Two has been making some progress. Baldur's Gate, 3x WoMS did Larze in. Charmed the guard to kill Quenash, although don't know if that was very wise. Made some more money by WoMS'n Sunin and fetched the helmet before I made my way to Durlag's Tower.
First time ever I've seen Ike surviving the Demon Knight. Made my way to the three Greater Doppelgangers which was the first fight I wasn't sure of, but 3x WoMS killed them. And then the 4 Warder's fight, which I really, really wasn't sure of. Protected myself with couple protections, summoned WoMS and hasted them and then activated the Warders, and quickly went invisible. My summons got annihilated in like few seconds, but luckily they didn't see me. I watched them some time and saw Love wandering to the exit so I lured him on to me, and WoMS'd him. This took some time, me going between the levels escaping his spells and refreshing WoMS. But eventually he died and I went to the next level. Got the Kiel's helmet and Durlag's Goblet, nothing really hard doing that.
Worked for Scar, killed the Ogre Mage with an arrow, and I'm now primed to visiting the Iron Throne. Any advice on fighting them, or can I just sneak those papers? Is there any good loot on them? I read somewhere that they had Dimension Door scroll, but that's probably not true.
"Bug: Mobs follow your current location after stealthing instead of your "last" location" That's very good news, even tho I got used to this and thougt it was supposed to be "advanced" A.I.
That's good news I think, and will change tactics in some battles, and remove some of the risk of getting boxed in. I remember my Cavalier rounding up like 100 undead in the SoD Lich cave in one room and blasting them away with the necklace. Will not work soon.
"Bug: Mobs follow your current location after stealthing instead of your "last" location" That's very good news, even tho I got used to this and thougt it was supposed to be "advanced" A.I.
I must say that i will miss that "bug" as it felt really creepy to watch enemy swarms constantly going for you. And to some degree it felt more realistic. The enemy was sighted somewhere around here? Beware! Lets search for this little bugger until we got him. We cant touch him? Lets surround him until he surrender!
Like @Victor_Creed_SFV i also thought that it was part of the advanced AI. Or with other words: Its not a bug, its a feature!
Iron Throne @histamiini? Get in and out unseen - just grab the papers. Or use summons to kill them one by one downstairs. But in my eyes its not worth the time....
Krell is slower than planned as time is lacking. He rushed through the Cloakwood quite hard while using superior Bear speed to avoid any opposition. Only Aldeth Sashenstar was slain on the run even though his magic resistance was really annoying for the Nymphs as not a single spell could touch him. At the end it didnt help him as he was meleed down without problems.
The build-in-speed-boots from his bear let Krell skip Drasus for now so he directly ventured on into the Mines. Well - nearly. Cause he quickly traveled to Durlags Tower for the Wisdom Tome as with it he is able to call in another Nymph for a maximum of five. Nice!
Saving charges from the Sandthief Ring he sneaked directly to Davaeorn, soaked up trap damage and CC with Potion of Magic Blocking and lured everyone to the side room near the entrance as charm did not work this time - damn saves!
After that the usual Necklace of Missile burning followed until the Battle Horrors started hunting Krell. With the help of his five Nymphs he tanked them down one after another (both were nearly dead) and shortly after Davaeorn himself joined the party.
Once the Nymphs had soaked up nearly all of his spells Krell went in to finish off the evil Mage with his dual-wielding Scimitars but thanks to the Stoneskins this took some while. With a lot of loot it was time to go out again - this time facing Drasus.
As the charming failed again and the talking triggered immediately Krell lured Drasus to his five Nymphs. Too bad Drasus was immune to Hold Person thanks to permanent Enrage but at least the Lightning Strikes took him down to badly wounded. After this it was just a litte kiting session switching between Bear form and slingshots which took another ingame hour as Krell had to roll a 15+ to land a hit.
With Boots of Speed Krell rested and lured Kysus to his five Nymphs. They not only soaked up his spells but even dominated the incoming summons. Funny how the big Ogre Berserker hacked down on Kysus who finally went out of spells. Time for Krell to move in and take him down easily. The same procedure was used for Rezdan so only Genthore was left. The poor fighter failed his first saving throws against Hold Person and was slaughtered without retalation. With several Invulnerability Potions and one Potion of Power Krell was finally ready moving on to the city of Baldurs Gate.
There he quickly gathered Helm & Cloak of Balduran before taking another rest. The Dopplegangers and Candlekeep will have to wait a little bit more...
Two sneaked the documents from the Iron Throne. Read @Grond0 trouble with the Ogre Mage waylay, so it was still fresh on my mind and I had prepared Greenstone Amulet and invisibility potion, which I chucked immediately. Don't know if that was necessary because you can probably just run to the keeper. Raided Candlekeep, and made my way to the assassin couple.
Tried to WoMS Slythe which was going very well, until during the 3rd WoMS Krystin joined the battle and confused them, and remember when I asked was it very wise to make the guard attack Quenash? Well it wasn't as it made the Undercellar people enemies, and my confused summons started attacking the people there.
Damn 10 points rep out of the window, well I can handle that. Wait, they still keep going...
Another 4, stop already, pretty please...
