Yeah, Devas and Planetars are real beasts that will help quite a lot even in ToB @histamiini!
After getting a first taste of real magic i think that i will try to start with one of the "forbidden" classes - the dreaded Fighter/Mage. Will this be a cakewalk? Surely not. Especially not as i am handicapped at the moment which forces me to play with more or less one hand. Oh, this will be funny. And - not to forget: It will give the challenge a completly new flavour as i never really played Mages before - except for some test runs. Which spells per level will be the most useful ones in the long run? Maybe our Mage-Pro´s like @Grond0, @Blackraven, @Victor_Creed_SFV or @chimaera can give me some advice? Thanks a lot!
P.S. Vynn is parked in Baldurs Gate for the moment after rushing through the main story without troubles!
Hey @Harpagornis! Fighter/Mage is really good. My best effort was earlier this year with a Gnome Fighter/Illusionist as you might remember. He only fell during the Crusader attacks when one confused enemy wandered off and caused his allies to mistakenly think our defenses had broken.
My general advice would be to use mostly blue (defensive) spells, as you can deal plenty of damage with wands and physical attacks:
- Shield to cancel Magic Missiles, - Protection from Evil mainly as an (undocumented) AC buff - Invisibility for emergency escapes and for safe traveling, - Blur and Mirror Image to avoid getting hit, the latter is also good against traps like those in the Naskel Mines, - Minor Spell Deflection is really nice to deal with magical traps such as those in Black Alaric's cave and the one on the altar with the tome of wisdom in Durlag's Tower, it also absorbs single target spells, - Protection from Fire gives full fire protection, you can cast it on a familiar that can kite enemies while you blast away with that wand of fire, - Ghost armor (in the ankheg cave) can give you very good AC once you can cast level 3 spells - Later on Stoneskin is pretty obvious (requires a visit to the Ice Island which sounds scarier than it is as you only have to kill one mage; have summons soak up his spells), - Improved Invisibility is great because it gives you a great saves bonus, and enemies an attack penalty, - enemies use Minor Globe of Invulnerability a lot but I wouldn't use it much in BGEE because it doesn't last long at low level and you'll only have so many level 4 spell slots, it's great against traps though.
Some good red spells include: - Blindness (especially if you go Gnome Fighter/Illusionist like I did), - Spook to buy you some time, thanks to the save penalty - Greater Malison is fantastic, it almost cancels out enemies' LoB saves bonus - I also like Polymorph Other a lot; it's save of else, so not very reliable, but it requires a save vs Polymorph, so it can be good against shorties who get no Constitution bonuses for that, besides it's really nice to turn an monsters with hundreds of HPs into a squishy little squirrel that you can finish in one or two hits. A useful spell against powerful single enemies, as long as you can retreat and rest to try again if it doesn't hit.
In SoD you gain one more spell level, level 5. I remember finding some defensive spells (Spell Immunity, Spell Shield) that are good against enemy casters, but I think that was quite late in the game.
There are good wands to be found in several wilderness areas that you can pick up even quite early on. Make liberal use of them in chapters 2-4 because in the Sorcerous Sundries you can buy lots more. Once you make it there, buy loads, they'll come in handy in SoD as well. I think I used offensive level 5 spells for the most part (Chaos after a Malison is good Crowd Control for example). Oh and there's an Enchanted Weapon spell in one of the ambush areas. You'll want that spell because with it you can enchant your mundane or low echantment weapons or ammo to a +3 enchantment, allowing you to hit Belhifet.
I can't really give you advice for BG2 as I've never made it there on LoB difficulty. I'll let others fill you in on that.
So much info from @Blackraven I didn't even know about that Enchanted weapon in BG1.
Just a little addon, remember that wands don't seem to give a save for half damage, so use wand of fire over necklace of missiles. Also consider not going MC unless you really want a gnome (which is definitely super strong but not necessary in my opinion) since the dual (at 7) has the massive benefit of 4 pips in ws for bg1 and 5 pips in bg2 (you also put 2 other pips at level 1 which should become a 2nd 5 slots in SoA). Ofc this way you lose Fighter Hlas so it's a two edged sword but I think they are less beneficial to a mage because of Imp Haste lasting forever with high mage level.
Once again just something to consider and I definitely wouldn't claim dual is better than mc but it would be my personal preference.
