@Grond0, close call with the familiar at Durlag's. I'm pretty sure my fairy dragon is immune to petrification... As for the Molkar and Lamalha ambushes, the behavior in your game is standard in recent SCS version (as of 28 I think). Good luck at the bandit camp!
A new update on Trixy:
The city of Baldur's Gate offers lots of items we want and lucrative quests that can help us afford the ones we need to buy, so we take our time here. Trixy reached the level cap in both her professions. She takes on a new weapon prof: Staves. Edit: In EET, as in BGT, the BG1 XP cap doesn't apply, but I'm going to wait with leveling up till SoD (if we make it there, that is).
Trixy first picks up the Dex tome, and then scribes many new scrolls into her book. She rests, but her potion of mind focusing's Dex boost is still intact the next day, on top of her now 19 base Dex. With a potion of master thievery and a potion of perception, she further boosts her thieving skills and uses them to pickpocket the Wis tome and the Cloak of Balduran, burgle the Hall of Wonders, work with Narlen Darkwalk, steal three artefacts at Oberon's estate, and relieve the Silvershields of their valuables.
Unfortunately an attempt to pickpocket pacified Ragefast for another wand of paralyzation doesn't succeed. The wizard is still wandering the streets near his abode, wand in hand, so Trixy will try to avoid that part of town. Another failed pickpockets attempt occurrs at the Temple of Umberlee, where she hopes to secure Lothander's geas removal scroll. Trixy uses her wand of monster summoning to occupy the priestesses, and she Malisons, paralyzes and Blinds Jalantha for the victory.
She gets into a prolonged fight with Marek, who gets Blinded but consistently saves against wand of paralyzation attacks. There's a funny moment, when Trixy Charms Marek with Algernon's cloak. The rogue promptly hands her the antidotes.
Sadly for him, he has to die anyway, because we want his Eagle Bow. Ranged attacks eventually do him in.
We slay Ramazith with the help of wand summons, and Doppelgangers at the Seven Suns with the wand of fire, and a "weapon" that we haven't been using much: backstabs. Backstab damage really helps speed up the killing of enemies. Especially with Drizzt's +3 scimitars, which are fine weapons for backstabbing. Also, unlike wand scorchers, backstabs are not a finite resource. Trixy's backstabs deal 30-50 damage against the Doppelgangers (64 on a critical). Looking back I think I shouldn't have invested in TWF yet, and picked single weapon style (for scimitar backstabs) or two-handed weapon style (for staff backstabs).
We cast Malison and Chaos (from scroll) on the sewer Ogre Mage's Carrion Crawlers, but they busy themsleves more with each other than with Ogre. Web, Blindness, and the wand of paralyzation work better, and allow Trixy to finish the creature with a critical backstab for 40 damage.
Prior to visiting the Iron Throne we want to make a side trip to the Ice Island. Dezkiel's Stoneskin scroll may prove invaluable with encounters with the Iron Throne's Shennaras and Slythe on the horizon. We ignore all wizards save Dezkiel but we do slay winter wolves for their pelts, relying on the Belt of Antipode for our safety (we actually get to kill 17 winter wolves thanks to UB's extra area). Dezkiel starts out with Stoneskin, Shield, PfNM, and MGoI. There's little that Trixy can directly do against that. Both Dezkiel and Trixy rely on summons. The former on two sword spiders from Spider Spawn, the latter on her wand. The poisonous Spiders are more powerful but Trixy's summons are more plentiful. We have our summons focus on stripping Dezkiel's Stoneskins. Two wand charges suffice for that. When we have the wizard at near death status, we finish him with a backstab.
There are still some items we'd like to purchase (extra stock of potions and scrolls) but we'll probably go and face the Throne next.
Zu´kka on the other hand destroyed Daevaeorn. I thought i would have to write something super-special here but - no! Pretty straightforward: 100 % Electricity + Fire Resistance for traps and spells, Rage for CC, Invisibilty to lure the Battle Horrors away, Shield Amulet for Magic Missiles, Potion of Magic Shielding to get 100% Saving Throws for the Stinking Cloud & Web Trigger, Hide & Shoot using the Necklace of Missiles once the Guards stream around Daevaeorn, after clearing the guards hit-and-run with Daevaeorn until he is out of spells & finally just hacking him to pieces! At the end Su´kka had 52 HP left without using any healing potion. Couldnt get much better!
With a party I tend to start a fight at the Bandit Camp outside the tent and play a hit and run game. Even with stoneskin though the sheer number of arrow attacks possible meant I didn't fancy that with Frey and he buffed up before releasing some summoned monsters inside the tent. The extra enemies SCS adds to that battle still make it tough, however, and Frey had to use about 10 charges of his monster wand before he was victorious.
After looting the tent, Frey went to Firewine Bridge where some summoned monsters killed Bentan and then Poe. The reputation loss from that meant that Frey got Bhaal horror when resting (which will be of pretty limited benefit, but still better than slow poison).
After passing invisibly through the Cloakwood, summons again took the starring role against Drasus & co with the familiar performing its normal scouting role. Inside the mine it felt like too hard work to kill most of the enemies so only a couple of ghasts died on the way down to Davaeorn. The guard's script there meant he didn't react to skull traps and was easy enough to kill. After buffing up to go through the traps Frey triggered Davaeorn's speech and went invisible to wait for all the guards to arrive. After killing the separated battle horrors and resting, skull traps and fireballs cut the guards down to size. Summons then absorbed the large number of fireballs, cones of cold etc from Davaeorn before finally getting a killing blow.
Initially I forgot to pick up Davaeorn's equipment, but fortunately remembered before flooding the mine - wouldn't want to have missed out on the Robe of the Archmagi! Outside, Frey dodged the slave briefly, while he went to pay a bit out at the temple to restore reputation at cheap rates.
Back at the Bandit Camp Frey tried looting one of the tents, but that turned everyone outside hostile. However, I decided to go ahead and fight anyway and some more wand charges helped turn the Bandit Camp into a Death Camp.
