@alice_ashpool ah... this is clearly something i missed there, which couldn't be covered during Histamiini's run as he did the run staying at level 1 avoiding level drain, which honestly would have been better in the end as 99% of BG1 is wand + charm, just need the sandthief ring and a few invisibility potions and scrolls instead then those are plentiful in SoD, paws of the cheetah and damage immunity for other normal areas with no crowd control, edventar's gift for the woods. Plenty of knock scrolls to open what's important (the 2 attribute books in candlekeep and that's it).
At this point it is pretty clear, staying level 1 + damage immunity is pretty much the only way to do it properly and level drain is pretty much just for classes that can afford the martyr morning star. Still, you have the ambush to deal with and the issue is the first troll wave so i can't see any other classes than blade or a cleric/mage to make it. Rest can be killed easily with OGL, WoF and a PFM to avoid chromatic orbs.
I might even restart it to see how it goes as i don't have a sense of accomplishement anymore having to rely on a random polymorph glitch to get passed through it and some ridiculous save and rest bugs. The outcome would end up being the same really, with much less hassle. I wouldn't have to buff for traps at all to stay alive. I might actually try that. Wands and charm is easy carry for bg1 honestly.
Hesperia coasted through to Baldur's Gate with no issues.
Checked it out and the Arrow of Detonation dupe/glitch works fine in Sorcerous Sundries, so you can leave BG1 with a quiver of 240 if you want. Which I will be doing. Works fine with Arrows of Dispelling too, if you so wish.
Edit: went and did the loop properly with the arrows too: Bought 240 Detonation arrows and still 200,000GP in the pocket (240 arrows cost about 44,000GP). I hear people out there are still selling plate mail and farming Ankhegs to this day ^-^
After Mulahey, instead of going for XP, Hesperia did the bare minimum, Buying Aule's Staff and Greenstone. Collected the tomes via stealth, Bandit camp via stealth, Red wizards via OGL and then stealth all the way down to Dav, he got the OGL then Victor. Kindly he lustered with the Battle Horrors so thats a free 8k xp. With Shield and Talos Gift, the Dav-traps can just be run through then go north and stealth immediately. This will trigger Davs convo, but only haff his buffs. With a < 1 in 10 change Hesperia actualy got a crit backstab on him, which took him down to injured, and brought out his main-buffs inc. stoneskin. It's risky since he could have hit Hesperia with a Minor Sequencer Chromatic Orb or other instant wipe spell, but I'm not particularly attached to no-reload this time, since I feel Dukes will be a wipe anyway.
Unlocking BG, Hesperia used 3 Master Thievery and Friends to buy steal and sell 10x WoMS, 10x WoL and 10 WotH and I think a 4th set of wands giving her 380,000GP. She bought 240 Arrows of Detonation, Robe of the Good Archmagi and the second OGL and still had almost 320,000GP left. She then did the 3rd OGL quest and a few others. The telescope quest is good since it nets you valuable gems which you can hang on to in your gembag until SoD to have lots of cash straight away.
Hesperia only has 35,000XP and is level 5/5/6. She is currently at Durlag's swinging away for an extra 8k then will do the Basilisks and Candlekeep before mopping up and going for Slythe -> Dukes -> Saravok
This is the one that's going to go all the way, I feel it. FMT is quite simply the easiest I have ever had it.
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Playing a F+T combo is making me very keen on thac0 and backstabs - Hesperia has had a couple of 100HP crit-backstabs now, and even LoB health goes down very quickly when you can do around 40-50HP damage per hit and you are hitting 50% of the time. I am wondering about a plain F/T, or F->T and T->F duals. It might be possible to do a Shadowdancer (9) -> Fighter for HiPS 4x backstabs, but you would have to get through Bel with an unkitted low base-HP Fighter and Dukes as either a Shadowdancer or a level 6(?) fighter.
Crazy how rich a thief class can end up with pickpocket. This actually encourages me to try a blade for the next run. No backstabs but still great with tenser+mislead and can actually level drain using Martyr morningstar for an easy Belhifet. Can't wait to see the numbers you're going to put up with the staff of the ram in BG2. I really wanted to try mage/thief but i have no clue what to do against Belhifet except praying for a polymorph, which would be the best class to do it with due to Detect Illusions. Still, i think that it's only 10% chance to succeed assuming a realistic 60-40 MR max with lower resist putting each shot at 4-6% chance to work during the LR period, assuming that you succeed every shot before he turns back invisible. Contagion apparently doesn't bypass MR anymore so that's a no go.
One thing i'm wondering is if the Amulet of Whispers could work against Belhifet to deny his invisibility and perhaps even his Gates, this would give a possibility for casters to have a decent RNG chance without relying on 1 hp. Still, he might have vocalize or those could be totally scripted bypassing the spell effect. Will test this later but -5 saves + -4 from GM would give around 55% chance not counting MR to land which is pretty good odds. Not sure if he could also be blinded, that would be 30% chance to work with an illusionist/thief. Having a Bel that stay there would be awesome.
On another note, i'm done with my previous sorcerer, restarted another neutral good human Sorc that i will post about soon, which is pretty much impossible to kill with greenstone amulet with the only downside of limited invisibility so far. For the Bel kill, here are the screenshots:
Can't bother playing this character anymore even if i made it. I still can't figure out how i achieved permanent jelly here.
For the lift for anybody who wants to do it with a level 1 mage, here is the fastest way i managed to do hit. It works very well:
Wave 1: WoMS, WoPara on the Imp and smash with 2x Dagger+2
Wave 2: Wand of lightning. Try to aim perfectly horizontal and it will hit a massive 5 times per cast. Remember Clarity potion.
Wave 3: Clarity + stoneform, wand of lightning.
WoL is easier to aim than it seems. Aim it left/right and not up/down and it kills surprisingly quickly. 25 charges is usually enough for all waves.
Should be fine for Bel with my new L1 sorc. Going to plan out the same weapons, purification stone with Spirit Armor + Stone form should allow me to survive. I think the actual save needed for the stun is 1 and -1 for Belhifet sickness so using the silver circlet, 2x stoneform or 1 spirit armor 1 SF should be fine, pretty much the same with purification stone in the end as i will achieve disease immunity and 0 save with ST buffs (also switched Balduran cloak for displacement which i forgot about). This should give me a minimum of 15 hours with the same setup as before if everything goes well, if i lack +3 ammo i can finish him with jelly form with no strength bonuses however and there are more than enough scrolls to push through. Still should be more than enough for the remaining 100-200 damage left after using the two enchanted weapon with throwing daggers +1.
Edit: Correciton, spirit armor serves no purpose as it's only save vs spell... oh well back to keeping a ton of stone forms.
Rolled Vega, again a level 1 sorc but human and neutral good instead, even if it really won't change that much as i won't use a familiar at all this time except for the extra HP by the end of SoD.
88 total stats, Lv1 spells: Identify, protection from petrification
Goal here is to still eventually obtain xp cap by the end of SoD to start with 500k xp in BG2
Now for BG1
Overall prep up to the bandit camp
Candlekeep 200 xp, avoided a all combat, forgot Hull longsword but i don't really care
Marl 900 xp
Straight to Nashkel, Noober 400 xp, sold Ankheg plate for 4250, got 4548 total from selling other stuff i picked up
Picked up Heart of the golem +2 from Hentold and the 2 potions from the carnival
Went back for the diamond, ring of prince +1.
Sold everything in High Edge, bought Claw for damage immunity, potion case, the 3 invisibility scrolls and a potion of free action.
Then the most irratating thing ever seems to happen... on my way to get the WoMS, i seem to constantly get harassed by 2-3 gnolls no matter my approach.
Had to use and invisibility scroll along the potion of freedom to get the wand, didn't get hit at all but the free action made sure i didn't get stuck there just in case.
WoMs dealt with Algernon, now got 20 charisma.
Went straight to Mulahey to charm him then fed him to Kobolds, got it 2nd try, reported to Berun.
Killed Mulahey with 2x WoMS and 9x WoFrost charges.
Turned in the quest and WoMS Dushai for Edventar's gift and web scroll.
Bought rep back from 6 to 13
Rep run: Firebeard 1, Brage 1, not Greywolf 1, Charmed Emerson and Amnian soldier killed Greywolf while i tanked 1, Samuel 1, at the same time a guard killed Tarnesh while i took a super long and had to rest to wake back up, greenstone amulet call.
Joia ring 1, Farmer Brun 1 for 20.
Got 25k from selling all my loot, recharged WoMS, went to buy greenstone amulet.
Went to Shoal and accidently talked to her... seems like it wouldn't kill me and i just fell uncounsious for a bit. Killed her for a bit of xp and her pearl.
Met Halacan party on my way to get the tome of constitution and tome of paralysis. Tanked them and dispatched of them with WoMS.
Used 2x greenstone charge for the WoPara, con tome and Relair mistake which i used a bit to move around faster.
Managed to charm both Meilum and Poe to help against Khark. 2 try with WoPara and he was done, then we finished paralysed Meilum together.
Went back to kill the Revenant in the valley of tomb and had to defeat the whole map on my arrival bandit camp style. Killed it and got the invisibility potion.
Greenstone amulet and paralysed Nimbul, same with Neira with a small WoMS help. Finally i sold Relair Mistake, really not fast enough.
Had more than 20k again so bought Sandthief ring which should have enough charge for most of BG1.
Recharged WoPara and did more chores to get as much gold as i could without taking unnecessary risks, got charisma tome. Also defeated Zeela's group the same way and killed Neera in FAI for the gem bag.
Recharged Greentone and OGL before bandit camp.
Bandit camp and Iron Throne
Charmed Taurgosz to let him die to skeletons then Britik 1st try using my invisibility scroll inside the tent to clear it, WoPara Raemon and finished Britik with WoMS.
Went to cloakwood and got Gurze cloak killing the Tasloi with WoF scorcher.
Charmed Drasus with my invisibility potion and fed him to the guards who i killed. Then charmed Genthore to help killing the mages. They never aggroed so it was simple.
Reached Davaorn with invisibility potion from Drasus party + 1x sandthief. killed his guards and horrors for a bit more XP with 22 OGL, tanked Davaeorn with his horrors then finished him with 2x WoMS.
Can confirm, no more AC bracer from him.
Did Tenya's bowl by landing a crit on her first for 2k xp (500 more than straight bowl) then went shopping in BG.
Did a few side quests, tasks and overall clear for more xp and gold like Mutamin Garden where i charmed a lesser basilisk to assist Korax to sweep the area then got the Victor by only charming Danek.
Did Durlag for the extra xp from the Basilisks and the wis tome, killed the horrors with 9x WoF scorcher. Left at 148k xp which is more than enough for the xp cap, now i'm just getting what i need and speed up until the crusader ambush.
Got all tome except 1x wisdom and strength, got WoP, guard ring, cloak of displacement, fireshield blue scroll, scar jobs done, level cap in xp, a few invisible potions and 1 invisible scroll available, 6 charges of sandthief still time for the Iron throne then Candlekeep.
Charmed Aasim to help clearing the area while i tanked the assassins, used 1 invisibility scroll.
Candlekeep, easy buggy palace and Sarevok
In Candlekeep, greenstone amulet to avoid the ogre mage (probably could have been more careful due to possible chromatic orbs) then used strength scroll for clarity potion in the inn and looted the castle. Still had 40k gold with all scrolls and potion bought for SoD.
Tuth took care of Rieltar party but died to Bruno who i had to finish myself. Paralysed the watcher to go sell my stuff to the inn before going to the catacomb.
Got the two attribute books and used a GM scroll + WoPoly for the spiders.
Now got to figure out on what i'm going to use the third knock (didn't find anything as i forgot the 4th one and didn't care about Ragefast this time).
Charmed a greater basilisk and dragged Prat party to it.
Came back with 50k gold and nothing to spend it on so i recharged my wands for 15k total.
Charmed Larze and made him kill Slythe while invisible then used an oil of fiery burning to activate Krystin. Greenstone + WoMS to assist Larze and waited a good minute offscreen for Larze to finish the job.
Went to charm the warehouse basilisk for the ambush and brought it to the palace by the sewers which is the next exit straight north. Got pretty unlucky and had to paralyse over 5 flaming fist to get there, 2 of them who followed through the sewers. It wouldn't work as they would follow me forever even out of screen and spawn in the throne room so i had to use an invisibility potion here.
Decided to not charm any nobleman this time to see if the balisisk can manage it.
In less than 20 seconds, only an air elemental was left so we had to wait for it to despawn to not waste wand charges. I moved the basilisk away to avoid issues.
Then something totally weird and awful happened... an hostile flaming fist enforcer got inside for some reason and got petrified by my basilisk for a sweet -10 rep. Reloaded and rested outside then tried again.
Had the same bug as my last run again. 2 Winski seemed to spawn so 1 is getting away while the other one stays there invincible and lock me there.
Needed 3 tries to actually get the good outcome where i'm teleported into the thieve guild. One time i got a second Winski that managed to die, but then i didn't get teleported and the thieve guild was still fine so i had no access underground meaning i was softlocked. Really glitchy encounter in 2.6 so far. For NR assuming that Winski RNG is there for you, charm the mage to drag it away so it doesn't confuse your basilisk. The whole fight last about 1 minute max each time.
Final prep before SoD, still 35k to spend and got plenty of stuff for SoD so i won't do any more quests. Grabbed the last OGL so now i have 3 fully charged and a WoF. Spent the rest into more WoF to either sell or use in SoD so now i have 3.
Got my stuff from the Beregost house and time for Sarevok. Wasted an invisibility here as i forgot about it while in the maze.
Skipped the party and Tamoko this time.
Sarevok party, waited the PFM, 1x GM, 6 fiery burning, 4 explosion, 3 OGL Semaj, +8 Tazok, +7 Angelo, +12 Diarmid.
Sarevok: GM, 1x WoPara, started throwing Dart of Stunning at half HP just in case while i'm not even sure it worked once and he got finished. I can confirm that my Sarevok has proper ST. I'm also 99% sure that the ST got corrected for LoB in 2.6. They probably kept the same roll up to 25 without giving a ST bonus.
Sarevok ST on my install
Tanky man does it again
Time for SoD!
Level 1 playthrough is pretty easy honestly. For a human sorc, Evermemory, hidden stuff + Anhkeg plate = immunity in 2 minutes. No worry about traps, waylaid, damage or anything. The big deal is to not forget Greenstone amulet for mages to not be put to sleep for 15 real minutes (good thing i could rest after Tarnesh). The 2 other downsides that i've experimented so far are:
- the lack of infinite invisibility but the damage immunity allows you to run through many areas without caring at all. It can get pretty buggy when they chase you however like i experimented three times. Once in valley of tomb, once in High Hedge and once in BG city.
- Totally useless without wands. For mages, any other mage kit or multiclasses can web or hold to avoid using wand charges or debuff like crazy with Blind+Slow. You actually feel pretty powerful for LoB while a Lv1 sorc is wand,wand,wand,charm,wand and GM from scrolls for better odds.
In the end, it was easier than my leveled sorc. Hopefully it's going to be worth it in BG2.
Thanks to NearInfinity, i've located a few more potion merchants that should have stone form potions in SoD. With the Purification stone setup however, i shouldn't need more than 8-10 to be done with SoD.
Started SoD with 192k xp which is pretty big. Grabbed the invisibility potion from the king of cupboard thing and didn't use PFU to arrest the followers. Used the robe of minor arcana a few times and got Alveus note 2 which is pretty funny.
1x invisibility to Korlasz an decided to not waste time so greenstone + 4x The Victor while tanking did the job. Just realised that i almost didn't rest in BG1 so i only have 1 DHUM. No big deal.
Used last knock for the staff quest. No glitch this time and i was able to leave the tomb without problem, got 8 potion of invisibility just from the tomb.
Finished Korlasz for fun. Went into the city to get Lon's amulet that i won't really need and the spectacle of spectacle after shopping all the scrolls and potion that i needed at Sorcerous Sundries.
Still got 40k from selling my stuff keeping the 3 WoF. Left with 25k still and killed Viconia before leaving.
Out in the wild, dwarf crypt and choosing to ''not'' surrender the fort.
