After the dwarven mine, Caligula tackled (without much trouble) the troll cave, the goblin's ambush and the spider cave before going to the Bhaal Temple. I have the feeling that, with just a little bit of strategy (aka choke points), melee grunts won't be much of a problem anymore.
At the entrance of the temple, where I met the green dragon, I decided to go for the kill. After some prebuffing, I tried my luck a few times, but to no avail : the dragon, the greater wyverns and the younger dragons were just to much for Caligula. So, I decided to take out the big cannon, which means the Nymph Cloak. With cheesy save scumming, I charmed the younger dragons and some of the greater wyverns to help me out, which managed to turn the tide : the dragon killed his own goons, and, when he ended alone, he was not much of a threat. After a few charges of the Durlag's Goblet, the dragon was no more. I was a bit lucky, actually... I went in the fight without having the goblet fully charged, so I managed to kill the beast on my last charge with only 25 hp left... Close call...
Next was the temple itself. Bugbears were a non issue. Choke point and kiting did them in. Then, I had to fight Ziatar and her two mages. I buffed with only the Greenstone Amulet, charmed one of the mage, got into a corner to avoid a Teleport Field and meleed the half-dragon. It was enough to kill her.
I then fought the Neothelid. The sprite of this enemy is just beautiful. Really a nice addition to the BG bestiary. It was not as hard as I thought it would : he summoned two Mordenkainen Swords, which started to attack themselves when I left the room for a second . Then, he appeared when I stopped moving, which is when I was hitting him, using hit-and-run tactic. He eventually fell.
The last group of fighters with the Illithid were actually really easy. I started to run to split the group and it worked : I killed the two Umber Hulks, the berserker, the archer, the Illithid, the kensai and the mage one after the others.
The good thing is that it was all done with minimal use of finite ressources. I slowly start to feel more confident and comfortable. Dont't look now, but maybe I'll managed to do something in SoD...
@Harpagornis I personnaly would like to see you keep going with Korgath (going pure thief is a nice challenge in itself), but you also could go with a pure cleric, just to see how it would be possible to beat Big B...
Hrhr - nice beating @Arctodus! Going in blind at these fights is pretty cool no?
But - hey - something is missing here: Where is the Shadow Aspect? Have you met this beast? Or did you miss the secret room?
With regard to Korgath: Will have to see! My main problem is that SoA just feels so much easier after the final chapter of SoD that it starts to get boring for me. I rolled a Druid late at night - but more on that later!
I am sure you will find it @Arctodus - this should be big pain incoming!
As i said earlier i rolled an Avenger last night - just for the fun of it. And - believe it or not - i got a 95 at the fifth roll. LOL. If i find some time i might start with him in the next days - hopefully. Until then say hello to Vyn, the Human Avenger - Protector of Mother Nature and Hunter of all its Defilers:
I am sure you will find it @Arctodus - this should be big pain incoming!
Yeah, I found the Shadow Aspect... and, well, there was lots of pain involved (lots of chunking too )... I really don't know how I could beat it, so I looted the chest and ran out. Maybe I'll come back to it later, I don't know. I just can't see a way to deal with it as a pure fighter...
Hrhrhr - this little cheator is such a pain for any Warrior Class (except for Inquisitor!) - no?
I got it down to "nearly dead" once with my Cavalier as you can trick it from time to time. Protection from Undead works against it but my main problem was that after you kill the fake it was often impossible for me to find the real one. It was just gone for some strange reason. Only sometimes i was able to find and attack the real one for some seconds before it vanishes again forever. With buffs, heavy crits plus dual wielding it might - theoretically - be possible to bring it down before the next Mislead is incoming. Without Protection your chances are going even more down: Blind-AoE, backstab and - even worse - it summons several Shadows when it gets injured.
Most Caster Classes on the other hand have an easy game here: Protection from Undead + True Sight just cuts its powers down completly...
P.S. Still no time to play Vyn - so no updates on the Avenger...
Good progress @chimaera! SoA should give Fafnir no big troubles anymore. Maybe ToB will wait with some challenges but even there a high level caster like him should be able to stomp anything into to ground. No?
Hhhhmmmmmm... you are right... maybe i should pick one toon and play on in SoA... especially cause i will lack time in the next weeks. The Avenger has to wait despite how cool the run would be. If i should pick one of the toons Krell, the Berserker/Druid comes to mind. Or perhaps Korgath, the Bounty Hunter. Both are big fun to play. Will have to sleep about that!
Damn it - i still lack time to play on but i have decided to go on with Krell, the Berserker/Druid as Druids are my favourite class in many RPG´s.
Just for the fun of it i walked right into the Circus Tent and engaged Kalah and his Shadows - without any buffs. All Krell needed to do was: Cast Harm -> run up to Kalah -> Release Harm on him -> Hit him with the Scimitar one more time -> end of story in ten seconds only. Maybe he should go right for the Dragons first - and watch them suffer.
