A decent scroll combo for this battle is greater malison + chaos. The greater doppelgangers have very good saves, so using greater malison first and a spell with automatic save reduction like chaos will be very helpful (though it's far from a guaranteed win). The wand of sleep only has a relatively low chance to affect your foes, but with greater malison, it's a very viable option as well. Note that at least two of the noblemen who turn into doppelgangers can also be charmed via Nymph's Cloak without triggering the event if you're very careful (the ones furthest away from the dukes) - you can send them away before combat and they won't transform, but to actually finish the event, you will later have to rest until the charm effects end, which should allow you to take them out.
If you want to dispel the haste/MI effects, which is also a very viable strategy (and should be your next step if you first use the scrolls), you should propably make sure you have a pip bows and use arrows of dispelling. They'll do the trick.
@StummvonBordwehr: I am not the most experienced player of that fight, but characters with mage levels tend to prepare with Mirror Image and Wand of Monster Summoning charges, then open with a Greater Malison scroll followed by multiple Chaos scrolls, all of which should be purchasable in large stacks at Sorcerous Sundries (you should be able to get 20 different copies of Chaos). If you have Ithtyl on hand, you can eschew the Greater Malison scroll and just spam Chaos scrolls.
Target the Doppelganger Mage with Arrows of Dispelling and then follow up with melee or ranged pressure to make sure you don't get hit by Remove Magic or whatever (the Doppelganger Shaman is a lower-priority target), and if the Doppelganger Assassin isn't visible, stay on the move and make sure you refresh Mirror Images to avoid a dangerous backstab. Keep Ithtyl in the middle of the herd and she should soak up some hits.
When most of the doppelgangers are confused, you can switch to the Wand of Paralyzation, which should decrease pressure on Liia and Belt and enable automatic hits on the target for your summoned critters. Slow is also an option, but you should have a lot more Wand of Paralyzation charges than Slow scrolls.
Does anyone know which movie file is used when you enter the Undercity before the final battle in BG1, and where it is found? (The area before meeting Sarevok) I went through the movies available on the BG1 menu and it isn't there.
Has anyone else had trouble with the revised PPing rules from RR (V4.9 I think is what I have been using) after installing SCS? With V31 SCS it seems to have broken that. Miss a PP attempt and everyone goes hostile. SCS is installed after RR as suggested from last time I saw the RR compatibility chart.
@Zaghoul For what it’s worth, I always had trouble with this pick pocketing modification : sometimes it was working, other times it didn’t. I’m not sure if it’s anything new. Does it fail all the time now or only sporadically ?
@Zaghoul For what it’s worth, I always had trouble with this pick pocketing modification : sometimes it was working, other times it didn’t. I’m not sure if it’s anything new. Does it fail all the time now or only sporadically ?
@Arctodus Ouch, I'm gonna miss that. Yup, testing on an old saved game seems to show it as sporadic as you mentioned. I'l just have to make sure I get a high lvl PP before using it in my no-reload run.
A question regarding SCS: Does anybody know a way to get back into the demi-lich's room in WK level 4 if you send in one character and the character dies with the lich still alive? The game tells me it's still blocked, and it seem like I can neiter get the lost equipment back nor try to kill the demi-lich again.
I left it on when I played LoB. I don't really see the point in turning it off, as this would turn LoB mostly into a "everything takes ages to kill" mode, while the extra damage turns the whole thing into the truly risky and dangerous affair that I think it was propably meant to be (especially when facing thieves, who all get the maximum backstab modifier thanks to the LoB extra levels). I think LoB is meant to be a clear upgrade to the previous highest difficulty level, insane, which is basically only defined by its extra damage, so playing LoB without the extra damage seems like a weird and kind of pointless hybrid option to me.
