Su´kka is only making slow progress in SoA. On the one hand i have a hard time deciding where to go next on the other hand there are enemies that cant be fought well atm.
At least Su´kka was able to free Hendak and even surviving the Slaver Ambush lead by Suna Seni. Used invisibilty potion right at the start and splitpulled the named ones. After this it was a mix of bow kiting and sword slashing. The reward: Arbanes Sword for some hasting and a Plate Mail +1 (which she cant use).
Gold is a big problem right now. Su´kka really needs a better Armor to push her tanking ability. So much work!
Su´kka is adjusting more and more. The flexibility of the Barbarian Class comes in very handy now:
Mages are spamming CC like crazy? Rage them down! Thieves are constantly using Invisibility Potions to backstab? Nice try! Heavy Melee Hitters are going for you? Use your superior movement speed and kite them to death!
With 167 HP´s Su´kka can take some punch while hitting most enemies quite regularly. In the meanwhile she reached level 12 thanks to the many quests where you do not have to fight and started to infiltrate Maevars Guild. After this i might give the Stronghold quest a try cause the Flail of Ages is too good to pass on. But first: Getting more gold to get better items!
During the fights Su´kka noticed that even trash enemy are constantly using potions: Healing, Strength, Anti-Magic or Speed. I like that as it improves the challenge of each fight.
Yesterday Su´kka ran into a very clever Mage. After going invisible he sneaked near Su´kka and released a Charm Person out of the Shadows. Only a very quick Rage saved the day. And this was only a warm-up-Mage. Things will get really interesting in the future. Have forgotten how cool SCS was/is in BG2.
Su´kka reached level 13 and finally managed to kill Maevar and his treacherous guild. But it was hard cause she still lacks decent items. The gamechanger in the whole fight was "Charm Person" from the ring. Combined with Holy Might + Rage + Haste (from Arbane) it still took several retreats and some healing potions to take Maevar and the Assassins down who constantly tried to backstab Su´kka. Imagine this fight with a Ranger or Paladin - a healing nightmare...
Su´kka has now enough gold to buy one of the OP items - which i did not ban via SCS. Vhailors Helm would open so many new opportunities. Does Baldurans Shield still helps against SCS Beholders? So many decisions. Another ring she has already bought is the Invisibility once per day thats a nice replacement for the missing stealth.
In the next days Su´kka will have to make another big deciscion: Bodhi or the Shadow Thieves. I tend to pick Bodhi as the backstab immunity will make things much easier against the Thieves. We will see...
Does Baldurans Shield still helps against SCS Beholders?
If you've got the improved beholders they'll quickly pinch the shield using telekinesis - which can be painful ...
Yeah i used nearly always the hardest setting including the srongest Beholders. Hope there are other ways to fight them. Damn, i always hated Beholders as they killed my parties many, many years ago - when i did not had a glimmer of knowledge about BG.
But Vhailors Helm should be a good choice anyway. Two Su´kkas instead of one - this must be cool.
Su´kka cleared the Slaver Stockade - well - she let others doing the dirty work. Playing an evil puppet master using the Charm Person Ring was funny as the Slavers hacked themselves to pieces one after another. At the end Su´kka collected the key, freed the children and returned to Hendak. More xp & gold, reputation finally at 20 and level 14 not too far away. It seems things are running pretty smoothly.
It seems. Because none of the quests or enemies are a walk in the park. Even a "normal" Slaver Guard is able to hack Su´kka into pieces without any problems. This means: She has to use everyting at her disposal:
Haste -> Arbanes Sword Invisibility -> Ring of Air Control Charm Person -> Ring of Human Influence Simulacrum -> Vhailors Helm
Rage & Holy Might are always useful. Kiting works also great thanks to bonus movement speed. Unsure where to go next or what to do. I fear the de'ArniseKeep and its upgraded Trolls but the Flail of Ages would be very cool. We will see...
Su´kka traveled to the de´Arnise Keep and used the secret entrance into the hold. Her first aim: Get the first part of the Flail of Ages in the secret room! Once inside she looted fire arrows to finish off trolls. Oh, the Trolls. Fighting the groups is a pain cause of improved call for help. Su´kka killed the solo trolls using Vhailors Helm plus Haste while sneaking past the groups. In the courtyard she killed the Otyugh (again Simulacrum + Haste) and lowered the drawbridge so that the guards swarmed in.
On the second floor she avoided the troll groups. After defeating the Yuan-ti mage in the library (again double Su´kka hacking) she took the Keep Key from the shelf. Going through many secret doors Su´kka finally engaged Glaicas who hits like a truck. With precast Simulacrum + Holy Might + Rage + Haste he went down pretty fast. Her reward: The second part for the Flail of Ages! In the big hall with many Golems she used Haste, looted the Elven Bow, the Battle Axe +3 and grabbed the third part for the Flail of Ages before going invisible. With all three parts Su´kka managed to restore the Flail of Ages and reached at the same time level 14 - wonderful!
