Executive Summary: Using a few imported items, Angelo raids Korlasz's tomb and sneaks his way to over 89,000 XP!
When Angelo looked up from his mirror, he saw that his surroundings had miraculously changed and he was now in a tunnel with Imoen with a bunch of Flaming Fist lackeys. "How did they get past my 100% Detect Illusion?" he asked himself, hoping other monsters wouldn't sneak up on him like that. Once it became clear that Angelo did not want Imoen's help, nor was she offering it, he began making his plans to escape Korlasz's tomb.
Finishing the First Floor...
Firstly, Angelo looked through the pile of stuff left by Sarevok and his dead allies, but there was nothing particularly exciting (had he an ammo belt, he would have relished the acid arrows... but he hadn't!). He then drank a potion of genius and scribed all of the scrolls that he'd brought from Baldur's Gate, earning himself a relatively paltry 1,280 XP (he'd forgotten that the XP rewards for scribing scrolls and thievery were much smaller in BG than BG2). He promptly visited the mage Ammon, showed off his wizardry skills and signed a letter for 3,000 more XP. Snatching the invisibility-related items from the sacrophagus, Angelo relished the irony of casting Invisibility to evade the tattered skeleton and let the Flaming Fist deal with it.
That Invisibility didn't quite allow him to make his way past the bunch of guards across the bridge, but by flicking into sight briefly, Angelo was able to lure them away from the doorway. Dumping them again with another Invisibility, he spoke to Porios and persuaded them to surrender (not that there was much persuasion involved) before his Flaming Fist distractions got beaten up too badly. This earned him all the 5,605 XP on offer for their defeats without having to lift a finger; he didn't even need to pickpocket anyone, as the mercenaries dropped all their stuff as they left. "Start as you mean to go on," he muttered, describing his modus operandi of sneaking past as much as possible and getting all of the rewards while doing none of the work.
...and Sneaking the Second
After chatting to skeleton Fanenogorom and resting to ensure all his 1st level spells were Blindness, Angelo descended to the second floor invisibly, hoping to sneak past the majority of the level's inhabitants. That hope was quickly dashed by the miniature undead army in the first chamber, whose duo of bone bats not only sensed Angelo's illusion and followed him, but attacked him through it as well. Heeding Imoen's advice about seeking the priests for help with the undead, Angelo prevailed them with some simple queries.
"Do you have any weapons - a mace of disruption, for instance - that are designed to kill the undead?"
"No."
"Okay, I suppose that would be overpowered. Do you have things like elven holy water or stakes?"
"No."
"This is not very helpful. Surely, you at least have a scroll of Protection from Undead?"
"No."
"Heavens above, you're useless. Good job I imported these scrolls of Protection from Undead from Baldur's Gate, else I'd be a sitting duck right now."
"Just so, Angelo."
Thankfully, using the scroll of Protection from Undead allowed Angelo to skip most of the floor's combats, which would have been tedious and painful in equal measure, and focus on disarming the level's traps. He looted the Protection from Posion scroll from the nearby library, as he had a feeling it was going to be useful shortly, but ignored most of the other treasure on offer - much of it wasn't worth replacing his full inventory of BG goodies.
He did have to sneak past the band of mercenaries guarding the room across the second bridge, as they were not undead. He used Stealth, rather than Invisibility, for this since although the device to open the main doors could be activated invisibly, there was 800 XP available if you persuaded the guards to flee, an act which broke Invisibility. After scaring the guards, Angelo did use Invisibility to get back past the mercenaries and disarmed the arrow of dispelling trap by the entrance to Korlasz's chamber so that he didn't have to renew his illusion. Angelo didn't want to use spells unnecessarily and be forced to rest, allowing his Protection from Undead to expire.
'Killing' Korlasz
Angelo was dismayed to see that Korlasz had precast Stoneskin, meaning she could not have been taken out of the fight with a backstab before the battle had begun. Worse, she had brought 11 chums along to help - even if Angelo hit his summons cap, they'd have double his numbers! Fighting this battle fairly was obviously not an option... and yet they all started neutral. Maybe if Korlasz's script wasn't activated, Angelo would be able to start the battle on his terms, rather than hers, and that might even the odds somewhat...
Scouting invisibly, Angelo found a couple of spots where he could set up shop without Korlasz being in his sights. The subservient allies wouldn't respond unless Korlasz instructed them, so Angelo had some room to buff up and prepare. After some deliberation, Angelo decided on the top right corner as being his base of operations (the top left corner was tempting, but Angelo surmised that the crates offered scant protection and did not act to funnel his opponents as they appeared to). This site kept the most dangerous mercenary, the halfling (the ignominy!) wizard slayer (ditto!) on the right, in full view, and Angelo's next move to was to ensure that she couldn't fire off any nasty darts of stunning.
Here, Angelo noticed that the mercenaries would not turn hostile if the wizard slayer resisted a Blindness spell.
This observation guaranteed that Angelo could try as many times as necessary to remove her from the combat altogether. Of course, once the Blind was successful, the combat would begin, so Angelo summoned some monsters using the wand he'd brought from BG (although he could have used Ammon's reward had he forgotten) to block his opponents off. Positioning them next to the fighter/thief crossbowoman and the archer mercenary leader, so as to neuter their ranged attacks, Angelo cast Haste, used the scroll of Protection from Poison and blinded the wizard slayer.
As predicted, the mercenaries turned hostile, but Angelo was ready and, quick as a flash, he recast Invisibility and darted down the right hand wall past the blinded halfling. Somewhere in the melee, Angelo saw a 'poison weapon' banner flash up, and knew his decision to use Protection from Posion was the right one.
The 'Poison Weapon' special ability of enemy assassins and blackguards is nasty in that its lingering damage is not cured by Slow Poison, antidotes and the like since it uses a different opcode. The only solution is prevention, as Protection from Posion stops the effect entirely.
Funnily enough, although her allies were hostile, Korlasz was still neutral, blissfully unaware of the conflict. This was soon to change, as Angelo fired a few arrows of dispelling at her to remove her Stoneskins. Korlasz's expression turned to horror when her Stoneskin and Mirror Images fell away all at once, and she scrabbled to recast them. However, buoyed by Haste, Angelo continued his attack, determined to cause as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. He could not afford a prolonged fight, and was prepared to use his wands to stun her or summon more reinforcements... anything to reduce her health fast once her defences were down.
Korlasz seemed blind enough without Angelo needing to Blind her!
Once the second wave of ogres appeared beside her, their morning stars tearing a massive chunk from her health, Korlasz knew the game was up. She surrendered, killing her undead army, and Angelo accepted, making sure to stipulate that all items were dropped. Secretly, Angelo was quite grateful for her collapse in morale, as he wouldn't have fancied finishing all her minions off. As it stood, he got their deaths' 60,550 XP for relatively little hassle, which seemed like a fair trade. He even got 5,000 quest XP from Imoen outside Korlasz's chamber, which sweetened the deal yet further.
Once Korlasz surrenders, the two guards who can be intimidated to flee for 800 XP are no longer present... so if you're after as much easy XP as possible, it pays to speak to them early.
Completing the Crypts
The rest of the task was a mop up job. With most of the tomb's enemies now vanquished, Angelo could loot to his heart's content. Unfortunately, the beetles guarding the wooden staff were still present; although Angelo evaded them after looting the corpse with Invisibility, he was careful not to allow himself to be surrounded or have the exit blocked, as this would have been an embarrassing waste. After leaving the staff and its ornate headpiece from Korlasz's chamber in the sarcophagus, Angelo pocketed the 3,000 XP, as well as the further 3,000 XP from informing Fanegorom of Korlasz's departure.
On the other hand,although Angelo took the 1,500 XP for opening the secret room, he decided neither the helm of unwavering purpose nor the sword of ruin + 2 rivalled his own personal stash (he later regretted not finding room for the helm because umber hulks were annoying critters, but Foresight is an AD&D spell that didn't make it into BG); the summoned undead horde was large and contained bonebats, so would be difficult to evade. Similarly, he ignored the green globe as an amulet of protection +1 seemed scant reward for fighting a pair of ochre jellies (and at least one of them had to die, sadly, to recieve the amulet).
Finally, Angelo climbed the rope to the upper floor, earning another 6,625 XP from enemies 'vanquished' by Korlasz's surrender in the process. Raiding the formerly locked room, Angelo ran away from the appearing enemies and slammed the door behind him to stop them from following. Returning to Imoen at the tomb's entrance, Angelo figured it was time to leave before the enemies' AI figured out how to open doors.
"I basically earned 89,080 XP in this tomb for wounding a mage," Angelo murmured as he left. "That's over half the Baldur's Gate XP cap... and I'm not even including miscellaneous sources like disarming traps or scribing scrolls."
"Why do you mention this?" Felicity asked lackadaisically.
"Mainly for people trying to plan future LoB solo runs," Angelo admitted, "but it's also a hint of foreshadowing in our own tale. By the looks of it, the game will hurl monsters at you with abandon, but allows you to evade most of them and complete the quests in clever ways that reward tactical thinking over brute force. If these early signs are anything to go by, this is going to be a lot of fun!"
Good to see @histamiini back in the game, showing us mere mortals how it's done!
Out of interest, how important would you say that 9th level spells are to this challenge? Ordinarily, I'd say that the fighter part of a F/M/C doesn't add enough to make up for the spell shortage compared with a C/M (especially if you're going for a C/I, where you get extra spells and shorty saves to boot), but I'm gradually coming to the view that the fighter's extra attacks and HLAs may be a worthy substitute. My instincts still say that it's not a fair trade, but I've always been attracted to casters and have only minimally dabbled in ToB (where, as I understand, warriors become more viable) so for all I know, scrolls could be enough. You've completed the challenge with both a F/M/C and a C/M, which is why I ask.
@AvidGamerFan Depends on playing style, but for this challenge not that important I don't think. You can get superior 12h Spell Trap from Staff of Magi, permanent Shapechange ability from scroll if you want, and there's 9 guaranteed Time Stops in the game:
1 Vithal (Underdark)
1 Ribald (Chapter 6)
1 Mage (North Forest)
1 House (Suldanessellar)
1 Dragon (Evil path in Test of Pride)
2 Arcana Archives
1 Spell Merchant (Neera guestline ToB)
1 Limited Wish
Imprisonment is only really needed against Ogremoch, and you have two scrolls at that point. Chain Contingency is the only miss I think, other spells I don't usually even use. Fighter's Critical Strike is a massive help, combined with Harm which nobody in the game is immune for, or with Mind Flayer form draining 5 Intelligence 8 apr. SCS by default nerfs Harm, but you can remove Harm.ITM from override folder to get the real Harm.
@histamiini I think it's interesting that all of us challengers seem to be competing with slightly different SCS components installed and/or views on 'acceptable cheese'. For instance, I play without the Harm nerf (most SCS changes act to make the game in accordance with p'n'p rules, and you gotta take the rough with the smooth), but I don't allow simulacra to use quick items (as it removes some of the incentive to prioritise your limited resources). I don't think any choice is 'superior' or 'purer' than the others, and the variety of users' choices illustrates the range of tactics that can be used to complete the game, but it does mean that
some players will have different options open to them.
In any case, I'm aiming to test your hypothesis with a C/I playthrough after I've finished with my F/M/T. A C/I playthrough hasn't been done yet (it IS different from a C/M, and I'm not listening to anyone who says otherwise!), so please don't start one before I do... I've no doubt that you'd have finished Amelyssan off by the time I was out of Candlekeep! :-P
@AvidGamerFan Yeah, there's no right or wrong, you pretty much set your own difficulty. I agree lot of SCS, but it's supposed to be mod about enemies, not about changing core ability/mechanics, so I don't like the default Harm nerf. I don't use clone quick items either, as it's in the core game I think.
You're fine. If my Bard beats Bel casually, I'm thinking finally getting Swashbuckler through to SoA. With latest -11 AC additions in LoB enemies, the hit&run tactic that rogues used to rely, is very hard to pull out. So this could be the repeatable way for rogues to beat Bel.
SCS by default nerfs Harm, but you can remove Harm.ITM from override folder to get the real Harm.
It's generally safer to do this sort of thing through SCS's ini file, not manually. If you edit stratagems.ini and change no_initial_change_harm = 0 to no_initial_change_harm = 1 then you don't get the harm nerf. (You have to do this before installing SCS's AI Initialisation component, though.)
@histamiini I must confess that I've never held the rosy view of swashbucklers that some have. Although a swashy's bonuses sound good on paper (rogue's fast levelling plus bonuses every 5 levels? Yes please!), they still can't wear heavy armour or helmets without Use Any Item, they'll never have great HP and they'll never gain proficiency in several of the things that they'd want to take UAI for (e.g. Ravager's vorpal capability ain't worth much if you can't hit anything with it). Their bonuses can make up for this to some degree, but if I wanted a thief with fighting abilities (or, indeed, a fighter with thieving abilities), I'd take a F/T (in fact, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd take a F/M/T... but I digress). They can do everything a swashy can and they can backstab! Admittedly, these criticisms are somewhat alleviated by dual-classing, but dualling early misses out on their excellent HLAs and dualling late means the rogue XP table works against you: if you have to be level 24 before you receive HLAs, you'll have a maximum of 4,920,000 XP to get to a higher level than your thief... and the more thief levels you add, the more squeezed your new class will be. Plus, as a swashy, you won't receive Assassination, which is so good that it's limited to being picked 1/day.
For what it's worth, I have even less sympathy for another fan favourite, the shadowdancer. The problem is that although Hide in Plain Sight is cool in theory, the kit's disadvantages limit the shadowdancer's ability to utilise it fully. For a start, you'll need high Hide in Shadows and Move Silently to make it reliable, and the shadowdancer's lack of skill points means you'll need to devote considerable XP to make it work. Then there's the question of what you're going to use it for. Want to backstab? It won't be as strong as a thief of the same level. Want to drain mages of their spells? Better hope they don't cast True Sight, as you've got no access to Spell Immunity until UAI. Finally, there's the difficulty of long-term character development. Going for pure shadowdancer? Late game enemies innately see through invisibility with increasing frequency, and shadowdancers don't have much else. After a quick dual-class? Low skill points mean you'll either be Stealth only or utility only, and there's no point in choosing a shadowdancer if you're planning the latter. Thinking of getting to high level with thief before dualling? In addition to what what I said earlier about the rogue XP table, the lack of trap HLAs will hurt. As if this wasn't enough, shadowdancers have 3 prime requisites for dual-classing... including charisma (which will never be a prime requisite for whatever you're dual-classing into)... so unless you're automating it, be prepared to become very well acquainted with the 'Reroll' button.
I'm not saying that it'll never work, but I wouldn't be mad keen to try it myself...
SCS by default nerfs Harm, but you can remove Harm.ITM from override folder to get the real Harm.
It's generally safer to do this sort of thing through SCS's ini file, not manually. If you edit stratagems.ini and change no_initial_change_harm = 0 to no_initial_change_harm = 1 then you don't get the harm nerf. (You have to do this before installing SCS's AI Initialisation component, though.)
I think I selected not to modify Harm when I installed SCS... probably a silly question (I'm not the most computer literate person out there, evidently), but I assume that this does the same thing?
By the way, although I've made a few gripes about SCS opponents casting spells they shouldn't and so on, I don't want these to overshadow what a great mod it is. In general, myself included, people are more likely to mention gripes that they have than praise all the things that went right, and SCS certainly gets an awful lot of things right! It's also nice to see that mod creators are still active in the community after all these years, so hats off.
@histamiini I must confess that I've never held the rosy view of swashbucklers that some have. Although a swashy's bonuses sound good on paper (rogue's fast levelling plus bonuses every 5 levels? Yes please!), they still can't wear heavy armour or helmets without Use Any Item, they'll never have great HP and they'll never gain proficiency in several of the things that they'd want to take UAI for (e.g. Ravager's vorpal capability ain't worth much if you can't hit anything with it). Their bonuses can make up for this to some degree, but if I wanted a thief with fighting abilities (or, indeed, a fighter with thieving abilities), I'd take a F/T (in fact, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'd take a F/M/T... but I digress). They can do everything a swashy can and they can backstab! Admittedly, these criticisms are somewhat alleviated by dual-classing, but dualling early misses out on their excellent HLAs and dualling late means the rogue XP table works against you: if you have to be level 24 before you receive HLAs, you'll have a maximum of 4,920,000 XP to get to a higher level than your thief... and the more thief levels you add, the more squeezed your new class will be. Plus, as a swashy, you won't receive Assassination, which is so good that it's limited to being picked 1/day.
I was thinking dualing Swashbuckler to Fighter after level 24 and getting UAI. That would give -4 base Thac0 and I would hit AC cap naturally with BMU, it would also give access to Staff of Magi Invisibility spam etc. Compared to pure fighter I would lose a lot of HLA's though.
SCS by default nerfs Harm, but you can remove Harm.ITM from override folder to get the real Harm.
I think I selected not to modify Harm when I installed SCS... probably a silly question (I'm not the most computer literate person out there, evidently), but I assume that this does the same thing?
Should do.
By the way, although I've made a few gripes about SCS opponents casting spells they shouldn't and so on, I don't want these to overshadow what a great mod it is. In general, myself included, people are more likely to mention gripes that they have than praise all the things that went right, and SCS certainly gets an awful lot of things right! It's also nice to see that mod creators are still active in the community after all these years, so hats off.
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it (and I don't mind criticism, it's useful feedback.)
I don't very systematically read this thread. If there are particularly egregious misuses of spells, maybe report them on SCS's forum at gibberlings3.net, or in the SCS v33 release thread on the beamdog forums if you don't want to use Gibberlings 3.
@histamiini Just thought... if you're going to be relying on Martyr's Morningstar to keep your HP at 1, since it's only +2 and your swashy won't have access to Enchanted Weapon (unlike your blade), are you going to keep swapping between Martyr's and another +3 weapon to smack Bel before getting your low health back with Martyr's for the retaliation? Might be risky with his low speed factor and all the erinyes' arrows and damaging spells flying around.
@AvidGamerFan Yeah that wouldn't work in the mayhem. I just have to use Martyr's as a off-hand weapon. The fight will last much longer, but with damage immunity that would just mean keeping saves and such up. Also now realizing that Thief's can't even equip Martyr's Morningstar, so that theory is off.
But I think Kensai25->Thief would be much stronger end game than Swashbuckler25->Fighter. More health, -8 Thac0/ -8 dmg compared to -5/+5, Kai and Backstab/Assasination. Only loses couple fighter HLA's and -4 AC. The problem with this is Irenicus dungeon, how to get out of there without armor, summons or invisibility. The two Oil of Speeds could be the key, but I would have to train it a lot before starting the run, and to see if that's possible.
@AvidGamerFan Yeah that wouldn't work in the mayhem. I just have to use Martyr's as a off-hand weapon. The fight will last much longer, but with damage immunity that would just mean keeping saves and such up. Also now realizing that Thief's can't even equip Martyr's Morningstar, so that theory is off.
But I think Kensai25->Thief would be much stronger end game than Swashbuckler25->Fighter. More health, -8 Thac0/ -8 dmg compared to -5/+5, Kai and Backstab/Assasination. Only loses couple fighter HLA's and -4 AC. The problem with this is Irenicus dungeon, how to get out of there without armor, summons or invisibility. The two Oil of Speeds could be the key, but I would have to train it a lot before starting the run, and to see if that's possible.
Amazing how I can spot one problem, somehow forget that dual-wielding is even a thing and overlook the most glaring difficulty all at once. Perhaps you shouldn't listen to me about the lack of swashy viability after all!
That said, I'd definitely say that the Kensai/Thief idea has legs (I've always thought they had more potential than Kensai/Mages); I'd considered trying to myself, but I'd never thought of a convincing way past Big Bel (the Martyr's trick sounds feasible, but too gimmicky for my taste). I think that Irenicus' Dungeon/Chateau Irenicus/whatever it's called is doable. As I recall, @Harpagornis did it, albeit painfully, by lots of split-pulling and spamming the Horror special ability you get from BG if you have low reputation. If you're prepared to run past the monsters and pass up equipment (not much for a kensai anyway), then you'd be good to go in BG2 proper.
@AvidGamerFan My last Kensai run ended in Irenicus dungeon. But reading it back, I did device somewhat a plan, which included Horror, Oil of Speed and the Extra Healing potions, and also which corridors to use at which time. Horror isn't an obvious savior, as the Duegars can't all be horrored, and the rest will start homing in to you if I remember it correctly, even the close parties, opening doors etc.
My Blade run was going well, had no problems burning Sarevok level 1, but then overconfident Jin fell in the Korlasz tomb. Apparently there's arrow traps that hit twice, passing the one hit protection.
I might restart the Blade leveling naturally, and then using level drain in SoD to get the damage immunity, or perhaps Kensai24/Thief.
Executive Summary: With liberal use of Invisibility, Angelo polishes off Chapter 7's various simple quests.
Angelo knew that as 'the hero of Baldur's Gate', it was improbable that his adventure would proceed without further incident. However, he had not contended on being accosted the very night of his return to the city.