Or, to explain my thinking a little bit differently: LoB is supposed to increase difficulty by adding an unfair stats advantage, and this includes the double damage. The reason that a lot of people, myself included, usually don't play on insane is because the game is designed around the core D&D rules and the insane difficulty extra damage destroys that original balance - core rules feels in many ways like the "correct" difficulty setting for many players. In addition to that, just adding extra damage to many people feels like a cheap way to increase difficulty - better AI, more interesting abilities and new tactical challenges, provided by mods such as SCS, are more popular for that reason. However, once you sign up for LoB, you're in for breaking the core D&D rules big time anyway, and its definitely a cheap way to increase difficulty, so if you're already in for that, why dial it back again? I don't see a very good justification for doing so (and if all someone wants is the best AI and the most difficult types of encounters during SoD, insane with turned off extra damage is essentially the same as core rules in every other way).
Of course, the choice to turn off the extra damage is not "invalid" or "wrong" in some way - everyone is free to play the way they like. To me, though, there wouldn't be much of a point to it (and I would propably find it boring to play - all the extra defenses and hitpoints tend to make LoB quite tedious in various stages, while the extra damage can definitely add a bit of spice to the entire thing - you can't just fall asleep while watching your summons go to work, because if something gets past them, it will hit you hard).
I don't like extra damage because it seems simplistic, but these days I leave it on. It's the same reason I don't enable to the bonus XP: if you're going to crank up the difficulty to the extreme and unnecessary level of Legacy of Bhaal mode, you may as well go for the absolute maximum.
@semiticgod Good to have you back - playing BG. Always enjoy your runs.
Regarding the Liia 2.5 update, I have found she doesnt prebuff. But once attacked, she will try to cast somewhat potent mage defences.
1) She will begin with at least mirror image, 2) try to stay out of melee and 3) spam magic missile which is great against the dopplegangers mirror images.
Since she cast magic missiles galore, I think its safest not to fire dispelling arrows at the dopplegangers. Instead I use horror * 2, and Ichtyls greater malison in tandem with chaos and confusion. It usually scatters the dopplegangers and give Liia some space and the rest of you can pick the dopplegangers that actually threaten the dukes. Liia’s magic missiler usually takes out all the images of one doppleganger - Liia and Ichtyl together is pure joy. It works pretty well in a non Scs installment. Add the priest of helm’s two casting of entangle and you are looking good..
But a word of caution. Liia doesnt instacast her mirror image. She seems to freeze a short period of time when attacked. So she isnt protected, and if she is interrupted, the dopplegangers will make mince meat out of her (as per pre 2.5 behavior). I succesfully cast invisibility on her in my latest run. Liia broke it by casting mirror image and kicked butt from there (since Belt had died within the first two rounds or so it was needed). She left the whole fight without a scratch.
In all she is now behaving like the rest of the mages in the unmodded game. If given time and space for casting, they can be deadly and hard to kill. If not - they tend to die fast.
@semiticgod I have moved my answer to your question, so I dont clog the regular thread.
I have inserted screen shots from the items of interest
In hindsight the battle tankard should have been swapped with the helmet of Balduran once Caelar was dead - I wouldnt need the restoration scroll from then on. Dont know if the fattigue would come in to question - I believe its only applied when you use the scroll.
The mordron heart is good against demons and such... I Think. But Belhifet is LE, so I should have used the medal of valor perhaps. I didnt check the alignment of the demons/devils so it may have been a major face palm moment.
It looks like there's a decently reliable strategy for breaking the Iron Throne fight even in SCS: recruit as many mages and bards as you can (Garrick, Eldoth, Dynaheir/Edwin, Xzar, Xan, Baeloth, and Quayle are all available, as is a dual-classed Imoen), then get some Wands of Fire or Frost, enter the area under Invisibility, and then blast the enemy with wand charges. The collective burst damage should shift the fight decisively in your favor (I had several of them at Near Death and Badly Injured right off the bat), and since you start out invisible, you can strike before the enemy's pre-buffs fire and also position your party to make sure that no party members take damage in the process.
Uhm... Why not just use oils of fiery burning or potions of explosions and keep your original party? That is what I do with several encounters that I find too risky to play normally in a noreload.
I have never understood the urge of installing SCS with mages'/priests' pre-buffs component 'on' and then trying to find a way ('exploit'/'cheese'/'excuse ', whatever) to eliminate them before those pre-buffs fire...
