@Blackraven Sorry to say so, but the Staff of the Ram doesn't work on Mel. Since big creatures are immune to the knockback of the SotR, it seems that Mel was coded as a big creature herself (her sprite is actually quite intimidating). The stun from the SotR also seems tied to the knockback effect, since big creatures are immune to it. The axe is the only way to have a chance at stunlocking Mel ; I tested it and it works. I'll really need a ton of luck though, because, with her resistance, I can only deal pityful damage to her, about 4hp per hit. I'll need something like 20 rounds of stun to take her out... Even with perfect execution, I doubt I'll be able to take her out.
It seems that stunlocking Mel is the only real way of dealing with her on LoB. I sure as hell can't find any other way to deal with her with a pure fighter...
- As foreseen in my last post, Oaen's hunger for XP brought him to Durlag's Tower. He took on the battle horrors with his wand of fire, several times actually...
I had more game crashes. Uninstalled a few mods and re-installed several others, but the cause appeared to be the line that I had added in the LUA file for extra combat info. I only realized because sometimes the combat log would go blank (without any text, be it combat info, dialogue etc.). Removed the line from the LUA file and everything seems to be working again.
- With all his level 1 spell slots dedicated to memorizations of PfPetrification, Durlag's basilisks were no trouble for Oaen. At Fighter level 6 I placed a second pip in Two-Handed Weapon Style, conform my original plan to have Oaen as a strict two-handed fighter. Not much later the powergamer in me told me that it would be unwise not to dual-wield as a Fighter/Mage, so will slowly build toward that. Will probably aim for * Axes (main weapon for SoA with Azuredge, Frostreaver, Stonefire, later K'logarath and Unyielding, maybe the Stormcharged Axe), * TWF, ** TWF, ** Axes, * Hammers, ** Hammers (late SoA / ToB with Crom Faeyr as main weapon). Oaen has Vhailor's voice, so it will be nice to have interjections like "I am your fate, and fate carries an executioner's axe" make sense. Also these are weapons I haven't used much unlike FoA for example. He can always use other weapons without proficiency, for their special abilities mainly. Do you folks think this makes sense? Of course it's super premature to talk about these things, but it's also fun And I've decided to refuse to believe in the notion that discussing these things is tempting fate.
- Meilum fell after he was Blinded. Thanks to the extended reach of his greatsword, Oaen could hit his foe without getting hit back. - The Nashkel Mines were conquered with difficulty. Oaen chose to retreat once, luring several kobolds and skellies outside. He rested, and when he returned, about half of Mulahey's minions were still around. Oaen paralyzed and Blinded the priest out of sight of the minions, dealt with the minions from behind his invisible familiar, Held Mulahey and finished him. - After leaving the mines Oaen looted the tombs under free action. He fought neither the undead nor Nimbul back in Nashkel. - Took on Bassilus. Blinded him twice, but Bassilus had (at least) two castings of Cure Disease. Oaen used the wand of monster summoning to keep the priest busy, and pelted him with bolts of lightning from afar. Dealt with Zargal & co while we were there as well. - Skipped Molkar because Oaen was out of spells from the Bassilus fight. - Dire Charmed Convinced Algernon to try and pacify Tranzig, but this only prompted the wizard to take out his anger on the poor merchant.
Oaen avenged his fallen friend with the Army Scythe and with fire from his wand. - Did the Cloudpeaks battles and dealt with Lamalha & Co, relying mainly on Blindness, wands of paralyzation and monster summoning. - Same with Kirian's party, after having separated its members first. - Killed the ghasts at Durlag's Tower's upper levels. One dicey moment when invisible familiar didn't properly block two ghasts. Oaen used his sword's rage ability, an oil of speed, a strength potion and wand summons to prevail. - Slew 12 ankhegs with the assistance of summoned aides. Reached Mage lvl 7. - Same with 5 Sirines (and greenstone or sword immunities). Reached Fighter lvl 7. - Thalantyr melted two rings of protection +1 into a ring of protection +2 for 4k GP, two pearls and a diamond. - Blinded and paralyzed Silke, then shot her down.
- Infiltrated Bandit Camp via Teven and had a bit of a hard time in Tazok's tent: had to heal up twice during the battle. Oaen didn't use too many buffs (only Ghost Armor, a Mirror Image and greenstone mind shield), because Venkt would remove them anyway. Made himself visible with monster summoning, and enraged when Venkt removed buffs. That was a good decision because a Horror was on its way just when Oaen enraged. (Enraging first would have been even better haha.) With no armor buff, he got hit a few times, so went invisble to heal and improve AC with a potion of defense. Came back quite strong with a Malison, followed by an Emotion and paralyzation of Venkt.
Even with most bandits down, the few who were still standing were enough to keep him from expeditiously dispatching Venkt and Britik. He managed with the former, before the paralyzation wore off, but Britik and the other bandits that had been put to sleep, survived their helpless situation. Oaen Blinded Britik, and used wand scorchers to deal with the archers.
Britik was the last to fall. Oaen went invisible and left the camp without bothering with Taugosz and the other bandits outside.
Agreed @Arctodus! Stunlock is the only way for a Fighter to win this last battle - as it is for Bounty Hunters aka Korgath. But Thieves on the other hand have much more utility as they can use anything thanks to the HLA. If the "bring everyone to nearly dead and only then start the killing" does not work everything else will most probably be obsolete cause you just cannot afford to give Mel all the time in the world to start her endless gating and multiple Time Stop madness. This means: Taking out Sendai with PfM will be nearly essential as she will otherwise heal everyone up again in no time.
I am also absolutely sure that there are more than only two Scrolls of PfM. Korgath for instance had three of them in his pockets while he had used one of them before against the Unseeing Eye. Just dont ask where exactly he found them - was it random loot from some bosses? Cant remember it! But this would also mean that using the PfM against Sendai and/or Abazigal would be in reach for Caligula.
EDIT: I tested it with Su´kka and it looks possible to kite them down one after another. But after starting the killing it still seems nearly impossible to trigger them perfectly so Mel will get stunned cause of their deaths again and again. What she did in my tries so far: She immediately summoned Devas and shortly after Balors and Babatus. Both demons also have the ability to gate in more demons. Even better: The Balor summoned a Balor which summoned another pack of demons - like a snowball effect. With other words: Su´kka was running for her life until Mel used the chaos to throw in another Time Stop - Game Over! Very funny fight - maybe there is a realistic chance with the Stormcharged Axe even though luck must be on your side - for a very long time!
@Harpagornis To make sure the timing of killing the Five can be perfectly executed, I think I will write down how much hp each of the Five got and calculate how much damage I deal to them after every hit, so I can get them really, really close to death. Then, after stat-draining Yaga-Shura, I'll have to kill them in quick succession, aka in less than a round, so I can jump on Mel right away. Then, hope stunlock sticks. I think I will chose the Smite HLA, because it's a free one-shot stun that can bail you out, well only once, but that's better than nothing.
More than two scrolls of PfM ? Good god, I hope I find another one, because, otherwise, I don't know how I will deal will Abazigal. It's very good news, actually.
Another thing for all you guys : for this challenge, do not feel cheap if you powergame !! The chances of completing a SCS LoB no-reload are so slim, that use whatever the hell you can to progress !! Even though I most probably will have a go at it after I'm done with Caligula, I feel that it's a tad of an impossible task to do...
Best bet for doing this with a solo warrior: 1) be sure to have a decent charisma/intelligence (you'll be dispelled as you enter the area, so don't rely on potions 2) converse with Venduris, and turn into the Slayer
Now you can choose to kill him ("give to your rage"). Doing that gets rid of him, while the others will attack you. Nobody will leave the area. Altough, this battle can be very tricky even w/o Venduris. Sorceress I think has Maze scrolls. The f/m/t will use Mislead and the image will go to the trapped area (best bet is dispel arrow at the image; otherwise he'll backstab you constantly for the duration). Grok is a huge PITA to get rid of. He hits like a truck, and has a lot of HP + damage resistance. Flail of Ages will do wonders against him however...
I should have been more precise: Spider's Bane negates the doubled movement speed of the boots of speed in my current install.
That indeed it does. But Boots don't really haste you (they do in BG1 and non-fixpacked BG2 however). They double the movement speed, which ring both prevents and reverses. BoS are probably the trickiest item in the game to balance out. When I play w/o Revisions, I revert them to how they worked in BG1 - they haste the user.
@Harpagornis To make sure the timing of killing the Five can be perfectly executed, I think I will write down how much hp each of the Five got and calculate how much damage I deal to them after every hit, so I can get them really, really close to death.
@Arctodus I used to do exact calculations when I was playing a melee sorcerer who could only ever kill things by melee attacks. However, it's quicker and easier to use ctrl+M to give you the exact current HPs of the creature the mouse is over.
