I also saw the bug in real time, near death mage, someone cast Time Stop, and the mage went in front of me from one health bar to five, because he lost sight of me. Some have their health and triggers reset whenever they lose sight on you, like the couple drow mages in this Sendai battle, and the couple mage statues in Watchers Keep. Is this a SCS bug? @DavidW
Probably, yes: I've been trying to avoid (elusive, occasional) bugs like this since SCS2 launched ten years ago.
Is this on a v32 RC? And if so, on what difficulty setting?
@DavidW My game is currently v32 RC10, but I've played from RC7 and I think it was in all versions since then. My game is on LoB difficulty, and SCS on insane.
@DavidW: Are there any plans to fix the regeneration of Ascension critters? Abazigal and the Ravager have never had their intended regeneration due to it being applied to their .cre file as permanent effects. In most cases, that just means they perform better against parties with low damage output, but certain solo characters, especially in LoB mode, could not actually kill the Ravager if it had its intended regeneration. Fixing the regeneration would reflect developer intent, but also make it impossible to complete certain runs.
Also, Impervious Sanctity of Mind applies a Spell Shield effect that's coded as a mage spell, so it triggers the Cowled Wizards.
I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but since we've talked about bugs multiple times, I'll point out the positive stuff. SCS v32 is absolutely awesome, and the introduction of IWD spells has massively improved the quality of gameplay. Priests are now far more balanced than they were before, and druids in particular are much more interesting.
On regeneration: I have *serious* concerns about balance here (fairly similar to yours by the sound of it). Yes, the developers originally intended to add regeneration, but after that they extensively playtested and balanced it without the regeneration present. I think introducing potentially quite a large shift in the tactical balance of Ascension 15+ years after it was released is dangerous. If I do it, it would be as a gated-behind-ini option for power users.
With the IWD spells available now thanks to SCS v32 we finally put the Totemic Druid to a temporary rest while focusing on the Avenger. We always liked his huge utility in poverty runs but thanks to the lack of any decent summons beside the Nymphs in BG1 he always suffered heavily especially against Sarevok. Will the Beetles – and the other spells – change this evaluation?
So far we had to suffer five deaths forcing us to restart:
1x dying to the infamous Archer Ambush when traveling south after helping Tenya
1x dying to the Palace Ambush after failing to get out Insect Plague in the right way
3x dying to Sarevok cause „something“ always went wrong – more on that later
We finally finished BG1 with Loreth VI.having an easy time along the way.
Leveling up:
This was easier than expected after Korax smacked down all but three Lesser Basilisks pushing us to level 6. After some more easy to do quests level 7 was reached opening up the powerful Beetles. With Web + Spike Growth + Beetles we cleared all Sirenes, Battle Horrors and – with the help of Nymphs (Hold Monsters, Call Lightning) – even the Greater Basilisks on top of Durlags Tower. Level 10 was then reached after clearing the Spider Nest in the Cloakwood even though this required several rest-retreats. All in all we can state: Getting to level 10 isnt that much hard for the Avenger. Especially two options of invisbility (Pixie Dust + Improved Invisbility) and the hasted Sword Spider really made it easy to avoid most dangers.
Mulahey + Tranzig:
Those two can easily be killed either by Web + Spike Growth stacking or using the Beetles.
Bandit Camp:
Nymphs + Domination to break Raemons scripts makes this one a no-brainer.
Davaeorn:
This one gets easier with every walkthrough as we have noticed that you can try to dominate him over and over again as long as you do not trigger the talking. Even after resting and Davaeorn being hostile he wont use his spells when quickly retreating out of vision again. Once dominated the Battle Horrors will quickly finish him off even though he might use Teleport several times.
Baldurs Gate:
Beetles + Invisbibility to get through Seven Suns and the Iron Throne – it wont get easier.
Candlekeep:
You can get off Improved Invisbility if using pause immediately after the cutscene. With the Ogre Mages unable to trigger their talking you can just run up to the guard – job done.
Slythe:
With Iron Skin up and five Beetles this should be no big fight if you combine them with True Seeing and Insect Plague (plus Improved Invsibility) while also distracting Kristin with one Beetle.
Palace Ambush:
This one can get tricky but once you manage to time the Insect Plague casted on one Beetle and get the second one out as well things look pretty good. Teleport Field might also confuse several Dopplegangers while Dispel Magic might help to deal with their buffs. Even if some Beetles go down you should have at least one more spell memorized while casting Alicorn Lances and Sunscorch from distance and only go in with the Sword Spider Form once the Shaman and Mage are out of spells (or dead). However: With the Beetles available this fight is now much easier for the Avenger.
Sarevok:
The biggest challenge in BG1 for sure as there are many things that can go wrong. The following strategy has worked for us:
1. Dominate Tamoko and lure her into the temple summoning the Aerial Servant who kills the bare-fisted Cleric easily.
2. Cast 4x Dispel Magic to reveal Semaj and Tazok while also getting rid of Sarevoks Haste
3. Cast Doom on Semaj while also use another Nymph to dominate him
4. Let Semaj summon a Air Elemental and – in best case – Ogre Berserkers
5. Use the summons to bring Semaj and Tazok close to death
6. Go invsible and retreat the Air Elemental while the other summons now kill Semaj
7. Right in the moment Semaj dies immediately move into vision of Sarevok to trigger his talking otherwise Angelo and Diarmid wont teleport in making Sarevok immortal
8. Let Angelo waste his Chromatic Orb on one summon and hope they also manage to kill Tazok (if not take him out later)
9. Use your invsibility to easily pull Angelo away from the others (with bad luck he will position behind the Skeleton Warriors) and use the Aerial Servant (immune to his weapon) and the Air Elemental to take him down even though this may take a while
10. With Angelo down its now all about waiting until Diarmids PfM expires which takes away 2x5 turns from the summon duration. With bad luck the Aerial Servant (26 turns duration) might vanish when starting the fight against Sarevok but in most tests who could at least do some decent damage against the big one
11. With Diarmid now vulnerable to spells stack several Webs before using the summons to – hopefully – lure away only Sarevok (with bad luck and/or positioning one Skeletons might follow)
12. While the summons play hit & run with Sarevok cast Doom + Chromatic Orb on Diarmid to petrify him. As you should have at least four Orbs chances are good enough that he will go down instantly. Even better: Turning him to stone not only kills him but it also prevents him to transform into a Skeleton Warrior.
13. With only Sarevok left its now all about hit & run using one summon as a decoy while the others continue punching. As the evil brother switches his targets quickly microing all summons will require a lot of focus. But there is one excpeption and this one put us through in the last run: The Bombardier Beetles. If they manage to stun Sarevok you will get enough time to get in 500++ damage before expiring. With only 69 HP left the remaining four Beetles and the Air Elemental (plus Loreth using the Sword Spider Form) had an easy time to take him down.
Without the Spirit Animals this last fight gets a little bit trickier but after doing some testings it still looks manageable for an Avenger. Big B will be a much bigger problem – if we can get there.