Before going to the City Frey also paid a visit to Bassilus. No resources were used there, but spells were successful in disrupting the cleric's casts.
In the City I made a mistake in not casting haste on the monsters surrounding Lathander and he was able to teleport out of his trap at near death. However, a lot of other encounters were done successfully, pushing resources back up over 100,000 gold and reputation back up to 20.
That prompted me to tackle the Iron Throne preparatory to going to Candlekeep, but that proved a step too far. Frey used summons extensively there again, along with blur, minor spell deflection and improved invisibility for protection. With just a couple of casters and Zhalimar not accounted for there was a lull in proceedings with the remaining enemies out of sight and Freya took the opportunity to create and haste some fresh summons and rebuff himself. The summons moving out into the corridor prompted the casters to reappear and attack, but that didn't seem to be a problem until this happened.
I wasn't keeping a close eye on the text, but did notice a line saying someone was using a wand. There was no obvious animation associated with the death though so I'm not sure if it was a wand blast or something else. Possibly Frey was affected by a remove magic just before dying to open him up to attack, though I'm not sure how I would have missed that - he was standing on his own well away from the combat so a remove magic aimed at him would have been obvious on the screen even if I missed the text report. However, a bit of testing confirmed that, unlike spells, wands can be targeted through improved invisibility and I've noted before that minor spell deflection is inconsistent as to whether it prevents lightning - so that seems a likely candidate for the death.
Yeah, the Wand of Heavens definetely comes in mind. It also burned me down instantly once. Unlike @Grond0 Su´kka reloaded and took the Iron Throne Guards down one by one. Fighting them all on the top level was just no option so some stairs-up-and-down-cheese was used to split them. Greenstone Amulet again proved to be very handy against the endless CC while the backstab-immunity was another lifesaver. With the Ring of Free Action in backpack Su´kka will soon revisit Candlekeep!
Su´kka revisited Candlekeep - and got ambushed by several Ogre Mages. Oh dear, this fight is not worth the time. 650xp each and bad loot - come on...
In the catacombs Su´kka got the two Tomes and the second ring of fire protection. Thanks to invisibilty she sneaked past the Dopplegangers as fighting them is not relevant anymore after she reached level 8 - the max level for Barbarians in BG1. Trying to kill Prat proved to be painful expecially as i forgot to buy any arrows of dispelling - my fault. Anyway: He teleports around like crazy and following him attracted more and more spiders. Su´kka still managed to hurt him but he instantly went invisible and ported away. She rested several times but was not able to find him anymore. No +2 Throwing Axe for Su´kka - damn...
Good progress @Harpagornis. Best of luck with the endgame.
Trixy completed BG1 yesterday. She fought the Iron Throne party by making use of the stairs and the backrooms and relying on her wands and backstabs. She didn't fight anyone in Candlekeep. Returned to BG where she used her monster summoning wand to soften up Slythe, before finishing him with a backstab. She left Krystin alone. The coronoation was very difficult. She only prevailed because she cast Invisibility on Liia Jannath at the beginning of the battle, and twice during the battle when she got dispelled/detected. All the Flaming Fist plus Belt had fallen before the first of the Doppelgangers went down. With arrows of dispelling she removed the buffs of most of the Doppelgangers. The Mage's Haste couldn't be dispelled though. Trixy used wand summons to occupy individual Doppelgangers in the antechambers and so managed to take them on one at a time. The final battle was bugged again. Angelo was Blinded, dispelled and pelted down. The others, sticking around Sarevok were fireballed. Sarevok took 49 wand scorchers, a handful of wand lightning bolts, and many backstabs, but wouldn't die (as in my fist EET playthrough). I ctrl-q'd him and he had indeed one HP left. I consoled in SAREVO2, ctr-y'd it and transitioned to Siege of Dragonspear.
In the starting dungeon enemies, she handled the first mob quite competently I must say, with fairy dragon blocking access over the bridge, Malison affecting all the enemies, Web and Hold Person paralyzing them, and arrows of biting and a summoned Phase Spider (level 9 Mage had just been reached) poisoning most of them to (near) death. On the second level of the dungeon, Trixy tried a stealthy approach, but - and this is something I'm not pleased with, as it pretty much forces the player to kill all enemies - the game doesn't really allow astealthy approach: enemies followed her everywhere. And while they didn't lock her in place (they kept moving around), they did spoil her plan of heading straight for Korlasz.
In the room with the rope I tried to Dimension Door away, using a scroll for that purpose. In my install aTweaks is supposed to allow me to use that scroll to teleport to any place on the map that has been previously explored. Sadly, that didn't work, so she just DDed into one of the corridors within her visual range in the hope of gettig away from her enemies. I assume that casting the spell made Trixy visible, and though she made it to her destination, something instantly killed her upon arrival. She had been at full health.
I'm not sure if I want to continue this run. I know I spoke of allowing nine reloads, but I'm so used to no-reload that reloading feels rather counterintuitive.
@Grond0, ouch no! Could it have been Aasim with his Wand of the Heavens?
I can't remember whether Aasim was one of those still alive, but I did just test to confirm that the Wand of the Heavens was blocked by MSD (also if that was the cause I would have expected to see the flame strike animation appear just before death). However, in my test lightning from a wand was not (as I say I've seen a lot of inconsistency with that so I wouldn't like to say it would never work).
I'm not sure if I want to continue this run. I know I spoke of allowing nine reloads, but I'm so used to no-reload that reloading feels rather counterintuitive.
That's a shame Blackraven - it looked like an excellent run up to that. Had you previously cleared that corridor? If not then traps would seem a likely explanation for the death.
For what it's worth I wouldn't reload within BG1, but could imagine doing so in SoD (though I could imagine not doing so as well!). As I've never got far at all in SoD I think completing a no-reload of this challenge there would be pretty much impossible for me.
