You know, with SCS installed and with NPCs moved to more convenient locations, a good way to deal with both Silke and the Beregost spiders would be to charm the now-in-Beregost Tiax and use his ghast in combination with a charmed Silke to kill the spiders before turning the ghast on Silke herself. Firebead Elvenhair is the other powerful charmable critter in the area, but as an elf he has 90% resistance to Algernon's Cloak.
Gerde would also be a good charm candidate for ankheg farming. Unlike Ajantis, she would get full LoB bonuses.
Or let Silke and the spiders deal with each other. She's pretty easy to charm and can kill some spiders while getting poisoned herself. With a character using weapons there's a possibility of missing a killing shot on her, but you can ensure that's not dangerous to the PC by only attacking when she's about to die of poison damage anyway.
Everything went so nice and slow that i somehow forgot how to fight. Maybe Mardirr hugged too many trees in the wilderness forgetting how dangerous the world can be. Lol. His end however was a real pity as he tried to fight Neira in Nashkel - normally an easy kill. He summoned five big bad monsters who gave her a good beating but... damn it... right before she would have went down Neira casted an uninterrupted Unholy Smite. With no Potion of Magic Blocking left and the entrance blocked by big Ogres the spell landed and Madirr failed his save... 34 damage + 54 damage... hagh... ack... ohh...
At least i know now that the Mage/Thief combo works very nice and offers a lot of potential.
Maybe i should restart with a Gnome Illusionist/Thief next as @Arctodus refuses to play his one!
Yeah, tough luck @Harpagornis ! What I did with my Illusionist is to lure Neira outside, go invisible and let the town guards do the job for me. It's not like she's giving a ton of xp.
I haven't posted about my Illusionist yet because I've been sick in the last few days, but I'll try to post about her tonight. She's grinding for xp to get to level 7 before going into Cloakwoods.
Soooo, here's Arcanella. Not a really gnomish portrait, but whatever.
That's already her second iteration, because I foolishly took a chance at an area of transition and didn't cast Invisibility before traveling. And, waddaya know, I was ambushed by a bunch of thugs. Pincushioned to death.
This one's doing great. She's closing on level 7. She has fully charged Wand of Monster Summoning and Wand of Paralyzation. Neeto. Now, I wanna recharge a Wand of Fire and the Necklace of Missiles before going into Davaeorn's Lair. Other than that, Blind, Invisibility, a little Charm on the side and crapton of darts were doing the job.
The familiar was great help too. I have the cat who can go in stealth and backstab. Against regular LoB enemies, that ain't much, but it's better than nothing, even moreso when you consider the meek offensive output of a level 1 mage.
Although, that lil' bugger of a familiar landed devastating backstab against Marl (I fought him after calming him, because more xp ). Look at the damage done by those little scratch !!
I don't know how he could do that, because the math don't make sense on that one. Oh well, I'll take it anyway !!
I just restarted with another Mage dual class combo - this time i will try to reanimate the Cleric. With some Mage levels the chances to survive the Crusader Attacks should be much higher thanks to Web & Wands. Well - hopefully!
Xolkar the Human Transmuter kited down Shoal and gulped two Potion of Genius which allowed him to learn some important spells. Invisibility will make him untouchable and with the Tome of Leadership he pushed Charisma to 12. With the Friends spell and Algernons Cloak this will be 20 - enough to get another 25% bonus on all prices.
I also have never realized that when using the Wand of Missiles right after a sling shot you get another attack immediately for free. Am i right that this works with all wands and all kinds of attacks? Bug or intended? However: You see that i am severly lacking knowledge about Mages...
I don't know how he could do that, because the math don't make sense on that one. Oh well, I'll take it anyway !!
The damage is quite correct, though I admit it made nice reading for me too the first time I saw it . The high value is because Marl is one of those opponents who left his melee weapon at home - so you add 4 to the d3 basic damage roll (giving a maximum 7 in your case), multiply by 5 for the backstab (thanks to the extra LoB levels) for 35 and double again for the critical hit ...
with the Tome of Leadership he pushed Charisma to 14. With the Friends spell and Algernons Cloak this will be 20 - enough to get another 25% bonus on all prices.
I also have never realized that when using the Wand of Missiles right after a sling shot you get another attack immediately for free. Am i right that this works with all wands and all kinds of attacks? Bug or intended? However: You see that i am severly lacking knowledge about Mages...
If you're using the cloak you only actually need to start with charisma of 11 (friends increases by 6).
You are indeed able to do more than one action in a round. Ignoring things like improved alacrity, you're normally limited to one spell type action a round (spell, special ability, use of wand or potion, quickslot action etc). You're also limited to a particular number of physical attacks (typically 1 for a mage) - but the limitations are applied separately. So you can shoot with a sling and then cast a spell all in a round (it's also possible to do a small amount of movement, but if you try and move a lot you risk triggering the start of a new combat round which can significantly delay your next attack or spell action). The way round you do actions is often important to optimize your available actions. For instance if you cast a slow spell (say Armor with a casting time of 9) you won't then be able to fit an attack in the same round. Attacking first and then casting is slightly more efficient in that situation. With quick casting spells you tend to be better casting first (particularly when you have multiple attacks in a round).
Another question @Grondo or @semiticgod regarding Cleric/Mage: Does the enemy-save penalty for specialist mages also contribute to the cleric spells of the same school? If yes: Which specialist Mage would bring in most benfits for this class-combo?
@Harpagornis: Yes, the specialist penalty (and bonus to save against incoming spells) also applies to cleric spells. Innate spells with spell schools would also be affected.
Cleric spells aren't usually very offensive-oriented, so the penalties aren't very important. Invokers get a stronger Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades; Enchanters get a stronger Hold Person and Greater Command; and Necromancers get a stronger Holy Smite and Finger of Death. Here is a table containing cleric spells with saving throws and their respective schools. Everything in blue denotes Spell Revisions-exclusive spells (SR sometimes changes schools or replaces spells outright); everything in green represents spells that cast sub-spells that also have spell schools. The green stuff should behave just the same but I'm not absolutely sure.