Preliminary Palatial Preparations
Luxuriating in his suite, Angelo prepared for his upcoming trials as well as for bed. By consulting with his Google-capable imp familiar, he learned there was 15,050 XP easily available in the remainder of this chapter:
Duchal Palace: 1,250 XP
Jospil - 250 XP
Ophylis - 750 XP
Teera - 250 XP
Three Old Kegs: 2,050 XP
Robel - 300 XP
Aileen - 300 XP
Autinn and Lucille - 500 XP
Lady Araya - 750 XP
Delanda - 200 XP
Elfsong Tavern: 2,750 XP
Officer Vida - 1,500 XP
Halbazzer Drin - 750 XP
Irina - 500 XP
Flaming Fist: 1,200 XP
Dauston - 200 XP (but see relevant entry)
Tiax - 1,000 XP
Iron Throne: 800 XP
Byzon and Riggs - 300 XP
Rasaad - 500 XP
Finishing the Chapter: 7,500 XP
There were further XP to be gained if Angelo was to engage in combat, but he was continuing his policy of only engaging when absolutely necessary. And, of course, there were minor XP rewards for picking locks, scribing scrolls and so on, but Angelo was far too lazy to collate these, as he was only interested in providing class-agnostic information.
Duchal Duties
Awakened by nocturnal intruders, Angelo found it curious that the harrassing assassins weren't nearly as dangerous as monsters he'd faced in Korslasz's abode. Might it be that the tomb prelude had been added relatively late, with this current encounter originally being designed as a gentle introduction before the developers decided that any true newcomers to the franchise would likely begin with the original BG instead? Having standalone ambitions was laudable, but is it fair to insist on catering to users deliberately starting halfway through a trilogy?
Angelo didn't know the answer to that, but he did know that he'd evaded the tougher creatures in Korlasz's tomb. Employing similar tactics, he cast Invisibility and let the assassins wail on Imoen for a bit. He knew she enjoyed the critical NPC protection demonstrated by Neera earlier in his run, so she was in no real danger, but the capable Captain Corwin came along soon enough and shot the wouldbe murderers to pieces. There were more identical thugs on the floor below that were disposed identically. As far as he could tell, the bottles of wine from the tables had no function, so Angelo left them be.
Having disposed of this weakling welcoming committee, saying some vaguely inspirational words to Jospil was enough for the fighter to part with his quarterstaff, which Angelo swiped by releasing Felicity and plonking the weapon in the resulting backpack space. This would be the first of multiple instances of inventory management throughout the present instalment, and tricks such as leaving items in lootable containers and so on were consistently employed to ease the burden.
Descending to the cellar, Angelo learned that Ophyllis had lost all his gold. "Good job I spent it all before tackling Sarevok," he muttered. Looking around seemed to trigger Korlasz's release from her cell, but a quick Invisibility ensured that she took her magic out on the Flaming Fist guards (Angelo retreated initially so that he wouldn't be hit by the initial Confusion spell before returning to allow his Detect Illusions to nullify her Mirror Images). Even charming one of the guards wasn't enough for Korlasz and she soon succumbed, after which Angelo left the scene. Had he fancied it, repeatedly talking to the doppelganger in the faraway cell and reducing it to Badly Wounded status was an easy way of obtaining a bribe, but this was strictly a no-combat episode... and besides, Angelo's inventory was already full.
Kegs for Days
Firstly, Angelo delivered Robel a warm drink and donated 15 GP to Aileen after discovering her sob story. He then meandered into the leftmost bar and defused a fight between sailors Autinn and Lucilla. Siding with either Autinn or Lucilla would earned him Eadro's Blade and Montgomer's Cudgel respectively, but in LoB mode, the opposing sailor was hard to dispatch before they fled, meaning that only one of those prizes was practical to obtain as the other could not be looted from the corresponding corpse. Both could, of course, be extracted via Pick Pocket, but as neither appealed to Angelo, he let the opportunity pass.
It was a similar story talking to the robbers Berahil, Hastus and Ozil on the first floor who'd practised their trade on Ophyllis (and, Angelo noted, would only show up once he had spoken with Ophyllis). Angelo could have fought them, but his gold would have already been spent regardless and a battle axe +1 seemed scant reward for the effort involved. Riffing on a theme, Angelo did not take on Bartleby after speaking to Delanda, content to threaten his way to 200 XP rather than fight it to 650 XP. Taking down Bartleby didn't appear too tactically taxing, but Angelo could tell that the fighter wasn't entirely helpless and would beat up a considerable chunk of any summons he would conjure. Unfortunately, his wakizashi could not be pickpocketed (although potions of extra healing and freedom could be), but since its AC bonus was only applicable to a kensai, Angelo wasn't too upset.
Finally, Angelo considered how best to deal with the plotting of Lady Araya, Lord Maxwell and Lord Therton. It was disappointing that he couldn't join in their scheme to dispose of the council, since Eldric was nowhere to be found, and although reporting them to Corwin earned 150 XP more than blackmailing them (750 XP, as opposed to 600 XP), Angelo conceded that the 600 GP and assorted minor magical items acquired through skulduggery were probably more valuable than the extra 150 XP and Corwin's emerald reward earned via virtuousness. Corwin didn't even have the decency to stay around upstairs, meaning that she couldn't be called upon to take out Bartleby. 'May as well not bother,' thought Angelo, so he didn't.
'Tavern' a Blast at Sorcerous Sundries
The thieving party of Lluis, Dirla, Asery and Golt sized Angelo up outside Sorcerous Sundries, but Angelo's talk of being a skilled warrior caused Asery to flee. Given this boasting, the other thieves were surprised when he turned invisible as soon as combat started. They didn't even react to Corwin's arrows tearing them up, although Golt immediately went into Stealth and had to be lured out of it before he could be shot down. Sadly, Golt didn't recognise that Angelo had cast Mirror Image before exiting Invisibility and the backstab attempt flew harmlessly through an illusory copy before Corwin's arrow flew through Golt's skull quite harmfully indeed. However, Angelo found that none of the thieves had any decent items on them, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Asery didn't either.
Angelo's woes were only to continue, as Halbazzer Drin had none of the items that Angelo had previously sold him back in BG. Worse, Halbazzer's stock seemed to have depleted, as there were no handy scrolls of Protection from Magic or Protection from Undead to be seen (although he had miraculously acquired new scrolls of Shades and Demishadow Monsters which had not previously been available). That said, Angelo did note that there were 5 new quintets of dispelling and detonation, which he hoovered up with gold he gained from selling redundant rings and amulets from his gem bag.
Halbazzer also asked Angelo to carry down some empty potion bottles from the upper floor. Angelo accepted this task, as it was a good excuse to loot the potions of heroism, invisibility and magic blocking in the surrounding cabinets (too bad the scroll of Protection from Magic on a nearby shelf was cursed, he thought). Angelo was sure that the game wanted him to take out the group of miscreants Kag, Sethyl, Wistak and Yashna teleporting in after he'd raided the cupboards... except that he'd already sprinted down the stairs using the boots of speed as soon as he'd taken the empty case and had left the floor by the time the cutscene showing their teleportation had even begun. Nevertheless, Halbazzer gave Angelo an amulet of protection +1 for completing the quest, and Angelo stashed away his new potions in the second potion bag he'd just bought from Halbazzer's cousin, Kazzrem.
Angelo knew that the barrel of ruby wine for Irina's Elfsong quest was on the far side of the Duchal Palace's cellar, and there was basically no chance of sneaking around the walls to it without activating Korslasz. Fortunately, he'd already dealt with the mage, so this quest was a simple retrieval job. Entertaining conversation with blissed stoner Zaviak also yielded the spectacles of spectacle, an all-round wonderful item that Angelo wished could have been utilised in other parts of the saga. However, he did not use them to discover the fire elemental dimensionally skulking around the tavern, as there would be more fruitful opportunities further down the line.
Angelo Serves the Flaming Fist... and the Iron Throne
Angelo approached the Flaming Fist compound expecting to talk his way to 200 XP from a drunken Dauston, but for whatever reason, the game seemed unwilling to award him the experience, despite him listening to as much of the conversation as was offered. Angelo wondered whether he should just have insulted the inebriate instead, but decided that the paltry 100 XP wasn't even worth the reload. Instead, he spoke to unhinged gnome Tiax for 1,000 XP and officer Jenks before returning to Officer Vida outside Sorcerous Sundries for another 1,500 XP (granted in 1,000 XP and 500 XP instalments).
Going back and forth between Byzon and Riggs by the Iron Throne building earned another 300 (Fed)XP, and deliberately failing to recruit to Rassad a further 500 XP. After a chat with Berta, it came as no surprise to Angelo when Lon burst into werewolf form. As so often the case in this episode, a quick cast of Invisibility proved too much for the opposition and Angelo happily let Corwin and Rasaad take the heat and kill the monster for him. He also happily kept Lon's amulet as a reward for their toil, as the permanent Bless effect was enough of an incentive for its use without the additional Wisdom bonus for shapeshifters.
Returning to Royalty
Having exhausted the possibilities that the city had to offer, Angelo went back to the Duchal Palace. The next day, after disobeying his promise to Skie the previous night and telling Entar Silvershield of her joining the Flaming Fist (he was offering a ring of protection +2, whereas she offered him nothing whatsoever), Angelo ventured outside and found a motley crew waiting for him. However, although these adventurers looked suited and booted and all-round prime candidates for Angelo Pick Pocket skill, he held off using his potions of master thievery for the time being. Neither the ruby rings on Belt and Liia nor the diamond and potion of storm giant strength on Entar Silvershield were reason enough to shell out, as Angelo had grander plans later on.
At long last, the expedition left for the Coast Way Crossing, netting Angelo a further 7,500 XP. In total, combined with the 89,080 XP from Korlasz's tomb, Angelo figured he'd earned 103,930 XP in Siege of Dragonspear and only had to fight one combat. Including the 161,000 XP inherited from BG, this meant that he was over halfway to the SoD XP cap and he'd barely finished the first part of the game. This was not bad going, and Angelo hoped he could keep up his workshy credentials as he moved into unfamiliar territory.
Auto-rolled Jin again with slightly different attributes, this time we are going to level naturally. Start was the usual murdering rampage, Imoen, Xzar, Montaron, Neera, Algernon. After that we suffered the bandit waylay, and had to restart again. Drizzt got killed by Gnolls. Noober got us the first level up. Revenant cave got us second level up and first protection potion against the bandit waylay. From High Hedge we bought Potion Bag, Identify and Invisibility. Tanya's bowl got us yet another level up and we got free Invisibility. Bought Shield Amulet and we went to the Nashkel mines, which we passed with Invisibility, where Mulahey was killed by the Kobbos.
Picked up WoMS from the Ghast cave. Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, charmed Marl and WoMS killed Tranzig. Raiken escorted us to bandit camp, where we charm killed all of Taurgosz, Raemon, Venkt and Hakt, and then looted the tent with Potion of Absorption.
Dushai was killed by WoMS, bought our reputation to 12 and did the reputation run to get 20/20 economy. Also Jin got to level 5. Molkar and Lamalha waylays passed with Invisibility. Charmed Bassilus got killed by his own Skelis, Shoal got stunned and WoMS'd. Charmed Mellum killed Khark and we got to level 6. Got 60k gold so it was time to do some shopping. Recharged WoMS, and bought Sandthief Ring, Greenstone Amulet, the Captive Audience and bunch of scrolls. The Captive Audience Bard item is one of the best items in Baldur's Gate 1: cheap 20x charges, 12h Domination with -2 vs Spell, 25ft range and doesn't agro on fail. Drasus party got mass Charmed and killed by the guards. Charmed guard ko'd Davaeorn and we got the killing blow.
Charmed Abela ko'd Ragefast, Ramazith was charmed and killed. Level 7 after killing Lothander. Iron Throne was Captivated with the Audience, and they killed themselves, level 8. Candlekeep Iron Throne was Charmed and killed, Prat's party Captivated. Larze and WoMS made short work of Slythe and Krystin. Palace Ambush was the same, precharmed the assassin, mage and shaman. Belt died, oh well. Bought all unknown scrolls, drank some Intellingence and learned all the spells.
In Durlag's Tower Riggolo killed the Ghost, Ghasts killed Riggolo and WoMS grinded Ghasts. Level 9. Avarice was bombed with Skull Traps, Fear lured to level above, and Love killed by WoMS and Ring of Energy. Picked up Durlag's Goblet and left.
Against Sarevok Jin got a huge scare as Angelo found her, she was then slowed and poisoned. Tried escape with Invibility potion and drink antidote, but she was then revealed, and had to drink another Invisibility and forget the antidote. Luckily the slow worked against the poison and Jin was saved at 8 hp. Wised from this Jin easily burned all from out of sight. Lets see if we are wiser in the Korlasz tomb.
Jin onto Dragonspear. Invisibility to Porios, double Invisibility and PfU to Korlasz who surrendered after 4 hits with Arrows of Detonations. Got double level up to 11th, which is going to be our last level in SoD, if we are going to level drain back to lv1. Got cool 100k for selling our stuff at Sorcerous Sundries, and bought all the interesting stuff with 40k. Skipped most of Baldur's Gate, only picked up the glasses and Bless amulet, and killed Viconia for the first headgear.
Chapter 8. Teleria doesn't aggro if you don't talk to her, casually hacked her for the Stone Ally. Jin listened Dwarves and Undead fight, picked up the five amulets and made a pact with the Lich. Hid behind the tent for the parlay.
Chapter 9. Picked up the first Enchanted Weapon scroll from the Troll Cave. Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned, passed Neothelid, Akanna charmed and killed. Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy and dispelled with arrow and then easily disposed.
Chapter 10. First Jin did the mundane guests and then it was time to study deep level drain. With PfU's Jin cleared the Vampire cave from the enemies except for the Fledling Vampire. The Vampiric Wolves were tough, as they regenerated, and WoMS was quickly overrun. Nevertheless, my last two PfU's were enough. At Dragonspear cave we charmed Ferrusk for the Ankheg Amulet and Strunk for the Purification Stone. In Hephernaan's chamber I needed to open the chest with level drain trap, because I wouldn't be able to open it being lv1, and we wanted the Spell Immunity. The trap didn't hit though, and we escaped the place with Speed. Back at the Vampire hideout, Jin buffed hp with Power potions. And after the Vampire had drained us to lv1 we escaped. Debuffed and equipped Martyr's Morningstar for 1 hp, and consequently, for damage immunity. This had some interesting side effects too, on top of being lv1 with no spells and weak saves. The saves effect from gear wasn't working anymore, or at least it wasn't shown in the character menu.
Crusaders attacked. Mage wave was trapped with 18 Skull Trap scrolls and 3 Webs. They were pretty useless and Jin didn't need immunity as she peppered them with Detonators. For the Mage wave 5 Skeleton Warriors, 4 Webs and 4 Cloudkills, and they were pretty easily Detonated too. Paladin wave 7 Webs, and Jin tanked them all using Wand of Fire. The same tactic against final wave as my Ankheg army ground the named ones. Ashatiel wasn't going to stop Jin either. Trix was tricked by leaving the level couple times.
For Belhifet Jin had two Enchanted Weapon scrolls for 100 round smacking with Martyr's Morningstar, Purification Stone to stop Disease and Poison attacks, Clarity to stop Fear and Charm and 100 Fire Resistance from scrolls to stop him teleporting around. We also needed 0 saves vs. Death to protect against Cornugon Stun attacks, so we needed to chuck 10 Mind Focusing potions, to counter oncoming Stone Form potions and avoid death against 0 Dexterity. The lift went pretty painlessly with summons and Martyr's. Before killing the last Abishai, we drank Speed, Clarity, 5x Stone Forms and killed it. We escaped Bel's Dispel, and used Enchanted Weapon and started tanking. I only needed to watch my Speed potion running out to know to refresh rest of the protections, which I needed to do once. And before the first Enchanted Weapon was out, so was Bel. Then we casually wasted Hephernaan. We then learned Enchanted Weapon, used Greater Restoration to get our levels back, and we were also able to level up to 12th.
A successful test of using level draining for 1 hp damage immunity with Martyr's Morningstar. And SoA the Blade goes.
And after the Vampire had drained us to lv1 we escaped. Debuffed and equipped Martyr's Morningstar for 1 hp, and consequently, for damage immunity. This had some interesting side effects too, on top of being lv1 with no spells and weak saves. The saves effect from gear wasn't working anymore, or at least it wasn't shown in the character menu.
That's correct. BG has always worked on that basis - rather than just reduce your saves slightly from the reduced level, saves are reduced down to what they would be for a naked character of your new level. I do find that unfair, but it just means you have to be careful not to be level drained (apart from when you're abusing that of course ).
@Grond0 Oh, that's interesting. I was thinking something was broken, because ( ) showed different modifiers for different saves. But knowing this it was the relation from original level to the level drained level.
Executive Summary: Using stealth, theft and blatantly underhand tactics, Angelo masters Chapter 8 with flair and style.
As Angelo’s troupe trooped out of Baldur’s Gate, Angelo admitted that he wasn’t sad to see the back of the city. Perhaps he’d outgrown all this toing and froing for mere handfuls of XP… in any case, he hoped that the Coast Way Crossing would herald more fruitful opportunities.
No denying it... this is one of my longer posts. I considered splitting it in two, but given that everything must be done in a strict order to maximise efficiency, it was clearer just to keep everything together. That said, there are a few dirty tricks here that I haven't seen described elsewhere, so hopefully there'll be something new for veteran readers.
Inept Ikros and Isabella
First on Angelo's to-do list was visiting the Coast Way Forest. After invisibly grabbing the gemblade from the southern corpses (using right-click and looting from the inventory so that his spell wouldn't break), Angelo discovered the vampire hunters Ikros and Isabella. Luckily, night was falling, so it didn't take long after he offered to help with the vampire slaying that the main event, Tsolak, showed up. During that interim period, however, Angelo had decided that killing Tsolak would count as a fight and he was still on his 'no-combat' diet, so he betrayed the vampire hunters. His casting of Invisibility focussed their attention on Tsolak (who, to be fair, was the greater threat), allowing Angelo to sit back and watch the show.
Several things quickly became apparent. First, these vampire hunters were not Undead Hunter paladins, since Tsolak's hits drained their levels handily. Secondly, they clearly hadn't done their research, as neither had weapons capable of damaging a vampire. As a result, Isabella was harmless and although Ikros' magic brought Tsolak down to badly injured, it wasn't enough to finish the job. Even when Ikros stunned the vampire using a wand of paralysation (had Angelo not been playing pacifist, he would have killed the mage quickly to preserve its charges for himself), Tsolak regenerated his health, waited for the paralysis to subside, then smacked them down handily.
Bringing +1 knives to a vampire fight
"Watch out for my messenger," Tsolak intoned cryptically as he left and Angelo looted the corpses for, amongst other miscellanea, the shield needed to complete Takos' quest. They weren't quite as inept as Angelo had thought, as Isabella had brought a wooden stake with her, and that gave Angelo an idea. Waiting until dawn had broken, he disarmed the four traps in front of the northern cave before driving the stake into the vampire's body lying prone in its coffin. This earned a pain free 9,000 XP and since Tsolak had already relayed his wishes, Angelo assumed that this staking wouldn't interfere with the messenger's arrival.
Talking to Takos
Having 'inadvertently' discovered one of the three items that Takos had lost in a fire, Angelo returned to Coast Way Crossing to find the other two. Despite the halfling describing at length their sentimental value, he obviously hadn't looked very hard for them - Angelo found the cloak in a chest behind the building and the mirror in a secret compartment in the burned out building, although he did switch on Find Traps to speed up the discovery process (detecting traps will automatically find secret doors).
Before talking to the halfling to finish the quest, Angelo placed the cloak and the shield in his bag of holding and filled the rest of his pack with items, making sure that the bag was in the bottom leftmost inventory space. Conversing with Takos, Angelo made sure to demand that he keep the mirror (which was not able to be put into the bag of holding), as well as the Biter +2 dart. "A pleasure doing business with you," Takos said as he made his leave.
"Not so pleasurable for you," Angelo smirked. Since his inventory was full when he received the dart, the bottom leftmost item was displaced to make room for the dart. When the game subsequently swept through his inventory looking for the cloak and shield to whisk them away, it couldn't find them... because they were in the displaced bag of holding on the floor! Once this one-time sweep had occurred, Angelo simply picked up the bag of holding again and rearranged his inventory a bit et voila! Takos' cloak and shield were still safely in his possession.
Hearing the Menhirs
After initiating Prin's quest, Angelo put on his ring of human influence so that his Charisma was high enough to avoid ill-effects when humming to the menhirs (Angelo was keen to stop any level-draining wraiths from appearing since they could accidentally kill vital NPCs in the camp and the soldiers' weapons were mostly uselessly non-magical). Using Invisibility to avoid the assorted spiders barring his passage, Angelo visited all six menhirs, freed Crommus for 6,000 XP and picked up the Reed of Echoes from Prin for good measure.
