Ah, Big B going down once more to the mighty Cavalier called @histamiini - nice! ;o)
Okay, i got your point @Grond0 and - yeah - any cheesy ways around Tyr should lead to instant death.
But i found a legit way around the problem of getting the Tome of Wisdom from Chanthalas Ulbright. I just finished the Marek & Lothander quest line first and then challenged Jalantha Mistmyr, the high priestress of Umberlee who is not marked as innocent and granted 6000 XP after getting stunned and hacked to pieces. So with the Tome from Candlekeep Ivy can now reach 21 Wisdom for an extra Level 3 and 5 spell - great!
@XDarkStrikerX Nice work! You can Charm Taurgosz before the Tent without alerting anyone. Also Raemon will follow you outside even stuck, if you make him attack you, and then transition before he hits ranged. Yeah Larnoc's Minor Drain, one of the Bhaal powers, goto ability for all classes in Cataclysm challenge in the waylays as it almost always hits.
@Harpagornis I don't think you need to give the Tome for Jalantha, just ask the Geas scroll first, then just leave?
@Harpagornis are you using vanilla shapeshifter or SCS remix?
On an aside I'm remembering weimar's hilarious shapeshifter rebalancing with its immunity to normal weapons for regular werewolf form and 3HP/second regeneration for greater form.
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...
I think the chance is 10% in both. His spell save is 5 and GM would take that to 9, but chromatic orb has a save +6 adjustment - so he would only fail on a roll of 1 or 2.
In LoB the d20 still applies in the same way. The bonus of +5 to the die roll represents the LoB impact, but there is a bug in v2.5 that adds 5 to the base saving throw of all enemies - for all but the weakest enemies those factors just cancel each other out, so the chance to save is the same (unless you have the saving throw fix installed of course).
@Harpagornis you can anyway annoy Jalantha through dialogue, so it would be no big deal even if she were coded as innocent (that would be a surprise of course in that temple).
Btw what is Ilmater saying for guest items that cannot be sold? My inventory is filling fast in SoA, with Watcher's Keep Vigil Stone and Scroll, and Silver Pantaloons. Luckily I never identified Golden Pantaloons and those can be sold. But it feels kind of bothersome carrying all these items the whole game.
Scored pretty hard early in SoA. Don't know if it's random drop but Bala's Axe, Wizard Slayer was in the Sewage Golem room. It Dispel's once per day at lv0 and ignores level.
@Harpagornis are you using vanilla shapeshifter or SCS remix?
On an aside I'm remembering weimar's hilarious shapeshifter rebalancing with its immunity to normal weapons for regular werewolf form and 3HP/second regeneration for greater form.
Given the numbers quoted, it's definitely the SCS "improved" version. Damage 1d8+Str two-handed instead of 1d6+2+Str one-handed, 2 APR + haste rather than a flat 2 APR. One weakness is that it's only a +1 enchantment, unlike all the other level 7 druid forms which are +2.
SCS pushes that form back to level 7, and adds a "lesser" werewolf form at level 1. The level 1 form only has 1 APR, 18/76 Str, and base AC 4; you're better off using a sling and bullets most of the time.
I've continued to suffer from this strange idea some people have that I should work for a living . I did note a while ago though someone posting that there was no reason to play a single-class mage. That still seems like a pretty good option to me, despite the Cataclysm restrictions, so I've rolled up an illusionist to have a go with.
In the meantime though, the latest version of Shagrat the shaman has made enough progress to justify posting. He's just hit level 8, which provides the option of using a single nymph for support. I'm interpreting dancing as a single summon spell, so Malar's curse prevents using nymphs to lead enemies into pre-summoned spirits (Shagrat has lifted Mystra's curse), but they should still be pretty useful in other ways.
It's been a relatively smooth run so far. The closest shave was attempting to finish off the greater basilisk near Mutamin after Korax had gone hostile. That was eventually done just in time with LMD - that spell was in mid-air as the basilisk sprang back to life, fortunately not quite in time to focus its gaze .
Here's an overall summary of his progress, together with a few screenshots of his adventures and his current character record:
Damn. I realized just too late that I'd reflexively put items into store in the ankheg nest while delivering shells to Beregost. As I'd only dropped them, not recovered them again, I decided that wasn't a game-ending offence. However, the loss of all my specialty potions, among other things, is a bit of a pain ...
Perhaps still annoyed by the above problem, Shagrat met his doom at Durlag's. He used a potion of mirror eyes to run past the first one, then started throwing area damage at it from out of sight. I was aware of the danger that sight lines are not necessarily shared by opponents, but wasn't quite as careful about placement as I could have been - and a gaze attack appeared out of the blackness as the mirror potion expired ...
Sometimes everything goes wrong: Ivy the Shapeshifter had killed the Demon Knight and the mighty Aec Letec only to die against kobolds. Got ambushed by 16 of those small little critters and for whatever reason i tried to kill one as they did not hit me but then... yeah... they surrounded Ivy... and suddenly the Kobold Commandos started hitting... so Ivy thought drinking Inv Potion would make them move but... nope. After healing up again (Durlags Goblet was in the inventory so no switching allowed) she managed to nearly kill one but the beast retreated and was instantly replaced by another one... poison ticked in... Slow Poison got interrupted by another hit... game over...
Growing up a dwarf in Candlekeep, Abigail's early childhood was lonely and isolating. She grew up morose, selfish and unconcerned with others, choosing to lose herself in combat training with the hammer and worship of the Morndinsamman - who she knew only from the the books on Dwarven religion. Neither of these habits endeared her to the predominantly human residents of the library.
With the murder of her foster father under mysterious circumstances she set out alone, reciting a prayer to Moradin and another much quieter one to Abbathor, she set out into the sword coast to find her foster fathers killer and amass wealth comparable to, or even exceeding the great dwarfs she had read about.
Due to the deadly nature of the monsters of the sword coast, not to mention the assassins and killers arrayed against her, Abigail did a number of small quests, gaining experience of life outside the walls of her former home. She also engaged in hunting some local basilisks. This was enough for her pantheon to grant her power over life and death and she discovered the power of necromancy. From that day forward she was rarely encountered without a guard of silent skeletons.
With all the gold she had stolen and looted Abigail invested in the best armor and shield she could find, as well as purchasing an amulet to protect her against mind magic. Then, with the power over the dead themselves, Abigail descended deep into the Nashkel mines, thinking that perhaps the worsening iron crisis and the assassins that were chasing her related.
Deep in Nashkel mine she found a priest of Cyric who fell to a combination of her skeleton warriors, her hammer and her magical greenstone amulet. The skeletons proving to be almost immune to his kobold minions arrows and the priest himself died easily. She pulled the valuable ring from his finger and felt her connection to the divine deepen.
Following the lead on the letters she killed two assassins waiting for her in Nashkel and tracked down bandits in the woods south of Baldur's Gate - gaining a valuable warhammer +1 in the process. From here she snuck into the bandit camp under divine sanctuary, looting the command tent under their very eyes.
Before following up on the cloakwood lead she heard of another valuable warhammer in the hands of the rogue necromancer-cleric Basilius. After tricking him into destroying his own minions, Abigail and her skeletal warriors silenced then destroyed the cleric, claiming his hammer, Ashideena as prize.
With Ashideena in hand and eyes filled with avarice she snuck into Durlag's Tower, and broached the second floor of the dungeon, using the traps against their own guardians. Here she claimed the helmet of Kiel and a foul goblet filled with blood, a single sip of which would heal her fully.
After obtaining the goblet, Abigail went to the cloakwood mine. Using skeletons to soak up the two mages spells she seperating Drasus away then with Potion of Cloud Giant, DuHM, Conviction and Oil of Speed + Drasus drinking a potion of freedom killing his boots of speed she killed him hit and run style with mainhand thac0 of 1 and four attacks per round dual wielding. Afterwards, the two mages were casually hammered to pieces through multiple stoneskins and mirror images, being fully out of offensive spells which appeared to render then catatonic, while the skeletons had succeeded in killing Genthore before succumbing to the mages summons.
Deaths: 1 (drasus attempt 1)
Fighter/Cleric SCS + LoB verdict: pretty OP, the easiest character I have played as.
Before heading to baldur gate i went to the gnoll stronghold to get the charisma tome so i could buy the Good robe of the Archimagi, pwned the polar bear for Jarred on the way.
Sold loot in high edge and bought the robe and the claw of Kazgaroth for insane spell saves. With charisma bonus now at 18, i only paid 25010 gold for both items.
Went to spider wood to kill the mages for The Victor, charmed Denak who used his summoning spells against his friend, which resulted his death. Waited the 3 other mages buffs and summons out, webbed from FoW then spammed 3 hold person, WoMS clear and had to WoP Brendan due to saves.
Went to Durlag's tower to kill the ghost (3750 xp) with WoP + WoMS (forgot protection from fire, didn't know he had fireshield) got the 23k Basilisk XP (web the lesser, WoP the greaters), got level at 7/7 for level 4 spells, 4x level 2 and that sweet half attack. 4k for freeing killing Kirinhale and 1.7k for Riggilo (+cloud giant strength).
I seriously ignore why there is no reputation penalty for this... this is so evil. I will come back later for the looting as i didn't learn Knock yet and i want 19 strength.
Got to BG and bought the Thresher, at 18 charisma and 20 rep, everything is super cheap. What a change!
Went to do Ramazith quest for the nymph cloak, bashed Ragefast door open then Ragefast fell to 1 WoMS charge. Got a second WoP, would be good for a Cataclysm challenge, and the Nymph cloak.
WoP (3x) Ramazith then got the Guard Ring +2 and the Metaspell amulet, took the intelligence tome for 20 int. I can now have guaranteed scribe with a single scroll of genius.
I wanted spider spawn, so i went at Sorcerous Sundries and charmed Oulam first, who chromatic orbed Niemain after 2 casts. Made him kill another one then finished the last two with a WoMS charge. I got spooked but WoMS managed to kill everything as i was running around... lucky shot! Got 3rd WoF.
Drank a potion of genius and went on a scroll learning spree. Learned 36 scrolls in a row (potions rule!)
Did the merchant estate for fun and burned everything with WoF Scorcher. Took many charges but it got the job done, too many dopplegangers.
Then i entered a house by mistakes... and had to fight an army of rabid chickens, who all got killed with spiders + web.
Did the quest for the Helm and Cloak of Balduran then equiped Claw of Kazgaroth for -3 spell saves (or -2 with another cloak or helmet), making me immune to web and all spell effects as long as i am not affected by GM. Well worth the HP and death save cost IMO, death saves that can be bypassed with Edventar's gift pretty much all the time.
Ventured into the Iron Throne Building.
Made my way invisible and rushed at the top. I decided to scout a bit using charmed Thaldorn, but it didn't go as planned... He got ambushed by 2 invisible assassins and really didn't last long. This is going to be interesting...
Tried a WoMS while invisible for the 2 assassins, they died barely scratching them. Tried web from FoW, one thief sneaked and left me with a single HP out of 97. Went to heal back at Elfsong Tavern then tried the same approach but dragging them down in the south room then WoP to charm spam them with Nymph Cloak.