@Harpagornis Yes, the specialization bonus applies to the cleric's spells.
For the biggest advantage, I'd say that Enchanter is a strong candidate : spells like Command, Hold Person, Domination, Confusion will be a lot harder to resist with this combo. And you don't lose much, because you'll still have them sweet skellies with ya anyway. Maybe dual at level 5 to have access to Haste ? A bunch of hasted skellies will pretty much take you through bg1 without a problem.
29 here this time @Arctodus - not that bad. I think that it was Brakko who managed to charm him on the very first try once. Never happened again.
Xolkar is only making slow progress but with invisibility and skeletons he is almost always on the safe side. Reputation is back again at 20 so the main quest will follow soon...
I have taken a look on the calculations @histamiini made regarding which class would get max HP in SoA/ToB. There is missing one class and i wonder why no one has mentioned it: The Beastmaster! Thanks to good HP progression and its Familiar he should be the new champion of all classes in LoB:
After failing in LoB with a 52nd attempt to get a mage through in my 'long-life' challenge (will I ever learn to use the maximum possible force in every encounter - I suspect not ) I thought I'd have another go at this. I didn't fancy playing another pure mage or sorcerer, but seeing all the action with mage duals I pulled up a starting save made ages ago for an illusionist intended to dual early.
Her pseudo-dragon soon made a mess of Shoal to allow her to dual to fighter and Algernon's Cloak enabled the sirines in the Beregost Temple to be pulled outside to the doom - regaining her mage abilities. She did actually know PfP, but the pseudo-dragon nibbled all the basilisks for her - with a bit of help from Korax against Mutamin.
Now up to level 6, Freda bought invisibility and headed up to Ulgoth's Beard where charming Dushai at the 12th attempt was pretty good. Then she went south to Nashkel to learn LMD as a Bhaal power - also picking up Drizzt's scimitars on the way as her future main weapons.
She set Silke up against Karlat in order to inherit a 2-handed weapon with a view to killing the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower over the top of an invisible familiar. However, using a non-proficient weapon she needed a critical to hit and quickly gave up on that as too much of a long job. Instead, she sneaked up onto the roof where more basilisk goodness was enough for level 7.
As it has been "proven" that Beastmasters are the "strongest" class for this challenge i reactivated Lyzz.
Korlasz was a short piece of work after charming one Assassin out of stealth and using two War Dogs as decoys. Thanks to Arrows of Dispelling and Acid Arrows buffed up Lyzz did not need to use any inviibility potion before the surrender talking triggered. Easy!
With 60k+ gold she bought Arrows of Detonation, Dispelling & Acid (plus some potions) before starting the March to Dragonspear. In Coastway Crossing nothing special: She solved all quests, avoided getting death-trapped and sided with the Dwarves in the undead infested Mines. Thanks to PfU & the Secret Revealed & Acid Arrows Coldhearth went down in no time.
After level 9 was reached her HP are up to 162 now (with Helm). Not an easy takedown - no? Her small little animal friends might not be the strongest but so far they worked nice as decoys. Am i missing any weapons? So far: No! With two Clubs +2 and three points in dual-wielding she can give almost anyone a good beating even though missing Full Plate doesnt make her the best tank. But thats what Durlags Goblet is for! Stealth almost always works now and is another safe keeper.
Bridgefort will be next - and the temple. Lets see if the Mistress of Beasts will keep on going!
Lyzz rushed hard through the temple. Well - almost.
Almost cause the bugbear trap hit hard for 98 damage. As she refused to heal Lyzz tried to find a safe resting spot - and failed. She was ambushed one time. Two times, three times. At the end the whole temple, bugbear cave and the outdoor area was filled with monsters with no more place to hide. LOL. Too bad i forgot to take screenshots there but the last safe place she found was inside (!!) the spider cave. Funny no?
Once she was fully healed again she chose the safest path: With PfM she triggered all traps and made sure that not a single spell would touch her (say no to Unholy Smite, Domination etc.).
Ziatar was the first to go down after Lyzz found the sweetspot where she could fire one Acid Arrow after another without any retaliation. The AI needs an update here for sure!
After that she lured the Neothelid to the entrance room and played hit & retreat. The best: She did not get hit a single time!
Akanna was even easier once the Aerial Servants were parked out of the room. The poor priest was just smahed into the ground!
On her travels she also found the Spellsword +2 sword and an Elven Chainmail. Too bad she cannot use them. Another - damn it - that she could not dagger Morentherene to death. Should she take the risk fighting the beast? Nah, dont think so!
Freda has carried on clearing areas - mainly using blind and Algernon's Cloak for preparation then switching to ankheg plate when finishing things off. She's just got her final BG1 level and will be heading to Nashkel Mine shortly.
Feeling really strong at the moment i took another think about Morentherene and said: Lets get her!!!
And so i buffed up Lyzz and protected her against Fear and Poison. Once Stoneskin and Haste got dispelled the Green Dragon dropped a lot of its killing potential and even though Lyzz got hit by wing buffet once she stood up again before anyone could touch her.
From now on it was just a classic shoot & run while the reg potion kept ticking. But it wasnt enough. The constant poison breath forced her to drink Durlags Goblet five times before the 41th Acid Arrow landed and took the ferocious beast down.
Was Lyzz in danger zone any time? Not really. She dropped to 32 HP once but an immediate full heal kept her on the safe side. Like always the small dragons and wyvern were more of a help than real trouble as they blocked Morenthene again and again. Poor big one.
However: With the newly aquired green dragon scales Lyzz will get a very nice shield soon!
EDIT: Bridgefort surrendered, 34 Arrows +2 for Fire Elemental, path to Coalition Camp is free, Dragonshield +3 ready!
