@semiticgod to answer some of your questions: - Mulahey can be kept neutral after his initial talk if your charisma/reputation is high enough, giving you the chance to charm him without the need for invisibility / stealth (just keep resting immediately after each failure). - Sarevok will follow you in the final battle and everyone else (but Angelo) will follow Sarevok. You can then just dump Sarevok in a corner before going to find Angelo. Skeletons work well to get him to show himself as they can't be scared or confused (and thus wander to activate the other enemies). If you don't have them available you could do it yourself (using a potion of magic shielding for instance). I don't think though it's possible to lure out Sarevok's pals one by one. On his own Sarevok is easy - summons will eventually take him down (I assume you don't want to kite him though that's also possible). Recharging a wand of summoning at Ulgoth's Beard gives you 100 charges, which is more than enough. - for Drasus you can charm his friends one by one without showing yourself to Drasus. The charmed ones can be pulled away and set to attack other enemies on the map (or directly attacked, but that's risky against the mages who could disappear and go and find their friends). - for Davaeorn you could show yourself to him (with protection to ensure you save against web / stinking cloud), then disappear and wait for all the guards to arrive. They will cluster round him so can be fireballed (or charmed one by one). Summons can then take down Davaeorn easily enough. A simpler alternative to the battle is to charm the original guard and use it to pull the battle horrors away from Davaeorn to be killed. Then sight Davaeorn while invisible and use the guard to hack him down.
@semiticgod You don't need arrows of dispelling for Sarevok as a sorcerer just use normal dispel I did that with my Druid, too. The key is firing more than just one dispel at him, since he is higher level than you, I fired 5 at him while he was occupied by summons. Btw with wands of Monster summoning you don't even need to dispel, with my F/M/C I had two fully charged wands and the first wand also got used vs Angelo for a couple charges and I just resummoned monsters at him, cuz I forgot to take enough ammo for my sling.
@semiticgod You don't need arrows of dispelling for Sarevok as a sorcerer just use normal dispel I did that with my Druid, too. The key is firing more than just one dispel at him, since he is higher level than you, I fired 5 at him while he was occupied by summons. Btw with wands of Monster summoning you don't even need to dispel, with my F/M/C I had two fully charged wands and the first wand also got used vs Angelo for a couple charges and I just resummoned monsters at him, cuz I forgot to take enough ammo for my sling.
Besides, boots of speed + oil of speed means you'll still move twice as fast as Sarevok so you can still easily kite him and take him down with wands or missiles.
After rushing through Candlekeep and grabbing the Tomes (while protected from any trap damage) he met the final encounters. Cythandria was killed with Magic Protection and five Nymphs once Krell had lured the two Golems downstairs (and killing the backstabbers easily before thanks to True Sight and Iron Skin!). It was only a matter of time once Inscect Swarm was canceling her spells - easy going!
Slythe was killed with the help of five nymphs and five guards. As Kristin did not follow this time (is there any logic behind this?) Slythe did not last long after Insect Swarm landed and hasted Krell joined the party.
This left open the Palace Ambush! Thanks to charming the Mage first and memorizing two Insect Swarms it wasnt really hard once all Guards and Nobles were charmed and five Nymphs also joined the battle. Buffed up Krell joined the slaughter killing the Dopplegangers quite quickly with his double Scimitars (two points in Dual Wielding!). The Mage himself proved to be no big deal afterwards as Krell had spared one Inscect Swarm for him.
Sarevok himself was treated like always. Park them in the SE and go for Angelo. He wasted a lot of spells on summons and was cut down without problems once his protections were gone. Dispelling Sarevok did not work but thanks to double Necklace of Missiles the other ones went down after their buffs expired. As @Blackraven mentioned its still not that hard to kite Sarevok down thanks to Haste + Boots of Speed even though the sling kiting still took some time. With a mighty 20 damage hit Sarevok finally went down and opened the door to SoD. Finally!!!
P.S. Durlags Tower was rushed quite hard protecting against the traps, using invisibility to skip most fights and luring Fear, Avarice and Pride away so Love was all alone. As he could not land his spells Krell hacked him down quite quickly. On the next level Krell kited the Dopplegangers until he got free passage to grab Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet - which will both prove to be very helpful soon!
