n00b Me Up (A Discussion of Whether I Should Use Any Spoilers Whatsoever)

LordRumfish

Most of the time, I'm a purist the first time I play.

I look at the game as presented, make what choices I can with limited information, and jump into the game world of a new game. But this... is a continuation. I have a character I love, a party I bent over backwards to create (Alora and Tiax as far before the level cap as I could manage), and a ton of baggage in the form of an epic poem I've been writing trying to chronicle the past adventures of Veraka the Jester and her companions. I want a crystal ball I can ask answers from, and get cryptic replies to in case I don't want a spoiler.

Would any of you consider being that crystal ball? Making ample use of spoiler tags?

I bought BG:SoD long ago, but life took me in other directions and I never got around to it. Now I'm picking up Baldur's Gate again, and realizing that, rather than start another new character, I actually want to continue with my old one (gasp!). As I said above, I have a character and a party I am deeply attached to. I realize that the plot will tear us apart (how soon and to what extent, I am not sure) before the beginning of BG2:EE, but I'm curious about a number of things that may affect those decisions. Since I am looking to the future, and distantly considering continuing Veraka's Saga into Siege of Dragonspear (a heck of a long ways off, I know, I know), I was hoping to get some cryptic answers without being totally spoiled on the game.

I come into this bearing SoD no ill will. I am completely open-minded about LGBTQ+ characters (I've heard this comes up from a new character), and I will try to keep my gnashing of teeth in check when my favorite old characters leave the party too soon. With that in mind, here is a list of questions I have (numbered for convenience) about BG:SoD:

1. How much humor exists in the game? As adjuncts to this question: are any of the new joinable NPCs particularly humor-focused (on a scale from 1 to 10, Ajantis being 1 and Jan Jansen being 11)? Are there any quest-related or dialogue-related decisions that could unwittingly deprive me from some of the most funny dialogue, NPCs or items in the game because I will never encounter them?

2. Will my decisions affect how soon I lose my old Baldur's Gate party members? I'd rather not break up the band sooner than I have to, so if some decisions in the game accelerate this, I'd like to delay them. If they are unavoidable, don't bother spoiling the scenes.

3. Are there any choices that a n00b might commonly get trapped by in SoD that results in particularly poor outcomes? I mean, REALLY crippling choices, things you can't come back from, things that lose you items or spells or NPCs forever. Normally I would never ask this and just experience it, but in my first playthrough I usually Forrest Gump my way through everything before I know what's what.

4. Should I just use a character and party I care less about for my first playthrough of the game, and stop trying to divine things that are best left to experience? I suspect the answer might be "yes" here. I don't know, I'm just worried from a narrative standpoint as a writer about how much I might have to change depending on what exactly happens in SoD when I put it into Saga form way on down the road.


Anyway, thanks for humoring me if you reply. I hope SoD is going to be fun.

Francois

1. I like the humour overall. There are a few new NPC that are funny and some good new lines and banter for the old NPCs. There is a funny gnome you can recruit pretty early. He has some of the best features of Quayle and Jan without being so caricatural. He has funny banter with many NPC, especially Minsc. There is also Baeloth from BG1 who has one of the funniest scene in my opinion when you see him again in SoD.

2. What you do has no effect.

You will start with you final BG1 for one mission but very soon they will leave. Some of them can join you again later. You will get the stuff they have in their inventory but will keep for themselves what they have equiped. If you want to make sure to keep certain item, make sure they are not equipped when you exit the 1st dungeon.

3. Nothing too dramatic I can think of except that the game is staged in different chapters. Each chapters has a few areas and once you move to a new chapter you can't go back to the areas of the previous one. Make sure you explore everything before moving to the next chapter. There are also ''ambush'' areas that are more elaborate than in BG1. Make sure you explore them completely before leaving them.

4. I would start with your favorite party. If need be, start over with the same party if you don't like how you played and consider that your first run was just a try.

LordRumfish

Alright.

A new gnome sounds nice for no shortage of shenanigans,
And I play pretty completionist so point 3 should prove possible.
I would wait for more wisdom for my wayward warriors,
But the desire to delve in does draw me now,
I deem.
Thank you my friend Francois,
I'll try this task tonight.
My trial run in the raw
I hope may prove delight.