Had just enough to buy everything i wanted from Belegarm.
Did Menhir quest and killed Teleria with WoPara.
Watched the dwarf getting killed invisible then PFU. GM+WoPoly the Bronze Sentry.
Allied with the lich for the crusader attack and left after placing the scepters.
1x PFU was enough to do everything and 1 more invisibility scroll for the ghost treasure.
306k xp and still 10k while having nothing left to buy, left to the next chapter.
Dragged the troll from outside the save to the flaming fist camp and finished the troll with bullets of fire for a bit more xp (20k).
Got 1st enchanted weapon.
Green dragon daggered, Zialtar polymorphed + Victor.
Polymorphed Ashanna and ran straight to the mind flayer. Charmed Shallen and closed the door until she died. Took the archer eye, invisibility and left.
Going to the crusader camp, WoMS the green dragon waylaid to help him. Forgot the Firely +2 from the coastway waylaid but i don't really care as using the sling will really be my last resort against Bel.
Did the Irregular and went to complete the fort. Bought potions from Thirrim who sell 10 of each that i need (so i have 25 stoneform now) and 20x invisibility. Made 80 bullets of darkness and surrendered the fort. Just noticed that the amulet that you have to give to the lich won't be gone from your bag of holding if it's inside.
Got another gamebreaking glitch again where Mari and Estebarre would stand there and wouldn't talk... reload again. This is irritating.
Decided to clear the crusader camp with 20x WoF charge which is something any other kind of character could only dream of, a few from scorcher under a PFM scroll. Victored the bridge mage and dragger the rest of the crusaders to the fort where the Fists crushed them. No more xp farming, straight to the gear then to Belhifet now.
Camp ambush
Bought Cloverleaf from Nazramu. I had enough money and enough gear for the ambush also made sure to have some greater restoration scrolls and remove curse.
Didn't do any quests as i was at 397k xp already. I should easily get XP cap just getting to Bel ASAP.
Went to Deadman pass and bought the stoneform from Horst. Got stuck by lightning.. second time during SoD so far (happened 3 times in the end).
Freed the druid to easy access to underground river and went straight to the diseased crusaders.
The elder myconid still don't want to spawn and there is nothing to loot at all to trigger it... well time to kill the crusaders again as i already persuaded Ferrusk to give me the amulet. 3x WoF scorcher and got the seal, went to get the Ring of the crusade and kept going.
Charmed Strunk and fed him to the Ettin ghost and placed the barrel. Got Purification stone from the nymph.
Forgot about knock scrolls so i made a small trip back and bought the camp fence potion which i forgot about (3 clarity).
Use knock on the left chest inside the crusader cave for 40 bullet +3.
Polymorphed into Jelly form with a scroll to avoid the level drain and maze trap from the 2 chests and left ASAP.
Crusader Attack, got it first try:
Ogre 1st try with undeads: PFM, 20 pre casted skull traps, 1x GM, 3 webs, 6x fireball scrolls, 19 OGL, 5 WoF scorcher.
Mages with archers: Got stunned once but it didn't matter, had the time to throw 3x cloudkill before. Unstunned, 2x cloudkill, 1 fireshield red, 3x animate dead + Scorcher to help me wipe the last 2 standing, got good Archimagi robe.
Warriors: Had to refresh PFM scroll. 18 OGL, 1x fireshield red (truely amazing for LV 1 seriously)
I've got a feeling that this archimagi robe looks cooler than the normal one.
Finished the named NPCs with web + GM and ankheg amulet to target them, then wiped the remaining one with WoF/OGL.
XP Cap.
End of dragonspear, the lift and Belhifet.
Killed Ashatiel with 2x useless ankheg charges and victor + fireshield red.
27 stone form, 25 clarity, over 30 oil of speed, 160 +3 bullets, 2x enchanted weapon, 500 throwing daggers +1, 15x polymorph self, 7 fireshield blue. I'm sure i'm going to have it first try this time.. hopefully
Talked to Thrix and did the back and fort with clarity, Magic Shielding and oil of speed.
Rested and started the buff sequence, gave it a try without having to kill 2 familiars for a higher con to see if i can make it as i have much more stone forms this time.
2x protection from fire, violet potion, 20x mind focus, clarity, oil of speed, ST stuff except that i kept the claw of Kazgaroth so i will need 4 potions this time instead of 2 (-6 saves vs guards ring).
Wave 1 WoPara Imp, WoMS
Wave 2: 8x WoL
Wave 3: Magic Shielding, 7 WoL.
4x stoneform as they all died so i couldn't go invisible to buff then spell immunity.
Bel: Fireshield, Enchanted weapon and started tanking, refreshed oil of speed and clarity. 4 stoneform during 2nd fireshield.
Bel got injured right after, i was pretty lucky on crits so far. Badly injured just before i casted 4th fireshield. Near death with 1 fireshield left.
Last fireshield ended and Bel was a 92 hp. At 45 hp enchanted weapon ended, had to switch to sling. I was stuck with his HP at 35, missing a crit. then it would go to 54, crit again down to 34... got in a stalemate, had to retry as i got paralysed coming out of jelly form and his HP went back up above 50.
2 stalemate so far, 2nd try at 178 hp, unlucky on crits. Just have to be lucky once... still far from being a NR strat. Permajelly however would be. 4 stoneform per 2 fireshield was more than manageable with this setup. Pretty happy to start BG2 at 4 con instead of 2.
3rd time got it! (might upload this on reddit but it still took 10 minutes at 60 FPS) Got lucky on crit and the fight ended right before my last fireshield ran out. Caelar killer herself on the fireshield so i didn't have to do anything for her.
Remove Curse, find familiar, Constitution tome and time for BG2.
Started a save in BG2 with 618k XP. Seems like familiar HP doesn't transfert anymore and that i forgot the Dex tome in BG behind Lily as i went a bit too fast. Not a big deal as a LoB sorcerer to be honest as the difference between 18 and 19/20 is 1 ranged THAC0. Finally done being level 1!
Now that i'm thinking about it. For Belhifet as a solo caster, if you attempt a NR scenario and can't get lucky enough to finish him before the Fireshield and enchanted weapon, i think that transforming into Jelly right after just to land 1 crit for the slow effect could be beneficial IF it halves his regeneration, then switch back to sling. Gotta take everything that you can really.
Leveled up to 11:
L1 spells: Prot from Pet, Identify, Shield, MM, Chromatic orb
L2: Blur, Knock, Melf acid arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Fear.
L3: Haste, Skull trap, Prot from fire, Prot from cold
L4:Stoneskin, GM, Farsight
L5:Animate Dead, Spell Immunity
After seeing the animate dead destroy the ogre mage, i was pretty sure that i would have no problem for the early game
Cleared the whole Irenicus dungeon with no issues at all. Animate dead + Haste with farsight kept me safe the whole way and most encounter on the second floor didn't even activate so they didn't fight back at all.
Petrified the vampire with GM + Chromatic Orb for 8k xp, left with the wand of cloudkill, used spell immunity alteration to get the invisibility scroll and freed the djinni.
One thing that i've noticed is that my skeletons seems to be able to trigger traps now, i don't recall summons being able to do that.
A few jobs before paying the thieves
Leveled up to 12 : Chose Death Fog.
Went to the Den of Seven Tales to gank the mage with 5 hasted skellies + far sight. Then, we rested downstairs and focused on Smaeluv for his sandthief ring.
Went back to rest and they spotted me for the last 2 (dwarf and imp). Buffed with shield, mirror image, stoneskin, resist fear, immunity to necromancy and abjuration and did a quick sandthief and non-detection cloak pickup inside the room before turning back invisible.
Waited Spooky globe out and casted my 3 last skeletons out of sight, hasted them and it was enough to end him. Just the dwarf left now. Rested downstairs again and 5x hasted skellies + haste was enough.
Bought rep to 15, bought 8 invisibility scrolls just in case, 2x PFU and scroll case.
Went to clear Karla's tent. Buffed with shield, mirror image, stoneskin, haste, remove fear, prot from fire and cold, spell immunity abjuration and necromancy just in case. Went to the top left, casted 3x death fog, sandthief and waited for the kill. Sadly Quayle didn't make it due to death fog. Rep now at 16.
Bought the victor just in case. (good call)
Started chapter 2, bought gem bag, got waylaid going to city gates, sandthief to wait the buffs out then 5x hasted skeletons to clean everything up. Tried a few things against the city gate lich without success, no anti-undead weapons for sorcs.
Managed to drag some skeletons outside of a tavern to fight the muggers. I can't control them at all however in BG2 once they pass through so i just dragged them until they attacked by themselves.
Finished the murder case for 1 rep (17), didn't clear the basement yet.
Did the slaver den, all with skeletons again. Cleared the second part by going invisible into the far left room and cleared my way back to the entrance from there, gave 100 gold to the captive child for 1 rep (18).
Reported back to Hendak for 19, sold all my stuff and now got 35k.
Bought back the wand of cloudkill for skeleton support then left to get the potion scroll.
In trademeet, killed the djinnies with skellys with a bit of MM and skull trap support.
Went to do the animal trouble, managed to fight Faldorn right when speaking to Cernd the first time, probably a 2.6 bug, didn't even enter the temple.
Turned the quest in trademeet, rep 20, level up to 13: Enchanted weapon, protection from acid, mislead.
Now got 50k gold. Bought robe of Vecna, recharged the Victor, bought a protection from poison and the incendiary cloud scroll in the copper coronet.
Went into the twisted rune, used PFU and ranged Shandalar with the Victor. 29 casts then casted incendiary cloud to finish him off while i was running away to mislead + invisibility scroll up the stairs.
Spell immunity abjuration and divination just in case. Went into the room and casted 2x death fog. Layene died right when i casted the second one, incendiary cloud is just insane. Got staff of the magi. Finished the warrior with cloudkill and left the vampire alive as i couldn't finish it with my remaining spells and somehow got dispelled from mislead and PFU. Got what i came for anyway and didn't feel like taking another PFU to range it for too much time.
Decided to kill the cowled enforcers. Killed them on the upper right of the bridge district. 4x death fog with 2x cloudkill was good for the first wave, same 2nd, 4x death fog and 3x skull trap 3rd, same with 2x skull trap 4th, 5th same, 6th needed all skull trap and an additionnal cloudkill for Zallanora.
Cleared the guarded compound with deathfog, cloudkill, skull trap and hasted skeletons. Made a nice 15k for 50 total and left the wand of paralyzation here for potential further uses.
Cleared the sewer party with skull traps and fogs again. Shopped a bit for PFU and recharged WoCK
Did the unseeing eye, leveled after passing the bridge and killing the beholders with fog, chose PI.
Into the pit, killed the lich with off screen death fog from PI. Finished the mummies with skull trap and the skeletons with mine. Cleared the rest of the beholder lair with fog and cloudkill. Killed some extra gauths by resting there, leveled up after taking the 2nd part of the rift device to 15: Feeblemind, Protection from Magical Energy, Mordy swords.
Killed the eye with rift device + cloudkill and the two death tyrants with Death Fog + hasted Skellies with enchanted weapons. No rift device exploit this time as i didn't need it last run.
Finished the cult, got girdle of fortitude for free 18 con for 8 hours each day (65 HP instead of 35 woohoo).
Decided to finally pay the 15k to advance to chapter 3. Got Amulet of Power.
Did the first quest and hasted level 15 skellies really had no trouble with vampires once buffed with enchanted weapon.
Saved Rylock on the way to Five Flagon and killed the party with skellies.
Vampire hideout
Got to the graveyard and dealt with the crypt king on the way. Also got the black spider figure with death fog.
In the hideout, couldn't kill the clay golem but the Efreeti bottle did the trick ending badly injured. It's damage is much better than i though. Level up to 16 : Pierce Shield.
For the named vampires, enchanted weapon on hasted skellies + GM feeblemind worked well. Bodhi ran away while i was still summoning skeletons of screen so i didn't even see her.
Waylaid destroyed by skellies on the way back.
Not much to say here. Sorcerer is very strong but honestly pretty boring to play as you have next to no equipment to use and no scrolls to buy except for specific cases. You're just always hoping for another level up to try something new as you can't use any gear really. Amazing for party play as it is so low maintenance but pretty straightforward solo with a ton of money to do nothing with and always using the same combo that honestly work pretty much all the time so far. With mindflayer form, incendiary cloud, planetar and improved alacrity, i can't see anything being able to stand in my way especially with the new Histamiini Ravager form setup for ToB that i plan to use for a few encounters. Also planning to mix pierce shield with wand of paralysis to see what it can affect in BG2.
On another note, i'm very surprised how effective The Victor is overall during the whole trilogy. I'm just waiting for incendiary cloud and the wand of wonder to do some lich hunting and i should be good to go for spellhold, hopefully with planetar pretty soon in underdark.
Road to underdark and finally unlocking the true potential of the sorcerer
Lich hunting prep, Thieves guild and Firkraag lair.
Did Mae Var quests for more xp, Rayic killed with the infinite fire trap. Used mordy swords to kill the golems for 16k xp.
Leveled up just before having to kill Mae Var (how convinient) to 17: Mantle, Incendiary cloud.
Destroyed the guild with mordy swords and incendiary cloud which has a great clearspeed for the moment (and it keeps it, completely underrated spell).
Went to kill Tazok so i can get the wand of wonders.
Cleared the area easily and gave the acorn. Inside the lair i had to waste the spells of the transmuter, waited his planetar out to end him with enchanted weapon skellies while he was out of spells.
Leveled up again to 18 after killing the vampires with cloud and mordy swords, had to use efreeti bottle for the clay golems. Level 18 : HLA summon planetar, Shapechange.
Planetar supported by GM had no chill at all and crushed the whole level. This is the point where i'm starting to feel OP with that many cast using PI and soon, simulacrum.
Cleared everything up to Tazok for the sewer key, sold the stuff and made a trip there for the wand of wonder.
After clearing the first room with only one mind flayer, i decided that they were not worth it until i get time stop so i buffed like crazy, potion of magic shielding and made a run for the wand. Grabbed everything and ran away.
Lich hunting, better than expected
While i was there, i decided to go lich hunting. Shade lich got to badly injured with my 18 remaining Victor charges, then got finished with 2x incendiary clouds (would have been one but he ran away).
Had to use a PFU on the lich in the inn in city gates district due to limited space (killed it for fun), a single incendiary cloud did the job in there. One thing i am wondering is if i can use swords off hand if i use black blade of disaster as it gives me long sword grandmastery... i'll test that later. Still it's situationnal so it'll be with a scroll.
Recharged victor and kept going with the bridge district lich. That lich was immune to fire but 6x death fog did the job very well. Level up to 19 : HLA Improved alacrity, Abi Dalzim due to low simulacrum level anyway, Time Stop.
Went for Kangaxx, rested and refreshed PFU first then 2x incendiary cloud were more than enough. For the demilich, only 3 casts of WoW were enough for petrification. Broke him with the Efreeti bottle for the ring of Gaxx.
Went to finish Firkraag after. Planetar vorpal hit a group of golems for some easy xp ( they had pretty good saves, took a while), still much faster than before. 6 WoW charges later, Firkraag was petrified (did the hit and run tactic to save charges). Had to go in timestop to finish him with the SotM due to his amazing AC.
Shadow temple and De'Arnise
Did Umar Hills quest after that, leveled up after finding Mazzy's scroll. Level 20: HLA Energy Blades, Chain Contingency. Opened the door to the planar sphere.
Finished the shadow temple. The lich inside got burnt then i stoned the shadow dragon in 4 shots of WoW. Killed the shade lord and shadow altar with mislead + incendiary cloud + pierce shield. Shadow Patrick fled somewhere south and i didn't have time to reach him before their death.
De'Arnise next. First troll kill leveled up to 21: HLA L6 spells, Improved Haste. I'm actually considering not taking PFMW at this point as i totally avoid confrontation anyway buy we'll see as timestop is pretty good for auto-hit and not being able to cast spells for a while using tenser's might be more of a blade thing.
