Krell has started SoA and is having some fun in the Irenicus Prison. Well - mostly his Fire Elementals are having the fun. They absolutely own everything so all Krell has to do is stand back and drink a cup of tea. But after the horrors of SoD he welcomes this warm start. Taking it easy and watch how everything gets burned away - thats what i like...
Demon Knight - Burning in Hellfire Otyugh - Burned into the ground Illych - Nothing more than smoke Mephits - You are kidding me... Golems - What?! Duergar - *cough*
My F/M/C arrived at BG city now. I only killed Hareishan in the cloakwood mines, I suffered from severe being out of ideas so I killed her with out of sight web + fireballs (web mainly for the guards and Blacktalon). Even tho that was super cheesy I needed a couple of reloads since my brain was not working properly and I got myself killed a couple of times once even with my own fireballs.
The Davaeorn fight was super strange and even tho I took way to long I didn't need a reload. I feel like his script was broken, after summoning an ogre he only attacked me in melee, never cast any spells and after I unloaded my whole paralyze wand on him against which he saved every time even tho he was doomed for all over -6 saving throws at the end he never called his guards which was super strange.
I was immune to electricity, don't know if that was the reason for him not casting spells, but his script not activating on calling guards can't be explained by that or can it?
Yeah - your Davaeorn script seems broken @Victor_Creed_SFV. In my runs he always called his guards and used all of his spells properly. Anyway: Keep on rolling!
Has anyone run into these strange "INVALID LINES" in SoA? They are getting more and more - be it spell casts, potion drinking or even some talking lines. This is really annoying - maybe i have to reinstall the whole game...
Yeah - your Davaeorn script seems broken @Victor_Creed_SFV. In my runs he always called his guards and used all of his spells properly. Anyway: Keep on rolling!
Has anyone run into these strange "INVALID LINES" in SoA? They are getting more and more - be it spell casts, potion drinking or even some talking lines. This is really annoying - maybe i have to reinstall the whole game...
I had that once when I created an uber char per EE-Keeper, but it never affected the actions I did. Too bad about Davaeorn being broken, it only would have caused me to reload and fully charge my wand tho, so I guess it doesn't really matter. (wand only had 9 charges left and worst case scenario I could have used the malison scroll, since I don't get level 4 spells in BG 1 anyway)
Davaeorn's script is designed to trigger and turn him hostile when he first sees you. However, if you've previously damaged him from out of sight and made him hostile the script quite often doesn't function properly.
Davaeorn's script is designed to trigger and turn him hostile when he first sees you. However, if you've previously damaged him from out of sight and made him hostile the script quite often doesn't function properly.
Oh ok, that explains it, then I totally misremembered how his script worked. I thought it was when he got damaged to a certain point but I haven't played BG1 from start to finish for years (might have been back when EE released. ) I sent a skeleton warrior in and only followed invisible after he engaged the skeleton, then after triggering the traps I went to a room where it was less likely for the doom guys to aggro on me and only then attacked Dav. (Maybe he even called the guards but since I never went back to where the doomguards were the guards never saw me)
Frey is on the warpath (yet again) and has just made it past the Bandit Camp. It's not been the cleanest run to date, but hey who's counting . Can he keep it together long enough to get past Sarevok this time?
It might have been posted here before, but how well does Otiluke's work in the palace ambush? If the mages script is broken and she doesn't attack back a simple invis might help, but for Belt Otiluke might be a good option? Ofc he has to fail a save which might not be awesome for no reload, but then again Halbazzar sells 20(!) scrolls of it...
If you're playing with the latest BGEE and don't have spell revisions then using Otiluke's is treated as a hostile act - not a good idea at the palace! Making Liia invisible certainly can be helpful, but both the cleric and mage are likely to have several ways of dispelling that so it's not a silver bullet.
Liia's behaviour at the palace has always been odd. In some installations I've used she fights (though never using what should be her full potential), but more often than not she just waits to be slaughtered.
I am planning around a pure Thief for SoD at the moment.
