Makes a lot of sense @Aasim. But then again BG1 thiefs suffer quite a bit from this, too. Ofc they have BS to kill quicker and traps to cheese stronger.
Honestly, I don't mind thieves sticking to shortbow/crossbow/whatever ranged weapon they choose for a few levels. Bar swashbucklers, that is. Monks otoh I simply can't see throwing darts at wolves and similar. That's imo stupid, silly and utterly wrong. A warrior, who spends his life tuning his body to perfection, shoots stones at wolves?
At the mine Chiron charmed Drasus and his friends individually and pulled them away to their dooms. Inside, he just sneaked down to the 4th level without any fighting. The guard there was eventually charmed at the 15th attempt and used to pull the battle horrors back towards the entrance - where Chiron used his Wand of the Heavens for the first time to kill one of them. After that he rested to cure some trap damage and the other battle horror took the opportunity to run away - Chiron countered by charming a guard upstairs and dragging it back down to bring the battle horror back. This time though, before he could finish it off the battle horror ran away and as Chiron followed he activated Davaeorn.
Fortunately Chiron was able to avoid the sequencer trap and hide and he then waited for all the guards to arrive. He used 9 of the 10 Necklace charges and 6 fireball potions to kill a few of the guards and badly wound the remainder - they were then finished off with stealth shots. When attacking Davaeorn he responded by running round, but Chiron was patient and managed to get him into position near the entrance where he could use the stairs and stealth shots to break down stoneskins. Once Davaeorn was naked though, he used a potion of invisibility. Chiron countered by activating the Horn of Kazgaroth (rather painful that as the normal 10 damage is doubled in LoB) and that persuaded Davaeorn to reveal himself again. That was short-lived, however, as Davaeorn soon disappeared again with another potion. This time Chiron retreated to rest for a day before returning to manoeuvre Davaeorn into position again - and this time he was out of tricks.
Baldur's Gate is about to get a tad more crowded ...
@Victor_Creed_SFV, I used the Monk Overhaul mod from this thread, which uses the Oversight HLAs changes it so that Sun Soul monks can't get Lunar Stance and Dark Moon monks can't get Solar Stance.
After recharging items Chiron travelled to Baldur's Gate where she immediately fell victim to a poisoning attempt. That was partly resolved after Jalantha tried and failed to chastise her subordinate priestesses with her fists, but the poison turned more virulent when Chiron went after Marek. I was distracted by family matters and didn't take precautions (such as charming others in the room before Chiron showed himself to Marek). When Marek went invisible Chiron should definitely have run away, but he still got one last chance when Marek chose to show himself by attacking with his bow while in melee range. I foolishly kept him on the exit point of the stairs though with the intention of running if Marek started a spell. However, he used a minor sequencer and even with double-tapping the space bar that cast and took effect so quickly that the game only paused again with Chiron on the verge of death (and too late to even take a potion).
We have confirmation: you can in fact charm basilisks using Algernon's Cloak. And basilisks can in fact petrify each other. So if you grant Protection from Petrification to a basilisk and then charm it, it can wipe out everything on the map for you except for Mutamin, who can cast Remove Magic on it (though only once, I think).
Killing everything with a basilisk should be much faster than using Blindness and missile weapons.
Very effective @semiticgod, I agree. But what about destruction of loot? I'm not sure how Revisions handles petrification, but in non-Revisions installs, I wouldn't want Kirian's party petrified by a basilisk. Besides the basilisks themselves sometimes drop good loot: rare scrolls such as Knock or Blur, or maybe even Haste, or a Laeral Tear's necklace worth 3k GP. My experience is that the green scroll of protection from petrification from the Nashkel Carnival + wand scorchers (for arcane types) / backstabs (for thieves) / ranged attacks (for warriors) / skeleton warriors (for clerics) + eventually Korax for the last two basilisks and Mutamin = success pretty much guaranteed.
Condolences @Grond0. Would you consider rolling up a sturdier character, say a Cleric/Ranger or a Dwarven Defender, so that we may see your knowledge and resourcefulness put into practice in SoD?
I just died to Silke when I tried to turn her against the spiders and also kill her with her own summons--when her summons were weakened by the fight. She eventually nailed me with Sleep, which I failed to have her waste earlier because I didn't realize I was still level 3 and therefore vulnerable.
I'm a little concerned about Item Randomizer. I don't know if there's a reliable way to get wands--and other important items--with Item Randomizer installed. I have a mod that lets me create wands myself, but that costs thousands of gold and can only be done at level 10.
Do you think trying this with Item Randomizer is wise? Algernon's Cloak is still a guaranteed drop, but Item Randomizer even randomizes stat tomes.
@Victor_Creed_SFV, I used the Monk Overhaul mod from this thread, which uses the Oversight HLAs changes it so that Sun Soul monks can't get Lunar Stance and Dark Moon monks can't get Solar Stance.
Even with that I get Invalid xxxx ingame instead of HLA names and descriptions. It seems the monastic order mod is incompatible with other monk related mods even tho I used the base monk and not the kits.
Item Randomizer will make your life much harder. If you plan strats around certain items, you might want to drop the mod. Since Item Randomizer generally hides stronger items in stronger encouters/tougher dungeons, you'll have to put your character in much more danger than what you'd want just to get what you need.
Item Revisions too, to be honest, but only for one thing : the duration of the potions are much, much shorter. It's a problem for longer fights which, on LoB, happen more often. Killing LoB Belhifet by refreshing potions every 5 turns (the longest duration of potions, if I remember correctly) is just adding salt in the wound. The fight is already a huge war of attrition : it took me about 1h30 to take him down with a pure fighter. I'm pretty sure you'll devise something stronger with a mage(abjurer)/thief, but since fights are much longer than in regular game, I refrain from using it for this challenge, because otherwise, I just can't play without it.
