Hey there guys ! I don't know if you remember, but I got an Illusionist run going on. I'm nowhere near as productive as you guys (good god, you steamroll through that game fast), but I still manage to play here and there to make progress.
It's not a poverty run though (my character is not a sorcerer anyway). After having recharged wands of Summoning, of Paralyzation and of Fire (too quite a good penny to do so, believe me), I went through Davey' lair. I charmed Davey's guard to have him lure the Battle Horrors in a corner and then waited for Davey's goons to surround him. Blasted them from out of sight with fireballs, used a scroll of Prot. from Magic and ran around while kiting Davey's with a charge of wand of Summoning here and there. He went down without too much of a problem.
I went into Baldur's Gate to shop a little. To my surprise, I found that the Sorcerous Sundries had no less than 20 scrolls of Otiluke's Resilient Sphere :
It should be more than enough to be safe against Big B in SoD. I now have to find enough Fireshield Blue to make that strat work though.
It still is a no-reload game for now, but if my character dies, I probably will still continue to see if I can manage to take down Big B, if only for theoretical and academic purpose...
After doing different poverty test runs and thinking hard about picking a viable class i have came to the conclusion that this very specific challenge needs a unique character as well. When looking at the different druid fractions like Shadow Druids and Avengers it should be very possible – even from a roleplaying perspective – that the most promising members of those fanatic druids will be blessed with an ability that puts them into a Rage-like status. Let us call it „Natures Wrath“. Combined with the abilities of the Totemic Druid this should be a lot of fun. Hopefully. However: Lets take a look at the character:
„Krell has always been drawn to his foster fathers tales of the unspoiled wilderness. He occasionally found exotic flowers pressed and long forgotten between the pages of tomes, and often spent long hours studying natures varied forms in some of the librarys many journals. It was the member of a druidic splinter group visiting Candlekeep for unknown reasons which taught him that nature can only protected in a very aggressive manner, often relying on violence to achieve their aims. Krell showed great devotion to these ideals getting enraged whenever he saw anyone harming plants in the Keeps garden or treating animals badly. This harsh behaviour has caused several brawls with in his eyes careless guards and it can be stated that Krell surely has taken too many blows on his head. On the other side he got the undefined feeling that pure wisdom can only be found in himself so he constantly tries to call in manifestations of his inner spirits. As a result of this contemplation Krell refuses any items from the material plane as he treat them as useless. It is his foremost wish that someday he will leave the sterile walls of Candlekeep to worship and protect the Earthmother in her own presence.“
Advantages: - May use Rage ability once per day - May use Summon Spirit Animal
Disadvantages: - No Shapeshifting - Low Intelligence
What happened so far?
Krells first incarnation died at the very beginning when he underestimated a quick target switch from Carbos who instakilled him with a 9 damage hit combined with poison - ouch!!
Krells second incarnation has already reached level 8 while using his Spirit Summons and Charm Person to let his minions do the dirty job. The main danger until level 9 will be the dreaded Bandit Archer ambush so Krell tries to avoid the main streets. Its still amazing how powerful the Spirit Animals are as for instance the always dangerous Sirenes are (nearly) completly helpless against them. Same for Basilisks. Rage was used only once so far to negate Firebeads Charm Person Sequencer. Shillelag is casted mostly when the Nymphs managed to paralyze enemies to push DPS a bit more. Next target: Greywolf!
Six is already parked at the gates of Temple of Bhaal. Started with collection run, couldn't use any of Drizzt stuff so I sold them for hefty sum right from the start. Killed Algernon and charm killed Dushai (50 tries) After getting few levels in Mutamin Garden and getting invisibility I went and charmed Mulahey. Lured bandit's to the bottom of the map without being invisible, which empties the tent for easier looting. Charmed the boss bandits for nice loot. Davaeorn took also like 30 tries of charming, this was one of those runs.
Slythe was dealed with hasted WoMS plus two Skelis, then when WoMS'n Krystin she got me with area effect panic, but I had learned to be invisible in all times against her which saved me. Dobbelganger mage charmed and parked to the strairs, rest, WoMS + 2 Skelis, and hasted everybody. Also made Liia invisible which was improvement to previous. Nevertheless only two guards survived barely. Waited mage to appear, then waisted his spells against WoMS and neverending WoMS eventually put him down. Liia spoke behind invisibility and Sarevok appeared, WoMS said hello and that was it. Charming the mage and putting Liia invisible makes this event pretty trivial, which basically makes whole BG1 LoB Solo challenge trivial for melee/magic characters, this was the only one where I had constantly problems. And I say that before killing Sarevok which is pretty bad omen.