Not until I murder one more innocent. Yeah thanks for that summons. Kept refreshing WoMS on Slythe and eventually he died.
Saw Krystin attacking with a sling so I took out my frustration on her and put her down. Had to waste 6k to get my rep back to respectable 14.
I read about @Harpagornis dispel tactic to deal with the Palace ambush, and decided to try that. It was going moderately well, but not fast enough and the mages started to make trouble. I was badly hurt because I had completely neglected my protections and had to start healing myself, but healing took time out of helping the royality, and when I had healed enough I saw that only Belt, couple guards and one summon was still up and quickly ran to help them. And at that point the mage charmed me, and that was it. Damn, just like that. Well back to the drawing board.
Two sneaked the documents from the Iron Throne. Read @Grond0 trouble with the Ogre Mage waylay, so it was still fresh on my mind and I had prepared Greenstone Amulet and invisibility potion, which I chucked immediately. Don't know if that was necessary because you can probably just run to the keeper. Raided Candlekeep, and made my way to the assassin couple.
Sorry to see Two go down @histamiini. I think you were right to be careful with the ogre magi though - on a number of occasions I've seen them follow into Candlekeep and I've died as a result on a couple of occasions.
@Harpagornis Well evidently. Hmm, have to look it up manually, at least in BWS there's no such option.
@Grond0 Oh damn they can follow? Well then I did well.
I'm not really impressed with the thief component of my character (at least in BG1), I'm mostly interested the UAI component of it, but at this pace I'm never going to use it. So I rolled Three, a gnome fighter/illusionist.
Two sneaked the documents from the Iron Throne. Read @Grond0 trouble with the Ogre Mage waylay, so it was still fresh on my mind and I had prepared Greenstone Amulet and invisibility potion, which I chucked immediately. Don't know if that was necessary because you can probably just run to the keeper. Raided Candlekeep, and made my way to the assassin couple.
Sorry to see Two go down @histamiini. I think you were right to be careful with the ogre magi though - on a number of occasions I've seen them follow into Candlekeep and I've died as a result on a couple of occasions.
Condolences @histamiini, but you were very close on your second attempt, so that's definitely promising! If it's any consolation, my F/M/C met his Waterloo yesterday as well. Dealt with Mulahey (by charming him and having him summon a Skeleton Warrior). Left Nimbul to the guards so he wouldn't drink his invisibility potions. Defeated Tranzig with his own summons. But it was game over in Tazok's tent: charmed Venkt with Algernon's cloak, but he somehow and quite suddenly got uncharmed, and he then charmed Conlen back.... Edit: Maybe we can both start over these days? Nice: Fighter/Illusionist is great! I think Wisdom is of more use to a Fighter/Mage than to a F/M/T, what with access to level 9 spells, and thus Wish, in your spell book. Imo, optimal stats would be 18/18/18/16+/15+/11+. That way you can easily get to 18 WIS with the tomes from BG1, for Wish-casting in BG2. In the Bhaal dream you could sacrifice a WIS point, only to get one back in hell. 16 INT is enough for the early game in BG1 if you use the red potion from the Carnival for scribing a wide range of spells, and the INT tome in BG city will get your INT to 17, allowing you to scribe all scrolls without failure if you quaff a potion of in focusing plus one of genius. 11 CHA can be boosted with the CHA tome, Algernon's cloak, and Friends for the best discounts. But out of the three mental stats you may as well compromise on the CHA, as you'll have enough gold as a solo character. And with high reputation, the CHA tome, the helm of glory, and and Friends you can still get positive reaction values for quest rewards. Also, in SoD you buy potions that boost CHA by 4 and in BG2 there's the ring.
I've already rolled a new F/M/C, hope to see some action soon as well.
As for the Candlekeep ambush by the ogre mages, the Greenstone amulet can take too long to activate against spells like Charm Person and Chromatic Orb, which both have minimal casting times and fast spell projectiles. Invisibility, Magic Blocking, or Magic Shielding are the safest options there.
@Blackraven I've forgotten already that wisdom has some meaning for mage, well fat chance that I'll make to that far with my next character. Good luck on your next try too.
I've already collected Drizzt scimitars apparently, as I had my the battle on and game tabbed out writing this.
Krell solved the city quests without problems thank to his five nymph guards so it was time for Candlekeep. I also had some complications with the Ogre Ambush in the past until i switched to following method: After the Chapter talking immediately hit the pause button and gulp an Invisibility Potion. The Ogre Mages arent aware of you so no spells or following into the keep. Until now this has worked 100%. In the past i also used the Sandthief Ring but sometimes it was too slow and things like Horror or Chromatic Orb were on the way.
In Candlekeep Krell charmed Kestor and waited until the rest killed him to get some nice potions for free. Time for the underground. Buffed up against Fire, Lightning and Magic Missiles Krell looted the chests using two charges from Sandthief Ring to get out again. Even though the Ogre Mages dispelled his Invisibility they were far too late before Krell could reach the map border waving a last good bye.
Before engaging Slythe and the Palace it was time for Durlags Tower. Getting the Warden items was no big deal as he was hasted and protected against all trap damage. But unlike @histamiini Love refused to walk around and in the last time there has been a change in the Wardens behaviour. Fear is now always (!) guarding Love and even Avarice begins to rush in more and more. Nearly looks like the game is learning.
