Gaia rushed through Durlags Tower buffed up against trap damage using stealth and invisbility to ignore any opposition. Greenstone Amulet protected against Fears paralyze and it did not took long until Love was lured upstairs. Avarice again did not show up so no backstabbing instadeath. Splitted from Fear Love had no answer to the constant stealth-attacks and Gaia shortly after grabbed his Wardstone to move down. Without any fighting she grabbed Kiels Helmet and Durlags Goblet by just activating dummy two and three while grabbing some more stones. I was not sure if the Goblet run was really needed as Gaia would have to drink a potion of clarity to negate its fear effect but - maybe - it will be a lifesaver later on against Big B. Who knows...
Slythe was tricked badly this time as Gaia managed to charm Larze the Ogre luring him downstairs with the attack-follow-trick. Thanks to his 500+ HP Slythe wasted all backstabs on him while Gaia was dispelling his buffs. Together with her new ogre friend they quickly dispatched the assassin before Kristin could get near...
Palace Ambush is near, time to get some supplies and new friends before!
EDIT: Palace Ambush finished thanks to Ithtyls invisibility on Liia. With the guard in front of the palace charmed too Gaia waited until the assassin showed up before dispelling the dopplegangers one after another before switching to acid arrows. Thanks to bad aiming both Dukes were still very healthy until the parked mage tranformed too who got distracted by Ithtyl wasting all of his spells. At the end both Dukes survived (barely injured and injured) while Gaia always made sure not running into fire...
Sounds like some good progress going on at the moment .
Somewhat to my surprise I've got Shagrat the Shaman to Baldur's Gate and about to take a trip back to Candlekeep. I started him a couple of days ago thinking it would make a nice change of gameplay and he did the usual rounds, relying heavily on his dancing. I tend not to use invisibility items, but decided to treat myself this time (which is probably why I haven't died yet) - Shagrat used the Sandthief ring to get to Mulahey, sneak into Tazok's tent and avoid combat on the way down to Davaeorn.
He's twice had to block attempted charms with last minute potions and recently had to make his first actual save - Sunin surprising him (and me) with a chromatic orb through a couple of walls.
Edit: failed to pause at the right point prior to the ogre magi ambush. It is possible to pause before they appear, but the timing has to be pretty exact - if I try and pause too early, not only does it not pause, but also blocks any further pause commands until after the ogre magi appear. That happened this time, so I had to quickly use a magic blocking potion to ensure a chromatic orb didn't prove fatal.
In the catacombs I confirmed my thought from a few days ago that the wisdom tome can be grabbed with 22 strength. I was certainly tempted by the strength tome, but opted to leave that in place and keep the violet potion just on the off chance that Shagrat gets to face Belhifet.
Edit 2: thinking to save on invisibility Shagrat used summons to get past the dopplegangers before running past Prat too quickly for him to react. A scroll of PfP allowed Shagrat to tank the basilisks before I remembered the ogre magi would be waiting. I set up a series of nymphs to drain their spells, but no action ensued and investigating showed the ogre magi had abandoned their post (must have chased Shagrat into Candlekeep when he used the potion of magic blocking).
Found three Potions of Invisibility from the Hentold's Dagger quest, Jaheira, and the Neera encounter (Silke and a charmed spider killed the enemy for us). Lost three potions when I had to escape from an ankheg, the bandit camp (stealth failed to hide me after opening the chest), and Tazok (stealth attacks just made him wander, and when he drank an Oil of Speed, it was impossible to outrun him and hide). Had to spend 25,000 gold buying the Ring of Invisibility, which is a once-per-day item in my install.
Failed to kill ankhegs on my own, even with the Shield Amulet and even when I got the Girdle of Piercing and Nimbul's Boots of Avoidance (I charmed the guards to turn him hostile and let the local militia kill him). I had to resort to charming Gerde in order to collect the ankheg shells.
