Bear in mind that even if the Sirines are friendly, their charms will still end the game if you fail your save, so make sure to get through the door before they finish casting.
Another way to rid charmed enemies of their spells is to make them move right after they've started casting. The casting will fizzle out and the spell will be gone. Works for all aggressive spells really (disablers and damage spells).
Dont forget that my F/T used some more "cheese" regarding the Crusader Waves @Blackraven!
- Using Fire Protection Scrolls on vital allies to reduce Arrow of Detonation Damage - Trap stacking to soften the Trolls and Ogres quite a bit - Charming Coalition Troops before the first Wave triggers (not really needed imo)
The rest was business as usual: 4 APR Arrows of Detonation for AoE damage, Arrows of Dispelling against the Mages and some summons in between. No need for Web and Co. even though they would make things even easier!
Still very impressive. In one of my other games I tried to use protection from fire scrolls on allies, but there wasn't enough time. I guess this has to be done before you go to Deadman's Pass to parley Caelar? But yeah 4 APR arrows of detonation means a lot of damage.
I found the third wave to be quite hard btw, the pallies and clerics. There were so many of them and there HPs and healing make them very resilient. I'm still unsure of a foolproof way to deal with them. @Arctodus, belated thanks for your advice on dealing with the coalition camp battles, my battle mages seemed to be struggling to stand their ground.
Am currently pondering over a new Charname. Maybe another Cleric/Thief? @Harpagornis seems to think I've completed BG1 with one, according to his Heroes of BG1 list on page 1, but that's not the case. But with the crusader attacks still fresh in my memory, can a Cleric/Thief beat the crusaders? I seriously doubt it.
Groan - as if my own faults are not enough, now the game is conspiring against me . I was trying Freya, the sorcerer, again and she was up to level 7 having just finished off the basilisks. Mutamin though was a problem as his buffs had just fired when paralysed by Korax and continued to fire every second or so - with that many mirror images up it made him hard to actually hit. I've seen that behaviour a number of times before, but more often than not the buffs stop if the PC comes within sight range - but in this case they didn't. Korax had only been recruited for Mutamin and other than the odd attack on his pet 2 basilisks he was constantly attacking, but had only got the mage to near death when his charm expired.
That should have been no problem as mirror images are not supposed to protect against area damage, so Freya tried using wand fireballs - which had no effect. The sensible thing would have been to run away at that point, but no-one accused me of being sensible. I tried using a potion of magic protection against Mutamin's spells, but it didn't work too well ...
Oh, dont worry @Blackraven! Braxx always seems to have luck on his side - until now. He just cleared the Battle Horrors and Greater Basilisks at Durlags Tower jumping up to level 9. He charmed one Basilisk gulped a Potion of Mirror Image and rushed in to the other ones. While he was soaking all engagement his new friend petrified the other ones within five rounds. Too bad he had to die too afterwards!
After some duties in BG Braxx will hopefully revisit Candlekeep soon - the Tomes are waiting for him!
EDIT: Braxx rushed through Candlekeep getting Tomes and killing two Greater Basilisks on the run. Time to initiate the final phase!
Droolit started BG city by going to Sorcerous Sundries, where she summoned 3 dogees and 2 normal wolves, which turned out to be overkil, only one normal wolf died, dogees were immune to the enemies weapons and they instantly stunlocked the drow.
I never killed companions in SoD before, but inspired by @Harpagornis I started on Garrick and Safana and was surprised at their loot, considering the fact they don't fight back. Is there any way to kill Coran except maybe stun him or smth like that? Cuz he instantly runs awayy after the conversation.
@Arctodus, belated thanks for your advice on dealing with the coalition camp battles, my battle mages seemed to be struggling to stand their ground.
Yeah, they were struggling for me too, because no group of allies can withstand the power of the clerics/paladins assault on their own. Although, with a wall of summoned ankhegs and warmages, you'll have enough time to fry them up with arrows of detonation. That strat worked on the first try for me. I think it's the closet to a sure strat that can be achieved here. You can put disablers on top for gravy, but high damage output seems essential there.
On the other hand, real good thinking with the web strat against trolls/ogres. It freed the undeads against the mages, which is way more optimal. That strat was off limit for Caligula though, because he can't cast any spell. Thus my suggestion.