Fighting Torgal – Warrior Edition
Improved Torgal with all his adds can be a real nightmare. But even Torgal alone is a fearsome enemy: He moves fast, hits hard (three or four hits and Su´kka is done), uses Mantle of Fear as well as a slowing attack. And: He regenerates quickly and will use several healing potions!!!
To stand any chance in this fight Su´kka used a very important fact: Only Torgal can see through invisibility and will follow you forever – alone! This means: Get in range of Torgal and his party → go invisible → lure Torgal to the stairway. Climbing the stairs stops the movement of Torgal.
In a perfect scenario Torgal should now wait right before the room with the stairs. This will give you all the time to buff yourself up once you go down again.
Preparation for the waiting Torgal: Simulacrum + Oil of Speed + Holy Might → Lure Torgal intro the stairway room → close the door so the other Trolls do no get attracted → Rage + Attack!
Fighting Torgal alone is still tricky cause of his insane damage output and regeneration. The trick was: Wait for Torgal to pick one target -> move this target back while the second warrior continues hacking him down. If he switches the target you switch too – and so on. Thanks to the Flail of Ages slowing effect this gets a lot easier.
In my case both Su´kkas were still standing at the end - what a fight! Most important: Never ever forget to keep Rage up all the time – otherwise the mantle of fear might turn the tide into Torgals favor! Su´kka is now owner of the de´Arnise Keep - a glorious future is wating. Hopefully!
Hrhrhr... thats pretty cool @chimaera! Yeah - without the precasting ability some waves might be near to impossible for Mageclasses. Its a real pity that setting up the battlefield wont work against Big B. But i am sure you will find another way - good resting!
Su´kka hasnt made real progress because i lack time. I only went back to the Keep - before talking to Nalia. Why? Because Su´kka decided to give the Troll groups a try. Thanks to Simulacrum double power and invisibility retreating in between they are a lot easier than i thought. So many XP on the run - 12k for just one Spirit Troll. If she keeps on hacking like this level 15 is not that far away anymore...
Okay - Su´kka farmed the Trolls at de´Arnise Keep and reached level 15. Fighting the Hordes of Spirit Trolls was all about patience. And - not to forget - a lesson about pain as the Flame Strikes are able to one-hit-kill even a 186 HP Barbarian. Ouch! Next stop will be Athkatla again - gaining more xp to finally get the first HLA´s. Hopefully!
The whole trouble around Trademeet was much easier than i expected as long as Su´kka took care. This means: Scout areas while being invisible and prepare fights with the usual routine: Simulacrum + Holy Might + Haste (+ Rage). Only the Rakshasas proved to be unkillable at this level so she skipped them until later.
Animal Trouble This one was straightforward. Su´kka used invisibility to sneak to the Druid Grove – while killing some mobs on the run – and let Cernd challenge Faldorn. After this she returned to Trademeet and took the reward – job done!
Dealing with the Trademeet Genies Do not bother to hunt the Rakshasas – they are such a pain. Its was easier for Su´kka – and much faster - to kill Khan Zahraa and his genies directly. With Oil of Speed + Simulacrum this wasnt too hard. Just watch out for the Stone to Flesh spell while killing his guards first. The big benefit is: Su´kka got another strong summon figurine that can call an Ifrit – superb! Helping Tiris This only triggers once the Animal & Genie problems are solved. After some walking & talking Su´kka got the chance to kill Rejiek the Skindancer without much effort. Another easy 30K xp in the pocket!
The Dueling Families of Trademeet After some talking and killing skeletons she decided to give the mantle to Logan in the Mayer's House – fast xp for nothing.
Before leaving Trademeet Su´kka bought the Belt of Inertial Barrier & the Displacer Cloak – level 16 barely reached!
Su´kka reached level 17 in the meanwhile. Questing a bit in the Umar Hills while picking up Ilbratha for Mirror Image - always nice! She also decided to side with Bodhi: Shadow Tieves? Backstabs? We laugh about that one! The only quest still open is Aran Linvail - this will be tough. Su´kka picked up the Mace of Disruption in Bodhis Lair and tested it against the Lich in the hidden crypt of the Crooked Crane. As the Lich couldnt see through invisibility Su´kka sneaked up, smashed the Mace once and - wow - the Lich went down instantly! Reward: The Daystar Longsword! Maybe she should give the other liches - and Kangaxx - a try...
Su´kka killed the damn Liches in Athkatla including Kangaxx and is now the proud owner of the Ring of Gaxx!!
Not so glorious was the way how Su´kka rolled through them. No use of PfUndead or PfMagic alltogether but Simulacrum + ugraded Mace of Disruption smashing for instakilling the "normal" Liches.
