Neera casts Armor, gets a Wild Surge... double duration, and then it AoEs onto the entire party.
Every time Tarnesh decides he's gonna get cute and try to cast a spell on me, only to be interrupted by Imoen. Punk mage. Good friend.
Loading any mouthy caster with any kind of barbed or poisonous ammunition. "I'm gonna cast a spell! Ouch! I can't cast! I'm gonna cast a -- ouch! I SMELL TOAST!"
Any time Garrick crits with a cross bow, which is surprisingly often for me! I swear, cross bows are like a prehensile organ to this dude, I love it!
My latest encounter with Mulahey turned into a pretty epic battle. I am soloing as an FMT and was confident I could beat him by disrupting all of his spells but I mistimed my attacks and he cast Rigid Thinking on me. I thought it was game over at this point but it turned out the spell didn't have much effect because his summoned kobolds and skeletons kept attacking me, which meant that I kept on fighting and hit Mulahey again. He then offered to surrender and despite my confused state I was able to answer. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong answer and accepted his offer, which turned out to be a bad idea because he just took the opportunity to summon more skeletons, at which point things looked very bad indeed:
But I got lucky, Mulahey attacked me again and I hit him back and killed him and despite still having no control of my character she made pretty short work of the horde of skeletons and kobolds:
The most epic and surprising was Firkraag's death after failing his saving throw against... Chromatic Orb! And that animation of a soul flying away from his body.
There also was quite an epic journey of a (solo, no-pause) dark moon monk through BG1+SCS. Sometimes he was a wolf (thanks to Relair's Mistake), sometimes - a zombie (Iron Thorn ring - just for fun).
And of course all that critical hit backstabs oneshotting even most fearsome enemies!
Once managed to successfully disintegrate the Dragon in Suldanessellar. Just randomly decided to see if it would work one day. It did (no idea what the odds are) and I spend the better part of a minute laughing afterward.
The most epic and surprising was Firkraag's death after failing his saving throw against... Chromatic Orb! And that animation of a soul flying away from his body.
There also was quite an epic journey of a (solo, no-pause) dark moon monk through BG1+SCS. Sometimes he was a wolf (thanks to Relair's Mistake), sometimes - a zombie (Iron Thorn ring - just for fun).
And of course all that critical hit backstabs oneshotting even most fearsome enemies!
Happened to me for the first time in thousands of runs not so long ago, I had prepared lots of buffs, potions, summons, and started the fight:
Round 1: mage casts Greater Malison ; druid casts Doom
Round 2: mage casts Chromatic Orb.
The end.
All three spells bypassed his magic resistance, and he managed to fail his save. I'm too lazy to count the odds of that happening, but that must have been abysmal.
EDIT: apparently, odds were 1,28% chances of that particular scenario to happen (all three spells land). His odds of dying are a tiny bit higher than that, since there would also have been a chance of him failing his save if only one of the ST debuffs landed. But at most, I'd say we are around 1,5 to 2% chances.
Step 1: Cast Protection from fear, Haste, Iron Skin, Stone Skin, and a host of other buffs.
Step 2: Walk up to Nizidramanii'yt and challenge him for the cup.
Step 3: Minsc swings the Silver Sword +3 and beheads the dragon.
...Fight over in five seconds, about 1/60th of what I used on preparations.
Step 1: Cast Protection from fear, Haste, Iron Skin, Stone Skin, and a host of other buffs.
Step 2: Walk up to Nizidramanii'yt and challenge him for the cup.
Step 3: Minsc swings the Silver Sword +3 and beheads the dragon.
...Fight over in five seconds, about 1/60th of what I used on preparations.
Step 1: Cast Protection from fear, Haste, Iron Skin, Stone Skin, and a host of other buffs.
Step 2: Walk up to Nizidramanii'yt and challenge him for the cup.
Step 3: Minsc swings the Silver Sword +3 and beheads the dragon.
...Fight over in five seconds, about 1/60th of what I used on preparations.
