@JuliusBorisov Tested in 2.3, not beta. v2.5b has a partial fix. The dispel was moved up above most effects so that it works properly. It is still preceeded by a few opcode 206 effects, though they may be redundant now, the potion is still dispelling them.
I've started over in IWD2 with a solo character in normal mode. We just finished taking down the Horde Fortress and are at cleric level 13. Mod items are allowed in this run, so we spend 120,000 gold buying the Harper Pin, which grants the effects of the Shield spell plus Non-Detection, 15- electricity resistance, and +5 to all saving throws. That pin is one of the few ways we can boost our AC without resorting to taking expensive mage levels.
Playing as a cleric seems much more viable than a sorcerer in normal mode. Without access to Vghotan's Band or the Golden Heart of Charname (which only show up in HoF mode), you need 7 cleric levels to cast Freedom of Movement in normal mode, and that's the only way we can deal with all of the many, many Hold Person spells. By the time we started seeing charm spells, we had a ring of charm immunity, then Chaotic Commands.
I've discovered that the top of the Horde Fortress, the one with 81 total enemies in HoF mode (30 archers, 10 spellcasters, and 41 melee fighters), is indeed viable for a solo character, provided you're a cleric and have done some level-squatting. If you can make it to level 13, you can cast Holy Word, which stuns all enemies for 1 round.
But lower-level enemies get stunned for even longer. Anything below level 8 is stunned for 10 whole rounds! This means that with some extremely careful movement and positioning, you can actually use hit-and-fade tactics with Holy Word and Sanctuary to freeze the enemy herd, kill a single spellcaster, then vanish using Sanctuary and slip out.
It's actually very dependent on the character build. Frisky Bits was able to deal an extra 5d6 acid damage thanks to a mod-introduced or mod-altered bastard sword, and since they're a cleric of Ilmater, they also get Holy Word as a domain spell, which means one extra casting. Other characters might need to rely more heavily on Greater Command, which is already very important for holding down the bigger enemies (the stronger fighters in that area are level 8 and only get stunned for 1 round).
It only got us about 150-200 Arrows of Fire out of a potential 375, which cost us tens of thousands of gold, but that was just barely enough to get us the Harper Pin.
For a HoF character with Tactics bonuses, a high-level cleric could spam Holy Word indefinitely. None of the enemies have any spell resistance, so it's a perfect way to neutralize those game-ending Dispel Magic and Icelance spells.
I'm feeling good about the run. Once we hit cleric level 15, we'll have access to Holy Aura and therefore 15 rounds of 50 SR, enough to block virtually any spell that does not bypass SR by default (like Icelance and Dispel Magic). If we collect some important mod items, we can import Frisky Bits back to Targos in HoF mode, which means we'll be able to re-try HoF mode in much better condition and with a safer character build.
We're going for 18 cleric levels (for strong defenses, immunities, tools, healing options, and summons), 8 mage levels for Mirror Image and Improved Invisibility, and a single level in monk (for evasion and WIS bonuses to AC), and ranger (for feats and access to a mod-exclusive bow and arrow). That'll leave us at level 28, which still gives us some wiggle for future growth.
@JuliusBorisov Tested in 2.3, not beta. v2.5b has a partial fix. The dispel was moved up above most effects so that it works properly. It is still preceeded by a few opcode 206 effects, though they may be redundant now, the potion is still dispelling them.
Can you please report anything that is still missing?
@JuliusBorisov The 206(Immunity to Spell) effects that are still being dispelled, are no longer necessary in the EE. They each apply to a different area-effect spell. I think it was the v2.0 update that fixed the Spell Level Immunity opcode to properly block area-effect spells (as shown with your screenshot of Cloudkill), rendering those 206 effects obsolete. Prior, the Spell Level Immunity opcode had no effect against area-effect spells, making it necessary to protect against them specifically by resource with opcode 206.
Another detail for IWD2 no-reload runs: deafness can block the effects of the Harpy Wail spell. Harpy Wail has a 50% chance of imposing either 5 rounds of stun or 5 rounds of fear, and the former basically means instant death when you're dealing with the numerous Harpies and Earth Elementals in the fight with Mirabel and Majrash. It's a convenient alternative to spell resistance, which should also be able to block the stun effect.