I rolled a DD for BG1 and got him to level 7 in a day. I also got all three belts including Golden Girdle (charmed Kirian on the third try). What's really fun about DD in BG1 is the fact that "random" enemies like Hobgoblins, Kobolds and so forth don't feel any different with LoB than they did with insane, you can just facetank them, something that's not possible with my F/M/T unless I buff myself. Even Ankhegs can be facetanked with Belt of bluntness and Def Stance. With Belt + potion of anti crush I did the same as the druid and tanked the flesh golems, it was just a lot quicker due to me having 2/1/2 apr (Drizzts scis), so even after I killed all Sirines outside the potion was still active. With level 7 the DD now even has 3 apr -5 is base AC but this becomes a lot more in BG city, due to the DD having only 17 Dex, with the tome of Dex, ring +2, Balduran's Helm and Cloak this would go up to -9. With the respective items and armor bonuses from full plate it would be -16 vs slash, -12 crush (-22 with potion) and a whopping -17 vs missiles if you use boots and belt.
I really like the DD due to his insane saves which are probably most notable in BG1, since every class has pretty bad saves (druid comes closest due to being level 10 but is still lower especially vs spell by 3 points) but DD will have the same tough time vs Belhifet as everyone else, except Druid.
I think the conclusion of Druid being the best class will not really change because of Harm in BG1 and even in BG2 no caster class is really "better" than the druid in my opinion. Only bad part about druid is dual classing, but since SoA is by far the easiest BG game that is not that big of a deal I think.
I think I'm gonna stop wasting my time with creating new chars, finish BG1 with my F/M/C and then focus on my Totemic.
Droolit grabbed the tomes from Candlekeep and then moved on to taking the last tome from Ramaziths thanks to the newly aquired 19 ST. Because of 21 WIS she now also has 3 level 5 spells and thanks to 9 Int can finally cast protection scrolls.
Did Diarmid become unkillable? I found a nice way of getting him stuck with my dogees and nymphes, but after he dropped to near death quickly he never died and after he outlasted my summons ran outside where interestingly enough he stayed after I went after him. Since he still seemed unillable I left him there, maybe he is bugged now and will never make it to the final fight.
Good old Korgath moved on a bit – slow but like an unstoppable avalanche!
Killed all basilisks with the help of Korax while hacking them down with double Scimitars. Mutamin got paralyzed right at the beginning and went down faster than usual. After everything was done Korgath parked Korax not far away from Kirian and managed to charm the Mage out of stealth on the very first try. Once she was moved to Korax the Ghoul easily stunlocked her and they took down the helpless Mage swiftly. With another belt in his pocket Korgath moved out - job done!
Before going for Mulahey Korgath grabbed another invissibility potion from the Nashkel Carnival, bought the Shadow Armor, Greenstone Amulet and the Displacer Cloak. With everything ready he started to sneak through the Mines while also grabbing Josephs Ring – this time without getting caught before reaching Mulahey!
Korgath charmed Mulahey on his second try (resting is safe here) and let him waste his most dangerous spells (Hold Person + Unholy Blight). Only then he started the fight with a mighty 102 damage backstab and managed to stealth immediately before Mulahey turned hostile. Another 36 damage backstab followed before his guards rushed in and Korgath gulped a Invisibility Potion. He waited until everyone had moved around Mulahey before starting his usual Necklace of Missiles burning. After nine shots the nearly dead Mulahey started to search for Korgath who managed to snipe the evil priest down with a 13 damage hit from his Composite Longbow +1. The remaining Kobolds proved to be no challenge so Korgath grabbed all the loot and sneaked out again.
Once outside of the mines he helped Henthold to get rid of the Revenant by peacening him with the dagger. With some more xp and another invisibility potion Korgath moved back to Nashkel. There he took Josephs Ring back to his family and got a reward from Berrun Ghastkill who was very pleased about the death of Mulahey.
After arriving in Beregost Korgath charmed Tranzig on his third try and let him waste all of his spells on his summons before killing the helpless mage with some backstabs. It wont get easier no? Not to forget: Level 5/6 reached.
Korgath made some progress and met big bad Drasus again - but read by yourself:
The Bandit Camp was short and simple - Korgath moved in and out unseen while grabbing the documents. He then charmed Taurgosz Khosann and wanted to lure the enemies out one by one. This failed completly as this time Venkt, Hakt and three Elite Guards jumped out at the same time. Lurking in the shadows Korgath had to watch how Taurgosz died to the Chromatic Orb from Venkt one more time. He grabed his items and retreated unseen...
On his way through the Cloakwood Korgath used his superior stealth to sneak through the woods unseen. His one and only target: Drasus and his party! It was more than enough time to gave them a good beating expecially as they had killed Braxx and Verity! He did not risk anything and cheesed them to death with Necklace of Missiles. Rezdan: 15, Kysus: 16, Drasus: 23. Only Genthore survived the burning but got obliterated by a 57 damage backstab shortly after. With a smile on his face Korgath grabbed the loot and moved on!
On his way back to the FAI Lamalha and Molkar tried to ambush Korgath but thanks to his fast movement speed he escaped before they could react. Fully rested and with all of his supplies refilled it was finally time to infiltrate the Cloakwood Mines.
Korgath sneaked through the Mines without any problems until he reached the room before Davaeorn. He got lucky and charmed the Guard on his first try and used it to lure the Battle Horrors away from Davaeorn while Korgath gulped a Potion of Magic Blocking to trigger the traps and avoid the following CC trigger. He waited in stealth until all guards had moved in and backstabbed the Battle Horrors near the exit to get another 8k XP. After they were gone he started his Necklace of Missiles burning until only Davaeorn was left. He sniped down his protections while soaking his spells without any harm thanks to Fire Protection, Greenstone Amulet and Shield Amulet. It still was a long way before Davaeorn finally went down to a 60 damage backstab and Korgath – still at full health – grabbed the loot and opened all chests after gulping a Potion of Master Thievery. Job done – time to visit the big city of Baldurs Gate!
@Victor_Creed_SFV, check this post, toward the bottom, for info on SoD items that can be transfered into SoA (if you keep them in your inventory in SoD). Edit: I think there are also a number of SoD items that appear in SoA regardless of whether you have them in your inventory, but am not sure which. @Harpagornis, good to see Korgath give Drasus and his buddies their due.
Oaen too gave them a good punishing... In Cloakwood he only stopped to pick up Spiders Bane and to receive a potion of invulnerability from Laskal, before reaching the mines. He charmed Kysus, had him buff up, and lured him to the mine entrance to waste spells on a guard. This all went well, and Kysus even prevailed over the guard, but then the wizard went hostile! I don't know what triggered that, but I do know that Oaen immediately activated the rage function of his trusty Zweihander. That didn't keep the wizard from dealing 97 damage with sequencered magic missiles though (that sequencer hadn't been there, I think it only becomes available with the triggering of SCS pre-buffs). Oaen retreated and went invisible to heal. He buffed and took his enemy down with wand scorchers and bolts of lightning. Let me emphasize that bolts of lightning are amazing. Granted, they have no enchantment bonus unlike most elemental arrows, but their 1d8 + 4d4 electrical damage (save vs breath for half) is nothing to sneeze at, and much better than any of the elemental arrows. They also perform better than bolts of biting, as enemies tend to save against the poison effect in my experience. Rezdan was next to be charmed. Oaen led him to a larger group of guards who made sure he wouldn't have the time to change his mind and turn against Oaen as Kysus had done. The Gnome blinded Genthore, and thanks to the wand of paralyzation, the warrior kindly stayed put in a corner next to the horse shed for easy disposal out of Drasus's sight. Drasus, with his boots, his rages and his frost giant strength potions is just scary. Oaen made sure he had wand summons around to occupy the berserker at all times, while pelting his foe with his crossbow.
Inside the mine, Oaen used a potion of magic blocking to survive Davaeorn's snares. He charmed the guard to have a brief distraction, and took the elevator to the first level to escape a Remove Magic. (It's a same that even when you move out of sight and go invisible before their casting is completed, some spells, like Remove Magic, always find their way to you. As if Remove Magic isn't already powerful enough as it is...) Upon his return, Oaen got him himself locked into the room to the right of the first room, with Davaeron's battle horrors. The corridor to the other rooms was blocked by Davaeorn and his guards. Oaen quaffed a potion of defense and started running around inside the room, scorchering the Battle Horrors. He was relieved to finish them without sustaining any injuries. Fireballs took care of the guards and summons soaked up Davaeorn's spells before Oaen shot him down.
Oaen continued his adventures in the city of Baldur's Gate, where he made sure to acquire the Helm and Cloak of Balduran. (Snuck past Degrodel's guards invisibly to get the quest started, depetrified Vail and had Quenash hand over the cloak willingly.) He also acquired the three stat tomes, looted Ramazith's tower as well as his corpse, and shopped extensively for scrolls and potions. Jalantha was fooled and left alone, but Marek was malisoned and polymorphed.