EDIT: Also forgot that Wardens were again WoF'd onto move, follow them and when Love is somewhat separated lure him with ranged weapon, then WoMS his life out.
Sarevok. Invisibility, say hello, park in distance and wait 2 hours of PfM to end. Start spamming WoF so that Semaj, Diarmid and Tazok gets hit.
When Semaj died, I used PfU for the Skeli and continued spamming WoF, and after 40 strikes, all three were dead. Next spam Angelo from distance, this time he didn't agro at all, does distance matter? Took 30 strikes from WoF.
Next start spamming WoF vs. Sarevok and whenever Skeli wanders to you WoMS it out.
Soon all five Skelis were dead, only wasted one PfU on the fight, which means 5 left for SoD. Continued spamming WoF the last 30 strikes, then 48 from the Necklace of Missiles, but Sarevok was only badly injured at this point. Mental note onself, bring another WoF, so you don't even have to look at the evil brother when he dies. Anyways WoMS and sling easily dispatched him.
This was the best performance yet, didn't take any damage at all, and only fought Sarevok little from distance. Onwards to SoD.
Greywolf getting held AND feared AND dominated in between - poor one!
Does anybody know what has happened here? I thought about a hidden easter egg and sacrificed a Nymph right in front of the bloody rocks - but - nothing happened. Too bad. However: In the NW i met Hafiz who gave me a PfM scroll after some talking - i never realized that you can get another one here!
Finally Krell ran into an archer ambush! 11 Hobgoblins tried to shoot him down but - thanks to the Earthmother - they failed so he managed to escape with 48 HP left. Phew!
So far Krell is still in XP farming mode to reach level for Pixie Dust, Iron Skin and Insect Swarm. Go, go go!
P.S. Keep going @histamiini - looks like a pretty smoot run so far!
Well you only need like 2 PfM's, for Crusader Attacks and Bel, and 2 PfU's for SoD starter dungeon and Lich crypt. Last run was the only time I went beyond 2 PfM's, but its good backup to have and I still always collect all of them, because it doesn't take much effort. Maybe I should start thinking of some uses for them...
You remember Kahrk the deadly Ogre Mage near Firewine Bridge? It has been told that he has slain endless numbers of heroes before - even more with SCS installed.
However: The Totemic Druid really got a very easy way beating this guy thanks to the Spirit Summons. All Krell had to do was call in two Spirit Wolves (hit through Stone Skin) and guide them with three Nymphs for some backup healing (Skull Trap, Acid Arrows). As Kahrk wields a non-magical Katana he cannot touch the wolves and therefore was drained slowly but surely. At the end even his Mirror Images and Stoneskin could not save him so Krell walked in raged up right before the Ogre went down. Finally i got my revenge!
@Harpagornis Well done, that SoB is tough for many characters without Arrows of Slaying.
Six used one invisibility to take Potros surrender, and one PfU and two invisibilities to reach Korlasz. Took almost a minute. Had to think how to deal her because no Dispel Arrows. Out of sight, Greater Malison, Dispel, and couple Silences silenced everyone, invisibility, surround with hasted WoMS and start the attack, she went down so fast that she couldn't even surrender.
Chapter 8 So I'm thinking passing everything in SoD that doesn't help vs. Crusader Attacks or Bel and it's going quickly. Hasted three Skelis and two Dire Wolfs to help the Dwarves and they absolutely massacred the undead, also hasted Semaj, and none of my summons got killed. As always with invisibility gathered all the undead to the room and used PfU.
After killing the Sentry started spamming WoF, and if not all are there, you can lure more of them with WoMS. Two PfU's are definitely enough to deal the whole crypt without any risk, which is great way to get levels. Whole crypt netted 140k xp and got me to second last level already. This time I took no risks with Coldheart and used Secret Revealed and he got pwned. There's no point of saving this, as there are only one other Lich which it's needed. Invisibility behind the tent got me through the parley.
One is always learning new things here. But from the beginning. With level 10 reached Krell started the main quest and sneaked unseen to Mulahey. The poor priest got stunned to death by two wolves and three nymphs so he was never able to call in his summons. Tranzig was even easier and feeded to two lions. Next Bandit Camp.
In my first test run i messed up here slaughtering the whole camp before managing to grab the documents. Not so this time. Krell called in two Lions and three Nymphs who instakilled Taurgosz with Call Lightning so no call-guard-trigger this time. Once the bandits near Taurgosz were dead Krell intended to lure the named ones out of the tent one by one before opening the chest. But look what had happened:
Thanks to the fighting with Taurgosz and friends the whole tent went outside. All Krell now had to do was to lure them away using his Spirit Lions and sneak through. Protected from Lightning he grabbed the documents and went invisible again. Job done!
