Droolit as always having murder in her heart went to the undercellar rid nature of the two fiendish doppelgangers Slythe and Krystin. With this not being an outside area she was severely handicapped but a new strategy was to be tested. 5 nymphs were summoned instead of the usual 3 + dogees and cast hold monster at Slythe while Droolit was invis. Hold monster actually has a -2 save malus and while it failed on Slythe the invisible Krystin got held by it.Droolit waited till 2 nymphs died and then went visible summoning 2 dogees. The slowwitted Slythe not realizing he was on his own gave his usual lip to Droolit, but quickly got chopped down to injured at the same time hacking away at the dogees. After one was killed and the other at injured Droolit joined in in melee combat, Slythe instantly switching to attack her instead, not finishing off the dogee. Her ironskins absorbed the first few hits, after that Durlags goblet had to be used once before Slythe breathed his last. Now Droolit had only to wait for Krystins hold to wear off to make her visible (sadly I did not meorize true sight or other anti invis) but that didn't take much longer. Krystin wasn't much of a match for Droolit + Dogee even tho there was one scary moment when a Chromatic Orb flew her way and she quickly gulped a blue antimagic potion which I usually never use.
Now Cythandria had to die and even tho all 5 nymphs failed their hold spell, they succeded in Cy wasting all her area effect spells and even tho Droolit stayed invis to avoid the golems, when Cy walked close to her she still initiated dialogue and called them.
While Cy stood still the golems wandered around and once Droolit understood the pattern she revealed herself to Cy when the golems started to walk south and lured her down the stairs. Here she summoned her dogees and together they quickly finished her off.
Well, in my honest opinion, fighter/mage shouldn't be banned. I know it was a joke @Harpagornis, but we just can't get down that road, aka considering some classes are too powerful for the challenge. In that sense, we could say that druid shouldn't use Harm, because that's OP. Each player should decide what they want to use. It's even more true that this thread is turning in another no-reload thread. Beating this challenge with a fighter/mage would be a major accomplishment.
Heck, I personally would love to see a run by @semiticgod, even with xp bonus on and xp cap off. Do I play like he does ? No, I never used the Wand of lightning trick in my life. Do I love to read about his runs ? Absolutely. Nobody pushes the engine as far as he does. As long as a run is as advertised, aka a player is honest about what he does, I'm all ok. You can tackle the challenge with the Godbow or the Killsword if you want to, you just won't gain any "street creds" for it. Well, the last part was a joke obviously, but you get what I mean.
Aaaand Droolit finished the palace ambush. She decided not to charm any nobles but simply summoned 5 nymphs and precast some minor defensive buffs. Triggering the transformation she immediately cast plague of insects, hindering any spells for quite some time and then teaming up on the shaman with her nymphs. Once 2 nymphs died, which took some time since they weren't focused 2 dogees replaced them, the insect plague wore of but the shaman also died, shortly after him the assassin. The mage hid in the south room, so the other doppelgangers died first, then the mage last. Lila was invisible in the middle of combat but unluckily got dispelled and Sarevok decided to aggro her, after he hit Droolit once and she moved away. Luckily he switched between her and the almost dead dogees as Belt was dead and her dying would end the game! Soon he had enough and teleported out like the coward he is.
Heck, I personally would love to see a run by @semiticgod, even with xp bonus on and xp cap off. Do I play like he does ? No, I never used the Wand of lightning trick in my life. Do I love to read about his runs ? Absolutely. Nobody pushes the engine as far as he does. As long as a run is as advertised, aka a player is honest about what he does, I'm all ok. You can tackle the challenge with the Godbow or the Killsword if you want to, you just won't gain any "street creds" for it. Well, the last part was a joke obviously, but you get what I mean.
If my first no-reload trilogy run taught me anything, it's that I am willing to do just about anything to win. I did some awful things to the enemy in that run. It starts here.
I do make a point of announcing when I'm doing something unorthodox. When I pull dirty tricks on the enemy, I let people know. Yet no one has ever criticized me for doing these things.
But now that I've finally got a document no-reload trilogy under my belt, and I'm not just a BG2 specialist anymore (for so long, I never beat BG1 no-reload), maybe I'll be more comfortable taking some chances and steering clear of certain tricks.
I will defend the scorcher loop as a valid tactic, though. The Death Ray Zorcher is one thing (since it requires the WoL trick), but the scorcher loop by itself is just using spell turning effects to bounce Agannazar's Scorcher spells, which is intended game behavior--not a glitch.
It's still wildly overpowered, of course. Two Spell Turning spells and a triple Agannazar's Scorcher Spell Sequencer can deal 800 damage before it fizzles out, or 1,400 when combined with Wish intoxication. It's too bad that so many important main quest enemies are immune to fire. The only way to lower fire resistance is the Protection from Fire priest spell that's exclusive to Icewind Dale, which sets fire resistance to 80%.
@Harpagornis & @semiticgod : Power Attack is useless against Ascension LoB Mel. Her saving throw vs death is 1, but she gets the -5 bonus from LoB, thus pushing it effectively at -4, rendering Power Attack ineffective. I was actually thinking of selecting lots of Power Attack instead of GWW with Caligula at one point, but testing proved it's useless against her. Smite is awesome because it's a sure stun, but you can take it only once. Oh well.
When you look closely at these things though, it would actually make sense for a fighter with two weapons to select lots of Power Attack if you don't play LoB, because the chance of stunlocking an opponent is really good then. Team that with a Greater Malison and you could easily have 50%+ chance for every single hit of stunning an enemy for 2 rounds. And it last longer than GWW. Power Attack might be one the most underrated HLA a fighter can have.
