@Harpagornis No, that's how I imagined it. Otherwise it would've little to no effect. I was just thinking of Karoug or Demon Knight, and that pretty much forces Demon Knight as I don't want to give up Twinkle. Demon Knight might be a lot easier anyway.
A real funny death trying to bash the Durlags Basilisks. Buffed up also using PfP scroll and engaged the first one, who started gazing and then... i couldnt believe it... my character turned to stone instantly cause... no, no, no... i had used a Stone to Flesh Scroll instead. Next time i should look at the screen a bit more...
After arriving to Baldur's Gate we picked up Helm of Balduran, and bought 20xOil of Speeds and PfP
Kobold guard waylay (LMD)
22400xp Durlag's Basilisks (PfP, Sandthief) lv7 92hp with the Helm
2000xp Ragefast (5xGreenstone, Level skipping, 2xGoblet)
2000xp Abela
4000xp Ramazith (Level skipping)
1500xp Nadine
7000xp Basilisk in BG (2x Mirrored Eyes)
2100xp 5xDoppelgangers (4xGoblet)
5000xp Scar
975xp Thaldorn (can be hacked without alerting the rest of Iron Throne)
Looted the documents and another PfP with 2x Sandthief
Burned our last Sandthief charge in sewers looting around Ogre Mage
Recharged Sandthief and stocked up for Candlekeep
Ogre Mage waylay (Magic Blocking, LMD)
Looted Catacombs (2xInsulation, Cloud, Duhm, 3xSandthief, 1xGoblet)
14000xp 2xGreater Basilisks (PfP)
3000xp Kirian's Party for Slashing Girdle (Fire Strength, Absorption, Invulnerability, Speed, 4xGoblet)
350xp Krumm+Caldo (2xGoblet)
500xp Dryad
Ogre Mage waylay (LMD)
900xp Polar Bear (1xGoblet)
100xp Jared
Basilisk waylay (Mirrored Eyes, LMD)
3500xp Kahrk First kited his Mirror Image with 2xGreenstone, then Frost which he Dispelled. Storm, Defense, Speed, 2xDuhm. Kited another Mirror Image, then he cast second Stoneskin. Speed, multiple PfE's. It took 10xGoblets just to finally end his Stoneskins. But mercifully he fell after 17xGoblets. Damn that was awfully close with his -16AC, 5apr and double Stoneskins. My Storm ended just after the fight.
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Spider waylay (LMD, Spider Bane)
2400xp Denak's Party was first kited with 3xMagic Blocking, and waiting their multisummons out. Speed, 2xDuhm, 4xGoblet. Ring of Energy has 19 charges before recharging. Maybe next time use it against Kahrk?
Ghoul/Ghast waylay (Scrimitars, Greenstone)
4000xp Greater Doppelganger (2xGoblet)
2500xp Eltan's body (2xSandthief)
Recharged Sandthief and still had 30k left
5000xp Slythe (Magic Blocking and after Krystin Dispel, Magic Shielding, 9xGoblets)
3000xp Krystin (Speed, Duhm) lv8 104hp with Helm of Balduran
Tried having Krystin kill Quenash but the Skull Trap only injured her
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Picked up PfE 10' and Chaotic Commands scrolls from Durlag's (2xSandthief)
Bandit waylay (LMD)
Time for a real challenge, the Palace Ambush
Prebuffs PfM, 2xMind Focus, Defense, Absorption, Storm and Heroism. Then after the fight started, Speed, PfE 10' and 2xDefensive Harmony scrolls to up allies with -4 AC. I had -18 AC vs. Slashing so Doppelgangers only hit Lord with 20's, and even with 6apr I was relatively safe. After drinking my only Power my Thac0 was -2, so I hit their -11AC more than twice a round. And Lord really was overpowering them down, first the Shaman and lastly the Mage was sliced up. It only took one Goblet and no allies even died. Can't believe how painless that was.
It's going well and next we guest for the Demon Knight.
A real funny death trying to bash the Durlags Basilisks. Buffed up also using PfP scroll and engaged the first one, who started gazing and then... i couldnt believe it... my character turned to stone instantly cause... no, no, no... i had used a Flesh to Stone Scroll instead. Next time i should look at the screen a bit more...
That's simply ridiculous. I would never, hardly ever, not that frequently do that .
@AvidGamerFan I don't know if drained lv1 WS Archer can beat Bel melee. When CS's are out, lets say it will do 1d8+3 +7STR +4Racial, about 19 avg damage per hit. And it will hit only 20's, so it does 38*0.75=28.5 avg damage per 20 attacks. And because Martyr's needs to be equipped which doesn't hit, the apr is just 1.5 without Oil of Speed. Average attack damage with 1.5apr is then 42.5 per 20 rounds, and Bel will regen 40hp during this time, which leads to around 8000 rounds average time to kill him.
In some ways, the situation is worse. A WS archer is unable to obtain the 19 Strength tome - they can't get 24 Strength to bash the lock - and my archer's 18/23 Stength is low (having manually rolled it). If beating Bel is impossible, I'll illegally use gauntlets of ogre power and specialise in scimitars before retrying. The run will be voided, but it'll be proof of concept that a level 1 WS ranger can win.
However, it might not come to that. Not only has Champion's Strength damage been omitted, but I have a hidden trump card. Belhifet is immune to arrows of detonation if you shoot them right at him (they strike as +1 weapons), but you can fire one at something else and catch him in the AoE. He won't take any fire damage, but he will take the missile damage.
If you have enough gold - such as, for instance, selling and buying back items from Nazramu for net profit - and a seller of arrows of detonation - such as, for instance, Waizahb (although you must have some to sell initially) - then you can theoretically fill your whole inventory with them. Then your limit is how long your Chaotic Commands/Protection from Magic scrolls last.
(Yes, yes, I know that a WS can't use the spectacles of spectacle to access Nazramu... give me a break!)
Ah, still some progress here and good to see that your Archer is still proving strong @AvidGamerFan... but... hey... i dont like this shopping exploit so if anyone ever uses this in Cataclysm you will get cursed for eternity!
True story: as I was typing it, I thought, 'You know, I bet @Harpagornis won't like this!'
Mechanically, I don't see it as any worse than recharging items. The WS component nixes much of that, so this is the next best thing.
Kayne the Fighter/Illusionist and Shadow of Amn (non SCS) Pretty long adventure ahead.
Chapter 1: Irenicus Dungeon
This part was much easier than i expected, not much to say about it as there isn't much happening really. Summons are just too good even on this difficulty. Combo for clear: Spider spawn + Web, sadly i couldn't stay in the web as i didn't have perfect web saving throw this early in the game but hasted spiders did the job much quicker than i could have anyway, that poison damage is no joke! Other combo to minimize resting was blind + monster summoning III. Once hasted, Ogres were really dealing good damage and Ettercaps were able to stay in web if needed. Much better spell than i though! Web + Spider managed to kill Ulvaryl before it could teleport for a sweet 8000 xp and they had more than enough time to finish the thieves. I took all the wands, got the crushing belt, my sweet helm of Balduran and the Metaspell influence amulet before leaving. I also completed all the quests, got the acorn and the equalizer jewel.
Out of the dungeon i did the circus tent right away for the Ring of Human influence. Got Elves Bane on the way. I also killed the adventurer party on the second floor of the tavern with Web+Spider while staying hidden, then resting downstairs until they all died and got some good loot to sell. After selling my loot i went to see Gaelan Bayle and started Chapter 2. I didn't even bother to equip an armor or a weapon so far, summons are doing all the job.
Chapter 2
Got a potion case, scroll bag and gem bag. I did the Slave Trade quests that got completly destroyed by the same summon tactic and also did the Riddle in the Sewer quest, got Tuigan Bow of the way which is the first weapon that i chose to equip. My goal here was to level as quickly as possible before going into underdark. Got Namara +2 from the crypt king. After selling loot, i had enough to go to chapter 3 and buy the identification glasses. I still had 8k gold left. I could have waited a bit more but i really wanted to get the Mace of Distruption +2 as early as possible, i really don't think that Daystar is enough of LoB so i didn't take any chance. I finished the chapter at level 9 illusionist/ 11 fighter.
Chapter 3 (very long chapter)
Getting weapons
The super side quest chapter. I did 28 of them and still had 6 that i didn't bother completing. My goal was to get to level 6 spells for some mislead/improved haste fun. First thing first however, i did the Aran Linvail quest until he offer the travel to spellhold and got the amulet of cheese on the way. Got the MoD from the Vampire Dungeon and gave Sir Sarles the fake illithium ore so i could upgrade it to +2 to one shot liches and other undeads, i fled all outdoor vampire fight as i ''couldn't'' cast spells. Did the skinner quest then dealt with the Trademeet Genies simply by killing them with Web+Spiders, which worked very well. I wasn't strong enough to deal with Rakshasa but i wanted the Rogue Stone reward to get the staff of the magi. I really wanted to get the cowled mage XP so i didn't want to pay them to not attack me. Forgetting that small detail REALLY made me mad a few times.Next stop was the Druid Grove for Belm and Cernd took care of Faldorn, got my level 6 slots. I did De'Arnise keep for the Flail of Ages +3, the spider combo and mislead + Belm + FoA took care of the whole dungeon without any issues.
Staff of the Magi
Went to the Twisted Rune Hideout to get the Staff of the Magi. I bought: Helm of balduran, 1x scroll of protection from magic, 2x protection from undead and the shield of Balduran. I recharged the wand of cloudkill which i didn't manage to use effectively, it took way too long to kill anything and as i couldn't deal with the mage quickly enough to hide with the SoM, mislead would eventually end and i would just get ganked. I had a very succesful attempt with this:
Started the fight and used a scroll of protection from undead on myself, eventually one shotted the Lich with mislead + MoD, the Elder orb killed itself due to shield of Balduran,switched to Belm and casted simulacrum from Vhailor's Helm, sim used a scroll of protection from undead on himself then protection from magic on the mage with the staff, lured the fighter to the entrance and facetanked him which was pretty easy with it's low AC and healing with the many healing potions i had, killed the mage who was unable to cast anything then one shotted the vampire with MoD. Got the staff of cheesing.
Shadow Temple
Now with PfU and MoD+2, nothing could harm me in the temple so it was a very easy clear. I tried to kill the shadow dragon but didn't have enough THAC0 to hit it so i figured out that i would come back later. Did all the secondary quests in Umar Hills and killed Valygar to open the Planar Sphere but i didn't go inside it yet.
Kangaxx
At this point i wanted to get the Ring of Gaxx, i cleared the whole temple district and bought more protection from undead (2 for a total of 3) and got went lich hunting, killing everything in the way with Mislead + IH + FoA/MoD + Belm. As i made mistakes before, i triggered a Cowled wizard fight unlocking the door to Kangaxx so i went away, used Sim for Protection from magic on myself, waited their buffs out while wasting their spells running around, then used Wand of Cloudkill while going back invisible using SotM. For Kangaxx, i scribed the Summon Air Elemental scroll that i found during chapter 2 and summoned one, summoned Sim and he used a PfU on the 3 of us. Buffed with improved haste, started the fight and Kangaxx eventually went down. When the demilich spawned, it got insta-killed by MoD after a few swings, got the ring of cheese and went to buy the robe of cheesna.
Killing Cowled Mages
The wand of cloudkill was pretty slow and there was no mislead possible with PFM, i tried another way to deal with the remaining Cowled Wizards to cast spells freely. Now with the ring of Gaxx and the Staff of the Magi, i had good enough saves, regen and invisibility at will to effectively tank the mages spells. My arena choice was the bridge district. I waited the True Sights out, then baited their spells running away in the fog of war when they casted, then destroyed them with mislead + Improved haste. Got HLAs midway and got Critical Strikes, which made things much faster to the point where i didn't even notice Zallanora in the mage pack.
The Cult of the Eyeless
Nothing special here except that i found a scroll of mordenkainen sword on the way, which is an incredible summon. Shield of Balduran cleared everything, used wand of cloudkill for the cultist in the Unseeing Eye Lair. I wanted to try to get the Rift Device outside and leave the quest open and couldn't find a way as i wasn't playing neutral with a Furret companion. Later on i though that maybe Roger the Fence could be charmed and lured to do it for me, not sure it this is possible however, i'll have to try on another playthrough, it could make all ToB boss fight a breeze. Did the mindflayer lair after, which wasn't very difficult with hasted mordenkainen swords and mislead, got the wand of wonder. Quickly did Mae'Var treachery at this point.
The Planar Sphere
Mislead destroyed everything. I discovered a new tactic here as dealing with the adamantium golem was pretty tedious... Mordenkainen swords had trouble to hit it so i tried Power Attack against it. Once paralysed, it took so much damage that a he was near death when regaining movement... i underestimated the usefulness of this HLA.
Firkraag
Cleared the dungeon with Mislead and mordy swords without issues, used power attack against the tougher opponents for quick mordy kills. I tested my luck against Firkraag which was a success. Lowered his MR, GM, spammed feeblemind until it worked (3 casts), breached him, summoned Sim, then Hasted Critical Strike with Peridan sent him into oblivion. Finished the Dryad quest and went back to deal with the Shadow Dragon who suffered the same fate.
Rescue Haer'Dalis
I did the first part of the Haer'Dalis quest when hunting for liches. The second part was pretty much like the other dungeons, a total breeze. Mordy swords are just amazing, i really got lucky to get that scroll. Another useful aspect of power attack is that it effectively prevent casters from casting for 4 rounds (you stun on every hit for 2 rounds, stun last for 2 rounds. All hits land when stunned). The good thing is, you can reapply it if needed while the enemy is stunned for many free rounds. Got the paws of the cheetah for 2x speed (finally!). After this quest, i was fighter 18/17 illusionist, 54k xp from getting my first mage HLA. Time to finally head to chapter 4!
Chapter 4 (back to short chapter!)
Got the book of infinite spell for True Sight, as i wanted to use my level 6 slots other spells (mislead/improved haste). Got the bag of holding and did all the quest in spellhold to get all items and a maximum amount of gold from the Priestess of Sekolah. Planetar madness started and nothing could do anything against it, especially if buffed with Globe of Blades. Even Irenicus had no chance, by the time i casted my last mordy sword the fight was done. Got the Cloak of Cheese on the Underwater city and made my way to underdark as a 20/18 F/I. I cleared the whole undercity with wizard eye + mordy swords+ planetar while staying still and invisible, it was pretty cool!
Chapter 5
Did Vithal quest right away for the timestop scroll. Rushed the mindflayer lair and got as many circlet of mind control as possible (i left with 4, i opened the door to the brain simply by luring the mindflayer to it). Went to Ust-Natha, bought Firetooth just in case but i never needed it, got incendiary cloud which proved to be pretty effective even on LoB so i used it a bit to complete quests. The good thing is, the summons would just fight inside the cloud and not care. Ust-Natha lich died to the MoD, at this point i had so many protections that i was litterally immune to all time of damage and all nasty effects so i didn't even use a PfU, he died in a second anyway. Did the beholder lair and got all the equalizer parts, which i ended up not using (heh this happened pretty often...). Ended up simply doing the beholders with mislead as i somehow still got insta-killed with the shield... Got to max level during this chapter at 24f/20i. HLA: 8 Critical Strike, 4 Power Attack, 1 Smite, Planetar, Alacrity, spell 6-7-8.