Next will be the Cloakwood. Mother Earth is calling!!
Krell managed to sneak through the Cloakwood only clearing the spider cave and waving a short hello to Amarande. Thanks to Pixie Dust it was no problem reaching Davaeorn so Krell called in his Nymphs and let them cast Mental Domination on him. But - damn it - they failed and the evil Mage went hostile and turned invisible. Krell switched the plan and cleared the Battle Horrors first (who cannot touch the Spirit Summons!) before triggering the traps.
He went one step too far and soaked two Magice Missiles and a Glyph which took him down to 10 HP. Ouch! Once the Nymphs had healed him up again he talked to Davaeorn but moved into the wrong direction - back to the stairs. This led into huge troubles as the Mage teleported into the entrance room and immediately dispelled his invisibilty while Krell himself got webbed. Damn it! Only the summons saved his life as they somehow managed to distract the Mage long enough before he could move again. If Davaeorn had targeted Krell the game would have been over. Phew!
Once all guards had streamed in the Nymphs dominated several guards while the spirit summons soaked up all magic arrows. After another rest it was time to clean the house. A lot of guards went down before Davaeorn himself engaged so the Lion & Bear quickly targeted the Mage as the guards could not touch them anymore. They interrupted several spellcasts and took him down without problems. All guards vanished - time to get out of this unholy place!
Baldurs Gate was no big deal: Kill the Dopplegangers and sneak into the Iron Throne unseen. Ready for Candlekeep? I hoped so! The Ogre Mage ambush is one of the bottlenecks for Totemic Druids but with Krells Rage ability things should look much better. In theory. In practice Krell waited until the Ogres had started their casting before activating Rage as they tend to use Magic Missiles alltogether when they realize CC immunity - which would have killed Krell for sure. He got lucky and soaked up one Magic Missile, Glitterdust and two charms before reaching the guard with 73 HP. What a relief.
P.S. Tested the Ogre Ambush a bit and after ten tries the result was pretty clear: 10/10 with delayed Rage!
Decided to still help vampire Tsolak for the Troll Iounstone, 4 hasted Skelis and 1 WoMS were able to do hunters in. Also sneaked Firefly without fighting.
Chapter 10. Didn't know that you can find Enchanted Weapon already in the Troll Cave, although you only need it against Bel. Btw @Harpagornis you know Martyr's Morningstar, wikia says critical doesn't count LoB bonus, say it isn't so?
Morentherene, no. Ziatar didn't activate so he and the mages got WoF'd with 22 strikes from distance. PoP, Greenstone Amulet, WoMS and melee did Neothelid in without problems. Akanna WoMS'd when I lured the servants away from her. Hit Last level of 8/9/8, and surrendered the fort. With 5 hasted Skelis I was able to kill the Crusader Mage before he summoned the Fire Elemental.
I would say SoD is also pretty trivial to the Crusader Attacks, 3xPfU, PfP, hasted summons, invisibility, max level, all the good items, only fight those you really need, no risk.
Btw why does it feel like the 5D Skelis are much better than 12D WoMS, or is that a collective 12D? What does the xD mean anyway?
Without items and precharming the Mage this one should be interesting. At least i thought so. Without Spirit Summons my Berserker/Druid had a very rough time here but thanks to one Bear and Lion (my dps-tank-combo) combined with three Nymphs in the backline Krell prepared the battlefield to his liking. Protected from Iron Skin he immediately casted Insect Swarm after the talking ended so he made sure that everyone would suffer - especially the Mage.
After that he quickly retreated (like always no one was targeting him) and watched the fight closely while always trying to avoid any contact with the fire shooting Mage. The Spirit Summons pushed the DPS a lot while the Nymphs kept the Dukes and guards at high health. Dispel Magic did not work this time and after Krell did one step too much the Mage managed to disrupt his second Insect Swarm. Damn it! Would this be the turning point against him? No, cause the Dopplegangers went down surprisingly fast and even though the Mage started his AoE casting Krell called in another Nymph for healing and let his bear & lion go for the hunt.
It was really funny to watch how the Mage desperatly tried to get rid of the spirit animals - but failed. The guards kept the sword spiders busy that have been called in by the Doppleganger - one minute later the last enemy went down. Krell quickly moved his summons around Sarevok while luring Belt away to the east. Thanks to this nearly perfect execution both Dukes survived (Belt only barely injured, Liia badly wounded) - time to face his evil brother one more time...
