The Greater Werewolf Token is supposed to be +3; it should say that in the description. Likewise, the Earth Elemental Token is supposed to only grant 50% physical damage resistance instead of 100%, also according to its description. In my runs, I change the Earth Elemental Token using Near Infinity to match the description, and I would also bump up the Greater Werewolf Token to +3 if I wasn't able to hit a planetar using it.
Even with the Earth Elemental Token only granting 50% damage resistance, you can still hit 70% with Armor of Faith, 90% with Hardiness, and 100% with both. If you're rude to the Solar, you can also get +25% permanent physical damage resistance after slaying the Ravager, at which point you can hit 95% just by casting Armor of Faith, but there are enough sources of Dispel Magic at the Throne of Bhaal that Hardiness is probably going to be your standard option if you weaken the token. You should have another 10 HLAs before hitting the XP cap.
Kayla has grinded her way to level 16, bought couple PfU's and cleared the way to the dragon at the temple, and finished the Mae'var's guest. Before turning in the evidence I charmed the priest with the Nymph cloak, turned the evidence in, Kayla and the priest then summoned 3 skelis, haste, invisibility, and the skelis were able to kill everybody in the room. Also killed Treya for he Thac0 cloak and did the Harper hold guest to the point where solo can. With 6th level spells, and Improved Haste I'm already able to do nice damage with FoA +3 and 6 apr. Still only half way through for UAI and the xp loop though.
Next step for Kayla was the slaves in Copper Coronet, and also the sword guest in the sewers, nothing too hard. Druid Grove, 3 skelis, and killed the three druids outside the grove. Cernd went invisible, and cast Insects on Faldorn, then couple summons and Faldorn was no more. Did the rest of the guests for Trademeet, and got to 20/20 economy wise and 80k gold. Started chapter 3 with 60k.
Finished Tanner guest, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur, PfE, Improved Haste and tested Kayla's mettle with Crypt King 1on1, easy peasy. With PfU attacked Bodhi's lair, and leveled everybody until Durst turned into a bat, which I could only hit with criticals, which then meant that I couldn't hurt it fast enough to kill it. So I picked up the Mace of Distruption and improved it with Cromwell. Another try with another PfU and I was able to clear the place, hit level 19. Bodhi was interesting with PfU, because I couldn't hurt her with my Thac0, but apparently there's a timer, and she just buggered off unhurt after a while. Suits me just fine.
Started Windspear Hills, hit level 20 and got *** in Two Weapon Style. With invisibility traveled to end of the dungeon, with hasted skelis cleared the place clearing the way to Firkraag, Adamantium Golem was blocked with the doorway, PfP and grinded it down. Also got the Sewer Key. Sewer gang, charmed Rengaard, collectively summoned 4 skelis, haste, and as others attacked the mage, I fed the ground with 5 Cloudkills, which was enough for the whole gang. Unseeing Eye, mostly invisibility and 3 hasted skelis got the half of the rift device, found Tenser Transformation scroll which makes my spell book complete I think, also hit level 21 which makes my saves final. 3 PfU's for the 3 Liches in Athkatla, Kangaxx has to wait because I need Sim to cast PfM, and also I need to save some of PfU's. Advanced De'Arnise a little, recharged WoCK and WoMS and have 5k gold left, and I'm currently 500k xp from the UAI. I've to see if I can reach it without committing on to mage or bard stronghold guests. Maybe I'll visit the Mindflayer base in search of the Wand of Dragon Slaying.
Temple Sewers Mind Flayer base, cleared the first semi regular mob without problems, some Cloudkills and WoMS. Second mob, 2x Mind Focusing, Potion of Absorbtion, 4x Intelligence, Clarity, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur, PfE, Improved Invisibility, Improved Haste, and using WoMS as slight distraction I hacked all down, don't think I actually got even hit. Rested, and third mob the same kind of deal, except now I got chewed on the brain a little, which was quickly countered by chugging more Intelligence potions. Only Alhoon left, and it's always the same deal, oh how I would like to take on him, with Spell Immunity Abjuration I probably could, but I'm too scared of him and just stealing the items is so much easier. Actually I don't think I've ever killed him, which probably makes him the sole enemy still on the list. Some day... Anyway now that I got my favorite thing in the game,
wasted another PfU to kill the Shadow Lord, and made to level 23. This means only one level to UAI, and achieving that probably involves more dragon statues, tomorrow.
@histamiini: If you use a Stone to Flesh scroll on a dragon who was petrified by the Wand of Wonder, are they hostile? A dragon XP loop wouldn't be quite as fast as farming Gauths, but it's much cooler.
Only Alhoon left, and it's always the same deal, oh how I would like to take on him, with Spell Immunity Abjuration I probably could, but I'm too scared of him and just stealing the items is so much easier. Actually I don't think I've ever killed him, which probably makes him the sole enemy still on the list. Some day... Anyway now that I got my favorite thing in the game,
Remember that Alhoon is undead - it's always nice seeing him explode from a hit by something like the Mace of Disruption .
@semiticgod I remember it agroed Firkraag when I tested it, but testing it on Thaxll'ssillyia it works differently. When you have the Shadow Dragon Wardstone in your pocket and use Stone to Flesh, he doesn't turn full agro (red), but only starts casting spells. Dispel, Blind, Invisibility, Greater Malison Lower Resistance and Level Drain were the only ones I saw. So Thaxll'ssillyia can be actually used to xp-loop with Wand Of Wonder and Stone to Flesh, you just have to have something to stop the Level Drain. You'll get blinded easily if your saves aren't good enough vs. breath, which is annoying, but luckily WoW is a homing missile which finds invisible creatures even blinded if you get the lock on.
I don't think there's any risk in this loop, if you have immunity to level drain. Doing the math you've 2/35 chance of petrifying him because he has 60% MR, so that's about 3 times with the full (50) Wand on average, or 135k xp.
@histamiini I'm not sure I've ever tried it, but I would have thought so. However, PfU is only a partial defense against an SCS enemy and might prompt him to do things like dispel you - so you should still approach him cautiously and make sure saving throws are good enough to avoid any status effects.