Algernon's Cloak and stealth got me through the basilisk XP loop and the main quest all the way up to the bandit camp, at which point I switched to the Ring of Invisibility to get through the Cloakwood safely. I used charm on the Drasus party, but Kysus went hostile after a charmed Genthore died and a charmed Drasus went hostile while being attacked by the other enemies. I should have let Drasus die against the guards rather than having him try to kill one, but he ended up at low enough HP that I was able to kill him with stealth attacks.
I'm currently pondering how to kill the Battle Horrors, since they're immune to missile damage and I know they're strong enough to kill the Guard. I may have to tank them with some potions, but the math doesn't look good without an Oil of Speed, which I needed to beat Tazok (lots of critters in my install have BG2-grade movement rates, so kiting isn't remotely as effective as it is for normal BG1 runs).
@semiticgod you don't need to kill Tazok - the rest of the camp stays friendly if you just leave him. For the battle horrors stealth attacks from the entrance would be the easy option.
I would not care about the Battle Horrors @semiticgod but lure them to the exit and park them there while the charmed guard slips by to take on Davaeorn. Just make sure to soak their attention. The problem with stealth attacks is - at least in my installation - that they start wandering so they might sooner or later spot the guard again.
With so many invisibility potions around (plus stealth) i completly skipped sandthief ring and even then Gaia is still sitting on 24 potions. If she keeps going like this she might break the 150 later in SoD - which will hopefully not be needed.
Gaia will now gather a lot of supplies before going for Sarevok. Maybe she should try to charm Wudei and friends this time...
Shagrat failed to get past a nasty piece of work from Krystin. He timed a dispelling arrow nicely to hit Slythe just after he'd gone invisible, but still retreated until the thief had used a couple more invisibility potions to backstab a nymph to death. The other nymphs then successfully held Slythe and Shagrat moved forward with his normal dual-wield of fists + poison dagger to help finish him off quickly.
One nymph was left well down the corridor as a target for Krystin and a prompt for Shagrat to retreat. Regrettably though Krystin bypassed the nymph and unleashed a minor sequencer magic missile before Shagrat knew she was approaching. He just survived that, but a MMM was already in the air before he had time to do anything and that proved fatal.
Trabb made 117k gold selling all the jewels and loot, my new record. Bought all the interesting stuff from Sorcerous Sundries and from Belegram, and was still left 50k gold. I might have overdone it a little.
Chapter 8, had to waste one PfU on the Dwarf Cleric to keep him alive in the cavern, tanked the undead with the help of WoMS. With another PfU I hacked the way open to the fire pit, lured the Sentry to the big room, opened the way to the Lich, picked up Secret Revealed, used it on Coldheart and threw the Phylactery to the fire. The undead had again managed to block some of the way, but using WoMS they started wandering so I could squeeze out. Hid behind the tent for the parley.
Chapter 9, Morentherene no, Ziatar and the mages 23 times WoF, Neothelid Greenstone Amulet and 5 hasted skelis, lured Neothelid onto the killing zone and hacked it down.
Akannas Servants lured out, and Akanna herself WoMS'd. Surrendered the fort. Activated the bridge being invisible and lured the Greater Fire Elemental onto me, using WoMS as a decoy I slinged it out, which took a while because my summons weren't hurting it. Next up my favorite chapter in all Baldur's Gate.
Damn again something that I didn't foresaw, on top of not being able to use Heroism or Invulnerability potions, Ring of Purity can only be used by the good aligned, which puts another dent on my tanking plan. Well PoE can still replace the armor effect of it at least. I think I'll need to make notes on what things are affected with the alignments for the future.
@Harpagornis: Where do you get so many Potions of Invisibility? I know of only 3 guaranteed drops in all of BG1, and I don't know where to buy them besides Sorcerous Sundries, which only sells 3.
Gaia did it and so my first female Swashbuckler made it to SoD...
The final fight was a clean execution:
Charmed Wudei and Gorf so they followed into the temple. Triggered the talking out of stealth and lured Angelo away who got smacked down by the Skeleton Warrior who was joined by Gorf once most spells went off.
