Nice to hear you have fun, fellow bear @OrlonKronsteen ! No-reloading does keep you on your toes. There's a sense danger all the time. That's personally what I love about no-reloading : live with your mistakes and on the edge !
No mods ? It's absolutely no problem ! Many no-reloaders goes through the game without mods.
You can drop by the no-reload thread to post your run ! I would gadly follow it there !
Trio Update (Corey_Russell, Grond0, Gate70) Corthief XIV the elven thief(protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell) Berk the dwarven berserker (controlled by Grond0) Stinkimo dwarven defender (controlled by Gate70)
The party did some misc. quests before working on the main quest:
1) The helm of balduran was obtained. We battled the mountain maulers and did pretty well. Corthief XIV managed to lay a snare, despite bad skill, and then he disrupted the casters with his bow. 2) Degrodel and his minions were battled. We pulled piece-meal, with Corthief XIV doing backstabs to speed up the kills. This went well. 3) We of course talked to Vai and then got the cloak of balduran a little later. 4) We were finally able to turn in the body of the boy we have been lugging around for a while. The shield went to stinkimo, since Berk usually uses the Spider's Bane. 5) The ogre mage and his crawlers were eliminated. Corthief XIV used a dispelling arrow to rid of the ogre mage of his mirrors. The ogre mage responded with confusion, making Corthief XIV wander around. Fortunately, Corthief XIV managed to not walk into enemies. 6) We then took down the dopplegangers at the Seven Suns without difficulty. 7) We decided to take down the Iron Throne. The dwarves used their special abilities and did well with that. Corthief XIV tried a backstab but Gardush pursued. Corthief XIV then spent the entire battle hiding in the shadows, backstab, run and repeat on Gardush. He was still at it when the dwarves had victory upstairs. 8) We then went to Candlekeep. Corthief used a dispelling arrow on the greater doppeganger - but right afterwards the doppleganger used haste and Corthief XIV couldn't get away and had to use a invis potion. 9) Prat did not do well when the party attacked from all angles. He was also stunned, which was quite helpful to the battle. The basilisks were taken down with a protection from petrification green scroll. 10) Slythe didn't do well, being dispelled and all. Krystin decided not to appear. 11) We used potions to help make sure we won the duchal palace fight - this worked. However, Corthief XIV nearly died, and only survived thanks to a invis potion. 12) The maze went pretty well, with Corthief XIV using backstabs when practical, including on the skeleton warriors with the help of a green scroll vs. undead. 13) We decided the undercity party was not worth the trouble - on the other hand, since the green scroll was still active, the dwarves waited patiently until Corthief XIV was done killing the 4 skeleton warriors - which went slow with his 1 APR. 14) Sarevok battle went OK, with the dwarves taking a beating, but not dying. An attack from the shadows finished off Sarevok. 15) Gate70 helped Corey_Russell load up an prepare for our next session next week.
My musings on the poverty run are cluttering up the no-reload thread, so I'll move them here.
The Seducer seems much too weak to survive without items, so I'm thinking about a poverty run with a party: a Bounty Hunter, a Cleric of Helm, three sorcerers, and I don't know who else.
Most of this party setup revolves around Belhifet. A poverty run means no missile weapons, wands, or scrolls to damage Belhifet, and no potions to survive melee combat with the guy, so I'm thinking our only decent chance is to use two characters who can remove his Improved Invisibility twice in the same round (so he can't just re-cast it indefinitely), allowing some sorcerers to hit him with Lower Resistance and then a bunch of Magic Missiles and Melf's Acid Arrows. If the three sorcerers land only one Lower Resistance spells each and then hit Belhifet with 5 Magic Missiles and 5 Acid Arrows each, we're looking at 300 damage over 11 rounds, out of Belhifet's total 350 HP. If we land a single more Lower Resistance spell, the average damage is over 400, giving us a comfortable window. If we get MR down to zero, we're looking at 490 damage, but that would require us to land Lower Resistance twice in two rounds--and coordinating six rounds of aura would be dicey.
We might just spam Fireballs and/or Slow for the siege on Dragonspear Castle itself, but I don't know how much that'll really get us, since the fight is extremely long and I don't know how much the coalition itself can contribute. Notably, we'd have no Dwarves of Dumathoin to join the coalition, since tackling the Coldhearth Lich would be foolish.
As for BG1, we could lean heavily on the Bounty Hunter for the early game, but Sarevok and company pose a problem. I know very little about that fight and have relied heavily on Arrows of Detonation and the Wand of Monster Summoning in the past. Our defenses would be total crap and our spell picks would be constrained due to the need to survive early BG1 and late SoD. Worse yet, unless we got over 200,000 XP for our cleric so it could cast Raise Dead, any BG1 death would mean we fight Sarevok with 5 party members (unless we boot the sixth party member in favor of an NPC, which does not seem like a good investment for a trilogy run).
BG2 isn't a problem aside from perhaps Ascension. My install removes the summoning and trap limits and while I don't like the idea, Project Image and Wish-resting could get us an army of Planetars, Devas, and Skeleton Warriors as well as a massive pile of traps for the Five.
What do you guys think of the Sarevok fight, Belhifet, and the siege of Dragonspear Castle without any items? @Harpagornis, @Grond0, @JuliusBorisov? I'm particularly concerned about Belhifet's allies, because I don't know who spawns at what difficulties and if my mages would be in danger despite having Stoneskin and staying on the move, possibly with a Teleport Field to aid in kiting.
And what do you guys think would work for the sixth character? This is what I've considered:
1. Totemic Druid. It would be give me decent bait in the early game, powerful summons in SoD, and a strong tank in late SoA, plus some decent HLA summons as well, but I've been leery of its utility against Belhifet because even the Spirit Lions don't seem to have the THAC0 to hit Belhifet without a critical hit. 2. Wizard Slayer/Druid. I'd be trading Spirit Animals for spell failure on Fire Seeds, but I'm not sure the optimal build, a level 7 dual, is worth the wait, and as strong as this build is, most of its power comes from nonmagical darts, which I can't use. 3. A second Bounty Hunter, possibly dual-classed to cleric at the start of SoA. Their traps are ridiculously strong, but they wouldn't buy me much against Belhifet or at Dragonspear Castle because their damage output is more burst damage than sustained. 4. A fourth sorcerer, just because it'll have good defenses, bombing options at Dragonspear Castle, single-target spells for Belhifet, and mage HLAs for BG2.
I'm going to steer clear of mod spells for this run, so no Emotion: Hope, Thunderslap, or Vestcakes Floating Curse.
@semiticgod Have you considered a Dark Moon Monk ? On a poverty run, he'd be able to kill enemies even without weapons. They're not much in early BG1, but with his higher walking speed, he can become a good decoy for kiting (with spells in your case). He won't help you much against Belhifet though, because he won't be able to hurt him, but he can make for a solid tank : cast one Spirit Armor on him to see his AC become really low. With Blur and Mirror Image, he'd be hard to hit. Then, when BG2 will arrive, he will really come into his own with all the passive bonuses they get. +4 fists with GWW will make for a great damage dealer.