Thanks @Grond0. It seems you're right. I just went back to the location that Trixy teleported to, and this happened:
This might be a Stone to Flesh or Disintegrate trap then. With her 18 CON, and with the Cloak of Balduran, Ring of Protection +2, and Robe of the Good Archmagi, Trixy's save vs spell is 1. This seems to suggest that the effect comes with a save penalty (unless saves aren't always correctly applied in EE, as is the case in the original game).
I'm not sure what I'll do now. I can continue right away, or I can try and take another solo character through BG1 first, and then use Trixy as an explorer of SoD so that the new character can copy Trixy's tactics and hopefully no-reload through SoD. Like you, I haven't seen enough of SoD for a no-reload of this challenge at this point.
As for Frey, does MSD not block (wand) lightning bolts? In EE they don't bounce around much, so I don't think they could consume MSD and still deal damage after that.
As for Frey, does MSD not block (wand) lightning bolts? In EE they don't bounce around much, so I don't think they could consume MSD and still deal damage after that.
As I said it's inconsistent - sometimes it blocks it, but sometimes not. That was the case in the original game as well and I think relates to the nature of lightning: sometimes that works like a targeted spell and sometimes like an area effect spell. I think whether it's blocked may depend on whether the head of the projectile hits you (blocked) or the bolt behind (not blocked).
Nice work @Blackraven with regard to BG1. But what about the Werewolf island and Durlags Tower? :P
As i said earlier: I would not be too harsh with your no-reload-restriction especially without some metagame knowledge of SoD. Would love to see Trixy going on!
Su´kka has only some last things to do: Palace + Sarevok. But before facing Sarevok Baldurans Island and Durlags Tower are waiting. The improved versions will be a tough nut to crack...
EDIT: I updated the OP so everyone can see what challenges are currently running (or hopefully restarting soon)!
@Harpargonis, whoops, I kind of forgot about Durlag's Tower and the Isle of Balduran. Maybe you could specify the challenge a bit further on the first page, including a list with the mandatory areas/quests?
I don't think I can go back now with Trixy, but I am inclined to continue with her. But now that you've mentioned Durlag and Werewolf Island, I feel I should do a new run that includes those parts. I must say though that imo the Werewolves should be optional because some classes can't kill Karoug due to weapon restrictions. It's actually quite a lot of classes: Beastmasters, all Clerics and Druids, Shamans do not have access to silver weapons. And I doubt that divine or arcane casters have the spellpower to kill rapidly regenerating Karoug.
The OP always stated "Tales of the Sword Coast" @Blackraven!
But you are right with regard to Karoug! Thats why i also said "the ideal playhthrough". Nice to have done "Isle of Balduran" and "Durlags Tower" but not absolutely mandatory. Su´kka will try to get at least some essential items like Durlags Goblet. If there is somewhere a point of no progress - so be it!
I don't think I can go back now with Trixy, but I am inclined to continue with her. But now that you've mentioned Durlag and Werewolf Island, I feel I should do a new run that includes those parts. I must say though that imo the Werewolves should be optional because some classes can't kill Karoug due to weapon restrictions. It's actually quite a lot of classes: Beastmasters, all Clerics and Druids, Shamans do not have access to silver weapons. And I doubt that divine or arcane casters have the spellpower to kill rapidly regenerating Karoug.
I suggest to install the tweak by @Tresset that would help exactly in that regard -
"Fe Ag Hammer
This tweak adds a weapon for solo clerics that could beat down Greater Wolfwere and Loup Garou since they had absolutely nothing in that category. It took me a while, but I eventually decided to go with a very special weapon that was perfectly usable by any cleric: Spiritual Hammer! While I was at it I fixed a minor cosmetic issue with the +1 version of the hammer by adding an on hit sound effect that the +2 and +3 version had."
@Grond0 Wand of heavens should get through MGoI, though, considering flame strike is a level five spell. It also has a chance of getting through mirror image, so it's possible to get insta-gibbed by it even when fully buffed, unless you have fire resistance. No idea about MSD, hm.
I agree it goes through MGoI, but MSD blocks up to level 7 spells and when testing wands I confirmed it blocks flame strike whether from wand or not.
I've restarted Frey and done plenty of running and shooting (both slings and magic missiles). He's just got up to level 6 without having bought anything (other than ammunition) or used any resources yet and will probably continue with that tactic until level 7 (when he will learn friends in order to get shopping benefits).
The ambush at the palace wasnt one of my brightest moments. First i was totally unaware of the improved Dopplegangers - especially the mage turned out to be a real pain. Even better: I thought to be superclever and charmed one of the nobles using the nymph cloak. After everyone was slaughtered it turned out that the conversation for showing prove against Sarevok did not trigger. Attacking the charmed and still untransformed noble proved to be fatal as everyone was going hostile. After knowing this Su´kka buffed herself up, used Arrows of Dispelling and hacked anything away that was attacking Belt while soaking up the mage spells. Worked pretty well even though several healing potions were needed. Whats next? Isle of Balduran or Durlags Tower? Hhhmmmmmm....
Hey everyone, as you may have noticed, I'm really enjoying this challenge. I haven't been very active or enthusiastic this year, but this challenge is good fun. I wonder if I'll go back to playing non-LoB. It's nice that almost no enemy is trivial, that there's danger everywhere. Thank you @Harpagornis for coming up with this challenge. And also for making it more flexible. I find myself more interested in playing caster types in this challenge because the game changes the most for casters.
I'll continue with Trixy in SoD, want to see how hard the game is for her. But I've also made a start with another gnome, Kaerl, a 99 roll true neutral Cleric/Illusionist (my highest roll. I once rolled a 101 for an Undead Hunter but inadvertently clicked reroll, so that character doesn't count). His starting stat distribution is (inevitably) very munchkinny: 18-18-18-19-17-9. Starting spells were Find Familiar (again good only for 6 HPs), Shield and Blindness. And we left Candlekeep wearing a suit of splint mail armor.
