@Harpagornis, do you have a steam or gog-based BGEE+SoD game? If so, you should first install modmerge and only then SCS and any other mods you intend to run.
Finally it works again - hurray! I used my SoD+BGEE installation with the Big-World-Fixpack before installing SCS. Big thanks @Grond0 - my hero of the day!
I still dont know why my original BGEE installation wasnt working anymore...
I think you said you tried making changes to the existing installation. Although Weidu allows that in principle, if you are making complex changes I think the chance of something going wrong is pretty high - so personally I would be inclined to redo the installation from scratch rather than try to amend it.
Lol - thats the AoE-Blind the Shadow Aspect casts. This mod seems funny even though it may take some time to take things down.
I am testing an Orc Barbarian vs the fully upgraded LoB + SCS monster atm. Was in need of some brute force after the "cheating" thief - what a breeze! No traps, no backstabs - just a big sword in the face.
Starting again I made use of a quasit familiar to help my sorcerer out. The double damage applied in LoB doesn't apply to that, which means that there are very few enemies able to one-shot it from full health. It also has just enough of a melee range to attack some blinded enemies from out of their sight if carefully positioned - that's not much help against enemies that run around when blinded, but against things like dire wolves can speed up their deaths a bit. I took advantage of that to farm dire wolf ambushes while resting in Shoal's area and those and a few carrion crawlers got me up to level 4 there (though that was pretty laborious - particularly when the wolves saved against all blindness attempts).
I used invisibility to acquire some wands and the ring of wizardry safely. The XP from a few enemies and various quests completed while doing that was just enough to get me to level 5. I then worked through the Cloud Peaks, still finding things relatively slow thanks to enemies running around while blind and running out of webs rather than staying to be blinded or attacked while held.
Finally, with level 6 in sight, I was rather unfairly killed. Initially that was a result of trying to use web inside the xvart cave to reduce the numbers attacking the familiar at once. When it got stuck in the web the game wouldn't allow me to exit the cave even though the xvarts were attacking me not the familiar. Some fancy dodging kept me alive until the web finally ended and I then sent the familiar outside for safety, while summoning some monsters in the cave to deal with the xvarts. Bizarrely though, although the xvarts had not been attacking the familiar and their scripts favour attacking a PC over a familiar, all of them ignored me still in the cave and followed the familiar out! With me still inside I had no control over the familiar outside and by the time I'd fought past the summoned monsters and got out it was near death and had morale failure. It then died before an invisibility could take effect on it, which should have automatically ended the game as a result of the loss of HPs caused by a familiar death - but rather amusingly the game continued while showing the PC as on -17 HPs! The icon was showing as dead though and healing wasn't possible. I even travelled to a temple to confirm that neither would raise dead work and eventually I saved and reloaded the game - at which point it finally realised it shouldn't be continuing ...
The Drizzt script seems broken with SCS. He was slaughtered by the Gnolls while - doing nothing. Ok, some spells in between but thats it. As an evil Half-Orcish Barbarian Su´kka watched this spectacle while laughing out loud. Once Drizzt went down after ~10 minutes she lured the Gnolls away and looted his stuff. Mithril Chainmail +4 - it cant get better for her!
@Grondo: Strange stuff happening to your undead (!) Sorcerer....
I think it's LoB that breaks it - possibly because in vanilla he has 4.5 APR and the increase with LoB takes him to 5.5 which is a potential problem for the game engine.
I think it's LoB that breaks it - possibly because in vanilla he has 4.5 APR and the increase with LoB takes him to 5.5 which is a potential problem for the game engine.
Ah, okay - sounds reasonable. I must admit that i havent visited Drizzt for quite some time.
Incidentally, among the spells that Drizzt can throw at you (even when you're invisible) is charm person - so be a bit careful if you're approaching him when solo ...
Zu´kka got a lucky hit that took down Drizzt before the Gnolls got the chance. But 12k xp vs -9 reputation. Not worth. Oh yeah - he was throwing several Charm Persons - Rage proved to be very handy here!
Zu´kka also fought Kirian and her party in the Basilisk area. I must admit that it felt easier than before SCS buffs. Sure they casted several CC but Rage made me laugh about that. Reg potion absorbed the Magic Missiles and the Acid Arrow (only one?!). After that Zu´kka could kite down Kirian and Peter easily. Baerin was slain in close combat while dancing around him when he switched to spear. The last man standing Lindin was just usual kiting. Not to forget: Even the smarter Basiliks are dumb as hell only attacking Korax while Zu´kka shooted them down from the backrow.