Sadly they turned hostile right away once unparalysed... so i finished them with WoMS + WoP.
Charmed Naaman then made him attack Zhalimar to drag him to the south room, then i charmed Gardush who cleared the top room like a beast. Sadly he didn't make it against Zhalimar, who we killed with web + spider along Emissary Tar. Got another PfU? I swear i only had much less on my last playthrough... Notably got minor sequencer and Potion of magic protection (3rd)
Finished it, did the Seven Suns with WoP and WoMS, went to get WoPoly then did Scar missions.
Lucky Shot... 1 hp left at quintuple damage backstab I don't get how a quintuple can get to 48 or 96?
Killed the sewer ogre mage by charming a Carrion crawler to drag the rest, wanted to charm all of them but only managed to keep 3 in the process. Used Edventar's gift to avoid paralysation, their damage is pretty low so i just tanked it while charming them. Ogre mage was then stunned to death before he could talk.
Reported to Scar for the ogre mage and then to Duke Eltan for the Iron Throne and got sent to Candlekeep... 2 ogres mages to greet me? No.. 3 or 4 after dialogue. Good thing i always have auto-pause on enemy sighted. Ran away to the Gorion ambush site and only got a hit by magic missiles for 18 damages.
Luckily didn't die on this chapter... by 1 hp from a surprise quintuple backstab on the Iron Throne building. Things left are Candlekeep Catabomb (will probably deal with Rieltar for fun), Durlag Tower, maybe Karoug if i feel like it (will probably give it a try), Throne ambush and Sarevok. Will keep the same strategy as before if i can, which is to not let the AI the time to do anything or making them waste their spells/items.
Abigail, heartened by her successes against the deadly mercenary party penetrated deep into the cloakwood mine, seeking answers. Her skeleton warriors cut down everything they encountered until the first mage who, with her bodyguard of 12+ fighters forced a retreat back to the first level after cutting down a handful of the enemies. She fled the mine to rest and recover before renewing her assault. This time the mage was cut down, along with the rest of the guards.
Feeling that while the attrition method and the resultant victory was satisfying and pleasing to Laduguer's love of suffering and toil, she took additional inspiration from Vergadain and stealthed her way through the last level down to find the mine master.
Here the golden amulet of fireballs she had been saving came in very handy, destroying his extensive bodyguard, and once they were dispatched a hastily summoned army of skeletons resisted everything the mine master could muster, until, spells expended, Abigail smashed his defenses down with her electric hammer while the remaining skeletons distracted his animated armors.
She took what she needed, information about the Iron throne, and flooded the mine, before setting out on her way to Baldur's Gate.
Here she began collecting anything of value she could, tomes that made her faster, wiser and smarter, rings to grant additional protection. Even the legendary helm and cloak of Balduran. She guessed she was one of the richest and best equipped in the city.
She killed another assassin, this time a poisoner, killed basilisks, dopplegangers, an entire temple of umberlee worshipers, and others, but somehow she knew that there was no benefit to any more killing. It had all become too easy. With that all that was left was amassing wealth. She decided that Durlag's Tower would be the next to fall and whispered a quiet prayer to Abbathor that her dungeon crawling would be successful.
Deaths: 2 (managed to get trapped by my own skeletons on floor 2 of cloakwood, serves me right for fighting everything like a noob)
Active curses for this run:
Bhaal's Curse
Cyric: Potion- and spellbuffs with a duration of less than 2 hours may only be applied during combat
Helm: Defensive items can only be recharged once in shops
Sune: Creatures cannot be charmed or dominated with items
Tyr: No attacking or killing of innocents unless they have been provoked through dialogue
Waukeen: Offensive items can only be recharged once in shops
Overall impressions: LoB + SCS should not be this easy.
I noted before some recent discussion suggesting that a single-class mage would be pointless for this challenge. They're not my favorite class, but I thought they should still be pretty good at tackling the Cataclysm - so here's Rueful sitting down wondering just what he's let himself in for.
A bit of combat in Candlekeep saw his cat familiar practising backstabs against a couple of blinded assassins. The cat doesn't regenerate, so is less useful in combat than a pseudo-dragon, but neutrality means Rueful doesn't have to worry about blights and smites.
Shoal runs around when blinded, so the cat just meleed her, taking advantage of her lack of a melee weapon to get Rueful a quick couple of levels, though just the 8 extra HPs.
Cat backstabs also did the bulk of the damage on a carrion crawler in that area, before Rueful gave Mad Arcand his ring back.
A few tasks in Beregost included killing some merchants for Silke. The reputation decrease from that allowed Rueful to learn LMD as a Bhaal power. Then it was up to the FAI where Evermemory made it easy to blind the hobgoblins with Joia's ring.
He tried to draw the ghasts out of their valley tomb with a view to picking up the wand of monster summoning, but they refused to budge. Rueful wanted that wand for the golems at High Hedge, so for now settled for just pulling them outside (meaning they could be attacked later without annoying Thalantyr). While there he also dealt with some gnolls - picking up 6HP for level 4.
He also bought a few spells, including invisibility. That made the journey to Ulgoth's Beard pretty safe to go and buy a staff upgrade. Rueful also took advantage of the ankheg's large icon on the way, so that even the cat could attack from outside its (blinded) vision range.
With the staff upgrade, Rueful made use of an invisible blocking familiar to grind his way through a couple of battle horrors and get to level 5 with another 4 HPs.
Invisibility allowed him onto the roof, where his familiar dealt with the basilisks - again helped by their large icon allowing him to attack without retaliation.
That took Rueful to level 6, with 5 more HPs.
Rueful had no spell protection, so the only other thing he intended to do there was hand Riggilo a dodgy gift. I lost concentration though and went back to talk to him again after passing the lock of hair over - resulting in him immediately turning invisible in preparation for a backstab. Rueful had no potion of invisibility himself, but hot-footed it down the stairs and managed to avoid being attacked. I decided that was a good place to save it though ...
Abigail, just before she set off to Durlag's Tower, chased down some leads about the Iron Throne and confronted Duke Eltan with the evidence, who, against her will she added, teleported her to Candlekeep. There was little of interest here, though she did raid the tombs for a wisdom and strength boost after begin accused of murder.
Frustrated and not wanting to return to Baldur's Gate for a while, she descended back to level 2 of Durlag's Tower, stealthing around, picking up valuables and weathering a very painful multi-fireball trap with some protections. On the third level she was confronted by four "challenge rooms" a bear killed by skeletons, some sort of "fire-man" killed by skeletons, a slimey thing, partly killed by skeletons then flame-striked, and a baby-wyvern thing which she left to fry in a giant fireball trap; all of which allowed her access to the fourth level.
She grabbed everything of value she could, letting her army of 5 skeleton warriors clear the level while she buffled around filling her bags with loot. Of special mention was another amulet of fireballs, bringing her count to 4, an enchanted +2 great shield which replaced her current one, and a sling +3.
Feeling a degree of trepidation she progressed to the final room, avarice outweighing common sense.
She entered the final chamber, summoned her 5 skeletons, cast protection from evil '15 and conviction which she hoped would last a couple of rounds after she had completed her preparations. She then buffed herself with a scroll to provide immunity to magic, a potion of cloud giant strength, Potion of Heroism, an oil of speed and her innate draw upon holy might which bypassed the scroll's magical immunity.
Following the advice of the woman outside, she smashed the mirror, and she, the demons reflection, and her 5 skeletons went to town on the fiend. They managed to bring it near to death before it slew its reflection and swapping helmets she bought valuable time for her minions with durlags goblet before the five skeletons were likewise destroyed. Abigail noted that even with -15AC vs slashing the beast would still hit her almost constantly, and with a thac0 of 2 she could barely hit it so she proceeded to use her superior speed to hit and run, landing the killing crit after a few minutes. She stuffed its magical items in her pack and left.
Deaths: 7 (1 x stupid mistake on the floor 2-3 transition; 4 x not knowing what I was doing against this horrible horrible demon, thanks to @histamiini for the "PfM blocking your mirror image spawning" post)
I take back some of what I said about Fighter/Cleric easy mode because without wand of paralysis this thing is horrible. Even with super low AC it was killing me far faster than I could chug blood and it was almost impossible to land a hit. Considering my Dragon Disciple could beat this thing to death with her staff while paralyzed...
One big advantage I have noticed with Hammers over Flails that makes up for the lower base damage is Ashideena has a speed factor of 2 while the thresher is 5. So Hit and run works really well with hammers, Abigail be acting like some sort of deranged whack-a-mole player whenever things get tough.
Lilli the Human Avenger following the footsteps of Ivy the fallen Shapeshifter. Or maybe not...
Mulahey: Pixie Dust to sneak through, then Bombardier Beetles + 5x Web + Spider Form giving Mulahey no time to react
Nimbul: Beetles + 5x Web + Improved Invisbility + Spider Form giving Nimbul no chance to escape
Tranzig: Just beetles
Lamalha: Met them while still being invsible so Lilli could retreat to cast iron Skill and call in Beetles to soak up the backstabs then 5x Web + Spider Form to kill both Archers, then Chromatic Orb petrified Zeela while Lamalha went down to the beetles and spikes
Bandit Camp: Iron Skin + PfL + Pixe Dust moving behind a pillar to get ouf of Raemon´s vision then 5x Web + Imp Invisibilty + Spider Form to loot chest and move out while everyone was stuck in the webs
Molkar: With Pixie Dust still up Lilli moved out of vision and buffed up with Iron Skin then Beetles and Imp Invisbility to reposition and cast 5x Web to kill the Mage using Spider form and then switching to Spike Growth and a new beetle summon for the rest
Drasus: This was fun thanks to Web stacking and then petrifying Drasus and Genthore turning them back to flesh and killing them instantly as they were still webbed
Davaeorn: Three Beetles to kill the guard and lure the horrors away while Lilli was stacking 5 Spike Growth for an easy kill
Ramazith: The second Bombardier Beetles stunned him which was enough to bring him down with spider form grabbing his Ring o Protection +2
Jalantha: Liili and friends were unable to kill Jalantha fast enough even with Webs all around the place at least one priestress always managed to dispel everything and heal the high priestress. Retreating out of the building made everything worse as the floor gets cleansed from all spells. Lilli out of desperation tried to use Chromatic Orb and - at least on the guards - this worked great. Once Jalantha was alone the Bombardier Beetle stunned her and without any dispels she went down quickly.
Iron Throne: Lured them down one after another were they got feeded to beetles and webs while Alai (the one with Ring of Free Action) got petrified, turned to flesh and killed with spider form
Candlekeep: Imp Invisibility then Spike Growth out of vision while soaking up one Glitterdust, buffed up, grabbed Tomes then stealthed out again
Durlags Tower Level 1: Collected all items while using PfL and Salamandre Form to soak up traps, Lured Love into the trap corridor burning him down, rested at the entrance
Durlags Tower Level 2: Grabbing key stones alongside Kiels Helmet and Durlags Goblet, Lured all Ghasts into the Fire traps but misclicked on one of their bodies breaking invisbility. Even worse Lilli got paralyzed as the Ring of Free Action was not equipped and the last Ghast broke Iron Skin while taking damage from Fire Shield. Both nearly dead the Ghast died bringing Lilli down to 7 HP with his last hit - puh.