Main problem with Kangaxx is the nearly neverending summoning: Planetars, Cornugons, Ifrit - and so on. To clear his spell slots Su´kka used to very cheesy get-in-get-out trick. But after doing this several times and trying some hacking with Daystar - Mace of Disruption instakilling does not work - she realized something very interesting:
Even if the slashing and bonus magic damage from Daystar will not go through the protection layers of Kangaxx the hits are constantly disrupting all of his spellcasts! This means: Su´kka used Simulacrum + Rage (antifear!) and hacked Kangaxx into pieces. After he transformed into his demilichform both Su´kkas swapped to Mace of Disruption and - hurray- instakilled him for 55k xp and the Ring of Gaxx.
Su´kka freed the Umar Hills by slaying the dreaded Shadowlord – here is her path of destruction:
I would like to give more details here but at the end the whole temple was all about using Mace of Disruption and Daystar for instakilling and waveclearing – these two weapons are just OP against undead! Su´kka mixed in some buffs to speed up the killing while picking all pieces for the symbol of Amaunator. Once she got all three of them the way was clear for the Shadowlord.
This battle would be a nightmare without the PfUndead-Scroll – leveldrain aura, permakill ability, neverending shadow summons. Forget it. With the Protection on the other hand the whole fight is a cakewalk as you can smash everyone apart without the fear of retaliation. Just make sure to kill the Shadowlord last otherwise all summoned shadows will attack – regardless of your Protection...
After killing Peter, the Altar and finally the Shadowlord darkness was banished once more and – even better – Su´kka got level 18!
The main problem in this area was: Getting foothold once you enter in the prison because there are enemies all over the place. The Bounty Hunters are nasty and can take down Su´kka in seconds. Therefore she used invisibility before entering and headed a bit north out of their vision. But even with Simulacrum and Ifrits it was still not enough as the Yua-Ti Mage constantly dispelled everything. The new battleplan worked: Simulacrum -> Mirror Image -> Holy Might -> Invisibility -> park the Ifrits in the north -> sneak to the Mage -> Improved Haste -> smash him to pieces using Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven before he can start his spell cycle. Once he went down -> move in the Ifrits -> focus the cleric -> after this the rest was easy going.
With Boots of Speed everything gets easier. The following Mages were killed in the same way - buffed up and with dual weapons they go down in seconds even with improved HP thanks to LoB. 7 Attacks per round with improved haste - doubled thanks to Simulacrum - is just awesome!
The Master of Thrall Demon went down in similar fashion while Rage made sure that no CC would turn the tides. The reward: The Staff of Air for more summoning. This means only the improved Warden was left.
As he is the only one who can see through invisibility Su´kka lured his double simulacrums away and hacked them to pieces. Only the real Warden himself was troublesome as he moves really fast and has many spell protections. But after drinking anti magic potion and using the Ifrits and Air Elementals to soften him up she waited until the Flame Shield expired. Then the doubled and buffed up Su´kka moved in and killed the Warden in nearly no time - he even did not get the chance to recast his protections. Awesome!
With level 19 in the pocket the first HLA is near...
After clearing many tombs on the Athkatla graveyard Su´kka reached level 20 - hurray!
Time for a short break and some analysis of SoA so far:
1. The very beginning was the hardest but - hands down - the biggest fun part. Fighting with very limited supplies while there are deadly enemy groups lurking around every corner was thrilling. 2. Once Su´kka managed to get the first gold and great items like Vhailors Helm the difficulty dropped significantly except for boss fights. Undeads are trivial once she Mace of Disruption got in her hands. 3. The toughest enemies by far are Mages as there is no easy way to get through all of their protections especially if you do not get the chance of first strike. Rage works great vs the CC they throw at Su´kka. 4. My scepticism that Su´kka would have a hard time in SoA is not true for most parts so far. Yes she skipped Dragons and Beholders but i am sure that there are ways to challenge them. Hopefully. 5. Its quite amazing how fast enemies go down even in LoB-Mode when using Dual-Wielding + Simulacrum + Improved Haste. Its not rare that mages go down before recasting their protections. 6. Ranged Combat gets less and less important the bigger Su´kka grows. Its hard to remember times when Su´kkas Longbow ruled nearly everything in BG1 (and SoD). 7. Even though the Barbarian is "only" a Fighter i like her versatility that helps in many siutations. No Boots of Speed at hand? Innate movement speed bonus will give you an advantage! Nasty Shadow Thieves are trying to backstab you to death? Backstab immunity turns the tide! Mages are throwing all kinds of CC at you? Rage them to death! There is a tough melee monster that cannot be kited? Innate 20% DR + 20% DR from Defender of Easthaven + 40% DR from Hardiness will make you a tough nut to crack! Does the Scale Mail only restriction hurted on the journey so far? A tiny bit - yes - but not a gamebreaking difference!
What items has Su´kka aquired so far?
