Final Seal Level. Test of Stamina, killed the Ogre Mages who summoned couple times and kited the rest of the Ogres long enough to pass the test. With Deva tanked the dragon in the Test of Bravery. Got the key for the Heart seal.
Y'Tossi was wearing my Gauntlets so I tried to brute force him, but he had PfMW and normal weapons didn't do anything so had to change tactics. I dispersed the mob, and lured them one by one to the rooms and shut the door. First killed Nalmissra then Ameralis. Xei Win Toh tried to match my Gww but but I outlasted him with my Hardiness and AoF. Then trapped Y'Tossi in the room, waited his 4 PfMW's to end and just meleed him down. Got the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, which are especially good for Cavalier, or any other who has x.5 apr, as they give actually 1 apr more with Potion of Speed. I spared the last two for now.
So I was going through my Bag of Holding and saw this thing called Staff of Command. It's casts Domination with no save and has 21 charges. Isn't that like the most powerful item in the game, or am I missing something here? Can you recharge it with a merchant?
You can recharge it, yes - it has 25 charges when full. It's a powerful artifact, but there are quite a few enemies that are totally immune to charm and others with spell defenses that would protect them - so it's not going to win you the game by itself.
@histamiini: Yes, it can be recharged. Bear in mind, though, that many enemies are immune to charm, and magic resistance can still block it. Same goes for spell protections; the charm effect strikes as a level 5 spell. Elf and half-elf charm resistances also apply. A Control Circlet from the same dungeon, however, bypasses all of those defenses; only innate immunity to charm can block it. Kangaxx, notably, can be charmed using a Control Circlet. You can get 4 Control Circlets in total if you use the Slayer form to unlock the locked doors in the mind flayer city, or if you simply lure a hostile mind flayer next to the door in question.
@Harpagornis: I actually think Cleric of Tyr->Mage is the stronger dual overall, because then you can use the Wand of Lightning trick to stack Divine Favor even further and apply the bonuses to some cheap Minute Meteors when you don't want to use the more expensive Energy Blades. If we're talking about a solo context with a late dual-class in SoA, then Divine Favor caps out at level 18 with +6 to hit and damage, which means a Wand of Lightning-boost Divine Favor at that level would grant +36 to hit and damage for 2 rounds. Whether you use Energy Blades or Minute Meteors, the total damage is about 440 per round, though a Cleric of Tyr/Mage would only be able to maintain that bonus for 6 rounds per day if it dual-classed at level 21 or higher. A Cleric of Tyr/Thief could do the same with Use Any Item, but would have limited access to other important mage options.
Or you could just use the WoL trick for the THAC0 bonuses. A level 18 WoL-boosted Divine Favor spell would put your THAC0 well below -20, granting a 95% hit chance regardless of enemy AC. Implosion can also guarantee a hit, since it paralyzes for 6 seconds with no saving throw (though various critters are immune to opcode 109).
Dualing to mage would also let you put Harm in a Spell Trigger as well as granting access to mage buffs, which means you could avoid the very high chance of getting disrupted while casting a slow spell like Harm.
So many options, so many decisions. However: Thanks @semiticgod for the detailed informations!
I wont consider the WoL trick as it has the taste of borderline cheating. The bottleneck for any Priest of Tyr Dual Combo would be SoD and especially Avernus. The rest - if you dont walk into traps like an idiot - should be no "big deal".
P.S. Would the Control Circlets work in the final fight against the Big Five or are they all immune to charm? Never tested it!
We'll see @Harpagornis I have two of those Circlets left so they might become handy. Tested SoC on Saladrex as I forgot fight it for Staff of Ram, but dragons are immune to charm apparently. Anyway kited his haste, when it ended put on DoEH, Hardiness, AoF and tanked him down. Got the help of Shadow Thieves and Order of the Radiant Heart against Bodhi. Funny thing happened in the OotRH hall, if you remember when I escaped those Mindflayers in sewers? One of them spawned inside the hall and I had to dispose it because nobody else didn't care about it. They're still trying to get their revenge.
Priest/Mage is disturbingly op in BG2 and definitely much better than dualing into fighter, but as @Harpagornis said, for a priest SoD is definitely the bottleneck, any combo even true class masters anything after it with ease.
