@Victor_Creed_SFV, thanks for the tip! An AC of -20 or -21 sounds amazing. One issue with LoB is that most battles are against large mobs, so even two or three lucky criticals can get my Blade into serious trouble. (I have no crit protection, other than Stoneskin, and I haven't been using Stoneskin much because I only have one level 4 slot which I usually reserve for MGoI.) But you've definitely piqued my interest. Maybe I can set the Spider form up with with all possible buffs, inclding Stoneskin, and some potions. I could also combine this strategy with Webs and Spider Spawn...
Good to see your Blade is still proving strong @Blackraven! After playing SoD a lot it looks pretty manageable today - even for a no reload approach. The real danger is the final part where many things can easily go wrong - and will lead to instadeath. Have you done the Crusaders Attacks before? Or Avernus including Big B? Going in there without detailed knowledge of the battles will most probably prove to be fatal. And even with the knowledge especially Big B is all about perfecting the hit & run rotation. For Braxx i have decided to train the big battles with my older no-reload Braxx - just to get everything right. This wont work perfectly for the Ducal Palace Ambush but it might still help to get Braxx through - if he survives up to this point.
Well the blade can get that and more AC anyway as you probably know, but it's kinda fun to combine it with the 5 attacks especially early in BG1 and SoD where you couldn't get it otherwise. Also you are right web is another cool factor.
The "Blades Dream" would be: Lower Big B´s MR -> Web him and the Demon Army -> Let the fully buffed 5 APR Sword Spider do her biting -> GG! Too bad it only hits as a +1 weapon...
@Victor_Creed_SFV, how can I remove the spider claws? I think it involved cast a spell via a Minor Sequencer no? @Harpagornis, I've never no-reloaded a character up to Boareskyr Bridge; my previous record was with a Cleric/Illusionist who got Dominated by the Neothelid. The farthest I've come in a non-LoB run is the Coalition Camp. I want to try and get Mordica there and then take a break. I still have the Cleric/Illusionist save, I can ctr-y my way to the last stages with it for some testing. You're right that doing otherwise would be asking for trouble.
You can cast via scrolls, too. Idk about Sod tho, in BG1 there is a lot of scrolls available in Baldur's Gate city (20 or 40 I think) you can use either Ghoul touch or Chill touch.
@Harpagornis that is the beauty of it, after the touch spell expires you attack with whatever weapon you have equipped.
Suprisingly the whole Mine was far easier than expected. Up to Davaeorn himself Braxx used stealth to slip through unnoticed and set up the final battle. Right at the start he gulped a Potion of Magic Blocking and triggered all traps unharmed while Davaeorn casted his usual Stinking Cloud + Web Trigger - with no effect!
Braxx parked the Battle Horrors in the side room near the entrance and to his luck Davaeorn also ported in. This meant: While being invisible he waited until all Black Talon Elite Guards had swarmed in and started his Necklace of Missile burning - including the Battle Horrors for 4k XP each!
Once only two of his guards were left Davaeorn started to search for Braxx - without any result. His last guards died to another Fireball so it was time to buff up the protections: Shield Amulet for Magic Missiles, Fire Resistance for his thrown Fireballs and Greenstone Amulet for Horror. From now on Braxx shooted one Arrow after another to wear down his Mirror Image and the double Stonekin. Once they were down it was all about backstabbing him into the ground - thanks to Boots of Speed a very easy job!
With some more loot and level 6/7 reached Braxx will now head for the city of Baldurs Gate - after a rest!
EDIT: Ah, now i got it @Victor_Creed_SFV! Would be sweet IF the whole combo would work against Big B!
Not really sure about Big B, the problem is gonna be buffs running out too soon. Web is not gonna be enough for the demons either and you will still have to rely on restealthing. I played around with an EE keepered blade for a bit and while this is pretty op against fewer enemies, as soon as there is say more than 3 heavy melee hitters they are gonna start critting too often, LoB cheese be cursed. My F/M/C can't even survive against the three hasted greater doppelgangers without healing, -11 AC is a joke vs them they constantly hit 15s and ofc crits on top. I wonder how good this is for kiting tho, 5 apr with a sling are no joke if you have high str. I don't have the patience for kiting I'd rather resort to wand cheesing, I don't like it much but prefer it to kiting, lul.
Damn you guys !! I'm just so jealous of your no-reload games !! Almost makes me want to restart, but I won't ; I'll try to go as far as I can before restarting. I have the feeling I'm almost losing my time, because I don't think a fighter class can defeat Mel. At least, I'm devising strategies for future runs.