Unblocking the Coast Way Blockade
Angelo was secretly pleased to see his enemies panicking upon his arrival at the North West bridge, but decided it was counterproductive that they were scared at the sight of him, so he cast another quick Invisibility to disappear from view. After a few seconds of invisible loitering and exchanging pleasantries with Caelar Argent, his attackers promptly surrendered, which pleased Angelo even more. Best of all, they lingered around as neutrals, a fact that Angelo would shortly exploit.
Before that, however, he rested to ensure that he had as many Blind, Invisibility and Monster Summoning spells memorised as possible. Then, he drank two potions of Master Thievery, activated a scroll of Protection from Undead and approached the Dwarven Digsite.
Double Crossing the Dwarves
Although Daran Highammer could easily cut down the invading zombies without Angelo’s help, Borther Deepvein and his trio of clerics were not so lucky. Since Angelo needed at least Brother Deepvein to survive for his plan to work, he temporarily abandoned his ‘no combat’ policy to assist the dwarves in their fight. The Protection from Undead allowed Angelo some risk free maiming, and once he’d picked the amulet off the wight’s corpse from the battle, he relieved any surviving dwarves of their amulets using his enhanced Pick Pockets. This upped the number of netted necklaces to four, and Angelo promptly turned invisible to investigate the southernmost tunnel to acquire the fifth. Disarming the two traps along the corridor, Angelo looted the body (again using right-click so as not to break his spell) and left the chamber, unbothered by the healing potions lying in the container (which would have broken his illusion had he opened it).
Whenever I switched floors, something would randomly die off-screen and give me 3,000 XP. I’m not sure why this happens, and I’m not including it in my XP counts (although I confess not to have removed the extra XP using cheat codes… fear not, Angelo will easily hit the XP cap regardless!)
Although Invisibility was enough to get through the first level undetected, the Protection from Undead scroll’s protection was necessary to avoid the scattered bonebats on the second floor. Suitably hidden, Angelo entered the scrying pool chamber before heading as far right as he could. The bronze sentry guarding the laboratory, which did not count as undead, was reduced to wandering aimlessly via Blind (its saving throws weren’t great, so this was a low risk strategy) and Angelo correctly pressed the reversed seasons sequence in the pillars room to open the locked passage to the ritual chamber. Edging along the narrow bridge until the cutscene activated, Angelo watched Coldhearth being reborn before turning back to the first floor to tell Brother Deepvein the news.
It is possible to get boxed in here, and you may have to use summoned monsters as distraction or hack your way out. Tackle this area as soon as possible after activating Protection from Undead to give yourself leeway.
Don't let this happen to you!
Despite promising to kill Coldhearth, Angelo stowed the Secret Revealed in his pack, having no intention of using it. Renewing his Invisibility (it had been dispelled upon talking with Deepvein and Angelo needed to avoid the central carrion crawlers), he went back to Coldhearth to offer the five amulets that he’d already gathered, thereby securing a future ally without the onerous task of lich lynching. Coldhearth’s ‘strong’ magical item (Dread Hammer +2) could not be pickpocketed and was actually pretty weak, so Angelo took the reinforcements instead.
Although you can kill Coldhearth after he promises you troops, going back to the dwarves will override the proffered skeletons and you will not receive both allies at the crusader attacks. Also, if Edwin’s in your party when you deal with Coldhearth, you can apparently acquire both his skeletons and the Dread Hammer +2. Obviously non-applicable in a solo run, but worth mentioning as a tidbit.
Having done this, Angelo was free to loot the rest of the floor, including the secret room, the throne room and the room south of the scrying pool for the three missing staves. Inserting these into the pool earned 3,000 XP and watching a resulting vision an additional 500 XP; pouring in the essence of clarity from the throne room gave another cutscene/500 XP, but Angelo sensed he’d have to kill something to access the final essence, so he didn’t push it. Instead, he took the antimagic arrows and scrolls from the formerly locked room he’d opened by activating the throne before renewing his Invisibility and returning to the first floor for the final time. Angelo’s undead protection would still last long enough to raid Commus’ grave (whose swarm of guardians was so thick that he still had to summon a monster to lure some away) and kill the assorted monsters attacking Semahl (using his Cure Light Wounds special ability to keep the giant alive). Telling Semahl of the dwarves’ survival gained Angelo another 3,000 XP, concluding his business at the Dwarven Digsite.
The Vanishing (Reward)
Talking to Herod told Angelo that Teleria may be involved in some villagers' disappearances. Making sure to Pick Pocket Teleria before conversing (his potions were still active), Angelo agreed to meet her in a North East clearing but insisted on admiring her golem rather than the stoned adventurers, once there. Haggling her down to 800 GP, Angelo bought the golem for later use (and 300 XP) while also netting items that wouldn't have otherwise been available had he lacked the talent for pilfery. Furthermore, by using the Stone to Flesh scrolls on the statues, he received a wand of fire from one of the freed refugees (along with a few bolts and an elixir of health). It appeared that the game never intended anyone to pursue this route, as the mayor didn't offer the usual rewards for their release (Teleria seemingly has to die for that dialogue to fire), so Angelo talked to Soralis to complete the journal entry.
Mastering the Thievery from the Master Thievery
Wanting to maximise his potions’ 3-hour effects, Angelo proceeded to go on a stealing rampage, as there were multiple Pick Pockets targets in this area worthy of his attention. Since NPCs who could join your party do not turn hostile upon a failed PP check, Angelo only emptied their pockets after he’d finished the others.
NPCs Who Turn Hostile if PP Fails
Mizhena: sling +1, potion of stone giant strength, potion of magic protection, wand of the heavens (6 charges), potion of extra healing x2, bullets +2 x 40
Thaird: potion of healing
Soralis: bracers of defence AC 8, potion of healing, potion of invisibility, bullets +1 x 40
Brielle: potion of extra healing
Prin: potion of invulnerability {opposed check, since Prin is a bard with PP = 20%}
Daran Highammer: potion of firebreath, potion of invisibility x2 {opposed check, since Daran is a F/T with PP = 45%}
Barachus: potion of invulnerability, potion of frost giant strength, potion of extra healing
Ivann: ring of protection +1, potion of extra healing, potion of clarity, oil of speed
Kerra: potion of extra healing, oil of speed, wand the heavens (5 charges)
Seed: sling +1, bullets +1 x20, potion of healing, potion of invulnerability
Elwood: potion of healing, wand of frost (5 charges), darts of stunning x20
Twelve-Fingers: composite longbow +1, potion of explosions x2, potion of healing
Potential Companions Who Don’t Turn Hostile If PP Fails
Viconia: potion of healing x5, antidote x 5, elixir of health x 3, mace +1, bullets +2 x40, bullets x 40
Safana: scimitar +1, necklace of missiles (5 charges), arrows of fire x 40, arrows of biting x 40, cloak of non-detection, potion of healing x5, darts +1 x 160, potion of invisibility x3, potion of perception
Glint: belt of the cunning rogue, bullets x 40, bullets +2 x 40, potion of extra healing x3, potion of invisibility x 2, elixir of health x3
Minsc: greenstone amulet (5 charges), cloak of protection +1, potion of stone giant strength, ring of infravision, gauntlets of weapon expertise, potion of healing x5, potion of extra healing x3, arrow +1 x80, arrow +2 x 80, arrow of fire x80, composite longbow +1
Edwin: quarterstaff +1, throwing dagger +1, potion of healing x5, potion of defence, wand of monster summoning (5 charges)
Baeloth: darts +1 x 160, darts of acid x40, potion of healing x5, elixir of health x5, potion of invisibility x2, amulet of protection +1
M’Khiin: potion of healing x5, elixir of health x5, potion of clarity
Items Obtainable if Not Previously Stolen
Belegarm: potion of healing x10
Patrescus: wand of sleep (4 charges), potion of defence
Brother Deepvein: bullet +2 x 40, potion of defence, potion of extra healing, sling +1, wand of the heavens (6 charges), amulet of the keeper of secrets under the mountain
Teleria: Stone Ally, Stone to Flesh scroll x6, dagger, 70 GP {only available before she disappears to the clearing; otherwise, only the gold can be stolen}
To say this was good value for money was, to Angelo’s mind, an understatement.
By selling some redundant stuff, Angelo bought the savage shortbow and the ring of lockpicking from Herod; the shortbow meant that he could regenerate without needing Draw Upon Holy Might (Buckey’s Buckler had been left behind in BG) while the ring was merely a quality of life improvement. Better yet, he earned 10,000 XP simply for completing the chapter, a gift that's always appreciated. And as he prepared to leave for the Troll Cave Woods, a messenger approached to give him a Troll Blood Ioun Stone and 9,000 XP. “Guess Tsolak doesn’t mind being dead after all,” Angelo smirked, stuffing it into his backpack.
“Not counting any kills from the mines, that’s another 41,300 XP and loads of items acquired with no risk at all,” Felicity noted as Angelo left Chapter 8 behind. Our protagonist could only smile – whoever said that crime didn’t pay had obviously never played SoD!
Jin continuing in SoA. The first order of business in Irenicus dungeon was to summon Familiar for additional 34 hp with LoB bonuses, we now had 118 hp. Lv4 summons are pretty useless in LoB, pretty much only Trolls from Shadows and Ogres from Monster Summoning II were hitting adequately. And the progress was slow, but we ground our way out looting all the interesting items. Also got to lv13 with lv5 spells coming out from the dungeon.
Got 8k gold, so we bought Nymph Cloak and couple Invisibility potions from Maevar's. Then off to De'Arnise. Suna Seni waylay happened on the way there, being Invisible I was able to summon hasted monsters, but they were stomped by the party so I escaped. Looted De'Arnise Invisible and Dispelled Glaicus out of sight. Got FoA +3 among other stuff. Next we passed Druid's Grove Invisible looting Dale's Protector and Belm +2. Our pips currently are Flails *, Shortbows *, Single Weapon Style * and Two Weapon Style **. So Belm gives two hits for FoA on mainhand without Thac0 penalty. Did the Graveyard guests. Jin was annoyed by the harassing Cowled Wizards, so we went to Government district, and cast Invisibility on us. And the neutral guards wasted Cowled Wizards as they came, and then Zallanora. Got Incendiary Cloud scroll, gold and casting rights. We bought our rep to 15 and went to kill the Beastmaster. He doesn't aggro if you get hit before talking. Got Tuigan bow, lv14. Did the Tanners guest, then Thieves Guild. Nothing too hard, Rayic was killed by his repeating Fire trap, and Maevar was pre Charmed and killed by his own gang. Lv 15 with the best Skelis.
Prebek's and Sanashas spells were level skipped with Speed, and after we got summons in they were done. We picked up Jaheira for small walk before talking to Xzar, to advance the Harper guest line further. She buggered off, then came back. Before entering Galvarey estate I kicked Jaheira off. Casually Charmed Nadinal who cast three Earth Elementals, Jin summoned couple Skelis, Haste and they all killed themselves. Got nice set of loot, and Ring of Wizardy for some additional spells after UAI. Did the Sir Sarles guest, Neb was casually hacked, once I summoned help out of sight in the corner. Lv15 with lv6 spell casting with Contingency, and I could now have 6 apr with Improved Haste.
Did the easy Umar Hills guests, my two top of the line Hasted Skelis with Emotions Hope and Courage were already quite better than two Umber Hulks. Did the Silver Pantaloons guest, avoided reputation loss by Charming Welther and he was killed by Cohrvale and Bregg, who we easily then killed. Also got Boots of Avoidance. In the sewers we used Protection from Poison, and killed the Slavers with the repeating Cloudkill trap. Lv17 and third Skeli. For Kalah we buffed with everything, got Skeli from Contingency and it distracted enough so I could cast three others. And Kalah didn't survive long. We now had 78k gold and 20/20 economy. We bought Rod of Resurrection and Limited Wish scroll and some other stuff.
And now the second reason I wanted to do a Blade run after the drained damage immunity in SoD. We learned permanent Mindflayer ability from the Limited Wish scroll Shapechange option and became a Mind Flayer Blade, probably the best killing machine Faerun has seen.
Well not yet, but the form will get better as we advance, here's the blueprint for the Mind Flayer Blade.
Mindflayer Blade lv40
10 Base Thac0
8 Emotion: Hope (1h)
7 Emotion: Courage (1h)
5 Circlet of Lost Souls
4 Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization
-7 Tensers Transformation (1 Base -2 20r)
-11 Enhanced Bard Song (Sim 16r)
-17 Storm Potion (2h)
+2 Mindflayer Attack -5 INT no save/ pass MR
+3 Enchanted Weapon (2h)
4 Base APR
4,5 Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization
9 Improved Haste (23r)
140 Base HP
198 Familiar (LoB ToB)
396 Tensers Transformation (20r)
401 Emotion: Courage (1h)
10 Base AC
-2 Enkidu's Full Plate
-4 Ring of Gaxx
-6 Cloak of the Dark Moon
-9 Amulet of the Master Harper
-10 Ring of Earth Control
-12 Reflection Shield
-16 Tensers Transformation (20r)
-20 Enhanced Bard Song (Sim 16r)
-26 5x Potion of Mind Focusing (12h)
-28 Protection from Evil (40r)
Modifiers
Slashing
-32 Enkidu's Full Plate
-35 Golden Girdle of Urnst
Piercing
-31 Enkidu's Full Plate
Crushing
Infinite x Potion of Absorption (2h)
Missile
Reflected Back
Big Metal Unit is bugged with Mind Flayer form.
In the end the Mind Flayer Blade will have -17 Thac0, 9 apr, -5 INT no save/ pass MR weapon that hits +3, 401 hp, hit AC cap with -35 slashing, -31 Piercing, infinite Crushing modifiers and reflect missiles back. And incidentally, good luck Faerun.
Already thinking ahead and playing the final battle in my mind, and I found out something interesting. Blades can't cast 7th level spells, but can cast Delayed Blast Fireball from a Magic Flute HLA, three times. Not that impressive on its own. But clones can cast HLA's too, although obviously they can't use any of their stuff that appears in inventory, or quick items as SCS has disabled that. The trick here is to fill the whole inventory with non container items, and voila, the Magic Flute drops on the ground as clone casts the HLA.
Magic Flute HLA can be selected only once, and it disappears after 24h. So in practice I can summon 3 Magic Flutes in 0 hour, 8 hour and 16 hour. And my clone from Vhailor's Helm can do the same too. And every scroll of Simulacrum and PI can do it once. So I can cast at one time,
3x3 Blade
3x3 Vhailor's
3x every Simulacrum and PI scroll
60 Delayed Blast Fireballs. Very handy for the final battle, as you can't rest in there.
Guesting for Tenser's Transformation. We still had 50k gold so we also started chapter 3 and got Amulet of Power and Ring +2. Got to lv18 which meant we could fit 6th level spell like Mislead into Contingency. Which was put to use immediately against Lassal. Three Skelis cleared the next Shadow Thieves guest, and then we picked MoD +1 from the Bodhi's Lair Invisible which we Improved to MoD +2. Picked up first head gear from Pai'Na, who was casually hacked by Skelis.
Temple Sewers Mekrath was casually hacked from Mislead. Got second RoR and Wand of Cloudkill. With Skelis we cleared the Undead from sewers, and we found the Tenser's Transformation scroll. We picked the second half of the Rift Device and left. Jin killed Treya for the off hand Thac0 cloak, and traveled with Rasaad to the City Gates where she got map update and said farewell. Killing Geld Quickblade from Mislead gave us lv19. Our party impressively managed to kill Hammerfell's whole party without casualties. Got map update to Heretic Temple. Dalton's party didn't fare any better. Did the easy tests in the Temple and got Gem of Seeing for 10r True Seeing, Gauntlets of Aln Zekk for 15% 1d10 cold damage with melee weapons among other stuff.
Planar Sphere was hilariously easy with Mislead. Lavok was depleted from spells by summoning monsters through Farsight, and after that Jin casually sliced him with Mislead. Tanari was killed from Farsight too. Tolgerias and the mage casually hacked from Mislead.
Time to start learning the Mind Flayer stuff. Fake Paladins never knew what hit them. Nor did the Bandits in Windspear Hills. The form is ridiculously fast killer. Although I quickly noticed a negative effect, enemies don't give xp being eaten. So I've to restrict that for tougher situations. Lv21 helping the Dryads, and Jin got the best Thac0 and Saves. Firkraag dungeon passed with Invisibility. Tazok's party casually killed from Mislead, as was Conster. Got the sewer key. We ate the Temple sewer gang from Mislead in few seconds.
Watchers Keep 1st level smacked from Mislead. And Jin ate the Vampiric Wraiths with four attacks, the bastards. Lv22 talking to the Lich. First four statues smacked from Mislead. For the next part I didn't want any risk, and Jin ate the two Mage Statues from Mislead. The rest were smacked from Mislead for xp. Mislead with Mislead Contingency on hit is such a good mechanic for continuation. Lv23 getting to the 2nd level.
Watchers Keep 2nd level was casual Mislead smacking. Just realized that Mutated Spiders gave 9k xp a pop, which seems a tad high? Lv24 and got the first HLA. Any guesses what it was? Also got third pip in Two Weapon Style. First thing after UAI was Ring of Wizardy, so we wouldn't have to wait 1,5M xp to get additional slot in 6th level spells. And we also got our army of five Skelis assembled. Again ate the Vampiric Wraiths because they really are bastards. Before tackling the Chromatic Demon though we left because that needed a special tool. Had 93k gold so we bought Vhailors Helm, Robe of Vecna, Shield of Balduran, Reflection Shield, Ninjato of Scarlet Brotherhood, Sling of Everard and Defender of Easthaven and had some beer money left. With Scarlet, Belm and Improved Haste we now had 8 apr.
Seven Vales gang was eaten and hacked from Mislead. Cernd against Faldorn was again interesting fight. Cernd actually dropped his Greater Werewolf Token on the ground before the fight, so I thought I would have him fight without it and instead gave the Staff of Fire to him and he summoned Fire Elementals, drank Invisibility potions, and I protected with RoR. It went pretty fast, although Cernd was blinded. I now had ability to Shapechange into Greater Werewolf too, although I don't know where ever would I need it. Lv25 and got the Enhanced Bard Song. Raksashas were eaten. Did the rest of the easy Trademeet guests. For the Mindflayer Dungeon we buffed with INT, Absorption, couple Invulnerabilities, Speed, PFU, and Mislead. We ate the Mindies on the way to the last room, picked up Wand of Wonder and escaped. Chromatic Demon was harder than we thought, it took 12 hits from WoW to stone him, and it killed my 5 Skelis and 5 Fire Elementals, and I actually had to run away from him short while. Nevertheless we got to 3rd level of Watchers Keep. Lv26 when MoD +2 cleared Temple Ruins. Shadow Dragon was stoned and Shadow Lord smacked with PfU. Lv27 killing the Crypt King.
Then a funny cutscene, Monks of Selunes waylaid us, and Treya was back alive, with second off hand Thac0 cloak. Naturally Jin killed them all. Some Lich hunting with MoD +2, and couple PfU's, nothing too hard. Waited Kangaxx's Cornugon and Dark Planetar out in the corner, then avoided his Remove Magic which hit his Skeli, before turning him into a Demi Lich. Then casually ranged him with WoW, as he doesn't move if you don't get close to him. Got Ring of Gaxx. Lv28 after doing the easy Fallen Paladin guest. Samias gang hacked from Mislead. Used my half full WoW to xp loop Firkraag, lv30.
Time for Planar Prison. Jin landed and Mislead Contingency triggered, and I cast Invisibility on my clone. Then wiped the landing casually. Rested and the same process cleared the way to Master of Thrall's, who was easily killed. Looked the log and saw Thrall's pulling out Planetar from the Warden which was good. I waited it out. Lured the Yuan-ties away, and my Skelis made minced meat out of them, and then they stomped the Warden. Impressive. Lv31. Undead Bridge was ran over with MoD from Mislead. Decided to kill the Unseeing Eye after very long time, as I realized that it can be stoned with WoW without wasting the Rift Device. Jin showed the rest of the cult true meaning of the blind eye, after they were all swept through from Mislead. Roger the Fence then smuggled the Rift Device out from the sewers for me. Lv32. Swept the Bodhi's Lair through Mislead and waited her to leave. Lv33 clearing the rest of the Graveyard. Turned Firkraag few times between Stone and Flesh, and then killed him for good.
Jin is lv35 and we are currently sailing to Brynnlaw.
Executive Summary: Angelo discovers that Chapter 9 cannot be completed peacefully without exploiting some gameplay glitches.
Conflicted feelings twisted Angelo's guts as the battalion made their way onwards. He felt like he'd broken his golden rule of not engaging in combat unless he had to. And there was no defence that his defence of the dwarves was a mandatory engagement. He could have left them to die, picked up the amulets off their corpses and spoken with Coldhearth directly without getting greedy and demanding the Secret Revealed as well. Felicity reassured him that his Protection from Undead scroll had removed all risk: even in a No Reload run, this would have been kosher (although he might have been more cautious on his pickpocketing). Still, Angelo was not satisfied... he would have to do better this time!
