Good to see you on the road again @Blackraven - and thanks for your thoughts!
I cannot name the exact number of Skulls cause for some reason Simulacrum seems to be bugged in my installation and the duration is quite random. Dont ask me why. Korgath had 24 Skull Trap scrolls in his pocket and combined it with six Simulacrums (one from the Helm) plus the casting from Korgath himself. With Project Image it should be no problem to get 200+ SKull Traps - as well as 40+ Fireballs. With the damage of the poison traps this should instakill even Abazigal (nearly) all the time.
I also expected Melissan to use Death Spell all the time - as she is doing against Mordi Swords or Elementals - but for whatever reason she never used it against the Skeleton Warriors!
You are right - there is an option for SCS to prevent clones using magic items. Thanks to the good gods that i refused to install it - otherwise Korgath would have been doomed for sure.
Oh, you are right @Blackraven! I should have mentioned Robes of Vecna & Amulet of Power! Yes, they also reduce casting time of scrolls which makes them very powerful in the final battle.
With regard to no-reload: This would force me to get a completly new mind-setup. Yeah, this might be very challenging and will definetely fit for a problem solving chess player but - will it be fun? We will see!
@Harpagornis Big, big congratulations to you !! I'd like to Like and Insightful your post a thousand times !!
All this strategy makes me wonder how in the name of the Lord am I gonna be able to do it with Caligula... Ain't no stunlock for him !!! We'll see, but I'm not too optimistic : over 1700 hp and 90 DR for Mel... Gah...
@Grond0 is right : you should probably try the no-reload challenge just to see how it goes !! That's what I plan to do anyway : Caligula is a learning run (I practically never played solo before) and then, no-reload time it is !! I see this run as a blueprint for future runs, really. That's how I was playing before tackling this challenge, so, yeah, that can be painful, but it's so much more rewarding (I only managed to beat BG1 once with a Cleric-->thief, so, no great player here ).
Don't forget that all runs start no-reload !! You can play that way and, when the first death comes, it marks a milestone on how far you managed to get. Then, you can decide to continue if you like your character or not. Or, you could run a no-reload game in parallel to a regular one... Playing no-reload doesn't mean playing ONLY no-reload !! It's just a fun challenge that mainly changes the way you approach risk-taking !!
After gaining so much experience playing this challenge - and being "rebuked" by @Grond0 for all my little "mistakes" - its indeed tempting to go for a no-reload-run. Or at least a minimal-reload approach. But my first problem would be: Which class should i take? I dont like Mages at all but - damn - they are sooo powerful in the long run. Playing another Thief Multi- or Dual-Class would be an overkill and Monks - as much as i want to play them - lack utility... hmmmmm... any ideas or suggestions?
After gaining so much experience playing this challenge - and being "rebuked" by @Grond0 for all my little "mistakes" - its indeed tempting to go for a no-reload-run. Or at least a minimal-reload approach. But my first problem would be: Which class should i take? I dont like Mages at all but - damn - they are sooo powerful in the long run. Playing another Thief Multi- or Dual-Class would be an overkill and Monks - as much as i want to play them - lack utility... hmmmmm... any ideas or suggestions?
If you go no-reload then Mage, Bard or single-class Druid would be pretty much mandatory because they can cast Invisibility on Liia Jannath at the Ducal Palace. A Cleric with four or five buffed Skeleton Warriors also looks pretty good. True warrior classes have a less than reasonable chance of keeping the Dukes alive imo. Of course, with minimal reload this wouldn't be an issue, but on the other hand it would be a bit of a shame if the Ducal Palace were to be your only reload (or several reloads) on your way to the ToB...
I'd pick a class that does stand a comparatively good chance at succeeding at no-reload. You can always decide to continue with minimal reload at some point. If I had to suggest one class, I'd say try a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric: - best saves in the game, - lots of divine protections against status effects and elemental damage to complement items and potions, - powerful summons (Skeletons, Aerial Servants, Fiends, Devas), - warrior APR, - the famous Harm spell, - couple of disablers and crowd control spells, - impressive damage resistance late game with Defender of Easthaven + Hardiness HLA + Armor of Faith - buffs that can make you hit like a truck.
But @Grond0 is right, a no-reload succes with any class would be amazing. So go for something you'd feel comfortable with.
Yeah, thats going along with my thoughts: Picking a class that one is comfortable with!
Dwarven Fighter/Cleric - yeah - i remember some good old run with this one in the vanilla game. On the other hand Druid would fit me much more as i am a big tree lover. Totemic Druid would be very strong in BG1 and even SoD should be manageable. But i cant see him winning against Melissan - IF one gets that far. Ranger/Cleric would get the best of both worlds but isnt it called borderline OP?
Maybe i should take my time - no reason to rush things!
I don't think a ranger/cleric is over-powered at all in the EE - a dwarven fighter cleric looks stronger to me due to the saving throw benefit. The druid spells given to the ranger/cleric now only mirror those available to the ranger, i.e. up to 3rd level, and the early levels are not where druid spells shine.
Best of luck with the druid if you're going with that.
Well, Caligula's progress wasn't as spectacular, but he did made some strides in the last few days. It was... smoother and more complicated than expected, if that makes any sense.
He first tackled the rest of the slaver's quest, by splitting the forces of the slavers by going all the way back in the Copper Coronet. Then, only a few of the slavers followed, where they were duly slaughtered. I went in and out of the main entrances of the Copper Coronet when necessary, because slavers never followed outside. The slaver mages were cheesed using the in-and-out tactics when they were casting (hey, as a pure fighter, I have no other means to deal with them !!). The absence of the Durlag's Goblet was really felt here : lots of resting in between waves of enemies, and a few visits to the temple to be healed, so I could finish the current wave without resting.
The Lilarcor quest was also taken care of : I didn't fight the Otyugh, though, I simply took the hand in the sewer, went into the back room, went invisible with the Air Control Ring and got out. Really didn't want to fight this thing, who have full resistance to missiles. Too little resources yet.
There Caligula hit level 12, where he took proficiency in sling. That payed off, because, in the Suna Seni ambush, he threw rocks at distance. With DUHM on, he could do as much as 40 damage on a crit !! And that's only with a +1 sling, regular bullets, only proficiency in the weapon and 23 strenght, not 25. Lots of room for improvment !! I think I made a good decision going with GM in slings. Anyway, with Suna Seni's death, I collected the Arbane short sword and got out. Same was done with the Renfled ambush ; only took the guy and got out. Sweet, easy xp.
At that moment, there was some kind of an incertitude moment ; I didn't know what to do !! I couldn't go on bigger quest, like De'arnise Castle of Windspear Hills, because I had way too little resources. So I stayed in Athkatla, trying to scourge any easy xp I could get.
More was done, but I have to go. I'll report the rest later.
I restarted Frey again, but only after tweaking his starting stats to transfer some points from charisma into intelligence - to allow him the potential to make use of stone golem summons I noticed last time I was in SoD. That's definitely cheating by my standards and I can't remember the last time I didn't genuinely roll a new character - I must be desperate .
Trying to take advantage of that divine intervention Frey started again from Candlekeep and did all quests there - including the rats. That took several hours of real time while I was mainly doing other things. I didn't check the exact game time, but by the time he'd killed the last of the rats Frey was suffering from a -12 fatigue penalty!