Luring Sarevok and friends into one corner was not necessary so the rest of the pack was burned down once their buffs ran out. Semaj 25 Fireballs, Tazok 36 and Diarmid 39 - easy. With only two Skeletons guarding Sarevok the rest was pretty straightforward:
Dispel Sarevok and let Gorf and the Skel have some fun with him. Too bad both went down but - on the good side - the evil brother was already down to badly wounded. 39 Acid Arrows and some stealth-attacks later Sarevok went down - the poor one never had a chance to hit Gaia.
Thanks to stealth and her new friends no protection buffs were needed - only one oil of speed and a potion of power.
I only found one potion at the carnival, but with the Ring of Invisibility in my install, I should be able to operate without extra potions. I also found an Oil of Speed, which should be enough to deal with the Battle Horrors (I'm not willing to take a gamble on hoping the Battle Horrors won't attack the Guard; they're more than capable of tearing him apart if left alone).
The Ring of Invisibility only lasts for 12 hours, but it's enough to protect you in advance of travel ambushes. Speaking of which, it seems possible to just run away from the Molkar and Lamalha ambushes, which is especially important because the latter only seems to trigger when traveling around the Larswood in my install, which is too far for even Thalantyr's Invisibility spell to cover me.
Died to Davaeorn. We dealt with the Battle Horrors using an Oil of Speed, a Potion of Cloud Giant Strength, a Potion of Fire Resistance, and dual-wielding Drizzt's scimitars, but apparently Davaeorn can target the Guard in my new v2.5 install.
Davaeorn killed the Guard and enemies started spawning from the northeast. The enemies clustered around Davaeorn and I was able to use hit-and-fade strikes from stealth, landing one hit and then hiding behind a corner. However, that only gave me one attack per round, and I wasn't sure how many guards might spawn around Davaeorn, so I decided to make two attack rolls before hiding.
The guards landed lots of hits with arrows and Davaeorn finished me off with Chromatic Orb. I would have survived if I had drank a potion at the last second, but I figured it wasn't necessary since I had already successfully hidden and was hesitant to cloud my aura.
At least the Oil of Speed change will make it easier to take down Davaeorn as a solo character. Acid Arrows might be able to disrupt his spells. You could kill him within a few rounds if you used a Protection from Magic scroll and the right buffs, but without the option of simply waiting out his buffs (unless you have some way of holding off the horde of guards), he will have 20 Stoneskins, Mirror Image, -4 AC, and 215 HP. If you can't kill him quickly, those guards will apply massive pressure. The Black Talon Elites have 3 APR, 6 THAC0, and will deal 13 damage per hit (or 20 if you don't have immunity to cold damage).
I'm not sure I'll resume the challenge. I like the idea of taking down Melissan no-reload with a single-classed Archer, but I'm not willing to invest the hours if it takes even half as long as the Archer/Mage run did. Getting to BG2 was a nightmare in that run, and early SoA would be rough as a single-classed Archer.
Testing has confirmed that while killing Davaeorn with the Guard may no longer be possible in v2.5 installs (I assume the cause is the v2.5 update; I don't know what mods might have changed the Davaeorn fight in that way), the Sarevok strategy still works fine. You can still isolate Angelo and bomb the enemy from afar without them fighting back.
Sarevok uses both a haste ring and an Oil of Speed in my install, so his high movement rate is partially dispellable. It's especially important to either dispel it or wait it out under invisibility, since Sarevok's Oil of Speed also doubles APR in v2.5. But merely by having Gorf run in a wide circle to distract Sarevok, we were able to shoot Sarevok down before Gorf died.
For some reason Haseo went hostile midway through the fight, so maybe Gorf and the cleric are the best candidates for the Undercity party, at least for a fighter without access to summons (Animate Dead would kill Angelo, who otherwise would be very dangerous without multiple summoning spells).
The left hand chest in the potion sellers tent has an invisibility potion, but you need potion boosted strength to kick it open (I can't remember exactly how much).
As I've been working my way through various martial classes, I thought I would take a leaf out of @semiticgod's book and try an archer. Time for work now, but he's made a decent start this morning - up to level 6 and reputation 20. He's just acquired +1 shortbow, bracers of weapon expertise and high mastery to give his attacks extra punch, while the Cloak of Displacement will help in case of archer ambushes. It's nice to have a character that is able to sleep without worrying about ambushes .