Durlag Tower Level 3: Burned all Ghasts in the Fire Room, then the Bear followed before the Slime got burned down by 13 charges from Wand of Heaven. The Air Aspect was again burned in the machine before 6x Spike Growth and some Beetles took down the Phoenix Guards while Lilli was casting PfL and went invisible before getting teleported to the chess board - which was skipped.
Durlag Tower Level 4: Skipped the spiders with Invisibilty and closing the door, then luring Grael into the slime waiting several minutes before the 1 damage ticks took him down. Grabbed another skull keystone from the the Alps but avoiding any fight by closing the door. Too bad that 21 STR was not enough to get the Sling +3, a Shapeshifter in Werewolf Form and with 22 STR could crack the chest open. Damn it.
Demon Knight: Beetles and more beetles until the third wave of Bombardier Beetles managed to double stun the demon bringing him down to badly wounded before being able to act again. Luckily the weapons of Bombardiers count as +1. PfM and breaking the mirror unleashed the fiend who killed his nemesis without any problems - GG.
Aec Letec: Sneaked in invisible then killing Tracea Carol with 6x Spike Growth while luring the guards to a corner were they got burned to ashes with Wand of Heaven one after another. Got really lucky this time as the second beetle wave put in the first stun bringing the demon already down to injured. Lilli always made sure always to stay out of Aec Letecs vision which was quite easy thanks to double speed from Spider Form + Boots of Speed. The fourth wave then rolled another stun and with three Bombardiers and Spider Form the poor demon was hacked to pieces.
Fun note: After killing the Demon Knight Lilli got ambushed by Kobolds... the same who killed Ivy the Shapeshifter before.. but this time LMD and just waiting for a hit near the map border made sure this wont happen again. Time to prepare for the Palace Ambush and Sarevok!
Thanks to some hints of @AvidGamerFan the Palace Ambush was like a walk in the park...
Slythe: 6x Dispel Magic, 4x Web, Iron Skin then Spider Form (also 1x Magic Shielding in case for early break of Kristin) got him down to injured before he broke free.... retreated... True Seeing, again 4x Web going in with Spider Form he was nearly dead before escaping again... but not for long as he got burned down by Wand of Heaven.
Palace Ambush: For this one Lilli prepared 8x Web and bought 40x Stunning Darts while also buffing up with Iron Skin and memorizing 3x Insect Swarm. The start was easy: Place Web so three Nobles (the Mage and Shaman!) got webbed, then move in to trigger talking, retreat and hit the three Dopplegangers with Dispel Magic while constantly stunning the three Nobles. One, two, three... Liia untouched, Belt only injured. Then activating the next one while still keeping the Mage und Shaman stunned. Four down. Then waiting for the Shaman who got had no chance as not a single guard had died so far.. and finally... activating the Mage with Insect Swarm in mid air pointed at one beetle... so the poor one could only use his spell triggers while trying to hack anyone down... the second Insect Swarm followed... and the third... GG. With Liia still untouched and Belt badly wounded this was far easier than expected. Thanks again @AvidGamerFan! ;o)
So only Sarevok left... time to collect some items before facing her evil brother!
Thought I would try a one of the new IWD spells for evil clerics only "cloud of pestilence", which is nice but appears to be classed as a summon since I get "you cannon summon any more creatures" when I try and stack it if i have skeletons up already. trying with no summons active and I can stack 5 just fine for 15hp/round damage for 4 rounds, which is quite nice, but the blindness and ability score reduction coupled with the supposed immunity of skeleton warriors is the main draw
I was wondering if the ability drain (3pts str and dex) were cumulative and if this could be used to insta-kill things by draining them below 1str or dex but stacking 5 on a wolf doesn't seem to do that, despite them having 9 dex. Ctrl-Q seems to show that the ability score drain is only applied once (down to 6 dex), while the combat log shows blindness procing for each cast every round. It still might be of use for some things since an AoE 1-turn blindness effect combined with a -3 str (and dex) debuff is not to be underestimated. This might actually be better than conviction + skellies, if (if) enemies fail their saves.
edit: as an extreme bonus, it doesn't effect the caster, so Abigail can go hog wild with her hammer inside the cloud. Not bad for a level 4 priest spell.
Ok I take back any sort of hesitancy I had about cloud of pestilence. And there I was worrying about no holy smite as an evil cleric.
Blind Krystin completely neutered once she failed a save, blind Slythe easily killed by minions. Abigail just chills out.
3 stacked casts means 3 saves needed to be passed each round for 4 rounds, that's pass 12 saves or be blinded and str+dex drained for a turn. it ticks at 3dam/round too (save negates though), so it will disrupt spells on save failure. Aaaand its save vs breath, not spell so its an absolute mage killer. Plus at 7/7 with 21 wis and the ring of sune Abigail has two more casts in the bank to drop at about the 45-50 second mark for another turn-ish of blind. Kahrk was killed in the same way.
Executive Summary: Angelo shows off his range of instant-kill weaponry... including on a surprising final target!
While Angelo was selling his excess goods, Felicity remarked, "You showcased several instant-death weapons last episode. You could use them to earn some quick XP, if you were so inclined..."
Tazing Tazok
Angelo had sworn several times that he would not abuse Mislead too hard (although the definition of 'abuse' was left deliberately loose), and he stood by that decision. However, instant-kill weapons upset the balance somewhat because there would have been nothing to stop Angelo from sneaking up on a monster, go for a quick kill and activate a ring of invisibility for a getaway. Whereas the victim could normally have regenerated whilst Angelo rested before trying again, this would not be possible if they perished with a single blow. Repeating this loop, Angelo could kill any vulnerable creatures unable to see through illusions - Mislead would only shorten the process - so he afforded himself a brief period of luxury.
Firkraag's dungeon had considerable amounts of this low hanging fruit. The trio of golems (a juggernaut and a pair of stones, for [16,000 + (2 x 8,000)] XP total) beyond the archers' deathtrap was first to face the rod of smiting, but Angelo didn't hesitate to wipe out the other trio of golems (a 25,000 XP adamantine specimen and another pair of stones) that had been guarding Heartseeker +3 before he'd stolen it. Switching to the mace of disruption, the undead troupe was next (consisting of four elder vampires - worth 3 x 10,500 XP with a 12,000 XP outlier - three 3,000 XP mummies, two 650 XP ghasts, two 2,000 XP wraiths, two 420 XP shadows, one 2,000 XP shadow fiend and one 8,000 XP greater wraith). Finally, after disarming the Dire Charm trap on the chest the vampires were watching, Angelo equipped the staff of air and earned yet another 7,000 XP killing the bridge-bound air elemental.
In truth, this 148,640 XP buffet was the starter for a Tazok flavoured main course. Avoiding General Digdag and his collateral orcs, Angelo used Mislead to slaughter his old foe (who'd somehow increased in value from 4,000 XP in BG1 to 6,000 XP now, despite being appreciably less dangerous) and made his escape. On his way out, he rediscovered Samia, which reminded him to take out her allies Kaol (8,000 XP), Legdoril (6,000 XP), Akae (8,000 XP) and Chak (6,000 XP). For good measure, since she was clearly going to betray him, Angelo killed Samia (9,000 XP) and buried the treasure hunters in the tomb they'd tricked him into opening for them.
Despite earning 192,140 XP in total, this was only ever of secondary concern. The primary reason for this jaunt was to recover the Sewer Key from Tazok's body, which Angelo planned to use immediately.
More Illicit Illithid Information
Invisibly descending into the Temple District sewers, Angelo unlocked the secret door by Tarnor the Hatchetman, but was blasted by malevolent mental energy upon entry. The wave temporarily stunned him, regardless of his saving throws, and warned him of powerful psionics ahead. Although this could have been githyanki or illithids, Angelo guessed the latter and took appropriate precautions. Potions of genius were procured from the surrounding temples, but Angelo was amazed to find that nowhere in Athkatla or beyond sold any potions of absorption (aside from a merchant in the now off-limits Ust Natha, who had a stock of 3). Fortunately, Angelo had gathered some on his travels, and this caused his AC vs crushing to plummet.
Angelo was also in a better position for several other reasons. Not only did Angelo sense himself able to rest and retreat if necessary, but there were also no hopeless neutrals to defend. He also had access to the fearsome silver sword, whose vorpal capabilities could bypass the mindflayers' physical resistance to kill instantly upon occasion; its 25% activation chance and allowance of a save at -2 penalty dampened its effectiveness, but it was still quicker than any available tactic outside of Mislead backstabbing inside a temporal bubble. The shortbow fo Gesen's electrical damage similarly bypassed the illithids' physical resistance and enabled effective kiting in a pinch. In addition, Angelo had more HLA to play with now, combined with a willingness to use them now he'd reached the so-called endgame.
Finally, Felicity had managed to formulate some new strategies during the interim period. Since mindflayers struck as +2 weapons, not only would the aforementioned Protection from Magical Weapons block their attacks entirely, but Mantle, Improved Mantle and Absolute Immunity would also do the trick. Angelo had also worked out that Stoneskin blocked their Ballistic Attacks (with each attack removing a skin), so together with Protection from Magic Energy or the cloak of mirroring, Angelo could prevent them from damaging him. Unfortunately, Protection from Magic Energy wouldn't protect Animate Dead's skeletons from Detonate, but the freshly available brine potions would counter psionics, saving valuable greenstone amulet charges.
Mangling the Mindflayers
Despite an abundance of human slaves, the first chamber had only one mindflayer who could see through Angelo's illusion. Pulling back to prevent the slaves' Oracle and Invisibility Purge from dispelling it, Angelo had fought enough mindflayers not to be surprised when the illithid teleported through the closed door to pursue him... right onto Angelo's array of preset snares. Since these traps were of the HLA spike variety, the mindflayer's death was instantaneous.
Angelo sensed the chamber beyond - which contained 3 mindflayers, 2 ulitharids and an umber hulk - was much more dangerous. In preparation, Angelo cast Stoneskin and Improved Haste while equipping his silver sword, cloak of mirroring and girdle of bluntness, having drunk a potion of absorption and 3 potions of genius (making his Intelligence 31, and able to survive 6 stat-draining critical hits). The potion of invulnerability was preferable not only because it defended against the umber hulk's confusing gaze, but it also lasted for 1 hour (as opposed to the brine potion's 1 turn), so it wouldn't awkwardly fall off mid-battle. As his Intelligence was buffed, Angelo scribed all of his unlearned spells for another XP bump, a welcome boost before entering the fray.
The results were impressive. Angelo confessed that he thought his rolls had been somewhat lucky... but his tactics had put him in a position to benefit from this good fortune. At first, he attacked the mindflayers, whose attacks were just as draining as their vampiric cousins', but whose slightly less impressive saves made them more vulnerable to vorpalling.
Although Improved Haste had increased his ApR to 5, Angelo doubled it with his Whirlwind and Greater Whirlwind HLAs when facing the ulitharid. Suffering twice the usual rate of vorpal hits, even their defences could not prevent the inevitable decapitations.
