Maybe you should just do the Basilisk XP loop @Grond0 - fast and safe XP! No?
Bavaborass the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric has done it as well as grabbing most of his early-mid game stuff and also pushed reputation to 20. He was once ambushed by an Winter Wolf and as he already had reached the map border i did not switch to the Cold Immune Belt. That was nearly fatal. He got hit right in the moment when area transposition happened so i could only see the result after he arrived in Nashkel. He got hit for 32 damage - only 2 left. *Phew*
Oh, i had to restart once cause Shoal did something weird: She triggered the talking even though she went hostile once she was nearing Bavaborass. As there was no escape from death Bavaborass found himself up again in Candlekeep. Despite these smaller troubles the Skeleton Warriors are doing a great job at blowing most opposition apart. Main Quest will be next!
@Grond0 I have autopause on Weapon unusable. This isn't always practical but would have helped in your specific situation. I personally also find it useful if in BG2 I transform into Trollform to regen, leave the game and do something else, it also autopauses when you transform back.
Maybe you should just do the Basilisk XP loop @Grond0 - fast and safe XP! No?
Regrettably that falls outside the tactics I would use in a no-reload run . A major part of the difficulty of no-reload is maintaining focus through the many encounters normally required to build up your abilities. For me, attempting that gives a good balance between having fun with gameplay and knowing that success is perfectly possible, even though rarely achieved. Using cheesy tactics may be fun, but removing too much of the difficulty would not be conducive for me to want to continue to play over the years. I remember having a lot of fun breaking the difficulty on Morrowind by chaining the use of spells to enable the creation of ultra-powerful equipment - but I don't think I ever played the game again after that .
Oh, i had to restart once cause Shoal did something weird: She triggered the talking even though she went hostile once she was nearing Bavaborass.
She's a forgiving sort - if you don't want to kiss and make up you do need to keep your distance .
Thanks @Victor_Creed_SFV - I agree that would be a good idea. I have been banning the use of auto-pause for quite a while now in my games, so probably won't use it. However, I don't feel particularly strongly about that so will bear it in mind if I get desperate for success ...
@Grond0 It can also be annoying since it also autopauses when one of your 3 ammo slots is empty so if you actually use ammo a lot you would probably sooner turn it off than keep it on.
As to the basilisk loop I'm also shaken whether I will use it, since I developed such a clear cut start in BG1 and getting the 161k xp isn't even that hard for most classes. I could totally see myself using it if I want to dual but that doesn't mean I would end up actually using it. It is super awesome to know such things however and I'm definitely not as masos... strict with restricting myself as Grond0
I understand your point @Grond0! For me things like the XP loop are ok as the challenge will still be long + tough enough so speeding things up a bit is alway welcome! At the end everyone has to chose on his own what keeps up the challenge and with it - the fun!
With XP already at max Bavaborass started the main quest line!
Mulahey: With one charge from Sandthief Ring he sneaked through to Mulahey and charmed him the fifth try - resting safely in between! Once the evil Cleric was slain by his own Kobolds Bavaborass used Sanctuary, grabbed his loot and sneaked out of the Mines.
Tranzig: Thanks to Mulaheys Ring Bavaborass summoned four Skeletons who proved to be too much for Tranzig so he went down before Sanctuary expired. After another rest Bavaborass traveled to Larswood.
Bandit Camp: One Sanctuary to get into the tent and one Sandthief Ring Charge to get out unseen again. Bavaborass did not bother to lure the named ones outside but focused on Taurgosz to get his precious Full Plate Armor. After charming him on the fourth try again one Sanctuary proved to be enough until Taurgosz went down. With another Sanctuary Bavaborass moved on to the Cloakwood.
Cloakwood: Skipped most parts while grabbing Whispers of Silence using four Skeletons. Drasus was charmed on the third try - resting safely in the north - and cut down by the two Guards at the entrance. With Boots of Speed things are getting even easier!