However: Buffed up Krell started his hit and run against Love while Fear was unable to touch him thanks to Greenstone Amulet. Everything worked great until i could read "Avarice attacks Krell" in the log. Normally there is enough time gulping an Invisibility Potion but - no - not this time. The Assassin landed a 60 damage backstab and forced Krell to retreat. He lured the little backstabber away from the others before going invisible just to make sure he wont bother him again. Healed up the rest was easy: Hack Love down, grab his Warstone and move downstairs.
Activating dummy two and three, grabbing Kiels Helmet and waiting in the entrance room until the clouds had cleared, open the door again and loot Durlags Goblet. No risk, no hit. Time to get out again.
Back in the city of Baldurs Gate Krell decided to face Slythe. He charmd five guards, parked them near the entrance, buffed up and summoned five nymphs as the backline. Once Slythe was invited to the party the real fun started: First the nymphs negated nearly all damage thanks to their healing and second - this is pure laughing - the little backstabber failed his saving throw against Hold Monsters. Have i said that i like Nymphs? However: The rest was an easy cleanup before Kristin could show up. With the invitation and some nice loot Krell moved out again.
Time for the Palace Ambush: First Krell charmed the Mage, rested once and parked him in a room nearby. Then several guards and charmed nobles were placed around the dopplegangers, Krell fully buffed himself up to join in melee combat and called in five Nymphs. This time luck was on his side and all Dopplegangers targeted the guards or nobles first. With the Nymphs healing up Krell used his dual-Scimitars to hack everything into pieces. Several charges of Durlags Goblet kept him safe so only the Mage - who was parked upstairs - was left. After some waiting (and cups of tea) he transformed but was already surrounded by guards. Even though he managed to kill four of them he ran out of spells so Krell joined the party and meleed him down. Both Dukes survived and barely recieved any scratch.
Sarevok is coming closer...
P.S. Biggest problem now: No gold for Sandthief Ring recharge. Time for some questing...
Krell met an enemy i wasnt even aware of in the past...
Looking for more gold he ventured through the Ankheg Cave, cleared the Bandit Camp and finally took another look on Firewine Bridge. In the eastern part he met Carsa and tried to convince her giving him the jar. She refused, died and suddently Kahrk an Ogre Mage appeared. After some short talking he immediately (!) threw a skull trap at Krell and a thousandth of a second before the magic blocking potion was active everything went dark... 76 damage + 82 damage... so cold...
After that unexpected defeat i looked at his stats: A level 24 Mage with 24-42 damage and 5 APR? With Improved Haste he is up to 8 APR plus Stoneskin plus Mirror Image. Holy cow!!! And deadly Skull Traps. Lol. Maybe its finally time to roll another Mage-char.
The only real downside of the F/D was the lacking invisibility otherwise this run was really really smooth. Next time i should avoid Kahrk. Or is it time for revenge? We will see...
You've never come across Kahrk - you've never lived boy . He comes well equipped with spells in addition to strong defences and melee, so if you want revenge you need to prepare carefully ...
Looked like it was fate meeting him. But who could image that this beast would appear just after some "normal" talking? How often have you died to him @Grond0?
However: I will give a mage-like-character another try - this time an Illusionist who will dual class to Fighter at level 3. Xarhk (how fitting!) is ready for his journey into the wilderness:
@Harpagornis Damn, yeah Kahrk is tough, my Cavalier couldn't beat him in solo either, even when reloading. That Arrow of Slaying has his name written all over, which isn't very helpful for those who can't use bows. But he hasn't got any good loot so it's not worth the effort anyway.
Looked like it was fate meeting him. But who could image that this beast would appear just after some "normal" talking? How often have you died to him @Grond0?
All I can say is that I ran out of fingers and toes a long time ago!
Best of luck with Xahrk, though I'd have to say it looks like his mother has some serious explaining to do to Xahrk's father ...
Three has travelled pretty risk free, each iteration seems like it goes more smoothly. Killed Algernon, charmed and killed Dushai, before starting the rep quests, after which I maxed my level in Mutamin Garden. Charmed Mulahey and feeded him to the Kobbo's, a massive improvement to the previous meetings. Every named bandit in the camp charmed, although this time I had problem with some of the guards staying in the tent. So I gathered the mob outside and lured it far away from the tent. WoMS'd the guards in the tent and looted the place before making my escape. Genthore charmed, the two mages charmed and Drasus WoMS'd. Davaeorn charmed with few tries, no call for help this time. Charm, charm, charm... and invisibility, pretty op, but good.
I read that the Iron Throne had a Minor Sequencer, and things going so quickly I decided to fight them out. Started with charming, didn't work and it alerted everyone. Lured Aasim downstairs who I WoMS'd, Diyab met the same fate. Zhalimar almost died, but he escaped upstairs. At this point I went to have a good night sleep in the nearest inn, because why not? Naaman and Shennara WoMS'd, another rest, Gardush and Alai WoMS'd, Thaldorn WoMS'd. Then when I was killing Zhalimar, Shennara attacked me, again. What there's two of them? Anyway I killed him. Zhalimar was the only one left, and my god, he was using my tactic against me, by escaping between the floors and pwning my WoMS. You can't use my tactics, it's not fair. I didn't know that you can summon different set of summons in different levels at the same time? But when I did, his escaping didn't work anymore and he was meleed down. Ogre Mage waylay dealed with invisibility potion, looted Candlekeep bare and 111 hp wasn't really problem for the traps in the Catacombs. Lets see if I can improve the Slythe battle from the previous mayhem.