It's sad though, I really tought you would be the first to no-reload SoD, because, after that fight, only Belhifet is a real threat. You and @Harpagornis were so close, I'm rooting for you guys !!
I just had the most chaotic battle against Slythe for all time. Five Guards were charmed and placed as blockers. This time not only Slythe but also Kristin immediately joined the battle. All Guards were either confused or even went hostile shortly after Kristin unleashed her magic. Slythe in the meanwhile got hit by Arrows of Dispelling but did not lost his buffs. WHAT?! Braxx had to use anti magic potions but Kristin constantly tried to dispel them which forced retreats as well as the invisible Slythe who would easily one-hit-kill Braxx. Once Kristin ran out of spells Braxx started kiting Slythe - who finally lost his buffs - with Bolts of Lightning. And now the chaos pushed to another limit: Slythe was already badly wounded when Braxx lost sight on him thanks to bad pathfinding and what happened? No, Slythe wasnt invisible but he was placed at his starting position - at full health and buffed up again. Same for Kristin. ARGH! Braxx charmed several Courtesan as distraction and the whole battle started again. Getting rid of buffs and let them waste their spells and potions. "Tenthousand hours" later Braxx again lost side on Slythe - after he finally managed to split him from Kristin - due to running around a corner too fast and Slythe went - invisible. NOOO! Only another quick Courtesan charm safed him from a deadly backstab. Two Bolts later he was history. Finally!!!
I dont know why Braxx always runs into chaos like this - maybe the God of Murder is playing his own game with him!
Since I'm training for the Ultimate achievement in Pillars of Eternity atm, I decided to also roll a no reload BG1 character. It's only gonna be another cheesy Totemic, with the name Great Droolit, so if I manage this my achievement won't be too big, but I figured I need a safe way of escaping fights that don't go my way since I'm too used to reloading and having Dogees and nymphes start a fight while the pc is invis is a very nice way of doing just that. Instead of reloading you can retreat to safety, when you fight say Slythe and Kristin and neither of them gets disabled by hold monster. Fights outside are won by default because of lightning.
The hardest part is gonna be to safely get Ankheg Plate and then survive till level 7 to get nympees in the first place.
Braxx met Cythandria and this time luck was NOT on his side. He lured the Golems to the lower level and started hitting the Mage but as she retreated to the stairs Braxx was unaware of the remaining backstabber who had not followed downstairs. In the moment where he saw the incoming attack in the log it was already too late. The backstab landed for 126 damage obliterating him to the ground. Once again sloppy play from me so the downfall of Braxx was only a matter of time. The next char is going to be a tougher one!
Wow, I must have been lucky with the 95 on Droolit I had the longest rolling session of my life to get the same for Great Droolit, the no reload totemic. Unfortunately a 95 is the lowest roll that allows you max wisdom, strength, dex and con while int is only at 8, needing the tome which can't be gotten before Candlekep, due to no duhm and closed door to actually use scrolls.
Great Droolit has survived so far but there were some very close calls. Her way to Nashkel was maybe slightly risky, but I already reduced the risk compared to what I do on normal runs. Grabbing Evermemeory, then going to beregost, then sout of there, going straight west to Bassilus map. I got waylaid by wolves, but it might be possible to get waylaid by skeletons there, so I was lucky. I arrived at a point on this map I was not used to, right next to where you meet the girl talking about Bassilus (I usually come from the north), that panicked me since going straight south is not an option here, so I went west only to meet a hobgoblin ambush intiated via dialogue. Luckily the dialogue starts way out of sight from all but the talking hobgob, so I outran the arrows I could already smell coming at me, only to run into a wolf. Running like a madwoman first slightly north then west again Droolit finally arrived at the western part of the map clicking on it for the map and then going straight south to discover Drizzt map. I was too scared to go there tho, so I first went to Brages map, getting teleported to nashkel thru helping Brage. Talking to Noober got me to level 2 and ofc the Ankheg plate was looted and equipped. Getting Drizzt's items was slightly nerveracking, too since once again I arrived on a weird spot on the map running into a lone Gnoll, then a Ghoul and then an ambush again. Getting chased by all kinds of enemies Great D decided to first travel to the map south of Drizzt and then immediatly back to Drizzts map arriving exactly south of Drizzt with no ambushes to worry about.