An early morning session for Freda saw her try to gild the lily and fail: - Mulahey escaped charm a few times and summoned defenders. She beat up a few of those before being able to rest and eventually succeed with a charm. Mulahey then died to his own skeleton warrior. - I rarely use the Wand of Paralyzation, but decided to give that a go against Nimbul and it worked first time. - she got free entry to the Bandit Camp and abused that by charming Taurgosz. - used a first potion of the run (invisibility) to ensure escaping Tazok's tent without fighting. - travelled invisibly through the Cloakwood. Used web and then 3 lots of monsters on the amazons. Molkar then tried an ambush supported by spiders and got a few scorchers for his trouble. Had to leave some of the loot from the second ambush behind, but still had enough to recharge the monster summoning and fire wand. - finally at the Mine, charmed Drasus & co. - sneaked down to Davaeorn and charmed the guard. Used him to pull the battle horrors back for disposal then, after triggering some traps and resting to heal, the guard was charmed again and sent to kill Davaeorn. I forgot to pick up his stuff though and, by the time I realized I didn't have the key, Freda had already rested lots of times while knocking treasure chests open and Davaeorn's equipment had evaporated. - after doing pretty much all of the City encounters I decided to risk taking on the Iron Throne. The basic strategy was to lure individual enemies downstairs and that worked well enough, though Freda did have to survive a potentially fatal backstab from one of the Shennaras. - I remembered to go and get the tome from Durlag's Tower and then realised I hadn't killed Shangalar's daughters to get another Necklace of Missiles. That's not necessary for a mage, but who can resist it? The first 2 quickly died to summons, but the final one proved more elusive. Partly because of that, when she was finally trapped in a corner I didn't make Freda run away even though I suspected the spell being cast was indeed cone of cold. As that's not a spell I often try and tank though I wasn't really thinking about how vicious that would be in LoB and Freda's save of 4 let her down .
Damn it @Grond0! But where was the Belt of Antipode?
Lyzz went through one of the craziest maps i had for a long time: Underground River.
Here nearly everything went wront after she managed to kill the Myconids. She then tried to find a safe spot refreshing abilities. Well - theoretically. But in practice: No! She was ambushed over and over again so a growing number of monsters tried to hunt her down:
There were some more on the run before she was forced to travel away - resting in Dragonspear Castle. Lol.
Once she was back i thought to be clever avoiding the trap around the Cyclop. But again: No! Another trap (i forgot about) fired and hit Lyzz - which for some reason turned the Crusaders hostile:
She quickly retreated to the SE but - before going invisible - she activated the spider group too. Great. Luring everything to the east she used Oil of Speed to kill Jamven the Druid who wears the Root of the Problem Club (+3 weapon for Big B!) in the west. I always thought that he could be killed without retaliation as he is rooted in place. But again-again: No! He suddenly broke free and summoned in a whole bunch of monsters:
A quick invisibilby potion saved Lyzz life but she was now hunted down by: 1.) Crusaders + 2.) Spiders + 3.) Druid summons. Great!!!
From now on it took more than one hour before Lyzz could clear most enemies abusing Algernons Cloak, Nymph Cloak and quick retreats into the tunnels. More than one time the instant teleporting Phase Spiders nearly managed to trap her so i charmed only when sitting on the travel point. Many fails and charms later Lyzz managed to sneak back to Jamven trying to charm him too. On the sixth try she got lucky but when retreating to the south she activated a group of Orcs. Holy cow - would this end never?
However: As you can see the Orcs helped to take down Jamven quite a lot. Quickly grabbing his Club Lyzz stealthed away not bothering about another group of hunters. Time for Hephernaan!!!
I must admit that this "bugged" follow-current-location script made this one a sweaty thriller. Its a real pity that it will be "fixed" soon turning an challenging aspect in some kind of nonsense...
Damn it @Grond0! But where was the Belt of Antipode?
Crowded out long ago. As a mage Freda was carrying several wands and as a fighter she had the 3 physical resistance belts. Add in a few weapons and there wasn't a lot of inventory space spare . In any case that belt has probably done more harm than good for me. Nothing like forgetting what you're wearing when a fireball homes in on you ...
After reading about the poverty runs from @Grond0 and @semiticgod i decided to give it a try using the rules of this challenge. And yes, i am aware that Sarevok himself seems to be the end for any class. But who cares about Sarevok when there is so much fun along the path? Maybe the restrictions of the poverty run will give me a new perpective on some fights or maybe even new ideas for my next runs. Maybe. Maybe not. At least its forcing me to think outside the usual box. I like that!
As i had been most successful with Eklun the Totemic Druid in the past i decided to start with this most promising class. Good protections, a lot of different spell options and last but not least very good summons should rank this one quite high. Lets see how it works for real...
Okay, okay. One has to respect enemies even more now. Thats what i had to learn in a most harmful way. However: After dying one time to Firebead (Charm Sequencer), one time getting caught in the Bandit Camp (Pixie Dust is sooo slow) and one time mistiming the very start against Davaeorn (this damn slow Pixie Dust again) my fourth Totemic Druid is doing pretty fine and has reached level 10 after the following route:
Killed Shoal using a Spirit Summon. His sweet little Lion had no problems taking the Sirene down. → Level 3
In Beregost peaced Marl and charmed Tiax on second try. His Ghast killed all Spiders, Silke & Firebead Elvenhear in one go. The only real danger was Firebead but he wasted nearly all of his spells abusing going in and out. Once he went outside the Ghast had no big problems taking him down. Silke was even easier as the Ghast managed to stunlock her to death. 10810 XP aquired → Level 4
Helped Tenya: Killed Sonner and grabbed Bowl → Level 5
Killed all Baslisks and Mutamin using Korax plus two Spirit Wolves (immune to petrify). With the Wolves supporting Korax the whole map was cleaned in nearly no time and even the only threat – Mutamin – got stunlocked quite hard this time → Level 7
Killed Battle Horrors and Doom Guards at Durlags Tower. Two Lions and the Nymphs with Call Lightning plus healing made this one really easy.
Killed all Sirenes along the coast with two Spirit Lions – poor Sirenes were completly helpless → Level 8
Cleared Ankheg Cave and farmed some more outside with two Spirit Lions and Nymphs → Level 9
Used Pixie Dust to sneak up to the Greater Basilisks on top of Durlags Tower. Used Spirit Wolves and Nymphs to take them down quite fast (Call Lightning!).