Real power from the sorc really comes out once you unlock HLA's. 6x level 9 and 8 spells to cast is just insane, just as constant haste to move around. I really don't rest much especially with PI. The whole keep was swept by planetar supported by incendiary cloud like if it was story mode. Planetar vorpal killed the golems. Picked up ring of earth control and made the flail just to cry because i can't use it. Destroyed Torgal and the whole room with 5x clouds and planetar at the cost of only 1x PI, never entered the room thanks to farsight.
Planar Sphere
Entered the Planar Sphere and leveled up to 22 after killing the first clay golem: HLA L7 spells, Flame Arrow, Ruby Ray of Reversal as i don't plan using secret word and an Alteration debuffer at 5 casting time is great. Last one will probably be delayed blast fireball as i really don't plan using spell sequencer especially with chain contingency and improved alacrity. The game is now incredibly easy. Everything fall like flies. Lazok got badly overpowered by my casting thanks to improved alacrity. It's going to be even better once i get breach so summon can deal constant damage.
Tolgeria's party destroyed by PI with an improved haste planetar supported by IA horrid wilting. Continued clearing the sphere and grabbed the staff of fire for free fireshield red if needed. What is interesting is that i can use the special equipement spells even if i'm using the other weapon. Planetar killed the first Tanari no problem but was too slow for the two others so i swept them testing mindflayer form, which killed everything in 2 timestops but i'll try to avoid it until i hit xp cap. Finished the golem that spawn by powering up the sphere with planetar + efreeti + iron golem form for xp, Level up to 23: HLA L8 Spell, Spirit Armor, Improved Mantle (still don't feel like i need simulacrum, i will when i'll get dual shapechange or imprisonment spam for mind flayers and hopefully some demons).
Got the ring of acuity.
Spell hold and shark city
Felt pretty confident to do spellhold with no equipement now.
Went to fight Perth the adept who lasted about 1 second before falling to a vorpal hit. Got true sight from the book of infinite spells.
In the dream sequence, chose to lose a wisdom point that i will gain back with the machine of Lum the Mad. Managed to lure Bhaal inside this time. Pwned him with shapechange: Greater Wolfwere form that he could do nothing against mostly for fun as planetar can easily kill him. Had to redo it as i was perma-stunned after talking to Bodhi. Had to do it 4 times as i figured out 2 things: Bhaal will only follow you inside if he's out of sight while you enter the castle and there are some long time effects that will cause you to freeze permanently after talking to Bohdi if you play with ''items removed in spellhold'' like i do so make sure to rest to be debuffed.
First level, not much problem, grabbed the bag of holding and went full planetar + mordy swords. Killed the lich on the second floor with offscreen incendiary cloud during timestop to be safe. Leveled up to 24 after IH planeter completely crushed the umber hulk ambush while i was safe on mislead, which is my only source of invisibility for this dungeon. HLA: Comet.
3rd level, had to defeat the room with the Ulitharid with timestop + mindflayer form. Then the mind flayer got killed by a a lucky GM vorpal hit with the help of true sight. Spent 20 token for Frost Embrase and Paws of the cheetah.
Did the riddles and got cloak of deflection, i can now be immune to all elements. Prepared a bit before the Irenicus fight, but no matter what i do i cannot seem to be able to get my stuff into the fight as i get automatically teleported into it right after the dialogue with the jailer.
Still, after casting all my protections and a chain contingency 3x incendiary cloud on nearest enemy when seen, Irenicus lasted about 10 seconds. Casted a planetar and it finished the murderer's that weren't destroy by the cloud.
Got my stuff back and my Victor was only at 1 charge instead of 50... i really might just desinstall this component for my next run especially if trying a non-caster class.
Level up to 25: HLA Dragon Breath, and for level 9 spell i was really hesitating between imprisonmnent and wish. I'm taking a big chance there and will bet my ToB fight entirely on Ravager form, hoping that it will be enough and went with imprisonment. I'm not playing no reload so at the worst i'll have 3 wish scrolls to reload with for feeblemind, which should be plenty enough but i really don't aim doing that, it's going to be last resort if ravager form really isn't enough. Aiming to use it mainly against demons and mind flayers.
With basic buffs, i now sit at -13 AC with spirit armor and blur which is very respectable for a mage. I then left for the shark city.
The pirates got completely crushed by a PI with hasted planetar, IA with 5x dragon breath and 7x horrid wilting in the mix.
The ettin got killed in Greater wolfwere form during timestop for fun. Got the cloak of mirroring from the priestess. Finished the quest siding with the prince, annihilated the king's army with horrid wilting and dragon breath and moved on to underdark.
Now in underdark almost at 6m xp. Now sorcerer is now great fun with level 9 spells and all HLAs available at all time, very different than F/I and i like it, i actually rest even less due to the insane number of effective casts. I barely lose any hp at all but the girdle of fortitude brings my life above 70 pretty much until i rest which is great for a 4 base con sorcerer. It really shines more once you get HLAs so you can actually do more damage yourself than having to rely on cloud damage for kills or minions. Improved Alacrity really make everything much better and it's insanely easy to use. Having access to 4 level 9 spells and all HLAs at all time especially this early is amazing. Now i know that planetar can kill pretty much everything by himself up to that pôint but as i almost always cast it using a PI on improved alacrity, adding a few dragon breath and horrid wilting all over the area in half a round which is insanely fun and make some nice fireworks... and i can do it 8 times per rest, even more soon once i'll get my high level simulacrum.
One thing i want to try is to set tome spells like horrid wilting and dragon breath on a key and see if i can cast 5-10 at the same time using a simulacrum/PI chain, or maybe some clouds. Now that would be ridiculous.
Edit: My bad, no sim for this sorcerer. Doesn't really matter however. It's been a while since i played one, totally forgot that you learn 4 level 8 spells and not 5.
Edit 2: Mage spells to a key doesn't make all your PI and Sim cast the spell even if they're selected in your group. Only one PI will cast the spell. Still, you can select them all manually and go Hotkey + Click for something pretty cool and completely unnecessary too.
In underdark, leveled up after clearing the earth portal to 6m xp. Level 26, nothing for this level.
Vorpal hit the Balor using 2x planetar as my first one got vorpaled. Did Vithal quest and he died almost instantly to chain contingency 3x incendiary cloud after. Went to the mindflayer lair to get it done and test my new imprisonment tactic. Imprisoned the two mind flayers where the slaves are. Got 4 mind control circlet that i'll try to keep is i really need them. Good thing i brought freedom scroll because i would have softlocked my game. It prevent mindflayers from spawning for you to open the intelligence door.
Imprisonning is working extremely well so far. Improved Mantle, planetar from PI for true sight when i'm out of spell book (works even stunned), imprison them one by one while they can do nothing to my -5 save. Also discovered that 5x Dragonbreath really hurt them as it bypass MR, even kill sometime.
Leveled up after the room where there are like 10 of them to 27. The whole mix of dragonbreath + imprisonment really makes the whole thing a cakewalk. I can safely imprison 5 of them with my main character using true sight. Sequence is Improved Alacrity, any buffs like blur, stoneskin... then improved mantle, imprison as many as possible.
Grabbed ring of fire control for ravager form undispellable fire immunity and the staff of command. Planetar soloes the elder brain while i dragged the mind flayers and golems to the room below, where i dragonbreath them. The whole thing was much easier than expected, especially that i skipped the mind flayers in the sewers now i feel like i have the necessary tools against them (i actually won't go back there as i got what i wanted, would be the same tactic + PFU for Alhoon).
Bought firetooth dagger, rod of smiting and the staff of earth just in case, i have way too much gold for what i need and can use. All tavern duels crushed with planetar and IA PI with it's insane spellbook. Leveled up to 28 : Breach. No more stoneskin mage lasting more than 10 seconds against planetar.
Something that i've noticed also works very well for mind flayers is enchanted weapon + improved haste mindflayer form during timestop. I might regret not taking wish but i'm having good fun with imprisonment (will buy a ton of freedom scrolls coming back from underdark just in case). Still, tested the Ravager form and it really should be enough after the bhaalspawn trials. One great thing that i've noticed is that you can change into drow ravager at will if you skip the trap, as long as you remain a drow in fact. You don't have to already be into the form for it to work so if you avoid the trap with timestop, you can switch from ravager to normal form keeping the drow apparence as many time as you want, which could be cool for some portion in ToB like watcher's keep and the final fight where reputation don't really matter as much anymore. Still i don't aim doing a drow ravager at all but it could be good in another playthrough.
Destroyed the encounter with the mindflayers from the first drow quests using enchanted weapon + IH + Mindflayer form + timestop. Got lucky there and they both got mazed so they wouldn't get almost insta-killed in a round or two. 2x timestop killed everything. Did all the quests and the double double cross then delivered the eggs. Laughted my ass off at those dialogue choices, i was used to the ''i love someone else'' text and forgot those.
Cleared the area for fun before leaving. Spawned the demon knight who were totally obliterated. Had IH planetar and 4x IH mordy swords (1 sacrified so 3), left as i got blinded, PI, IA + 5x comet to put everybody on the ground, finished one of them with 3x pierce shield + horrid wilting while the summons crushed the 3 others in barely 2 rounds. Got a bunch of stuff that i really don't need but fighting like this is pretty addictive.
Level up to 29, went to try the beholder lair next. The area with the hive mother got cleared by a very laggy mix of death and incendiary cloud, had to run away from the hive mother due to spell failure. Coming back, planetar did a vorpal hit for an easy kill. She stole my cloak of mirroring so i could just leave like that. Rest of the lair i got more cautious and used a PI under IA and timestop to debuff the elder orbs with pierce shield before unleashing de orbs, then sent in IH planetars (i needed 2) with farsight to finish them.
Level up to 30 just before crossing the gate to the entrance area: Finally went with PFMW. I'll leave tenser's for the blade as i have enough timestop to make it worth it. Exited underdark and got the stakes + holy water.
Bodhi
Recruited Drizzt and went to buy scrolls from the adventure mart. Gave the silver blade because i have no need of it and kept going. Not bothering about watcher's keep yet because i want pocket plane first for easy rest, which is even more insane than Wish in my opinion.
Went to clear Bodhi hideout and sadly Drizzt didn't make it.
Had to kill Bodhi twice under PFU but she wouldn't die, so petrification did the trick. Finished clearing the room and had to unstun planetar by striking him with SotM (just though about it now... works well, just make sure he doesn't attack you after). They didn't last long with that many incendiary clouds, 4 mordy swords and IH planetar. Stabbed Bhodi one last time and gained my final level, 31: Delayed blast fireball.
Spelltome is:
L1: MM, Chromatic orb, identify, PfP, Shield.
L2: Melf acid arrow, blue, Mirror image, Knock, Resist Fear.
L3: Flame Arrow, haste, Prot from cold (i don't regret it, it saves my life and prevented ice arrows from dealing damage through stoneskin) and fire, skull trap.
L4: Enchanted weapon, Stoneskin, GM, Spirit armor, Farsight.
L5: Animate dead, Spell immunity, Feeblemind, Breach, Protection from acid (amazing for death fog and those sludge trap)
L6: Death Fog, Improved haste, Mislead, Protection from energy, PFMW.
L7: Project image, Mordy swords, Mantle, ruby ray of reversal, delayed blast fireball.
L8: Abi-Dalzim, Incendiary cloud (MVP), Pierce Shield, Improved Mantle.
L9: Timestop, Shapechange, Chain Contingency, Imprisonment.
I don't regret any of my choices so far, hopefully it stays the same in ToB. True sight from the book + planetar is more than enough honestly. I really underestimated incendiary cloud until now. It's really an insane spell and there isn't that many enemies that are immune to it in the end.
Went in the north forest to get another timestop scroll mostly for ToB final fight to use in Ravager form.
Recharged Victor and wand of paralysation. Also took 10 more freedom scrolls just in case.
Last chapter and Irenicus
Did the planar sphere quest that i should have done earlier for the staff of Power. Never really used it before but i wand to test that lightning of paralyzation. Got a few other things like the 2 PFM scrolls, ring of air control if i ever want improved invisibility instead of mislead. Went for Irenicus.
Clearing the area in mislead mindflayer using enchanted weapon wasn't as efficient as with my F/I due to lower Thac0 but it was still efficient at 8 APR. Managed to get a better bonus switching to girdle of frost giant strength, raising it to 21 for 9 Thac0 instead or 13. Got another timestop scroll, now have 4. 3x incendiary cloud contingency was really good against the Rajah.
Stoned the dragon as i wouldn't want to spend time with feeblemind. 1 timestop and a few more casts under PFMW was enough, broke it with planetar.
Tested to see if it was possible to dual wield a longsword with BBoD due to grandmastery but it doesn't work. Got belt of Inertial barrier before fighting Irenicus.
Irenicus could survive a 3x pierce shield + 3x incendiary cloud during timestop alacrity and died a few seconds after.
In hell, did all tears the good way except for Wraith Sarevok for the +2 to strength, making me neutral evil. Started the fight by running away and used a PI with improved alacrity in timestop to imprison all the demons. Only 2 Efreeti were left after that who got taken care of by planetar + deathfog from another PI. Got him injured with stacked incendiary clouds that didn't do much and 6x death fog. Second try went with abi-dalzim instead with all my magic missiles and melf acid arrows, the nuke finished him instantly as soon as timestop ended. Absolute powerhouse. Time for ToB!
Lot of fun, Watchers keep and ToB left. Not really worried so far. Spell damage is just insane as you can see against Irenicus.
Vega the sorcerer and ToB (no Watcher's keep, i wanted to get done with it this time)
Illasera & Saradush
Killed Illasera using planetar offscreen. Took a few tries but combined with incendiary cloud and death fog, it nicely cleared the area while i stayed safe far of the main fight. Used 3x pierce shield on her with my first PI during timestop, finished her with 1 planetar after that.
Did the first challenge using incendiary cloud, IH mordy swords and planetar. Casted find familiar, now got 137 hp after using the girdle and 107 without it.
Incendiary cloud still destroy the orc without any problem. I've heard many statements saying that fire was weak for ToB. Appart from demons that i can imprison, let see how often i'll be forced to use something else PFMW give me all the time i need to unleash hell.
Bought some scrolls and went into the sewer, cleared it for fun with the same combo and enter by the northern hidden wall.
Grommir
Slain Grommir easily with the same tactic, had to mix it with timestop and mindflayer form under IH and enchanted weapon for a few opponents like the mages after breaching them and the fallen planetar. Dispatched the mordy swords with horrid wilting which also finished Grommir in the process.
Changed my Ioun stone for the once giving -4 saves vs death and 1 AC, i'm now totally safe from vorpal hits at -4 saves vs death unbuffed.
Yaga-Shura
Yaga-Shura soldiers fell quickly to the super mordy/planetar/incendiary cloud combo. With that killing speed, i can't even imaging playing on a lower setting than LoB with that kind of character.
Went to the fire temple, killed everything with mindflayer timestop except for the dragon who i feebleminded after GM and 3x pierce shield, then safely stoned in 5 shots with the wand of wonder.
Ate Nyalee in timestop, went for Yaga Shura. Dealt with his horde using incendiary cloud + planetar then feebleminded him once he was taking decent damage from planetar. Sent him a few PÎ alacrity nukes but stacking death fogs was the most efficient way as he would only resist 50% of the damage for 4 damage per fog per round. Finished him with a planetar using his fists and insect plague as the death cloud left him at near death, he died as i took control of another PI.
Sendai Enclave
Cleared the oasis with incendiary cloud and planetar. Recharged WoW, went for Sendai.
The outside got cleared with the usual combo, stacking incendiary clouds would deal significant damage to them even with their hih MR. Same with the inside. I'm pretty riskless at all time as i always use PI and farsight to clear the whole map without having to move much from the entrance.
PFU + incendiary cloud for the Lich. Ogremoch killed in timestop mindflayer using IH and enchanted weapon. Also killed everybody next to Diaytha except the Hive mother the same way before even talking to her. A small rest in pocket plane and planetar finished them both.
Duel crushed with no issues, for the mindflayer, rested in pocket plane and used chain contingency with PI and PFMW to imprison them all. Incendiary cloud crushed the Umber Hulks. Had to do a few myself using the true sight from the book because planetar got stunned before being able to cast it.