Step 4: Laugh for five minutes straight.
it remainds me the time when in WK my FMT approached not buffed at all the WK red dragon, then after the banter when she chosed the less respectful approach activated a GWW welding carsomyr as the lizard's circle matched the color of his scales.
as the dragon's life expired before the GWW i suppose that the fight lasted roughly the same time as yours.
Upon entering Nashkel Inn for the first time, my party was accosted by an evil bounty hunter named Neira. Eager to prove her worth to the party, Neera the Wild Mage attempted to disrupt the cleric's spellcasting by using her Reckless Dweomer to cast Magic Missile.
Well...She disrupted Neira's spellcasting all right...
...When the Dweomer caused a Wild Surge that dropped a cow directly onto the unsuspecting form of the bounty hunter for a total of 33 points of damage, squashing the life completely out of her as a result.
To go with those major battles won quickly, the confrontation against Szass Tam (Neera's ToB quest) in my last run:
Step 1: Prepare traps, buffs, and a Chain Contingency (to go off on seeing an enemy).
Step 2: Ring the bell.
Step 3: Watch him betray us, and be humiliated.
Step 4: Call him a coward, so he continues the fight.
Step 5: Get sent back to Tethyr.
No need to take any actions; all we did during the fight was respond to a dialogue prompt.
He's scripted to do some pretty impressive things - Wish for control over time, then unload everything on you - but it's all for naught if you beat him before he gets the chance to cast anything. No kill, since he's got an immortality item.
@jmerry
Bravo, I'm not the best at strategy so Szass Tam wiped the floor with me. Of course if he wanted to he could wipe the floor with pretty much anyone he wanted. The man is basically evil Elminster. And before you say that you can kill Elminster, the game is going easy on us in both cases :P
After a few years not playing the Durlag's Tower, I went through all the BG1 content, completionist-style. And it's been actually so fun. I forgot where traps were, I forgot which tactics dwarf ghosts use (yay for a closed room with Cloudkill and Stinking Cloud, and 3 hasted enemies).
The epic moments came against the Demon Knight and cultists when we were back in Ulgoth's Beard. The Demon PW:Killed my two mages and then chunked Montaron to pieces with his fireball. He still fell later. In the village, the cultists' fighter/mage kept using his wand of frost on characters with low HP and not having the Cold immunity belt. One unfortunate (un)save for Branwen, and she turned into an ice ball, taking away all her inventory and equipped items.
The TotSC content is so nicely done. It still passes the test of time, especially if you're playing not remembering all the ins and outs of it.
Another one from Durlag's Tower: all four Dwarven Doom Guards killed with two charges from a Wand of Lightning. One to draw them out, one to repeatedly reflect until they're dead.
*Blows imaginary smoke away from wand tip*
(From Episode 28 in my latest playthough thread, posted earlier today)
Trying to escape the ceremony in Trademeet: game crashed.
Reloading the autosave at the door to Logan's place: game crashed again.
Dodging the crashes and getting my party of shapeshifters immortalized in stone: priceless.
(From episode 8 of season 2 in that same playthrough)
Meet Rocky the Rock squirrel in CloakWook fight with druids (it is available only in modded game) !
But I'm little joking.
Very touching moment is, for me, before you go upstairs to Tree of Life fight, when you friends declare to stand with you. Although I now play heavily modded EET now, I still did not give much chance to all other NPCs, I still have habit to use "old" NPCs such as Minsc, Aerie, and such, simply, I developed love for them (but I will have to try others, of course).
Also, to meet Caelar Argent. And later to fight alongside her, in SoD. She is impressive, she rips through Hell
And one encounter I dream of (as I'm making now mod with improved Last Seal guardians, which is going to be hell harder than SCS version of them).. it will happen in near future. I will do one more EET play with mostly "old" NPCs, but in ToB, I want to have Irenicus and Caelar in party (available in modded game).
Me (F/M/T), Sandrah, Irenicus, Caelar Argent, crazy Minsc (and Boo), and Aerie (yes, in modded game you can get her very powerful, at least with mods I use, she even rocks in melee).
vs.