Assassin couple. Charmed couple guards, reinforced them with WoMS, Mirror Image, Blur, and lured Slythe on them.
This was going well, and Slythe got soon killed. Should have made my escape at this point.
But this was going so well so why not try to kill Krystin too? She got me with a Skull Trap, but also the guard, and I was just laughing as he joined the battle. Now leave right?
I thought I could still take them, but when I refreshed WoMS, Krystin got me with another Skull Trap. And at the same time all her summons decided to cheat, ignore my summons completely and attack me.
And then started the longest round of all time, must have been like 20 seconds, and I just couldn't chuck that invisibility potion. And that was it.
Last time I ignored my defences all together, now I got cocky and ignored invisibility. Live and learn I guess.
Xahrk on the other hand is flying through any opposition so far. After the ususal Shoal hunting for mage level 3 and getting some gold (Drizzt & Mage Ring), he cleared the basilisks (with only a little looping) jumping to fighter level 6. Once Dushai went down (55 tries this time!) he pushed reputation hard to reach 20 (getting Wand of Fire & Summoning on the run). Time to buy Greenstone Amulet and Sandthief Ring (which he never used so far).
He saved charges from WoMS and kited Greywolf as well as Meilum while Invisibility (learned on first try) made sure that he was always save during his travels. Mulahey was charmed and feeded to his kobolds, while Tranzig wasted his spells on summons and was kited down afterwards. The Bandit Camp was a short story too: Charmed Taurgosz, went in and out of the tent invisible to start luring out enemies. Hakt followed and was obliterated (thanks for the Longbow!), next was Venkt who instakilled Taurgosz. Nice. At this point Xahrk chose the safest option looting Taurgosz while skipping the rest - for now!
Cloakwood was big fun: Summons vs Spiders. Summons won - even though several charges were used. With Spiders Bane +2 and nearly level 7 Xahrk traveld forth to the Mines. Thanks to his endless invisibility he can charm all day long. Feels a bit OP. Drasus failed the second charm and was feeded to the guards. Thanks for the Boots! Genthore, Kysus & Rezdan followed - level 7 reached. Finally!
Next will be Davaeorn. So far the run has been even smoother than with F/D as perma-invisibility and summons make Xahrk nearly untouchable. Time to take a break before overconfidence strikes back again.
P.S: How do you compare F/M/T and F/M so far @histamiini? Was it the right choice to make a change?
P.S: How do you compare F/M/T and F/T so far @histamiini? Was it the right choice to make a change?
I feel like F/I is better quite a lot, more spells, 4th level spells, more health, more Thac0, more APR and monster saves. Illusionist is immune to Chromatic Orb from the get go. And didn't miss thief abilities really at all, traps aren't going to take 100+ hp, and Snares did jack all damage in LoB. Liked it so much that rolled another one, Four.
And again writing this, Drizzt got already killed.
True it feels redundant, as mage can even replicate snares with Skull Traps. Still the UAI would be good addition as it would get you Carsomyr and pretty easy 100 MR. But that feels like dream too far at this point.
I tried charming Davaeorn again and again and again but stopped after 40+ tries. Its not working anymore. Lol. So Xahrk burned everyone down and let his summons do the job. At least he tried. But a misplaced Fireball from his wand and a quick Fireball from Davaoern nearly put him down as i had forgotten to remove the Belt of Antipode. Lol again. With only 6 HP left Xahrk retreated, healed up and removed the damn belt. Once Davaeorn ran out of spells even his Battle Horrors could not save him from death. Ah, this wand is so godlike. More summons. And more. And more.
Before traveling to the city of Baldurs Gate its time to take a rest as overconfidence gets paired with fatigue. Not a healthy combo!
I tried charming Davaeorn again and again and again but stopped after 40+ tries. Its not working anymore. Lol. So Xahrk burned everyone down and let his summons do the job. At least he tried. But a misplaced Fireball from his wand and a quick Fireball from Davaoern nearly put him down as i had forgotten to remove the Belt of Antipode. Lol again. With only 6 HP left Xahrk retreated, healed up and removed the damn belt. Once Davaeorn ran out of spells even his Battle Horrors could not save him from death. Ah, this wand is so godlike. More summons. And more. And more.
Before traveling to the city of Baldurs Gate its time to take a rest as overconfidence gets paired with fatigue. Not a healthy combo!
My experience with charm on mages is very lackluster, too. If I remember correctly (and understood it correctly) non mages get a similar saving throw penalty for the enemy as a specialist mage for the cloak (enchanter??) would get, but mage chars ofc don't get it unless they actually are enchanters.