A bit of a late bloomer, but it might be worthwhile. He will still be subjected to crits, which can wreck your day, though.
Against Belhifet, why not try to lower his resistance and hit him with either crapton of damage spells or even hit him with a disablers like Feeblemind ? With three sorcerers, it would be possible. I can't remember what he's immune to, though...
@Arctodus: Damage spells on Belhifet are the current plan. Belhifet is immune to all disablers except for Hold Monster, but the odds of a successful hit are low due to needing level 5 spell slots for SI: Abjuration and Lower Resistance.
@semiticgod are you playing with the improved SCS Sarevok or the original?
Edit: I've just been thinking about perhaps having a go at this myself. Cleric of Helm looks like a good solid choice - melee option, summons, buffs, decent HPs. Bounty hunter can provide considerable damage (particularly on the assumption he's blinded when setting traps) and a bit of utility for traps, locks etc. Totemic druid gives early summons, good damage with spells at higher levels. I think it's a close call with the Avenger, but I'd probably stick with totemic. Shaman looks pretty attractive to me as well. That provides a potential never ending stream of summons for situations where casters are tapped (could be handy for the Castle siege you were worried about). Also got decent damage for insects. 2 x sorcerer.
What are your rules for the poverty run? For instance are you allowed to hang on to the quarterstaff you start BG1 with? Are you allowed to pick up quest items? Are you allowed to pay for quests (if not presumably you need a mod to be able to make progress in BG2)?
@semiticgod I can't say too much about the SCS Sarevok fight (if you play vanilla, it will be easy to just pull Semaj and Sarevok himself, which does make winning quite easy), but some thoughts about the Siege of Dragonspear Castle and Belhifet: For the Siege, the allies (if you always chose the best options when it comes to having more allies and less enemies available while questing) can be quite helpful and will be able to stand up to your foes if you have a way to deal ranged damage quickly enough or disable the crusaders. The challenge will propably be trying to retain your fireballs for Ashatiel's party, but there are many powerful CC options that will propably allow your sorcerers to turn the fight in your favor - with such a huge amount of arcane magic, you will propably have enough web/horror/glitterdust, slow, emotion:hopelessness/confusion/greater malison, chaos etc. spells to always turn the fight in favor of your allies (just make sure to poison both food and water supplies and place the explosive barrel). After that, if you can get rid of the traps, fireballing and/or webbing Ashatiel's allies should allow you to progress to her position (especially if you enlist the help of some summoned skeletons for this part, as quick progress is neccessary). All in all, if you just get enough AoE spells in your spellbook, I don't think this part will be that tough - Belhifet is propably going to be much more challenging.
For Belhifet, iirc, there are two types of summoned threats and Belhifet himself who can still hurt you if you're constantly on the move and hasted: The cornugons use lightning bolt (protection from electricity would be a strange spellpick, but it is a potential option if your cleric isn't enough), and the erinyes use charm (I think) and shoot you with ice arrows, but they don't deal a huge amount of damage. Both are relatively rare compared to other devils Belhifet tends to summon. Belhifet himself will still be able to use his aura of fear (easy to counter with your party) and his teleport, he will use hold person and, of course, his two powerful fire damage spells, so it might be neccessary to go for a couple of the weaker arcane protection from fire spells (unless you go for two divine spellcasters and thus have enough protection from fire spells - even though those don't last very long). On the plus side, you can easily counter his remove magic by running at him with a sorcerer buffed with SI:Abjuration at the start of the fight while keeping your party away. I may be forgetting at least one source of potential danger, though, but these are the things I remember encountering in my previous run, where being constantly on the move was the primary strategy.
Looking at my screenshots from my run with my shadowdancer, which was on core rules, it seems like Belhifet doesn't even get summons (or at least not right away - it seems like he also never gated in any) on that difficulty level, so things could be much easier depending if you play on insane or core. Hephernaan is pretty harmless in his devil form on any difficulty level, by the way.
As for classes, I would propably go for the totemic druid (shocking, I know), but, depending on your mods and modding options (if you play with SCS and the various insect plague nerfs, for example), another sorcerer might be overall more useful. Still, having two divine spellcasters makes it much easier to get the neccessary buffs going with no access to potions and scrolls.
My poverty rules are based on the original Insane Solo Poverty run back in the pre-SCS days of BG2:
1. No items can be used except for quest items, only for their intended purpose, and a single nonmagical quarterstaff against the Mephit Portals in Chateau Irenicus and the Magic Golems in the Fire Giant lair. 2. No gold can be gathered, nor spent except to complete quests. Everything else must be donated.
Since this is a party run, I think I'll disallow the two-time use of the quarterstaff (it didn't make much sense anyway since it still left monks unable to hit those Magic Golems), but I'll let myself collect gold and time donations so I can manage reputation to change my Bhaalspawn power picks.
I'm going with the same EET install for Mae and Frisky Bits' runs, with SCS, Ascension, and all the other stuff from BWS. So, no vanilla Sarevok for us.
I usually go with Core Rules, or Insane without the damage bonus, but I might go as low as Normal mode for this run, if only to avoid dealing with Erinyes and Cornugons. With charm, Hold Person, ice arrows, and Lightning Bolts to worry about, I'm concerned about our spell slots and our spell picks. To block charm and Hold Person, we need SI: Enchantment on our sorcerers, or else both Free Action and Chaotic Commands from our priest(s). But Free Action is a level 4 spell that takes up the same spell slots as a Protection from Lightning spell, and choosing the mage version instead takes up an equally precious level 5 slot. We also need at least one SI: Abjuration spell to block the opening Remove Magic, and at least two Lower Resistance spell picks to actually harm Belhifet, unless we're relying on a single mage to cast four such spells in a row without disruption. This leaves very little room for a Chaos spell pick.
If Erinyes are good with those ice arrows, it may even be worth it to pick Protection from Cold as a level 3 mage spell pick, simply because it's so incredibly important to land those Lower Resistance spells without disruption, and it's already very easy to mis-time them and have Belhifet go invisible.
@Enuhal: I'm not very confident that Web will as useful at Dragonspear Castle as it normally might be. With no missile weapons except for Minute Meteors (which conflicts with Fireball), only the Cleric of Helm could actually deal any damage during the fight, and that's only if it maintains Free Action and does not get dispelled by the Crusader mages. Greater Malison combined with Horror and Confusion/Hopelessness might be useful, though I normally consider them sub-optimal picks for no-reload runs due to being fairly unreliable. Chaos would be awesome for the siege, but we already have a need for Spell Immunity, Lower Resistance, and maybe even Protection from Lightning as level 5 mage spell picks. What do you think about Spirit Animals during the siege? At level 10, a Totemic Druid's spirit critters would be immune to normal weapons, but are there many enemies who only use normal weapons?