Killed Bassilus with two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs. Insect Swarm and Call Lightning put him down fast.
Killled Kelddath and his Sirenes afterwards with Spirit Lions and Nymphs while hiding using Pixie Dust. While the Nymphs could do nothing against the Spirit Summons even the High Priest himself proved to be an easy prey. A lot of XP for little effort → Level 10
Mulahey was no big deal using Spirit Wolf stunlock and three Nymphs as backup. Once the evil priest went down and most enemies being paralyzed invisible Krell grabbed the letters and his symbol before sneaking out again. It wont get much easier here - no?
Tranzig had no chance against Spirit Lions and Nymphs – poor Mage.
The Bandit Camp however was a real fun part: Luring everyone out of the tent one by one while also killing Taurgosz and his army of bandits took some time but – thanks to immunity to normal weapons – most enemies could not even touch the Spirit Summons. The Wolves made short work of the only real danger – Venkt – and stunlocked him to death while also taking out Taurgosz himself (with the help of Call Lighnting from the Nymphs). After my third Druid had died here i did some testing and for some reason Venkt is nearly always casting Slow or sometimes Horror first but never Chromatic Orb. This gave Krell enough time to hide outside again and his summons the opportunity to cancel his spell. However: After one more rest two Spirit Lions killed the army guarding the tent so Krell could continue with clearing the last bandits hiding inside. Once all Bandits had been lured into death Krell grabbed the documents (Protection from Lightning!) and moved out again.
Krell killed two innocents before moving on to the Cloakwood so after the next sleeping he aquired Horror as his next Bhaal power – this should be most useful later on. Hopefully. The Cloakwood areas – as well as the ambushes – were skipped using Pixie Dust. Same for the Mines: Thanks to invisibilty Krell sneaked through to Davaeorn not bothering about Drasus and friends. The key against Davaeorn was charming the Guard (five tries). Once charmed Krell send in the guard and soaked up the trap damage while still being invisible (killing Davaeorn with the guard before triggering the talking doesnt work anymore as his Battle Horrors always gets activated). Without the guard Davaeorn would wait until Krell shows up but with the guard attacking he triggered his CC sequencer and ported away. Krell just had to make sure running quickly to the western room with the chimney fire as Davaeorn tends teleport to the other rooms first. Everything worked fine so all he had to do now was to wait until his guards had streamed in and only then to summon his two bear friends (most HP).
Too bad both got killed by Davaeorns spells in combination with the Blacktalon Elites enchanted arrows. Time for another rest! Two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs attacked in the next round – but went down. On the good side: They managed to kill a lot of guards and let the Elites wasted all of their Ice Arrows. Good. Another uninterrupted rest upstairs followed. And again the Lions plus Nymphs went in hard managing to kill nearly all guards before Davaeorn himself took them down. The final rest followed. Switching to Wolves now for stunlocking the Mage Krell casted Insect Swarm before sending his army in. Davaeorn got hit but his teleport field saved him - but not for long! Cause the Wolves constantly hunted him down hitting through Stoneskin (i like that bonus cold damage a lot) which interrupted most of his spells. Two minutes later the evil Mage went down with one Spirit Wolf and two Nymphs still alive. What a fight!
Before moving out of the mines he rested once more to gain Iron Skin cause with it he could cast Pixie Dust without problems after leaving the mines. Protected by invisibility he traveled back to the Friendly Arms Inn and moved on to the city of Baldurs Gate. There are interesting times ahead...
P.S. Lyzz is still sleeping in Coalition Camp right before the Crusader Attacks will start...
The key against Davaeorn was charming the Guard (five tries). Once charmed Krell send in the guard and soaked up the trap damage while still being invisible (killing Davaeorn with the guard before triggering the talking doesnt work anymore as his Battle Horrors always gets activated).
Impressive stuff Harpagornis . It's always necessary to deal with the battle horrors before Davaeorn, but the guard can lure them away. I would have thought you could kill them without too much trouble, but if not just use pixie dust to disappear before sending the guard back in under Farsight to kill Davaeorn.
I honestly would not bother taking any character on a solo LoB poverty run with SCS and Ascension, even outside of a no-reload context. Without mods or glitches to radically overhaul the gameplay, a Totemic Druid is doomed.
I don't mean to be discouraging, and if @Harpagornis has fun, that's all that matters. But I've gone over every class in the game and tackling Sarevok in a solo LoB poverty run is a hopeless exercise without reloads.
Yeah @Grond0 - that should be much easier. Especially as the Battle Horrors cannot touch the Spirit Summons. Once they are down Farsight should make this one an easy one even though it feels really cheesy. Going against all of them was much more of a thriller!
And yes again, these runs are just for fun @semiticgod and i dont bother that Sarevok will be the end.
The city was pretty straightforward for Krell the Totemic Druid: Kill the Dopplegangers and sneak into the Iron Throne unseen. Easy!
A main headache proved to be the Ogre Ambush in front of Candlekeep as my tests had shown that the chance to get through them is at best 50% when running just to the gatekeeper. So i tested Chaotic Commands to neutralize at least the charms - but - what happened then? ALL Ogre Mages switched to Magic Missiles which proved to be an instant kill. Pixie Dust was too slow - like always - as the cast is interrupted by the SCS script. Damn it. Throwing in Horror sometimes worked on one Ogre Mage but chances were still slim.
Of all Druids the Avenger has the best chances here as Improved Invisibilty will go through right before the Ogres appear and the script stops casting (but only if you hit pause right after the cutscene!). This also meant: Spells with Casting Time 4 or less will not be aborted. Barkskin with Casting Time 5 on the other hand always was canceled.
Are there any other ways around? Traps are no option, haste is not available and pixie dust is by far too slow...
At the end i decided to take the risk by just walking through and - as luck was on my side - Krell successsfully got into Candlekeep without any Ogre Mages following him. The rest was easy: Use invisibility to sneak through the underground. On his way out one Ogre Mage used Detect Invisibility but a quick retreat and recast put Krell on the safe side again.