We initially plan to take our usual (tedious but safe) route to the first few level-ups, but a hostile wolf keeps us from reaching the rogue ogre. The beast forces Kaerl to travel to the FAI, where he picks up the Ring of Wizardry and returns, only to find the wolf still waiting at the area border. We travel back to the Lion's Way and from there south to the High Hedge and west to the North Coast, where Kaerl Dooms and Blinds Shoal. She wanders little, so we can finish her without difficulty. On the way to Beregost we also Doom and Blind an ambushing Ghast.
In Beregost we help Firebead, bring Mr Coquetle a necklace, and calm Marl, but we postpone the tedious kiting quests (ogrillons, spiders). With a suit of splint mail armor, a ring of protection +1, a helmet, and a large shield, we're willing to travel before Kaerl can cast Invisibility. Besides we can rest safely with Sanctuary. So we do some easy quests like Brage, Albert/Rufie, Brun (using Sanctuary in the Ankheg nest), Tenya (who only requires one hit), and Samuel.
When Kaerl does reach Mage level 3, he starts using Invisibility, and sells his armor. We cast invisibility on the rabbit familiar and find choke points to block Landrin's spiders, Mirianne's ogrillons, and Greywolf (and maybe others I can't remember).
We travel to Mutamin's garden where casting Stone to Flesh on Tamah will raise our rep to 20. We have no PfPetrification, but we recruit Korax, who Hold-locks Mutamin and kills five of the basilisks before he goes hostile. This is more than enough for Kaerl to reach Cleric level 5 and gain acces to 3rd circle spells, including Animate Dead. The Skeletons take care of the remaining basilisks.
We depetrify Tamah and travel to the High Hedge and Ulgoth's Beard to buy a large selection of scrolls for Kaerl's spellbook. Selling Drizzt's gear enables us to buy a robe of the neutral archmagi.
Kaerl uses all but one scorcher charge of the ankhegs' wand of fire to extinguish the battle horrors near the entrance to Durlag's Tower. Skeletons clear the roofs of basilisks.
We try to be less dependent on wands than Trixy, which appears to be feasible for Kaerl thanks to his skeletons. At the same time we don't plan to let the skeletons do all the work. It is our intention to use them as meat bone shields that allow Kaerl to cast spells before enemies close in on him. If we don't do this, then many divine spells will simply be too slow to cast. Kaerl learned this the hard way when Meilum interrupted his casting of Doom (admittedly a spell with a very long casting time), and reduced our hero to less than half his HPs (26/54). Kaerl quaffs an emergency invisibility potion, a rare one (I don't allow NPCs to join / supply items this run). We then summon three skeletons to keep Meilum busy. Kaerl Dooms and Blinds the warrior, and the skeletons finish him off.
The most satisfactory battle so far is with Bassilus. Kaerl cannot use his undead minions because Bassilus will turn them. The Gnome pre-buffs with Ghost Armor, MSD, and fire protection. He's also wearing the helmet of charm protection (an Unfinished Business item) and he activates the greenstone amulet. We manage to Doom our foe and Blind him. He casts Cure Disease. We Blind him again. He casts another Cure Disease. And we Blind him once more. We interrupt the casting of a Necromantic spell and a Sanctuary as we soften him up with wand flamestrikes and sling bullets. When his Free Action expires, we Hold him.
He (barely) outlasts that effect. We soon finish him with sling bullets.
Skeletons prove their worth against sirines, a polar bear, and ankhegs. I'm especially impressed with their effectiveness against ankhegs. Kaerl helps with Dooms and Blindnesses but the skeletons do the bulk of the work against the giant grasshoppers. An attempt to finish off a near dead ankheg alone, almost proves fatal,
so we can conclude that the skeletons are invaluable.
Back in Beregost we Doom, Blind and Hold Silke while she's busy with Kaerl's skeletons. Her death means Kaerl's final level-up in BG1 (level 7 Mage), before we've even entered the Nashkel Mines! It's time to pursue the plot quests...
Sounds like an excellent run Blackraven - glad you're enjoying it. I was also going well - until a few minutes ago ...
I had to break my no resources rule when cleaning up the last couple of ghasts in Durlag's Tower. One of them didn't follow me down the main stairs and I assumed had stayed in place - until it ambushed me coming out of a doorway a while later having obviously gone down the side stairs. It was too close to be able to run when I paused, so Frey took a potion of freedom.
To get the rest of the XP for level 7 Frey went to clear all the ankhegs. I didn't bother doing that last time, but web + blindness set them up for the kill nicely. Now knowing friends, Frey did a bit of shopping before looking for some high value XP. With decent damage from skull traps and magic missiles he killed the Doomsayer, then went after the battle horrors and basilisks at Durlag's Tower - getting up to level 8 there with the death of the first greater basilisk. However, the final basilisk took revenge when I apparently didn't monitor closely enough what was happening. I had used one mage scroll to kill the lesser and first greater basilisk before resting and then used a second scroll and quickly blinded both remaining greater basilisks. The first was killed fairly quickly using skull traps and magic missiles in about 3 turns. Blindness lasts 10 turns and therefore there were about 7 left - which seemed plenty to kill the other basilisk. I was speeding that up by casting webs on it to get automatic hits and was on my 4th one of those. The basilisk had been at near death for some time and I thought any hit could be its last - but the final hit came from it.
Even in retrospect I'm not certain what happened there. I must admit to occasionally nodding off while playing, but am fairly sure I didn't do that this time. However, either I lost more than a couple of turns without attacking at some point or I ran out of bullets and went into melee attack without noticing (I thought I had plenty, but have been known to be wrong about that sort of thing ).
Very nice to see your Cleric/Illusionist growing quickly @Blackraven - seems things are running quite smoothly so far!
Turned to stone - a picture that will last forever. What a pity @Grond0! Without reloads you would have finished the whole challenge - maybe!