Is there an AC cap? I've been doing some end game calculations and I can have -29 AC (-14 Slashing, -13 Piercing/Missiles) with:
-10Base Big Metal Unit (-14 Slashing, -13 Piercing Missile) -4 Dex Base -2 2x Dex Potions -5 Shield Of The Order -2 Ring of Gaxx -1 Helmet of Balduran -1 DoEH -3 Warder's Signet -1 Cloak of the Sewers
Also is there a reason not to use the Big Metal Unit, as it doesn't affect items, divine casting nor hla's?
@histamiini the AC cap is at -20. However, dexterity and single weapon adjustments are on top of that, so you can get to a maximum displayed AC of -28. Adjustments against specific damage types and spell adjustments can further improve the effective AC (see this thread for some details).
The Big Metal Unit is pretty nice, but it's big! If you're dodging lots of demons etc around the Throne of Bhaal then you may not want to have such a large icon.
@Grond0 Thanks, in other words item based AC cap is -20, and modifiers etc. are on top of that. Which means for example, that I can get -40 against slashing using Big Metal Unit and 25 Dex. If I'm also using helmet that protects from critical hits, is there anything in the game that can actually hurt me with slashing?
I'm looking Amelyssan with NearInfinity and it says her Thac0 is -7, is this a base or effective Thac0? If it's a base with 19 strenght and LoB that would make her effective Thac0 -15, which then would mean that she can't touch me.
How are you going to get -40 AC against slashing @histamiini?
-26 AC with max Dex Bonus: Okay! -28 AC with Single Weapon Spec: Right!
With regard to slashing damage Su´kka my Barbarian got: -4 AC from BMU & -3 AC from Girdle. What else?
As i did not put points into single weapon spec she had -33 AC against slashing when fighting Amelyssan. As her THAC0 is -20 she needed to roll 13+ to land a hit. NearInfinity is wrong @histamiini!
@Harpagornis Damn you of crushing Sir Vanderley's dreams. My Big Metal Unit description says -14 vs slashing but ofcourse it's wrong. Is it my install or is there a lot of items with wrong descriptions? I've seen at least 5 already.
Also how can I find Amelyssan's true stats for example? I take it that Ascension changes those?
I cant open BG2 atm but maybe someone else can give you the stats @histamiini. Dont worry. I am sure Sir Vanderley will find a way through to upcoming horrors. He seems much better prepared than my blindly stumbling Barbarian!
I am infested with the infamous Clerictitis. LOL. After crushing through the rest of BG1 with Xaghul the Dwarfen Fighter/Cleric we parked him at the start of SoA. But dont worry: Another Cleric ia already on the run! The even more infamous Cleric/Thief joins the party in form of Brakko the ferocious Half-Orc. No trap-death this time!!
The start was very smooth:
Kite Shoal down -> Grab Drizzts equip -> Buy Scrolls of "Stone to Flesh" & PfP -> Get Algernons Cloak -> Use Sanctuary to charm Lesser Basilisk (4 tries this time) -> perform the Basilisk-XP-Loop -> gather Ring of Free Action from Dushai (25 tries only) -> used gold to get reputation back to 12 (yeah, i am lazy) -> did the usual reputation quests
As Sanctuary is a really great sneaking tool Brakko decided to push "Find Traps" & "Open Locks" first with "Set Trap" following. Only a handful of uneventful ambushes so far. Even 10 Bandit Archers were unable to get in a single hit (thanks Girdle of Piercing!). Time to visit Mulahey and get his fine ring.
Lmao that was easy, I simply walked to Bodhi's sanctum Turning Undead and stepping on rats. Everybody exploded and I think every named vampire got turned, except Bodhi. Bodhi instakilled me everytime I got near her though, how did she do that and is there a way to protect yourself? I simply let Deva and my Twin take her down.
Hhmmmm...i always engaged her with PfU only so no instakilling. Her brother should be no big deal - no?