Greater Malison, Doom, and Chant can render Melissan vulnerable to Power Attack. But you don't get all of those things unless you're a Fighter/Mage/Cleric. Looking at Melissan in Near Infinity, it seems her save vs. death is 2, not 1, but you'd still need to be an FMC.
Save vs. death: 2 Save vs. breath: 4 Save vs. polymorph: 4 Save vs. wand: 3 Save vs. spell: 0
A Wand of Paralyzation has a small chance of working even without Greater Malison.
Also, if we haven't brought it up: the Fractal Blade +3 in Siege of Dragonspear should be able to remove Improved Invisibility from the final boss (50% chance per hit), which could be very important for any class that doesn't have True Seeing or Detect Illusions.
You start up a Legacy of Bhaal run with an Abjurer/Thief and what happens? Your mods prevent your familiar from getting HP bonuses, they take away your Fairy Dragon's Invisibility 10' Radius spell, and then a bunch of skeletons with ranged weapons ambush you during an area transition.
I tested Power Attack against Melissan some time ago and it looked that the stun works quite often even without any of the named debuffs using the Big Metal Rod and Scorcher Ammunition.
@semiticgod: I traveled south to High Hedge and then west to the Coast where Shoal was waiting. Never got into an ambush like this before (and i use this way often times!) Bad luck maybe?
You start up a Legacy of Bhaal run with an Abjurer/Thief and what happens? Your mods prevent your familiar from getting HP bonuses, they take away your Fairy Dragon's Invisibility 10' Radius spell, and then a bunch of skeletons with ranged weapons ambush you during an area transition.
Death.
Is there a safe way of getting to Shoal?
You should normally get a HP boost, and quite a significant one in LoB. In my setup some alignments get bigger boosts than others. However, the familiars in BG1 don't have all the abilities they have in BG2. The fairy dragon only gets Invisibility 10' Radius in BG2.
I agree you should get a HP boost with a familiar. If mods are not affecting it then familiar HPs in LoB are increased by x2 + 20 - generally giving 44 HPs, so that the mage receives a bonus of 22. That's helpful, but certainly does not guarantee safety on the area transitions going south to High Hedge and then on to Shoal - there's a chance (though quite a small one) of an archer ambush on both transitions.
Mages have the opportunity to learn the armor spell scroll in Candlekeep and that increases the chance of survival in an ambush. Personally I've given up using autopause, but that will definitely also enhance your prospects of either just running or casting a helpful spell (like shield).
I've tried runs during odd moments recently with several different characters without getting far. Seeing all the activity on the thread though "fills me with determination" and I decided to return to Freya the sorcerer to see if she could get further than the entrance to the SoD dungeon. So far she's: - killed Shoal with run and shoot tactics (not blinding her as she would then wander round and probably find more enemies). Staying in that area, Freya blinded & shot various carrion crawlers and dire wolves to get to level 4 and learn invisibility without having to risk any more area transitions. - in Beregost killed Algernon for his cloak before heading up to Ulgoth's Beard to get Dushai's ring. I tried charming him for quite a while before starting counting and it took a further 124 attempts - I think it would have been over 200 in total. - did some reputation quests on the way down to Nashkel before charming Meilum for his bracers (invisibility makes that easy as you can make the attempt without enemies reacting and then rest safely). - charming Greywolf got Freya up to level 5 before moving on to the basilisks. Lining groups of basilisks up for wand scorchers made sure the green scroll protection wouldn't run out.
Freya then made Korax invisible and moved on to level 6 watching him kill Mutamin. To curb my normal tendency to take chances I just had Freya then kill Korax before going to charm Kirian's group one at a time and lead them to other enemies for disposal.
Sigh - another typical end for me. I was killing Bjornin's half-ogres (while waiting for the gnolls to deal with Drizzt) and after using up skull traps was running them round in webs. Two were dead and the others nearly so when I must have allowed one of them to get a fraction too close as the game-ending screen suddenly popped up. The ending text was only showing gnoll attacks, so I couldn't see what happened, but to lose her 38 HPs in one blow the half-ogre must have got a critical ...
Thanks to playing several games with @Harpagornis and after reading a lot stuff especially from @Grond0 and @Blackraven in this thread Vyz rushed further through the early obstacles of BG1:
Next stops for him - after dropping his reputation thanks to the killing of Dushai - was Mr. Colquetle in Beregost after he found his Family Necklace in the southern wilderniss. Mad Brage who had slaugthered the whole caravan was peaced and taken back to Nashkel while telling the truth to Oublek – no, Vyz is no Bounty Hunter – got him another reputation point. Once the charmed Krumm had killed Caldo it was quite easy to take down the nearly dead Krumm with his Wolf and some Sling Shots so the Dryad of the Cloud Peaks can rest in peace once more. In the southern part of the same map Vyz quickly gathered a dead cat from the waterfall and put it back to a poor girl named Drienne. With already 19 reputation points it was the heavily wounded Samuel to push him up the golden 20´s (not forgeting about the Ring of Fire Protection hiding in the rocks!). Another benefit: Vyz jumped up to Level 5 and will get even stronger summons!
Now it was time to buy some big stuff in Ulgoths Beard mainly the Sandthief Ring (how can one live without it?) and the life-saving Greenstone Amulet. The sun seemed to shine brighter than before thanks to these great protective items so Vyz thought that it was time to get some real battles on the table.
No, the battles had to wait a bit as Vyz totally missed Melicamp for another easy 2k XP. Thanks to his Bear the Wolf and Skeletons quickly turned into dust so Vyz moved back to Thalantyr. Luck was on his side because Melicamp successfully transfomed back into his Human Form.