Davaeorn: As charming the Guard did not work Bavaborass used his Potion of Magic Blocking right away, triggered the traps and lured the Battle Horrors the the side room near the entrance. Once Davaeorn also ported in he went insvisible waiting until all Guards had streamed in. he burned them down with Necklace of Missiles using 19 charges in total (the Battle Horrors who hunted him in between needed four!). Once Davaeorn went on searching for him Bavaborass summoned his Skeletons but was interrupted once by a Magic Missile out of nowhere. Anyway: After healing and buffing up the remaining Skeletons proved to be enough with Bavaborass slinging Davaeorn from the distance. On his way out he charmed Genthore, Kysus as well as Rezdan and let the Guards do their job once more.
Bavaborass still proving strong! After he rushed through Candlekeep - buffing himself up against the trap damage - he went back to Baldurs Gate for the final encounters.
Slythe: This time Bavaborass tried to went with five Skeleton Warriors only - no charmed Guards! He triggered the talking and made sure only Slythe was following. Once he went invisible again the Assassin tried his luck against the Undead - but failed. He even did not manage to take down one of them before they destroyed him. Holy cow - Skeletons are really strong! Thanks to their Magic Resistance and decent immunites plus their crit protection they blow most enemies apart.
Cythandria: After clearing the backstabbers first - they also did not kill a single Skeleton - Bavaborass used his Undead friends to blow the Mage apart who really got frustrated thanks to their MR. At the end all five of them were still "alive" until Cythandria went down. Bavaborass was watching the slaughter while protected from Sanctuary.
The Palace Ambush will follow soon and - not to forget - Durlags Tower once again. Time to take revenge for Sa´rokk!
After playing a lot with Totemic Druids and nowadays Clerics i wanted to do some Arena fighting with both summon types. Can the Skeleton Warrior beat any Spirit Summon? And if so at which powerlevel? As the Skeletons increase up to level 15 in SoA but are limited to level 7 in BG 1 and SoD i had to run several rounds. Here are the rankings:
At maximum powerlevel the Skeleton Warrior will always beat any Spirit Summon 1vs1 and thanks to their immunities all special attacks from the Spirits fail. In BG1 and SoD the Spirit Summons will be superior even though a Cleric has the advantage of summoning five Skeletons instead of only three Spirits for the Totemic Druid. On the other hand: If time is a factor the Druid will always be better as he can summon his Spirits very fast (in SoA nearly instant one after another!) where a Cleric has to invest a whole round to get in just one Skeleton. The Undead will shine whenever Magic Damage is a factor and due to their Helm they are – unlike the Spirit Summons – immune to crits. Thanks to their DR (except crushing!) the 180 HP from a L15 Skeleton has to be doubled. In comparison: A L10 Spirit Bear has 212 HP! Damagewise a L10 Spirit Lion is the best with 4 APR & 10-17 damage while a L15 Skeleton reaches 3 APR & 10-19 damage. The Totemic Druid has definitly the upper hand when it comes to flexibility: Wolves (and Snakes) are great against Casters, Bears shine as tanks while packs of Lions are able to tear enemies apart in seconds. With regard to duration the Skeletons are clearly better: 8 Hours against "only" sixty rounds for Spirit Summons. Here time is on the side of the Undead!
Conclusion: Both summon types are fun to play with. Korgath has some good memories regarding the Skeleton Warriors as they tanked even Melissan quite well while @Victor_Creed_SFV will always chose the Spirit Summons. No?
Bavaborass finally managed to get through BG 1 - Korlasz will get into trouble soon!
The final part of BG1 was like a walk in the park with the sturdy Dwarven F/C. In Dulags Tower he protected against any trap damage and used Sanctuary to grab all relevant quest items unseen (its really cool that it doesnt break when looting chests!). Facing the Four Wardens he lured Fear & Pride away parking them near the strange machine. He then used one Skeleton to distract Avarice who was lured to the forge room. With the way clear for Love Bavaborass summoned four Skeletons and together they slaugthtered the poor ghost without much resistance. After some more kiting and summoning in the level below Bavaborass grabbed Kiels Helmet and Durlags Goblet - job done!