Did BD change the Greywolf dialogue outcome? I selected "Prism only wants to finish his masterwork..." (like I always do) and he just killed him and ran off with the emeralds and Varscona.
@Incas I've noticed that as well. I always used that answer before, but it now appears to be subject to a reaction check, i.e. if you have poor charisma and/or reputation then Greywolf will attack anyway but otherwise he leaves you alone and just takes out Prism. If you want to be sure about triggering a combat you have to use the more aggressive answer in the dialogue.
Did BD change the Greywolf dialogue outcome? I selected "Prism only wants to finish his masterwork..." (like I always do) and he just killed him and ran off with the emeralds and Varscona.
In my modded install, that dialogue option leads to Greywolf remaining completely passive (and blue-circled), so I now always choose the aggressive option ("armed to the teeth")
It looks like there's a decently reliable strategy for breaking the Iron Throne fight even in SCS: recruit as many mages and bards as you can (Garrick, Eldoth, Dynaheir/Edwin, Xzar, Xan, Baeloth, and Quayle are all available, as is a dual-classed Imoen), then get some Wands of Fire or Frost, enter the area under Invisibility, and then blast the enemy with wand charges. The collective burst damage should shift the fight decisively in your favor (I had several of them at Near Death and Badly Injured right off the bat), and since you start out invisible, you can strike before the enemy's pre-buffs fire and also position your party to make sure that no party members take damage in the process.
I've got a reliable way to handle it: Have everyone go invisible/sanctuaried and move into the back room. The two Shennaras start hostile while the rest of the group won't go red until you talk to Zhalimar, so they can be pulled and dealt with. Then summon up a bunch of critters (preferably Skeleton Warriors), buff them a bit and send them to take the initial brunt of the attack. They'll soak up the nastiest spells (Chaos, Confusion et al), and if properly buffed are quite likely to kill at least one of the enemies as well.
For some reason the enemies seem to prefer to go in the side rooms after dealing with your first wave of summons; occasionally one or two will head into the back room, letting you kill them while isolated (have someone with a Wand of Summoning to conjure up some distractions for the rest of the group while you kill the stragglers).
I've used this tactic for as long as I can remember doing full SCS no-reload, and though there are usually some complications, so far my protagonist has never been in any danger of dying (in fact I can't even remember the last time I lost any party member doing this, though I'm sure there's a record somewhere in the no-reload thread).
I have never understood the urge of installing SCS with mages'/priests' pre-buffs component 'on' and then trying to find a way ('exploit'/'cheese'/'excuse ', whatever) to eliminate them before those pre-buffs fire...
I do this to the mercenaries outside the Cloakwood Mine I've decided to stop though, as I recently took them on "honourably" and really, they're not that tough: Drasus can be easily tanked with Full Plate Mail and a Potion of Absorption (and has rather crummy AC himself), Genthore is entirely pointless and can be left for last, while Rezdan and Kysus are easily distracted with a Wand of Monster Summoning, of which there are two readily available (Valley of Tombs and second underground level of Durlag's).
I realize this has little to do with your post, but.. I liked taking them on fairly and wanted to share
@Incas I've noticed that as well. I always used that answer before, but it now appears to be subject to a reaction check, i.e. if you have poor charisma and/or reputation then Greywolf will attack anyway but otherwise he leaves you alone and just takes out Prism. If you want to be sure about triggering a combat you have to use the more aggressive answer in the dialogue.
I had an interesting outcome when I used Scorcher against Greywolf: He went after my protagonist, I backed away, Prism got caught in the beam and instantly died... and Greywolf just buggered off from the map, taking his sword (but not the emeralds) with him! Anticlimactic, and rather weird, as you'd expect he'd swipe the emeralds.
So I played SoD blind with my C9->M and when I recruited Viconia as cleric replacement I let her charm some no name refugee to kill in the woods. (What else to do, to prevent her leaving?) And this immediately ended my run with a game kill character, lol. Oh sweet memories of no reload runs ending with Arcanis Gath and Winski Perorath.