Head: Baldurans Helm + Vhailors Helm Neck: Shield Amulet + Necklace of Missiles Gloves: Gauntlets of Weapons Skill + Gloves of Healing Armor: Chain Mail +3 Weapons: Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven + Daystar + Mace of Disruption + Staff of Air + Ilbratha + Namarra Rings: Ring of Gaxx + Ring of Air Control + Ring of Human Influence + Ring of Earth Control Girdle: Belt of Inertial Barrier + Girdle of Bluntness + Girdle of Piercing Boots: Boots of Speed Back: Cloak of Displacement Usables: Efreeti Bottle + Black Spider Figurine + Glasses of Identification
Okay - Su´kka rolled through the Beholders and destroyed the Cult of the Eyeless!
As predicted the Beholders will always try to grab the Shield of Balduran leaving Su´kka without protection. What Su´kka did to outsmart the smart Beholders was: Engage them without shield so they start firing all kinds of harm -> switch to shield when the rays are midair -> watch them returning to the Beholders -> wait a second until the Beholders start using their telekinesis -> switch from shield to Dual-Weapons -> watch how the Beholders are still thinking you are using the shield and trying to grab it so they do not use their rays anymore (except for constant dispel) -> hack them to pieces!
This very cheesy tactic worked to some degree even against the Unseeing Eye. Thanks to the protection layers - and the damn fire shields - Su´kka had to take a bit more care. After doing several get in -> hit ´em hard while switching between Shield of Balduran and Dual Wielding -> get out -> heal and buff up -> repeat! the Unseeing Eye finally went down.
Killing Gaal and his Elite Guards was easy. Simulacrum -> Buff up -> sneak in invisible -> improved Haste -> Destroy! After getting back to the temple of Helm Su´kka recieved enough XP to reach level 22!
@Grond0: This would assume Su´kka masters all challenges before. We will see!!!
Su´kka killed Aran Linvail and is now ready to go for Spellhold - theoretically.
Aran Linvail went down quite quickly thanks to the usual simulacrum -> buff up -> invisibility -> improved haste -> destroy. As this was still not enough double Su´kka used double whirlwind attack to get through his protections while soaking away his last HP´s. With the Ring of Djinni Summoning Su´kka reported back to Bodhi - job done!
Spellhold or maybe Planar Sphere first? Or trying Firkraag?
Hhmmmm - whats going on with all the other challenges? @Grond0 -> still pausing
I did actually start Frey again yesterday - he's again restricted by not being allowed to use any charged items (wands, scrolls, potions) and I also am only allowing him to purchase anything for the minimum possible price. It's so far, so good - with him up to level 7 and currently working through challenges at Durlag's Tower.
Another attempt goes astray at the Bandit Camp with Frey at his level cap. He had had one big scare prior to that when his cat familiar was poisoned by a sirine. With no way to cure that and with the cat's death automatically leading to his own, things looked bad. He came up with a neat solution though - he was quite close to the pirate cave and by attacking the sirine in melee and then retreating managed to drag her in there. A quick cast of invisibility and out again left him time to rest before the cat died.
At the Bandit Camp I was aiming to play safe and managed to do quite a bit of damage to the chasing hosts - mainly with skull traps, with a number of rests in between. The only real danger with that should have been Venkt and when he died
it should just have been a question of time to finish the others off. That perhaps led me to relax too much though and not long after that I'd finished a round of spell damage and went invisible to rest. There didn't seem any danger as I started to move away from the chasing group - but found I couldn't. There was no way through the surrounding trees and, although on the screen it looked like there was space to get past Taugosz Frey's icon kept getting stuck on him when I tried to move past. There were a couple of other enemies helping him block the entrance and I tried recasting buffs in the hope that a bandit would retreat when Frey became visible and allow an exit, but that didn't work and a torrent of missiles from nearby enemies brought a swift end ...
I'll have one more go, but this time not put restrictions on Frey's use of items (other than my normal prohibition of healing potions and antidotes) - the Bandit Camp will be a lot easier if the archers need criticals to hit him .
Oh dear @Grond0! But i have also noticed the neverending problems with pathfinding you are mentioning. Sometimes the char gets stuck even if there is enough space to move around. Most of the time manual clicking will solve this but - damn - not in your case. Getting surrounded while being invisible - yeah happened more than one time to me. I am so lucky i have a reload button!
Su´kka cleared the Planar Sphere and reached level 24!
The main challenge in this area were the Mages that are all over the place. As the double simulacrum + double whirlwind wasnt enough Su´kka fell back to the good old let-the-summons-do-the-job. Once the Mages -> Lavok -> Tolgerias ran out of spell sequencers and the fire shield expired it was showtime: Simulacrum + Whirwind for a quick kill. Ah, i love it when Su´kka tears Mages apart...
For the Golem groups she used doorways while the Demons got killed by Rage & Whirlwind - easy stuff!
This leaves only the dragons open. Maybe Spellhold first!