I'll be aiming to make rather quicker progress next time ...
You really fought the Slavers one by one @Arctodus? Holy cow! With Su´kka i always tricked them with Charms and Invisibility to only get the quest-xp as fast as possible. But maybe i am just too lazy! Anyway: Keep on rolling!
@Grond0 "cheating" and farming the Candlekeep rats for several hours - there is something going on, no?
Any news from your Kensai @Viper_Alvein? Is he still doing his kiting training or have you moved on to the main plot?
Cant get in the mood for a no-reload-run at the moment as the last days drained to much dex *cough* i meant energy.
But there is already one thing to remember about the Totemic Druid which i wasnt aware: He can summon his Spirits one after another without any delay in between. That looks quite powerful, no?
@Harpagornis Haha, sadly no news at the moment, been a little bit awol last few days due to the fun of life taking too much of my time hopefully will get back to it soon. Congratulations on completing the challenge! Amazing effort and patience to get yourself through I'm with the others though, you definitely have to give it a no reload attempt.
@Arctodus, nice to see you make some progress. Looking forward to reading about the rest, I think it's wise to first do small quests in Athkatla for easy XP and gold (bridge district murders, buried alive, Wellyn, illithium, that kind of stuff). However remember though that some larger quests like Temple Ruins will become harder depending on your levels. With PfUndead scrolls this quest should be doable early on, but if you do it later on two Liches will spawn and they won't hesitate to drop pre-cast ADHWs, or summon Dark Planetars. @Grond0, great to see Frey back in action. I wasn't aware that the rats could be dealt with this way. I thought they attacked, knocking Charname unconscious with their non-lethal attacks. Anyway, good luck! @Harpagornis, Totemic Druid could be fun I think. It's probably the best Druid kit for the purpose of this challenge since the other Druids' shapeshifts don't get the HP/Thac0/APR/saves boosts that enemy creatures get in LoB. Still, even Totemic Druids don't scale too well for epic level play I think. Maybe you can prove me wrong?
Mordica, 2nd BG1 report
There's not much to tell really, but I was writing the above reaction so I though I might as well relate what little progress Mordica has made.
In BG city, Mordica did a couple of big XP quests to unlock the 4th spell level. She slew an Greater Basilisk, convinced Tenya to hand over Tremain's son's body for resurrection, and took revenge on Marek for poisoning her. She pickpocked Lothnader's geas removal scroll to avoid a fight with Jalantha, but she wasn't so pacific with Marek. Like so many of her victims, he was Charmed into doing her bidding. When Mordica talked to him, he willingly surrendered the antidotes.
There's even a special journal entry for it, pretty sweet:
Though in all honesty, what's in the journal isn't what really happened. Mordica had her wand summons kill her foe.
Also in BG she slew Larze, and she stole the Cloak of Balduran as well as a Nymph cloak with 40 charm charges. I hadn't really planned for Charm to become such a staple spell/ability for Mordica, but it definitely has. I've seen Harpagornis and Arctodus use the cloak a couple of times. Mordica, with her two cloaks and her harp, and with the possibility to cast Greater Malison, turns out to be very charming most of time.
She successfully picked Dushai's pockets as well as Shandalar's and did a spell scribing session on the Ice Island. We would have preferred to wait till Stoneskin was acquired but Mordica wanted MGoI for traps and maybe to be safe from most of Dezkiel's spells. She rushed through the maze invisibly and protected by MI and MGoI, and had wand summons wear down Dezkiel, then finished him, fittingly given their surroundings, with ice arrows.
Soon we'll return to the plot, but there's still a number of smaller quests on the menu, from the top of my head: Silke so that Feldepost's "thugs" can be relieved of their potions of defense, Brevlik's telescope from the hall of wonders for a free wand, the Silvershield estate hasn't been burgled yet, and Ramazith's still alive.
Mordica is quite the spender, so she steals quite a lot and she accepts all kinds of lucrative commissions. The reason is that as a Bard, she doesn't really have a lot of spells, making her more reliant on items (potions, scrolls, wands) than my Cleric/Illusionist.
@Arctodus, nice to see you make some progress. Looking forward to reading about the rest, I think it's wise to first do small quests in Athkatla for easy XP and gold (bridge district murders, buried alive, Wellyn, illithium, that kind of stuff). However remember though that some larger quests like Temple Ruins will become harder depending on your levels. With PfUndead scrolls this quest should be doable early on, but if you do it later on two Liches will spawn and they won't hesitate to drop pre-cast ADHWs, or summon Dark Planetars.
That's exactly what I did with Caligula. He went straight to Umar Hills. He did the Mimic Blood side-quest, where I had to shoot the mimic at range two or three times before heading out the cave, because it's acid-attack cannot be avoided (I didn't have a scroll of Prot. from Acid and didn't want to go back to the city). After the mimic, I went to Jermien and killed the golem easily. I got Ilbratha, which is nice.
The Shadow Temple was next, and it was cheesed with a Prot. from Undead scroll. I gathered all the items needed to proceed to the Shade Lord without incident. I had to run after the Shadow Jailor though, because, when I attacked him, he ran away. That was unpleasantly long. Bone Golem, which are constructs, posed somewhat of a threat, so haste was used to bypass them. Then, I faced the Shade Lord : a sunstone bullet to the Altar and some whacks to the Lord himself were enough. Big xp, little efforts.
I had more pictures of my trip in the Shadow Temple, but, for whatever reasons, some of my printscreen were entirely black. I probably make mistakes by pressing the wrong button combinations (you have to press three on a Mac for a printscreen). That doesn't matter much though...
I went back to the city, where I did much of the Mae'Var questline. Only Rayic Gethras himself was a challenge. I killed his mephits on the first level with a Prot. from Fire scroll, lured his two golem on the first floor, then went invisible, then had him waste his spells by going up and down the stairs. I managed to chunk him, but I had a few close call :
I didn't attack Mar'Var himself, because backstabs really frighten me...
Then, I did the Skinner murder quest, but didn't follow the tanner downstairs ; I just didn't felt strong enough to tackle the Rune Assassins and the Bone Golem. I ain't no backstab immune Barbarian !! Nice easy xp there too. I fought the Rakshasa in the sewers by going up and down the entrance to waste his spell. Chunk him afterward.
Kitthix was gathered with the help of a Prot. from Poison scroll. Nothing of note there. Then, I went to Trademeet, where I went directly to Faldorn with invisibility from the Ring of Air Control. I had to fight Shambling Mounds, because they were blocking the way, but they were surprisingly easy. They could only hit me on a crit. After that, I took control of Cernd to fight Faldorn, because his script is bugged ; if you let him fight alone, he just tries to whack Faldorn with his staff. So, him in my hand, he beated Faldorn without much problem. No much screenshots here too, because black screen. I have to pay attention...
I then fought the Djinnis, because three Rakshasas seemed too much for me. Maybe it was a mistake, because the djinnis weren't easy... The first one outside was taken care of with different buffs, like Prot. from Fire, Potion of Invulnerability and such. It was hard, but I did it. The two others in the tent were much harder. As soon as they casted Improv. Haste, they destroyed me, Kitthix and the Djinni from the lamp in no time. So, I just decided to wait outside for the spell to run out. They were much easier without Improv. Haste ; they were killed by me after my teammates wore them down before dying themselves.