We did some more test fights against Sarevok and IF the Avenger can get to the final phase fighting Sarevok alone some really cool stuff can happen.
With at least two Bombardier Beetles we managed to stunlock Sarevok on our fifth try so he was never able to do anything before dropping down like a sack of potatoes. Even in the rounds where he "only" got stunned once it wasnt hard to get in up to 700 damage so the rest was easy going.
Is anyone able to give me detailed infos about the acid cloud of Bombardier Beetles? Maybe @semiticgod or @histaminii? I have also seen that it can cause Deafness but there is never a Saving Throw displayed in the Log. Is it maybe just a XX % chance of success regardless of enemies defense? Thanks for your help!
P.S. It gets better and better cause... the Bombardier Beetles are able to stun even Big B... WOW!!
This would also solve the problem of landing Harm... IF he gets stunned...
611 hp 50 DR
-24 AC
-2/0/-1/-1/1
Immune +3 weapons
Immune Slay(55), but not Kill(13)
Cavalier Thac0
0 Base
-7 25 Strength (from Hell)
-8 Helm of Balduran
-9 Gloves
-10 Specialization
-16 Ravager +6
-17 Aid (21r)
-18 Prayer (20r)
-20 Recitation(21r)
Fallen Solar's have -24 AC, and Lord can have -20 buffed up, or -16 undispellable Ravager Thac0, and with 5 whirlwinds there's a good chance that the two Solar's are toast quickly. Anyway buffed up and started the fight. Balty attacked Bodhi and Lord attacked the other Fallen Solar who was killed almost immediately, but the other one took rest of my whirlwinds and evaded the Vorpal strike.
Again had some luck when I managed to use RoR on a killed Balty, and he got resurrected as a neutral. This meant that he continued casually hunting Bodhi down until she was killed. Had about 5 minute brawl in one of the pools with the other Fallen Solar, but eventually it got Vorpalled. The Solar couldn't do anything to me as I had undispellable -5 vs. death, so his -2 Vorpals couldn't touch me. Depleted Irenicus from spells with Warrior and Skeli and then easily hacked him to pieces
Pools were pretty straight forward smacking, Carsomyr for Glabrezus, Firetooth for Cambions, WoW for Mariliths although the second Marilith was a godsend, and depleted all 40 strikes from my WoW. Thought it was going to be an infinite loop, because Mariliths are immune to normal weapons, and can cast infinite Stoneskins and PfMW's. But all I needed was couple of interrupts to kill them. At one point there was invisible Babaus blocking my way, and I had no means to show it. Tried ctrl+t but it didn't reveal it. Luckily I was in the pit, could activate it, got Peridan back, revealed and killed the annoying Babau. How Babaus are scripted could possibly lead into a position where you can't activate the pit, nor reveal the Babau. Couple Balor's were the toughest ones, but timing my attacks so that it had killed most of his allies, and 10 apr FoA +5 did the rest.
Next up the Big 6 and Melissan, and Lord is feeling pretty confident as the fighter tactic should be pretty repeatable. I've undispellable 25 str, AC gap, 2x PfM, Control Circlet and the Rift Device.
Started the fight invisible, and went into the left pool. Conviniently Sarevok has a homing beacon, and I could Charm him with the Control Circlet and leave him there.
Then lured Gromnir to the lower right pool, and smacked him to near death.
Ran past Abazigal invisible to the top right pool. This pulled his Time Stop out, but because I was out of sight and invisible, he could do nothing with it. Then baited his PfMW, Absolute Immunity, and Improved Mantle out. You can do this, because he sees through invisibility and casts spells, but doesn't follow when you get to the fog of war. But I still wanted to hit him with PfM as he has Maze and Imprisonment. Then easily smacked him to near death.
With Reflection Shield in off hand, smacked Illasera to near death.
Improved Haste for 10 apr FoA +5, and lured Yaga-Shura with Firetooth away from Sendai. And got him to near death pretty quickly.
Attacked Sendai, but she went invisible. Revealed her with Invisibility Purge and hit with PfM. And with few rounds she was near death too.
Then the biggie. Buffed up last time and used my other Improved Haste. Positioned Sarevok where Melissan spawns, and started killing the Big 6 with critical strikes. First mistake when passing spawning Melissan, she dispelled me. But with whirlwinds I quickly wasted the rest. Melissan spawned couple Fallen Solars and they started hacking Sarevok. This took some time because one of the Solars actually healed Sarevok once from near death. The Fallen Solars then found me before Sarevok was dead. Melissan also cast Time Stop but was still attacking Sarevok. After while Sarevok died and Melissan was now vulnerable.
Melissan teleported into my circle, which was fine, and I then hit her with the Rift device to take 60% of her soul away. Saw Melissan spawn a hundred allies or more, so I used Dimension Door to get to another pool. Then disaster hit, the Fallen Solar healed Melissan. It had to go, used whirlwind with Ravager and luckily it got Vorpalled almost immediatelly. The other one was still somewhere else so I could again turn to Melissan. But then I was stunned, the what now? How was that possible, when I had -11 bonus from items and Potion of Invulnerability? Looked my stats and it showed only -1 bonus? And with no dr on, I was quickly killed.
Melissan can stun with -2 vs petirification with 15% chance with every hit for 15 seconds. But I should've been easily out of range. Cavalier natural save vs. petrification is 2, Helm of Balduran, Amulet of Seldarine, Ring +2 and Ring of Gaxx, -4 and with Potion of Invulnerability to -9. But I also had something called Silence Increased on, I wonder if that is the culprit?
Looking the Melissan weapon further it actually has a stackable save penalty of -1 with every hit for 12 seconds. And I did see Melissan use whirlwind so that might actually be it. So I made three mistakes:
Don't pass spawning Melissan too close to get dispelled.
If Fallen Solars find you before Sarevok is dead, use RoR on Sarevok until Solars are Vorpalled.
If you see Melissan use whirlwind, try to avoid it, or check the status of your saves, so that you don't get stunned.
At the time Melissan hit me with stun, I had -27 AC and her Thac0 is -20. Cavalier can have undispellable -31 AC vs slashing getting the Golden Girldle from Neera guestline, or -28 without that, which about halves Melissan hits, with 6 apr, 3 hits per round. So at the time I was killed, during two rounds she first got 10 hits and then the 0.15*0.15*0.65 = 1.5% stun hit. Nice one Melissan.
EDIT: Or what I should've used, was the freaking Soul Reaver, which would've made Melissan harmless. Although it could've been only used when her 30s Divine Mantle (+5) wasn't on. My Carsomyr couldn't dispel the Divine Mantle because I couldn't improve it to +6 as I was evil and it would've removed it from the quickslot.
On regeneration: I have *serious* concerns about balance here (fairly similar to yours by the sound of it). Yes, the developers originally intended to add regeneration, but after that they extensively playtested and balanced it without the regeneration present. I think introducing potentially quite a large shift in the tactical balance of Ascension 15+ years after it was released is dangerous. If I do it, it would be as a gated-behind-ini option for power users.
