so we find a blue dragon chillin in chapter 3 and i wonder how that battle went...
before, with no prep or potion use
after, with no potion use during battle
ah, the big red guy, how did that go?
so here's the deal, i tried taking him out first try, no prep no potion use before or during battle and i ALMOST had him ( with him starting at full health ) and i was one hit away from taking him down and then he sneaked in a breath weapon and wiped me out haha, if i would have passed that save, i would have taken 0 damage thanks to evasion and he would have been doneski, but i failed, took over 100 damage from the breath weapon, and since i didnt use any healing potions during the fight i lost lulz
so instead, i reloaded, gave him the bad sphere and this was the result
if he could barely take me down at full health, there's no way he's winning at badly injured hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi
so i finish my business with mr red, and whats this i find...?
that be one neato looking hammer, could it be...
damn right it is, now its time to really start wrecking shop
although full disclaimer, i lucked out and saved before i opened the word of power chest and it was a weapon chest, so i got this on the second try, but hey, almost first try lololololol
so now it was time to bring the head back to the gold dragon and you know, just for kicks, give 'er a whack to and see how that goes ?
before
again no potion prep or use during battle
after
quite predictable no doubt, with a mammoth 46 AC, and hammer of thunderbolts, she didn't stand a chance, even with the fact she is immune to stun, but i did learn that apparently stoneskin does not stop the hammer of thunderbolts ( must be 10/+5 or 20/+5) so that was cool to see
so we end chapter 3 and how do we look before we go off to chapter 4?
so i start bumming around in chapter 4 and what do i find....?
no, it can't be....
yup, its ANOTHER HoTB, and it was chillin' inside a barrel, damn that wizard probably wished he knew that was in there haha
and then there was this big ol' scary monster dude, how well did he do?
not very, since i got a flawless victory on him, shang tsung would be proud of my prowess
and then, if the shenanigans wasn't at an all time high look at what happened:
you cannot be serious...... ?
a THIRD HoTB, man lieutenant surge would be having a field day with all these tunda bolts
and then i eventually come up to some cewl dragons, and we all know how dragon battles go with Sarevok57:
not too bad for using no potions during battle yes?
and then we finally hit the last room, right before the boss fight and how do we look now?
my money is a bit less that it looks like it should be, i was pretty close to 1 000 000 but i bought the boots of the sun soul +5 and the ring of regeneration which cost a bagillion gold, but i should still hit close to a million i think with the help of SoU
now i found this run to be quite peculiar, i hit level 17 faster than i did on my previous run, but i never hit level 19 on this run, but yet the previous run i did, i wonder where i missed out on so much XP in chapter 4, i think i was still 6 000 away even in that whacky pocket plane just where you step through the portal and make the credits roll, hmm....
so now its time for a spiteful SoU run, just to grab some GP and some pitiful XP so then we can seriously be ready for HoTU ( and then perhaps i made actually do the super hard run with that level 13 paladin i have after wards, hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi )
I'm able to scrounge together a few moments here and there over the next few weeks in places, so here goes nothing. I'll have more free time after that, however, so I expect that posts will become more frequent around then. For now, an introduction with a bit of perspective added seems in order.
I recently finished reading the Saga of the Volsungs, and since I'm terribly unoriginal...Sigurd of Tyr is born.
He will be a Paladin, pure and simple. Given the saga origins, I probably should have made my toon into a barbarian variant, but with the plethora of dragons in the OC at least this Sigurd will be a dragonslayer much like his namesake. His diety in game is a fitting choice though.
If I have the discipline, this will be my first completion of the OC. I don't think I've ever made it beyond the second chapter, sadly enough, so most of this will be blind (albeit somewhat foreshadowed due to this fantastic thread that's inspiring me to jump in). I'll add some additional back story in an edit of this post sometime in the near future. For now, nightly meditation and journaling awaits. Be well.
@sarevok57
God damn it you're getting some great stuff, I remember when NWN first came out years back and item usage was LVL restricted so even if you found something nice chances are you won't be able to use it for a couple of LVL ups.
For SOU you going Hammer again or Longsword?, In NWN I always go Longsword but in BG 1&2 I prefer Hammers or if playing Fighter/Mage Longsword & Hammer duo ?.
If I remember there is a Magic Grinder in Drogan's room with some crating possibilities.
I remember being disappointed that Mischa the Paladin of Mystra wasn't an available companion, it seemed to me that she was sheltered and a little closed minded so I think she needed worldly experience to grow.
@Cerabelus
im actually importing my OC character, although it be silly, i can still grab a couple of level ups and by the looks of it, 300 000+ gold to help me out in HotU
i just finished another run with a paladin in SoU, and i went longsword style because there be one sexy longsword for pallys in SoU
and speaking about my SoU run, i grew up my first level, right before we headed out to the desert
oooo, look at that x4 critical on that warhammer, them critical hits is going to hurt
so off to the dessert we go ( yum and yes i did that intentionally ) and looky at what i found:
gee gag brain, ANOTHER warhammer of thunderbolts, i think my next run is going to be a dragon disciple who dual wields hammer of thunderbolts because now this is getting silly hahaha
and then i was in that whacky valley of the winds and i just happened to spot my dude getting a critical hit and wowzers did that hurt mr baddie
the red slaad definitely felt that one
and now im just starting chapter 2, so after track practice tomorrow i should have this game wrapped up, and be ready for HotU
@sarevok57
Again! Did Beamdog change my copy of NWN EE to lower magic find???
When I was playing Martial classes I loved using Scythes, x4 Critical when it happens is awesome, not so great when Loxar from the OC chapter 1 gets a critical on you☹️.
@EnialusMeliamne , great that you're joining! Welcome, Sigurd of Tyr.
@sarevok57 , won't SoU be totally boring with a Level 19 character? Or is this just to be as high-level as possible for HotU?
Edited: And *how* did you get your hands on so many Bags of Holding?
**********************
Thanks to a very quiet evening at the hospital, I have finished the OC last night, without another reload or respawn (thanks to @BelgarathMTH 's explanation and warnings considering the final battle).
I'll add a bit of a report with a few pictures as proof if I find time and energy tonight.
I liked the solution of the pre-final battle considering Maugrim's "apprentice", but why don't we see the results how things worked out?
"How things worked out" well i think you can imagine what Lord Nasher does with those people, i don't want to give details just in case someone reads this and it gets spoiled, that's not to say i didn't have some sympathy for that person i do but despite what i would want, despite Nasher's actions making things worse that result is out of our hands, most adventurers don't get to interfere in Their Lord's decisions.
Years back when NWN 2 was announced i started thinking about what the story would be and if it would involve the events of NWN 1 (it doesn't) but i started thinking about how my character would react and i found myself thinking "what if the Hero returned as the Villain?, what if the Hero came after Lord Nasher?".
Obviously that didn't happen and i think Obsidian Entertainment made the right call with introducing a whole new story not related to the OC.
anyway are you gonna go straight to SOU? are you gonna stick with the Pally? or maybe take a break and let things soak in?