Palace Ambush: After the usual Mage Charming and resting Bavaborass charmed all Guards and Nobles while surrounding the potentially deadly Assassin with his Skeletons. Once he was buffed up the fight started so he dropped back quickly and focused down the Assassin quite hard. As the targeting of the Doplegangers was not the best they managed to save both Dukes while Bavaborass was using Bullets +2 and Wand of Heavens nonstop. After some waiting the Mage finally transformed but got hunted down by Guards and Skeletons. At the end he was stuck at the top of the stairs trying to hurt Bavaborass somehow - but failed. Once he dropped down and Sarevok ported away both Dukes were still alive - bady wounded "only".
Sarevok: This was nothing special. Park them in the SE corner and use five Skeletons to put down Angelo. Even though he managed to take down two Undead he never had a chance to avoid his death. With the usual Necklace of Missiles burning it was only Sarevok standing but he had no counter against the combined power of Bullets +2 and Wand of Heavens. After 57 Slingshots and 27 Flame Strikes his evil brother went down opening the door to SoD.
Quite amusing: This time some XP moved over to SoD so Bavaborass started the game with 201.8k XP.
After some rest its time for Korlasz once more. The run through BG1 has been so smooth that i am starting to like this class combo.
Lets see how far we can push it!
EDIT: Korlasz has fallen! With five Skeletons surrounding her and one Hold Person she was rooted in place and seconds later she was already down to "injured" so the surrender talking triggered. Once collecting all loot Bavaborass wanted to get the Shield +2 as a reward from Fanegonorm - but he did not get it. Looks like the Quest is bugged with Cleric - normally it works without any problems!
Hey guys, awesome thread you've got going here. Skimmed through most of it. Although I don't really consider myself to be good enough to try a solo LoB run I have completed BGee with SCS on core solo, as wel as BGII, and I do have some time on my hands so I may give it a shot. I remember reading about a solo ascension run, back in the day on the original bioware forums of a priest of lathander dualled to thief at lvl 15 (may have been priest of helm though). I think that would basically be the end of SoD, think that's possible? Would this count for your non mage-y standard?
Hello @billy_pilgrim and welcome to this challenge! You can play any class-combo you like. The "Mages-are-banned"-phrase is only a joke by myself. With regard to your plan of playing a dual Cleric/Thief: Sounds pretty cool! As the XP cap for SoD is 500k your Cleric will only be level 10 once Big B is down. On no-reload the combo might be a little tricky but for a normal run (nearly) everything should be possible. At the end its you choice!
@Harpagornis I will play with reloads We'll see how far I get, before getting too frustrated! I've been trying to find some earlier solo cleric runs for some advice and tips on spell choices, but it doesn't seem to be a very popular choice
I spent about 30 minutes rolling, got a 93 and stuck with it:
Pips in Hammers and Slings. If I ever dual to thief I will go for Quarterstaves for backstabs.
Nephthys did the walkie talkie quests in Candlekeep, skipping any combat. Let Imoen join just to relieve her of her oil of speed and healing potions. The same for Xzar and Monty, picked up Gorions' stuff and made my way over to FAI. Using sanctuary walked straight past the mage guy and spoke to jaheira and khalied, making sure to grab Jaheiras invis potion as wel as khaleids armour. rested and re-cast sanctuary and headed out towards bergeost. There she did the standard quests, Marl, Firebeard and the slime guy (didn't finish that one yet) and headed over to Nashkel to grab the ankheg armour and speak to noober for lvl 2. Then headed over west from high hedge and dispatched Shaol after a couple of minutes of kiting and pelleting with stones and wham bam lvl 4. Going to use sanctuary to walk past the northern kobolds in FAI and do the priestess of umberlee quest, after which I think its time for basilisks. Will update in the future!
Edit: I am playing with SCS and Ascension, also with minor mods like UB for BGI & II, Rogue re-balancing and some components from other tweak packs (don't remember precisely which ones).
Best of luck @billy_pilgrim. A few bits of cleric cheese you might want to exploit: - silence. There are quite a few encounters where silenced potential enemies will take no action against you as their script requires them to have a conversation with you before attacking. - skeletons. Give them buffs like PfE, strength, chant and bless and they will defeat many enemies on their own. For larger groups of weaker creatures, doom in conjunction with charm person/mammal and mental domination are pretty useful. - sanctuary. That allows you to choose whether to take on combats or not. If you do want to fight then Algernon's Cloak cast from sanctuary at extreme range allows you to retreat without alerting an enemy if the charm fails.