So, Caligula is chilling in Trademeet, inches away from level 15 where he's hailed as a hero, even though he didn't do anything, really... Things were complicated, because I still don't feel all that strong, but it was kinda easy progress nonetheless, because I skipped so much fights.
Next will probably be De'Arnise Castle, well, only after hitting level 15, because I want this Stronghold for myself.
Quick question : should I buy the Ras longsword ? Another ally would be welcome, but for only 4 rounds at a time, the price is quite steep.
Very good progress @Arctodus, close to level 15 already!
In the course of your game I'd try to collect as many summons as possible and I would definitely buy Ras at some point. It's a powerful summons that will resist both physical damage and nasty spells, but be wary of death spells.
@Grond0, great to see Frey back in action. I wasn't aware that the rats could be dealt with this way. I thought they attacked, knocking Charname unconscious with their non-lethal attacks.
@blackraven they do attack and knock you unconscious - but you recover quite quickly and remember to attack back without fresh instructions. The rats had a quicker attack and in the position Frey took 2 of them could attack at once with a 50% chance each to hit, which meant there was only a 25% chance that Frey would get an attack of his own in. That's why the encounter took so long for him - a fighter in splint armor wielding a +1 dagger will actually finish the rats pretty much as quickly as in a kiting fight. I partly did the fight because I've so often seen comments about how unfair and unbalanced the rats are, but that seems a bit harsh considering any character can safely kill them.
@Arctodus I like Ras as a summons for solo runs. I don't have experience with it in LoB, but in core games it can be very helpful to tie up dragons for a few rounds while you finish them off and I think it would still be useful for you (if nothing else it will sometimes allow you to retreat from fights safely).
Frey ground his way up to level 4 in Shoal's area, having one close escape there when he ran out of equipped bullets and I noticed at the last moment him charging at a wolf with his staff. Now able to travel without risk, he went to pick up Algernon's Cloak for the odd bit of charming and Dushai's ring of free action. Progress should now have been much quicker and easier, but when he'd just got to level 5 he decided to use web for the first time on Karlat. Going in invisibly he successfully blinded Karlat. The latter was already moving towards him as the spell was cast though, so Frey shifted slightly to one side and then ran into the main room to cast a web - just shooting Karlat while he's running round lots of obstacles is a bit tiresome. However, I suppose I should say that Frey tried to run into the main room - but he didn't make it.
Karlat has quite a slow weapon speed, so simply running past him should be risk-free. What must have happened though is that Karlat got close enough before being blinded to trigger the start of a combat round, but didn't move far enough on after that to re-set the round counter. The small amount of time Frey took to move to the side and then run past him was then sufficient that Karlat arrived at the point in the round that he could actually attack before Frey was out of range. I've certainly died in that sort of manner to gnolls before now when kiting them round, then turning to attack too quickly before the round counter has re-set, but it's a bit of an odd way to go against Karlat.
Deciding to try something a bit less susceptible to being one-shotted I thought I would see how the sort of dwarven fighter/cleric I was recommending would perform.
Frew made far shorter work of the Candlekeep rats than Frey before kiting round Shoal and a few other things to get a couple of levels.
Once he had Algernon's Cloak that was used a bit and once ankheg armor replaced splint and better spells were available he did a bit of melee bashing to supplement the kiting. Sanctuary was also helpful for resting and bypassing enemies to get to objectives of interest (such as Meilum). However, with cleric level 5 (and skeletons) in sight it was sanctuary that let him down. I was aware of the possibility that Drizzt would target invisible creatures with spells, but thought sanctuary might avoid that happening. However, it didn't and Frew's dwarven saving throws let him down as well.
Good pick for a character @Grond0, if a bit greedy for XP...
Mordica, 3rd BG1 report
Mordica did the little quests I mentioned in my last posts without incident, and did some additional pickpocketing. She managed to snatch Sunin's ring of wizardry from invisibility before he went hostile, and Vaya's ogre power gauntlets when the woman walked off, disappointed with being turned down.
At the Seven Suns, she found that when fully buffed, she could hold her own in melee against the Doppelgangers. With Spirit Armor the Doppels needed crits to hit her, while Stoneskin and MI made sure any crits wouldn't do anything.
The Iron Throne battle was particularly satisfactory for Mordica, as she managed to deal with everyone on the top floor without having to lure foes downstairs one at a time. Mordica arrived invisibly, walked to the backroom, and summoned wand monsters. These were directed toward the Iron Throne gang and back to her, luring two invisible (hostile) Shennaras her way. The male Shennara has invisibility potions, he drank one but Mordica salvaged two more thanks to her paralyzation wand.
Launching arrows from the back and summoning more monsters, she removed the threat that the two backstabbers posed. She then made liberal use of her abilities to charm people. First Naaman was seduced into joining her cause with Algernon's cloak. Next, Greagan's Harp enticed Diyab.
Both men had enviable spell repertoires so Mordica instructed them to use those spells. Naaman Blinded Gardush, cast Improved Invisibility on Mordica, and Dire Charmed Alai. Diyab had some enchantment spells as well (Hold Person, Rigid Thinking), and wasted most of those on Gardush who had gone hostile and enraged when Blinded. The Dire Charm on Alai was rather short-lived, but Naaman had another treat in store for his former friend: an Emotion.
At this point Zhalimar and the others finally discovered what was going on, they all went hostile. Mordica had Naaman cast some buffs on himself, and directed him toward the stairs, where he was duly slain by his former comrades. The Blade used the time to summon new monsters with her wand, and to slay the Doppelganger. She then scouted Aasim, failed to paralyze the cleric, and paid for it with a Flamestrike.
40 fire damage with 50% fire resistance from Drizzt's scimitar?
Mordica could heal in a corner near the stairs with minor healing potions. Alai awoke from his slumber but Diyab was won over once more. He occupied a skeleton warrior that he or Aasim had summoned, while Mordica used a greenstone amulet charge for her own protection and arrows of dispelling to debuff Alai.
He got away with a minor sequencer Invisibility. Aasim then found Mordica again and cast an Unholy Blight at her. She made her save but the Blight still injured her almost as much as his earlier Flamestrike.
(I wanted Mordica to heal with a potion of regeneration, but didn't immediately notice her aura wasn't clear when I clicked 'Drink Potion'. As a result she walked around injured for a couple of rounds.) In retalliation, Mordica cast a Chaos from scroll, confusing both Zhalimar and Aasim, but not Alai. She revealed him with a Detect Invisibility, and finished him in melee.
Gardush was paralyzed and charmed with the Nymph Cloak. Mordica's enemies killed him for her. Later Zhalimar too was briefly charmed, but that didn't confuse Aasim in the least. He dropped another Unholy Blight at her for 44 damage. Wand summons and fireballs eventually did him in.
This left only the Skeleton Warrior and Zhalimar. Mordica dispatced the former with her Ashideena, and slew the latter after she had paralyzed him.
She let Thaldorn go, reported to Duke Eltan, and traveled to Candlekeep. At the entrance she quaffed a potion of stone form to ensure succesful saves against the Ogre Mages' Charm Person spells, and went inside. She copied three more spells into her book: Minor Sequencer, Vocalize, and Fireshield Blue (nicked from Resar). She picked up a couple of scrolls from the library, got falsely arrested, and relied on MGoI and Knocks to loot the treasure in the catacombs on her way out of confinement.