After their masters were dead, the umber hulk suffered a similar fate.
Taking doon the Alhoon
Not wanting his buffs to expire, Angelo charged forth towards the final chamber, but just as he had set a time trap outside the door, Felicity piped up. "You should read a Protection from Undead scrolls before going on. The boss is an alhoon, an arcane-capable illithid that's technically classed as undead."
Angelo was incredulous. "You're telling me that if I read such a scroll, it will neither attack nor cast spells and will effectively ignore me?" Felicity nodded and, trusting her word, Angelo activated his Protection from Undead before entering.
Compared to the last, this chamber contained an extra umber hulk, as well as a djinni pair automatically summoned by the alhoon's sequencer. True to Felicity's word, the alhoon didn't react as Angelo's time trap went off and he started hacking at the nearest mindflayer. Retreating into the corridor to delay being surrounded, Angelo took advantage of the djinni's prediliction for casting Stinking Cloud - Angelo's buffed saves made him functionally immune, but even the illithid's 90% MR and general resilience didn't prevent them from succumbing occasionally... and when they did, Angelo was sure to capitalise, the silver sword's reach being sufficient to poke at them behind enemy ranks if necessary.
One by one, the mindflayers fell, killed by the vorpal weapon's terrible powers. Once their corpses littered the battlefield, Angelo turned on the ulitharids, his blade sweeping to and fro in a deadly dance of decapitation. After severing the umber hulks' heads from the bodies, it was the turn of the summoned djinni, who Angelo didn't mind engaging the old-fashioned way should the situation demand it... and since SCS classified them as gated creatures, they were immune to Death Spell and so the situation very much demanded it!
Finally, all that was left was the alhoon, who attempted to flee invisibly after Angelo's first attack, but whose efforts were stymied by Detect Illusion. Since it was affected by Protection from Undead, Angelo hazarded a guess that mace of disruption might affect it... and he was right!
Snatching Crom Faeyr, the wand of wonder and a mysterious note, Angelo renewed his Invisibility and checked on the thralls. Seeing that the death of their masters had not broken their mental servitude, Angelo abandoned them to their fate.
"From this note and the alhoon's final comments, it looks as if the illithid were preparing an army for an invasion," the imp gasped as they left the mindflayer's lair. "Do you think this refers to the events that unfold in the trailer for Baldur's Gate 3?"
"You may be Felicity Foresight," Angelo laughed as he tossed the note away, "but even your oracular powers are not that good!"
Recharged WoPoly for 12k, and Nymph Cloak 1230 (lol), gave a try against the ogre mages in Candlekeep using WoMS, WoP and WoPoly, they ended up being 4 Squirrel mages. Forgot to shield at first by magic missile refreshed my mind.
Looted Candlekeep top room, got caught in but escaped invisible. Looted the tavern, went for Rieltar.
Charmed Tuth with nymph cloak, who cleared the room for me before dying to Brunos, who got killed webbed. Got Magic Protection potion (4th)
Went to the Catacomb and loothed the area with shield+protection from fire+globe of minor invulnerability to save on absorption potions maybe for later. Got strength and wisdom tome, PfM scroll and another WoF (4th). Didn't need to recharge a single WoF yet.
For Prat party, charmed Bor who murdered them all, then got rid of him simply by resting as a ton of spiders came to finish him. Failed charm against wraith spider, so i just dragged them upstairs before fleeing invisible to loot the cave area freely.
Palace Ambush
Forgot an Ogre mage on the way out. Looks like there were 5 or maybe he just spawned. WoMS + Squirrel treatment gave me a Laeral's Tear Necklace, Jackpot!
Went to save Duke Eltan by web+spider+WoMS the greater doppleganger.
Went to Blade and Star and charmed Larze with the help of Web then went downstairs to let him kill Slythe without any problems, then threw a fireball to reveal Krystin who eventually got killed too, took a bit more time but she couldn't do anything against Larze.
Time for the palace fight... which will probably be horrible as i really didn't know what to expect... Well it was and the doppleganger saves were ridiculous for the mage and shaman, they were hard to paralyse even after GM.
2 Deaths from surprise backstab (1 shotted, this assassin has no chill)
1 death from purple meteor thing.
1 Death from acid arrow
1 Death again from spider summon
1 death where i got exploded by a skeleton warrior just about to finish the fight
Decided to take a time to just look at the doppleganger types by pausing, then reloading and charming the stronger ones. Attempted to charm the mage and shaman.
I charmed them and made a very exciting discovery... if invisible, i can make a nobleman attack another one and the flaming fist are going to kill the hostile nobleman. I used this to kill them all but the one i've charmed. Broke the AI and the fight wouldn't start.
Tried pre-charming the Shaman and Mage nobleman, fight ended with no enemies left and then softlocked again... i had no choice but to fight "fair".
Charmed 3 nobles, 2 being the shaman and the mage, and dragged them to another room. Fought 3 with WoMS, then 1 again with WoMS, then the last 2 (mage/shaman) bugged twice in a row for some reason. Shaman dies no problem, mage got invincible into squirrel one time and the other one he would stay invisible and wouldn't do anything.
3rd time was the "charm", i must say that Liia teleport field is atrocious. Ironically, the time that it worked, Liia bugged as she came talking to me once Belt died and would repeat the dialogue over and over again as soon as i would end it, so i had to drink an invisibility potion to interrupt her after a quick pause so we could deal with Sarevok. Mission accomplish, time for Durlag's tower!
Next time, i'm moving the shaman and the mage in a different room... I'm also bringing some arrows of dispelling! This was by far my most difficult fight so far, first few attempts with teleport field and chaos were horrible to see. One of the first times where i had a surprised pikachu face looking at my screen.
6 deaths for this, now for a total of 10.
Snow maze
Finished some quests,
Did Marek and Lothander with Tremain's son and got the wisdom tome and a 5th potion of magic protection from killing the temple of the water queen. Marek got his buffs tanked by WoMS, then got squirreled by GM + WoPoly. I really should try spell trust soon.
Went to do the snow maze, 2 charmed wolved killed the mage party. One of them teleported away somewhere. Then Cuchol who dropped another WoP. Garan never had the time to summon ankhegs.
They would only hit on crit against Tellan so it took a bit of time, upgraded my wolf pack to 6 to make it better, i had to wait much further as i saw him casting an illusion detection spell. I used an old friend for scouting the rest of the area... good old Pseudo Dragon!
Andreis teleported to Dezkiel it seems and both had the same fate as the rest of the enemies of this dungeon. Got Stoneskin, which was the whole reason i came to this dungeon.
Drank a potion of genius and learned 12 scrolls. Also bought Greenstone amulet even if i don't really think that this character is going to need it at -2, -3 spell saves.
Durlag's Tower
Started Durlag's tower, finished looting the top floors for the last wisdom tome then went to get 2 additionnal Protection from magic scroll : one i've forgotten in Ramazith tower (+WoP) and another one from Hafiz.
1st floor: Cleared the area of non-repeatable traps with minor glove of invulnerability to save some potion of absorptions just in case, i usually have plenty but i don't know what to expect.
Decided not to waste PfU against skeleton warriors and used WoMS + Haste instead, which worked pretty well. 3 Hasted ogres can easily defeat them if they're alone. Same treatment for the mustard jellies with some hit and run with Ashedeena+DUHM.
Greater Dopplegangers and the 4 wardens killed with the top left double fireball trap. Fear took more time but it eventually killed them all. Avarice backstabbed me for a 1 shot first attempt for death #11. I should always be stoneskined from now on...
2nd floor: Dealt with the doppleganger with WoPoly (worked once... those saves!) while in Durlag form, GM + WoP if that failed. Worked very well with WoMS and web for support. Got 2 essential items that i must NOT forget for SoD: Kiel's helmet and Durlag's goblet.
For the corridor with the ghast, got them 1 by 1 by putting a web down and WoPoly them when webbed, of course with edventar's gift to avoid paralysis in case of saves. Their wand save were low so it went very well. Protection from fire + balista's passeport makes the fire trap an healing trap which is very useful.
Lured the Dwarven doom guards into the fireball trap again, looted the chests, went to sell a bit of stuff and progressed to 3rd floor. Made more than 10k from useless scrolls and potions. Didn't recharge my wands yet, WoMS was a 22, WoP 38 and WoPoly 81. Kept Kiel's helmet and Durlag's goblet on me for emergency healing.
3rd floor: The simplest level! Used the beginning fireball trap to kill the 3 greater wyverns, who just get stuck on the door. That trap deals insane damage so it's very quick despite their magical resistance and saves.
Almost killed myself there killing the greater ghouls with the south fireball trap before the 4 boss rooms as my protection from fire ran out but survived at 22 hp.
Killed Kaldran the bear with fire trap and his wolves on melee, also lured the Fission slime after a few minutes... the most efficient way is to keep it at the limit of the fog of war as it's range is slightly less, so it will keep slowly moving toward you to attack. Finished it with 2x WoF scorcher at near death.
Bow Phoenix guard with WoP + WoMS, the sword one with 3x WoPoly charge with my remaining monsters for the final blows (he respawned 2 times), Air aspect lured into the fireball trap.
Chess table simply passed invisible with non-detection but then decided to find an easy working trick to get rid of the king if i wanted to make some loot runs. Had very good success by doing a WoPoly cast and fleeing by the door right away to drag as many of the knights as possible near Islanne before returning invisible to smack the king as he is the only one not following you.
Went to sell some loot, most notably the wyvern heads and snow wolf pelts. Reached over 100k without selling expensive jewelery.
4th floor:
Did the spider room invisible and got jumped at the end by the spiders, so i did a small WoMS diversion, WoP the astral and sword spiders to charm them with Nymph Cloak and cleared the room pretty easily, GM + WoPoly the Ettercaps.
GM + WoPoly the Helmet horror for the wardstone, WoMS as a distraction then GM + WoPoly Grael and all his friends.
Had to save myself from the trap containing The Burning Earth with Goblet.
For the Demon Knight, died the first time by my clone who used my own tactics against me (death 12) while trying to WoP the demon knight who resisted everything. So second try i used a PFM scroll to avoid him from dispelling my buffs and broke the mirror right away, waited for a winner. The Demon Knight was left injured so i spammed WoMS too keep him busy and tried my luck with WoP, which worked after 11 tries (85 MR and he saved once). After this he was done.
Almost done! Well this segment brough my death count from 4 to 12 thanks to the palace ambush, now i'll know what to expect at least... I plan dealing with the cultists next for the potion of heroism and Aec'Latec for fun, then will probably try Karoug, will probably try Kahrk too as he is in the Cataclysm challenge so why not having a bit of practice, then Sarevok.
Plan for Sarevok will either be to lure the basilisk from south Baldur's Gate to see if he can cheese the fight by himself or drink two potions of magic protection and exploit the skull trap in the center of the room if it didn't get nerfed with SCS. If that doesn't work, well i've got a ton of wands of fire and didn't use any One Gift Lost yet, i still expect 5-10 deaths just for this.