Nalsimrra, Y'Tossi, (no more Hive Mother, there is nice replacement character, unique, demonic Sorceress, still have to choose final name), Xei Win Toh, Ameralis Zauviir, Huntress.
Thats going to be EPIC battle. NPCs I like, and NPCs I really respect, that combination, fight together shoulder to shoulder.
Little offtopic. And guys, as some of you consider battles as epic moments, my advice - start using SCS with improved components.
Having Mazzy beat the shadow dragon solo in a fair fight, at level 12, with SCS smarter dragons installed.
- raise con with girdle
- Drink all of the potions: cloud giant strength, speed, regeneration, 4xheroism for great ToHit and 192 HP
- equip Dragon slaying sword for undispellable fear resistance, amulet of power to resist drain
- equip all of the best AC items and girdle of pierce resistance
Mazzy made it a point to speak with the dragon for a formal challenge. The mage casted one breach, the cleric cast a Heal on Mazzy and the rest of the party had some popcorn. So satisfying.
Flawless victory against the demon cult in Shandalar's house. Zero damage taken or other negative effects suffered by the party, and it took about two rounds. Played on SCS insane difficulty, with the relevant tactical challenge component active.
The party:
Magpie (protagonist): CG halfling fighter 7/thief 8, specialized in daggers, scimitars, and dual-wielding. Dual-wields the Boomerang Dagger (from the NPC project) and Twinkle in melee.
Shar-Teel: Fighter 6-Thief 9, grandmaster in long swords. Dual-wields Varscona and Burning Earth. Wears Drizzt's armor for stealth and backstabs.
Ajantis: Paladin 8, specialized in longbows, two-handed swords, and bastard swords. Primarily wields the +2 longbow.
Kagain: Fighter 8, high master in axes. Wields the +2 throwing axe and the +2 shield in melee.
Kivan: Ranger 8, specialized in longbows, halberds, and bastard swords. Primarily wields the +1 composite longbow.
Garrick: Bard 10. Uses wands sometimes, but mostly just sings.
Additional rule: no casting spells (from spell slots) allowed. Neither Garrick nor Kivan have ever memorized a spell.
The battle:
Step 1: Prepare the field with traps in advance.
Two guards, an enforcer, and an archer down. The wizard doesn't go hostile until after his dialogue, so he was unaffected by the traps.
Step 2: Attack the wizard, including with a dispelling arrow.
Step 3: Activate the Detect Invisibility ability on the Albruin bastard sword Ajantis is holding to reveal the assassins. Also, the dispelling arrow lands with absolutely perfect timing.
Yes, that's a Mantle dispelled with the arrow. Mantle was cast while the arrow was in flight, after the to-hit roll had already been made. Also note that Mantle, with SCS, protects against weapons up to level 3. No weapon a player could wield in BGEE penetrates that.
Step 4: Mop it up with normal attacks.
This run has now completed BG1. Full posting in the playthroughs forum - coming soon.
Incidentally, a recent SCS update has made that fight easier. The Cult Wizard is no longer a level 15 monster likely to use Mantle against you; instead he's level 8. He still has that wand of paralyzation, but not the scary high-level spells.
This was not the case when I played it as shown above. If that perfectly timed arrow hadn't taken down his Mantle, I would have had some serious trouble.
Trying to escape the ceremony in Trademeet: game crashed.
Reloading the autosave at the door to Logan's place: game crashed again.
Dodging the crashes and getting my party of shapeshifters immortalized in stone: priceless.
(From episode 8 of season 2 in that same playthrough)
That's fantastic! I wonder what would happen if a dragon saved the town? How would the dragon statue fit? I might have to try that! Or even get the models of Bodhi and Irenicus to have statues... so much potential!