Anyway, Caligula made some progress this week and I'll report later tonight.
Damn you guys !! I'm just so jealous of your no-reload games !!
They do have their downsides . I didn't want to try the fighter/cleric again for a while, but had a go yesterday with a shaman I rolled up a long time ago without playing much. I died twice, once very annoyingly when, with 39 HPs at level 4 , I decided that it was safe to travel on the road. Given he was wearing a helmet, that would have been entirely safe under core rules, but the LoB bandits made short work of him . The lack of any option to hide makes this class a bit fiddly, but I'll have another go today and remain resolutely optimistic ...
Shagrat the shaman re-started his adventures in Candlekeep. He cleaned that out thoroughly, including attacking the nobleman upstairs in the inn in order to loot the chest in his room (taking him to near death by sling before switching to fists - reputation loss only triggers at death). For the rats I tested whether the shaman dance could continue while unconscious - unsurprisingly, it can't!
Heading straight for the coast, Shoal got eaten by dancing summons to take Shagrat to level 3. Against most enemies summons take a long time to work, but as Shoal doesn't have a melee weapon equipped the huge bonus that gives makes summons actually quicker than kiting for her. Summons were also quicker than might be expected against the gnolls with Perdue's sword - they use standard halberds, which break fairly regularly so will also lose their melee weapons in long fights.
In Beregost Shagrat killed Algernon for his cloak and put that to use in the surrounding area: - an ogrillon helped kill his friend and some hobgoblins to get Zhurlong's boots (he didn't have long to enjoy their return though as he can be killed without loss of reputation). - Silke was charmed and fought against some spiders. Unfortunately she died from poison as Shagrat's killing shot was in mid-air (she was hasted, so the poison was acting at double-speed, which meant there was a only a small window of opportunity to kill her without her having an opportunity to attack back). Karlat was handled by hiding behind one of the inn pillars and dancing. That can't be done safely without concentrating as small movements can make him switch targets (or he could be confused or scared briefly by the summons) and Shagrat had to switch positions several times before the job was done.
At the Crossroads Shagrat charmed an ogre and wore that down with battles against other things before he finished it off - getting to level 4 as a result. Further north again, killing some fishermen for Tenya provided a nice XP boost on the way to Ulgoth's Beard. Dushai was charmed there (on just the 18th attempt) and taken away from sight of the village to be eaten by summons (he's another without a melee weapon).
Back at the FAI Shagrat had charm person or mammal to throw at the hobgoblins as well as Algernon's Cloak and soon recovered Joia's ring - only to mis-click and send Joia away in a huff. That mistake was immediately compounded when Shagrat charmed a guard to find Tarnesh. The mage killed the guard while Shagrat waited on the doorway of the temple to allow him to make a quick exit when Tarnesh arrived. Somewhat surprisingly he didn't appear, so Shagrat started to move out of the doorway - to find Tarnesh was actually next to him, but apparently there was no line of sight! I reacted pretty quickly to that, but even the tiny movement away from the doorway meant Shagrat couldn't get into the temple before falling into a fatal sleep ...
Damn you guys !! I'm just so jealous of your no-reload games !!
They do have their downsides .
You can say that again. I was gutted when 100% fire resistant Mordica got killed last night by exploding barrels on Boareskyr Bridge, a scripted death due to apparently taking too long in killing the Crusaders' Fire Elemental.
I estimate she had been fighting it for less than a turn.
The scripted death was disappointing (don't like 'em, cheap solutions for plot holes), and the shortage of time disconcerting. I merely had the elemental at 'barely injured'. Should I have interrupted the crusader mage's summoning of the elemental?
Yesterday I was close to giving up on the challenge because I felt I couldn't be bothered with taking another character through BG1 and quite a big part of SoD. Then I realized I have only completed BG1 and parts of SoD with a Thief/Illusionist, a Cleric/Illusionist, and a Blade, always relying heavily on wands. So I was thinking a non-arcane character could still be fun for me.
Do you folks have any suggestions for a nice build that should both be fun to play and survivable enough for a no-reload run? I'm considering Archer (for Called Shot sheninigans), Cleric/Thief (one of my favorite classes, lot of flexibility), or any dive caster but I'm open for other builds.
And does anyone know of any somewhat reliable tactics for non-casters to deal with the Ducal Palace and for slow killers (non-warriors) with the Boareskyr Bridge?