Just kill Algernon - there are more than enough reputation quests. Or spare some gold at the temple. Also dont forget to kill Dushai for the Ring of Free Action at Ulgoths Beard! Personally i love Hold Person - with Doom it works quite good even for LoB!
I agree hold person can be useful. If you do want to use it then don't forget to dual-wield to maximise your damage against a held victim (even if you only have one weapon you can still stick that in your off-hand and have fists in your main hand).
Alrighty managed to kill Basilus at lvl 5, landing a silence then using doom/hold person. Took a couple of tries but went pretty well, now the proud owner of Ashideena (?) war hammer. Finished off most basilisks (there was 1 left after gorax turned on me but I managed to hammer it down). Will have to go and club poor algernon next. I've been trying to use hold undead from the Lathander kit but it doesn't seem to work at all :< Guess its LoB hit dice.
edit: Will do the dead cat first, if i recall correctly low reaction makes it so you won't get the scroll.
@billy_pilgrim I normally leave reputation quests until after killing Algernon and Dushai - the higher your reputation when you kill an innocent the more reputation you lose. I do though leave the dead cat until later in order to be sure to get the scroll and reputation benefit there.
@billy_pilgrim: Hold Undead isn't limited by hit dice; only Sleep and Turn Undead are. It should work on undead of any level. I assume it's not working because of bad luck, combined with LoB's +5 save bonuses to all enemies.
With @billy_pilgrim on the run with a new class combo i really like i have decided to park Bavaborass for some time and start another character. One i have discussed with @Blackraven some time ago and he tried several times but had a hard time: The Archer! As Rangers have been neglected for a long time here i will try to get him rolling and - maybe - dual class to Cleric later. If we survive!
Mi the Human Archer has pushed XP hard using the Basilisk XP loop (which burned away all 25 Stone to Flesh Scrolls) and is now gathering her mid-game-items and pushing reputation to 20. She just had to make sure that her reputation would not drop too low when killing Algernon and Dushai (no Fallen Ranger this time!) so she spared some gold at the temple in the FAI. With Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise her bullets already hurt for 13-16 damage and thanks to all the charming cheese close combat shouldnt be a big factor until Big B. Okay, time to collect some more items before starting the main quest line!
EDIT: After collecting her main items ans pushing reputation to 20 Mi started the Main Quest Line. While Mulahey was killed by his own Kobolds, Tranzig was taken out by charmed Marl. In the Bandit Camp Mi went in and out unseen only charming Taurgosz who got slaughtered by the Bandits. Taking no risks at all so far Mi will now prepare for the Cloakwood - Drasus and Davaeorn are waiting!
@Harpagornis Good luck with your archer! Just curious, when you gain back the archer levels do you get to use bows still?
Meanwhile Nephthys is still wondering around the wilderness generally aimlessly, wish I'd known to kill Algernon earlier, now I've decided to get my rep up but I have the reduced rep gain tweak installed so its being a bit of pita. Although not getting that scroll from the cat girl is not such a huge deal I guess. Nephthys has been most successful with casting animate dead 3x and then doom/hold person/undead. I've managed to hold one ghoul so far :P in the ghoul cave in valley of the tombs. Skelly bro's are good and more than capable of taking most groups. I think I'm just about to head into nashkel mines.
Oh, and I just used sanctuary to grab the con tome, I tried using silence on the sirens but I guess their spells are innate or don't require vocalization anyway, couldn't figure out a way to kill them (juicy xp missed :<) but the cap is in sight already so its not such a big deal.
Small update: Just did the mines, pretty simple really. Enter Mulahey's room, summon 3x skelly bro and then initiate with doom. Followed by hold person, I guess you could also use silence on him, and then just attack him. When he's dead loot his corpse and the chest and then cast sanctuary while your skellies hold off the reinforcements and mosey on out of there.
Mi the Human Archer has pushed XP hard using the Basilisk XP loop (which burned away all 25 Stone to Flesh Scrolls) and is now gathering her mid-game-items and pushing reputation to 20.
