@semiticgod I don't think you need to use PfU on the Athkatla liches in newest SCS, I've only used one on myself in several playthroughs and I don't think I've seen a dispel from them.
Thanks for another "explosive" run @Grond0 ! Man i like your playstyle a lot - including the most unexpecting and original deaths!
With SCS v32 finally working and after rethinking what is killing most of the fun for me i decided to ban things like XP loops as well as Algernon´s Cloak and Nymph Cloak for the my next Druid. This should make leveling and battling far more interesting even though the planned Berserker (7) -> Druid might get a bit painful after dualing. I am still not sure which XP route would work best here - any tips on this one @Grond0?
Has anyone tested the Staff of Striking vs Big B? With GM in Quarterstaffs this looks like a decent option for Druids - no?
Oh, it also looks that Drizzt seems to get smarter with every new version. I did several tests and even when only activating the eastern Gnolls he (nearly) always fights back taking them down in no time. The easiest way seemed to be to activate all Gnolls so they surround Drizzt and then talk to him so he turns hostile. The Gnolls will continue attacking him but he cant reach you while also not attacking the Gnolls anymore.
Is anyone else - beside @semiticgod - playing with IWD spells? The Druid should be even more fun now and things like Spike Growth + Stones stacking should be good enough for lots of cheesy kills. Will have to test this later on in detail...
Looks like we will soon have the first full 2.5 nR run completed - or is there anything that can stop you @histaminii? I can only remember you dying to Big B or Melissan herself so the challenge definetely seems to be "too easy" for you -no?
Will your Archer be single Class only @semiticgod or are there any plans for dualing? Would be really cool to see this one going at least deep into ToB - maybe even more!
@histamiini: Historically, SCS liches have been able to dispel Protection from Undead scrolls by summoning a creature like Mordenkainen's Sword or a demon, letting the summoned critter attack you, and then casting Remove Magic on it so that it catches you in the area of effect. I suppose you could run away and wait out the duration of the summoned critter to make sure the lich couldn't target you indirectly with Remove Magic, but otherwise you're counting on the lich choosing a different spell, and I think you'd need to use summoned critters of your own to give it a reason to do so. I didn't want to gamble on the assumption that I'd land a disruption hit early on and kill the lich instantly.
@Harpagornis: My Archer is not going to dual-class. I wanted to play a non-spellcasting class to distinguish it from other runs.
With SCS v32 finally working and after rethinking what is killing most of the fun for me i decided to ban things like XP loops as well as Algernon´s Cloak and Nymph Cloak for the my next Druid. This should make leveling and battling far more interesting even though the planned Berserker (7) -> Druid might get a bit painful after dualing. I am still not sure which XP route would work best here - any tips on this one @Grond0?
I haven't upgraded to SCS v32 yet, so am not sure whether things like area damage from out of sight will offer any easy XP. However, you only need 60k to get druid level 8 and that should be relatively straight-forward:
- build up reputation as a berserker for cheap purchases. Even if your own spells are not helpful against things like battle horrors and the revenant, the wand of the heavens will certainly take them down quickly at not too great a cost.
- save the basilisks to deal with as a druid. Korax should be able to help you kill most of those in Mutamin's area without any need for charm. I would keep the PfP scroll for the ones on the roof at Durlag's - if you kill those as well I would imagine you'd be up to your target to regain fighting abilities.
@Harpagornis Well I'm not close of that yet, only in chapter 3 currently. But I don't see much trouble for F/I, other than Melissan of course. An illusionist can't use skull trap cheese, so I've to think something else, but of course the fighter route is always possibility, and Rift Device will speed things there. Feeblemind on Abazigal, and WoCK+SoM should deal Sendai Enclave without even getting hit. I'm going to do WK in this run too which could be tricky in the last level too.
@semiticgod Yeah they cast those summons still, and I've always waited the demons out before attacking. Still the MoD hits fairly easily them, even with the saving throw fix it seems.
Liches do have saves vs. death of 8, or 3 in LoB mode, which amounts to a roughly 30% chance of death from a disruption weapon. My Archer has no pips in melee weapons, however, so APR is pretty weak (Belm would have helped), and I was facing these liches without access to HLAs, so no Critical Strike or GWW to improve the chances. I didn't want to take any chances.
Especially with Kangaxx. The last thing I need is a Fallen Planetar on my back in two consecutive fights.
Does anyone know if SCS v32 prevents the One Gift Lost trick from working on Sarevok, or if Davaeorn can no longer be killed by the charmed Guard?
Liches do have saves vs. death of 8, or 3 in LoB mode, which amounts to a roughly 30% chance of death from a disruption weapon. My Archer has no pips in melee weapons, however, so APR is pretty weak (Belm would have helped), and I was facing these liches without access to HLAs, so no Critical Strike or GWW to improve the chances. I didn't want to take any chances.
Especially with Kangaxx. The last thing I need is a Fallen Planetar on my back in two consecutive fights.
Does anyone know if SCS v32 prevents the One Gift Lost trick from working on Sarevok, or if Davaeorn can no longer be killed by the charmed Guard?
u can still use necklace on sarevok and about Davaeorn i dont know about that since i always charm Davaeorn himself lol
Well, in my installation the Guard-charming-Trick for whatever reason never worked as Davaeorn immediately activates his script when being attacked by anything. Like @Mr_Salty i either have to charm Davaeorn himself so he gets teared apart by the Battle Horrors or use the good old Necklace Burning...
P.S. Thanks for the tip regarding Wand of the Heavens @Grond0. I completly forgot that there is one in Ulgoths Beard.
@Harpagornis: Do you immediately retreat from Davaeorn's line of sight after ordering the Guard to attack him? I used to have that problem; it only works if it's the charmed Guard (summoned critters won't work) and if you are not within his line of sight. If that still results in Davaeorn retaliating, maybe Davaeorn's script is different in your install. But I'm not sure how that could be.
I had a discussion with @Grond0 some time ago about this one but regardless what i did - even using Farsight - Davaeorn always activates when being attacked by the Guard. I tested it dozens of times with different settings but at least in my installation its just not working. Maybe you have more luck @semiticgod!