@Victor_Creed_SFV: Schoolless effects, which constitute most item-based effects as well as a handful of spells, once received save bonuses or penalties depending on the kit of the caster or the victim. But that bug has been fixed in the v2.5 update.
I tried charming Davaeorn again and again and again but stopped after 40+ tries.
It's far easier to charm the guard and send it to kill Davaeorn before he's hostile. If you use farsight to target him you don't even need to be careful about getting in to visual range.
After some good sleep Xahrk is back again, The city was business as usual: Get Baldurans items, solve Scars quests (summons!) and sneak into the Iron Throne (no fighting).
Candlekeep was similar: Trick the Ogre Mages with Invisibility Potion, get potions from Kestor, buff up against traps and quickly loot the chests for Tomes to get out unseen again. Thanks to the Basilisks level 8 was finally reached.
Duke Eltan was saved (summons again) until it was time for Slythe. Buffed up with one charmed guard and five summons he lured the Assassin to the entrance where a quick arrow of dispelling hit. Afterwards it was just cleaning the house with Acid Arrows and some good Ogre bashing. Kristin was still missing before Slythe went down so Xahrk quickly grabbed the invitation.
The Palace Ambush was next. With several guards charmed and the Mage parked nearby Xahrk buffed up and called his summons. Once the talking finished he went invisible to avoid any backstabs and started shooting dispelling arrows once the Assassin revealed himself. After that it was a combination of Acid Arrows and Spiders Bane to take everyone down. Several healing potions were used even though Xahrk was never in real danger. The Mage was parked upstairs and once he transformed summons blocked his way. He still managed to escape so a long hide and run started. While the Mage tried to get any spells out Xahrk dispelled his protections whenever possible. Several minutes later the Mage went out of spells - game over! Again both Dukes survived this time even though both got injured.
Time for Durlags Tower and - hopefully - Sarevok. The Illusionist3 -> Fighter still feels pretty strong...
Four plan was to skip all the pointless guests before the Palace ambush and she has made a quick progress. After getting some levels in Mutamin Garden and getting invisibility I went straight to Mulahey and charm/killed him. I was being so quick that I completely forgot Nimbul and he surprised me, of course I could have escaped that point, but I used WoMS on him after making my retreat. He had time to shoot one spell at me, and I wasn't really bothered by it because of the monster saves. But of course it put me to sleep. Well luck was on my side this time, good omen, perhaps this is the run?
Charmed everyone in the bandit camp, but again couple guards stayed at the tent. Perhaps you shouldn't charm Taugozs on the camp, but lure him to bottom edge of the map first and then charm him, which would empty the camp. Anyway I quickly looted the chest and made my escape. Charmed everyone in the mines. Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep, easy peasy.
Read that Resar in the Thieves Guild had Fireshield Blue, so I charmed him and made him attack my summons. He killed them, but his spell spamming agroed the rogues who then put him down. In the Undercellar WoMS, Haste, Blur, Mirror Image and lured Slythe on them. Hasted mob did quick number on Slythe. Krystin arrived with her summons, I charmed Quenash and made him attack Krystin and got the cloak. After waiting Krystin defenses and her summons to dissappear I eventually WoMS'd her out. Because of multiple invisibilities I wasn't even hit once this time.
Any advice on the Palace ambush @Harpagornis I've been training it some with number Three, and there's a good chance I can take it with WoMS, Haste, DUHM, Mirror Image, Blur, Fireshield Red and Blue, and just melee the battle out, using Dispelling Arrows when needed. The mage is the only risk factor, how do you charm it? I've charmed him, but then he doesn't change and Sarevok doesn't agro when the other five are down.
Btw I was wrong when I said F/I can replicate Snares with Skull Traps, obviously can't because they are Necromancy. Although not as good Delayed Fireballs can though.
Any advice on the Palace ambush @Harpagornis I've been training it some with number Three, and there's a good chance I can take it with WoMS, Haste, DUHM, Mirror Image, Blur, Fireshield Red and Blue, and just melee the battle out, using Dispelling Arrows when needed. The mage is the only risk factor, how do you charm it? I've charmed him, but then he doesn't change and Sarevok doesn't agro when the other five are down.
He does change @histamiini - it just takes a while (charm duration is 12 hours). You're best off resting after charming him, so that you don't have to wait quite so long. You can also turn on autopause so that you can go and have a meal and just let the game freeze when he eventually transforms.
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First time ever I've seen Ike surviving the Demon Knight. Made my way to the three Greater Doppelgangers which was the first fight I wasn't sure of, but 3x WoMS killed them. And then the 4 Warder's fight, which I really, really wasn't sure of. Protected myself with couple protections, summoned WoMS and hasted them and then activated the Warders, and quickly went invisible. My summons got annihilated in like few seconds, but luckily they didn't see me. I watched them some time and saw Love wandering to the exit so I lured him on to me, and WoMS'd him. This took some time, me going between the levels escaping his spells and refreshing WoMS. But eventually he died and I went to the next level. Got the Kiel's helmet and Durlag's Goblet, nothing really hard doing that.
Worked for Scar, killed the Ogre Mage with an arrow, and I'm now primed to visiting the Iron Throne. Any advice on fighting them, or can I just sneak those papers? Is there any good loot on them? I read somewhere that they had Dimension Door scroll, but that's probably not true.