@Grond0: The Shaman would give us extra Raise Dead spells and Chaotic Commands, and Insect Plague should be useful at Dragonspear Castle even with SCS due to the lack of Fire Shields, but I've honestly been very skeptical about the Shaman's reliability in a no-reload run as well as its viability without items. A max-level Shaman's AC when dancing would be well north of zero without items, making it extremely easy to hit with missile weapons, and it's entirely possible to go for several consecutive rounds without summoning anything. Plus, it can't move while dancing, and we really need to be able to move around during the Belhifet fight because Belhifet hits so hard and so often and so reliably and imposes disease and poison damage on hit, and it would be all but mandatory to send the Shaman running, costing us its spirit critters, if Belhifet were to target it. Even Teleport Field might not be enough to keep it going.
Does anyone know exactly how many rounds pass during the elevator to Belhifet? It's well over 5 rounds and may even be 10 rounds or higher, and the timing could be extremely important due to the poor duration of Spell Immunity and a lot of other important buffs.
@Grond0: You got to level 4 safely with a similar party to mine. Could you explain how? I was thinking of just using Sleep on ankhegs and beating them up with fists and Spirit Animals, but that wouldn't get us the Invisibility we'd need to travel and rest safely.
Unfortunately for me, Shoal is far more dangerous than normal in my install, because she has a higher movement rate and summons a fast-moving Water Weird that has a paralysis weapon and an instant death attack.
@semiticgod According to a quick test I just did, the elevator ride should be exactly 15 rounds long.
I agree that web won't be as useful as usual, but you can still disable the enemy backline, which would relieve your allied troups greatly. Since fireballs, unlike wands of fire or necklace charges, take some time to cast, disabling the enemy also makes it easier to bomb them, as they won't be able to shoot back. Regarding the unreliablity of save or else-spells - With the sheer amount of sorcerer spellslots available to you, I think you can be pretty sure that a lot of your foes could be disabled, especially with greater malison in the mix - there are no great aoe damage options for level 2 or level 4 anyway, so once you've picked up the most important protective spells, crowd control is a good proactive choice - I would argue that, overall, even pretty unlucky disable attempts with only 2-3 successes will do more than a single-target damage spell during a battle like the Siege.
Sadly, there's a lot of magic damage and magical arrows flying around during the siege, so spirit animals aren't exactly reliable. They are still good, but since this battle lasts for a very long time, they will most likely get killed eventually. Fire elementals are a bit more survivable, though, especially if enemy mages get taken out quickly (as they are often disabled otherwise). Insect plague can be of great help in order to achieve that and protect your summons.
I would certainly be interested in how sorcerer spellpicks will change with a) 3 sorcerers and b) no items available. Keep us updated on that!
Does anyone know exactly how many rounds pass during the elevator to Belhifet?
The game will make a final-save a few rounds before you transition to the top and fight Belhifet. This is usually indicated by a longish pause because I've noticed that saving takes longer the further you get in the games. It still takes about 20 seconds or so before you get there after the game makes the final-save.
Okay, testing has found that on Core Rules, the only demons that will join the fight with Belhifet are two or three Abishais, and they appear to only spawn once. There are no Erinyes to worry about. In Normal mode, Belhifet and Hephernaan are completely alone; no other demons spawn.
On Core Rules, Caelar killed the Abishais and Hephernaan and took maybe 50 HP from Belhifet before dying. When I helped her fight the Abishais and Hephernaan and took them down in a few short rounds, she took about 170 HP from Belhifet. In Normal mode, Caelar was essentially able to beat him single-handedly; all we had to do was stay out of the way. I believe this is because Caelar spammed a Bolt of Glory-type spell in Normal mode.
Hephernaan deals massive poison damage, apparently about 4 damage per second. Definitely a much bigger threat than I expected. Note that the Abishais spam Command, so a character with poor saves and no Chaotic Commands might get locked down and get killed.
Belhifet's teleport spell can disrupt player spells just as easily as Improved Invisibility. Belhifet also casts a fear spell and Hold Person simultaneously. But since he casts Hold Person and his fire spell rather often, and they seem to be exclusive with his teleport spell and Improved Invisibility, you should be able to cast Lower Resistance right after Hold Person or a fire spell without risk of disruption.
So basically any party could take down Belhifet in a poverty run on Normal mode, but things get a little dicey if we're on Core rules. The party should be equipped to quickly kill the Abishais and Hephernaan so Belhifet and Caelar will focus on each other. Caelar actually buys you a lot of time.
With Holy Power, DUHM, Chant, and Bless, a Cleric of Helm should have 1 THAC0, for a 35% chance of landing a hit. At 4 APR when hasted and 21 STR, you should deal 16-18 damage per hit on average. Taking into account Belhifet's AC and 25% damage resistance (50% vs. missiles), a fully-buffed Cleric of Helm should deal at least 16 damage per round on average.
Fully buffed, a Cleric of Helm could hit -9 effective AC (single weapon style, Spirit Armor, Defensive Harmony, 18 base DEX + DUHM, Protection from Evil), which probably will not keep it alive for very long against Belhifet. However, if you're attacking alongside Caelar and fade back when you're wounded so your second priest can cast Neutralize Poison or maybe Heal, I think a Cleric of Helm could take a decent chunk out of Belhifet, though some of the cleric's resources would be spent taking down Hephernaan and the Abishais. Bear in mind that a Cleric of Helm cannot heal itself when using Seeking Sword; spellcasting is disabled.
My earlier calculations were incorrect; Acid Arrow lasts 4 rounds at level 9+ and deals 20 damage instead of 15. Three sorcerers would be much better equipped to handle Belhifet on Core Rules, but two sorcerers and a Cleric of Helm should be able to win the fight with the support of a Totemic Druid.
There are a lot of Hold Person spells in this fight. Free Action should last the whole fight, I think, but you also need those level 4 spell slots for Neutralize Poison. It's probably best to dedicate at least two spell slots to Chaotic Commands, and Wondrous Recall can get us two more at the cost of a Heal spell. The sorcerers probably won't have MGOI, but SI: Enchantment will block Hold Person at the cost of a Lower Resistance spell.
On higher difficulties with Erinyes and Cornugons, the prospects for success are dubious. My best guess is that only Teleport Field and a very aggressive hasted Cleric of Helm tackling the Erinyes would give three sorcerers enough room to kill Belhifet with Lower Resistance, Acid Arrows, and Magic Missiles, with Protection from Lightning and a whole lot of kiting to evade the Cornugons and other critters.
I'm pretty sure sorcerers are the key to winning this fight. Belhifet is devastating in melee but hopeless at range, and once you lower his MR, he has no resistance whatsoever to acid damage or magic damage.
By the way, don't hide behind party-wide invisibility on the elevator ride unless you're casting it after the last of the demons have spawned. The timer won't continue properly if you leave the demons waiting.