What's the Basilisk XP loop? Sleeping in Mutamin's Garden?
Charm a lesser basilisk. Use it to petrify a greater basilisk while the latter is concentrating on you (protected by green scroll). Revive the greater basilisk with stone to flesh and petrify again ... and again ... and again. A few minutes and 25 scrolls later and you've hit the XP cap .
Charm a lesser basilisk. Use it to petrify a greater basilisk while the latter is concentrating on you (protected by green scroll). Revive the greater basilisk with stone to flesh and petrify again ... and again ... and again. A few minutes and 25 scrolls later and you've hit the XP cap
Ahh, nice! So in Baldur's Gate 2 we don't have basilisks and therefore cannot do this anymore. But we can do something like Imprison + Freedom? Or casting Flesh to Stone ourselves?
Indeed. You would need to wait a while before being able to imprison things, so that wouldn't really help with an early boost to XP, but stoning things (and freeing them yourself) is certainly an option.
Deciding not to restart Freya, I thought I'd have another go with Freda - illusionist dualling to fighter. Unlike her near-namesake I think she should have a realistic chance if she ever got to Big B. I've been taking advantage of the feeble excuse of having a birthday to avoid work today and make some progress: - the familiar bonus HPs helped Freda to survive a skeleton archer ambush on the first transition. She learnt invisibility at High Hedge. - she got to level 3 by killing Shoal and travelled invisibly to Beregost before dualling to fighter. - the sirines in Beregost Temple were all charmed and pulled outside by trying to cast improved invisibility on Freda. Dogs wore them down before Freda tried to finish them off (though failing in one instance when a dog got lucky). A bit of extra work in Beregost though made up the missing XP to get Freda to level 4 and recover her illusionist abilities. - travelling north, she recovered a belt from an ogre and a bowl from some fishermen before arriving in Ulgoths's Beard to get Dushai's ring. - some reputation quests on the way down to Nashkel, including successfully reviving Melicamp, got her to level 5 and ensured she picked up CLW as a Bhaal ability. - I made a mistake with Arabelle on the way to find Meilum, when I didn't notice one of the xvarts had been activated and had killed the cow while I was dealing with another one. - after Meilum was charmed, his bracers and Drizzt's scimitars provided some extra firepower to blast through the basilisks to get Freda to level 6. I did make my typical mistake of forgetting to recast PfP before taking on Mutamin's pets, but realised just in time to use Drizzt's potion of magic shielding to ensure survival. Mutamin and Kirian's gang were then charmed. - invisibility and Algernon's Cloak meant the sirines could be beaten at their own charming game, getting Freda up to level 7. She then used a mixture of shooting and micro-manipulation of melee attacks on the golems, i.e. getting them to commit to starting a combat round before retreating a step so they waste an attack, then come back in to get a free attack before retreating (the random component to initiative means that's not always reliable even if properly executed though, so it's a complement to shooting rather than a straight replacement).
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Bavaborass the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric has done it as well as grabbing most of his early-mid game stuff and also pushed reputation to 20. He was once ambushed by an Winter Wolf and as he already had reached the map border i did not switch to the Cold Immune Belt. That was nearly fatal. He got hit right in the moment when area transposition happened so i could only see the result after he arrived in Nashkel. He got hit for 32 damage - only 2 left. *Phew*
Oh, i had to restart once cause Shoal did something weird: She triggered the talking even though she went hostile once she was nearing Bavaborass. As there was no escape from death Bavaborass found himself up again in Candlekeep. Despite these smaller troubles the Skeleton Warriors are doing a great job at blowing most opposition apart. Main Quest will be next!
I have autopause on Weapon unusable.
This isn't always practical but would have helped in your specific situation.
I personally also find it useful if in BG2 I transform into Trollform to regen, leave the game and do something else, it also autopauses when you transform back.
She's a forgiving sort - if you don't want to kiss and make up you do need to keep your distance
It can also be annoying since it also autopauses when one of your 3 ammo slots is empty so if you actually use ammo a lot you would probably sooner turn it off than keep it on.
As to the basilisk loop I'm also shaken whether I will use it, since I developed such a clear cut start in BG1 and getting the 161k xp isn't even that hard for most classes.