We took down Irenicus in Spellhold with Darts +5 and cleared the City of Caverns via stealth and Lesser Fire Elementals from the Staff of Fire. We are now in the Underdark and it's going to take a while to chop through some of the enemy groups. Things will get better once we get the Bracers of Blinding Strike and STR drain kills are a little easier, but crowds of enemies will still take a very long time to deal with, since Lesser Fire Elementals are going to drop off in effectiveness as time goes on.
When we get out of the Underdark, we'll be able to upgrade the Cloak of Protection +2 at Cromwell's place (my mods let Cromwell do Cespenar recipes and vice versa) and get a 23-round Improved Haste spell. That will be the real game-changer.
I thought I would finally get around to trying SCS v32. However, I've downloaded the zip file for RC 10 and it doesn't seem to have the setup file in - anyone who's installed it recently able to enlighten me as to where that is?
@Grond0: You mean the executable? If you're talking about the WeiDU program called "setup-stratagems," they're all modular. You can just copy the setup file for another mod, renamed it "setup-stratagems," and paste it into your game folder, where you can run it as usual. The most recent version of WeiDU (not SCS, but WeiDU executables) should be 1,033 kilobytes, though I'm not sure it matters if you use that one or an earlier version of WeiDU that's only 953 kilobytes or whatever.
The Archer is out of the Underdark, but it really didn't go as planned. Kuo-toan Bolts and Darts of Stunning pinned down the Kuo-toan Prince and we removed the drow parties over the course of a few rests, while the mind flayer required a Potion of Stone Form because Psionic Maze requires a save vs. spell at -4, and elves have lousy saving throws even though my mods let me combine items of protection under PnP restrictions (the saving throw bonuses from a Ring of Protection +1 and Cloak of Protection +1 stack, but the AC bonus does not).
The Ust Natha questline, however, proved impossible to complete. We summoned five Lesser Fire Elementals and nailed the mind flayers with Smite and Power Attack, and we made a point of knocking the enemies away from Phaere and Solaufein. All of our summons got stunned, however (horrible luck), and the mind flayers repeatedly made their saving throws against Power Attack, making it impossible to bring them down before we lose our summons and our clone. I was holding off three mind flayers for Phaere and Solaufein, but eventually a high-HP umber hulk managed to kill Solaufein just as we were about to close the fight. That broke the Ust Natha questline.
I tried killing Adalon and we were on pace to slay her using STR drain from the Bracers of Blinding Strike and two Called Shots on both my Archer and our clone, but I foolishly failed to don the Piwafwi Cloak before using Vhailor's Helm, and our clone got stunned by Adalon's paralyzation breath weapon against the odds--the Belt of Inertial Barrier was not sufficient to guarantee a successful save vs. breath for the clone due to its weaker saving throws. We were forced to flee.
Not wanting to bother fighting her again, I checked out the Underdark exit and found that it was open. But the drow were in the way, the Glabrezus were already hostile, and our stealth ran out just as we approached the enemy mage and priest. We managed to fall back, use Vhailor's Helm and Smite with +2 arrows to kill both Glabrezus, and then finish off three drow and both Stone Golems when they followed us outside the Kuo-toa area. When we returned to the Kuo-toa area, the path to the surface was clear and we were able to sneak out.
We got 2 extra Protection from Undead scrolls from either the Temple of Umberlee in Brynnlaw or the Sahuagin Priestess, so we have 6 total, plenty for Bodhi and Odamaron (and notably a spare one for Bodhi in the Pocket Plane). I think the rest of SoA should be okay, but I'm probably going to use a Protection from Magic scroll against the Slayer, since I don't feel quite safe tackling him normally now that a Potion of Invisibility will no longer protect us during Time Stop.
Hardiness would work, too, but the fight is already going to be a nightmare since I understand that Balors will now use Implosion at will, and our only defense against that is the Ring of Free Action... which is going to make it very, very hard to kite them considering Remove Magic will steal all of our buffs and Implosion is instant-casting. Basically, we'll have to use the Protection from Magic scroll, spend a round running away, and then wait for the Balors to cloud their aura before trying to drink an Oil of Speed and scurry away so we can divide and conquer the enemy.
I thought the Archer would be able to handle SoA with ease, but the reality is that BG2 is far more complex and high-pressure than BG1, and there are a LOT of fights where charming critters will not be sufficient. Frankly, the first half of SoA was actually the most dangerous part of the saga by far, despite being the one I am most familiar with.
@Grond0: You mean the executable? If you're talking about the WeiDU program called "setup-stratagems," they're all modular. You can just copy the setup file for another mod, renamed it "setup-stratagems," and paste it into your game folder, where you can run it as usual. The most recent version of WeiDU (not SCS, but WeiDU executables) should be 1,033 kilobytes, though I'm not sure it matters if you use that one or an earlier version of WeiDU that's only 953 kilobytes or whatever.
Thanks @semiticgod, but doing that seems to produce installation errors (the Weidu file is the correct one, so I don't think there's any doubt that I accessed the right version). I've asked on the release thread at the Gibberlings 3 site whether the omission of the setup file was deliberate ...
Right - now fixed and installed. To fit in with @Harpagornis I've included IWD spells in the installation, so it would only seem sensible to test those out with a druid - I'll roll up a fighter/druid.
Edit: much quicker than expected I've got a character.
I thought it was likely I would have to nerf wisdom as rolling for a fighter/druid is so difficult. However, I got a 95 total relatively quickly, with the bonus of high strength as well. That provided the opportunity to push wisdom up and with 21 being so much more attractive than 20 wisdom, I decided to start out with 8 intelligence. That makes wand use a bit more difficult initially, but I don't expect to use much in the way of items for a long time anyway.
