponents who can survive this.
Slythe should be no big deal with Arrows of Dispelling and some charmed dummies. With max HP and Durlags Goblet you should always be on the safe side even if he somehow manages to land a backstab. Just make sure to never ever lose vision on him as he will immediately restealth.
Palace Ambush with Invisbility on Liia and the Mage charmed and parked next by should be a no-brainer for the Archer. Just make sure to wait until the Assassin has used his backstab before breaking stealth or invisbility. Then Arrows of Dispelling and Acid Arrows - with double APR they should die like flies.
Buff up and lure Love upstairs to take him down with stealth attacks - he cant do anything against this.
If you have trouble with Angelo charm Wudei and let the Skeleton Warrior take him out as he cant touch it.
Strange, i (nearly) never get boxed in by the Coldhearth undead. Maybe thats cause i just lure the Warden into the big room nearby, close the door and then rush to the exit to break his follow-script - otherwise he would just open the door again. Without the script most of the time only some undead will wander around...
The third Crusader Wave should be a walk in the park for a double-APR-Archer with Detonation Arrows. Just make sure to throw in summons in between to slow the enemies down. The Warmages can hold the line for quite some time too.
Big B with Racial Enemy and invisibility potions will be all about getting the hit & run routine. Maybe @histamiini will give you some tanking tips!
@Harpagornis: What summons could I use as a level 10 Archer?
And one PfU was put to use immediatelly allowing safe passage to Korlasz. 5 hasted skelis, invisibility and positioned everybody around Korlasz and just started smacking. It took about 5 seconds to make Korlasz surrender. Hit level 8/8.
What on earth, Archer can get 8 Weapon Proficiency points at the beginning, 6 + 2 in Two Weapon Style, is that how it's supposed to be?
Summons for Crusader Attacks? Ankhegs, Myconids, Mephits, Golem - thats more than enough!
The Oil of Speed change will now make Potions of Power stacking, Durlag's Goblet, and Potions of Invisibility unnecessary when fighting Belhifet, or at least much less necessary. Any basic fighter dual-wielding +3 weapons with only two proficiency points in each weapon will be able to deal about 140 damage per round, or over 400 for every 3 rounds, provided they have all the normal buffs and items. Belhifet summons 384 HP of demons per 3 rounds, so it will be possible to simply kill the demons faster than Belhifet summons them.
Any warrior can now win a war with attrition with Belhifet. It would drag out the fight, though, since a normal fighter would probably only be able to fight Belhifet for one out of every 4 rounds. Killing Belhifet's allies before fighting him would take about 70+ rounds for a normal fighter; killing Belhifet alone would only take about 20 if you were using Durlag's Goblet and/or Potions of Power.