Oh dear! Korgath finally met Bodhi and it was - well - easy and tough and the same time. Easy cause PfU-Scrolls ruled all vampires including Bodhi. Tough cause her insane regeneration made Korgath cry. Even when fully buffed with Potion of Storm Giant Strength + Potion of Power + Oil of Speed it still took ages to bring her down to zero. Simulacrum and Assassination worked golden but thanks to her instant Heal Korgath had to do this two times - ARGH! At the end he had to burn another PfU-Scroll as well as making sure that he had 100% Magic Resistance before taking Bodhi down the first time. It seems there is a scripted trigger that allows her to cast her Insect Swarm even when Korgath was protected from Undead. Anyway: Thanks to a lot of patience - and after several reloads - Korgath finally managed to slip through. Big thanks to Daystar - the best main hand sword in the world. Well - at least against Bodhi.
P.S. Using summons worked wonders to take her down the first time as long as one do not starts the talking. Bodhi just stands there while getting smacked down easily and will also not call for her guards.
Its the original Tactics Bodhi. Or better: It was! Without PfU this fight could have been the end for Korgath as the good old trap -> maze -> trap game is not working. I also tried different spells but Bodhis Magic Resistance absorbed nearly anything. Maybe A Lower Resistance would have worked wonders. Anyway: This was one of the very few battles so far where Su´kka felt clearly stronger thanks to constant GWW spamming. Ah i miss this skill so much. At least sometimes. Suldanessalar and Irenicus should be no big deal now especially with the Slayer bug still active. But we will see!
EDIT: Just tested one of my Druids vs Tactics Bodhi: Looks like "Harm" works pretty decent once her Magic Resistance is lowered. Are there any Harm Scrolls in the game?
You are damn right @Arctodus! It was borderline boring playing Korgath after reaching level 21+ and there are still moments where i like to start another character or switch over to my Noober-Project instead. But first he should at least bring an end to Irenicus!
After trapping and stabbing his way through Suldanessalar Korgath finally arrived in Hell. Lets see how he dealt with the final challenges before taking on Irenicus one more time!
Trial of Pride Korgaths task was to collect Tears of Bhaal in order to open the way to the final battle against Irenicus. The tunnel in the northeast corner was the first challenge he met. He refused to kill the Dragon and could easily take the first Tear. The reward → +20% Fire, Cold & Electrical Resistance
Trial of Fear Next was the tunnel to the southeast where he met the Demon of Fear. He offered him a Cloak of Bravery made from Nymph skins and granting immunity to fear and panic so that I can obtain the next Tear of Bhaal. Korgaths again refused and tricked the Beholders once more with his traps. He took the second tear and moved out again. The reward → Immunity to +1 or lesser weapons
Trial of Selfishness Korgath stumbled into the southern tunnel were the Demon of Selfishness presented him two choices. After some thinking he again went for the good path which resulted in a minor loss of maximum hit points, a minor loss of xp, and a permanent loss of 1 Dexterity. None of this is a big deal though especially with the sweet reward in mind → +10% to magic resistance
Trial of Greed Now Korgath headed for the southwest tunnel. The Demon of Greed gave him Blackrazor (+3 Longsword, that has a 15% chance of draining 3 levels from target, This will prove to be very useful in ToB later on. To keep the sword he had to fight the Enslaved Genie which proved to be very easy as his own summon – a demon – killed the Genie while Korgath was waiting just out of vision. The reward → +15 HP
Trial of Wrath The last challenge awaited Korgath in the northwestern tunnel. He rage talked with Sarevok and lured him into one trap field after another. At the end Korgath had to burn 14 Spike Traps, 5 Normal Traps and 3 Time Stop Traps as well as improved Haste combined with Assassination. The whole trapping and hacking took some time but at the end Sarevok never got the chance to touch Korgath. The final reward → +2 Strength Final Battle against Irenicus This one proved to be much tougher than expected cause for some reason the bug that had prevented the Slayer to attack properly on my last run disappeared. This meant: Korgath would get melted in a straight 1vs1 as the Slayer hits like a truck. To make things worse the Slayer regenerates HP like crazy so kiting him would not work.
This lead to the following strategy: 1. Korgath buffed up like crazy 2. After the battle started he immediately ruhed to the south. Thanks to his godlike speed the Demons did not folllow while Slayer Irenicus ported right at him. 3. Thanks to a fast summoned Fire Elemental Korgath got time to distract Irenicus and retreat out of vision before the first Time Stop and the Planetar triggered. 4. All he had to do now was: Wait until the Planetar expired and send in several Fire Elementals to make Irenicus waste his magic powers on them. 5. Once Irenicus ran out of his high level spells it was time to prepare the final battlefield with Five Fire Elementals + Simulacrum + seven Spike Traps. 6. With his own army ready for action he lured Irenicus into the traps and moved his Fire Elementals forward. Now both Korgaths immediately used improved Haste and rushed in wielding Kundane +2 & Belm +2 for awesome 8 APR. As the traps already took Irenicus down to badly injured it was now time for a double Assassination while still being affected by improved Haste. This took Irenicus to nearly dead and even though he managed to kill the Fake Korgath the real one landed a final blow. Game over!
It took Korgath three times to get everything right and after failing the first time i even feared that the insane regeneration of Slayer Irenicus would be too much for him. At the end everything worked perfectly fine when combining all the powers that had put him through SoA: Traps + Assassination Backstabs + Summons. How fitting no?
Time to take some rest before moving on to ToB. Here some last screenshots of the final confrontation with Irenicus:
Trial of Wrath The last challenge awaited Korgath in the northwestern tunnel. He rage talked with Sarevok and lured him into one trap field after another. At the end Korgath had to burn 14 Spike Traps, 5 Normal Traps and 3 Time Stop Traps as well as improved Haste combined with Assassination. The whole trapping and hacking took some time but at the end Sarevok never got the chance to touch Korgath. The final reward → +2 Strength
Nice going Harpagornis - keep it up in ToB. For the Sarevok fight presumably you know that he can't touch you if you've already traded in your stone from the Trial of Fear.