Trabb did all the mundane guests in chapter 10 and hit max level 9/10. Kanaglym Lich Secret Revealed for the Spell Sequencer Cloak, ran in the Basement invisible, freed Daeros, picked up his Full Plate, invisibility, out. Now for the first really tough part for C/M, the Crusader Attacks.
Troll Wave, 20 pre cast Skull Traps and 3 Fireballs handled that easily, but the next two will be tougher without ability to do much damage.
Mage Wave, 5 skelis backline, PfM, Speed, Clarity, Soft Feet, 4x pre Web, hit them with Greater Malison, Silence, Web sequencer. Smacked the mages all I could, skelis joined in, as did Warmages, had to use Myconids and 6 times the Goblet.
Fighter Wave, 5 skelis backline, refreshed PfM, Speed, Clarity, PfP, 2x Power, 4x pre Web, hit them with Greater Malison, Web, Web sequencer. Hit them with 6x Cloudkills, after which I started smacking them, and fed them with about 10 Web scrolls. Skelis joined in and got eventually killed, I tanked couple of them where as Archers and Myconids cleared rest of the field. I've to say, Archers really came through with this one. Had to use the Goblet 7 times.
Ashatiel took a long time to kill without being able to hit frequently, and her only hitting with criticals. Dragonspear Castle, picked up Spell Immunity to open the Crown of Lies chest, except somehow I forgot to put it on, and of course, I got Mazed. Damn, damn, damn.
Except it wasn't the end, I was thinking is there anything to use when the animation is already started, and only thing I came up was to try and use PfM, and Sim Sala Bim, it actually dispelled the Maze before it executed me.
Save of the ages for me really as I had no idea of this before hand. Is this known thing?
@histamiini I'm a bit surprised here too. I was pretty sure that, if the spell already fired, there was nothing you could do. Do you care to replicate the thing for testing ?
@Arctodus Yeah I tested it again and it works, PfM will cancel Maze, and I think Imprisonment too because it's the same animation.
Anyhow Trabb met Bel, at least not being good netted me the Guardian Devil helmet and 15 DR. But again something I didn't foresaw, Ican't use True Seeing to lower Bel's AC by 4, because I can't cast it through PfM.
Pre made Spell Sequencer: Stoneskin, Enchanted Weapon, Blur Pre made Minor Sequencer: Strength, Strength
Lift PfM 2x PfF PfP Violet Agility Fortitude 2x Mind Focusing Protection from Evil 10' radius Speed Blur Go (at 11 rounds)
1st Wave 1x Power Potion WoMS
2nd Wave 1x Power Potion WoMS
3rd Wave 8x Power Potion Woms
I was somewhat slow and got to the final preparation phase at about 60 rounds, and it will take 5 rounds so I'll have about 35 rounds of PfM left for Bel, which still should be enough on 22 rounds average kill time.
Belhifet, lowered his Thac0 by 3 with Strength, and started smacking away. Which went pretty fast, after about 15 rounds I put my Wizard Hat on and refreshed Stoneskin and Blur with sequencer. And eventually Bel got killed, only used 6 times the goblet and still had some of the hp buffs on.
So C/M can tank Bel too with 2 apr, and Trabb also rocks onto SoA.
The best Potion of Power source that should be very handsome for people like @semiticgod:
Wait for around thirty minutes during the final Siege on Dragonspear and only then confront Ashatiel. Thanks to the endless bodies around you get pretty good chances to loot 100+ Potions of Power as well as Invisibility Potions and Oils of Speed. Just make sure that the Crusader Wave wont push your allies outside of the gate unless you have heavy AoE on your side. Too bad i cant transfer them to SoA in my installation - nonstop Potions of Power would be too cool...
Well there's many things that could be transfered, Martyr's Morningstar, although wont hit Mel (after 2.5), Cloak of Balduran for easy Paladin 100 MR, Ring of Purity the second best ring, Medal of Valor the best amulet, slashing gear for item based 100 slashing resistance for DD and Barbie. I was thinking to give away Simulacrum items and balance it by taking the stuff and PfM scrolls from the SoD, so I could have more than the ridiculous two, but haven't done it yet.