Spell Revisions seems quite OK, because @chimaera got into ToB with a sorcerer. I have no real experience with the SR/LoB combo though, so I'm not so sure how dangerous it would be in a no-reload context. Them saving throws are nastier in SR. It's good AND it's bad...
I can consider myself a freak now. I stayed up until 4 AM, because my SoA monk could not hit enemies that require magical weapons to get hit even tho his fists are enchanted as +2. After searching in vain what I could with EE-Keeper and countless other stupid things, I finally googled my problem and found out I had to install and use Near Infinity to edit the fists, where a simple check for magical was forgotten. I always shied away from NI but it wasn't so bad after all.
Caligula managed to go through the Planar Prison and the Planar Sphere.
The Planar Prison was not really hard, except for one thing : Yuan-Ti mages. The initial encounter with the Bounty Hunters went smoothly, but then, against the three mages and their three melee grunts (which were largely irrelevant during the fight), it was more complicated. I couldn't use my simmy, because they casted True Sight right at the start of combat. No free arrows of dispelling. So, I decided to warp in the teleporting blobs to clear the githzerais and use that place to retreat against Yuan-ti mages. Every time the mages casted, I just went into the trap, until they had no spell left. That took a while... Anyway, after that, I quickly killed them.
Then, HLAs broke the place. The Master of Thralls was taken out by me and my simmy, by GWWing the dude with slings. He never had the time to get in melee range and he was out. Same for the Warden. As soon as he casted his protections, I got away, waited a little until some of his protections wore off, lured him in with invisibility, tagged him with an arrow of dispelling from the simmy and trashed him with the Everard sling : he too never could get into melee range. Easy peasy. Two fighters with 25 strength from DUHM can deal such a nasty amount of damage with slings...
After that, I just went invisible, said hello to Haer'Dalis and got out.
The Planar Prison was also easier than expected. The fight against the halflings casters was kinda complicated, though. One of the cleric usually starts with a demon gating, so, I decided to retreat when he did. The nice thing is that my simmy had the time to pepper the enemy casters with arrows of dispelling before dying. Because I retreated and the enemy lost their Prot. from Evil to dispelling, the demon attacked them out of my sight. Mogadish followed me into the first room, but I killed him by kiting him. When I came back into the halflings room, the demon was gone and everyone was dead. Sweet.
I pressed onward into the sphere. Since it usually takes me a few days to heal up when I sleep, because I don't have any regen yet (the pain of being a plain human fighter) and only possess 2 Cure Light Wounds, I decided to clear everything before facing Lavok. Nothing of note here but the fight with Tolgerias. That fight was made in two waves. The first was about killing his Apprentice. With my simmy aiming arrows of dispelling at her while also garnering the aggro from Tolgerias demons, I was able to take her out with my sling. After that, I retreated into the power core room to sleep. I then went back, but Tolgy started to gate in more demons. I retreated again to sleep. When I got out, Tolgy was surprisingly just there in front of me. He launched his defences, but only included Improved Mantle for protection. Big mistake, because Everard sling. Two GWW later, Tolgy was no more.
The road was clear to Lavok. I buffed up, sent the simmy close to him under invisibility, whacked him a little before his defences triggered. He too only had Improved Mantle. Sling of Everard, HLAs and Vhailor helm really break SoA, even on LoB : Lavok didn't last two rounds.
Sooo, I got out of the Sphere, double GWWed the two demons, collected their respective hearts and went back in. Took Lavok outside and voilà.
Things are starting to get much easier now. The only type of problem I forsee in the future are numerous mages at the same time. However, when I'll have the Cloak of Cheese combined the Human Flesh and other MR items, even those won't be too difficult. Anyway, Caligula will be ready to go in Brynnlaw next.
Since it usually takes me a few days to heal up when I sleep, because I don't have any regen yet (the pain of being a plain human fighter) and only possess 2 Cure Light Wounds,
Does using DUHM to trigger constitution regeneration before you rest not work in your installation?
Condolences @Grond0. Would you consider rolling up a sturdier character, say a Cleric/Ranger or a Dwarven Defender, so that we may see your knowledge and resourcefulness put into practice in SoD?
I seem to remember trying with a fighter/cleric - I think that got into SoD, but perished within moments there . I've also tried it with a Dwarven Defender at least a couple of times and agree that's a competitive class. However, any character won't last long if you don't concentrate or make mistakes ...
Oaen did many of the easy quests at and around the Coalition Camp for XP and items:
- Convinced the wounded priest of Ilmater to receive healing - Found a cure for Dosia and received the Martyr's Morningstar as a reward - Acquainted himself with different members of the coalition for Simonetta - Slew and skinned a bear so Belegarm could make Helvdar a pair of new boots - Trained the troops - Reported a traitor in the camp - Dealt with a thieves guild in the camp, and got the Harold Crossbow from one of the thieves: a great weapon with its 15% chance to cast Doom on target (no save, tested to see whether it stacks but it doesn't) - Told Pritchard that some members of the coalition wanted him dead - Saved Skie from a group of crusaders (with the help of summons) in the DC courtyard, and reached his final SoD levels as a Fighter/Illusionist (9/10), becoming proficient in axes.