Ok so I have another epic death story for you guys:
I was fighting Mulahey on Hard Difficulty and I had the party positioned to attack along with Shar-Teel hiding in the shadows. Shar-Teel's backstab failed and Edwin accidentally cast Color Spray instead of Burning Hands which knocked out Dorn and nobody else. Mulahey proceeded to annihilate the rest of my party until it was only Tan (NE Gnome Skald Level 2) against Mulahey and his army of Kobolds and Skeletons.
Tan managed to fell Mulahey and then proceeded to drink every potion he could find on every dead body and also swapped a Potion of Absorbtion that Jaheria failed to drink. I managed to kill all but 3 skeletons and I was out of healing potions with only 4 HP. I killed one skeleton to free myself and ran to Shar-Teel's corpse to grab the Girdle of Bluntness and then cast Armor making my total AC against blunt weapons -14 and managed to kill the 2nd to last skeleton. Unfortunately though the final Skeleton was Near Death, the final Skeleton must have managed a critical hit and Tan was defeated. Leaving the mines cleared of all but a single Skeleton and the entire party also wiped out (as well as Xan because I had Shar-Teel kill him for narrative purposes, this is for my Narrative Run). Nashkel is saved, but the Sword Coast as a whole certainly is not.
Not sure how epic this is other than epically gibbing someone - and did not take a screen shot - but in my current assassin run I backstabbed the pleasure slave to see what happens in the circus quest 2nd area for 174 damage with the staff-spear last evening. 13th level assassin, so x5 backstab, no extra damage gear, only the staff-spear and a two-handed style critical.
I was well rewarded with a whopping 10 exp. Every experience point counts I always say!
Favorite thing I ever did to her? I brought Jan along with auto-detection. Poof, gone. Never even got to hear her "dire" warnings.
For a recent "epic" achievement ... beating Irenicus in Hell without attacking him or targeting him with a spell. Two self-targeted 3x Incendiary Cloud contingencies dealt him 152 damage the moment the battle started. Then he transformed into the Slayer, and took another 145 fire damage in round two. Add 19 more from a planetar's fire storm, move out of one of the clouds, then 77 damage in round three. And that was enough. It was over so fast that I didn't manage to kill most of the demons.
Comments
Every time Tarnesh decides he's gonna get cute and try to cast a spell on me, only to be interrupted by Imoen. Punk mage. Good friend.
Loading any mouthy caster with any kind of barbed or poisonous ammunition. "I'm gonna cast a spell! Ouch! I can't cast! I'm gonna cast a -- ouch! I SMELL TOAST!"
Any time Garrick crits with a cross bow, which is surprisingly often for me! I swear, cross bows are like a prehensile organ to this dude, I love it!
But I got lucky, Mulahey attacked me again and I hit him back and killed him and despite still having no control of my character she made pretty short work of the horde of skeletons and kobolds:
[GOLF CLAP] Bravo, sir! Or madam! Or whatever. Or ... well, damme, well done, individual!
There also was quite an epic journey of a (solo, no-pause) dark moon monk through BG1+SCS. Sometimes he was a wolf (thanks to Relair's Mistake), sometimes - a zombie (Iron Thorn ring - just for fun).
And of course all that critical hit backstabs oneshotting even most fearsome enemies!
Happened to me for the first time in thousands of runs not so long ago, I had prepared lots of buffs, potions, summons, and started the fight:
Round 1: mage casts Greater Malison ; druid casts Doom
Round 2: mage casts Chromatic Orb.
The end.
All three spells bypassed his magic resistance, and he managed to fail his save. I'm too lazy to count the odds of that happening, but that must have been abysmal.
EDIT: apparently, odds were 1,28% chances of that particular scenario to happen (all three spells land). His odds of dying are a tiny bit higher than that, since there would also have been a chance of him failing his save if only one of the ST debuffs landed. But at most, I'd say we are around 1,5 to 2% chances.
Step 2: Walk up to Nizidramanii'yt and challenge him for the cup.
Step 3: Minsc swings the Silver Sword +3 and beheads the dragon.
...Fight over in five seconds, about 1/60th of what I used on preparations.
Step 4: Laugh for five minutes straight.