Oh dear @Grond0! But i have also noticed the neverending problems with pathfinding you are mentioning. Sometimes the char gets stuck even if there is enough space to move around. Most of the time manual clicking will solve this but - damn - not in your case.
I've always found you can unstick yourself by moving directly away, i.e. 180 degrees. Lesser angles are possible, but it always seems to require more than 90. In Frey's case moving directly away didn't help as coming back he just got stuck again and he was unable to move at the lesser angle to get out of the apparent gap. I suspect that saving and reloading might have helped - if only I'd been able to save at that point .
Frey had more misfortune just now when taking on Neira when the cleric duplicated herself as a result of Frey popping in and out of the inn. Before I'd realised a second enemy had appeared the clone followed him out of the inn while in the process of casting hold person (I hate the way the AI is able to do that ). That proved fatal as Neira refused to be distracted by the cat scratching at her ankles ...
Nooooo!!! I am sure that little cat tried everything... if your game only had a reload button @Grond0 you would have finished the whole challenge multiple times now...
No chokepoints for Su´kka anymore? Cant believe that! The dragons should be a real pain with improved HP from SCS AND LoB. Or i am missing some neat trick? Su´kka needs more HLA´s!
I decided to have a change of pace from magic and have a go with a warrior option. As no-one has tried a dwarven defender in this challenge I rolled one of those up. I have very little experience with that class and initially I gave him the obvious option of using axes. Progress proved to be relatively easy up to level 7 when I took on Kirian's party: with the others dead, Peter started casting unholy blight. Rather than protect against that I decided to finish off his last 6 HPs with a Necklace fireball. That duly killed him, but he just managed to complete his spell first and a couple of seconds later he got some posthumous revenge.
Rather than restart exactly the same character I rerolled (taking quite a long time in order to get 18(00) strength). The main reason for rerolling was to take scimitar and short bow proficiency rather than axes. Though that limits weapon proficiency benefits I believe that Belhifet needs +3 weapons to hit and that there are no +3 axes in SoD - that combat will probably be very difficult anyway without being handicapped by non-proficient weapons!
Fred's current incarnation has hit his level cap, after just completing his intended work at Durlag's Tower (the ghasts there proving particularly hard work thanks to their calls for help and inconsistency about whether they would chase between floors). He's arrived at the Nashkel Mine and should look to make quick progress from here.
Up to now the bulk of enemies have been shot down, but Fred's also pretty proficient in melee combat. With a full stock of belts he's able to require most enemies to roll a critical to hit (including battle horrors for instance) and his defensive stance and helmet means he can avoid the sort of one-shot deaths that were a concern for Frey. Typically he only uses defensive stance though near some form of exit as it would only be used against potential dangers and if they get lucky the stance's reduction of movement rate can be a problem ...
Here's his current character record after benefiting from the 3 tomes available before Baldur's Gate.
Comments
At least Su´kka was able to free Hendak and even surviving the Slaver Ambush lead by Suna Seni. Used invisibilty potion right at the start and splitpulled the named ones. After this it was a mix of bow kiting and sword slashing. The reward: Arbanes Sword for some hasting and a Plate Mail +1 (which she cant use).
Gold is a big problem right now. Su´kka really needs a better Armor to push her tanking ability. So much work!
Mages are spamming CC like crazy? Rage them down!
Thieves are constantly using Invisibility Potions to backstab? Nice try!
Heavy Melee Hitters are going for you? Use your superior movement speed and kite them to death!
With 167 HP´s Su´kka can take some punch while hitting most enemies quite regularly. In the meanwhile she reached level 12 thanks to the many quests where you do not have to fight and started to infiltrate Maevars Guild. After this i might give the Stronghold quest a try cause the Flail of Ages is too good to pass on. But first: Getting more gold to get better items!
During the fights Su´kka noticed that even trash enemy are constantly using potions: Healing, Strength, Anti-Magic or Speed. I like that as it improves the challenge of each fight.
Yesterday Su´kka ran into a very clever Mage. After going invisible he sneaked near Su´kka and released a Charm Person out of the Shadows. Only a very quick Rage saved the day. And this was only a warm-up-Mage. Things will get really interesting in the future. Have forgotten how cool SCS was/is in BG2.
Su´kka has now enough gold to buy one of the OP items - which i did not ban via SCS. Vhailors Helm would open so many new opportunities. Does Baldurans Shield still helps against SCS Beholders? So many decisions. Another ring she has already bought is the Invisibility once per day thats a nice replacement for the missing stealth.
In the next days Su´kka will have to make another big deciscion: Bodhi or the Shadow Thieves. I tend to pick Bodhi as the backstab immunity will make things much easier against the Thieves. We will see...
But Vhailors Helm should be a good choice anyway. Two Su´kkas instead of one - this must be cool.