I'm starting to suffer restartis, and there's so many characters I want to do atm. I've one character in ToB and SoA, so why not complete the trifecta starting one in BG1. Meet Kayla, the Half-Elf Blade (normal no-reload).
Agreed, there are several borderline OP options @histamiini so at the end we might be forced to banish some of them. That was the main reason for the recent challenge updates. Maybe we can get the Noble challenge start running once we have crushed the "normal" one completly into the ground. My ultimate goal would be to complete the saga either using poverty rules or with my good old level-1-noober rules. Both are still at the end of the universe it seems - the second even more than the first. But who knows... Gaia crushed Korlasz with the good-old "Dispel her protections and let the assassin backstab her down to injured" tactic. Worked again like a charm. So far the run feels a bit "too easy" without the restrictions from something like the Noble challenge. Maybe i should join @histamiini starting out with another char while parking Gaia in SoD for a while. Let me think...
@histamiini I'm a bit surprised here too. I was pretty sure that, if the spell already fired, there was nothing you could do. Do you care to replicate the thing for testing ?
I think I've tried that without success, but that would have been before EE and I know they've changed the mechanism for PfM scrolls. I guess the distinction here is not that it provides immunity (as @Arctodus says that would not protect against something where the projectile has already hit), but that it dispels all active effects. I agree though that it seems a bit odd that the effect can be dispelled before it's actually been applied .
A Protection from Magic scroll will NOT dispel Imprisonment. Imprisonment is flagged as non-dispellable; Maze is flagged as dispellable (due to engine limitations it's not actually possible for something to be non-dispellable yet not bypass magic resistance, unless you use a workaround with the cast spell opcode). Both are delayed effects, but just like the delayed effects of Melf's Acid Arrow, they can be dispelled.
Note that a Potion of Magic Blocking is cheaper and will activate quicker than a Protection from Magic scroll.
Apparently the delay for a Maze spell is 4 seconds while the delay for Imprisonment is only 2 seconds. I think it's done that way to match the animations of each spell (the Imprisonment animation moves faster). That's pretty generous for Maze; you'd have 2/3 of a whole round in which to drink a Potion of Magic Blocking.
Note that Psionic Maze is non-dispellable and also activates instantly. It's a ranged attack, so theoretically you could erect a defense against it after it was cast but before it struck, but since it has a very fast projectile, you wouldn't have enough time to use a Protection from Magic scroll or cast almost any spell protection spell in order to block it. Only SI: Conjuration with the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power or an Enrage or maybe a Barbarian Rage spell could block it.
Comments
Slythe was tricked badly this time as Gaia managed to charm Larze the Ogre luring him downstairs with the attack-follow-trick. Thanks to his 500+ HP Slythe wasted all backstabs on him while Gaia was dispelling his buffs. Together with her new ogre friend they quickly dispatched the assassin before Kristin could get near...
Palace Ambush is near, time to get some supplies and new friends before!
EDIT: Palace Ambush finished thanks to Ithtyls invisibility on Liia. With the guard in front of the palace charmed too Gaia waited until the assassin showed up before dispelling the dopplegangers one after another before switching to acid arrows. Thanks to bad aiming both Dukes were still very healthy until the parked mage tranformed too who got distracted by Ithtyl wasting all of his spells. At the end both Dukes survived (barely injured and injured) while Gaia always made sure not running into fire...
Somewhat to my surprise I've got Shagrat the Shaman to Baldur's Gate and about to take a trip back to Candlekeep. I started him a couple of days ago thinking it would make a nice change of gameplay and he did the usual rounds, relying heavily on his dancing. I tend not to use invisibility items, but decided to treat myself this time (which is probably why I haven't died yet) - Shagrat used the Sandthief ring to get to Mulahey, sneak into Tazok's tent and avoid combat on the way down to Davaeorn.