Yeah, that's exactly the feeling ^^.
it remainds me the time when in WK my FMT approached not buffed at all the WK red dragon, then after the banter when she chosed the less respectful approach activated a GWW welding carsomyr as the lizard's circle matched the color of his scales.
as the dragon's life expired before the GWW i suppose that the fight lasted roughly the same time as yours.
Well...She disrupted Neira's spellcasting all right...
...When the Dweomer caused a Wild Surge that dropped a cow directly onto the unsuspecting form of the bounty hunter for a total of 33 points of damage, squashing the life completely out of her as a result.
Step 1: Prepare traps, buffs, and a Chain Contingency (to go off on seeing an enemy).
Step 2: Ring the bell.
Step 3: Watch him betray us, and be humiliated.
Step 4: Call him a coward, so he continues the fight.
Step 5: Get sent back to Tethyr.
No need to take any actions; all we did during the fight was respond to a dialogue prompt.
He's scripted to do some pretty impressive things - Wish for control over time, then unload everything on you - but it's all for naught if you beat him before he gets the chance to cast anything. No kill, since he's got an immortality item.
The combat log for this fight:
Bravo, I'm not the best at strategy so Szass Tam wiped the floor with me. Of course if he wanted to he could wipe the floor with pretty much anyone he wanted. The man is basically evil Elminster. And before you say that you can kill Elminster, the game is going easy on us in both cases :P
The epic moments came against the Demon Knight and cultists when we were back in Ulgoth's Beard. The Demon PW:Killed my two mages and then chunked Montaron to pieces with his fireball. He still fell later. In the village, the cultists' fighter/mage kept using his wand of frost on characters with low HP and not having the Cold immunity belt. One unfortunate (un)save for Branwen, and she turned into an ice ball, taking away all her inventory and equipped items.
The TotSC content is so nicely done. It still passes the test of time, especially if you're playing not remembering all the ins and outs of it.
*Blows imaginary smoke away from wand tip*
(From Episode 28 in my latest playthough thread, posted earlier today)
Reloading the autosave at the door to Logan's place: game crashed again.
Dodging the crashes and getting my party of shapeshifters immortalized in stone: priceless.
(From episode 8 of season 2 in that same playthrough)
Seeing Slayer-Irenicus in Hell succumb to a Hold Monster cast by a dryad summoned by Call Woodland Beings.
Not just because of the unlikelihood, but because of the call-back to the dryads in Chateaux Jon. Revenge for her sister!
But I'm little joking.
Very touching moment is, for me, before you go upstairs to Tree of Life fight, when you friends declare to stand with you. Although I now play heavily modded EET now, I still did not give much chance to all other NPCs, I still have habit to use "old" NPCs such as Minsc, Aerie, and such, simply, I developed love for them (but I will have to try others, of course).
Also, to meet Caelar Argent. And later to fight alongside her, in SoD. She is impressive, she rips through Hell
And one encounter I dream of (as I'm making now mod with improved Last Seal guardians, which is going to be hell harder than SCS version of them).. it will happen in near future. I will do one more EET play with mostly "old" NPCs, but in ToB, I want to have Irenicus and Caelar in party (available in modded game).
Me (F/M/T), Sandrah, Irenicus, Caelar Argent, crazy Minsc (and Boo), and Aerie (yes, in modded game you can get her very powerful, at least with mods I use, she even rocks in melee).
vs.
Nalsimrra, Y'Tossi, (no more Hive Mother, there is nice replacement character, unique, demonic Sorceress, still have to choose final name), Xei Win Toh, Ameralis Zauviir, Huntress.
Thats going to be EPIC battle. NPCs I like, and NPCs I really respect, that combination, fight together shoulder to shoulder.
Little offtopic. And guys, as some of you consider battles as epic moments, my advice - start using SCS with improved components.