Well, Vyz continued his easy run helping Albert to get back his demon dog called Rufie and then headed back north to use the first charges of his Sandthief Ring to sneak through the Ankhegs and grab Bruns dead Son together with some fine Darts of Wounding and Stunning – they should be helpful later on!
Now it was time for Meilum. At least Vyz thought it would be. Because using the Bear for tanking did not work well and hitting him with Ranged Weapon was a pain in the ass. So Vyz quickly tried to charm him and – oh wonder – it worked! He moved Meilum to nearby Kobolds and let him kill the group slowly enough so that he get heavily wounded. Slinging him down took only five more hits – easy job! With the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise Vyz felt much stronger and moved on!
Vyz learned from this lesson and decided to be smarter when facing Greywolf near the Nashkel Mines. He positioned his Bear near Prism and once the battle started he quickly retreated to charm the Bounty Hunter. It failed so Vyz dropped back to the Mines while resting just outside of Greywolfs vision. He summoned another Bear to drop his charm – but failed again. On the third try luck turned in his favor and all three moved south to Galtok. After the Kobold ambush spawned he let Greywolf do the dirty work – gaining XP on the one hand and damaging Greywolf on the other. Once the last Kobold went down the nearly dead Greywolf was immediately panicked by a Bear Attack so Vyz had an easy time landing the finishing blow! With the Longsword +2 and level 6 reached he should soon proceed to the Big Game Hunter area of BG1: B- Ba- Basilisks!
Edith: Ouch @Grond0! Hope Freya will be revived soon!
I installed the Mod order monk yesterday but it was very late so I only looked at some superficial stuff in BG2 with EE-Keeper.
From what I've seen the monk should be viable in BG1 getting not only +1 fists, but also having better early AC than the vanilla monk, which on top of that can be enhanced with unique Monk "vestments" that can be equipped in the armor slot. Also and this I like a lot you can play halfling monk which is not as good as dwarf getting -1 ST but still much better than human, getting +5 saves.
The saving malus for stunning and killing blow increasing from level 15 on (-1 every 5 levels) doesn't help in BG1 ofc but should make Melissan a cakewalk.
The different orders are interesting, tho I tried out Long Death monk and it performed much worse than I expected and the poison ability doesn't seem to work at all.
On the "downside" the monk only gets up to 50% MR which hardly matters at all, with items that's still 70% and you get the godly halfling saves in exchange. Also I'm not quite sure if there's other monk specific items introduced by the mod I've overlooked that raise MR. (Besides the vestments there's also gauntlets which increase Thac0 and dmg)
@Blackraven I don't use wands in BG1 much, though I would expect to sell and re-buy wands in order to take them fully charged into SoD (not that they've ever had much of a work-out there either though ).
@Vynn glad to see everything going well with Vyz - long may that continue .
@Victor_Creed_SFV I've got a soft spot for monks as well, so will be interested to see if you can make a success of one.
Incidentally, I just did a test on the Martyr's Morningstar to double-check that the 15% reduction in HPs on a critical does work despite the fact that the weapon is ineffective against Belhifet for normal purposes. Given there are so many other challenges in SoD I haven't really thought about the end battle, but this does seem to offer a possible route for a fighter-type - particularly a kensai that could negate the relatively slow weapon speed of the morningstar and possibly be able to attack without retaliation. From the earlier discussion in this thread, standing and fighting for a fighter doesn't seem to be an option for anyone (and certainly not for me as I don't allow the use of healing items), so a 10% chance of doing almost 170 damage to Belhifet is likely to be a better route than using a +3 weapon.
Mmh... Power Attack works on her, in the end. It's weird. I make my test with the FINMEL01 creature. I just summon her in the beginning area of ToB to make my tests. She has more hp (over 2000) and she's immune to +4 weapons there.
She probably loses some stats when you kill the Five. I'll test it at the throne tonight, because going the Power Attack way is a big decision for a fighter. Actually, @Victor_Creed_SFV suggested to change the place of my tests a while ago, but I'm a lazy man... If it works, that gives me a better chance at killing her.
He traveled to the Basilisk area like thousand times before with a Protection from Petrification Scroll, Korax, double Spirit Wolves and dual Scimitars. Everything worked fine in the southern section where several Basilisks were easily stunned and put Vyz up to level 7.
Then they headed to Mutamin. Vyz moved a little bit too far forward so the Mage saw him before his summons could move into position. The talking started and Mutamin quickly used his Mirror Images. The Wolves were the first one to reach him and with a lucky hit they managed to stun him. With Korax also joining the fight seemed to be over. Easy victory. Like always. But somehow Mutamin escaped the stunlock, recasted his Mirror Image and was not only able to get in his own summons (Half Ogre and Wolf) but also managed to cast Melfs Acid Arrow at Vyz even though everyone was beating at him.
Shortly after he escaped again and nearly managed to cast another Acid Arrow at Vyz that could have been really painful (with the other one still ticking!). But in the last nanosecond a stun from Korax landed and this time he could not get out again! The summons and Basilisks went down shortly after and Vyz finally got some moments to take a breath.
He also tried to charm Kirian to lure the Mage up to Korax but failed. Maybe next time!
He traveled to the Basilisk area like thousand times before with a Protection from Petrification Scroll, Korax, double Spirit Wolves and dual Scimitars. Everything worked fine in the southern section where several Basilisks were easily stunned and put Vyz up to level 7.
Then they headed to Mutamin. Vyz moved a little bit too far forward so the Mage saw him before his summons could move into position. The talking started and Mutamin quickly used his Mirror Images. The Wolves were the first one to reach him and with a lucky hit they managed to stun him. With Korax also joining the fight seemed to be over. Easy victory. Like always. But somehow Mutamin escaped the stunlock, recasted his Mirror Image and was not only able to get in his own summons (Half Ogre and Wolf) but also managed to cast Melfs Acid Arrow at Vyz even though everyone was beating at him.