Brakko moved on. Meilum got skeletarized, as well as Bassilus. With Gloves and Hammer +2 things are looking much nicer now. He skipped the headhunter ambushes by just running to the map edge and traveled to Beregost. Tranzig had no chance against the Skels so the Bandit Camp was not far away anymore. Brakko used PfL and Sanctuary to get in and out unseen as well as unharmed - its really too cool that Sanctuary does not break when looting stuff. Taurgosz was charmed on the eighth try and feeded to the Bandits. With some nice stuff and a band new Full Plate Armor the Cloakwood will be his next target. Amulets and Rings are charged for battle.
Sir Vanderley absolutely blew through Suldanesselar. Tanked Adamantine Golems with Hardiness, AoF and DoEH. Waited Raamilat's 4x PfMW and Absolute Immunity to end and meleed him down. Tanked Nizidramanii'yts with Deva, Simul, Hardiness, AoF, DoEH and Gww. Freed the temple from the evil by taking a soul, outside heal, inside taking a soul and so on. The last Balor was quickly mincemeat with 100 FR and Gww.
Lmao that was easy, I simply walked to Bodhi's sanctum Turning Undead and stepping on rats. Everybody exploded and I think every named vampire got turned, except Bodhi. Bodhi instakilled me everytime I got near her though, how did she do that and is there a way to protect yourself? I simply let Deva and my Twin take her down.
Tactics Bodhi lowers your Con the same way flayers lower IN. In my SCS install all named vamps do the same but to much lower effect than Bodhi, so you only notice if you check stats during a fight.
@Victor_Creed_SFV Yeah that must be it, I noticed the Con drain put didn't assosiate them to the death.
First, or is it second battle with Irenicus was something from kids play. Played hide&seek with him, waiting his summons, 4xPfMW, Absolute Immunity to end, at one point all of his demons were battling themselves and Nabassu was attacking Irenicus. With last chance saloon Irenicus tried wishing Djinni some help, poor soul, but I put him down with single Gww.
If you're immune to level drain, SCS vampires will switch to a different weapon that drains 3 CON per hit (for Bodhi, it drains 5 CON) and also heals them. The only way to block it is with PFMW, Improved Mantle, or Absolute Immunity.
Vampires use crushing attacks, so if you don't have mage spells or can't use scrolls, you can drink a Potion of Absorption to grant +10 AC vs. crushing damage, ignoring the AC cap. Two potions should be enough to force even Bodhi to roll 20's to hit you (one potion should be sufficient for other vampires, provided your typical AC is already very strong). However, she has 5 attacks per round and will therefore land a critical hit every 4 rounds on average, draining 1.25 CON per round on average, which means a character with 18 CON can expect to survive for only 14 rounds on average. But since the odds of each hit are very low, random chance plays a huge role here; it's entirely possible to get killed in anywhere from 4 rounds to 40 rounds.
Remember the Martyr's Morningstar and its critical hit ability that bypasses weapon immunities? There's also an SoD longsword that dispels magic on critical hits. Like the morningstar, the sword can only be moved to BG2 if you have an EET install, but it should also work well in combination with Critical Strike. It's kind of redundant, though, since the morningstar is much stronger in virtually all cases and anyone who can use the sword can also use the morningstar. The sword's only advantage is that it grants +2 to saves vs. spell (+4 for Wizard Slayers and I think Inquisitors) and the morningstar penalizes maximum HP by 10.
@semiticgod That's good to know, I didn't use PoA so she drained me quickly.
Literally walked through the planes of hell, and patted Sarevok on his head for being such a bad brother. 3rd battle with Irenicus, 3rd time the charm? Tried and died couple times tanking the mob. Change of plans, summoned Deva, went invisible, off the visibility and let Deva keep company for everyone a short while. Lured one by one the two Balors and three Glabrezus onto me and put them down. Tested Irenicus defenses, and everytime he still got one I went invisible again and waited. Waited him to waste everything he got. And when he started using Magic Missiles I striked with furious anger, AoF, Hardiness, DoEH and couple Gww's, and Jon Irenicus fell once again. Hope he stays down this time. Not too hard battle tbh, I could try tanking him down but that's not probably going to work. Maybe I return some day.
And so ends SoA for Sir Vanderley, though powerful pastures wait him in the Throne of Bhaal. Maybe next week.
