Braxx in the meanwhile crushed the Slavers and lifted the mystery around Lilarcor.
At the Copper Coronet Braxx was got access to the back areas where he find hidden slaves. The Beastmaster and his pets went down after having some nice backstabbing fun. With Hendak running the business at Copper Coronet Braxx got another mission to find and free more slaves.
Along his way through the underground Braxx picked several items. While the Kobold Shaman and the Carrion Crawler went down to somer more backstabs Braxx took the Hand the the Ring without any fight. After solving the riddle of the sewers and aquiring Lilarcor it was time to face the Slavers main force.
Getting the key and freeing the slaves was all about cheese. Braxx slipped into the base unnoticed and directly charmed Captain Haegan who had no chance fighting his old friends. Braxx grabbed the key and used his new inviibility ring to get out again unseen. After another rest he stealthed in again - freed the slaves - and once the slavers started attacking him he used invisiblity again. Slaves free, the Slavers Boss dead on the ground- job done!
With a lot gold in the pocket and reputation nearing the 20 its time to buy some cool stuff.
Maybe its time for Vhailors Helm - doubling the fun cannot be wrong no?
Braxx is in evil mode today and decided to vanquish Kangaxx and the other Liches out of Atkathla.
Step One: Sided with Bodhi and betrayed the Shadow Thieves. Yeah Renal Bloodscalp took away his new guild shortly after but - who cares? Braxx upgraded the Mace of Disruption with the Illithium he got from Neb after backstabbing the murderer down with a mighty 144 damage crit.
Step Two: Killed the Lich near the City Gates to get Daystar - which will work fine against Kangaxx.
Step Three: Smashed the Mace of Disruption in to the face of another Lich in Bridge District - easy!
Step Four: Joined the Cult of the Eyeless to get key for the next one. Same procedure as every Lich!
Step Five: Approach Kangaxx and awaken him again! Now the wait-and-retreat-game took place until all summons vanished and Braxx had lured Kangaxx near to the exit. Time to wear down his Stoneskins as well as disrupting his spells with Daystar! Several safety retreats later - and still buffed with Oil of Speed + Potion of Invulnerability - Braxx zapped away Kangaxx HP´s slowly but surely. When the Lich went down to transform himself Braxx retreated once more - rebuffed - and stormed in again to take down the Demilich with one mighty blow from his upgraded Mace of Disruption. Silence. Triumph. Another Trinket - time for some strong Dwarven Ale!
With Kangaxx slain Braxx reached level 11/13 - who will be tricked next?
Hey guys I'm back. I just got the spontaneous idea to look up the harm spell, thinking it might be good for LoB. When I saw it is rolled against Thaco and not saves I decided to test out how hard a start for F/M/C would be in BG1. When I wanted to roll the test char I got a 93 and again spontaneously decided to just roll with it and start the challenge, also I took the big roll as a motivation to record my run for youtube, so hopefully this time I will go through with the whole challenge.
The Doom/Blind combo is awesome in BG1 and even tho a M/C would be better for the most part, I think Harm will be a lot better with a F/M/C, especially once we get the crit hit H/L/A.
Maybe you have already seen that "a little bit" had happened in the meanwhile.
@Blackraven is missing for a while while @Grond0 tried some more no reloads. @chimaera is near the end of SoD with his Dragon Disciple while @Arctodus joined the challenge some days ago with his Human Fighter after Su´kka - my Half Orc Barbarian had failed to win the final battle against Ascension Amelyssan. To take revenge i restarted with a Dwarven Fighter/Thief that will hopefully be able to succeed where Su´kka failed. We will see!
I think that a F/M/C is one of the most powerful classes for this challenge with F/M/T close to it. The Palace Ambush will still be tricky as well as Belhifet in SoD. But once you are on your old playground in SoA this one will stomp anything into the ground - no?
Yea, I had a lot of reading to do, to catch up with you guys. Such a shame you didn't get to kick Amelyssan's butt, but since when is Ascension part of the challenge. You are one masochistic dude :P Big props on the progress everyone. Yeah BG2 is no biggie for the classes I play, since I usually have a mage or cleric in there, which just get super op late. The F/T should have no problem either because of UaI, I think it's easily as powerful as the M/T and C/T, but obviously with a lot more damage which is important with LoB.
So far I prefer the F/M/C to the F/M/T. My biggest whoa was, that you can cast a mage spell instantly after a priest spell, or at least Blind right after doom, no waiting a round, like you even have to do with drinking potions. Thn I realized hold person comes with cleric spell level 2 and Animate Dead with spell level 3. This is so much earlier than mage, it is crazy and ofc as F/M/C cleric also levels faster than mage in low level. Ofc this is the same for a simple M/C, but so far I like my extra apr for two pips I think its pretty impactful in BG 1.