Like @Victor_Creed_SFV i also thought that it was part of the advanced AI. Or with other words: Its not a bug, its a feature!
Iron Throne @histamiini? Get in and out unseen - just grab the papers. Or use summons to kill them one by one downstairs. But in my eyes its not worth the time....
The build-in-speed-boots from his bear let Krell skip Drasus for now so he directly ventured on into the Mines. Well - nearly. Cause he quickly traveled to Durlags Tower for the Wisdom Tome as with it he is able to call in another Nymph for a maximum of five. Nice!
Saving charges from the Sandthief Ring he sneaked directly to Davaeorn, soaked up trap damage and CC with Potion of Magic Blocking and lured everyone to the side room near the entrance as charm did not work this time - damn saves!
After that the usual Necklace of Missile burning followed until the Battle Horrors started hunting Krell. With the help of his five Nymphs he tanked them down one after another (both were nearly dead) and shortly after Davaeorn himself joined the party.
Once the Nymphs had soaked up nearly all of his spells Krell went in to finish off the evil Mage with his dual-wielding Scimitars but thanks to the Stoneskins this took some while. With a lot of loot it was time to go out again - this time facing Drasus.
As the charming failed again and the talking triggered immediately Krell lured Drasus to his five Nymphs. Too bad Drasus was immune to Hold Person thanks to permanent Enrage but at least the Lightning Strikes took him down to badly wounded. After this it was just a litte kiting session switching between Bear form and slingshots which took another ingame hour as Krell had to roll a 15+ to land a hit.
With Boots of Speed Krell rested and lured Kysus to his five Nymphs. They not only soaked up his spells but even dominated the incoming summons. Funny how the big Ogre Berserker hacked down on Kysus who finally went out of spells. Time for Krell to move in and take him down easily. The same procedure was used for Rezdan so only Genthore was left. The poor fighter failed his first saving throws against Hold Person and was slaughtered without retalation. With several Invulnerability Potions and one Potion of Power Krell was finally ready moving on to the city of Baldurs Gate.
There he quickly gathered Helm & Cloak of Balduran before taking another rest. The Dopplegangers and Candlekeep will have to wait a little bit more...
Tried to WoMS Slythe which was going very well, until during the 3rd WoMS Krystin joined the battle and confused them, and remember when I asked was it very wise to make the guard attack Quenash? Well it wasn't as it made the Undercellar people enemies, and my confused summons started attacking the people there.
Damn 10 points rep out of the window, well I can handle that. Wait, they still keep going...
Another 4, stop already, pretty please...
Not until I murder one more innocent. Yeah thanks for that summons. Kept refreshing WoMS on Slythe and eventually he died.
Saw Krystin attacking with a sling so I took out my frustration on her and put her down. Had to waste 6k to get my rep back to respectable 14.
I read about @Harpagornis dispel tactic to deal with the Palace ambush, and decided to try that. It was going moderately well, but not fast enough and the mages started to make trouble. I was badly hurt because I had completely neglected my protections and had to start healing myself, but healing took time out of helping the royality, and when I had healed enough I saw that only Belt, couple guards and one summon was still up and quickly ran to help them. And at that point the mage charmed me, and that was it. Damn, just like that. Well back to the drawing board.
Next time the Mage will maybe need some special treatment - no?
There should be an XP cap option in EET - maybe someone else can help you!
@Grond0 Oh damn they can follow? Well then I did well.
I'm not really impressed with the thief component of my character (at least in BG1), I'm mostly interested the UAI component of it, but at this pace I'm never going to use it. So I rolled Three, a gnome fighter/illusionist.
Fighter/Mage/Thief
Illusionist/Thief
Fighter/Illusionist
Maybe we can both start over these days?Nice: Fighter/Illusionist is great! I think Wisdom is of more use to a Fighter/Mage than to a F/M/T, what with access to level 9 spells, and thus Wish, in your spell book. Imo, optimal stats would be 18/18/18/16+/15+/11+. That way you can easily get to 18 WIS with the tomes from BG1, for Wish-casting in BG2. In the Bhaal dream you could sacrifice a WIS point, only to get one back in hell. 16 INT is enough for the early game in BG1 if you use the red potion from the Carnival for scribing a wide range of spells, and the INT tome in BG city will get your INT to 17, allowing you to scribe all scrolls without failure if you quaff a potion of in focusing plus one of genius. 11 CHA can be boosted with the CHA tome, Algernon's cloak, and Friends for the best discounts. But out of the three mental stats you may as well compromise on the CHA, as you'll have enough gold as a solo character. And with high reputation, the CHA tome, the helm of glory, and and Friends you can still get positive reaction values for quest rewards. Also, in SoD you buy potions that boost CHA by 4 and in BG2 there's the ring.I've already rolled a new F/M/C, hope to see some action soon as well.
As for the Candlekeep ambush by the ogre mages, the Greenstone amulet can take too long to activate against spells like Charm Person and Chromatic Orb, which both have minimal casting times and fast spell projectiles. Invisibility, Magic Blocking, or Magic Shielding are the safest options there.
I've already collected Drizzt scimitars apparently, as I had my the battle on and game tabbed out writing this.