LordRumfish

So, a little update: I've started my journey into SoD, and I'm taking my sweet time so that I can take it all in. So far, the game is good and I'm having trouble seeing what people are complaining about. The one duke's fake French accent really is atrocious, but that's a pretty minor complaint. I think I did about all I could possibly do in the city, and I have started exploring the first map "on the road." I am pleased with the availability of "witty" dialogue options, I actually feel like a jester sometimes when I'm talking to NPCs (and the game has made me laugh out loud on several occasions so far).

I wish I didn't lose quite so many members of my original party (and I was so overloaded with gear on my trip down to fight Sarevok that I couldn't really be bothered to prioritize what gear to strip off of the other characters; if I had a vendor in the first dungeon, things would have been different... but I guess I'd have lost even more money then, eh?).

Dynaheir joined the party no better than I left her: gear-less, and with only her starting spells. If I had been wavering on whether to include her (which wasn't likely, she's supposed to be dead in Veraka's timeline), this would have been the nail in the coffin. Take away all my money, and suddenly I have no interest in trying to buy a wizard all of the spells she is supposed to know. Dynaheir was removed from the canon, which has left me with a suddenly weird party: my jester, two rangers (one archer), a cleric, a cleric/rogue, and a rogue. All this divine magic is kinda bizarre compared to the end of the last game where I had Xan and Xzar, but things change. For that matter, all of the rogue skills and smattering of rogue skills across the party is weird too. Probably the game has more surprises in store for me as far as party composition as well.

If that sounds like a bunch of complaints, think of them more like observations. I'm having fun, really and truly. It's still a bit early to judge on the new characters and overall plot, but so far I'm happy to be along for the ride.

UnderstandMouseMagic

No. 3

There's one area that can end up shortcutting quite a lot of content (happened to me the first time).

How to put this without spoiling?

Don't get into a fight with your enemies, take the "I'm really with you guys" instead.

Francois

LordRumfish said:

All this divine magic is kinda bizarre compared to the end of the last game where I had Xan and Xzar, but things change.

You will meet some more companions as you progress, including some of the arcane persuasion.

LordRumfish

So, I was busy with some other things for a while, but I'm back at SoD again. This time Veraka and her crew visited a dwarven delving, and after slogging through a lot of undead (so many, in fact, that Veraka decided to take her armor off and sling some fireballs from time to time) they ended up fighting with a newly-minted lich. Fortunately, she had been paying attention to the clues along the way and was well-prepared when it came time to find the phylactery and destroy it. I may go back later tonight and finish exploring the zone (since it's my first time through SoD I want to savor everything and not rush the experience).

In terms of the gameplay / content, it feels more dense with description, dialogue and plot than BG1 did, and has a feeling more like Tales of the Sword Coast or BG2. That's not a bad thing, although open world maps are nice too. I found Edwin at the base camp when I returned, but of course he and Minsc refuse to work together, and Veraka is loyal to Minsc after everything they've been through. Kind of a bummer, but perhaps other mages will be along. I'm ready to drop Safana after meeting Glint, she's just an extra archer on this team since Glint covers thief skills (and more), and Corwin does archery a lot better. I mean, Viconia even covers my "sultry voice" role just fine, or even better. I guess the real trouble is... Safana is the only one I'm wanting to drop, but there are a lot of NPCs I'm curious about. I may have to play through the game multiple times. ^_~

LordRumfish

More shenanigans were had in the area and surrounding wilderness. Veraka met M'Khiin and Baeloth, and took a liking to them (Safana is now retired). She had never met Baeloth before (I don't even know if it was possible to meet him when she did her playthrough of BG:EE), but she took a liking to his bombastic showmanship even if his hobbies are very questionable. M'Khiin seems far more subdued, but her magic has proven useful so far. Unfortunately, even with Veraka's good deeds so far in SoD this has plunged her Reputation score to a miserable 4. I'm really hoping the good-aligned NPCs don't decide to part ways, and Veraka is now desperate to make a good impression on people and convince them (and herself) that she really isn't evil despite the company she keeps, or the blood of Bhaal in her veins. Corwin seemed REALLY opposed to M'Khiin's presence at camp, which made Veraka reconsider Corwin's spot on the team despite her skill with a bow. After doing various tasks, Veraka found her way to a barricade of Caelar's crusade, only for the bridge to be blown up and get shouted at by none other than Caelar herself. Veraka poked holes in her arguments and attempted to figure out what she is really playing at, because she doesn't buy her story. The fact Caelar is paying plenty of mercenaries to join her army makes Veraka immediately suspicious of her purposes, and how she is being funded. Now having just arrived at some troll-infested woods on her way to another bridge, Veraka is still not exactly sure why the crusade exists at all, but she intends to mock them thoroughly.