Oh, thats good to know @Grond0. I usually only trade the Tears in after getting all of them. But isnt it strange that Sarevok only uses a normal or +1 weapon? Hhhmmmm...
I got the same problem like last time: After beating Irenicus the game crashes once the cutscene talk ends - damn it. Importing Save Game or Character File leads to destruction of my Potion Case, my Scroll Cases with a whole bunch of spells and also the Bag of Holding. This means: Play on without most of my equipment or restore them manually using the EE Keeper - which will take some time. I hate this bug!
Korgath started into ToB but ran into big problems very soon.
Illasera wasnt a big deal thanks to Maze + Spike Traps + Time Stop Traps + Assassination.
Once she went down Korgath ported to the Pocket Plane where he stumbled into the first challenge. Holy cow! The Commoners were no problem as they are unable to damage him but the Knights of the Order were very, very tough. He tried to kite them all but one misstep and they got in some good damage. Even worse: They never seem to fail a saving throw and their Magic Resistance protected them from any damage spells. Korgath tried to trick them using the Commoners as a meat shield so he could shoot them down without retaliation. But even when buffed up he needed to roll a 19+ to land any hit – argh! With desperation growing more and more he just threw in some Fire Elementals and watched a big surprise as the Knights most of the time did not attack the summons but still tried to reach Korgath. Thats were the fun started:
Once the Knights were gone Ellesime, Duke Eltan and Aran Linvail rushed in. Thanks to the meat shield they were not able to reach him while Korgath made sure to push his magic resistance for Ellesimes spells. Several Fire Elementals soaked up a lot of spells until the biggest danger was over. Well – at least Korgath thought so. But suddenly Ellesime gated in a Deva so Korgath prayed that his magic protection would hold off any harm. And it did! He was really lucky the he was just an inch away from the Globe of Blades swirling around the Deva and Ellesime:
Once the Deva vanished it was time for Korgath to go on the offensive again. He summoned several Fire Elementals and – like before – the enemies still refused to attack them. Ellesime went down and shortly after Duke Eltan went into oblivion too - only Aran Linvail left. This should be easy Korgath thought but he was proven wrong. Aran used a lot of Protection Mantles, Stoneskins and – even worse – went invisible over and over again so his Elementals could not touch him. Korgath was really lucky that he had a bunch of True Sight Scrolls in his backpack that finally turned the table. Whenever Aran went invisible True Sight put him out again so the Fire Elementals could attack him while Korgath was shooting Electrical Arrows with Gesens Bow.
It still took some while – and several resummoning – until Aran finally went down. With only the Commoners left Korgath had no problem cleaning the house once and for all.
Really tough work but it wont get easier. There are interesting times ahead!!!
Korgath arrived in Saradush where he tried to face Gromnir – but lets see what happened...
First he grabbed the sewers key and got swarmed by Gromnirs soldier. As they could not damage him he had all the time in the world to hack them down. That was really funny:
After that he sneaked through the sewers and crashed through more soldiers. His Elite Guards were killed with the usual backstab + stair retreat. After a while all of them were down and the battlefield was prepared for the final confrontation with Gromnir:
Thanks to his seven poison traps and five Fire Elementals Gromnir was badly wounded right from the start. All he had to do now was: Hack or shoot using improved Haste while resummoning if needed. Gromnir had no chance and went down in fashion:
End of story? No! Cause the cutscene with Amelyssan did not trigger – even not after moving out and in again or resting. Damn, damn, damn! Even worse: After beating the first challenge in the pocket plane Korgath recieved the xp but NOT the pocket plane ability. Something is going completly wrong here. Maybe its the manual import using the console? Maybe its the missing Slayer ability cause Dream Bhaal did not follow into Candlekeep Library? Looks like the bugs are doing what the enemies could not. But the whole installation looks broken due to the constant INVALID LINES so its maybe time for a reinstallation...
EDIT: Did the Gromnir fight with Su´kka again - Amelyssan triggers without any problems. Looks like the manual console jump confused some scripts. Will import Korgath normally and try it again just to see what happens...
EDIT 2: I started ToB again using the normal import function and tried the first challenge in the pocket plane again. And - oh wonder - it works like intended. Korgath now got the Pocket Plane ability. Thats good. But as all of his containers got destroyed he plays on with most of his stuff missing. Thats bad. Maybe i will restore them later on using EE Keeper. Its time that Beamdog gets rid of this bug!!!
EDIT: Okay, now everything is working like intended. Korgath defeated Gromnir once more and the Amelyssan cutscene triggered. Beware Yaga Shura - Korgath is coming for you! Well. After some rest.
Korgath speedrushed to Yaga Shura and took an end to second Bhaal spawn.
Korgath tricked the Wraiths and Undead at the temple ruin with a Time Stop Trap and ran straight to Nyalee to get information how Yaga Shura might be killed. Another Time Stop Trap and he moved out to the Marching Mountains. There he used the same trick: Grab the Wardstones and freeze the incoming enemies with Time Stop Traps. This worked surprisingly well even when looting Yaga Shuras Heart. Big bad Berenn and the dangerous Sulfur Dragon were trapped in time while Korgath took everything what he needed. With both hearts he traveled back to Nyalee where another series of Time Stop Traps tricked all enemies before they could do anything. Quite cheesy but a very efficient and fast way to get past them.
With Yaga Shura being mortal again it was time to challenge the Big One. As only Yaga Shura was able to see through Korgaths invisibilty he lured the Fire Giant away from his troops into the Northwestern part of the camp. And whenever new support troops ported in Korgath lured them away and used stealth to get Yaga Shura back to the kiting area again. From now on everything was quite easy: Kite the tough beast while using traps in between. Especially the Time Stop Traps proved to be very good against him as they boosted his hit chance with the Sling of Everard from pityful 15% to 100%. For some strange reason the damage during Time Stop was saved until the effect ended – just take a look:
Thanks to the bad hit chance it took a while to take Yaga Shura down but as his Fire Balls could not harm Korgath it was just a matter of time until the second Bhaal Spawn went down:
At the end Yaga Shura proved to be no real challenge for Korgath but this will change dramatically cause now its either Sendai or Abazigal who are waiting next. Not to forget: The second challenge in the pocket plane is also on the run! Will he find a way through the upcoming horrors? We will see!