It seems. Because none of the quests or enemies are a walk in the park. Even a "normal" Slaver Guard is able to hack Su´kka into pieces without any problems. This means: She has to use everyting at her disposal:
Haste -> Arbanes Sword
Invisibility -> Ring of Air Control
Charm Person -> Ring of Human Influence
Simulacrum -> Vhailors Helm
Rage & Holy Might are always useful. Kiting works also great thanks to bonus movement speed. Unsure where to go next or what to do. I fear the de'ArniseKeep and its upgraded Trolls but the Flail of Ages would be very cool. We will see...
Su´kka in the de´Arnise Keep
Su´kka traveled to the de´Arnise Keep and used the secret entrance into the hold. Her first aim: Get the first part of the Flail of Ages in the secret room! Once inside she looted fire arrows to finish off trolls. Oh, the Trolls. Fighting the groups is a pain cause of improved call for help. Su´kka killed the solo trolls using Vhailors Helm plus Haste while sneaking past the groups. In the courtyard she killed the Otyugh (again Simulacrum + Haste) and lowered the drawbridge so that the guards swarmed in.On the second floor she avoided the troll groups. After defeating the Yuan-ti mage in the library (again double Su´kka hacking) she took the Keep Key from the shelf. Going through many secret doors Su´kka finally engaged Glaicas who hits like a truck. With precast Simulacrum + Holy Might + Rage + Haste he went down pretty fast. Her reward: The second part for the Flail of Ages! In the big hall with many Golems she used Haste, looted the Elven Bow, the Battle Axe +3 and grabbed the third part for the Flail of Ages before going invisible. With all three parts Su´kka managed to restore the Flail of Ages and reached at the same time level 14 - wonderful!
Improved Torgal with all his adds can be a real nightmare. But even Torgal alone is a fearsome enemy: He moves fast, hits hard (three or four hits and Su´kka is done), uses Mantle of Fear as well as a slowing attack. And: He regenerates quickly and will use several healing potions!!!Fighting Torgal – Warrior Edition
To stand any chance in this fight Su´kka used a very important fact: Only Torgal can see through invisibility and will follow you forever – alone! This means: Get in range of Torgal and his party → go invisible → lure Torgal to the stairway. Climbing the stairs stops the movement of Torgal.
In a perfect scenario Torgal should now wait right before the room with the stairs. This will give you all the time to buff yourself up once you go down again.
Preparation for the waiting Torgal: Simulacrum + Oil of Speed + Holy Might → Lure Torgal intro the stairway room → close the door so the other Trolls do no get attracted → Rage + Attack!
Fighting Torgal alone is still tricky cause of his insane damage output and regeneration. The trick was: Wait for Torgal to pick one target -> move this target back while the second warrior continues hacking him down. If he switches the target you switch too – and so on. Thanks to the Flail of Ages slowing effect this gets a lot easier.
In my case both Su´kkas were still standing at the end - what a fight! Most important: Never ever forget to keep Rage up all the time – otherwise the mantle of fear might turn the tide into Torgals favor!
Su´kka is now owner of the de´Arnise Keep - a glorious future is wating. Hopefully!
Su´kka hasnt made real progress because i lack time. I only went back to the Keep - before talking to Nalia. Why? Because Su´kka decided to give the Troll groups a try. Thanks to Simulacrum double power and invisibility retreating in between they are a lot easier than i thought. So many XP on the run - 12k for just one Spirit Troll. If she keeps on hacking like this level 15 is not that far away anymore...
Su´kka in Trademeet
The whole trouble around Trademeet was much easier than i expected as long as Su´kka took care. This means: Scout areas while being invisible and prepare fights with the usual routine: Simulacrum + Holy Might + Haste (+ Rage). Only the Rakshasas proved to be unkillable at this level so she skipped them until later.Animal Trouble
This one was straightforward. Su´kka used invisibility to sneak to the Druid Grove – while killing some mobs on the run – and let Cernd challenge Faldorn. After this she returned to Trademeet and took the reward – job done!
Dealing with the Trademeet Genies
Do not bother to hunt the Rakshasas – they are such a pain. Its was easier for Su´kka – and much faster - to kill Khan Zahraa and his genies directly. With Oil of Speed + Simulacrum this wasnt too hard. Just watch out for the Stone to Flesh spell while killing his guards first. The big benefit is: Su´kka got another strong summon figurine that can call an Ifrit – superb!
Helping Tiris
This only triggers once the Animal & Genie problems are solved. After some walking & talking Su´kka got the chance to kill Rejiek the Skindancer without much effort. Another easy 30K xp in the pocket!
The Dueling Families of Trademeet
After some talking and killing skeletons she decided to give the mantle to Logan in the Mayer's House – fast xp for nothing.
Before leaving Trademeet Su´kka bought the Belt of Inertial Barrier & the Displacer Cloak – level 16 barely reached!
Not so glorious was the way how Su´kka rolled through them. No use of PfUndead or PfMagic alltogether but Simulacrum + ugraded Mace of Disruption smashing for instakilling the "normal" Liches.