With -4 AC and 20 HP I'm also less scared of Bandit ambushes now even tho I forgot to buy a helmet in candlekeep...
Okay, i think that i will go for a class combo that worked superb on a "normal run": The Berserker/Druid!
Level 7 Berserker would be ideal but i remember the pain it was to get the Druid to level 8. Will i have to farm Ankhegs forever again so the easy-to-do quests are still available? Which route would you go @Blackraven and @Grond0? Once the dual class is complete it will be a real monster - if i can get this far! Anyway: Thanks for your input!
The basilisks from Mutamin's garden are good for 25.2k XP, the two battle horrors on the bridge to Durlag's Tower 8k XP (easily dispatched with the wand of the heavens), and the four basilisks from Durlag's tower 22.4k XP. That's 55.6k XP, or almost 8 Druid levels. I'd leave those for when you're a Druid.
The single-class Berserker should be able to do all the usual quests and compensate up to a point for missing out on the basilisks by killing all the sirines. There are nine of those in the Shoal and Lighthouse areas, good for 18k XP (more if you rest-spawn them). And there are three or four at the Temple of the Morning that you could kill using @semiticgod's charm method. In total you could get circa 25k XP from killing sirines alone. The easy quests are worth another 20k (Shoal, Tenya, Brun, Beregost quests, Greywolf, Meilum, Charleston Nib, Brage, Albert & Rufie, Dorn's ambush, Samuel the deserter). You'd then need another 20k for Berserker level 7. If you could deal with the ankhegs in their nest (I think there are nine underground) and the surrounding area (another 6? - more if you rest), maybe take out the ghasts in the valley of the tombs, deal with Mulahey using charm, you should be able to finish the dual-classing process relatively early on.
@Harpagornis Idk how viable this actually is for a druid regaining fighter levels, but I rememeber getting kinda salty about the amount of xp I missed because my FMC was already max xp, on the 2nd and 3rd level of Durlags labyrinth you can lure enemies into fireball traps, when you yourself are 100% fire immune. (Icingdeath + Ring is already 90%). So all the fighter would have to do beforehand is kill the greater doppelgangers barring the way and ofc a low level druid would need the Sandthief ring to turn himself invis, once all enemies are on top of him and amidst the fireballs. This should even work for the greater wyverns on 3 which give massive xp. But even Ghasts, Dwarven Doomguards and Greater Ghouls are not shabby at all.
Died to Mulahey this time. The Wand of Paralyzation did nothing to him, even when Mulahey made no saving throw. Minor Spell Deflection blocked Mental Domination, but I couldn't drink a Potion of Invisibility fast enough to avoid a Rigid Thinking. My cleric/mage ran around confused for a bit, still invisible, but I couldn't use the familiar to block them from attacking a nearby kobold, because my cleric/mage was using a staff and could therefore reach over the familiar. Charname broke invisibility and didn't recover from Rigid Thinking in time to attempt an Invisibility spell to heal and regroup.
I could have used the Greenstone Amulet and Wand of Monster Summoning earlier on, but I didn't want to use the charges.
Will Mulahey turn hostile if you rest after speaking with him? Because if not, you could just use Algernon's Cloak to force him to waste his spells.
I just realized: if you're really worried about ambushes, charming Firebead Elvenhair will get you a free casting of Invisibility every time you visit Beregost.
It seems that Lesser Basilisks aren't that smart and will sometimes engage in melee in a fight with Medusas--a fight they will lose, as I discovered when my charmed Lesser Basilisk, which was protected by my only scroll of Protection from Petrification, tried to tackle the Medusas on its own.
Luckily, it seems that the scroll of Protection from Petrification is not needed if your character can hide in shadows. If you approach a basilisk from behind and use Algernon's Cloak when at a distance, you will always be able to escape its line of sight before it turns around and attacks you.
Also, you can cure petrified targets with Stone to Flesh scrolls, allowing you to kill them with a single point of damage and get any equipment that would have otherwise been lost to petrification.