In Candlekeep Krell charmed Kestor and waited until the rest killed him to get some nice potions for free. Time for the underground. Buffed up against Fire, Lightning and Magic Missiles Krell looted the chests using two charges from Sandthief Ring to get out again. Even though the Ogre Mages dispelled his Invisibility they were far too late before Krell could reach the map border waving a last good bye.
Before engaging Slythe and the Palace it was time for Durlags Tower. Getting the Warden items was no big deal as he was hasted and protected against all trap damage. But unlike @histamiini Love refused to walk around and in the last time there has been a change in the Wardens behaviour. Fear is now always (!) guarding Love and even Avarice begins to rush in more and more. Nearly looks like the game is learning.
However: Buffed up Krell started his hit and run against Love while Fear was unable to touch him thanks to Greenstone Amulet. Everything worked great until i could read "Avarice attacks Krell" in the log. Normally there is enough time gulping an Invisibility Potion but - no - not this time. The Assassin landed a 60 damage backstab and forced Krell to retreat. He lured the little backstabber away from the others before going invisible just to make sure he wont bother him again. Healed up the rest was easy: Hack Love down, grab his Warstone and move downstairs.
Activating dummy two and three, grabbing Kiels Helmet and waiting in the entrance room until the clouds had cleared, open the door again and loot Durlags Goblet. No risk, no hit. Time to get out again.
Back in the city of Baldurs Gate Krell decided to face Slythe. He charmd five guards, parked them near the entrance, buffed up and summoned five nymphs as the backline. Once Slythe was invited to the party the real fun started: First the nymphs negated nearly all damage thanks to their healing and second - this is pure laughing - the little backstabber failed his saving throw against Hold Monsters. Have i said that i like Nymphs? However: The rest was an easy cleanup before Kristin could show up. With the invitation and some nice loot Krell moved out again.
Time for the Palace Ambush: First Krell charmed the Mage, rested once and parked him in a room nearby. Then several guards and charmed nobles were placed around the dopplegangers, Krell fully buffed himself up to join in melee combat and called in five Nymphs. This time luck was on his side and all Dopplegangers targeted the guards or nobles first. With the Nymphs healing up Krell used his dual-Scimitars to hack everything into pieces. Several charges of Durlags Goblet kept him safe so only the Mage - who was parked upstairs - was left. After some waiting (and cups of tea) he transformed but was already surrounded by guards. Even though he managed to kill four of them he ran out of spells so Krell joined the party and meleed him down. Both Dukes survived and barely recieved any scratch.
Sarevok is coming closer...
P.S. Biggest problem now: No gold for Sandthief Ring recharge. Time for some questing...
Looking for more gold he ventured through the Ankheg Cave, cleared the Bandit Camp and finally took another look on Firewine Bridge. In the eastern part he met Carsa and tried to convince her giving him the jar. She refused, died and suddently Kahrk an Ogre Mage appeared. After some short talking he immediately (!) threw a skull trap at Krell and a thousandth of a second before the magic blocking potion was active everything went dark... 76 damage + 82 damage... so cold...
After that unexpected defeat i looked at his stats: A level 24 Mage with 24-42 damage and 5 APR? With Improved Haste he is up to 8 APR plus Stoneskin plus Mirror Image. Holy cow!!! And deadly Skull Traps. Lol. Maybe its finally time to roll another Mage-char.
The only real downside of the F/D was the lacking invisibility otherwise this run was really really smooth. Next time i should avoid Kahrk. Or is it time for revenge? We will see...
However: I will give a mage-like-character another try - this time an Illusionist who will dual class to Fighter at level 3. Xarhk (how fitting!) is ready for his journey into the wilderness:
At least some invisibility back!
Best of luck with Xahrk, though I'd have to say it looks like his mother has some serious explaining to do to Xahrk's father ...
I read that the Iron Throne had a Minor Sequencer, and things going so quickly I decided to fight them out. Started with charming, didn't work and it alerted everyone. Lured Aasim downstairs who I WoMS'd, Diyab met the same fate. Zhalimar almost died, but he escaped upstairs. At this point I went to have a good night sleep in the nearest inn, because why not? Naaman and Shennara WoMS'd, another rest, Gardush and Alai WoMS'd, Thaldorn WoMS'd. Then when I was killing Zhalimar, Shennara attacked me, again. What there's two of them? Anyway I killed him. Zhalimar was the only one left, and my god, he was using my tactic against me, by escaping between the floors and pwning my WoMS. You can't use my tactics, it's not fair. I didn't know that you can summon different set of summons in different levels at the same time? But when I did, his escaping didn't work anymore and he was meleed down. Ogre Mage waylay dealed with invisibility potion, looted Candlekeep bare and 111 hp wasn't really problem for the traps in the Catacombs. Lets see if I can improve the Slythe battle from the previous mayhem.
This was going well, and Slythe got soon killed. Should have made my escape at this point.
But this was going so well so why not try to kill Krystin too? She got me with a Skull Trap, but also the guard, and I was just laughing as he joined the battle. Now leave right?
I thought I could still take them, but when I refreshed WoMS, Krystin got me with another Skull Trap. And at the same time all her summons decided to cheat, ignore my summons completely and attack me.