The problems he will face have been mentioned earlier. Here are a short summary and possible ways how to solve them:
Fear Protection: Too bad that one cannot use Caelar Argents Circlet as she drops no loot. Kiels Helm or the Commanders Chain Mail are also out of reach. This leaves only Greenstone Amulet open which you can get three times. 1x from Ulgoths Beard and 2x from Minsc if you double kill him in SoD. This should be enough – hopefully! Alternative: Get Saving Throws low enough so you can ignore the Fear Aura. Does someone know which save is used against Fear Auras?
EDIT: Its Save vs Wand!!! This means: A Dwarf or Gnome should have no problems pushing them to or even below 0 to get immune! HAH - problem solved!!!!!
THAC0: With an AC of -12 Belhifet is really hard to hit – even for Warriors. To get any chance i collected all items that came to my mind – here are the numbers:
Level 12 Thief
Base THAC0: 15
Strength 19: +3 THAC0 -> Violet Potion: 7 Weapon: +3 THAC0 Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise: +1 THAC0 Ring of Purity: THAC0 +1 from chant, good alignement only! Modron Heart Amulet: THAC0: +2 vs. Chaotic, no chaotic alignement! Cloverleaf Belt: Luck → +5% THAC0 (on base?) → +1 THAC0 (?) Potion of Power: 80% THAC0 of current base → +3 THAC0 Violet Potion:
This means: 3+3+1+1+2+1+3 = +14 THACO = 1 THAC0 = 35% chance to hit Belhifet With violet Potion: +18 THAC0 = -3 THAC0 = 55 % chance to hit Belhifet Swashbuckler: another +2 Hit & +1 Proficiency = -6 THAC0 = 70% chance to hit Big B
My questions: Have i missed anything? Is there a way to push strength beside Holy Might? How is luck calculated?
Is it right that Ioun stones protect against critical hits like claimed in different posts?
Ioun stones used to provide protection, but that's been changed in the EE so thieves are out of luck there.
My questions: Have i missed anything? Is there a way to push strength beside Holy Might? How is luck calculated?
I don't know any of the items found in SoD, but you could consider saving up the violet potion for use against Belhifet. Luck 5% just means a +1 adjustment. The base THAC0 for a L12 thief is 15, so I guess you've already got the strength adjustment in your starting 12.
Oh, didn't know Ioun stones got changed in EE, I always used them and never noticed them not working vs crits, strange.
My F/M/C rushed thru BG city collecting all the important items for now (might have missed a couple but I will make sure I get everything with the help of mikes rpg centre maps before I finish the game) which I remembered by myself.
Then I killed the Iron Throne party with the usual go in invisible, sneak out of sight to the south room and spam fireball wand, picked up their loot and Eltan teleported me to Candlekeep.
You are absolutely right @Grond0 so i did some more research on the SoD Thief:
Fear Protection: Yes - Dwarves will get immunity with proper equipment! Crit Protection: No - Ioun Stones or Circlets are not protecting vs critical hits - too bad! THAC0: Violet Potion + Potion of Fortitude are working wonders - great! AC & HP: Thanks to all the SoD items it should be easy to reach AC -10 or better. Plus: Invisibility will protect the Thief from anything but Erinyes and Belhifet - if you are fast enough even Belhifet will not be able to hit you easily! With several +HP from SoD plus Potion of Power it should be possible to boost HP to 120 or more: 84 HP base, +16 HP Potion of Power, +10 HP Steadfast Shield, +10 HP Ring of Purity. This should be enough to survive some lucky hits or crits - hopefully!
@Harpagornis if you're planning on using a swashbuckler, you'll also have the bonuses to hit, damage and AC to consider as well. A level 12 swashbuckler would have +3 to these, won't they? +1 when starting and +1 every 5 levels? Or does the bonus start accumulating every 5 levels? I can't remember... Either way +2 or +3 to hit and AC would help a fair bit against Big B.
Thanks for the post @Noobacca! I am aware that a Swashi or even the Assassin will get some bonuses to make things a bit easier. But on the other hand i like Bounty Hunter and his special traps very much. Will have to think about that one. In the end all Thieves should be able to get through SoD - at least theoretically.
After some thinking i have decided to go with a Dwarfen Bounty Hunter as the Swashi would be just another Fighter/Thief variant. And as i like Backstabbing so much i would miss it really hard. Not to forget: With all the special traps the Bounty Hunter will have tons of options later on to shape the battlefield in his sense.