Sendai
For Sendai, the good thing is that i could go around safely with mislead and retreat back to pocket plane to rest as i killed the statues and everything else with timestop mindflayer form under enchanted weapon and IH. Pierce shield and breached her, then used planetar for insect plague and true sight. She was then vulnerable to incendiary cloud too which was okay but she moved around fast, gave her a nuke from all my spell level 1-3 and planetar finished her.
Dragon army to Abazigal
Went straight to Abazigal lair. Baited Draconis summons with a planetar and waited everything out. IH planetar with insect plague was enough to turn him into a dragon. Chain contingency 3x ruby ray to bypass spell immunity abjuration (it's an alteration debuffer), 3x pierce shield, GM and 5x feeblemind got the job done. Wand of wonder didn't seem to work on him, which is problematic as i needed to find a way to damage him. Delayed blast fireball does work so i guess that i could have setted a huge fireball trap instead but it's fine, 4x mordy sword and planetar using fists slowly get the job done. Seems like after resting that he can now be affected by incendiary clouds, i must have failed my breach before. He quickly died after to that wonderful spell.
Managed to feeblemind Anadramatis. Gave him the cloud threatment. It took 5 PI unleashing their entire spellbook as he is immune to fire. Really tought one.
Incendiary cloud cleared the lairs easily. There are really few encounters that are immune so far, as long as i breach their protections. So far, nothing that i tested the wand of paralyzation against actually worked.
Went to get the rope and fought the 4 dragons with the wand of wonder because i didn't want to feeblemind loop them, so i ran around with improved haste using it. Got very unlucky and needed 42 uses for the first 2. Needed 47 casts for the green dragon which is ridiculous. Finished carnifex after another 30 uses, which are by far my worst odds from all my WoW attempts for each one of the dragons and took a nice pic. Sadly Carnifex killed one of the dragon with a dragon breath. I finished them all with staff of the magi in timestop.
Killed Fil'Yissetat in only 5 charges (YAY!) and grabbed the specter ring for 12 hours improved invisibility, which brings my AC to -16 and my saves insanely low (death -9 spells -12). Went to get the scroll and planetar vorpal struck all the beholders in seconds which was amazing.
Abazigal and making Balthazar join us
Now for Abazigal, cleared the lair with Planetar, mordy swords and farsight then feebleminded Tamah with a PI. Re-summoned my team and went for the boss fight. Human form got defeated by mordy sword and planetar using globe of blades and insects. For dragon form, i had to use a chain contingency Pierce shield x3 for lower his res, GM then used 5x feeblemind. Wasn't enough so fled in pocket plane to rest and retried. I needed another 12 casts (3x PI). Distracter Abazigal with a planetar using fists while casting feeblemind on PI. Incendiary cloud and a spell nuke finished him quickly. Gave the last blow with planetar sword for the cinematic and done! Also finished Tamah the same way for fun after that, incinerated.
Incendiary cloud and planetar cleared Balthazar army and we went straight to him. Managed to get Balthazar to join me with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1 as i am evil (saw this on an older Harpagonis post, having Balthazar join you is badass, i certainly won't pass it)
Ravager pwnage, now this should allow any character to easily beat him.
Finally did all the remaining pocket plane challenges. The killer combo of incendiary cloud, mordy sword and planetar. Used Ruby ray to debuff mages, which is great with improved alacrity due to the instant casting time, debuffing faster than pierce shield.
Found an amazing easy way to defeat the Ravager: Cespenar is invincible, so i charmed him with a control circlet and made him agro everybody, including the Ravager so i casually hacked him while nobody attacked me. I wasn't tanky enough to 1 vs 1 him on my own, especially with no helmet. Do not take potions of power as they will lower your sorcerer Thac0, not the Ravager one... big mistake. Ravager attacked me a bit when the potion ended but didn't damage me much, then refocused on Cespenar until death. It took over 5 minutes at 60 fps to end him with the pretty good damage output of the Ravager form of 17-38 at 5 APR. He started to range me again, which was just worst for him as i could tank his ranged attack no problem and would gain a huge Thac0 bonus to hit him much more often.
Didn't feel like, or felt the need to do Watcher's keep. Kept a save before Ravager so i might do it later, now i'm more focused on ending it to complete the challenge.
Throne of Bhaal failed attempts (take notes if you want to try a no-wish Ravager throne on a mage)
Had 6 Timestop scrolls. Used 2 to defeat Bodhi and Irenicus, then 1 for the Solars. Balt didn't make it. Activated the first pool after drinking an invisibility potion so i could avoid the Cambrion and clear the demons first. My -7 Thac0 felt pretty bad to be honest, but it got the job done. I was pretty resistant but still had to be careful as some enemies deal some insane slashing damage. I had to get the cambion 1 by 1 for example. Killing them was so slow that i really considered switching back into human form to clear the pools with planetar... I couldn't really die in 1 vs 1 but my accuracy was mediocre against them. I then noticed that they would reduce my Thac0 on hit, so i was at 100 HAHA! I didn't know that they were all using soul reavers...
Decided to help myself a bit with the victor but that didn't do much. I should have equipped my staff with elemental charges for those so they have another meatshield... the efreeti bottle did the job for the last one.
Remembered that they wouldn't see me invisible... so i could have saved more mislead scrolls for this. Also not sure how many protections Mariliths have, but i swear that they're invulnerable for more than 2 minutes (figured out that it's unlimited and timed). I'm sure they have unlimited PFMW and stoneskin... which is honestly problematic for this build. Restarted the chapter, did the same thing but kept Balt alive this time, as i really needed a summon or something. Now luring enemies with Balthazar was WAY more efficient. The whole pool got cleared 10x faster. Second pool got entirely face tanked. Balthazar died before the last Marilith during the third pool but that wasn't a problem as i now had Unleash to guarantee some damage.
Now for the five. I tried to stay in ravager form and while i would be pretty safe, dealing damage was the hard part really. Now the issue is, i can't seem to be able to damage them as i get ganked way too much. The biggest issue here is Yaga Shura. Usually i would be immune to crushing damage, but not now due to lack of helmet. I made the decision to change back and feeblemind him and Abazigal at least since not using helmets was going to be problematic. After 3 PI, only Sendai, Sarevok and Abazigal were still with their mind and i still had 4 left. For some reasons my slayer change disappeared even if i didn't use it and had it at the beginning of the chapter as i didn't keep a save before that... restart the whole thing but though about something: I went back to buy more PI and Sim scroll for a total of 5 total (should have hoarded more but it should be fine), also got 4x chain contingency. Goal now is to get back to that point, feeblemind at least Yaga, Abazigal and Grommir, charm Sarevok, get them to near death and finish Amelyssan teleporting to a pool to facetank her. Also switched to my 2 elemental summon staves (didn't need them but extra meatshield is great). I felt pretty confident this time, we can now see that Ravager form isn't auto-win or as simple as it seem with all builds. Should be a million time better on fighters and thieves however.
Throne of Bhaal, got used to it this time and crushed it.
Here we go again. 4 timestop for Irenicus, Bodhi and Solars (Irenicus helped Balt by casting one of his own), started with the second pool this time for Control demon and Teleport which was an amazing choice, stoned the Marilith with WoW (could have used imprisonment scrolls for them really) and used my last 2 timestops for an easy win keeping Balt alive. Did 1st pool and used Mislead before, teleported away and Controled the Cambions one by one. I then controled the two Balors which made the whole thing a cakewalk with their vorpal hit and they were tanky as hell, like an even better permanent planetar. Sadly the Marylith wouldn't stay under control. Balthazar atrocious AI forced me to keep control of him so he wouldn't go kill himself, switching his resistance for the worst choice and charging head first into a lost fight. It was hard to keep him alive without RoR, that now doesn't work anymore to heal.
Last pool controled another Balor who tanked the Marilith, now have 3. Balt switched to solar stance that turned the balors hostile so had to recharm them. Let him died to the Marilith as i didn't need him anymore at all, he was now more trouble than help.
Had to re-control 2 balors out of 3, who made a great diversion. For feeblemind, first did Yaga Shura, then Sendai, then doing Illasera i noticed that only a single ST check was being done if the spells are thrown in timestop, so i did them just with alacrity for her as she would save all the time. Got the rest first try doing this: Hide where a pool is out of sight and use a clone scroll, Alacrity, Farsight, Timestop, 3x Pierce shield. Wait far from view, GM from out of sight, Alacrity, improved haste, feeblemind (have to breach Sendai first for it to work, so an additionnal timestop is needed) Good thing is, i had 5 clone scrolls. Tried both Sarevok and Grommir for the last scroll throwing 3-3, worked perfectly fine. Now i'm safe!
Now for some reason... i still have my Slayer Change power compared to before. This is probably due to my order of completion for the pools or something like that. Anyway i casted PI from chain contingency to get some damage down with Planetar using fists and mordy sword but their accuracy was lacking quite a lot so i charmed Sarevok. Stopped right at near death to make sure that Deathbringer assault doesn't insta-kill one of them. He finished Yaga shura and Amelyssan spawned, we finished the Five and she took care of Sarevok herself, finishing him with Finger of Death. Started the duel that i couldn't lose doing the double teleport and trapping her demon on another pool.
Finally i slowly tanked her casting unleash every few round until victory... finally that fight is over. Honestly that second try wasn't that bad at all. Feeblemind worked well even staying in Ravager form, she had time to re-Gate demons at badly injured, this is how long it took (10-15 mins at 60 fps).
So as mentionned, skipped Watcher's Keep as i became a bit tired of that style of gameplay and didn't really need anything from it except +1 wisdom if i wanted to try using wish, which i wanted to skip this time. Still, challenge done! It was fun but very repetitive due to the limited combo and equipment available. Things that i learned during this playthrough:
-Incendiary Cloud and Death fog are amazing. Many will claim that a ton of enemies are weak immune to fire but it isn't that true except for demons and a few dragons. Those clouds totally destroy many powerful foes and clear screen with no equal as soon as you get them. I really barely needed Horrid Wilting and Skull traps except for a few damage nukes as Sorcerers had no other source of damage but spells. Be aware the incendiary cloud will not turn your summons against you while death fog will.
-The victor is great to range liches under PFU if they didn't cast protection from magical energy first, which they shouldn't if you started the fight under it.
-Ravager form isn't auto-win.
-Wand of paralysation is pretty useless honestly. Nothing like Power Attack from my previous run with my F/I.
-Cast improved haste on your planetar. It also have 3x True sight, which means that it's nearly useless on your slots especially with the book of infinite spells.
-Ruby ray is insta-cast compared to Pierce shield, which is great to debuff mages that resist your incendiary cloud but have no MR. Alacrity, 2-3 instant Ruby ray, breach, watch it die.
-Many casters use protection from fire, almost none use protection from acid of are naturally immune to it. This makes Death Cloud amazing to distrupt them, especially that late game casters are most of the time immune to poison but not acid.
-Wish is overrated as hell especially playing solo. Pocket plane is the real MVP for free and safe resting.
-Imprisonment is insane. Tired of mind flayers, enemy Devas and Planetars? Well it's a good solution.
-Dragon Breath and Comet are more useful than they appear and can clear an entire room of mind flayers, thanks to that MR bypass.
-Balthazar is useful but fight like an idiot on his own.
-Powers from the pool during the throne fight are amazing. Unleash for marilith and guaranteed damage, teleport, control demons for easy clear. Start with the second pool.
-My WoW luck is either amazing or absolutely awful.
-Carry useful scrolls, especially clone ones.
-Do not use level drain to reach 1 hp with a mage, use it on a class that can wield the Martyr's Morningstar instead. The combo of Constution penalty and Level drain will kill you, will prevent you from loading your save and will kill you on dream sequences.
Now that was a cool playthrough still but the sorcerer is a bit too repetitive and clicky for my taste personnally. In term of difficulty, it was definitely harder than my F/I except during early SoA as i didn't need to search for scrolls and could use those that i found for specific situations. Many very strong combos but lack many useful tools, trading versatility for powerful specific approaches. Having all HLAs available at all time at your disposal is also amazing and you don't have to rest much even without simulacrum, that i really didn't need. Tested a few unnecessary approaches to see if some scenarios would be doable with ''all'' classes like the Ravager and ToB.
Been playing a bit of Jester again and made a little random discovery I never read here before, ofc I might have just overlooked it:
As you guys probably know, if you use WoL and then switch out the quickslot with another consumable you automatically "selfcast" spells even if they are usually targeted, for example golem manual or efreeti bottle.
Today I realized that as a side effect if these skills used to break invis, like the summon items, if cast like that they actually won't break invis, this is also true for wand of summoning.
Now this got me thinking if this would be possible without WoL in BG1, and guess what it is!
You simply pause your game, put a potion in a quickslot, drink it while the game is paused and then switch it out for wand of summoning.
This will self cast the spell once you unpause and not break invis, which is actually very useful.
On another note, did you know that Efreeti bottle doesn't seem to count towards summon limit at least if you cast it first?
On my level 14 Jester i can wol + efreeti bottle, which will already give me 6 efreeti, but then I can summon 2 skellis via animate dead and wol + golem manual and will end up with 11 quite deadly summons.
Doing planar prison for boots of speed atm and picked up cloak of the shield.
Why have I never thought of this before, it stacks with itself, so it can also be WoL cheesed, haha.
Single cast is already -20 missiles and -6 to each melee style.
And because it isn't base AC there is no cap.
edit:nvm it still has a cap of 20, but since it stacks with base cap still an easy way to get to -40 with non fighter classes.
So, WoL + Cloak of reflection cheese can actually be done solo too, all you need is mislead.
First use WoL on Mislead, so you get 6 duplicates (while having reflection cloak equipped ofc).
And then use wol on self to get it bouncing, obliterated Most of twisted rune guys in a couple seconds for me (For layene I precast some WoL cloudkills and Shangalar was really annoying as SCS liches go).
Also if you get any lightning res on top of the 100% from cloak, the lightning will heal you.
Sadly the game will lag hard if you use it too long and eventually freeze, so you need to have a dispel scroll ready to get rid of your clones, scroll is needed cuz wol interrupts, but as bard or thief with alchemy hla you have an infinite supply of them anyway (can be woled too for 6 scrolls per cast)
Made a F/M/C, everything went well until coalition camp battle wave 4. Used GM + web + silence on them, used ankhegs on named enemies, blasting them with One lost gift, haste my allies but... I just didn't have enough dps, not even close. That orog boss (or a huge orc? ) resisted most of my fire damage, like 17 out of 20. And crusaders reinforcement kept coming. The best try I had was like killing all but one named boss, then a horde of crusaders blew up my bomb. Tried so many times and got sick of my character...
Any tips on that wave?
And I could only buy 18 skull traps scrolls from vendors (probably from high hedge, sorcerer sundries and Belegarm), where can I find more?
@zaknas If you mix some web to keep them stuck and have the Ankhegs shoot at the named NPC once they're stuck, they're going to hit all the time and they'll die pretty quickly especially if the ankhegs are hasted, you have to keep the crusader's attention away from them though. The downside of FMC is having no access to arrows of detonations for this part but Wand of Fire scorcher should still deal good damage if you run around with the boots of speed and hit the pack twice per cast. You can try to charm a few of them to act as temporary meatshields or use a stone ally into the mix, super buffing yourself a bit and tanking with Durlag's Goblet isn't a bad idea either. Spamming Wand of Paralyzation (-4 save, should work very well) and Wand of Polymorphing for 1 hit kills is also something good to try. As you're an FMC, going GM + Doom on the high saves one certainely wouldn't hurt.
Still the key is as you already tried sadly: GM + immobilization with AoE and ankheg damage burst focusing on named NPCs. Good AoE to use if you still have them are Cloudkill, Fireball, Scorcher, Web, Skull Trap (can't get any more than that really except for random drops) and any hold/chaos spells you have left. Slow+Blind is also a great debilitating combo giving -8 AC to affected creatures, slow being on an AoE at -4. Spawn your ankhegs out of the webbed area and haste them, make them shoot at stuck named NPCs, help your DPS with high strength and dual wielding, keep the fight as close to the north of the map (where the wooden fence is near the area Exit) so the spawned crusaders also get stuck when they spawn.
