Killed Dushai meself and got the Ring of Free Action. This is why I also like Cavalier, I'm now immune to charm, poison, fear, morale failure, hold, grease, web, entangle and slow.
I think if you turn off gore in your settings that doesn't happen. Also keep in mind greenstone helps vs hold and selling it and buying it back for 50 charges is very cheap.
I think if you turn off gore in your settings that doesn't happen. Also keep in mind greenstone helps vs hold and selling it and buying it back for 50 charges is very cheap.
Damn I'm still mixing rounds and turns after all this time. Thought it only lasted a round. With a turn it's very useful.
Dushai always gets his very personal funeral outside of the village. My personal record is about 150+ tries to charm him with Algernons Cloak. Bad boy!
After aquiring most of the good stuff and farming Ankhegs to lv7 I thought it's time to get the main guest rolling. Went to Nashkel mines and tried Graywolf, nope. Then went into the mine, nothing really hard there, got Mulahey with first try.
Chapter 3
Nimbul was too weak for me, a guard and Rashaad. Tranzig got cornered between bed and table, the poor bastard. Then time to go to Bandit camp. Surprise attack from Lamalha, probably the hardest fight yet and had to really kite them. Didn't have any charges left One Gift Lost so had to kite and strike them, one strike at the time, which worked pretty well because THAC0 was being respectable. Sold items and charged OGL and back to Bandit camp. And oh boy when you see first time better calls. Ran, ran and ran. But then I noticed when doing a big circle around the forrest, the whole mass was being centered. So I just kited and OGL'd them, and exactly 24th strike and all were dead. Got them first try. Then cleared rest of the camp.
Chapter 4
For Cavalier being immune for poison and with Ring Of Free Action Cloakwood was pretty trivial. Then at the mine I was really being smacked down with the four guys in the courtyard. Managed to disperse them, first depleted Kysus with Shield and Greenstone amulet, and Magic Blocking, then got Genthorn with melee. Then how the hell was I going to deal Drasus with Boots of Speed and hitting like a truck? Potion of Absorbtion and Blunt Girdle. The second mage got scared and dissappeared all together. Before going in the mine I checked Kirian for his Slashing belt. OGL'd them all without them even seeing me. Then recharged OGL once again. It's really good for kiting, or close range with 110 FR, if you don't mind recharging it with 6k a pop. In the mine managed to disperse Hareishan and couple guards, managed to kill them. Natasha decided to go hiding when I killed her guards, so she could take me one on one. Well she didn't.
Then the main fight after killing some Battle Horror's. I was killed multiple times fighting the guards, but then figured you can't fight them when they are going to keep coming. Tried to OGL Daevorn but he took like 3 damage so nope. Then ran past him to the lowest room, got him in there and started smacking. Guards came and surrounded us, after him depleting all his arsenal on me, and the poor guards, I killed one guard to get to him, and then just meleed him away. Luckily all the guards got scared after that. Shield and Greenstone amulets are really good friends against mages.
Now I understand why LoB is a sorry excuse for hard difficulty. Squirrels having 100HP, every mage with more HP than bhaalspawn mage will ever have like factor 3. Dat immersion. Next I'm thinking going pretty straight line to the end, then after starting SoD heading to Durlag's Tower to get some stuff.
Now I understand why LoB is a sorry excuse for hard difficulty. Squirrels having 100HP, every mage with more HP than bhaalspawn mage will ever have like factor 3. Dat immersion. Next I'm thinking going pretty straight line to the end, then after starting SoD heading to Durlag's Tower to get some stuff.
Yeah, especially if you compare it with SCS, which is strangely enough a much older fanmade mod for the SAME game. I don't get why you would come up with something like LoB years after the games prime, where you obviously are doing fanservice and have an engine that allows for so much more than just stupidly increasing enemy levels, HP, apr (even breaking stuff like Drizzt and Warden, because why would you check your own game for creatures with max apr and test if your new difficulty breaks those), Thac0, saving throws and AC.
I think the worst parts are really levels and hp, with APR being quite questionable too. The problem here is they gave the same basis of increasing these stats to every single creature, instead of putting in the extra work and checking if some specific creatures would make more sense with different tweaks. Enemies like Hobgoblins, kobolds etc. should not have leveled above the sleepcap. Non hostiles like bats or was it rats :P in the sarevok fight should not have insane hp so they don't die immediately to fireballs and keep messing up your autopause and aggro summons when you wanna stay out of sight (same goes for the squirrels mentioned by you :P) Enemies like skeletons should not be overleveled so you can't turn them even in SoD. And the apr increase should have been a lot more specific to non mob enemies because of crits right now most classes just can't afford to fight low level mobs, especially if they don't have a helmet.