Korgath solved the second challenge in the pocket plane – but only after using evil cheese.
As Evil Korgath and his party proved to be insanely deadly with nearly no room to hide or kite and his evil part being able to see him even when being invisible Korgath fell back to an evil trick: He summoned a Genie right at the entrance before triggering the challenge so that he could walk through the barrier using the whole pocket plane as his battleground.
He lured Angelo, Tamoko and Evil Korgath into the open field while Semaj did not follow for whatever reason. As only his evil counterpart could see invisible Korgath he now seperated him from the others and tried to get enough room so he could use a Maze trap. Once the evil one was mazed Korgath had time to move back to the others. To kill Angelo and Tamoko he used a Mislead Scroll he had found earlier (the others got destroyed thanks to ToB import) and stabbed them down in no time without any fear of retalation.
As melee combat was no option against his fast moving, leveldraining and WW using evil counterpart Korgath used some more traps. After luring him into seven Spike Traps and six poison traps the evil twin exploded into oblivion:
With only Semaj left Korgath took all the time in the world and rested. With his full trap package up again he mazed Semaj and put down seven Spike Traps. The Mage reappeared and instantly exploed to the incoming trap damage. Poor one - job done!
Thanks to the move-through-the-barrier cheese the challenge went from „impossible“ to „no problem“. But as the game tricked me with the destruction of all containers its only fair to return the favour – no?
For some strange reason the damage during Time Stop was saved until the effect ended
That doesn't seem strange to me. If time has stopped for everyone except the thief it seems reasonable enemies don't feel the pain until after time restarts.
I've been playing this game for years and I've only just realised that Semaj is James spelled backwards... P.S. Well done Harpagornis! Looks like another decent run through. I actually rolled up a ranger/cleric not long ago to try this challenge with but I just haven't had the motivation to get beyond Nashkel with it. One day I'll get there!
On the one hand it isnt strange @Grond0 but on the other hand it is. Cause when i tried to melee Yaga Shura there was no animation and no damage at all - it was just not possible to attack him. Normally there is an melee animation AND the damage is shown immediately in the log. Thats strange and the reason why i had to fall back on slinging him during Time Stop...
Yeah, get up your Ranger/Cleric and stomp through BG1 @Noobacca - if not in this life than in the next one!
Korgath will try to take on Sendai or Abazigal in the next days. This should be interesting!!!
EDIT: I fought Yaga Shura once more and this time close combat + time stop worked normally. Maybe i was just unlucky yesterday as his push back aura was always up...
Korgath challended Draconis just for fun - and got surprised...
After beating Odamaron the Lich using Mace of Disruption Korgath completed the Short Sword of Mask +5 so he could use two level-draining weapons at the same time when facing Draconis.
The human form was all about Maze + Spike Traps + Normal Traps + Time Stop Traps which put him down to nearly dead quite fast. Whenever Draconis used one of his triggers and gated in some summons Korgath lured them away and parked them in the eastern part of the map. Even the dreaded Planetar was lured away and mazed out of the game. With all traps gone it was just a matter of patience and summons to wear down Draconis protections and get in the final hit so he transformed into his dragon form. Now the real fun started!
After resting in the pocket plane Korgath engaged the evil dragon with one Time Stop Trap after another. He either lured him into the trap or he mazed the dragon first to set up the battlefield in his manner. Whenever Draconis reappeared he hacked at him like crazy while using improved haste to get 4 APR. Poor Draconis - he lost level after level without being able to touch Korgath at any moment. After using his seventh Time Stop Korgath landed another blow with Blackrazor that sucked away his last level...
It looks like Dragons are even easier for Bounty Hunters than for big bad Barbarians so Korgath is quite confident for the next ones. Abazigal and his guards will be another story but thats something to worry about later on.
Korgath had found some new fun: Leveldraining named ones to death by abusing Maze Trap + Time Stop Trap. Ogremoch and Diaytha couldnt do anything as they were either mazed or trapped in time while Korgath soaked one level after another. The cheese factor of Bounty Hunters is nearly endless no?
Korgath is now standing right before Sendai - maybe i should rest before taking on this neverending fight...
Its done: Korgath defeatd Sendai after a damn long fight...
He tried so many different things that i am rather puzzled at the moment. After failing several times he got the trick how to establish a foothold on the map: He rushed to the northeastern Sendai which was killed by seven Spike Traps while a Maze Trap before made sure that the already active western statue was out of the game long enough. The traps immediately killed the first Sendai so Korgath moved on the the eastern one. He mazed the south-eastern one first so he got time to set up six poison traps plus one Time Stop Trap. Once they triggered Korgath used improved haste and caused enough damage to instakill the reappearing second Sendai. He went invisible again as the southeastern Sendai reappeared at the same time and waited until the Mislead expired. He now used more improved Haste while firing Gesens Short Bow at the third Sendai who tried to kill or CC Korgath with all kinds of spells while not moving away - a big error! As the magic was not able to touch him he had enough time to get in enough damage for the third kill. For some strange reason the improved call for help did not trigger here as a lot of Drow guards waited just outside of vision. With three Sendais down and no more enemies in vision Korgath retreated to the pocket plane for his first rest.
From now on the rest was rather easy: Get back to Sendais room and maze nearly all of the drows so Korgath got time to set up seven Spike Traps. The following pattern was: Maze → Spike Traps → instakill → repeat until all guards and the last Sendai statues exploded into oblivion. It still took several rests in the pocket plane but this method was so safe that the enemies – and even all of Sendais statues – never got a chance to strike at Korgath. Once the last statue had fallen the final fun part started.