Now that Ascension v2.0 is out, I can be less coy about this. I actually did fix Regeneration, and keyed it to the difficulty slider (it only came on for 'hard' or 'insane' difficulty). Even that worried me, so I disabled it entirely by default - but you can re-enable it if you want in ascension.ini. See the readme for details.
Started with 28 hp from Familiar. Pseude Dragon killed Algernon to get evil abilities. Pet then soloed Shoal for 5k xp, double level up, Shield and 40 hp. Then it killed Sonner for Tanya's bowl. After helping Brage I had exactly 10k xp for the 4th level and Invisibility. Familiar killed Vitiare. Mellicamp Wolf was killed with 6 MM, 1 LMD and Familiar.
I take it paying for stuff to happen is ok? 60 gold for Ike to show Durlag's Tower. Kirinhale provided nice 4k xp boost. In Mutamin Garden Korax and Dragon managed to kill 7 Lesser and 1 Greater Basilisk before Korax turned enemy again. Then the Dragon and Missiles easily killed him. Got level 5 and took Charm Person and Snilloc's Snowball Swarm. Still 5k xp from Skull Trap. Mutamin and his Basilisks can actually be killed with AoE damage from Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, and resting, as their health doesn't regenerate. Got level 6 with Skull Trap and then did the same for Durlag's Tower basilisks. Got already to level 7 and chose, PfE, Web and Dire Charm. With Invisibility, Shield and 64 hp easily got to Mulahey.
Mulahey died to 30 Skull Traps after he stepped on them being Charmed. Tranzig got killed from 20 Skull Traps. Raiken escorted me to the Bandit Camp. Died first time when trying to loot the papers, my Invisiblity got interrupted. Second try worked. After getting Horror I did the rep guests. Invisibility to Davaeorn, tripped the traps and rested. Waited until all of his troops arrived and surrounded him. Then I could AoE damage them with SSS and Skull Traps. When ever I could rest on level they didn't heal, but if I had to rest out of level, they did. Although the guards that were killed didn't return. After a while I could rest on the level and Davaeorn got killed, and I also got xp from 14 guards.
Accepting and then refusing to kill the dobbelgangers gives 1000 xp. Picked up the papers invisible and Eltan sent me straight to Ogre Mage waylay. Pausing at right time, I could cast Invisibility before they activated. Passed Candlekeep and catacombs to the two Greater Basilisks, who again could be AoE damaged from out of sight with SSS and Skull Traps. Managed to get killing shot for Drizzt with SSS which passes MR, after calculating Gnolls damage. Still 12k from last level up. Then remembered the Greater Basilisk in the warehouse, softened with Skull Traps and SSS, and then the Dragon ate it. Two Battle Horrors then got me to last level, 20 Skull Traps each. Slythe was killed with 5 Hasted Phase Spiders and 4 Webs.
Next up Palace Ambush and I've no idea how I could beat it.
Incredibly hard luck, @histamiini. It's sad to see such a promising run come to an end.
Regardless of the result, you should be proud of the excellent progress you've made with the Cavalier. Your work is very clean and precise, and that's incredibly important for no-reload runs.
The palace ambush seems really ugly. I don't believe the doppelgangers will ever fail a save against Web in LoB mode with the save fix installed, and they'll chop up spiders in seconds. I think it might be impossible for a poverty sorcerer to do it without access to Greater Malison.
Loreth started into SoD and things nearly went out of control quite fast...
The first big problem comes when facing the huge undead group downstairs including two Bonebats. As they can see through invisibility and fighting them without Spirit Animals and Fire Elementals would be really painful Loreth tried a different tactic: Stacking 6x Web + 4x Spike Growth + 2x Spike Stones while waiting with five Beetles in the background.
The good thing: The stacking and webbing put down the Bonebats. The bad thing: Loreth ran into trouble finding a safe place to rest. She had to recast Improved Invisibility and could only rest on her very last desperate try near Korlasz - that was close.
Once refreshed Korlasz and friends got webbed and spiked so all Loreth had to do was to walk in once the Mage had dropped to injured - easy.
In Baldurs Gate Loreth finished all quests without problems. Well nearly cause thanks to being really lazy she got nearly killed by a hasted Bartleby in the Three Old Kegs escaping downstairs with only 14 HP left.
At Coastway Crossing Loreth quickly did some more quest hunting and killed both spider groups with a combination of Spike Growth + Beetles + Fire Elemental. This put her up to Level 12 so she can now pull of 4x Beetles and 2x Fire Elementals. Looks good.
Morentherene: I did not bother about the dragon but made a mistake of casting Iron Skin in the cave which turns her active. Had to eat one poison breath from a small one before slipping downstairs.
Ziatar: This was easy again thanks to 6x Web + 6x Spike Growth killing her without any retaliation.
Neothelid: As the Beetles and Fire Elementals always get dominated or stunned Loreth only used them as a decoy before slipping through invisible.
Akanna:Trying to be smart almost backfired as the Web + Spike Growth combo did not prevent her from calling in the Aerial Servants so Loreth quickly had to drop back and reset the fight. After another rest the Beetles were used to confuse the Neothelid again but – what – it did not show up again. That was strange...
However: Using the Beetles and True Sight she then lured the Aerial Servants away from Akanna before closing the door to summon more Beetles and go all in. As the Neothelid sometimes teleport in to Akannas room she had Iron Skin and Chaotic Commands up to be prepared for its arrival. However: It did not show up while the Bombardier Beetles managed to stun Akanna for an easy kill. With her Wardstone Loreth quickly went invisbile again to sneak out.
Before going through Morentherenes cave again she buffed up with Bark Skin + Remove Fear + Improved Invisiblity while using the Sword Spider Form to quickly run through without getting hit by another breath even though Morentherene tried to fear her – without success.
Bridgefort: Loreth quickly surrendered to the Crusaders facing the Bridge Mage once more. To stop his casting she called in two Fire Elementals, three Beetles and casted Insect Plague on one of the summons so it spreaded right after the talking. Together with True Seeing the Mage dropped within seconds before cleaning the house without problems.
Crusader Camp and Dragonspear Castle: Heading to the Castle Loreth picked the wrong dialogoue choice and did not get Caelars Seal like usual. To solve this one she returned to the camp and dominated Malden Col as attacking him directly would trigger Andrus Gath and his „Trap the Soul“ instakill. Once Malden goes hostile he was paralyzed and killed dropping not only the Seal but also a Potion of Power – too bad we cant use this!
Hephernaan and Crusader Attacks will follow in the next days...
P.S. Good luck with your Sorcerer @histamiini. And dont forget: There is always a way.
@semiticgod Yeah I should've taken Greater Malison, Minor Sequencer is a complete waste of spell slot. Now that SCS v32 got released, I should reinstall it and the sequencers/triggers as abilities component, and free up one 4th level spell slot. But first some testing on the ambush.
@Harpagornis: Good luck with the Coalition Camp invasion--that's always a terrifying obstacle for me.