I have started uploading my recordings for those interested, but I will not upload as fast as I play:
Nothing but trouble in Trademeet – and a lot of experience on the way. Like Su´kka before some parts were skipped until later – say hello Rakshasas. Stealth always made sure that it was Braxx who could choose when and where to fight. Unlike Su´kka the good old Dwarf did use his Simulacrum only rarely but instead a lot of traps and many well placed backstabs.
Trouble with the Genies As the Rakshasas are a real pain Braxx decided to hunt down the Genies instead. Before engaging Khan Zahraa he placed seven traps inside the tent and engaged the Genie outside first. He lured this one to the other tent – hasted himself up – and backstabbed – the hell out of it. With the Efreeti Bottle in the pocket Braxx sneaked into the tent with Khan Zahraa again – the traps and their poison triggered – followed by several backstabs that took the leader down.
Animal Trouble This one was quite simple as Braxx stealthed through enemy lines while clearing some of the xp heavy Troll groups in between using a combination of hidden traps plus backstabs and some raw power adding in his Simulacrum. Buffed up Cernd – Magic Protection, Iron Skin, Hasted – challenged Faldorn and hacked her to pieces (he still needed several tries).
Helping Tiris This only triggerd after the Animal & Genie problems were solved. At the end of some walking and talking Braxx faced Rejiek the Skindancer and backstabbed him into oblivion. Another easy 30K xp in the pocket!
The Dueling Families of Trademeet Braxx sneaked into the Tomb and smashed down the guarding Skeleton with one mighty blow from his Mace of Disruption. High Merchnat Logan was relieved to get the Mantle from Braxx – job done!
With his new Belt of Inertial Barrier & the Displacer Cloak Braxx is ready for the next challenge. Not to forget: Leve 11/14 reached. Time for some pickpocketing!
@Victor_Creed_SFV: Good choice to go with F/M/C as we did not have this combination before. @Blackraven was very succesfully playing a no reload M/C up to SoD but with the added raw power of a Fighter this should be even more fun - if one can get it high enough so it starts rolling. Good luck!
Btw, for (maybe) future trips to Trademeet and the Cernd fight: Miscast Magic is a lifesaver in that fight, you should need a maximum of one reload to hit it (unless LoB raised her saving throws too high, but it shouldn't). I at some point got so lazy I didn't even prebuff Cernd anymore, just reload till Miscast hits and call a woodland being and let it kill her on autopilot, while summoning insects and maybe autoattack her a little.
Yeah - that should also do the job @Victor_Creed_SFV - remembers me of the good old times with Balas Axe.
BtW: As you have also chosen Evil but got very low Charisma i checked the Balthy speech again. High Wisdom - like your char - also convinced him in joining Amelyssan. Good to know for possible future runs. But maybe a Mage char will have less probs with Balthy than my Barbarian. I never dare to fight him again with any Warrior Class - especially in the final battle. Too much pain! I am eager to see how your F/M/C will handle the different challenges!
Braxx will have to take some rest - maybe the Troll Keep will be next or the Shade Lord. We will see!
Plenty of action in Cloakwood today. I decided to test myself instead of taking the easy way. I first took on Seniyad and his druids buddy. It was not as hard as I would have thought.
I then moved to the next area, where I was greeted by a bunch of spiders and ettercaps. Things got more dicey : at one point I got a big scare, but I eventually came through.
After this, I took on Centeol and her friendly bunch. I got out of the cave to split these bad boys and everything was ok. A scroll of poison protection was used in this fight. (I took the picture well after the fight, because I forgot to take it the first time.)
Everything was going very well, until I arrived to Drasus. With LOB, I just couldn't do anything to such a strong melee grunt. It was not possible to kite him, because he had them speed boots, which I wanted. So, I ended up to cheese him, by going invisible and trying to stun him with darts. It eventually worked, so I took them beautiful speed boots. I then went invisible until I met Davaeorn, who died to a mixture of fireballs, fire arrows and arrows of biting.
Sooooo, Caligula is chilling in Baldur's Gate. I think that I'm going to make it quick and won't take unneccesary fights anymore. I'm already level 9 (I play without the level cap), so I got more than enough xp now.
No levelcap? Tztztz - shame on you @Arctodus! Plz put this one off in SoD or you will soak too much xp - if it works there too! But for the rest: Nice progress! The Palace Ambush will be an interesting one!