We can only hope that a more experimented runner like @histamiini can give you better advice especially that he did it with this exact class. I personally never made it there with a cleric class so far as i always feared getting stuck at this encounter or Bel. Rolled a Cleric/Thief recently (slow progress as i'm pretty busy, not sure if i'll be able to finish it, also practicing NR strats in my free time to avoid posting 10x failed runs) and i was expecting to try a Backstab strategy against Bel if the 1hp trick fails due to lack of DPS. As we can now use summon items while staying invisible in 2.6 (unless they changed it again since i last played) it is much easier to perform an invisible backstab on Bel and go back invisible right after with a potion. Not sure what would be the average damage of a 4x staff of striking backstab with 25 strength however, assuming you can land your hits during the Champion Strength duration for maximum accuracy and get enough summon items to keep his attention away from you.
@XDarkStrikerX Good luck on the cleric/thief and thanks for the advise, it will be very helpful for my future playthroughs. But my FMC won't be able make it due to the sole reason I didn't prepare enough scrolls/potions you mentioned. I tried WoPoly + GM on them, didn't work. WoPara sometimes works. But that named orog and paladin lady never failed a save. I was so low on resources. I didn't even have doom as I used them all in wave 3. I couldn't even rest as the resting npc died after my wave 2 rest. And without item to buffs my FMC he couldn't tank or hit anything.
Okay encountered something unexpected and it's game breaking.
I am trying a 1 hp sorcerer, and she is in sod chapter 8, the map with the dwarf lich story. When I tried to finish the chapter the game played a cutscene that a mage blew up the bridge which killed me outright.
I checked the log, it didn't show there was any damage at all. And my avatar showed my max hp was 2. How do you bypass that?
Edit: okay found a solution. I used DUHM to raise my hp to 2, then the cutscene did 1 damage to me. Alive, then used WoMS to distract the attackers and hid behind the tent. After a moment another cutscene of caelar played, and I entered chapter 9
anyway, during my FMC playthrough, I found some cheese.
In ducal palace, those doppelgangers are very easily paralyzed by WoPara. Which makes the battle very easy.
In saravok fight, all the bosses can be turned into a squirrel pretty easily with GM + WoPoly (except for angelo, 20 charges on him only turned once).
Not to rain on your parade but it sounds like you have encountered the same critical bug which scuppered my last run - Final Fight everyone's saves set to 20 (with a +19 penalty applied) except Angelo, and the Doppleganger's saves glitched out too. Their saves have glitched out due to some strange interaction with SCS. Ctrl-Q them into your party and see that Sarevok should not have a Save vs paralization of 20!
Not sure what would be the average damage of a 4x staff of striking backstab with 25 strength however, assuming you can land your hits during the Champion Strength duration for maximum accuracy and get enough summon items to keep his attention away from you.
just bring >100 potions of invisibility like Harpagonis and roll for 19-20s with Aule's Staff afterwards
For wave 4 you can tank it with potions of heroism and keep the goblet on hand - at least as a full melee. with a FMC its going to be harder.
But Buffed Skeletons alone should be able to almost deal with the whole thing so long as you're Neutral Evil I think it is. And you off-screen cast some Silence.
@alice_ashpool yea I think the ducal palace and savavok fight was bugged. It was never this easy even on insane.
Too bad I made a lawful good FMC, didn't know it has anything to do with the skeletons, but how?
Yeah it's annoying, I quit my last run since a bug making the two toughest fights trivial kinda took the enjoyment out of it
For skellies, depends if you have the IWD spell component installed - there's a cleric buff which gives +1 attack and some other stuff to minions of the same alingment as you. But being good hasits benefits, you can use the good ring for Bel without needing helm of Opposite Alignment.
The ST bug happened to me too before my latest run (no write up for that one as it wasn't complete) but i quickly noticed it especially as the AI wasn't responding appropriately for some encounter (those modified/enhanced by SCS). It happened to me when a new small update got installed without me noticing as the file was small enough to be nearly instant. Reinstalling SCS always fixed it for me so far, also upgraded to SCS 34.3 as it apparently fixes Aec'Latec and hopefully the bugged throne encounter with the extra Winski Perorate spawn. Took a good break however as taking 1-2 hours reinstalling the whole thing for both games tired me out.
Still the best way that i've found to get past the non-bugged Ducal Palace fight with absolute ease was to charm and drag the warehouse Basilisk to the throne room using the sewers, ideally invisible as it bugged a few times on my level 1 sorc run, some guards would follow indefinitely and get insta-killed dropping my reputation by an insane amount (could have probably charmed them too with the nymph cloak). No need to even drag the shaman and mage doppleganger into another room, the basilisk ended the fight in a few seconds every time i tried so far except one, where it got affected by chaos (i think) and it started killing allies.
@XDarkStrikerX My install is totally new, but I still got those bugs. I did see SCS complained errors during installation, not sure if its related to the bugs. People suggest installing bgee and scs on drive C to eliminate those errors, but my drive C does not have enough space
@alice_ashpool Now I understand why in histamiini's adventure he made an evil FMC and constantly used skeletons to clear the many dungeons (with blood rage and haste buffs). I didn't install icewind dale spell and my skeleons was never that powerful.
@XDarkStrikerX My 1 hp sorcerer is now on bel. But I have a problem, bel doesn't want to melee me. I try to keep as close to him as possible hoping he would melee me, but he constantly teleports away and summon minions. In my entire fight, I think he only melee me for like 30 seconds... as my blue fireshield can't do damage to him, I can't do enough dps. In your video I your bel keeps meleeing you. Is there a trick to make him do so?
@zaknas You have to make yourself immune to fire to prevent him from teleporting away and using his fire spells. After that, he should only use his melee attacks.
@XDarkStrikerX oh that's smart. It's hard to figure that one out.
And at last I beat bel with a 1 hp sorcerer. I thought I was losing, my enchanted weapon, fire shield and even potions all ran out. My buffs were wearing off too... Only had void bullets left. Suddenly I saw there were less demons on the screen, only then did I realize bel was actually dead. Even after all demons disappeared their poison/deceases still kept hurting my char, and she kept screaming "ah ah ah". And I checked my save vs death was like +7 at the time. That scene looked really scary, but it turned out I stayed alive after all .
And you guys really are geniuses to conjure up such a method. Everything is so well calculated and so precise.
Comments
At this point it is pretty clear, staying level 1 + damage immunity is pretty much the only way to do it properly and level drain is pretty much just for classes that can afford the martyr morning star. Still, you have the ambush to deal with and the issue is the first troll wave so i can't see any other classes than blade or a cleric/mage to make it. Rest can be killed easily with OGL, WoF and a PFM to avoid chromatic orbs.
I might even restart it to see how it goes as i don't have a sense of accomplishement anymore having to rely on a random polymorph glitch to get passed through it and some ridiculous save and rest bugs. The outcome would end up being the same really, with much less hassle. I wouldn't have to buff for traps at all to stay alive. I might actually try that. Wands and charm is easy carry for bg1 honestly.
Checked it out and the Arrow of Detonation dupe/glitch works fine in Sorcerous Sundries, so you can leave BG1 with a quiver of 240 if you want. Which I will be doing. Works fine with Arrows of Dispelling too, if you so wish.
Edit: went and did the loop properly with the arrows too: Bought 240 Detonation arrows and still 200,000GP in the pocket (240 arrows cost about 44,000GP). I hear people out there are still selling plate mail and farming Ankhegs to this day ^-^
Hesperia the Neutral Good Elven F/M/T - part 2
After Mulahey, instead of going for XP, Hesperia did the bare minimum, Buying Aule's Staff and Greenstone. Collected the tomes via stealth, Bandit camp via stealth, Red wizards via OGL and then stealth all the way down to Dav, he got the OGL then Victor. Kindly he lustered with the Battle Horrors so thats a free 8k xp. With Shield and Talos Gift, the Dav-traps can just be run through then go north and stealth immediately. This will trigger Davs convo, but only haff his buffs. With a < 1 in 10 change Hesperia actualy got a crit backstab on him, which took him down to injured, and brought out his main-buffs inc. stoneskin. It's risky since he could have hit Hesperia with a Minor Sequencer Chromatic Orb or other instant wipe spell, but I'm not particularly attached to no-reload this time, since I feel Dukes will be a wipe anyway.
Unlocking BG, Hesperia used 3 Master Thievery and Friends to buy steal and sell 10x WoMS, 10x WoL and 10 WotH and I think a 4th set of wands giving her 380,000GP. She bought 240 Arrows of Detonation, Robe of the Good Archmagi and the second OGL and still had almost 320,000GP left. She then did the 3rd OGL quest and a few others. The telescope quest is good since it nets you valuable gems which you can hang on to in your gembag until SoD to have lots of cash straight away.
Hesperia only has 35,000XP and is level 5/5/6. She is currently at Durlag's swinging away for an extra 8k then will do the Basilisks and Candlekeep before mopping up and going for Slythe -> Dukes -> Saravok
This is the one that's going to go all the way, I feel it. FMT is quite simply the easiest I have ever had it.
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Playing a F+T combo is making me very keen on thac0 and backstabs - Hesperia has had a couple of 100HP crit-backstabs now, and even LoB health goes down very quickly when you can do around 40-50HP damage per hit and you are hitting 50% of the time. I am wondering about a plain F/T, or F->T and T->F duals. It might be possible to do a Shadowdancer (9) -> Fighter for HiPS 4x backstabs, but you would have to get through Bel with an unkitted low base-HP Fighter and Dukes as either a Shadowdancer or a level 6(?) fighter.
One thing i'm wondering is if the Amulet of Whispers could work against Belhifet to deny his invisibility and perhaps even his Gates, this would give a possibility for casters to have a decent RNG chance without relying on 1 hp. Still, he might have vocalize or those could be totally scripted bypassing the spell effect. Will test this later but -5 saves + -4 from GM would give around 55% chance not counting MR to land which is pretty good odds. Not sure if he could also be blinded, that would be 30% chance to work with an illusionist/thief. Having a Bel that stay there would be awesome.
On another note, i'm done with my previous sorcerer, restarted another neutral good human Sorc that i will post about soon, which is pretty much impossible to kill with greenstone amulet with the only downside of limited invisibility so far. For the Bel kill, here are the screenshots:
For the lift for anybody who wants to do it with a level 1 mage, here is the fastest way i managed to do hit. It works very well:
Wave 1: WoMS, WoPara on the Imp and smash with 2x Dagger+2
Wave 2: Wand of lightning. Try to aim perfectly horizontal and it will hit a massive 5 times per cast. Remember Clarity potion.
Wave 3: Clarity + stoneform, wand of lightning.
WoL is easier to aim than it seems. Aim it left/right and not up/down and it kills surprisingly quickly. 25 charges is usually enough for all waves.
Should be fine for Bel with my new L1 sorc. Going to plan out the same weapons, purification stone with Spirit Armor + Stone form should allow me to survive. I think the actual save needed for the stun is 1 and -1 for Belhifet sickness so using the silver circlet, 2x stoneform or 1 spirit armor 1 SF should be fine, pretty much the same with purification stone in the end as i will achieve disease immunity and 0 save with ST buffs (also switched Balduran cloak for displacement which i forgot about). This should give me a minimum of 15 hours with the same setup as before if everything goes well, if i lack +3 ammo i can finish him with jelly form with no strength bonuses however and there are more than enough scrolls to push through. Still should be more than enough for the remaining 100-200 damage left after using the two enchanted weapon with throwing daggers +1.
Edit: Correciton, spirit armor serves no purpose as it's only save vs spell... oh well back to keeping a ton of stone forms.
88 total stats, Lv1 spells: Identify, protection from petrification
Goal here is to still eventually obtain xp cap by the end of SoD to start with 500k xp in BG2
Now for BG1
Overall prep up to the bandit camp
Marl 900 xp
Straight to Nashkel, Noober 400 xp, sold Ankheg plate for 4250, got 4548 total from selling other stuff i picked up
Picked up Heart of the golem +2 from Hentold and the 2 potions from the carnival
Went back for the diamond, ring of prince +1.
Sold everything in High Edge, bought Claw for damage immunity, potion case, the 3 invisibility scrolls and a potion of free action.
Then the most irratating thing ever seems to happen... on my way to get the WoMS, i seem to constantly get harassed by 2-3 gnolls no matter my approach.
Had to use and invisibility scroll along the potion of freedom to get the wand, didn't get hit at all but the free action made sure i didn't get stuck there just in case.
WoMs dealt with Algernon, now got 20 charisma.
Went straight to Mulahey to charm him then fed him to Kobolds, got it 2nd try, reported to Berun.
Killed Mulahey with 2x WoMS and 9x WoFrost charges.
Turned in the quest and WoMS Dushai for Edventar's gift and web scroll.
Bought rep back from 6 to 13
Rep run: Firebeard 1, Brage 1, not Greywolf 1, Charmed Emerson and Amnian soldier killed Greywolf while i tanked 1, Samuel 1, at the same time a guard killed Tarnesh while i took a super long and had to rest to wake back up, greenstone amulet call.
Joia ring 1, Farmer Brun 1 for 20.
Got 25k from selling all my loot, recharged WoMS, went to buy greenstone amulet.
Went to Shoal and accidently talked to her... seems like it wouldn't kill me and i just fell uncounsious for a bit. Killed her for a bit of xp and her pearl.
Met Halacan party on my way to get the tome of constitution and tome of paralysis. Tanked them and dispatched of them with WoMS.
Used 2x greenstone charge for the WoPara, con tome and Relair mistake which i used a bit to move around faster.
Managed to charm both Meilum and Poe to help against Khark. 2 try with WoPara and he was done, then we finished paralysed Meilum together.
Went back to kill the Revenant in the valley of tomb and had to defeat the whole map on my arrival bandit camp style. Killed it and got the invisibility potion.
Greenstone amulet and paralysed Nimbul, same with Neira with a small WoMS help. Finally i sold Relair Mistake, really not fast enough.
Had more than 20k again so bought Sandthief ring which should have enough charge for most of BG1.
Recharged WoPara and did more chores to get as much gold as i could without taking unnecessary risks, got charisma tome. Also defeated Zeela's group the same way and killed Neera in FAI for the gem bag.
Recharged Greentone and OGL before bandit camp.
Bandit camp and Iron Throne
Went to cloakwood and got Gurze cloak killing the Tasloi with WoF scorcher.
Charmed Drasus with my invisibility potion and fed him to the guards who i killed. Then charmed Genthore to help killing the mages. They never aggroed so it was simple.
Reached Davaorn with invisibility potion from Drasus party + 1x sandthief. killed his guards and horrors for a bit more XP with 22 OGL, tanked Davaeorn with his horrors then finished him with 2x WoMS.
Can confirm, no more AC bracer from him.
Did Tenya's bowl by landing a crit on her first for 2k xp (500 more than straight bowl) then went shopping in BG.
Did a few side quests, tasks and overall clear for more xp and gold like Mutamin Garden where i charmed a lesser basilisk to assist Korax to sweep the area then got the Victor by only charming Danek.
Did Durlag for the extra xp from the Basilisks and the wis tome, killed the horrors with 9x WoF scorcher. Left at 148k xp which is more than enough for the xp cap, now i'm just getting what i need and speed up until the crusader ambush.
Got all tome except 1x wisdom and strength, got WoP, guard ring, cloak of displacement, fireshield blue scroll, scar jobs done, level cap in xp, a few invisible potions and 1 invisible scroll available, 6 charges of sandthief still time for the Iron throne then Candlekeep.
Charmed Aasim to help clearing the area while i tanked the assassins, used 1 invisibility scroll.
Candlekeep, easy buggy palace and Sarevok
Tuth took care of Rieltar party but died to Bruno who i had to finish myself. Paralysed the watcher to go sell my stuff to the inn before going to the catacomb.
Got the two attribute books and used a GM scroll + WoPoly for the spiders.
Now got to figure out on what i'm going to use the third knock (didn't find anything as i forgot the 4th one and didn't care about Ragefast this time).