Before leaving i wanted to test my might against Adalon. I prebuffed like crazy, summoned 3x swords, planetar, spent a good 3 minutes on prep. Started the fight, planetar did a vorpal hit on the first strike, dragon died... At this moment i learned that SoA dragons aren't immune to vorpal hits. To chapter 6!
When in doubt, just become immune to everything!
Chapter 6 & Watcher's Keep
With the bag of holding, watcher's keep was much funnier. I bought all the level 9 scrolls from Ribald and learned them all except for wish (time stop, shapechange, chain contingency and black blade of disaster). I went into the North Forest to get a second time stop scroll. Switched Belm for Crom Faer and made peace with Drizzt of course.
Watcher's keep level 1:
Not much here, no challenge at all.
Watcher's keep level 2 (elemental):
Same here, the elemental rooms, got the acid head for the FoA. I lowered the Chromatic Demon's saves with GM and waited for a vorpal hit from Planetar. Started to use timestop/critical strike+Mindflayer form for fun. The form was an extremely quick killer and i was max level anyway so i didn't care about not receiving XP. I found a bug that is going to be patched into 2.6: If you use shapechange, your simulacrum also has the shapechange abilities. The ridiculous thing is, the simulacrum can use timestop scrolls while into mindflayer form so during ToB with multiple timestop scroll, it is possible to chain 4-5 timestops in a row and destroy everything with 10 APR mind flayer.
Watcher's Keep level 3 (maze):
Things started to be more serious, but nothing that planetar and mordy swords couldn't deal with. Timestop, mislead and summons effectively cleared everything else without issues. The dead magic room were horrible, i had to go outside to chain contingency 3x mordy swords to get somewhere. Pre-casting BBoD and slowly smaking my way through with critical strike and power attack, i made my way through. Feeblemind started to become really handy here to get rid of casters.
I though that the Demon Wraith was impossible to kill due to it's insane DR but i managed to deal with it with power attacks + summons after many tries. Even with 90 physical resistance, he went doing pretty fast.
Eventually i reached the final room, where i gambled for the wish scroll and spectral brand. I wanted to prepare for a fight but casting a mordy sword aggroed everybody... so i had to slay them all. Gambled the deck of many things for The Warder's Signet +3.
Watcher's Keep level 4 (Machine of Lum the Mad):
No difficulty here. Cleared the level with usual tactic.
Killed Saladrex with feeblemind. Did a mistake first and summoned a planetar who dispeled the feeblemind so i had to more it away and recast it. FoA/Crom with improved haste+ critical strike on sim and myself was enough to kill him quickly.
For the demilich, it seems that the MoD can't auto-kill it, so with PfU, i used BBoD and critical strike. This is where i realised that BBoD could be better than shapechange for many encounters. The damage was pretty ridiculous at 26-48, 8 APR at this point.
Finished the dungeon and got all the attribute increase for some beautiful total stats :
Finally able to wish rest!
Watcher's Keep level 5 The final Seal
Usual tactic worked here for the whole level except the Aurumach Rilmani.
I simply smacked the dragon in 3x timestop + BBoD this time and it was enough.
All the seals were done in mindflayer form or MoD in timestop and everything died nicely... except for the Aurumach Rilmani. As soon as he started to cast, the fight was over. Even when i was immune to everything, and helped by maximum summons, he would just cast an impossible number of spells then melee me to death with it's staff after 100+ casts, casting a ridiculous number of spells per round. The problem here was that he seemed to have infinite contingencies or sequencers of stoneskin+mirror image. No matter how many time i would breach him, i would still not be able to deal more than 1 hit of damage after all that effort.... so i had to try again. I prebuffed like usual and as soon as he appeared, i casted timestop before he could and started smashing him with BBoD before he could buff. First time missed as he became invisible and i couldn't target him so second time i used True Sight from the book of infinite spell and he died before the end of the timestop. I really don't know how i could deal with this guy once he start attacking. He died right away when playing on insane to the point where i didn't even realise that he actually existed except for the club of detonation. The challenge was a big step ahead on LoB. Time for Demogorgon!
Demogorgon:
Got him 1st try. Prebuffed with stoneskin, mirror image, all elemental resistance, improved haste and spell trap which is up all the time since i got the staff of cheese. Summoned a planetar, 3x mordy swords and a simulacrum with a wand of spellstriking on quickslot. Also buffed the sim then started the fight. I made everybody focus on demogorgon, casted BBoD (now at 9 APR and 28-50), casted improved alacrity and 4x pierce shield on him to finally breach him. I then sent my main back to deal some damage. I had to reuse breach once just before his death. I had 4 protection from magical weapon and ended up not needing any. I was also fearing for my BBoD to expire but demogorgon barely lasted more than 10 rounds... I then breached one Marilith and the 3 mordy swords+ planetar ganked on him then planetar did a vorpal hit on the second one. Still had my BBoD up after this. Flawless victory!
Back to the story
Needless to say, the rest of chapter 6 was a cakewalk. PfU and disintegrated most of Bohdi's dungeon with Drizzt who was a great moral support, then finally got to chapter 7.
Chapter 7:
Got the additionnal timestop scroll, killed the dragon in chain timestop. No difficulty at all. After watcher's keep this chapter was as hard as chapter 2. Irenicus almost instantly died and i got to Hell to finish him. Did all good choices, obviously for roleplay reason then went into the final fight, that lasted about 20 seconds. Summoned Sim who had 3 timestop scrolls immediatly casted it while my main casted true sight from tome, planetar and mordy swords brang Irenicus health to Injured by that time. After half a timestop using improved sim, this was Irenicus state:
He barely lasted a second after the timestop duration. The demons that he spawns barely had time to make any movement
And that's it for BG2SOA. By ToB i got a bit tired a took a break before Abazigal. Still, ToB was a huge success with all the extra level 9 scrolls. I could cast 3 wish scrolls per copy of myself, 5 time stops castable by sim while shapechanged, BBoD on sim, BBoD on PI that for some reason, make it able to slowly attack... BBoD ganking with sim dealt so much damage that each phases of Amelyssan took less than a minute wih pause time included.
Fighter/Illusionist was such a strong class that for BG2 that it barely felt unfair, it was actually very fun. I had a tool to overcome every situation as quickly as possible. I don't think that any class can have an easier overall time so far. The Thac0 is great and i can hit everything (-16 BBoD/ -14 FoA+5 and crom faer), immune to everything for longer than any fights could last, insane damage per round (351 avg with BBoD 28-50 at 9 APR without crits), a great amount of casts, perfect saving spell throws in both games, can use all weapons at 8-9 APR with 25 strength still (or +1 with Belm). I really didn't need to deal with everything i faced but i had too much fun doing it.
Durlag's Tower Labyrinth 2 was passed with Santhief ring and Oil of Speed. Nothing too hard. The four challenges were going to be tougher so we prebuffed with Cloud, Heroism, Absorption. First attacked the Fission Slime with Speed and Duhm, and after it splitted we escaped. Next we took the bear with couple Goblets. Then we lured the Air Aspect away from the Invisible Stalkers and tanked it with Duhm. Lastly we hacked the Phoenix Guard. This all took 4xGoblets. Before transition we drank Invisibility potion and sneaked past the Chessboard.
While we still had Absorption on we lured the Spiders to the rune room and repeated the multitrap to kill them. Cavaliers are conveniently immune to Cloudkill, and with our 20 Fire Resistance bonus, and Icingdeath and Fire Ring we actually healed ourselves in the process. Grael was lured to Acid pool with one Invisibility potion. This eventually killed it, but it took awhile as the pool only does 1dmg per second and hits only one person. So I had first to wait couple Crawlers getting killed.
Lord vs. Demon Knight. PfM, 2x Mind Focus, Defense, Heroism, Storm and ran and opened the mirror. PfM stopped it from creating mirror image of ourself. Then Speed and we started hacking the Demon Knight together with its own mirror image. I had -4 Thac0 with Cavalier bonus. The Demon was near death when the Fiend was killed, yet it still took 8xGoblet because evidently I was getting so bad rolls. But checking it afterwards Demon Knight isn't actually Demon race at all, but Human which is why our racial bonus didn't apply and it took longer than I expected. Lastly we looted all we could and left the place.
This endeavour was very lucrative, and we now had 54k gold, 40k after recharging Sandthief and Goblet yet again. Small things. For Sunin I used Magic Shielding, level skipped his Dispel, dispersed his multisummons through the city, and hacked him down. For Delorna we first used Magic Blocking, but I was then double Dispelled, so we had to use another Magic Shielding. With couple Sandthief charges I went and killed Tamoko with my last Magic Shielding, she still took 4xGoblets and three turns. We bought all we could, recharged our one time OGL's and Ring of Energy, and left for Sarevok. This was our inventory for the confrontation.
It took 42 Fireballs to kill Sarevok's minions. I was discovered once and almost killed by Sarevok, but Invisibility potion saved us. Used PfU and then hit Sarevok with 40 Fireballs leaving 6 for Korlasz. Sarevok had 580hp left, Speed and kited him with Ring of Energy, which took 40 strikes to kill him. Invisibility to Porios, 2xInvisibility and PfU to Korlasz. We waited her PfF out. Then hit her with 6 Fireball+Invisibility combos from out of sight. They will wander for one turn searching for you, but eventually return to their positions when they don't find you. After the 6 Fireballs, Korlasz surrendered when talked to.
I'm at the point of needing once again clarification of the rules. Do I buy Potions of Explosions and Oil's of Burning from Sorcerous Sundries, or do I recharge the OGL's? As is the one time recharging restriction for one part of the game, or whole series? @Harpagornis What say ye?
Cool to see that some runs are still in progress... i am completly out of shape... doing weird things nonstop... like @Grond0. Tried to roll a new Totemic Druid... got a 96 after half an hour... started the game... and discovered only then that i had picked a Shapeshifter...
Each item can only be recharged once... i thought this would be cristal clear @histamiini.
Yeah... everyone can read in me like a book @AvidGamerFan and thats why the original curse for Cataclysm was that items cannot be recharged at all but then... like always... @histamiini started complaining...
Congrats, @XDarkStrikerX on your successful run. F/M are unanimously considered one of the best classes in the game, but it's still no mean feat to complete the entire saga solo on LoB difficulty. Looking forward to hearing about your SCS adventures... do you think you'll be joining in with the additional challenges?
Each item can only be recharged once... i thought this would be cristal clear @histamiini.
So if you discovered 3 amulets of missiles, that gives you 3 refills (1 of each amulet) rather than 1 (you can only refill any amulet of missile once)? And 'the game' means the whole saga, rather than BG1, SoD, etc.?
P.S. Just checked the current runs... did Suk'ka and @Mr_Salty's priest of Lathander complete the whole saga? The last things I saw about Suk'ka was here and I can't remember reading much about the priest of Lathander, but I might be wrong. I ask because I've often been tempted to play a barbarian, but don't want to offer a pale imitation of someone else's glories... and if Suk'ka has "only" reached Amelyssan, then I may have a get-out clause!
Hey @AvidGamerFan.... i say it again with a smile on my face... one charge for each individual item... regardless of BG1, SoD or BG2. Say thanks to @histamiini and @Blackraven cause without them it would be NO charges at all.
Su´kka the Barbarian managed to beat Amelyssan after dozens of tries so a complete NR-run would be cool.
My Priest/Clerics are parked all around the saga but none of them has beaten Amelyssan. I have too many chars everywhere and always get bored sooner or later... a mad story this is...
Wow, shorty fighter-clerics are super pleasant to play LoB-SCS. Nice thac0, skellie summons, excellent saves, sure, no haste for summons but chaining chant, bless, curse, doom and so on through a fight, and of course sanctuary. A lot of the cleric combat buffs really come into their own in LoB and lots of casts of hold-person from the back line.
She has only got as far as killing Mulahey, but 3 skellies + buffs, debuffs and hold person were enough to just go face to face, at lvl 6/6. Best bit was a single skellie was able to kill all 3 greater basilisks in durlags.
The only hard thing is rolling a decent set of stats - I nerfed int super low for boosted cha (mid level cha is a real ouch imo) so lets hope this ultra-foolish dwarf never has to fight a mind-flayer 1v1... I took 16 Wis for upping to 17 almost immediatly with the Durlag's tome giving +1 lvl 3 skelly. Now with ring of Sune I can have 4.
2 pips in flails, 3 in dual wield, and 1 in warhammers so far - its very nice to actually be able to hit things with a lovely 18/99 roll of 89.
@AvidGamerFan I'm definitely going to join you into the SCS adventure! I'm wondering how to properly install it right now, should be fine soon. If you know any tutorial for SCS and Ascension, it would definitely help as i really don't want to mix things up. Tutorials that i found seems to be outdated or the links provided don't exist anymore...
Concerning SCS, as i never tried it so far and going blind on LoB, i won't try no reload anytime soon but i'll definitely pick up some additionnal challenges that you guys setted up, like defeating some optional monsters and bosses (skipped Karoug on my last run, i will definitely try it next time). If i'm trying it as a F/I again, i would really like to find a way to deal with the SoD shadow aspect effectively without a PFU (might not be possible). I've read that it is possible to recharge the Secret Revealed and that it might be efficient against it but i never manage to recharge the thing with Deepvein and never tried the trick myself. If not F/I, i'm considering F/M/T, F/M/C, Totemic Druid/Fighter, Dwarven Defender, Blade or maybe a Mage class to try that 1hp trick for Belhifet as i can't seem to find a way to effectively kill him without it especially with the ST fix. Reading all your newest runs is make me eager to get started. I also won't abuse Drizzt AI and the Shapechange trick considering that it's getting patched in 2.6.
Conserning the Fireshield Blue + Otiluke sphere trick, this is the best that i managed to get and i'm not trying any further, 1hp trick it is:
The problem is, there is just so many spawned monsters that eventually i can't run away at all and eventually get stuck, i can't just take a hit, i'm insta-killed everytime. At this point, more than half of the arena is filled with demons which makes it very hard for Bel to even reach me once the sphere is up and it takes half the sphere duration before he manage to swing at me. Many time (majority of the time actually) i got unlucky and got a late Erinyes spawn while into the sphere, it probably took me over 800 reloads if not over 1k to get to this semi-successful attempt with only 2 feebleminded Erinyes, it's just not possible to distract the horde with summons after a few gates. 3-4 sphere is pretty achievable at around 25-30% success rate i would say, more than that however is lower than 5% for sure, if not lower than 1%. I really want to attempt this with a mage/thief or something similar for some ridiculous endgame trapping but i can't seem to find a way past this fight. Getting stuck there on insane really broke my motivation in the past. Of course you could simply superbuff Caelar and she would probably mop the floor with him even on LoB but then it's not a solo run anymore...