Evil Braxx in the meanwhile stomped through the Troll infested de´Arnise Keep mainly using trap- and backstabbing combined with Improved Haste + Simulacrum. Thats a lot of damage incoming! And thanks to the godlike Saving Throws of a Dwarf there was no fear getting knocked out by any spell of the Spirit Trolls. After split-farming a lot with the reunited Flail of Ages Braxx moved on – lowered the Drawbridge and cleared the second floor so it was finally time to meet Torgal again!
Improved Torgal with all his adds was still a nightmare. Three hits from the Big one and Braxx was done. To get around his insane regeneration Braxx used Simulacrum plus Flail of Ages (plus the Genies) while buffed up with Strength Potion, Oil of Speed, Potion of Invulnerability & Potion of Heroism. As only Torgal can see through invisibility he lured him back to the stairs – where a pack of seven traps waited. Once they triggered Braxx closed the door to cut him from his allies – time for the final confrontation Even with Simulacrum the whole fight was still tricky cause of his insane damage output and regeneration. Like Su´kka before he used the old trick: Wait for Torgal to pick one target -> move this target back while the second Braxx continues hacking him down. If he switches the target you switch too – and so on. Thanks to the Flail of Ages slowing effect this was a lot easier.
After several fails big bad Torgal finally went down to a 41 damage Flame Strike of a summoned Genie shortly after the Simulacrum expired – hot stuff!
Thanks to all the farming Braxx reached level 12/15 – great!
I always kill the Shade Lord with PfU, just because it also works in the temple. (If random encounter spawns liches that is also insane xp. ) Without it you will have a lot of trouble since he basically is a lich in SCS. (A cleric with level 24+ or paladin with 26+ will have no trouble tho :P) SoD is such a problem for monk and btw the first char I tried on my very first run and it annoyed me so much, cuz before that I beat ToB on insane SCS with the monk and the greatest of ease.
No levelcap? Tztztz - shame on you @Arctodus! Plz put this one off in SoD or you will soak too much xp - if it works there too!
I never play with the xp cap because, in BG1, it actually doesn't matter that much. Even though it's always off in my installs, it's probably the first time I went over the cap, and it's only because I had to grind so much money to recharge my items. With only 1 level over the cap, for an unkitted fighter, it doesn't matter all that much though... A little hp and a point of thac0, that's it.
But, if you tell me that I will gain to much xp in SOD, I probably will change that. 1 or 2 bonus level isn't much (even moreso for an unkitted fighter), but, if I get 5 or 6, that'll make a real difference. I'm asking because it will actually be the first time I play SOD. What's the level cap ? Maybe I will simply not press the Level Up button pass a certain point, waiting to be in SOA to do it...
@Arctodus Your progress with a pure fighter is insane, keep it up!
Yeah, I'm not doing too bad. Except for when I met Drasus, I only had to reload only once in the whole Cloakwood quest, and it was against Davaeorn, where I got stuck between him and his fighters by bad positioning. Actually, I now believe it's possible to no-reload BG1 with LOB-SCS with an unkitted fighter. If I would actually try that, I just would avoid tougher fights like Drasus (as a berserker quaffing potions, he could litteraly two-shot me at full health, while having an excellent thac0 : he was hitting me even when he rolled a 5 !!).
Actually, I don't think unkitted fighter is the hardest challenge someone can take for this challenge, because I have so many equipment options. With everything available, normal enemies don't pose much of a threat, because they usually need a crit to touch me. So, I can either kite them or go melee without much of a problem. A wizard slayer would be harder (less equipment), but a kensai even moreso. Having a bad AC would mean a LOT of damage coming in. Plus, a kansai would be very limited in his range weapon option (it would have to carry a LOT of throwing knives or axes, a LOT). In my opinion, kensai seems to be the worst class to take through this challenge. This run has actually reminded me the strength of the unkitted fighter : it has flexibility like no other.
Barbarian is also very flexible - even more than a Fighter and thats what made the run with Su´kka so much fun. Loosing Plate Armor did not matter in most cases as there was always a way around pure tanking. With regard to SoD: Even when not leveling up you will end with 1,5-2,5 million XP if you clear most or all parts - which will put you into a HUGE advantage at the start of SoA. Thats not acceptable in my eyes!! Sorry if this sounds harsh but - hey - we want this one to be a challenge and not a cakewalk - or not?
Yeah, I agree that's a bit too much !! I will not press the level up button pass 500 000 xp and put my xp back to the cap before starting SOA through EEKeeper. It's the simple solution. Like I said : 1 or 2 level, that wouldn't have bothered me, but 2 million xp, way too much.