@Grond0, nice to see you try with a Shaman. Interesting class. I hope you can give Shagrat another try.
@Grond0, nice to see you try with a Shaman. Interesting class. I hope you can give Shagrat another try.
I just did. He was going well, having picked up a maximum 20 HPs from Shoal, and had almost got to level 4 in Beregost when he tried charming Silke. She proved resistant and after saving 8 or 9 times my concentration wavered and the next attempt to charm her was cast at Shagrat by mistake - and he didn't save .
Do you folks have any suggestions for a nice build that should both be fun to play and survivable enough for a no-reload run? I'm considering Archer (for Called Shot sheninigans), Cleric/Thief (one of my favorite classes, lot of flexibility), or any dive caster but I'm open for other builds.
The fighter/cleric seemed viable to me - buffed skeletons are competitive against most enemies if you can be bothered to keep doing that. A dwarven defender also has a chance, with decent saving throws as well as the physical resistance. A berserker should be able to make progress, although the 10 round restriction on rage would require careful planning to get round. An archer is an interesting option, though you won't get much benefit from called shot until 12th level so would need to be able to get through SoD using other tactics.
And does anyone know of any somewhat reliable tactics for non-casters to deal with the Ducal Palace
You could try going invisible to stop the dopplegangers attacking. It's unlikely Belt will be able to kill them all, but that can level the odds a bit. If you were an archer then called shot could potentially help there (you can manipulate reputation to get horror as a Bhaal ability and make use of the domination scroll at Ulgoth's Beard). Any class (except wizard slayer) can also improve their chances significantly by using the nymph cloak to charm the Flaming Fist guards (potentially also the courtiers, though I haven't tried that).
@Blackraven, as much as I'd love to see someone take an archer through this challenge (rangers are awesome!), I think you'll have a big problem facing Big B due to the lack of +3 arrows you can get to hit him. Maybe a ranger/cleric for a stealth bonus? Or a cleric/thief would be a great challenge too.
Oh man @Grond0 I really wanted to try shaman for a long time and plain forgot, i might pick one up next to my main run.
@Blackraven The safest classes for BG1 in my personal opinion are Barbarian, DD and any Druid variant, Fighter/Druid dual probably being the strongest as @Harpagornis already proved.
@Grond0 & @Blackraven : sorry you guys... I should have kept my mouth shut : no-reloads usually end in brutal fashion. If I remember correctly, for the Boareskyr Bridge fight, I pelted the mage with a few arrows of biting, lured his goons further down for them to be taken care of by your allies, went invisible and went back to attack the mage one on one. It worked with Caligula.
@Blackraven I don't know if Dwarven Defender would be that viable... Even with his high DR, the damage in LoB with accumulate fast. Plus, the movement speed reduction while under Defensive Stance means no quick exit when things go wrong. And things go wrong all the time in LoB. Also, he's a fighter, thus have to roll the dice in the Ducal Palace. He'd be a monster in ToB, but getting there would not be a piece of cake.
I know cleric/thief is a favorite of yours (I remember one of your solo run that got into ToB a while back) and would love to see you play one again !! Fighter/Druid also seems very strong, because Harm>LoB all the way !!
@Noobacca I know there's a few +3 arrows in the game, but, when your run out, you can hit-and-run with a melee +3 weapon. If @Harpagornis could hit-and-run with a thief, the archer will have a better thac0 anyway. A lot of people seem to over exagerate the difference between 1 pip and 2 pips in a weapon proficiency. For hit-and-run, high APR doesn't matter and the thac0 difference wouldn't be significative. I view the archer as one of the strongest figther class to tackle this challenge. Best at kiting, Called shot shenanigans later in the game, 5 APR with Tuigan at the start of SoA, 3 APR in melee with haste and dual-wield, 4 at level 13 (without speed weapons) when melee is required. Must use potion of defense for when melee is necessary to have good AC, though. Not too shabby, all in all.
Hm, the shaman is a beast in BG1, probably the best class, but much less good in SoD, due to the smarter Ai making cheesy out of sight casting impossible. Since the animals have longr sight range than the caster in BG1 you can simply let your unlimited summons do pretty much any fight, ofc you could always start off an encounter with your spells. :d In SoD Only entangle doesn't aggro any kind of damage spell aggroes and ofc if your animal aggroes the enemies also become aware of your presence. Since you barely don't get Harm in SoD with the shaman it isn't more viable than any other non druid class.
