The CTRL-K run just finished SoD! In retrospect I spend way too much time on SoD, doing side quests and gathering items we don't really need to take on the game's challenges. Plus, since we can't bring a normal party member into BG2, we don't enter SoA with any higher XP by completing extra quests in SoD.
We had to use CTRL-Q on a Lesser Stone Golem in the elevator in order to get out of Avernus after the final battle (it's a straight shot to a cutscene that apparently crashes if every party member is an NPC, before leaving Avernus). However, it seems that we still can't import a character into BG2 if it was recruited via CTRL-Q (or at least was a Lesser Stone Golem). So we're just going to import from another game that has the same items to make sure we start BG2 with the Golden Pantaloons and such available.
SoD was pretty easy with so many fighters in the party (fighter, fighter/mage, Archer, and FMT). Bows really rule SoD, much like BG1.
For Chateau Irenicus I think we need to turn Yoshimo into a sorcerer, or else we won't be able to get into the lock that holds the Golden Pantaloons: Imoen has to be a Kensai, Minsc can't be anything since he has an illegal STR for any non-warrior (and my rules say I can't make him any warrior class), Jaheira has to be an Archer and therefore can't get high STR, and Yoshimo can't be any thief or fighter because he can dual-class from thief to fighter in vanilla.
I think I should try out a minimalist run sometime, just to see how many corners I can safely cut. Being able complete BG1 and SoD faster would be really useful. I spend so much time chasing down XP and loot that I don't need and feel bored gathering.
Incidentally, any of the standard NPCs you find in the dungeon could unlock that container given their usual classes. Imoen and Yoshimo have thief skills, Minsc has enough strength naturally (though he would probably need a few tries), and Jaheira can turn into a bear to do it.
Yoshimo could also get at that container as a cleric or barbarian; the strength bonuses from rage or DUHM would be enough when added to his natural 17. And if you can open that lock, you can open any of the locks in the dungeon except the plot-locked doors and the ones that need keys.
For the arcane route, either Polymorph Self (bear form) or Knock can unlock any chest in the dungeon; the former gets multiple locks in one cast.
One note for later on ... the fight in the druid grove doesn't actually require a druid. The dialogue checks for Cernd, Jaheira, or any druid, but it doesn't check the classes of Cernd or Jaheira. Jaheira could indeed fight Faldorn as an archer - though doing so without equipment would be quite the challenge.
Yoshimo can't be a Barbarian per my rules since he can dual class to fighter in vanilla and I consider Barbarian a fighter kit because it's coded as such. Minsc can't join the party under my rules due to his STR being too high for a non-warrior class, and Jaheira cannot be a druid or a fighter because of my rules. But yes, cleric is also an option for Yoshimo. I have no main character so I also won't have Polymorph Self or Knock or any other thieving abilities.
Cernd can take down Faldorn without being in the party, but if I recruited him at a high enough level he can probably do so in the party since I'm going to take him as a sorcerer to take advantage of his high WIS.
I just realized I broke my rules by making Jaheira into an Archer. She's a fighter/druid in vanilla, and per my rules I cannot make her a warrior class.
I have to start over. This time I'll be a bit faster and more aggressive--I'll probably solo as Viconia for a while, and have Jaheira be a thief so we'll be in a better position for Chateau Irenicus (it was a bit tough at first because all we had was an Archer and a Kensai with no weapons they were proficient in and terrible AC).
I'm enjoying these brief updates @semiticgoddess, and the no Charname theme with customised NPCs too. Do you use mod kits? Jaheira could be a pretty good rogue archer as per your archer mod no? Albeit with a somewhat superfluous CON point.
I think I'm going play around more with NPC customisation too though I'll try to stay in character with every NPC. In my last run I liked Branwen as a Shaman for example.
@Blackraven: That could work, although I'll probably want to make her a Bounty Hunter or Shadowdancer if she has the stats to help with Chateau Irenicus.
@jmerry: Thanks for the catch. Maybe I'll just wait on recruiting her until BG2 (or give her the DEX tome before picking her class, if my visit to Nashkel without talking to Berrun Ghastkill hasn't disappeared her from the FAI).