Considering Belhifet, i also tried to change his army into squirrels as i though out that it would be easier to deal with them than demons, leaving them alive until the spawn cap to only have to deal with Bel and Caelar which would have been easy with Otiluke. However, as for Belhifet, WoPoly doesn't change demons into squirrels but reduce their health to badly injured... it's the same with many other SoD encounters actually like liches. Belhifet also cannot be paralysed with the wand of paralysation, which could have made the thing possible.
Not sure if he can be feebleminded and i really don't feel like testing it right now. If it is possible however, it would just be a matter of killing the summons (WoPoly + Wand of frost would be effective) then crit him to death. After 3x Lower resist and GM, it's still only 14% chance to land a feeblemind (47 MR with 6 total spell DC after GM) ... This is assuming you'll never fail a cast while he turns invisible. I'm sure we all wasted too much time on him already however
The standard demon immunity item includes immunity to polymorph effects. So yeah, no devil squirrels. However, the wand does plenty of other things not affected by that immunity ...
- Base AC set to 10. Can be overcome by other AC-setting effects like armor or spells, but for monsters like devils they'll be a lot easier to hit.
- Wizard and priest casting failure 100%. If they have any spells of that type, rather than just innate fiend stuff and spells forced by script.
- Maximum HP set to 5.
- Strength set to 3.
- Attack overridden with "squirrel" weapon, dealing 1d2+Str damage with no special effects.
The only things you're really missing out on compared to the full polymorph experience are wiping their resistances, setting Dex to 3, and setting APR to 1. Still, any fiend you successfully zap with the wand is mostly harmless and easily killed.
That standard demon immunity item also includes immunity to feeblemind. That definitely won't work. No stun immunity (that's what the wand of paralyzation uses), but it's possible Belhifet has some extra immunities on top of the standard demon list.
I see, thank you for the very useful information. I think that the problem with the wand of paralysation is that Bel's improved invisibility seems to be scripted, as the paralysation seems to work for a very brief moment (maybe a second) then he just unfreeze and go back invisible.
During all those Belhifet scenarios, i managed to install SCS successfully. First install destroyed my install... literally. It felt like the game went back to 2.0, SoD was not available anymore and the text was all wierd and totally out of the text boxes with a ton of missing icons. Uninstalled the game, reinstalled, now working fine. Enabled all AI enhancement and Tactical challenges, i left all the cosmetic, IWD spells, item tweaks and gameplay tweaks unchanged as i really just wanted a more challenging experience with AI and additionnal encounters, not a change made to spells and items mechanics.
Rolled Sirus, another Fighter/Illusionist for my first experience with SCS (already maxed the settings on Insane) on LoB, not NR obviously. Got the best roll i've ever had at an astonishing 97 total stat, i decided to avoid Scimitar pips this time for the early game and chose to go with ** Flail/Morning Star and ** Two Weapon Fighting. Seems like i'm going to have more gold than usual with these stats!
And it's a start, wish me luck. Maybe i should have went neutral for the Ferret to keep the Rift Machine but i'm pretty determine to find a way to get it out... hopefully i'll succeed, i really want to try it out on bosses.
Reloaded Abigail with 2 pips in Warhammers and Flails rather than dual wield - Its not dwarf if its not hammer + shield. Also droped Cha to 10 and boosted Wis to 18 from start.
Stats are 18/95, 17, 19, 10, 18, 10
Decided to go for max AC - So Full Plate, RoP +1, Dex Gauntlets, and Large Shield +1 gives a base AC of -6, plus modifiers of an additional -4 slashing and -3 piercing. Currently Girlde of bluntness, boots of avoidance and cloak of displacement for another -9 Missile and -3 Crushing.
So in total:
Crushing: -10
Piercing: -9
Slashing: -10
Missile: -19
Prot from Evil will lower all of those by 2 for any evil opponent.
There's scope for getting this even lower after Davaeorn, with Cloak of Balduran (-1), Helm of Balduran (-1), RoP +2 (additional -1), large Shield +2 (additional -1). That's another -4 across the board. Claw of Kazagoth would give another -1 at the expense of base con of 18 rather than 20 (with tome). Not sure whats optimal at the moment.
Some other thoughts:
Sanctuary is level 1 invisibility, which no other class has. Plus you can loot and cast all sorts of buffs while its up which is seriously nice. Only lasts a turn though.
At level 6/6 a F/C and its summons, with buffs is capable of tanking Mulahey with no issue. Likewise for Nimbul, Groups of Gnolls, Hobgoblins and so on, as well as large groups of bandits in Larswood and Pelvale. This provides XP opportunities which none of my other characters had
AC is really good at this stage of the game with my near maxed AC meaning mobs rarely hit. Its so nice.
Weapon + shield does enough damage over time, with DoHM, and other buffs to make me value the -2 to AC over the extra attack at -2 (or -4 since I ++'d flails and warhammers so won't get +++ dual-wield until 9/9 in SoD, i'm not sure if this will bite me). Foes seem to prioritize Abigail over summons almost exclusively if she is in melee so the extra bit of surviveability feels worth it when fighting toe to toe
I did Basilus at 6/6 before Mulahey. It was a bit of a crap-shoot - I used 9 fireballs for the skellies and then fired WoM at him to disrupt spellcasting while my 3x skellies killed the remainder of his + him, in hindsight I should have silenced him. Doom, Chant, DoHM and so on are great buffs/debuffs for these fights. But Ashideena as a reward is excellent. I was a bit worried about the 1d4 + 1 base for warhammers rather than 1d6 + 1 base for flails but I think its fine with the extra +1 electricity over say a the Thresher +2.
Also charisma 10 rather than 19-20 is a serious pain.
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I'm confused about stacking of cleric buffs and debuffs though - Can't work out if Chant, Curse and Doom all stack on an opponent.
Casting Bless shows up as -1 to thac0 on inventory while casting chant shows up as a +1 bonus on attack rolls in the log. Bless says "raises their attack and damage rolls by +1" while chant says "...gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls, minimum damage rolls"
I'm wondering how to kill droth for that sweet helmet.
I'm confused about stacking of cleric buffs and debuffs though - Can't work out if Chant, Curse and Doom all stack on an opponent.
Casting Bless shows up as -1 to thac0 on inventory while casting chant shows up as a +1 bonus on attack rolls in the log. Bless says "raises their attack and damage rolls by +1" while chant says "...gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls, minimum damage rolls"
The cleric buffs and debuffs you mention all stack.
There's time to get out of sight (or cast sanctuary) while Shoal is calling on Droth, so you can use skeletons to hassle him without showing yourself if you want.
Sirus, F/I
Did Chapter 1 and 2 so far and explored a lot. Got about 90% of the locations on the map.
Chapter 1
Candlekeep:
Summoned pseudo dragon for 33 total hp
Got potion of clarity and bought a large shield + helmet, learned armor, Shenk and Carbos blinded and killed by PD
First fight against Shenk i had a studded leather armor and couldn't cast blind so i went outside to take it off. Came back inside to finish him, didn't see him, invisible backstab for 40 damage, Rip #1. Welcome SCS!
Did all quests except rats for 310 xp and left.
Ran away from Imoen toward High Edge
Worg Waylaid (ran away, like i'll do for all ambushes)
Kept Armor up for 0 AC with large shield for travelling, i don't know how much THAC0 Archers have but i'm going to try to not die too often if i can
Went back to ambush site, got diamond
Got ring +1 and Evermemory
Went to kill the 3 fishermen, got Flail +1 and gave the bowl back to Tenya, 2500 xp
Calmed Marl 900 xp
Book to Firebeard 300 xp, level up to 2/1. Didn't do the gold trick.
In high hedge, sold loot, got scroll of invisibility, protection from petrification and strength
Pseudo dragon killed a blinded skelly and blinded wolf, skeleton ambush on the way back with Melicamp, survived with 26/40
Saved Melicamp 2000 xp, got to 2/2
PD killed blinded Shoal the Nereid 5000 xp, got to 3/3, * in warhammer, learned strength and invisibility 1st try (illusionist yay!)
Got potion of magic protection from Surgeon, travelled invisible to everywhere from then. Always rested before changing area and didn't travel for more than 20 hours to stay invisible
Took Brage lift to Nashkel (1k gold, 1k XP)
Chapter 2
Noober 400 xp
Got red and violet potion
Revenant 900 xp + emergency invisibility potion, went to get WoMS invisible. No amazon party... mmmhh
Discovered all the areas back to FFA, picked Colette family amulet on the way, saved Samuel (500 xp +1 rep) after picking up Fire res ring and Star Sapphire
Got to Ulgoth Beard, dragged Dushai down to pwn her with PD + Strength. He did up to 18 damage in a single hit.. i don't get it. Got web and Edventar's Gift. Lost 6 Rep, now have 9.
Found Farmer Brun's Son (500xp), got WoF, 2nd potion of magic protection and potion of cloud giant strength
Bought Rep back to 12 and killed Algernon for his cloak with PD (rep -5, down to 7) then bought it back again to 13.
Got Potion of Absorption, Potion of Genius and 2nd WoF from Ulcaster School (used Balista's Passport to tank FB trap).
Went back to high edge, bought all useful scrolls he could sell, charmed Gnoll veteran to kill his two blinded friends with the help of PD for Perdue Short Sword, went to Beregost and drank red potion to learn all scrolls then slept for 24 hours (i hate reloading for failed scribe)
Shielded and drank potion of absorption to go get the wand of paralysation, constitution tome and another potion of absorption. I finally got my fighting arsenal ready. Spent 4x WOMS to kill the flesh golem for 6k xp, leveled up to 4/4
Slept inside to charm a Carrion crawler, drank potion of clarity and dealt with Sil and it's sirine with WoP and WoMS. I left the 3 other sirine alone for now as i wanted to save wand charges and Clarity effect was out. I suspect that this is a SCS change, but they made half of my summons and my carrion crawler completely useless.
Neira got paralysed and smacked, sold loot and went for Bassilus
Charmed Geltik and Malkax who both got killed by Zargal as i watched invisible, then charmed Zargal killed Bassilus, who never went hostile... not sure if this is normal but i tried multiple time and it seems consistent. All his minions died at the same time. Got Ashedeena and 5k gold.
Gave Mr Colette his necklace (1 rep for 15) and went to Nashkel Mines. Webbed Mulahey and paralysed him, refreshed paralyse on half HP, he died shortly after.
For Nimbul, i scouted ahead with PD and webbed him off screen. Once webbed, i paralysed him and it was done (got loot and another potion of absorption). Level up 5/4, +1 rep from Mulahey's Symbol.
1 death so far in Candlekeep... i'll try to keep the count low! Progression should be a bit better from now on. Once WoP and WoMS are recharged, i expect to be fine until Davaeorn.. we'll see about that!
Abigail has used her skeleton army to kill every bandit in the two woods, the mage in Feldposts Inn, every spider in cloakwood 2, every guard in cloakwood 4, Drasus and party, and is hacking her way down to Davaeorn having just fully cleared level 2. She skipped clearing out the bandit camp just because it would have cost 5000G for a OGL reload which didn't seem worth it. She farmed guard ambushes in cloakwood 4 to get to Level 7 cleric just before Drasus which means upgraded skeletons and recitation + protection from evil 15', added to chant, bless and curse she mostly sits on the back row watching the minion army destroy everything, throwing up sanctuary if she has to run away, very slowly due to chant.
Hey everyone! I'm glad to see there are still several Bhaalspawns getting their teeth into the challenge. Best of luck to all of them! @allice_ashpool, what alignment is your Fighter/Cleric? The level 5 spell Righteous Wrath of the Faithful gives allies of the exact same alignment gain an extra APR, a +2 to attack and damage rolls, and to Saving Throws, plus immunity to charm and hold spells. Depending on your alignment this spell can really make your skeletons more effective as of SoD. You'd have to be neutral evil to boost your skeletons, true neutral for aerial servants (and animal summons), and chaotic good for the deva.
Lately I haven't had much time to play, and when I did play my Berserkers would get hit by deadly Chromatic Orbs. That's why I decided to go back to playing a shorty: Leito the dwarven Fighter/Thief, specialized in scimis and shortbows.
I'm playing without (most of) the Cataclysm restrictions because with so little time to play I don't want to slow myself down too much. Besides, even though I enjoy the challenge in BG1, I'm not ready to play with some of the curses in SoD and beyond. I'll probably still include certain restrictions, such as Bhaal, Chauntea, Mystra, and Waukeen. And I'll be sparing with Sune.
There's not much to report up till now. Leito has about 20k XP, and that's because he shot dead Drizzt.
Yeah, good luck to all sufferers out there. Looks like everyone prefers a different play style and class - i like that! : o)
Started another run with Ivy the Shapeshifter (rolling a 96 was just too good) just to see how this one compares to Avenger and Totemic Druid. So far she has not chosen any deity meaning all curses are active...
Candlekeep: 393 XP
Imoen, Montaron & Xzar: 2x Oil of Speed, 5 Healing Pots, Wand of Magic Missiles
Crossroads: Ring of Protection +1
Beregost: 900 XP from Marl, Potion of Invisibility, Sling +1
Drizzt: 12000 XP, counted down the numbers while three Gnolls were hacking him down, once down to 60 HP Ivy hostiled him and lured one Gnoll after another to him so at the end he was down to 6 HP to turn this into a 1vs1. The first Oil of Speed got removed so Ivy used another one while hurling 41 bullet stones at the Drow before he went down.
Reached Level 5 -> 45 HP
Brage: 1000 XP
Nashkel: Invisibility Potion
Noober: 400 XP
Carnival: 125 XP from Vitiare, PfP Scroll, Rested until getting LMD
Revenant: 900 XP + Invisibility Potion
Firebead: 300 XP, Rep pushed to 13
Shoal: 5000 XP, charmed wolf (5 tries) and used it against Shoal, retreating once it turned hostile while slinging Shoal who continued attacking the wolf
Mad Arcand: 300 XP
Neutral Wild Dog Ambush
Tarnesh: 120 XP, 3x Spike Growth
Joia: 505 XP, 3x Spike Growth on Hobgoblins, the last one escaped unharmed, rested in FAI and the Hobgoblin followed, then more Spike Growth but the dumb Entrance Guards moved into the Spikes turning hostile, great job again...