It's not just the difference in AI between BG1 and SoD, but also LoB that's the problem for the shaman. In standard BG1 pretty much any enemy can be killed by running them around in Writhing Fog, but the higher HPs and large group sizes of enemies (many of them with special attacks) mean that spell is of very little use in LoB SoD.
It's not just the difference in AI between BG1 and SoD, but also LoB that's the problem for the shaman. In standard BG1 pretty much any enemy can be killed by running them around in Writhing Fog, but the higher HPs and large group sizes of enemies (many of them with special attacks) mean that spell is of very little use in LoB SoD.
With regard to Ducal Palace for Non-Casters. My most reliable tactic that worked most of the time with Warrior classses so far: Charm as many Guards you can to get max numbers and better control for focus fire. Right at the start i usually retreat a bit to make sure the Assassin will not backstab you - or go invisible/stealth if you want it to play it supersafe. Now everyone gets Dispelled with Arrows. Next i concentrate on anyone attacking the Dukes switching between Acid Arrows and/or quick dual wielding melee attacks (or backstabs). Once the Dukes are no more in danger of getting overwhelmed quickly i start pressing the Mage as he is really nasty thanks to his AoE Damage and CC. Normally i wont get a chance to kill him but he will waste most of his big spells on you. Once the Fireballs, Chaos and Remove Magic (rebuff!) have been cast i switch back to the other Dopplegangers and take them out one after another - with the Mage being the last as he is no big threat without his spells. Main problem in this fight is always the nearly random targeting of the Dopplegangers. If they choose to focus on the Dukes there is nearly no way to stop them unless you can position the charmed guards perfectly...
With regard to Boareskyr Bridge: Strange that this fight seems to be a problem cause there is an easy way to beat it without any risk. After running to the guards in front of the barrels i immediately move backwards and wait until all of them have scattered. Yes, the Mage is trynig to control his Fire Elemental in between but there is no time for hurry as this takes several rounds. Once the guards wandered away i ran back to the barrels and start attacking the Fire Elemental only. Ignore the Mage as he will also move out without casting any spells at you. I always position myself at max range and start shooting the Elemental - which is always getting confused cause on the one hand it wants to attack you and on the other hand it wants to burn the barrels. If you relentlessly continue shooting it will get trapped between running for and back - until it goes down without touching anything. This tactic has worked 100% in all of my runs so i am quite confident for this one - if i will ever get this far!
@Blackraven: Too bad your Blade died there - hope you will restart soon! Cleric/Thief would be my favourite!
For Mordica, her pight warranted a sip from Durlag's Goblet, although this meant that she was going to have to keep her Greenstone Amulet active in order not to panic.
The mention of Greenstone Amulet made me realize that neothelid can sense through it, even though it blocks ESP per description. It was supposed be possible to deal with the creature by luring it away and losing (e.g. distracting with summons) and staying protected from ESP (so it can't teleport to you) for a couple turns until it finally calms down. But atm only clerics/paladins have the spells necessary to pull off the trick.
Should this be fixed? It's a very minor issue and I don't really expect anyone to be concerned beside the solo challengers - having been one myself, I know I'd be skeptical about reducing the challenge, even if it was due to oversight and not original intent.
The scripted death was disappointing (don't like 'em, cheap solutions for plot holes), and the shortage of time disconcerting. I merely had the elemental at 'barely injured'. Should I have interrupted the crusader mage's summoning of the elemental?
I didn't like it either for the same reason, but by the time I had an idea how to make the encounter feel more seamless, we've been way past the point of doing any content changes. I'll probably donate it as a component for SCS... someday...
Blasting the mage with level 4+ AoE (e.g. Ice Storm) should be enough to interrupt her, yes.
Has any of you guys ever tried staff of striking on Belhifet? It also works with spider forms 5 apr and after his 25% crush resist it still should end up doing 375 damage with all 25 charges. How high is Belhifets HP on LoB?
@Harpagornis, the Bridge tactic sounds smart. You probably took longer than you were supposed to as well, with ranged attacks, but in luring the elemental some distance away from the barrels it didn't make them explode. @Ardanis, thank you very much for your clarification. I really appreciate that.
The mention of Greenstone Amulet made me realize that neothelid can sense through it, even though it blocks ESP per description. It was supposed be possible to deal with the creature by luring it away and losing (e.g. distracting with summons) and staying protected from ESP (so it can't teleport to you) for a couple turns until it finally calms down. But atm only clerics/paladins have the spells necessary to pull off the trick.