@jmerry: Thanks for the catch. Maybe I'll just wait on recruiting her until BG2 (or give her the DEX tome before picking her class, if my visit to Nashkel without talking to Berrun Ghastkill hasn't disappeared her from the FAI).
Khalid and Jaheira will only disappear after you clear the Nashkel Mines.
Just visiting Nashkel won't make her leave. The trigger for Jaheira and Khalid to vanish from the game is if you complete the mines and reach chapter 3 without ever inviting them into the party. Same for Montaron and Xzar.
We're entering the Cloakwood now! Viconia is against our FMT Charname, Imoen is a Wizard Slayer, and Baeloth and Xan are single-classed, unkitted fighters solely because it seemed too weird to make them Berserkers.
Honestly, I don't really see the need for another mage, or cleric, or thief, even though we're so fighter-heavy. Spellcasters just mean more micromanagement and less damage output. Who needs wands when we have arrows? As long as Charname can cast Invisibility if we get in trouble, we'll be okay.
I think I'm going to just speed through the game with the fighters I have.
We just took down BG1 in one day! It took more than 15 minutes to figure out how to enter SoD without the game breaking, though--we had to recruit a human party member, and for safety's sake we went back to the character I created at the start of the game, a Diviner named Pearl. We'll keep her as Charname until Coastway Crossing, and just end the run if Viconia (who is supposed to be our real Charname) dies. That way we'll have Pearl in a convenient location for the transfer to SoA. We also had to edit an arrow in Near Infinity to remove Sarevok's MONHP1.itm, which apparently he regained when we teleported back to the temple of Bhaal mid-battle.
We also had to reload to fix a bug: you can use the over-encumbrance trick to talk to the gate guard at the ogre magi ambush and immediately teleport inside Candlekeep instead of fighting the ogre magi, BUT if you talk to the guard before the SCS ambush "reloads" the area to add in the ogre magi, you'll actually teleport back outside of Candlekeep without the book, breaking the game.
So, a solo Wizard Slayer, or anyone who wants to save a Potion of Magic Blocking that otherwise be burned in that fight, may be able to skip the fight by removing a bunch of gear from a bag of holding until you can't move, then talk to the gate guard AFTER the ogre magi appear.
Anyway, a party of fighters make BG1 a breeze. Viconia, our FMT, could deal with traps with the help of potions, and she and Imoen could use Bhaalspawn powers to heal the party (Imoen was briefly Charname and therefore got our first casting of Cure Light Wounds!), which meant thief levels and priest levels were completely unnecessary. And frankly, mage levels are unnecessary as well; arrows and tanking are enough for everything. We did take Coran as a sorcerer, but really, he was just there to shepherd us through the Cloakwood, and Viconia would have been able to do that on her own with extra micromanagement.
Like in the first run, we had Garrick kill Drizzt with Bounty Hunter traps, blew up the Iron Throne with a volley of Arrows of Detonation from multiple characters, and used Alora under a Protection from Magic scroll to more or less solo the final battle using Arrows of Dispelling and Arrows of Detonation. Notable differences included having Viconia solo the game to maximize XP in the early game and making Imoen a Wizard Slayer instead of a Kensai (which helped us take down Davaeorn safely without the Ring of Energy).
I still did a LOT of questing I probably didn't need to. Hopefully I'll be able to resist the urge to hoard and be a bit more minimalist in SoD.
We made it out of SoD! In very little time, too, though I forgot to snatch the Helm of Dumathoin.
Long story short, fighters rule SoD as well. We had Jaheira as a Bounty Hunter and Voghiln as a cleric (I needed somebody who could use priest scrolls, and since we forgot to get a second WIS tome that could have made him qualify for a druid class, cleric was the best we had), but otherwise everyone else had fighter levels. Bows, scimitars, a long sword, and a short sword. Glint gave us some bigger numbers thanks to Emotion, but otherwise fighter levels were enough to break everything.
With ample Arrows of Dispelling and no enemies that could cast PFMW aside from the optional Hephernaan, enemy spellcasters are... not really a threat, to be honest. All of the magicky stuff that makes BG2 wacky and scary hardly matters in SoD.