So, Baeloth is kinda great! It's not easy to run him out of spells, and someday if I ever get around to writing Veraka's Saga: the Siege of Dragonspear, then Baeloth will crank the alliteration up to 11. M'Khiin seems quite effective, but she may or may not have a final spot... we'll see. I am still enjoying my extended time on the Sword Coast, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up doing my BG2:EE run over from scratch. Now, if I can just resist the siren song of restartitis, I'll be golden...

UnderstandMouseMagic

@LordRumfish

I'm currently playing with Baeloth and M'Khiin, their interactions are great, (my rep dropped to 6, they do make you pay for the priviledge).
The only thing looking at your party is you may find you need somebody who can hit hard, that's what I found on the first playthrough.

LordRumfish

UnderstandMouseMagic said:

@LordRumfish

I'm currently playing with Baeloth and M'Khiin, their interactions are great, (my rep dropped to 6, they do make you pay for the priviledge).
The only thing looking at your party is you may find you need somebody who can hit hard, that's what I found on the first playthrough.

Glad to hear those two will have some more fun dialogue down the road. ^_^

Currently my party can throw down a number of fireballs or pseudo-fireballs with a little bit of scouting. It requires a bit more rest to play that way, but it works. Littering the area with various crowd control spells and dropping Greater Malison into the mix makes for a nice shooting gallery. Also, Veraka and Minsc hit plenty hard. Minsc is, well, Minsc ("That stings, doesn't it Evil?!"), and Veraka read a tome of Strength to get up to 19 Strength before BG:EE had ended, so she can lay down some surprising critical hits up in the 40-something damage range despite being a jester. If I really, really needed to, Glint could buff himself up with... what is it, Divine Power? Get 18/00 Str and fighter THAC0 for a brief window, and backstab the bejeezus out of somebody. I like my options pretty well.

Veraka is basically done with the troll forest, and now she is considering a jaunt to the northeast before heading for Boareskyr Bridge. There were lots of trolls. LOTS of trolls. Also, Jaheira and Voghiln. I am curious to meet another bard (a skald in this case), though I've heard some vague mutterings about there being some lack of dialogue from him? Did anyone want to weigh in on that? I like my party pretty well, and I don't think Minsc or Glint are going anywhere, and Baeloth is quickly growing on me (like a tumor). That leaves Viconia and M'Khiin to potentially drop, and the decision to do so in either case seems painful. I really am curious about Voghiln though.

UnderstandMouseMagic

AOE spells for the win definitely, I have Edwin and Baeloth, everybody else is on a rest cure in the bigger areas.

Lack of dialog from Voghlin?
Don't know where you heard that, I did have him for a short while and he never shut up, me being female and all.
Maybe it dries up later...

LordRumfish

Okay thanks, good to know. There's a lot of stuff floating around the internet from every different age of game update, so it's hard to know what to believe without just seeing for myself. Perhaps I will give M'Khiin a short break and see how Voghiln suits me.

Francois

LordRumfish said:

This time Veraka and her crew visited a dwarven delving, and after slogging through a lot of undead (so many, in fact, that Veraka decided to take her armor off and sling some fireballs from time to time)

In my opinion, one of the most useful items you can have are wands of fire. A fireball followed by a well-micromanaged Aganazar scorcher sweep will clean these pesky packs of undead in an instant. The advantage of the wand over regular casting is that there is no casting time, no possible interruption and there is no delay for being able to start moving during Aganazar's. Also works wonders with the hordes of troll you saw later. Arrows of fireball are also a good asset once in a while.

LordRumfish

Francois said:

LordRumfish said:

This time Veraka and her crew visited a dwarven delving, and after slogging through a lot of undead (so many, in fact, that Veraka decided to take her armor off and sling some fireballs from time to time)

In my opinion, one of the most useful items you can have are wands of fire. A fireball followed by a well-micromanaged Aganazar scorcher sweep will clean these pesky packs of undead in an instant. The advantage of the wand over regular casting is that there is no casting time, no possible interruption and there is no delay for being able to start moving during Aganazar's. Also works wonders with the hordes of troll you saw later. Arrows of fireball are also a good asset once in a while.