This also lets you get the XP from the kill twice. Since temples sell about 20 Stone to Flesh scrolls apiece, a wealthy adventurer could keep a Greater Basilisk statue and a Lesser Basilisk friend around for safe keeping, visit them whenever necessary, and trade about 200 gold for 7,000 XP. With 19 scrolls at the Temple of Helm and 19 more scrolls at the Friendly Arm Inn, it's definitely possible to hit the XP cap using Algernon's Cloak and Stone to Flesh scrolls. Selling ankheg shells for 500 gold a pop would be enough to finance the whole endeavor; there are about 14 ankhegs and they'll give about 7,000 gold total.
That's it. Kill Algernon, take his cloak, and then alternate between the ankheg area and the basilisk area to hit the XP cap in a few minutes. Then all that's left to worry about is collecting the right items to finish the main quest.
It's pretty silly, but this would be a quick shortcut for those who don't want to go XP hunting the conventional route. Personally, I can't stand kiting Shoal.
Also, you can cure petrified targets with Stone to Flesh scrolls, allowing you to kill them with a single point of damage and get any equipment that would have otherwise been lost to petrification.
This also lets you get the XP from the kill twice. Since temples sell about 20 Stone to Flesh scrolls apiece, a wealthy adventurer could keep a Greater Basilisk statue and a Lesser Basilisk friend around for safe keeping, visit them whenever necessary, and trade about 200 gold for 7,000 XP. With 19 scrolls at the Temple of Helm and 19 more scrolls at the Friendly Arm Inn, it's definitely possible to hit the XP cap using Algernon's Cloak and Stone to Flesh scrolls.
@Harpagornis, this could make dualling your Berserker to Druid even easier.
I agree that berserker to anything is a good prospect. I think if I were doing it I might be tempted to keep the berserker class throughout SoD and dual later, but others will have a far better appreciation than me of the advantages and disadvantages of that.
In relation to gathering XP I wouldn't personally fancy doubling up (or more) on basilisks, but I don't think that would be needed anyway if you follow @Blackraven's advice. You can also add in the golems to that for a further quick boost - assuming you have specialisation in sling you would probably only need about 20 bullets each for the 3 at the Lighthouse (if you felt inclined you could also kill the ones at High Hedge).
Thanks to your info i have upgraded the Basilisk fun at Durlags Tower:
- Charm Greater Basilisk - Protect yourself and soak engagement - Let your friend petrfify another one for 7k XP - HEAL the petrified Basilisk - Use Stone to Flesh Scoll - Now petrify will give another 7k but NOT kill it - Repeat until you are running out of heals or scrolls
This will push the XP up like crazy in nearly no time!
@Harpagornis: Is it necessary to heal the basilisk? I only tested it on Mutamin, but a Stone to Flesh scroll by itself was enough to let me petrify him again for full XP. The basilisk shouldn't get shattered unless your pet basilisk attacks it while it's still petrified.
Which, come to think of it, is a genuine risk. Basilisks get 4 APR in LoB mode; you could accidentally shatter your XP cow if you're not careful, especially if your pet basilisk is attacking from afar. You need to pay close attention to make sure the XP cow doesn't get hit twice in a row.
Okay, i started with Krell, the Human Berserker who will dual class to Druid at level 7.
As rolling decent stats (97+) would last nearly forever i imported the old Krell Character i used in the past.
The start looked like this:
- Killing Shoal and getting some gold (Drizzts Equip, Ring of Wizardry) - Getting Algernons Cloak - Buying Protection from Petrification and 20+ Stone to Flesh Scrolls - Charmed Talanthyr for free Invisibilty (rested first to charge Cloak again) - Moved on to Mutamins Garden
There Krell charmed the solo Lesser Basilisk on his first try out of invisibility. With his new friend he moved to the southern region where they killed the Lesser Basilisks first leaving open only the Greater Basilisk.
Krell - protected from Petrification - rushed in and soaked engagement of the Big One while his smaller friend used his gaze over and over again. As the Lesser Basilisks only have 2 APR its really easy to avoid another death gaze after petrification.
The only thing they had to take care of: Avoid that Krell attacked the 1 HP Basilisk and immediately retreat the Lesser one whenever the Big One changed his target. The Pause button is your best friend here! His new friend got petrified once but thanks to a quick Stone to Flesh Scroll he moved out of danger again and the game of petrification and fleshing continued until Krell finally got enough XP to jump up to level 8 Druid - reactivating his Berserker abilities.
The whole fighing took only around 15 minutes - it cant get much faster to reach 127k XP in a legit way no?