What's the plan for Belhifet? Bombardier Beetle stun and Magic Resistance->Harm? The odds are pretty generous on that front, at least compared with the old method.
Coalition Camp is "easy" for Avengers as they have good options for each wave @semiticgod :
- Pre casted Webs + Spike Stones should deal a lot of damage
- Fire Elementals cant get touched by most enemies
- Nymphs are quite good thanks to Hold Monsters and Call Lightning
- Insect Plague will completly shut down the Mages and Clerics/Paladins
Yeah, Big B should - hopefully - fall to the Bombardier Beetle -> Magic Resistance -> Harm combo
As the Druid can protect himself against all incoming attacks (even Remove Fear thanks to IWD import) chances should not be "too bad" - if we can get to him...
By the way, I just did a word search for "Belhifet" in the last 100 pages of this thread (using View Page Source for each page in order to catch text in spoilers). There were a total of 695 instances of the word "Belhifet" in those pages.
Not surprising. Belhifet is by far the single biggest problem for any solo LoB run, no-reload or otherwise, with or without SCS or Ascension. The prospects of any character depend primarily on how they can handle Belhifet, more so than any other factor.
Hephernaan: Going all the way down to Hephernaan is normally no big deal but this time Loreth managed to step on one of the traps which turned all Crusaders in front of the cave hostile. As she was still invisible this wasnt a problem – for now. Before talking to Hephernaan she placed the Explosive Barrel and protected herself with Iron Skin so she quickly retreated to the elevator after the talking. On her way out she avoided several True Seeings before going out again. There the hostile army blocked the path so she had to move north again finding a safe place to summon one Fire Elemental who lured the Crusaders away and Loreth could slip through unseen.
Crusader Attacks: For this one she prepared...
Level 1: 8x Chromatic Orbs
Level 2: 6x Web
Level 3: 6x Call Lightning
Level 4: 4x Nymphs
Level 5: 2x Insect Plague
Level 6: 2x Fire Elementals
She then had to rest six times until getting two big Fire Elementals before traveling north to the talking with Caelar. As this takes 0 hours the Fire Elementals will still be there when returning for the Attacks while also making sure you get the more powerful summons.
Troll & Ogre Wave: This one was easier than expected as all except for the Ogre Mages suffered heavily against Web so Loreth casted Insect Plague to shut them down too before calling in Nymphs to paralzye them even more and burn them into the ground with Call Lightning. Only one Troll managed to get through all this CC but was quickly finished by the Archers.
Crusader Mages: This one can easily go wrong if the Mages walk south (triggering the remaining waves) once they get panicked by Insect Plague so Loreth used a different strategy this time (we had lost several Totemic Druids here). Sparing the six Spike Growth against the Trolls & Ogres she now precasted them at the spawing point of the Mages while using Dosia to refresh her spell pool right after that. With the arrival of the Crusaders she quickly dropped back and followed up with 5x Spike Growth while keeping her Fire Elementals still in the background so only the Wizard Slayers went in first. As only two Mages are protected by Minor Globes the rest had to eat 11 Spike Growths which proved to be fatal for them. Several of them quickly dropped within the first rounds unteil Loreth let her four Fire Elementals move in to tear apart the remaining ones without problems.
Clerics & Paladins: With her level 2 spells still available Loreth precasted five Webs on the summon spot of the next wave which turned the fight from „tough“ to „easy“ as the Clerics and Paladins got immediately webbed once the fight started. Loreth followed up with Insect Plague, more Webs and new Fire Elementals while also throwing in Spike Growths. It was really impressivehow how quickly the Crusaders dropped down like flies. With four Fire Elementals still left it was now time for Dosia to use her rejuvination power for the last time...
The Named Ones: This one proved to be the easiest one as Loreth was able to cast the full combo of Web + Spike Growth + Spike Stones with five Fire Elementals being ready to clean up Grimgor who also was close to death after the spiking. The only thing she had to make sure was not to get into vision of the Named Ones while also use the Fire Elementals to decoy incoming Crusaders long enough until the full Spike package was laid on the ground.
Ashatiel: This one proved to be pretty onesided after Loreth (protected by Improved Invisibility) called in Bombardier Beetles that immediately stunned her so she summoned in more Beetles and took the poor Ashatiel down by joining in with Spider Form.
Avernus: Here Loreth went for the rush tactic buffing herself up with Iron Skin, Chaotic Commands, Protection from Evil, 6x Barkskin and Remove Fear before calling in Beetles. The summons were used to distract the first demon wave which worked perfectly fine so Loreth called in two Fire Elementals (one small and a bigger one) before Thrix appeared and she managed to trigger his talking twice. But even though the door opened she could not use it forcing her to move all the way back crossing the bridge again. There the Lemures managed to dispel her Improved Invisiblity but thanks to Spider Form she could run through enemy lines without any problems as the teleporting demons were just too slow. Back at the first map she recasted Improved Invsibility and this time she outmanaouvered all Lemures so the Hamatuals and Abishais could do nothing but walk while the Erinyes only managed to land one Arrow which got absorbed by Iron Skin. Time to prepare for the Elevator and Big B...
On an unrelated note, you can smuggle charmed critters in Baldur's Gate from one area to the next via the sewers and Undercellars. So, if Larze survives the fight with Slythe and Ithtyl survives the fight at the Ducal Palace, you can bring them to the fight with Sarevok as well. Since the Nymph Cloak is easy to recharge, you could throw gobs of charmed critters at any of the key fights in the city. You could flood the Ducal Palace with so many charmed peasants that doppelgangers can't move. If Halbazzer Drin has the right spell picks, you might even be able to nail Sarevok with Imprisonment cast during Time Stop, though I'm not sure if that will end the game properly.
Dont forget that @Vynn and me have played 100++ poverty runs with Totemic Druids before @semiticgod so we know - at least for BG1 and SoD - whats going on. At least most of the time. We managed to get to Sendai in ToB once but died as we could not pull out the Pocket Plane escapes. But - yeah - Big B was the main problem over and over again. And he still is...
Our tests against Big B are not looking good as the Bombardier Beetle stun is NOT working on him. Yes, the log tells you that he is stunned but he keeps on hacking like normal. Damn it...
Even worse it looks like Big B is using his Improved Invisibility quicker than in 2.4 so in several test fights we were not able to finish "Magic Resistance" before he vanished canceling the spell.
The Demons also target Loreth very quickly now to catch her with Hold Person so without Improved Invisbility active the battle is over before it begins.
WIth other words: We will need a miracle to get through this horror.
I looked it up and unfortunately Belhifet is innately immune to stun effects. It looks like only True Seeing, Magic Resistance, and Harm could kill him, and that's a total crapshoot.
Is it possible that Single Weapon style could work with Harm? If it does, it would double our chances of getting a critical hit.
Where does the 0.6 come from? I assumed that would be the chance of getting through MR, but wouldn't that be 0.76 (for a 12th level druid) - or are you factoring in the possibility that the magic resistance spell won't be successfully cast in the first place?