Here's my installation:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3580 // Restoration and Lesser Restoration spells heal ability-score damage: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Faster Bears: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Improved NPC customisation and management: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly harder carrion crawlers: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7030 // Dark Side-based kobold upgrade: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity party: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: v32 RC10
~LOB_SAVE_FIX/LOB_SAVE_FIX.TP2~ #0 #0 // improve saving throws of all non-joinable creatures
Dual classing the Berserker 7/Druid is much more painful now as even at level 5 i have a hard time hitting even normal critters. For instances: I had to kite little Hobgoblins for nearly half an hour before killing even one of them. Even worse: I have no clue how to easily reach level 7 without touching any of the Basiliks. I also tried using hit & run against the Flesh Golems of Thalantyr but my Quarterstaff attack animation looks so slow while the Golems attack fast as lightning. Maybe i am just out of training after quitting the game for so long. Maybe the "I-dont-have-to-earn-any-XP-Basilisk-Loop has took away all the reflexes and smart pausing. Maybe i am just too old. So even more kudos to @Grond0 playing the game for real...
EDIT: Lol... i somehow managed to get surrounded by a huge horde of Xvarts trying to reach the Charisma Tome (my Berserker only had 16 CHA which isnt enough to dual class into Druid). Sure Oil of Speed or Potion of Invisbility could have turned the tides easily but - damn it - i tried to spare them not realizing how many of these little suckers were already following me. At the end the whole cave was filled with them making it impossible to survive this onslaught in the long run.
so i am finaly in BG 2 as kensai level 16 and i must say i am not enjoying it 1 bit i am getting furious! lol i cant kill anything at all what gear should i hunt in order ??? gauth xp looping is no go.... cant carry shield and getting key from Tazok is prolly not gonna work with +2 ac lmao..... any ideas guys i could use help here.....tried getting flail of ages but the trolls are just making me mad
@Mr_Salty: Kensais have always struggled mightily as solo characters. I think your only realistic option at this point is to rely heavily on the Black Spider Figurine, Efreeti Bottle, and Silver Horn of Valhalla (you'll need MR from 1-2 Potions of Magic Protection to avoid the Maze trap) as decoys to buy you time to kill enemies one by one, possibly from range using daggers, with the Efreeti's Invisibility spell to let you escape combat, rest, and try again. This would let you take down groups of enemies one at a time over the course of multiple rest periods.
The Staff of Fire will probably be very important if you can manage to do the Planar Sphere. You won't be able to use it via Simulacrum until you dual-class, since Vhailor's Helm is not an option, but the staff is fairly cheap and you can recharge it at relatively low cost, since it has 20 charges to summon Lesser Fire Elementals.
I wouldn't deal with the De'Arnise Hold at all. The Efreeti Bottle and the Efreeti's Invisibility can let you sneak around if you don't have the Sandthief Ring or Ring of Air Control, and that will let you loot much of the area and forge the Flail of Ages. I think you only need to fight Glaicas to get all three flail heads, since you can run from the golems.
@Mr_Salty: Kensais have always struggled mightily as solo characters. I think your only realistic option at this point is to rely heavily on the Black Spider Figurine, Efreeti Bottle, and Silver Horn of Valhalla (you'll need MR from 1-2 Potions of Magic Protection to avoid the Maze trap) as decoys to buy you time to kill enemies one by one, possibly from range using daggers, with the Efreeti's Invisibility spell to let you escape combat, rest, and try again. This would let you take down groups of enemies one at a time over the course of multiple rest periods.
The Staff of Fire will probably be very important if you can manage to do the Planar Sphere. You won't be able to use it via Simulacrum until you dual-class, since Vhailor's Helm is not an option, but the staff is fairly cheap and you can recharge it at relatively low cost, since it has 20 charges to summon Lesser Fire Elementals.
I wouldn't deal with the De'Arnise Hold at all. The Efreeti Bottle and the Efreeti's Invisibility can let you sneak around if you don't have the Sandthief Ring or Ring of Air Control, and that will let you loot much of the area and forge the Flail of Ages. I think you only need to fight Glaicas to get all three flail heads, since you can run from the golems.
alright ill try this one out, but i realy need to get to kill tazok and get wonders wand i got everything on the highest difficulty so the mindflayers will see invis as u guys talked before any ideas on how to get to that ? i will be so happy when i am able to start dual classing !! realy hate kensai its garbage but only needed for thaco on the mage lol
OK. Daemon is well underway. As usual his reputation took a battering early on with the deaths of:
- Dushai. I noted there that attacking her no longer makes nearby villagers hostile. In addition her pathing ability when chasing was significantly better - I'll keep an eye on whether that applies to enemies generally.
- Drizzt. Activating a single gnoll still works the same in SCS v32, though I did notice that the gnoll chosen broke its weapon very early on. To check if that was just luck or a result of the extra robustness given to those gnolls' weapons in BGEE v2.5 being withdrawn, Daemon activated a second gnoll. After nearly half an hour that had not broken its weapon - answering my question. Fearing Drizzt would soon die, Daemon left the area to reset the combat before coming back and activating the same 2 gnolls. This time round the second gnoll also broke its weapon and Drizzt was left for Daemon to finish off and get his first levels.
- Bentan. He didn't have any more spells than usual and the combination of the druid's new damage spells at 1st and 2nd level (sunscorch and alicorn lance) were enough to deal with him pretty quickly.
Daemon laboriously killed some worgs for Ardrouine, only to find she didn't recognise the area was now safe anyway . To get his reputation up to safe levels to enter civilized areas, Daemon saved Arabelle before taking Brage back to Nashkel. 450 gold brought reputation from 7 to 10 and the same sort of mix of spells and sling got further upgrades from Joia, Melicamp, Charleston Nib (after getting the girdle of piercing to help against the diggers - whose fast weapon speed makes them quite dangerous in LoB) and Oublek pitched in a good word as well. That lot was enough to get up to druid level 5 and I tried out mold touch as a spell, but found that was not infecting nearby enemies as the description says it should - so call lightning may still be preferable (often blinding enemies first to avoid them attacking during the spell). Spike growth also does pretty good damage - enemies will react to move out of it, but if it's well positioned you can run round outside it while they run round inside it . That was used on Greywolf, but he still needed a lot of kiting after spells ran out - though in an easier situation than the similar amount of time spent on Karlat who refused to be tempted outside.