On the good side so far: The fight against the improved Bassilus was fun as he switched between CC (Hold Person), Damage (Flame Strike), Summons (Skeletal Warrior), trying to smash his hammer in Zu´kkas face and using Sanctuary for healing up. Very entertaining fight that shows some of the potential SCS brings in.
My sorcerer, Frey, has got pretty much back to where he was earlier - reaching level 6 in the Cloud Peaks. He's been very sparing with use of resources so far, just using one charge from the wand of monster summoning to deal with Narcillicus. Reputation's up to 20, so he might be doing a bit of shopping shortly ...
Same here. Su´kka reached 20 reputation and got nearly all equipment she needs to go on with the main quest. Oh - the new Mithril Chain Mail from Drizzt fits her perfectly. In combination with the Helm of Infravision she looks quite badass. Maybe Mulahey will run without fighting!
BtW: Is there any way to get this dumb Silke out of her Invisibilty? I survived all of her spells thanks to running like a chicken and some Rage but after beating her down a bit she vanished. Coward!
BtW: Is there any way to get this dumb Silke out of her Invisibilty? I survived all of her spells thanks to running like a chicken and some Rage but after beating her down a bit she vanished. Coward!
Two methods. The first is for the brave - move around until you get next to her and try and get back out of sight before she casts (difficult if that's something like minor sequencer!). The second is for the cautious - rest for a day in the inn ...
Lots of running and magic missiles allowed Frey to eventually see off the Doomsayer. With SCS the Revenant has a ranged hold attack so the same couldn't be done to him yet, but the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower had no such protection and were soon history (using quite a few wand charges there to avoid the need to rest). A few ghasts inside the tower got Frey up to level 7. Minor spell deflection allowed the tome to be recovered there, but I left the basilisks for now.
Frey had also learned friends at level 7 and used that to pick up some bargain buys at various shops. He'll put one of the green scrolls purchased to use against some basilisks next time.
Improved Mulahey went down. Su´kka first kited the neutral kobold guards to death, attacked Mulahey and moved to the eastern cave so all kobolds and skeletons grouped up around Mulahey. Strangely enough she could shoot them and retreat without getting chased. How boring Su´kka thought and burnt the whole group down with the Necklace of Missiles. Finally Mulahey himself approached but his spells fizzled or got neutralized thanks to Rage. After some bow kiting Su´kka went in for a mighty sword blow critting Mulahey down with 40 damage.
Improved Nimbul on the other hand was really tough. With a Potion of Regeneration and some anti-slash-items Zu´kka positioned herself near a door to escape at least some of the nearly endless spells he memorized. Combined with Rage and a Potion of Invulnerability Nimbul was never able to land one of his charms or horror. Whenever he tried his instakill Chromatic Orb Zu´kka retreated to safety. Thanks to my slow reaction he still managed to get in his triggered Magic Missile combo which hurted a lot (no Shield Amulet - damn). Once Nimbul was out of offensive spells it was all about getting down his Stoneskin + Mirror Images. Luckily enough he had a hard time hitting Zu´kkas -10 AC so slashing him down worked quite well. Only after several 20 rolls from him it was time for some final bow kiting - luckily his haste spell ended earlier. This fight can easily go wrong without some preparation no?
Okay, i finally stumbled into Lamalha and her little amazons - with only one regeneration potion left! As @Blackraven had warned me before i waited a moment what will happen. Two Clerics casting Hold Person immediately - okay no problem: Greenstone Amulet solves this! But where went the other two? Some Assassins sneaking behind? Several seconds later they really tried to backstab Su´kka. Hello? Backstabbing a Barbarian? Really? Okay - lets get serious again!
The Cleric spells were no danger thanks to Greenstone Amulet. Running out of vision also canceled the spells so they tried to summon Skeleton Warriors near the SW corner. Before they appeared Su´kka moved out so the Skeletons just waited there until the end of battle.
As the Assassins could not backstab her their only chance was shooting. But thanks to -18 AC against Missiles the fire arrows and darts of wounding missed over and over again. All Zu´kka had to do was: Shoot one or two times and switch to shield again before the missiles went off. Or even better: Whenever one of the "little amazons" was a bit isolated Zu´kka switched to the Dagger of Venom for a quick stab. And yes: The poison triggered several times sucking away their life. At the end the regeneration potion was more than enough to keep HP at max. The Barbarian +movement speed combined with anti backstab proved to be very helpful in this ambush. Whos next?