So calling on all the super no reload masters here. I was thinking of farming ankhegs. What is the most efficient way to do this in scs? Also as I recall Silke on scs is pretty rough customer early on. Any advice there?
@RVNS ankhegs are stupid creatures - so even with SCS installed they don't benefit from calling in nearby allies. That means you can swarm the ones in the nest with a party - you can normally kill them before they get more than one attack. If playing solo, arcane types can go invisible when they surface then retreat and cast web out of sight - then blind them after they get stuck. Fighter types can tank them at a huge advantage while they're using their ranged attack; if they switch to melee then run them around for a few seconds before attacking again - they have slow weapon speed, so if you attack in a new round you will normally be able to attack and then retreat before they can retaliate.
If you want to be cheesy you can charm Silke using Algernon's Cloak - that won't make her hostile if the attempt fails. That allows you to waste her spells, but note that with SCS she still has the opportunity to use a sequencer, so just attacking her is not safe if you're solo - in that situation I tend to get her to fight the spiders and then attack her just before she is about to die of poison. For a party you should be able to hit her pretty easily and probably finish her off before she does anything more than try and buff. If she does manage to go invisible then quickly get all but one of the party out of the way - the remaining one can tempt an attack (preferably in a situation where they can run into a house before the attack hits).
@Grond0 Both of those sound excellent. I will give them a whirl. I will have a full party before tackling these so I don't think either will matter much it seems
Developers have tried to fix that problem (an object id overflow) but any fix turned out to be just too dangerous. The knock ons and consequences would greatly outweigh the number of people it helps, which is really unfortunate
Save often, and if it happens restart the game (close the whole application and relaunch) which should fix the overflow for that session.
Mh, too bad. I was really looking forward to that one being fixed, because I really hate reloading in my no-reload games, even if its justified. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Yes thanks for the update @JuliusBorisov - I haven't done a ton of EE runs yet, so haven't run across it, but many have. Guess, if someone just doesn't want that bug, they may have to run the original BG.
I'm not sure that problem wasn't present in the original game, though.
For all this years and uncountable runs, from the very release of original BG, through the EasyTUTU and now BGT, I have not encountered this particular bug even once...
I have never encountered this bug in the original either (I've done at least 100 runs in original) - at the BioWare forums, we only noticed it happening with EE runs.
I have installed EET and am having difficulty finding the way to the area where there are sirines, a shipwreck, and mad Arcand. I have even been asked to go there by somebody who badly wants a red bag from there but none of the areas nearby seem to open up that area. I have never had problems getting there before this installation.
I'm approaching the ScS Unseeing Eye: this is the version with the two instasummon Death Tyrants, right? How the heck do you all tackle this encounter safely?
@Neverused you could try area damage. Alternatively attack with someone who has negative saves and is wearing the belt that cuts magic damage in half. Balduran's Shield also usually soaks up a few attacks before the beholders steal it. If you're in to simulacrum cheese you could use Vhailor's Helm to put PfM on one or two of the party without using up the scrolls.
Korgan is worth recruiting for his strong saves and immunities. Free Action also helps against the Unseeing Eye's Web spells. Death Tyrants have about 100 HP and no other defenses, so you can bring them down within a few rounds if you spam some strong damage spells.
That said, as I've mentioned earlier in this thread, I basically always delay fighting the Unseeing Eye until after the Underdark (though I'll complete other parts of that questline in Chapter 2). Defeating the Unseeing Eye gives you a few tens of thousands of XP, the Saving Grace +3, and Ardulia's Fall. I've never seen any of those three things as worth jeopardizing the fate of a no-reload run.
Question: I am at Spellhold and got teleported outside. But I went inside to loot Jon's office. But when I check my inventory, I see I no longer have the Wardstone. I have no idea where it went, but won't I die if I try to get back to Brynnlaw? I have to take the Underdark portal right? In EE, do you lose the Wardstone? How can you ever go with Saemon then?
@Corey_Russell that behavior has ended at least one and possibly more of my runs. The Wardstone gets removed when you re-enter Spellhold, meaning you can't then get back to Brynnlaw. I don't know if that's being fixed in the next update, but I think it clearly goes against original developer intention, so I imagine that most people would think it qualified as a bug justifying reloading.