The Alhoon will also summon Cornugons to track you down.
You can always approach using Protection from Undead and then burn another Protection from Undead scroll on the Alhoon itself, if you're not opposed to breaking the poor guy's script.
I tested the Stone to Flesh on Firkraag too, and he doesn't turn full agro (red) either, only starts casting Lower Fire Resistance and Red Dragon Breath. So where's you needed immunity to Level Drain with Thaxll'ssillyia, with Firkraag you need 100 Fire Resistance. And as he doesn't blind you, move or cast invisibility it's somewhat more convinient. With Firkraag the chance of petrification is 1/20, so slightly less, but you get more bang for the buck with 64k a pop. Bard can make almost a level on average with full WoW.
EDIT: Conster was done with four hasted skelis after I had waited his PfMW to end, Firkraag was then stonified. Skelis then cleared the way to the Samia's treasure. Rested, picked it up, invisibility and passed the mob. 4 hasted skelis, buffs, and as skelis attacked the gang and blocked the doorway, I fed the ground with Cloudkills. After about seven Cloudkills, all of the trapped mob was finished. Made to level 24, and got the sweet UAI. Now the problem is, there's so much to buy, and so little money (30k). I think I'll visit Kangaxx first with the help of Vhailor's Helm.
EDIT: I had just enough money to buy Vhailor's Helm for Sim casting, Shield of Balduran for Gauth xp-loop and Scarlet Ninjato +3 for 8 apr hacking. Now I've only 600 gold in my pockets. Kangaxx, buffed, Sim PfM, escaped his initial Dispel and Minor Sequencer, and then just hacked him down with Daystar. After he transformed I wasted yet another PfU on him, and again just hacked him down. I've now only 3 PfU's left from Athkatla, it's just enough for everything with the help of Sim, but hopefully there's more somewhere.
EDIT: Casting Improved Haste, then switching Shield of Balduran to Belm +2, together with Scarlet Ninjato +3 and 8 apr, the double Gauths are hacked down in about a minute. Which means one level up in about 13 minutes. Firkraag xp-loop might be faster because you'll spend the full WoW in 5 minutes, although recharging WoW costs 7400 gold with 20/20 with Ribald, might be cheaper with the merchant in Watchers Keep.
1x Use Any Item 1x Enhanced Bard Song 3x Time Stop Trap 12x Spike Trap
10x Offensive/Defensive Spin (although quite useless at this point I think)
Time to put new abilities to a test. Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Blur, PfE, Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility, PfMW, SI:Abjuration and made my entrance to Planar Prison. Started casting Cloudkills on the ground, and after about 15 hits, the landing was cleared. Didn't take any damage.
4 hasted Skelis killed Master of Thralls, laid 10 Spike Traps on the ground and lured the Warden onto them, bam, done.
Spike Traps seem quite decent, as with Sim I can cast 24 of them, which does on average 1680 damage to a single creature. And as it passes all resistances, I don't think there's anybody that can survive that on average in the whole of Faerun. Add that to Skull Trapping and I approve.
Kayla bought Robe of Vecna and parted to Planar Sphere, 5 hasted skelis and cloudkills are a great growd controller, as skelis are immune to it and cloudkills interrupt casting, and as the poor Tiefling mobs can testify. Lavok Sim PfM and 5 hasted skelis. Tolgerias somehow escaped Sim PfM and I had to wait invisible to his buffs to end before my skelis took on him. Didn't bother fighting anything else, but just looted the place.
Watchers Keep lv1, sweeped the level with 5 hasted skelis without pause. Time to test these traps more. And I'm slightly dissappointed, as there seem to be 7 trap limit? Anyway 7 was easily enough for any of the statues, so after some resting in between of trapping and all the statues were defeated. Next Watchers Keep lv2, Aesgareth and Deck of Many Things, before figuring if I've enough trapping power to take on the Twisted Rune.
Yeah that's too bad, also I think Protection from Magic Energy blocks the damage which makes it even less effective, as most casters have that on Contingency.
Kayla swept through Watchers Keep lv2 without problems with the help of skelis. Chromatic Demon, 5 skelis to keep him company, where's Kayla and Sim spammed WoW, took a while but eventually he got stoned. With Sim it takes only 3,5 rounds on average to get the petrification effect.
As this is my old installation, and I already have the map of the maze, it was trivial to reach Aesgareth by kissing some bi-succubus. First played couple rounds with Aesgareth, betting some experience, and lost and won one round for the Wish scroll. You don't want to bet your vitality if you don't want to lose it, permanently. Then Kayla used Nymph-cloak first on the thief, who was led to a killing zone to dispose. The cleric and archer Tieflings suffered the same fate.
The mage Tiefling was immune to all my Charming, so I had to use again my trusty WoW. Stone outside, stone inside.
4 skelis, buffed up and Sim cast PfM on Aesgareth and we started hacking away. I underestimated the fight a little, because both Aesgareth and his pets were immune to the skelis, so I had to do all the heavy lifting alone. But with couple helps from RoR and all were dead, interestingly statues can still turn to enemies.
Escaped the maze skipping both Tahazzar and Ka'rashur. If I come back, it'll probably be after the hell trials. Now we'll see what bad fortunes the Deck of Many Things has for us.
EDIT: As usual a crypt in the graveyard was chosen as the place for this judgement day run:
Resist Fear, SI:Abjuration, SI:Evocation, first draw, RUIN, which is actually good draw. Resist Fear, SI:Alteration, SI:Enchantment, second draw, KEY, great draw. Resist Fear, SI:Conjuration, third draw, THRONE, good draw.
Well that went a lot better than last time and actually got something useful from it.
Decided to start Chapter 4 and have already made my way to City of Caverns. Not much happened on the way, mostly grinded my way through asylum with buffs and skelis. This one of the LoB quirks is always nice to see,
Irenicus himself was dealt with the Farsight trick, 4 hasted skelis hacked him to near death, where's I activated the battle mean time,
City of Caverns should be fairly trivial, sold my loot and I'm now sitting on 140k gold pile.