Definitely one of my favorite spells!
There was a short side trip to the Ice Island, where Oaen stalked past all the mages, only to assault Dezkiel with wand summons and lightning bolts for his Stoneskin scroll (and for his ticket back to the Sword Coast).
At the Iron Throne, Oaen used a divide and conquer strategy. He first lured the invisible Shennaras toward him with summons. Paralyzed them and finished them. Next, Naaman was charmed and rid of all his spells. The Gnome then played hide and seek with Zhalimar and his men, fighting only one or two at a time. Thanks to the greenstone amulet mind affecting spells were never a problem, even when he ran out of buffs. Oaen suffered one Unholy Blight for 30 damage, but that was all.
In Candlekeep Oaen had a scare when he discovered that the Ogre Mages he had circumvented at the entrance, had somehow found their way into the citadel and into the library. Four of them simultaneously cast magic missiles at Oaen:
That's 20 magic missiles, or about 200 damage about to hit... Wihout hesitation, Oaen downed a potion of magic blocking and quickly moved away from his enemies.
He looted the catacombs, and decided to take on Prat's gang for a change. Sakul drops a very rare Wraith Form scroll, which may have its uses in SoD or in Irenicus' dungeon. I think even Belegarm in SoD doesn't sell it. And Prat's returning throwing axe can be useful for ranged fighting with a shield equipped. (As I said in my previous post, Oaen's intended level 9 proficiency pip is in axes.) The mercenaries' wandering made the battle easier, allowing Oaen to fight his enemies one at a time. Summons alone killed Bor, Oaen paralyzed and finished Tam, and Sakul's fall was a collaboration between summons and Oaen. Unfortunately Prat just kept wandering around aimlessly. Oaen followed him, clearing the black fog that had kept the spiders out of the battle. But now the spiders were all over the place.
Oaen tried to get them to poison Prat with a Malison followd by a Chaos, but the agile, hasted battlemage never got hit by the three confused phase spiders. However, when buffed Oaen and his summons managed to corner their foe, it was game over for Prat.
Oaen is currently getting ready to explore Durlag's Tower's lower levels.
Korgath stormed through Baldurs Gate & Candlekeep in the meanwhile...
Once he was in the city Korgath bought some supplies at Sorcerous Sundries before helping Aldeth Sashenstar to clear the Merchants League from some infiltrators. As there spawn the big number of 16 Dopplegangers Korgath tricked them by going into stealth before they went hostile. All he had to do was: Watch how Brandilar killed one Doppleganger after another as they did not attack him – for whatever reason! Easy 5k XP earned even though the whole killing took some time!
Clearing the Seven Suns was easy thanks to backstabbing while the Ogre Mage died instantly to an Arrow of Slaying. Easy XP and gold for Korgath. On his travels through the city he also grabbed Baldurans Helm and Baldurans Cloak to prepare himself for the coming challenges.
The Iron Throne was a short business as Korgath did not bother to fight anyone. He sneaked through the guards unseen, grabbed the documents and moved out again. Before moving on to Candlekeep he quickly killed some Battle Horrors and three Greater Basilisks at Durlags Tower so level 7/7 was reached!
After traveling back to Candlekeep he immediately gulped an Invisibility Potion before any of the Ogre Mages could react. Once Tethoril had ported Korgath to the hidden Library he protected himself against the traps so he could move fast through the underground. He took the Tomes as well as some more precious loot and sneaked through the army of Dopplegangers. He skipped Prat and only stopped to kill the two Greater Basilisks with stabbing and another Potion of Mirroring – which pushed him to level 7/8!
Very smooth run so far that convinced me one more time that F/T is my most comfortable class pick. The final confrontations are not far anymore so its better to get a fresh mind again and take some rest!
My F/M/C started the famous palace ambush using @Harpagornis newly invented tactic of charming the nobles. I charmed the assassin with Algernon's to not trigger the dialoge just yet, then used Nymph Cloak on the mage which somehow did not trigger the dialogue, so i also charmed the shaman, which finally triggered the transformation of the doppelgangers. They got slaughtered pretty quickly, bringing Belt to injured and Lila is still at full hp.
After five failed attempts (with Archer, Cleric, Cleric/Thief, and two Shadowdancers), we're finally back SoD
A brief overview of events:
Durlag's Tower Oaen didn't like the tower much, what with all its traps. He used a PfMagic scroll on himself, and walked a narrow passage with repeating fire, lightning and cloudkill traps to kill Love and Pride.
Oaen didn't deal with the other warders. Further down, the Gnome had a near death experience. He managed to get stuck between the dummies and a greater doppelganger. He used the wand of monster summoning and then went invisible, taking several blows while his aura was unclear. (PfMagic prevented him from casting Stoneskin.) The summons led the doppelganger away, releasing Oaen, who was reduced to 26 HPs at that point. Clumsily he then triggered one of the repeating missile traps, leaving him with only 4 HPs.
Healed, picked up Kiel's helmet and Durlag's goblet, and got the hell out of the accursed tower.
Having used one PfMagic scroll at Durlag's Tower, Oaen saw no other option than to charm Bentan to help him fight some kobolds. Bentan didn't survive. Oaen took the priest's PfMagic scroll and left.
Slythe (and Krystin) Oaen accomplished what my characters rarely accomplish: he managed to lure Slythe into the inn, leaving Krystin behind. Stoneskinned, the Gnome had little to fear from his enemy. He summoned monsters to occupy the assassin, so that he could pelt him with his beloved bolts of lightning.
Ducal Palace The ruthlessness that Oaen displayed here made me wonder whether I should change his alignment. (I might actually do that at some point in the game.) Oaen charmed three Flaming Fist mercenaries and several nobles, not the shapeshifting ones, but innocents. He buffed with strength, invulnerability, mind focusing and speed potions as well as some spells, cast Invisibility on Liia and fell as far back as he could, to shoot arrows of dispelling at the Doppelgangers from out of the Mage's sight. Despite his non-proficiency, Oaen did well.
Belt had a lot of aggro directed at him. He fell early on, leaving Oaen a second (uncharged) Sandthief's ring. When all the Dops except the Mage were dispelled, Oaen switched back to his crossbow. He was merrily pelting away when the Mage came into sight and cast its inevitable Remove Magic. Oaen ran off into one of the anterooms to rebuff in peace. He had only cast Invisibility, Stoneskin and Ghost Armor when his Gnomish curiosity compelled him to take a look at what was going on in the main room. The Shaman sensed his presence and cast a detection spell, revealing both Oaen and Liia. Oaen retreated, quickly enraged via his sword, and returned to cast another Invisibility on Liia. From then on it was smooth sailing for Oaen, fighting his enemies one or two at a time, and relying again on summons to take the frontline, so that he could launch his bolts of lightning.
Sarevok Uneventful battle. Angelo was the first to show up. Oaen had summons soak up his foe's most dangerous spells. This was actually a risky strategy, because panicked or confused summons can wander off and alert Sarevok and the others. Somehow they didn't though. Oaen dispelled Angelo's buffs, and summons and bolts of lightning were then too much for the battlemage. He tried to escape once with a sequencered invisibility, but Oaen immediatey cast a Detect Invisibility from scroll to prevent that. The other acolytes were all taken down with wand fireballs, and Sarevok with wand scorchers.
Korlasz and Baldur's Gate Happy to be back in SoD, I've already made start there with Oaen. This is his character record at the beginning of the game.
As you can see, he immediately gained one Mage level. In the House of the Dead, Oaen summoned some monsters to distract the mercenaries blocking the door to Porios. He then entered and convinced Porios and his underlings to surrender. Oaen looted the place, solved Ammon's problem with magic, and promised a mummy to get rid of Korlasz. In the Catacombs, Oaen used a PfUndead scroll to be free from hassling undead. When he opened a secret door by lighting and putting away a purple torch, his PfU suddenly ceased to work. Several spectral undead rushed toward him. The Gnome used a second scroll, to continue his exploration unmolested. He went invisible and snuck past more of Korlasz's servants, until he reached the door toward her chambers. A dispel trap removed all of Oaen's protections. Somehow the spectres and Korlasz's minions knew, even though they weren't in sight. Oaen quickly read a third PfU scroll, and went invisible after that. He considered himself lucky when the spectres formed a row, blocking Korlasz's people.
Oaen buffed and made Korlasz surrender with wand scorchers. Although he took an arrow of biting, Oaen was never in danger. He reached fighter level 8 and mage level 9.
Oaen finished the side quests, and he has also done most of the Baldur's Gate side quests. He's now getting ready to leave the city.
Very nice @Blackraven, prevailing against all odds.