@Grond0 I see. Well in the future, I just won't loot Jon's office again, if I am intending to go with Sameon. So I'll load the auto-save before entering Spellhold, double-check I have the Wardstone, then go with Sameon. If I don't have it even then, then will just take the Underdark Portal.
As a nod to your assertion it goes against developer intent, @Grond0 , there are two journals inside Jon's office which give you insight as to what has happened and what's going to happen. But if you were a 1st time player, you now lose out with this behavior if you go with Sameon. I doubt the developers only wanted those people who decline Sameon's offer to be aware of what those journals said.
@Corey_Russell just a clarification on this. The wardstone is taken when you first enter Spellhold, so you won't find it on the autosave created at that point. I presume that also sets a global variable allowing you to get back across the warded bridge (or else directly disarms the trap there). I have gone back in without problems before now, so returning into Spellhold doesn't always trigger this bug - but I'm pretty sure I've seen it at least a couple of times (@Gate70 might correct me, but I think we had that problem in MP once).
What's the most stable and bug free, i.e. safe way to play SCS atm? 1. EET + BWS + SCS 2. The EE games seperately 3. The classic games with BGT/BWS & SCS
I recently completed a full SCS playthrough with the current patch, using the EE games. I installed SCS/Ascension/Jimfix via BWS, but I didn't install EET. Mostly bug-free, but two things can be quite annoying: a) the "grayed out portraits instant death bug" which only ever happens in Durlag's Tower for me and b) a bug when fighting dragons, as they would constantly (as in, many times per round) recast spell deflection, which resulted in heavy lags and some crashes during some of the dragon battles - which can be frustrating. The first bug is universal to the EE games (and everyone agrees that it justifies a reload, as there is no way to prevent it), but I don't remember many reports of the second one. I think there are a few more bugs if EET is included into the mix, if I remember some other runs from different people corrently.
Classic BGT+SCS should still work very well overall, but, of course, there's no option to add SoD into the mix, which can be an interesting no-reload experience depending on the difficulty setting (insane with turned-off extra damage is a decent choice imo).
I've played extensively with a BGT system and with separate modded EE games (I haven't tried EET). My impression is that the options are pretty similar in terms of the stability and bugginess of the game - the EE has solved many problems, but introduced others as well and I think it's still just as prone to crashing. As @Enuhal says though the EE offers the chance to play SoD and it's also significantly extended the modding possibilities, so some changes will only work there (that's not an issue if you're only using SCS though).
In my last set-up I was able to make friends with Sil. She had previously met a man who died of a broken heart. By being like him Sil liked me and gave me a cloak which protected from cold. Does anyone know which mod it was.
Currently I have only one where Sil is not hostile if you kill the pirates, but no reward. The cloak is not the main thing, though it was useful. The main thing that I liked about my last set-up was the story line. I am wondering if it was BG1 Romantic Encounters. If so, it was one of the few romantic encounters as opposed to lustful encounters.
Comments
Tested in 2.3, not beta.
v2.5b has a partial fix. The dispel was moved up above most effects so that it works properly. It is still preceeded by a few opcode 206 effects, though they may be redundant now, the potion is still dispelling them.
Playing as a cleric seems much more viable than a sorcerer in normal mode. Without access to Vghotan's Band or the Golden Heart of Charname (which only show up in HoF mode), you need 7 cleric levels to cast Freedom of Movement in normal mode, and that's the only way we can deal with all of the many, many Hold Person spells. By the time we started seeing charm spells, we had a ring of charm immunity, then Chaotic Commands.
I've discovered that the top of the Horde Fortress, the one with 81 total enemies in HoF mode (30 archers, 10 spellcasters, and 41 melee fighters), is indeed viable for a solo character, provided you're a cleric and have done some level-squatting. If you can make it to level 13, you can cast Holy Word, which stuns all enemies for 1 round.
But lower-level enemies get stunned for even longer. Anything below level 8 is stunned for 10 whole rounds! This means that with some extremely careful movement and positioning, you can actually use hit-and-fade tactics with Holy Word and Sanctuary to freeze the enemy herd, kill a single spellcaster, then vanish using Sanctuary and slip out.