Without reloads Su´kkas adventure would have ended on the Isle of Balduran. Nearly everything worked fine like on my non-SCS run with Calis, the Cavalier. Split the Werewolfs in the ship, buff yourself up & lure Karoug out to stag him down with the silver dagger using the usual hit-and-run. So far so good!
But - as always - i totally forgot about Kaishas. With no SCS this last fight is trivial but - holy cow - with the improved Werewolves she is not only turning into a deadly Loup Garou but she gets also help from other Werewolves that are constantly streaming in. So the first try ended rather quickly as i ran out of space.
The only chance was: Talk with Kaishas and lure the transformed Loup Garou to the western rocks. Turn invisible and park her while waiting for the Werewolf hordes that are running straight to the ship (and not to Loup Garou!!). Wait until no more Werewolves are streaming in (after 15 there was a pause) and buff yourself up: Strength Potion, Potion of Invulnerability, Oil of Speed, Potion of Heroism (or Power) + Regeneration Potion. Now Su´kka attacked out of invisibity and started another hit-and-run-game. She also learned: Never ever run near the ship OR - even worse - to the eastern entrance because the insane number of 65 (!) Werwolves were only waiting for some fresh meat. With the little space given Su´kka constantly hit Loup Garou moved out for 2-3 seconds and went in again so the attack animation will start promptly when engaging Loup Garou. With perfect timing it might be able to avoid most damage but the little space, wrong timing or pausing too late lead all to heavy injuries. At the end Su´kka had to burn ALL of her bigger healing potions not only because of the high damage output but also because of the insane regeneration that filled Loup Garous lifebar in no time. What the hell of of a fight. And what was all the trouble worth? 1800 xp! Thats less than a Sirene! AAARGH...
Anyway: Su´kka used another invisibilty potion sneaking to the ship and finally leaving this unholy place...
I have a little more time today and want to start my run pretty soon. I looked at the Jester today and noticed that the char creation description for BG1 and BG2 is different for me! In BG1 Jesters song changes with level 9 and 18 and has 2 new unique afflictions distracted and mesmerized. In BG2 the "old" Jesters song is present which changes at level 15 and 20 and besides confusion at level 1 adds slow and unconscious.
The BG1 version kinda seems nerfed to me but still playable and fun (old version might have been too cheesy) But what happens once I transfer from 1 to 2? Note that I have the newest version installed for BG2 and among other things can choose LOB difficulty.
I assume that the BG2 setting will be used after import - test it!
Su´kka is desperatlly trying to make Quarterstaffs work. Or more concrete: Using their superior range to play a safe hit-and-run-game that will give many opponents no chance for counterattack. Problem is that there is no recovery bar like in PoE so its often just pure luck if the attack animation will start immediately (and roll an attacking dice). Even worse: Just running up to enemies will get Su´kka into range that even an opponent with a dagger can retaliate. The best way so far is just waiting and hit the attack button when they are a tiny bit out of max range. Sometimes the animation will start and hit from very big range, sometimes its waiting and waiting so the enemy is getting too close. The amount of micro management is insane but the result is so far "suboptimal". Has anyone tested this out extensivly? Or is the max-range-kiting just a waste of time?
@Victor_Creed_SFV: Your BG1 version of the Jester looks a lot like the Rogue Rebalancing Jester. Is it possible that you have that mod installed in your BG1 setup? My BG1 install with only SCS uses the old Jester song that you described for your BG2 game. @Harpagornis, have you disabled cosmetic attacks in the feedback menu? That might help you with both striking and dodging.
Comments
Good luck at the bandit camp!
A new update on Trixy:
The city of Baldur's Gate offers lots of items we want and lucrative quests that can help us afford the ones we need to buy, so we take our time here. Trixy reached the level cap in both her professions. She takes on a new weapon prof: Staves. Edit: In EET, as in BGT, the BG1 XP cap doesn't apply, but I'm going to wait with leveling up till SoD (if we make it there, that is).
Trixy first picks up the Dex tome, and then scribes many new scrolls into her book. She rests, but her potion of mind focusing's Dex boost is still intact the next day, on top of her now 19 base Dex. With a potion of master thievery and a potion of perception, she further boosts her thieving skills and uses them to pickpocket the Wis tome and the Cloak of Balduran, burgle the Hall of Wonders, work with Narlen Darkwalk, steal three artefacts at Oberon's estate, and relieve the Silvershields of their valuables.
Unfortunately an attempt to pickpocket pacified Ragefast for another wand of paralyzation doesn't succeed. The wizard is still wandering the streets near his abode, wand in hand, so Trixy will try to avoid that part of town. Another failed pickpockets attempt occurrs at the Temple of Umberlee, where she hopes to secure Lothander's geas removal scroll. Trixy uses her wand of monster summoning to occupy the priestesses, and she Malisons, paralyzes and Blinds Jalantha for the victory.
We slay Ramazith with the help of wand summons, and Doppelgangers at the Seven Suns with the wand of fire, and a "weapon" that we haven't been using much: backstabs. Backstab damage really helps speed up the killing of enemies. Especially with Drizzt's +3 scimitars, which are fine weapons for backstabbing. Also, unlike wand scorchers, backstabs are not a finite resource. Trixy's backstabs deal 30-50 damage against the Doppelgangers (64 on a critical). Looking back I think I shouldn't have invested in TWF yet, and picked single weapon style (for scimitar backstabs) or two-handed weapon style (for staff backstabs).
We cast Malison and Chaos (from scroll) on the sewer Ogre Mage's Carrion Crawlers, but they busy themsleves more with each other than with Ogre. Web, Blindness, and the wand of paralyzation work better, and allow Trixy to finish the creature with a critical backstab for 40 damage.
Prior to visiting the Iron Throne we want to make a side trip to the Ice Island. Dezkiel's Stoneskin scroll may prove invaluable with encounters with the Iron Throne's Shennaras and Slythe on the horizon.