My first attempt at the ambush sadly failed due to the assassin noble somehow dying before he ccould transform (probably my fault I sometimes use select all party attack when I don't really need to).
Since I have to do some rl stuff anyway it's not a problem I just restarted the encounter to the point where the charmed nobles need to transform and put autopause on enemy sighted.
This time I prevailed parking both nobles that didn't transform yet into another room so they couldn't die before the transformation. Both Belt and the mage survived but I cast invis on her due to her not fighting back.
This strategy is pretty awesome the downtime in waiting is kinda sad but since autopause on sight works very well it doesn't matter too much as you can just leave the game open and do whatever you please.
I have good and bad news. The good one: Korgath managed to storm through BG 1 and finally took out Sarevok. The whole run - up to this point - was easy like never before cause luck always seems to be on his side. Charms working mostly on the first try while critting like crazy with backstabs - looks like the god of murder smiles upon him! I would give more details but i severely lack time. Which leads directly to the bad news: Thanks to some real life issues i will have to pause the challenge for some time. I hope that i can return at some point and will try to take a look at your posts from time to time. Good luck to everyone! As i said earlier: F/M is too easy for you @Blackraven!
Yes real life is more important and we wish you the best @Harpagornis
Meanwhile I'm having the worst Sarevok fight of my life. Angelo somehow turned into a pussy and doesn't want to fight me. It started very weird by him only trying to dispel my invis once while he already did not move into the corner with Sarevok and his friends but stayed in the northeast corner, which seemed a blessing to me at the time cuz I didn't have to lure him out. After fighting a couple of my summons his Stoneskin wore off and he instantly went invis via shadow door never to return again. While casting my neclace at the others I even made a mistkake once of letting them spot me and had to walk them in another corner (northwest) but while doing all this he never atacked me.
After everyone but Angelo and Sarevok were dead I was able to spot his vague whereabouts by spamming quicksave, firing the rest of my missiles only gave me one hit out of maybe 10 charges since he just keeps wandering while invis.
Now I'm in a similar but worse spot with the charmed nobles I left the games and have autopause on sight on, but invis ofc lasts twice as long as charm. (he must have cast normal invis after shadow door or drunk a potion)
Sarevok is dead but I sadly dropped the ball by not taking enough bullets with me. My spider form with 5 apr burned thru them quickly and after that I dared not melee him for too long so my summons did 99% of the damage. But I'm glad I did not have to reload after waiting for ages for Angelo to appear at least it's over now. Stay tuned for Droolit's progress who I will be taking into SoD.
I only recently caught up to this thread, so I'll chip in a few things.
First, about the Big Metal Rod and the ammunition that comes with it: the Big Metal Rod itself is just a crossbow with +1 to THAC0; it gets no other bonuses. And you do not need to equip it to use the other ammunition; any crossbow will do.
The 5 attacks per round comes from the ammunition itself. Thus, you can combine any crossbow with the Pulse Ammunition, Frag Grenades, or Scorcher Ammunition and get a guaranteed 5 attacks per round, plus the crossbow's own THAC0 and damage bonuses. Firetooth +5 is ideal.
1. The Pulse Ammunition strikes as a +3 weapon, grants +10 to THAC0, and uses the Magic Missile projectile (1 missile only). It deals 1d4+1 nonmagical magic damage, same as a Magic Missile. It can't touch Ascension Melissan, but it works just fine on everyone else. Your normal bonuses to missile damage also apply.
2. The Frag Grenades strike as a +0 magical weapon, grant +10 to THAC0, and use the Skull Trap projectile. It deals 1d12 nonmagical fire damage. It's an area-effect weapon, which means you can hit Melissan with it by attacking, say, Yaga-Shura when he is next to her. Both are immune to fire damage, but any bonuses to missile damage--whether from proficiencies, spells, items, or your crossbow itself--will also apply. This means you can deal maybe 13 missile damage per hit at 10 APR as an area-effect projectile. It's not much, but it will bypass weapon immunities as long as you can hit the original target. Thus, you can get past Melissan's Absolute Immunity spell by attacking a nearby enemy using the Frag Grenades--unless, of course, you have Spell Revisions, in which case Absolute Immunity (and presumably Melissan's version of it) also gives immunity to the damage opcode.
3. The Scorcher Ammunition strikes as a +0 magical weapon, grants +10 to THAC0, and uses the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile. It deals 2d12 nonmagical fire damage with a save vs. breath for half and strikes twice.
Which means that ALL ON-HIT EFFECTS ALSO STRIKE TWICE.
This includes your missile damage bonuses, Power Attack, Wizard Slayer spell failure, Poison Weapon, and any other on-hit effects. All of them apply twice, so the odds of stun-locking Melissan with Power Attack are very high. You can also remove 20 Stoneskins per round using it.
And because it uses the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile, it also works as an area effect. You can attack Yaga-Shura 10 times with the Scorcher Ammunition and then run around the map, using the jet of fire to damage multiple enemies at once. All of them will take missile damage; not just fire damage.
Also bear in mind that the damage animation plays every time. If you land every hit, you're forcing everyone in the area of effect to suffer the damage animation up to 20 times per round, enough to shut down all spellcasting and even interrupt attacks.
As long as your first target can be hit by a +0 magical weapon, you can apply area-effect hitstun, Power Attack, fire damage, and missile damage to anyone that you can wrap the scorcher projectile around.
I think the Scorcher Ammunition should be considered a staple for any Legacy of Bhaal fight with Ascension Melissan.
If we do not object to "cheese" or exploits, I will once again bring up the Wand of Lightning trick, which can duplicate the effects of any on-self spell or item, or any item that can be used in a quick item slot. In Item Revisions, the wand only hits 3 targets, but without IR, it hits 6 targets. Thus, you can gain triple the benefit of stat tomes in BG1 (the WoL trick is only possible in BG1 if you have IR) or sextuple the effects of Sunfire, healing potions, Project Image (Spell Revisions only), most normal potions (not possible in IR), Mordenkainen's Sword, Wail of the Banshee, all wands, all scrolls, the Efreeti Bottle, Kitthix, Called Shot (only possible with the Generic Archer fighter kit from Tactics), Boon of Lathander, the Book of Daily Spell, and more.
Combined with the scorcher loop, which I discussed in a previous thread, you can also produce the Death Ray Zorcher. If you create the DRZ using Spell Turning scrolls or the Book of Daily Spell (which itself can be duplicated using the WoL trick), it can deal about 100,000 damage by the time it's done. If you create it using the Wizard Slayer kit from Wizard Slayer Rebalanacing, it can deal about 15,000 damage before it fizzles out.
However, producing the Death Ray Zorcher requires either using (1) the revised Wizard Slayer kit dual-classed to mage, or (2) a clone that can use the Wand of Lightning. If clones cannot use quick items in your install, method 2 is impossible. And I'm not sure if the revised Wizard Slayer can dual-class normally.
Another important trick is the blind thief trick. Hide in Shadows and traps are determined by your line of sight; not the enemy's. This means you can blind yourself and then hide in plain sight or set traps in the middle of combat. With the right install, a Mage/Thief's clone could use Improved Alacrity to blind itself and then set all of its Spike Traps instantly. If you have 10 Spike Traps total and high enough levels (which might not be feasible if you're playing with the XP cap), a single Simulacrum, possibly from a Chain Contingency, can deal 700 damage as soon as it finishes casting Improved Alacrity. It should be enough to kill one of the Five. However, you will not be able to summon another Simulacrum clone for 20 rounds.
Also important: blindness also allows you to save and rest when enemies are nearby. However, this requires you to not be in combat, so you have to keep the enemy off of your back for a few moments in order to be able to use blindness to save.
Resting is impossible at the Throne of Bhaal, and much of the area is never in the fog of war, but if you pin Melissan on one of the islands next to the main platform, you can run away and probably land a quick save. You can then use the quick save trick to refresh your aura: cast Wish, quick save, quick load, cast Wish again, and so on (your aura is always clear when you load up the game). This also allows you to drink multiple potions at once.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it in this thread before, but Wish intoxication is another important staple in an LoB fight with Ascension Melissan. Choosing the intoxication option from Wish applies +100 intoxication on everyone on the map with no saving throw, bypassing magic resistance, for several turns. The effect is dispellable and strikes as a level 3 spell, so MGOI should be able to block it on the main character. If not, Heal, Greater Restoration, Slow Poison, Neutralize Poison, and/or an Elixir of Health should be able to cure intoxication, depending on your install. No one is immune to the intoxication opcode, though Melissan's spell level immunities might block it and her Heal spells might cure it.
100 intoxication translates to -12 luck. They will suffer maximum spell damage and roll much lower on their damage rolls, but more importantly, they'll effectively have -12 to THAC0. If your main character has strong AC, everyone on the map should only be able to hit you on a natural 20, at which point your only remaining concern should be Time Stop.