Tackling the Trolls
If Tsolak's Troll Blood Ioun Stone hadn't tipped him off that trolls were coming up, Corporal Duncan's warning made it loud and clear. Still, Angelo was not to be put off, casting Invisibility before doing his customary scouting. Poking his head into the northern troll cave, Angelo first looted the top container for 10 waterstar gems and immediately recast Invisibility to disappear before the monsters could react. Heading back outside to rest away from the trolls, he then watched a dream-like cutscene. Somehow, Imoen was still moaning at him and Angelo hammered the 'Esc' key frantically, hoping it stood for 'escape' and not 'escalate'.
Somehow, the dream sequence had dispelled Angelo's Invisibility (perhaps the initiation of dialogue in the dream had consequences in the real game world), so he had to cast it again to avoid the trolls. Part of his reason for sleeping invisibly was for his illusion to still be active when he awoke, so Angelo was not impressed with this turn of events. Still, he was able to pick up the tinderbox from the skeleton by the entrance, enacting his spell yet again as soon as it wore off. Alarmingly, the trolls continued to surround him for what seemed like an age, but they eventually lost interest and moved away.
Dipping into the side cavern, Angelo's half-elven infravision revealed an unlit torch in the corner. "Finally, a legitimate use for the Infravision spell," Angelo murmured before remembering that even solo human PCs could kill Minsc for his ring of infravision. Still, all those wizard slayer/mage dual classes who couldn't use the ring, but can use the spell must now be jumping for joy. "Nice try, Beamdog," Angelo nodded, appreciating the attempt nevertheless.
Using the tinderbox, Angelo lit the torch and its newly flickering flame revealed a chest hidden in the shadows. Despite looking mean, the spectral trolls were slow off the mark when Angelo flipped its lid and stuff the Enchanted Weapon scroll into his tunic. His Invisibility spell was complete almost before they had turned towards him and, unable to see their prey, they scattered like headless chickens. It took a little while for Angelo to edge his way through the monsters to the exit, but in the end, his escape was inevitable.
An Irregular Way to Deal With the Irregulars
As he approached the camp, Lieutenant Otilda beckoned him over. "Is it racist to say that I don't trust those half-orc mercenaries?" she asked. "Even when they've done nothing wrong?"
Did she realise she was talking to a man who'd killed people merely for a Web scroll? Or even just to show off how they would have done it? Of course Angelo vowed to take care of them, despite him not knowing how he'd do it without a fight. And when the half-orc leader offered to set aside hostilities for the low price of an alcoholic beverage, Angelo could hardly resist a bargain. He even offered to share, saying "I'd love a drink of Kava," but she didn't seem to appreciate - or even notice - the chat-up line.
It was only when Angelo reached the crusader camp at Boareskyr Bridge that he realised that maybe he would not have been unwittingly rebuffed had he been wearing his Ring of Human Influence. He made sure to put it on before talking to the Crusader Sergeant pretending to be a messenger. Unfortunately, Angelo's 'secret message' did not go to the Barghest (whoever they were), but to underling Delgar Munsch, who insisted on locking Angelo away. "I am not standing for this!" Angelo exclaimed, using the Knock spell to escape precisely 2 seconds before the friendly guard from Nashkel would have let him out anyway.
Looking for compensation, he looted the chest closest to the nearby soldier, making sure to take both the fallen planetar feather and the arcane scroll of impactful doom in one flurry and dashing away before the soldier could object. As a bonus, he found Dorn's stuff in a crate, meaning there was one less NPC he'd have to pickpocket later. Finally, he located the Barghest, but chose to rob the adjacent crate for a tepid mug of ale, rather than relay some fabricated message. Angelo could have chosen to drink some potions of master thievery and have a field day, but he sensed that there would be ample opportunity to relieve them of their belongings later on.
In lieu of this theft, Angelo returned the ale to Kava and went back to Otilda for 6,000 XP. He then cast Invisibility to loot the corpse at the bottom of the map to receive Glimmer of Hope (obviously that glimmer wasn't strong enough for its former owner), using the familiar right-click trick to remain hidden.
Musing and Metagaming
As he left the scene, Felicity found her voice. "You know that you're still going to have to go through the Forest of Wyrms, don't you?"
Angelo's voice was distraught. "You mean that talking my way into the crusader camp is cute, but basically pointless? If you have to get the Bridgefort wardstone anyway, may as well rescue Keherrem for the crusader sergeant at the same time."
The imp nodded, "You would have had to enter the crusader camp anyway to obtain the arcane scroll of impactful doom, so it's not a complete loss." On seeing Angelo's scowl, she added, "If you're determined not to bother with the Temple of Cyric, you can attack the crusader camp directly. I don't know the exact kill criteria that will open the gates, but that would allow you access to the bridge."
"Doesn't sound very easy on LoB mode," Angelo muttered, "any other options?"
"Where's that forest again?" Angelo sighed. He was attempting to be reasonably thorough this run and skipping a significant portion of the game left a sour taste in the mouth (apart from Werewolf Isle and Aec'Letec, cos ain't nobody got time for that!). Besides, although displacing items in inventories was all well and good, this sort of exploit wasn't really his cup of tea.
"By the way," Felicity went on, "if you'd have done the Temple of Bhaal first, you could have gained 3,000 XP for returning Kherrem and gotten the 6,000 XP from Otilda later. Since you've talked your way into the camp already, you can't do that anymore."
"A conflict of elegance?!" Angelo threw his arms to the skies. "Can today get any worse?!"
It would.
Sneaking the Spiders
Resigning himself to romping through the forest, Angelo considered stealthily approaching Coogan and pickpocketing her for some minor potions and a longbow, but decided not to bother. Especially because he'd already used Invisibility to loot the stalker's gauntlets, composite longbow +1 and arrows of piercing and dispelling from the corpse in the copse in the clearing opposite. So he invisibly ran past Coogan, the wyverns and the assorted arachnids, making his way to the spider lair.
Angelo may have been hoping for some easy pickings, but the hordes of spiders inside made him think twice. Returning to just inside the entrance, Angelo rested invisibly to memorise as many Invisibility, Monster Summoning and Stoneskin spells as he could. Conjuring a few critters of his own before returning to Invisibility, Angelo lured the spiders out into the central cavern, being sure to disarm the Web traps as he dived into the siderooms hunting for treasure and escaping via recasting his illusions.
The right chamber had Severance +2, a bastard sword that passed as a Foebane-lite. The only treasure of note for a solo player in the other wings was a spider egg (the northeastern ones had some goblin armour only usable by M'Khiin, but Angelo figured this was still not enough reason to use the shaman; similarly, the spider's silk on the walls for Khalid's quest could also be picked up in Chapter 10 if he had been so inclined). Seeing as the seven-legged spider in the northern cavern had to be killed for it to yield its giant spider leg ("No need for that fallen planetar feather," Angelo muttered, as both were items in Neera's quest), Angelo asked Felicity what the spider egg was for, hoping for more metagaming knowledge.
"If you move past a trigger point in the west cavern, a gigantic rhino beetle will appear in the central cavern," Felicity replied. "It starts off neutral, so it can then be lured around using the eggs. Hopefully, the spiders would kill it and you could get the rhino beetle shell to turn into some armour or a shield."
"But I've wandered up and down that passage invisibly several times," Angelo mused, "might I have to be visible for the trigger to respond?" The imp nodded and Angelo cursed his luck. "Well, there's no way I can risk doing that, even with summoned distraction. Guess that's one less item I'll have available to me... this spider lair has effectively been useless to me!"
Angelo left the spider lair ruminating on how his attempts to play elegantly had gotten him into trouble. Not only had he lost valuable XP, but his reluctance to engage was going to cost him a rhino beetle item (it wouldn't have been an easy battle under any circumstances, but it was the principle that counted). He was beginning to rethink his tactics... and not a moment too soon!
Jin landed on Brynnlaw, and the Vampire's were quickly massacred with MoD +2. We got the only spell we couldn't cast from Book of Infinite Spells, Spell Turning. We gave some of our INT in the dream. Rest of the Spellhold was pretty much hacking from Mislead. Jon was depleted from spells through Farsight. Then summons ground him to 1hp, and he escaped as soon as the prisoners were freed. Lv38 and got my last spell slot. City of Caverns, got 130k selling my loot, all killed from Mislead, the Prince and King included.
Underdark Drow's hacked from Mislead, the Lich bombed with Spike Traps and the Balor eaten during Time Stop trap, first time I needed Enchanted Weapon as Balor's are immune to +2 weapons. Tried eating Vithal during Time Stop trap, but the bugger had on hit PfMW contingency. Retreated, Mislead, done. Kuo-toa eaten. Had 150k gold, 75k after buying all the interesting things. Upgraded Scarlet +3/Belm +2 combo to Firetooth +3/ Scarlet +3. Used one PfU for Deirex.
Mind Flayer base met the 8 apr Mind Flayer Blade, and they were no match, not even close. We buffed our INT, saves to -4 vs. spell and SI:Abjuration for Master Brain. Jin got the master charmer's kit, four Control Circlets and Staff of Command. Changed the eggs through Mislead and betrayed the Drow. Looted the Beholder Dungeon Invisible. The Demon Knight was eaten during Time Stop trap, and I escaped before they knew I was even there. Adalon stoned for her blood, and we ate the exit area through Mislead.
Jin vs. Twisted Rune. Used PfU for Shangalar, and casually ranged him with 4 apr Firetooth +3. Rest of the enemies arrived, and my Time Trap hit. But Layene was Invisible and Vaxall had Improved Mantle on, so Jin just ate Revanek and Shyressa. After the Djinni summons left, True Seeing and we attacked Leyene, but she still had Contingency and she disappeared and summoned a Fiend. We had to wait it out again. Buffed yet again and after Layene was visible we ate her through Mislead, then Vaxall. Got the Staff of Magi for some Invisibility spamming.
Bank of Athkatla also know as Guarded Compound got gassed with Wand of Cloudkill. For Bodhi's Lair Jin used couple PfU's, ate her backup and stoned her after the Heal. Suldanesselar passed Invisible, Nizi stoned, and Rillifane cleansed the place. At Tree of Life we baited Jon's spells out being Invisible, then killed him from Mislead.
In Hell we took +6 STR and +4 Saves as rewards, which meant Jin became Evil. Pre charmed the Genie with SoC, stopped him teleporting away, and then killed him for Blackrazor +3. Jin also stoned the Dragon for another Time Stop scroll. For the Slayer we used our one time Time Stop from Limited Wish, and ate both Balor's and Glabrezus. Then we baited Slayer's spells with Fire Elementals. Planetar, PfMW's, Improved Alacrity, although he was again holding back with the Time Stop, but it didn't matter. Jin summoned Skelis, buffed up, and Slayer was killed pretty quickly.
Illasera was lured south being Invisible and having Reflection Shield to stop her Dispel arrows. Six Spikes and one Time Stop trap softened her, and then we pretty easily sliced her down. Had just enough money to upgrade everything with Cespenar, including the Bard's Gloves. First Pocket plane was casual gassing with Wand of Cloudkill, keeping Invisibility with Staff of Magi.
Finally got the last level up, and we now have 203 hp with Helm of Balduran and LoB Familiar. And these are our proficiencies and HLA's.
Daggers *
Flails *
Long Swords *
Maces *
Scimitars *
Short Bows *
Slings *
Two-Handed Swords *
Single-Weapon Style *
Two-Weapon Style ***
Enhanced Bard Song *
Magic Flute *
Spike Trap *******
Time Trap *******
Use Any Item *
That's pretty much the only sensible HLA setup, with 7 thief trap limit and other HLA's being hilariously useless. For example you can get 9 (18 with Vhailor's Helm) more powerful Exploding Traps, that ignore the limit, from single Magic Flute HLA.
Executive Summary: Angelo takes out a dragon, a half-dragon and a neothelid with minimal risk.
The path through the Forest of Wyrms was long and winding, and following it gave Angelo a new sense of perspective. Why was he so afraid of killing things? The immediate answer was his own well-being... can't be killed in combat if you refuse to engage in combat! But if that was the case, surely Felicity had a point... if safety was his concern and he could remove the risk, then the question became why was he NOT engaging in combat? He could hardly complain about earning paltry XP from ferryman quests, after all, if there was all this free XP lying around that he was refusing to earn...
"If the game's going to serve us XP on a platter," he said to Felicity as he cracked his knuckles, "it'd be rude not to have our fill."
Murdering Morentherene
"Morentherene?" Angelo mumbled questioningly as he invisibly entered the cave, avoiding the groups of spiders and orcs guarding the entrance, and came across the slumbering green dragon. "Sounds like a sleeping pill... perhaps that's the drug she took!" He shrugged, for it mattered little, as he whipped out a set of throwing daggers from his belt, purchased from Belegarm especially for the occasion, and hurled it at the titular wyrm of the forest.
He had to actually hit the dragon's low AC (-14, but -16 against missiles... basically ensuring that it had to be a critical hit), which took a while since he was unproficient, but as long as he stayed by the entrance, the dragon did not react to his misses. And when he finally scored a hit, like a medieval homing missile, the dagger adjusted its trajectory mid-flight and propelled itself into Morentherene's breast, sliding between the scales to bury deep in the dragon's heart. Death was, as the game itself admitted, instantaneous.
"At least I won't be missing out on this crafted item," Angelo quipped as he took the green dragon scales and 13,000 XP.
Although this trick is well-publicised on this thread, I was still surprised that it worked. Imagine the shock of the person who first discovered this! I assume that it's a tribute to Smaug's demise in The Hobbit, but it's a neat Easter egg however you look at it. For the record, for maximum efficiency, you should grab the archer's eyes amulet from the Temple of Cyric, as this will double your crit chance... or be an elf/halfling fighter specialising in daggers with potions of power/heroism to spare...
Next up were the bugbear caverns, which Angelo sneaked his way through using Invisibility. Occasionally, the bugbear shamans sensed his presence and tried to cast Invisibility Purge, which was alarming since Angelo had not imported his Cloak of Non-Detection from BG (another face-slap moment!). Luckily, Angelo could run out of its reasonably short area of effect during the long casting time and utilise the delay between casts to run through the assembled monsters. The locked container by Snorgash, the orc leader in the bottom chamber, had potions of absorption and clarity which Angelo looted, being sure to recast his Invisibility and escape before the bugbears could close in.
The accessible part of the next level began with some business-as-usual invisible looting, but culminated with Ziatar, a mean-looking half-dragon priestess. As she started off neutral, Angelo's first thought was to use Pick Pocket to nick the ritual key unlocked the ritual room - this led to the Bridgefort wardstone, the reason for the entire trip. However, Felicity said that he could also pilfer the jail key (which unlocked Keherrem's gaol), along with a potion of extra healing and a wand of the heavens, which decreased the likelihood of snatching the right ritual key in the time before they turned hostile. He was also running short of the potions of master thievery, which ultimately tipped the scales in Ziatar's disfavour.
Amusingly, the cultist mage's first words after Angelo backstabbed Ziatar were to question Angelo's presence, and the reassurance that it was his first day satisfied the wizard's curiosity. The half-dragon was not so easily fooled and called on her guards to defend her... which is why Angelo shot straight out of the room to close off the left door at the bottom of the corridor. As he left, he shut the priestess' door behind him so Ziatar and her two cronies could not follow.
Unluckily for the SoD AI, none of the cultists could open doors. To add to their misfortune, this gave Angelo unlimited opportunities to make his Stealth check. The icing on the cake was that the few seconds of Stealth lag between Angelo opening a door and becoming visible was just enough for him to manoeuvre behind Ziatar and attempt another backstab... and their reactions weren't quick enough to stop Angelo from closing the door again with him on one side and them on the other. Repeating this loop several times was enough to produce the desired result.
Snatching Ziatar's treasure (along with the 3,000 XP for her demise), Angelo shut the door a final time, abandoning the mages inside the room forever. Only some unimportant journals lay on the table, and Angelo was in no mood to take down the other cultists in a similar manner.
Feeling Out the Neothelid...
Angelo didn't even have to set foot in the ritual chamber for the cutscene to play showing the neothelid terrorising a pair of cultists. This vision alerted Angelo to its presence, who took a nervous gulp of air - if Ziatar looked mean, this thing looked MEAN - and consulted Felicity. "Ctrl+Q doesn't work," she complained, "so its exact stats will remain a mystery to me."
"Use EEKeeper then," Angelo snapped.
"That doesn't give as many details on its abilities as I would like," she complained, "but I can give some general advice. It can sense invisible creatures and initially casts Domination, so protect yourself against that; it can also teleport using dimensional walk and summon some weak Mordenkainen's Swords that must be killed using magic damage; its black slime and breath weapon are venomous, so some protection from poison would be nice; and it uses some psionic attacks while its regular attacks do a lot of crushing damage. I'm unsure of the attacks' exact effects, but Ego Whip stuns unless you save vs death and Id Insinuation confuses unless you save vs spell."
"Thanks," Angelo replied, "that's very helpful." He thought back to what he'd seen in the cutscene. The way that grotesque creature slithered out of the ground was truly terrifying... and yet did that hold the key...?
Before Angelo entered the room, he rested to ensure that he had memorised as many Magic Missile, Invisibility, Skull Trap and Stone Skin spells as possible, loading a pair of Magic Missiles into a Minor Sequencer to guarantee himself more damage. He also used a protection from poison scroll to immunise himself from the namesake, a potion of grounding to protect against crushing attacks and an oil of speed to quicken himself whilst freeing another spell slot for Skull Trap. Finally, he cast Stoneskin and Mirror Image, just to be safe, before putting on his girdle of bluntness and drinking a potion of invulnerability to lower his saves. If his tactics worked, this would be excessive, but there was no harm in being safe.
...And Making the Neothelid (Neo)Livid
As predicted, the neothelid cast Domination as soon as it saw Angelo enter the room (although he did so invisibly, so this 'on sight' description is a bit misleading). Rather than attack straight away, Angelo kept his distance and after several of its abilities failed to have any effect, the creature blinked summoned a pair of swords to keep Angelo busy. Angelo had initially planned to weather the summons storm invisibly, but decided to ring the changes and fired off a few rounds of Skull Trap and Magic Missile. To his alarm, this didn't quite do enough damage to kill both of them, but an extra blast from his ring of energy did the trick.
"Now onto you," Angelo promised as the neolethid seemed to have expended its daily limit of mental assaults and was closing for melee. Angelo let it come, allowing it to near him before diving away at the last second. The neolethid's eyestalk tentacles watched Angelo retreat just out of range of its gaping maw and initiated its burrowing into the ground to follow.
Yet as soon as its descent had begun, Angelo leapt back in, his quickened (-2 initiaive due to the Haste effect) scimitar sweeping in a precise arc. He sliced once, maybe twice, until the creature's head had turned and it began rising out of the ground again.
At this point, Angelo ducked back again, letting it begin its long movement animation before repeating the cycle and opportunistically jabbing it as many times as he could get away with. The extra critical chance, courtesy of single weapon style, was helpful here, as it doubled the probability of a decent strike. Occasionally, the neolithid was quick enough to snap back as Angelo retreated, but the stoneskins and crushing AC modifer ensured that the risk was absolutely tiny. Once Angelo had gotten used to the timings, its death was basically guaranteed.
"You know what they say about big things and how hard they fall?" Angelo asked Felicity rhetorically as the neothelid's 20,000 XP deposited itself in his account.
"See how profitable fighting these low danger combats can be?" Felicity asked as Angelo wiped neothelid slime off his scimitar. "That's 36,000 XP for just three encounters. You'd have to hydrate 120 thirsty criers to earn that sort of experience. And just so you know, there's more of that coming right up..."
Wanted some distraction from the Blade play through so I auto-rolled another nR character. Justine, Priest of Lathander to be dualed to Thief at level 22 or 23. Besides Harm that can one shot all bosses, also to look for is the 9 apr (Bracers, 3x Boon and Improved Haste) Assasination with Staff of Ram, that should produce around 1500 dmg per round, fully buffed.
Murder rampage, Imoen, Xzar, Montaron, Neera and Algernon. Revenant Cave gave us the first level up and Invisbility potion. Also looted the other caves with Sanctuary. Lv3 after Tenya's Bowl. With Sanctuary looted CHA and CON tomes. Lv4 after charmed Meilum hacked Kahrk. Lv4 after Kirinhale. Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost, and then he was killed by Ghasts. Reached Mulahey with Sanctuary, and after Charming him, he was killed by Kobbo's. Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, Charmed Marl and couple Skelis killed Tranzig. Three Skelis killed Dushai. Molkar waylay passed with the only Invisibility potion. Bought our rep to 13 and did the rep run. Lamalha waylay passed with Sanctuary, apparently there's enough time to cast it without any hits. With 35k and 20/20 economy it was time to buy some stuff. Claw of Kazkaroth, Sandthief Ring, Greenstone Amulet and Cloak of Displacement. Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp, where Charmed Taurgosz was killed by Gnolls. With Sanctuary and Absorption looted the tent and left.