His questing involved concealment, minimal combat and even minimal treasure hunting. In Bloodbark Grove, all Oaen did was slay a basilisk for Dosia's cure and loot a standing stone with some gems. And in the Deadman's Pass he limited himself to pulling Raeanndra into the prime material plane for her Ring of the Tiny Fiend, and to killing the above-mentioned cave bear. Each of both areas has a room with undead and some treasure, and Deadman's Pass has a spider cave with loot, but Oaen didn't bother with any of it. The Shadowy Figure ambush he walked away from.
The Underground River was next. Oaen freed two entangled druids and promised to plant a seed for them in the root of a corrupted oak tree. He slew some myconids and picked up a bloom-sac. He got swarmed by orogs (their archers are nasty) and spiders, and saw himself forced to deal with them before facing any crusaders. He used wand scorchers to damage as many foes as much and as fast as possible. Oaen then alerted the crusaders but he didn't fight them except for the cyclops. With some luck he managed to occupy some crusaders with wand summons, while he could Malison + Harold-Doom + paralyze + kill the cyclops out of sight of the others, for a crusader seal that would get him inside their stronghold.
Inside the Underground River area, Oaen told two Sahuagin a story to be rewarded their water elemental summoning device. He placed the barrel of Bwoosh! at the indicated spot while refusing to fight the spectral Ettin. He spoke to Berrusk the dark druid of Hephernaan's true plans and was rewarded with an ankheg summoning amulet, then betrayed the man by planting the seed he had been given by the entangled druids. Many enemies appeared and noticed Oaen just as he went Invisible. The Gnome lured them away and locked them in one of the area's doored rooms. He entered the old dwarven settlement of Kanaglym, where he read his 6th and last PfUndead scroll from BG1 before he pulled Zhadroth the lich into the prime material plane. Oaen used an arrow of dispelling and his returning throwing axe to destroy the creature and obtain its Robe of Arcane Aptitude (for the daily Spell Sequencer) and its ring of regen. An Endless Watcher wasn't pleased that Oaen had released the lich, and it didn't believe Oaen's statement that he had just slain the creature for good. As the Endless Watcher was also undead, Oaen could eaily kill it with wands and throwing axe attacks. The Gnome took the Watcher's Astral Crossbow and he also picked up a scroll of Minor Spell Turning. He then left the premises without revealing himself to a necromantic cabal.
Oaen failed to convince some crusader guards to let him enter the warrens, but he managed to distract them with summons, and just rushed past them. Inside, the crusaders were much nicer. Oaen emptied several chests, received a pair of gnomish gloves from a cute gnomish seamstress he set free, and got two ogres to allow him the use of their elevator. I made a mistake while Oaen and his familiar were standing on the elevator. I clicked on the area transition wheel and not on Oaen who was supposed to cast Invisibility on himself after having cast Invisibility on his familiar. Note that I had read here that it was possible to speak twice at the same time to Hephernaan, once with the familiar, and once with Oaen, and that that would prompt Hephernaan to flee. Hence the familiar's position out of Oaen's pack. Oaen was visible and had a clouded aura when he reached the cellar. He was buffed though, so he managed to cast Invisibility. But one of the crusaders cast True Seeing, revealing both the Gnome and the familiar. They retreated and waited for the True Seeing spell to expire.
Oaen reached Hephernaan's room and found him conversing with his fiendish master through some sort of magical comunications portal. The fiend somehow sensed Oaen's presence, and Hephernaan and two mages whent hostile. (This meant that the force-talking trick wasn't going to work.) Oaen was invisible and saw Hephernaan and his aides leave the room, probably to alert the other crusaders. He opened two trapped chests. The first trap (left) was a level drain trap, but the chest held two interesting items: the Crown of Lies (which gives extra level 3-5 spells, and the cursed Robe of Netheril which shuts down spell casting but gives 50% Magic Resistance while still allowing casting from scrolls. The snare on the second chest gave Oaen a major scare: a maze trap! The first potentially game-ending trap I've found in SoD. In a moment of panic, Oaen put on the Robe of Netheril, and he was indeed saved by his Magic Resistance, but it was probably the much lower MR (30%) of his Cloak of Balduran + Robe of the Good Archmagi that saved him because that was his MR at the time the trap triggered. Oaen found three very good scrolls in the chest: Lower Resistance, Spell Immunity and Spell Shield. He took them and left the cellars. He didn't poison the food or the water, because Oaen had refused to use poison against the crusaders, much to De Lancie's anger. See, Oaen can live up to his Neutral Good alignment after all
Questions: - Does anyone know whether killing any of the crusaders in the cellars makes future battles easier? Will any of the named foes in the cellars appear later if you don't kill them? - With the Coalition Camp battles looming, do you guys have any tips on which support to seek for which wave of attackers? Apart from the archers, wizard slayers, assassins and war mages Oaen can call the coldhearth lich and its undead allies to his aid. I read from @Harpagornis that the archers are too vulnerable to hold out against the Trolls, and that he has had good results with the Dwarves of Dumathoin (that Oaen couldn't save). Any advice is welcome.
I'm afraid all your progress above is Greek to me @Blackraven, so there's no chance of me offering advice about future prospects . In relation to the trapped chest, traps like that can often be disarmed by using knock - so you might want to try that next time.
I wasn't sure I wanted to play with a monk again. However, last time Chiron didn't do all the work in Candlekeep - which I normally require for newly rolled characters, so I decided to remedy that. It took him quite a while to finish off the rats, but the job was eventually done and Chiron moved on to find Shoal and make a proper start to his journeying. Following the same route as before, Dushai was charmed at the first attempt - I took that as a good sign!
Meilum took a while to charm, but with stealth that wasn't a major problem. At the basilisk area everything went to plan with the exception of a gnoll killing Kirian with a critical to steal Chiron's XP.