Chapter 10 This is a great chapter, lots of non risky gear collecting culminating to probably the hardest battle in BG1. Found Lower Resistance in Goblin Waylay, lured Myconids in Underground River to the Crusader mob to dispose, when I disposed the Shrieker. Zadroth was Secret Revelead for very important Robe of Aptitude. Freed the Slug for Hydra flail just in case. WoMS'd the first mob in the basement. Hasted 5 Skelis and because I Silenced the two other mages besides Heprenaan, this went better than ever before. Made my escape. I've now 37 Heroism potions and 10 Power potions which should give enough buffing for the to battles ahead.
Next up Crusader Attacks, checked the enemies and their saves vs. spells are 5-8. This is my Grande Plan.
Premade minor sequence, Web, Web for 7-10 saves. Premade spell sequence, Greater Malison, Web, Web, for 11-14 saves. 5 hasted Skelis for backline only. PfM + PfP + buff to 300 hp. Soft Feet for immunity against Web.
- Trolls, hit with spell sequence, two Cloudkills scrolls, melee + 8 Fireballs. - Mages, hit the ground with minor sequence before hand, make sequence Greater Malison, Silence, Silence for 14-17 saves and hit with it. Two Cloudkills + melee + 8 Fireballs. - If I can, I have 17 Skull Trap scrolls to prepare for the fighters, which should give an average of 390 damage. Do you know @Harpagornis if this is possible?
EDIT: I can actually make another Minor Sequence from scrolls.
Yeah, Skull Trap right before the Crusader Attacks works great @histamiini . As a Thief i was always trapping the spawning area(s) - which made every wave a lot easier!
1. Doom + Charm Person on Semaj -> Nope! 2. Animal Summoning II so the Bear and Panther took Semaj and Tazok close to death 3. Insect Swarm casted on Semaj before triggering the talking with Sarevok 4. Tazok and Semaj died shortly after, Spirit Lion engaged Angelo 5. Thanks to his protections the Lion had to do some work before Angelo went down 6. Called in four Nymphs and used the Spirit Lion as a decoy for Diarmid and Sarevok 7. Mental Domination worked on last cast so Diarmid started shooting Acid Arrows 8. Once the Nymphs had soaked up targeting the Spirit Lion and Krell retreated
So far everyting worked fine but now the problems started as Diarmid was constantly switching to the Skeleton Warriors. Krell moved in with his Spirit Lion and made sure both attacked Sarevok to hurt him a lot. Indeed they managed to bring his evil brother down to 589 HP before both went down but - damn it - the Skeleton Warriors had remembered Krells presence and started hunting him. With three Skeletons on his back and no invisibility available the last Spirit Lion had to fight a hopeless battle. They still managed to put Sarevok below 500 HP but at the end it wasnt enough. Sarevok switched his target instakilling Krell with a mighty 58 damage hit. Game over!
Lesson to be learned: Either memorize one Pixie Dust or Farsight so the Skeleton Warriors wont be able to notice Krell.
Time to reroll...
EDIT: Okay, i think that after some more tests it is clear that Animal Summoning II can be replaced with Pixie Dust. This means that i can bring the Nymphs into perfect position thanks to invisibility while Krell remains hidden for all enemies. The only thing that needs to work is Doom + Charm on Semaj but even if its not working you can always retreat and rest outside. Semaj can not only summon hard hitting Ogres but with all of his damage spells its no problem to put Tazok and Semaj himself close to death. Great news!!!
Crusader attack preparations, laid 17 Skull Traps, 5 Skelis on reserves, PfM, PfP, buff.
Troll wave got leveled after 1st Fireball finished them.
Prepped Mage wave with 2xWeb sequencer. Some more buffing, and when mages arrived hit with Greater Malison, 2xSilence sequencer. 6 Fireballs and some meleeing quickly defeated them.
Prepped the Fighter wave with 2xWeb Scrolls, made a Greater Malison, 2xWeb sequencer and Web, Silence sequencer, which used first, 4xCloudkill scrolls, Archers shooting in the next rank, and hasted Skelis as backup rank. 8 Fireballs and some meleeing was able to finish them off.
Six is currently parked at the elevator planning the next move.
1. Bottom, PfM, Violet, Agility, Fortitude, 2xMind Focusing, Protection From Evil 10' scroll, 8 Heroism, Speed, go 2. Minions, 22 Heroism, 5 Power 3. Lastly Speed, 2xInvulnerability, Resist Fear scroll, Enchanted Weapon + Fireshield Blue + Blur sequencer, Aid + Bless sequencer during the dispel Fight.