With a 10% chance of landing the hit and Belhifet's MR reduced to 24%, we're looking at a 7.6% chance of success per casting of Harm. Since you have two castings of Harm at level 12, the odds of failing both times are (1-.076)^2=.853776, or an 85% chance of failure. That 15% chance of success is pretty lousy for no-reload purposes, but if you were willing to brute-force it and restart from Candlekeep until you got it, it looks like the druid might well have a shot at a no-reload poverty run in SCS v32.
It's probably worth doing some research into BG2 before investing in that kind of endeavor. You wouldn't want to spend hours re-doing the BG1 and SoD run, only to lose the run to an unforeseen obstacle in BG2.
Comments
Probably, yes: I've been trying to avoid (elusive, occasional) bugs like this since SCS2 launched ten years ago.
Is this on a v32 RC? And if so, on what difficulty setting?
Also, Impervious Sanctity of Mind applies a Spell Shield effect that's coded as a mage spell, so it triggers the Cowled Wizards.
I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but since we've talked about bugs multiple times, I'll point out the positive stuff. SCS v32 is absolutely awesome, and the introduction of IWD spells has massively improved the quality of gameplay. Priests are now far more balanced than they were before, and druids in particular are much more interesting.
On regeneration: I have *serious* concerns about balance here (fairly similar to yours by the sound of it). Yes, the developers originally intended to add regeneration, but after that they extensively playtested and balanced it without the regeneration present. I think introducing potentially quite a large shift in the tactical balance of Ascension 15+ years after it was released is dangerous. If I do it, it would be as a gated-behind-ini option for power users.
On Sanctity: thanks, will fix.
So far we had to suffer five deaths forcing us to restart:
1x dying to the infamous Archer Ambush when traveling south after helping Tenya
1x dying to the Palace Ambush after failing to get out Insect Plague in the right way
3x dying to Sarevok cause „something“ always went wrong – more on that later
We finally finished BG1 with Loreth VI.having an easy time along the way.
Leveling up:
This was easier than expected after Korax smacked down all but three Lesser Basilisks pushing us to level 6. After some more easy to do quests level 7 was reached opening up the powerful Beetles. With Web + Spike Growth + Beetles we cleared all Sirenes, Battle Horrors and – with the help of Nymphs (Hold Monsters, Call Lightning) – even the Greater Basilisks on top of Durlags Tower. Level 10 was then reached after clearing the Spider Nest in the Cloakwood even though this required several rest-retreats. All in all we can state: Getting to level 10 isnt that much hard for the Avenger. Especially two options of invisbility (Pixie Dust + Improved Invisbility) and the hasted Sword Spider really made it easy to avoid most dangers.
Mulahey + Tranzig:
Those two can easily be killed either by Web + Spike Growth stacking or using the Beetles.
Bandit Camp:
Nymphs + Domination to break Raemons scripts makes this one a no-brainer.
Davaeorn:
This one gets easier with every walkthrough as we have noticed that you can try to dominate him over and over again as long as you do not trigger the talking. Even after resting and Davaeorn being hostile he wont use his spells when quickly retreating out of vision again. Once dominated the Battle Horrors will quickly finish him off even though he might use Teleport several times.
Baldurs Gate:
Beetles + Invisbibility to get through Seven Suns and the Iron Throne – it wont get easier.
Candlekeep:
You can get off Improved Invisbility if using pause immediately after the cutscene. With the Ogre Mages unable to trigger their talking you can just run up to the guard – job done.
Slythe:
With Iron Skin up and five Beetles this should be no big fight if you combine them with True Seeing and Insect Plague (plus Improved Invsibility) while also distracting Kristin with one Beetle.
Palace Ambush:
This one can get tricky but once you manage to time the Insect Plague casted on one Beetle and get the second one out as well things look pretty good. Teleport Field might also confuse several Dopplegangers while Dispel Magic might help to deal with their buffs. Even if some Beetles go down you should have at least one more spell memorized while casting Alicorn Lances and Sunscorch from distance and only go in with the Sword Spider Form once the Shaman and Mage are out of spells (or dead). However: With the Beetles available this fight is now much easier for the Avenger.
Sarevok:
The biggest challenge in BG1 for sure as there are many things that can go wrong. The following strategy has worked for us:
1. Dominate Tamoko and lure her into the temple summoning the Aerial Servant who kills the bare-fisted Cleric easily.
2. Cast 4x Dispel Magic to reveal Semaj and Tazok while also getting rid of Sarevoks Haste
3. Cast Doom on Semaj while also use another Nymph to dominate him
4. Let Semaj summon a Air Elemental and – in best case – Ogre Berserkers
5. Use the summons to bring Semaj and Tazok close to death
6. Go invsible and retreat the Air Elemental while the other summons now kill Semaj
7. Right in the moment Semaj dies immediately move into vision of Sarevok to trigger his talking otherwise Angelo and Diarmid wont teleport in making Sarevok immortal
8. Let Angelo waste his Chromatic Orb on one summon and hope they also manage to kill Tazok (if not take him out later)
9. Use your invsibility to easily pull Angelo away from the others (with bad luck he will position behind the Skeleton Warriors) and use the Aerial Servant (immune to his weapon) and the Air Elemental to take him down even though this may take a while
10. With Angelo down its now all about waiting until Diarmids PfM expires which takes away 2x5 turns from the summon duration. With bad luck the Aerial Servant (26 turns duration) might vanish when starting the fight against Sarevok but in most tests who could at least do some decent damage against the big one
11. With Diarmid now vulnerable to spells stack several Webs before using the summons to – hopefully – lure away only Sarevok (with bad luck and/or positioning one Skeletons might follow)
12. While the summons play hit & run with Sarevok cast Doom + Chromatic Orb on Diarmid to petrify him. As you should have at least four Orbs chances are good enough that he will go down instantly. Even better: Turning him to stone not only kills him but it also prevents him to transform into a Skeleton Warrior.
13. With only Sarevok left its now all about hit & run using one summon as a decoy while the others continue punching. As the evil brother switches his targets quickly microing all summons will require a lot of focus. But there is one excpeption and this one put us through in the last run: The Bombardier Beetles. If they manage to stun Sarevok you will get enough time to get in 500++ damage before expiring. With only 69 HP left the remaining four Beetles and the Air Elemental (plus Loreth using the Sword Spider Form) had an easy time to take him down.
Without the Spirit Animals this last fight gets a little bit trickier but after doing some testings it still looks manageable for an Avenger. Big B will be a much bigger problem – if we can get there.
With at least two Bombardier Beetles we managed to stunlock Sarevok on our fifth try so he was never able to do anything before dropping down like a sack of potatoes. Even in the rounds where he "only" got stunned once it wasnt hard to get in up to 700 damage so the rest was easy going.
Is anyone able to give me detailed infos about the acid cloud of Bombardier Beetles? Maybe @semiticgod or @histaminii? I have also seen that it can cause Deafness but there is never a Saving Throw displayed in the Log. Is it maybe just a XX % chance of success regardless of enemies defense? Thanks for your help!
P.S. It gets better and better cause... the Bombardier Beetles are able to stun even Big B... WOW!!