Shortly after he escaped again and nearly managed to cast another Acid Arrow at Vyz that could have been really painful (with the other one still ticking!). But in the last nanosecond a stun from Korax landed and this time he could not get out again! The summons and Basilisks went down shortly after and Vyz finally got some moments to take a breath.
He also tried to charm Kirian to lure the Mage up to Korax but failed. Maybe next time!
I've learned the value of potions of magic blocking for quickly saving against acid arrows, chromatic orbs or magic missiles. Idk how good this would be vs Mutamin tho, since it dispels spells below level 5 and idk what level the scroll has.
After playtesting the long death Monk enhanced by EE-keeper a bit more in SoA I decided that I really like the class. Even tho the poison ability is broken and does not work at all, this Monk is much better than any Monk kit in vanilla. It's innate Vampiric blows is a hp drain much like on Fobane in terms of doing magic damage, but it starts out much weaker having only 25% drain chance at level 1 and 30% at level 5, lasting only 1 round at 1 and 2 rounds at 5 and draining only 2/3 hp on success. The next scaling is at level 10 which wouldn't be reached in BG1 cap. You gain one use every 4 levels and start out with 1, no idea if you gain the next use aat 5 or 4, if the latter than with level 8 in BG1 you could use this 3 times. This ability is insane with max xp and equip in BG2 but more of a gimmick in BG1, but still very nice to have for some extra healing. The real gamechanger for monastic order monks are their handwraps and vestments, which you can buy at Erdane in Durlag’s Tower, the Ulgoth’s Beard Barkeep, Ribald, Garlena in Watcher’s Keep and the Saradush Barkeep as well as associated Black Pits merchants.
I will start a new Monk without any EE keepering in BG1 today and report what kind of items are available in BG1, but one Handwrap you can buy at Watcher's Keep is absolutely gamebreaking giving +4 Thac0 and damage but also additional 1d6 slashing damage, which inflict a Dot of 2 magical damage per round for 1 turn! They also have 10% chance to force a save vs death or do massive magical damage for a couple of rounds with a save allowed each round, but this is ofc less good in lob.
So if anything with an effect even close to this is available in BG1 the monk should be real good maybe even for no reload I will start a normal game first tho.
Oh, i had a Potion of Magic Blocking in the backpack @Victor_Creed_SFV but i wanted to save it for really bad moments. HP > 20 is not critical or is it?
Vyz visited the Nashkel Mines but did not care about the Kobolds around. With invisibility he walked right to Mulahey and charmed him. Vyz let Mulahey attack the neutral Kobolds in the north so they could give him a good beating. They brought him down to nearly dead before Vyz attacked Mulahey together with two Spirit Wolves and two Nymphs. Mulahey tried to talk his way out but there was no escape. Surprisingly he did not summon any Guards - some moments later he was dead. Hah! As i always said to @Harpagornis. Forget about your Necklace Fireballs - sweet Charms rule the world!!
Edith: Tranzig was stunlocked by the Wolves and Nymphs. It looks like the big fun is finally starting!
Edith II: Like @Victor_Creed_SFV described before the Lightning Damage from the Nymphs is just insane on LoB. The Spiders from Landrins Home died instantly. WOW!!
Hm without having RR installed Monks have no critical hit protection, so I might have to install that. Vestments and Gauntlets are "only" +1 in BG1 but they also give + d4 fire damage (+1 thac0 and dmg base, equipping of a weapon becomes unavailable but you can equip it offhand beforehand and grab an extra attack + possible weapon bonuses) and +10% cold resistance (+1 AC base).
Even with the offhand cheese and Twinkle you will end up having only -5 AC, so at the end of the day you will have to either kite with darts which kinda kills the mood for a monk or instead of the Long Death Monk I selected have to go with vanilla monk with improved stunning blows (available from level 1 gets -1 save penalty at level 5 and -2 at level 10) which you could kinda play like a backstab char but instead of bs hoping for a failed save on stun.
As much as I like the BG2 version of the monastic order, I'm not overly impressed with the BG1 version and let's keep in mind that this is the most improved version over unmodded monks which are just terrible in BG1, while the monastic monks at least have a chance...
As my good companion @Harpagornis would say: Have you formulated a strategy for Coalition Camp and Big B @Victor_Creed_SFV? The limited options of Monks will be troublesome there. But maybe the Mod-Kits will allow some decent tricks?
Vyn moved to Durlags Tower to test the Wolf-Nymph-Lighnting-Combo and was surprised how efficient they cleared the Battle Horrors as well as the three Greater Basilisk on top of the tower.
The lesson to learn: Never fight a Druid outside! Thanks to the big XP boost Vyz jumped up to Level 8!
@Vynn One would have to use hit and run as with thieves, from what I hear Potions of invis are good for non druid peasants vs Big B. I just don't see a way I like the BG1 monk, even with mod. Twinkle doesn't work on my Lawful neutral/evil limited kit and I don't like to restart with another kit since Twinkle alone will not change the sad state the monk is in. -4 is the best AC you can get (-6 with twinkle, -7 with the dreaded claw of kaz), bear in mind that wearing no armor there is no modifiers to slash/pierce/missile additional to what belts do, so only against crush the monk looks halfway decent but having -7 too -10 vs slash is a death sentence. Ofc potions work quite well, 0 AC bring a fully leveled BG1 monk to -8 without twinkle and Kaz, but I jsut don't know if it's enough for SoD, since my knowledge about SoD is slim and monks can't use shortbows with arrows of detonation.