Drasus Charmed and killed for Speed boots. Charmed guard ko'd Davaeorn and we got the killing blow, lv5 getting to Baldur's Gate. Desreta Charmed and killed for her 18/00 Bracers, so I could open the door to Ragefast. Charmed Abela ko'd him as I hid behind the rubble. Ramazith was charmed, depleted from spells and killed by skelis. Getting second green Protection from Petrification, we went to Mutamin garden where my pet Basilisk stoned all, lv7. Pre Charmed Lothander was killed by four Blood Raged Skelis, then they stomped Marek. Skelis and Blood Rage is a great match because they're immune to the Berserk effect. Blood Rage gives 2 turns of +2 to hit, +3 to damage, +2 to Strength and +10 to maximum Hit Points. At Iron Throne we Charmed Naaman, and lured Shennara and Kaalos back, where four Blood Raged and Recitated Skelis made minced meat out of them. Iron Throne at Candlekeep was Charmed too and they killed themselves. Looted Catacombs with Violet Potion. 5 buffed Skelis and Larze stomped Slythe and Krystin. Lv8, and with 21 Wisdom and Ring of Sune we can cast 5 Blood Raged, Prayed and Recitated Skelis.
Palace Ambush. Charmed the Assassin, Mage and Shaman Dobbelgangers. Blood raged Skelis first easily wasted the three Greater ones, then the Assassin. Charmed all the guards, and with Prayer and Chant they easily handled the Shaman. The Mage was a lot tougher as it can cheat, over the casting limit. Justine Recitated all and spammed with Wand of Heavens. All but one Flaming Fist died. But it was enough and Sarevok buggered away. Some small things, Delorna and mages absolutely stomped by Blood Raged Skelis. As was Denak for Ring of Energy and he didn't have even time to cast spells. Lastly Sunin was stomped by the Skeleton Mage Hunters. Didn't bother with Durlag's Goblet because I plan to use drained damage immunity to pass SoD. Interestingly although Clerics can't open the Seven Suns PfU container without Violet Potion (it needs 22 Strength), I've 6 PfU's because I got one from a random drop.
Justine vs. Sarevok. Again after few hits from out of sight with OGL, I was found and poisoned. And again we escaped with Invisibility potion and cured ourselves with less than 20 hp left. Used Invisibility Purge, and all were hugging themselves, so I started again the OGL spamming. Minions were dead before the second OGL was out. Then used the next two OGL's on Sarevok leaving 6 hits for Korlasz. Also used 7 Potion of Explosions and 5 Oil of Fiery Burnings. At this point Sarevok had 458 hp left. Justine then used Dispel on Sarevok three times, and managed to Dispel his Haste. Then it was casual spamming with the Ring of Energy. And after 33 hits, Sarevok died. Only had to use one PfU.
Executive Summary: Angelo kills the shadow aspect, Darkshelin and its thralls... and Akanna for good measure.
Having finally dispatched the sickly neothelid, Angelo had to wonder what sort of creatures this abomination would be guarding. He had the feeling he wouldn't have to wait long to find out...
Assassinating the Shadow Aspect
After recasting Invisibility, Angelo disarmed the Flame Strike trap in the passage away from the neothelid room, sneaked past the mutated crawlers in the kitchen and disarmed the Dire Charm trap in the corridor leading to the masked wall. At the masked wall, he pressed the top right, top left and bottom left masks (remembering the 3-1-4 note he'd seen in the secret room of Korlasz's tomb) and, sure enough, a secret door slid open. "Looks like a crypt," Felicity murmured, "look out for undead." Angelo nodded, reading yet another scroll of Protection from Undead... where would he be if he hadn't imported these?
It was fortunate that he'd heeded the warning, since Angelo glimpsed a blurry creature almost as soon as he edged forward. Despite not obviously being undead, however, it seemed oblivious to his presence, indicating the scroll's magic was working. This allowed Angelo to successfully disarm the Confusion and Ray of Enfeeblement traps in the doorway; had his defences been down, it would have been difficult - but not impossible - to remove them without the creature noticing. His Find/Remove Traps also disarmed the Cloudkill trap on the chest, but there was another, more important use for it...
While he was finding traps, Angelo's Detect Illusion skill had 'accidentally' sliced through the creature's Mislead effect. The aspect's illusory double fell away, revealing its true form standing a step to the right. Angelo took this as his cue to start slashing with his scimitar, but befitting of a creature of illusion, its AC was monstrous (-19!) and Angelo was only connecting on a critical hit. Worse, its Mislead spell constantly fired and its illusory clone was recreated, so Angelo had to constantly refresh his Detect Illusion to dispel it. Since the scroll lasted for 2 hours, it would have been reasonably safe to hack it to death (using the enhanced critical chance his single weapon proficiency), but Angelo had a better idea.
Once Detect Illusion had done its job, Angelo fired a Hold Undead spell at the real shadow aspect. As an undead creature, the shadow was unused to paralysis effects and barely reacted as its limbs locked up. Angelo was surprised that it could still activate its recurring Mislead even when it was held, but Detect Illusion made short work of it. Now the shadow aspect was helpless (even more helpless than before, that is!) to stop Angelo from cutting it to ribbons.
"If you hadn't been protected, it would have backstabbed you with every one of its 6 attacks per round," Felicity gasped. "And with its -2 ThacO, it would have hit practically every time. Casting Mislead on a backstab-capable character is truly overpowered, especially if that character has good fighting capabilities."
"Felicity Foreshadow," Angelo laughed at her prescience, "if only you knew how wise you are!"
Sadly, it is not possible to charm Akanna and use her Control Undead (in LoB mode, she is a evil level 19 cleric, as well as a level 23 assassin) on the shadow aspect. Incidentally, if you enter the room without a Protection from Undead scroll active, several more shadows and shadowed souls also attack you. If you' kill the shadow aspect before 'activating' these other shadows, however, they do not appear if you enter the chamber once the protection wears off.
House Umber Goes Under
Felicity had informed Angelo that neothelids were often found in the presence of mindflayers, so Angelo made suitable preparations. Memorising as many Blind, Web and Monster Summoning spells (you get more creatures for fodder with MS2 than the otherwise preferable Spider Spawn) as he could, (along with a single Invisibility) Angelo invisibly rested in, for want of a better term, the pre-reliquary. While still invisible, he opened the reliquary's door and immediately came face to face with Darkshelin and several of his goons. Luckily, Angelo's invisibility meant that the mindflayer did not immediately fire off a Domination, allowing Angelo to retreat a few paces out of sight. He then summoned some expendables, used a charge to activate his greenstone amulet and fired a pair of Web spells into the open doorway.
Knowing that mindflayers have 90% magic resistance and excellent saving throws, Angelo's plan was for the remainder of the party to be ensnared while luring the mindflayer out of the room, closing the reliquary door by creeping into the web's AoE using the ring of free action, then tackling the mindflayer on its own. However, his contingency plans proved their worth as an umber hulk avoided the initial Web and rushed through the door - thankfully, the precast greenstone amulet stopped its confusion barrage while the summons slowed its progress. They were no match for its crushing fists, but they did keep it busy for long enough for Angelo to shut the door and successfully cast Blind, after which it could be ranged to death.
Entering Stealth before reopening the door proved a wise move, since berserker Mohad Flintborn and mage Jhan Redmoons as well as Darkshelin were now visible from the doorway. Jhan instantly cast Detect Invisibility, forcing Angelo to retreat behind the archway out of sight before it tore away his enrobing shadows. Worse, he saw a second umber hulk blocking the entrance, which would need to be lured away before the door could be shut again. Fortunately, Angelo could skulk away, summon some more monsters, and re-enter Stealth to do exactly that.
Finishing it off using the same combination of Blind and arrows, Angelo used his Invisibility to rest in the dungeon. If at first he didn't succeed...
Destroying Darkshelin
Repeating the same setup as before successfully lured Darkshelin out of the reliquary, but Mohad managed to follow (as a dwarf, his save vs spell was excellent). However, Darkshelin focussed on Angelo's disposable summons while the berserker was momentarily ensnared as he entered the pre-reliquary. This allowed Angelo to close the door behind the dwarf and leading him into the corridor, leaving Darkshelin to feast on his fodder. Angelo kept shielding himself using the upturned obstacles, exploiting the AI's questionable pathfinding, but Mohad kept saving against Angelo's magic and only the last of Angelo's 8 Blind spells connected.
Refusing to make it easy, Mohad started going walkabout and Angelo daren't risk finding Darkshelin or the mutated crawlers in his pursuit of the berserker. Instead, he summoned more critters to keep the berserker busy while loosing volleys of arrows. The dwarf died, but not in vain, as it deprived Angelo of so much ammunition that he no longer felt comfortable with his plan of kiting Darkshelin with non-magical arrows. Fortunately, since he was out of combat, he could change into his heavy armour (including the Ring of Kazgaroth from his gem bag) and equip the girdle of bluntness for additional protection (mindflayers' attacks do crushing damage).
Against an effective AC of -14, even Darkshelin's Thac0 of 7 could only hit only a critical... which didn't negate the risk of brain drain, as mindflayers have 5 attacks per round, but mitigated it enough to make it manageable. Since SoD does not incorporate SCS improvements, Darkshelin thankfully didn't exhibit the physical resistances that make mindflayers in BG2 so difficult to deal with (nor could it see through Angelo's Invisibility spells). Once it was low on health, Darkshelin started casting Improved Invisibility to set up a surprise attack... and was surprised itself when Angelo's Detect Illusion dispelled its vanishing act. As long as Angelo kept his greenstone amulet up, its death was only a matter of time.
"Akanna's mind will be freed now," Felicity remarked. "You don't have to kill the others to complete the quest."
"And let the remaining thralls live?" Angelo asked incredulously. "I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy!"
The Battle's Thrall-ing Conclusion
After another invisible rest, Angelo reopened the door and danced back to safety to summon several spiders. Then, Angelo cast Haste, put on his ring of free action (doing it this way does not negate the Haste, whereas the opposite order prevents the Haste from taking effect) and cast a trio of Web spells (for now he had replaced the greenstone amulet with the amulet of metaspell influence). Waiting until his UI displayed that Jhan Redmoons had failed his save, Angelo sent in his spiders to attack the enchanter, intending to utilise the twin virtues of his arachnid summons... their immunity to Web and their venomous attacks!
Being hasted, they closed down the enchanter quickly and delivered a number of fast cuts before he made his save, his pre-cast protections kicked in and his Stoneskin blocked further blows while the Minor Globe of Invulnerability immunised him from the web's tendrils. Unfortunately, while wizards' save vs spells is good (so he would break free relatively quickly) their save vs poison is poor (so he would be affected by several poison effects)... and since these effects stack, his health bled away behind his defences. It didn't really matter how many stone skins he put up, for he was effectively dead already.
The remaining warriors had better saves vs poison, so Angelo couldn't bank on poison bringing them down as easily, but they had worse saves vs spell, so they were ensnared for longer (and were more likely to succumb to a timely Blind should they wriggle free). And where the arachnids' venom failed, their sharp fangs succeeded admirably... or it might have been Angelo's scimitar, he wasn't keeping track. Had Morad not been disposed of earlier, as a berserker, he would have suffered the same fate, but as a dwarf, his shorty save bonus would probably resulted in more kiting.
Akanna Let You Live
Angelo had expected the priestess to be slightly more grateful for her release than to offer a mere 200 GP and the Bridgefort wardstone. "Not even any XP?" he asked in disbelief, and when she shook her head, he knew that she had to die.
As soon as she turned hostile, she called two hostile aerial servants to her aid and quaffed an invisibility potion to vanish from sight. These guardians (Angelo didn't want to use the word 'summons', as they were permanent and could not be waited out like summon spells) hit hard and Angelo didn't much fancy taking them on. Instead, Angelo lured them to the jails cells before dumping them with Invisibility and shutting them out of the ritual room. He figured they could keep the prisoners company... he was generous like that.
Having done his good deed for the year, all that remained was taking out Akanna. Summoning and hasting a pair of spiders, Angelo could cast a set of Web spells from the doorway that caught Akanna in its AoE without entering her visual range.
Her hopes of seeing out the onslaught by remaining invisible quickly evaporated once Angelo, aided by his ring of free action, activated his Detect Illusion skill right beside her, and her life force evaporated soon afterwards.
An Appended Afterthought
"You could have cast Web from that spot without ever coming into Akanna's view," Felicity said as Angelo recovered the dead cleric's belongings. "That way, she wouldn't have summoned her aerial servants."
"If we're going down that road," Angelo retorted, "we would have to question why I didn't just kill Akanna using that method before going after Darkshelin. In that case, I'd have to construct some flimsy narrative reason for mentioning how the 200 GP quest reward isn't on her body, so by doing things the way did, we earned an extra 200 GP."
"Flimsy narrative?" the imp snickered. "Complete this sentence: pot, kettle..."
"Save your wall-breaking wisecracks for metagaming," Angelo snapped. "This post is long enough without your smartassery."
Felicity considered repeating her last comment, but didn't for fear of proving Angelo's point. Instead, she totted up the 33,200 XP from this episode's kills.
Shadow Aspect: 6,000 XP
Umber Hulk: 4,000 XP x2
Darkshelin: 9,000 XP
Mohad Flintborn: 1,400 XP
Jhan Redmoons: 2,000 XP
Shallen: 1,400 XP
Teth Se-Nehi: 1,400 XP
Akanna: 4,000 XP
That 500,000 XP cap is coming up fast," she gasped. "Give or take a few XP for scribing scrolls and opening locks here or some illegitimate undead deaths in the Dwarven Digsite there, that's 220,430 XP in SoD so far... or 381,430 XP in total."
It was with a tinge of regret that Angelo left the Temple of Cyric. It was clear that thought had been put into the encounter design, with its mixture of foe types and tactics, and Angelo knew he would fondly recall the battles of this post and the last as a highlight of the series thus far. But enough was enough. It was time to venture on to Bridgefort and continue the main quest.
My Priest of Lathander clawed her way to Bel, but gave up after 10 Champions Strength scrolls only got him to barely injured. It just couldn't deal enough damage to him. Also why does 3 apr translate 1/2 on-/offhand apr? Which meant I had to keep Blazing Glory offhand. Not that it mattered when I only hit 20's.
The only way I see Clerics clearing SoD in this challenge is to use lv1 damage immunity in Crusader Attacks, then get levels back and beat Bel with Durlag's Goblet. I cleared the first two waves with OGL's, the last two Charming the enemy with Nymph Cloak. Chance for Charm:
Comments
Executive Summary: Using a few imported items, Angelo raids Korlasz's tomb and sneaks his way to over 89,000 XP!
When Angelo looked up from his mirror, he saw that his surroundings had miraculously changed and he was now in a tunnel with Imoen with a bunch of Flaming Fist lackeys. "How did they get past my 100% Detect Illusion?" he asked himself, hoping other monsters wouldn't sneak up on him like that. Once it became clear that Angelo did not want Imoen's help, nor was she offering it, he began making his plans to escape Korlasz's tomb.
That Invisibility didn't quite allow him to make his way past the bunch of guards across the bridge, but by flicking into sight briefly, Angelo was able to lure them away from the doorway. Dumping them again with another Invisibility, he spoke to Porios and persuaded them to surrender (not that there was much persuasion involved) before his Flaming Fist distractions got beaten up too badly. This earned him all the 5,605 XP on offer for their defeats without having to lift a finger; he didn't even need to pickpocket anyone, as the mercenaries dropped all their stuff as they left. "Start as you mean to go on," he muttered, describing his modus operandi of sneaking past as much as possible and getting all of the rewards while doing none of the work.
"Do you have any weapons - a mace of disruption, for instance - that are designed to kill the undead?"
"No."
"Okay, I suppose that would be overpowered. Do you have things like elven holy water or stakes?"
"No."
"This is not very helpful. Surely, you at least have a scroll of Protection from Undead?"
"No."
"Heavens above, you're useless. Good job I imported these scrolls of Protection from Undead from Baldur's Gate, else I'd be a sitting duck right now."
"Just so, Angelo."
Thankfully, using the scroll of Protection from Undead allowed Angelo to skip most of the floor's combats, which would have been tedious and painful in equal measure, and focus on disarming the level's traps. He looted the Protection from Posion scroll from the nearby library, as he had a feeling it was going to be useful shortly, but ignored most of the other treasure on offer - much of it wasn't worth replacing his full inventory of BG goodies.
He did have to sneak past the band of mercenaries guarding the room across the second bridge, as they were not undead. He used Stealth, rather than Invisibility, for this since although the device to open the main doors could be activated invisibly, there was 800 XP available if you persuaded the guards to flee, an act which broke Invisibility. After scaring the guards, Angelo did use Invisibility to get back past the mercenaries and disarmed the arrow of dispelling trap by the entrance to Korlasz's chamber so that he didn't have to renew his illusion. Angelo didn't want to use spells unnecessarily and be forced to rest, allowing his Protection from Undead to expire.
Scouting invisibly, Angelo found a couple of spots where he could set up shop without Korlasz being in his sights. The subservient allies wouldn't respond unless Korlasz instructed them, so Angelo had some room to buff up and prepare. After some deliberation, Angelo decided on the top right corner as being his base of operations (the top left corner was tempting, but Angelo surmised that the crates offered scant protection and did not act to funnel his opponents as they appeared to). This site kept the most dangerous mercenary, the halfling (the ignominy!) wizard slayer (ditto!) on the right, in full view, and Angelo's next move to was to ensure that she couldn't fire off any nasty darts of stunning.
Here, Angelo noticed that the mercenaries would not turn hostile if the wizard slayer resisted a Blindness spell.
As predicted, the mercenaries turned hostile, but Angelo was ready and, quick as a flash, he recast Invisibility and darted down the right hand wall past the blinded halfling. Somewhere in the melee, Angelo saw a 'poison weapon' banner flash up, and knew his decision to use Protection from Posion was the right one.
The 'Poison Weapon' special ability of enemy assassins and blackguards is nasty in that its lingering damage is not cured by Slow Poison, antidotes and the like since it uses a different opcode. The only solution is prevention, as Protection from Posion stops the effect entirely.
Funnily enough, although her allies were hostile, Korlasz was still neutral, blissfully unaware of the conflict. This was soon to change, as Angelo fired a few arrows of dispelling at her to remove her Stoneskins. Korlasz's expression turned to horror when her Stoneskin and Mirror Images fell away all at once, and she scrabbled to recast them. However, buoyed by Haste, Angelo continued his attack, determined to cause as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. He could not afford a prolonged fight, and was prepared to use his wands to stun her or summon more reinforcements... anything to reduce her health fast once her defences were down.
Korlasz seemed blind enough without Angelo needing to Blind her!
Once the second wave of ogres appeared beside her, their morning stars tearing a massive chunk from her health, Korlasz knew the game was up. She surrendered, killing her undead army, and Angelo accepted, making sure to stipulate that all items were dropped. Secretly, Angelo was quite grateful for her collapse in morale, as he wouldn't have fancied finishing all her minions off. As it stood, he got their deaths' 60,550 XP for relatively little hassle, which seemed like a fair trade. He even got 5,000 quest XP from Imoen outside Korlasz's chamber, which sweetened the deal yet further.
Once Korlasz surrenders, the two guards who can be intimidated to flee for 800 XP are no longer present... so if you're after as much easy XP as possible, it pays to speak to them early.
On the other hand,although Angelo took the 1,500 XP for opening the secret room, he decided neither the helm of unwavering purpose nor the sword of ruin + 2 rivalled his own personal stash (he later regretted not finding room for the helm because umber hulks were annoying critters, but Foresight is an AD&D spell that didn't make it into BG); the summoned undead horde was large and contained bonebats, so would be difficult to evade. Similarly, he ignored the green globe as an amulet of protection +1 seemed scant reward for fighting a pair of ochre jellies (and at least one of them had to die, sadly, to recieve the amulet).
Finally, Angelo climbed the rope to the upper floor, earning another 6,625 XP from enemies 'vanquished' by Korlasz's surrender in the process. Raiding the formerly locked room, Angelo ran away from the appearing enemies and slammed the door behind him to stop them from following. Returning to Imoen at the tomb's entrance, Angelo figured it was time to leave before the enemies' AI figured out how to open doors.
"I basically earned 89,080 XP in this tomb for wounding a mage," Angelo murmured as he left. "That's over half the Baldur's Gate XP cap... and I'm not even including miscellaneous sources like disarming traps or scribing scrolls."
"Why do you mention this?" Felicity asked lackadaisically.
"Mainly for people trying to plan future LoB solo runs," Angelo admitted, "but it's also a hint of foreshadowing in our own tale. By the looks of it, the game will hurl monsters at you with abandon, but allows you to evade most of them and complete the quests in clever ways that reward tactical thinking over brute force. If these early signs are anything to go by, this is going to be a lot of fun!"
Out of interest, how important would you say that 9th level spells are to this challenge? Ordinarily, I'd say that the fighter part of a F/M/C doesn't add enough to make up for the spell shortage compared with a C/M (especially if you're going for a C/I, where you get extra spells and shorty saves to boot), but I'm gradually coming to the view that the fighter's extra attacks and HLAs may be a worthy substitute. My instincts still say that it's not a fair trade, but I've always been attracted to casters and have only minimally dabbled in ToB (where, as I understand, warriors become more viable) so for all I know, scrolls could be enough. You've completed the challenge with both a F/M/C and a C/M, which is why I ask.