Bringing Sundermaul was a bad idea, as the earthquake trapped me inside sleeping crowd, invisibility trick didn't work and I couldn't fight Bel, so I quickly chanced to Hydra. Critical hit bonus confirmed.
And...
Bel went down eventually. Next up SoA which brings nice change of scenery after six tries of BG1. Will probably get viciously murdered in the first dungeon.
Krells third incarnation has just started his adventure and reached level 7 after Shoal -> Beregost -> Mutamins Garden.
The only shocking moment so far was the very last Basilisk who - in the moment he died - fired a final gaze at Krell even though he was out of vision. What? However: Krell rolled a 17 and survived. Phew!
A funny thing happened when fighting Firebead with two Spirit Lions and two Nymphs as the Mage managed to trap himself on top of the stairs in his house. Easy meat for the summons.
Time to go for questing and hunting Sirenes a bit while avoiding the main roads. A Bandit Archer ambush at this time would mean swift death for sure.
If i can keep concentration and dont get overconfident the only thing i am worrying about should be Sarevok. Well - should be.
I've occasionally seen Skeleton Warriors persist after resting, but that was completely random. Otherwise the only way to get a summons to last forever is to use CTRL-R on them.
Comments
It's not a poverty run though (my character is not a sorcerer anyway). After having recharged wands of Summoning, of Paralyzation and of Fire (too quite a good penny to do so, believe me), I went through Davey' lair. I charmed Davey's guard to have him lure the Battle Horrors in a corner and then waited for Davey's goons to surround him. Blasted them from out of sight with fireballs, used a scroll of Prot. from Magic and ran around while kiting Davey's with a charge of wand of Summoning here and there. He went down without too much of a problem.
I went into Baldur's Gate to shop a little. To my surprise, I found that the Sorcerous Sundries had no less than 20 scrolls of Otiluke's Resilient Sphere :
It should be more than enough to be safe against Big B in SoD. I now have to find enough Fireshield Blue to make that strat work though.
It still is a no-reload game for now, but if my character dies, I probably will still continue to see if I can manage to take down Big B, if only for theoretical and academic purpose...
There you also can buy Necklace of Missiles and Shield Amulet - good stuff!
P.S. I have found aa way around my Poverty problems but more on that later!
No-Reload-Poverty-Project
After doing different poverty test runs and thinking hard about picking a viable class i have came to the conclusion that this very specific challenge needs a unique character as well. When looking at the different druid fractions like Shadow Druids and Avengers it should be very possible – even from a roleplaying perspective – that the most promising members of those fanatic druids will be blessed with an ability that puts them into a Rage-like status. Let us call it „Natures Wrath“. Combined with the abilities of the Totemic Druid this should be a lot of fun. Hopefully. However: Lets take a look at the character:„Krell has always been drawn to his foster fathers tales of the unspoiled wilderness. He occasionally found exotic flowers pressed and long forgotten between the pages of tomes, and often spent long hours studying natures varied forms in some of the librarys many journals. It was the member of a druidic splinter group visiting Candlekeep for unknown reasons which taught him that nature can only protected in a very aggressive manner, often relying on violence to achieve their aims. Krell showed great devotion to these ideals getting enraged whenever he saw anyone harming plants in the Keeps garden or treating animals badly. This harsh behaviour has caused several brawls with in his eyes careless guards and it can be stated that Krell surely has taken too many blows on his head. On the other side he got the undefined feeling that pure wisdom can only be found in himself so he constantly tries to call in manifestations of his inner spirits. As a result of this contemplation Krell refuses any items from the material plane as he treat them as useless. It is his foremost wish that someday he will leave the sterile walls of Candlekeep to worship and protect the Earthmother in her own presence.“
Advantages:
- May use Rage ability once per day
- May use Summon Spirit Animal
Disadvantages:
- No Shapeshifting
- Low Intelligence
What happened so far?
Krells first incarnation died at the very beginning when he underestimated a quick target switch from Carbos who instakilled him with a 9 damage hit combined with poison - ouch!!
Krells second incarnation has already reached level 8 while using his Spirit Summons and Charm Person to let his minions do the dirty job. The main danger until level 9 will be the dreaded Bandit Archer ambush so Krell tries to avoid the main streets. Its still amazing how powerful the Spirit Animals are as for instance the always dangerous Sirenes are (nearly) completly helpless against them. Same for Basilisks. Rage was used only once so far to negate Firebeads Charm Person Sequencer. Shillelag is casted mostly when the Nymphs managed to paralyze enemies to push DPS a bit more. Next target: Greywolf!