Ofc without xp cap the monk would tear thru BG1 and SoD but I can see how that would be too much :P
I didn't have much work to do today, so it wasn't long before I rolled up Dorn, a kensai. To get both grand mastery (to ensure a weapon speed of 0 with morningstar) and a single weapon pip leaves him with a single pip available for daggers. Throwing those was his main tactic early on and soon accounted for Shoal.
After going down to Nashkel to get a Bhaal CLW ability, Dorn returned to Beregost to kill Algernon for his cloak. The fishermen provided him with a magic flail and returning the bowl to Tenya was enough for level 4.
A series of reputation quests included making a first use of the Amulet of Shielding to collect a skull - although Melicamp failed to survive anyway. Other reputation quests were more profitable though and Dorn got to level 5 by allowing Prism to stage an artistic death. Hulrik went hostile as a result of charming one of the xvarts attacking his cow, but after Dorn rested and charmed Hulrik he realised what a helpful dwarf Dorn was after all . It wasn't long after that that Dorn got up to reputation 20 in the Cloud Peaks - though he did have to react fast to an ambush there to take a potion of invulnerability to be sure of saving against a charm person from an ogre mage.
With more reasonable prices on offer Dorn bought a few things, including the Dagger of Venom. He won't be able to get a decent weapon speed with a morningstar prior to SoD, so the dagger offers an alternative in BG1 allowing him to use hit and run melee tactics. That was immediately put to good use in the basilisk area where Dorn got up to level 6. Korax helped out with Mutamin as usual, before paralysing a charmed Peter. Rather than use Korax to attack the others and turn them hostile, Dorn rested before successively charming Baerin, Lindin and then Kirian.
Dorn tried out a couple of combats against battle horrors at Durlag's Tower, but didn't have enough of a weapon speed advantage there to make continuing worthwhile. Instead he tried his luck at the Lighthouse. The amulet of shielding combined with potions of clarity, speed and regeneration to allow him to tank the first group of sirines. As the second lot start non-hostile, 2 of those were charmed and taken away for disposal (getting Dorn up to level 7), while Sil lost out to a charmed carrion crawler. I decided it wasn't worth using resources on the flesh golems though, so just dodged those while looting the cave. The tome from there provides constitution regeneration, so will be very helpful to keep Dorn's HPs up.
Kensai sounds super interesting, will you dual Dorn?
Have any of you guys charmed Korlasz lately? I decided to try out how far into SoD I would get with a monk, but I can't for the life of me charm Korlasz, and she never shows a save vs breath, no reaction to the Algernon's at all, just intiates dialogue and goes hostile.
I've never tried charming Korlasz, but it wouldn't surprise me if her script would over-ride that even if successful prior to dialogue. Have you tried charming her after the dialogue?
@Grond0, yes, a Kensai is very cool. I'm very interested in pure-class warriors (might try again with an Archer at some point. @Victor_Creed_SFV, Mordica charmed Korlasz (in one try) with Algernon's Cloak, but that was after she had cast Greater Malison.
Kensai is cool. Going hard for the Morningstar and relying on crits against Big B? Good Luck @Grond0!
Charming Korlasz should be easy as her Saves are not that good. Something is going badly wrong @Victor_Creed_SFV!
Vyz did everything right at the Bandit Camp. Or to be clearer: He moved in and out unseen not bothering to fight anyone. Only big Taurgosz was charmed and killed by his own Bandits! The wilderness of the Cloakwood should be more fun again!
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With this not being an outside area she was severely handicapped but a new strategy was to be tested.
5 nymphs were summoned instead of the usual 3 + dogees and cast hold monster at Slythe while Droolit was invis. Hold monster actually has a -2 save malus and while it failed on Slythe the invisible Krystin got held by it.Droolit waited till 2 nymphs died and then went visible summoning 2 dogees.
The slowwitted Slythe not realizing he was on his own gave his usual lip to Droolit, but quickly got chopped down to injured at the same time hacking away at the dogees.
After one was killed and the other at injured Droolit joined in in melee combat, Slythe instantly switching to attack her instead, not finishing off the dogee.
Her ironskins absorbed the first few hits, after that Durlags goblet had to be used once before Slythe breathed his last.
Now Droolit had only to wait for Krystins hold to wear off to make her visible (sadly I did not meorize true sight or other anti invis) but that didn't take much longer.
Krystin wasn't much of a match for Droolit + Dogee even tho there was one scary moment when a Chromatic Orb flew her way and she quickly gulped a blue antimagic potion which I usually never use.
Now Cythandria had to die and even tho all 5 nymphs failed their hold spell, they succeded in Cy wasting all her area effect spells and even tho Droolit stayed invis to avoid the golems, when Cy walked close to her she still initiated dialogue and called them.
While Cy stood still the golems wandered around and once Droolit understood the pattern she revealed herself to Cy when the golems started to walk south and lured her down the stairs.
Here she summoned her dogees and together they quickly finished her off.
Heck, I personally would love to see a run by @semiticgod, even with xp bonus on and xp cap off. Do I play like he does ? No, I never used the Wand of lightning trick in my life. Do I love to read about his runs ? Absolutely. Nobody pushes the engine as far as he does. As long as a run is as advertised, aka a player is honest about what he does, I'm all ok. You can tackle the challenge with the Godbow or the Killsword if you want to, you just won't gain any "street creds" for it. Well, the last part was a joke obviously, but you get what I mean.
She decided not to charm any nobles but simply summoned 5 nymphs and precast some minor defensive buffs.
Triggering the transformation she immediately cast plague of insects, hindering any spells for quite some time and then teaming up on the shaman with her nymphs.
Once 2 nymphs died, which took some time since they weren't focused 2 dogees replaced them, the insect plague wore of but the shaman also died, shortly after him the assassin.