Rueful had a disappointing finish when trying to get the charisma tome. To avoid the danger of being hit by a xvart while trying to go invisible again after grabbing the tome, he wanted to pull the xvarts in the cave outside. First though he had to do something about the group already outside. He used dire charm on one of those and then retreated, in the expectation that the xvarts would continue fighting after the charm wore off. After monitoring for a couple of minutes that was indeed happening and I left the game continuing in the background, with the ex-charmed xvart at injured status, while watching a bit of cricket. I wasn't away long, but clearly too long as, when I came back, Rueful's familiar had died - killing him. Perhaps the other 2 xvarts got lucky with a rush of criticals, or possibly natural lightning killed the ex-charmed one, prompting the others to go searching for the cause of the trouble ...
Re: Demon knight, I am wondering what happens if you paralyze it before breaking the mirror - since it can be kited indefinitely so long as you can deal with the power-words and dispels. Does the mirror break paralysis, or does it summon a paralyzed mirror fiend to match the paralyzed demon, or does it summon a non paralyzed mirror fiend to whale on a paralyzed demon?
@alice_ashpool: I think i can answer this question cause if my beetles manage to stun the demon knight and i break the mirror nothing will happen. The fiend will only appear after stun wears of and in my cases this was enough to get the kill with combined fire! Should be the same with the wand of paralyzation!
Ok, well I have a new Demon Knight Strategy which is cheesy in the extreme.
I stacked Cloud of Pestilence offscreen on demon knight. This does not aggro it or proc the intro dialogue. With the high MR and saves it took about 20 casts to get it to proc blindness the first time, about 8 the second and 1 the third. Fortunately you can rest freely in the demon chamber...
Once blinded the demon knight will begin to wander. If you attack it that will proc the first conversation after which it will continue to wander. Use scroll of PfM and wait for cloud to nearly dissipate, break mirror and run up into the demon knights blind FoV again, which procs the 2nd dialogue and summons the mirror fiend. (interestingly if you break the mirror while the demon knight is blind before procing the 1st dialogue nothing happens, nor does the mirror fiend spawn if, after 1st dialogue then breaking mirror, you don't get inside the demon knight's blind FoV again)
The mirror fiend's weapon is 2-handed range so it attacks from outside of the blind Demon Knight's FoV meaning it will just stand there getting hit and will not attack the mirror fiend. This took it down to badly injured before the 1-turn blindness expired. That was enough for the mirror fiend to finish the demon knight.
Screenshot of the health discrepancy between demon knight and mirror fiend with strategy:
I'm thinking about starting a Cleric/Thief run, but despite having their weapon restrictions removed by Use Any Item, they still can't put any proficiencies in non-blunt weapons. Would it be kosher to use an editor to assign points in categories that thieves would usually use for the (three) proficiencies gained after UAI, as there's no longer a reason for them being unavailable? I'm not confident about their chances in a WS run (coalition attacks with no amulets of missiles = dead C/T), but I'm considering the adventurers' challenge.
Also, does anyone know what level the Dispel Magic from Bala's Axe is cast at? BG Wiki says it's at the caster's priest level, which effectively means that only shamans (along with rangers and paladins, to a lesser extent) can use it properly. I had hoped that my WS archer could use it to avoid the long kiting session with Sarevok, but testing seems to show it's as good as useless.
One interesting use for Cloud of Pestilence, @alice_ashpool, might be for C/M to use as an extra way of decreasing Belhifet's Strength and/or Dexterity prior to a Contagion-based kill.
Thanks to some hints of @AvidGamerFan the Palace Ambush was like a walk in the park... Thanks again @AvidGamerFan! ;o)
You're welcome, @Harpagornis! I also have a WS avenger on the go, with the aim to dual to a fighter in ToB (going to need Lum the Mad's machine to up their Strength, since they can't get the Strength tome). They're my favourite type of druid - it's so nice to have a use for those level 2 spell slots - but if you're running a near-identical character, I'll concentrate on some other classes (besides Angelo, of course!).
@AvidGamerFan: I am pretty sure that the Dispel Magic from Balas Axe is Level 0 and ignores level. Pretty powerful indeed! And... yeah... Avenger Druids are so much fun and my plan is also to dual class to Fighter... if Lilli ever manages to get through SoD... we will see! Oh, i used the Violet Potion to get the Strength Tome as she has another plan for Big B in mind!
Khark:
6x Spike Growth -> 6x Web -> Spider Form -> only five more hits and the big one fell down
Sarevok:
1. Dominated Wudei with Nymph and let her summon a Skeleton Warrior in the temple
2. Sacrificed Wudei against Sarevok and lured them to the SE-corner going invisible
3. Used the Skeleton Warrior to kill Angelo as his weapon could not touch the Undead
4. Waited for buffs to expire before casting 6x Spike Growth on the rest killing Semaj
5. Then 6x Necklace of Missiles to kill Tazok and Diarmid
6. Salamandre Form to outrun Sarevok and burning him down with 85x Wand of Heavens
Comments
Okay, i got your point @Grond0 and - yeah - any cheesy ways around Tyr should lead to instant death.
But i found a legit way around the problem of getting the Tome of Wisdom from Chanthalas Ulbright. I just finished the Marek & Lothander quest line first and then challenged Jalantha Mistmyr, the high priestress of Umberlee who is not marked as innocent and granted 6000 XP after getting stunned and hacked to pieces. So with the Tome from Candlekeep Ivy can now reach 21 Wisdom for an extra Level 3 and 5 spell - great!
@Harpagornis I don't think you need to give the Tome for Jalantha, just ask the Geas scroll first, then just leave?
On an aside I'm remembering weimar's hilarious shapeshifter rebalancing with its immunity to normal weapons for regular werewolf form and 3HP/second regeneration for greater form.
In LoB the d20 still applies in the same way. The bonus of +5 to the die roll represents the LoB impact, but there is a bug in v2.5 that adds 5 to the base saving throw of all enemies - for all but the weakest enemies those factors just cancel each other out, so the chance to save is the same (unless you have the saving throw fix installed of course).
@Harpagornis you can anyway annoy Jalantha through dialogue, so it would be no big deal even if she were coded as innocent (that would be a surprise of course in that temple).
Scored pretty hard early in SoA. Don't know if it's random drop but Bala's Axe, Wizard Slayer was in the Sewage Golem room. It Dispel's once per day at lv0 and ignores level.
Given the numbers quoted, it's definitely the SCS "improved" version. Damage 1d8+Str two-handed instead of 1d6+2+Str one-handed, 2 APR + haste rather than a flat 2 APR. One weakness is that it's only a +1 enchantment, unlike all the other level 7 druid forms which are +2.
SCS pushes that form back to level 7, and adds a "lesser" werewolf form at level 1. The level 1 form only has 1 APR, 18/76 Str, and base AC 4; you're better off using a sling and bullets most of the time.
In the meantime though, the latest version of Shagrat the shaman has made enough progress to justify posting. He's just hit level 8, which provides the option of using a single nymph for support. I'm interpreting dancing as a single summon spell, so Malar's curse prevents using nymphs to lead enemies into pre-summoned spirits (Shagrat has lifted Mystra's curse), but they should still be pretty useful in other ways.
It's been a relatively smooth run so far. The closest shave was attempting to finish off the greater basilisk near Mutamin after Korax had gone hostile. That was eventually done just in time with LMD - that spell was in mid-air as the basilisk sprang back to life, fortunately not quite in time to focus its gaze
Here's an overall summary of his progress, together with a few screenshots of his adventures and his current character record:
Growing up a dwarf in Candlekeep, Abigail's early childhood was lonely and isolating. She grew up morose, selfish and unconcerned with others, choosing to lose herself in combat training with the hammer and worship of the Morndinsamman - who she knew only from the the books on Dwarven religion. Neither of these habits endeared her to the predominantly human residents of the library.
With the murder of her foster father under mysterious circumstances she set out alone, reciting a prayer to Moradin and another much quieter one to Abbathor, she set out into the sword coast to find her foster fathers killer and amass wealth comparable to, or even exceeding the great dwarfs she had read about.
Due to the deadly nature of the monsters of the sword coast, not to mention the assassins and killers arrayed against her, Abigail did a number of small quests, gaining experience of life outside the walls of her former home. She also engaged in hunting some local basilisks. This was enough for her pantheon to grant her power over life and death and she discovered the power of necromancy. From that day forward she was rarely encountered without a guard of silent skeletons.
With all the gold she had stolen and looted Abigail invested in the best armor and shield she could find, as well as purchasing an amulet to protect her against mind magic. Then, with the power over the dead themselves, Abigail descended deep into the Nashkel mines, thinking that perhaps the worsening iron crisis and the assassins that were chasing her related.
Deep in Nashkel mine she found a priest of Cyric who fell to a combination of her skeleton warriors, her hammer and her magical greenstone amulet. The skeletons proving to be almost immune to his kobold minions arrows and the priest himself died easily. She pulled the valuable ring from his finger and felt her connection to the divine deepen.
Following the lead on the letters she killed two assassins waiting for her in Nashkel and tracked down bandits in the woods south of Baldur's Gate - gaining a valuable warhammer +1 in the process. From here she snuck into the bandit camp under divine sanctuary, looting the command tent under their very eyes.
Before following up on the cloakwood lead she heard of another valuable warhammer in the hands of the rogue necromancer-cleric Basilius. After tricking him into destroying his own minions, Abigail and her skeletal warriors silenced then destroyed the cleric, claiming his hammer, Ashideena as prize.
With Ashideena in hand and eyes filled with avarice she snuck into Durlag's Tower, and broached the second floor of the dungeon, using the traps against their own guardians. Here she claimed the helmet of Kiel and a foul goblet filled with blood, a single sip of which would heal her fully.
After obtaining the goblet, Abigail went to the cloakwood mine. Using skeletons to soak up the two mages spells she seperating Drasus away then with Potion of Cloud Giant, DuHM, Conviction and Oil of Speed + Drasus drinking a potion of freedom killing his boots of speed she killed him hit and run style with mainhand thac0 of 1 and four attacks per round dual wielding. Afterwards, the two mages were casually hammered to pieces through multiple stoneskins and mirror images, being fully out of offensive spells which appeared to render then catatonic, while the skeletons had succeeded in killing Genthore before succumbing to the mages summons.
Deaths: 1 (drasus attempt 1)
Fighter/Cleric SCS + LoB verdict: pretty OP, the easiest character I have played as.
Chapter 5 BG1
Sold loot in high edge and bought the robe and the claw of Kazgaroth for insane spell saves. With charisma bonus now at 18, i only paid 25010 gold for both items.
Went to spider wood to kill the mages for The Victor, charmed Denak who used his summoning spells against his friend, which resulted his death. Waited the 3 other mages buffs and summons out, webbed from FoW then spammed 3 hold person, WoMS clear and had to WoP Brendan due to saves.
Went to Durlag's tower to kill the ghost (3750 xp) with WoP + WoMS (forgot protection from fire, didn't know he had fireshield) got the 23k Basilisk XP (web the lesser, WoP the greaters), got level at 7/7 for level 4 spells, 4x level 2 and that sweet half attack. 4k for freeing killing Kirinhale and 1.7k for Riggilo (+cloud giant strength).
I seriously ignore why there is no reputation penalty for this... this is so evil. I will come back later for the looting as i didn't learn Knock yet and i want 19 strength.