The enemy only casts Remove Magic on Insane mode. Cornugons also only appear on Insane mode. And it seems that Belhifet only summons new demons (a Cornugon or a Hamatula and an Abishai) on Insane mode. On Hard mode, Bone Fiends and Erinyes appear, both of which will cast charm spells.
If you're not playing on Insane mode, you won't need SI: Abjuration in the first place. SI: Enchantment is probably a good replacement.
Dying so badly in my first attempts. Shoal is inaccessible and my best Spirit Animal, the lion, has 12 HP; the basilisks aren't doable. I need to kill ankhegs to get the party to level 2 and 3, but Sleep keeps failing and Command isn't enough because unarmed characters cannot attack unconscious characters, which means our only damage dealers are the Spirit Lion and our familiar--unless I cast Seeking Sword, but that means no more Command spells. And traps could kill my Bounty Hunter if I use them and it fails. Three Command spells, or even four, aren't enough to kill an ankheg, which means I have to land a Sleep spell. If I fail three Sleep spells in a row, I have to flee the ankheg or else it'll kill me.
If I rest, more ankhegs appear, and then I'm out of ammo and have to flee the area, where I get ambushed.
Couldn't you use Shillelagh from your Totemic Druid for another lethal damage source? Also, for easy experience, what about Tenya? Her quest is worth 2.5k experience, and you should be able to trigger her dialogue with magic missiles or something. Then there's all the fetch quests: Colquetle's amulet, Mirianne's husband, Samuel... Surely some of those could get you to level 2?
I've largely solved it by simply starting anew with two sorcerers who have Sleep instead of just one (the other used to have Blindness). The extra Sleep spells got me the snoozing arthropods I wanted.
My mods make the basilisk area far more difficult than normal. Korax only has 16 HP (!) and dies extremely fast in my install; I've noticed two or three basilisks vanish without explanation when I left the area and come back; Greater Basilisks gives 5000 XP instead of 7000; and there are 50+ HP Medusas in the north which have poison attacks as well as a short-ranged petrification gaze. Mutamin's garden is considerably harder and less profitable than normal. Repeatedly resting in the ankheg tunnels and killing ankhegs with Command, Sleep, traps, Spirit Lions, Flame Blade, and the Seeking Sword is a much better way of gaining XP.
I don't have Magic Missile for Tenya, and I think the Tenya NPC mod makes her put up a much bigger fight than normal. A lot of stuff is different in my install.
Right now I'm at level 4.5 and I'm done with the ankhegs, but I'm anxious about the Nashkel mines. Aside from the poison-using Kobold Guards from SCS, we've got an extremely tough duergar ambush with high enemy APR, Bolts of Biting, and Hold Person; one or two extra kobold spellcasters; a pair of Sword Spiders; and a band of Hobgoblin Shamans and Hobgoblin Captains which thankfully is avoidable.
Come to think of it, my install probably isn't well-suited to a poverty run.
Animate Dead, Spirit Lions, traps, and Sleep got us safely through the Nashkel mines. When I was dealing with the tougher mod-introduced critters, I rested extra times to get more traps for the fight, allowing us to take down even the optional Hobgoblin Captains. Silence 15' Radius kept Mulahey quiet long enough for us to Doom and Command him so our summons would get automatic hits.
Now I'm worried about the bounty hunter ambushes. I think it's different in the original game, judging by the wiki and other forum posts, but in my install, Lamalha and Halacan and Morvin/Molkar ambush you during area transitions and I don't know when they trigger exactly. Does anyone know how I can force those ambushes to trigger?
I have three Invisibility spells per day, which is only enough to cover the party for short distances between the few areas that are safe to rest in: the mines, the carnival, the temple of Lathander, and the Friendly Arm Inn. If I can just get the ambush to trigger when the whole party is invisible, I could avoid all of them.
@semiticgod Not 100% sure on this, but here's my best guess. The ambushes won't start until you're in chapter 3 and the player character has more than 10,000 XP. After that, your next random encounter will be one of the bounty hunter parties if one of the following conditions is met:
It's been at least 5 days since the player character has reached 10,000 XP in chapter 3
You've killed Tranzig
You've made the bandit camp hostile - not sure about this one
After that, the other party will be your next random encounter if either
You've reached chapter 4 and it's been at least one day since the last ambush
It's been five days since the last ambush and either you've killed Tranzig or made the bandit camp hostile
Killing Tranzig in my experience has no impact on whether or not the bounty hunters, but they do only appear after Mulhahey has been deposed regardless.
All right, things were a bit messy, but there's a solid formula for surviving everything between Mulahey and the start of the Cloakwood, at least with my party:
The Lamalha and Morvin ambushes:
If you have a level 4 sorcerer (or level 5 Dragon Disciple) with Invisibility as their first level 2 spell pick, you can turn half the party invisible using all three level 2 spell slots, rest, and turn the other half of the party invisible. The whole party will be invisible for the next 16 hours. You can then travel short distances back and forth from the Nashkel carnival (safe to rest), the Friendly Arm Inn (safe to rest), or the temple of Lathander next to Beregost (weak and infrequent rest ambushes). You will eventually hit the Lamalha ambush with the whole party invisible and can flee without a fight, and you can do the same for Morvin. I used CTRL-T to advance time by 5 days, but resting at a safe place should also work just fine.
Tazok:
You arrive at Tazok unrested and apparently there's a time lapse; Invisibility will probably wear off before you reach him. Command and Blindness are virtually useless; I've seen him make saving throws with a 2. A Totemic Druid can summon a Spirit Lion before Tazok targets a party member, but he'll kill it in roughly 6 seconds assuming a level 5 druid. A level 5 cleric can summon two skeletons and keep him busy long enough for the druid to hit Tazok with two Call Lightning spells, and a couple of traps from a Bounty Hunter (or an unkitted thief, if you're level 6 or higher) should be enough to get him to call it quits and let you join the camp.
The bandit camp:
Resting is safe and you can set as many traps as you like. I used Charm Person or Mammal on a couple of hobgoblins, but the results were disappointing: the one who failed its save turned out hostile after the duration ran out, and may have turned the rest of the camp hostile if I had not sent him far away from the camp.
Fighting is unnecessary if you have a cleric and enter the main tent with the whole party under Invisibility. A level 5 cleric should have 50 HP and can open the chest to get the documents without breaking invisibility if you cast Sanctuary first (opening containers never breaks Sanctuary). The Lightning Bolt trap should deal 10d6 damage for a maximum of 60 damage, Chant will reduce the maximum damage to 50, and Aid will bump the cleric's maximum HP up to at least 51. You can then leave the bandit camp with no one turning hostile.
This is assuming the Lightning Bolt only hits once. In my case, it hit once (though it did a very unlikely 27 damage out of 30 possible with a saving throw), but if that's not guaranteed, only Protection from Lightning will ensure survival. That requires a level 7 priest, 35,000 for a druid or 55,000 for a cleric.