After taking Samuel back to the FAI, a trip to the Cloud Peaks saw Daemon to fighter L5 by searching out Rufie. He worked quite hard to deal with Sendai and her archers, but Zal & Vax were quick - Zal failing to deal well with the constant switches required from melee to ranged weapon. Regrettably though Daemon was not entitled to use the bracers of archery. Dealing with Caldo & Krumm and giving Drienne her cat back took reputation to 19 before going on to the Gnoll Stronghold (using an invisibility potion on the way when an ogre mage appeared - though it was only casting glitterdust anyway). Despite @harpagornis recent experience I chose to lead a large group of xvarts on a merry dance there to avoid what would have been a lengthy business to kill them all before looting the charisma tome.
Incidentally, I've left difficulty based damage off, which is now the default position with SCS installed. I assume that's because the SCS difficulty slider now increases other aspects of difficulty so much under LoB that extra damage is not needed. I'll keep under review whether I agree with that - thus far I think not having double damage makes the game a lot easier, but perhaps that's just because it's more forgiving of my mistakes. That was evident at the end of the session when I ventured into the ankheg nest to rob their treasure. That resulted in some difficult fights to get up to druid level 6 and 20 reputation, but several of them would probably have been fatal with double damage.
I've also noted what seems to be an increased tendency for enemies to regain all their HPs during fights, so have been trying to ensure they don't get out of sight during kiting.
@Mr_Salty: It seems Glaicas' save vs. breath is a base 4, which means it's -1 in LoB mode. His save vs. spell is 7, so neither the Nymph Cloak with its save vs. breath at no penalty, nor the Ring of Human Influence with its save vs. spell at +3, will ever affect him if you cannot penalize his saves. Arrows of Dispelling and other dispelling effects will work, but I don't believe a Kensai has any means of ending his charm whatsoever.
About the Archer run: Protection from Undead was enough to deal with the vampires. We made a point of covering Drizzt with a Protection from Undead scroll early on and not engaging Tanova until her pre-buffs wore off (and I made a point of avoiding her Magical Sword, lest she cast a Remove Magic spell on it), and ultimately a lot of rounds chucking around Azuredge was sufficient to bring down the ordinary vampires.
Downstairs, I force-talked Bodhi under Protection from Undead once the silence trap wore off, lured the Grimward Archers over to Drizzt (who for some reason was lingering in the hall and wouldn't budge), and then shot Bodhi down with the Firetooth crossbow. Hazzerbazzer and Mannaseh never tried to dispel the Protection from Undead scroll, so there was no danger.
Since we were low on resources (once I fight Irenicus at the Tree of Life, I can't go back and get anything from SoA), I went to the Guarded Compound, and tried to trigger the traps upstairs after having already used Vhailor's Helm on the floor below. When I realized that I couldn't go back down the stairs due to an invisible forcefield (I assume a new SCS innovation), I was left without a charge of Vhailor's Helm to fight Sion et al. That forcefield really should only activate once you speak with Sion.
It probably would have been possible to simply kite them to death, but since I have a mod that lets me rest anywhere, I took a nap in one of the nearby beds and then summoned a new clone, giving us some extra uses of Smite and other HLAs and making the fight fairly easy. Sion survived Smite and a pounding from our numerous Lesser Fire Elementals, but he didn't summon any Fallen Planetars or throw out anything more dangerous than a Dragon's Breath spell that was easy to dodge.
We used the money to buy a bunch of Potions of Genius and stacked them to boost our INT over 80 before approaching the mind flayers in the Temple sewers. Combined with a Potion of Invulnerability (or Stone Form) to get our save vs. spell down to -3 or lower to guarantee a successful save against Psionic Maze, and sometimes Hardiness to resist Ballistic Attack's 5d12 crushing damage, the mind flayers were not able to threaten us.
The Alhoon was another story and required more precautions. We burned 20,000 gold to upgrade the Cloak of Protection +2, allowing us to cast Improved Haste and Improved Invisibility on both our Archer and our clone. We used Farsight from the Book of Daily Spell to scout out the Alhoon, sent out our clone to provoke the other mind flayers, and the other mind flayers promptly teleported over to us. We led them out into the southern room, but when I realized that I had little choice but to use a Protection from Undead scroll to snatch the Wand of Wonder without risking the Alhoon obliterating us, I decided to go ahead and use the scroll, then activate Smite to knock away and stun the nearby mind flayers, ensuring that I could grab the Wand of Wonder without getting boxed in by teleporting mind flayers. The stun effect from Smite only lasts so long, but I only needed a few seconds to enter the Alhoon room and then escape.
We didn't have enough money to afford all the Potions of Genius I wanted for the mind flayer city in the Underdark, so we paid a visit to the De'Arnise Keep, tackling a couple batches of trolls and the golems but avoiding most of the fights. We looted most of the first two levels, forged the Flail of Ages, and then got out.
In the mind flayer city in the Underdark, we summoned Lesser Earth Elementals directly from the Staff of Earth to tackle the pit fights against umber hulks and Kuo-toa rather than using a Vhailor's Helm clone, since we could not rest in the mind flayer city to get a new use out of the helm. For the mind flayers themselves, we used the same strategy we used against the Temple sewer mind flayers: maybe 20 Potions of Genius, Potions of Invulnerability, and Potions of Absorption, with Hardiness and the Rod of Resurrection to survive Ballistic Attack spells. This involved a LOT of tanking, and we used the Firetooth dagger and Belm to maximize damage output when I realized flails were not optimal. To save on Control Circlets and avoid having to use Slayer form, I lured hostile mind flayers over to the doors to open them. We had to refresh our potions multiple times to make sure we were completely safe at all times. The sole exception were our Potions of Genius, which lasted us through the entire area (though only by so many rounds, and we didn't fight every group of mind flayers before leaving).
Only when we had to face the Master Brain itself did I use Vhailor's Helm, only to see the clone get charmed. Since I was afraid of losing my buffs to a Psionic Disjunction from the Master Brain, I used Farsight from the Book of Daily spell to send some elementals after the Master Brain. Only when the Master's Brain has cast a spell and I knew its aura was fogged did I dare to approach its field of vision and take some shots at it.