Yeah, I'm not doing too bad. Except for when I met Drasus, I only had to reload only once in the whole Cloakwood quest
Drasus doesn't have particularly good weapon speed, so if you're using something quick you can run him round, turning and hitting every now and then without allowing him to get a retaliation in ...
Yeah, I'm not doing too bad. Except for when I met Drasus, I only had to reload only once in the whole Cloakwood quest
Drasus doesn't have particularly good weapon speed, so if you're using something quick you can run him round, turning and hitting every now and then without allowing him to get a retaliation in ...
Reminds me of fighting Karoug with the Silver Dagger - hit & run all day long. Very funny! Braxx in the meanwhile has slain the dreaded Shade Lord!
Very much like Su´kka good old Braxx mainly used Mace of Disruption plus Improved Haste to instakill the Shadows fast and efficient. Even two Liches died on the way to the Shade Lord without big problems.
For the battle against the Dark One Braxx used a PfU-Scroll cause he saw no other way around it. After killing the Altar Braxx hunted down all Shadows before smashing the Shade Lord into the Void. Job done!
Not to forget: Braxx barely reached level 13/16 - very smooth run so far!
Braxx starts rolling like an unstoppable avalanche and crushed the Cult of the Eyeless!
The Beholders - as usual - had no chance against the Shield of Balduran swapping so it was only a matter of time until the whole Lair was cleared and Braxx pushed his XP by a huge amount. For the Unseeing Eye Braxx used an Protection from Magic Scroll for the first time ever and fired many arrows to wear down his Stoneskins while waiting for the Fire Shields to expire. After this is was just some more Improved Haste Hacking until it finally went down. Gaal himself was no challenge. Level 14/17 reached - first HLA´s incoming!
The good question is: Which HLA´s are worth taking?
GWW? Yes please! Hardiness? Cannot hurt! Use any Item? Sure! Is Assassination worth a point? What about traps? In view of ToB the Time Traps might be more powerful than the simple Spike Traps. Anything else worth mentioning?
If you were Mage with Mislead, Spike Traps all day, since mislead clones can place them too for a ridiculous amount of traps. UaI is a must, and so is Assassination, in fact the only "bad" thing about it is you can only pick it once. (any kind of clones get it, too tho, so helm clone gives you 2x Assassination. )
I guess that deathblows won't work due to being level dependent - but if they did that would be a great pick to quickly deal with illithid, beholders etc.
Finally a challenge again cause it was not easy to get a foothold into this enemy infested area. The Bounty Hunters were manageable thanks to WW + Simulacrum which took down the Mage and Priest in one go! After that it was all about hit & run – with some backstabs in between.
With Boots of Speed everything was easier. The following Mages were killed in the same way - buffed up they went down in seconds. To push his damage Braxx used one backstab for the opening and instantly followed up with his WW attack. Along the way Braxx picked up the Gauntlets of Weapon Skill to boost his THAC0 a little bit more.
The only troublesome enemies were the Yuan-Ti-Mage group who are not only tough to take down but throw a lot of spells around. Braxx splitted the group and took them down one after another – just a matter of time.
As the Warden is the only one who can see through invisibility Braxx lured him away from the others. This time the real one followed instantly. Braxx waited until his potections – Mantle and Fire Shield – expired to unleash his Simulacrum for some double fun. As this was still not enough both summoned the Genie to finish the job. And indeed – while Braxx was healing out of sight the two Genies teared the Warden apart. That was quite unexpected! Braxx grabbed all of his loot and went out of this strange place again – barely reaching level 15/18. One more GWW in the pocket as well as the first Time Stop Trap – this should be a lot of fun!
I guess that deathblows won't work due to being level dependent - but if they did that would be a great pick to quickly deal with illithid, beholders etc.
I should test this soon - instakilling Illithids would help a lot!
If you were Mage with Mislead, Spike Traps all day, since mislead clones can place them too for a ridiculous amount of traps. UaI is a must, and so is Assassination, in fact the only "bad" thing about it is you can only pick it once. (any kind of clones get it, too tho, so helm clone gives you 2x Assassination. )
Yeah, i think i will save the Mislead-Scrolls (how many are there?) for tough encounters - another fun option!
If you use scrolls they might serve better for backstab cheese tho, unless you fight a bs resistant enemy.