Anyways enough raging and nice progress @histamiini
The LoB mode is essentially copied from the Heart of Fury mode in Icewind Dale, so could be ported into Baldur's Gate relatively easily. The way the difficulty slider works in SoD is far more complex and would have required a lot more work to put into the original BG games (and I imagine a lot of people would have objected to such significant changes to the games anyway).
First things first, to get the cloak and the helmet. Met Larze, kited him with axe, killed Quenash and got the cloak. Then got the helm, and met Gretek at the door. Had no chance in hell fighting them, so turned invisible and watched some even stronger mob mop the floor with the other mob. Didn't even have to thank them afterwards. Did some jobs for Scar, nothing too hard. Then met with the evil leaders of Iron Throne, another ultra hard mob. Dispersed some of them between the floors and meleed them 1on1. Then killed the rest of the mob by luring them to the stairs, running down, the other stairs up and OGL'd them luring them to me again, and then running the other corner again and so on.
Chapter 6
Before going back to Candlekeep, another surprise attack by four Ogre Mages, never had these surprise attacks before. They weren't that hard with Greenstone and Shield Amulets. Kited some of them with axe and last couple meleed. Of course Gatekeeper offered no help, wasn't even bothered of them being so close of Candlekeep. Perhaps they didn't have any obscure books with them? Didn't bother with rest of the Iron Throne, something told me they would die anyway. On the way out met Prat, managed to separate him and killed him melee and got the +2 Throwing Axe. Went back a level, rested and dealed the rest of the mob the same way.
Chapter 7
Guards tried to block my way to Duke Eltan but managed to melee them with speed/cloud potions and gs amulet. Cythandria summoned some upgraded guard's, had no chance in melee. Lured them both one by one to floor below, and kited them around the bar table with throwing axe. Thought Cythandria would be another push over mage, but she did pack a punch and killed me once before meeting her inevitable death.
Then the assassin couple in Undercellar. Prepared with speed/cloud potions and amulets, but Slythe killed me like 5 times a row with his sword backstab doing 53 damage a pop. Change of plans, lured Krystin to sewers, depleted her and was smacking away thinking that's it. No. She wandered into a Kobold mob with boss Kobold himself being there. Ofcourse they weren't interested in Krystin but got me with confusion spell or something and I thought again, that's it. No again. Luckily they didn't pack a punch and I regained my thoughts, killed them and then killed Krystin. Returned to Undercellar. Dealed Slythe by taking hit, then running back to sewers to heal, then back to take the hit and so on. And after he ran out invisibility potions, he was dead meat. Another surprise when going to centre of Undercellar, there they were again, resurrected? Perhaps love really lives forever. But got the invitations anyway which I only needed.
Had epic fight with Sarevok and his doppelgangers. Died couple times and thought, have to go all in with this because disperse tactics doesn't work here. So I used PfM and 10 Extra Healing potions to kill the doppelgangers. Liia and Belt were the only ones alive, well Sarevok wasted Liia soon after and I and Belt were the sole survivors of the meeting.
Ran through the maze to the Undercity, and alerted the mob. Lured Wudei to maze, meleed him. Meleed Haseo in front of maze. Meleed Gorf with potion of absorbtion. Rahvin shot me with arrows of detonation, too bad for him they healed me. Carston was another random melee victim. Then came Shaldrissa, the most annoying piece of bleep yet. Everytime I got her low health, she went invisible so I thought I don't need this. Had really tough fight with Tamoko, only hit her like every 10th time and she was spamming some spell all the time, which didn't work I guess. Now the way to temple was clear, well almost with one annoying invisible mage somewhere.
Time to loot Baldur's Gate for the most valuable goods, next bought the city out of potions and invested rest of the money to jewels and what not. It's isn't very smart going around with 100k gold in your pocket, somebody could rob you blind. Then back to the temple again, and Shaldrissa was there to fight me again, and again she went invisible after I defeated her. This time I used OGL to hunt her down, and bingo, she will bother me no more.
And here is Sir Vanderley finally facing his destiny. Too bad I have to take some brake from the game now.
The LoB mode is essentially copied from the Heart of Fury mode in Icewind Dale, so could be ported into Baldur's Gate relatively easily. The way the difficulty slider works in SoD is far more complex and would have required a lot more work to put into the original BG games (and I imagine a lot of people would have objected to such significant changes to the games anyway).
Well it is based on it, but I played IWD recently and had the feeling HoF is far less extreme. On the other hand it's kinda hard to tell, since you get much higher level in IWD and the enemies in the starting areas are pretty simple, kiting is your friend and there is not a lot of ranged/magic enemies until you get higher level than SoD cap and pretty powerful with certain classes. (Mages are relatively weak due to lack of scrolls, but Sorcs are monsters.)