In the Nashkel Mine the kobold shaman tried to discover Chiron with an oracle, but he got through to the next level before anyone could react and charmed Mulahey. Back in Nashkel, Nimbul died to Neira and Neira died to her own skeleton warrior. When selling their gear I realised I hadn't looted Mulahey's chest, but couldn't be bothered to go back for it.
In Beregost, Marl absorbed all Tranzig's spells before dying, making finishing him off easy for Chiron. At the Bandit Camp he again used a potion of invisibility to escape the main tent before claiming Taurgosz as his only victim there. With Bhaal horror in the bag it's time to boost reputation.
Thanks, but @Harpagornis already took a Barbarian up to the Throne, but failed to kill Melissan. So, I'm not really breaking new grounds here. That's actually the reason why I took the challenge : to see for myself if it is possible to finish the game with a fighter. Pure fighter is slightly harder than with a Barbarian, but not that much. And, just to make sure that I was generic enough, I chose to be a human.
That's also why there was theory crafting about ways to kill Mel with stunlock strat, recently. With plenty of work, I'm pretty sure to get into the Throne, but I'm still not so sure I can take the Big Bad Girl down...
Edit : Just to make sure, I'm not no-reloading. The original challenge didn't involved no-reload. I will jump into the no-reload wagon right after that run, though, but for now, Caligula is more or less a theoretical run that want to prove if killing Mel is possible or not with a solo fighter.
Very effective @semiticgod, I agree. But what about destruction of loot? I'm not sure how Revisions handles petrification
Permanent Hold effect, doesn't cause any lost loot nor breaks romances. And your skin and clothes become oddly coloured, sorta brown chocolate + lemonade mix.
@Blackraven For the Coalition Camp attack, I used the undeads against the ogre mages/trolls, the wizard slayers against the mages and the warmages against the clerics/paladins. It went well.
The undeads could be used against the mages I imagine, because they would be immune to their disablers, but the mages fight is not the hardest. Pepper them with arrows of dispelling and use potions of magic protection/magic blocking and everything should go well. This is why wizard slayers are enough against the mages. If you get lucky, you'll even get a few miscast magic because of them. Don't expect too much from those, though, they were largely irrelevant in my case. Archers could be used I suppose, but I fear they would be disabled even faster, because they have no MR.
Ogre-mages/trolls on the other hand are much, much tougher under LoB. Since the undeads are arguably one of the better tanking group, it makes sense to use them here.
The best tanking group is the warmages though. I literally trashed the clerics/paladins with arrows of detonation while the warmages wall was holding them. This is the safest bet for them.
As for the second question : I dunno. Can't help you there. I would stay on the safe side and I wouldn't kill them needlessly.
Not nearly one week away and the thread is growing like an avalanche. Thats pretty cool.
Monks on the run again? That could only be @Grond0´s work! You still like to suffer no?
Wasnt F/M banned? No? Anyway: Good to see Oaen still alive @Blackraven! With regard to the second question: Yes the named enemies from Bridgefort and the Underground will fight against you during the Siege of Dragonspear but that doesnt matter. Challenge Ashatiel 1vs1 and everything is fine!
Also good to see that Caligula finally is reaching the point of being nearly unstoppable @Arctodus! Quite amazing that even the LoB buffs will not protect enemies from a quick takedown no?
Finally @Victor_Creed_SFV also has reached the "freak status". HRHRHR! Man, you are playing and testing so many classes at the same time - i really get confused. You must be a simultaneous chess freak too - no?
Finally @semiticgod joined the challenge. Thats cool. I think once you get used to LoB (and BG1) the challenge will get much easier. Nearly like a walk in the park! *cough*
I already thanked @Vynn for playing and posting. He still prefers to play offline without bothering about forums. Phhhhhh!! Oh, his Totemic Druid is still alive and nearing the end of BG1. Too bad i never tried this Druid kit before!
As there are so many new tries here i think that Korgath will have to wait a bit longer before crushing SoD. To give the challenge a bit more spice i will start another no-reload-run with a Pure Thief. Hopefully soon!
Cool to see ya back @Harpagornis . No I'm not good enough for simul chess but I like trying to get better in chess by learning openings and checkmates etc, but I never have the stamina to practise chess every day for longer than a couple of weeks, then it gets too much for my brain and I don't play for another couple of weeks.
Just in case I forgot to mention it before, big shoutouts to one item added by the Monastic mod buyable in Watchers Keep, gloves called "Black Lashings of Loviatar ".
Black Lashings of Loviatar Lalaskra was a priestess of Loviatar who lived in the 12th century of Dale Reckoning. Originally from Ormpetarr, she eventually left to join the clergy of Loviatar, Mistress of Pain. Lalaskra rose quickly through the ranks and soon became a Pain of Loviatar. In 1177 Dale Reckoning, an unscrupulous thief stole the Tome of Torment, a relic of the Ilmatari faith, and sold it to Lalaskra. Lalaskra used the relic's innate magic to reform it into a suit of barbed armor, which Lalaskra wore constantly as an outward display of her devotion to the Painmaiden. Lalaskra's deeds pleased Loviatar, who, in a show of appreciation, took two of heads from her whip and gifted them to Lalaskra. Lalaskra was soon after killed in a petty feud between two lovers, and the whips were lost for many years.
STATISTICS
Equipped Abilities: Bound Hands: Wearer cannot use melee weapons.