Thanks a lot @Blackraven and @Victor_Creed_SFV. I will rethink my options and hopefully get some time to start the Fighter/Mage in the next days. Dualing also sounds interesting and it remembers me of the good old Berserker/Druid which i played quite a lot. Big fun incoming soon - hopefully!
P.S. Yeah, i remember your Gnome F/M @Blackraven - this damn wave trigger can be a real nightmare .;)
Was doing some testing and couple questions arised. What spell does Belhifet use to dispell at the beginning of fight when it dispells through PfM?
Does trap spells work differently from casting? For example in the room where Heprenaan is there's a chest with Imprisonment trap. Now there's no save nor magic resistance against cast imprisonment I think, but I remember surviving the trap?
I strongly remember that i survived the imprisonment trap several times thanks to magic resistance @histamiini!!! Big B´s Dispel really looks scripted and takes away everything except of PfM.
Totally unrelated, has any of you ever tried the level 9 wizard spell shapechange into Mind Flayer on LoB. I randomly got the idea of trying it today because of the massive LoB HP increase. The Thac0 in that form is really bad, but if you use Spell Trigger and put in level 2 spell Strength + Imp haste and Tensers you get negative Thac0 (-3 or smth) 10 apr and almost 400 hp. The form also has 50% phys resistances and 75% missile resistance, also 90% MR...
And the expected LoB HP bypass works perfectly well you 2 hit most enemies and if you have gore turned off in the settings you get all item drops normally.
The 50% damage resistance is only there if you have the Tactics mod installed or the right SCS component. But it does work marvelously with Hardiness.
You most definitely should NOT get 400 HP, because shapeshifting does not grant the HP of the .cre file in question. Shapeshifting only grants the original critter's APR, AC, ability scores, resistances (except magic damage resistance and poison resistance), and sprite, unless the critter's attack weapon grants some additional bonuses (like the Greater Wolfwere attack also granting regeneration). The only reason the squirrel form from Polymorph Other grants 5 maximum HP and Slayer form grants 100 maximum HP is because there's a separate opcode that applies that effect. You can still use Potions of Heroism/Power to bump your HP into the hundreds.
You should only have 10 APR if you have 13 fighter levels or +1 APR from some other source. A single-classed mage or sorcerer will have 8 APR under Improved Haste in mind flayer form, because mind flayers have 4 base APR, not 5.
Well as I said 400 hp are from Tensers. As i said it was fighter (7) dualed into mage thats where 1 APR is from (offhand weapon also workd btw)
The 7 fighter levels should give you +0.5 APR, which amounts to +1 with IH, so the mind flayer form should have 9 APR instead of10 (though dual-wielding will definitely put you at 10). Not that it matters if the opponent is vulnerable to INT drain and Tenser's Transformation is giving you adequate THAC0.
But to get 400 HP from Tenser's Transformation, you would need 200 base HP. A fighter dual-classed to mage at level 7 should have 131 HP by mage level 18, assuming you have 19 CON from the BG1 CON tome. The Helm of Balduran will bump that up to 136, but I don't see how you could get the remaining 64 HP without using multiple Potions of Power/Heroism. Without those potions, Tenser's Transformation should have granted less than 300 HP.
The only SoD item i would really care is Martyrs Morningstar. With Critical Strike you will kill anything that doesnt get a helm like there is no tomorrow. Maybe @semiticgod will tell us where we can find the weapon in BG2.
Julius is right; I'm afraid it's only possible in EET. For those of you who are willing to install EET, just drop off the morningstar in a chest at Dragonspear Castle after defeating Belhifet. Then, once you're out of Chateau Irenicus, you can trek back to the castle, slip inside, and nab the morningstar from the chest. All SoD and BG1 items can be transferred that way if you have an EET install.
I have EET and have been hoping to use the Martyr's Morningstar on LoB Melissan someday.
Imprisonment bypasses MR. Maze does not, unless we're talking about Psionic Maze (which offers a save vs. spell at -4 to avoid). Both of them are fatal in a solo run.
Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Spell Trap, and a Protection from Magic scroll can block both Maze and Imprisonment. Minor Spell Turning and Minor Spell Deflection will not block either (MST only bounces up to level 4 spells; MSD blocks up to level 7). Magic resistance can block Maze but not Imprisonment. SI: Conjuration will block Maze, while SI: Abjuration will block Imprisonment. Chaotic Commands will block both (Psionic) Maze and Psionic Maze but not Imprisonment. Berserker rage will block Imprisonment and (Psionic) Maze but a Barbarian's rage will only block (Psionic) Maze.