Korgath had presummoned three Fire Elementals to lure the nearly instant summoned Planetar and Deva away so all he had to do was to wait until both of them vanished. With only Sendai left Korgath started his Maze → Trap game again until the first instaheal triggered. From now on he hunted Sendai wherever she teleported while using a lot of Fire Elementals that helped him to wear down one protection after another. Sendai tried to cast another Heal but failed due to the incoming damage and even the thrown out Death Spells were not enough to escape her doom. Korgath and his last two Fire Elementals managed to get in a final hit that brought Sendai down to her knees – victory!!!
This battle was all about getting the right start. Once Korgath managed to establish a foothold without enemies in vision the rest was just a matter of patience. Time for some rest!
Korgath is slowly working his way to Abazigal but this is much tougher than Sendais Lair. He just met Anadramatis the Yellow Dragon who was immune to level drain. Korgath had to set up all of his traps and use all of his summons to wear this beast down. Thanks to the good gods that he wasnt able to damage Korgath with his claw attacks but his breath damage alone forced Korgath to drink many big healing potions. Anyway: Korgath grabbed a fine amulet that will make him immune to a Dragons Wing Buffets - great!
He is now heading back to Amkethran for the rope and will soon trigger the multi dragon fights. This should be fun again!
Before going on with Abazigals Lair Korgath faced the Slayer Challenge in the pocket plane. At the end this one was much easier than the previous ones thanks to some preparation. After mazing the beast Korgath placed seven spike traps and moved his five Fire Elementals plus the Simulacrum in position:
From now on the rest was just running as the Slayer tried to catch Korgath ignoring anything else. After two minutes of evading the Slayer finally went down without being able to land a single hit - poor one!
Okay Korgath managed to beat the multi dragon fight in front of Abazigals Lair after getting the rope in Amkethran. Thanks to traps and leveldrain this was much easier than with Su´kka the Barbarian. The steps to victory are:
1. Maze the Dragon 2. Time Stop Trap 3. Wait or Rest 4. Improved Haste 5. Leveldrain with Blackrazor + Short Sword of Mask 6. Retreat after ~6 Hits 7. Repeat 1-6 until dead
Okay... so I think i've finally read most of what's happened in this thread and damn do I feel a little daunted by it all, especially considering my lack of solo experience and meta knowledge in this game... That said I'm looking forward to trying my hand at this challenge! Amazing work by all who have participated to this point, probably going to try and draw on your experiences and see what I can accomplish. Just need to decide on a class now. Tossing up between kensai/mage, sorcerer, cleric/mage or maybe stalker/unkitted ranger... thoughts are welcome.
Hello @Viper_Alvein! Must have been a really long read, no?
You are most welcome to join our little challenge even if your solo experience may be lacking. I am sure you will learn to adapt fast - as we all did over the time. With regard to your class selection: Nearly all classes should work so its more about style and fun than anything else. Stalker/Cleric looks like the most interesting to me even though the Kensai/Mage will be an even bigger powerhouse in the long run. We are also in need for Paladins or Bards as it seems that no one wants to play them - for whatever reason.
Best of luck @Viper_Alvein. If you're intending to start in BG1 then I would steer of the kensai/mage. If you dual early you'll lose out on much of the long-term power benefits, but dualling later on would mean soloing most or all of BG1 with a kensai - and if you're not used to playing solo you might find that frustrating.
Okay, Korgath faced one of the most interesting battles for quite some time: Abazigals Big Four!
These Drakes are a pain in the ass as they follow you wherever you go - even after being mazed. They can also see through invisibility and will use all kinds of elemental attacks while being highly resistant to magic. Korgath tried many different things - some worked better some not.
Mordi Swords are great tanks here so Korgath used them the southwestern part of the map while throwing Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting together with his Simulacrum. This hurted them quite a bit but it was far than enough as they forced him into the open field. From now on Korgath had to use his superiour speed while setting up one Spike Trap after another. Once gone he switched to Time Stop Traps + Improved Haste to get in his first kill. Fire Elementals proved to be not really good against the Drakes but they gave him time to use some Fireballs and splitting the Drakes using well placed Maze Traps. Together they put all fire on the remaining one and weared down a second drake. As all of this took ages Korgath switched to the cheesy mode. He ported to the pocket plane, rested and moved back to Maze the last Drakes and set up seven Spike Traps. He ported back to the pocket plane before they could reappear and rested to refresh his Spike Traps once more. After getting back he watched how the traps took the Drakes down to badly injured and mazed them again. The seven newly placed Spike Traps proved to be enough for the kill. Quite cheesy but Korgath was running out of supplies and - even worse - had only a minimal hit chance without Time Stop. Anyway: The Drakes are finally dead and the way to Abazigal is free. Maybe there are better ways to bring the Drakes down but with most stuff still not restored his options were quite limited...
I managed to prepare my specific install for this challenge on BG2EE (which is a lot lighter on mods than what I usually play) and to play some of it this week. Let just say that was less than glorious...
Caligula, the killer of Sarevok and Belhifet, when he got out of his cell, was having a lot of problems against gibberlings... Yes, gibberlings...
Without a serious way to heal himself, bad AC, non-enchanted weapons, and no range weapon to kite, a level 10 fighter will struggle mightily against just about anything on LoB. Nobody relies more on items than a fighter, believe me.
Sooo, after having failed to kill 4 gibberlings in time, he tried his hand at duergars. It was just about impossible to tackle them head on, so he used movement to split them. One by one, they were feasible, but tough nonetheless. I had a few close calls...
Slowly, but surely, Caligula made progress using this tactic. When he managed to scavenge enough resources from Chateau Irenicus, he decided to tackle on the Cambion. Caligula could not melee him, so he decided to kite him with a sling. Because of the strength modifier applies to slings, it was by far his best option, because he didn't had a shortbow yet. The damage, even without any proficiency, was so good that it convinced me to go grandmastery in slings in SoA. It just took so much time to take the Cambion down though, because I missed very often.