Harpagornis, my Barbarian is still in Baldur's Gate (with no reloads yet), where I left several days ago. Maybe Su´kka can inspire Bera to continue her adventure... I'm pleased to see your AC-based approach is working for you. I remember having very hard time with my barbie in a duel against Jalantha Mistmyr in Baldur's Gate. You also seem to move very well. Lamalha and and the other cleric can both cast Unholy Blight I think, very dangerous. Kudos on eluding those.
Meanwhile I have an update on my Illusionist/Thief Trixy. In my previous report I described events up to Trixy's prevalence over Mulahey.
We loot the tombs near the Nashkel Mine exit, using stealth/invisibility and her still active oil of speed (from the Mulahey fight) to elude the Ghasts. The Revenant is brought his dagger for a change. Nimbul is finished by an Amnian soldier but Tranzig gives us some trouble. Thanks to his monster summoning spell he survives a first wand paralysis (SCS better calls for help), and he outlasts Trixy's buffs. This includes Shield, which he immediately rubs in with a Magic Missile.
A second wand paralysis seals his fate though.
An attempt to deal with Vax and Zal in order to generate some cash flow fails pretty miserably when a large pack of Kobolds interferes right after we paralyze the dart thrower.
We just move on to the Bandit Camp, hooking up with Raiken on the way. Trixy convinces Tazok that she's a valuable recruit, but then proceeds to shamelessly loot the camp, and enter Tazok's tent unpermitted with Ghost Armor, Shield, MSD and an oil of speed as her buffs. She empties the trapped chest, and gets out. She acts so fast that only Venkt and Hakt follow her outside, and that Taugosz misses her there. This means that the alarm isn't sounded. No one disturbs her as she Blinds Hakt and paralyzes Venkt. She slays both for their nice loot (long bow of marksmanship sells for a pretty penny, and Venkt's Spell Thrust scroll is the only one in the game afaik). She tries to paralyze Taugosz as well, but he saves and alarms the other bandits. Trixy leaves the camp behind, content with her achievements. (She actually has to return and enter Tazok's tent again, because Chapter 4 hasn't started I discover at the FAI when there's no Elminster. She does this invisibly.)
Unlike brave @Harpagornis we walk away from the Molkar and Lamalha ambushes. There is little to gain for us there (even though Halacan's Detect Ilusion scroll is nice for Trixy, whose Illusion Detecting skill is still underdeveloped). And there is much to lose (many wand charges at best, Trixy's life at worst).
In Cloakwood we skip everything except for brief visits to Centeol's den and the wyvern cave, for the loot. We're being very acquisitive this playthrough because we want to buy/recharge wands, buy extra spell scrolls to use in battle (think Malison, Chaos; Halbazzar sells 20 scrolls of each spell), as well as potions and enchanted ammo.
We reach the Cloakwood mine entrance, where we lure the bridge guards away to the north, and then go invisible. On the bridge we set one snare but fail at setting another. (Trixy's Set Traps skill is only 45 at this point.) We decide not to rest in order to be able to set more traps. Instead, we buff with Ghost Armor, Shield, and an oil of speed, slowly approach Drasus and quickly retreat when he charges in. We decide to use the wand of monster summoning for the first time, creating a buffer from behind which Trixy can try to Blind Drasus before he closes in on her. She succeeds at Blinding the warrior, and finishes him with a combination of wand of electricity charges and ranged attacks before the others, whom she decides to ignore, know what's up.
We enter the mine where we leave the shadows only to orchestrate the liberation of slaves and of the prisoner Yeslick. In Davaeorn's lair we get inexplicably sloppy at trap removing, triggering first a Magic Missile trap for 22 damage, and not even detecting a Glyph of Warding trap. Trixy quaffs a potion of magic blocking before it can kill her but then I remember those potions didn't work for my Barbarian Bera. The potions does remove Trixy's haste but it does indeed not protect her from level 1-5 spells, I can confirm. Thankfully she saves against the glyph and she manages to go invisible before Davaeron's men arrive and before his Web / Stinking Cloud combo takes over.
This happens just out of Davaeorn's sight, so he doesn't cast any detection spells to reveal her. She survives her helpless situation, heals, slays two Battle Horrors with wand scorchers, and Davaeorn's men with numerous wand fireballs. Davaeorn himself isn't affected by most of those fireballs as his MGoI lasts for ages. We use one monster summoning wand charge to help soak up some of Davaeorn's spells (since the magic blocking potions were unreliable), and another to help speed up his demise.
We plunder the place, flood the mine, and make our way to Baldur's Gate.
(Edit: changed a wrong screenshot for the right one.)