I don't know how I'm going to deal with the Cloakwood mines. I think I'll just have to set tons of traps everywhere and lure enemies across them. Unless I can get a Spirit Snake to poison Davaeorn (which is not remotely reliable enough for a no-reload run), I think I'll have to go over the trap limit (removed in my install) to kill Davaeorn.
The Iron Throne fight will be a nightmare and will probably require leaving the headquarters to rest in between kills. Cythandria should be baited and waited out; Slythe should be baited into landing a backstab on a summons and Commanded to death; Kristin should be baited and waited; and I'm thinking lots of traps will be necessary for the Ducal Palace. The Undercity party can be avoided.
Sarevok himself will be horrible. I'm thinking we'd wait out Diarmid's Protection from Magic scroll if at all possible, wait out Angelo and Semaj's buffs, then use Teleport Field to avoid melee attacks and very slowly kill everyone with spell damage. But letting the enemy get a single Chaos spell off the ground could totally ruin us, and we don't have any real anti-mage capabilities.
I don't have Magic Missile for Tenya, and I think the Tenya NPC mod makes her put up a much bigger fight than normal. A lot of stuff is different in my install.
The Tenya NPC mod does indeed make the fight much more difficult. She uses hold spells and Rigid thinking. You can counter the hold spells with a green potion (Freedom of action) Rigid thinking could be overcome with one of the rarer potions which resist magic. The rigid thinking spell means that you usually have to kill Tenya after she has yielded. It could be that with more party members that doesn't happen.
Wow. I’m just goin to assume that no reload challenge is pretty much that. I really respect you all as gamers. I’m a perfectionist who reloads if I have a crease in my shadow armor and it hurts me even imagining personally doing it lol. That’s awesome, cheers to the survivors and honor to the fallen. Crazy.
@Wise_Grimwald: Unfortunately for me, I'm doing a poverty run. No scrolls, potions, or anything like that. But now that I have three level 5 sorcerers with Magic Missile, I can probably deal with her using brute force.
@Abby_Zero: Welcome to the forums! I notice you just joined yesterday--since you're new here, I think you can earn the extremely rare Combo Breaker badge if you get 5 different badges for 5 different things in one day. It's impossible for old-timers like me, but you're in just the right spot to get it! You should have the Photogenic badge for updating your portrait, so if you get just one or two more today, you should get the Combo Breaker badge.
@semiticgod The Iron Throne 5th floor and Cythrandria are not required fights. You can finish the game without ever doing those encounters. The main thing for the 5th floor guys is sneak/invis past the enemies and talk to Thaldorn OR get the letters in the back room - then Scar will acknowledge your task as a success.
I acknowledge Sarevok will be difficult with a poverty run.
Corey_Russell said:@semiticgod The Iron Throne 5th floor and Cythrandria are not required fights. You can finish the game without ever doing those encounters. The main thing for the 5th floor guys is sneak/invis past the enemies and talk to Thaldorn OR get the letters in the back room - then Scar will acknowledge your task as a success.
I acknowledge Sarevok will be difficult with a poverty run.
That is what I usually do anyway as you are given big hints to do it that way.
Comments
No mods ? It's absolutely no problem ! Many no-reloaders goes through the game without mods.
You can drop by the no-reload thread to post your run ! I would gadly follow it there !
People are already addicted to this, and yes, it's a genuine addiction. Ask my wife!
Corthief XIV the elven thief(protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell)
Berk the dwarven berserker (controlled by Grond0)
Stinkimo dwarven defender (controlled by Gate70)
The party did some misc. quests before working on the main quest:
1) The helm of balduran was obtained. We battled the mountain maulers and did pretty well. Corthief XIV managed to lay a snare, despite bad skill, and then he disrupted the casters with his bow.
2) Degrodel and his minions were battled. We pulled piece-meal, with Corthief XIV doing backstabs to speed up the kills. This went well.
3) We of course talked to Vai and then got the cloak of balduran a little later.
4) We were finally able to turn in the body of the boy we have been lugging around for a while. The shield went to stinkimo, since Berk usually uses the Spider's Bane.
5) The ogre mage and his crawlers were eliminated. Corthief XIV used a dispelling arrow to rid of the ogre mage of his mirrors. The ogre mage responded with confusion, making Corthief XIV wander around. Fortunately, Corthief XIV managed to not walk into enemies.
6) We then took down the dopplegangers at the Seven Suns without difficulty.
7) We decided to take down the Iron Throne. The dwarves used their special abilities and did well with that. Corthief XIV tried a backstab but Gardush pursued. Corthief XIV then spent the entire battle hiding in the shadows, backstab, run and repeat on Gardush. He was still at it when the dwarves had victory upstairs.
8) We then went to Candlekeep. Corthief used a dispelling arrow on the greater doppeganger - but right afterwards the doppleganger used haste and Corthief XIV couldn't get away and had to use a invis potion.
9) Prat did not do well when the party attacked from all angles. He was also stunned, which was quite helpful to the battle. The basilisks were taken down with a protection from petrification green scroll.
10) Slythe didn't do well, being dispelled and all. Krystin decided not to appear.
11) We used potions to help make sure we won the duchal palace fight - this worked. However, Corthief XIV nearly died, and only survived thanks to a invis potion.
12) The maze went pretty well, with Corthief XIV using backstabs when practical, including on the skeleton warriors with the help of a green scroll vs. undead.
13) We decided the undercity party was not worth the trouble - on the other hand, since the green scroll was still active, the dwarves waited patiently until Corthief XIV was done killing the 4 skeleton warriors - which went slow with his 1 APR.
14) Sarevok battle went OK, with the dwarves taking a beating, but not dying. An attack from the shadows finished off Sarevok.
15) Gate70 helped Corey_Russell load up an prepare for our next session next week.
Some screenshots.
The Seducer seems much too weak to survive without items, so I'm thinking about a poverty run with a party: a Bounty Hunter, a Cleric of Helm, three sorcerers, and I don't know who else.
Most of this party setup revolves around Belhifet. A poverty run means no missile weapons, wands, or scrolls to damage Belhifet, and no potions to survive melee combat with the guy, so I'm thinking our only decent chance is to use two characters who can remove his Improved Invisibility twice in the same round (so he can't just re-cast it indefinitely), allowing some sorcerers to hit him with Lower Resistance and then a bunch of Magic Missiles and Melf's Acid Arrows. If the three sorcerers land only one Lower Resistance spells each and then hit Belhifet with 5 Magic Missiles and 5 Acid Arrows each, we're looking at 300 damage over 11 rounds, out of Belhifet's total 350 HP. If we land a single more Lower Resistance spell, the average damage is over 400, giving us a comfortable window. If we get MR down to zero, we're looking at 490 damage, but that would require us to land Lower Resistance twice in two rounds--and coordinating six rounds of aura would be dicey.