With the Cambion down, the rest was pretty straight forward. Even Ilyich was eventually meleed without too much problems. I took back the helm of Balduran, Varscona, a girdle of bluntness from my old stock. For whatever reason, I couldn't find the Golden Pantaloon, which I had in my pack in SoD. I'll EEKeeper those later. With these items, I got out of Chateau Irenicus. This whole shenanigans got me to level 11.
When I got out, I went straight to the circus, where I killed the two orcs/peasants, freed Aerie, got straight to Kalah and killed him without much problem. I then sold the Ring of human influence, because I already have 19 Charisma and Charm with a +3 save is just too bad in LoB to bother with.
I then went in the Copper Coronet, where I defeated a band of slavers. The beast master fight was a bit tedious, because I had to lure one animal at a time to kite it. He fell anyway.
I had more pics of my fights, but, for some reason, some of them were just black screen. Oh well.
So, that's where Caligula stands right now.
Because I'm about to hit level 12, decision time is nearing about proficiencies. This is what I have right now :
+++++ Sling : For crapton of damage at range (25 strength + GWW = OH. YEAH.).
+ Short Sword : For Kundane and SS of Mask : the latter, with Blackrazor, is a very strong level draining combo, like Korgath is proving right now !! Thanks again @Harpagornis !!
++ Flail : For Defender of Easthaven, when I'll have to melee hard stuff to take down and, obviously, the Flail of the ages, THE anti-mage weapon.
++ Bastard Sword : For Foebane. The draining effect could be a game changer at the Throne, we'll see.
That's 17 proficiencies, the max for fighters. You guys have any thoughts on this ? Do I make sense, or am I missing something big ?
Good progress @Arctodus. Yeah, the very start in SoA is not that easy for Warriors - its all about tactic. And a bit luck!
Weapon planning looks fine! The Short Sword of Mask and its entangling even works against ToB Dragons. Its quite funny to watch the big beasts trying to catch you while not making any progress. Blackrazor is a no-brainer and one of the best weapons for ToB. Flail of Ages - like you said - will be superb until Melissan. Defender of Easthaven is a must have while Foebane is pretty cool but not really essential imo. Slings with Grand Mastery and 25 Strength plus GWW will rock! Not to forget: Make sure to get the summon Staffs - especially the Staff of Fire (30 charges!) will help a lot later on! Last but not least: The Axe of Unyielding or the Ravager Halberd and its instakill ability will be very, very powerful at the late stage especially against Marilith, Planetars or Devas - if you can get it!
@Arctodus / Harpagornis what's the advantage of using Blackrazor and Mask swords together? I can see a sort of argument for them if you want both entangle and strength / healing, but if the main aim is level draining surely you would be better off with Blackrazor? Adding Belm or similar means you get the same number of level draining attacks overall if unhasted, but all of them are with Blackrazor (which drains 4 levels rather than 1). If you add improved haste you get 2 extra level draining attacks - attacks with Belm are then a tiny bit of gravy on top.
Comments
P.S. Using summons worked wonders to take her down the first time as long as one do not starts the talking. Bodhi just stands there while getting smacked down easily and will also not call for her guards.
EDIT: Just tested one of my Druids vs Tactics Bodhi: Looks like "Harm" works pretty decent once her Magic Resistance is lowered. Are there any Harm Scrolls in the game?
I guess it will only get harder from now on, with ToB looming large on you... Pretty sure you'll do fine anyway !!
Lets see how he dealt with the final challenges before taking on Irenicus one more time!
Trial of Pride
Korgaths task was to collect Tears of Bhaal in order to open the way to the final battle against Irenicus. The tunnel in the northeast corner was the first challenge he met. He refused to kill the Dragon and could easily take the first Tear. The reward → +20% Fire, Cold & Electrical Resistance
Trial of Fear
Next was the tunnel to the southeast where he met the Demon of Fear. He offered him a Cloak of Bravery made from Nymph skins and granting immunity to fear and panic so that I can obtain the next Tear of Bhaal. Korgaths again refused and tricked the Beholders once more with his traps. He took the second tear and moved out again. The reward → Immunity to +1 or lesser weapons
Trial of Selfishness
Korgath stumbled into the southern tunnel were the Demon of Selfishness presented him two choices. After some thinking he again went for the good path which resulted in a minor loss of maximum hit points, a minor loss of xp, and a permanent loss of 1 Dexterity. None of this is a big deal though especially with the sweet reward in mind → +10% to magic resistance
Trial of Greed
Now Korgath headed for the southwest tunnel. The Demon of Greed gave him Blackrazor (+3 Longsword, that has a 15% chance of draining 3 levels from target, This will prove to be very useful in ToB later on. To keep the sword he had to fight the Enslaved Genie which proved to be very easy as his own summon – a demon – killed the Genie while Korgath was waiting just out of vision. The reward → +15 HP
Trial of Wrath
The last challenge awaited Korgath in the northwestern tunnel. He rage talked with Sarevok and lured him into one trap field after another. At the end Korgath had to burn 14 Spike Traps, 5 Normal Traps and 3 Time Stop Traps as well as improved Haste combined with Assassination. The whole trapping and hacking took some time but at the end Sarevok never got the chance to touch Korgath. The final reward → +2 Strength
Final Battle against Irenicus
This one proved to be much tougher than expected cause for some reason the bug that had prevented the Slayer to attack properly on my last run disappeared. This meant: Korgath would get melted in a straight 1vs1 as the Slayer hits like a truck. To make things worse the Slayer regenerates HP like crazy so kiting him would not work.
This lead to the following strategy:
1. Korgath buffed up like crazy
2. After the battle started he immediately ruhed to the south. Thanks to his godlike speed the Demons did not folllow while Slayer Irenicus ported right at him.
3. Thanks to a fast summoned Fire Elemental Korgath got time to distract Irenicus and retreat out of vision before the first Time Stop and the Planetar triggered.
4. All he had to do now was: Wait until the Planetar expired and send in several Fire Elementals to make Irenicus waste his magic powers on them.
5. Once Irenicus ran out of his high level spells it was time to prepare the final battlefield with Five Fire Elementals + Simulacrum + seven Spike Traps.