Slythe was dealed with hasted WoMS plus two Skelis, then when WoMS'n Krystin she got me with area effect panic, but I had learned to be invisible in all times against her which saved me. Dobbelganger mage charmed and parked to the strairs, rest, WoMS + 2 Skelis, and hasted everybody. Also made Liia invisible which was improvement to previous. Nevertheless only two guards survived barely. Waited mage to appear, then waisted his spells against WoMS and neverending WoMS eventually put him down. Liia spoke behind invisibility and Sarevok appeared, WoMS said hello and that was it. Charming the mage and putting Liia invisible makes this event pretty trivial, which basically makes whole BG1 LoB Solo challenge trivial for melee/magic characters, this was the only one where I had constantly problems. And I say that before killing Sarevok which is pretty bad omen.
EDIT: Also forgot that Wardens were again WoF'd onto move, follow them and when Love is somewhat separated lure him with ranged weapon, then WoMS his life out.
When Semaj died, I used PfU for the Skeli and continued spamming WoF, and after 40 strikes, all three were dead. Next spam Angelo from distance, this time he didn't agro at all, does distance matter? Took 30 strikes from WoF.
Next start spamming WoF vs. Sarevok and whenever Skeli wanders to you WoMS it out.
Soon all five Skelis were dead, only wasted one PfU on the fight, which means 5 left for SoD. Continued spamming WoF the last 30 strikes, then 48 from the Necklace of Missiles, but Sarevok was only badly injured at this point. Mental note onself, bring another WoF, so you don't even have to look at the evil brother when he dies.
This was the best performance yet, didn't take any damage at all, and only fought Sarevok little from distance. Onwards to SoD.
Greywolf getting held AND feared AND dominated in between - poor one!
Does anybody know what has happened here? I thought about a hidden easter egg and sacrificed a Nymph right in front of the bloody rocks - but - nothing happened. Too bad. However: In the NW i met Hafiz who gave me a PfM scroll after some talking - i never realized that you can get another one here!
Finally Krell ran into an archer ambush! 11 Hobgoblins tried to shoot him down but - thanks to the Earthmother - they failed so he managed to escape with 48 HP left. Phew!
So far Krell is still in XP farming mode to reach level for Pixie Dust, Iron Skin and Insect Swarm. Go, go go!
P.S. Keep going @histamiini - looks like a pretty smoot run so far!
6x PfU and PfM is like an overkill in SoD - no?
However: Cleared the Zombies around Wenrics farm - time to kille some Akhegs...
Well you only need like 2 PfM's, for Crusader Attacks and Bel, and 2 PfU's for SoD starter dungeon and Lich crypt. Last run was the only time I went beyond 2 PfM's, but its good backup to have and I still always collect all of them, because it doesn't take much effort. Maybe I should start thinking of some uses for them...
However: The Totemic Druid really got a very easy way beating this guy thanks to the Spirit Summons. All Krell had to do was call in two Spirit Wolves (hit through Stone Skin) and guide them with three Nymphs for some backup healing (Skull Trap, Acid Arrows). As Kahrk wields a non-magical Katana he cannot touch the wolves and therefore was drained slowly but surely. At the end even his Mirror Images and Stoneskin could not save him so Krell walked in raged up right before the Ogre went down. Finally i got my revenge!
Six used one invisibility to take Potros surrender, and one PfU and two invisibilities to reach Korlasz. Took almost a minute. Had to think how to deal her because no Dispel Arrows. Out of sight, Greater Malison, Dispel, and couple Silences silenced everyone, invisibility, surround with hasted WoMS and start the attack, she went down so fast that she couldn't even surrender.
After killing the Sentry started spamming WoF, and if not all are there, you can lure more of them with WoMS. Two PfU's are definitely enough to deal the whole crypt without any risk, which is great way to get levels. Whole crypt netted 140k xp and got me to second last level already. This time I took no risks with Coldheart and used Secret Revealed and he got pwned. There's no point of saving this, as there are only one other Lich which it's needed. Invisibility behind the tent got me through the parley.
In my first test run i messed up here slaughtering the whole camp before managing to grab the documents. Not so this time. Krell called in two Lions and three Nymphs who instakilled Taurgosz with Call Lightning so no call-guard-trigger this time. Once the bandits near Taurgosz were dead Krell intended to lure the named ones out of the tent one by one before opening the chest. But look what had happened:
Thanks to the fighting with Taurgosz and friends the whole tent went outside. All Krell now had to do was to lure them away using his Spirit Lions and sneak through. Protected from Lightning he grabbed the documents and went invisible again. Job done!