We ignore all wizards save Dezkiel but we do slay winter wolves for their pelts, relying on the Belt of Antipode for our safety (we actually get to kill 17 winter wolves thanks to UB's extra area). Dezkiel starts out with Stoneskin, Shield, PfNM, and MGoI. There's little that Trixy can directly do against that. Both Dezkiel and Trixy rely on summons. The former on two sword spiders from Spider Spawn, the latter on her wand. The poisonous Spiders are more powerful but Trixy's summons are more plentiful. We have our summons focus on stripping Dezkiel's Stoneskins. Two wand charges suffice for that. When we have the wizard at near death status, we finish him with a backstab.
Zu´kka on the other hand destroyed Daevaeorn. I thought i would have to write something super-special here but - no! Pretty straightforward: 100 % Electricity + Fire Resistance for traps and spells, Rage for CC, Invisibilty to lure the Battle Horrors away, Shield Amulet for Magic Missiles, Potion of Magic Shielding to get 100% Saving Throws for the Stinking Cloud & Web Trigger, Hide & Shoot using the Necklace of Missiles once the Guards stream around Daevaeorn, after clearing the guards hit-and-run with Daevaeorn until he is out of spells & finally just hacking him to pieces! At the end Su´kka had 52 HP left without using any healing potion. Couldnt get much better!
Baldurs Gate is near!
With a party I tend to start a fight at the Bandit Camp outside the tent and play a hit and run game. Even with stoneskin though the sheer number of arrow attacks possible meant I didn't fancy that with Frey and he buffed up before releasing some summoned monsters inside the tent. The extra enemies SCS adds to that battle still make it tough, however, and Frey had to use about 10 charges of his monster wand before he was victorious.
After looting the tent, Frey went to Firewine Bridge where some summoned monsters killed Bentan and then Poe. The reputation loss from that meant that Frey got Bhaal horror when resting (which will be of pretty limited benefit, but still better than slow poison).
After passing invisibly through the Cloakwood, summons again took the starring role against Drasus & co with the familiar performing its normal scouting role. Inside the mine it felt like too hard work to kill most of the enemies so only a couple of ghasts died on the way down to Davaeorn. The guard's script there meant he didn't react to skull traps and was easy enough to kill. After buffing up to go through the traps Frey triggered Davaeorn's speech and went invisible to wait for all the guards to arrive. After killing the separated battle horrors and resting, skull traps and fireballs cut the guards down to size. Summons then absorbed the large number of fireballs, cones of cold etc from Davaeorn before finally getting a killing blow.
Before going to the City Frey also paid a visit to Bassilus. No resources were used there, but spells were successful in disrupting the cleric's casts.
In the City I made a mistake in not casting haste on the monsters surrounding Lathander and he was able to teleport out of his trap at near death. However, a lot of other encounters were done successfully, pushing resources back up over 100,000 gold and reputation back up to 20.
That prompted me to tackle the Iron Throne preparatory to going to Candlekeep, but that proved a step too far. Frey used summons extensively there again, along with blur, minor spell deflection and improved invisibility for protection. With just a couple of casters and Zhalimar not accounted for there was a lull in proceedings with the remaining enemies out of sight and Freya took the opportunity to create and haste some fresh summons and rebuff himself. The summons moving out into the corridor prompted the casters to reappear and attack, but that didn't seem to be a problem until this happened.
I wasn't keeping a close eye on the text, but did notice a line saying someone was using a wand. There was no obvious animation associated with the death though so I'm not sure if it was a wand blast or something else. Possibly Frey was affected by a remove magic just before dying to open him up to attack, though I'm not sure how I would have missed that - he was standing on his own well away from the combat so a remove magic aimed at him would have been obvious on the screen even if I missed the text report. However, a bit of testing confirmed that, unlike spells, wands can be targeted through improved invisibility and I've noted before that minor spell deflection is inconsistent as to whether it prevents lightning - so that seems a likely candidate for the death.
In the catacombs Su´kka got the two Tomes and the second ring of fire protection. Thanks to invisibilty she sneaked past the Dopplegangers as fighting them is not relevant anymore after she reached level 8 - the max level for Barbarians in BG1. Trying to kill Prat proved to be painful expecially as i forgot to buy any arrows of dispelling - my fault. Anyway: He teleports around like crazy and following him attracted more and more spiders. Su´kka still managed to hurt him but he instantly went invisible and ported away. She rested several times but was not able to find him anymore. No +2 Throwing Axe for Su´kka - damn...
Trixy completed BG1 yesterday. She fought the Iron Throne party by making use of the stairs and the backrooms and relying on her wands and backstabs. She didn't fight anyone in Candlekeep. Returned to BG where she used her monster summoning wand to soften up Slythe, before finishing him with a backstab. She left Krystin alone.
The coronoation was very difficult. She only prevailed because she cast Invisibility on Liia Jannath at the beginning of the battle, and twice during the battle when she got dispelled/detected. All the Flaming Fist plus Belt had fallen before the first of the Doppelgangers went down. With arrows of dispelling she removed the buffs of most of the Doppelgangers. The Mage's Haste couldn't be dispelled though. Trixy used wand summons to occupy individual Doppelgangers in the antechambers and so managed to take them on one at a time.
The final battle was bugged again. Angelo was Blinded, dispelled and pelted down. The others, sticking around Sarevok were fireballed. Sarevok took 49 wand scorchers, a handful of wand lightning bolts, and many backstabs, but wouldn't die (as in my fist EET playthrough). I ctrl-q'd him and he had indeed one HP left. I consoled in SAREVO2, ctr-y'd it and transitioned to Siege of Dragonspear.