I could totally see myself using it if I want to dual but that doesn't mean I would end up actually using it.
It is super awesome to know such things however and I'm definitely not as masos... strict with restricting myself as Grond0
Mulahey: With one charge from Sandthief Ring he sneaked through to Mulahey and charmed him the fifth try - resting safely in between! Once the evil Cleric was slain by his own Kobolds Bavaborass used Sanctuary, grabbed his loot and sneaked out of the Mines.
Tranzig: Thanks to Mulaheys Ring Bavaborass summoned four Skeletons who proved to be too much for Tranzig so he went down before Sanctuary expired. After another rest Bavaborass traveled to Larswood.
Bandit Camp: One Sanctuary to get into the tent and one Sandthief Ring Charge to get out unseen again. Bavaborass did not bother to lure the named ones outside but focused on Taurgosz to get his precious Full Plate Armor. After charming him on the fourth try again one Sanctuary proved to be enough until Taurgosz went down. With another Sanctuary Bavaborass moved on to the Cloakwood.
Cloakwood: Skipped most parts while grabbing Whispers of Silence using four Skeletons. Drasus was charmed on the third try - resting safely in the north - and cut down by the two Guards at the entrance. With Boots of Speed things are getting even easier!
Davaeorn: As charming the Guard did not work Bavaborass used his Potion of Magic Blocking right away, triggered the traps and lured the Battle Horrors the the side room near the entrance. Once Davaeorn also ported in he went insvisible waiting until all Guards had streamed in. he burned them down with Necklace of Missiles using 19 charges in total (the Battle Horrors who hunted him in between needed four!). Once Davaeorn went on searching for him Bavaborass summoned his Skeletons but was interrupted once by a Magic Missile out of nowhere. Anyway: After healing and buffing up the remaining Skeletons proved to be enough with Bavaborass slinging Davaeorn from the distance. On his way out he charmed Genthore, Kysus as well as Rezdan and let the Guards do their job once more.
Time to visit Baldurs Gate again!
Slythe: This time Bavaborass tried to went with five Skeleton Warriors only - no charmed Guards! He triggered the talking and made sure only Slythe was following. Once he went invisible again the Assassin tried his luck against the Undead - but failed. He even did not manage to take down one of them before they destroyed him. Holy cow - Skeletons are really strong! Thanks to their Magic Resistance and decent immunites plus their crit protection they blow most enemies apart.
Cythandria: After clearing the backstabbers first - they also did not kill a single Skeleton - Bavaborass used his Undead friends to blow the Mage apart who really got frustrated thanks to their MR. At the end all five of them were still "alive" until Cythandria went down. Bavaborass was watching the slaughter while protected from Sanctuary.
The Palace Ambush will follow soon and - not to forget - Durlags Tower once again. Time to take revenge for Sa´rokk!
L10 Spirit Summon vs L7 Skeleton Warrior
Spirit Lion > Spirit Bear > Skeleton Warrior > Spirit Wolf > Spirit Snake
L10 Spirit Summon vs L11 Skeleton Warrior
Spirit Lion > Skeleton Warrior > Spirit Bear > Spirit Wolf > Spirit Snake
L10 Spirit Summon vs L15 Skeleton Warrior
Skeleton Warrior > Spirit Lion > Spirit Bear > Spirit Wolf > Spirit Snake
At maximum powerlevel the Skeleton Warrior will always beat any Spirit Summon 1vs1 and thanks to their immunities all special attacks from the Spirits fail. In BG1 and SoD the Spirit Summons will be superior even though a Cleric has the advantage of summoning five Skeletons instead of only three Spirits for the Totemic Druid. On the other hand: If time is a factor the Druid will always be better as he can summon his Spirits very fast (in SoA nearly instant one after another!) where a Cleric has to invest a whole round to get in just one Skeleton. The Undead will shine whenever Magic Damage is a factor and due to their Helm they are – unlike the Spirit Summons – immune to crits. Thanks to their DR (except crushing!) the 180 HP from a L15 Skeleton has to be doubled. In comparison: A L10 Spirit Bear has 212 HP! Damagewise a L10 Spirit Lion is the best with 4 APR & 10-17 damage while a L15 Skeleton reaches 3 APR & 10-19 damage. The Totemic Druid has definitly the upper hand when it comes to flexibility: Wolves (and Snakes) are great against Casters, Bears shine as tanks while packs of Lions are able to tear enemies apart in seconds. With regard to duration the Skeletons are clearly better: 8 Hours against "only" sixty rounds for Spirit Summons. Here time is on the side of the Undead!