Charmed a greater basilisk and dragged Prat party to it.
Came back with 50k gold and nothing to spend it on so i recharged my wands for 15k total.
Charmed Larze and made him kill Slythe while invisible then used an oil of fiery burning to activate Krystin. Greenstone + WoMS to assist Larze and waited a good minute offscreen for Larze to finish the job.
Went to charm the warehouse basilisk for the ambush and brought it to the palace by the sewers which is the next exit straight north. Got pretty unlucky and had to paralyse over 5 flaming fist to get there, 2 of them who followed through the sewers. It wouldn't work as they would follow me forever even out of screen and spawn in the throne room so i had to use an invisibility potion here.
Decided to not charm any nobleman this time to see if the balisisk can manage it.
In less than 20 seconds, only an air elemental was left so we had to wait for it to despawn to not waste wand charges. I moved the basilisk away to avoid issues.
Then something totally weird and awful happened... an hostile flaming fist enforcer got inside for some reason and got petrified by my basilisk for a sweet -10 rep. Reloaded and rested outside then tried again.
Had the same bug as my last run again. 2 Winski seemed to spawn so 1 is getting away while the other one stays there invincible and lock me there.
Needed 3 tries to actually get the good outcome where i'm teleported into the thieve guild. One time i got a second Winski that managed to die, but then i didn't get teleported and the thieve guild was still fine so i had no access underground meaning i was softlocked. Really glitchy encounter in 2.6 so far. For NR assuming that Winski RNG is there for you, charm the mage to drag it away so it doesn't confuse your basilisk. The whole fight last about 1 minute max each time.
Final prep before SoD, still 35k to spend and got plenty of stuff for SoD so i won't do any more quests. Grabbed the last OGL so now i have 3 fully charged and a WoF. Spent the rest into more WoF to either sell or use in SoD so now i have 3.
Got my stuff from the Beregost house and time for Sarevok. Wasted an invisibility here as i forgot about it while in the maze.
Skipped the party and Tamoko this time.
Sarevok party, waited the PFM, 1x GM, 6 fiery burning, 4 explosion, 3 OGL Semaj, +8 Tazok, +7 Angelo, +12 Diarmid.
Sarevok: GM, 1x WoPara, started throwing Dart of Stunning at half HP just in case while i'm not even sure it worked once and he got finished. I can confirm that my Sarevok has proper ST. I'm also 99% sure that the ST got corrected for LoB in 2.6. They probably kept the same roll up to 25 without giving a ST bonus.
Sarevok ST on my install
Time for SoD!
Level 1 playthrough is pretty easy honestly. For a human sorc, Evermemory, hidden stuff + Anhkeg plate = immunity in 2 minutes. No worry about traps, waylaid, damage or anything. The big deal is to not forget Greenstone amulet for mages to not be put to sleep for 15 real minutes (good thing i could rest after Tarnesh). The 2 other downsides that i've experimented so far are:
- the lack of infinite invisibility but the damage immunity allows you to run through many areas without caring at all. It can get pretty buggy when they chase you however like i experimented three times. Once in valley of tomb, once in High Hedge and once in BG city.
- Totally useless without wands. For mages, any other mage kit or multiclasses can web or hold to avoid using wand charges or debuff like crazy with Blind+Slow. You actually feel pretty powerful for LoB while a Lv1 sorc is wand,wand,wand,charm,wand and GM from scrolls for better odds.
In the end, it was easier than my leveled sorc. Hopefully it's going to be worth it in BG2.
Thanks to NearInfinity, i've located a few more potion merchants that should have stone form potions in SoD. With the Purification stone setup however, i shouldn't need more than 8-10 to be done with SoD.
Korlasz and Baldur gate city
1x invisibility to Korlasz an decided to not waste time so greenstone + 4x The Victor while tanking did the job. Just realised that i almost didn't rest in BG1 so i only have 1 DHUM. No big deal.
Used last knock for the staff quest. No glitch this time and i was able to leave the tomb without problem, got 8 potion of invisibility just from the tomb.
Finished Korlasz for fun. Went into the city to get Lon's amulet that i won't really need and the spectacle of spectacle after shopping all the scrolls and potion that i needed at Sorcerous Sundries.
Still got 40k from selling my stuff keeping the 3 WoF. Left with 25k still and killed Viconia before leaving.
Out in the wild, dwarf crypt and choosing to ''not'' surrender the fort.
Did Menhir quest and killed Teleria with WoPara.
Watched the dwarf getting killed invisible then PFU. GM+WoPoly the Bronze Sentry.
Allied with the lich for the crusader attack and left after placing the scepters.
1x PFU was enough to do everything and 1 more invisibility scroll for the ghost treasure.
306k xp and still 10k while having nothing left to buy, left to the next chapter.
Dragged the troll from outside the save to the flaming fist camp and finished the troll with bullets of fire for a bit more xp (20k).
Got 1st enchanted weapon.
Green dragon daggered, Zialtar polymorphed + Victor.
Polymorphed Ashanna and ran straight to the mind flayer. Charmed Shallen and closed the door until she died. Took the archer eye, invisibility and left.
Going to the crusader camp, WoMS the green dragon waylaid to help him. Forgot the Firely +2 from the coastway waylaid but i don't really care as using the sling will really be my last resort against Bel.
Did the Irregular and went to complete the fort. Bought potions from Thirrim who sell 10 of each that i need (so i have 25 stoneform now) and 20x invisibility. Made 80 bullets of darkness and surrendered the fort. Just noticed that the amulet that you have to give to the lich won't be gone from your bag of holding if it's inside.
Got another gamebreaking glitch again where Mari and Estebarre would stand there and wouldn't talk... reload again. This is irritating.
Decided to clear the crusader camp with 20x WoF charge which is something any other kind of character could only dream of, a few from scorcher under a PFM scroll. Victored the bridge mage and dragger the rest of the crusaders to the fort where the Fists crushed them. No more xp farming, straight to the gear then to Belhifet now.
Camp ambush
Didn't do any quests as i was at 397k xp already. I should easily get XP cap just getting to Bel ASAP.
Went to Deadman pass and bought the stoneform from Horst. Got stuck by lightning.. second time during SoD so far (happened 3 times in the end).
Freed the druid to easy access to underground river and went straight to the diseased crusaders.
The elder myconid still don't want to spawn and there is nothing to loot at all to trigger it... well time to kill the crusaders again as i already persuaded Ferrusk to give me the amulet. 3x WoF scorcher and got the seal, went to get the Ring of the crusade and kept going.
Charmed Strunk and fed him to the Ettin ghost and placed the barrel. Got Purification stone from the nymph.
Forgot about knock scrolls so i made a small trip back and bought the camp fence potion which i forgot about (3 clarity).
Use knock on the left chest inside the crusader cave for 40 bullet +3.
Polymorphed into Jelly form with a scroll to avoid the level drain and maze trap from the 2 chests and left ASAP.
Crusader Attack, got it first try:
Ogre 1st try with undeads: PFM, 20 pre casted skull traps, 1x GM, 3 webs, 6x fireball scrolls, 19 OGL, 5 WoF scorcher.
Mages with archers: Got stunned once but it didn't matter, had the time to throw 3x cloudkill before. Unstunned, 2x cloudkill, 1 fireshield red, 3x animate dead + Scorcher to help me wipe the last 2 standing, got good Archimagi robe.
Warriors: Had to refresh PFM scroll. 18 OGL, 1x fireshield red (truely amazing for LV 1 seriously)
I've got a feeling that this archimagi robe looks cooler than the normal one.
Finished the named NPCs with web + GM and ankheg amulet to target them, then wiped the remaining one with WoF/OGL.
XP Cap.
End of dragonspear, the lift and Belhifet.
27 stone form, 25 clarity, over 30 oil of speed, 160 +3 bullets, 2x enchanted weapon, 500 throwing daggers +1, 15x polymorph self, 7 fireshield blue. I'm sure i'm going to have it first try this time.. hopefully
Talked to Thrix and did the back and fort with clarity, Magic Shielding and oil of speed.
Rested and started the buff sequence, gave it a try without having to kill 2 familiars for a higher con to see if i can make it as i have much more stone forms this time.
2x protection from fire, violet potion, 20x mind focus, clarity, oil of speed, ST stuff except that i kept the claw of Kazgaroth so i will need 4 potions this time instead of 2 (-6 saves vs guards ring).
Wave 1 WoPara Imp, WoMS
Wave 2: 8x WoL
Wave 3: Magic Shielding, 7 WoL.
4x stoneform as they all died so i couldn't go invisible to buff then spell immunity.
Bel: Fireshield, Enchanted weapon and started tanking, refreshed oil of speed and clarity. 4 stoneform during 2nd fireshield.
Bel got injured right after, i was pretty lucky on crits so far. Badly injured just before i casted 4th fireshield. Near death with 1 fireshield left.
Last fireshield ended and Bel was a 92 hp. At 45 hp enchanted weapon ended, had to switch to sling. I was stuck with his HP at 35, missing a crit. then it would go to 54, crit again down to 34... got in a stalemate, had to retry as i got paralysed coming out of jelly form and his HP went back up above 50.
2 stalemate so far, 2nd try at 178 hp, unlucky on crits. Just have to be lucky once... still far from being a NR strat. Permajelly however would be. 4 stoneform per 2 fireshield was more than manageable with this setup. Pretty happy to start BG2 at 4 con instead of 2.
3rd time got it! (might upload this on reddit but it still took 10 minutes at 60 FPS) Got lucky on crit and the fight ended right before my last fireshield ran out. Caelar killer herself on the fireshield so i didn't have to do anything for her.
Remove Curse, find familiar, Constitution tome and time for BG2.
Started a save in BG2 with 618k XP. Seems like familiar HP doesn't transfert anymore and that i forgot the Dex tome in BG behind Lily as i went a bit too fast. Not a big deal as a LoB sorcerer to be honest as the difference between 18 and 19/20 is 1 ranged THAC0. Finally done being level 1!
Edit: Uploaded the fight in 2x speed on reddit for anybody who cares, with all credits for the strat to the strategy wizard histamiini of course. https://reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/nkss5j/the_only_way_for_a_solo_sorcerer_to_defeat_sod/
BG2
Irenicus Dungeon:
L1 spells: Prot from Pet, Identify, Shield, MM, Chromatic orb
L2: Blur, Knock, Melf acid arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Fear.
L3: Haste, Skull trap, Prot from fire, Prot from cold
L4:Stoneskin, GM, Farsight
L5:Animate Dead, Spell Immunity
After seeing the animate dead destroy the ogre mage, i was pretty sure that i would have no problem for the early game
Cleared the whole Irenicus dungeon with no issues at all. Animate dead + Haste with farsight kept me safe the whole way and most encounter on the second floor didn't even activate so they didn't fight back at all.
Petrified the vampire with GM + Chromatic Orb for 8k xp, left with the wand of cloudkill, used spell immunity alteration to get the invisibility scroll and freed the djinni.
One thing that i've noticed is that my skeletons seems to be able to trigger traps now, i don't recall summons being able to do that.
A few jobs before paying the thieves
Went to the Den of Seven Tales to gank the mage with 5 hasted skellies + far sight. Then, we rested downstairs and focused on Smaeluv for his sandthief ring.
Went back to rest and they spotted me for the last 2 (dwarf and imp). Buffed with shield, mirror image, stoneskin, resist fear, immunity to necromancy and abjuration and did a quick sandthief and non-detection cloak pickup inside the room before turning back invisible.
Waited Spooky globe out and casted my 3 last skeletons out of sight, hasted them and it was enough to end him. Just the dwarf left now. Rested downstairs again and 5x hasted skellies + haste was enough.
Bought rep to 15, bought 8 invisibility scrolls just in case, 2x PFU and scroll case.
Went to clear Karla's tent. Buffed with shield, mirror image, stoneskin, haste, remove fear, prot from fire and cold, spell immunity abjuration and necromancy just in case. Went to the top left, casted 3x death fog, sandthief and waited for the kill. Sadly Quayle didn't make it due to death fog. Rep now at 16.
Bought the victor just in case. (good call)
Started chapter 2, bought gem bag, got waylaid going to city gates, sandthief to wait the buffs out then 5x hasted skeletons to clean everything up. Tried a few things against the city gate lich without success, no anti-undead weapons for sorcs.
Managed to drag some skeletons outside of a tavern to fight the muggers. I can't control them at all however in BG2 once they pass through so i just dragged them until they attacked by themselves.
Finished the murder case for 1 rep (17), didn't clear the basement yet.
Did the slaver den, all with skeletons again. Cleared the second part by going invisible into the far left room and cleared my way back to the entrance from there, gave 100 gold to the captive child for 1 rep (18).
Reported back to Hendak for 19, sold all my stuff and now got 35k.
Bought back the wand of cloudkill for skeleton support then left to get the potion scroll.
In trademeet, killed the djinnies with skellys with a bit of MM and skull trap support.
Went to do the animal trouble, managed to fight Faldorn right when speaking to Cernd the first time, probably a 2.6 bug, didn't even enter the temple.
Turned the quest in trademeet, rep 20, level up to 13: Enchanted weapon, protection from acid, mislead.
Now got 50k gold. Bought robe of Vecna, recharged the Victor, bought a protection from poison and the incendiary cloud scroll in the copper coronet.
Went into the twisted rune, used PFU and ranged Shandalar with the Victor. 29 casts then casted incendiary cloud to finish him off while i was running away to mislead + invisibility scroll up the stairs.
Spell immunity abjuration and divination just in case. Went into the room and casted 2x death fog. Layene died right when i casted the second one, incendiary cloud is just insane. Got staff of the magi. Finished the warrior with cloudkill and left the vampire alive as i couldn't finish it with my remaining spells and somehow got dispelled from mislead and PFU. Got what i came for anyway and didn't feel like taking another PFU to range it for too much time.
Decided to kill the cowled enforcers. Killed them on the upper right of the bridge district. 4x death fog with 2x cloudkill was good for the first wave, same 2nd, 4x death fog and 3x skull trap 3rd, same with 2x skull trap 4th, 5th same, 6th needed all skull trap and an additionnal cloudkill for Zallanora.
Cleared the guarded compound with deathfog, cloudkill, skull trap and hasted skeletons. Made a nice 15k for 50 total and left the wand of paralyzation here for potential further uses.
Cleared the sewer party with skull traps and fogs again. Shopped a bit for PFU and recharged WoCK
Did the unseeing eye, leveled after passing the bridge and killing the beholders with fog, chose PI.
Into the pit, killed the lich with off screen death fog from PI. Finished the mummies with skull trap and the skeletons with mine. Cleared the rest of the beholder lair with fog and cloudkill. Killed some extra gauths by resting there, leveled up after taking the 2nd part of the rift device to 15: Feeblemind, Protection from Magical Energy, Mordy swords.
Killed the eye with rift device + cloudkill and the two death tyrants with Death Fog + hasted Skellies with enchanted weapons. No rift device exploit this time as i didn't need it last run.
Finished the cult, got girdle of fortitude for free 18 con for 8 hours each day (65 HP instead of 35 woohoo).
Decided to finally pay the 15k to advance to chapter 3. Got Amulet of Power.
Did the first quest and hasted level 15 skellies really had no trouble with vampires once buffed with enchanted weapon.
Saved Rylock on the way to Five Flagon and killed the party with skellies.
Vampire hideout
In the hideout, couldn't kill the clay golem but the Efreeti bottle did the trick ending badly injured. It's damage is much better than i though. Level up to 16 : Pierce Shield.
For the named vampires, enchanted weapon on hasted skellies + GM feeblemind worked well. Bodhi ran away while i was still summoning skeletons of screen so i didn't even see her.
Waylaid destroyed by skellies on the way back.
Not much to say here. Sorcerer is very strong but honestly pretty boring to play as you have next to no equipment to use and no scrolls to buy except for specific cases. You're just always hoping for another level up to try something new as you can't use any gear really. Amazing for party play as it is so low maintenance but pretty straightforward solo with a ton of money to do nothing with and always using the same combo that honestly work pretty much all the time so far. With mindflayer form, incendiary cloud, planetar and improved alacrity, i can't see anything being able to stand in my way especially with the new Histamiini Ravager form setup for ToB that i plan to use for a few encounters. Also planning to mix pierce shield with wand of paralysis to see what it can affect in BG2.