Is it possible to just speed run SoD solo the next time? Anyone done it?
@Incas: What was the name of the instant killing character? I have no idea why that would happen. Was this in the first wilderness area, Coast Way Crossing?
Soloing SoD can be tricky. There are a lot of enemies, and many of them have unique abilities. A Cleric(9)->Mage should be able to pull it off by maintaining Chaotic Commands, Shield, Protection from Fire, and Remove Fear at all times (Protection from Normal Missiles, Protection from Cold, Protection from Electricity, and Free Action will help in other cases), using Animate Dead for decoys, resting under Invisibility, using Greater Malison and Confusion/Chaos/Emotion/Slow for crowd control, and by deploying Wands of Fire to deal damage. The green dragon, Neothelid, half-dragon, and Belhifet would all require Protection from Poison scrolls, the Neothelid would warrant Lower Resistance and lots of Mirror Image spells, and Belhifet would require kiting with Bullets of Darkness under Potions of Strength and DUHM, Lower Resistance combined with Melf's Acid Arrows/Wand of Frost charges, and/or direct tanking with the Martyr's Morningstar boosted by Enchanted Weapon, ideally with a single pip in Single-Weapon style for an extra 5% chance to land a critical hit and take out 15% of Belhifet's HP.
As for the Coalition Camp, which is essentially an instant death scenario if you let any of the Crusaders approach the barrels at the south of the camp (using confusion and fear spells is likely to get you killed), it's best to handle the first wave with the skeleton allies from the Coldhearth Lich quest (you'll have to side with the lich against the Dwarves of Dumathoin) and, before the third wave, go to the area where the enemy clerics spawn and cover it with Skull Traps, Glyphs of Warding, and/or Webs so the enemy will get snared and damaged before they can attack. Buying scrolls in advance can make this easier.
The name was Andrus Gath (they have a whole family of game killers it seems) and yes this was Coast Way Crossing.
Thanks for the detailed description! That sounds like these are pretty difficult encounters. Two further questions. Are there rest restrictions? And is there a way to flee from difficult encounters? At least one encounter I had was magically walled.
@Incas: Andrus is a key NPC later in the game, so I'm guessing she's there to prevent you from killing people on the side of the coalition or some such. I'm surprised that applies to a refugee out in the woods, though--I'd have guessed only plot-critical characters like Bence Duncan would warrant that.
You can run from most encounters. Here are the exceptions that I know (or assume, based on context) you cannot flee from:
1. The fight with the Coldhearth Lich, who seals off the exit. 2. The fight on the Coastway bridge, when the Crusaders seal your exit. 3. The fight for Bridgefort. Also, you can't let any fire damage affect the barrels or let the mage on the bridge live too long, which I think results in a game over because the bridge explodes or something. Note that you can surrender Bridgefort to avoid combat, and I think the penalties are fairly minor. 4. In the basement of Dragonspear Castle, which you reach from the Underground River tunnels, you can't go back down the elevator until after you speak with Hephernaan. You can flee right afterward, though. I recommend luring Hephernaan into the main room so you can safely break into the chests in the northern chamber and get Spell Immunity and the Crown of Lies. Note that you'll need two Potions of Magic Protection to ensure you survive the Maze trap; Minor Spell Deflection won't work. A Potion of Magic Blocking might also work, but I'm not sure. 5. The Coalition Camp invasion. You also can't retreat more than a few steps back (if that) from any of the fights, or else the enemy will attack the barrels, and a single hit on the barrels will blow them up and end the game. This is a very long fight, but note that you can get a full rest and all your spells back by speaking with Dosia (I think she can do this two or three times, at which point she dies). You get a brief respite between the waves, but if you get within visual range of Andrus at the far south, the next wave will trigger within maybe three rounds. It's best to restore your buffs and heal up and so forth before going down to see Andrus. 6. The siege of Dragonspear Castle. 7. The final fight with Belhifet.