This would also solve the problem of landing Harm... IF he gets stunned...
INNATE_BOMBARDIER_BEETLE_CLOUD
Deafness 40%, 42s, no save, pass mr
Stun 20%, 30s, no save, pass mr
611 hp 50 DR
-24 AC
-2/0/-1/-1/1
Immune +3 weapons
Immune Slay(55), but not Kill(13)
Cavalier Thac0
0 Base
-7 25 Strength (from Hell)
-8 Helm of Balduran
-9 Gloves
-10 Specialization
-16 Ravager +6
-17 Aid (21r)
-18 Prayer (20r)
-20 Recitation(21r)
Fallen Solar's have -24 AC, and Lord can have -20 buffed up, or -16 undispellable Ravager Thac0, and with 5 whirlwinds there's a good chance that the two Solar's are toast quickly. Anyway buffed up and started the fight. Balty attacked Bodhi and Lord attacked the other Fallen Solar who was killed almost immediately, but the other one took rest of my whirlwinds and evaded the Vorpal strike.
Again had some luck when I managed to use RoR on a killed Balty, and he got resurrected as a neutral. This meant that he continued casually hunting Bodhi down until she was killed. Had about 5 minute brawl in one of the pools with the other Fallen Solar, but eventually it got Vorpalled. The Solar couldn't do anything to me as I had undispellable -5 vs. death, so his -2 Vorpals couldn't touch me. Depleted Irenicus from spells with Warrior and Skeli and then easily hacked him to pieces
Pools were pretty straight forward smacking, Carsomyr for Glabrezus, Firetooth for Cambions, WoW for Mariliths although the second Marilith was a godsend, and depleted all 40 strikes from my WoW. Thought it was going to be an infinite loop, because Mariliths are immune to normal weapons, and can cast infinite Stoneskins and PfMW's. But all I needed was couple of interrupts to kill them. At one point there was invisible Babaus blocking my way, and I had no means to show it. Tried ctrl+t but it didn't reveal it. Luckily I was in the pit, could activate it, got Peridan back, revealed and killed the annoying Babau. How Babaus are scripted could possibly lead into a position where you can't activate the pit, nor reveal the Babau. Couple Balor's were the toughest ones, but timing my attacks so that it had killed most of his allies, and 10 apr FoA +5 did the rest.
Next up the Big 6 and Melissan, and Lord is feeling pretty confident as the fighter tactic should be pretty repeatable. I've undispellable 25 str, AC gap, 2x PfM, Control Circlet and the Rift Device.
Started the fight invisible, and went into the left pool. Conviniently Sarevok has a homing beacon, and I could Charm him with the Control Circlet and leave him there.
Then lured Gromnir to the lower right pool, and smacked him to near death.
Ran past Abazigal invisible to the top right pool. This pulled his Time Stop out, but because I was out of sight and invisible, he could do nothing with it. Then baited his PfMW, Absolute Immunity, and Improved Mantle out. You can do this, because he sees through invisibility and casts spells, but doesn't follow when you get to the fog of war. But I still wanted to hit him with PfM as he has Maze and Imprisonment. Then easily smacked him to near death.
With Reflection Shield in off hand, smacked Illasera to near death.
Improved Haste for 10 apr FoA +5, and lured Yaga-Shura with Firetooth away from Sendai. And got him to near death pretty quickly.
Attacked Sendai, but she went invisible. Revealed her with Invisibility Purge and hit with PfM. And with few rounds she was near death too.
Then the biggie. Buffed up last time and used my other Improved Haste. Positioned Sarevok where Melissan spawns, and started killing the Big 6 with critical strikes. First mistake when passing spawning Melissan, she dispelled me. But with whirlwinds I quickly wasted the rest. Melissan spawned couple Fallen Solars and they started hacking Sarevok. This took some time because one of the Solars actually healed Sarevok once from near death. The Fallen Solars then found me before Sarevok was dead. Melissan also cast Time Stop but was still attacking Sarevok. After while Sarevok died and Melissan was now vulnerable.
Melissan teleported into my circle, which was fine, and I then hit her with the Rift device to take 60% of her soul away. Saw Melissan spawn a hundred allies or more, so I used Dimension Door to get to another pool. Then disaster hit, the Fallen Solar healed Melissan. It had to go, used whirlwind with Ravager and luckily it got Vorpalled almost immediatelly. The other one was still somewhere else so I could again turn to Melissan. But then I was stunned, the what now? How was that possible, when I had -11 bonus from items and Potion of Invulnerability? Looked my stats and it showed only -1 bonus? And with no dr on, I was quickly killed.
Melissan can stun with -2 vs petirification with 15% chance with every hit for 15 seconds. But I should've been easily out of range. Cavalier natural save vs. petrification is 2, Helm of Balduran, Amulet of Seldarine, Ring +2 and Ring of Gaxx, -4 and with Potion of Invulnerability to -9. But I also had something called Silence Increased on, I wonder if that is the culprit?
Don't pass spawning Melissan too close to get dispelled.
If Fallen Solars find you before Sarevok is dead, use RoR on Sarevok until Solars are Vorpalled.
If you see Melissan use whirlwind, try to avoid it, or check the status of your saves, so that you don't get stunned.
At the time Melissan hit me with stun, I had -27 AC and her Thac0 is -20. Cavalier can have undispellable -31 AC vs slashing getting the Golden Girldle from Neera guestline, or -28 without that, which about halves Melissan hits, with 6 apr, 3 hits per round. So at the time I was killed, during two rounds she first got 10 hits and then the 0.15*0.15*0.65 = 1.5% stun hit. Nice one Melissan.
EDIT: Or what I should've used, was the freaking Soul Reaver, which would've made Melissan harmless.
Thanks for all the deep posts, they should - hopefully - help Loreth if she ever manages to get into SoA or even ToB. Still a long way to go...
Now that Ascension v2.0 is out, I can be less coy about this. I actually did fix Regeneration, and keyed it to the difficulty slider (it only came on for 'hard' or 'insane' difficulty). Even that worried me, so I disabled it entirely by default - but you can re-enable it if you want in ascension.ini. See the readme for details.