Main problem with Kangaxx is the nearly neverending summoning: Planetars, Cornugons, Ifrit - and so on. To clear his spell slots Su´kka used to very cheesy get-in-get-out trick. But after doing this several times and trying some hacking with Daystar - Mace of Disruption instakilling does not work - she realized something very interesting:
Even if the slashing and bonus magic damage from Daystar will not go through the protection layers of Kangaxx the hits are constantly disrupting all of his spellcasts! This means: Su´kka used Simulacrum + Rage (antifear!) and hacked Kangaxx into pieces. After he transformed into his demilichform both Su´kkas swapped to Mace of Disruption and - hurray- instakilled him for 55k xp and the Ring of Gaxx.
Maybe its now time for the Shade Lord...
I would like to give more details here but at the end the whole temple was all about using Mace of Disruption and Daystar for instakilling and waveclearing – these two weapons are just OP against undead! Su´kka mixed in some buffs to speed up the killing while picking all pieces for the symbol of Amaunator. Once she got all three of them the way was clear for the Shadowlord.
This battle would be a nightmare without the PfUndead-Scroll – leveldrain aura, permakill ability, neverending shadow summons. Forget it. With the Protection on the other hand the whole fight is a cakewalk as you can smash everyone apart without the fear of retaliation. Just make sure to kill the Shadowlord last otherwise all summoned shadows will attack – regardless of your Protection...
After killing Peter, the Altar and finally the Shadowlord darkness was banished once more and – even better – Su´kka got level 18!
The main problem in this area was: Getting foothold once you enter in the prison because there are enemies all over the place. The Bounty Hunters are nasty and can take down Su´kka in seconds. Therefore she used invisibility before entering and headed a bit north out of their vision. But even with Simulacrum and Ifrits it was still not enough as the Yua-Ti Mage constantly dispelled everything. The new battleplan worked: Simulacrum -> Mirror Image -> Holy Might -> Invisibility -> park the Ifrits in the north -> sneak to the Mage -> Improved Haste -> smash him to pieces using Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven before he can start his spell cycle. Once he went down -> move in the Ifrits -> focus the cleric -> after this the rest was easy going.
With Boots of Speed everything gets easier. The following Mages were killed in the same way - buffed up and with dual weapons they go down in seconds even with improved HP thanks to LoB. 7 Attacks per round with improved haste - doubled thanks to Simulacrum - is just awesome!
The Master of Thrall Demon went down in similar fashion while Rage made sure that no CC would turn the tides. The reward: The Staff of Air for more summoning. This means only the improved Warden was left.
As he is the only one who can see through invisibility Su´kka lured his double simulacrums away and hacked them to pieces. Only the real Warden himself was troublesome as he moves really fast and has many spell protections. But after drinking anti magic potion and using the Ifrits and Air Elementals to soften him up she waited until the Flame Shield expired. Then the doubled and buffed up Su´kka moved in and killed the Warden in nearly no time - he even did not get the chance to recast his protections. Awesome!
With level 19 in the pocket the first HLA is near...
Time for a short break and some analysis of SoA so far:
1. The very beginning was the hardest but - hands down - the biggest fun part. Fighting with very limited supplies while there are deadly enemy groups lurking around every corner was thrilling.
2. Once Su´kka managed to get the first gold and great items like Vhailors Helm the difficulty dropped significantly except for boss fights. Undeads are trivial once she Mace of Disruption got in her hands.
3. The toughest enemies by far are Mages as there is no easy way to get through all of their protections especially if you do not get the chance of first strike. Rage works great vs the CC they throw at Su´kka.
4. My scepticism that Su´kka would have a hard time in SoA is not true for most parts so far. Yes she skipped Dragons and Beholders but i am sure that there are ways to challenge them. Hopefully.
5. Its quite amazing how fast enemies go down even in LoB-Mode when using Dual-Wielding + Simulacrum + Improved Haste. Its not rare that mages go down before recasting their protections.
6. Ranged Combat gets less and less important the bigger Su´kka grows. Its hard to remember times when Su´kkas Longbow ruled nearly everything in BG1 (and SoD).
7. Even though the Barbarian is "only" a Fighter i like her versatility that helps in many siutations. No Boots of Speed at hand? Innate movement speed bonus will give you an advantage! Nasty Shadow Thieves are trying to backstab you to death? Backstab immunity turns the tide! Mages are throwing all kinds of CC at you? Rage them to death! There is a tough melee monster that cannot be kited? Innate 20% DR + 20% DR from Defender of Easthaven + 40% DR from Hardiness will make you a tough nut to crack! Does the Scale Mail only restriction hurted on the journey so far? A tiny bit - yes - but not a gamebreaking difference!
What items has Su´kka aquired so far?
