You're running Windows, right, Enuhal? If so then I'll defer to jmerry on this one. Near Infinity is the clear choice in OS X. There may be other options for Windows users.
EE keeper is easier to use but Near Infinity is better.
You're running Windows, right, Enuhal? If so then I'll defer to jmerry on this one.
I'm a Mac user too. And while I got EEKeeper at one point before I switched over to Near Infinity, I haven't even tried opening it since I upgraded to my current machine last summer. Deferring to me isn't the right move here.
I should also note that the only thing a dispel - even from an inquisitor - can get rid of is the portrait icon. That part, at least, is still an effect that's dispellable. Restoring vision range requires a specific blindness cure (such as Cure Disease, Neutralize Poison, or Heal) and restoring THAC0/AC can only be done by save editing.
Btw, with regards to the Ascension fallen solar issue: Has anyone tried installing Ascension without the Give Ascension Demons SCS Scripts and Abilities component installed? If so, did the fallen solars behave properly in that case? I'm contemplating that approach for my setup, until the bug is addressed.
I was running a tomb defender for the first time when her Ancient Wrath caused her to go Berserk a bit like Minsc. She killed Caldo and Krumm before attacking the dryad and killing her.
After some time I worked out the solution. Attack them, lure them into the cave and only then use Ancient Wrath. You might end up attacking bats/rats and the like, but that's no problem.
However, I don't think that this kit is for reloaders. Too much of a chance of everything going horribly wrong. A fun kit for others though.
Has anybody else played a tomb defender? Could do with some pointers. It's a powerful kit but with big drawbacks.
I've not played the kit, but I've played a lot with the cursed berserking sword. From what you say, it sounds like going berserk will only happen when you choose to activate the special ability. If that's the case the kit doesn't sound too hard to use - just be sparing about when you use that ability. One thing you might find helpful is to use charm (with Algernon's Cloak for instance) to move targets to a safer place for disposal - or indeed to move innocents out of harm's way.
Since there's such a wealth of experienced no-reloaders currently active in the main thread, I was thinking that we could share some past experiences - I'm thinking about run-ending encounters - memorable deaths and the like - and how we've adjusted to them, if at all. I'm fairly certain we've done this at least once before in this thread, but there have to be new stories to share by now.
I'll start us off - here are my run-ending deaths memorable enough to me that I can think off them right away.
1) This had to be in one of my very first no-reload runs. I only played SoA back then. I think my Bhaalspawn was an elven barbarian of some kind, and, having made it past the temple ruins (which was rough!), I returned back to the city to clear the crypts for Korgan. I died triggering one of the traps on the mosaic in the first big room there. Since then, I'm always extremely careful about disarming those.
2) A very painful death for me - still very early on: I played a halfling Cleric of Lathander - had a great experience in BG1, discovered a bunch of new stuff to do for me as a cleric, especially the power of command, hold person, silence and skeleton summons. It was by far my cleanest BG1 run so far, and I was on top of the world, starting to cruise through SoA - when I entered the temple sewers and lost my run to a finger of death from the sewer party mage. Since then, I'm very paranoid about keeping death ward on my Bhaalspawn once I encounter mages with a high enough level to cast these kinds of spells, and, if the option is available, I usually just backstab this guy before engaging his allies.
3) One of many deaths during the time I played a bunch of randomized parties on vanilla insane settings - starting my ongoing enmity with Draconis, his bugged double acid breath instantly killed a nearly full HP barbarian bhaalspawn who was even wearing the shadow dragon armor. I never fight Draconis without acid immunity as a consequence nowadays (though he can still dispel that on characters wihout buff protections, so he hasn't stopped being a threat).
4) I think it was my very first SCS run (played with a randomized party as far as I recall), when I really hadn't grasped the full extent of improved mage pre-buffing yet. I got absolutely crushed by the mages in Drasus' party in Cloakwood. It wasn't close at all, I didn't deal any damage to them. Since then, I usually do something very cheesy to deal with these guys, such as webbing from off-screen, some backstabbing action with invisibility potions or an invisibly-guided assault with summons.
5) The first time I made it through BG1 in an SCS game, my run came to an early end in a way that was very surprising for me - I had no idea that the city gates lich would block off the entrance of his room. It has always been a standard move of mine in vanilla to go in there extremely early on, pick the lock on the chest, loot Daystar and run out again (even without haste, it can easily be done before the liches timestop finishes, and he won't follow you outside). Obviously, I've never tried that again with SCS installed.