Back in the city Slythe was the next target and i must admit that it was much easier than expected. Protected by Iron Skin and using True Sight to cancel his invisibility two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs helped Krell. Even though Hold Monster did not work this time the Nymphs kept the Lions alive long enough before Slythe dropped to the ground. Kristin did not show up this time while Krell wasnt hit a single time as his summons soaked up all attention. Thats how it should be!
Time to face the dreaded Palace Ambush. Protected by Iron Skin and with two Insects Swarms memorized Krell called in two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs who were placed at the outside to heal up the others. Now the first Insect Swarm was cast before triggering the talking targeting one Spirit Lion. Once the talking ended he was running around as long as all Dopplegangers had transformed just to make sure all of them got hit. From now on it was all about healing everyone up and targeting one Doppleganger with the Spirit Lions - mainly the one around Belt and Liia. The Nymphs did a very good job while Krell casted the second Insect Swarm right when the Mage went back in. Again all Dopplegangers were hit and with the combined power of the guards all of them dropped down - except for the slippery Mage. Krell played hide and run using every corner to avoid any spellcasting on him - hoping the badly wounded Belt would survive (Liia at this point was still unharmed). It took several minutes before the guards and the remaining Spirit Lion were able to catch the Mage (who was running out of spells) so everyone was forced to close combat. Two Guards went down before this damn mage followed them while Belt also was nearly dead. The rest was easy as Krell parked Belt far away from Sarevok who again raged down Liia in no time. After this onslaught Krell was ported to the Thieves Guild awaiting the one and only fight... too bad this seems to be the end.
In hindsight the whole run was easier than expected thanks to the nearly always powerful Spirit Summons who helped a lot in the always dangerous palace ambush. The most critical point was by far the Ogre ambush as here pure luck put Krell through. The rest was cautious risk-minimizing combined with some metagame knowledge. If there only would be a way around Sarevok SoD could be another big fun package (if one survives the undead in the beginning). We will see...
Okay, that was the end: Even though his Spirit Lions and Nmyphs managed to take down Angelo Sarevok and the rest of his crew overwhelmed him in no time and Diarmid had no problem landing a final acid arrow...
Good going to get that far Harpagornis . If I were attempting that final fight my main tactic would be to get the enemies to fight among themselves - there would be a chance of eliminating Angelo and Semaj by sending in weak summons to run round in the hope of being killed by area damage. Even if that were successful the odds would be extremely slim, but I suppose if you got lucky enough with hold monster it wouldn't quite be impossible.
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Gerde would also be a good charm candidate for ankheg farming. Unlike Ajantis, she would get full LoB bonuses.
At least i know now that the Mage/Thief combo works very nice and offers a lot of potential.
Maybe i should restart with a Gnome Illusionist/Thief next as @Arctodus refuses to play his one!
I haven't posted about my Illusionist yet because I've been sick in the last few days, but I'll try to post about her tonight. She's grinding for xp to get to level 7 before going into Cloakwoods.
That's already her second iteration, because I foolishly took a chance at an area of transition and didn't cast Invisibility before traveling. And, waddaya know, I was ambushed by a bunch of thugs. Pincushioned to death.
This one's doing great. She's closing on level 7. She has fully charged Wand of Monster Summoning and Wand of Paralyzation. Neeto. Now, I wanna recharge a Wand of Fire and the Necklace of Missiles before going into Davaeorn's Lair. Other than that, Blind, Invisibility, a little Charm on the side and crapton of darts were doing the job.
The familiar was great help too. I have the cat who can go in stealth and backstab. Against regular LoB enemies, that ain't much, but it's better than nothing, even moreso when you consider the meek offensive output of a level 1 mage.
Although, that lil' bugger of a familiar landed devastating backstab against Marl (I fought him after calming him, because more xp
I don't know how he could do that, because the math don't make sense on that one. Oh well, I'll take it anyway !!
Xolkar the Human Transmuter kited down Shoal and gulped two Potion of Genius which allowed him to learn some important spells. Invisibility will make him untouchable and with the Tome of Leadership he pushed Charisma to 12. With the Friends spell and Algernons Cloak this will be 20 - enough to get another 25% bonus on all prices.
I also have never realized that when using the Wand of Missiles right after a sling shot you get another attack immediately for free. Am i right that this works with all wands and all kinds of attacks? Bug or intended? However: You see that i am severly lacking knowledge about Mages...
The Basiliks will be next...
If you're using the cloak you only actually need to start with charisma of 11 (friends increases by 6).
You are indeed able to do more than one action in a round. Ignoring things like improved alacrity, you're normally limited to one spell type action a round (spell, special ability, use of wand or potion, quickslot action etc). You're also limited to a particular number of physical attacks (typically 1 for a mage) - but the limitations are applied separately. So you can shoot with a sling and then cast a spell all in a round (it's also possible to do a small amount of movement, but if you try and move a lot you risk triggering the start of a new combat round which can significantly delay your next attack or spell action). The way round you do actions is often important to optimize your available actions. For instance if you cast a slow spell (say Armor with a casting time of 9) you won't then be able to fit an attack in the same round. Attacking first and then casting is slightly more efficient in that situation. With quick casting spells you tend to be better casting first (particularly when you have multiple attacks in a round).
Thanks a lot!
Cleric spells aren't usually very offensive-oriented, so the penalties aren't very important. Invokers get a stronger Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades; Enchanters get a stronger Hold Person and Greater Command; and Necromancers get a stronger Holy Smite and Finger of Death. Here is a table containing cleric spells with saving throws and their respective schools. Everything in blue denotes Spell Revisions-exclusive spells (SR sometimes changes schools or replaces spells outright); everything in green represents spells that cast sub-spells that also have spell schools. The green stuff should behave just the same but I'm not absolutely sure.
For the biggest advantage, I'd say that Enchanter is a strong candidate : spells like Command, Hold Person, Domination, Confusion will be a lot harder to resist with this combo. And you don't lose much, because you'll still have them sweet skellies with ya anyway. Maybe dual at level 5 to have access to Haste ? A bunch of hasted skellies will pretty much take you through bg1 without a problem.