Thanks again for putting this idea on the table @semiticgod!
Practice has shown that it works perfectly fine. Leveling up fast should now be easy like never before!
P.S. Dont worry: Krell did not kill his new best friend! With a bug hug he moved on to new adventures!
I think it's wonderful to use this type of leveling up, specially for this challenge where getting to the level cap won't mean that you'll blow through the rest of the game easily.
The new template : quickly level up ; get the items you need ; blow the hell out of the main quest. BG1 will take a session or two now (barring some unforeseen death, obviously ).
Next week, I have my first week off of the year. Even though I also have to finish my last freelance contract that week, I intend to push Caligula as far as I can to get on that sweet no-reload challenge. Can't wait to die repeatedly like you guys !!
Edit : It might still take a while, but I feel that, with all these new strats, someone will actually no-reload far into ToB sooner than we expect. After SoD, early SoA is easy peasy and, once you get into HLA range, you really break SoA, even on LoB. I'm really optimistic guys !!
Sorry there's no news from me atm. I started a Pillars Ultimate TCS run and got thru Act 1 pretty easy and will keep playing until I beat the achievement or die.
After doing the "Experification" at Mutamins Garden its clear that this method will help especially all classes that have a hard time leveling up in the "normal way" as there is no need for special abilities. Even a level 1 Noober can do that.
Krell rushed quite hard through Mutamin, Tranzig and the Bandit Camp after completing his main items (you know them) and pushing reputation to 20. Thanks to the XP push everything is running even smoother than usual and with the Nymphs already on the run enemies outside do not last long. Drasus and friends will be his next target - that should be funny!
EDIT: Drasus and friends were pulled one after another and killed by Lightning Strikes. Its quite interesting that the Hold Person or Hold Monster spells - when casted at neutral targets - only makes the target itself hostile. The rest waited as if nothing had happened. Easy kills. Davaeorn went down to the usual burning and kiting so the way to the city of Baldurs Gate is finally free. Time to collect some Tomes!
@Harpagornis: I'm not sure I understand. You mean you used the cloak to draw out Drasus and his friends one by one?
I'm very unfamiliar with main quest BG1 fights. I've never done any of them on LoB mode.
Also, does Mulahey turn hostile if you take too long to open the chest? Ideally I'd like to charm him, but it might require multiple rests to actually get at him.
I managed to overwhelm Mulahey with summoned critters, but I got stuck when kobolds and skeletons broke through my team and moved in for the kill. Greater Malison and Web held them in place while I cut my way out by dual-wielding daggers.
As for the bandit camp, I just ran in, opened the chest (Ender Sai got zapped by the trap; it didn't even touch me), drank a Potion of Invisibility, and ran outside. When the next chapter failed to start, I went back into the tent and it triggered properly.
I gauged the enemy's strength by summoning some critters with the Wand of Monster Summoning. When the monsters got trashed and failed to kill a single enemy, I left the tent, assuming any loot would not be worth the risk.
I'm not really sure how I'm going to deal with the rest of the game. Having read @Grond0's and @Harpagornis' posts, it seems that the key to tackling Sarevok is to somehow lure everyone but Angelo into the southeast corner, kill Angelo with summons and/or the Wand of Paralyzation combined with Greater Malison, and then either lure out Sarevok's pals one by one or bomb them from afar. Yet I'm not sure how to deal with Sarevok himself as a sorcerer, as I cannot use Arrows of Dispelling to remove his haste, and I'm not sure how many scrolls of Fireball or how many charges of the One Gift Lost or Wands of Fire/Frost/Monster Summoning/Paralyzation I will need to take Sarevok down.
I'm also not sure how to deal with Drasus or Davaeorn. Any thoughts?
Comments
But yeah 4 APR arrows of detonation means a lot of damage.
I found the third wave to be quite hard btw, the pallies and clerics. There were so many of them and there HPs and healing make them very resilient. I'm still unsure of a foolproof way to deal with them. @Arctodus, belated thanks for your advice on dealing with the coalition camp battles, my battle mages seemed to be struggling to stand their ground.
@Harpagornis, careful with Braxx!
Am currently pondering over a new Charname. Maybe another Cleric/Thief? @Harpagornis seems to think I've completed BG1 with one, according to his Heroes of BG1 list on page 1, but that's not the case.