1 Ribald (Chapter 6)
1 Mage (North Forest)
1 House (Suldanessellar)
1 Dragon (Evil path in Test of Pride)
2 Arcana Archives
1 Spell Merchant (Neera guestline ToB)
1 Limited Wish
Imprisonment is only really needed against Ogremoch, and you have two scrolls at that point. Chain Contingency is the only miss I think, other spells I don't usually even use. Fighter's Critical Strike is a massive help, combined with Harm which nobody in the game is immune for, or with Mind Flayer form draining 5 Intelligence 8 apr. SCS by default nerfs Harm, but you can remove Harm.ITM from override folder to get the real Harm.
some players will have different options open to them.
In any case, I'm aiming to test your hypothesis with a C/I playthrough after I've finished with my F/M/T. A C/I playthrough hasn't been done yet (it IS different from a C/M, and I'm not listening to anyone who says otherwise!), so please don't start one before I do... I've no doubt that you'd have finished Amelyssan off by the time I was out of Candlekeep! :-P
You're fine. If my Bard beats Bel casually, I'm thinking finally getting Swashbuckler through to SoA. With latest -11 AC additions in LoB enemies, the hit&run tactic that rogues used to rely, is very hard to pull out. So this could be the repeatable way for rogues to beat Bel.
It's generally safer to do this sort of thing through SCS's ini file, not manually. If you edit stratagems.ini and change no_initial_change_harm = 0 to no_initial_change_harm = 1 then you don't get the harm nerf. (You have to do this before installing SCS's AI Initialisation component, though.)
For what it's worth, I have even less sympathy for another fan favourite, the shadowdancer. The problem is that although Hide in Plain Sight is cool in theory, the kit's disadvantages limit the shadowdancer's ability to utilise it fully. For a start, you'll need high Hide in Shadows and Move Silently to make it reliable, and the shadowdancer's lack of skill points means you'll need to devote considerable XP to make it work. Then there's the question of what you're going to use it for. Want to backstab? It won't be as strong as a thief of the same level. Want to drain mages of their spells? Better hope they don't cast True Sight, as you've got no access to Spell Immunity until UAI. Finally, there's the difficulty of long-term character development. Going for pure shadowdancer? Late game enemies innately see through invisibility with increasing frequency, and shadowdancers don't have much else. After a quick dual-class? Low skill points mean you'll either be Stealth only or utility only, and there's no point in choosing a shadowdancer if you're planning the latter. Thinking of getting to high level with thief before dualling? In addition to what what I said earlier about the rogue XP table, the lack of trap HLAs will hurt. As if this wasn't enough, shadowdancers have 3 prime requisites for dual-classing... including charisma (which will never be a prime requisite for whatever you're dual-classing into)... so unless you're automating it, be prepared to become very well acquainted with the 'Reroll' button.
I'm not saying that it'll never work, but I wouldn't be mad keen to try it myself...
I think I selected not to modify Harm when I installed SCS... probably a silly question (I'm not the most computer literate person out there, evidently), but I assume that this does the same thing?
By the way, although I've made a few gripes about SCS opponents casting spells they shouldn't and so on, I don't want these to overshadow what a great mod it is. In general, myself included, people are more likely to mention gripes that they have than praise all the things that went right, and SCS certainly gets an awful lot of things right! It's also nice to see that mod creators are still active in the community after all these years, so hats off.
But I think Kensai25->Thief would be much stronger end game than Swashbuckler25->Fighter. More health, -8 Thac0/ -8 dmg compared to -5/+5, Kai and Backstab/Assasination. Only loses couple fighter HLA's and -4 AC. The problem with this is Irenicus dungeon, how to get out of there without armor, summons or invisibility. The two Oil of Speeds could be the key, but I would have to train it a lot before starting the run, and to see if that's possible.
Amazing how I can spot one problem, somehow forget that dual-wielding is even a thing and overlook the most glaring difficulty all at once. Perhaps you shouldn't listen to me about the lack of swashy viability after all!
That said, I'd definitely say that the Kensai/Thief idea has legs (I've always thought they had more potential than Kensai/Mages); I'd considered trying to myself, but I'd never thought of a convincing way past Big Bel (the Martyr's trick sounds feasible, but too gimmicky for my taste). I think that Irenicus' Dungeon/Chateau Irenicus/whatever it's called is doable. As I recall, @Harpagornis did it, albeit painfully, by lots of split-pulling and spamming the Horror special ability you get from BG if you have low reputation. If you're prepared to run past the monsters and pass up equipment (not much for a kensai anyway), then you'd be good to go in BG2 proper.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/62202/the-lob-scs-solo-challenge-and-the-tales-of-iwdification/p145
I might restart the Blade leveling naturally, and then using level drain in SoD to get the damage immunity, or perhaps Kensai24/Thief.
Executive Summary: With liberal use of Invisibility, Angelo polishes off Chapter 7's various simple quests.
Angelo knew that as 'the hero of Baldur's Gate', it was improbable that his adventure would proceed without further incident. However, he had not contended on being accosted the very night of his return to the city.
Angelo didn't know the answer to that, but he did know that he'd evaded the tougher creatures in Korlasz's tomb. Employing similar tactics, he cast Invisibility and let the assassins wail on Imoen for a bit. He knew she enjoyed the critical NPC protection demonstrated by Neera earlier in his run, so she was in no real danger, but the capable Captain Corwin came along soon enough and shot the wouldbe murderers to pieces. There were more identical thugs on the floor below that were disposed identically. As far as he could tell, the bottles of wine from the tables had no function, so Angelo left them be.
Having disposed of this weakling welcoming committee, saying some vaguely inspirational words to Jospil was enough for the fighter to part with his quarterstaff, which Angelo swiped by releasing Felicity and plonking the weapon in the resulting backpack space. This would be the first of multiple instances of inventory management throughout the present instalment, and tricks such as leaving items in lootable containers and so on were consistently employed to ease the burden.
Descending to the cellar, Angelo learned that Ophyllis had lost all his gold. "Good job I spent it all before tackling Sarevok," he muttered. Looking around seemed to trigger Korlasz's release from her cell, but a quick Invisibility ensured that she took her magic out on the Flaming Fist guards (Angelo retreated initially so that he wouldn't be hit by the initial Confusion spell before returning to allow his Detect Illusions to nullify her Mirror Images). Even charming one of the guards wasn't enough for Korlasz and she soon succumbed, after which Angelo left the scene. Had he fancied it, repeatedly talking to the doppelganger in the faraway cell and reducing it to Badly Wounded status was an easy way of obtaining a bribe, but this was strictly a no-combat episode... and besides, Angelo's inventory was already full.
It was a similar story talking to the robbers Berahil, Hastus and Ozil on the first floor who'd practised their trade on Ophyllis (and, Angelo noted, would only show up once he had spoken with Ophyllis). Angelo could have fought them, but his gold would have already been spent regardless and a battle axe +1 seemed scant reward for the effort involved. Riffing on a theme, Angelo did not take on Bartleby after speaking to Delanda, content to threaten his way to 200 XP rather than fight it to 650 XP. Taking down Bartleby didn't appear too tactically taxing, but Angelo could tell that the fighter wasn't entirely helpless and would beat up a considerable chunk of any summons he would conjure. Unfortunately, his wakizashi could not be pickpocketed (although potions of extra healing and freedom could be), but since its AC bonus was only applicable to a kensai, Angelo wasn't too upset.
Finally, Angelo considered how best to deal with the plotting of Lady Araya, Lord Maxwell and Lord Therton. It was disappointing that he couldn't join in their scheme to dispose of the council, since Eldric was nowhere to be found, and although reporting them to Corwin earned 150 XP more than blackmailing them (750 XP, as opposed to 600 XP), Angelo conceded that the 600 GP and assorted minor magical items acquired through skulduggery were probably more valuable than the extra 150 XP and Corwin's emerald reward earned via virtuousness. Corwin didn't even have the decency to stay around upstairs, meaning that she couldn't be called upon to take out Bartleby. 'May as well not bother,' thought Angelo, so he didn't.
Angelo's woes were only to continue, as Halbazzer Drin had none of the items that Angelo had previously sold him back in BG. Worse, Halbazzer's stock seemed to have depleted, as there were no handy scrolls of Protection from Magic or Protection from Undead to be seen (although he had miraculously acquired new scrolls of Shades and Demishadow Monsters which had not previously been available). That said, Angelo did note that there were 5 new quintets of dispelling and detonation, which he hoovered up with gold he gained from selling redundant rings and amulets from his gem bag.
Halbazzer also asked Angelo to carry down some empty potion bottles from the upper floor. Angelo accepted this task, as it was a good excuse to loot the potions of heroism, invisibility and magic blocking in the surrounding cabinets (too bad the scroll of Protection from Magic on a nearby shelf was cursed, he thought). Angelo was sure that the game wanted him to take out the group of miscreants Kag, Sethyl, Wistak and Yashna teleporting in after he'd raided the cupboards... except that he'd already sprinted down the stairs using the boots of speed as soon as he'd taken the empty case and had left the floor by the time the cutscene showing their teleportation had even begun. Nevertheless, Halbazzer gave Angelo an amulet of protection +1 for completing the quest, and Angelo stashed away his new potions in the second potion bag he'd just bought from Halbazzer's cousin, Kazzrem.
Angelo knew that the barrel of ruby wine for Irina's Elfsong quest was on the far side of the Duchal Palace's cellar, and there was basically no chance of sneaking around the walls to it without activating Korslasz. Fortunately, he'd already dealt with the mage, so this quest was a simple retrieval job. Entertaining conversation with blissed stoner Zaviak also yielded the spectacles of spectacle, an all-round wonderful item that Angelo wished could have been utilised in other parts of the saga. However, he did not use them to discover the fire elemental dimensionally skulking around the tavern, as there would be more fruitful opportunities further down the line.
Going back and forth between Byzon and Riggs by the Iron Throne building earned another 300 (Fed)XP, and deliberately failing to recruit to Rassad a further 500 XP. After a chat with Berta, it came as no surprise to Angelo when Lon burst into werewolf form. As so often the case in this episode, a quick cast of Invisibility proved too much for the opposition and Angelo happily let Corwin and Rasaad take the heat and kill the monster for him. He also happily kept Lon's amulet as a reward for their toil, as the permanent Bless effect was enough of an incentive for its use without the additional Wisdom bonus for shapeshifters.
At long last, the expedition left for the Coast Way Crossing, netting Angelo a further 7,500 XP. In total, combined with the 89,080 XP from Korlasz's tomb, Angelo figured he'd earned 103,930 XP in Siege of Dragonspear and only had to fight one combat. Including the 161,000 XP inherited from BG, this meant that he was over halfway to the SoD XP cap and he'd barely finished the first part of the game. This was not bad going, and Angelo hoped he could keep up his workshy credentials as he moved into unfamiliar territory.
Auto-rolled Jin again with slightly different attributes, this time we are going to level naturally. Start was the usual murdering rampage, Imoen, Xzar, Montaron, Neera, Algernon. After that we suffered the bandit waylay, and had to restart again. Drizzt got killed by Gnolls. Noober got us the first level up. Revenant cave got us second level up and first protection potion against the bandit waylay. From High Hedge we bought Potion Bag, Identify and Invisibility. Tanya's bowl got us yet another level up and we got free Invisibility. Bought Shield Amulet and we went to the Nashkel mines, which we passed with Invisibility, where Mulahey was killed by the Kobbos.
Picked up WoMS from the Ghast cave. Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, charmed Marl and WoMS killed Tranzig. Raiken escorted us to bandit camp, where we charm killed all of Taurgosz, Raemon, Venkt and Hakt, and then looted the tent with Potion of Absorption.
Dushai was killed by WoMS, bought our reputation to 12 and did the reputation run to get 20/20 economy. Also Jin got to level 5. Molkar and Lamalha waylays passed with Invisibility. Charmed Bassilus got killed by his own Skelis, Shoal got stunned and WoMS'd. Charmed Mellum killed Khark and we got to level 6. Got 60k gold so it was time to do some shopping. Recharged WoMS, and bought Sandthief Ring, Greenstone Amulet, the Captive Audience and bunch of scrolls. The Captive Audience Bard item is one of the best items in Baldur's Gate 1: cheap 20x charges, 12h Domination with -2 vs Spell, 25ft range and doesn't agro on fail. Drasus party got mass Charmed and killed by the guards. Charmed guard ko'd Davaeorn and we got the killing blow.
Charmed Abela ko'd Ragefast, Ramazith was charmed and killed. Level 7 after killing Lothander. Iron Throne was Captivated with the Audience, and they killed themselves, level 8. Candlekeep Iron Throne was Charmed and killed, Prat's party Captivated. Larze and WoMS made short work of Slythe and Krystin. Palace Ambush was the same, precharmed the assassin, mage and shaman. Belt died, oh well. Bought all unknown scrolls, drank some Intellingence and learned all the spells.
In Durlag's Tower Riggolo killed the Ghost, Ghasts killed Riggolo and WoMS grinded Ghasts. Level 9. Avarice was bombed with Skull Traps, Fear lured to level above, and Love killed by WoMS and Ring of Energy. Picked up Durlag's Goblet and left.
Against Sarevok Jin got a huge scare as Angelo found her, she was then slowed and poisoned. Tried escape with Invibility potion and drink antidote, but she was then revealed, and had to drink another Invisibility and forget the antidote. Luckily the slow worked against the poison and Jin was saved at 8 hp. Wised from this Jin easily burned all from out of sight. Lets see if we are wiser in the Korlasz tomb.
Chapter 8. Teleria doesn't aggro if you don't talk to her, casually hacked her for the Stone Ally. Jin listened Dwarves and Undead fight, picked up the five amulets and made a pact with the Lich. Hid behind the tent for the parlay.
Chapter 9. Picked up the first Enchanted Weapon scroll from the Troll Cave. Morentherene daggered, Ziatar burned, passed Neothelid, Akanna charmed and killed. Bridge Mage was interrupted with Ring of Energy and dispelled with arrow and then easily disposed.
Chapter 10. First Jin did the mundane guests and then it was time to study deep level drain. With PfU's Jin cleared the Vampire cave from the enemies except for the Fledling Vampire. The Vampiric Wolves were tough, as they regenerated, and WoMS was quickly overrun. Nevertheless, my last two PfU's were enough. At Dragonspear cave we charmed Ferrusk for the Ankheg Amulet and Strunk for the Purification Stone. In Hephernaan's chamber I needed to open the chest with level drain trap, because I wouldn't be able to open it being lv1, and we wanted the Spell Immunity. The trap didn't hit though, and we escaped the place with Speed. Back at the Vampire hideout, Jin buffed hp with Power potions. And after the Vampire had drained us to lv1 we escaped. Debuffed and equipped Martyr's Morningstar for 1 hp, and consequently, for damage immunity. This had some interesting side effects too, on top of being lv1 with no spells and weak saves. The saves effect from gear wasn't working anymore, or at least it wasn't shown in the character menu.
Crusaders attacked. Mage wave was trapped with 18 Skull Trap scrolls and 3 Webs. They were pretty useless and Jin didn't need immunity as she peppered them with Detonators. For the Mage wave 5 Skeleton Warriors, 4 Webs and 4 Cloudkills, and they were pretty easily Detonated too. Paladin wave 7 Webs, and Jin tanked them all using Wand of Fire. The same tactic against final wave as my Ankheg army ground the named ones. Ashatiel wasn't going to stop Jin either. Trix was tricked by leaving the level couple times.
For Belhifet Jin had two Enchanted Weapon scrolls for 100 round smacking with Martyr's Morningstar, Purification Stone to stop Disease and Poison attacks, Clarity to stop Fear and Charm and 100 Fire Resistance from scrolls to stop him teleporting around. We also needed 0 saves vs. Death to protect against Cornugon Stun attacks, so we needed to chuck 10 Mind Focusing potions, to counter oncoming Stone Form potions and avoid death against 0 Dexterity. The lift went pretty painlessly with summons and Martyr's. Before killing the last Abishai, we drank Speed, Clarity, 5x Stone Forms and killed it. We escaped Bel's Dispel, and used Enchanted Weapon and started tanking. I only needed to watch my Speed potion running out to know to refresh rest of the protections, which I needed to do once. And before the first Enchanted Weapon was out, so was Bel. Then we casually wasted Hephernaan. We then learned Enchanted Weapon, used Greater Restoration to get our levels back, and we were also able to level up to 12th.
A successful test of using level draining for 1 hp damage immunity with Martyr's Morningstar. And SoA the Blade goes.
That's correct. BG has always worked on that basis - rather than just reduce your saves slightly from the reduced level, saves are reduced down to what they would be for a naked character of your new level. I do find that unfair, but it just means you have to be careful not to be level drained (apart from when you're abusing that of course
Executive Summary: Using stealth, theft and blatantly underhand tactics, Angelo masters Chapter 8 with flair and style.
As Angelo’s troupe trooped out of Baldur’s Gate, Angelo admitted that he wasn’t sad to see the back of the city. Perhaps he’d outgrown all this toing and froing for mere handfuls of XP… in any case, he hoped that the Coast Way Crossing would herald more fruitful opportunities.
No denying it... this is one of my longer posts. I considered splitting it in two, but given that everything must be done in a strict order to maximise efficiency, it was clearer just to keep everything together. That said, there are a few dirty tricks here that I haven't seen described elsewhere, so hopefully there'll be something new for veteran readers.
Several things quickly became apparent. First, these vampire hunters were not Undead Hunter paladins, since Tsolak's hits drained their levels handily. Secondly, they clearly hadn't done their research, as neither had weapons capable of damaging a vampire. As a result, Isabella was harmless and although Ikros' magic brought Tsolak down to badly injured, it wasn't enough to finish the job. Even when Ikros stunned the vampire using a wand of paralysation (had Angelo not been playing pacifist, he would have killed the mage quickly to preserve its charges for himself), Tsolak regenerated his health, waited for the paralysis to subside, then smacked them down handily.
Bringing +1 knives to a vampire fight
"Watch out for my messenger," Tsolak intoned cryptically as he left and Angelo looted the corpses for, amongst other miscellanea, the shield needed to complete Takos' quest. They weren't quite as inept as Angelo had thought, as Isabella had brought a wooden stake with her, and that gave Angelo an idea. Waiting until dawn had broken, he disarmed the four traps in front of the northern cave before driving the stake into the vampire's body lying prone in its coffin. This earned a pain free 9,000 XP and since Tsolak had already relayed his wishes, Angelo assumed that this staking wouldn't interfere with the messenger's arrival.
Before talking to the halfling to finish the quest, Angelo placed the cloak and the shield in his bag of holding and filled the rest of his pack with items, making sure that the bag was in the bottom leftmost inventory space. Conversing with Takos, Angelo made sure to demand that he keep the mirror (which was not able to be put into the bag of holding), as well as the Biter +2 dart. "A pleasure doing business with you," Takos said as he made his leave.
"Not so pleasurable for you," Angelo smirked. Since his inventory was full when he received the dart, the bottom leftmost item was displaced to make room for the dart. When the game subsequently swept through his inventory looking for the cloak and shield to whisk them away, it couldn't find them... because they were in the displaced bag of holding on the floor! Once this one-time sweep had occurred, Angelo simply picked up the bag of holding again and rearranged his inventory a bit et voila! Takos' cloak and shield were still safely in his possession.
Before that, however, he rested to ensure that he had as many Blind, Invisibility and Monster Summoning spells memorised as possible. Then, he drank two potions of Master Thievery, activated a scroll of Protection from Undead and approached the Dwarven Digsite.
Whenever I switched floors, something would randomly die off-screen and give me 3,000 XP. I’m not sure why this happens, and I’m not including it in my XP counts (although I confess not to have removed the extra XP using cheat codes… fear not, Angelo will easily hit the XP cap regardless!)
Although Invisibility was enough to get through the first level undetected, the Protection from Undead scroll’s protection was necessary to avoid the scattered bonebats on the second floor. Suitably hidden, Angelo entered the scrying pool chamber before heading as far right as he could. The bronze sentry guarding the laboratory, which did not count as undead, was reduced to wandering aimlessly via Blind (its saving throws weren’t great, so this was a low risk strategy) and Angelo correctly pressed the reversed seasons sequence in the pillars room to open the locked passage to the ritual chamber. Edging along the narrow bridge until the cutscene activated, Angelo watched Coldhearth being reborn before turning back to the first floor to tell Brother Deepvein the news.
It is possible to get boxed in here, and you may have to use summoned monsters as distraction or hack your way out. Tackle this area as soon as possible after activating Protection from Undead to give yourself leeway.
Don't let this happen to you!