@Grond0@Victor_Creed_SFV: What if Wands of Monster Summoning only go up to 15 charges instead of 100 in my install? I think I can buy another wand at a mod-introduced merchant in the Cloakwood, which should amount to 45 total charges across 3 wands for about 20,000 gold each to recharge. Would that be enough?
Only Wands of the Heavens can go up to 100 charges in my install. All others are limited to 15--except for Wands of Paralyzation and Frost, which are limited to 8.
My sorcerer didn't choose Dispel Magic as one of their spell picks; I just have Fireball, Minor Spell Deflection, and Monster Summoning 1. The idea is that I'll use scroll scribing and potion brewing (mod-introduced abilities) to buy more scrolls than would normally be possible, as well as extra Potions of Fiery Burning, Potions of Invisibility, and Oils of Speed. My only source of Dispel Magic would come from scrolls from normal vendors, and I don't know how many there are to buy.
Thing is, Wands of Monster Summoning work like the 4th level monster summoning spell, and I can only create scrolls for the 3rd level spell, so my summons will be much weaker. I could have chosen the level 4 version, but as a level 9 sorcerer at the XP cap, I can only choose Stoneskin and Greater Malison, which I figured would be necessary to avoid getting killed by a critical hit and to make sure I can hit enemies with Web and Wands of Paralyzation.
Good start for Krell into SoD so far as Korlasz has fallen - here his strat:
1. Used Nymph to lure the Followers away from the door and slipped through invisible - convinced Porios to surrender (2. answer!) 2. On lower level Krell used PfU + Invisibility and sneaked through to the door mechanism. There he charmed both Followers (the left one first as he will trigger some talking so they would either fight or flee). To get them through the enemy group nearby he casted Pixie Dust so all of them could move on to Korlasz. 3. Only now Krell casted Iron Skin (Dispel Trap!), summoned five Nymphs and moved the invisible Followers into the back of Korlasz. As charming on my old Krell failed too often he switched to a more aggressive plan. 4. He moved one Nymph in front of Korlasz and casted Insect Swarm on her. Once the spell was near to impact Krell moved into vision range of Korlasz and the talking triggered. 5. Once the battle started the Insect Swarm immediately hit Korlasz while the charmed Followers started hacking at her. All five Nymphs in the meanwhile casted Hold Monsters and Hold Person nonstop to root her down in place (she fails the Save quite often). 6. With Korlasz paralyzed hasted Krell started shooting his bullet stones. Together with Insect Swarm and the Followers it was just enough to bring her down to "injured" before all of his allies went down. Krell swiftly went invisible again. 7. All he had to do now was to wait until the paralyze ended and attack Korlasz once more to trigger the surrender talking - job done!
Baldurs Gate is waiting again!
P.S. Also quite nice: He jumped from level 9 up to level 11 after beating Korlasz!!
1. Used Nymph to lure the Followers away from the door and slipped through invisible - convinced Porios to surrender (first answer!)
I'm confused . I tried the first answer in my last run and Porios didn't surrender. Do you know what the text of the answer you gave was? Is it possible that you can be successful with some answers based on an encounter check whereas others always fail or always succeed ...
@Grond0 For me it is always the second answer. You kinda threaten to kill him if he doesn't surrender or something, don't go with the peaceful pls lay down your arms, pretty pls, that pisses him off.
With all the recent discussion of druids I thought I'd generate a fighter/druid rather than trying with the fighter/cleric again. I was expecting to have to compromise on strength, but in only half an hour or so I got a good roll to get him going.
As is not unusual I was playing while tired tonight and probably had a near escape when kiting a hobgoblin at the FAI - nodding off for a moment (or possibly several moments) before registering the dead hobgoblin in front of Rysh as a result of hitting it with a critical with his sling while in melee.
He's still fairly early on in his adventures at level 3/3, but won't be looking to take a basilisk short-cut in BG1. For now though, it's time for bed said Zebedee.
Drasus is avoidable, so skip him. Davaeorn - I'd use summons to draw away his most dangerous spells; when he's out Wand of Ice will do.
But, but... but the Boots of Speed!