In the starting dungeon enemies, she handled the first mob quite competently I must say, with fairy dragon blocking access over the bridge, Malison affecting all the enemies, Web and Hold Person paralyzing them, and arrows of biting and a summoned Phase Spider (level 9 Mage had just been reached) poisoning most of them to (near) death. On the second level of the dungeon, Trixy tried a stealthy approach, but - and this is something I'm not pleased with, as it pretty much forces the player to kill all enemies - the game doesn't really allow astealthy approach: enemies followed her everywhere. And while they didn't lock her in place (they kept moving around), they did spoil her plan of heading straight for Korlasz.
I'm not sure if I want to continue this run. I know I spoke of allowing nine reloads, but I'm so used to no-reload that reloading feels rather counterintuitive.
For what it's worth I wouldn't reload within BG1, but could imagine doing so in SoD (though I could imagine not doing so as well!). As I've never got far at all in SoD I think completing a no-reload of this challenge there would be pretty much impossible for me.
I'm not sure what I'll do now. I can continue right away, or I can try and take another solo character through BG1 first, and then use Trixy as an explorer of SoD so that the new character can copy Trixy's tactics and hopefully no-reload through SoD. Like you, I haven't seen enough of SoD for a no-reload of this challenge at this point.
As for Frey, does MSD not block (wand) lightning bolts? In EE they don't bounce around much, so I don't think they could consume MSD and still deal damage after that.
As i said earlier: I would not be too harsh with your no-reload-restriction especially without some metagame knowledge of SoD.
Would love to see Trixy going on!
Su´kka has only some last things to do: Palace + Sarevok. But before facing Sarevok Baldurans Island and Durlags Tower are waiting. The improved versions will be a tough nut to crack...
EDIT: I updated the OP so everyone can see what challenges are currently running (or hopefully restarting soon)!
I don't think I can go back now with Trixy, but I am inclined to continue with her. But now that you've mentioned Durlag and Werewolf Island, I feel I should do a new run that includes those parts.
I must say though that imo the Werewolves should be optional because some classes can't kill Karoug due to weapon restrictions. It's actually quite a lot of classes: Beastmasters, all Clerics and Druids, Shamans do not have access to silver weapons. And I doubt that divine or arcane casters have the spellpower to kill rapidly regenerating Karoug.
But you are right with regard to Karoug! Thats why i also said "the ideal playhthrough". Nice to have done "Isle of Balduran" and "Durlags Tower" but not absolutely mandatory. Su´kka will try to get at least some essential items like Durlags Goblet. If there is somewhere a point of no progress - so be it!
"Fe Ag Hammer
This tweak adds a weapon for solo clerics that could beat down Greater Wolfwere and Loup Garou since they had absolutely nothing in that category. It took me a while, but I eventually decided to go with a very special weapon that was perfectly usable by any cleric: Spiritual Hammer! While I was at it I fixed a minor cosmetic issue with the +1 version of the hammer by adding an on hit sound effect that the +2 and +3 version had."
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/61898/tressets-choice-tweaks
I'll continue with Trixy in SoD, want to see how hard the game is for her. But I've also made a start with another gnome, Kaerl, a 99 roll true neutral Cleric/Illusionist (my highest roll. I once rolled a 101 for an Undead Hunter but inadvertently clicked reroll, so that character doesn't count). His starting stat distribution is (inevitably) very munchkinny: 18-18-18-19-17-9. Starting spells were Find Familiar (again good only for 6 HPs), Shield and Blindness. And we left Candlekeep wearing a suit of splint mail armor.
We initially plan to take our usual (tedious but safe) route to the first few level-ups, but a hostile wolf keeps us from reaching the rogue ogre. The beast forces Kaerl to travel to the FAI, where he picks up the Ring of Wizardry and returns, only to find the wolf still waiting at the area border. We travel back to the Lion's Way and from there south to the High Hedge and west to the North Coast, where Kaerl Dooms and Blinds Shoal. She wanders little, so we can finish her without difficulty. On the way to Beregost we also Doom and Blind an ambushing Ghast.
In Beregost we help Firebead, bring Mr Coquetle a necklace, and calm Marl, but we postpone the tedious kiting quests (ogrillons, spiders). With a suit of splint mail armor, a ring of protection +1, a helmet, and a large shield, we're willing to travel before Kaerl can cast Invisibility. Besides we can rest safely with Sanctuary. So we do some easy quests like Brage, Albert/Rufie, Brun (using Sanctuary in the Ankheg nest), Tenya (who only requires one hit), and Samuel.
When Kaerl does reach Mage level 3, he starts using Invisibility, and sells his armor. We cast invisibility on the rabbit familiar and find choke points to block Landrin's spiders, Mirianne's ogrillons, and Greywolf (and maybe others I can't remember).
We travel to Mutamin's garden where casting Stone to Flesh on Tamah will raise our rep to 20. We have no PfPetrification, but we recruit Korax, who Hold-locks Mutamin and kills five of the basilisks before he goes hostile. This is more than enough for Kaerl to reach Cleric level 5 and gain acces to 3rd circle spells, including Animate Dead. The Skeletons take care of the remaining basilisks.
We depetrify Tamah and travel to the High Hedge and Ulgoth's Beard to buy a large selection of scrolls for Kaerl's spellbook. Selling Drizzt's gear enables us to buy a robe of the neutral archmagi.
Kaerl uses all but one scorcher charge of the ankhegs' wand of fire to extinguish the battle horrors near the entrance to Durlag's Tower. Skeletons clear the roofs of basilisks.
We try to be less dependent on wands than Trixy, which appears to be feasible for Kaerl thanks to his skeletons. At the same time we don't plan to let the skeletons do all the work. It is our intention to use them as
meatbone shields that allow Kaerl to cast spells before enemies close in on him. If we don't do this, then many divine spells will simply be too slow to cast.Kaerl learned this the hard way when Meilum interrupted his casting of Doom (admittedly a spell with a very long casting time), and reduced our hero to less than half his HPs (26/54). Kaerl quaffs an emergency invisibility potion, a rare one (I don't allow NPCs to join / supply items this run). We then summon three skeletons to keep Meilum busy. Kaerl Dooms and Blinds the warrior, and the skeletons finish him off.