Should this be fixed? It's a very minor issue and I don't really expect anyone to be concerned beside the solo challengers - having been one myself, I know I'd be skeptical about reducing the challenge, even if it was due to oversight and not original intent.
While I do like item descriptions to correspond with the game's behavior, I agree that fixing this doesn't have to be a priority. I for one never even thought of using the Greenstone Amulet to neutralize enemy ESP. Does it also work against Ankhegs? And what about demons? Does invisibility + Greenstone Amulet mean that demons won't attack?
I didn't like it either for the same reason, but by the time I had an idea how to make the encounter feel more seamless, we've been way past the point of doing any content changes. I'll probably donate it as a component for SCS... someday...
Blasting the mage with level 4+ AoE (e.g. Ice Storm) should be enough to interrupt her, yes.
I'm curious as to what you came up with as a solution, and would probably really like seeing it as an SCS component. I understand that time constraints can be an issue, and please note that I do really like SoD (the feel, the characters, new items, and combat too). Thanks for the tip, I could have easily interrupted the mage...
Has any of you guys ever tried staff of striking on Belhifet? It also works with spider forms 5 apr and after his 25% crush resist it still should end up doing 375 damage with all 25 charges. How high is Belhifets HP on LoB?
Has any of you guys ever tried staff of striking on Belhifet? It also works with spider forms 5 apr and after his 25% crush resist it still should end up doing 375 damage with all 25 charges. How high is Belhifets HP on LoB?
1130 HPs
Hahahahhahahahahahahaha Goes in a corner and cries silently.
Shagrat has been on the rampage again, though 'rampage' is not really the right word. He twice nearly died in archer ambushes - despite keeping off the main roads to avoid the bandit ambushes - and also had to save against a sleep spell from an ambushing ogre mage. He also pushed his luck at the basilisk area by taking on Kirian's mob. A PfM scroll there allowed him to survive an acid arrow before he stumbled into something I had been aware of, but didn't do deliberately - Shar-Teel is coded to be unkillable prior to undertaking her challenge and thus makes a superb charmed attacker to soak up Baerin's arrows.
With him approaching level 8 he finally met his doom though - effectively killed by his own summons. He was at Durlag's Tower in the process of killing all the ghasts by a mixture of kiting and spirit summons. With a bit of space to play with he tried dancing, but by the time a bear appeared a ghast was already too close to Shagrat to be diverted and attacked him. That sort of thing is very common, so Shagrat tried to run away - only to find that the bear was blocking his escape route from the ghast. Normally when you stop dancing summons disappear straight away, but occasionally they linger for a few seconds and that proved fatal in this case. Shagrat was wearing a ring of free action, but there's a cooldown period after dancing which meant he couldn't take a potion of invisibility to avoid the attacks and he died before the bear disappeared.
That was quite fun while it lasted, so I think I'll give him one more go.
Shagrat was wearing a ring of free action, but there's a cooldown period after dancing which meant he couldn't take a potion of invisibility to avoid the attacks and he died before the bear disappeared.
You can still drink from inventory. It's either an oversight or an engine limitation (I'm betting on the latter). M'Khiin's survival rate has rose dramatically ever since I realized this myself.
It's also worth noting that while dancing breaks invisiblity, it does not break Sanctuary. The drawback is that your spirits won't attack until the sanctuary breaks.
You can still drink from inventory. It's either an oversight or an engine limitation (I'm betting on the latter). M'Khiin's survival rate has rose dramatically ever since I realized this myself.
It's also worth noting that while dancing breaks invisiblity, it does not break Sanctuary. The drawback is that your spirits won't attack until the sanctuary breaks.
Thanks for the info @Artemius_I. I've checked that Shagrat can use a potion from inventory, which would certainly help in a similar situation in future . I'm not quite sure about your reference to Sanctuary though. That's not a standard spell available to shamans - does M'Khiin get that as a special ability? If it were available it would indeed give an absolutely huge power boost to a solo shaman .
You can still drink from inventory. It's either an oversight or an engine limitation (I'm betting on the latter). M'Khiin's survival rate has rose dramatically ever since I realized this myself.
It's also worth noting that while dancing breaks invisiblity, it does not break Sanctuary. The drawback is that your spirits won't attack until the sanctuary breaks.
Thanks for the info @Artemius_I. I've checked that Shagrat can use a potion from inventory, which would certainly help in a similar situation in future . I'm not quite sure about your reference to Sanctuary though. That's not a standard spell available to shamans - does M'Khiin get that as a special ability? If it were available it would indeed give a absolutely huge power boost to a solo shaman .