Prologue
50 Hull
50 Dreppin
50 Phlydia
50 Firebead
50 Fuller
Spells
1st Familiar, Magic Missile
Level 1, 28 hp
Chapter 1
900 Marl
15 Algernon (Familiar)
5000 Shoal (Familiar)
300 Mad Arcand
35 Sonner (Familiar)
1000 Brage
Spells
1st Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield
2nd Invisibility
Level 4, 46 hp
Chapter 2
400 Noober
125 Vitiare (Familiar)
900 Hentold
1500 Brun (Invisibility)
1000 Albert
120 Mellicamp Wolf (Familiar, MM)
200 Kylee
4000 Kirinhale
9800 7 Lesser Basilisks (Familiar, Korax)
7000 Greater Basilisk (Famliar, Korax)
175 Korax (Familiar, MM)
1200 Mutamin (SSS + Res)
1400 Lesser Basilisk (SSS + Res)
7000 Greater Basilisk (SSS + Rest)
1400 Lesser Basilisk (SSS + Skull Trap + Rest)
21000 3 Greater Basilisks (SSS + Skull Trap + Rest)
650 Mulahey (30 Skull Traps + Dire Charm)
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm
Abilities Larloch's Minor Drain
Level 7, 64 hp
Chapter 3
975 Tranzig (20 Skull Traps)
400 Raiken
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm
Abilities 2x Larloch's Minor Drain
Level 7, 64 hp
Chapter 4
300 Firebead
1000 Ghastkill
200 Drienne
500 Samuel
35 Hobgoblin (Skull Traps + MM)
400 Joia
800 Tiber (Invisibility + Right Click Loot)
2520 6 Black Talon Elites (Skull Traps + SSS + Rest)
3360 8 Guards (Skull Traps + SSS + Rest)
6000 Davaeorn ((Skull Traps + SSS + Rest)
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm
Abilities 2x Larloch's Minor Drain, Horror
Level 7, 64 hp
Chapter 5
2000 Slaves
1000 Refusing to kill Dobbelgangers
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm
Abilities 2x Larloch's Minor Drain, Horror, Slow Poison
Level 7, 64 hp
Chapter 6
14000 2 Greater Basilisks (SSS + Skull Traps + Rest)
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm
lv4 Spider Spawn
Abilities 2x Larloch's Minor Drain, Horror, Slow Poison, DUHM
Level 8, 70 hp
Chapter 7
800 Joseph
2500 Eltan
1680 4 Carrion Crawlers (SSS + Skull Traps + Rest)
650 Ogre Mage (SSS + Skull Traps + Rest)
3500 Kahrk (SSS + Skull Traps + Rest)
12000 Drizzt (Gnolls + SSS)
7000 Greater Basilisk (SSS + Skull Traps + Familiar)
8000 2 Battle Horrors (40 Skull Traps)
Spells
lv1 Familiar, Magic Missile, Shield, Charm Person, PfE
lv2 Invisibility, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Web, Detect Invisibility
lv3 Skull Trap, Dire Charm, Haste
lv4 Spider Spawn, Minor Sequencer
Abilities 2x Larloch's Minor Drain, Horror, Slow Poison, 2x DUHM
Level 9, 76 hp
Started with 28 hp from Familiar. Pseude Dragon killed Algernon to get evil abilities. Pet then soloed Shoal for 5k xp, double level up, Shield and 40 hp. Then it killed Sonner for Tanya's bowl. After helping Brage I had exactly 10k xp for the 4th level and Invisibility. Familiar killed Vitiare. Mellicamp Wolf was killed with 6 MM, 1 LMD and Familiar.
I take it paying for stuff to happen is ok? 60 gold for Ike to show Durlag's Tower. Kirinhale provided nice 4k xp boost. In Mutamin Garden Korax and Dragon managed to kill 7 Lesser and 1 Greater Basilisk before Korax turned enemy again. Then the Dragon and Missiles easily killed him. Got level 5 and took Charm Person and Snilloc's Snowball Swarm. Still 5k xp from Skull Trap. Mutamin and his Basilisks can actually be killed with AoE damage from Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, and resting, as their health doesn't regenerate. Got level 6 with Skull Trap and then did the same for Durlag's Tower basilisks. Got already to level 7 and chose, PfE, Web and Dire Charm. With Invisibility, Shield and 64 hp easily got to Mulahey.
Mulahey died to 30 Skull Traps after he stepped on them being Charmed. Tranzig got killed from 20 Skull Traps. Raiken escorted me to the Bandit Camp. Died first time when trying to loot the papers, my Invisiblity got interrupted. Second try worked. After getting Horror I did the rep guests. Invisibility to Davaeorn, tripped the traps and rested. Waited until all of his troops arrived and surrounded him. Then I could AoE damage them with SSS and Skull Traps. When ever I could rest on level they didn't heal, but if I had to rest out of level, they did. Although the guards that were killed didn't return. After a while I could rest on the level and Davaeorn got killed, and I also got xp from 14 guards.
Accepting and then refusing to kill the dobbelgangers gives 1000 xp. Picked up the papers invisible and Eltan sent me straight to Ogre Mage waylay. Pausing at right time, I could cast Invisibility before they activated. Passed Candlekeep and catacombs to the two Greater Basilisks, who again could be AoE damaged from out of sight with SSS and Skull Traps. Managed to get killing shot for Drizzt with SSS which passes MR, after calculating Gnolls damage. Still 12k from last level up. Then remembered the Greater Basilisk in the warehouse, softened with Skull Traps and SSS, and then the Dragon ate it. Two Battle Horrors then got me to last level, 20 Skull Traps each. Slythe was killed with 5 Hasted Phase Spiders and 4 Webs.
Next up Palace Ambush and I've no idea how I could beat it.
Regardless of the result, you should be proud of the excellent progress you've made with the Cavalier. Your work is very clean and precise, and that's incredibly important for no-reload runs.
The palace ambush seems really ugly. I don't believe the doppelgangers will ever fail a save against Web in LoB mode with the save fix installed, and they'll chop up spiders in seconds. I think it might be impossible for a poverty sorcerer to do it without access to Greater Malison.
The first big problem comes when facing the huge undead group downstairs including two Bonebats. As they can see through invisibility and fighting them without Spirit Animals and Fire Elementals would be really painful Loreth tried a different tactic: Stacking 6x Web + 4x Spike Growth + 2x Spike Stones while waiting with five Beetles in the background.
The good thing: The stacking and webbing put down the Bonebats. The bad thing: Loreth ran into trouble finding a safe place to rest. She had to recast Improved Invisibility and could only rest on her very last desperate try near Korlasz - that was close.
Once refreshed Korlasz and friends got webbed and spiked so all Loreth had to do was to walk in once the Mage had dropped to injured - easy.
In Baldurs Gate Loreth finished all quests without problems. Well nearly cause thanks to being really lazy she got nearly killed by a hasted Bartleby in the Three Old Kegs escaping downstairs with only 14 HP left.
At Coastway Crossing Loreth quickly did some more quest hunting and killed both spider groups with a combination of Spike Growth + Beetles + Fire Elemental. This put her up to Level 12 so she can now pull of 4x Beetles and 2x Fire Elementals. Looks good.
Morentherene: I did not bother about the dragon but made a mistake of casting Iron Skin in the cave which turns her active. Had to eat one poison breath from a small one before slipping downstairs.
Ziatar: This was easy again thanks to 6x Web + 6x Spike Growth killing her without any retaliation.
Neothelid: As the Beetles and Fire Elementals always get dominated or stunned Loreth only used them as a decoy before slipping through invisible.
Akanna:Trying to be smart almost backfired as the Web + Spike Growth combo did not prevent her from calling in the Aerial Servants so Loreth quickly had to drop back and reset the fight. After another rest the Beetles were used to confuse the Neothelid again but – what – it did not show up again. That was strange...