For a little while now I've been devoting the odd bit of spare time to playing this challenge on the Asylum rules. I've probably done that with half a dozen characters, most of whom would have virtually no chance of progressing in the longer term, but that made no difference anyway (all of them made decent progress into BG1, but none got further than the ogre magi ambush at Candlekeep). That was usually just making a mistake or taking one risk too many, though I again suffered death by lightning as a result of a storm blowing up during a long fight.
A character who would have a chance of progressing is Vent (berserker dualling to mage) and I've restarted him. In a probably vain attempt to persuade myself to avoid risks I'll note progress with him.
Vent will be working towards grand mastery with flails to help with the fight against Belhifet. That requires him not to level up beyond level 5 in mage in BG1, so that he can use the proficiency point for level 6 when he hits level 9. As a berserker he also has a point in single weapon proficiency and in longbow; as a mage he will use a sling.
A couple of hours this morning saw the following progress: - shot Imoen, Xzar and Montaron - kited Shoal (level 3 - +25 HPs) - found ring for Mad Arcand - shot Neera - calmed down Marl - kited belt ogre - killed the fishermen to get a +1 flail - returned bowl to Tenya (level 4 - +12 HPs) - shot Dushai for her ring (pulling her away from the inn to prevent anyone hostile running in there) - at the Lakes gradually culled the gnolls as Drizzt's HPs fell. Left the one gnoll that broke a weapon in order to be able to safely finish Drizzt off when he was unconscious (level 5 - +14 HPs) - at Firewine, shot Bentan for his PfM scroll. - with reputation at 3 there's the possibility of bounty hunter spawns, so Vent went to kite Caldo and Krumm before finding goods for Firebead and Mr Colquetle. That let him buy 3 reputation points cheaply from the temple and talking to Oublek pushed reputation to 10 to ensure he got CLW when resting. - talked to Noober and shot Vitiare. - kited Greywolf. - returned Samuel to the FAI. Tarnesh was killed by a guard there - Vent didn't intervene to protect his record of taking no damage to date. - gave Joia her ring back.
Things have gone pretty much perfectly so far, but it only takes a fraction of a second to make a fatal mistake .
As experienced so often before, the line between life and death is razor-thin .
Vent followed Korax round killing all the northern basilisks and Mutamin without problems. I then tried to squeeze a bit of extra benefit out of him by shooting at Lindin to draw him away from the others. That initially appeared to be successful and Lindin was duly paralyzed - but Baerin had obviously followed him belatedly and Korax started taking damage from him. Vent continued attacking the helpless Lindin while Korax strode forward through the arrow fire and managed to engage Baerin in melee combat. At that stage the chances of killing both of them looked pretty good, but Peter had obviously followed Baerin part-way initially and joined in the combat with Korax - cutting him down.
As Korax fell Vent was running away, but Peter had moved forward just enough to get a sight of him first and started casting a spell. Vent raged to ensure that domination would have no effect, but Peter had opted for an unholy blight instead. Including his rage bonus Vent had 92 HPs and had not at this stage suffered a single HP of damage during the run (ignoring the cut-scene of Gorion's death). As they say about share values though, you can't rely on past results ...
City of Caverns was trivial for Kayla, but pretty important considering the items there. Underdark, Balor, 100 Fire Resistance + other buffs and hacked it down, Vithal was PfM'd and he could do nothing. Bought all the interesting items in Ust Natha which reduced my gold to 40k. Also bought Firetooth +3 to use it with Scarlet Ninjato +3, instead of Belm +2. But I don't know, Firetooth can't be used in off hand, so is it still better than with Belm +2 off hand? Does both weapons hit as frequently in 8 apr?
Belm +2 3-10 dmg Firetooth +3 6-13 dmg Scarlet Ninjato +3 4-11 + 12 poison with failed save vs. death
What do you think?
Saw first game breaking bug in the run when helping Phaere, Solaufein was Mazed and I couldn't complete the dialogue, it just gave me endless xp. Actually pretty decent xp-loop, if you wait enough for the Maze to end, which maybe ends the loop?
Beholder Dungeon, hacked the first couple Beholders, and then watched the Mind Flayers destroy half of the hive. Lured Hive Mother outside to a killing zone, PfM and grinded it down. Back inside, and continued watching the Flayers destroy all. With invisibility you can lure them in position to empty the whole dungeon I think, you just have to be careful with the Hive Mother, because it sees through invisibility.
Then something rather interesting happened. Mind Flayer Dire Charmed the main boss Elder Orb, which somehow became a friend of mine. And of course I couldn't leave this opportunity to claim yet another new victim for my precious.
Just a short hello to all active challengers! As i lack time and - even more - motivation i decided that its the best thing to abandon the game for a while...
@Harpagornis I know the feel, it's good to keep pause and do something else when starts to feel like work. I play Elder Scrolls a lot, which is a nice alternative time to time.
Did some counting and if the double apr Oil of Speed comes with 2.5, Belhifet will suffer pretty fast death on average with Fighter9/Mage. With 5 apr Single Weapon Style and wielding Martyr's Morningstar Bel would go down in 6,7 rounds or 40 seconds, on average.
Fighter9/Mage
Thac0
12 Base 9 Potion of Power (40 rounds) 2 Violet Potion (24 hours) 0 Martyr's Morningstar +2 (Enchanted Weapon) -3 Grand Master -4 Legacy of the Masters -5 Helmet of Balduran -7 Medal of Valor -8 Ring of Purity (Chant) -9 Cloverleaf (Luck)
Apr
1 Base 1.5 Fighter 9 2.5 Grand Master 5.0 Oil of Speed (50 rounds)
Damage
4-10 Martyr's Morningstar +2 9-15 Grand Master 11-17 Legacy of the Masters 25-31 Violet Potion (24 hours) 26-31 Ring of Purity (Chant) 27-31 Cloverleaf (Luck) 29 Average + 15% max hp with 19 and 20 (Single Weapon Style)
Average damage per 20 attacks (29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+58+58)*0.75 + 2*169.5 = 687 dmg Average time to kill Belhifet 20*1130hp / (687dmg*5apr - 20*2hppr) = 6.7 rounds
Drow guestline was simple enough for Kayla, the Lich got SiM PfM'd and I stole the eggs and double crossed everybody. Mind Flayer dungeon, with WoMS I was able to save all my spells in the Arena fights. Buffed Int to 37 and AC vs. crushing to -25 with potions and gear, then spell buffs and cleared the way to the end using all my spells, Master Brain was Cloudkilled with 15 uses.