This reminds me of the time Veraka and her team came across the chessboard in Durlag's Tower. They had been through a lot of bull already, and Veraka had no patience for trying to position everyone to be able to move without shocking themselves. I dug into all the items I had been saving: wands of fire, oils of fiery burning, potions of explosions, blasting amulet, all of that nonsense. I spread it across the group so everyone could throw something, and I just firebombed the bejeezus out of the far side of the chessboard. By the time I peeked across, only two pieces were left standing, and one of those died almost instantly. I felt so vindicated. "Screw you, clever trap room!"

LordRumfish

Just another little observation, I am enjoying the more interesting zones of the "waylaid by enemies" areas. I would call them random encounters, but I'm not sure how random they are. Anyway, these are cool. Did these take inspiration from Dorn's appearance near Nashkel in the scripted encounter? Maybe more of this happens in BG2, I admit I am less familiar with it than I should be. If not, then this feels like a strong addition. It gives me some added taste of the random wilderness encounters and caves of BG1.

Gallowglass

LordRumfish said:

Just another little observation, I am enjoying the more interesting zones of the "waylaid by enemies" areas. I would call them random encounters, but I'm not sure how random they are. Anyway, these are cool.

Whether they occur on any particular instance of a transition (first/second/third/etc. transition in each Chapter) seems to have some randomness, but the content of the transition ambushes in SoD is scripted, so it's not nearly as randomised as it was in BG1.

LordRumfish said:

Did these take inspiration from Dorn's appearance near Nashkel in the scripted encounter?

I don't know, but I suspect you're right.

LordRumfish said:

Maybe more of this happens in BG2, I admit I am less familiar with it than I should be.

Mostly no. There are a few scripted transition ambushes in BG2, but most are just randomly-occurring encounters with minor enemies (and mostly the same enemy types rather than BG1's more varied selection).

LordRumfish said:

If not, then this feels like a strong addition. It gives me some added taste of the random wilderness encounters and caves of BG1.

Agreed, I think the SoD transition ambushes are a very good idea.

LordRumfish

So, exciting times! After clearing the troll forest, Veraka and her team headed off towards some foreboding woods, still interested in exploring the countryside despite the threat of Caelar's crusade. Veraka has acquired some mithril chainmail, and can now cast spells while wearing armor (she had to shift her items around a little to accommodate this swap). M'Khiin is taking a break while Veraka sizes up Voghiln, and he has proven to be pretty useful (like her, he can tank with Stoneskin and Mirror Image, and throw a couple of Fireballs or Horrors as needed). More useful than M'Khiin? Hard to say. After battling wyverns, giants and dire wolves, Veraka found herself fighting spiders in a nasty webbed den (it feels like a little slice of Cloakwood in some ways between the spiders and wyverns). An unexpected incursion of beetles, including a giant rhinoceros beetle, kept things interesting. About the time Veraka was congratulating herself on a job well done (all of her companions were commenting on the feat too) and another wilderness zone cleared of threats, she went up the hill and came across...

A sleeping green dragon! I had to retry this fight a few times to find the right strategy. Ultimately I settled on spreading Webs in both directions to slow down the greater wyverns, and Baeloth stayed hard at work to keep the dragon Spooked. Horror also managed to land against the wyverns, and ultimately this allowed Veraka's team to prevail (this was about the 4th or 5th try). I don't remember if I softened the dragon up with Greater Malison first, but I might have. There were also various buffs running around, Protection from Evil 10 ft. Radius, Haste, all of that.

I haven't fully explored the next level down of the cave yet, but I have cleared some of it and finally used all the charges of the Spectacles of Spectacle. It won't be too much longer before I need to turn my gaze north towards Bridgefort and Boareskyr Bridge.

Let me just say that it's nice to have my gear from Baldur's Gate available for this game. It was something I missed a great deal going into BG2, since I'd worked so hard to plumb the depths of Durlag's Tower and all that. Veraka is still using The Dead Shot and The World's Edge +3, and it makes me happy to give these items a longer "shelf life."

Gallowglass

Sounds like it's going well and you're having fun. Excellent!

Tip for your current run: I hope you kept the shell of that rhinoceros beetle and the scales of that green dragon, both of which will later turn out to have a use. Likewise, you may also wish to keep the spider leg and (one of) the spider webs from the same cave as the beetle, which look like random throw-away junk but actually have a purpose (in the personal quests of a couple of recruitable NPCs whom you haven't yet reached).