We did get in trouble a few times. In the starting dungeon, I got REALLY frustrated and upset when the party was separated for complicated reasons and I tried to have Alora solo the Shadowed Souls without a Protection from Undead scroll, and we absolutely STRUGGLED to take down both critters until I finally busted out the Wands of Fire.
The Shadowed Souls run away a lot, and sniping them isn't safe when the melee enemies are swarming you. You barely get any opportunities to make an attack roll on them, they regenerate because of their spells, and you can't heal yourself and also bomb the enemy with OGL in the same round. I was really unhappy about this, more frustrated than I ever have been in this game.
Viconia also got close to death a few times before she learned Stoneskin. Having lousy CON is really bad news. We also learned a new fun fact in the first troll cave in the Coastway ambush area: Free Action doesn't block slow if the slow is caused by disease!
I had more trouble transitioning to BG2. Even when I went back to Coastway Crossing after Avernus (which didn't stall the game, as I expected) to collect our first Charname, the game still stalled in the fight with the Unknowable Horror--the Hooded Man's dialog didn't trigger and ultimately I decided to just import from an SoD save without doing the ending cutscenes.
So a purist NPC-only run, where you use CTRL-K to remove the original Charname, is actually a bit annoying because the game doesn't like it when you mess around with Charname assignment. Going from BG1 to SoD and from SoD to BG2 both have at least one point where the game can stall and force you to use the console to proceed.
But we've done our homework and are entering BG2 with a Wizard Slayer Imoen using short swords and a Bounty Hunter Jaheira using staffs, so we can wiggle around the obstacles in Chateau Irenicus until we recruit Yoshimo as a sorcerer and have him use Knock to grab the pantaloons. Then we'll probably do a lot of soloing with FMT Viconia.
I am so upset right now. We lost the run in Chateau Irenicus of all places. Jaheira was Charname and she just didn't have the skill points to deal with things. Without lockpicking early on, we couldn't get enough potions to stay healthy. Without points in trap detection, we couldn't avoid the damage sources that sapped our energy. If we had better stealth, we might have been able to hide before the golems arrived. One of them landed a critical hit on us during our mad dash towards the portal and the duergar just barely finished us off. It was a string of bad things happening, and if I had positioned Jaheira in the southern portal room, we could have fled early and grabbed Yoshimo, the only person who could have carried us on the way out. It didn't help that the first group of duergar flanked us at the beginning as we tried to clear the hallway to the otyugh.
Chateau Irenicus is a bottleneck for a CTRL-K run under my rules. No Minsc and no Charname means we have to handle everything with just Jaheira and Imoen, and bad class picks or skill point distribution can hurt us badly at the start of the game, which expects you to have a thief with solid skills in picking locks and disarming traps.
We could have made it with better choices, but the path to escaping the dungeon with the Golden Pantaloons is so narrow without spells, without resting, and without Minsc and a normal Charname. I think next time I just need to make Jaheira a sorcerer so we can just grab stuff and go.
I think it's time to just solo BG1 and SoD. Most of the time I've spent is resource management rather than fighting, and a solo character is generally a lot faster than a party even if it's more dangerous.
I've decided against it. The reason I started this particular challenge is to experiment with NPC's in new classes, and soloing the game with the same class picks isn't really experimenting anymore; it's repeating old steps so I can experiment in BG2 instead. That's not what I came to do. I think I'll abandon the CTRL-K concept, or at least pick some new kits for it.
I have been finding that my mage cannot memorise some spells. Before EE, I could erase spells from my spell book in order to memorise others. Has EE changed things?
EDIT
I have just discovered that you now have to right-click on the icon, not on the text, so an answer is not required. I should have Googled before posting.
If you right-click on the spell icon - so not on the name of the spell - in the spellbook, you should get a pop-up asking you whether you want to erase that spell from your spellbook.
Instead of erasing spells though, you could also drink potions of mind focusing and/or genius. A mage with 19+ intelligence can learn every spell of every level, barring opposite school spells for specialists, even if that intelligence score is temporary. (Depending on your settings, increasing INT is also recommendable in order to prevent spell scribing failure. You need 24 or 25 INT or lower your difficulty setting to be 100% sure a spell will be added.)