The mage hid in the south room, so the other doppelgangers died first, then the mage last.
Lila was invisible in the middle of combat but unluckily got dispelled and Sarevok decided to aggro her, after he hit Droolit once and she moved away.
Luckily he switched between her and the almost dead dogees as Belt was dead and her dying would end the game!
Soon he had enough and teleported out like the coward he is.
I do make a point of announcing when I'm doing something unorthodox. When I pull dirty tricks on the enemy, I let people know. Yet no one has ever criticized me for doing these things.
But now that I've finally got a document no-reload trilogy under my belt, and I'm not just a BG2 specialist anymore (for so long, I never beat BG1 no-reload), maybe I'll be more comfortable taking some chances and steering clear of certain tricks.
I will defend the scorcher loop as a valid tactic, though. The Death Ray Zorcher is one thing (since it requires the WoL trick), but the scorcher loop by itself is just using spell turning effects to bounce Agannazar's Scorcher spells, which is intended game behavior--not a glitch.
It's still wildly overpowered, of course. Two Spell Turning spells and a triple Agannazar's Scorcher Spell Sequencer can deal 800 damage before it fizzles out, or 1,400 when combined with Wish intoxication. It's too bad that so many important main quest enemies are immune to fire. The only way to lower fire resistance is the Protection from Fire priest spell that's exclusive to Icewind Dale, which sets fire resistance to 80%.
Going straight to no-reload ? Having another quality player is even better !! Hope you have fun around here !!
@Harpagornis & @semiticgod : Power Attack is useless against Ascension LoB Mel. Her saving throw vs death is 1, but she gets the -5 bonus from LoB, thus pushing it effectively at -4, rendering Power Attack ineffective. I was actually thinking of selecting lots of Power Attack instead of GWW with Caligula at one point, but testing proved it's useless against her. Smite is awesome because it's a sure stun, but you can take it only once. Oh well.
When you look closely at these things though, it would actually make sense for a fighter with two weapons to select lots of Power Attack if you don't play LoB, because the chance of stunlocking an opponent is really good then. Team that with a Greater Malison and you could easily have 50%+ chance for every single hit of stunning an enemy for 2 rounds. And it last longer than GWW. Power Attack might be one the most underrated HLA a fighter can have.
Save vs. death: 2
Save vs. breath: 4
Save vs. polymorph: 4
Save vs. wand: 3
Save vs. spell: 0
A Wand of Paralyzation has a small chance of working even without Greater Malison.
Also, if we haven't brought it up: the Fractal Blade +3 in Siege of Dragonspear should be able to remove Improved Invisibility from the final boss (50% chance per hit), which could be very important for any class that doesn't have True Seeing or Detect Illusions.
Death.
Is there a safe way of getting to Shoal?
Mages have the opportunity to learn the armor spell scroll in Candlekeep and that increases the chance of survival in an ambush. Personally I've given up using autopause, but that will definitely also enhance your prospects of either just running or casting a helpful spell (like shield).
- killed Shoal with run and shoot tactics (not blinding her as she would then wander round and probably find more enemies). Staying in that area, Freya blinded & shot various carrion crawlers and dire wolves to get to level 4 and learn invisibility without having to risk any more area transitions.
- in Beregost killed Algernon for his cloak before heading up to Ulgoth's Beard to get Dushai's ring. I tried charming him for quite a while before starting counting and it took a further 124 attempts - I think it would have been over 200 in total.
- did some reputation quests on the way down to Nashkel before charming Meilum for his bracers (invisibility makes that easy as you can make the attempt without enemies reacting and then rest safely).
- charming Greywolf got Freya up to level 5 before moving on to the basilisks. Lining groups of basilisks up for wand scorchers made sure the green scroll protection wouldn't run out.
Next stops for him - after dropping his reputation thanks to the killing of Dushai - was Mr. Colquetle in Beregost after he found his Family Necklace in the southern wilderniss. Mad Brage who had slaugthered the whole caravan was peaced and taken back to Nashkel while telling the truth to Oublek – no, Vyz is no Bounty Hunter – got him another reputation point. Once the charmed Krumm had killed Caldo it was quite easy to take down the nearly dead Krumm with his Wolf and some Sling Shots so the Dryad of the Cloud Peaks can rest in peace once more. In the southern part of the same map Vyz quickly gathered a dead cat from the waterfall and put it back to a poor girl named Drienne. With already 19 reputation points it was the heavily wounded Samuel to push him up the golden 20´s (not forgeting about the Ring of Fire Protection hiding in the rocks!). Another benefit: Vyz jumped up to Level 5 and will get even stronger summons!
Now it was time to buy some big stuff in Ulgoths Beard mainly the Sandthief Ring (how can one live without it?) and the life-saving Greenstone Amulet. The sun seemed to shine brighter than before thanks to these great protective items so Vyz thought that it was time to get some real battles on the table.
No, the battles had to wait a bit as Vyz totally missed Melicamp for another easy 2k XP. Thanks to his Bear the Wolf and Skeletons quickly turned into dust so Vyz moved back to Thalantyr. Luck was on his side because Melicamp successfully transfomed back into his Human Form.
Well, Vyz continued his easy run helping Albert to get back his demon dog called Rufie and then headed back north to use the first charges of his Sandthief Ring to sneak through the Ankhegs and grab Bruns dead Son together with some fine Darts of Wounding and Stunning – they should be helpful later on!
Now it was time for Meilum. At least Vyz thought it would be. Because using the Bear for tanking did not work well and hitting him with Ranged Weapon was a pain in the ass. So Vyz quickly tried to charm him and – oh wonder – it worked! He moved Meilum to nearby Kobolds and let him kill the group slowly enough so that he get heavily wounded. Slinging him down took only five more hits – easy job! With the Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise Vyz felt much stronger and moved on!