@Arvia
yuppers, completely for the fact of being as high level as possible for HotU, by the looks of it i might hit level 20 in SoU
and about the bags of holding, that is after me selling some hahahaha
first off, i found 2 boxes, x3 bags of -20% and x3 bags of -40% and x1 bag of -60%, those were just the bags i found in the OC nevermind bought, oh, plus i actually found one of those bags of holding
the rest of the bags i bought from merchants, i only buy the -80% or bags of holding from merchants
lets see if i can remember who has what in the OC....
chapter 1:
20 in a quiver guy; bag of holding
wizard shop person after you join the guild ( must have a least 1 level of arcane spell caster/bard); bag of holding
merchant outside moonstone mask; bags of -20% - -80%
merchant dude inside one of the buildings in peninsula district; bags of -20% - -80%
i think the merchant inside the trade of blades has...?; bags of -20% - -80%
chapter 1 interlude:
little johnny sells a bag of holding
chapter 2:
don't remember if any of the merchants in port last sell any, one of them might sell the; bags of -20% - -80%
buddy at the green griffin inn i believe sells a bag of holding....?
luskan
i believe one of the merchants around the temple of tyr sell a bag of holding, others might sell the bags of -20% - -80%
chapter 3
buddy that you retrieve the star sapphire for ( inside shop where you can upgrade weapons ) has a bag of holding
and in chapter 4 i dont think anyone has any
so yeah, check out those merchants, as many as you can find, you never know who may be selling them bags, and as i said, i randomly found -20,-40,-60% bags all over the place, so i just used those bags to hold extra quest items, but then my inventories were getting kind of full with just bags, so then i sold all the lesser ones
in SoU in chapter 1 the mage dude hermit guy in.... high forest sells INFINITE bags of -60%, so if you don't have bags now, grab 'em there if you plan on exporting this character to HotU
and then you will not see another decent bag for sale until chapter 2, where the lizard dude sells x1 bag of -80% and i don't know how many copies of -60% bags that lizard guy has
@sarevok57
Again! Did Beamdog change my copy of NWN EE to lower magic find???
When I was playing Martial classes I loved using Scythes, x4 Critical when it happens is awesome, not so great when Loxar from the OC chapter 1 gets a critical on you☹️.
i think it was SoU actually that got rid of the "gold piece value of gear limit" do-hickey, i recall reading one of the tool tips saying to make sure to turn that off to get the best items that SoU has to offer you, and i think once you had HotU that option was off by default
and speaking about SoU we have a new critical hit record:
Sigurd completed his training in the Academy and has started to investigate the Peninsula District. He hit level four around the second level of the prison. I put the level four attribute in Strength. After half plate, a tower shield, sword and a few other items, picking up a necklace can lead to a nice, slow-paced walk towards the trio of escaped prisoners who are bent on his demise. No thanks. I keep telling myself that he'll be swimming in gold enough soon that he can buy a bunch of bags of holding. He's being very paladin-like by not pillaging houses and the like anyway, but still...leaving unused armor laying around is a bit of an early game gold loss.
Tomi is the companion, but I may need to rethink him a little bit. For being squishy, he sure runs into fights rather daringly. Raise your hand if that's new to you.
*Crickets*
Anyway, he (Tomi) has respawned thrice thus far, so I'm considering solo-ing for a bit. Sigurd nearly fell to a pack of prisoners, but escaped in the nick of time, where 'trusty' Tomi was waiting for him at the back end of the portal. I'm going to work on his backstory a bit to post in the initiating post above, but that will be sometime later this week, most likely.
@EnialusMeliamne , Nice status report. I'm so glad you're joining us. I love your wry humor about the companions.
**************************
So, I finished Chapter One of SoU today and made level 6.
This boss fight with the dreaded J'Nah, a powerful yuan-ti sorceress, is something I always dread. It can be a real bang your head against the wall, reload again and again, kind of fight for a beginner at SoU.
First, you have to get through a rather irritating puzzle dungeon to get her chambers open, where you pull a lever that glows a certain color, then follow trails of that color element through a labyrinth (have your screen to maximum zoom-out for this part, so you can see where the trails go in the maze). At the end of each elemental passage, swarming with mephits, you fight an elemental of that color element, then get transported back to the center. You have to pull the lever to change it to a different color, follow that element, fight that elemental. You have to do it a total of four times until you beat all the elementals.
I was able to use my Lore skill to push the right buttons to get a brazier out of the central fountain that would summon a fire elemental one time. I've never succeeded in doing that before. I think a spell-caster can get more tokens for the fountain by casting the right spells (another part of the puzzle) on some other elemental fountains in the labyrinth. I've never actually figured out how to take advantage of that when I was playing a caster.
Anyway, that fire elemental really helped make the fight with J'Nah unusually easy for me. I had also struck an alliance with her slave gnolls to assist in the attack.
This phylactery is important, if things go really wrong with Tymofarrar the white dragon.
This dragon tooth is one of the four MacGuffins you need to finish Chapter One.
And my main prize for winning the boss fight. I was *very* excited to get these. One of the benefits of playing content that is stingy with gold and magic items, is that when you do find one you can use, it is all the more thrilling and special. A lot of people don't like to receive the good stuff in the game without really working for it.
If there were any lingering doubts about J'Nah's evil nature, here's her journal:
Dorna died during that fight, and I wish I had held her back. During Chapter One, a companion who dies gets teleported by magic ring back to Drogan's house, and you are supposed to be able to talk to them and get them back. I had forgotten that Dorna is bugged. If she ever dies, you cannot talk to her to get her back. She just stands there and won't speak. I think going into Chapter Two will repair her, but if she ever dies there, she'll bug out again. I always used to just reload whenever Dorna would die, but I'm not doing that during a minimal reload reported run, because you have to replay whatever fight, and I don't feel good about ever doing that here.
I kind of wanted to use Deekin starting in Chapter Two anyway, but I dread trying to proceed without a rogue.
So, the return conversation with Tymofarrar went the best possible way (unless you *want* to fight him for no good reason for the xp and whatever treasure he has.) You have to be sure to ask him during your first conversation, "How do I know you won't just break your word with me like you did with J'Nah?", or something along that line, to get an oath from him on his draconic blood that he won't betray you, before you can get the smoothest outcome.
You need two things from him to finish the chapter. This time, he gave me both of them with no trouble at all. I've gotten an outcome where I had to offer him a huge amount of gold or treasure to get the second thing, and I didn't have it, so I was screwed (forced to fight him).
I've heard there's an outcome where you can get a third thing out of him, and get him to agree to become the guardian of your home village of Hilltop, but I've never pushed my luck trying that.
So then I made level six, and got a pretty weak hit points roll. I took Blind Fight. I know from playing SoU before that there are at least two boss fights coming up in later chapters that are going to be just this side of impossible to beat without it, so I wasn't taking any chances of getting to those fights without Blind Fight. I guess there's a reason that's the first feat that Jedi Knights get trained for.