Tip for your future runs: the most advantageous uses of the Spectacles of Spectacle all come later than where you are, so I'd recommend not using them at all until you reach the Coalition Camp ... but fair enough, you're not "supposed" to find that out in your first run, they're clearly designed for experimentation over multiple re-plays.

JuliusBorisov

I suggest to give yourself another set of the Spectacles:

C:CreateItem("BDMISC01",20)

Gallowglass

@JuliusBorisov, I'm shocked! That's obviously contrary to the design intent, so I'd have expected Beamdog staff to encourage future replays rather than cheating!

JuliusBorisov

My personal take on that is the developers must encourage the most possible fun while playing. I know that not being able to see/get something in the game can be quite a saddening fact, resulting in ending the run.

There're many more reasons for multuple playthoughs of SoD than trying the Spectacles of Spectacle (think about different companion combinations, evil vs good approach to quests, or thieving possibilities, for example).

Also, I don't think (personally) that giving yourself another set of the Spectacles is cheating when you can have 50 charges on the Greenstone amulet.

LordRumfish

There are more than 3 creatures you can bring across the veil? Hmph. Do the glasses recharge if you sell them to a vendor and buy them back? I guess I could just follow your advice and make more. I think that would make it the first time I had ever used the console in Baldur's Gate, but you are correct that I would be annoyed to discover there are more creatures than charges. I thought I would need to carefully scour the game for the 3 creatures, and pat myself on the back once I had found them.

LordRumfish

JuliusBorisov said:

thieving possibilities

Drat! I knew there was something I was forgetting. I've made good use of pickpocket in Athkatla before (especially on all the guards with their assortment of high-level spell scrolls), but I've forgotten to pickpocket everyone in SoD! I've probably already missed opportunities this way. I'm just not used to playing as a pickpocket, it's a little outside of my normal style. It's one of the advantages of being a jester, the other "better" bard kits sacrifice their pickpocketing into oblivion, so I really ought to be using it.

Gallowglass

LordRumfish said:

There are more than 3 creatures you can bring across the veil?

Oh yes, several more. I forget the exact total ... 10 or so, I think.

LordRumfish said:

Do the glasses recharge if you sell them to a vendor and buy them back?

No. That'd rather destroy the devs' clear intention that you should have to re-play several times to explore all the possibilities, so they don't let you do that!

LordRumfish said:

I guess I could just follow your advice and make more.

Well, yes, you could. But I don't agree with @JuliusBorisov on this one, I still think it's cheating to defy the design intent. Not being able to discover everything on the first attempt strikes me as good design, giving the player something new to find next time.

LordRumfish said:

I've forgotten to pickpocket everyone in SoD! I've probably already missed opportunities this way.

Of course you'll have missed some stuff, but nothing essential. If it's any comfort, I don't recall pickpocketing anything in SoD which was as spectacular as some of the really good stuff you can find in a few people's pockets in BG2ee. Anyway, what you've missed gives you yet another reason to play again!

JuliusBorisov

Gallowglass said:

Of course you'll have missed some stuff, but nothing essential. If it's any comfort, I don't recall pickpocketing anything in SoD which was as spectacular as some of the really good stuff you can find in a few people's pockets in BG2ee. Anyway, what you've missed gives you yet another reason to play again!

Actually, using thieving, you can get new results to some quests, sometimes a new perspective. I can give details, but they would spoil the fun.

LordRumfish

Well, here's an update on SoD: I finished out that cave beneath the green dragon, and found a creepy temple of Bhaal turned into a somehow-even-more-creepy temple of Cyric. The cultists and the half-dragon were mostly an annoyance (especially if you let them backstab you), but everything else down there was pretty scary. I admit I did not win the fight with the neothelid the first time or second time I fought it, I was having a little trouble pinning down how to deal with it when it was submerged beneath the stone. Turns out summoning a skeleton and walking him in there works pretty well, as the skeleton is immune to a lot of the neothelid's shenanigans. Let it draw aggro, and then have the rest of the party step inside and murder it (with haste, perhaps, or volleys of magic missile and flame arrow).

Further in, the big fight with the illithid-thingy and its servants (mentally dominated servants, probably) also proved interesting. Web once again ended up being a key component of success; that, and the fact that Minsc has Spiderbane +2 and Veraka has the Ring of Free Action. In the version of the fight that I won, I believe Viconia managed to successfully cast Greater Command to put the mage to sleep before his spell protections came online, because that guy was laying around asleep for the whole fight. Greater Malison and Hold Person also did some good work, and I managed to win the day and stop the illithid-thingies from making an elder brain there to produce even more illithid-thingies.