Got to BG and bought the Thresher, at 18 charisma and 20 rep, everything is super cheap. What a change!
Went to do Ramazith quest for the nymph cloak, bashed Ragefast door open then Ragefast fell to 1 WoMS charge. Got a second WoP, would be good for a Cataclysm challenge, and the Nymph cloak.
WoP (3x) Ramazith then got the Guard Ring +2 and the Metaspell amulet, took the intelligence tome for 20 int. I can now have guaranteed scribe with a single scroll of genius.
I wanted spider spawn, so i went at Sorcerous Sundries and charmed Oulam first, who chromatic orbed Niemain after 2 casts. Made him kill another one then finished the last two with a WoMS charge. I got spooked but WoMS managed to kill everything as i was running around... lucky shot! Got 3rd WoF.
Drank a potion of genius and went on a scroll learning spree. Learned 36 scrolls in a row (potions rule!)
Did the merchant estate for fun and burned everything with WoF Scorcher. Took many charges but it got the job done, too many dopplegangers.
Then i entered a house by mistakes... and had to fight an army of rabid chickens, who all got killed with spiders + web.
Did the quest for the Helm and Cloak of Balduran then equiped Claw of Kazgaroth for -3 spell saves (or -2 with another cloak or helmet), making me immune to web and all spell effects as long as i am not affected by GM. Well worth the HP and death save cost IMO, death saves that can be bypassed with Edventar's gift pretty much all the time.
Ventured into the Iron Throne Building.
Made my way invisible and rushed at the top. I decided to scout a bit using charmed Thaldorn, but it didn't go as planned... He got ambushed by 2 invisible assassins and really didn't last long. This is going to be interesting...
Tried a WoMS while invisible for the 2 assassins, they died barely scratching them. Tried web from FoW, one thief sneaked and left me with a single HP out of 97. Went to heal back at Elfsong Tavern then tried the same approach but dragging them down in the south room then WoP to charm spam them with Nymph Cloak.
Sadly they turned hostile right away once unparalysed... so i finished them with WoMS + WoP.
Charmed Naaman then made him attack Zhalimar to drag him to the south room, then i charmed Gardush who cleared the top room like a beast. Sadly he didn't make it against Zhalimar, who we killed with web + spider along Emissary Tar. Got another PfU? I swear i only had much less on my last playthrough... Notably got minor sequencer and Potion of magic protection (3rd)
Finished it, did the Seven Suns with WoP and WoMS, went to get WoPoly then did Scar missions.
Lucky Shot... 1 hp left at quintuple damage backstab I don't get how a quintuple can get to 48 or 96?
Killed the sewer ogre mage by charming a Carrion crawler to drag the rest, wanted to charm all of them but only managed to keep 3 in the process. Used Edventar's gift to avoid paralysation, their damage is pretty low so i just tanked it while charming them. Ogre mage was then stunned to death before he could talk.
Reported to Scar for the ogre mage and then to Duke Eltan for the Iron Throne and got sent to Candlekeep... 2 ogres mages to greet me? No.. 3 or 4 after dialogue. Good thing i always have auto-pause on enemy sighted. Ran away to the Gorion ambush site and only got a hit by magic missiles for 18 damages.
Luckily didn't die on this chapter... by 1 hp from a surprise quintuple backstab on the Iron Throne building. Things left are Candlekeep Catabomb (will probably deal with Rieltar for fun), Durlag Tower, maybe Karoug if i feel like it (will probably give it a try), Throne ambush and Sarevok. Will keep the same strategy as before if i can, which is to not let the AI the time to do anything or making them waste their spells/items.
Abigail, heartened by her successes against the deadly mercenary party penetrated deep into the cloakwood mine, seeking answers. Her skeleton warriors cut down everything they encountered until the first mage who, with her bodyguard of 12+ fighters forced a retreat back to the first level after cutting down a handful of the enemies. She fled the mine to rest and recover before renewing her assault. This time the mage was cut down, along with the rest of the guards.
Feeling that while the attrition method and the resultant victory was satisfying and pleasing to Laduguer's love of suffering and toil, she took additional inspiration from Vergadain and stealthed her way through the last level down to find the mine master.
Here the golden amulet of fireballs she had been saving came in very handy, destroying his extensive bodyguard, and once they were dispatched a hastily summoned army of skeletons resisted everything the mine master could muster, until, spells expended, Abigail smashed his defenses down with her electric hammer while the remaining skeletons distracted his animated armors.
She took what she needed, information about the Iron throne, and flooded the mine, before setting out on her way to Baldur's Gate.
Here she began collecting anything of value she could, tomes that made her faster, wiser and smarter, rings to grant additional protection. Even the legendary helm and cloak of Balduran. She guessed she was one of the richest and best equipped in the city.
She killed another assassin, this time a poisoner, killed basilisks, dopplegangers, an entire temple of umberlee worshipers, and others, but somehow she knew that there was no benefit to any more killing. It had all become too easy. With that all that was left was amassing wealth. She decided that Durlag's Tower would be the next to fall and whispered a quiet prayer to Abbathor that her dungeon crawling would be successful.
Deaths: 2 (managed to get trapped by my own skeletons on floor 2 of cloakwood, serves me right for fighting everything like a noob)
Active curses for this run:
Cyric: Potion- and spellbuffs with a duration of less than 2 hours may only be applied during combat
Helm: Defensive items can only be recharged once in shops
Sune: Creatures cannot be charmed or dominated with items
Tyr: No attacking or killing of innocents unless they have been provoked through dialogue
Waukeen: Offensive items can only be recharged once in shops
Overall impressions: LoB + SCS should not be this easy.
I noted before some recent discussion suggesting that a single-class mage would be pointless for this challenge. They're not my favorite class, but I thought they should still be pretty good at tackling the Cataclysm - so here's Rueful sitting down wondering just what he's let himself in for.
A bit of combat in Candlekeep saw his cat familiar practising backstabs against a couple of blinded assassins. The cat doesn't regenerate, so is less useful in combat than a pseudo-dragon, but neutrality means Rueful doesn't have to worry about blights and smites.
Shoal runs around when blinded, so the cat just meleed her, taking advantage of her lack of a melee weapon to get Rueful a quick couple of levels, though just the 8 extra HPs.
A few tasks in Beregost included killing some merchants for Silke. The reputation decrease from that allowed Rueful to learn LMD as a Bhaal power. Then it was up to the FAI where Evermemory made it easy to blind the hobgoblins with Joia's ring.
He tried to draw the ghasts out of their valley tomb with a view to picking up the wand of monster summoning, but they refused to budge. Rueful wanted that wand for the golems at High Hedge, so for now settled for just pulling them outside (meaning they could be attacked later without annoying Thalantyr). While there he also dealt with some gnolls - picking up 6HP for level 4.
He also bought a few spells, including invisibility. That made the journey to Ulgoth's Beard pretty safe to go and buy a staff upgrade. Rueful also took advantage of the ankheg's large icon on the way, so that even the cat could attack from outside its (blinded) vision range.
With the staff upgrade, Rueful made use of an invisible blocking familiar to grind his way through a couple of battle horrors and get to level 5 with another 4 HPs.
Rueful had no spell protection, so the only other thing he intended to do there was hand Riggilo a dodgy gift. I lost concentration though and went back to talk to him again after passing the lock of hair over - resulting in him immediately turning invisible in preparation for a backstab. Rueful had no potion of invisibility himself, but hot-footed it down the stairs and managed to avoid being attacked. I decided that was a good place to save it though ...
Illusionist L6, 51 HPs, 20 kills
Abigail, just before she set off to Durlag's Tower, chased down some leads about the Iron Throne and confronted Duke Eltan with the evidence, who, against her will she added, teleported her to Candlekeep. There was little of interest here, though she did raid the tombs for a wisdom and strength boost after begin accused of murder.
Frustrated and not wanting to return to Baldur's Gate for a while, she descended back to level 2 of Durlag's Tower, stealthing around, picking up valuables and weathering a very painful multi-fireball trap with some protections. On the third level she was confronted by four "challenge rooms" a bear killed by skeletons, some sort of "fire-man" killed by skeletons, a slimey thing, partly killed by skeletons then flame-striked, and a baby-wyvern thing which she left to fry in a giant fireball trap; all of which allowed her access to the fourth level.
She grabbed everything of value she could, letting her army of 5 skeleton warriors clear the level while she buffled around filling her bags with loot. Of special mention was another amulet of fireballs, bringing her count to 4, an enchanted +2 great shield which replaced her current one, and a sling +3.
Feeling a degree of trepidation she progressed to the final room, avarice outweighing common sense.
She entered the final chamber, summoned her 5 skeletons, cast protection from evil '15 and conviction which she hoped would last a couple of rounds after she had completed her preparations. She then buffed herself with a scroll to provide immunity to magic, a potion of cloud giant strength, Potion of Heroism, an oil of speed and her innate draw upon holy might which bypassed the scroll's magical immunity.
Following the advice of the woman outside, she smashed the mirror, and she, the demons reflection, and her 5 skeletons went to town on the fiend. They managed to bring it near to death before it slew its reflection and swapping helmets she bought valuable time for her minions with durlags goblet before the five skeletons were likewise destroyed. Abigail noted that even with -15AC vs slashing the beast would still hit her almost constantly, and with a thac0 of 2 she could barely hit it so she proceeded to use her superior speed to hit and run, landing the killing crit after a few minutes. She stuffed its magical items in her pack and left.
Deaths: 7 (1 x stupid mistake on the floor 2-3 transition; 4 x not knowing what I was doing against this horrible horrible demon, thanks to @histamiini for the "PfM blocking your mirror image spawning" post)
I take back some of what I said about Fighter/Cleric easy mode because without wand of paralysis this thing is horrible. Even with super low AC it was killing me far faster than I could chug blood and it was almost impossible to land a hit. Considering my Dragon Disciple could beat this thing to death with her staff while paralyzed...
Mulahey: Pixie Dust to sneak through, then Bombardier Beetles + 5x Web + Spider Form giving Mulahey no time to react
Nimbul: Beetles + 5x Web + Improved Invisbility + Spider Form giving Nimbul no chance to escape
Tranzig: Just beetles
Lamalha: Met them while still being invsible so Lilli could retreat to cast iron Skill and call in Beetles to soak up the backstabs then 5x Web + Spider Form to kill both Archers, then Chromatic Orb petrified Zeela while Lamalha went down to the beetles and spikes
Bandit Camp: Iron Skin + PfL + Pixe Dust moving behind a pillar to get ouf of Raemon´s vision then 5x Web + Imp Invisibilty + Spider Form to loot chest and move out while everyone was stuck in the webs
Molkar: With Pixie Dust still up Lilli moved out of vision and buffed up with Iron Skin then Beetles and Imp Invisbility to reposition and cast 5x Web to kill the Mage using Spider form and then switching to Spike Growth and a new beetle summon for the rest
Drasus: This was fun thanks to Web stacking and then petrifying Drasus and Genthore turning them back to flesh and killing them instantly as they were still webbed
Davaeorn: Three Beetles to kill the guard and lure the horrors away while Lilli was stacking 5 Spike Growth for an easy kill
Ramazith: The second Bombardier Beetles stunned him which was enough to bring him down with spider form grabbing his Ring o Protection +2
Jalantha: Liili and friends were unable to kill Jalantha fast enough even with Webs all around the place at least one priestress always managed to dispel everything and heal the high priestress. Retreating out of the building made everything worse as the floor gets cleansed from all spells. Lilli out of desperation tried to use Chromatic Orb and - at least on the guards - this worked great. Once Jalantha was alone the Bombardier Beetle stunned her and without any dispels she went down quickly.