Theoretically, a Potion of Magic Block could rescue you from a Maze spell if you catch it in time, since the effect is flagged as dispellable, but I would not gamble on it. Otherwise, once the spell hits, it's over.
Does SCS change TorGal's stats and is there a way to find how? According NearInfinity he has 30 MR and save vs spell 7. I doomed him to 9, taking LoB into account 4. But I can't hold him when I should've 10% chance. It goes sometimes saved vs spell and sometimes magic resistance, magic resistance is first right?
Trolls are immune to hold and all disablers except for slow, confusion, and maze (I'm not sure about Feeblemind). So even Hold Monster wouldn't work on him; it's not just Hold Person.
I don't know about SCS by itself, but if you install the Tactics version of the De'Arnise Hold, TorGal will deal STR drain and inflict slow on hit, and the slow effect (and maybe the STR drain) can be avoided using a save vs. death.
Note that STR drain from any source other than an Archer's Called Shot will last for many, many rounds. DUHM and other STR buffs will not keep you alive unless you can cast like 10 of them in a single day (even Potions of Giant Strength may not last enough depending on the situation). So make sure that you never receive STR drain greater than or equal to your unmodified, constant-effect STR score, or else you'll instantly die when your STR buffs wear off, dropping your STR below 1.
@Harpagornis Imprisonment ignores magic resistance. Are you sure that wasn't a maze trap? When playing solo, maze is a game over, but the spell itself is stopped by mr.
Spell immunity: abjuration on the other hand stops imprisonment, same as spell trap.
Thanks for the detailed informations @semiticgod - always very helpful. Hope i can use them to my advantag in the future!
In the meanwhile i have started Kjaskar the Human Berserker who dualed to Mage at level 7. So far i have been doing the usual route of getting essential items, use the basilisk-XP-loop and push reputation to 20. Thanks to Invisibilty and whopping 126 HP Kjaskar wont go down that easy. Blind have been helpful against some enemies like Greywolf, while for instance Meilum where charmed and feeded to enemies around. Tanking with a 2-handed Sword works okay even though Kjaskar still lacks Stone Skin. Mirror Image alone sometimes feels a bit tricky.
Once the routine jobs were done it was time for the main quest: 1. Mulahey: Charmed and feeded to his kobolds 2. Tranzig: As long as Minor Spell Deflection was up he did not cast or attack - easy prey 3. Bandit Camp: Sneaked in and out unseen, feeded Taurgosz to the bandits 4. Grabbed Boots of Speed from Drasus after the first charm landed 5. Got really lucky and charmed Davaeorn as well who got killed by his own Battle Horrors
With the very nice Spiders Bane 2-handed Sword Kjaskar is no on the way to the city of Baldurs Gate. So far things worked pretty smoothly and the Wand of Monster Summoning - even though not used so far - should get very handy soon. Lets hope the best!
P.S. Your are right @chimaera - the Hephernaan chest "only" got a Maze Trap!
@semiticgod Thanks, very good info there. While you're at it can you tell me why Tolgerias suddenly becomes immune to normal weapons when he puts contingency and Protection From Magical Weapons up at the beginning? I'm almost able to jump on and kill him with Carsomyr + Simulacrum + GWW, but after he puts his his first buffs up even normal weapons can't finish him.
@histamiini: I've noticed that in some installs and I have no explanation, nor have I found any workaround. My only solution for a solo paladin is to either wait out Tolgerias' buffs (leaving the area is a great way to avoid wrestling with his Fallen Planetar in SCS) or try Carsomyr's area-effect, three-times-per-day Dispel Magic spell, which has a decent chance of taking down Tolgerias' buffs assuming he doesn't have SI: Abjuration as a pre-buff (which he probably does).
@histamiini: Tolgerias? This little sucker! My easiest workaround so far: Charm him and feed him to the rest!
P.S. Kjaskar finished the Iceland Island without problems as he sneaked right to Dezkiel. Monster Summons plus Paralyzation was to much for the Mage and he dropped like a sack or potatoes. With the newly aquired Stone Skin spell things look much brighter now!
@semiticgod Yeah that's how I dealed with him eventually. I tried area dispel but I didn't get it to work, it only dispelled me as he has also Spell Turning.