He's twice had to block attempted charms with last minute potions and recently had to make his first actual save - Sunin surprising him (and me) with a chromatic orb through a couple of walls.
Edit: failed to pause at the right point prior to the ogre magi ambush. It is possible to pause before they appear, but the timing has to be pretty exact - if I try and pause too early, not only does it not pause, but also blocks any further pause commands until after the ogre magi appear. That happened this time, so I had to quickly use a magic blocking potion to ensure a chromatic orb didn't prove fatal.
In the catacombs I confirmed my thought from a few days ago that the wisdom tome can be grabbed with 22 strength. I was certainly tempted by the strength tome, but opted to leave that in place and keep the violet potion just on the off chance that Shagrat gets to face Belhifet.
Edit 2: thinking to save on invisibility Shagrat used summons to get past the dopplegangers before running past Prat too quickly for him to react. A scroll of PfP allowed Shagrat to tank the basilisks before I remembered the ogre magi would be waiting. I set up a series of nymphs to drain their spells, but no action ensued and investigating showed the ogre magi had abandoned their post (must have chased Shagrat into Candlekeep when he used the potion of magic blocking).
Failed to kill ankhegs on my own, even with the Shield Amulet and even when I got the Girdle of Piercing and Nimbul's Boots of Avoidance (I charmed the guards to turn him hostile and let the local militia kill him). I had to resort to charming Gerde in order to collect the ankheg shells.
Algernon's Cloak and stealth got me through the basilisk XP loop and the main quest all the way up to the bandit camp, at which point I switched to the Ring of Invisibility to get through the Cloakwood safely. I used charm on the Drasus party, but Kysus went hostile after a charmed Genthore died and a charmed Drasus went hostile while being attacked by the other enemies. I should have let Drasus die against the guards rather than having him try to kill one, but he ended up at low enough HP that I was able to kill him with stealth attacks.
I'm currently pondering how to kill the Battle Horrors, since they're immune to missile damage and I know they're strong enough to kill the Guard. I may have to tank them with some potions, but the math doesn't look good without an Oil of Speed, which I needed to beat Tazok (lots of critters in my install have BG2-grade movement rates, so kiting isn't remotely as effective as it is for normal BG1 runs).
With so many invisibility potions around (plus stealth) i completly skipped sandthief ring and even then Gaia is still sitting on 24 potions. If she keeps going like this she might break the 150 later in SoD - which will hopefully not be needed.
Gaia will now gather a lot of supplies before going for Sarevok. Maybe she should try to charm Wudei and friends this time...
One nymph was left well down the corridor as a target for Krystin and a prompt for Shagrat to retreat. Regrettably though Krystin bypassed the nymph and unleashed a minor sequencer magic missile before Shagrat knew she was approaching. He just survived that, but a MMM was already in the air before he had time to do anything and that proved fatal.
Chapter 8, had to waste one PfU on the Dwarf Cleric to keep him alive in the cavern, tanked the undead with the help of WoMS. With another PfU I hacked the way open to the fire pit, lured the Sentry to the big room, opened the way to the Lich, picked up Secret Revealed, used it on Coldheart and threw the Phylactery to the fire. The undead had again managed to block some of the way, but using WoMS they started wandering so I could squeeze out. Hid behind the tent for the parley.
Chapter 9, Morentherene no, Ziatar and the mages 23 times WoF, Neothelid Greenstone Amulet and 5 hasted skelis, lured Neothelid onto the killing zone and hacked it down.
Akannas Servants lured out, and Akanna herself WoMS'd. Surrendered the fort. Activated the bridge being invisible and lured the Greater Fire Elemental onto me, using WoMS as a decoy I slinged it out, which took a while because my summons weren't hurting it. Next up my favorite chapter in all Baldur's Gate.
The final fight was a clean execution:
Charmed Wudei and Gorf so they followed into the temple. Triggered the talking out of stealth and lured Angelo away who got smacked down by the Skeleton Warrior who was joined by Gorf once most spells went off.