Good work @histamiini - hope you will roll into SoD soon!
Agreed @Victor_Creed_SFV: Once you reach higher levels in IWD even HoF loses its threat to some degree. My Monk melted enemies with Quivering Palm for a long time (instakilling even Yxunomei) and as a lot of enemies only use normal weapons he is nearly immortal.
Maybe i should rejoin the challenge in the next weeks as D:OS2 gets a bit boring. Maybe i should warm up with an ultra-solid class and revive good old Bavaborass, the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric. Maybe. In the meantime: Have fun!
Haha, yeah @Harpagornis I had a lot of fun with Monk and also Totemics spirit animals in IWD, because of the normal weapons of many enemies. Still Sorcerer is even stronger because of Mislead and Black Blade, because of some silly items in IWD you can get 6 apr with BBoD. Any kind of invis is super op because there are not many enemies who can see thru it.
Well it is based on it, but I played IWD recently and had the feeling HoF is far less extreme. On the other hand it's kinda hard to tell, since you get much higher level in IWD and the enemies in the starting areas are pretty simple, kiting is your friend and there is not a lot of ranged/magic enemies until you get higher level than SoD cap and pretty powerful with certain classes. (Mages are relatively weak due to lack of scrolls, but Sorcs are monsters.)
The adjustments to enemies are the same. What's different and makes HoF feel so much easier is that by default you get vastly more experience for those enemies in IWD - and therefore you shoot up very rapidly in levels. That means that after kiting a few groups of goblins you can produce a virtually invulnerable party (boosted by great summons and regeneration from your bard).
Well it is based on it, but I played IWD recently and had the feeling HoF is far less extreme. On the other hand it's kinda hard to tell, since you get much higher level in IWD and the enemies in the starting areas are pretty simple, kiting is your friend and there is not a lot of ranged/magic enemies until you get higher level than SoD cap and pretty powerful with certain classes. (Mages are relatively weak due to lack of scrolls, but Sorcs are monsters.)
The adjustments to enemies are the same. What's different and makes HoF feel so much easier is that by default you get vastly more experience for those enemies in IWD - and therefore you shoot up very rapidly in levels. That means that after kiting a few groups of goblins you can produce a virtually invulnerable party (boosted by great summons and regeneration from your bard).
This is completely correct. And there's an option to make more experience possible in BG as well.
Change 0 to 1 in the following line, and then LoB in BG will be precisely as HoF in IWD.
It was decided, though, for LoB to leave the XP bonus at 0, as high XP breaks the game, even on LoB. You can find old posts by @Gotural where he (back when the XP bonus was ON) finished the Irenicus dungeon with HLAs already available.
Hm, the monster xp help quite a bit, but the real difference is the xp cap. It's not that hard hitting the cap in BG1/SoD and even in IWD you get massive quest xp. I once for fun went to the DLC before the main game and you can almost get level 20 on a monk without fighting a single enemy.
Tried the end battle and quickly came onto conclusion that I need more healing. So off to Durlag's Tower. Fought the way to the Warden's, nothing too hard. Killed Love and Fear pretty easily. Avardice buggered off somewhere being invisible so I turned my sights onto Pride. Oh, mah, gad, what the hell? Tried to melee him, no chance, tried OGL him, magic resistance, tried 15 minutes to kite him with an axe. But apparently he has infinite healing, hits like a truck and is fast as anything. Is he unkillable for fighter? Got the wardstone to next level anyway so there I went. Greater Dobblergangers and ghast were pretty easy pray at this point. And eventually aquired Durlag's Goblet. Another reason to like Cavalier, immunity to Goblets fear and morale failure effects, so easy and rechargeable 20x full health potions.
Back to Sarevok's temple again. Alerted the mob, parked myself onto corner and lured them onto myself, drank invisibility potion and went away. Used 48x OGL to kill Semaj and seriously injure Tazok. Found Angelo other side of the room. Waited him to offload his spells, and then meleed him away. At this point used PfU. Then alerted only Diarmid with -15 to missile and speed potion and had a ranged battle with him. Eventually he came onto me and I showed his mistake to him. Then used another invisibility potion, found that Tazok was still invisible himself so I alerted Sarevok, and Tazok quickly joined the battle. I went invisible again, and then only alerted Tazok and quickly meleed him away. Lastly had a long straight on melee battle with Sarevok. Used speed/cloud potions and 10 refreshes from DG and Sarevok was dead.