Trixy quaffs a potion of magic blocking before it can kill her but then I remember those potions didn't work for my Barbarian Bera. The potions does remove Trixy's haste but it does indeed not protect her from level 1-5 spells, I can confirm.
Good progress Blackraven - keep it going. Have you seen magic blocking potions fail against actual spell attacks? Note that some traps use animations that look like spells, but are actually non-magical in nature.
Thank you @Grond0, and you may be right. I haven't tested the potions against against actual spells, so I won't write them off yet. I'll see if there's a situation I can test them in.
Deciding to tackle the Nashkel Mine next, Frey made his way through the kobold hordes invisibly. In Mulahey's cave he rested immediately to prevent Mulahey coming to find him. Some summoned monsters then killed the 4 kobolds there and attacked Mulahey in order to make him call for his guards. Frey couldn't afford to show himself as Holy Smite would be instant death to him so waited until his own monsters were dead and Mulahey's troops had gathered round him - then finished the job with some skull traps.
There were still some kobolds and skeletons alive and in Mulahey's absence they started running round. Fortunately though they were all near death and invisibility helped Frey finish them off without being hit himself.
In Nashkel Nimbul was webbed, then blinded. SCS clerics will normally shrug that off using cure disease, but Nimbul had no such protection. If Frey had attacked though he would have run round and gone invisible, so Frey just stood there and let the guards get the kill (actually he wanted to get the killing shot, but the guards were too quick for him).
In Beregost Tranzig was trapped in his room by an invisible quasit and died to summoned monsters before being able to do much.
Frey did a bit of travelling gathering money in order to be able to recharge the monster summoning wand. Surprisingly, while doing that he came across a travel ambush by Molkar and his gang (I normally see them appear on main maps). Without room to manoeuvre and out of spells at the time Frey had no real option but just to sneak away invisibly.
Finally making his way to the basilisk area Frey used wands of fire and frost to help kill the basilisks quickly while the green scroll protection lasted, getting to level 8 there. Rather than attack those near Mutamin (which would activate him), Frey recruited Korax who was guided in to paralyse the mage by an invisible familiar. Korax went on to attack Kirian's group, aided to start with by being inside a stinking cloud. Crucially Frey also managed to blind Baerin and Korax successfully paralysed the other 3 and then tried to work around them to keep them under control. They have decent saving throws though and did all manage to break free at one point - causing Frey to use up a wand scorcher and a potion of invisibility to abort a suspected lightning bolt from Kirian. Lindin broke free again near the end and finished off Korax, so Frey had to use more wand charges against Baerin, but triumphed eventually.
Frey will be looking to get his final BG1 level before going to the Bandit Camp - I'm not sure yet whether to just sneak in or take on the hordes there ...
Thank you @Grond0, and you may be right. I haven't tested the potions against against actual spells, so I won't write them off yet. I'll see if there's a situation I can test them in.
OK. I would note though that magic blocking does work against those traps in vanilla, so it sounds like something's changed. Possibly LoB has increased the effective spell level beyond 5 so that the potion doesn't block it?
As @Blackraven was speaking of Molkar and his assassins - they attacked me when i was venturing forth from the basilisk area. The biggest joke was: I was nearly out of arrows - great!
Thanks to Shield Amulet (yes i got it now) and Greenstone Amulet the CC and Magic Missiles fizzled. I feared that Malacan would throw in some nasty spells but - no - he didnt. And even no holy blight from the cleric (can he cast it?). At the end this fight was far easier than Lamalha. I brought Molkar and Morvin down to "near death" before finshing them off with the Venom Dagger. Thanks to high initiative Zu´kka was able to get a quick stab before the enemy was able to counterattack. Poison triggered again several times and softened them up. Ah, i love these hit-and-run games! Zu´kka took all the loot and moved on - Bandit Camp is waiting!
My biggest fear atm is improved Daevaeorn - this could be very tough for a Barbarian. Even more if Magic Blocking potion isnt working - we will see!
Frey couldn't afford to show himself as Holy Smite would be instant death to him.
Are you sure he can cast that spell? In my setup Mulahey, being evil, can only cast Unholy Blight which should be harmless against your Sorcerer. Regardless, I think you took the right approach in hanging back.
Possibly LoB has increased the effective spell level beyond 5 so that the potion doesn't block it?
That or it is something with my EE Trilogy install... It wouldn't be the first difference in the properties of certain items or spell effects. E.g. @chimaera's Dragon Disciple (and other mages I've read about) got 34 HPs from Find Familiar, but Trixy got the regular 6 HPs. I also get more XP for opening locks (40 at this stage) than for disarming traps (17).