You can get away with 18 INT (85% chance) if you're a specialist mage scribing a scroll of your chosen school, since specialists get a +15% bonus to scribing chance for spells of their school.
Or, for a mage or bard with no kit, 23 Int guarantees success. There's an off-by-one bug, so that 99% listed chance is actually 100% if you're not taking a specialist penalty.
24 or 25 Int lists 150% chance to learn, so success is guaranteed even with a specialist penalty.
Note also that Imoen, in both games, has a wrong entry in her creature file - a null kit instead of the base class/generalist value. If she's dual-classed to mage, she'll take the specialist penalty. It's bugs all the way down.
On the subject of scroll scribing: I have a vague memory that, when scribing a spell scroll of a level above what you can currently cast, there's a 5% or 10% penalty per level. So for instance trying to scribe a Fireball scroll (third level) as a non-specialist L1 Mage with 18 Intelligence (who can only cast first level arcane spells) would result in an 85% - (2 * 5%) = 75% chance of success.
Is this correct or am I simply confused, and there is no penalty for scribing scrolls above your current max castable level?
The NPC customization feature could make poverty runs much more viable at certain parts of the saga. Being able to go through Mutamin's Garden before recruiting characters could net you a lot of XP that a full custom party would struggle to reach. Soloing part of BG2 could also get you a suite of high-level sorcerers in the party, though only 2 NPCs have 18 Wisdom for Wish: Viconia and Cernd.
The NPC customization feature could make poverty runs much more viable at certain parts of the saga. Being able to go through Mutamin's Garden before recruiting characters could net you a lot of XP that a full custom party would struggle to reach. Soloing part of BG2 could also get you a suite of high-level sorcerers in the party, though only 2 NPCs have 18 Wisdom for Wish: Viconia and Cernd.
That is what I have been doing recently. Waiting until Experience is 32000 before recruiting. There are mods around that are even mpre helpful, but I currently choose not to use them.
I'm up to SoA with a Sky Dancer party run and it looks like a bug ate the Golden Pantaloons in SoD! I was noticing we didn't have the Golden Pantaloons even though Minsc broke the lock on the painting in Chateau Irenicus, and when I re-played the end of SoD, it seems that the Golden Pantaloons were deleted from my inventory when the game took my items. As a result, my import save lacked the item, and so it didn't import. I'm consoling the pantaloons in, since I like me my Scorcher Ammunition in ToB.
Like my CTRL-K run, I'm tweaking NPC classes, but rather than forcing each character to have a completely new class, I'm going with what makes conceptual sense. So, Jaheira is an Avenger, Minsc is a Berserker, and Imoen is a Flare Dancer, the idea being that Imoen and Pearl (our Charname) practiced monk stuff in Candlekeep.
I like the Dancer kits, but the Flare Dancer and Sky Dancer kits are still both monks, and monks are terrible in BG1 and SoD. Still, the game wasn't too difficult since I could draw strength from our party members (Khalid was instrumental as our Archer).
Safana saw a stint as a Plasma Wizard, which is so-so from a powergaming perspective, at least before BG2. Infinite lightning bolts and fireballs with multiple shots per round aren't so overpowered when the damage per hit is tiny, especially when AC, magic resistance, and a save vs. breath can block the damage entirely.
I was planning on making more use of Lightning Bolts and bouncing them off the walls, but I didn't really have the confidence to fire them off in a party I couldn't completely protect from electricity damage (we just didn't have the spell slots). I only used a few Lightning Bolts in each game, with mixed results. A solo Avenger or Cleric of Talos could zap stuff left and right, but in a party run, a stray Lightning Bolt is pretty good at frying your buddies.
I'm enjoying the game more now that I'm not trying to do high-end challenge runs. Solo runs just aren't as much fun as party runs.
@semiticgoddess did you leave the pantaloons in a bag of holding? Anything in containers won't transfer to SoA, so it's easy to get caught out on things that you're not actively using during SoD.
That reminds me of a question I've wanted to ask for a while but always forgot:
Is the Big Metal Unit worth it? I mean, apart from being a cool Easter Egg?
I do realize it's a powerful armor and all classes can wear it. But considering how late in the game you can build it, does it make such a big difference for the end of ToB, or do you just get it because it's cool?