The end battle wasn't really that hard tbh, when you could disperse them pretty easily. Disperse really has been the goto tactic of BG1 for me. Cavalier can pretty much melee anyone 1on1, except Pride apparently, at least without DG. According to Steam I used about 20 hours to this run.
Btw I read your Cavalier experience with the trolls in SoD. Did you try to use everything? Like Violet/Power Potions, Modron Heart, Trollblood Ioun Stone, Dervish Cresent and Belt of the Skillful Blade? With those and ** in Scimitars and *** with Two Weapon style I can have -7/-6 THAC0 and 26-34 damage per attack vs. trolls and also a chance to Fireshield (red). I wonder if that will be enough.
@histamiini: Killing Pride is no big deal. Buff up and kite him to death. Its just a matter of patience. The good thing: You only need to kill Love to get the wardstone - the rest is optional.
Trolls in SoD? I usually skip them as there are so many other ways to soak XP that you will hit the cap quite fast anyway.
Hah - okay! Fully buffed and with anti slashing equip - and with Durlags Goblet - you can tank them "quite a bit". Get some tanky support troops to slow them down even more. The main danger will be the Haste from the Ogre Mage which will turn everone into killing machines. Survive this or - much better - charm the Mage and you should be fine. And never ever let them slip through your line. Otherwise you are doomed. On the other hand: The Trolls will be your "smallest" problem as a Cavalier. But: With good preperation and some luck - why not? I am very curious what will happen.
I'm reasonably certain that trolls use piercing weapons even in the most recent update (in vanilla they always used piercing attacks). So Elves' Bane will be the ideal belt, not the Girdle of Glory.
I'm reasonably certain that trolls use piercing weapons even in the most recent update (in vanilla they always used piercing attacks). So Elves' Bane will be the ideal belt, not the Girdle of Glory.
True. I just tested couple Troll mobs for the coalition battle. Btw does normal AC help against them?
Even the 20 or so trolls in the Troll cave couldn't brake me with DG.
The Trolls are not the only problem as there are several other enemies that deal slashing damage. With Haste they will kill your support troops very (!) quickly so they will either focus you pretty hard and/or will run past you and trigger your doom. My Cavalier with around -17 AC was not able to tank them even with Durlags Goblet but - as my own fault - i lacked support of the Dwarves or the Undead.
The Trolls are not the only problem as there are several other enemies that deal slashing damage. With Haste they will kill your support troops very (!) quickly so they will either focus you pretty hard and/or will run past you and trigger your doom. My Cavalier with around -17 AC was not able to tank them even with Durlags Goblet but - as my own fault - i lacked support of the Dwarves or the Undead.
Oh ok can't wait to see the ridiculous amount of enemies like rest of the SoD. I have the help of Dwarves though. This is where Fireshield (red) could make its play also.
To give you some hope @histamiini: The Cavalier was one of my first tries with LoB and the very first run into SoD so i missed a lot of (key) items and was not aware of all those dirty "tricks" you can pull of once you got some metagame knowledge. I wont spoiler anymore and am still eager to see how you will deal with the Crusader Attacks! If you get there!
Reality hits when you meet the first mob. Head-on assault is out of question. Buffed up and set a choke point on the bridge and was able to take their assault. Retreated when 4 enemies was left and got help from the Flaming Fist. If the first mob was impressive, the first undead mob you meet is hilariously more impressive. Tried melee once but lol. Used PfU and hunted all the caster undead and then mobbed the lesser undead, and what was left set a choke point on the bridge and was able to beat them. Except the very last one, which was a Greater Shadow and it instakilled me with something. The whole procedure again and now I was able to beat them. Dealt Korlasz the same way setting up a choke point on the doorway. Killed everyone, and when Korlasz had used her spells killed her. In Baldur's Gate did all the mundane tasks.
Chapter 8
Helped vampire Tsolak against the hunters and got the Trollblood Ioun Stone. Then to help the Dwarves, was able to clear everything in the cave except the Umber Hulk party which raped me even with DG. Didn't want to waste PfU so onwards to the crypt. Man what a ridiculous amount of Undead. My tactic against them actually happened accidentally. I was scouting being invisible and they started following me. So I quickly alerted every undead in the crypt and got them in the throne room. Used PfU and started spamming OGL. What a glorious fealing when something like 100 undead take damage from a fireball. In the middle of the OGL spamming something started attacking me which surprised me. It was the sentry as it obviously wasn't an undead. Dealt it and then OGL'd rest of the undead. Lich Coldheart wasn't all that when you remember to use the Greenstone amulet, which I failed once and he stunned me. Depleted and killed him. Hit the xp cap already in here.