@Harpagornis, nice progress there. I'm still impressed with your work against parties with casters. My chracters tend to shun those. Also, aren't (some of) Molkar's men hasted at the beginning of that battle? That alone makes it difficult in my book. As for @Davaeorn, my Barbarian's approach might be of help to you. A green PfMagic scroll helps against the traps, and the Web / Stinking Cloud, and I recommend bringing plenty of healing potions, the Sandthief ring if you can afford it, and any invisibility potions you may have picked up by now. Best of luck!
Molkar and his group wasnt hasted. Anyway: I like to save PfMagic scrolls against Belhifet so if there is any way around against Daevaeorn i will try to find it. Another problem: I havent found a single oil of speed so far - whats that? Where did you get yours @Blackraven?
BtW: Su´kka has reached level 7 and will try to conquer the bandit camp soon!
Molkar and his group wasnt hasted. Anyway: I like to save PfMagic scrolls against Belhifet so if there is any way around against Daevaeorn i will try to find it. Another problem: I havent found a single oil of speed so far - whats that? Where did you get yours @Blackraven?
BtW: Su´kka has reached level 7 and will try to conquer the bandit camp soon!
Saving green scrolls sounds like a great plan. I'm doing the same thing atm. You might consider using two potions of magic protection for 100% magic resistance (the Surgeon donates one, and I think Lamalha's gang drops one if not then Molkar or Kirian?). You might be able to avoid the AoE so you don't need any magic protection but that's risky.
As for oils of speed, I took Imoen's and I've found at least two at Durlag's Tower. You might be able to bash some locks there with 22 STR from Barbarian rage but be wary of the traps.
Finally got one oil of speed - but there was no need for it in the bandit camp as the Barbarian +movement speed was barely enough. I had totally forgotten how things work in the improved camp so without invisibility Zu´kka would have gone down for sure. At least she was able to lure Venkt and Hakt out into the woods and looted the fine Longbow of Markmanship. Before the improved Taurgosz Khosann - hes a real beast with all these potions - could confront her she used invisibilty to sneak into the tent again. She took all the loot from the chest (made sure to get 100% electricity resistance) and just ran out of the camp while all of the bandits tried to catch her. With 87 HP she reached the map border and moved out of this hell...
Are you sure he can cast that spell? In my setup Mulahey, being evil, can only cast Unholy Blight which should be harmless against your Sorcerer.
I agree that sounds right - I wasn't thinking about his alignment ...
@chimaera's Dragon Disciple (and other mages I've read about) got 34 HPs from Find Familiar, but Trixy got the regular 6 HPs.
And I got 22 HPs, which I thought was standard for LoB. I assume your 6 HPs is because the LoB setting has been over-ridden by EET and perhaps SR changes find familiar to provide the increase for chimaera.
Frey fancied having Denak's ring, so went next to the Red Wizard area. The mages there are pretty dangerous with LoB / SCS if given a target, but didn't seem to have detect invisibility and Frey used summoned monsters to soak up their spells.
Moving on to Durlag's Tower Frey looked to deal with the basilisks. As web and blind is no longer very effective he used a PfP scroll on himself and successfully blinded the lesser basilisk and the greater one near the stairs. Coming back down to kill the lesser one he thought it would be safe for the familiar to help deal with it - but apparently the nerfing BGEE does to familiars also affects their protections!
I'd paused the game as petrification hit and thought that the game ending screen would follow momentarily. However, the loss of HPs from the death of a familiar appears not to be applied by a stoning - and reacting quickly Frey managed to attack in melee and distract the basilisk just before it attacked again and broke the statue of a quasit. He already had a stone to flesh scroll and using that restored the familiar to instant usefulness (there was no equivalent to being kicked out of the party that occurs with NPCs).
Clearing the Tower of ghasts was not quite enough for level 9 and Frey travelled on towards the Lighthouse. On the way though he came across an amazon ambush - so it appears that is standard behaviour in this installation. This time though Frey had spells available and decided to take them on. The first step was to get out of sight and release his familiar in order to use that to invisibly guide in some summoned monsters. However, despite the fact that they'd never seen him the amazons all appeared and attacked immediately he released the familiar and he had to quickly cast invisibility on himself and then run away before the familiar died from Maneira's poison darts.