The way for BG 1 is clear: Reach XP cap and collect all relevant items. SoD will be all about surviving the last chapter and Belhifet while getting items with +THAC0-, +Saving Throw and +AC. IF this is done SoA should be smooth running for quite some time - we will see. As some relevant SoD items do not allow chaotic or neutral/evil chars i will start as a nice guy and change to evil once Blackrazor is in reach. But thats a long way to go...
For now say hello to Korgath, the Dwarfen Bounty Hunter who has just started his adventure:
Very nice! I have done a lot of theory crafting with Polymorph today (and sadly not progressed due to that. ) and even tho a big element of cheese for SoA/ToB got removed (namely sequencer with Ghoul Touch, which used to dispel your fist weapons so you could use normal weapons while morphed, but now it dispels the entire morph ) I still think for BG1/SoD there are a lot of applications for both Flind and Jelly. I can't meorize 4th level spells in BG1 but Halbazzar sells a whopping 20 scrolls of polymorph and the same amount for spirit armor (you can use scrolls while morphed) combined with Duhm which I will get after candlekeep, the flint would more than triple my damage output without having to haste and would only lose 1 AC. The slime is immune to lightning and magic but also if armor of faith is precast 95% resistant to missile which is pretty relevant in my opinion.
I usually just need to cheese with fire wand but it makes me feel sad every time and is also not gonna continue to work in SoD.
No more World of Harmcraft @Victor_Creed_SFV? The Polymorph thing sounds interesting but personally i dont have any experience with it. Missile Resistance is nice to have but not essential for SoD as Archers were never a big problem in my runs so far.
As you are not getting Harm before SoA the big question will be: How to beat Big B and his Demon Army. As you need +3 weapons or higher your F/M/C will not have many options: Quarterstaff or Void Hammer - but the last one will not add any strength bonus which hurts badly. With Quarterstaff you will have to swap weapons insanely often or you will get hit even more. Or is there something else i am missing? Wands maybe? Or Fireshield Blue?
Korgath in the meanwhile has moved up to level 5 thanks to solving some xp heavy quests. After killing Algernon (the Cloak cannot be stolen) he used some gold to get his reputation up again. With the Cloak he charmed Bassilus who got weared down by the three named Hobgoblins to the west. When landing the killing blow Korgath looted and moved out again to the south were he watched how Drizzt was killed by Gnolls - his Scimitars will prove to be very helpful in the future! After helping Melicamp to get back into his human form Korgath barely reached level 5. Notable so far: Its much (!) harder to land backstabs and without heavy armor Korgath gets hit pretty easily by nearly anything. For instance: Right at the start he got instakilled by Bandits who hit him for 24 damage both - ouch! I am so lucky that this isnt a no-reload-run!
Well that's why I said this is mostly useful for BG1 and SOD, since Harm will not be available, yet
I also just realized that even tho Jelly form is not fire resistant, the magic resistance 100% protects from fireball .
For Big B it sounds like Flint form would be a life saver, since it's +1 Halberd hits as +3. Before I change forms I also could use Magic resistance on B like you did and then just spam fire wand in Jelly form.
Ah - okay @Victor_Creed_SFV! Will be interesting to see if the Flint works against Big B. How low will his THAC0 be in SoD? But will Lower Magic Resistance + Fire Wands really help when his Fire Resistance is still at 100%? Anyway: Its interesting to see how Big B gets disarmed more and more. Some weeks ago i claimed: Druids or Thieves beating Big B? Never! Time proved me wrong!
My bad I didn't look up the fire resistance last time. I'm pretty sure I'll find a way to beat B, there's also enchanted Weapon, can you get that spell at all in SoD?
You are right @Victor_Creed_SFV! With Knock you can open the chest to get Sundermaul 3 - if i remember correctly even 25 Strength wasnt enough! So getting the right weapon should be no problem!
Quick notice: After questing a bit more as well as farming the whole Basilisk area - thanks again Korax - Korgath has reached level 7. Maybe its time to start with the main quests and say hello to Mulahey. BtW: The slow from his special traps are really handy as they allow easy kiting or restealthing - very funny! For instance: Meilum just stood still after getting slowed so Korgath could retreat-stealth-backstab until he fell to the ground.