Tenya: 2535 XP
Ulghots Beard: Displacer Cloak, Greenstone Amulet, Potion of Mirroring
Mutamins Garden: 24100, Werewolf Form Upgrade, missed two Lesser Basiliks
Reached Level 7 -> 64 HP
Mirianne: 650 XP, used beetles
Mister Colquetle: 250 XP
Perdue: 665 XP, more beetles
Karlat: 270 XP, again beetles
High Hedge: 4195 XP, Golems & Skels using beetles
Kobold Ambush: Took 12 damage + LMD
Melicamp: 2250 XP, bought Claw of Kazgaroth for -13 AC vs missiles
Bassilus: 1975 XP, after two fails and travel-rests in Beregost the third wave managed to stun him after waiting for Chaotic Commands to end
Neutral Wild Dog Ambush
Meilum: 1200 XP, beetles + Spike Growth + Sun Scorch + 2x bulett crits
Reached Level 8 -> 74 HP
Worg Ambush: Took 16 damage + LMD
Battle Horrors: 8000 XP, beetles + Call Lightning + Sun Scorch + Alicorn Lance + Werwolf Form
Half Ogre Ambush: Took 20 damage + LMD
Ankheg Cave & Farmer Brun: 5300 XP, beetles + Werewolf Form
Durlags Tower: 26400 XP, PfP + Beetles + Wand of Heavens, Greenstone Amulet to get Tome of Wisdom
Reached Level 9 -> 82 HP
Gnoll Ambush: Took 12 damage + LMD
Mulahey: Pixie Dust to stealth through the mines unseen, cleared the floor with beetles first, then took on Mulahey who got stunned instantly, killed the rest of his troops with beetles and Spike Growth
Nimbul: Farsight, then Bombardier Beetles who stunned him quickly but Rasaad played killstealer
Neira: 650 XP, more Beetles
Greywolf & Prism: 2400 XP, beetles again
Albert & Rufie: 1000 XP
Sendai: 1200 XP, beetles
Skeleton Archer Ambush: Took 12 damage + Oil of Fiery Burning
Caldo & Krumm: 850 XP, just beetles
Tranzig: 975 XP. beetles
Lamalha: Potion of Magic Blocking + taking 20 damage + LMD
Molkar: Greenstone Amulet + taking 22 damage + LMD
Sirenes: 12000 XP, beetles + Spike Growth + Greenstone Amulet, mistimed spells once soaking up one charm but rolled a 16
Ankheg Cave: 1950 XP, smacking two Ankhegs for fun
Reached Level 10 -> 84 HP
Bandit Camp: Potion of Absorption + Iron Skin + Pixie Dust, then calling in Nymph out Raemon´s vision trying to dominate him but failed... everyone turned hostile but Ivy waited for Venkt to launch his Chromatic Orb which killed the Nymph while Ivy was just running in hasted Werwolf Form to the exit - unharmed
Giant Spider Ambush: Potion of Freedom + took 12 damage + LMD
Wyvern Ambush: Took 2 damage + LMD
Wyvern Ambush: Took 12 damage + Magic Missile
Drasus: This was chaos as not only Drasus but his whole party followed. Ivy who tried to use Beetles and Spike Growth while retreating deeper and deeper into the woods activating more guards. After wasting more than ten Beetles and five spikes two Flame Strikes finished the job before Pixie Dust put her to safety again.
Davaeorn: Surprisingly easy. The Beetles first killed the guard, then lured the Battle Horrors away from the mage so Ivy could cast 5x Spike Growth out of his vision so all she had to do was waiting until Davaeorn went down without any fight.
Ettercap Ambush: Took 6 damage + 1 Werewolf crit
Constitution Tome: Soaked up two traps and used Pixie Dust to get in and out unseen
Ogre Mage Ambush: Greenstone Amulet + Beetles
Charisma Tome: Pixie Dust to get in unseen then just running in Werewolf Form
Arriving at Baldurs Gate
Ramazith: Three waves of Beetles until stun connected and Werewolf form smacked him down
The Werewolf is pretty amazing so far: Runs fast like lightning with Boots of Speed, hits like a truck with 3 APR & 11-18 damage even though THAC0 9 is a bit of a problem. But with beetle stun most enemies go down pretty quickly. Savings Throws are superb at 5/2/3/4/5 which means Chromatic Orb cannot kill Ivy anymore - hah!
It's nice to see so much action here nowadays, probably the most we've ever had.
Getting to Baldur's Gate Lord sold his stuff for 38k in Sorcerous Sundries. Then we picked up the Glasses, Bless amulet, and bunch of potions including 5x Explosions and 5x Burnings. This time we didn't take any chances with Teleria and just used Magic Shielding, got the Stone Ally. We helped the Dwarves with PfE 10' and one Golem, and Lord buffed with Fire Strength, Speed and Greenstone. Didn't have to rely on any Goblets, although I did get level drained one level. We burned four Invisibilities, PfU and Secret Revealed to pawn Lich Coldhearth.
Lv9 118hp with the Helm, also got first casting level with Sanctuary. We have chosen these pips as of now.
Flail **
Scimitar **
Two-Weapon Style ***
We put the Sanctuary in work immediatelly, as we looted the Paladin amulet from the Troll cave without alerting anyone. And we now had 3 Sanctuaries. Orc vs. Troll waylay was handled with LMD. In Hill Giants fight we sided with the Dragon. Got one Magic Shielding among other loot. Morentherene was Daggered. Getting the loot back Goblin's waylayed us, nothing that LMD couldn't handle. We burned Ziatar with 15x Potion of Explosions and 15x Oil's of Fiery burnings, but he still needed a very good hack on the belly. Magic Shielding still on we buffed with Absorption, Storm and Heroism and ran to Akanna's room, luring the Aerial Servants out. Killing Akanna didn't take too long, but in the mean time Neothelid appeared and summoned Swords which surrounded me. We broke free with Invisibility and ran back to the main room. Once Magic Shielding was out I started spamming Greenstone amulet. Cavalier is perhaps the best equipped for Neothelid with Charm, Fear and Poison immunity, but will still need protection for Hold, Confusion and Stun like everyone else. After about 10x Goblets Neothelid was done.
In the fort we looted the Arcane scroll under the Guard's watching eye. It can be picked up without alerting anyone, just pausing quickly after activation and before the dialogue. For the Bridge Mage we buffed with 2x Mind Focus, Defense and Cloud. Then Speed and burned 6/10 of our last Ring of Energy charges interrupting the mage, and then wiped the rest. From Nazrammu we bought Dervish Crescent +2 for some Troll killing, Cloverleaf and Ring of Purity.
Did some of the mundane quests in Chapter 10. Also got the Vampire waylay, in which we had to fight naturally as LMD, and every other spell fails in the area. Ferrusk is tough one without Charm, so we planted the Seeds before talking. This way I could fight him in the door, which prevents him casting the Shambling Mound horde. But he still multisummoned very large army of Ankhegs. After using 6x Goblets to survive I had to go Invisible and wait them out. After his Ankhegs left I attacked, and killed him soon after. We quickly said hello to Hephernaan and escaped with Speed.
We had 39 Heroism and 10 Power potions for the Crusader Attacks and already hit the xp cap. For Troll wave we buffed with PfM, 10 Heroism and Storm. We took Stycich for the wave as if the worst ally Dispel ever was going to happen, I wanted it to take the Haste out of the enemy too. But Stycich was quickly overrun, and I had to tank all by myself. Luckily no-one advanced and we beat the wave with 8x Goblets. Buffs still on we took the Mage wave with the help of Dwarves. First used Myconids, then Clasp of Helm to Dispel their illusions. PfM failed just before last of the mages was down, no need for Goblets.
Another round of prebuffs including 2x Absorption. We burned our last couple Ring of Energy charges for Rhayla, which was imperative to prevent her Dispel. With the help of Warmages, Stone Allies, last of Extra Healing potions, and about a hour Paladin's were dead. I didn't want to take any risks for the final wave so we prebuffed third time with our last PfM etc. Final wave was still actually pretty close as my allies died, and Ankhegs didn't survive that long, which is why I should've just gone with the -2 Thac0 amulet. In the end we beat them with 4x Goblet margin.
Recharged our Goblet of life with Horst. Waited 40 minutes Invisible at Dragonspear attack, then attacked Ashatiel who stood no chance. We made 16 Heroism and 19 Power potions waiting the 40 minutes. Trix surrendered immediatelly so I didn't have to exit the level, and just waltzed straight to the lift. 3xPfF, 3xPfE, 3xPfC, 3xPfA, 8x Mind Focus, Violet, Fortitude, Defense. Started lift and drank Invulnerability and Speed once fight started. Lift probably took 20 rounds, left the one Green Abishai for buffing. 26x Heroism, Speed, Invulnerability, 11x Champions and killed the Green Abishai. We entered with -37 Thac0 for Bel, try ducking that. Bel was already injured when Caelar died, and it took just 3x Goblets to kill him in around 15 rounds or so. Cavalier remains the bane of Bel.
Unlike with BG1, Cataclysm didn't differ much of my normal runs in SoD, I still had enough Fireballs for Ziatar, and just enough Ring of Energy charges for Bridge Mage and Rhayla. Ilmater was less of a problem as Belegarm is more convenient keeper of items, as he moves with us every chapter and is relatively close. Before importing Lord to SoA we had some snack from the cheese plate, and changed our boon from Helm to Malar. Was debating with Malar and Waukeen, hopefully I chose the better one.
I have just a technical question to my dear co-sufferers:
Tyr does not allow us to attack or kill innocents unless being provoked through dialogue.
But what if one of my Nymphs dominates an innocent and the poor one gets killed afterwards by an enemy?
Is this legit or will Tyr turn me into dust instantly? ^^
Is it actually an issue? I don't think nymphs' own AI will dominate an innocent (unless you've already turned them into an enemy through dialogue). If of course you were considering initiating a domination yourself, as a way to get around the curse, then that would count as an attack and Tyr would no doubt exact a dreadful revenge .
But what if one of my Nymphs dominates an innocent and the poor one gets killed afterwards by an enemy?
no "attacking or killing of innocents unless they have been provoked through dialogue"? hmmm, *casts gate*
edit: I should also say that Abigail the Fighter/Cleric is not cataclysm, I think I will try and get a character beyond mid-SoD before I make things even less pleasant lol
Hi @Blackraven
I will second the notion about the spell “Righteous wrath of the faithful”.
But the alignments are off course very important. We had a discussion about it here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/69758/easy-question-about-righteous-wrath-of-the-faithful
And in IWD the undead in game summons apparently shared the true neutral alignment with the aerial servants. So you might have to look in near infinity or ctrl Q for the alignment. before trying the strategy.
I took a good alignment for ring of purity in SoD, and neutral arbitrarily. I suppose could restart Neutral Evil for the skellie buff overall since +1 apr on top of all those bonuses is really good and so are the level scaling skeletons. I could then use helm of opposite alignment to equip ring of purity for Bel. I am guessing I can equip helm, equip ring, cast remove curse and swap to another helm with ring of purity staying in place?
Went to deal with Greywolf (1 rep) and got an hobgoblin archer ambush on the way, which i survived with half HP thanks to sense of the cat, took 2 WoP charges and got Wand of Frost and sold the emerald for 1.5k.
Gave Joseph's ring back to his wife (800 xp)
Charmed Meilum eventually died to the hand of Kobolds, that guy was a real beast. I let him fight fairly as i was just amazed by how efficient he was at killing, even dealing 7 damage with it's punches, got legacy of the master.
Went to kill Durlag's battle horrors, blinded them then stacked them in 2 webs before striking, finished them with wand of frost and aganhazar scorcher, 6 charge for 1st one and 3 + 2 WoF scorcher for other one (8k xp).
Level up, 5/5, can now have level 3 spells (protection from fire and hold person) Second horror got me good and left me at 7 HP, didn't die but i still should have been more careful.
Finished the gnoll veteran on my way to recharge WoP, he resisted blind twice (got him 3rd time), WoP and a first hold person (got him 2nd time) then he fell.
I figured out that it would be better to max my Influence before recharging wands, so i went to complete additionnal quests and got a nice ambush on the way... this is definitely new!
Got surprised and got killed first time (those spells!). Second time i was invisible, WoMS, managed to charm Molkar and he gold quickly killed as they wasted their spells on him, Hold Person got 2 others that WoMS killed, finished the last one with another hold person. Got some nice loot to sell and another absorption potion.
Did Ardouine by charming and blinding the worgs with the help of PD (1 rep),
Drienne cat which gave me a PfU scroll due to my awesome stats and 1 rep (17 charisma after cloak + friend)
Dryad peak, where Krumm killed his friend Cardo, got webbed and died (1 rep) Now at 20 rep
Went to High Edge and had just enough to recharge WOMS and WOP with 20 rep and 17 charisma for 40% discount.
Did all smaller quests in Beregost and FFA : Mirianne letter, Zhurlong's Boots (charm + hold person a combo good for most small quest) and the spider house.
Kept 2 spiders with me to clear Beregost from threat (lure one outside, make the 3 inside kill themselves until 1 left, charm the 1 outside, go rest in an Inn, charm the one inside. Rest and repeat to heal them)
Killed Karlat, Silke paralysed first, paralysed the Thayan wizard and held the 2 fighters (Neera wouldn't die so i paralysed her to prevent her casting), made the spider kill themselves (should have kept them a bit longer), Tranzig died from WOMS+WOP however.
Went in FFA to be done with business but didn't complete Foia ring in case i would feel like killing Drizzt later on, the two guard at the entrance were charmed and buffed (Strength+Resist Fear) for Tarnesh, Neera (1 shotted now!) and the Hobgoblins.
Ogre cleared the south area with web, blind and hold person support, then he sadly died webbed, with elves bane and shield i got a respectable -13 AC vs Missile at the moment.
Went to do the Basilisks run with Korax and got ambushed by the amazon! Luckily i was still invisible when they ambushed me. Charmed Lamalha who got killed, than used the same tactic as the previous ambush when she died: WoMS, WoP on Zeela, hold person on the two other ones. Almost got killed by a spell i that i never saw before.. maybe unholy blight? Looked like a purple meteorite shower, left me at 22/82.
From the ambush, got potion of magic blocking which might be useful later on.
Got to the Basilisk lair and took Korax with me. Used Familiar+Strength for even more damage, then he scouted Mutamin who Korax paralysed. Mutamin turned hostile just before and spook my PD, but it didn't save him. Somehow got a text glitch as mutamin dialogue started as he died, which froze my game. Redid the fight with the exact same outcome except that PD resisted the spook. So he died, got stinking cloud which i don't really plan to use, it would have been better much earlier as PD is immune to it. Still not a fan of +2 saves. PD finished Korax (will probably web in next time but he didn't land a hit anyway).
Got to 6/6, got ** in Warhammer, Flails and two weapon fighting now.
Sold my stuff and did the Half-Ogre near Beregost, charmed one and blinded the other than did some hit and run to increase damage while avoiding hits with Ashedeena. At 10 Thac0 i was hitting blinded half-ogres pretty often.
Went to see Raiken to be brought to the bandit camp. First time playing SCS but i've read a lot about it and i know that turning a bandit hostile means waking up the whole camp, tent included and i wouldn't want that on LoB.
Went peacefully through the camp and entered the bandit tent... my god this is different than before. I found a spot inside the tent where Raemon couldn't see me and casted web, waited for him to be held then tried charming him (took 3 tries).