So I read that Restored Bhaalspawn Powers of Ascension mod gives permanent 25DR if you take the right choice? With this, AoF, DoEH, HoD and Hardiness I would've 113 DR. Am I correct of assuming that getting hit will then actually heal me? I'm dreaming again I know...
So I read that Restored Bhaalspawn Powers of Ascension mod gives permanent 25DR if you take the right choice? With this, AoF, DoEH, HoD and Hardiness I would've 113 DR. Am I correct of assuming that getting hit will then actually heal me? I'm dreaming again I know...
Physical defenses stop at 100% pposed to magical capping at 127.
You get the evil Ascension powers if you're rude to the Solar in your dialogue options. You don't need to have low reputation or an evil alignment to get them.
The evil powers tend to be more useful and they tend to be focused more on strengthening the main character; the good powers are more about supporting the party. A solo character should probably always be rude to the Solar.
Brakko is storming through all obstacles like an avalanche...
Drasus and friends? Charmed and feeded... Davaeorn and guards? Burned into the ground and feeded to the Skels... Ironthrone? Sneaked and skipped... Candlekeep? Sanctuary and Trap disarming... Slythe? Skels... Cythandria? Skels again... Palace Ambush? Traps, Sling, Wand of Heaven and - well - more Skels...
With nearly all equipment gathered its only Durlags Goblet and Sarevok himself left. At the moment it feels like my old routine is coming back. Or maybe its just the most fitting Thief class that makes everything feeling really easy. But stop. No overconfidence - not again. Instead: Focus - destroy!
If Brakko keeps going like this he will catch Sir Vanderley in no time. Beware @histamiini!
Mass Healing/Regeneration (18hpr round/2 levels) Draw Upon Holy Might/Dark Taint (save vs death) Permanent Negative Plane Protection + 5MR/Hand Of Murder (12 dmg/heal per round, 6 rounds) Resurrection/Permanent 25DR
I think in Solo LoB the only "good" evil choice is the 25DR. Regeneration is only like one RoR hit, where as Mass Healing can heal 6 summons, Dark Taint is mostly going to be saved and Hand Of Murder isn't going to do much either. That 5MR can almost close the 100MR cap for Cavalier.
Comments
Y'Tossi was wearing my Gauntlets so I tried to brute force him, but he had PfMW and normal weapons didn't do anything so had to change tactics. I dispersed the mob, and lured them one by one to the rooms and shut the door. First killed Nalmissra then Ameralis. Xei Win Toh tried to match my Gww but but I outlasted him with my Hardiness and AoF. Then trapped Y'Tossi in the room, waited his 4 PfMW's to end and just meleed him down. Got the Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization, which are especially good for Cavalier, or any other who has x.5 apr, as they give actually 1 apr more with Potion of Speed. I spared the last two for now.
Next up Bodhi.
@Harpagornis: I actually think Cleric of Tyr->Mage is the stronger dual overall, because then you can use the Wand of Lightning trick to stack Divine Favor even further and apply the bonuses to some cheap Minute Meteors when you don't want to use the more expensive Energy Blades. If we're talking about a solo context with a late dual-class in SoA, then Divine Favor caps out at level 18 with +6 to hit and damage, which means a Wand of Lightning-boost Divine Favor at that level would grant +36 to hit and damage for 2 rounds. Whether you use Energy Blades or Minute Meteors, the total damage is about 440 per round, though a Cleric of Tyr/Mage would only be able to maintain that bonus for 6 rounds per day if it dual-classed at level 21 or higher. A Cleric of Tyr/Thief could do the same with Use Any Item, but would have limited access to other important mage options.
Or you could just use the WoL trick for the THAC0 bonuses. A level 18 WoL-boosted Divine Favor spell would put your THAC0 well below -20, granting a 95% hit chance regardless of enemy AC. Implosion can also guarantee a hit, since it paralyzes for 6 seconds with no saving throw (though various critters are immune to opcode 109).
Dualing to mage would also let you put Harm in a Spell Trigger as well as granting access to mage buffs, which means you could avoid the very high chance of getting disrupted while casting a slow spell like Harm.