Combat Abilities: Kiss of Pain: Unarmed attacks have a 10% chance to cause 4d6 damage, then 3d6 the next round, then 2d6 the next round, then d6 the last round. A save vs. death after each round ends the effect. Lacerating Hands: Unarmed attacks inflict an additional d6 points of slashing damage and then 2 points of damage every round for 1 turn. THAC0 (fist): +4 bonus Damage (fist): +4
The lacerating hands ability mentioned last is the most op thing in the game. While the initial damage is slashing the 2 points every round for 1 turn(!!!) is magical, interupts spellcasting and is cumulative. Compared to this Assassins poison is a childs toy. There is no save for that btw.
Melicamp survived and there were no problems with maximising reputation. The Colquetle Amulet had disappeared even though I hadn't visited the area at all (I've noticed that happening before, so should probably pick that up early on in future runs), but there were plenty of other opportunities. Chiron got to level 7 for killing a few half-ogres while waiting to collect Drizzt's gear.
After a bit of shopping Chiron went in search of the remaining tomes. At Durlag's Tower he killed the basilisks on the roof, but didn't bother with any of the ghasts this time. At the Lighthouse he had to use up a potion of magic blocking to defend against a sirine charm, but was otherwise untroubled.
After the usual quick trip through the Cloakwood, Drasus & co were are charmed to see Chiron at the mine - only Drasus himself proving difficult to charm there. In the mine Chiron sneaked down to Davaeorn's level, where a charmed guard ran the battle horrors round while Chiron killed them with his wands - getting his 8th and final BG1 level in the process. Chiron had a protracted fight with Davaeorn last time, but this time he found a much easier way. By stealthing to just within sight of Davaeorn he prompted a conversation that turned the mage hostile - but didn't activate his sequencer or the arrival of the guards. That allowed the charmed guard to whack away at Davaeorn without any response and he only took about half a minute to die.
In the City Chiron had his closest escape to date when he charmed Jalantha and had her killed by the other priestesses. When trying to collect her goods, however, Chiron found an apparent route was blocked and got trapped by a couple of the priestesses. Bhaal horror failed to shift them and 2 swift criticals put him just one decent hit away from death - he then had to survive several more attack rolls before being able to take a potion of invisibility. This time though Marek failed to find an answer to Chiron's jumping up and down the stairs, so he's beaten the mark from his last run.
Hrhrhr, the game strikes back badly - looks like it doesnt want me to go with a Swashbuckler.
Braxx III. died on level 4 after getting ambushed by Skeleton Archers and Ghouls. He nearly reached the border until the death screen instantly triggered. A quick look told me that one of the archers critted him for 32 damage bringing him down from 100 to zero in just a moment. Braxx IV. died to another ambush on level 5 where he got caught by eight Hobgoblin Archers. They rolled two 20´s erasing his 40 HP within the blink of an eye - Game Over!
Maybe i should settle with a more solid class next time - someone with a BIG shield! And a Helm. LOL!
Comments
But then again BG1 thiefs suffer quite a bit from this, too.
Ofc they have BS to kill quicker and traps to cheese stronger.
Monks otoh I simply can't see throwing darts at wolves and similar. That's imo stupid, silly and utterly wrong. A warrior, who spends his life tuning his body to perfection, shoots stones at wolves?
And if I could outrun wolves, I definitely would prefer throwing rocks at them to fighting them with my bare hands.
Fortunately Chiron was able to avoid the sequencer trap and hide and he then waited for all the guards to arrive. He used 9 of the 10 Necklace charges and 6 fireball potions to kill a few of the guards and badly wound the remainder - they were then finished off with stealth shots. When attacking Davaeorn he responded by running round, but Chiron was patient and managed to get him into position near the entrance where he could use the stairs and stealth shots to break down stoneskins. Once Davaeorn was naked though, he used a potion of invisibility. Chiron countered by activating the Horn of Kazgaroth (rather painful that as the normal 10 damage is doubled in LoB) and that persuaded Davaeorn to reveal himself again. That was short-lived, however, as Davaeorn soon disappeared again with another potion. This time Chiron retreated to rest for a day before returning to manoeuvre Davaeorn into position again - and this time he was out of tricks.
Baldur's Gate is about to get a tad more crowded ...
Killing everything with a basilisk should be much faster than using Blindness and missile weapons.
My experience is that the green scroll of protection from petrification from the Nashkel Carnival + wand scorchers (for arcane types) / backstabs (for thieves) / ranged attacks (for warriors) / skeleton warriors (for clerics) + eventually Korax for the last two basilisks and Mutamin = success pretty much guaranteed.
Condolences @Grond0. Would you consider rolling up a sturdier character, say a Cleric/Ranger or a Dwarven Defender, so that we may see your knowledge and resourcefulness put into practice in SoD?
I'm a little concerned about Item Randomizer. I don't know if there's a reliable way to get wands--and other important items--with Item Randomizer installed. I have a mod that lets me create wands myself, but that costs thousands of gold and can only be done at level 10.
Do you think trying this with Item Randomizer is wise? Algernon's Cloak is still a guaranteed drop, but Item Randomizer even randomizes stat tomes.
It seems the monastic order mod is incompatible with other monk related mods even tho I used the base monk and not the kits.
@Grond0 what a damn shame.
Item Revisions too, to be honest, but only for one thing : the duration of the potions are much, much shorter. It's a problem for longer fights which, on LoB, happen more often. Killing LoB Belhifet by refreshing potions every 5 turns (the longest duration of potions, if I remember correctly) is just adding salt in the wound. The fight is already a huge war of attrition : it took me about 1h30 to take him down with a pure fighter. I'm pretty sure you'll devise something stronger with a mage(abjurer)/thief, but since fights are much longer than in regular game, I refrain from using it for this challenge, because otherwise, I just can't play without it.