This wasn't quite enough, though, and eventually I had to resort to using Smite to stun the Master Brain. I positioned the attack carefully to make sure I knocked the Master Brain to the east, since I wasn't sure I'd be able to reach it if I knocked it too far to the north, where I've never walked around before. We used the last of our Whirlwind Attacks to make sure we pinned it down before it could pull any last tricks.
We fled the area, rested, had to fight some mind flayers who chased us outside the city, and then went back in to free the slaves and clear out the room with the Staff of Command in it, only to find that the room was empty. We used stealth to get past the Hive Mother, who dispelled our mind flayer buffs with an Anti-Magic Ray. We used a Potion of Invisibility to nab the Greenstone Amulet, found a spot where we could use stealth (stealth is undispellable, while the potion could be removed by another Anti-Magic Ray), and then ran out. Fortunately, the Hive Mother did nothing to us.
This was very important, because a Hive Mother's Anti-Magic Ray doesn't just remove your buffs; it also drains 5 charges from your magic items, which can outright destroy items like the Rod of Resurrection. Only items in the Bag of Holding or on the ground are safe.
With so many Staff of Earth, Staff of Fire, and Rod of Resurrection charges lost to the mind flayer city and the Hive Mother, we had to spend a lot of money recharging our stuff. I'm not willing to take the time necessary to clear out the De'Arnise Keep of all those trolls, and I'm not sure the loot from the Planar Prison is worth the risk (there are so many Yuan-ti Mages, and the Warden is a Fighter/Mage with Time Stop), so we might be entering ToB pretty much broke. We'll see how much stuff we get from killing Firkraag and clearing out Suldannessellar.
Daemon finished off the remainder of the ankhegs. That was essentially done by keeping them in ranged attack mode. That meant they needed a critical, while Daemon got a basic +4 to attack. With bonuses from being blinded by sunscorch and affected by alicorn lance, that meant he had a decent chance of hitting them. Even so though they got enough criticals that he had to run away several times.
Having earned several thousand gold from ankheg shells, Daemon decided to splash out on some full plate and the dagger of venom. He used that while dual-wielding to kill basilisks paralyzed by Korax as quickly as possible. Their improved saving throws made that rather time-consuming though and Daemon only just had time to finish Mutamin off after Korax switched sides - leaving his pet lesser and greater basilisks untouched.
The XP from the other basilisks though was enough for fighter level 6.
At the Valley of the Tombs, nipping in and out to beat up the Revenant while it was in ranged mode was enough for druid level 7.
That made summons available for the first time. While his boring beetles couldn't hurt Narcillicus' mustard jellies, the bombardier ones could do so with both their attacks and initial acid damage (an area attack which Daemon stayed well away from) as well as absorbing lots of punishment while Daemon slashed away with his scimitar. The insects had no problem chewing up Narcillicus himself or the ghasts in the nearby tomb.
The next stop was the lighthouse where I confirmed that sirines would still break off casting charm if you went out of sight. The beetles made pretty light work of them before ganging up on the golems. After finishing those off they went back to High Hedge to deal with the golems there - successfully stunning one of those with acid attacks (I'm a bit surprised that golems are not immune to stun).
Beetles forced a path through some kobolds to get to Meilum before facing a stiffer challenge from battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. They weren't quite up to the job, but damage from the long-lasting static charge and other spells was enough to see off the horrors. Ghasts inside the tower were enough to hit the level cap at 7/8 before the basilisks on the roof were unable to get past a PfP scroll (used a potion of genius to enable that one).
At the Red Wizard area I got a first taste of the potential problems of dealing with mages when a horde of summons (including both lesser and standard elementals) saw off some beetles. After resting, replacement insects went in singly to try and draw out the nastier spells. The lesser elementals had a duration of about a turn per level, rather than the 1 turn + 1 round per level of the normal spell. The bigger elementals had stayed around longer than that. That meant waiting them out was not realistically possible - by the time the elementals had all unsummoned the wizards had got all their spells back and produced more of them.
After a bit more work, one of the Red Wizards was separated and then easily dealt with. Daemon tried to separate another, but without success for a long time. Eventually he did succeed, though at a cost of potions of magic blocking and invisibility, and another of the wizards bit the dust. With only 2 remaining the equation was much simpler to avoid Daemon being targeted while guiding attacks in on the wizards rather than their summons. The acid stun from the bombardier beetles accounted for the last of the support crew, meaning it wasn't too much longer until Denak was making his doomed last stand.
The beetles attacked Shoal and quickly killed her without her demonstrating any new abilities. That brought Daemon to the XP cap and he will move on to the Nashkel Mine next.
Arno again. Thx to all for your post! They are full of useful information!
My mage is now at chapter 9 and is at max level (11). I remember that soon i will have the encounter with the anti magic zone and i`m not sure how to beat it. Do you have any insightful tips?
Hey does anyone know What this stupid genie flask is for ?
Hi @Mr_Salty
Nice going with the Kensai.
About the flask
I vaguely remember that you have to go to the top floor of the crooked crane in the gate district.
As I recall you will be directed to a place outside the city - the area is small? And you do get blasted with fireballs? So remember protection from fire?
Did the quest some ten years ago, so my memory is kind of vague...
Comments
With SCS v32 finally working and after rethinking what is killing most of the fun for me i decided to ban things like XP loops as well as Algernon´s Cloak and Nymph Cloak for the my next Druid. This should make leveling and battling far more interesting even though the planned Berserker (7) -> Druid might get a bit painful after dualing. I am still not sure which XP route would work best here - any tips on this one @Grond0?
Has anyone tested the Staff of Striking vs Big B? With GM in Quarterstaffs this looks like a decent option for Druids - no?
Oh, it also looks that Drizzt seems to get smarter with every new version. I did several tests and even when only activating the eastern Gnolls he (nearly) always fights back taking them down in no time. The easiest way seemed to be to activate all Gnolls so they surround Drizzt and then talk to him so he turns hostile. The Gnolls will continue attacking him but he cant reach you while also not attacking the Gnolls anymore.