"But how can I see anything with with the blast visor down?"
"Trust your feelings, and act on *instinct*."
Here are parts of the conversations that close Act One. I'm wondering if the site is even going to let me upload this many pictures in a single post. I said before that SoU is very heavy with conversations and roleplay, and that's why I'm not reporting in this much detail very often during my SoU run.
@BelgarathMTH perhaps you couldn't add dorna back to your team was because you still had the fire elemental on your team? ( by the looks of the screen shot ) i have heard that there was a bug about dorna but i wasnt sure if it was still on going
@BelgarathMTH
Hmm I've never experienced that bug but it's been a long time since I brought a companion with me on Chapter 1, I really like Deekin though and always pick him up on the Interlude and again in HOTU, he's much more helpful in HOTU.
Did you give items to Dorna and now can't retrieve them? that would suck.
In SOU i like how there are options besides "go to baddies lair and kill everyone".
I like negotiating and seeing what my options are first.
i will declare something for your minimum reload challenge in that; getting the game over screen from being petrified doesnt count as a reload unless you actually would have failed the save,
i just finished SoU and i had +23 or so to fortitude save with DCs or 13 and i had to reload 3 friggin times in the last part because i kept rolling 1s, despite the fact a 2 saves by a landslide, but thanks to 3rd edition a 1 is a 1 and a 1 always fails
i was going to test to see if being immune to death magic made you immune to petrification but i ran out of medusas the time i put it on before they were "accidentally squashed per se"
and speaking about finishing SoU i almost hit level 21, but not quite:
so now its off to HotU, lets see what mayhem i can cause there
Gulnan got me for my first respawn of the game. I was hoping to hold off from stone of recalling him out of there, but instead, she dropped a flame spell on Sigurd's cranium right at the appropriate time to knock him out.. For this battle, I brought Linu who brings her own problems with her. Did you know she likes to cast spells at the most inopportune times in combat? It's so weird.
Anyway, since the internet doesn't always translate sarcasm so well, I was being sarcastic. Linu is great against undead though, so I'll keep her around until this fight in this sector is complete.
The "I suck" totals
Respawns - 1
Tomi Respawns - 4
Linu Respawns -4
You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
Gulnan got me for my first respawn of the game. I was hoping to hold off from stone of recalling him out of there, but instead, she dropped a flame spell on Sigurd's cranium right at the appropriate time to knock him out.. For this battle, I brought Linu who brings her own problems with her. Did you know she likes to cast spells at the most inopportune times in combat? It's so weird.
Anyway, since the internet doesn't always translate sarcasm so well, I was being sarcastic. Linu is great against undead though, so I'll keep her around until this fight in this sector is complete.
The "I suck" totals
Respawns - 1
Tomi Respawns - 4
Linu Respawns -4
oh trust us, we especially know how "amazing" the AI is for NWN companions
@sarevok57
There's probably too many Bag's available in the OC but you can't give things to your companions to carry and each bag doesn't have much space unlike the Bag of Holding in BG which for ages I thought was infinite.
The Bag in BG was like a "time and relative dimensions in space" but in NWN it mostly reduced total weight by %.
I remember my last Character from SOU she was massively overloaded and could only walk during the final battle, I was hording goodies for HOTU for Deekin and others than I sold the rest in HOTU chapter 2.
well also remember that in SoU there are infinite bags of -60% holding in chapter 1, i was able to afford a whole panel worth ( inventory panel? ) with the paladin i made and still had a little bit of cash left over
one thing that SoU does not give you a deliberate amount of is GP worth of stuff, you have to be careful who you buy and sell to when you get those appraise checks, or else trying to buy some of those cool expensive goods could just be out of reach
like in the interlude for example, if you can, selling your goods to the hobgoblin is better than selling them to the halfling woman, she gives you a big penalty on your appraise checks while the hobgoblin does not, i wonder if appraise itself was introduced to the NWN series for this reason perhaps? i know that some skills came in on later additions of the series
Yeah, I was mostly poking fun at myself with the sarcastic nature of my comment, @sarevok57. The NPC AI was one of the many reasons why I never completed the OC in the past. This will be the time I break that trend.
The other reality is that my fingers have long since forgotten the quick commands that are usable to command the NPC’s. I definitely need to brush up on those again! I’d rather use those than pause a lot.
In game, Sigurd now has Armor of Comfort which puts his AC at 24 at level four. Not great but definitely improving. He’s limiting looting to only enemy territories, and is wicked hamstringing the gold accumulations by turning down gold rewards. He’s sitting at around 570 gold or so. He now has a -20 percent weight bag, which beats not having any bags at all. The Armor of Comfort shaved off some additional weight which also helps. I’m really looking forward to when he has some attribute enhancing equipment. The amount of swing and misses that Sigurd has would make the leading MLB strikeout king blush. Ahh, the perils of playing a MAD character. ? These are not the droids you are looking for...move along.
@sarevok57
Yeah i started taking the Appraise skill because of that, it doesn't always help a lot but I see it as an investment in long term savings and in HOTU the Djinni doesn't give great prices either so I don't sell most things to him mostly the small time stuff.
In NWN 2 Appraise is actually used in some conversations too.
so we start our HotU campaign, and i get stripped to my tighty whiteys ( whities? ) anyway, i pick up what mediocre stuff i can get and this is what i end up with:
that be far less OP than i was before, but thank the HotU gods that my money is still intacted because i am desperately going to need it for some better gear
so we clean up waterdeep a bit, go shopping, and i upgrade myself for the undermountain
thats a bit better, the treck through the mountain should be less painful now....
and so i go through the mountain, cleared out level 1 without much of a hitch and so far its been a relatively smooth ride, being level 21 is way more advantageous than starting a level 13 thats for sure
@sarevok57
Did you pick up Enserric?
Have you found any secret doors?
Did you open the locked door guarded by Skeleton Bombs?
Did you fight the Bomb Maker?
@sarevok57
Did you pick up Enserric?
Have you found any secret doors?
Did you open the locked door guarded by Skeleton Bombs?