Iron Throne: Lured them down one after another were they got feeded to beetles and webs while Alai (the one with Ring of Free Action) got petrified, turned to flesh and killed with spider form
Candlekeep: Imp Invisibility then Spike Growth out of vision while soaking up one Glitterdust, buffed up, grabbed Tomes then stealthed out again
Durlags Tower Level 1: Collected all items while using PfL and Salamandre Form to soak up traps, Lured Love into the trap corridor burning him down, rested at the entrance
Durlags Tower Level 2: Grabbing key stones alongside Kiels Helmet and Durlags Goblet, Lured all Ghasts into the Fire traps but misclicked on one of their bodies breaking invisbility. Even worse Lilli got paralyzed as the Ring of Free Action was not equipped and the last Ghast broke Iron Skin while taking damage from Fire Shield. Both nearly dead the Ghast died bringing Lilli down to 7 HP with his last hit - puh.
Durlag Tower Level 3: Burned all Ghasts in the Fire Room, then the Bear followed before the Slime got burned down by 13 charges from Wand of Heaven. The Air Aspect was again burned in the machine before 6x Spike Growth and some Beetles took down the Phoenix Guards while Lilli was casting PfL and went invisible before getting teleported to the chess board - which was skipped.
Durlag Tower Level 4: Skipped the spiders with Invisibilty and closing the door, then luring Grael into the slime waiting several minutes before the 1 damage ticks took him down. Grabbed another skull keystone from the the Alps but avoiding any fight by closing the door. Too bad that 21 STR was not enough to get the Sling +3, a Shapeshifter in Werewolf Form and with 22 STR could crack the chest open. Damn it.
Demon Knight: Beetles and more beetles until the third wave of Bombardier Beetles managed to double stun the demon bringing him down to badly wounded before being able to act again. Luckily the weapons of Bombardiers count as +1. PfM and breaking the mirror unleashed the fiend who killed his nemesis without any problems - GG.
Aec Letec: Sneaked in invisible then killing Tracea Carol with 6x Spike Growth while luring the guards to a corner were they got burned to ashes with Wand of Heaven one after another. Got really lucky this time as the second beetle wave put in the first stun bringing the demon already down to injured. Lilli always made sure always to stay out of Aec Letecs vision which was quite easy thanks to double speed from Spider Form + Boots of Speed. The fourth wave then rolled another stun and with three Bombardiers and Spider Form the poor demon was hacked to pieces.
Fun note: After killing the Demon Knight Lilli got ambushed by Kobolds... the same who killed Ivy the Shapeshifter before.. but this time LMD and just waiting for a hit near the map border made sure this wont happen again. Time to prepare for the Palace Ambush and Sarevok!
Good luck to the rest of you...! ;o)
Slythe: 6x Dispel Magic, 4x Web, Iron Skin then Spider Form (also 1x Magic Shielding in case for early break of Kristin) got him down to injured before he broke free.... retreated... True Seeing, again 4x Web going in with Spider Form he was nearly dead before escaping again... but not for long as he got burned down by Wand of Heaven.
Palace Ambush: For this one Lilli prepared 8x Web and bought 40x Stunning Darts while also buffing up with Iron Skin and memorizing 3x Insect Swarm. The start was easy: Place Web so three Nobles (the Mage and Shaman!) got webbed, then move in to trigger talking, retreat and hit the three Dopplegangers with Dispel Magic while constantly stunning the three Nobles. One, two, three... Liia untouched, Belt only injured. Then activating the next one while still keeping the Mage und Shaman stunned. Four down. Then waiting for the Shaman who got had no chance as not a single guard had died so far.. and finally... activating the Mage with Insect Swarm in mid air pointed at one beetle... so the poor one could only use his spell triggers while trying to hack anyone down... the second Insect Swarm followed... and the third... GG. With Liia still untouched and Belt badly wounded this was far easier than expected. Thanks again @AvidGamerFan! ;o)
So only Sarevok left... time to collect some items before facing her evil brother!
I was wondering if the ability drain (3pts str and dex) were cumulative and if this could be used to insta-kill things by draining them below 1str or dex but stacking 5 on a wolf doesn't seem to do that, despite them having 9 dex. Ctrl-Q seems to show that the ability score drain is only applied once (down to 6 dex), while the combat log shows blindness procing for each cast every round. It still might be of use for some things since an AoE 1-turn blindness effect combined with a -3 str (and dex) debuff is not to be underestimated. This might actually be better than conviction + skellies, if (if) enemies fail their saves.
edit: as an extreme bonus, it doesn't effect the caster, so Abigail can go hog wild with her hammer inside the cloud. Not bad for a level 4 priest spell.
Blind Krystin completely neutered once she failed a save, blind Slythe easily killed by minions. Abigail just chills out.
3 stacked casts means 3 saves needed to be passed each round for 4 rounds, that's pass 12 saves or be blinded and str+dex drained for a turn. it ticks at 3dam/round too (save negates though), so it will disrupt spells on save failure. Aaaand its save vs breath, not spell so its an absolute mage killer. Plus at 7/7 with 21 wis and the ring of sune Abigail has two more casts in the bank to drop at about the 45-50 second mark for another turn-ish of blind. Kahrk was killed in the same way.
Executive Summary: Angelo shows off his range of instant-kill weaponry... including on a surprising final target!
While Angelo was selling his excess goods, Felicity remarked, "You showcased several instant-death weapons last episode. You could use them to earn some quick XP, if you were so inclined..."
Firkraag's dungeon had considerable amounts of this low hanging fruit. The trio of golems (a juggernaut and a pair of stones, for [16,000 + (2 x 8,000)] XP total) beyond the archers' deathtrap was first to face the rod of smiting, but Angelo didn't hesitate to wipe out the other trio of golems (a 25,000 XP adamantine specimen and another pair of stones) that had been guarding Heartseeker +3 before he'd stolen it. Switching to the mace of disruption, the undead troupe was next (consisting of four elder vampires - worth 3 x 10,500 XP with a 12,000 XP outlier - three 3,000 XP mummies, two 650 XP ghasts, two 2,000 XP wraiths, two 420 XP shadows, one 2,000 XP shadow fiend and one 8,000 XP greater wraith). Finally, after disarming the Dire Charm trap on the chest the vampires were watching, Angelo equipped the staff of air and earned yet another 7,000 XP killing the bridge-bound air elemental.
In truth, this 148,640 XP buffet was the starter for a Tazok flavoured main course. Avoiding General Digdag and his collateral orcs, Angelo used Mislead to slaughter his old foe (who'd somehow increased in value from 4,000 XP in BG1 to 6,000 XP now, despite being appreciably less dangerous) and made his escape. On his way out, he rediscovered Samia, which reminded him to take out her allies Kaol (8,000 XP), Legdoril (6,000 XP), Akae (8,000 XP) and Chak (6,000 XP). For good measure, since she was clearly going to betray him, Angelo killed Samia (9,000 XP) and buried the treasure hunters in the tomb they'd tricked him into opening for them.
Despite earning 192,140 XP in total, this was only ever of secondary concern. The primary reason for this jaunt was to recover the Sewer Key from Tazok's body, which Angelo planned to use immediately.
Angelo was also in a better position for several other reasons. Not only did Angelo sense himself able to rest and retreat if necessary, but there were also no hopeless neutrals to defend. He also had access to the fearsome silver sword, whose vorpal capabilities could bypass the mindflayers' physical resistance to kill instantly upon occasion; its 25% activation chance and allowance of a save at -2 penalty dampened its effectiveness, but it was still quicker than any available tactic outside of Mislead backstabbing inside a temporal bubble. The shortbow fo Gesen's electrical damage similarly bypassed the illithids' physical resistance and enabled effective kiting in a pinch. In addition, Angelo had more HLA to play with now, combined with a willingness to use them now he'd reached the so-called endgame.
Finally, Felicity had managed to formulate some new strategies during the interim period. Since mindflayers struck as +2 weapons, not only would the aforementioned Protection from Magical Weapons block their attacks entirely, but Mantle, Improved Mantle and Absolute Immunity would also do the trick. Angelo had also worked out that Stoneskin blocked their Ballistic Attacks (with each attack removing a skin), so together with Protection from Magic Energy or the cloak of mirroring, Angelo could prevent them from damaging him. Unfortunately, Protection from Magic Energy wouldn't protect Animate Dead's skeletons from Detonate, but the freshly available brine potions would counter psionics, saving valuable greenstone amulet charges.
Angelo sensed the chamber beyond - which contained 3 mindflayers, 2 ulitharids and an umber hulk - was much more dangerous. In preparation, Angelo cast Stoneskin and Improved Haste while equipping his silver sword, cloak of mirroring and girdle of bluntness, having drunk a potion of absorption and 3 potions of genius (making his Intelligence 31, and able to survive 6 stat-draining critical hits). The potion of invulnerability was preferable not only because it defended against the umber hulk's confusing gaze, but it also lasted for 1 hour (as opposed to the brine potion's 1 turn), so it wouldn't awkwardly fall off mid-battle. As his Intelligence was buffed, Angelo scribed all of his unlearned spells for another XP bump, a welcome boost before entering the fray.
The results were impressive. Angelo confessed that he thought his rolls had been somewhat lucky... but his tactics had put him in a position to benefit from this good fortune. At first, he attacked the mindflayers, whose attacks were just as draining as their vampiric cousins', but whose slightly less impressive saves made them more vulnerable to vorpalling.
Angelo was incredulous. "You're telling me that if I read such a scroll, it will neither attack nor cast spells and will effectively ignore me?" Felicity nodded and, trusting her word, Angelo activated his Protection from Undead before entering.
Compared to the last, this chamber contained an extra umber hulk, as well as a djinni pair automatically summoned by the alhoon's sequencer. True to Felicity's word, the alhoon didn't react as Angelo's time trap went off and he started hacking at the nearest mindflayer. Retreating into the corridor to delay being surrounded, Angelo took advantage of the djinni's prediliction for casting Stinking Cloud - Angelo's buffed saves made him functionally immune, but even the illithid's 90% MR and general resilience didn't prevent them from succumbing occasionally... and when they did, Angelo was sure to capitalise, the silver sword's reach being sufficient to poke at them behind enemy ranks if necessary.
One by one, the mindflayers fell, killed by the vorpal weapon's terrible powers. Once their corpses littered the battlefield, Angelo turned on the ulitharids, his blade sweeping to and fro in a deadly dance of decapitation. After severing the umber hulks' heads from the bodies, it was the turn of the summoned djinni, who Angelo didn't mind engaging the old-fashioned way should the situation demand it... and since SCS classified them as gated creatures, they were immune to Death Spell and so the situation very much demanded it!