Yeah - at the moment i cant see any fight where i will need these scrolls - with exception to Ascenscion Amelyssan. There Braxx will need everything - but we will see. So far the Fighter/Thief proves to be very, very powerful - maybe i should restart with a pure Thief Class. Joke! But - well - hhmmmmm. Maybe another time. *cough*
I stopped playing Braxx for the moment - if i would have more time like today he would already be in the mid-late of ToB. Theoretically. Damn real life - lol. If the Monk would work... still sad about it... t.t.
Big decisions were taken tonight. I decided that I will keep my extra level, but, for atonement, I will try to go through all TotSC content : Durlag's Tower AND the crazy cultists; Werewolf Island; Ice Island : everything must go down !! Why would you do that to yourself, you say ? Simple reason : I'm having fun !! Now that I have them speed boots, kiting is so much easier and efficient.
Since I don't have that much playing time, I will probably be in BG1 for another 2-3 weeks, we'll see... I don't care, 'cause I ain't in a hurry...
As for today, I started to go through Kirian and her buddies for the slashing girdle. They were pretty easy : no potions taken here.
After, I went to Durlag's Tower to engage the two Battle Horrors. I took them one after the other, but I'm pretty sure I could have killed them both at the same time. With the slashing girdle and my newly found Helm of Balduran, they could only hit me with a crit. Add a potion and a ring of fire resistance, and they were doing measly damage the rare times they actually connected. Here's a picture of their remains :
Inside, on one of the the upper level, a bunch of ghast managed to surround me. It was careless on my part, because I was not full health. I managed to pull through anyway.
Downstairs, the Greater Dopplegangers were slain one after the other. They were kited around the table in the central room. Even though they were helped by a few Phase Spiders, nothing really of note happen.
So, here's Caligula, taking it easy in Durlag's basement, waiting for something to happen...
Durlags Tower and especially the Werewolf Island will be a lot of fun @Arctodus . When played carefully nothing should have a chance against big bad Caligula. Braxx atm is having some fun with his new Time Traps. They are opening up so many new possibilities - but more on that later!
After finally having had my fill of Heroes 3 I restarted Frey last night. After a break for a while I was full of good intentions of playing carefully - and died to a skeleton archer ambush in the first area transition . The consolation though is that protects my record (starting last night) of not making any fatal mistakes . Trying again Frey did this time manage to make it to Shoal's area and accumulate enough XP there to acquire invisibility. Now it's on with the action ...
Comments
At the Copper Coronet Braxx was got access to the back areas where he find hidden slaves. The Beastmaster and his pets went down after having some nice backstabbing fun. With Hendak running the business at Copper Coronet Braxx got another mission to find and free more slaves.
Along his way through the underground Braxx picked several items. While the Kobold Shaman and the Carrion Crawler went down to somer more backstabs Braxx took the Hand the the Ring without any fight. After solving the riddle of the sewers and aquiring Lilarcor it was time to face the Slavers main force.
Getting the key and freeing the slaves was all about cheese. Braxx slipped into the base unnoticed and directly charmed Captain Haegan who had no chance fighting his old friends. Braxx grabbed the key and used his new inviibility ring to get out again unseen. After another rest he stealthed in again - freed the slaves - and once the slavers started attacking him he used invisiblity again. Slaves free, the Slavers Boss dead on the ground- job done!
With a lot gold in the pocket and reputation nearing the 20 its time to buy some cool stuff.
Maybe its time for Vhailors Helm - doubling the fun cannot be wrong no?
Braxx, the Dwarven Lich Hunter
Braxx is in evil mode today and decided to vanquish Kangaxx and the other Liches out of Atkathla.Step One: Sided with Bodhi and betrayed the Shadow Thieves. Yeah Renal Bloodscalp took away his new guild shortly after but - who cares? Braxx upgraded the Mace of Disruption with the Illithium he got from Neb after backstabbing the murderer down with a mighty 144 damage crit.
Step Two: Killed the Lich near the City Gates to get Daystar - which will work fine against Kangaxx.
Step Three: Smashed the Mace of Disruption in to the face of another Lich in Bridge District - easy!
Step Four: Joined the Cult of the Eyeless to get key for the next one. Same procedure as every Lich!
Step Five: Approach Kangaxx and awaken him again! Now the wait-and-retreat-game took place until all summons vanished and Braxx had lured Kangaxx near to the exit. Time to wear down his Stoneskins as well as disrupting his spells with Daystar! Several safety retreats later - and still buffed with Oil of Speed + Potion of Invulnerability - Braxx zapped away Kangaxx HP´s slowly but surely. When the Lich went down to transform himself Braxx retreated once more - rebuffed - and stormed in again to take down the Demilich with one mighty blow from his upgraded Mace of Disruption. Silence. Triumph. Another Trinket - time for some strong Dwarven Ale!