We might just spam Fireballs and/or Slow for the siege on Dragonspear Castle itself, but I don't know how much that'll really get us, since the fight is extremely long and I don't know how much the coalition itself can contribute. Notably, we'd have no Dwarves of Dumathoin to join the coalition, since tackling the Coldhearth Lich would be foolish.
As for BG1, we could lean heavily on the Bounty Hunter for the early game, but Sarevok and company pose a problem. I know very little about that fight and have relied heavily on Arrows of Detonation and the Wand of Monster Summoning in the past. Our defenses would be total crap and our spell picks would be constrained due to the need to survive early BG1 and late SoD. Worse yet, unless we got over 200,000 XP for our cleric so it could cast Raise Dead, any BG1 death would mean we fight Sarevok with 5 party members (unless we boot the sixth party member in favor of an NPC, which does not seem like a good investment for a trilogy run).
BG2 isn't a problem aside from perhaps Ascension. My install removes the summoning and trap limits and while I don't like the idea, Project Image and Wish-resting could get us an army of Planetars, Devas, and Skeleton Warriors as well as a massive pile of traps for the Five.
What do you guys think of the Sarevok fight, Belhifet, and the siege of Dragonspear Castle without any items? @Harpagornis, @Grond0, @JuliusBorisov? I'm particularly concerned about Belhifet's allies, because I don't know who spawns at what difficulties and if my mages would be in danger despite having Stoneskin and staying on the move, possibly with a Teleport Field to aid in kiting.
And what do you guys think would work for the sixth character? This is what I've considered:
1. Totemic Druid. It would be give me decent bait in the early game, powerful summons in SoD, and a strong tank in late SoA, plus some decent HLA summons as well, but I've been leery of its utility against Belhifet because even the Spirit Lions don't seem to have the THAC0 to hit Belhifet without a critical hit.
2. Wizard Slayer/Druid. I'd be trading Spirit Animals for spell failure on Fire Seeds, but I'm not sure the optimal build, a level 7 dual, is worth the wait, and as strong as this build is, most of its power comes from nonmagical darts, which I can't use.
3. A second Bounty Hunter, possibly dual-classed to cleric at the start of SoA. Their traps are ridiculously strong, but they wouldn't buy me much against Belhifet or at Dragonspear Castle because their damage output is more burst damage than sustained.
4. A fourth sorcerer, just because it'll have good defenses, bombing options at Dragonspear Castle, single-target spells for Belhifet, and mage HLAs for BG2.
I'm going to steer clear of mod spells for this run, so no Emotion: Hope, Thunderslap, or Vestcakes Floating Curse.
A bit of a late bloomer, but it might be worthwhile. He will still be subjected to crits, which can wreck your day, though.
Against Belhifet, why not try to lower his resistance and hit him with either crapton of damage spells or even hit him with a disablers like Feeblemind ? With three sorcerers, it would be possible. I can't remember what he's immune to, though...
Edit: I've just been thinking about perhaps having a go at this myself.
Cleric of Helm looks like a good solid choice - melee option, summons, buffs, decent HPs.
Bounty hunter can provide considerable damage (particularly on the assumption he's blinded when setting traps) and a bit of utility for traps, locks etc.
Totemic druid gives early summons, good damage with spells at higher levels. I think it's a close call with the Avenger, but I'd probably stick with totemic.
Shaman looks pretty attractive to me as well. That provides a potential never ending stream of summons for situations where casters are tapped (could be handy for the Castle siege you were worried about). Also got decent damage for insects.
2 x sorcerer.
What are your rules for the poverty run? For instance are you allowed to hang on to the quarterstaff you start BG1 with? Are you allowed to pick up quest items? Are you allowed to pay for quests (if not presumably you need a mod to be able to make progress in BG2)?
For the Siege, the allies (if you always chose the best options when it comes to having more allies and less enemies available while questing) can be quite helpful and will be able to stand up to your foes if you have a way to deal ranged damage quickly enough or disable the crusaders. The challenge will propably be trying to retain your fireballs for Ashatiel's party, but there are many powerful CC options that will propably allow your sorcerers to turn the fight in your favor - with such a huge amount of arcane magic, you will propably have enough web/horror/glitterdust, slow, emotion:hopelessness/confusion/greater malison, chaos etc. spells to always turn the fight in favor of your allies (just make sure to poison both food and water supplies and place the explosive barrel). After that, if you can get rid of the traps, fireballing and/or webbing Ashatiel's allies should allow you to progress to her position (especially if you enlist the help of some summoned skeletons for this part, as quick progress is neccessary). All in all, if you just get enough AoE spells in your spellbook, I don't think this part will be that tough - Belhifet is propably going to be much more challenging.
For Belhifet, iirc, there are two types of summoned threats and Belhifet himself who can still hurt you if you're constantly on the move and hasted: The cornugons use lightning bolt (protection from electricity would be a strange spellpick, but it is a potential option if your cleric isn't enough), and the erinyes use charm (I think) and shoot you with ice arrows, but they don't deal a huge amount of damage. Both are relatively rare compared to other devils Belhifet tends to summon. Belhifet himself will still be able to use his aura of fear (easy to counter with your party) and his teleport, he will use hold person and, of course, his two powerful fire damage spells, so it might be neccessary to go for a couple of the weaker arcane protection from fire spells (unless you go for two divine spellcasters and thus have enough protection from fire spells - even though those don't last very long). On the plus side, you can easily counter his remove magic by running at him with a sorcerer buffed with SI:Abjuration at the start of the fight while keeping your party away. I may be forgetting at least one source of potential danger, though, but these are the things I remember encountering in my previous run, where being constantly on the move was the primary strategy.
Looking at my screenshots from my run with my shadowdancer, which was on core rules, it seems like Belhifet doesn't even get summons (or at least not right away - it seems like he also never gated in any) on that difficulty level, so things could be much easier depending if you play on insane or core. Hephernaan is pretty harmless in his devil form on any difficulty level, by the way.
As for classes, I would propably go for the totemic druid (shocking, I know), but, depending on your mods and modding options (if you play with SCS and the various insect plague nerfs, for example), another sorcerer might be overall more useful. Still, having two divine spellcasters makes it much easier to get the neccessary buffs going with no access to potions and scrolls.
1. No items can be used except for quest items, only for their intended purpose, and a single nonmagical quarterstaff against the Mephit Portals in Chateau Irenicus and the Magic Golems in the Fire Giant lair.
2. No gold can be gathered, nor spent except to complete quests. Everything else must be donated.
Since this is a party run, I think I'll disallow the two-time use of the quarterstaff (it didn't make much sense anyway since it still left monks unable to hit those Magic Golems), but I'll let myself collect gold and time donations so I can manage reputation to change my Bhaalspawn power picks.
I'm going with the same EET install for Mae and Frisky Bits' runs, with SCS, Ascension, and all the other stuff from BWS. So, no vanilla Sarevok for us.