If you're soloing, Lothander has one pair of those. And if you manage to kill Marek before he initiates dialogue (Marek is slow, so haste yourself and slam that paralyzation wand until it sticks); Lothander won't leave the area, so kill him as well. Iirc, he's worth 5k XP! And drops Boots of Speed. It's also possible to kill him in the tavern when he gives you half of the antidote, but much harder. The first thing I do when I come to BG city is kill them both, if only for convinience sake since I hate that poison fedex quest.
It looks like wands recharge to 20 in my install, but since Sorcerous Sundries and a mod-introduced merchant in the Cloakwood both sell apparently unlimited numbers of each type of wand, it shouldn't be an issue.
Drasus didn't go as planned. My cleric/illusionist (I felt my sorcerer was underpowered, so I started over again) charmed one of his friends, but there were Black Talon Elites and a Black Talon General who were all already hostile--I think this is from one of my mods; I don't think this is normal for SCS. They massacred the guy I charmed, but since my cleric/illusionist had lots of Sanctuary and Invisibility spells, I just ran away and threw summons at the enemy over the course of two or three rest periods until they collapsed.
I avoided every fight in the Cloakwood mine except for Davaeorn. Unfortunately, my mods add a new group of enemies at the start: a mage, a backstabber, and three fighters, one of which uses Arrows of Detonation. I hung back and used the Wand of Monster Summoning to weaken the enemy, and the archer bombed his friends when he fired those arrows at my summons. I made sure to stay out of sight, alternating between summoning monsters and going invisible with Sanctuary, Invisibility, or a Potion of Invisibility.
I managed to charm the last surviving guard of the group, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do with him. So I sent him ahead to the Battle Horrors and tried to lead them into a nearby room while I walked over the traps fully buffed and invisible.
But Davaeorn started his dialogue and turned hostile despite my invisibility. And though I took refuge in the northwest chamber and used my summoned critters to kill one of the Battle Horrors, more and more guards started pouring in from the northeast.
It was an extremely long battle, and I ended up exhausting my supply of Invisibility spells and potions, because Davaeorn's Remove Magic and Breach spells left me vulnerable to the enemy's numerous arrows and swords. I kept vanishing, trying to find an opening, and eventually Davaeorn got cornered by his own men. He was boxed in!
I held them all in place using a couple Webs and a Greater Malison spell, but it wasn't enough. Davaeorn had 50% fire resistance and lots of Potions of Extra Healing, so my Wand of the Heavens wasn't enough to take him down by the time Web ran out. My Wand of Monster Summoning was down to one charge, and with maybe 15 guards left, there was no way I could break through the wall using summoned critters.
Instead, I took off the Ring of Free Action just long enough to down an Oil of Speed. I then used hit-and-fade tactics with the Wand of Fire, bombing the group with the Fireball option and targeting Davaeorn himself with the Agannazar's Scorcher option. The moment I used the wand, I ran away.
For some reason, the enemy just stood there. Only a single guard wandered around in search of me; everyone else had crowded around Davaeorn and refused to move. I nearly exhausted the Wand of Fire, but eventually I burned down Davaeorn and all of the guards. If they had chased me, I likely would have need a lot more Invisibility scrolls and potions, or otherwise I might have gotten boxed in despite my higher movement rate. There's not enough room to kite.
I'm in Baldur's Gate now, looking at the Iron Throne fight. I don't know much about this fight either, so I might just use the same strategy I used on Davaeorn:
1. Stay invisible 2. Run around 3. Find corners where I'm out of the enemy's line of sight 4. Summon monsters from the corners 5. Turn invisible again before the enemy spots me 6. Repeat
Cleric/mages are usually very defensive builds in BG2, but in BG1, in LoB mode, with the XP cap in place and no Spell Immunity spells to be found, they don't have the defensive spells to tolerate much pressure, even when the enemy is not using Remove Magic to take down everything at once.
Thanks to Atweaks (or whatever mod is responsible; @Blackraven probably has it), I now have Dimension Door. Unfortunately, due to a bug in the spell scribing mod, I can't create Dimension Door scrolls; it just gives me a Stoneskin scroll (presumably because the original BG2 used the same item code for Stoneskin as BG1 did for Dimension Door). And since I can't cast Dimension Door via a scroll, it means I can still get disrupted.
I tackled the Iron Throne fight! It seems that cuddling the corners is indeed sufficient. I let the Wand of Monster Summoning do the heavy lifting while I ran and hid behind Sanctuary and Invisibility, using the extra time to fortify my defenses on the off chance I might get hit by Confusion or something (which never happened).