Asking just out of idle curiosity, of course. I doubt I could even reach ToB, let alone do Abazigal's lair, in a no-reload run. Farthest I've got is still final battle in BG1...
That reminds me of a question I've wanted to ask for a while but always forgot:
Is the Big Metal Unit worth it? I mean, apart from being a cool Easter Egg?
I do realize it's a powerful armor and all classes can wear it. But considering how late in the game you can build it, does it make such a big difference for the end of ToB, or do you just get it because it's cool?
Asking just out of idle curiosity, of course. I doubt I could even reach ToB, let alone do Abazigal's lair, in a no-reload run. Farthest I've got is still final battle in BG1...
It can be used by several characters to reach the AC cap, and thus limit the number of times they'll be hit to a minimum. Most classes cannot achieve that without the BMU, or at least not without gimping themselves in other respects (have less elemental protection, worse saves, etc). Most people find the BMU impractical because the golem form won't allow you to move through doors and narrow paths. Personally I find the biggest disadvantage the massive green circle around the character. Enemies may miss more often with better AC but at the same time it's harder to prevent enemies from getting the chance to hit you in the first place, simply because there is more of you to strike at.
Stat-wise ... the Unit is basically +11 full plate, with no class restrictions, that can be used with protection items. Then add on backstab immunity and a bit of magic resistance. For anyone that doesn't have class abilities restricted by heavy armor, it's so far ahead of any other option that you'll always wear it unless you need to get through doors or narrow passages. And in a party run, you're almost certain to have someone that wants heavy armor.
The other pieces ...
The Big Metal Rod is a crossbow that anyone can use, with no bonus to attack or damage. Nothing special for most characters, but it allows classes that can't normally use crossbows to use the special ammo.
The special ammunition pieces all grant five attacks per round regardless of class; even if they don't deal much damage per hit, the sheer frequency of hits make them powerful. They don't have base physical damage, but they gain any bonus damage from the crossbow, and any damage from proficiencies if the crossbow has some. They also get +10 to attack, so you can hit things even without good THAC0.
Pulse ammunition is the simplest: 1d4+1 magic damage, hitting a single target with +3 enchantment. Very good for disrupting spellcasters, good for dealing damage if you use a powerful crossbow like Firetooth or against resistant targets.
Frag grenades deal 1d12 fire damage in an area equivalent to a skull trap. They hit at +1, and do need to hit the central target to deal their damage. Targets in the splash area, however, are hit automatically if the main target is; to-hit checks and weapon immunity don't matter for them.
Scorcher ammunition deals 2d12 fire damage (save vs breath for half) to targets in a line, using the scorcher projectile... which means that the line sticks around, moves with you and the target, and hits again in the next round. Scorcher ammunition hits as +1, but again that only matters for the primary target and not anything else in the line.
In my current run ... I'll have good uses for everything. Even the rod - the Cavalier is actually my best candidate for firing indiscriminate scorchers everywhere. The trickiest part will be avoiding crashes with the Unit.
(Unit + any other polymorph/animation change + two-handed weapon in any slot + anything in the off hand = crash, in BG2EE 2.5.16.6. And that includes picking up any piece of the combo that the character could equip if the rest are already in place. Since I have shapeshifting druids in the party, and the mods I'm using make the shapeshift weapons two-handed, it's really easy to trigger. The crash is fixed in 2.6, and even in 2.5.17 - the current version of BGEE.)
@semiticgoddess did you leave the pantaloons in a bag of holding? Anything in containers won't transfer to SoA, so it's easy to get caught out on things that you're not actively using during SoD.
I checked. It was outside the Bag of Holding, in the first inventory slot.
Comments
We had to use CTRL-Q on a Lesser Stone Golem in the elevator in order to get out of Avernus after the final battle (it's a straight shot to a cutscene that apparently crashes if every party member is an NPC, before leaving Avernus). However, it seems that we still can't import a character into BG2 if it was recruited via CTRL-Q (or at least was a Lesser Stone Golem). So we're just going to import from another game that has the same items to make sure we start BG2 with the Golden Pantaloons and such available.