@Harpagornis Sir Vanderley always tries the route of least thinking first. I got so close at jumping him, Storm Power, Duhm, Simulacrum, Aid, Bless and Gww. Got once 360 out of his 368 hp before he put his PfMW up, if I had the Belt of Skillful Blade he would've been toast. I can get 10 strikes in constantly, sometimes 11.
Been rolling onwards. Kited Firkraag with Oil Of Speed and Boots Of Speed, waited his haste to end, Deva, AoF, Hardiness, Mirror Image and 3x Improved Haste was enough on his unhasted form. Got another end game gear Carsomyr. With it also hit 65 MR already.
Vampire sanctum offered really no resistance, except Bodhi who was much improved since our last meeting. Well nothing that all the bells and whistles already in the arsenal couldn't fix. What was that rope animation she was using? Hit lv21, max Thac0 and first GWW.
Went to Planar Sphere. Got Lavok by hiding behind the door, waiting his 3x PfMW to end and meleed him on the ground through Improved Mantle with Carsomyr. Almost got a jump on Tolgerias with Simulacrum + GWW. Closest I got was 360/368 of his hp. But had again to hide invisible behind the door, waited his summons to end and then put Carsomyr through his gut. Oh yeah there was some other insect also in the room. Smack.
One problem arised when I returned to Adventurer Mart. Some of my stuff was gone. I always use this place to store all the quest items on the floor. This time I've using it general storage because no Bag Of Holding. But all the weapons and such were gone? Damn it.
Good stuff @histamiini - seems it wont take too long and Sir Vanderley will be unstoppable!
So far the same applies to Kjaskar. The always powerful wands (summons!) are doing their job really good with Kjaskar joining the party who´s hacking everything into pieces. Slythe and Cythandria are waiting for some punching.
P.S. You put the items on the floor not in a container? Ouch!!!
Managed to set up one of the dumbest deaths ever - lol. When fighting Cythandria everything went easy. Lured the Golems downstairs and called a pack of summons to take on the Mage while parking Kjaskar near the stairs - outside of her vision. As my tea was ready i left the PC - without pausing the game. When i came back only half a minute later the death screen waved "welcome!". What happened? It looks like Cythandria was running away from the summons and tried to burn them down with a Lightning Bolt. The lightning directly went through Kjaskar got reflected from the wall and hit him again. With no protection buffs on him (damn it) and also failing his saves he was instantly burned to the ground. Holy cow - that was absolutely careless play AND bad luck alltogether.
@Harpagornis Damn you're suffering. But I'm starting to see the charm of no-reload. I've reached such levels that the game is starting to feel unchallenging grinding first time in the playthrough, even soloing LoB SCS. Sir Vanderley just blows through everything now, and he's just waiting to someone to challenge him. If I complete this, and if I continue this challenge ever again, I'm probably going to no-reload also.
Exactly @histamiini. Once you know how to deal with LoB+SCS the difficulty curve drops significantly. Mid-Late SoA is the most boring part of this challenge and the only thing to keep going is that the ToB fights will be a little bit more interesting again even though with unlimited reloads nearly every class should be able to reach Amelyssan - and maybe beat her. Therefore i really like @Grond0´s approach of not only playing no-reload only but also limit the use of healing or buffing. However: As you can see even the no-reload gods around are suffering hard so far.
My personal suffering has several reasons: The long-time pause from BG, overconfidence and - last but not least - my strength draining disease which makes it hard for me to keep concentration at a high level. Once i got the "perfect" routine and my health back there should be more progress than just dying in BG1 over and over again. Hopefully!
Not to forget: As i start to like Mages i created Valaarion, the Half-Elf Fighter/Mage who perfectly combines raw physical power with sparkling magic. Lets hope his journey will last a little longer:
Vampire sanctum offered really no resistance, except Bodhi who was much improved since our last meeting. Well nothing that all the bells and whistles already in the arsenal couldn't fix. What was that rope animation she was using? ... One problem arised when I returned to Adventurer Mart. Some of my stuff was gone. I always use this place to store all the quest items on the floor. This time I've using it general storage because no Bag Of Holding. But all the weapons and such were gone? Damn it.
That rope animation is probably her sleep spell. It's a 9-round Greater Command spell duplicate that offers a save vs. spell at -10 to resist, but since you wake up immediately after being hit (at least in my install, based on the spell file in Near Infinity), it's not very dangerous.