Regarding 3), surrendering Bridgefort will only avoid the battle against the main crusader forces there, the battle to prevent the crusaders from blowing up the bridge still has to be fought.
As for 4), maze can also simply be avoided via chaotic commands. Generally, with level 5 cleric slots being limited, it is recommended to buy up all of the many CC scrolls available in SoD - keeping that buff active will prevent many dangerous situations.
Resting restrictions aren't really present in SoD all that much, not even in Avernus. You will get interrupted by monsters while resting quite often, but this can be easily avoided by casting invisibility on yourself before going to rest and then running away to try again a screen away.
I can't give you a lot of gameplay tips, as I've always relied a lot on physical damage when soloing SoD (having done so twice with ranger/clerics and once with a dwarven defender), so I'm not familiar enough with the opponents spell resistances and protections to be of much help. Let's just say that for most battles, the wand of fire is your best friend - and if it doesn't do anything, you're propably in for a long and difficult fight. @semiticgod has already given some great general advice regarding important buffs and strategies, though.
For #2, you can just wait out the fight until Caelar appears. You don't have to beat the crusaders. Quite often, she appears before I get the chance to kill one of them.
For #3, killing the Fire Elemental that the mage summons at the bridge is enough to win that fight. The mage will turn neutral and run away if this happens.
@Incas: Andrus is a key NPC later in the game, so I'm guessing she's there to prevent you from killing people on the side of the coalition or some such. I'm surprised that applies to a refugee out in the woods, though--I'd have guessed only plot-critical characters like Bence Duncan would warrant that.
I had a look into the game code and the related global variable will be set by killing a lot of NPCs. Refugees, militia, neutral soldiers, mercenaries and a handful named ones. (I wonder why Andrus doesn't show up when you kill Mizhena, she too has the class script that sets the global variable.)
This lazy scripting practice really makes me not want to play SoD in no reload.
I think you'll just have to avoid killing characters with blue circles. From an RP and realism perspective, it makes sense. If you're part of a military campaign, the higher-ups wouldn't want their soldiers to go around killing non-combatants.
From an RP perspective I would ask why a 18th level conjurer does not solve the campaign on his own. And how is she even seeing things in middle of the wood with divination as forbidden school?
I'm considering a full re-install of both EEs for my next run, but sticking with v2.3 because v2.5 is of an unacceptable quality to me. How does SCS interact with SoD? I've never used SCS for BGEE because I thought all kinds of things could go wrong installation-wise with SoD being present.
Comments
If you want to dispel the haste/MI effects, which is also a very viable strategy (and should be your next step if you first use the scrolls), you should propably make sure you have a pip bows and use arrows of dispelling. They'll do the trick.
Target the Doppelganger Mage with Arrows of Dispelling and then follow up with melee or ranged pressure to make sure you don't get hit by Remove Magic or whatever (the Doppelganger Shaman is a lower-priority target), and if the Doppelganger Assassin isn't visible, stay on the move and make sure you refresh Mirror Images to avoid a dangerous backstab. Keep Ithtyl in the middle of the herd and she should soak up some hits.
When most of the doppelgangers are confused, you can switch to the Wand of Paralyzation, which should decrease pressure on Liia and Belt and enable automatic hits on the target for your summoned critters. Slow is also an option, but you should have a lot more Wand of Paralyzation charges than Slow scrolls.
SCS is installed after RR as suggested from last time I saw the RR compatibility chart.
Or, to explain my thinking a little bit differently: LoB is supposed to increase difficulty by adding an unfair stats advantage, and this includes the double damage. The reason that a lot of people, myself included, usually don't play on insane is because the game is designed around the core D&D rules and the insane difficulty extra damage destroys that original balance - core rules feels in many ways like the "correct" difficulty setting for many players. In addition to that, just adding extra damage to many people feels like a cheap way to increase difficulty - better AI, more interesting abilities and new tactical challenges, provided by mods such as SCS, are more popular for that reason. However, once you sign up for LoB, you're in for breaking the core D&D rules big time anyway, and its definitely a cheap way to increase difficulty, so if you're already in for that, why dial it back again? I don't see a very good justification for doing so (and if all someone wants is the best AI and the most difficult types of encounters during SoD, insane with turned off extra damage is essentially the same as core rules in every other way).