After doors opened I rested, buffed and cleared and looted the rest of the place. Gave up 3 reputation points so I could save all 4 Control Circlets, and got the Staff of Command. Double crossed also Adalon after she had helped me to open the way out of course, and got her blood.
Kayla was able to achieve impressive win over 5 Demon Knights on straight on combat with the help of 4 skelis and proper buffs. Got Soul Reaver and last component for Crom Fayer. Then finally escaped the Underdark being invisible. Getting closer to end of SoA, and I already have 3 Project Images, 7 Simulacrums and 14 Skull Trap scrolls for some trapping mayhem, somewhere.
Kayla was back in Athkatla again, and after few minutes of shopping, dirt poor again. Time to make some money. Guarded Compound, mob in downstairs was handled by skelis, Magical Swords killed with Skull of Death. Invisibility and upstairs, level skipped about 10 times to stop the proximity casting, one Insibility Purge got me and Ketta followed downstairs, easily disposed. Time to see what the Staff of Command is made off. Maferan, Stalman, Koshi all Dire Charmed with the SoC and killed. Olaf couldn't be charmed because he went Berserk, but Koshi got him near death. Summoned 4 skelis, who were able to finish Olaf and Sion the main boss, after I put couple Cloudkills to interrupt casting. All in all the place netted about 40k.
Lets upgrade, Twisted Rune, and without Skull Trap spamming because I want to save Sim and PI scrolls for later. Kayla put 7 Spike Traps to the entrance just in case, double Sim PfU, Sim PfM on Shangalar, double Improved Haste and the lich got double slinged. Back up, double Invisibility, went to find Layene but she was invisible, no problem True Sight revealed her. But before Kayla were able to act, Layene's contingency hit and my Sim disappeared. So I backed up again, and waited her spell spamming, and buffs to end.
Dire Charmed Layene with SoC and she got hacked by her friends, and Kayla got the Staff of Magi. Revanek SoC'd and hacked. Vaxall had Spell Turning on which I had to wait more than hour to end. But it ended and he got then SoC'd. Made Vaxall Imprison Shyressa, Improved Haste on the enemy skeli, who then hacked Vaxall down. Getting the Staff of Magi practically ended the Twisted Rune, because I could act and turn invisible the same instance, and as none of them see through invisibility they could do nothing. I've to say Kayla is enjoying herself currently.
Time to make some finishing touches on SoA. Sim pre casted 4x Incendiary Clouds, which after using the Rift Device was enough for the Unseeing Eye.
Visited North Forest and picked up Time Stop and Project Image scrolls. Bodhi's lair was leveled with PfU, downstairs Sim casted 5x PfU on the whole party and we hacked Bodhi down, needed to do it three times before she finally succumbed. Suldanesselar, enemies were completely skipped, just picked the three items for the temple. Nizidramanii'yt was turned into a stone.
After putting the items on the altar, Rillifane killed everything for me and I looted the City, after transactions with Reirra I have 46k gold left.
Some thinking aloud, after eventually getting two of everything in Arcana Archives my scroll intentory would be:
From those Time Stop and Skull Traps are the only ones which Sim can use. Sequencers don't apply to main character and Sim casted Sim can't cast spells, so I can effectively use them only once. But I've now enough Skull Traps so Sim's and PI's can cast the maximum of 20 until they disappear, which means I can collectively cast 364 Skull Traps without resting. Skull Traps do 35 average damage when saved vs spell, which means the overall average damage output should be about 12 740. Eyeing the end battle and taking Magic Resistance into consideration the big 6 needs average magic damage of,
so about 100 Skull Traps to either side should do the trick and I'll have plenty to spare. Melissan needs 5266 magic damage or about 150 Skull Traps, which I would still have, but I still need to figure how to lure her onto them without setting them off myself. But I can reduce her health almost a third with Spike Traps which she wont resists, so 7x70 average damage would reduce the magic damage need to 3633 or about 100 Skull Traps. Math works, but the reality is often different.
Irenicus at Tree of Life was dealt with hiding and waiting his buffs and summons to disappear, and then he was just casually hacked down. From Hell Trials I chose Immunity to +1 Weapons, 20 Fire/Cold/Electric Resistance, 2 Strength, 2 Saves and -2 AC, which meant Kayla turned to Neutral Evil. Well who wouldn't turn evil when evil gets everything good anyway?
Irenicus at Hell and the power of trapping. 7 Spikes Traps, rest, buffs, WoMS and as soon as battle started invisibility and Kayla ran far away from the battle. 7 Spikes were able to kill one of the Balors. Waited Fallen Planetar to unsummon, and put another 7 Spikes, SI:Abjuration and lured the second Balor onto them. Put another 5 Spikes and one Time Stop trap, and lured the Glabrezu which I was able to hack down during the time stop. Another 2 Time Stop traps was enough for the last Glabrezu, again simply hacked down.
Buffs and Sim cast PfM onto the Slayer, waited invisible his PfMW to end, and then just started hacking him down. I took awhile, 3 Mirror Images, 3 Stoneskins and 1 PfMW, but eventually Kayla won the battle, wasn't even close.
Looks like @histamiini is rolling like an avalanche!!