6) A super frustrating death because it was so late in the game and was heavily influenced by luck: A stalker main-character (which I mostly started to get that class into the hall) died while doing the Watcher's Keep level 5 spirit warrior maze, mostly due to getting very, very bad rolls when fighting the ghost. Since then, I never fight the ghost or open the poisoned drawer there.
7) My first time playing SoD, I almost immediately died in Korlasz' tomb, I think due to a group of bonebats paralyzing me. I started taking the prologue very seriously after that, never deviating from either PfU use or mass fireballs for this area.
8) I still die to the bandit ambush in BG1 from time to time when I get it at super early levels. No adjustments here so far. I know it can be avoided by travelling at the right time of day, but I've never bothered to do that. It's propably because it doesn't feel like such a bad loss when it isn't that time consuming to make it to the same spot again in a new game.
9) Finally, one of the more unexpected causes of deaths for me in recent times have been non-standard game overs - I've experienced each of these 3 once: Not picking up the planar prison key and trying to free Haer'Dalis. Got petrified for that. Accidentally blowing up the Boaresky Bridge with fireballs. Game over. The last one is especially funny: A while ago, I saw another no-reloader (not someone active here, I think it was a youtuber or streamer) die because he left the old tunnels while still carrying the rift device. Smugly I thought: "Hah! That's never happened to me in all my years - and it never will!" - a few months later, I did exactly that.
First, it's great to see so many of you still playing and posting. Sadly, I barely have enough time to play, never mind documenting runs. But I'm with you in spirit.
As for funny stories, man... Sometimes you just have to laugh. My very first no-reload was just such an occasion. I rolled a 95 on a blackguard and left Candlekeep with dreams of grandeur. I was already contemplating the late game. Then the wolf on the very first screen - which hadn't been able to touch me in years - managed to bite me twice and end my run.
Usually I'm just amazed at the stupid mistakes I make, which usually involve failing to buff properly. In one run I forgot to cast remove fear on the chess board, lol... Sometimes I get lazy. "Ah, I probably won't get the 10-bandit waylay in this transition, I can't be bothered to rest." Then, sure enough, I get nailed.
Sometimes it's ungodly frustrating: one time I made it to Sarevok's coronation three-times in a row, only to fail. As crazy as it sounds, I made it there again the very next game. Needless to say my heart was pounding. I did not want to be like the Buffalo Bills, losing four Super Bowls in a row, lol. Fortunately, I made it on that fourth try.
Lately I've been doing role-playing runs, where I have to play in character in addition to staying alive. This usually means letting dialogues trigger, taking risks, and fighting 'fair.' No fog of war cheese or other exploits (which I'm otherwise not shy about using to complete a run).
Which brings to mind a success story: A year or so back, I played a full BG1 role-play no-reload and mopped the floor with the game. I have never seen random number generation work in my favour like that before or since. I breezed through the whole thing without any adversity. Very strange, and pure luck, but fun nonetheless.
I think my favourite thing about no reloads is the unexpected mayhem - especially when you somehow survive. In the game I'm in currently (a role-play run) I went into the Cloakwood mines much earlier than I usually do. So I was trying to sneak my way down to the bottom - tricky, since I had few invisibility options. I thought I'd made it past Hareishan and her army on level 2. Except they piled on me when I was in the first level 3 room, fighting the guards. Mayhem ensued and it was a bloodbath, but somehow my paladin charname and Imoen survived. Again, pure, unbelievable luck.
The next question was, could I make it out of the mines? Somehow, I did, and got back to the FAI to resurrect my party.
I've lost too many to count (or remember), but here's a few types of problems that come to mind:
- the Legacy of Bhaal game where I'd worked hard to get a mage to the level cap in BGEE and tried to run past a gibberling attempting an ambush near the FAI. Needless to say he managed to get a claw in and one-shotted me with a critical for 64 damage. That's not of course the only occasion when I've been undone by not bothering to equip a melee weapon ...
- I tend to feel it's only fair to give the game a chance by not negating the impact of damage traps entirely. That's occasionally led to death against things like acid blob traps where they've caused unusually high damage. Much more likely to be a problem is a failure to successfully dodge bouncing lightning bolts ...
- my most common death these days in BG2EE is to maze. I very rarely use spell protections in the game, which is normally fine against effects allowing a saving throw, but maze continues to be a problem. Abazigal can be a particular pain from this perspective due to his ability to cast that from a distance. I expect most people are aware of the ability to use a PfM scroll on yourself to forestall death from maze after it's cast on you (by dispelling the maze effect before it takes full effect).