Comments
Demon Knight - Burning in Hellfire
Otyugh - Burned into the ground
Illych - Nothing more than smoke
Mephits - You are kidding me...
Golems - What?!
Duergar - *cough*
My F/M/C arrived at BG city now.
I only killed Hareishan in the cloakwood mines, I suffered from severe being out of ideas so I killed her with out of sight web + fireballs (web mainly for the guards and Blacktalon).
Even tho that was super cheesy I needed a couple of reloads since my brain was not working properly and I got myself killed a couple of times once even with my own fireballs.
The Davaeorn fight was super strange and even tho I took way to long I didn't need a reload.
I feel like his script was broken, after summoning an ogre he only attacked me in melee, never cast any spells and after I unloaded my whole paralyze wand on him against which he saved every time even tho he was doomed for all over -6 saving throws at the end he never called his guards which was super strange.
I was immune to electricity, don't know if that was the reason for him not casting spells, but his script not activating on calling guards can't be explained by that or can it?
Has anyone run into these strange "INVALID LINES" in SoA? They are getting more and more - be it spell casts, potion drinking or even some talking lines. This is really annoying - maybe i have to reinstall the whole game...
Too bad about Davaeorn being broken, it only would have caused me to reload and fully charge my wand tho, so I guess it doesn't really matter. (wand only had 9 charges left and worst case scenario I could have used the malison scroll, since I don't get level 4 spells in BG 1 anyway)
I thought it was when he got damaged to a certain point but I haven't played BG1 from start to finish for years (might have been back when EE released.
I sent a skeleton warrior in and only followed invisible after he engaged the skeleton, then after triggering the traps I went to a room where it was less likely for the doom guys to aggro on me and only then attacked Dav.
(Maybe he even called the guards but since I never went back to where the doomguards were the guards never saw me)
If the mages script is broken and she doesn't attack back a simple invis might help, but for Belt Otiluke might be a good option?
Ofc he has to fail a save which might not be awesome for no reload, but then again Halbazzar sells 20(!) scrolls of it...
Also is it SCS specific ? I can't remember what she does in vanilla, because I have been using SCS for so long...
Liia's behaviour at the palace has always been odd. In some installations I've used she fights (though never using what should be her full potential), but more often than not she just waits to be slaughtered.
The problems he will face have been mentioned earlier. Here are a short summary and possible ways how to solve them:
Fear Protection: Too bad that one cannot use Caelar Argents Circlet as she drops no loot. Kiels Helm or the Commanders Chain Mail are also out of reach. This leaves only Greenstone Amulet open which you can get three times. 1x from Ulgoths Beard and 2x from Minsc if you double kill him in SoD. This should be enough – hopefully! Alternative: Get Saving Throws low enough so you can ignore the Fear Aura. Does someone know which save is used against Fear Auras?
EDIT: Its Save vs Wand!!! This means: A Dwarf or Gnome should have no problems pushing them to or even below 0 to get immune! HAH - problem solved!!!!!
Crit Protection: Is it right that Ioun stones protect against critical hits like claimed in different posts? If so this one is solved easily. Link: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/29895/can-a-kensai-somehow-protect-himself-from-critical-hits
THAC0: With an AC of -12 Belhifet is really hard to hit – even for Warriors. To get any chance i collected all items that came to my mind – here are the numbers:
Level 12 Thief
Base THAC0: 15
Strength 19: +3 THAC0 -> Violet Potion: 7
Weapon: +3 THAC0
Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise: +1 THAC0
Ring of Purity: THAC0 +1 from chant, good alignement only!
Modron Heart Amulet: THAC0: +2 vs. Chaotic, no chaotic alignement!
Cloverleaf Belt: Luck → +5% THAC0 (on base?) → +1 THAC0 (?)
Potion of Power: 80% THAC0 of current base → +3 THAC0
Violet Potion:
This means: 3+3+1+1+2+1+3 = +14 THACO = 1 THAC0 = 35% chance to hit Belhifet
With violet Potion: +18 THAC0 = -3 THAC0 = 55 % chance to hit Belhifet
Swashbuckler: another +2 Hit & +1 Proficiency = -6 THAC0 = 70% chance to hit Big B
My questions: Have i missed anything? Is there a way to push strength beside Holy Might? How is luck calculated?