Seems like it was going to be easy... wrong. He was stuck in furniture so no way to make him follow me, so i did the same thing but with Britik, who couldn't follow me outside as i had to stay invisible... So i decided to made him attack one of his friends.
To my surprise, they would just fight between themselves and wouldn't turn hostile the whole group at all. He had the range to kill Raemon too which was great. He broke his weapon so i made him kill himself by attacking the 3 blacktalon. I then charmed them one by one until the tent was clear. I didn't need invisibility anymore as Raemon was dead.
Putted Talos Gift on and hoped to survive the trap, which should happend unless i get hit 3 times in a row. Good thing, i didn't get hit at all but Ender Sai took a hit.
Another surprise... Taurgosz notice me and turned the whole camp hostile. I felt like giving a try at clearing the camp. Charming Taurgosz didn't work as i couldn't turn back invisible without getting shot... Death 3.
As i knew that he was going to wait for me outside, i went out invisible and decided to try the same technique as for the tent bosses, web + charm. I never managed to make bandits fight each other so i just dragged him outside the camp and let him die to skeletons.
I figured out that clearing the whole camp 1 by 1 would take forever, so i chose to wait for the clear until i get the Nymph cloak, if i even bother doing it later on. At this point i would charm the whole camp and let it die to the Gnolls inside the cave that i would drag outside.
Chapter 4
Got to cloakwook and charmed an Ogrillon to help clearing the Tasloi for the whisper of silence.
For Seniyad, pre-caster WoMS twice and made them focus on him as i blinded his druids.
Sent a WoMS diversion to save the dead brother in Centeol cave. I couldn't think of a way to deal with sword spiders and ettercaps in such a tight space for the moment, would be easier with boots of speed for sure.
Went straight to Drasus party, i would come back to try the Wyvern later.
Charmed Rezdan and got him killed by the 2 guards, then the party turned hostile. WoMS + WoP cleared the rest, Kysus didn't need to be paralysed and Drasus seemed to be immune, so i blinded him instead and a single gnoll managed to kill him with it's halberd range as Drasus just couldn't see him, so he wouldn't attack at all.
Went to sell stuff and decided that i wanted a pet wyvern, so i got them outside of the cave and charmed one after about 15 tries. It sadly died to the other wyvern and 2 babies... but i charmed the other one in 3 tries! Then i just learned that 2 babies are stronger than a wyvern... So i charmed the baby and killed the other one with WoP.
Completed the Wyvern head quest for 2k gold. Will wait until i get Greater Malison before doing this next time.
Time for the mine! Didn't take any chance and use the whisper of silence to go through invisible, will probably do until i get non-detection or need to use charm cloaks.
Saved Yeslick and was really proud to have though about the cloak as Hareishan detection failed! I wanted to try getting her haste scroll so i tried to charm her by standing aside of the cook, got it first try. Looted the scroll after web.
Reloaded a few time to see if this was viable, she saved once out of 6 tries so i'd say yes.
Took my shot against Ogre Mage, WOMS out of invisibility but a gnoll got held in the doorway... WoP worked on Ogre and i blinded him.
Time for Davaeorn. I had no clue what awaited me at all... so i switched 2 hold person for Protection from cold and fire.
Tanked traps with both protections, shield and mirror image and only recieved 23 skull trap damage. Wandered around invisible and additionnal guards started to spawn and gank up on Davaeorn. I waited a bit to see how many spawns there could be.... seriously a lot. Figured out that the best way to kill him would be to charm him and let it die by it's guards... if it's possible.
Charmed the entry guard who got killed by Horrors, saved, tried to web the horror, death #4. Used WOMS as bait and blinded them, then 7 WoF scorcher killed them both for 8k xp. I now had a bit more room to play to charm Davaeorn.
Tried to charm Davaeorn... to my surprise, worked 1st try! I barely had time to cast invisibility and he was already dead.
WoMS the mustard jelly, ogres are the only one that can damage it. I needed 3 ogres, needed 5 casts for it. Used the knock scroll for the laeral's tear necklace as i really didn't feel like resting inside the room due to the insane amount of guard interruption.
Flooded the mine and time for Baldur's Gate!
So finished the mines, 4 deaths so far. I'll have to redo a playthrough without breaking the AI after this as i'm really amazed by the changes that SCS bring to the table. I don't think i'll ever revert to vanilla... so far
I still though about Belhifet for a pure mage/sorcerer without a saving throw fix mod (so vanilla LoB ST). If using the scroll of minor arcana, we increase our caster level from 11 to 12, making Chromatic Orb have a slay effect that bypass MR. Assuming that we can land a GM on Belhifet, which isn't too hard with 1-2 lower resist + 3x GM sequencer, we should be able to simply spam him with Chromatic Orbs until he get 1 shotted... Not viable with a ST modification and it doesn't seem to be fixed in 2.6 either, at least i didn't see it in the logs. On insane, each chromatic orb would have 20% chance to work and on LoB due to the D25 instead of D20 (i think) and the +5 to enemies, it should have 32% chance in LoB. Might be something that i will attempt later...
@histamiini Very nice to see Lord Vanderley being such a beast all the way to BG2 even with all those restrictions, will definitely try a pure melee class later on! Excuse my ignorance but what does LMD means? The only thing that comes to my mind is Larnoch's Minor Drain
Comments
Kobold guard waylay (LMD)
22400xp Durlag's Basilisks (PfP, Sandthief) lv7 92hp with the Helm
2000xp Ragefast (5xGreenstone, Level skipping, 2xGoblet)
2000xp Abela
4000xp Ramazith (Level skipping)
1500xp Nadine
7000xp Basilisk in BG (2x Mirrored Eyes)
2100xp 5xDoppelgangers (4xGoblet)
5000xp Scar
975xp Thaldorn (can be hacked without alerting the rest of Iron Throne)
Looted the documents and another PfP with 2x Sandthief
Burned our last Sandthief charge in sewers looting around Ogre Mage
Recharged Sandthief and stocked up for Candlekeep
Ogre Mage waylay (Magic Blocking, LMD)
Looted Catacombs (2xInsulation, Cloud, Duhm, 3xSandthief, 1xGoblet)
14000xp 2xGreater Basilisks (PfP)
3000xp Kirian's Party for Slashing Girdle (Fire Strength, Absorption, Invulnerability, Speed, 4xGoblet)
350xp Krumm+Caldo (2xGoblet)
500xp Dryad
Ogre Mage waylay (LMD)
900xp Polar Bear (1xGoblet)
100xp Jared
Basilisk waylay (Mirrored Eyes, LMD)
3500xp Kahrk First kited his Mirror Image with 2xGreenstone, then Frost which he Dispelled. Storm, Defense, Speed, 2xDuhm. Kited another Mirror Image, then he cast second Stoneskin. Speed, multiple PfE's. It took 10xGoblets just to finally end his Stoneskins. But mercifully he fell after 17xGoblets. Damn that was awfully close with his -16AC, 5apr and double Stoneskins. My Storm ended just after the fight.
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Spider waylay (LMD, Spider Bane)
2400xp Denak's Party was first kited with 3xMagic Blocking, and waiting their multisummons out. Speed, 2xDuhm, 4xGoblet. Ring of Energy has 19 charges before recharging. Maybe next time use it against Kahrk?
Ghoul/Ghast waylay (Scrimitars, Greenstone)
4000xp Greater Doppelganger (2xGoblet)
2500xp Eltan's body (2xSandthief)
Recharged Sandthief and still had 30k left
5000xp Slythe (Magic Blocking and after Krystin Dispel, Magic Shielding, 9xGoblets)
3000xp Krystin (Speed, Duhm) lv8 104hp with Helm of Balduran
Tried having Krystin kill Quenash but the Skull Trap only injured her
Wolf waylay (LMD)
Picked up PfE 10' and Chaotic Commands scrolls from Durlag's (2xSandthief)
Bandit waylay (LMD)
Time for a real challenge, the Palace Ambush
Prebuffs PfM, 2xMind Focus, Defense, Absorption, Storm and Heroism. Then after the fight started, Speed, PfE 10' and 2xDefensive Harmony scrolls to up allies with -4 AC. I had -18 AC vs. Slashing so Doppelgangers only hit Lord with 20's, and even with 6apr I was relatively safe. After drinking my only Power my Thac0 was -2, so I hit their -11AC more than twice a round. And Lord really was overpowering them down, first the Shaman and lastly the Mage was sliced up. It only took one Goblet and no allies even died. Can't believe how painless that was.
It's going well and next we guest for the Demon Knight.
That's simply ridiculous. I would never, hardly ever, not that frequently do that
In some ways, the situation is worse. A WS archer is unable to obtain the 19 Strength tome - they can't get 24 Strength to bash the lock - and my archer's 18/23 Stength is low (having manually rolled it). If beating Bel is impossible, I'll illegally use gauntlets of ogre power and specialise in scimitars before retrying. The run will be voided, but it'll be proof of concept that a level 1 WS ranger can win.
However, it might not come to that. Not only has Champion's Strength damage been omitted, but I have a hidden trump card. Belhifet is immune to arrows of detonation if you shoot them right at him (they strike as +1 weapons), but you can fire one at something else and catch him in the AoE. He won't take any fire damage, but he will take the missile damage.
(Yes, yes, I know that a WS can't use the spectacles of spectacle to access Nazramu... give me a break!)
True story: as I was typing it, I thought, 'You know, I bet @Harpagornis won't like this!'
Mechanically, I don't see it as any worse than recharging items. The WS component nixes much of that, so this is the next best thing.
Chapter 1: Irenicus Dungeon
Out of the dungeon i did the circus tent right away for the Ring of Human influence. Got Elves Bane on the way. I also killed the adventurer party on the second floor of the tavern with Web+Spider while staying hidden, then resting downstairs until they all died and got some good loot to sell. After selling my loot i went to see Gaelan Bayle and started Chapter 2. I didn't even bother to equip an armor or a weapon so far, summons are doing all the job.
Chapter 2
Chapter 3 (very long chapter)
The super side quest chapter. I did 28 of them and still had 6 that i didn't bother completing. My goal was to get to level 6 spells for some mislead/improved haste fun. First thing first however, i did the Aran Linvail quest until he offer the travel to spellhold and got the amulet of cheese on the way. Got the MoD from the Vampire Dungeon and gave Sir Sarles the fake illithium ore so i could upgrade it to +2 to one shot liches and other undeads, i fled all outdoor vampire fight as i ''couldn't'' cast spells. Did the skinner quest then dealt with the Trademeet Genies simply by killing them with Web+Spiders, which worked very well. I wasn't strong enough to deal with Rakshasa but i wanted the Rogue Stone reward to get the staff of the magi. I really wanted to get the cowled mage XP so i didn't want to pay them to not attack me. Forgetting that small detail REALLY made me mad a few times.Next stop was the Druid Grove for Belm and Cernd took care of Faldorn, got my level 6 slots. I did De'Arnise keep for the Flail of Ages +3, the spider combo and mislead + Belm + FoA took care of the whole dungeon without any issues.
Staff of the Magi
Went to the Twisted Rune Hideout to get the Staff of the Magi. I bought: Helm of balduran, 1x scroll of protection from magic, 2x protection from undead and the shield of Balduran. I recharged the wand of cloudkill which i didn't manage to use effectively, it took way too long to kill anything and as i couldn't deal with the mage quickly enough to hide with the SoM, mislead would eventually end and i would just get ganked. I had a very succesful attempt with this:
Started the fight and used a scroll of protection from undead on myself, eventually one shotted the Lich with mislead + MoD, the Elder orb killed itself due to shield of Balduran,switched to Belm and casted simulacrum from Vhailor's Helm, sim used a scroll of protection from undead on himself then protection from magic on the mage with the staff, lured the fighter to the entrance and facetanked him which was pretty easy with it's low AC and healing with the many healing potions i had, killed the mage who was unable to cast anything then one shotted the vampire with MoD. Got the staff of cheesing.
Shadow Temple
Now with PfU and MoD+2, nothing could harm me in the temple so it was a very easy clear. I tried to kill the shadow dragon but didn't have enough THAC0 to hit it so i figured out that i would come back later. Did all the secondary quests in Umar Hills and killed Valygar to open the Planar Sphere but i didn't go inside it yet.
Kangaxx
At this point i wanted to get the Ring of Gaxx, i cleared the whole temple district and bought more protection from undead (2 for a total of 3) and got went lich hunting, killing everything in the way with Mislead + IH + FoA/MoD + Belm. As i made mistakes before, i triggered a Cowled wizard fight unlocking the door to Kangaxx so i went away, used Sim for Protection from magic on myself, waited their buffs out while wasting their spells running around, then used Wand of Cloudkill while going back invisible using SotM. For Kangaxx, i scribed the Summon Air Elemental scroll that i found during chapter 2 and summoned one, summoned Sim and he used a PfU on the 3 of us. Buffed with improved haste, started the fight and Kangaxx eventually went down. When the demilich spawned, it got insta-killed by MoD after a few swings, got the ring of cheese and went to buy the robe of cheesna.
Killing Cowled Mages
The wand of cloudkill was pretty slow and there was no mislead possible with PFM, i tried another way to deal with the remaining Cowled Wizards to cast spells freely. Now with the ring of Gaxx and the Staff of the Magi, i had good enough saves, regen and invisibility at will to effectively tank the mages spells. My arena choice was the bridge district. I waited the True Sights out, then baited their spells running away in the fog of war when they casted, then destroyed them with mislead + Improved haste. Got HLAs midway and got Critical Strikes, which made things much faster to the point where i didn't even notice Zallanora in the mage pack.
The Cult of the Eyeless
Nothing special here except that i found a scroll of mordenkainen sword on the way, which is an incredible summon. Shield of Balduran cleared everything, used wand of cloudkill for the cultist in the Unseeing Eye Lair. I wanted to try to get the Rift Device outside and leave the quest open and couldn't find a way as i wasn't playing neutral with a Furret companion. Later on i though that maybe Roger the Fence could be charmed and lured to do it for me, not sure it this is possible however, i'll have to try on another playthrough, it could make all ToB boss fight a breeze. Did the mindflayer lair after, which wasn't very difficult with hasted mordenkainen swords and mislead, got the wand of wonder. Quickly did Mae'Var treachery at this point.
The Planar Sphere
Mislead destroyed everything. I discovered a new tactic here as dealing with the adamantium golem was pretty tedious... Mordenkainen swords had trouble to hit it so i tried Power Attack against it. Once paralysed, it took so much damage that a he was near death when regaining movement... i underestimated the usefulness of this HLA.
Firkraag
Cleared the dungeon with Mislead and mordy swords without issues, used power attack against the tougher opponents for quick mordy kills. I tested my luck against Firkraag which was a success. Lowered his MR, GM, spammed feeblemind until it worked (3 casts), breached him, summoned Sim, then Hasted Critical Strike with Peridan sent him into oblivion. Finished the Dryad quest and went back to deal with the Shadow Dragon who suffered the same fate.