Just a "small" sidenote: As i stopped playing i gave my good old friend @Vynn the permission to keep on playing with Eklun the Totemic Druid18/Fighter. The good news: He managed to beat Melissan using @Alesia_BH´s old tactic of kiting the big Five down one by one while negating Sendai and Abazigal with PfM. Once Mel got stunned he called in summons for distraction in between the kills so Mel tried to hunt them down instead of using Time Stop. As no demons or solars followed (this lucker!) he finished her off with MR + Harm which immediately triggered the final talking. Too bad @Vynn refuses to write the final part down in more detail. Maybe i will have to do this on my own once i return to the game even though my focus is another. A complete no-reload-poverty run would still be a dream and even the Chosen-One destiny wouldn´t be bad either. Some day... maybe.
Yeah Kayla is starting roll on, Illasera softened with 7 Spikes, Sim PfM, and then simply hacked down, with Reflection Shield cancelling her dispel hits.
First challenge in Pocket Plane, summon door trick, spammed Cloudkills and kept myself invisible with the Staff of Magi, the first three mobs could do nothing. Waited the boss mob until the Cloudkill smoke had softened them and then separated them. With the help of WoMS and Cloudkills hacked them down.
Magi Cloudkilled the evil mobs in Sharadush. "You think I'm trapped here with you? No, you're trapped here with me."
Gromnir downstairs, Magi Charmed the Battlemage, or using Staff of Magi to keep invisibility when doing something. I'll keep calling it like that, because I think the game will involve a lot of that in the future. Battlemage first imprisoned his mislead for no reason, and then got killed. 4 Skelis then hacked the rest of them down.
Gromnir Il-Khan, first toyed with his minions, Magi Charming them and watching them to kill each other. Activated Gromnir and charmed his pet, when the mages got involved, I turned to Magi Cloud spamming and watched them die, only running away from Gromnir because he's the only one seeing through invisibility. Eler Had was immune to both of my Magi Charming and Magi Clouds, but not to Sim Control Circlet. Last of the minions out of the way Gromnir was then simply hacked down.
Magi Charms and Magi Clouds, not many opponents can survive that, and that's just the foreplay.
Kayla casually walked to Forest of Mir charming Fire Giants with Control Circlets and others with SoC. PfU and hacked all undead, including the Master Wraith down. Yaga-Shura's Stronghold first level was completely skipped with invisibility. Second level, thinned opposition with Sim charming with Circlets, lured Brimstone to the doorway, 100 Fire Resitance, SI:Abjuration and made him worthy of his name.
Skelis killed Berenn and Kayla hacked the Fell Cats. Imix was yet another victim of the Control Circlet, although he snapped out of it somehow, but after a long brawl with the Burning Men, he fell. Looted the place.
Nyalee Sim PfM and simply hacked down. Yaga-Shura becomes incredibly exposed to everything after he loses his two rings, charmed with SoC and wasted by his own army.
Oasis, Kayla doesn't take hollow threats kindly so she charmed Jamis with SoC and he got what he deserved in couple seconds. Hunted all the mages and clerics first with SoC, and then Magi Cloudkilled the two mobs. After selling all the loot Kayla has cool 230k gold, for all the nice scrolls in Arcana Archives.
Kayla really knows how to spend, another spending spree and 230k was like nothing in Arcana Archives. I can now cast 12 Simulacrums, 6 Project Images and 6 Time Stops. Second challenge in Pocket Plane, summon door trick just in case. Charmed Semaj, Tamoko and Angelo, and although they snapped out of it time to time, I just refreshed it. My "good" double went quickly down, and others followed soon after. Got the Regenation ability.
Time for Watchers Keep Maze and the treaded Tahazzar, Ka'rashur combo. And I think I finally found the perfect tactic for it. I've been having trouble with it because atleast in my installation (random Maze) both rooms before them are Spell Failure and Wild Magic rooms, which makes it incredibly risky thing to tackle. But here's how it should be fairly risk free.
Evil character, with that you can have free pass to either Ka'rashur or Tahazzar rooms, with your choosing. Kayla chose Tahazzar because the mob there is harder I think. You can deal Tahazzar anyway you like, Kayla has the obvious favorite style.
Then Ka'rashur, pause the game, and quickly retreat from Ka'rashurs sight, so that the fight script wont activate. Now you can buff up.
Sim wont activate Ka'rashur either, so Kayla cast Farsight, and Sim then used three consecutive Time Stops to hack Ka'rashur down.
Comments
Even with the Earth Elemental Token only granting 50% damage resistance, you can still hit 70% with Armor of Faith, 90% with Hardiness, and 100% with both. If you're rude to the Solar, you can also get +25% permanent physical damage resistance after slaying the Ravager, at which point you can hit 95% just by casting Armor of Faith, but there are enough sources of Dispel Magic at the Throne of Bhaal that Hardiness is probably going to be your standard option if you weaken the token. You should have another 10 HLAs before hitting the XP cap.
Finished Tanner guest, Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur, PfE, Improved Haste and tested Kayla's mettle with Crypt King 1on1, easy peasy. With PfU attacked Bodhi's lair, and leveled everybody until Durst turned into a bat, which I could only hit with criticals, which then meant that I couldn't hurt it fast enough to kill it. So I picked up the Mace of Distruption and improved it with Cromwell. Another try with another PfU and I was able to clear the place, hit level 19. Bodhi was interesting with PfU, because I couldn't hurt her with my Thac0, but apparently there's a timer, and she just buggered off unhurt after a while. Suits me just fine.
Started Windspear Hills, hit level 20 and got *** in Two Weapon Style. With invisibility traveled to end of the dungeon, with hasted skelis cleared the place clearing the way to Firkraag, Adamantium Golem was blocked with the doorway, PfP and grinded it down. Also got the Sewer Key. Sewer gang, charmed Rengaard, collectively summoned 4 skelis, haste, and as others attacked the mage, I fed the ground with 5 Cloudkills, which was enough for the whole gang. Unseeing Eye, mostly invisibility and 3 hasted skelis got the half of the rift device, found Tenser Transformation scroll which makes my spell book complete I think, also hit level 21 which makes my saves final. 3 PfU's for the 3 Liches in Athkatla, Kangaxx has to wait because I need Sim to cast PfM, and also I need to save some of PfU's. Advanced De'Arnise a little, recharged WoCK and WoMS and have 5k gold left, and I'm currently 500k xp from the UAI. I've to see if I can reach it without committing on to mage or bard stronghold guests. Maybe I'll visit the Mindflayer base in search of the Wand of Dragon Slaying.
wasted another PfU to kill the Shadow Lord, and made to level 23. This means only one level to UAI, and achieving that probably involves more dragon statues, tomorrow.