It's late and my brain isn't working right (and I'm cooling off from my own LoB+SCS game). Some mod (I believe Tweaks) adds Sanctuary to druid spellbooks in my game. Not that it would help M'Khiin either way since her level 1 spells are set. There is one item added by Rogue Rebalancing which can cast Sanctuary though.
It's not that useful if you're soloing anyway. As I said, the summons won't fight back because their AI only seems to function if they can see their summoner, so it's more useful in a party where your other party members can make use of them as walls. In solo they just... die. Kind of slowly.
Comments
One issue with LoB is that most battles are against large mobs, so even two or three lucky criticals can get my Blade into serious trouble. (I have no crit protection, other than Stoneskin, and I haven't been using Stoneskin much because I only have one level 4 slot which I usually reserve for MGoI.)
But you've definitely piqued my interest. Maybe I can set the Spider form up with with all possible buffs, inclding Stoneskin, and some potions. I could also combine this strategy with Webs and Spider Spawn...
Also you are right web is another cool factor.
@Harpagornis, I've never no-reloaded a character up to Boareskyr Bridge; my previous record was with a Cleric/Illusionist who got Dominated by the Neothelid. The farthest I've come in a non-LoB run is the Coalition Camp. I want to try and get Mordica there and then take a break. I still have the Cleric/Illusionist save, I can ctr-y my way to the last stages with it for some testing. You're right that doing otherwise would be asking for trouble.
Idk about Sod tho, in BG1 there is a lot of scrolls available in Baldur's Gate city (20 or 40 I think) you can use either Ghoul touch or Chill touch.
@Harpagornis that is the beauty of it, after the touch spell expires you attack with whatever weapon you have equipped.
Suprisingly the whole Mine was far easier than expected. Up to Davaeorn himself Braxx used stealth to slip through unnoticed and set up the final battle. Right at the start he gulped a Potion of Magic Blocking and triggered all traps unharmed while Davaeorn casted his usual Stinking Cloud + Web Trigger - with no effect!
Braxx parked the Battle Horrors in the side room near the entrance and to his luck Davaeorn also ported in. This meant: While being invisible he waited until all Black Talon Elite Guards had swarmed in and started his Necklace of Missile burning - including the Battle Horrors for 4k XP each!
Once only two of his guards were left Davaeorn started to search for Braxx - without any result. His last guards died to another Fireball so it was time to buff up the protections: Shield Amulet for Magic Missiles, Fire Resistance for his thrown Fireballs and Greenstone Amulet for Horror. From now on Braxx shooted one Arrow after another to wear down his Mirror Image and the double Stonekin. Once they were down it was all about backstabbing him into the ground - thanks to Boots of Speed a very easy job!
With some more loot and level 6/7 reached Braxx will now head for the city of Baldurs Gate - after a rest!
EDIT: Ah, now i got it @Victor_Creed_SFV! Would be sweet IF the whole combo would work against Big B!
Web is not gonna be enough for the demons either and you will still have to rely on restealthing.
I played around with an EE keepered blade for a bit and while this is pretty op against fewer enemies, as soon as there is say more than 3 heavy melee hitters they are gonna start critting too often, LoB cheese be cursed.
My F/M/C can't even survive against the three hasted greater doppelgangers without healing, -11 AC is a joke vs them they constantly hit 15s and ofc crits on top.
I wonder how good this is for kiting tho, 5 apr with a sling are no joke if you have high str.
I don't have the patience for kiting I'd rather resort to wand cheesing, I don't like it much but prefer it to kiting, lul.
Anyway, Caligula made some progress this week and I'll report later tonight.
Shagrat the shaman re-started his adventures in Candlekeep. He cleaned that out thoroughly, including attacking the nobleman upstairs in the inn in order to loot the chest in his room (taking him to near death by sling before switching to fists - reputation loss only triggers at death). For the rats I tested whether the shaman dance could continue while unconscious - unsurprisingly, it can't!
Heading straight for the coast, Shoal got eaten by dancing summons to take Shagrat to level 3. Against most enemies summons take a long time to work, but as Shoal doesn't have a melee weapon equipped the huge bonus that gives makes summons actually quicker than kiting for her. Summons were also quicker than might be expected against the gnolls with Perdue's sword - they use standard halberds, which break fairly regularly so will also lose their melee weapons in long fights.