Vyz learned from this lesson and decided to be smarter when facing Greywolf near the Nashkel Mines. He positioned his Bear near Prism and once the battle started he quickly retreated to charm the Bounty Hunter. It failed so Vyz dropped back to the Mines while resting just outside of Greywolfs vision. He summoned another Bear to drop his charm – but failed again. On the third try luck turned in his favor and all three moved south to Galtok. After the Kobold ambush spawned he let Greywolf do the dirty work – gaining XP on the one hand and damaging Greywolf on the other. Once the last Kobold went down the nearly dead Greywolf was immediately panicked by a Bear Attack so Vyz had an easy time landing the finishing blow! With the Longsword +2 and level 6 reached he should soon proceed to the Big Game Hunter area of BG1: B- Ba- Basilisks!
Edith: Ouch @Grond0! Hope Freya will be revived soon!
I installed the Mod order monk yesterday but it was very late so I only looked at some superficial stuff in BG2 with EE-Keeper.
From what I've seen the monk should be viable in BG1 getting not only +1 fists, but also having better early AC than the vanilla monk, which on top of that can be enhanced with unique Monk "vestments" that can be equipped in the armor slot.
Also and this I like a lot you can play halfling monk which is not as good as dwarf getting -1 ST but still much better than human, getting +5 saves.
The saving malus for stunning and killing blow increasing from level 15 on (-1 every 5 levels) doesn't help in BG1 ofc but should make Melissan a cakewalk.
The different orders are interesting, tho I tried out Long Death monk and it performed much worse than I expected and the poison ability doesn't seem to work at all.
On the "downside" the monk only gets up to 50% MR which hardly matters at all, with items that's still 70% and you get the godly halfling saves in exchange.
Also I'm not quite sure if there's other monk specific items introduced by the mod I've overlooked that raise MR.
(Besides the vestments there's also gauntlets which increase Thac0 and dmg)
@Vynn glad to see everything going well with Vyz - long may that continue
@Victor_Creed_SFV I've got a soft spot for monks as well, so will be interested to see if you can make a success of one.
Incidentally, I just did a test on the Martyr's Morningstar to double-check that the 15% reduction in HPs on a critical does work despite the fact that the weapon is ineffective against Belhifet for normal purposes. Given there are so many other challenges in SoD I haven't really thought about the end battle, but this does seem to offer a possible route for a fighter-type - particularly a kensai that could negate the relatively slow weapon speed of the morningstar and possibly be able to attack without retaliation. From the earlier discussion in this thread, standing and fighting for a fighter doesn't seem to be an option for anyone (and certainly not for me as I don't allow the use of healing items), so a 10% chance of doing almost 170 damage to Belhifet is likely to be a better route than using a +3 weapon.
She probably loses some stats when you kill the Five. I'll test it at the throne tonight, because going the Power Attack way is a big decision for a fighter. Actually, @Victor_Creed_SFV suggested to change the place of my tests a while ago, but I'm a lazy man...
He traveled to the Basilisk area like thousand times before with a Protection from Petrification Scroll, Korax, double Spirit Wolves and dual Scimitars. Everything worked fine in the southern section where several Basilisks were easily stunned and put Vyz up to level 7.
Then they headed to Mutamin. Vyz moved a little bit too far forward so the Mage saw him before his summons could move into position. The talking started and Mutamin quickly used his Mirror Images. The Wolves were the first one to reach him and with a lucky hit they managed to stun him. With Korax also joining the fight seemed to be over. Easy victory. Like always. But somehow Mutamin escaped the stunlock, recasted his Mirror Image and was not only able to get in his own summons (Half Ogre and Wolf) but also managed to cast Melfs Acid Arrow at Vyz even though everyone was beating at him.
Shortly after he escaped again and nearly managed to cast another Acid Arrow at Vyz that could have been really painful (with the other one still ticking!). But in the last nanosecond a stun from Korax landed and this time he could not get out again! The summons and Basilisks went down shortly after and Vyz finally got some moments to take a breath.
He also tried to charm Kirian to lure the Mage up to Korax but failed. Maybe next time!
Idk how good this would be vs Mutamin tho, since it dispels spells below level 5 and idk what level the scroll has.
After playtesting the long death Monk enhanced by EE-keeper a bit more in SoA I decided that I really like the class.
Even tho the poison ability is broken and does not work at all, this Monk is much better than any Monk kit in vanilla.
It's innate Vampiric blows is a hp drain much like on Fobane in terms of doing magic damage, but it starts out much weaker having only 25% drain chance at level 1 and 30% at level 5, lasting only 1 round at 1 and 2 rounds at 5 and draining only 2/3 hp on success. The next scaling is at level 10 which wouldn't be reached in BG1 cap. You gain one use every 4 levels and start out with 1, no idea if you gain the next use aat 5 or 4, if the latter than with level 8 in BG1 you could use this 3 times.
This ability is insane with max xp and equip in BG2 but more of a gimmick in BG1, but still very nice to have for some extra healing.
The real gamechanger for monastic order monks are their handwraps and vestments, which you can buy at Erdane in Durlag’s Tower, the Ulgoth’s Beard Barkeep, Ribald, Garlena in Watcher’s Keep and the Saradush Barkeep as well as associated Black Pits merchants.
I will start a new Monk without any EE keepering in BG1 today and report what kind of items are available in BG1, but one Handwrap you can buy at Watcher's Keep is absolutely gamebreaking giving +4 Thac0 and damage but also additional 1d6 slashing damage, which inflict a Dot of 2 magical damage per round for 1 turn! They also have 10% chance to force a save vs death or do massive magical damage for a couple of rounds with a save allowed each round, but this is ofc less good in lob.