6. With his own army ready for action he lured Irenicus into the traps and moved his Fire Elementals forward. Now both Korgaths immediately used improved Haste and rushed in wielding Kundane +2 & Belm +2 for awesome 8 APR. As the traps already took Irenicus down to badly injured it was now time for a double Assassination while still being affected by improved Haste. This took Irenicus to nearly dead and even though he managed to kill the Fake Korgath the real one landed a final blow. Game over!
It took Korgath three times to get everything right and after failing the first time i even feared that the insane regeneration of Slayer Irenicus would be too much for him. At the end everything worked perfectly fine when combining all the powers that had put him through SoA: Traps + Assassination Backstabs + Summons. How fitting no?
Time to take some rest before moving on to ToB. Here some last screenshots of the final confrontation with Irenicus:
I got the same problem like last time: After beating Irenicus the game crashes once the cutscene talk ends - damn it. Importing Save Game or Character File leads to destruction of my Potion Case, my Scroll Cases with a whole bunch of spells and also the Bag of Holding. This means: Play on without most of my equipment or restore them manually using the EE Keeper - which will take some time. I hate this bug!
But i got the trick how to keep all equipment even though it requires the Console again:
With C:MoveToArea("AR4000") Korgath teleported to the ancient elven statues where he can trigger Illasera normally.
Illasera wasnt a big deal thanks to Maze + Spike Traps + Time Stop Traps + Assassination.
Once she went down Korgath ported to the Pocket Plane where he stumbled into the first challenge. Holy cow! The Commoners were no problem as they are unable to damage him but the Knights of the Order were very, very tough. He tried to kite them all but one misstep and they got in some good damage. Even worse: They never seem to fail a saving throw and their Magic Resistance protected them from any damage spells. Korgath tried to trick them using the Commoners as a meat shield so he could shoot them down without retaliation. But even when buffed up he needed to roll a 19+ to land any hit – argh! With desperation growing more and more he just threw in some Fire Elementals and watched a big surprise as the Knights most of the time did not attack the summons but still tried to reach Korgath. Thats were the fun started:
Once the Knights were gone Ellesime, Duke Eltan and Aran Linvail rushed in. Thanks to the meat shield they were not able to reach him while Korgath made sure to push his magic resistance for Ellesimes spells. Several Fire Elementals soaked up a lot of spells until the biggest danger was over. Well – at least Korgath thought so. But suddenly Ellesime gated in a Deva so Korgath prayed that his magic protection would hold off any harm. And it did! He was really lucky the he was just an inch away from the Globe of Blades swirling around the Deva and Ellesime:
Once the Deva vanished it was time for Korgath to go on the offensive again. He summoned several Fire Elementals and – like before – the enemies still refused to attack them. Ellesime went down and shortly after Duke Eltan went into oblivion too - only Aran Linvail left. This should be easy Korgath thought but he was proven wrong. Aran used a lot of Protection Mantles, Stoneskins and – even worse – went invisible over and over again so his Elementals could not touch him. Korgath was really lucky that he had a bunch of True Sight Scrolls in his backpack that finally turned the table. Whenever Aran went invisible True Sight put him out again so the Fire Elementals could attack him while Korgath was shooting Electrical Arrows with Gesens Bow.
It still took some while – and several resummoning – until Aran finally went down. With only the Commoners left Korgath had no problem cleaning the house once and for all.
Really tough work but it wont get easier. There are interesting times ahead!!!
First he grabbed the sewers key and got swarmed by Gromnirs soldier. As they could not damage him he had all the time in the world to hack them down. That was really funny:
After that he sneaked through the sewers and crashed through more soldiers. His Elite Guards were killed with the usual backstab + stair retreat. After a while all of them were down and the battlefield was prepared for the final confrontation with Gromnir:
Thanks to his seven poison traps and five Fire Elementals Gromnir was badly wounded right from the start. All he had to do now was: Hack or shoot using improved Haste while resummoning if needed. Gromnir had no chance and went down in fashion:
End of story? No! Cause the cutscene with Amelyssan did not trigger – even not after moving out and in again or resting. Damn, damn, damn! Even worse: After beating the first challenge in the pocket plane Korgath recieved the xp but NOT the pocket plane ability. Something is going completly wrong here. Maybe its the manual import using the console? Maybe its the missing Slayer ability cause Dream Bhaal did not follow into Candlekeep Library? Looks like the bugs are doing what the enemies could not. But the whole installation looks broken due to the constant INVALID LINES so its maybe time for a reinstallation...
EDIT: Did the Gromnir fight with Su´kka again - Amelyssan triggers without any problems. Looks like the manual console jump confused some scripts. Will import Korgath normally and try it again just to see what happens...
EDIT 2: I started ToB again using the normal import function and tried the first challenge in the pocket plane again. And - oh wonder - it works like intended. Korgath now got the Pocket Plane ability. Thats good. But as all of his containers got destroyed he plays on with most of his stuff missing. Thats bad. Maybe i will restore them later on using EE Keeper. Its time that Beamdog gets rid of this bug!!!
EDIT: Okay, now everything is working like intended. Korgath defeated Gromnir once more and the Amelyssan cutscene triggered. Beware Yaga Shura - Korgath is coming for you! Well. After some rest.
Korgath tricked the Wraiths and Undead at the temple ruin with a Time Stop Trap and ran straight to Nyalee to get information how Yaga Shura might be killed. Another Time Stop Trap and he moved out to the Marching Mountains. There he used the same trick: Grab the Wardstones and freeze the incoming enemies with Time Stop Traps. This worked surprisingly well even when looting Yaga Shuras Heart. Big bad Berenn and the dangerous Sulfur Dragon were trapped in time while Korgath took everything what he needed. With both hearts he traveled back to Nyalee where another series of Time Stop Traps tricked all enemies before they could do anything. Quite cheesy but a very efficient and fast way to get past them.