And then started the longest round of all time, must have been like 20 seconds, and I just couldn't chuck that invisibility potion. And that was it.
Last time I ignored my defences all together, now I got cocky and ignored invisibility. Live and learn I guess.
Xahrk on the other hand is flying through any opposition so far. After the ususal Shoal hunting for mage level 3 and getting some gold (Drizzt & Mage Ring), he cleared the basilisks (with only a little looping) jumping to fighter level 6. Once Dushai went down (55 tries this time!) he pushed reputation hard to reach 20 (getting Wand of Fire & Summoning on the run). Time to buy Greenstone Amulet and Sandthief Ring (which he never used so far).
He saved charges from WoMS and kited Greywolf as well as Meilum while Invisibility (learned on first try) made sure that he was always save during his travels. Mulahey was charmed and feeded to his kobolds, while Tranzig wasted his spells on summons and was kited down afterwards. The Bandit Camp was a short story too: Charmed Taurgosz, went in and out of the tent invisible to start luring out enemies. Hakt followed and was obliterated (thanks for the Longbow!), next was Venkt who instakilled Taurgosz. Nice. At this point Xahrk chose the safest option looting Taurgosz while skipping the rest - for now!
Cloakwood was big fun: Summons vs Spiders. Summons won - even though several charges were used. With Spiders Bane +2 and nearly level 7 Xahrk traveld forth to the Mines. Thanks to his endless invisibility he can charm all day long. Feels a bit OP. Drasus failed the second charm and was feeded to the guards. Thanks for the Boots! Genthore, Kysus & Rezdan followed - level 7 reached. Finally!
Next will be Davaeorn. So far the run has been even smoother than with F/D as perma-invisibility and summons make Xahrk nearly untouchable. Time to take a break before overconfidence strikes back again.
P.S: How do you compare F/M/T and F/M so far @histamiini? Was it the right choice to make a change?
And again writing this, Drizzt got already killed.
As the Mage gets invisibility as well as knock plus loads of protective spells the thief feels a bit redundant no?
Xahrk is nearing Davaeorn...
Godspeed for Xahrk.
Before traveling to the city of Baldurs Gate its time to take a rest as overconfidence gets paired with fatigue. Not a healthy combo!
If I remember correctly (and understood it correctly) non mages get a similar saving throw penalty for the enemy as a specialist mage for the cloak (enchanter??) would get, but mage chars ofc don't get it unless they actually are enchanters.
Candlekeep was similar: Trick the Ogre Mages with Invisibility Potion, get potions from Kestor, buff up against traps and quickly loot the chests for Tomes to get out unseen again. Thanks to the Basilisks level 8 was finally reached.
Duke Eltan was saved (summons again) until it was time for Slythe. Buffed up with one charmed guard and five summons he lured the Assassin to the entrance where a quick arrow of dispelling hit. Afterwards it was just cleaning the house with Acid Arrows and some good Ogre bashing. Kristin was still missing before Slythe went down so Xahrk quickly grabbed the invitation.
The Palace Ambush was next. With several guards charmed and the Mage parked nearby Xahrk buffed up and called his summons. Once the talking finished he went invisible to avoid any backstabs and started shooting dispelling arrows once the Assassin revealed himself. After that it was a combination of Acid Arrows and Spiders Bane to take everyone down. Several healing potions were used even though Xahrk was never in real danger. The Mage was parked upstairs and once he transformed summons blocked his way. He still managed to escape so a long hide and run started. While the Mage tried to get any spells out Xahrk dispelled his protections whenever possible. Several minutes later the Mage went out of spells - game over! Again both Dukes survived this time even though both got injured.
Time for Durlags Tower and - hopefully - Sarevok. The Illusionist3 -> Fighter still feels pretty strong...
Charmed everyone in the bandit camp, but again couple guards stayed at the tent. Perhaps you shouldn't charm Taugozs on the camp, but lure him to bottom edge of the map first and then charm him, which would empty the camp. Anyway I quickly looted the chest and made my escape. Charmed everyone in the mines. Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep, easy peasy.
Read that Resar in the Thieves Guild had Fireshield Blue, so I charmed him and made him attack my summons. He killed them, but his spell spamming agroed the rogues who then put him down. In the Undercellar WoMS, Haste, Blur, Mirror Image and lured Slythe on them. Hasted mob did quick number on Slythe. Krystin arrived with her summons, I charmed Quenash and made him attack Krystin and got the cloak. After waiting Krystin defenses and her summons to dissappear I eventually WoMS'd her out. Because of multiple invisibilities I wasn't even hit once this time.
Any advice on the Palace ambush @Harpagornis I've been training it some with number Three, and there's a good chance I can take it with WoMS, Haste, DUHM, Mirror Image, Blur, Fireshield Red and Blue, and just melee the battle out, using Dispelling Arrows when needed. The mage is the only risk factor, how do you charm it? I've charmed him, but then he doesn't change and Sarevok doesn't agro when the other five are down.
Btw I was wrong when I said F/I can replicate Snares with Skull Traps, obviously can't because they are Necromancy. Although not as good Delayed Fireballs can though.