Did you fight the Bomb Maker?
no clue who enserric is
i found a couple secret doors, but for the most part it just goes to treasure which i probably dont really need
i did open the locked door with the skeleton bombs
i did not fight the bomb maker, i saw there was a little island somewhere out there, but i wasn't able to get to it, i thought using the alchemist fire against the rocks would go there, but that just lead to level 2 and gave 2000 XP
and speaking about that, progress on the adventure so far:
so we continue on, make it pass level 2 and we are now in level .... 3? or so, lots of drow everywhere, and finally, i get all my original goodies back:
its time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and im all out of bubble gum
so i continue on, doing the things, then i get to the end of chapter 1, and stuff happens ( not to give away whats up ) and now we are in chapter 2
and this is where the REAL shenanigans start:
the best black smith in all the underdark
and now he is making my weapon all cool and pretty
after his upgrades, that would be one decent hammer i would say, hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi
forgot to UI scale, the properties:
enhancement +10
+ 1d6 electrical damage
75% chance to stun on hit DC will 14
keen
haste
true seeing
regeneration 2
SR 20
so after we upgrade the weapon, and buy some new gear which cost over 1 meeeeeellion gold pieces, this is what i ended up with:
so it was off to do chapter 2 things, and with that, we have some critical hit damage records:
first one i thought was pretty good at 161 damage...
but then shortly after that, i hit 164 damage, damn does overwhelming critical kick butt when your multiplier is x4, thank you weapon master *thumbs up good buddy*
also, i have some big hind sight for those of you who wish to play HotU for chapter 2, its not really going to be a spoiler, but i will put it in tags anyway, just in case you wish to do it completely blind, but this is more of a fair warning than anything:
so to make things simple and to not spoil anything, you basically have to go off and do some things, now there are 5 main areas that you can go to, to do such things, BUT once you do 4 of them, the chapter 2 finale starts and you will NOT be able to do the 5th one, so to counter this, it is highly advised that you do the chapter 2 things in this order:
go to the boat man and do both of his island quests first
that takes care of 2 of them
then go to the caverns or whatever it is called ( forgot to check ) and do the one that isn't the "eye tyrant" or "illithid" one, i forget what the other one is called, ( its an underground city with humans, gnomes? dont remember ) but do that one first ( only because there is a CRAP load of treasure there, and you will get better prices in the drow city
so anyhow, once you complete 1 or those 3 cavern quests, this is going to be the last time you go to the drow city, because if you complete a fourth one and go back, then as i said the finale starts and you will not be able to do the 5th one
so after you complete the fourth quest stay in the caverns, and if you must sell some loot sell it to that genie in the bottle dude, and then go complete the 5th quest so you can get extra loot and much needed XP
now to be honest if you want for the 3rd quest and do the other ones in the caverns instead that is fine, but just make sure to keep the 3 quests in the cavern last and when you do so, DO NOT go back to the drow city once the 4th one is done, or else you are going to miss out on XP and loot, and especially if you have team mates this will be absolutely critical
Taking a little break from the madness of real life to calm my nerves and post some proof of finishing the OC.
I strongly suggest not to open the spoiler tags if you haven't finished the OC of NWN at least once.
Here's me trying to understand as much as possible about the past and present:
And here's my new Nymph Cloak +5:
The two Balor Lords guarding the mages controlling the siege golems (those fights rained heavy magic damage on me)
And after that, surprisingly easy, the Half-Dragon Balor (whatever *that* is) guarding the portal.
The next part is a major plot spoiler, that's why I'm going to put comments *and* pictures inside the spoiler tags.
I tried to talk reasonably to her, address her conscience, but she was thirsting for vengeance, even if she knew that Morag would betray her. She acknowledged that she deserved to die, although I had offered to accept her surrender, and insisted it could only be settled in blood.
Okay, at last she is ready to listen. I would really like to share the conversation with her, because it really matters to me what she said and how everything happened. I didn't remember to open and enlarge the combat log to capture the dialogue, I only have screenshots of the dialogue windows. It's 16 pictures, so I've put them in nested spoiler tags, to avoid loading them if you don't want to read them all.
I have a lot of thoughts about that whole issue, but I think I'm going to open another thread to discuss that when I have time, it's too long for a "report your run" thread.
Then, Maugrim.
I guess immortality is relative. Although I probably should take Potions of Heal a little earlier in the future and not at Near Death. I had underestimated those flesh golems.
Then (after collecting the XP for saving the little girl and destroying the catapults, of course) I went to Lord Nasher and tried to talk some sense into him again.
That was level 16 for me.
A rather unlucky roll, only 6 HP (and that already included the bonus from Toughness), but I've bought several Potions of Endurance.
On the way downstairs, I had to stop at the cells once more, to talk to someone.
I guess I have done what I could.
Into the Source Stone I went, and wasted most of my buffs, because there were still several rooms and levels, and I expected Morag behind every corner. That's the difficulty with the short-acting spells to boost the paladin abilities. And that's where I disagree with people who claim that NWN exaggerates the possibilities to rest. If you play a fighter with fighter stats, that may be true. But if your capability to win high-level fights depends on spells and once-a-day-abilities, then you're screwed if you don't have metaknowledge. This is not a game for balanced parties, after all. And a paladin without points in Concentration has the additional problem that you waste your best spells if you cast them too early, and they wear off after defeating only the small fish around the main enemy, or you cast them at the last moment and risk getting interrupted and losing the spell. That's what happened to me with Holy Sword against Morag.
So, some of the Lizard People gave me a hard time, and then those Corrupted Dragons rained a lot of heavy elemental damage on me, but I survived them, used only one Potion of Heal.
And then, at last, the dreaded final fight (no resting allowed and no walking back possible after entering the last portal, but there were *still* several rooms, and either I got dispelled or they wore off right in time, but I didn't have Greater Magic Weapon when I faced Morag. At least I had two of Bull's Strength memorized, and Bless+Aid from the scabbard, and Divine Favor and another Potion of Endurance.
Those Morag's Hand guys were really tough. And Morag didn't just cast buffs during time stop, she poured damage on me. During her second time stop, she almost killed me. I don't know if that was a mistake, but I ignored her and her kneeling slaves even when the blade barrier was down, until I had killed all her other minions. Then I went for the slaves against lesser creatures and swords, and then her, of course.
That was it. Needed four Potions of Heal to survive. And I was glad to have known to avoid and how to destroy the Blade Barrier, the protecting slaves, and to run for the portal when Morag was dead. Thank you, Master Yoda .
As I said, I was disappointed that the epilogue didn't provide any conclusion or information on the matter of a certain lady. Why all those talks, discussions, persuasions, to her and to Nasher, if I don't ever learn what happened?
Reloads: 1
Respawns: 9
I have created a new paladin for SoU, but I will introduce her tonight or tomorrow or whenever, I'm out of "me time" for now.
Edited: @EnialusMeliamne, if your respawn counter after Gulnan means you suck, then the same applies to me.
She's tough to beat, ole Gulnan. I ended up backtracking about ten saves to the end of the Peninsula portion, finally admitting that I was overmatched by her as a second regent attempt after the peninsula. Then, I ran into some nuclear option traps in the Docks district which led me to scrap a minimal reload attempt altogether with Sigurd. I feel as if I am going about it all wrong with him, so I'm going to restart with a less...MAD character. He hits not enough of the time, so I'm thinking I'll go for a more traditional build paladin with 15 Str 10 Dex, 12 Con 10 Int. 14 Wis, 15 Cha out of the gate. That puts him at 16 str by level 4, so he'll be striking out less of the time, and I'll have the carrying capacity to hold a crossbow to shoot traps with by the same level. That, and I'm going to start slowing my play down, now that I've worked out some of the cramps in my memory about the hot key layouts.