I don't think there's any risk in this loop, if you have immunity to level drain. Doing the math you've 2/35 chance of petrifying him because he has 60% MR, so that's about 3 times with the full (50) Wand on average, or 135k xp.
You can always approach using Protection from Undead and then burn another Protection from Undead scroll on the Alhoon itself, if you're not opposed to breaking the poor guy's script.
EDIT: Conster was done with four hasted skelis after I had waited his PfMW to end, Firkraag was then stonified. Skelis then cleared the way to the Samia's treasure. Rested, picked it up, invisibility and passed the mob. 4 hasted skelis, buffs, and as skelis attacked the gang and blocked the doorway, I fed the ground with Cloudkills. After about seven Cloudkills, all of the trapped mob was finished. Made to level 24, and got the sweet UAI. Now the problem is, there's so much to buy, and so little money (30k).
EDIT: I had just enough money to buy Vhailor's Helm for Sim casting, Shield of Balduran for Gauth xp-loop and Scarlet Ninjato +3 for 8 apr hacking. Now I've only 600 gold in my pockets. Kangaxx, buffed, Sim PfM, escaped his initial Dispel and Minor Sequencer, and then just hacked him down with Daystar. After he transformed I wasted yet another PfU on him, and again just hacked him down. I've now only 3 PfU's left from Athkatla, it's just enough for everything with the help of Sim, but hopefully there's more somewhere.
EDIT: Casting Improved Haste, then switching Shield of Balduran to Belm +2, together with Scarlet Ninjato +3 and 8 apr, the double Gauths are hacked down in about a minute. Which means one level up in about 13 minutes. Firkraag xp-loop might be faster because you'll spend the full WoW in 5 minutes, although recharging WoW costs 7400 gold with 20/20 with Ribald, might be cheaper with the merchant in Watchers Keep.
Kayla the Blade level 40, 174 hp
8/4/7/11/5 Saves
* Long Sword
* Two-Handed Sword
* Scimitar
* Dagger
* War Hammer
* Flail
* Long Bow
* Two-Handed Weapon Style
* Single-Weapon Style
*** Two-Weapon Style
1x Use Any Item
1x Enhanced Bard Song
3x Time Stop Trap
12x Spike Trap
10x Offensive/Defensive Spin (although quite useless at this point I think)
Time to put new abilities to a test. Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Blur, PfE, Mirror Image, Improved Invisibility, PfMW, SI:Abjuration and made my entrance to Planar Prison. Started casting Cloudkills on the ground, and after about 15 hits, the landing was cleared. Didn't take any damage.
4 hasted Skelis killed Master of Thralls, laid 10 Spike Traps on the ground and lured the Warden onto them, bam, done.
Spike Traps seem quite decent, as with Sim I can cast 24 of them, which does on average 1680 damage to a single creature. And as it passes all resistances, I don't think there's anybody that can survive that on average in the whole of Faerun. Add that to Skull Trapping and I approve.
Watchers Keep lv1, sweeped the level with 5 hasted skelis without pause. Time to test these traps more. And I'm slightly dissappointed, as there seem to be 7 trap limit? Anyway 7 was easily enough for any of the statues, so after some resting in between of trapping and all the statues were defeated. Next Watchers Keep lv2, Aesgareth and Deck of Many Things, before figuring if I've enough trapping power to take on the Twisted Rune.
As this is my old installation, and I already have the map of the maze, it was trivial to reach Aesgareth by kissing some bi-succubus. First played couple rounds with Aesgareth, betting some experience, and lost and won one round for the Wish scroll. You don't want to bet your vitality if you don't want to lose it, permanently. Then Kayla used Nymph-cloak first on the thief, who was led to a killing zone to dispose. The cleric and archer Tieflings suffered the same fate.
The mage Tiefling was immune to all my Charming, so I had to use again my trusty WoW. Stone outside, stone inside.
4 skelis, buffed up and Sim cast PfM on Aesgareth and we started hacking away. I underestimated the fight a little, because both Aesgareth and his pets were immune to the skelis, so I had to do all the heavy lifting alone. But with couple helps from RoR and all were dead, interestingly statues can still turn to enemies.
Escaped the maze skipping both Tahazzar and Ka'rashur. If I come back, it'll probably be after the hell trials. Now we'll see what bad fortunes the Deck of Many Things has for us.
EDIT: As usual a crypt in the graveyard was chosen as the place for this judgement day run:
Resist Fear, SI:Abjuration, SI:Evocation, first draw, RUIN, which is actually good draw.
Resist Fear, SI:Alteration, SI:Enchantment, second draw, KEY, great draw.
Resist Fear, SI:Conjuration, third draw, THRONE, good draw.
Well that went a lot better than last time and actually got something useful from it.
Irenicus himself was dealt with the Farsight trick, 4 hasted skelis hacked him to near death, where's I activated the battle mean time,
City of Caverns should be fairly trivial, sold my loot and I'm now sitting on 140k gold pile.
A character who would have a chance of progressing is Vent (berserker dualling to mage) and I've restarted him. In a probably vain attempt to persuade myself to avoid risks I'll note progress with him.
Vent will be working towards grand mastery with flails to help with the fight against Belhifet. That requires him not to level up beyond level 5 in mage in BG1, so that he can use the proficiency point for level 6 when he hits level 9. As a berserker he also has a point in single weapon proficiency and in longbow; as a mage he will use a sling.