SoD was pretty easy with so many fighters in the party (fighter, fighter/mage, Archer, and FMT). Bows really rule SoD, much like BG1.
For Chateau Irenicus I think we need to turn Yoshimo into a sorcerer, or else we won't be able to get into the lock that holds the Golden Pantaloons: Imoen has to be a Kensai, Minsc can't be anything since he has an illegal STR for any non-warrior (and my rules say I can't make him any warrior class), Jaheira has to be an Archer and therefore can't get high STR, and Yoshimo can't be any thief or fighter because he can dual-class from thief to fighter in vanilla.
Incidentally, any of the standard NPCs you find in the dungeon could unlock that container given their usual classes. Imoen and Yoshimo have thief skills, Minsc has enough strength naturally (though he would probably need a few tries), and Jaheira can turn into a bear to do it.
Yoshimo could also get at that container as a cleric or barbarian; the strength bonuses from rage or DUHM would be enough when added to his natural 17. And if you can open that lock, you can open any of the locks in the dungeon except the plot-locked doors and the ones that need keys.
For the arcane route, either Polymorph Self (bear form) or Knock can unlock any chest in the dungeon; the former gets multiple locks in one cast.
One note for later on ... the fight in the druid grove doesn't actually require a druid. The dialogue checks for Cernd, Jaheira, or any druid, but it doesn't check the classes of Cernd or Jaheira. Jaheira could indeed fight Faldorn as an archer - though doing so without equipment would be quite the challenge.
Cernd can take down Faldorn without being in the party, but if I recruited him at a high enough level he can probably do so in the party since I'm going to take him as a sorcerer to take advantage of his high WIS.
I have to start over. This time I'll be a bit faster and more aggressive--I'll probably solo as Viconia for a while, and have Jaheira be a thief so we'll be in a better position for Chateau Irenicus (it was a bit tough at first because all we had was an Archer and a Kensai with no weapons they were proficient in and terrible AC).
I think I'm going play around more with NPC customisation too though I'll try to stay in character with every NPC. In my last run I liked Branwen as a Shaman for example.
Khalid and Jaheira will only disappear after you clear the Nashkel Mines.
Honestly, I don't really see the need for another mage, or cleric, or thief, even though we're so fighter-heavy. Spellcasters just mean more micromanagement and less damage output. Who needs wands when we have arrows? As long as Charname can cast Invisibility if we get in trouble, we'll be okay.
I think I'm going to just speed through the game with the fighters I have.
We also had to reload to fix a bug: you can use the over-encumbrance trick to talk to the gate guard at the ogre magi ambush and immediately teleport inside Candlekeep instead of fighting the ogre magi, BUT if you talk to the guard before the SCS ambush "reloads" the area to add in the ogre magi, you'll actually teleport back outside of Candlekeep without the book, breaking the game.
So, a solo Wizard Slayer, or anyone who wants to save a Potion of Magic Blocking that otherwise be burned in that fight, may be able to skip the fight by removing a bunch of gear from a bag of holding until you can't move, then talk to the gate guard AFTER the ogre magi appear.
Anyway, a party of fighters make BG1 a breeze. Viconia, our FMT, could deal with traps with the help of potions, and she and Imoen could use Bhaalspawn powers to heal the party (Imoen was briefly Charname and therefore got our first casting of Cure Light Wounds!), which meant thief levels and priest levels were completely unnecessary. And frankly, mage levels are unnecessary as well; arrows and tanking are enough for everything. We did take Coran as a sorcerer, but really, he was just there to shepherd us through the Cloakwood, and Viconia would have been able to do that on her own with extra micromanagement.
Like in the first run, we had Garrick kill Drizzt with Bounty Hunter traps, blew up the Iron Throne with a volley of Arrows of Detonation from multiple characters, and used Alora under a Protection from Magic scroll to more or less solo the final battle using Arrows of Dispelling and Arrows of Detonation. Notable differences included having Viconia solo the game to maximize XP in the early game and making Imoen a Wizard Slayer instead of a Kensai (which helped us take down Davaeorn safely without the Ring of Energy).
I still did a LOT of questing I probably didn't need to. Hopefully I'll be able to resist the urge to hoard and be a bit more minimalist in SoD.