At the Lighthouse, killing a few wolves and hobgoblins got Freya his final BG1 level. Summoned monsters then did most of the damage against the sirines, with minor spell deflection protecting against charm. Frey then used hasted bullets of fire to kill the golems and, once having read the constitution tome, put on the Claw of Kazgaroth. With improved invisibility and blur that allows him to get spell saves into safe territory.
Frey has just got a lift with Raiken to the Bandit Camp and persuaded Tazok that he could do with some help there ...
Comments
I still dont know why my original BGEE installation wasnt working anymore...
I am testing an Orc Barbarian vs the fully upgraded LoB + SCS monster atm. Was in need of some brute force after the "cheating" thief - what a breeze! No traps, no backstabs - just a big sword in the face.
BtW: What happened to your Barbarian @Blackraven?
I used invisibility to acquire some wands and the ring of wizardry safely. The XP from a few enemies and various quests completed while doing that was just enough to get me to level 5. I then worked through the Cloud Peaks, still finding things relatively slow thanks to enemies running around while blind and running out of webs rather than staying to be blinded or attacked while held.
Finally, with level 6 in sight, I was rather unfairly killed. Initially that was a result of trying to use web inside the xvart cave to reduce the numbers attacking the familiar at once. When it got stuck in the web the game wouldn't allow me to exit the cave even though the xvarts were attacking me not the familiar. Some fancy dodging kept me alive until the web finally ended and I then sent the familiar outside for safety, while summoning some monsters in the cave to deal with the xvarts. Bizarrely though, although the xvarts had not been attacking the familiar and their scripts favour attacking a PC over a familiar, all of them ignored me still in the cave and followed the familiar out! With me still inside I had no control over the familiar outside and by the time I'd fought past the summoned monsters and got out it was near death and had morale failure. It then died before an invisibility could take effect on it, which should have automatically ended the game as a result of the loss of HPs caused by a familiar death - but rather amusingly the game continued while showing the PC as on -17 HPs! The icon was showing as dead though and healing wasn't possible. I even travelled to a temple to confirm that neither would raise dead work and eventually I saved and reloaded the game - at which point it finally realised it shouldn't be continuing ...
@Grondo: Strange stuff happening to your undead (!) Sorcerer....
Zu´kka also fought Kirian and her party in the Basilisk area. I must admit that it felt easier than before SCS buffs. Sure they casted several CC but Rage made me laugh about that. Reg potion absorbed the Magic Missiles and the Acid Arrow (only one?!). After that Zu´kka could kite down Kirian and Peter easily. Baerin was slain in close combat while dancing around him when he switched to spear. The last man standing Lindin was just usual kiting. Not to forget: Even the smarter Basiliks are dumb as hell only attacking Korax while Zu´kka shooted them down from the backrow.
On the good side so far: The fight against the improved Bassilus was fun as he switched between CC (Hold Person), Damage (Flame Strike), Summons (Skeletal Warrior), trying to smash his hammer in Zu´kkas face and using Sanctuary for healing up. Very entertaining fight that shows some of the potential SCS brings in.
More detailed infos soon!
BtW: Is there any way to get this dumb Silke out of her Invisibilty? I survived all of her spells thanks to running like a chicken and some Rage but after beating her down a bit she vanished. Coward!
Lots of running and magic missiles allowed Frey to eventually see off the Doomsayer. With SCS the Revenant has a ranged hold attack so the same couldn't be done to him yet, but the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower had no such protection and were soon history (using quite a few wand charges there to avoid the need to rest). A few ghasts inside the tower got Frey up to level 7. Minor spell deflection allowed the tome to be recovered there, but I left the basilisks for now.
Frey had also learned friends at level 7 and used that to pick up some bargain buys at various shops. He'll put one of the green scrolls purchased to use against some basilisks next time.
Improved Nimbul on the other hand was really tough. With a Potion of Regeneration and some anti-slash-items Zu´kka positioned herself near a door to escape at least some of the nearly endless spells he memorized. Combined with Rage and a Potion of Invulnerability Nimbul was never able to land one of his charms or horror. Whenever he tried his instakill Chromatic Orb Zu´kka retreated to safety. Thanks to my slow reaction he still managed to get in his triggered Magic Missile combo which hurted a lot (no Shield Amulet - damn). Once Nimbul was out of offensive spells it was all about getting down his Stoneskin + Mirror Images. Luckily enough he had a hard time hitting Zu´kkas -10 AC so slashing him down worked quite well. Only after several 20 rolls from him it was time for some final bow kiting - luckily his haste spell ended earlier. This fight can easily go wrong without some preparation no?