- charm effects are another problem for the solo player. I've lost a number of times to sirines when failing to interrupt their spells in BGEE. It's also easy to get used to relying on saves in BG2EE and being caught out by the save adjustment of the succubus.
- in the unmodded game, most spell-user scripts will not make them chase you if you're not in sight when they cast a spell. That can be abused to avoid the need for protection against many enemies, but you do have to be careful not to have moved into sight of someone else when that hold person spell is launched ...
- it won't be so relevant to most people, but one way I sometimes mitigate not using healing potions is by using potions of power (or heroism for fighter-types) to get some extra HPs. Of course I'm not great at remembering to do even that and have died in plenty of situations where I needn't necessarily have done so. That can happen for instance by getting trapped in enclosed spaces, where an invisibility potion can't be used to escape and it's necessary to fight hard to carve a way out ...
I'll share one that I just mentioned in the main thread.
Many moons ago, on the old, old BioWare forums, I attempted a blind solo no reload of Improved Anvil. It went surprisingly well. My character, Alena, an F/M/C, crushed everything in her path, cruising into HLA land and beyond. At the time of her fall, she was an epic hero indeed. If the Improved Anvil world used the ToB XP cap, Alena would have hit it. She was at 9 million and change XP, fully equipped with many of IA's unique items. She was the most powerful character I have ever controlled by far.
After dominating 9 million XP of ludicrously souped up foes, Alena finally met her end in the Windspear Hills quest. To who, you ask? A random spawn of vanilla hobgoblins, in the opening cave. A hobgoblin shaman cast hold person. Since the threat seemed comical, I didn't take it seriously, lazily chucking a sling bullet to interrupt instead of bringing a counter into play. Alena, a half elf, failed her save. And that was it: Run over- a reminder that even the most powerful characters can fall in the simplest encounters. Sloppiness kills, no matter who you are. Power doesn't come from the build of your character: It comes from attention to detail.
- once had a solo run with a Halfling Cleric ended by back-to-back crits from Larze, whom I thought was a good idea to engage in melee (buffed)
- once, I decided to ask Borda for his (stolen) possessions. I had forgotten about his very high MR and my mostly arcane party got decimated before I could flee
- another time, a solo Cleric of mine decided to engage in a fair spell battle against Zordral. He saved twice vs Silence and his Melf's Acid Arrows finished me...
- in a recent run, I was cruising with a strong party of 4 until top of the Iron Throne building. I opened dialogue unbuffed and confident I would be quicker to control their crowd. One of them cast what looked like Flame Strike (from a wand of heavens?) on my PC and insta-killed him straight away. Anticlimactic to say the least.
- once the Hamadryad in Cloakwood was just in my line of sight from a bottom angle, but I had not seen her as I was walking through the area... she cast on my solo PC a dire charm before I could reach out for the greenstone amulet
- I once had to abandon a solo Cleric run on Wolfwere island after so many attempts (without dying) emptying my spellbook against Karoug. Did not try lots of glyph of wardings which might have been the only way I could have overcome his regen...
- once on a solo run I stepped just a tad too far in that room full of ghasts on the 2nd level of DT, got held by the trap and devoured...
- recently soloed BG1 with a female Halfling Cleric I was very fond of. She got stunned by a bombardier beetle in SoD, a few feet away from a camp full of allied soldiers...
- first time at Boareskyr bridge I unleashed fireballs at the mage standing there
- once, solo, everything went wrong in the fight against Vax and Zal and I got taken down by darts as I was fleeing and just about to exit the map
- got killed once protecting Neera in Beregost, when I went to sleep because of a color spray someone cast (was it her?)
Incorrectly assuming that Arbane grants immunity to Web effect, that's a classic one of mine I'd say.
Fightning beholders by gating a Pit Fiend, while not having undispellable ProEvil, is another one.
I once tried to exit the Old Tunnels in the Athkatla sewers while carrying the first half of the Rod.
As for traps, I've tasted the petrification trap near the kobold shaman in the sewers beneath the Copper Coronet, the Prismatic Spray trap near the Rift in the Lower Reaches and the Maze trap in the Planar Sphere.
As some of you know my recent character, Ayla, just fell. I decided to keep playing her off the thread and encountered a problem.
Ayla is in the Spellhold dream sequence, where she is suppose to lure Bhaal to Imoen inside of Candlekeep. Bhaal won't go in for some reason. He'll follow Ayla to the door but won't go through. Has anyone else encountered this problem in SCS 34.3?
I'll share one that I just mentioned in the main thread.