In Beregost Shagrat killed Algernon for his cloak and put that to use in the surrounding area:
- an ogrillon helped kill his friend and some hobgoblins to get Zhurlong's boots (he didn't have long to enjoy their return though as he can be killed without loss of reputation).
- Silke was charmed and fought against some spiders. Unfortunately she died from poison as Shagrat's killing shot was in mid-air (she was hasted, so the poison was acting at double-speed, which meant there was a only a small window of opportunity to kill her without her having an opportunity to attack back).
Karlat was handled by hiding behind one of the inn pillars and dancing. That can't be done safely without concentrating as small movements can make him switch targets (or he could be confused or scared briefly by the summons) and Shagrat had to switch positions several times before the job was done.
At the Crossroads Shagrat charmed an ogre and wore that down with battles against other things before he finished it off - getting to level 4 as a result. Further north again, killing some fishermen for Tenya provided a nice XP boost on the way to Ulgoth's Beard. Dushai was charmed there (on just the 18th attempt) and taken away from sight of the village to be eaten by summons (he's another without a melee weapon).
Back at the FAI Shagrat had charm person or mammal to throw at the hobgoblins as well as Algernon's Cloak and soon recovered Joia's ring - only to mis-click and send Joia away in a huff. That mistake was immediately compounded when Shagrat charmed a guard to find Tarnesh. The mage killed the guard while Shagrat waited on the doorway of the temple to allow him to make a quick exit when Tarnesh arrived. Somewhat surprisingly he didn't appear, so Shagrat started to move out of the doorway - to find Tarnesh was actually next to him, but apparently there was no line of sight! I reacted pretty quickly to that, but even the tiny movement away from the doorway meant Shagrat couldn't get into the temple before falling into a fatal sleep ...
The scripted death was disappointing (don't like 'em, cheap solutions for plot holes), and the shortage of time disconcerting. I merely had the elemental at 'barely injured'. Should I have interrupted the crusader mage's summoning of the elemental?
Yesterday I was close to giving up on the challenge because I felt I couldn't be bothered with taking another character through BG1 and quite a big part of SoD. Then I realized I have only completed BG1 and parts of SoD with a Thief/Illusionist, a Cleric/Illusionist, and a Blade, always relying heavily on wands. So I was thinking a non-arcane character could still be fun for me.
Do you folks have any suggestions for a nice build that should both be fun to play and survivable enough for a no-reload run? I'm considering Archer (for Called Shot sheninigans), Cleric/Thief (one of my favorite classes, lot of flexibility), or any dive caster but I'm open for other builds.
And does anyone know of any somewhat reliable tactics for non-casters to deal with the Ducal Palace and for slow killers (non-warriors) with the Boareskyr Bridge?
@Grond0, nice to see you try with a Shaman. Interesting class. I hope you can give Shagrat another try.
The fighter/cleric seemed viable to me - buffed skeletons are competitive against most enemies if you can be bothered to keep doing that. A dwarven defender also has a chance, with decent saving throws as well as the physical resistance. A berserker should be able to make progress, although the 10 round restriction on rage would require careful planning to get round. An archer is an interesting option, though you won't get much benefit from called shot until 12th level so would need to be able to get through SoD using other tactics.
You could try going invisible to stop the dopplegangers attacking. It's unlikely Belt will be able to kill them all, but that can level the odds a bit. If you were an archer then called shot could potentially help there (you can manipulate reputation to get horror as a Bhaal ability and make use of the domination scroll at Ulgoth's Beard). Any class (except wizard slayer) can also improve their chances significantly by using the nymph cloak to charm the Flaming Fist guards (potentially also the courtiers, though I haven't tried that).
@Blackraven
The safest classes for BG1 in my personal opinion are Barbarian, DD and any Druid variant, Fighter/Druid dual probably being the strongest as @Harpagornis already proved.
@Blackraven I don't know if Dwarven Defender would be that viable... Even with his high DR, the damage in LoB with accumulate fast. Plus, the movement speed reduction while under Defensive Stance means no quick exit when things go wrong. And things go wrong all the time in LoB.
I know cleric/thief is a favorite of yours (I remember one of your solo run that got into ToB a while back) and would love to see you play one again !! Fighter/Druid also seems very strong, because Harm>LoB all the way !!
Since the animals have longr sight range than the caster in BG1 you can simply let your unlimited summons do pretty much any fight, ofc you could always start off an encounter with your spells. :d
In SoD Only entangle doesn't aggro any kind of damage spell aggroes and ofc if your animal aggroes the enemies also become aware of your presence.