I usually go with Core Rules, or Insane without the damage bonus, but I might go as low as Normal mode for this run, if only to avoid dealing with Erinyes and Cornugons. With charm, Hold Person, ice arrows, and Lightning Bolts to worry about, I'm concerned about our spell slots and our spell picks. To block charm and Hold Person, we need SI: Enchantment on our sorcerers, or else both Free Action and Chaotic Commands from our priest(s). But Free Action is a level 4 spell that takes up the same spell slots as a Protection from Lightning spell, and choosing the mage version instead takes up an equally precious level 5 slot. We also need at least one SI: Abjuration spell to block the opening Remove Magic, and at least two Lower Resistance spell picks to actually harm Belhifet, unless we're relying on a single mage to cast four such spells in a row without disruption. This leaves very little room for a Chaos spell pick.
If Erinyes are good with those ice arrows, it may even be worth it to pick Protection from Cold as a level 3 mage spell pick, simply because it's so incredibly important to land those Lower Resistance spells without disruption, and it's already very easy to mis-time them and have Belhifet go invisible.
@Enuhal: I'm not very confident that Web will as useful at Dragonspear Castle as it normally might be. With no missile weapons except for Minute Meteors (which conflicts with Fireball), only the Cleric of Helm could actually deal any damage during the fight, and that's only if it maintains Free Action and does not get dispelled by the Crusader mages. Greater Malison combined with Horror and Confusion/Hopelessness might be useful, though I normally consider them sub-optimal picks for no-reload runs due to being fairly unreliable. Chaos would be awesome for the siege, but we already have a need for Spell Immunity, Lower Resistance, and maybe even Protection from Lightning as level 5 mage spell picks. What do you think about Spirit Animals during the siege? At level 10, a Totemic Druid's spirit critters would be immune to normal weapons, but are there many enemies who only use normal weapons?
@Grond0: The Shaman would give us extra Raise Dead spells and Chaotic Commands, and Insect Plague should be useful at Dragonspear Castle even with SCS due to the lack of Fire Shields, but I've honestly been very skeptical about the Shaman's reliability in a no-reload run as well as its viability without items. A max-level Shaman's AC when dancing would be well north of zero without items, making it extremely easy to hit with missile weapons, and it's entirely possible to go for several consecutive rounds without summoning anything. Plus, it can't move while dancing, and we really need to be able to move around during the Belhifet fight because Belhifet hits so hard and so often and so reliably and imposes disease and poison damage on hit, and it would be all but mandatory to send the Shaman running, costing us its spirit critters, if Belhifet were to target it. Even Teleport Field might not be enough to keep it going.
Does anyone know exactly how many rounds pass during the elevator to Belhifet? It's well over 5 rounds and may even be 10 rounds or higher, and the timing could be extremely important due to the poor duration of Spell Immunity and a lot of other important buffs.
Unfortunately for me, Shoal is far more dangerous than normal in my install, because she has a higher movement rate and summons a fast-moving Water Weird that has a paralysis weapon and an instant death attack.
According to a quick test I just did, the elevator ride should be exactly 15 rounds long.
I agree that web won't be as useful as usual, but you can still disable the enemy backline, which would relieve your allied troups greatly. Since fireballs, unlike wands of fire or necklace charges, take some time to cast, disabling the enemy also makes it easier to bomb them, as they won't be able to shoot back. Regarding the unreliablity of save or else-spells - With the sheer amount of sorcerer spellslots available to you, I think you can be pretty sure that a lot of your foes could be disabled, especially with greater malison in the mix - there are no great aoe damage options for level 2 or level 4 anyway, so once you've picked up the most important protective spells, crowd control is a good proactive choice - I would argue that, overall, even pretty unlucky disable attempts with only 2-3 successes will do more than a single-target damage spell during a battle like the Siege.
Sadly, there's a lot of magic damage and magical arrows flying around during the siege, so spirit animals aren't exactly reliable. They are still good, but since this battle lasts for a very long time, they will most likely get killed eventually. Fire elementals are a bit more survivable, though, especially if enemy mages get taken out quickly (as they are often disabled otherwise). Insect plague can be of great help in order to achieve that and protect your summons.
I would certainly be interested in how sorcerer spellpicks will change with a) 3 sorcerers and b) no items available. Keep us updated on that!
On Core Rules, Caelar killed the Abishais and Hephernaan and took maybe 50 HP from Belhifet before dying. When I helped her fight the Abishais and Hephernaan and took them down in a few short rounds, she took about 170 HP from Belhifet. In Normal mode, Caelar was essentially able to beat him single-handedly; all we had to do was stay out of the way. I believe this is because Caelar spammed a Bolt of Glory-type spell in Normal mode.
Hephernaan deals massive poison damage, apparently about 4 damage per second. Definitely a much bigger threat than I expected. Note that the Abishais spam Command, so a character with poor saves and no Chaotic Commands might get locked down and get killed.
Belhifet's teleport spell can disrupt player spells just as easily as Improved Invisibility. Belhifet also casts a fear spell and Hold Person simultaneously. But since he casts Hold Person and his fire spell rather often, and they seem to be exclusive with his teleport spell and Improved Invisibility, you should be able to cast Lower Resistance right after Hold Person or a fire spell without risk of disruption.
So basically any party could take down Belhifet in a poverty run on Normal mode, but things get a little dicey if we're on Core rules. The party should be equipped to quickly kill the Abishais and Hephernaan so Belhifet and Caelar will focus on each other. Caelar actually buys you a lot of time.
With Holy Power, DUHM, Chant, and Bless, a Cleric of Helm should have 1 THAC0, for a 35% chance of landing a hit. At 4 APR when hasted and 21 STR, you should deal 16-18 damage per hit on average. Taking into account Belhifet's AC and 25% damage resistance (50% vs. missiles), a fully-buffed Cleric of Helm should deal at least 16 damage per round on average.
Fully buffed, a Cleric of Helm could hit -9 effective AC (single weapon style, Spirit Armor, Defensive Harmony, 18 base DEX + DUHM, Protection from Evil), which probably will not keep it alive for very long against Belhifet. However, if you're attacking alongside Caelar and fade back when you're wounded so your second priest can cast Neutralize Poison or maybe Heal, I think a Cleric of Helm could take a decent chunk out of Belhifet, though some of the cleric's resources would be spent taking down Hephernaan and the Abishais. Bear in mind that a Cleric of Helm cannot heal itself when using Seeking Sword; spellcasting is disabled.
My earlier calculations were incorrect; Acid Arrow lasts 4 rounds at level 9+ and deals 20 damage instead of 15. Three sorcerers would be much better equipped to handle Belhifet on Core Rules, but two sorcerers and a Cleric of Helm should be able to win the fight with the support of a Totemic Druid.
There are a lot of Hold Person spells in this fight. Free Action should last the whole fight, I think, but you also need those level 4 spell slots for Neutralize Poison. It's probably best to dedicate at least two spell slots to Chaotic Commands, and Wondrous Recall can get us two more at the cost of a Heal spell. The sorcerers probably won't have MGOI, but SI: Enchantment will block Hold Person at the cost of a Lower Resistance spell.