Next will be the Cloakwood. Mother Earth is calling!!
He went one step too far and soaked two Magice Missiles and a Glyph which took him down to 10 HP. Ouch! Once the Nymphs had healed him up again he talked to Davaeorn but moved into the wrong direction - back to the stairs. This led into huge troubles as the Mage teleported into the entrance room and immediately dispelled his invisibilty while Krell himself got webbed. Damn it! Only the summons saved his life as they somehow managed to distract the Mage long enough before he could move again. If Davaeorn had targeted Krell the game would have been over. Phew!
Once all guards had streamed in the Nymphs dominated several guards while the spirit summons soaked up all magic arrows. After another rest it was time to clean the house. A lot of guards went down before Davaeorn himself engaged so the Lion & Bear quickly targeted the Mage as the guards could not touch them anymore. They interrupted several spellcasts and took him down without problems. All guards vanished - time to get out of this unholy place!
Baldurs Gate was no big deal: Kill the Dopplegangers and sneak into the Iron Throne unseen. Ready for Candlekeep? I hoped so! The Ogre Mage ambush is one of the bottlenecks for Totemic Druids but with Krells Rage ability things should look much better. In theory. In practice Krell waited until the Ogres had started their casting before activating Rage as they tend to use Magic Missiles alltogether when they realize CC immunity - which would have killed Krell for sure. He got lucky and soaked up one Magic Missile, Glitterdust and two charms before reaching the guard with 73 HP. What a relief.
P.S. Tested the Ogre Ambush a bit and after ten tries the result was pretty clear: 10/10 with delayed Rage!
Chapter 10. Didn't know that you can find Enchanted Weapon already in the Troll Cave, although you only need it against Bel. Btw @Harpagornis you know Martyr's Morningstar, wikia says critical doesn't count LoB bonus, say it isn't so?
Morentherene, no. Ziatar didn't activate so he and the mages got WoF'd with 22 strikes from distance. PoP, Greenstone Amulet, WoMS and melee did Neothelid in without problems. Akanna WoMS'd when I lured the servants away from her. Hit Last level of 8/9/8, and surrendered the fort. With 5 hasted Skelis I was able to kill the Crusader Mage before he summoned the Fire Elemental.
I would say SoD is also pretty trivial to the Crusader Attacks, 3xPfU, PfP, hasted summons, invisibility, max level, all the good items, only fight those you really need, no risk.
Btw why does it feel like the 5D Skelis are much better than 12D WoMS, or is that a collective 12D? What does the xD mean anyway?
The Wiki is wrong with regard to Martyrs Morningstar as it deals 170 damage per crit on Big B - like it should be!
Krell managed to take out Slythe with Bear, Lion and Nymphs and even Kristin - who rushed in early too - could not save her lover...
Palace Ambush will be next!
Without items and precharming the Mage this one should be interesting. At least i thought so. Without Spirit Summons my Berserker/Druid had a very rough time here but thanks to one Bear and Lion (my dps-tank-combo) combined with three Nymphs in the backline Krell prepared the battlefield to his liking. Protected from Iron Skin he immediately casted Insect Swarm after the talking ended so he made sure that everyone would suffer - especially the Mage.
After that he quickly retreated (like always no one was targeting him) and watched the fight closely while always trying to avoid any contact with the fire shooting Mage. The Spirit Summons pushed the DPS a lot while the Nymphs kept the Dukes and guards at high health. Dispel Magic did not work this time and after Krell did one step too much the Mage managed to disrupt his second Insect Swarm. Damn it! Would this be the turning point against him? No, cause the Dopplegangers went down surprisingly fast and even though the Mage started his AoE casting Krell called in another Nymph for healing and let his bear & lion go for the hunt.
It was really funny to watch how the Mage desperatly tried to get rid of the spirit animals - but failed. The guards kept the sword spiders busy that have been called in by the Doppleganger - one minute later the last enemy went down. Krell quickly moved his summons around Sarevok while luring Belt away to the east. Thanks to this nearly perfect execution both Dukes survived (Belt only barely injured, Liia badly wounded) - time to face his evil brother one more time...
Next up Crusader Attacks, checked the enemies and their saves vs. spells are 5-8. This is my Grande Plan.
Premade minor sequence, Web, Web for 7-10 saves.