Great reports, everybody. I really enjoyed reading.
@Arvia , Wow, I'm really glad you posted all those dialogs, because I didn't get that best possible ending.
I didn't choose the dialog option of "You sound like you're trying to justify everything", because that felt to me like kicking her when she was down. I chose some other option that sounded kinder to me, and she got mad and attacked me a second time, forcing me to kill her. I don't remember exactly what she said, but it was something along the lines of "You've been kind, so I want you to be the one to kill me," but she healed to full health again and still kept fighting, even though she was badly outmatched.
Clearly I gave her the "wrong answers" to her surrender dialogue. I had no idea how to get the ending you got. Congratulations to you on that.
Aribeth's story is not over. She will be back in one of the later chapters of HotU as a joinable companion who has many dialogues with you, and that's regardless of which ending you got for her in the OC. I forget the exact details of how that's possible, but I do remember having her in my party and continuing to talk to her about her role in the OC.
A user also wrote a module to continue her story even further, called "Aribeth's Redemption". It's probably still available on the Neverwinter Vault, but I think it assumes you've played both the OC and Hordes of the Underdark. (I never played the user-made mod, so I don't know anything about it other than that it exists.)
Wow, then I'm glad I've chosen that answer. I felt drawn to the kinder answer, too, for the same reason, but then I thought, come on, I've been kind and understanding all the time and I don't condemn her, but I have to make it clear that I still think she has made a terrible mistake, especially as a fellow paladin of Tyr!
She is a ghost in HotU, as far as I've heard. It's just not specified if she was executed or died for some other reason.
I've started over with a new Sigurd. The power of a Jedi mind trick means the real Sigurd is now actually here, and the old one was just an aberration (I updated his initial build above). Sigurd graduated the academy, and is progressing well in the Peninsula district. Tomi has joined Sigurd at a discount. So far, no respawns. Hot keys are coming back to me, saving some hassle. Cleave is definitely a friend, today. The faster the mooks die, the less chance of needing to Stone of Recall or respawn. I've also decided to go primarily divine damage this time, instead of a MAD mobile warrior with spells.
@EnialusMeliamne, I know the feeling of trying different feats and builds until you find one that suits you. Your portrait choice is very fitting, he really looks like a Sigurd.
I hope you won't feel offended by this question, but would you please consider converting your screenshots from .bmp to .jpg before uploading them? The files are huge, and opening them with a slow internet connection takes much time, or consumes much data volume on mobile devices.
I don't know how to link a post from another thread, so I have tagged you there, because semiticgod has shared an easy method to convert multiple files at once in the BG minimal reload thread.
If it's too complicated, please forget I ever said something and keep posting however you like .
Comments
so we find a blue dragon chillin in chapter 3 and i wonder how that battle went...
after, with no potion use during battle
ah, the big red guy, how did that go?
so instead, i reloaded, gave him the bad sphere and this was the result
if he could barely take me down at full health, there's no way he's winning at badly injured hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi
so i finish my business with mr red, and whats this i find...?
that be one neato looking hammer, could it be...
damn right it is, now its time to really start wrecking shop
although full disclaimer, i lucked out and saved before i opened the word of power chest and it was a weapon chest, so i got this on the second try, but hey, almost first try lololololol
so now it was time to bring the head back to the gold dragon and you know, just for kicks, give 'er a whack to and see how that goes ?
before
again no potion prep or use during battle
after
quite predictable no doubt, with a mammoth 46 AC, and hammer of thunderbolts, she didn't stand a chance, even with the fact she is immune to stun, but i did learn that apparently stoneskin does not stop the hammer of thunderbolts ( must be 10/+5 or 20/+5) so that was cool to see
so we end chapter 3 and how do we look before we go off to chapter 4?
so i start bumming around in chapter 4 and what do i find....?
no, it can't be....
yup, its ANOTHER HoTB, and it was chillin' inside a barrel, damn that wizard probably wished he knew that was in there haha
and then there was this big ol' scary monster dude, how well did he do?
not very, since i got a flawless victory on him, shang tsung would be proud of my prowess
and then, if the shenanigans wasn't at an all time high look at what happened:
you cannot be serious...... ?
a THIRD HoTB, man lieutenant surge would be having a field day with all these tunda bolts
and then i eventually come up to some cewl dragons, and we all know how dragon battles go with Sarevok57:
not too bad for using no potions during battle yes?
and then we finally hit the last room, right before the boss fight and how do we look now?
my money is a bit less that it looks like it should be, i was pretty close to 1 000 000 but i bought the boots of the sun soul +5 and the ring of regeneration which cost a bagillion gold, but i should still hit close to a million i think with the help of SoU
now i found this run to be quite peculiar, i hit level 17 faster than i did on my previous run, but i never hit level 19 on this run, but yet the previous run i did, i wonder where i missed out on so much XP in chapter 4, i think i was still 6 000 away even in that whacky pocket plane just where you step through the portal and make the credits roll, hmm....
so now its time for a spiteful SoU run, just to grab some GP and some pitiful XP so then we can seriously be ready for HoTU ( and then perhaps i made actually do the super hard run with that level 13 paladin i have after wards, hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi )
I recently finished reading the Saga of the Volsungs, and since I'm terribly unoriginal...Sigurd of Tyr is born.
If I have the discipline, this will be my first completion of the OC. I don't think I've ever made it beyond the second chapter, sadly enough, so most of this will be blind (albeit somewhat foreshadowed due to this fantastic thread that's inspiring me to jump in). I'll add some additional back story in an edit of this post sometime in the near future. For now, nightly meditation and journaling awaits. Be well.
EDIT: Character background information, etc.
Region: Leilon
Mentor through familial connections: Pelindar Filmarya
Attributes: Str-15, Dex-10, Con-12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 15
Skills: Discipline-Max, Heal-Max, Persuade-Max
Feats: 1-Power Attack, 1-Cleave, 3-Extra Smiting, 6-Divine Might, 9-WF:Longsword, 12-Blind Fight, 15-Divine Shield
Today's edit, a new Sigurd, one who actually does damage in the early stages.
God damn it you're getting some great stuff, I remember when NWN first came out years back and item usage was LVL restricted so even if you found something nice chances are you won't be able to use it for a couple of LVL ups.
For SOU you going Hammer again or Longsword?, In NWN I always go Longsword but in BG 1&2 I prefer Hammers or if playing Fighter/Mage Longsword & Hammer duo ?.
If I remember there is a Magic Grinder in Drogan's room with some crating possibilities.