Luring Sarevok and friends into one corner was not necessary so the rest of the pack was burned down once their buffs ran out. Semaj 25 Fireballs, Tazok 36 and Diarmid 39 - easy. With only two Skeletons guarding Sarevok the rest was pretty straightforward:
Dispel Sarevok and let Gorf and the Skel have some fun with him. Too bad both went down but - on the good side - the evil brother was already down to badly wounded. 39 Acid Arrows and some stealth-attacks later Sarevok went down - the poor one never had a chance to hit Gaia.
Thanks to stealth and her new friends no protection buffs were needed - only one oil of speed and a potion of power.
Korlasz will be waiting soon but first some rest!
Potions of Invisibility:
Hentholds Dagger: 1
Nashkel Residence: 1
Nashkel Carnival: 2
Beregost Residence: 1
Jaheira: 1
Thieves Guild: 7 (+3)
Marek & Lothander: 3+3
Sorcerous Sundries: 3
Kestor: 3
These are the one i remember immediately but there are some more in Durlags Tower and Baldurs Gate - more than enough!
The Ring of Invisibility only lasts for 12 hours, but it's enough to protect you in advance of travel ambushes. Speaking of which, it seems possible to just run away from the Molkar and Lamalha ambushes, which is especially important because the latter only seems to trigger when traveling around the Larswood in my install, which is too far for even Thalantyr's Invisibility spell to cover me.
Davaeorn killed the Guard and enemies started spawning from the northeast. The enemies clustered around Davaeorn and I was able to use hit-and-fade strikes from stealth, landing one hit and then hiding behind a corner. However, that only gave me one attack per round, and I wasn't sure how many guards might spawn around Davaeorn, so I decided to make two attack rolls before hiding.
The guards landed lots of hits with arrows and Davaeorn finished me off with Chromatic Orb. I would have survived if I had drank a potion at the last second, but I figured it wasn't necessary since I had already successfully hidden and was hesitant to cloud my aura.
At least the Oil of Speed change will make it easier to take down Davaeorn as a solo character. Acid Arrows might be able to disrupt his spells. You could kill him within a few rounds if you used a Protection from Magic scroll and the right buffs, but without the option of simply waiting out his buffs (unless you have some way of holding off the horde of guards), he will have 20 Stoneskins, Mirror Image, -4 AC, and 215 HP. If you can't kill him quickly, those guards will apply massive pressure. The Black Talon Elites have 3 APR, 6 THAC0, and will deal 13 damage per hit (or 20 if you don't have immunity to cold damage).
I'm not sure I'll resume the challenge. I like the idea of taking down Melissan no-reload with a single-classed Archer, but I'm not willing to invest the hours if it takes even half as long as the Archer/Mage run did. Getting to BG2 was a nightmare in that run, and early SoA would be rough as a single-classed Archer.
Sarevok uses both a haste ring and an Oil of Speed in my install, so his high movement rate is partially dispellable. It's especially important to either dispel it or wait it out under invisibility, since Sarevok's Oil of Speed also doubles APR in v2.5. But merely by having Gorf run in a wide circle to distract Sarevok, we were able to shoot Sarevok down before Gorf died.
For some reason Haseo went hostile midway through the fight, so maybe Gorf and the cleric are the best candidates for the Undercity party, at least for a fighter without access to summons (Animate Dead would kill Angelo, who otherwise would be very dangerous without multiple summoning spells).
I've been mapping Power Potions in current run, I've found at least 17:
1 Lendarn
1 Lamalha
1 Black Lily (store)
1 Duke Eltan
1 Angelo (only pick pocket because he'll use it I think)
5 Belegram (store)
1 The Barghest
1 Waizahb (only guest)
1 Sindret (guest)
1 Bellowgulp (store)
3 Crusader Priest Polvi (store)
Troll Wave, 20 pre cast Skull Traps and 3 Fireballs handled that easily, but the next two will be tougher without ability to do much damage.
Mage Wave, 5 skelis backline, PfM, Speed, Clarity, Soft Feet, 4x pre Web, hit them with Greater Malison, Silence, Web sequencer. Smacked the mages all I could, skelis joined in, as did Warmages, had to use Myconids and 6 times the Goblet.