Rieltar fell to some skeleton warriors. MSD, Stoneskin, and Sanctuary let me loot the Candlekeep catacombs, Cythandria's golems fell to more skeleton warriors, and I ground down Cythandria herself using the Wand of Monster Summoning, again using Sanctuary to avoid getting touched.
Cleric/illusionists are very well equipped for this challenge, though my experience with Davaeorn was definitely subpar. Not only can they start out with a familiar and use all types of wands; they are also capable of casting both Invisibility and Sanctuary, allowing them to stay safe while their summons do the work.
Invisibility lasts for 24 hours and covers them during long battles as well as area transitions. Sanctuary only lasts for 10 rounds and has a casting time of 4 instead of 2, but it has 3 important advantages:
1. Sanctuary cannot be dispelled by divination attacks, which means it's safe even when fighting mages. 2. A cleric with decent wisdom can cast it multiple times per day at little cost, allowing them to fade in and out of visibility while they summon monsters and such. I keep four spell slots dedicated to Sanctuary, which is the most I can commit while still having two for Remove Fear (one for pre-buffing, and one in case I get hit by Remove Magic). 3. Looting containers, or even bashing them open, does not break Sanctuary. This means you can grab the Wand of Fire from the ankheg nest or the Wand of Monster Summoning from the Narcillus area without having to deal with ankheg attacks or ghast paralysis, all at level 1. It even let me loot the entire bandit camp without fighting a single person.
Next up is Slythe and Krystin. I'm not too worried about them, but without Spell Revisions, I will no longer be able to rely on Resilient Sphere to protect Belt at the Ducal Palace. Hopefully I can figure out how to charm the local audience members and position them to protect the Grand Dukes (I've never tried that before), but I'm concerned about how I'd bring them down.
I have 46 charges across three Wands of Monster Summoning. That's certainly enough to deal with the Ducal Palace, but will it be enough to save Belt or Liia Jannath and also win the fight against Sarevok?
Yeah, Lothander drops another pair of Speed Boots @Aasim but charming Drasus and watch how he gets taken down by Guards isnt really hard. I would miss the Boots of Speed in the Mines and against Davaeorn a lot! No need to wait until BG!
@semiticgod, it's indeeed aTweaks that introduces Dimension Door, and I've had the same experience: can't scribe copies of it. In SoD my Fighter/Illusionist always had one memorized. I've also used Teleport Field a couple of times to prevent enemies from swarming me.
I have yet to tackle the final SoD fight but I'm convinced that Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Mage, and Mage/Thief, especially the Gnome Illusionist versions, are all capable classes for no-reloading both BG1 and SoD. SoA too should be doable thanks to quick solo leveling. I feel the real challenge, at least up to ToB, is to be successfulwith a non-arcane class.
Honestly, I've never found non-arcane classes to be particularly interesting. Berserkers and Totemic Druids and Assassins and Clerics of Lathander and Inquisitors and Skalds are all very strong, but they seemed very narrow in comparison to a basic generalist mage. Mages just have more options--more spells to play with, and therefore more weird tricks to pull off.
@Harpagornis and @Grond0 and @Alesia_B_H have a very disciplined, highly technical playstyle that focuses on precise control of the character and the battlefield. You guys are deeply familiar with the ins and outs of the game and optimize your gameplay by careful engineering. You sharpen a blade to a fine razor edge and cut through the game with surgical precision.
I tend to screw around instead, experimenting with random crap and looking for vulnerabilities and opportunities that I can exploit. I don't hunt big animals; I dig up hidden truffles. That playstyle just doesn't work well with specialized character builds. An Archer will never be able to get as creative as a mage. The drawback is that I don't usually know what I'm doing; I'm figuring stuff out.
Very nice @semiticgod When I played my F/M/C I deeply regretted not going with Cleric/Illusionist super early. For me it was because abusing Polymorph Self would have been a lot more fun with a non triple class, the xp cap really hurts some classes harder than others.
Hmm, I do like thinly sliced truffles so that would make me ...
... a gunslinger. You thinly slice truffles by shooting them with a gun. Quite an impressive feat, actually.