I remember being disappointed that Mischa the Paladin of Mystra wasn't an available companion, it seemed to me that she was sheltered and a little closed minded so I think she needed worldly experience to grow.
im actually importing my OC character, although it be silly, i can still grab a couple of level ups and by the looks of it, 300 000+ gold to help me out in HotU
i just finished another run with a paladin in SoU, and i went longsword style because there be one sexy longsword for pallys in SoU
and speaking about my SoU run, i grew up my first level, right before we headed out to the desert
oooo, look at that x4 critical on that warhammer, them critical hits is going to hurt
so off to the dessert we go ( yum
gee gag brain, ANOTHER warhammer of thunderbolts, i think my next run is going to be a dragon disciple who dual wields hammer of thunderbolts because now this is getting silly hahaha
and then i was in that whacky valley of the winds and i just happened to spot my dude getting a critical hit and wowzers did that hurt mr baddie
the red slaad definitely felt that one
and now im just starting chapter 2, so after track practice tomorrow i should have this game wrapped up, and be ready for HotU
Again! Did Beamdog change my copy of NWN EE to lower magic find???
When I was playing Martial classes I loved using Scythes, x4 Critical when it happens is awesome, not so great when Loxar from the OC chapter 1 gets a critical on you☹️.
@sarevok57 , won't SoU be totally boring with a Level 19 character? Or is this just to be as high-level as possible for HotU?
Edited: And *how* did you get your hands on so many Bags of Holding?
**********************
Thanks to a very quiet evening at the hospital, I have finished the OC last night, without another reload or respawn (thanks to @BelgarathMTH 's explanation and warnings considering the final battle).
I'll add a bit of a report with a few pictures as proof if I find time and energy tonight.
I liked the solution of the pre-final battle considering Maugrim's "apprentice", but why don't we see the results how things worked out?
Congratulations!
"How things worked out" well i think you can imagine what Lord Nasher does with those people, i don't want to give details just in case someone reads this and it gets spoiled, that's not to say i didn't have some sympathy for that person i do but despite what i would want, despite Nasher's actions making things worse that result is out of our hands, most adventurers don't get to interfere in Their Lord's decisions.
Years back when NWN 2 was announced i started thinking about what the story would be and if it would involve the events of NWN 1 (it doesn't) but i started thinking about how my character would react and i found myself thinking "what if the Hero returned as the Villain?, what if the Hero came after Lord Nasher?".
Obviously that didn't happen and i think Obsidian Entertainment made the right call with introducing a whole new story not related to the OC.
anyway are you gonna go straight to SOU? are you gonna stick with the Pally? or maybe take a break and let things soak in?
yuppers, completely for the fact of being as high level as possible for HotU, by the looks of it i might hit level 20 in SoU
and about the bags of holding, that is after me selling some hahahaha
first off, i found 2 boxes, x3 bags of -20% and x3 bags of -40% and x1 bag of -60%, those were just the bags i found in the OC nevermind bought, oh, plus i actually found one of those bags of holding
the rest of the bags i bought from merchants, i only buy the -80% or bags of holding from merchants
lets see if i can remember who has what in the OC....
chapter 1:
20 in a quiver guy; bag of holding
wizard shop person after you join the guild ( must have a least 1 level of arcane spell caster/bard); bag of holding
merchant outside moonstone mask; bags of -20% - -80%
merchant dude inside one of the buildings in peninsula district; bags of -20% - -80%
i think the merchant inside the trade of blades has...?; bags of -20% - -80%
chapter 1 interlude:
little johnny sells a bag of holding
chapter 2:
don't remember if any of the merchants in port last sell any, one of them might sell the; bags of -20% - -80%
buddy at the green griffin inn i believe sells a bag of holding....?
luskan
i believe one of the merchants around the temple of tyr sell a bag of holding, others might sell the bags of -20% - -80%
chapter 3
buddy that you retrieve the star sapphire for ( inside shop where you can upgrade weapons ) has a bag of holding
and in chapter 4 i dont think anyone has any
so yeah, check out those merchants, as many as you can find, you never know who may be selling them bags, and as i said, i randomly found -20,-40,-60% bags all over the place, so i just used those bags to hold extra quest items, but then my inventories were getting kind of full with just bags, so then i sold all the lesser ones
in SoU in chapter 1 the mage dude hermit guy in.... high forest sells INFINITE bags of -60%, so if you don't have bags now, grab 'em there if you plan on exporting this character to HotU
and then you will not see another decent bag for sale until chapter 2, where the lizard dude sells x1 bag of -80% and i don't know how many copies of -60% bags that lizard guy has
i think it was SoU actually that got rid of the "gold piece value of gear limit" do-hickey, i recall reading one of the tool tips saying to make sure to turn that off to get the best items that SoU has to offer you, and i think once you had HotU that option was off by default
and speaking about SoU we have a new critical hit record:
take that shadow dude scum!
Tomi is the companion, but I may need to rethink him a little bit. For being squishy, he sure runs into fights rather daringly. Raise your hand if that's new to you.
*Crickets*
Anyway, he (Tomi) has respawned thrice thus far, so I'm considering solo-ing for a bit. Sigurd nearly fell to a pack of prisoners, but escaped in the nick of time, where 'trusty' Tomi was waiting for him at the back end of the portal. I'm going to work on his backstory a bit to post in the initiating post above, but that will be sometime later this week, most likely.
**************************
So, I finished Chapter One of SoU today and made level 6.
This boss fight with the dreaded J'Nah, a powerful yuan-ti sorceress, is something I always dread. It can be a real bang your head against the wall, reload again and again, kind of fight for a beginner at SoU.
First, you have to get through a rather irritating puzzle dungeon to get her chambers open, where you pull a lever that glows a certain color, then follow trails of that color element through a labyrinth (have your screen to maximum zoom-out for this part, so you can see where the trails go in the maze). At the end of each elemental passage, swarming with mephits, you fight an elemental of that color element, then get transported back to the center. You have to pull the lever to change it to a different color, follow that element, fight that elemental. You have to do it a total of four times until you beat all the elementals.
I was able to use my Lore skill to push the right buttons to get a brazier out of the central fountain that would summon a fire elemental one time. I've never succeeded in doing that before. I think a spell-caster can get more tokens for the fountain by casting the right spells (another part of the puzzle) on some other elemental fountains in the labyrinth. I've never actually figured out how to take advantage of that when I was playing a caster.
Anyway, that fire elemental really helped make the fight with J'Nah unusually easy for me. I had also struck an alliance with her slave gnolls to assist in the attack.
This phylactery is important, if things go really wrong with Tymofarrar the white dragon.
This dragon tooth is one of the four MacGuffins you need to finish Chapter One.
And my main prize for winning the boss fight. I was *very* excited to get these. One of the benefits of playing content that is stingy with gold and magic items, is that when you do find one you can use, it is all the more thrilling and special. A lot of people don't like to receive the good stuff in the game without really working for it.
If there were any lingering doubts about J'Nah's evil nature, here's her journal:
Dorna died during that fight, and I wish I had held her back. During Chapter One, a companion who dies gets teleported by magic ring back to Drogan's house, and you are supposed to be able to talk to them and get them back. I had forgotten that Dorna is bugged. If she ever dies, you cannot talk to her to get her back. She just stands there and won't speak. I think going into Chapter Two will repair her, but if she ever dies there, she'll bug out again. I always used to just reload whenever Dorna would die, but I'm not doing that during a minimal reload reported run, because you have to replay whatever fight, and I don't feel good about ever doing that here.