But with the crusader attacks still fresh in my memory, can a Cleric/Thief beat the crusaders? I seriously doubt it.
That should have been no problem as mirror images are not supposed to protect against area damage, so Freya tried using wand fireballs - which had no effect. The sensible thing would have been to run away at that point, but no-one accused me of being sensible. I tried using a potion of magic protection against Mutamin's spells, but it didn't work too well ...
After some duties in BG Braxx will hopefully revisit Candlekeep soon - the Tomes are waiting for him!
EDIT: Braxx rushed through Candlekeep getting Tomes and killing two Greater Basilisks on the run. Time to initiate the final phase!
I never killed companions in SoD before, but inspired by @Harpagornis I started on Garrick and Safana and was surprised at their loot, considering the fact they don't fight back.
Is there any way to kill Coran except maybe stun him or smth like that?
Cuz he instantly runs awayy after the conversation.
On the other hand, real good thinking with the web strat against trolls/ogres. It freed the undeads against the mages, which is way more optimal. That strat was off limit for Caligula though, because he can't cast any spell. Thus my suggestion.
It's sad though, I really tought you would be the first to no-reload SoD, because, after that fight, only Belhifet is a real threat. You and @Harpagornis were so close, I'm rooting for you guys !!
I dont know why Braxx always runs into chaos like this - maybe the God of Murder is playing his own game with him!
It's only gonna be another cheesy Totemic, with the name Great Droolit, so if I manage this my achievement won't be too big, but I figured I need a safe way of escaping fights that don't go my way since I'm too used to reloading and having Dogees and nymphes start a fight while the pc is invis is a very nice way of doing just that.
Instead of reloading you can retreat to safety, when you fight say Slythe and Kristin and neither of them gets disabled by hold monster.
Fights outside are won by default because of lightning.
The hardest part is gonna be to safely get Ankheg Plate and then survive till level 7 to get nympees in the first place.
I had the longest rolling session of my life to get the same for Great Droolit, the no reload totemic.
Unfortunately a 95 is the lowest roll that allows you max wisdom, strength, dex and con while int is only at 8, needing the tome which can't be gotten before Candlekep, due to no duhm and closed door to actually use scrolls.
Her way to Nashkel was maybe slightly risky, but I already reduced the risk compared to what I do on normal runs.
Grabbing Evermemeory, then going to beregost, then sout of there, going straight west to Bassilus map.
I got waylaid by wolves, but it might be possible to get waylaid by skeletons there, so I was lucky.
I arrived at a point on this map I was not used to, right next to where you meet the girl talking about Bassilus (I usually come from the north), that panicked me since going straight south is not an option here, so I went west only to meet a hobgoblin ambush intiated via dialogue.
Luckily the dialogue starts way out of sight from all but the talking hobgob, so I outran the arrows I could already smell coming at me, only to run into a wolf.
Running like a madwoman first slightly north then west again Droolit finally arrived at the western part of the map clicking on it for the map and then going straight south to discover Drizzt map.
I was too scared to go there tho, so I first went to Brages map, getting teleported to nashkel thru helping Brage.
Talking to Noober got me to level 2 and ofc the Ankheg plate was looted and equipped.
Getting Drizzt's items was slightly nerveracking, too since once again I arrived on a weird spot on the map running into a lone Gnoll, then a Ghoul and then an ambush again.
Getting chased by all kinds of enemies Great D decided to first travel to the map south of Drizzt and then immediatly back to Drizzts map arriving exactly south of Drizzt with no ambushes to worry about.
With -4 AC and 20 HP I'm also less scared of Bandit ambushes now even tho I forgot to buy a helmet in candlekeep...
Level 7 Berserker would be ideal but i remember the pain it was to get the Druid to level 8. Will i have to farm Ankhegs forever again so the easy-to-do quests are still available? Which route would you go @Blackraven and @Grond0? Once the dual class is complete it will be a real monster - if i can get this far! Anyway: Thanks for your input!