EDIT: Holy Cow - Mencar and his party got harm-onized one after another. With a Sandthief Ring, a lot of gold and level 13 Krell will take some rest. Not to forget: As you can cast Harm without breaking invisibility its cheese potential is nearly endless.
EDIT 2: Suna Seni and her group went down. After retreating using Invisibility Krell summoned two Fire Elementals and three wolves who charged the enemies. With two Insect Swarms following up Krell cleaned the house with his hasted Scimitars. Poor Ambushers - they never had a chance...
Krell infitrated Maevars Guild and i must say: It was easy like never before!
Maevar himself was killed instantly: Invisibility -> Haste -> Harm -> One more swing -> Death before he could buff himself up. His Assassins were cleaned by the two Fire Elementals who were waiting in the background. After Krell used two Insect Swarms he turned invisible again and watched how the Thieves were unable to do any damage upon his Elementals. Oh dear - this was no fight, this was a slaughter...
Not to forget: Arundel Staff prove to be very useful thanks to the bonus level 5 and 6 spell.
EDIT: Just tested the Harm spell against a Lich - look at the result...
Good to know: Stoneskin does not protect against Harm!
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.
Apologies for the OT, but I was just browsing the forums for some up-to-date intelligence on the interplay between polymorph and touch spells (as I did not manage to do the respective testing myself yet ). Is my understanding correct that casting ghoul touch/chill touch/shocking grasp (via sequencer or scrolls) while polymorphed/shapechanged dispels your active form? Or does this occur only once the duration of the touch spell expires?
Cant answer you this one @Borco as i never play Mages. Maybe someone else can help?
Krell in the meanwhile storms through SoA like there is no tomorrow. After doing several quests in the city he defeated Faldorn some minutes ago and is now the new Great Druid of the Grove. Harm keeps destroying anything so most battles are over before they have begun. Oh, not to forget: Level 14 reached. Time to put in Natures Beauty into our cheese arsenal. The only enemies that might be troublesome are either the ones with high magic resistance or big groups where Harm is just too slow. But there are other ways around - i am sure!
Last but not least: With Belm and Rashads Claw Krell now has two fine Scimitars at his disposal. Once the Ring of Gaxx is in his pocket he will transform into a slashing whirlwind of death!
Short update cause i wanted to show how Krell fights against Liches without Mace of Disruption cheese.
His tactic is quite simple but very effective:
1. Summon Simulacrum + two Genies 2. Cast Harm and release the Lich 3. Before it appears the Simulacrum will start casting Insect Swarm so the spell hits the Lich right at the moment it turns hostile. Its just timing. The Genies are waiting in the back to Cast Magic Missiles right after Krell landed his Harm so the Lich does not get any chance to get out his protections before going down.
Here is how the setup looked like against the Shade Lich right when the action starts:
All planning was obsolete. The Magic Missiles fizzled and the Insect Swarm went into oblivion cause Krell - thanks to his dual wielding Scimitars - finished the Lich with a 22 damage blow right after getting in the Harm:
At least the Screenhots looked pretty even though there was no need for his friends - this time!
EDIT: I realized that the Lich is immune against Magic Missiles. Bad planning i call this. Krell is just a luckor!
EDIT2: The Simulacrum should just attack with Scimitars and not cast Insect Swarm!!!
Apologies for the OT, but I was just browsing the forums for some up-to-date intelligence on the interplay between polymorph and touch spells (as I did not manage to do the respective testing myself yet ). Is my understanding correct that casting ghoul touch/chill touch/shocking grasp (via sequencer or scrolls) while polymorphed/shapechanged dispels your active form? Or does this occur only once the duration of the touch spell expires?
@Borco as far as I'm aware there are still plenty of opportunities for cheese. If you cast, say, ghoul touch on top of a polymorphed spider form then the ghoul touch replaces the spider weapon - allowing you a nice 4 APR with a paralysing touch weapon. Once the ghoul touch runs out you will still be in spider form, but now using your normal weapons (still at 4 APR though) .
Sorry for the late reply: Yes at least on my install (BWS + SCS on the latest BGEE patch) having any of the touch spells in a sequencer (you can't cast while polymorphed) or using a scroll will dispel your polymorph form completely, you don't just lose the weapons but the appearance and all benefits of the polymorph.
edit: Sorry everyone for the lack of progress on my site, I played a lot of Smite in my free time and didn't have motivation for BG ever since I beat Candlekeep.
Yeah, not problem @Victor_Creed_SFV - you have all the time in the world!