A couple of hours this morning saw the following progress:
- shot Imoen, Xzar and Montaron
- kited Shoal (level 3 - +25 HPs)
- found ring for Mad Arcand
- shot Neera
- calmed down Marl
- kited belt ogre
- killed the fishermen to get a +1 flail
- returned bowl to Tenya (level 4 - +12 HPs)
- shot Dushai for her ring (pulling her away from the inn to prevent anyone hostile running in there)
- at the Lakes gradually culled the gnolls as Drizzt's HPs fell. Left the one gnoll that broke a weapon in order to be able to safely finish Drizzt off when he was unconscious (level 5 - +14 HPs)
- at Firewine, shot Bentan for his PfM scroll.
- with reputation at 3 there's the possibility of bounty hunter spawns, so Vent went to kite Caldo and Krumm before finding goods for Firebead and Mr Colquetle. That let him buy 3 reputation points cheaply from the temple and talking to Oublek pushed reputation to 10 to ensure he got CLW when resting.
- talked to Noober and shot Vitiare.
- kited Greywolf.
- returned Samuel to the FAI. Tarnesh was killed by a guard there - Vent didn't intervene to protect his record of taking no damage to date.
- gave Joia her ring back.
Things have gone pretty much perfectly so far, but it only takes a fraction of a second to make a fatal mistake
Vent followed Korax round killing all the northern basilisks and Mutamin without problems. I then tried to squeeze a bit of extra benefit out of him by shooting at Lindin to draw him away from the others. That initially appeared to be successful and Lindin was duly paralyzed - but Baerin had obviously followed him belatedly and Korax started taking damage from him. Vent continued attacking the helpless Lindin while Korax strode forward through the arrow fire and managed to engage Baerin in melee combat. At that stage the chances of killing both of them looked pretty good, but Peter had obviously followed Baerin part-way initially and joined in the combat with Korax - cutting him down.
As Korax fell Vent was running away, but Peter had moved forward just enough to get a sight of him first and started casting a spell. Vent raged to ensure that domination would have no effect, but Peter had opted for an unholy blight instead. Including his rage bonus Vent had 92 HPs and had not at this stage suffered a single HP of damage during the run (ignoring the cut-scene of Gorion's death). As they say about share values though, you can't rely on past results ...
Belm +2 3-10 dmg
Firetooth +3 6-13 dmg
Scarlet Ninjato +3 4-11 + 12 poison with failed save vs. death
What do you think?
Saw first game breaking bug in the run when helping Phaere, Solaufein was Mazed and I couldn't complete the dialogue, it just gave me endless xp. Actually pretty decent xp-loop, if you wait enough for the Maze to end, which maybe ends the loop?
Beholder Dungeon, hacked the first couple Beholders, and then watched the Mind Flayers destroy half of the hive. Lured Hive Mother outside to a killing zone, PfM and grinded it down. Back inside, and continued watching the Flayers destroy all. With invisibility you can lure them in position to empty the whole dungeon I think, you just have to be careful with the Hive Mother, because it sees through invisibility.
Then something rather interesting happened. Mind Flayer Dire Charmed the main boss Elder Orb, which somehow became a friend of mine.
Next for Kayla is the Drow guestline.
Keep rolling!
Did some counting and if the double apr Oil of Speed comes with 2.5, Belhifet will suffer pretty fast death on average with Fighter9/Mage. With 5 apr Single Weapon Style and wielding Martyr's Morningstar Bel would go down in 6,7 rounds or 40 seconds, on average.
Fighter9/Mage
Thac0
12 Base
9 Potion of Power (40 rounds)
2 Violet Potion (24 hours)
0 Martyr's Morningstar +2 (Enchanted Weapon)
-3 Grand Master
-4 Legacy of the Masters
-5 Helmet of Balduran
-7 Medal of Valor
-8 Ring of Purity (Chant)
-9 Cloverleaf (Luck)
Apr
1 Base
1.5 Fighter 9
2.5 Grand Master
5.0 Oil of Speed (50 rounds)
Damage
4-10 Martyr's Morningstar +2
9-15 Grand Master
11-17 Legacy of the Masters
25-31 Violet Potion (24 hours)
26-31 Ring of Purity (Chant)
27-31 Cloverleaf (Luck)
29 Average + 15% max hp with 19 and 20 (Single Weapon Style)
Average damage per 20 attacks (29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+29+58+58)*0.75 + 2*169.5 = 687 dmg
Average time to kill Belhifet 20*1130hp / (687dmg*5apr - 20*2hppr) = 6.7 rounds
After doors opened I rested, buffed and cleared and looted the rest of the place. Gave up 3 reputation points so I could save all 4 Control Circlets, and got the Staff of Command. Double crossed also Adalon after she had helped me to open the way out of course, and got her blood.
Kayla was able to achieve impressive win over 5 Demon Knights on straight on combat with the help of 4 skelis and proper buffs. Got Soul Reaver and last component for Crom Fayer. Then finally escaped the Underdark being invisible. Getting closer to end of SoA, and I already have 3 Project Images, 7 Simulacrums and 14 Skull Trap scrolls for some trapping mayhem, somewhere.
Lets upgrade, Twisted Rune, and without Skull Trap spamming because I want to save Sim and PI scrolls for later. Kayla put 7 Spike Traps to the entrance just in case, double Sim PfU, Sim PfM on Shangalar, double Improved Haste and the lich got double slinged. Back up, double Invisibility, went to find Layene but she was invisible, no problem True Sight revealed her. But before Kayla were able to act, Layene's contingency hit and my Sim disappeared. So I backed up again, and waited her spell spamming, and buffs to end.
Dire Charmed Layene with SoC and she got hacked by her friends, and Kayla got the Staff of Magi. Revanek SoC'd and hacked. Vaxall had Spell Turning on which I had to wait more than hour to end. But it ended and he got then SoC'd. Made Vaxall Imprison Shyressa, Improved Haste on the enemy skeli, who then hacked Vaxall down. Getting the Staff of Magi practically ended the Twisted Rune, because I could act and turn invisible the same instance, and as none of them see through invisibility they could do nothing. I've to say Kayla is enjoying herself currently.