She got herself into a bit of a fix, when she tried to engage the Greater Basilisks and at the same time shrug off two Phase Spiders. At one point she found herself in a narrow corridor close to the exit, with the Greater Basilisks blocking both sides, and the spiders approaching her. She used her only scroll of Dimension Door to escape.
Fighting the Basilisks wasn't necessary but we had three green PfPetrification scrolls and the Basilisks would give good extra XP for SoD and possibly drop valuable items (they can drop Laeral Tear's necklaces). Anyhoo, Mordica got out, followed by one Phase Spider and one Greater Basilisk. She slew both with the help of the wand of paralyzation, before traveling to the FAI for some relax time.
I started Frew again and this time didn't bother with all the early kiting, but just bought a sling +1 and used Algernon's Cloak and sanctuary to get Meilum's bracers. Then it was off to the basilisk area where dealing with the monsters took him from level 1/1 to 4/5. Korax helped out there with Mutamin, but silence and hold person were not sufficient to let him prevail against Kirian & co and Frew withdrew. After resting, he used his new skeletons to split up the opposition and was able to take them down one at a time - picking up a 5th fighter level in the process.
After that though I decided to take on Bassilus to get his hammer, though I realised that was pushing things a bit. Bassilus was silenced at the start of the fight, but saved against 3 hold persons despite being doomed. By the time Frew's 2 skeletons were dead Bassilus was at near death - though with 61 HPs he still had more than Frew. Three spells were interrupted by bullets or wand magic missiles, taking Bassilus down to 4 HPs. A bullet missed and a magic missile did only 3 damage - and this time Bassilus was not interrupted and a hold person proved fatal (Frew had run out of sight of Bassilus and he didn't follow, but a nearby wolf scented a free lunch).
OK - I'll see if I can make it 3rd time lucky (or at least 3rd time intelligent by avoiding risks ).
Silence your greed and everything will be fine @Grond0!
I like the minimal-risk approach of @Blackraven. Damn - when reading your texts it looks like a walk in the park!
And good to see @Arctodus gaining more and more ground in SoA. I never had any doubts that Fighters have the potential to do quite well in this challenge!
With regard to Totemic Druid: Yeah, he will drop off in the long run - even more in a no-reload-run. Too bad! So after quite some hedache i think that there is one class that has very high potential to beat the challenge - beside the Mage classes: Dwarven Fighter/Thief.
- Superb Saves throughout the game - All kinds of traps that can either instakill opposition or freeze them in time - Stealth will nearly always make sure to shape the battlefield in his manner - Warrior APR and THAC0 - Backstabbing/ Assassination will make enemies cry - Pickpocketing for gold and special items - The Ability to use ANY item in the game will open up lots of deadly combos - Traps or Locks are his best friend which means even more Gold and XP - Very decent damage output at higher levels thanks to GWW
There are two combos that are springing to mind after all the tests with Korgath:
@Harpagornis The good thing about going no reload, is that you can pick an obviously powergaming combo like dwarven f/t and still be on your toes the entire game. No risk of getting bored because it's too easy anymore !!
I like the minimal-risk approach of @Blackraven. Damn - when reading your texts it looks like a walk in the park!
Heh, I wasn't aware this cautious approach followed from my posts, but you're right. I want Mordica to be as well-prepared as possible for any trouble that may await her. So we carefully decide on quest order, buy/steal all the items that might even be remotely useful for her, memorize almost exclusively blue (protective) spells while leaving offense to wands and item abilities. We bought the Greenstone Amulet, sold it, and bought it back with 50 charges, and use it preventively in all battles that involve wizards or priests. Thanks to her familiar, Mordica can take a hit or two, but status effects are still major threats even with MSD (which doesn't block AoE spells) or MGoI (which doesn't block level 5 spells like Chaos). Lately Mordica has taken lots of rests. I don't like it but she has only one level 4 slot. She will memorize Stoneskin, cast it, replace Stoneskin with MGoI or Spirit Armor (depending on what lies ahead) as her level 4 spell to memorize, and then rest again. Anything goes as long as it helps Mordica survive. I intend to visit Durlag's Tower's lower levels, which in itself isn't minimal risk at all what with all the traps and powerful enemies down there, but the goblet has been a life saver for previous contenders in this thread, so it might be for Mordica as well.
i think that there is one class that has very high potential to beat the challenge - beside the Mage classes: Dwarven Fighter/Thief.
I've already expressed my apprehension about the Ducal Palace battle for non-casters, but other than that I agree that Dwarven Fighter/Thief looks like one of the stronger classes for the purpose of no-reload. I also agree with @Arctodus that there's no need to have reservations about picking a powerful class. A solo LoB/SCS/Ascension no-reload trilogy success would be groundbreaking with any class.
I wish you both luck and intelligence. My advice: take no chances, no "oops, a Hold Person coming my way and I have no potion of freedom, and the Greenstone Amulet doesn't activate fast enough... hmm I do have that potion of magic blocking but wait, I only need to roll a 3 to save against that Hold spell so nevermind the potion, I'm sure I'll be alri... oh shit..."
Visiting the lower levels of Durlag's Tower didn't fill us with exhileration, but thanks to @Dyara's excellent maps in this thread (priceless for non-Thieves) and the Dudleyville walkthrough, Mordica knew at least how to prepare for the tower's horrors. Warning: the below account contains references to shameless cheesing and metagaming.
At the first level there's only three types of traps that have to be dealt with: fire traps (Fireball or Flamestrike), electricity traps (Lightning Bolt or Call Lightning) and one Dire Charm trap. There are other traps - Skull Trap, Web, Cloudkill, Magic Missile - but those are avoidable. Mordica relied on MGoI and MSD for the fire and lightning traps and spent a charge of the greenstone amulet on the Dire Charm trap. Because of enemies that she didn't want to fight she had to cast invisibility several times, and she also rested several times to refresh her memorized spells. With wand summons, she only fought a bunch of Zombies that blocked her path, and one stray Skeleton Warrior that had followed her into the main room.
When all the riddles were solved, it was time to face the Dwarven Warders. Mordica cast the level 3 spell Protection from Fire twice on her familiar to give it 100% fire resistance, followed by an Invisibility. She then told it to wait for her at the beginning of the short corridor that led to the forge, creating a choke point to a room with no other entry points. The Blade buffed with her standard spells and the greenstone amulet, and made sure she was super hasted (boots plus oil of speed).
She first lured Fear toward the choke point. There was a short scruffle that saw Mordica take the upper hand,
but the Blade knew she was reliant on her buffs and that those buffs would wear off. She retreated behind her invisible familiar, and started frying her opponent with wand scorchers.
There was an uneasy moment when Mordica tarried in refreshing her greenstone protection and Fear stunlocked her for a couple of rounds, but she got the chance to refresh her greenstone protection and finished her foe with more fire.
Pride was next. He was easy because he had no special abilities that could threaten her from behind her familiar. She scorchered her enemy like she had done with Fear. Avarice on the other hand was nasty, with seemingly unlimited Cloudkills and the ability to go invisible at will. Fleeing behind her familiar didn't really work because of the Cloudkills and because Avarice would just go invisible and he would only reveal himself when given the chance to attack. Mordica had her familiar hop back into her pack. In the process she suffered what seemed to be just a few "hits" from Avarice, but enough to remove her last Stoneskin. She rested to get her spells back (especially Stoneskin). She ended up overwhelming her foe with wand summons, and injuring and eventually killing the creature with +2 arrows and with the wand of frost (rather than the wand of fire, to avoid friendly fire).