I wont consider the WoL trick as it has the taste of borderline cheating. The bottleneck for any Priest of Tyr Dual Combo would be SoD and especially Avernus. The rest - if you dont walk into traps like an idiot - should be no "big deal".
P.S. Would the Control Circlets work in the final fight against the Big Five or are they all immune to charm? Never tested it!
We'll see @Harpagornis I have two of those Circlets left so they might become handy. Tested SoC on Saladrex as I forgot fight it for Staff of Ram, but dragons are immune to charm apparently. Anyway kited his haste, when it ended put on DoEH, Hardiness, AoF and tanked him down. Got the help of Shadow Thieves and Order of the Radiant Heart against Bodhi. Funny thing happened in the OotRH hall, if you remember when I escaped those Mindflayers in sewers? One of them spawned inside the hall and I had to dispose it because nobody else didn't care about it. They're still trying to get their revenge.
-10Base Big Metal Unit (-14 Slashing, -13 Piercing Missile)
-4 Dex Base
-2 2x Dex Potions
-5 Shield Of The Order
-2 Ring of Gaxx
-1 Helmet of Balduran
-1 DoEH
-3 Warder's Signet
-1 Cloak of the Sewers
Also is there a reason not to use the Big Metal Unit, as it doesn't affect items, divine casting nor hla's?
Now making my way through the planar sphere and all the tactical challenges it has to offer.
The Big Metal Unit is pretty nice, but it's big! If you're dodging lots of demons etc around the Throne of Bhaal then you may not want to have such a large icon.
I'm looking Amelyssan with NearInfinity and it says her Thac0 is -7, is this a base or effective Thac0? If it's a base with 19 strenght and LoB that would make her effective Thac0 -15, which then would mean that she can't touch me.
-26 AC with max Dex Bonus: Okay! -28 AC with Single Weapon Spec: Right!
With regard to slashing damage Su´kka my Barbarian got: -4 AC from BMU & -3 AC from Girdle. What else?
As i did not put points into single weapon spec she had -33 AC against slashing when fighting Amelyssan. As her THAC0 is -20 she needed to roll 13+ to land a hit. NearInfinity is wrong @histamiini!
Also how can I find Amelyssan's true stats for example? I take it that Ascension changes those?
I am infested with the infamous Clerictitis. LOL. After crushing through the rest of BG1 with Xaghul the Dwarfen Fighter/Cleric we parked him at the start of SoA. But dont worry: Another Cleric ia already on the run! The even more infamous Cleric/Thief joins the party in form of Brakko the ferocious Half-Orc. No trap-death this time!!
The start was very smooth:
Kite Shoal down -> Grab Drizzts equip -> Buy Scrolls of "Stone to Flesh" & PfP -> Get Algernons Cloak -> Use Sanctuary to charm Lesser Basilisk (4 tries this time) -> perform the Basilisk-XP-Loop -> gather Ring of Free Action from Dushai (25 tries only) -> used gold to get reputation back to 12 (yeah, i am lazy) -> did the usual reputation quests
As Sanctuary is a really great sneaking tool Brakko decided to push "Find Traps" & "Open Locks" first with "Set Trap" following. Only a handful of uneventful ambushes so far. Even 10 Bandit Archers were unable to get in a single hit (thanks Girdle of Piercing!). Time to visit Mulahey and get his fine ring.
Btw how can you get the Golden Girdle if you're not a mage?
P.S. Mulahey got charmed and feeded to the Kobolds while the Skels obliterated Greywolf & Nimbul in the meantime...
Brakko moved on. Meilum got skeletarized, as well as Bassilus. With Gloves and Hammer +2 things are looking much nicer now. He skipped the headhunter ambushes by just running to the map edge and traveled to Beregost. Tranzig had no chance against the Skels so the Bandit Camp was not far away anymore. Brakko used PfL and Sanctuary to get in and out unseen as well as unharmed - its really too cool that Sanctuary does not break when looting stuff. Taurgosz was charmed on the eighth try and feeded to the Bandits. With some nice stuff and a band new Full Plate Armor the Cloakwood will be his next target. Amulets and Rings are charged for battle.
Lets go!