You can gain immunity to Time Stop using the Focus spell you get when activating the pools before summoning the Five. The immunity lasts 5 rounds, but unfortunately, Focus can only be cast every 10 rounds, so you'll need to budget a Hardiness or Protection from Magical Weapons to ensure that Melissan and/or Abazigal cannot kill you during Time Stop. Melissan is especially troublesome, as she will combine Teleport Without Error with Greater Whirlwind Attack.
Also note that if you are rude to the Solar before the fight with the Ravager, you will get a permanent +25% bonus to your physical damage resistances. Fighter/Druids, Barbarians, Fighter/Clerics, and Dwarven Defenders can achieve immunity to physical damage using Earth Elemental form (which can be maintained indefinitely with Improved Shapeshifting installed), Defensive Stance, Hardiness, and/or Armor of Faith. If you have Item Revisions installed, the Fortress Shield grants +10%, an amulet grants another +10%, and the Orc Leather +3 or a suit of full plate mail will grant +20%. If you can smuggle Drow Full Plate into the area, that's another +25-30%. With the right install, a Fighter/Druid should be able to hit 100% undispellable physical damage resistance.
If you're willing to use stuff from other mods, there is a mod that allows you to spend 15,000 gold to pay a Wish genie to give you a guaranteed Wish-rest as an innate ability. However, you need to be level 31 and have more than 18 Intelligence and Wisdom for it to work. Given enough gold, you can Wish-rest more or less at will. You could also pick any other positive Wish option, including the Time Stop+Improved Alacrity, Improved Haste, and Hardiness options (though I don't think it lets you choose the intoxication option).
Another mod allows you to scribe scrolls. You can get however many Wish, PFMW, Improved Haste, or Spell Immunity scrolls as you want, provided you have the money (the higher-level options cost thousands of gold).
And, of course, if you can kill Breudayael in Spellhold (which could probably be done with Spike Traps), his Robe of Mystra will grant immunity to Time Stop among other things, and if you can kill Drusilia from the same mod, her Staff of Zoltan will grant undispellable invisibility to evil-aligned critters (which should make Ascension a cake walk regardless of difficulty level; no one could target you). There are other mod items that grant immunity to Time Stop, including a ring from Saratathlaer (or whatever his name is) at the beginning of ToB and another ring from a monk in the Saradush tavern (usable with Use Any item).
Also, Bladesingers (a Fighter/Mage kit for Elves) can use Bladesong, which grants an undocument +2 to casting time and Improved Alacrity for 1 second, allowing them to erect new defenses from Focus to PFMW instantly. If you combine it with the Wand of Lightning trick, it will grant +12 to casting time, allowing you to cast about 30 spells (one per frame) before the Improved Alacrity effect runs out. At high levels, Bladesingers can use Bladesong multiple times per day.
In BG1, Alchemists (the thief kit, not my mage kit) can create two potions per day from a list. An Alchemist with enough patience could go through BG1 using Potions of Invisibility as escape options, Oils of Speed to enable kiting, and Oils of Fiery Burning to bomb enemies while kiting. It becomes less useful in BG2, so a dual-class build would be better (Alchemists don't get much out of extra levels anyway).
My Alchemist mage kit also has a Grade 5 War Engine at level 40, which deals 150d6 damage that bypasses all damage immunities and magic resistance. A Wish intoxication could boost the damage to a guaranteed 450 on a successful saving throw, or 900 on a failed save at -10, for a 30 foot radius (it uses the Delayed Blast Fireball opcode). But you would need careful positioning or SR's Absolute Immunity spell to avoid getting fried yourself, because getting caught in the blast radius essentially has a 100% chance of killing the Alchemist regardless of his or her defenses.
The Spellbender kit's Arcane Weaving and Divine Weaving spells also work with the Wand of Lightning (the Spellbender is a cleric/mage). Arcane Weaving and Divine Weaving can only cast a few select spells, but if you have the Robe of Vecna, you can spam an unlimited number of Ice Storms, one every frame, which might be able to take down some Ascension enemies provided all the Ice Storms don't cause your computer to crash (you could also cast one Lightning Bolt every frame if you wanted something safer). A Spellbender can also spam Stoneskins and a handful of other less useful spells.
Comments
P.S. But you cant upgrade it in SoA - ok i got it!
Would Nymph Cloak work?
Will hopefully visit the Basilisk area with Korgath today - we will see!
It seems that stunlocking Mel is the only real way of dealing with her on LoB. I sure as hell can't find any other way to deal with her with a pure fighter...
- As foreseen in my last post, Oaen's hunger for XP brought him to Durlag's Tower. He took on the battle horrors with his wand of fire, several times actually...
- With all his level 1 spell slots dedicated to memorizations of PfPetrification, Durlag's basilisks were no trouble for Oaen.
At Fighter level 6 I placed a second pip in Two-Handed Weapon Style, conform my original plan to have Oaen as a strict two-handed fighter. Not much later the powergamer in me told me that it would be unwise not to dual-wield as a Fighter/Mage, so will slowly build toward that. Will probably aim for * Axes (main weapon for SoA with Azuredge, Frostreaver, Stonefire, later K'logarath and Unyielding, maybe the Stormcharged Axe), * TWF, ** TWF, ** Axes, * Hammers, ** Hammers (late SoA / ToB with Crom Faeyr as main weapon). Oaen has Vhailor's voice, so it will be nice to have interjections like "I am your fate, and fate carries an executioner's axe" make sense. Also these are weapons I haven't used much unlike FoA for example. He can always use other weapons without proficiency, for their special abilities mainly. Do you folks think this makes sense? Of course it's super premature to talk about these things, but it's also fun
- Meilum fell after he was Blinded. Thanks to the extended reach of his greatsword, Oaen could hit his foe without getting hit back.
- The Nashkel Mines were conquered with difficulty. Oaen chose to retreat once, luring several kobolds and skellies outside. He rested, and when he returned, about half of Mulahey's minions were still around. Oaen paralyzed and Blinded the priest out of sight of the minions, dealt with the minions from behind his invisible familiar, Held Mulahey and finished him.
- After leaving the mines Oaen looted the tombs under free action. He fought neither the undead nor Nimbul back in Nashkel.
- Took on Bassilus. Blinded him twice, but Bassilus had (at least) two castings of Cure Disease. Oaen used the wand of monster summoning to keep the priest busy, and pelted him with bolts of lightning from afar.
Dealt with Zargal & co while we were there as well.
- Skipped Molkar because Oaen was out of spells from the Bassilus fight.
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Dire CharmedConvinced Algernon to try and pacify Tranzig, but this only prompted the wizard to take out his anger on the poor merchant.- Did the Cloudpeaks battles and dealt with Lamalha & Co, relying mainly on Blindness, wands of paralyzation and monster summoning.
- Same with Kirian's party, after having separated its members first.
- Killed the ghasts at Durlag's Tower's upper levels. One dicey moment when invisible familiar didn't properly block two ghasts. Oaen used his sword's rage ability, an oil of speed, a strength potion and wand summons to prevail.
- Slew 12 ankhegs with the assistance of summoned aides. Reached Mage lvl 7.
- Same with 5 Sirines (and greenstone or sword immunities). Reached Fighter lvl 7.
- Thalantyr melted two rings of protection +1 into a ring of protection +2 for 4k GP, two pearls and a diamond.
- Blinded and paralyzed Silke, then shot her down.
- Infiltrated Bandit Camp via Teven and had a bit of a hard time in Tazok's tent: had to heal up twice during the battle. Oaen didn't use too many buffs (only Ghost Armor, a Mirror Image and greenstone mind shield), because Venkt would remove them anyway. Made himself visible with monster summoning, and enraged when Venkt removed buffs. That was a good decision because a Horror was on its way just when Oaen enraged. (Enraging first would have been even better haha.) With no armor buff, he got hit a few times, so went invisble to heal and improve AC with a potion of defense. Came back quite strong with a Malison, followed by an Emotion and paralyzation of Venkt.
I am also absolutely sure that there are more than only two Scrolls of PfM. Korgath for instance had three of them in his pockets while he had used one of them before against the Unseeing Eye. Just dont ask where exactly he found them - was it random loot from some bosses? Cant remember it! But this would also mean that using the PfM against Sendai and/or Abazigal would be in reach for Caligula.
EDIT: I tested it with Su´kka and it looks possible to kite them down one after another. But after starting the killing it still seems nearly impossible to trigger them perfectly so Mel will get stunned cause of their deaths again and again. What she did in my tries so far: She immediately summoned Devas and shortly after Balors and Babatus. Both demons also have the ability to gate in more demons. Even better: The Balor summoned a Balor which summoned another pack of demons - like a snowball effect. With other words: Su´kka was running for her life until Mel used the chaos to throw in another Time Stop - Game Over! Very funny fight - maybe there is a realistic chance with the Stormcharged Axe even though luck must be on your side - for a very long time!