Last but not least, there was Love. This caster character didn't have much in terms of game-ending spells. She only cast Dire Charms and Slows, and she wasn't Stoneskinned, as Mordica discovered when her Ashideena dealt both crushing and electricity damage. Fully buffed with Offensive Spin and DUHM, Mordica hit hard, but she never managed to interrupt her foe's casting.
Love's Slows repeatedly caused Mordica trouble. Oils of speed gave her her speed back and gave her 3 APR when dual-wielding, but Love was hitting Mordica with such ease (not to mention force) that I'm wondering whether oils of speed also lift the AC penalty imposed by the Slow spell. I was too immersed to check. Ranged attacks were useless because of a permanent physical mirror she had. Mordica had to retreat twice to heal up before she could finish the last warder.
We only visited the second level for Durlag's goblet. I know that drinking from the goblet causes the imbiber to panic, but scrolls/potions and the greenstone amulet can be used to get protection from fear. If Mordica should make it to Belhifet, she might even choose to give up casting from her book and don the Commander's Chainmail +3 for its protection from fear. She could then still use wands, cast from scrolls, and launch arrows. That would also make saving all green scrolls of protection from magic for use against Belhifet a logical route. (Mordica currently has five and should probably pickpocket Bentan for a sixth.) Anyway, relying again on Dyara's map and on Dudleyville's instructions, Mordica found the way to the goblet without incident. There's a lot of arrow traps in the dummy room, but Mordica actually managed to bypass them. She did use a few charges of the Sandthief's ring to avoid having to fight the Greater Doppelgangers.
Mordica is currently doing business in Beregost, where she sold a lot of loot to Officer Vai (I think this is thanks to CD Tweaks' Stores Purchase All Item Types component) for double prices. This allowed Mordica to recharge a couple of items (Sandthief's ring, wands, and greenstone amulet even though it still had 30 charges left). The endgame awaits.
Frew the fighter/cleric is having another go and this time he's at least hit the XP cap. In summary: - Shoal provided his first levels and tasks around Beregost another cleric level. - on his way up to get Dushai's ring, helping out Tenya was enough for another fighter level. - some easy reputation quests and 3 donations at the temple allowed Frew to get CLW. - Meilum provided not just some bracers, but a 4th cleric level. - the basilisks pushed levels to 5/5. I had originally intended to leave after that, but as usual got sucked into fighting Kirian. That cost Frew a potion of invulnerability and a scroll of PfM to guarantee safety against her spells. - skeletons played a major role as Frew picked up further reputation and he moved on to level 6/6 before doing a bit of shopping (his poor charisma meaning prices still seemed exorbitant even at rep 20). During that sequence he did though have to use up his potion of clarity to make sure a charm person Silke sent his way was ineffective. - skeletons were not up to the Doomsayer yet, but dealt with some sirines nicely while Frew hid in sanctuary (despite them surprisingly being vulnerable to being feeble-minded). They couldn't hit golems, but ran interference after Frew went to buy some magic bullets. The tome for the cave allows Frey to regenerate without the use of DUHM. - resting in the same area as the battle horrors at Durlag's allowed Frew to wear those down with his skeletons (they heal 100 HPs per rest, but were taking a bit more than that). Ghasts were much easier and so were basilisks - the latter quickly taking Frew up to level 7/7.
Those are his final BG1 levels - the clerical one coming with the bonus of a nice power bump for his skeletons. The Greenstone Amulet allowed him to collect the tome. - the skeleton upgrade and slightly improved buffs meant a return trip to the Doomsayer didn't last long and the skeletons also made short work of Bassilus to provide Frew with a decent melee weapon (he'd been using a non-proficient magic flail for a while after getting tired of breaking hordes of hammers). The last item of outstanding business was to go in search of Drizzt's weapons. This time another charge of the amulet ensured he wouldn't be doing any charming. - deciding it was time to crack on with the main quest Frew followed his skeletons through the mine and watched them beat up Mulahey, with a bit of help from a hold person.
Nimbul and Tranzig fared no better. - the ankheg nest was cleared before Frew went to the Bandit Camp. I seriously considered fighting everything there, but in the end discretion won out over valour! Frew got a lift there from Raiken and just used sanctuary to loot the main tent before charming Taurgosz and pulling him away to his doom before any support could arrive. The Cloakwood awaits ...
At @Blackraven and all the no-reloaders out there : watch out with the Durlag's Goblet. Don't rely on it too much, because, even if you have fear immunity, a goblet sip might fear you anyway... and that fear effect last 12 hours. That bug happened to me quite a few times, specially during the Belhifet fight, where I had him at Near Death... Was NOT cool.
Being feared while wearing fear protection warrant a reload in my opinion, but I know you guys : you might lose interest in your character even if a bug means you die. So, watch out !!
Lot of progress for our no-reloaders - thats great!
With regard to the Wardens: You do no not have kill them all. At the end its all about Love. Lure the rest away and kill only him to grab the Wardstone and move on to the next level. Thats even safer - but lacks the adrenaline rush of fighting them all.
With regard to Durlags Goblet: I dont know if its a bug in your installation @Arctodus but in all of my runs the fear never ever triggered when immunity was up - regardless being it the Helm, the Chain Mail or Greenstone Amulet. Very strange stuff...
Comments
I cannot name the exact number of Skulls cause for some reason Simulacrum seems to be bugged in my installation and the duration is quite random. Dont ask me why. Korgath had 24 Skull Trap scrolls in his pocket and combined it with six Simulacrums (one from the Helm) plus the casting from Korgath himself. With Project Image it should be no problem to get 200+ SKull Traps - as well as 40+ Fireballs. With the damage of the poison traps this should instakill even Abazigal (nearly) all the time.
I also expected Melissan to use Death Spell all the time - as she is doing against Mordi Swords or Elementals - but for whatever reason she never used it against the Skeleton Warriors!
You are right - there is an option for SCS to prevent clones using magic items. Thanks to the good gods that i refused to install it - otherwise Korgath would have been doomed for sure.
Oh, you are right @Blackraven! I should have mentioned Robes of Vecna & Amulet of Power! Yes, they also reduce casting time of scrolls which makes them very powerful in the final battle.
With regard to no-reload: This would force me to get a completly new mind-setup. Yeah, this might be very challenging and will definetely fit for a problem solving chess player but - will it be fun? We will see!
All this strategy makes me wonder how in the name of the Lord am I gonna be able to do it with Caligula... Ain't no stunlock for him !!! We'll see, but I'm not too optimistic : over 1700 hp and 90 DR for Mel... Gah...
@Grond0 is right : you should probably try the no-reload challenge just to see how it goes !! That's what I plan to do anyway : Caligula is a learning run (I practically never played solo before) and then, no-reload time it is !! I see this run as a blueprint for future runs, really. That's how I was playing before tackling this challenge, so, yeah, that can be painful, but it's so much more rewarding (I only managed to beat BG1 once with a Cleric-->thief, so, no great player here
Don't forget that all runs start no-reload !! You can play that way and, when the first death comes, it marks a milestone on how far you managed to get. Then, you can decide to continue if you like your character or not. Or, you could run a no-reload game in parallel to a regular one... Playing no-reload doesn't mean playing ONLY no-reload !! It's just a fun challenge that mainly changes the way you approach risk-taking !!