I moved ahead from here to Bridgefort and the crusader camp. Veraka decided to listen and gauge various people's opinions, perform side tasks, and consider her options as she scouted out the crusader camp. Now it is time for her to rally the troops and slaughter the crusaders (she is also well-positioned to negotiate a surrender, but Veraka is not exactly the forgiving sort).

I've run into a spot of trouble here. I may have chosen dialogue in the wrong order or something, but my options with Khalid currently are "Attack without the Flaming Fist" or "Negotiate a Surrender." Back at the Flaming Fist camp, Coran says to talk to Duncan, but I can't find this Duncan anywhere. What am I doing wrong? If I can't initiate the dialogue properly soon, Veraka is going to go and clear out the stupid crusader camp WITHOUT an army.

Gallowglass

LordRumfish said:

I've run into a spot of trouble here. I may have chosen dialogue in the wrong order or something, but my options with Khalid currently are "Attack without the Flaming Fist" or "Negotiate a Surrender." Back at the Flaming Fist camp, Coran says to talk to Duncan, but I can't find this Duncan anywhere. What am I doing wrong? If I can't initiate the dialogue properly soon, Veraka is going to go and clear out the stupid crusader camp WITHOUT an army.

I haven't met this problem myself, but there have been other players reporting it as a bug. Apparently it does depend upon the order of dialogue, but you can (erroneously) lose the option to arrange for the Fist to support your attack. And Corporal Duncan ought to be standing with the other Fists, on the track near the north end of the Fist camp, but even when he's actually there, he doesn't always display the dialogue option (which he's meant to gain after you've spoken to Khalid, etc.) to ask him to march to Bridgefort. (On arriving with the Fist at the camp south of Bridgefort, did you not have a scripted scene in which Duncan is arguing with "Fist Goldbuckler", i.e. Skie?)

However, although there does seem to be a bug here, it's not necessarily a big deal. My last time through, I deliberately chose to try clearing away the Crusaders without Fist support, and actually it turns out not to be particularly difficult to beat them with only the Bridgefort garrison supporting you - you don't need the Fist's help if your party is fairly strong. Just charge out and hack them down, and the Bridgefort garrison will follow you out across the drawbridge and help ... but watch out for the Crusader mages, they've got two or three decent casters whom you need to disrupt and take down. I found that chucking a couple of long-range Fireballs (etc.) into approaching groups of Crusaders weakened them very helpfully. When you've beaten the Crusaders, then the Fist turn up shortly afterwards anyway (or perhaps even before you've finished fighting), so the game can then proceed normally.

Edit: clarity.

LordRumfish

I remember a Flaming Fist guy arguing with Skie, then getting knocked on his ass, and then leaving and never coming back. Oh well. I guess I juggled dialogue a little too much, although I don't think I'm responsible for Duncan deserting the army.

I think I can handle the crusader camp. My game plan right now is to try to lay down a bunch of crowd control (think Web, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud, Grease) and do my best to poison the dangerous mages I spotted so they keep getting interrupted even if they have a bunch of contingent spell wards. One might still be unconscious from a side quest, so I think that leaves two more. The rest of the camp can probably be handled with crowd control and fireballs, I'm thinking. Some of the shorties might have annoyingly good saves, but if that's all I have to worry about then I think I'm okay.

LordRumfish

Well, I know it's been a long while (and I got very busy with real life), but I've started playing SoD again, picking up right where I left off. The crusader camp fight was fun, and Cloudkill (thanks to Baeloth) turned out to be very useful (it's high-enough level to go over the top of Globe of Invulnerability, and the constant damage kept the enemy casters interrupted quite nicely). As always, Web was another great spell, and a veritable storm of fireballs ended a lot of crusader dreams. The battle ended up being longer than expected, so I was running a little low on resources by the time I got to the exploding bridge fight, making it more fun and challenging. I probably could have done it a little more efficiently a second time, but there was no need.

Veraka has since traveled on to the siege encampment, done a bunch of little camp sidequests, and cleared out one forest wilderness. She hasn't found the wayward Skie yet, nor has she delved the deeps looking for an alternate way into Dragonspear Castle. All of that will be soon enough, I'm sure. I've also run across a few more recruitable NPCs, but nobody that I especially wanted to trade out just yet. Voghiln continues to be effective and amusing for now, although I do miss M'Khiin's giant number of spells per day.