On another note, i'm very surprised how effective The Victor is overall during the whole trilogy. I'm just waiting for incendiary cloud and the wand of wonder to do some lich hunting and i should be good to go for spellhold, hopefully with planetar pretty soon in underdark.
Road to underdark and finally unlocking the true potential of the sorcerer
Lich hunting prep, Thieves guild and Firkraag lair.
Leveled up just before having to kill Mae Var (how convinient) to 17: Mantle, Incendiary cloud.
Destroyed the guild with mordy swords and incendiary cloud which has a great clearspeed for the moment (and it keeps it, completely underrated spell).
Went to kill Tazok so i can get the wand of wonders.
Cleared the area easily and gave the acorn. Inside the lair i had to waste the spells of the transmuter, waited his planetar out to end him with enchanted weapon skellies while he was out of spells.
Leveled up again to 18 after killing the vampires with cloud and mordy swords, had to use efreeti bottle for the clay golems. Level 18 : HLA summon planetar, Shapechange.
Planetar supported by GM had no chill at all and crushed the whole level. This is the point where i'm starting to feel OP with that many cast using PI and soon, simulacrum.
Cleared everything up to Tazok for the sewer key, sold the stuff and made a trip there for the wand of wonder.
After clearing the first room with only one mind flayer, i decided that they were not worth it until i get time stop so i buffed like crazy, potion of magic shielding and made a run for the wand. Grabbed everything and ran away.
Lich hunting, better than expected
Had to use a PFU on the lich in the inn in city gates district due to limited space (killed it for fun), a single incendiary cloud did the job in there. One thing i am wondering is if i can use swords off hand if i use black blade of disaster as it gives me long sword grandmastery... i'll test that later. Still it's situationnal so it'll be with a scroll.
Recharged victor and kept going with the bridge district lich. That lich was immune to fire but 6x death fog did the job very well. Level up to 19 : HLA Improved alacrity, Abi Dalzim due to low simulacrum level anyway, Time Stop.
Went for Kangaxx, rested and refreshed PFU first then 2x incendiary cloud were more than enough. For the demilich, only 3 casts of WoW were enough for petrification. Broke him with the Efreeti bottle for the ring of Gaxx.
Went to finish Firkraag after. Planetar vorpal hit a group of golems for some easy xp ( they had pretty good saves, took a while), still much faster than before. 6 WoW charges later, Firkraag was petrified (did the hit and run tactic to save charges). Had to go in timestop to finish him with the SotM due to his amazing AC.
Shadow temple and De'Arnise
Finished the shadow temple. The lich inside got burnt then i stoned the shadow dragon in 4 shots of WoW. Killed the shade lord and shadow altar with mislead + incendiary cloud + pierce shield. Shadow Patrick fled somewhere south and i didn't have time to reach him before their death.
De'Arnise next. First troll kill leveled up to 21: HLA L6 spells, Improved Haste. I'm actually considering not taking PFMW at this point as i totally avoid confrontation anyway buy we'll see as timestop is pretty good for auto-hit and not being able to cast spells for a while using tenser's might be more of a blade thing.
Real power from the sorc really comes out once you unlock HLA's. 6x level 9 and 8 spells to cast is just insane, just as constant haste to move around. I really don't rest much especially with PI. The whole keep was swept by planetar supported by incendiary cloud like if it was story mode. Planetar vorpal killed the golems. Picked up ring of earth control and made the flail just to cry because i can't use it. Destroyed Torgal and the whole room with 5x clouds and planetar at the cost of only 1x PI, never entered the room thanks to farsight.
Planar Sphere
Tolgeria's party destroyed by PI with an improved haste planetar supported by IA horrid wilting. Continued clearing the sphere and grabbed the staff of fire for free fireshield red if needed. What is interesting is that i can use the special equipement spells even if i'm using the other weapon. Planetar killed the first Tanari no problem but was too slow for the two others so i swept them testing mindflayer form, which killed everything in 2 timestops but i'll try to avoid it until i hit xp cap. Finished the golem that spawn by powering up the sphere with planetar + efreeti + iron golem form for xp, Level up to 23: HLA L8 Spell, Spirit Armor, Improved Mantle (still don't feel like i need simulacrum, i will when i'll get dual shapechange or imprisonment spam for mind flayers and hopefully some demons).
Got the ring of acuity.
Spell hold and shark city
Went to fight Perth the adept who lasted about 1 second before falling to a vorpal hit. Got true sight from the book of infinite spells.
In the dream sequence, chose to lose a wisdom point that i will gain back with the machine of Lum the Mad. Managed to lure Bhaal inside this time. Pwned him with shapechange: Greater Wolfwere form that he could do nothing against mostly for fun as planetar can easily kill him. Had to redo it as i was perma-stunned after talking to Bodhi. Had to do it 4 times as i figured out 2 things: Bhaal will only follow you inside if he's out of sight while you enter the castle and there are some long time effects that will cause you to freeze permanently after talking to Bohdi if you play with ''items removed in spellhold'' like i do so make sure to rest to be debuffed.
First level, not much problem, grabbed the bag of holding and went full planetar + mordy swords. Killed the lich on the second floor with offscreen incendiary cloud during timestop to be safe. Leveled up to 24 after IH planeter completely crushed the umber hulk ambush while i was safe on mislead, which is my only source of invisibility for this dungeon. HLA: Comet.
3rd level, had to defeat the room with the Ulitharid with timestop + mindflayer form. Then the mind flayer got killed by a a lucky GM vorpal hit with the help of true sight. Spent 20 token for Frost Embrase and Paws of the cheetah.
Did the riddles and got cloak of deflection, i can now be immune to all elements. Prepared a bit before the Irenicus fight, but no matter what i do i cannot seem to be able to get my stuff into the fight as i get automatically teleported into it right after the dialogue with the jailer.
Still, after casting all my protections and a chain contingency 3x incendiary cloud on nearest enemy when seen, Irenicus lasted about 10 seconds. Casted a planetar and it finished the murderer's that weren't destroy by the cloud.
Got my stuff back and my Victor was only at 1 charge instead of 50... i really might just desinstall this component for my next run especially if trying a non-caster class.
Level up to 25: HLA Dragon Breath, and for level 9 spell i was really hesitating between imprisonmnent and wish. I'm taking a big chance there and will bet my ToB fight entirely on Ravager form, hoping that it will be enough and went with imprisonment. I'm not playing no reload so at the worst i'll have 3 wish scrolls to reload with for feeblemind, which should be plenty enough but i really don't aim doing that, it's going to be last resort if ravager form really isn't enough. Aiming to use it mainly against demons and mind flayers.
With basic buffs, i now sit at -13 AC with spirit armor and blur which is very respectable for a mage. I then left for the shark city.
The pirates got completely crushed by a PI with hasted planetar, IA with 5x dragon breath and 7x horrid wilting in the mix.
The ettin got killed in Greater wolfwere form during timestop for fun. Got the cloak of mirroring from the priestess. Finished the quest siding with the prince, annihilated the king's army with horrid wilting and dragon breath and moved on to underdark.
Now in underdark almost at 6m xp. Now sorcerer is now great fun with level 9 spells and all HLAs available at all time, very different than F/I and i like it, i actually rest even less due to the insane number of effective casts. I barely lose any hp at all but the girdle of fortitude brings my life above 70 pretty much until i rest which is great for a 4 base con sorcerer. It really shines more once you get HLAs so you can actually do more damage yourself than having to rely on cloud damage for kills or minions. Improved Alacrity really make everything much better and it's insanely easy to use. Having access to 4 level 9 spells and all HLAs at all time especially this early is amazing. Now i know that planetar can kill pretty much everything by himself up to that pôint but as i almost always cast it using a PI on improved alacrity, adding a few dragon breath and horrid wilting all over the area in half a round which is insanely fun and make some nice fireworks... and i can do it 8 times per rest, even more soon once i'll get my high level simulacrum.
One thing i want to try is to set tome spells like horrid wilting and dragon breath on a key and see if i can cast 5-10 at the same time using a simulacrum/PI chain, or maybe some clouds. Now that would be ridiculous.
Edit: My bad, no sim for this sorcerer. Doesn't really matter however. It's been a while since i played one, totally forgot that you learn 4 level 8 spells and not 5.
Edit 2: Mage spells to a key doesn't make all your PI and Sim cast the spell even if they're selected in your group. Only one PI will cast the spell. Still, you can select them all manually and go Hotkey + Click for something pretty cool and completely unnecessary too.
Underdark
Vorpal hit the Balor using 2x planetar as my first one got vorpaled. Did Vithal quest and he died almost instantly to chain contingency 3x incendiary cloud after. Went to the mindflayer lair to get it done and test my new imprisonment tactic. Imprisoned the two mind flayers where the slaves are. Got 4 mind control circlet that i'll try to keep is i really need them. Good thing i brought freedom scroll because i would have softlocked my game. It prevent mindflayers from spawning for you to open the intelligence door.
Imprisonning is working extremely well so far. Improved Mantle, planetar from PI for true sight when i'm out of spell book (works even stunned), imprison them one by one while they can do nothing to my -5 save. Also discovered that 5x Dragonbreath really hurt them as it bypass MR, even kill sometime.
Leveled up after the room where there are like 10 of them to 27. The whole mix of dragonbreath + imprisonment really makes the whole thing a cakewalk. I can safely imprison 5 of them with my main character using true sight. Sequence is Improved Alacrity, any buffs like blur, stoneskin... then improved mantle, imprison as many as possible.
Grabbed ring of fire control for ravager form undispellable fire immunity and the staff of command. Planetar soloes the elder brain while i dragged the mind flayers and golems to the room below, where i dragonbreath them. The whole thing was much easier than expected, especially that i skipped the mind flayers in the sewers now i feel like i have the necessary tools against them (i actually won't go back there as i got what i wanted, would be the same tactic + PFU for Alhoon).
Bought firetooth dagger, rod of smiting and the staff of earth just in case, i have way too much gold for what i need and can use. All tavern duels crushed with planetar and IA PI with it's insane spellbook. Leveled up to 28 : Breach. No more stoneskin mage lasting more than 10 seconds against planetar.
Something that i've noticed also works very well for mind flayers is enchanted weapon + improved haste mindflayer form during timestop. I might regret not taking wish but i'm having good fun with imprisonment (will buy a ton of freedom scrolls coming back from underdark just in case). Still, tested the Ravager form and it really should be enough after the bhaalspawn trials. One great thing that i've noticed is that you can change into drow ravager at will if you skip the trap, as long as you remain a drow in fact. You don't have to already be into the form for it to work so if you avoid the trap with timestop, you can switch from ravager to normal form keeping the drow apparence as many time as you want, which could be cool for some portion in ToB like watcher's keep and the final fight where reputation don't really matter as much anymore. Still i don't aim doing a drow ravager at all but it could be good in another playthrough.
Destroyed the encounter with the mindflayers from the first drow quests using enchanted weapon + IH + Mindflayer form + timestop. Got lucky there and they both got mazed so they wouldn't get almost insta-killed in a round or two. 2x timestop killed everything. Did all the quests and the double double cross then delivered the eggs. Laughted my ass off at those dialogue choices, i was used to the ''i love someone else'' text and forgot those.
Cleared the area for fun before leaving. Spawned the demon knight who were totally obliterated. Had IH planetar and 4x IH mordy swords (1 sacrified so 3), left as i got blinded, PI, IA + 5x comet to put everybody on the ground, finished one of them with 3x pierce shield + horrid wilting while the summons crushed the 3 others in barely 2 rounds. Got a bunch of stuff that i really don't need but fighting like this is pretty addictive.
Level up to 29, went to try the beholder lair next. The area with the hive mother got cleared by a very laggy mix of death and incendiary cloud, had to run away from the hive mother due to spell failure. Coming back, planetar did a vorpal hit for an easy kill. She stole my cloak of mirroring so i could just leave like that. Rest of the lair i got more cautious and used a PI under IA and timestop to debuff the elder orbs with pierce shield before unleashing de orbs, then sent in IH planetars (i needed 2) with farsight to finish them.
Level up to 30 just before crossing the gate to the entrance area: Finally went with PFMW. I'll leave tenser's for the blade as i have enough timestop to make it worth it. Exited underdark and got the stakes + holy water.
Bodhi
Went to clear Bodhi hideout and sadly Drizzt didn't make it.
Had to kill Bodhi twice under PFU but she wouldn't die, so petrification did the trick. Finished clearing the room and had to unstun planetar by striking him with SotM (just though about it now... works well, just make sure he doesn't attack you after). They didn't last long with that many incendiary clouds, 4 mordy swords and IH planetar. Stabbed Bhodi one last time and gained my final level, 31: Delayed blast fireball.
Spelltome is:
L1: MM, Chromatic orb, identify, PfP, Shield.
L2: Melf acid arrow, blue, Mirror image, Knock, Resist Fear.
L3: Flame Arrow, haste, Prot from cold (i don't regret it, it saves my life and prevented ice arrows from dealing damage through stoneskin) and fire, skull trap.
L4: Enchanted weapon, Stoneskin, GM, Spirit armor, Farsight.
L5: Animate dead, Spell immunity, Feeblemind, Breach, Protection from acid (amazing for death fog and those sludge trap)
L6: Death Fog, Improved haste, Mislead, Protection from energy, PFMW.
L7: Project image, Mordy swords, Mantle, ruby ray of reversal, delayed blast fireball.
L8: Abi-Dalzim, Incendiary cloud (MVP), Pierce Shield, Improved Mantle.
L9: Timestop, Shapechange, Chain Contingency, Imprisonment.
I don't regret any of my choices so far, hopefully it stays the same in ToB. True sight from the book + planetar is more than enough honestly. I really underestimated incendiary cloud until now. It's really an insane spell and there isn't that many enemies that are immune to it in the end.
Went in the north forest to get another timestop scroll mostly for ToB final fight to use in Ravager form.
Recharged Victor and wand of paralysation. Also took 10 more freedom scrolls just in case.
Last chapter and Irenicus
Clearing the area in mislead mindflayer using enchanted weapon wasn't as efficient as with my F/I due to lower Thac0 but it was still efficient at 8 APR. Managed to get a better bonus switching to girdle of frost giant strength, raising it to 21 for 9 Thac0 instead or 13. Got another timestop scroll, now have 4. 3x incendiary cloud contingency was really good against the Rajah.
Stoned the dragon as i wouldn't want to spend time with feeblemind. 1 timestop and a few more casts under PFMW was enough, broke it with planetar.
Tested to see if it was possible to dual wield a longsword with BBoD due to grandmastery but it doesn't work. Got belt of Inertial barrier before fighting Irenicus.
Irenicus could survive a 3x pierce shield + 3x incendiary cloud during timestop alacrity and died a few seconds after.
In hell, did all tears the good way except for Wraith Sarevok for the +2 to strength, making me neutral evil. Started the fight by running away and used a PI with improved alacrity in timestop to imprison all the demons. Only 2 Efreeti were left after that who got taken care of by planetar + deathfog from another PI. Got him injured with stacked incendiary clouds that didn't do much and 6x death fog. Second try went with abi-dalzim instead with all my magic missiles and melf acid arrows, the nuke finished him instantly as soon as timestop ended. Absolute powerhouse. Time for ToB!
Lot of fun, Watchers keep and ToB left. Not really worried so far. Spell damage is just insane as you can see against Irenicus.
Illasera & Saradush
Did the first challenge using incendiary cloud, IH mordy swords and planetar. Casted find familiar, now got 137 hp after using the girdle and 107 without it.
Incendiary cloud still destroy the orc without any problem. I've heard many statements saying that fire was weak for ToB. Appart from demons that i can imprison, let see how often i'll be forced to use something else
Bought some scrolls and went into the sewer, cleared it for fun with the same combo and enter by the northern hidden wall.
Grommir
Changed my Ioun stone for the once giving -4 saves vs death and 1 AC, i'm now totally safe from vorpal hits at -4 saves vs death unbuffed.