I'd pick a class that does stand a comparatively good chance at succeeding at no-reload. You can always decide to continue with minimal reload at some point. If I had to suggest one class, I'd say try a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric:
- best saves in the game,
- lots of divine protections against status effects and elemental damage to complement items and potions,
- powerful summons (Skeletons, Aerial Servants, Fiends, Devas),
- warrior APR,
- the famous Harm spell,
- couple of disablers and crowd control spells,
- impressive damage resistance late game with Defender of Easthaven + Hardiness HLA + Armor of Faith
- buffs that can make you hit like a truck.
But @Grond0 is right, a no-reload succes with any class would be amazing. So go for something you'd feel comfortable with.
Dwarven Fighter/Cleric - yeah - i remember some good old run with this one in the vanilla game. On the other hand Druid would fit me much more as i am a big tree lover. Totemic Druid would be very strong in BG1 and even SoD should be manageable. But i cant see him winning against Melissan - IF one gets that far. Ranger/Cleric would get the best of both worlds but isnt it called borderline OP?
Maybe i should take my time - no reason to rush things!
Neutral Good Human Druid
Str 13
Dex 18
Con 16
Int 16
Wis 18
Cha 12
Is this my destiny?
Best of luck with the druid if you're going with that.
He first tackled the rest of the slaver's quest, by splitting the forces of the slavers by going all the way back in the Copper Coronet. Then, only a few of the slavers followed, where they were duly slaughtered. I went in and out of the main entrances of the Copper Coronet when necessary, because slavers never followed outside. The slaver mages were cheesed using the in-and-out tactics when they were casting (hey, as a pure fighter, I have no other means to deal with them !!). The absence of the Durlag's Goblet was really felt here : lots of resting in between waves of enemies, and a few visits to the temple to be healed, so I could finish the current wave without resting.
The Lilarcor quest was also taken care of : I didn't fight the Otyugh, though, I simply took the hand in the sewer, went into the back room, went invisible with the Air Control Ring and got out. Really didn't want to fight this thing, who have full resistance to missiles. Too little resources yet.
There Caligula hit level 12, where he took proficiency in sling. That payed off, because, in the Suna Seni ambush, he threw rocks at distance. With DUHM on, he could do as much as 40 damage on a crit !! And that's only with a +1 sling, regular bullets, only proficiency in the weapon and 23 strenght, not 25. Lots of room for improvment !! I think I made a good decision going with GM in slings. Anyway, with Suna Seni's death, I collected the Arbane short sword and got out. Same was done with the Renfled ambush ; only took the guy and got out. Sweet, easy xp.
At that moment, there was some kind of an incertitude moment ; I didn't know what to do !! I couldn't go on bigger quest, like De'arnise Castle of Windspear Hills, because I had way too little resources. So I stayed in Athkatla, trying to scourge any easy xp I could get.
More was done, but I have to go. I'll report the rest later.
Trying to take advantage of that divine intervention Frey started again from Candlekeep and did all quests there - including the rats. That took several hours of real time while I was mainly doing other things. I didn't check the exact game time, but by the time he'd killed the last of the rats Frey was suffering from a -12 fatigue penalty!
@Grond0 "cheating" and farming the Candlekeep rats for several hours - there is something going on, no?
Any news from your Kensai @Viper_Alvein? Is he still doing his kiting training or have you moved on to the main plot?
Cant get in the mood for a no-reload-run at the moment as the last days drained to much dex *cough* i meant energy.
But there is already one thing to remember about the Totemic Druid which i wasnt aware: He can summon his Spirits one after another without any delay in between. That looks quite powerful, no?
@Grond0, great to see Frey back in action. I wasn't aware that the rats could be dealt with this way. I thought they attacked, knocking Charname unconscious with their non-lethal attacks. Anyway, good luck!
@Harpagornis, Totemic Druid could be fun I think. It's probably the best Druid kit for the purpose of this challenge since the other Druids' shapeshifts don't get the HP/Thac0/APR/saves boosts that enemy creatures get in LoB. Still, even Totemic Druids don't scale too well for epic level play I think. Maybe you can prove me wrong?
Mordica, 2nd BG1 report
There's not much to tell really, but I was writing the above reaction so I though I might as well relate what little progress Mordica has made.
In BG city, Mordica did a couple of big XP quests to unlock the 4th spell level. She slew an Greater Basilisk, convinced Tenya to hand over Tremain's son's body for resurrection, and took revenge on Marek for poisoning her. She pickpocked Lothnader's geas removal scroll to avoid a fight with Jalantha, but she wasn't so pacific with Marek. Like so many of her victims, he was Charmed into doing her bidding. When Mordica talked to him, he willingly surrendered the antidotes.
Also in BG she slew Larze, and she stole the Cloak of Balduran as well as a Nymph cloak with 40 charm charges. I hadn't really planned for Charm to become such a staple spell/ability for Mordica, but it definitely has. I've seen Harpagornis and Arctodus use the cloak a couple of times. Mordica, with her two cloaks and her harp, and with the possibility to cast Greater Malison, turns out to be very charming most of time.
She successfully picked Dushai's pockets as well as Shandalar's and did a spell scribing session on the Ice Island. We would have preferred to wait till Stoneskin was acquired but Mordica wanted MGoI for traps and maybe to be safe from most of Dezkiel's spells. She rushed through the maze invisibly and protected by MI and MGoI, and had wand summons wear down Dezkiel, then finished him, fittingly given their surroundings, with ice arrows.
Mordica is quite the spender, so she steals quite a lot and she accepts all kinds of lucrative commissions. The reason is that as a Bard, she doesn't really have a lot of spells, making her more reliant on items (potions, scrolls, wands) than my Cleric/Illusionist.
The Shadow Temple was next, and it was cheesed with a Prot. from Undead scroll. I gathered all the items needed to proceed to the Shade Lord without incident. I had to run after the Shadow Jailor though, because, when I attacked him, he ran away. That was unpleasantly long. Bone Golem, which are constructs, posed somewhat of a threat, so haste was used to bypass them. Then, I faced the Shade Lord : a sunstone bullet to the Altar and some whacks to the Lord himself were enough. Big xp, little efforts.
I had more pictures of my trip in the Shadow Temple, but, for whatever reasons, some of my printscreen were entirely black. I probably make mistakes by pressing the wrong button combinations (you have to press three on a Mac for a printscreen). That doesn't matter much though...
I went back to the city, where I did much of the Mae'Var questline. Only Rayic Gethras himself was a challenge. I killed his mephits on the first level with a Prot. from Fire scroll, lured his two golem on the first floor, then went invisible, then had him waste his spells by going up and down the stairs. I managed to chunk him, but I had a few close call :
I didn't attack Mar'Var himself, because backstabs really frighten me...
Then, I did the Skinner murder quest, but didn't follow the tanner downstairs ; I just didn't felt strong enough to tackle the Rune Assassins and the Bone Golem. I ain't no backstab immune Barbarian !!