Finally, all that was left was the alhoon, who attempted to flee invisibly after Angelo's first attack, but whose efforts were stymied by Detect Illusion. Since it was affected by Protection from Undead, Angelo hazarded a guess that mace of disruption might affect it... and he was right!
Snatching Crom Faeyr, the wand of wonder and a mysterious note, Angelo renewed his Invisibility and checked on the thralls. Seeing that the death of their masters had not broken their mental servitude, Angelo abandoned them to their fate.
"From this note and the alhoon's final comments, it looks as if the illithid were preparing an army for an invasion," the imp gasped as they left the mindflayer's lair. "Do you think this refers to the events that unfold in the trailer for Baldur's Gate 3?"
"You may be Felicity Foresight," Angelo laughed as he tossed the note away, "but even your oracular powers are not that good!"
SCS/LOB
Chapter 6
Looted Candlekeep top room, got caught in but escaped invisible. Looted the tavern, went for Rieltar.
Charmed Tuth with nymph cloak, who cleared the room for me before dying to Brunos, who got killed webbed. Got Magic Protection potion (4th)
Went to the Catacomb and loothed the area with shield+protection from fire+globe of minor invulnerability to save on absorption potions maybe for later. Got strength and wisdom tome, PfM scroll and another WoF (4th). Didn't need to recharge a single WoF yet.
For Prat party, charmed Bor who murdered them all, then got rid of him simply by resting as a ton of spiders came to finish him. Failed charm against wraith spider, so i just dragged them upstairs before fleeing invisible to loot the cave area freely.
Palace Ambush
Went to save Duke Eltan by web+spider+WoMS the greater doppleganger.
Went to Blade and Star and charmed Larze with the help of Web then went downstairs to let him kill Slythe without any problems, then threw a fireball to reveal Krystin who eventually got killed too, took a bit more time but she couldn't do anything against Larze.
Time for the palace fight... which will probably be horrible as i really didn't know what to expect... Well it was and the doppleganger saves were ridiculous for the mage and shaman, they were hard to paralyse even after GM.
2 Deaths from surprise backstab (1 shotted, this assassin has no chill)
1 death from purple meteor thing.
1 Death from acid arrow
1 Death again from spider summon
1 death where i got exploded by a skeleton warrior just about to finish the fight
Decided to take a time to just look at the doppleganger types by pausing, then reloading and charming the stronger ones. Attempted to charm the mage and shaman.
I charmed them and made a very exciting discovery... if invisible, i can make a nobleman attack another one and the flaming fist are going to kill the hostile nobleman. I used this to kill them all but the one i've charmed. Broke the AI and the fight wouldn't start.
Tried pre-charming the Shaman and Mage nobleman, fight ended with no enemies left and then softlocked again... i had no choice but to fight "fair".
Charmed 3 nobles, 2 being the shaman and the mage, and dragged them to another room. Fought 3 with WoMS, then 1 again with WoMS, then the last 2 (mage/shaman) bugged twice in a row for some reason. Shaman dies no problem, mage got invincible into squirrel one time and the other one he would stay invisible and wouldn't do anything.
3rd time was the "charm", i must say that Liia teleport field is atrocious. Ironically, the time that it worked, Liia bugged as she came talking to me once Belt died and would repeat the dialogue over and over again as soon as i would end it, so i had to drink an invisibility potion to interrupt her after a quick pause so we could deal with Sarevok. Mission accomplish, time for Durlag's tower!
Next time, i'm moving the shaman and the mage in a different room... I'm also bringing some arrows of dispelling! This was by far my most difficult fight so far, first few attempts with teleport field and chaos were horrible to see. One of the first times where i had a surprised pikachu face looking at my screen.
6 deaths for this, now for a total of 10.
Snow maze
Did Marek and Lothander with Tremain's son and got the wisdom tome and a 5th potion of magic protection from killing the temple of the water queen. Marek got his buffs tanked by WoMS, then got squirreled by GM + WoPoly. I really should try spell trust soon.
Went to do the snow maze, 2 charmed wolved killed the mage party. One of them teleported away somewhere. Then Cuchol who dropped another WoP. Garan never had the time to summon ankhegs.
They would only hit on crit against Tellan so it took a bit of time, upgraded my wolf pack to 6 to make it better, i had to wait much further as i saw him casting an illusion detection spell. I used an old friend for scouting the rest of the area... good old Pseudo Dragon!
Andreis teleported to Dezkiel it seems and both had the same fate as the rest of the enemies of this dungeon. Got Stoneskin, which was the whole reason i came to this dungeon.
Drank a potion of genius and learned 12 scrolls. Also bought Greenstone amulet even if i don't really think that this character is going to need it at -2, -3 spell saves.
Durlag's Tower
1st floor: Cleared the area of non-repeatable traps with minor glove of invulnerability to save some potion of absorptions just in case, i usually have plenty but i don't know what to expect.
Decided not to waste PfU against skeleton warriors and used WoMS + Haste instead, which worked pretty well. 3 Hasted ogres can easily defeat them if they're alone. Same treatment for the mustard jellies with some hit and run with Ashedeena+DUHM.
Greater Dopplegangers and the 4 wardens killed with the top left double fireball trap. Fear took more time but it eventually killed them all. Avarice backstabbed me for a 1 shot first attempt for death #11. I should always be stoneskined from now on...
2nd floor: Dealt with the doppleganger with WoPoly (worked once... those saves!) while in Durlag form, GM + WoP if that failed. Worked very well with WoMS and web for support. Got 2 essential items that i must NOT forget for SoD: Kiel's helmet and Durlag's goblet.
For the corridor with the ghast, got them 1 by 1 by putting a web down and WoPoly them when webbed, of course with edventar's gift to avoid paralysis in case of saves. Their wand save were low so it went very well. Protection from fire + balista's passeport makes the fire trap an healing trap which is very useful.
Lured the Dwarven doom guards into the fireball trap again, looted the chests, went to sell a bit of stuff and progressed to 3rd floor. Made more than 10k from useless scrolls and potions. Didn't recharge my wands yet, WoMS was a 22, WoP 38 and WoPoly 81. Kept Kiel's helmet and Durlag's goblet on me for emergency healing.
3rd floor: The simplest level! Used the beginning fireball trap to kill the 3 greater wyverns, who just get stuck on the door. That trap deals insane damage so it's very quick despite their magical resistance and saves.
Almost killed myself there killing the greater ghouls with the south fireball trap before the 4 boss rooms as my protection from fire ran out but survived at 22 hp.
Killed Kaldran the bear with fire trap and his wolves on melee, also lured the Fission slime after a few minutes... the most efficient way is to keep it at the limit of the fog of war as it's range is slightly less, so it will keep slowly moving toward you to attack. Finished it with 2x WoF scorcher at near death.
Bow Phoenix guard with WoP + WoMS, the sword one with 3x WoPoly charge with my remaining monsters for the final blows (he respawned 2 times), Air aspect lured into the fireball trap.
Chess table simply passed invisible with non-detection but then decided to find an easy working trick to get rid of the king if i wanted to make some loot runs. Had very good success by doing a WoPoly cast and fleeing by the door right away to drag as many of the knights as possible near Islanne before returning invisible to smack the king as he is the only one not following you.
4th floor:
Did the spider room invisible and got jumped at the end by the spiders, so i did a small WoMS diversion, WoP the astral and sword spiders to charm them with Nymph Cloak and cleared the room pretty easily, GM + WoPoly the Ettercaps.
GM + WoPoly the Helmet horror for the wardstone, WoMS as a distraction then GM + WoPoly Grael and all his friends.
Had to save myself from the trap containing The Burning Earth with Goblet.
For the Demon Knight, died the first time by my clone who used my own tactics against me (death 12) while trying to WoP the demon knight who resisted everything. So second try i used a PFM scroll to avoid him from dispelling my buffs and broke the mirror right away, waited for a winner. The Demon Knight was left injured so i spammed WoMS too keep him busy and tried my luck with WoP, which worked after 11 tries (85 MR and he saved once). After this he was done.
Almost done! Well this segment brough my death count from 4 to 12 thanks to the palace ambush, now i'll know what to expect at least... I plan dealing with the cultists next for the potion of heroism and Aec'Latec for fun, then will probably try Karoug, will probably try Kahrk too as he is in the Cataclysm challenge so why not having a bit of practice, then Sarevok.
Plan for Sarevok will either be to lure the basilisk from south Baldur's Gate to see if he can cheese the fight by himself or drink two potions of magic protection and exploit the skull trap in the center of the room if it didn't get nerfed with SCS. If that doesn't work, well i've got a ton of wands of fire and didn't use any One Gift Lost yet, i still expect 5-10 deaths just for this.
I stacked Cloud of Pestilence offscreen on demon knight. This does not aggro it or proc the intro dialogue. With the high MR and saves it took about 20 casts to get it to proc blindness the first time, about 8 the second and 1 the third. Fortunately you can rest freely in the demon chamber...
Once blinded the demon knight will begin to wander. If you attack it that will proc the first conversation after which it will continue to wander. Use scroll of PfM and wait for cloud to nearly dissipate, break mirror and run up into the demon knights blind FoV again, which procs the 2nd dialogue and summons the mirror fiend. (interestingly if you break the mirror while the demon knight is blind before procing the 1st dialogue nothing happens, nor does the mirror fiend spawn if, after 1st dialogue then breaking mirror, you don't get inside the demon knight's blind FoV again)
The mirror fiend's weapon is 2-handed range so it attacks from outside of the blind Demon Knight's FoV meaning it will just stand there getting hit and will not attack the mirror fiend. This took it down to badly injured before the 1-turn blindness expired. That was enough for the mirror fiend to finish the demon knight.
Screenshot of the health discrepancy between demon knight and mirror fiend with strategy:
Also, does anyone know what level the Dispel Magic from Bala's Axe is cast at? BG Wiki says it's at the caster's priest level, which effectively means that only shamans (along with rangers and paladins, to a lesser extent) can use it properly. I had hoped that my WS archer could use it to avoid the long kiting session with Sarevok, but testing seems to show it's as good as useless.
One interesting use for Cloud of Pestilence, @alice_ashpool, might be for C/M to use as an extra way of decreasing Belhifet's Strength and/or Dexterity prior to a Contagion-based kill.
You're welcome, @Harpagornis!
Yes - but that doesn't help someone operating under WS restrictions ...
Khark:
6x Spike Growth -> 6x Web -> Spider Form -> only five more hits and the big one fell down
Sarevok:
1. Dominated Wudei with Nymph and let her summon a Skeleton Warrior in the temple
2. Sacrificed Wudei against Sarevok and lured them to the SE-corner going invisible
3. Used the Skeleton Warrior to kill Angelo as his weapon could not touch the Undead
4. Waited for buffs to expire before casting 6x Spike Growth on the rest killing Semaj
5. Then 6x Necklace of Missiles to kill Tazok and Diarmid
6. Salamandre Form to outrun Sarevok and burning him down with 85x Wand of Heavens
Welcome to SoD!
@Grond0: I know, i know!