So if anything with an effect even close to this is available in BG1 the monk should be real good maybe even for no reload I will start a normal game first tho.
Vyz visited the Nashkel Mines but did not care about the Kobolds around. With invisibility he walked right to Mulahey and charmed him. Vyz let Mulahey attack the neutral Kobolds in the north so they could give him a good beating. They brought him down to nearly dead before Vyz attacked Mulahey together with two Spirit Wolves and two Nymphs. Mulahey tried to talk his way out but there was no escape. Surprisingly he did not summon any Guards - some moments later he was dead. Hah! As i always said to @Harpagornis. Forget about your Necklace Fireballs - sweet Charms rule the world!!
Edith: Tranzig was stunlocked by the Wolves and Nymphs. It looks like the big fun is finally starting!
Edith II: Like @Victor_Creed_SFV described before the Lightning Damage from the Nymphs is just insane on LoB. The Spiders from Landrins Home died instantly. WOW!!
Vestments and Gauntlets are "only" +1 in BG1 but they also give + d4 fire damage (+1 thac0 and dmg base, equipping of a weapon becomes unavailable but you can equip it offhand beforehand and grab an extra attack + possible weapon bonuses) and +10% cold resistance (+1 AC base).
Even with the offhand cheese and Twinkle you will end up having only -5 AC, so at the end of the day you will have to either kite with darts which kinda kills the mood for a monk or instead of the Long Death Monk I selected have to go with vanilla monk with improved stunning blows (available from level 1 gets -1 save penalty at level 5 and -2 at level 10) which you could kinda play like a backstab char but instead of bs hoping for a failed save on stun.
As much as I like the BG2 version of the monastic order, I'm not overly impressed with the BG1 version and let's keep in mind that this is the most improved version over unmodded monks which are just terrible in BG1, while the monastic monks at least have a chance...
Vyn moved to Durlags Tower to test the Wolf-Nymph-Lighnting-Combo and was surprised how efficient they cleared the Battle Horrors as well as the three Greater Basilisk on top of the tower.
The lesson to learn: Never fight a Druid outside! Thanks to the big XP boost Vyz jumped up to Level 8!
One would have to use hit and run as with thieves, from what I hear Potions of invis are good for non druid peasants vs Big B.
I just don't see a way I like the BG1 monk, even with mod.
Twinkle doesn't work on my Lawful neutral/evil limited kit and I don't like to restart with another kit since Twinkle alone will not change the sad state the monk is in.
-4 is the best AC you can get (-6 with twinkle, -7 with the dreaded claw of kaz), bear in mind that wearing no armor there is no modifiers to slash/pierce/missile additional to what belts do, so only against crush the monk looks halfway decent but having -7 too -10 vs slash is a death sentence.
Ofc potions work quite well, 0 AC bring a fully leveled BG1 monk to -8 without twinkle and Kaz, but I jsut don't know if it's enough for SoD, since my knowledge about SoD is slim and monks can't use shortbows with arrows of detonation.
Ofc without xp cap the monk would tear thru BG1 and SoD but I can see how that would be too much :P
After going down to Nashkel to get a Bhaal CLW ability, Dorn returned to Beregost to kill Algernon for his cloak. The fishermen provided him with a magic flail and returning the bowl to Tenya was enough for level 4.
A series of reputation quests included making a first use of the Amulet of Shielding to collect a skull - although Melicamp failed to survive anyway. Other reputation quests were more profitable though and Dorn got to level 5 by allowing Prism to stage an artistic death. Hulrik went hostile as a result of charming one of the xvarts attacking his cow, but after Dorn rested and charmed Hulrik he realised what a helpful dwarf Dorn was after all
With more reasonable prices on offer Dorn bought a few things, including the Dagger of Venom. He won't be able to get a decent weapon speed with a morningstar prior to SoD, so the dagger offers an alternative in BG1 allowing him to use hit and run melee tactics. That was immediately put to good use in the basilisk area where Dorn got up to level 6. Korax helped out with Mutamin as usual, before paralysing a charmed Peter. Rather than use Korax to attack the others and turn them hostile, Dorn rested before successively charming Baerin, Lindin and then Kirian.
Dorn tried out a couple of combats against battle horrors at Durlag's Tower, but didn't have enough of a weapon speed advantage there to make continuing worthwhile. Instead he tried his luck at the Lighthouse. The amulet of shielding combined with potions of clarity, speed and regeneration to allow him to tank the first group of sirines. As the second lot start non-hostile, 2 of those were charmed and taken away for disposal (getting Dorn up to level 7), while Sil lost out to a charmed carrion crawler. I decided it wasn't worth using resources on the flesh golems though, so just dodged those while looting the cave. The tome from there provides constitution regeneration, so will be very helpful to keep Dorn's HPs up.
Have any of you guys charmed Korlasz lately?
I decided to try out how far into SoD I would get with a monk, but I can't for the life of me charm Korlasz, and she never shows a save vs breath, no reaction to the Algernon's at all, just intiates dialogue and goes hostile.
I've never tried charming Korlasz, but it wouldn't surprise me if her script would over-ride that even if successful prior to dialogue. Have you tried charming her after the dialogue?
@Victor_Creed_SFV, Mordica charmed Korlasz (in one try) with Algernon's Cloak, but that was after she had cast Greater Malison.
Charming Korlasz should be easy as her Saves are not that good. Something is going badly wrong @Victor_Creed_SFV!
Vyz did everything right at the Bandit Camp. Or to be clearer: He moved in and out unseen not bothering to fight anyone. Only big Taurgosz was charmed and killed by his own Bandits! The wilderness of the Cloakwood should be more fun again!