- raise con with girdle
- Drink all of the potions: cloud giant strength, speed, regeneration, 4xheroism for great ToHit and 192 HP
- equip Dragon slaying sword for undispellable fear resistance, amulet of power to resist drain
- equip all of the best AC items and girdle of pierce resistance
Mazzy made it a point to speak with the dragon for a formal challenge. The mage casted one breach, the cleric cast a Heal on Mazzy and the rest of the party had some popcorn. So satisfying.
The party:
Shar-Teel: Fighter 6-Thief 9, grandmaster in long swords. Dual-wields Varscona and Burning Earth. Wears Drizzt's armor for stealth and backstabs.
Ajantis: Paladin 8, specialized in longbows, two-handed swords, and bastard swords. Primarily wields the +2 longbow.
Kagain: Fighter 8, high master in axes. Wields the +2 throwing axe and the +2 shield in melee.
Kivan: Ranger 8, specialized in longbows, halberds, and bastard swords. Primarily wields the +1 composite longbow.
Garrick: Bard 10. Uses wands sometimes, but mostly just sings.
Additional rule: no casting spells (from spell slots) allowed. Neither Garrick nor Kivan have ever memorized a spell.
The battle:
Two guards, an enforcer, and an archer down. The wizard doesn't go hostile until after his dialogue, so he was unaffected by the traps.
Step 2: Attack the wizard, including with a dispelling arrow.
Step 3: Activate the Detect Invisibility ability on the Albruin bastard sword Ajantis is holding to reveal the assassins. Also, the dispelling arrow lands with absolutely perfect timing.
Yes, that's a Mantle dispelled with the arrow. Mantle was cast while the arrow was in flight, after the to-hit roll had already been made. Also note that Mantle, with SCS, protects against weapons up to level 3. No weapon a player could wield in BGEE penetrates that.
Step 4: Mop it up with normal attacks.
This run has now completed BG1. Full posting in the playthroughs forum - coming soon.
That's just amazing. I almost always die facing these guys in Ulgoth's Beard and I play on Core Rules
This was not the case when I played it as shown above. If that perfectly timed arrow hadn't taken down his Mantle, I would have had some serious trouble.
I love these! They are perfectly timed.
That's fantastic! I wonder what would happen if a dragon saved the town? How would the dragon statue fit? I might have to try that! Or even get the models of Bodhi and Irenicus to have statues... so much potential!
Ok so I have another epic death story for you guys:
I was fighting Mulahey on Hard Difficulty and I had the party positioned to attack along with Shar-Teel hiding in the shadows. Shar-Teel's backstab failed and Edwin accidentally cast Color Spray instead of Burning Hands which knocked out Dorn and nobody else. Mulahey proceeded to annihilate the rest of my party until it was only Tan (NE Gnome Skald Level 2) against Mulahey and his army of Kobolds and Skeletons.
Tan managed to fell Mulahey and then proceeded to drink every potion he could find on every dead body and also swapped a Potion of Absorbtion that Jaheria failed to drink. I managed to kill all but 3 skeletons and I was out of healing potions with only 4 HP. I killed one skeleton to free myself and ran to Shar-Teel's corpse to grab the Girdle of Bluntness and then cast Armor making my total AC against blunt weapons -14 and managed to kill the 2nd to last skeleton. Unfortunately though the final Skeleton was Near Death, the final Skeleton must have managed a critical hit and Tan was defeated. Leaving the mines cleared of all but a single Skeleton and the entire party also wiped out (as well as Xan because I had Shar-Teel kill him for narrative purposes, this is for my Narrative Run). Nashkel is saved, but the Sword Coast as a whole certainly is not.
I was well rewarded with a whopping 10 exp. Every experience point counts I always say!
Good on you, I always hated that half-dressed tart and her "dire" warnings.
For a recent "epic" achievement ... beating Irenicus in Hell without attacking him or targeting him with a spell. Two self-targeted 3x Incendiary Cloud contingencies dealt him 152 damage the moment the battle started. Then he transformed into the Slayer, and took another 145 fire damage in round two. Add 19 more from a planetar's fire storm, move out of one of the clouds, then 77 damage in round three. And that was enough. It was over so fast that I didn't manage to kill most of the demons.