Where exactly were you storing your items in the Adventurer Mart? I think there are some chests that aren't safe, but quest items never vanish, which may have given the impression that the chest was safe in previous runs.
Are there respawning containers? Those won't be safe, but if any there shouldn't be too many of those, best way to determine a safe container should be if it's empty in the first place.
After seeing @histamiini doing work in tanking Big B I lost motivation to continue my level 5 Fighter who was to be dualed into Mage at 7 and had 4 pips in longbow.
Debating to start another fighter I decided slightly differently and created Vicci Ironflail a half elven F/M/C starting with 2 pips in Flail/Morningstar and Sling.
I played a F/M/C all the way thru BG1 when I started this challenge, so I decided to make it a no reload run in BG1 only. If I make it to SoD I will stop the no reload there, because I don't have enough experience with SoD, but I feel like training no reload in BG1 will be more fun for me and it will be good training for a complete no reload run according to our challenge all the way thru to ToB.
Doing Tenya's quest I realized what a thrill no reload is when you are still very lowlevel.
My strategy against her is to open the door of the house and run inside when she casts Command and interrupt her with Imoens wand when she casts Animate Dead. After successfully dodging the first command I got ready to interrupt her with the wand, because most times she will call skelli after you interrupted her command by going inside the house. All of a sudden Vicci starts casting Blind, the AI script was still active! I kind of panicked here since Blind doesn't interrupt skeleton summon and instead of listening to Tenyas spell which was another command decided against running into the house which will not interrupt skeleton either. When I realized she cast another command it was to late to run and I got hit. Thankfully she didn't attack but waited till her aura was clear and tried to cast skelli now but I just got up in time to interrupt with wand.
She also casts hold person but you can just either run out of sight or in the house since the casting time is kinda long.
Comments
After getting a first taste of real magic i think that i will try to start with one of the "forbidden" classes - the dreaded Fighter/Mage. Will this be a cakewalk? Surely not. Especially not as i am handicapped at the moment which forces me to play with more or less one hand. Oh, this will be funny. And - not to forget: It will give the challenge a completly new flavour as i never really played Mages before - except for some test runs. Which spells per level will be the most useful ones in the long run? Maybe our Mage-Pro´s like @Grond0, @Blackraven, @Victor_Creed_SFV or @chimaera can give me some advice? Thanks a lot!
P.S. Vynn is parked in Baldurs Gate for the moment after rushing through the main story without troubles!
My general advice would be to use mostly blue (defensive) spells, as you can deal plenty of damage with wands and physical attacks:
- Shield to cancel Magic Missiles,
- Protection from Evil mainly as an (undocumented) AC buff
- Invisibility for emergency escapes and for safe traveling,
- Blur and Mirror Image to avoid getting hit, the latter is also good against traps like those in the Naskel Mines,
- Minor Spell Deflection is really nice to deal with magical traps such as those in Black Alaric's cave and the one on the altar with the tome of wisdom in Durlag's Tower, it also absorbs single target spells,
- Protection from Fire gives full fire protection, you can cast it on a familiar that can kite enemies while you blast away with that wand of fire,
- Ghost armor (in the ankheg cave) can give you very good AC once you can cast level 3 spells
- Later on Stoneskin is pretty obvious (requires a visit to the Ice Island which sounds scarier than it is as you only have to kill one mage; have summons soak up his spells),
- Improved Invisibility is great because it gives you a great saves bonus, and enemies an attack penalty,
- enemies use Minor Globe of Invulnerability a lot but I wouldn't use it much in BGEE because it doesn't last long at low level and you'll only have so many level 4 spell slots, it's great against traps though.
Some good red spells include:
- Blindness (especially if you go Gnome Fighter/Illusionist like I did),
- Spook to buy you some time, thanks to the save penalty
- Greater Malison is fantastic, it almost cancels out enemies' LoB saves bonus
- I also like Polymorph Other a lot; it's save of else, so not very reliable, but it requires a save vs Polymorph, so it can be good against shorties who get no Constitution bonuses for that, besides it's really nice to turn an monsters with hundreds of HPs into a squishy little squirrel that you can finish in one or two hits. A useful spell against powerful single enemies, as long as you can retreat and rest to try again if it doesn't hit.