With Yaga Shura being mortal again it was time to challenge the Big One. As only Yaga Shura was able to see through Korgaths invisibilty he lured the Fire Giant away from his troops into the Northwestern part of the camp. And whenever new support troops ported in Korgath lured them away and used stealth to get Yaga Shura back to the kiting area again. From now on everything was quite easy: Kite the tough beast while using traps in between. Especially the Time Stop Traps proved to be very good against him as they boosted his hit chance with the Sling of Everard from pityful 15% to 100%. For some strange reason the damage during Time Stop was saved until the effect ended – just take a look:
Thanks to the bad hit chance it took a while to take Yaga Shura down but as his Fire Balls could not harm Korgath it was just a matter of time until the second Bhaal Spawn went down:
At the end Yaga Shura proved to be no real challenge for Korgath but this will change dramatically cause now its either Sendai or Abazigal who are waiting next. Not to forget: The second challenge in the pocket plane is also on the run! Will he find a way through the upcoming horrors? We will see!
As Evil Korgath and his party proved to be insanely deadly with nearly no room to hide or kite and his evil part being able to see him even when being invisible Korgath fell back to an evil trick: He summoned a Genie right at the entrance before triggering the challenge so that he could walk through the barrier using the whole pocket plane as his battleground.
He lured Angelo, Tamoko and Evil Korgath into the open field while Semaj did not follow for whatever reason. As only his evil counterpart could see invisible Korgath he now seperated him from the others and tried to get enough room so he could use a Maze trap. Once the evil one was mazed Korgath had time to move back to the others. To kill Angelo and Tamoko he used a Mislead Scroll he had found earlier (the others got destroyed thanks to ToB import) and stabbed them down in no time without any fear of retalation.
As melee combat was no option against his fast moving, leveldraining and WW using evil counterpart Korgath used some more traps. After luring him into seven Spike Traps and six poison traps the evil twin exploded into oblivion:
With only Semaj left Korgath took all the time in the world and rested. With his full trap package up again he mazed Semaj and put down seven Spike Traps. The Mage reappeared and instantly exploed to the incoming trap damage. Poor one - job done!
Thanks to the move-through-the-barrier cheese the challenge went from „impossible“ to „no problem“. But as the game tricked me with the destruction of all containers its only fair to return the favour – no?
P.S. Well done Harpagornis! Looks like another decent run through. I actually rolled up a ranger/cleric not long ago to try this challenge with but I just haven't had the motivation to get beyond Nashkel with it. One day I'll get there!
Yeah, get up your Ranger/Cleric and stomp through BG1 @Noobacca - if not in this life than in the next one!
Korgath will try to take on Sendai or Abazigal in the next days. This should be interesting!!!
EDIT: I fought Yaga Shura once more and this time close combat + time stop worked normally. Maybe i was just unlucky yesterday as his push back aura was always up...
After beating Odamaron the Lich using Mace of Disruption Korgath completed the Short Sword of Mask +5 so he could use two level-draining weapons at the same time when facing Draconis.
The human form was all about Maze + Spike Traps + Normal Traps + Time Stop Traps which put him down to nearly dead quite fast. Whenever Draconis used one of his triggers and gated in some summons Korgath lured them away and parked them in the eastern part of the map. Even the dreaded Planetar was lured away and mazed out of the game. With all traps gone it was just a matter of patience and summons to wear down Draconis protections and get in the final hit so he transformed into his dragon form. Now the real fun started!
After resting in the pocket plane Korgath engaged the evil dragon with one Time Stop Trap after another. He either lured him into the trap or he mazed the dragon first to set up the battlefield in his manner. Whenever Draconis reappeared he hacked at him like crazy while using improved haste to get 4 APR. Poor Draconis - he lost level after level without being able to touch Korgath at any moment. After using his seventh Time Stop Korgath landed another blow with Blackrazor that sucked away his last level...
It looks like Dragons are even easier for Bounty Hunters than for big bad Barbarians so Korgath is quite confident for the next ones. Abazigal and his guards will be another story but thats something to worry about later on.
Korgath is now standing right before Sendai - maybe i should rest before taking on this neverending fight...
He tried so many different things that i am rather puzzled at the moment. After failing several times he got the trick how to establish a foothold on the map: He rushed to the northeastern Sendai which was killed by seven Spike Traps while a Maze Trap before made sure that the already active western statue was out of the game long enough. The traps immediately killed the first Sendai so Korgath moved on the the eastern one. He mazed the south-eastern one first so he got time to set up six poison traps plus one Time Stop Trap. Once they triggered Korgath used improved haste and caused enough damage to instakill the reappearing second Sendai. He went invisible again as the southeastern Sendai reappeared at the same time and waited until the Mislead expired. He now used more improved Haste while firing Gesens Short Bow at the third Sendai who tried to kill or CC Korgath with all kinds of spells while not moving away - a big error! As the magic was not able to touch him he had enough time to get in enough damage for the third kill. For some strange reason the improved call for help did not trigger here as a lot of Drow guards waited just outside of vision. With three Sendais down and no more enemies in vision Korgath retreated to the pocket plane for his first rest.
From now on the rest was rather easy: Get back to Sendais room and maze nearly all of the drows so Korgath got time to set up seven Spike Traps. The following pattern was: Maze → Spike Traps → instakill → repeat until all guards and the last Sendai statues exploded into oblivion. It still took several rests in the pocket plane but this method was so safe that the enemies – and even all of Sendais statues – never got a chance to strike at Korgath. Once the last statue had fallen the final fun part started.
Korgath had presummoned three Fire Elementals to lure the nearly instant summoned Planetar and Deva away so all he had to do was to wait until both of them vanished. With only Sendai left Korgath started his Maze → Trap game again until the first instaheal triggered. From now on he hunted Sendai wherever she teleported while using a lot of Fire Elementals that helped him to wear down one protection after another. Sendai tried to cast another Heal but failed due to the incoming damage and even the thrown out Death Spells were not enough to escape her doom. Korgath and his last two Fire Elementals managed to get in a final hit that brought Sendai down to her knees – victory!!!
This battle was all about getting the right start. Once Korgath managed to establish a foothold without enemies in vision the rest was just a matter of patience. Time for some rest!