Chapter 9
Tested my mettle with some trolls, first the 10 outside, and then the 20 inside the Troll cave. Was able to beat them head on with DG. Kited the next Hobgoblin war party with OGL. Using the Ring of Freeaction tanked the whole lot of spiders in the Spider cave and took them out with OGL. Met first Bugbear party outside the Wyrm cave. Nothing too hard, used a choke point and meleed them away. Alerted the dragon Morentherene, retreated to the cave entrance and had a straight on melee battle which ended badly for him. Didn't bother with rest of the wyverns. Bugbear cave, again set up choke points and straight on melee battles.
The Temple. Killed guards, nothing too hard. Alarted Ziatar and the mages. Set up choke point on the door and started melee battle with Ziatar. Mages spammed spells so hard that had to retreat. Then back again to the same choke point, killed Ziatar and the mages after they didn't have anything left. Battle with Neothelid was super easy. Was running around waiting him to set up six Magic Swords. The magic swords started to fight themselves or something, so I just stood there in place and waited Neothelid to appear and meleed it away. It got like 70 hp from me. I've played that part now 4 times, and this was strangely the easiest. With the help of potion of absorbtion meleed Akanna and her helpers and got the wardstone. Had some interesting time with the Shadow Aspect. Alerted it and drank invisibility potion. Followed and watched it go through a plethora of defensive spells, like Improved Mantle, Fireshield (Blue) etc. Once he actually wandered to one of the prison cells, but I weren't fast enough to trap it there. That would've been funny. Waited like 8 shields before figuring he must have infinite amount of them. So I just waited the best opportunity and meleed him quickly. Got the sword, didn't bother with the last mob.
Battle of Bridgefort. Went through all the emotions, from anxiety to desperation. But once you figure that you can't help these poor suckers, there's a way to win the battle. Had a last stand at the doorway to the fort, started meleeing away and the tactic quickly came on to me. Just kept meleeing like the 300 in Thermopylae, once overhelmed, retreat inside, heal, then back outside again to fight, and their numbers started falling slowly. Once Durlag's Goblet was empty, I just replenished it with the merchant. Oloneiros fell, Barghest fell, Hormorn fell and lastly Vichand fell. Went invisible and ran to the bridge to stop the explosion. The enemy mage got somehow confused and everyone attacked the fort which worked great for me. The battle was won.
My disperse tactic from BG has quickly changed to choke point tactic with the help of Durlag's Goblet.
Nice job @histamiini. You really killed the Shadow Aspect? What? I tried it dozens of times but at some point it always disappeared forever before i could kill it. You also meleed Morentherene? Wow! I always kited him like a chicken. Looks like we had a completly different way playing the Cavalier. While i was kiting most enemies to death with the Throwing Axe you just stand there and hack them away. Funny. Too bad that the choke point tactic wont work at Coalition Camp. But i am sure you have a plan. We will see!
Comments
Also keep in mind greenstone helps vs hold and selling it and buying it back for 50 charges is very cheap.
Oh well, hopefully nobody misses Dushai.
Looks like you have fun @histamiini - keep going!
Or try to reinstall the cap over your install. It might be finicky, though. TweakAnthology has a component for that, if I remember correctly.
Chapter 2
After aquiring most of the good stuff and farming Ankhegs to lv7 I thought it's time to get the main guest rolling. Went to Nashkel mines and tried Graywolf, nope. Then went into the mine, nothing really hard there, got Mulahey with first try.
Chapter 3
Nimbul was too weak for me, a guard and Rashaad. Tranzig got cornered between bed and table, the poor bastard. Then time to go to Bandit camp. Surprise attack from Lamalha, probably the hardest fight yet and had to really kite them. Didn't have any charges left One Gift Lost so had to kite and strike them, one strike at the time, which worked pretty well because THAC0 was being respectable. Sold items and charged OGL and back to Bandit camp. And oh boy when you see first time better calls. Ran, ran and ran. But then I noticed when doing a big circle around the forrest, the whole mass was being centered. So I just kited and OGL'd them, and exactly 24th strike and all were dead. Got them first try. Then cleared rest of the camp.
Chapter 4
For Cavalier being immune for poison and with Ring Of Free Action Cloakwood was pretty trivial. Then at the mine I was really being smacked down with the four guys in the courtyard. Managed to disperse them, first depleted Kysus with Shield and Greenstone amulet, and Magic Blocking, then got Genthorn with melee. Then how the hell was I going to deal Drasus with Boots of Speed and hitting like a truck? Potion of Absorbtion and Blunt Girdle. The second mage got scared and dissappeared all together. Before going in the mine I checked Kirian for his Slashing belt. OGL'd them all without them even seeing me. Then recharged OGL once again. It's really good for kiting, or close range with 110 FR, if you don't mind recharging it with 6k a pop. In the mine managed to disperse Hareishan and couple guards, managed to kill them. Natasha decided to go hiding when I killed her guards, so she could take me one on one. Well she didn't.