Many moons ago, on the old, old BioWare forums, I attempted a blind solo no reload of Improved Anvil. It went surprisingly well. My character, Alena, an F/M/C, crushed everything in her path, cruising into HLA land and beyond. At the time of her fall, she was an epic hero indeed. If the Improved Anvil world used the ToB XP cap, Alena would have hit it. She was at 9 million and change XP, fully equipped with many of IA's unique items. She was the most powerful character I have ever controlled by far.
After dominating 9 million XP of ludicrously souped up foes, Alena finally met her end in the Windspear Hills quest. To who, you ask? A random spawn of vanilla hobgoblins, in the opening cave. A hobgoblin shaman cast hold person. Since the threat seemed comical, I didn't take it seriously, lazily chucking a sling bullet to interrupt instead of bringing a counter into play. Alena, a half elf, failed her save. And that was it: Run over- a reminder that even the most powerful characters can fall in the simplest encounters. Sloppiness kills, no matter who you are. Power doesn't come from the build of your character: It comes from attention to detail.
I hear you, lol. I was stunned when Alena fell to those hobgoblins, after all she had accomplished. In retrospect it makes sense to me, though.
Alena’s success against IA’s aggressively modded foes caused me to become overconfident with respect to vanilla threats, and overconfidence is deadly. Alena was therefore in more danger, not less, when facing vanilla threats. As the investor Benjamin Graham once said: “The greatest risks are within ourselves.” That, I think, is a good take home lesson from this discussion.
I've not played the kit, but I've played a lot with the cursed berserking sword. From what you say, it sounds like going berserk will only happen when you choose to activate the special ability. If that's the case the kit doesn't sound too hard to use - just be sparing about when you use that ability. One thing you might find helpful is to use charm (with Algernon's Cloak for instance) to move targets to a safer place for disposal - or indeed to move innocents out of harm's way.
That sounds like a good idea. I'll try it. It could make for an interesting game. At least it will be different. I wouldn't expect to get to Amn on the first try, but that doesn't matter.
Neera has just been killed by a freezing spell. She still has her blue ring round her however. Is there any way to bring her back to life? I currently don't have a resurrection spell or scroll.
There is an opcode to unthaw a frozen body, but nothing in the base game uses it. And ordinary resurrection wouldn't help, just like it doesn't help for petrified bodies.
There is an opcode to unthaw a frozen body, but nothing in the base game uses it. And ordinary resurrection wouldn't help, just like it doesn't help for petrified bodies.
Thanks. I'll have to attack her then and hope that she drops her possessions. I don't want to lose the ring of wizaedry and her wands. Her dying would be no big deal as I was going to drop her anyway after getting Adoy's belt.
Strange, she died once from Lethe's attack and again when I killed her. I did get her possessions back without having to enlist Montaron to pickpocket her.
Is pickpocketing in general considered to be risky on a no reload run? I've recently picked up Alora who comes with a pickpocket skill of 100 and would like to get my hands on the Ring of Free Action or Algernon's cloak but I also want to avoid the risk of someone becoming hostile permanently.
I know that stealing from shops might require a significantly higher pickpocket skill but there is conflicting information on wether or not "normal" pickpocketing is subject to an unavoidable 5% chance of a critical failure regardless of skill or not.
To me this sounds more like 3rd edition as in NWN where you roll a d20 for skills so there's always risk of rolling a natural 1 but I'm not sure.
@TheGreatGrumbledook when stealing from shops there is no critical failure, so it's totally safe if your pickpocket skill is high enough (that needs to be much higher than 100 though - something like 225 I think to steal from Bernard). For normal pickpocketing there is a 5% chance of critical failure though, which is a significant risk in a no-reload game.
You might want to look at this post, which gives a good explanation of the mechanics affecting thief skills.
Conflicting information? That calls for some testing. Create a pair of testing characters in BGEE; a thief with 200 PP and a barbarian carrying 20 assorted pickable items. Now, run through a few rounds of stealing everything...
Round 1: 20/20 successes.
Round 2: 20/20 successes.
Round 3: 20/20 successes.
Round 4: 20/20 successes.
Round 5: 19/20 successes.
Round 6: 20/20 successes.
Round 7: 20/20 successes.
Round 8: 20/20 successes.
Round 9: 20/20 successes.
Round 10: 20/20 successes.
Critical failure is definitely a thing, for normal pickpocketing. But it very much doesn't look like a 5% chance. Chance of at least 199 successes in 200 tries with a 95% success chance ... around 1 in 2000. This is a 99.9% confidence interval here; I can say with virtual certainty that the critical fail chance is less than 5%. My next guess would be a 1% critical failure chance, given how everything's on percentile scales, and that looks reasonable.