Rescue Haer'Dalis
I did the first part of the Haer'Dalis quest when hunting for liches. The second part was pretty much like the other dungeons, a total breeze. Mordy swords are just amazing, i really got lucky to get that scroll. Another useful aspect of power attack is that it effectively prevent casters from casting for 4 rounds (you stun on every hit for 2 rounds, stun last for 2 rounds. All hits land when stunned). The good thing is, you can reapply it if needed while the enemy is stunned for many free rounds. Got the paws of the cheetah for 2x speed (finally!). After this quest, i was fighter 18/17 illusionist, 54k xp from getting my first mage HLA. Time to finally head to chapter 4!
Chapter 4 (back to short chapter!)
Chapter 5
Before leaving i wanted to test my might against Adalon. I prebuffed like crazy, summoned 3x swords, planetar, spent a good 3 minutes on prep. Started the fight, planetar did a vorpal hit on the first strike, dragon died... At this moment i learned that SoA dragons aren't immune to vorpal hits. To chapter 6!
When in doubt, just become immune to everything!
Chapter 6 & Watcher's Keep
Watcher's keep level 1:
Not much here, no challenge at all.
Watcher's keep level 2 (elemental):
Same here, the elemental rooms, got the acid head for the FoA. I lowered the Chromatic Demon's saves with GM and waited for a vorpal hit from Planetar. Started to use timestop/critical strike+Mindflayer form for fun. The form was an extremely quick killer and i was max level anyway so i didn't care about not receiving XP. I found a bug that is going to be patched into 2.6: If you use shapechange, your simulacrum also has the shapechange abilities. The ridiculous thing is, the simulacrum can use timestop scrolls while into mindflayer form so during ToB with multiple timestop scroll, it is possible to chain 4-5 timestops in a row and destroy everything with 10 APR mind flayer.
Watcher's Keep level 3 (maze):
Things started to be more serious, but nothing that planetar and mordy swords couldn't deal with. Timestop, mislead and summons effectively cleared everything else without issues. The dead magic room were horrible, i had to go outside to chain contingency 3x mordy swords to get somewhere. Pre-casting BBoD and slowly smaking my way through with critical strike and power attack, i made my way through. Feeblemind started to become really handy here to get rid of casters.
I though that the Demon Wraith was impossible to kill due to it's insane DR but i managed to deal with it with power attacks + summons after many tries. Even with 90 physical resistance, he went doing pretty fast.
Eventually i reached the final room, where i gambled for the wish scroll and spectral brand. I wanted to prepare for a fight but casting a mordy sword aggroed everybody... so i had to slay them all. Gambled the deck of many things for The Warder's Signet +3.
Watcher's Keep level 4 (Machine of Lum the Mad):
No difficulty here. Cleared the level with usual tactic.
Killed Saladrex with feeblemind. Did a mistake first and summoned a planetar who dispeled the feeblemind so i had to more it away and recast it. FoA/Crom with improved haste+ critical strike on sim and myself was enough to kill him quickly.
For the demilich, it seems that the MoD can't auto-kill it, so with PfU, i used BBoD and critical strike. This is where i realised that BBoD could be better than shapechange for many encounters. The damage was pretty ridiculous at 26-48, 8 APR at this point.
Finished the dungeon and got all the attribute increase for some beautiful total stats :
Finally able to wish rest!
Watcher's Keep level 5 The final Seal
Usual tactic worked here for the whole level except the Aurumach Rilmani.
I simply smacked the dragon in 3x timestop + BBoD this time and it was enough.
All the seals were done in mindflayer form or MoD in timestop and everything died nicely... except for the Aurumach Rilmani. As soon as he started to cast, the fight was over. Even when i was immune to everything, and helped by maximum summons, he would just cast an impossible number of spells then melee me to death with it's staff after 100+ casts, casting a ridiculous number of spells per round. The problem here was that he seemed to have infinite contingencies or sequencers of stoneskin+mirror image. No matter how many time i would breach him, i would still not be able to deal more than 1 hit of damage after all that effort.... so i had to try again. I prebuffed like usual and as soon as he appeared, i casted timestop before he could and started smashing him with BBoD before he could buff. First time missed as he became invisible and i couldn't target him so second time i used True Sight from the book of infinite spell and he died before the end of the timestop. I really don't know how i could deal with this guy once he start attacking. He died right away when playing on insane to the point where i didn't even realise that he actually existed except for the club of detonation. The challenge was a big step ahead on LoB. Time for Demogorgon!
Demogorgon:
Got him 1st try. Prebuffed with stoneskin, mirror image, all elemental resistance, improved haste and spell trap which is up all the time since i got the staff of cheese. Summoned a planetar, 3x mordy swords and a simulacrum with a wand of spellstriking on quickslot. Also buffed the sim then started the fight. I made everybody focus on demogorgon, casted BBoD (now at 9 APR and 28-50), casted improved alacrity and 4x pierce shield on him to finally breach him. I then sent my main back to deal some damage. I had to reuse breach once just before his death. I had 4 protection from magical weapon and ended up not needing any. I was also fearing for my BBoD to expire but demogorgon barely lasted more than 10 rounds... I then breached one Marilith and the 3 mordy swords+ planetar ganked on him then planetar did a vorpal hit on the second one. Still had my BBoD up after this. Flawless victory!
Back to the story
Needless to say, the rest of chapter 6 was a cakewalk. PfU and disintegrated most of Bohdi's dungeon with Drizzt who was a great moral support, then finally got to chapter 7.
Chapter 7:
He barely lasted a second after the timestop duration. The demons that he spawns barely had time to make any movement
And that's it for BG2SOA. By ToB i got a bit tired a took a break before Abazigal. Still, ToB was a huge success with all the extra level 9 scrolls. I could cast 3 wish scrolls per copy of myself, 5 time stops castable by sim while shapechanged, BBoD on sim, BBoD on PI that for some reason, make it able to slowly attack... BBoD ganking with sim dealt so much damage that each phases of Amelyssan took less than a minute wih pause time included.
Fighter/Illusionist was such a strong class that for BG2 that it barely felt unfair, it was actually very fun. I had a tool to overcome every situation as quickly as possible. I don't think that any class can have an easier overall time so far. The Thac0 is great and i can hit everything (-16 BBoD/ -14 FoA+5 and crom faer), immune to everything for longer than any fights could last, insane damage per round (351 avg with BBoD 28-50 at 9 APR without crits), a great amount of casts, perfect saving spell throws in both games, can use all weapons at 8-9 APR with 25 strength still (or +1 with Belm). I really didn't need to deal with everything i faced but i had too much fun doing it.
While we still had Absorption on we lured the Spiders to the rune room and repeated the multitrap to kill them. Cavaliers are conveniently immune to Cloudkill, and with our 20 Fire Resistance bonus, and Icingdeath and Fire Ring we actually healed ourselves in the process. Grael was lured to Acid pool with one Invisibility potion. This eventually killed it, but it took awhile as the pool only does 1dmg per second and hits only one person. So I had first to wait couple Crawlers getting killed.
Lord vs. Demon Knight. PfM, 2x Mind Focus, Defense, Heroism, Storm and ran and opened the mirror. PfM stopped it from creating mirror image of ourself. Then Speed and we started hacking the Demon Knight together with its own mirror image. I had -4 Thac0 with Cavalier bonus. The Demon was near death when the Fiend was killed, yet it still took 8xGoblet because evidently I was getting so bad rolls. But checking it afterwards Demon Knight isn't actually Demon race at all, but Human which is why our racial bonus didn't apply and it took longer than I expected. Lastly we looted all we could and left the place.
This endeavour was very lucrative, and we now had 54k gold, 40k after recharging Sandthief and Goblet yet again. Small things. For Sunin I used Magic Shielding, level skipped his Dispel, dispersed his multisummons through the city, and hacked him down. For Delorna we first used Magic Blocking, but I was then double Dispelled, so we had to use another Magic Shielding. With couple Sandthief charges I went and killed Tamoko with my last Magic Shielding, she still took 4xGoblets and three turns. We bought all we could, recharged our one time OGL's and Ring of Energy, and left for Sarevok. This was our inventory for the confrontation.
It took 42 Fireballs to kill Sarevok's minions. I was discovered once and almost killed by Sarevok, but Invisibility potion saved us. Used PfU and then hit Sarevok with 40 Fireballs leaving 6 for Korlasz. Sarevok had 580hp left, Speed and kited him with Ring of Energy, which took 40 strikes to kill him. Invisibility to Porios, 2xInvisibility and PfU to Korlasz. We waited her PfF out. Then hit her with 6 Fireball+Invisibility combos from out of sight. They will wander for one turn searching for you, but eventually return to their positions when they don't find you. After the 6 Fireballs, Korlasz surrendered when talked to.
I'm at the point of needing once again clarification of the rules.
Each item can only be recharged once... i thought this would be cristal clear @histamiini.
Yeah... everyone can read in me like a book @AvidGamerFan and thats why the original curse for Cataclysm was that items cannot be recharged at all but then... like always... @histamiini started complaining...
I'm the voice of oppressed, who else would talk for the figh... little guys?
So if you discovered 3 amulets of missiles, that gives you 3 refills (1 of each amulet) rather than 1 (you can only refill any amulet of missile once)? And 'the game' means the whole saga, rather than BG1, SoD, etc.?
P.S. Just checked the current runs... did Suk'ka and @Mr_Salty's priest of Lathander complete the whole saga? The last things I saw about Suk'ka was here and I can't remember reading much about the priest of Lathander, but I might be wrong. I ask because I've often been tempted to play a barbarian, but don't want to offer a pale imitation of someone else's glories... and if Suk'ka has "only" reached Amelyssan, then I may have a get-out clause!
Su´kka the Barbarian managed to beat Amelyssan after dozens of tries so a complete NR-run would be cool.
My Priest/Clerics are parked all around the saga but none of them has beaten Amelyssan. I have too many chars everywhere and always get bored sooner or later... a mad story this is...
Wow, shorty fighter-clerics are super pleasant to play LoB-SCS. Nice thac0, skellie summons, excellent saves, sure, no haste for summons but chaining chant, bless, curse, doom and so on through a fight, and of course sanctuary. A lot of the cleric combat buffs really come into their own in LoB and lots of casts of hold-person from the back line.
She has only got as far as killing Mulahey, but 3 skellies + buffs, debuffs and hold person were enough to just go face to face, at lvl 6/6. Best bit was a single skellie was able to kill all 3 greater basilisks in durlags.
The only hard thing is rolling a decent set of stats - I nerfed int super low for boosted cha (mid level cha is a real ouch imo) so lets hope this ultra-foolish dwarf never has to fight a mind-flayer 1v1... I took 16 Wis for upping to 17 almost immediatly with the Durlag's tome giving +1 lvl 3 skelly. Now with ring of Sune I can have 4.
2 pips in flails, 3 in dual wield, and 1 in warhammers so far - its very nice to actually be able to hit things with a lovely 18/99 roll of 89.
Concerning SCS, as i never tried it so far and going blind on LoB, i won't try no reload anytime soon but i'll definitely pick up some additionnal challenges that you guys setted up, like defeating some optional monsters and bosses (skipped Karoug on my last run, i will definitely try it next time). If i'm trying it as a F/I again, i would really like to find a way to deal with the SoD shadow aspect effectively without a PFU (might not be possible). I've read that it is possible to recharge the Secret Revealed and that it might be efficient against it but i never manage to recharge the thing with Deepvein and never tried the trick myself. If not F/I, i'm considering F/M/T, F/M/C, Totemic Druid/Fighter, Dwarven Defender, Blade or maybe a Mage class to try that 1hp trick for Belhifet as i can't seem to find a way to effectively kill him without it especially with the ST fix. Reading all your newest runs is make me eager to get started. I also won't abuse Drizzt AI and the Shapechange trick considering that it's getting patched in 2.6.
Conserning the Fireshield Blue + Otiluke sphere trick, this is the best that i managed to get and i'm not trying any further, 1hp trick it is:
The problem is, there is just so many spawned monsters that eventually i can't run away at all and eventually get stuck, i can't just take a hit, i'm insta-killed everytime. At this point, more than half of the arena is filled with demons which makes it very hard for Bel to even reach me once the sphere is up and it takes half the sphere duration before he manage to swing at me. Many time (majority of the time actually) i got unlucky and got a late Erinyes spawn while into the sphere, it probably took me over 800 reloads if not over 1k to get to this semi-successful attempt with only 2 feebleminded Erinyes, it's just not possible to distract the horde with summons after a few gates. 3-4 sphere is pretty achievable at around 25-30% success rate i would say, more than that however is lower than 5% for sure, if not lower than 1%. I really want to attempt this with a mage/thief or something similar for some ridiculous endgame trapping but i can't seem to find a way past this fight. Getting stuck there on insane really broke my motivation in the past. Of course you could simply superbuff Caelar and she would probably mop the floor with him even on LoB but then it's not a solo run anymore...
Not sure if he can be feebleminded and i really don't feel like testing it right now. If it is possible however, it would just be a matter of killing the summons (WoPoly + Wand of frost would be effective) then crit him to death. After 3x Lower resist and GM, it's still only 14% chance to land a feeblemind (47 MR with 6 total spell DC after GM) ... This is assuming you'll never fail a cast while he turns invisible. I'm sure we all wasted too much time on him already however
- Base AC set to 10. Can be overcome by other AC-setting effects like armor or spells, but for monsters like devils they'll be a lot easier to hit.
- Wizard and priest casting failure 100%. If they have any spells of that type, rather than just innate fiend stuff and spells forced by script.
- Maximum HP set to 5.
- Strength set to 3.
- Attack overridden with "squirrel" weapon, dealing 1d2+Str damage with no special effects.
The only things you're really missing out on compared to the full polymorph experience are wiping their resistances, setting Dex to 3, and setting APR to 1. Still, any fiend you successfully zap with the wand is mostly harmless and easily killed.
That standard demon immunity item also includes immunity to feeblemind. That definitely won't work. No stun immunity (that's what the wand of paralyzation uses), but it's possible Belhifet has some extra immunities on top of the standard demon list.
During all those Belhifet scenarios, i managed to install SCS successfully. First install destroyed my install... literally. It felt like the game went back to 2.0, SoD was not available anymore and the text was all wierd and totally out of the text boxes with a ton of missing icons. Uninstalled the game, reinstalled, now working fine. Enabled all AI enhancement and Tactical challenges, i left all the cosmetic, IWD spells, item tweaks and gameplay tweaks unchanged as i really just wanted a more challenging experience with AI and additionnal encounters, not a change made to spells and items mechanics.
Rolled Sirus, another Fighter/Illusionist for my first experience with SCS (already maxed the settings on Insane) on LoB, not NR obviously. Got the best roll i've ever had at an astonishing 97 total stat, i decided to avoid Scimitar pips this time for the early game and chose to go with ** Flail/Morning Star and ** Two Weapon Fighting. Seems like i'm going to have more gold than usual with these stats!