I'd define your style as a gunslinger, because, while it's true that you're the most disciplined no-reloader I know - aka you always put rough restrictions on your runs and strictly follow them - you at the same time love to take chances, and highly dangerous ones. How about fighting Iron Throne leaders in an entirely optional fight with a highly susceptible to critical hits monk ? Oh yeah, you'll do that.
You're not a really a defensive minded player, and that's why your runs are always a blast to read : you never know what will happen next...
Hhmmmmm... interesting thoughts @semiticgod. I think i am both: The razor blade when it comes to the execution of a long-term-battle-plan and the truffle hunter when finding more or less creative ways to get through seemingly impossible obstacles. Even though i commit that my playstile is far more boring than @Grond0´s as i normally tend to minimize risks - pretty much like @Blackraven!
Oh, and i avoid Mages at all costs cause they have too many options and i like to restrict myself like @Grond0 even though in other ways - the Level 1 Noober Challenge is one of my all time favourites. Maybe i will try it one day with SCS + LoB. We will see!
@Harpagornis Mages have more options in SoA, in BG1 and SoD Druids have by far the most and more powerful options, just because they get higher level spells and they don't need to find them, while some of the most powerful spells (I'm looking at you Mislead and SI :P) aren't even in BG1 and I don't know about SoD but purely from spell level many mage classes could easily cast them, if there was a damn scroll to find.
Agreed @Victor_Creed_SFV! Druids are quite powerful in BG1 and SoD. So powerful that they can enchant the barrel of wine for Irina at the Eflsong Tavern turning it into precious ruby wine - without stealing from the Ducal Palace. Cheers!!
Okay, Krell is finally ready for the March to Dragonspear after questing a bit and getting a lot of gold thanks to killing the party NPC´s (and grabbing 80 Haste Potions from bombing down Imoen during the Palace Ambush!). He also took a closer look at the mysterious Hooded Man that approached him right before leaving Baldurs Gate: He´s a level 42 Mage but has not a single spell memorized. A really strange guy - no?
Comments
- Mulahey can be kept neutral after his initial talk if your charisma/reputation is high enough, giving you the chance to charm him without the need for invisibility / stealth (just keep resting immediately after each failure).
- Sarevok will follow you in the final battle and everyone else (but Angelo) will follow Sarevok. You can then just dump Sarevok in a corner before going to find Angelo. Skeletons work well to get him to show himself as they can't be scared or confused (and thus wander to activate the other enemies). If you don't have them available you could do it yourself (using a potion of magic shielding for instance). I don't think though it's possible to lure out Sarevok's pals one by one. On his own Sarevok is easy - summons will eventually take him down (I assume you don't want to kite him though that's also possible). Recharging a wand of summoning at Ulgoth's Beard gives you 100 charges, which is more than enough.
- for Drasus you can charm his friends one by one without showing yourself to Drasus. The charmed ones can be pulled away and set to attack other enemies on the map (or directly attacked, but that's risky against the mages who could disappear and go and find their friends).
- for Davaeorn you could show yourself to him (with protection to ensure you save against web / stinking cloud), then disappear and wait for all the guards to arrive. They will cluster round him so can be fireballed (or charmed one by one). Summons can then take down Davaeorn easily enough. A simpler alternative to the battle is to charm the original guard and use it to pull the battle horrors away from Davaeorn to be killed. Then sight Davaeorn while invisible and use the guard to hack him down.
You don't need arrows of dispelling for Sarevok as a sorcerer just use normal dispel I did that with my Druid, too.
The key is firing more than just one dispel at him, since he is higher level than you, I fired 5 at him while he was occupied by summons.
Btw with wands of Monster summoning you don't even need to dispel, with my F/M/C I had two fully charged wands and the first wand also got used vs Angelo for a couple charges and I just resummoned monsters at him, cuz I forgot to take enough ammo for my sling.
Wish this was in BG LoB.
After rushing through Candlekeep and grabbing the Tomes (while protected from any trap damage) he met the final encounters. Cythandria was killed with Magic Protection and five Nymphs once Krell had lured the two Golems downstairs (and killing the backstabbers easily before thanks to True Sight and Iron Skin!). It was only a matter of time once Inscect Swarm was canceling her spells - easy going!