Spell Revisions seems quite OK, because @chimaera got into ToB with a sorcerer. I have no real experience with the SR/LoB combo though, so I'm not so sure how dangerous it would be in a no-reload context. Them saving throws are nastier in SR. It's good AND it's bad...
I stayed up until 4 AM, because my SoA monk could not hit enemies that require magical weapons to get hit even tho his fists are enchanted as +2.
After searching in vain what I could with EE-Keeper and countless other stupid things, I finally googled my problem and found out I had to install and use Near Infinity to edit the fists, where a simple check for magical was forgotten.
I always shied away from NI but it wasn't so bad after all.
The Planar Prison was not really hard, except for one thing : Yuan-Ti mages. The initial encounter with the Bounty Hunters went smoothly, but then, against the three mages and their three melee grunts (which were largely irrelevant during the fight), it was more complicated. I couldn't use my simmy, because they casted True Sight right at the start of combat. No free arrows of dispelling.
Then, HLAs broke the place. The Master of Thralls was taken out by me and my simmy, by GWWing the dude with slings. He never had the time to get in melee range and he was out. Same for the Warden. As soon as he casted his protections, I got away, waited a little until some of his protections wore off, lured him in with invisibility, tagged him with an arrow of dispelling from the simmy and trashed him with the Everard sling : he too never could get into melee range. Easy peasy. Two fighters with 25 strength from DUHM can deal such a nasty amount of damage with slings...
After that, I just went invisible, said hello to Haer'Dalis and got out.
The Planar Prison was also easier than expected. The fight against the halflings casters was kinda complicated, though. One of the cleric usually starts with a demon gating, so, I decided to retreat when he did. The nice thing is that my simmy had the time to pepper the enemy casters with arrows of dispelling before dying. Because I retreated and the enemy lost their Prot. from Evil to dispelling, the demon attacked them out of my sight. Mogadish followed me into the first room, but I killed him by kiting him. When I came back into the halflings room, the demon was gone and everyone was dead. Sweet.
I pressed onward into the sphere. Since it usually takes me a few days to heal up when I sleep, because I don't have any regen yet (the pain of being a plain human fighter) and only possess 2 Cure Light Wounds, I decided to clear everything before facing Lavok. Nothing of note here but the fight with Tolgerias. That fight was made in two waves. The first was about killing his Apprentice. With my simmy aiming arrows of dispelling at her while also garnering the aggro from Tolgerias demons, I was able to take her out with my sling. After that, I retreated into the power core room to sleep. I then went back, but Tolgy started to gate in more demons. I retreated again to sleep. When I got out, Tolgy was surprisingly just there in front of me. He launched his defences, but only included Improved Mantle for protection. Big mistake, because Everard sling. Two GWW later, Tolgy was no more.
The road was clear to Lavok. I buffed up, sent the simmy close to him under invisibility, whacked him a little before his defences triggered. He too only had Improved Mantle. Sling of Everard, HLAs and Vhailor helm really break SoA, even on LoB : Lavok didn't last two rounds.
Sooo, I got out of the Sphere, double GWWed the two demons, collected their respective hearts and went back in. Took Lavok outside and voilà.
Things are starting to get much easier now. The only type of problem I forsee in the future are numerous mages at the same time. However, when I'll have the Cloak of Cheese combined the Human Flesh and other MR items, even those won't be too difficult. Anyway, Caligula will be ready to go in Brynnlaw next.
See ya !!
Kudos, @Arctodus.
Oaen did many of the easy quests at and around the Coalition Camp for XP and items:
- Convinced the wounded priest of Ilmater to receive healing
- Found a cure for Dosia and received the Martyr's Morningstar as a reward
- Acquainted himself with different members of the coalition for Simonetta
- Slew and skinned a bear so Belegarm could make Helvdar a pair of new boots
- Trained the troops
- Reported a traitor in the camp
- Dealt with a thieves guild in the camp, and got the Harold Crossbow from one of the thieves: a great weapon with its 15% chance to cast Doom on target (no save, tested to see whether it stacks but it doesn't)
- Told Pritchard that some members of the coalition wanted him dead
- Saved Skie from a group of crusaders (with the help of summons) in the DC courtyard, and reached his final SoD levels as a Fighter/Illusionist (9/10), becoming proficient in axes.
His questing involved concealment, minimal combat and even minimal treasure hunting. In Bloodbark Grove, all Oaen did was slay a basilisk for Dosia's cure and loot a standing stone with some gems. And in the Deadman's Pass he limited himself to pulling Raeanndra into the prime material plane for her Ring of the Tiny Fiend, and to killing the above-mentioned cave bear. Each of both areas has a room with undead and some treasure, and Deadman's Pass has a spider cave with loot, but Oaen didn't bother with any of it. The Shadowy Figure ambush he walked away from.
The Underground River was next. Oaen freed two entangled druids and promised to plant a seed for them in the root of a corrupted oak tree. He slew some myconids and picked up a bloom-sac. He got swarmed by orogs (their archers are nasty) and spiders, and saw himself forced to deal with them before facing any crusaders. He used wand scorchers to damage as many foes as much and as fast as possible.
Oaen then alerted the crusaders but he didn't fight them except for the cyclops. With some luck he managed to occupy some crusaders with wand summons, while he could Malison + Harold-Doom + paralyze + kill the cyclops out of sight of the others, for a crusader seal that would get him inside their stronghold.