I kind of wanted to use Deekin starting in Chapter Two anyway, but I dread trying to proceed without a rogue.
So, the return conversation with Tymofarrar went the best possible way (unless you *want* to fight him for no good reason for the xp and whatever treasure he has.) You have to be sure to ask him during your first conversation, "How do I know you won't just break your word with me like you did with J'Nah?", or something along that line, to get an oath from him on his draconic blood that he won't betray you, before you can get the smoothest outcome.
You need two things from him to finish the chapter. This time, he gave me both of them with no trouble at all. I've gotten an outcome where I had to offer him a huge amount of gold or treasure to get the second thing, and I didn't have it, so I was screwed (forced to fight him).
I've heard there's an outcome where you can get a third thing out of him, and get him to agree to become the guardian of your home village of Hilltop, but I've never pushed my luck trying that.
So then I made level six, and got a pretty weak hit points roll. I took Blind Fight. I know from playing SoU before that there are at least two boss fights coming up in later chapters that are going to be just this side of impossible to beat without it, so I wasn't taking any chances of getting to those fights without Blind Fight. I guess there's a reason that's the first feat that Jedi Knights get trained for.
"But how can I see anything with with the blast visor down?"
"Trust your feelings, and act on *instinct*."
Here are parts of the conversations that close Act One. I'm wondering if the site is even going to let me upload this many pictures in a single post. I said before that SoU is very heavy with conversations and roleplay, and that's why I'm not reporting in this much detail very often during my SoU run.
Level: 6
Reloads: 0
Dorna Deaths: 1
Hmm I've never experienced that bug but it's been a long time since I brought a companion with me on Chapter 1, I really like Deekin though and always pick him up on the Interlude and again in HOTU, he's much more helpful in HOTU.
Did you give items to Dorna and now can't retrieve them? that would suck.
In SOU i like how there are options besides "go to baddies lair and kill everyone".
I like negotiating and seeing what my options are first.
i will declare something for your minimum reload challenge in that; getting the game over screen from being petrified doesnt count as a reload unless you actually would have failed the save,
i just finished SoU and i had +23 or so to fortitude save with DCs or 13 and i had to reload 3 friggin times in the last part because i kept rolling 1s, despite the fact a 2 saves by a landslide, but thanks to 3rd edition a 1 is a 1 and a 1 always fails
i was going to test to see if being immune to death magic made you immune to petrification but i ran out of medusas the time i put it on before they were "accidentally squashed per se"
and speaking about finishing SoU i almost hit level 21, but not quite:
so now its off to HotU, lets see what mayhem i can cause there
Anyway, since the internet doesn't always translate sarcasm so well, I was being sarcastic. Linu is great against undead though, so I'll keep her around until this fight in this sector is complete.
The "I suck" totals
Respawns - 1
Tomi Respawns - 4
Linu Respawns -4
You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
oh trust us, we especially know how "amazing" the AI is for NWN companions
There's probably too many Bag's available in the OC but you can't give things to your companions to carry and each bag doesn't have much space unlike the Bag of Holding in BG which for ages I thought was infinite.
The Bag in BG was like a "time and relative dimensions in space" but in NWN it mostly reduced total weight by %.
I remember my last Character from SOU she was massively overloaded and could only walk during the final battle, I was hording goodies for HOTU for Deekin and others than I sold the rest in HOTU chapter 2.
well also remember that in SoU there are infinite bags of -60% holding in chapter 1, i was able to afford a whole panel worth ( inventory panel? ) with the paladin i made and still had a little bit of cash left over
one thing that SoU does not give you a deliberate amount of is GP worth of stuff, you have to be careful who you buy and sell to when you get those appraise checks, or else trying to buy some of those cool expensive goods could just be out of reach
like in the interlude for example, if you can, selling your goods to the hobgoblin is better than selling them to the halfling woman, she gives you a big penalty on your appraise checks while the hobgoblin does not, i wonder if appraise itself was introduced to the NWN series for this reason perhaps? i know that some skills came in on later additions of the series
The other reality is that my fingers have long since forgotten the quick commands that are usable to command the NPC’s. I definitely need to brush up on those again! I’d rather use those than pause a lot.
In game, Sigurd now has Armor of Comfort which puts his AC at 24 at level four. Not great but definitely improving. He’s limiting looting to only enemy territories, and is wicked hamstringing the gold accumulations by turning down gold rewards. He’s sitting at around 570 gold or so. He now has a -20 percent weight bag, which beats not having any bags at all. The Armor of Comfort shaved off some additional weight which also helps. I’m really looking forward to when he has some attribute enhancing equipment. The amount of swing and misses that Sigurd has would make the leading MLB strikeout king blush. Ahh, the perils of playing a MAD character. ? These are not the droids you are looking for...move along.
Yeah i started taking the Appraise skill because of that, it doesn't always help a lot but I see it as an investment in long term savings and in HOTU the Djinni doesn't give great prices either so I don't sell most things to him mostly the small time stuff.
In NWN 2 Appraise is actually used in some conversations too.
that be far less OP than i was before, but thank the HotU gods that my money is still intacted because i am desperately going to need it for some better gear
so we clean up waterdeep a bit, go shopping, and i upgrade myself for the undermountain
thats a bit better, the treck through the mountain should be less painful now....
and so i go through the mountain, cleared out level 1 without much of a hitch and so far its been a relatively smooth ride, being level 21 is way more advantageous than starting a level 13 thats for sure
Did you pick up Enserric?
Have you found any secret doors?
Did you open the locked door guarded by Skeleton Bombs?
Did you fight the Bomb Maker?
no clue who enserric is
i found a couple secret doors, but for the most part it just goes to treasure which i probably dont really need
i did open the locked door with the skeleton bombs
i did not fight the bomb maker, i saw there was a little island somewhere out there, but i wasn't able to get to it, i thought using the alchemist fire against the rocks would go there, but that just lead to level 2 and gave 2000 XP
and speaking about that, progress on the adventure so far:
so we continue on, make it pass level 2 and we are now in level .... 3? or so, lots of drow everywhere, and finally, i get all my original goodies back:
its time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and im all out of bubble gum
so i continue on, doing the things, then i get to the end of chapter 1, and stuff happens ( not to give away whats up ) and now we are in chapter 2
and this is where the REAL shenanigans start:
the best black smith in all the underdark
and now he is making my weapon all cool and pretty
after his upgrades, that would be one decent hammer i would say, hoi hoi hoi hoi hoi
forgot to UI scale, the properties:
enhancement +10
+ 1d6 electrical damage
75% chance to stun on hit DC will 14
keen
haste
true seeing
regeneration 2
SR 20
so after we upgrade the weapon, and buy some new gear which cost over 1 meeeeeellion gold pieces, this is what i ended up with:
so it was off to do chapter 2 things, and with that, we have some critical hit damage records:
first one i thought was pretty good at 161 damage...