Conclusion: Both summon types are fun to play with. Korgath has some good memories regarding the Skeleton Warriors as they tanked even Melissan quite well while @Victor_Creed_SFV will always chose the Spirit Summons. No?
The final part of BG1 was like a walk in the park with the sturdy Dwarven F/C. In Dulags Tower he protected against any trap damage and used Sanctuary to grab all relevant quest items unseen (its really cool that it doesnt break when looting chests!). Facing the Four Wardens he lured Fear & Pride away parking them near the strange machine. He then used one Skeleton to distract Avarice who was lured to the forge room. With the way clear for Love Bavaborass summoned four Skeletons and together they slaugthtered the poor ghost without much resistance. After some more kiting and summoning in the level below Bavaborass grabbed Kiels Helmet and Durlags Goblet - job done!
Palace Ambush: After the usual Mage Charming and resting Bavaborass charmed all Guards and Nobles while surrounding the potentially deadly Assassin with his Skeletons. Once he was buffed up the fight started so he dropped back quickly and focused down the Assassin quite hard. As the targeting of the Doplegangers was not the best they managed to save both Dukes while Bavaborass was using Bullets +2 and Wand of Heavens nonstop. After some waiting the Mage finally transformed but got hunted down by Guards and Skeletons. At the end he was stuck at the top of the stairs trying to hurt Bavaborass somehow - but failed. Once he dropped down and Sarevok ported away both Dukes were still alive - bady wounded "only".
Sarevok: This was nothing special. Park them in the SE corner and use five Skeletons to put down Angelo. Even though he managed to take down two Undead he never had a chance to avoid his death. With the usual Necklace of Missiles burning it was only Sarevok standing but he had no counter against the combined power of Bullets +2 and Wand of Heavens. After 57 Slingshots and 27 Flame Strikes his evil brother went down opening the door to SoD.
Quite amusing: This time some XP moved over to SoD so Bavaborass started the game with 201.8k XP.
After some rest its time for Korlasz once more. The run through BG1 has been so smooth that i am starting to like this class combo.
Lets see how far we can push it!
EDIT: Korlasz has fallen! With five Skeletons surrounding her and one Hold Person she was rooted in place and seconds later she was already down to "injured" so the surrender talking triggered. Once collecting all loot Bavaborass wanted to get the Shield +2 as a reward from Fanegonorm - but he did not get it. Looks like the Quest is bugged with Cleric - normally it works without any problems!
I've been trying to find some earlier solo cleric runs for some advice and tips on spell choices, but it doesn't seem to be a very popular choice
I spent about 30 minutes rolling, got a 93 and stuck with it:
Pips in Hammers and Slings. If I ever dual to thief I will go for Quarterstaves for backstabs.
Nephthys did the walkie talkie quests in Candlekeep, skipping any combat. Let Imoen join just to relieve her of her oil of speed and healing potions. The same for Xzar and Monty, picked up Gorions' stuff and made my way over to FAI. Using sanctuary walked straight past the mage guy and spoke to jaheira and khalied, making sure to grab Jaheiras invis potion as wel as khaleids armour. rested and re-cast sanctuary and headed out towards bergeost. There she did the standard quests, Marl, Firebeard and the slime guy (didn't finish that one yet) and headed over to Nashkel to grab the ankheg armour and speak to noober for lvl 2. Then headed over west from high hedge and dispatched Shaol after a couple of minutes of kiting and pelleting with stones and wham bam lvl 4. Going to use sanctuary to walk past the northern kobolds in FAI and do the priestess of umberlee quest, after which I think its time for basilisks. Will update in the future!