Edit : ninja'd by semiticgod.
Xolkar is only making slow progress but with invisibility and skeletons he is almost always on the safe side. Reputation is back again at 20 so the main quest will follow soon...
Max HP Pool (CON 25, no Items)
Beastmaster : 17x9 + 3x25 + 58 (ToB Familiar) = 286 HP
Mage2 -> Fighter: 6x2 + 17x7 + 3x30 + 58 (ToB Familiar) = 279 HP
Barbarian & Dwarven Defender: 19x9 + 3x31 = 264 HP
Fighter: 17x9 + 3x31 = 246 HP
Only one combo can beat this even though its more of theoretical value:
Fighter39 → Mage1: 17x9 + 3x30 + 58 (ToB Familiar) = 298 HP
Pretty cool - no?
Her pseudo-dragon soon made a mess of Shoal to allow her to dual to fighter and Algernon's Cloak enabled the sirines in the Beregost Temple to be pulled outside to the doom - regaining her mage abilities. She did actually know PfP, but the pseudo-dragon nibbled all the basilisks for her - with a bit of help from Korax against Mutamin.
Now up to level 6, Freda bought invisibility and headed up to Ulgoth's Beard where charming Dushai at the 12th attempt was pretty good. Then she went south to Nashkel to learn LMD as a Bhaal power - also picking up Drizzt's scimitars on the way as her future main weapons.
She set Silke up against Karlat in order to inherit a 2-handed weapon with a view to killing the battle horrors at Durlag's Tower over the top of an invisible familiar. However, using a non-proficient weapon she needed a critical to hit and quickly gave up on that as too much of a long job. Instead, she sneaked up onto the roof where more basilisk goodness was enough for level 7.
Korlasz was a short piece of work after charming one Assassin out of stealth and using two War Dogs as decoys. Thanks to Arrows of Dispelling and Acid Arrows buffed up Lyzz did not need to use any inviibility potion before the surrender talking triggered. Easy!
With 60k+ gold she bought Arrows of Detonation, Dispelling & Acid (plus some potions) before starting the March to Dragonspear. In Coastway Crossing nothing special: She solved all quests, avoided getting death-trapped and sided with the Dwarves in the undead infested Mines. Thanks to PfU & the Secret Revealed & Acid Arrows Coldhearth went down in no time.
After level 9 was reached her HP are up to 162 now (with Helm). Not an easy takedown - no? Her small little animal friends might not be the strongest but so far they worked nice as decoys. Am i missing any weapons? So far: No! With two Clubs +2 and three points in dual-wielding she can give almost anyone a good beating even though missing Full Plate doesnt make her the best tank. But thats what Durlags Goblet is for! Stealth almost always works now and is another safe keeper.
Bridgefort will be next - and the temple. Lets see if the Mistress of Beasts will keep on going!
Almost cause the bugbear trap hit hard for 98 damage. As she refused to heal Lyzz tried to find a safe resting spot - and failed. She was ambushed one time. Two times, three times. At the end the whole temple, bugbear cave and the outdoor area was filled with monsters with no more place to hide. LOL. Too bad i forgot to take screenshots there but the last safe place she found was inside (!!) the spider cave. Funny no?
Once she was fully healed again she chose the safest path: With PfM she triggered all traps and made sure that not a single spell would touch her (say no to Unholy Smite, Domination etc.).
Ziatar was the first to go down after Lyzz found the sweetspot where she could fire one Acid Arrow after another without any retaliation. The AI needs an update here for sure!
After that she lured the Neothelid to the entrance room and played hit & retreat. The best: She did not get hit a single time!
Akanna was even easier once the Aerial Servants were parked out of the room. The poor priest was just smahed into the ground!
On her travels she also found the Spellsword +2 sword and an Elven Chainmail. Too bad she cannot use them. Another - damn it - that she could not dagger Morentherene to death. Should she take the risk fighting the beast? Nah, dont think so!
Bridgefort and the Crusaders are next...
And so i buffed up Lyzz and protected her against Fear and Poison. Once Stoneskin and Haste got dispelled the Green Dragon dropped a lot of its killing potential and even though Lyzz got hit by wing buffet once she stood up again before anyone could touch her.
From now on it was just a classic shoot & run while the reg potion kept ticking. But it wasnt enough. The constant poison breath forced her to drink Durlags Goblet five times before the 41th Acid Arrow landed and took the ferocious beast down.
Was Lyzz in danger zone any time? Not really. She dropped to 32 HP once but an immediate full heal kept her on the safe side. Like always the small dragons and wyvern were more of a help than real trouble as they blocked Morenthene again and again. Poor big one.
However: With the newly aquired green dragon scales Lyzz will get a very nice shield soon!
EDIT: Bridgefort surrendered, 34 Arrows +2 for Fire Elemental, path to Coalition Camp is free, Dragonshield +3 ready!
- Mulahey escaped charm a few times and summoned defenders. She beat up a few of those before being able to rest and eventually succeed with a charm. Mulahey then died to his own skeleton warrior.
- I rarely use the Wand of Paralyzation, but decided to give that a go against Nimbul and it worked first time.
- she got free entry to the Bandit Camp and abused that by charming Taurgosz.
- used a first potion of the run (invisibility) to ensure escaping Tazok's tent without fighting.
- travelled invisibly through the Cloakwood. Used web and then 3 lots of monsters on the amazons. Molkar then tried an ambush supported by spiders and got a few scorchers for his trouble. Had to leave some of the loot from the second ambush behind, but still had enough to recharge the monster summoning and fire wand.
- finally at the Mine, charmed Drasus & co.
- sneaked down to Davaeorn and charmed the guard. Used him to pull the battle horrors back for disposal then, after triggering some traps and resting to heal, the guard was charmed again and sent to kill Davaeorn. I forgot to pick up his stuff though and, by the time I realized I didn't have the key, Freda had already rested lots of times while knocking treasure chests open and Davaeorn's equipment had evaporated.