Slythe was killed with the help of five nymphs and five guards. As Kristin did not follow this time (is there any logic behind this?) Slythe did not last long after Insect Swarm landed and hasted Krell joined the party.
This left open the Palace Ambush! Thanks to charming the Mage first and memorizing two Insect Swarms it wasnt really hard once all Guards and Nobles were charmed and five Nymphs also joined the battle. Buffed up Krell joined the slaughter killing the Dopplegangers quite quickly with his double Scimitars (two points in Dual Wielding!). The Mage himself proved to be no big deal afterwards as Krell had spared one Inscect Swarm for him.
Sarevok himself was treated like always. Park them in the SE and go for Angelo. He wasted a lot of spells on summons and was cut down without problems once his protections were gone. Dispelling Sarevok did not work but thanks to double Necklace of Missiles the other ones went down after their buffs expired. As @Blackraven mentioned its still not that hard to kite Sarevok down thanks to Haste + Boots of Speed even though the sling kiting still took some time. With a mighty 20 damage hit Sarevok finally went down and opened the door to SoD. Finally!!!
P.S. Durlags Tower was rushed quite hard protecting against the traps, using invisibility to skip most fights and luring Fear, Avarice and Pride away so Love was all alone. As he could not land his spells Krell hacked him down quite quickly. On the next level Krell kited the Dopplegangers until he got free passage to grab Durlags Goblet and Kiels Helmet - which will both prove to be very helpful soon!
Only Wands of the Heavens can go up to 100 charges in my install. All others are limited to 15--except for Wands of Paralyzation and Frost, which are limited to 8.
My sorcerer didn't choose Dispel Magic as one of their spell picks; I just have Fireball, Minor Spell Deflection, and Monster Summoning 1. The idea is that I'll use scroll scribing and potion brewing (mod-introduced abilities) to buy more scrolls than would normally be possible, as well as extra Potions of Fiery Burning, Potions of Invisibility, and Oils of Speed. My only source of Dispel Magic would come from scrolls from normal vendors, and I don't know how many there are to buy.
Thing is, Wands of Monster Summoning work like the 4th level monster summoning spell, and I can only create scrolls for the 3rd level spell, so my summons will be much weaker. I could have chosen the level 4 version, but as a level 9 sorcerer at the XP cap, I can only choose Stoneskin and Greater Malison, which I figured would be necessary to avoid getting killed by a critical hit and to make sure I can hit enemies with Web and Wands of Paralyzation.
@semiticgod, unless your mods change Halbazzer's shop inventory, Sorcerous Sundries has several copies of most wands.
1. Used Nymph to lure the Followers away from the door and slipped through invisible - convinced Porios to surrender (2. answer!)
2. On lower level Krell used PfU + Invisibility and sneaked through to the door mechanism. There he charmed both Followers (the left one first as he will trigger some talking so they would either fight or flee). To get them through the enemy group nearby he casted Pixie Dust so all of them could move on to Korlasz.
3. Only now Krell casted Iron Skin (Dispel Trap!), summoned five Nymphs and moved the invisible Followers into the back of Korlasz. As charming on my old Krell failed too often he switched to a more aggressive plan.
4. He moved one Nymph in front of Korlasz and casted Insect Swarm on her. Once the spell was near to impact Krell moved into vision range of Korlasz and the talking triggered.
5. Once the battle started the Insect Swarm immediately hit Korlasz while the charmed Followers started hacking at her. All five Nymphs in the meanwhile casted Hold Monsters and Hold Person nonstop to root her down in place (she fails the Save quite often).
6. With Korlasz paralyzed hasted Krell started shooting his bullet stones. Together with Insect Swarm and the Followers it was just enough to bring her down to "injured" before all of his allies went down. Krell swiftly went invisible again.
7. All he had to do now was to wait until the paralyze ended and attack Korlasz once more to trigger the surrender talking - job done!
Baldurs Gate is waiting again!
P.S. Also quite nice: He jumped from level 9 up to level 11 after beating Korlasz!!
For me it is always the second answer.
You kinda threaten to kill him if he doesn't surrender or something, don't go with the peaceful pls lay down your arms, pretty pls, that pisses him off.
To sum it up:
You will need CHA 15+ to succeed with Answer 1.
Answer 2 works even with CHA 3 - hah!!!