He is now heading back to Amkethran for the rope and will soon trigger the multi dragon fights. This should be fun again!
From now on the rest was just running as the Slayer tried to catch Korgath ignoring anything else. After two minutes of evading the Slayer finally went down without being able to land a single hit - poor one!
1. Maze the Dragon
2. Time Stop Trap
3. Wait or Rest
4. Improved Haste
5. Leveldrain with Blackrazor + Short Sword of Mask
6. Retreat after ~6 Hits
7. Repeat 1-6 until dead
Abazigal isnt far away anymore...
You are most welcome to join our little challenge even if your solo experience may be lacking. I am sure you will learn to adapt fast - as we all did over the time. With regard to your class selection: Nearly all classes should work so its more about style and fun than anything else. Stalker/Cleric looks like the most interesting to me even though the Kensai/Mage will be an even bigger powerhouse in the long run. We are also in need for Paladins or Bards as it seems that no one wants to play them - for whatever reason.
These Drakes are a pain in the ass as they follow you wherever you go - even after being mazed. They can also see through invisibility and will use all kinds of elemental attacks while being highly resistant to magic. Korgath tried many different things - some worked better some not.
Mordi Swords are great tanks here so Korgath used them the southwestern part of the map while throwing Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting together with his Simulacrum. This hurted them quite a bit but it was far than enough as they forced him into the open field. From now on Korgath had to use his superiour speed while setting up one Spike Trap after another. Once gone he switched to Time Stop Traps + Improved Haste to get in his first kill. Fire Elementals proved to be not really good against the Drakes but they gave him time to use some Fireballs and splitting the Drakes using well placed Maze Traps. Together they put all fire on the remaining one and weared down a second drake. As all of this took ages Korgath switched to the cheesy mode. He ported to the pocket plane, rested and moved back to Maze the last Drakes and set up seven Spike Traps. He ported back to the pocket plane before they could reappear and rested to refresh his Spike Traps once more. After getting back he watched how the traps took the Drakes down to badly injured and mazed them again. The seven newly placed Spike Traps proved to be enough for the kill. Quite cheesy but Korgath was running out of supplies and - even worse - had only a minimal hit chance without Time Stop. Anyway: The Drakes are finally dead and the way to Abazigal is free. Maybe there are better ways to bring the Drakes down but with most stuff still not restored his options were quite limited...
I managed to prepare my specific install for this challenge on BG2EE (which is a lot lighter on mods than what I usually play) and to play some of it this week. Let just say that was less than glorious...
Caligula, the killer of Sarevok and Belhifet, when he got out of his cell, was having a lot of problems against gibberlings... Yes, gibberlings...
Without a serious way to heal himself, bad AC, non-enchanted weapons, and no range weapon to kite, a level 10 fighter will struggle mightily against just about anything on LoB. Nobody relies more on items than a fighter, believe me.
Sooo, after having failed to kill 4 gibberlings in time, he tried his hand at duergars. It was just about impossible to tackle them head on, so he used movement to split them. One by one, they were feasible, but tough nonetheless. I had a few close calls...
Slowly, but surely, Caligula made progress using this tactic. When he managed to scavenge enough resources from Chateau Irenicus, he decided to tackle on the Cambion. Caligula could not melee him, so he decided to kite him with a sling. Because of the strength modifier applies to slings, it was by far his best option, because he didn't had a shortbow yet. The damage, even without any proficiency, was so good that it convinced me to go grandmastery in slings in SoA. It just took so much time to take the Cambion down though, because I missed very often.
With the Cambion down, the rest was pretty straight forward. Even Ilyich was eventually meleed without too much problems. I took back the helm of Balduran, Varscona, a girdle of bluntness from my old stock. For whatever reason, I couldn't find the Golden Pantaloon, which I had in my pack in SoD. I'll EEKeeper those later. With these items, I got out of Chateau Irenicus. This whole shenanigans got me to level 11.
When I got out, I went straight to the circus, where I killed the two orcs/peasants, freed Aerie, got straight to Kalah and killed him without much problem. I then sold the Ring of human influence, because I already have 19 Charisma and Charm with a +3 save is just too bad in LoB to bother with.
I then went in the Copper Coronet, where I defeated a band of slavers. The beast master fight was a bit tedious, because I had to lure one animal at a time to kite it. He fell anyway.
I had more pics of my fights, but, for some reason, some of them were just black screen. Oh well.
So, that's where Caligula stands right now.
Because I'm about to hit level 12, decision time is nearing about proficiencies. This is what I have right now :
++ Longsword
++Short Bow
+ Mace
++Two-weapon fighting
I'm thinking of getting, in that order :
+++++ Sling : For crapton of damage at range (25 strength + GWW = OH. YEAH.).
+ Short Sword : For Kundane and SS of Mask : the latter, with Blackrazor, is a very strong level draining combo, like Korgath is proving right now !! Thanks again @Harpagornis !!
++ Flail : For Defender of Easthaven, when I'll have to melee hard stuff to take down and, obviously, the Flail of the ages, THE anti-mage weapon.
++ Bastard Sword : For Foebane. The draining effect could be a game changer at the Throne, we'll see.
That's 17 proficiencies, the max for fighters. You guys have any thoughts on this ? Do I make sense, or am I missing something big ?
See ya !!
Weapon planning looks fine! The Short Sword of Mask and its entangling even works against ToB Dragons. Its quite funny to watch the big beasts trying to catch you while not making any progress. Blackrazor is a no-brainer and one of the best weapons for ToB. Flail of Ages - like you said - will be superb until Melissan. Defender of Easthaven is a must have while Foebane is pretty cool but not really essential imo. Slings with Grand Mastery and 25 Strength plus GWW will rock! Not to forget: Make sure to get the summon Staffs - especially the Staff of Fire (30 charges!) will help a lot later on! Last but not least: The Axe of Unyielding or the Ravager Halberd and its instakill ability will be very, very powerful at the late stage especially against Marilith, Planetars or Devas - if you can get it!