More than two scrolls of PfM ? Good god, I hope I find another one, because, otherwise, I don't know how I will deal will Abazigal. It's very good news, actually.
Another thing for all you guys : for this challenge, do not feel cheap if you powergame !! The chances of completing a SCS LoB no-reload are so slim, that use whatever the hell you can to progress !! Even though I most probably will have a go at it after I'm done with Caligula, I feel that it's a tad of an impossible task to do...
They double the movement speed, which ring both prevents and reverses. BoS are probably the trickiest item in the game to balance out. When I play w/o Revisions, I revert them to how they worked in BG1 - they haste the user.
I also got all three belts including Golden Girdle (charmed Kirian on the third try).
What's really fun about DD in BG1 is the fact that "random" enemies like Hobgoblins, Kobolds and so forth don't feel any different with LoB than they did with insane, you can just facetank them, something that's not possible with my F/M/T unless I buff myself.
Even Ankhegs can be facetanked with Belt of bluntness and Def Stance.
With Belt + potion of anti crush I did the same as the druid and tanked the flesh golems, it was just a lot quicker due to me having 2/1/2 apr (Drizzts scis), so even after I killed all Sirines outside the potion was still active.
With level 7 the DD now even has 3 apr -5 is base AC but this becomes a lot more in BG city, due to the DD having only 17 Dex, with the tome of Dex, ring +2, Balduran's Helm and Cloak this would go up to -9.
With the respective items and armor bonuses from full plate it would be -16 vs slash, -12 crush (-22 with potion) and a whopping -17 vs missiles if you use boots and belt.
I really like the DD due to his insane saves which are probably most notable in BG1, since every class has pretty bad saves (druid comes closest due to being level 10 but is still lower especially vs spell by 3 points) but DD will have the same tough time vs Belhifet as everyone else, except Druid.
I think the conclusion of Druid being the best class will not really change because of Harm in BG1 and even in BG2 no caster class is really "better" than the druid in my opinion.
Only bad part about druid is dual classing, but since SoA is by far the easiest BG game that is not that big of a deal I think.
I think I'm gonna stop wasting my time with creating new chars, finish BG1 with my F/M/C and then focus on my Totemic.
Because of 21 WIS she now also has 3 level 5 spells and thanks to 9 Int can finally cast protection scrolls.
Did Diarmid become unkillable?
I found a nice way of getting him stuck with my dogees and nymphes, but after he dropped to near death quickly he never died and after he outlasted my summons ran outside where interestingly enough he stayed after I went after him.
Since he still seemed unillable I left him there, maybe he is bugged now and will never make it to the final fight.
Killed all basilisks with the help of Korax while hacking them down with double Scimitars. Mutamin got paralyzed right at the beginning and went down faster than usual. After everything was done Korgath parked Korax not far away from Kirian and managed to charm the Mage out of stealth on the very first try. Once she was moved to Korax the Ghoul easily stunlocked her and they took down the helpless Mage swiftly. With another belt in his pocket Korgath moved out - job done!
Before going for Mulahey Korgath grabbed another invissibility potion from the Nashkel Carnival, bought the Shadow Armor, Greenstone Amulet and the Displacer Cloak. With everything ready he started to sneak through the Mines while also grabbing Josephs Ring – this time without getting caught before reaching Mulahey!
Korgath charmed Mulahey on his second try (resting is safe here) and let him waste his most dangerous spells (Hold Person + Unholy Blight). Only then he started the fight with a mighty 102 damage backstab and managed to stealth immediately before Mulahey turned hostile. Another 36 damage backstab followed before his guards rushed in and Korgath gulped a Invisibility Potion. He waited until everyone had moved around Mulahey before starting his usual Necklace of Missiles burning. After nine shots the nearly dead Mulahey started to search for Korgath who managed to snipe the evil priest down with a 13 damage hit from his Composite Longbow +1. The remaining Kobolds proved to be no challenge so Korgath grabbed all the loot and sneaked out again.
Once outside of the mines he helped Henthold to get rid of the Revenant by peacening him with the dagger. With some more xp and another invisibility potion Korgath moved back to Nashkel. There he took Josephs Ring back to his family and got a reward from Berrun Ghastkill who was very pleased about the death of Mulahey.
After arriving in Beregost Korgath charmed Tranzig on his third try and let him waste all of his spells on his summons before killing the helpless mage with some backstabs. It wont get easier no? Not to forget: Level 5/6 reached.
The Bandit Camp will be next...
P.S. Yeah, Diarmid is unkillable @Victor_Creed_SFV - no bug!
The Bandit Camp was short and simple - Korgath moved in and out unseen while grabbing the documents. He then charmed Taurgosz Khosann and wanted to lure the enemies out one by one. This failed completly as this time Venkt, Hakt and three Elite Guards jumped out at the same time. Lurking in the shadows Korgath had to watch how Taurgosz died to the Chromatic Orb from Venkt one more time. He grabed his items and retreated unseen...
On his way through the Cloakwood Korgath used his superior stealth to sneak through the woods unseen. His one and only target: Drasus and his party! It was more than enough time to gave them a good beating expecially as they had killed Braxx and Verity! He did not risk anything and cheesed them to death with Necklace of Missiles. Rezdan: 15, Kysus: 16, Drasus: 23. Only Genthore survived the burning but got obliterated by a 57 damage backstab shortly after. With a smile on his face Korgath grabbed the loot and moved on!
On his way back to the FAI Lamalha and Molkar tried to ambush Korgath but thanks to his fast movement speed he escaped before they could react. Fully rested and with all of his supplies refilled it was finally time to infiltrate the Cloakwood Mines.
Korgath sneaked through the Mines without any problems until he reached the room before Davaeorn. He got lucky and charmed the Guard on his first try and used it to lure the Battle Horrors away from Davaeorn while Korgath gulped a Potion of Magic Blocking to trigger the traps and avoid the following CC trigger. He waited in stealth until all guards had moved in and backstabbed the Battle Horrors near the exit to get another 8k XP. After they were gone he started his Necklace of Missiles burning until only Davaeorn was left. He sniped down his protections while soaking his spells without any harm thanks to Fire Protection, Greenstone Amulet and Shield Amulet. It still was a long way before Davaeorn finally went down to a 60 damage backstab and Korgath – still at full health – grabbed the loot and opened all chests after gulping a Potion of Master Thievery. Job done – time to visit the big city of Baldurs Gate!
One question:
I heard you can take SoD items into SoA, is that true?
Can you also take the ring of purity?
@Harpagornis, good to see Korgath give Drasus and his buddies their due.
Oaen too gave them a good punishing...
In Cloakwood he only stopped to pick up Spiders Bane and to receive a potion of invulnerability from Laskal, before reaching the mines. He charmed Kysus, had him buff up, and lured him to the mine entrance to waste spells on a guard. This all went well, and Kysus even prevailed over the guard, but then the wizard went hostile!
Let me emphasize that bolts of lightning are amazing. Granted, they have no enchantment bonus unlike most elemental arrows, but their 1d8 + 4d4 electrical damage (save vs breath for half) is nothing to sneeze at, and much better than any of the elemental arrows. They also perform better than bolts of biting, as enemies tend to save against the poison effect in my experience.
Rezdan was next to be charmed. Oaen led him to a larger group of guards who made sure he wouldn't have the time to change his mind and turn against Oaen as Kysus had done. The Gnome blinded Genthore, and thanks to the wand of paralyzation, the warrior kindly stayed put in a corner next to the horse shed for easy disposal out of Drasus's sight. Drasus, with his boots, his rages and his frost giant strength potions is just scary. Oaen made sure he had wand summons around to occupy the berserker at all times, while pelting his foe with his crossbow.
Inside the mine, Oaen used a potion of magic blocking to survive Davaeorn's snares. He charmed the guard to have a brief distraction, and took the elevator to the first level to escape a Remove Magic. (It's a same that even when you move out of sight and go invisible before their casting is completed, some spells, like Remove Magic, always find their way to you. As if Remove Magic isn't already powerful enough as it is...) Upon his return, Oaen got him himself locked into the room to the right of the first room, with Davaeron's battle horrors. The corridor to the other rooms was blocked by Davaeorn and his guards. Oaen quaffed a potion of defense and started running around inside the room, scorchering the Battle Horrors. He was relieved to finish them without sustaining any injuries. Fireballs took care of the guards and summons soaked up Davaeorn's spells before Oaen shot him down.
Oaen continued his adventures in the city of Baldur's Gate, where he made sure to acquire the Helm and Cloak of Balduran. (Snuck past Degrodel's guards invisibly to get the quest started, depetrified Vail and had Quenash hand over the cloak willingly.) He also acquired the three stat tomes, looted Ramazith's tower as well as his corpse, and shopped extensively for scrolls and potions. Jalantha was fooled and left alone, but Marek was malisoned and polymorphed.