- after doing pretty much all of the City encounters I decided to risk taking on the Iron Throne. The basic strategy was to lure individual enemies downstairs and that worked well enough, though Freda did have to survive a potentially fatal backstab from one of the Shennaras.
- I remembered to go and get the tome from Durlag's Tower and then realised I hadn't killed Shangalar's daughters to get another Necklace of Missiles. That's not necessary for a mage, but who can resist it? The first 2 quickly died to summons, but the final one proved more elusive. Partly because of that, when she was finally trapped in a corner I didn't make Freda run away even though I suspected the spell being cast was indeed cone of cold. As that's not a spell I often try and tank though I wasn't really thinking about how vicious that would be in LoB and Freda's save of 4 let her down
Lyzz went through one of the craziest maps i had for a long time: Underground River.
Here nearly everything went wront after she managed to kill the Myconids. She then tried to find a safe spot refreshing abilities. Well - theoretically. But in practice: No! She was ambushed over and over again so a growing number of monsters tried to hunt her down:
There were some more on the run before she was forced to travel away - resting in Dragonspear Castle. Lol.
Once she was back i thought to be clever avoiding the trap around the Cyclop. But again: No! Another trap (i forgot about) fired and hit Lyzz - which for some reason turned the Crusaders hostile:
She quickly retreated to the SE but - before going invisible - she activated the spider group too. Great. Luring everything to the east she used Oil of Speed to kill Jamven the Druid who wears the Root of the Problem Club (+3 weapon for Big B!) in the west. I always thought that he could be killed without retaliation as he is rooted in place. But again-again: No! He suddenly broke free and summoned in a whole bunch of monsters:
A quick invisibilby potion saved Lyzz life but she was now hunted down by: 1.) Crusaders + 2.) Spiders + 3.) Druid summons. Great!!!
From now on it took more than one hour before Lyzz could clear most enemies abusing Algernons Cloak, Nymph Cloak and quick retreats into the tunnels. More than one time the instant teleporting Phase Spiders nearly managed to trap her so i charmed only when sitting on the travel point. Many fails and charms later Lyzz managed to sneak back to Jamven trying to charm him too. On the sixth try she got lucky but when retreating to the south she activated a group of Orcs. Holy cow - would this end never?
However: As you can see the Orcs helped to take down Jamven quite a lot. Quickly grabbing his Club Lyzz stealthed away not bothering about another group of hunters. Time for Hephernaan!!!
I must admit that this "bugged" follow-current-location script made this one a sweaty thriller. Its a real pity that it will be "fixed" soon turning an challenging aspect in some kind of nonsense...
Hope Lyzz has a good trip in hell.
After reading about the poverty runs from @Grond0 and @semiticgod i decided to give it a try using the rules of this challenge. And yes, i am aware that Sarevok himself seems to be the end for any class. But who cares about Sarevok when there is so much fun along the path? Maybe the restrictions of the poverty run will give me a new perpective on some fights or maybe even new ideas for my next runs. Maybe. Maybe not. At least its forcing me to think outside the usual box. I like that!
As i had been most successful with Eklun the Totemic Druid in the past i decided to start with this most promising class. Good protections, a lot of different spell options and last but not least very good summons should rank this one quite high. Lets see how it works for real...
Okay, okay. One has to respect enemies even more now. Thats what i had to learn in a most harmful way. However: After dying one time to Firebead (Charm Sequencer), one time getting caught in the Bandit Camp (Pixie Dust is sooo slow) and one time mistiming the very start against Davaeorn (this damn slow Pixie Dust again) my fourth Totemic Druid is doing pretty fine and has reached level 10 after the following route:
Killed Shoal using a Spirit Summon. His sweet little Lion had no problems taking the Sirene down. → Level 3
In Beregost peaced Marl and charmed Tiax on second try. His Ghast killed all Spiders, Silke & Firebead Elvenhear in one go. The only real danger was Firebead but he wasted nearly all of his spells abusing going in and out. Once he went outside the Ghast had no big problems taking him down. Silke was even easier as the Ghast managed to stunlock her to death. 10810 XP aquired → Level 4
Helped Tenya: Killed Sonner and grabbed Bowl → Level 5
Killed all Baslisks and Mutamin using Korax plus two Spirit Wolves (immune to petrify). With the Wolves supporting Korax the whole map was cleaned in nearly no time and even the only threat – Mutamin – got stunlocked quite hard this time → Level 7
Killed Battle Horrors and Doom Guards at Durlags Tower. Two Lions and the Nymphs with Call Lightning plus healing made this one really easy.
Killed all Sirenes along the coast with two Spirit Lions – poor Sirenes were completly helpless → Level 8
Cleared Ankheg Cave and farmed some more outside with two Spirit Lions and Nymphs → Level 9
Used Pixie Dust to sneak up to the Greater Basilisks on top of Durlags Tower. Used Spirit Wolves and Nymphs to take them down quite fast (Call Lightning!).
Killed Bassilus with two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs. Insect Swarm and Call Lightning put him down fast.
Killled Kelddath and his Sirenes afterwards with Spirit Lions and Nymphs while hiding using Pixie Dust. While the Nymphs could do nothing against the Spirit Summons even the High Priest himself proved to be an easy prey. A lot of XP for little effort → Level 10
Mulahey was no big deal using Spirit Wolf stunlock and three Nymphs as backup. Once the evil priest went down and most enemies being paralyzed invisible Krell grabbed the letters and his symbol before sneaking out again. It wont get much easier here - no?
Tranzig had no chance against Spirit Lions and Nymphs – poor Mage.
The Bandit Camp however was a real fun part: Luring everyone out of the tent one by one while also killing Taurgosz and his army of bandits took some time but – thanks to immunity to normal weapons – most enemies could not even touch the Spirit Summons. The Wolves made short work of the only real danger – Venkt – and stunlocked him to death while also taking out Taurgosz himself (with the help of Call Lighnting from the Nymphs). After my third Druid had died here i did some testing and for some reason Venkt is nearly always casting Slow or sometimes Horror first but never Chromatic Orb. This gave Krell enough time to hide outside again and his summons the opportunity to cancel his spell. However: After one more rest two Spirit Lions killed the army guarding the tent so Krell could continue with clearing the last bandits hiding inside. Once all Bandits had been lured into death Krell grabbed the documents (Protection from Lightning!) and moved out again.