The single-class Berserker should be able to do all the usual quests and compensate up to a point for missing out on the basilisks by killing all the sirines. There are nine of those in the Shoal and Lighthouse areas, good for 18k XP (more if you rest-spawn them). And there are three or four at the Temple of the Morning that you could kill using @semiticgod's charm method. In total you could get circa 25k XP from killing sirines alone. The easy quests are worth another 20k (Shoal, Tenya, Brun, Beregost quests, Greywolf, Meilum, Charleston Nib, Brage, Albert & Rufie, Dorn's ambush, Samuel the deserter). You'd then need another 20k for Berserker level 7. If you could deal with the ankhegs in their nest (I think there are nine underground) and the surrounding area (another 6? - more if you rest), maybe take out the ghasts in the valley of the tombs, deal with Mulahey using charm, you should be able to finish the dual-classing process relatively early on.
Idk how viable this actually is for a druid regaining fighter levels, but I rememeber getting kinda salty about the amount of xp I missed because my FMC was already max xp, on the 2nd and 3rd level of Durlags labyrinth you can lure enemies into fireball traps, when you yourself are 100% fire immune. (Icingdeath + Ring is already 90%).
So all the fighter would have to do beforehand is kill the greater doppelgangers barring the way and ofc a low level druid would need the Sandthief ring to turn himself invis, once all enemies are on top of him and amidst the fireballs.
This should even work for the greater wyverns on 3 which give massive xp.
But even Ghasts, Dwarven Doomguards and Greater Ghouls are not shabby at all.
I could have used the Greenstone Amulet and Wand of Monster Summoning earlier on, but I didn't want to use the charges.
Will Mulahey turn hostile if you rest after speaking with him? Because if not, you could just use Algernon's Cloak to force him to waste his spells.
Luckily, it seems that the scroll of Protection from Petrification is not needed if your character can hide in shadows. If you approach a basilisk from behind and use Algernon's Cloak when at a distance, you will always be able to escape its line of sight before it turns around and attacks you.
Also, you can cure petrified targets with Stone to Flesh scrolls, allowing you to kill them with a single point of damage and get any equipment that would have otherwise been lost to petrification.
This also lets you get the XP from the kill twice. Since temples sell about 20 Stone to Flesh scrolls apiece, a wealthy adventurer could keep a Greater Basilisk statue and a Lesser Basilisk friend around for safe keeping, visit them whenever necessary, and trade about 200 gold for 7,000 XP. With 19 scrolls at the Temple of Helm and 19 more scrolls at the Friendly Arm Inn, it's definitely possible to hit the XP cap using Algernon's Cloak and Stone to Flesh scrolls. Selling ankheg shells for 500 gold a pop would be enough to finance the whole endeavor; there are about 14 ankhegs and they'll give about 7,000 gold total.
That's it. Kill Algernon, take his cloak, and then alternate between the ankheg area and the basilisk area to hit the XP cap in a few minutes. Then all that's left to worry about is collecting the right items to finish the main quest.
It's pretty silly, but this would be a quick shortcut for those who don't want to go XP hunting the conventional route. Personally, I can't stand kiting Shoal.
In relation to gathering XP I wouldn't personally fancy doubling up (or more) on basilisks, but I don't think that would be needed anyway if you follow @Blackraven's advice. You can also add in the golems to that for a further quick boost - assuming you have specialisation in sling you would probably only need about 20 bullets each for the 3 at the Lighthouse (if you felt inclined you could also kill the ones at High Hedge).
Thanks to your info i have upgraded the Basilisk fun at Durlags Tower:
- Charm Greater Basilisk
- Protect yourself and soak engagement
- Let your friend petrfify another one for 7k XP
- HEAL the petrified Basilisk- Use Stone to Flesh Scoll
- Now petrify will give another 7k but NOT kill it
- Repeat until you are running out of
healsor scrollsThis will push the XP up like crazy in nearly no time!
Which, come to think of it, is a genuine risk. Basilisks get 4 APR in LoB mode; you could accidentally shatter your XP cow if you're not careful, especially if your pet basilisk is attacking from afar. You need to pay close attention to make sure the XP cow doesn't get hit twice in a row.
With constant log watching and pausing its no problem to avoid the killing gaze after petrification!
Ah, my Berserker7/Druid will be ready in no time!
As rolling decent stats (97+) would last nearly forever i imported the old Krell Character i used in the past.