The Cleric spells were no danger thanks to Greenstone Amulet. Running out of vision also canceled the spells so they tried to summon Skeleton Warriors near the SW corner. Before they appeared Su´kka moved out so the Skeletons just waited there until the end of battle.
As the Assassins could not backstab her their only chance was shooting. But thanks to -18 AC against Missiles the fire arrows and darts of wounding missed over and over again. All Zu´kka had to do was: Shoot one or two times and switch to shield again before the missiles went off. Or even better: Whenever one of the "little amazons" was a bit isolated Zu´kka switched to the Dagger of Venom for a quick stab. And yes: The poison triggered several times sucking away their life. At the end the regeneration potion was more than enough to keep HP at max. The Barbarian +movement speed combined with anti backstab proved to be very helpful in this ambush. Whos next?
Harpagornis, my Barbarian is still in Baldur's Gate (with no reloads yet), where I left several days ago. Maybe Su´kka can inspire Bera to continue her adventure...
Meanwhile I have an update on my Illusionist/Thief Trixy. In my previous report I described events up to Trixy's prevalence over Mulahey.
We loot the tombs near the Nashkel Mine exit, using stealth/invisibility and her still active oil of speed (from the Mulahey fight) to elude the Ghasts. The Revenant is brought his dagger for a change.
Nimbul is finished by an Amnian soldier but Tranzig gives us some trouble. Thanks to his monster summoning spell he survives a first wand paralysis (SCS better calls for help), and he outlasts Trixy's buffs. This includes Shield, which he immediately rubs in with a Magic Missile.
An attempt to deal with Vax and Zal in order to generate some cash flow fails pretty miserably when a large pack of Kobolds interferes right after we paralyze the dart thrower.
Unlike brave @Harpagornis we walk away from the Molkar and Lamalha ambushes. There is little to gain for us there (even though Halacan's Detect Ilusion scroll is nice for Trixy, whose Illusion Detecting skill is still underdeveloped). And there is much to lose (many wand charges at best, Trixy's life at worst).
In Cloakwood we skip everything except for brief visits to Centeol's den and the wyvern cave, for the loot. We're being very acquisitive this playthrough because we want to buy/recharge wands, buy extra spell scrolls to use in battle (think Malison, Chaos; Halbazzar sells 20 scrolls of each spell), as well as potions and enchanted ammo.
We reach the Cloakwood mine entrance, where we lure the bridge guards away to the north, and then go invisible. On the bridge we set one snare but fail at setting another. (Trixy's Set Traps skill is only 45 at this point.) We decide not to rest in order to be able to set more traps. Instead, we buff with Ghost Armor, Shield, and an oil of speed, slowly approach Drasus and quickly retreat when he charges in.
We decide to use the wand of monster summoning for the first time, creating a buffer from behind which Trixy can try to Blind Drasus before he closes in on her. She succeeds at Blinding the warrior, and finishes him with a combination of wand of electricity charges and ranged attacks before the others, whom she decides to ignore, know what's up.
We enter the mine where we leave the shadows only to orchestrate the liberation of slaves and of the prisoner Yeslick. In Davaeorn's lair we get inexplicably sloppy at trap removing, triggering first a Magic Missile trap for 22 damage, and not even detecting a Glyph of Warding trap. Trixy quaffs a potion of magic blocking before it can kill her but then I remember those potions didn't work for my Barbarian Bera. The potions does remove Trixy's haste but it does indeed not protect her from level 1-5 spells, I can confirm. Thankfully she saves against the glyph and she manages to go invisible before Davaeron's men arrive and before his Web / Stinking Cloud combo takes over.
(Edit: changed a wrong screenshot for the right one.)
In Nashkel Nimbul was webbed, then blinded. SCS clerics will normally shrug that off using cure disease, but Nimbul had no such protection. If Frey had attacked though he would have run round and gone invisible, so Frey just stood there and let the guards get the kill (actually he wanted to get the killing shot, but the guards were too quick for him).
In Beregost Tranzig was trapped in his room by an invisible quasit and died to summoned monsters before being able to do much.
Frey did a bit of travelling gathering money in order to be able to recharge the monster summoning wand. Surprisingly, while doing that he came across a travel ambush by Molkar and his gang (I normally see them appear on main maps). Without room to manoeuvre and out of spells at the time Frey had no real option but just to sneak away invisibly.