There was a short side trip to the Ice Island, where Oaen stalked past all the mages, only to assault Dezkiel with wand summons and lightning bolts for his Stoneskin scroll (and for his ticket back to the Sword Coast).
At the Iron Throne, Oaen used a divide and conquer strategy. He first lured the invisible Shennaras toward him with summons. Paralyzed them and finished them. Next, Naaman was charmed and rid of all his spells. The Gnome then played hide and seek with Zhalimar and his men, fighting only one or two at a time. Thanks to the greenstone amulet mind affecting spells were never a problem, even when he ran out of buffs. Oaen suffered one Unholy Blight for 30 damage, but that was all.
In Candlekeep Oaen had a scare when he discovered that the Ogre Mages he had circumvented at the entrance, had somehow found their way into the citadel and into the library. Four of them simultaneously cast magic missiles at Oaen:
He looted the catacombs, and decided to take on Prat's gang for a change. Sakul drops a very rare Wraith Form scroll, which may have its uses in SoD or in Irenicus' dungeon. I think even Belegarm in SoD doesn't sell it. And Prat's returning throwing axe can be useful for ranged fighting with a shield equipped. (As I said in my previous post, Oaen's intended level 9 proficiency pip is in axes.)
The mercenaries' wandering made the battle easier, allowing Oaen to fight his enemies one at a time. Summons alone killed Bor, Oaen paralyzed and finished Tam, and Sakul's fall was a collaboration between summons and Oaen. Unfortunately Prat just kept wandering around aimlessly. Oaen followed him, clearing the black fog that had kept the spiders out of the battle. But now the spiders were all over the place.
Oaen is currently getting ready to explore Durlag's Tower's lower levels.
Once he was in the city Korgath bought some supplies at Sorcerous Sundries before helping Aldeth Sashenstar to clear the Merchants League from some infiltrators. As there spawn the big number of 16 Dopplegangers Korgath tricked them by going into stealth before they went hostile. All he had to do was: Watch how Brandilar killed one Doppleganger after another as they did not attack him – for whatever reason! Easy 5k XP earned even though the whole killing took some time!
Clearing the Seven Suns was easy thanks to backstabbing while the Ogre Mage died instantly to an Arrow of Slaying. Easy XP and gold for Korgath. On his travels through the city he also grabbed Baldurans Helm and Baldurans Cloak to prepare himself for the coming challenges.
The Iron Throne was a short business as Korgath did not bother to fight anyone. He sneaked through the guards unseen, grabbed the documents and moved out again. Before moving on to Candlekeep he quickly killed some Battle Horrors and three Greater Basilisks at Durlags Tower so level 7/7 was reached!
After traveling back to Candlekeep he immediately gulped an Invisibility Potion before any of the Ogre Mages could react. Once Tethoril had ported Korgath to the hidden Library he protected himself against the traps so he could move fast through the underground. He took the Tomes as well as some more precious loot and sneaked through the army of Dopplegangers. He skipped Prat and only stopped to kill the two Greater Basilisks with stabbing and another Potion of Mirroring – which pushed him to level 7/8!
Very smooth run so far that convinced me one more time that F/T is my most comfortable class pick. The final confrontations are not far anymore so its better to get a fresh mind again and take some rest!
I charmed the assassin with Algernon's to not trigger the dialoge just yet, then used Nymph Cloak on the mage which somehow did not trigger the dialogue, so i also charmed the shaman, which finally triggered the transformation of the doppelgangers.
They got slaughtered pretty quickly, bringing Belt to injured and Lila is still at full hp.
Now it's waiting time for the charm to wear off.
After five failed attempts (with Archer, Cleric, Cleric/Thief, and two Shadowdancers), we're finally back SoD
A brief overview of events:
Durlag's Tower
Oaen didn't like the tower much, what with all its traps. He used a PfMagic scroll on himself, and walked a narrow passage with repeating fire, lightning and cloudkill traps to kill Love and Pride.
Further down, the Gnome had a near death experience. He managed to get stuck between the dummies and a greater doppelganger. He used the wand of monster summoning and then went invisible, taking several blows while his aura was unclear. (PfMagic prevented him from casting Stoneskin.) The summons led the doppelganger away, releasing Oaen, who was reduced to 26 HPs at that point. Clumsily he then triggered one of the repeating missile traps, leaving him with only 4 HPs.
Having used one PfMagic scroll at Durlag's Tower, Oaen saw no other option than to charm Bentan to help him fight some kobolds. Bentan didn't survive. Oaen took the priest's PfMagic scroll and left.
Slythe (and Krystin)
Oaen accomplished what my characters rarely accomplish: he managed to lure Slythe into the inn, leaving Krystin behind. Stoneskinned, the Gnome had little to fear from his enemy. He summoned monsters to occupy the assassin, so that he could pelt him with his beloved bolts of lightning.
Ducal Palace
The ruthlessness that Oaen displayed here made me wonder whether I should change his alignment. (I might actually do that at some point in the game.) Oaen charmed three Flaming Fist mercenaries and several nobles, not the shapeshifting ones, but innocents.
He buffed with strength, invulnerability, mind focusing and speed potions as well as some spells, cast Invisibility on Liia and fell as far back as he could, to shoot arrows of dispelling at the Doppelgangers from out of the Mage's sight. Despite his non-proficiency, Oaen did well.
Sarevok
Uneventful battle. Angelo was the first to show up. Oaen had summons soak up his foe's most dangerous spells. This was actually a risky strategy, because panicked or confused summons can wander off and alert Sarevok and the others. Somehow they didn't though. Oaen dispelled Angelo's buffs, and summons and bolts of lightning were then too much for the battlemage. He tried to escape once with a sequencered invisibility, but Oaen immediatey cast a Detect Invisibility from scroll to prevent that.
The other acolytes were all taken down with wand fireballs, and Sarevok with wand scorchers.
Korlasz and Baldur's Gate
Happy to be back in SoD, I've already made start there with Oaen. This is his character record at the beginning of the game.
In the House of the Dead, Oaen summoned some monsters to distract the mercenaries blocking the door to Porios. He then entered and convinced Porios and his underlings to surrender. Oaen looted the place, solved Ammon's problem with magic, and promised a mummy to get rid of Korlasz.
In the Catacombs, Oaen used a PfUndead scroll to be free from hassling undead. When he opened a secret door by lighting and putting away a purple torch, his PfU suddenly ceased to work. Several spectral undead rushed toward him. The Gnome used a second scroll, to continue his exploration unmolested. He went invisible and snuck past more of Korlasz's servants, until he reached the door toward her chambers. A dispel trap removed all of Oaen's protections. Somehow the spectres and Korlasz's minions knew, even though they weren't in sight. Oaen quickly read a third PfU scroll, and went invisible after that. He considered himself lucky when the spectres formed a row, blocking Korlasz's people.
Oaen finished the side quests, and he has also done most of the Baldur's Gate side quests. He's now getting ready to leave the city.
Good luck @Victor_Creed_SFV and @Harpagornis!
My first attempt at the ambush sadly failed due to the assassin noble somehow dying before he ccould transform (probably my fault I sometimes use select all party attack when I don't really need to).
Since I have to do some rl stuff anyway it's not a problem I just restarted the encounter to the point where the charmed nobles need to transform and put autopause on enemy sighted.
Both Belt and the mage survived but I cast invis on her due to her not fighting back.
This strategy is pretty awesome the downtime in waiting is kinda sad but since autopause on sight works very well it doesn't matter too much as you can just leave the game open and do whatever you please.
I have good and bad news. The good one: Korgath managed to storm through BG 1 and finally took out Sarevok. The whole run - up to this point - was easy like never before cause luck always seems to be on his side. Charms working mostly on the first try while critting like crazy with backstabs - looks like the god of murder smiles upon him! I would give more details but i severely lack time. Which leads directly to the bad news: Thanks to some real life issues i will have to pause the challenge for some time. I hope that i can return at some point and will try to take a look at your posts from time to time. Good luck to everyone! As i said earlier: F/M is too easy for you @Blackraven!
Here's to the hope that everything goes well for you !!
Meanwhile I'm having the worst Sarevok fight of my life.
Angelo somehow turned into a pussy and doesn't want to fight me.
It started very weird by him only trying to dispel my invis once while he already did not move into the corner with Sarevok and his friends but stayed in the northeast corner, which seemed a blessing to me at the time cuz I didn't have to lure him out.
After fighting a couple of my summons his Stoneskin wore off and he instantly went invis via shadow door never to return again.
While casting my neclace at the others I even made a mistkake once of letting them spot me and had to walk them in another corner (northwest) but while doing all this he never atacked me.