Head: Baldurans Helm + Vhailors Helm
Neck: Shield Amulet + Necklace of Missiles
Gloves: Gauntlets of Weapons Skill + Gloves of Healing
Armor: Chain Mail +3
Weapons: Flail of Ages + Defender of Easthaven + Daystar + Mace of Disruption + Staff of Air + Ilbratha + Namarra
Rings: Ring of Gaxx + Ring of Air Control + Ring of Human Influence + Ring of Earth Control
Girdle: Belt of Inertial Barrier + Girdle of Bluntness + Girdle of Piercing
Boots: Boots of Speed
Back: Cloak of Displacement
Usables: Efreeti Bottle + Black Spider Figurine + Glasses of Identification
The more the better - whats next?
As predicted the Beholders will always try to grab the Shield of Balduran leaving Su´kka without protection. What Su´kka did to outsmart the smart Beholders was: Engage them without shield so they start firing all kinds of harm -> switch to shield when the rays are midair -> watch them returning to the Beholders -> wait a second until the Beholders start using their telekinesis -> switch from shield to Dual-Weapons -> watch how the Beholders are still thinking you are using the shield and trying to grab it so they do not use their rays anymore (except for constant dispel) -> hack them to pieces!
This very cheesy tactic worked to some degree even against the Unseeing Eye. Thanks to the protection layers - and the damn fire shields - Su´kka had to take a bit more care. After doing several get in -> hit ´em hard while switching between Shield of Balduran and Dual Wielding -> get out -> heal and buff up -> repeat! the Unseeing Eye finally went down.
Killing Gaal and his Elite Guards was easy. Simulacrum -> Buff up -> sneak in invisible -> improved Haste -> Destroy! After getting back to the temple of Helm Su´kka recieved enough XP to reach level 22!
@Grond0: This would assume Su´kka masters all challenges before. We will see!!!
Aran Linvail went down quite quickly thanks to the usual simulacrum -> buff up -> invisibility -> improved haste -> destroy. As this was still not enough double Su´kka used double whirlwind attack to get through his protections while soaking away his last HP´s. With the Ring of Djinni Summoning Su´kka reported back to Bodhi - job done!
Spellhold or maybe Planar Sphere first? Or trying Firkraag?
@Grond0 -> still pausing
@Victor_Creed_SFV -> plays Tyranny
@Blackraven -> unknown
@chimaera -> kicking Big B (?)
Anyone else wants to join our "Tour of Cheese & Patience"?
No problem @chimaera - take your time! This is not a speedrun!
Nah, i still think that Su´kka will reach a point of no return - somewhere, sometime!
At the Bandit Camp I was aiming to play safe and managed to do quite a bit of damage to the chasing hosts - mainly with skull traps, with a number of rests in between. The only real danger with that should have been Venkt and when he died
I'll have one more go, but this time not put restrictions on Frey's use of items (other than my normal prohibition of healing potions and antidotes) - the Bandit Camp will be a lot easier if the archers need criticals to hit him
The main challenge in this area were the Mages that are all over the place. As the double simulacrum + double whirlwind wasnt enough Su´kka fell back to the good old let-the-summons-do-the-job. Once the Mages -> Lavok -> Tolgerias ran out of spell sequencers and the fire shield expired it was showtime: Simulacrum + Whirwind for a quick kill. Ah, i love it when Su´kka tears Mages apart...
For the Golem groups she used doorways while the Demons got killed by Rage & Whirlwind - easy stuff!
This leaves only the dragons open. Maybe Spellhold first!
Frey had more misfortune just now when taking on Neira when the cleric duplicated herself as a result of Frey popping in and out of the inn. Before I'd realised a second enemy had appeared the clone followed him out of the inn while in the process of casting hold person (I hate the way the AI is able to do that
No chokepoints for Su´kka anymore? Cant believe that! The dragons should be a real pain with improved HP from SCS AND LoB. Or i am missing some neat trick? Su´kka needs more HLA´s!
Rather than restart exactly the same character I rerolled (taking quite a long time in order to get 18(00) strength). The main reason for rerolling was to take scimitar and short bow proficiency rather than axes. Though that limits weapon proficiency benefits I believe that Belhifet needs +3 weapons to hit and that there are no +3 axes in SoD - that combat will probably be very difficult anyway without being handicapped by non-proficient weapons!
Fred's current incarnation has hit his level cap, after just completing his intended work at Durlag's Tower (the ghasts there proving particularly hard work thanks to their calls for help and inconsistency about whether they would chase between floors). He's arrived at the Nashkel Mine and should look to make quick progress from here.
Up to now the bulk of enemies have been shot down, but Fred's also pretty proficient in melee combat. With a full stock of belts he's able to require most enemies to roll a critical to hit (including battle horrors for instance) and his defensive stance and helmet means he can avoid the sort of one-shot deaths that were a concern for Frey. Typically he only uses defensive stance though near some form of exit as it would only be used against potential dangers and if they get lucky the stance's reduction of movement rate can be a problem ...
Here's his current character record after benefiting from the 3 tomes available before Baldur's Gate.