Long story short, fighters rule SoD as well. We had Jaheira as a Bounty Hunter and Voghiln as a cleric (I needed somebody who could use priest scrolls, and since we forgot to get a second WIS tome that could have made him qualify for a druid class, cleric was the best we had), but otherwise everyone else had fighter levels. Bows, scimitars, a long sword, and a short sword. Glint gave us some bigger numbers thanks to Emotion, but otherwise fighter levels were enough to break everything.
With ample Arrows of Dispelling and no enemies that could cast PFMW aside from the optional Hephernaan, enemy spellcasters are... not really a threat, to be honest. All of the magicky stuff that makes BG2 wacky and scary hardly matters in SoD.
We did get in trouble a few times. In the starting dungeon, I got REALLY frustrated and upset when the party was separated for complicated reasons and I tried to have Alora solo the Shadowed Souls without a Protection from Undead scroll, and we absolutely STRUGGLED to take down both critters until I finally busted out the Wands of Fire.
The Shadowed Souls run away a lot, and sniping them isn't safe when the melee enemies are swarming you. You barely get any opportunities to make an attack roll on them, they regenerate because of their spells, and you can't heal yourself and also bomb the enemy with OGL in the same round. I was really unhappy about this, more frustrated than I ever have been in this game.
Viconia also got close to death a few times before she learned Stoneskin. Having lousy CON is really bad news. We also learned a new fun fact in the first troll cave in the Coastway ambush area: Free Action doesn't block slow if the slow is caused by disease!
I had more trouble transitioning to BG2. Even when I went back to Coastway Crossing after Avernus (which didn't stall the game, as I expected) to collect our first Charname, the game still stalled in the fight with the Unknowable Horror--the Hooded Man's dialog didn't trigger and ultimately I decided to just import from an SoD save without doing the ending cutscenes.
So a purist NPC-only run, where you use CTRL-K to remove the original Charname, is actually a bit annoying because the game doesn't like it when you mess around with Charname assignment. Going from BG1 to SoD and from SoD to BG2 both have at least one point where the game can stall and force you to use the console to proceed.
But we've done our homework and are entering BG2 with a Wizard Slayer Imoen using short swords and a Bounty Hunter Jaheira using staffs, so we can wiggle around the obstacles in Chateau Irenicus until we recruit Yoshimo as a sorcerer and have him use Knock to grab the pantaloons. Then we'll probably do a lot of soloing with FMT Viconia.
Chateau Irenicus is a bottleneck for a CTRL-K run under my rules. No Minsc and no Charname means we have to handle everything with just Jaheira and Imoen, and bad class picks or skill point distribution can hurt us badly at the start of the game, which expects you to have a thief with solid skills in picking locks and disarming traps.
We could have made it with better choices, but the path to escaping the dungeon with the Golden Pantaloons is so narrow without spells, without resting, and without Minsc and a normal Charname. I think next time I just need to make Jaheira a sorcerer so we can just grab stuff and go.
I think it's time to just solo BG1 and SoD. Most of the time I've spent is resource management rather than fighting, and a solo character is generally a lot faster than a party even if it's more dangerous.
EDIT
I have just discovered that you now have to right-click on the icon, not on the text, so an answer is not required. I should have Googled before posting.
Instead of erasing spells though, you could also drink potions of mind focusing and/or genius. A mage with 19+ intelligence can learn every spell of every level, barring opposite school spells for specialists, even if that intelligence score is temporary. (Depending on your settings, increasing INT is also recommendable in order to prevent spell scribing failure. You need 24 or 25 INT or lower your difficulty setting to be 100% sure a spell will be added.)
24 or 25 Int lists 150% chance to learn, so success is guaranteed even with a specialist penalty.
Note also that Imoen, in both games, has a wrong entry in her creature file - a null kit instead of the base class/generalist value. If she's dual-classed to mage, she'll take the specialist penalty. It's bugs all the way down.
Is this correct or am I simply confused, and there is no penalty for scribing scrolls above your current max castable level?
That is what I have been doing recently. Waiting until Experience is 32000 before recruiting. There are mods around that are even mpre helpful, but I currently choose not to use them.