Inside the Underground River area, Oaen told two Sahuagin a story to be rewarded their water elemental summoning device. He placed the barrel of Bwoosh! at the indicated spot while refusing to fight the spectral Ettin. He spoke to Berrusk the dark druid of Hephernaan's true plans and was rewarded with an ankheg summoning amulet, then betrayed the man by planting the seed he had been given by the entangled druids. Many enemies appeared and noticed Oaen just as he went Invisible. The Gnome lured them away and locked them in one of the area's doored rooms.
He entered the old dwarven settlement of Kanaglym, where he read his 6th and last PfUndead scroll from BG1 before he pulled Zhadroth the lich into the prime material plane. Oaen used an arrow of dispelling and his returning throwing axe to destroy the creature and obtain its Robe of Arcane Aptitude (for the daily Spell Sequencer) and its ring of regen. An Endless Watcher wasn't pleased that Oaen had released the lich, and it didn't believe Oaen's statement that he had just slain the creature for good. As the Endless Watcher was also undead, Oaen could eaily kill it with wands and throwing axe attacks. The Gnome took the Watcher's Astral Crossbow and he also picked up a scroll of Minor Spell Turning. He then left the premises without revealing himself to a necromantic cabal.
Oaen failed to convince some crusader guards to let him enter the warrens, but he managed to distract them with summons, and just rushed past them. Inside, the crusaders were much nicer. Oaen emptied several chests, received a pair of gnomish gloves from a cute gnomish seamstress he set free, and got two ogres to allow him the use of their elevator.
I made a mistake while Oaen and his familiar were standing on the elevator. I clicked on the area transition wheel and not on Oaen who was supposed to cast Invisibility on himself after having cast Invisibility on his familiar. Note that I had read here that it was possible to speak twice at the same time to Hephernaan, once with the familiar, and once with Oaen, and that that would prompt Hephernaan to flee. Hence the familiar's position out of Oaen's pack. Oaen was visible and had a clouded aura when he reached the cellar. He was buffed though, so he managed to cast Invisibility. But one of the crusaders cast True Seeing, revealing both the Gnome and the familiar. They retreated and waited for the True Seeing spell to expire.
Oaen reached Hephernaan's room and found him conversing with his fiendish master through some sort of magical comunications portal. The fiend somehow sensed Oaen's presence, and Hephernaan and two mages whent hostile. (This meant that the force-talking trick wasn't going to work.)
Oaen was invisible and saw Hephernaan and his aides leave the room, probably to alert the other crusaders. He opened two trapped chests. The first trap (left) was a level drain trap, but the chest held two interesting items: the Crown of Lies (which gives extra level 3-5 spells, and the cursed Robe of Netheril which shuts down spell casting but gives 50% Magic Resistance while still allowing casting from scrolls. The snare on the second chest gave Oaen a major scare: a maze trap! The first potentially game-ending trap I've found in SoD. In a moment of panic, Oaen put on the Robe of Netheril, and he was indeed saved by his Magic Resistance, but it was probably the much lower MR (30%) of his Cloak of Balduran + Robe of the Good Archmagi that saved him because that was his MR at the time the trap triggered. Oaen found three very good scrolls in the chest: Lower Resistance, Spell Immunity and Spell Shield. He took them and left the cellars. He didn't poison the food or the water, because Oaen had refused to use poison against the crusaders, much to De Lancie's anger. See, Oaen can live up to his Neutral Good alignment after all
Questions:
- Does anyone know whether killing any of the crusaders in the cellars makes future battles easier? Will any of the named foes in the cellars appear later if you don't kill them?
- With the Coalition Camp battles looming, do you guys have any tips on which support to seek for which wave of attackers? Apart from the archers, wizard slayers, assassins and war mages Oaen can call the coldhearth lich and its undead allies to his aid. I read from @Harpagornis that the archers are too vulnerable to hold out against the Trolls, and that he has had good results with the Dwarves of Dumathoin (that Oaen couldn't save). Any advice is welcome.
Meilum took a while to charm, but with stealth that wasn't a major problem. At the basilisk area everything went to plan with the exception of a gnoll killing Kirian with a critical to steal Chiron's XP.
In the Nashkel Mine the kobold shaman tried to discover Chiron with an oracle, but he got through to the next level before anyone could react and charmed Mulahey. Back in Nashkel, Nimbul died to Neira and Neira died to her own skeleton warrior. When selling their gear I realised I hadn't looted Mulahey's chest, but couldn't be bothered to go back for it.
In Beregost, Marl absorbed all Tranzig's spells before dying, making finishing him off easy for Chiron. At the Bandit Camp he again used a potion of invisibility to escape the main tent before claiming Taurgosz as his only victim there. With Bhaal horror in the bag it's time to boost reputation.
Most of the times I will post my progress here in the forum earlier than the vids, sometimes much earlier.
For those interested in the monastic order Monk I will post BG2 only vids with SCS and LoB starting here:
Also due to me having to move the dialogue.tlk to the main folder for NI to work I tried installing Oversight monk HLAs again and this time it worked.
That's also why there was theory crafting about ways to kill Mel with stunlock strat, recently. With plenty of work, I'm pretty sure to get into the Throne, but I'm still not so sure I can take the Big Bad Girl down...
Edit : Just to make sure, I'm not no-reloading. The original challenge didn't involved no-reload. I will jump into the no-reload wagon right after that run, though, but for now, Caligula is more or less a theoretical run that want to prove if killing Mel is possible or not with a solo fighter.
The undeads could be used against the mages I imagine, because they would be immune to their disablers, but the mages fight is not the hardest. Pepper them with arrows of dispelling and use potions of magic protection/magic blocking and everything should go well. This is why wizard slayers are enough against the mages. If you get lucky, you'll even get a few miscast magic because of them. Don't expect too much from those, though, they were largely irrelevant in my case. Archers could be used I suppose, but I fear they would be disabled even faster, because they have no MR.