Despite promising to kill Coldhearth, Angelo stowed the Secret Revealed in his pack, having no intention of using it. Renewing his Invisibility (it had been dispelled upon talking with Deepvein and Angelo needed to avoid the central carrion crawlers), he went back to Coldhearth to offer the five amulets that he’d already gathered, thereby securing a future ally without the onerous task of lich lynching. Coldhearth’s ‘strong’ magical item (Dread Hammer +2) could not be pickpocketed and was actually pretty weak, so Angelo took the reinforcements instead.
Although you can kill Coldhearth after he promises you troops, going back to the dwarves will override the proffered skeletons and you will not receive both allies at the crusader attacks. Also, if Edwin’s in your party when you deal with Coldhearth, you can apparently acquire both his skeletons and the Dread Hammer +2. Obviously non-applicable in a solo run, but worth mentioning as a tidbit.
Having done this, Angelo was free to loot the rest of the floor, including the secret room, the throne room and the room south of the scrying pool for the three missing staves. Inserting these into the pool earned 3,000 XP and watching a resulting vision an additional 500 XP; pouring in the essence of clarity from the throne room gave another cutscene/500 XP, but Angelo sensed he’d have to kill something to access the final essence, so he didn’t push it. Instead, he took the antimagic arrows and scrolls from the formerly locked room he’d opened by activating the throne before renewing his Invisibility and returning to the first floor for the final time. Angelo’s undead protection would still last long enough to raid Commus’ grave (whose swarm of guardians was so thick that he still had to summon a monster to lure some away) and kill the assorted monsters attacking Semahl (using his Cure Light Wounds special ability to keep the giant alive). Telling Semahl of the dwarves’ survival gained Angelo another 3,000 XP, concluding his business at the Dwarven Digsite.
By selling some redundant stuff, Angelo bought the savage shortbow and the ring of lockpicking from Herod; the shortbow meant that he could regenerate without needing Draw Upon Holy Might (Buckey’s Buckler had been left behind in BG) while the ring was merely a quality of life improvement. Better yet, he earned 10,000 XP simply for completing the chapter, a gift that's always appreciated. And as he prepared to leave for the Troll Cave Woods, a messenger approached to give him a Troll Blood Ioun Stone and 9,000 XP. “Guess Tsolak doesn’t mind being dead after all,” Angelo smirked, stuffing it into his backpack.
“Not counting any kills from the mines, that’s another 41,300 XP and loads of items acquired with no risk at all,” Felicity noted as Angelo left Chapter 8 behind. Our protagonist could only smile – whoever said that crime didn’t pay had obviously never played SoD!
Got 8k gold, so we bought Nymph Cloak and couple Invisibility potions from Maevar's. Then off to De'Arnise. Suna Seni waylay happened on the way there, being Invisible I was able to summon hasted monsters, but they were stomped by the party so I escaped. Looted De'Arnise Invisible and Dispelled Glaicus out of sight. Got FoA +3 among other stuff. Next we passed Druid's Grove Invisible looting Dale's Protector and Belm +2. Our pips currently are Flails *, Shortbows *, Single Weapon Style * and Two Weapon Style **. So Belm gives two hits for FoA on mainhand without Thac0 penalty. Did the Graveyard guests. Jin was annoyed by the harassing Cowled Wizards, so we went to Government district, and cast Invisibility on us. And the neutral guards wasted Cowled Wizards as they came, and then Zallanora. Got Incendiary Cloud scroll, gold and casting rights. We bought our rep to 15 and went to kill the Beastmaster. He doesn't aggro if you get hit before talking. Got Tuigan bow, lv14. Did the Tanners guest, then Thieves Guild. Nothing too hard, Rayic was killed by his repeating Fire trap, and Maevar was pre Charmed and killed by his own gang. Lv 15 with the best Skelis.
Prebek's and Sanashas spells were level skipped with Speed, and after we got summons in they were done. We picked up Jaheira for small walk before talking to Xzar, to advance the Harper guest line further. She buggered off, then came back. Before entering Galvarey estate I kicked Jaheira off. Casually Charmed Nadinal who cast three Earth Elementals, Jin summoned couple Skelis, Haste and they all killed themselves. Got nice set of loot, and Ring of Wizardy for some additional spells after UAI. Did the Sir Sarles guest, Neb was casually hacked, once I summoned help out of sight in the corner. Lv15 with lv6 spell casting with Contingency, and I could now have 6 apr with Improved Haste.
Did the easy Umar Hills guests, my two top of the line Hasted Skelis with Emotions Hope and Courage were already quite better than two Umber Hulks. Did the Silver Pantaloons guest, avoided reputation loss by Charming Welther and he was killed by Cohrvale and Bregg, who we easily then killed. Also got Boots of Avoidance. In the sewers we used Protection from Poison, and killed the Slavers with the repeating Cloudkill trap. Lv17 and third Skeli. For Kalah we buffed with everything, got Skeli from Contingency and it distracted enough so I could cast three others. And Kalah didn't survive long. We now had 78k gold and 20/20 economy. We bought Rod of Resurrection and Limited Wish scroll and some other stuff.
And now the second reason I wanted to do a Blade run after the drained damage immunity in SoD. We learned permanent Mindflayer ability from the Limited Wish scroll Shapechange option and became a Mind Flayer Blade, probably the best killing machine Faerun has seen.
Well not yet, but the form will get better as we advance, here's the blueprint for the Mind Flayer Blade.
10 Base Thac0
8 Emotion: Hope (1h)
7 Emotion: Courage (1h)
5 Circlet of Lost Souls
4 Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization
-7 Tensers Transformation (1 Base -2 20r)
-11 Enhanced Bard Song (Sim 16r)
-17 Storm Potion (2h)
+2 Mindflayer Attack -5 INT no save/ pass MR
+3 Enchanted Weapon (2h)
4 Base APR
4,5 Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization
9 Improved Haste (23r)
140 Base HP
198 Familiar (LoB ToB)
396 Tensers Transformation (20r)
401 Emotion: Courage (1h)
10 Base AC
-2 Enkidu's Full Plate
-4 Ring of Gaxx
-6 Cloak of the Dark Moon
-9 Amulet of the Master Harper
-10 Ring of Earth Control
-12 Reflection Shield
-16 Tensers Transformation (20r)
-20 Enhanced Bard Song (Sim 16r)
-26 5x Potion of Mind Focusing (12h)
-28 Protection from Evil (40r)
Modifiers
Slashing
-32 Enkidu's Full Plate
-35 Golden Girdle of Urnst
Piercing
-31 Enkidu's Full Plate
Crushing
Infinite x Potion of Absorption (2h)
Missile
Reflected Back
Big Metal Unit is bugged with Mind Flayer form.
In the end the Mind Flayer Blade will have -17 Thac0, 9 apr, -5 INT no save/ pass MR weapon that hits +3, 401 hp, hit AC cap with -35 slashing, -31 Piercing, infinite Crushing modifiers and reflect missiles back. And incidentally, good luck Faerun.
Magic Flute HLA can be selected only once, and it disappears after 24h. So in practice I can summon 3 Magic Flutes in 0 hour, 8 hour and 16 hour. And my clone from Vhailor's Helm can do the same too. And every scroll of Simulacrum and PI can do it once. So I can cast at one time,
3x3 Blade
3x3 Vhailor's
3x every Simulacrum and PI scroll
60 Delayed Blast Fireballs. Very handy for the final battle, as you can't rest in there.
1xAsylum lv1 ch4
1xCarlig ch5
2xArcana Archives ch8
2xNeera guestline ch8
Simulacrum (8)
1xCopper Coronet ch2
1xAsylum lv2 ch4
1xVithal ch5
1xUst Natha ch5
1xAdventurers Mart ch6
2xArcana Archives ch8
1xNeera guestline ch8
Temple Sewers Mekrath was casually hacked from Mislead. Got second RoR and Wand of Cloudkill. With Skelis we cleared the Undead from sewers, and we found the Tenser's Transformation scroll. We picked the second half of the Rift Device and left. Jin killed Treya for the off hand Thac0 cloak, and traveled with Rasaad to the City Gates where she got map update and said farewell. Killing Geld Quickblade from Mislead gave us lv19. Our party impressively managed to kill Hammerfell's whole party without casualties. Got map update to Heretic Temple. Dalton's party didn't fare any better. Did the easy tests in the Temple and got Gem of Seeing for 10r True Seeing, Gauntlets of Aln Zekk for 15% 1d10 cold damage with melee weapons among other stuff.
Planar Sphere was hilariously easy with Mislead. Lavok was depleted from spells by summoning monsters through Farsight, and after that Jin casually sliced him with Mislead. Tanari was killed from Farsight too. Tolgerias and the mage casually hacked from Mislead.
Time to start learning the Mind Flayer stuff. Fake Paladins never knew what hit them. Nor did the Bandits in Windspear Hills. The form is ridiculously fast killer. Although I quickly noticed a negative effect, enemies don't give xp being eaten. So I've to restrict that for tougher situations. Lv21 helping the Dryads, and Jin got the best Thac0 and Saves. Firkraag dungeon passed with Invisibility. Tazok's party casually killed from Mislead, as was Conster. Got the sewer key. We ate the Temple sewer gang from Mislead in few seconds.
Watchers Keep 1st level smacked from Mislead. And Jin ate the Vampiric Wraiths with four attacks, the bastards. Lv22 talking to the Lich. First four statues smacked from Mislead. For the next part I didn't want any risk, and Jin ate the two Mage Statues from Mislead. The rest were smacked from Mislead for xp. Mislead with Mislead Contingency on hit is such a good mechanic for continuation. Lv23 getting to the 2nd level.
Watchers Keep 2nd level was casual Mislead smacking. Just realized that Mutated Spiders gave 9k xp a pop, which seems a tad high? Lv24 and got the first HLA. Any guesses what it was? Also got third pip in Two Weapon Style. First thing after UAI was Ring of Wizardy, so we wouldn't have to wait 1,5M xp to get additional slot in 6th level spells. And we also got our army of five Skelis assembled. Again ate the Vampiric Wraiths because they really are bastards. Before tackling the Chromatic Demon though we left because that needed a special tool. Had 93k gold so we bought Vhailors Helm, Robe of Vecna, Shield of Balduran, Reflection Shield, Ninjato of Scarlet Brotherhood, Sling of Everard and Defender of Easthaven and had some beer money left. With Scarlet, Belm and Improved Haste we now had 8 apr.
Seven Vales gang was eaten and hacked from Mislead. Cernd against Faldorn was again interesting fight. Cernd actually dropped his Greater Werewolf Token on the ground before the fight, so I thought I would have him fight without it and instead gave the Staff of Fire to him and he summoned Fire Elementals, drank Invisibility potions, and I protected with RoR. It went pretty fast, although Cernd was blinded. I now had ability to Shapechange into Greater Werewolf too, although I don't know where ever would I need it. Lv25 and got the Enhanced Bard Song. Raksashas were eaten. Did the rest of the easy Trademeet guests. For the Mindflayer Dungeon we buffed with INT, Absorption, couple Invulnerabilities, Speed, PFU, and Mislead. We ate the Mindies on the way to the last room, picked up Wand of Wonder and escaped. Chromatic Demon was harder than we thought, it took 12 hits from WoW to stone him, and it killed my 5 Skelis and 5 Fire Elementals, and I actually had to run away from him short while. Nevertheless we got to 3rd level of Watchers Keep. Lv26 when MoD +2 cleared Temple Ruins. Shadow Dragon was stoned and Shadow Lord smacked with PfU. Lv27 killing the Crypt King.
Then a funny cutscene, Monks of Selunes waylaid us, and Treya was back alive, with second off hand Thac0 cloak. Naturally Jin killed them all. Some Lich hunting with MoD +2, and couple PfU's, nothing too hard. Waited Kangaxx's Cornugon and Dark Planetar out in the corner, then avoided his Remove Magic which hit his Skeli, before turning him into a Demi Lich. Then casually ranged him with WoW, as he doesn't move if you don't get close to him. Got Ring of Gaxx. Lv28 after doing the easy Fallen Paladin guest. Samias gang hacked from Mislead. Used my half full WoW to xp loop Firkraag, lv30.
Time for Planar Prison. Jin landed and Mislead Contingency triggered, and I cast Invisibility on my clone. Then wiped the landing casually. Rested and the same process cleared the way to Master of Thrall's, who was easily killed. Looked the log and saw Thrall's pulling out Planetar from the Warden which was good. I waited it out. Lured the Yuan-ties away, and my Skelis made minced meat out of them, and then they stomped the Warden. Impressive. Lv31. Undead Bridge was ran over with MoD from Mislead. Decided to kill the Unseeing Eye after very long time, as I realized that it can be stoned with WoW without wasting the Rift Device. Jin showed the rest of the cult true meaning of the blind eye, after they were all swept through from Mislead. Roger the Fence then smuggled the Rift Device out from the sewers for me. Lv32. Swept the Bodhi's Lair through Mislead and waited her to leave. Lv33 clearing the rest of the Graveyard. Turned Firkraag few times between Stone and Flesh, and then killed him for good.
Jin is lv35 and we are currently sailing to Brynnlaw.
Executive Summary: Angelo discovers that Chapter 9 cannot be completed peacefully without exploiting some gameplay glitches.
Conflicted feelings twisted Angelo's guts as the battalion made their way onwards. He felt like he'd broken his golden rule of not engaging in combat unless he had to. And there was no defence that his defence of the dwarves was a mandatory engagement. He could have left them to die, picked up the amulets off their corpses and spoken with Coldhearth directly without getting greedy and demanding the Secret Revealed as well. Felicity reassured him that his Protection from Undead scroll had removed all risk: even in a No Reload run, this would have been kosher (although he might have been more cautious on his pickpocketing). Still, Angelo was not satisfied... he would have to do better this time!
Somehow, the dream sequence had dispelled Angelo's Invisibility (perhaps the initiation of dialogue in the dream had consequences in the real game world), so he had to cast it again to avoid the trolls. Part of his reason for sleeping invisibly was for his illusion to still be active when he awoke, so Angelo was not impressed with this turn of events. Still, he was able to pick up the tinderbox from the skeleton by the entrance, enacting his spell yet again as soon as it wore off. Alarmingly, the trolls continued to surround him for what seemed like an age, but they eventually lost interest and moved away.
Dipping into the side cavern, Angelo's half-elven infravision revealed an unlit torch in the corner. "Finally, a legitimate use for the Infravision spell," Angelo murmured before remembering that even solo human PCs could kill Minsc for his ring of infravision. Still, all those wizard slayer/mage dual classes who couldn't use the ring, but can use the spell must now be jumping for joy. "Nice try, Beamdog," Angelo nodded, appreciating the attempt nevertheless.
Using the tinderbox, Angelo lit the torch and its newly flickering flame revealed a chest hidden in the shadows. Despite looking mean, the spectral trolls were slow off the mark when Angelo flipped its lid and stuff the Enchanted Weapon scroll into his tunic. His Invisibility spell was complete almost before they had turned towards him and, unable to see their prey, they scattered like headless chickens. It took a little while for Angelo to edge his way through the monsters to the exit, but in the end, his escape was inevitable.
Did she realise she was talking to a man who'd killed people merely for a Web scroll? Or even just to show off how they would have done it? Of course Angelo vowed to take care of them, despite him not knowing how he'd do it without a fight. And when the half-orc leader offered to set aside hostilities for the low price of an alcoholic beverage, Angelo could hardly resist a bargain. He even offered to share, saying "I'd love a drink of Kava," but she didn't seem to appreciate - or even notice - the chat-up line.
It was only when Angelo reached the crusader camp at Boareskyr Bridge that he realised that maybe he would not have been unwittingly rebuffed had he been wearing his Ring of Human Influence. He made sure to put it on before talking to the Crusader Sergeant pretending to be a messenger. Unfortunately, Angelo's 'secret message' did not go to the Barghest (whoever they were), but to underling Delgar Munsch, who insisted on locking Angelo away. "I am not standing for this!" Angelo exclaimed, using the Knock spell to escape precisely 2 seconds before the friendly guard from Nashkel would have let him out anyway.
Looking for compensation, he looted the chest closest to the nearby soldier, making sure to take both the fallen planetar feather and the arcane scroll of impactful doom in one flurry and dashing away before the soldier could object. As a bonus, he found Dorn's stuff in a crate, meaning there was one less NPC he'd have to pickpocket later. Finally, he located the Barghest, but chose to rob the adjacent crate for a tepid mug of ale, rather than relay some fabricated message. Angelo could have chosen to drink some potions of master thievery and have a field day, but he sensed that there would be ample opportunity to relieve them of their belongings later on.
In lieu of this theft, Angelo returned the ale to Kava and went back to Otilda for 6,000 XP. He then cast Invisibility to loot the corpse at the bottom of the map to receive Glimmer of Hope (obviously that glimmer wasn't strong enough for its former owner), using the familiar right-click trick to remain hidden.
Angelo's voice was distraught. "You mean that talking my way into the crusader camp is cute, but basically pointless? If you have to get the Bridgefort wardstone anyway, may as well rescue Keherrem for the crusader sergeant at the same time."
The imp nodded, "You would have had to enter the crusader camp anyway to obtain the arcane scroll of impactful doom, so it's not a complete loss." On seeing Angelo's scowl, she added, "If you're determined not to bother with the Temple of Cyric, you can attack the crusader camp directly. I don't know the exact kill criteria that will open the gates, but that would allow you access to the bridge."
"Doesn't sound very easy on LoB mode," Angelo muttered, "any other options?"
"Well, if you're into that sort of thing, you can glitch past the gate using Polymorph Self. No need to take my word for it..."
"Where's that forest again?" Angelo sighed. He was attempting to be reasonably thorough this run and skipping a significant portion of the game left a sour taste in the mouth (apart from Werewolf Isle and Aec'Letec, cos ain't nobody got time for that!). Besides, although displacing items in inventories was all well and good, this sort of exploit wasn't really his cup of tea.
"By the way," Felicity went on, "if you'd have done the Temple of Bhaal first, you could have gained 3,000 XP for returning Kherrem and gotten the 6,000 XP from Otilda later. Since you've talked your way into the camp already, you can't do that anymore."
"A conflict of elegance?!" Angelo threw his arms to the skies. "Can today get any worse?!"
It would.
Angelo may have been hoping for some easy pickings, but the hordes of spiders inside made him think twice. Returning to just inside the entrance, Angelo rested invisibly to memorise as many Invisibility, Monster Summoning and Stoneskin spells as he could. Conjuring a few critters of his own before returning to Invisibility, Angelo lured the spiders out into the central cavern, being sure to disarm the Web traps as he dived into the siderooms hunting for treasure and escaping via recasting his illusions.
The right chamber had Severance +2, a bastard sword that passed as a Foebane-lite. The only treasure of note for a solo player in the other wings was a spider egg (the northeastern ones had some goblin armour only usable by M'Khiin, but Angelo figured this was still not enough reason to use the shaman; similarly, the spider's silk on the walls for Khalid's quest could also be picked up in Chapter 10 if he had been so inclined). Seeing as the seven-legged spider in the northern cavern had to be killed for it to yield its giant spider leg ("No need for that fallen planetar feather," Angelo muttered, as both were items in Neera's quest), Angelo asked Felicity what the spider egg was for, hoping for more metagaming knowledge.
"If you move past a trigger point in the west cavern, a gigantic rhino beetle will appear in the central cavern," Felicity replied. "It starts off neutral, so it can then be lured around using the eggs. Hopefully, the spiders would kill it and you could get the rhino beetle shell to turn into some armour or a shield."
"But I've wandered up and down that passage invisibly several times," Angelo mused, "might I have to be visible for the trigger to respond?" The imp nodded and Angelo cursed his luck. "Well, there's no way I can risk doing that, even with summoned distraction. Guess that's one less item I'll have available to me... this spider lair has effectively been useless to me!"
Angelo left the spider lair ruminating on how his attempts to play elegantly had gotten him into trouble. Not only had he lost valuable XP, but his reluctance to engage was going to cost him a rhino beetle item (it wouldn't have been an easy battle under any circumstances, but it was the principle that counted). He was beginning to rethink his tactics... and not a moment too soon!
Underdark Drow's hacked from Mislead, the Lich bombed with Spike Traps and the Balor eaten during Time Stop trap, first time I needed Enchanted Weapon as Balor's are immune to +2 weapons. Tried eating Vithal during Time Stop trap, but the bugger had on hit PfMW contingency. Retreated, Mislead, done. Kuo-toa eaten. Had 150k gold, 75k after buying all the interesting things. Upgraded Scarlet +3/Belm +2 combo to Firetooth +3/ Scarlet +3. Used one PfU for Deirex.
Mind Flayer base met the 8 apr Mind Flayer Blade, and they were no match, not even close. We buffed our INT, saves to -4 vs. spell and SI:Abjuration for Master Brain. Jin got the master charmer's kit, four Control Circlets and Staff of Command. Changed the eggs through Mislead and betrayed the Drow. Looted the Beholder Dungeon Invisible. The Demon Knight was eaten during Time Stop trap, and I escaped before they knew I was even there. Adalon stoned for her blood, and we ate the exit area through Mislead.