Krell killed two innocents before moving on to the Cloakwood so after the next sleeping he aquired Horror as his next Bhaal power – this should be most useful later on. Hopefully. The Cloakwood areas – as well as the ambushes – were skipped using Pixie Dust. Same for the Mines: Thanks to invisibilty Krell sneaked through to Davaeorn not bothering about Drasus and friends. The key against Davaeorn was charming the Guard (five tries). Once charmed Krell send in the guard and soaked up the trap damage while still being invisible (killing Davaeorn with the guard before triggering the talking doesnt work anymore as his Battle Horrors always gets activated). Without the guard Davaeorn would wait until Krell shows up but with the guard attacking he triggered his CC sequencer and ported away. Krell just had to make sure running quickly to the western room with the chimney fire as Davaeorn tends teleport to the other rooms first. Everything worked fine so all he had to do now was to wait until his guards had streamed in and only then to summon his two bear friends (most HP).
Too bad both got killed by Davaeorns spells in combination with the Blacktalon Elites enchanted arrows. Time for another rest! Two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs attacked in the next round – but went down. On the good side: They managed to kill a lot of guards and let the Elites wasted all of their Ice Arrows. Good. Another uninterrupted rest upstairs followed. And again the Lions plus Nymphs went in hard managing to kill nearly all guards before Davaeorn himself took them down. The final rest followed. Switching to Wolves now for stunlocking the Mage Krell casted Insect Swarm before sending his army in. Davaeorn got hit but his teleport field saved him - but not for long! Cause the Wolves constantly hunted him down hitting through Stoneskin (i like that bonus cold damage a lot) which interrupted most of his spells. Two minutes later the evil Mage went down with one Spirit Wolf and two Nymphs still alive. What a fight!
Before moving out of the mines he rested once more to gain Iron Skin cause with it he could cast Pixie Dust without problems after leaving the mines. Protected by invisibility he traveled back to the Friendly Arms Inn and moved on to the city of Baldurs Gate. There are interesting times ahead...
P.S. Lyzz is still sleeping in Coalition Camp right before the Crusader Attacks will start...
I don't mean to be discouraging, and if @Harpagornis has fun, that's all that matters. But I've gone over every class in the game and tackling Sarevok in a solo LoB poverty run is a hopeless exercise without reloads.
And yes again, these runs are just for fun @semiticgod and i dont bother that Sarevok will be the end.
The city was pretty straightforward for Krell the Totemic Druid: Kill the Dopplegangers and sneak into the Iron Throne unseen. Easy!
A main headache proved to be the Ogre Ambush in front of Candlekeep as my tests had shown that the chance to get through them is at best 50% when running just to the gatekeeper. So i tested Chaotic Commands to neutralize at least the charms - but - what happened then? ALL Ogre Mages switched to Magic Missiles which proved to be an instant kill. Pixie Dust was too slow - like always - as the cast is interrupted by the SCS script. Damn it. Throwing in Horror sometimes worked on one Ogre Mage but chances were still slim.
Of all Druids the Avenger has the best chances here as Improved Invisibilty will go through right before the Ogres appear and the script stops casting (but only if you hit pause right after the cutscene!). This also meant: Spells with Casting Time 4 or less will not be aborted. Barkskin with Casting Time 5 on the other hand always was canceled.
Are there any other ways around? Traps are no option, haste is not available and pixie dust is by far too slow...
At the end i decided to take the risk by just walking through and - as luck was on my side - Krell successsfully got into Candlekeep without any Ogre Mages following him. The rest was easy: Use invisibility to sneak through the underground. On his way out one Ogre Mage used Detect Invisibility but a quick retreat and recast put Krell on the safe side again.
Back in the city Slythe was the next target and i must admit that it was much easier than expected. Protected by Iron Skin and using True Sight to cancel his invisibility two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs helped Krell. Even though Hold Monster did not work this time the Nymphs kept the Lions alive long enough before Slythe dropped to the ground. Kristin did not show up this time while Krell wasnt hit a single time as his summons soaked up all attention. Thats how it should be!
Time to face the dreaded Palace Ambush. Protected by Iron Skin and with two Insects Swarms memorized Krell called in two Spirit Lions and three Nymphs who were placed at the outside to heal up the others. Now the first Insect Swarm was cast before triggering the talking targeting one Spirit Lion. Once the talking ended he was running around as long as all Dopplegangers had transformed just to make sure all of them got hit. From now on it was all about healing everyone up and targeting one Doppleganger with the Spirit Lions - mainly the one around Belt and Liia. The Nymphs did a very good job while Krell casted the second Insect Swarm right when the Mage went back in. Again all Dopplegangers were hit and with the combined power of the guards all of them dropped down - except for the slippery Mage. Krell played hide and run using every corner to avoid any spellcasting on him - hoping the badly wounded Belt would survive (Liia at this point was still unharmed). It took several minutes before the guards and the remaining Spirit Lion were able to catch the Mage (who was running out of spells) so everyone was forced to close combat. Two Guards went down before this damn mage followed them while Belt also was nearly dead. The rest was easy as Krell parked Belt far away from Sarevok who again raged down Liia in no time. After this onslaught Krell was ported to the Thieves Guild awaiting the one and only fight... too bad this seems to be the end.
In hindsight the whole run was easier than expected thanks to the nearly always powerful Spirit Summons who helped a lot in the always dangerous palace ambush. The most critical point was by far the Ogre ambush as here pure luck put Krell through. The rest was cautious risk-minimizing combined with some metagame knowledge. If there only would be a way around Sarevok SoD could be another big fun package (if one survives the undead in the beginning). We will see...
Okay, that was the end: Even though his Spirit Lions and Nmyphs managed to take down Angelo Sarevok and the rest of his crew overwhelmed him in no time and Diarmid had no problem landing a final acid arrow...