For shoplifting, critical failure is definitely not possible. Exceed the shop's difficulty number by 100, and you have a 100% chance of success.
So ... picking pockets of random people for their stuff is risky. There is a chance of failure, no matter how far you boost your skill. But it's a low chance; risking 1% failure for a few very important items may well be worth it.
Been trying to no reload the full saga and something very wierd happened. I was farming fire giants on the saradush ramparts (yeah, for now, I am cheesing an powergaming, I'll do a no cheese no reload once I get it done with cheese) and suddenly, I died. Normally nothing can happen there, besides the fireballs and I was immune to fire from equipment so it's not the fireballs.
Not just that but after the death animation, the whole party had black rectangles instead of portraits. Not greyed, not gone, black rectangles. Couldn't see anything interesting in the info thing. So it really looks like some strange bug.
I don't want to cheat my challenge so I wonder if anyone had something like that ever happen?
Cause I know in 2 decades of play I've never seen this.
@TiaxEnjoyer yes - that is a known bug. I can't remember the exact mechanic, but it's something to do with the ability of the game to process information getting overloaded. It will tend to happen in situations where a lot is happening (and the fireballs in Saradush is an example of that) and/or you've had the game running for a long time. The only answer I'm afraid is to reload (and that bug justifies a reload even under the strictest interpretation of no-reload rules).
That was a bug, and reloading from the latest autosave is absolutely fair in this case.
Basically, the game can only handle so many objects in memory. The longer a session goes without loading a save, the more of that limit gets used. And when you hit the limit, attempting to add new objects causes an overflow that breaks all sorts of things. Inventories grey out, portraits go black, and it's game over. If you let it get this far, quitting the program entirely is recommended.
I've encountered this when trying an "iron man" run of the end stages of BG1; clearing Candlekeep, Durlag's Tower, the werewolf island, and the chapter 7 plot is just too much and triggers this bug every time.
If you've noticed warning signs like selection circles disappearing but not reached the death point, I recommend saving and loading. That'll reset the object count.
Been playing for way too many hours straight so that checks up too. Anyway, I'll take the opportunity to thank everyone else here too since no reloading has sparked my bg love anew. Really changes how you approach encounters - even with cheese allowed.
Thanks for the information. I guess it's generally not really worth the risk at least for non-unique stuff. Kind of sad to see Alora's otherwise awesome thieving skills wasted that way but at least I managed to relieve Algernon of his cloak.
Comments
EE keeper is easier to use but Near Infinity is better.
I'm a Mac user too. And while I got EEKeeper at one point before I switched over to Near Infinity, I haven't even tried opening it since I upgraded to my current machine last summer. Deferring to me isn't the right move here.
I should also note that the only thing a dispel - even from an inquisitor - can get rid of is the portrait icon. That part, at least, is still an effect that's dispellable. Restoring vision range requires a specific blindness cure (such as Cure Disease, Neutralize Poison, or Heal) and restoring THAC0/AC can only be done by save editing.
Noted!
After some time I worked out the solution. Attack them, lure them into the cave and only then use Ancient Wrath. You might end up attacking bats/rats and the like, but that's no problem.
However, I don't think that this kit is for reloaders. Too much of a chance of everything going horribly wrong. A fun kit for others though.
Has anybody else played a tomb defender? Could do with some pointers. It's a powerful kit but with big drawbacks.
Since there's such a wealth of experienced no-reloaders currently active in the main thread, I was thinking that we could share some past experiences - I'm thinking about run-ending encounters - memorable deaths and the like - and how we've adjusted to them, if at all. I'm fairly certain we've done this at least once before in this thread, but there have to be new stories to share by now.
I'll start us off - here are my run-ending deaths memorable enough to me that I can think off them right away.
1) This had to be in one of my very first no-reload runs. I only played SoA back then. I think my Bhaalspawn was an elven barbarian of some kind, and, having made it past the temple ruins (which was rough!), I returned back to the city to clear the crypts for Korgan. I died triggering one of the traps on the mosaic in the first big room there. Since then, I'm always extremely careful about disarming those.
2) A very painful death for me - still very early on: I played a halfling Cleric of Lathander - had a great experience in BG1, discovered a bunch of new stuff to do for me as a cleric, especially the power of command, hold person, silence and skeleton summons. It was by far my cleanest BG1 run so far, and I was on top of the world, starting to cruise through SoA - when I entered the temple sewers and lost my run to a finger of death from the sewer party mage. Since then, I'm very paranoid about keeping death ward on my Bhaalspawn once I encounter mages with a high enough level to cast these kinds of spells, and, if the option is available, I usually just backstab this guy before engaging his allies.