Jin vs. Twisted Rune. Used PfU for Shangalar, and casually ranged him with 4 apr Firetooth +3. Rest of the enemies arrived, and my Time Trap hit. But Layene was Invisible and Vaxall had Improved Mantle on, so Jin just ate Revanek and Shyressa. After the Djinni summons left, True Seeing and we attacked Leyene, but she still had Contingency and she disappeared and summoned a Fiend. We had to wait it out again. Buffed yet again and after Layene was visible we ate her through Mislead, then Vaxall. Got the Staff of Magi for some Invisibility spamming.
Bank of Athkatla also know as Guarded Compound got gassed with Wand of Cloudkill. For Bodhi's Lair Jin used couple PfU's, ate her backup and stoned her after the Heal. Suldanesselar passed Invisible, Nizi stoned, and Rillifane cleansed the place. At Tree of Life we baited Jon's spells out being Invisible, then killed him from Mislead.
In Hell we took +6 STR and +4 Saves as rewards, which meant Jin became Evil. Pre charmed the Genie with SoC, stopped him teleporting away, and then killed him for Blackrazor +3. Jin also stoned the Dragon for another Time Stop scroll. For the Slayer we used our one time Time Stop from Limited Wish, and ate both Balor's and Glabrezus. Then we baited Slayer's spells with Fire Elementals. Planetar, PfMW's, Improved Alacrity, although he was again holding back with the Time Stop, but it didn't matter. Jin summoned Skelis, buffed up, and Slayer was killed pretty quickly.
Illasera was lured south being Invisible and having Reflection Shield to stop her Dispel arrows. Six Spikes and one Time Stop trap softened her, and then we pretty easily sliced her down. Had just enough money to upgrade everything with Cespenar, including the Bard's Gloves. First Pocket plane was casual gassing with Wand of Cloudkill, keeping Invisibility with Staff of Magi.
Finally got the last level up, and we now have 203 hp with Helm of Balduran and LoB Familiar. And these are our proficiencies and HLA's.
Daggers *
Flails *
Long Swords *
Maces *
Scimitars *
Short Bows *
Slings *
Two-Handed Swords *
Single-Weapon Style *
Two-Weapon Style ***
Enhanced Bard Song *
Magic Flute *
Spike Trap *******
Time Trap *******
Use Any Item *
That's pretty much the only sensible HLA setup, with 7 thief trap limit and other HLA's being hilariously useless. For example you can get 9 (18 with Vhailor's Helm) more powerful Exploding Traps, that ignore the limit, from single Magic Flute HLA.
Executive Summary: Angelo takes out a dragon, a half-dragon and a neothelid with minimal risk.
The path through the Forest of Wyrms was long and winding, and following it gave Angelo a new sense of perspective. Why was he so afraid of killing things? The immediate answer was his own well-being... can't be killed in combat if you refuse to engage in combat! But if that was the case, surely Felicity had a point... if safety was his concern and he could remove the risk, then the question became why was he NOT engaging in combat? He could hardly complain about earning paltry XP from ferryman quests, after all, if there was all this free XP lying around that he was refusing to earn...
"If the game's going to serve us XP on a platter," he said to Felicity as he cracked his knuckles, "it'd be rude not to have our fill."
He had to actually hit the dragon's low AC (-14, but -16 against missiles... basically ensuring that it had to be a critical hit), which took a while since he was unproficient, but as long as he stayed by the entrance, the dragon did not react to his misses. And when he finally scored a hit, like a medieval homing missile, the dagger adjusted its trajectory mid-flight and propelled itself into Morentherene's breast, sliding between the scales to bury deep in the dragon's heart. Death was, as the game itself admitted, instantaneous.
"At least I won't be missing out on this crafted item," Angelo quipped as he took the green dragon scales and 13,000 XP.
Although this trick is well-publicised on this thread, I was still surprised that it worked. Imagine the shock of the person who first discovered this! I assume that it's a tribute to Smaug's demise in The Hobbit, but it's a neat Easter egg however you look at it. For the record, for maximum efficiency, you should grab the archer's eyes amulet from the Temple of Cyric, as this will double your crit chance... or be an elf/halfling fighter specialising in daggers with potions of power/heroism to spare...
As an irreverent aside, I had to laugh at this thread: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/58855/killing-morentherene-impossible-on-throne-of-bhaal-difficulty-due-primarily-to-a-bug/p1. I don't want to blow my own trumpet, as I know I am not the best BG player out there, but I found two more ways of killing Morentherene as an LoB solo player independent of the aforementioned knifing. I'll save the details for another playthrough, but sufficed to say that I've verified at least 3 ways of taking the dragon down.
The accessible part of the next level began with some business-as-usual invisible looting, but culminated with Ziatar, a mean-looking half-dragon priestess. As she started off neutral, Angelo's first thought was to use Pick Pocket to nick the ritual key unlocked the ritual room - this led to the Bridgefort wardstone, the reason for the entire trip. However, Felicity said that he could also pilfer the jail key (which unlocked Keherrem's gaol), along with a potion of extra healing and a wand of the heavens, which decreased the likelihood of snatching the right ritual key in the time before they turned hostile. He was also running short of the potions of master thievery, which ultimately tipped the scales in Ziatar's disfavour.
Amusingly, the cultist mage's first words after Angelo backstabbed Ziatar were to question Angelo's presence, and the reassurance that it was his first day satisfied the wizard's curiosity. The half-dragon was not so easily fooled and called on her guards to defend her... which is why Angelo shot straight out of the room to close off the left door at the bottom of the corridor. As he left, he shut the priestess' door behind him so Ziatar and her two cronies could not follow.
Unluckily for the SoD AI, none of the cultists could open doors. To add to their misfortune, this gave Angelo unlimited opportunities to make his Stealth check. The icing on the cake was that the few seconds of Stealth lag between Angelo opening a door and becoming visible was just enough for him to manoeuvre behind Ziatar and attempt another backstab... and their reactions weren't quick enough to stop Angelo from closing the door again with him on one side and them on the other. Repeating this loop several times was enough to produce the desired result.
Snatching Ziatar's treasure (along with the 3,000 XP for her demise), Angelo shut the door a final time, abandoning the mages inside the room forever. Only some unimportant journals lay on the table, and Angelo was in no mood to take down the other cultists in a similar manner.
"Use EEKeeper then," Angelo snapped.
"That doesn't give as many details on its abilities as I would like," she complained, "but I can give some general advice. It can sense invisible creatures and initially casts Domination, so protect yourself against that; it can also teleport using dimensional walk and summon some weak Mordenkainen's Swords that must be killed using magic damage; its black slime and breath weapon are venomous, so some protection from poison would be nice; and it uses some psionic attacks while its regular attacks do a lot of crushing damage. I'm unsure of the attacks' exact effects, but Ego Whip stuns unless you save vs death and Id Insinuation confuses unless you save vs spell."
"Thanks," Angelo replied, "that's very helpful." He thought back to what he'd seen in the cutscene. The way that grotesque creature slithered out of the ground was truly terrifying... and yet did that hold the key...?
Before Angelo entered the room, he rested to ensure that he had memorised as many Magic Missile, Invisibility, Skull Trap and Stone Skin spells as possible, loading a pair of Magic Missiles into a Minor Sequencer to guarantee himself more damage. He also used a protection from poison scroll to immunise himself from the namesake, a potion of grounding to protect against crushing attacks and an oil of speed to quicken himself whilst freeing another spell slot for Skull Trap. Finally, he cast Stoneskin and Mirror Image, just to be safe, before putting on his girdle of bluntness and drinking a potion of invulnerability to lower his saves. If his tactics worked, this would be excessive, but there was no harm in being safe.
"Now onto you," Angelo promised as the neolethid seemed to have expended its daily limit of mental assaults and was closing for melee. Angelo let it come, allowing it to near him before diving away at the last second. The neolethid's eyestalk tentacles watched Angelo retreat just out of range of its gaping maw and initiated its burrowing into the ground to follow.
Yet as soon as its descent had begun, Angelo leapt back in, his quickened (-2 initiaive due to the Haste effect) scimitar sweeping in a precise arc. He sliced once, maybe twice, until the creature's head had turned and it began rising out of the ground again.
At this point, Angelo ducked back again, letting it begin its long movement animation before repeating the cycle and opportunistically jabbing it as many times as he could get away with. The extra critical chance, courtesy of single weapon style, was helpful here, as it doubled the probability of a decent strike. Occasionally, the neolithid was quick enough to snap back as Angelo retreated, but the stoneskins and crushing AC modifer ensured that the risk was absolutely tiny. Once Angelo had gotten used to the timings, its death was basically guaranteed.
"You know what they say about big things and how hard they fall?" Angelo asked Felicity rhetorically as the neothelid's 20,000 XP deposited itself in his account.
"See how profitable fighting these low danger combats can be?" Felicity asked as Angelo wiped neothelid slime off his scimitar. "That's 36,000 XP for just three encounters. You'd have to hydrate 120 thirsty criers to earn that sort of experience. And just so you know, there's more of that coming right up..."
Murder rampage, Imoen, Xzar, Montaron, Neera and Algernon. Revenant Cave gave us the first level up and Invisbility potion. Also looted the other caves with Sanctuary. Lv3 after Tenya's Bowl. With Sanctuary looted CHA and CON tomes. Lv4 after charmed Meilum hacked Kahrk. Lv4 after Kirinhale. Charmed Riggolo killed Ghost, and then he was killed by Ghasts. Reached Mulahey with Sanctuary, and after Charming him, he was killed by Kobbo's. Charmed Minsc killed Nimbul, Charmed Marl and couple Skelis killed Tranzig. Three Skelis killed Dushai. Molkar waylay passed with the only Invisibility potion. Bought our rep to 13 and did the rep run. Lamalha waylay passed with Sanctuary, apparently there's enough time to cast it without any hits. With 35k and 20/20 economy it was time to buy some stuff. Claw of Kazkaroth, Sandthief Ring, Greenstone Amulet and Cloak of Displacement. Raiken escorted us to Bandit camp, where Charmed Taurgosz was killed by Gnolls. With Sanctuary and Absorption looted the tent and left.
Drasus Charmed and killed for Speed boots. Charmed guard ko'd Davaeorn and we got the killing blow, lv5 getting to Baldur's Gate. Desreta Charmed and killed for her 18/00 Bracers, so I could open the door to Ragefast. Charmed Abela ko'd him as I hid behind the rubble. Ramazith was charmed, depleted from spells and killed by skelis. Getting second green Protection from Petrification, we went to Mutamin garden where my pet Basilisk stoned all, lv7. Pre Charmed Lothander was killed by four Blood Raged Skelis, then they stomped Marek. Skelis and Blood Rage is a great match because they're immune to the Berserk effect. Blood Rage gives 2 turns of +2 to hit, +3 to damage, +2 to Strength and +10 to maximum Hit Points. At Iron Throne we Charmed Naaman, and lured Shennara and Kaalos back, where four Blood Raged and Recitated Skelis made minced meat out of them. Iron Throne at Candlekeep was Charmed too and they killed themselves. Looted Catacombs with Violet Potion. 5 buffed Skelis and Larze stomped Slythe and Krystin. Lv8, and with 21 Wisdom and Ring of Sune we can cast 5 Blood Raged, Prayed and Recitated Skelis.
Palace Ambush. Charmed the Assassin, Mage and Shaman Dobbelgangers. Blood raged Skelis first easily wasted the three Greater ones, then the Assassin. Charmed all the guards, and with Prayer and Chant they easily handled the Shaman. The Mage was a lot tougher as it can cheat, over the casting limit. Justine Recitated all and spammed with Wand of Heavens. All but one Flaming Fist died. But it was enough and Sarevok buggered away. Some small things, Delorna and mages absolutely stomped by Blood Raged Skelis. As was Denak for Ring of Energy and he didn't have even time to cast spells. Lastly Sunin was stomped by the Skeleton Mage Hunters. Didn't bother with Durlag's Goblet because I plan to use drained damage immunity to pass SoD. Interestingly although Clerics can't open the Seven Suns PfU container without Violet Potion (it needs 22 Strength), I've 6 PfU's because I got one from a random drop.
Justine vs. Sarevok. Again after few hits from out of sight with OGL, I was found and poisoned. And again we escaped with Invisibility potion and cured ourselves with less than 20 hp left. Used Invisibility Purge, and all were hugging themselves, so I started again the OGL spamming. Minions were dead before the second OGL was out. Then used the next two OGL's on Sarevok leaving 6 hits for Korlasz. Also used 7 Potion of Explosions and 5 Oil of Fiery Burnings. At this point Sarevok had 458 hp left. Justine then used Dispel on Sarevok three times, and managed to Dispel his Haste. Then it was casual spamming with the Ring of Energy. And after 33 hits, Sarevok died. Only had to use one PfU.
Executive Summary: Angelo kills the shadow aspect, Darkshelin and its thralls... and Akanna for good measure.
Having finally dispatched the sickly neothelid, Angelo had to wonder what sort of creatures this abomination would be guarding. He had the feeling he wouldn't have to wait long to find out...
It was fortunate that he'd heeded the warning, since Angelo glimpsed a blurry creature almost as soon as he edged forward. Despite not obviously being undead, however, it seemed oblivious to his presence, indicating the scroll's magic was working. This allowed Angelo to successfully disarm the Confusion and Ray of Enfeeblement traps in the doorway; had his defences been down, it would have been difficult - but not impossible - to remove them without the creature noticing. His Find/Remove Traps also disarmed the Cloudkill trap on the chest, but there was another, more important use for it...
While he was finding traps, Angelo's Detect Illusion skill had 'accidentally' sliced through the creature's Mislead effect. The aspect's illusory double fell away, revealing its true form standing a step to the right. Angelo took this as his cue to start slashing with his scimitar, but befitting of a creature of illusion, its AC was monstrous (-19!) and Angelo was only connecting on a critical hit. Worse, its Mislead spell constantly fired and its illusory clone was recreated, so Angelo had to constantly refresh his Detect Illusion to dispel it. Since the scroll lasted for 2 hours, it would have been reasonably safe to hack it to death (using the enhanced critical chance his single weapon proficiency), but Angelo had a better idea.
Once Detect Illusion had done its job, Angelo fired a Hold Undead spell at the real shadow aspect. As an undead creature, the shadow was unused to paralysis effects and barely reacted as its limbs locked up. Angelo was surprised that it could still activate its recurring Mislead even when it was held, but Detect Illusion made short work of it. Now the shadow aspect was helpless (even more helpless than before, that is!) to stop Angelo from cutting it to ribbons.
"If you hadn't been protected, it would have backstabbed you with every one of its 6 attacks per round," Felicity gasped. "And with its -2 ThacO, it would have hit practically every time. Casting Mislead on a backstab-capable character is truly overpowered, especially if that character has good fighting capabilities."
"Felicity Foreshadow," Angelo laughed at her prescience, "if only you knew how wise you are!"
Sadly, it is not possible to charm Akanna and use her Control Undead (in LoB mode, she is a evil level 19 cleric, as well as a level 23 assassin) on the shadow aspect. Incidentally, if you enter the room without a Protection from Undead scroll active, several more shadows and shadowed souls also attack you. If you' kill the shadow aspect before 'activating' these other shadows, however, they do not appear if you enter the chamber once the protection wears off.
Knowing that mindflayers have 90% magic resistance and excellent saving throws, Angelo's plan was for the remainder of the party to be ensnared while luring the mindflayer out of the room, closing the reliquary door by creeping into the web's AoE using the ring of free action, then tackling the mindflayer on its own. However, his contingency plans proved their worth as an umber hulk avoided the initial Web and rushed through the door - thankfully, the precast greenstone amulet stopped its confusion barrage while the summons slowed its progress. They were no match for its crushing fists, but they did keep it busy for long enough for Angelo to shut the door and successfully cast Blind, after which it could be ranged to death.
Entering Stealth before reopening the door proved a wise move, since berserker Mohad Flintborn and mage Jhan Redmoons as well as Darkshelin were now visible from the doorway. Jhan instantly cast Detect Invisibility, forcing Angelo to retreat behind the archway out of sight before it tore away his enrobing shadows. Worse, he saw a second umber hulk blocking the entrance, which would need to be lured away before the door could be shut again. Fortunately, Angelo could skulk away, summon some more monsters, and re-enter Stealth to do exactly that.
Finishing it off using the same combination of Blind and arrows, Angelo used his Invisibility to rest in the dungeon. If at first he didn't succeed...
Refusing to make it easy, Mohad started going walkabout and Angelo daren't risk finding Darkshelin or the mutated crawlers in his pursuit of the berserker. Instead, he summoned more critters to keep the berserker busy while loosing volleys of arrows. The dwarf died, but not in vain, as it deprived Angelo of so much ammunition that he no longer felt comfortable with his plan of kiting Darkshelin with non-magical arrows. Fortunately, since he was out of combat, he could change into his heavy armour (including the Ring of Kazgaroth from his gem bag) and equip the girdle of bluntness for additional protection (mindflayers' attacks do crushing damage).
Against an effective AC of -14, even Darkshelin's Thac0 of 7 could only hit only a critical... which didn't negate the risk of brain drain, as mindflayers have 5 attacks per round, but mitigated it enough to make it manageable. Since SoD does not incorporate SCS improvements, Darkshelin thankfully didn't exhibit the physical resistances that make mindflayers in BG2 so difficult to deal with (nor could it see through Angelo's Invisibility spells). Once it was low on health, Darkshelin started casting Improved Invisibility to set up a surprise attack... and was surprised itself when Angelo's Detect Illusion dispelled its vanishing act. As long as Angelo kept his greenstone amulet up, its death was only a matter of time.
"Akanna's mind will be freed now," Felicity remarked. "You don't have to kill the others to complete the quest."
"And let the remaining thralls live?" Angelo asked incredulously. "I'm lazy, but I'm not that lazy!"
Being hasted, they closed down the enchanter quickly and delivered a number of fast cuts before he made his save, his pre-cast protections kicked in and his Stoneskin blocked further blows while the Minor Globe of Invulnerability immunised him from the web's tendrils. Unfortunately, while wizards' save vs spells is good (so he would break free relatively quickly) their save vs poison is poor (so he would be affected by several poison effects)... and since these effects stack, his health bled away behind his defences. It didn't really matter how many stone skins he put up, for he was effectively dead already.
The remaining warriors had better saves vs poison, so Angelo couldn't bank on poison bringing them down as easily, but they had worse saves vs spell, so they were ensnared for longer (and were more likely to succumb to a timely Blind should they wriggle free). And where the arachnids' venom failed, their sharp fangs succeeded admirably... or it might have been Angelo's scimitar, he wasn't keeping track. Had Morad not been disposed of earlier, as a berserker, he would have suffered the same fate, but as a dwarf, his shorty save bonus would probably resulted in more kiting.
As soon as she turned hostile, she called two hostile aerial servants to her aid and quaffed an invisibility potion to vanish from sight. These guardians (Angelo didn't want to use the word 'summons', as they were permanent and could not be waited out like summon spells) hit hard and Angelo didn't much fancy taking them on. Instead, Angelo lured them to the jails cells before dumping them with Invisibility and shutting them out of the ritual room. He figured they could keep the prisoners company... he was generous like that.
Having done his good deed for the year, all that remained was taking out Akanna. Summoning and hasting a pair of spiders, Angelo could cast a set of Web spells from the doorway that caught Akanna in its AoE without entering her visual range.
Her hopes of seeing out the onslaught by remaining invisible quickly evaporated once Angelo, aided by his ring of free action, activated his Detect Illusion skill right beside her, and her life force evaporated soon afterwards.
"If we're going down that road," Angelo retorted, "we would have to question why I didn't just kill Akanna using that method before going after Darkshelin. In that case, I'd have to construct some flimsy narrative reason for mentioning how the 200 GP quest reward isn't on her body, so by doing things the way did, we earned an extra 200 GP."
"Flimsy narrative?" the imp snickered. "Complete this sentence: pot, kettle..."
"Save your wall-breaking wisecracks for metagaming," Angelo snapped. "This post is long enough without your smartassery."
Felicity considered repeating her last comment, but didn't for fear of proving Angelo's point. Instead, she totted up the 33,200 XP from this episode's kills.
It was with a tinge of regret that Angelo left the Temple of Cyric. It was clear that thought had been put into the encounter design, with its mixture of foe types and tactics, and Angelo knew he would fondly recall the battles of this post and the last as a highlight of the series thus far. But enough was enough. It was time to venture on to Bridgefort and continue the main quest.
The only way I see Clerics clearing SoD in this challenge is to use lv1 damage immunity in Crusader Attacks, then get levels back and beat Bel with Durlag's Goblet. I cleared the first two waves with OGL's, the last two Charming the enemy with Nymph Cloak. Chance for Charm:
6x Crusader Elite 40%
2x Crusader Warpriest 40%
2x Crusader Cleric 40%
5x Crusader Cavalier
Rhayla Elf
Final Wave
Bird-Dog 25% (Barbarian)
Lannac Elf
Orleth Elf
Turalynn Cavalier
Swift Rabbit 40%
Piercer of Boils 45%
Kegleg 25%
Grimgor 25%