And it's a start, wish me luck. Maybe i should have went neutral for the Ferret to keep the Rift Machine but i'm pretty determine to find a way to get it out... hopefully i'll succeed, i really want to try it out on bosses.
Stats are 18/95, 17, 19, 10, 18, 10
Decided to go for max AC - So Full Plate, RoP +1, Dex Gauntlets, and Large Shield +1 gives a base AC of -6, plus modifiers of an additional -4 slashing and -3 piercing. Currently Girlde of bluntness, boots of avoidance and cloak of displacement for another -9 Missile and -3 Crushing.
So in total:
Crushing: -10
Piercing: -9
Slashing: -10
Missile: -19
Prot from Evil will lower all of those by 2 for any evil opponent.
There's scope for getting this even lower after Davaeorn, with Cloak of Balduran (-1), Helm of Balduran (-1), RoP +2 (additional -1), large Shield +2 (additional -1). That's another -4 across the board. Claw of Kazagoth would give another -1 at the expense of base con of 18 rather than 20 (with tome). Not sure whats optimal at the moment.
Some other thoughts:
Sanctuary is level 1 invisibility, which no other class has. Plus you can loot and cast all sorts of buffs while its up which is seriously nice. Only lasts a turn though.
At level 6/6 a F/C and its summons, with buffs is capable of tanking Mulahey with no issue. Likewise for Nimbul, Groups of Gnolls, Hobgoblins and so on, as well as large groups of bandits in Larswood and Pelvale. This provides XP opportunities which none of my other characters had
AC is really good at this stage of the game with my near maxed AC meaning mobs rarely hit. Its so nice.
Weapon + shield does enough damage over time, with DoHM, and other buffs to make me value the -2 to AC over the extra attack at -2 (or -4 since I ++'d flails and warhammers so won't get +++ dual-wield until 9/9 in SoD, i'm not sure if this will bite me). Foes seem to prioritize Abigail over summons almost exclusively if she is in melee so the extra bit of surviveability feels worth it when fighting toe to toe
I did Basilus at 6/6 before Mulahey. It was a bit of a crap-shoot - I used 9 fireballs for the skellies and then fired WoM at him to disrupt spellcasting while my 3x skellies killed the remainder of his + him, in hindsight I should have silenced him. Doom, Chant, DoHM and so on are great buffs/debuffs for these fights. But Ashideena as a reward is excellent. I was a bit worried about the 1d4 + 1 base for warhammers rather than 1d6 + 1 base for flails but I think its fine with the extra +1 electricity over say a the Thresher +2.
Also charisma 10 rather than 19-20 is a serious pain.
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I'm confused about stacking of cleric buffs and debuffs though - Can't work out if Chant, Curse and Doom all stack on an opponent.
Casting Bless shows up as -1 to thac0 on inventory while casting chant shows up as a +1 bonus on attack rolls in the log. Bless says "raises their attack and damage rolls by +1" while chant says "...gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls, minimum damage rolls"
I'm wondering how to kill droth for that sweet helmet.
The cleric buffs and debuffs you mention all stack.
There's time to get out of sight (or cast sanctuary) while Shoal is calling on Droth, so you can use skeletons to hassle him without showing yourself if you want.
Did Chapter 1 and 2 so far and explored a lot. Got about 90% of the locations on the map.
Chapter 1
Summoned pseudo dragon for 33 total hp
Got potion of clarity and bought a large shield + helmet, learned armor, Shenk and Carbos blinded and killed by PD
First fight against Shenk i had a studded leather armor and couldn't cast blind so i went outside to take it off. Came back inside to finish him, didn't see him, invisible backstab for 40 damage, Rip #1. Welcome SCS!
Did all quests except rats for 310 xp and left.
Ran away from Imoen toward High Edge
Worg Waylaid (ran away, like i'll do for all ambushes)
Kept Armor up for 0 AC with large shield for travelling, i don't know how much THAC0 Archers have but i'm going to try to not die too often if i can
Went back to ambush site, got diamond
Got ring +1 and Evermemory
Went to kill the 3 fishermen, got Flail +1 and gave the bowl back to Tenya, 2500 xp
Calmed Marl 900 xp
Book to Firebeard 300 xp, level up to 2/1. Didn't do the gold trick.
In high hedge, sold loot, got scroll of invisibility, protection from petrification and strength
Pseudo dragon killed a blinded skelly and blinded wolf, skeleton ambush on the way back with Melicamp, survived with 26/40
Saved Melicamp 2000 xp, got to 2/2
PD killed blinded Shoal the Nereid 5000 xp, got to 3/3, * in warhammer, learned strength and invisibility 1st try (illusionist yay!)
Got potion of magic protection from Surgeon, travelled invisible to everywhere from then. Always rested before changing area and didn't travel for more than 20 hours to stay invisible
Took Brage lift to Nashkel (1k gold, 1k XP)
Chapter 2
Got red and violet potion
Revenant 900 xp + emergency invisibility potion, went to get WoMS invisible. No amazon party... mmmhh
Discovered all the areas back to FFA, picked Colette family amulet on the way, saved Samuel (500 xp +1 rep) after picking up Fire res ring and Star Sapphire
Got to Ulgoth Beard, dragged Dushai down to pwn her with PD + Strength. He did up to 18 damage in a single hit.. i don't get it. Got web and Edventar's Gift. Lost 6 Rep, now have 9.
Found Farmer Brun's Son (500xp), got WoF, 2nd potion of magic protection and potion of cloud giant strength
Bought Rep back to 12 and killed Algernon for his cloak with PD (rep -5, down to 7) then bought it back again to 13.
Got Potion of Absorption, Potion of Genius and 2nd WoF from Ulcaster School (used Balista's Passport to tank FB trap).
Went back to high edge, bought all useful scrolls he could sell, charmed Gnoll veteran to kill his two blinded friends with the help of PD for Perdue Short Sword, went to Beregost and drank red potion to learn all scrolls then slept for 24 hours (i hate reloading for failed scribe)
Shielded and drank potion of absorption to go get the wand of paralysation, constitution tome and another potion of absorption. I finally got my fighting arsenal ready. Spent 4x WOMS to kill the flesh golem for 6k xp, leveled up to 4/4
Slept inside to charm a Carrion crawler, drank potion of clarity and dealt with Sil and it's sirine with WoP and WoMS. I left the 3 other sirine alone for now as i wanted to save wand charges and Clarity effect was out. I suspect that this is a SCS change, but they made half of my summons and my carrion crawler completely useless.
Neira got paralysed and smacked, sold loot and went for Bassilus
Charmed Geltik and Malkax who both got killed by Zargal as i watched invisible, then charmed Zargal killed Bassilus, who never went hostile... not sure if this is normal but i tried multiple time and it seems consistent. All his minions died at the same time. Got Ashedeena and 5k gold.
Gave Mr Colette his necklace (1 rep for 15) and went to Nashkel Mines. Webbed Mulahey and paralysed him, refreshed paralyse on half HP, he died shortly after.
For Nimbul, i scouted ahead with PD and webbed him off screen. Once webbed, i paralysed him and it was done (got loot and another potion of absorption). Level up 5/4, +1 rep from Mulahey's Symbol.
1 death so far in Candlekeep... i'll try to keep the count low! Progression should be a bit better from now on. Once WoP and WoMS are recharged, i expect to be fine until Davaeorn.. we'll see about that!
@allice_ashpool, what alignment is your Fighter/Cleric? The level 5 spell Righteous Wrath of the Faithful gives allies of the exact same alignment gain an extra APR, a +2 to attack and damage rolls, and to Saving Throws, plus immunity to charm and hold spells. Depending on your alignment this spell can really make your skeletons more effective as of SoD. You'd have to be neutral evil to boost your skeletons, true neutral for aerial servants (and animal summons), and chaotic good for the deva.
Lately I haven't had much time to play, and when I did play my Berserkers would get hit by deadly Chromatic Orbs. That's why I decided to go back to playing a shorty: Leito the dwarven Fighter/Thief, specialized in scimis and shortbows.
I'm playing without (most of) the Cataclysm restrictions because with so little time to play I don't want to slow myself down too much. Besides, even though I enjoy the challenge in BG1, I'm not ready to play with some of the curses in SoD and beyond. I'll probably still include certain restrictions, such as Bhaal, Chauntea, Mystra, and Waukeen. And I'll be sparing with Sune.
There's not much to report up till now. Leito has about 20k XP, and that's because he shot dead Drizzt.
Started another run with Ivy the Shapeshifter (rolling a 96 was just too good) just to see how this one compares to Avenger and Totemic Druid. So far she has not chosen any deity meaning all curses are active...
Candlekeep: 393 XP
Imoen, Montaron & Xzar: 2x Oil of Speed, 5 Healing Pots, Wand of Magic Missiles
Crossroads: Ring of Protection +1
Beregost: 900 XP from Marl, Potion of Invisibility, Sling +1
Drizzt: 12000 XP, counted down the numbers while three Gnolls were hacking him down, once down to 60 HP Ivy hostiled him and lured one Gnoll after another to him so at the end he was down to 6 HP to turn this into a 1vs1. The first Oil of Speed got removed so Ivy used another one while hurling 41 bullet stones at the Drow before he went down.
Reached Level 5 -> 45 HP
Brage: 1000 XP
Nashkel: Invisibility Potion
Noober: 400 XP
Carnival: 125 XP from Vitiare, PfP Scroll, Rested until getting LMD
Revenant: 900 XP + Invisibility Potion
Firebead: 300 XP, Rep pushed to 13
Shoal: 5000 XP, charmed wolf (5 tries) and used it against Shoal, retreating once it turned hostile while slinging Shoal who continued attacking the wolf
Mad Arcand: 300 XP
Neutral Wild Dog Ambush
Tarnesh: 120 XP, 3x Spike Growth
Joia: 505 XP, 3x Spike Growth on Hobgoblins, the last one escaped unharmed, rested in FAI and the Hobgoblin followed, then more Spike Growth but the dumb Entrance Guards moved into the Spikes turning hostile, great job again...
Tenya: 2535 XP
Ulghots Beard: Displacer Cloak, Greenstone Amulet, Potion of Mirroring
Mutamins Garden: 24100, Werewolf Form Upgrade, missed two Lesser Basiliks
Reached Level 7 -> 64 HP
Mirianne: 650 XP, used beetles
Mister Colquetle: 250 XP
Perdue: 665 XP, more beetles
Karlat: 270 XP, again beetles
High Hedge: 4195 XP, Golems & Skels using beetles
Kobold Ambush: Took 12 damage + LMD
Melicamp: 2250 XP, bought Claw of Kazgaroth for -13 AC vs missiles
Bassilus: 1975 XP, after two fails and travel-rests in Beregost the third wave managed to stun him after waiting for Chaotic Commands to end
Neutral Wild Dog Ambush
Meilum: 1200 XP, beetles + Spike Growth + Sun Scorch + 2x bulett crits
Reached Level 8 -> 74 HP
Worg Ambush: Took 16 damage + LMD
Battle Horrors: 8000 XP, beetles + Call Lightning + Sun Scorch + Alicorn Lance + Werwolf Form
Half Ogre Ambush: Took 20 damage + LMD
Ankheg Cave & Farmer Brun: 5300 XP, beetles + Werewolf Form
Durlags Tower: 26400 XP, PfP + Beetles + Wand of Heavens, Greenstone Amulet to get Tome of Wisdom
Reached Level 9 -> 82 HP
Gnoll Ambush: Took 12 damage + LMD
Mulahey: Pixie Dust to stealth through the mines unseen, cleared the floor with beetles first, then took on Mulahey who got stunned instantly, killed the rest of his troops with beetles and Spike Growth
Nimbul: Farsight, then Bombardier Beetles who stunned him quickly but Rasaad played killstealer
Neira: 650 XP, more Beetles
Greywolf & Prism: 2400 XP, beetles again
Albert & Rufie: 1000 XP
Sendai: 1200 XP, beetles
Skeleton Archer Ambush: Took 12 damage + Oil of Fiery Burning
Caldo & Krumm: 850 XP, just beetles
Tranzig: 975 XP. beetles
Lamalha: Potion of Magic Blocking + taking 20 damage + LMD
Molkar: Greenstone Amulet + taking 22 damage + LMD
Sirenes: 12000 XP, beetles + Spike Growth + Greenstone Amulet, mistimed spells once soaking up one charm but rolled a 16
Ankheg Cave: 1950 XP, smacking two Ankhegs for fun
Reached Level 10 -> 84 HP
Bandit Camp: Potion of Absorption + Iron Skin + Pixie Dust, then calling in Nymph out Raemon´s vision trying to dominate him but failed... everyone turned hostile but Ivy waited for Venkt to launch his Chromatic Orb which killed the Nymph while Ivy was just running in hasted Werwolf Form to the exit - unharmed
Giant Spider Ambush: Potion of Freedom + took 12 damage + LMD
Wyvern Ambush: Took 2 damage + LMD
Wyvern Ambush: Took 12 damage + Magic Missile
Drasus: This was chaos as not only Drasus but his whole party followed. Ivy who tried to use Beetles and Spike Growth while retreating deeper and deeper into the woods activating more guards. After wasting more than ten Beetles and five spikes two Flame Strikes finished the job before Pixie Dust put her to safety again.
Davaeorn: Surprisingly easy. The Beetles first killed the guard, then lured the Battle Horrors away from the mage so Ivy could cast 5x Spike Growth out of his vision so all she had to do was waiting until Davaeorn went down without any fight.
Ettercap Ambush: Took 6 damage + 1 Werewolf crit
Constitution Tome: Soaked up two traps and used Pixie Dust to get in and out unseen
Ogre Mage Ambush: Greenstone Amulet + Beetles
Charisma Tome: Pixie Dust to get in unseen then just running in Werewolf Form
Arriving at Baldurs Gate
Ramazith: Three waves of Beetles until stun connected and Werewolf form smacked him down
The Werewolf is pretty amazing so far: Runs fast like lightning with Boots of Speed, hits like a truck with 3 APR & 11-18 damage even though THAC0 9 is a bit of a problem. But with beetle stun most enemies go down pretty quickly. Savings Throws are superb at 5/2/3/4/5 which means Chromatic Orb cannot kill Ivy anymore - hah!
Tyr does not allow us to attack or kill innocents unless being provoked through dialogue.
But what if one of my Nymphs dominates an innocent and the poor one gets killed afterwards by an enemy?
Is this legit or will Tyr turn me into dust instantly? ^^
Getting to Baldur's Gate Lord sold his stuff for 38k in Sorcerous Sundries. Then we picked up the Glasses, Bless amulet, and bunch of potions including 5x Explosions and 5x Burnings. This time we didn't take any chances with Teleria and just used Magic Shielding, got the Stone Ally. We helped the Dwarves with PfE 10' and one Golem, and Lord buffed with Fire Strength, Speed and Greenstone. Didn't have to rely on any Goblets, although I did get level drained one level. We burned four Invisibilities, PfU and Secret Revealed to pawn Lich Coldhearth.