3) One of many deaths during the time I played a bunch of randomized parties on vanilla insane settings - starting my ongoing enmity with Draconis, his bugged double acid breath instantly killed a nearly full HP barbarian bhaalspawn who was even wearing the shadow dragon armor. I never fight Draconis without acid immunity as a consequence nowadays (though he can still dispel that on characters wihout buff protections, so he hasn't stopped being a threat).
4) I think it was my very first SCS run (played with a randomized party as far as I recall), when I really hadn't grasped the full extent of improved mage pre-buffing yet. I got absolutely crushed by the mages in Drasus' party in Cloakwood. It wasn't close at all, I didn't deal any damage to them. Since then, I usually do something very cheesy to deal with these guys, such as webbing from off-screen, some backstabbing action with invisibility potions or an invisibly-guided assault with summons.
5) The first time I made it through BG1 in an SCS game, my run came to an early end in a way that was very surprising for me - I had no idea that the city gates lich would block off the entrance of his room. It has always been a standard move of mine in vanilla to go in there extremely early on, pick the lock on the chest, loot Daystar and run out again (even without haste, it can easily be done before the liches timestop finishes, and he won't follow you outside). Obviously, I've never tried that again with SCS installed.
6) A super frustrating death because it was so late in the game and was heavily influenced by luck: A stalker main-character (which I mostly started to get that class into the hall) died while doing the Watcher's Keep level 5 spirit warrior maze, mostly due to getting very, very bad rolls when fighting the ghost. Since then, I never fight the ghost or open the poisoned drawer there.
7) My first time playing SoD, I almost immediately died in Korlasz' tomb, I think due to a group of bonebats paralyzing me. I started taking the prologue very seriously after that, never deviating from either PfU use or mass fireballs for this area.
8) I still die to the bandit ambush in BG1 from time to time when I get it at super early levels. No adjustments here so far. I know it can be avoided by travelling at the right time of day, but I've never bothered to do that. It's propably because it doesn't feel like such a bad loss when it isn't that time consuming to make it to the same spot again in a new game.
9) Finally, one of the more unexpected causes of deaths for me in recent times have been non-standard game overs - I've experienced each of these 3 once: Not picking up the planar prison key and trying to free Haer'Dalis. Got petrified for that. Accidentally blowing up the Boaresky Bridge with fireballs. Game over. The last one is especially funny: A while ago, I saw another no-reloader (not someone active here, I think it was a youtuber or streamer) die because he left the old tunnels while still carrying the rift device. Smugly I thought: "Hah! That's never happened to me in all my years - and it never will!" - a few months later, I did exactly that.
Looking forward to your stories!
First, it's great to see so many of you still playing and posting. Sadly, I barely have enough time to play, never mind documenting runs. But I'm with you in spirit.
As for funny stories, man... Sometimes you just have to laugh. My very first no-reload was just such an occasion. I rolled a 95 on a blackguard and left Candlekeep with dreams of grandeur. I was already contemplating the late game. Then the wolf on the very first screen - which hadn't been able to touch me in years - managed to bite me twice and end my run.
Usually I'm just amazed at the stupid mistakes I make, which usually involve failing to buff properly. In one run I forgot to cast remove fear on the chess board, lol... Sometimes I get lazy. "Ah, I probably won't get the 10-bandit waylay in this transition, I can't be bothered to rest." Then, sure enough, I get nailed.
Sometimes it's ungodly frustrating: one time I made it to Sarevok's coronation three-times in a row, only to fail. As crazy as it sounds, I made it there again the very next game. Needless to say my heart was pounding. I did not want to be like the Buffalo Bills, losing four Super Bowls in a row, lol. Fortunately, I made it on that fourth try.
Lately I've been doing role-playing runs, where I have to play in character in addition to staying alive. This usually means letting dialogues trigger, taking risks, and fighting 'fair.' No fog of war cheese or other exploits (which I'm otherwise not shy about using to complete a run).
Which brings to mind a success story: A year or so back, I played a full BG1 role-play no-reload and mopped the floor with the game. I have never seen random number generation work in my favour like that before or since. I breezed through the whole thing without any adversity. Very strange, and pure luck, but fun nonetheless.