I am also losing motivation with Krell cause with Harm most parts of SoA are no challenge anymore. The only enemy where it did not work was Demi Lich Kangaxx so far. So the consequences are: Either switch to Korgath and play on SoA or try to beat BG1 with a level 1 Warrior or Thief using our settings. Hhhmmmm...
on my install (BWS + SCS on the latest BGEE patch) having any of the touch spells in a sequencer (you can't cast while polymorphed) or using a scroll will dispel your polymorph form completely, you don't just lose the weapons but the appearance and all benefits of the polymorph.
I think I tested behaviour previously on unmodded BGEE, so thought I should double-check with the SoD SCS installation I've been using for this thread. That shows the behaviour is as I described before, i.e. ghoul touch will replace the standard spider weapon without losing polymorph benefits. I don't know why that is different from @Victor_Creed_SFV, but would guess it's the source of the original game (mine is Beamdog).
On your next run, you might wanna try Spell Revisions. Low level druid spells get a serious boost, but things like Harm wouldn't break the game anymore, because it then would do flat damage (90 if I remember correctly) instead of taking the enemy to 1 hp. With a druid, you still would have to work with LoB.
Ah, this sounds interesting - thanks @Arctodus! I like to suffer so i will stop Krell for now and maybe give Korgath a try in the next days - at least this should be more challenging. Well - we will see!
Good progress @chimaera! Yeah, Jon in Hell is bugged and no big fight - its a real pity. Hhhmmmm... Illasera was tough? Hhhmmmm.... thats interesting. Su´kka used the "i can see you through invisibilty" to her advantage so after luring lllasera away from the others the usual GWW-spamming took her down quite fast.
Anyway: I have started with Korgath in SoA. He´s still in the starting dungeon but having big fun with trapping and stabbing. Its so cool that he can throw his special traps in SoA! But more on that later!
Korgath finished the SoA starting dungeon and – after some hard work – was able to clean it completly. Thanks to the power of stealth Korgath was always able to shape the battlefield in his manner. The normal traps and their poison proved to be very useful and its quite nice to see how the dot ticks enemies down to zero. The Duergar groups were mostly split to death but even throwing special traps worked surpisingly well and often times Korgath managed to paralyze whole groups of them so he could easily start his backstab routine. This worked even against the mephit portals so Korgath had time enough to destroy one portal after another without danger. The Thieves near the exit could have been troublesome but after placing seven normal traps the poison ticked them down easily. As a bonus Korgath was able to loot two invisibility potions from each corpse - great! All in all the whole dungeon was much easier than expected. After reaching level 13 when leaving this unholy place Korgath is now ready to explore Athkatla – this should be fun!
Comments
After the dwarven mine, Caligula tackled (without much trouble) the troll cave, the goblin's ambush and the spider cave before going to the Bhaal Temple. I have the feeling that, with just a little bit of strategy (aka choke points), melee grunts won't be much of a problem anymore.
At the entrance of the temple, where I met the green dragon, I decided to go for the kill. After some prebuffing, I tried my luck a few times, but to no avail : the dragon, the greater wyverns and the younger dragons were just to much for Caligula. So, I decided to take out the big cannon, which means the Nymph Cloak.
Next was the temple itself. Bugbears were a non issue. Choke point and kiting did them in. Then, I had to fight Ziatar and her two mages. I buffed with only the Greenstone Amulet, charmed one of the mage, got into a corner to avoid a Teleport Field and meleed the half-dragon. It was enough to kill her.
I then fought the Neothelid. The sprite of this enemy is just beautiful. Really a nice addition to the BG bestiary. It was not as hard as I thought it would : he summoned two Mordenkainen Swords, which started to attack themselves when I left the room for a second
The last group of fighters with the Illithid were actually really easy. I started to run to split the group and it worked : I killed the two Umber Hulks, the berserker, the archer, the Illithid, the kensai and the mage one after the others.
The good thing is that it was all done with minimal use of finite ressources. I slowly start to feel more confident and comfortable. Dont't look now, but maybe I'll managed to do something in SoD...
@Harpagornis I personnaly would like to see you keep going with Korgath (going pure thief is a nice challenge in itself), but you also could go with a pure cleric, just to see how it would be possible to beat Big B...
But - hey - something is missing here: Where is the Shadow Aspect? Have you met this beast? Or did you miss the secret room?
With regard to Korgath: Will have to see! My main problem is that SoA just feels so much easier after the final chapter of SoD that it starts to get boring for me. I rolled a Druid late at night - but more on that later!
As i said earlier i rolled an Avenger last night - just for the fun of it. And - believe it or not - i got a 95 at the fifth roll. LOL. If i find some time i might start with him in the next days - hopefully. Until then say hello to Vyn, the Human Avenger - Protector of Mother Nature and Hunter of all its Defilers:
I got it down to "nearly dead" once with my Cavalier as you can trick it from time to time. Protection from Undead works against it but my main problem was that after you kill the fake it was often impossible for me to find the real one. It was just gone for some strange reason. Only sometimes i was able to find and attack the real one for some seconds before it vanishes again forever. With buffs, heavy crits plus dual wielding it might - theoretically - be possible to bring it down before the next Mislead is incoming. Without Protection your chances are going even more down: Blind-AoE, backstab and - even worse - it summons several Shadows when it gets injured.