Of course, the choice to turn off the extra damage is not "invalid" or "wrong" in some way - everyone is free to play the way they like. To me, though, there wouldn't be much of a point to it (and I would propably find it boring to play - all the extra defenses and hitpoints tend to make LoB quite tedious in various stages, while the extra damage can definitely add a bit of spice to the entire thing - you can't just fall asleep while watching your summons go to work, because if something gets past them, it will hit you hard).
Good to have you back - playing BG. Always enjoy your runs.
Regarding the Liia 2.5 update, I have found she doesnt prebuff. But once attacked, she will try to cast somewhat potent mage defences.
1) She will begin with at least mirror image,
2) try to stay out of melee and
3) spam magic missile which is great against the dopplegangers mirror images.
Since she cast magic missiles galore, I think its safest not to fire dispelling arrows at the dopplegangers. Instead I use horror * 2, and Ichtyls greater malison in tandem with chaos and confusion. It usually scatters the dopplegangers and give Liia some space and the rest of you can pick the dopplegangers that actually threaten the dukes. Liia’s magic missiler usually takes out all the images of one doppleganger - Liia and Ichtyl together is pure joy.
It works pretty well in a non Scs installment. Add the priest of helm’s two casting of entangle and you are looking good..
But a word of caution. Liia doesnt instacast her mirror image. She seems to freeze a short period of time when attacked. So she isnt protected, and if she is interrupted, the dopplegangers will make mince meat out of her (as per pre 2.5 behavior). I succesfully cast invisibility on her in my latest run. Liia broke it by casting mirror image and kicked butt from there (since Belt had died within the first two rounds or so it was needed). She left the whole fight without a scratch.
In all she is now behaving like the rest of the mages in the unmodded game. If given time and space for casting, they can be deadly and hard to kill. If not - they tend to die fast.
I have moved my answer to your question, so I dont clog the regular thread.
I have inserted screen shots from the items of interest
In hindsight the battle tankard should have been swapped with the helmet of Balduran once Caelar was dead - I wouldnt need the restoration scroll from then on. Dont know if the fattigue would come in to question - I believe its only applied when you use the scroll.
The mordron heart is good against demons and such... I Think. But Belhifet is LE, so I should have used the medal of valor perhaps. I didnt check the alignment of the demons/devils so it may have been a major face palm moment.
edit: ninja'd by @Grond0
For some reason the enemies seem to prefer to go in the side rooms after dealing with your first wave of summons; occasionally one or two will head into the back room, letting you kill them while isolated (have someone with a Wand of Summoning to conjure up some distractions for the rest of the group while you kill the stragglers).
I've used this tactic for as long as I can remember doing full SCS no-reload, and though there are usually some complications, so far my protagonist has never been in any danger of dying (in fact I can't even remember the last time I lost any party member doing this, though I'm sure there's a record somewhere in the no-reload thread). I do this to the mercenaries outside the Cloakwood Mine
I realize this has little to do with your post, but.. I liked taking them on fairly and wanted to share
And this immediately ended my run with a game kill character, lol. Oh sweet memories of no reload runs ending with Arcanis Gath and Winski Perorath.
Is it possible to just speed run SoD solo the next time? Anyone done it?
Soloing SoD can be tricky. There are a lot of enemies, and many of them have unique abilities. A Cleric(9)->Mage should be able to pull it off by maintaining Chaotic Commands, Shield, Protection from Fire, and Remove Fear at all times (Protection from Normal Missiles, Protection from Cold, Protection from Electricity, and Free Action will help in other cases), using Animate Dead for decoys, resting under Invisibility, using Greater Malison and Confusion/Chaos/Emotion/Slow for crowd control, and by deploying Wands of Fire to deal damage. The green dragon, Neothelid, half-dragon, and Belhifet would all require Protection from Poison scrolls, the Neothelid would warrant Lower Resistance and lots of Mirror Image spells, and Belhifet would require kiting with Bullets of Darkness under Potions of Strength and DUHM, Lower Resistance combined with Melf's Acid Arrows/Wand of Frost charges, and/or direct tanking with the Martyr's Morningstar boosted by Enchanted Weapon, ideally with a single pip in Single-Weapon style for an extra 5% chance to land a critical hit and take out 15% of Belhifet's HP.