However: Using the Beetles and True Sight she then lured the Aerial Servants away from Akanna before closing the door to summon more Beetles and go all in. As the Neothelid sometimes teleport in to Akannas room she had Iron Skin and Chaotic Commands up to be prepared for its arrival. However: It did not show up while the Bombardier Beetles managed to stun Akanna for an easy kill. With her Wardstone Loreth quickly went invisbile again to sneak out.
Before going through Morentherenes cave again she buffed up with Bark Skin + Remove Fear + Improved Invisiblity while using the Sword Spider Form to quickly run through without getting hit by another breath even though Morentherene tried to fear her – without success.
Bridgefort: Loreth quickly surrendered to the Crusaders facing the Bridge Mage once more. To stop his casting she called in two Fire Elementals, three Beetles and casted Insect Plague on one of the summons so it spreaded right after the talking. Together with True Seeing the Mage dropped within seconds before cleaning the house without problems.
Crusader Camp and Dragonspear Castle: Heading to the Castle Loreth picked the wrong dialogoue choice and did not get Caelars Seal like usual. To solve this one she returned to the camp and dominated Malden Col as attacking him directly would trigger Andrus Gath and his „Trap the Soul“ instakill. Once Malden goes hostile he was paralyzed and killed dropping not only the Seal but also a Potion of Power – too bad we cant use this!
Hephernaan and Crusader Attacks will follow in the next days...
P.S. Good luck with your Sorcerer @histamiini. And dont forget: There is always a way.
What's the plan for Belhifet? Bombardier Beetle stun and Magic Resistance->Harm? The odds are pretty generous on that front, at least compared with the old method.
- Pre casted Webs + Spike Stones should deal a lot of damage
- Fire Elementals cant get touched by most enemies
- Nymphs are quite good thanks to Hold Monsters and Call Lightning
- Insect Plague will completly shut down the Mages and Clerics/Paladins
Yeah, Big B should - hopefully - fall to the Bombardier Beetle -> Magic Resistance -> Harm combo
As the Druid can protect himself against all incoming attacks (even Remove Fear thanks to IWD import) chances should not be "too bad" - if we can get to him...
Hephernaan: Going all the way down to Hephernaan is normally no big deal but this time Loreth managed to step on one of the traps which turned all Crusaders in front of the cave hostile. As she was still invisible this wasnt a problem – for now. Before talking to Hephernaan she placed the Explosive Barrel and protected herself with Iron Skin so she quickly retreated to the elevator after the talking. On her way out she avoided several True Seeings before going out again. There the hostile army blocked the path so she had to move north again finding a safe place to summon one Fire Elemental who lured the Crusaders away and Loreth could slip through unseen.
Crusader Attacks: For this one she prepared...
Level 1: 8x Chromatic Orbs
Level 2: 6x Web
Level 3: 6x Call Lightning
Level 4: 4x Nymphs
Level 5: 2x Insect Plague
Level 6: 2x Fire Elementals
She then had to rest six times until getting two big Fire Elementals before traveling north to the talking with Caelar. As this takes 0 hours the Fire Elementals will still be there when returning for the Attacks while also making sure you get the more powerful summons.
Troll & Ogre Wave: This one was easier than expected as all except for the Ogre Mages suffered heavily against Web so Loreth casted Insect Plague to shut them down too before calling in Nymphs to paralzye them even more and burn them into the ground with Call Lightning. Only one Troll managed to get through all this CC but was quickly finished by the Archers.
Crusader Mages: This one can easily go wrong if the Mages walk south (triggering the remaining waves) once they get panicked by Insect Plague so Loreth used a different strategy this time (we had lost several Totemic Druids here). Sparing the six Spike Growth against the Trolls & Ogres she now precasted them at the spawing point of the Mages while using Dosia to refresh her spell pool right after that. With the arrival of the Crusaders she quickly dropped back and followed up with 5x Spike Growth while keeping her Fire Elementals still in the background so only the Wizard Slayers went in first. As only two Mages are protected by Minor Globes the rest had to eat 11 Spike Growths which proved to be fatal for them. Several of them quickly dropped within the first rounds unteil Loreth let her four Fire Elementals move in to tear apart the remaining ones without problems.
Clerics & Paladins: With her level 2 spells still available Loreth precasted five Webs on the summon spot of the next wave which turned the fight from „tough“ to „easy“ as the Clerics and Paladins got immediately webbed once the fight started. Loreth followed up with Insect Plague, more Webs and new Fire Elementals while also throwing in Spike Growths. It was really impressivehow how quickly the Crusaders dropped down like flies. With four Fire Elementals still left it was now time for Dosia to use her rejuvination power for the last time...
The Named Ones: This one proved to be the easiest one as Loreth was able to cast the full combo of Web + Spike Growth + Spike Stones with five Fire Elementals being ready to clean up Grimgor who also was close to death after the spiking. The only thing she had to make sure was not to get into vision of the Named Ones while also use the Fire Elementals to decoy incoming Crusaders long enough until the full Spike package was laid on the ground.
Ashatiel: This one proved to be pretty onesided after Loreth (protected by Improved Invisibility) called in Bombardier Beetles that immediately stunned her so she summoned in more Beetles and took the poor Ashatiel down by joining in with Spider Form.
Avernus: Here Loreth went for the rush tactic buffing herself up with Iron Skin, Chaotic Commands, Protection from Evil, 6x Barkskin and Remove Fear before calling in Beetles. The summons were used to distract the first demon wave which worked perfectly fine so Loreth called in two Fire Elementals (one small and a bigger one) before Thrix appeared and she managed to trigger his talking twice. But even though the door opened she could not use it forcing her to move all the way back crossing the bridge again. There the Lemures managed to dispel her Improved Invisiblity but thanks to Spider Form she could run through enemy lines without any problems as the teleporting demons were just too slow. Back at the first map she recasted Improved Invsibility and this time she outmanaouvered all Lemures so the Hamatuals and Abishais could do nothing but walk while the Erinyes only managed to land one Arrow which got absorbed by Iron Skin. Time to prepare for the Elevator and Big B...
If your Avenger ever makes it past Belhifet, we might be looking at the most difficult no-reload saga run ever completed.
Our tests against Big B are not looking good as the Bombardier Beetle stun is NOT working on him. Yes, the log tells you that he is stunned but he keeps on hacking like normal. Damn it...
Even worse it looks like Big B is using his Improved Invisibility quicker than in 2.4 so in several test fights we were not able to finish "Magic Resistance" before he vanished canceling the spell.
The Demons also target Loreth very quickly now to catch her with Hold Person so without Improved Invisbility active the battle is over before it begins.
WIth other words: We will need a miracle to get through this horror.
Is it possible that Single Weapon style could work with Harm? If it does, it would double our chances of getting a critical hit.
At the moment we are testing different approaches and ideas - more on that later...
It's probably worth doing some research into BG2 before investing in that kind of endeavor. You wouldn't want to spend hours re-doing the BG1 and SoD run, only to lose the run to an unforeseen obstacle in BG2.