Kitthix was gathered with the help of a Prot. from Poison scroll. Nothing of note there. Then, I went to Trademeet, where I went directly to Faldorn with invisibility from the Ring of Air Control. I had to fight Shambling Mounds, because they were blocking the way, but they were surprisingly easy. They could only hit me on a crit. After that, I took control of Cernd to fight Faldorn, because his script is bugged ; if you let him fight alone, he just tries to whack Faldorn with his staff. So, him in my hand, he beated Faldorn without much problem. No much screenshots here too, because black screen. I have to pay attention...
I then fought the Djinnis, because three Rakshasas seemed too much for me. Maybe it was a mistake, because the djinnis weren't easy... The first one outside was taken care of with different buffs, like Prot. from Fire, Potion of Invulnerability and such. It was hard, but I did it. The two others in the tent were much harder. As soon as they casted Improv. Haste, they destroyed me, Kitthix and the Djinni from the lamp in no time. So, I just decided to wait outside for the spell to run out. They were much easier without Improv. Haste ; they were killed by me after my teammates wore them down before dying themselves.
So, Caligula is chilling in Trademeet, inches away from level 15 where he's hailed as a hero, even though he didn't do anything, really...
Next will probably be De'Arnise Castle, well, only after hitting level 15, because I want this Stronghold for myself.
See ya !!
In the course of your game I'd try to collect as many summons as possible and I would definitely buy Ras at some point. It's a powerful summons that will resist both physical damage and nasty spells, but be wary of death spells.
@Arctodus I like Ras as a summons for solo runs. I don't have experience with it in LoB, but in core games it can be very helpful to tie up dragons for a few rounds while you finish them off and I think it would still be useful for you (if nothing else it will sometimes allow you to retreat from fights safely).
Karlat has quite a slow weapon speed, so simply running past him should be risk-free. What must have happened though is that Karlat got close enough before being blinded to trigger the start of a combat round, but didn't move far enough on after that to re-set the round counter. The small amount of time Frey took to move to the side and then run past him was then sufficient that Karlat arrived at the point in the round that he could actually attack before Frey was out of range. I've certainly died in that sort of manner to gnolls before now when kiting them round, then turning to attack too quickly before the round counter has re-set, but it's a bit of an odd way to go against Karlat.
Once he had Algernon's Cloak that was used a bit and once ankheg armor replaced splint and better spells were available he did a bit of melee bashing to supplement the kiting. Sanctuary was also helpful for resting and bypassing enemies to get to objectives of interest (such as Meilum). However, with cleric level 5 (and skeletons) in sight it was sanctuary that let him down. I was aware of the possibility that Drizzt would target invisible creatures with spells, but thought sanctuary might avoid that happening. However, it didn't and Frew's dwarven saving throws let him down as well.
Mordica, 3rd BG1 report
Mordica did the little quests I mentioned in my last posts without incident, and did some additional pickpocketing. She managed to snatch Sunin's ring of wizardry from invisibility before he went hostile, and Vaya's ogre power gauntlets when the woman walked off, disappointed with being turned down.
At the Seven Suns, she found that when fully buffed, she could hold her own in melee against the Doppelgangers. With Spirit Armor the Doppels needed crits to hit her, while Stoneskin and MI made sure any crits wouldn't do anything.
The Iron Throne battle was particularly satisfactory for Mordica, as she managed to deal with everyone on the top floor without having to lure foes downstairs one at a time.
Mordica arrived invisibly, walked to the backroom, and summoned wand monsters. These were directed toward the Iron Throne gang and back to her, luring two invisible (hostile) Shennaras her way. The male Shennara has invisibility potions, he drank one but Mordica salvaged two more thanks to her paralyzation wand.
She then made liberal use of her abilities to charm people. First Naaman was seduced into joining her cause with Algernon's cloak. Next, Greagan's Harp enticed Diyab.
The Dire Charm on Alai was rather short-lived, but Naaman had another treat in store for his former friend: an Emotion.
Mordica had Naaman cast some buffs on himself, and directed him toward the stairs, where he was duly slain by his former comrades. The Blade used the time to summon new monsters with her wand, and to slay the Doppelganger. She then scouted Aasim, failed to paralyze the cleric, and paid for it with a Flamestrike.
Alai awoke from his slumber but Diyab was won over once more. He occupied a skeleton warrior that he or Aasim had summoned, while Mordica used a greenstone amulet charge for her own protection and arrows of dispelling to debuff Alai.
In retalliation, Mordica cast a Chaos from scroll, confusing both Zhalimar and Aasim, but not Alai. She revealed him with a Detect Invisibility, and finished him in melee.
She let Thaldorn go, reported to Duke Eltan, and traveled to Candlekeep. At the entrance she quaffed a potion of stone form to ensure succesful saves against the Ogre Mages' Charm Person spells, and went inside. She copied three more spells into her book: Minor Sequencer, Vocalize, and Fireshield Blue (nicked from Resar). She picked up a couple of scrolls from the library, got falsely arrested, and relied on MGoI and Knocks to loot the treasure in the catacombs on her way out of confinement.
She got herself into a bit of a fix, when she tried to engage the Greater Basilisks and at the same time shrug off two Phase Spiders. At one point she found herself in a narrow corridor close to the exit, with the Greater Basilisks blocking both sides, and the spiders approaching her. She used her only scroll of Dimension Door to escape.
After that though I decided to take on Bassilus to get his hammer, though I realised that was pushing things a bit. Bassilus was silenced at the start of the fight, but saved against 3 hold persons despite being doomed. By the time Frew's 2 skeletons were dead Bassilus was at near death - though with 61 HPs he still had more than Frew. Three spells were interrupted by bullets or wand magic missiles, taking Bassilus down to 4 HPs. A bullet missed and a magic missile did only 3 damage - and this time Bassilus was not interrupted and a hold person proved fatal (Frew had run out of sight of Bassilus and he didn't follow, but a nearby wolf scented a free lunch).
OK - I'll see if I can make it 3rd time lucky (or at least 3rd time intelligent by avoiding risks
I like the minimal-risk approach of @Blackraven. Damn - when reading your texts it looks like a walk in the park!
And good to see @Arctodus gaining more and more ground in SoA. I never had any doubts that Fighters have the potential to do quite well in this challenge!
With regard to Totemic Druid: Yeah, he will drop off in the long run - even more in a no-reload-run. Too bad! So after quite some hedache i think that there is one class that has very high potential to beat the challenge - beside the Mage classes: Dwarven Fighter/Thief.
- Superb Saves throughout the game
- All kinds of traps that can either instakill opposition or freeze them in time
- Stealth will nearly always make sure to shape the battlefield in his manner
- Warrior APR and THAC0
- Backstabbing/ Assassination will make enemies cry
- Pickpocketing for gold and special items
- The Ability to use ANY item in the game will open up lots of deadly combos
- Traps or Locks are his best friend which means even more Gold and XP
- Very decent damage output at higher levels thanks to GWW
There are two combos that are springing to mind after all the tests with Korgath:
1. Simulacrum + GWW + Chaos Blade
2. Time Stop Trap + GWW + Chaos Blade
This will instakill nearly anything later on - if one can get there!