Thanks a lot for your input on that one!
I don't know any of the items found in SoD, but you could consider saving up the violet potion for use against Belhifet. Luck 5% just means a +1 adjustment. The base THAC0 for a L12 thief is 15, so I guess you've already got the strength adjustment in your starting 12.
My F/M/C rushed thru BG city collecting all the important items for now (might have missed a couple but I will make sure I get everything with the help of mikes rpg centre maps before I finish the game) which I remembered by myself.
Then I killed the Iron Throne party with the usual go in invisible, sneak out of sight to the south room and spam fireball wand, picked up their loot and Eltan teleported me to Candlekeep.
Fear Protection: Yes - Dwarves will get immunity with proper equipment!
Crit Protection: No - Ioun Stones or Circlets are not protecting vs critical hits - too bad!
THAC0: Violet Potion + Potion of Fortitude are working wonders - great!
AC & HP: Thanks to all the SoD items it should be easy to reach AC -10 or better. Plus: Invisibility will protect the Thief from anything but Erinyes and Belhifet - if you are fast enough even Belhifet will not be able to hit you easily! With several +HP from SoD plus Potion of Power it should be possible to boost HP to 120 or more: 84 HP base, +16 HP Potion of Power, +10 HP Steadfast Shield, +10 HP Ring of Purity. This should be enough to survive some lucky hits or crits - hopefully!
All in all this sounds quite good - no?
The way for BG 1 is clear: Reach XP cap and collect all relevant items. SoD will be all about surviving the last chapter and Belhifet while getting items with +THAC0-, +Saving Throw and +AC. IF this is done SoA should be smooth running for quite some time - we will see. As some relevant SoD items do not allow chaotic or neutral/evil chars i will start as a nice guy and change to evil once Blackrazor is in reach. But thats a long way to go...
For now say hello to Korgath, the Dwarfen Bounty Hunter who has just started his adventure:
I have done a lot of theory crafting with Polymorph today (and sadly not progressed due to that.
I can't meorize 4th level spells in BG1 but Halbazzar sells a whopping 20 scrolls of polymorph and the same amount for spirit armor (you can use scrolls while morphed) combined with Duhm which I will get after candlekeep, the flint would more than triple my damage output without having to haste and would only lose 1 AC.
The slime is immune to lightning and magic but also if armor of faith is precast 95% resistant to missile which is pretty relevant in my opinion.
I usually just need to cheese with fire wand but it makes me feel sad every time and is also not gonna continue to work in SoD.
As you are not getting Harm before SoA the big question will be: How to beat Big B and his Demon Army. As you need +3 weapons or higher your F/M/C will not have many options: Quarterstaff or Void Hammer - but the last one will not add any strength bonus which hurts badly. With Quarterstaff you will have to swap weapons insanely often or you will get hit even more. Or is there something else i am missing? Wands maybe? Or Fireshield Blue?
Korgath in the meanwhile has moved up to level 5 thanks to solving some xp heavy quests. After killing Algernon (the Cloak cannot be stolen) he used some gold to get his reputation up again. With the Cloak he charmed Bassilus who got weared down by the three named Hobgoblins to the west. When landing the killing blow Korgath looted and moved out again to the south were he watched how Drizzt was killed by Gnolls - his Scimitars will prove to be very helpful in the future! After helping Melicamp to get back into his human form Korgath barely reached level 5. Notable so far: Its much (!) harder to land backstabs and without heavy armor Korgath gets hit pretty easily by nearly anything. For instance: Right at the start he got instakilled by Bandits who hit him for 24 damage both - ouch! I am so lucky that this isnt a no-reload-run!
I also just realized that even tho Jelly form is not fire resistant, the magic resistance 100% protects from fireball
For Big B it sounds like Flint form would be a life saver, since it's +1 Halberd hits as +3.
Before I change forms I also could use Magic resistance on B like you did and then just spam fire wand in Jelly form.
I'm pretty sure I'll find a way to beat B, there's also enchanted Weapon, can you get that spell at all in SoD?
edit: what about "Sundermaul +3" ?