With Kangaxx slain Braxx reached level 11/13 - who will be tricked next?
I just got the spontaneous idea to look up the harm spell, thinking it might be good for LoB.
When I saw it is rolled against Thaco and not saves I decided to test out how hard a start for F/M/C would be in BG1.
When I wanted to roll the test char I got a 93 and again spontaneously decided to just roll with it and start the challenge, also I took the big roll as a motivation to record my run for youtube, so hopefully this time I will go through with the whole challenge.
The Doom/Blind combo is awesome in BG1 and even tho a M/C would be better for the most part, I think Harm will be a lot better with a F/M/C, especially once we get the crit hit H/L/A.
Maybe you have already seen that "a little bit" had happened in the meanwhile.
@Blackraven is missing for a while while @Grond0 tried some more no reloads.
@chimaera is near the end of SoD with his Dragon Disciple while @Arctodus joined the challenge some days ago with his Human Fighter after Su´kka - my Half Orc Barbarian had failed to win the final battle against Ascension Amelyssan. To take revenge i restarted with a Dwarven Fighter/Thief that will hopefully be able to succeed where Su´kka failed. We will see!
I think that a F/M/C is one of the most powerful classes for this challenge with F/M/T close to it. The Palace Ambush will still be tricky as well as Belhifet in SoD. But once you are on your old playground in SoA this one will stomp anything into the ground - no?
Such a shame you didn't get to kick Amelyssan's butt, but since when is Ascension part of the challenge.
You are one masochistic dude :P
Big props on the progress everyone.
Yeah BG2 is no biggie for the classes I play, since I usually have a mage or cleric in there, which just get super op late.
The F/T should have no problem either because of UaI, I think it's easily as powerful as the M/T and C/T, but obviously with a lot more damage which is important with LoB.
My biggest whoa was, that you can cast a mage spell instantly after a priest spell, or at least Blind right after doom, no waiting a round, like you even have to do with drinking potions.
Thn I realized hold person comes with cleric spell level 2 and Animate Dead with spell level 3.
This is so much earlier than mage, it is crazy and ofc as F/M/C cleric also levels faster than mage in low level.
Ofc this is the same for a simple M/C, but so far I like my extra apr for two pips I think its pretty impactful in BG 1.
I have started uploading my recordings for those interested, but I will not upload as fast as I play:
Braxx and the Trouble in Trademeet
Nothing but trouble in Trademeet – and a lot of experience on the way. Like Su´kka before some parts were skipped until later – say hello Rakshasas. Stealth always made sure that it was Braxx who could choose when and where to fight. Unlike Su´kka the good old Dwarf did use his Simulacrum only rarely but instead a lot of traps and many well placed backstabs.Trouble with the Genies
As the Rakshasas are a real pain Braxx decided to hunt down the Genies instead. Before engaging Khan Zahraa he placed seven traps inside the tent and engaged the Genie outside first. He lured this one to the other tent – hasted himself up – and backstabbed – the hell out of it. With the Efreeti Bottle in the pocket Braxx sneaked into the tent with Khan Zahraa again – the traps and their poison triggered – followed by several backstabs that took the leader down.
Animal Trouble
This one was quite simple as Braxx stealthed through enemy lines while clearing some of the xp heavy Troll groups in between using a combination of hidden traps plus backstabs and some raw power adding in his Simulacrum. Buffed up Cernd – Magic Protection, Iron Skin, Hasted – challenged Faldorn and hacked her to pieces (he still needed several tries).
Helping Tiris
This only triggerd after the Animal & Genie problems were solved. At the end of some walking and talking Braxx faced Rejiek the Skindancer and backstabbed him into oblivion. Another easy 30K xp in the pocket!
The Dueling Families of Trademeet
Braxx sneaked into the Tomb and smashed down the guarding Skeleton with one mighty blow from his Mace of Disruption. High Merchnat Logan was relieved to get the Mantle from Braxx – job done!
With his new Belt of Inertial Barrier & the Displacer Cloak Braxx is ready for the next challenge. Not to forget: Leve 11/14 reached. Time for some pickpocketing!
@Victor_Creed_SFV: Good choice to go with F/M/C as we did not have this combination before. @Blackraven was very succesfully playing a no reload M/C up to SoD but with the added raw power of a Fighter this should be even more fun - if one can get it high enough so it starts rolling. Good luck!
Miscast Magic is a lifesaver in that fight, you should need a maximum of one reload to hit it (unless LoB raised her saving throws too high, but it shouldn't).