Visited North Forest and picked up Time Stop and Project Image scrolls. Bodhi's lair was leveled with PfU, downstairs Sim casted 5x PfU on the whole party and we hacked Bodhi down, needed to do it three times before she finally succumbed. Suldanesselar, enemies were completely skipped, just picked the three items for the temple. Nizidramanii'yt was turned into a stone.
After putting the items on the altar, Rillifane killed everything for me and I looted the City, after transactions with Reirra I have 46k gold left.
Some thinking aloud, after eventually getting two of everything in Arcana Archives my scroll intentory would be:
10 Simulacrum (+ Vhailor's Helm)
6 Project Image
19 Skull Trap
6 Time Stop
7 Spell Sequencer
4 Chain Contingency
3 Spell Trigger
From those Time Stop and Skull Traps are the only ones which Sim can use. Sequencers don't apply to main character and Sim casted Sim can't cast spells, so I can effectively use them only once. But I've now enough Skull Traps so Sim's and PI's can cast the maximum of 20 until they disappear, which means I can collectively cast 364 Skull Traps without resting. Skull Traps do 35 average damage when saved vs spell, which means the overall average damage output should be about 12 740. Eyeing the end battle and taking Magic Resistance into consideration the big 6 needs average magic damage of,
1150 Gromnir
1190 Yaga-Shura
1410 Illasera
2080 Sarevok
2890 Abazigal
3590 Sendai
so about 100 Skull Traps to either side should do the trick and I'll have plenty to spare. Melissan needs 5266 magic damage or about 150 Skull Traps, which I would still have, but I still need to figure how to lure her onto them without setting them off myself. But I can reduce her health almost a third with Spike Traps which she wont resists, so 7x70 average damage would reduce the magic damage need to 3633 or about 100 Skull Traps. Math works, but the reality is often different.
Irenicus at Hell and the power of trapping. 7 Spikes Traps, rest, buffs, WoMS and as soon as battle started invisibility and Kayla ran far away from the battle. 7 Spikes were able to kill one of the Balors. Waited Fallen Planetar to unsummon, and put another 7 Spikes, SI:Abjuration and lured the second Balor onto them. Put another 5 Spikes and one Time Stop trap, and lured the Glabrezu which I was able to hack down during the time stop. Another 2 Time Stop traps was enough for the last Glabrezu, again simply hacked down.
Buffs and Sim cast PfM onto the Slayer, waited invisible his PfMW to end, and then just started hacking him down. I took awhile, 3 Mirror Images, 3 Stoneskins and 1 PfMW, but eventually Kayla won the battle, wasn't even close.
Just a "small" sidenote: As i stopped playing i gave my good old friend @Vynn the permission to keep on playing with Eklun the Totemic Druid18/Fighter. The good news: He managed to beat Melissan using @Alesia_BH´s old tactic of kiting the big Five down one by one while negating Sendai and Abazigal with PfM. Once Mel got stunned he called in summons for distraction in between the kills so Mel tried to hunt them down instead of using Time Stop. As no demons or solars followed (this lucker!) he finished her off with MR + Harm which immediately triggered the final talking. Too bad @Vynn refuses to write the final part down in more detail. Maybe i will have to do this on my own once i return to the game even though my focus is another. A complete no-reload-poverty run would still be a dream and even the Chosen-One destiny wouldn´t be bad either. Some day... maybe.
First challenge in Pocket Plane, summon door trick, spammed Cloudkills and kept myself invisible with the Staff of Magi, the first three mobs could do nothing. Waited the boss mob until the Cloudkill smoke had softened them and then separated them. With the help of WoMS and Cloudkills hacked them down.
Magi Cloudkilled the evil mobs in Sharadush. "You think I'm trapped here with you? No, you're trapped here with me."
Gromnir downstairs, Magi Charmed the Battlemage, or using Staff of Magi to keep invisibility when doing something. I'll keep calling it like that, because I think the game will involve a lot of that in the future.
Gromnir Il-Khan, first toyed with his minions, Magi Charming them and watching them to kill each other. Activated Gromnir and charmed his pet, when the mages got involved, I turned to Magi Cloud spamming and watched them die, only running away from Gromnir because he's the only one seeing through invisibility. Eler Had was immune to both of my Magi Charming and Magi Clouds, but not to Sim Control Circlet. Last of the minions out of the way Gromnir was then simply hacked down.
Magi Charms and Magi Clouds, not many opponents can survive that, and that's just the foreplay.
Skelis killed Berenn and Kayla hacked the Fell Cats. Imix was yet another victim of the Control Circlet, although he snapped out of it somehow, but after a long brawl with the Burning Men, he fell. Looted the place.
Nyalee Sim PfM and simply hacked down. Yaga-Shura becomes incredibly exposed to everything after he loses his two rings, charmed with SoC and wasted by his own army.
Oasis, Kayla doesn't take hollow threats kindly so she charmed Jamis with SoC and he got what he deserved in couple seconds. Hunted all the mages and clerics first with SoC, and then Magi Cloudkilled the two mobs. After selling all the loot Kayla has cool 230k gold, for all the nice scrolls in Arcana Archives.
Time for Watchers Keep Maze and the treaded Tahazzar, Ka'rashur combo. And I think I finally found the perfect tactic for it. I've been having trouble with it because atleast in my installation (random Maze) both rooms before them are Spell Failure and Wild Magic rooms, which makes it incredibly risky thing to tackle. But here's how it should be fairly risk free.
Evil character, with that you can have free pass to either Ka'rashur or Tahazzar rooms, with your choosing. Kayla chose Tahazzar because the mob there is harder I think. You can deal Tahazzar anyway you like, Kayla has the obvious favorite style.
Then Ka'rashur, pause the game, and quickly retreat from Ka'rashurs sight, so that the fight script wont activate. Now you can buff up.
Sim wont activate Ka'rashur either, so Kayla cast Farsight, and Sim then used three consecutive Time Stops to hack Ka'rashur down.