In SoD you gain one more spell level, level 5. I remember finding some defensive spells (Spell Immunity, Spell Shield) that are good against enemy casters, but I think that was quite late in the game.
There are good wands to be found in several wilderness areas that you can pick up even quite early on. Make liberal use of them in chapters 2-4 because in the Sorcerous Sundries you can buy lots more. Once you make it there, buy loads, they'll come in handy in SoD as well. I think I used offensive level 5 spells for the most part (Chaos after a Malison is good Crowd Control for example).
Oh and there's an Enchanted Weapon spell in one of the ambush areas. You'll want that spell because with it you can enchant your mundane or low echantment weapons or ammo to a +3 enchantment, allowing you to hit Belhifet.
I can't really give you advice for BG2 as I've never made it there on LoB difficulty. I'll let others fill you in on that.
Edit: I hope you'll recover from your injury.
Just a little addon, remember that wands don't seem to give a save for half damage, so use wand of fire over necklace of missiles.
Also consider not going MC unless you really want a gnome (which is definitely super strong but not necessary in my opinion) since the dual (at 7) has the massive benefit of 4 pips in ws for bg1 and 5 pips in bg2 (you also put 2 other pips at level 1 which should become a 2nd 5 slots in SoA).
Ofc this way you lose Fighter Hlas so it's a two edged sword but I think they are less beneficial to a mage because of Imp Haste lasting forever with high mage level.
Once again just something to consider and I definitely wouldn't claim dual is better than mc but it would be my personal preference.
P.S. Yeah, i remember your Gnome F/M @Blackraven - this damn wave trigger can be a real nightmare .;)
Does trap spells work differently from casting? For example in the room where Heprenaan is there's a chest with Imprisonment trap. Now there's no save nor magic resistance against cast imprisonment I think, but I remember surviving the trap?
Magic Resistance should work vs Imprisonment, PfM scroll definitely does.
There is no Saving Throw and the target's Magic Resistance is ignored.
But to get 400 HP from Tenser's Transformation, you would need 200 base HP. A fighter dual-classed to mage at level 7 should have 131 HP by mage level 18, assuming you have 19 CON from the BG1 CON tome. The Helm of Balduran will bump that up to 136, but I don't see how you could get the remaining 64 HP without using multiple Potions of Power/Heroism. Without those potions, Tenser's Transformation should have granted less than 300 HP.
I have EET and have been hoping to use the Martyr's Morningstar on LoB Melissan someday.
Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, Spell Trap, and a Protection from Magic scroll can block both Maze and Imprisonment. Minor Spell Turning and Minor Spell Deflection will not block either (MST only bounces up to level 4 spells; MSD blocks up to level 7). Magic resistance can block Maze but not Imprisonment. SI: Conjuration will block Maze, while SI: Abjuration will block Imprisonment. Chaotic Commands will block both (Psionic) Maze and Psionic Maze but not Imprisonment. Berserker rage will block Imprisonment and (Psionic) Maze but a Barbarian's rage will only block (Psionic) Maze.
Theoretically, a Potion of Magic Block could rescue you from a Maze spell if you catch it in time, since the effect is flagged as dispellable, but I would not gamble on it. Otherwise, once the spell hits, it's over. Trolls are immune to hold and all disablers except for slow, confusion, and maze (I'm not sure about Feeblemind). So even Hold Monster wouldn't work on him; it's not just Hold Person.
I don't know about SCS by itself, but if you install the Tactics version of the De'Arnise Hold, TorGal will deal STR drain and inflict slow on hit, and the slow effect (and maybe the STR drain) can be avoided using a save vs. death.
Note that STR drain from any source other than an Archer's Called Shot will last for many, many rounds. DUHM and other STR buffs will not keep you alive unless you can cast like 10 of them in a single day (even Potions of Giant Strength may not last enough depending on the situation). So make sure that you never receive STR drain greater than or equal to your unmodified, constant-effect STR score, or else you'll instantly die when your STR buffs wear off, dropping your STR below 1.
In the meanwhile i have started Kjaskar the Human Berserker who dualed to Mage at level 7. So far i have been doing the usual route of getting essential items, use the basilisk-XP-loop and push reputation to 20. Thanks to Invisibilty and whopping 126 HP Kjaskar wont go down that easy. Blind have been helpful against some enemies like Greywolf, while for instance Meilum where charmed and feeded to enemies around. Tanking with a 2-handed Sword works okay even though Kjaskar still lacks Stone Skin. Mirror Image alone sometimes feels a bit tricky.