The start looked like this:
- Killing Shoal and getting some gold (Drizzts Equip, Ring of Wizardry)
- Getting Algernons Cloak
- Buying Protection from Petrification and 20+ Stone to Flesh Scrolls
- Charmed Talanthyr for free Invisibilty (rested first to charge Cloak again)
- Moved on to Mutamins Garden
There Krell charmed the solo Lesser Basilisk on his first try out of invisibility. With his new friend he moved to the southern region where they killed the Lesser Basilisks first leaving open only the Greater Basilisk.
Krell - protected from Petrification - rushed in and soaked engagement of the Big One while his smaller friend used his gaze over and over again. As the Lesser Basilisks only have 2 APR its really easy to avoid another death gaze after petrification.
The only thing they had to take care of: Avoid that Krell attacked the 1 HP Basilisk and immediately retreat the Lesser one whenever the Big One changed his target. The Pause button is your best friend here! His new friend got petrified once but thanks to a quick Stone to Flesh Scroll he moved out of danger again and the game of petrification and fleshing continued until Krell finally got enough XP to jump up to level 8 Druid - reactivating his Berserker abilities.
The whole fighing took only around 15 minutes - it cant get much faster to reach 127k XP in a legit way no?
Thanks again for putting this idea on the table @semiticgod!
Practice has shown that it works perfectly fine. Leveling up fast should now be easy like never before!
P.S. Dont worry: Krell did not kill his new best friend! With a bug hug he moved on to new adventures!
The new template : quickly level up ; get the items you need ; blow the hell out of the main quest. BG1 will take a session or two now (barring some unforeseen death, obviously
Next week, I have my first week off of the year. Even though I also have to finish my last freelance contract that week, I intend to push Caligula as far as I can to get on that sweet no-reload challenge. Can't wait to die repeatedly like you guys !!
Edit : It might still take a while, but I feel that, with all these new strats, someone will actually no-reload far into ToB sooner than we expect. After SoD, early SoA is easy peasy and, once you get into HLA range, you really break SoA, even on LoB. I'm really optimistic guys !!
I started a Pillars Ultimate TCS run and got thru Act 1 pretty easy and will keep playing until I beat the achievement or die.
After doing the "Experification" at Mutamins Garden its clear that this method will help especially all classes that have a hard time leveling up in the "normal way" as there is no need for special abilities. Even a level 1 Noober can do that.
Krell rushed quite hard through Mutamin, Tranzig and the Bandit Camp after completing his main items (you know them) and pushing reputation to 20. Thanks to the XP push everything is running even smoother than usual and with the Nymphs already on the run enemies outside do not last long. Drasus and friends will be his next target - that should be funny!
EDIT: Drasus and friends were pulled one after another and killed by Lightning Strikes. Its quite interesting that the Hold Person or Hold Monster spells - when casted at neutral targets - only makes the target itself hostile. The rest waited as if nothing had happened. Easy kills. Davaeorn went down to the usual burning and kiting so the way to the city of Baldurs Gate is finally free. Time to collect some Tomes!
I'm very unfamiliar with main quest BG1 fights. I've never done any of them on LoB mode.
Also, does Mulahey turn hostile if you take too long to open the chest? Ideally I'd like to charm him, but it might require multiple rests to actually get at him.
As for the bandit camp, I just ran in, opened the chest (Ender Sai got zapped by the trap; it didn't even touch me), drank a Potion of Invisibility, and ran outside. When the next chapter failed to start, I went back into the tent and it triggered properly.
I gauged the enemy's strength by summoning some critters with the Wand of Monster Summoning. When the monsters got trashed and failed to kill a single enemy, I left the tent, assuming any loot would not be worth the risk.
I'm not really sure how I'm going to deal with the rest of the game. Having read @Grond0's and @Harpagornis' posts, it seems that the key to tackling Sarevok is to somehow lure everyone but Angelo into the southeast corner, kill Angelo with summons and/or the Wand of Paralyzation combined with Greater Malison, and then either lure out Sarevok's pals one by one or bomb them from afar. Yet I'm not sure how to deal with Sarevok himself as a sorcerer, as I cannot use Arrows of Dispelling to remove his haste, and I'm not sure how many scrolls of Fireball or how many charges of the One Gift Lost or Wands of Fire/Frost/Monster Summoning/Paralyzation I will need to take Sarevok down.
I'm also not sure how to deal with Drasus or Davaeorn. Any thoughts?