Edit: I am playing with SCS and Ascension, also with minor mods like UB for BGI & II, Rogue re-balancing and some components from other tweak packs (don't remember precisely which ones).
- silence. There are quite a few encounters where silenced potential enemies will take no action against you as their script requires them to have a conversation with you before attacking.
- skeletons. Give them buffs like PfE, strength, chant and bless and they will defeat many enemies on their own. For larger groups of weaker creatures, doom in conjunction with charm person/mammal and mental domination are pretty useful.
- sanctuary. That allows you to choose whether to take on combats or not. If you do want to fight then Algernon's Cloak cast from sanctuary at extreme range allows you to retreat without alerting an enemy if the charm fails.
edit: Will do the dead cat first, if i recall correctly low reaction makes it so you won't get the scroll.
Mi the Human Archer has pushed XP hard using the Basilisk XP loop (which burned away all 25 Stone to Flesh Scrolls) and is now gathering her mid-game-items and pushing reputation to 20. She just had to make sure that her reputation would not drop too low when killing Algernon and Dushai (no Fallen Ranger this time!) so she spared some gold at the temple in the FAI. With Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise her bullets already hurt for 13-16 damage and thanks to all the charming cheese close combat shouldnt be a big factor until Big B. Okay, time to collect some more items before starting the main quest line!
EDIT: After collecting her main items ans pushing reputation to 20 Mi started the Main Quest Line. While Mulahey was killed by his own Kobolds, Tranzig was taken out by charmed Marl. In the Bandit Camp Mi went in and out unseen only charming Taurgosz who got slaughtered by the Bandits. Taking no risks at all so far Mi will now prepare for the Cloakwood - Drasus and Davaeorn are waiting!
Meanwhile Nephthys is still wondering around the wilderness generally aimlessly, wish I'd known to kill Algernon earlier, now I've decided to get my rep up but I have the reduced rep gain tweak installed so its being a bit of pita. Although not getting that scroll from the cat girl is not such a huge deal I guess.
Nephthys has been most successful with casting animate dead 3x and then doom/hold person/undead. I've managed to hold one ghoul so far :P in the ghoul cave in valley of the tombs. Skelly bro's are good and more than capable of taking most groups. I think I'm just about to head into nashkel mines.
Oh, and I just used sanctuary to grab the con tome, I tried using silence on the sirens but I guess their spells are innate or don't require vocalization anyway, couldn't figure out a way to kill them (juicy xp missed :<) but the cap is in sight already so its not such a big deal.
- the familiar bonus HPs helped Freda to survive a skeleton archer ambush on the first transition. She learnt invisibility at High Hedge.
- she got to level 3 by killing Shoal and travelled invisibly to Beregost before dualling to fighter.
- the sirines in Beregost Temple were all charmed and pulled outside by trying to cast improved invisibility on Freda. Dogs wore them down before Freda tried to finish them off (though failing in one instance when a dog got lucky). A bit of extra work in Beregost though made up the missing XP to get Freda to level 4 and recover her illusionist abilities.
- travelling north, she recovered a belt from an ogre and a bowl from some fishermen before arriving in Ulgoths's Beard to get Dushai's ring.
- some reputation quests on the way down to Nashkel, including successfully reviving Melicamp, got her to level 5 and ensured she picked up CLW as a Bhaal ability.
- I made a mistake with Arabelle on the way to find Meilum, when I didn't notice one of the xvarts had been activated and had killed the cow while I was dealing with another one.
- after Meilum was charmed, his bracers and Drizzt's scimitars provided some extra firepower to blast through the basilisks to get Freda to level 6. I did make my typical mistake of forgetting to recast PfP before taking on Mutamin's pets, but realised just in time to use Drizzt's potion of magic shielding to ensure survival. Mutamin and Kirian's gang were then charmed.
- invisibility and Algernon's Cloak meant the sirines could be beaten at their own charming game, getting Freda up to level 7. She then used a mixture of shooting and micro-manipulation of melee attacks on the golems, i.e. getting them to commit to starting a combat round before retreating a step so they waste an attack, then come back in to get a free attack before retreating (the random component to initiative means that's not always reliable even if properly executed though, so it's a complement to shooting rather than a straight replacement).