Yaga-Shura
Went to the fire temple, killed everything with mindflayer timestop except for the dragon who i feebleminded after GM and 3x pierce shield, then safely stoned in 5 shots with the wand of wonder.
Ate Nyalee in timestop, went for Yaga Shura. Dealt with his horde using incendiary cloud + planetar then feebleminded him once he was taking decent damage from planetar. Sent him a few PÎ alacrity nukes but stacking death fogs was the most efficient way as he would only resist 50% of the damage for 4 damage per fog per round. Finished him with a planetar using his fists and insect plague as the death cloud left him at near death, he died as i took control of another PI.
Sendai Enclave
The outside got cleared with the usual combo, stacking incendiary clouds would deal significant damage to them even with their hih MR. Same with the inside. I'm pretty riskless at all time as i always use PI and farsight to clear the whole map without having to move much from the entrance.
PFU + incendiary cloud for the Lich. Ogremoch killed in timestop mindflayer using IH and enchanted weapon. Also killed everybody next to Diaytha except the Hive mother the same way before even talking to her. A small rest in pocket plane and planetar finished them both.
Duel crushed with no issues, for the mindflayer, rested in pocket plane and used chain contingency with PI and PFMW to imprison them all. Incendiary cloud crushed the Umber Hulks. Had to do a few myself using the true sight from the book because planetar got stunned before being able to cast it.
Sendai
Dragon army to Abazigal
Managed to feeblemind Anadramatis. Gave him the cloud threatment. It took 5 PI unleashing their entire spellbook as he is immune to fire. Really tought one.
Incendiary cloud cleared the lairs easily. There are really few encounters that are immune so far, as long as i breach their protections. So far, nothing that i tested the wand of paralyzation against actually worked.
Went to get the rope and fought the 4 dragons with the wand of wonder because i didn't want to feeblemind loop them, so i ran around with improved haste using it. Got very unlucky and needed 42 uses for the first 2. Needed 47 casts for the green dragon which is ridiculous. Finished carnifex after another 30 uses, which are by far my worst odds from all my WoW attempts for each one of the dragons and took a nice pic. Sadly Carnifex killed one of the dragon with a dragon breath. I finished them all with staff of the magi in timestop.
Killed Fil'Yissetat in only 5 charges (YAY!) and grabbed the specter ring for 12 hours improved invisibility, which brings my AC to -16 and my saves insanely low (death -9 spells -12). Went to get the scroll and planetar vorpal struck all the beholders in seconds which was amazing.
Abazigal and making Balthazar join us
Incendiary cloud and planetar cleared Balthazar army and we went straight to him. Managed to get Balthazar to join me with 2-2-3-2-1-1-1-3-3-1-1-2-1 as i am evil (saw this on an older Harpagonis post, having Balthazar join you is badass, i certainly won't pass it)
Ravager pwnage, now this should allow any character to easily beat him.
Found an amazing easy way to defeat the Ravager: Cespenar is invincible, so i charmed him with a control circlet and made him agro everybody, including the Ravager so i casually hacked him while nobody attacked me. I wasn't tanky enough to 1 vs 1 him on my own, especially with no helmet. Do not take potions of power as they will lower your sorcerer Thac0, not the Ravager one... big mistake. Ravager attacked me a bit when the potion ended but didn't damage me much, then refocused on Cespenar until death. It took over 5 minutes at 60 fps to end him with the pretty good damage output of the Ravager form of 17-38 at 5 APR. He started to range me again, which was just worst for him as i could tank his ranged attack no problem and would gain a huge Thac0 bonus to hit him much more often.
Didn't feel like, or felt the need to do Watcher's keep. Kept a save before Ravager so i might do it later, now i'm more focused on ending it to complete the challenge.
Throne of Bhaal failed attempts (take notes if you want to try a no-wish Ravager throne on a mage)
Decided to help myself a bit with the victor but that didn't do much. I should have equipped my staff with elemental charges for those so they have another meatshield... the efreeti bottle did the job for the last one.
Remembered that they wouldn't see me invisible... so i could have saved more mislead scrolls for this. Also not sure how many protections Mariliths have, but i swear that they're invulnerable for more than 2 minutes (figured out that it's unlimited and timed). I'm sure they have unlimited PFMW and stoneskin... which is honestly problematic for this build. Restarted the chapter, did the same thing but kept Balt alive this time, as i really needed a summon or something. Now luring enemies with Balthazar was WAY more efficient. The whole pool got cleared 10x faster. Second pool got entirely face tanked. Balthazar died before the last Marilith during the third pool but that wasn't a problem as i now had Unleash to guarantee some damage.
Now for the five. I tried to stay in ravager form and while i would be pretty safe, dealing damage was the hard part really. Now the issue is, i can't seem to be able to damage them as i get ganked way too much. The biggest issue here is Yaga Shura. Usually i would be immune to crushing damage, but not now due to lack of helmet. I made the decision to change back and feeblemind him and Abazigal at least since not using helmets was going to be problematic. After 3 PI, only Sendai, Sarevok and Abazigal were still with their mind and i still had 4 left. For some reasons my slayer change disappeared even if i didn't use it and had it at the beginning of the chapter as i didn't keep a save before that... restart the whole thing but though about something: I went back to buy more PI and Sim scroll for a total of 5 total (should have hoarded more but it should be fine), also got 4x chain contingency. Goal now is to get back to that point, feeblemind at least Yaga, Abazigal and Grommir, charm Sarevok, get them to near death and finish Amelyssan teleporting to a pool to facetank her. Also switched to my 2 elemental summon staves (didn't need them but extra meatshield is great). I felt pretty confident this time, we can now see that Ravager form isn't auto-win or as simple as it seem with all builds. Should be a million time better on fighters and thieves however.
Throne of Bhaal, got used to it this time and crushed it.
Last pool controled another Balor who tanked the Marilith, now have 3. Balt switched to solar stance that turned the balors hostile so had to recharm them. Let him died to the Marilith as i didn't need him anymore at all, he was now more trouble than help.
Had to re-control 2 balors out of 3, who made a great diversion. For feeblemind, first did Yaga Shura, then Sendai, then doing Illasera i noticed that only a single ST check was being done if the spells are thrown in timestop, so i did them just with alacrity for her as she would save all the time. Got the rest first try doing this: Hide where a pool is out of sight and use a clone scroll, Alacrity, Farsight, Timestop, 3x Pierce shield. Wait far from view, GM from out of sight, Alacrity, improved haste, feeblemind (have to breach Sendai first for it to work, so an additionnal timestop is needed) Good thing is, i had 5 clone scrolls. Tried both Sarevok and Grommir for the last scroll throwing 3-3, worked perfectly fine. Now i'm safe!
Now for some reason... i still have my Slayer Change power compared to before. This is probably due to my order of completion for the pools or something like that. Anyway i casted PI from chain contingency to get some damage down with Planetar using fists and mordy sword but their accuracy was lacking quite a lot so i charmed Sarevok. Stopped right at near death to make sure that Deathbringer assault doesn't insta-kill one of them. He finished Yaga shura and Amelyssan spawned, we finished the Five and she took care of Sarevok herself, finishing him with Finger of Death. Started the duel that i couldn't lose doing the double teleport and trapping her demon on another pool.
Finally i slowly tanked her casting unleash every few round until victory... finally that fight is over. Honestly that second try wasn't that bad at all. Feeblemind worked well even staying in Ravager form, she had time to re-Gate demons at badly injured, this is how long it took (10-15 mins at 60 fps).
So as mentionned, skipped Watcher's Keep as i became a bit tired of that style of gameplay and didn't really need anything from it except +1 wisdom if i wanted to try using wish, which i wanted to skip this time. Still, challenge done! It was fun but very repetitive due to the limited combo and equipment available. Things that i learned during this playthrough:
-The victor is great to range liches under PFU if they didn't cast protection from magical energy first, which they shouldn't if you started the fight under it.
-Ravager form isn't auto-win.
-Wand of paralysation is pretty useless honestly. Nothing like Power Attack from my previous run with my F/I.
-Cast improved haste on your planetar. It also have 3x True sight, which means that it's nearly useless on your slots especially with the book of infinite spells.
-Ruby ray is insta-cast compared to Pierce shield, which is great to debuff mages that resist your incendiary cloud but have no MR. Alacrity, 2-3 instant Ruby ray, breach, watch it die.
-Many casters use protection from fire, almost none use protection from acid of are naturally immune to it. This makes Death Cloud amazing to distrupt them, especially that late game casters are most of the time immune to poison but not acid.
-Wish is overrated as hell especially playing solo. Pocket plane is the real MVP for free and safe resting.
-Imprisonment is insane. Tired of mind flayers, enemy Devas and Planetars? Well it's a good solution.
-Dragon Breath and Comet are more useful than they appear and can clear an entire room of mind flayers, thanks to that MR bypass.
-Balthazar is useful but fight like an idiot on his own.
-Powers from the pool during the throne fight are amazing. Unleash for marilith and guaranteed damage, teleport, control demons for easy clear. Start with the second pool.
-My WoW luck is either amazing or absolutely awful.
-Carry useful scrolls, especially clone ones.
-Do not use level drain to reach 1 hp with a mage, use it on a class that can wield the Martyr's Morningstar instead. The combo of Constution penalty and Level drain will kill you, will prevent you from loading your save and will kill you on dream sequences.
Now that was a cool playthrough still but the sorcerer is a bit too repetitive and clicky for my taste personnally. In term of difficulty, it was definitely harder than my F/I except during early SoA as i didn't need to search for scrolls and could use those that i found for specific situations. Many very strong combos but lack many useful tools, trading versatility for powerful specific approaches. Having all HLAs available at all time at your disposal is also amazing and you don't have to rest much even without simulacrum, that i really didn't need. Tested a few unnecessary approaches to see if some scenarios would be doable with ''all'' classes like the Ravager and ToB.
As you guys probably know, if you use WoL and then switch out the quickslot with another consumable you automatically "selfcast" spells even if they are usually targeted, for example golem manual or efreeti bottle.
Today I realized that as a side effect if these skills used to break invis, like the summon items, if cast like that they actually won't break invis, this is also true for wand of summoning.
Now this got me thinking if this would be possible without WoL in BG1, and guess what it is!
You simply pause your game, put a potion in a quickslot, drink it while the game is paused and then switch it out for wand of summoning.
This will self cast the spell once you unpause and not break invis, which is actually very useful.
On another note, did you know that Efreeti bottle doesn't seem to count towards summon limit at least if you cast it first?
On my level 14 Jester i can wol + efreeti bottle, which will already give me 6 efreeti, but then I can summon 2 skellis via animate dead and wol + golem manual and will end up with 11 quite deadly summons.
Why have I never thought of this before, it stacks with itself, so it can also be WoL cheesed, haha.
Single cast is already -20 missiles and -6 to each melee style.
And because it isn't base AC there is no cap.
edit:nvm it still has a cap of 20, but since it stacks with base cap still an easy way to get to -40 with non fighter classes.
First use WoL on Mislead, so you get 6 duplicates (while having reflection cloak equipped ofc).
And then use wol on self to get it bouncing, obliterated Most of twisted rune guys in a couple seconds for me (For layene I precast some WoL cloudkills and Shangalar was really annoying as SCS liches go).
Also if you get any lightning res on top of the 100% from cloak, the lightning will heal you.
Sadly the game will lag hard if you use it too long and eventually freeze, so you need to have a dispel scroll ready to get rid of your clones, scroll is needed cuz wol interrupts, but as bard or thief with alchemy hla you have an infinite supply of them anyway (can be woled too for 6 scrolls per cast)
Any tips on that wave?
And I could only buy 18 skull traps scrolls from vendors (probably from high hedge, sorcerer sundries and Belegarm), where can I find more?
Still the key is as you already tried sadly: GM + immobilization with AoE and ankheg damage burst focusing on named NPCs. Good AoE to use if you still have them are Cloudkill, Fireball, Scorcher, Web, Skull Trap (can't get any more than that really except for random drops) and any hold/chaos spells you have left. Slow+Blind is also a great debilitating combo giving -8 AC to affected creatures, slow being on an AoE at -4. Spawn your ankhegs out of the webbed area and haste them, make them shoot at stuck named NPCs, help your DPS with high strength and dual wielding, keep the fight as close to the north of the map (where the wooden fence is near the area Exit) so the spawned crusaders also get stuck when they spawn.
We can only hope that a more experimented runner like @histamiini can give you better advice especially that he did it with this exact class. I personally never made it there with a cleric class so far as i always feared getting stuck at this encounter or Bel. Rolled a Cleric/Thief recently (slow progress as i'm pretty busy, not sure if i'll be able to finish it, also practicing NR strats in my free time to avoid posting 10x failed runs) and i was expecting to try a Backstab strategy against Bel if the 1hp trick fails due to lack of DPS. As we can now use summon items while staying invisible in 2.6 (unless they changed it again since i last played) it is much easier to perform an invisible backstab on Bel and go back invisible right after with a potion. Not sure what would be the average damage of a 4x staff of striking backstab with 25 strength however, assuming you can land your hits during the Champion Strength duration for maximum accuracy and get enough summon items to keep his attention away from you.
In ducal palace, those doppelgangers are very easily paralyzed by WoPara. Which makes the battle very easy.
In saravok fight, all the bosses can be turned into a squirrel pretty easily with GM + WoPoly (except for angelo, 20 charges on him only turned once).
I am trying a 1 hp sorcerer, and she is in sod chapter 8, the map with the dwarf lich story. When I tried to finish the chapter the game played a cutscene that a mage blew up the bridge which killed me outright.
I checked the log, it didn't show there was any damage at all. And my avatar showed my max hp was 2. How do you bypass that?
Edit: okay found a solution. I used DUHM to raise my hp to 2, then the cutscene did 1 damage to me. Alive, then used WoMS to distract the attackers and hid behind the tent. After a moment another cutscene of caelar played, and I entered chapter 9
Not to rain on your parade but it sounds like you have encountered the same critical bug which scuppered my last run - Final Fight everyone's saves set to 20 (with a +19 penalty applied) except Angelo, and the Doppleganger's saves glitched out too. Their saves have glitched out due to some strange interaction with SCS. Ctrl-Q them into your party and see that Sarevok should not have a Save vs paralization of 20!
You can check my post on the previous page.
just bring >100 potions of invisibility like Harpagonis and roll for 19-20s with Aule's Staff afterwards
But Buffed Skeletons alone should be able to almost deal with the whole thing so long as you're Neutral Evil I think it is. And you off-screen cast some Silence.
Too bad I made a lawful good FMC, didn't know it has anything to do with the skeletons, but how?
For skellies, depends if you have the IWD spell component installed - there's a cleric buff which gives +1 attack and some other stuff to minions of the same alingment as you. But being good hasits benefits, you can use the good ring for Bel without needing helm of Opposite Alignment.
Still the best way that i've found to get past the non-bugged Ducal Palace fight with absolute ease was to charm and drag the warehouse Basilisk to the throne room using the sewers, ideally invisible as it bugged a few times on my level 1 sorc run, some guards would follow indefinitely and get insta-killed dropping my reputation by an insane amount (could have probably charmed them too with the nymph cloak). No need to even drag the shaman and mage doppleganger into another room, the basilisk ended the fight in a few seconds every time i tried so far except one, where it got affected by chaos (i think) and it started killing allies.
@alice_ashpool Now I understand why in histamiini's adventure he made an evil FMC and constantly used skeletons to clear the many dungeons (with blood rage and haste buffs). I didn't install icewind dale spell and my skeleons was never that powerful.
And at last I beat bel with a 1 hp sorcerer. I thought I was losing, my enchanted weapon, fire shield and even potions all ran out. My buffs were wearing off too... Only had void bullets left. Suddenly I saw there were less demons on the screen, only then did I realize bel was actually dead. Even after all demons disappeared their poison/deceases still kept hurting my char, and she kept screaming "ah ah ah". And I checked my save vs death was like +7 at the time. That scene looked really scary, but it turned out I stayed alive after all
And you guys really are geniuses to conjure up such a method. Everything is so well calculated and so precise.