Is anyone else - beside @semiticgod - playing with IWD spells? The Druid should be even more fun now and things like Spike Growth + Stones stacking should be good enough for lots of cheesy kills. Will have to test this later on in detail...
Looks like we will soon have the first full 2.5 nR run completed - or is there anything that can stop you @histaminii? I can only remember you dying to Big B or Melissan herself so the challenge definetely seems to be "too easy" for you -no?
Will your Archer be single Class only @semiticgod or are there any plans for dualing? Would be really cool to see this one going at least deep into ToB - maybe even more!
@Harpagornis: My Archer is not going to dual-class. I wanted to play a non-spellcasting class to distinguish it from other runs.
I haven't upgraded to SCS v32 yet, so am not sure whether things like area damage from out of sight will offer any easy XP. However, you only need 60k to get druid level 8 and that should be relatively straight-forward:
- build up reputation as a berserker for cheap purchases. Even if your own spells are not helpful against things like battle horrors and the revenant, the wand of the heavens will certainly take them down quickly at not too great a cost.
- save the basilisks to deal with as a druid. Korax should be able to help you kill most of those in Mutamin's area without any need for charm. I would keep the PfP scroll for the ones on the roof at Durlag's - if you kill those as well I would imagine you'd be up to your target to regain fighting abilities.
@semiticgod Yeah they cast those summons still, and I've always waited the demons out before attacking. Still the MoD hits fairly easily them, even with the saving throw fix it seems.
Especially with Kangaxx. The last thing I need is a Fallen Planetar on my back in two consecutive fights.
Does anyone know if SCS v32 prevents the One Gift Lost trick from working on Sarevok, or if Davaeorn can no longer be killed by the charmed Guard?
u can still use necklace on sarevok and about Davaeorn i dont know about that since i always charm Davaeorn himself lol
P.S. Thanks for the tip regarding Wand of the Heavens @Grond0. I completly forgot that there is one in Ulgoths Beard.
When we get out of the Underdark, we'll be able to upgrade the Cloak of Protection +2 at Cromwell's place (my mods let Cromwell do Cespenar recipes and vice versa) and get a 23-round Improved Haste spell. That will be the real game-changer.
The Ust Natha questline, however, proved impossible to complete. We summoned five Lesser Fire Elementals and nailed the mind flayers with Smite and Power Attack, and we made a point of knocking the enemies away from Phaere and Solaufein. All of our summons got stunned, however (horrible luck), and the mind flayers repeatedly made their saving throws against Power Attack, making it impossible to bring them down before we lose our summons and our clone. I was holding off three mind flayers for Phaere and Solaufein, but eventually a high-HP umber hulk managed to kill Solaufein just as we were about to close the fight. That broke the Ust Natha questline.
I tried killing Adalon and we were on pace to slay her using STR drain from the Bracers of Blinding Strike and two Called Shots on both my Archer and our clone, but I foolishly failed to don the Piwafwi Cloak before using Vhailor's Helm, and our clone got stunned by Adalon's paralyzation breath weapon against the odds--the Belt of Inertial Barrier was not sufficient to guarantee a successful save vs. breath for the clone due to its weaker saving throws. We were forced to flee.
Not wanting to bother fighting her again, I checked out the Underdark exit and found that it was open. But the drow were in the way, the Glabrezus were already hostile, and our stealth ran out just as we approached the enemy mage and priest. We managed to fall back, use Vhailor's Helm and Smite with +2 arrows to kill both Glabrezus, and then finish off three drow and both Stone Golems when they followed us outside the Kuo-toa area. When we returned to the Kuo-toa area, the path to the surface was clear and we were able to sneak out.
We got 2 extra Protection from Undead scrolls from either the Temple of Umberlee in Brynnlaw or the Sahuagin Priestess, so we have 6 total, plenty for Bodhi and Odamaron (and notably a spare one for Bodhi in the Pocket Plane). I think the rest of SoA should be okay, but I'm probably going to use a Protection from Magic scroll against the Slayer, since I don't feel quite safe tackling him normally now that a Potion of Invisibility will no longer protect us during Time Stop.
Hardiness would work, too, but the fight is already going to be a nightmare since I understand that Balors will now use Implosion at will, and our only defense against that is the Ring of Free Action... which is going to make it very, very hard to kite them considering Remove Magic will steal all of our buffs and Implosion is instant-casting. Basically, we'll have to use the Protection from Magic scroll, spend a round running away, and then wait for the Balors to cloud their aura before trying to drink an Oil of Speed and scurry away so we can divide and conquer the enemy.
Thanks @semiticgod, but doing that seems to produce installation errors (the Weidu file is the correct one, so I don't think there's any doubt that I accessed the right version). I've asked on the release thread at the Gibberlings 3 site whether the omission of the setup file was deliberate ...
Edit: much quicker than expected I've got a character.
I thought it was likely I would have to nerf wisdom as rolling for a fighter/druid is so difficult. However, I got a 95 total relatively quickly, with the bonus of high strength as well. That provided the opportunity to push wisdom up and with 21 being so much more attractive than 20 wisdom, I decided to start out with 8 intelligence. That makes wand use a bit more difficult initially, but I don't expect to use much in the way of items for a long time anyway.
Here's my installation:
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1500 // Include arcane spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1510 // Include divine spells from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3505 // Wider selection of random scrolls: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3580 // Restoration and Lesser Restoration spells heal ability-score damage: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Faster Bears: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4100 // Improved NPC customisation and management: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly harder carrion crawlers: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7020 // Improved deployment for parties of assassins: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7030 // Dark Side-based kobold upgrade: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7040 // Relocated bounty hunters: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity party: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: v32 RC10
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: v32 RC10
~LOB_SAVE_FIX/LOB_SAVE_FIX.TP2~ #0 #0 // improve saving throws of all non-joinable creatures
EDIT: Lol... i somehow managed to get surrounded by a huge horde of Xvarts trying to reach the Charisma Tome (my Berserker only had 16 CHA which isnt enough to dual class into Druid). Sure Oil of Speed or Potion of Invisbility could have turned the tides easily but - damn it - i tried to spare them not realizing how many of these little suckers were already following me. At the end the whole cave was filled with them making it impossible to survive this onslaught in the long run.