On higher difficulties with Erinyes and Cornugons, the prospects for success are dubious. My best guess is that only Teleport Field and a very aggressive hasted Cleric of Helm tackling the Erinyes would give three sorcerers enough room to kill Belhifet with Lower Resistance, Acid Arrows, and Magic Missiles, with Protection from Lightning and a whole lot of kiting to evade the Cornugons and other critters.
I'm pretty sure sorcerers are the key to winning this fight. Belhifet is devastating in melee but hopeless at range, and once you lower his MR, he has no resistance whatsoever to acid damage or magic damage.
The enemy only casts Remove Magic on Insane mode. Cornugons also only appear on Insane mode. And it seems that Belhifet only summons new demons (a Cornugon or a Hamatula and an Abishai) on Insane mode. On Hard mode, Bone Fiends and Erinyes appear, both of which will cast charm spells.
If you're not playing on Insane mode, you won't need SI: Abjuration in the first place. SI: Enchantment is probably a good replacement.
If I rest, more ankhegs appear, and then I'm out of ammo and have to flee the area, where I get ambushed.
I've largely solved it by simply starting anew with two sorcerers who have Sleep instead of just one (the other used to have Blindness). The extra Sleep spells got me the snoozing arthropods I wanted.
My mods make the basilisk area far more difficult than normal. Korax only has 16 HP (!) and dies extremely fast in my install; I've noticed two or three basilisks vanish without explanation when I left the area and come back; Greater Basilisks gives 5000 XP instead of 7000; and there are 50+ HP Medusas in the north which have poison attacks as well as a short-ranged petrification gaze. Mutamin's garden is considerably harder and less profitable than normal. Repeatedly resting in the ankheg tunnels and killing ankhegs with Command, Sleep, traps, Spirit Lions, Flame Blade, and the Seeking Sword is a much better way of gaining XP.
I don't have Magic Missile for Tenya, and I think the Tenya NPC mod makes her put up a much bigger fight than normal. A lot of stuff is different in my install.
Right now I'm at level 4.5 and I'm done with the ankhegs, but I'm anxious about the Nashkel mines. Aside from the poison-using Kobold Guards from SCS, we've got an extremely tough duergar ambush with high enemy APR, Bolts of Biting, and Hold Person; one or two extra kobold spellcasters; a pair of Sword Spiders; and a band of Hobgoblin Shamans and Hobgoblin Captains which thankfully is avoidable.
Come to think of it, my install probably isn't well-suited to a poverty run.
Now I'm worried about the bounty hunter ambushes. I think it's different in the original game, judging by the wiki and other forum posts, but in my install, Lamalha and Halacan and Morvin/Molkar ambush you during area transitions and I don't know when they trigger exactly. Does anyone know how I can force those ambushes to trigger?
I have three Invisibility spells per day, which is only enough to cover the party for short distances between the few areas that are safe to rest in: the mines, the carnival, the temple of Lathander, and the Friendly Arm Inn. If I can just get the ambush to trigger when the whole party is invisible, I could avoid all of them.
- It's been at least 5 days since the player character has reached 10,000 XP in chapter 3
- You've killed Tranzig
- You've made the bandit camp hostile - not sure about this one
After that, the other party will be your next random encounter if eitherThe Lamalha and Morvin ambushes:
If you have a level 4 sorcerer (or level 5 Dragon Disciple) with Invisibility as their first level 2 spell pick, you can turn half the party invisible using all three level 2 spell slots, rest, and turn the other half of the party invisible. The whole party will be invisible for the next 16 hours. You can then travel short distances back and forth from the Nashkel carnival (safe to rest), the Friendly Arm Inn (safe to rest), or the temple of Lathander next to Beregost (weak and infrequent rest ambushes). You will eventually hit the Lamalha ambush with the whole party invisible and can flee without a fight, and you can do the same for Morvin. I used CTRL-T to advance time by 5 days, but resting at a safe place should also work just fine.
Tazok:
You arrive at Tazok unrested and apparently there's a time lapse; Invisibility will probably wear off before you reach him. Command and Blindness are virtually useless; I've seen him make saving throws with a 2. A Totemic Druid can summon a Spirit Lion before Tazok targets a party member, but he'll kill it in roughly 6 seconds assuming a level 5 druid. A level 5 cleric can summon two skeletons and keep him busy long enough for the druid to hit Tazok with two Call Lightning spells, and a couple of traps from a Bounty Hunter (or an unkitted thief, if you're level 6 or higher) should be enough to get him to call it quits and let you join the camp.
The bandit camp:
Resting is safe and you can set as many traps as you like. I used Charm Person or Mammal on a couple of hobgoblins, but the results were disappointing: the one who failed its save turned out hostile after the duration ran out, and may have turned the rest of the camp hostile if I had not sent him far away from the camp.
Fighting is unnecessary if you have a cleric and enter the main tent with the whole party under Invisibility. A level 5 cleric should have 50 HP and can open the chest to get the documents without breaking invisibility if you cast Sanctuary first (opening containers never breaks Sanctuary). The Lightning Bolt trap should deal 10d6 damage for a maximum of 60 damage, Chant will reduce the maximum damage to 50, and Aid will bump the cleric's maximum HP up to at least 51. You can then leave the bandit camp with no one turning hostile.
This is assuming the Lightning Bolt only hits once. In my case, it hit once (though it did a very unlikely 27 damage out of 30 possible with a saving throw), but if that's not guaranteed, only Protection from Lightning will ensure survival. That requires a level 7 priest, 35,000 for a druid or 55,000 for a cleric.
The Iron Throne fight will be a nightmare and will probably require leaving the headquarters to rest in between kills. Cythandria should be baited and waited out; Slythe should be baited into landing a backstab on a summons and Commanded to death; Kristin should be baited and waited; and I'm thinking lots of traps will be necessary for the Ducal Palace. The Undercity party can be avoided.
Sarevok himself will be horrible. I'm thinking we'd wait out Diarmid's Protection from Magic scroll if at all possible, wait out Angelo and Semaj's buffs, then use Teleport Field to avoid melee attacks and very slowly kill everyone with spell damage. But letting the enemy get a single Chaos spell off the ground could totally ruin us, and we don't have any real anti-mage capabilities.
Crazy.
@Abby_Zero: Welcome to the forums! I notice you just joined yesterday--since you're new here, I think you can earn the extremely rare Combo Breaker badge if you get 5 different badges for 5 different things in one day. It's impossible for old-timers like me, but you're in just the right spot to get it! You should have the Photogenic badge for updating your portrait, so if you get just one or two more today, you should get the Combo Breaker badge.
I acknowledge Sarevok will be difficult with a poverty run.
I acknowledge Sarevok will be difficult with a poverty run.
That is what I usually do anyway as you are given big hints to do it that way.