Sir Vanderley absolutely blew through Suldanesselar. Tanked Adamantine Golems with Hardiness, AoF and DoEH. Waited Raamilat's 4x PfMW and Absolute Immunity to end and meleed him down. Tanked Nizidramanii'yts with Deva, Simul, Hardiness, AoF, DoEH and Gww. Freed the temple from the evil by taking a soul, outside heal, inside taking a soul and so on. The last Balor was quickly mincemeat with 100 FR and Gww.
Next up some bloke.
In my SCS install all named vamps do the same but to much lower effect than Bodhi, so you only notice if you check stats during a fight.
First, or is it second battle with Irenicus was something from kids play. Played hide&seek with him, waiting his summons, 4xPfMW, Absolute Immunity to end, at one point all of his demons were battling themselves and Nabassu was attacking Irenicus. With last chance saloon Irenicus tried wishing Djinni some help, poor soul, but I put him down with single Gww.
On hell we march.
Vampires use crushing attacks, so if you don't have mage spells or can't use scrolls, you can drink a Potion of Absorption to grant +10 AC vs. crushing damage, ignoring the AC cap. Two potions should be enough to force even Bodhi to roll 20's to hit you (one potion should be sufficient for other vampires, provided your typical AC is already very strong). However, she has 5 attacks per round and will therefore land a critical hit every 4 rounds on average, draining 1.25 CON per round on average, which means a character with 18 CON can expect to survive for only 14 rounds on average. But since the odds of each hit are very low, random chance plays a huge role here; it's entirely possible to get killed in anywhere from 4 rounds to 40 rounds.
Remember the Martyr's Morningstar and its critical hit ability that bypasses weapon immunities? There's also an SoD longsword that dispels magic on critical hits. Like the morningstar, the sword can only be moved to BG2 if you have an EET install, but it should also work well in combination with Critical Strike. It's kind of redundant, though, since the morningstar is much stronger in virtually all cases and anyone who can use the sword can also use the morningstar. The sword's only advantage is that it grants +2 to saves vs. spell (+4 for Wizard Slayers and I think Inquisitors) and the morningstar penalizes maximum HP by 10.
Literally walked through the planes of hell, and patted Sarevok on his head for being such a bad brother. 3rd battle with Irenicus, 3rd time the charm? Tried and died couple times tanking the mob. Change of plans, summoned Deva, went invisible, off the visibility and let Deva keep company for everyone a short while. Lured one by one the two Balors and three Glabrezus onto me and put them down. Tested Irenicus defenses, and everytime he still got one I went invisible again and waited. Waited him to waste everything he got. And when he started using Magic Missiles
And so ends SoA for Sir Vanderley, though powerful pastures wait him in the Throne of Bhaal. Maybe next week.
The evil powers tend to be more useful and they tend to be focused more on strengthening the main character; the good powers are more about supporting the party. A solo character should probably always be rude to the Solar.
Drasus and friends? Charmed and feeded...
Davaeorn and guards? Burned into the ground and feeded to the Skels...
Ironthrone? Sneaked and skipped...
Candlekeep? Sanctuary and Trap disarming...
Slythe? Skels...
Cythandria? Skels again...
Palace Ambush? Traps, Sling, Wand of Heaven and - well - more Skels...
With nearly all equipment gathered its only Durlags Goblet and Sarevok himself left. At the moment it feels like my old routine is coming back. Or maybe its just the most fitting Thief class that makes everything feeling really easy. But stop. No overconfidence - not again. Instead: Focus - destroy!
If Brakko keeps going like this he will catch Sir Vanderley in no time. Beware @histamiini!
Mass Healing/Regeneration (18hpr round/2 levels)
Draw Upon Holy Might/Dark Taint (save vs death)
Permanent Negative Plane Protection + 5MR/Hand Of Murder (12 dmg/heal per round, 6 rounds)
Resurrection/Permanent 25DR
I think in Solo LoB the only "good" evil choice is the 25DR. Regeneration is only like one RoR hit, where as Mass Healing can heal 6 summons, Dark Taint is mostly going to be saved and Hand Of Murder isn't going to do much either. That 5MR can almost close the 100MR cap for Cavalier.