Like my CTRL-K run, I'm tweaking NPC classes, but rather than forcing each character to have a completely new class, I'm going with what makes conceptual sense. So, Jaheira is an Avenger, Minsc is a Berserker, and Imoen is a Flare Dancer, the idea being that Imoen and Pearl (our Charname) practiced monk stuff in Candlekeep.
I like the Dancer kits, but the Flare Dancer and Sky Dancer kits are still both monks, and monks are terrible in BG1 and SoD. Still, the game wasn't too difficult since I could draw strength from our party members (Khalid was instrumental as our Archer).
Safana saw a stint as a Plasma Wizard, which is so-so from a powergaming perspective, at least before BG2. Infinite lightning bolts and fireballs with multiple shots per round aren't so overpowered when the damage per hit is tiny, especially when AC, magic resistance, and a save vs. breath can block the damage entirely.
I was planning on making more use of Lightning Bolts and bouncing them off the walls, but I didn't really have the confidence to fire them off in a party I couldn't completely protect from electricity damage (we just didn't have the spell slots). I only used a few Lightning Bolts in each game, with mixed results. A solo Avenger or Cleric of Talos could zap stuff left and right, but in a party run, a stray Lightning Bolt is pretty good at frying your buddies.
I'm enjoying the game more now that I'm not trying to do high-end challenge runs. Solo runs just aren't as much fun as party runs.
Is the Big Metal Unit worth it? I mean, apart from being a cool Easter Egg?
I do realize it's a powerful armor and all classes can wear it. But considering how late in the game you can build it, does it make such a big difference for the end of ToB, or do you just get it because it's cool?
Asking just out of idle curiosity, of course. I doubt I could even reach ToB, let alone do Abazigal's lair, in a no-reload run. Farthest I've got is still final battle in BG1...
It can be used by several characters to reach the AC cap, and thus limit the number of times they'll be hit to a minimum. Most classes cannot achieve that without the BMU, or at least not without gimping themselves in other respects (have less elemental protection, worse saves, etc). Most people find the BMU impractical because the golem form won't allow you to move through doors and narrow paths. Personally I find the biggest disadvantage the massive green circle around the character. Enemies may miss more often with better AC but at the same time it's harder to prevent enemies from getting the chance to hit you in the first place, simply because there is more of you to strike at.
The other pieces ...
The Big Metal Rod is a crossbow that anyone can use, with no bonus to attack or damage. Nothing special for most characters, but it allows classes that can't normally use crossbows to use the special ammo.
The special ammunition pieces all grant five attacks per round regardless of class; even if they don't deal much damage per hit, the sheer frequency of hits make them powerful. They don't have base physical damage, but they gain any bonus damage from the crossbow, and any damage from proficiencies if the crossbow has some. They also get +10 to attack, so you can hit things even without good THAC0.
Pulse ammunition is the simplest: 1d4+1 magic damage, hitting a single target with +3 enchantment. Very good for disrupting spellcasters, good for dealing damage if you use a powerful crossbow like Firetooth or against resistant targets.
Frag grenades deal 1d12 fire damage in an area equivalent to a skull trap. They hit at +1, and do need to hit the central target to deal their damage. Targets in the splash area, however, are hit automatically if the main target is; to-hit checks and weapon immunity don't matter for them.
Scorcher ammunition deals 2d12 fire damage (save vs breath for half) to targets in a line, using the scorcher projectile... which means that the line sticks around, moves with you and the target, and hits again in the next round. Scorcher ammunition hits as +1, but again that only matters for the primary target and not anything else in the line.
In my current run ... I'll have good uses for everything. Even the rod - the Cavalier is actually my best candidate for firing indiscriminate scorchers everywhere. The trickiest part will be avoiding crashes with the Unit.
(Unit + any other polymorph/animation change + two-handed weapon in any slot + anything in the off hand = crash, in BG2EE 2.5.16.6. And that includes picking up any piece of the combo that the character could equip if the rest are already in place. Since I have shapeshifting druids in the party, and the mods I'm using make the shapeshift weapons two-handed, it's really easy to trigger. The crash is fixed in 2.6, and even in 2.5.17 - the current version of BGEE.)