Lv9 118hp with the Helm, also got first casting level with Sanctuary. We have chosen these pips as of now.
Flail **
Scimitar **
Two-Weapon Style ***
We put the Sanctuary in work immediatelly, as we looted the Paladin amulet from the Troll cave without alerting anyone. And we now had 3 Sanctuaries. Orc vs. Troll waylay was handled with LMD. In Hill Giants fight we sided with the Dragon. Got one Magic Shielding among other loot. Morentherene was Daggered. Getting the loot back Goblin's waylayed us, nothing that LMD couldn't handle. We burned Ziatar with 15x Potion of Explosions and 15x Oil's of Fiery burnings, but he still needed a very good hack on the belly. Magic Shielding still on we buffed with Absorption, Storm and Heroism and ran to Akanna's room, luring the Aerial Servants out. Killing Akanna didn't take too long, but in the mean time Neothelid appeared and summoned Swords which surrounded me. We broke free with Invisibility and ran back to the main room. Once Magic Shielding was out I started spamming Greenstone amulet. Cavalier is perhaps the best equipped for Neothelid with Charm, Fear and Poison immunity, but will still need protection for Hold, Confusion and Stun like everyone else. After about 10x Goblets Neothelid was done.
In the fort we looted the Arcane scroll under the Guard's watching eye. It can be picked up without alerting anyone, just pausing quickly after activation and before the dialogue. For the Bridge Mage we buffed with 2x Mind Focus, Defense and Cloud. Then Speed and burned 6/10 of our last Ring of Energy charges interrupting the mage, and then wiped the rest. From Nazrammu we bought Dervish Crescent +2 for some Troll killing, Cloverleaf and Ring of Purity.
Did some of the mundane quests in Chapter 10. Also got the Vampire waylay, in which we had to fight naturally as LMD, and every other spell fails in the area. Ferrusk is tough one without Charm, so we planted the Seeds before talking. This way I could fight him in the door, which prevents him casting the Shambling Mound horde. But he still multisummoned very large army of Ankhegs. After using 6x Goblets to survive I had to go Invisible and wait them out. After his Ankhegs left I attacked, and killed him soon after. We quickly said hello to Hephernaan and escaped with Speed.
We had 39 Heroism and 10 Power potions for the Crusader Attacks and already hit the xp cap. For Troll wave we buffed with PfM, 10 Heroism and Storm. We took Stycich for the wave as if the worst ally Dispel ever was going to happen, I wanted it to take the Haste out of the enemy too. But Stycich was quickly overrun, and I had to tank all by myself. Luckily no-one advanced and we beat the wave with 8x Goblets. Buffs still on we took the Mage wave with the help of Dwarves. First used Myconids, then Clasp of Helm to Dispel their illusions. PfM failed just before last of the mages was down, no need for Goblets.
Another round of prebuffs including 2x Absorption. We burned our last couple Ring of Energy charges for Rhayla, which was imperative to prevent her Dispel. With the help of Warmages, Stone Allies, last of Extra Healing potions, and about a hour Paladin's were dead. I didn't want to take any risks for the final wave so we prebuffed third time with our last PfM etc. Final wave was still actually pretty close as my allies died, and Ankhegs didn't survive that long, which is why I should've just gone with the -2 Thac0 amulet. In the end we beat them with 4x Goblet margin.
Recharged our Goblet of life with Horst. Waited 40 minutes Invisible at Dragonspear attack, then attacked Ashatiel who stood no chance. We made 16 Heroism and 19 Power potions waiting the 40 minutes. Trix surrendered immediatelly so I didn't have to exit the level, and just waltzed straight to the lift. 3xPfF, 3xPfE, 3xPfC, 3xPfA, 8x Mind Focus, Violet, Fortitude, Defense. Started lift and drank Invulnerability and Speed once fight started. Lift probably took 20 rounds, left the one Green Abishai for buffing. 26x Heroism, Speed, Invulnerability, 11x Champions and killed the Green Abishai. We entered with -37 Thac0 for Bel, try ducking that. Bel was already injured when Caelar died, and it took just 3x Goblets to kill him in around 15 rounds or so. Cavalier remains the bane of Bel.
Unlike with BG1, Cataclysm didn't differ much of my normal runs in SoD, I still had enough Fireballs for Ziatar, and just enough Ring of Energy charges for Bridge Mage and Rhayla. Ilmater was less of a problem as Belegarm is more convenient keeper of items, as he moves with us every chapter and is relatively close. Before importing Lord to SoA we had some snack from the cheese plate, and changed our boon from Helm to Malar. Was debating with Malar and Waukeen, hopefully I chose the better one.
Is it actually an issue? I don't think nymphs' own AI will dominate an innocent (unless you've already turned them into an enemy through dialogue). If of course you were considering initiating a domination yourself, as a way to get around the curse, then that would count as an attack and Tyr would no doubt exact a dreadful revenge
edit: I should also say that Abigail the Fighter/Cleric is not cataclysm, I think I will try and get a character beyond mid-SoD before I make things even less pleasant lol
I will second the notion about the spell “Righteous wrath of the faithful”.
But the alignments are off course very important. We had a discussion about it here:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/69758/easy-question-about-righteous-wrath-of-the-faithful
And in IWD the undead in game summons apparently shared the true neutral alignment with the aerial servants. So you might have to look in near infinity or ctrl Q for the alignment. before trying the strategy.
I took a good alignment for ring of purity in SoD, and neutral arbitrarily. I suppose could restart Neutral Evil for the skellie buff overall since +1 apr on top of all those bonuses is really good and so are the level scaling skeletons. I could then use helm of opposite alignment to equip ring of purity for Bel. I am guessing I can equip helm, equip ring, cast remove curse and swap to another helm with ring of purity staying in place?
Chapter 3:
Gave Joseph's ring back to his wife (800 xp)
Charmed Meilum eventually died to the hand of Kobolds, that guy was a real beast. I let him fight fairly as i was just amazed by how efficient he was at killing, even dealing 7 damage with it's punches, got legacy of the master.
Went to kill Durlag's battle horrors, blinded them then stacked them in 2 webs before striking, finished them with wand of frost and aganhazar scorcher, 6 charge for 1st one and 3 + 2 WoF scorcher for other one (8k xp).
Level up, 5/5, can now have level 3 spells (protection from fire and hold person) Second horror got me good and left me at 7 HP, didn't die but i still should have been more careful.
Finished the gnoll veteran on my way to recharge WoP, he resisted blind twice (got him 3rd time), WoP and a first hold person (got him 2nd time) then he fell.
I figured out that it would be better to max my Influence before recharging wands, so i went to complete additionnal quests and got a nice ambush on the way... this is definitely new!
Got surprised and got killed first time (those spells!). Second time i was invisible, WoMS, managed to charm Molkar and he gold quickly killed as they wasted their spells on him, Hold Person got 2 others that WoMS killed, finished the last one with another hold person. Got some nice loot to sell and another absorption potion.
Did Ardouine by charming and blinding the worgs with the help of PD (1 rep),
Drienne cat which gave me a PfU scroll due to my awesome stats and 1 rep (17 charisma after cloak + friend)
Dryad peak, where Krumm killed his friend Cardo, got webbed and died (1 rep) Now at 20 rep
Went to High Edge and had just enough to recharge WOMS and WOP with 20 rep and 17 charisma for 40% discount.
Did all smaller quests in Beregost and FFA : Mirianne letter, Zhurlong's Boots (charm + hold person a combo good for most small quest) and the spider house.
Kept 2 spiders with me to clear Beregost from threat (lure one outside, make the 3 inside kill themselves until 1 left, charm the 1 outside, go rest in an Inn, charm the one inside. Rest and repeat to heal them)
Killed Karlat, Silke paralysed first, paralysed the Thayan wizard and held the 2 fighters (Neera wouldn't die so i paralysed her to prevent her casting), made the spider kill themselves (should have kept them a bit longer), Tranzig died from WOMS+WOP however.
Went in FFA to be done with business but didn't complete Foia ring in case i would feel like killing Drizzt later on, the two guard at the entrance were charmed and buffed (Strength+Resist Fear) for Tarnesh, Neera (1 shotted now!) and the Hobgoblins.
Ogre cleared the south area with web, blind and hold person support, then he sadly died webbed, with elves bane and shield i got a respectable -13 AC vs Missile at the moment.
Went to do the Basilisks run with Korax and got ambushed by the amazon! Luckily i was still invisible when they ambushed me. Charmed Lamalha who got killed, than used the same tactic as the previous ambush when she died: WoMS, WoP on Zeela, hold person on the two other ones. Almost got killed by a spell i that i never saw before.. maybe unholy blight? Looked like a purple meteorite shower, left me at 22/82.
From the ambush, got potion of magic blocking which might be useful later on.
Got to the Basilisk lair and took Korax with me. Used Familiar+Strength for even more damage, then he scouted Mutamin who Korax paralysed. Mutamin turned hostile just before and spook my PD, but it didn't save him. Somehow got a text glitch as mutamin dialogue started as he died, which froze my game. Redid the fight with the exact same outcome except that PD resisted the spook. So he died, got stinking cloud which i don't really plan to use, it would have been better much earlier as PD is immune to it. Still not a fan of +2 saves. PD finished Korax (will probably web in next time but he didn't land a hit anyway).
Got to 6/6, got ** in Warhammer, Flails and two weapon fighting now.
Sold my stuff and did the Half-Ogre near Beregost, charmed one and blinded the other than did some hit and run to increase damage while avoiding hits with Ashedeena. At 10 Thac0 i was hitting blinded half-ogres pretty often.
Went to see Raiken to be brought to the bandit camp. First time playing SCS but i've read a lot about it and i know that turning a bandit hostile means waking up the whole camp, tent included and i wouldn't want that on LoB.
Went peacefully through the camp and entered the bandit tent... my god this is different than before. I found a spot inside the tent where Raemon couldn't see me and casted web, waited for him to be held then tried charming him (took 3 tries).
Seems like it was going to be easy... wrong. He was stuck in furniture so no way to make him follow me, so i did the same thing but with Britik, who couldn't follow me outside as i had to stay invisible... So i decided to made him attack one of his friends.
To my surprise, they would just fight between themselves and wouldn't turn hostile the whole group at all. He had the range to kill Raemon too which was great. He broke his weapon so i made him kill himself by attacking the 3 blacktalon. I then charmed them one by one until the tent was clear. I didn't need invisibility anymore as Raemon was dead.
Putted Talos Gift on and hoped to survive the trap, which should happend unless i get hit 3 times in a row. Good thing, i didn't get hit at all but Ender Sai took a hit.
Another surprise... Taurgosz notice me and turned the whole camp hostile. I felt like giving a try at clearing the camp. Charming Taurgosz didn't work as i couldn't turn back invisible without getting shot... Death 3.
As i knew that he was going to wait for me outside, i went out invisible and decided to try the same technique as for the tent bosses, web + charm. I never managed to make bandits fight each other so i just dragged him outside the camp and let him die to skeletons.
I figured out that clearing the whole camp 1 by 1 would take forever, so i chose to wait for the clear until i get the Nymph cloak, if i even bother doing it later on. At this point i would charm the whole camp and let it die to the Gnolls inside the cave that i would drag outside.
Chapter 4
For Seniyad, pre-caster WoMS twice and made them focus on him as i blinded his druids.
Sent a WoMS diversion to save the dead brother in Centeol cave. I couldn't think of a way to deal with sword spiders and ettercaps in such a tight space for the moment, would be easier with boots of speed for sure.
Went straight to Drasus party, i would come back to try the Wyvern later.
Charmed Rezdan and got him killed by the 2 guards, then the party turned hostile. WoMS + WoP cleared the rest, Kysus didn't need to be paralysed and Drasus seemed to be immune, so i blinded him instead and a single gnoll managed to kill him with it's halberd range as Drasus just couldn't see him, so he wouldn't attack at all.
Went to sell stuff and decided that i wanted a pet wyvern, so i got them outside of the cave and charmed one after about 15 tries. It sadly died to the other wyvern and 2 babies... but i charmed the other one in 3 tries! Then i just learned that 2 babies are stronger than a wyvern...
Completed the Wyvern head quest for 2k gold. Will wait until i get Greater Malison before doing this next time.
Time for the mine! Didn't take any chance and use the whisper of silence to go through invisible, will probably do until i get non-detection or need to use charm cloaks.
Saved Yeslick and was really proud to have though about the cloak as Hareishan detection failed! I wanted to try getting her haste scroll so i tried to charm her by standing aside of the cook, got it first try. Looted the scroll after web.
Reloaded a few time to see if this was viable, she saved once out of 6 tries so i'd say yes.
Took my shot against Ogre Mage, WOMS out of invisibility but a gnoll got held in the doorway... WoP worked on Ogre and i blinded him.
Time for Davaeorn. I had no clue what awaited me at all... so i switched 2 hold person for Protection from cold and fire.
Tanked traps with both protections, shield and mirror image and only recieved 23 skull trap damage. Wandered around invisible and additionnal guards started to spawn and gank up on Davaeorn. I waited a bit to see how many spawns there could be.... seriously a lot. Figured out that the best way to kill him would be to charm him and let it die by it's guards... if it's possible.
Charmed the entry guard who got killed by Horrors, saved, tried to web the horror, death #4. Used WOMS as bait and blinded them, then 7 WoF scorcher killed them both for 8k xp. I now had a bit more room to play to charm Davaeorn.
Tried to charm Davaeorn... to my surprise, worked 1st try! I barely had time to cast invisibility and he was already dead.
WoMS the mustard jelly, ogres are the only one that can damage it. I needed 3 ogres, needed 5 casts for it. Used the knock scroll for the laeral's tear necklace as i really didn't feel like resting inside the room due to the insane amount of guard interruption.
Flooded the mine and time for Baldur's Gate!
So finished the mines, 4 deaths so far. I'll have to redo a playthrough without breaking the AI after this as i'm really amazed by the changes that SCS bring to the table. I don't think i'll ever revert to vanilla... so far
I still though about Belhifet for a pure mage/sorcerer without a saving throw fix mod (so vanilla LoB ST). If using the scroll of minor arcana, we increase our caster level from 11 to 12, making Chromatic Orb have a slay effect that bypass MR. Assuming that we can land a GM on Belhifet, which isn't too hard with 1-2 lower resist + 3x GM sequencer, we should be able to simply spam him with Chromatic Orbs until he get 1 shotted... Not viable with a ST modification and it doesn't seem to be fixed in 2.6 either, at least i didn't see it in the logs. On insane, each chromatic orb would have 20% chance to work and on LoB due to the D25 instead of D20 (i think) and the +5 to enemies, it should have 32% chance in LoB. Might be something that i will attempt later...
@histamiini Very nice to see Lord Vanderley being such a beast all the way to BG2 even with all those restrictions, will definitely try a pure melee class later on! Excuse my ignorance but what does LMD means? The only thing that comes to my mind is Larnoch's Minor Drain