I think my favourite thing about no reloads is the unexpected mayhem - especially when you somehow survive. In the game I'm in currently (a role-play run) I went into the Cloakwood mines much earlier than I usually do. So I was trying to sneak my way down to the bottom - tricky, since I had few invisibility options. I thought I'd made it past Hareishan and her army on level 2. Except they piled on me when I was in the first level 3 room, fighting the guards. Mayhem ensued and it was a bloodbath, but somehow my paladin charname and Imoen survived. Again, pure, unbelievable luck.
The next question was, could I make it out of the mines? Somehow, I did, and got back to the FAI to resurrect my party.
- the Legacy of Bhaal game where I'd worked hard to get a mage to the level cap in BGEE and tried to run past a gibberling attempting an ambush near the FAI. Needless to say he managed to get a claw in and one-shotted me with a critical for 64 damage. That's not of course the only occasion when I've been undone by not bothering to equip a melee weapon ...
- I tend to feel it's only fair to give the game a chance by not negating the impact of damage traps entirely. That's occasionally led to death against things like acid blob traps where they've caused unusually high damage. Much more likely to be a problem is a failure to successfully dodge bouncing lightning bolts ...
- my most common death these days in BG2EE is to maze. I very rarely use spell protections in the game, which is normally fine against effects allowing a saving throw, but maze continues to be a problem. Abazigal can be a particular pain from this perspective due to his ability to cast that from a distance. I expect most people are aware of the ability to use a PfM scroll on yourself to forestall death from maze after it's cast on you (by dispelling the maze effect before it takes full effect).
- charm effects are another problem for the solo player. I've lost a number of times to sirines when failing to interrupt their spells in BGEE. It's also easy to get used to relying on saves in BG2EE and being caught out by the save adjustment of the succubus.
- in the unmodded game, most spell-user scripts will not make them chase you if you're not in sight when they cast a spell. That can be abused to avoid the need for protection against many enemies, but you do have to be careful not to have moved into sight of someone else when that hold person spell is launched ...
- it won't be so relevant to most people, but one way I sometimes mitigate not using healing potions is by using potions of power (or heroism for fighter-types) to get some extra HPs. Of course I'm not great at remembering to do even that and have died in plenty of situations where I needn't necessarily have done so. That can happen for instance by getting trapped in enclosed spaces, where an invisibility potion can't be used to escape and it's necessary to fight hard to carve a way out ...
I'll share one that I just mentioned in the main thread.
Many moons ago, on the old, old BioWare forums, I attempted a blind solo no reload of Improved Anvil. It went surprisingly well. My character, Alena, an F/M/C, crushed everything in her path, cruising into HLA land and beyond. At the time of her fall, she was an epic hero indeed. If the Improved Anvil world used the ToB XP cap, Alena would have hit it. She was at 9 million and change XP, fully equipped with many of IA's unique items. She was the most powerful character I have ever controlled by far.
After dominating 9 million XP of ludicrously souped up foes, Alena finally met her end in the Windspear Hills quest. To who, you ask? A random spawn of vanilla hobgoblins, in the opening cave. A hobgoblin shaman cast hold person. Since the threat seemed comical, I didn't take it seriously, lazily chucking a sling bullet to interrupt instead of bringing a counter into play. Alena, a half elf, failed her save. And that was it: Run over- a reminder that even the most powerful characters can fall in the simplest encounters. Sloppiness kills, no matter who you are. Power doesn't come from the build of your character: It comes from attention to detail.
Best,
A.
- once had a solo run with a Halfling Cleric ended by back-to-back crits from Larze, whom I thought was a good idea to engage in melee (buffed)
- once, I decided to ask Borda for his (stolen) possessions. I had forgotten about his very high MR and my mostly arcane party got decimated before I could flee
- another time, a solo Cleric of mine decided to engage in a fair spell battle against Zordral. He saved twice vs Silence and his Melf's Acid Arrows finished me...
- in a recent run, I was cruising with a strong party of 4 until top of the Iron Throne building. I opened dialogue unbuffed and confident I would be quicker to control their crowd. One of them cast what looked like Flame Strike (from a wand of heavens?) on my PC and insta-killed him straight away. Anticlimactic to say the least.
- once the Hamadryad in Cloakwood was just in my line of sight from a bottom angle, but I had not seen her as I was walking through the area... she cast on my solo PC a dire charm before I could reach out for the greenstone amulet
- I once had to abandon a solo Cleric run on Wolfwere island after so many attempts (without dying) emptying my spellbook against Karoug. Did not try lots of glyph of wardings which might have been the only way I could have overcome his regen...
- once on a solo run I stepped just a tad too far in that room full of ghasts on the 2nd level of DT, got held by the trap and devoured...