Since you barely don't get Harm in SoD with the shaman it isn't more viable than any other non druid class.
With regard to Ducal Palace for Non-Casters. My most reliable tactic that worked most of the time with Warrior classses so far: Charm as many Guards you can to get max numbers and better control for focus fire. Right at the start i usually retreat a bit to make sure the Assassin will not backstab you - or go invisible/stealth if you want it to play it supersafe. Now everyone gets Dispelled with Arrows. Next i concentrate on anyone attacking the Dukes switching between Acid Arrows and/or quick dual wielding melee attacks (or backstabs). Once the Dukes are no more in danger of getting overwhelmed quickly i start pressing the Mage as he is really nasty thanks to his AoE Damage and CC. Normally i wont get a chance to kill him but he will waste most of his big spells on you. Once the Fireballs, Chaos and Remove Magic (rebuff!) have been cast i switch back to the other Dopplegangers and take them out one after another - with the Mage being the last as he is no big threat without his spells. Main problem in this fight is always the nearly random targeting of the Dopplegangers. If they choose to focus on the Dukes there is nearly no way to stop them unless you can position the charmed guards perfectly...
With regard to Boareskyr Bridge: Strange that this fight seems to be a problem cause there is an easy way to beat it without any risk. After running to the guards in front of the barrels i immediately move backwards and wait until all of them have scattered. Yes, the Mage is trynig to control his Fire Elemental in between but there is no time for hurry as this takes several rounds. Once the guards wandered away i ran back to the barrels and start attacking the Fire Elemental only. Ignore the Mage as he will also move out without casting any spells at you. I always position myself at max range and start shooting the Elemental - which is always getting confused cause on the one hand it wants to attack you and on the other hand it wants to burn the barrels. If you relentlessly continue shooting it will get trapped between running for and back - until it goes down without touching anything. This tactic has worked 100% in all of my runs so i am quite confident for this one - if i will ever get this far!
@Blackraven: Too bad your Blade died there - hope you will restart soon! Cleric/Thief would be my favourite!
Should this be fixed? It's a very minor issue and I don't really expect anyone to be concerned beside the solo challengers - having been one myself, I know I'd be skeptical about reducing the challenge, even if it was due to oversight and not original intent. I didn't like it either for the same reason, but by the time I had an idea how to make the encounter feel more seamless, we've been way past the point of doing any content changes. I'll probably donate it as a component for SCS... someday...
Blasting the mage with level 4+ AoE (e.g. Ice Storm) should be enough to interrupt her, yes.
It also works with spider forms 5 apr and after his 25% crush resist it still should end up doing 375 damage with all 25 charges.
How high is Belhifets HP on LoB?
@Ardanis, thank you very much for your clarification. I really appreciate that. While I do like item descriptions to correspond with the game's behavior, I agree that fixing this doesn't have to be a priority. I for one never even thought of using the Greenstone Amulet to neutralize enemy ESP. Does it also work against Ankhegs? And what about demons? Does invisibility + Greenstone Amulet mean that demons won't attack? I'm curious as to what you came up with as a solution, and would probably really like seeing it as an SCS component. I understand that time constraints can be an issue, and please note that I do really like SoD (the feel, the characters, new items, and combat too).
Thanks for the tip, I could have easily interrupted the mage...
1130 HPs
Goes in a corner and cries silently.
With him approaching level 8 he finally met his doom though - effectively killed by his own summons. He was at Durlag's Tower in the process of killing all the ghasts by a mixture of kiting and spirit summons. With a bit of space to play with he tried dancing, but by the time a bear appeared a ghast was already too close to Shagrat to be diverted and attacked him. That sort of thing is very common, so Shagrat tried to run away - only to find that the bear was blocking his escape route from the ghast. Normally when you stop dancing summons disappear straight away, but occasionally they linger for a few seconds and that proved fatal in this case. Shagrat was wearing a ring of free action, but there's a cooldown period after dancing which meant he couldn't take a potion of invisibility to avoid the attacks and he died before the bear disappeared.
That was quite fun while it lasted, so I think I'll give him one more go.
It's also worth noting that while dancing breaks invisiblity, it does not break Sanctuary. The drawback is that your spirits won't attack until the sanctuary breaks.It's not that useful if you're soloing anyway. As I said, the summons won't fight back because their AI only seems to function if they can see their summoner, so it's more useful in a party where your other party members can make use of them as walls. In solo they just... die. Kind of slowly.