After everyone but Angelo and Sarevok were dead I was able to spot his vague whereabouts by spamming quicksave, firing the rest of my missiles only gave me one hit out of maybe 10 charges since he just keeps wandering while invis.
Now I'm in a similar but worse spot with the charmed nobles I left the games and have autopause on sight on, but invis ofc lasts twice as long as charm. (he must have cast normal invis after shadow door or drunk a potion)
My spider form with 5 apr burned thru them quickly and after that I dared not melee him for too long so my summons did 99% of the damage. But I'm glad I did not have to reload after waiting for ages for Angelo to appear at least it's over now.
Stay tuned for Droolit's progress who I will be taking into SoD.
First, about the Big Metal Rod and the ammunition that comes with it: the Big Metal Rod itself is just a crossbow with +1 to THAC0; it gets no other bonuses. And you do not need to equip it to use the other ammunition; any crossbow will do.
The 5 attacks per round comes from the ammunition itself. Thus, you can combine any crossbow with the Pulse Ammunition, Frag Grenades, or Scorcher Ammunition and get a guaranteed 5 attacks per round, plus the crossbow's own THAC0 and damage bonuses. Firetooth +5 is ideal.
1. The Pulse Ammunition strikes as a +3 weapon, grants +10 to THAC0, and uses the Magic Missile projectile (1 missile only). It deals 1d4+1 nonmagical magic damage, same as a Magic Missile. It can't touch Ascension Melissan, but it works just fine on everyone else. Your normal bonuses to missile damage also apply.
2. The Frag Grenades strike as a +0 magical weapon, grant +10 to THAC0, and use the Skull Trap projectile. It deals 1d12 nonmagical fire damage. It's an area-effect weapon, which means you can hit Melissan with it by attacking, say, Yaga-Shura when he is next to her. Both are immune to fire damage, but any bonuses to missile damage--whether from proficiencies, spells, items, or your crossbow itself--will also apply. This means you can deal maybe 13 missile damage per hit at 10 APR as an area-effect projectile. It's not much, but it will bypass weapon immunities as long as you can hit the original target. Thus, you can get past Melissan's Absolute Immunity spell by attacking a nearby enemy using the Frag Grenades--unless, of course, you have Spell Revisions, in which case Absolute Immunity (and presumably Melissan's version of it) also gives immunity to the damage opcode.
3. The Scorcher Ammunition strikes as a +0 magical weapon, grants +10 to THAC0, and uses the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile. It deals 2d12 nonmagical fire damage with a save vs. breath for half and strikes twice.
Which means that ALL ON-HIT EFFECTS ALSO STRIKE TWICE.
This includes your missile damage bonuses, Power Attack, Wizard Slayer spell failure, Poison Weapon, and any other on-hit effects. All of them apply twice, so the odds of stun-locking Melissan with Power Attack are very high. You can also remove 20 Stoneskins per round using it.
And because it uses the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile, it also works as an area effect. You can attack Yaga-Shura 10 times with the Scorcher Ammunition and then run around the map, using the jet of fire to damage multiple enemies at once. All of them will take missile damage; not just fire damage.
Also bear in mind that the damage animation plays every time. If you land every hit, you're forcing everyone in the area of effect to suffer the damage animation up to 20 times per round, enough to shut down all spellcasting and even interrupt attacks.
As long as your first target can be hit by a +0 magical weapon, you can apply area-effect hitstun, Power Attack, fire damage, and missile damage to anyone that you can wrap the scorcher projectile around.
I think the Scorcher Ammunition should be considered a staple for any Legacy of Bhaal fight with Ascension Melissan.
Combined with the scorcher loop, which I discussed in a previous thread, you can also produce the Death Ray Zorcher. If you create the DRZ using Spell Turning scrolls or the Book of Daily Spell (which itself can be duplicated using the WoL trick), it can deal about 100,000 damage by the time it's done. If you create it using the Wizard Slayer kit from Wizard Slayer Rebalanacing, it can deal about 15,000 damage before it fizzles out.
However, producing the Death Ray Zorcher requires either using (1) the revised Wizard Slayer kit dual-classed to mage, or (2) a clone that can use the Wand of Lightning. If clones cannot use quick items in your install, method 2 is impossible. And I'm not sure if the revised Wizard Slayer can dual-class normally.
Also important: blindness also allows you to save and rest when enemies are nearby. However, this requires you to not be in combat, so you have to keep the enemy off of your back for a few moments in order to be able to use blindness to save.
Resting is impossible at the Throne of Bhaal, and much of the area is never in the fog of war, but if you pin Melissan on one of the islands next to the main platform, you can run away and probably land a quick save. You can then use the quick save trick to refresh your aura: cast Wish, quick save, quick load, cast Wish again, and so on (your aura is always clear when you load up the game). This also allows you to drink multiple potions at once.
100 intoxication translates to -12 luck. They will suffer maximum spell damage and roll much lower on their damage rolls, but more importantly, they'll effectively have -12 to THAC0. If your main character has strong AC, everyone on the map should only be able to hit you on a natural 20, at which point your only remaining concern should be Time Stop.
You can gain immunity to Time Stop using the Focus spell you get when activating the pools before summoning the Five. The immunity lasts 5 rounds, but unfortunately, Focus can only be cast every 10 rounds, so you'll need to budget a Hardiness or Protection from Magical Weapons to ensure that Melissan and/or Abazigal cannot kill you during Time Stop. Melissan is especially troublesome, as she will combine Teleport Without Error with Greater Whirlwind Attack.
Also note that if you are rude to the Solar before the fight with the Ravager, you will get a permanent +25% bonus to your physical damage resistances. Fighter/Druids, Barbarians, Fighter/Clerics, and Dwarven Defenders can achieve immunity to physical damage using Earth Elemental form (which can be maintained indefinitely with Improved Shapeshifting installed), Defensive Stance, Hardiness, and/or Armor of Faith. If you have Item Revisions installed, the Fortress Shield grants +10%, an amulet grants another +10%, and the Orc Leather +3 or a suit of full plate mail will grant +20%. If you can smuggle Drow Full Plate into the area, that's another +25-30%. With the right install, a Fighter/Druid should be able to hit 100% undispellable physical damage resistance.
Another mod allows you to scribe scrolls. You can get however many Wish, PFMW, Improved Haste, or Spell Immunity scrolls as you want, provided you have the money (the higher-level options cost thousands of gold).
And, of course, if you can kill Breudayael in Spellhold (which could probably be done with Spike Traps), his Robe of Mystra will grant immunity to Time Stop among other things, and if you can kill Drusilia from the same mod, her Staff of Zoltan will grant undispellable invisibility to evil-aligned critters (which should make Ascension a cake walk regardless of difficulty level; no one could target you). There are other mod items that grant immunity to Time Stop, including a ring from Saratathlaer (or whatever his name is) at the beginning of ToB and another ring from a monk in the Saradush tavern (usable with Use Any item).
Also, Bladesingers (a Fighter/Mage kit for Elves) can use Bladesong, which grants an undocument +2 to casting time and Improved Alacrity for 1 second, allowing them to erect new defenses from Focus to PFMW instantly. If you combine it with the Wand of Lightning trick, it will grant +12 to casting time, allowing you to cast about 30 spells (one per frame) before the Improved Alacrity effect runs out. At high levels, Bladesingers can use Bladesong multiple times per day.
In BG1, Alchemists (the thief kit, not my mage kit) can create two potions per day from a list. An Alchemist with enough patience could go through BG1 using Potions of Invisibility as escape options, Oils of Speed to enable kiting, and Oils of Fiery Burning to bomb enemies while kiting. It becomes less useful in BG2, so a dual-class build would be better (Alchemists don't get much out of extra levels anyway).
My Alchemist mage kit also has a Grade 5 War Engine at level 40, which deals 150d6 damage that bypasses all damage immunities and magic resistance. A Wish intoxication could boost the damage to a guaranteed 450 on a successful saving throw, or 900 on a failed save at -10, for a 30 foot radius (it uses the Delayed Blast Fireball opcode). But you would need careful positioning or SR's Absolute Immunity spell to avoid getting fried yourself, because getting caught in the blast radius essentially has a 100% chance of killing the Alchemist regardless of his or her defenses.
The Spellbender kit's Arcane Weaving and Divine Weaving spells also work with the Wand of Lightning (the Spellbender is a cleric/mage). Arcane Weaving and Divine Weaving can only cast a few select spells, but if you have the Robe of Vecna, you can spam an unlimited number of Ice Storms, one every frame, which might be able to take down some Ascension enemies provided all the Ice Storms don't cause your computer to crash (you could also cast one Lightning Bolt every frame if you wanted something safer). A Spellbender can also spam Stoneskins and a handful of other less useful spells.