As for the Coalition Camp, which is essentially an instant death scenario if you let any of the Crusaders approach the barrels at the south of the camp (using confusion and fear spells is likely to get you killed), it's best to handle the first wave with the skeleton allies from the Coldhearth Lich quest (you'll have to side with the lich against the Dwarves of Dumathoin) and, before the third wave, go to the area where the enemy clerics spawn and cover it with Skull Traps, Glyphs of Warding, and/or Webs so the enemy will get snared and damaged before they can attack. Buying scrolls in advance can make this easier.
The name was Andrus Gath (they have a whole family of game killers it seems) and yes this was Coast Way Crossing.
Thanks for the detailed description! That sounds like these are pretty difficult encounters.
Two further questions. Are there rest restrictions? And is there a way to flee from difficult encounters? At least one encounter I had was magically walled.
You can run from most encounters. Here are the exceptions that I know (or assume, based on context) you cannot flee from:
1. The fight with the Coldhearth Lich, who seals off the exit.
2. The fight on the Coastway bridge, when the Crusaders seal your exit.
3. The fight for Bridgefort. Also, you can't let any fire damage affect the barrels or let the mage on the bridge live too long, which I think results in a game over because the bridge explodes or something. Note that you can surrender Bridgefort to avoid combat, and I think the penalties are fairly minor.
4. In the basement of Dragonspear Castle, which you reach from the Underground River tunnels, you can't go back down the elevator until after you speak with Hephernaan. You can flee right afterward, though. I recommend luring Hephernaan into the main room so you can safely break into the chests in the northern chamber and get Spell Immunity and the Crown of Lies. Note that you'll need two Potions of Magic Protection to ensure you survive the Maze trap; Minor Spell Deflection won't work. A Potion of Magic Blocking might also work, but I'm not sure.
5. The Coalition Camp invasion. You also can't retreat more than a few steps back (if that) from any of the fights, or else the enemy will attack the barrels, and a single hit on the barrels will blow them up and end the game. This is a very long fight, but note that you can get a full rest and all your spells back by speaking with Dosia (I think she can do this two or three times, at which point she dies). You get a brief respite between the waves, but if you get within visual range of Andrus at the far south, the next wave will trigger within maybe three rounds. It's best to restore your buffs and heal up and so forth before going down to see Andrus.
6. The siege of Dragonspear Castle.
7. The final fight with Belhifet.
Tagging @Enuhal, @Harpagornis, and @histamiini if they have anything to add.
As for 4), maze can also simply be avoided via chaotic commands. Generally, with level 5 cleric slots being limited, it is recommended to buy up all of the many CC scrolls available in SoD - keeping that buff active will prevent many dangerous situations.
Resting restrictions aren't really present in SoD all that much, not even in Avernus. You will get interrupted by monsters while resting quite often, but this can be easily avoided by casting invisibility on yourself before going to rest and then running away to try again a screen away.
I can't give you a lot of gameplay tips, as I've always relied a lot on physical damage when soloing SoD (having done so twice with ranger/clerics and once with a dwarven defender), so I'm not familiar enough with the opponents spell resistances and protections to be of much help. Let's just say that for most battles, the wand of fire is your best friend - and if it doesn't do anything, you're propably in for a long and difficult fight. @semiticgod has already given some great general advice regarding important buffs and strategies, though.
For #3, killing the Fire Elemental that the mage summons at the bridge is enough to win that fight. The mage will turn neutral and run away if this happens.
(I wonder why Andrus doesn't show up when you kill Mizhena, she too has the class script that sets the global variable.)
This lazy scripting practice really makes me not want to play SoD in no reload.