There you go @Grond0 - next time Porios should be no trouble anymore!
As is not unusual I was playing while tired tonight and probably had a near escape when kiting a hobgoblin at the FAI - nodding off for a moment (or possibly several moments) before registering the dead hobgoblin in front of Rysh as a result of hitting it with a critical with his sling while in melee.
He's still fairly early on in his adventures at level 3/3, but won't be looking to take a basilisk short-cut in BG1. For now though, it's time for bed said Zebedee.
Drasus didn't go as planned. My cleric/illusionist (I felt my sorcerer was underpowered, so I started over again) charmed one of his friends, but there were Black Talon Elites and a Black Talon General who were all already hostile--I think this is from one of my mods; I don't think this is normal for SCS. They massacred the guy I charmed, but since my cleric/illusionist had lots of Sanctuary and Invisibility spells, I just ran away and threw summons at the enemy over the course of two or three rest periods until they collapsed.
I avoided every fight in the Cloakwood mine except for Davaeorn. Unfortunately, my mods add a new group of enemies at the start: a mage, a backstabber, and three fighters, one of which uses Arrows of Detonation. I hung back and used the Wand of Monster Summoning to weaken the enemy, and the archer bombed his friends when he fired those arrows at my summons. I made sure to stay out of sight, alternating between summoning monsters and going invisible with Sanctuary, Invisibility, or a Potion of Invisibility.
I managed to charm the last surviving guard of the group, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do with him. So I sent him ahead to the Battle Horrors and tried to lead them into a nearby room while I walked over the traps fully buffed and invisible.
But Davaeorn started his dialogue and turned hostile despite my invisibility. And though I took refuge in the northwest chamber and used my summoned critters to kill one of the Battle Horrors, more and more guards started pouring in from the northeast.
It was an extremely long battle, and I ended up exhausting my supply of Invisibility spells and potions, because Davaeorn's Remove Magic and Breach spells left me vulnerable to the enemy's numerous arrows and swords. I kept vanishing, trying to find an opening, and eventually Davaeorn got cornered by his own men. He was boxed in!
I held them all in place using a couple Webs and a Greater Malison spell, but it wasn't enough. Davaeorn had 50% fire resistance and lots of Potions of Extra Healing, so my Wand of the Heavens wasn't enough to take him down by the time Web ran out. My Wand of Monster Summoning was down to one charge, and with maybe 15 guards left, there was no way I could break through the wall using summoned critters.
Instead, I took off the Ring of Free Action just long enough to down an Oil of Speed. I then used hit-and-fade tactics with the Wand of Fire, bombing the group with the Fireball option and targeting Davaeorn himself with the Agannazar's Scorcher option. The moment I used the wand, I ran away.
For some reason, the enemy just stood there. Only a single guard wandered around in search of me; everyone else had crowded around Davaeorn and refused to move. I nearly exhausted the Wand of Fire, but eventually I burned down Davaeorn and all of the guards. If they had chased me, I likely would have need a lot more Invisibility scrolls and potions, or otherwise I might have gotten boxed in despite my higher movement rate. There's not enough room to kite.
I'm in Baldur's Gate now, looking at the Iron Throne fight. I don't know much about this fight either, so I might just use the same strategy I used on Davaeorn:
1. Stay invisible
2. Run around
3. Find corners where I'm out of the enemy's line of sight
4. Summon monsters from the corners
5. Turn invisible again before the enemy spots me
6. Repeat
Cleric/mages are usually very defensive builds in BG2, but in BG1, in LoB mode, with the XP cap in place and no Spell Immunity spells to be found, they don't have the defensive spells to tolerate much pressure, even when the enemy is not using Remove Magic to take down everything at once.
Thanks to Atweaks (or whatever mod is responsible; @Blackraven probably has it), I now have Dimension Door. Unfortunately, due to a bug in the spell scribing mod, I can't create Dimension Door scrolls; it just gives me a Stoneskin scroll (presumably because the original BG2 used the same item code for Stoneskin as BG1 did for Dimension Door). And since I can't cast Dimension Door via a scroll, it means I can still get disrupted.
My greatest fear is getting boxed in.