Fighter Wave, 5 skelis backline, refreshed PfM, Speed, Clarity, PfP, 2x Power, 4x pre Web, hit them with Greater Malison, Web, Web sequencer. Hit them with 6x Cloudkills, after which I started smacking them, and fed them with about 10 Web scrolls. Skelis joined in and got eventually killed, I tanked couple of them where as Archers and Myconids cleared rest of the field. I've to say, Archers really came through with this one. Had to use the Goblet 7 times.
Ashatiel took a long time to kill without being able to hit frequently, and her only hitting with criticals. Dragonspear Castle, picked up Spell Immunity to open the Crown of Lies chest, except somehow I forgot to put it on, and of course, I got Mazed. Damn, damn, damn.
Except it wasn't the end, I was thinking is there anything to use when the animation is already started, and only thing I came up was to try and use PfM, and Sim Sala Bim, it actually dispelled the Maze before it executed me.
Save of the ages for me really as I had no idea of this before hand. Is this known thing?
Anyhow Trabb met Bel, at least not being good netted me the Guardian Devil helmet and 15 DR. But again something I didn't foresaw, Ican't use True Seeing to lower Bel's AC by 4, because I can't cast it through PfM.
Pre made Spell Sequencer: Stoneskin, Enchanted Weapon, Blur
Pre made Minor Sequencer: Strength, Strength
Lift
PfM
2x PfF
PfP
Violet
Agility
Fortitude
2x Mind Focusing
Protection from Evil 10' radius
Speed
Blur
Go (at 11 rounds)
1st Wave
1x Power Potion
WoMS
2nd Wave
1x Power Potion
WoMS
3rd Wave
8x Power Potion
Woms
I was somewhat slow and got to the final preparation phase at about 60 rounds, and it will take 5 rounds so I'll have about 35 rounds of PfM left for Bel, which still should be enough on 22 rounds average kill time.
Spell Sequencer
Spell Sequencer: Stoneskin, Enchancted Weapon, Blur
Clarity
Speed
Belhifet, lowered his Thac0 by 3 with Strength, and started smacking away. Which went pretty fast, after about 15 rounds I put my Wizard Hat on and refreshed Stoneskin and Blur with sequencer. And eventually Bel got killed, only used 6 times the goblet and still had some of the hp buffs on.
So C/M can tank Bel too with 2 apr, and Trabb also rocks onto SoA.
Wait for around thirty minutes during the final Siege on Dragonspear and only then confront Ashatiel. Thanks to the endless bodies around you get pretty good chances to loot 100+ Potions of Power as well as Invisibility Potions and Oils of Speed. Just make sure that the Crusader Wave wont push your allies outside of the gate unless you have heavy AoE on your side. Too bad i cant transfer them to SoA in my installation - nonstop Potions of Power would be too cool...
* Scimitars
* Single Weapon Style
Gaia crushed Korlasz with the good-old "Dispel her protections and let the assassin backstab her down to injured" tactic. Worked again like a charm. So far the run feels a bit "too easy" without the restrictions from something like the Noble challenge. Maybe i should join @histamiini starting out with another char while parking Gaia in SoD for a while. Let me think...
++ Scimitars
++ Daggers
I will start this one with the Noble Rules to see how long this might work - i like to suffer...
Note that a Potion of Magic Blocking is cheaper and will activate quicker than a Protection from Magic scroll.
Apparently the delay for a Maze spell is 4 seconds while the delay for Imprisonment is only 2 seconds. I think it's done that way to match the animations of each spell (the Imprisonment animation moves faster). That's pretty generous for Maze; you'd have 2/3 of a whole round in which to drink a Potion of Magic Blocking.
Note that Psionic Maze is non-dispellable and also activates instantly. It's a ranged attack, so theoretically you could erect a defense against it after it was cast but before it struck, but since it has a very fast projectile, you wouldn't have enough time to use a Protection from Magic scroll or cast almost any spell protection spell in order to block it. Only SI: Conjuration with the Robe of Vecna and Amulet of Power or an Enrage or maybe a Barbarian Rage spell could block it.