I at some point got so lazy I didn't even prebuff Cernd anymore, just reload till Miscast hits and call a woodland being and let it kill her on autopilot, while summoning insects and maybe autoattack her a little.
BtW: As you have also chosen Evil but got very low Charisma i checked the Balthy speech again. High Wisdom - like your char - also convinced him in joining Amelyssan. Good to know for possible future runs. But maybe a Mage char will have less probs with Balthy than my Barbarian. I never dare to fight him again with any Warrior Class - especially in the final battle. Too much pain! I am eager to see how your F/M/C will handle the different challenges!
Braxx will have to take some rest - maybe the Troll Keep will be next or the Shade Lord. We will see!
I then moved to the next area, where I was greeted by a bunch of spiders and ettercaps. Things got more dicey : at one point I got a big scare, but I eventually came through.
After this, I took on Centeol and her friendly bunch. I got out of the cave to split these bad boys and everything was ok. A scroll of poison protection was used in this fight. (I took the picture well after the fight, because I forgot to take it the first time.)
Everything was going very well, until I arrived to Drasus. With LOB, I just couldn't do anything to such a strong melee grunt. It was not possible to kite him, because he had them speed boots, which I wanted. So, I ended up to cheese him, by going invisible and trying to stun him with darts. It eventually worked, so I took them beautiful speed boots. I then went invisible until I met Davaeorn, who died to a mixture of fireballs, fire arrows and arrows of biting.
Sooooo, Caligula is chilling in Baldur's Gate. I think that I'm going to make it quick and won't take unneccesary fights anymore. I'm already level 9 (I play without the level cap), so I got more than enough xp now.
Evil Braxx in the meanwhile stomped through the Troll infested de´Arnise Keep mainly using trap- and backstabbing combined with Improved Haste + Simulacrum. Thats a lot of damage incoming! And thanks to the godlike Saving Throws of a Dwarf there was no fear getting knocked out by any spell of the Spirit Trolls. After split-farming a lot with the reunited Flail of Ages Braxx moved on – lowered the Drawbridge and cleared the second floor so it was finally time to meet Torgal again!
Improved Torgal with all his adds was still a nightmare. Three hits from the Big one and Braxx was done. To get around his insane regeneration Braxx used Simulacrum plus Flail of Ages (plus the Genies) while buffed up with Strength Potion, Oil of Speed, Potion of Invulnerability & Potion of Heroism. As only Torgal can see through invisibility he lured him back to the stairs – where a pack of seven traps waited. Once they triggered Braxx closed the door to cut him from his allies – time for the final confrontation Even with Simulacrum the whole fight was still tricky cause of his insane damage output and regeneration. Like Su´kka before he used the old trick: Wait for Torgal to pick one target -> move this target back while the second Braxx continues hacking him down. If he switches the target you switch too – and so on. Thanks to the Flail of Ages slowing effect this was a lot easier.
After several fails big bad Torgal finally went down to a 41 damage Flame Strike of a summoned Genie shortly after the Simulacrum expired – hot stuff!
Thanks to all the farming Braxx reached level 12/15 – great!
I expect the same from Harm.
@Arctodus
Your progress with a pure fighter is insane, keep it up!
I would love to play a Monk in this challenge but i cannot see him going though SoD - what a pity!
Braxx is going for the Shade Lord at the moment - is there any way to beat this guy without PfU?
(If random encounter spawns liches that is also insane xp.
Without it you will have a lot of trouble since he basically is a lich in SCS.
(A cleric with level 24+ or paladin with 26+ will have no trouble tho :P)
SoD is such a problem for monk and btw the first char I tried on my very first run and it annoyed me so much, cuz before that I beat ToB on insane SCS with the monk and the greatest of ease.
But, if you tell me that I will gain to much xp in SOD, I probably will change that. 1 or 2 bonus level isn't much (even moreso for an unkitted fighter), but, if I get 5 or 6, that'll make a real difference. I'm asking because it will actually be the first time I play SOD. What's the level cap ? Maybe I will simply not press the Level Up button pass a certain point, waiting to be in SOA to do it... Yeah, I'm not doing too bad. Except for when I met Drasus, I only had to reload only once in the whole Cloakwood quest, and it was against Davaeorn, where I got stuck between him and his fighters by bad positioning. Actually, I now believe it's possible to no-reload BG1 with LOB-SCS with an unkitted fighter. If I would actually try that, I just would avoid tougher fights like Drasus (as a berserker quaffing potions, he could litteraly two-shot me at full health, while having an excellent thac0 : he was hitting me even when he rolled a 5 !!).