Then the main fight after killing some Battle Horror's. I was killed multiple times fighting the guards, but then figured you can't fight them when they are going to keep coming. Tried to OGL Daevorn but he took like 3 damage so nope. Then ran past him to the lowest room, got him in there and started smacking. Guards came and surrounded us, after him depleting all his arsenal on me, and the poor guards, I killed one guard to get to him, and then just meleed him away. Luckily all the guards got scared after that. Shield and Greenstone amulets are really good friends against mages.
Now I understand why LoB is a sorry excuse for hard difficulty. Squirrels having 100HP, every mage with more HP than bhaalspawn mage will ever have like factor 3. Dat immersion. Next I'm thinking going pretty straight line to the end, then after starting SoD heading to Durlag's Tower to get some stuff.
I don't get why you would come up with something like LoB years after the games prime, where you obviously are doing fanservice and have an engine that allows for so much more than just stupidly increasing enemy levels, HP, apr (even breaking stuff like Drizzt and Warden, because why would you check your own game for creatures with max apr and test if your new difficulty breaks those), Thac0, saving throws and AC.
I think the worst parts are really levels and hp, with APR being quite questionable too.
The problem here is they gave the same basis of increasing these stats to every single creature, instead of putting in the extra work and checking if some specific creatures would make more sense with different tweaks.
Enemies like Hobgoblins, kobolds etc. should not have leveled above the sleepcap.
Non hostiles like bats or was it rats :P in the sarevok fight should not have insane hp so they don't die immediately to fireballs and keep messing up your autopause and aggro summons when you wanna stay out of sight (same goes for the squirrels mentioned by you :P)
Enemies like skeletons should not be overleveled so you can't turn them even in SoD.
And the apr increase should have been a lot more specific to non mob enemies because of crits right now most classes just can't afford to fight low level mobs, especially if they don't have a helmet.
Anyways enough raging and nice progress @histamiini
First things first, to get the cloak and the helmet. Met Larze, kited him with axe, killed Quenash and got the cloak. Then got the helm, and met Gretek at the door. Had no chance in hell fighting them, so turned invisible and watched some even stronger mob mop the floor with the other mob. Didn't even have to thank them afterwards. Did some jobs for Scar, nothing too hard. Then met with the evil leaders of Iron Throne, another ultra hard mob. Dispersed some of them between the floors and meleed them 1on1. Then killed the rest of the mob by luring them to the stairs, running down, the other stairs up and OGL'd them luring them to me again, and then running the other corner again and so on.
Chapter 6
Before going back to Candlekeep, another surprise attack by four Ogre Mages, never had these surprise attacks before. They weren't that hard with Greenstone and Shield Amulets. Kited some of them with axe and last couple meleed. Of course Gatekeeper offered no help, wasn't even bothered of them being so close of Candlekeep. Perhaps they didn't have any obscure books with them? Didn't bother with rest of the Iron Throne, something told me they would die anyway. On the way out met Prat, managed to separate him and killed him melee and got the +2 Throwing Axe. Went back a level, rested and dealed the rest of the mob the same way.
Chapter 7
Guards tried to block my way to Duke Eltan but managed to melee them with speed/cloud potions and gs amulet. Cythandria summoned some upgraded guard's, had no chance in melee. Lured them both one by one to floor below, and kited them around the bar table with throwing axe. Thought Cythandria would be another push over mage, but she did pack a punch and killed me once before meeting her inevitable death.
Then the assassin couple in Undercellar. Prepared with speed/cloud potions and amulets, but Slythe killed me like 5 times a row with his sword backstab doing 53 damage a pop. Change of plans, lured Krystin to sewers, depleted her and was smacking away thinking that's it. No. She wandered into a Kobold mob with boss Kobold himself being there. Ofcourse they weren't interested in Krystin but got me with confusion spell or something and I thought again, that's it. No again. Luckily they didn't pack a punch and I regained my thoughts, killed them and then killed Krystin. Returned to Undercellar. Dealed Slythe by taking hit, then running back to sewers to heal, then back to take the hit and so on. And after he ran out invisibility potions, he was dead meat. Another surprise when going to centre of Undercellar, there they were again, resurrected? Perhaps love really lives forever. But got the invitations anyway which I only needed.