Rieltar fell to some skeleton warriors. MSD, Stoneskin, and Sanctuary let me loot the Candlekeep catacombs, Cythandria's golems fell to more skeleton warriors, and I ground down Cythandria herself using the Wand of Monster Summoning, again using Sanctuary to avoid getting touched.
Cleric/illusionists are very well equipped for this challenge, though my experience with Davaeorn was definitely subpar. Not only can they start out with a familiar and use all types of wands; they are also capable of casting both Invisibility and Sanctuary, allowing them to stay safe while their summons do the work.
Invisibility lasts for 24 hours and covers them during long battles as well as area transitions. Sanctuary only lasts for 10 rounds and has a casting time of 4 instead of 2, but it has 3 important advantages:
1. Sanctuary cannot be dispelled by divination attacks, which means it's safe even when fighting mages.
2. A cleric with decent wisdom can cast it multiple times per day at little cost, allowing them to fade in and out of visibility while they summon monsters and such. I keep four spell slots dedicated to Sanctuary, which is the most I can commit while still having two for Remove Fear (one for pre-buffing, and one in case I get hit by Remove Magic).
3. Looting containers, or even bashing them open, does not break Sanctuary. This means you can grab the Wand of Fire from the ankheg nest or the Wand of Monster Summoning from the Narcillus area without having to deal with ankheg attacks or ghast paralysis, all at level 1. It even let me loot the entire bandit camp without fighting a single person.
Next up is Slythe and Krystin. I'm not too worried about them, but without Spell Revisions, I will no longer be able to rely on Resilient Sphere to protect Belt at the Ducal Palace. Hopefully I can figure out how to charm the local audience members and position them to protect the Grand Dukes (I've never tried that before), but I'm concerned about how I'd bring them down.
I have 46 charges across three Wands of Monster Summoning. That's certainly enough to deal with the Ducal Palace, but will it be enough to save Belt or Liia Jannath and also win the fight against Sarevok?
I have yet to tackle the final SoD fight but I'm convinced that Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Mage, and Mage/Thief, especially the Gnome Illusionist versions, are all capable classes for no-reloading both BG1 and SoD. SoA too should be doable thanks to quick solo leveling. I feel the real challenge, at least up to ToB, is to be successfulwith a non-arcane class.
Anyway: Keep going @semiticgod - i really would like to see how you deal with SoD!
@Harpagornis and @Grond0 and @Alesia_B_H have a very disciplined, highly technical playstyle that focuses on precise control of the character and the battlefield. You guys are deeply familiar with the ins and outs of the game and optimize your gameplay by careful engineering. You sharpen a blade to a fine razor edge and cut through the game with surgical precision.
I tend to screw around instead, experimenting with random crap and looking for vulnerabilities and opportunities that I can exploit. I don't hunt big animals; I dig up hidden truffles. That playstyle just doesn't work well with specialized character builds. An Archer will never be able to get as creative as a mage. The drawback is that I don't usually know what I'm doing; I'm figuring stuff out.
Are you a razor blade or a truffle hunter?
@semiticgod don't forget you can make Liia invisible at the palace if you want to give yourself a bit more insurance.
When I played my F/M/C I deeply regretted not going with Cleric/Illusionist super early.
For me it was because abusing Polymorph Self would have been a lot more fun with a non triple class, the xp cap really hurts some classes harder than others.
I'd define your style as a gunslinger, because, while it's true that you're the most disciplined no-reloader I know - aka you always put rough restrictions on your runs and strictly follow them - you at the same time love to take chances, and highly dangerous ones. How about fighting Iron Throne leaders in an entirely optional fight with a highly susceptible to critical hits monk ? Oh yeah, you'll do that.
You're not a really a defensive minded player, and that's why your runs are always a blast to read : you never know what will happen next...
Oh, and i avoid Mages at all costs cause they have too many options and i like to restrict myself like @Grond0 even though in other ways - the Level 1 Noober Challenge is one of my all time favourites. Maybe i will try it one day with SCS + LoB. We will see!
No time for playing Krell...
Mages have more options in SoA, in BG1 and SoD Druids have by far the most and more powerful options, just because they get higher level spells and they don't need to find them, while some of the most powerful spells (I'm looking at you Mislead and SI :P) aren't even in BG1 and I don't know about SoD but purely from spell level many mage classes could easily cast them, if there was a damn scroll to find.