Time for another reroll...
P.S i am already passed Irenicus Dungeon!
The Staff of Fire will probably be very important if you can manage to do the Planar Sphere. You won't be able to use it via Simulacrum until you dual-class, since Vhailor's Helm is not an option, but the staff is fairly cheap and you can recharge it at relatively low cost, since it has 20 charges to summon Lesser Fire Elementals.
I wouldn't deal with the De'Arnise Hold at all. The Efreeti Bottle and the Efreeti's Invisibility can let you sneak around if you don't have the Sandthief Ring or Ring of Air Control, and that will let you loot much of the area and forge the Flail of Ages. I think you only need to fight Glaicas to get all three flail heads, since you can run from the golems.
alright ill try this one out, but i realy need to get to kill tazok and get wonders wand i got everything on the highest difficulty so the mindflayers will see invis as u guys talked before any ideas on how to get to that ? i will be so happy when i am able to start dual classing !! realy hate kensai its garbage but only needed for thaco on the mage lol
- Dushai. I noted there that attacking her no longer makes nearby villagers hostile. In addition her pathing ability when chasing was significantly better - I'll keep an eye on whether that applies to enemies generally.
- Drizzt. Activating a single gnoll still works the same in SCS v32, though I did notice that the gnoll chosen broke its weapon very early on. To check if that was just luck or a result of the extra robustness given to those gnolls' weapons in BGEE v2.5 being withdrawn, Daemon activated a second gnoll. After nearly half an hour that had not broken its weapon - answering my question. Fearing Drizzt would soon die, Daemon left the area to reset the combat before coming back and activating the same 2 gnolls. This time round the second gnoll also broke its weapon and Drizzt was left for Daemon to finish off and get his first levels.
- Bentan. He didn't have any more spells than usual and the combination of the druid's new damage spells at 1st and 2nd level (sunscorch and alicorn lance) were enough to deal with him pretty quickly.
Daemon laboriously killed some worgs for Ardrouine, only to find she didn't recognise the area was now safe anyway
After taking Samuel back to the FAI, a trip to the Cloud Peaks saw Daemon to fighter L5 by searching out Rufie. He worked quite hard to deal with Sendai and her archers, but Zal & Vax were quick - Zal failing to deal well with the constant switches required from melee to ranged weapon. Regrettably though Daemon was not entitled to use the bracers of archery. Dealing with Caldo & Krumm and giving Drienne her cat back took reputation to 19 before going on to the Gnoll Stronghold (using an invisibility potion on the way when an ogre mage appeared - though it was only casting glitterdust anyway). Despite @harpagornis recent experience I chose to lead a large group of xvarts on a merry dance there to avoid what would have been a lengthy business to kill them all before looting the charisma tome.
Incidentally, I've left difficulty based damage off, which is now the default position with SCS installed. I assume that's because the SCS difficulty slider now increases other aspects of difficulty so much under LoB that extra damage is not needed. I'll keep under review whether I agree with that - thus far I think not having double damage makes the game a lot easier, but perhaps that's just because it's more forgiving of my mistakes. That was evident at the end of the session when I ventured into the ankheg nest to rob their treasure. That resulted in some difficult fights to get up to druid level 6 and 20 reputation, but several of them would probably have been fatal with double damage.
I've also noted what seems to be an increased tendency for enemies to regain all their HPs during fights, so have been trying to ensure they don't get out of sight during kiting.
About the Archer run: Protection from Undead was enough to deal with the vampires. We made a point of covering Drizzt with a Protection from Undead scroll early on and not engaging Tanova until her pre-buffs wore off (and I made a point of avoiding her Magical Sword, lest she cast a Remove Magic spell on it), and ultimately a lot of rounds chucking around Azuredge was sufficient to bring down the ordinary vampires.
Downstairs, I force-talked Bodhi under Protection from Undead once the silence trap wore off, lured the Grimward Archers over to Drizzt (who for some reason was lingering in the hall and wouldn't budge), and then shot Bodhi down with the Firetooth crossbow. Hazzerbazzer and Mannaseh never tried to dispel the Protection from Undead scroll, so there was no danger.
Since we were low on resources (once I fight Irenicus at the Tree of Life, I can't go back and get anything from SoA), I went to the Guarded Compound, and tried to trigger the traps upstairs after having already used Vhailor's Helm on the floor below. When I realized that I couldn't go back down the stairs due to an invisible forcefield (I assume a new SCS innovation), I was left without a charge of Vhailor's Helm to fight Sion et al. That forcefield really should only activate once you speak with Sion.
It probably would have been possible to simply kite them to death, but since I have a mod that lets me rest anywhere, I took a nap in one of the nearby beds and then summoned a new clone, giving us some extra uses of Smite and other HLAs and making the fight fairly easy. Sion survived Smite and a pounding from our numerous Lesser Fire Elementals, but he didn't summon any Fallen Planetars or throw out anything more dangerous than a Dragon's Breath spell that was easy to dodge.
We used the money to buy a bunch of Potions of Genius and stacked them to boost our INT over 80 before approaching the mind flayers in the Temple sewers. Combined with a Potion of Invulnerability (or Stone Form) to get our save vs. spell down to -3 or lower to guarantee a successful save against Psionic Maze, and sometimes Hardiness to resist Ballistic Attack's 5d12 crushing damage, the mind flayers were not able to threaten us.
The Alhoon was another story and required more precautions. We burned 20,000 gold to upgrade the Cloak of Protection +2, allowing us to cast Improved Haste and Improved Invisibility on both our Archer and our clone. We used Farsight from the Book of Daily Spell to scout out the Alhoon, sent out our clone to provoke the other mind flayers, and the other mind flayers promptly teleported over to us. We led them out into the southern room, but when I realized that I had little choice but to use a Protection from Undead scroll to snatch the Wand of Wonder without risking the Alhoon obliterating us, I decided to go ahead and use the scroll, then activate Smite to knock away and stun the nearby mind flayers, ensuring that I could grab the Wand of Wonder without getting boxed in by teleporting mind flayers. The stun effect from Smite only lasts so long, but I only needed a few seconds to enter the Alhoon room and then escape.