I want Mordica to be as well-prepared as possible for any trouble that may await her. So we carefully decide on quest order, buy/steal all the items that might even be remotely useful for her, memorize almost exclusively blue (protective) spells while leaving offense to wands and item abilities. We bought the Greenstone Amulet, sold it, and bought it back with 50 charges, and use it preventively in all battles that involve wizards or priests. Thanks to her familiar, Mordica can take a hit or two, but status effects are still major threats even with MSD (which doesn't block AoE spells) or MGoI (which doesn't block level 5 spells like Chaos). Lately Mordica has taken lots of rests. I don't like it but she has only one level 4 slot. She will memorize Stoneskin, cast it, replace Stoneskin with MGoI or Spirit Armor (depending on what lies ahead) as her level 4 spell to memorize, and then rest again. Anything goes as long as it helps Mordica survive.
I intend to visit Durlag's Tower's lower levels, which in itself isn't minimal risk at all what with all the traps and powerful enemies down there, but the goblet has been a life saver for previous contenders in this thread, so it might be for Mordica as well. I've already expressed my apprehension about the Ducal Palace battle for non-casters, but other than that I agree that Dwarven Fighter/Thief looks like one of the stronger classes for the purpose of no-reload. I also agree with @Arctodus that there's no need to have reservations about picking a powerful class. A solo LoB/SCS/Ascension no-reload trilogy success would be groundbreaking with any class.
I wish you both luck and intelligence. My advice: take no chances, no "oops, a Hold Person coming my way and I have no potion of freedom, and the Greenstone Amulet doesn't activate fast enough... hmm I do have that potion of magic blocking but wait, I only need to roll a 3 to save against that Hold spell so nevermind the potion, I'm sure I'll be alri... oh shit..."
Visiting the lower levels of Durlag's Tower didn't fill us with exhileration, but thanks to @Dyara's excellent maps in this thread (priceless for non-Thieves) and the Dudleyville walkthrough, Mordica knew at least how to prepare for the tower's horrors. Warning: the below account contains references to shameless cheesing and metagaming.
At the first level there's only three types of traps that have to be dealt with: fire traps (Fireball or Flamestrike), electricity traps (Lightning Bolt or Call Lightning) and one Dire Charm trap. There are other traps - Skull Trap, Web, Cloudkill, Magic Missile - but those are avoidable. Mordica relied on MGoI and MSD for the fire and lightning traps and spent a charge of the greenstone amulet on the Dire Charm trap. Because of enemies that she didn't want to fight she had to cast invisibility several times, and she also rested several times to refresh her memorized spells. With wand summons, she only fought a bunch of Zombies that blocked her path, and one stray Skeleton Warrior that had followed her into the main room.
When all the riddles were solved, it was time to face the Dwarven Warders. Mordica cast the level 3 spell Protection from Fire twice on her familiar to give it 100% fire resistance, followed by an Invisibility. She then told it to wait for her at the beginning of the short corridor that led to the forge, creating a choke point to a room with no other entry points. The Blade buffed with her standard spells and the greenstone amulet, and made sure she was super hasted (boots plus oil of speed).
She first lured Fear toward the choke point. There was a short scruffle that saw Mordica take the upper hand,
Avarice on the other hand was nasty, with seemingly unlimited Cloudkills and the ability to go invisible at will. Fleeing behind her familiar didn't really work because of the Cloudkills and because Avarice would just go invisible and he would only reveal himself when given the chance to attack. Mordica had her familiar hop back into her pack. In the process she suffered what seemed to be just a few "hits" from Avarice, but enough to remove her last Stoneskin. She rested to get her spells back (especially Stoneskin). She ended up overwhelming her foe with wand summons, and injuring and eventually killing the creature with +2 arrows and with the wand of frost (rather than the wand of fire, to avoid friendly fire).
We only visited the second level for Durlag's goblet. I know that drinking from the goblet causes the imbiber to panic, but scrolls/potions and the greenstone amulet can be used to get protection from fear. If Mordica should make it to Belhifet, she might even choose to give up casting from her book and don the Commander's Chainmail +3 for its protection from fear. She could then still use wands, cast from scrolls, and launch arrows. That would also make saving all green scrolls of protection from magic for use against Belhifet a logical route. (Mordica currently has five and should probably pickpocket Bentan for a sixth.)
Anyway, relying again on Dyara's map and on Dudleyville's instructions, Mordica found the way to the goblet without incident. There's a lot of arrow traps in the dummy room, but Mordica actually managed to bypass them. She did use a few charges of the Sandthief's ring to avoid having to fight the Greater Doppelgangers.
Mordica is currently doing business in Beregost, where she sold a lot of loot to Officer Vai (I think this is thanks to CD Tweaks' Stores Purchase All Item Types component) for double prices. This allowed Mordica to recharge a couple of items (Sandthief's ring, wands, and greenstone amulet even though it still had 30 charges left). The endgame awaits.
- Shoal provided his first levels and tasks around Beregost another cleric level.
- on his way up to get Dushai's ring, helping out Tenya was enough for another fighter level.
- some easy reputation quests and 3 donations at the temple allowed Frew to get CLW.
- Meilum provided not just some bracers, but a 4th cleric level.
- the basilisks pushed levels to 5/5. I had originally intended to leave after that, but as usual got sucked into fighting Kirian. That cost Frew a potion of invulnerability and a scroll of PfM to guarantee safety against her spells.
- skeletons played a major role as Frew picked up further reputation and he moved on to level 6/6 before doing a bit of shopping (his poor charisma meaning prices still seemed exorbitant even at rep 20). During that sequence he did though have to use up his potion of clarity to make sure a charm person Silke sent his way was ineffective.
- skeletons were not up to the Doomsayer yet, but dealt with some sirines nicely while Frew hid in sanctuary (despite them surprisingly being vulnerable to being feeble-minded). They couldn't hit golems, but ran interference after Frew went to buy some magic bullets. The tome for the cave allows Frey to regenerate without the use of DUHM.
- resting in the same area as the battle horrors at Durlag's allowed Frew to wear those down with his skeletons (they heal 100 HPs per rest, but were taking a bit more than that). Ghasts were much easier and so were basilisks - the latter quickly taking Frew up to level 7/7.
- the skeleton upgrade and slightly improved buffs meant a return trip to the Doomsayer didn't last long and the skeletons also made short work of Bassilus to provide Frew with a decent melee weapon (he'd been using a non-proficient magic flail for a while after getting tired of breaking hordes of hammers). The last item of outstanding business was to go in search of Drizzt's weapons. This time another charge of the amulet ensured he wouldn't be doing any charming.
- deciding it was time to crack on with the main quest Frew followed his skeletons through the mine and watched them beat up Mulahey, with a bit of help from a hold person.
- the ankheg nest was cleared before Frew went to the Bandit Camp. I seriously considered fighting everything there, but in the end discretion won out over valour! Frew got a lift there from Raiken and just used sanctuary to loot the main tent before charming Taurgosz and pulling him away to his doom before any support could arrive. The Cloakwood awaits ...
Being feared while wearing fear protection warrant a reload in my opinion, but I know you guys : you might lose interest in your character even if a bug means you die. So, watch out !!
With regard to the Wardens: You do no not have kill them all. At the end its all about Love. Lure the rest away and kill only him to grab the Wardstone and move on to the next level. Thats even safer - but lacks the adrenaline rush of fighting them all.
With regard to Durlags Goblet: I dont know if its a bug in your installation @Arctodus but in all of my runs the fear never ever triggered when immunity was up - regardless being it the Helm, the Chain Mail or Greenstone Amulet. Very strange stuff...