It's actually very dependent on the character build. Frisky Bits was able to deal an extra 5d6 acid damage thanks to a mod-introduced or mod-altered bastard sword, and since they're a cleric of Ilmater, they also get Holy Word as a domain spell, which means one extra casting. Other characters might need to rely more heavily on Greater Command, which is already very important for holding down the bigger enemies (the stronger fighters in that area are level 8 and only get stunned for 1 round).
It only got us about 150-200 Arrows of Fire out of a potential 375, which cost us tens of thousands of gold, but that was just barely enough to get us the Harper Pin.
For a HoF character with Tactics bonuses, a high-level cleric could spam Holy Word indefinitely. None of the enemies have any spell resistance, so it's a perfect way to neutralize those game-ending Dispel Magic and Icelance spells.
I'm feeling good about the run. Once we hit cleric level 15, we'll have access to Holy Aura and therefore 15 rounds of 50 SR, enough to block virtually any spell that does not bypass SR by default (like Icelance and Dispel Magic). If we collect some important mod items, we can import Frisky Bits back to Targos in HoF mode, which means we'll be able to re-try HoF mode in much better condition and with a safer character build.
We're going for 18 cleric levels (for strong defenses, immunities, tools, healing options, and summons), 8 mage levels for Mirror Image and Improved Invisibility, and a single level in monk (for evasion and WIS bonuses to AC), and ranger (for feats and access to a mod-exclusive bow and arrow). That'll leave us at level 28, which still gives us some wiggle for future growth.
The 206(Immunity to Spell) effects that are still being dispelled, are no longer necessary in the EE. They each apply to a different area-effect spell. I think it was the v2.0 update that fixed the Spell Level Immunity opcode to properly block area-effect spells (as shown with your screenshot of Cloudkill), rendering those 206 effects obsolete. Prior, the Spell Level Immunity opcode had no effect against area-effect spells, making it necessary to protect against them specifically by resource with opcode 206.
If you want to be cheesy you can charm Silke using Algernon's Cloak - that won't make her hostile if the attempt fails. That allows you to waste her spells, but note that with SCS she still has the opportunity to use a sequencer, so just attacking her is not safe if you're solo - in that situation I tend to get her to fight the spiders and then attack her just before she is about to die of poison. For a party you should be able to hit her pretty easily and probably finish her off before she does anything more than try and buff. If she does manage to go invisible then quickly get all but one of the party out of the way - the remaining one can tempt an attack (preferably in a situation where they can run into a house before the attack hits).
For @Shank and all no-reloaders
"Main character shouldn't be considered killed and the game shouldn't be over without a reason"
Developers have tried to fix that problem (an object id overflow) but any fix turned out to be just too dangerous. The knock ons and consequences would greatly outweigh the number of people it helps, which is really unfortunate
Save often, and if it happens restart the game (close the whole application and relaunch) which should fix the overflow for that session.
Sorry.
That said, as I've mentioned earlier in this thread, I basically always delay fighting the Unseeing Eye until after the Underdark (though I'll complete other parts of that questline in Chapter 2). Defeating the Unseeing Eye gives you a few tens of thousands of XP, the Saving Grace +3, and Ardulia's Fall. I've never seen any of those three things as worth jeopardizing the fate of a no-reload run.
1. EET + BWS + SCS
2. The EE games seperately
3. The classic games with BGT/BWS & SCS
Want to try a new no reload run.
Classic BGT+SCS should still work very well overall, but, of course, there's no option to add SoD into the mix, which can be an interesting no-reload experience depending on the difficulty setting (insane with turned-off extra damage is a decent choice imo).
The bugs sound scary but at least somewhat rare.
In my last set-up I was able to make friends with Sil. She had previously met a man who died of a broken heart. By being like him Sil liked me and gave me a cloak which protected from cold. Does anyone know which mod it was.
Currently I have only one where Sil is not hostile if you kill the pirates, but no reward. The cloak is not the main thing, though it was useful. The main thing that I liked about my last set-up was the story line. I am wondering if it was BG1 Romantic Encounters. If so, it was one of the few romantic encounters as opposed to lustful encounters.