- recently soloed BG1 with a female Halfling Cleric I was very fond of. She got stunned by a bombardier beetle in SoD, a few feet away from a camp full of allied soldiers...
- first time at Boareskyr bridge I unleashed fireballs at the mage standing there
- once, solo, everything went wrong in the fight against Vax and Zal and I got taken down by darts as I was fleeing and just about to exit the map
- got killed once protecting Neera in Beregost, when I went to sleep because of a color spray someone cast (was it her?)
Incorrectly assuming that Arbane grants immunity to Web effect, that's a classic one of mine I'd say.
Fightning beholders by gating a Pit Fiend, while not having undispellable ProEvil, is another one.
I once tried to exit the Old Tunnels in the Athkatla sewers while carrying the first half of the Rod.
As for traps, I've tasted the petrification trap near the kobold shaman in the sewers beneath the Copper Coronet, the Prismatic Spray trap near the Rift in the Lower Reaches and the Maze trap in the Planar Sphere.
Ayla is in the Spellhold dream sequence, where she is suppose to lure Bhaal to Imoen inside of Candlekeep. Bhaal won't go in for some reason. He'll follow Ayla to the door but won't go through. Has anyone else encountered this problem in SCS 34.3?
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/881228/#Comment_881228
Alena’s success against IA’s aggressively modded foes caused me to become overconfident with respect to vanilla threats, and overconfidence is deadly. Alena was therefore in more danger, not less, when facing vanilla threats. As the investor Benjamin Graham once said: “The greatest risks are within ourselves.” That, I think, is a good take home lesson from this discussion.
Best,
A.
That sounds like a good idea.
Thanks. I'll have to attack her then and hope that she drops her possessions. I don't want to lose the ring of wizaedry and her wands. Her dying would be no big deal as I was going to drop her anyway after getting Adoy's belt.
Strange, she died once from Lethe's attack and again when I killed her. I did get her possessions back without having to enlist Montaron to pickpocket her.
The option that I chose in my mod set-up does not break frozen items.
I know that stealing from shops might require a significantly higher pickpocket skill but there is conflicting information on wether or not "normal" pickpocketing is subject to an unavoidable 5% chance of a critical failure regardless of skill or not.
To me this sounds more like 3rd edition as in NWN where you roll a d20 for skills so there's always risk of rolling a natural 1 but I'm not sure.
You might want to look at this post, which gives a good explanation of the mechanics affecting thief skills.
Round 1: 20/20 successes.
Round 2: 20/20 successes.
Round 3: 20/20 successes.
Round 4: 20/20 successes.
Round 5: 19/20 successes.
Round 6: 20/20 successes.
Round 7: 20/20 successes.
Round 8: 20/20 successes.
Round 9: 20/20 successes.
Round 10: 20/20 successes.
Critical failure is definitely a thing, for normal pickpocketing. But it very much doesn't look like a 5% chance. Chance of at least 199 successes in 200 tries with a 95% success chance ... around 1 in 2000. This is a 99.9% confidence interval here; I can say with virtual certainty that the critical fail chance is less than 5%. My next guess would be a 1% critical failure chance, given how everything's on percentile scales, and that looks reasonable.
For shoplifting, critical failure is definitely not possible. Exceed the shop's difficulty number by 100, and you have a 100% chance of success.
So ... picking pockets of random people for their stuff is risky. There is a chance of failure, no matter how far you boost your skill. But it's a low chance; risking 1% failure for a few very important items may well be worth it.
Not just that but after the death animation, the whole party had black rectangles instead of portraits. Not greyed, not gone, black rectangles. Couldn't see anything interesting in the info thing. So it really looks like some strange bug.
I don't want to cheat my challenge so I wonder if anyone had something like that ever happen?
Cause I know in 2 decades of play I've never seen this.
Basically, the game can only handle so many objects in memory. The longer a session goes without loading a save, the more of that limit gets used. And when you hit the limit, attempting to add new objects causes an overflow that breaks all sorts of things. Inventories grey out, portraits go black, and it's game over. If you let it get this far, quitting the program entirely is recommended.
I've encountered this when trying an "iron man" run of the end stages of BG1; clearing Candlekeep, Durlag's Tower, the werewolf island, and the chapter 7 plot is just too much and triggers this bug every time.
If you've noticed warning signs like selection circles disappearing but not reached the death point, I recommend saving and loading. That'll reset the object count.
Here's a thread discussing the bug.
Been playing for way too many hours straight so that checks up too. Anyway, I'll take the opportunity to thank everyone else here too since no reloading has sparked my bg love anew. Really changes how you approach encounters - even with cheese allowed.