Finally making his way to the basilisk area Frey used wands of fire and frost to help kill the basilisks quickly while the green scroll protection lasted, getting to level 8 there. Rather than attack those near Mutamin (which would activate him), Frey recruited Korax who was guided in to paralyse the mage by an invisible familiar. Korax went on to attack Kirian's group, aided to start with by being inside a stinking cloud. Crucially Frey also managed to blind Baerin and Korax successfully paralysed the other 3 and then tried to work around them to keep them under control. They have decent saving throws though and did all manage to break free at one point - causing Frey to use up a wand scorcher and a potion of invisibility to abort a suspected lightning bolt from Kirian. Lindin broke free again near the end and finished off Korax, so Frey had to use more wand charges against Baerin, but triumphed eventually.
Frey will be looking to get his final BG1 level before going to the Bandit Camp - I'm not sure yet whether to just sneak in or take on the hordes there ...
As @Blackraven was speaking of Molkar and his assassins - they attacked me when i was venturing forth from the basilisk area. The biggest joke was: I was nearly out of arrows - great!
Thanks to Shield Amulet (yes i got it now) and Greenstone Amulet the CC and Magic Missiles fizzled. I feared that Malacan would throw in some nasty spells but - no - he didnt. And even no holy blight from the cleric (can he cast it?). At the end this fight was far easier than Lamalha. I brought Molkar and Morvin down to "near death" before finshing them off with the Venom Dagger. Thanks to high initiative Zu´kka was able to get a quick stab before the enemy was able to counterattack. Poison triggered again several times and softened them up. Ah, i love these hit-and-run games! Zu´kka took all the loot and moved on - Bandit Camp is waiting!
My biggest fear atm is improved Daevaeorn - this could be very tough for a Barbarian. Even more if Magic Blocking potion isnt working - we will see!
It wouldn't be the first difference in the properties of certain items or spell effects. E.g. @chimaera's Dragon Disciple (and other mages I've read about) got 34 HPs from Find Familiar, but Trixy got the regular 6 HPs.
I also get more XP for opening locks (40 at this stage) than for disarming traps (17).
@Harpagornis, nice progress there. I'm still impressed with your work against parties with casters. My chracters tend to shun those. Also, aren't (some of) Molkar's men hasted at the beginning of that battle? That alone makes it difficult in my book.
As for @Davaeorn, my Barbarian's approach might be of help to you. A green PfMagic scroll helps against the traps, and the Web / Stinking Cloud, and I recommend bringing plenty of healing potions, the Sandthief ring if you can afford it, and any invisibility potions you may have picked up by now. Best of luck!
BtW: Su´kka has reached level 7 and will try to conquer the bandit camp soon!
As for oils of speed, I took Imoen's and I've found at least two at Durlag's Tower. You might be able to bash some locks there with 22 STR from Barbarian rage but be wary of the traps.
And I got 22 HPs, which I thought was standard for LoB. I assume your 6 HPs is because the LoB setting has been over-ridden by EET and perhaps SR changes find familiar to provide the increase for chimaera.
Moving on to Durlag's Tower Frey looked to deal with the basilisks. As web and blind is no longer very effective he used a PfP scroll on himself and successfully blinded the lesser basilisk and the greater one near the stairs. Coming back down to kill the lesser one he thought it would be safe for the familiar to help deal with it - but apparently the nerfing BGEE does to familiars also affects their protections!
I'd paused the game as petrification hit and thought that the game ending screen would follow momentarily. However, the loss of HPs from the death of a familiar appears not to be applied by a stoning - and reacting quickly Frey managed to attack in melee and distract the basilisk just before it attacked again and broke the statue of a quasit. He already had a stone to flesh scroll and using that restored the familiar to instant usefulness (there was no equivalent to being kicked out of the party that occurs with NPCs).
Clearing the Tower of ghasts was not quite enough for level 9 and Frey travelled on towards the Lighthouse. On the way though he came across an amazon ambush - so it appears that is standard behaviour in this installation. This time though Frey had spells available and decided to take them on. The first step was to get out of sight and release his familiar in order to use that to invisibly guide in some summoned monsters. However, despite the fact that they'd never seen him the amazons all appeared and attacked immediately he released the familiar and he had to quickly cast invisibility on himself and then run away before the familiar died from Maneira's poison darts.
At the Lighthouse, killing a few wolves and hobgoblins got Freya his final BG1 level. Summoned monsters then did most of the damage against the sirines, with minor spell deflection protecting against charm. Frey then used hasted bullets of fire to kill the golems and, once having read the constitution tome, put on the Claw of Kazgaroth. With improved invisibility and blur that allows him to get spell saves into safe territory.
Frey has just got a lift with Raiken to the Bandit Camp and persuaded Tazok that he could do with some help there ...