Actually, I don't think unkitted fighter is the hardest challenge someone can take for this challenge, because I have so many equipment options. With everything available, normal enemies don't pose much of a threat, because they usually need a crit to touch me. So, I can either kite them or go melee without much of a problem. A wizard slayer would be harder (less equipment), but a kensai even moreso. Having a bad AC would mean a LOT of damage coming in. Plus, a kansai would be very limited in his range weapon option (it would have to carry a LOT of throwing knives or axes, a LOT). In my opinion, kensai seems to be the worst class to take through this challenge. This run has actually reminded me the strength of the unkitted fighter : it has flexibility like no other.
Braxx in the meanwhile has slain the dreaded Shade Lord!
Very much like Su´kka good old Braxx mainly used Mace of Disruption plus Improved Haste to instakill the Shadows fast and efficient. Even two Liches died on the way to the Shade Lord without big problems.
For the battle against the Dark One Braxx used a PfU-Scroll cause he saw no other way around it. After killing the Altar Braxx hunted down all Shadows before smashing the Shade Lord into the Void. Job done!
Not to forget: Braxx barely reached level 13/16 - very smooth run so far!
The Beholders - as usual - had no chance against the Shield of Balduran swapping so it was only a matter of time until the whole Lair was cleared and Braxx pushed his XP by a huge amount. For the Unseeing Eye Braxx used an Protection from Magic Scroll for the first time ever and fired many arrows to wear down his Stoneskins while waiting for the Fire Shields to expire. After this is was just some more Improved Haste Hacking until it finally went down. Gaal himself was no challenge. Level 14/17 reached - first HLA´s incoming!
The good question is: Which HLA´s are worth taking?
GWW? Yes please! Hardiness? Cannot hurt! Use any Item? Sure! Is Assassination worth a point? What about traps? In view of ToB the Time Traps might be more powerful than the simple Spike Traps. Anything else worth mentioning?
UaI is a must, and so is Assassination, in fact the only "bad" thing about it is you can only pick it once. (any kind of clones get it, too tho, so helm clone gives you 2x Assassination.
Finally a challenge again cause it was not easy to get a foothold into this enemy infested area. The Bounty Hunters were manageable thanks to WW + Simulacrum which took down the Mage and Priest in one go! After that it was all about hit & run – with some backstabs in between.
With Boots of Speed everything was easier. The following Mages were killed in the same way - buffed up they went down in seconds. To push his damage Braxx used one backstab for the opening and instantly followed up with his WW attack. Along the way Braxx picked up the Gauntlets of Weapon Skill to boost his THAC0 a little bit more.
The only troublesome enemies were the Yuan-Ti-Mage group who are not only tough to take down but throw a lot of spells around. Braxx splitted the group and took them down one after another – just a matter of time.
As the Warden is the only one who can see through invisibility Braxx lured him away from the others. This time the real one followed instantly. Braxx waited until his potections – Mantle and Fire Shield – expired to unleash his Simulacrum for some double fun. As this was still not enough both summoned the Genie to finish the job. And indeed – while Braxx was healing out of sight the two Genies teared the Warden apart. That was quite unexpected! Braxx grabbed all of his loot and went out of this strange place again – barely reaching level 15/18. One more GWW in the pocket as well as the first Time Stop Trap – this should be a lot of fun!
I stopped playing Braxx for the moment - if i would have more time like today he would already be in the mid-late of ToB. Theoretically. Damn real life - lol. If the Monk would work... still sad about it... t.t.
Since I don't have that much playing time, I will probably be in BG1 for another 2-3 weeks, we'll see... I don't care, 'cause I ain't in a hurry...
As for today, I started to go through Kirian and her buddies for the slashing girdle. They were pretty easy : no potions taken here.
After, I went to Durlag's Tower to engage the two Battle Horrors. I took them one after the other, but I'm pretty sure I could have killed them both at the same time. With the slashing girdle and my newly found Helm of Balduran, they could only hit me with a crit. Add a potion and a ring of fire resistance, and they were doing measly damage the rare times they actually connected. Here's a picture of their remains :
Inside, on one of the the upper level, a bunch of ghast managed to surround me. It was careless on my part, because I was not full health. I managed to pull through anyway.
Downstairs, the Greater Dopplegangers were slain one after the other. They were kited around the table in the central room. Even though they were helped by a few Phase Spiders, nothing really of note happen.
So, here's Caligula, taking it easy in Durlag's basement, waiting for something to happen...
See ya !!