Had epic fight with Sarevok and his doppelgangers. Died couple times and thought, have to go all in with this because disperse tactics doesn't work here. So I used PfM and 10 Extra Healing potions to kill the doppelgangers. Liia and Belt were the only ones alive, well Sarevok wasted Liia soon after and I and Belt were the sole survivors of the meeting.
Ran through the maze to the Undercity, and alerted the mob. Lured Wudei to maze, meleed him. Meleed Haseo in front of maze. Meleed Gorf with potion of absorbtion. Rahvin shot me with arrows of detonation, too bad for him they healed me. Carston was another random melee victim. Then came Shaldrissa, the most annoying piece of bleep yet. Everytime I got her low health, she went invisible so I thought I don't need this. Had really tough fight with Tamoko, only hit her like every 10th time and she was spamming some spell all the time, which didn't work I guess. Now the way to temple was clear, well almost with one annoying invisible mage somewhere.
Time to loot Baldur's Gate for the most valuable goods, next bought the city out of potions and invested rest of the money to jewels and what not. It's isn't very smart going around with 100k gold in your pocket, somebody could rob you blind. Then back to the temple again, and Shaldrissa was there to fight me again, and again she went invisible after I defeated her. This time I used OGL to hunt her down, and bingo, she will bother me no more.
And here is Sir Vanderley finally facing his destiny. Too bad I have to take some brake from the game now.
On the other hand it's kinda hard to tell, since you get much higher level in IWD and the enemies in the starting areas are pretty simple, kiting is your friend and there is not a lot of ranged/magic enemies until you get higher level than SoD cap and pretty powerful with certain classes.
(Mages are relatively weak due to lack of scrolls, but Sorcs are monsters.)
Agreed @Victor_Creed_SFV: Once you reach higher levels in IWD even HoF loses its threat to some degree. My Monk melted enemies with Quivering Palm for a long time (instakilling even Yxunomei) and as a lot of enemies only use normal weapons he is nearly immortal.
Maybe i should rejoin the challenge in the next weeks as D:OS2 gets a bit boring. Maybe i should warm up with an ultra-solid class and revive good old Bavaborass, the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric. Maybe. In the meantime: Have fun!
Still Sorcerer is even stronger because of Mislead and Black Blade, because of some silly items in IWD you can get 6 apr with BBoD.
Any kind of invis is super op because there are not many enemies who can see thru it.
Change 0 to 1 in the following line, and then LoB in BG will be precisely as HoF in IWD.
SetPrivateProfileString('Game Options','Nightmare Bonus XP','0')
It was decided, though, for LoB to leave the XP bonus at 0, as high XP breaks the game, even on LoB. You can find old posts by @Gotural where he (back when the XP bonus was ON) finished the Irenicus dungeon with HLAs already available.
It's not that hard hitting the cap in BG1/SoD and even in IWD you get massive quest xp.
I once for fun went to the DLC before the main game and you can almost get level 20 on a monk without fighting a single enemy.
Chapter 7 continuing
Tried the end battle and quickly came onto conclusion that I need more healing. So off to Durlag's Tower. Fought the way to the Warden's, nothing too hard. Killed Love and Fear pretty easily. Avardice buggered off somewhere being invisible so I turned my sights onto Pride. Oh, mah, gad, what the hell? Tried to melee him, no chance, tried OGL him, magic resistance, tried 15 minutes to kite him with an axe. But apparently he has infinite healing, hits like a truck and is fast as anything. Is he unkillable for fighter? Got the wardstone to next level anyway so there I went. Greater Dobblergangers and ghast were pretty easy pray at this point. And eventually aquired Durlag's Goblet. Another reason to like Cavalier, immunity to Goblets fear and morale failure effects, so easy and rechargeable 20x full health potions.
Back to Sarevok's temple again. Alerted the mob, parked myself onto corner and lured them onto myself, drank invisibility potion and went away. Used 48x OGL to kill Semaj and seriously injure Tazok. Found Angelo other side of the room. Waited him to offload his spells, and then meleed him away. At this point used PfU. Then alerted only Diarmid with -15 to missile and speed potion and had a ranged battle with him. Eventually he came onto me and I showed his mistake to him. Then used another invisibility potion, found that Tazok was still invisible himself so I alerted Sarevok, and Tazok quickly joined the battle. I went invisible again, and then only alerted Tazok and quickly meleed him away. Lastly had a long straight on melee battle with Sarevok. Used speed/cloud potions and 10 refreshes from DG and Sarevok was dead.
The end battle wasn't really that hard tbh, when you could disperse them pretty easily. Disperse really has been the goto tactic of BG1 for me. Cavalier can pretty much melee anyone 1on1, except Pride apparently, at least without DG. According to Steam I used about 20 hours to this run.