Most Caster Classes on the other hand have an easy game here: Protection from Undead + True Sight just cuts its powers down completly...
P.S. Still no time to play Vyn - so no updates on the Avenger...
Hhhhmmmmmm... you are right... maybe i should pick one toon and play on in SoA... especially cause i will lack time in the next weeks. The Avenger has to wait despite how cool the run would be. If i should pick one of the toons Krell, the Berserker/Druid comes to mind. Or perhaps Korgath, the Bounty Hunter. Both are big fun to play. Will have to sleep about that!
Just for the fun of it i walked right into the Circus Tent and engaged Kalah and his Shadows - without any buffs. All Krell needed to do was: Cast Harm -> run up to Kalah -> Release Harm on him -> Hit him with the Scimitar one more time -> end of story in ten seconds only. Maybe he should go right for the Dragons first - and watch them suffer.
EDIT: Holy Cow - Mencar and his party got harm-onized one after another. With a Sandthief Ring, a lot of gold and level 13 Krell will take some rest. Not to forget: As you can cast Harm without breaking invisibility its cheese potential is nearly endless.
EDIT 2: Suna Seni and her group went down. After retreating using Invisibility Krell summoned two Fire Elementals and three wolves who charged the enemies. With two Insect Swarms following up Krell cleaned the house with his hasted Scimitars. Poor Ambushers - they never had a chance...
Maevar himself was killed instantly: Invisibility -> Haste -> Harm -> One more swing -> Death before he could buff himself up. His Assassins were cleaned by the two Fire Elementals who were waiting in the background. After Krell used two Insect Swarms he turned invisible again and watched how the Thieves were unable to do any damage upon his Elementals. Oh dear - this was no fight, this was a slaughter...
Not to forget: Arundel Staff prove to be very useful thanks to the bonus level 5 and 6 spell.
EDIT: Just tested the Harm spell against a Lich - look at the result...
Good to know: Stoneskin does not protect against Harm!
Many thanks!
B.
Krell in the meanwhile storms through SoA like there is no tomorrow. After doing several quests in the city he defeated Faldorn some minutes ago and is now the new Great Druid of the Grove. Harm keeps destroying anything so most battles are over before they have begun. Oh, not to forget: Level 14 reached. Time to put in Natures Beauty into our cheese arsenal. The only enemies that might be troublesome are either the ones with high magic resistance or big groups where Harm is just too slow. But there are other ways around - i am sure!
Last but not least: With Belm and Rashads Claw Krell now has two fine Scimitars at his disposal. Once the Ring of Gaxx is in his pocket he will transform into a slashing whirlwind of death!
His tactic is quite simple but very
effective:1. Summon Simulacrum
+ two Genies2. Cast Harm and release the Lich
3.
Before it appears the Simulacrum will start casting Insect Swarm so the spell hits the Lich right at the moment it turns hostile. Its just timing. The Genies are waiting in the back to Cast Magic Missiles right after Krell landed his Harm so the Lich does not get any chance to get out his protections before going down.
Here is how the setup looked like against the Shade Lich right when the action starts:
All planning was obsolete. The Magic Missiles fizzled and the Insect Swarm went into oblivion cause Krell - thanks to his dual wielding Scimitars - finished the Lich with a 22 damage blow right after getting in the Harm:
At least the Screenhots looked pretty even though there was no need for his friends - this time!
EDIT: I realized that the Lich is immune against Magic Missiles. Bad planning i call this. Krell is just a luckor!
EDIT2: The Simulacrum should just attack with Scimitars and not cast Insect Swarm!!!
Yes at least on my install (BWS + SCS on the latest BGEE patch) having any of the touch spells in a sequencer (you can't cast while polymorphed) or using a scroll will dispel your polymorph form completely, you don't just lose the weapons but the appearance and all benefits of the polymorph.
edit:
Sorry everyone for the lack of progress on my site, I played a lot of Smite in my free time and didn't have motivation for BG ever since I beat Candlekeep.
I am also losing motivation with Krell cause with Harm most parts of SoA are no challenge anymore. The only enemy where it did not work was Demi Lich Kangaxx so far. So the consequences are: Either switch to Korgath and play on SoA or try to beat BG1 with a level 1 Warrior or Thief using our settings. Hhhmmmm...
I don't know why that is different from @Victor_Creed_SFV, but would guess it's the source of the original game (mine is Beamdog).
Anyway: I have started with Korgath in SoA. He´s still in the starting dungeon but having big fun with trapping and stabbing. Its so cool that he can throw his special traps in SoA! But more on that later!