but then shortly after that, i hit 164 damage, damn does overwhelming critical kick butt when your multiplier is x4, thank you weapon master *thumbs up good buddy*
also, i have some big hind sight for those of you who wish to play HotU for chapter 2, its not really going to be a spoiler, but i will put it in tags anyway, just in case you wish to do it completely blind, but this is more of a fair warning than anything:
go to the boat man and do both of his island quests first
that takes care of 2 of them
then go to the caverns or whatever it is called ( forgot to check ) and do the one that isn't the "eye tyrant" or "illithid" one, i forget what the other one is called, ( its an underground city with humans, gnomes? dont remember ) but do that one first ( only because there is a CRAP load of treasure there, and you will get better prices in the drow city
so anyhow, once you complete 1 or those 3 cavern quests, this is going to be the last time you go to the drow city, because if you complete a fourth one and go back, then as i said the finale starts and you will not be able to do the 5th one
so after you complete the fourth quest stay in the caverns, and if you must sell some loot sell it to that genie in the bottle dude, and then go complete the 5th quest so you can get extra loot and much needed XP
now to be honest if you want for the 3rd quest and do the other ones in the caverns instead that is fine, but just make sure to keep the 3 quests in the cavern last and when you do so, DO NOT go back to the drow city once the 4th one is done, or else you are going to miss out on XP and loot, and especially if you have team mates this will be absolutely critical
Some secret doors are harder to find but I don't know if it requires skill in Search or Spot or maybe both.
On the main floor Level 1 of Undermountain there is a locked room with Thrones, it's easy to find but I'll say no more than that.
I strongly suggest not to open the spoiler tags if you haven't finished the OC of NWN at least once.
Here's me trying to understand as much as possible about the past and present:
And here's my new Nymph Cloak +5:
The two Balor Lords guarding the mages controlling the siege golems (those fights rained heavy magic damage on me)
And after that, surprisingly easy, the Half-Dragon Balor (whatever *that* is) guarding the portal.
The next part is a major plot spoiler, that's why I'm going to put comments *and* pictures inside the spoiler tags.
I tried to talk reasonably to her, address her conscience, but she was thirsting for vengeance, even if she knew that Morag would betray her. She acknowledged that she deserved to die, although I had offered to accept her surrender, and insisted it could only be settled in blood.
Okay, at last she is ready to listen. I would really like to share the conversation with her, because it really matters to me what she said and how everything happened. I didn't remember to open and enlarge the combat log to capture the dialogue, I only have screenshots of the dialogue windows. It's 16 pictures, so I've put them in nested spoiler tags, to avoid loading them if you don't want to read them all.
I have a lot of thoughts about that whole issue, but I think I'm going to open another thread to discuss that when I have time, it's too long for a "report your run" thread.
Then, Maugrim.
I guess immortality is relative. Although I probably should take Potions of Heal a little earlier in the future and not at Near Death. I had underestimated those flesh golems.
Then (after collecting the XP for saving the little girl and destroying the catapults, of course) I went to Lord Nasher and tried to talk some sense into him again.
That was level 16 for me.
A rather unlucky roll, only 6 HP (and that already included the bonus from Toughness), but I've bought several Potions of Endurance.
On the way downstairs, I had to stop at the cells once more, to talk to someone.
I guess I have done what I could.
Into the Source Stone I went, and wasted most of my buffs, because there were still several rooms and levels, and I expected Morag behind every corner. That's the difficulty with the short-acting spells to boost the paladin abilities. And that's where I disagree with people who claim that NWN exaggerates the possibilities to rest. If you play a fighter with fighter stats, that may be true. But if your capability to win high-level fights depends on spells and once-a-day-abilities, then you're screwed if you don't have metaknowledge. This is not a game for balanced parties, after all. And a paladin without points in Concentration has the additional problem that you waste your best spells if you cast them too early, and they wear off after defeating only the small fish around the main enemy, or you cast them at the last moment and risk getting interrupted and losing the spell. That's what happened to me with Holy Sword against Morag.
So, some of the Lizard People gave me a hard time, and then those Corrupted Dragons rained a lot of heavy elemental damage on me, but I survived them, used only one Potion of Heal.
And then, at last, the dreaded final fight (no resting allowed and no walking back possible after entering the last portal, but there were *still* several rooms, and either I got dispelled or they wore off right in time, but I didn't have Greater Magic Weapon when I faced Morag. At least I had two of Bull's Strength memorized, and Bless+Aid from the scabbard, and Divine Favor and another Potion of Endurance.
Those Morag's Hand guys were really tough. And Morag didn't just cast buffs during time stop, she poured damage on me. During her second time stop, she almost killed me. I don't know if that was a mistake, but I ignored her and her kneeling slaves even when the blade barrier was down, until I had killed all her other minions. Then I went for the slaves against lesser creatures and swords, and then her, of course.
That was it. Needed four Potions of Heal to survive. And I was glad to have known to avoid and how to destroy the Blade Barrier, the protecting slaves, and to run for the portal when Morag was dead. Thank you, Master Yoda
As I said, I was disappointed that the epilogue didn't provide any conclusion or information on the matter of a certain lady. Why all those talks, discussions, persuasions, to her and to Nasher, if I don't ever learn what happened?
Reloads: 1
Respawns: 9
I have created a new paladin for SoU, but I will introduce her tonight or tomorrow or whenever, I'm out of "me time" for now.
Edited: @EnialusMeliamne, if your respawn counter after Gulnan means you suck, then the same applies to me.
@Arvia , Wow, I'm really glad you posted all those dialogs, because I didn't get that best possible ending.
Clearly I gave her the "wrong answers" to her surrender dialogue. I had no idea how to get the ending you got. Congratulations to you on that.
Aribeth's story is not over. She will be back in one of the later chapters of HotU as a joinable companion who has many dialogues with you, and that's regardless of which ending you got for her in the OC. I forget the exact details of how that's possible, but I do remember having her in my party and continuing to talk to her about her role in the OC.
A user also wrote a module to continue her story even further, called "Aribeth's Redemption". It's probably still available on the Neverwinter Vault, but I think it assumes you've played both the OC and Hordes of the Underdark. (I never played the user-made mod, so I don't know anything about it other than that it exists.)
She is a ghost in HotU, as far as I've heard. It's just not specified if she was executed or died for some other reason.
I hope you won't feel offended by this question, but would you please consider converting your screenshots from .bmp to .jpg before uploading them? The files are huge, and opening them with a slow internet connection takes much time, or consumes much data volume on mobile devices.
I don't know how to link a post from another thread, so I have tagged you there, because semiticgod has shared an easy method to convert multiple files at once in the BG minimal reload thread.
If it's too complicated, please forget I ever said something and keep posting however you like