Off to SoD.
Btw I read your Cavalier experience with the trolls in SoD. Did you try to use everything? Like Violet/Power Potions, Modron Heart, Trollblood Ioun Stone, Dervish Cresent and Belt of the Skillful Blade? With those and ** in Scimitars and *** with Two Weapon style I can have -7/-6 THAC0 and 26-34 damage per attack vs. trolls and also a chance to Fireshield (red). I wonder if that will be enough.
Trolls in SoD? I usually skip them as there are so many other ways to soak XP that you will hit the cap quite fast anyway.
Good luck!
Even the 20 or so trolls in the Troll cave couldn't brake me with DG.
Reality hits when you meet the first mob. Head-on assault is out of question. Buffed up and set a choke point on the bridge and was able to take their assault. Retreated when 4 enemies was left and got help from the Flaming Fist. If the first mob was impressive, the first undead mob you meet is hilariously more impressive. Tried melee once but lol. Used PfU and hunted all the caster undead and then mobbed the lesser undead, and what was left set a choke point on the bridge and was able to beat them. Except the very last one, which was a Greater Shadow and it instakilled me with something. The whole procedure again and now I was able to beat them. Dealt Korlasz the same way setting up a choke point on the doorway. Killed everyone, and when Korlasz had used her spells killed her. In Baldur's Gate did all the mundane tasks.
Chapter 8
Helped vampire Tsolak against the hunters and got the Trollblood Ioun Stone. Then to help the Dwarves, was able to clear everything in the cave except the Umber Hulk party which raped me even with DG. Didn't want to waste PfU so onwards to the crypt. Man what a ridiculous amount of Undead. My tactic against them actually happened accidentally. I was scouting being invisible and they started following me. So I quickly alerted every undead in the crypt and got them in the throne room. Used PfU and started spamming OGL.
What a glorious fealing when something like 100 undead take damage from a fireball. In the middle of the OGL spamming something started attacking me which surprised me. It was the sentry as it obviously wasn't an undead. Dealt it and then OGL'd rest of the undead. Lich Coldheart wasn't all that when you remember to use the Greenstone amulet, which I failed once and he stunned me. Depleted and killed him. Hit the xp cap already in here.
Chapter 9
Tested my mettle with some trolls, first the 10 outside, and then the 20 inside the Troll cave. Was able to beat them head on with DG. Kited the next Hobgoblin war party with OGL. Using the Ring of Freeaction tanked the whole lot of spiders in the Spider cave and took them out with OGL. Met first Bugbear party outside the Wyrm cave. Nothing too hard, used a choke point and meleed them away. Alerted the dragon Morentherene, retreated to the cave entrance and had a straight on melee battle which ended badly for him. Didn't bother with rest of the wyverns. Bugbear cave, again set up choke points and straight on melee battles.
The Temple. Killed guards, nothing too hard. Alarted Ziatar and the mages. Set up choke point on the door and started melee battle with Ziatar. Mages spammed spells so hard that had to retreat. Then back again to the same choke point, killed Ziatar and the mages after they didn't have anything left. Battle with Neothelid was super easy. Was running around waiting him to set up six Magic Swords. The magic swords started to fight themselves or something, so I just stood there in place and waited Neothelid to appear and meleed it away. It got like 70 hp from me. I've played that part now 4 times, and this was strangely the easiest. With the help of potion of absorbtion meleed Akanna and her helpers and got the wardstone. Had some interesting time with the Shadow Aspect. Alerted it and drank invisibility potion. Followed and watched it go through a plethora of defensive spells, like Improved Mantle, Fireshield (Blue) etc. Once he actually wandered to one of the prison cells, but I weren't fast enough to trap it there. That would've been funny. Waited like 8 shields before figuring he must have infinite amount of them. So I just waited the best opportunity and meleed him quickly. Got the sword, didn't bother with the last mob.
Battle of Bridgefort. Went through all the emotions, from anxiety to desperation. But once you figure that you can't help these poor suckers, there's a way to win the battle. Had a last stand at the doorway to the fort, started meleeing away and the tactic quickly came on to me. Just kept meleeing like the 300 in Thermopylae, once overhelmed, retreat inside, heal, then back outside again to fight, and their numbers started falling slowly. Once Durlag's Goblet was empty, I just replenished it with the merchant. Oloneiros fell, Barghest fell, Hormorn fell and lastly Vichand fell. Went invisible and ran to the bridge to stop the explosion. The enemy mage got somehow confused and everyone attacked the fort which worked great for me. The battle was won.
My disperse tactic from BG has quickly changed to choke point tactic with the help of Durlag's Goblet.
BtW: What the hell is OGL?