The most satisfactory battle so far is with Bassilus. Kaerl cannot use his undead minions because Bassilus will turn them. The Gnome pre-buffs with Ghost Armor, MSD, and fire protection. He's also wearing the helmet of charm protection (an Unfinished Business item) and he activates the greenstone amulet. We manage to Doom our foe and Blind him. He casts Cure Disease. We Blind him again. He casts another Cure Disease. And we Blind him once more.
Skeletons prove their worth against sirines, a polar bear, and ankhegs. I'm especially impressed with their effectiveness against ankhegs. Kaerl helps with Dooms and Blindnesses but the skeletons do the bulk of the work against the giant grasshoppers. An attempt to finish off a near dead ankheg alone, almost proves fatal,
Back in Beregost we Doom, Blind and Hold Silke while she's busy with Kaerl's skeletons. Her death means Kaerl's final level-up in BG1 (level 7 Mage), before we've even entered the Nashkel Mines! It's time to pursue the plot quests...
I had to break my no resources rule when cleaning up the last couple of ghasts in Durlag's Tower. One of them didn't follow me down the main stairs and I assumed had stayed in place - until it ambushed me coming out of a doorway a while later having obviously gone down the side stairs. It was too close to be able to run when I paused, so Frey took a potion of freedom.
To get the rest of the XP for level 7 Frey went to clear all the ankhegs. I didn't bother doing that last time, but web + blindness set them up for the kill nicely. Now knowing friends, Frey did a bit of shopping before looking for some high value XP. With decent damage from skull traps and magic missiles he killed the Doomsayer, then went after the battle horrors and basilisks at Durlag's Tower - getting up to level 8 there with the death of the first greater basilisk. However, the final basilisk took revenge when I apparently didn't monitor closely enough what was happening. I had used one mage scroll to kill the lesser and first greater basilisk before resting and then used a second scroll and quickly blinded both remaining greater basilisks. The first was killed fairly quickly using skull traps and magic missiles in about 3 turns. Blindness lasts 10 turns and therefore there were about 7 left - which seemed plenty to kill the other basilisk. I was speeding that up by casting webs on it to get automatic hits and was on my 4th one of those. The basilisk had been at near death for some time and I thought any hit could be its last - but the final hit came from it.
Even in retrospect I'm not certain what happened there. I must admit to occasionally nodding off while playing, but am fairly sure I didn't do that this time. However, either I lost more than a couple of turns without attacking at some point or I ran out of bullets and went into melee attack without noticing (I thought I had plenty, but have been known to be wrong about that sort of thing
Turned to stone - a picture that will last forever. What a pity @Grond0!
Without reloads you would have finished the whole challenge - maybe!
Without reloads Su´kkas adventure would have ended on the Isle of Balduran. Nearly everything worked fine like on my non-SCS run with Calis, the Cavalier. Split the Werewolfs in the ship, buff yourself up & lure Karoug out to stag him down with the silver dagger using the usual hit-and-run. So far so good!
But - as always - i totally forgot about Kaishas. With no SCS this last fight is trivial but - holy cow - with the improved Werewolves she is not only turning into a deadly Loup Garou but she gets also help from other Werewolves that are constantly streaming in. So the first try ended rather quickly as i ran out of space.
The only chance was: Talk with Kaishas and lure the transformed Loup Garou to the western rocks. Turn invisible and park her while waiting for the Werewolf hordes that are running straight to the ship (and not to Loup Garou!!). Wait until no more Werewolves are streaming in (after 15 there was a pause) and buff yourself up: Strength Potion, Potion of Invulnerability, Oil of Speed, Potion of Heroism (or Power) + Regeneration Potion. Now Su´kka attacked out of invisibity and started another hit-and-run-game. She also learned: Never ever run near the ship OR - even worse - to the eastern entrance because the insane number of 65 (!) Werwolves were only waiting for some fresh meat. With the little space given Su´kka constantly hit Loup Garou moved out for 2-3 seconds and went in again so the attack animation will start promptly when engaging Loup Garou. With perfect timing it might be able to avoid most damage but the little space, wrong timing or pausing too late lead all to heavy injuries. At the end Su´kka had to burn ALL of her bigger healing potions not only because of the high damage output but also because of the insane regeneration that filled Loup Garous lifebar in no time. What the hell of of a fight. And what was all the trouble worth? 1800 xp! Thats less than a Sirene! AAARGH...
Anyway: Su´kka used another invisibilty potion sneaking to the ship and finally leaving this unholy place...
I looked at the Jester today and noticed that the char creation description for BG1 and BG2 is different for me!
In BG1 Jesters song changes with level 9 and 18 and has 2 new unique afflictions distracted and mesmerized.
In BG2 the "old" Jesters song is present which changes at level 15 and 20 and besides confusion at level 1 adds slow and unconscious.
The BG1 version kinda seems nerfed to me but still playable and fun (old version might have been too cheesy)
But what happens once I transfer from 1 to 2?
Note that I have the newest version installed for BG2 and among other things can choose LOB difficulty.
Su´kka is desperatlly trying to make Quarterstaffs work. Or more concrete: Using their superior range to play a safe hit-and-run-game that will give many opponents no chance for counterattack. Problem is that there is no recovery bar like in PoE so its often just pure luck if the attack animation will start immediately (and roll an attacking dice). Even worse: Just running up to enemies will get Su´kka into range that even an opponent with a dagger can retaliate. The best way so far is just waiting and hit the attack button when they are a tiny bit out of max range. Sometimes the animation will start and hit from very big range, sometimes its waiting and waiting so the enemy is getting too close. The amount of micro management is insane but the result is so far "suboptimal". Has anyone tested this out extensivly? Or is the max-range-kiting just a waste of time?
@Harpagornis, have you disabled cosmetic attacks in the feedback menu? That might help you with both striking and dodging.