We didn't have enough money to afford all the Potions of Genius I wanted for the mind flayer city in the Underdark, so we paid a visit to the De'Arnise Keep, tackling a couple batches of trolls and the golems but avoiding most of the fights. We looted most of the first two levels, forged the Flail of Ages, and then got out.
In the mind flayer city in the Underdark, we summoned Lesser Earth Elementals directly from the Staff of Earth to tackle the pit fights against umber hulks and Kuo-toa rather than using a Vhailor's Helm clone, since we could not rest in the mind flayer city to get a new use out of the helm. For the mind flayers themselves, we used the same strategy we used against the Temple sewer mind flayers: maybe 20 Potions of Genius, Potions of Invulnerability, and Potions of Absorption, with Hardiness and the Rod of Resurrection to survive Ballistic Attack spells. This involved a LOT of tanking, and we used the Firetooth dagger and Belm to maximize damage output when I realized flails were not optimal. To save on Control Circlets and avoid having to use Slayer form, I lured hostile mind flayers over to the doors to open them. We had to refresh our potions multiple times to make sure we were completely safe at all times. The sole exception were our Potions of Genius, which lasted us through the entire area (though only by so many rounds, and we didn't fight every group of mind flayers before leaving).
Only when we had to face the Master Brain itself did I use Vhailor's Helm, only to see the clone get charmed. Since I was afraid of losing my buffs to a Psionic Disjunction from the Master Brain, I used Farsight from the Book of Daily spell to send some elementals after the Master Brain. Only when the Master's Brain has cast a spell and I knew its aura was fogged did I dare to approach its field of vision and take some shots at it.
This wasn't quite enough, though, and eventually I had to resort to using Smite to stun the Master Brain. I positioned the attack carefully to make sure I knocked the Master Brain to the east, since I wasn't sure I'd be able to reach it if I knocked it too far to the north, where I've never walked around before. We used the last of our Whirlwind Attacks to make sure we pinned it down before it could pull any last tricks.
We fled the area, rested, had to fight some mind flayers who chased us outside the city, and then went back in to free the slaves and clear out the room with the Staff of Command in it, only to find that the room was empty. We used stealth to get past the Hive Mother, who dispelled our mind flayer buffs with an Anti-Magic Ray. We used a Potion of Invisibility to nab the Greenstone Amulet, found a spot where we could use stealth (stealth is undispellable, while the potion could be removed by another Anti-Magic Ray), and then ran out. Fortunately, the Hive Mother did nothing to us.
This was very important, because a Hive Mother's Anti-Magic Ray doesn't just remove your buffs; it also drains 5 charges from your magic items, which can outright destroy items like the Rod of Resurrection. Only items in the Bag of Holding or on the ground are safe.
With so many Staff of Earth, Staff of Fire, and Rod of Resurrection charges lost to the mind flayer city and the Hive Mother, we had to spend a lot of money recharging our stuff. I'm not willing to take the time necessary to clear out the De'Arnise Keep of all those trolls, and I'm not sure the loot from the Planar Prison is worth the risk (there are so many Yuan-ti Mages, and the Warden is a Fighter/Mage with Time Stop), so we might be entering ToB pretty much broke. We'll see how much stuff we get from killing Firkraag and clearing out Suldannessellar.
Having earned several thousand gold from ankheg shells, Daemon decided to splash out on some full plate and the dagger of venom. He used that while dual-wielding to kill basilisks paralyzed by Korax as quickly as possible. Their improved saving throws made that rather time-consuming though and Daemon only just had time to finish Mutamin off after Korax switched sides - leaving his pet lesser and greater basilisks untouched.
At the Valley of the Tombs, nipping in and out to beat up the Revenant while it was in ranged mode was enough for druid level 7.
The next stop was the lighthouse where I confirmed that sirines would still break off casting charm if you went out of sight. The beetles made pretty light work of them before ganging up on the golems. After finishing those off they went back to High Hedge to deal with the golems there - successfully stunning one of those with acid attacks (I'm a bit surprised that golems are not immune to stun).
Beetles forced a path through some kobolds to get to Meilum before facing a stiffer challenge from battle horrors at Durlag's Tower. They weren't quite up to the job, but damage from the long-lasting static charge and other spells was enough to see off the horrors. Ghasts inside the tower were enough to hit the level cap at 7/8 before the basilisks on the roof were unable to get past a PfP scroll (used a potion of genius to enable that one).
At the Red Wizard area I got a first taste of the potential problems of dealing with mages when a horde of summons (including both lesser and standard elementals) saw off some beetles. After resting, replacement insects went in singly to try and draw out the nastier spells. The lesser elementals had a duration of about a turn per level, rather than the 1 turn + 1 round per level of the normal spell. The bigger elementals had stayed around longer than that. That meant waiting them out was not realistically possible - by the time the elementals had all unsummoned the wizards had got all their spells back and produced more of them.
After a bit more work, one of the Red Wizards was separated and then easily dealt with. Daemon tried to separate another, but without success for a long time. Eventually he did succeed, though at a cost of potions of magic blocking and invisibility, and another of the wizards bit the dust. With only 2 remaining the equation was much simpler to avoid Daemon being targeted while guiding attacks in on the wizards rather than their summons. The acid stun from the bombardier beetles accounted for the last of the support crew, meaning it wasn't too much longer until Denak was making his doomed last stand.
The beetles attacked Shoal and quickly killed her without her demonstrating any new abilities. That brought Daemon to the XP cap and he will move on to the Nashkel Mine next.
Arno again. Thx to all for your post! They are full of useful information!
My mage is now at chapter 9 and is at max level (11). I remember that soon i will have the encounter with the anti magic zone and i`m not sure how to beat it. Do you have any insightful tips?
Thx!
Nice going with the Kensai.
About the flask
As I recall you will be directed to a place outside the city - the area is small? And you do get blasted with fireballs? So remember protection from fire?
Did the quest some ten years ago, so my memory is kind of vague...