Premade spell sequence, Greater Malison, Web, Web, for 11-14 saves.
5 hasted Skelis for backline only.
PfM + PfP + buff to 300 hp.
Soft Feet for immunity against Web.
- Trolls, hit with spell sequence, two Cloudkills scrolls, melee + 8 Fireballs.
- Mages, hit the ground with minor sequence before hand, make sequence Greater Malison, Silence, Silence for 14-17 saves and hit with it. Two Cloudkills + melee + 8 Fireballs.
- If I can, I have 17 Skull Trap scrolls to prepare for the fighters, which should give an average of 390 damage. Do you know @Harpagornis if this is possible?
EDIT: I can actually make another Minor Sequence from scrolls.
1. Doom + Charm Person on Semaj -> Nope!
2. Animal Summoning II so the Bear and Panther took Semaj and Tazok close to death
3. Insect Swarm casted on Semaj before triggering the talking with Sarevok
4. Tazok and Semaj died shortly after, Spirit Lion engaged Angelo
5. Thanks to his protections the Lion had to do some work before Angelo went down
6. Called in four Nymphs and used the Spirit Lion as a decoy for Diarmid and Sarevok
7. Mental Domination worked on last cast so Diarmid started shooting Acid Arrows
8. Once the Nymphs had soaked up targeting the Spirit Lion and Krell retreated
So far everyting worked fine but now the problems started as Diarmid was constantly switching to the Skeleton Warriors. Krell moved in with his Spirit Lion and made sure both attacked Sarevok to hurt him a lot. Indeed they managed to bring his evil brother down to 589 HP before both went down but - damn it - the Skeleton Warriors had remembered Krells presence and started hunting him. With three Skeletons on his back and no invisibility available the last Spirit Lion had to fight a hopeless battle. They still managed to put Sarevok below 500 HP but at the end it wasnt enough. Sarevok switched his target instakilling Krell with a mighty 58 damage hit. Game over!
Lesson to be learned: Either memorize one Pixie Dust or Farsight so the Skeleton Warriors wont be able to notice Krell.
Time to reroll...
EDIT: Okay, i think that after some more tests it is clear that Animal Summoning II can be replaced with Pixie Dust. This means that i can bring the Nymphs into perfect position thanks to invisibility while Krell remains hidden for all enemies. The only thing that needs to work is Doom + Charm on Semaj but even if its not working you can always retreat and rest outside. Semaj can not only summon hard hitting Ogres but with all of his damage spells its no problem to put Tazok and Semaj himself close to death. Great news!!!
Troll wave got leveled after 1st Fireball finished them.
Prepped Mage wave with 2xWeb sequencer. Some more buffing, and when mages arrived hit with Greater Malison, 2xSilence sequencer. 6 Fireballs and some meleeing quickly defeated them.
Prepped the Fighter wave with 2xWeb Scrolls, made a Greater Malison, 2xWeb sequencer and Web, Silence sequencer, which used first, 4xCloudkill scrolls, Archers shooting in the next rank, and hasted Skelis as backup rank. 8 Fireballs and some meleeing was able to finish them off.
Six is currently parked at the elevator planning the next move.
1. Bottom, PfM, Violet, Agility, Fortitude, 2xMind Focusing, Protection From Evil 10' scroll, 8 Heroism, Speed, go
2. Minions, 22 Heroism, 5 Power
3. Lastly Speed, 2xInvulnerability, Resist Fear scroll, Enchanted Weapon + Fireshield Blue + Blur sequencer, Aid + Bless sequencer during the dispel
Fight.
Bringing Sundermaul was a bad idea, as the earthquake trapped me inside sleeping crowd, invisibility trick didn't work and I couldn't fight Bel, so I quickly chanced to Hydra. Critical hit bonus confirmed.
And...
Bel went down eventually. Next up SoA which brings nice change of scenery after six tries of BG1. Will probably get viciously murdered in the first dungeon.
The only shocking moment so far was the very last Basilisk who - in the moment he died - fired a final gaze at Krell even though he was out of vision. What? However: Krell rolled a 17 and survived. Phew!
A funny thing happened when fighting Firebead with two Spirit Lions and two Nymphs as the Mage managed to trap himself on top of the stairs in his house. Easy meat for the summons.
Time to go for questing and hunting Sirenes a bit while avoiding the main roads. A Bandit Archer ambush at this time would mean swift death for sure.
If i can keep concentration and dont get overconfident the only thing i am worrying about should be Sarevok. Well - should be.
We will see!
So far i have not been able to replicate it. Does anyone has a clue?