Once the routine jobs were done it was time for the main quest:
1. Mulahey: Charmed and feeded to his kobolds
2. Tranzig: As long as Minor Spell Deflection was up he did not cast or attack - easy prey
3. Bandit Camp: Sneaked in and out unseen, feeded Taurgosz to the bandits
4. Grabbed Boots of Speed from Drasus after the first charm landed
5. Got really lucky and charmed Davaeorn as well who got killed by his own Battle Horrors
With the very nice Spiders Bane 2-handed Sword Kjaskar is no on the way to the city of Baldurs Gate. So far things worked pretty smoothly and the Wand of Monster Summoning - even though not used so far - should get very handy soon. Lets hope the best!
P.S. Your are right @chimaera - the Hephernaan chest "only" got a Maze Trap!
P.S. Kjaskar finished the Iceland Island without problems as he sneaked right to Dezkiel. Monster Summons plus Paralyzation was to much for the Mage and he dropped like a sack or potatoes. With the newly aquired Stone Skin spell things look much brighter now!
@Harpagornis Sir Vanderley always tries the route of least thinking first.
Vampire sanctum offered really no resistance, except Bodhi who was much improved since our last meeting. Well nothing that all the bells and whistles already in the arsenal couldn't fix. What was that rope animation she was using? Hit lv21, max Thac0 and first GWW.
Went to Planar Sphere. Got Lavok by hiding behind the door, waiting his 3x PfMW to end and meleed him on the ground through Improved Mantle with Carsomyr. Almost got a jump on Tolgerias with Simulacrum + GWW. Closest I got was 360/368 of his hp. But had again to hide invisible behind the door, waited his summons to end and then put Carsomyr through his gut. Oh yeah there was some other insect also in the room. Smack.
One problem arised when I returned to Adventurer Mart. Some of my stuff was gone. I always use this place to store all the quest items on the floor. This time I've using it general storage because no Bag Of Holding. But all the weapons and such were gone? Damn it.
So far the same applies to Kjaskar. The always powerful wands (summons!) are doing their job really good with Kjaskar joining the party who´s hacking everything into pieces. Slythe and Cythandria are waiting for some punching.
P.S. You put the items on the floor not in a container? Ouch!!!
Time to roll a new candidate!
My personal suffering has several reasons: The long-time pause from BG, overconfidence and - last but not least - my strength draining disease which makes it hard for me to keep concentration at a high level. Once i got the "perfect" routine and my health back there should be more progress than just dying in BG1 over and over again. Hopefully!
Not to forget: As i start to like Mages i created Valaarion, the Half-Elf Fighter/Mage who perfectly combines raw physical power with sparkling magic. Lets hope his journey will last a little longer:
Where exactly were you storing your items in the Adventurer Mart? I think there are some chests that aren't safe, but quest items never vanish, which may have given the impression that the chest was safe in previous runs.
Those won't be safe, but if any there shouldn't be too many of those, best way to determine a safe container should be if it's empty in the first place.
Debating to start another fighter I decided slightly differently and created Vicci Ironflail a half elven F/M/C starting with 2 pips in Flail/Morningstar and Sling.
I played a F/M/C all the way thru BG1 when I started this challenge, so I decided to make it a no reload run in BG1 only.
If I make it to SoD I will stop the no reload there, because I don't have enough experience with SoD, but I feel like training no reload in BG1 will be more fun for me and it will be good training for a complete no reload run according to our challenge all the way thru to ToB.
My strategy against her is to open the door of the house and run inside when she casts Command and interrupt her with Imoens wand when she casts Animate Dead.
After successfully dodging the first command I got ready to interrupt her with the wand, because most times she will call skelli after you interrupted her command by going inside the house.
All of a sudden Vicci starts casting Blind, the AI script was still active!
I kind of panicked here since Blind doesn't interrupt skeleton summon and instead of listening to Tenyas spell which was another command decided against running into the house which will not interrupt skeleton either.
When I realized she cast another command it was to late to run and I got hit.
Thankfully she didn't attack but waited till her aura was clear and tried to cast skelli now but I just got up in time to interrupt with wand.
She also casts hold person but you can just either run out of sight or in the house since the casting time is kinda long.