Ogre-mages/trolls on the other hand are much, much tougher under LoB. Since the undeads are arguably one of the better tanking group, it makes sense to use them here.
The best tanking group is the warmages though. I literally trashed the clerics/paladins with arrows of detonation while the warmages wall was holding them. This is the safest bet for them.
As for the second question : I dunno. Can't help you there. I would stay on the safe side and I wouldn't kill them needlessly.
Not nearly one week away and the thread is growing like an avalanche. Thats pretty cool.
Monks on the run again? That could only be @Grond0´s work! You still like to suffer no?
Wasnt F/M banned? No? Anyway: Good to see Oaen still alive @Blackraven! With regard to the second question: Yes the named enemies from Bridgefort and the Underground will fight against you during the Siege of Dragonspear but that doesnt matter. Challenge Ashatiel 1vs1 and everything is fine!
Also good to see that Caligula finally is reaching the point of being nearly unstoppable @Arctodus! Quite amazing that even the LoB buffs will not protect enemies from a quick takedown no?
Finally @Victor_Creed_SFV also has reached the "freak status". HRHRHR! Man, you are playing and testing so many classes at the same time - i really get confused. You must be a simultaneous chess freak too - no?
Finally @semiticgod joined the challenge. Thats cool. I think once you get used to LoB (and BG1) the challenge will get much easier. Nearly like a walk in the park! *cough*
I already thanked @Vynn for playing and posting. He still prefers to play offline without bothering about forums. Phhhhhh!! Oh, his Totemic Druid is still alive and nearing the end of BG1. Too bad i never tried this Druid kit before!
As there are so many new tries here i think that Korgath will have to wait a bit longer before crushing SoD. To give the challenge a bit more spice i will start another no-reload-run with a Pure Thief. Hopefully soon!
Have if forgot something or someone?
No I'm not good enough for simul chess but I like trying to get better in chess by learning openings and checkmates etc, but I never have the stamina to practise chess every day for longer than a couple of weeks, then it gets too much for my brain and I don't play for another couple of weeks.
Black Lashings of Loviatar
Lalaskra was a priestess of Loviatar who lived in the 12th century of Dale Reckoning. Originally from Ormpetarr, she eventually left to join the clergy of Loviatar, Mistress of Pain. Lalaskra rose quickly through the ranks and soon became a Pain of Loviatar. In 1177 Dale Reckoning, an unscrupulous thief stole the Tome of Torment, a relic of the Ilmatari faith, and sold it to Lalaskra. Lalaskra used the relic's innate magic to reform it into a suit of barbed armor, which Lalaskra wore constantly as an outward display of her devotion to the Painmaiden. Lalaskra's deeds pleased Loviatar, who, in a show of appreciation, took two of heads from her whip and gifted them to Lalaskra. Lalaskra was soon after killed in a petty feud between two lovers, and the whips were lost for many years.
STATISTICS
Equipped Abilities:
Bound Hands: Wearer cannot use melee weapons.
Combat Abilities:
Kiss of Pain: Unarmed attacks have a 10% chance to cause 4d6 damage, then 3d6 the next round, then 2d6 the next round, then d6 the last round. A save vs. death after each round ends the effect.
Lacerating Hands: Unarmed attacks inflict an additional d6 points of slashing damage and then 2 points of damage every round for 1 turn.
THAC0 (fist): +4 bonus
Damage (fist): +4
The lacerating hands ability mentioned last is the most op thing in the game.
While the initial damage is slashing the 2 points every round for 1 turn(!!!) is magical, interupts spellcasting and is cumulative.
Compared to this Assassins poison is a childs toy.
There is no save for that btw.
After a bit of shopping Chiron went in search of the remaining tomes. At Durlag's Tower he killed the basilisks on the roof, but didn't bother with any of the ghasts this time. At the Lighthouse he had to use up a potion of magic blocking to defend against a sirine charm, but was otherwise untroubled.
After the usual quick trip through the Cloakwood, Drasus & co were are charmed to see Chiron at the mine - only Drasus himself proving difficult to charm there. In the mine Chiron sneaked down to Davaeorn's level, where a charmed guard ran the battle horrors round while Chiron killed them with his wands - getting his 8th and final BG1 level in the process. Chiron had a protracted fight with Davaeorn last time, but this time he found a much easier way. By stealthing to just within sight of Davaeorn he prompted a conversation that turned the mage hostile - but didn't activate his sequencer or the arrival of the guards. That allowed the charmed guard to whack away at Davaeorn without any response and he only took about half a minute to die.
In the City Chiron had his closest escape to date when he charmed Jalantha and had her killed by the other priestesses. When trying to collect her goods, however, Chiron found an apparent route was blocked and got trapped by a couple of the priestesses. Bhaal horror failed to shift them and 2 swift criticals put him just one decent hit away from death - he then had to survive several more attack rolls before being able to take a potion of invisibility. This time though Marek failed to find an answer to Chiron's jumping up and down the stairs, so he's beaten the mark from his last run.
Braxx III. died on level 4 after getting ambushed by Skeleton Archers and Ghouls. He nearly reached the border until the death screen instantly triggered. A quick look told me that one of the archers critted him for 32 damage bringing him down from 100 to zero in just a moment. Braxx IV. died to another ambush on level 5 where he got caught by eight Hobgoblin Archers. They rolled two 20´s erasing his 40 HP within the blink of an eye - Game Over!
Maybe i should settle with a more solid class next time - someone with a BIG shield! And a Helm. LOL!